Sun is shining through the windows as Root jerks awake and sits up. The remnants of her nightmare floats through her mind for a moment, leaving her feeling slightly shaken. She stretches her arms up over her head with a deep yawn then rubs her eyes roughly. Blinking groggily, Root takes in her surroundings.
The girl realizes with a start that she is lying on the hard ground of the sleeper car. Glancing down to her right Root recognizes the pieces of parchment from Hogwarts lying haphazardly beside the envelope they had come in. Sighing, the brunette reaches down and picks up the envelope. She stares at her name for a few minutes, the shock from the previous night returning… A magic school… They want me to go to a magic school… Roots fingers run absentmindedly across the envelope as she thinks. Does that mean I'm a… A witch?
The brunettes' fingers run over a slightly raised section of the envelope. She frowns, tilting her head to the side as she flips the envelope upside down. Root shakes it slightly and her eyebrows raise as a shiny piece of parchment floats into her lap. She picks it up hesitantly, bringing it up to eye level.
"London to Hogwarts. For one way travel. Platform…" Root pauses, scrunching up her nose in confusion. "Nine and three quarters…?" She flips the ticket over, looking to see if there were instructions on the reverse side. Finding nothing besides 'Kings Cross Station', Root turns the ticket back over. "I've never heard of platforms being in quarters…" She murmurs to herself, staring intently at the ticket. "Maybe it's a British thing." The brunette shrugs and gathers up all of the papers from the floor. She stands slowly from the floor, walks towards the window and peers out of it.
A rumble echoes throughout the car a few minutes later startling Root. She glances down at her stomach and smirks. "I guess I should find the dining car."
At five o'clock pm the train shudders to a stop. Root collects her rucksack, throws it over her shoulder and exits the train. As the girl steps onto the platform she looks around the station before trotting off in search of the service desk. Spotting it on the opposite side of the crowded station, Root hitches up the heavy rucksack on her shoulder and heads in that direction. She has to pause several times on her journey to avoid being knocked down by several people not watching where they are walking. "Assholes." Root mutters under her breath as she finally reaches her destination.
As she waits in line Root pulls the ticket from her pocket, examining it one more time.
"How can I assist you ma'am?" Root looks up into the friendly face of a middle aged man with the name "Jasper" pinned to his blue uniform and smiles sweetly.
"Uh… Yes. Hi." She fumbles the ticket between her fingers before placing it on the counter in front of Jasper. "How would I get to this station? I mean… Where is it located?"
Jasper picks up the ticket and studies it for a moment before glancing back at Root. "Kings Cross?" At Roots nod he continues, "That station is actually right across the street." Roots smile widens and she is just about to retrieve the ticket from the man's hand when he stops her. "But ma'am, there is no platform nine and three quarters there."
"Are… Are you sure?"
Jasper nods. "Yes I'm quite sure. I have been there many times and I have never seen this platform. It goes from nine to ten. Same as any train station I presume."
Roots heart sinks and color floods her pale cheeks. "Oh, um okay." She grabs her ticket from the mans outstretched hand and sighs. "Well thank you anyway." Turning on her heel, head hung, Root exits the station.
As Root enters Kings Cross Station she prays that Jasper had been wrong; that there was indeed a platform 9 ¾ and he had just never noticed it before. Somewhere deep inside Root feels sudden desperation. What if it wasn't real? Do I care? Yes. Now that the idea of a place where she might belong, might be accepted, was firmly rooted in her mind she wanted nothing else. She couldn't imagine the crushing despair she would feel had this all been fake; some sick twisted joke meant to make her miserable. Just a day before the brunette had no hopes, had no idea a place like this even existed. But now, now that she has been led to believe such a place not only existed but wished to have her there, she couldn't think of anywhere else she wanted to be.
Root clutched the ticket and the faded envelope to her chest and walked up to the help desk, hands shaking uncontrollably.
"Hello sweetie, how may I help you?" A kind voice rang out from the booth in front of her.
"Uhm… I need to find…" Hands still shaking, Root passed her ticket to the round faced blonde behind the counter. "I need to find this platform…"
Smiling kindly the woman takes the ticket from Roots outstretched hand. The brunette watched in anticipation as the woman, whose nametag read 'Tammy', scrutinized the ticket. "I'm sorry sweetie, there is no such thing as a Platform 9 ¾. Are you sure this is the right ticket?" Tammy smiled sadly down at Root, handing back the ticket apologetically.
Sighing, Root took the shining paper and turned on her heel, mumbling a "thank you" under her breath.
Root stumbles dizzily into the dimly lit gas station. She had been walking for hours now. She wasn't exactly sure how long it had been since the sun went down but she figures it must have been at least an hour. The stale air of the gas station makes her shiver, though she had been shivering for quite some time now. The dropping of the sun took away the warmth from her skin, leaving her chilled to the bone. To top it all off she was thirsty, so horribly thirsty. She hadn't had anything to drink since she had left her last make-shift home under a bridge near a cloudy stream. The brunette hobbles over to the drink section, grabbing a bottle of water and ripping off the cap before downing almost half of it. As she pulled the bottle from her lips she heard an angry shout and turned slowly.
"Hey!" The shout came from who Root assumed to be the owner of the station. The man was fairly scrawny with lanky, too long arms. He had a raspy voice, faded yellow teeth and his clothes were ripped and filthy. Root tripped in her haste to back away from the man, falling haphazardly into the cooler behind her with a yelp. The man loomed over her as she righted herself, immediately causing her to shrink back from his repulsive breath. "You tryin' to steal from me young lady?" The man gritted out, spit flying from his mouth.
"N…no…" Root gasped out. "I was going to buy it I swear. I was just… I just needed a drink…" The man snarled and the small brunette ducked her head, trying to slide around his outstretched limbs. With a growl he caught Roots arm, pulling furiously on it till the girl swung back around to face him. "No! Stop it!" She screamed out, searching frantically around the shop for someone to help her. How had I not noticed there was no one here? Why did I come in alone at night? Root mentally panicked. Water. I came in for water. She glanced down at the half empty bottle in her right hand and then looked up quickly to meet the furious eyes of the man holding her tightly. Scanning the store again her eyes stopped on the front door maybe ten or so feet to the left of them. Root took a deep breath and slammed the bottle into the man's head. A loud 'crack' echoed around the dirty station and Root watched with horror as the man's legs crumpled beneath him. He fell with a thud, the angle of his head sending a shudder through the brunette's spine.
A loud scream ripped through the air as Root began to back away from the man's lifeless body. She whipped her head around quickly, eyes going wide as they met the terrified ones of the woman before her. "What did you do?! You devil child! My husband..." The woman broke off into sobs, her heavy chest heaving. She ran to Roots side, dropping quickly to the floor as sobs wracked her body. "You killed him! You killed him!" She screamed, rocking the man's body in her arms.
"I didn't… No! I didn't mean to… I…" Root trailed off, backing away from the hysterical woman. She turned towards the door, preparing to make a run for it when the woman stood quickly. She wobbled for a second, body unbalanced from her weight before righting herself and pulling out her phone. Roots eyes went wide as the frantic woman called the police, screaming over and over, "She killed him! My husband! Devil child!" Frozen in horror Root tried to make her limbs work. Move! Get to the door! Run! She could do nothing however as the woman screamed into the phone.
They got there fast. That's all that Root could remember. It was fast. She had been handcuffed and thrown into the back of the cop car before she could even blink. The small brunette was now leaning against the rusted metal bars of a small, dirty jail cell. Tear tracks lined her slender cheeks yet no tears had spilled for quite some time. They called her a murderer. A runaway problem child and a murderer. What am I going to do?
"It looks like you could use some help." A voice boomed from the corner of Roots cell, causing the girl to whip her head up and spin around. A giant shadow loomed in the corner and the brunette's blood ran cold.
"Who…" Root stuttered out, backing up against the cool metal. "Who are you?"
"The names Hagrid."