Hogwarts Again - A New Generation

Chapter 15 - Boarding the Train a Second Time (third if you counted the time they left Hogwarts last year)

Disclaimer: I'm assuming you don't need a disclaimer by now.

Author's Note: A chapter from Ivy's POV after a long time. Hope you enjoy it. Merry Christmas!

"I got a new idea for a prank!"

The words were screamed at Ivy, prompting her to wake up, mumbling, What? What!? and reflexively pointing her wand, which was by her bedside, at the guilty.

"What is it, Daisy?" she asked irritably. No one likes being woken up on the last day of the holidays, before sunrise at that.

"I got a new idea for a prank," Daisy repeated breathlessly. She looked excited. She was already dressed and her hair looked recently brushed.

"Did you seriously get up and get dressed at the crack of dawn?" Ivy asked her, preparing to sleep again.

Daisy laughed. "It's not the crack of dawn! It's eight in the morning. Wake up or you'll miss the train." And then she left. Ivy sighed and let her head fall to the pillow again, and before she knew it, she was asleep.

She dreamed of several Daisies running around, screaming about new prank ideas, while several Ivies tried to get some time to sleep in past waking time for the last time in months to come, you idiot, let me sleep, let- me- SLEEP! Dream-Ivy almost screamed it out at dream-Daisy, but she was too sleepy to even open her mouth, even in a dream. Figures.

When she woke up again, it was nine. Her eyes widened and she got up hastily, trying not to trip over her bedsheet, failing, face-planting on the carpet, which was mercifully soft enough to cushion the landing and protect her precious face, then got up properly to get brush her teeth, take a bath, and get dressed. Why all the hurry anyway. What was today? She glanced at the calendar in their room as she bustled around, searching for her toothbrush.

Oh. September 1st. Start of the second year at Hogwarts. Merlin's Beard, the twins were to meet the Masons at 10:30! She hastened to get ready.

When she came out to eat breakfast, still in her bathrobes, it was already half-past nine, and Daisy was standing by the table, packing her trunk. Her trunk! Ivy hadn't packed her trunk! Oh, Merlin. Oh Merlin how was she going to do all that in time she already had breakfast to eat and she had to dress in the Muggle clothes her mother had laid out and she had so much to pack and-

Daisy saw the panic in her face. "Don't worry, this is your trunk I'm packing. Eat your porridge and get dressed up, we're going by Side-Along Apparition." Huh. No wonder she looked excited. Also, that wouldn't take as much time as going by Muggle taxi.

"What was that you were saying when you woke me up?"

Daisy muttered, "What? Oh, that. I said I got a new idea for a prank." She repeated it for the third time.

Ivy perked up. She loved pranks and they hadn't played a single prank in months, Merlin-damn-it. "What idea?"

"Tell you later. Finish your breakfast first."

By the time she finished breakfast, mum and dad had come back from their usual chat with the neighbors. Dudley got himself some tea and sat at the table, chatting with Daisy. Violet looked over at Ivy and nodded. "Did you eat enough?"

"Yes, mum."

"Do you remember what year this is?"

"Second year."

"No, the year. What's the year?"

"That's what I said. ...2016?"

"And?"

Ivy thought for a while before her eyes widened. "James is coming to Hogwarts for the first time!"

Before Violet could respond, however, they all heard the sound of a baby crying. Dudley was out of his chair and into his and mum's room in a jiffy, muttering, "That girl just won't stop crying!"

Ivy smiled widely, as she did whenever anyone mentioned the new sibling. Yes, Ivy's prediction had come true and the baby was a girl. Erica. Daisy didn't have any problem with her, which was an improvement, but they weren't cozy just yet. AT least she'd gotten over her jealousy. That was a major relief for Ivy. She couldn't imagine her twin hating a sister which she, Ivy, loved. Of course, she would never love anyone more than Daisy, but still. She didn't want to fight with her twin over a sister.

"Anyway," Violet's voice pulled her out of her head. "Yes, James is coming to Hogwarts, and your dad and I expect you to show him around, and not show him more pranks than he already has. I know you two are excited about all the secret passages there, but he already had enough mischief on his hands without you three joining hands. Am I clear?"

"Yes, mum," both of them chorused. Ivy didn't want to watch over a younger cousin all the time anyway. And she wasn't going to feed him all the secrets with a silver spoon, either. He would find out soon enough, of course he would. He couldn't keep his nose out of anything regarding pranks and jokes. He didn't need them to tell him secrets. He would learn them all faster than they ever could.

"And we have a mystery to solve," Daisy whispered to her as she washed the cup she'd eaten from. Ivy grinned again. This year was going to be brilliant, all right. She went to her room to get dressed and then mum called out to them to get ready and get the trunk locked and get everything in place, and they each were given jobs to do until it was finally time to leave.

Side-Along Apparition was, for Ivy, simply brilliant. Violet took them both as Dudley was busy changing Erica's diapers, and took them both hanging on to either of her arms. As they disappeared in a swirl and landed at a secluded spot in King's Cross, Ivy doubled over, swallowing her nausea. Other than that, as said earlier, it was brilliant. Violet assured them the nausea was only existent the first time around and promised to take them on Side-Along Apparition again, without nausea that time around.

It took them till 10:35 to find the brick wall between Platforms 9 and 10, and another five minutes to set Erwin the owl free to fly to Hogwarts and make sure they had everything, before entering the wall. Ivy got that sense of disappearing into oblivion before they emerged at Platform 9 ¾ and immediately spotted Robert in the crowd. His dark, almost brown, red curls were easy to spot among the crowd.

"Hey! Robert!"

Robert turned and broke into a smile as he made his way through the crowd. He waved as he swam among the people, and arrived breathlessly. "I don't know where Rebecca is, I was just searching for her," he said by way of greeting.

"Nice to see you, too, Bobby," Ivy rolled her eyes at him.

"Also, James Potter, son of Harry Potter, is on this train platform right now, somewhere here."

"We know. He's our cousin, in case you forgot." Daisy sounded mischievous, and Ivy suddenly remember the awakening.

"What did you say while waking me up?" she asked, just to make her exasperated. It worked.

"I said, I got a new idea for a prank! And this is the fourth time I'm repeating it! Merlin's beard, Ivy. Are you having memory problems? Do you need to see the healers?" She sounded genuinely concerned, too. Ivy was tempted to laugh but didn't.

"I'm just messing with you," she comforted Daisy, but Robert was more interested in the prank idea.

"What is it? What is it?" He jumped up and down in excitement, and almost toppled a neatly stacked up pile of trunks nearby.

"Oh, Merlin," Daisy sighed. "I'm stuck with not one, but two mental case people this year."

"Just tell me your idea!"

"What if we jinxed someone so everyone forget their name, and called them funny names all year?"

Robert blinked. "That's a good idea, but is there a spell?"

Daisy's face fell. "Oh. I didn't think of that." She smacked herself on the forehead. "Stupid."

"We'll figure out something," Ivy said. Usually, Daisy was the one to keep things positive, but Ivy figured it wouldn't hurt to take on the role once. "Now let's board the train."

"Not so quickly, young woman," Violet's voice interrupted. "Find your cousin first."

"Mom, if he's clever, which he is, he'll certainly have made his way to an empty compartment by now. We'll find him on the journey," Daisy assured her. "There's nine hours of it. Lots of time. Gotta go now. Miss you. Love you. Bye."

Violet laughed and hugged her close, and pulled Ivy in, too. Robert was nowhere to be seen. He'd probably caught a glimpse of his sister and gone after her for whatever.

Their mother finally letting them go, Ivy and Daisy made their way through the platform and onboard the train, searching for a compartment.

"I'm here." Robert appeared again, this time with Rebecca by his side. "Come on. Let's find a compartment. It's already 10:51, we got to find one fast."