To the few people who read this story, sorry I haven't updated in so long. We went on vacation for a long time, and no computers. And thanks for the tip, playstation14, I started to think about that after Chapter 3…but I'm too lazy to go and change anything. Once again, I don't own Sonic or Harry Potter.
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Chapter 4: The Train Ride
Carolyn woke with a yawn in her bedroom at The Leaky Cauldron. Walking downstairs, she saw everyone discussing something.
"I don't know…are you sure we should do this?" Tails asked. "Going to Hogwarts I mean."
"Yeah, it does sound a little suspicious, doesn't it?" Knuckles said. "I mean, we just magically get a letter saying we're invited to go to a school we've never even been to before? Sounds fishy to me…"
"I suppose your right," Sonic agreed. "It could be a trap or something…"
"But we know it has to exist!" Amy said. "I mean, look around us! We're in a place full of wizards and witches!"
"What're we arguing about?" Carolyn asked through a yawn. "Why are you guys just now reconsidering?"
"Because Kitsune said we had to," Tails answered.
"Oh…wait, what?"
"Because before we were just thinking about going after Eggman," Tails told her.
"Oh, ok. Well, too late to go back now!" Carolyn said, siding with Amy. "One, we have no idea how to get back. Two, we've already bought all this stuff, and I'll drag you all there if I have to!"
"Yeah, alright…" Sonic sighed. "But if we get caught or something, I'm blaming it on you two!"
"Well, let's hurry and get down to the train before we miss it," Tail said. He gave everyone a large cloak, except Carolyn.
"What are these for?" Knuckles asked, holding up his cloak.
"Well, if everyone looked at us strangely here, think of how the non-magical people will react," Tails answered.
"Good point. Let's go!"
"Ok, this is hopeless!" Carolyn sighed as she crossed her arms.
"We've been looking forever. The platform doesn't exist!" Sonic said. They'd been looking for platform nine and three-quarters for a good while, but had no luck finding it. "Besides, what kind of name is platform nine and three-quarters?"
"Oh, but we can't give up!" Amy cried. "I'vereally beenlooking forward to it…"
"Well, we don't really have a choice," Knuckles said. "I guess we could look for a couple more minutes…" He looked back at the others but remained walking, straight towards the dividing barrier between the platforms.
"Knuckles! Watch out!" Sonic shouted, but Knuckles kept on walking…and then disappeared. You could hear Amy shriek. A second later, Knuckles jumped out from the barrier. "Hey you guys! I found it! Just walk through here!" He jumped back in, leaving the others standing there very confused.
"I vote that Sonic goes first!" Carolyn said, pushing Sonic towards the barrier. He sighed and walked through. Coming out on the other side, he looked around. There was the train to Hogwarts. Tails, Carolyn, and Amy walked through a moment later and stared around.
"Hey, we better hurry! The train leaves at exactly 11:00!" Amy said, hurrying onto the train. The others followed her, and they all took off their cloaks. "Let's find a compartment! Sonic, you and I can have one all to ourselves…" She batted her eyelashes, Sonic slowly backing away. Carolyn and Knuckles were both laughing at the two.
"We'll let you two lovebirds be alone," Carolyn joked. "Maybe you could…have your first kiss or something?" Sonic gave her a death glare.
"We should go now…" Knuckles said. He and Carolyn ran off, and for some unknown reason they dragged Tails with them…probably to make him protect them when Sonic caught up. Sonic ran after them, and Amy followed him, as always. Carolyn was desperately trying to open a compartment door, she got it open and ran in. Sonic tried to grab them but tripped, knocking them over. Amy tried to stop, but ended up falling on Sonic.
"Get offa me!" Carolyn growled, pushing herself up from the bottom of the pile. Everyone else stood up. Two boys were staring at all of them strangely.
"Oh, hi Harry!" Amy said, recognizing Harry from before. "I didn't know you were going to Hogwarts, too!"
"Er, Harry…what are those things?" the other boy asked.
"Hi, Amy. Ron, these are my friends…well, those three are. I don't know the other two," Harry said.
"I'm Tails, that's Knuckles, Sonic, Amy, and Carolyn," Tails introduced themselves. "Nice to meet you."
"This is Ron," Harry said, pointing to Ron.
"Nice to meetcha. Sorry we barged in like that…it's a long story." She shrugged. "Hey, Harry, you didn't tell us you were famous!"
"I…haven't really known very long," Harry admitted. "It seems like everyone knows I'm famous except for me."
"What did you do to make yourself famous?" Amy asked curiously. She sat down on a seat. "Mind if we sit here?"
Harry and Ron shook their heads, though Ron looked a little skeptical. "Well, supposedly, I was attacked by Vol…You-Know-Who when I was a baby and lived. That's why I have this scar."
"You-Know-Who? Who's that?" Carolyn asked. All the others (except for Ron of course) nodded their heads, curious.
"He was a really dark wizard," Ron told them. "Everyone's afraid to say his name…"
"We won't ask, then," Tails said. They continued on with their conversation. They bought lots of stuff off the trolley when it came. Amy shrieked in surprise when Albus Dumbledore's picture on the card started moving. Carolyn screamed even louder when the Chocolate Frog hopped away, apparently, she had a deep fear of frogs. Sonic and Knuckles dared each other to eat strangely colored Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. Tails ate one that Sonic and Knuckles weren't about to touch, a dark brown color, but it turned out to be chocolate. They were interrupted by a knock on the door.
"Excuse me," a boy said when they opened the door. "Have you seen a toad? I've lost him!"
"A toad! There's a toad on the train!" Carolyn screamed. Sonic rolled his eyes.
"No, we haven't, but he'll turn up eventually," Harry told him. The boy seemed so miserable about losing his toad he didn't even notice how strange Sonic, Amy, Tails, and Knuckles looked. He left with a sigh.
"Don't know why he's so sad. I'd lose that toad as quickly as possible. Mind you, I can't talk, I brought Scabbers," Ron said. Carolyn backed near the door at the mention of the rat that was asleep on Ron's lap. "I tried to turn him yellow yesterday, but the spell didn't work…" He took out his battered looking wand, and raised it in the air when the compartment door was opened again.
"Has anyone seen a toad?" the girl asked. "Neville's lost his." She referred to the boy earlier.
"No, we already told him," Ron said. The girl seemed to notice Sonic and the others for the first time.
"What are…Oh, are you doing magic?" Her attention turned to Ron. "Let's see it."
"Alright…" Ron said. He cleared his throat.
"Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, turn this stupid, fat rat yellow." He waved his wand, but Scabbers remained unchanged.
"Are you sure that's a spell?" the girl asked. "Not a very good one, is it? I've tried a few spells for practice, and…" She continued on and on very quickly, and introduced herself as Hermione Granger. The others introduced themselves, and a 'don't ask' from Sonic when she looked at them oddly.
"Are you really Harry Potter?" Hermione asked. "I've read all about you!" She continued on like this for a while, talking about the books and houses before leaving with Neville.
"Er, houses?" Knuckles asked.
"You get put in a house at Hogwarts…you'll see when you get there," Ron told him. "There's Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, and Slytherin. Not a dark wizard around that wasn't in Slytherin. They resumed talking again, and Ron brought up about someone trying to rob a high security vault in Gringotts. Then he went off talking about how great Quidditch was, explaining the game to his friends. The compartment door was opened again, and they turned to see three boys. To Knuckles and Tails' anger, one of them was the pale faced boy from before. (A/N: This paragraph made my spell check malfunction...)
"So it is true," the boy said. "This is Harry Potter's compartment." Harry nodded, and he looked at the other two boys. "Oh, this is Crabbe and Goyle. I'm Draco Malfoy." Ron and Knuckles both coughed, trying to hide their snickering. "Think my name's funny, do you Weasley? Easy to recognize you, my father told me the Weasleys have red hair, freckles, and more children then they can afford. And look, it's the freaks from before. Looks like they brought friends." He turned to Harry. "You'll soon find that some wizarding families are better then others Potter. You don't want to make friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there." He held his hand out, but Harry refused to take it.
"I think I can tell for myself, thanks," he said calmly. A pink tinge appeared in Malfoy's pale cheeks.
"I'd be careful if I were you, Potter. You'll end up like your parents if you hang around riffraff like this," Malfoy said slowly. Harry and Ron stood up, Sonic and the others just glared at Malfoy, resisting the urge to beat him up. Before they realized what happened, though, Scabbers bit Goyle's hand and hung on, Goyle yelled in pain. He swung the rat off of his hand, and the three disappeared. A second later, Hermione appeared.
"What's been going on? You haven't been fighting, have you?" she asked. They all shook their heads.
"What're you doing here, anyway?" Knuckles asked.
"I only came in here because people outside are behaving childishly, racing up and down the corridors," Hermione said. She then left.
"We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately," a voice echoed through the train. They quickly changed into their robes, Amy and Carolyn of course going to find an empty compartment. Then they all hurried to the front of the train, and jumped out, shivering in the crisp night air. And soon they'd be at Hogwarts, where their journey would really begin.
