Lost and Found || Oliver Wood [2]

Chapter 2: Commencement

Platform 9 3/4 was bustling with life on the 1st of September, 1994. As always, Jessica's parents made sure to drop her off at the station despite her already being a legal adult. They were also being extra protective over her ever since the attack at the Quidditch World Cup, which occurred only a few weeks ago.

She could still remember that day clearly. How she and Oliver ran for their lives to escape, how they saw the Dark Mark in the sky, and how utterly helpless she felt back then. Thankfully, Mr. and Mrs. Wood found them not long after, looking quite frazzled but unharmed nonetheless. The Woods took Jessica straight home right after that, and Ian and Katherine were beside themselves upon learning what had happened — masked men wrecking the campsite and torturing innocent muggles. Ian was especially concerned because not only was he an Auror, but a muggle-born one as well. He and his coworkers at the Ministry worked hard to investigate the crime scene, but they always came up short.

"Be careful this year, and remember, don't get attacked by a basilisk," Ian told Jessica. It had been almost two years since that incident, but he always managed to bring it up as both a joke and word of caution for his daughter.

"It's not like she wanted to get petrified," Katherine rolled her eyes at the man's words. "Besides, she came home last school year completely unscathed!"

"Still, I'm just reminding her to be careful in case she wants to join the —"

Katherine sent Ian a pointed look, making the latter stop short in the middle of his sentence.

"Join the what?" Jessica asked, but her parents ignored her as they bickered.

"It's supposed to be a surprise," Katherine was saying.

"It slipped out," Ian said defensively. "And she might not even want to join because she'll be too busy with her Head Girl duties."

"Join the what?" Jessica repeated impatiently, sounding like a child. Finally, her parents looked back at her and smiled.

"You'll find out later," was all they said.

"But —"

"Jess! Over here!"

Jessica turned around at the sound of that voice. Just a few feet away from her, she spotted Bethany Faye and Alista Greene waving her over ecstatically. She waved back at them before facing her parents again.

"Can you please tell me what you two are talking about before I go?" she pleaded.

"It won't be fun if we tell you," said Katherine. "Just go before the train leaves you here."

Jessica mumbled incoherent things under her breath but obliged anyway. She hugged her parents and bid them goodbye, and after some final words, she was separating from them to reunite with her best friends.

"I can't believe we didn't see each other the entire summer!" Alista exclaimed, pulling Jessica and Bethany into a group hug.

"We'll see each other everyday now, anyway," Bethany deadpanned, trying to escape the blonde's unexpectedly tight grip.

"But it's our last year! Who knows where we'll all be going after we graduate."

Alista had a point there. Jessica had no idea what the future held, but she knew that she and her friends all had different career choices, interests, and paths in mind. She had faith that they would all remain close, but there was still no guarantee that they'd see each other as often as they would like.

"She's right," Jessica confessed as Alista finally let go of them. "It's so strange to say that we're seventh years already."

"Oh, don't start moping now," Bethany told them. "We've got a whole year ahead of us."