King's Cross Station seemed to be extra busy with families of wizards pushing their carts through the muggle crowds. Eliza was amazed that the station remained relatively unchanged since she had last been there to travel to Hogwarts for her final year. Looking over at Melanie and her parents, Eliza could see that they were equally awestruck by the massive station.
She hadn't planned on accompanying Melanie to the train station, in fact, Eliza flat out refused multiple times. But on the final day before the September first departure, she received a letter, via owl post, from Albus Dumbledore. He requested that she guide Melanie through the process of going to Hogwarts for the first time since her parents were muggles and it was just too convenient that she lived nearby. Eliza gritted her teeth and crumpled the letter after reading it. She was frustrated with the situation, knowing that Dumbledore had good reason to burden her with the request but she had no desire to comply. After all these years of isolation, Eliza was being dragged back to Hogwarts and wizard society without so much as a "Hi, how have you been?"
With Dumbledore's sudden contact, Melanie's descent into wizard community, and the confessions to her wizard neighbor about her own abilities, Eliza was beginning to think Spinner's End was a bad idea. Maybe she should have tried El Salvador, or Mongolia. Hell, even Antarctica would have been a better choice than this magic infested community. Besides, it was extremely difficult to get the headmaster at her school to understand why she would be missing the first day of class ( something teachers should never do) and she resorted to using a confundus charm to secure a day off. She really hated doing that.
It had been exactly seven days since Eliza had spoken to Severus Snape and she wasn't feeling any better about the encounter. Her temper flared when she remembered his insults. She was mortified when she thought about what his reaction would be when he finally realized who she had been in their youth. She felt guilty about taking his thanks so lightly. No matter which way she thought about it, nothing positive seemed to surface about her meeting with the potions master.
Eliza felt Melanie tug on her hand, drawing her away from her thoughts, and heard the girl squeal in excitement as they approached platform 9. There were a few other wizard families gathered near the barrier between platforms 9 and 10. Eliza could recognize them by their stacks of luggage topped with owls in cages and by the unusual assortment of muggle clothes that many of them donned. She snickered a bit to herself as she pictured Snape and his bat robes trying to blend into the muggle crowd here at the station.
"It says on the ticket that I'm supposed to get on at platform 9 ¾. Where is that? All I see is 9 and 10," Melanie said, a bit of worry creeping into her voice.
"No problem," said Eliza, "Just walk directly into the barrier and it'll let you through."
Melanie stared at her as though she was insane.
" You want me to walk straight into a brick wall?"
"Yes and make sure to hold on to your parents so they can get through too," Eliza said. Melanie stayed rooted to the spot. There was no way that she was going to make a fool of herself by bouncing off solid walls.
"Watch these people," Eliza sighed, pointing out a red haired lady and her children. Melanie watched intently as they casually leaned against barrier and quickly sunk into the brick. She gasped and jumped back slightly.
"Now it's your turn. It's easier to go at it with a bit of a run," Eliza said. Melanie put on a determined look, grasped her mother's hand and her father's arm (he was pushing her cart) and began to run towards the wall. As predicted, she went right through to Platform 9 ¾. Eliza followed after them and they began walking towards the train.
As they walked, Eliza saw the red-headed group, this time they were joined with a black haired boy and a big black dog. Her eyes narrowed slightly as she looked at the gathering. The dog looked familiar to her. Eliza shook her head to eliminate the thought. There was no way that Sirius would do something stupid like go to such a public place if he was on the run.
Moving past the family and the dog, Eliza led Melanie and her parents over to the red Hogwarts Express. Together, they help Melanie load her luggage onto the train. Melanie clung to her parents, promising to write every day and to be good and to brush her teeth, the usual. With misty eyes, she turned to Eliza.
"Thank you so much Mrs. Slope for everything," She said, hugging her teacher tightly. "I'll write to you too. I hope it is as wonderful as you say."
"It'll be better than what you can possibly imagine," Eliza said, her voice thick as she tried to hide the emotions she was feeling too. She definitely didn't expect to get choked up over Melanie's departure.
The girl climbed onto the train and leaned out of the window to wave a final goodbye. The train began to pull away and Melanie's parents embraced to each other as they watched her leave. They were proud of their daughter, it shone all over their faces. Eliza looked at them sadly. She wanted so bad to tell them about Voldemort and the possibility of his return but she knew that it wouldn't be prudent to tell them without knowing the truth herself.
Turning away from them, in the cloud of steam left behind by the train, she saw the dog again. This time it was alone and looking at her, its head tilted to one side. She stared back trying to see if it really was Sirius under the fur. Slowly, the dog walked up to her. It began sniffing her hand and as the recognition sunk in, the dog's gray eyes lit up in excitement. He gave a sharp bark and jumped up, resting his paws on Eliza's shoulders. She was quite surprised by this response and before she could push him down, Sirius gave her an affection lick on the cheek. Eliza jumped back and Sirius returned to all fours, wagging his tail excitedly.
Just then, a tall shabby looking man walked up with an old lady wearing a strange purple hat. Eliza immediately recognized the man as one of her cousin's best friends but she couldn't place his name. She wanted nothing more than to disappear at that moment. Careful not to look directly at the man, she began to back away.
"You need to control your dog," she said coldly, adopting the same tone that Snape had used with her the week before. Sirius stopped wagging his tail and a hurt expression settled in his eyes. Eliza gave him a momentary sympathetic look and quickly turned to walk away. Motioning for the Davenports to follow she stalked off to the barrier to return to the muggle world.
Eliza remained silent during the ride home. The events of the day kept circulating through her mind. She couldn't believe that Sirius was there and that he was happy to see her. Even worse, she couldn't believe that he was there with his friend, one of the marauders. It seemed odd the that shabby man, Reamus Lupin as she later recalled, would be associating with the man responsible to the death of their so-called best friend.
But the part that really bothered her about seeing Sirius that day was the black haired boy he was with. She wasn't sure, but the boy looked a lot like James Potter and was around the right age. She suspected that this boy was non-other than the famous Harry Potter. Considering everything that had happened to the boy, Eliza wondered why on Earth Harry would be hanging around the murderous Sirius Black. Was there more to the story or was the boy truly nutters as the papers claimed?