Harry and Brooklyn continued to stay at the Leaky Cauldron for the next few weeks of August, wondering and waiting for September 1st.
They poured over Harry's new school items, and at one point, Brooklyn got too curious and wanted to try out Harry's wand. He accidentally shot out a blast of magic while waving it playfully around, nearly breaking an old mirror.
Tom had heard the commotion and came up to tell them no underage magic allowed in the guest rooms. They both apologized and put Harry's wand away so it didn't cause any more damage.
Brooklyn had been pretty grateful to Tom whenever a new customer saw him, he would tell the person that he wouldn't hurt them.
But deep down, he wondered if the humans of this time zone would really accept him, just like in Manhattan.
Brooklyn had eventually gotten around to telling Harry the story of how they first encountered Puck, the one who stole his transformation magic. Harry just couldn't believe that all those fairy tales and Shakespearean folk tales were real.
"Demona had found Titania's mirror at a museum and she tried to force Puck to get rid of all the humans, but he misheard her, and ended up turning the humans in Manhattan into gargoyles, including Elisa."
Harry was open mouthed. Now he wondered what he would look like as a gargoyle.
Brooklyn continued. "And shortly after, Puck then turned us into humans."
Harry ended up laughing at those words. Brooklyn narrowed. "What?"
"It's-it's just hard to imagine you guys as humans!"
"Hey, being a human was no picnic! I couldn't glide or fight as well." Harry gave him a look. "Uh, no offense or anything."
But Harry had another question. "If he turned you into a human before, why didn't he use that spell when he transported you here?"
Brooklyn shrugged. "Guess he wanted to try out a new spell or something and wanted to know how long we could last without transforming into stone or human. And, speaking of which, he also had Demona turn to human during the day instead of stone, which she was none too pleased about."
Harry then smiled, wondering what Demona's reaction was like when she saw herself as a human.
He also eventually named his new snowy owl, Hedwig, who ended up taking a liking to Brooklyn by sitting on his arm and nipping his fingers affectionately. Overall, the new living situation turned out well for the two friends.
September 1st came at last. Brooklyn helped Harry pack his trunk and carry it downstairs. It was quite early, so there was hardly anybody in the pub, making it easy for them (with the assistance of Tom). Hagrid greeted them at the door.
As they exited the bar, Tom looked up at Brooklyn.
"I hope to see you here again soon, friend. The room's always open," he said, smiling. Brooklyn nodded to the old bartender; grateful he was able to meet another human who gave him the benefit of a doubt.
A while later, Hagrid was able to bring them to the train station, King's Cross. They got to the entrance and stopped.
"This is where I leave yeh two. I will see yeh at Hogwarts. Here's yer ticket. And yeh stick with him, Brooklyn," he said. Brooklyn, who nodded determinedly. "Train leaves at 11:00."
The friends then glanced down at their ticket. Brooklyn scratched his head in confusion at what it said:
Platform 9 Quarters
Huh? Brooklyn thought, bewildered. Where was this platform? Harry apparently was as confused as him.
"Hagrid, there must be a mistake, this is Platform nine and three quarters. There's no such thing, is the—?"
As they looked up, Brooklyn blinked a few times. Hagrid was no longer there. He just disappeared.
Where did he go? Brooklyn pondered to himself in amazement. He was going to have to get used to this new level of weird magic.
They entered the station, and Brooklyn once again considered themselves extremely lucky that the humans were too much in a rush to notice a giant winged beast and a small orphan boy with piles of wizard supplies as they roamed the many train aisles, trying to find this mystery platform.
Harry even tried going up to a security guard (while telling Brooklyn to stay near the cart) and asking him about platform 9 and 3 quarters and the train that left at 11:00. But the guard told Harry to stop bothering him and went on his way, grumbling about time wasters.
Harry glanced at Brooklyn in desperation. "What are we going to do, Brooklyn? It's 10:45! We'll miss the train!"
The gargoyle glanced around, trying his best to not panic, himself. "Don't worry, I'm sure soon some sort of sign will pop up and–."
Almost after he said those words, his sharp eyes suddenly picked out a large family walking by, all with flaming red hair and pushing carts that had similar looking items. One of them even had an owl!
"Every year, packed with Muggles, of course!" The motherly looking woman spoke up.
Brooklyn grinned in triumph as he turned back to Harry. "I believe we found our ticket in!"
He grabbed Harry's hand and pulled him along while he still held the handle of the cart in his other hand, following the family to a barrier between platform 9 and 10.
The two halted near the family and watched what would happen.
"Now, what's the platform number?" Brooklyn heard the boys' mother ask.
A ginger-haired girl younger than them spoke up. "Nine and Three Quarters!" She exclaimed in an excited high voice. "Mum, can't I go? Please?" The gargoyle smiled softly at the little girl's innocence.
"You're not old enough, Ginny. Be quiet. Percy, you are first."
Brooklyn watched the eldest red head stride forward with a haughty look on his face toward the barrier. He stared, not wanting to miss it, but ended up blinking as he ran right towards the barrier and disappeared just like Hagrid!
He still can't get over people in this magic world vanishing in a blink of an eye.
"Fred, you're next," the mother said, turning to two boys who looked exactly alike. Twins. Brooklyn immediately realized, as the one on the right looked pretty mad.
"He's not Fred, I am!" The left twin exclaimed indignantly. The right twin folded his arms in disapproval. "Honestly, woman, you call yourself our mother? I'm George!"
The mother sighed in annoyance. "Sorry, George." But then the twin smirked. "Only joking, I really am Fred!" And he, along with his brother disappeared into the barrier as well.
All who were left now was the youngest brother and his sister.
"Perhaps we should ask them for help?" Brooklyn suggested. Harry backed up a little. "No, I really don't want to impose—"
He sighed heavily. "This is our only chance, Harry. We've got nothing left to lose. We need all the help we can get!"
Harry ended up agreeing as his friend led him to the family.
Brooklyn felt nervous as they approached. What would they think of him? Will they be immediately terrified like those at the Leaky Cauldron?
His heart pounded as the mother saw them, but she didn't seem disturbed by his appearance. He gave a nervous grin, and to his surprise, she ended up smiling back at him and Harry. The only one that seemed nervous was her daughter.
She peered out from behind her mother, gazing up at Brooklyn with round eyes. He gave a small wave, and she immediately hid behind her again.
Oh well, at least her mother seems to not mind me, he thought as Harry spoke.
"Please, can you tell us how to-"
"How to get onto the platform?" She asked in a kind voice. Brooklyn nodded.
"Oh, that's easy, dears. Just walk right through the barrier. It can be at a running start if you're nervous. You two go ahead before Ron."
The youngest red-haired boy with freckles on his face nodded encouragingly to them and Harry and Brooklyn turned to face the barrier.
"So... ready to do this?" Harry asked.
"You know this is crazy, right?"
"I know, but it is like what you said earlier, what have we got to lose?"
Both of them took a deep breath and ran towards the barrier. Brooklyn braced himself for the crash and shut his eyes, but it never came. He felt Harry nudge his arm since he kept his eyes closed all the way.
His eyes opened, to reveal a huge scarlet steam engine waiting in its station. He looked up to see a sign that said Platform 9 and 3 Quarters. Gargoyle and human both grinned at each other in victory. They had done it!
Harry and Brooklyn pushed their way through the crowd of many witches and wizards up to the train. Brooklyn noticed a round-faced boy with an elderly witch looking pretty miserable.
"Gran, I've lost my toad again."
"Oh, Neville!" He heard the elderly witch sigh.
Brooklyn shook his head a little as they continued on. Young ones always seem to lose things.
They finally reached an empty compartment at the end of the train, and they struggled to lift Harry's trunk onto the train. Even though they were able to carry it through the Leaky Cauldron, this seemed even harder to do, despite Brooklyn trying to help, and having the trunk drop down painfully on his feet twice, Harry included.
Since when can't I even lift a stupid trunk? He thought in irritation while rubbing his foot.
"Need a hand?"
Brooklyn turned to see the same redheaded twin boys from earlier, both grinning at them.
"Yes, please!" Harry said gratefully. Brooklyn was grateful for the extra hands as all four of them finally managed to get the trunk on board.
Brooklyn panted from the effort as one of the twins looked him over with interest.
"Say, aren't you a gargoyle?" He asked in an excited voice. Brooklyn was still somewhat out of breath but managed to answer.
"Uh, yes?"
"I knew it!" The first twin exclaimed. "You do look like one of the gargoyles in my dad's old history books about them! This is wicked!"
Brooklyn gave a smile at the twin, and he held out his hand. He felt he could trust this one, too.
"Name's Brooklyn," he introduced.
"I'm Fred Weasley. This is George, my brother," Fred said, gesturing to the second twin, who gave an energetic wave.
George suddenly looked at Harry. "Wait, isn't that—"
"His scar!"
"It really is him!"
Brooklyn raised his brow. "What are you on about?" He asked. Both twins pointed to his friend.
"That's Harry Potter!"
Harry seemed kind of put off by their notice of him but decided to go with it.
"Oh, him. I mean, yes, it's me."
The twins gawked at him for a while. Brooklyn just couldn't see why everybody was paying so much attention to Harry, especially the scar. Why? When they get to this magic school, somebody had better come clean about all this!
"Fred, George! Are you here?" called the mother's voice.
"Coming, Mum!"
They got one last look at Harry and Brooklyn before jumping off the train.
Brooklyn spotted her looking over her youngest son, trying to wipe his nose while his brothers laughed.
Then the eldest, Percy, came into view, already dressed in his Hogwarts' robes and had a silver badge with the letter P on it.
"Can't stay long, Mother. The Prefects got a compartment to themselves." Percy announced. Fred and George both gasped simultaneously.
"Oh, you're a Prefect, Percy? I could have sworn you've mentioned that to us once!"
"Or twice—"
"A minute—"
"All year—"
Percy's face grew red. "Shut up!" He snapped. That's when the red gargoyle knew that these two twins were probably the pranksters in this family as they continued their banter/complaining about Prefect Percy.
"Hey, Mum! Did you know that Harry Potter there's friends with a gargoyle?"
Mrs. Weasley saw Brooklyn again and once again he felt nervous, even though she didn't look afraid of him earlier.
"You don't say! And what's your name, dear?"
"Brooklyn."
She smiled at him again. "I do appreciate that you are taking care of Harry here."
"Uh, thanks. Guess we should get going," Brooklyn replied quickly, just as the whistle blew.
He and Harry got onto the train and looked out the window, seeing Mrs. Weasley waving and the young girl running, laughing, and crying at the same time until the train sped up and Brooklyn could no longer see them in view.
So, it's finally begun, he thought vaguely to himself as he and Harry turned to find a compartment. They found an empty one and sat down across from each other. Brooklyn gazed out the window as the towns turned to fields, wondering what will happen when they got to Hogwarts.
They eventually had company as the compartment door opened and the young, freckled boy came in.
"'Scuse me, do you mind? Everywhere else is full."
Harry grinned and invited him in. As usual, the boy looked scared of Brooklyn, until Harry assured him he wouldn't hurt him. The boy sat down next to Harry across from Brooklyn.
"Name's Ron, by the way."
"I'm Brooklyn."
"And I'm Harry Potter."
Ron's face had the same expression the twins had earlier.
"Do-do you really have the-the,"
Harry lifted up his bangs to show his scar. Ron looked pretty excited at this.
Suddenly, Brooklyn heard the sound of a cart coming by, being pushed by an old woman. It was piled with strange candy.
"Anything off the trolley, dears?" she asked. Brooklyn shook his head; he wasn't very hungry at the moment.
Ron also declined, saying he brought sandwiches. The red gargoyle noticed they seemed rather dry. I bet Broadway could eat them, though, he thought humorously.
Ron looked pretty downcast at his sandwiches. "She always forgets I don't like corned beef."
Harry offered to trade, but he turned it down, so Harry ended up buying almost the whole cart.
The boys began to talk about the candy, with Brooklyn watching humorously for a while.
That's when Ron pulled out his fat, gray rat and set him on his lap, introducing him as Scabbers. The rat looked up at Brooklyn and squeaked at him. He thought he imagined it, but Brooklyn couldn't help but catch a strange smell from this rat. It almost smelled human.
The smell's probably from Ron, he concluded, shaking his head.
"He's pretty useless, but Fred gave me a spell to turn him yellow. Want to see?"
Harry looked pretty excited about it, and Brooklyn was now interested. He wanted to see professional magic in this world happen.
Ron cleared his throat and was about to say it until a girl with bushy brown hair and rather large front teeth came in. The gargoyle raised his brow at her.
She looked around, then sighed. "Has anybody seen a toad? A boy named Neville's lost one." Brooklyn then recalled the round-faced boy at the train station.
"Nope."
"Sorry."
She then saw Ron holding his wand. "Oh, you're doing magic? Let's see then."
Ron looked pretty taken aback by her words but raised his wand.
"Sunshine, daisies, butter, mellow, turn this stupid, fat rat yellow!"
Nothing happened. Scabbers simply stayed gray. Brooklyn shrugged at Ron, who seemed pretty mad. "Just wait until I get my hands on him…" he growled, gritting his teeth.
The girl gave a smug grin. "Are you sure that was a real spell? Well, not very good, was it? Course, I've tried pretty simple ones myself."
When does she know everything? Brooklyn thought in some irritation.
She sat down across from Harry, pointing her own wand. "Oculus Reparo."
And just like that, Harry's glasses were instantly repaired. Brooklyn was pretty amazed.
Her eyes suddenly widened as she looked at Harry, "Holy cricket! You're Harry Potter, aren't you?"
Harry nodded, too stunned to speak.
"I know all about you, of course, you appear in Modern Magical History and the Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts!" Suddenly, she looked at Brooklyn. "And you're the gargoyle those twins wouldn't stop gossiping about too, right? You gargoyles also appear in Modern Magical History, plus a revised edition of the famous Magus's spell book that I've gotten for background reading! I'm Hermione Granger, by the way!"
He had a hard time comprehending what she said, for she was a fast talker, obviously. But when she mentioned the Magus, he tensed.
Her eyes grew round. "You didn't know the Magus, did you? And how did you even get here?"
"Uh, yeah, I knew him." Brooklyn muttered, memories of the Magus turning him and his family into stone suddenly haunting his mind. Taking a slow breath, he then ended up explaining to Hermione as best as he could about his clan, Puck, and how he met Harry.
"Gosh, that's very interesting. I hope I get put into a good house at Hogwarts. Gryffindor seems by far the best, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad. Anyway, I'd better continue to help Neville with finding his toad."
As Hermione got up to leave, she then finally acknowledged Ron, who was looking pretty grumpy.
"And who are you?"
"Ron Weasley," he answered rather stiffly. She gave him an uninterested look. "Pleasure. We should be arriving pretty soon, you'd better change. And you got dirt on your nose, by the way, did you know?"
With that, she left.
"Who does she think she is, she isn't my mother," Ron growled, throwing his wand back into his trunk.
"Well, at least she spoke to us," Brooklyn said in her defense. Even though Hermione was a little bossy, he didn't mind her too much.
"I just hope whatever house I'm in, she's not in it!"
Brooklyn was confused. "What house?"
Ron stared. "You don't know about the four houses at Hogwarts?"
Harry and Brooklyn both looked at one another, with Harry looking rather embarrassed. "I was going to tell him, but I guess we were distracted."
Ron then proceeded to tell Brooklyn all about the four houses, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. He even mentioned how Slytherin always seemed to churn out the baddest witches and wizards.
Eventually, he also told them about their sport, Quidditch. He was just about to tell Harry and Brooklyn the finer points of the game when the door opened yet again, but it wasn't Hermione Granger this time.
Brooklyn found himself looking at a trio of boys, the one in the middle with a pale face and white, blond hair, flanked by two others who looked pretty big and mean.
The pale faced boy smirked in a mean way, which made Brooklyn have the gut feeling he was probably not gonna like him.
"So, it is true what they were saying? Harry Potter's in this compartment? It's you, right?"
"Yes," Harry answered. Brooklyn watched the boy until he turned to look at him, eyes wide with shock.
"You're that monster those idiot twins babbled about!" He cried out in some fear, his cronies both tensed their muscles, either looking afraid or wanting to defend their leader.
Brooklyn narrowed his eyes in offense. "I'd appreciate it if you didn't call me that word," he said in a low growl, eyes glowing. The boy backed up, but not too much, for he eventually turned his attention back to Harry.
"Oh, this is Crabbe and Goyle, and I'm Malfoy. Draco Malfoy," he introduced. Ron suddenly snickered. Malfoy glared harshly at him. "Think my name's funny, do you? No need to ask who you are. Red hair? Hand me down robe? My father says all the Weasleys were poor and with more children than they could afford."
The gargoyle felt another rush of anger at the way the brat insulted Ron's family, the first magic human family who didn't discriminate against him when they first met.
"You'll soon find out that some wizarding families are better than the rest of them, Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort, and especially monster freaks like him," Malfoy sneered, pointing at Brooklyn, who was going red in the face along with Ron.
He's just like Demona, he thought, body trembling with rage.
"How did you meet him? Probably a freak accident, I really don't care. But not to worry, I can help you find better friends." The brat held out his hand, but Harry didn't take it.
"I can find out the wrong sort for myself, thanks. Plus, I really didn't like you insulting them," he responded coldly. Brooklyn smiled proudly at him.
Malfoy glared with cold mirth, a tinge of pink going on his cheeks.
"I'd be careful if I were you, Potter, or you'd go the same way as your parents and the monster freak's clan did. Hang around with riffraff like him and the oaf Hagrid and it'll rub off on you."
That set Brooklyn and Harry off, angry beyond measure as he, Ron, and Harry stood up sharply. Brooklyn's eyes glowed white with fury.
"You dare say that again!" He hissed, hating this brat more and more for insulting his dead clan members and Harry's dead parents.
Malfoy simply folded his arms. "I dare, because how can a beast like you have feelings? And I notice you still have some food left. We've eaten all of ours."
Goyle reached for the chocolate frogs, and before Brooklyn had the chance to stop him, he suddenly let out a horrible yell.
The gargoyle was in shock as Scabbers the rat was hanging off Goyle's finger. This gave Brooklyn the opportunity to seize Malfoy's arm and glare hard at him.
"If you ever insult me or my friends again, I can assure you, we will have more talks like this!" He snarled lowly. Malfoy's eyes were round with fright as he nodded, and then he let the brat go. Goyle flung Scabbers around wildly until he flew off and hit the window. Then the three of them disappeared.
Hermione suddenly appeared again, taking in the scene before her.
"What has been going on?" she asked. Brooklyn looked over at Ron, who held Scabbers by his tail.
"I think he's been knocked out," He observed. "No, Ron, I believe he fell asleep again," Brooklyn corrected. And so he had.
That rat is one heavy sleeper!
