Under the Stars

Katie slipped quietly into her daughter's bedroom. Lauren was facing away from her, surveying the overflowing trunk on the floor, but she heard her mother's entrance and turned.

"Just about packed?" Katie asked, picking the list up off Lauren's bed. She didn't need to look at it. She'd packed her own trunk enough times to know what was needed.

"Just about. It won't fit, though." Lauren was Katie's oldest child. Tall and skinny like her Uncle Ron, Lauren had her father's mischievous grin and red hair. If something was happening you could count on Lauren to be right in the middle of it - or causing it in the first place.

"Have you got all the important stuff? Socks, underwear - "

Lauren interrupted her. "Toothbrush, toothpaste, hairbrush, copy of Quidditch Through the Ages, Chocolate Frogs, wand, pyjamas, towel, quills, ink, robes, textbooks, cauldron, Fluffy Bear, a selection of Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes finest, Bertie Bott's Every Flav - "

"Lauren, did you just happen to mention Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes?" Katie put her hands on her hips, pretending to be outraged but not in the least surprised.

"Did you expect Dad to let his oldest child go off to Hogwarts for the first time unarmed and unprepared?" Lauren grinned at her mother.

Katie snorted. "Unarmed? Unprepared? You're a Weasley. No one could possibly be more armed or more prepared and that's without the Wheezes."

"You know Dad."

"I do indeed. By any chance, did Uncle Fred load Susie up with Wheezes as well?"

"Yep."

"Do I then assume that Daniel and Libby also have a few Wheezes in their trunks?"

"Yep," said Lauren again.

Katie sighed, and then laughed. "Hogwarts will never know what happened. Seven of you there at once. All with Wheezes on hand. I'll be very surprised if Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape aren't waiting to search your trunks when you arrive. Now, let's see if we can get all this in your trunk." Pulling out her wand, Katie muttered a few of the spells Molly Weasley had taught her and Lauren's things sorted themselves, lying neatly in her trunk with enough room to shut the lid.

Lauren grinned. "That was cool."

"You'll have to pack your own trunk when you come home. Though, when I was young, I always had to pack my trunk by hand."

Lauren looked at her mother. "It must have been weird. Suddenly finding out you were a witch and going off to boarding school."

Katie considered this. "It was weird. But at the same time, it seemed like I'd known it all along. It was like something that had been missing all my life had just appeared and made everything seem right."

"Were you scared? When you went to Hogwarts?"

"I was terrified. There were so many people, and all this magic, and I just had no idea. I got used to it pretty quickly, though, and I loved it."

"Playing Quidditch?"

"No Quidditch till second year - so don't get your hopes up, Miss."

"Uncle Harry played in his first year."

"Uncle Harry's a very unique case. I didn't start playing until my second year, but I spent my whole first year going to Quidditch matches and reading about it."

"And then you got on the team and met Dad."

"And then I got on the team and met your father. That's right."

"Mum?" said Lauren, hesitantly.

"Yeah?"

"What if - what if I'm not in Gryffindor?"

Katie stroked Lauren's hair and gently tugged her ponytail. "It doesn't matter what house you're in. It doesn't matter to me and it doesn't matter to your father. Whatever house you're Sorted into will be the house where you'll be happiest, and that's what your father and I want."

"But all the Weasleys have been in Gryffindor. What if I'm different?"

"Not such a bad thing to be. You'll always have all your cousins, no matter what houses you all end up in."

"I suppose."

George's voice floated up the stairs. "Katie? Lauren? We need to go."

"We're coming, honey!" Katie looked at her daughter. "Don't you worry about your house. Just you worry about being Lauren Weasley. Now you get the cat and we'll go. Locomotor trunk!"

***

Katie blinked a few times as she pushed through the barrier to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, holding a child by each hand. It felt like stepping back in time to her own schooldays. The train, the crowds of students and parents - except that now, it was the parents she knew, and she was here to see her own daughter off to Hogwarts for the first time.

"Isn't it wonderful?" said Lauren, who had just come through the barrier.

"I wish I was going," said Katie. "You're very lucky. You've got a whole seven years ahead of you."

"When can I go to Hogwarts?" asked Nathan, tugging on his mother's hand.

"Not for about four years, mate," Katie told him. "You get to stay home and help me look after Daddy."

"I don't need looking after," said George, coming through the barrier with Jacob and the trolley. "You can help me look after Mummy," he told Nathan.

Lauren rolled her eyes. "There's Uncle Fred and Aunty Angie," she said. "Let's go. Stop being silly!"

"She reminds me of you," Katie told George as they pushed their way through the crowd to where countless Weasleys and a few miscellaneous Potters had gathered.

"Why?" asked Charlotte.

"Never you mind," said Katie, letting Charlotte's hand go as they met the others.

"Isn't this bizarre?" Ginny's eyes were shining. "I want to get on that train and go, I really do."

"Me too, but Snape would have a fit," said Charlie, kissing his nieces and nephews.

"That'd be fun. All of us, on the train," said Katie, just picturing the sight.

"Talk about embarrassing," said Phoebe, pulling a face at her father.

"You're a prefect now, Phoebe Weasley. Let's see some respect for your elders."

After several minutes of great confusion, it was established that the adults would not be going to Hogwarts on the train; that the new first year Weasleys and Potter had more than enough Dungbombs between them and that Fred and George didn't need to provide any more; that it would be a very bad idea for Nathan to let Lauren's cat out of his basket; that Grace and Michael Lupin and Robbie Longbottom also did not need any more Dungbombs; and that it was more than about time for Phoebe, Grace, Michael, Robbie, Amber, Sam, Lauren, Daniel, Libby and Susie, complete with trunks, cats, owls, rats, toads and potted plants to say goodbye to their parents/aunts/uncles/cousins/brothers/sisters/adopted relatives and prepare to get on the train.

"I can't believe you're really going," said Katie, hugging Lauren tightly. "I'll miss you, sweetheart."

"Mum, you can let go now."

"My turn, Katie." George stepped in to hug Lauren, and pretending not to notice that he was slipping her more Dungbombs Katie turned away to kiss her nearest available nephews and nieces goodbye.

Everything was stowed on the train and the guard was blowing the final whistle. Katie watched Lauren move through the crowd with her cousins and push her way onto the train in the midst of a group of fiery redheads. She wouldn't see her again until Christmas. For some reason, Katie felt that this marked the beginning of the end of their happy family life. Jacob, Nathan and Charlotte would follow Lauren to Hogwarts and she and George would gradually lose touch with each of their children as they became more and more absorbed in Hogwarts and their adult world. Molly and Arthur Weasley had relinquished seven children to Hogwarts and adulthood. How had they done it?

"Kitty-Kat?" Even after twelve years of marriage, George still called her by the old name he'd come up with in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. "You all right, sweetheart?"

Katie blinked back a few tears, pretending not to hear Hermione assuring Ginny that it was perfectly normal to be a little upset when one's first child went to Hogwarts for the first time. Ron was telling Harry that Hermione had practically flooded the station with tears. "She's my little girl."

"I'm your little girl too," said Charlotte helpfully. "I'm littler than she is."

Katie felt George slip his arms around her and rest his chin on his head as they watched the train doors slam shut behind the last of the students. "You've still got me," he murmured.

"And us!" said Jacob, gesturing to his brother and sister.

"Can't a guy get a quiet romantic moment with his wife?" George muttered.

"Not on a crowded station platform," laughed Angelina as the train began to pull out of the station. Those left on the platform began waving, calling 'I love you' and 'I'll miss you' as the train gathered speed, searching for last glimpses of their loved ones among the children hanging out the windows. In a minute the train was gone, carrying the children off to what might as well have been another world and leaving their parents to think of days gone by.

"Poor Professor Snape," said Fred cheerfully, sensing that there were a few among their number who needed cheering up. "Can't you just see him reading the list at the Sorting?" He put on his best imitation of Snape's drawling voice. "'Longbottom, Robert. Lupin, Michael. Potter, Elizabeth. Weasley, Daniel. Weasley, Lauren. Weasley, Susannah.' He'll be beside himself."

"The revenge of the Weasleys? Or the revenge of the tormented?" asked Ron, scooping up his youngest child.

"Not in front of the children, you two!" Hermione scolded.

Katie smiled and took Charlotte's hand. Some things would always stay the same and one of those was the extended Weasley family. How right she'd been, on her wedding day, when she'd realised that she'd never be alone again. The greatest thing Hogwarts had given her was her husband and family. Her children already had that family. Hogwarts couldn't change that.

For a second, she stared off into the distance where the train had disappeared, thinking of the war, of Alicia and the others that had been lost. Those days were gone now. Smiling, she followed her family from the platform.