There were about fifteen minutes left until the train reached Kings Cross Station and Albus had spent the past hour searching the compartments of the train. He'd peered in every window, opened every door and he still couldn't find the compartment filled with four girls and their books.
There has to be one I missed. Albus thought, starting again at the front of the train. His heart was starting to beat extremely fast and his stomach was swelling. What if he couldn't find her? He was supposed to spend the summer with his girlfriend of two years and he couldn't find her on the train. His nervousness swelled when thoughts ran through his mind. Had she not gotten on the train? Had she missed it? No. Albus thought. She couldn't have missed it. I saw her before I got on. She was with her friends.
Albus could feel the time draining away as he continued to search the compartments. It took a large group of his friends and family to convince him to stop.
"We'll look for her on the platform. She has nowhere else to go, we'll find her." His cousin Rose assured him, gripping his shoulders tightly. Albus nodded and agreed to sit.
It hadn't been five minutes before the train lurched to a stop. Albus ran out to greet his parents. There were hugs and kisses and a sea of questions from a sea of relatives. He had forgotten of the nervous bugs of worry in his stomach, but the feeling didn't last long.
"So where's this stunning girlfriend of yours?" Albus's dad asked, giving him a friendly clamp on the shoulder.
Albus sank. "I. . . I don't know. I kinda lost her on the train." Albus said, embarrassed and flushed.
"The poor girl!" His mother said. "She must be so worried! We'll have to find her before she wanders off and gets herself hurt."
The massive sea of relatives all came to a mutual agreement and they all began searching the station. It took them a moment before thinking of asking Albus for her name and description. Albus gladly gave it to them.
"Her name's Kara. She has curly brown hair that reaches her shoulders. She has the prettiest brown eyes, you can't miss her." Albus found himself daydreaming, imagining his girlfriend.
His uncle teased him for a moment before returning to the search. It took them about fifteen minutes in the sea of students and parents before Albus heard his beloved aunt scream across the station.
"Albus! I've found her!"
Albus felt his heart leap and he ran to the waving hand of his Aunt Hermione. His aunt's mound of frizzy brown hair was hard to miss. He found Kara standing next to his aunt, blushing and struggling to hold up the four brooms she held under her arm. Her trolley had more trunks than Albus could count, not that her cared much for counting at the moment. Albus ran into Kara, hugging her tightly.
"Don't scare me like that!" Albus yelled when he'd finished their hug. His other relatives starting grouping around the couple.
"S-Sorry." Kara said, blushing and glancing at Albus's hands on her shoulders. "I got lost . . . my friends kinda overwhelmed me."
Albus smiled, knowing just how crazy Kara's friends were. Kara could be just as crazy and Albus loved her for it.
"Thanks for finding me." Kara looked at Albus's aunt Hermione. "If you hadn't I probably would have ended up missing you all entirely."
Aunt Hermione laughed. "We're just glad we finally get to meet you sweetie. Need help with that?"
Albus's aunt took two of the broomsticks from Kara's arms and more family members moved to grab the other broomsticks and push her trolley. Kara smiled at Albus, gazing at his large family.
"Why do you have so many broomsticks girly?" Albus's uncle George asked.
Kara blushed. "It's a really long story. I'd rather tell it later."
"We have time." Albus's father said. "In the meantime, could you also explain why one of your trunks has my name on the tag? Hey! This one has your name too!" He showed the tag to his wife.
Albus caught a glance and sure enough, his mother's name was on it. Another had his aunt Hermione's and another with his father's."Uh . . . " Kara was blushing profusely and Albus could see her start popping her knuckles, a habit of hers when she's nervous.
"You see . . . my friends are really big fans of a lot of Albus's relatives." Kara glanced at Albus and blushed further, she pursed her lips in an apology. "They heard I was staying with his family for the summer and asked if I could get some stuff signed for them. I didn't think I'd end up with trunks filled with chocolate frog cards, posters, books, audio books and pictures along with each of my friend's broomsticks."
Albus's family broke into laughter. It was a good laughter from what Albus could tell but Kara was slumping over in shame, her face red. Albus set his hand on her back and was about to assure her that they meant well when his aunt set a kind hand of Kara's shoulder.
"No need to be embarrassed." Hermione said. "They get a lot of publicity and it's quite cute. They aren't laughing at you."
"Of course we ain't laughing at you love." Uncle George said. "We'd be surprised if you didn't at least ask one of us to sign something."
"We were betting on it!" Albus's father, Harry, said. He collected a sack of coins from Albus's aunt Hermione.
"I said you'd bring at least three trunks of fan merchandise." Albus's mother smiled at Kara.
Kara smiled. As they left the station, laughing and tossing coins, Kara held Albus's hand.
When Albus had reached his home, his parents were already helping Kara unpack all of her trunks. Albus took the time to inspect each trunk.
One trunk was labelled Harry Potter on the back of the tag. Another said Ginny Potter. A third said Hermione Weasley. There was even one labelled Ron Weasley. From what he could tell, the last three were Kara's personal trunks.
Albus had help from his siblings in carrying her trunks up to the empty guest bedroom. Lily, Albus's little sister had insisted on carrying the cage of Kara's owl, Missile. She'd claimed to have named him for his speed, though Albus had never seen the owl fly.
When Albus had come down the stairs for the last trunk and four broomsticks Kara had brought he found his father clutching them all in his arms.
"They're for me to sign! I know it!" Albus's father yelled.
"Don't be ridiculous!" Albus's mother yelled back. "I'm the Quidditch player in the family!"
They went back and forth for a while until Kara broke them up.
"A-Actually, the broomsticks were for Mrs. Potter to sign." Kara said, flinching when Harry dropped the broomsticks and pouted.
"Nobody loves me!" He yelled dramatically and threw himself to the floor.
Kara seemed extremely frightened until she saw Mrs. Potter casually signing the broomsticks. If Mr. Potter were being serious she would have been more worried. Kara relaxed but still seemed a little distraught at her boyfriend's father laying on the floor.
"I know the brooms weren't for you to sign but I still have a whole trunk of items if you want to sign them." Kara carefully said, still frightened. "There's a couple snitches too, if you like."
Mr. Potter jumped up from the floor and ran to the trunk Kara had picked up. He eagerly set it on the table. Before opening it Mr. Potter stuck his tongue at his wife, it made Kara and Albus laugh. He threw the trunk open, revealing neat stacks crammed together in the trunk.
There was a stack of chocolate frog cards, multiple posters, at least twelve books, four snitches and more. He snatched at one of the snitches before it managed to fly away and shut the trunk with the others inside. He took a marker from his wife and happily scribbled his signature on the snitch. He did the same to the other three.
"Where did your friends get these snitches?" Mr. Potter asked Kara curiously.
"Two of my friends got it for Christmas. I'm pretty sure one of my friends stole it from their parents. I bought mine." Kara said, smiling.
Mr. Potter laughed, smiling happily and returning to the snitches.
Kara watched as he signed every book, every poster, every chocolate frog card, every audiobook. It wasn't until he'd picked up the pile of fan mail that Kara was done watching.
She closed the trunk, carrying it with her upstairs while Mr. Potter sat on the couch, leafing through the letters.
"You're dad's pretty fun." Kara whispered to Albus as they headed upstairs.
Albus smiled. His greatest fear of the day was surpassed. He'd been frightened over his boxers thinking his parents would embarrass him. They had, but Kara didn't think he was a total dork or hate his parents.
Kara carried the last trunk and one broomstick while Albus carried the last three broomsticks. She reached the room, opening the closed door. Albus could have sworn her face lit up. She set her trunk down, propping the broom against the wall.
"That's a huge bed!" Kara yelled. Albus looked at it, he had never saw it as big. It could fit over three people in it but he'd had that size all his life. Was it really that big?
Kara jumped on the bed, laughing wildly. "I can't believe I get this entire bed to myself! It could fit so many people on it!"
"I guess it is pretty big." Albus said, watching from his position at the side of the bed.
"It's huge! This is more than double my bed at home!" Kara said, she pulled him onto the bed.
Albus landed on the bed with a surprised "Umph." He sat up, laughing with Kara. She was bouncing, scooting around him. She looked so silly, bouncing and jumping to the side, forming a circle around Albus. He had to spin around to keep up with her.
When Kara finally collapsed on the bed from exhaustion, Albus lay next to her.
"This is going to be a fun summer. I know it. Don't you think so?" Kara turned to him.
Albus turned too and their faces were close enough that Albus could feel her breath tickling his nose.
"Yeah." Albus said. "As long as my family doesn't slaughter you from excitement."
Kara laughed. Albus sat up and Kara followed.
"No, I'm serious." Albus said. "They've been talking about you since Christmas break. My uncle has so many pranks planned!" Albus couldn't help laughing either.
Kara's laughter stopped and her smile turned mischievous. "Pranks?" She asked excitedly. "If your uncle is going to prank me can I prank him too?"
"Of course!" Albus said, laughing. "But he's had far more experience than you. I'm not sure you'll even manage to get a successful prank on him."
"Oh, I will." Kara assured him, smiling evilly.