AN: Ok, fourth chapter up! Enjoy!
(This chapter is from the Point of View of Pansy Parkinson)
"Is that him?" I asked, pointing down over the railing.
"Where?" Draco demanded, redirecting his gaze in the direction I was pointing. We were in Grand Central Station, standing on the sort of bridge that ran across the main flow of traffic, scouring the throng below for a dark-haired boy and a snowy owl.
"There!" I cried, pulling him by his sleeve so that he was looking exactly where I was.
"Is it him?" Hermione asked excitedly, bouncing up and down beside me.
"Yes!" he exclaimed and the three of us raced across the bridge, down the stairs, and into the crowd. "Harry!" Draco called, waving his arms and grinning as the dark-haired boy's eyes found us and widened in delight and surprise.
"Draco! God, I'm glad you're here. How do you get to Platform 9¾?" he asked, so relieved he might have collapsed.
"Oh, it's right this way. Harry, these are my friends, Pansy and Hermione. Girls, this is Harry Potter," Draco said, gesturing back and forth between us.
I grabbed his hand and shook it. "Draco's told me all about you," I said. He shrugged, looking uncomfortable. Draco had told me he didn't much like having the attention of his fame, so I made the comment about his persona rather than his fame. "He says your loads of fun. We're all going to be the greatest friends, I'm sure of it." Harry smiled at this, a kind of amazed expression.
"We need to get moving," Hermione reminded us. "How would it be to arrive late our first year?" We agreed and rushed toward the barrier between Platform Nine and Ten.
"Alright. You just need to get a running start and go right through it. Like this," I told Harry, since he was the only one who didn't know, and took off through the barrier. Hermione, Draco, and Harry followed. We quickly heaved his luggage onto the train and found the compartment where we'd left our things. We sat down just in time to hear the train whistle and feel it lurch.
"Cutting it close, huh?" Draco asked Harry, who shrugged.
"Draco was determined to wait for you, even if it meant we all missed the train," Hermione said as we watched the platform disappear on the other side of the window.
"Sorry for being trouble, but thank you for waiting or I never would have made it onto the train," Harry said, smiling gratefully at the blond.
"I didn't even realize it might be a problem until I had to explain it to Pansy. Then we went back to wait, and showed Hermione through. And went back again for you," Draco explained.
"I owe you one," Harry nodded seriously.
"I know," Draco replied with a wicked grin that made Harry chuckle. They were already great friends; it had taken them all of ten minutes to settle into being totally at ease.
"How did it go with your parents, Pansy? Telling them, I mean?" Hermione asked me then.
"Fine," I sighed. "I said something like, 'I'm a witch, and I'm going to magic school. Here's my letter.' He picked it up, looking surprised in his vague way and said something like, 'Well, isn't that something?' and agreed that it all looked to be in order and asked if I would be coming home for holidays. I told him no. They've given me loads of spending money, though, so I can't complain. I can't wait to get to Hogwarts," I told her, my last words coming out wistful and soft as apposed to the general boredom I felt and exuded for any subject involving my parents.
"I've already tried a few spells, and it went well," Hermione told me, following my line of sight eagerly out the window, as if we were already hoping to see the school.
"I've already read the school books," I boasted happily.
"So have I," she replied, grinning back at me.
"I bet I beat you in our very first test," I countered.
"I bet you both get perfect marks, as much as you study," Draco sneered playfully, poking me in the side. "But we all know that you're just trying to compensate for your Muggle blood."
"Don't be mean, Draco," I chided, poking him back. "It's all due to hospital mix ups. That's how the world ends up with Mudbloods and Squibs," I said.
"You shouldn't say that," Draco said quickly, looking uncomfortable. "It means dirty blood. Common blood. It's really a horrible thing to say; don't use it to refer to yourself or Hermione. You're better than that."
"Magic is magic, right?" Hermione agreed as the compartment door was slid open.
"Would you like something?" an elderly witch pushing a cart full of brightly colored sweets asked us. We did, of course.
We piled all of our candy together in the two empty seats, one between Draco and me and the other between Harry and Hermione. I instantly fell deeply in love with the Honey Bubblers, and all four of us managed to make ourselves at least a little bit sick to the stomach before we stopped eating. "God, my parents would have heart palpitations," Hermione observed as she ate another chocolate frog.
"Why?" I asked, popping another little golden-colored honey sweet into my mouth and letting it bubble on my tongue.
"They're dentists," she shrugged. "They tend to people's teeth," she explained, due to the confused look on Draco's face.
"Their teeth?" he repeated. "Is that dangerous?"
"Only if someone decides to bite them," Hermione grinned. "But the point is that sugar rots the teeth, and I'm usually not allowed it. I'm going to fix my teeth as soon as I figure out how. They're beastly, aren't they?" she asked, bearing them at me. Her two upper front teeth were quite a bit larger than the rest of them, but other than that they were perfectly white and strait.
"I've seen worse," I shrugged.
"Easy for you to say-your teeth are perfect," she sighed. "And your hair is strait and shiny. I'll fix mine that way, too."
"But your hair is so cool! I could do something fun with it. Come over here and sit in front of me," I ordered. The boys had receded into their own conversation that sounded as if it were centered around some sort of sport that I wasn't too terribly interested in.
"You promise not to make me look awful on purpose?" she asked suspiciously. I laughed and nodded, and she moved to sit with her back against my knees. Her hair really was wavy and tangled, but it was also a wonderful dark honey color that I knew I could make lovely with a little work. First, I tried smoothing it into a ponytail, which was a disaster so wild that the boys paused in their conversation to marvel at it.
"I told you," she said in a disheartened tone, but I wasn't ready to give up.
"One more try. I might pull your hair a bit with this," I warned, then went to work again. Before I touched her head, I sat and stared at it for a long moment, concentrating with all my might on numbing it. Then I reached forward and gave a lock a firm tug. She didn't even wince. Excellent.
I set to work, frowning meditatively as I coaxed her wild hair down and into order. I grinned in triumph when Hermione gaped at her reflection in my hand mirror. "It's…it's…wow. Oh, wow. Can you do this every day?" she asked, turning it at different angles and running her fingers over it. Braiding had fascinated me the first time that I'd seen it on television, so I'd looked it up on my mother's computer while she was asleep and practiced on dolls. Hermione's hair was fixed in about two dozen perfect cornrows, close to her pale scalp.
"Yeah, if you want me to," I said happily. "But remember-you'll have to be in Slytherin if we're to have any time in the mornings."
"You mean if we're to be friends," Hermione corrected, pressing her lips together and waiting for me to agree. I knew at once that this wasn't how she wanted it to be, but she was aware enough to know that this was how Draco and I thought. Anyone who wasn't in Slytherin wasn't worth our time. But I really liked Hermione…
"I'll be your friend, even if you're in Ravenclaw. You probably will be; you're awfully clever," I said, smiling at her. She grinned back.
"God, just don't be in Gryffindor. Please," Draco sighed. "We'll be a sorry lot, trying to be friends between Slytherin and Gryffindor."
"I don't want to be in Ravenclaw alone," Hermione said suddenly, looking around at us. My heart sank.
"Well I…suppose I could try for being with you, if I had to," I conceded. "But please can't you just try to be in Slytherin?"
"Oh, but Slytherin just sounds like such a mean lot," she sighed.
"I'd like to think my mother is quite nice," Draco piped up again, now frowning in alarm. "And we don't need to be all broken up and separated. People in different houses just don't stay friends; it's way harder than you realize. So we'll all just be in Slytherin and be done with it, right?"
We all nodded, Hermione somewhat reluctantly. "Let's none of us ever be Death Eaters!" Hermione exclaimed in a rush. I frowned in confusion, and saw my expression mirrored on Harry's face. But Draco had a look of shock on his face. He knew exactly what she meant, and didn't like it a bit. "I've read about the time when this horrible wizard, Voldemort-"
"Don't say that name!" Draco cried.
"You see-people are even afraid of his name, he was so awful. He killed so many people and did horrible things with magic. But the thing is, all of his followers came from Slytherin, and they were called Death Eaters. Let's never be horrible and evil. We can be in Slytherin and never be Dark wizards, right?" she asked, like she was on the brink of tears.
"Of course we can," I assured her, taking her hands in mine. "We don't want to hurt anyone, right guys?" I asked, turning to Harry and Draco.
"No we don't," Harry nodded, his bright green eyes full of trustworthiness as he smiled reassuringly at Hermione. I
"I…right. Of course," Draco agreed, a pained grin on his face.
"I think we'd better change into our school robes soon," I said, just to change the subject. I had no idea how close we may or may not have been to the school. It was surprisingly funny when Hermione and I kicked the boys out into the hall to change, then had to stand out there ourselves while they did. We got resettled and were finishing off the last of our sweets when a voice rang through the train telling us that we'd be at Hogwarts in fifteen minutes, and that all of our luggage and animals would be taken up to the castle for us if we would simply leave them on the train.
The last fifteen minutes of the trip were excruciating. We sat in silence, staring out of the window at what I supposed was the general direction that the castle would be in, each lost in our own thoughts. Somewhere in between all my anxieties over the Sorting, I recognized we probably wouldn't all be in the same house, and there was nothing I could do about it.
When the train finally screeched to a halt, we pushed our way into the myriad of students in the corridor, and moved with the sea of people onto the platform. The four of us paused, looking around at each other, unsure of what we should do next.
"Firs' years! Firs' years over here!" a voice boomed over the crowd. I gaped. The man calling us was nearly twice the size of a normal man, and three times as wide. He had bushy black hair and beard, streaked with gray.
"Hagrid!" Harry called jubilantly, jumping up and down a bit and waving. Hermione was gripping my sleeve, to pull herself along with me, since the crowd kept threatening to separate us.
"All right there, Harry?" the giant grinned down at us as we joined the other first years. "Any more firs' years? C'mon, follow me, and mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!"
Slipping and stumbling, we followed Hagrid down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path. Harry, Draco, Hermione, and I hung onto each other as we made our way down, as if afraid we would be separated in the darkness.
"Yeh'll get yer first good sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," Hagrid, called over his shoulder, "just round the bend here."
The narrow path had opened suddenly onto the edge of a great black lake. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers. "Wow," I heard Hermione whisper appreciatively along with everyone else.
"No more'n four to a boat!" Hagrid called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore. The four of us clambered into a boat and waited.
"There's supposed to be a giant squid in this lake, you know," Hermione said quietly.
"Really?" I demanded, more excited than scared.
"It won' eat yeh," Hagrid said from his boat, and though I couldn't see his face clearly, I was fairly sure that he was smiling. And then, in a louder voice, "Everyone in? Right then—FORWARD!"
And the fleet of little boats moved off all at once, gliding across the lake, which parted around us like breaking glass. We were all silent, staring up at the castle overhead. It towered over us as we sailed nearer and nearer to the cliff on which it stood.
"Heads down!" yelled Hagrid as the first boats reached the cliff. Ours was one of the last boats, and we bent our heads and the little boats carried us through a curtain of ivy that hid a wide opening in the cliff face. We were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking us right underneath the castle. The only light came from Hagrid's lantern, bobbing along far ahead of us. I could hardly see Hermione in front of me, and I had the sudden urge to reach out and touch her, just to make certain that she was still there.
I squashed this urge as we reached a kind of underground harbor, where we clambered out onto rocks and pebbles. We followed Hagrid up a passageway in the rock after his lamp, coming out at last onto smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle. We walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, oak front door.
"Everyone here? Good." Hagrid raised his gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.
Ok, who'd ready for the Sorting? The next chapter should be up in a couple of days, since I think it will probably be fairly short. But while you're waiting, how about you leave me a review and tell me what ya think so far? :D