Harry Potter doesn't belong to me, it belongs to J. K. Rowling.
Some of the text is taken directly from the books. That text is in bold.
This chapter takes place in the book "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone".
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The rest of the summer was both easier and calmer due to Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon avoiding even looking in their direction. Iris and Harry weren't even ordered to do half the chores they usually had to do. While her brother seemed to find the Dursleys' avoidance of them depressing, Iris enjoyed being able to shut herself away from most people and concentrate on her reading. Especially since she had such interesting reading material - her magical textbooks. As such, most of the time both Iris and Harry were in their room.
But a few days after the shopping trip with Hagrid, Iris was sitting on her bed and paging through her new books. After reading up a bit on magical theory, she decided to try out a few spells, being impatient to cast magic deliberately. Before actually casting, the girl selected which spells she could cast safely while at Dursleys. Immediately, such spells as Severing Charm and Fire-Making Spell were excluded for their danger and Softening Charm for not knowing how to reverse possible effects. In the end, her list consisted of: Wand-Lighting Charm, its counter - Wand-Extinguishing Charm, Levitation Charm and Mending Charm. Next to the chosen spells, she listed the intended effects, casting instructions and incantations.
Having prepared herself emotionally, the girl took out her pine wand and clearly said:
"Lumos!"
As she almost expected, nothing happened. Iris looked at her notes again, and, after concentrating on the wished-for effect for half a minute cast again:
"Lumos!"
This time, a small white light appeared on the tip of her wand. It was fortunate, thought to herself Iris, that it was summer and light outside, thus, the magical light wouldn't attract any attention.
"Nox," the girl snuffed out the wand light comparatively easily.
"Iris, are you using magic?" asked Harry wide-eyed, having sat up in his bed after seeing her succeed at casting.
"Yes, see, this spell is called Wand-Lighting Charm," Iris happily showed Harry her notes. "Now, why don't you try?"
Her brother took out his own wand and holding it reverently tried to cast:
"Lumos."
His first try was just as unsuccessful as hers.
"You have to move your wand in a loop like this," she demonstrated with her own wand.
"Lumos!"
Harry's second attempt at Wand-Lighting Charm worked and his wand's tip was lit by a small light.
"Yeah!" he cheered at his success.
"Do you want to practice more spells?"
"Of course!"
"Well, there is this very useful spell called Mending Charm. It could be used for repairing broken objects. It should work on most materials. Like, say, your glasses. Though, we should practice it on other simpler things first."
Iris took two sheets of paper and tore them in half. Two pieces she put in front of her brother and two pieces she left for herself.
"For example, to repair a tear."
"It would be great to have my glasses unbroken - they look ugly when held together by tape."
"The incantation is Reparo. Practice saying it before casting." Iris following her own advice silently repeated it under her breath several times.
"When you know how to say the incantation, start practicing the hand movement for it." And she slowly demonstrated.
A few minutes later, Iris decided to try the spell.
"Reparo!"
As she accidently erred in her wand movement, her spell was unsuccessful. Thus, she tried again.
"Reparo!"
This time, her two pieces of paper flew towards each other and fused together into a whole sheet of paper. Harry having watched her attempts cheered for her success and, then, tried the spell himself. He succeeded on his third try.
"Before trying to repair your glasses, I would suggest for you to try casting the charm successfully several times straight." Iris commented. Harry, knowing that she was excellent at learning, took her advise and having teared his paper anew concentrated on casting the spell repeatedly and successfully.
Now, that her brother was occupied with his task, the red-haired girl focused on her own training. First, she returned to practicing her first spell - Lumos, and its counterpart - Nox. She wanted to make sure that she could reliably cast these spells successfully on her first try. Some time later, she switched it up and started practicing getting her Reparo to be successful on her first try.
After some fifteen successfully in succession cast Reparo, Iris stopped and looked at her brother's progress. Seeing that he, too, could cast several Reparo successfully in succession, she said:
"I think that you could try casting Mending Charm at your glasses now. It ought to work."
Harry lifted his head from the holly wand and looked at her face.
"Alright." he took off his glasses and pointed at them his wand before casting the charm. Having practiced it extensively, the spell was a success.
"Nicely done," Iris complemented her brother wanting to encourage his learning since the Dursleys had soured it for him.
"Thanks."
When the end of the summer neared, time came to speak with their Uncle about taking them to King's Cross Station in London on the 1 of September. Both of the twins went downstairs but Iris let her brother have the lead in asking. Uncle Vernon grumpily agreed.
On 1 September Iris and Harry woke up at 5 o'clock and being too excited to go back to sleep they got up and dressed in their best clothes. Iris' best clothes were better than Harry's because she, as a girl, couldn't wear Dudley's old clothes and Aunt Petunia was forced to buy her female clothes even if only from bargain bins. Knowing that she will have to change into Hogwarts uniform while on the train, Iris put a set of plain work robes and her new hat into her school bag, so she wouldn't have to open her steamer trunk on the train. She, also, put A History of Magic and Hogwarts: A History into her bag, so she would have something to read while on the train.
The twins checked that their owls - Harry's female snowy owl Hedwig and Iris' male screech owl Andros - were in their cages and checked whether all their school things were in their trunks. Then, they waited for the Dursleys to wake up, Harry taking up pacing while Iris sat on her bed and took out Hogwarts: A History to search for an explanation to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters mentioned on their train tickets.
Two hours later, the twins' trunks were loaded into Dursley's car and they set off.
They reached King's Cross at half past ten. Uncle Vernon dumped the twins' trunks into two carts, wheeled one of the carts, leaving the other for the twins, into the station near Platform 10 and left them there.
While Harry stared at the plastic number signs over the nearby platforms with confusion, Iris looked around for the barrier that according to Hogwarts: A History conceals the entrance to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. After deciding upon the one most likely, she took Harry's elbow and tugged him to follow her.
"The entrance to our platform is supposed to be magically concealed behind a barrier between Platform 9 and Platform 10." Iris leant over to whisper to her brother's ear.
She straightened out and pressed her palm to the barrier they had approached. Her hand sank into the barrier without any problem. After taking out her hand, Iris lined up her cart in front of her and pushed through, Harry following closely behind.
A scarlet steam engine was waiting next to a platform packed with people. A sign overhead said Hogwarts Express, eleven o'clock. Behind her was a wrought-iron archway where the barrier had been, with the words Platform 9 and 3/4 on it. Smoke from the engine drifted over the heads of the chattering crowd, while cats of every color wound here and there between their legs. Owls hooted to one another in a disgruntled sort of way over the babble and the scrapping of heavy trunks.
Iris and her brother pushed their carts down the platform in search of an empty seat. They pressed through the crowd until they found a mostly empty carriage near the end of the train. The siblings took their owl cages to an empty compartment first, before returning and together lifting first Iris' and, then, Harry's trunk up into the train. Being newly introduced to the world of magic, Iris and Harry weren't prepared to ride the train in separate compartments away from the only other person they knew. While Harry sat down near the window and watched the view, Iris took a seat nearer to the door. Not having anything else to do, she took out A History of Magic to learn more about the wizarding world.
Soon enough, a whistle sounded and the train moved from the platform.
Iris' reading was briefly interrupted by the door of the compartment being slid open. As she looked up, she saw a red-haired boy entering their compartment.
"Anyone sitting there?" he asked, pointing at a seat near her brother. "Everywhere else is full."
Harry shook his head and the boy sat down.
"Hey, Ron." two identical red-haired boys poked their heads inside. "Listen, we're going down the middle of the train - Lee Jordan's got a giant tarantula down there."
"Right," muttered Ron.
"Did we introduce ourselves?" the two red-haired boys turned to Iris and Harry. "Fred and George Weasley. And this is Ron, our brother. See you later, then."
Fred and George Weasley slid the compartment door shut behind them.
Iris went back to reading while her brother and Ron started talking between themselves.
Some time later, there was a great clattering outside in the corridor that had Iris emerge from her reading. A smiling woman slid back their compartment door and said, "Anything off the cart, dears?"
Iris, then, realized how hungry she was and stood up to see what the woman was selling. Nothing was familiar to her and, thus, she chose carefully while at her side Harry bought a little of everything.
"I would like two Cauldron Cakes, four Chocolate Frogs and two packets of Toothflossing Stringmints." She chose her sweets because of their names and appearances - Cauldron Cakes she chose for alleviating her hunger, Chocolate Frogs she chose as a sweet, and Toothflossing Stringmints she chose from curiosity about whether the sweet's name was accurate.
"That would be 1 Sickle and 15 Knuts."
Iris paid up for her purchases and sat back down. She put her book back to her school bag and started to nibble on her Cauldron Cakes as a lunch. The boys were sharing Harry's haul while chatting.
"What are these?" Harry asked the other boy, holding up a box of a Chocolate Frogs. "They're not really frogs, are they?"
"No," said Ron. "But see what the card is. I'm missing Agrippa."
"What?"
"Oh, of course, you wouldn't know- Chocolate Frogs have cards inside them, you know, to collect- famous witches and wizards. I've got about five hundred, but I haven't got Agrippa or Ptolemy."
"So this is Dumbledore!" said Harry.
"Don't tell me you'd never heard of Dumbledore!" said Ron.
"Can I have a frog? I might get Agrippa – thanks."
Iris looked to the window. The countryside now flying past the window was becoming wilder. The neat fields had gone. Now there were woods, twisting rivers and dark green hills. She concentrated on eating.
There was a knock on the door of their compartment and the round-faced boy the twins had passed on the platform came in. He looked tearful.
"Sorry," he said, "but have you seen a toad at all?"
When they shook their heads, he wailed, "I've lost him! He keeps getting away from me!"
"He'll turn up," said Harry.
"Yes," said the boy miserably. "Well, if you see him…"
He left.
"Don't know why he's so bothered," said Ron. "If I'd bought a toad I'd lose it as quick as I could. Mind you, I brought Scabbers, so I can't talk."
"He might have died and you wouldn't know the difference," said Ron is disgust. "I tried to turn him yellow yesterday to make him more interesting, but the spell didn't work. I'll show you, look…"
The compartment door was slid open again. The brown-haired boy was back, but this time he had a girl with him. She was already wearing her new Hogwarts robes which reminded Iris that she should change.
"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it, then."
"Er – all right."
Ron cleared his throat.
"Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, turn this stupid, fat rat yellow." Nothing happened. Iris wasn't really surprised for she had practiced a few real spells and knew that they were made from Latin.
"Are you sure that's a real spell?" said the girl. "Well, it's not very good, is it? I've tried a few simple spells just for practice and it's all worked for me. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it's the very best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard – I've learnt our set books off by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough – I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?"
The girl's words alarmed Iris. She knew she liked learning about the world, and learning about spells was becoming interesting, too, but memorizing all of the textbooks was an impressive feat and made her self-esteem lower a bit for having learnt less than this girl.
Her brother and Ron introduced themselves.
"Are you really?" said Hermione. "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."
"Do either of you know what house you'll be in? I've been asking around and I hope I'm in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best, I hear Dumbledore himself was one, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad… anyway, we'd better go and look for Neville's toad. You three had better change, you know, I expect we'll be there soon."
Iris stood up, took her bag and said to her brother:
"I'm going to find a bathroom to change in. You ought to change, too." and left the compartment. She found a toilet in a next over carriage. It didn't take her long to change and, thus, it was a surprise for her to go back to the compartment and see the signs of another presence - Harry's sweets were all over the floor in an obvious sign of a fight. Harry and his friend were cleaning it up while talking. But a few seconds after Iris returned, Hermione, too, entered the compartment.
"I've heard of his family," Ron said darkly. "They were some of the first to come back to our side after You-Know-Who disappeared. Said they'd been bewitched. My dad doesn't believe it. He says Malfoy's father didn't need an excuse to go over to the Dark Side." He turned to Hermione. "Can we help you with something?"
"You better hurry up and put your robes on, I've just been up the front to ask the driver and he says we're nearly there. You haven't been fighting, have you? You'll be in trouble before we even get there!"
"Scabbers has been fighting, not us," said Ron, scowling at her. "Would you mind leaving while we change?"
"All right – I only came in here because people outside are behaving very childishly, racing up and down the corridors," said Hermione in a sniffy voice. "And you've got dirt on your nose, by the way, did you know?"
As the girl left again, Harry and his new friend took off their jackets and pulled on their long black robes.
A voice echoed through the train: "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes time. Please leave you luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately." Iris put her school bag next to the trunks.
As the train slowed and stopped, people started pushing towards the train door and out to the tiny platform. It was dark, the night air was cold. Then, a lamp came over the heads of the students: "Firs' years! Firs' years over here! All right there, Harry?"
"C'mon, follow me – any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!"
As they followed Hagrid down the narrow path, everybody was silent. The path was barely lit by the lamp carried by Hagrid. As the giant told the first years that they would soon see Hogwarts, there was a turn in the path that opened into the edge of a great black lake. On the other side of the lake, stood a magnificent castle with many turrets and towers.
"No more'n four to a boat!" Hagrid called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore. Harry and Ron were followed into their boat by Neville and Hermione while Iris joined a boat with several strangers.
"Everyone in?" shouted Hagrid, who had a boat to himself, "Right then, FORWARD!"
The little fleet of boat moved off together at once. They sailed smoothly and silently. Everyone was staring up at the great castle.
"Heads down!" yelled Hagrid as the first boats reached the cliff; they all bent their heads and the little boats carried them through a curtain of ivy which hid a wide opening in the cliff face. They were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle, until they reached a kind of underground harbour, where they clambered out on to rocks and pebbles.
"Oy, you there! Is this your toad?" said Hagrid, who was checking the boats as people climbed out of them.
"Trevor!" cried Neville blissfully, holding out his hands. Then they clambered up a passageway in the rock after Hagrid's lamp, coming out at last on to a smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle.
They walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, oak front door.
"Everyone here? You there, still got yer toad?"
Hagrid raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.