❝𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐋𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐎𝐍𝐋𝐘 𝐆𝐈𝐑𝐋 𝐈 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐃 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐃𝐑𝐎𝐖𝐍𝐄𝐃 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐃𝐄𝐄𝐏 𝐈𝐍𝐒𝐈𝐃𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐌𝐄❞
aspen andrews was a worrier, an affectionate older sister, a hard-worker and the proudest hufflepuff you'd ever meet. but up until nine...
I SUSTAIN MYSELF WITH THE LOVE OF FAMILY MAYA ANGELOU
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TIME PASSED rather slowly without Alessia around to keep her company, and yet still, miraculously, the Christmas holidays arrived before Aspen could even wrap her head around it. She had, of course, spent most of her time at the shop, surrounded by the ever-growing piles of stock that was coming in for Christmastime. Much to her dismay, the customers were beginning to outnumber the workers astronomically, and the four of them (and inevitably, a fifth holiday temp to help out) were absolutely run off of their feet.
On the final Saturday before Christmas, - the twenty-first - Aspen prepared for Alessia's arrival. She'd carted in an absurdly expensive fir tree that barely fit underneath her seven-foot ceiling, and had dragged down the two overflowing boxes of Christmas decorations from the attic for them to put up together that evening. It was normally her little sister's favourite part of the holidays, beating even Christmas Day itself, and she couldn't wait to be together again, enjoying cookies and listening to shitty muggle music as they danced around the tree.
She'd arrived at Platform Nine-and-Three-Quarters with more than enough time to spare, as the twins had let her out of work early. "You're no help when you're this excited anyway, Andrews," George had teased, and sticking her middle finger up at him over her shoulder, she had dashed out of the door, not even giving him the chance to retract the statement. By the time she had got to the station she should only just have been finishing her shift, having hailed a cab as soon as she was past The Leaky Cauldron and safely back into muggle London. As a result, she was excessively early, and stopped at a muggle chain brand - Pret a Manger, although she had no clue how to pronounce it - to grab a coffee that would undoubtedly only make her giddier.
She stepped through the wall between platforms nine and ten with about ten minutes to spare, and she could barely stop fidgeting as she waited impatiently for the scarlet train to pull into the station. There were little sprigs of mistletoe hovering around the place, and tacky chains of shocking red tinsel across the brick walls, but it only served to cheer Aspen up even more. In fact, with the joviality of the Christmas season so fresh at the front of her mind, she hadn't had a spare second to worry or overthink the chaos of the Wizarding World even once.
The train chugged in just on time, and Aspen found herself bouncing eagerly on the tips of her toes, looking over the crowds of parents and friends that had come to collect their children. As the Hogwarts Express came to a distinct halt, steam still emitting from overhead, the carriage doors sprung open, and the bright sound of excited children filled the air. Almost immediately, the crowd seemed to expand as students peeled out of the train, running along the platform to greet their family with smiles on their faces. Aspen purposely looked around the middle of the train, as she remembered that this was where Alessia usually found herself situated.
