For a while I never thought I'd live to see this day, but here I am. King's Cross station, with my family.
"Aunt Mia," Alexa tugs on my sleeve. "We're going. Don't you want to say goodbye?"
"Of course, Alexa," I say, smiling. It's Alexa's first year at Hogwarts, and she's nervous, but not as nervous as her twin, Mark.
Mark is with his father, Jon. "Hey, Jon," I say. "Hi, Mark." Jon is a Ravenclaw, one year younger than Beth. They were dating in their seventh year, but I never knew about it. Now they have twins.
Juliana giggling at something Alexa said. Ralph runs up to Max and me. "Mommy, Daddy, look!" He proudly shows off a rock he found. At three, everything fascinates him. Juliana, who goes by Juli and is two years older, is much more serious, and she practically idolizes Alexa.
"Mommy," she says, "when can I go on the train?"
"Not yet," I tell her. "You have to go to school and camp first." Some genius demi-wizard invented a potion so that anyone who drinks it can't be smelled by monsters, but people still go to Camp Half-Blood to bond with other demigods. Kids never realize how lucky they are until their luck runs out. Juli runs over to Alexa, who smiles and gives her a hug.
Lizzie, my oldest, looks up at me. She's eleven.
I found Lizzie shivering in the cold outside our front door one day a few years ago, armed with a baseball bat. She was seven, alone, and scared, being a demigod and a witch. Her father is Zeus and her mother threw her out. I took her in.
"Mia," Lizzie says, "I'm scared." Many times I have tried to get her to call me "Mom," but she doesn't want to, and there's no point in reasoning with and eleven-year-old.
"What are you scared of?" I ask.
"The other kids. All the bad guys who are in Azkaban now went to Hogwarts once, too, and there are going to be kids like them. And there'll be monsters there, I know it."
"Let me tell you something," I say. "Monsters won't go after witches and wizards, because they're no match for magic. As for the kids…" I point to Draco Malfoy. "Anyone with that expression on his face is going to be mean, nasty, and not worth your time. Don't let him get to you. And don't be fooled by a Slytherin. The Sorting Hat is never wrong."
"How do you know?" Lizzie asks.
I look at my son, Ralph. The original Ralph Crabbe is in Azkaban, and he will be until he dies. "I knew Ralph Crabbe. Your brother was named after him. I trusted him and he killed Juliana."
There's silence as I remember. It was the day I stopped trusting people.
After what seems like an hour, Lizzie nods. Then, as if nothing happened, she says, "Well, I'm going. Bye, Mia! Bye, Max!"
"Bye, Lizzie!" Max and I hug her and she's off, and I realize something.
She's a lot like me.
Well, this is the end! I had fun writing this and I hope you guys had fun reading.