Trails of Smoke

Summary: The dark clouds rising up thin out the farther they go, leaving trails of smoke in the air.

For The Weird Prompt Strikes Back! [Daily Challenge] prompt: [AU] James and Lily have a daughter instead of Harry, who is an OC that is not fem!Harry.

"Here we are," James announced, stopping between two pillars between the tracks. "Platform nine and three quarters."

Iva stared up at her father then at the two trains on either side. Here? But neither of the trains looked like the one that had been described to her by his friends. There were no painted words of Hogwarts on either train. Beyond that there wasn't even any other witches or wizards around as far as she could tell. How was this the right platform?

She reached up to tug on her father's sleeve. "This isn't the right platform."

Her father only turned to grin at her. "Not this one, sweetie. The one through there." He gave a nod of his head at the wall of the pillar ahead of him. Her brows only drew down in confusion though.

"Oh, stop being mysterious James and show her how it works." Lily, her mother stood to her left one hand on the cart Iva held to help keep it steady.

"You're making this less fun," James said, but he was still smiling; so evidently he didn't mind. With a glance around to make sure no one was looking her father ran head first at the wall-

Only to disappear after touching the stone. No. He went through it.

Iva glanced up at her mother.

Lily smiled down at her. "Go ahead, Iva." She looked back to the wall, taking in a breath before she began running with the cart. Iva squeezed her eyes shut when the cart was nearly on top of the wall, waiting to hear a crash and go sprawling to the floor, but she felt nothing.

She opened her eyes slowly, coming to a halt when she saw the platform in front of her.

There it was. The train that would take her to Hogwarts and there was all the kids that would be going there with her. All potential friends. All these memories of them and the school were just waiting to be made in the next few minutes. She could hear her father laughing and turned to see him standing not too far away, a grin present on his face. "You should keep your eyes open next time, Iva. Now, come on. We only got a minute."

At seeing his arms open around him she let go of the cart and sprung forward into his arms for a quick hug. She let go after a few seconds, turning to give her mother a hug as well since she had just come through the wall. "Have a wonderful school year, Iva."

"Okay, mum," she replied, letting go after a few extended seconds to grab her cart and head off to the train. Within the last half of the minute she was inside, along with her bags and sitting on the train looking out the window to her parents, waving from beyond the glass at them as the train moved away from the platform.