DISCLAIMER- I don't own the creations of JK Rowling
I just pointed out what was wrong with the whole thing.
Chapter 13- Journey Part 2
As Harry just stared at the boy, the fallacy of the ginger-head's saying was too evident to him. He replied in an even voice while maintaining eye contact "If everywhere else is full, then you have no seat left for you, no? You have to sit here only, or remain standing if I refuse."
So, are extra coaches added to the train at the other platform, or it magically expands or this boy is simply lying? I may be able to find out if I use my brain.
As the boy grinned stupidly, Harry pointed to the seat opposite himself "Sit. I don't own the train."
The boy thanked Harry and sat down opposite him. He then tried to speak in a friendly voice "So, are you a first year to attend Hogwarts? I am a first year too."
For a moment, Harry tried to say that allowing a seat does not mean getting permission to chatter, but decided against it and nodded silently. After all, a lie was forming in his head; he wanted to see the reaction of the boy when he would use it. The chance came immediately.
"Hi, I am Ronald Weasley, you can call me Ron. What is your name, mate?" said the ginger-head and extended his hand towards Harry in a welcoming manner.
Harry took Ron's hand and shook it briefly. As if I am going to tell you, Ronald. He smiled and spoke out the name that he had made up "It's Piers Polkiss, glad to meet you." The look of confusion on Ron's face was priceless, but suddenly footsteps were heard outside the door.
The door opened and three boys entered the cubicle. One was pale, with grey eyes and platinum blond hair, clutching a newspaper in his hand. He was flanked by two boys- one had curly brown hair, broad shoulders, square jaws and a height too tall for his age. The other boy was of the same height as the blond, but three times as broad, with bristly black hair and small, cold eyes. They reminded Harry of Dudley's gang, but looked like bodyguards to the pale boy.
The pale boy looked at the newspaper he was carrying, then at Harry. He then spoke in a drawling voice "No, you are not Harry Potter. The scar is missing and eye colour is different. Am I right?"
Harry looked at this new intrusion and fumbled for an answer. Searching for him by a sketch in a newspaper, let him try. He stupidly mumbled "Who is Harry Potter?"
The boy's lips curled to a smile "If you don't know who he is, then there is only one reason. You are muggle-born, right?" seeing Harry nod stupidly, the boy continued "Well, I have just one thing to say to all muggle-born children, and I am going to say it only once. What is your name, kid?"
Harry mumbled "Piers Polkiss." But now, the redhead spoke in an angry voice "Who are you, eh? What do you three want to do with Harry Potter if you find him on the train?"
The blond looked at Ron and then smirked "You should know me if you are to attend Hogwarts. I am Draco, scion of the house of Malfoy. No need to know you. You are freckles, red hair and throw away clothes, in short- a Weasley. Good to sit with a muggle-born, that's what you deserve."
The boy blushed as red as his hair, but he yelled "Get out of this place right now."
The brown-haired suddenly turned at Draco and spoke "Boss, I put this boy to size, eh?"
The blond snapped "Don't do anything unless I tell you to, Crabbe. Listen to one thing, Polka. We are pureblood wizard family, hence are better than you. Stay out of our way, you will be safe. For you weasel, your family lives in a hovel and you can mix with riffraff, suitable for you. Show respect to me and don't stand in my path in future. My first and last words to both of you. Come on boys; let's not waste any more time in this company."
With a smirk, Draco Malfoy left the cubicle with his bodyguards. Ron was very red and angry, but now he sat down quietly, attacking the three was not a wise choice. Harry did not know what to do after the event, but he stayed quiet- it is not a reason to be friends with a suspicious boy- who was now looking out of the window with a blank look on his face, no interest remaining.
Harry suddenly knew a way to test whether the boy is lying or not. He smiled at Ron and said "Hey, have you seen where the washroom is? I have to relieve myself. No? Okay, let me find out."
He checked that his trunk was properly chained to the seat, the key in his pocket, smiled at a paling Ron with red ears and went out. There was a washroom at each end of the compartments and he saw that quite a few cubicles were empty in the compartment. Sure enough, he returned a little later to find what he expected- the redhead missing along with his own trunk.
The train continued its journey north. Harry looked at the neat fields, cottages and hedgerows, with cows and sheep grazing, it was a treat to watch. He felt bored sometime later and thought of bringing out a book to read, but now the train was approaching a town and slowing down. The second stop.
Sure enough, the train entered a platform and came to a stop. Harry tried to look at the platform from where his mother supposedly boarded the train, but nothing was remarkable except for the wizard families waiting with their children. When the train stopped, a great bustle followed soon.
Foot-steps were heard outside the door and now two dusky girls with long black braided hair, most likely twins, were seen with their trunks. Both were wearing their Hogwarts uniform. One of them pointed at the seat opposite Harry and said "Good afternoon. Mind if we sit there?"
Harry stared for a moment at the two faces. Both had a neutral expression, no trace of anything hostile or suspiciously friendly. He nodded silently and looked out of the window. Soon, the train was again moving, continuing its journey north. The twin girls ignored Harry and were soon talking amongst themselves in low voices, in a language that he did not understand.
The door was soon opened again. A middle-aged smiling woman pushing a trolley was seen there, she asked "Anything of the lunch trolley, dears?" The twin girls settled for over-large lollipops, but Harry felt a pang of hunger, it was a long time since he had eaten breakfast and he had some wizard money too for spending, so went outside in the corridor to see what the trolley had on offer.
He asked the witch what she had, decided against the ham sandwich and two-flavour pasty (pork and apple from two ends) and decided for something he had not seen before- a cauldron cake and a box of Bertie Bott's Beans. Then he went back to his seat and tried to eat what he bought- they were delicious. The twins glanced once at him but kept to themselves as before.
A little later, footsteps were heard again, the door opened and two people were seen. One was a girl with buck teeth and bushy hair and the other was a tearful round-faced boy- his face resulted in a sense of déjà vu to Harry. The girl spoke first in a bossy voice before Harry could react.
"Excuse me, has anybody seen a toad? Neville has lost his."
The three occupants shook their heads, but Harry suddenly found himself speaking "Hey, are you two searching the entire train for a toad? Why don't you ask some senior student for some magical help?"
Both of them stared at Harry for a few seconds, then the girl spoke first "Thank you for your suggestion. Neville, let's go to the prefect compartment at the front and ask for some help." Both of them vanished and Harry cursed himself silently. Was it the same boy that his mother asked him to be friends with? After all, the round face was almost a replica to his mother's friend.
After some time, the two returned again. The boy was now smiling, with a toad held in his left hand. The girl was with him too, she spoke to Harry in the same voice "May we know your name please? Neville wants to thank you for your help, Mr…?"
Harry replied "Neville has told his name only and I do not know your name yet, Miss..?"
The boy replied first with a faint smile "I am Neville Longbottom." and held out his hand.
Harry shook the outstretched hand "I am Harry Potter, glad to meet you." But the two of them were suddenly looking at him with a stunned expression and a quick glance at the twins told Harry that they had the same reaction too on hearing his name.
Neville smiled nervously, the bushy haired girl now stretched out her hand too "I am Hermione Granger, glad to meet you. I have read about you of course, in one of the extra books I purchased for reading. Are these two girls sitting with you your friends?"
Both the twins suddenly had embarrassed looks on their faces, one of them suddenly spoke "We were just sharing seats; we did not know his name. Hello Harry, I am Padma Patil and this is my sister Parvati. We too have heard about you of course, you are quite famous. Glad to meet you."
Harry said "Hey, why don't we sit down and talk a little to know each other? It's a long journey."
Both Hermione and Neville sat down. For the first time, Harry noticed that Hermione had a book tucked under her left armpit, he pointed and asked "What are you carrying, Hermione?"
She blushed a little and said "Oh, it is one of the extra books I have bought at the bookstore when I was shopping for Hogwarts. I am muggle-born you see, so after I got the letter and the professors visited house and finally when my family was shown the way to Diagon Alley, I thought I need extra information to catch up, so bought the extra books apart from the school books I am learning by heart. You are mentioned in another book- The rise and fall of dark forces in twentieth century Europe."
She showed Harry the book cover, he just read the title- "Are muggles really unaware of the magical world? From medieval bestiaries to the backwoods of North America, from fae sightings in Britain to the elves of Iceland and much more" but he had questions running in his mind.
"Hermione, did Hogwarts teachers visit you when you got the letter as you said?"
"Of course, the Depute and the muggle studies teacher. They said that each year they visit all the muggle-born children and explain the letter, plus why we need to learn to control our magic. Then, a few days later Mrs. Burbage, I mean the muggle studies teacher and a man from the Ministry of Magic showed all the muggle-born students and their families how to get to Diagon Alley and exchange muggle money at the bank. All of us became friends there, we were waiting for some to get on the train from the second station. Then Neville came along and I wanted to help him and explore the train at the same time. I am really excited to get to Hogwarts, imagine only one magic school in whole of Britain and I will learn to use a real magic wand there. Of course, you and Neville must have wizard guardians and know a lot of magic. What about you two?"
Harry decided to stay silent about his guardians or his own experience with the Hogwarts letter, but Padma was already speaking "Of course we knew about Hogwarts but we are the first of our family to attend the school. Our mother got her magical education at home, but dad studied at Bhangarh Jadu Ashram, the magical school in western India. In fact, our parents preferred to buy our wands from a crafter back in India, plus they are worried if we could follow lessons in English. Also, they learnt incantations in Sanskrit, Hogwarts uses mostly Latin."
Hermione frowned "Mr. Ollivander is a master wand crafter as I heard. I had one from dragon heart-string suitable. Your wand core is made up of? "
"My wand core is a feather from a huma, Parvati's wand has a heart-string of a gandaberunda."
Hermione frowned again "Are they magical creatures from India? I bought another book too, on what magical animals are found in the British Isles. These names are new to me."
"The creature known as phoenix in Europe is actually a fire phoenix. Huma is the air phoenix. As for gandaberunda, well, it is a two-headed bird. Anyway, I am excited to attend Hogwarts. Dad's school had theory classes in day and practicals at night. Muggles cannot see the actual school; it is on a hilltop close to a fort." Padma suddenly giggled "The resident ghosts of the place roam around at night, and the wizards have an arrangement with the muggle government to keep away muggles during night. The school teaches battle magic besides other subjects. Of course if you read Indian epics from a wizard's viewpoint, they are full of descriptions of battle magic. That subject is not taught at Hogwarts, there's defense against dark arts and no teacher stays for long."
Harry suddenly asked "Does India have any magical games as in Britain? There are a few here, I learnt about them a short time ago. I haven't seen any of them played yet."
Parvati frowned this time "You don't know? India has its own quidditch team and they have played against the British a couple of times. Of course, when it comes to Indian muggles, cricket is the most popular sport in that case."
Harry still kept silent about his upbringing or his guardians, but had thought of a way to obtain information and said with a smile "Who will explain the game to our Hermione? Or you have already read an extra book you bought and know all of it?"
Hermione stuck out her tongue at Harry much to the amusement of the other three, but Neville volunteered and explained the game in a detailed manner.
"So, the quaffle is used to score the goals, ten points. The snitch is released half an hour later and catching it ends the game, awarding fifty bonus points to that side. There are one keeper, two beaters and four chasers-cum-seekers from each side. Releasing the snitch early may result in the game ending too soon. The positions of chaser and seeker used to be different and the snitch awarded 150 points, but there was a flaw in the system. Once it was found, everybody followed it and rules were changed."
Hermione raised her eyebrows in curiosity but Parvati giggled and continued "Whoever found it was a genius, I forgot the name and date. Simply put, the beaters were engaged to constantly target the seeker while all the three chasers and the seeker searched for the snitch."
Harry found himself agreeing with Parvati. The talk then briefly turned to the houses, it mostly ran in families. Maybe he would be sorted to Gryffindor but he wanted to be away from that redhead, out of doubt. The train stopped once at Waverley and then continued north, darkness was slowly falling. Harry looked out of the window and noticed one thing- the neat fields have vanished, the countryside outside is wild and very beautiful at the same time.
The other three continued to explain the other magical games to Hermione, she listened with rapt attention and Harry silently digested the information too. Much time passed this way, till it became very dark and lamps were switched on in the compartments.
Hermione suggested the boys to change to their school uniform, they agreed. Harry went to the restroom to change. He admired his reflection in the mirror; he did look like a young wizard. He made his way back to the cubicle when a loud voice was heard throughout the train "Five minutes left to reach Hogsmeade. Please collect the duplicate sticking tokens from the shelves above and attach one part to your luggage so that those can be tracked. Keep the other part with you. Luggage will be carried to school separately, leave them on the compartments."
Harry watched as the train finally slowed down and stopped at a dark platform. As he got down from the train, he admired the amazing scene on the platform- the area was pitch dark, but white glowing balls of light were floating in midair, illuminating the entire premises. The platform was crowded with hundreds of students, all in their Hogwarts uniform. He tried to stick close to the twins and tried to track Hermione and Neville, who had earlier gone back to their seats. What would he do now?
As if to answer his question, the same gamekeeper appeared on the platform, beckoning the first years. The man was towering over the heads of other students and when Harry found the eyes scanning the crowd, he quickly tried to hide behind some of the taller students. Then the first years followed Hagrid down a dirt track, the floating balls following the students and banishing the darkness. Beyond the path, everything was pitch black, no sign of any houses.
They soon reached a harbor. As the small boats were full of students, five on each but Hagrid alone on one, a single verbal command from the man resulted in the boats moving by themselves.
The boats sailed over the smooth dark waters of the lake and on the other side, there was an imposing castle perched on top of a cliff. Light shone out from its many windows and the sight was really awesome. The floating balls were accompanying the students as before, over the surface of the water.
The boats reached what seemed to be solid stone, but a large hole appeared on the surface as the boats came near. The boats finally reached a small underground harbor, where torches flared up on the walls.
Hagrid's voice boomed "Everyone off the boats?" then receiving a chorus yes, he knocked on the huge oak door with his gigantic right hand.
Jadu ashram- magical boarding. Muggles are not allowed near the Bhangarh fort at night in real life too.
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