Sarah walked through the door as Maggie struggled to pull her shoes off. After the pleasant sun at lunch time the afternoon had seen patches of chilling mists and weak sunlight. Putting down her grandmother's bag of socks next to the umbrella stand, Sarah noticed a piece of parchment on the floor, it was scrunched around the edges as if it had been pushed hastily beneath the door. She was about to mention it to Maggie when she decided against it and pocketed it instead.
"I'll just go get changed then shall I?" Sarah said moving towards her trunk. She wished that she'd left her school uniform out of the trunk, it felt like such a shame to mess up Maggie's packing.
Sarah entered her room for the last time, her arms laden with her school uniform. After placing them neatly on the bed she began changing, completely forgetting the note she had found on the floor and not noticing she was bundling it up in her muggle clothes and returning them to her trunk at the door.
"Okay" Maggie sighed as she approached Sarah "I wont feed you because they'll do enough of that up at Hogwarts." There was a note of sadness in her voice as she spoke. "Got your wand? Good. We'll we'd best be off - I don't know what time the train arrives exactly."
After bewitching Sarah's trunk they set off. It was growing dark quickly and Maggie was walking so fast Sarah had to jog to keep up. "Are we walking all the way there?" Sarah asked and she immediately brought her hand up to her neck to touch her locket. She was worried that it would be all to convenient to attack them walking along in the dark.
"Heavens no!" Maggie laughed. "Do you think I'm giving out attack me invitations?" She pulled off of High street towards Madame Puddifoot's teashop. "We're going to get there by floo powder. We would've gone from my house, but this is just a local connection - just to the train station because its such a distance for the residents to travel there."
Maggie was right. The Hogsmeade station was in fact quite a long distance from Hogsmeade itself. The opposite side of Hogwarts to be exact. Sarah noticed as the approached the teashop that the curtains were drawn and only a dim light could be found from the inside.
As the approached Maggie rapped loudly on the door. "It's only Maggie." She called, and after Sarah saw Madame Puddifoot's eyes peep through a gap in the curtains the door opened graciously letting them in.
"I was starting to wonder if you were coming!" Madame Puddifoot beamed at them.
"Yes well now we're here, and unfortunately we cant stay and chat - don't want our little Sarah here to be late for her first night back at school!" Maggie led Sarah through the shop and into the conjoined house behind it.
"It's a left to the living room dear." Sarah heard Madame Puddifoot call from behind them as she turned the lights out and closed and locked the door to the shop behind her.
Sarah wasn't surprised to find that the living room was frilly - it seemed to be a personality trait of Madame Puddifoot - to get everything as frilly as possible. "Thankyou for letting us use your fireplace dear." Maggie smiled at her friend.
"It's perfectly alright" Madame Puddifoot walked over to the mantelpiece and brought a little china teapot filled with glittering floo powder over to Maggie and Sarah. "You only need to say Hogsmeade Station as its only the local network. Good luck Sarah!" She smiled and squeezed Sarah in a hug as Sarah dipped her hand into the teapot.
"Hold on tight to the trunk!" Maggie called as Sarah stepped forward; her heavy trunk pulled close behind her, and threw a handful of floo powder into the fireplace. As the brilliant green flames grew higher and higher Sarah stepped into it, yanked her trunk hard so it was completely inside the fireplace and shouted "Hogsmeade Station!"
She felt a giddying sensation as she squinted her eyes to stop them being filled with ash but so she could also see which grate to get out of. Suddenly the platform loomed up in front of her and she took a step forward. The whirling stopped and she felt her trunk crash into the back of her legs.
"Ouch!" Sarah shuffled forwards whilst bending down to rub her heels. The platform looked so odd in the dark, especially because she was the only one standing there. Feeling slightly tense Sarah began fiddling with her locket.
A noise behind her announced the arrival of her grandmother. "This is a bit dismal." Maggie noted as she came up beside Sarah. "Here, we'll sit down until someone comes along." Maggie said, motioning for Sarah to sit down on a bench in front of them.
"Where's Hagrid?" Sarah wondered aloud. "Or at least a teacher to oversee us getting up to the castle."
"We're probably just a bit early that's all, they'll be here." Maggie reassured her.
There was a momentary silence as Sarah sought something to talk about with her grandmother that would fill up the time remaining till the train's arrival. "What were you sending to Mrs Macmillan earlier on today?" She asked glancing at her grandmother.
"I -" Maggie paused for a second and looked around. "I just needed to tell her how things are down here, like the weather, and that I found something she's been looking for everywhere for a long time." Sarah thought this was a very odd thing to write to somebody about.
"What did she lose?" She persisted, not taking her eyes off her grandmother.
"Nothing really important" Maggie said waving her right hand dismissively. (Sarah noticed her wand was being tightly held in her lap by her left) "Just something she lost track of a while ago." Maggie suddenly became quite interested in her handbag and began rummaging through it.
Sarah, who did still not understand her grandmother's strange behaviour, looked up at the moon. It was peeking past the cold clouds and emitting silver streams of light onto the platform. After staring for a few moments at this pretty phenomenon she began twiddling her thumbs. She glanced down at them and jumped. After a quick glance at Maggie Sarah looked down again. Her fingernails were blue - and not the same chilled blue that her hands were turning, but a brilliant, silvery blue. Sarah felt sick. She had no idea of how they had came to be this way, as she hadn't used any form of nail varnish in years.
"Mint?" Maggie asked holding out a handful from her bag. Sarah shook her head.
"Maggie?" Sarah leaned over to her grandmother and watched her put two mints in her mouth. "What colour are my eyes tonight?"
As she put the rest of the mints back into her bag Maggie leaned toward her granddaughter looking deep into her eyes. "They're a silver - no a blue - oh more of a blue with silver flecks. It's nothing unusual for you, they always change don't they? Why do you ask?"
Sarah's mind tossed and turned on showing her grandmother or not. "Oh just curious." She decided to keep it to herself, she didn't want Maggie thinking she was a freak. Another glance down and she realised her fingernails had returned to their natural fleshy colour anyway. Sarah felt strangely annoyed that they had become normal again but at the same time relieved that she didn't have matching eyes and fingernails.
"What did your father send you for your birthday?" Maggie asked examining her wand.
"I - they - " Sarah froze. She hadn't thought of her parents since the night before. She'd been so busy during the day that she had honestly forgotten to be worried about them. A horrible feeling of guilt took hold of her stomach and squeezed tight. "Maggie I don't know where they are." She said softly. "I haven't heard from them in over a month and well…" She trailed off. The wizarding world was a lot more dangerous now. "I'm worried."
"I didn't think you'd heard anything from Charles." Maggie frowned and then noticing the worried look on Sarah's face added "But I'm sure they're fine. Some of the places your father takes Eleanor are quite remote. He probably hasn't been able to get a letter out."
"Or he doesn't want to let other people know where he is. So he wont send a letter or let me know how they are." Sarah began thinking of how convenient it was for him to disappear with her mother at a time like this. And because his daughter didn't know his whereabouts there was no way she could let his location slip. "I think he's taken my mother into hiding if you ask me and didn't want me to know about it. But why didn't he take me too?" Sarah looked up at Maggie and saw her look away, as if distracted.
"Listen" Maggie held her hand to her mouth as she strained her ears for the sound of the train. And sure enough a few moments later the Hogwarts Express came to a stop at next to the platform. The steam billowing around it made it seem as if it had appeared in a puff of smoke.
Maggie and Sarah stood up. There were still no teachers to be seen, however the house elves that worked up at the castle could be seen running around the platform preparing to take the students' luggage.
Sarah watched as the carriage doors magically sprung open and students of all age and sizes began pouring out onto the now well-lit platform.
Maggie pulled Sarah into a tight hug. "Okay well I know you'll have a good year. Please behave yourself and remember what I said about the locket-"
Sarah sighed and finished Maggie's sentence "Don't open it! Okay! Thanks for everything Maggie. If you hear from dad please write to me. I'm worried sick about them." Maggie nodded and hugged Sarah again.
"Oi! Sarah!" Sarah turned as she heard a familiar voice and found herself facing her friend Oliver. "You alright? Didn't think you were gonna be here in time did we?" The two students behind him, Elisa and Anthony, nodded.
"Well," Maggie said loudly causing Sarah to turn and face her again. "Have a good term love - I'll hopefully see you at Christmas." A larger house elf began pulling Sarah's trunk away from her so it could be taken to her dormitory.
"Yeah I reckon." Sarah replied and hugged her grandmother a final time before being pulled away with her friends.
"Bye Sarah!" Maggie called.
"Bye Maggie!" Sarah replied hoping that she had heard her over the loud chattering of students who were making their way to the carriages drawn by invisible creatures.