I’m currently inside the Hogwarts Express as it comes to a halt within King’s Cross station. I was in a compartment with Kate and Cormac. We just played games, joked, and talked about our summer plans. Kate was going on a trip abroad whereas Cormac was thinking of lazing around in his home. I was going to crash at the Weasley's house.

The train stops and all the students inside disembark. We get off and see the magical platform we've been familiar with. Students are bidding their friends goodbye, some hugging and others are introducing their friends to their parents. Parents are embracing their children, welcoming them home, or asking them various questions. Kate and Cormac have met up with their parents and have introduced us to them. But what's this?

Where are my parents? Rather, where’s father? I don’t expect my mother to come in the state she’s in.

I wander around for a bit before leaving the platform. As I walk out of the station, I look around and see no one.

What the hell? Did they forget or something?

I think a bit before deciding to call a taxi and just head home myself. But then I remember the glaring fact that I don’t have muggle money.

Is there some kind of wizard taxi? Wizard chariot? There’s a wizard train, so there’s surely some sort of wizard transportation, right?

I can’t apparate to my home as I don’t know how to. Even if I could, it seems that underage apparition is illegal. What a predicament.

I use Reducio on my luggage when no one’s looking. Of course, I haven’t shrunk Elaine's cage. She’s the only thing I’m holding now as my bags are in my pocket. After I've shrunk my luggage, I see an owl flying towards me. It’s a brown one with yellow eyes.

What’s the use of an owl? Just come pick me up. I can’t fly on a bloody owl now, can I?

Oh no wait, it seems the owl has a letter in its talons. The owl lands on my shoulder and I take the letter from his talons. Elaine hoots at the owl. Looks like she’s angry at the insolent bird for sitting on her owner's shoulder. The owl in response just turns its head away. How amusing.

I open up the letter; it’s not even in an envelope, it’s just a folded piece of paper.

Oh my God, what sort of trash handwriting is this? Did they cast Illegibilus on it?

As I painfully try to figure out what’s written here, my expression changes from shock to happiness to one of haste.

To summarize, my father was the one who wrote the letter. My mother's water broke an hour or so ago. And that’s about it. I mean the contents of the letter looked big but in reality, it was just my father writing and crossing out his mistakes.

Jeez, haven’t you gone through this process once? Why are you still so nervous? Fuck, this isn’t the time.

I take out Elaine who upon getting out tries to peck at the owl sitting on my shoulder. It seems the owl finished its job as it dodged the attack and flew off. Elaine takes the owl's spot on my shoulder and sticks its chest out, looking somewhat proud and triumphant.

Pfft~ haha! That look's ador- this isn’t the time.

I shrink Elaine's cage enough so that it can be carried by her and store my bags. I throw my bags in the small cage and give them to her. I tell her to take them to our house and if she can’t find an open window, throw them through the mail slot. As she flies off, I take out my coin pouch. I check how many gallons I have, my savings from the allowance mom gave me, and some birthday presents.

Five galleons and six sickles. Hopefully, this is enough.

I quickly go back into the station and ask a wizard who was taking his kid out, “Excuse me, mister. Is there some sort of wizard transportation?”

“Wizard transportation... ah yes, there's the Knightbus!”

“How do I get on it?”

“Just hold out your wand in front of you.”

“Is that all?”

“Yeah, just go to the street and hold out your wand. But, where are you goi-“, but the wizard couldn’t finish as I was already gone.

I come to the street in front of the station and hold out my wand as instructed. I wait for a bit, only to see a bus come through an alleyway. It’s a blue bus with three decks. It’s coming at a speed that’d give the traffic police a heart attack.

A bit unconventional but I understand the principles.

It comes to a stop in front of me and I climb aboard in a hurry. A man with an unclean face and unkempt hair was waiting for me. He wore a purple jacket and pants with a white shirt inside. He also had a black-tie and a purple conductor's hat with a red stripe.

“Hello, I’m Stan Shunpike. I’m the conductor of this here Knightbus, where would like to go?”

“St. Mungo's.”

“All right then, please take a seat and we’ll be there shortly.”

I turn around from him and take a look at the seats. There are rows of seats with some people sitting on them.

Hold on a second, something feels a bit odd. It feels like something is missing.

I push the thought to the back of my head and sit down on a window seat.

“We'll head off then,” Stan announced, and the bus races off. And I mean races off. Oh my God, is it fast. And worst of all as I jerk around violently, I figure out what was missing as I face plant on the seat in front of me.

The seats aren’t bolted down.

I use Body Reinforcement on my legs to hold on and it suppresses the jerking a bit. I think of my mother's situation, whether or not my sister's been born. I seem to lack knowledge of childbirth.

After four stops, we finally reach St. Mungo's. Stan announces, “St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries.”

I and three wizards stand up as we’ve reached our destination. As I pass by Stan, he reaches out his hand, “That’ll be eleven sickles.”

I reach into my coin pouch and hand him a galleon. He takes the galleon with one hand and rummages his pockets with the other before handing me back six sickles as change. I get off the bus and it speeds off again.

I enter the hospital and come up to the receptionist.

“Are you here to get diagnosed, treated, or to visit?”

“I'm here to visit Selene Balor. She's here to give birth.”

“Selene... Balor...-“ the witch checks a book and turns a few pages, “- yes, she’s in room 506 on the 5th floor.”

“Thank you very much.”, I rush up the stairs.

The delivery rooms are on the fifth floor with the visitor tea room and the hospital shop, huh? Good to know. I think I’ll have to come back here again. Lord knows if my father can keep himself controlled.

I reach room 506 only to find my father pacing back and forth in front of the room.

“What's the situation?”

My father makes some gestures which say, “Don’t know, she's still in there.”

“I hope the baby comes out fine.”

My father crosses his fingers in agreement. Speaking of my mother, I hear nothing from inside the room. No screams or curses. Seems like they've used some sort of soundproofing charm. That’s good. I mean this is the place where all deliveries happen. I don’t think anyone can last in front of the combined screeches of women in labor pains.

Time passes very slowly yet the tense atmosphere in the halls doesn’t dissipate in the least. My father has started to sweat bullets now. His pacing has become even faster. His face is becoming a bit red and his eyes are glued to the door. It seems he’s going to barge in any moment. I’m equally as tense but still, keep my calm. Some more time passes and my father stomps on the ground before heading straight for the door.

Seems like he finally snapped.

I jump in front of him and try to hold him back, “Father, stop. Relax, it’s a critical time and you barging in may complicate things.” However, my father shows no sign of stopping.

Hmm~ this isn’t working.

I push him back a bit before taking my wand and chant a Bewitched Sleep charm which puts him to sleep. He goes limp and falls in my arms. I carry him to a nearby seat and set him there.

Much better.

After I put him to sleep, an hour passes and the healer inside opens the door.

“Congratulations, it’s a girl!”

“Is it over?”

“Yes, that must be your mother in there. She’s doing fine, a bit tired though that’s nothing a potion can't fix.”

“And the baby?”

“She's a healthy 8 pounds. Where's your father? Your mother's calling for him.”

“Right my father's right... here...”

Ahh fuck.

Father’s still knocked out. I turn to the healer with an uneasy expression, “Could I ask you to cast a Rennervate on him? Thank you very much.”

“Poor guy's all tired, huh.”

I enter the room as my father is being woken up. I see my mother sitting up on the bed with a small baby in her arms. Her pale and sweaty face has a brilliant smile as she looks at me.

“Come over here. Look this is your baby sister.”

I approach my mother and see a small baby with pinkish and slightly wrinkly skin. She looks to be slowly lulled to sleep.

“Would you like to hold her?”

“Yes.”

My mother hands the baby over to me and I carefully cradle it in my arms.

As I look at the baby's peaceful and asleep face, a warm feeling washes over me. I whisper to the baby to not wake it up, “So, this is Faye. Welcome to this bizarre and magical world.”

It seems raising a baby is really taking a toll on my parents. They seem to be constantly running around as they take care of Faye's every need. It’s gotten to the point where they have bags underneath their eyes.

Was I this needy as a baby too? I... don’t... know?

Faye wails even at night. I used to wake up in the first few weeks as well and hear my father or mother fumbling around in the hall as they try to rush to her. After the first few weeks of getting woken up by Faye's crying, I just used the Sleep charm to knock myself out.

I learned that this was indeed taking a toll on my parents as I’ve never seen them this tired when I was a baby. It seems they were illusions to think that Faye would also be less fussy like me and now they’re paying dearly for it. Their tiredness has reached a level where you couldn’t differentiate them from the undead.

How do I know this, you ask? I know this because of a certain event that happened. My scars from training in Total Body Reinforcement we’re still on my body as I never bothered to remove them. And I usually don’t show my body to my parents to avoid unnecessary concern and questioning. One time, I had messed up and accidentally revealed them to my mother. My mother was initially shocked, “SOL!! What happened to your body?! How did you get hurt like this?”

As I was making up an excuse for how this happened, Faye started crying in her room. My mother looks upstairs with a tired expression and then rushes off. My mouth was agape as I watched her leave. And then she never brought it up again. Seems she was too tired to remember it.

No no no wait. How tired do you have to be to forget about your son’s scarred body? With this many scars even if I said I was tortured it wouldn’t be that farfetched.

As I finally understood what they were going through, I finally made a decision.

Twice a week, I would go inside their room when they were about to sleep and knock them out with a Sleep charm. And I take their place in taking care of Faye's needs during the night. It seems my arrangement worked. Both my parents seem a bit less tired the next day.

My songs or rather lullabies seem to have some sort of effect on Faye. Whenever I lull her to sleep, she'll go wide-eyed for a bit before slowly falling to sleep.

Is she hallucinating as well? I've had the students from Gryffindor tell me that they’ve seen a woman singing when I was playing music but I don’t know who she is as I don’t see her.

And this is only the case when I sing lullabies to her. But when I sing songs to her, she doesn’t seem to hallucinate. Then again, she also hallucinates when I play any instrument. What’s up with that?

I feel like I have to research more about this. Though right now, I’ll just spend time with Faye.

I was walking around in the neighborhood when I saw the strangest thing. There's like a parliament of owls in front of the Dursleys' house. Hell, they’re on their car, on the roof, and just walking around on the driveway. They're sitting on the road as well. It’s a bit creepy how their eyes seem to follow me when I walk past.

Hmm~ what’s that?

Three owls are flying overhead with a sack. They continue flying over the Dursley’s house and stop above their chimney. Two owls grab the open ends of the sack while the remaining owl grabs the rear end, tilting the sack so that the open end faces the opening of the chimney. And, oh my God, ungodly amounts of envelopes are pouring out from inside the sack. Why would you do this? You used an Extension charm for this?

Another three owls do the same thing in front of the mail slot on their front door. Huh? Was that magic used at first? The owls then upend the contents of the sack through the mail slot.

What the hell is happening?

Curiosity gets the better of me and I run in front of the window next to their front door and peek through the small gap left in one of the curtains.

What the actual fuck?

The Dursleys' house is flooded with mail. And upon close inspection, it looks to be from Hogwarts. Harry ran from the living room and tries to open the door to his cupboard only for Vernon to grab and lift him from behind. They keep swinging around for a bit before both of them fall. Vernon seems to be drowned in letters before screaming something. As Petunia and Dudley look at him with a worried expression, I’m left thinking to myself:

Damn, that looks like hell if you ask me.

I’m currently sitting inside Mr. Weasley's car which has an Extension charm to help fit everyone in the family. I was with the Weasleys in the last leg of summer vacation. This year Ron is going to Hogwarts as well. I happened to see his reaction. First, he was overjoyed, then he started wishing that the Hogwarts curriculum is easy.

As expected of someone like him.

Fred and George as always have mercilessly teased him. And Percy became a prefect this year. So, he got an owl as a gift. So, he gave his previous... pet... to Ron.

Hold on, that rat's still fucking alive. It’s been close to bloody twelve years, hasn’t it?

I swear to God, I haven’t found a single clue as to how it’s living this long. Now, I’m sure that it’s an Animagus. Now, how do I tell them this? Fuck it, now’s not the time. I’m in a car and if it’s really an Animagus, then worst case scenario he’ll do something that harms the Weasleys and me. I’ll tell Mrs. or Mr. Weasley when the time comes.

Speaking of Mrs. Weasley, she and Ginny have visited us a lot after Faye was born. And even she told my mom, that she should take care of her health a bit more. She also helped out a bit when my mom was especially tired. She’s been a great help to my mom. Also, Faye seems to like Ginny quite a bit. She’s all smiles and laughs when Ginny comes over. Fuck, that looks adorable.

The car comes to a halt as we reach King’s Cross station. And it seems the Weasleys are in a bit of a hurry as they rush to get everything out of the car. I calmly take out Elaine and my luggage and load them on a trolley. After the Weasleys are done we start walking towards the wall leading to platform 9 and ¾. Mr. Weasley doesn’t get off and drives away with the car, probably heading to his job at the ministry. With Mrs. Weasley and Ginny at the lead, we start walking.

As we walk on platform 9, Mrs. Weasley shouts, “Come on, platform 9 and ¾, this way.”

Huh? We travel to Hogwarts every year. Why would you say th- oh maybe it’s for Ron?

As we walk towards the pillar, Mrs. Weasley first lets Percy through. Then she looks towards Fred, “Fred, you next.”

George looks over to Fred and says with a surprised expression, “He's not Fred, I am.”

“And honestly woman, you call yourself our mother.”

“Oh sorry, George, ” as Mrs. Weasley signals Fred to go through.

As Fred runs through, he says with a grin, “I'm just joking, I am Fred.”

And then George runs through as well.

As I start walking forwards, I hear front the back, “E-Excuse me?”

I turn around to see Harry, looking towards Mrs. Weasley, “Could you tell me... how to...”

“How to get on the platform?” Mrs. Weasley asks with a light chuckle, “Don't worry, dear, it’s Ron's first time to Hogwarts as well.”

“All you got to do, is walk straight at the wall between platforms 9 and 10. Best to give a run if you're nervous.”

Ginny encourages, “Good luck.”

Harry gives a nod and then looks straight at the wall with an uneasy look. He starts running towards the wall and disappears into it. Soon, Ron does the same.

“Come now, Sol, off you go.”, Mrs. Weasley signals me to go.

Soon, I rush through the wall into platform 9 and ¾. I see the Hogwarts Express stopped on the tracks. And students with their parents scampering around. Mrs. Weasley and Ginny soon come in as we walk towards the train.

“Harry is coming to Hogwarts this year as well, huh? Seems I forgot about that.”, I mutter.

“Hmm~ who’s Harry, Sol?”, asked Ginny.

I’m caught a bit off guard as she somehow heard me but reply nonetheless, “The boy who just came up to us, that’s Harry. He lives on my street with his uncle.”

“Is that so?”

“Sol, dear, could I ask you to keep an eye on Ron? God knows how irresponsible he is.”, Mrs. Weasley suddenly chimes in.

“I'll be sure to do that. Speaking of Ron, I think there are some problems with his rat.”, I say thinking this to be an opportune time.

Mrs. Weasley goes wide-eyed, clearly in denial, “You mean Scabbers? How could that be? He's our family pet, he’s been with us ever since Bill caught him in the garden?”

“That's the thing. He’s been in the family for close to eleven years, has he not? I don’t think a mere garden rat can survive that long.”

“T-That's true. But what are you saying?”

“I won’t beat around the bush, I think Scabbers is an animagus.”

“Are you serious?! What makes you say that?”

“I really have no other clues except the rat's unnatural lifespan, so I can’t say anything more.”

Mrs. Weasley exhales and then wears a lost expression, “I don’t know, I’ll have to ask Arthur.”

“Yes, thank you for listening. If there’s really an Animagus hiding in the family, I don’t think they have good intentions,” I exhale a sigh of relief. At least, that’s one of my worries down.

“No need to thank me. It’s good that you told me.”

We finished our talk and reached my car. I look around to see if anyone there’s anyone I know. I search around for a bit, finding no one I head into the car with my luggage and Elaine.

I pass by compartments and hey, there’s Kate and Cormac. I enter the compartment only to get greeted and hugged by them. I reciprocate and sit down. The train starts moving after a while and the students poke their heads out the window to say goodbye to their families. As the train leaves the station, I look out the window to view the evergreen scenery.

Here’s to a mundane second year at Hogwarts.