The car ride over with Ms. Weaver was the most emotional I've ever been. All I could think about was the fact that this horrible summer was over and I didn't have to spend a single one more day with Ms. Weaver until July. I could squeal.
Ms. Weaver drummed her nails on the steering wheel and I could see the ghost of a smile on her face.
"If I were you, I wouldn't do anything to make them send you back early as I won't be taking you back until the date that's already been discussed."
"Yes, Ms. Weaver." I said as she took a hard left and parked the car.
I hadn't realized we were already there, I was so wrapped up in my thoughts. Ms. Weaver unlocked the door and I slid out the backseat and began to get my suitcase out of the trunk.
"Oh and Catra."
"Yes Ms. Weaver."
"Do have fun." she drawled.
I blinked, "Thank you Ms-"
But she had already sped off with nothing left to show for her other than engine exhaust and a bruise she had given me last night that was still tender.
I dragged my suitcase behind me thankful that Neville had cast an undetectable extension charm on his last visit so I could fit everything I needed ino one bag..
I walked through Kings Cross looking for a platform 9 ¾.
When I got to 7 I felt my pace quicken.
When I got to 8 I began to tremble.
When I got to 9 the blood roared in my ears.
And then I was at 10 and I stopped.
My head whipped back and forth
9-10
9- 10
9- What?
And I felt my whole world come tumbling down.
Of course there's no Platform 9 ¾! Why in the world would they make a 9 ¾!
How was I meant to get to school then? Unless this was all some elaborate joke. If so, what was I supposed to do until July? Survive off scraps of food tourists drop or throw away like a pigeon?
No.
There had to be something I was missing here. Something that I wasn't quite seeing.
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And then it hit me. It might've been a stretch but if this didn't work I'd be stuck playing pigeon for the rest of the term.
There were four pillars between Platforms 9 and 10. I went to the third one and looked around it.
That's when I saw it.
Absolutely nothing.
I sighed and bit my lip as I slid down to the floor. I leaned against the pillar.
Might as well get comfortable, I'll be here for a while
I fell through the pillar and hit my head on a concrete floor. I was in a whole different building with a red and black train. There were kids my age and seventeen year olds and everyone in between wearing robes and wizard hats, hauling their trunks into the train.
Some of the younger ones were crying, clinging to their parents and whining about how they didn't wanna go. I gasped and sat up.
I was in King Cross again.
I sprang up and grabbed my trunk. I stared at the pillar in front of me intensely. It looked normal, nothing magical about it. I squinted, trying to see if there was anything off about it. A shimmer or hole that would reveal this stack of bricks to be more than it seemed.
I found nothing.
But something whispered to me to try it anyway. After all, I had nothing to lose and everything to gain.
It was the only thing I thought as I reached my hand through the pillar.
Suddenly it wasn't there anymore, just a forearm leading up to my bicep.
I gasped loudly, withdrawing my arm and looking around to see if anyone else had witnessed this defiance of physics.
They hadn't.
I steadied myself and took one step forward into the pillar and then another and suddenly everything was chaos.
Flurries of people were running around trying to get their trunks into the train while hugging goodbye to their loved ones.
I looked back at the pillar that used to be there and saw a black wall instead staring back innocently at me as though it hadn't just turned my understanding of solid matter upside down.
I stared right back at it defiantly, silently demanding for it to reveal its secrets to me.
"You won't be able to figure it out," a nasally voice to my right said.
I squealed and jumped up at the sudden noise. A girl with long purple pigtails stood there in white robes. I wasn't sure how long she'd been there but she seemed extremely comfortable on the wall she was leaning against casually.
"It's a sequence of very complicated enchantments. Most adults can't even pull it off." she continued seemingly blind to my apprehension or perhaps she was just choosing to ignore it.
"I could explain it to you but you'll probably get bored, or confused." she told me. There was nothing condescending about her tone, she just sounded matter of fact. She probably didn't even realize that what she said could be classified as rude.
I scowled at her anyway.
"Anywho, we should probably go find a compartment or else we'll be late." she told me. Grabbing my hand and dragging me towards the train.
"I spotted a good compartment when I was going through the vents," she informed me. "We should head there before someone else snags it."
This girl talked extremely fast and seemed . . .not great with social situations but there wasn't exactly a line of people who wanted to talk with me so I humored her.
"Why were you in the vents?"
"They're the best places for social observation and experimentation. They're also the quickest way to get around," she answered, unaware of how psychopathic she sounded.
" . . . Obviously."
She led me through the train which seemed way more comfortable than any mode of public transportation I've ever been on.
"Here it is!" she yelled and pulled me sharply into a compartment that already had a trunk in it. There were nuts and bolts and wires coming out of it and the word 'Entrapta' had been etched into it.
"Oh! This is mine! My house elves found this place quicker that I thought they would." she exclaimed, "See! Entrapta, that's me. "
"I figured," I remarked dryly.
"What's your name?"
"Catra," I said distractedly. I was trying to figure out a way to get my trunk into the storage above the seats without having to jump. It was obvious that I was too short from looking at me but jumping to get stuff done is just embarrassing.
"Let me get that for you," a voice behind me said.
I jumped for the second time that day and whirled around a buff, tall girl with short, white hair who was lifting my suitcase into the storage compartment. She patted me on the head twice and I got just about fed up.
"Ok from now on, no touching." I announced loudly.
"Duly noted," Entrapta said.
"But I'm a hugger," the girl whined.
I sneered, "Hug her."
"I'm Scorpia by the way, is it ok if I sit here?"
"Catra, and I don't care."
Scorpia sat down and settled herself in snugly and soon enough the train began to move.
"It's nice to meet you," Scorpia told me eagerly. "Entrapta and I already know each other but it's nice to make new friends."
I blinked.
I had never had friends before.
(I was too young, too squirrely, too scrawny, too smart to hang out with the kids at school and Ms. Weaver certainly wasn't going out of her way to help me any.)
"How do you and Entrapta know each other?" I asked instead of bringing up the fact that I had no clue how I was meant to interact with people.
"Pureblood functions and stuff like that, we would always end up hanging out." Scorpia explained.
Pureblood society seemed to come straight out of Bridgerton or The Gilded Age based on what Neville had told me and what I had read. It didn't surprise me that Entrapta and Scorpia always ended up with each other.
"Is that what we were doing," Entrapta inquired, "Mostly I was taking notes on the interactions between people."
Somehow that didn't surprise me either.
Entrapta pulled some wires and stuff out of her trunk, occasionally stopping to take notes or scribble something out on her arm.
"What house are you guys hoping for?" Scorpia interrogated.
"I'll probably be Ravenclaw," Entrapta answered, "Based on family statistics as well as previous endeavors."
"I was hoping I'd be with you, Entrapta, but I'll probably be in Hufflepuff," Scorpia bemoaned.
"From what I've heard I'll be in Slytherin," I told them and Scorpia sighed as though she had never heard something so disappointing in her entire life.
"So I won't be with either of you," she cried.
It seemed like she got really attached to us really easily.
I tried to be sympathetic, but it was hard; I wasn't half as invested in her as she clearly was in me, and maybe she didn't even really care. Maybe this was just a thing people said when they made friends with someone they'll only talk to for a couple hours. Maybe I was intensely over thinking this and I'd missed my window of opportunity to respond.
I shrugged, "We'll still see each other and stuff right," I said as casually as I could manage.
"I guess but it won't be the same," she pouted.
"Fascinating," Entrapta murmured, looking quickly between Scorpia and I, jotting something down that I couldn't see across the aisle from her.
The rest of the ride went like that, uncomfortably and awkwardly.
Scorpia went on and on about nothing, saying over and over how she could already tell we'd be best friends for the rest of our lives while Entrapta took notes on the interaction, jumping in occasionally to give us conversation prompts.
Meanwhile I struggled to come up with appropriately extroverted responses to Scorpia's over friendly information and questions and Entrapta's randomly timed and weird prompts.
When Entrapta asked if we had begun to menstruate yet and Scorpia answered yes without a moment's hesitation I couldn't handle it anymore.
"Okay! That's more than enough!" I shouted. They looked at each other and then me- surprised.
"What's the matter Catra?" Scorpia asked gently and the tone of her voice made it sound like I was overreacting. I wasn't overreacting though right- these two were just weird.
I sneered, "Entrapta, that is personal information, don't ask people about it"
"Fascinating."
"Scorpia, that is personal information, keep it yourself please."
"Right, sorry."
"Now can we please have a normal conversation about anything else and sans the notepad Entrapta."
Entrapta slowly slid her notepad back in her trunk.
"See? Doesn't that feel better?" I asked.
Entrapta gave what was clearly a forced smile, "Mhm," she lied.
I sighed and rubbed my temples, "Okay . . .uh- do you guys have pets?"
"No, my parents won't let me. I want a cat really badly though." Scorpia told us.
"Oh!" Entrapta exclaimed, "I have one!"
I waited for her to elaborate but instead she began to dig into her trunk, pulling things out randomly. Scorpia would collect them and subsequently place them on the seat beside her, she arranged them from cutest to ugliest.
"Where are you Emily," she muttered, "Ah! Here you are!"
And then she had the absolute audacity to pull at a mangy, disgusting, disease-riddled rat!
I yelped and jumped up onto the seat, pressing my back into the wall.
"This is Emily," Entrapta announced, ignoring my blatant disgust.
"No, that is a rat," I protested.
"Yes. My rat named Emily- the two are not mutually exclusive."
"Aw! She's so cute!" Scorpia shouted.
"Am I the only sensible person on this train! Rats are not cute, they are not pets, and they are not named Emliy!"
"Well not all of them, but this one is," Entrapta said, shoving Emily in my face, "See? Look."
"Get that thing away from me before I defenestrate it!" I growled and Entrapta jerked Emily back towards her.
"What does defenestrate mean?" Scorpia questioned.
"Wanna find out?" I snapped.
Scorpia shrunk back and Entrapta whispered something in her ear and Scorpia gasped. "Don't do that to Emily!"
I opened my mouth to shout something about how absolutely filthy rats are when an older student poked their head into our compartment, "Time to change into your school robes," he said before going to the next compartment.
We all looked at the window and saw a large castle looming in the distance.
There we were.
Hogwarts.
