The first thing that comes barrelling through the wall at platform 9¾ is a large tuft of curly brown hair perched at regular adult height thanks to a ruffled mess of very similar hair at regular 11-year-old height just a little below and behind.

"Stop squirming, Tob, you'll have me falling on m- Woah!"

Vera is left standing smack dab 2 steps away from the wall they came through, head on a swivel as she tries to take it all in. Diagon Alley was one thing but this... Well, this has a train for starters. And a whole lot of screeching animals and people.

With a soft whoosh, Vera's dad materialises right behind his kids.

"Alright, pirate," he leans in behind her, gently pushing against her and Tobias's back, "let's keep it moving. Your mum is right behind me."

Thank the heavens above that Tobias was sitting on her shoulders because if he was piggybacking like he originally wanted to, Vera would've let go of him in her awe.

'This is my new life now. Talk about trippy.'

Once Anna is through the divider as well, they all move to a slightly calmer corner of the platform, towards the end of the train. Tobias moves to Derek's shoulders about halfway there and he's taking the startling array of wizards and unusual objects in rather in stride. He's doing a much better job at that than their parents and Vera herself but hey, he's not the one who already established his life believing certain things to be set in stone.

Vera's mum takes a quick look around, eyeing the suitcase trolley when they stop moving.

"Do you have everything you need, Verka?" she asks, hands going in the pockets of her trousers, clearly fiddling with something in there.

"Yes, mum. Dad's asked me like 10 times since we left home already."

"It doesn't hurt to check now, does it?" Anna says and ruffles her daughter's hair some more which gets her an indignant huff from Vera.

Derek chuckles. His hand goes into one of the pockets of his cargos.

"Well, we think that you still need a little something."

Out comes one of those brown leather bound customisable journals, thick with all the inserts and held together by a couple elastics, and next to it, her mum holds up an old-fashioned fountain pen right next to it. They both look very happy with themselves.

"For anything that comes to mind. And to help you remember all the cool stuff you want to write to us about," Derek fills in.

Her mum is quiet, but her eyes are glinting in the morning sun. Vera knows what that means - they talked about it while shopping for her school stuff at Diagon Alley - Vera going to Hogwarts reminds her of what it was like moving to Scotland, an enormous and scary adventure. She couldn't be more proud.

In that moment, Vera can't help herself and hugs them both at the same time (pinching Tobias's butt and making him squeak and laugh in the process). They're not a family of huggers, but while she's not scared, this is the craziest thing that's happened to her and they're still right there with her.

Her mum speaks up from the embrace: "The pen is from your grandpa. You can fill it straight from your inkwell, so like one of those quills on steroids. At Diagon Alley they told us it'll work in Hogwarts too."

"Thanks," mumbles Vera somewhere into her parents shirts just as the first whistle sounds.

By the time the conductor is waving the train off, she's properly messed up her younger brother's hair, said final goodbyes to her parents, loaded all of her luggage on the train, and stuffed her new journal and pen into her satchel. There's no need to cry - her dad went to a boarding school, her mum's had her fair share of leaving and returning home, and she'll be back for Christmas before Tobias starts missing her too much. So she leans out of the train door window as steam rolls out of the locomotive's smokestack and waves goodbye to her family, all of them smiling until they disappear out of sight.