Marcella gasped in amazement at the sight of the train. Her father, standing next to her, squeezed her shoulders a little tighter, as if containing his own emotions.

"Are you sure?" came a voice, even more tense than the girl herself.

Marcella turned to her mother and nodded seriously: "You can't just call it off when we're already here."

Mother nervously ran a hand through her hair, seemingly barely containing the urge to cry. The girl shifted her weight awkwardly to her other leg, lips pursed.

"Everything will be fine, dear." Marcella suddenly felt a cold lightness in her shoulders as her father took away his hands to reached out to comfort his wife. "Remember, they told us she could write us letters?"

"And I'll be back for Christmas," the girl added, picking up the words. She was addressing not only her mother, but her father as well.

Her mother nodded and crouched down in front of her daughter, greedily examining every feature, as if wanting to remember her like this forever. Marcella wrapped her arms around her mother's neck.

"Everything will be fine."

Her mother hugged her so tightly it seemed as if she were trying to steal her away.

"You're too mature for your age, my dear."

No, you're the one who's too worried, she thought, but the girl remained silent. Her father nodded from behind her mother, his expression simultaneously proud and bitter.

"So," he began decisively, "shall we go?"

Marcella nodded happily, finally allowing herself to feel the excitement of her upcoming Hogwarts education.

She stepped onto the train, barely containing the urge to laugh. Her gaze lingered on the other students, older and her peers alike. How did they move? What did they do first? What should Marcella do to fit in?

Elisha slumped on the seats as soon as she found an empty compartment on the train. She sighed tiredly before putting her luggage on the overhead rack and taking a second to make sure that it wouldn't fall down along the ride.

She then look around the other empty seats and hope that no overly talkative or nosy student would ride would her and wished that if it did, it would be someone with a common sense. She sat back on the right seat nearest to the window clutching the leather-bound sketchbook on her lap, a gift given to her by her parents last night.

"Honestly, I would've preferred it better if you had come to see me off.." she muttered to herself bitterly.

She sighs once again as she turns the book open to a blank page, skipping the doodles her younger brother made on the first page. She took the quill attached on the side of her sketchbook and look towards outside the window to find something to draw.

Just then her attention was caught by a family of three huddled together. By the looks of their clothing they seemed to be a muggle family, though she can't be too sure. She watched as the girl with wavy, dark chestnut hair and a pale skin hugs her mother goodbye and can't help to feeling a pang of jealousy.

She looked down on the blank page of her book and decided to sketch them haphazardly, a child hugging her mother who seems reluctant to let her child go while the father looks at them with a bittersweet look.

"..."

She wonders if she would ever meet her maybe they'll be good friends.