We were a motley crew, a bunch of skinny white kids, including a couple of black-haired boys, two flaming red heads, a bushy brunette girl and me, the albino. Each of us looked like the spitting image of one of the five adults with us, and I'm sure that some passers-by probably thought that we were the product of some bizarre cloning experiment (which you do occasionally see, this being 2018 and all.) James was telling Rose all about Hogsmeade, while Albus assured Lily and Hugo that James and their Uncle George had been kidding when they'd said you had to wrestle trolls. Harry and Ron brought up the rear, chatting.
"…Hughie wanted a rat, but I put my foot down," Ron was saying. "Ever since Scabbers, rats give me the willies." Harry laughed, sounding relaxed and happy.
To my left, Hermione and Ginny were teasing my mum about the Irish brogue she's picked up in the last five years, and how it keeps getting more pronounced.
To tell the truth, I barely remember living in London. It's a blur of smog and tourists and rallies in the streets, everyone trying to save the world. A lot of them went on, just after my father split. He's the reason we left, really; London was bringing Mum down, everything there reminded her of him.
I remember Ginny coming over one day, not long before my sixth birthday.
I was still in my pajamas, because there was no one to tell me to change out of them, even though it was suppertime, and I was in my bedroom, drawing pictures with my actually Magic Markers, so that things moved and stuff. Like, the big purple castle that was my interpretation of Hogwarts shimmered, while all the windows glowed orange, and the violently blue lake sparkled. The Whomping Willow was in the bottommost corner, taking irritable whacks at passing birds.
Mum was in her bed, asleep.
She'd been sleeping lots lately, hardly ever getting out of bed. I hadn't been going to school, but I, being six, hadn't been all that fussed, really, but I was worried about Mum. I took her sandwiches, and tea, a few times a day, bit she'd hardly eaten anything. So I did what I usually did when I was upset; wrote to Ginny.
About an hour after I'd sent the owl, Ginny arrived at our front door, us not having a fireplace in the flat and all. She got me to pack a backpack full of clothes, and put on shoes and a jacket, then she took Mum out of her bed, put a jacket on her, and dragged us down four flights of stairs and two blocks through downtown London, to a small café run by people they went to school with, a couple of Indian women with alliterative names. The café was connected to the Floo Network, and we were off to Ginny and Harry's.
We lived there for a couple of weeks; I shared a room with Lily, as well as clothes, toys, and a really wicked cold, while Mum stayed in the guest room and was fed endless amounts of soup and sympathy by Ginny.
Then we moved into this funny house in Ireland, which I love, where we've lived happily ever since. And I can't even barely not remember having an accent. So. Now we're back in London, this time to make some better memories.
Lily came over and poked me in the ribs, snapping me out of my reverie. 'So, are you excited?' she asked.
'Yep, and scared witless too,' I replied.
'That makes two of us,' she said.
'That makes two of us together,' I reminded her. 'We'll eat together and have classes together, and hang out in free time together, and possibly be in the same house and sleep in the same dormitory. And we'll have classes with Hughie, and Al and James and Rose will all be around, and we've known most of the professors since we were born, like Hagrid and Neville and Charlie. We'll be fine.' I gave her a one armed hug, which is difficult to do while walking down the street with a trunk the size of you and a kitten in a basket. The attempt made us both nearly fall over, and sent us into fits of giggles. We kept going, debating names for my kitten, whom Lily hadn't seen yet. (Lily's owl was named Athena, after the Greek goddess whose symbol the owl was.) Finally, the eleven of us had reached the station. We drew some funny looks as we walked along, and slid into Platform 9 ¾ with an attempt at inconspicuosity.
Soon, we were dragging our trunks onto the scarlet steam engine. I gave my funny purple trunk a small smile and a little wave of my fingers, as I realized that the next I saw it, I'd be in my new dormitory at Hogwarts.
Then it was time to say goodbye. I gave my godparents all hugs and kisses, then went to my mum. I hugged her tight around the middle, smelling her cozy garden-y smell, of green things growing in the sun. When I looked up at her, there were tears on her face. I took my handkerchief out of my pocket and dried them. She smiled at me for that, then gave me another hug. ' I'll miss you so much,' she said.
'It's okay, Mum, you'll be fine. And so will I.' I kissed her on the forehead, thinking as I did so that I was more like the adult here, and she was the kid heading off into the unknown. It was not a comforting thought.
More tears fell, so I gave her my handkerchief; Kurt knows I have too many. I could cry for years and never run out.
Then there was time for one last kiss, and then to rush onto the train and find a compartment amid the mad throngs of humanity.