9.
I got up at 5 AM and was too excited and nervous to go back to sleep. Also, I planned on taking the bus to London, and since I knew a lot of people would be doing that I wanted to get an early start. I absolutely had to get to King's Cross on time.
I checked my trunk was all packed, checked that Jada was safely in her cat carrier, and then I locked my bedroom door for the school year, taking the key with me, and I levitated my things down the stairs and outside onto the front sidewalk in the dark and the quiet. I stuck out my wand arm, stepped back, and with a BAM the purple triple-decker bus appeared.
"Mr Potter!" said the conductor, delighted, when he saw me. The bus people had gotten very excited since recognizing who I was. The conductor helped me get all my things safely tucked away near a table. I looked around. It was so early hardly anyone was here; perfect.
The conductor chattered along excitedly to me all the way to King's Cross - I was mostly quiet, nodding and saying, "Mmm," here and there - and then helped me load my things onto a trolley at the station.
"Good luck with your first year, Mr Potter!" The conductor waved brightly, the doors shut, and with another BAM the bus disappeared.
I got breakfast at the station, sitting at a plastic seat to eat, and then I walked to the barrier between platforms nine and ten. McGonagall had told me before leaving the other day - the platform was 9 and ¾, and I would have to get there by walking straight through the solid wrought iron barrier between platforms nine and ten.
I walked toward the barrier, jostled here and there by passing people, leaned casually against the barrier - leaned right through it and stumbled, taking my trolley with me.
A scarlet steam engine, the Hogwarts Express, sat next to a platform filled with people both in robes and in Muggle clothes, hissing steam that floated over the heads of the crowd. Cats meowed and slunk between legs and owls hooted to one another over the babble and the scraping of heavy trunks. There were older students with black robes and silver Prefect badges in the first few compartments; next were younger students fighting over seats and hanging out of the windows to talk to families. Wizarding families appeared along the platform with a pop every few feet, holding their children's hands.
I found an empty compartment and levitated my things into it. Students and parents alike were openly pointing and staring at me as I passed, whispering to each other. I pretended not to notice.
I curled up in a corner of the compartment - perhaps intimidated, no one came to join me - and took out a book for the wait. At last, the whistle sounded, and the train began to move. I looked out the window, watching the platform fall away, countless parents waving. Then the train rounded a corner and they were gone. Houses flashed past the window.
I felt a great leap of excitement. I was on my way - I was on my way to Hogwarts and becoming a wizard.
There was a shriek out in the corridor and I went out to look. Crowds were shrieking and crying over a giant black tarantula crawling and doing tricks all over the arm of an older black boy with dreadlocks. The boy was grinning, unafraid.
"Move it, out of the way!"
First year boys pushed past me, racing each other to the other end of the train corridor. The whole scene had an aura of great excitement.
"Anything off the trolley, dears?" a smiling old lady was calling, pushing a cart full of sweets and pumpkin juice down the corridor. Students dropped coins onto her tray and grabbed sweets and juice. I bought some chocolate frogs and a bottle of ice cold pumpkin juice and took them back to my compartment. I closed the window curtains, changed into my black Hogwarts robes, and then settled down with my sweets, my juice, and my book. I let Jada my cat out to roam around the compartment, petting her absently occasionally, and I had my beech wood and phoenix feather wand tucked safely away in a robe pocket.
My first Chocolate Frog card today, appropriately enough, was Headmaster Dumbledore's. It talked about his defeat of the Dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, his discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with Nicolas Flamel. An old man with a long silver beard and half moon spectacles smiled up at me from the moving photograph. I wondered if Dumbledore resented me after that press stunt over the summer. I hoped not; it was nothing personal.
I turned back to my book, snacking as I went and watching the scenery change outside the window. We moved slowly as the day progressed from cities, to neat rural farm fields, to forests and twisting rivers and dark green hills. Night came on and the sky turned dark and purple, and still we hadn't arrived. Chain lamps in the train compartment corners magically lit themselves at night. I listened to the train puff on and tried to relax, not feel nervous.
I was broken, quite frequently, by people sliding open the compartment door to talk to me. Girls came in blushing and giggling, people came in wanting photographs and autographs, or wanting to talk to me or become my friend, or wanting to brag, or wanting to talk excitedly about a past that was obviously painful to me for anyone with half a brain. I smiled and tried to chat as much as I could - I'd never been much for idle talk - and I signed autographs and took pictures.
It was weird, being a celebrity. People kept wanting to shake my hand, emotional, and tell me how great I was. I didn't really feel like I'd done anything worthy of note at all. That wasn't even my self doubt talking, it was just… I'd been a baby. I didn't even remember doing anything.
Faces and names blurred past me and I was sure I hadn't remembered any of them. I felt a bit lonely, isolated - had ever since I'd seen parents sending off their children on the platform.
At last, the train began to slow down, and a silvery voice echoed magically through it: "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train; it will be taken to the school separately." It was pitch black outside by now.
My stomach jumped with nerves and excitement.
I put a reluctant, meowing Jada safely back in her cat carrying case, talking to her soothingly all the while, and then I just stood there. Tensed and ready.
The train slowed right down and finally stopped. Everyone thronged the corridor, and slowly I pushed my way through the black robed crowds and out onto a tiny, dark, cold platform. I could see the lights of Hogsmeade village in the distance, and that was where everyone was going. I was about to follow them, when I heard a booming voice: "First years! First years, over here!"
I pushed through the chattering crowds to gather with the other first years around a giant of a man with a face full of wild dark hair and beard. He was holding a lantern. I would find out later that this was the Hogwarts groundskeeper, Hagrid.
"Everyone follow me! Any more first years? Mind your step, now! First years, follow me!"
We followed Hagrid off the platform and down a steep, rocky hillside, through forestry, surrounded on either side by thick trees that blocked out all the moonlight. We stumbled around in the dark after Hagrid's lamp. Then we came around a corner and everything suddenly opened up, to reveal a quiet moonlit lake. Across the lake, high up on a hillside, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers, its windows sparkling.
Everyone oohed and aahed, and even I was amazed and impressed. It was… beautiful.
We climbed into little boats, four people to a boat. Hagrid the groundskeeper was so large he had a whole boat to himself. He called, "FORWARD!" and the boats glided on their own, rippling across the smooth lake surface. We approached a cliff, ducked our heads and sailed through a curtain of ivy that hid a wide opening in the cliff face.
We clambered out into a kind of underground harbor with rocks and pebbles. Neville Longbottom, a clumsy, round-faced boy who kept asking around if anyone had seen his pet toad, had his toad found in the bottom of a boat by Hagrid. Hagrid handed the Trevor the Toad back to Neville's happy hands, and then we clambered up some steps after Hagrid and out into open air, onto smooth, damp grass.
We were now right in the shadow of the castle, facing its front. We climbed the steps and crowded around the huge oak front door.
Hagrid turned around. "Everyone here?! You there, still got your toad?!"
Hagrid raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door. Unless I was much mistaken, it was time for our house sorting…
Everyone was silent. Even I was nervous. This next couple of hours - it would decide everything.
