The final moments of Leilani’s muggle life were approaching. Yet, standing in the train station and saying her goodbyes, she couldn’t help but to feel a little apprehensive. Leaving behind her family, friends, and everything she conceived this world to be. A tear began to form, and in one motion her mother wiped it from her eye.

“Lei, you have nothing to be afraid of.” her mother said with a smile. Pulled into a tight embrace, her father added, “Keep your head up, your heart open and you’ll be just fine.” Leilani wished there was more they could tell her. She just had so many questions. Plus was about to board a train alone, full of strangers.

Leilani Lukela didn’t even know magic was real a whole year ago. Still, she has a hard time wrapping her head around it. After buying her school supplies, she spent the next few days examining and scrutinizing her textbooks. It admittedly excited her, even though hard to believe. With magic, she thought, anything is possible.

Walking into the train, she glanced over her shoulder back at them. “We love you!” Both her parents said in unison. Leilani wasn’t able to hear them over the bustling crowd, and any anxiety they washed away instantly flooded back. With a gentle smile and wave, Leilani boarded the train.

Inside proved to be just as overwhelming as the exterior. Wands, wizards, pets and magical objects of the likes she’s never seen before. A much more chaotic scene than she’d pictured. Moving quickly, she found an unoccupied booth. She slid inside, placing her suitcase beside her.

Habitually, she opened it up and took a quick inventory, making sure everything was in order. She then pulled out one of her textbooks and began reading. Hoping to calm some of her nerves, and maybe even answer some of her curiosities. Before she knew it, her train was departing, and her school year had begun.

Even if she wanted to Hester wouldn't be able to get rid of the smile on her face. It had appear a soon as she awaken, completely aware of what the day would bring and she was too happy to get going. Today was her first day of Hogwarts, the school of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Today she dressed up in a white collared shirt, a turquoise corduroy skirt, and black flats, her hair tied low with a yellow ribbon.

It was all she could do to not skip the family formalities and hop on the train. She stood close to where she had arrived after going through the column to Platform 9¾. Her parents, her two brothers, and her other relatives who had children going of to Hogwarts were nearby. She felt elated, bouncing on her toes as she went to and fro, looking at everyone there was to see and exchanging hellos or goodbyes with people who were interested.

A hand grasped her shoulder and spun her around from her antsy behavior. Looking up with her bright blue eyes Hester saw her older brother Elijah, the one in his third year. He grinned down at her, giving her a rare grin. "H.B. is finally growing up," he claimed.

She snorted and shrugged of his hand. "Yeah, this is pretty big." She gazed around and then focused on the red express, her smile faltering for a moment.

"You're nervous aren't you?" Her brother studied her for a bit then clapped her on the shoulder. "I'd invite you to my pack but kids aren't allowed." They exchanged silly faces and went their separate ways.

Hester meant to follow him but she left some of her things with her parents. She went over to them and hugged them, letting them know that she was going now.

"Don't work too hard," advised her dad.
"Send many letters, sweetie!" Her mother kissed her on the forehead.


The train was full of so many, some looking like little children to full grown adults. She wondered if she would try to find her brothers or cousins, or try to make a new friend. The latter sounded more interesting.

Hester managed to get through the moving train without falling and stopped at a compartment. It was teeming with students, all of whom seemed very comfortable with each other. The next few compartments were somewhat the same but then she found one booth empty except for one student.

The girl was reading a book, something Hester had to admit that she hadn't done much of recently. She wondered vaguely what the girl was reading.

She knocked on the doorframe and stepped inside. With a warm smile she asked, "Hey, can I join you?"

Leilani held an intense focus on the book below her. After all, there was so much she had to learn about the place she would be spending the next many years attending. This world was entirely new to her, save a few crazy sounding stories from her grandmother.

Lei wasn’t entirely sure that this was not a dream. Her Hogwarts letter, the trip to Diagon Alley, and even the passage she was currently reading in her school textbook. Often times she had to go back to reread, it all seems so crazy to her.

Right now, she was baffled by something called Animagus. It sounded a lot like some of the stories her grandmother used to tell her. Holding her finger under the line she was on as to not lose her place, she read aloud, “An Animagus is a witch or wizard who can transform themselves into an animal and back again.”

As she kept reading, her eyes widened. Such a long, drawn out process, she thought, and still with a chance to go horribly wrong given the slightest fumble! Entranced by the words below, she didn’t notice the gentle knock on the door. Lei nearly jumped out of her skin when the small blonde girl spoke.

“Hey, can I join you?” As startled as Leilani was initially, looking at her eased any initial fear she had. Blinking the shock out of her eyes, she returned the girl’s welcoming smile. After clearing her trunk from the seat across she said, “Absolutely, come on in!”

Relieved, Hester said, "Thanks, and sorry if I interrupted you."

She sat down across from the girl, where she had cleared her trunk from the seat. Hester placed the purple satchel on her lap and rested her hands on the seat. She was quiet for a moment, thinking, then she leaned forward. She was trying to figure out what the girl was reading.

Though it was a little difficult reading upside Hester had enough experience doing so to get the gist of it. "Is that book on Transfiguration? I'm really looking forward to that class!"

She pat her bulging satchel and pulled out two textbooks, one on Transfiguration and the other on the History of Magic, subjects she really liked so far. She wasn't an avid reader; she only read when she truly interested in something and when her curiosity was too strong told hold back. Turning objects into other things and the history of her entire world awed her, and maybe others felt the same as well.

Her own Transfiguration book was full of bookmarks and sticky notes, thought not as many as the History one. She also pulled out her two notebooks, pale yellow and magenta. She opened the yellow, which was titled in neat calligraphy 'Transfiguration'.

"I write do things so I can learn better, I'm sort of a visual learner...or maybe a..." Hester searched for the word. "Kinesthetic? It's like learning from actually doing something. I'm super active." She laughed a little and then offered the notebook to the girl. It was full of neatly written and aesthetically pleasing notes, with dates, diagrams, drawings, and numerous notes on nearly every page. Almost anything a first year would need to know about the subject was in that notebook.

She realized that she'd never shared her name. "I'm Hester Lourdes Syre Barfield," she proclaimed. She stood up and bowed in a faux regal manner, then giggled.

"What's your name?" Hester brushed a stray blond hair out of her face.

Carra stood on the platform with eyes wide, drinking in the sights and sounds of the bustling place. Witches and wizards of all ages formed a bubbling crowd that pulsed with activity. Parents saying goodbye to their children, wishing them luck and trying to get in last words about making sure they'd behave themselves.

With her family surrounding her, Carra couldn't help but feel impatient and nervous at the same time. Since her letter had arrived, she had waited for the day she would board Hogwarts express. Magic, who could've known it was real? And yet here she was, waiting to go to Hogwarts, school of witchcraft and wizardry. It had to be real, the trip she and her family had taken to Diagon Alley had proved so, yet part of her was thinking it had to be an elaborate joke of some kind.

"Carra, have you been listening?" her mother asked with an exasperated tone, "I still can't believe we're doing this, letting you go when we know next to nothing about this place."

Mr. MacKinnon gave Carra a wink, "Now, now, Lydia, we knew what we were getting ourselves into. I'm sure she'll be fine, love."

Carra smiled back up at her father and mother, "Of course I'll be fine Ma! I know, I know, I'll be careful, and I'll write you every day. It's not like I'll be gone forever."

James tugged Carra's ear, laughing, "Of all of us, of course, you'd be the one to have a strange streak. I'll be quite different with you gone, have ta make up for it, get into a bit'o trouble for ya, though I'm sure you'll be making your own waves in this new place. Won't be long 'fore the name Carra MacKinnon spells trouble there as well."

Sticking her tongue out, Carra laughed along with her eldest brother. "Hush, I promised Ma I'd be good. Don't go telling her I lied now!"

The whistle of the train blew, and everyone on the platform was suddenly frazzled, the time had come to say goodbye. Carra leaned down and gave her little brother Gilan a kiss, squeezed her mother and father, and punched James arm, "Be sure to let Finn know I'll miss him when you write!" The eldest MacKinnon was traveling abroad, and couldn't be there to see Carra off.

"Course we will, darlin'! Now off, quick!" Mrs. MacKinnon gave her daughter one last hug before pushing her off toward the train.

Carra hopped onto the train and with one last wave at her family, disappeared into the train car.

Inside it was an absolute smoosh of people, the older children yelling to past friends trying to secure a booth of their own. Through the press of people, Carra forged her way forward, peeking her head into booths, trying to find one that had at least one spot left. The train started with a lurch that nearly threw Carra off her feet and made maneuvering an even more impossible task.

She had gone through a few cars when the train gave an exceptional lurch and she was thrown through an open door right onto the floor in front of two girls. Her trunk spilled open, books, robes, and other supplies flying all over the place.

"Oh, sorry, this train just won't stop bumping," Carra laughed as she scooped up her belongings, throwing them haphazardly back into her trunk.

"I'm Carra," she grinned up at the two girls, "say, you wouldn't mind if I stay here after I get this all cleaned up, would you? I hadn't found a single booth with room ta spare 'til I fell in here. It's just a plain hodgepodge o' people out there. Never seen so many kids in one place before. Let alone knowin' there all witches and wizards, 'fore now I was the only person I knew with magic, didn't think there'd be so many others!"