Packing List Solo

August 10th/11th
Longford, Ireland | Home

Aislin had never packed for very long before. A week, maybe two at most, had nothing on a full year away at Hogwarts. Or not quite a year, ten months minus some holidays, but relatively speaking that didn't make a difference. So there was a lot to think about, a lot to fit into her mam's old trunk from her school days, magically enchanted to fit more than it looked like it could and decorated with worn, torn stickers.

Hand-me-down clothes from cousins, who had in turn not bought many for themselves, made up most of it. Developing a style wasn't very possible under these conditions, not that Aislin really knew what having a personal style was, anyway. She liked the shorts that hung down to her knees and the shirts with collars safely up by her neck, not dipping into some uncomfortable V, and that was good enough for her. Her mam reminded her to prioritize packing her warmer clothes because Hogwarts was quite a bit north of their latitude.

School supplies, some secondhand as well--some from her mam's time at school, even--and the rest bought a week ago in Diagon Alley were moved from their pile on the floor to a toppling pile in the trunk. That had been quite the trip for a little witch who had very rarely left Ireland, travelling with her mam over the Floo Network and knowing on the other side, she had crossed a whole body of water. That made up for having to buy textbooks (her mam's were outdated versions and her cousins still needed theirs) that looked tentatively interesting at best.

Then a few trinkets, wrapped in clothes for safe passage in her trunk. In eleven years she had managed to test the limits of her room's nooks, crannies, and space underneath the bed. The organization didn't make sense even to her, because there wasn't any, so she spent a whole day pulling everything out, spreading rocks and dried leaves and little pieces of metal and mismatched beads and a snakeskin and a key to nothing, probably, and--- well, all of it, all over her floor. She picked just a few favorites that she didn't think would break and then stuffed everything else back out of sight.

Her opinion on camp? Unclear, which made it feel weird. Her cousins were excited, Daphne and Orin waving their tickets around and whispering about all the possibilities of a carnival unlimited by parental supervision (or, really, her Aunt Elowen deciding she was sick of the whole thing after thirty minutes), and Aislin had never been to a carnival of this scale. When they went to the fair, the handful of years her mam had taken her, there were maybe two rides and a sea of more or less interesting tents with games and wares. So it sounded fun, yes. But. Leaving for summer camp meant leaving a whole three weeks early, since it was straight off to Hogwarts when the fair ended, and she had never even been away from her mam for three whole weeks. So it was weird, but she had decided to go because summer would be kind of boring without Daphne and Orin around to play with. Juni was okay, but she was the youngest and not the one coming up with games to play to pass the time in the summer heat. And mostly because Aislin wanted to see it for herself, not hear their animated stories.

That added a really long hug to the list, longer than her mam would typically stay for. Christine came over to give her a hug, too (she'd always been better at the long ones), as well as a bracelet, twine twisted by hand around a selection of pale green beads. She helped Aislin secure it around her wrist so it wouldn't slide around too much and told her she had so much fun ahead of her.

And when Aislin left, she took one last look at her house, at the creek behind it, where she'd laid in the dirt and held beetles and grown up. It rung in her chest, a kind of ache, new but also familiar. It was leaving her and that scared her, for a brief moment more than everything coming excited her. Or, no. She was leaving it, turning around all on her own. That didn't sound so bad. If it was her choice then she could come back, keep the permanence/impermanence in her own hands. Aislin squared her shoulders the way her mam was always reminding her to. Her trunk was packed and it was time to go.