Chapter Three

"Please don't forget to write!" Tom's mother sobbed into a wrinkled handkerchief. Tears brimmed her eyes and spilt down her cheeks, she couldn't believe her baby was in his last year. At first, he was embarrassed by her - back in first year when he was eleven and scared and the last thing he needed was the attention his mother gave with her loud sobs and over-dramatic.

As the years went on it hardly phased him, he was used to it at this point and he had even gotten past the staring. All he could think about was his friends, and the Hogwarts express in front of him. The new year was so close he could practically feel it...could smell it in the Smokey air of king's cross station, platform 9 ¾. He could grab it with two hands at this point, it would start officially in ten minutes at exactly eleven o'clock when the train would leave the station - never late, always on time.

Just like the new year. On time, perfect down to the last second.

"Of course, I won't, mum!" he patted her arm, and soon wrapped his arms around her tightly. She was a head shorter than him, and he had definitely taken after his father in the height department which he was rather grateful for. She was clutching onto him for dear life, reluctantly letting go after a long time and only when Tom's father pulled on her shoulders.

"Be good, Tom." He knew his dad was trying to hold it in. He wasn't the most emotionally sensitive man in the world and Tom knew this. He smiled, shook his dad's hand and patted his back, "listen to your teachers - or professors, or whatever they're called these days. Do well with that...sports thing, just don't get yourself killed!"

"I won't dad, I promise," he laughed, finally caving and pulling on his dad's hand so he could hug him. His parents could be a pain sometimes but so could all parents, that's just how it was with most families but at the end of the day he loved them with all his heart - he'd do anything for them.

"You better write," his dad whispered, "or I'll march up to that school in god knows where and make you!"

"I will dad," he could only mutter back. He was getting emotional himself, it was hard to be with his family all summer and then suddenly leave them. It wasn't a fair deal, especially considering his family weren't magic in any way, shape or form except him.

"Say hi to Cassandra for us!" his mother winked, and Tom waved her off with a mere chuckle. His trunk had left him, sitting with a pile of many other trunks at the far end of the station to get loaded onto the train and all he had to do was board.

He could see Mitch a little down hugging his baby brother who was just three. The boy was practically sobbing into Mitch's chest and Mitch looked just as sad to have to leave the poor boy too.

It was like this every year.

Happiness and sadness go hand in hand sometimes, maybe even joining together to create bittersweet moments like platform 9 ¾ on the first September morning. It was a pain that Tom wouldn't miss, and when he finally bid his parents a last goodbye, he allowed a single tear to fall down his cheek before boarding the train and hurriedly wiping it.

As much as the platform was not a fond memory, it was as though the atmosphere completely changed when he boarded the train. It was the same every year. The dark and dreary platform with dull clouds rolling in the skies above to be seen down below instantly disappeared when he boarded, with a warm glow from the train wall lights and the smell of chocolate frogs and pumpkin pasties wafting down his nose and beyond him.

It was a perfect balance. The sweet part of bittersweet that was the Hogwarts express, that allowed the sadness to melt away and replaced with warmth and light and happiness and sweet. It was everything that he loved about magic and Hogwarts rolled into one perfectly wrapped present - or train, in this case - that let the smile widen on his lips.

The messy blonde hair atop his head blew in all directions due to the aftermath of a spell from a newly practising seventeen-year-old, one he knew didn't care all that much for destruction and he swept passed compartments and students with a smile in a different direction. Girls smiled at him, some even calling him over or greeting him with a wave and a shy "Hi, Tom!"

He'd wave back, smile back, match their greeting with his own and hurry on down the train to find an empty compartment - or find his girlfriend.

"Tom!" the boy grinned at the sight of one of his close friends, a cheery Hufflepuff just like he was with a new hair colour every few months, "how was your summer?! Have you seen Mitch anywhere? I asked Marty bu-"

"Donna slow down!" Tom laughed, wrapping his arm around her in a tight hug, "first of all, how was your summer?"

"Oh, it was alright I suppose!" she shrugged, going into a large story to describe the exact backstory of why her hair was now a deep shade of turquoise, "Marty said I look like the shell of a turtle."

"Marty is right," Tom scoffed, earning a smack to his arm, "but! There's a but!"

"But what?!"

"But if there's anyone in the world that could pull it off, then it'd be you!" he smirked, winking at his friend who rolled her eyes with a smile, "happy?"

"You've redeemed yourself, I suppose." His smirk turned to a wide grin and she pulled him into an empty compartment when they finally found one.

"Have you seen Cass?" Tom asked and at the mention of the girl's name, Donna rolled her eyes.

Donna was not one to hate girls for the sake of hating girls - she wouldn't hate anyone for the sake of hating them. Cass, though, was the exception. Due to this, most of Tom's friends hated the girl too, because Donna's gut feeling was very trusting, and when Donna had bad feelings towards someone, it was very wise to listen to that.

If it had not been for the first hand "awfulness" that she had witnessed due to the girl and her rotten personality, then she would have of course given her the benefit of the doubt. Donna had been close friends with Tom for a while, but so had Jack been. The two girls became close to Tom when they were mid-way through their first year and had stayed close friends with him ever since.

So, when Cass had demanded Tom to stop being friends with them because he couldn't be friends with girls when she was his girlfriend, Donna immediately took a disliking to her. She didn't like Tom (Tom was the furthest from her type) and neither did Jack, in fact when Tom told them this, they roared into a fit of laughter.

It was only when Tom said he ought to consider it back when he and Cassandra first got together that the two girls stopped their laughing out of fury. Neither of them talked to Tom for a whole month until he came to his senses and apologised and told Cassandra that they were over if she thought he'd ever leave his friends.

She, of course, didn't like this but she stayed with him. He thought, and still thinks that it was because their love for each other is so strong - but ultimately, it's because he is incredibly popular and seriously good looking, and she liked that more than she cared to love him.

"I don't know where she is, no." Donna shrugged, leaning back in her chair. Tom could only describe Donna as crazy in the best possible way. She had on a pair of brown corduroy jeans, flared at the bottom that showed off very chunky platformed heels that he wasn't sure she knew how to walk in.

He also didn't know how she was going to change into her robes, and if she'd leave the shoes on or put on a different pair. She had a t-shirt tucked into her jeans that had a picture of a woman flipping off the sky, and he wondered how her mother of all people even let her leave the house.

Of course, it wasn't like Donna would allow anyone to tell her what to do anyway.

"How can you walk in them?" Tom asked curiously. He thought back to his fifth year when Jack had dared him to walk down the hall in a pair of heels that had a much thinner heel and he could only describe them as painful.

Donna laughed, "patience and persistence."

"Good answer," Tom hummed, leaning back on the compartment seat and letting his eyes wander to the window, "Where is everyone?"

"Mitch is Ravenclaw head boy remember, so we won't see him until Hogwarts. Jack is probably snogging some guy somewhere, you know what she's like. Or she's trying to annoy Mitch and get him to snog her, you know what they are like." Tom laughed at that, nodding his head at the antics of his two friends, Jack and Mitch had an on again off again type thing - and not because they fought or hated each other but quite the opposite.

Neither one of them wanted to settle down, but they liked each other so much that they didn't want to hurt each other. Tom found it very confusing and decided to never get involved with the whole ordeal.

"Joel and Marty will find us eventually and Russ is probably late," Donna laughed, "we'll see him in October."

"That really wouldn't surprise me." Tom settled into the seat. He leaned his head on the wall to his left and Donna mimicked him at the other side of the compartment, it would be a while until their friends found them, even if they managed to find another empty compartment by some miracle they'd come looking eventually - and wherever there was Joel there was Marty and vice versa...he'd see his friends eventually.

"I think I saw Cass with some of her friends from Ravenclaw, by the way," Donna finally said after five minutes of comfortable silence, "I just didn't want you to go off and leave me because you'd see her."

"I wouldn't leave you alone."

"Sure, you wouldn't," Donna muttered, rummaging into the bag she had over her shoulder and taking out a very thick book. Tom sighed, his eyes still on the scenery outside. He knew that Donna was having a dig at him, which usually happened when Cass was involved but he knew how Donna (and all of his friends) felt about Cass.

"Finally!" Tom jumped when the compartment door flew open and Russ stumbled in, falling onto the end of Donna's seat. She put her feet on his legs, both her and Tom watching him catch his breath, "I've been looking for you for ages!"

"I'm surprised you're even on the train!" Donna snorted, tucking her book beside her and Russ smacked her leg lightly, "we don't know where Joel and Marty are."

"Who knows," Russ huffed, running a hand through his hair that seemed almost coated in a line of sweat.

"Have you been running?!" asked Tom, eyebrow raised.

"Yeah, for the train knobhead!" Russ exclaimed, "nearly missed it by a second. Threw my mum and dad a wave and that was me off! I'll see them at Christmas though, it's all good."

"My dad would kill me if I just waved," Donna said, "it takes him an hour to leave the house! He brings out old photo books and cries...bloody nightmare."

"Your dad is like your best friend, you love it!" Tom laughed, earning a flip of her middle finger and he merely mimicked it.

"Anyway," Russ clapped, "Where's Cassandra?"

"Don't start!" Donna groaned, pulling her book out whilst Russ burst into a fit of laughter, earning the two of them another flip of Tom's middle finger.