The beginning of a dream
- CHAPTER TWO -
Neville Longbottom was not sure of how he felt about going to Hogwarts. He knew he should be happy for it, his gran certainly was when the letter arrived, but for his part there was mostly nervousness about going away. Living with his gran, he had never spent much time with other children; in fact, he had never before been anywhere without one of his older relatives going with him. Now his only companion was his toad Trevor, and he had already managed to lose it once at the train.
When he returned to his compartment after finding the toad, Neville was surprised to see someone else sitting there.
The other person was a girl, with short dark hair and scruffy, obviously too large clothes that made her seem even smaller than she was. 'Poor', Neville supposed. He had himself never had to wear hand-me-downs, mostly for the simple reason that he had no older siblings to receive them from, but that did not mean he did not know what it was like to live off small means. He didn't know what to say when she turned her eyes to him and just clutched his familiar in his hands, focusing on the familiar weight.
"You're Neville, right?", the girl said uncertainly, causing Neville to frantically try to remember where they could have met and if he was supposed to know her name. She must have seen something on his face, because she elaborated.
"I saw you in Diagon Alley with that old lady. I'm Annie, by the way."
"That was my gran, I live with her." Neville explained awkwardly after having sat down, and regretted it almost immediately. He expected her to ask what had happened to his parents and why he lived with his grandmother, but to his surprise she didn't say anything, just nodded slightly as if in understanding.
"I live with my aunt and her family", she offered after a short while. Before Neville had had a chance to think of anything to say, the compartment door opened. A plump woman with dimples stuck in her head.
"Want anything from the trolley, dears?"
The girl jumped up from her seat. Neville sank deeper into his seat as she walked past him and out into the passageway. He didn't have any money to buy anything; his gran considered it a waste to buy lunch when he could simply bring his own. Still, it would have been nice to be able to buy some sweets. He had brought a couple of sandwiches that he had made on his own, and a bottle of pumpkin juice, which was sweet enough in itself. The sandwiches weren't that bad either, he thought as he chewed; they had both ham and cheese on and pickled cucumber from the garden.
"Here."
Neville blinked. In front of his eyes was Trevor, held by two small hands. He raised his eyes and found himself meeting the gaze of the black-haired girl. Her eyes were green, he noticed oddly, before coming to his senses.
"This is yours, right?", Annie continued when the boy didn't move. "I found it in the corridor, it must've got out with me."
"Y-yes, it's mine.", Neville said hurriedly, putting down what was left of his lunch and taking the pet. "Thanks for stopping it, I've already lost it once." This time he hadn't even noticed that it was gone, and he thought worriedly of how it would go at Hogwarts. He seriously doubted that he would get any better at keeping track of it, especially in a large school.
"What's its name?" The question came unexpectedly and Neville had to swallow his last bite before answering.
"I, er, haven't named it yet", he said embarrassedly and hurried with an explanation. "I just got him, he was a gift when I got in to Hogwarts. My relatives, they thought I might not be magic enough to come, you see. Great-uncle Algie was so pleased when the letter came that he bought it for me."
The girl looked puzzled.
"I thought everyone with magic went to Hogwarts", she said in a half-asking way. Neville flushed.
"Eh, I don't know really, but my gran says that some people never get their letter, even though they have some magic. And then there's those who get in, but …" He stopped himself, he didn't really want to think about this, let alone talk about it. "They, well, if they aren't good enough they flunk out. I think it happened to someone my gran knew, back in school", he finished to the sight of Annie's horrified fascination. Her sweets lay forgotten on the seat next to her as she listened, but apparently she noticed him looking because she quickly offered him some, as if trying to distract herself from what she had heard.
"Are you sure?", Neville asked hesitantly, not really certain about taking food from someone he barely knew, but the girl just shrugged.
"It's too much for me anyway." As he helped himself to some chocolate frogs, he tried to come up with something else to talk about, but his thoughts kept returning to what waited him at the end of the trip.
Hogwarts.
It definitely worried him, going to school and being on his own. He was well aware that he always forgot things and messed up, his relatives told him often enough. Schoolwork had also always been a chore for him. While reviewing he could know the facts as clear as water, but as soon as his gran would question him on it, it was as if he had never read it. What if it would be the same at Hogwarts, what if they figured that he wasn't good enough, that his letter had been a mistake? He had no idea what he would do then, what would happen to him. His gran would be disappointed, no doubt. Maybe he would have to go live in the muggle world, even though he had a hard time imagining how that would be. Maybe Annie could tell him.
"What's it like living with muggles, non-magical people I mean?" he asked and felt his heart plummet at the grimace he received as answer.
"Bad.", she said shortly before changing her mind. "No, not really, but with my relatives it is. They kinda freaked every time I did something magical, but other than that I guess it wasn't too bad. I don't know if it's much different living with magic." She shrugged and held up a pack of Chocolate Frogs. "What are these? They aren't real frogs, are they?" She sounded as if it wouldn't surprise her, so Neville hastened to reassure her.
"No, it's just chocolate. There are cards in them too, some people collect them. See?", he said and showed her the card of Cornelius Agrippa that he had found with his frog. "You can have it if you want to start collecting?" His stomach fluttered a little as she smiled at him and took the card. He saw her eyebrows lift in surprise when she looked at the now empty frame, and remembered that the muggle pictures he had seen in town never moved. It had scared him the first time he saw it, and he assumed it must be startling to see a moving picture for the first time too.
"They do that, disappear I mean."
"Weird."
It was rather nice, sitting there and eating candy and trying to figure out a good name for the toad as the view outside the window changed into woods, twisting rivers and dark green hills. Neville thought he might get used to this, spending time with other children. It was relaxing to be away from his gran's ever-sharp eyes and admonitions. And Annie seemed nice.
Hours later the train finally began to slow down before coming to a halt. Outside it had already grown dark, and Annie shivered a little in the cool evening air.. The bunch of first year students was collected by Hagrid and led down a winding path that ended at the shore of a large black sea. On the other side of the water rose a cliff with a large castle towering on top of it.
"No more than four to a boat!", Hagrid shouted and pointed to a fleet of small boats that lay in the water. Neville and Annie shared a boat with a stringy-looking boy that didn't speak a single word during the boat-trip, not even as the others 'oh'ed and 'aw'ed at the sight of the castle perched upon a high cliff. It was a huge, rambling, quite scary-looking castle, with a jumble of towers and battlements. Annie suspected that parts of it had to be supported by magic, because with all the additions and gravity-defying outcrops, the castle looked like it should have already fallen apart.
Reaching the cliff the little boats carried them through a curtain of ivy which had a wide opening in the cliff face. They were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle, until they reached a kind of underground harbour, where they clambered out on to rocks and pebbles. Hagrid then led them through a dark passageway in the rock, the children following his lamp and trying not to stumble in the dim light.
In front of her in the uneven procession, Annie could see the twin sisters she had been seated with in the beginning. They had split up, one of them walking with Pansy and the other one talking with a blonde girl and very pointedly not looking back at the girl who had insulted Annie. Further ahead, a red-headed boy Annie had seen at the station was trudging along, head down and one hand in his pocket. She wondered if he too carried a pet with him in his robe, as Neville did with the newly named Trevor.
The group reached the castle and were met by a tall, black-haired witch in emerald-green robes, who Hagrid addressed as Professor McGonagall. She led the children across the flagged stone floor of the entrance hall, past the door behind which the voices of hundreds of people could be heard, and into a small empty chamber. Annie and Neville had been separated during the short walk, and she was now standing with a brown-haired girl who was trying to hide how nervous she was. They were all standing rather closer together than they normally would have done, peering about nervously.
"Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "The start of term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory and spend free time in your house common room. The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin.
Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn you house points, while any rule breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honour. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours. The Sorting ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting." She paused, looking them all over, before resuming.
"I shall return when we are ready for you. Please wait quietly." She left the chamber, and in her wake a low murmur of anxiety and anticipation broke out. The brown-haired girl was whispering very fast about all the spells she'd learnt and wondering which one she'd need. Annie tried hard not to listen to her. She'd never been more nervous, never, not even when she'd had to take a school report home to the Dursleys saying she'd somehow put her teacher's wig on fire. She kept her eyes fixed on the door. Any second now, Professor McGonagall would come back and lead her to her doom.
