"Coming!" I yelled while sitting on top of my trunk that was stuffed full of clothes, praying to merlin that it would zip shut. Why would I pack everything all neat when I could just shove everything in?
After many curses and with sweaty fingers, I got the zipper shut - almost breaking the suitcase in the process. I jumped up to bring it downstairs, lugging it down the steps and praying that I wouldn't make us late for the train - I wasn't particularly keen on receiving an earful from my mom.
Shit. Headphones, I thought to myself.
I dropped my trunk at the bottom of the steps and turned around to run back up.
"Y/n!".
"Sorry, sorry, I'm coming!" I yelled down as I ran up the steps. I ripped open my drawer and frantically searched for my headphones, knowing that my mother would rip my head off if I missed the train.
"Y/n!". She Yelled up the steps, not sounding too happy with me. Thankfully, I found them hiding under a notebook.
"Coming!" I ran down the stairs to see my mom crossing her arms over her chest, tapping her foot and looking at me with an impatient look. I replied with a look as if to say, 'What?'. She just rolled her eyes and gestured for me to move quicker.
"Your father is in the car, we need to go now".
"I know, I know, we're going," I responded. I rolled my eyes at her angry look and slid past her to hurry over to the car. She shut the door behind her and locked it while I hurried over to the car, which was already started with my dad waiting in the driver's seat.
"Ready Kiddo?" my dad asked, turning around towards me with a smile.
"Yup". My mom got in the car and gestured for my dad to quickly drive away.
I was thrilled to finally be heading back to Hogwarts.
Don't get me wrong, I loved my parents, but spending the entire summer just the three of us was not my idea of a fun time. I would normally hang out with other kids during the summer, but I grew apart from my old muggle friends, and my best friend, Sophie, moved away to stupid America because her dad got a job out there. She was the one good thing about this town.
I wish that I could have hung out with Hermione or maybe gone over to the Weasleys, but Camden was way too far away from all of the other wizard-populated cities; something about living a "normal, muggle childhood" to "prepare me for the real world".
I was itching to get back to Hogwarts.
"How long until the train station?" I asked with a sigh, impatient to see my friends again.
"Should just be another 15 minutes or so," My mom replied. "Hopefully we'll get there on time," she said passive aggressively.
"Mhm" I responded with an eye-roll. We had plenty of time.
I watched out the window as dull suburbs slowly transformed into the city as we drove out of our little town. All I could think about was getting on that train and making my way to Hogwarts, excited to see everyone on the train.
The 15 minute ride was filled with thoughts of wizarding classes, quidditch games and all the other things that I was looking forward too.
I could see the muggle train station coming into view, filled with all different kinds of people bustling about. Each person had their own lives and were going to their own trains to get where they needed to go, some probably late and rushing like I was. People would look at me the same way - just another person with my own life rushing to get to my train. Little did they know, I was headed to the best wizarding school in the world.
My dad pulled up to an empty parking spot and we hopped out of the car to grab my bags out of the trunk, hurrying to get everything out. My mom seemed impatient still, but the train didn't leave for another five minutes so I just ignored her annoyed looks.
"Okay, okay, let's go". She rushed my dad and I away from the now locked car over to the station, not offering to help us carry my stuff.
We hurried our way through the muggles waiting for their trains until we came upon the entrance to platform 9 ¾. After looking around to check for any wandering muggle eyes, I ran through the brick wall easily, having already practiced this for 4 years now.
A wide smile took over my face as I took in the familiar scene; everything was just as I remembered it. I mean, I had only been gone for three months so it wasn't like I was going to forget anything, but still. It was more than refreshing to finally be out of the small muggle town and back in the wizarding world.
I looked around at all of the wizards who were wearing robes instead of that typical muggle attire, at all the flying owls, the countless unique wands spreading magic all over the place. I drank it all in, ready to get back into the wizarding world again and ready to spend time all of my best friends.
I was so busy appreciating what I had missed so dearly that I almost couldn't hear my dad calling my name.
"Y/n! C'mon hon!" He gestured me over to the train that I was meant to be on. I nodded and followed his lead.
Once we made it to the train, I turned around to say my goodbyes, telling myself to lower my anticipation to get on the train for a moment and say goodbye to my parents, for at least until Christmas.
"Bye honey," My dad said, pulling me into a tight hug.
"Bye dad, I love you". I pulled away and looked towards my mom. She had her handkerchief on and was wiping away a few stray tears. I rolled my eyes. The 5th time we've done this and she still cries every time.
"Oh, every year this happens," She said while pulling me into a hug. "I love you and will miss you," she said while still in a hug. "Don't get into any trouble this year. I mean it Y/n".
I rolled my eyes and shared a look with my dad. "Love you too Mom," I said while pulling away.
I was sad to leave my parents again, but the excitement to get to Hogwarts helped to ease the pain a little bit. I grabbed my bags and turned around to smile at them one more time before climbing onto the train. Another year at Hogwarts, here I come.
~~~~~~~~~
Once I set foot on the train, the doors closed behind me. My mom was right - I almost missed it. I walked down the aisle, looking into each cabin for my friends, excitement bubbling in my stomach.
"Y/n! We're up here!". I looked up to see Ginny waving me over to a cabin up the aisle a little bit. I quickly made my way up there, my bags awkwardly hitting the walls and doors a little bit.
"Ginny!" I practically yelled as I threw my bags down and brought her into a tight and much needed hug. I had forgotten how much I had missed her.
I pulled away from the hug with a smile, only to see Hermione coming out of the cabin to the right of me.
"Mione!" I said and brought her into an embrace, squeezing her just as hard as I had Ginny.
"I missed you!" She groaned.
I had a lot of friends at Hogwarts, but Ginny and Hermione took the cake of being both my best friends and favorite people there. I had no clue what I would do without them.
Hermione was caring, sweet, fun, basically all that I could ever ask for in a friend. She also always kept me on track when it came to school work, which could be annoying, but needed. She is the only reason that I had passed my classes the year before.
Ginny on the other hand, was also caring and wonderful, but also had a mischievous side that made life at Hogwarts so much fun. I think she picked it up from living with the twins for her whole life, but I wasn't complaining. She always brought fun to any situation we were in, which is why I loved her so much.
"I missed you guys so much," I said to the two of them.
I was about to say something else to them when a voice came from the cabin to the left of me. "What? No hugs for us?" Fred said with a grin. He and George had stood up and were making their way into the now packed and very small hallway.
"Hey guys" I said with a laugh. I reached up to give both of them a short hug.
As I pulled away, the train whistle blew, signalling that the train was about to move. I picked up my bags and looked at the cabins to either side of me. To the left, Fred and George had now sat down in the cabin where Ginny was, and Harry and Ron were chatting about something to the right of me.
"Fred and George and I are in here, go visit with Harry and Ron and 'Mione over there, and then come in here next. I need to talk to you all about our summers," Ginny said to me while making her way into her cabin.
" 'Kay," I said and brought my bags into the cabin to the right.
"Y/n!" Ron and Harry said at the same time.
Harry and Hermione had both spent their summers at the burrow, so I hadn't seen any of my friends in months and they all spent the whole summer without me while I was back in my hometown. I had a lot to catch up on.
"Hey guys! I missed you," I said as I attempted to store my very full bags in the compartments above the cabin.
While I was reaching up, trying to fit my bulging bag into the small space left, I felt a body appear beside me.
"Here, let me help you with that" Harry said with a smile, reaching up to fit the bag in.
"Thanks," I said appreciatively with a smile, turning around to sit down. Harry is so sweet, I thought as I sat down.
Once we all got situated into our seats, I talked with the 'golden trio' for a while about all of our summers. I was a little sad at how much I missed out from not being there all summer, but it didn't sound like I missed anything too crazy.
I talked with them for a while, our conversation switching from summer stories to excitements for the coming year.
"Okay guys, I'm going to go over and talk to Ginny for a little," I said after a while, standing up from my seat.
"Sounds good," Hermione said and looked to be pulling out a book from her travel bag. I smiled and shook my head, knowing that she had been itching to already read up on the classes that we were taking this year.
The second I opened the sliding door to Ginnys' cabin, she turned towards me and gave me a relieved expression, obviously very annoyed by the twins and waiting for me to come in and save her.
"Hey," I said while chuckling knowingly at Ginnys' expression.
"Thank god, they are annoying the crap out of me" She said while pulling me down into the seat next to her.
The twins shared a faux offended look. "Oh, come on, Gin. Y/n, we aren't that bad. Right?" George asked with a grin.
"Mmmm.." I said indecisively. "You guys can get a little obnoxious when you try to be."
Fred faked a shocked expression. Then, it morphed into a regular one. "Actually, I'll take that as a compliment, We do try to be obnoxious, right George?".
"Oh, yeah".
Ginny let out a groan and I laughed. I had also missed the twins. They were my second and third favorite weasley's, second only to Ginny. They were the funniest people that I had ever met, as well as being some of the sweetest. All of my favorite qualities in Ginny were picked up from them, and theirs were magnified so much more. They managed to turn every interaction with them into the best part of my day, normally by pranking the annoying teachers or students, letting me help most of the time. Just thinking about the things that that we did to Malfoy or Umbridge brought a smile to my face.
Ginny pulled me out of my thoughts and into a conversation with her about what she did all summer, what I did all summer, and everything in between. I also chatted with the twins about their summers, and I got to thinking about how much I had also missed them too, and vowed to try to get closer to them that coming year.
Time spent with them always flew by, and before I knew it, we were pulling up at Hogwarts. I could tell that this year was going to be amazing.