The Soul Hunters | Hp Next Generation

4 - Chocolate Frogs

Dudley Dursley had received a message from Harry a few days before the 1st September, apologising that he could not come to King's Cross to see off Daisy on the Hogwarts Express, as he needed to be at Hogwarts himself by then. He then followed that up by informing Daisy that in order to get onto the platform, all she needed to do was run at the wall between platforms 9 and 10. Dudley stared at this sentence on the letter for a while in disbelief before remembering that he did always wonder where all the wizards appeared from when picking up Harry from the station all those years ago. This didn't mean that Dudley wasn't slightly concerned, however. It was quite a terrifying prospect, imagining your 11-year-old daughter running head first into a brick wall, holding onto a trolley full with a myriad of magical items.

Daisy, on the other hand, did not seem too fussed by this. She was far too excited to be scared. She was sitting in the passenger seat of the car, next to her dad, while stroking her new pet owl, asking all sorts of questions. Most of which, Dudley had no idea how to answer.

"I wonder how many other people at school will have muggle parents. Maybe I'll meet someone who has both wizard parents!" Daisy said.

"Yeah, probably." Dudley replied, remembering Harry's friend Ron. He chuckled to himself with the memory of his family's complete lack of ability to use a telephone.

"Do you think owls just fly around the castle? Or do they have a place to be?" Daisy continued.

"I don't know." Dudley responded.

Daisy suddenly gasped. "Do you think unicorns are real?"

Dudley suddenly froze. That had always seemed an absurd question, but he knew there were magical creatures... could unicorns be real? "I... really don't know." He replied, still contemplating.

"I can't wait to get back home after this term. Do you think I will have learnt enough magic to show you some cool things?" Daisy asked, having already moved on from the unicorn thing.

"Unfortunately, I do know the answer to that one." Dudley said. "Can't do magic outside of Hogwarts until you're 17."

Daisy became quite disappointed all of a sudden.

"Your Uncle Harry didn't bother to tell me that, though!" he continued, in an effort to cheer her up. "First time I met a wizard, he gave me a pig's tail! Had to go to the hospital to get it removed and everything. All Summer after that Harry threatened to give me a pig's tail again if I misbehaved."

That cheered Daisy up. She was really laughing. "A pig's tail!" she squealed.

***

When the two of them arrived at the platform, Dudley seemed quite at a loss for how to continue.

"I assume I can't go through that wall." He said, trying to keep his voice down as not to confuse any muggle passers-by.

Daisy on the other hand, had no problem with any muggles hearing her conversation. "Should I walk through slowly? Or run? Do you think I could get stuck?" she asked, rather loudly.

Dudley still looked quite bewildered, and wasn't completely sure how to answer.

"Of course you can't get stuck!" a random voice said, out of seemingly nowhere. Dudley and Daisy whipped their heads around to see a rosy-cheeked, 11-year-old girl holding a trolley just as large as Daisy's with a kitten resting on her head. "I'm assuming you're talking about the wall to platform 9 ¾, yes?" she continued.

Daisy nodded cautiously.

"Josie! Josie!" another voice was calling across the station, when an older looking woman appeared, dressed in quite outlandish muggle clothes. "What have I told you about running off? I know you know the way, but it's a very busy station and I don't want to- who's this?" she suddenly cut herself off when she noticed Daisy.