[The Journey from Platform Nine and Three Quarters, Chapter One reference pg. 91-112]
Jack arrived at King's Cross Station at ten thirty. The taxi driver dumped his trunk on the sidewalk and proceeded to drive off, leaving Jack to carry it into the station. After Jack managed to get his trunk onto a cart and find platforms nine and ten he paused. His ticket read platform nine and three-quarters, but no such platform seemed to exist. So he stood there, waiting for someone else to appear who was also looking for the elusive platform. It wasn't like he could just ask people where it was; everyone here could be a Muggle and it didn't take a genius to know that letting Muggles know anything about the Wizarding World was at the top of the 'Things to Avoid List'.
"What's te' platform number?" Jack turned and saw a rather odd-looking bald man with five teens around his age following him. The man wasn't much taller than they were, with limbs that strangely resembled tree trunks and; based on the length of his mustache, Jack would have sworn all the hair on his head had been tied together and glued to his face. To top it all off he spoke with an accent that Jack could only describe as Nordic, and he was missing his right leg and left hand! Jack didn't even want to think about what could have happened to explain the missing appendages and quickly changed his attention to the teens. Two of the guys had about the same build as the man, while the other guy and two girls; one of which was clearly his sister, had branches for limbs instead of a whole trunk, and none of them seemed quite too happy to be here.
"It's platform nine and three-quarters!" called out a voice too small to belong to any of the teens.
"Right then, Fishlegs, you first."
The tallest trunk-like teen proceeded forward, and just when 'Fishlegs' was nearing the platforms a crowd formed, blocking Jack's view so he couldn't tell where the teen went, but Jack could have sworn he ran right through the wall in-between platforms nine and ten.
"Ruffnut, Tuffnut you're next."
"Bet I can get there before you," the blonde branch girl said to the other blonde guy now standing next to her.
"No, I'll get there first."
"No you won't. I'll-"
"Would you two jus' go?" the man pleaded. The siblings, now that they were standing next to each other Jack could tell they were really twins, smirked before heading in the same direction as the boy before them, and vanishing just as quickly.
"Hey!" Jack called out to the group of would be vikings, "How did you do that?"
"First year eh? The lot of them is new too," said the trunk of a man while gesturing to the three remaining teens behind him.
Wait-Three? Jack could now see third teenager, smaller than all the others Jack had seen earlier. He must have been the voice from before.
"You just have to go right in between the wall separating the platforms. It's best to do it at a run if you ask me," continued the trunk. "Now go before Hiccup."
Jack turned and aiming his cart for the wall, began to run towards it. He closed his eyes and waited for the crash of his cart hitting the wall. When the inevitable crash didn't arrive Jack opened his eyes. A train labeled, Hogwarts Express, now stood before him with what he could only assume where other wizards all around it. Turning around Jack saw a wrought-iron gate with a sign that read Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. Between the sound of rising smoke, owls hooting, and the general hustle and bustle of everyone around him, Jack could barely hear himself think. He loved it.
After finding an empty compartment in the back of the train and put his owl down, Jack tried to get his trunk to follow suit. Unfortunately for him, getting a trunk into a cart and wheeling it all over the place was a lot easier than getting said trunk up a few steps and onto a train.
"Hey! Want a hand?" offered the twins he followed through the barrier.
"Sure," Jack wasn't having any luck, maybe they would.
When the train started moving Jack couldn't tell if he was more nervous or excited about everything that awaited him at Hogwarts. The one thing he knew was that it had to be better than living alone for the past three years.
"This seat still available?" it was the scrawny teen from the group of viking sized people, Hiccup. "Everywhere else is taken."
"Nope. It's just me in here." Jack shrugged. As Hiccup set his bags down the twins came back.
"Hey Hiccup, when you leave be sure to look out for a chameleon, one of the other first years lost it playing hide and seek."
"Great," Hiccup responded, rolling his eyes.
"Oh, I'm Ruffnut" said the girl, "and this is Tuffnut. We're from-"
"Hey look! Someone found it!"
"Really! Where?"
And with that Ruffnut and Tuffnut left, pushing and shoving each other out of their way.
"So what's up with the names?" Jack blurted out.
"What?"
"You're all from the same place right?" with no response from Hiccup he added, "Sorry I just assumed-"
"It's fine, sometimes I just forget how cut off from the rest of the world Berk is." said Hiccup,"It's about 12 days north of hopeless and a few degrees short of freezing to death."
"That's distant," Jack laughed. "Must be nice being so well hidden,"
"Sure it's great. The only problems are the pests. Most places have mice or mosquitos, we have dragons."
"Dragons." Jack repeated, disbelief dripping from his voice.
"Nightly raids, ton of fire, people with missing limbs, the works."
Well that explains the trunk man.
"So why don't you just leave?"
"We're vikings. We have stubbornness issues."
Jack was cracking up now. He was trying not to laugh, really. This was just too funny.
"So, names?" he asked, still trying not to laugh to hard.
"Hiccup's not worst. Parents believe that a hideous name will frighten off Gnomes and trolls. Like our charming viking demeanor wouldn't do that."
"Not dragons?"
"Nope. We get to fight those off."
The image of this scrawny kid fighting off dragons sent Jack into whole new round of hysterics, with Hiccup joining in.
"So where did you grow up?" asked the viking.
Jack paused, "I spent the last three years alone in the Muggle World," he said in a low voice.
"What happened?" Hiccup asked, and immediately regretted it. "Hey if you don't want to talk about it, it's fine, just curious you know and if you don't-" Jack was pretty sure Hiccup said that all in one breath.
"Jack,"
"What?" asked a now very confused Hiccup.
"That's my name. Jack. Granted most people know me as Jack Frost but, whatever."
"Oh I heard about you," Hiccup said looking very relieved, "My dad said you gave the Ministry a real hard time covering up all those snow storms."
"Yeah, it wasn't too hard to understand the whole 'Wizard' thing when I got my letter." Jack chuckled. "You'd think I'd have figured it out sooner with the blizzard that followed me everywhere."
Once the two of them managed to catch their breath Jack asked, "Excited to get away from the dragons for a while?"
"No," said a now gloomy Hiccup, "My parents went to Hogwarts, both in Gryffindor. Mom was a Prefect and Dad was the captain of the Quidditch team, and he somehow expects me to do the same."
After that they were quiet for a while, watching the fields and trees roll on by. Around twelve thirty a plump woman came by and offered them some food. Jack, who hadn't had breakfast quickly took her up in her offer, while Hiccup claimed he wasn't hungry. He got a few of the chocolate frogs, figuring they were the wizard version of chocolate bunnies and went back to his seat.
"You sure you don't want anything?" Jack asked.
"No, I'm fine," responded Hiccup as Jack opened one of the frogs and found a card inside. It had a bald man with silvery robes on it. Underneath the picture was the name Tsar Lunar. He flipped the card over and read:
Tsar Lunar
Most commonly known as 'The Man in the Moon'
Current Headmaster of Hogwarts
Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times, Lunar is particularly famous for his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicholas Flamel.
"So this is our headmaster," Jack said showing Hiccup the card.
"Don't tell me haven't heard of The Man in the Moon?" Hiccup asked looking astonished.
"Sure, but those were just fairy tales," Jack responded.
There was a knock on the compartment door and a girl with hair braided down to her legs walked in.
"Sorry," she said, "but have either of you seen Pascal? He's my chameleon."
When both of them shook their head she said miserably "If you see him would you let me know?"
"So, you excited to get to the school?" Jack asked the girl who was, in his opinion, getting cuter every second.
"Oh yes!" Cried the girl, clearly happier now, "I've tried a few simple spells just for practice and it's all worked for me. Mother swore I wasn't magic at all, it was such a wonderful surprise when I got my letter, it's the very best school of witchcraft there is. I've already learned all our course books by heart, I just hope it will be enough. I'm Rapunzel by the way who are you?"
Jack looked at Hiccup as was glad to see he was just as surprised by her sudden mood swing as he was.
"I'm Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third." Hiccup said, earning him strange looks from both Jack and Rapunzel. "What?"
"I'm Jack," Jack said, still dumbfounded by the sheer strangeness of Hiccup's full name.
"Oh, well I'll just go back and look for Pascal," Rapunzel said, clearly as dumbfounded as Jack. "You two had better change into your uniforms, I think we'll be there soon."
And she left as chameleon-less as she came.
Turning to Jack, Hiccup asked, "My name isn't that weird is it?"
"Not until you say it out loud."
"Great," Hiccup groaned.
"Did you hear about Gringotts?" Jack asked, recalling something he heard people talking about when he first arrived on the platform.
"Are you kidding? It's been all over The Daily Prophet. Someone tried to rob a high security vault."
"What happened to whoever did it?"
"Nothing. They don't know who it was. My dad said it had to be a powerful Dark wizard to get past all the traps they have set up, but whoever it was didn't take anything."
Just then the twins and one of the viking boys entered their compartment without so much as a knock.
"I'm Snotlout," the viking said and noting Hiccup he added, "You'll learn that some wizarding families are better than others. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong ones. I can help you out there."
He held out his hand to shake but Jack wasn't interested.
"Think I can figure that out for myself."
With a huff the twins and Snotlout left just before a voice was sent over the train's intercom letting them now they would be arriving shortly.
The train slowed down and finally stopped. People pushed their way out of the train and onto a tiny dark platform, each of whom was now shivering in the night air. Then a lamp came bobbing over the heads of the students, and Hiccup and Jack heard a familiar voice call out: "Firs' years! Firs' years over here! Made it alright did ye Hiccup?"
The tree of a Viking stood at the front of a sea of young wizards.
"Come on, follow me. Watch your step! It gets slippery once the fog sets in."
They somehow managed to follow the Viking down the path in silence. Once the group made it to the end of the trail, they could see a castle perched atop a mountain behind a black lake.
"Four to a boat," the Viking said gesturing to a small fleet of row boats at the base of the lake. Jack and Hiccup were followed by Rapunzel and a fiery redhead into their boats.
"Everyone in?" Shouted the Viking who had a boat to himself. "Right then, Forward!"
And with that the fleet of boats headed off toward the castle. When they approached a cliff underneath the castle they were all told to lower their heads and remained crouched over until they came upon a harbor within the cavern. They all clambered out of their boats and started heading into the cavern until they heard the man call out: "You there! Is this your chameleon?"
"Pascal!" Cried out Rapunzel blissfully holding out her hands. When they made it to the end of the passage and climbed up a few stone steps the Viking checked to make sure everyone was still there, Rapunzel still had her chameleon, and proceeded to knock three times on the large oak door.
