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Aurora Areli
ON THE MORNING OF the first day of September, I was lying awake in my bed watching the sky go from black to a hazy blue to a sort of pinkish-orange before the sun finally showed its face over the trees.
I was only able to sleep for a few hours before my excitement and nerves caused me to wake up when it was still dark out.
I was the first to arrive downstairs after having showered and dressed myself for the day. Mum was second, floating gracefully over to attempt to tame my hair.
I had inherited the dark reddish orange color from her and the messiness from my father. I was always jealous of the way Mum's fell in waves down her back, while mine couldn't decide between straight and curly and always puffed up when it rained.
Mum sighed when she realized my hair wasn't going to cooperate, instead casting a drying charm so that, "It at least looked looked like I did something."
When we finally left for King's Cross station in London, it was half-past nine. Upon arrival, however, there were only twenty minutes to eleven, which was when the train was scheduled to leave.
"You remember what to do, don't you Rory?" Dad asked me as we made our way down the platform.
"Yep," I chirped. "You run at the barrier between platforms nine and ten."
There were about ten minutes to spare when I spotted a group of people all with flaming red hair crowded around the entrance to platform nine and three-quarters.
"That's the entrance, right?" I asked. I had gone to send Att off the year before, but it had been a while since then.
Atticus took this as an opportunity to prove his seniority by walking confidently towards the wall, stopping just as the oldest looking red-head marched right at the wall and seemingly vanished.
Following eagerly behind him, I heard a woman's voice say, "Fred, you next."
I pushed forward next to Att and saw two more flashes of red hair disappear through the wall.
The woman turned towards us and smiled warmly. "Excited to go back to Hogwarts, dears?"
"This'll be my second year, but Rory here's just starting her first," Atticus explained, gesturing to me.
I just smiled and waved.
"Excuse me," said another voice.
We all turned to see who it came from and saw a skinny boy with messy black hair and circular glasses pushing a trolley (that looked way too heavy) in front of him.
He looked oddly familiar.
"Hello, dear," said the woman. "First time at Hogwarts? Ron's new, too."
She pointed at the last and youngest of her sons. He was tall, thin, and gangling, with freckles, big hands and feet, and a long nose.
