10 May 2025, 13:21
Goodbye Goodbye- A Last Muggle Night
Anemoi was sitting on her travel chest in a hotel in the King's Cross area of London. Mum had tried to make their last day special. They had dressed up and gone to have afternoon tea in the city center. Anemoi had slathered warm scones in jam and cream, drank several cups of tea, and enjoyed one too many little frosted cakes, so that she had had to take a rest in the room before having dinner in the hotel restaurant. Now, she was slightly regretting that rest and the nap that had ensued during it. At this point, it was 10 p.m. and she still wasn’t tired.
So she checked her luggage one last time. Everything on her Hogwarts list was checked off and packed: all her textbooks and a few novels she had picked up at Flourish and Blotts earlier in the week; her new wand (she gave it a twirl and then quickly tucked it back away, as it warmed her palm. She didn’t want to accidentally magic something before she left). Her cauldron and other wizard supplies were in the bottom of the chest, cushioned and wrapped over in clothes, black robes, and her winter cloak.
Anemoi shivered. Winter, she would be at school all the way through then. She glanced wistfully at her mother asleep in the nearby bed and then ruffled through the last few things in her duffle, the “muggle” things.
She had packed a photo album to remind her of home and the regular world she was leaving. Next to it rested her muggle philosophy volume, a collection of her favorite classical thinkers, and on top of that, her musical jewelry box; the wizard overseeing the family had said a clockwork mechanism wouldn’t break at Hogwarts, but she was to bring nothing properly electronic. Supposedly, electricity would interact badly with magic. Anemoi didn’t mind leaving technology behind, except for the fact that she wouldn’t be able to call home.
She turned lastly to a third smaller bag beside the chest and duffle. This one contained only things for the train ride tomorrow: Her journal with pencils and portable watercolors, the new copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, and snacks she had gotten at a local Asian corner shop.
She closed up the luggage with a sigh and climbed into her bed. Tomorrow she would be on her way to Hogwarts. She had met a few students so far so she wasn’t terribly scared but she didn’t like how the school had told her the magic worked. Her Mum couldn’t even come all the way to the station, she would have to pass through a false wall on her own. What if she tried the wrong wall..?
She rolled over and took a deep, measured breath, whispering to remind herself “Nine and three fourths… 9 and 3/4ths… 9 ¾…” Her voice grew softer and softer as at last her eyes slid shut and she slept. Tomorrow would be different but the best kind of different, the kind made for someone who was finally truly starting her story… and a magical story it would be.
So she checked her luggage one last time. Everything on her Hogwarts list was checked off and packed: all her textbooks and a few novels she had picked up at Flourish and Blotts earlier in the week; her new wand (she gave it a twirl and then quickly tucked it back away, as it warmed her palm. She didn’t want to accidentally magic something before she left). Her cauldron and other wizard supplies were in the bottom of the chest, cushioned and wrapped over in clothes, black robes, and her winter cloak.
Anemoi shivered. Winter, she would be at school all the way through then. She glanced wistfully at her mother asleep in the nearby bed and then ruffled through the last few things in her duffle, the “muggle” things.
She had packed a photo album to remind her of home and the regular world she was leaving. Next to it rested her muggle philosophy volume, a collection of her favorite classical thinkers, and on top of that, her musical jewelry box; the wizard overseeing the family had said a clockwork mechanism wouldn’t break at Hogwarts, but she was to bring nothing properly electronic. Supposedly, electricity would interact badly with magic. Anemoi didn’t mind leaving technology behind, except for the fact that she wouldn’t be able to call home.
She turned lastly to a third smaller bag beside the chest and duffle. This one contained only things for the train ride tomorrow: Her journal with pencils and portable watercolors, the new copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, and snacks she had gotten at a local Asian corner shop.
She closed up the luggage with a sigh and climbed into her bed. Tomorrow she would be on her way to Hogwarts. She had met a few students so far so she wasn’t terribly scared but she didn’t like how the school had told her the magic worked. Her Mum couldn’t even come all the way to the station, she would have to pass through a false wall on her own. What if she tried the wrong wall..?
She rolled over and took a deep, measured breath, whispering to remind herself “Nine and three fourths… 9 and 3/4ths… 9 ¾…” Her voice grew softer and softer as at last her eyes slid shut and she slept. Tomorrow would be different but the best kind of different, the kind made for someone who was finally truly starting her story… and a magical story it would be.