«.::.::.: You Neville Know; As Told By Trevor :.::.::.:»

«Chapter Two - The Day That Went From Bad To Worse»

The next few days at the Longbottom household were quite unusual. As I'm sure I've mentioned to you now, I had figured out quite early on that Neville's dear Gran was a wicked old witch. I had not, however, figured out that the entirely family was. Everywhere I turned, someone was magically performing chores, or photos would speak to me, or I was under siege from bewitched furnishings. I would get lost in the maze of a house for hours on end, and be incredibly relieved when I finally ran into Neville, or his Gran, or even Algie or Enid (living in the house, he had met her, too). The whole experience was such an utter terror for me -to witness it all and have nothing explained- that I had considered living in the frog-pond more than once.

It had been a hard call which I hated more, being a toad or living with Neville's crazy old relatives. After my first few days of eating bugs and hopping slower than the passing dust-bunnies, I decided it was most definitely being a toad. Which should explain to you all my choice of going with Neville to this 'Hog-Wart' despite my fears. Besides, as his Gran had so unflatteringly pointed out, the kid would need all the help he could get. We were friends, but even I could see he was a prime target for bullies. My motives were partly selfish, though; even if I couldn't be fixed, at least at Hogwarts I would have him for company, and get away from his batty relatives.

The day of Neville's going away was a complete mess. One of his suitcases fell down the stairs. The lock was temperamental to start, and flew open as it crashed, scattering the contents throughout both floors. Then, the taxi that was to take us to the train station did not arrive. His family, somehow not familiar with the concept of cars, had to get a neighbour to drive us. The entire ride there was filled with awkward questions about where Neville would be attending, whatever he was doing with a book on herbology -which he happened to be reading on the ride over- and why he was bringing a toad of all creatures to school with him. The answers to any of which would have been interesting to me as well, but each was carefully avoided by old Mrs. Longbottom.

The woman was swift to usher her grandson and all his things out of the car when it finally stopped in King's Cross Station around 10:40 that day. I could tell from the car's radio clock, up until then I'd been clueless as to the date and time aside from night and day. In his Gran's rush, she managed to remember everything except for me. Hopping out of the car, I barely made it before the door shut. I chased them for a long while until, as with the stairway, the faulty lock let go and Neville's suitcase fell open. Most of it had been packed well enough it stayed inside as he hurried to shut it, but something small managed to slip out. A little thing, but as I'd learned over the past few days, immensely important for magic; a wand.

Mrs. Longbottom, now quite afraid of being found out, dragged Neville along at a pace I couldn't match with my newly acquired legs. They left. Forgetting the wand, and forgetting me. Well that wouldn't do. If he forgot either, he may as well miss the train. Quickly, I decided on the only logical course of action. I would retrieve the wand and find my own way to the train. Easier said than done.

As I no longer had working fingers, the wand was impossible to pick up with anything but my mouth. Holding it tightly and trying not to gag was a feat in itself, let alone carrying it down the stretch of platforms. As I remembered, it was quite far away, too. 9 and 3/4. I was too concerned in making the distance to even wonder how such a platform could be.

It took me five minutes to find Platform 1, and another ten from there to get to Platform 9. From there I could clearly see Platform 10. Neville and his Gran were nowhere in sight. Well, they had obviously found it, and that meant there had to be one. While I was looking around for it, I was suddenly lifted into the air.

A boy with dreadlocks, a few years older than me, had decided to scoop me up. He plucked the wand from my mouth and put it in his pocket. I narrowed my eyes at him and tried to break free, but the by held me tighter.

'You must be going to Hogwarts.' He said and I settled down. If he knew about the school, he must have known how to get there.

'I'll cooperate,' I told him, but of course he couldn't hear. 'For now.' I looked around expectantly for Platform 9 3/4, but Shifting me to one hand, he used the other to steer a cart with his school things. To steer it right at a brick divider!

Though I like to pretend I've always been a brave kid, and perhaps I was even taking this toad incident well all things considered, but you'd be a fool to think at this point panic hadn't set in. The boy was suicidal and was going to take me with him! I couldn't look. I shut my eyes, both sets of toad-lids as tight as I could and waited for the crash, but it didn't come.

Slowly, I opened my bulging eyes and saw we were on a Platform -9 3/4 according to a sign- and that neither me or the dreadlocked boy had been horribly disfigured from running into the wall, had it happened. I hardly had a chance to recover from this shock when I was met with another.

The boy had gone to the train, simple enough, and seemed to be unloading his luggage. This process caused Neville's wand to pock out of his pocket. When everything else was packed, he came to a box and stopped. Taking this box with him, he went to find some kids he knew, which didn't take long. A small crowd was growing, and over their voices I could hear Neville! Try as I might, he boy held me tightly with one hand. In my strain to follow his voice, I had rather unfortunately missed what the dreadlocked boy had said.

'Give us a look, Lee, go on.' Said one of the kids, and he did.

Using the hand I was in, he lifted the lid and something came out. A leg, long thin and hairy, and frighteningly close. I could feel the hair between my webbed toes, and that was the last straw.

With all my might, I leapt out of his hand and caught the end of Neville's wand on the way down. Knocking it out of his pocket, we landed with a small, unnoticed clatter on the ground. Incase the fascination with this boxed-beast wore off, I bit the wand and dragged it away and onto the train. Despite my serious second doubts, I had to at least make sure Neville found his wand.

The train was extremely long. It wasn't hard to get to the other side of my car, the last one aside from the caboose, but when I got to the door I realized my problem. There was no way I could open the door, let alone jump the gap between cars. I decided someone would find the wand and return it to him if I left it there, so I dropped it and tried to get off the train. A foot away from the door, it shut itself and the engine started up.

'No, no, no!' I shouted, but it probably came out as a meak croak. I was trapped, and going to Hogwarts whether I liked it or not.

«.::.::.: Disclaimer :.::.::.:»

If you are reading this, it means that Harry Potter is still not a publicly traded company, and I have no shares in it. As I'm not JK Rowling, and that's the only way I could possibly have any rights concerning the stories, it's safe to assume I don't -nor do I pretend to- own any of this.

«.::.::.: Author's Notes :.::.::.:»

I'm thrilled by all the positive reinforcement this fic has gotten. I thought maybe I'd get two reviews, one of which I'd have forced out of Awkward. So, thank you, all of you. Stroppy-Teenager and Bella Catherina, I continued, just like you wanted. Q (who wouldn't log-in) and Alien Outcast, I'm glad you enjoyed it. The Spatula Chick, I'm sorry I confused you, and have justified it in a note on Chapter One. And of course, Awkward, since I made you read it. It's because of all of you there's a chapter two.