More Than Mischief

Chapter 4:

It was fifteen minuites until the train would depart from Platform 9 3/4 when Rowan and their family arrived. Stepping out of Henry's newly paid for car into the bleak september sunlight, Rowan felt a small pit starting to form in their stomach. Jordan got out from the opposite seat from Rowan and Henry got Rowans luggage from the trunk. 
"So, how are we going to get to this- what was it? Eight and a half?" He said
"Nine and three quarters." Rowan and their mum said in unison. 
"We'll figure it out." Rowan said as they started walking along with their parents toward the entrance to King's Cross Station. "Maybe it'll be like Diagon Alley and you can just see it if you're magical enough." Jordan scowled at his sibling.  Rowan didn't notice. "Worst case scenario, we just follow whatever family looks the most magical and has a kid my age. I'm sure it'll be fine." As the family walked inside, black cat trailing behind them, they noticed the abbundance of other families in the station. It was a hustle and bustle of people and voices, all around people were walking their kids to platforms, For speedy e- trains to take them to boarding schools, Rowan assumed. Though, none were sure to be as magical as the one Rowan would go  to. 
"Okay, I suppose the first thing to do is find platform 9, " Jenni said. "and then, we'll undoubtebly find 9 and three quarters. Right?" She sped up, toward the wall-hung sign that said "9" on it. When they got there, however they were met with the stunning abscence of any platform labeled 9 3/4.
"Wow!" Jordan said. "What a surprise! It's not here. Can I go back home now? I've got a show to watch." Rowans father whipped around.
"Jordan! Don't say things like that!" Jordan just looked at his father, unamused. 
"What? I was being serious."
"You will watch your sibling depart." Henry said, briskly. "You won't see them for another semester!" 
"Didn't it say Rowan could come home for christmas and stuff?"
"Yeah?" 
"Then i'll see them at christmas. No biggie."
"C'mon, bud be nice." the fluffy man opened his arms pleadingly. 
"Will you two stop arguing and help me find this platform?" Jenni said from where she stood, close to platform 10. At that moment, when Rowan was about to pick up Onyx to go follow Jordan and their dad, that they noticed Onyx's absence from between their legs which he had been just a minuite ago. Rowan looked frantically  around for the cat, narrowly avoiding people left and right, bumping into more as their nose was almost dragging over the unwashed floor. They escaped a trap in the  shape of a small piece of gum that was stuck to the floor and almost knocked their head into a moving baggage trolley when they saw the black, whispy tail of the cat by the wall of platform nine.
"There you are, " Rowan said and picked him up. The creature growled at this and struggled against their owner. They tussled for a bit, but eventually the cat slipped out of the child's grasp, landing elegantly in front of the brick wall. He meowed once and reared his head, as if saying: Watch THIS! Then, Onyx hugged the wall with it's flank, leaned to the side, and suddenly fell through the wall. Rowan was astonished. They tried to look for their cat, they couldn't believe their eyes. One moment he was there, the next he wasn't. Rowan tried to touch the spot their cat had fallen through and sure enough, their hand did as Onyx had instructed as if following some sort of choreography. Their hand stopped at something furry and wet and suddenly they felt a sharp pain in their finger as something clamped  on to their hand. They wrenched it from out the wall and pulled their cat with it. 
"You bit me!" they exclaimed, indignantly. Rowan shook their hand and the cat let go. they looked at the cat. the electric eyes looked back at Rowan. 
"Do you think...? Maybe..." Onyx meowed. Tentatively and on all fours, Rowan moved their head toward the red brick wall. if their hands had gone through, their head would be no different, right? They managed to scare themself with the thought of getting their head stuck in a brick wall for the rest of their life. Could that happen? Still, they continued to push their head slowly toward the wall and as their head touched the bricks, it felt like having an egg cracked on your head. It was cold. As their eyes were covered by the not-so-solid bricks, every thing went black until suddenly a raucous of steam being pushed from an engine and people talking in hurried tones, children laughing and owls hooting, cages clanging and, Rowan could swear they saw a long winding thing above the crowd, like a snake on fire. A red steam engine stood on the tracks beside the platform adorned with golden letters spelling out: "The Hogwarts Express"on the side of it. Above the crowd that was frantically shuffling onto the train was a sign on the wall next to the one Rowan's head had emerged from. there was no mistake to be made in what it said. "Platform 9 3/4". Rowan quickly pulled their hand out from the wall.

They peeked their head up over, or at least as far as their head came over the crowd, searching for their family. They saw them over by a ticket both, likely inquiring as to where the fabled platform could be. The man behid the booth was pulling his hair and his mouth moved furiously, however there was no way to make out what he actually said from this distance. Rowans mother was standing stifly, only her arms moved as she practically shoved the letter from Hogwarts into the poor guy's face. Their father was standing a few steps away, likely to avoid getting a hand flat in his face. Jordan was listening to music on his phone, seemingly totally oblivious to the chaos next to him. Rowan hurried over and as they approached their mother, whose back was turned to them they overheard the tail end of a sentence.
"It says it right there in the letter! 9 and three quarters do you see it? "
"Yes I do, but that dosen't change th-" Rowan interupted the argument.
"Um, excuse me?" Rowans mother spun on her heel.
"What? What is i- oh hey, Rowan, " Her voice flipped from irritation to pleasantry in an instant. "what is it, honey?"
"I... um... I found it- or, well, Onyx found it." They said, feeling a little awkward due to the attention suddenly afforded to them both by the man in the booth and by Jenni. 
"Found what?" Rowans mother asked.
"The platform." Rowan answered. 
"Which platform?" The man in the booth asked.
"Platform 9 and three quarters." Rowan answered. 
"Where?" Both Jenni and the man asked.
"Uh... over-" Rowan began to lift their hand to point at platform 9, but Their mother stopped them. 
"I think we'll be off now. " she pushed Rowan away from the booth and dragged Jordan out of his music enduced trance. "We don't have much time, train leaves at eleven, remember?"  when they got a ways away from the ticket booth Rowan asked their mother: "What was that all about? Why did you interrupt me?"
"You're not supposed to expose the Wizarding World to non- magical people, Rowan. It's an international law. "
"You asked him about the platform." 
"I thought at least they might know about the platform, even if they didn't know where it went." Rowan was not about to mention how little sense it made, that no unmagical people would notice a suspicious amount of small children, all with exotic pets, boarding the same train every year. 
"Where is it?" Rowans mother asked when they arrived at platform 9. Rowan pointed to the spot they had went through. Jenni followed her childs arm from the tip of their finger to the wall beneath the sign and looked at Rowan, confused. Rowan was not sure haow to explain to her without sounding stupid. At that moment Jordan went over to the wall.
"You guys just figure out all this Wizard shi- " he mumbled as he leaned against the wall and went right through it, earning a yelp out of the fourteen year old. 
"Where did he go?" Rowans father exclaimed.
"Through the wall, of course." Rowan answered and demonstratively started toward the wall. Onyx followed them closely by their legs and as they closed the distance, they paused and then spun through the wall, disapearing for any onlooker. Rowan- and Jordan's parents were left on the other side, staring at the wall. 
"Should we go after them?" Henry said after a while.
"Probably." Came the reply.
"Then... maybe..." he pointed to where the kids had gone through.
"Yeah... " Jenni agreed, but couldn't help feeling stuck to the ground, like she could not move without effort. Henry looked confused at his wife. She was growing pale. 
"What's wrong, Honey?" Henry looked concerned.
"I don't-" She was dazed. "W-will they... " She tried to compose herself.
"Will they know?" Henry Didn't know quite how to respond- What was happening to his wife. She stood there, shaking, dread piling up beneath her mask of composure.
"C- can they sense what I am?" Then it dawned on him.