Kathryn Weasley took a deep breath and broke away from hugging her mother. She knew that she should have been used to going away to school every year by then, but even at age fifteen, she always became incredibly homesick once her family arrived at King's Cross.
"We'll write all the time, Kate," her mum said, squeezing her only daughter's shoulder.
Kate nodded, looking at her immaculately polished black shoes. She knew, without a doubt, that she would cry if she looked up.
"And you'll be home for Christmas, and that's not terribly far off, is it?"
Kate nodded again and managed to compose herself enough to look up and give her mother a watery smile.
"No, it's not so far," she said quietly, reaching over her trunk to hug her father next. Mr. Weasley was looking particularly pleased about something that morning, and Kate didn't have to think very hard to figure what it was.
"Train's about to leave, Kate!" her older brother Ignatius called pompously, making his way over to load Kate's trunk. "You'd better get over to the prefect's carriage now."
"All right, all right!" Kate replied nervously, unconsciously fingering her bright yellow prefect's badge. She'd examined it so closely over the past summer that, even without looking, Kate could see it clearly in her head– a bold black P superimposed over an alert-looking badger. A Hufflepuff prefect. Her parents had been so proud.
She watched Ignatius smile smugly as he lifted her crate, not quite high enough to obscure his own yellow badge. Ignatius Weasley was the first Hufflepuff Head Boy in decades, something her father never seemed to tire of inserting into even the most unlikely conversations.
"Growing a vegetable garden, are you? My wife has a flower garden, just planted some lilies. We have a niece named Lily too, eleven, heading off to Hogwarts. She might be sorted into Hufflepuff like Kate and Ignatius. Prefects, both, you know, and Ignatius is the first Hufflepuff Head Boy in decades…"
Kate assumed it was a mark of how well she'd been brainwashed that she had almost grown to be impressed by this quality of her father's, though she didn't feel she herself would ever be quite so adept. Ignatius was about as good, but then, he was practically her father's clone.
"Vacationing in Spain, eh? Yes, we went to Spain years ago. Kate insisted on being called "Isabella" all month. Really just the latin form of "Elizabeth," of course. Oh, and did you hear? Elizabeth MacMillan's the new Head Girl. I'm quite pleased to be working with her, quite pleased. I'm the new Head Boy, after all, and the first Hufflepuff one in decades, you see."
"Love you Mum," Kate whispered as she gave her mother one last squeeze. Ignatius grabbed her arm and yanked her up onto the train just as it began to move "Love you Dad!"
"Christmas, sweetie!" Mrs. Weasley called. And Mr. Weasley: "Mind your brother now!"
Kate pressed her hand up to the window to wave goodbye, but in a moment and a flash of green, they'd rounded a bend into empty country and rolling hills.
"You shouldn't be too homesick this year," Ignatius said in what Kate figured her thought was a reassuring voice. "You'll have prefect duties and OWLs to worry about– you'll just be too busy! But come on, we need to get to the prefect meeting. Can't be late first day on the job, now, can we?"
Kate nodded and followed her brother past all the quickly-filling compartments to the prefect carriage, no doubt to meet all the miserably dull people she'd be spending most of the year with and berating herself silently for being so ungrateful.
There could be worse things than having an overprotective older brother, she mused. An underprotective brother, maybe. Lily Potter simply delighted in telling her about all the horrible tricks James played on her when they were little– like switching her spaghetti for worms, or pretending he saw the Grim every time she'd come around, or tricking her into believing that the Sorting Hat ate your face if you weren't good enough for any House. Growing up with Ignatius, life had been a lot safer. He'd never lied to Kate, or pulled a prank on her, or allowed her to get into any sort of dangerous situations (including playing with James Potter, who he claimed was a bad influence). But then again, life had been a lot more boring too.
"Oy, Kate!" someone called from a nearby compartment. "Are you going to the prefect meeting? It hasn't started, has it?"
Kate turned to find herself face to face with Ravi Singh, Ravenclaw, who was one of her favorite fellow fifth years.
"Hi Ravi," she replied, brightening up for the first time all morning. "We're just going there, you're not late. I–"
"But you will be if you keep dawdling," Ignatius cut in, looking down at Ravi severely from behind his thick glasses.
"Hi Ignatius," said Ravi, unphased. "Have a good summer?"
Ignatius simply pursed his lips and turned his attention back to finding the prefect's carriage. Ravi grinned at Kate, and she nearly swooned. He was brilliant, and really rather good-looking, and– did she mention brilliant? For whatever, reason, though, Ignatius had never really considered Ravi Singh appropriate company for his little sister, and they'd never been able to spend much time with each other outside of classes. There looked to be hope for fifth year, though, Kate thought happily.
They had arrived.
"All right, settle down everyone!" Ignatius shouted to a perfectly orderly group of students sitting quietly in the prefect's carriage. Kate grinned. Everything seemed so funny all of a sudden, and it struck her as positively hilarious that so many of her classmates would be afraid of her brother. She smiled and Ravi and sat down.
"Houses together!" Ignatius ordered. Kate sighed and had the feeling that her brother was only saying that to keep her from sitting next to Ravi. What was his problem, anyway?
"I said, Houses together!"
Kate stood up and crossed to the compartment to find an empty seat next to one of her least favorite fellow classmates, who also happened to be the other Hufflepuff prefect.
"Hi William," she said wearily, sensing that Ignatius was watching to make sure she was polite. The MacMillans were good family friends.
"Good afternoon, Kathryn," William replied, smiling so smugly that Kate would have liked nothing better than to say something incredibly rude and inappropriate… particularly because she got the feeling that part of the smugness came from her being forced to sit in that certain seat. "I hope you had a good vacation."
"Yes, I did," said Kate woodenly. "And you?"
But just as William MacMillan opened his mouth to relate the status of his summer break, the door to the compartment swung open with a bang.
"Come on, Ravi, hand it over," a tall boy with messy black hair said, holding out his hand expectantly. Kate had never figured out just what made it so, but there was always a distinctly disreputable air that clung to the boy…
"I don't know what you're talking about," said Ravi, not so innocently.
The boy with black hair laughed. "And I'm Ignatius's brother," he said with a mischievous grin. "I know you have it. And maybe you think you should keep it because you're some law-abiding prefect now, Rav, but I don't think so. Come on. Give it here."
"I swear," said Ravi. "I don't have it. And trust me, there's no prefect at Hogwarts that could keep… er… it from you."
Kate looked up at her brother, who was beet-red with anger. She shuddered. She was definitely glad not to be on the receiving end of that disapproval. Any minute, and he'd explode. Ten… nine… eight…
"You swear, eh?" asked the boy, still grinning. "Do you solemnly swear, Rav?"
Ravi stood up. "Sshh!" he hissed. "I gave it to Pre because Al was asking too many questions and I thought he'd have a look through your things. All right? Happy?"
The black-haired boy looked relieved, like the weight of the world had been lifted off his shoulders. "Oh," he said. "Well, I'd better go deal with Al then. He needs to learn to keep his nose out of our business, if you know what I mean."
Kate stole another glance at Ignatius. Three… two… one…
"AND YOU NEED TO LEARN TO SHOW SOME RESPECT!" Ignatius shouted, positively livid. "TERM MIGHT NOT HAVE STARTED YET, BUT MARK MY WORDS, JAMES POTTER, YOU HAD BETTER TOW THE LINE THIS YEAR!"
Kate cringed. Maybe she'd been deluding herself– there was no hope. Ravi Singh was James Potter's best friend.