"Wake up, sweetie! You'll be late for your first day!"
First day? Oh, right! As soon as I remembered, I bounced out of bed.
"Right! I'm ready!" I say, picking up my kitten.
"Well, get dressed, check that you have everything, then eat something. The train doesn't leave for another hour, and we have plenty of time to get you there." My mother says, then walks out of the room.
I pet Grace one more time, then set her down. She purred, curling herself around my leg.
I was so excited to finally be going to Hogwarts that aside from jeans and a t-shirt, I threw on my robes. Checking that I had everything packed, I lugged my trunk downstairs to where my father was reading The Daily Prophet and my mother was tipping bacon onto my plate. My twin brother Max snorted when he saw me.
"What?" I ask, frowning.
"You don't have to put your robes on until the train is almost to Hogwarts. You'll look ridiculous walking onto the train." He says
"Morning." My father grunted, then went back to the paper and his coffee. I plopped down and ate everything as quickly as I could. Before I knew it, I was heading to the train station in our car.
When I went through the barrier with my parents and brother, I started to feel embarrassed. No one else had their robes on. Maybe Max was right. I thought, my face reddening.
"You two'd better get on the train. It's going to leave in five minutes." My father said in a stern but proud voice.
"Good luck sweetie! Make lots of friends and stay out of trouble! You too, Max!" My mother says, and kisses both of our heads.
After one final wave, I board the train, Grace in my arms. I don't know anyone at this place, I hadn't gone to a summer camp like my brother had. He was already meeting up with some, and heading to an empty compartment with them. I sighed. Looking down and cradling my kitten, I walked ahead, glancing at compartments to see if they were empty. I was so busy doing that that I accidentally bump into someone.
"Watch it!" They say sharply, and I looked up, startled. A blond haired boy with a permanent sneer was dusting off his shirt, frowning.
"S-sorry!" I squeak, and rush past him.
I finally find a compartment with no one in it and shove my trunk in the rack above the seats. I slump onto a chair, breathless. Grace leaps out of my grasp and curls up in my lap, tucking her tiny paws in. I scratch her head, thinking about what house I might be in. As long as it wasn't Hufflepuff, I would be okay.
Moments later, the door to my compartment slides open. A boy with messy black hair is standing there.
"Do you mind if I sit here?" He asks. I shrug and he sits down.
The train lurches and I feel that it starts to move. I look out to see one last glimpse of my parents waving.
A few minutes after that, a tall red haired boy with freckles opens the door again.
"Can I sit here? All the other compartments are full..." I scoot over to make room for him. He sits down next to me and looks at the other boy, then looks quickly away.
Once again, the door opens, and two boys poke their heads in. They resemble the red - haired boy quite a lot.
"Hey, Ron," One of the boys says. "We're going down the middle of the train. Lee Jordan's got a giant tarantula down there."
"Right." Ron mumbled.
"Harry," Said the other one. "Did we introduce ourselves? Fred and George Weasley, and this is Ron, our brother. See you later then!"
"Bye!" Harry and Ron say at the same time.
The door closes again.
"Are you really Harry Potter?" Ron asks.
Harry nods. "Oh...well I thought it might be one of Fred and George's jokes." Ron says.
"And have you really got that...you know." He points to Harry's forehead.
Harry pulls away his bangs to reveal a lightning - shaped scar.
"So that's where...You-Know-Who..." Ron whispers, staring.
"Yes." Harry says shortly. "But I can't remember it."
"Nothing?" Ron asks excitedly.
"Well, I remember a lot of green light. But nothing else." Harry replies, and I see that he looks uncomfortable.
"Oh, stop. He probably doesn't want to try remembering his parent's death." I say for the first time, and both boys jump at hearing me speak.
"Whatever." He says, embarrassed. "And who might you be?"
"Melody Carter. I have a twin brother, but he went off with his friends." I sigh, resenting the fact that I refused to go to a camp I had never been to.
"Are all your family wizards?" Harry asks Ron.
"I think so." Ron replied. "But I think mum's got a second cousin who's an accountant. but we never talk about him."
"So you must know loads of magic already." Harry says, almost jealously.
"I heard you went to live with muggles." Ron says, and I find it odd that he was changing the subject. "What are they like?"
"Horrible," Harry replies. "Well, not all of them. My aunt and uncle and cousin are, though. Wish I'd had three wizard brothers."
"Five." Ron says miserably. "I'm the sixth in our family to go to Hogwarts. You could say I've got a lot to live up to."
I nod.
I didn't have five brothers, just one, but I could still sympathize a little. My brother was good at everything. He was popular, athletic, and I'm not anything like him. I sigh, then continue listening.
"Bill and Charlie have already left. Bill was Head Boy, and Charlie was captain of Quidditch. Now Percy's a prefect. Fred and George mess around a lot, but they still get really good marks, and everyone thinks they're really funny." Ron sighs. "Everyone expects me to do as well as the others. But if I do, it's no big deal because they did it first. You never get anything new, with five brothers. I've got Bill's old robes, Charlie's old wand, and Percy's old rat."
Ron pulled a plump rat from his jacket. I laid a hand over Grace. She was just a kitten, but she did like chasing mice and other small rodents.
"Careful. I'd put him away if I were you. Grace likes to chase things." I pointed at her, sleeping in my lap.
"He's useless anyway. His name's Scabbers." He put the rat back in his pocket.
There was silence, except for the occasional talk between Ron and Harry. I said nothing.
Around 12:30, a round - faced witch opened the door and asked, "Anything from the trolley, dears?"
Harry lept up from his seat, and Ron muttered, "I brought sandwiches..."
Harry went out of the compartment and came back with a couple of everything.
"Hungry, are you?" Ron asks.
"Starving." Harry answers, biting a pumpkin pasty.
Ron pulled out a package and unwrapped it. Inside it, there were four sandwiches, and he pulled apart one of them.
"Mum never remembers that I hate corned beef."
"I'll swap you for one of these." Harry says, gesturing to the huge pile of sweets. "Go on."
"You don't want these." Ron said sullenly. "It's all dry. She hasn't got much time, you know, with five of us."
"Go on," Harry said encouragingly. "Have a pasty. You too, Melody."
I timidly took a pasty, nibbling the end of it. We had a good time, eating up all of the sweets.
Harry picked up a packet of chocolate frogs.
"What are these?" He asks, examining it. "They aren't actually frogs, are they?"
"Nah." Ron says, "See what the card is. I'm missing Agrippa."
"What?" Harry asks quizzically.
"Oh, right, you don't know." Ron says, slapping his forehead. "Chocolate frogs have cards inside them. To collect and stuff. Famous witches and wizards. I have about 500, but I haven't got Tolomey or Agrippa."
Harry curiously unwrapped his chocolate frog and took out the card.
I leaned over to see who he had, startling Grace.
"Ooo, you've got Dumbledore!" I say, seeing the unmistakable face of my new headmaster.
"So this is him." Harry says, surprised.
"Blimey, Harry, don't tell me you've never heard of Dumbledore." Ron says. "Mind if I have a frog too? I might get Agrippa. Thanks." He grabs a frog and unwraps it, looking at the card. His face falls.
"He's gone!" Harry exclaims. He flips the card around to show that the portrait was now empty.
"Well, you can't expect him to stay there. Don't worry, he'll be back. I've got Morgana, do you want her? I've got about six of this one..." Ron says, sighing. "You could start to collect them."
He looks over at the uneaten pile of chocolate frogs, and Harry says, "Help yourself. But in the muggle world, the pictures stay still."
"Really? They don't ever move? Weird." Ron said in awe.
Harry looked down at the card again, while Ron started to eat more frogs. I took one as well, and opened it. Without looking at the card, I gave it to Harry. I didn't tell Ron, but I had all of them, even duplicates of the ones he was looking for.
Eventually, Harry had a small stack of cards. When most of the frogs were gone, Harry took a packet of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.
"I'd be careful if I were you." Ron says warningly. "They literally have every flavor. You have the normal ones, like green apple and coffee, but then you get ones like vomit, and spinach. George reckons that he tasted a bogey flavored one once."
He took a dark green bean. Carefully, he bit a tiny edge of it.
"Ugh. See? This one's sprouts." He says, spitting it into the small wastebasket.
It was fun eating all of the beans. There were some that the boys wouldn't touch, that I would. I ended up tasting peach, berry, chicken, dirt, and a lot of others.
Later, someone knocked on the compartment door and a plump boy came in.
"I'm sorry...but has anyone seen my toad?" He asks, distressed. We all shook our heads.
"I lost him again! He keeps running away!" He wailed.
"I hope you find him." I say kindly.
"If you see him..." The boy left.
"I don't know what the fuss is all about. I'd lose it as fast as I could if I had brought a toad." Ron says. "I brought Scabbers, though, so I suppose I can't talk."
He took Scabbers out of his jacket again and poked him.
"I attempted to make him yellow, you know, to make him look better, but the spell didn't really work." He adds. "Here, I'll show you."
After a few moments of looking in his trunk, he brought out a wand that looked very used. A unicorn hair was poking out the end.
He had started to raise his wand when the door opened yet again. The boy from earlier was there with a girl. Like me, she wore her robes already. This made me feel a little better, less silly.
"Neville lost his toad, have you three seen it?" She asked.
"No, we already told him that we haven't." Ron said, but it seemed that the girl didn't hear him. Her eyes were on the wand in his hand.
"Are you going to do magic?" She sat down. "Let's see, then."
Ron, flustered, said, "Alright. Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow. Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow!" Waving his wand, he pointed it at Scabbers. We all waited a few moments, but no effect became visible.
"Is that it?" the girl asked. "Because I don't think that it was a real spell. It's not very good if it is. I know a few simple ones for starters, and it's worked for me so far. I'm the only magic one in my family. We were so surprised when the letter came, but I really was happy. It's the best magic school there is, from what I've heard. I know all of our books by heart, of course. I do hope it'll be enough, though. My name's Hermione Granger, if you were wondering. Who are you?"
Amused, I said, "Melody Carter."
"Ron Weasley." Ron said.
"Harry Potter." Harry said, bewildered.
"Really?" Hermione said, astounded. "I've read all about you. You're mentioned in Modern Magical History, The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts, and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century."
"I am?" Harry asked, surprised.
"Well, yes of course. Do any of you know what house you might be in? I personally hope I'm in Gryffindor. I suppose that Ravenclaw would be okay, too. We'll probably be there soon. Melody has the right idea, putting her robes on early. You two should as well." Hermione said, then left with Neville.
"Well, whatever house I go to, I hope she's not in it." Ron says, frowning.
I smack his arm.
"That's rude. She's just talkative." I say.
The boys started to talk about Quidditch and Ron's older brothers, when the door opened. Three boys, one of them I recognized, came in. The middle boy was the one I had bumped into when I was trying to find a seat.
"Is it true that Harry Potter is in this compartment? That's what they're saying all down the train. So, it's you, is it?" He was looking at Harry.
"Yes." Harry said.
The blond boy looked at his two companions.
"These two are Crabbe and Goyle." He said. "And I'm Malfoy. Draco Malfoy."
Ron snickered.
"Do you think that my name is funny?" He drawled. "I don't need to ask who you are. My father has told me all about the Weasleys. Red hair, freckles, and too many children to afford."
He turned to Harry again.
"You will find that some wizarding families are better that others. You don't want to make friends with the wrong ones." He continued. "I could help you."
He held out his hand.
Harry didn't take it.
"I can do that just fine on my own, thanks."
"I'd be careful if I were you, Potter. If you aren't more polite, you'll go the same way your parents did. They weren't aware what was good for them either. You hang around with people like the Weasleys and that Hagrid, and you'll turn out just like them."
I stood up, anger flashing in me.
"Say that again!" I say, my fists clenched.
Draco turned to me.
"What did you say?"
I took a step closer to him, rising to my full height.
"I said say that again." I repeated. You wouldn't know it by looking, but I was pretty strong for my age.
He and his companions laughed.
"Oh, look, girlie's gonna fight us. How amusing." He said, and Crabbe and Goyle chuckled.
Then, so fast that he wasn't able to stop me, I slapped him.
"I'd think twice before you insult my friends. And my name's Melody Carter, not girlie. Now go away, before I do something worse than slap you." I say, clenching my teeth.
Draco rubbed his cheek, pure shock on his face. Then he smirked, lowering his hand.
"But we don't exactly feel like going away, do we, boys? We ate all of our sweets, but it appears you still have some." Draco said, getting his swagger back.
The boy named Goyle was reaching for a chocolate frog near Ron. Ron and Harry both lept up, but before either of them could react, Goyle yelped. He withdrew his hand, to show that Scabbers was hanging on the end of it. Swinging his hand around, he managed to shake Scabbers off and he went flying onto the window pane. With that, Crabbe, Goyle, and Malfoy disappeared, leaving the compartment door open. Shutting it, I sat back down.
Moments later, Hermione came in.
"What just happened?" Hermione asked, seeing the food littered on the ground.
"What do you want?" Ron asked looking annoyed.
"I thought I said that you should put your robes on. I just went up to the conducter and he said that we're nearly there. You weren't fighting, were you?" She asked suspiciously.
I shrugged. "All I did was slap Draco. And Scabbers bit Goyle's finger."
Ron scowled at Hermione. "Would you mind leaving? We have to change, as you said."
"Alright." Hermione said, frowning at the fact that they weren't also telling me to leave.
She left, and they put their robes on over their clothes.
We followed everyone else to the front, where a crowd was gathered, waiting for the train to stop. We all got out, and the cold air suddenly hit me. The only warmth I had was Grace, she was curled up in my arms, giving off large heat waves.
I heard a booming voice echo across the dark platform.
"Firs' years! Firs' years over with me!" It said. "Alri' there, Harry?"
I saw who was talking and gasped. A giant man, clearly visible over the crowd was beaming at Harry.
"Come on, follow me, any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now. Firs' years!" He said.
A large crowd of people, all seeming to be first years, followed the big man.
"Jus' 'round this here bend, you'll see Hogwarts for the firs' time." He said.
Like everyone else, I gasped in awe. A huge castle loomed out from the darkness.
"No more 'n four to a boat!" He called out. There was a fleet of small boats that he was pointing at.
I climbed in after Harry and Ron, then Hermione joined us.
"Oh, Harry," I say, suddenly remembering. "Who is he? The big man that seems to know you."
"Oh, that's Hagrid," Harry replied. "He's nice."
"Righ' then, if everyone's in, we'll be off. Forward!" Hagrid said, and with that command, they moved forward simultaneously.
As we moved, I looked down into the lake. The great expanse of water awed me. I even thought I might have seen a mermaid.
Finally, when we got out, we climbed up a passage, following Hagrid's lantern. After going up some stone steps, we reached very large oak doors.
Hagrid knocked three times and they swung open.