In The Shadows² ★ Draco Malfoy

*September 1st

Since that day at Diagon Alley, Briar and Henry had been talking non-stop about going to Hogwarts and how excited they were, and their fears of Lucius Malfoy and those like him, were long forgotten. So now that the morning of September 1st was here, the pair were almost bouncing off the walls with impatience.

"Do you have everything?" Daniel asked the pair for the hundredth time

"Yes!" They both shouted, before diving back into their animated conversation with Ollie about Hogwarts houses and classes

Henry had told her there were four houses: Gryffindor for the brave, Hufflepuff for the kind, Ravenclaw for the curious, and Slytherin for the cunning. So far, neither of them knew which house they wanted to be in, but they were excited at all the choices anyway

When it reached 10:20 the two families, minus Lizzie, got into 2 cabs and headed for Kings Cross station. Juliette had tried to plead with her eldest to come along and see Briar off, but Lizzie had remained adamant that she wanted no part of this 'nonsense', so she was staying behind. Daniel and Annalise had warned them not talk about Hogwarts or wizardry in front of the Muggle cab drivers so they had to sit silent for the 2 hour journey.

Instead, they relented to talking about boarding school, and how excited they were for that.

So the second they arrived at the station, Henry and Briar burst back into conversation, while their parents collected two trolleys and loaded their luggage onto them. When it seemed like they finally ran out of air to talk with, they grabbed their trolley handles and began to push them along the platforms of Kings Cross until they spotted the Mrs Weasley, Ginny, Harry, and Ron, so they headed over.

The group had been emailing back and forth for days, thanks to Arthur's amusing knowledge of muggle devices, and had agreed to meet there since Briar had no idea how this worked

"My older brothers have all gone ahead so we waited for you" Ginny smiled as she hugged her two new friends

"Thank you"

"Ladies first" Harry grinned, and Ollie quickly hopped onto the front of Briar's trolley. Juliette placed herself next to her daughter and Daniel on her other side, he nodded at them and the group ran at the wall between Platforms 9 and 10, like Mrs Weasley had explained to them

Briar had closed her eyes, expecting an impact so when nothing happened she opened them again and gasped at the sight that lay before her. A beautiful red, steam train stood there, looking majestic.

The Hogwarts Express, which she had heard so much about, was right there, steaming and shining, and Briar could now really feel her excitement bubbling in her stomach. The platform  was bustling with other wizards and witches and their parents, and Briar could not believe she was now apart of them.

Daniel lead them further onto the platform, where they were shortly joined by Henry and his mother, and Mrs Weasley and Ginny

As their parents loaded the trunks onto the train, Briar turned to her younger brother "I'll miss you," She said to him

"I'll miss you too," nodded Ollie and they shared a hug

He was not really her brother, nor would he ever be. However, for the past 9 years she had watched him grow up, and they had spent every day together since, and Briar loved him dearly. He was still so young, and she hated knowing that she would spend most of the next seven years away from him, missing so much.

"We found an empty compartment!" Henry called so Briar squeezed her brother once more before running after her friends, into the compartment they had claimed further down the train

As the steam train began to roll away from the station, they all stuck their heads out of the window and waved goodbye to their families until they were no longer in sight