A New Chapter Solo Finished

September 1st 2020

"Ready?"

Scarlet's father was smiling down at her, the two of them stood metres from the barrier between platforms nine and ten in Kings Cross Station as muggles hurriedly moved around them, oblivious to the tall blonde girl that had just ran through the barrier. Although the thought of crashing into a stone barrier worried her, she was too excited to linger on the thought of that happening, after all, she had grown up with magic and had rarely seen it go wrong. She squeezed the hand held safely in her father's grip, looking behind at her mother pushing her trunk in one of the station's trolleys with an unconvincing smile,

"Ready"

Together the family ran at the wall, seemingly disappearing into the brink and mortar only to reappear on platform nine and three quarters almost instantaneously. Confined to a much smaller area than the muggle part of the station she had just come from, the smoke from the Hogwarts Express appeared to linger around the carriages for longer, filling the entire platform with light wisps of smoke. As if freshly polished, the deep red carriages stretched as if endlessly along the platform, at each door Scarlet watched as other students said their final goodbyes to their families, many of whom she saw joined their friends on the train.

Her parents lead her to the luggage carriages to drop off her trunk and other belongings, here she caught a glimpse into the types of students she would meet at Hogwarts. She recognised some of the other pureblood family names that, like her own, she had seen in the pureblood directory. Other trunks were plastered with favourite Quidditch teams or travel items, so could expect to come across the sporty and well-travelled.

Her mother then pulled her aside from the last rushes of students racing for particular carriages,

"You're going to love Hogwarts, you'll make friends for life and be set up to do whatever you want after you leave, and remember what your aunt always said, so long as..."

"...so long as I am having fun, everything else will fall into place"

Scarlet had heard her aunt's personal motto so often that we wouldn't be surprised if she recited it whilst she slept.

"Come on, the train won't wait forever, and any longer and your mother might just change her mind about letting you go too!"

Scarlet gave both her parents one last hug before hopping onto the nearest carriage, the platform attendant closing the door behind her. She rushed to the first empty carriage she came across and took the seat by the window. Moments later she felt the train start to pull away from the station and waved goodbye to her parents until they were swallowed by the smoke billowing from the train.

This was to be the first page in her new chapter.