Chapter Text
It was an unusually miserable grey morning for the first of September. It had been raining all morning, making the commute for ordinary non-magical citizens a hellish one.
Sally’s parents had carefully cast a rain repelling charm on her luggage, so that the water would land on it but run off without damaging the trunk itself. They could not do the same for her clothes, as it would draw too much attention to them.
Thus, by the time they made it to King’s Cross Station, she was shivering from the wet and cold. Although she was blending in nicely with the array of thick, drab woollen coats worn by the muggles hurrying about around them, her parents were far more conspicuous.
Her mother had opted for a faux fur coat over a sundress, while her father was wearing his usual attire of flared jeans and a tie dyed shirt. Mr Donovan wasn’t a wizard, just a man who had decided that fashion peaked in the 70’s and refused to let that style go.
Out of the corner of her eye she spotted Dimmock, wheeling a small suitcase behind him, flanked by his parents who looked awfully nervous.
Both his mother and father were muggles, and while they were proud of their son’s magical ability, they were terrified of the barrier to Platform 9 ¾. Steering her trolley towards them, Sally called out.
“Iain! Over here!”
He looked up and spotted her waving at him. With a small smile he changed directions, striding over to meet her.
“Sally! Had a good summer?”
He asked, holding out a hand for her to shake. She batted it casually aside and pulled him in for a hug instead.
“We’re friends you idiot, no need to be so formal. I had a lovely summer. Went to Spain for a few weeks. What about you? Did you get the prefect’s badge? I didn’t, but when you blow up half a dozen toilets twice in one year I suppose they don’t consider you properly responsible.”
Iain looked like he wanted to laugh, but restrained himself.
He’d only joined her little group of friends last year and he still wasn’t sure that he fitted in. He worried too much.
“Yes, I did. Arrived in the letter with the list of supplies to get. Greg was really good, came by and fetched me when he went to get his stuff. Mum and Dad don’t like Diagon Alley. It disconcerts them to walk down a street full of moving tea kettles and singing mirrors.”
Sally did laugh, but quickly stopped when she realised that it wasn’t really funny.
“Why don’t we say goodbye to our parents here, then go on to the platform ourselves? It will only be ten minutes difference.”
She suggested. Iain brightened at that.
“Yeah, that sounds like a great idea.”
They said their farewells to their parents, who had struck up a conversation about football, which Sally’s mother still didn’t completely understand but was valiantly persisting with anyway.
They were walking towards the barrier between platforms 9 and 10 when Iain suddenly turned to Sally, a frown on his face.
“Where’s Mazie?”
His eyes drifted to the trolley Sally was wheeling, which had only a single trunk on it.
“I sent a letter to my grandmother. Mazie will meet me at Hogwarts.”
Iain made a small ‘oh’ noise, before readying himself for the run at the barrier. 10 steps later and the wall had swallowed him up.
Sally tooked a deep breath and charged at the bricks herself, the familiar woosh sweeping over her before she pulled back and let herself slow into a steady walk.
The platform was full of students running about, some already changed into the robes, others saying goodbye to their families.
Iain hurried to return to her side, eyes darting about as he tried to ignore the looks he was getting from some of the magical parents at the case he was wheeling rather than the conventional trunk.
“There’s no way you’ve fitted everything into that.”
Sally said to him, nodding at it.
“Oh. Well, Greg’s dad performed a rather neat little undetectable extension charm while I was at his house. I stayed over for a few nights after we went to Diagon Alley you see. It’s much easier to wheel than a trunk, and less like to draw attention from the non-magical folk.”
It was always non-magical rather than muggle when Iain was talking. He argued that muggle sounded too much like they were a separate species, and increased separation and anxiety between the wizarding world and the non-wizarding world.
Sally opened her mouth to comment on Iain and Greg’s sleepover when she heard her name being called from the direction of the train. A quick scan of the compartment windows and she spotted the person responsible.
Pushing her trolley over, she grinned up at the head poking out the window, which grinned back.
“I don’t think they’ll let you keep that Dan.”
She said, laughing. Daniel tried to stroke his beard, but his hand wouldn’t fit out of the window.
“I don’t suppose they will, but I wish they would. I think it makes me look smarter.”
Sally reached up and touched the rough bristles.
“It makes you look like a git. Is Greg in there with you?”
Daniel shook his head.
“No. Not that that’s a great surprise. Need a hand with that?”
He indicated her trunk.
“I’ll manage.”
She hurried down the platform to the luggage carriage, where a gruff wizard stowed her trunk away safely.
That was another advantage to Iain’s suitcase. It was small enough to go in the hand luggage rail above the seats in their compartment.
As she entered the compartment that Daniel had chosen for them, she was surprised to find Iain still there. He and Daniel were engaged in an apparently riveting discussion about their Runes textbook.
“That was when I realised that I’d been looking at it in a completely upside down fashion. It was the minor character that really mattered.”
Iain said animatedly, pointing at a passage in the open book resting on Daniel’s lap. Sally cleared her throat and both boys jumped.
“Shouldn’t you be in the front carriage doing prefect-y things?”
She asked Iain. With a yelp he leaped to his feet. He moved to rush out the door when Sally threw out a hand to stop him.
“Robes? Badge?”
She queried, one eyebrow raised.
“Oh. Yes. Right.”
Obligingly, Sally and Daniel turned away while Iain quickly changed. He was in such a hurry to leave that he didn’t shut the door properly.
Glancing out the window, Daniel look at the clock.
“Two minutes until we leave. Where the bloody hell is Lestrade?”
Two minutes later and the train blew its whistle, signalling that it was about to leave. At that moment Sally caught sight of a familiar figure appear on the platform.
“He’s not going to make it.”
Daniel said, at the same time as Sally shouted,
“Quick, to the stairs.”
Greg began to sprint for the train as smoke began to billow from the engine. His heavy case dragged along the ground behind him, slowing him down.
Sally dashed through the corridor and wrenched open the door at the end of the carriage.
“Greg, here!”
She yelled as he almost mowed down a small child who had the misfortune of getting in his way. His eyes darted about wildly before connecting with hers as the train jerked an inch or two forward.
“Hurry, you idiot.”
She urged him. His brown hair flopped in his eyes as he charged for the door, trying not to trip over the trunk that was hindering him.
By the time he reached Sally, the train had started to pull out of the station, and he had to walk just to keep up with the train.
Passing the handle of his trunk to Sally, he reached down and grabbed the other end, pushing it into the carriage.
With Daniel’s help, she was able to drag it up the stairs and into the corridor, as Greg jogged to stay level with them. He managed to clamber onto the bottom step and hang onto the sides of the door as the platform disappeared behind him.
Daniel dragged the trunk down to their compartment while Sally grabbed Greg by the ridiculous vest he was wearing and wrenched him in.
They both collapsed to the floor, panting heavily, as London sped by outside the open door. After a few moments of recovery, Sally scrambled to her feet and shut it, before a prefect could come along and get them into trouble.
“Perfect timing, eh?”
Greg said breathlessly as he lay awkwardly on the floor.
“Perfect timing? You absolute idiot. If Daniel and I hadn’t been there to help you, you’d have been forced to leave your trunk behind or miss the train entirely. As it was, you barely got on board.”
He grinned, beaming cheekily up at her.
“Yeah, but you’re my best friends. I knew you’d be there for me.”
She sighed exasperatedly as he jumped to his feet, before punching him solidly in the arm.
“Ow. That hurt.”
He pouted as he rubbed at his shoulder.
Sally crossed her arms in front her chest and tilted her head to one side.
“Did it? Good. Get to the compartment, you git. Four doors down.”
As he began to lumber off down the corridor she kicked him the arse.
“Too slow. I just saw you sprint across a platform dragging a heavy trunk like it was nothing. Move it.”
Instead of speeding up, he stopped.
“What are you? Eleven? Why am I even friends with you?”
“So that in 10 years time when I’m a massive Quidditch star you can tell people you were best friends with me at school?”
She prodded him in the back.
“Move it chaser boy.”
“Uh-uh.”
Up the corridor, Daniel poked his head around the corner.
“If you two don’t get your arses up into this compartment now, I will hex you.”
The pair stopped messing about and walked up the hallway, ignoring the wide-eyed young students in the first compartment they passed.
“Anderson, nice beard. No way they’ll let you keep it, but it’s great. Suits you.”
To someone who didn’t know Greg that well, it might have sounded like he was being sarcastic, but Sally and Daniel knew him well enough to know that the compliment was genuine.
“Thanks Lestrade. Just thought I’d make a statement, you know.”
The two boys embraced warmly.
“Was I’m a pretentious git the statement you were going for?”
Daniel just rolled his eyes and flopped back into his seat, resting his feet on Greg’s trunk which was occupying the part of the floor closest to the window.
Greg mirrored him, leaving Sally to decide who to sit next to. She was about to flop down next to Anderson when there was a tapping on the window.
“Anything from the trolley dears?”
The kindly witch asked when Sally slid open the door.
“A dozen liquorice wands, 4 chocolate frogs, 4 pumpkin pasties, and a box of every flavour beans thanks.”
She handed over the coins and dumped the food on the seat next to Greg.
“What did you get the beans for? None of us like them.”
Sally bit into a liquorice wand and sank down beside Daniel.
“They’re for Iain. A congratulatory present for becoming a prefect. They’re his favourite.”
Greg’s eyes widened.
“He got prefect? I don’t know why I’m surprised, of course he got it. I’ve got this now that Harry Watson’s graduated.”
He withdrew a shiny red and gold badge from the pocket of his vest.
“Quidditch captain? Why didn’t you tell me that before? I would have got you some liquorice snaps or something. Congratulations!”
Sally glanced over at Daniel, who was trying to look happy for Greg but failing.
“No prefect badge for you?”
She asked gently. The grin on Greg’s face faded a little as Daniel shook his head.
“They said they thought I was too busy, since I’m also taking an advanced arithmancy class along with my regular timetable, and I’m head of the chess club and debating.”
Sally patted his shoulder sympathetically.
“It could be that, or it could be because you spend all your spare time hanging around with a bunch of Gryffindors. If they had given you a prefects badge, it may as well have been red and gold.”
Greg murmured as he struggle to rip open his chocolate frog.
At that moment the door slid open and Dimmock slipped in, almost sitting on the pile of food. Shifting most of it to the floor, he too grabbed a chocolate frog.
“The first years were very impressed with your dash across the platform.”
He muttered to Greg as he tore the packaging open.
“Famous amongst the firsties am I? Brilliant!”
He grinned before tossing the troublesome confectionary aside and grabbing a pasty.
“Oh this is great isn’t it? All the gang back together again. “
He shifted so that he was leaning next to the window, his legs swung up so that they rested across Iain’s lap.
Iain looked down at feet before glaring up at their owner. Greg simply grinned wider as he chewed on his pasty.
Grabbing another few wands and passing one to Daniel, Sally curled her legs up and lay down, resting her head in Daniel’s lap.
Smiling at each of the boys in turn, she sighed happily.
“Yep. I’ve got my boys. I’ve got my favourite food. There is nothing expected of us at all for the next few hours. It’s the best part of the year.”