Mara's Magic

i - hogwarts express

I raced around the house like a maniac, grabbing small knickknacks, pictures, school supplies, or makeup tools I seemed to have forgotten when packing the first time. I slipped a moving-picture of me and my brother Charlie at a Puddlemere United game we went to over the summer into my bag. Seeing the quidditch game behind us sparked a realization - I didn't pack my broom. 

My pride and joy, my most precious possession, pretty much my child: my brand new Nimbus 2000 that I had spent the last three years saving up for.

When I say that it is hard to earn money as 14 year old, I mean it. After Third Year, I pushed extremely hard and worked at Ollivander's cleaning old boxes, sweeping more than I'd like to admit, and organizing and labeling all of his thousands of varieties of wands - all by wood, core, length, and color.

But, it paid well and (with my godmother helping with the last dozen or so galleons I needed) I bought it in the middle of the summer. I immediately told Charlie through the post, and that was when he told me that he had scored Puddlemere United tickets and he wanted me, his 14 year old little sister, to go with him. Did I mention that he was my favorite brother?

I had spent the rest of the summer continuing to work for Ollivander and for my aunt, babysitting her three little kids. I paid back my godmother, Minnie McGonagall, and then saved up so that I'd have money for Hogsmeade.

I stood up quickly and moved to run up the stairs to the room I shared with my baby sister Ginny, but a hand snatching my moving-picture of me and Charlie stopped me in my tracks.

"Fred!" I yelled, reaching out for it, but he pulled it away, analyzing it.

"I still don't know why he took you and not me," he said with a playful grin. He knew very well why Charlie didn't take him - if the pink paint and butterflies on the walls of his room was of any indication. Him and George had pestered the poor 17-year-old all summer and so when he moved out to go train dragons in Romania after staying with Mum and Dad to finish some of his studies, he didn't care to treat them to a quidditch match. And frankly, I am his favorite, so he would've taken me anyways.

"Fred, give it back," I told him with a pointed look, gesturing for the small square of paper. He sighed dramatically and placed it in my bag once more. "Thank you. Now, don't touch my stuff. I'm going to get my broom."

"Ah, yes, can't forget your baby," George commented with a cheeky smile as he walked into the room, toothbrush in hand.

I rolled my eyes and quickly ran up the stairs, turning into my room. One side of it was decorated in heavy yellow, white, and pink, with lots of blankets covering the yellow bed. A poster of Gwendolyn Morgan, the captain of the Hollyhead Harpies was over the dresser that was at the foot of Ginny's bed.

On the other side of our room was my dark chestnut bed covered in maroon blankets. A Gryffindor flag hung above the head of it next to a Puddlemere flag. The wall next to my bed was covered in a variety of pictures: me and Ginny at a lake; Charlie's graduation; a candid of my best friend playing Keeper during a quidditch match; a baby picture of Charlie, Bill, and Percy holding me and the twins; about thirty pictures of me and my friends at Hogwarts; three of the Gryffindor quidditch team pictures, each one from a past year; and a few more of me and Charlie at the Puddlemere United match. I tapped one of them twice and -thanks to a charm Percy so graciously put on them- they piled into a photo album that was on my desk. They were my pride and joy. Wait - no. That was.

My Nimbus sat against my bed and I snatched it quickly along with my photos before running as fast as I could down the stairs. 

After wrapping it in several sweaters and jumpers, I threw it into my trunk, thankful for the Undetectable Extension Charm that Dad had put on all of our trunks. I dropped the album in next to it. I went over a mental checklist of what I needed: books, check; clothes, check; quidditch gear, check; notebooks and quills, check; extra pots of ink, check; camera, check; extra film, check; broomstick, check.