The next morning, I dressed carefully. I was sick with nervousness, but I tried to pay attention to what I wore. Finally I just put on a tank top and jeans and tried to gulp down a few bites of toast. We drove to King's Cross station and loaded my trunk, Fen and Regal onto a trolley.
Something called the Ministry of Magic; apparently the government of wizards in England had contacted us earlier to explain how to get to the train that would bring me to Hogwarts. It was located on Platform 9 ¾ and apparently, the only way to get at it was to walk head-on straight into the wall between platforms 9 and 10. This, I had thought would be easy enough, but now, as I approached the wall with my trolley, I began to have second thoughts. The grimy bricks in front of me looked awfully solid.
I glanced about for any muggles and then closed my eyes and pushed my cart toward the bricks. 'Come on!' I thought to myself, 'I'm a witch from a wizarding family! I can do this!' with that I slid through the wall. I had braced my self for an impact and when I didn't feel the cart smash into the hard wall, I was surprised and opened my eyes. I gasped at the sight the met me when I did.
A scarlet steam engine labeled "The Hogwarts Express" in big letters sat in front of me. I'd done it! I was through the wall. A large sign read Platform 9 ¾. My mother appeared beside me and helped me lift my trunk onto the train. With a final wave good bye, I boarded and prepared myself to face my new life at the most famous boarding school for witches and wizards, halfway around the world from my family.
Halls filled with people were on either side of me. Where could I go? I wondered. I could join a compartment that already had people on it, but how would I know which people to join? I could look for people about my age who might be in my year, but what if they didn't want me to join them? I didn't want to make enemies on my very first day… I considered my plight and finally chose to sit in the first empty compartment I came to. That way, people could join me, and I wouldn't have to worry about be unwelcome.
I finally sat and placed my trunk carefully in the luggage rack. If no one came, at least I had Regal and Fen. I hesitated and then opened Fen's carrier. He streaked out, very glad to be released and promptly jumped onto a seat in the corner and began grooming himself.
I laughed and sat back to watch him. "You know Fen, right now you're my only friend on this train," I told him. He looked up and stopped washing his face. Quickly, he hopped down from the window and gave me a reassuring nudge.
"I know I'll make friends, I'm just saying that I'm glad you-" The compartment door suddenly slid open. Several laughing people about my age stood outside.
"Er… Mind if we join you two or were you in the middle of something?" asked one boy with fiery red hair. This brought another burst of laughter from the group. I felt my face turn as scarlet as the train, but I nodded quickly and tried to make it into a joke.
"Three of us, actually," I said, gesturing to Regal. Two girls glanced at each other raising their eyebrows and suppressing giggles. At first I thought they'd taken me seriously when I joked about the owl being another friend, but then I realized they were laughing because I didn't have an accent. Or rather, from their point of view, because I did have one.
"You're from overseas then, eh?" asked another boy with bright red hair. He was identical to the first who had spoken, they were twins, I assumed. I nodded.
"This is my first year,"
"All of us are new too," One of the twins said, gesturing around.
"I'm Fred," The first one informed me, "And this is my brother, George,"
"Wait," a girl with a blue pleated skirt and bright blonde hair said, sounding confused. "I thought you were George and you were Fred!"
"I'm Fred," George explained,
"No you aren't" said a tall boy with dreadlocks, "You're George. Fred has the untied shoelaces. That's how he tripped and ended up in here,"
"Oh, thanks Lee, you gave us away," Fred laughed.
"It really doesn't make much of a difference who's who," George said, "You're bound to mix us up anyway,"
"Sarah," I said, looking around at everyone. "I'm Sarah,"
The dreadlocks guy, a tall pale boy, the blonde haired girl and two other girls proceeded to introduce themselves as Lee Jordan, Thomas MacMillan, Sandy Lillis, Angelina Johnson and Fiona Tresh. They all seemed friendly enough, although Sandy and Fiona had to stifle their giggles whenever I spoke, but, I realized, all of the girls were wearing skirts and plain, neat shirts, not ripped jeans and tank tops that said- I gulped as I realized another mistake. I'd figured it would be best to wear a black shirt so it wouldn't show through my robes, but my only black tank top was a souvenir from my trip to Washington D.C. and said 'Freedom: Proud to be an American' in bold red, white and blue letters.
Wonderful. I'd pretty much labeled myself as an arrogant American. I quickly pulled a sweat shirt on, hopefully no one had noticed my American tank top. The sweat shirt said Fitchburg Finches. Not as bad Proud to be an American, but still not perfect. I couldn't wait to get my robes on.
"So Sarah, what's your friend here's name?" Angelina was asking, pointing to Fen. I could see she was trying to make it a joke.
I smiled, "That's Fen. He's not very talkative, but he's a good listener," I said, laughing.
"I was actually telling him that, erm, I was glad he didn't try to catch birds because otherwise I'd get very worried with all the owls around Hogwarts. I'm not sure about other owls, but Regal here, is vicious," Not entirely the truth, but I wasn't about to tell them that I was complaining to my cat about not having any friends.
This got a laugh from Angelina. "Oh, yes, Tom, show her your owl! Tom's owl, Sneezy, is absolutely ferocious," Thomas MacMillan lifted up his back pack and rummaged around. He withdrew the tiniest owl I had ever seen. It was no larger than his fist and it sat, chattering away in its tiny little cage. "He's adorable!" squealed Fiona.
"Terrifyingly adorable," Fred said gravely. Everyone laughed. As I looked around at all the people, smiling and laughing, I thought that maybe finding new friends might not be so difficult and living across an ocean from all my family and friends wouldn't be so bad.
Sorry about the delay between chapters for anyone who was actually interested in reading this. Everyone is probably off reading the Half-blood Prince anyhow… I, as your very devoted ff writer managed to somehow put the book down and take a break so that I could get this chapter up. So, now that you've read it, make me happy and leave a review!