Chapter 3: 5 years earlier
"William? Are you sure we walk in to a WALL to get to the platform? Don't you think that sounds a little bit ridiculous?" asked my mum as she looked at the brick wall in front of her.
"YES darling. I'm pretty sure I would know, I've only done this almost a dozen time in my childhood," responded my dad, sighing.
"Excuse me? You didn't by any chance say you were going to walk in to wall did you?" said a woman who came up behind my parents.
Just as my father was about to say no, that of course he wouldn't walk in to a wall, he noticed a gaggle of girls and one boy standing behind her, several of them with carts and owls in cages. Realizing that this woman must have been a witch, he said, "Sorry, for a mument I thought you were a curious Muggle! You see my wife here is a Muggle and my oldest daughter is heading off to Hogwarts for the first time so she's not very adjusted yet."
"Oh no problem! You see my sister-in-law is a Muggle, so I've had to deal with this kind of a thing before. I'm Penny, Penny Marchbanks. Oh the these are my children; Aubrey is two years out of Hogwarts, Madison a 7th year, Brenna 6th, Charlotte, Evie and Georgia are 5th years, Jess a 3rd year and of course Ryan who is a first year as well," said Mrs. Marchbanks as she pointed to each of the girls.
"Oh wow," exclaimed my mum, "and I thought it was hard with four girls and you've got 7 plus a boy! I'm Mary Connors."
"Okay, so why don't you come over here." Mrs. Marchbanks took my mum's arm and brought her over to the barrier. The two of them leaned nonchalantly against the brick wall, and they instantly disappeared behind it.
"Why don't you guys all go through," my dad said, motioning for the Marchbanks, Kizzie and myself to go through. He picked four-year old Dolly up in to his arms and held Libby's hand as he waited for us to roll all of our carts through the barrier.
After I made my way through the barrier, walking next to Kizzie, I looked in awe at the steam train in front of me. I was amazed at the sheer size of the train. I could see that Kizzie was thinking the same thing as she stood next to me. Finally my Dad made it through the barrier, he looked at his watch and said, "Merlin's Bead! Look at the time! It's nearly 11!" I quickly kissed my parents good-bye and gave hugs to each of my sisters. Unfortunately it seemed as if all of my cousins who were already at Hogwarts had boarded the train, and I didn't know where to get on. To my right I could see that the Marchbanks boy was thinking something similar. The six of his sisters that were still at Hogwarts walked away from him, their matching blonde hair turned so they couldn't see him standing alone. I had never been the one to go up to a person and start a conversation, but I figured now was the best time to start. I went up to Ryan and said,
"Hey! Let's go find a compartment on the train! We wouldn't want to miss it!" Ryan grinned, glad to see that he wouldn't be fending for himself after all. After a fair bit of searching, we finally managed to come across an empty carriage. The train lurched in to motion as we finally set down. "I can't believe you have SEVEN sisters!" I exclaimed.
"Trust me, I wouldn't wish it on any one! So you're a half-blood then?"
I nodded and said, "Yep! My mum's a Muggle, but my dad is a wizard. He's not pure-blood, there's been a couple of Muggle-borns here and there in my family, but he's got a lot of wizard blood in him. What about you?"
"I'm a half-blood too. I've got a couple Muggle relatives here and there as well. How about houses? Do you know what house you're going to be in?"
"I'm not really sure," I responded, "My dad was a Ravenclaw and so are many of my cousins, but there's a couple Hufflepuffs and a Gryffindor in there as well, you?"
"Honestly? I have no idea whatsoever. Mum was a Hufflepuff, Dad was Gryffindor, Aubrey was a Hufflepuff too, but Madison and Brenna are Slytherins as well as Evie, oh and Charlotte and Georgia are Slytherins and Jess is a Gryffindor. So I guess everything EXCEPT Ravenclaw! But who knows! Maybe I'll be the little rebel!"
