LilMizzStarx: You'll have to read the first chapter of Elemental Recourse, like I said. Then you'll get it.
GlPiItTtAer: Thanks! Yeah, I liked that part too. Thanks for the advice too.
The-Evil-Cookie: Yippee! You're still reading it. Thanks. Why didn't you say it was you?
Chapter 4 Trains Are Very Awkward Places
"Tell me, Will," Matt said on the day they were ready to leave. "How the hell are you going to this school?"
"Simple," Will replied, "Taranee has it all figured out. It said we have to go to King's Cross, London, to board the train, so we're going to teleport there."
"Can you do that?" Caleb asked skeptically.
Cornelia nodded. "Do you doubt our power?" She leaned forward and gave him a quick kiss. "I'll see you soon, promise."
Hay Lin and Irma turned away to give the two some time. They were standing in the basement of the Silver Dragon. It was where they always went in search of a sanctuary and pretty much where it all started. They had years of memories to uncover from the place and they were going to miss it, all of them.
"Come on, you guys!" Irma exclaimed. "I can hear Taranee coming so hurry up. We can't do this without you."
"Hey, guys," Taranee gasped. "Sorry I'm late. I had to double check to see I wasn't missing anything. Good thing too, otherwise I would have left my copy of the letter at home, along with a couple of my encyclopedias."
Irma and Hay Lin rolled their eyes at each other knowingly. Typical Taranee (Hey! Taranee, Hermione! Weird.)
"Don't forget to say goodbye to Elyon for me!" Cornelia called to Caleb. He nodded and smiled as if it wasn't the twentieth time she asked that.
Hay Lin was hugging her grandma goodbye. Out of all the things, she was what she would miss most. "Our parents are okay, right?"
"Yes, Hay Lin," her grandma said back. "They wrote the letters and made the phone calls. Your school won't suspect a thing and they won't be damaged. At least, I don't think."
Considering the circumstances, it wasn't a bad note to end on. So the five grabbed their bags, and teleported to London.
"Okay, now I repeat Cornelia said again. "I see platform nine, and platform ten. Where's the one in between?"
"There is none in between," muttered a passbyer.
Irma shrugged. "Maybe the architects haven't gotten around to building it yet. Maybe they're a few years late."
"Very funny," Cornelia growled. She was starting to get cold. She was staring at the barrier between platforms nine and ten, willing another one to appear.
"Calm down," Will said in reassurance. "Maybe they typed it wrong and it was supposed to be platform nine."
"Do you really think they're that thick?" Cornelia demanded.
"It could happen," Taranee said thoughtfully.
"Yeah," Hay Lin cut in. "Anything can. Like an owl turning into a pet."
"No, Hay Lin, that can't-" Taranee stopped.
"See?" Hay Lin cried triumphantly. "Owls!" Sure enough, there was a threesome their age, followed by a red-haired girl and what looked like her parents.
"Hey," Will said softly. "You don't think they could be…"
"Yep," Irma nodded with vindictiveness, "those are some of our new classmates. The black-haired one looked around and caught her staring. He stood there.
"What is he waiting for?" Cornelia hissed.
"Why are you whispering?" Irma shot back. When she turned around, the boy was gone! Just like that. One minute, he was ten yards away, the next, gone.
"How did they do that?" Taranee asked. All five of them were watching a bushy-haired girl now. That was all they could see of them, really, their hair. She walked right up to the barrier, and vanished. There was a second when she turned back and looked at the two adults, who were pointing and beckoning for her to go back. Now they glanced at the Guardians nervously.
"That's it!" Hay Lin cried. "We go through the barrier! Come on!" She started forward but Taranee tugged her back. She sent all of them a thought and they nodded. They then turned around and started talking amongst one another as if nothing had happened. Within a few minutes, the whole group of them disappeared.
The girls rushed over to inspect the barrier. Irma poked it and fell right through. The others quickly followed. It was like stepping into another world. One that was magical. All of them felt it for sure. They didn't need telepathy to feel the wonder, the marvel. There was a train called the Hogwarts Express. Everyone was filing into and a huge sign that said, Platform 9 3/4 (I hope the dash shows up. If it looks like 9 3 4, that's okay, it just means the thing doesn't show up.)
They all grinning at each other stupidly like they saw a snapshot of an old friend and started to climb aboard.
Once they got their luggage onboard, they stared around. "Where do we go?" Taranee asked.
"Into one of the compartments," Cornelia replied. "Duh!" She led the others through the hallway.
"How do you know?"
"Haven't you ever been on a train before?" Cornelia countered. "Look, there's that cute guy from earlier!"
"I do hope you're talking about Caleb, Cornelia," Will said. She peered into the compartment window. "Oh, that one. You think he's cute?"
Cornelia rolled her eyes. "Well he's plausible."
Then it's your lucky day," Irma said, "because everywhere else is full. How can a train be so small?" With that, she slid opened the compartment door. "Hi, can we sit here?" Without waiting for an answer, she plowed on ahead and settled in one of the seats.
Taranee gave the trio an embarrassed, apologetic look. "What are you doing here?" the redhead asked. He sounded rather rude.
The others bustled in. "We have to sit somewhere," Will said, and took a seat next to Irma.
"Ron!" the girl said reproachfully. She turned to them. "Are you sure you belong here?"
Look," Ron said, leaning forward. "Let's put it this way. Do you or do you not recognize this historical figure?" He was pointing to the last boy, who was looking slightly annoyed.
"Um, a magical…person?" Hay Lin asked nervously.
"You don't know who Harry Potter is?" Ron yelled, standing up.
"God," Cornelia said, irritated. "So we don't know your friend's name. You don't know any of ours."
"Why?" Ron demanded. "Did any of you defeat dark wizards?"
The girls grinned at each other knowingly. Don't let anything slip, Taranee warned.
They're magical too, Irma reasoned, I think.
"As a matter of fact," Will said slowly.
Ron looked like he was about to burst again. This time, Harry Potter interrupted him. "My name's Harry. It's just Harry. And this is Hermione. We haven't seen you around before."
"We're new," Cornelia state matter-of-factly.
"You don't understand," Hermione said gently. "Hogwarts does accept new students unless they're eleven, the age they should begin. Besides, your accents don't sound right."
"Well that's because-" Irma began.
"Then we came to the right place!" Taranee said. "We got letters telling us to come to King's Cross to attend a school called Hogwarts."
"Our accents are because we're from America!" Taranee glared at Irma, who just shrugged innocently.
Hermione raised an eyebrow. "America? Then why didn't you go to Chesterton?"
"Excuse me?" Will said.
"Never mind."
"So who are all of you?" Ron asked. It seemed like a fair question.
"Well my name's Will Vandom."
"Taranee."
"Cornelia Hale."
"Irma Lair, thank you very much."
"You call me Hay Lin," Hay Lin concluded. "So, what's the school like?"
"Uh," Harry said, unsure.
"Well to start of, there are four Houses," Hermione supplied. "Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, HufflePuff, and Slytherin."
"Dark wizards come from Slytherin," Ron added.
"Then name sounds weird," Hay Lin giggled. "Like a slithering snake. Like on that stamp!"
"Yeah," Ron eyed her oddly. "And we're all in Gryffindor, which, not to brag, is the best. Ravenclaw's for the brains like Hermione, but she's an exception. And HufflePuff's got everybody else that don't fit in. you guys will probably be there."
"Why?" Cornelia demanded. It sounded to her that HufflePuff was for outcasts and unimportant people. What kind of a name is HufflePuff anyway?
"You're all muggles. Muggle born. That's where they usually end up."
"Ron!" Hermione cried again. "Don't listen to him. I'm a muggle born so I know how weird it feels. I understand what you're going through."
"Actually," Will said, smiling, "you might not." She thought of all those adventures in Meridian.
"And I can bet you our Taranee can get into the brains," Irma bragged.
"Really?" Ron said quickly. "How much?"
"Ten dollars?"
Ron wrinkled his nose. "Dollars?"
"American currency, Ron," Hermione said wearily. "You don't have wizard money?"
"Wizards have their own money?" Cornelia asked.
"Yeah," Harry said. He dug into his robes and picked out a large gold coin. "This is a galleon. We also have sickles and knuts."
"Fascinating," Irma muttered sulkily, now that her money wasn't of any use.
"Don't worry," Hermione said. "I'm sure Professor McGonagall can switch it."
"Great." For the next few hours, they fell silent. The Guardians were talking in their minds and the wizards couldn't talk in company.
"Hey Ron, Hermione?" Harry said suddenly. "How come you don't have prefect duty?"
"It was canceled," Hermione replied, "because most of us went home."
"Why?" Taranee asked.
Harry looked them square in the eyes (some of the, anyway). "It's a very long and complicated story."
I think there might be too much conversation. I feel like I used the word, 'said' about five hundred times! I'm going to be doing some chapters in the HP characters' points of view now. Also, I've been thinking and I want Irma to hook up with someone…but who????? Dean? Seamus? Michael Corner? Wait, they're in Harry's year. Whatever. Any ideas for anything really in general are welcome. Review! How else are you gonna send in any ideas?
This is longer than the rest. I think…
