It was a warm September first and King's Cross station was as busy as ever. People of all ages rushed between the sunny parking lot and the air-conditioned station, hurrying to either buy the tickets or to catch their train. Between platforms nine and ten was a single guard, watching the people passing by and trying hard not to fall asleep standing up from the boredom. He hadn't known what he was getting into when he signed up to be a guard, but he hadn't expected to be stuck watching people walk to and fro and listen to the complaints of many annoying business people. He didn't even like people, except children, and was expecting to get a job in the small security booth. He was expecting an easy job, it figures that he didn't get what he was expecting. A few of the children and businessmen smiled at him as they passed him by, but few stopped to talk. Usually, they only stopped to ask where their platforms were or to complain either about the other people or about the effeciency of the station. He had to grin and bear it, he was being paid good money to ignore the people and focus on making sure none of them did something stupid like blow up the station.
"Excuse me," a shy timid voice startled the guard out of his thoughts. The guard glanced down to see a child staring up at him. The girl was dressed in black robes and had a small frown of annoyance on her face. She held a small box in her arms, which held a slimy toad. The disgusting creature croaked and got a smile from the girl.
"Yes, what can I help you with?" the guard asked, smiling down at the girl. He tried his hardest not to make a face at the slimy creature. He didn't want to say something and end up having to listen to the girl while she threw some sort of hissy fit and to her parents, if they arrived, who would blame him for the child's temper tantrum.
"I'm looking for my parents, have you seen them? They're wearing green robes and were heading to Platform Nine and three-quarters, you must have seen them pass by," the girl asked, glancing over her shoulders nervously.
"Platform Nine and what?" the guard asked confusedly. The girl stopped staring at the people walking past her and stared up at him, looking just as confused as he was.
"Platform nine and three-quarters, of course. The train leaves for school at eleven, oh I hope they didn't go ahead without me like they did last year. They were so eager to get my brother on the train for his last year that they forgot me and I nearly missed the train," the girl muttered to herself, looking more nervous than ever.
"None of the trains here leave at eleven. Are you sure you are supposed to be here?" the guard asked.
"Oh, I forgot. Muggles are not supposed to know about us. It would like trying to explain how to be humble to a Slytherin. Sorry about that, oh wait. There they are. Mum, Da, over here!" the girl said, waving off into the distance. The guard glanced up and noticed her waving to a pair of adults who, just as the girl had said, was wearing matching green billowing robes. The two adults ignored the stares of those passing them by as they reached them. The guard stood there for a moment, wondering what the girl was talking about and if she was insulting him. He had never heard of a muggle or Slytherin before, but the way she spoke made them sound nasty.
"There you are, we were worried about you. I hope our daughter hadn't been any trouble. You know how children are," the man said as the wife pulled the girl towards her, glaring at the child with mixed annoyance and anger.
"There was no problem, sir," the guard replied, still trying to figure out what the girl had said.
"That's good. We must hurry if she is to get a good seat on the train. Come along," the father said as he hurried his wife and child away.
"What have we said about running ahead of us? You are twelve now, you should know better than to run off. I suppose you told that muggle…" the mother growled. For a moment, the guard wanted to know what the mother was talking about, especially since she mentioned muggle like the girl had. However, he made himself remember that he was working and started watching the people again. However, his return to boredom was quickly halted when a young boy approached him. The boy was dragging a large wooden trunk behind him with a small pet carrier barely stable on top. A small dark-haired cat glared up at the guard through the bars of the small carrier.
"Excuse me mister, but do you know where platform nine and three-quarters is? My parents had to go to work early and couldn't stay to help me on the train and they forgot to tell me where it is," the boy said, smiling up at the guard.
"Er, hold on a second, kid," the guard stammered. He walked a few steps away from the boy and pulled out a small walkie-talkie. He stared at it for a moment and felt stupid for what he was about to do, but decided to do it anyways and pressed the button that connected him with the security booth.
"Hey, I've had some kid ask for platform nine and three-quarters. He's not the first one, either. What do I tell him?" the guard asked.
"Platform what? I've never heard of such a thing," the radio buzzed, static garbling the words as they came out of the speaker. Despite the garbled words, the guard still managed to know what the other man was talking about.
"I don't know why they are asking, sir. They just are. One also talked about a muggle, whatever that is. I still need to tell the boy something, what should I do?" the guard asked again.
"Well, maybe you should come over to the booth for a second. Tell the kid you'll be back soon," the radio squawked after a few moments of silence. The guard quickly excused himself, feeling horrible as the boy stared at him in confusion and worry, and started walking towards the security booth. he opened the door and walked into the security booth. The man who had called him was sitting at the desk near the back of the room, not bothering to look up from the computer screen on the desk to acknowledge his presence. However, he looked up when he noticed the guard walk towards the desk. His tired scarred face was already etched with faint lines of stress, although the guard was not sure why. The job that the other man had wasn't very stressful, all he had to do was watch the screens and make sure nothing went wrong.
"You forgot to shut the door," the man said. The guard smiled as he shut the door, forgetting that the other guard didn't like having the door open. He didn't really understand why, but he guessed that it was some sort of security thing. He turned around and saw the other guard pointing a short thin stick at him, a cold frown on his face.
"Obliviate,"
A flash of bright white illuminated the room and vanished as quickly as it came. The guard stood frozen in place, staring blankly at the desk in front of him with his mouth open. However, the guard quickly shook off his daze and focused his attention on him.
"I'm sorry, but what was I here for?" the guard asked nervously.
"You had a question. Don't worry, the issue is dealt with. You can go back out there," The man said, waving as he turned back towards the cameras to see that the child who had approached the guard had been helped by another wizard family. The child was following another family towards the brick wall that led to platform nine and three-quarters, smiling as he vanished into the wall. The guard nodded and quickly walked out of the booth. The man sighed, annoyed that he had to charm the guard's memory again. He didn't like modifying the memories of muggles, especially muggles who worked so closely with wizards. Hundreds of wizard and muggle-born families arrive and depart, either picking up or dropping off children that attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He thought they deserved to know that there are wizards so that they could help the lost children. However, since King's Cross station was a high-priority security area, he had been transferred from the ministry to King's Cross station. The ministry couldn't have anything happen to the station, it would be hard to cover up and make it difficult for the students of Hogwarts to reach the school on time. So, he was stuck modifying memories.
"Not bad, Richard. I guess you are decent at something," a female voice grumbled in annoyance. Richard glared at the woman who spoke, a middle-aged woman dressed in a light tan woman's business suit. She was holding a clipboard to her chest, a pad already scrawled with notes she had taken earlier in the day. She was from the ministry, sent to make sure he was doing his job properly.
"Thank you. I thought I told you not to call me Richard," he replied in annoyance.
"Your surname is far too ridiculous to say out loud, Richard is much easier to say. Damn, I cannot wait to leave this wretched station. How can you stand to be in these muggle clothes all day?" she complained, pulling at her jacket in annoyance.
"Well, it's not like I have a choice in the matter," Richard growled. He didn't like wearing muggle clothes either, but sometimes it was just best to grin and bear the uncomfortable clothes. It was not worth the effort to complain about it, she would likely report it immediately.
"Indeed not," the woman replied as she took out a fresh piece of paper and started writing something down, a faint smile appearing for just a moment before she managed to hide it.
"What are you writing?" Richard asked, instantly regretting it as the woman stopped writing. He knew better than to ask about the report, but he couldn't help it. He'd known the woman when he was still working behind a desk at the ministry, she'd be more than happy to mess something up for him.
"I put down that you're good with the Obliviate spell and at judging when it is appropriate to use the spell. Happy, or do you want me to write a different report that will transfer you out of the ministry? I'm sure you could find a job at the Leaky Cauldron with your education," the woman asked, not even bothering to glance up from her paper to look at him as she spoke. Richard flushed angrily.
"That's fine," Richard mumbled, glaring at the woman in annoyance. The woman smirked as she tucked the pen into her blouse and hid the report beneath a cheap romance novel she had bought on her way to the station.
"Good. Now, I must return to the ministry. Do try to avoid screwing up this job; I don't want to have to clean up any more of your messes. The last mess you made took far too long to fix," the woman laughed as she turned to the door and started walking. She walked out of the door and stopped momentarily on the threshold. Richard thought for a moment that she was going to insult him or something, but he heard her mutter something and continue walking. The door remained open and Richard could see the guard standing just outside the booth, staring at the woman in fascination.
"Who was that? Was that your girlfriend?" the guard asked as he came in, glancing over his shoulder to get another glance at the departing woman.
"As if I would date her? She was just another person that came to complain because she missed her train," Richard replied.
"Really, I would have never guessed. She had such a pretty smile. Oh, I've got a bunch of kids asking for platform nine and three-quarters. What do I tell them?" the guard asked. Richard sighed as he pulled out the help list the last wizard had left for him and scanned it for what he was supposed to tell the guard. It was going to be a long day.