1st Year

Maisy was nervous, there was supposed to be someone to help her at the train station, Maisy was certain that the man that came to her house said there would be someone to help her catch the train.

Her Mum was looking nervous too, she kept reaching into her coat pockets for her cigarrettes, the man that came to Maisy's house had looked dissapprovingly at Maisy's Mum for having a fag in the garden after he told them about Hogwarts. It was comforting to know though that her Mum thought this entire thing was unnerving.

"I think we should go now luv, looks like this fella ain't gonna show. It was a nice thought though 'ey?" her Mum's East End accent made her 't's sound like 'f's. She was a practical women and if there weren't going to be any miracle magic men springing up to whisk her daughter away down some rabbit hole within the next minute or so then it would probably be best if they just got on with their day was her thinking.

At first to her it had sounded like it made complete sense that her daughter was a witch, there had been that time at the park when Maisy was waiting for a swing and the girl on it was mysteriously thrown a far amount of metres away from it, or that time when the ice cream van's tires were blown out after Maisy was too slow to get out of the garden for a 99p. Thinking deeply on it even the squirrel that kept coming into their garden to eat the bread crusts was probably Maisy's doing.

But still any parent would be wary of a funny looking man in a ink blue velvet suit on their doorstep and (as you may have guessed), Maisy's Mum was a parent, a wary parent at that. The fellow had to clean the stains out of the sofa with his wand, make the pillow cushions fly and conjure up some nails and a hammer. (Maisy's Mum would have made him conjure up some jelly to then nail to the wall but he explained that because of Grump's or Gramps' Law, that conjuring food was impossible so that experiment would have to wait until some jelly could be procured via the Non-Magics way), after these tests it was deemed that maybe he knew what he was talking about.

So now here they waited for a red steam train to leave London Station from a non-existant platform, Maisy had nearly all of her clothes packed and freshly washed, some had even been ironed but still neither of them felt they were ready to let the other go. Maisy's Mum had never gone to a private boarding school and Maisy had never shown the potential of having the smarts to get into one with a scholarship, a very generous scholarship it would have had to have been as well. And 11 is such a young age and Scotland is so far away, and the man that claimed to work for the wizard's government was so weird;

'Maybe the entire thing should be left alone, it doesn't sound like I'll be able to come and get her if she hates it or someting goes wrong. What if all of the other witchy kids didn't need scholarships and will bully her for it, what they knew about all this magic stuff since the day they were born? Oh God I'm sendin' my girl into the lion's den' as these practical thoughts ran through Maisy's Mum's mind their government assigned transition moderator and guide showed up.

"Cobbath, I want you to promise me that if Maisy doesn't like it there I can come and get her" her Mum's tone had a slightly panicked edge to it and she was gripping Maisy's hand far too tight for her liking.

Maisy was a big girl now she was going to big school and her big school was way better than the ones her primary school friends were going to. Now if only her Mum would stop acting so stupid then she could go and have fun, it was only a school and she wouldn't miss her Mum that much would she, so there was no point in her gettin' so worked up about it.

Maisy shrugged of her Mum's hand and squared her shoulders, before Cobbath could answer, in all of her 11 year old arrogance and wisdom Maisy broadly stated;
"Mum, just leave me alone it's only school. I'm not gonna miss you or anyfing".

Maisy's Mum's heart crumpled just a little bit at her daughter callous statement and she could see the beginnings of a smirk forming on Cobbath's face, blinking back tears she just smiled sadly and kissed her daughter on the forehead softly,
"I'll go then darlin', have fun and I love you more than I can possibly descibe, okay?"

With an affirmative answer Maisy hugged her Mum fiercely before tamping down the tears. Cobbath lead her away from her Mum through the throngs of people; she was still stood in the same place with tears on her face and a sad smile, she mouthed 'I love you' and waved sending a bolt of guilt through Maisy's stomach and heart but before she could turn to run back to her and beg her not to make her go Cobbath was dragging her off. He chattered cheerfully about how wonderful Hogwarts was and how she wouldn't miss her Mum at all since she would be having so much fun but Maisy's heart still begged her to run off back to Mum and to go to the same school as her best friend Leah was going to.

Cobbath continued to lead her and pushed her through the barrier and helped her with her luggage onto the train but after that he disappeared into the crowds. Maisy was scared, 11, ashamed, and wished she had never forced her Mum to let her do this, because now she realised even if she hated the school she wouldn't be allowed home, not for weeks.

The train pulled away and quietly Maisy began to weep.

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