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I went through one of the photo albums my friends gave me as a parting gift as soon as I was on my way to London. I smiled at the memory of one of the many snowball fights we had, the moving photograph making me remember it like it was yesterday. The smiles and laughter of the days at Durmstrang bringing tears to my eyes.

                          
I promised I would send them an owl the second I arrived at Hogwarts.
                          
Transferring schools was never easy. Leaving all your friends behind was never easy. But all of the above get just a notch more complicated when you're a Potter. Especially the Potter nobody really knew anything about. 
                          
I was mentioned here and there, every now and then but I wasn't there when it happened; when my parents were killed and my brother permanently scarred. Literally. So, the publics interest in me was at a minimum, in contrary to their interest in my brother. 
                          
I was happy it was this way. I never really liked to be the centre of attention, which was one of the many reasons I didn't end up going to Hogwarts with Harry and instead applied to Durmstrang Institute as an international student the second Hagrid had explained it all to us. All being that we were wizards, of course. 
                          
Now, it's been around two years since I had seen Harry. I sent him an owl when I decided to transfer to Hogwarts but never got a reply from him. Seeing as the route from my school to Harry's was a long one though, I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and just pretended Tucker, my owl, had lost the letter on the way. Twice.
                          
He wasn't necessarily the only reason I decided to give Hogwarts a try after all. Being completely honest it just felt right. My friends called me nuts when I told them that "it felt right" was my reasoning for leaving pretty much my whole life behind but they supported me none the less. They knew just as well as I did to listen to your gut and instincts when it felt right. 
                          
I sighed at the memory of them. 
                          
✧·ﾟ: *✧·ﾟ:*✧ 
                          
I've never been to Hogwarts before, therefore I've never been to Platform 9 ¾ either and wasn't quite sure what to make of the instructions they gave me on how to get there. I've been standing between Platform 9 and 10 for at least fifteen minutes now, waiting for anyone at all to jump through the wall between the two platforms. A few muggles here and there got my hopes up whenever they approached the spot but I was immediately disappoint once I realised they were all just passing by. 
                          
I finally gave up on waiting for anyone to show up and figured I was simply too early for them to try and get to the platform yet. I took a deep breath, glanced towards my owl on top of my trolley and then ran towards the wall with full speed. Luckily I came right out on the other side, a sigh of relief escaping my lips as I opened my eyes. 
                          
The beautiful, dark train was just coming to a halt on my right and I scanned the platform quickly. A few families were scattered around the place. They all seemed like giddy first-years and their parents; hugging and laughing, spending their last hours in unity with each other before the little ones went on without their parents. 
                          
A soft smile placed itself on my lips at the memory of how exciting everything felt during my first few days at Durmstrang and I had the exact same feeling come up all over again.
                          
The reason I came as early as I did was to make sure the first time I saw Harry wasn't by accidentally running into him in between hundreds of stressed out, nervous students. Especially when I wasn't even sure he knew I was coming to begin with. 
                          
I was the first one to enter the Hogwarts Express. It was quiet inside, peaceful even and I enjoyed it as long as I could. Within the hour it would be the absolute opposite of that, I was sure of that. I found myself a compartment at the end of the train and sat down beside the window. The views were rumoured to be spectacular and I wasn't going to miss out on that.