Once again, I know I said this in both of the previous chapters, but I'm going to say it once more just in case people weren't paying attention the first two times. Yes, this story is self-insertion. No, it contains no Mary-Sues. I swear. My muse can't tolerate the things, she gets a severe allergic reaction every time gets anywhere near them.
Chapter 3
Both children had a hard time getting out of bed the next morning. Jonathan had asked for an ten o'clock wake up call the previous night, and because of this the rather loudmouthed mirror on the wall absolutely refused to let them try to go back to sleep, despite the fact that to them it was three o'clock, not ten.
After finally leaving the comfortable warmth of their respective beds, each sibling was able to get dressed in their nondescript Muggle T-shirts and jeans -- though, admittedly, it was mainly through trial and error. Jonathan even managed to go so far as to halfheartedly drag a comb through his bedraggled hair, though the effort was mainly in vain.
They stumbled down the stairs dragging their trunks behind them, once down Tom attempted to get some breakfast into them. He was unsuccessful on this venture, and ended up having to rush the half asleep children out the door and into the taxi that he had called for them.
When they arrived at the station, they managed to awaken enough to actually create some semblance of intelligent conversation. The taxi parked in front of the station and Jonathan helped Ruth Ann get her trunk out of the back of the car. He then left her standing on the curb in front of King's Cross with both of their trunks and the cage holding Thoth while he scrounged up a couple of trolleys for them to put their stuff on. He was not gone long and soon returned, awkwardly pulling along two trolleys. They were quickly loaded and the Hunter children entered the building, on their way to Platform nine and three quarters.
As she walked, Ruth Ann wondered aloud to her brother about getting to a wizarding school by train, a decidedly Muggle mode of transportation. "If you'd gone to Golden Poppy it would have been by train as well," Jonathan informed her as he pushed his trunk along. "Mom told me that she used to take the train to Golden Poppy from Union Station, so I guess wizards have just decided that it's easier to just adapt some Muggle technology to their own needs. And how else are we going to get there? We can't Apparate, we're both too young. It would be pointless to Floo, where would they find a big enough fireplace for all of the students? And Portkeys would be too darn complicated. So instead they use the train."
When he finished, he turned to look at her expectantly. She glanced around, and was surprised to see that they had arrived at platforms nine and ten. "You go first, Ruth Ann. I'll be right after you," Jonathan said, smiling slightly. "Just walk through the barrier. If you're scared, try running. Don't worry, you won't hit the wall." Nervous, Ruth Ann nodded slightly, then wiped her sweaty palms on the front of her jeans. Taking a deep breath, she took hold of her trolley, squeezed her eyes tightly shut, and ran at the barrier.
Despite her brother's words, Ruth Ann waited fearfully for the end of her trolley to hit the barrier. When several minutes had passed with nothing happening, she risked opening her eyes. She immediately slowed down and stared around herself.
All around her there were other girls and boys of varying ages, some alone, some accompanied by their parents. Ruth Ann was struck dumb, still trying to understand how she had managed to pass through a seemingly-solid wall. Suddenly someone careened into her back causing she stumbled forward. All of her weight fell on her trolley, giving it a good starting push. The last thing Ruth Ann saw before she tumbled to the floor was her trolley and trunk rolling off for places unknown.
"Oops. Sorry, Ruth Ann, I forgot to tell you that it's generally not a good idea to stop anywhere that's in a straight line with the archway." Ruth Ann sat up and turned her head to glare at the person whose trunk had run into her.
"You are so dead when I tell Mom about this, Jonathan."
"If I were you, I'd stop worrying about tattling and start worrying about catching my trunk before it goes off the platform and onto the tracks," advised her brother, raising an eyebrow.
Her eyes growing wide, Ruth Ann gasped and jumped to her feet, snapping her head back to where she had last seen the trolley. Breaking into a run, Ruth Ann went after the runaway trunk and trolley. They were not going especially fast, but the trolley had had a head start and Ruth Ann was afraid that she might not be able to catch up in time. To make matters worse, she could not see her things anywhere.
A squawk of surprise from her left alerted her, and she craned her head in that direction. To Ruth Ann's dismay it seemed that her trunk had nearly succeeded in running down another girl. Trotting over, Ruth Ann leaned over to help the girl up from where she had landed on the floor when Ruth Ann's trunk had hit her. "Sorry! My brother ran into me and I accidentally pushed the trolley forward and it escaped. I am so very, very sorry!" she said over and over again as the girl brushed the dirt off of her black robes.
"It's all right, it didn't hurt much -- it really wasn't going all that fast. I was mostly surprised, that's all," said the girl, her dark brown eyes sparkling with mischief. She held out her hand. "I'm Sojin Young -- I'm starting my first year, what about you?"
Ruth Ann took the other girl's hand and shook it. "Ruth Ann Hunter, and I'm a first year too," she replied shyly. She released Sojin's hand and grabbed a hold of the handle on her trolley.
There was a shout from from behind her, and Ruth Ann turned her head to see Jonathan waving at her, gesturing for her to hurry up. She smiled and waved back, then held up one finger to indicate that she would only be a minute longer. To Sojin she said, "That's my brother, the big lunk. I've got to go -- I, um... I guess I'll see you at school. Bye!"
Quickly turning her trunk around, she ran over to join Jonathan. "Come on, we have to get on the train now if we want to find a free compartment. They always fill up really fast, so it's better if you get on the train as soon as possible -- that's why I insisted that we get here so early."
Ruth Ann nodded, and followed her brother onto the train, grunting with the effort it took to pull her trunk up the stairs. She was grateful that her brother was willing to sit with her on the train, she knew that many older children detested just being seen with their younger siblings. Jonathan was glancing through the glass panels of the doors as they walked passed them down the corridor. True to Jonathan's word, it was not long before they found an empty one. He slid the door open and dragged in his trunk, Ruth Ann coming in right after him.
They sat down and Ruth Ann immediately pulled a book out from her backpack and opened it up on her lap, intent on reading it. She barely noticed when a couple of girls came in with their own trunks. Jonathan had to resort to poking her hard in the side to get her attention. "What?" Ruth Ann snapped irritably, looking up from her book.
"These are a couple of my friends. You don't mind if they sit with us, do you?" he asked her politely.
"Huh? Oh, no." Ruth Ann shut her book after carefully making sure to mark her place and turned to smile at the new arrivals. Both were about the same age and probably in the same year as Jonathan, which did not surprise her very much.
One girl with red pigtails was studying Ruth Ann with curiosity. "Who's the firstie, Jonathan?"
"She's my sister, Sally-Anne. Um," Jonathan raked his hand through his dark brown hair a bit nervously. "This is Ruth Ann, my younger sister. Ruth Ann, that's Sally-Anne Perks," he indicated to the girl with the pigtails, "and that's Susan Bones." The second girl had a long black braid that she'd slung over her shoulder.
Susan smiled at Ruth Ann. "Pleased to meet you, Ruth Ann. I'll bet you can't wait to get your first look at Hogwarts, hm?"
"I'm attending under protest. You will not be able to say or do anything that will convince me that the experience will be in any way pleasant," Ruth Ann grumbled. "I wanted to go to Golden Poppy, but my parents wouldn't let me."
Tucking her trunk under the seat, Sally-Anne blinked, confused. "What's Golden Poppy?"
Jonathan rolled his eyes. "Golden Poppy School of Magical Learning and Practice. It's the wizard school for California. Ruth Ann here," he jerked his finger in his sister's direction, "would rather go there instead of Hogwarts."
"Well, considering some of the rumors flying around, I'm not surprised," Sally-Anne said softly as she sat down across from Ruth Ann.
"Rumors?"
"Oh yes, haven't you read what they're saying about Professor Dumbledore in the Daily Prophet?" Susan asked, wrinkling her nose in disgust. "My aunt says it's bull. She says that the Daily Prophet is no better than The Quibbler these days."
"We don't get the Daily Prophet. Dad says it isn't worth the extra Sickles he'd have to pay because we're on the other side of the globe," Jonathan explained.
As the fifth years turned to discussing what had happened over their summer break, Ruth Ann returned to her book. Soon, the train started with a jerk. She continued reading, though every now and then she would look out the window the passing scenery.
At one point the door to their compartment was pushed open and a girl with bushy brown hair stuck her head in. "Hi, Sally-Anne, Susan. Just checking in," she said cheerfully, pointing to the pin on her black school robes.
Susan clapped her hands and smiled at the girl. "Oh, Hermione, I knew you'd make prefect. Do you know who it is for Hufflepuff yet?"
"Yes. Ernie Macmillan and Hannah Abbott," the girl with the bushy hair -- Hermione, Ruth Ann assumed -- answered.
Rolling his eyes, Jonathan snorted, "No need to guess who the other prefect is for Gryffindor. It's Potter, isn't it?"
Hermione frowned and shook her head, answering him slowly, "No, it's Ron, actually. Speaking of them both, I should see about joining them. See you at school!" She gave a small wave, then slid the door shut and wandered down towards the end of the corridor.
Sally-Anne turned her gaze to Ruth Ann. "What are you reading, Ruth Ann? You look fascinated by it."
Smiling shyly, Ruth Ann held up her book to show the cover. "Hogwarts, A History. It's very interesting, there's all this stuff about the founders, and there are lots of little quirky facts about the school, like that you can't Apparate to or from the grounds. And--"
Laughing, Sally-Anne held up her hands. "Okay, okay. Gee, I didn't know anyone actually read that book for fun. Though a lot of people checked it out from the library in our second year, because of the Chamber of Secrets. I always thought that was the only time anyone ever read it."
Jonathan nodded his head in agreement. "Well, except for maybe some of the Ravenclaws, and Hermione."
The other fifth years laughed at his comment. Ruth Ann just rolled her eyes then turned to look out the window at the countryside. Apparently reading Hogwarts, A History was some sort of old joke among the three of them and she felt it would be better to just ignore them -- anything else she chose to say on the subject would only encourage them.
After a while it began to rain hard enough that Ruth Ann had to give up on being able to see anything when she looked out the window. Sighing, she tried to return to her book, but she was growing tired of the stilted language and found it hard to concentrate on it.
Bending over, Ruth Ann retrieved her pack and stowed the book away. This done, she leaned back, closed her eyes, and fell asleep.
Several hours later she was awakened by the hushed voices of the people she was sharing the compartment with. Still half asleep, she muzzily wondered what they were talking about, and why she had chosen to awaken now.
"...sure she's really asleep? I mean, she's sitting straight up, for goodness sake! I think she just has her eyes closed," said Susan, obviously skeptical.
"She happens to be one of the few people in this world who has mastered the fine art of sleeping sitting up -- and I know she's really asleep because she learned how to do it from me," Jonathan said.
Ah, they were talking about her, that explained it. For some strange reason Ruth Ann's hearing was tuned in such a way that she would immediately home in on conversations about her, something she had found to be a very useful trick when the adults wanted to talk about her behind her back...
Yawning, Ruth Ann rubbed her eyes and pride her lids open far enough to look at the fifth years. "Well, I was asleep until some people started talking about me," she said grumpily.
"It's just as well that you woke up," Jonathan replied, poking her gently in the side, "we're going to arrive at the station soon and you still need to change into your robes." Ruth Ann noticed for the first time that everyone else had changed into their school robes. Shrugging, she took a set of robes out of her trunk and pulled them on over her head.
She picked at the black cloth and stuck her tongue out at it. "Bleah. I hate robes, they get caught on everything -- it's like wearing a skirt all the time." Ruth Ann ignored Jonathan's muffled snicker as she stuffed her backpack into her open trunk, then slammed the lid shut and latched it. She sat down again and tried to wait patiently, but instead ended up picking at a loose thread in her robe until Jonathan made her stop. This time she stuck out her tongue at him.
It was not very long before the train began to slow down and she started hearing students in other compartments rummage about in an increasingly noisy manner, trying to get all their stuff together. At long last train stopped, and she was pushed out into the corridor by her brother. About to snap at him, she was soon overwhelmed by a wave of students of all sizes and ages. She considered herself lucky that she managed to make it out of the train in one piece and breathing.
Standing out in the cold, wet mist it suddenly hit her that she did not know where Jonathan was and that she was alone in a strange place, surrounded by with equally strange people. Pulling her cloak tighter around herself, she looked all around, a hint of desperation in her movements. Most of the students were walking over to where row upon row of carriages stood. It seemed the other students intended to have the carriages carry them to the school, though Ruth Ann saw no horses to pull them. She also did not see Jonathan among them.
A woman holding a lantern began calling for first years to line up next to her, and as soon as Ruth Ann saw her she gratefully headed in that direction. As she rushed along, she slipped on the wet platform and stumbled into the person in front of her. Mumbling an apology, she pushed herself up and was about to continue on towards the woman when a hand caught the back of her cloak, stopping her.
Thinking it to be her brother she spun around, ready to bawl him out for abandoning her to the mercy of the crowded corridor. To her surprise it was not Jonathan, but instead a blond boy with a pointed face. A silver badge that had the letter P stamped on it winked at her from the front of his robes and she shifted nervously in his grasp. She knew what that badge meant -- she had seen a picture of just such a badge in Hogwarts, A History. It was a prefect badge, which meant that this boy was a prefect.
Ruth Ann had asked Jonathan about prefects when she had first come across the word, as the Muggle elementary school she had gone to had never had anyone called by that name. Jonathan had had a hard time explaining what a prefect exactly did and had eventually ended up simply telling her that they were "glorified hall monitors, they can punish you if you break a rule."
Standing there in the light mist, she stared up at the older boy, scared out of her wits, sure that she had unwittingly broken some rule and was about to be given detention. And I haven't even gotten to the school yet, she mentally moaned to herself.
"What do you think you're doing, pushing other people around?" sneered the blonde, still not relaxing his grip on her cloak.
"But I -- I sl-slipped. The platform was wet, I slipped!" she cried desperately, tears welling up in her eyes.
"I bet you think you don't have to respect your elders and can push them out of the way," the blonde continued, obviously enjoying this. He was about to say something more, but at that moment the bushy haired prefect from the train burst through the crowd. The blonde prefect immediately let go of her cloak and stepped away from Ruth Ann.
"Malfoy! What do you think you're doing with that poor first year? Look, you've made her cry," the girl -- Hermione, Ruth Ann remembered dazedly -- admonished the blonde.
"I was just helping her along, Granger," said the blonde coolly. "She chose to cry on her own accord." He flounced off towards the carriages, disappearing into the crowd.
Obviously still steaming, Hermione crouched next to Ruth Ann and put a hand on her shoulder, "Hey there, don't cry..."
"I didn' mean t' push 'm," Ruth Ann sobbed. "I was trying to go to the lady," she gestured to the woman with the lantern, "but the platform was wet and I slipped."
"It's all right, I believe you. Malfoy can be a real bully sometimes, don't you mind him. Now, do you think you can make it over Professor Grubbly-Plank by yourself?" Hermione asked kindly. Sniffing, Ruth Ann nodded her head enthusiastically and attempted a weak smile. Grinning, Hermione stood up straight, "All right then. I'll see you around the castle, hm? Bye!" She gave a wave, then plunged into the sea of people.
Rubbing at her eyes, Ruth Ann walked towards the woman with the lantern, making sure that this time she was very careful of where she stepped. She hated the fact that she was crying, it was always like this. If she got upset or angry around people she did not know, she immediately burst into tears, which had scared the heck out of more than one of her former classmates on previous occasions. While she was grateful that Hermione had rescued her from the other prefect, she was a bit upset that she had come across as a crybaby to the older girl.
Ruth Ann sniffed and straightened her shoulders as she joined her fellow first years who were gathered around the woman with the lantern. I can do this, she told herself, it can't be any worse than the first day of school in elementary school. But even as she tried to reassure herself with these words, she knew that she was only trying to fool herself, and not even doing a very good job of it.
::sniff sniff:: Malfoy's a bully ::throws shoes at him:: It is entirely possible to sleep while at the same time sitting up straight in a moving vehicle. My brother does it all the time. Freaks guests out like nothing else XD
Next chapter: Ruth Ann notes the irony of houses; a tower is constructed; innovation and math -- tragic downfalls of a genius
