The Hogwarts express
Chapter 8: The Hogwarts express
Harry is woken by Solace pulling on his hair. “Ughh, Solace, stop it.” He groans sleepily. Solace does not listen, so Harry sits up and moves the little demon to the end of the bed.
He rubs his eyes tiredly and then he remembers, Today is Hogwarts day! And he gets to see Luna again! Hopefully she still wants to be his friend.
He rolls out of his bed and starts to get ready for the day. He takes a shower and makes an attempt at fixing his hair (he does not succeed). Then he pulls on a pair of denim jeans, a dark grey T-shirt, his green hoodie and his converses. He is extremely grateful that he doesn’t have to turn up to his first day of school in Dudley’s ugly clothes.
He has already packed most of his stuff yesterday, but there are still a few things scattered about the room, so he packs them into his trunk, locks it shut and then presses the button that shrinks the trunk and its contents to pocket size. He then picks up his mum's leather satchel that he found in the Potter vault and slips the tiny trunk into the bag.
Harry slings the satchel over his shoulder and looks up at the clock, 10am. That means he has about forty-five minutes before he needs to use the Leaky cauldrons fireplace to floo too platform 9 ¾.
He was worried that he would have to walk all the way to kings-cross station through muggle London, but thankfully the barman Tom had told him about the floo network and how he could use the pubs fireplace to get too platform 9 ¾.
Harry decides to go downstairs and have breakfast before he leaves for the train. He calls Solace, and the little raven lands on his shoulder with a loud chirp. Harry decided that he doesn’t want any of his familiars to be caged, so Solace will just travel on his shoulder.
“Selena, we need to go now.” He calls and Selena slithers out from under his pillow, hissing excitedly.
“We are going to Salazars school now?” She asks.
“First, we need to eat breakfast, but after that, yes. We will go to the station.” He hisses to her, feeling excitement and nervousness bubble up in his stomach as he speaks.
“I will eat human food.” Selena responds in agreement. He reaches out a hand to her and lets her coil around the wrist cuff he bought from the animal emporium that is charmed to stay warm.
Harry heads downstairs with both of his familiars in tow, one on his shoulder, one on his wrist. All of his possessions in his mum's leather satchel, and his dads silver glasses firmly on his face.
He thinks about his parents a lot now and he really hopes that he will be able to find out more about them at Hogwarts.
He eats breakfast at one of the corner tables in the pub, glancing at the clock every few minutes just to make sure he’s able to get to the platform on time. When it reaches 10.40am he gets up and goes to say bye to Tom.
“Morning, Tom!” Harry greets, the old barman who he has become somewhat friendly with over the month he stayed in the leaky cauldron.
“Hello Laddy, ready for Hogwarts?” Tom asks in his gruff voice.
“Yep, I’ve got all my stuff packed.” He pats the satchel as he speaks. “And I’m going to use the floo now if that’s ok?”
“Course it’s okay! The floo powder is on the mantelpiece.” The barman smiles at Harry crookedly.
“Thanks, oh! and thanks for letting me stay here.” He tells Tom gratefully.
“No problem! Any time, I hope to see you again next summer.”
“You probably will. Bye Tom.” He waves to the barman and heads over to the fireplace. The ticket that he got in his letter says the train leaves at 11am, but he wants to get there early so there is no chance of the train leaving without him.
He picks up a handful of green powder, like barman Tom told him too. Then he scoops Solace off his shoulder with his other hand and holds him close to his chest, so he doesn’t get lost on the way there. “Ok, Selena. Hold on tight.”
Selena hisses in agreement.
Harry steps into the fireplace and throws the powder at the ground, and speaks clearly as the green flames rise up, “Platform 9 ¾.”
The world blurs, he feels like he’s swirling through time and space, for about five seconds, then he lands on a stone floor. He stumbles a little and has to fight with his stomach to not throw up. Solace squawks at him so Harry lets him go, and Solace goes back to sitting on his shoulder.
He looks at his surroundings, he his standing on a busy platform with families everywhere. Everyone rushing to get luggage onto the train and saying last goodbyes to their children. It’s ridiculously loud with parents calling their children’s names or trying to scold them for bad behaviour. Harry is overwhelmed so he decides to get straight onto the huge red and black steam engine.
He pushes his way through the crowd ignoring anyone who stares at his scar, and climbs up the steps and into the train, he walks down the corridor looking for a compartment.
He eventually finds an empty compartment, it has two long seats either side of the room, wooden panels on the walls and ceilings and a red carpet on the floor. He hopes that Luna will be able to find him ok. He didn’t see her or Mr Lovegood on the platform, so he assumes that they haven’t arrived yet.
He plops his bag down on one of the seats and sits down near the window. Solace flies of his shoulder and up onto the luggage rack. Harry turns his head to look out of the window at all the people on the platform.
He spots a family of red heads that consists of: a plump middle-aged woman with frizzy hair and stressed look on her face. A balding middle-aged man who also looks very stressed. An older boy who looks about thirteen and has a disapproving look on his face. Identical twins that look about the same age as Harry, they have mischievous grins on their faces and they are basically running circles around their parents, a small nervous boy who looks to be about eight years old, and a shy little girl who looks to be about six or seven.
He watches as the parents wrangle the chaotic twins, with amusement. But it’s tinged with sadness, he wishes his parents were here to see him off to Hogwarts. He traces the silver lettering of his mother's name on the satchel with longing.
“Star, are you ok?” Selena asks in concern. She always knows when something is wrong.
“Yeah, I’m fine, it’s just… I wish my parents were here. It’s not fair that everyone else has parents or guardians and I…just have the Dursleys.” He says with tears starting to fall down his face.
“I know star, I’m sorry your parents are not here. You deserve so much more than Dursleys.” She hisses sadly and slithers up his arm to rest on his shoulders. Selena pokes his wet cheek softly with her nose in a comforting way.
Harry just nods at her, wipes his eyes and takes some deep breaths trying to get his stupid emotions under control, he wants to enjoy the train ride and the first day of Hogwarts.
The door opens and Luna steps into the compartment, she is wearing her pink converses, dark purple cat eye glasses, flowing yellow trousers, a vest the same shade of purple as her glasses and a denim jacket with embroidered daisies on the sleeves.
A huge grin splits his face as she walks in, quickly overshadowing his sadness. Luna is here! She actually meant it about being friends!
“Hi, Luna!” He says, excitedly standing up from his seat.
“Hello, Harry.” She says smiling brightly and speaking in her soft floaty voice. Luna puts her trunk down on the floor and then walks all the way up to him wraps her arms around him and full-on hugs Harry.
Harry has no memory of ever being hugged in his life. His parents probably did when he was a baby, but he doesn’t remember it, and now here Luna is hugging him, Harry does not know what to do.
She pulls away and looks at him. “Are you ok Harry?” That’s when Harry realises that he has tears running down his face (again. Stupid emotions). He flinches at the realisation, terrified that Luna will think he’s pathetic and weak for crying. Vernon always said that boys aren’t allowed to cry, that it’s a show of weakness. Harry nods at Luna instead of speaking and tries to turn away from her in shame.
But Luna takes his hands in hers, and Harry looks at her. Then she says softly, “tell me what’s wrong Harry.”
Harry looks at her face and into her deep blue eyes searching for disgust or hatred, but he finds neither. All he sees is care and concern. So, he answers shakily, “no one has ever hugged me before, and it just…took me by surprise. Then I realised I was crying, and my uncle told me boys aren’t allowed to cry. And I was worried you wouldn’t want to be my friend anymore because I am weak.” He’s worried he’s said too much and now she will think he’s even more of a freak. But he couldn’t really stop the words from tumbling out of his stupid mouth.
Luna’s eyes flash with anger, Harry thinks she’s angry at him. But then she speaks in a fierce voice still clutching his hands tightly. “Harry your uncle is wrong. You are allowed to cry it does not make you weak. The act of crying is not restricted to any gender, it is for everyone to do whenever they need too. You do not have to hide your tears from me, I don’t think any less of you.” She finishes firmly.
Harry lets her words sink in, Luna doesn’t hate him or think he’s weak, Vernon was wrong. Luna still wants to be his friend and doesn’t think less of him for his stupid display of emotions.
He looks at his friend and wonders how he got so lucky, what could he have possibly done to deserve Luna Lovegood as a friend. Harry decides right then and there that he will be loyal to Luna till his dying day.
“Thanks, Luna.” He says quietly. Then she hugs him again, this time Harry hugs her back.
“I’m going to hug you enough to make up for all the ones you missed.” She informs him softly.
Harry just nods and feel so extremely grateful for Luna Lovegood.
~~~
The Hogwarts express is now rolling through the countryside, they’ve been travelling for about an hour. He and Luna have been chatting the whole time, Luna told him about her house and her hobbies and how Panda (the squirrel) has been adjusting to Luna. She also told Harry all about her mother Pandora, about how smart and amazing her mother had been.
“…Oh, I also inherited my seeing gifts from her!” Luna tells him brightly.
“Seeing gifts? What’s that.” Harry asks curiously.
“She would have prophetic dreams and visions about the future. I have the same gifts as her, that’s how I knew we would meet in that shop and be best friends.”
“Yeah, I remember, that’s really cool! Can you tell the future whenever you want?” He asks amazed with Luna’s abilities.
“No, it just sort of happens randomly, a lot of time when I have my visions I just black out and don’t even know what I said. But I do always remember the dreams, so that’s nice.” She says airily.
“That’s amazing Luna.” He stares at his friend with wide eyes full of awe.
“Yes, I quite like my gifts, but they do have downsides. Many seers go mad trying to figure out the future, but I am always carful and I never look for the future I just let it come to me, so I don’t think I’ll go mad. My powers are very rare like your parseltongue abilities and many people would try to use me for my powers. The only other person alive that knows of my gifts apart from you, is my dad.” She says nonchalantly, as if she hasn’t just given Harry a secret so important her life could be destroyed if he told anyone.
“I will guard your secret with my life Luna, I promise.” He tells her sincerely.
“Thank you, Harry, and I will guard your speaker abilities with my life as well. It’s best to keep special things hidden.” She says equally as sincere.
He nods stoically in response. He had introduced Luna and Selena after the whole crying incident, and he told her how he could speak to Selena. Luna told him that the snake language he speaks is called parseltongue. Luna thought Selena was amazing, and Selena had declared that Luna is trustworthy.
Harry hears a lunch trolley being pushed down the corridor outside. “Luna, do you want anything to eat? I’m going to the lunch cart.”
She nods. “I would quite like a pumpkin pasty and some chocolate frogs.”
“Sure, I’ll just be a minute.”
Suddenly Luna’s eyes cloud over and she says in a sharp yet misty voice, “Let the twin children in.” Then she blinks and shakes her head. “Did I just predict something?” She asks back to her normal floaty voice.
“Yeah…I think you did. You said let the twin children in?” Harry says slightly confused. “Are you ok Luna?”
“Oh yes, I’m fine. Well, I guess if you see any twins, you should probably let them in.” She doesn’t seem bothered by the fact that she just blanked out and told the…future? So, Harry decides not to dwell on it.
He exits their compartment and walks down the corridor towards the lunch trolley. He buys a bit of everything, thinking he can save it for later if they don’t eat it all. Then he starts to walk back to the compartment arms laden with food.
He’s almost back at the compartment when he notices red haired identical twin boys the same ones he saw running circles around their parents on the platform. They are sitting next to their trunks on the floor outside one of the compartments, they both look sad all previous mischief gone.
“Stupid Percy he always thinks he’s better than us.” Twin one says.
“I know, he’s such a prat where are we gonna sit now?” Twin two says.
Huh…Luna’s vision, it was right. Harry thinks with amazement.
“Excuse me.” Harry says uncertainly. “I overheard you saying you had nowhere to sit? You can come and sit with me and my friend if you want, we have plenty of space.” The twins look up at him in surprise.
“Our prat of a brother kicked us out and all the other compartments are full.” Twin two says.
“We’ll take you up on that offer, what’s your name?” Twin one says.
“Oh…it’s…umm, Harry Potter.” Harry says nervously, worried the twins will stare at him like everyone else does.
“Cool, my name is George and that’s my twin Fred.” Twin one or George, says completely unbothered by Harry’s name.
Harry blinks a few times shocked that they didn’t comment on his name, and then he grins at them. “Nice to meet you, follow me I’ll show you where our seats are.”
He leads Fred and George to where he and Luna are sitting, he opens the compartment door and they follow him into the room. “Luna, look who I found.”
Luna watches the twins with a thoughtful look on her face, then tilts her head to the side and says, “Hello, I’m Luna Lovegood.”
“Hi, I’m Fred Weasley.”
“And I’m George Weasley. Do you live in Ottery-Saint-catchpole? My dad said the Lovegood's live in the same village as us.”
“Yes, me and my dad live on the hill, but we like to keep to ourselves.” Luna replies in her soft voice.
“Cool, Thanks for letting us sit with you” George says.
“We thought we would have to spend the whole train ride in the corridor, pompous Percy kicked us out of his compartment because we were ‘worse than rampaging hippogriffs’ he just doesn’t like us because we show everyone how boring he is compared to us.” Fred says rolling his eyes at his brother Percy’s name.
Harry sits down on the seat next to Luna; the twins sit down on the opposite seat. Solace flies down from the luggage rack and lands on Harry’s lap staring at Fred and George curiously.
“Is that your bird?” Fred asks.
“Yea, his name is Solace.”
“Wow cool name.” Fred says looking at Solace with interest.
“Is he a raven? I read that ravens are really smart and can carry letters and parcels the same way owls do.” George rambles excitedly looking at Solace.
“Yes, he’s a raven, and he is really smart I trained him to come to me when I call him.” Harry tells them proudly.
“That’s amazing Harry! He’s so cool.” George says in awe.
Solace tilts his head at George and then flies over and lands on his head. The red-haired boy looks absolutely overjoyed that Solace chose to sit on him.
“I have a squirrel her name is panda.” Luna says gently scooping panda out of her pocket and laying her in George’s lap. George is very clearly an animal lover, he gently strokes the squirrels head, and it curls up and falls asleep on him. He is smiling so hard it looks like his face is about to crack open.
Fred rolls his eyes fondly at his twin brother. And Luna smiles warmly at George as he pets Panda's head.
Then Selena decides to make an appearance, she slithers out from under his sleeve hissing about how she is a magnificent serpent with venom and how they should all look at her. Harry chuckles at her antics.
Fred looks at Selena in amazement. “Wow, you guys have so many cool animals!”
“Yeah, I guess we do.” Harry grins at him.
~~~
The rest of the journey goes by quickly he and Luna chat easily with the twins the whole way. Both of the twins are really cool, George loves animals, and enjoys reading. Fred enjoys brewing potions and insulting his brother Percy. Both of them love causing mischief, enjoy inventing things and are hoping to become Hogwarts number one pranksters.
Eventually the train starts slowing down so they all quickly slip their school robes on and make their way out into the corridor.
The train jerks to a stop and the doors spring open, Harry stares out at the platform. In a few minutes he will be in Hogwarts castle he can’t quite believe it. He’s finally here.