Harry Potter: Book Seven
The Story of Elizabeth
Chapter One
Logan Airport Gate B was as filled and packed as it always was on the last few weeks of July. Business men and women who worked through summer vacation were heading through the lines, carrying their cappuccinos and their first class tickets to the place where they would have some big important meeting about the world's environment or world peace or most likely financial business. Vacationers who got a late start would be packing into some airline to the Bahamas or Florida or California or some foreign tourist land with lots of shopping malls, public beaches, cruises and crummy souvenirs.
Standing outside a sub-gate leading to an airline that brought vacationers and UN employees to the airport in London, England, there was a large family, wishing one of their own luck on her trip. A few of the children (there were quite a few) didn't look related and onlookers and passers-by assumed it was a few friends that joined the family in wishing their second daughter goodbye and good luck.
The girl, whom people were assuming was leaving, had an old cameo backpack with pins stuck into it with logos that read "Meat is Murder" and "Don't eat the cows, eat the tofu" and "God believed in creating everything equal, so that should include the cows that get made into hamburgers sold at the local McDonalds" and "Ronald McDonald is a psychopath who hates little children and kills innocent cows" and so on. Next to her was a large duffel and a large suitcase covered in stickers from all parts of the world. Another thing that was next to her was a large trunk, like the ones used in the eighteenth century, with the initials "EAP" on either side and atop it was a large brass, round-topped birdcage. Inside was a magnificent female barn owl; her head currently tucked under one wing. As the family said their goodbyes, the owl poked out her head to see how her surroundings had changed since she last was awake, then shoved her head back under in distaste. Apparently, this barn owl, like other nocturnal birds, hated large, noisy places, stuffed to the ceiling with noisy people.
The owl's owner, the girl, was skinny, in her late teens, and not quite tall, yet not vertically challenged either. Her long, brown hair, which shown like liquid gold in the late July sun, was currently in two French braids, one on either side of her head. Today she had on comfy stretch style boot-cut jeans, a green tee shirt with a V-neck, revealed the lacy navy cami, and black jacket from Roxy on top of all that. From what was visible under a skinny, long, red scarf on her neck was a gold locket, engraved with tiny flowers and vines. The only things she wore that seemed a bit out of place, beside the red scarf, was a red knit hat, almost like a beret and sparkly red ballet flats that looked almost exactly like the shoes Dorothy wore in The Wizard of Oz, without the heel. Otherwise, she looked like any busty, almost-seventeen-years-old, American teenager.
She hugged her parents one last time and kissed the tops of the heads of her two youngest brothers, hugged her other younger brothers and her twin, said "Bye" to her older brothers and lone older sister. She turned to her two friends; a girl with dirty-blonde hair and full lips and a tall, gangly boy with wavy brown hair. The blonde girl burst into tears, again, as her friend hugged her goodbye one last time.
"Maria," said the departing girl. "I'm not leaving you forever. Just for the year. I promise I will write everyday."
"Oh, it's not that," said the blonde, Maria. "I just will miss you so much!"
"I'll miss you, too," said the brunette. She turned to the boy and hugged him goodbye.
"Make sure she doesn't end up in tears every time my name is mentioned," she said. The boy nodded and she kissed him on the forehead. Then, she picked up her bags and brought them to the desk where they would make their way to the plane separately. As she turned towards the boarding decks with her cameo backpack and owl, she looked back one last time to see her family and friends waving at her. She waved back at them and walked on the plane.
It was a seven-hour flight to the London airport. The girl spent this time reading, listening to music and sleeping. Her backpack held a wide array of books and magazines. Most magazines were National Geographic's, but there were a few tabloids and a couple of recent fashion magazines. The books contained volumes of romances and fantasies, but there were some brown leather-bond books that looked to be college textbooks, with strange titles like Standard Book of Spells, Grade 7 and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Advanced Guide to Transfiguration. When the plane finally landed in London, she was halfway through a book called Hogwarts: A History.
She got off the plane and saw the London airport before her. She had never been in a foreign country before. Well, England can't really be considered foreign, really, they all speak English, she thought, and I shall not be scared. I, Elizabeth Annabella Porter, will do just fine. I hope.
Elizabeth got her duffel, suitcase and trunk from a luggage cart and went through the customs office. They questioned the big, leather-bound books in her bag, but said no more. Stepping out of the airport, Elizabeth haled one of the many taxis and told the driver to head to the train station. The driver had a hard time getting her trunk into the back. When he asked what was in there that made it so heavy, she said that there were only a few personal items and clothes it there. The driver also questioned her no further.
"One ticket on the next train to St. Ottery, please," Elizabeth said to the ticket woman when she got to the train station. The lady handed her a ticket and took the money from Elizabeth. She thanked the ticket lady and put her things on the luggage cart. She looked on her ticket, reading the platform number and headed for the said platform. Elizabeth hurried; it was almost noon and the train left at 12:02. Elizabeth stopped for a moment, then found a ticket man and asked him where her platform was. Then, finally and after a lot of running, she got on the right train and settled in for the thirty minute ride. She hoped she wouldn't be late for lunch at her grandmother's.