Vulpes in Arce

Year I - Hogwarts is beautiful pt.1

It was so... white. Boring. Maybe if there were a few stars up there? It felt like for hours Emily had stared at the ceiling of her room from her bed, twirling her wand between her fingers. How much time had actually passed, maybe fifteen, twenty minutes since she'd woken up? She didn't know. The snowy owl from the Owlery had finally got adopted, that was good. She'd read through all of her school books at least twice during the past month, so at the very least she felt prepared. She'd practised spells without actually casting them and taken good care of her owl Kit and visited the theatre with her grandmother and did all of those things, but something was still missing.

It was the morning of September 1st. She breathed in and sat up on her soft sheets, her joints cracking as she stretched them, blinking away the few black spots that popped in her vision when she stood up too fast. She crossed the room to her calendar, marking off August 31st with a red marker. Her eyes were glued to today's date. She felt her heartbeat quicken and her mind finally wake itself up from the hazy shadows of sleep it was still tucked away in, and a slight smile grew on her lips. Hogwarts.

She moved to her closet and changed her clothes, made her bed, checked Kit's cage, closed her trunk, gussied herself up in the mirror and finally pushed her wand into the pocket of her black skirt, leaving her room to fix herself some breakfast. When she reached the kitchen, she saw Hayden making pancakes, a bottle of oil floating in the air next to her head. She greeted her, and together they ate and got ready to send Emily off to King's Cross.

They reached King's Cross at half-past ten. Their grandmother Astra had come too, to 'see her youngest off into the start of the rest of her life'. Hayden placed Emily's trunk on a trolley and Emily heaved Kit's cage next to it, Hayden wheeling it into the station. The three came to a halt as they reached the station.

"Well - here we are, between Platform nine and Platform ten. I suppose that letter doesn't say how to get to Platform 9 ¾, does it?" Hayden scratched the back of her neck as she looked around. Emily pulled her invitation letters out of her pocket - true, there were no instructions or clues as to how she could actually board the train she was supposed to go on.

"Ah," smiled Astra. "This is where I come in, darlings."

She started walking towards Platforms 9 and 10, and Hayden and Emily followed their grandmother. She stopped between the two platforms, turning around to face Emily.

"The trick," she stood next to Emily and pointed to a barrier a small way from them, "is to walk straight through that barrier over there. If you're nervous, which you definitely shouldn't be, you should do it at a bit of a run," Astra smiled and stood next to Hayden to watch.

"Alright." Emily nodded at Hayden, and pushed her trolley around, staring at the barrier. It looked very solid, but she had no doubt as to what her grandmother was saying was real. She picked up her pace, and as the wall was getting closer, she closed her eyes before reaching it.

When she opened them, she saw a scarlet steam engine, waiting next to a platform packed with people. A sign overhead said Hogwarts Express, 11 o'clock. Emily glanced behind her and saw an iron archway where the ticket box had been, with the words Platform Nine and Three-Quarters on it.

She waited for Hayden and Astra to come through the archway before pushing her trolley off down the platform in search of an empty seat. They passed a round-faced boy who was mumbling something about his toad, and a boy with dreadlocks who was showing off a box to a small crowd of people.

The three pressed on through the crowd until they found an empty compartment near the end of the train. Emily put Kit inside first and then helped Hayden heave her trunk in a corner of the compartment.