Dwelling on Dreams (A Marauders Fan Fic)

The Hogwarts Express

The next month passed in a flurry of anticipation for Cassie, and yet each day trickled by with antagonising slowness, until finally, the day had arrived. Cassie had had her trunks packed from almost since they returned home from Diagon Alley and so the night before she needed only to throw in the last few extras, shut Marsali, the name she had finally settled on for her owl, in her cage and put her robes in on the top.

“Are you ready Cassie? We need to leave on time so that you don’t miss the Hogwarts Express,” called her mother from downstairs.

“Yes, I’m already in the sitting room!” she replied.

“Oh sorry!” Jasmine said as she rounded the corner and saw Cassie sitting in one of the armchairs, Marsali beside her. “Where’s your father?”

Her question was answered when Cassie’s trunk floated past through the hallway followed by a muffled curse. “Merlin’s pants!” cried a voice in the hallway.

“Did you hit your head Archie?”

“No, I walked into the wall, but I’m fine!”

“I hope you didn’t scratch the paint, I had to pay four galleons for that bucket!”

“The wall’s fine too! Gosh your mother Cassie…!” he said shaking his head. “Shall we go, wouldn’t want to miss the train now, would we!”

“Have you got everything?”

“I think so; you can always send it to me can’t you?”

“Well yes, but if it’s something important it could be a bit of a disaster.”

They piled into the car and set off for King’s Cross Station, whizzing through the countryside at a fairly alarming rate, slipping between cars and jumping to the front of traffic jams, the latter with more and more frequency as they neared the centre of London. Finally they clambered out outside the station and loaded Cassie’s trunk onto a trolley, Cassie carrying Marsali’s cage under one arm. They rushed through the station, heading straight for Platform Nine and Three-Quarters.

“I think this is the way,” mused her father as they wound through the station. “Ah yes there it is!”

“Daddy that’s just a wall.”

“Oh it’s not just any wall. Look, I’ll go first.” He pushed the trolley towards the wall casually and disappeared.

“Shall we go?” asked her mother as she led Cassie towards the barrier. They ran towards it and just as Cassie thought they would hit it they passed straight through, emerging on Platform Nine and Three-Quarters.

“Wow!” Cassie gasped as she stared around her, drinking in the sight of the Hogwarts pupils boarding the train, and the train itself, a magnificent scarlet steam engine. The whole station was drowned by noise, friends reuniting after holidays apart and parents saying noisy, and, in the case of many of the first years, often tearful, farewells. Suddenly Cassie spotted Lily and her family by the next carriage and ran over to her, her parents following her with her trunk.

“Lily!”

“Cassie!” she greeted with a smile.

“Can you believe it? We’re here!”

“I know,” she said, smiling broadly.

“Cassie honey, come and help us put your trunk on the train,” said Jasmine.

“My trunk is in the one on the right,” said Lily.

Cassie and Jasmine pushed it up to Archie who lifted it into one of the empty luggage racks in the carriage Lily had indicated and after a bit of a struggle, it was up. While they did so, Cassie caught a glimpse of Petunia and Lily talking to each other a little way away from their parents before the whistle blew. “Oh gosh, we’d better get down on the platform!” exclaimed Jasmine.