Kings Cross station, was honestly the most brutally, loud place I'd ever been, and for me that's saying something. I'd opted to leave Bob behind so that he could help Charlie with any investigations she might need him for while I was away. On our way there, I explained to the Harry, and Hermione the importance of not calling me 'Mr. Dresden' or 'daddy' while we were at the school unless no one else was around, and that my name from this point on was Jace, or Jason.
Hermione was a little put out by that, and upon seeing her face, I remembered the night before;
"Daddy?" My eyes flew open, and I sat up in bed.
Looking towards the door I saw Hermione, dressed for bed in the PJ's that Charlie had bought for her. They were pink with little dog foot prints on them, to be honest it was pretty cute. "What is it sweetheart?" My voice came out hoarse, like most people's after they'd just woken up.
"I had a bad dream…" I chuckled at the innocence of children.
"Its okay, come here," I stood up from the bed, and knelt down in front of her and gave her a hug, briefly remembering my own father doing the same for me when I was her age. "What was it about?" I asked genuinely concerned, because for wizards dreams were more than just brain activity during REM sleep.
"There was a castle, and it was spring time, and I was there, and Harry, and you, but you were Jace, and we were in a room. There was a big sleeping dog, but it wasn't a normal dog, it had three heads, and it was enormous, we got passed it, and the next thing I remember, we were in a room, and you were hurt daddy, you were bleeding. You told me and Harry to stop going forward, and then I saw a rock, and a man with two faces, the man with the faces came at me and I woke up.
"I was so scared daddy," she buried her head deeper into my shoulder.
"It's okay Hermione, let me show you something." I pulled out my mother's pentacle amulet, and told Hermione to pull out her own. She did, "You see that symbol?"
"Yes? What is it?"
"It's a symbol for magic, the five points each representing a part of being a wizard. Each point corresponds to a different element of nature."
"But daddy, there are only four elements of nature, fire," I pointed at one of the points on the star, "earth, air, and water," I pointed at another point of the star for each word she said. "But there's five points to the star."
"Exactly, the fifth point to the star is Spirit, and the circle represents the wizard, and how we can control each of these forces, most people think of this symbol as one of Satanism, or other pagan religions, however, when looked at by a wizard, it represents magic, and life." I explained, smiling, and proud that she had paid my lessons any attention.
"So? What does it mean for me?"
"What ever you want it to mean, this is a symbol of faith, and when someone truly believes in something, they can do anything, watch," I poured my belief of magic into the amulet as I had dozens of times before, and it began to glow. "Because I have faith in magic, and because I believe, I can make bad things and people go away, because for a lot of the monsters out there, a human's faith is painful, they don't like it because it gives us power."
"So if I believe, my amulet can do that?"
"Yes, and if you believe, you can make it through the darkness unscathed, because with faith comes power." I spoke those words exactly as my father had, even though he wasn't a wizard, and I didn't get the demonstration, I had known that my father was right, and I had a feeling Hermione felt the same way.
"Thank you daddy," She smiled and kissed my cheek, "I love you."
Taken aback, all I could do was hug her tightly, and reply, "I love you too sweetheart."
"Jason!" Charlie looked down at me acting like my scolding mother, "How many times do I have to tell you to listen, we're here, lets go!" I got out of the car and played the angry teenager.
"But Moooom! I don't wanna go!" Charlie glared at me and had I really been her child, I would've been scared for my backside. "Fine!" I threw in what I assumed to be a teenager-ly sigh with the exclamation. I was sent by my 'mother' to get three trolleys so that we could get onto platform 9¾. We loaded our things onto the trolleys and began our journey towards platforms 9 and 10.
Along the way we saw a bustling family of people, all with red hair, and all with suitcases (or as the Brits call them Trunks) with a crest on them. The crest was a coat of arms, the shield was yellow, with a big black H in the middle, and it was divided into four sections, each of which had an animal. The top left animal was a lion, the top right a raven, the bottom left was a badger, and the bottom right a snake. We followed the red haired family, because that was the same crest that was on the letters that we'd received.
Soon we were standing between two pillars, one with two signs on it the other just a plain pillar. I watched the red headed family, one after the other either run or walk at the wall, and just pass straight through it. To be completely honest I was astounded, how had they managed to create such a solid illusion. We followed the red haired family and went through the wall, going through was the weirdest sensation, almost like passing through a wall of water. On the other side was a train labeled the 'Hogwarts Express.'
I smiled, gave the kids both a look and we walked towards the men loading the baggage onto the train. He explained that we were to take our trunks with us and put them on the racks above the seats. So we did, I kissed Charlie on the cheek, like a son would his mother, and gave her a quick hug before walking with Harry and Hermione towards the train.