Chapter 8 – Arrival
A lady's voice sounded in their compartment. From the distant echoes, they knew it must be sounding throughout the train. "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately."
Freddie bounced on the seat. Teddy grinned at the girls. Fenella smiled back at him. Xander stretched, stood up, then settled back on his haunches, looking very prim and proper. Lydia frowned. She could not understand why she had a tight ball of anxiety in her stomach.
The train continued to slow down. With a sigh of steam and a clanking of couplings, the carriages bumped to a halt together. The lamp-lit platform outside their window stopped sliding past. As Fenella slid the compartment door open it seemed every student on the train burst into excited chattering. They pushed and jostled their way down the corridor, Xander in Lydia's arms, towards the doors.
As they stepped down onto the platform, the cool evening air struck them. It carried a smell of coal and oil, along with the freshness of the pine forest.
They heard a voice booming from one end of the station. "Firs'-years! Firs'-years over here!"
"That's Hagrid!" Lydia grinned. "Lovely to meet you, Fenny. I'm sure we'll see you again, later."
Fenella grinned back. "You will. Go on, follow Hagrid!"
They pushed along the platform, going against the flow of the older, bigger students. Lydia could see Hagrid above the heads of the milling crowd, holding up a lamp. Freddie was in front of her and Teddy. He kept turning around every four or five steps to grin at them.
"Oh, 'ere she is, 'ere she is," Hagrid's huge, bearded face beamed down at them. "'Ello, little Lydia! 'Ere, your chicken's lookin' a bit furry. Hoho! 'Arry told me all about 'im. Alexander, isn't it?"
Lydia's nodded and beamed. "We call him Xander."
Hagrid bent down a little and loomed over them. "And is 'e, y'know, magical?"
"He's a cat, Hagrid!" she lectured him. "Of course he's magical!"
Hagrid chuckled. "Hohohohoho. Well, tha's me told. An' me the Professor of Care of Magical Creatures. Hohoho!"
"Hi, Hagrid," Teddy chipped in.
"'Ello, Teddy!" Hagrid greeted him, and joked, "Din't recognise yeh wi'out yer camelflage."
Hagrid stood up straight again and boomed, "Right. Any more firs'-years? All 'ere? C'mon, follow me, then."
Hagrid led them off the end of the platform away from the station lights. They followed the lamp in his enormous hand, held high for all to see. He led them onto a narrow path, which quickly became steep and rather uneven. Looking up, Lydia could see a strip of night sky between the trees, following the line of the path. Away from the station she could see the sky was not fully dark yet. This far north the light lingered a little later. Xander leaped down from her arms to make his own way. Apart from scattered whispering the students around her were mostly quiet. Probably concentrating on where they were putting their feet on the lumpy path, she decided.
"Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," their guide announced over his shoulder. "Jus' round this bend 'ere."
There arose excited gasps from the students, followed by an eager murmuring. Lydia smiled to herself, remembering her initial disappointment on seeing the castle. But, then, she had been a muggle. They arrived at the edge of the loch. Hogwarts perched proudly above the cliffs on the opposite side, its towers reaching upwards. It caught the early light of the rising moon, outlined against the deepening twilight in the sky. By contrast, the surface of the loch before them was a glassy black with a few sparkles of reflections.
"Right, then. No more'n four to a boat!' Hagrid ordered, indicating a crowd of oarless rowing boats sitting in the water at the shore.
Lydia, Teddy and Freddie clambered into a boat together. They settled on the boards which ran across it, serving as seats. 'Thwarts' Lydia suddenly remembered they were called. More of the useless information she had picked up from the stories her uncle used to tell her. Xander appeared by her side and inveigled his way onto her lap. She looked around. A few stray students were still looking for a boat.
"There's a space here," Lydia called to a girl with a mass of curly hair.
The girl dragged her feet over to their boat. Lydia offered a hand to help the girl in. She ignored it and shakily climbed in. She flashed a smile at Lydia, glanced at the boys, then looked down, avoiding eye contact. The girl was no bigger than Lydia. Other than that, Lydia could make out little else. Her robes were like anyone else's and her hair hid her face in shadow.
"Everyone in?" called Hagrid, looking around. He had a boat to himself. "Right. FORWARD!"
The boats moved off one by one, forming a neat flotilla which glided across the dark surface of the water. There was little talking, most were staring up at the castle. It towered overhead, getting closer until it was lost over the edge of the cliff towards which they were heading.
"Mind yer 'eads!" Hagrid bellowed.
They had reached the cliff below the castle and were gliding directly towards the ivy-covered rock. At the last moment, the strands of ivy parted, revealing the entrance to a dark tunnel. As the boats swept inside, one after another, they could smell the dampness of soil and mould. Ahead was a faint glimmer of yellow lamplight. The boats made their way towards the glow.
The tunnel opened out into a chamber, which contained a form of harbour with wooden jetties leading to a beach of rocks and pebbles. They climbed out of the boats onto the dark planks of the jetty and walked along to the beach. Xander shook his paws free of the water.
After all were disembarked, they followed Hagrid's lamp again into a passageway in the rock. It wound upwards, around and around. Hagrid's light glittered on the wet walls. They trudged on up the passage, drawn to the flame in the lamp.
They came out, at last, onto a lawn of grass, under the shadow of the castle. Xander rubbed himself on Lydia's leg, to let her know he was there. She looked down at him, he looked up at her. Clearly he was going off for a prowl. She nodded and he left the column of students. They continued across a lawn to a flight of broad stone steps, which they mounted to the huge, oak doors.
"Everyone still with us? Speak up if yer not 'ere."
Hagrid's fist boomed three times on the door.
The door swung open. The now-familiar figure of Professor Longbottom stepped out. He looked impressive in a smart robe which swirled about him in the night breeze.
"The firs'-years, Professor Longbottom," Hagrid announced.
There were a few gasps from the students. Lydia grinned to think that her friend Neville was a folk hero to her new classmates
"Thank you, Professor Hagrid," Neville said, bowing his head. "I shall take them from here."
He pushed the doors open wide and beckoned to the new intake to follow him inside. There stood the Entrance Hall with the marble staircase ahead of them. Lydia found it all more familiar than she had expected. Her fellow students were goggling around them at the torchlit hall and up at the distant ceiling. Lydia decided not to look, in case anyone was watching her.
"Hiya, Lydia!" came a whisper from beside and above her. She turned.
"Hi, Neville! Sorry… Professor Longbottom," she grinned.
Neville grinned back and winked at her and nodded to Teddy. Then he straightened up and strode to the front of the milling crowd of eleven-year-olds before leading them onwards.
There was a hum of chattering from behind doors to their right but Neville took them through a smaller doorway into an empty chamber. They crowded inside, uncomfortably close to one another.
'Welcome to Hogwarts," said Neville above the murmuring of the first-years. "The start-of-term banquet will begin soon but, before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is an important ceremony because, while you're at school, your house will be like your family at Hogwarts. You'll have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory and spend your free time in your house common room.
"The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each one has its own noble history and each has produced brilliant witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs earn your house points, but any rule-breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the House Cup! It's a great honour. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house you're in.
'The Sorting Ceremony will be in a few minutes, in front of the rest of the school. So, try and look your best and be proud. And remember, there's no need to be nervous, 'cos everyone in there has been through this themselves. They'll know how you're feeling and they'll be on your side."
Lydia could have kissed Neville. It was so nice of him to say that.
"I'll be back in a minute, when we're ready," Neville called over his shoulder as he stepped from the room.
"Exciting, eh?"
Freddie was by her side now, beaming and bright-eyed.
"Which house do you want to be in Freddie?" came Teddy's voice from behind Lydia.
Lydia turned to look up at them both.
"Don't care, really. Just hope I get in with some nice people," Freddie said.
"Not Slytherin, though?" Teddy persisted.
"Harry says Slytherin's not bad like it used to be," Lydia informed them. "And Draco's the Head of House. I like Draco."
"I think I'd want to be in Gryffindor," Teddy mused, "like my dad, and Harry. Or maybe Hufflepuff, like mum."
"You'll be in Ravenclaw," Freddie said to Lydia. "You're smart as well as cool. You watch, bet I'm right."
Lydia shuffled her feet and frowned.
"Don't be nervous," Teddy whispered to her. "The Sorting is to put you with your kind of people."
"It's not that," Lydia muttered. "It's just… well, everything's going all right."
"Is that a problem?" Teddy smirked.
"Not yet. I'm worried about what's going to go wrong."
"Ohmygod!" Freddie said in exasperation. "Could you be a bit more dramatic, please? You're worried that you've got nothing to worry about! Enjoy it. These are our joyful days. And when they're not, we'll do something about it. Like solving a puzzle. People do puzzles for fun!"
Lydia was laughing at herself. "You're right. I'm being stupid. Thanks, Freddie."
"If you want to see things differently look down the other end of the telescope," Freddie explained.
"What?" Lydia and Teddy said together.
There was an outcry behind them and a girl screamed. Lydia looked up. The school ghosts were parading through the antechamber.
"Hello, Sir Nicholas!" Lydia called to a ghost she recognised from her dinner in the Great Hall earlier in the year.
The tall ghost in the ruffed collar detached from the rest of the group and floated towards her. Some of the students beside her shrank away but Teddy and Freddie stood firm.
"Good Lord!" said Nearly Headless Nick. "Er, Lydia, is it not? Delighted to see you here. You'll be hoping to be placed in Gryffindor, I expect. Most pupils do, these days, having been the house of Harry Potter, you know."
Sir Nicholas had raised his voice so that his fellow ghosts could hear.
"Jolly good chap, Harry Potter," he continued. "A friend of mine, of course. He came to my 500th Death Day Party."
He smiled at Lydia and passed on. In fact, he passed through, rather than on. He passed right through Lydia. She shivered. It was like being drenched with icy water, but without the splash and the weight of the water.
"Say goodbye to the ghosts, everybody," Neville called returning to the room. "Come on, then. The Sorting Ceremony's about to start. Get into a line and follow me."
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