September 1, 1989
September 1, 1989 came fast, and boy, were Fred, George and I excited. Bill, Charlie, and Percy told us all their stories of Hogwarts and we had been excited for years. We woke up early on the morning of September 1st. Molly made a delicious breakfast, but between my nerves and excitement, it was hard to find my appetite. I settled for a piece of toast and some porridge while Fred and George shoved as much food as their mouths would allow. The rest of the family got ready for the day and before I knew it, we were facing a brick wall between Platforms 9 and 10. While I had heard stories from the older boys, I never visited years prior. Remus didn’t allow me to come drop off the older boys with he rest of the family since he didn’t want me to be another head for Molly and Arthur to keep track of, and I never complained. As I stood, watching the rest of the family run through the wall, I started to feel nauseous. I was excited for this new journey, but I was leaving my brother behind. When it was my turn to run through, I looked back at my brother with fear in my eyes. He walked over, put a one hand on my shoulder and one on my cart, and said, “You’re ready for this, pumpkin.” With that, we began our run through the wall. Once on the other side, my jaw dropped as I looked up the maroon steam engine in front of us. Charlie and Percy said their goodbyes and headed to meet up with their friends. As George and Fred began to say their goodbyes, I turned to Remus with tears in my eyes.
“What’s wrong, pumpkin?” he asked.
“What if no one likes me… and what if I am really bad in all of my classes… and what if I don’t get into Gryffindor and…” he cut me off as he crouched down and got on my level.
“Cassandra Lupin, you are one of the most funny, smart, and kind people I have ever had the privilege of knowing. You are going to be incredible.” he waved Fred and George over to us, “You two better keep an eye on her. And keep the mischief to a minimum, especially in your first year.” He winked at them and stood up.
“Of course we will, Remus, but…” George started.
“…we can’t make any promises on the mischief!” finished Fred, as he ran towards the train.
“Come on, Cass, we want to make sure we get a good cabin!” said George as he held out a hand for me. I gave Remus one more tight squeeze goodbye, waved goodbye to Molly, Arthur, Ron, and Ginny, and took George’s hand. He led me onto the train and into the cabin Fred found. After they helped me put my stuff away, I sat down next to Fred and dried my eyes on my sleeve.
“You’re being silly, Cass! Don’t tell me you're scared to go to Hogwarts, we’ve been dreaming of this for years!” Fred said, and he put his arm around my shoulder.
“I’m just gonna miss Remus,” I said, tears welling in my eyes again.
“I know you will, Cass,” George said handing me a tissue from the bag Molly packed for our trip, “but we’ll be with you all the time to make sure you’re okay! We’re going to have so much fun together.” The train began to pull away and I jumped up to run into the hall and stick my head out the window like all the other students. I scanned the crowd and quickly found my brother. He winked at me and I saw him mouth, “You got this, pumpkin.” I waved until he was out of sight, and went back to join the boys in the cabin. They were already scheming about pranks to pull on Percy. My eyes felt heavy from all my crying, so I put my head on Fred’s shoulder and began to drift off.
After what felt like hours, George nudged my knee to wake me up. He spoke softly as I rubbed my eyes, “The food trolley is here. Did Remus give you money for some snacks?”
“Mum packed us snacks so we were hoping you could get us some,” Fred said, not as softly, causing me to flinch. I reached into my pocket to pull out the 5 galleons Remus had given me and gave it to the boys.
“Get me a chocolate frog and get whatever you two want, I’m not hungry.” Their eyes lit up as I handed them the money. They jumped up and greeted the lady standing outside our cabin. They came back minutes later with their hands and mouths full.
“Have we ever told you how much we love you?” Fred mumbled. I could barely make out what he was saying with all the food shoved in his face.
“We love you so much, Cass.” George said, equally as inaudible as Fred.
“Yeah, yeah, shut it you two.” I said as I began opening my chocolate frog. I usually gave Fred and George my cards since I didn’t collect them. When I grabbed the card out of the box, my eyes widened.
“Who’d you get?” Fred questioned, his mouth still full of food.
“Godric Gryffindor.” There were butterflies in my stomach. Everyone I knew was in Gryffindor. Part of me feared that if I wasn’t, I would lose Fred and George and would be a loner. I also feared that Remus would be disappointed in me. This card felt like a good sign.
“DIBS!” Both brothers screamed at the same time. They instantly began yelling back and forth over, shouting that each of them deserved it more than the other.
I was too focused on looking at the man in the portrait to hear what they were saying. I could’ve sworn he winked at me before walking away. The cabin fell silent and I looked up. The two boys were looking right at me. I finally spoke up, “I think I want to keep this one, boys.” The expressions on their faces were priceless, and if I wasn’t deep in my thoughts, I would’ve made fun of them.
Surely this card was a sign that I was going to be sorted into Gryffindor. And what was that wink from the tiny man in the card? Was I imagining it because I wanted the card to mean something? Maybe the card did that to everyone? My thoughts were interrupted by George handing me my bag. “Better get changed, Cass, we’ll be at Hogwarts soon.”
“We’ll step out for a sec so you can get changed, then you gotta step out for us, okay?” Fred informed me, and I nodded and they stood to leave the room. I put on my white button-up shirt, my matching grey sweater and skirt, my grey knee-high socks, my black mary-janes, and my black robe. I walked into the hallway with my tie in hand and looked at the two boys. “Can you guys help me with this?”
George seized the tie from my hand and began to explain the steps while tying it around my neck. When he was finished, I looked up at him and must have had a confused expression because he looked at me and said, “Don’t worry, I’ll help you until you figure it out. Are you done in the cabin?” I shook my head and they entered, closing the door behind them. We weren’t the only cabin getting changed because the hallways had people scattered going in and out of their cabins. Emerging from the cabin next to us was a girl who looked my age. I smiled at her and said, “Hi, I’m Cassandra! Are you a first-year as well?”
She looked at me and smiled, “Yes, I am. My name’s Angelina.” The girl next to me was pretty. She was a tall, thin, black girl with long, black hair and gorgeous brown eyes. She was almost the exact opposite of me. I was short and pale with long blonde hair and blue eyes. I wouldn’t call myself chubby, but I wasn’t nearly as thin as she was. We stood and talked until another girl emerged from her cabin.
“You can go in, Ang,” she said to the girl standing next to me, who waved as she entered her cabin and closed the door. “Hi, I’m Alicia Spinnet,” she said, holding her hand out for me to shake. She was shorter than Angelina and had lighter skin. She had similar black, long hair and brown eyes. I shook her hand and introduced myself. We started talking until we were interrupted by Fred and George opening our cabin and yelling for me to come back in. I said goodbye to Alicia and walked back into our cabin.
“Making friends out there, Cass?” George questioned.
“You can’t be planning to run away from us already!” Fred jested.
“I was just talking to the girls from the cabin next to ours. They seem nice.” I said. Talking to the girls helped pushed the thoughts, more like worries, about being sorted out of my head. We felt the train come to a stop and Fred and George jumped up to look out the window. We were at a train station. It looked different from any other train station I had ever seen. There were stone archways and stone houses along the tracks. We emerged from the train to see a large man calling for all the first years.
“Firs’ years, follow me!” the man called as Fred, George, and I walked over. The man looked down at us and said, “Well, well, more Weasleys, I’m assumin’?” Fred and George simply nodded, although it was difficult since their necks were already bent looking up at this large man. “Yer not a Weasley, are yeh?” he asked, looking at me.
“No sir, I’m Cassandra Lupin,” I responded, and I saw his eyes widen.
“Well, what do yeh know! Yer brother was one of my favorite students, although I’m not saying I pick favorites,” He said and winked at me. “Al’righ, let’s get a move on then!” he said, addressing the large group of first years that accumulated while we were talking to the large man. He guided us to the edge of a large, black lake. On the other side of the lake, towering over us was Hogwarts Castle. I had never seen anything like it. I was huge. I began to worry about navigating this giant castle, but my thoughts were interrupted by Fred and George guiding me into one of the row boats on the edge of the lake. The large man we were following, who we learned was named Hagrid, and the two girls from the cabin next to us were in the same row boat as us. I was thankful they were, cause we might not have made it across in one piece. Fred and George had already begun their shenanigans by splashing each other and trying to rock the boat. Thankfully, the weight of the large man sitting in front kept them from moving too much.