Chapter 4

Hard Awakening

Albus

When his dad told him, he felt as if he was doused with cold water. James was probably the same. Tears started to fall from eyes of three men. James than went to his room. Just few minutes before dad's arrival, he had told Al that he wanted to propose to Gwendolyn. Now he will think it over. Al hugged dad and climbed the stairs to his room.

It was quite big room with big bed. The walls were decorated with posters of Puddlemere united, for which he played the reserve chaser. He remembered his jersey down in the living room, but he didn't want to return there. Instead he took a shower and lied down in his bed. A sound of sobs was heard over the wall. There was Lily's room. It must be horrible for her. He wasn't jealous at all, she was his little sister after all. They could have lost her too. With that he fell asleep.

In the morning he woke up to the smell of burned eggs. He went down to the kitchen. There he was greeted by a strange scene. Dad stood by the stove in mum's apron and in his hand he held charred frying pan. His glasses were askew. Before he could have said something the door bell rang. There stood Gwen, Jamese's girlfriend. She didn't look like herself at all. Her brown hair were tousled and she had tooth paste above her upper lip. In her hand she held a print of the Daily Prophet.

"Is it true?" she asked with her soprano voice. She didn't even waited for the response and pushed her way inside past Al. She headed straight too the kitchen.

He followed her found the scene unchanged. Gwen carefully took the pan out of dad's hand and with a wave of her wand started to do a new breakfast. She sat dad in a chair.

Lily got to the kitchen. Her eyes were red and her hair sticked up around her head in a curly halo. In that moment Al noticed how much she look like mum. She sat to the table and started mechanically eat Gwen's breakfast.

After a moment there was a knock on the window. Al got up for a post but he was outran by James. He stepped into the kitchen, his head buried in the Daily Prophet. He measured the scene before him, greeted Gwen and sat down. His younger siblings leaned above the newspaper.

The headline said: Death Eaters attack again: Ginevra Potter kidnapped. Below was a photo of mum and Lily fighting and another one of the Death mark. A skeleton with a snake instead of tongue.

Lily angrily crumpled the newspaper: "So they had time to take pictures. Of course, Rita Skeeter. That old hag never changes."

After breakfast dad went to work. James and Gwen to the training. Gwen was learning to be a healer. Because Albus didn't have a training it was up to him to take Lily to train station.

He helped her with her trunk and got the car. He had passed the driving test only recently so Lily shot him a scared look here and there. Like when he had nearly run over an old lady on the traffic light. He parked in a front of the Kings Cross. He went to get a trolley and putted the trunk and Whiskers cage on the top of it. Together they pushed their way to platforms nine and ten. Al took his sister's hand and run straight through the wall.

They were greeted by a familiar red locomotive. Students were running in clouds of steam, saying goodbye to their parents. Albus took Lily's trunk to the train and they went to find the Peasleys compartment. There had been years when they had more than one, but this year only few of them were returning to Hogwarts. They said goodbye on the platform. Al thought about looking for his family, but he wanted to say goodbye to his sister in peace.

"Promise, you will look after dad and James," asked Lily.

Al nodded: "And you will look after yourself. Write every day if you want."

They hugged. Albus now noticed the looks they were getting from passerbys. Maybe they will make the front page. Moment before department he gave her a kiss on the cheek. "We will see each other on Christmas." Lily then boarded the train and he couldn't do more than watch as her face slowly disappeared.

As his next stop he choose a small business called John's breakfast. Dad took them there every time mum was on the business trip. He loved it there when he was a child. They served breakfast twenty-four/seven. He sat to a small table by a window and waited for a waiter

A girl around his own age showed up, her blond hair tied back with a scarf. "Good afternoon, what can I get you," she asked.

Al thought: "I will take pancakes and espresso." The girl wrote it down Albus looked out of the window. There was a small park across the street. He saw a family with three children, buying ice cream. He ought to be a little boy again who run to his parents during the thunderstorm.

The waitress interrupted him with his order. "Thank you,..Olivia," he said, reading her name tag. The girl smiled and Al notice her eyes had pretty blue-green colour. She reminded him Alice a little bit. They had been dating in his seventh year. He had even gone to Madame Puddifoot tea shop, a place in which he swore he will never go. Then he had found out she only went out with him because of his room mate Thomas. Who could have guessed that Alice Longbottom can be so calculating.

When he paid the bill, Olivia was oddly smiling at him. She left with the money and Al noticed that something was written on the bill. By the look of it it was a phone number. He looked up and saw the blond doing the muggle "call me" gesture. Bloody hell, he thought, I have to persuade Rose to teach me how to use a phone.