Chapter 3 - The 11:00 from Kings Cross
The next few weeks had flown by for Barney. He had looked through all his new text books but very little of it made sense to him. And he'd resisted the urge to try and use his new wand after Professor Sinistra forbade him and told him it was illegal for young wizard and witches to do magic outside of school. Barney had to hide his wand though to stop his brother, who was determined to use it.
When the day finally came to travel to Kings Cross station in London Barney woke ridiculously early due to the excitement. He spent the morning pacing up and down his bedroom, having nothing else to do as he'd already got all of his things ready days before. His brother wasn't coming to see him off at the station, preferring instead to use his last few days of his summer holidays hanging out with friends especially as it was a Saturday. But Alfie did give his brother a big hug goodbye, something that was very out of character for him and which deep down showed he would actually miss him.
Barney's mum helped him load his large trunk into the car and then along with his sister they drove to the station before getting the train to Kings Cross in London. Once at Kings Cross, Barney lugged his trunk onto the main concourse and they all looked up at the departure boards looking for the train to Scotland.
"Where in Scotland is Hogwarts?" Barney's mum asked, not being able to see a train fitting their needs.
Barney wasn't sure. He couldn't remember either Professor Sinistra or Meron specifying that. He fetched the train ticket that they had given him back in early summer and looked to see if it said. As he looked he was a little puzzled.
"It's says the eleven o'clock from platform nine and three-quarters from Kings Cross on 1st September."
"What?" his mother exclaimed. "Give me that here, that can't be right," she said as she took the ticket from him and carefully read it. But her son was right. It did say platform nine and three-quarters.
"But that's impossible. There's no such thing as a platform nine and three-quarters!" she declared as she looked at her watch, realising they only had 6 minutes till the train was due to leave.
Barney looked around the station frantically when he saw a young girl with two people who must have been her parents. They were dressed in unusual robes and the man was dragging a large trunk, not too dissimilar to Barney's. He watched as they rushed towards platform nine.
"Come on, lets try over there," Barney said as he pointed to platform nine and quickly lugged his trunk onto an abandoned trolley nearby and pushed it hastily after them.
But when Barney got to platform nine the family of three he had watched heading that way were nowhere to be seen.
"Well this is hopeless," his mother declared.
Barney looked around some more and noticed a young man who just seemed to appear. He was tall and was wearing a suit and scarlet cape. He had dark skin and black hair up in a bun and was holding a piece of paper. Barney approached him.
"Hello... er excuse me... we're looking for platform nine and three-quarters?" Barney asked, realising how absurd he sounded.
The man looked at Barney and his mother and sister and then down at the piece of paper he was holding.
"You must be our other new muggle-born student..." the man said as he scanned down the piece of paper in front of him, "... Barney West. Correct?"
"Yes," Barney replied with a smile of relief.
"Nice to meet you all, I'm Professor Featherstone," he said extending a hand to greet Barney's mother. "And what perfect timing. Here comes our other muggle-born first year."
Barney turned to see a young boy who was a little taller than he was. He had very short black hair, dark skin, glasses and wore jeans and a grey sweatshirt. He too had a large trunk in tow and was followed by his parents.
"Good morning Thomas and good morning Mr and Mrs Button. Great to see you again," Professor Featherstone called out as they approached before pulling a pocket watch out of his suit pocket and checking the time. "Only four minutes till the train departs. You'd better all go straight through."
"Through where?" Barney asked confused.
Professor Featherstone crouched down beside Barney, putting a reassuring hand on his shoulder and with his other hand he pointed towards the platforms.
"Just walk straight at the barrier between platforms nine and ten, it's perfectly simple."
"But it's a solid wall!"
"Barney you need to stop thinking like a muggle and start thinking like a wizard," the professor exclaimed standing up straight again. "Just because you've been told something is impossible in the muggle world the same rules don't apply in the Wizarding world."
And with that Barney pushed the trolley with his trunk on and made his way to the barrier. He looked at the solid wall carefully and wondered if it was like the wall in the courtyard out back of The Leaky Cauldron and he would need to tap a certain brick with his wand to open a doorway. But before he could reach for his wand the brick wall seemed to ripple like it wasn't solid at all but in fact liquid.
Barney stretched out his hand towards the wall. Instead of meeting a solid surface his hand was engulfed by the wall. Slightly scared but also slightly enlivened he pulled his hand back and grabbed the handle of his trolley and pushed it straight into the wall and didn't stop until he collided with another trolley on the other side. He looked around. He was still on a train platform that looked exactly like the platform he was just on. But instead of a modern electric train, waiting at this platform was a magnificent, huge red steam train that bellowed smoke up into the air. The platform was heaving with children and parents all scrambling on it.
"Sorry," Barney said to the boy who's trolley he has knocked into as he realised that an owl,who was in a cage on the trolley, was thrashing about having been disturbed by the shunt.
"No worries," the boy said as he reached into his pocket, pulled out some owl treats and passed them to his pet through the bars of it's cage, which quickly calmed the bird down. "I'm Billy."
"Hi I'm Barney."
Billy's mum came over to her son. She was dressed in a yellow and green sari with numerous bangles on her wrist and gave her son a kiss on the check goodbye as his father took his trunk and loaded it onto the train.
Barney looked behind him to see where his family were. He saw Thomas, the other muggle-born boy and his parents had emerged onto platform nine and three quarters but his mum and sister were nowhere to be seen. In the distance a whistle blew and someone shouted in a deep voice 'all aboard' and Barney was worried he wouldn't have time to say goodbye to them. But thankfully they emerged, somewhat shaken and a little startled. Barney ran to his mum and gave her a huge hug and kiss as the platform descended into chaos as all the children rushed to board and parents said their tearful goodbyes.
"You be good and write every week," his mum said as she held his hug for a long as she could. "Professor Sinistra said you'd be able to send letters home as much as you want so you have no excuses."
"Yes mum," Barney said as his mum finally let him go. His ribs slightly hurting from the embrace.
Barney quickly hugged his sister and raced towards the train. He saw Thomas' dad was loading his trunk on to the train along with his own son's belongings. He thanked him and hopped up the steps onto the train. He saw Thomas in the corridor hanging out one of the windows and stood beside him and waved to his mum and sister as the train started to depart. There were loads of lasts second goodbyes being exchanged between parents on the platform and the children on the train that it was a wall of noise and Barney doubted anyone could distinguish what words were meant for who.
There was a deep booming whistle from the engine of the train as the driver signalled their departure. Barney and Thomas continued to hang out of the window and wave as the platform slowly slipped out of sight. Barney pulled his head back into the train and leaned back against the wall and let out a sigh of relief and Thomas rummaged in his pocket, pulled out an blue inhaler and took a long puff. Billy, the boy from the platform, came walking past holding the cage with the now settled owl in.
"All the compartments are full back there. Do you want to head down the train and find an empty one?"
"Sure," Barney replied. "Coming?" he said to Thomas, glad he was already making friends.
The three of them headed along the train but every compartment they passed was already occupied with overly excited kids, laughing and joking with each other. They eventually came to a compartment that only had two occupants. A young blonde girl who wore her hair in a pony tail and a skinny boy with short brown hair.
"Do you mind if we share you compartment?" Billy asked.
"Feel free," the girl replied in a welsh accent.
"I'm Billy and this is my owl Twitcher," he said holding up his cage. " And this is Barney and... sorry I didn't catch your name."
"Thomas."
"Hi I'm Gwen and this is Elio."
The boy made some strange movements with his hands towards them.
"He said nice to meet," Gwen added.
"Er... nice to meet you too," Barney said a little bemused as Billy put his caged owl up on to the rack next to another caged owl which must have belonged to Gwen or Elio.
"Elio is deaf," Gwen noted to explain his hand movements.
"Oh I'm sorry... nice... to... meet... you," Barney repeated but this time much louder and in a slow manner.
"He can lip rid."
"Oh," Barney said, feeling a little foolish. "Sorry."
They took their seats and got settled as they all told each other a little about themselves with Gwen interpreting what Elio said for the benefit of the others. Gwen explained that her and Elio's families were close so they had grown up together in a small village in the welsh countryside. Both Gwen's parents were witches but Elio's mum was a muggle. Billy told them that his mum was a witch from India and his dad was a wizard from Scotland but they now lived in London where his dad worked as an Auror, which Billy had to explain to Barney and Thomas what an Auror was.
When Barney and Thomas had told them that they were both muggle-born their new friends were fascinated and had tons of questions for them. Thomas explained that he wasn't technically from a muggle family. His grandma had been a witch and growing up she had told him many stories about magic and witches. However his mum had always dismissed her stories as tall tales and as his grandma had turned her back on the Wizarding world and never used magic, when Thomas was old enough to know better he had just presumed his grandma wasn't quite all their in the head. It wasn't until he got a visit from Professor Sinistra and Meron in the summer that he and his mum realised everything that his grandma had said had been completely true. Just unfortunately she was no longer around to see her only grandchild go to Hogwarts.
"So how comes your mum can't do magic?" Barney questioned.
"I dunno."
"She must be a squib," Billy interjected.
"A what?" Thomas asked, slightly taken aback at what sounded like an insult towards his mum.
"A squib," Billy repeated. "Someone who is born of magical parents but has no magic abilities themselves. It's quite rare but not unheard of, especially if they only have one magical parent like your mum."
"Oh," Thomas said slightly despondent, feeling sorry for his mum, but glad that Billy wasn't being rude about her.
They continued to talk about each others families, what Hogwarts was going to be like and Gwen even told Barney and Thomas about the Second Wizarding War, which had ended several years ago and resulted in a lot of Hogwarts being destroyed and subsequently re-built (by magic of course). The only time they stopped chatting was when an elderly, dimpled woman had come by pushing a trolley full of treats. Barney used the last of his Wizarding money he had left over from Diagon Alley to buy a Candy Wand and some Switch Bixs, biscuits which changed flavour as you ate them depending on your mood.
"I have a question," Barney said as he finished a mouthful of biscuit that had tasted of strawberry. "I've seen students with different badges on their robes. Pretty sure one had a snake on. What's that all about? "
Gwen was just about to take a bite of her cauldron cake but stopped, as Billy frantically tried to catch a chocolate frog that had got away from him.
"Oh that's Slytherin. You don't want to be in Slytherin," she said.
"Sliver what?" Thomas asked looking a little bit frightened.
"Slytherin. One of the four Hogwarts houses. Don't they tell muggle-borns anything before they come to Hogwarts?" Gwen replied.
Barney felt a little stupid, realising he really didn't know much about the place that he was going to be calling home for most of the next seven years. Billy sat back down having caught his chocolate frog before it managed to dive into Twitcher's cage. Elio started to sign and Gwen translated for him.
"Slytherin, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. The four Hogwarts' house named after it's four founding members."
"My dad was a Gryffindor," Billy added. "So he's hoping I get sorted into it too."
"What do you mean by houses? And sorted into? And why don't we want to be in Slytherin?" Barney asked. He had many more questions he was desperate to ask, but he was learning so much new information on the train he was struggling to take it all in and it was starting to give him a headache. He took a bite of another biscuit and realised this time it tasted of ginger and lime.
"When we get to Hogwarts they'll sort you into one of the four houses." Gwen stated. "These houses are like your Hogwarts' family. You'll have classes together, share a common room and dormitories and compete in the house cup together against the other houses."
"And why would we not want to be in Slytherin?" Thomas regretfully asked.
"Because there's never been a witch of wizard that's gone bad who wasn't in Slytherin," Billy quipped.
Barney heard Thomas take a big gulp and clutch his chest and could see in his face that his new friend looked tense. Barney had thought becoming a wizard was going to be all fun and frolics. But having heard about the war and now this, he was wondering what exactly he'd let himself in for.
"And what about the other three houses?" Barney asked.
"Well Gryffindors are courageous and brave," Billy said as he tried to flex his biceps and puff out his chest, but no one noticed a difference in his appearance.
"And Ravenclaws are intelligent and brave and Hufflepuffs are loyal and hard working," Gwen explained. "My dad was a Ravenclaw and my mum was a Hufflepuff so I hope I'm in either of those."
Elio signed and Gwen told the others that he said his dad was in Gryffindor but that he didn't mind which house he was in. Just not Slytherin. Both Barney and Thomas look worried.
"Don't fret," Gwen said reassuringly. "You'll both be fine. Muggle-borns never get sorted into Slytherin. It only tends to attract pure blood wizards."
The conversations continued for hours. Outside the sun was beginning to set as a voice called out from the corridor that they'd be reaching Hogsmeade station soon and luggage was to be left on the train to be taken to Hogwarts separately and students were to change into their school robes. Barney and the others in his compartment hastily pulled on their robes over their clothes. As they pulled into the small station a few minutes later, everyone on the train began rushing into the corridors and as soon as the train had come to a full stop they quickly clambered off and began to fill the platform. Barney followed the others from his compartment off the train.
"Firs'-years over here please," a deep voice bellowed like a foghorn from the platform.
The person who had called out those words was hard to miss. He was giant of a man towering over all the students by a good few feet. He had long shaggy hair and a messy, untamed beard.
"C'mon firs'-years. Sooner we get to 'ogwarts sooner we can eat."
At that comment Barney felt his stomach start to rumble and he willing followed the huge man, who in any other circumstances would have seemed frightening.
They followed the giant along a steep and narrow path which all of a sudden opened onto the edge of an enormous black lake. Resting atop a high mountain on the other side of the lake in the distance was a magnificent castle silhouetted by the setting sun behind it, giving the castle a magical glow. On the shore of the lake were little boats that they were ordered into. Barney and Thomas shared a boat with a pair of twins who introduced themselves as Theo and Arlo. The boats self propelled themselves in unison across the lake towards an opening in the cliff on the other side. The boats continued along a dark tunnel until they reached an underground harbour where they all carefully climbed out. The giant lead them along a path and up some steep stone steps which he took three at a time. Eventually they reached a pair of huge oak doors. The giant thumped on them twice and immediately they opened.
"Wel'ome ter 'ogwarts," the giant blared out.