Early morning the 1st of September, Hector looked outside into the back garden while sitting on a chair near the window.
Autumn was making the tree leaves a brown and golden colour.
I always loved autumn due to the changing of colours.
He looked fondly over at his son’s meditation spot, remembering the hours it took to create back when his son was little.
I knew the moment that boy learned to walk, he would be walking outside, no matter the weather.
He listened to the sounds of his wife in the kitchen, being busy cleaning up after breakfast.
Victoria showed no lack of her usual energy, despite neither of them having slept the entire night.
Our little boy is going to a magical boarding school; it is nerve wracking.
Even if Abi says it was the most wonderful years of her life, I still worry.
He glanced at his pocket watch, the time saying 5am.
Hector shook his head.
Their son wanted to arrive very early to the train, despite it leaving at 11am.
Of course, they allowed it.
Victoria walked over and sat on the chair next to him, leaning on his shoulder with her head.
He wrapped his arm around his dear wife, feeling her lean harder on him.
“It is hard to be sad about our little boy’s departure when I see how much he has been smiling since he woke up, he is so excited,” Victoria said with a soft voice.
He hugged his wife closer with a gentle smile; she would never show any sad emotions around their son on this day.
That would come after they get home without him.
For all three of them.
Thinking about Abi, he softly spoke up, “I have not seen Abi nor our son for at least half an hour, what are those two getting up to?”
His wife let out a small giggle.
“They are playing magical tag in the main garden. They can tag each other with their hands or spells.” Victoria shook her head and let out a fond sigh.
“We need to heavily insist on Abigail staying with us for dinner, she would never admit to being sad about Kieran leaving and only getting to see him months later,” Victoria said, leaning in to kiss his cheek.
“Orders received, I will make my little sister stay, by hook or by crook,” he said with a small smirk, before returning the kiss.
Later they were all driving to Kings Cross, set to arrive at 8am, giving his son plenty of time to prepare for the boarding of the train.
Focusing on the road while driving, he listened as Abi told Kieran that back when she was on Hogwarts as a Gryffindor, she always followed the rules, therefore Kieran should follow her example and stay out of trouble.
Bollocks!
I will eat my left shoe if Abi was a follower of rules.
His wife seemed to arrive at the same thought, at least going by her silent giggle that Abi seemed to wilfully ignore.
He looked through the mirror to look back, seeing his son’s raised eyebrow at his aunt’s statement about being a stickler for the rules.
Hector scoffed a silent laugh, his son knew his aunt too well.
Hector looked at the unusually silent Silas in his cage on Kieran’s lap.
That owl is a menace.
It seemed so tame when he bought it, turned out it was a clever ruse that lasted until it had been bought.
Silas screeches so much, I know he is a screech owl, but that doesn’t mean it is the mission of Silas’ life to screech.
At least the owl seemed to slowly warm up to Hector and Victoria, only took a fortune of owl treats.
The owl was only well behaved when around Kieran.
Silas was definitely going to be the bully wherever the owls are being kept at Hogwarts.
When they finally reached Kings Cross, it didn’t feel like hours has passed.
Soon, their lives would change.
He took a silent deep breath, bracing himself for the final stretch.
…
The drive to Kings Cross was an interesting one.
Two hours of half dread and half excitement.
As a good son, Kieran did not confront them or try to comfort them.
They wanted to focus on him, so he allowed them.
He focused entirely on his own excitement.
Silas was on his lap, where the owl seemed content, otherwise he would be screeching.
Silas had his quirks, but he already loved this weird owl, and it felt mutual, if Silas’ reaction to other people was anything to go by.
Aunt Abi tried several times to convince him that as a Gryffindor she was a stickler for the rules, and obviously he should follow her example.
That is the most amount of bollocks I have ever heard my aunt say.
Seeing them finally arrive in London, he turned to his aunt to ask a question he had been thinking about.
“Aunt Abi, won’t people look at me weird with all this baggage and Silas?” he couldn’t help but ask.
Once she said the reason, he realized he should have thought of that.
It was one of the main jobs for the Muggle-Worthy Excuse Committee.
Several of Mr. Craigs colleagues were going to be hanging around Kings Cross, directing attention away from the many kids that would pass through the station.
Casting confusion charms on the really stubborn ones.
In hindsight it makes perfect sense that Mr. Craig’s job deals with distracting muggles.
When they arrived at Kings Cross, knowing about the background wizards and witches doing their invisible job to keep magic a secret with hundreds of children and families arriving at Kings Cross with owls and lots of baggage, he started to try and see if he could spot them.
The closer they got to Platform Nine and Three Quarters, the more Kieran had to admit that Mr. Craig’s colleagues were good at their jobs.
There were no obvious wizards and witches walking around Kings Cross aside from a few children like him.
Just a lot of what appeared to be muggles.
His magical senses were nowhere good enough to detect who was a wizard and who was a muggle, but he got the idea to develop them enough to be able to tell the two kinds of humans apart.
My yearly test for this project, will be the trip to Kings Cross, finding Mr. Craig’s colleagues!
They arrived between Platform Nine and Platform Ten at 8am.
Kieran looked at the iconic wall that wizards and witches would run through to get to the hidden train.
Despite knowing walking was fine, he decided to wilfully embrace the scenes he remembered from the books.
He ran at the wall, with his eyes wide open and passed through the wall together with his baggage and Silas.
His family joined behind him as he stared with wide eyes at the iconic red train, likely magically expanded on the inside to fit 700 students.
Harry Potter will be one of many students, but likely the most famous, and I will be another of those many students.
There were a couple of families besides his that also seemed to have the bright idea of coming early.
According to his agreement with his family, he left them behind as he walked up to one of the conductors of the train.
His entire reason for wanting to come this early, was to learn about the train.
“Excuse me, Mister, would you mind if I asked you questions about this train?” he asked, as he walked up to the conductor wearing a red vest.
He saw the man smile gently, looked around him and then looked down at Kieran.
“Of course, young man! Ask away, though I will have to cut it short once more families start to arrive.”
Kieran over the next hour learned all he could about the Hogwarts Train.
He learned that it may look like a muggle train, but wizards and witches merely adopted the look.
It ran on pure magic, akin to the Knight Bus.
The entire train had forget-me-charms attached to it.
Any muggle seeing it, will forget they ever saw it.
The only reason the train made sounds, turned out to be because of the original creators wanting the authentic experience.
Being powered by magic meant it could travel completely silently, if they wanted to.
Out of respect for its creators, they kept it as loud as a muggle train.
With two hours left, he could see more and more families arrive.
Especially older students.
After looking at the various older students, he did a double take, as he saw an older teen girl with short brown hair and green eyes.
She was accompanied by an older gentleman with the same hair and eyes, and a woman with dirty blond hair and green eyes.
Anton Grode, his dad’s colleague, alongside Ellie Grode, the Gryffindor witch who should be fifth year now, and what Kieran could only assume was Ellie’s witch mother.
Kieran poked his dad and waved to Mr. Grode, seeing his dad register his colleague being here.
Mr. Grode’s eyes lit up and he took large steps toward them.
“Hector! Wonderful to see you here. I knew this day was coming ever since Ellie revealed that young Kieran spooked her by figuring out she was a witch!” he said with a boisterous laugh.
Kieran saw the fifth year Ellie have a small glint of recognition as she looked at him.
She seemed to pay extra attention to his long black hair ending in a ponytail.
His parents and aunt, alongside Ellies mum and dad started talking, leaving the two of them alone.
“Pleasure to meet you again Ms. Grode,” Kieran said politely to the older girl, who raised an eyebrow at him.
“I believe you called me Ellie when we last met. My friends would tease me endlessly if I forced a kid to call me Miss Grode, so please don’t,” she said in a blunt manner, but not unkindly.
“As you like, Ellie. I heard the first years arrive to the Hogwarts Castle by boat. How do you older students arrive?” Kieran asked, feeling it was the right time to expand his knowledge.
He could have asked Aunt Abi, but his goal was to interact with people to prevent them from being characters in his mind.
He needed to leave some questions for his future schoolmates.
“There are self-driving carriages we all board. It is significantly faster than the boats, allowing all of us to be ready to receive the first years,” she said, before pausing to consider something, then continuing.
“Have you considered which house you prefer to be in?”
Kieran nodded deeply, knowing the carriages aren’t self-driving, but Thestrals dragging them.
Ellie has not seen and comprehended the reality of death it seems.
Good for her!
Hearing the question, he shrugged.
“I am sure any house will be a good house for me.” He saw her silent disagreement, likely thinking of Slytherin since she was a Gryffindor.
The house rivalry was likely going strong.
They talked a bit more before Ellie went to join her friends.
The thought of Thestrals made him wonder.
Can I see them?
Fact was, he remembered dying in his former life.
He remembered the final moments.
He was reincarnated into the world of Harry Potter.
He never fully admitted it to himself, but his former life’s death was a step into a larger journey.
To him, death was a transition into something else.
Something better.
I do not know what will happen after the second death, that is why I will get the most out of this happy life I have now.
I do not fear death.
I fear losing this life.
He shook his head to dislodge that topic from his mind.
He hugged his parents and aunt goodbye, feeling himself already missing them.
He took a deep breath, bracing himself.
While waving to them, he saw the trains workers handle his luggage and Silas.
He also gave a small wave to Silas, which calmed the owl down a bit as Silas looked over at Kieran.
He gave a final wave to his family as he finally stepped onto the train, boarding the Hogwarts Train.
Ready for his new journey.
Step into the Restricted Section