The long way around. (Summer break one-shot)

[Deleted]

The ride back to kings crossing was pleasant enough, if anything the train was a better alternative to getting to and from school than Ilvermorny. They just had a large carriage, sure it was enchant to be as large as a great hall to hold all the students but it didn't have the view that the Hogwarts Express did. No from what little view there was it was mostly trees as it made its way down the mountain that Ilvermorny rested on. He wouldn't have openly said it was a better alternative but the truth was he did prefer it. Over the past year at Hogwarts he had lost most of his anger at the things around him. Sure he still disliked his father for the move but he didn't hate the people nor the school. In fact much like the train he slowly found things he preferred but there was still far more he missed about his home.

The train came to a complete stop as it reached kings cross station and he could only imagine there was a collective sigh of relief. After what happened to the Durmstrang and Beauxbaton students return trip most assumed the worse of the train ride from Hogwarts. There was noticeably more security around than even during the tournament. Thinking of the incident in that moment he didn't even know just how many survived, he heard of a few from both schools making it out but he hadn't personally checked. There was really only one of the visiting students that he was even close to and he was worried and concerned for her safety. He thought about trying to find out just who had survived multiple times but each time talked himself out of it. While Daniel wasn't quite sure what Adonia and him were or if it it even had a label beyond friends. He still wanted to know she was safe yet didn't want to hear she had died. One day he'd check but he wasn't ready for the worst just yet.

Daniel waited for most of the students to get off before he attempted to leave the train. The rush of students trying to get out to see their families was the same anywhere he imagined. He was watched people run around outside the cabin he was in, smiling and fighting their large trunks around one another. He was glad that before he left he had put his trunk into a rather large backpack with the same type of extension charm. It could have easily fix six trunks in there plus a back pack was just so much easier to carry around than dragging a trunk all over the place. There was also a certain kind of irony in putting a larger container into a smaller one but the charm made it work. Finally the initial rush had died down and he left his cabin feeling confident he wouldn't have to fight someone else out of the train at this point.

As Daniel left the train he got out of the way of the other students behind him and he started to looked around when he finally realized, what was he looking around for. His father never picked him up from school. No, even his first year at Ilvermorny a nanny took him and that was the last he saw of her. His ride home and to school after had always been a family that lived close by that he was friends with. Yet here, he didn't have those friends, the connections that helped him get by, as he looked around a couple times it was obvious his father wasn't here. The man probably didn't even know school was over yet alone would have come to pick him up. The smiles and laughs of happy families getting together and leaving all around him didn't help either.

Daniel tugged on the strap of the bag pack that rested on just one arm for now. He gave it some time but soon he was done waiting for a man that would never show. He was just done in general. Done with standing around while happier families got together, while they laughed and smiled. While they left to their happy homes, no being done was the best way he could put his feelings and he made his way toward the exit. He could find his own way back if he had to but for right now why should he? He wanted to see more of Europe before going back to America anyway and he had everything he needed in his pack to survive for awhile. He'd go back to where his father lived, a place he refused to call home in time, he was just going to take the long way around. Daniel helped himself to a map of sights in London and Europe from a muggle stand. He assumed the map was free and if it wasn't no one saw him take it. He wasn't in the mood to care either before disappearing into the muggle streets outside the station.