Year One: Philosopher's Stone

Harry's last month at home was both fun and nerve-wracking. Harry had started reading some of his school books and had found a good name for his owl. He decided to call his owl Hedwig, and Mor decided to call her's Alaska.

On the last day of August, while they were all in the sitting room, Dad said "Are you packed? Don't leave everything for the last minute.'

'Yeah dad, we're done packing.' Mor replied from her spot on the rug, Harry nodding in agreement.

Harry woke at five o’clock the next morning and was too excited and nervous to go back to sleep. He got up and pulled on his jeans because he didn’t want to walk into the station in his wizard’s robes – he’d change on the train. He checked his Hogwarts list yet again to make sure he had everything he needed, saw that Hedwig was shut safely in her cage and then paced his room, waiting for the rest of his family to get up.

He decided to wake Mor up too, so he went to her room, only to find her awake and pacing the room like him. They sat together and waited for hours to pass. Two hours later, Harry’s huge, heavy trunk had been loaded into the car, Violet had fought Mor for the front seat and won, and they had set off. They reached King’s Cross at half past ten.

'Why didn't we apparate?' Mor asked Violet while putting their trunks on trolleys, and dad said it was because he wanted them to have the full experience. They moved towards platforms nine and ten, and at that moment a group of people passed just behind them and Harry caught a few words of what they were saying.

‘– packed with Muggles, of course –’

Harry swung round. The speaker was a plump woman who was talking to four boys, all with flaming red hair. Each of them was pushing a trunk like Harry’s in front of him – and they had an owl.

Dad cleared his throat, and Harry turned to face him. 'You both know how to get on the platform?' Harry and Mor nodded. Harry was starting to get nervous, and it was showing. 'Violet, go with Harry. Mor, we'll go together.'

Harry and Violet gripped his trolley and started to move towards the barrier between platforms nine and ten. As they got closer, they started to run. Harry closed his eyes and braced for the collision, but it never came. He opened his eyes.

A scarlet steam engine was waiting next to a platform packed with people. A sign overhead said Hogwarts Express, 11 o’clock. Harry looked behind him and saw a wrought-iron archway where the ticket box had been, with the words Platform Nine and Three-Quarters on it. He had done it.

Smoke from the engine drifted over the heads of the chattering crowd, while cats of every colour wound here and there between their legs. Owls hooted at each other in a disgruntled sort of way over the babble and the scraping of heavy trunks.

The first few carriages were already packed with students, some hanging out of the window to talk to their families, some fighting over seats. Mor and dad emerged from the barrier behind them. Harry and Violet pushed his trolley off down the platform in search of empty seats. He passed a round-faced boy who was saying, ‘Gran, I’ve lost my toad again.’

‘Oh, Neville,’ he heard the old woman sigh.

A boy with dreadlocks was surrounded by a small crowd. ‘Give us a look, Lee, go on.’ The boy lifted the lid of a box in his arms and the people around him shrieked and yelled as something inside poked out a long, hairy leg.

Violet and Dad were stopped by some of their friends, and they told him and Mor to keep going.

They pressed on through the crowd until they found an empty compartment near the end of the train. He put Hedwig and Alaska inside first and then started to shove and heave his trunk towards the train door. Even with Mor's help, he dropped it painfully on his foot twice.

‘Want a hand?’ It was one of the red-haired kids he’d seen near the barrier. ‘Yes, please,’ Harry panted.

‘Oy, Fred! C’mere and help!’

His twin came, and with their help, Harry’s trunk was, at last, tucked away in a corner of the compartment, Mor's right above it. ‘Thanks,’ said Harry, pushing his sweaty hair out of his eyes. 

‘What’s that?’ said one of the twins suddenly, pointing at Harry’s lightning scar. ‘Blimey,’ said the other twin. ‘Are you –?’

‘He is,’ said the first twin. ‘Aren’t you?’ he added to Harry. ‘What?’ said Harry. ‘Harry Potter,’ chorused the twins.

‘Oh, him,’ said Harry. ‘I mean, yes, I am.’ The two boys gawped at him and Harry felt himself going red. Mor was trying hard not to laugh at him. Then, to his relief, a voice came floating in through the train’s open door.

‘Fred? George? Are you there?’

‘Coming, Mum.’ With a last look at Harry, the twins hopped off the train. Harry and Mor sat down next to the window where, half-hidden, they could watch the red-haired family on the platform and hear what they were saying. Their mother had just taken out her handkerchief. 'Ron, you’ve got something on your nose.’

The youngest boy tried to jerk out of the way, but she grabbed him and began rubbing the end of his nose. ‘Mum – geroff.’ He wriggled free.

‘Aaah, has ickle Ronnie got somefink on his nosie?’ said one of the twins. ‘Shut up,’ said Ron. ‘Where’s Percy?’ said their mother. ‘He’s coming now.’

The oldest boy came striding into sight. He had already changed into his billowing black Hogwarts robes and Harry noticed a shiny red and gold badge on his chest with the letter P on it.

‘Can’t stay long, Mother,’ he said. ‘I’m up front, the Prefects have got two compartments to themselves –’

‘Oh, are you a Prefect, Percy?’ said one of the twins, with an air of great surprise. ‘You should have said something, we had no idea.’

‘Hang on, I think I remember him saying something about it,’ said the other twin. ‘Once –’

‘Or twice –’

‘A minute –’

‘All summer –’

‘Oh, shut up,’ said Percy the Prefect.

‘How come Percy gets new robes, anyway?’ said one of the twins.

‘Because he’s a Prefect,’ said their mother fondly. ‘All right, dear, well, have a good term – send me an owl when you get there.’ She kissed Percy on the cheek and he left. Then she turned to the twins.

‘Now, you two – this year, you behave yourselves. If I get one more owl telling me you’ve – you’ve blown up a toilet or –’

‘Blown up a toilet? We’ve never blown up a toilet.’

‘Great idea though, thanks, Mum.’

‘It’s not funny. And look after Ron.’

‘Don’t worry, ickle Ronniekins is safe with us.’

‘Shut up,’ said Ron again. He was almost as tall as the twins already and his nose was still pink where his mother had rubbed it.

‘Hey, Mum, guess what? Guess who we just met on the train?’ Harry leant back quickly so they couldn’t see him looking. Mor stayed pressed up against the window, quietly snickering at his predicament. 'You're famous, Golden Boy.' She said, wiggling her eyebrows. 'Shut up.' he whispered, shoving her.

‘You know that black-haired boy who was near us in the station? Know who he is?’

‘Who?’

‘Harry Potter!’

Harry heard the little girl’s voice. ‘Oh, Mum, can I go on the train and see him, Mum, oh please ...’

‘You’ve already seen him, Ginny, and the poor boy isn’t something you goggle at in a zoo. Is he really, Fred? How do you know?’

‘Asked him. Saw his scar. It’s really there – like lightning.’

‘Poor dear.'

Mor suddenly grabbed his hand, and they climbed out of the compartment. Harry was so invested in listening to what the family was saying about him that he missed Violet and Dad calling them to say goodbye.

Dad hugged them both tightly. 'Stay out of trouble you two. I know how much you like your pranks, but try to keep it a little toned down.' Violet ruffled his hair. 'Owl us as soon as you get time. I wanna know what house you've been sorted into, what friends you've made, what the feast was like, everything. Don't leave a single detail out.' She turned to Violet then. 'Take care of this one. Golden Boy doesn't know how to put his socks on most days.'

'Violet-'

'I'm kidding. Maybe.'

They said their goodbyes and climbed back into their compartment. The redhead family was still outside. A whistle sounded.

‘Hurry up!’ their mother said, and the three boys clambered onto the train. They leaned out of the window for her to kiss them goodbye and their younger sister began to cry.

‘Don’t, Ginny, we’ll send you loads of owls.’ 

‘We’ll send you a Hogwarts toilet seat.’ 

‘George!’

‘Only joking, Mum.’

The train began to move. Harry saw the boys’ mother waving and their sister, half laughing, half crying, running to keep up with the train until it gathered too much speed; then she fell back and waved.

Mor and Harry were also waving furiously until Violet and dad disappeared as the train rounded the corner. Harry felt a great leap of excitement. He didn’t know what he was going to do – but he was looking forward to it. The door of the compartment slid open and the youngest red-headed boy came in.

‘Anyone sitting there?’ He asked, pointing at the seat opposite Mor. ‘Everywhere else is full.’ She shook her head, and he slid in and sat down. 'I'm Ron by the way. Ron Weasley.' He glanced at Harry and then looked quickly out of the window, pretending he hadn’t looked. Harry saw he still had a black mark on his nose. Mor noticed and started grinning, and said 'You can look at him. He won't bite.'

Before he could say anything, there was a voice at the compartment door. 'Hey, Harry. Mor.' Blaise came in and sat down next to Ron. Harry ignored him, choosing to look out of the window. Mor was whispering something to Blaise, and Ron was looking between all of them, confused.

'I'm sorry, Harry. I was wrong, and I shouldn't have said that. Will you forgive me?' Blaise was looking at harry with big eyes, and Harry was weak against them. 'As long as you promise never to think like that again.' 

'Done.' Blaise said happily. Mor grabbed both Harry and Blaise around the neck and smushed their heads together. 'Finally. I was starting to think you would never talk to each other.' They all laughed, while Ron sat there a little awkwardly. Mor let them go and introduced everyone to Ron.

Blaise scrunched his nose a little when Ron introduced himself, but one look from Harry had him shaking the boy's hand. Soon, all of them were laughing and talking. Around half past twelve, there was a great clattering outside in the corridor and a smiling, dimpled woman slid back their door and said, ‘Anything off the trolley, dears?’

They got a lot of food off the trolley, and soon there were wrappers everywhere. They had a good time eating the Every-Flavour Beans. Harry got toast, coconut, baked bean, strawberry, curry, grass, coffee, and sardine and was even brave enough to nibble the end of a funny grey one Blaise wouldn’t touch, which turned out to be pepper. The countryside now flying past the window was becoming wilder. The neat fields had gone. Now there were woods, twisting rivers and dark green hills.

They met a bushy-haired girl who introduced herself as Hermione Granger while Ron was trying to turn his rat yellow. She knew who Harry was, but that wasn't an uncommon occurrence. 

'Whatever house I'm in, I hope she's not in it.' Ron muttered after she left, Blaise nodding in agreement.

They were just discussing the finer points of quidditch when the compartment door slid open yet again, but it wasn’t Neville the toadless boy or Hermione Granger this time. Three boys entered and Harry recognised the middle one at once: it was the pale boy from Madam Malkin’s robe shop. He was looking at Harry with a lot more interest than he’d shown back in Diagon Alley.

'Malfoy, send your goons away.' Blaise said immediately. Malfoy looked surprised to see Blaise there, but he did as told. He told the boys called Crabbe and Goyle to leave and then turned back to Harry.

'Harry, Mor, this is Draco Malfoy. I told you about him once, remember?' Blaise made the introduction. Harry racked his brain for what Blaise was talking about when Mor suddenly said 'The Boy who tells his father about everything?' Blaise snickered a little, and Malfoy looked a little offended, but Blaise nodded.

'He's a little bit of a git, but we're friends.'

He offered Harry his hand, and he shook it. He made his introductions around the compartment but stopped when he came to Ron. Before he could say anything, Blaise raised a warning eyebrow, and Malfoy seemed to deflate a bit. He politely nodded at Ron and sat down next to Blaise.

They realised over the next few minutes that Malfoy's views on muggles were very much like Blaise's, but he really wanted to be friends with Harry, so he promised not to say anything like that again.

Soon, it was time to change into their Hogwarts robes. Mor kicked them all out and told them to stand guard outside while she changed, and then waited outside while the boys changed.

A voice echoed through the train: ‘We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately.’ They crammed their pockets with the last of the sweets and joined the crowd thronging the corridor. The train slowed right down and finally stopped. People pushed their way towards the door and out onto a tiny, dark platform. 

Harry shivered in the cold night air. Then a lamp came bobbing over the heads of the students and Harry heard a familiar voice: ‘Firs’-years! Firs’-years over here! All right there, Harry?’ Hagrid’s big hairy face beamed over the sea of heads. ‘C’mon, follow me – any more firs’-years? Mind yer step, now! Firs’-years follow me!’ Slipping and stumbling, they followed Hagrid down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path. It was so dark on either side of them that Harry thought there must be thick trees there. Nobody spoke much. Neville, the boy who kept losing his toad, sniffed once or twice.

They reached the boats, and Blaise, Mor, Harry and Neville were in a boat, leaving Malfoy and Ron to share their boat with Hermione and a girl called Pansy Parkinson. They crossed the lake and reached big wooden doors.

Hagrid raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.