A Journey At Hogwarts

II. The Sorting Ceremony

Warnings: Discrimination against another house

The scream of the alarm ringed in Juniper's ears. She set it up nice and early so she could get ready on time, including her mum. Her mum promised that this time she would make it. The smell of dough flooded the entire house which was unusual, as normally it was Juniper in the kitchen. To her pleasant surprise, she found her mum busy making pancakes.

"Your up early, ma," Juniper quipped.

"Well, I thought since this is yer first day at Hogwarts I would make you something this time."Julia smiled without reaching her eyes, it had the same glaze over when she realised Jacob disappeared, "And I have to learn to stop depending on you so much Juno."

Juniper doesn't say anything, decided it was best to not comment. Julia planted a kiss on Juniper's forehead as she gave her her breakfast. Her mum took small bites of her pancake but left the plate unfinished. It was more than usual, however, Juniper could sense that her mum was going through a lot today. A bittersweetness that was going to stalk them all day. After their breakfast, they finished packing the final things and brought all the luggage to the living room.

"Let's take a picture together. For the photograph album." Julia took her wand and levitated their old camera, "Smile."

The smile pained her, probably pained her mum even more. The uneasiness worsened in her stomach. It felt wrong not having her brother, heck, even her father too. He only sent one letter to say that he has high expectations of her and to not get into trouble. Juniper dressed up in her casual wear and helped her mum to grab all her luggage. They travelled to Kings Cross Station, something that Juniper never understood why all the Scottish wizards and witches have to travel down to London when they could just take a train in Scotland to Hogsmeade. They found a cart to carry all of Juniper's things. Mewles flapped about, squawking as she was startled by the rattles of the wheels. Juniper hushed Mewles as they make their way to platforms 9 and 10.

"Now, we just need to go through there, remember" Julia held onto the cart, "Together?"

"Together."

They pushed the cart into the brick pillar. Juniper closed her eyes tight while knowing that they would walk through but somewhere deep in her mind, terrified that for some awful reason they do crash. Slowly, she lifted one eye. Platform 9 ¾, a familiar sight. The last time she was here was when they watched Jacob be sent off to Hogwarts for the last time. Now it was her turn, only without Jacob and without her dad. She felt the stares from everyone. Naturally, they would stand out. Pity, disgust, ignorance, even anger show in their eyes. Julia clung to Juniper feeling the same.

They manoeuvred through the crowd, most avoided them as if they jad some sort of virus and left her luggage to be collected to put with the other luggage and took Mewles with her on board the train. She looked in and out of different compartments only to be quickly rejected but soon enough finds one. There she saw the shiny, black hair that she has been missing for a month now.

"Rowan?"

"Juniper!?" Rowan shoot up and squeezed her tightly, "I missed you."

"I missed you too, Rowan," After what seemed like an eternity passed, they finally let go. Rowan pulled Juniper to the window, "Juniper meet my parents."

Rowan introduced Juniper to her parents. She had her mother's face except for the eyes, they belonged to her father. Her older brother who just graduated the year before also showed up. He is helping out with the family farm while recently working at the ministry. Her parents seemed happy for their daughter to have found a friend. Juniper was secretly thankful that they didn't bring up Jacob and treated her normally and did not look at her pitifully. Not long after, Julia caught Juniper and ran over to the window.