CHAPTER SIX:
The Journey From Platform 9 ¾
I was so exited on September first that I woke up at 5:30 and couldn't get back to sleep. After I lied in bed for half an hour, anticipating the train ride to my new school, I got up and took a shower.
Thinking that I might look silly in my black robes at the train station, I put on some regular muggle clothes.
By seven o'clock, everybody was up and eating breakfast.
"Oh, this is going to be so exciting! Do you think I should change into my robes? I thought that maybe we're not supposed to change until we're on the train, but I'm not sure..." Tina was jabbering on and on.
"No, don't change into your robes," my dad replied.
"I do hope my hair looks alright today, I think it might be a little too frizzy –" I decided that it would be best to just tune her out.
As we finished breakfast, I nervously glanced at my watch, which read 7:20.
"I wonder which house I'm going to be in, Fred and George told me that Gryffindor is the –"
"What time do you think we should leave? I figure it's probably an hour drive to the London train station, but I think we should leave earlier than nine just to be safe," I interrupted loudly so that I could be heard above Tina's rambling.
"I think that's a pretty safe time to leave, maybe even a little later than that, I don't think we need to be there an hour ahead. Probably 9:30 or so," my dad said.
"You two had better get packing, we'll leave in about two hours." Mom then got up and started clearing the table.
Almost two hours later, Tina and I were rushing up and down the stairs like tornadoes getting our bags to the door.
Tina bumped into me as I was heading downstairs with my last item: a suitcase full of all my books. "Watch it!" I hollered, stumbling down the remaining steps.
"Sorry!" She shrieked.
I placed my suitcase by the door and my dad and I took all the items to the car and into the trunk of the Ford Escape. Tina came outside with her last bag and stuffed it into the packed trunk.
My mom came exited the house and locked the door. "Is that everything?"
"I think so," my dad replied, getting into the drivers seat on the left side of the car.
Reluctantly, I got into the back seat, Tina sitting next to me. I had been trying to avoid riding in the car ever since we came here because I was afraid of the disasters that might occur with them driving on the wrong side of the road.
My dad pulled out of the short driveway and soon we were driving to away from Privet Drive on the left side of the road. My dad had gotten in quite a bit of practice since we arrived here.
Fortunately, by the time we got to Kings Cross Station, we had only had three near misses and no accidents at all.
My dad found a parking spot and went to the station to get two carts. Which I think were called trolleys here.
Today was probably the nicest day we had seen in England all summer. The sun was shining brightly between a few clouds and the temperature was probably around 85 degrees Fahrenheit.
My dad came back with two 'trolleys' a few minutes later and helped us load our stuff onto them.
We pushed them to platforms nine and ten, Tina talking animatedly.
"How do we get onto platform 9 ¾? There is none!" I exclaimed.
"All you have to do is walk into the wall between the two platforms and you'll appear next to the Hogwarts Express. It's magic, of course."
"Well, here goes," I said, and walked into the wall, with my mom right behind me.
A few seconds later, Tina appeared with my dad. "Now, that was weird."
"Well, we have, like, half an hour," I informed them, looking at my watch.
"Guess we'll leave you two to get on the train," Mom said glumly.
"We'll see you at Christmas."
"Bye!" Tina and I hugged our parents.
"See you in four months!" I said.
"We'll miss you," they said, walking back through the barrier.
"Let's get a compartment," I said as a few students walked through the wall.
"Good idea."
Tina and I lugged our trunks into a compartment and put them in the storage area. We then went outside and waited around uncomfortably for a bit.
Suddenly, army of red-heads walked through the barrier to Platform 9 ¾ talking noisily. Tina and I went over to join them.
"Hey, Conrad, Tina, how've you been?" Harry's voice said from somewhere in the middle of all the Weasleys.
"Harry! Great to see you."
We walked to the train with them, all of us talking loudly.
"I've got a compartment with the Head Girl at the from of the train, so I'd best be off," said Percy, puffing out his chest importantly so they all could see a very highly polished, gleaming badge that read 'Head Boy' on it.
"Percy, are you Head Boy?" I asked.
"Congratulations!" Tina cried.
"Thank you," he answered, making himself look even more important.
"Percy, why didn't you tell us you were Head Boy?" George asked mockingly.
"Hang on, I think I remember him saying something about it," Fred said.
"Once."
"Or twice."
"A minute."
"All summer."
"Oh shut up you two, really, you sound like you did when I got my prefect badge," Percy said huffily.
"Really, you should be proud of your brother!" Hermione scolded.
"Oh, the shame!" The twins exclaimed in unison.
Percy left toward the front of the train in a bad temper.
Tina led the rest into our compartment and soon all eight people had their trunks in the storage space.
We all sat down, Tina in between Fred and George, with Ginny at the end, and Harry in between Ron and Hermoine with myself at the end next to the window. It was fairly crowded.
The topic of discussion soon turned to Quidditch and stayed that way until the train started moving twenty minutes later. Hermione, who was next to me, looked bored to death by this conversation and we started one of our own about schoolwork.
"Oh, I do hope they start the new classes right away, I just can't wait to learn about the new subjects. Do you know what new subjects you're taking yet?"
"No, I guess I'll find out tomorrow, won't I?"
"I just can't wait, Arithmancy sounds so exciting, don't you think?"
"Wow, we get to learn Arithmancy? Only fifth years get to take that at Sacramento."
Tina declared that she was going to use the bathroom.
"Anyway, I was thinking about Divination. Does Hogwarts teach Divination?"
"Oh yes, Hogwarts has Divination. That would be very interesting, wouldn't it?"
Just then, there was a click and the door reopened, but Tina wasn't the one who was standing the doorway. In came a boy about my age with slicked black blonde hair and a mean sneer.
"Oh look, if it isn't Potty and his friends, I suppose –"
Suddenly, we were all standing. I blew up in rage when this kid called my 'Potty.' He didn't even know me and he was already calling me one of my most disliked nicknames from Sacramento! "What did you just call me?" I said loudly. "Look here, buster," I poked him in the chest, "you don't even know me and already you've given me a nasty nickname! I've heard that enough times in Sacramento, thank you very much, and I don't need it to be brought with me all the way to friggen Europe, eight stinking time zones away! I can't believe that you just called me that, how you even knew my name in the first place is –"
"I wasn't talking to you," he spat hotly, "I was actually insulting Potter behind you." He quickly left, muttering something about foreigners.
"Your name is Potter?" I had a bewildered look on my face.
Harry looked confused by the whole thing. "Um, yeah..." he said slowly.
"Oh, that's why. I thought he was talking to me. You never told me your last name. Mine is Pott."
"Really? What a coincidence," said Harry, looking amused. "That was great! I've never seen Malfoy stop bothering us so quickly before!"
I grinned and sat back down. The door clicked and swung open once again. We all stood up.
Tina looked confused. "What're you all standing for?"
"Never mind," said Fred.
We all sat down.
I stared out the window as the countryside flew past.
"Hey Harry, wanna play chess?" I head Ron ask.
"Okay," he replied.
Ron reached up to the luggage area and pulled out a very battered chess set. I turned around to watch them play. Chess wasn't a very big thing in California.
Harry and Ron played many times, Ron winning each time. Hours went by as we all watched the two play chess.
"When does the train get to Hogwarts?" I asked.
Hermione looked down at her watch. "We'll probably get there in about half an hour. We should change into our robes. I expect we'll be arriving soon."
It was pandemonium as the eight of them tried to pull their robes out from their trunks in the luggage area.
The sky became darker and darker, and, about half an hour later, as Hermione said, the train began slowing down.
A voice echoed through the train: "We will be reaching Hogwarts in about five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately."
My stomach lurched with nerves as we all stepped out of the compartment. The train finally came to a complete stop and we joined the crowd pushing its way to the door. I stepped out onto a dark, small platform reading 'Hogsmead Station.'
A huge man, about ten feet tall appeared. "Firs' years, this way please. Firs' years, follow me. Aren't you two the ones from the United States?"
"Yes," Tina and I said.
"Follow me, please," he said gruffly.
"Hope you're in Gryffindor!" Harry said merrily, as he took a different path toward a group of horse drawn carriages.
Tina and I followed the huge man along a very dark path, all of us slipping on the muddy ground.
"Yeh'll get to see Hogwarts in just a sec here, if yeh'd just follow me please."
The castle was huge, sitting atop a hill, with multiple towers springing up from the rooftop.
There was a loud "Oooooh!" from the first years.
Just ahead was a lake with many small boats sitting in the water bye the shore.
"No more'n four to a boat!" the huge man called. Tina and I got into a boat.
Once the rest of the first years had grabbed boats, they began moving away all on their own.
The boats glided on the water toward the castle, until they finally reached a small harbor underneath the school.
They exited the boats and walked up a flight of stone steps until they reached the large, oak front door.
The huge man raised a huge fist and knocked on the door.