Amazing cover by Julia Kim, also known as @soulofstaars!
Ananya Adur is the daughter of a set of very prestigious muggle politicians who are not pleased to find out that she is different from what they expect of her: she is a witch.
In fact, they ar...
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Ananya Adur stood beside her mum and hunched inward on herself, nervous of what's to come. She glanced up at Shabda's resting sneer, then out to all of the unique people that inhabited Kings Cross at the moment. She saw a dark-haired boy, by himself, surreptitiously following a large family of red-heads that wore somewhat shabby clothes. Next to platform 8, a couple of teens in scene clothes hung out and tried to hide their cigarettes from the portly stationmaster at platform 12. Ananya turned her gaze back to the shabby-clothed family and found them, to her astonishment, running at intervals toward the wall between platforms 9 and 10. She caught a glimpse of the eldest red-haired boy disappearing into the wall(!) and she suddenly understood how to get onto platform 9 and 3/4.
"Mother," she said, tugging on Shabda's pinky finger.
"What, Ananya?"
Her mother looked preoccupied with her notepad, so she tapped on the yellow page. "Mother, I've found how to get onto the platform." She paused as Shabda made no gesture that she'd heard. "Would you be joining me or shall I go alone?"
Finally, her mother looked up. "Go ahead, Ananya, and don't forget your pesky owl. Birds do make me jittery, that one especially. Don't come home for Christmas holidays unless you are required, don't get expelled, and don't send any letters." With those parting words, Shabda turned and walked away, but not before Ananya heard her muttering about not coming back at all.
"Yes, mother." Her mouth pressed thin and hands pale on her trunk, Ananya strode toward the portly lady who had been instructing a pair of what looked like twins to run at the wall. Bracing herself, she cleared her throat politely and settled on her heels.
The woman's fiery locks swung around. "Yes, dear?" She paused, looked down at Ananya, then gave a tender sign. "Ah, must be a lot of first-years this year. Do you need help onto the platform too?"
Ananya nodded, suddenly very shy at the matronly woman's words. "Yes ma'am. Would you please help me?" Her finger twitched on the trunk's handle and she was glad that Mr. Wovant had put a feather-light charm on it when she'd bought it at his shop.
The woman smiled. "Of course, dear. You can go ahead with my son Fred here, he'll be very kind, I assure you." She emphasized the very, and Ananya could only assume that the boy had a history of being a class clown. She jumped when the lady burst out with another sentence. "Oh my, I completely forgot to ask your name! I'm Molly Weasley, and these are Ron, George, Fred, and..."
"Harry, ma'am." The dark-haired boy that'd been following the Weasleys spoke up. Ananya smiled at him reassuringly.
Mrs. Weasley patted the two on their backs and then pushed them to their crossing partners. "Well, go on through. I'll meet you just before you get on the train, alright?"
Ananya steeled her nerves. Hopefully this went well, or else she would end up as the wizarding world's Flat Stanley, and that wouldn't be very fun. For her, anyway. With a shake of her head, she quickly followed Fred Weasley into the wall and through to Platform 9 and 3/4.
