Harry Potter, the Heir of Ravenclaw
Chapter 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, Harry Potter is owned by J.K. Rowling
Harry walked nervously toward the station where platform 9¾ resided…or was supposed to reside. Harry ambled around searching for the platform, dragging his heavy trunk along with him. He made his way to platform 9, and walked slowly toward platform 10, as if expecting it to pop out of thin air. However, no matter how many times he walked from platform 9 to 10 and then back again platform 9¾ never appeared.
He was beginning to get nervous; he had only 10 minutes until the express took off. His eyes began to frantically search for anything that would solve his problem. His gaze finally fell upon a bushy haired girl with large front teeth. Two people dressed in very muggle clothes, probably her parents, accompanied her. But that was not what attracted Harry's attention, not only was her father carrying a trunk that was even larger than Harry's own trunk, with book pages bursting from the compartments, but she had her nose stuck in a book, "Hogwarts, a History", Harry sighed in relief as he recognized the name of the wizarding school that he was scheduled to attend. He walked over to the family just in time to catch the girl turning to her parents and reading from the book said,
"It says here that to get onto the platform, one must approach the barrier between platforms 9 and 10 without fear, and they should go through it. I just love how ingenious all of this magic is!" Her parents smiled at her, and her grin faltered.
"But non-magical people are not allowed to enter". Her parents smiled warmly at her, handed her the trunk, and then enveloped her in a bone-crushing hug.
Harry sighed and imagined, just for a moment how his life would have been if his parents were still alive, but he quickly shook those thoughts from his head. He walked over to the bushy haired girl and introduced himself shyly.
"Hi, um…I noticed that book you were reading, and I wanted to ask, are you going to Hogwarts?" The girl looked up at him, saw his trunk and snowy white owl perched on top, and instantly her smile brightened.
"Yes, are you going as well? Have you learned any spells yet? I have but have not been able to practice them too much because of the laws, are you looking forward to our first term? I sure am, I just know that it's going to be so much fun. Here, join me on the train. Have you read "Hogwarts, a History"?" Harry blinked, unused to the tirade of questions, having lived with the Dursleys where he was usually just ignored. He came up with the best response he could.
"Umm…I don't know?" The girl, he still hadn't learned her name, just sighed and dragged him by the hand toward the barrier between platforms 9 and 10, she walked at a brisk pace, and Harry's eyes widened when he noticed that the platform was getting closer and closer…and the girl still wasn't slowing down.
"Hey, slow down, you're going to walk straight into that wall!" He protested, but the girl just looked at him and continued towards the wall, heedless of his warning. Harry closed his eyes, bracing for the impact of crashing into the wall, but it never came. Harry just kept being dragged forward, and tentatively cracked his eyes open. The first thing he noticed was that he was not just a splat of Harry on the side of a wall, but he was on a whole different platform, everything was shrouded in steam. As the steam started to dissipate he saw a great red form, which he quickly identified as a steam engine. He turned to the girl who still had his arm in a firm grip; talking away, her face was shining with excitement.
"All aboard" Harry heard the conductor shout over the bustle of children hugging their mothers goodbye and parents warning their children not to do anything foolish over the school year. Harry and the girl bustled forward along with the rest of the group. As they entered the express, they noticed that the compartments were rapidly filling up, so they quickly slipped into an empty coach. The two of them sat opposite each other. Harry looked awkwardly around their coach, trying to avoid eye contact. He spared a quick glance at the girl and noticed that her nose was once again buried in her book. He sighed; apparently he would have to be the one to make conversation.
"So…I don't think that I caught your name" The girl glanced up from her book for a moment.
"Hermione, who are you?" Hermione placed her book beside her on the cushioned seat and took a good look at Harry's face and gasped. "I know who you are!" She immediately turned to her trunk and unlatched it. Harry held in a snort of laughter as he saw Hermione rummage through her trunk, throwing book after book onto the cushion. She finally emerged, red faced and positively beaming. "You're in all of these books, I thought it would be beneficial to have some background information on the wizarding world, because I'm muggleborn."
Harry looked at all of the books in her pile, swaying tediously, threatening to tip spill. He had to pick his jaw up off the floor, 'she had brought all of these books with her for some background reading? And these were just the ones about him'. All of a sudden, Harry remembered something that Hermione had said. "What do you mean, you're muggleborn?" Hermione looked at him with a confused look on her face for a moment before recognition dawned on her.
"That's right…you were raised in a muggle environment, just like me. A muggleborn is a witch or wizard whose parents are muggle. That's why people like you and me don't know very much about wizarding life, and children born from wizards have an advantage over us, having been introduced to magic long before us." Harry instantly paled; the thought of not being good enough plagued his mind. But Hermione seemed to read his mind. "But that's nothing for us to worry about because they are not allowed to use magic, just like us, they just have a stronger basis in the foundations of magic. And that is not enough for us to get worried about.
Hermione's explanation was interrupted by the sound of a plump, elderly witch shouting "Anything from the trolley?", and pushing a trolly full of wizarding sweets in front of herself. She gave a warm smile as she pushed the door of Harry and Hermione's coach open "Would you two dears care for anything from the trolley?" Harry and Hermione both looked at the assortment of wizard candies with fascination in their eyes. The two looked at each other, shared a grin, and then ordered two of each candy. The rest of the ride was spent by swapping candies, and laughing at the effects. One time Harry even grew a second nose, much to his ire, and Hermione amusement. Before they knew it they were at Hogwarts.
The train slowed to a stop, and the doors opened, letting the students pile out of their coaches. The students' eyes bugged out, and some whispers of "wow" or "amazing" were heard. In front of the students was Hogwarts castle. Harry and Hermione's eyes went from the great astronomy tower, seeming to reach into the heavens, down to the great fields, grass immaculate, and strange hoops standing tall. Then their eyes roamed to the massive doors at the entrance of the castle. The giant of a man, Hagrid, Harry remembered his name as, was ushering all of the first year students toward those great towering doors.
"Come on yeh, we don' have all day ya kno', no time to dawdle, yeh'll all be gettin' sorted soon nuff." Harry shuffled along a bit faster, sticking close to Hermione. The entrance doors creaked open, seemingly of their own accord. As the students walked into the great hall, the first thing they noticed was the vaulting ceiling, except, it looked exactly like the sky outside. The second thing they noticed was the stern, tight-lipped woman standing in front of them.
"You are late" Her voice was firm and sharp. She looked like the kind of woman who would not take any disobedience from her students. "My name is McGonagall, you will all call me professor McGonagall, I am now going to take you to the sorting hat where you will be sorted into your houses. You're houses will be you family at Hogwarts, be polite, and don't misbehave." She gave them all a thin smile and led them toward the sorting hat. The sorting had begun.