Sad goodbyes and new friends (?)

September first finally came. Locket had waited for it so long, ever since July when she received her Hogwarts acceptance letter. Every day she imagined how today would go, what she would wear and what she would bring. She packed her suitcase two weeks prior to today, that’s because she was so excited. Her friends asked where she was going, why she was leaving, but she couldn’t say. It was so hard not to tell them. I know they would’ve been as excited for me as I am, but I had to follow the rules of the school, I couldn’t say a word to them. Afterall, I wouldn’t want to be expelled even before attending it she thought.

The family came to London a few days ago. Locket had visited it before, but it was a long time ago, so neither she, nor her parents (her sister stayed in Newport since her school was also starting and she needed to prepare) knew the city very well. So they came to King’s Cross Station early to find their way around. Locket had received a ticket along with her letter, it had gilded details and it was so pretty. Now she was staring at it confused, trying to figure out what in the hell platform nine and three-quarters meant. The three of them stood between platform nine and platform ten. Her dad even asked a worker where the train that was going to Hogwarts was located, but the worker looked at him weird, and said such a thing didn’t exist. But then she saw it, something that her parents didn’t seem to notice. A family dressed in robes and owl cages on their trunks ran straight into the pillar separating the nine and ten platforms. The girl’s eyes widened in surprise when she saw them disappear one after the other through the wall. She tugged on her mother’s sleeve and pointed it out.

It didn’t take much convincing for Locket to run into the wall, but her parents, on the other hand, took longer to accept that they’d need to run into it. But finally when they agreed, since they didn’t want to let her go in alone, she charged into the wall first, at the last second closing her eyes out of fear. She didn’t feel a rough surface against her forehead, her nose didn’t seem broken, and her limbs didn’t hurt - That means I didn’t crash! She opened her eyes and saw that she was right, the wall in fact was a kind of portal into the magical world, into platform nine and three-quarters.

This side of King’s Cross station was bustling with action and colors, much more exciting than the muggle one. There were all kinds of animals lounging in their cages, or even freely wandering with their owners around, from cats, to owls and to weird puffy colorful balls that really caught Locket’s eye. People here wore colored and embroidered cloaks and robes, some even had pointy wizard hats, or were carrying their wands. The view in itself was magical, so she could only guess what would await her when she entered the school itself.

Mr and Mrs Tarot appeared from behind her. Their faces were long and pale, they seemed to be more scared to run into the wall than their daughter. But now they stood here along with her and she laughed at their scared expressions.

“C’mon, isn’t this magical?” Locket squealed and charged towards the train excited to board. Her father who carried her trunk sighed and followed after her, while her mother took another moment to calm down her breathing and followed them too.

Locket found an entrance to the train and stood near it as she turned to her dad. His expression was sceptical, perhaps for the reason that he didn’t like this whole magic thing in the first place (he was always so serious). She rolled her eyes sarcastically at him then hugged him tightly.

“I’ll miss you, dad,” she mumbled into his jacket as she buried her face in it. And she was being honest, I will miss him a lot. She never spent such a long time away from her parents and she could hardly imagine what it would be like. When her mom came and stopped next to them, she detached from dad and hugged her too.

“Oh, Locket,” her mom sighed, “write to us, okay? And please, use email, not Owl Post, or whatever it’s called…” Locket heard how fed up her mom was in the woman’s voice, with the owls that banged on the family’s window with their beaks for days before they finally let them in and read the letter that was tied to their ankle. Locket almost laughed at the genuine annoyance in mom’s voice, but the moment was too sad to manage a laugh.

Finally Locket pulled back and took her trunk.

“It’ll be okay, Locket,” her father said, stroking the top of her head.

“Give Clara my regards, and if any of my classmates or friends come by, tell them I’ll be back for Christmas,” Locket said, and when they nodded she turned walking to the train.

Inside it was already bustling with students who boarded the train. I guess the fact that we arrived early to the station didn’t change much since we still took forever to find platform nine and three-quarters. Now that the train would be leaving soon, so many students started getting onto it. Normally the girl would have found a compartment with some other students and introduced herself to them, perhaps made a few new friends, but saying goodbye to her parents was harder than she’d anticipated. She needed a moment to herself before she could talk to anyone. I need to gather my feelings and try not to cry. So, she found an empty compartment. She occupied it, boarded her trunk onto the racks that were hung overhead the seats, and sat down. As she looked out the window she found her parents in the crowd, and waved to them hoping they’d see her. Their eyes raked over the train perhaps looking for her, and finally when they saw their little girl in the window, they waved back. And with that, the train slowly halted and started moving.

The journey was beginning...