Chapter 3 The Hogwarts Express
Fizz was sitting in the front of a small, rundown car, staring up at the gray September sky and listening to his uncle sing loudly along with the radio. Even though it was boiling hot in the car, he didn't seem to notice- his nerves were too busy jumping around for him to notice much of anything. The smell of tea and biscuits in the backseat made him hungry and sick at the same time- the biscuits were smooth and round, reminding him for the millionth time that the full moon was that night. Just his luck- already, he was feeling ill, and that meant that no matter what, he'd barely be able to eat much of anything at the Great Feast, because he'd probably be locked up in the dorm room. Thoughts of that evening were swept from his mind quickly, however, as they pulled up to King's Cross Station.
Between them, Fizz and his uncle were able to carry all their things, and stopped to rest and think beneath the large plastic nine that marked the platform.
"Where is 9 3/4, then? I see nine and ten, but no three-quarters. Are you sure it's here?" Fizz asked doubtfully, as Muggles (non-magic folk) rushed by, chattering and jumping onto the train. His uncle laughed merrily, and looked up anxiously at the moon before answering.
"In between, you have to walk through the brick barrier." Fizz stared at his uncle as if he were mad, and wondered if the moon had risen early for a moment. "I'm not joking, Fizz. Watch, I'll go first." His uncle walked casually up to the barrier and leaned against it, then slowly his head disappeared, then his torso, then his legs, then all of him. Curious, he went up to the wall and, as if suspecting a joke, pushed on it with all his might- and fell straight through onto a new platform, Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, to be exact. He stood up, slightly unnerved at having fallen straight through a brick wall, and blushed slightly at the boy who was laughing at him. Not to his surprise, he turned to see Lupin heading towards the boarding area, but he didn't want to follow quite yet.
Figuring he might as well make some friends, he went over to where two boys (one of which had laughed at him) were chuckling with another girl, who had a cold and angry expression on.
"Those beads make you look like a curtain, or a little girl's shoe." Fizz snarled when he heard the smaller boy say that, and had to fight down the urge to launch himself at the boy.
"Lay off. What'd she do to you?" He snapped bravely, stepping in front of the girl (who left quite quickly, the beads in her hair clicking) and facing the boy. The boy laughed right in his face, and turned to leave, but Fizz grabbed his sleeve and forced him to turn around. Frowning, the boy ignored his brother's protests, and after rolling up his sleeves, launched himself at Fizz. He landed a powerful punch in Fizz's stomach, and tried to knock him down, but as soon as he felt concrete he made himself jump up again. Something in him shut off, he was ice- his left arm throbbed, and he knew that, somehow, he could feel no pain. With a loud cry, he launched himself at the boy, who stared at him, and Fizz clawed. Unearthly howls spilled from his throat, and he found himself once more being thrown on the concrete, tumbling and tripping over his own feet. The boy stared at him, frozen as Fizz's eyes flashed darkly, and suddenly- there was another boy. His brother. The first boy backed off and cheered, calling out "Alexei! Alexei!" at the top of his lungs. Alexei, as his name turned out to be, didn't even give Fizz a chance to pull back his arm for a punch- he kicked him, fast and hard, and whacked him powerfully across the face. Fizz coughed- blood was coming out of his mouth, and he curled into a ball, hiding from the torrent of punches and kicks coming from Alexei. A howl filled his ears, like the call of an owl almost, and smoke clouded his vision, and the other boy kicked him once, hard, and he was tumbling, rolling, his neck resting on something cold and metallic. The howling grew louder, and the metal began to vibrate, but Fizz could barely think- it was as if his mind was frozen, numb- but he could feel, and he felt the strong arms lifting him and setting him down away from the railroad tracks he had been thrown onto.
He shivered and cough, slowly sitting up. People skirted around him, so as not to get too near to him, but he didn't mind. There was blood on his nails and arms, human blood. Coughing violently, (but whether that was from the fact that it was a full moon that night or the kick to the stomach, he couldn't tell) he forced himself up onto his knees and began to walk towards the station. He was suddenly quite relieved that his uncle had taken his bags with him- all he could handle now was making it up to the train and sitting down. To his surprise, when he stumbled, a pairs of arms lifted him up, and helped support him to the back compartment. His vision was beginning to clear, but he still felt ill, and tired- what he wanted to do, just then, was curl up into a ball and fall asleep.
And so he did.
Only a half hour or so had passed when he next awoke, his head throbbing and his lips dry and painful- for that matter, everything was painful. Someone was shaking him, and he opened his eyes slowly- one was swollen, and the other was wincing because of the bright light. The train rumbled, and he cringed every time it hit a bump and jostled him. It was a moment before he realized that someone was trying to pour water into his mouth, while another voice was talking importantly, as if giving instructions. He spat the water, and out of instinct, jumped up and crouched in the back of the compartment, shaking and wondering why on earth today had to be a full moon, as if life wasn't already difficult enough.
"Calm down, we're only trying to help you!" A voice told him, and he felt an arm on his shoulder. He looked up to see Trinity, the girl from the bookstore, kneeling next to him with a large book in her hands, that was, by the title (Magical and Herbal Remedies and how To Use Them) a book on medicine and such. Relaxing, more by force than anything, he let the other girl pour water into his mouth, which felt so good on his hoarse throat he thought he would faint.
"Have you seen a boy come by here, bleeding, looking like he had been in a fight? Small, long browny-gold hair? Excuse me, I'm trying to get through- excuse me, sorry, pardon me, I'm a teacher, let me through- Romulus!" His uncle had pushed his way through the crowded compartments, to the one where Fizz was crouching in a corner. Obviously, this seemed to unnerve his uncle, who turned pale. "Are you all right? Why the hell did you get into a fight?"
"He's fine, Professor. And he was defending me, the boy was harassing me." The other girl said, speaking up with more bravery than she looked like she had. Her arms were crossed in front of her, and Lupin couldn't help but smile- this one was going into Gryffindor, no doubt about that. With strength that seemed odd coming from him, Lupin lifted him and lay him on one of the seats. Fizz sat up and stretched, painfully, wishing quite suddenly that he was home, in bed, with his potions that he always made. He lurched quite suddenly, shaking and coughing violently, unable to say anything but "Potion...." To his relief, his uncle understood immediately what he said, but it did him no good.
Trinity and the other girl were watching him; Trinity with an expression of deep thought and curiosity, the other girl with a worried expression.
"I'll send an owl to Professor Snape; in the meantime, stay here. And please, Fizz, don't get into anymore fights!" His uncle said, half joking, half begging.
"I don't like it anymore than you do," Fizz replied, staring down at his nails, which were now clean. Nodding, his uncle smiled and left. He was quite glad his uncle would be at Hogwarts with him- it was going to be hard enough, as it was.
"Thanks, Trinity, and er-" He started, but stopped, realizing he hadn't the faintest idea of the other girl's name.
"Rory. Rory Motts. I feel bad now, it's my fault you're so, uh...." Rory couldn't think of quite the words.
"Battered? Mutilated? Torn? Bloody?" Fizz offered, smiling cheerfully so she would know he was joking.
"Bigheaded sounds about right, don't you think?" Trinity provided, pretending to be deep in thought as she chewed on the end of her peacock quill. They all laughed, even Fizz, who tried to ignore the pain in his ribs and lungs as he chuckled. "Now hold still, or this will hurt." Trinity warned, pulling out her wand and pointing it at Fizz's heart.
"Er, pardon? Is there a reason you are aiming a wand at my heart? Surely I'm not that bigheaded!" Fizz exclaimed, feeling a bit surprised and nervous at the same time.
"I know some simple medical spells. Now hold still," She muttered a word or two under her breath and, lo and behold, the pain eased tremendously and Fizz did not look quite so battered, mutilated, torn and bloody. "Feel better?"
"Much. Hungry, though...." He said, as plump little witch with a cart filled with chocolate frogs, acid pops, cockroach clusters, soda, pumpkin juice, nougats, toffees; it seemed as though all the candy in the world had been piled onto that cart, and Fizz, Rory and Trinity quickly dished out the money and the plump little witch dished out the food. All of them ate hungrily, and Fizz felt as though he hadn't eaten in days, when it had in fact been only a few hours.
"Where are you guys from?" Fizz asked curiously, his mouth full of bittersweet chocolate.
"Ireland," Trinity offered, yanking her red curls into a ponytail. That would make sense, he thought to himself- she had the looks and voice of the Irish.
"I travel," Rory explained, winking a brown eye. "You?"
"Liverpool. I'm sure I sound like it," Fizz joked, feeling a little dizzy as he leaned towards the window to see out. In fact, both Trinity and Rory had noticed, but had not asked- the sound of his words were enough proof for them. The conversation drifted, and Fizz thought of all the stories he had heard of Hogwarts as he stared out the window. How his uncle and his friends had created a map, how they were always getting in trouble, how his friends had become illegal Animagi to keep him company during the full moon, how Snape was known for hating their family, how....So many stories flooded his mind, and he smiled; he could hear his uncle's voice telling them to him, telling of the mischief they used to make, then scolding himself for putting ideas into Fizz's head.
One of the first facts of life that Fizz had learned was "never reveal more than you need to, but never lie" and "Always learn and answer questions, unless you aren't supposed to know the answer". Both of those, Lupin had warned him, would be important- especially Fizz being who he was, and Lupin being who he was. The fact that Lupin was a werewolf put many people on edge with him- they thought of him as cruel, dangerous, vicious- when he was, in fact, quite the opposite. That had always been a shadow over Fizz's childhood- he had never had any friends, because everyone hated his family, and those who didn't were afraid of him; him and his cat-eyes. They would cross the street to be away from him, but Fizz was used to it- he had grown up alone, and never expected anything more at Hogwarts.
But the open and apparent friendliness of Rory and Trinity caught him off guard- he was used to being shunned, hated; it was uncomfortable, it made him nervous to know that some actually liked him. And not just for the fact that- well, now that he thought about it, he couldn't think of any real reasons why anyone would like him. He wasn't very funny- but then again, he had never had anyone but his family to share jokes. Boldness was out of the question- going up and getting in a fight was fine and all, but he was quiet, and it wasn't as if he enjoyed pain and blood. In fact, the sight of blood near made him sick. Especially if it wasn't his own. He ran off a list of attributes, trying to figure out why the two girls were being so kind, and then it struck him- they were girls. How was he supposed to know what they were thinking? It was a fact his uncle had often repeated, when his mother was angry for apparently no reason, "It's a woman thing. You know, like buying things no one would ever need." After which, Fizz's mother would remind the two of them how often they went to Zonko's to buy toys, or to HoneyDuke's to buy loads and loads of candy ("No, don't you dare show me the chocolate," His mother often warned, covering her eyes and running to her bedroom. "I can't stand it when I'm on a diet!"), which they, of course, never needed. But then again, his mother didn't really need that entire Daily Prophet collection, or that box of seemingly worthless feathers on the mantle, but she said she did. And Fizz and his uncle never argued- to even mention the box of feathers was to risk no supper for quite a while.
When he was little, he had used to take the box of feathers down and sat with them, on the carpet, and put them in his potions- but whenever he did that, the potion wouldn't work and his mother would watch him nervously for days after. He had never understood that, and fingered the vial on its chain around his neck- a gift he had had for as long as he could remember. The vial was made of glass, with unbreakable charms on it, filled with a thick silver liquid, spiraling with another, thin, runny and sparkling clear, like water. He had asked his mother what it was millions of times, but she didn't know what it was, and Lupin, if he did know, put on quite an act of not knowing. The only person, Fizz had come to believe, that knew what it was would be Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts. "Fizz! Trinity! Look, the train's slowing down!" Rory called from her perch at a window, waving the two of them over and watching as the trees slowly came into focus. They had arrived near a lake, and everyone scrambled out of the train; first years went to the left, towards a huge man, nearly a giant, while the others left to the right where they headed towards the school. The giant-man was calling out to the first years, loading them up into boats, as the water pounded down on them. Fizz ended up alone in a tiny rowboat with the giant-man, who clapped him heavily on the back and welcomed him.
"I'm Hagrid, Keeper of the Grounds and Keys. And yer Fizz, right?" The giant-man asked, calling out directions as everyone rowed towards the opposite end of the shore. Fizz was about to answer, when he fell off the side of his boat (there was a great wind), narrowly missing a rock when Hagrid grabbed his robe and yanked him back into a boat.
"Yes," Fizz responded, coughing up water as they plowed through the water towards the shore. They were all filed into the school, up a million stairs and down a few, through more doors than Fizz had seen in his life into a large, glittering, torch-lit room where it seemed the entire world sat, dressed in robes of black and scarlet, black and yellow, black and green, and black and blue. Needless to say, there was a lot of black.
All of them sat down at a table, shivering with nerves and cold, when two professors stepped onto a platform at the front of the room. One silenced half the room with a merry grin and twinkling eyes, the other half was silenced by a severe frown and serious looks over serious glasses.
The school year had begun.
Fizz was sitting in the front of a small, rundown car, staring up at the gray September sky and listening to his uncle sing loudly along with the radio. Even though it was boiling hot in the car, he didn't seem to notice- his nerves were too busy jumping around for him to notice much of anything. The smell of tea and biscuits in the backseat made him hungry and sick at the same time- the biscuits were smooth and round, reminding him for the millionth time that the full moon was that night. Just his luck- already, he was feeling ill, and that meant that no matter what, he'd barely be able to eat much of anything at the Great Feast, because he'd probably be locked up in the dorm room. Thoughts of that evening were swept from his mind quickly, however, as they pulled up to King's Cross Station.
Between them, Fizz and his uncle were able to carry all their things, and stopped to rest and think beneath the large plastic nine that marked the platform.
"Where is 9 3/4, then? I see nine and ten, but no three-quarters. Are you sure it's here?" Fizz asked doubtfully, as Muggles (non-magic folk) rushed by, chattering and jumping onto the train. His uncle laughed merrily, and looked up anxiously at the moon before answering.
"In between, you have to walk through the brick barrier." Fizz stared at his uncle as if he were mad, and wondered if the moon had risen early for a moment. "I'm not joking, Fizz. Watch, I'll go first." His uncle walked casually up to the barrier and leaned against it, then slowly his head disappeared, then his torso, then his legs, then all of him. Curious, he went up to the wall and, as if suspecting a joke, pushed on it with all his might- and fell straight through onto a new platform, Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, to be exact. He stood up, slightly unnerved at having fallen straight through a brick wall, and blushed slightly at the boy who was laughing at him. Not to his surprise, he turned to see Lupin heading towards the boarding area, but he didn't want to follow quite yet.
Figuring he might as well make some friends, he went over to where two boys (one of which had laughed at him) were chuckling with another girl, who had a cold and angry expression on.
"Those beads make you look like a curtain, or a little girl's shoe." Fizz snarled when he heard the smaller boy say that, and had to fight down the urge to launch himself at the boy.
"Lay off. What'd she do to you?" He snapped bravely, stepping in front of the girl (who left quite quickly, the beads in her hair clicking) and facing the boy. The boy laughed right in his face, and turned to leave, but Fizz grabbed his sleeve and forced him to turn around. Frowning, the boy ignored his brother's protests, and after rolling up his sleeves, launched himself at Fizz. He landed a powerful punch in Fizz's stomach, and tried to knock him down, but as soon as he felt concrete he made himself jump up again. Something in him shut off, he was ice- his left arm throbbed, and he knew that, somehow, he could feel no pain. With a loud cry, he launched himself at the boy, who stared at him, and Fizz clawed. Unearthly howls spilled from his throat, and he found himself once more being thrown on the concrete, tumbling and tripping over his own feet. The boy stared at him, frozen as Fizz's eyes flashed darkly, and suddenly- there was another boy. His brother. The first boy backed off and cheered, calling out "Alexei! Alexei!" at the top of his lungs. Alexei, as his name turned out to be, didn't even give Fizz a chance to pull back his arm for a punch- he kicked him, fast and hard, and whacked him powerfully across the face. Fizz coughed- blood was coming out of his mouth, and he curled into a ball, hiding from the torrent of punches and kicks coming from Alexei. A howl filled his ears, like the call of an owl almost, and smoke clouded his vision, and the other boy kicked him once, hard, and he was tumbling, rolling, his neck resting on something cold and metallic. The howling grew louder, and the metal began to vibrate, but Fizz could barely think- it was as if his mind was frozen, numb- but he could feel, and he felt the strong arms lifting him and setting him down away from the railroad tracks he had been thrown onto.
He shivered and cough, slowly sitting up. People skirted around him, so as not to get too near to him, but he didn't mind. There was blood on his nails and arms, human blood. Coughing violently, (but whether that was from the fact that it was a full moon that night or the kick to the stomach, he couldn't tell) he forced himself up onto his knees and began to walk towards the station. He was suddenly quite relieved that his uncle had taken his bags with him- all he could handle now was making it up to the train and sitting down. To his surprise, when he stumbled, a pairs of arms lifted him up, and helped support him to the back compartment. His vision was beginning to clear, but he still felt ill, and tired- what he wanted to do, just then, was curl up into a ball and fall asleep.
And so he did.
Only a half hour or so had passed when he next awoke, his head throbbing and his lips dry and painful- for that matter, everything was painful. Someone was shaking him, and he opened his eyes slowly- one was swollen, and the other was wincing because of the bright light. The train rumbled, and he cringed every time it hit a bump and jostled him. It was a moment before he realized that someone was trying to pour water into his mouth, while another voice was talking importantly, as if giving instructions. He spat the water, and out of instinct, jumped up and crouched in the back of the compartment, shaking and wondering why on earth today had to be a full moon, as if life wasn't already difficult enough.
"Calm down, we're only trying to help you!" A voice told him, and he felt an arm on his shoulder. He looked up to see Trinity, the girl from the bookstore, kneeling next to him with a large book in her hands, that was, by the title (Magical and Herbal Remedies and how To Use Them) a book on medicine and such. Relaxing, more by force than anything, he let the other girl pour water into his mouth, which felt so good on his hoarse throat he thought he would faint.
"Have you seen a boy come by here, bleeding, looking like he had been in a fight? Small, long browny-gold hair? Excuse me, I'm trying to get through- excuse me, sorry, pardon me, I'm a teacher, let me through- Romulus!" His uncle had pushed his way through the crowded compartments, to the one where Fizz was crouching in a corner. Obviously, this seemed to unnerve his uncle, who turned pale. "Are you all right? Why the hell did you get into a fight?"
"He's fine, Professor. And he was defending me, the boy was harassing me." The other girl said, speaking up with more bravery than she looked like she had. Her arms were crossed in front of her, and Lupin couldn't help but smile- this one was going into Gryffindor, no doubt about that. With strength that seemed odd coming from him, Lupin lifted him and lay him on one of the seats. Fizz sat up and stretched, painfully, wishing quite suddenly that he was home, in bed, with his potions that he always made. He lurched quite suddenly, shaking and coughing violently, unable to say anything but "Potion...." To his relief, his uncle understood immediately what he said, but it did him no good.
Trinity and the other girl were watching him; Trinity with an expression of deep thought and curiosity, the other girl with a worried expression.
"I'll send an owl to Professor Snape; in the meantime, stay here. And please, Fizz, don't get into anymore fights!" His uncle said, half joking, half begging.
"I don't like it anymore than you do," Fizz replied, staring down at his nails, which were now clean. Nodding, his uncle smiled and left. He was quite glad his uncle would be at Hogwarts with him- it was going to be hard enough, as it was.
"Thanks, Trinity, and er-" He started, but stopped, realizing he hadn't the faintest idea of the other girl's name.
"Rory. Rory Motts. I feel bad now, it's my fault you're so, uh...." Rory couldn't think of quite the words.
"Battered? Mutilated? Torn? Bloody?" Fizz offered, smiling cheerfully so she would know he was joking.
"Bigheaded sounds about right, don't you think?" Trinity provided, pretending to be deep in thought as she chewed on the end of her peacock quill. They all laughed, even Fizz, who tried to ignore the pain in his ribs and lungs as he chuckled. "Now hold still, or this will hurt." Trinity warned, pulling out her wand and pointing it at Fizz's heart.
"Er, pardon? Is there a reason you are aiming a wand at my heart? Surely I'm not that bigheaded!" Fizz exclaimed, feeling a bit surprised and nervous at the same time.
"I know some simple medical spells. Now hold still," She muttered a word or two under her breath and, lo and behold, the pain eased tremendously and Fizz did not look quite so battered, mutilated, torn and bloody. "Feel better?"
"Much. Hungry, though...." He said, as plump little witch with a cart filled with chocolate frogs, acid pops, cockroach clusters, soda, pumpkin juice, nougats, toffees; it seemed as though all the candy in the world had been piled onto that cart, and Fizz, Rory and Trinity quickly dished out the money and the plump little witch dished out the food. All of them ate hungrily, and Fizz felt as though he hadn't eaten in days, when it had in fact been only a few hours.
"Where are you guys from?" Fizz asked curiously, his mouth full of bittersweet chocolate.
"Ireland," Trinity offered, yanking her red curls into a ponytail. That would make sense, he thought to himself- she had the looks and voice of the Irish.
"I travel," Rory explained, winking a brown eye. "You?"
"Liverpool. I'm sure I sound like it," Fizz joked, feeling a little dizzy as he leaned towards the window to see out. In fact, both Trinity and Rory had noticed, but had not asked- the sound of his words were enough proof for them. The conversation drifted, and Fizz thought of all the stories he had heard of Hogwarts as he stared out the window. How his uncle and his friends had created a map, how they were always getting in trouble, how his friends had become illegal Animagi to keep him company during the full moon, how Snape was known for hating their family, how....So many stories flooded his mind, and he smiled; he could hear his uncle's voice telling them to him, telling of the mischief they used to make, then scolding himself for putting ideas into Fizz's head.
One of the first facts of life that Fizz had learned was "never reveal more than you need to, but never lie" and "Always learn and answer questions, unless you aren't supposed to know the answer". Both of those, Lupin had warned him, would be important- especially Fizz being who he was, and Lupin being who he was. The fact that Lupin was a werewolf put many people on edge with him- they thought of him as cruel, dangerous, vicious- when he was, in fact, quite the opposite. That had always been a shadow over Fizz's childhood- he had never had any friends, because everyone hated his family, and those who didn't were afraid of him; him and his cat-eyes. They would cross the street to be away from him, but Fizz was used to it- he had grown up alone, and never expected anything more at Hogwarts.
But the open and apparent friendliness of Rory and Trinity caught him off guard- he was used to being shunned, hated; it was uncomfortable, it made him nervous to know that some actually liked him. And not just for the fact that- well, now that he thought about it, he couldn't think of any real reasons why anyone would like him. He wasn't very funny- but then again, he had never had anyone but his family to share jokes. Boldness was out of the question- going up and getting in a fight was fine and all, but he was quiet, and it wasn't as if he enjoyed pain and blood. In fact, the sight of blood near made him sick. Especially if it wasn't his own. He ran off a list of attributes, trying to figure out why the two girls were being so kind, and then it struck him- they were girls. How was he supposed to know what they were thinking? It was a fact his uncle had often repeated, when his mother was angry for apparently no reason, "It's a woman thing. You know, like buying things no one would ever need." After which, Fizz's mother would remind the two of them how often they went to Zonko's to buy toys, or to HoneyDuke's to buy loads and loads of candy ("No, don't you dare show me the chocolate," His mother often warned, covering her eyes and running to her bedroom. "I can't stand it when I'm on a diet!"), which they, of course, never needed. But then again, his mother didn't really need that entire Daily Prophet collection, or that box of seemingly worthless feathers on the mantle, but she said she did. And Fizz and his uncle never argued- to even mention the box of feathers was to risk no supper for quite a while.
When he was little, he had used to take the box of feathers down and sat with them, on the carpet, and put them in his potions- but whenever he did that, the potion wouldn't work and his mother would watch him nervously for days after. He had never understood that, and fingered the vial on its chain around his neck- a gift he had had for as long as he could remember. The vial was made of glass, with unbreakable charms on it, filled with a thick silver liquid, spiraling with another, thin, runny and sparkling clear, like water. He had asked his mother what it was millions of times, but she didn't know what it was, and Lupin, if he did know, put on quite an act of not knowing. The only person, Fizz had come to believe, that knew what it was would be Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts. "Fizz! Trinity! Look, the train's slowing down!" Rory called from her perch at a window, waving the two of them over and watching as the trees slowly came into focus. They had arrived near a lake, and everyone scrambled out of the train; first years went to the left, towards a huge man, nearly a giant, while the others left to the right where they headed towards the school. The giant-man was calling out to the first years, loading them up into boats, as the water pounded down on them. Fizz ended up alone in a tiny rowboat with the giant-man, who clapped him heavily on the back and welcomed him.
"I'm Hagrid, Keeper of the Grounds and Keys. And yer Fizz, right?" The giant-man asked, calling out directions as everyone rowed towards the opposite end of the shore. Fizz was about to answer, when he fell off the side of his boat (there was a great wind), narrowly missing a rock when Hagrid grabbed his robe and yanked him back into a boat.
"Yes," Fizz responded, coughing up water as they plowed through the water towards the shore. They were all filed into the school, up a million stairs and down a few, through more doors than Fizz had seen in his life into a large, glittering, torch-lit room where it seemed the entire world sat, dressed in robes of black and scarlet, black and yellow, black and green, and black and blue. Needless to say, there was a lot of black.
All of them sat down at a table, shivering with nerves and cold, when two professors stepped onto a platform at the front of the room. One silenced half the room with a merry grin and twinkling eyes, the other half was silenced by a severe frown and serious looks over serious glasses.
The school year had begun.