chapter five
Soon, the sweets witch came knocking on their compartment door, “anything to eat, dearies?”
Dejectedly, Ron pulled out some mashed up sandwiches, “no, I have food from home”
“I’ll take two of everything”, Harry announced, feeling bad for Ron. He knew all too well what it was like to never get anything you wanted. Food that he actually liked was always eaten by dudley, even if he was normally disgusted by it *cough* broccoli *cough*, so, he got them each one of everything, they were friends after all.
After they were handed their sweets, Ron looked at Harry with worry, “mate I- I can’t repay you, we don’t have that kind of money”
“No need”, Harry explained cheerily, “you are my friend, you don’t have to pay me back”
“Really? Thank you so much”, Ron nearly chocked on his tears, but quickly swept them aside, putting on a happy face.
Magical sweets were amazing!
Some sweets made you float for a few seconds, some were animated, like chocolate frogs, some made your hair change colors, others made you make animal noises. It was all so fun, even the more mundane candies tasted great.
From his chocolate frog, he got the card of Hengist of Woodcroft, on its back, it read: ‘Founder of Hogsmeade. Driven away from his home by Muggle persecutors, Hengist is supposed to have settled in Scotland, where he founded the village of Hogsmeade. The Three Broomsticks inn is alleged to be Gengist’s old home.’
“Oh- that one is rare”, Ron told him, “I only have two, not like Dumbledore here, I have nine of those”
He handed Harry the card which read: ‘Albus Dumbledore. Currently Headmaster of Hogwarts. Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times, Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald in 1945, for his discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicholas Flamel. Professor Dumbledore enjoys chamber music and ten pin bowling’
“This can’t mean the real Nicholas Flamel, can it? Didn’t Flamel live, what- five hundred years ago?”
“I don’t know, never heard about Flamel before”, Ron shrugged, stuffing another every flavor bean in his mouth.
“Well, as far as I know, Flamel was the famed creator of the philosophers stone, which granted eternal life and the ability to transmute any metal into gold, at least thats what the muggles told me”, Harry explained.
“Well, if even muggles know about him then he must really be hundreds of years old, the statute of secrecy was imposed in the 17th century, so he must be older than that. Can you imagine, never dying, endless gold… what I wouldn’t give for that stone”
“yeah, sounds pretty sweet”, Harry agreed, throwing the card on the pile of candy wrappers that had accumulated in one corner of the compartment.
Soon, Draco came to their compartment with two friends, “Hallo Harry, finally found you, you really had to choose the last cart for your compartment didn’t you? Wait”, he turned to run, “Who is that? No- let me guess, red hair and a hand-me-down robe, you must be a weasley. I heard my father say that all weasleys were dirt poor and had more children than they could afford”
“Hey, knock it off Draco”, Harry defended his friend, “no need to be so aggressive”
“I- but-”, he seemed ready to scream but then calmed himself, “you are right, I am sorry, I will leave now. Crabbe, Goyle, with me”
“Thank you, I was about to suckerpunch him”, Ron admitted, “still going to be his friend”
“Well, that was a bad look for him but I still believe that he can change”
Not too long after, a girl with wild, brown hair and buck teeth came to their compartment, asking them: “have either of you seen a toad? Neville has lost his”
“Nope, no toads here”, Harry replied, showing around the compartment, no toad in sight.
The girl left them alone and they continued munching on their sweets.
A few hours later, the train arrived at Hogsmeade station.
Everyone was dressed in their school robes. The older students had colored robes, for the houses they were part of. The first years on the other hand had pure black robes. Harry wondered whether the robes just changed colors magically or if the robes had to be re-made by hand. Though, it was most likely magic, after all, why make something by hand if you could make it with a swish from your wand. Truly, magic was fantastic, some may even call it(wait for it)... Magical!
Hagrid, the gigantic groundskeeper waved over the crowd of students, screaming, “1st years to me, 1st years to me, gather ‘round y’all, gather ‘round”
Once the older students had left for the carriages, only the first years were left and they formed a circle around Hagrid.
“Good, is that all of ye? Good… good, follow me”, Hagrid led them out of the station and onto a dirt path towards the big lake sitting in front of Hogwarts. They could see the castle, big and majestic, on top of a big hill, some may call it a small mountain even.
On the lake there were a few dozen boats, which they mounted. Harry was in a boat together with Ron and Draco, who were both staring daggers at each other, not that Harry noticed that, he was way to focused on the beautiful picture in front of him. Hogwarts seemed so grand, so imposing.
Once they’d crossed the lake, they had to walk a few hundred stairs up to the castle, which wasn’t easy by any means and Harry’s legs were killing him but they finally made it up to the castle. Hagrid left them in a room for a few minutes, before he returned together with a stern looking, black haired woman, with glasses, who told them about the house system and the point system, before finally leading them to the great hall.