Chapter 4: The Journey to Hogwarts

The moment I had stepped through the barrier of Platform Nine and Three Quarters, it was like a new chapter was beginning its new cycle in my life. It was like I'd suddenly become a grownup—despite being eleven years old—and was about to board a train and move out of Mum's house for good, even though it was only for the school year. Still, a year seemed like a lifetime away.

The Hogwarts Express was exactly as I remembered it when my brother went to Hogwarts for his first year, with its huge conical funnels giving out smoke from the massive scarlet engine. Above the sign that read 'Hogwarts Express, 11:00, Platform Nine and Three Quarters', a large brown and white-spotted owl hooted over the heads of several witches and wizards seeing their children off to school. I saw several children and teens sticking their heads out of the windows, waving and chatting to their families excitedly. Some children and teens were dressed in colorful robes and the casual school robes with the tie showing the color of the House they were representing, and others wore just plain everyday wear, such as jeans and hoodies, giving me the impression that they were coming from Muggle families or simply from the Muggle towns their Wizard families lived in. I had decided to wear jeans, my favorite red cardigan over a cream-colored top, and comfortable running shoes on the train, though Mum insisted I change before getting to school—I was supposed to wear my school robes with a plain black Hogwarts tie from the Hogsmeade platform to school. I told her I would change in the carriage on the train on the way.

"Have a safe and magical first year, Jane," Mum whispered in my hair while she squeezed me goodbye. "Send me an owl every day."

I told her I wasn't going to send an owl every day as that would make me homesick, but I promised her I would write to her as often as I could.

After I gave her one last hug, I brought my trunk to the back of the train where a strikingly handsome wizard who looked no older than twenty-five was loading several other trunks onto the train with the Levitating Charm, a charm that I couldn't wait to learn at Hogwarts. After that, I hopped on board and stood at the window for several minutes, watching the train pull out of King's Cross Station and eventually out of London.

After about half an hour of watching nothing but countryside moving past the window, my legs were starting to feel numb from standing for so long. I had ultimately decided to search for a carriage that wasn't too full for me to sit and rest my legs—Mum told me it was a long walk to the castle from the platform, although it wasn't that bad of a walk to the lake, where, as a first-year, we would take a boat to the castle.

For several minutes, I was walking through the train cars, trying to find a compartment that occupied less than four people, but the majority of the compartments were already fully packed, probably since we left King's Cross. Probably should've gone ahead and taken a seat ages ago, I thought dismally as I uncomfortably stretched my aching legs.

"Hey, Dora, you want my Pumpkin Pasty?" I saw a girl with strawberry-blond hair ask a short girl with bright pink hair in the compartment to my left. "I filled up on Chocolate Frogs."

"Her name's not Dora, Kathy," said another girl with astonishingly pale skin, "it's Nymphadora."

The girl with the magenta hair sighed heavily and rolled her eyes. "How many times must I tell you guys not to call me by those names?" she said as though she had had people call her by those names several times and was fed up of hearing them. "For the last time, it's just Tonks! Get it right for once!"

"Sorry, my bad!" the blond girl, Kathy, said, raising her hands up in surrender. "You want my Pasty or not?"

"Fine, hand it over," Magenta Girl—Tonks—sighed, seeming annoyed, as she reluctantly reached out for the treat.

After another few minutes of searching various compartments for an empty spot to sit, I had finally found a compartment that occupied only two people—a tall broad-shouldered boy and a short chubby-cheeked girl with a streak of orange highlights flowing off to one side of her head. I was about to ask them if I could join them when the girl spoke up first, and it was on a topic that I had not expected.

"Believe me, Josh, I know about the so-called 'Morgan Incident'," she said to the boy in a slightly annoyed tone, "and I honestly don't care what would happen to me. When I find the Cursed Vaults, I will become the greatest and most powerful witch in the world."

The instant that she'd mentioned the 'Morgan Incident', it made me subconsciously back away from the pair, but when she'd mentioned the Cursed Vaults, it made me want to stick around and hear more of what they were going to say. Maybe they knew something about my brother and of what happened to him.

"Yeah, but how are you actually going to find them?" said Josh in a somewhat doubtful tone, like he didn't think a girl would be able to have the confidence of searching for a vault and be willing to face whatever lay on the other side. This made me want to listen in longer, despite the voice in the back of my mind screaming at me that these were kids that I should stay away from. Nevertheless, I couldn't leave without knowing what these kids knew about the Vaults.

"I don't know," Chubby-Cheeks said, shaking her head, "but I'll stay up all night looking if I have to, and I won't let any Morgan loser get in my—Oi, Puny-Nose!"

I suddenly jumped at this statement, which had been apparently directed at me. Bollocks, she'd seen me!

"Who gave you permission to eavesdrop on us?" she yelled at me loud enough for the whole train car to hear. "Get out of here!" She waved her wand, and suddenly the compartment door slammed shut, almost with my foot still slightly over the threshold. Luckily I was able to pull my foot out of the way before the door could smash against it.

Well, that was rude, I thought indignantly to the closed door. Wouldn't be surprised if those two ended up being Sorted into Slytherin. It was obvious that they were soon-to-be Slytherins, what with their seemingly Machiavellian demeanors and their strong passion to cause trouble. These seemed like two kids that needed to be kept a close watch on, but, then again, all Slytherins seemed to have that quality about them.

A short time later, I continued my quest for an empty seat. I had gotten to the point when I was going to start insisting on having someone move over so I could sit down, even if the compartment was already crowded with more than four people. I was seconds away from asking a girl in a compartment of four to politely move over when she had suddenly screamed, "Fudge!" as a live Chocolate Frog had hopped out of her lap and escaped down the car and into a compartment with a lone boy that looked as if he was having a panic attack, physically shuddering in his seat. His panic had skyrocketed when the Chocolate Frog had hopped into the boy's compartment and into his lap. He screamed like a banshee, completely terrified that an ordinary piece of chocolate had seemingly come to life. He swatted it out of his lap and immediately stomped on it with the heel of his shoe, turning the frog into a chocolate mess on the floor. He was then left panting for breath out of relief that the frog was dead, but then he had sat back down and buried his face in his hands in apparent shame at what he had done. My eyes widened in shock in the instant that he had squished the frog, and I suddenly didn't feel like sitting with him anymore; the awkwardness of the whole thing was simply too much for me to handle.

Moving on, I had suddenly heard a familiar laugh from the opposite side of the train car. I followed the laugh to a compartment with two people—a blonde girl I'd never seen before and an all-too-familiar dark-skinned girl with large glasses and a multicolored beanie atop her head.

"Hey, Rowan!" I exclaimed as I approached the compartment out of relief of finally getting to relax my aching legs.

Rowan looked up at me with a confused frown at not recognizing me at first, but when she stared at me for a few more seconds, a bright toothy smile appeared on her face.

"Oh, hey, Jane!" she cried joyously. "I was wondering where you were on the train! I was just telling Penny here about our meeting in Diagon Alley the other day. Come join us!"

After expressing my appreciation to Rowan and sitting down next to her, I glanced to the other girl sitting across from us. She had a very nice complexion that would make boys chase after her, demanding for her phone number. She had eyes that were as blue as the Thames River, and her blonde hair was woven into two long plaits. She was already dressed in the dark Hogwarts robes that we were meant to be wearing before we exited the train. She seemed to have that 'popular girl' look about her, but I didn't get the vibe that she was one of those snooty popular girls that I had often seen in primary school. She seemed like the type of girl that everybody would want to hang with, and not one of those girls that would push away anyone that disgusted her. It gave me the feeling that she might be one of the nicest girls in the school that I will come to know.

"So you're Penny?" I asked her curiously.

"Yup," she nodded. "Penny Haywood at your service." She leaned forward and held out her hand.

"Are you a First-Year too?" I asked as I shook her hand graciously.

"Obviously," she nodded again. She then gestured to her robes. "As you can see, I'm not wearing my yellow-and-black-striped tie yet."

"Yellow and black?" I nodded understandingly. "So you're hoping to be in Hufflepuff?"

"Yup," she confirmed. She then went on to explain, "My mum was a Hufflepuff, and I hope to be in her house, not just because she thinks I'm the nicest girl she's ever known but because I actually find myself as an extremely nice girl." She suddenly paused and looked at Rowan and I awkwardly. "Eh…not to brag, or anything."

Rowan abruptly shook her head. "No, you're not bragging. I think you're the nicest girl I've ever known…aside from Jane, of course." She nudged me in the arm, forcing me to smile.

"Aw, thanks, Rowan," Penny smiled, feeling touched at her words.

"Was your dad a Hufflepuff too?" I asked to continue the conversation.

A sudden look of shock appeared on Penny's face, as though I had foolishly crossed a line that I shouldn't have crossed. Oops, did I just offend her? I feared. "Um…no. He's…uh…" She seemed to stumble on her words, trying to figure out the best way to explain. "Well, you'd be surprised he's…he's a Muggle."

Rowan's eyes bulged on the other side of her glasses again. "Your dad's a Muggle?" she asked in disbelief. "You're barking!"

"No, I'm not," Penny shook her head seriously. "He works in a bank as an accountant. My mum is…I guess what the Muggles would call a 'chemist', but with her being a witch, she actually experiments with potions. She has a dream of becoming a famous Potions Master. I am actually hoping to follow in her footsteps. That's why the one class I am looking forward to the most is Potions. Mum already taught me the basic potions we'll learn this year."

"Wow," Rowan said, raising her eyebrows in amazement. "It sounds like you're an expert then."

"Yeah," Penny nodded in agreement. "I'm sure our professor will be impressed, whoever he or she is."

"I bet your dad had a nasty shock when he found out about your mum being a witch," Rowan pondered aloud. I could only imagine what his reaction could've been, which was most likely not a good one.

Penny gave an awkward smile. "Yeah, but I won't get into the details." She then turned to me. "So what about you…Jane, was it?"

I nodded. "Yes. Janelle is my full name, but you can call me whatever you want. I don't mind."

"Okay, Jane it is then," Penny smiled. "What's your Wizarding background? Or are you a Half-Blood like me? Or even Muggle-Born? I saw a boy, just a few compartments over, literally cowering under the seats. He told me he was Muggle-Born, but he didn't seem to want me to sit with him because he was too frightened. Bless him."

After the incident with the soon-to-be Slytherin boy and girl that mentioned the Cursed Vaults, I had remembered seeing the apparently scared boy in the other compartment—the boy that had squished that Chocolate Frog into mush on the compartment floor. The fact that there wasn't a single student that was willing to sit with him and help him control his nerves highly upset me. Then again, I was one of those unwilling students as well, and I felt a sudden surge of guilt rush through me. I now wanted so badly to sit with the boy, but for some reason I didn't think Penny or Rowan wanted to change compartments and face the awkwardness. Plus, Penny had asked me a question, and I wasn't going to be rude and leave without answering her question, so I decided to stay put. I'm sure the boy will eventually get over his nerves once we get to Hogwarts, right? I wondered.

"I come from a Wizarding family," I answered. "Both my parents are wizards."

Penny nodded. "Ah, so you're a Pure-Blood. Rowan's a Pure-Blood too." Then she asked me a question that I had had a fear of answering since getting on the train. "What about siblings? You have any brothers or sisters?"

I turned nervously to Rowan, remembering that I had told her about my family's cursed history in Diagon Alley. She seemed eager to tell her friend what I had told her about my brother, but I didn't want her to. Before she could say anything before me, I had decided to lie and say that I was an only child. If Penny actually was one of those gossipy girls that spread rumors all over the school, I certainly didn't want to deal with the embarrassment that would follow.

I was about to answer when Rowan suddenly spoke up. "She has a brother. His name is Jacob Morgan."

I looked at her, incredulous that she had revealed the one secret that I didn't want anybody at school to know about. She immediately covered her mouth and murmured to me, "I'm sorry, was I not allowed to talk about him to other people? I didn't know."

I shook my head. "It's fine," I sighed, even though I knew it wasn't. All of this was actually my fault. Thinking back on our meeting in Diagon Alley, I had meant to tell Rowan not to mention my relation to my brother, but I had foolishly forgotten. Then I remembered Rowan mentioning the fact that everybody in school would already know about it from reading the Daily Prophet, and then I had realized that keeping the secret was going to be a long shot. Once something was mentioned in the Daily Prophet, it was impossible to escape from it and pretend that it didn't happen.

Penny's eyes widened in shock. "Jacob Morgan? The guy who went looking for the Cursed Vaults and got himself expelled from Hogwarts? You're his sister?"

I nodded shamefully. "Yeah, but I don't talk about him; not to other people, anyway."

"You told me," Rowan pointed out needlessly.

Only because I felt I had to, I wanted to say but didn't, which isn't the point. I shot her a disapproving look instead, and she looked shamefully away.

"I'm afraid you won't have much of a choice," Penny said, shaking her head. "The whole school is going to know about him, and they'll all come to you for answers."

"I know," I nodded glumly. "Once they call my name for the Sorting, everyone's going to find out who I am. They'll all think I'm a freak."

"You're not a freak, Jane," Rowan said immediately, shaking her head. "You're nothing like your brother."

"You don't know that," I countered back at her. "You've only known me fifteen minutes—or however long we've been in Diagon Alley together—and don't know a thing about me. For all you know, I could be cursed, just like him." I suddenly realized that this statement may have sounded a little harsh, but I felt like they needed to know how I was feeling about the situation—a situation that I had never asked to be a part of.

"Who cares?" Rowan said with a shrug.

I frowned at her, feeling slightly offended. "I do."

"But I don't," Rowan insisted. She sounded like she was being completely honest, but I didn't know how to respond to that. "It doesn't matter who you think you are on the outside; it's who you are on the inside. And personally, I don't think you're cursed on the inside. Even if something does end up taking you over, we'll fight it, and then we'll save you. Simple as that."

I raised a doubtful eyebrow at her, but Penny said a little shakily, "Yeah. We've got your back, love."

Blimey, it seemed like my luck couldn't have gotten any better. One of my biggest goals whilst at Hogwarts was to find out everything that had happened to my brother and find a way to bring him back from wherever he had disappeared to. Ever since he had disappeared, I had had the disturbing feeling like the Cursed Vaults had had something to do with it—that maybe he had gotten ahold of one of the cursed artifacts in one of the vaults, and it had made him mad because he had possessed it for too long, and it had made him unknowingly venture out into the unknown. Stealing had not exactly been anything new with Jacob; I had often caught him stealing from other students throughout primary school when we were kids, and he often got in trouble with the teachers for doing so. The sudden thought of myself getting ahold of one of those cursed artifacts unknowingly sent a cold shudder down my spine, but the hope that there were now two people that would do everything in their power to stop me from taking advantage of these artifacts (especially when they had admitted their intentions of doing so) made me feel more confident and determined to find him.

"Thanks, guys," I smiled appreciatively. "I'm so glad I met you both. I honestly didn't think I would make any friends at Hogwarts, but I see now that I was wrong. I met you two, and we're not even at the castle yet."

"No, but we're getting close," Rowan shook her head as she glanced out the window at the countryside beyond. "Looks like we're crossing the border into Scotland now. I read in Hogwarts: A History that the castle is somewhere in the Scottish Highlands—beautiful place."

"How much farther?" Penny groaned. I could see her physically squirming in her seat, anxious to arrive. Aren't we all? I agreed. "I'm starving!"

"Dunno," Rowan shrugged, "maybe another half-hour. It's hard to tell where we are now."

Penny sighed, "Oh, if only this train could Apparate, then we'd already be there by now."

"I know, right?" Rowan agreed enthusiastically.

I smiled, knowing how incredibly excited I was to attend Hogwarts, but I was also dreading what would happen once my name was called for the Sorting. What would people think of me once that happened? How would the students react? How would the teachers react? How would the headmaster react? If what Rowan said about being half an hour away was true, then I guessed I had that long to wait to find out.