By Your Side // Bill Weasley

Chapter III "Platform 9 ¾"

Chapter III Platform 9 ¾

A few weeks have passed and Avalea was back in her apartment in London. She stayed with Bill in Egypt for a total of 3 weeks and they had a lot of fun together. They went out with his mates some nights to their favourite pub and she got to accompany him on a couple of work days. Just as promised Bill had seen the Fwooper the day after Avalea found it and was amazed. Ms. Gideon had decided for Valene to come to London at least for a bit and see how she liked it there. Just as Ava predicted the day after Azure arrived another owl from Ms. Gideon had arrived and had the Fwooper permit with it so she could legally keep the bird without trouble. She missed Bill as soon as she was back in London, well she missed all her friends but she missed Bill the most. She figured it was just because of the distance, seeing as Bill and Charlie were the farthest away. Most of her friends lived in London or in Leo’s case in Ireland but Charlie lived on the opposite side of Europe and Bill on a completely different continent. She had managed to set a date for a girl’s night with her friends. This afternoon her sister would arrive at the train station from Hogwarts to spend the whole summer with her sister which she didn’t know yet. She was currently cleaning her apartment and preparing the guest room for her sister. After she finished cleaning, she went grocery shopping and suddenly most of the time had passed and it was almost time to leave. She quickly changed into some muggle clothes, consisting of a pair of shorts and a top. Her mother and father sadly couldn’t be at the train station, Ava had visited them shortly after she got back from Egypt for dinner and then again, a few days ago before they left. After she finished her attire and checked her makeup one last time, she apparated to the train station and immediately got a trolley for her sister’s trunk. It wasn’t as packed with muggles as it was when they dropped off the kids at the train which was good. She walked to the right platform that brought up memories to her Hogwarts days and walked through the barrier. She barely saw anyone she knew, except for one of her colleagues with his wife. She smiled and immediately walked up to him.

“Jonathan, Alice it’s so great to see you. I didn’t know your daughter was already in Hogwarts.” She greeted them and they turned towards her. Avalea noticed the slightly prominent baby bump of Alice and smiled.

“Avalea, hello. Yes, it’s quite surreal to think that she’s almost 12 years old.” Jonathan replied.

“Congratulations you two, I didn’t know you were expecting another one. How far along are you?” Avalea asked and received huge smiles from the both.

“I’m four months along it’s due in October. Who are you picking up here?” Alice asked, stroking her bump.

“Oh, my sister finished her third year and is staying with me this summer. What house has Millie been sorted in?”

“Ravenclaw, just like her mother.” Jonathan said proudly and Alice blushed. Avalea looked up when she heard the horn that the train would arrive in 20 minutes. She saw Mr. and Mrs. Weasley with their daughter Ginny standing a few metres away. She said goodbye to Jonathan and Alice and told them to have a good summer and to see Jonathan at work. Her mother and father had after all raised her with manners and respect so she went to say hello to the Weasleys.

“Hello Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and hello Ginny, you’ve grown so much. It’s nice to see you again.” Avalea smiled, a genuine smile. Even though Mrs. Weasley didn’t like her, Avalea had great respect for her and quite liked her and her husband. Ginny smiled at her unsure, having trouble to put a name to her face.

“Hello Avalea, how are you?” Mr. Weasley greeted the young woman his eldest sons were so fond of, smiling back. Ginny mumbled a shy hello.

“Hello dear." Was Mrs. Weasley’s response with a fake smile.

“I’m good, busy with work but I have a great job so it’s no trouble. Every creature is a new adventure. My last one was a Fwooper in Africa. How are you? How are you Ginny with all of your brothers out of the house?” She asked.

“It’s really empty, but I have a lot of fun with Mum and Dad when he comes home from work. I’m happy they’re coming home today though. I hope they brought me something.” Ginny replied making Avalea smile bigger at a memory of her sister awaiting a souvenir as well when Avalea went to Hogwarts.

“We are doing quite well dear. The ministry is busy as always and the house feels really empty but we can’t complain.” Mr. Weasley said.

“What is a Fwooper again?” Mrs. Weasley asked.

“Oh, it’s a bird in really prominent colours and their song drives people eventually into insanity.” Avalea said and crammed in her jacket for her purse. She retrieved a photo of Valene and showed it to Mrs. Weasley. “This is Valene, she drove a muggle village crazy with her singing. I brought her here to the Magic Zoo. Fwooper feathers are often used for colourful quills because they often are lime green, orange, yellow or pink.” Ava explained and showed the photo to Ginny and Mr. Weasley as well.

“Beautiful.” Ginny awed. They heard another horn to announce that the train would drive into the station right then. Ava put her purse back into her jacket and watched as the train rode in and halted with a loud horn. The doors began to open and the first few kids got off. Avalea looked around for her sister or red hair, she would probably get off with the Weasley boys. After a few more kids got off and found their parents Ava saw a head of dark hair she thought to be her sister walking with a boy and another girl in Ava’s general direction, but it turned out to not be her. As some kids found their parents, they left making the platform emptier. Percy Weasley had found his way to his parents accompanied by Ron and a girl with bushy hair.

“Hello Avalea, what are you doing here?” Ron asked after he saw her standing next to his father.

“I’m picking up my sister Arnica, I cannot find her though. Do you know if she’s with Fred and George?” She asked him.
Percy answered instead. “On my rounds I didn’t see her sitting with them.”

“I think I saw her sitting with a Slytherin boy and girl and a Hufflepuff girl. I am Hermione by the way.” The girl next to Ron said and suddenly Avalea remembered Bill talking about Ron befriending Harry Potter and Hermione Granger.

“That must have been Lyra and Cassie although I don’t remember her writing about another boy, but thank you Hermione, I’m Avalea Carlisle. It’s nice to meet you. How was your first year?”

“Adventurous to say the least. I’ve learned so much though. Hogwarts is amazing.”

“Oh, Ron dear where is your friend Harry?” Mrs. Weasley asked.

“His uncle was already here and left as fast as they could. He hates wizards.” Ron replied, making everyone frown at the boy’s uncle. Hermione said goodbye just as her parents reached them and greeted Hermione.
“Hermione, there you are. Do you have your suitcase?” Her mother asked and just then noticed the people around her daughter.

“Hi mum, I couldn’t lift it.” Hermione said. “Oh, by the way mum, these are the Weasleys. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, that is Percy, Ron and Ginny and this right here is Avalea.”

“Hello, I’m Avalea Carlisle. I’m friends with the two eldest Weasley brothers, we all went to school together.” Avalea smiled. Mr. and Mrs. Granger greeted them all and fell into conversation.

“Don’t worry sweetheart, I will get your suitcase.” Mr. Granger told his daughter. Avalea offered to help him, to maybe having a better chance at finding her sister. She showed Mr. Granger where they kept the trunks and found out that him and his wife were muggles.

“Oh, then this all must really be a lot for you and Hermione as well. It’s already mind boggling for kids who grew up in this world, I can’t imagine how it is for muggleborn girls and boys.”

“We’re still adjusting. Hermione told us that the wizarding world doesn’t have a lot of every day things we use. Electricity, pens and all of that, but after all you have magic so there are a lot of different things.” He rambled.

“One of my best friend’s dad is a muggleborn so she grew up with combining a lot of muggle things and magic. For my birthdays she always gives me some cool muggle items. The last one was a telephone which is a great invention in my opinion, it’s so fast. My favourite thing has to be the toaster I got from her two years ago, I can’t imagine not having it now.” Avalea said making Mr. Granger laugh while they pulled the black suitcase out of the train.

“So, you are picking up your own child or were you just accompanying the Weasleys?” Mr. Granger asked pulling out a handle out of the suitcase and rolling it behind him.

“Oh no, I don’t have kids yet, I’m picking up my sister. She just finished her 3rd year.” Avalea said blushing. She only ever had one serious boyfriend so far, so even the thought of getting married and having kids felt like centuries in the future. As they were walking back to the Weasleys, Avalea saw a group of kids standing with two women and a man, including two red headed boys. She told Mr. Granger to walk ahead and she walked towards the group. Just after she took some steps the red headed boys and a dark-haired girl turned around and Arnica let out a shriek.

“Ava!” She exclaimed making the two boys jump and look after their friend running towards her sister. Arnica ran into Ava’s embrace and hugged her close.

“Hi little sister, how was your third year? I hope you’re okay with spending the summer with me.” Ava said and kissed her sister’s head.

“I’m staying with you the whole summer?” She asked excitedly. Ava chuckled and looked at the boys approaching.

“Hello Fred and George, how are you?”

“Avalea, we’re great. How are you?” George asked. “More specifically, how are our brothers?” Fred added.

“They are fine although the last time I saw Charlie he was furious because of a howler from your mother. You guys really need to be careful about who can hear you when talking about me and your brothers. Percy overheard you guys talking about me staying with Charlie and snitched, of course. Your mother sent one howler after the other. She’s even more sour towards me than normal.” Ava told them.

“I told you guys he was listening!” Arnica said.

“Sorry, but she doesn’t know that you stayed with Bill as well, right?” Fred asked and Avalea shook her head.

“Oh Ava, these are my other friends, you may remember Lyra and Cassandra and this is Cassius.” Arnica said pulling her sister towards her friends. Avalea greeted them politely.

“Did you guys have a good year? How did the exams go?” Ava asked her sister.

“They were cancelled. Right before school ended three first year Gryffindors stopped our DADA teacher from stealing the philosopher’s stone.” Lyra said.

“Wow, sounds definitely more exciting than my school years.” Avalea laughed. They said goodbye to Lyra, Cassandra and Cassius and retrieved Arnica’s and the twins’ trunks, putting them on a trolley.

“Oh Ana, I can’t wait to show you the telephone that I got from Tonks’ for Christmas. It lets you talk to people when you’re in completely different places.” Avalea told her sister excitedly just as they reached the Weasleys.

“That sounds fascinating, how does that work exactly?” Mr. Weasley asked after overhearing the sister’s conversation.

“Quite easy to be honest, you just need a phone number from the person you want to call and when they answer you can talk for hours even if you are on different parts of the country.” Avalea said.

“You have a telephone at home?” Hermione asked and Ava nodded.

“Do you have parchment and a quill?” She asked and Hermione nodded giving her a piece of parchment and Mr. Granger retrieved what he called a pen. “This is the number I have, if you would like to talk to us or have any question about anything, feel free to call us.” Avalea offered and gave Hermione the parchment and her dad the pen back.

“That’s a very interesting kind of quill, it doesn’t even need ink.” Mr. Weasley asked in awe about the muggle items.

“It actually does, but it has ink inside. It lasts a long time, and some are even replaceable.” Mr. Granger replied.

“Very handy I bet.” Ava said.

“It absolutely is, we better leave now honey. We don’t want to get into afternoon traffic.” Mrs. Granger said. They said goodbye to the Weasleys, Arnica and Avalea. Hermione told Ron to owl her and they left.

“Forgive my manners, hello Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and hello Ginny. How are you?” Arnica said, greeting them.

“Hello dear, we are doing fine. It’s good to have my boys back. I hope the twins behaved themselves.” Mrs. Weasley said.

“They were perfect gentlemen as always.” Arnica said making the twins roll their eyes.

“And by the way, happy belated birthday to you three. Did you celebrate?” Avalea said remembering both of their birthdays were in April.

“Yes, we went to Hogsmeade and had butterbeer and just had a great day and Arnica here made a cake for us with the elves in the kitchen.” Fred said and him and his brother hugged their friend.

“That was very sweet of you Arnica, boys did you thank her enough for the effort.” Mrs. Weasley said.

“They indeed did. They tried to make a cake for me too but it didn’t work very well so the elves made one and they snuck into my dormitory in the morning to give it to me.” Arnica said smiling and hugged her two friends.

“We are going to talk about sneaking into girls’ dormitories another time.” Mrs. Weasley said with a stern look on her face.

“Thank you, Nic, now we’re in trouble for doing something nice.” George said making Avalea chuckle.

“Alright Ana let’s go. We have to work tomorrow.” Ava told her sister.

“What in Merlin’s name do you mean work tomorrow? I have summer holidays!” Arnica asked a little confused.

“You my dear little sister, have a summer job with your older sister at the Magic Zoo here in London. You will get to see the Fwooper I found in Africa and the Wampus Cat we’re nursing back to health.”

“You found a Wampus Cat?” Ron asked amazed.

“How did you manage to tame it enough? The ministry’s classification is five x. Nobody has ever managed to catch one let alone survive one.” Percy replied shocked.

“He’s still very young, I found him in South America on the magical black market. He was taken out of the local area and tortured. He was treated very poorly and it took a little convincing and a lot of ducking his paws but after a while I got him to trust me. He barely trusts anyone but me. I named him Cato.” Avalea said proudly retrieving a picture of the cat and the Fwooper.

“This is going to be the best summer ever!” Arnica said looking at the pretty bird.

“I remember we talked about Fwoopers this year.” George said.

“How would you remember, you two zoned out and talked about Hogsmeade.” Arnica said chuckling.

“If you want to see the creatures, I could show you some time in the summer, if Mr. and Mrs. Weasley allow it, of course. Just send me an owl.” Ava said smiling. “Charlie already owled me asking if he could come around and get a tour some time. I bet he wouldn’t mind if you joined him.” She added.

“We’ll think about it.” Mrs. Weasley said. They decided to leave and said their goodbyes. Arnica hugged her two friends closely.

“Promise me you two will owl me. I hope we can meet up at some point during the summer.” Arnica said.

“I’m sure you will be able to stay for a couple of days with us, we will talk mum into it.” Fred said while hugging her. Avalea said goodbye to them all without hugs and wished them a good summer before putting back the trolley and apparating home without being seen by muggles.

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So I changed Lumia's name to Lyra just so you know. I hope you like this chapter.