– Chapter Three –

Aboard the Hogwarts Express

Leanne had never experienced a slower month in all her life; time seemed to dawdle so slowly that Leanne was sure that she would die of boredom before September 1st arrived. She kept herself busy most of the time by reading her new magical books (only prevented from being locked away by her mother by Leanne pleading with her for several days), which turned out to be very interesting. In A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot, Leanne learned about ancient wizards during the Middle Ages, though by far the most interesting book to Leanne was Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander, which detailed many magical beasts, such as the ten species of dragon, and the kelpie, which lived in Loch Ness, causing many Muggles to believe that a large sea serpent lived in its waters.

Leanne was also extremely happy with her new owl, which she had named Silverstone. He seemed like a very laid-back bird, though rather clumsy, Leanne had noticed when she had first let him out; he swooped around the room, dragging the curtains down and attempting to eat A History of Magic. It took considerable effort to cram Silverstone back into his cage, and when her mother found saw the mess that he had made, she wasn't pleased. Leanne was careful to make sure that the window was open the next time she released a ruffled-looking Silverstone, for he headed straight out into the darkness and only returned in the early morning to present Leanne with a freshly caught vole.

Her mother had been right; Roger wasn't pleased with the fact that Leanne now had an owl and he didn't, and muck sulking had ensued, during which he hardly spoke or looked at Leanne, seemingly more content to believe that neither her nor her new owl didn't exist. Leanne didn't mind too much. Roger not speaking to her was only a minor punishment for having an owl, which was used to send the reply to Hogwarts a few days after their visit to Diagon Alley. Leanne was unsure whether it knew the way, but it returned the next day with no letter in its talons, so Leanne could only assume that it had been delivered safely.

As the days slipped inexorably by, Leanne became more and more excited, and more and more anxious, about going to Hogwarts, and as August started to draw to a close, Leanne's hands were trembling so much that everyday things, such as having a glass of milk, proved quite tricky; the milk sloshed over the walls, and Leanne was forced to wipe it up hastily before her mother discovered the mess.

When Leanne awoke on September 1st, she almost didn't believe it. She was sure that something would have happened to prevent September 1st from arriving, such as August deciding to have en extra day, but as Roger peered into her bedroom (having stopped ignoring Leanne few days ago) and shouted excitedly, 'Come on, we're going to Hogwarts!', Leanne leapt out of bed and rushed downstairs.

Though the entire family had awoken early, and Leanne was moving at a speed faster than was advisable through the cluttered house, they still didn't seem to be ready as the morning wore on; everyone rushed around, trying to stuff their robes and books into their trunks, as Silverstone escaped from his cage and made a nuisance of himself by flapping around their heads, sending feathers flying. Leanne ate breakfast so fast that her mother was sure she would choke, and tried to brush her hair and clean her teeth at the same time, with the result that she ended up brushing thin air, and toothpaste splattered all over her face. Roger nearly killed Leanne as they collided on the stairs and somebody accidentally sat on Silverstone.

As Roger scraped together the last of his belongings, Leanne hurtled downstairs with her trunk and was astonished to see that the door to her father's study was open. She crept slowly towards it, eager to peer around the door and see what resided within, when her mother strode from the study and locked the door behind her. She turned around, and jumped to see Leanne standing there.

'Oh, you gave me a fright,' she muttered, clutching her chest.

'What were you doing in there?' Leanne asked suspiciously, noticing that her mother was holding something in her hand.

'I went in to find this,' her mother said, revealing the item that she was holding; it was a gold locket. 'It once belonged to your father, and after he died, I found a note in his study, saying that I was to give you this when you were old enough. And now I believe you are old enough to have it.'

'Er…wow,' Leanne said, unsure what to say as she was given the gold locket. It was very beautiful and had strange markings all around it. It gleamed dully in the hallway light.

'It once belonged to your father's own father,' Leanne's mother explained. 'I never really met him, but I heard he was a powerful wizard in his time. Apparently, it's quite famous in the wizarding world – created by somebody very well-know, if I'm not mistaken.'

'But…but why did he want to give it to me?' Leanne asked, puzzled. 'Why not Roger? He was born first.'

'I don't know, I wondered that when I first read the note,' her mother said softly, 'but I don't want to disrespect your father's wishes, so here it is. Keep it safe somewhere, and I advise you not to tell Roger about this, or he'll be quite sore…he still hasn't gotten over the owl business…'

Leanne nodded and quickly stashed the locket away in a pocket as Roger appeared in the hallway, dragging his trunk behind him. Leanne's mother, meanwhile, was looking anxiously at her watch; it was approaching half-ten.

'What time do we need to catch the Hogwarts Express?' Leanne asked.

'At eleven,' her mother replied.

'And were do we catch it from?'

'King's Cross Station, in London,' her mother said.

'In London?' Leanne yelped. 'We'll never make it. It's a three-hour train ride away. What are we – ?'

'Whoa, calm down,' Roger said. 'We don't need to get the train to London. We go there by Portkey.'

'By – by what?' Leanne asked.

'Portkey,' Roger repeated. 'It's an object that's magically enchanted, so that when you touch it, it will transport the person to a location, in this case, King's Cross Station.'

'Oh right,' Leanne said, very relieved. 'Well, where's this Portkey thing?'

'Somebody from the Ministry of Magic will be arriving shortly with one,' Roger explained. 'They came last year, and the year before that, remember? We just told you it was a salesman because we knew you would be jealous and start throwing things…'

'Yes, well…' Leanne muttered, 'I just hope he gets here soon.'

However, no sooner had she said it than there was a sharp rap on the door. Everyone jumped, including Silverstone, whom Leanne had finally manage to get back in his cage, and Leanne's mother hastened to open the door. Standing just beyond it was a man who seemed to have had a disaster in a clothes shop; he was wearing a raincoat over what seemed like a bathing costume and had heavy, army-style boots on his feet. It could not have been clearer that this man, obviously a wizard, had attempted to dress like a Muggle to blend in with the Muggle neighbourhood, but had failed spectacularly, and was drawing more odd looks from people on the street than he would have done if he had just been wearing robes.

'Hello madam,' the man said to Leanne's mother, and inclined his head at both Roger and Leanne. 'Everything is packed and everyone is ready to go, I presume.'

'Very good,' the man continued after Leanne's mother had nodded, who was looking somewhat embarrassed that someone wearing such atrocious attire had knocked on her door.

The man invited himself in and closed the door behind him, pulling from an inside pocket of his raincoat what looked like a musty book. Leanne looked at it; it certainly didn't look like what Leanne had imagined a Portkey to look like, quite the opposite in fact.

The wizard withdrew a wand from another pocket, pointed it at the book and said, 'Portus!'

The book glowed blue and trembled slightly before returning to its normal appearance.

The man turned his attention back to Leanne's mother and said, 'Okay, the normal procedure everybody, let's do this as fast as possible. I'll be sending your belongings on ahead of you,' he added, as Leanne made to grab Silverstone's cage and her trunk.

Leanne didn't know what the normal procedure consisted of, but she followed her mother's lead as she grabbed hold of the book; Roger did the same, and the wizard said, 'One…two…three…'

Leanne was jerked forwards immediately, as if something had grabbed her from behind her naval. Her feet left the ground; there was a howl of wind, a flash of swirling colours and Leanne banged into something. It was a few seconds before she realised it was her brother, who was speeding alongside him. She was still holding on to the book, as if it were leading them onwards, but then her feet hit the ground. She staggered, unstable, into Roger, who also nearly toppled over; her mother moved out of the way as the musty book fell to the ground.

Leanne looked around; the three of them (all looking rather windswept now) were standing in what looked like an alleyway. There was a loud noise that sounded as though it had come from a train. They must be close to the train station now, Leanne knew, which was just as well, since it was quarter to eleven.

She jumped; both Roger's and her own trunk, along with Silverstone and his cage, had appeared out of thin air beside them, Silverstone looking largely unimpressed.

'Quickly,' their mother chided, as Leanne and Roger grabbed their belongings and started dragging them behind them; she led her children back on to the main room, where they saw the station ahead of them; they grabbed trolleys for their trunks and headed into the station.

'What platform do we catch the train from?' Leanne asked, looking around at the multitude of platforms, aware that Silverstone was attracting a few odd looks from passing Muggles.

'Nine and three quarters,' Roger replied.

For a moment, Leanne was sure that she had misheard Roger, but before she could say anything, Roger and her mother had stopped, looking at something. Leanne tried to follow their gaze, but the only thing that lay ahead of them was a wall in between platforms nine and ten, though it didn't look special enough to warrant the prolonged investigation Roger and their mother seemed to be giving it.

'The platform is through there, dear,' Leanne's mother said to her daughter, pointing to the solid wall. 'It's obviously magical…you can just pass straight through it…but I can't, being a Muggle or whatever, so I'll have to say my goodbyes now.'

She descended on Leanne and Roger and kissed and hugged them both, before saying, 'Okay then, Roger, you go first so you can show Leanne how it's done.'

Roger nodded, grabbed his trolley and started pushing it towards the solid wall between the platforms, picking up speed as he went. Leanne looked after him, alarmed; he was going to smash into the wall…but no…he vanished. Leanne blinked and looked up at her mother, who smiled.

'Goodbye, dear,' her mother said, kissing Leanne again. 'Use your owl to write to me when you get there. And have a good time. And make sure you don't get into trouble…'

Leanne nodded and turned back to the wall that Roger had vanished through. The hand holding Silverstone's cage was trembling so much now that Silverstone was being bounced around inside it, and he hooted indignantly. The other hand firmly gripping her trolley, she began pushing it towards the wall ahead of her, which looked alarmingly solid. She glanced back at her mother, before taking a deep breath, looking at the wall again and picking up speed, the trolley rattling ahead of her.

She was a few metres away now…she was going to smash into it…she tried to slow down, but the momentum carried her forward…and suddenly, she was standing on a platform next to a scarlet steam train that was billowing smoke. A sign above said Hogwarts Express, 11 o' clock. Leanne glanced at her watch; it was five to eleven. After a quick glance back at the wall she had come through, she moved off across the platform, which was quickly emptying; people were boarding the train before it left. The few people that were left were mainly children about the same age as Leanne, saying goodbye to their parents. A cat nearly tripped Leanne up as she headed for the carriages, and Silverstone hooted at another owl as they passed. She scanned the platform for her brother…

'Hey, Leanne, over here!' Roger called out, and she spotted him climbing into one of the carriages. Noticing that it was nearly eleven, she hurried after him, and with great difficulty, managed to heave her trunk into the carriage, Silverstone being bashed around in his cage an awful lot. Roger appeared from the crowd that filled the carriage, most of whom were leaning out of windows to wave goodbye to family members, and helped Leanne pull the trunk into the train.

'There's usually a few empty compartments near the end of the train – you'd better head there,' Roger said. 'I've got a carriage here with a few of my friends. I'll see you when we get there, I guess.'

Leanne watched as Roger entered a carriage with his friend Bradley and a few other people that she didn't recognise, and she felt oddly alone and nervous.

A whistle sounded and the train began to move as Leanne pushed her way through the crowd that lined the aisles; a pale boy with a pointed face jostled Leanne impatiently, but before she could turn around and look at him, he had vanished into a nearby compartment. She continued around the train, looking into every compartment, but noticing that most were filled with chatting students. Sidestepping a round-faced boy, who seemed to have misplaced something, for he was scurrying around on the floor, Leanne looked into the last compartment, which was empty aside from one girl. Knowing there was nowhere else to go, Leanne slid open the compartment door.

'Er…is it okay of I sit here?' Leanne asked quietly, as the girl looked her way. 'I can't find anywhere else to go…'

The girl nodded slowly, and Leanne entered the compartment, heaving Silverstone's cage and her trunk up into the luggage rack. The girl watched her do this, and when Leanne turned around to look at her, she recognised her as the girl who had bought a wand before her at Diagon Alley; like she had done back then, the girl had a shrewd, calculating look in her eyes as if she was suspicious of everything. She seemed to have a black blanket over her lap.

'Er…I'm Leanne Davies,' Leanne said uncertainly, sitting down opposite the other girl.

'Frieda McFarlan,' the other girl said, though it was in a rather brusque manner, and Leanne got the feeling that she didn't seem to trust or have time for strangers. 'This is Rabnott,' she added, and it took Leanne a few seconds to realise what she was pointing at; the thing that she had thought was a black blanket was actually a rather obese black cat, which was snoring softly on Frieda's knees.

'Oh…this is Silverstone,' Leanne said, feeling that she ought to introduce her own pet as well. A small silence invaded the compartment until Leanne said, conversationally, 'Looking forward to going to Hogwarts then?'

'Yeah, it should be fun,' Frieda replied, and Leanne was relieved to see that she was half-smiling now and looking a lot more relaxed. 'I come from a wizarding family, so I know quite a bit about magic, but I've never really practise it, so I don't know any spells.'

'Well, my father was a wizard, but he died when I was young,' Leanne explained, glad they had found something to talk about, 'so I was brought up by my Muggle mother, which means I know virtually nothing about magic and stuff like that, apart from what my older brother, Roger, has told me. Do you have an older brothers or sisters at Hogwarts?'

'No, I have a younger brother called Oliver,' Frieda replied, 'but he won't be starting until we're in our third year. My parents went to Hogwarts, though – they both said it was an excellent place – of course, Dumbledore wasn't Headmaster then…'

As the Hogwarts Express sped into the countryside – the land outside the train was getting wilder and wilder – Leanne and Frieda continued talking, and Leanne soon found out that once Frieda was relaxed and at ease, she was a very pleasant person to talk to. Her father worked at the Ministry of Magic, Leanne was intrigued to learn, and he had also once been the Captain of the Montrose Magpies, a Quidditch team. Compared to Frieda's father, neither Leanne's mother nor father had done not spectacular, that she knew about, at least, and the most interesting thing she could tell Frieda was of her father's death.

'Yeah, there was a loss in my family as well,' Frieda said softly. 'My uncle was killed by the Death Eaters. Hard times, they were, according to my parents. At least You-Know-Who has gone now, and so have all his followers…Hey, talking about You-Know-Who, did you know that Harry Potter is on the train?'

Leanne looked up sharply. 'Harry Potter? Really?' she asked excitedly, having been told about him by Roger, and reading his name in a few of the books she had purchased. 'But yeah…he'll be our age now, won't he? I wonder if he remembers anything about that night when You-Know-Who attacked him…?'

'We could try and find him on the train,' Frieda suggested, but as they got up, the compartment door slid open; beyond it was a trolley laden with food, being pushed by a smiling witch.

'Anything off the trolley, dears?' she asked kindly, and their search for Harry Potter forgotten about, both Leanne and Frieda plunged their hands into their pockets, withdrew some money and dived towards the trolley.

It was full of sweets of every kind, though they weren't the Muggle sweets Leanne was used to; they were much more extravagant and interesting, such as Peppermint Toads, that apparently hopped realistically in your stomach; there were exploding bon-bons, Liquorice wands (that looked like real wands, but tasted great), as well as an assortment of other sweets that did nothing magical, but were delicious nonetheless, such as Cauldron Cakes, Pumpkin Pasties, Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, which came in every single flavour, according to Leanne, and Chocolate Frogs. Dishing out some money, Leanne and Frieda grabbed as much as they could and retreated back into their compartment, eager to devour the sweets.

For Leanne, it was as if she had entered another world; the sweets were amazing, though she could have managed quite easily without the garlic tasting Every Flavour bean, and was very cautious about eating them afterwards, always nibbling a corner first to see what they tasted like. The Chocolate Frogs, however, were extremely interested and not only contained a chocolate frog (which was, thankfully, not a real one), but also a Famous Witch and Wizard cards. By the time she had made her way through the Chocolate Frogs, Leanne had a small collection, which consisted of Merlin, Elfrida Clagg, Herpo the Foul and Gwenog Jones, who turned out to be the Captain of the Holyhead Harpies. The people in the pictures of the cards moved around, which fascinated Leanne and she watched in amusement as Herpo the Foul dozed against the edge of his picture.

'That reminds me,' Frieda said, her mouth full of Pumpkin Pasties as she noticed the Gwenog Jones card that Leanne was holding, 'what Quidditch team do you support?'

'Er…well, I've never really supported any team,' Leanne replied, 'but my brother supports the Appleby Arrows.'

'I support the Falmouth Falcons,' Frieda said, and she started talking about some of its players, which Leanne was only vaguely listening to as she cautiously took a bite out of another Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Bean.

The compartment door slid open and someone said, 'Well, well, if it isn't mummy's little girl', before Leanne could even register that there was someone there; she looked over and saw the hard-faced girl called Pansy that had bumped into her at Flourish and Blotts.

'I'm surprised you can even get to Hogwarts without your mummy's help,' the girl sneered, and Leanne quickly became aware of another girl standing next to her, who was just as squarely built and with a heavy jaw.

'What do you want?' Leanne asked warily.

'Just looking around at some of the people in the train,' the girl named Pansy said unpleasantly. 'I'm hoping to be in Slytherin when I get to Hogwarts – seems like the best house. No such chance for you too, though…you'll probably end up in Hufflepuff…'

'Goodbye,' Frieda said coldly, even though Pansy or her friend hadn't made any effort to leave.

Pansy glared at Frieda, who looked unperturbed, and sneered, 'And who are you?'

'Frieda McFarlan,' she said coolly.

'Ah, yes, my father told me about Hamish McFarlan – your father, I'd imagine?' Pansy said, jeering at Frieda. 'Use to be the Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports, didn't he? Now he's just a lowly Ministry worker in the Department for the Regulation and Control for Magical Creatures, isn't he? What happened, did he get demoted? It wouldn't surprise me,' she sniggered.

'As a matter of fact, my father wanted to change his career path,' Frieda said calmly. 'What about you? What was your mother – a hag?'

Pansy growled and advanced towards Frieda, but stopped suddenly; Rabnott had leapt to his feet and was hissing at Pansy, who looked uncertainly at the cat and backed slowly away. With one last sneer towards Leanne and Frieda, the two girls exited the compartment.

'Wow, good work,' Leanne said to Frieda, impressed.

'It was nothing,' Frieda said modestly. 'I guess I've just learned to take care of myself. She didn't sound like the nicest girl in the world, it has to be said – and she wanted to be in Slytherin!'

Leanne had learned about the four houses at Hogwarts from her brother. Slytherin was the house which usually contained wizards that ended up practising the Dark Arts. Many Death Eaters that had attended Hogwarts had been Slytherin; even You-Know-Who himself had been a Slytherin. Leanne imagined that she'd end up in Ravenclaw like her brother.

'Both of my parents were in Gryffindor,' Frieda said, 'so that's probably the house that I'll be in as well.'

'Oh,' Leanne said; she didn't want her first friend in Hogwarts to be placed in a different house than her.

The compartment door slid open again.

'What do you want now?' Leanne and Frieda snapped together, thinking it would be Pansy and her friend again, but it wasn't; it was a bushy-haired girl, who looked around the compartment with quite a stern face. She was accompanied by a round-faced boy, the one that had been on his hands and knees in the aisle when Leanne had been walking down the train.

'There's no need to be rude,' the girl said, and Leanne noticed that she had a bossy voice. The round-faced boy, who was lingering behind the girl, looked into the compartment nervously. 'I only wanted to ask if anyone has seen a toad,' the girl continued.

'I've not seen a toad,' Leanne said, looking around to make sure a toad hadn't managed to creep into the compartment.

'Oh,' the girl said, sounding disappointed. 'It's just that we've asked everyone else – and some people weren't very polite, I can tell you.' She glared at Frieda, who looked unfazed. 'Neville here has lost one – the poor toad could be anywhere by now.'

Neville hadn't said anything, though it was probably due to a combination of shyness and the fact that the bushy-haired girl was talking too fast for Neville to put in a word.

'Wait, you've been down the train, have you?' Frieda asked, suddenly interested, and the girl nodded. 'You haven't seen Harry Potter have you? I heard he was on the train…'

'I've seen him, yes,' the girl replied. 'He was with a boy called Ron Weasley. He's only a few compartments up. Well anyway, I must be off, I'm going to ask the driver when we'll be arriving there…'

Leanne glanced out of the window as Neville and the girl left; they must have been travelling for a number of hours now – the countryside was whipping past, looking wilder than ever, and it must have been late afternoon now, for the sun was hanging lazily in the sky.

'Come on,' Frieda said, jumping to her feet. 'Let's go and find Harry Potter – see if he remembers anything about when he was attacked by You-Know-Who…'

Leanne followed Frieda out of the compartment and down the aisle. Frieda stopped suddenly in front of her and pointed through the window of a compartment. Two boys were sitting down, one of them with jet black hair and glasses, the other with flaming red hair and freckles. Leanne instantly recognised the boy with the black hair as Harry Potter, because of the lightening shaped scar he had on his forehead.

'That's Ron Weasley,' Frieda said, pointing to the red-haired boy. 'I've heard of the Weasley family – they've all got red hair. But who are those three?' She pointed to three other boys who was standing up, looking down at Harry and Ron, though Leanne couldn't tell what they looked like because they had their backs turned.

There was an almighty yell that made Leanne and Frieda jump; someone in the compartment was swinging around, sounding in pain, and something that resembled a rat flew off his finger; the three boys made for the door and Leanne and Frieda leapt back; they quickly exited the compartment and fled, though not before Leanne got a look at them. Two of them were large and mean-looking, whilst the third was pale, with grey eyes and a pointed chin. Leanne knew it was him who had jostled her unkindly when she had first got on the train.

'Look!' Frieda said, pointing.

The bushy-haired girl was striding back down the train, looking highly unimpressed. Leanne and Frieda wisely headed back to their compartment before they received an earful from the girl, who looked as though everyone else around her deserved to be punished.

They dived back into their compartment, startling a sleeping Rabnott as they sat back down. A quick glance out of the window told Leanne that they must be nearly there; there were mountains in the distance, under a rapidly darkening sky.

'We'll be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes times,' a voice said, echoing around the train, which made Leanne feel excited and elated all over again, bouncing eagerly on her seat. 'Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately.'

Leanne stood up, grabbed her robes and pulled them on quickly; they were almost there.