Platform 9 ¾

The man was wearing a full suit -- jacket, vest, slacks and all the trimmings. On his hands he wore a pair of black leather gloves. His face was hidden beneath a thin shroud of black chiffon. He held the appearance and presence of a ghost, albeit very conspicuous in the Augustine heat. By his side were his wife and two children. The woman wore a rather nice blouse with a pencil skirt, and her shaken smile told that she carried the embarrassment for both of them. She was a muggle, born and brought up, and anyone on the platform could have told that simply by the look on her face.

Still, she knelt, smooching her second year son's face all over and back again. She hated leaving him alone. He was her only; the only remnant of her blood that would remain breathing (necessity of which notwithstanding) once she passed on. The boy endured the maternal spectacle she was putting on, though his patience was wearing thin. "Mum. Mum, I've got to go, I'll lose my seat. Yes, mum, I know. Mum, please."

Clyde took a tired breath as he felt his mother's vice grip on his shoulder loosen the moment they stepped through the pillar and into the chaos that was Platform 9 ¾. She never did like the muggle portion of the day.

Chaos was a bit of an understatement, in Clyde's eyes at least. The squawk of vexatious mothers demanding that their seventh years right them every wee- no love, I told you every day not every week, do you dare go months without writing again, you have been dead! ... Yes, that squawking combined with the occasional outburst of actual squawking from owls dropped in their cages was enough to make any pre-pubescent self proclaimed cool kid (though he was anything but) annoyed.

"Clyyyde, can we get on the train now?" Clyde nearly forgot about the little hand that was tightly gripping to his own hand, and how now it was squirming with excitement.

Clyde let go of her hand, smiling at his sister. "Sure, Jen."

And with that, Jenna Fannings darted off towards the train with a short wave to her mother. In half a minute her little white sundress was hardly visible in the thick crowd that was forming near the doors of the train.

Clyde stepped forward, when he felt the sharp vice grip return.

"You're to watch out for her- I don't want you to let her get in any trouble."

"Sure, mum. Cya." Clyde shrugged his shoulder and walked off, pulling both his and his sister's cart towards the train.

One right after the other, two families arrived on the platform. One was a family of five: a mother, a father, a son, and two daughters. And, for the second time, the family was accompanied by three trolleys. Drew, a sixth-year and a Hufflepuff Prefect, hurried off almost immediately, barely giving a proper good-bye to his parents. He wanted to make sure he got a good seat with his friends. Libby, a third-year Gryffindor, was gone almost as fast; and, as always, Holly, a mere second-year Ravenclaw, made sure her good-bye was as drawn out as possible.

Holly was by far the shiest out of the Brown children. She could never dream of just approaching people out of the blue and talking to them like her older siblings could do with ease. That may have been why she didn't make too many friends during her first year at Hogwarts. Her parents practically had to shoo her away to get her onto the train. Hesitantly, Holly grabbed her things and trudged onto the scarlet train.

The second group, a family of four, was terribly out of place. The parents were dressed in Muggle attire and carried a prim and proper air with them, straightening their children's clothes and fixing their hair. It was a terribly embarrassing ordeal for Nicholas, who remained silent during the good-bye speech Mrs. Sawyer was giving him. Don't get into trouble, always do your work ahead of time, write once a week... Once Mrs. Sawyer had finished her spiel, she kissed Nicholas on the forehead and sent him on his way. Face burning, he got on the train as quickly as possible and attempted to locate his friends.

"Libby- LIBBY!" A high pitched voice shouted, pushing through the crowd to grab the wrist of her housemate.
"Hey, I haven't seen you all summer! Come on, we have to get a compartment together and catch up."
Serenity Rosensteel was quite tanned. The usually fair skinned girl appeared as if she had been put into a deep frier for a good few minutes, and had turned golden brown. Her hair was waved as if it had been drenched in saltwater- which, judging by her skin, it probably had been just that morning- and she was wearing a turquoise sundress and matching platform heels. It was rather ridiculous for her to be wearing such nice clothes. She was only going to change out of them, anyway.
But that didn't hamper her enthusiasm, at least until a large trolley, overflowing with her luggage, bumped into her back.
"Selia.. What the hell did I tell you? Just get my things onto the train and go find your friends- or make some." From behind the suitcases, a chubby, shorter girl peeked her head out. She was clearly related to Serenity, if she would merely lose some weight, put on some makeup, and wear better clothes, she would look just like her.
"Sere, I thought I told you I wanted to sit with you."
"I have friends to talk to. Just get my stuff onto the train-- No, wait, I need this one." She plucked a pink duffel bag off the top, and turned back to Libby. "Bye, Selia. Okay, Libby, come on, you have to tell me everything that happened over the summer."

Selia rolled off, grumbling curse words she shouldn't have known under her breath.

"HEY!" Libby greeted Serenity with a hug, and started chattering away once they got on the train and started to look for an empty compartment. "God, your sister's so... not you. I don't get it. I mean, I kinda do, because my sister's not like me much at all - hey, they might get along well... But anyway, not much happened to me this summer. I visited some family in Berlin for a couple weeks, but we do that every year so it's really not that special. It was so hot there, though, and we were outside and swimming all the time so I just cut all my hair off. If you haven't noticed that already." It was true - Libby's once long, lush mane of dark hair was now a pixie cut. It wasn't like Libby cared about how she looked, so she didn't mind at all. She, like Serenity, had also gotten a tan from being outside all summer. "That's about it, really. What about you? Anything exciting happen? You look tan."