Soulmate
Sometimes fate brings people together in a way no one ever thought possible.
Hawise FitzWarin held her mother tightly in one last crushing yet comforting cuddle before grabbing her trunk and animal carrier and dragging them towards the front of the train.
"I put some tracle tarts in your lunch box, darling. And a flask of tea. I love you." Maude's parting words brought tears to her daughter's eyes and a smile to her face. They shared a love of tea.
She'd been raised hearing stories all about Hogwarts, from the ghosts floating in the corridors to the magical singing hat that decided where you would stay for the duration of your education, and she'd experienced it for herself over the past six years. She couldn't wait to get back, to talk to the portraits and help Professor Sprout harvest plants for potions ingredients when she'd finished her homework and had little else to do. She missed her common room with plants hanging from the ceiling and small windows offering views of the lawns surrounding the castle, her dorm with it's small round entrance and patchwork quilts on the beds.
She asked a boy she knew from her house, Leofric, to help her navigate her trunk. He walked before her moving younger students out of the way as she guided her brown leather trunk with her wand and a simple "leviosa". She was seventeen and could now use magic outside of Hogwarts. First Year students pointed and gasped, wondering at the magic and dreaming of what they themselves would be able to do one day.
"Thanks, Leofric." She smiled gratefully. "The last thing I wanted to do was hit someone across the head with that great thing."
"No problem. I'll see you at the feast, I'm sitting with Tofi." He waved as he turned and left the carriage, leaving Hawise alone. She sat next to the window, hemming herself in with her bag, and tucked her long hair behind her ear. She sighed as she watched the students milling around the platform, saying their last goodbyes to their loved ones. She made up stories in her head of happy families, mum's and dad's and brother's and sister's and no mention or sign of the disgrace of separation.
She was still in her own little world when the train started to move, but the first fast jerk pulled her from it. She opened her bag and pulled out her homework, reading over it one last time, gnawing her lip as her stomach sank and thoughts of all her hard work being wrong entered her head. After and hour and multiple re-reads of scrolls and only a few minor changes, the brunette pulled her booted feet up and settled down with a well read book, The Life and Times of Helga Hufflepuff. She liked to read of the generosity and kindness, of all of the hard work of the Hogwarts founder. Values that were so rare in the world nowadays.