Everything Has Changed

Everything Has Changed ~ Chapter 21

            “Eleanor! Astrea!”

            The voice was faint among the other noises in platform nine and three-quarters. But Astrea and I were young and of excellent hearing, and we picked up on our names being called from several metres away.

            “Dad!” Astrea cried, running up to our father. She hugged him, but he barely responded.

            “Hello, girls,” He said tiredly. “All ready?”

            “Yeah,” We responded in unison.

            “Let’s go.”

            We followed Dad out of the station, exchanging worried glances. What was up with him? My heart dropped as I thought of the worst. What if something had happened to Mum?

            I was glad that both Astrea and myself had changed out of our Hogwarts robes. Usually, Mum was here too and we could get home by Side-Along Apparition. Today, we went home via the Underground. I wondered what people would have thought of us in our school robes on the train.

            My heart twinged when we got home and it was most definitely empty. Dad had bought us pies for dinner at the station, and now we all just trudged into the living room wordlessly.

            “You haven’t heard from Mum, then?” I tried to ask Dad lightly. He shook his head.

            Astrea’s face fell. “Oh.”

            “That doesn’t mean anything,” I tried to reassure. “She probably doesn’t want to risk contacting us and getting us into trouble if we’re caught.”

            “Yeah,” Astrea blinked rapidly a few times, her voice going tight. I didn’t blame her at all. Honestly, I felt like crying a little bit myself.

            “Your grandmother’s coming for Christmas,” Dad said, ignoring our attempted comforting. “She’ll be here on the twenty-third.”

            This was news. Both of Mum’s parents had passed away, so the only person he could be talking about was Dad’s mother. She didn’t visit very often. She lived all the way in the Isle of Skye now, near her second husband’s family, and came every second Christmas, spending the others with the other family. We didn’t see them often, because we really didn’t get along. They thought we were weird. They didn’t know about the wizarding world at all, which led to them to think that how we lived was entirely bonkers. They only accepted Gran because she had proved very adept at hiding her wizarding habits from them. But Gran had only been here last Christmas, so this year she was supposed to be with them. Maybe she didn’t want to endanger them if her visits were found out by the Ministry?

            “Why?” Astrea questioned, voicing my thoughts. “Isn’t she supposed to be with the Andersons this year?”

            “She didn’t say why. I just got an owl a week ago saying she was coming this Christmas and to expect her on the twenty-third.”

            “Oh.”

            “Does she know about Mum?”

            “Of course she does. I sent her an owl informing her months ago. So, how was your term?” Dad asked in a visibly forced light tone.

            Astrea’s eyes met mine. I knew what she was asking. Haven’t you told him yet? I shook my head at her. On the way here, I had been debating on how I should tell Dad about my…visits to the hospital wing. I hadn’t told him in my letters – I just couldn’t get the words the fit onto the page right. I had planned to tell him in person. But now, seeing how badly he was coping already, I couldn’t worry him further.