Easy - The Girl who Lived Forever (Harry Potter's Sister)

Welcome to Hogwarts

There was a definite end-of-the-holidays gloom in the air when I awoke the next morning. Heavy rain was still splattering against the window as I got dressed into black and purple butterfly plants and a black and pink sweater; I would change into my school robes on the Hogwarts Express.

We'd been awoken by mum yelling up the stairs and had come down to see Dad talking to Bill and Charlie. 

"What's going on, Dad?" Ginny asked nervously.

"Have to go to work," Dad told us, adjusting his robes.

"Again?" I sighed.

Dad stopped to give Ginny and I a hug. "Have a good term. Try not to get in as much trouble."

After exchanging goodbyes, Dad left into the kitchen. Bill and Charlie follow after him a minute later.

I sat down on the stairs and sighed as Hermione came downstairs. "What's going on?" she yawned.

"Dad has to work again," I told her.

Hermione sat next to me. "I'm sorry," she told me. "But at least you'll see him at Christmas!"

"Yeah," I mumbled.

Bill and Charlie decided to come and see everyone off at King's Cross station, but Percy, apologizing most profusely, said that he really needed to get to work. 

"I just can't justify taking more time off at the moment," he told them. "Mr Crouch is really starting to rely on me." 

"Yeah, you know what, Percy?" George said seriously. "I reckon he'll know your name soon."

Mum had braved the telephone in the village Post Office to order three ordinary Muggle taxis to take us into London.

The taxi drivers did not look happy. "They rarely transport owls," Hermione whispered to me. Pigwidgeon was making an ear-splitting racket. It did not help that a number of Dr Filibuster's Fabulous No-Heat, Wet-Start Fireworks went off unexpectedly when Fred's trunk sprang open, causing the driver carrying it to yell with fright and pain as Crookshanks clawed his way up the man's leg.

The journey was uncomfortable, owing to the fact that we were all jammed in the back of the taxi with the trunks. I was very relieved to get out at King's Cross, even though the rain was coming down harder than ever, and we all got soaked carrying our trunks across the busy road and into the station.

We traveled through to the platform in groups; Harry, Ron, and Hermione went first; they leaned casually against the barrier, chatting unconcernedly, and slid sideways through it. Charlie, Ginny, and I went next, copying the Golden Trio's movements, platform nine and three-quarters materializing in front of us.

The Hogwarts Express, a gleaming scarlet steam engine, was already there, clouds of steam billowing from it, through which the many Hogwarts students and parents on the platform appeared like dark ghosts. Ginny and I set off to find seats, Charlie helping us carry our luggage onto the train.

Ellarose and Sarah were already alone in a compartment, and Sarah lit up when she saw Charlie. "Dragon!" She squealed, hugging him tightly. 

Charlie laughed. "I can't breathe, Zoo," he coughed. Sarah let go, grinning.

"You guys know each other?" I frowned. They were not that close at the Quidditch World Cup, but maybe its just some 'life's too short, hugs now' thing.

"Zoo and I were friends when I was at Hogwarts. I was a seventh year, and she was a first year," Charlie explained.

"He wanted to work with Dragons, and I wanted to be a Mazoologist. Henceforth Zoo and Dragon," Sarah smiled.

"Oi love dragons! We have to go meet Mum, remember?" Ellarose clapped her hands in front of Sarah's face.