𝐋𝐀𝐁𝐘𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐇 ── harry potter

i | the departure from king's cross

ACT I — CHAPTER I
Tʜᴇ Dᴇᴘᴀʀᴛᴜʀᴇ Fʀᴏᴍ Kɪɴɢ's Cʀᴏss

⊱ ────── 𖥔 ✶ 𖥔 ────── ⊰

"Mary! Have you seen my slippers?"

In a last-minute packing frenzy, Quinn Fenwick was destroying what was left of her room in the search for her slippers. She was almost positive that she had left them at the end of her bed, but that was clearly not the case. Mary Macdonald came into the girl's room, sighing upon seeing the state of it.

"You told your mum that you finished packing yesterday," Mary reminded. Quinn, who was currently halfway under her bed, lightly hit her head against the floor.

"I know, which is why I called you and not her. Have you seen them?" Quinn asked, again. Mary shook her head, doing her best not to laugh. Her gaze drifted from her daughter to the open trunk lying on the floor.

"Quinn, darling, you already packed them."

Quinn shimmied out from under the bed, crawling over to her trunk. Looking inside, her slippers were lying right on top of everything.

"Oh," Quinn sighed. Mary sat down next to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

"It's okay to be nervous," Mary told her, "I was nervous too. I didn't know anything about magic going in, so that's one thing you have on me."

Quinn looked up at her mother, "I'm not nervous. I mean, I am a little, but not 'I didn't realize I already packed my slippers' kind of nervous. Just the regular kind."

"Sure you aren't."

"Quinn, are you almost ready? We're leaving in — what on Earth did you do to your room?"

Quinn and Mary turned their heads to see Emmeline Vance standing in the doorway, her jaw slightly dropped.

"I was looking for my slippers," Quinn explained. Emmeline closed her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Please tell me you finished packing," Emmeline said. Quinn could tell by the tone of her voice that it was not a plead.

"I did, the slippers were the last thing I needed," Quinn reassured. She moved out of Mary's grasp and closed her trunk. She stood up and faced her mothers, smiling, "I'm ready when you are."

Emmeline scoffed, "Not with this room, you're not."

As fast as they could, the three of them worked to repair the damage that Quinn had caused to her room. Once it had reached Emmeline's standards, she practically pushed the other two out the door.

During the entire ride to King's Cross Station, Emmeline kept going on about how late they were, which didn't make much sense to Quinn, considering they lived in Islington. If they really wanted to, they could've walked to the station and made it with time to spare.

"Out of the car, we're going to be late!"

"It's not even 10:30, Em," Mary told her, helping Quinn get her trunk out of the back of the car.

"If we get there too late, Quinn won't be able to get a good seat."

"All the seats are the same."

"We're really going to be late if we stand here and argue," Quinn grumbled. This seemed to snap her parents out of their trance, and the three of them finally went into the station.

"Alright, here we are," Emmeline said, "Now all you have to do is run at that wall and you'll be at the platform."

Quinn looked at her mother with a skeptical look on her face, "You want me to run at a brick wall?"