"I'll miss spending time with my friends of course, but I'm eager to be going home and spending time with Mum and Dad." Frank was saying as we made our way down to the Great Hall. "What about you? Are you happy to be going back home?" He opened the doors to the great hall and we entered.
Today was the last day I would be spending at Hogwarts for quite a while. I had spent the whole day with Frank and Aileen, dreading the moment when we would all have to separate and go home. I wished we didn't all have to go back home for the summer holidays. It would be over two months before we got to come back to Hogwarts. Two months I would have to spend with Aunt Cora.
"Not at all," I answered as we made our way over to the crowded Gryffindor table. "I'll have to spend two whole months with only Aunt Cora for company."
"Right," he sat down and started piling his plate full of the food that had only just appeared on the long table. "You're aloof aunt. I forgot about her. You can always come and stay at my house. Mum and Dad said it would be okay if you came and stayed for a while."
There was only one problem with that idea; Frank had also invited a lot of his other friends to come stay for the summer. I knew none of them would want me there, and I'm not so sure Frank's parents would want me there either after they saw me.
"That was nice of them," I said, "But wouldn't it be better if you came and stayed at my house? It's practically a mansion, so there's plenty of room. "
"I can't. Mum and Dad won't let me go stay at any of my friend's houses this summer. They said they wanted to spend as much time with me as they could before another school year started. They said I could invite some friends over instead of going and staying with them."
"Oh," I said. "While, if I don't come stay at your house, we can write to each other all summer, right?"
"Of course," Frank smiled. "I can send you some of Mum's cooking. She makes the best brownies you ever tasted."
Dumbledore arrived just then and the chatter of all the students slowly died down. The few students who had started eating already put down their food as Dumbledore spoke.
"Another year has gone by," Dumbledore said. "I hope you all have enjoyed your time spent here at Hogwarts, and that you all will be going home today with more knowledge than when you arrived. As well as some fond memories than when you first arrived. Now, if my memory serves me correctly, the house cup needs awarding."
The students start murmuring excitedly to themselves at this and then quiet down as Dumbledore continued.
"In fourth place is Hufflepuff, with three hundred and twelve points; in third, Gryffindor, with three hundred and twenty-three; in second place, Slytherin, with four hundred and two, and in first place, Ravenclaw, with a total of four hundred and thirty points."
Loud sounds of cheering and whooping arose from the Ravenclaw table while the other students half-heatedly applauded.
"Well done, well done," Dumbledore called over the loud cheering. "Congratulations to Ravenclaw on winning this year's house cup, a great honor indeed." He clapped his hands and suddenly blue and bronze banners with Ravenclaw's house crest inscribed on each of them hung all over the Great Hall. There was another round of applauding.
"Now, with that out of the way, let's feast!" Dumbledore exclaimed.
There was more cheering and the children all began to dig in.
James Potter loudly declared that next year he would be a chaser on the Quidditch team and that they would most certainly win the game with him on the team, making Gryffindor win next year's house cup for sure.
Lily then mentioned that their chances of winning the house cup would have been much greater if it weren't for Potter and his group always getting hard-earned points taken away from them with their misbehavior. The two had proceeded to get into an argument over this.
The feast went by so fast and before I knew it it was over and it was time to leave.
When Lily, I and the other girls went up to our dorm after the feast we found our wardrobes empty and our belongings all packed neatly in our trunks and ready to go.
As all the students piled out of the castle and over to Hagrid, who was there to take us down to the boats that sailed across the lake, we were all handed notes, warning us against using magic over the holidays.
"How will they know if we use magic?" I tucked the note in my pocket as Aileen and I got onto the boat.
"We're all underage, so we all have the Trace on us," Aileen answered.
"Right, I remember learning about that in Charms." The Trace was a charm that let the Ministry know the area in which any magic was used, and therefore knowing if there were any underage wizards or witches in that vicinity. The Trace could only detect magic in an area around underaged wizards and witches, but it couldn't detect the actual caster.
"You're lucky," Aileen said. "You'll be able to sneak and use magic and they won't know it's you because you live with your aunt. There's no adult witches or wizards around where I live."
"Your parents are muggle then?" I didn't know much about Aileen's parents. She never talked about them at all. The only person she ever spoke about back home was her sister, and she didn't speak much about her either.
"No, they're not," Aileen looked uncomfortable. "I just, I mean - nevermind."
I wondered if she was ashamed of having muggle parents like some were, but I dropped the subject. I, of course, didn't care what her parents were, but if Aileen didn't want anyone knowing that her parents were muggle if they were, I wasn't about to pry it out of her.
"You can come stay over at my Aunt Cora's house," I said. "I'm going to have nothing to do all summer and there are no other children around where I live. I'm going to be bored to death." Even if there were any other kids, they wouldn't be friends with me. Especially if they were muggle children. They looked at me even worse than witches and wizards did, and that was saying something.
"I'll try," Aileen agreed. "Maybe I can get them to let my sister come to. I don't want to leave her there by herself. Do you have a backyard for flying? I would want to bring my broom to practice."
"Yes, it's huge. We live way out in the country, away from any muggles. But do you think your sister would want to come stay?" I gestured to my leg and eye. "Don't you think she'd be scared or freaked out?"
"No," Aileen shook her head. "She's one of the sweetest people you'll ever meet. We're complete opposites, you know. But we still get along really well. We could all go exploring or something. I've only ever seen the countryside passing by. I live in a crowded area and there's no empty space for miles."
Aileen and I talked about what we planned on doing this summer the whole boat ride there, and before we knew it we were boarding the Hogwarts express, still talking excitedly about our summer plans. The train was so loud with talking and laughing students I could barely hear when Aileen spoke to me.
We ended up sitting with Frank and his friend, Mathew on the trip home. Although I managed to convince Aileen to sit with us, she didn't speak to the two Gryffindor boys the whole way there, only choosing to speak to me. They didn't say more than two words to her either, but somehow it was still okay. I was just happy to be able to be in the same compartment as my two best friends, even if they didn't get along.
I found myself talking and laughing with all of them, even Mathew, as the countryside came into view out the windows and then we were speeding past muggle towns. The trolly lady came in at some point and we all got chocolate frogs, jelly slugs and Bertie Bott's every flavor beans.
In no time at all, we had reached platform nine and three-quarters at King's Cross Station and we were all getting off, pulling off our robes as we went.
It took forever to get off the platform with the number of people there was.
We all had to get off the platform in small groups, a guard by a ticket barrier letting us go through the gate group by group so we wouldn't attract too much attention and alarm the muggles on the other side by all of us bursting out of a solid brick wall at once.
People jostled us as we moved towards the gateway and through the wall, back to the muggle world. Aileen, Frank, Mathew and I all passed through the gateway together.
"Franky!" Somebody exclaimed as soon as we were out.
I turned to see a short, rather plump women with rosy cheeks and blond curly hair rushing over towards us, her arms wide open. She enveloped Frank in a hug and started planting kisses all over his cheeks.
A moment later a short man with balding temples walked up to the two and joined in on the hug. I assumed these must be Franks parents.
As they ushered him away he managed to squirm out of their grasps long enough to wave at me and yell out a goodbye, promising he would write as soon as he got a chance. He seemed a bit embarrassed as his parents continued to hug and kiss him.
I glanced around the train station and spotted Aunt Corra in the crowd, looking impatient as she spotted me and motioned for me to hurry up, tapping her watch impatiently.
I turned back to Aileen. "Write to me and let me know as soon as you figure out if you can come and stay or not, alright?"
"Okay," Aileen agreed. "You have the book right?"
"Yeah," I nodded. She was talking about The Windows To The Soul. The book I was supposed to use to help me with my eye over the summer holidays. "I'll start practicing that as soon as getting unpacked. I won't have much else to do."
"Aileen!" Somebody called out in the crowd. I glanced around and spotted an old lady waving at Aileen from a distance away. She seemed far too old to be Aileen's mother. Perhaps she was her grandma.
"I've got to go," Aileen said, starting to walk over towards the lady. "Bye!" She called out, waving as she went.
I waved and watched her disappear into the crowd.
I turned and started to make my way over to Aunt Cora, who was looking thoroughly annoyed by now.
As I walked slowly, dragging my trunk behind me, I watched all the other children meet with their parents. They all seemed so happy to see each other, hugging and laughing. I wondered how different things would be if my parents were still here. It would be them I was meeting at the train station today, not Aunt Cora. How different things would be for me if that night five years ago hadn't happened.
It was times like this that made me miss my parents terribly. I wondered if I would ever stop missing them. I didn't think so. It had been three years, and there wasn't a day that went by that I didn't miss them.
I saw James Potter with his parents, who looked a bit old to be his parents, all of them talking excitedly. I spotted a few of the girls I shared my dorm with as well. All of them seemed happy. I saw Sirius black with his parents, while, his mother anyway. I didn't see his father anywhere. He was one of the few children who didn't seem excited to be going home. I guess it was something we had in common. Who would have thought. We locked eyes for a brief moment as his mother grabbed his wrist tightly and pulled him along like he was a small child.
He looked defensive for a second as I watched him go and then glared at me, scowling slightly. I turned away and quickly walked to where Aunt Cora was stood.
"It's about time," she said. "Let's go."
As I followed Aunt Cora, I felt unhappy to be leaving and found myself wishing for the start of the second term already. I was even missing all the other children already, despite the fact that I didn't know them and they didn't know me. I was dreading going back to that quiet and lonely place I called home. Back where there were no other children. Just a big empty house and miles upon miles of countryside.
But who knew? Maybe I was feeling glum over nothing. Maybe I would actually enjoy this summer. Afterall, I had made two very good friends this year, and somehow I would find a way to spend time with both of them this summer. Even if they couldn't come and stay with me, I would find a way to see them.
I would make this summer holiday be a happy one. It didn't matter that my aunt didn't like me and that everyone else thought I was a deformed freak. It didn't matter that my parents were gone forever and I was alone. It didn't matter that I was one of the few children who didn't have loving families to go home to this summer. It didn't matter we were away from Hogwarts and all that it offered.
Because so long as I had Frank and Aileen as friends, I could forget all the bad in my life and focus on the truly good parts.
None of that stuff mattered to me anymore. At least that's what I kept telling myself as I left the train station with Aunt Cora and headed home, where nothing but an empty, lonely room awaited me.
THE END.
Finally! It's all finished.
Some people find beginnings hard, but I find endings are a lot harder. The ending was hard to write, and it gave me a bit of writer's block for a while there.
SO, WHAT'S NEXT?
While I'm going to immediately start working on BOOK 2. As some of you know, I'm going to plot book two before I write it. So, it will be quite a while before I start posting chapters for book two. Months, actually.
I plan to not only plot the whole book but also write a bit of it first before actually posting any of it.
NOTE: If I were you, I would follow me on Quotev so that you get notified when I post the first chapters of book two. Otherwise, you might never know when I start posting again, as it'll be quite a while and you'll probably forget all about me.
Somehow I'm going to make it so you don't have to read book one to read book two, maybe give a "Previously on..." or something. Because I feel like book two will be a lot better than book one because I would've had so much more practice by then.
I'm also going to include a lot more of The Marauders in book two. I meant this book to have a lot of them, but somehow it turned into a book about Alexa instead of them. The next book will definitely feature more of them.
Also, it would really help me with book 2 if you guys could either comment and tell me what aspects you disliked about this book (so that I could make book two be better.) and if you took this survey I made here on Quotev (What Writing Elements Do I Need to Work on?) so that I could improve my writing skills and therefore make book 2 be better.
Thank you all so much for sticking with this story until the very end!! :) You've really helped, encouraged, and motivated me to continue writing and become a better writer through the whole time it took me to write this book. Can you believe it took me a whole year to write this! Wow. If it weren't for you guys though I think I would've given up, so thank you so much!