Give It a Year

“C’mon Ced! We’ll be late!” I yelled through the crowd at kings cross station. We weren’t late, no no, I was eager to get on the platform and Hogwarts express. Cedric, even father was having a hard time trying to catch up. “Valora darling, your forgetting I’m an old bat of a thing, slow down before you hurt yourself!” fathers concerned voice wheezed just as I came to a stop in front of the pillar between platform 9 and 10.

“This is it?” I asked looking back at father who was behind me. He smiled and nodded, Cedric poked my shoulder to grasp my attention. “Would you do the honours Val?”
I nodded and grinned running to the pillar. The moment I waited my entire life for, the moment my father can be proud and I can learn magic now.

Cedric followed, and then Father who came over to me and pulled me into a tight hug. “Now do you have everything? your Wand? Shoes? Clothes? Books?”
I smiled and nodded, “Of course! I wouldn’t leave without.” I returned to my trolley and looked back at father. “I’ll write to you straight away about my house and lessons, every week! I’ll use Ceds Owl.”
He chuckled and shed a tear, “I am so proud, the both of you, your mother would be so proud too. Ced my boy, good luck with the year, and you Valora keep out of trouble now.” He smiled kindly at the both of us. I waved a good bye and made my way to the Hogwarts express, trying my best to not knock any Parents while I was at it.

“Here I’ll help you out.” Ced smiled and propped my trunk and cage in the train. “Thank you Ced.” I smiled and hopped along with him. “I’m going to catch up with friends, you can come until you find a compartment.”

I followed him down the narrow corridor, hauling my trunk as best as I could without Nyx waking. As I walked I saw two twins jabbering about someone having a tarantula. “A tarantula, that’s an awfully strange pet to keep.” I mumbled. I wasn’t necessarily fond of spiders, I didn’t hate them but if they kept their safe distance from me I was fine. The train had already started moving by now.
“Those two are trouble makers, do you remember when father had a man over for dinner one time called Arthur Weasley? He asked you if you knew what a telephone was?” I strained to think of the memory it was quite some time ago.

“Oh! Him, he mentioned nonsense after nonsense, what the hell is a telephone?” after asking the question I remembered he mentioned it being a muggle contraption they use to talk to each other on. “Never mind, muggles are just.. muggles.”
“Anyway, those two are his sons, all of his children have been in Gryffindor so far. I know their older brother Percy, we frequently talk in the Library, and the twins are his younger brothers, I hear they have two older siblings that were at Hogwarts. It’s a big family I’ll say.” Cedric explains, wow, that’s a lot of Children.

We continued further until I came to a stop outside of a compartment, only two boys sat, while the rest were full. “Erm Cedric, I think I might go in here, the others must be full further ahead anyway. I’ll be sure to go to you before I get off, I promise.”
He nodded, “alright, if anything happens come to me.” and walked on.
I opened the compartment door slowly as the two boys peered at me, “I’m sorry to intrude, everywhere else is full.”

“Come in.” The brunette haired boy smiled at me and gestured for me to take a seat. I hauled my trunk in placing Nyx’s cage on the seat and shoving the trunk out of harm’s way.
“Is that a Lynx? Wow, I read all about those, my brother Charlie told me all about them, how would even keep it inside of a common room? They grow up to be..well… very big, not to mention grumpy but they are loyal, I think you have one of the water breed.”

The ginger haired boy spoke, I looked at Nyx’s cage, she looked like a mere cat to me, but then again would explain the cyan orb that stuck right between her eyes.
“Oh. Well it explains why she needs to be walked, I won’t get in trouble will i? I don’t think I could deal with an expulsion because I didn’t bring an actual cat.” I began to fret, I wasn’t even in school grounds and I worried about getting expelled.

“Apparently Dumbledore is lenient, they let me take a Rat. See.” He held up an old worn out Rat with missing tufts of hair.
“I’m sorry I didn’t catch your names?” I asked as I took Nyx out of her cage and set her on my lap, she barely fit on my lap now, how big are they supposed to grow?

“Oh, I’m Ron Weasley.”

“I’m Harry Potter.”

I was in awe, complete awe of what he just said, he even looked like the illustrations of his Father in some of the books I read. Emerald eyes and a mop of messy brown hair.
“Nice to meet you both, I’m Valora Diggory. First Year.”

“Us too, what house do you think you’ll get into?” Ron asked straight away, I didn’t bother to mention I’ve met his father once and passed his two twins in the corridor but decided to think on it.
“Well our entire family are Gryffindor’s, I think mum would be please if I got in to Gryffindor. It makes sense though, I definitely don’t belong in Ravenclaw, nor Slytherin and who would want to be Hufflepuff, Fred and George said that Hufflepuff’s are just airheads.”

“My brothers in Hufflepuff, he isn’t an air head, so was my dad, and my mum.” I spoke quietly stroking Nyx. Ron became silent, I wasn’t at all offended but I do hear a lot of Stereotypes with the houses. “A house doesn’t define the person, you could be a coward and be in Gryffindor, you could be smart and in Hufflepuff, you could be nice and in Slytherin-.”

“Everyone knows a Slytherin is destined to go evil.” Ron cut me off.

“Im sorry Harry, what about you?”

He shrugged. Ron answered for him, “His family are muggles.”

I nodded understanding.
Half past twelve was when I noticed a loud commotion in the corridor. Ron went to poke his head out when a small happy woman opened the compartment door. “Anything from the trolley?”
Ron stared wide eyed, so did Harry, and even I did. The Trolley was lit up with different coloured sweets and smells.

“We’ll take the Lot.” Harry spoke, handing her money and clearing the Trolley.
The entire seats and compartment was filled with sweets from the trolley. I didn’t have much of an appetite but I did get to the cauldron cakes before anyone else could, they are my favourite. Harry was reading the back of a wizard card and Ron was stuffing his face. He had an unusual appetite.
A knock on our compartment door made me look up, a round faced boy stood and opened the door.

“Have you seen a toad at all?”

We all shook our head, “I can help you find it if you want, we must be getting there soon so I can change too.”

The boy smiled gratefully, I pulled my uniform out of my trunk and carried Nyx with me.

“Im Valora.”

“Neville.”

“Pleased to meet you Neville, I bet Nyx can help out too, she has a great nose for finding things, we’ll look after I change.”

“T-thank you.”

I smile back at him, “Its fine, really.”