"Hurry up Emilie, we're going to be late!" Inwardly I sigh as I stare around my bleak and nearly empty bedroom. Moving sucks. Especially when your 15 and you have to move away from the only place you call home.
"I'm coming Anthony! Just finishing packing my trunk." I call back. I settle back onto the floor and stare into the already crammed trunk.
"We're going to miss the train!" This time its my overtly whiny sister Clara calling up the rickety stairs. 'Oh joy,' I think to myself, 'we get to ride a train to school, how classy?' I laugh to myself, thinking what my friends at Beauxbatons would think. To get there our parents would usually escort us at the start of term, not sluff us off onto some dingy train. 'Just get used to it Emilie,' I sigh to myself, 'everything is going to be different there.'
I turn back to my trunk. My silvery blue Beauxbatons robes have gone, and my trunk is filled instead with several pairs of sleek new black robes. Black, honestly? Why not a more interesting color? Oh yes they have different houses at Hogwarts. My stomach does an belly roll. I had forgotten about the sorting. I did all my research on Hogwarts the moment I found out we were moving. All of their first year students get sorted into houses on their arrival. This of course would prove to be an issue for me and Clara. I would be transferring into Hogwarts as a fifth year, and Clara as a seventh year. Anthony got off scott free as he hadn't attended any school yet and so could enter Hogwarts as a first year. This issue of sorting and sorting out other issues was addressed by Professor Dumbledore to my parents. Clara and I would simply have to march into the Great Hall with all the first years and be sorted like one.
'Great,' I groan in my head, 'the attention of the whole school on our anomaly my very first day.' Not to mention that this is OWL year. I know what classes they teach at Hogwarts and they are pretty similar to what I took at Beauxbatons, except classes will be in English. 'Good thing mom and dad are American, otherwise I'd be royally screwed.' Yes it is a good thing to be bilingual sometimes, and French is such a lovely language.
"Emilie!"
"I'm coming! Hold your horses sheesh!" Muttering to myself about being rushed I grab the remainder of my belongs, several books, a couple quills and rolls of parchment, my wand, and my box of potions ingredients and stow them hastily in my trunk. Just as I latch it closed Clara comes storming into the room.
"Come on Emilie! We have to go now! Mom and dad want to drive us to Kings Cross." I roll my eyes at my sister. Oh my parents. A muggle father and a witch mother. Of course dad always want to do things the muggle way. This makes everything take an inordinate amount of time. She half smiles at me and raises her wand, muttering an inaudible charm and my trunk floats up and out of the room. Now she smiles smugly at me. Rolling my eyes again I get to my feet and adjust my jeans.
"Girls ready to go?" My mother pokes her head into the room. Surprisingly she's dressed as a muggle, partly because we have to walk through their train station to get to, oh what was it called, platform something and ¾.
"Yes, mother we're coming." Grabbing my hand Clara drags me out of my sorrowfully empty room and down the stairs. My dad is dutifully lugging our heavy trunks and loading them in the SUV. Anthony is already sitting the car bouncing up and down with excitement. He and Clara exchange beaming looks as she marches to the car and hops in. Personally my stomach does another flip and I clamber slowly into the back.
"Ready to go guys?" asks my dad as he climbs in the driver's seat and buckles his seat belt.
"YES!" I simply nod my head whilst my siblings are absolutely quivering with excitement. After a harrowing journey we make it to the train station with 20 minutes until the train leaves.
"How was I supposed to know that people drive on the opposite side of the road here?"
"You would think that getting on the roadway into head on traffic would be a clue Charlie."
"Well at least we only hit that sign. Why must the English drive on the wrong side of the road?"
"To them it's the right side of the road dad." Anthony grins at his comeback. Which my father ignores.
"Well, lets get on with it then. Ah, I remember my first day at Hogwarts. I always wanted you three to go here, but after that job offer in Paris, I'm just glad that I got a local job with the ministry in London. Carlisle to London is a lot less of a distance to apparate than Paris anyway. I was a Ravenclaw, oh I wonder what you all will be. Ah, but I'm reminiscing, let's go! Platform 9 and ¾ this way!" An pushing Anthony's trolley she strolls serenely through the station. Clara and I exchange another eye roll. As mom and dad strolled off laughing about something or other Anthony dropped back to talk with us.
"So? What house do you guys think you'll be in?"
"Well I'm just positive I'll be in mom's house, Ravenclaw. Emilie, you'll probably be in Hufflepuff because your so quiet and all you do is follow the rules." I frown at Clara.
"I do not always follow the rules."
"Psh, stop kidding yourself sis, you totally do." Anthony is bouncing on the balls of his feet and looks practically giddy."
"Whatever, so what house do you want to be in Anthony?" He stops his bouncing for a second to contemplate.
"I don't know. Either Gryffindor or Slytherin. I like to think of myself as brave and cunning." Clara and I both let out a snort at that comment. "What? I could be in either of those!" We just continued laughing.
"Children! We're here!" Indeed up ahead my mother had stopped in front of the arch of a barrier that separated tracks 9 and 10. I looked around confused.
"Um, mom? I think we might be at the wrong station." Anthony's beam slowly fades.
"Nonsense Emilie, didn't you read anything about Hogwarts?" Clara is giving me her I'm-so-smarter-than-you-right-now stare. I think back to Hogwarts: A history that's laying the bottom of my trunk.
"Of course I did. It said students get to school by taking the Hogwarts Express from platform 9 and ¾."
As we argue my mom has aligned her cart to be directly in front of the barrier. She grabs my fathers hand and they stroll lazily toward the wall. Curious, I stop and look over at them. Right as they are about to crash the cart into the wall they suddenly vanish. Judging by Anthony's squeal he's just wet himself with delight.
"Oh! Me next, me next!" He takes a running start and sprints through the barrier. Looking smugly back at me Clara drives her cart forward next. I glance around at the packed station and all the muggles standing around. None of them appear to have noticed anything. Not wanting to get left behind I quickly turn my cart around and begin walking toward the very solid looking brick wall. 'I'm going to hit this, there's no way I won't!' I close my eyes right as I'm about to hit it and then, nothing. No collision. My trolley keeps rolling forward. Tentatively I open my eyes. Standing in front of me is a great scarlet steam engine. I can feel my mouth drop open as hundreds of people around me push and pull their trunks to the doors positioned along the train. The sounds are cacophonous. Owls screeching, cats meowing, and toads doing, well whatever it's called anyway.
"Emilie! Emilie! Over here darling!" I look around to see my father waving at me from the side of the train. I push my trolley forward over to my family.
"Close your mouth Emilie before a pixie flies into it." I quickly shut my mouth.
"Well children, this is it. The Hogwarts Express. In just as good of condition as when I last rode it twenty years ago. You all had better be getting on board. Here I have one of these for each of you." She reaches into the pockets of her jacket and pulls out three big, shiny, gold galleons. "These are for the snack trolley, if I remember correctly it is a long ride." She hands us each one of the coins.
"Mom, how will we get money once we're at school?" Anthony goes through a lot of money. He looks earnestly up at our mother, almost pleading for more.
"Well, you could get a job, but I suppose you can't while you are at school. Hmm, let's see. How about your father and I will send you a little gift, say maybe a few knuts, every time we receive a letter from you?" Of course my mother would devise something like this. It's probably the only way they will get Anthony to write to them. When Clara and I went to Beauxbatons they sent us a monthly allowance depending on our marks. But Anthony doesn't know this. Clara and I share a secretive smile. Somewhere at the end of the platform the train's whistle sounds.
"Well, you kids had better be going. Don't forget to simplify all those magical terms for your old dad?" He winks as he gives us a huge bear hug.
"Make lots of friends dears, and Clara and Emilie, make sure that you begin preparing for your exams."
"Yes mom," Clara and I chorus in unison. Smiling she pulls us each into a hug.
"Now, off with you, have fun!" Smiling she backs up pulling dad along with her. We each grab our trunks and, with an enormous effort, begin to drag them up the trains steps. The interior of the train is nicely furnished and, leading the way, I drag my trunk halfway down the hallway before finding an empty compartment. I get inside and hoist my trunk up to the top. Turning around I look expectantly for my siblings and am surprised when they aren't behind me. Confused I walk out to the hall to see them several compartments ahead and they are still walking.
"Hey! Where are you guys going?" They turn around and just stare at me like I'm stupid.
"Well, I'm going to meet up with a group of my pen pals. At least I already have some friends here." With a smirk she keeps walking.
"Anthony," I ask tentatively.
"You're crazy if you think I'm going to sit with my older sister. Yuck! I don't want everyone thinking that I'm a baby. Later sis." He laughs and then trips while trying to lug his suitcase into the next compartment.
"Serves you right," I say under my breath, and head back to my compartment. Or at least, what WAS my compartment. It is now filled with several older boys. Of course I didn't realize this until I was already in their midst in the compartment.
"What are you doing here?" One of the boys stands up looking at me like I'm crazy.
"Uhh, umm, well, I" I mumble, my face going red.
"Spit it out kid, jeez" The shortest of the boys says.
"Umm, well my trunk, it's up there." I point sheepishly at my trunk sitting just above the short kids head.
"Well then you should probably get it down. This is OUR compartment. Go find your own. Crabbe, get the girls trunk out of here will you?" The drawling voice comes from the sleek blond haired boy near the window. The short boy who spoke earlier grins and steps up on the seat to get my trunk. I can tell by his build that he's powerfully built. Grabbing my trunk with one hand he drags it past me and throws it out into the hall. My mouth drops open.
"Go on, get out of here." This comes from another tall, muscular boy next to the blonde one. My eyes are starting to tear up.
"Malfoy. What's going on here?" I whip around to see a bushy haired girl staring venomously into the compartment. The boys begin to laugh.
"Just teaching this, girl, not to sit where she doesn't belong. I don't even recognize her, must be a firsty." The drawling boy speaks again, meriting laughs from the other boys.
"Honestly Malfoy, I'm going to report you to Dumbledore. You're a prefect for Merlin's sake. Start acting like one." She storms out of the compartment and leaves me standing there staring at the boys. Suddenly an arm reaches from behind me, grabs my arm and whirls me around and out of the compartment, slamming the door behind me.
"Honestly," the girl fumes to herself. "Locomotor Trunk," with a wave of her wand my trunk floats up in the air. "Well, come on. Unless you want to go and sit with Malfoy the whole train ride." And with that she stalks up the corridor, obviously incensed of the incident. Looking back at the compartment despondent, I turn and hurriedly follow after my bushy-haired savior.