Chapter 1: Platform 9 ¾

The car ride seemed endless. The little kids in the back were screaming, and it smelled really bad. Finally they reached their destination: King's Cross Station. "Here's your stop, girls," Mrs. Cole said from the front.

"What?" Maggie shrieked. "You're just going to leave us here?"

"Yes, I am," Mrs. Cole replied. "You two are old enough to find your way around the station. And do you not see all of the kids I have with me? How would I take them into the station and come back out with all of them?"

Maggie sighed. We're just going to have to wing it, she thought. She looked over to Nina, who was smiling and looking confident. At least I'll have her.

"Joshua, help them get their… trunks...into a trolley, and come straight back!" Mrs. Cole ordered. She couldn't stand the fact that when the school bought them suitcases, they bought them old-fashioned trunks. Mrs. Cole was a practical woman, and, according to her, trunks were not practical.

"Yes, Mrs. Cole," replied Josh, smirking. Josh was three years older than her and one of her favorite people in the orphanage besides Nina, her twin, and Carli, her best friend. Tall with long, wavy dark hair, he got out of the van and opened up the trunk. Maggie and Nina got out and followed him. They watched him pull the trunks out and heave them onto the sidewalk. Then they got a trolley and put the trunks into it. "Man, your school sure got you guys some weird trunks," Josh remarked.

"Yup," Nina said, unconcerned. "Well, I'll see you at Christmas, Josh!" She said brightly, turning and walking down towards the tracks with the trolley.

"Have a good term!" He called after her. "Now, you be good, Margaret-Suzanne," he said, turning to Maggie, who scowled. She hated it when he used her full name. "Don't let me hear about you getting into trouble or bringing your sister down with you or anything like that."

"Yeah 'because that's always me…." Maggie muttered. Josh just smiled. "Be good, and make friends, and have fun, and I'll see you at Christmas." He hugged her, and Maggie hugged him hard. She was really going to miss him. "See you at Christmas," she said, and danced down the hall, twirling to look back at Josh. He waved, and she waved back, and then continued down the hall until she caught up to Nina.

It took forever for them to find the train. There was just no platform 9¾ like on the ticket. Looking lost, the two girls waited on platform 10 for someone else from Hogwarts to come. They had decided to give up when a boy looking a little older came along with his two parents. On his trolley, he had his trunk and an owl! They had seen owls like that when they had gone to Diagon Alley to get their school supplies. The boy and his parents came closer, and the mother looked down at the two girls and said "Do you two need help getting onto the platform?"

"Yes," They answered in unison. The woman smiled knowingly at their terrified faces. "It's nothing to worry about," she assured them. "You just have to walk into the wall, and you'll be on the platform. Now, dear," she said, looking at Nina, would you like to go through with my husband Amos? He can take your cart." Looking scared but confident, Nina nodded and let Amos take the cart. He gave her a reassuring smile and together, they walked through the wall. Had Maggie blinked, she would have missed it. One second they were there, and the next they were gone.

"Where'd they go?" Maggie asked excitedly.

"Onto the platform, dear. Now, would you like to go through with Cedric? This is his second year at Hogwarts, and he'll guide you through it. I just want to make sure no muggles are watching, and then I'll follow you on."

"Okay," Maggie said timidly, not altogether reassured. Cedric looked confident enough, though, so she decided to trust him. "Hi," Cedric said. "What's your name?'

"I'm Maggie," she told him.

"Don't be nervous, okay?" he said. "You won't crash; you'll just go right through. There's nothing to worry about."

She looked at him, then back to the wall. "Okay," she said nervously. She grabbed onto his trolley, and they started to run. She winced when they approached the wall, expecting a crash, but instead they just kept going. When she opened her eyes, they were standing on a different platform, next to a scarlet train.

"Wow," was all she could say. Cedric grinned at her, and then his mother came through, smiling. "Everyone all right? Good. Ah, here's Amos," she said.

Maggie looked at Nina, who looked like she was in shock. "That was SO COOL!" she exclaimed. "I thought we were going to crash, but then we didn't and I was so shocked! How were you? Did you scream? I think I did….."

"Wow, Nine," Maggie said, impressed. "I don't think I've seen you this worked up about anything before. You must really be shocked." Nina just nodded. "I didn't scream though. I thought I would, but I didn't. I just flinched. And—oh, wait, where'd Cedric go?"

Cedric and his family were nowhere to be found, so the girls took their trunks over to an empty compartment, and attempted to lift their trunks into it, but with little results. Nina said "I'll be back," to her sister, and then disappeared into the crowd. She came back with a stocky, red-haired boy who looked like he might be sixteen. Nina introduced them. "This is Charlie, he's a prefect, and he's going to help us get our trunks into the compartment."

"Oh, okay," she said, a little taken aback from her introduction. "Nice to meet you, Charlie."

"Nice to meet you, too, Maggie," Obviously Nina had introduced her without even being there. Charlie loaded their trunks into the compartment one at a time, and then faced them. "Hey, would you mind if my brothers shared a compartment with you? They're first years, too."

"Sure," Nina answered immediately. "We'd love to meet them."

"Speak for yourself," Maggie muttered to her as Charlie went to get his brothers. "We don't even know them."

"Well, then we'll get to know them now," Nina answered. "We'll either get to know friends, or enemies. Either way, we get to meet people." Maggie had to agree, because she had a point.

Just then Charlie came back with seven other redheaded people; a short and plump woman, a tall man, a slightly older boy, two identical boys who looked about their age, a young boy, and a little girl. "Maggie, Nina," Charlie began, "This is my parents, my brother Percy, my twin brothers Fred and George, my youngest brother Ron, and my little sister Ginny. Fred and George are starting Hogwarts this year, too."

"Hi," Maggie and Nina greeted everyone.

Charlie and his father loaded Fred and George's trunks into their compartment, and just then they looked at the clock, and realized they only had two minutes to get onto the train. Fred, George, Percy, and Charlie said goodbye to their parents, Ron, and Ginny and waved goodbye to them once they were on the train. When they could no longer see the platform, Charlie and Percy went to sit with their friends.

"So," one of the twins began when they were alone, "Where are you guys from?"

"London," Nina answered immediately. "We were brought up in an orphanage."

"Oh," both of them answered at once. "I'm so sorry…. Um, if you don't mind me asking," The one on the left said slowly, "what happened to your parents?"

Maggie looked away. She never liked to talk about it if she could avoid it. Nina, however, didn't really care. She was concerned with the family they had built at the orphanage, and never dwelt on what could have been. She answered without hesitation, "Our mum died just after we were born, and our dad didn't want us. We found out a little while ago that he didn't want the, uh, 'burden of raising two witches'. He's such a loser."

"Oh…. I'm so sorry," the one on the left said again, this time mainly to Maggie.

"It's okay," she said, after a slight pause. "I just try not to think about it too often…. If you don't mind me asking, which one of you is Fred and which one is George?"

The twins broke into identical evil grins. "Who do you think I am?" the one on the right asked.

"Hmm….." she said slowly. "I think you're…. Fred?" His smile faded. "Lucky guess," he said shortly. Maggie smiled triumphantly.

The rest of the train ride was one of the happiest times of her life. The twins told them about the wizarding world, and about Hogwarts, and by the time they got out of the train, they were both feeling less anxious. When she saw the castle for the first time, while they were crossing the lake on boats, Maggie felt sure that something was going right in her life for the first time.