The Art of New Beginnings

Chapter Five: Chocolate Cures Everything

Katia woke Erica the next morning with her usual warm smile and a mug of hot chocolate which warmed her through. She got dressed and managed to persuade a rather disgruntled Cas back into her cage when Draco banged his way into her room, his hair ruffled as he tugged his sweatshirt over his head.

"Dad dropped me off earlier," he answered Erica's wordless question, looking more than a little irritable as he tucked his shirt in and righted his trousers. "The sooner we get on the train, the better. At least I can get away from mother at Hogwarts. She's been driving me crazy. You know," he grimaced, looking incredibly put-open, "After dad took you home last night she quizzed me about Harry and Grimmauld Place and the Blacks and everything. You know her maiden name is Black. Sirius is her cousin."

"I'm sure it wasn't that bad," Erica began, trying to appease him, but it didn't work when all that he did was glare at her, so she quieted down.

They headed down to breakfast together, something which had pretty much become tradition in the morning before they left for Hogwarts, where Severus was reading the front page of the Daily Prophet with a furrowed brow as Katia dished out the eggs and buttered the toast. Severus would be leaving later and apparating to Hogsmeade- the Hogwarts wards not allowing anyone to apparate straight onto the grounds- before walking up to Hogwarts itself.

They ate breakfast quickly, the chaos of leaving soon engulfing them as they rushed around. Draco was all readily packed, but Erica was still stuffing books and odd pairs of socks into her trunk even as she was tugging it downstairs, fairly certain that if it was any heavier then she would be crushed. Draco came following down after her holding Cas' cage, ignoring her annoyed hoots as he tossed Erica the robes she forgot on her bed and watched as she stuffed them in her trunk with a huff before snapping it closed.

"You're a mess," he teased even as Severus cast a feather-light charm on all of their things as Katia answered the door to the two Ministry officials that had just rang the bell.

"I could say the same about you," she raised an eyebrow at his rumpled hair and the tails of his shirt which were poking out from beneath his sweatshirt once more.

They didn't have time for much more than that, though Erica did get in a good elbow to the ribs as she squeezed her way past him, as Katia marched them across the short stretch of their front garden and towards the old-fashioned dark green car, driven by a furtive-looking wizard wearing a suit of emerald velvet.

"In you get, sweetheart," Katia sighed, guiding her into the back seat of the car with Draco as Severus helped the ministry officials with their trunks and owls. It had been one of the requirements from Fudge that she let the Ministry arrange her transport to King's Cross. He claimed it was something about security and protection, but she knew really that it was because they were worried Pettigrew would get to her and she would shelter him. It was seriously annoying, but she did her best not to let it bother her.

Katia climbed up front with the officials and the driver, the car magically expanded on the inside to easily accommodate all seven of them with room for around three more on top of that, and with their luggage safely in the boot, their owls on their laps and goodbyes already said to Severus, they set on their way.

The journey to King's Cross was very uneventful compared to the usual rush of the fireplaces passing by as she travelled through the Floo network, but it was different. The Ministry of Magic cars seemed almost ordinary, though Erica noticed that they could slide through gaps that her mum's old company car certainly couldn't have managed.

They reached King's Cross with twenty minutes to spare; the Ministry driver and his attendants found them trolleys, unloaded their trunks, touched their hats to Katia and drove away, somehow managing to jump to the head of an unmoving queue for the traffic lights. They all kept close together all the way into station and towards the barrier between platforms nine and ten.