Wandering about the Hogwarts Express and Ride to the Castle

Hugo tugged at Lily's sleeve. "C'mon," he said, "we should go find a compartment."

She looked towards the station, slowly being pulled away from them. "Yeah."

After a while of (Hugo had to admit it) meandering, he shrugged. "I think the compartments are all filled."

Lily sighed. "Just what we needed. Let's go in the luggage rack. At least there won't be anyone there."

"We hope there won't be anyone there," muttered Hugo, but he followed her. "But Lills, Scorpius reckons that Blizzard pushed him there inside, once."

She gave her cousin a look. "Spare me the negative talk, will you?"

On the way there, a tall teenage girl stopped them from the prefects' carriage. There was a Head Girl badge gleaming on her chest, clad with a hissing dark green serpent. She narrowed her Veela-shaped blue eyes at the two. "Hugo, Lily, what are you doing here?"

"Merlin's arse, what does she think we're doing here?" said Lily under her breath. Dominique luckily paid her no notice.

"We can't find an empty compartment," said Hugo.

She nodded. "Follow me."

They arrived at one of the larger compartments, where a few Gryffindor girls were sitting: Rose and her friends, Patricia Finnigan and Caroline Lee. Hugo wondered where Scorpius and Al where; maybe with Louis? Dominique knocked, narrowed her eyes at Rose, "Rose, fillette idiote, you were supposed to take care of Lily and Hugo here! Didn't Aunt Hermione say something about that?"

"Al is Lily's older brother and so is James!" Rose said hotly, glaring at her. "And Hugo can perfectly take care of himself. No one looked after me or Al when we started the first year!"

"That," Dominique snapped, "was because when Victoire did her rounds, she mentioned that you and Al looked perfectly comfortable with Malfoy. Lily and Hugo have been wandering in the train."

"You can come in, then," Rose breathed heavily, "You two, not Dominique."

Dominique sneered and tapped her Head Girl badge, shining on her chest. "I can still take points from you, Rose Weasley, for disrespect towards the Head Girl."

Without another word, she swept away, leaving Hugo and Lily shuffling awkwardly into the compartment. "Bitch," Rose muttered. Patricia nodded in agreement.

"I've always hated her."

Caroline turned to the first years. "What House do you two want to be in?"

"Ravenclaw or Gryffindor," said Lily.

"Ravenclaw," said Hugo.

"I wanted to be in Ravenclaw, like my mum," Caroline said thoughtfully, "or Hufflepuff."

"Really? I wanted to be Slytherin, like my mum," said Patricia. "But I guess not – and I like Gryffindor fine."

"I wanted to be Ravenclaw or Gryffindor." Rose nodded. "But when the Hat wanted to put me in Ravenclaw I refused, so he put me in Gryffindor."

"I think I know why that is!" Patricia smirked at her.

For some reason, Rose looked more embarrassed than angry, but she glared at her friend.

"Not here, Pat, seriously!"

Hugo spent the rest of the ride staring out of the window, while the girls (Lily included) spoke about the classes and electives they would take. He wished he had brought a book to read. Around nightfall, the train lurched to a stop, and Rose and Caroline (Patricia had gone to find her cousins) pointed their way to the boats before leaving for the carriages, calling to Scorpius and Al.

"Firs' years 'ere!" shouted Hagrid's gruff voice. "Firs' years 'ere, in the boats, I say! Don' loit'r, go on!"

"Hello, Hagrid," said Lily loudly, peering up at his gigantic stature.

"Lills," he said with a smile, "Hughie. Tea this Friday, yeah?"

Hugo nodded.

"Now, inter the boats yer lot go," the half-giant said, and waved his lantern at two first years who had headed the wrong way.

The cousins obeyed; Hugo and Lily shared a boat with a peaky-looking girl with yellowish teeth and gray green eyes and a creepy-looking boy with shaggy brown hair.

"Weasleys, you are?" said the boy in a nasal, bored voice.

"Nah," Lily said, "I'm not a Weasley, I'm a Potter, but my mum's a Weasley. He's a Weasley though."

"Oh, that's interesting," he replied, looking at the two of them full in the face. "The name's Philip Corner, my dad knew your mother, I think they dated."

"Ah," Hugo said, nodding.

The castle came into view at that moment and Hugo widened his eyes. It was more beautiful than Rose had described! It was an ancient stone building, a castle, with more turrets and towers than he could count, a Quidditch pitch, gardens... And when he looked again, the architecture changed slightly.

Even a boy that had known magic for his entire life was seduced by this... beauty. There weren't any other words to describe it.