Coralie Bennett dragged her feet along the ground as she swung back and forth. She was unsure of the exact time, perhaps one or one-thirty. She knew it was late, though, very late. Recently, she'd been spending more time here than she spent at home. The beach side park was filled with screaming children and their parents during the day. At night, however, Coralie had the whole place to herself and she liked it like that. She was one of those girls who often got described as weird just because she liked to be alone. There were rumours around school that she killed her parents and now she was insane, however, the last time she checked, her parents were alive and well. Her best friend Emma knew this as well as a handful of her other friends, but she didn't like to share her life story with people she hardly knew. 



Her family, The Bennett's, were like that. Coralie remembered her father telling her once when she was very young; 'tell no one your fears and you will be fearless'. At that age, she didn't understand what her father was trying to tell her. 



Even though she was now sixteen, she still didn't know. 



Her father, Pierre JeanBennett, had left when she was two years old. Her mother, Marcelle Bennett (nee De Luca), had just fallen pregnant with another child and Coralie's parents fought about whether to keep it or not. One day, Marcelle woke up and decided she was going to keep it, so Pierre left without warning or a goodbye. As she felt tears sting her eyes, Coralie stood up from the swing and began to walk home. 
 

Wiping the tears away, she finally stumbled up her street and into her gravel driveway, being careful not to stand on any sharp rocks. Coralie pulled onto the escape fire ladder that she and her siblings used whenever they were sneaking out (their mother never cared to check on her children and therefore didn't know about the ladder). As she reached the top, she sighed, nervous about starting her new school called Hogwarts tomorrow.



Feeling the drowsiness start, she realised just how long she'd been out and just how tired she actually was. Slipping into her bed, she curled into a ball and quickly fell asleep, not wanting to be too tired for her first day.

 
Coralie awoke the next morning to the sun spilling through the cracks in her curtains. She slowly opened her eyes, savouring the silence. 



However, barely a moment later, her sister shrill yelling began, complaining about burnt toast. 

 

Slightly annoyed, Coralie stood up and pushed open the door to her walk-in wardrobe. Pulling out some simple jeans and her favourite pastel green sweater, she quickly got dressed before making her way to the bathroom. Staring at the mirror, Coralie sighed. Her curly blonde hair, as always, was a complete mess. She brushed it through without much effort as it never behaved the way she wanted it to. She glared at one particularly stubborn curl, before she stumbled down the stairs and into the kitchen.


"Morning, mother," she said politely with a kiss on her mother’s cheek.


"Good morning, Coralie,” her mother returned, looking up from the morning paper and giving a smile that reached her deep blue eyes. “The apple juice is in the fridge and the toast is already in the toaster."


 

Coralie gave a quick nod and grabbed a couple of glasses from the cupboard. Pulling open the fridge she grabbed the apple juice and filled each of the glasses before placing the juice back and sitting at dining table. Taking a sip of her juice, she smiled as her sister, Violet, took a seat across from her.


 

She and Violet looked almost identical and, more than a few times, they had been mistaken as twins (at which time Violet would scrunch up her nose before racing to the bathroom to cake even more make up onto her already heavily made-up features. Violet was under the impression it made her look older. Coralie, however, had other thoughts). They both had long, curly blonde hair that cascaded halfway down their backs and the same deep blue eyes (though people were certain Coralie's glistened more than Violets'. Violet, of course, did not like this). The two sisters rarely saw eye to eye; Violet being one of the girls who thought the universe revolved around her, and always had to be better than everyone else. Coralie hated this in a person. In fact, she had had several friends who were exactly the same and often avoided spending time with them. Violet, being Violet, saw absolutely nothing wrong with her attitude.


 

Coralie had an older sister, Allisyn, who was twenty-two and lived in London with her daughter, Haylie. She and Allisyn got along much better than she and Violet ever would. Allisyn was just the kind of person who was friends with everyone. She had short black hair and brown eyes, both of which she got from their father, as well as the clear, pale skin as all the children had


 

Jacob was Coralie's older brother by three years. He, like Allisyn and their father, had messy black hair and brown eyes. Jacob was known for playing the guitar until daylight. He lived for music – he and best friend even had a band, however, they had yet to come up with a suitable name.


 

Coralie also had one younger sibling; a thirteen year old brother named Angus. He was like a miniature, male version of Coralie. Both had the same shade of blonde hair (except his was short) and the same captivating blue eyes. The two of them were extremely close.



"Earth to Cora," Angus said with a mouthful of cereal as he shook his hand in front of her face. Coralie rolled her eyes - she had been off in her own little world again. Angus liked to annoy her when she was like this as she went along with whatever anyway was saying. This time, however, she hadn't even noticed Angus had entered the room.


"Earth to Angus - chew with your mouth closed," she teased, sighing, as she took a bite of her toast. "Is Jake up?" she asked no one in particular.


"Of course not, it's eight o'clock,” Violet began distastefully, rolling her blue eyes, “he's never-”


 

“-I checked with him last night and he said he'll take you and your brother down to King's Cross today," Marcelle explained to her children, cutting off Violet before she could start complaining about Jacob's laziness. She busied herself with clearing the kitchen table, tying her wavy blonde hair into a knot on the top of her head as she did so.


"Oh, that's right, you leave today, don't you?” Violet simpered, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “Oh, how peaceful it'll be without you two losers," she added.


"Vi will go along to wish you two farewell," Marcelle said pointedly, smirking back at Violet, before smiling widely at Angus and Coralie. The two latter were staring nervously between each other. "Now, run along, you two. Finish packing and wake up your brother!"


 

Coralie and Angus raced up the stairs, not bothering to help their mother tidy up the breakfast dishes. "Oh, and Angus, a bucket of water is not what I define as waking you're brother up! Got it?!" Karoline informed him loudly.


 

Angus grinned, looking down the banister to see his mother standing at the foot of the stairs with an eyebrow raised pointedly. "Thanks for the idea mum!" he called back wickedly.

 

An hour later both trunks were packed in the boot of Jacob's 'brand new' second hand car. It was a cute blue beetle that Jacob and his best friends Martin and Brian had found down at the tip. The three of them had tried to fix it up and had eventually succeeded. In celebration, they, along with Coralie, took it down to the beach after dark.


 

However, the engine faltered and died, so they all ended up having to push it into town, with the darkness pressing against them. After struggling for over fifteen minutes and sweating profusely from the weight, they gave up and decided to just fix it up with a bit of magic.


 

Jacob absolutely loved his car, and Violet was the only one in the family who thought it was hideous. Therefore, he made sure to pick her up from parties in it, which her angered to no end.


 

Lost in her thoughts, Coralie jumped when she heard Jacobs loud voice; "You guys ready?" he asked, grabbing his black sunglasses from the glove box.


 

"Yes. Let's go,” Violet snapped from the back seat, sounding quite bored and irritated, “drop them and leave them. The less time I have to spend with you the better."


 

Coralie rolled her eyes and gave Marcelle a hug goodbye before sliding into the front passenger seat.

 

"Have fun, and don't forget to write. Angus, try not to get into too much trouble,” Marcelle teased, but a hint of seriousness was in her voice. “And Coralie? Keep an eye on him,” she added, leaning on the open car window, smiling proudly and ruffling her daughter's curly hair.


 

Coralie nodded as her mother turned back to Angus and hugged him tightly.


 

“Oh my, I'm going to miss you two," Marcelle gushed, before helping Angus into the car and closed the door behind him, smiling sadly.




"Let's go then, guys. You excited?" Jacob asked as he reserved out of the garage.


 

“Ecstatic, actually," Coralie replied with a grin as she watched her mum wave frantically as the car sped off.

 

"I don't see it anywhere..." Jacob muttered, a frown creeping onto his forehead.


 

"You've gotta be kidding me. I'm sick of being stuck with you lot," Violet sniffed, pointedly walking three steps away from her siblings and toying with her light blue cardigan.


 

"I'm sure it's here," Coralie assured her fairly, looking around for any sign of a platform 9 ¾..

 

"This is actually loads of fun!"


 

Three sets of eyes turned to face Angus, all sporting looks of disbelief and irritation towards the thirteen year old.


 

"Let's just ask someone already," Violet muttered darkly, strutting off towards a large, middle-aged man in a conductor's uniform. Her three siblings watched in amusement as she started talking and twisting a lock of hair around her finger.

 

"How long till she realises he's a muggle?" Jacob mused lightly, not tearing his eyes away from the scene.

 

"10 galleons says fifteen minutes," Angus bargained nonchalantly.


 

Coralie snorted.


 

“You're on,” Jacob smirked.