Hogwarts Express
“Do you have everything you need?” Gabriel asked for the hundredth time.
Harry sighed. “Yes. I have my pewter cauldron, beginner’s potion ingredients, advanced potion ingredients, brass scales, telescope, glass phials, books, normal robes, hat, protective gloves, winter cloak, all three wands and their holders, quills, ink bottles, parchment, special books, toiletries, clothes, owl treats, the files with dirt on all the professors, the magical laptop, and years two and three in case I get bored, all in the expandable trunk in my back pocket. Saphira is hidden in my robes, Hedwig is flying to school and I have her cage in my pocket as well, and Thorn is right here.”
Harry held up Thorn’s cage, where Thorn himself was. Gabriel finally sighed and nodded. “Fine,” he sighed. “I guess I’m just being a bit over prepared. First time taking a kid to Hogwarts, you know?”
The child blinked. “I would hope I would not know how that feels, as I am just going to Hogwarts myself.”
“Oh, shut up.” Harry laughed as he ducked away from the playful slap the older man sent his way.
A few minutes later Gabriel and Harry appeared at platform 9 3/4. There was a scarlet train with the words ‘Hogwarts Express’ stamped on.
As Gabriel and Harry said goodbye (Jayden felt he would cry too much about him leaving for a few months for him to say goodbye in public), a family of redheads came through the wall, screeching about too many muggles.
“Weasleys,” the both mumbled in disgust. Why were they telling them off for using their own transportation system?
Harry quickly boarded the train and found an empty compartment in record time. He took out his holly wand and put as many locking charms he knew on the door. Wouldn’t want any Weasleys in here.
The eleven year old pulled his shrunken trunk out of his pocket. Harry returned it to its normal size and put it on the rack overhead in order not to look suspicious.
As he sat down, he put a timer on his wand to wake him up twenty minutes before the train arrived at Hogwarts.
His work was done here. After a quiet conversation with Saphira, he drifted off into sleep. Harry was not expecting what he saw.
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Harry was in a place with no exact color. It wasn’t light, or dark, or a nice medium. It was just there.
A grey figure with no exact shape was floating around aimlessly. It was mumbling to itself, but Harry couldn’t understand it until it came a bit closer, and even then he only heard snippets of the sentences.
“Have to protect the boy- behind a turban, for my sake-Sorcerer’s Stone- stupid Imperius-“
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Pink Guy singing ‘Stfu’ loudly cut the dream off. Harry groaned, swatting at the wand to shut off his interesting alarm choices.
Despite not wanting to do anything at all, Harry stood up and changed into his robes. He only had to survive here until Yule.
After a few minutes of wistfully looking out of the window, he was snapped out of it by an announcement coming on that proclaimed they had arrived.
The train stopped moving. A great sound of bustling students filled the train. Harry was not excited to try to push his way through, but began to try anyway.
Broken English shouted from a giant at least nine feet tall reached his ears. He sighed and pushed his way forward.
“Firs’ years, over ‘ere! Wouldn’t want ter miss the boats, now, would ye? Firs’ years, ‘round here! Don’t be shy.”
Harry almost smacked the giant as he went closer when he said, “Alright, then, ‘arry?” Like he actually knew him.
When all the first years had herded around the tall man, he said, “‘Right then, ‘ine name’s ‘Agrid, follow me.” That led to them having a ten minute trek through the woods.
“You’ll get yer first sight of ‘ogwarts in a second, lads, no need to worry.” The great oaf said in a pleased manor. His speech was beginning to grate on Harry’s nerves.
Gasps flew out of people’s mouths around him, and Harry had to admit, he was a little star struck as well. Jayden had failed to mention how beautiful Hogwarts is.
The castle sat atop a hill not quite big enough to be a mountain. Softly lit windows gleamed in the darkness and reflected off the great black lake in front of them. There were so many towers he didn’t even try to count them.
“Gather round! No ‘ore than four ‘n a boat, then, lads.” Hagrid proceeded to get in the middle boat all to himself.
Harry looked around a took a random, mostly sturdy, brown boat. No one was in it yet, and he was content with that until a Weasley came over.
“Do you mind?” He said as he climbed in. Harry was half hoping he got the chance to shove him off into the water.
The Weasley smiled. “My name’s Ron, by the way, Ron Weasley. Pleased to meet you.”
‘I don’t care about your name and your grubby family,’ Harry thought. In the real world, though, he just smiled. “I’m Harry, Harry Potter.”
“No way,” Weasley gasped, like he probably wasn’t plotting this whole thing out. “Can I see your scar?” just to make sure I’m befriending the right person went unsaid.
Harry lifted up his bangs and showed off the scar. “I’m not really sure why people want to see it,” he lied. “I was raised in the muggle world, you see, and my relatives hated magic. I only learned I was a wizard when I got my letter.”
Weasley’s ugly brown eyes widened, and in them Harry could plainly see deception. “You don’t?” Weasley questioned. “You saved the wizarding world when you were one, how could you not know?”
At that moment, Draco, a dark-skinned boy, and a girl with short black hair came over. “Move it, Weasley.” Draco snarled.
“I don’t think I will.” Weasley sneered. He was looking directly at Draco, so Harry sent the latter a quick gaze that said ‘help me’. The Malfoy heir noticed it and nodded slightly.
Draco clinched his jaw so hard Harry half expected him to crack a tooth. “Well, Weasley, I’ll just have to show you.”
With that, he shoved the redhead to the left so that his head cracked against the side of the boat. The trio then moved Wealsey to shore and climbed in.
“‘Ey, you five! No f’ghtin’! Ron, climb into ‘nother boat. Plenty to go ‘round.” Hagrid sounded slightly disappointed. Harry noticed that he already knew the Weasley’s name. Stubble hints.
“‘Right then, we best be off!” The giant screeched, and then they were moving. They would probably look frightening, if not for some of the kid’s size- forty people in small boats dressed in black robes only illuminated by flickering lanterns in formation, with a giant man leading them.
Draco lazily looked at him. “Harry,” he acknowledged. “I’d like you to meet my friends- Blaise Zabini and Pansy Parkinson. You’ll meet Gregory Goyle and Vincent Crabbe later.”
“Pleased to meet you, Heir Zabini and Heiress Parkinson.” Harry nodded at them as he said their official titles. The trio were all shocked before Draco grinned.
“Glad to know this unidentified wizard taught you some acceptable manners.” Harry strongly suspected ‘acceptable’ meant ‘pureblood’.
The tall eleven year old looked at the blond in amusement. “I didn’t know you would remember that.”
Draco hummed. “It was my first time seeing the Harry Potter, know.” Harry clicked his tongue and didn’t respond.
“On the bright side, we’re almost to Hogwarts!” Pansy chirped, pointing at the gravelly docks.
“That great oaf will probably start sprouting lies about how great Dumbledore is,” Blaise muttered.
Harry shocked them all by nodding in agreement. “What?” He asked. “Despite my glasses, I’m not blind to manipulation at all.”
“You know you can get your eyes fixed with a couple slightly questionable spells,” Draco drawled. “I remember having to wear glasses for a month while Father got into touch with an eye specialist.”
Blaise rolled his eyes. “It was a week, Draco,” he corrected. Pansy snickered but tried to hide in under her hand.
“Shut up,” Draco muttered.
The boats finally hit the dock, and Harry jumped out immediately. No way was he staying in there any longer than necessary.
“Move along! Ya wouldn’t want to be late for Professor McGonagall, eh?” Hagrid said, walking towards the castle. The rest of the group hustled to keep up.
Harry frowned. “I don’t see why we have to follow the every word of this big oaf,” he muttered.
The group shuffled closer until they reached the castle. Hagrid lifted his big hand and knocked firmly on the door.
A rather old lady opened it, but she wasn’t your classic grandma. She had her hair tied in a professional bun and wore some fine emerald robes complete with a black pointy hat. The lady looked rather strict, and Harry thought it would not be a good idea to cross her.
“The firs’-years, Professor McGonagall.”said Hagrid.
“Thank you, Hagrid. I’ll take them from here.”
They then followed the professor through the castle. McGonagall led them past many doors, one of which was rather grand and already had chatting behind it, until they reached an empty chamber.
“Welcome to Hogwarts,” said Professor McGonagall. “The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be
something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory and spend free time in your house common room.
“The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule-breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the House Cup, a great honour. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.
‘The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting.”
Her intelligent eyes slightly lingered on Heir Longbottom’s cloak, which was fastened above his ear, and the disgusting dirt on Weasley’s nose. Harry tried to hide a snicker along with the rest of his group.
Draco waved over two large boys. “Watch this,” he smirked, and waltzed over to Weasley.
“Aww, what do we have here? Is this a slimy little Weasley, coming to Hogwarts? No doubt what house you’ll be going to- it’s the same with the other ten kids!” Some of the kids laughed at this. The majority was too frightened to do much.
Weasley had the audacity to sneer. “I suppose you’ll be going into Slytherin, then, you filthy snake?”
“Don’t be so ridiculous, Weasley. Of course I’ll be going into Slytherin. It’s the house for respectable pureblooded families, not the redheaded, poor, blood traitorous ones with hand-me-down robes such as yours. How long did it take for your family to acquire the money to buy those, ten years ago? A year?”
Before Weasley could respond about twenty ghosts burst through the wall. Pearly-white and slightly transparent, they glided across the room talking to each other and hardly glancing at the first-years. They seemed to be arguing. What looked like a fat little monk was saying, “Forgive and forget, I say, we ought to give him a second chance –“
“My dear Friar, haven’t we given Peeves all the chances he deserves? He gives us all a bad name and you know, he’s not really even a ghost – I say, what are you all doing here?” A ghost wearing a ruff and tights had suddenly noticed the first-years. Nobody answered.
“New students!” said the Fat Friar, smiling around at them.
“About to be sorted, I suppose?”
A few people nodded mutely.
“Hope to see you in Hufflepuff!” said the Friar. “My old house, you know.”
“Move along now,” said a sharp voice. “The Sorting Ceremony’s about to start.” Professor McGonagall had returned. One by one, the ghosts floated away through the opposite wall.
“Now, form a line,” Professor McGonagall told the first-years, “and follow me.”
Draco and the two boys fell back to step into the line with Harry, Blaise, and Pansy. “Crabbe and Goyle,” he named them.
Harry nodded. The group started moving slowly into the Great Hall.