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CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT, the beginning of the end
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AS THE LONGBOTTOM FAMILY walked the lengths of Platform 9 3/4 with their trunks levitating behind them, for the last time, a bittersweet energy filled the air surrounding them. The twins, Delilah and Frank, were filled with mixed emotions of happy and sad, pending their last train ride to Hogwarts before they graduated. Their parents, Augusta and Richard, were hiding back tears and tight squeezed in response to their children growing up and so close to going out on their own. Once they reached an acceptable spot to stand for a little while, just up until the moment the train's whistle cried out, the members stopped and looked at each other meaningfully.
Not many words were spoken from either side, but long hugs were shared. Augusta began crying at one point, which caused Delilah to tear up as well. They both clung to each other tightly, their mother daughter bond strengthening in their sullen understanding that they were both growing up.
"I'll miss you, mum," Delilah whispered in her mother's ear as a salty tear rolled down her cheek.
"I'll miss you more, darling," Augusta responded. "I can't believe you're so grown up. Seventeen already, going off to seventh year. Who would have known?"
Delilah and Augusta giggled together softly and tearily as Frank and Richard joined their warm embrace.
"This is so odd," Richard chuckled solemnly. "I can't believe this will be the last time we'll drop you off at Hogwarts. You'll be full on adults in less than a year. It's unreal."
"Don't get too ahead of yourself, Dad," Frank said. "You still get to pick us up and drop us off at Christmas."
Richard ruffled his son's hair. "Yes, but it's not the same. You know that."
Frank's lips upturned slightly. "I do."
The family shared a meaningful and long hug, with endearments and promises of writing letters flowing off of their lips, and then the train's whistle sounded. The Longbottoms stared at each other longingly, prolonging their final goodbyes as much as they could, but it was inevitable that Delilah and Frank would have to board the train to begin their last year of school.
Because the Longbottoms were such a tightly knit bunch, every goodbye for seven years had been tough, but this one was especially difficult because of the implications it brought with it. The implication that Augusta and Richard's children were growing up, the implication that Delilah and Frank would have to go into the real world, where conflict and cruelty was becoming all too real, and if the threat to wizarding life that was made tangible with the attack on Diagon Alley would become the new normal. Not one of the Longbottoms wanted that. They wanted their world to be safe, to be secure. Their parents wanted a futures that was out of harm's way for their children, and the children wanted their parents to have their lives the same. It was so much more bittersweet that the two twins may have to enter into a warring world as adults, like no generation before them had.
