Chapter 4: Going on an Adventure

The time had finally arrived. It was time to leave for Hogwarts. I was going to leave my parents and my house and my room and go to a place I had only read about that I hadn't even known existed until a month ago. I sat in the backseat of the car while Mum and Dad drove me to the train station.

We pulled into the parking lot outside of King's Cross Station and climbed out of the car. Dad opened the trunk or the car and heaved my trunk out. It was extra heavy because of all the extra books I had bought. I was wearing my regular clothes, but I planned on changing into my robes as soon as I got onto the train.

"Do you have your ticket?" Mum asked me, realizing she hadn't checked before we left the house.

I pulled my envelope out of my pocket and withdrew the ticket. I hadn't really given it much thought until now.

"What platform are we going to?" Dad asked.

"Um…" I said, frowning at the ticket. Surely, there must be some kind of mistake. I must need my eyes checked; I was reading platform nine and three-quarters. I handed it to Dad to read, hoping I was just hallucinating.

"Platform nine and three quarters?" he asked, half-statement and half-question. "Where's that supposed to be?"

"I don't know, but maybe we could ask someone," mum said, frowning. None of us had ever heard of a platform nine and three quarters. We entered King's Cross and rolled my trunk towards the general area of platforms nine and ten. We looked around and didn't see anything that resembled a platform nine and three quarters. Despite the early hour of our departure, it was getting dangerously close to eleven o'clock and I was starting to panic.

Mum steered us towards a guard and asked where we could find platform nine and three quarters, but he looked just as confused at the question as we felt, stating that there was no such thing. I asked if he knew of any train leaving at eleven o'clock, thinking that maybe the platform number was simply wrong, but at this the guard sighed in exasperation.

"I suppose you're trying to get to Hogwarts?" he asked, causing my heart to lift, believing that he knew where the train was. "Why does everyone want to waste my time today? Skinny little boy with messy dark hair just asked me the same question not five minutes ago." The guard walking away, shaking his head and I started to panic again.

I turned around and looked to see if maybe I would see something I'd missed previously, when suddenly, a girl who was leaning against a wall between platforms nine and ten disappeared into the wall.

"Mum! Dad! Did you see that?" I asked excitedly, running over to the divide.

"No, see what?" Dad asked, confused.

"A girl just disappeared here," I said, standing in the same place she had been moments before. When nothing happened, I leaned against the wall like she had, and instead of meeting the resistance of the wall, I fell right through it onto the floor.

As soon as I had fallen, I scrambled up from the floor and looked around. I was on a new platform, and the sign above indicated that it was platform nine and three quarters. Mum and Dad came stumbling through the wall moments later, looking around in awe. I checked my watch and saw that I had only minutes left before I had to board the scarlet steam engine sitting in front of me.

"Mum, Dad…" I began, unsure how to finish that statement. "Bye," I finally said.

"Oh, goodbye sweetheart," Mum said, pulling me into a hug. When she released me, Dad gave me a hug as well, and then Mum insisted on hugging me once more.

"I promise I'll write to you," I said, knowing that they would probably have trouble adjusting to my letters being delivered my owls.

"And we'll write to you as well sweetie, just as soon as you send us an address we can reach you at," Dad added, and I grimaced to myself, knowing that they would probably not be impressed when they couldn't use the regular post.

"I guess I'd better get onto the train," I said finally, realizing that I was going to miss it if I didn't board now. To reinforce my point, the train's warning horn blew, indicating it would be leaving in a minute.

Mum and Dad followed me to the door of the train and helped me heave my trunk onto the landing. I jumped back off the train and hugged them each again. Then I climbed back onto the train and waved goodbye as the train pulled out of the station.

It was going to be strange, being so far away from them. I'd never lived away from home before. Though it wasn't as though Mum and Dad spent tons of time with me – I typically was left to my own devices – it would be weird to not sit down to dinner with them every night or get a goodnight hug from them each before bed.

When I could no longer see them anymore, I turned toward the hallway of compartments and my stomach filled with butterflies. As nervous as I was, I decided to swallow my fear and I straightened up and dragged my trunk down the hall, peering into the compartments, trying to find one that had room for me.

I finally came across a compartment that appeared to be filled with other first years, so I decided this would be the compartment to sit in. I opened the compartment door and asked if I could join them.

Of course, they said that was fine, so I heaved my trunk onto the rack above our heads with the help of a boy who introduced himself as Ernie Macmillan and sat down by the door. There were three other people in the compartment: Ernie, a boy named Neville Longbottom, and a girl named Lisa Turpin.

I discovered that all three of them came from magical families, but much to my surprise, none of them had learned to do any spells yet. In fact, Neville appeared terrified at the thought of trying to do magic at all. Lisa informed me that she had read some of the spell books we had been assigned, but that she hadn't managed to finish them. Ernie appeared more interested in playing a game called gobstones than anything else. When I revealed that I had read all the books we had been set and that I had been practicing some of the spells successfully on my own, Lisa immediately announced that I must be headed for Ravenclaw, the house that she was apparently hoping to end up in.

As great as I thought it would be to be recognized for my brains and be in Ravenclaw, I couldn't help but think that I would actually rather be sorted into Gryffindor. Gryffindor was the house for the brave and the noble and from what I've read, it appeared to produce the best witches and wizards. I didn't say any of this to Lisa, but instead I smiled and asked the two boys what house they were hoping to be sorted into.

Neville's face suddenly turned downcast. "I'd like to be put in Gryffindor, though I'll probably end up in Hufflepuff," he said sadly.

"Are you implying that there's something wrong with Hufflepuff?" Ernie asked, apparently offended.

"N-no, why?" Neville asked, suddenly extremely nervous.

"I'll have you know that all the members of my family have been Hufflepuffs for generations and I hope to uphold the noble family tradition," he said. "I think I'm going to go find someone who appreciates some Hufflepuff loyalty," he announced, standing up and leaving the compartment.

"I d-didn't mean an-anything. R-Really," Neville said, worried and clearly upset.

"Don't worry," Lisa said, "he's such a jerk, and he'll probably end up in Slytherin."

At Lisa's words, I had to try hard not to smile, not wanting to appear as though I approved of insults, since I knew that her words were meant as an insult.

We changed into our robes then, using the bathroom down the hall, figuring we ought to be wearing our uniform when we finally got to Hogwarts. I realized that I had no idea what time we would be arriving, and Lisa and Neville didn't know either.

After another hour or so, a smiling witch came by the compartment pushing a food trolley and asked if we wanted something to eat. I looked at the candy on the trolley and had no idea what any of it was. I decided to pass on the sweets, partly because I was a little apprehensive about not knowing what was on the cart, and partly because I had been raised by dentists. Lisa bought something called a licorice wand and Neville bought a chocolate frog.

When Neville opened his chocolate frog, it jumped out at him and he grabbed it and bit its head off as though it was perfectly normal. I hid my surprise and tried to arrange my features so that it seemed that I found this perfectly normal too.

I turned and looked out the window and as I watched the countryside fly by, I started to become genuinely excited, the butterflies that had been in the pit of my stomach now almost gone. I was heading towards Hogwarts.

A while later, Neville became aware that he had lost his toad, Trevor, and became extremely panicked. He searched the entirety of our compartment but couldn't find him.

"Oh, Gran's going to kill me," he muttered as he searched his trunk for the eighth time.

"Don't worry Neville, I'll help you find Trevor," I said, feeling that I should help in some way.

"Yeah, and I'll help too," Lisa said.

Neville thanked us and we decided we ought to split up and search the train. Neville went running down to the end of the train, but Lisa and I being a little smarter, decided we should check in each compartment. Lisa went right and I went left, and we travelled down the train checking inside each compartment, asking the people inside if they'd seen Trevor.

I was starting to get discouraged and I was hoping that Lisa had found Trevor, when I met up with Neville, who looked, if it was even possible, sadder than he had before.

I surmised that he had not found Trevor yet, so I encouraged him to come with me and ask around. I approached the next compartment, but Neville tried to stop me. "I've already asked them," he said, though I didn't really pay attention to this. I slid the compartment door open to reveal a couple of young boys.

"Has anyone seen a toad?"

I immediately noted two things about the boy sitting on the right. First, it was the same boy that had come into Madam Malkin's that day in Diagon Alley, who'd been arguing with his mother about robes. And secondly, he had his wand raised, as if he'd been about to do a spell.

Intrigued, I entered the compartment and took a seat, encouraging the boy to go on with the spell. I was partly interested to see what he was capable of, but mostly nervous that he would be better than me at magic. Not that I should be worrying about being the best yet. Just two nights ago, I'd been worried that I'd be at the bottom of the class.

When the spell failed, I immediately felt better about myself. I wanted to show off a little, so I told them about all the spells I'd learned so far, a tone of superiority in my voice. When the boy next to me introduced himself as Harry Potter, I felt myself knocked down a peg. Here I was, bragging about my magical prowess, when he'd already managed to block the darkest curse there was.

Starting to feel like I was blowing my chance at making friends with the two boys, I excused myself, claiming that I needed to keep helping Neville to find his toad. I wasn't sure what had made me babble like I had. I hadn't gotten carried away like that with Neville and Lisa.

When Neville and I returned to our compartment, Lisa was already there, and she'd also failed to find Trevor. Neville was disappointed, but he seemed to have come to terms with the loss of his toad. Or maybe he was just trying to hide his sorrow.