The Great Trainride Adventure
The last month at the Dursleys was like living as ghosts, able to see and speak to each other, but completely unseen by anyone else. They spent it reading ahead in their school books and playing with their new pets. Harry named his owl Hedwig, after something he read in their history book. Holly thought it was a stupid name for a bird, and much preferred fluffy little PuffPotter over an owl anyway.
On the night before, Harry and Holly had gone to ask for a ride to the station, and though Uncle Vernon had agreed, he insisted that there was no such thing as platform nine and three quarters. Said it was barking mad, actually. But, earlier that morning, he had driven them in. He had made a show of pointing out that there was in fact, nothing in between platforms nine and ten.
Then he had just left them there.
Worried over the time (10:52 am), Harry asked an adult where their platform was, but the man only scoffed at them and shooed them off, declaring them both ‘times wasters’. At a loss for what to do, the pair of them hovered about, hoping to see any strangely dressed people going to some unseeable place. It seemed rather hopeless, actually.
Then Against all odds, they spotted exactly that. Five- no, six, redheaded, strangely robed, rather loud people sauntered up to the wall between platforms nine and ten. “-Packed with muggles of course-“ the oldest of them - a middle aged woman who was as squat as she was ginger, told the rest.
Holly exchanged a quick glance with her brother, deciding that it was now or never, before running up to them. Holly stopped clumsily and nearly toppling her crate. The woman reached out and caught PuffPotter’s cage before it could fall. “My, careful with that deary.” She chided, but her smile was warm.
“Sorry.” Holly said, then remembered she had meant to ask them something. “Um, are you going to platform nine and three quarters? My brother and I heard you say something about muggles and-“ She glanced at Harry, feeling suddenly that all her earlier nervousness was back, and what if they misheard her? What if they were-
“Ah,” said the Woman, patiently. “It’s Ron’s first time too.” She nodded at a freckly boy with ears and hands too big for him, who looked to be about their age. He waved awkwardly.
Holly felt herself sag in relife.
“Mum, can’t I go….” A little girl sitting atop a cart of luggage, begged.
“You aren't old enough Ginny, now be quiet.” The woman said, then turned to the oldest boy. “Alright Percy, you first.” She encouraged. The lanky, curly haired boy took his cart and plunged through the pillar that separated platforms nine and ten.
The woman turned to the next two boys, who, Holly realized, were also twins. The woman made eye contact with one of them and said “alright Fred, you next.”
“I'm not Fred, I'm George!” The older boy cried, indignantly. “Honestly woman, you call yourself our mother. Can’t you tell I’m George”
The woman threw her hands up in exasperation. “Oh, sorry dear.” She said as the first boy lined his cart up with the pillar.
“Only joking,” he called over his shoulder with a cheeky grin. “I am Fred.” And then he disappeared through the brick. The woman rolled her eyes and shooed George up to the pillar. The little girl hopped off his cart and George ran on through after his brothers.
“Um…” said Harry, smartly.
“How do we do that?” Holly wondered.
The woman smiled kindly at them. “All you do is walk straight at the barrier between platforms nine and ten,” she explained. “Best do it at a bit of a run if you're nervous.” She added, with a wink.
Holly looked at her brother one last time, before steering her cart towards the wall and running through.
Beyond was an older but far more grand platform with a gleaming red train that read “Hogwarts Express” in shining golden letters.
”woah.” Harry said, having come through just after her.
There were owls flying and families hugging each other goodbye. Holly even thought she saw a frog hop on up into the train all by itself, but surely if one got loose it wouldn't know to do that… would it?
Harry reached for Holly’s hand and nodded at the nearest train door. She offered him a nervous smile in return, and they made their way over, but it was far too packed to climb on, so, together, they wove their way through the crowd until they reached an empty compartment near the back of the train. Harry set Hedwig inside first, then reached over and plucked PuffPotter off of Holly’s cart and set him inside too. Then he reached for her chest. He took one side and she took the other, but try as they might, they just couldn’t seem to lift it into the train. It was far too heavy.
“Need a hand?” It was one of the twins from earlier. Holly couldn’t say which one though.
“Yes please,” Harry said at the same time as Holly said “We would love one!”
“Oy, Fred! c’mere and help!” George called. Fred jogged over and together they made quick work of loading the luggage inside.
“Thanks,” said Harry once their luggage was tucked neatly in a corner of the compartment.he pushed his sweaty hair out of his eyes and Holly saw the older twin's eyes widen in surprise. She was used to people looking at their scars strangely, it was why Aunt Petunia made them grow bangs, but Fred and George looked at Harry’s the way the people at the leaky cauldron had looked at them. Hagrid had explained why, but still, it made Holly uncomfortable.
“What's that?” one of the older twins asked, pointing at Harry’s lightning scar.
“Blimey,” the other one said, “are you-”
“They are,” the first one said, looking also at Holly now. “Aren't you?”
“What?” Harry wondered, smartly.
“The Potter twins.” Fred and George said, together.
Holly bit back a rather rude response, reminding herself that Fred and George had been nothing but nice and helpful and they weren't gawking nearly as much as the people in the Leaky Cauldron had. She was just so used to being invisible, especially after this past month where the Dursleys pretended that she and Harry didn’t even exist rather than giving them endless jobs to do.
Instead, she said, “that's us,” and forced herself to smile.
Just then their mother called for them to come say goodbye, and Fred and George hurried off, leaving Holly and her brother alone in their compartment. Holly looked around the little space, still feeling a bit itchy from the way the two older boys had looked at them, and decided, “I’m gonna walk around, I’ll be back in a bit.”
She took PuffPotter out of her cage and placed the little fuzzball on her shoulder. Then, excitedly, she began to travel up the train compartments. They were all mostly the same, though most had quite a few more people than hers and Harry’s did and as the final whistle blew and the rest of the students climbed on, that only became more true.
She had never been on a train before. The sounds and the look was all so strange… She hardly noticed the train moving until it picked up speed and she fell. On top of someone.
PuffPotter squeaked and rolled away, nearly getting trampled in the process. The person Holly fell on squirmed out from under Holly, reaching behind Holly and calling, “Lulu!” Just as Holly chased after PuffPotter, calling the little puff’s name.
Holly collected her familiar and turned to see if the other girl was okay. She was tall, with thick dark curls braided and pinned to her head, and her skin was a pretty medium color. She was chasing a particularly ornery looking cat around the compartment, never quite succeeding in catching it. Eventually she just stopped, put her hands on her hips and told the cat, “fine then, have it your way!” The cat looked immensely pleased at that, wandering off with its tail puffed up proudly. The girl caught Holly watching, saying, “He’ll be back. He always does this.”
“Oh.” Holly said, not knowing enough about cats to know if that was normal or not. “Erm… are you okay? I think I fell on you…”
The tall girl shrugged. “I’m fine, you weigh like, nothing. I just wish I could find a place to sit!” She sighed. Then she stuck out her hand. “I’m Tracy,” she said, brightly, “Tracy Davis.”
Holly took her hand, hesitating a moment before she introduced herself. “I’m Holly.” She said, hoping against hope that would be enough.
Tracy squinted at her. Eyed her up and down, narrowing her eyes even further when she teached Holly’s head. But, instead of loudly pointing out Holly’s scar, Tracy just reached out and pushed Holly’s disheveled bangs back over her forehead. “There,” she said, “a bit tangled still but… yeah, less of a rat's nest for sure.”
Holly touched her hair, confused. “Rats nest?” She wondered, under her breath.
“Yeah,” said Tracy, “like when you have a bunch of frizzy tangles sticking up in weird directions, you know?”
Holly didn’t know. All she knew was Aunt Petunia never bothered to cut her hair and so rarely did she comb it that Holly barely even knew how. She just kept it out of the way and that had always been good enough. “No?” She said, but before Tracy could go on any more about her hair, she decided to change the subject. “You said you needed a place to sit? I was walking around because the train is pretty cool, but now it's moving. I think I’m gonna go back to my brothers and my compartment. Do you want to come? We’ve got loads of space.”
Tracy beamed. “Sure!” She said, grabbing her cart and pulling out a little pouch of something and shaking it around. “C’mere Lu, come get your treats!”
The ornery cat scampered over, jumped onto Tracy’s shoulder and began attempting to walk along her arm to the treat bag. Holly watched, fascinated for a moment, before remembering she was meant to be taking Tracy back to her compartment. “Erm… right, this way,” Holly said, awkwardly.
Holly found Harry and the youngest of the redheaded boys from the platform, sitting in the back compartment, absolutely covered in strange looking candy. Holly wondered where they'd gotten so much, and when. She'd only been gone a few minutes…
“Ooh! Barty Botts Every Flavor Beans!” Tracy squealed, “you mind?” she asked Harry, who shook his head, startled, and handed her a box of what looked like jelly beans.
“They mean every flavor,” said the boy from the platform, as though he had been personally victimized by the candy. “Anyway, who are you?” he asked Tracy.
She offered her hand for him to shake, saying brightly, “I’m Tracy Davis.”
“Oh,” said the boy, smartly, “I’m Ron. Ron Weasley.”
Tracy turned to Harry and held out her hand to him as well. “And you?” she asked, though Holly was pretty sure she already knew.
Harry smiled. “I’m Harry Potter,” said Harry.
Tracy dropped down on the seat Ron was occupying, but stuck closer to the aisle, leaving him room. “Cool.” she said. “Hey, what's your pet's names? This is Lucus. He’s a kneazle.” Tracy introduced, holding up her very large, fluffy cat.
“Kneazle? That's lucky! I’m stuck with dumb old Scabbers!” Ron held up a rat that looked like it had survived a round in the washing machine. Harry winced in sympathy. Holly wondered if it was for Ron or the rat.
“This is Hedwig,” Harry held up his bird cage, proudly showing off his owl. She was beautiful, Holly had to admit, but she just didn’t like birds, especially owls, after the whole fiasco with the letters. Harry, on the other hand, seemed enthralled by them since the incident. Especially Hedwig.
Holly held out her little Puffskien. “This is PuffPotter. Isn’t she the cutest?”
Tracy reached out to scratch PuffPotter’s head/body (Holly didn’t know if there was a difference, actually). “We used to have a puffskein when I was little,” she said, wistfully. “They’re really resilient.”
The rest of the ride went by much the same. Then, not too long before they were to deboard, a bushy-haired girl came in searching for a toad. “A boy called Neville’s lost one,” she said, then spotted Ron trying to turn scabbers yellow and seemed to forget all about the toad. She sat down beside Tracy “Are you doing magick? Let's see it then.”
“Er-” said Ron, uncomfortably, “Alright. Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, turn this stupid fat rat yellow.” He recited, with a wave of his wand. Nothing happened.
The bushy-haired girl looked down her nose at him. “Are you sure that's a real spell?” she asked, “Well, it's not very good, is it? I’ve tried a few simple spells just for practice and its all worked for me. Nobody in my family’s magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it’s the very best school of witchcraft there is, I’ve heard- I’ve learned all our course books by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough- I’m Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?” said Hermione, very fast.
“I’m Holly- have you really learned all our course books? I’ve tried to memorize what I can - it’s all so new to Harry and I too. We live with our Aunt and Uncle. They're as un-magickal as you can get!” Holly explained, somewhat excited to find another person she could relate to.
“Holly and Harry, Potter?” Hermione asked. “I’ve read all about you of course-”
Tracy jumped up then, spinning to face Hermione, blocking the twins from view slightly. “I’m Tracy, that's Ron. It’s really good to meet you, but we still need to change… you should see if Nevile found his toad.”
Hermione blinked a few times, then shrugged and got up. “Alright,” she agreed, easily, “see you.” she waved them goodbye and left the compartment.
“Uh.. thanks,” said Holly.
Tracy looked kind of confused. “For what? C’mon, we need to change.” Tracy said, grabbing one of her suitcases and heading for the little bathroom in their compartment.
Holly looked at Harry and Ron, who just shrugged. Oh well, she thought, and grabbed her own suitcase, trailing after Tracy.