Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in this story (more's the pity--they could help pay my student loans) except for Eve Berger. Nor did I come up with the plot of PoA, and the scenes and dialogue included in that fab book, which I humbly reproduce at certain points herein. All that belongs to J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros., Bloomsbury, Raincoast, Scholastic...the list goes on!
A/N: As always, thanks to my ever-faitful beta, Joan, a.k.a. "Hyacinth Macaw".
And fear not Snape fans! Snapers will be appearing in the next chapter. I haven't forgotten him; he won't let me!
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Chapter Three: The First of September
Two weeks later, Eve placed Erik's crate on top of her trunk and pushed her luggage trolley across King's Cross Station at ten-thirty on the morning of September the first. Her ticket for the Hogwarts Express was clutched tightly in her hand as she glanced up at the ticket barriers, knowing already that there wouldn't be a platform nine-and-three-quarters, but looking just the same. She had to wonder if there had been a misprint on her ticket, but the departure boards hadn't listed a Hogwarts Express at any platform.
As she stood in front of platform nine wondering what to do, she heard someone behind her, chatting loudly. I wish they'd let us have brooms in first year. I heard Durmstrang students do, but no, not at Hogwarts.
Eve turned to see a girl who appeared to be about eleven talking to another girl of the same age. A rather harried-looking woman was ushering them straight towards her.
I don't see why you would need one, first years aren't allowed out of Hogwarts anyway. Now remember, just walk straight at the barrier between platforms nine and ten and don't let yourself be distracted. You first, Min. The girl that had complained straightened her shoulders and walked forward. Eve craned her neck to see what happened to the girl, but there was a sudden surge of people and she was blocked from view. Did she actually just walk through the barrier? Eve thought.
As the other girl started moving, Eve pushed her trolley so that she was directly behind the other girl, following her. As they walked forward, Eve saw the other girl's trolley approach the barrier, and then all of a sudden she seemed to have walked through it. Eve had no time to think about what she saw because within a split second she was at the barrier, there was a loud rushing of air in her ears, everything went black for a moment--
And she was standing on a railway platform, the sign in front of her reading Platform Nine-and-Three-Quarters. Hogwarts Express. A bright scarlet steam engine stood beside the platform where hundreds of children, almost all dressed in black robes, climbed into carriages, hugged their parents goodbye, or unloaded their luggage.
Eve stood there for a moment, gaping at the scene, before a loud voice came over the loudspeaker and broke into her thoughts.
All Hogwarts students, the train will be leaving in ten minutes. Hogwarts Express leaving in ten minutes. Please leave your luggage in the luggage rank and make your way onto the train. Thank you.
Eve pushed her trolley to the luggage rank and grabbed her rucksack and Erik's crate from the top of her trunk. Climbing aboard, she walked down the corridor, pushing her way past other students moving in the opposite direction, some of whom gave her funny looks as she walked past. The train carriages were old-fashioned looking as well, with small, four-person compartments with doors instead of the open coach seating she was used to on British Rail trains.
She managed to find an empty compartment near the end of the train and dropped onto a seat with her rucksack at her feet and Erik's crate on the seat beside her. Outside the whistle blew as a five-minute warning, and by sticking her head out the window, Eve could see plumes of steam rising from the engine. She closed the window and the door to the compartment before settling back into her seat and undoing the catch on Erik's crate. He bounded into her lap, for, shy as he was, he didn't much like being trapped in the crate, not after having the run of Eve's flat for two weeks.
While the cat hadn't been hard to explin, she'd had to think a minute befre deciding how to explain to Beth why she was moving out. A simple story seemed best, and she'd said that she had only just been accepted for a position at a museum in Newcastle and would have to leave on the first of September. Beth hadn't questioned it at all, and so Eve had got over that first hurdle easily. The two intervening weeks had been filled with transporting her belongings to her parents' house (she wouldn't need much more than her clothes and some of her books at Hogwarts) and finding someone to sublet the flat, which hadn't been as arduous a task as she had expected.
The door to the compartment banged open and a girl with curly red hair stuck her head in. Eve made to grab Erik, thinking he might dash into to passageway, but he seemed to be sidling towards his crate instead.
Mind if we sit in here? the girl said, gesturing to her darker-haired friend out in the corridor. Both girls appeared to be about seventeen or so, and both already wore the school uniforms. Eve noticed that they were wearing ties with blue and bronze-coloured stripes, unlike the black one she had. Where do the coloured ones come from? she wondered, briefly worrying that she'd got the wrong kind.
No, come right in, Eve said, trying to look welcoming as her stomach did cartwheels.
The two girls flopped down in the seats opposite and tried surreptitiously to give her the once-over.
Are you teaching at Hogwarts? the dark-haired girl asked.
Er, no. I'm a student.
Really? What house are you in? You can't be in Ravenclaw or we would have seen you long before this.
Well I'm not sure what house I'm in--
Oh, are you a transfer student? the redhead asked.
No...this is my first year at any...er...magic school.
They both looked at her curiously, then the dark-haired girl turned to look at her friend and they started chatting amongst themselves, almost as if Eve wasn't there.
Eve felt herself colouring and tried to look as though she was preoccupied with looking at Erik's tags before taking out The History of Magic and starting to read from where she'd left off. She'd read through quite a bit of her texts already, as the quick flips she'd taken through each of them once she'd got them home had piqued her curiosity. Besides, she had next to no knowledge about anything magical, and she would stick out enough already. Erik curled up on her lap and glared at the other girls in the compartment while Eve absent-mindedly stroked his fur as she read, taking occasional glances out the window at the countryside rolling past.
She had just finished another chapter when the girls' chatter broke into her concentration.
You know, Mum was saying we mightn't be able to go to Hogsmeade at all this year, what with Black on the loose, the dark-haired girls said, wrinkling her nose in disappointment.
Despite the girls' chilly attitude towards her, Eve couldn't pass up this opportunity to resolve her curiosity. Excuse me? Why would wizards be afraid of Sirius Black?
The girls looked at her as though she had transfigured into something slimy. Because Black is a wizard, the red-haired girl said, clicking her tongue in annoyance, Didn't you know? He escaped from the wizard prison, Azkaban, that's why they never mention where he escaped from on the Muggle news.
Since when do you watch the Muggle news? the dark-haired girl asked her companion.
The other girl sighed and rolled her eyes, I had to visit my Hufflepuff cousin during the summer. He's half muggle, so they have a television and all that Muggle stuff. She launched into a description of the gadgets she'd seen over the summer and the conversation between the two started afresh, again as though Eve wasn't there.
The sky outside rapidly darkened during the ride as grey, rain-heavy clouds appeared and blocked the late summer sunlight. In mid afternoon, rain began to fall steadily, pelting against the window and blurring the scenery. Lanterns flickered on as the little light left faded to almost pitch black. The rain was coming down in sheets when the train finally began to slow, the carriages shuddering in the gusts of wind as they lost momentum.
We must be there already; this trip seems to get shorter every year, the dark-haired girl said.
The red-haired girl looked at her watch, puzzlement crossing her face. No, wait, we can't be at Hogsmeade yet, we've got at least an hour. Just as she said that, the train stopped and in an instant all the lights were extinguished.
Eve could hear squeals of fright and surprise from up and down the train corridors, as well as a the rumble of voices in the passage over the sound of the storm outside. The two girls were talking excitedly to each other when there suddenly came the sound of their compartment door opening and a low, sucking, rattling noise. Eve felt a sudden cold feeling creep into the compartment, a weight of sadness seeming to drop on her shoulders. For some reason, memories of the taunts of her peers rushed back to her from years before, making fun of the way she looked and her penchant for books, that familiar feeling of crushing loneliness filling her stronger than ever before. She was alone, she would always be alone... It felt as though the darkness inside her was swallowing her whole, that she'd never be happy again...
Erik jumped off her lap and Eve made a wild grab for him, but missed. She could hear him over by the compartment door, hissing and spitting at something, but it was too dark to see her companions, much less a mostly black cat.
Oh, hell. Lumos! one of the other girls said, and a dim light sprouted from the dark-haired girl's wand, illuminating Erik, his fur standing on end, back arched as he tried to scare off the figure in the doorway.
It was very tall, its head brushing the top of the door frame and was dressed in a long, black cloak, the hood throwing the figure's face into a deep shadow. It was so intimidating that Eve unconsciously pressed herself against her seat in sheer terror, as if she could eventually absorb into the cushion, out of the figure's sight.
The other girls looked as frightened as she was, their eyes staring at the figure in horror. Eve could hear shrieks of terror and crying from other compartments in their carriage.
The figure stood there for what seemed like hours before it finally turned and shut the door, moving down the car, the rustle of its cloak the only sound it made as it passed.
What the hell was that? Eve gasped, her heart very slowly beginning to return to its normal rate, every nerve jangling. The temperature in the compartment seemed to rise with the figure's departure, and the sorrow and depression that it had caused in Eve was slowly fading. The other girls looked as shaken as she was, and when they spoke their voices held none of the disdain and superiority of before.
D-dementor. One of the g-guards of Azkaban, the redhead said, her teeth chattering.
God, n-no w-wonder Azkaban's s-such an awful place, the other girl said.
The lights flickered on and the train slowly started to make its way forward again, but no one in Eve's compartment seemed to be much comforted by this, except Erik. Once the train was underway again he crossed the compartment and hopped into Eve's lap, rubbing himself against her hand. She petted him absent-mindedly, hands shaking.
There was silence in her compartment for the next hour until a voice came over the speakers on the train, saying that they were nearly there and students should leave all luggage on the train. Eve was more than happy to hear that, and hoped that the Dementors were all somewhere else on the train, that she wouldn't have to get anywhere near them anytime soon. Packing Erik back into his crate, she pulled her uniform out of her rucksack, putting it on in one of the lavatories in their train car shortly before the train began to slow once more.
Eve stepped off the train, looking around in confusion at the tiny railway station they had stopped at. With the rain pelting down she felt absolutely frozen, her hands turning pink with the damp and cold as she pulled up the hood of her robes and wiped her glasses dry on her uniform sweater. Over the din of chattering students and the steady downpour, she heard people calling to each other as the group herded down the platform.
Eve hardly had to look around before she saw the source of the voice booming Firs' years! Firs' years over . It was coming from an absolutely enormous man, towering over everyone else, his bushy black hair and beard almost hiding his face. She walked over nervously, joining the other first year students and feeling like the proverbial sore thumb in the sea of eleven-year-olds. At least most of them seemed to be too preoccupied with what had happened on the train to take much notice of her.
The man looked at her curiously for a second before calling out, Ah, you mus' be Miss Berger! A'righ' everyone, I'm Hagrid, er-- Eve thought she saw his mouth form a smile for a moment under that huge beard-- Groundskeeper at Hogwarts. I'll lead yeh to yer boats, jus' follow me! Eve and the rest of the first years followed the bouncing light of Hagrid's lantern, down a dark path. There was a sudden bend in the path, and a single, unified gasp rose from the students' throats as they took in their first view of Hogwarts, still visible through the heavy rain. At their feet was a large, dark lake with a number of boats tied up along the shore. Beyond that, on top of a high, craggy mountain, was a huge, walled castle. Turrets and towers sprouted from the main building as though it was a plant, growing in every direction. There had to be hundreds of rooms, Eve thought, almost forgetting the Dementors. Light glowed from each of the thousands of windows, of varying shapes and sizes. The light looked warm and comforting, and Eve couldn't wait to get in out of the rain. In the dim light from the castle's windows, it looked like something from a fairy tale, unreal, magical. This, then, was Hogwarts.
All righ', four to a boat then, everyone. Miss Berger, you'd best come wi' me--yer taller n these others an' you'll tip the smaller boats, Hagrid said, and Eve reddened. She had to wonder whether it was her height or her weight that would tip the other boats, and she could see a few of the students sniggering behind their hands as Hagrid handed her into the large boat at the head of the fleet.
Once everyone had boarded one of the boats, the little fleet set off across the choppy waters of the lake, each craft apparently under its own command. Eve glanced nervously at the waves, but her gaze was inevitably drawn back to the castle. She had always been fascinated by history, had majored in it in university, and she had loved visiting what remained of those castles still standing. The idea of living in one that was in perfect condition...
They were approaching the cliff now and in front of her, Hagrid called out Everyone duck, now! as a curtain of ivy parted in front of them, revealing a dark tunnel. Eve ducked, then straightened as the tunnel passed away to reveal an underground cavern. Within a few more minutes, the boats reached a small dock, and the students scrambled out of the boats and onto the rocks, careful not to slip with their wet shoes.
Hagrid held the lantern high, revealing a staircase heading up through the cavern, the first tread flanked by two more of those Dementors. The students quickly followed him past them, Eve cringing as she did, and they climbed upwards for what seemed like ages, until they reached a tunnel that ended on the Hogwarts grounds. Hagrid led them across the wet grass to two huge oak doors, which towered over even him, pounded on them with his giant fist, and waited.