UnExpected

Chapter 9

She looked out the window and gave a heavy, annoyed sigh.

"I still don't understand why I have to go by train," Buffy complained.

"You know why," her mother reminded her, picking up stray things around the room.

"Doesn't mean I want to."

Joyce placed the items on the bed and walked over to her, resting her hands on her daughter's arms.

"I know you're nervous, but everything will be okay. It's just getting through the first day," she tried to soothe.

"And then the rest of the year," Buffy mumbled.

Joyce kissed her head and went back to packing the trunk. "You'll be fine. But we better hurry, Dumbledore wants us to get there early."

With one last resigning sigh, Buffy moved away from the window and went to her trunk, making sure she had everything she needed. After closing it with a weighty thud, she lifted the heavy thing with severe ease, and followed her mother down the stairs.

"This would be so much easier if I –"

"If you would stop complaining and just do as you're told," her mother firmly cut off.

They stopped in front of the fireplace and Buffy reached into the small ceramic pot her mother offered her, taking a handful.

"Fine, but all I'm saying –"

"Buffy," she warned.

Clamping her mouth shut, Buffy narrowed her eyes at her mother in displeasure. She tossed the powder into the fireplace, and waited for the flames to turn green before stepping in.

"The Leaky Cauldron," she stated, and in a whiz, she was gone.

Buffy gracefully landed on the other side and was just finishing cleaning herself up when her mother stepped out, ash covered, which a second later was whisked away.

"Come on, I've arranged for a cab to take us the rest of the way," Joyce said already heading out the door, and sure enough, there was a Muggle cab waiting for them at the street corner.

Time had no meaning to Buffy on the ride to Kings Cross. The only things going through her mind were the nerves and the fear. Her leg shaking nonstop the entire way. She tried to relax, going through the motions of keeping calm, but that really wasn't happening. She wasn't this nervous the first time she attended Hogwarts, heck she was excitement personified then. But this was different; it was a whole new house with people she hadn't seen in a long time. And she was a whole different Buffy Summers from the one they knew. Now it was just a matter of how they were going to react to that.

"Here we are," Joyce announced happily.

"Yep, here we are," Buffy repeated nervously.

They paid the driver and stepped inside the building.

Kings Cross station – a Muggle train station with a platform that led to a magical world that un-magical people could only dream of. Buffy's large eyes wandered over the place to see if it had changed during her absence – it hadn't. It was the same old train station that she used to wait every summer to see, but now that was only semi happening. They walked toward their destination, one in high spirits, and the other in nervous jumbles. Then there it was: Platform nine and three-quarters. The deceiving wall between platforms nine and ten that served as the gateway to Buffy's uncertain future.

"Go on," her mother encouraged. "You should go first. I'll meet you at the other end."

Buffy nodded hesitantly and took a deep breath. Holding even tighter to her trunk, she set her jaw and walked toward the wall, disappearing through it a second later.