Now Boarding {{OPEN!}}

[Faith Lenihan]

Faith sat on the stairs outside of the apartment complex, looking toward the street. Next to her was a suitcase which housed her small amount of clothing, as well as her new robes and wizarding supplies. On top of the suitcase was her pet rat, Patches, sleeping quietly in his metal cage. She shook her legs anxiously in front of her as she waited for her ride to arrive. Today she was finally going to go to Hogwarts. Ever since she received her acceptance letter to Hogwarts, barely anything else managed to make its way into her thoughts. After receiving the letter, everything started to make sense. Her father always told her that she'd be able to be like him some day, and she kept remembering all of the times he would take her to the park and show her magic. He never told her the details, but he didn't need to.

Suddenly, Faith hear a very different sort of honking, and speeding around a corner came a large, tripe-decker bus. It came to a rapid halt in front of Faith and a man came out to meet her.

"Hello, you must be Faith Lenihan, I'm Corey. Alright, nice to meet you, get in!" the man said, pulling her up off the ground, throwing Patches' cage into her arms, and taking her suitcase himself. He practically picked her up and threw her onto the bus, so she hurried along and quickly sat down. The entire bus was completely empty, so there were many seats to choose from. Barely a second had passed after taking a seat did the bus take off at an extraordinarily fast speed.

"Hang on tight, little girl!" a shrunken head that dangled next to the little old bus driver shouted. It startled her. Never had she seen a talking shrunken head. After the initial shock, however, she smiled, and told herself that she better get used to seeing the bizarre. The man that called himself Corey attempted small-talk conversation with Faith, but mostly she ignored him and peered out the window.

In what seemed like no time at all, the bus came to another speeding halt. Faith looked around eagerly to see King's Cross Station outside her window. As fast as she sat down, she jumped out of her seat, being sure to grab the rat's cage on her way out. She was afraid of what was going to happen after she got off of the Knight Bus. She had received instruction to run through the wall between platforms 9 and 10 but she was still afraid that she was going to get lost and not make it onto the Hogwarts Express.

"C'mon, let's go!" Corey said, again almost dragging her into the station.

"You're coming with me?" Faith asked, frazzled.

"Just to make sure you get onto Platform 9 and 3/4 okay," he answered. "It's Headmistress McGonagall's orders."

They continued to scurry into the train station. Faith barely had time to look around in amazement at the beautiful architecture of the place. 'Wow,' she thought and smiled.

"Here we are," the man said, handing Faith back her suitcase. "Now, all you gotta do is run straight at the wall. Don't worry about it hurting, you'll go right through." Faith nodded. "Go on, then!" he said, pushing her forward.

With the rat cage in one hand and her suitcase being in the other, Faith moved toward the wall. She was half way to it before she picked up the pace into a light jog. She figured the faster the better, that way she had less time to think about it. As she passed through, she was motionless as she looked around in awe. The large red train puffed out smoke after a long, loud whistle. Parents and children moved about the station, saying their final goodbyes accompanied by hugs and kisses. Suddenly, she felt an overwhelming sensation of being alone, but was too occupied to linger on the feeling.

Faith didn't wait too long to get on the train. Even though students were still bustling about, she was afraid that the train was going to leave without her. The train wasn't yet packed, so it wasn't a challenge to find an empty compartment. She took a seat next to the window, sliding her suitcase underneath and setting Patches on her lap. She slipped her finger through the cage and stroked her rat. Anxiously Faith waited for the train ride to begin. Soon she would be off to Hogwarts.

[Rowan O'Shea]

On the morning of the first of September, Rowan O'Shea awoke to the sweet smell of a hearty breakfast which crept up into her room. She hopped out of bed, almost tripping over two mattresses on which slept her nieces. After she regained her balance, she noticed the clock was just about at 8:30- time for everyone to wake up.

"Get up girls!" she shouted through her thick Irish accent, flipping on her lights. The girls stirred sleepily beneath their blankets, and Rowan bent down on her knees and tore off their covers. Under one blanket, her 13 year old niece, Riley, pulled her pillow over her head.

"Go away," she said. Rowan snickered and then pulled her other niece out of her bed by the arms. Four year old Quinn smiled and allowed Rowan to pick her up.

"I smell breakfast, let's go!" Rowan said, skipping out of the room, holding the child on her hip.

They reached the bottom of the stairs and entered the kitchen, where they were both greeted by the long dining room table dressed with all sorts of food for breakfast. Belgian waffles, soda bread, oatmeal, eggs, bacon, anything a child could dream of as their last home-cooked meal before school. At the table sat Rowan's older siblings, Liadan and Conor, accompanied by their spouses. Rowan placed Quinn down and she ran into Liadan's lap.

"Good morning, darlings!" Ana, Rowan's mother greeted happily.

"Look what I found," Cian, Rowan's father said from behind her. Rowan turned around to see Riley, who was now fully awake, accompanied by her 3 nephews, 11 year old Logan, 9 year old Aiden, and 7 year old Brady.

"That's my boy!" Conor said, pulling Logan into a hug. "Going to be a first year at Hogwarts this year!" Logan grinned and yawned, and with that, everyone sat down and enjoyed breakfast.

Rowan loved her big family. It was certainly nice to have nieces and nephews her age, but at the same time she wished she knew her brother and sister better. By the time Rowan was born, Liadan was already 16 and Conor 12. She wished that instead of walking the halls of Hogwarts with her nieces and nephews, she walked the halls with her brother and sister, but regardless, she was happy to not be alone. However, that was never a problem for Rowan. She never had a problem making friends. In fact, Rowan was very popular, as is her niece Riley, who is going into her 3rd year at Hogwarts.

After taking a few portkeys from Ireland to London, the family made their way to King's Cross Station. It was difficult for the twelve of them to enter Platform 9 & 3/4 without being noticed, but not impossible. Rowan kissed her parents goodbye, hugging her brother and sister and nieces and nephews too young to board the train. Rowan hopped onto the Hogwart's Express, followed by Riley and Logan and made her way into one of the many empty compartments, separating herself from Riley and Logan. She grabbed a book from her bag and began to read, waiting for her compartment to fill up.