Chapter 36

Tuesday, September 1, 1992- Platform 9 ¾, King's Cross Station, London, England

Healer Smith allowed Patricia to go home after three days in St Mungo's under the condition that she didn't take part in any strenuous activity until after school started. That meant that she could go to Diagon Alley for back to school shopping with everyone else, but after she was measured for new robes she was left at Fortescue's with an ice-cream sundae and Remus keeping an eye on her. She missed the fight between Mr. Weasley and Lucius Malfoy that happened at Flourish and Bolts and, more importantly, missed a chance to meet Gilderoy Lockhart, the author of more than half their book list and their new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.

Then Harry grumbled about how Lockhart had kept trying to get him to pose for photos enough times that Patricia actually started to be thankful that she had missed the whole thing.

Remus got Patricia onto the Hogwarts Express ridiculously early so that she wouldn't be stressed by the crowd on the platform at the normal time. Fortunately she had gotten word out to her friends and enough of them had decided that they didn't mind losing an hour of sleep to keep her company. Fred and George were late to be early, but that was to be expected with the Weasley family.

Patricia, Noe, Grace, Fred, and George took over one of the larger compartments and started a game of Exploding Snap while Percy headed to the prefect's carriage, dragging Ginny along with him, and Grace's sister Hannah and her friend Susan Bones went to find their own compartment. Harry had slept over at the Burrow the night before and arrived with the Weasleys. Patricia didn't see him or Ron anywhere and she suspected that they'd snuck off when the rest of them were trying to keep Benvolio and Susan Bones's cat from killing each other.

Five minutes before departure time, the break in between games of Exploding Snap was long enough that the group realized that the train was too quiet. Grace went to go see what was wrong and came back a few minutes later with the news that the barrier from the Muggle side of King's Cross to Platform Nine and Three Quarters was blocked off and almost an hour and a half had been wasted trying to get it open before a conductor from Platform Seven and a Half started bringing people in one at a time through the employee entrance.

"How odd," Noe said. "Have your parents ever said anything about that happening?"

Patricia, Grace, Fred, and George all shook their heads. "I think Papa and Harry's dad once set a bunch of Jarvey pups loose on the platform," Patricia offered, "but that didn't block the entrance, it just made people run away."

George looked at his brother. "Do you think we could—"

"No!" everyone in the compartment who wasn't a Weasley twin said firmly. Fred and George made exaggerated moping faces.

"By the way, Ron and Harry just got onto the platform," Grace said to Patricia and the twins. "The barrier was probably blocked right before they tried to go through."

So that was why Patricia hadn't seen them. Well, at least they were on the train now and hadn't decided to do something ridiculous to try to get to Hogwarts.

For the first time since it had been implemented the Hogwarts Express left the station late. The crowd of parents on the platform all had confused looks on their faces as they waved to the departing train. There would be more than a few of them complaining to the Ministry, the school, Headmaster Dumbledore, and all four of the House Heads before the day was up. The Daily Prophet even received a few Howlers, though what they could have done to make the train run on time was anybody's guess. Maybe if Rita Skeeter threatened to write an unflattering piece about the blocked barrier it would have opened up?

Most of the older students were just as confused as their parents. When Lee and Violet joined their friends they brought stories of disgruntled prefects patrolling the train, trying to keep other students from wreaking havoc.

"Percy was yelling at some Slytherins last we saw him," Lee said. "It's mad out there. The Hufflepuffs are worried we'll be late, the Ravenclaws are trying to figure out what happened, the Slytherins are blaming Dumbledore, the Gryffindors are defending Dumbledore, and the firsties are panicking because everyone else is panicking."

"Generally speaking," Violet added. "Deal us in?"

The train ride passed as it normally would, after the yelling in the corridors died down. The seven of them played Exploding Snap, traded Chocolate Frog cards, and talked. Adrian stopped by to say hello before moving further down the train to avoid Warrington. The Hogwarts Express somehow arrived in Hogsmeade on time, though none of the Ravenclaws could figure out how that happened until the ninth week of school. (The rest of the students didn't even try.)

Hagrid was waiting at the station to take the first years across the lake. Patricia spotted Ginny and Luna in the crowd around him (their bright hair made them easy to see) and waved. Luna smiled serenely and waved back in a way that looked like she was shooing a fly. Ginny waved enthusiastically before Hagrid herded all of the firsties towards the boats.

Patricia finally saw Harry as the older students were entering the Great Hall. He and Ron were being playfully hassled by Fred and George while Hermione chided them so rapidly that no one was actually able to understand what they were saying. Patricia rolled her eyes and left them to it. She didn't want to know whatever stupid thing the second year boys had done. She strongly suspected that knowing would send her straight to Madam Pomfrey for a Calming Draught.

The Sorting Hat's song was longer than it had been in previous years, probably because the group of first years was the smallest it had been in years. These firsties had been born during the last year of the war, when the fighting and fear were at their worst. Every family not on the side of Voldemort was focused on staying alive and having to care for a new baby was not conducive to that. Out of the eighteen firsties, nine of them had been bore in Britain to a wizarding family. The rest of them were muggleborns or had been born abroad to wizarding families (half-bloods and muggleborns) who had returned to Britain after the war ended (blame the celebratory air for bringing them back to the country where they were persecuted and discriminated against).

Once the song was over the actual Sorting began. A tiny boy, "Creevy, Colin!", was the first new Gryffindor and was greeted by thunderous applause from the house of lions. By the time "Harper, Julius!" went into Slytherin the applause was less enthusiastic as half the hall was busy looking towards the Ravenclaw table right at where Patricia was sitting. They were waiting for a new prophecy and luckily ended up disappointed. Giving another prophecy that soon after what happened with the last one would not have been good for Patricia's health.

Patricia ignored the prying eyes and concentrated on clapping as loudly as she could for all the new Ravenclaws. This got harder as the Sorting went on because there was an overabundance of first years placed in Ravenclaw. By the time Luna put on the Sorting Hat they already had five girls and four boys. Luna brought the number of girls up to six and then the two boys after her made the number of boys the same. The next three students went in Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Hufflepuff again, and then it was Ginny's turn.

Ginny walked up to the three-legged stool at the front of the Great Hall and sat down. She placed her hands flat on top of her legs to try to stop them from shaking. Everyone in the hall expected this Weasley not to even have the Sorting Hat on her head before it put her in Gryffindor. When that didn't happen a few surprised whispers broke out. At the one minute mark even the ghosts and professors were looking shocked (except for Snape, who had his usual sneer on his face, and Lockheart, who was paying attention to the new pocket-sized portrait of himself that he'd received that morning). After two minutes the entire hall was silent, waiting for the announcement that had to be coming any second now.

Finally, the Sorting Hat spoke. Its announcement seemed to echo in the hall endlessly.

"RAVENCLAW!"