Chapter Three
Destination, Hogwarts

She awoke next morning to the smell of bacon and eggs, and her brother, Joe, standing over her. "You awake?" he said, "we should be going now."
"What?" said Sarah in a groggy voice. She looked at her clock, and saw that it was three thirty, only thirty minutes for her to get ready. Now she was wide awake. Her brother left her room, laughing to himself as he shut the door, leaving Sarah in a rush to get dressed quickly. It was still dark outside, as Sarah opened the curtains to the balcony door. An owl was waiting there on the railing, and she opened the door to let it in.
"Just drop it anywhere," she said hastily, starting to throw the few things she had forgotten to stuff in her trunk the day before, and slammed the trunk shut. The owl hooted indignantly, dropped the letter and left out the window.
Ten minutes later, her trunk and Din were set by the fireplace. Joe was sitting by the kitchen table gulping down the last of the orange juice, with her mom who was reading the daily news paper across from him. Her mom set down the paper when Sarah finally came into the kitchen, wearing her favorite casual blue robes.
"Ready?" her brother got to his feet. Puffy eyed and still yawning, she nodded, and grabbed the flower pot on top of the refrigerator.
"Take care of Din, and behave yourself," said her mom, also getting to her feet. "I don't want to hear anything about you tee-peeing the boy's dormitory at night, or-"
"They frog spawned our showers the night before," Sarah frowned, "we were just getting back at them. How many times do I have to tell you that?"
"Still," her mom said, "I don't want to hear any bad reports. Understand?" Sarah nodded, and her mom hugged her, with a proud smile on her face. "But if you must do something, next time use shaving cream and honey," she whispered in her ear. Sarah smiled as her mom freed her from her hug. Joe threw some floo powder into the fireplace.
"Diagon Alley!" he said when he stepped into the flames, and was gone with her trunk. Sarah picked up Din, and threw some floo powder into the fireplace.
"Dad says he'll be home for the holidays, so I expect you to come for winter break, d'you hear?" her mom told her just before Sarah stepped in.
"Is he coming back from his trip from work?"
"Well, he'll have a month left after he visits for winter, so he'll finally be back from Argentina when you return in the summer. I don't know why they asked him to go in the first place. Can't speak a word of Spanish, and can't go around anywhere without his translator."
Feeling a little more awake, and enlightened, she stepped into the flames.
"Diagon Alley!" she shouted into the flames. Her eyes shut, and her arms closed tightly around Din, she whirled through many tunnels of fireplaces, the rush of cold wind slapping her face each time she passed one. When she felt herself slowing down, she opened her eyes and readied herself. She came tumbling out into a pub, her brother standing before her, with his hands in his pockets.
"There's a car waiting outside for us," he helped her to her feet. Din struggled out of her grasp and hopped upon her shoulder. Quickly, already running late, since it was now ten forty where she was, she walked outside and hopped into the back seat of the car waiting for them. Joe came and sat next to her.
They arrived at King's Cross just in time to walk through the barrier between nine and ten, where the Hogwarts Express was waiting for her. Most of the students were already seated in the compartments, and some were still saying good bye to their parents.
Joe, being unusually nice today, helped her load her trunk into a compartment in the back. "Thanks, Joe," Sarah said awkwardly, when they were done. She scratched her head as she stared at her brother. "Since when did you become this nice to me?"
"What? I can't be nice to my little sister for a change?" he put on an innocent face.
"What now?"
"What?" said Joe blankly. "Nothing." Sarah stared at him suspiciously. "Can you spare a few Galleons?" he said giving up the act.
"What for?" cried Sarah.
"I'm gonna get that Firebolt today, in Diagon Alley," Joe grinned. "I've been saving up for a while to get it, but I'm still a few Galleons short."
"You bum! Why don't you get a job or something?" yelled Sarah, landing a not-so-hard whack on his forearm. "All you ever do is borrow money from me."
"I do have a job. I just haven't gotten my pay check yet," Joe said frustrated. "Will you or will you not let me borrow the money?! I only need at least eight or ten-"
"Eight or ten- Joe!" Sarah stared at him in disbelief. An idea popped into her head and she sighed and smiled up at her brother. "I'll let you borrow money from me on one condition." Joe waited for the horrible price that he would have to pay his younger sister. "That you let me borrow the broom for two months straight when I get back for the summer."
"Oh no! No-" Joe had an irritated look on his face. "It's an international broom. The World Cup used them. What would happen if you wrecked it? D'you know how valuable those brooms are?"
Sarah grin grew wider. "Fine," he forced himself to say, and Sarah gave him a few Galleons out of her leather pouch.
The whistle blew signaling that the train was about to leave. Joe hurried off the train, and gave her a quick hug. She stood at the window, and watched her brother wave good bye to her. She opened the window quickly just as the train began to move and called out to her brother.
"Remember! You owe me!" she said frowning as her brother smiled back mischievously. The train turned the corner, and her brother was out of sight. Calmly she walked back to her compartment, hands in her pockets, wishing Kelly Anne and Mike were with her. She opened the compartment door and stood staring; now there were three other students, two boys and a girl, sitting there too.
"Oops," she said in an inaudible voice, realizing that she had disrupted a deep conversation. They all had British accents she noticed, just like her father, but then again, she realized that everyone had British accents. She was about to leave them back to their conversation when the girl stopped her.
"You're the new student, right?" said the girl, sitting across from the two other boys. She was Sarah's age, and had bushy brown hair, and one of her text books in hand. "This is Harry and Ron, and my name is Hermione."
"She's a Prefect..." said Ron with grimace. He had extremely red hair that she noticed first hand. She looked back at Hermione, who had pinned on a shiny Prefect badge, and was grinning at the annoyed look on Ron's face.
"Hi," she said, unsure if she should still be there, "I'm Sarah." Din hopped upon her shoulder out from behind her. "And this is Din. I'm real sorry if I interrupted something-"
"It's alright," said Hermione, waving away Sarah's apology as a huge ginger cat leapt upon her lap. "This is my cat, Crookshanks."
"He's beautiful," said Sarah. The ginger cat looked up in recognition, and leapt off, letting Din follow him.
"At least someone thinks so," said Hermione, looking Ron with a frown. "So, did you come from the Salem Witches' Institute, or another school?" asked Hermione.
Sarah shivered, and shook her head as if making it clear that she would never have gone there in the first place. The Academy had been rivals with the Salem Witches' Institute for years, and played them at Quidditch and the broom races. Both schools always played against each other in the Quidditch finals, and each year they could never keep the Quidditch Cup a second year in a row. Salem had won last year, and rubbed it in their faces even more by boasting how they had help from watching the World Cup in Europe.
"I went to the Academy," said Sarah.
"Which one?" said Hermione.
Sarah stared blankly at her. She had never known another school called the Academy. "Las Colinas Academy High," she answered. "We just always call it the Academy."
"How long are you going to stay at Hogwarts?" asked Harry, the boy with untidy black hair, and wearing glasses that were tapped together, his bangs completely hiding his forehead.
"I don't know," said Sarah thoughtfully, and then took a seat next to Hermione.
"Do you play Quidditch?" said Ron.
"Well, I guess you could say that," she said and nodded towards the leather broom case lying on top of her trunk. "That's my broom," she said. "It's an Infinity. One of the newest models in America, but I don't think it can outdo a Firebolt."
"Harry's got a Firebolt," said Ron. "He's the Seeker on our team."
"Really?" she said looking at him, eye's lightening up. He nodded. "You know how funny that is? My brother just asked me to borrow some money so he could go and buy one," she said. "How in the world did you manage to get one?"
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Harry muttered.
She became more interested, and they compared brooms and talked more about Quidditch. It was true that the Firebolt was a lot better than her broom; Harry had caught the golden snitches in their house games faster than anything Sarah ever heard of. She learned that Harry, Ron and Hermione went to the World Cup last year. Then she found out that there was a spot open on their house team for her if she got into Gryffindor, though it was for Keeper, and that was her worst position.
Just as Sarah was beginning to tell them about a funny play she had made during a Quidditch match last year, someone opened the compartment door, and walked in, with two other people beside him dwarfing him so that they looked like body guards. Sarah didn't like the look on his face, as he smirked at her.
"So you're the new girl?" he said, as if it were a waste of time to come in the first place. Sarah didn't say anything, looking at him with a blank expression. "I'm Draco Malfoy, but everyone calls me Malfoy."
"Hi," she managed to say. She took a quick glance sideways at Harry and Ron, both frowning in dislike at the boy called Malfoy.
"A Prefect now are you?" said Malfoy, noticing the Prefect badge Hermione wore. "I really don't think they should let Mudbloods be Prefects, do you?" he asked Sarah, who didn't answer. "Well? Aren't you going to tell me your name, or have Potter and Weasley told you all about me already?"
"She doesn't have to tell you anything, Malfoy," Harry glared at him. Sarah sat back and stared at the anger radiating between the two. It was obvious that there was some kind of grudge between the two that had always been there.
"Don't you want to tell the new girl about me though? She probably wants to hear all about me," Malfoy said softly, his eye's flickering at Sarah.
"I've heard enough," said Sarah shortly. "You should probably go if the whole purpose of you coming in here was to tell me about yourself. I've found out more than enough, thanks."
Malfoy glowered at her. "I don't know anything about you yet though," he said and paused for a second. "So, what about you? Do you live in a box like Weasley? Are you a great big scarheaded show off like Potter? Or are you a Mudblood know-it-all like Granger-"
"I'd shut it if I were you," warned Sarah, speaking loudly. Her eye's met Malfoy's and then looked over at Harry and Ron who were now both on their feet. They were gripping their wands they had pulled out of their pockets, glaring at Malfoy with a look of pure venom. He saw that Sarah was fidgeting with something in her own pocket too, and gave her a disgusted look.
"I'd be surprised if you could even had a wand- you don't seem to be anything like a wizard. Look at your clothes. Mudbloods wear better stuff than that."
"Bring it on," said Sarah inaudibly.
"I'm sorry. Would you like to repeat that?"
"Leave her alone, Malfoy. She's done nothing to you," said Harry, advancing on him. Malfoy gave him a sneer.
"Go on, Potter, show us what you got. I'm sure the new student will be amazed. Show us what a great big, scar headed show off you really are-"
Before he could finish his last statement he was suddenly drenched from head to foot in water. He sputtered and shook his head. "Laugh while you can," he growled and left with his two body guard friends out of the compartement. Everyone broke into laughter as soon as the door shut behind him.
"He looked like a drowned river rat!" laughed Sarah. Ron took a bow, for he was the one who caused Malfoy to be soaked.
"I had to. I just couldn't stand it anymore," Ron told her. "He always comes and starts conversations like that."
"And does he always end conversations like that too?"
"Most of the time, yeah," answered Harry with a shrug, taking his seat again.
Sarah cocked her head thoughtfully, "And my wand was right there in my pocket..." she trailed off quietly with a smile before Hermione broke out into a protest.
"You could've gotten expelled if you did anything! All of you! Ron, you could get into serious trouble now! And it's only your first day Sarah-"
"Calm down, Hermione," Sarah was amused. She pulled out what she had been fidgeting with in her pocket. It was furry stuffed toy mouse, the size of her hand, and the letter she was sent this morning. "It's Din's favorite play toy," she explained. The little white kitten sprung out towards her hand, snatched the toy mouse, and landed on all fours, the toy mouse clenched in her mouth. "And a letter that I haven't read yet..." she said offhandedly, stuffing it back into her pocket.
"But nothing as good as a water spell....What's up with that guy anyway?" asked Sarah.
"He's just jealous of Harry," Ron said simply.
"It's always been like this, ever since we were first years," said Harry.
"I wonder what his family is like then," said Sarah thoughtfully.
Hermione suddenly changed the subject. "So what kind of things did you do back at the Academy?"
For a moment, Sarah stared at Hermione, and blinked. "Oh-" she said, remembering the question. "Um, nothing really. Broom races and Quidditch mostly. I did lead the girls into tee- peeing the boys dormitory's last year though, after they frog spawned our showers, and then we kinda ambushed them with water balloons and dung bombs out on the field," she said with a grin. "It was practically war between the fourth year boys and girls after that, and lasted the rest of the year. Even some of the under and higher classmen helped. It was the probably the most thrilling thing that had ever happened at that school, besides the Quidditch matches," said Sarah with a note of sarcasm. "That, and a teacher tried to suspend a kid on the last day of school for setting a toad on fire and making it speed through the hallways."
"What happened to him?" asked Ron.
"They thought that it was pretty pointless suspending him, so they sent a note to his parents. Even then they only laughed at him."
Hermione gave her a disapproving glare, that made Sarah clear her throat and change the subject. "Anyway," she said, "yeah- it's time to eat!" A plumb witch was wheeling a cart full of food into the compartment, which both Sarah and Harry bought from. They shared with Ron and Hermione, and talked more about where Sarah was from. But she was more interested in what Harry, Ron and Hermione had to say about where they lived. She had always wanted to live in Europe.
By night time, the train had slowed down, and come to a halt. A hundred horseless carriages were waiting for them outside, as she joined Harry, Ron and Hermione in one of them. Din pounced into her arms, unwilling to go into her basket to be taken to the castle separately. "Not a sound, d'you hear?" she told her cat, as Din purred happily on Sarah's shoulder.
The carriages began their journey to Hogwarts. Sarah was tingling with excitement, impatient to see Hogwarts itself. She'd have to write to Kelly Anne and Mike tomorrow morning and tell them about it.
A gate flanked with winged statues was passed, and Sarah finally saw the great castle. It was greater than what she had imagined, and even greater because before she was upset about having to leave her friends. Now it seemed, this would be a fine year after all.