Today is the day! Today I leave this rotten old orphanage behind and go to Hogwarts.
I had my bags packed a week ago. Harry is still rushing around, making sure he's got everything on the morning that we leave - typical.
After Harry got everything sorted we got handed a brown paper bag each with lunch in, and were waved off by the orphanage staff. Harry thought it was really nice of them. I knew it was because they were glad to be rid of us and to not have to pay for any of our meals or lodgings for the majority of the year.
I made sure we got to the station with plenty of time to spare, our next hurdle was finding the platform. We found platform 9 and found platform 10. Three quarters of the way between the two was nothing but a brick wall. This must have been a trick. I should have known that that blasted professor would trick us and give us dodgy instructions. I could tell he was suspicious about us, he probably wanted to keep his precious school to himself and – WHAT!
I saw Harry line and start to charge towards the wall.
"Stop!" I yelled.
"What's wrong?" He asked me stopping in his tracks. The gall of him!
"So you want me to let you run straight into a brick wall?" I asked confused.
"It's the entrance to the platform" Harry replied "I asked someone in my other life, and they showed me that you just have to run through here. She said it was best to run at it if you're nervous"
"It's true!" he went on at my sceptical look "It worked when I did it then."
"Yeah." I replied "It worked in your delusion where everyone thinks you're famous and the professor we met is actually the headmaster. You're other life has gotten things wrong before."
Harry turned to the large brick wall looking much less assured than before. Then he shrugged his shoulders, told me it's worth a try and stepped back to get a decent run up.
I scuttled a few meters away from him so I could pretend I wasn't acquainted with him when he crashed and caused a scene.
He squeezed his eyes shut, took a deep breath, and ran at the wall. I knew having a run up would just make it more painful if he did run straight into the wall instead of passing through it, and closed my eyes as he was about to reach it. Then nothing, I heard no cry of pain or crash and bang of his possessions scattering over the floor. He did it!
Now, all I had to do was to have a bit of faith and follow him. If he can do it, I certainly can. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, walked to the wall, then walked a bit further. I didn't feel anything, then I risked opening one eye, and the sight was incredible.
There was a bright red train with the words "Hogwarts Express" proudly displayed on it. We were still quite early, but there were lots of people here already. Parents giving lectures and farewells, people appearing and disappearing with a sharp pop, people in robes and muggle clothes mixed. Some of the people in regular clothes were staring around with a gormless expression of their faces which made me immediately try and get over my awe and find Harry. I didn't want people thinking that I was some ordinary muggleborn who knew nothing too.
Harry, as I should have expected, was already chatting to some random stranger. It was a girl, around our age, holding a broomstick which by Harry's envious look and her proud stance was obviously the topic of their conversation.
I went over and dragged him away, hoping to spare him from getting an obsession with that strange sport.
"Tom! This is Minerva Mc-" He started as I grabbed his arm.
"A pleasure" I said politely to the young lady, giving her a charming smile as I twisted Harry's arm to manoeuvre him away from her.
"Harry!" I hissed at him as I dragged him over to into a corner "Remember the plan. We need to find a good place to position ourselves and gather more information."
"We could just, you know, talk to people?" He tentatively suggested.
"Right, brilliant idea" I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm, "So what useful information did you learn from miss Minerva?"
"Uh, I learnt which Quidditch team she supports?" Harry said.
"My point exactly" I replied. "Let's go onto the train and get a seat in a compartment facing the platform. There we can observe people and listen to their conversations. No one ever tells you anything useful if they know you are listening."
We did just that, and heard all sorts of things, most of which was cheesy tearful goodbyes and whines of children complaining about not having finished summer homework.
After a while I turned to Harry who had a lost, longing expression as he looked out onto all the families on the platform. That look irritated me, so I decided to change tactics and squeeze some information out of him to get his mind off whatever was making him so miserable. After all, if he knew where the platform was maybe his delusions could have some use.
One simple question about what happened today in his other life and I was bombarded with a horde of information. He had obviously been holding back telling me things about his delusions because he knew I still half thought he was crazy. He said how Hogwarts was a huge magical castle, and chattered on about the amazing food, most importantly though, he told me more about the house system.
To my annoyance he decided to sing me the sorting hat's song rather than just dictate it, but the information it contained was fascinating.
He grinned at me after telling me it and said "you are definitely a Slytherin".Cunning, and a person who uses any means to get what they want. Harry was such a flatterer.
"Can you guess what house I was sorted into?" Harry asked mischievously.
That was a hard question, and it was kind of infuriating how all of the options were so complimentary; brave, kind, cleaver or cunning. He must have read my expression because he then made it easier for me to decide by explaining the unofficial negative traits of each house that he learnt from the students; Slytherins as ruthless and deceiving, Ravenclaws as know it alls, hufflepuffs as being the left overs and Gryffindors as rash yet brilliant.
That description made it much easier to determine Harry's house, not least because of the obvious bias.
Harry didn't seem to be bothered that we probably wouldn't be in the same house as each other, but before I could analyse his house choice more we were rudely interrupted.
"Are you guessin' what house you'll be in?" Said an unknown voice from behind the compartment door. Then the door swung open and a face peered in "mind if I join ya'?"
It was a small girl with short brown hair, pale skin and large features which made her look constantly surprised.
"Not at all, come in." Harry said before I could think of a reason to refuse her, so in she came and sat next to Harry, swinging her legs back and forth with annoying that, the rest of the journey was taken up by her infuriating constant chatter. I had never heard anyone say so much about so little before. Halfway through the journey an elderly woman opened the compartment door and asked if we wanted snacks. The girl, Margaret Dobbs, bought some colourful cakes and chocolates which smelt delicious. Our little brown bag of slightly squished ham and cheese sandwiches didn't seem like much of a treat in comparison, which only made me dislike the rich brat more.
The only useful information I got out of her was that she was a half-blood and wanted to be in Ravenclaw like her mother was. Looking at her loud mouth and apparently empty head I soon concluded her hopes of that happening were slim to none. She didn't seem to appreciate my input when I told her that though.
When the train arrived we, as first years, were split from the rest of the students and taken to a harbour of small boats. In the crowd we got split apart from the Dobbs girl, mainly due to her 'tripping' into another group of students and then me dragging Harry in the opposite direction. Magic is so useful.
We got into a boat with another two boys. They were clearly from wizarding families as they were chatting about a new broomstick design. I was distracted from analysing our fellow students when I saw the glare Harry was shooting at me.
"Come on, Dobbs was a pain. You can't tell me you wanted to spend more time with her, I saw you zoning out in the train ride." I argued quietly, not wanting the other boys to hear our disagreement.
"But you shouldn't have said she wouldn't get into Ravenclaw" Harry said frustrated, "That was uncalled for, and not necessarily true"
I let out a small, sceptical laugh at that, which only made him angrier.
"It's not all based on your personality you know." Harry hissed "If you ask to be in a certain house, the sorting hat will listen to you."
I was surprised by that bit of information, yet when we had our first glimpse of the castle all my thoughts of Harry's anger and our annoying traveling companion were blown away by the sight in front of me. It was magnificent. I was comforted to see that even the people who grew up in the wizarding world looked just as bowled over by the sight of Hogwarts as I was.
It was only when we reached the shore and walked up to the gates that I let myself process what Harry told me. There may be a way to choose which house you get sorted into. It would be useful having someone I know and trust around when settling into this new place, so it would be better if Harry and I were in the same house. If what he said was true then maybe I could choose to be in Gryffindor house with Harry.
Hope you enjoy the chapter.
Next will be the sorting and some other characters will probably be introduced!
What house(s) do you think they will be in?
Please review and look forward to the next chapter.