A/N: Sorry it's been so long, guys! I finally broke free of writer's block.I hope this chapter makes up for it. On the other hand, I discovered an internet resource for HP info recently -the Harry Potter Lexicon. Because of this, I'll be able to get into more detail on spells etc. when it comes to time. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I am not making any money from this. I do not own Harry Potter or anything recognizably from the series. I do own the characters I made up, such as Daren, Sara, family and (most) friends.
Chapter 3: The Hogwarts ExpressOn the way home, Sara once again was filled with questions. This time she expected more answers.
"What were those golden marble things? Surely wizards don't play ordinary games like that!"
"Those were Gobstones. They squirt a nasty smelling fluid at the loser, but other than that it really is a lot like marbles."
"And what about that chess set? The pieces were moving! The pictures did, too. Does everything move in the wizarding world?"
Daren laughed. "Not everything, but pictures, paintings, wizarding chess pieces, and some statues do."
Sara's mom had a more practical question. "When does she need to be at the school? And where does she need to be to get on the Hogwarts Express?"
Daren glanced at Mrs. Frie and then looked back to the road. "You mean you haven't looked at the ticket yet? Sara needs to be at the King's Cross station at 11 am on September first."
Sara bounced in her seat, causing Trouble to hiss from where she had been lieing on her lap. "Are you going to be taking us there, too?" Simultaneously, Mrs. Frie sighed and Daren laughed. "No, King's Cross is a perfectly ordinary muggle station. I'm sure your mum knows where it is."
Sara's mother nodded. "And Sara, I want you to stop bothering this nice young man. He already told you you'd pick these things up quickly enough at Hogwarts. Oh, Daren, do we need to confirm with the school in anyway? Register Sara or something?"
"Normally, yes. But as you don't have an owl, I'll stop by and tell the headmaster you'll be coming."
"Oh, thank you!"
"It's nothing, I'm glad for the excuse to see the grand ol' castle again."
A few minutes later he dropped Sara and her mother off at her house. Sara waved energetically as he drove off.
Two days later, Sara was frantically packing to leave. Despite the fact her mother had told her to pack the night before, Sara had put it off to discuss the possibilities of magic with her friends Coren and Kaila on the phone, both of whom had promised never to breathe a word about it to anyone else, immediately comprehending the problems if the general public found out.
"Sara, what are you doing down there? I thought I told you to pack last night!" Sara could hear her mother's footsteps on the stairs and hurriedly shoved the last two textbooks into the trunk.
"I just forgot a few things..." Sara trailed off as her mother entered the room.
"Do you expect me to believe that? Well, at least your room's clean. Hurry up, we're leaving in ten minutes. And make sure to keep your robes out, you'll have to change on the train."
Sara ran to put on her shoes and grab the pet carrier for Trouble. She carefully put Trouble in the car, and then ran back in to start lugging her trunk.
"Sara, hurry! You can't miss the train!"
"Can you help me with my trunk? It's too heavy!"
Mrs. Frie hurried over and lifted one end. With a little difficulty, they got it into the backseat of the car. "You packed your toothbrush, right? And toothpaste?"
"Of course!"
"Good." Mrs. Frie got into the driver's seat and began backing out of the driveway. "Wait! My robes!" Mrs. Frie stomped on the brakes as Sara threw herself out of the car and ran inside. She emerged a few seconds later with her robes and jumped back in the car, slamming the door shut and breathing hard.
"Is that everything?"
"Yes!"
"Are you sure?"
"YES!"
"Then off we go like a herd of turtles!" her mother said, and they were off.
Forty five minutes later, they had Sara's things on a cart and were wandering the train station looking for anything remotely resembling a platform labeled 9 3/4, with no success. They were just passing by the barrier between 9 and 10 again when they saw a red headed boy and one with messy black hair run straight at the barrier - and vanish!
"Mum! Hurry! I think that's it!" Sara ran over to the barrier, pushing her cart in front of her. A plump woman with the same red hair as one of the boys was walking towards the barrier. Sara watched carefully as the woman went through - there didn't appear to be any magical preperation needed, but she slowed and waited for her mother anyway.
"What do you mean, Sara? All I see are the two platforms." Sara's mother looked confused.
"I saw three people...they must have been wizards and a witch, like me...go right through the barrier! Platform 9 and 3/4 has GOT to be on the other side!"
"Well, if you're sure..." Sara and her mother ran at the barrier. Sara, for the first time, really deep down believed in magic, so wasn't worried in the slightest. She had to drag her mother the last few feet, though - obviously, Mrs. Frie wasn't as confident in it as she was.
One moment the barrier was there - and then it was gone. Sara and her mother stumbled to a halt, finding themselves in a bustling crowd on a platform that previously had not seemed to exist. A bright red train was visible to one side, and it hooted twice as they watched. "We found it! We really found it!" Sara called, already racing away from her mother towards the train.
"Wait, Sara!" Mrs. Frie called. "Aren't you even going to say goodbye?"
Sara came racing back, leaving the cart behind. "Sorry, of course I will!" She gave her mother a quick hug and smiled. "I'm going to have so much fun! And I'll write you, I promise!" She ran off again, leaving her mother smiling fondly, trying hard to hide her worry for her daughter. Sara had always gone to a public school. How would she adjust to living in a dorm situation?
Sara ran with her cart all the way to the last compartment, figuring it would be the last to fill. She dragged her trunk up, with difficulty, and stashed it under the very back seat. Then she turned and left to find the bathrooms, her robes over one arm. She wanted to get changed quickly, so that she would have plenty of time to explore. Finally finding a bathroom two cars up the train, she ducked inside, locked the door and changed.
On her way back, the train gave one last whistle and started to move. Sara rushed to the nearest window and waved wildly at her mother, causeing a blond boy about her age to sneer and stalk off. When her mum was out of sight, Sara watched for a few more moments and then walked back to her car. She was surprised to find the two boys she'd seen earlier sitting in one of the seats to the front of the car. The two of them had been talking, and the redhead looked startled.
"Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt anything. I'll just go to my seat and read or something..."Sara edged towards the back of the car where she'd stashed her trunk. She had just opened it to get out The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1. She overheard the redhead say "Anyway, there's loads of people from muggle families and they learn quick enough." She laughed and raised her hand. "I'm one. Glad to hear you say that - Daren said the same thing, but I thought he was just trying to cheer me up." They were staring at her again. She swallowed. "Sorry. Again. I'm just nervous."
The boy with black hair shook his head. "It's ok. I'm sorry, I was probably being rude. My name's Harry Potter." He held out his hand and elbowed the redhead, who swallowed and stuck out his hand too. "Ron Weasley." Sara smiled and shook their hands. "I'm Sara Frie." Harry and Ron looked a bit nervous, and Ron definitely looked embarrassed, so she lifted her book and said, "Well, I'll just go study a bit." She edged back to her seat and settled down with the book, nervous herself.
The boys didn't start talking again until after twelve, when a lady came in with a cart covered in various foods that Sara didn't recognize. "Anything off the cart, dears?" the lady asked. Sara promptly started digging through her trunk for the little bag of money her mother had given her for during the school year. Wizard money, of course. Which she had neglected to explain the system of.
Sara heard a thump as one of the boys - Harry - leapt to his feet. She watched, astonished, as he bought some of everything, and completely understood when Ron said, "Hungry, are you?" Herself, Sara only got a couple of the cupcake-sized Cauldron Cakes and a Pumpkin Pasty, after asking the lady for help in discerning which of the coins were which.
As she munched, Sara watched in fascination as the boys exclaimed over and discussed some cards they found in some of the packages. Then Ron ate one of the jelly bean things and looked like he was going to throw up. "See, sprouts!" he said to his friend. Sara shook her head and buried herself in one of her magic books. She strongly suspected she would need every head start she could get.
Actually, it was quite fascinating...and so it was that she didn't realize there was someone else in the car until she heard someone cough. She looked up and saw Harry and Ron glaring at three other boys - one of which was the blond who'd sneered at her earlier.
"So you think my name's funny, do you?" the blond said. "No need to ask who you are. My father told me all the Weasleys have red hair, freckles, and more children than they can afford."
Sara quietly marked her place and put down her book. It looked like a fight was brewing, and she wanted to be ready to do what was needed...whether it was helping Harry and Ron, or getting help.
The blond turned to Harry. "You'll soon find out some wixarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there." he stuck out his hand. Sara stood up, fairly growling. Her cat did growl, from inside the pet carrier. This sounded like the kind of kid who used to pick on her at her old school.
"I think I can tell who the wrong sort are for myself, thanks," Harry said.
"I'd be careful if I were you, Potter," the blond said. "Unless you're a bit politer, you'll go the same way as your parents. They didn't know what was good for them either.You hang around with riffraff like the Weasleys and that Hagrid, and it'll rub off on you."
Harry and Ron stood up, and Sara stepped towards the three new boys, who still hadn't noticed her.
"Say that again," Ron said.
"Oh, you're going to fight us, are you?" the blond sneered.
"Unless you get out right now," Harry replied, and he flashed a quick smile at Sara as she stepped up on the other side of him.
"But we don't feel like leaving, do we boys?" the blond said. "We've eaten all our food and you still seem to have some."
One of the other two boys reached towards the packages on Harry and Ron's seat, and all three lunged at him. Before they reached him, though, Ron's rat leapt up and bit the boy's finger. Within seconds, the boy had shaken off the rat and all three had disappeared.
"I don't know who those boys were, but they mean trouble," Sara said. Ron was just about to tell her who they where when a girl with bushy brown hair, again about Sara's age, walked in.
"What HAS been going on?" she asked, looking around. Ron ignored her and picked up his rat, commenting to Harry that it looked like he'd been knocked out. Then he looked closer and added, "No, I don't believe it - he's gone back to sleep."
Still ignoring the new girl, Ron turned to Harry. "You've met Malfoy before?"
"So that's the blond's name?" Sara asked. Both boys nodded.
"He was in the robe shop getting fitted at the same time I was," Harry said. "He acted no different then."
"I've heard of his family," Ron said. "They were some of the first to come back to our side after You-Know-Who disappeared. Said they'd been bewitched. My dad doesn'y believe it. He says Malfoy's father didn't need an excuse to go over to the Dark Side." He finally turned to the girl. "Can we help you with something?"
Sara barely heard the girl's response as she digested this new information. She definitely had some more questions to ask people now. Who was this 'You-Know-Who'? And what was this about a Dark Side? The way Ron had said it, it sounded like it was straight out of Star Wars or something.
She started paying attention just in time to hear the girl say, obviously to Ron, "And you've got dirt on your nose, did you know?" She left, with Ron glaring after her.
Harry and ron simply took off their jackets and pulled on their robes in their place. Sara stared. "Don't you two have a seperate outfit for the first day of school?" she asked. Herself, she'd had to find a bathroom to change in, since she had a nice, dark blouse her mother had gotten her to wear under her robes. The boys stared at her, aghast. "Why?!" Sara sighed and went to get her stuff back together, muttering about the stupidities of boys.
"We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time.Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school seperately," A voice boomed through the train.
All three of them looked at each other, then plunged into the crowd in the corridor. Sara lost track of Harry and Ron for a moment, then caught side of Ron's bright red hair and caught up with them just as they came out onto the platform.
A/N: Wow! Six pages on word! I hadn't realized I'd typed that much. I realize there was some direct quoting, but at this point I'm trying to stay close to the original storyline, so it's unavoidable. I promise divergence later! Read and review!