Harry's last month with the Dursleys wasn't fun.
"When was it ever?" Ron asked, receiving a shrug in reply.
True, Dudley was now so scared of Harry he wouldn't stay in the same room, while Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon didn't shut Harry in his cupboard, force him to do anything, or shout at him, in fact, they didn't speak to him at all.
"Wouldn't that be a good thing though?" Ginny asked.
"It sounds depressing," Neville said.
"It did get pretty lonely," Harry replied.
His school books were very interesting.
"Traitor," Fred and George said in mock offense.
He lay on his bed reading late into the night,
"It gets worse," the twins wailed dramatically.
"I had nothing else to do," Harry protested.
On the last day of August, he thought he'd better speak to his aunt and uncle about getting to King's Cross station the next day,
"You waited until the last day? Harry, you know procrastination gets you nowhere," Hermione said.
"I knew I could get him to agree, so I had to make sure he wouldn't have time to change his mind," Harry said.
"Smart," Moody said with a nod of approval, having heard Potter's reply.
He cleared his throat to let them know he was there, and Dudley screamed and ran from the room.
"We know which house he wouldn't be in," Fred said while George laughed.
Harry supposed that meant yes.
"I didn't know you spoke Troll Harry," Luna said.
"I grew up hearing him speak it," Harry replied.
"Harry, how could you not tell us," Ron said.
"That would have been so useful on Halloween that year," Hermione agreed. The trio started laughing quietly, while the many people shot them concerned or curious looks, really wanting to know what they were talking about.
"Platform what?"
"Petunia knew what platform it was. She was there when Lily left to school for years," Remus said, Snuffles growling in agreement.
"Barking," said Uncle Vernon, "howling mad, the lot of them.
Remus had to hide his laughter at that, gaining confused looks from many. Then Harry, Hermione, Ron, Fred, George, Ginny, and Tonks clicked and started laughing too, gaining even more looks of confusion from the rest of the hall.
We're going up to London tomorrow anyway, or I wouldn't bother."
"What if he said no though," Dean asked.
"I would have just mentioned sending Hedwig to someone at Hogwarts to have them come pick me up. He would have agreed just to ensure that they didn't send Hagrid again," Harry said with a shrug. Moody and Kingsley looked at him in approval at the plan.
"Why are you going to London?" Harry asked, trying to keep things friendly.
"Why?" Ron asked.
"No clue."
He got up and pulled on his jeans because he didn't want to walk into the station in his wizard's robes, he'd change on the train.
"He's smart. So many obliviates have to be done when people don't think like that," Kingsley said.
Two hours later, Harry's huge, heavy trunk had been loaded into the Dursleys' car, Aunt Petunia had talked Dudley into sitting next to Harry, and they had set off.
"Bribed is more accurate than talked."
Uncle Vernon dumped Harry's trunk onto a cart and wheeled it into the station for him.
"Why is he being so nice?" Remus said slowly.
All three of them were laughing.
"They left you there," Mrs Weasley exclaimed in rage, not able to believe that anyone would be that cruel to a child. She knew that the Dursleys were bad but didn't think that they'd just abandon a child who was in their care. Although she had wondered why he was by himself.
"Everything turned out fine," Harry assured her.
Getting desperate, Harry asked for the train that left at eleven o'clock, but the guard said there wasn't one.
"Imagine if you got on the wrong train," Hermione said.
"You'd have had a peaceful life," Harry said.
"It'd be dreadfully boring though," Ron said.
He wondered if he should get out his wand and start tapping the ticket inspector's stand between platforms nine and ten.
"That really wouldn't be a good idea," Remus said, grinning.
"You speak from experience?" Harry asked.
"Your dad tried it once, when he was waiting for your mum. It did not end well, and we almost missed the train trying to revive him after he was knocked out. As smart as he was, he could be incredibly stupid at times."
They stopped and so did he, just near enough to hear what they were saying.
"Eavesdropping Harry?" Hermione asked, amused. Harry shrugged with a smile.
"Now, what's the platform number?" said the boys' mother.
"Why did you ask? You go there every year," Hermione said. George and Fred flushed.
"Fred and George were so excited their first year that they forgot the platform number and ran at the wrong barrier. So now I remind them every year, so it doesn't happen again," Mrs Weasley replied, gaining chuckles at the story, much to the twins' embarrassment.
"Why do you even go the muggle way?" Remus asked, curious.
"There's too many of them to Apparate and Ron and Ginny were too young to use the floo the first few years Bill and Charlie were at school. And now it's just habit," Mrs Weasley explained.
"Nine and three-quarters!" piped a small girl, also red-headed, who was holding her hand, "Mum, can't I go…"
Ginny turned bright red.
"Only joking, I am Fred," said the boy, and off he went.
"That joke is so old," Lee said, rolling his eyes.
Now the third brother was walking briskly toward the barrier he was almost there — and then, quite suddenly, he wasn't anywhere.
"Sorry Harry."
"We'd have gone slower if we knew."
"It's fine," Harry replied, waving away their concern.
He was tall, thin, and gangling, with freckles, big hands and feet, and a long nose.
"Thanks mate," Ron said sarcastically.
"Hey, I can't control my thoughts," Harry defended himself.
"And it's true," Ginny added. Ron glared at her but quickly looked away when she fingered her wand.
It looked very solid.
"It is," Harry and Ron agreed with a wince at the memory.
It didn't come…
"Of course not," Ron said.
"That was second year," Harry said. Remus stared at them, as did many people who had heard them.
He passed a round-faced boy who was saying, "Gran, I've lost my toad again."
"Neville," the Gryffindors chorused. Trevor was a source of amusement within the house, everyone making bets about where he would show up the next time he got away from Neville.
The boy lifted the lid of a box in his arms, and the people around him shrieked and yelled as something inside poked out a long, hairy leg.
"I hate spiders," Ron said with a shudder.
"Oh, don't be a wuss. They're not that bad Ron," Ginny said.
"Yeah, it's been years Ron," George agreed.
"You really need to get over your fear," Fred said.
"Nope, not happening, not after second year," Ron said quickly and quietly with another shudder.
"It's ok mate. They'll understand in the next book. And it's not something to be ashamed of. Everyone's scared of something," Harry said, getting a small smile from Ron. Hermione didn't add anything, too busy glaring at Mr and Mrs Weasley, who were both oblivious to her glare, for letting Ginny and the twins make fun of Ron for his fear, especially after what he'd done in second year, even if they didn't know about it. Thankfully, Bill had noticed Ron's reaction and scolded his siblings.
"Fred, George, Ginny, you shouldn't make fun of Ron's fear. It's fine for him to be afraid of spiders. Everyone is afraid of something."
He tried to lift it up the steps but could hardly raise one end and twice he dropped it painfully on his foot.
Harry pulled his throbbing foot closer to himself, tucking it next to him.
"Want a hand?" It was one of the red-haired twins he'd followed through the barrier.
"You can be nice?" Ginny asked.
"Course we can," Fred agreed.
"We just often choose not to be," George added.
"Oh, him," said Harry. "I mean, yes, I am."
"Oh, him, Harry?" Hermione asked amidst her giggles.
"It's not like I was used to hearing my name, let alone from strangers," Harry said, making those who were laughing at his reaction quiet down, many of them scowling at the reminder about his home life.
Harry sat down next to the window where half hidden, he could watch the red-haired family on the platform and hear what they were saying.
"Harry," Hermione and Mrs Weasley admonished.
"Eavesdropping already Harry?" Remus asked, amused. Snuffles was wagging his tail, clearly in approval. Harry shrugged, not wanting to voice the real reason he had been eavesdropping; to see how a real family worked and interacted.
"Where's Percy?" said their mother.
The rest of the Weasley's scowled at the mention of the estranged Weasley.
He had already changed into his billowing black Hogwarts robes, and Harry noticed a red and gold badge on his chest with the letter P on it.
"P for Prat," Fred and George said together.
"You should have said something, we had no idea."
"That doesn't sound like him," Bill said, surprised. He knew how his brother would normally act when he accomplished something like that.
"All summer —"
"Yeah, that sounds more like him," Charlie agreed, having been thinking along the same lines as Bill.
Over where the ministry officials were sitting, Percy looked down slightly, wondering why no one in his family seemed to be proud of him. First when he was made Prefect, and then Head Boy. And now when he got such a good position in the Ministry. He just wanted them to be proud.
"Oh, shut up," said Percy the Prefect.
"Why didn't we think of that," George asked Fred, who shrugged, both of them slightly disappointed that they hadn't thought of it.
If I get one more owl telling me you've — you've blown up a toilet or —"
All the teachers groaned, while Fred, George, and Lee grinned.
"Great idea though, thanks, Mum."
"You never give pranksters ideas," Remus said, shaking his head in amusement; he would bet anything that the twins had blown up a toilet that year, just from the idea their mum had given them.
"You didn't blow up a toilet, did you," Mrs Weasley asked, turning to the twins, who both immediately reverted to expressions of innocence that fooled no one.
"We can neither confirm nor deny that," Fred said.
"And we stand by the rule of no punishments for future or past actions," George added.
"Oh no you don't, that rule only applied to the teachers," Mrs Weasley said.
"No, definitely applied to everyone," Ron said quickly, knowing he could get in a lot of trouble for the things he did if they didn't insist on the rule being or everyone.
"I did mean it as a blanket rule for everyone, Mrs Weasley," Harry agreed. He needed to get that out there, since he wasn't sure he wanted to know how Sirius and Remus would react, and try to punish him, for the things he did, especially in regard to their end of year 'adventures'. Mrs Weasley crossed her arms and huffed, turning away, making the four boys all sigh in relief.
"Don't worry, ickle Ronniekins is safe with us."
"Pretty sure I'm safer with Harry," Ron said, gaining incredulous looks from Harry and Hermione, since they were the only two who knew everything that they'd done.
"I really don't think I can agree with that," Hermione said.
"I agree with Hermione mate. Do you remember what happened in our second week of our first year? Because it only got worse," Harry agreed, adding the second part quietly so as to not stress anyone in their group out too much; no need for them to have to take a calming draught before they actually got to the events.
"Yeah, but you've met the twins," Ron replied, something that Harry and Hermione had to agree with.
He was almost as tall as the twins already and his nose was still pink where his mother had rubbed it.
"Why do you have to notice everything," Ron moaned.
"It's a gift," Harry replied. And a survival instinct, he added in his head, thinking about all the times he managed to avoid a bad punishment at the Dursleys or survive in life-threatening situations by simply noticing things.
"Kid's got good instincts," Moody said approvingly.
"Oh, Mum, can I go on the train and see him, Mum, oh please…"
Ginny flushed again, but her wand was back in her hand, preventing any of her brothers saying anything; Bill was regretting teaching her the Bat-Bogey Hex, simply because he never wanted to be on the receiving end of it, and it made his baby sister so much scarier; how was he meant to tease her like big brothers did if she was so scary.
It's really there — like lightning."
Harry scowled at the mention of his scar.
"Never mind that, do you think he remembers what You-Know-Who looks like?"
"You better not have asked," Minerva said, glaring at the twins.
"They didn't. But if they asked now, I'd tell them that he's an incredibly ugly bastard, and he looks like a snake. Oh, and he doesn't have any hair or a nose," Harry replied calmly, doing his best to not think about what happened when he had actually been face-to-face with him.
"You have not seen him. He is dead," Umbridge hissed.
"Even if you don't think I've met him during my time at school, which I have, you can't deny that I saw him as a baby when he killed my parents. And we already know that I have a good memory of that event," Harry replied evenly. Umbridge scowled but couldn't say anything to refute his statement.
They leaned out of the window for her to kiss them good-bye, and their younger sister began to cry.
"Awww," many people cooed, making Ginny flush even more than she already was.
"We'll send you a Hogwarts' toilet seat."
"I never did get that," Ginny said, pouting playfully.
"Sorry Gin. It went to someone with a greater need," George said.
"And we weren't entirely sure how mum would react if we had," Fred added, scratching his head.
"Only joking, Mum."
"I wasn't."
Harry saw the boys' mother waving and their sister, half laughing, half crying, running to keep up with the train until it gathered too much speed,
Ginny, whose blush had started to fade, turned bright red again.
"Everywhere else is full."
"Was everywhere full?" Hermione asked.
"All the ones on that carriage were, or they had older people in them," Ron said.
Harry saw he still had a black mark on his nose.
"Harry," Ron whined, not liking the fact that Harry kept mentioning his nose, gaining a shrug from Harry in response.
"Listen, we're going down the middle of the train — Lee Jordan's got a giant tarantula down there.
"What happened to the spider?" Charlie asked.
"Not sure. Got loose during a Care of Magical Creatures class and headed into the forest," Lee replied. Ron and Harry both shuddered, remembering the other spiders that had been in the forest.
"Are you really Harry Potter?" Ron blurted out.
"Ron. Do you have any tact?" Hermione asked.
"Come on Hermione. I was eleven," Ron protested.
"That's not an excuse," Hermione said.
"Uh, Mione? It kind of is. And this was years ago," Harry said, intervening before they could start a big argument.
"And have you really got — you know…"
"Ronald," Mrs Weasley reprimanded.
"It's fine Mrs Weasley. Everyone stared at some stage. I would have done the same if I were him."
"Nothing?" said Ron eagerly.
"I told you not to ask," Mrs Weasley said sternly.
"Technically, you told the twins not to ask," Ron said. Mrs Weasley glared, while Fred and George grinned.
"I love loopholes," they said together.
"I think Mom's got a second cousin who's an accountant, but we never talk about him."
"Why not? I meant to ask then," Harry said.
"He's really bitter about the fact that he's a squib. Like a mix between your aunt and Filch," Ron said with a shrug.
"We've tried reaching out, but he never wants anything to do with us," Mr Weasley added with a sigh.
"Horrible — well, not all of them.
"It's actually surprising that you don't hate all muggles based on how you grew up," Luna said.
For some reason, he was looking gloomy.
Ron sunk into the couch slightly, not liking that his family would find out about his insecurities.
Everyone expects me to do as well as the others, but if I do, it's no big deal, because they did it first.
"We never knew you were so insecure," Bill said, wondering how he had missed that. Ron shrugged, not looking up.
"You don't have anything to live up to Ron," George said.
"You just have to be yourself," Fred added.
"Look at how amazing you are at chess," Charlie said. Ron smiled slightly, looking up but not meeting any of their eyes.
"We'll be talking about this later," Mr Weasley said, intending on calling a family meeting to talk about it.
I've got Bill's old robes, Charlie's old wand,
"You gave him my old wand?" Charlie asked, looking and sounding outraged. "I gave that to you to give to Ollivander to get rid of because of how bad it was; it was barely working for me and it chose me; the core was sticking out for Merlin's sake. You should have gotten Ron a new wand, not given him one that wasn't fully functioning and wouldn't work for him." Ron was stunned to hear that, especially since he had used it fine; it had been worse than his own wand, but it wasn't as bad as Charlie was making it out to be.
and Percy's old rat."
Remus and Sirius growled at the mention of the rat, while the trio all scowled at the book, much to the confusement of those around them.
Ron reached inside his jacket and pulled out a fat grey rat, which was asleep.
"Not surprising," Remus muttered.
"His name's Scabbers and he's useless,
"Always was," Remus muttered again.
Percy got an owl from my dad for being made a perfect,
"So Percy got an owl and new robes for being a Prefect, but you couldn't even get Ron a wand, which is an essential item? Robes cost more than a wand, let alone an owl," Charlie said, still angry about the fact that they had made Ron use such a bad wand.
"Actually, I bought Hermes myself. I'd been saving up and I just happened to have enough to by him in my fifth year," Percy said. If he had known how bad Ron's wand had really been, he would have bought his brother a wand and waited a bit longer.
This seemed to cheer Ron up.
"He didn't say much. He just said that he knew what it was like to not have much money too, and how he had to wear hand-me-downs. I was just glad he wasn't going to make fun of me or my family for not being rich," Ron said in response to the glares that he had gotten.
I've got loads to learn… I bet," he added, voicing for the first time something that had been worrying him a lot lately, "I bet I'm the worst in the class."
"No, that's Goyle's place," Ron said quietly.
"Close second in mine," Severus sneered.
"Severus. You can't speak about students like that," Minerva said.
There are loads of people who come from Muggle families and they learn quick enough."
"Hermione," the twins said in between fake coughs.
He had never had any money for candy with the Dursleys, and now that he had pockets rattling with gold and silver he was ready to buy as many Mars Bars as he could carry— but the woman didn't have Mars Bars.
"Muggle chocolate," Hermione said before anyone could ask.
He pulled one of them apart and said, "She always forgets I don't like corned beef…"
"You don't?" Mrs Weasley asked, looking at her youngest son sadly, not liking how she had added to his insecurities.
"No," Ron replied, shaking his head.
"Then who does?"
"Corned beef is my favourite," Charlie said, "Ron likes chicken and cheese."
It was a nice feeling, sitting there with Ron, eating their way through all Harry's pasties, cakes, and candies (the sandwiches lay forgotten).
"Of course, you two bonded over something nice and normal like candies," Hermione said, "it only took…" she was cut off by Harry covering her mouth with his hand.
"We aren't bringing that up yet, remember," he hissed, although they were getting looks from those nearby, wondering what Hermione was going to say.
"Right, right, sorry," she replied once he had pulled his hand away from her mouth.
"They're not really frogs, are they?"
"Really Potter?" Draco called out across the hall in his usual drawl.
"I was raised by muggles Malfoy," Harry replied, rolling his eyes.
"No," said Ron. "But see what the card is. I'm missing Agrippa."
"I've got ten of her. You can have one after this," Remus offered.
"Really? Thanks."
I've got about five hundred, but I haven't got Agrippa or Ptolemy."
"Oh, I've got thirteen of him. I can give you one as well," Remus offered. He had gained many looks of concern and surprise at his statements and just smiled. Sirius was laughing internally at the looks that Remus was getting; none of them knew how many stashes of chocolate he actually had.
Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times, Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel.
"All that time –"
"All that studying –"
"All that time in the library –"
"And it was right there," the trio said, finishing in sync, Harry and Ron banging their heads against the back of the couch softly. The twins exchanged glances again. How did they keep doing that? They'd done the alternating speaking perfectly as well.
"Weird!"
"Were you channelling dad then Ron?" Bill asked with a grin.
Soon he had not only Dumbledore and Morgana, but Hengist of Woodcroft, Alberic Grunnion, Circe, Paracelsus, and Merlin.
"That's a good start. A few of those are actually quite rare," Remus said.
"And I bet you've got at least five of each," Harry replied, knowing about Remus' addiction to chocolate.
"I actually only have one Merlin. They're the rarest card, with only 10 being released each year. It took until our seventh year before I got him and I was the only one in our dorm to get him, even after we left school," Remus replied.
George reckons he had a booger-flavoured one once."
"I did. It was disgusting," George said, shaking his head as he remembered that; he had spent the rest of the night trying to get the taste out of his mouth.
"They are the worst, aren't they," Tonks agreed, having gotten one when she was in her seventh year.
"Bleaaargh — see? Sprouts."
"It actually wasn't that bad, compared to what I could have gotten from green," Ron said with a shrug.
"He'll turn up," said Harry.
"He always does," Neville agreed.
"What's the most popular bet this time?" Lee asked, gaining a few chuckles from the surrounding Gryffindors. The bets of where Trevor would turn up was the most popular betting pool in the house, with the list of places that people were guessing being in the bottom corner of the notice board.
"Greenhouse Three again, I think," Neville replied.
The rat was still snoozing on Ron's lap.
Ron paled and looked sick.
"Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew," he said in disgust, "excuse me while I go throw up."
"What?" Hermione asked. Ron turned to look at her.
I had a grown man sitting in my lap, he signed, not wanting to actually voice what he had just thought.
"Now I want to go throw up," Harry and Hermione said, both of them paling in disgust as well.
"Unicorn hair's nearly poking out. Anyway —"
"That's not safe," Amelia said.
"That's why you were meant to get rid of it," Charlie hissed to his parents, not willing to let the issue go any time soon.
She had a bossy sort of voice, lots of bushy brown hair, and rather large front teeth.
"Harry," Hermione protested lightly, not making a big deal out of it since all three of them were still feeling sick after Ron's realisation.
"Can't control my thoughts," he replied in the same way.
Ron looked taken aback.
"You were a bit full on back then," Neville said.
"Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."
"I can't believe that you fell for that," Ginny said through her laughter, majority of the hall laughing as well.
"How was I meant to know. They tell the truth half the time so I can't tell when they're being truthful or not," Ron replied defensively; the trio were slowly starting to feel better, the laughter helping bring some colour back from their pale faces.
Harry looked at Ron and was relieved to see by his stunned face that he hadn't learned all the course books by heart either.
"Pretty sure only Hermione did that," Padma said, gaining many nods of agreement from other Ravenclaws.
"I know all about you, of course — I got a few extra books, for background reading, and you're in Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century."
"How much is fact, do you reckon?" Harry asked.
"Based on what I know from what you've told me, about fifty percent, maybe sixty. And about half of those facts are most likely speculation that got close or guesses that turned out to be right," Hermione said.
"Whatever house I'm in, I hope she's not in it," said Ron.
"Ronald Weasley," Mrs Weasley exclaimed.
"I didn't mean it. And I was eleven," Ron protested.
"It's ok Mrs Weasley. I know I was pretty full-on in the past," Hermione said. Meanwhile, many people in the hall were looking at the trio in confusion, trying to work out how they had become friends.
"Stupid spell — George gave it to me, bet he knew it was a dud."
"You think?" George asked with a snicker.
"That wasn't very nice George," Bill said.
I don't suppose Ravenclaw would be too bad, but imagine if they put me in Slytherin."
"Merlin help us if Potter or Weasley had been put in Slytherin," Snape said with a scowl. The trio exchanged looks; Harry had told them about his sorting at the end of his second year, when Ron had asked what Dumbledore had held him back for.
"What would you have done if one of us was in Slytherin Professor?" Harry asked politely, confusing a few people by how polite he was being towards one of the two teachers he hated the most.
"Resigned," Snape replied in a deadpan.
"Well, if I'd known that, I wouldn't have argued with the hat," Harry said to Hermione and Ron in mock disappointment, this time much quieter than before. Remus and Snuffles looked at him, wondering what he was talking about.
It's been all over the Daily Prophet, but I don't suppose you get that with the Muggles — someone tried to rob a high-security vault."
"Did they find out who did it?" Tonks asked, having only just started Auror training at that time.
"No," Kingsley replied. The trio exchanged glances; they would know by the end of the book.
'Course, everyone gets scared when something like this happens in case You-Know-Who's behind it."
He was, the trio all thought.
Three boys entered, and Harry recognized the middle one at once: it was the pale boy from Madam Malkin's robe shop.
"Enter the ferret," Harry and Ron groaned.
"And my name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."
"Bond, James Bond," a small Hufflepuff giggles, the other muggle-borns and half-bloods who got the reference laughing as well, much to the confusion of the purebloods and half-bloods who didn't have any muggle knowledge.
"I think I can tell who the wrong sort are for myself, thanks," he said coolly.
"Go Harry," George and Fred called.
"Unless you're a bit politer you'll go the same way as your parents.
"Mr Malfoy," many of the teachers exclaimed.
"Be glad that we can't punish you for anything from the reading, or you would be losing points," Minerva added, before turning to Severus. "Get control of that boy." Severus nodded, scowling; Draco had told him a very different version of what had happened when he met Potter on the train.
You hang around with riffraff like the Weasley's and that Hagrid, and it'll rub off on you."
Draco found himself on the receiving end of many glares from all around the hall.
Scabbers the rat was hanging off his finger, sharp little teeth sunk deep into Goyle's knuckle —
"Only useful thing he's ever done," Remus muttered.
Said they'd been bewitched.
"He had. Lucius Malfoy is a respectable wizard who was under the Imperious curse," Fudge exclaimed.
"Sure, he was," Harry said sarcastically, rolling his eyes.
He says Malfoy's father didn't need an excuse to go over to the Dark Side."
"He doesn't," Mr Weasley agreed.
You'll be in trouble before we even get there!"
"Yeah, we can't have you breaking our record," Fred and George said.
"No, we saved that for second year," Harry said at the same time, only loud enough for Ron and Hermione to hear.
Ron's were a bit short for him, you could see his sneakers underneath them.
Ron blushed.
All right there, Harry?"
"Way to call me out," Harry murmured.
Neville, the boy who kept losing his toad, sniffed once or twice.
It was Neville's turn to blush now.
"He just likes exploring," Luna said dreamily.
There was a loud "Oooooh!"
"Hogwarts always looks amazing, especially the first time you see it," Tonks said.
"Heads down!" yelled Hagrid as the first boats reached the cliff;
"Would any of the first years actually hit their heads?" Ginny asked.
"You'd be surprised. I was in a boat with James and Sirius, and they didn't hear Hagrid's warning. Took Peter and me into the water with them when they upturned the whole boat," Remus said with a slight scowl towards the dog sitting at his feet.
Hagrid raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.
The book fell silent and Harry sighed, knowing the next chapter would be his sorting. He knew that Hermione and Ron wouldn't care, since they both knew how sneaky and sly he could be, but he wasn't sure how everyone else would react.
"Ooh, do we get to hear what the sorting hat said to Harrikins?" the twins asked as Filius cast the spell at the book again.
The Sorting Hat
"We do," the twins said, since no one had answered them, before going quiet to listen to the next chapter.