I rested my elbow on the window, looking out at the pines and the clouds swirling in the sky. I had the carriage all to myself, which was nothing short of a miracle. It gave me the freedom to sprawl on my seat and stretch out my robe so that it wouldn't wrinkle. I loosened my striped green and white tie and got comfortable for the ride. It wouldn't be long before I was closer to the Hogwarts castle, but the train ride was my absolute favorite and I wanted to stretch it as long as possible.

My peace disappeared when a group of three girls about my age entered my carriage. My sneer was not enough to make them change direction, but they had the decency at least to squeeze into the bench opposite me. I womanspread a little bit more, to drive the point home. I gave them a glance that confirmed they didn't take this anywhere near as seriously as I did. They were not wearing their houses colors and their bright and wide eyes told me it was also their first time riding the Hogwarts Express. I couldn't understand what they were saying to each other, though it sounded vaguely eastern european.

In other words, they were my least favorite type of person. Tourists.

I scoffed and turned back to look out the window, where the panorama was turning darker and colder, and the first tendrils of a Dementor started to appear.

At that second the carriage door opened and I tensed up, knowing that there was no other room to sit in but next to me. Then as I turned to see how many people were intending to invade my personal space, I saw my second least favorite type of person.

My brother.

The corner of his lips quirked into a smirk as he recognized me. I lifted my Converse clad feet and rested my legs on the whole seat. The three girls watched as he, undeterred by my attempts, swept my legs down in a single stroke and sat down next to me, putting his arm around my shoulders. I snarled as I tried to bat it away, but he was still stronger than me and held me in place.

"Found you," he said, light green eyes twinkling. "Though, it wasn't that hard. You always come here when you're upset. How many hours have you been riding the train?"

As I swept my eyes back towards the window, my scowl swept across the faces of the tourist girls and they jumped.

Yes, I was brooding aboard the Hogwarts Express at Universal Studios, my favorite place on this blue planet. I was planning on coming to the park every day until the move was imminent, or until I convinced dad to toss his ridiculous plan away.

I folded my arms and hugged my Elder wand against my chest. "What, you want me to give you an award for your sleuthing abilities?"

Miguel leaned back and stretched his legs in front of him. Judging by the lovestruck expressions the tourists had, they didn't mind. This made me even more annoyed. I got weird looks when I womanspread, but they got hearts in their eyes when my brother manspread. Unfair double standards.

"Or maybe you should think about getting a little more creative."

I rolled my eyes. "Why are you here?"

He snorted. "Well, it's true that you're no Ravenclaw, but surely you can guess I'm here because I was looking for you."

In all fairness, Miguel was not a terrible brother. The problem was that he was my brother, which meant everything he did or said automatically ruffled my feathers. It didn't help that he was a total Gryffindor, boisterous and adventurous, and that I was the walking definition of a Slytherin.

I turned to him with narrowed eyes. "I can think of about ten different ways I can kill you right now, how is that for not being creative?"

He rolled his eyes. "Spare me the theatrics, Miss Porcupine. Let's go home."

The Hogwarts Express toot tooted happily as it reached the other park, where the Hogwarts Castle was. The three girls gave my brother one last longing glance before they left the cabin.

"Why don't you go home?" I asked, playing with my wand. "I'm just fine where I am."

"Because I'm not the one who has to start packing for moving to another country in three days."

I pretended to think as I put the wand against my chin. "That reminds me, I fail to see why I have to move to another country all of a sudden. Why don't you move?"

Far from getting annoyed, Miguel looked like this was precisely why he came all the way to Universal looking for me. I sank in my seat, definitely annoyed that I'd fallen for his trap for the ten thousandth time. Having older brothers sucked.

"Why, I'm glad you asked," he said this, further driving the knife into my chest. "That's because I'm a college student with a job, who happens to live by himself, whereas you are still an underage freeloader."

"That's not fair."

If I sounded like I was whining it was because I was.

The carriage door opened and an operator popped his head in. He asked us to get off and we did. I dragged my feet away from the ride but promised myself I'd ride it at least three more times before the day was over. Miguel slung his arm around me again, which may seem like a sweet brotherly gesture, but I knew to be a manipulation tactic. It was his way to make sure I wouldn't run off on him — for also the ten thousandth time.

"You're taking this too hard, my little porcupine." He dragged a hand through the curls atop his head as he sighed. "It doesn't have to be this hard."

"You say that because you're not the one whose life is getting uprooted. Again."

At the last word, his green eyes flashed toward me with an unwritten warning. The Bernal Solis family had a tacit agreement to not talk about the first uprooting, even though it was the phantom that followed us to every room. It wasn't that I was trying to use it as a triumph card for my argument, but it was part of it. The whole point of us moving to Orlando, Florida, in the first place was so that we could all make new lives. Especially me.

I sighed as we left the platform amid a throng of people looking for the castle. We entered through Hogsmeade and I bee-lined for one of the stalls selling frozen butter beer. As we waited in line I told him, "It's taken me years, but I have a life here that I'm very comfortable with. It's not fair that I have to give it up by the whims of some old man."

"First of all, that old man is our dad and second," as he continued, he rolled his eyes. "What you define as a life here is school every day of the week and then boxing and Universal every. Single. Weekend. That's it. You don't have friends, you don't have other hobbies and as far as I know, your so called life is going to be disrupted in a year anyway, when you head off to college — if you freaking decide what you want to study, anyway."

I jabbed my elbow into his ribs as soon as the words finished tumbling out of his mouth, in his characteristic Florida boy accent with heavy latino undertones. Similar to mine.

"I do have hobbies, tonto. These are precisely it. And it's unfair that I have to give them up because dad wants me to move to freaking Canada with him." I stomped my foot, attracting the attention of people around us but not giving a hoot. "Why? I'm already in a boarding school and barely see him, why doesn't he just leave me here and go off on his own? It'll barely feel any different."

My brother's eyes darkened in a way that meant to say I had screwed up for real, but I didn't find anything wrong with what I said. Papá had always been a businessman, even when we lived in Venezuela. I grew up seeing his suitcase hanging from his hand, but barely remember him holding my hand. At the first chance he got while living in Orlando, he enrolled Miguel at Trinity and then me when I was old enough, so he could devote himself to his big oil consulting and financing company. That was his real baby, not us.

And now he had this big issue with the Canadian branch and apparently had to relocate for a few months to fix it. Fine, but why did I have to tag along? That had nothing to do with me.

We were holding up the line now and people were complaining, so Miguel pulled me aside with a vice by my arm.

"Listen, Carlota-"

"Charlie," I quipped. "I don't like Carlota."

"Carlota," he insisted with enough emphasis to piss me off. "Yes, dad put us in a boarding school but he moved the company's HQ from Miami to Orlando so that he could be closer to us, no matter what."

I folded my arms and looked away, because that part was true. He'd been based in Caracas, but when the situation in the country took a definite downturn, the plan was for all of us to move to Miami so he could work in the branch there. I'd been miserable in Miami. One of the first psychiatrists I'd got recommended a fun family trip to get my mind off of things, and we came to Universal Studios. It was love at first sight. In a month, dad started the massive process of relocating the company's HQ to Orlando. For me. Even though that caused him a lot of problems in the company.

"He loves you," Miguel said, sighing. "He just wants to keep you close and make sure you're okay."

"But I'm okay here," I mumbled, weakly sweeping my arm around. As if I lived in Hogsmeade. As if I went to Hogswart in my black and green robe and my friends were books about spells and potions.

"You're 17, hermanita. It's time for you to learn to be okay no matter where life takes you."