Living in London (A marauders era story)

3- moving out

"Maybe it's a left here? Not a right?"
"Maybe?! Ted you're the one holding the bloody map!" Nash shouted as she clutched the steering wheel. Her hands braced as she stared at the row of busy London traffic ahead.

"You're the one driving! And you are gonna be the one living in this damned place!" He argued back equally frustrated. "Ted, Nash- I love you both but these muggle vehicles make me feel violently ill. Please will you just hurry up and stop bickering before I kill you both?" Andy growled from the back seat of Ted'd little white Ford Escort.

"Sorry Andy"/"sorry love." They chimed back. Then Ted shot out a hand as he gazed down at the map. "You we're right the first time it is the right turn."

"Haha! I knew it!" Nash cheered before she made eye contact with Andy in the rear-view mirror and decided against celebrating any further. "So take the bloody turn then!"

-.-.-.-.-

Once they were finally, safely parked in the university's, dorm building's car park the group of three adults dismounted the car. Andromeda holding a somehow sleeping Dora in her arms. Probably helped with a sleeping draft knowing how riled up and unruly she became when in the muggle world. And it was probably not a good idea to be running around after a magic-presenting toddler with multicoloured hair on Nash's first day.

"So this is it- which room are you in again?" Ted looked down at Nash as they began to heave her suitcase and other bags out of the car's (slightly extended with a spell) boot. (Trunk if you're American).

"13F." She replied after double check her schedule sheet she had picked up the week before from an initiation assembly she had attended alone. She'd been doing that a lot lately- going out into the muggle world alone. Adventuring all she could with out the fall back of her cousin and cousin-in-law's magic.

"Come on then, let's go get you unpacked and moved in." He sighed going for the heaviest bag first.

Before the family of four began to trek up the dorm buildings stairs hauling up her bags.

-.-.-.-.-.-

Finley walked slightly behind his parents and Lily as she pushed her trunk between them. His hands itching to grab for a cigarette hidden in his jacket pocket. He hadn't been able to smoke as much over the summer not being at school or out with his mates who'd all seemed to have had vanished the second he decided to go to university coke September.

He followed along as his mum and dad gushed to Lily about how she must write not just them but also her brother and even her sister (who they must have known she wouldn't). All while he walked solemnly behind.

"Oh there they are! Oh Fin! Come meet my friends!" Lily suddenly stopped, sprinting to pass her father her trolley. She span to grab his arm and dragged her brother towards the waving group of young witches and wizards his sister's age- who he assumed where her friends.

There was three boys and three girls all smiling and waving wildly at Lily as she approached.

"Oh hi!" Lily skipped excited into hugs for each person. First a taller girl with long braided black hair and warm chocolate skin; next to her a shorter blonde girl with pink highlights and a nose ring. The girl was pale and held between her two fingers a burning cigarette he stopped to drool at.

Then there was a shorter girl with big curly hair pulled into two mini Afro-buns on top of her head. A smile and a pair of short dungarees. She gave him a nod as Lily introduced, "this is my brother Fin....he's off to his uni dorm after this."

Then there was the three boys- first came a smirking bespectacled boy with curly hair and a cheeky wink for Fin's sister. He didn't enjoy that at first. Then there was the tallest of the lot, a lanky place boy with odd scars dotted around his features. His Sandy hair shuck as he bent himself down to scoop Lily up in a brotherly hug.

And finally there was a long, dark haired boy with striking grey eyes- clad in leather and a nervous face as he seemed to be flittering his eyes around the spot between platforms nine and ten.

"Fin, this is Dorcas, Marlene, Mary, James, Remus and Sirius." She named each person in order that she had hugged them. He tried and probably failed to memorise them at first.

"Uni ah? That must be big." Spoke up the third girl- Mary? He nodded slowly, Fin was not a shy person by any means but he'd only really spoken to his sister all summer so this was something he'd been missing out on all summer- meeting new people. And they were all wizards, probably thought they were better then him.

Lily seemed to do what she did best, fit right in with everyone. They all looked so- magical.

And he probably looked as sleep-deprived and unbothered as he was.

"Nice to meet you all. And uh, yeah it's.....it's pretty big." He nodded, nervously? "What are you studying?" The tallest boy asked- Remus? Maybe he had gotten down all the names. "Oh! Music and film." He said and they all nodded other then the blonde and pink haired girl and the glasses-wearing boy who both looked a bit confused at the word 'film'. Wizards did have films right?

"Interesting combination." Mary spoke again. "You gonna be a movie score composer one day?" She asked, "make the next Jaws?"
"Maybe, huh....that's the dream."

"Well good luck with that- and good luck living in halls- my cousin went to BIMM in Manchester last year- says they're awful."

"Not a good start but it doesn't bother me as long as I've got somewhere to sleep." He smiled and they all nodded along.

Lily gave her brother a bright smile almost asking him to show her that he liked her friends, so he nodded back with his own grin. "What time's your train?" He asked her and she shrugged nonchalantly, eleven on the dot but we have" - she checked her watch- "ten minutes." He nodded.

"Give me a hug then- so you can see mum and dad too before you're off." He tugged his baby sister into a warm brotherly embrace, his quite a bit taller then her, stature having grown even bigger over the summer. "I'll miss you." She told him like she had every year since she was eleven and he was thirteen seeing her off. "I'll miss you too lilypad." He mumbled into her red curls.

"Have a lovely time and write!" She demanded as she pulled away- "alright! Alright! I will."

And with that they pulled apart.