The next morning, they woke up. Hailey was feeling gloomy when she put on jeans, a shirt, and put on the grey hoodie. It was still raining when they got downstairs.
Mr Weasley was leaving the kitchen, "Bye, Bill—Charlie—Percy—Ginny—Hailey—Mandy—Eva." He ran up the stairs, nearly sending Mandy over the railing, "Sorry." They made into the kitchen and sat at the table. Hailey grabbed a bit of toast, when Mr Weasley ran back in a few minutes later, his robes on properly this time, and he was dragging a comb through what was left of his hair.
"I'd better hurry—you have good term, boys, Mandy, and Hailey," said Mr Weasley to the twins, Ron, Michael, Mandy, and Hailey. He fastened a cloak over his shoulders and prepared to Disapparate. "Molly, are you going to be all right taking the kids to King's Cross?"
"Of course I will," Mrs Weasley responded. "You just look after Mad-Eye, we'll be fine."
"Did someone say Mad-Eye?" Bill asked as he and Charlie walked in the kitchen, "What's he been up to now?"
"He says someone tried to break into his house last night," explained Mrs Weasley.
"Mad-Eye Moody?" said George, sounding thoughtful. He was spreading marmalade on his toast, "Isn't he that nutter—"
"Your father thinks very highly of Mad-Eye Moody," said Mrs Weasley sternly.
"Yeah, well, Dad collects plugs, doesn't he?" said Fred quietly as Mrs Weasley left the room. "Birds of a feather…"
"Who's Mad-Eye Moody?" Eva asked, confused.
"Moody was a great wizard in his time," Bill told her.
"He's an old friend of Dumbledore's, isn't he?" Charlie asked.
"Dumbledore's not what you'd call normal, though, is he?" Fred replied. "I mean, I know he's a genius and everything…"
"Can someone please answer my question for once?" Eva snapped at them.
Hailey knew that Eva was cranky because of the nightmares Eva's been having because of what happened to her at the Quidditch World Cup. Eva had dark shadows under her eyes, which was a little unsettling because she was twelve.
"He's retired, used to work at the Ministry," explained Charlie. "I met him once when Dad took me in to work with him. He was an Auror—one of the best…a Dark wizard catcher," he added, seeing Eva's blank look. "Half the cells in Azkaban are full because of him. He made himself loads of enemies, though…the families of people he caught, mainly…and I heard he's been getting really paranoid in his old age. Doesn't trust anyone anymore. Sees Dark wizards everywhere."
Hailey thought about it; being an Auror doesn't sound to be that bad of a job. Although, considering how paranoid Mad-Eye Moody got, that must be a downside of being an Auror. Maybe she should keep her options open…even though being an Auror sounded appealing.
Bill and Charlie decided to come see everyone off at King's Cross station. Percy apologized profusely and said that he really needed to get to work. "I just can't justify taking more time off at the moment. Mr Crouch is really starting to rely on me."
"Yeah, you know what, Percy?" said George in a serious tone. "I reckon he'll know your name soon."
Mrs Weasley had braved the telephone in the village post office to order four ordinary Muggle taxis to take them into London. Hailey watched the taxi drivers heave nine heavy Hogwart trunks into their cars, as Mrs Weasley told Hailey that Mr Weasley tried to borrow Ministry cars, but there weren't any to spare.
The Muggle taxi drivers looked agitated as Pig started hooting loudly and causing a racket. Fred's trunk somehow sprang open, setting off a number of Filibuster's Fabulous No-Heat, Wet-Start Fireworks. Crookshanks freaked out by the sound noise and clawed up his way up the man's leg, causing him to yell with fright and pain.
After that, the journey was uncomfortable because the taxis were jammed in the back with trunks. Crookshanks took a while to recover from the fireworks and by the time they entered London, Hailey, Ron, and Hermione were severely scratched.
Hailey was relieved when she got out at King's Cross, even though the rain was coming down harder than ever, and they got soaked when they carried their trunks across the busy road and into the station.
Platform nine and three-quarters was a solid barrier dividing platforms nine and ten. All she had to do was walk through the platform in an unobtrusive way, to avoid attracting attention from Muglges. They did it groups, Hailey, Eva, and Michael went together first. They leaned against the platform.
"I still don't know why I had to get a dress," Hailey told them.
"You should Ron's dress robes. I wouldn't wear them, even if they were the last piece of clothing on earth," Michael said, as they slid sideways through the platform, ending up on platform nine and three-quarters
The Hogwarts Express was a gleaming scarlet steam engine was already there; clouds of steam billowing from it. Hogwarts students and parents on the platform looked oddly ghostly through the mist.
"Bye, I gotta find Ivy," Eva said and ran off with her trolley.
Hailey and Michael went to find seats and started stowing their luggage in a compartment halfway through the train. They hopped back down onto the platform while Hermione, Mandy, and Ron finally found them. They stowed away their luggage and came back down to say good-bye to Mrs Weasley, Bill, and Charlie.
"I might be seeing you all sooner than you think," said Charlie grinning, as he hugged Ginny good-bye.
Hailey was confused at that, "What?"
"Why?" asked Fred eagerly.
"You'll see," said Charlie. "Just don't tell Percy I mentioned it…it's 'classified information, until such time as the Ministry sees fit to release it,' after all."
"Yeah, I sort of wish I were back at Hogwarts this year," said Bill, hands in his pockets, looking almost wistfully at the train.
"Any particular reason why?" Mandy asked confused.
"Why?" said George at the same time as Mandy. However, George sounded impatient than confused
"You're going to have an interesting year," said Bill, smiling. "I might even get time off to come and watch a bit of it…"
"A bit of what?" demanded Ron, sounding impatient.
The whistle blew, and Mrs Weasley rushed them to the train doors.
"Thanks for allowing us to stay over, Mrs Weasley." Michael said as they got on board, closed the door, and leaned out of the window to talk to her.
"Yeah, thanks for everything, Mrs Weasley," said Hailey.
"Oh, it was my pleasure, dears," said Mrs Weasley, "I'd invite you for Christmas, but…well, I expect you're all going to want to stay at Hogwarts, what with…one thing and another."
"Mum!" said Ron sounding highly irritated at that point with the secrecy. "What d'you three know that we don't?"
"You'll find out this evening, I expect," said Mrs Weasley smiling. "It's going to be very exciting—mind you, I'm very glad they changed the rules—"
"What rules?" asked Hailey, Mandy, Ron, Fred, and George at the same time.
"I'm sure Professor Dumbledore will tell you…" Mrs Weasley said, "Now, behave, won't you? Won't you, Fred? And you, George?"
The pistons hissed loudly and the train started to move.
"Tell us what's happening at Hogwarts!" Fred bellowed out of the window as he was sped away from his family. "What rules are they changing?"
However, Mrs Weasley just smiled and waved. Hailey watched as Mrs Weasley, Bill, and Charlie Disapparated before the train turned a corner.
Hailey, Ron, Hermione, Mandy, and Michael went back to their compartment, Hailey watching the rain splattering the windows, making it hard to see out of them.
"Show them your dress robes," Michael said to Ron, sounding amused for some reason.
Ron undid his trunk, pulled out maroon coloured dress robes and he threw them over Pigwidgeon's cage to muffle his hooting.
Hailey and Mandy gaped the dress robes. The dress robes had moldy looking lace frill at the collar and had matching lace cuffs. It actually looked more like a velvet dress than robes.
"Those are horrid!" Mandy exclaimed.
"Shh!" Hermione whispered, pressing her finger to her lips and pointing toward the compartment next to theirs, which was occupied by Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle. They probably forgot to their compartment door.
"…Father actually considered sending me to Durmstrang rather than Hogwarts, you know. He knows the headmaster, you see. Well, you know his opinion of Dumbledore—that man's such a Mudblood-lover—and Durmstrang doesn't admit that sort of riffraff. But Mother didn't like the idea of me going to school so far away. Father says Durmstrang takes a far more sensible line than Hogwarts about the Dark Arts. Durmstrang students actually learn them, not just the defense rubbish we do…"
Hermione got up, tiptoed to the compartment door, and slid it shut, blocking out Malfoy's voice. She was angry as she said, "So, he thinks Durmstrang would have suited him, does he? I wish he had gone, then we wouldn't have to put up with him."
"Of course his dad wants him to go Durmstrang! Churn out Death Eater junior, is that right?" Mandy snapped.
What Hailey knew about Durmstrang was that there was a lot of emphasis on Dark Arts.
"I think I've heard of it," said Ron. "Where is it? What country?"
"Nobody knows, except the Durmstrang students and teachers," Michael responded.
"Oh, right," said Ron.
"I think Beaaxubatons conceals their whereabouts, too," Mandy said. "I saw that it was because no one steals their secrets that way."
"Oh, come off it," said Ron, starting to laugh. "Durmstrang's got to be about the same size as Hogwarts—how are you going to hide a great big castle?"
"Hogwarts is hidden, too," Michael pointed out. "Everyone knows that…well, everyone who's read Hogwarts, A History, anyway."
"Just you four, then," said Ron looking at Hermione and the Ravenclaws. "So, go on—how d'you hide a place like Hogwarts?"
Mandy looked at Ron, "It's bewitched, so that if a Muggle looks at it, all they is a old ruin with a sign over the entrance saying: DANGER, DO NOT ENTER, UNSAFE."
"So, Durmstrang'll just look like a ruin to an outsider too?" Ron questioned, sounding genuinely interested.
"Maybe, maybe not," said Mandy shrugging.
Hermione added, "It might have Muggle-repelling charms on it, like the World Cup stadium. And to keep foreign wizards from finding it, they'll have made it Unplottable—"
"Come again?" Ron asked.
"Well, you can enchant a building so it's impossible to plot on a map, can't you?" Hermione asked. "But I think Durmstrang must be somewhere in the far north," she sounding thoughtful. "Somewhere very cold, because they've got fur capes as part of their uniforms."
"Ah, think of the possibilities," Ron said, in a dreamy manner. "It would've been so easy to push Malfoy off a glacier and make it look like an accident…Shame his mother likes him…"
Michael and Mandy laughed at that.
The rain was became heavier as the train moved farther north. The sky became dark and the windows became so steamy that the lanterns were lit by midday. The lunch trolley came rattling along the corridor, and Hailey bought a large stack of Cauldron Cakes for them to share, and bought Pumpkin Pasties for Michael, because she remembered that it was his favourite sweet.
Seamus Finnigan, Dean Thomas, and Neville Longbottom, a round-faced, extremely forgetful boy who had been brought up by his formidable witch of a grandmother, came by to visit. Seamus was still wearing his Ireland rosette, which was now squeaking, "Troy—Mullet—Moran!" in an exhausted and feeble voice, because the magic was wearing off.
Seamus, Dean, and Neville struck up Hailey and Ron talk about Quidditch. Michael tried to input some commentary, but grew bored, and started flipping through his Rune Dictionary.
Mandy and Hermione buried themselves in The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 4 trying to learn a Summoning Charm.
Neville listened to the conversation of the Cup, looking jealous. "Gran didn't want to go," he said sounding miserable. "Wouldn't buy tickets. Colton said that his parents tried to get a fourth ticket for me, but they only had enough for the three of them. It sounded amazing though."
"Hey, did he find his dad?" Mandy asked, confused.
"Yeah," Neville said.
"It was amazing," Ron said, rummaging through his trunk. "Look at this, Neville…" He pulled out the miniature figure of Viktor Krum.
"Oh, wow," said Neville enviously as Ron tipped Krum onto Neville's pudgy hand.
"We saw him right up close, as well," said Ron. "We were in the Top Box—"
"For the first and last time, Weasley," said Malfoy appearing in the doorway. Behind him stood Crabbe and Goyle, his enormous, thuggish cronies, both of whom appeared to have grown at least a foot during the summer. They heard the conversation through the compartment door, which Seamus and Dean had left ajar, after they left when Malfoy and his cronies showed up.
"Don't remember asking you to join us, Malfoy," snapped Hailey.
"Weasley…what is that?" said Malfoy, pointing at Pigwigdeon's case. A sleeve of Ron's dress robes was dangling from it, swaying with the motion of the train; the moldy lace cuff was very obvious.
"It's none of your damn business," Mandy snapped, closing her book shut.
Ron tried to stuff the robes out of sight, but Malfoy seized the sleeve and pulled. "Look at this!" Malfoy sounded ecstatic. "Look at this!" He held up the dress robes to show Crabbe and Goyle. "Weasley, you weren't thinking of wearing these, were you? I mean—they were very fashionable in about eighteen-ninety…"
"Eat dung, Malfoy!" said Ron, the same colour as the dress robes, he snatched out of Malfoy's grip. Malfoy howled with derisive laughter while Crabbe and Goyle guffawed.
"So…going to enter, Weasley? Going to try and bring a bit of glory to the family name? There's money involved as well, you know…you'd be able to afford some decent robes it you won…"
"What are you talking about?" snapped Ron.
"Are you going to enter?" Malfoy repeated, as if they were stupid. "I suppose you will, Potter? You never miss a chance to show off, do you?"
"She doesn't show off!" Michael snapped.
"Don't you have puppies and kittens to kick somewhere, Malfoy?" snapped Mandy, "Because that's all you're good for."
"Either explain what you're on about or go away, Malfoy," said Hermione testily over the top of The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 4.
A gleeful smile spread over Malfoy's pale face. "Don't tell me you don't know?" He sounded delighted. He turned to Ron, "You've got a father and a brother at the Ministry and you don't even know?" He turned to Mandy. "You've got a father at the Ministry and not even you know? My God, my father told me about it ages ago…heard it from Cornelius Fudge. But then, Father's always associated with the top people at the Ministry…Maybe both your fathers' too junior to know about it, Weasely, Brocklehurst…yes…they probably don't talk about important stuff in front of them…"
Laughing once more, Malfoy beckoned to Crabbe and Goyle, andthe three left the compartment.
"At least my dad loves me enough not to spoil the surprise! At least he didn't try to send me away, like your Death Eater father tried to do!" Mandy shouted after them.
Ron got up and slammed the sliding compartment door shut with such force, that the glass shattered. Michael covered his head with his arm, but some glass shards embedded themselves in his arm, leaving a few trickles of blood.
"Not even the start of term and I already get bloodied up," Michael muttered looking at the small cuts. Mandy went to tend to him while Hermione tended to the compartment door. The glass flew back into the single pane and back into the door.
"Well…making it look like he knows everything and we don't…" Ron snarled. "'Father's always associated with the top people at the Ministry'…Dad could've got a promotion any time…he just likes it where he is…"
"My dad loves his job," Mandy said. "He knows, he just doesn't want to ruin the surprise to me."
"Of course they do," said Hermione quietly. "Don't let Malfoy get to you, Ron, Mandy—"
"Him! Get to me? As if!" said Ron, picking up one of the remaining Cauldron Cakes and squashing it into a pulp.
"Someone needs to knock Malfoy off his high-horse." Mandy said, "And it looks like I'm the only one that's brave enough to do it."
Ron's bad mood continued for the rest of the journey. He didn't talk as much after they changed into their robes and he was still stewing in his anger when the Hogwarts Express slowed down at last and finally stopped in Hogsmeade station. The cuts on Michael's arms weren't that serious and Mandy had removed all the glass using the Summoning Charm, which she had perfected.
As the train doors opened, there was a rumble of thunder overhead. Hermione bundled up Crookshanks in her cloak and Ron left his dress robes of Pigwidgeon's cage as they left the train, heads bent and eyes narrowed against the downpour. The rain was now coming down so thick and fast that it felt like Hailey was getting buckets of ice water repeatedly emptied over her head. Hailey noticed a gigantic silhouette at the far end of the platform and yelled, "Hi, Hagrid!"
"All righ', Hailey?" Hagrid bellowed back, waving. "See yeh at the feast if we don' drown!"
First years traditionally reached Hogwarts Castle by sailing across the lake with Hagrid.
"Ooh, I wouldn't fancy crossing the lake in this weather," said Hermione fervently, shivering.
"I wouldn't either," Michael said. "I think I would get seasick."
They inched slowly along the dark platform with the rest of the crowd. Hailey slipped, almost falling off the platform, but luckily, Michael was there to stop her fall, because she hit him in the back with her body. However, Michael stumbled forward, nearly falling in the mud.
"Sorry," Hailey said, her cheeks were warm, from the close contact. She was grateful that it was dark and he couldn't see her.
"It's all right," Michael said, sounding amused.
They went to a hundred horseless carriages which were waiting for them outside the platform and they climbed gratefully inside the carriage. The door shut with a snap and a few moments later, with a great lurch, the long procession of carriages was rumbling and splashing its way up the track toward Hogwarts Castle.
