Hi! This chapter is really long, but it's a lot of fun. I hope you enjoy!
(Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.)
Chapter 4:
All Aboard the Hogwarts Express
"Harry walked more quickly. He was going to smash right into that barrier and then he'd be in trouble - leaning forward on his cart, he broke into a heavy run - the barrier was coming nearer and nearer - he wouldn't be able to stop - the cart was out of control - he was a foot away - he closed his eyes ready for the crash -
It didn't come...he kept on running...he opened his eyes."
"Molly?"
A pinpoint of light pierced the darkness. Molly felt like weights had been put on her eyes, forcing them to stay closed.
"Molly, you need to get up!"
She tried to open them more, and through the thin crack between blackness and blackness, she could see short pink hair leaning over her. Mackenzie, she thought.
Mackenzie sighed. "Molly, it's time for rope drop at the Magic Kingdom!"
Molly jumped out of her bed. "What? What time is it?"
Suddenly, her eyes adjusted to the sudden burst of light, and the first thing she saw clearly was the shower curtain, depicting what Ava had explained was the Hogwarts logo.
Molly slumped, the teeniest bit disappointed. She looked over at Mackenzie, who had a smug smile on her face.
"You know, you really need to stop asking what time it is," she said. "And by the way, I checked downstairs. It's 7:30."
Molly bit back a laugh. "You tricked me," she said. "You made me think we were at Disney World!"
Mackenzie nodded slyly.
Molly let the laugh out. "You're not too bad," she said.
"Thanks," Mackenzie said.
"So why am I up so early? We usually don't end up getting up until, like, 10:00 in the morning."
Mackenzie rolled her eyes. "It's the big day! September 1st!"
"What's September 1st?" Molly asked, confused.
"We gotta get ourselves to Hogwarts!" Mackenzie said, nearly bursting.
Molly gasped. "Really?" she said.
Mackenzie nodded.
"It's Hogwarts day! It's Hogwarts day!" Molly said, jumping out of bed, patting down her hair, and swinging Ava, who was standing nearby, around.
Madison opened up the window to let Opa out for the last weather check of their stay at the Leaky Cauldron.
"No, no, no!" Jonah yelled from the other end of the room. "Not today!"
"Why not?" Madison said. Before Jonah could explain, Molly had taken a deep breath and started singing.
"The window is open, so's that door! I didn't know they did that anymore. Who knew we owned 8,000 salad plates?" she sang, waking the rest of the children up.
"That's why," Jonah said.
Pretty soon, the entire group of kids had gotten showered and dressed in their Muggle clothes from the day they had gotten to Diagon Alley. Beatrix went downstairs and let Tom know that they were checking out, and he wished them well with their first year at Hogwarts.
Once they had left Diagon Alley with their owls and Stella's cat, Molly couldn't help but feel like she had left something amazing behind. She reminded herself that she was about to go to a school made just for witches and wizards, but she still felt like something magical had just been undone. What didn't help was that the world had completely changed. Instead of being the Universal Studios replica that it had been the first day the children had arrived, it was actually London, towering buildings, casinos, and all.
Mackenzie, unlike Molly, was delighted that they were out of Diagon Alley - the sole reason being that for the next few minutes, she could use her phone without a difficulty in the world. She wasted absolutely no time pulling up her Maps application and plugging in the directions to King's Cross.
"Alright, so we're going to walk for a while until we get to a place called Tottenham Court Road," she said to the group of kids.
Bit by bit, they started walking, Zoë pointing out a theater called the Palace Theater that was going to play host to a Harry Potter play. Molly couldn't help but find it funny that the play was on the same street as Diagon Alley itself.
To the children's surprise, there weren't many wrong turns they ended up making. Molly was glad it was going so quickly, although she still wished she had put on her ordinary sneakers (which she had packed in her suitcase) instead of her tough, leather Hogwarts shoes.
They turned onto Euston Road and walked a little longer, Stella having to make sure that Jonah didn't walk into the street as he was playing with his Rubik's Cube. They turned again onto Pancras Road, and Molly was starting to recognize landmarks from Universal. A few more steps, and they were standing in front of the entrance to King's Cross.
Stella opened the door for the rest of the group, and they walked in. "Wow," Molly said.
The doors had opened to a brick concourse, with ticket stands scattered around. Blue signs that reminded Molly of an airport pointed to platform after platform.
"Which platform are we supposed to be going to?" Molly asked.
"Platform 9 and ¾," Ava responded without hesitation.
"Wait, what?" Molly asked. "How can there be ¾ of a platform?"
"You'll see," Ava said, smirking.
They walked through the station until they heard a deep, nasty voice. "Well, there you are, boy," it said.
Zoë stopped dead in her tracks.
"Platform nine - platform ten," the voice, most likely a man, continued. "Your platform should be somewhere in the middle, but they don't seem to have built it yet, do they? Have a good term."
And just around the corner, a man with virtually no neck came around the corner to meet a thin woman with twice as much neck and a boy who appeared to be around Molly's age. They started laughing and walking off.
"That's Harry's Uncle Vernon!" Stella said. "Harry's just around the corner - and the Weasleys should be nearby, too!"
As if on cue, Molly heard Mrs. Weasley shout from somewhere within the huge crowd of people.
"Where's Ron?" she called, and Molly could barely see her curls from within the crowd.
"Did somebody say Ron?" Ron called in reply.
"There you are, Ronniekins!" Mrs. Weasley cried, and the crowds shifted as she and her son reunited.
"Mrs. Weasley!" Mackenzie called out.
Finally, the crowd parted, and the Weasley family appeared, pushing trunks and owls with them.
"Good day, everyone!" Mrs. Weasley said when she saw the kids, and went through their group, hugging each of them on her way. "How are you kids?"
"We're good, Mrs. Weasley," Molly said. "Anything new with your family?"
"Oh, not much," Mrs. Weasley admitted. "Just getting the kids ready for Hogwarts."
The Weasleys and the other children started walking around the corner towards the platform.
"And you lost Ron for a second," Ava said.
Mrs. Weasley nodded. "It's hard in a place like this - it's packed with Muggles, of course, so it's hard to get around."
In the distance, Molly could see a dark-haired kid - the same one she had seen in Diagon Alley and at Ollivander's - perking up and pushing his own cart towards the family.
She leaned over to Stella and whispered, "It's Harry. It has to be." Sure enough, Stella nodded, and Molly's heart soared. She was standing just a few feet from the Harry Potter!
Mrs. Weasley bent down and addressed Ginny. "Now," she said, as if trying to get an answer, "what's the platform's name?"
"Nine and three-quarters!" Ginny said excitedly, but with a pleading look in her eyes. "Mum, can't I go…"
"You're not old enough yet, Ginny," Mrs. Weasley said gently. "Alright, Percy, you go first."
Percy straightened his posture and began to almost march towards the wall between platforms 9 and 10. In front of her, Molly could see the dark-haired kid turn towards Percy and squint to see what was going to happen.
Suddenly, a group of tourists moved in front of Percy, and it was almost impossible to see what was going on. Molly raised her heels and stood on the balls of her feet, and she could just see Percy's head fade into the wall and disappear. Her eyes widened.
"Fred, you next," Mrs. Weasley said, gesturing to one of the twins.
"I'm not Fred, I'm George," the boy said, and even though she hadn't been able to differentiate between the twins yet, Molly could tell from the mischievous edge in the boy's voice that he was actually Fred. "Honestly, woman, you call yourself our mother?"
"Sorry, George, dear," Mrs. Weasley said.
"Only joking," he said. "I am Fred."
He started pushing his cart towards the wall. "Hurry up!" George called from behind Molly.
"You too, George," Jonah said jokingly, pushing George forward. The red-haired twin laughed and began to run towards the wall. Soon, Fred had disappeared into the wall, and George just after him.
Harry, just a few feet from Molly, turned towards Mrs. Weasley and ran forward.
"Excuse me," he said properly.
"Oh, hello, dear," Mrs. Weasley said kindly. "First time at Hogwarts?"
Harry nodded.
"Ron's new, too," she said, gesturing to Ron. He held out his hand, and Harry shook it warily, reminding Molly of when she had met the other kids back in Florida.
"Don't forget us!" Zoë called, and the whole group laughed.
Mrs. Weasley nodded. "They're going to Hogwarts, too - more first years," she said.
"What are their names?" he asked.
"Well, I'm Molly," Molly said. "And these are Ava, Stella, Zoë, Jonah, Mackenzie, Beatrix, and Madison."
Each person nodded as Molly said their name.
"Well, it's nice to meet you...uh, eight," Harry said. "But the thing is...well, I don't know how to...uh…"
"Get onto the platform?" Mrs. Weasley said.
Harry nodded.
"Not to worry," Mrs. Weasley assured him. "Just walk right there…" She pointed at the wall that the other kids had walked into… "between platforms 9 and 10. Don't stop and don't be scared, that's really important."
The expression on Harry's face had gone from mildly nervous to extremely terrified, and Molly couldn't help but empathize. How could someone just walk into a wall (and not around it, like at Universal)?
"Go on, go on before Ron and the others," Mrs. Weasley said.
"Er - okay," Harry said, his voice quavering. He shuffled towards the wall, then got a little faster, then a lot faster, then finally to the point where he was running face first towards the wall. His face scrunched up just before he disappeared.
"Whoa," Molly said.
"How about you go next, dear?" Mrs. Weasley said to Molly.
"Really?" Molly said, nervous and excited at the same time.
Mrs. Weasley nodded, and Molly gripped her suitcase even tighter than she had before.
"On your mark!" Jonah called.
Molly glared at him, and he shuffled behind Madison and Zoë, the tallest members of the group.
She moved her legs into a good position to start running at the wall.
"Get set!" Jonah called.
"Jonah!" Molly called back.
She didn't hear a reply, so she took that to mean that he wouldn't call anything out anymore. Her eyes narrowed as she focused on running through the wall.
"Go!" Jonah called, and her legs seemed to move subconsciously.
"Jonah!" she called one more time, trying to keep her voice from shaking. People jumped to stay out of Molly's way as she ran towards the wall. She closed her eyes to keep her from seeing the crash, trying not to be scared.
It would come any second now - any second now - any second now - it should've come by now, Molly thought - any second now -
"Molly!" Harry cried.
She opened her eyes and realized she was about two seconds from knocking into Harry. Quickly, she pulled herself back, and she was somehow able to stay upright.
Sighing with relief, she looked behind her - and instead of seeing Mrs. Weasley, Ginny, and the other kids, she saw a solid brick wall that could've been the other side of the wall she'd seen earlier. The only difference was that this side had an iron archway, with a large sign reading Platform 9 ¾.
"Whoa," she said. She had done it.
Suddenly, the wall seemed to ripple, and Madison ran through it. One by one, each kid appeared on Molly's side of the wall, and each one marveled at the platform.
"Look at the train!" Zoë said, pointing behind Molly. When she turned around, Molly saw a huge, scarlet steam train looming over her.
"Come on!" Madison said, and the kids ran towards the train.
Most of the compartments in the front of the train were full, with kids leaning out the window to wish their parents goodbye. A blonde, round-faced boy was complaining - something about losing a toad? Molly couldn't help but feel a little confused as she passed by.
At the very end of the train, a few compartments had room for the children. Harry walked in first, putting a snow-white owl inside before attempting to drag his trunk in. At one point, it fell on his foot, and Molly tried to run up and help him, but Beatrix held her arm up to prevent her from helping. "It would change everything," she said, although Molly didn't see why.
Suddenly, one of the Weasley twins came over and helped him out, and Molly felt a little better. As much as she had wanted to help Harry, she didn't want to stand in the way of friendship. Plus - and she hated to admit it - she probably wouldn't be able to pick up the trunk any more than Harry could, and she didn't want to embarrass herself.
"Fred!" the twin called. "Come here and help!"
"So that one's George," Molly whispered to Beatrix out of the side of her mouth, and Beatrix nodded as the other twin - Fred - ran over to help Harry.
It only took about half a minute for Harry and the twins to push the trunk into the compartment, and then it took another half a minute for the twins to let out a cry when they realized that the boy standing with them was, indeed, Harry Potter. Molly couldn't help but wonder if he was famous in the wizarding world, too, and she decided to ask Beatrix when she got a chance.
Quickly, as the twins walked outside the train to talk to Mrs. Weasley, Molly fixed her grip on her suitcase and walked onto the train, looking for a compartment to sit in.
"Excuse me?" she heard someone say, and she turned around towards the source of the voice. It was Harry.
"Would you mind sitting in here with me?" he asked.
"Oh, of course not," she said, dragging her suitcase into the compartment and sitting down with Harry. "It's nice to finally talk with you. I'm Molly - oh, and sorry for almost hitting you at the entrance."
"It's fine," he said. "I'm Harry, but I suppose you already know that."
Molly nodded, and they shook hands.
"You look really familiar, though - but I can't remember for the life of me where we would've seen each other," Harry said.
"I think we saw each other at Ollivander's," Molly said.
Harry nodded. "That's where it was. Oh, look, there's that red-haired family you kids were with."
Molly half-looked out the window so that she stayed hidden. Harry was right - the Weasleys were standing directly outside the window, talking about prefects and blowing up toilets and things like that.
"Hey, Mum," one of the twins said, "guess what? Guess who we just met on the train?"
Harry shifted in his seat, but he was still listening.
"You know," the twin continued, "that black-haired boy who was near us in the station? Know who he is?"
"Who?" Mrs. Weasley said grudgingly.
"Harry Potter!" the twins said in unison.
The little girl - Ginny, Molly remembered, started to beg to see Harry, and Mrs. Weasley tried to dissuade her from going back on the train as Fred was talking about Harry's scar. Molly's eyes darted over to Harry, who was watching the family intently.
"Never mind that," Fred said after Mrs. Weasley was talking about how polite Harry was. "Do you think he remembers what You-Know-Who looks like?"
The talking stopped, and tension hung in the air.
"I forbid you to ask him, Fred," Mrs. Weasley said strictly. "No, don't you dare. As though he needs reminding of that on his first day at school."
Molly looked over at Harry again. His face was impassive, not showing any emotion. Molly wondered how Harry would've met the dark wizard that even Mrs. Weasley was scared of.
Suddenly, Molly's mind rushed back to about a year earlier (in her world, that is), and she remembered herself reading a particularly good book. It wasn't what most people would find interesting - it wasn't even a fictional story. It was the abridged version of a college professor's book about how to find hidden symbolism in literature - and Molly had adored it.
She had been reading one part of it when she came across a reference to Harry Potter, talking about the symbolism behind his scar. Up until that point, Molly hadn't even realized he had a scar, but the book, titled How to Read Literature Like a Professor: For Kids, made it very clear that not only did he have one, but it was given to him after his parents were killed, and the person who did it tried to kill him.
The book had named the person who'd tried to kill Harry, but it had seemed like something nonsensical to Molly at the time. Something starting with an V - nothing she had heard before. She didn't know French yet - she didn't know what the name meant. But looking back on it, she recognized the name.
Voldemort. The name was Voldemort, and the name of the worst Dark Wizard in 50 years that Mrs. Weasley had mentioned was Voldemort. And Molly had overheard Beatrix and Ginny talking about some sort of evil man that Harry had defeated when he was a baby. It couldn't be a coincidence.
Suddenly, the train's whistle sounded, a noise so loud that it jerked Molly out of the past and back into the train car with Harry Potter.
"Hurry up!" Mrs. Weasley called outside to the twins and Ron, and the red-haired brothers rushed onto the train. Ginny started to cry, and the boys trying to comfort her, giving her promises of letters, owls, and Hogwarts toilet seats.
The train jerked forward, and Molly felt herself jolt in her seat as the wheels started to move. Slowly, the vehicle sped up, and the interior of King's Cross disappeared from view.
"Excuse me?" Molly heard a meek voice say.
She and Harry turned around in their seats to see Ron, standing in the train's doorway.
"Can I sit in here?" he asked. "Everywhere else is full."
"Come on in," Harry said, and Ron sat down with the two children.
Molly couldn't help but notice that Ron knew about Harry. Every now and then, he would glance over at Harry as if he was sitting with a celebrity, then look away when Harry looked at him. It felt a little awkward, and she wanted to start up a conversation, but she didn't really know how.
"Hey, Ron," someone said, and when Molly glanced over, she could see the twins standing in the hallway. "Listen, we're going down the middle of the train - Lee Jordan's got a tarantula in there."
"Right," Ron mumbled under his breath. Molly's eyes widened.
The other twin introduced himself and his brothers - he mentioned Ron as well as the twin who had spoken previously.
"See you later, then," he said. "Oh - and hullo, Molly."
"Hi," Molly said, waving her hand weakly as the twins left the compartment.
As soon as the door closed, Ron finally burst.
"Are you really Harry Potter?" he asked, and Harry nodded.
"Well, I thought...well, it could just be one of the twins' jokes," Ron reasoned. "And have you really got...you know…"
Harry lifted his bangs to show a dark scar in the shape of a lightning bolt. Molly and Ron looked at it in amazement.
"Wow," Molly said. "That's really, really cool."
"So that's where You-Know-Who -"
"Yes," Harry said, "but I can't remember it."
"What was it?" Molly asked.
Ron stared. "What was what?"
"The thing that happened and gave him the scar," Molly said. "I'm Muggleborn."
Ron had seemed almost offended as Molly said that she didn't know the story, but one admission of being Muggleborn calmed him down.
"Well, long story short," he said as if telling a bedtime story, "this guy...uh, Voldemort, was super cruel."
He said the name with extreme difficulty.
"Voldemort?" Molly said. She was right! The scar did have something to do with Voldemort! In that moment, she felt like she was the smartest person ever.
Ron wasted no time in quieting her down.
"Are you not supposed to say his name?" Molly said.
Ron nodded, his eyes bulging with fear and disbelief.
"Oh," Molly said. "Okay. Go on."
"Well, he went to Harry's house to destroy his family, and he killed Harry's parents and almost killed Harry -"
"How did Vol - uh, You-Know-Who kill Harry's parents?" Molly asked, leaning forward with interest.
"A spell," Ron said. "I don't know what it is yet, but it's a spell - a dangerous one."
"Alright, then," Molly said, trying not to repeat herself.
"And Harry should've died, but he survived - and just like that, You-Know-Who was gone."
"Gone…" Molly said. It wasn't a question - just a murmur. "Just like that…"
"Yeah - isn't that amazing?" Ron said.
"That is amazing," Molly said in a funny accent. "Wait a minute, we're penguins - we can't fly. AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"
Ron and Harry looked at her like she was bonkers.
"Oh, sorry," she said. "It's a Disney World thing."
"You've been," Harry said in the same not-quite-questioning tone that Molly had spoken in earlier. "To the one in Florida."
Molly nodded and shrugged.
"Not that that really matters right now," she said. "I've got better things to focus on. So, back to you - do you really not remember anything about it?"
Harry shook his head. "Just a lot of green light."
"Wow," Ron breathed, trying to keep his eyes from lingering on Harry.
"Are your family wizards, too?" Harry asked Ron.
Ron nodded.
"You should meet them all," Molly said. "My friends and I met them at the Leaky Cauldron back at Diagon Alley - they're really nice."
"And crazy," a girl said. Molly turned her head to see Stella leaning her head into the compartment.
"I was hanging out with Neville and Hannah up front and realized I hadn't figured out somewhere to sit," she said. "Can I sit with you guys?"
Molly shrugged. "Why not?" she said.
"Yay!" Stella said. She slid into the compartment and sat down across from Harry, right next to Molly.
"So, whatcha talking 'bout?" she asked casually.
"The Weasleys," Molly said. "You literally entered the room continuing the conversation."
"Oh, right," she said.
"Well, your life must be interesting," Harry said. "It must be cool growing up with three wizard brothers -"
"Five," Molly, Stella, and Ron said in unison. Molly broke out into a fit of giggles.
"There's Bill and Charlie," Stella explained. "They graduated earlier."
Molly nodded as Stella helped her back into her seat.
"I've got a lot to live up to," Ron admitted. "Bill was Head Boy - Charlie was Quidditch captain - and now Percy's a prefect. Fred and George mess around a lot -"
"I can see that," Stella said.
"- but they still get really good marks and everyone thinks they're really funny."
"And it's hard to do anything because you'll always be overshadowed," Molly said.
Ron's eyes widened. "How do you know that?" he said. "Do you have siblings, too?"
Molly shook her head. "Your mom told me," she said. "And my mom had five brothers, too."
Ron nodded in understanding.
"And then there's all the hand-me-downs," Stella said, as if she was prompting something. Before Ron could widen his eyes and ask how she knew about all the hand-me-downs, she said, "Sisters. Three younger ones. I don't get hand-me-downs, but I give them."
Ron nodded again. "Bill's robes, Charlie's wand, and Percy's rat."
"Scabbers?" Stella asked, and Ron nodded.
"How did you know that?" Molly said.
"He told me about it in between freestyles," Stella said. "Y'know, back at the Leaky Cauldron?"
Molly nodded, remembering Stella's rapping.
"Do you want to see him?" Ron asked.
Harry, who had kept the slightest bit quiet as he was taking everything in, started to nod exuberantly.
"Okay," Ron said, reaching into the pocket of his jacket. He withdrew a plump grey rat, whose belly was moving up and down slowly like one would if they were asleep.
"He's useless," Ron said. "He hardly ever wakes up. Percy got an owl from my dad for being a prefect, but we couldn't aff - I mean, I got Scabbers instead."
His face grew the same color as his hair.
"It's fine," Harry said. "I didn't have any money of my own until a month ago."
"Really?" Molly and Ron gasped in unison. They looked at each other and tried to keep from giggling.
Harry nodded. "And until Hagrid told me, I didn't know anything about being a wizard or about my parents or Voldemort -"
The entire compartment erupted in gasping.
"What?" Harry said, oblivious.
"You said You-Know-Who's name!" Ron said with respect. "Out of everyone in here, I wouldn't have thought you would say it!"
"I'm not trying to be brave or anything, saying the name," Harry said. "I just never really knew you shouldn't say it - I mean, Molly had said it before - you see what I mean? I've got so much to learn, and I bet…" His voice grew soft and nervous. "I bet I'm the worst in the class."
Molly's eyes darted over to Stella, who was struggling to not laugh.
"Oh, I bet you'll be fine," Molly said.
"Yeah," Ron said. "There's loads of people who come from Muggle families and they learn soon enough."
"Like us!" Stella said, and she and Molly started to giggle again.
Suddenly, Molly's eyes darted to the window. "Whoa," she said.
The tall buildings of London had disappeared, replaced by gorgeous fields and roaming cows. Molly wished that Mackenzie's phone worked - wherever she was sitting - so that she could capture the gorgeous view.
It was about 12:30 when the children heard a feeble woman's voice from the hallway.
"Candy from the trolley?" she called out.
"Ooh! Candy!" Stella exclaimed, jumping up to open up the compartment door. She was reaching for her first piece of candy when she withdrew her hand.
"I almost forgot - you get first pick, Harry," she said.
"Really?" Harry said. When Stella nodded, Harry nearly jumped out of his seat and ran to the candy trolley.
"What about you, Ron?" Molly asked.
"Mum brought me sandwiches," he said sheepishly.
"Oh," Molly said. "Okay."
When Harry came back, his arms were full of candy, and Stella mirrored his entrance when she walked back into the compartment.
"Hungry?" Ron said as he took out a brown paper bag - probably filled with his mom's sandwiches, Molly thought.
"Starving," Harry said, and Stella nodded along.
The two children sat down as Ron began to take out his sandwiches. He looked at the inside of one and grumbled. "She always forgets I don't like corned beef."
"Swap you," Harry said, holding up a candy.
"You don't want this, it's -"
"Swap him," Stella said, shooting a look at Ron. He shrugged and gave Harry his sandwich, taking the candy for himself.
"What are these?" Harry said, holding up a small bag labeled Chocolate Frogs. "They're not really frogs...uh, are they?"
"No," Ron said. "But check the card - I'm -"
"Card?" Molly asked.
"The Chocolate Frogs have trading cards in them - famous witches and wizards. I've got about five hundred, but I'm missing Agrippa and Ptolemy."
Molly smiled. She could understand the idea of trading cards - after all, she had practically been raised on A Charlie Brown Christmas.
Harry unwrapped the first of the Frogs and looked at the front of the card.
"So this is Dumbledore!" he cried happily.
"Dumbledore?" Molly wondered out loud. It seemed such an odd name.
"Don't tell me you don't know who Dumbledore is!" Ron said. "Can I have a frog? I might get Agrippa - thanks -"
"Can I see the card after you?" Molly asked, and Harry nodded, the slightest bit absentminded. He turned over the card, then turned it over again and gasped.
"What is it?" Molly asked.
"He's gone!"
"Well," Ron said, "you can't expect him to hang around all day. He'll be back."
Harry handed the card to Molly as Ron talked about Morgana and collecting the cards and other things like that. Molly looked at the card, which talked about this man - Albus Dumbledore - who was currently Headmaster of Hogwarts. It mentioned alchemy discoveries with a guy named Nicolas Flamel, the defeat of a guy named Grindelwald -
"Grindelwald?" Molly thought out loud. Hadn't Mrs. Weasley mentioned something about Grindelwald? She started to think about it, but then she turned over the card to see a man with silvery-white hair and glasses.
"Hey!" Molly exclaimed. "This Dumbledore guy's back."
"Can I see?" Harry asked, and Molly gave back the card.
He looked at it peculiarly and said to Ron, "You know, in the Muggle world, people don't move around in photos."
"Really?" Ron asked, fascinated. "What, they don't move at all?"
Molly nodded.
"Weird!" Ron said.
Harry and Ron went back to eating Chocolate Frogs and collecting the cards inside, while Molly desperately wished that she had brought a book. As cool as it was to be in a train compartment with the Harry Potter, the train ride had quickly become overly long and boring. Finally, the Chocolate Frogs were put down, and Harry pointed to a container that looked a lot like a carton of milk.
"Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Candy Beans," Molly read from the side.
"You have to be careful with those, you know," Ron said warily. "When they say Every Flavor -"
"...they mean every flavor," Stella finished. "I've had them a few times."
"Yeah, you get like all the ordinary flavors, but you also get, like, spinach and liver and things like that. George reckons he got a booger-flavored one once."
"Oh, that's gross!" Molly said.
Ron nodded in agreement as he picked a green one up - probably mint, Molly guessed, although I guess you can't be sure.
He bit in and almost immediately gagged.
"Sprouts," he finally said when he got his breath back. Molly tried to keep from giggling.
"Why don't you try one, Stella?" she said.
She picked a dark one out and bit in before her face turned red.
"Broken computer," she said.
"Ew!" Molly cried. "How do you know what that tastes like?"
Her face turned even redder.
"I just guessed," she admitted. "It almost feels like pop rocks mixed with fudge - you know what? You try."
Molly looked at the carton, and after much deliberation, she took out a brown one.
"I bet there isn't a single candy-flavored bean in this thing," she said as she popped the bean into her mouth and immediately tasted chocolate.
"What'd you get?" Stella asked.
"Defeat," Molly said.
Stella eyed her suspiciously, then shrugged.
"I want to keep on trying some," Harry said, and Molly gave him the carton. He and Ron spent the next few minutes trying beans of all different flavors - grass, pepper, curry, and many others. Molly left them alone, looking out the window at the woods that now surrounded the train.
"Are we in Scotland yet?" Stella asked.
Molly's eyes widened as she looked back to Stella. "Scotland?" she asked as a reply.
"Yeah," Stella said matter-of-factly. "Hogwarts is in Scotland."
"Really!" Molly exclaimed, not questioningly as much as amazed. Stella nodded anyway, as if confirming a fact.
A sudden knock at the door made Molly jump. The door opened, and a boy with a round face peered in - the same boy that Molly had seen complain about losing his toad. What had that woman said his name was? Neil? Nelson?
"Have any of you seen a toad recently?" he said, and shot them a puppy-eyed look.
The children looked at each other and shook their heads.
He let out a clenched sigh. "I've lost him!" he wailed, not speaking to anyone in particular. "He keeps getting away from me!"
"He'll turn up," Harry said gently.
The boy nodded absentmindedly. "Well, if you see him…"
He turned to leave, then turned back to the children. "Oh, hello, Stella," he said.
"Hey, Neville," she said.
Neville - that's what his name was. Molly felt embarrassed for not remembering, then reminded herself that it was her first day here.
"Don't know why he's so bothered," Ron said. "If I had a toad I'd want to lose it as quickly as I could. Mind you, I did bring Scabbers, so I can't really talk."
"Is he still asleep?" Molly asked, relieved to be talking about something that she knew about.
"He could've died and we wouldn't be able to tell the difference," Ron said. "I tried to turn him yellow - you know, just for fun - but it didn't really work. Here, I'll show you."
Molly helped Ron pull out his trunk, from which he withdrew a chipped ash wand that looked the slightest bit like Ava's. He was about to cast the spell when the door burst open.
On the other side of the door was a girl with bushy brown hair and warm chocolate eyes. When she opened her mouth to speak, her front teeth were the slightest bit larger than the rest of her teeth. The round-headed boy - Neville, Molly remembered - was standing next to her.
Suddenly, it dawned on Molly - these were the other kids that her new friends had wanted to meet! They had talked about a round-faced boy with a toad and his grandmother - who just had to be Neville - and a girl with bushy brown hair, who was probably the girl standing in front of them. To check, she looked over at Stella, who looked just as excited as she had when the Weasleys had walked into the Leaky Cauldron a few days before.
"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," she said.
"No, sorry," Molly said. The girl's eyes darted to the hand-me-down wand Ron held in his hand.
"Are you doing magic?" she asked. Before Ron could respond, she said, "Let's see it, then."
"Alright," Ron said, his voice shaking with what was almost like stage fright. He cleared his throat and said the incantation.
"Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow,
Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."
Scabbers snored, his fur remaining unchanged. Stella looked on with a knowing grin.
"Are you sure that's a real spell?" the girl asked.
Ron shrugged.
"Well, it's not very good, is it?" she continued. "I've tried a few simple spells and they've all worked for me. Nobody in my family's magic at all, so it was a humongous surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased - it's the best school of witchcraft and wizardry there is. I've learned all our course books by heart, I just hope it's enough - I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?"
The girl - Hermione - reminded Molly a lot of herself in the way that she spoke as though she was running out of time to speak.
"Ron Weasley," Ron said quietly.
"Harry Potter," Harry said.
"Are you really?" Hermione asked, and Molly nodded. "I know all about you - I got some extra books for background reading, and you're in Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century."
"You got background reading, too?" Molly asked. Hermione nodded briskly. "My friend Beatrix got a book about Hogwarts at Flourish and Blotts - it's called Hogwarts: A History."
"Oh, I have that one, too!" Hermione said excitedly. "It has so many fun facts in it - like that you can't Apparate or Disapparate inside the castle -"
"Or you can't use electronics near magical places because the electronics and the magic mingle too much," Molly said, remembering her first night at the Leaky Cauldron.
"Or boys can't go into the girls' dormitories but girls can go into the boys' -"
"Or the ceiling of the Great Hall is enchanted to look like the sky -"
"Okay, what did you say about me being in books?" Harry interjected, and Molly looked at him like he was joking until she remembered that the first Harry Potter book didn't come out until 1998.
"Goodness, you don't know?" Hermione said, shocked. "I'd have found out everything I could if it was me. Do any of you know which House you'll be in?"
"Anything but Slytherin," Molly said.
"Hufflepuff," Stella said.
"Same as Molly," Harry said.
"Gryffindor," Ron said.
"I'm hoping for Gryffindor myself, it sounds by far the best," Hermione said. "I hear Dumbledore himself was in it, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad."
Molly was tempted to tell her about that girl that Zoë had mentioned - Luna Lovegood, her name was - but she bit her tongue, remembering that Luna wasn't a past student, but one of the characters of the books themselves.
"Well, we should go looking for Neville's toad. You four had better change, you know, I expect we'll be there soon."
"Bye," Molly said quietly as Hermione closed the door.
"Whatever House she's in, I hope I'm not," Ron said.
"Why?" Molly said. "She seemed lovely."
"That's because your friend's read that book," Ron said, slipping his wand back into his trunk. "Stupid spell - George gave it to me, probably knew it was a dud."
"Well, we should probably change," Molly said. "I'll see if there's an empty compartment or a bathroom or something on this thing."
"I think there's a bathroom at the back," Harry said as Molly and Stella stood up, grabbing their trunks.
"Bye," Molly said as they slipped out. As she closed the door, Molly could barely hear Harry asking Ron about his brothers and the Houses they were in.
She turned to Stella to ask her what the plan was, but she suddenly realized that she looked more lopsided than she had at King's Cross. She glanced down at the lighter side - and it was the side that held the cage that Stella had placed Usnavi in.
Usnavi was gone.
"Stella, where's your cat?" Molly asked, trying to stay calm.
"What?" Stella asked. "He's right here - AHH!"
She had held up the cat cage and come to the realization that her cat - whom she had explained to Molly was named after a character in a Broadway musical called In the Heights (which Molly recognized as the graphic that was on Stella's t-shirt from Universal) - was missing.
"Where is he?" she said frantically. "Where's my angel child?"
"Probably the same place where Neville's toad is," Molly said, trying to keep it light.
"Probably," Stella said, without understanding the simple fact that Molly had been joking. "Let's change."
"Well, aren't we going to look for him?" Molly asked, quickly glancing down to her hand to make sure that her owl was still in its cage.
"He'll turn up," Stella said. "Malfoy and his mates aren't in their cabin right now - we can use that really quickly, then maybe we can hang out with Madison or Jonah or one of them."
Molly shrugged and followed Stella to an empty compartment filled with green and silver trunks. The seats looked as if they had just been relieved of a great burden.
"There we go," Stella said as she opened up her trunk and took out the robes and ties she'd gotten at Madame Malkin's. Molly did the same, and the girls quickly undressed and put their robes on.
"What happens to the ties when we get Sorted?" Molly asked.
"I don't know," Stella admitted. "Maybe they magically change color."
She wiggled her fingers to demonstrate magic, and Molly giggled.
Suddenly, the door burst open, and a pale, blond boy and two other kids stood in the hallway.
"Well, well, well," the pale boy said. Molly remembered Stella talking about a kid named Malfoy who was in the compartment, and Zoë had mentioned a pale boy named Draco Malfoy who had been talking to Harry at Madame Malkin's. Was this him?
"What do we have here?" the boy said. "Kids who want to dress in our private compartment."
"Well, usually, kids just say hello," Molly muttered under her breath.
"What are your names?" he asked in a voice that said that he wasn't necessarily keen on being their friend.
"I'm Molly, and this is Stella," Molly said, her voice wavering.
"And what are you doing here?"
"We needed to change, and we were down with two boys," Stella said truthfully. "All the other compartments are full."
"And what about the bathroom?" the boy said. "Couldn't you have changed there?"
"We don't know where the bathroom is," Molly said (sure, Harry had said it was in the back of the train, but he'd just gotten here, too). "You never told us your name."
"The name's Malfoy - Draco Malfoy," the boy said. So he was Draco! "Are you two purebloods?"
Suddenly, Molly remembered what Zoë had said about Draco - He is totally anti-Muggleborn. When Molly had asked what a Muggleborn was, Zoë had explained, and then she had said, He hates them - he even calls them Mudbloods.
"Uh…" Molly stammered. She wasn't sure whether to lie and get away safely or stay, tell the truth, and risk getting hurt - the boys next to Draco looked like they could hurt someone extremely easily.
Finally, Molly decided.
"No," she said.
Draco's eyes widened.
"You're not one of us?" he said. "And you dare use our private compartment?"
Molly bit her lip and nodded.
"Crabbe, Goyle, how do people like them pay for spreading their filthy mudblood germs all over our compartment -"
"That's it," Stella said. She reached into her trunk and pulled out her ebony wand.
"What are you going to do?" Draco taunted. "Presto-chango?"
"I have something better," Stella said. "Petrificus Totalus!"
She waved her wand, and Draco froze in place, his arms and legs locked together. Crabbe and Goyle looked at him with shock, then back at Stella.
"I can do it again, you know," she said.
They grabbed Draco's body and cleared the way for Molly and Stella to walk out.
"So what was that spell you cast?" Molly asked as Stella put away her wand.
"The Full Body-Bind," she said. "It...well, binds the body, like you saw. It's easy to undo."
"Wow," Molly said. "That seems pretty advanced."
"Not really," Stella said. "Hermione did it in first year - then again, she did a Protean Charm by fifth, and that's advanced NEWT material, but -"
"Hold on, hold on," Molly said. "You're confusing me here."
"Okay," Stella said. "Let me break it down. Hermione did the Full Body-Bind by first year, but she's really smart. She did a really advanced charm by fifth year, and that's something you learn in seventh."
"Got it," Molly said. "So where are we going to sit now that we've changed?"
As if on cue, one of the compartment doors opened, and Ava's head peered out of it.
"Come on in, you guys!" she said. "Jonah's here."
"Perfect!" Molly said as the two girls scampered into the compartment. Stella decided to go back out for a second and undo the Body-Bind spell that she had placed on Draco, and Molly sat down with Ava.
Almost as soon as she had sat down, a voice perked up, almost as if it was talking through the walls.
"We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time," it said. "Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately."
Oh, no, Molly thought, not for herself, but for Stella. Usnavi was still missing, and if she left her luggage here - including the cage where Stella kept Usnavi…
"Come on!" Ava said, jerking Molly out of her worried thoughts.
The children walked out of the compartment to a crowd forming in the hallway. Molly could see Draco's blonde hair in the crowd - Stella must've undone the spell.
Finally, the train lurched to a stop, and the crowd thinned as the children walked outside. Molly felt a cool breeze in her hair as she stepped onto a small platform. Suddenly, a light bobbed over the group, and another voice called out.
"Firs' years!" the voice - definitely a man's - called. "Firs' years over here! All right there, Harry?"
Molly looked in the direction of the voice to see the same tall man she had seen at Diagon Alley the first day they arrived.
"C'mon, follow me - any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!"
Molly and the other children ran over to the man, who started to lead the group through what seemed like it could be a forest. She wished that people were talking - it was a tiny bit scary when nobody was making a sound.
"Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec, jus' round this bend here."
Molly turned her body to follow the path, then looked up. In front of her was something she'd never seen the likes of before.
Looming over the children was a tall, stone castle resting on a cliff. Turrets touched the sky gracefully, with one large tower breaking through the nighttime clouds. It was absolutely gorgeous, just like any castle Molly had seen in any Disney movie.
"No more 'n four to a boat!" the tall man called, gesturing to small rowboats lining the shores of the lake in front of Hogwarts. Molly sat down with Jonah, Ava, and Stella, who had caught up to the other children during the walk, in one of the many boats. Harry and Ron sat together, joined by Neville and Hermione.
"Everyone in?" the man called out, and when nobody contradicted him, he said, "All right - FORWARD!"
And suddenly, as if by magic, the boats moved forward.
"Whoa," Molly breathed as she watched the boats' reflections in the lake. When she looked up, the castle towered over her and the other children.
"Everybody duck!" the man yelled, and the entire group of kids brought their heads down. Molly felt a curtain of ivy brush her neck as the boats moved into what seemed like a tunnel. The boats travelled down the tunnel in silence for a few minutes until the passageway opened up into a cavern.
"Come on out," the man said. One by one, the boats hit what seemed to Molly like an underground beach, and the children inside stepped out.
"There's a cat an' a toad in 'ere," the man said, looking inside one of the emptied boats. "Do they belong t'any of yeh?"
"Trevor!" a proper-sounding voice called out. When Molly turned to see the source, she saw Neville barreling towards the boat.
"Usnavi!" Stella yelled, running as fast as she could in the same direction. Molly already knew they were going to crash, but she couldn't look away.
With a splash, Stella and Neville ran into each other and fell into the water. The water paid them no attention, and kept on rolling in and out of the cavern.
"Sorry," Stella said as she attempted to get back up before slipping and falling back into the water.
"Not your fault," Neville said. "I'd much rather have a cat than a toad."
Molly giggled as she watched them help each other up, finally taking their pets out of the boat and walking over, dirty and wet, to the other kids.
"I know somethin' that can 'elp yeh," the tall man said. He grabbed a pink umbrella and waved it in Stella's direction - Molly was surprised he didn't have a wand like everybody else - and suddenly a hot wind blew over the children. When it calmed, Stella and Neville were completely dry, Stella thrown back onto her rear end.
"Come on, this way," the man said, leading the children up a set of stone steps. "Yeh ready?"
When all the children nodded in anticipation, he knocked three times on a wooden door - loud, hard knocks that rang through the cavern.
And they waited.
And waited.
And waited.
And just when Molly thought she couldn't wait any longer, the door opened.
Thanks for reading this! Here are this chapter's behind-the-scenes fun facts.
1) The inspiration for Stella totally would call Usnavi her angel child.
2) Speaking of Stella, she helped out a lot on this chapter, giving me ideas for her interaction with the Candy Lady and her literal "run-in" with Neville.
3) I believe there are three different AVPM references in this chapter (I told you I liked it!). See if you can find them!
4) If I was told to wake up immediately for rope drop at the Magic Kingdom, I would totally freak out.
5) The directions from Diagon Alley to King's Cross were provided by Google Maps - and it does indeed pass by the Palace Theatre.
6) Draco's first line is based on Tamatoa's second verse in "Shiny," from Disney's Moana.
7) Stella's inspiration chose the spell she used to incapacitate Draco.
8) By this time, I had figured out who Usnavi's namesake was - hence the reference mid-chapter.
9) The book How to Read Literature Like a Professor: For Kids really exists! It's a great book that I would definitely recommend.
10) The chapter title is a reference to the YouTube vlog series SeeYaReelSoon, in which a couple named Joe and Ashley film their trips to Disney World. Joe has made up a song for the car ride from the airport to the parks called "All Aboard the Magical Express."
11) And, yes, I did make a Frozen reference. Get used to it - I love my Disney references.
Feel free to review, but please no negative reviews or cursing. (And please, NOTHING POLITICAL!) Thanks!