Magical Hogwarts

In all honesty, something felt off. Something.... felt different. He couldn't tell what it was, but as the train lugged the students and adults from Hogwarts, school of witchcraft and wizardry, the young Hufflepuff and his almost unresponsive Screechsnap were on it, too. He sat tucked against one of the large, glass windows and allowed his bright eyes to trace along the horizon as the train zoomed by. He heard the chatters of those around him, and equally so, the trolley cart filled with Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans and magically jumping Chocolate Frogs, and usually, Fabien would buy some, but he just... didn't. Occasionally, his Screechsnap would wiggle and the mostly unresponsive boy's face would tilt upwards, a smile tugging at his lips, but for the most part, he remained forlorn and quiet. It felt like something was missing.

It was, perhaps, since about November, he and Cameryn White, a first year Ravenclaw, had been spending a lot of time together. Unlike Fabien and a majority of the population of Hogwarts, the young Ravenclaw had held back at Hogsmeade Platform, and would not return to the hub of Kings Cross Station, and would not go through Platform Nine and Three Quarter's hidden wall. He felt a little bit sad at the distance, but as the train rolled to a stop and the majority of the other kids clambered off, excited to see parents, siblings and grandparents they hadn't seen in more than a half of a year, Fabien felt the familiarity of excitement coming on. Bundled in the warmest Slytherin jumper and clothing from his donation box, he, too, stumbled from the train and found himself wandering off into the crowd. It was Taylor who had seen him first, and snatched him right off the ground in the biggest hug. And then Katy was there, and his parents with Flora. They were all safe. He was safe. He had spotted Tori among the straggling families, and then she was gone, in a flash, and there they were.

The rest of the day and part of the morning the next day had been mostly a blur for the young Hufflepuff. He had a birthday celebration with his immediate family, and then got presents -- a new jacket, a new Herbology book, and even a new little pot for another little plant. He had spent quite a bit of time in his bedroom, though. Despite his mother's wishes of him keeping the garden outside, his room was covered in vines, plants and other assorted living creatures of nature, which made his room, ironically, quite warm. So, it was no surprise that as he heard the doorbell, he was the first one to get it. His room was, obviously, the closest to the door, besides Katy's, but Katy had gone upstairs to help with cookies. Covered from head to toe in dirt, the Hufflepuff shuffled his way to the door and opened it. He blinked; two times, then a third, and his eyebrows creased. Hadn't Tori gotten tired of seeing them in the dome? He was sure...

"Hi~" he said, regardless of his strange moment of thought, "come in. Mama is upstairs making cookies with Katy and Taylor, and Flora's taking a nap. Papa is out, though," he pointed out, stepping aside to let his aunt and cousin in, although he was itching to bee-line himself right back to his plants that lined and literally dominated his room.

It was midday, and Tori Cooper had just woken up. This was not a normal occurrence for the black-haired girl, but then again, nothing had been normal these past few months. What with the dome and the gauntlet and the monsters, her life had been pretty messed up. But that had all changed now.

At some point yesterday, she wasn't quite sure what time as the days had just begun to drag on and on, the dome had disappeared. One moment it was there, the next it wasn't, vanishing into thin air as quickly as it had appeared in the first place. For the first few minutes no-one really noticed or did anything, but then a full evacuation plan came into play. The young Hufflepuff had rushed up to her temporary dorm in the Ravenclaw Tower to grab her things she'd salvaged from the fire and shove them into a rucksack, then she'd gone down with the rest of the second years and out of the castle onto the grounds.

There had been aurors on guard in case the monsters came, but the Irish witch had made it out of the castle grounds, into Hogsmead and then the station without any trouble. Then all the students were off, on the Hogwarts Express like it was the end of term, when really it was only February. The past few months seemed to have passed so quickly: It seemed like only the day before that the fires were taking place. All the parents of the students had been notified of the fact that they were on the train, so Tori was looking forward to seeing all her relatives again.

After a long train journey, most of which Tori spent fidgeting impatiently, they had pulled up into Kings Cross and she leapt out onto the platform. Almost immediately she caught sight of both of her parents waiting nervously to see if she was among the students pouring out of the train and she rushed up to them, taking them by surprise by launching herself at them for a hug. Normally John Cooper wouldn't have been at the station as he was a squib, but Maria Leticia had risked side-along apparition for this occasion. After a joyous reunion Tori's mum side-along apparated them both home again to Skerries and after seeing a bunch of her relatives for the first time in ages, the second year fell fast asleep.

Now, she was only just waking up. To be fair, she had had a tiring day. A tiring half a year, in fact. Slipping her feet into a pair of comfy slippers that had been left at the end of her bed by her rucksack, which she hadn't yet unpacked, the excitable girl skipped out onto the landing and down the stairs, where she could hear her parents talking. John was standing by the oven, cooking what looked like pasta, and Maria Leticia was next to him, deep in conversation. When they saw Tori they both rushed over to her, John scooping her up into his arms like a baby and Maria Leticia grabbing hold of her hand. They both looked overjoyed that she was back, and rather tearful too.

"We were afraid you hadn't made it out of the fires." Tori's mum said to her, wrapping her arms around her in a hug. Then John put her down on the sofa and they sat on either side of their small daughter, asking her all about the events of the past 6 months. They both seemed horrified by everything that had happened, even though the Hufflepuff tried to tone everything down and make it seem less dangerous that it was. She didn't want them deciding to not send her back to Hogwarts when it started up again before they were too scared for her safety.

A few hours later, after they'd caught up on everything in each others lives, pausing to eat some cheesy pasta in the middle, Tori went upstairs to go and get dressed. It felt great to be putting on normal clothes again that were actually hers, and not scavenged out of lost property by the care packages team. It was a Friday so her parents would have normally been at work, but they'd both taken an impromptu day off to be with her, so she went and sat with them while they did some housework. Then, a thought popped into her head.

"Mum, can I go and see Fabien? I want to check on him and make sure he's all good!" The part-Mexican witched asked. She knew that Fabien had hated the stupid dome even more than she had, and so she wanted to check that he was okay, and also spend time with him. Not a day went by when she didn't see her best friends/cousin, and so she wasn't going to let today break the trend.

"Sure, that's a good idea. Why don't I walk you round there?" Maria Leticia replied, taking a break from cleaning the cooker. Normally the 12 year old would have been allowed to walk around on her own as her cousins only lived a couple of houses down the street, but she obviously wanted to make sure her daughter was safe.

A few minutes later Tori and her mum were stood outside Fabien's door, waiting for it to be open. The excitable Hufflepuff was bouncing slightly on her feet, in anticipation of seeing her cousin again. She'd also probably see Katy and Flora as well and possibly even Taylor - but she didn't know if she was at medical school. She'd missed so much these past months!

http://www.magical-hogwarts.org/rpg/index.php?action=profile;u=23171' rel='nofollow noopener' target='_blank'>@Fabien ?ülvarez