The driver of the car that was parked outside the Mallory household honked the horn for the third time in the last five minutes. Moira Mallory heard the honk from her room upstairs and looked out the window to see her father looking up at her from the driver's seat, her mother riding shotgun next to him. "Moira, we're getting late!" Winford Mallory yelled from below. Moira held out her hand with one finger open, indicating she would take only a minute. She looked at her trunk, which was finally packed. She shut the trunk and heaved it off her bed to drag down the staircase and into the car.
"You took your time, didn't you?" Irene Mallory said to Moira, in a tone that suggested she was more amused at her daughter than angry. "I had to make space for the ridiculous number of books you bought, Mum!" Moira responded indignantly. "Wasn't exactly an easy task."
The drive to King's Cross station passed in the same manner, with the parents making snarky comments at their daughter's behavior and the daughter coming back at them with quips of her own. Finally, the three of them were at the pillar in between platforms nine and ten. Moira looked at her parents excitedly; her mother smiled at her while her father's face was rather expressionless, which puzzled Moira.
"Dad, what's wrong?" she asked, a bit concerned at the sudden change in her father's usual manner. But it was her mother who answered.
"Moira, you go on ahead and get onto the platform, all right?" she said, smiling. "Dad and I will get on together. This is your Dad's first time on Platform 9¾ as well, after all. You can manage on your own, right?"
Moira couldn't help but giggle at that. Her father was a Muggle and had no experience with magic, in spite of knowing that his wife was a witch. "Dad? Nervous? Really?" She laughed a bit more and then, after receiving a look from her father, sobered up and ran straight into the wall and came out the other side, onto Platform 9¾. What she saw took her breath away.
The red steam engine was every bit as impressive as her mother had described it to be. As she walked through the mist, she found all kinds of people there, all of them no doubt saying their goodbyes and receiving advice on different things. She checked her watch. Five minutes until the train departed. She didn't realize that she was walking too far until her mother and father caught up with her. Her father seemed to be as enthralled by his surroundings as Moira was, muttering the words "fascinating" and "amazing" over and over.
"Moira, darling, you can't just run off like that!" Her mother seemed a bit tired from pushing her way through the crowds, and her wand was out. "What are you, four years old?" Moira wasn't listening.
"Did you just find me using your wand?" she asked, surprised that her mother could do that. Irene smiled at this.
"You'll be able to do a whole lot more when you go to Hogwarts, trust me," Irene said. "Now get a move on and get on the train, quickly." At this, Winford snapped out of his reverie and took something out of his briefcase that he usually took to work; a present for Moira.
"I'm no wizard, and have no idea what you'd need for school, but I thought I'd give you this," he said. Moira took it and unwrapped it. It was a lovely photo frame with a picture of the three of them in it. "Something to remember us by when you're there." Moira looked up at her father and gave him a hug.
"Aw, thanks Dad," she said, and held on to the picture tight. Just then the train whistle blew and Moira ran to get on the train, which began to move exactly three seconds after she was on it. She looked out the door and waved to her parents, who waved back to her until they could see each other no more.
Moira sighed deeply and pulled her trunk into the train, looking for a compartment that didn't have anyone in it. Unfortunately, it was far too late to find an empty compartment now, so she just settled for one which had only one girl sitting in it. She slid the compartment door open. The girl sitting in there was blonde-haired with pretty green eyes. Moira smiled at the girl, trying not to look as nervous as she felt.
"Hello," she greeted the girl. "Is this compartment free?"
((Hope you don't mind that I placed your character before you posted. Couldn't think of any other way in which the two could meet.))
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