✓ | EPISKEY → remus lupin [ discontinued ]

Chapter One

"So ... how do you suppose we get to Platform Nine and Three-quarters, hmm?"

Stephan Harpshire glanced around the train station, looking for a sign. Harena Harpshire shook her head and snatched the ticket from her husband's hands.

"There's no such thing as --" However, Harena was caught off guard when the ticket did in fact say Platform Nine and Three-quarters.

"Still don't believe me, darling?" Stephan drawled as he took the ticket swiftly from her hands. Both Harpshires looked around the platform for some sort of sign of a Platform Nine and Three-quarters.

"Maybe we could ask over there." Emily Harpshire, the baby of the family, pointed over to a tubby man in a security outfit.

"Ah!" Stephan patted his daughter on the head. "Good thinking, Emily, sweetheart."

The Harpshire family walked in a big group over to the tubby man.

"Excuse me, sir, but do you perhaps know where Platform Nine and Three-quarters is?" Stephan asked. The man shook his head and waved them off.

"Strange people," he muttered to himself. He glanced over his shoulder and realised that the family of strange people were still standing behind him. The mother had her eyebrows raised as if challenging him to deem her family crazy.

The man swallowed. "A family just walked past not long ago mumbling something about three-quarters," the man muttered to them. "They went to Platform Ten."

"Thank you, kind sir," Stephan thanked. The family made their way quickly to Platform Ten.

Stephan asked around for the platform, but to no avail. Everybody either looked at him as if he were insane or deemed him crazy aloud. Stephan sighed as if giving up hope.

"Alright, Platform Nine and Three-quarters we go! Chop chop!"

"Nine and Three-quarters?" Harena turned to her husband who shrugged. The parents followed the strange looking three-person family as they stopped at the barrier separating Platforms Nine and Ten. Stephan watched on in curiousity as the woman disappeared through the barrier in the blink of an eye.

The older Harpshire blinked in amazement as the younger boy ran through next. Before the older man could disappear through the barrier, Stephan stopped him politely.

"Sorry, but we're kind of new to this whole thing," Stephan explained to the man. "Would you care to show us how to do this?"

"You're Muggles, then?" the man asked. "Are you friends of Hope's?"

"Um, no idea who that is, sorry," Stephan muttered. Harena rolled her eyes at her husband and took over, Emily gripping her mother's hand tightly as she watched the scene.

"Sorry about him, he has no idea what he's talking about," Harena laughed nervously. She stretched her hand toward the man. "Harena Harpshire. Pleased to meet you."

"Pleasure's all mine," the man smiled warmly at Harena. "You say you're new to the barrier thing? You're Muggles, then?"

"Assuming that means non-magical people, then yes, we're all Muggles. Except little Alanna here."

Harena gestured her second youngest daughter forward. Alanna waved nervously at the man.

"Hi."

The man crouched down to Alanna's eye level. "Hello there little one. Welcome to the wizarding world!"

"Pleased to be here. Really," Alanna said with a nervous smile. The man stood back up and directed the Harpshire family to stand facing the wall between Platforms Nine and Ten.

"Right, Alanna." The man crouched down again and stood beside Alanna. "All you have to do is run straight at that brick wall right there."

Alanna frowned. "What?"

"Just run at the wall, sweetheart, you saw the people before," Stephan encouraged her daughter.

"Go on, darling, we'll be right behind you," Harena added.

Alanna nodded and turned back to face the wall. She took a deep breath and began running, pushing her trolley along in front of her. But as she reached the wall, a head poked out. Alanna screamed as the trolley collided with another body. Everything went crashing to the floor.

"Ouch," Alanna muttered. She held her head as she stood up, dazed.

"Oh, Allie!" Harena ran over and smoothed her daughter's hair down. "Are you alright, dear? Are you hurt?"

"I'd be more worried about the boy she hit, Mum," Joanne mumbled. "He looks a little ... off."

"Remus?"

The helping man rushed over and assisted the boy to his feet. The boy wobbled slightly on his feet as his father stood him up properly. The man chuckled.

"That's no way to greet a newcomer, Remus."

The boy glanced up and looked at Alanna. He blushed suddenly and looked at his feet.

"Don't be shy, now, son. Say hello," the man encouraged.

"Hi," the boy, Remus, said quietly. "Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too, Remus. Er ... sorry, didn't catch your name before," Harena said to the man. "To whom do we owe our gratitude?"

"Lyall Lupin," the man introduced. "And this here is my son, Remus. And my wife, Hope, is probably on the other side of the barrier waiting for us, so we'd better hop to it."

After gathering all of her school supplies and setting the trolley right again, Alanna aligned herself with the barrier.

"You should be fine," she heard Remus murmur behind her. "Just run."

Alanna nodded and ran straight at the brick wall. She clenched her eyes shut before she felt a small whoosh sensation. She opened her eyes and was stunned to find a scarlet express sitting before her eyes.

"Ah!"

Alanna turned around and grinned widely at her father.

"Dad, it's the Hogwarts Express!" Alanna cheered happily. "We made it!"

"That we did," Stephan muttered. "Alright, Allie. Come along."

"But what about Mum? And Emily, and Joanne, and Melanie?"

"They're coming with Mr Lupin, now come along."

Alanna glanced over her shoulder and her eyes widened hopefully when she saw someone else come through the barrier. But to her disappointment, it was only Remus Lupin. Lyall followed afterwards, but Alanna's family was nowhere in sight.

"Daddy, they're not coming," Alanna murmured in disappointment.

"Eh? What did you say, darling? Sorry, I was just admiring this beautiful locomotive right here. Charming, that is. Splendid!"

"It is quite the beauty, isn't it?" Lyall chuckled as he came up behind Stephan. The two men began talking about the Hogwarts Express, leaving their two bashful children to stand awkwardly next to their parents.

After ten minutes, the call for last minute boarders was heard. Lyall and Stephan looked down to say goodbye to their children.

"Where'd they go?" Stephan asked in confusion as Alanna wasn't at his side anymore.

"There they are." Lyall pointed to the entrance to the train where Alanna and Remus were boarding.

"Oh." Stephan frowned. "Goodbye then."

Lyall clapped Stephan on the shoulder. "They grow up so fast, don't they?"

"Yeah. They sure do."