𝑜𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑢𝑝𝑜𝑛 𝑎 𝑑𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑚 \\ 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗿𝘆 𝗷. 𝗽𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿

𝐼.

— ✩ ☽ ✩ —

𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙤𝙣𝙚

— ✩ ☽ ✩ —

CAROLINE WAS IN her pale blue bedroom, finishing packing her trunk. In went her Gryffindor scarf, tie and robes. She neatly placed a set of muggle books in the trunk, wrapped in jumpers for safe keeping. The final thing Caroline placed in the luggage before closing it was her wand. Walnut wood with a unicorn core, 13 and a half inches and unbending flexibility. Caroline was already itching to use it when she got back to Hogwarts.

        Her cat yowled, and Caroline glanced over to the calico cat, who rested on her windowsill, unhappy about something. Caroline smiled. "Relax, Penny, I haven't forgotten about you."that seemed to quiet the cat, and she jumped off the window, strutting around the room.

        Caroline clasped her trunk closed and lifted it from her bed, placing it upright by her door. She sat on her neat, flower covered bedspread and began tying her shoes to her feet. They would be leaving now; she could tell by her mother's anxious movements around the kitchen a story below, and the hushed words she exchanged with Caroline's father.

        Suddenly, footsteps approached Caroline's open door at a rapid rate. The girl looked up to see Jacob, her little brother standing happily with his toad, Penga in his little hands. Jacob was starting his first year at Hogwarts, and he was making sure everyone shared in his excitement. He was even more enthralled with the Wizarding World after Caroline took him to Diagon Alley in the early weeks of August, where he got Penga.

        "Will I really learn to fly a broom, Caroline?" Jacob asked, stepping into the room, stroking his pet.

        Caroline smiled. "Yes, for the millionth time, you will," her brother annoyed her, but Caroline understood that he was excited. She stood from her bed and scooped up Penny, letting her walk into her travel cage. "Are you all packed?"

        Jacob nodded, "Dad took my trunk downstairs. I'll take yours." he said, approaching his sister's belongings.

        "We'll do it together." Caroline decided. Together, the Jones siblings lugged Caroline's trunk and their pets down the stairs and into the kitchen, where Eloise Jones was nervously sipping tea, Andy Jones sitting beside her.

        Eloise and Andy looked up from their office work and sent small smiles to their daughter and son. They were muggles, which is why they were astounded when Jacob got his Hogwarts letter earlier that summer. It took days for Caroline to get Eloise and Andy to understand that it isn't altogether rare for two muggles to produce a magic child. She explained how it happened to her best friend, Hermione Granger, who is muggle-born.

        Andy and Eloise's miracle understanding led to Caroline asking once again about the lineage of her birth parents. And once again, Andy told her the same thing. Your mother was a witch, your father was a wizard. Please don't ask again, kiddo.

        Caroline would more than likely ask her father again, when the moment presented itself. She was closer to him then her mother. Andy Jones was from America, and he moved to England for his job where he met Eloise the year Caroline's birth parents were killed. It didn't take much convincing from the orphanage Albus Dumbledore sent Caroline to for him to adopt the sweet girl. They married, and Jacob was born a year and a half later.

        "Are you two completely packed? Your father and I would prefer not to have to drive to The Leaky Cauldron twice." Eloise said, standing up from the table, putting her papers into her briefcase.