The Hogwarts Express
Not a month later after the disastrous visit to Diagon Alley it was time for Allie and Aiden to leave for Platform Nine and Three Quarters!
Both were fully packed and dropped off by their father at Kings Cross Station with each their own trunk rolling behind them. They got stared at by many muggles who were trying to catch their own train, but they didn't seem to notice, blinded by their own excitement of attending Hogwarts. Aiden made way through the crowd which was quite a difficult thing to do since their trunks were very large and the crowds were enormous. After several minutes though they both reached the entrance between the platforms nine and ten to attend the Nine and Three Quarters platform.
Allie literally couldn't stop smiling from all the excitement. She would soon be joining her brother for Hogwarts! Aiden gave her a small nod, and together they nonchalantly tried to enter Platform Nine and Three Quarters without getting any unnecessary attention from nosy muggles.
Finally when Allie opened her eyes she got entranced by the beauty of the Nine and Three Quarters platform. Everywhere witches and wizards could be found of any age! She feverishly looked around to catch any sight of Harry or the Weasleys. To her left she saw her brother be welcomed by two redheaded twins. Must be Weasleys, Allie thought to herself.
She waited patiently for them to notice her too, and after a numerous seconds one twin with aqua blue eyes spotted her. His face broke out into a cocky grin and he elbowed his brother not so nonchalantly. The other brother turned around to face Allie too, and started to grin mischievously. Her own brother on the other hand had no idea what was going on since he thought that she had left to find Ron (whom she'd told him about when they had gotten home from their latest Diagon Alley visit).
"Well hello there beautiful," the twin with the aqua blue eyes dashed forwards to meet her, "the name's Gred Weasley, and you are?" He took her hand and kissed it as if he were a gentlemen, but as far as she could observe he was totally a prankster, no doubt about that.
"Gred?" she raised an eyebrow while shaking his hand off of hers in disgust.
Suddenly the other twin dashed forwards to stand next to his own brother. "Not so lucky with the lady's are we Fred?" he chuckled mischievously.
When Aiden finally noticed what was happening he practically ran towards the twins to look them angrily in the eyes. "What the hell guys? That is my sister you're talking about!" he growled angrily.
"Our bad, but-" George started.
"-we just couldn't help ourselves with such a pretty lass," Fred finished.
Aiden growled, but Allie couldn't help but laugh. They were funny, she couldn't deny that. "Very funny you guys, but I'm eleven if you hadn't noticed," she rolled her eyes. "Now," she placed her trunk after some struggling into Fred's open hands, "if you truly can't help yourselves with such a 'pretty lass', then you better start helping me out and bring my trunk into an empty compartment if you would, please." Then Allie walked away while waving innocently at the twins with a mischievous smile of her own plastered upon her face.
George shook his head, "unbelievable, she can't be a sister of yours Aiden if she's that rude!"
While Aiden placed a hand with fake shock upon his heart he shook his head. "Why is that? You two were the ones who started it, remember?" he grinned.
"Aiden, you're supposed to be on our side!" George exclaimed. "You're our friend!"
Aiden simply chuckled while Fred was still shaking his head with an open mouth. "Feisty that one," he mumbled, "no girl has ever acted like that around us."
George sniggered, "still shocked aye, are we brother of mine?"
While the three of them continued making silly remarks about each other, Allie tried to find Harry and Ron upon the platform.
A light tap could be felt upon her left shoulder and Allie quickly turned around to meet a brilliant smiling face of her new friend Ron. She and him had been writing letters to each other with the Weasley family owl during summer since Allie and Ron both didn't own an owl of their own. Not that she minded of course, neither did Ron.
"Hi Ron!" she exclaimed happily whilst throwing her arms around his shoulder. She took a small step back to take a good look at his even more freckled face because of the sun he had been receiving during the summer vacation. "It's so nice to see you again after such a long time," she smiled.
"I feel exactly the same way," he grinned.
Allie saw his trunk standing behind him and furrowed her eyebrows, he mustn't have had the chance of entering the train.
"Let's put your stuff inside my compartment in the train," she offered him, pointing her thumb towards the train.
Ron nodded, "yes, that would be nice, but I'll first have to say goodbye to mum. Who knows if she'll have a heart attack if I don't say goodbye." He mumbled the last part while swiftly moving around Allie to go see his family one last time. He threw one last glance over his shoulder whilst yelling at her to wait for him on the train which she answered with a thumbs up as agreement.
She cupped her hands around her mouth in order to make her voice seem louder. "Tell your family I said; hi, and tell Ginny that I will write her during school!" she yelled back at him. He gave her a thumbs up and then disappeared into the crowd.
With a sigh Allie squirmed herself through the crowd with soft apologies trying to board the train. After several minutes of squirming and annoyed huffs she entered the train. A girl with curly dark blonde hair touched her shoulder to stop her. She seemed like Allie's age, and since she looked very out of place she must be a first year too.
"Hi," she said promptly while holding out her hand, "my name's Lavender Brown, pleasure to meet you!" Lavender Brown smiled happily at Allie, her brown eyes sparkling above her nose.
"Pleasure, my name is Allie."
Allie shook her hand and smiled back. She wasn't really sure what she thought about this girl, she seemed nice, but looking at her appearance being all pink Allie was quite sure that this girl was no match for her.
"I'm sorry, but I really got to find my compartment. It was nice meeting you, though!"
While waving her tiny hand in goodbye Allie slipped past Lavender hoping that the girl would just leave her alone so that she could find her compartment in peace.
"You have a compartment?" she questioned Allie with a questioning look plastered upon her pale appearance. "Why don't I join you, so that you'll have a friend next to you."
Oh no, Allie groaned inside. Why could this girl just not leave her alone?
"NO!" she almost yelled. "No, I mean," she tried to compose herself with a slightly less harsh and loud voice. "There are already lots of people inside the compartment, so unfortunately there won't be enough room for you," Allie lied with false sympathy.
Lavenders face fell and Allie couldn't help but feel bad about lying to her, she didn't deserve that. Maybe Allie should have just waited for a couple of minutes more to get to know her so that she could make a proper judgement about Lavender.
"Oh, alright, that's okay, have fun!" Lavender grimaced while quickly turning around to find a compartment of her own in embarrassment.
Feeling a tad bit sad Allie turned around heading for her compartment. While avoiding groups of people catching up with each other in the train after a long summer vacation Allie found herself being pulled into a compartment. Her breath hitched in shock and she immediately used her infamous elbow punch for the closest person near her who groaned in pain when her elbow met his ribs.
"Merlin, Allie!" George groaned while holding his rib with his hands. "Why always so aggressive!"
"Not aggressive, George, I'm just defending myself," she told him with a pleased and evil smile upon her face.
Fred and two other boys in the compartment sniggered, and to her surprise she found her very own brother sitting inside the compartment.
"Aiden!" she smiled.
He answered her smile with a smile of his own while waving at her.
Fred quickly pulled her down to sit upon a soft bench, hoping that she wouldn't punch him inside his ribs. He moved a little away from her and looked at her with a mischievous smile. That smile just had to be his permanent smile, right? He just couldn't be planning mischief the entire day!?
"I would like to introduce you to one amazing mischief maker, and our very own great friend of the group; Lee Jordan," he pointed his thumb into Lee's direction who waved at her with a friendly smile. Lee had dark skin and dark curly hair, his had a friendly smile which showed his white teeth and his brown, almost black, eyes were kind. Allie couldn't help but smile a bright smile back at him. She felt like she could trust him.
Then she returned her head back towards Fred. "So this is why you pulled me into your compartment?" she huffed. "What a waste of time," she smiled apologetically at Lee, "no offence though, Lee, it was a pleasure meeting you."
"None taken," he told her with a wink.
When Fred hadn't answered her yet after several seconds, looking down upon her with an uncomfortable and guilty glistering inside his aqua blue eyes, she huffed once again while rolling her eyes.
"Then I will be off again, since I have places to be," she stood up and left the compartment while telling her brother goodbye, and then she was off.
After a couple of minutes she finally reached her compartment and busted through the door to fall upon the bench, drained already. She briefly thought back to her confrontation with the four boys in the compartment. They must be laughing themselves insane at her stupidity, she thought sadly before her thoughts got disturbed by two surprised voices.
"There you are!"
"Finally!"
Her head quickly turned around to meet two smiling faces looking down upon her. A boy with messy dark hair and emerald eyes hidden behind two round glasses and a boy with unruly red hair and many freckles upon his pale face.
"Harry! Ron!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms around the both of them.
"Hi Allie," Harry smiled while returning the hug. He had missed her so much during summer, they hadn't even seen each other once!
Allie returned his smile and she threw herself down next to him in content. Then she smiled at Ron who smiled brightly back at her, asking her where she'd been.
"I've been in the warzone that is called the hallway between the compartments, they are so full with so many people!" she exclaimed with big exaggerated movements of her hands.
Ron sniggered, "must have been exhausting!"
"You are right about that, Ronald," she grinned, making herself sit up straighter so she could have a good conversation with both of her friends. "So, I presume the two of you have just met?"
Ron nodded, "yes, and he's Harry Potter! He really has the scar!"
Harry nodded uncomfortably, "I suppose that is a big thing?"
Ron turned to look at him with big misunderstanding eyes. "A big thing? Are you mad! Of course it's a big thing, but mum says that I shouldn't be too overexaggerating about it, it is plain rude she thinks," he frowned.
Allie giggled, "she's right about that Ron, but your brothers are searching for you, so you better leave now."
Ron's eyes widened comically, "really? Now?"
"Yes, now!"
"Oh Merlin," Ron groaned while quickly making his way out of the compartment.
Harry sniggered now too, "you totally made that up."
Allie nodded, "yes, I did. Only because you and I have a lot to talk about."
Harry immediately knew what she was talking about and his gaze became stern. He pulled a hand through his messy hair, a habit he does when he is nervous.
"Right," he started, "I wanted to talk to you about the secret you have been keeping from me about my own life." He looked thoughtful at Allie with a slight tinge of sadness inside his eyes. "I cannot believe you have hidden this from me for so long! You knew about everything in my life, and you didn't tell me anything!" he exclaimed, his voice breaking. "You had no right, absolutely no right to hide all this from me."
When his voice broke Allie's heart broke a little too, it felt as if her stomach received a hard thump against it. Her throat tightened and a lump formed which she desperately tried to swallow. She couldn't afford to start crying right now.
"You're right," she lowered her head with a quiet voice, "I should've told you."
Harry nodded, "that's right. But now," he hesitated, "I want to know why you didn't tell me anything about what had happened in my life."
Swallowing loudly she looked back into his disappointed emerald green eyes. The lump inside her throat thickened and the thumping against her stomach quickened painfully. Her eyes began to water, but she bit the inside of her cheek to prevent tears from falling down her cheeks.
Oh if he only knew why she couldn't tell him anything, she thought sadly.
"My father," she croaked, not able to explain further.
Harry frowned, "your father? What is it with your father?"
She shook her head and bit the skin around her nails. "I can't tell," she whispered while continuing with biting the skin around her nails, because of her nerves.
Slowly a calloused warm hand surrounded her pale tiny ones. The calloused warm hand gave hers a gentle squeeze and everything felt right again. Allie looked up at Harry with guilty and sad eyes, she really hadn't meant to hurt him like this. And he knew that deep down.
"Allie, I don't blame you, I'm sure you had your reasons," he lifted the corner of his mouth in a sad smile. "But from now on there will be no secrets between us anymore, okay?" he asked her, raising his eyebrows in question.
Allie nodded gratefully, no secrets, she could do that.
Oh wait… but what about her father? He would certainly freak out and not want to be her friend anymore. Who wanted to be friends with a girl who was abused by her father anyways? Well, as long as he didn't ask her about her family everything would be alright, it just had to be. And besides, she wasn't breaking the rules necessarily.
"Great, now lets have fun and forget about this!" Harry offered her with a grin.
Allie hesitantly began to smile, still feeling very stupid and upset about lying to her best friend. She thought darkly that she would never obey her father ever again. Harry was more like family to her than her very own father ever would be.
"Right, let's just forget about this," she blew out the breath she had been holding while having this conversation with Harry.
Right when Harry wanted to continue their conversation Ron dashed inside the compartment looking all red and tired from running. He looked at Allie with an murderous gaze and blew out some breath, hoping to inhale more oxygen. He sat down in front of Allie closing both of his hands on top of each other. Looking down upon her with a penetrating look he began to speak carefully.
"You bloody set me up," he started calmly with his ears turning red from anger. Allie tried her best to keep herself from laughing out loud, because who was she kidding, it was very funny and the sight in front of her at the moment too. In the corner of her eye she saw Harry trying to hide his grin too, but failing terribly. But Ron paid no mind to Harry nor her desperate urge to laugh, he in fact had other matters to tend to, so he continued with his lecture.
"Never set me up ever again, they pulled a bloody prank on me Allie!" his eyes spread wide open. "A bloody prank! You let me walk into a war zone! My very own friend," he muttered while shaking his head.
Allie giggled, "I'm terribly sorry, Ron, but I had in matter of fact no idea that they would pull a prank on you." When she saw him giving her a pointed look as if to say that he did not believe her, she raised her hands up in the air and crossed her fingers; "I swear on one galleon!"
"Only one galleon?," he raised his eyebrows.
"It's all I have at the moment."
"Alright, whatever."
Harry smirked at the exchange between his two friends. It made him happy to see that his two friends got along well. Suddenly a very happy feeling bubbled up inside his stomach when he thought about Hogwarts and how he and his other two friends would get to spend a whole year at that school having fun! He was finally released from the terror the Dursleys brought him back in Little Whinging, he would at last be able to act like a child and have fun. Those thoughts made the corners of his mouth curl up into a happy grin which he couldn't stop from happening. His cheeks almost started the hurt from all this smiling, but he didn't mind at all.
"So, what prank did they pull on you?" Harry smirked when seeing Ron's devastated expression even though it was obvious that he silently loved the attention he was getting at last for being the victim of the twin's prank when Harry and Allie were trying to sit comfortably upon the bench to hear his story out.
So he started telling the story with big hand gestures, and this started the long pendulum of conversations during the whole train ride towards Hogwarts.
Between the conversations Ron asked them in which house they wanted to be sorted. Ron was determined to be sorted into Gryffindor since his whole family had been sorted there. Allie smirked, and shared that she also would love to be sorted into Gryffindor even though she wouldn't mind being sorted into Hufflepuff where she would be with her brother. While the two were conversing about all the different kinds of Hogwarts houses Harry felt a little left out since he had absolutely no clue about anything in the wizarding world. And when the two asked him in which house he wanted to be in he only answered that everything would be fine as long as he wouldn't be sorted into Slytherin which both Ron and Allie agreed gravely on.
When the sky outside turned slowly, but surely, from a beautiful golden colour into a cold steel blue a girl with bushy brown hair and rather large front teeth entered their compartment. She looked promptly at each of them with a bossy stare. Allie noticed that Ron shrunk a little bit when the girl stared at him with big brown eyes and tried very hard not to giggle.
"Neville has lost his toad, has anyone of you seen his toad?" she asked them bossily.
Harry shook his head, "no, sorry."
"That's alright," she said whilst looking down upon Ron who had been just preparing to show Allie and Harry some magic. "Oh, you were going to do magic? Let's see then," she sat down while Ron looked absolutely horrified by this sudden turn of events.
He cleared his throat and pointed his wand down upon his old rat Scabbers. "Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, turn this stupid fat rat yellow!" he looked down expectantly upon his rat, hoping that it had turned yellow, but instead Hermione laughed shrill and his rat hadn't turned into any other colour at all.
"Are you sure that's even a spell?" she asked. "It's not a good one then for sure. Well, I have been practicing basic and easy spells myself, and they all worked for me. Nobody in my family has the talent to do magic, except for me so you can imagine my surprise when I get a letter to attend Hogwarts school for witchcraft and wizardry! It must be the best school ever. Of course, I can memorise all of the school books already, it must be enough, right?" she turned to look at each of them only to find them staring at he incredulously. "Oh, by the way, my name is Hermione Granger, and who are you?" she finished her whole rambling about her life.
Harry cleared his throat and Allie pushed her hand upwards under Ron's chin to make his mouth stop from falling open with an incredulously look. "This here is Allie Addyson," he pointed with his thumb towards Allie who smiled and waved shyly with her other hand which wasn't holding Ron's chin up, "and that is Ron Weasley." He then pointed his thumb upon the aghast redheaded boy.
Hermione looked at Ron with an dismayed face, "pleasure." Then she turned her head towards the girl sitting in front of her, "hello!" she smiled happily. And finally she turned her head around with big round eyes in shock, "you are Harry Potter!"
"I've read about you already in many books, you've done a great thing for the wizarding community. I'm very impressed!"
Oh, really?" he said in astonishment.
"Oh my, didn't you knew that? If I'd been you I would already have checked out everything, but it seems you haven't thought about that," she raised both her eyebrows. "Well, have you had any idea in which house you want to be? I have asked some people, I hope that I'll end up in Gryffindor, but I suppose Ravenclaw would do just fine. Well, it is time for me to continue helping Neville to find his toad."
"I would also suggest for all of you to dress up in your robes, we'll be soon at Hogwarts," and with that she left the compartment, leaving the three other kids behind in stunned silence.
Ron grunted, "well, I've changed my mind, I don't need to be a Gryffindor if she'll be one too."
Allie slapped him lightly on his upper left arm. "Ron, don't be so rude. She might be an amazing person who you'd want to be friends with very desperately!" she threw him an infuriated look.
Ron shrugged, "whatever. What do you think Harry?"
"I don't really care, as long as I'm not a Slytherin."
"Agreed."
After that confrontation with the bushy brown haired girl the three happily started to change into their robes – after giving the compartment to Allie, making sure that she could change in peace of course – and then they were already at the Hogwarts platform. The three stepped out of the train only to meet a huge man with a long beard who was screaming loudly over the whole platform for the first years to come and meet him. When the giant - whose name Allie learned was Hagrid - saw Harry his whole face lit up with a smile. Then all the first years were surrounding Hagrid and he took them to the lake where tiny wooden boats were floating upon the clear dark blue, almost black, water.
Hagrid told them to make groups of three or four and claim a boat, he would take a boat all for himself since he was a very large man.
So Allie did as she was told and took Ron and Harry towards a free boat and were joined by a girl whose name was Hannah Abbott. Allie sat down pleased inside the boat next to Hannah with Ron and Harry sitting in front of them. When she looked towards her left she saw Hermione and another boy who had lost his toad sitting inside a boat accompanied with a boy with dark skin and a boy with light skin. Allie made a mental note to become friends with Hermione, she seemed like a nice girl.
Hannah Abbott started an excited conversation about Hogwarts and everything that already had happened on the train and Allie conversed happily with her. Ron and Harry joined the conversation and the foursome had forgotten they were sitting inside a boat upon a dark lake, and Hermione had even told them a giant squid lived inside the lake, for Merlin's sake!
After several moments – the foursome had lost track of time, obviously – the children around them stopped conversing which shook them out of their content bubble. When they turned around to look ahead the most magical and beautiful castle came into view and everybody gaped in awe. Soon they would arrive and start their very own adventure in the next upcoming years at Hogwarts.
Allie couldn't help but look around to see everyone's awestruck faces, and giggled lightly to herself. She saw Hannah sitting next to her smiling the broadest smile she had ever seen, and in front of her Ron and Harry were sharing a content and happy smile. Upon seeing the happy faces of her two friends in front of her she couldn't help but smile too.
Her smile faded a little bit, but never vanished, as a terrifying thought entered her mind. What if she wouldn't be in the same house with them? Would they still talk to her? They had to talk to her, right, Harry at least…
The whole trip towards the castle over the lake her body was tense and her thoughts were racing through her mind.
When reaching the caste the only thing left that she could do was fiercely hoping to be sorted into the same house as the two boys sitting in front of her.
Hermione Granger has entered the story you guys! It was so much fun to write her into the story.
I would like to thank everyone who has reviewed, I'll try to correct everything that is mistaken in my story, so thank you for noting on some stuff!
Next up: Hogwarts!
I know I said in the previous chapter that next up it would be Hogwarts, but if I would write everything into one chapter it would most certainly be too long, seen that this chapter is already 4500 words.
See you soon,
-M