The Spreading Gold at Platform 9 and 3/4

"You're telling me that you want me to run through a wall. Are you sure that you're feeling ok?" I eyed my mother murderously because I was not pleased that she wanted me to race headlong through a wall. A solid wall. My mother was absolutely one crazy lark. She refused to listen to me and my constant, unrelenting protests. No matter how many times I insisted that there was no platform nine and three quarters to be found, there was only a nine and a ten, she insisted just as strongly that there was. Apparently all I needed to do to get to platform nine and three quarters was to mosey on a bloody freaking wall. It was absolute absurdity!

"Actually, darling, I prefer to lean through the wall myself, but if you're really that frightened you can run though. It's rather cute that you're frightened love. Don't worry, I won't tell a soul." She spoke casually, as though her words meant nothing, however her wicked smile said all I needed to know. I continued to glower at the world in general, aware that I had been properly chastised by my darling mother for my foul mood.

Ollie snorted in his cage, and for his sake I assumed he wasn't pleased with my mother. We had bought a cage for him the day after the wand shop incident. As soon as we had gotten home with the cage and put poor disgruntled Ollie into it, he raced to the corner and curled up into a pathetic, shaking hedgehog ball with his little quills scraping the bars of the cage. The cage became as gold as him, and at once began to glow as he did. A golden cage is a bit unusual, and considered quite valuable. I immediately suggested we sell it to some bum on the street, but my mother firmly turned me down. I could now see why, it was because after a couple days Ollie seemed to have grown accustomed to his new dwellings.

One weird thing about the entire affair was that every once in a while, actually about once a day, Ollie would begin to glow like he had in the Leaky Cauldron. When he glowed, so did his entire cage. I noticed that he had begun to eat the sawdust we had put down for him in the bottom of the cage, and that when he ate it the glow went away. He wouldn't eat anything else, only the saw dust. Sometimes he stared longingly at the wooden table across from where his cage sat, but beyond that he was a normal rodent. We quickly ran out of sawdust for the bottom of the cage because he ate all of it, so we had to put down newspaper. Since the newspaper has been put down, Ollie, and his entire cage have been glowing. I plan on obtaining some sawdust, or a wooden coaster, to amend the situation.

I smiled down at the little critter, pleased that he was on my side. I looked up at my mother "Well, are you going first or am I?"

My mother responded with a smirk "Just walk through; run through, lean through; just go through, I honestly really do not care how you manage it. And don't be scared. If you're scared you won't make it; you'll just embarrass yourself."

A girl with rust colored hair snorted from behind my mother. Apparently, there was a line waiting to get through the wall. Time to get it over with. I closed my eyes and ran blindly through the wall, awaiting the inevitable impact that would send Ollie and me flying. But it never came. I opened my eyes and slowed my cart to a stop and looked around. There was a large train emitting a cloud of smoke and hundreds of children and parents milled around aimlessly, saying their final goodbyes before the children were whisked off to school. I spotted the boy from the wand shop, what was his name …. oh yes Sirius Black talking to a boy with messy black hair and hazel eyes. It was marvelous, I had never felt so at home before in my life.

My mother appeared behind me with her face turned upward into a glorious smile. A lot of people say I have her smile, and as I felt the same radiance spill from my features, I suppose I would have to agree. She eyed me with a little twinkle, then leaned down to Ollie and thanked him for getting me safely through the wall. I laughed melodiously, happy with what was happening in my world.

Abruptly, I was thrown from my state of complacency when the rust haired girl from behind me came plowing through the wall. I turned just in time to see her face contorted into a grotesque mask of fear, eyes squeezed shut behind her cart which was barreling out of control. I tried to move out of the way, but it was in vain. She ran right into me and bowled me over with more force than I had anticipated. Ollie flew out of my hands into the air, and I felt a sharp pain in my side from where the girls cart had struck me. I rolled on the ground in agony, but before I could completely evaluate the damage, the girl landed on top of me in a heap. We both struggled to get away from the other one, but ended up more tangled and unable to move. A boy from beside us was now tumbling down with us because Ollie had hit him in the head after I threw the poor critter in the air. The boy landed right next to us and was soon caught up in the tumble with Ollie scrambling in the center of the calamity.

We fought each other gallantly, each one of us pushing the other ones in an attempt to get out. I heard a few people laughing from beside me, and that only made me want to get away from this mess faster. I pushed, pulled, and bit, but NO ONE WAS MOVING!

I heard a muddle curse from my left, "FORSVINN!" in a heavy Irish accent. At least I think it was a curse. The tone of voice really implied cursing. To my right, the boy was scrambling madly, and I pushed at him, trying to get him away from me. My legs were tangled in the girls and what I assumed were the boys. The legs of some unknown person, or persons, floated in the air, with no body attached, no body that could be seen. I pulled harder to get away. I was desperate for air! Behind, I could hear my mother laughing hysterically, again. Darn her! Darn them all! Instead of laughing she should be bloody helping! There was a crowd gathering now to view the spectacle we were making of ourselves. I threw a punch in the general area of the boy, hoping to knock him out so he would get off me.

"Whooo!" Above, a cursed owl was calling loudly.

"GUFO! GO GIT NICKLE!" The girl shouted beside me. I stopped for a moment Nickel? but then I felt someone pull towards me on the side, and I pushed them away with all my might.

Darn it! Why were they so big! Why was I so big? I tried and tried to get out of the mass of people, I couldn't tell if it was just the three of us at this point, but I just couldn't do it. From the corner of my eye, I saw a tall, slender boy of about 15 with vibrant red hair come over to us and start trying to pull the girl out of the twisting mass of flesh we had become. That must have been Nickel. I prayed he would succeed. That's when Ollie shot out from out group, glowing boldly.

The boy and girl spoke together, "What is that THING!" she had a heave accent; she must be Irish. But before anyone could explain, the owl that had fetched Nickel swooped down on Ollie.

"No! Run Ollie! Run! Run! Run!" But it was no use. The bird was trained on my hedgehog. I pulled as hard as I could towards Ollie, and detached myself from the mess I was in, finally. I fumbled towards the hedgehog who curled into a little terrified ball to protect himself from the descending owl, quills sharpened and out and ready to prick the owl. I covered my eyes as I saw that I couldn't stop the inevitable and turned away.

For a moment, everything stopped. No one moved, no one talked. And it wasn't just in my mind. Then, a loud clunk sounded and reverberated loudly through the train station. I refused to move. Simply refused.

But one look couldn't hurt, could it? I turned around and was confronted with a scene straight out of my imagination. What in God's name …?

The owl slowly tilted on its side, rocking back and forth in a position of attack. It had been turned to solid gold. Ollie moved forward cautiously, and slowly poked the metal creature with his nose and that touch was enough to tilt it over. The stone-like bird fell over onto its side, and the sound of its fall reverberated in an even higher crescendo than the original fall.

I gawked at the site. The golden owl lay on its side and Ollie was sitting next to it and he appeared to be laughing.

"My owl! You turned Gufo into gold! I'm going to get you, you little … little … I don't care what you are I'm going to get you!" The rusty girl with a very heavy Irish accent glared at Ollie, but I stepped in the way. I would save Ollie, and then kill him later.

"Sorry 'bout that miss." I tried to put on a winning smile, aware very quickly how dismally I had failed.

"You owe me a new owl!" She eyed me with the same look I had bestowed upon my mother earlier. I was beginning to get uncomfortable. The rage so besought by her race was boring into my soul and that was making me rather squeamish. And I of all people knew enough not to mess with an angry Irishwoman.

I desperately wanted to make friends with this girl, but the laughter that sounded around me only made her angrier and made it seem impossible to attain this goal. With each chuckle her face went a tinge redder, and my chances for survival went a tick lower.

The boy who had fallen down with us came and stood by my side, looking at the girl bemusedly. He held his hand sideways out to me, not taking his eyes off of her. "I'm Johnathan, pleasure to meet you. How'd you do that? I mean, turn her owl into gold. Or whatever it turned into." I smiled, he looked very interesting and the he also looked to be the type who could protect me easily. He had golden locks that flowed over his face and big blue eyes that sparkled. He exuded an aura of complacency and safety.

I shook his hand spiritedly, hoping I had gained a comrade. "I have no idea. Ollie did it," I tried to find my mother so that she could help me explain more fully the oddity's of Ollie, but she was no where to be found.

He looked over his shoulder, finally taking his eyes of the Irishwoman, "So that's the thing's name. What is it?"

"A hedgehog. At least he seems very similar to a hedgehog, so I'm assuming a hedgehog. Most hedgehogs don't turn Irish people's owls into gold."

"I don't think most hedgehogs turn anyone's owl into gold. Why is he gold? The hedgehog I mean," We were both speaking out of the side of our mouths so as not to piss the girl off. We both knew it wasn't working, and she could see us, but we didn't stop anyway.

I looked over at Ollie, and answered Johnathan very matter-of-factly, "I made an oops."

"You made 'an oops,' well that's a new one." His eyes sparkled with intelligence and hidden laughter. I liked him.

"Hello! I'm still here! And I want another owl. Now." The angry Irish girl spoke venomously and loudly. I considered answering with a clever retort for a moment, emboldened by my new friendship with Johnathan, but then my new friend spoke very quietly into my ear.

"It was a pleasure meeting you. I hope that girl doesn't kill you before you get onto the train. See ya later!" and then he ran off.

"Bloody English-man. Got piss for blood." I spoke bitterly in a voice I thought was under my breath.

The Irish girl slowly walked up to me, and within a moment we were nose to nose. I could really see her eyes because she was so close, she looked rather like a Cyclops from this angle. It figured that she was short like me, she gave off a very tall personality. If she was really as tall as she acted, she would have to be at least 11 foot, but of course that's impossible for a young girl, probably impossible for anyone.

She glared at me, and I feared she was going to spit on me. Her irises were violet and I wondered if that was really her natural eye color. It was intriguing. Here glare was disheartening however, she looked ready to charge and kill.

I took a step back, to make myself feel better and so that I wouldn't feel like I was staring down at her. She stepped towards me defiantly. I considered deferring to her, and just walking away, but then I realized that wasn't like me at all. I squared my shoulders and let my eyes bore into hers the same way she was trying to do to me.

Quick as lightning, her demeanor changed, she smiled and punched my shoulder; hard. "I like you! My ma always said the English were a bad bunch, and here you go insulting them, and also standing up to me. I like you for it." She held out her hand boldly, but she couldn't hold it out very far because she was so close to me. I took a step back and shook her hand; she had a very strong grip. "The names Copper. Copper Miller. What's your name?"

"Maybell Shorter." She still wasn't letting go of my hand. I tried to pull away nicely, but she just held on stronger. I finally wrenched my hand from her grip and while rubbing it I said, "I'm from America. I don't know much about the English yet."

Copper drew back suddenly and violently. Her facial features formed into a mask of confusion, "My mother always said the only thing worse than an English-man was an American." I gulped in air, damn her mother and her theories! Coppers face relaxed and she put her arm around my shaking shoulders, "But I like you."

I smiled, and put my arm around her, "I like you too." We both laughed at my atrocious accent compared to her authentic Irish one. I then pulled my arm out from around her shoulders and turned to put all my luggage back on my cart, ready to get on the train and actually start the adventure of Hogwarts. Copper did the same.

After putting all of her luggage onto the cart, she stopped and looked at Gufo, her owl, who was lying pathetically on his side, surrounded by a group of people. She shoved her way to the center and bent down, reaching out to grab him. A boy touched her shoulder, "Excuse me. I was wondering if you still wanted your owl, I mean he is dead and all, and I would be willing to buy him off of you for a goodly sum."

I rushed in and grabbed Ollie, ready to protect him from an angry Copper again. "No, I don't want to sell my owl. If I wanted to sell my owl I would have offered to sell it!"
She reached over to grab Gufo off the ground, but was knocked over by the boy. He greedily plucked the owl off the ground and turned to run with it. But his feet were stuck to the ground, and slowly turning into gold. He dropped Gufo on the ground, who landed with a very loud SMACK and tried to move his feet with his hands. His hands got stuck to his legs and began to turn to gold themselves. The golden metal crept up his legs and arms and slowly engulfed his torso, much the same way Ollie had turned to gold, and within a moment he was a completely golden statue.

I muttered, "Uh-oh."

Someone who must have been the boys mother ran up to him screaming, "What have you done to my son!" and she grabbed his shoulder. Her hand immediately began to turn to gold as well, and she drew it back to herself, clutching it as if it was wounded. The slithering golden poison slipped up her arm, deathlike and soon her entire body was golden as well. Just before her head was submerged she said, "What the hell." This was exactly what I was thinking.

Students were beginning to gather around the spectacle, many of the same faces from our fall earlier. Another student walked towards the statues and reached to grab the boy, but Copper stopped him by grabbing his arm and spinning him around. "What are you stupid? If you touch them, you'll turn into gold as well!"

I looked behind her and saw Johnathan pushing his way through the crowd. He came and stood by me, arms crossed over his chest and staring at Copper in the same bemused fashion as before. I spoke first. "You bastard. You left me."

"I don't even know you. Plus, you seemed to have handled it very well on your own. She's off yelling at someone else." At this point, he took notice of the two new golden statues standing in front of us. He turned and looked down at me, at least it felt like he did, he was only an inch or so taller than me. "What did you do?" I opened my mouth to protest, putting Ollie behind me, it wasn't our fault, "Ok, what did he do?" I was about to speak, but he cut me off again, catching the look of denial in my eyes, "Fine, what happened?"

"That boy tried to steal Gufo from Copper, the one whose gold, but when he picked Gufo up, he turned into gold too. Then that woman came up screaming, touched his shoulder, and turned into gold too. See, I had nothing to do with it!"

He laughed, "Coppers the angry one with purple eyes, eh? And Gufo's the gold owl. This is interesting."

"Yes to the first too, no to the last one. I'm just waiting for this to come back to being my fault, you already blamed me." I made a large hand flourish, and looked grimly on the situation before me.

A red-headed boy came bounding out from the middle of the crowd and grabbed Copper by the collar and pulled her aside. He spoke to her in a very agitated matter, and his actions and hand movements betrayed the same emotion as well, but Copper stayed very "sang froid," to the last drop. Finally he turned away from her and addressed the crowd, "My name's Arthur Weasely and I'm head boy! I'm going to levitate these two people, and … ahem … and Gufo the owl onto the train where Madame Pomfrey and Dumbledore will look at them. If he decides that they are beyond his help, they will be sent to St. Mungo's. Please do not touch the golden people. We do not need another statue."

He turned again towards the statues, and with a flick of his wand and a muttered spell they were all three flying in the air onto the train. Copper motioned to me, grabbed her cart and began to walk behind this Arthur Weasley. I followed suit, dragging my cart behind me and Ollie on my shoulder and Johnathan behind me.

Once on the train, Johnathan, Copper and I sat in the same compartment, alone. The other students, we assumed, were afraid to sit with us. Some because they feared Copper would yell at them and make them cower, and yet others afraid that I would turn them into gold. At least that Ollie would. Golden Gufo sat on a chair next to Copper and Johnathan and I sat across from the two of them; Johnathan was still staring at Copper like he had in the train station, and he had a look of mischief in his eye.

Me, I was curling up slowly into a ball, wishing for my mother. I'm aware that I should totally roll with it, be fine with what had just happened, but I wasn't. I was absolutely petrified that once I got to Hogwarts, I was going to be expelled because of my behavior at the train station. Even though it wasn't my fault.

The more and more I thought the more and more nervous I became. I sunk lower and lower into my seat. Johnathan leaned over and whispered into my ear, "Don't worry; I'll make this more interesting soon. Just leave it to me,"

I ignored him and continued to wallow in self-pity.