Another short chapter, but I promise they get longer.
Disclaimer: I own nothing and make no money from this.
Chapter Three: All aboard the Hogwarts Express
"Hurry up!" Elizabeth called from downstairs, balancing her handbag on her knee while applying mascara in the bathroom mirror. "David, stop fiddling around and get the trunk down here!"
With a thud, followed by several clunks and a crash, David appeared at the top of the stairs, sweating as the dragged Conyeri's heavy trunk along the landing. "What have you got in here, honey? Goblins?"
"A whole family!" Conyeri grinned, materializing from nowhere. David's heart swelled with pride to see her. She looked so much like him: manageably curly auburn hair and wonderful dark brown eyes, the same eyes that Mr. Smith had looked into and seen such merriment. Any now his little girl was going to be a Hogwarts student! He wanted nothing more than to let her go and grow up to be a fine witch, as he himself had, but at the same time he wanted to hold onto her as tightly as possible. Oh, how he'd miss his daughter! By the tears brimming in Elizabeth's eyes, she felt the same way.
The family managed to get Conyeri's trunk downstairs and out into the street, although David had performed a discreet locomotor charm to get it most of the way. They wheeled it behind them as they set out on Conyeri's penultimate train journey of the summer, from the nearby Paddington station- a quick journey on the Hammersmith and City line to King's Cross. The station was packed as usual with hundreds of wizarding families ready to send their children off to Hogwarts; David vaguely remembered that the Hogwarts Express took on passengers around Manchester, having read it in Hogwarts: A History, but for some strange reason he never remembered the train stopping at all. Odd.
"Oh, Molly, I'm so proud of him!" A handsome redheaded man hugged his heavily pregnant wife as he pushed a trolley for his equally ginger son. "Now, Bill, we just have to walk through the wall here- I'll go first and mum will come after you."
The man winked and strode towards a non-descript patch of wall, then paused before disappearing through it completely. Conyeri, used to magical things, smiled and wondered how it worked- surely muggles would lean on or touch the wall sooner or later? She supposed she'd have to ask someone.
"Conny, you see what that man just did?"
"Yes."
"We'll wait for his family to go through first; that's polite, then follow." David grinned, secretly yearning for another seven years at Hogwarts. He hummed to himself as the redheaded man's son tentatively approached the barrier and gasped as his outstretched hand slipped through, and then vanished completely. Perhaps, David thought, he should go back. He did after all have a T.O.A.D. (Terribly Obnoxious Academic Diploma) in Magical Art, though he'd heard that it was a subject losing popularity. Perhaps he should suggest himself for a post? Renew interest in it?
He chuckled and shook himself. Today was Conyeri's day, not his. He took her hand and they crossed through to Platform 9 and ¾ together. He'd given Elizabeth a quick hug and promised to be back soon. Muggles couldn't cross through the barrier: they'd meet a brick wall. It saddened him that there were many ways in which his wife could not be part of his world, but he loved her and wouldn't let that stand between them.
Conyeri grinned, looking at the bright red steam train. "I really get to ride on that?"
"Of course. Six times a year, if you don't stay holidays." He chivvied her up, seeing that it was close on eleven. "Now, Conyeri. Promise me you'll be good, okay?"
"I'm, always good." She pouted in reply.
"I know, sweetheart. Don't ask too many personal questions, either. Think before you speak."
"You've said that a hundred times." She wasn't exaggerating. David often had to shut his daughter up to stop her making awkward observations. She couldn't half talk! "But okay, I'll try."
"Make lots of friends, okay?"
"I will. But no boys." She wrinkled her nose and smiled. "Except maybe Jonmarc, but he's cool."
David chuckled and handed her trunk over to a smiling attendant who carted it onto the train impatiently. The whistles were going, so he gave his daughter a kiss and a final hug before she jumped onto the train and the attendant slammed the door behind her. "Bye, Daddy!"
"Have fun, darling!" He waved to her as the train began to slowly inch forward off the platform. Conyeri watched her father get smaller as the Hogwarts Express gathered speed and entered a few brief minutes of underground tunnels before emerging north of London. The first-year finally detached herself from the window and sought out a compartment for herself. Everyone seemed so much taller than her- and bigger, and rowdier. She supposed that the merry atmosphere that seemed to cover the whole wizarding world was due to You-Know-Who disappearing last year, but, as she was shoved into the corridor wall by a group of burly play-fighting Hufflepuff boys, Conyeri wished they'd be at least a little less energetic.
She found a compartment with two other first-years in and asked if she could sit down. An amused-looking Asian girl gestured for her to go for it.
"Before you ask, I'm Lucy Ra and I only just met this guy now." The girl said in a frightening Estuary accent, prodding the fair-haired, chubby boy beside her. "What was your name again, fatty?"
"Corfax Nimmle." He said quietly, frowning at her before turning to Conyeri. "Lucy isn't very nice, but she's so smart. She did a spell- show her your spell, Lucy."
The girl grinned and produced a long, dark wand with a flourish. "Avifors!" she said, flicking her wand in a circular motion. A familiar plume of blue smoke erupted from the tip and formed a small, chirpy bird that fluttered about, much to Corfax's childish delight.
"That was what my wand did when I first got it." She said curiously. "It's pretty."
"I can do something too!" The chubby boy said, trying to draw attention back to himself. "Dad said he found a spellbook in the attic of a house he repossessed, and he let me see it." He looked at the confusion on the two girls' faces and explained. "I'm muggleborn."
"With a name like that?"
"Eccentric parents." He said it like it was a phrase he'd learned from a dictionary and rehearsed often. "But anyway, look- lumos!"
Conyeri squinted as a weak ball of light lit the tip of his wand. It was a really basic spell- one of the first in her textbook, but she shared a look with Lucy and they decided to humour him. Although Lucy was mean, she wasn't an all out bully, and would gladly wait for some other boys to pick on Corfax once he got to school. Her neighbourhood hadn't been good like Conyeri's, and she'd seen what bullies could do to a person. "That's nice, too."
They sat chatting for a while, but Jonmarc found them just as they slipped past Oxford. Conyeri introduced him, but he was awfully shy and sat close to her, explaining that he'd been ousted from his own carriage by some Slytherin fourth-years who had looked ready to kill. "I don't want to be in Slytherin." Conyeri said out loud as he explained it. "My dad was is Hufflepuff, so I'll have to wait and see."
"Two parents, four brothers in Ravenclaw, no way I'm going anywhere else." Lucy winked and played with her little smoke bird for a while. "Though I'd like to see what Gryffindor is like. You know they're supposed to be the 'good' house."
"Being really good would be boring, though." Conyeri replied and the two troublemakers shared a look. "But I don't want to be evil."
"Don't worry over it." Lucy said dismissively and yawned. "Now, anyone want a game of exploding snap?"