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experience of my whole entire life,"

Saffron couldn't help but chortle at Rachel, who was humming and hissing those very words in many a variation, over and over again, as the Mitchell's sat on their trunks in their bedroom, for what felt like the very last time, and already so much had changed.

This time, each Mitchell had their own trunk, Saffron no longer had to share a seat with Rowan, and likewise Maya with Rachel. Their bedroom had been stripped bare of everything. From baby photos to the few pictures, they had of their parents, to various pieces of art that Rachel and Rowan, in particular, had produced over the years.

In spite of themselves, each and every one of the Mitchell's felt upset and extremely nostalgic, as they looked around at the room in which they had spent over a decade of their lives growing up in, and even though they were coming back, it would never ever be the same. This was a relief in so many ways, more ways than one could ever possibly imagine, but they still were going to miss it, because it had been their life. It had been predictable, constant and boring at times, but it had been their predictable, their constant and their boring. It had been their home and from this day for the next four years at the very least, it would merely serve as a place for them to stay during the Summer holidays, no longer a home.

Rowan also found Rachel's repetition amusing.

"You do realise that your whole entire life has been here?"

Rachel merely shrugged and let out a sigh. "Oh, I know Rowan. I also know how much you'll miss it,"

"I will not," retorted Rowan, trying his very best to sound opposed to what his sister was saying.

"We all know how much you love serving tea to Squirrel and Josephine," Rachel, unlike Maya and Saffron, couldn't stand the fact that Rowan had always been Ms Squire's favourite by a country mile. She seemed to think that it was a flaw on her part that that was how Ms Squire viewed them, but Saffron and Maya felt that Rowan was favoured solely because he was a boy. "You might as well stay so you don't have to stop,"

"I'm not going to miss it," said Rowan determinedly, trying desperately to try and convince his three sisters of his statement. "I'm not,"

"I am,"

Maya, Rachel and Rowan's head snapped towards Saffron, who was looking sheepishly down at her shoes which were outstretched to their limit. The three of them were surprised to hear the words come out of her mouth but curious to hear what words would follow.

"I hate this place as much as the three of you, but --- but I love it too, because whether we liked it or not, it was ours, in a way. It was always here, this room I mean, no matter what, no matter who was in school, or anything else. It's always here,"

Maya offered her a small smile. "You're right, these mattresses have been here for eleven years now, and one of us has lived on them for all that time and that's going to change tonight," She paused before getting up and signalling to Rachel to move over on her trunk. She put an arm around her before continuing. "You know, I think we're allowed to hate it and love it and miss it and all of that at the same time, no matter how toxic it might be, we can,"

This triggered a reaction from Rachel. When Saffron looked up from her shoes, the younger girl had puffy eyes and was sniffling. Saffron frowned in sadness and suddenly found herself becoming overwhelmed with fluctuating emotions.

"It's never going to be the four of us anymore," Rachel's words were like getting hit stinging jinxes after stinging jinx. They were painful but so much more meaningful than painful.

"No, Rach," Maya assured her younger sister, as Saffron slid off her own trunk to take a seat beside Rowan, who was staring solemnly into space. "It'll always be the four of us, I promise, leaving here is going to change us, for sure, but it's only going to get better, honest,"

"I never thought I'd hate leaving here," said Rowan absently, still staring into space as though only half of his senses were involved in the conversation. "But I am, I really really am, I've spent my whole life dreaming of leaving, but the dream was always a lot nicer,"

Saffron rested her head on his shoulder. "It'll get better, Hogwarts is so much better, so much better, both of you'll see, we can forget any troubles we had here and move on,"

"Together," added Maya firmly.

"The four of us?" Rachel seemed to question, her eyes still worn and puffy.

"The four of us," confirmed Maya. "Always the four of us, no matter what,"

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The expected bell from Squire went off and the four Mitchells left their bedroom feeling the strangest mixture of sadness and happiness. Although primairly happiness, especially in comparsion to the years that had passed. Notably when it was Maya and Saffron's first year in the school respectively. This year contrasted those two years immeasurably, and the sense of dread was all but extinguished.

They were going to be together, but at the same time they weren't. For Saffron, and she felt confdient in saying for her other siblings too, that was what would be missed. As once they reached Hogwarts, it was inevitable that the four of them would seperate into their own group of friends, which likely wouldn't include each other.

This was to be expected and would be normal for most siblings. But the Mitchells were an outlier, as they had very few social connections pre-Hogwarts outside of each other. They had literally spent every single hour of every single day with each other and that wasn't something that most other siblings could say.

So Saffron savoured those last few moments of the four of them having a united front against Squire, as they made their way from the fireplace, to Diagon Alley, up until Platform Nine and Three Quarters. Their dislike of Squire was something that held them so closely together, and with that not existing in Hogwarts, Saffron wasn't sure where it would leave them.

Making their way onto the train, Rachel made sure to remind her sisters that she wanted her and Rowan to go off by themselves on the train, just as Maya and Saffron had done.

"Okay then," Maya nodded. "Good luck,"

Saffron watched Maya slowly drift out of sight and intended on doing the same. But she stood, feeling frozen to the floor of the slowly moving train. It felt like the end of something. That something being the twins childhood and the start of their adolesence. And as excited as she was for it, she didn't feel ready. Thus, the haunting sadness she had grown so accustomed to greeted her again.

"Saffron," said Rachel firmly, eyeing Rowan awkwardly. She was waiting for her older sister to say goodbye.

"Oh, yes," Saffron smiled at Rachel then at Rowan. "Good luck,"

She turned around and as she did so a tear formed in the corner of her eye. After years of wanting them all to escape Squires, doing so pained her. Making her realise that in leaving the supposed nightmare, perhaps it had been the dream after all.