[Hogwarts Between] Platform Nine and Three-Quarters: Cyrus

[Margaret Dean]

[OOC:  This was composed by William even though it's being sent
from my email address; Operamail and our home computer are not
playing nicely together at the moment. --MD]

	"Put that bird in its cage!", shouted Daphne Windermere's shrill
voice. The bird in question, Cyrus's owl Barnaby, was flitting
around the ceiling, hooting in a disgruntled manner concerning
the bustle surrounding him. Daphne was attempting to stuff
Cyrus's socks into the already groaning suitcase. 
	"C'mon, Barnaby," coaxed Cyrus. He was standing in the middle of
the room, holding the owl's cage. "It'll just be for a little
while."
	"Lying to your own bird now, eh?" said Gideon, coming through
the door with another hamper of clothes. He and Gerald, Cyrus's
elder brothers, had been drafted into preparing for the departure
to London. "It'll be wonderful," he commented sarcastically to
Gideon, who was coming up behind him. "Five hours in the car with
our darling brother, his owl, and that suitcase. A real joyride."
His voice fairly dripped with with irony.
	"Be nice to your little brother," scolded Daphne. "This is a
very big day for him." She scowled menacingly at the brothers,
who shuffled their feet and retreated downstairs. They nearly ran
into Eugene, who was coming up with a grin plastered on his face.
	"Hullo, folks!" he commented brightly. "How's it coming?" Daphne
muttered something heated under her breath, which luckily no one
could hear.
	"We're fine, dad," replied Cyrus, who was shutting the door of
Barnaby's cage.
	"So you're finally going to Hogwarts," Eugene said to Cyrus in a
low voice. "How do you feel? Excited? Nervous? Scared?"
	"I... uh... I'm fine, dad," said Cyrus. 
	"Good," said his father cheerily, clapping Cyrus's shoulder.
"Time to go!"

	The ride to London was unpleasant, to say the least. Everyone in
the small, shabby car was constantly hitting each other and
various of Cyrus's possessions with elbows and feet. Barnaby kept
up an almost constant ruckus throughout, putting everyone's
tempers on edge.
	Cyrus, though, spent most of the journey in silent
contemplation. He pretended to pore over his school books, often
not noticing that he had reread the same paragraph five times. He
finally gave up and pulled out his wand. The slight prickle in
his fingers as he held it told him that it was no ordinary length
of wood. "Ten inches, willow, with a unicorn's tail hair,"
Ollivander had told him. "Nice and flexible, and wonderful for
charms." Cyrus slowly rolled it over his fingers, feeling the
faint power that rested in it.
	His reverie was shattered by a sudden jolt, as the car rolled
into King's Cross Station. "Here we are!" said Eugene, and the
Windermeres piled out of the car almost before it stopped moving.
Daphne went off to find a cart, while the others began unloading. 
	"What do you have in this bag," asked Gideon in disbelief.
"Bricks?"
	"No, that's the one with my books and cauldron," Cyrus replied. 
	The immense pile of luggage barely managed to be crammed into
the cart. Eventually, though, Eugene trundled it off towards the
platforms, Barnaby's cage balanced precariously on top. Eugene
whistled unmusically as he walked, the rest of the family
straggling along behind him. "Platform 7, Platform 8, Platform
9... aha, here we are!" he said. "Here" was an imposing brick
barrier between platforms 9 and 10. The other Windermeres looked
at him as though he were insane. And rightfully so, as he began
to push the cart directly towards the barrier, gathering speed.
"Eugene, stop!" shouted Daphne. And then he was gone, as though
he had vanished into the bricks.
	Minutes, passed and Daphne had a look of horror on her face.
Finally, Eugene popped back into view. "Well," he said
impatiently. "What are you guys waiting for?" He was a bit
surprised whn his wife rushed into his arms and hugged him
fiercely. "Where did you go?" she asked scoldingly. "Where's
Cyrus's cart?"
	"Oh..." said Eugene, realizing that he had never explained
Platform 9 and 3/4. He proceeded to do so quickly, and then
demonstrated by having Cyrus lean against the barrier. He did so,
and disappeared.
	
	Cyrus found himself swept into a crowd of people. He looked back
and saw nothing but a plain brick wall. Suddenly, Eugene swept
out of nowhere and took him by the arm. He began to steer Cyrus
through the press of people towards the cart, guided by Barnaby's
faint hooting. Cyrus looked around himself, and couldn't help but
snicker at the odd assortment of clothes people were wearing. One
man had managed to put the coat of his 3-piece suit on backwards,
and was trying to figure out what he couldn't move his arms.
Another gentleman, wearing a flower-patterned evening dress, was
talking to a lady in knickerbockers and a one-piece bathing suit.
	But as he approached the front of the crowd with his cart, his
attention was rivetted to the scarlet train that stood, hissing
and steaming, by the edge of the platform.