Hey everyone, look, it's chapter 4! I actually got off my lazy butt and
posted! Ok, thanks to Willowfairy, Chrissa, and Kaelinacoop for reviewing.
They meant so much to me! There's also some inside jokes in here, so if
you don't get some of it, that's probably why. Anyways, on to the story!
Chapter 4: Saying Goodbye
We arrived at our house around 3. The fact that Grandma and Grandpa came in didn't surprise me- they always did. Mika and I went up to our rooms- he wanted to call his girlfriend, and I wanted to go online to talk to my friends. After about an hour, I heard them getting ready to leave, so I went downstairs to say good-bye. Soon, the door closed and it was just my mom and I.
"Ánië, your grandma told me about. all that stuff," she said. "Well, it came as a shock to me, and. I really don't know what to do.
"I made a decision. I want to go," I said.
"From what your grandma told me, I had a feeling you were going to go," Mom said. "I just want to let you know that whatever you chose to do, I'll support your decision."
"Thanks, Mum," I said, hugging her. "I love you."
"I love you too," she said.
In a few days, I would start school. And before that, I needed to get all my stuff. My grandma ended up taking both my mum and me so we could see everything we would have to do in future years to interact between the Muggle and wizarding worlds. We drove to London, which was only about 15 minutes from where we lived. I had been to London many times- my parents both worked there, so I knew the city fairly well. However, I was surprised to find another building along one street.
"The Leaky Cauldron," my grandmother said. "The Muggles don't notice it's here, but it is, and it's the entrance to Diagon Alley," she said, pushing the door open and leading us in.
The inside looked like any other pub, except a lot less. modern. And everyone was dressed sort of, well, funny, in my eyes. Grandma seemed to know a few people inside; she said hello as we passed by.
She led us out the back door, to the entrance of Diagon Alley. After doing the little 'thing' to get inside, I stepped back in awe. It was so weird, so. magical, I guess. (In retrospect, I think that was probably a given.) Everything just seemed too. well, different than what I was accustomed to. I loved every minute of it.
After a few hours, we returned home. I had all my stuff packed and ready, even though I didn't leave for two days. After telling all my friends that I was switching to a boarding school (which was fairly believable, a few of my other friends had), they decided to throw me a surprise good-bye party.
"Wow, you guys, this is so nice," I said. "It's so sad, I'm not gonna see any of you for almost a year."
"I know," my friend Becky said. "Couldn't you leave any faster? I mean, come on already!"
Everyone laughed, including me. "Oh, gee, Becky, thanks, nice to know I'm loved," I said with a sad look. They all laughed again. I loved my friends, and I was really going to miss them. Soon, it was time for all the guys to leave (the girls were sleeping over).
"Bye you guys, I'll miss you so much," I said. "Bye, Stacey," I added to Matt, lowering my voice about 5 octaves. Everyone laughed, remembering Matt's party and the little phone prank we played. The memory still brought tears to our eyes.
Soon, it was just the girls left. I wasn't too concerned about time the next morning; everyone would just have to leave by 9 or so.
Slowly, everyone drifted into sleep, after talking about various topics. It was finally just Gwen and I still up talking, with Mary drifting in and out of sleep, offering comments of 'Fluffy' and 'meatloaf' (A/N: Inside joke, don't ask!). We were laughing hysterically until about 4 in the morning, when we decided that it was time to go to sleep.
The next morning dawned bright and early. I rolled over, not wanting the morning to end. At 10 o'clock, I would be leaving for King's Cross and starting a new chapter in my life. As exciting as it sounded, I was actually having some fear. I guess I was just scared about leaving my old life behind- it was a really big change for me.
Everyone woke up at about 8, and we sneaked in a little last-minute party before everyone's mothers came. We finished off all the leftover food, played some music, and it sadly turned to 9 o'clock. I promised to write to everyone, but I told them that mail would have to go through my mum (I thought it would be a bit of a shock for them to see an owl delivering mail). One by one, tearful hug by tearful hug, they all left. As soon as Tracie left, I ran to the shower. I only had an hour until I had to leave. After hopping out, I threw on capris and a tank top, then noticing it was cold, threw a sweatshirt over it. I double-checked my trunk, and with Mika's help packed it into the trunk of his car. My mum wanted to take me, but she had to go to work that day.
The drive to King's Cross only took about 20 minutes. When we arrived, Mika heaved my trunk out of his car while I went to find a trolley.
"Geez Ánië, what the hell do you have in here?" he asked.
"Stuff," I replied simply, helping him lift it onto the trolley.
"Feels like bricks," he grumbled.
We went inside the station, looking for platforms 9 and 10. I had only been here a few times, and they were a while ago, so I wasn't sure where they were. After about 10 minutes, we found the place. I pointed to the barrier between the platforms.
"Grandma said all we have to do to get onto the platform is to walk through the barrier," I said.
"Walk into the barrier? Are you insane?" he asked incredulously.
I noticed a group of people standing near us. They all had trunks similar to mine, so I figured they were also going to Hogwarts as well.
"Watch them," I said to Mika.
Small groups from the large one crossed the barrier onto Platform 9 ¾ - some running, some just leaning on the barrier and sliding through. Mika took note of the last group, and said, "Er. how's about we just lean there?"
"Sounds fine to me," I said. To tell the truth, I was a little wary of running into a solid brick wall as well.
We walked over to the barrier and leaned against it. It was a weird thing to slide through a solid brick wall, but we did it. Mika helped me store my trunk on the train, and hugged me goodbye.
"Bye Ánië. See you later," he said. Typical brother response. Go figure.
"Bye, Mika," I said.
I boarded the train, feeling nervous. I saw a lot of kids, but knew none of them. I set off down the corridor, looking for an empty compartment. Finally, near the back of the train, I found one. Not expecting anyone to come, I sat down, pulled out my CD player, and relaxed. I heard a clock somewhere strike eleven. The train started to move. Looking out the window, I saw Mika and waved goodbye to him. He saw me and waved back. Soon, the platform dropped away and he was gone.
After a few minutes, I overheard the compartment door slide open and I looked over. There were 3 kids about my age standing in the doorway, two boys and a girl.
"Do you mind if we come in?" the dark-haired boy asked. "All the other compartments are full."
"Go for it, I'm not expecting anyone," I said.
"Are you new here?" the girl asked. "I don't recall ever seeing you."
"Yeah, I am," I said. "Oh, and my name's Ánië Byrne."
"Oh, I'm Hermione Granger, and this is Ron Weasley and Harry Potter," she said, referring to herself and the boys.
"Nice to meet you all," I said politely, putting my headphones away.
"Wow," Ron, the red-haired boy said to his friend. "That has got to be the first time someone hasn't said, 'Are you really Harry Potter?' and gawked at you for a full minute."
"What, was I supposed to?" I asked, slightly confused and joking at the same time. "It's not too late for a reaction like that."
Harry, the dark-haired boy, laughed. "Please, don't. It's actually nice to not have someone do that," he said.
"Suit yourself. So, why does everyone look at you like that?" I asked curiously.
"He's fa-a-a-a-amous," Ron said jokingly, with a little smirk.
"Shut up, Ron," Harry growled.
"Hey, it's true!" Ron exclaimed. Turning to me, he said, "Oh, you know, it's the typical Dark-Lord-kills-your-parents-tries-to-kill-you-as-a-baby- curse-rebounds-Dark-Lord-loses-his-powers type thing. He's really got a vendetta against our little Harry."
Harry, meanwhile, looked halfway between wanting to kill Ron and being extremely embarrassed for being called 'our little Harry.'
"So, onto other topics," he said quickly, apparently attempting to change the subject. "What year are you in, Ánië?"
"Er, well, this is my first year going here, but apparently I'm supposed to be in 4th year. I just got my letter this year."
"That's really strange," Hermione said. "Do you know why?"
"Well, I think it's probably because my birthday is later in the year, and it got screwed up somewhere in between the two years. I really have no idea though, that's just my explanation or whatever. Either that or they weren't aware of the fact that I was even born. I honestly wouldn't put it past my father to hide that. But, anyway, I'm here now, so, whatever."
The compartment was fairly quiet after I finished. Hermione broke the quiet moment after a bit.
"So, are you going to classes with the first or fourth years?" Hermione asked.
"I think I'm going to be with the fourth years; at least that's what my grandmother said would probably happen. But I'm being sorted with the first years," I said.
"Have you heard about any of the houses?" she asked.
"My grandma didn't say much about them," I responded. "So, no, I haven't."
"Oh. Well, Ron, Harry, and I are in Gryffindor," Hermione said. "The other houses are Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff are okay, but Slytherin's just."
"Evil," Harry and Ron said together, grinning.
"I guess you could say that," she said. "They say there isn't a witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin- although there are some exceptions."
"Yeah," Harry said with a strange sort of look on his face.
"I think it's more like everyone who was ever in Slytherin is. evil?" Ron said. Harry and Hermione laughed.
"Yeah, I'd say that about sums it up," Harry said.
We slowly turned to other topics, including Quidditch. Ron seemed shocked that I didn't know anything about Quidditch. Eventually, him and Harry ended up talking about Gryffindor's team. Hermione and I decided to take our leave for a few minutes.
"Boys and Quidditch," she said. We both laughed.
"Let me guess- they're going to be at it for a while, aren't they?" I asked, already knowing the answer.
"Yes, they always do," she said. "I'm going to see how much longer we have till we arrive- care to join me?"
"Oh, no, that's okay," I said. "I need to use the bathroom anyway."
We both set off in different directions. I was thinking happily about the friends I seemed to be making. It was strange; I felt like I had known them as long as they've known each other. I also noticed the interactions between Ron and Hermione. I was no expert, but I was very good at reading people, and I could tell they liked each other. It was actually quite amusing; I thought of mentioning it to Harry sometime later.
I walked back to the compartment, lost in various thoughts. Stupidly not realising where I was going, I was surprised to find myself bumping into someone else. We both fell back and landed on the floor. I quickly got up, embarrassed about not paying attention.
"Oh, I'm terribly sorry about that," I said rather quickly.
"No, that's okay, it's my fault," the boy said, trailing off at the end. He looked at me in a funny way, then turned and went his own way. Confused, I looked back at him and headed back to our compartment.
I came back in time to catch the end of Hermione's lecture about something or other- I wasn't too interested in it. But, from the sounds of it, her and Ron had just had a very big argument.
"Ron, it's really quite simple," she was saying, but I stopped her.
"Am I interrupting anything?" I said, stepping in.
"Please," Ron said. I laughed, but it was obvious he didn't want to hear any more of Hermione's lecture.
"Ah! You're back! Which reminds me- we should be there soon, so we had all better change into our robes," Hermione said.
I reached up to pull my robes out when I heard Hermione clear her throat.
"Er, Ron, a little privacy?" she said.
"Oh, yeah, right," he said, turning red. He opened the door and left.
"So," I said, turning away from the door and to Hermione. "How long have you all been friends?"
"Since our first year. There was a whole mess with a mountain troll, and we've been best friends ever since," she replied.
"You're the only girl in the group?" I asked while pulling my robes on.
"Yeah, pretty much. I have other friends besides Harry and Ron though. I've been looking for Gwen, but I couldn't find her. She pretty much keeps me sane with Harry and Ron around," she ended, laughing.
Soon, Ron and Harry came back. Not too long later, the train came to a stop. We unloaded trunks and other belongings onto the station platform. I looked around, amazed at my new surroundings. We had arrived.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Read? Review!
P.S. Ok, I'm working on formatting, so please bear with me!
Chapter 4: Saying Goodbye
We arrived at our house around 3. The fact that Grandma and Grandpa came in didn't surprise me- they always did. Mika and I went up to our rooms- he wanted to call his girlfriend, and I wanted to go online to talk to my friends. After about an hour, I heard them getting ready to leave, so I went downstairs to say good-bye. Soon, the door closed and it was just my mom and I.
"Ánië, your grandma told me about. all that stuff," she said. "Well, it came as a shock to me, and. I really don't know what to do.
"I made a decision. I want to go," I said.
"From what your grandma told me, I had a feeling you were going to go," Mom said. "I just want to let you know that whatever you chose to do, I'll support your decision."
"Thanks, Mum," I said, hugging her. "I love you."
"I love you too," she said.
In a few days, I would start school. And before that, I needed to get all my stuff. My grandma ended up taking both my mum and me so we could see everything we would have to do in future years to interact between the Muggle and wizarding worlds. We drove to London, which was only about 15 minutes from where we lived. I had been to London many times- my parents both worked there, so I knew the city fairly well. However, I was surprised to find another building along one street.
"The Leaky Cauldron," my grandmother said. "The Muggles don't notice it's here, but it is, and it's the entrance to Diagon Alley," she said, pushing the door open and leading us in.
The inside looked like any other pub, except a lot less. modern. And everyone was dressed sort of, well, funny, in my eyes. Grandma seemed to know a few people inside; she said hello as we passed by.
She led us out the back door, to the entrance of Diagon Alley. After doing the little 'thing' to get inside, I stepped back in awe. It was so weird, so. magical, I guess. (In retrospect, I think that was probably a given.) Everything just seemed too. well, different than what I was accustomed to. I loved every minute of it.
After a few hours, we returned home. I had all my stuff packed and ready, even though I didn't leave for two days. After telling all my friends that I was switching to a boarding school (which was fairly believable, a few of my other friends had), they decided to throw me a surprise good-bye party.
"Wow, you guys, this is so nice," I said. "It's so sad, I'm not gonna see any of you for almost a year."
"I know," my friend Becky said. "Couldn't you leave any faster? I mean, come on already!"
Everyone laughed, including me. "Oh, gee, Becky, thanks, nice to know I'm loved," I said with a sad look. They all laughed again. I loved my friends, and I was really going to miss them. Soon, it was time for all the guys to leave (the girls were sleeping over).
"Bye you guys, I'll miss you so much," I said. "Bye, Stacey," I added to Matt, lowering my voice about 5 octaves. Everyone laughed, remembering Matt's party and the little phone prank we played. The memory still brought tears to our eyes.
Soon, it was just the girls left. I wasn't too concerned about time the next morning; everyone would just have to leave by 9 or so.
Slowly, everyone drifted into sleep, after talking about various topics. It was finally just Gwen and I still up talking, with Mary drifting in and out of sleep, offering comments of 'Fluffy' and 'meatloaf' (A/N: Inside joke, don't ask!). We were laughing hysterically until about 4 in the morning, when we decided that it was time to go to sleep.
The next morning dawned bright and early. I rolled over, not wanting the morning to end. At 10 o'clock, I would be leaving for King's Cross and starting a new chapter in my life. As exciting as it sounded, I was actually having some fear. I guess I was just scared about leaving my old life behind- it was a really big change for me.
Everyone woke up at about 8, and we sneaked in a little last-minute party before everyone's mothers came. We finished off all the leftover food, played some music, and it sadly turned to 9 o'clock. I promised to write to everyone, but I told them that mail would have to go through my mum (I thought it would be a bit of a shock for them to see an owl delivering mail). One by one, tearful hug by tearful hug, they all left. As soon as Tracie left, I ran to the shower. I only had an hour until I had to leave. After hopping out, I threw on capris and a tank top, then noticing it was cold, threw a sweatshirt over it. I double-checked my trunk, and with Mika's help packed it into the trunk of his car. My mum wanted to take me, but she had to go to work that day.
The drive to King's Cross only took about 20 minutes. When we arrived, Mika heaved my trunk out of his car while I went to find a trolley.
"Geez Ánië, what the hell do you have in here?" he asked.
"Stuff," I replied simply, helping him lift it onto the trolley.
"Feels like bricks," he grumbled.
We went inside the station, looking for platforms 9 and 10. I had only been here a few times, and they were a while ago, so I wasn't sure where they were. After about 10 minutes, we found the place. I pointed to the barrier between the platforms.
"Grandma said all we have to do to get onto the platform is to walk through the barrier," I said.
"Walk into the barrier? Are you insane?" he asked incredulously.
I noticed a group of people standing near us. They all had trunks similar to mine, so I figured they were also going to Hogwarts as well.
"Watch them," I said to Mika.
Small groups from the large one crossed the barrier onto Platform 9 ¾ - some running, some just leaning on the barrier and sliding through. Mika took note of the last group, and said, "Er. how's about we just lean there?"
"Sounds fine to me," I said. To tell the truth, I was a little wary of running into a solid brick wall as well.
We walked over to the barrier and leaned against it. It was a weird thing to slide through a solid brick wall, but we did it. Mika helped me store my trunk on the train, and hugged me goodbye.
"Bye Ánië. See you later," he said. Typical brother response. Go figure.
"Bye, Mika," I said.
I boarded the train, feeling nervous. I saw a lot of kids, but knew none of them. I set off down the corridor, looking for an empty compartment. Finally, near the back of the train, I found one. Not expecting anyone to come, I sat down, pulled out my CD player, and relaxed. I heard a clock somewhere strike eleven. The train started to move. Looking out the window, I saw Mika and waved goodbye to him. He saw me and waved back. Soon, the platform dropped away and he was gone.
After a few minutes, I overheard the compartment door slide open and I looked over. There were 3 kids about my age standing in the doorway, two boys and a girl.
"Do you mind if we come in?" the dark-haired boy asked. "All the other compartments are full."
"Go for it, I'm not expecting anyone," I said.
"Are you new here?" the girl asked. "I don't recall ever seeing you."
"Yeah, I am," I said. "Oh, and my name's Ánië Byrne."
"Oh, I'm Hermione Granger, and this is Ron Weasley and Harry Potter," she said, referring to herself and the boys.
"Nice to meet you all," I said politely, putting my headphones away.
"Wow," Ron, the red-haired boy said to his friend. "That has got to be the first time someone hasn't said, 'Are you really Harry Potter?' and gawked at you for a full minute."
"What, was I supposed to?" I asked, slightly confused and joking at the same time. "It's not too late for a reaction like that."
Harry, the dark-haired boy, laughed. "Please, don't. It's actually nice to not have someone do that," he said.
"Suit yourself. So, why does everyone look at you like that?" I asked curiously.
"He's fa-a-a-a-amous," Ron said jokingly, with a little smirk.
"Shut up, Ron," Harry growled.
"Hey, it's true!" Ron exclaimed. Turning to me, he said, "Oh, you know, it's the typical Dark-Lord-kills-your-parents-tries-to-kill-you-as-a-baby- curse-rebounds-Dark-Lord-loses-his-powers type thing. He's really got a vendetta against our little Harry."
Harry, meanwhile, looked halfway between wanting to kill Ron and being extremely embarrassed for being called 'our little Harry.'
"So, onto other topics," he said quickly, apparently attempting to change the subject. "What year are you in, Ánië?"
"Er, well, this is my first year going here, but apparently I'm supposed to be in 4th year. I just got my letter this year."
"That's really strange," Hermione said. "Do you know why?"
"Well, I think it's probably because my birthday is later in the year, and it got screwed up somewhere in between the two years. I really have no idea though, that's just my explanation or whatever. Either that or they weren't aware of the fact that I was even born. I honestly wouldn't put it past my father to hide that. But, anyway, I'm here now, so, whatever."
The compartment was fairly quiet after I finished. Hermione broke the quiet moment after a bit.
"So, are you going to classes with the first or fourth years?" Hermione asked.
"I think I'm going to be with the fourth years; at least that's what my grandmother said would probably happen. But I'm being sorted with the first years," I said.
"Have you heard about any of the houses?" she asked.
"My grandma didn't say much about them," I responded. "So, no, I haven't."
"Oh. Well, Ron, Harry, and I are in Gryffindor," Hermione said. "The other houses are Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff are okay, but Slytherin's just."
"Evil," Harry and Ron said together, grinning.
"I guess you could say that," she said. "They say there isn't a witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin- although there are some exceptions."
"Yeah," Harry said with a strange sort of look on his face.
"I think it's more like everyone who was ever in Slytherin is. evil?" Ron said. Harry and Hermione laughed.
"Yeah, I'd say that about sums it up," Harry said.
We slowly turned to other topics, including Quidditch. Ron seemed shocked that I didn't know anything about Quidditch. Eventually, him and Harry ended up talking about Gryffindor's team. Hermione and I decided to take our leave for a few minutes.
"Boys and Quidditch," she said. We both laughed.
"Let me guess- they're going to be at it for a while, aren't they?" I asked, already knowing the answer.
"Yes, they always do," she said. "I'm going to see how much longer we have till we arrive- care to join me?"
"Oh, no, that's okay," I said. "I need to use the bathroom anyway."
We both set off in different directions. I was thinking happily about the friends I seemed to be making. It was strange; I felt like I had known them as long as they've known each other. I also noticed the interactions between Ron and Hermione. I was no expert, but I was very good at reading people, and I could tell they liked each other. It was actually quite amusing; I thought of mentioning it to Harry sometime later.
I walked back to the compartment, lost in various thoughts. Stupidly not realising where I was going, I was surprised to find myself bumping into someone else. We both fell back and landed on the floor. I quickly got up, embarrassed about not paying attention.
"Oh, I'm terribly sorry about that," I said rather quickly.
"No, that's okay, it's my fault," the boy said, trailing off at the end. He looked at me in a funny way, then turned and went his own way. Confused, I looked back at him and headed back to our compartment.
I came back in time to catch the end of Hermione's lecture about something or other- I wasn't too interested in it. But, from the sounds of it, her and Ron had just had a very big argument.
"Ron, it's really quite simple," she was saying, but I stopped her.
"Am I interrupting anything?" I said, stepping in.
"Please," Ron said. I laughed, but it was obvious he didn't want to hear any more of Hermione's lecture.
"Ah! You're back! Which reminds me- we should be there soon, so we had all better change into our robes," Hermione said.
I reached up to pull my robes out when I heard Hermione clear her throat.
"Er, Ron, a little privacy?" she said.
"Oh, yeah, right," he said, turning red. He opened the door and left.
"So," I said, turning away from the door and to Hermione. "How long have you all been friends?"
"Since our first year. There was a whole mess with a mountain troll, and we've been best friends ever since," she replied.
"You're the only girl in the group?" I asked while pulling my robes on.
"Yeah, pretty much. I have other friends besides Harry and Ron though. I've been looking for Gwen, but I couldn't find her. She pretty much keeps me sane with Harry and Ron around," she ended, laughing.
Soon, Ron and Harry came back. Not too long later, the train came to a stop. We unloaded trunks and other belongings onto the station platform. I looked around, amazed at my new surroundings. We had arrived.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Read? Review!
P.S. Ok, I'm working on formatting, so please bear with me!