Voyages With Vampires
Chapter 7
September 1st- Platform 9 ¾
William W. Prang was exhausted to say the least. Not only was his body tired, but his mind was in disarray. His younger sister was eleven, the age he was when he got his letter. The problem was that it was September 1st and she hadn't gotten her letter yet. As expected, Amelia had been inconsolable for the two weeks prior; the promises of their mother, Kendra Prang, to talk with the Ministry gave little comfort to her.
When they were buying the new books William needed for his sixth year at Hogwarts, they made sure to buy some of the stuff they knew Amelia would need. Of course, they could not buy everything, seeing as they lacked the letter as well as the supply list, but the family got her got all they could. Their mom had even bought her a small Adder snake that the saleslady at the Magical Menagerie swore had been de-venomed. Amelia had immediately taken to the snake and whispered to "Morfin" when she was most upset. She even started sneaking it to dinner when their mom was not paying close attention. The snake was not kind and only liked Amelia, often striking at those who got too close to him. There were several times when it bit William and Amelia had to scorn it, much to its displeasure. William came to the conclusion that there was something wrong with the snake, and he hated the way his sister acted around it.
At the train station, their mother had a very passionate meeting about Amelia with Fergus Canius, the Ministry official in charge of the "Being" department of the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures.
"I am truly sorry Ms.." Fergus trailed off. This lady had been calling all around the Ministry about her kid and it was just his luck to draw the short straw to talk with her. Naturally, he put it off until the last moment in the hopes she would change her mind. She did not, and he was forced to deal with it in a small corner of the platform. To his relief, both of her children were too far away to hear the conversation.
"Mrs. Prang," She hastily reminded him.
"Right, Prang. Well, as you know, we do not take these matters lightly and just cannot allow someone like your daughter to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It would be extremely dangerous to let someone of her, uh, blood status to go to a normal school." He hoped the mother would not cause a scene in such a crowded place. He looked over to where the little girl sat with her brother, both looking at them both every few seconds. To Fergus, it was painfully obvious what the girl was. She had light blonde hair and an extremely pale complexion, a striking contrast to the dark hair that the mother and half-brother had. Fergus bet that when the girl smiled, you could see the small, slightly oversharpened fangs that inhabited the girl's mouth.
"She's never hurt anyone! There's got to be someway for her to go," Kendra pleaded.
"I'm sorry, but it's just impossible." With that, Fergus left the platform, glad to be done with the case.
Amelia could tell by her mother's face that she wasn't going to be allowed to go to the school. It was for this reason that William was running across the platform, chasing after a weeping Miss Amelia. He stumbled clumsily as he fought through the crowd to get to his half-sister. He watched as she bumped into a very tall man, then ran off in a different direction. As he came up to the man, William quickly apologized, then continued his hunt for Amelia. He finally found her sitting in a corner where there were no people to bother her. She was stroking Morfin and whispering to him as tears ran down her face. When he approached her, the snake hissed loudly.
"Oh, stop it Morfy." She cried as she looked up to her brother. "It's because I'm part vampire, isn't it?"
William hesitated before answering. "It's just because they don't know you. If they did, they'd know that you wouldn't hurt a fly." He felt a burning hate slowly growing in him as he said this. They'd always treat her differently. It doesn't matter about her as a person, just what's in her blood.
Their mother found them and sighed. "We'll get it fixed, Lia." She turned to William and softly reminded him, "Train's about to leave." Amelia started crying harder at hearing this.
"I'm so sorry, Lia." William said as she hugged him tightly, careful to keep Morfin away from him.
"Bye, Will. I'll miss you."
"I'll miss you too and I'll write as much as I can." William hugged his mom, and then hugged Amelia again before walking back to the train.
William quickly found his friend, Fletcher, in a compartment on the train. He repeated the morning's events with malice in his voice as the train took off.
"Really? But your sister is the nicest eleven year old I've ever met!" Fletcher said in disbelief.
They spent the rest of the train ride talking about how they might be able to get the Ministry to change their mind.
