𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝

- 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗷𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘆 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺 𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 -

Lucia's last month with the Lewis's wasn't fun. True, Ryan was now so scared of Lucia that he wouldn't even stay in the same room as her, while Aunt Emily and Uncle Jack didn't shut Lucia in her cupboard, force her to do anything or shout at her — in fact, they didn't speak to her at all. Half terrified, half furious, they acted as though any chair with Lucia in it was empty. Although this was an improvement in many ways, it did become a bit depressing after a while.

Lucia kept to her room, with her new owl for company. She had decided to call her Hedwig, a name she had found in 𝘼 𝙃𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙮 𝙤𝙛 𝙈𝙖𝙜𝙞𝙘. Her school books were very interesting. She lay on her bed reading late into the night, Hedwig swooping in and out of the open window as she pleased. It was lucky that Aunt Emily didn't come in to hoover any more, because Hedwig kept bringing back dead mice. Every night before she went to sleep, Lucia ticked off another day on the piece of paper she had pinned to the wall, counting down to September the first.

On the last day of August she thought she'd better speak to her aunt and uncle about getting to King's Cross station next day, so she went down to the living room, where they were watching a quiz show on television. She cleared her throat to let them know she was there, and Ryan screamed and ran from the room.

"Er — Uncle Jack?"

Uncle Jack grunted to show he was listening.

"Er — I need to be at King's Cross tomorrow to — to go to Hogwarts".

Uncle Jack grunted again.

"Would it be all right if you gave me a lift?"

Grunt. Lucia supposed that meant yes.

"Thank you".

She was about to go back upstairs when Uncle Jack actually spoke.

"Funny way to get to a witch's school, the train. Magic carpets all got punctures, have they?"

Lucia didn't say anything.

"Where is this school, anyway?"

"I don't know", said Lucia, realising this for the first time. She pulled the ticket Hagrid had given her out of her pocket.

"I just take the train from platform nine and three quarters at eleven o' clock", she read.

Her aunt and uncle stared.

"Platform what?"

"Nine and three quarters".

"Don't talk rubbish", said Uncle Jack, "There is no platform nine and three quarters".

"It's on my ticket".

"Barking", said Uncle Jack, "Howling mad, the lot of them. You'll see. You just wait. All right, we'll take you to King's Cross. We're going up to London tomorrow anyway, or I wouldn't bother".

"Why are you going to London?" Lucia asked, trying to keep things friendly.

"Taking Ryan to hospital", growled Uncle Jack. "Got to have that ruddy tail removed before he goes to Smeltings".

...

Lucia woke at five o' clock the next morning and was too excited and nervous to go back to sleep. She got up and pulled on her jeans because she didn't want to walk into the station in her witch's robes — she'd change on the train. She checked her Hogwarts list yet again to make sure she had everything she needed, saw that Hedwig was shut safely in her cage and then paced the room, waiting for the Lewis's to get up. Two hours later, Lucia's huge, heavy trunk had been loaded into the Lewis's car, Aunt Emily had talked Ryan into sitting next to Lucia and they had set off.