Harry Potter stumbled onto platform 9 3/4 and stopped. A large red steam engine stood on the tracks and the water vapour produced by it was obscuring the platform. Misty figures could just be made out standing in clusters, greeting each other or perhaps parents and students were saying their goodbyes. The steam cleared close to Harry momentarily and he saw a group of girls about his age. One of the girls was looking in his direction and for a moment Harry thought he saw images within her eyes, flashing by so fast he could not take them in.
It was the youngest of the red haired boys; Ron, his mum had called him.
"Sorry," Harry and Ron began at the same moment before both boys burst out laughing.
"Ron Weasley." The red-haired boy held out his hand to shake Harry's.
"Harry Potter." Ron's eyes widened a little as Harry shook his hand.
"Are you really? Have you got the scar?" Harry frowned as this potential new friend seemed struck by his apparent fame.
"Sorry," Ron apologised. "I tend to babble when I'm nervous. It's just, I've never really had a friend who wasn't my brother or Ginny before. Do you want to go find somewhere to sit?"
"Okay," grinned Harry, realising he may have been a little hasty to judge the other boy. He wasn't sure how he would react if he were to meet someone famous in the muggle world. As the two boys headed towards the train they were almost run over by a slightly pudgy lad chasing a toad.
"Sorry," the boy called back over his shoulder. Ron and Harry gave each other a look before heading after the boy to help catch the toad. The three boys chased the toad all the way along the platform then Harry dove and managed to catch it. His dive had knocked him into someone else.
"Watch where you're going why don't you?!" the someone else exclaimed at the same time as the pudgy boy thanked Harry and Ron for their help and introduced himself as Neville Longbottom. The boy Harry had bumped into whilst diving to catch Neville's toad had now turned round.
"Hey I know you. We met in Madam Malkin's. I think I Upset you. I didn't mean to. I don't know a lot of people our age. I'm Draco Malfoy by the way." The boy held out his hand for Harry to shake. Harry shook Draco's Hand.
"I'm Harry Potter. This is Ron Weasley and that's Neville Longbottom."
"Good to meet you. Listen, do you want to sit with me on the train. My father wants me to sit with his friends sons Crabbe and Goyle. But they're the most boring people I've ever met."
"Sure," Harry agreed and the group found their luggage and entered a carriage. The four boys made their way along the train looking for an empty or partially empty compartment they could sit in. As they reached the end of the train, Harry spotted the girls he'd noticed on the platform just before Ron had bumped into him. They were squashed into a compartment which for a moment Harry was sure was growing bigger. When he looked again he saw it was much bigger than before and the six girls within were sat comfortably. One of the girls was drawing strange symbols on a piece of paper with a stick of charcoal.
"How did you make the compartment grow like that?" Harry asked in fascination. Surely girls his age didn't know enough magic to do something like that.
"Atlantian runes," replied the girl with the paper as she continued drawing symbols on her paper.
"You can't be using Atlantian runes," put in Draco. "All Atlantian magic was lost when the city sank."
"Not all of it. We have an Atlantian dictionary. It has a whole section on runes," a girl with blonde curly hair told the boy.
"Are you going to come in or do you like standing in the corridor?" one of the brunettes asked.
"You can't expect them to be sensible Sara. They are boys after all." This came from a girl who had blonde hair that was completely straight. The boys entered the compartment, which now comfortably held ten students and their luggage, still bristling over the insult the second blonde had given.
A table suddenly appeared in the middle of the compartment and two beds were at one end.
"Nap time," declared Sara and the second blonde simultaneously. They went and lay down on the beds and closed their eyes.
"That was weird," declared Ron.
"Rachael and Sara don't like travelling by train," the girl with the page of runes stated. "I'm Charlotte by the way."
"Harry," replied Harry, holding out his hand for Charlotte to shake. The other boys introduced themselves then it was the girls turn for introductions. The girl with blonde curls went first calling herself Ellie. A girl with plaits was introduced as Emma and the final girl as Hermione.
Talk turned to families and backgrounds. It turned out the girls were all distant cousins from the same town and that only one other person they knew had magic. Lola Craven was another cousin of the group and would be starting at Hogwarts the following year as she was a little younger than the other witches.
"How do you know so much about magic if you're all muggleborns?" asked Draco.
"We have a mutual ancestor who was a wizard," replied Charlotte. "We found his Grimoire when we were kids."
The lunch trolley arrived at that moment and everyone was distracted. Harry and the girls had never heard of any of the sweets for sale on the trolley so between the group they purchased some of everything to share. Rachel and Sara woke up to join the sweet eating party.
When everyone had eaten so many sweets they were beginning to feel ill, Ellie pulled out a pack of cards.
"Do you boys know how to play Irish snap?" she asked as she shuffled the deck. None of the boys knew the game so Emma explained the rules whilst Ellie dealt out the cards. Irish snap kept the group entertained until an announcement came that they would soon be arriving at Hogsmede station. The boys took their uniforms to the bathroom to change whilst the girls changed in the compartment.
When it stopped, everyone piled off the train and the first years followed Hagrid down some steps to a fleet of small boats that were waiting for them. The boats took the first years to the castle where they were then greeted by a stern looking witch, whose grey hair was held up in a bun. The witch, who introduced herself as Deputy Headmistress Professor McGonagall, took the first years into a side chamber to wait. Finally she took them into the Great Hall and made them stand in a line in front of the teachers table, facing all the students. One by one they were sorted by an enchanted hat. Harry, Ron, Neville and Hermione all went into Gryffindor House. Draco went into Slytherin, along with Sara and Rachael. Emma went into Hufflepuff whilst Ellie and Charlotte were Ravenclaws.
The feast was splendid and Harry was so full at the end of it he struggled to pay attention to Dumbledore's speech. He did manage to pick up that he wasn't supposed to go into the forest or some corridor on the third floor though. Finally they were led to the common room by the prefects and were able to go to bed. Harry was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.
When Harry Potter woke up, he was neither in bed, nor in his dormitory. The six girls from the train were sat on chairs in a row, looking at the group of people Harry was part of on the floor. Ron, Draco and Neville were also there along with Ron's twin brothers, a black boy in the twin's year and three girls Harry didn't know. He felt sure they had been sat at the Gryffindor table earlier.
Everyone was awake now and looking around in confusion. Ellie cleared her throat to get everyone's attention.
"Hello everyone," began Charlotte once everyone was looking at her. "Sorry for dragging you out of bed in the middle of the night but we have a reason for it. We want you to join our coven."