Disclaimer: all the Harry Potter stuff belongs to J.K Rowling. I have also taken a few bits directly out of the Philosophers Stone book. Details at the end.
VVVVVV
It was finally September 1st. Regardless of the war to come, Mat was excited. He had a feeling of dread in his stomach but now he could finally do something, other than studying. He had to be on Platform 9 ¾ for 11am. Therefore, he had to be awake at stupid o'clock to go to the station to catch the train from Yorkshire down to London to get the train back up to Scotland. Typical wizarding stupidity. The annoying thing is that there was a train which went straight through where he lived that went straight up to Edinburgh, but nope. Anyway, he got up earlier than he should have. It was pitch black outside at 3am. They had to get the 6am train to London, one good thing was that they went straight into King's Cross. It was about a 4-hour trip.
Mat had packed all his stuff the day before. It didn't take him that long. He packed all the essentials such as everything on the list for Hogwarts, his clothes and the brand-new shiny telescope he had ordered. He had created a small study space in his trunk and added some furniture and had the goblins create a magic nulling area in there, he would try and get his laptop working while in Hogwarts. His mum was fussing for ages to make sure he had packed everything, she demanded he took a first aid kit… just in case. He didn't really bother with a pet and would use the Hogwarts owls. Everything was in order and he was basically sat at the door like a dog waiting for a walk by the time his parents came downstairs. They both gave him a smile as they came down, one after the other. All three of them ate some food then left.
The trip from home to the train station was uneventful, they packed up in the car park and walked to the station. They had about 10 minutes to kill so they went for a cup of tea. Finally the train arrived, they climbed onboard, into the first class section… obviously. They sat down on the table they had pre-booked, Mat placed his suitcase trunk on the luggage rack above their heads, it seemed to fit perfectly. His parents did the same with their overnight bags. They settled in for the long ride again. Mat brought up the idea of having a floo installed in the house. Two sets of sleepy eyes agreed. 6 o'clock in the morning was extremely unreasonable. They had a chinwag, food and a bit of a nap on the way down, all things considered, it was a rather nice trip. Apart from the delay due to poor weather in the Midlands. Mat pondered how long the train ride would be to Hogwarts. It was pitch black from the description of the boat ride in the books and films. So considering that sunset was at like 8 at night, that meant at least a 9 hour train ride. He got a bit depressed about the amount of travel he had to do in one day. Luckily for his parents, they could chill out for the rest of the day in London and go to the hotel they had booked whenever they wanted. Lucky sods.
They got off the train, it was 10:41. They didn't have much time to get onto Platform 9 ¾. They found the area but couldn't see which pillar to run into to get there. That's where he saw a gaggle of redheads and a heard a screeching woman approaching. He recognised them immediately, the Weasleys. He pointed to them and his parents recognised them as wizards due to their strange attire. They decided to approach and ask them what to do. As if no one told them how to actually get onto the platform? He was curious as to how many first year muggleborns had missed the train.
He approached the Weasleys and shouted, "excuse me?" Walking up to them has he did. All heads turned around to look at him, most of the tribe was there, with Bill and Charles absent.
Molly was the first to answer, she smiled a motherly smile, she was wearing beige, just beige, had red bushy hair and a kind face, "yes dear, how my I help you?"
Mat smiled back, "are you going to Platform 9 3/4 by any chance?" He realised how much like Harry he sounded, but with a Yorkshire accent, he refused to change that.
Molly nodded "yes we are, do you need help finding it?"
He replied, "yeah, no one told us how to actually get there"
She huffed, "typical, it wouldn't be the first time. See that pillar over there? You just walk straight through it." She pointed at a pillar that looked near enough exactly like the rest.
"How can you tell?" Mat asked, genuinely intrigued.
Molly placed her hand on his shoulder and lent down, pointing "See that sign in the middle, about half way up?" Mat nodded "Look at it properly" as soon as he did, he noticed it had a shimmer. He mouthed a silent 'o' in realising it's the same shimmer that the Leaky Cauldron had, but it didn't reveal anything. She turned to Percy, "Be a dear and show this young man what to do."
"Yes mum" he obediently said, lined up and ran towards the pillar. Mat couldn't help but tense up, expecting him to just bounce off, but he didn't and ran straight through. The twins grinned at him and followed Percy.
Mat looked at his parents, shrugged and copied what he saw Percy and the Twins do, and ran straight through. It felt as if he had a bowl of cold water thrown over him and was immediately dried off. He was hit with a cloud of steam which disoriented him a bit and then he saw it, just to his left, was the Hogwarts Express. Technologically speaking it was archaic, but it was a bloody majestic train. He kept walking, not very mindful of his surroundings as he stated. It appeared to be newly built, the black and red painting was fresh. He took note of the Hogwarts Express on the front of the train on an arched plaque in gold writing. He never really liked trains, he liked this one though.
He bumped into someone as he was not paying attention, turned out to be one of the twins, he couldn't tell which. He stumbled back and felt an arm on the top of his arm "watch it mate!" he said with a laugh.
"Sorry, was just looking at the train, not seen one so old before" Mat replied.
He shrugged, "its just a train, I've seen it for the past Merlin knows how long."
Another voice said next "He's Fred, I'm George, Nice to meet ya" he held his hand out to shake and Mat took it.
"I'm Mat, nice to meet you" Mat shook his hand. All three of them turned around when the rest came through, most of the Weasleys came first, then the Lawsons afterward. Ginny came holding her mother's hand, then Ron followed after, with Arthur behind Mats parents. Ginny was wearing a skirt and jumper with her hair tied back. Ron was wearing brown cords with a jumper and Arthur was wearing navy blue wizarding robes with a pointed cap. They all made introductions and they looked like they did from the movies but were different.
He could recognise the Weasleys anywhere because of what he had seen on screen but couldn't tell what was different about them. "I wonder if the actors who played them are real or not?" He never looked to see if the legend Alan Rickman actually existed. A question for another day Mat thought. The whistle blew indicating that the train was leaving in 10 minutes, the families bid their initial goodbyes, hugs were given and 5 minutes before the train was due to leave, Mat went to enter the train. He didn't even see the Twins get on. He saw Ron and Ginny looking wistfully at the train, obviously wanting to go with them. Arthur and Molly were waving at a window which the Twins were hanging out of, he couldn't see Percy. He gave another wave to his parents and climbed on board. He walked through the corridor for only about 30 seconds to find somewhere to sit when he found the Twins carriage. He opened the door and found Fred, George and a dark-skinned fellow with dreads looking at him. "Mind if I sit with you?" He enquired.
They looked at each other "only if you pass a test" the dark-skinned boy said with a mischievous grin.
"OK, what is it?" Mat said.
The twins said in unison "a test."
Mat grinned "Yes, but what kind of test?
All three grinned mischievously. The dark-skinned lad said "do a prank, and don't get caught. Come back once you've done it." The Twins laughed at that and agreed.
Mat laughed "Ha! OK, can I leave this here?" he held up the trunk. They nodded, and so he left to find some way of pranking someone. Mat wasn't a malicious individual, he didn't really like pranks either, but he felt if he could get in with the Twins and the other kid, who he assumed to be Lee Jordan, he could get a good head start in meeting new people. He saw a group of girls ahead of him. He tried to squeeze past them, they were crowding around a carriage, he couldn't tell who was inside.
"Excuse me" he said, no one noticed him, he tried louder "Excuse me! Can I get through?" two girls turned around with a look of scorn on their faces. He didn't recognise any of them, they must be in their final year.
"Go away firstie" one of them drawled. She was pretty, he hair in a pony tail and a headband and chestnut hair. She wore her uniform in a way that was probably the fashion in Hogwarts at the time, with one half of her shirt hanging out, the other tucked in. Her friend was similar. She was blonde but had her hair loose. Mat didn't take much notice of much else, as the blonde one pushed him away with her hand on his face.
Mat just smiled "fine" he said to them, they snickered behind his back as he walked away. Little did they know he cast a low powered flashbang in the middle of the group, and another one in the carriage. He took 4 more steps when they went off. All tried to hold in a laugh as he heard the screeches, screams and howls of both boys and girls. "My ears!" and "My eyes!" And "I can't see" were barely understandable through the cacophony of noise behind him. Some kids opened the doors to their carriages to see what the commotion was. Among them were the Twins and Lee, Mat walked past them with a blank look on his face into the carriage. They sat there looking at him and Mat winked. All four of them laughed.
"Welcome to Hogwarts, Mat!" either Fred or George said, they both slapped him on the back.
Mat laughed, "thanks lads, I didn't expect to find some good targets so soon though."
They agreed, "neither did we, we didn't expect you to go after some 7th years though. Very ballsy." Lee remarked.
"What did you do to them?" One of the Twins asked.
Mat tapped the side of his head, not telling them, sat down and leaned back into the seat. "Fair enough" the other one said.
The trip to Hogwarts was uneventful. He bought some food from the trolley lady. He decided to bribe them all with whatever they wanted. It went well. They tried to convince him that he had to fight a troll during the sorting ceremony. Mat gave them a blank look. They knew he wasn't gullible after that. People came and went, he saw Cho Chang as she walked past, he gave her a wave and she waved back. Mat had a little nap on the way there, turned out it was in fact a 9-hour ride.
They crossed the border into Scotland and the further up they went the scenery changed. Long green grassy hills turned into forested areas then when they got into the Highlands, it changed again to lochs, mountains and tall trees. The scenery was amazing. Mat had never been to the Highlands before. He had been to Norway though and the landscape was similar. Peering out of the window he was mesmerised by the beauty of the land. He looked forward from the train and saw a huge mountain come into view. He had seen mountains before, the Alps, but he didn't really see them from afar, they just sort of appeared when he approached them on a coach. They inched closer to the mountain and it grew in size the closer they got. Tall pine trees were replaced by rocky hills with grass that hung on for dear life. They looked to be cutting right through the mountain range, he could feel his ears pop with the change in altitude. The train lurched a bit and he noticed that they were travelling through and between two mountains, in a valley. It was serene.
He took all the sights in on the way to Hogwarts, if the scenery around the castle was as good as this, he would be quite happy there. He tried to access information about Hogwarts from the books he had read. Turns out that they just assumed everyone knew where the castle was. He never picked that up before. The Highlands was a big place, imagine trying to find something which was mostly wilderness? Mat just filed it away in the 'to ask later' part of his brain and chilled out on the train.
Eventually the sky started to darken, it was then when word came around to prepare for getting off at Hogsmeade Station. The people on the train seemed to get a second wind when they started moving around, excitement buzzed in the air. Mat was excited too. He couldn't wait to see the castle.
The Hogwarts Express on the wrong side of the hill which Hogwarts hid behind so he couldn't get a peek. The train slowed down, so it was nearly time for the journey to end. It didn't feel like they had travelled for 9 hours, he felt refreshed and ready to go. He was told to leave everything onboard, he followed the orders as everyone he was with did the same thing. It was surprisingly orderly. The stereotype for queues appeared to be the same for British wizards. He got onto the station, the Twins and Lee had disappeared.
Hogsmeade Station was in between two wooded hills. He couldn't see very far at all from where he was looking. As he turned around, though, he saw a massive lake which ended at some low mountains at the far end, there were probably trees everywhere too but he couldn't see them through the darkness. Hogwarts Express pointed toward it, there was a tight bend that was extremely close to the lake turning left. His view was restricted by the train so he couldn't see more. On his right side, there was a rather ominous looking gate which the older students were walked towards. Presumably to ride the 'horseless' carriages to the castle. It was then when the tallest man Mat had ever seen appeared to materialise from nowhere shouted "Firs' years, to me! Tha's it, hurry!" he forgot that no matter the occasion, everyone was too slow to react when the teachers wanted them to do something at this place. Most people had only just got off the train and they were being told to hurry up. Stupid.
Regardless, he followed the crowd of first years and got onto a boat. The boat he climbed in, from what he could see, was made of a dark wood which looked black. It had a lantern on the front that was on a hook on a stick. He got on with three other girls, they all seemed to know each other. They introduced themselves as Pomona Nott, Ariana Murray and Olympe Slinkhard. Mat noticed the Nott name but tried his best not to give it away. Pomona Nott was of fair skin, long black hair which was loose with a black headband in, she looked quite mousey in appearance and had hard, chestnut eyes. Ariana Murray was of a darker skin, jet black hair with freckles and had a wide face and friendly, dark eyes, as black as coal. Olympe Slinkhard had long golden hair in a loose pony tail, topaz green, serious eyes, porcelain skin and looked rather wolfish, yet snobby in appearance. He could tell that all three were purebloods. He introduced himself and he received three small nods in reply. And that was that. They didn't speak to him, and he didn't speak to them, he was fine with that.
Suddenly the boats lurched off, and a few girls squealed, and boys giggled nervously. He held onto the side and they all set off in the mini armada towards their destination. They turned a corner and that was when they saw it. Majestic in its beauty and dominant on the landscape. It had a beautiful backdrop of forest covered mountains and was reflected in the calm water of the lake. The castle itself appeared black in the night but sparkled like stars in the sky from the light in the large arching windows. There were hundreds of towers with battlements attached to them and tall spires reaching into the heavens. It was situated at the edge of a cliff, which must be where the great hall was, it was the largest single piece of architecture on the complex and had a massive tower with a spire, which was as tall as the tower, on top at the beginning of it. All in all. It looked awesome.
He looked around and saw some ripples and a tentacle come out of the water and slink back into the depths. "The Squid," Mat thought "I wonder if it's friendly like in the books". They made their way toward an arch cut into the cliff which acted as a small port for the little armada to dock in. As soon as they docked and started getting out of the boats, Hagrid perked up again "hurry now, we don't want you lot' to be late fer the feast now do we?"
Mat rolled his eyes, climbed out of the boat first, offered his hand to the girls, they declined, he shrugged and walked away. They made the trek up the stairs and waited to go into the great hall, there was a mixture of emotions, ranging from fear, to excitement, to impatience. They had a meeting with Nearly Headless Nick when he popped up from the floor. He made most people jump, including Mat. It was strange to see a ghost. They just seemed to be see through floaty people, nothing scary about them, and friendly enough to talk too.
She was felt rather than heard when Professor McGonagall appeared and shooed the ghosts away. She was standing next to the huge wooden doors of the great hall at the top of the stairs. All eyes turned to her and all talk quietened under her stern glare.
"Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room.
"The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rulebreaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honour. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.
"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting."
They were then ordered to form a line and follow her. They did as told, and the door opened. He took a deep breath and followed the rest inside. He had been to the Studio Tour in London and saw how they used camera tricks to make the small set seem massive. He was unprepared by the sheer size and majesty of it when he walked through the threshold. He couldn't tell how big it was. It had statues leaning out from pillars between the stained-glass windows which were holding braziers in their mouths with an ethereal fire burning inside. The statues were of snakes, griffons, badgers and eagles. The houses creatures. There was wooden panelling below them and pillars which look to be the platform for the statues to stand on. They were intricately carved and looked almost lifelike. The floor was of all colours of the rainbow made from pure marble, locked together in a herringbone style. On any bare piece of wall there were tapestries hung or faded magical paintings of things like pentagrams, the sun, moon, stars and mythical beasts. The ceiling ran high then ended, turning into the night sky, populated by floating candles and stars behind them. It was surreal.
He looked at the children there, there were not that many to say that it was the wizarding school of the entirety of Britain. About 300, tops. There appeared to be only 30 odd in his year alone. There were over 300 kids in his primary school in the muggle world. This didn't seem right. He finally looked at the main table. One person caught his eye. Dumbledore.
He radiated power, he could see it. He had a grandfatherly look about him and had grey robes with silver trimmings which seemed to glitter every time he moved. He long beard that fell below the table, so he couldn't see how long it was and was peering at the students over his halfmoon glasses with a small smile.
The second person to catch Mat's eye, was Professor Quirrell. And that was because he was looking for him. He seemed… normal. No strange twitches, heathy skin. Still those ridiculous purple robes, but no turban. "So this must be the Quirrell before Voldy got on the back of his head" Mat thought.
He took in the other teachers and they were straight copy and paste from the films. Yet, again, somehow different. Mat shrugged it off to his brain making connections to his past life and what he had seen before.
The first years were herded to stand at the front of the Hall and stopped in front of an old hat on a stool. The Sorting Hat. It was a ragged old thing, kind of a faded blue in colour and almost grey. A grin appeared in it and it began to sing. It sang, Mat hated it. So he ignored the son and looked around some more.
Eventually it stopped and Professor McGonagall called to them. "When I shout your name, sit on the stool and you will be sorted by the hat. Belby, Marcus." She called.
A boy came through the crown as it parted for him. He sat down with a worried expression and the hat was placed on his head. He closed his eyes and didn't move for nearly 10 seconds. Then suddenly "Hufflepuff!" The Hat announced.
Hufflepuff cheered and then Katie Bell was announced. She was quickly sorted into Gryffindor. A few names, such as Cho Chang, Eddie Carmichael and Marietta Edgecombe were shouted before Mat's turn.
"Lawson, Matthew" McGonagall announced. He took a deep breath and took a seat. The world went black.
"Hmmmmm, what do we have here? A traveller? From another universe? This is a new one, even for me. Now, where to put you?" the Hat said in his mind, its was a soft voice, a voice from an old wise man.
"Hello Mr Hat." Mat said, trying to break the ice a bit. He needed to be placed in the right house for his plans and to fight Voldemort.
"Hello, Boy! Fight Voldemort eh? That's a very Gryffindor thing to do, don't you think?" the Hat replied.
"So you can read my current thoughts as well?" Mat asked.
"Indeed, your secret is safe with me. You are a hard one to place. Its usually over by now. Hmmm, lets see, you have a thirst for knowledge, Ravenclaw would do well for you. You are cunning, planning the war from the shadows proves this, so you could do well in Syltherin. You are loyal to your family and people you care about, as well as to people you haven't met yet, so Hufflepuff would be a good choice. I haven't had someone as hard as you to place in years." The Hat hummed to itself.
"I don't think Slytherin is a good idea, you know, being muggleborn and that." Mat Said, trying to help it out a bit.
"That is true, but you could get contacts in that house which would help you with your ambitions. That being said, if they discovered that you were helping fellow muggleborns and half bloods your life would not be very pleasant."
Mat agreed "also I don't think Hufflepuff would be that good of a fit either, they value fair play and I don not pan on doing that, at all. Also, I need to make allies and a name for myself, being sorted in there would hinder my progress by just being associated with that house."
"Another good point there Mr Lawson, and I quite agree with you. Now we have two houses left. Tell me which one you think would be your best fit."
"Erm OK, well, Gryffindors are brave and chivalrous, and are mostly all light users. I consider myself brave, but don't run in headstrong and prefer to plan my strike. Keeping to a strict moral code would be hard because I will mostly be working in the grey area of magic, so I think Gryffindor is out." Mat reasoned with the Hat.
"And that leaves Ravenclaw." The Sorting Hat said. "You have a vast amount of knowledge, you are a fast learner and want to be a leader in the coming war. You have vast resources and still wish to learn and push the boundaries of magic and science. You are accepting, creative, and have a strong individuality which would help you become incorruptible. Therefore…"
The world came back into view and he heard the Hat coughed, he saw some relieved faces when he opened his eyed. How long was he out? He heard the Hat yell "Ravenclaw!"
VVVVVVV
The bits taken from the book are: The Welcome to Hogwarts speech.
