Another Year at Hogwarts

I guess Mom’s words really got to me. She was right; I couldn’t stop living my life just because of what happened last summer. What happened in the past is in the past. The likelihood of something like traveling into another world again was highly unlikely. Because of this, I packed my things and headed to London with my family.

As I finished packing, my eyes scanned over to my Harry Potter stuff. I inhaled deeply as I reached into the cardboard box and pulled out the small white box that held my necklace from Harry. I took the necklace out and held it in my hands for a moment. Then, I unhooked it and put the necklace on.

After our flight landed, my family and I searched for Uncle Frank and Aunt Helena. As we walked around, I noticed a middle aged couple walking in our direction with two bequests in their hands. The woman had dark shoulder length hair and wore a plain blue blouse and a long loose skirt. The man beside her had brown-head hair that was slightly balding in the center. He was wearing a nice white collared shirt with black dress pants.

“Aunt Helena?” I exclaimed.

The middle aged couple looked up, and a smile came onto their faces. I parted from my family and hurried across the room to where Aunt Helena and Uncle Frank were. As I neared, Aunt Helena threw her arms out and caught me in a welcoming embrace.

“Violet! It’s so good to see you!” Aunt Helena exclaimed. She then parted from me and said, “I thought you weren’t coming.”

“Let’s just say I had a change of heart,” I smiled.

“Oh, my, you have changed so much! And where did this English accent come from?” she laughed.

“Hello Violet,” Uncle Frank greeted as he handed one of the white-lilies bouquet to me.

“Uncle Frank,” I smiled as I parted from Aunt Helena and gave Uncle Frank a hug as well.

The rest of my family soon joined me and greetings and hugs were exchanged among all of us. Together, we all left the airport and got into Uncle Franks car.

During our stay in the Uniting Kingdom, we spent most of our time at Aunt Helena and Uncle Frank’s place. They lived in a plain two-story house just outside of London—since Uncle Frank did most of his work in the city.

Since Uncle Frank was gone most of the day, Dad has been stuck at home with us ladies. Thankfully, Aunt Helena had introduced him to a neighbor of her’s—Craig Kingston and his family.

While on our stay, Dad wasn’t the only one who spent time with the Kingston family, Karen and I have did as well. Mr. and Mrs. Kingston had three children. The youngest was a boy named Henry; then came Julia, who was around Karen’s age, and an older son named Elliot—who was a few years older than me. Most of the time however, Elliot was not home.

One day, Karen and I went over to Mr. and Mrs. Kingston’s house again with Dad. As usual, Henry was out on a play-date with Charlie—a child from down the block. Karen had immediately went to upstairs to Julia’s room, while Dad went out to the back to where Mr. Kingston usually is. This—as usual—left me sitting by myself in the living room to read. That day, however, turned out a little more different than I had expected it to.

I was sitting in the Kingston’s living room when I heard footsteps coming down the stairs. I simply assumed it to be Karen or Julia, since the two of them were always running around.

“Well,” came and unfamiliar voice, “who do we have here?”

I stopped reading and glanced up from my book. I looked towards the stairs and found a tall guy staring at me with his ocean green eyes, which stood out even more because of his raven black hair. A charming smile was placed on his face as he stood dumbfounded by the stairs with his blue t-shirt in hand.

“Um…hi?” I said with a small wave. "I'm Violet; Karen's older sister."

“Ah, you must be the infamous Violet Bell I have been hearing so much about,” the guy said as he threw on his shirt. “That’s a nice English accent you have there.”

“Um…thanks,” I replied. Following the awkward silence that quickly followed, I turned back to my book.

“So,” the guy said as he walked over to me and took a seat beside me, “I’m Elliot Kingston, by the way.”

“Are you now?” I said with a grin. “I was starting to think that you didn’t exist.”

“Well, you know—I have things to do, people to see,” he smiled.

“Oh, I can definitely see how partying all night and sleeping in all day would keep you busy,” I remarked.

Elliot laughed. “Have you been spying on me?”

“No, I simply assumed that due to the loud laughter that wakes me up nearly every night, along with my observation of you from today.”

“Oh, I see,” Elliot said as he sunk into his seat beside me. “You’re the quiet, observant type, aren’t you? And you see me as the party animal bad-boy?”

I turned to look at Elliot with a raised eyebrow. “What, do you think this is some sort dramatic love story?”

“Could be,” he grinned.

I was just about to say something when his phone rang. He immediately picked it up.

“Hey Tommy!” Elliot exclaimed. “Yeah, I’m on my way right now. Yeah, just trying to catch me a date for your party,” Elliot grinned while glancing at me. “Yeah, I’ll see you in a bit. Bye.” With that, Elliot hung up and turning his attention back to me. “Now, what were you saying?”

I scoffed before getting up and walking to the back door. I told my dad I was heading back to Aunt Helena’s place before hurrying towards the door.

“Hey, hey, hey!” Elliot called out before jumping to his feet. “Where are you going?”

“I’m heading back to my aunt’s place. It was a pleasure to finally be you, Elliot,” I said as I opened the front door and walked out.

“Wait, Violet!” Elliot shouted as he hurried after me.

“What?” I asked as I turned around to look at him.

A smile grew onto his face. “My friend is having a party tonight, and we were going to go hang out at his place until then. He’s bringing his girlfriend along and I don’t want to be the third wheel. You wanna be my date?”

“No thanks,” I replied. “I—I already have someone. Sorry.”

I spent most of the day inside the house reading my book, when Aunt Helena came up and asked if I wanted to go shopping with her and Mom. The two of them were heading to London to do so. Because I didn’t have anything to do, I decided to go with them.

The three of us spent some time in London buying clothing and looking around. But I was eventually to the point where I was so exhausted that I sat outside on a bench while Mom and Aunt Helena were inside shopping. As I looked across the street, I saw a small store. In the window, it had a poster saying: “Harry Potter Sale Today”.

Before I even realized it, I was in the store walking around. There were robes and wands and other little trinkets. But as I neared the back of the store, something caught my eye.

The back of the store was bare, but for a single item. On a large table was a model of Hogwarts. Small pieces of glass were actually put in for the windows, and they were painted to make it seem as through light was actually shining from within the castle.

Slowly, I walked around the castle and just let my eyes wander. As I made my way around the castle, my eyes slowly turned to the bridge leading to Hogsmeade. Then suddenly, those words slipped into my mind: “We’ll make it work”.

Just as those words came to mind, I pulled myself away from the miniature model of Hogwarts. I couldn’t—I couldn’t start thinking about him now. I can’t bring myself to relive that moment. But no sooner did I think this that my mind became focused on something else. A sudden pain struck through my body and fell onto my knees. One of the workers, who were nearby, raced over to me to see if I was all right.

“Thank you, I’m fine,” I managed to say before pulling myself to my feet. “I—I just lost my footing.”

The woman smiled. “Well, be careful, okay?”

I gave the woman a nod before quickly walking off to find my mom and aunt. There was something wrong—something really wrong. As I hurried through the store, I could felt my body becoming heavier, and each breath I took require more and more effort. My eyes slowly became clouded and I felt the world crumbling beneath my feet.

Without even realizing it, I had made my way outside. Through my blurry vision, I pulled out my phone and dialed Mom’s number.

“Please pick up,” I begged weakly as the phone rang.

Suddenly, I felt a force from behind me, and I tumbled to the ground.

“I’m so sorry,” I heard someone say. I could see the person kneeling beside me and I could see that his mouth was moving, but I couldn’t understand his words. My eyes were so clouded at this point that I couldn’t even make out his face. But for some reason, before everything went black, I whispered, “Draco?”