Ok...just a few things i need to say.
ONE: please, please, PLEASE... I appreciate that there are a lot of horse people that like the storyline vaguely having to do with horses. BUT.. stop telling me common horses-sense things that wouldn't happen normally and such. Like when I said that Elana yelled at her horse, and people normally don't yell in front of horses because they can spook. Also, I'm not going to use very technical horse terms, because the rest of the non-horse world will not understand it!
------------------------------------------------------------
Elana awoke from a dreamless sleep at nine O'clock in the morning, she was temporarily disoriented and forgot where she was or why she was there. She racked her brain.
oh yeah, she thought, I'm a witch... am I? she jumped off of the bed and searched her bedside table, finally finding what she was looking for a small, rectangular black box. She opened it and pulled out the dark-colored wand that resided inside. She held it out and it emitted some red sparks from the end: This isn't a dream, Elana thought, for what must have been the hundredth time.
Elana ran down the steps to find that the Weaslys' and her brother had already started to eat.
"Hello!" They all said at once. Matthew was trying to teach Emma how to make things fly, but Elana noticed that all the disgruntled Emma could manage was to make the object roll around wherever they happened to be. Elanas' Aunt had told her that when she was growing up, magic was never allowed out of school, unless a life-threatening situation aroused. Now, however, Magic was allowed as long as it was not in the presence of a muggle, but really, only after your second year at Hogwarts.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" Emma screeched, waving her wand wildly.
"Relax!" Matthew said calmly. "It's swish and flick, like this" He demonstrated, making the blue feather sitting in front of them hover over the table. "You'll never get it waving your wand like your trying to swat flies!"
Emma glared at him, then tried again. "Wingardium Leviosa!" she yelled swishing her wand then flicking it at the feather, which jumped up a few inches from the ground, then fell again. "I give up" she said resignedly. "I'll learn it at school".
"Right", Matthew said, walking back to the table and stashing his wand back in his robes.
***
The next couple of days passed in a flash. Elana , James, and their cousins' went to Diagon Alley almost every day and admired racing brooms and other magical things. But for the most part, Elana felt very behind on the wizarding world. She would sit on her bed in the Leaky Cauldron for hours at a time studying different charms and spells, and learning about other wizarding things. She had also mastered the spell to make things fly, Wingardium Leviosa, and a couple of other simple spells. She was just reading about a wizard sport, called Quidditch, when there was a knock at her door.
"Come in" Elana said distractedly, trying to figure out what a bludger was. It was her Aunt Hermione.
"Are you almost packed?" Hermione said looking around to see if Elana had forgotten anything.
"Yeah, almost" Elana said, still looking at the moving picture of a 'bludger', knocking someone off their broom. She looked up. "Yeah, I'll just put my books and wand away, and I'll be ready, when are we leaving tomorrow?" she added.
"Good", Hermione said. "We're leaving at nine O'clock, sharp, be sure to set your alarm"
"Ok", Elana replied, trying to catch her alarm clock which was running off the corner of her desk. She taped it to the desk and set it for eight O'clock the next morning.
***
The next morning, Elana awoke ten minutes to eight, to hear bustling in the rooms next to hers; obviously, she wasn't the only one who had trouble sleeping.
During breakfast, everyone spoke excitedly about what Hogwarts would be like and all of the teachers. They spoke about the houses, and which ones they would want to be in. All of their parents, aunts, and uncles, had been in Gryffindor house. However, oddly enough, Matthew was in Ravenclaw house. "I guess I'm not brave enough to be in Gryffindor", he said. Elanas' uncle was about to agree, when her aunt poked him hard in the ribs.
"Nonsense" she said. "you've just taken too much after me, I was almost put in Ravenclaw because I was very clever", she said.
There were four houses; Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. Elana didn't know too much about the houses though.
***
At Nine O'clock, they set off to Kings Cross train station. Elana was clueless as to how they hid a train to a witchcraft and wizardry school, but she remained silent most of the time there. When she got her train ticket, she mentally double took; The ticket read 'platform 9 ¾'. That can't be right, Elana thought.
She was just going to mention that there had to be a mistake, when her Aunt Hermione said, "We're here!"
Uh-oh, Elana thought, looking wildly at platforms nine and ten. I can't see it, oh no. I bet it was a mistake, I'm not a witch, I cant see the platform!
She was just pondering how she was to say this to her aunt and uncle, when they said, "Ok, Now, Lani", her aunt said, referring to Elanas' nick name. "I'm sure you don't know how to get on to the platform, so just follow me, then", she turned to Matthew. "You take your sister onto the platform". Elana grabbed her trolley as her aunt grabbed her hand and looked quickly around them. She hesitated for a moment, then started running through the barrier that divided platform nine and ten. Elana, too stunned to speak, merely braced herself for the impact of her trolley hitting the barrier with her running at that speed, but the collision never came.
Elana opened her eyes and gasped there was a scarlet steam-engine in front of her with a sign that read 'The Hogwarts Express'. Elana looked directly above her to see a sign that read 'Platform 9 ¾'.
"Wow!" Elana exclaimed, just as Matthew came running through what seemed like a solid barrier with a pale-faced Emma at his side.
"Ok", Hermione said, ignoring Elana and Emma's disbelief. "You three find good seats, now", she said, kissing all three of them in turn. She gave a few gold 'galleons' , the highest form of wizarding money, to each of them. Elana had learned about the three types of wizard money, golden Galleons, silver Sickles, and bronze Knuts.
They all filed on to the train, Matthew headed one direction while Emma and Elana headed the other, looking for an empty seat. The closest thing to empty was a seat where a very tall and large kid stood; He must have been at least 6 ½ feet tall and had very large bones. He can't be a normal person, Elana thought, slightly alarmed at his mass.
Then Elana noticed that she was staring at him and if he turned around, he might be offended. She cleared her throat in a polite kind of way to try and get his attention. It worked; he turned around and smiled at them.
"Hello", Elana greeted, she elbowed Emma and she echoed the same. "May we sit with you?" Elana said, hoping he was nice. "I mean, there isn't much room anywhere else, and---"
He cut her off "sure", he said kindly.
They sat in silence for a few moments, then Elana spoke. "What's your name?" she said.
"William Hagrid", he replied, looking slightly nervous and trying to make himself look smaller. "What are your names?" He asked politely.
Elana spoke before Emma could say anything offensive or …well, stupid. "I'm Elana Potter, and this is my cousin, Emma Weasley" Williams eyes widened a bit at the sound of Elanas' name. Oh-no, she thought, I really don't feel like talking about my father. But before she could change the subject, William spoke.
"your father…?" he trailed off.
"Yes", Elana replied, knowing what he intended to ask.
He seemed to sense that Elana didn't want to talk about this certain subject, and to Elanas' immense relief, he changed the subject.
They talked for what seemed like hours, and then there was a pause.
"You're probably wondering why I'm so big and tall", he said, then sighed, as if whatever he was about to say was going to discourage Elana and Emma from being his friends.
"Well, you are a it taller than most first years… you're eleven?" Elana said, noticing the lack of significant tact in her words.
"Yeah I'm eleven", he said, then looked around, got up and shut the door. "Do yeh promise yeh won't tell anyone what I'm about to tell yeh?" William said, looking slightly embarrassed.
"Of course we won't tell" Elana said reassuringly.
"Well", he began. "I'm--I'm half giant" he said quickly, as if they might not catch it if he said it faster.
Elana mentally double took, but it made sense; he was a very large boy and this was the wizarding community. She quickly pulled herself together, but couldn't think of what to say.
Emma spoke this time "really?". William nodded. "That's nothing to be embarrassed about!" Emma cried. "In fact, it's quite amazing!". Elana nodded her agreement.
William shuffled his feet awkwardly. "I guess" he said after a long pause. "both of my parents were half human, half giant. If it weren't for this headmaster though, Dumbledore, I don't think I'd be going to wizarding school at all." He sighed.
"That's terrible! At least Dumbledore's the headmaster, he's the best, I heard" Emma said reassuringly.
About an hour later, the train stopped at 'Hogsmeade station'
There were hundreds of carriages pulled by ugly black, winged horses. Elana pondered for a moment, then remembered reading about them in a book a couple of days ago. "thestrals" she whispered to herself.
"What did you say?" William asked.
"oh, nothing" Elana replied, studying the thestrals carefully. But they were steered in another direction. There were hundreds of boats on an ocean-type river. All of the first years were milling towards them.
"Firs' years this way!" Elana squinted to see who the voice belonged to and almost gasped when she saw that he was about 12 feet tall, another half giant, Elana decided.
But as they reached the man, Elana was surprised to see William walk up to him; "Hullo, Dad" William said cheerfully.
"All righ' William?" The man said. He was very old, he looked much too old to be the father of an eleven year old boy, but maybe giants live longer than people? Elana thought.
"Yep" William replied simply, then he got on a boat, Elana and Emma got on the next boat.
The lights of the turrets and towers of Hogwarts were sparkling in the night sky. I can't believe how lucky I am, this is amazing, Elana thought as the boat peacefully drifted towards the castle.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I know… not that good a chapter, but at least it's longer than the others!
PLEASE no flaming.
And PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE POR FAVOR (okay, I think you get the point) review, even if it's "er…"
