Trip to Hogwarts
Inside a train station in London, a pair of seventeen year old twins were hustling to get to the bright red train located in platform nine and three quarters. "Hurry up!" Kat yelled as the Hogwarts Express was ready for departure. "I'm coming" said Stephanie as she ran towards the train with a big, black trunk in one hand and a Siamese cat, Charlie, on her shoulder. She was a skinny girl with waist length, black hair. She wore a black sweatshirt over a purple tank top and dark jeans. Her sister Kat was also skinny, but with shoulder length dark blondish hair. She wore a green sleeved yellow shirt and jeans. They were both in their seventh year of Hogwarts.
Kat stepped onto the train with Stephanie close behind. "We should find a place to sit before they are all taken." To their surprise, they weren't the only ones. The narrow hallway was filled with students looking for seats and some just standing around and talking to their friends. Stephanie and Kat squeezed through crowds as they skimmed through the compartments. They seemed to always be greeted by groups of people staring at them.
The train started moving and everyone was in more of a hurry to find a place to sit, preferably with a friend or sibling. "Let's try this one" Kat dragged Stephanie to Compartment 205. She opened the door and saw a red haired girl, not much younger than she was, looking back at her.
"Hello there. Would you like to join this compartment? We have room for a couple more people." The girl said in a friendly tone. Kat and Stephanie were thankful and accepted the offer. They stepped inside and closed the door behind them.
"My name is Katherine Mills, what is yours?" Kat inquired as she sat down across from the red haired girl who answered "Ginny. Ginny Weasley is my name."
Stephanie now sat down after putting her trunk away. She picked up Charlie and asked "You weren't here alone were you?" Ginny was now looking at the cat when she replied "No, I was here with my friends Ron, Hermione, and Harry." Stephanie knew it couldn't be true but asked anyway "You don't mean Harry Potter do you?"
"Yeah I do! Harry Potter." Ginny sounded very proud that she knew somebody famous, but Stephanie felt different. She stood up with a look on her face that said "Sorry, but we have to leave." She grabbed her stuff with one hand and Kat with the other. Charlie jumped onto her shoulder and they left the compartment before Ginny could ask her why.
Stephanie has been in the same school as Harry for six years. She has never wanted to be his friend because she believes that he is jinxed. Every year something bad happens to Harry's friends.
Now Kat and Stephanie were in the hallway again. This time they were alone. The long, red hallway now looked completely deserted. They knew there was a place somewhere where they could sit so they continued to reconnoiter for it. They walked three compartments right from where they were standing and opened the door hopefully. From inside came the welcome of two pairs of eyes whom did not wish to share their compartment. Kat almost tripped over an empty Polyjuice potion bottle as they left.
"Kat lets try that one over there." Stephanie said as she walked toward compartment 213. They went inside and were relieved. The compartment was empty except for a girl who was surprisingly not staring at them. "May we sit here? Everywhere else is full." Stephanie exclaimed as she set her stuff down. The girl was quiet, but she did look up to see the pair of them. She had very long, dark hair that covered the back of her black shirt and almost reached her tan pants.
She looked frightened, but that all changed when she saw Stephanie's cat. The girl jumped up, grabbed Charlie, and started stroking his fur. Stephanie and Kat exchanged looks. "Uh, I'm guessing that you like cats." Kat said kindly, hoping to start a conversation. The girl looked up.
"My name is Ayla. What is your cat's name?"
"His name is Charlie and my name is Stepha…" Stephanie was happy that she got Ayla to talk but was interrupted by her. "Oh, Charlie is cute. I wish I had a pet but my parents won't let me get one. They don't have the money." Ayla continued petting the purring feline. Kat took this as a good opportunity to finish her sister's sentence since it was suddenly quiet. "Her name is Stephanie and my name is Kat. We are sisters."
Ayla set Charlie down and set back down in her seat. "I am in my seventh year but this is my first year in Hogwarts. My parents had to borrow money just to put me in this school." Ayla took her trunk and set it in the middle of the compartment, where her new friends could see it. She then opened it and took out a shabby looking book called "The Standard Book of Spells". "We could only afford these used books." Stephanie opened her mouth to say something, but the train suddenly came to a halt. "We can't be at Hogwarts yet!" Kat shouted as she got up and opened the compartment door. She looked around and saw that she wasn't the only one taken aback by the unexpected stop. There was heads looking out from every compartment door. Stephanie stood up also, but instead of looking into the hallway, looked out the window. The train had stopped in the mountains. There were many rocks and a forest of Coniferous trees was growing by a narrow creek flowing down the mountainside.
There was a herd of trolls marching toward the train full of young, frightened, and some inexperienced witches and wizards. The trolls looked mad and in her years at Hogwarts, Stephanie has learned that it is best to stay away from them. Trolls were not very smart and swung heavy objects around. Stephanie for one was not scared of them even though everyone else was. She was determined to save the students single handedly if she had to.
"There is a bunch of trolls heading for us!" a fourth year girl screamed as she flew past their compartment. Her name is Kaira and she is known for overreacting when something goes wrong.
Ayla was calm, but Kat ran and hid in a corner. She was not fond of trolls. Stephanie glanced out the window one more time and then left the compartment. "Where is she going?" asked Kat, her face pale and her body shaking. Ayla moved next to Kat and whispered "Don't worry; it's going to be ok."
Stephanie was running through the hallway toward the front of the train. She was yelling at everyone to get back into their compartments. While she was running, she suddenly ran into something. "Ouch!" she heard, but didn't see anything. She got up and reached out her hand to feel what she ran into. There was nothing there, so she just kept going. As she continued, Kaira was running towards her in the opposite direction. She almost ran past Stephanie but was yanked back by someone grabbing her arm. Stephanie pulled Kaira next to her and quickly said. "I need you to run toward the back of the train. Tell everyone to get into their compartments and stay by their wands. I also need you to tell the two girls in Compartment 213 where I went. Could you do that?" Kaira looked at her with a serious face and nodded. Stephanie continued her mission before Kaira could say anything.
Kat was not shaking anymore, but was still very pale. Ayla was now reading the book of spells she took out of her trunk earlier. She had a confused look on her face. "How do you do that spell?" She wondered as she pointed at the spell. Kat looked over at the book.
"Wingardium Leviousa." She said as she took out her wand. Ayla was amazed.
"You just swish and flick." She demonstrated the motion with her wand.
"I have a feather with me if you want to practice on that." Ayla nodded. Kat took out a pearly white feather out of her trunk and placed it on the floor. She then demonstrated the spell again. "Wingardium Leviousa!"
The feather slowly levitated. Kat grabbed it in midair and placed it on the ground once more. "Now you try. Just swish and flick." Ayla took her wand and concentrated on the feather. "Wingardium Leviousa!" she said clearly and the feather started to float. It was the most amazing thing that Ayla had ever done. Before she could get it halfway in the air, Kaira runs past them and comes back again. She looks at the number and opens the door. "Your…f-friend is…in front of t-train" She says and then runs off again yelling "GET INTO YOUR COMPARTMENT! STAY BY YOUR WAND!"
Kat and Ayla waited a second and then got up and dashed out of the door towards their friend.
Meanwhile, Stephanie was still hurrying to get to the front of the train. She occasionally took a peek out the window of a near-by compartment to see how much time she had. The trolls were only yards away.
"AAHHHH!!" students scream as the train shakes furiously. It felt like there was a small earthquake. Instead, it was the stampede of trolls outside the train. It was worse than she expected. The trolls were surrounding the train like it was a campfire on a cold winter's night. Stephanie panicked! She turned to look out of a window again and ran into her sister.
"What are you doing here!?" Stephanie looked from Kat to Ayla, both of whom were looking baffled that she was not happy to see them.
"You can't take on all those trolls by yourself! Are you mad!?" Stephanie realized that they were right.
"What was I thinking?" She dropped her wand and hugged Ayla and Kat.
"But we are here to help you" Ayla said as she picked up Stephanie's wand and gave it to her.
There was another scream as the train vibrated, but the trio made it to the front. Stephanie got to the train door that led outside as the other two followed.
"How do you open this door?" Ayla wondered, searching for a clue.
"Aha! Here is a switch! Maybe this will open it!" Ayla reached for the switch, but Kat slapped her hand away.
"That won't open the door; it says 'emergency power shut off'! Besides, this door opens like any other door." Kat then turned to Stephanie.
"Why did you come to the front?" She asked while looking to see if there was any way they would get past the trolls that might be by the door.
"I don't really know. It was a feeling." She replied as they walked out the door. To their surprise there were no trolls there.
The girls got out and ran towards the back of the train to see where the trolls were. To Stephanie's disappointment all the trolls were crying, yelling, and running as fast as they can away from the train. She didn't know why until she spotted a thin, dark-haired figure that was standing on top of a knocked out troll who happened to be the leader of the herd. Kaira saw Stephanie and was walking away from her hoping not to be seen, but it did not work out very well.
Stephanie was furious. She grabbed Kaira by her arm again. "What did you do?" Kaira started shaking. "I'm sorry, I didn't do anything! I was looking for Harry inside but he wasn't there!" She then got herself loose and ran inside the train. Stephanie looked at Harry whose facial expression showed pride. He looked different. He didn't look like the Harry Potter that she had known all these years. Stephanie just knew something was amiss.
Ayla, being as fascinated with the troll as she was with the spell she had learned earlier, examined the troll that was lying on the ground. She discovered that there were no signs of it being injured.
Ayla then backed away from the troll. "That Harry Potter is a fake!" she yelled so that everyone could hear her. Harry then got off the troll and stood face to face with Ayla. He grumbled. "Why do you think that? You should crown me as your king for saving your life."
Kat looked nervous but also stated "How did the train brake down right where the trolls were? It seems more like somebody pulled the switch that said 'emergency power shut off'"
Harry was calm as he said. "It could have been anyone!" But Kat wasn't done. She took a breath and sounded more confident when saying "We went to sit with Ginny; she said you were gone with Ron and Hermione, but they had prefect duty. Where were you?" Harry was getting a little bit nervous. Stephanie stood forward, feeling very confident, said "When I was going to the front of the train I ran into something invisible and I could have sworn it said ouch! When I tried to feel what was there, it was gone!"
Harry was getting dense. "Uh…maybe you are just clumsy and tripped over yourself and then you heard yourself say ouch."
Stephanie scoffed "Is that the best you got?" Harry looked throughout the crowd of witches and wizards who now seemed to all believe that that Harry was a fake.
Harry couldn't take it, so he capitulated. He got down on his knees and bawled "OK! I did it. I hired the trolls to pretend to get beaten up by me because I wanted to be a hero again. I know I keep saying that I don't like being famous but the truth is, I am addicted to fame. I like that everybody knows me and that everyone adores me! I am the best thing ever!" But before he could finish, everyone was already on the train and on their way to Hogwarts leaving him behind.
He took a last glimpse at the train and it turns out that the real Harry Potter never left the train. He was in the window waving at whoever it was disguised as him. The real Harry was in a compartment with his friend, Neville Longbottom, all along. (Ginny found that out).
The only person who was missing from the train was Draco Malfoy. His stuff had been located inside a compartment with two large boys and an empty bottle of Polyjuice Potion, which is a potion that is used to transform into another. That same bottle is what Kat tripped over when she and her sister were looking for a compartment. So, the only logical explanation is that Draco had turned himself into Harry using the Polyjuice potion in attempt to ruin Harry's reputation and also to have everyone hate him as much as he does.
This is the best thing that has happened to Hogwarts and it will keep on getting better now that Draco is gone.
