Chapter 7

Kings Cross station was crowded at 10:30 with rush hour approaching, I said goodbye to Ms Goldstein at the entrance and me and Midnight walked onto the platform. Then I pulled the ticket out of the envelope and gorped at it.

"Platform nine and three quarters" I whispered, I quickly looked down at it again to make sure I wasn't imagining it, and then I looked around at the platform and I saw platform nine and ten

"is this some kind of joke?" I mumbled to myself, then I started to look around for someone to help me and saw a family of seven walking up the platform, the family consisted of five boys and two girls all with fiery red hair, I started to follow them and when I was close enough I said

"excuse me, can you tell me where a platform" I said just loud enough for the two boys at the back to hear me, they looked at each other and turned around. My eyes flicked between them and it took me a moment to register that they were identical twins

"I think she was talking to us George"

"I think you're right Fred"

"Is she a muggle?"

"Let's ask her" said Fred "Hey are you a muggle?"

I looked at them blankly "a what?"

"Yep, she's a muggle, dads gunna love you!" Fred said laughing

"Look" I said getting frustrated " I just want to know how to get on to platform nine and three quarters"

The two twins looked at each other aghast "Wait, you're going to Hogwarts" Fred asked

"Yes" I said relieved "how do you get onto the platform?"

I then heard a high shrill voice

"Fred, George come on or you'll miss the train"

The twins sighed "come on, we'll show you how to get through. I'm George Weasley and this is Fred Weasley and you are?"

"I'm Alexis Smith" I said

I walked over to Mrs Weasley while she said to her eldest son

"right Percy you first" I saw a tall lanky boy with horn- rimmed glasses stepped forward and walked straight into the wall between platform nine and ten. I looked at the family who didn't even flinch

"oh who is this?" Mrs Weasley said looking at me

"Alexis Smith, can you help me get onto the train?"

"Yes of course dear, what you do is walk at the wall between platforms nine and ten , you should take a run at it because it's your first time like Ron here."

Mrs Weasley indicated at one of her sons who had the same ginger hair as all of his family but his face included loads of freckles, I smiled at him and he smiled back, I then walked in front of the wall closed my eyes tightly and ran straight at the wall fully expecting to hit the wall but it never came instead I felt warm steam hit my face, I opened my eyes and saw a red steam train I smiled, this was absolutely amazing. I took my trunk and Midnight to the first carriage door and struggled to lift the trunk

"Hey, let us help" said Fred and George as they were running towards me

"Thanks" I said as I watched them lift my trunk onto the train

"That's okay" then Fred turned to his twin "right now we need to find Lee , see ya Alexis"

"See ya" I said and I took my trunk and wheeled it down the train to find a compartment. After a few minutes I found a compartment with only one girl in it

"Excuse me, do you mind if I sit here?"

"Oh no, come on sit down!"

I smiled and sat down at the seat opposite her. The girl had brown bushy hair with buck teeth and was just closing her book

"Hi, I'm Hermione Granger, what's your name?"

"Alexis Smith, what's that you were reading?"

"It's Hogwarts, A History" she said excitedly "I hope I'm in Gryffindor, where do you want to be put?" she asked curiously

"What do you mean, what's Gryffindor?"

"What don't you know?"

"Know what?" I asked impatiently

"At Hogwarts we are put into houses Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin" Hermione told me all about Hogwarts then after an hour a boy came into our compartment

"Trevor, Trevor." Then clearly having just seen us he said "sorry, have you seen my frog?"

"sorry no" I replied "but we'll help you find him" the boys face brightened up and Hermione got up

"Sorry what's your name?" she asked

"Oh yeah" he gave a nervous laugh "Neville Longbottem."

"Ok" I said "Hermione you go left with Neville and I'll go right." Up the train I met loads of new people including some boys called Ernie McMillan and Justin Finch Fletchy and in another compartment there were some girls called Padma and Parvati Patil (who were twins) and Lavender Brown. Close to the end of the train I went into the compartment and to my horror I saw Draco Malfoy sitting with two other boys much bigger than he was in both height and weight

"A boy has lost his frog, have you seen it" I said in my quickest blandest voice. The three boys looked at me in surprise, the two boys shook their heads gormlessly

"fine, thanks" I turned to leave then at the door I turned and said "wow Malfoy, you have finally achieved the impossible" I walked out of the compartment "finding someone as thick as you are" and with that I started to look further down the train. After 15 minutes, I finally gave up and went back to my compartment to change. There I found Hermione and Neville talking excitedly and already changed so I took my robes and was about to leave when I heard the name Potter and I froze, could it be him? It couldn't be, loads of people have the name Potter and with this thought I left to get changed

When I came out o the toilets and the train had stopped and the last stragglers were just coming off. When I came off the train I was overwhelmed with groups of people then I heard a harsh voice call over the noise

"first years, first years over here ."

I pushed my way through the crowd towards the voice until I was standing next to Hannah Abbott, I looked for the source of the voice and saw a large-no enormous man with large straggly brown hair and a longer beard and he was wearing a large moleskin coat

"Right first years follow me" and we followed the giant towards a large lake

"hello first years I'm Rubius Hagrid, keeper of keys and grounds at Hogwarts, this year you will enter the school via boats but in the future you will use carriages" Hagid explained and we got into the boats. While everyone was talking to each other I was staring at the school in wonder, Hogwarts was a large castle with lots of turrets and through the mist were a lot of yellow dots from the lights beyond

"This is amazing" said the ore struck Hannah

"Yeah it is" I agreed in a daze

"I mean my mother told me what it was like but I would have never dreamed" Hannah trailed off and for the rest of the journey we were just staring at the magnificent castle. When we entered the castle we came into a large entrance hall that had portraits all around but these portraits were literally staring down at us and were welcoming us all to Hogwarts

"Okay everyone line up along here" instructed a thin women with a strict voice and indicated in front of a pair of large oak doors

"Hello I'm Professor McGonagall, now soon you will be going to eat but first you will be sorted into your houses, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin, while you are here your house will be like your family any good work you will be awarded points and rule breaking and you will lose points" from inside the doors I heard loud clapping.

"It's time, come in" Professor McGonagall turned, opened the doors and walked inside with us trailing behind. Inside the hall were four long tables stretching from the door to the steps where a fifth table stretched, for the teachers. I looked up and thought for a moment that there was no ceiling but the night sky but then I heard Hermione saying how the ceiling was enchanted and sense came back to me. Everyone stopped in front of a stool with a hat on top. I looked around at everyone and right at the front I saw the red hair of Ron Weasley then I heard a loud voice singing out about the four houses

"Gryffindor is for the brave of heart, Ravenclaw is for the quick witted, Slytherin is for the ambitious and cunning and Hufflepuff is for the hard working"

while this was being sung I whipped around looking for the source of the voice then, when I tuned back to the front my eyebrows travelled all the way up my forehead the ancient hat on the stool had a slit on the rim and was singing a loud as it could. Once the song had ended everyone sitting at the table started clapping and cat calling

"Okay everyone, when I read out your names you will come to the front, put the sorting hat on and you will be put into your house, Abbott"

"Hufflepuff" shouted the hat when Hannah put the hat on

"Bones"

"Hufflepuff" and the sorting continued Hermione was put into Gryffindor, Ernie McMillan was put into Hufflepuff, Neville Longbottem was put into Gryffindor and Malfoy was put into Slytherin. Then Professor McGonagall called out a name that made my heart stop

"Harry Potter" I craned my head above the crowd and saw his black scruffy hair. It might not be him I thought but when he sat on the stool and put on the hat and saw it was defiantly Harry- the Dursleys nephew. After a few minutes the hat yelled Gryffindor and to my surprise Gryffindor roared and applauded loader than they did for anyone else, finally when the applause ended the sorting hat continued but when it came to the S's, Professor McGonagall called out Zacharias Smith then she moved onto the u's, I looked at the teachers confused

"My second name is Smith" I said to the boy next to me "why wasn't I called?"

"Weasley"

"Gryffindor"

Maybe I'm not a witch, maybe there was a mistake finally the boy next to me was called up and he was put into Slytherin. Then Dumbledore got up and said

"I've got a few things to say." Then one of the twins got up and said

"But Professor there's still a first year that hasn't been sorted" and at that moment everyone turned towards me as I was trying to edge out of the door.

"Alexis, of course come here." As I walked towards the headmaster I saw everyone's astonished faces at the fact that he knew my name. Then Professor McGonagall came to the front once more and said

"Okay Alexis" then she referred to her list "ah yes Smith, sit on the stool and put the hat on" as I walked up to the stool, I felt every eye in the watching me which made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. I sat on the stool and put the hat on which felt past my eyes

"Right then right, you're cunning and ambitious, oh yes I can see you've got some hidden talents and you are loyal to your friends, ah but hidden under all of this is undying bravery, ah yes I know exactly where to put you."

I held my breath not knowing what house I was going to put in. Then a roaring voice that filled the whole hall said

"Gryffindor!" I took off the hat and swiftly walked towards the applauding Gryffindor table and when I looked at Professor Dumbledore he looked very surprised but he was clapping the loudest.