Cynthia Cygnet and the Misplaced Gryffindor

● Chapter 4 ●

September the 1st could not have arrived any sooner. Days of excitement and nervousness had melted together and passed quickly while Cynthia had begun to finally look forward to getting on the train to Hogwarts. Once again, the Cygnet family had taken the car to King's Cross and had arrived 20 minutes before the train was due to leave. Cynthia felt a sense of relief that she hadn't made it an hour late like her dreams.

The platform was bustling and they found themselves having to push between crowds of people just to reach platform 9 and 3/4. She couldn't wait to get on the train and get far away from the . They debated just how many witches and wizards there were, hiding within the muggles just on their way to work. Despite this, it was somewhat easier to tell wizards from the muggles as they were often dragging trolleys with weird and wonderful animals in cages. 

Were muggles truly not noticing the conspicuousness of owls in cages or were they charmed not to see?, Cynthia thought.

 It had been manic trying to get Matilda, now shortened to Tilly, to get into a cat carrier as she clawed, hissed and bit Osias who was trying to keep her in there. They had to 'compromise' and allow her to alternate between walking beside the family and being wrapped around Cynthia's neck.

Once the four had crossed onto the other side of platform 9 and 3/4, Osias had heaved her heavy trunk onto the train and into an empty compartment. He took her aside of the platform, leaving Marcie and Rory alone for a minute. He kneeled down in front of her own, meeting her dark grey eyes with his own. 

"Are you ready?" He asked softly.

 "Yeah, I think I am" She replied with a hint of a growing smile.

 "You'll be great, Cyn. It'll be the best time of your life - it was with me"

 His smile left his face and he had looked very serious for a second. He put his hands on her shoulders.

 "Be sure to remember this, Cynthia. You were made for greatness and you'll realise that more the longer you stay at Hogwarts. Trust in your powers." 

 This stuck in Cynthia's head and she felt that it had meant more than he had tried to make out. He embraced her in a hug before stepping back and face her again. He slung his backpack off his shoulders and began to root around, searching for something.

 "I thought I'd give you one final gift before you left today, I saw it on my way home from work" He pulled out a red ribboned box and passed it to her. She unwrapped it eagerly and opened the box. Looking in, she pulled out a camera. 

 "You didn't have to, Dad" She beamed, hugging him again.

 "I wanted you to capture every happy memory you have here," He said, "My old one is busted so it was only fair"

 She thanked him continuously and had even got her father to snap her first photo - one of her grinning up to the camera, behind the scarlet train with her cat wrapped around her neck. 

 "You keep this one, okay?" She said. 

 "Of course I will" He replied, waving away the cloud of purple smoke which came out of the camera once he took the photo. He gave the photo a shake and promised to treat the photo with the potion which would allow it to move as soon as they got home.

A hand lightly landed on Cynthia's shoulder behind her and her mothers voice chimed in, "You do us proud, okay?"