Read the disclaimer at the very beginning and Chapter 4: Packed, Pecked, Picked, Poked to get up to speed.
Words: 6,101 words Pages: 22 pages
Chapter 5: Let the Journey Begin
September 1st
Today was the day. Or rather today was the morning.
In any case, nothing that had happened had been a dream or a terrible joke. Ms. Granger had really come over two months ago and told them that they had magical powers and were going to a special school to learn all sorts of neat things. And they had gone to a fantastic place called Diagon Alley, to buy supplies. And they had seen goblins and magical tape measures and gotten wands and bought an owl.
It was real. It was all real.
Morgan jumped from the family car, as soon as it had pulled into a parking space at King's Cross Station. She ignored her mother's shouts that she should have waited for the car to stop moving. Who on earth would wait for something like that when they were about to embark on a journey so bizarre and utterly wonderful?
Winston finished parking the car and moved to open the trunk. He pulled out the first new school trunk, then struggled to get the second. Betsy commandeered two trolley carts from the front of the station over to the car. Together, with Winston, Betsy managed to hoist the trunks onto the carts.
Morgan led her family into the massive building. She was looking for the platform, surprised that out of all the times she had been in King's Cross she had never once seen a gate that led to a school of Magic. She didn't much care that she hadn't seen it before, because she was going to see it now. Margaret was somewhere behind her, with their parents. She could hear them. Margaret's trolley cart had very squeaky wheels. Betsy was calling for Morgan to slow down. And her father, Winston, seemed to be having trouble getting the twins' new owl, to keep quiet in his cage. Morgan supposed the black and brown Demetrius was just as excited as she was.
Morgan looked to her left. Nope, there wasn't a sign advertising Hogwarts School there. She looked to her right. Not a sign there either. She moved further forward. She looked left then right; nothing. She didn't see anything. She moved forward some more, still well ahead of everyone else. Morgan looked everywhere. Then, when she had reached the very end, she turned around and looked again. She took long looks at each section she passed.
A businessman in a gray suit stepped aboard the A220. A group of young women in Manchester United shirts posed in front of their train. A family disappeared into a barrier. A man and woman climbed onto-. Wait a minute!
Morgan whirled around and stood in front of the last section she had seen. Six people were standing there. An elderly couple, and two adults, she didn't recognize either of them, and two children. The kids both had reddish hair. The girl looked older than the boy, but he was almost just as tall. They both had trunks that looked exactly like Margaret and Morgan's. Morgan watched as the two kids stepped away from the four adults and ran straight at the barrier between platforms 9 and 10.
They were crazy. They had to be. Morgan opened her mouth to shout at them, but one second later, both kids vanished behind the solid wall. Morgan's mouth remained gaping open. Margaret came up to her a moment later, followed closely by Betsy and Winston.
"What're you looking at," Margaret asked her twin. Morgan's mouth open and closed repeatedly. She didn't make a sound.
"Morgan, are you alright," Betsy questioned. She placed a hand over Morgan's forehead, feeling for a temperature.
"I-I saw. They- they just. Gone. Ran right at it. And just. The next moment. Gone," Morgan rambled. She pointed at the wall and then made an incoherent motion using both hands to indicate something running into another thing. Winston frowned. Morgan was so looking forward to Hogwarts, but if she was sick, then she would miss a few days. She'd be upset beyond reason.
"Hey, mum. There's Mr. Weasley," Margaret announced. Betsy looked up over towards Margaret had indicated. It was the same place Morgan was fixated on. Indeed, Mr. Weasley was there. He was hard to miss, what with his vibrant red hair and tall frame. The Wood family watched as the elderly couple and the dark woman next to Mr. Weasley walked at the barrier between both platforms. Not one of the four Woods could manage to keep their mouths from dropping. At least Morgan knew she hadn't dreamed that first occurrence. But maybe she had; maybe she was dreaming that one too.
The man Margaret had called Mr. Weasley turned around where he stood as if looking for someone. He spotted the Woods, staring at him in shock. He grinned widely and waved to them. Still, unsure about what they had just seen, they all shuffled forward, hesitantly.
"Good morning," Mr. Weasley greeted cheerfully. He clapped Mr. Wood on his back, shaking Winston's free hand with his own. "The train leaves in half an hour. You should probably have enough time to get a compartment if you hurry." Mr. Weasley motioned towards the brick wall in front of them. The Woods looked at it, none of them making a move forward.
"Where is the train," Margaret queried. Mr. Weasley's shoulders slumped. He looked at each person, confused. They were all confused.
"Why, it's just beyond the barrier," Mr. Weasley told them, with a small smile. He gestured at the wall, again. "You just walk right through and there you are."
Morgan turned to face Mr. Weasley, her eyes large and round.
"You mean you want us to walk into a bunch of bricks?" Mr. Weasley flushed. Once again, Morgan ignored her mother's scolding of 'Morgan, really, now?'
"No, no. The wall; it's not solid. You can walk right through it and you won't get hurt." Morgan looked at him skeptically. "I'll go first if you'd like."
Morgan didn't even bother to check with any of her family about what they wanted to do.
No one objected.
Mr. Weasley strode forward from behind the Woods. He stood in front of the wall, and then motioned the Woods to join him. When they were all gathered around him, he brought an arm in front and passed his hand through the bricks. His hand had completely disappeared.
Betsy gasped, loudly and stepped back into her husband, who stood completely still, staring, dumbfounded at Mr. Weasley's handless arm. Margaret's eyes seemed ready to pop out of her head, they were so large.
Morgan, however, was not going to show any surprise, whether she felt it or not. Instead, she brought her own up and held it out in front of her, her palm parallel to the brick wall. Mr. Weasley removed his hand, making his arm whole again. Morgan closed her brown eyes tight and moved a step forward. Her family all sucked in anxious breaths, then let out a collective sigh when they saw that Morgan was perfectly fine; except most of her arm had gone into the brick barrier. Morgan stared at her odd looking form positioned in the wall. She brought her arm out, held her hand close to her face and wiggled her fingers.
With a large smile, Morgan looked around at everyone.
"Neat," She declared.
Mr. Weasley stepped back from the wall. The Wood family followed him until they were several meters away from the barrier.
"Now, it's best to go through at a run, the first time, takes the edge off," Mr. Weasley explained. "Who's going first?"
While her family stood staring at each other and murmuring amongst themselves, Morgan pushed her cart forward a bit. It was quite obvious to her that no one else wanted to run at a wall first. Morgan volunteered. Mr. Weasley clapped her on the back, pushing her forward a foot or so.
Morgan was positively bouncing with anticipation. The platform for the train that would take her (and Margaret) to magic school was just beyond that wall. Morgan could hardly wait to see it.
She took a fleeting glance at her parents, both of whom were trying their hardest to not appear worried. Looking at Margaret, Morgan mirrored her sister's frown. The anxious look on Margaret's face was enough to make Morgan feel awful about all the arguments they had had in the past two months. They had fought over who got which of the identical trunks, over who got to name the owl, and even whose wand looked better. More than once this summer, Morgan had reduced her sister to watery eyes and sniffling.
Morgan immediately felt apologetic, but she wouldn't allow herself to confront her sister and actually say the words; 'I'm sorry'. It wasn't her style. It took more effort on her part to apologize than it did to run a mile uphill.
Margaret must have felt Morgan's gaze, because she looked over at her. The concerned look was still etched on her face. Morgan gathered all her courage, squared her shoulders, and smiled at Margaret enthusiastically. Morgan hoped that the grin would, if only temporarily, put her twin at ease.
Once Margaret did indeed look a bit more relaxed, Morgan gave her family and Mr. Weasley a short wave. She turned toward the barrier and took a deep breath. She gripped the handle on her trolley cart, tightly. Then, she took off at a run; nearly sprinting towards the wall between platforms nine and ten.
The barrier was looming closer and closer. And Morgan could swear it began to look even more solid with every step nearer. She refused to balk or blink. With her cart barely a foot from the entryway, Morgan heard her mother gasp, and Morgan slammed her eyes shut.
She surged forward.
Nothing happened.
It was seconds well after the time, Morgan should have crashed. She opened her eyes wide. She was still standing. She was perfectly fine; alive and unharmed. After her initial shock, Morgan found herself elated at the sight of a scarlet steam engine just to her right. Above her head, swaying on a cast iron bar, which was jutting from a brick wall, was a battered wooden sign bearing the name 'Platform 9 ¾' in shiny gold. Morgan moved away from the wall and down the outside of the train where the words 'Hogwarts Express' was emblazoned on the crimson metal.
Behind her, in the place that she just vacated, Margaret and her parents appeared with Mr. Weasley. The Woods were all breathing hard and Mr. Weasley was standing off to the side, twirling his wand between his fingers, coolly. He was smiling. They were all smiling.
Mr. Weasley ushered the twins onto the train after Betsy and Winston had given their praise to Margaret, a brief lecture on behavior expectations to Morgan and words of encouragement (along with many hugs and kisses) to both. The train's whistle hooted, loudly and with a jolt, started forward extremely slow. The twins hung out the doorway of the cable car, waving and shouting good-bye. They both turned away when Betsy choked in the middle of her farewell, turning it into a sob.
They stood in the long narrow hall of the train, compartments on either side of them. The twins held onto their trunks, tightly. Morgan hoisted Demetrius in his cage up onto Margaret's trunk, making it impossible for her sister to see ahead of her. Morgan managed to maneuver her own trunk ahead of her.
"Okay, James should be around here somewhere," Morgan told Margaret. "Just, you know, follow the sound of my voice, yeah?"
Without waiting for an answer, Morgan started forward. Margaret followed, careful to stop whenever Morgan said to. It was several minutes, before Morgan stopped for good.
"Ah, he's in here, Mag".
Morgan pushed open the glass and wood compartment door. The two boys inside turned towards the door to see who had interrupted their Quidditch discussion. Morgan pulled her trunk into the compartment without an invitation.
Margaret stood on tip toes to peer over Morgan's shoulder. She wanted a good look at Morgan's friend James Potter. She had read the name Potter a lot since June. In the books that she had found the surname Potter it was only in reference to Harry Potter.
The Herstry books, Greatest Witches and Wizards of the Past 200 Years and Greatest Wizarding Events of The Past 200 Years, had mentioned Harry Potter's parents, their deaths, and his marriage and kids, very briefly, never more than a page total. But they spent and entire twenty-two pages discussing the man that was Potter. And to be quite fair, Harry Potter's parents were mentioned again whenever The Dark Lord came up.
Mr. Weasley was mentioned quite a bit too. Both he and his wife, Hermione Granger, had chapters of their own in both books. Mr. Weasley's chapter detailed his work with his large family. The Weasley family aided both Harry Potter in his victory over Lord Voldemort and The Order of the Phoenix in their capture of escaped Death Eaters from the Prison, Azkaban.
Hermione Granger, the woman who had introduced the Wood Family to Magic, impressed Margaret a great deal. Both Herstry books reveled in the woman's intellect. She had nearly ten pages devoted to her school grades, test scores, and research methods.
Harry Potter and his friends were also mentioned in Hogwarts, A History. The book detailed the trio's years and made them out to be heroes in training. The book described the safe return of Flamel's Stone, the finding of the Chamber of Secrets, the defeat of Slytherin's ancient basilisk, the Triwizard Tournament, the Ministry Raid, and the first attack on Hogwarts by Voldemort.
It was at the beginning of the thirty-seven page chapter of the Golden Trio that Margaret found herself paying the most attention. There had been a picture of a seventeen year old Harry Potter, laughing with his two best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. After her visit to Diagon Alley, Margaret had not been at all surprised that the picture was moving. She was however, astonished to see the picture in detailed and precise coloring, done with magical ink, she was sure.
Harry was sitting on a patch of grass, between his friends, in dead center of the image, grinning happily. Margaret was more than entranced, she was besotted. Harry Potter was by far the most handsome man she had ever seen. He looked tall (though he was sitting), and wiry with strength. His face was angular with maturity. He had shocking black hair that looked terribly messy. And his eyes were the most gorgeous green Margaret could ever imagine.
Margaret wanted very much to meet Mr. Harry Potter. She knew he was a teacher, now. He taught the subject of Transfiguration at Hogwarts, and Margaret knew he had opted for transfiguration instead of any other subject (like Defense Against the Dark Arts, which he obviously excelled in) because he found that once he had time to relax after the Second Great War, that he had quite a knack for it.
Looking over Morgan, and into the compartment, Margaret saw Braden Weasley, the boy who had thought Margaret and Betsy were related to a wizard athlete. He had spotted her too, and after looking between herself and Morgan several times, offered Margaret the tiniest and most uncertain smile of recognition he could muster. Standing up, across the compartment from Braden was James Potter (it had to be him, as Morgan had said he was in here and he was the only other person present).
He didn't look anything like Margaret had hoped. He wasn't very tall. And he wasn't as thin as his father had looked in the picture. His face was disappointingly boyishly round. His hair was the same jet black as Harry's and just as unkempt. And perhaps, the biggest disappointment of all was his eyes. They weren't green. There wasn't even a hint of green. They were brown. Just plain old brown. Not even a light brown like her own and Morgan's, but a deep brown, not quite black, but close enough.
"Hi, James," Morgan said. She stood on the padded seat and heaved her luggage up next to her, before struggling to get it up on the racks above her head.
James looked at Morgan astonished. He had never seen a person secure their luggage by themselves before. Especially not a girl. The older students used a spell. And those who didn't know of one, had help from their friends. It had taken him, Braden and Cassie to get Braden's and his own trunk up on the racks.
Braden hurried to help Margaret. He grabbed Demetrius in his cage and passed it to James. Then he and Margaret pushed her trunk up next to the others. When everyone climbed down from the seats, James looked at the twins, his eyes darting back and forth between them. It seemed he couldn't decide who it was he wanted to talk to. He settled on some point between them.
"So, you've made it, then?" James was grinning at them, sort of. He was more grinning above them. Morgan struggled not to laugh.
"This is Margaret," Morgan introduced. Margaret shook both James' hand, before sitting down on the seat opposite the trunks. She slid all the way towards the window and smiled politely at Braden, who slid in next to her. Morgan and James sat down across from them. Now settled, the quartet began to talk about what they could expect for the school year.
It wasn't at all long before the conversation turned to Quidditch. Margaret tried her hardest to be polite and not yawn or roll her eyes. She had heard enough about Quidditch to last her a lifetime. Morgan and their father had taken to discussing it whenever possible. They talked about it over dinner, at breakfast, while the twins did their chores, during the news. To be quite frank if Margaret never heard about bluggers (whatever they were) again, it would be far too soon.
"Do you think the Harpies have a chance to win the League this year," Morgan asked of the boys. Both boys snapped their mouths shut, not realizing that Morgan could possibly know very much about Quidditch.
"They haven't won in a while. Loads of people think they're overdue. And now that they've signed Gladys Gilroy from Kenmare, they've got a decent shot at it," Braden told Morgan. Morgan seemed exceptionally pleased by this.
Margaret remembered her father and Morgan listening to some man talk about the Quidditch teams on their brand new Wizarding Wireless Radio a while ago. Both Morgan and her father thought they might like to support a team and after hearing that the Holyhead Harpies only hired witches, Morgan declared that that was the team they would root for.
"But not even having Gilroy will help you against Puddlemere. Especially now that Wood's come out of retirement," James reasoned. The comment spurred an argument between Morgan and the boys.
Margaret could not take it any longer. She grabbed hold of her school book satchel and shimmied herself from behind Braden and walked to the door.
"I'm going to find some place to read," She told them.
"Yeah, that's great, Mag, really." Morgan couldn't have sounded any less aware if she had tried.
With a great huff, Margaret left the compartment and walked away.
"But what if the Keeper throws the Quaffle to a Chaser and at the same time a nearby Beater hits a Bludger and can't stop the swing and winds up hitting the Chaser by mistake," Morgan wondered aloud. James couldn't answer as he was still laughing at Morgan previous scenario that involved a Seeker, the Snitch, and ripped trousers. Braden, however, had calmed himself down enough to answer.
"I think it's still a foul. Hitting someone with a Beater's Bat isn't so easy to mistake as an accident even if you didn't mean it," Braden explained.
The boys were saved anymore of Morgan's questions with the arrival of a wizened old witch and a food cart full of sweets.
"Anything off the cart, dears," The tiny witch asked. James nearly ran over to her. He began rummaging through brightly colored packages on the top. Braden had stuffed his hands into his trouser pockets, looking for the spare change his father had given him. Morgan grabbed her own school bag, identical to Margaret's, and rifled through it quickly. Morgan and Braden found their coins at the same time and approached the food cart together.
Morgan had never seen such odd looking food before. Their several light green cellophane bags stuffed with hundreds of tiny white candies that resembled beetles, boxes of a brand of gum she had never hear of, cartons of jelly beans, bags of gummy slugs, and funny smelling lollipops were stood neatly in tight little rows. There was so much more.
Morgan had no idea what any of this stuff was, but the boys seemed to think all of it was good, because they were loading up their arms quickly. Items were disappearing quickly. Morgan made a very rash decision to try a little of everything and soon she too was grabbing at candies quickly.
"Do you have anything to drink?" Morgan looked at the witch expectantly. She took out a brown glass bottle.
"How many do you want," the witch asked. Morgan looked behind her at the boys, who had already paid and were digging into their snacks with abandon. They hadn't bought any drinks, they had probably forgot to even think about buying a soda what with all the candy in full view.
"Four," she told the witch. "And I've got everything I'll need." Morgan listened carefully to the witch as she rattled off Morgan's purchases.
"Four butterbeers, two boxes of Droobles' Best Blowing Gum, of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, and of Ice Mice, two Chocolate Frogs, two Acid Pops, two packages of Mint Humbugs, of Jelly Slugs, of Fizzing Whizbees, of Cauldron Cakes, and of Pumpkin Pastilles… That comes to two galleons, seven sickles, and a knut".
Once she had paid, Morgan separated her huge pile in half. One pile for herself and one for Margaret. She placed one bottle of butterbeer in each pile and handed one each to Braden and James.
"Hey, Fanks," James spoke through a mouthful of half-chewed cake.
"You sure eat a lot," Braden told her, looking over at her separated piles. "We'll get dinner up at the castle, you know".
"Oh, I know. One's for you, Maggie," Morgan turned from Braden to speak to Margaret. Margaret wasn't there. Morgan frowned in confusion. When had Margaret left? She couldn't remember. When was she coming back? Was she coming back?
"I think she went to read somewhere else," Braden spoke up.
Morgan frowned. Why hadn't Margaret said anything? She picked up Margaret's pile and headed for the door.
"I'll be right back." She told the boys. Then as an after thought she added, "Don't eat my food".
Margaret wasn't in either of the next compartments. In fact, she wasn't in the back half of the train at all. Morgan walked nearly the entire length of the train, before she found her sister. She walked past kids playing card games, or chess, past kids sleeping, and couples kissing. She found Margaret near the very front of the train, in a compartment with five other students about their age, all of them were reading.
Morgan didn't bother to knock, she just slid open the door and sat herself down right next to a blonde haired boy and glasses. He was the closest to the door and closest to Margaret. He sat all the way back in his seat and had brought the enormous book he was reading up to his face so that it was less than half an inch from his nose.
"Maggie, when did you leave?" Morgan sat forward and leant over the blonde boys' lap. Margaret looked up quickly and turned to face Morgan. A small girl in the corner by the window gave a furious 'SSSHH"! Morgan scowled at the girl's profile.
"I've been here for nearly two hours," Margaret whispered. Morgan sat back a little and tried to remember two hours ago. She couldn't remember Margaret leaving.
"Why didn't you say anything?" Morgan asked angrily. Another 'SSSHH' came from the window.
"I did, you said 'okay'," Margaret answered back, quietly.
"Oh. Well, I brought you some food and something to drink."
Margaret tried not to roll her eyes. Typical Morgan; getting mad about what she thought had happened but when she found out she was wrong she didn't apologize she just dismissed it as if it never occurred.
Morgan passed the pile of food she had been holding in her arms over to her twin. She was still a little mad that she hadn't noticed Margaret leave, but she wasn't going to start a fight right now. She noticed that Margaret had slipped on her school robes. Morgan felt guilty that she hadn't even noticed Margaret take her clothes out of her trunk.
"So, you've changed already?"
"Yeah, and you should too, I expect we'll be arriving shortly," Margaret whispered. She bit into an orange candy and went back to her book.
"Oh. Right, yeah. I'll see you, then," Morgan said to her sister, as she stood up. The girl in the corner let out a hissing 'SSSSSHHH'! Instead of yelling at the girl to 'Stuff It' as she would have liked to, Morgan walked out and slammed the sliding door hard. She glared directly at the girl in the corner, who was so startled by the noise that she dropped her book onto the floor and squeaked in surprised.
On the way back to her own compartment, Morgan tried not to be angry that Margaret had left their compartment, and that she had found a group she seemed to like better than James and Braden, and that she had left her alone.
Nearly a quarter of a day had passed when the scarlet Hogwarts Express slowed to a halt just outside Hogsmeade Station. James and Braden led Morgan out into the train's corridor. Students of all ages stood in front of them, slowly filing out the doors. The boys stopped her from turning back into the compartment to retrieve her trunk and then stopped her again from getting the owl.
"Everything is left on the train and during dinner it's taken up to the school," Braden explained. They followed the crowd down the train's metal steps.
Hogsmeade Station was much smaller than King's Cross, but just as impressive. It was made of large gray and red stones that fit together like jigsaw pieces. The windows held large squares of glazed glass panes. And the roof and trim were a deep, rich crimson. Most impressive to Morgan, at least, was that the entire building seemed almost alive. It was nearly pulsing to some unknown beat.
"Firs' Years!"
It was a booming call, from high above their heads. Several other new students, the smallest, of the large crowd, craned their necks and cast about looking for the person who had called.
"Fir's Years, this way!"
Braden and James shared an excited look. Morgan, being far more daring and curious than anyone else by far, did not wait for her friends nor for her sister (whom she had not seen in hours), before walking forward, swiftly. A look of pure determination overtook her features and she moved towards the shouter.
"Firs' Years. Firs' Years, over here."
Morgan sped up, dodging past older students and winding her way through the slower walkers. She duck and wove quickly, following the sound of the voice calling for First Years. She saw an opening up ahead of her. The older students were moving off to their extreme rights and lefts, leaving a wide berth in between them, large enough for a car. Morgan surged forward and looked up. She stopped moving immediately.
There, in front of her, standing up at a height far greater than a small house, was a man. An enormous man. He was so tall that Morgan had to take several steps backwards in order to see him properly. He was wide too. Morgan imagined that if she halved his height his width would be an almost perfect match for it.
He was massive and his clothes were too. He wore a long, heavy coat, made out of several animals' skins; it was probably as big as a bead spread. He had old and worn black boots that were nearly a meter or so long. His belt looked like the rough rubber of semi truck's tire.
And though this man was tall, and seemed to frighten some of the other new students standing beside her, Morgan was unafraid. He had a massive round stomach that Morgan had only before associated with Father Christmas, and a round, wrinkled face. Behind his thick, bushy black beard, he was smiling, so much, that the skin around his deep set black eyes was crinkled.
"Wow," Morgan gasped out. The giant man looked down at her. Morgan gave a wide smile and waved up at him. "Hello," She said politely.
The giant man laughed. It was deep and boisterous. His whole body shook in amusement. He bent down so that he was only a few feet taller than her instead of six.
"Hullo," He said in his great booming voice.
"I'm Morgan Wood," Morgan told the giant, she offered him her hand. The giant looked down at it in surprised amusement, before gripping it and half her arm and shaking it in greeting.
"Professor Rubeus Hagrid".
James and Braden raced over to Morgan and Professor Hagrid. They grinned at their half-giant friend and flanked Morgan. Several other first year students followed the two of them at much slower paces and with a great deal more apprehension than excitement. Margaret was among them. She moved close to Morgan and like everyone else watched the giant man with wide eyes.
"Hiya, Hagrid," James greeted. "What brings you down here?"
"Miss Morgan Wood wanted to say 'hullo', s'all." Hagrid, who had been looking at James and Braden, looked back at Morgan to give her another smile. His grin faltered at seeing two identical faces staring up at him. "Blimey, there's two o' yeh? Wai' 'til Snape finds out."
Braden nudged James in the ribs with his elbow and they shared a mischievous grin. They seemed eager to see this Snape's reaction to the sisters.
"This is Margaret, she's my sister," Morgan introduced. The crowd of students had diminished to just over thirty. Hagrid offered his enormous meaty hand to Margaret.
"Margaret and Morgan Wood. 'S a pleasure to meet yeh both," Hagrid said politely. He shook Margaret's arm as he had Morgan's. He paused in his handshake and appeared to be in thought. He released Margaret's arm and peered at the girls, studying them. "Yer not related to Oliver Wood, are yeh?"
Before any of the crowd could process what Hagrid had said. Margaret, Morgan, James and Braden all nearly shouted, "No relation".
"Righto," Hagrid said, loudly. He stood up and more than half the first years gasped. If Hagrid seemed big to them when he was kneeling he seemed so much more foreboding at his full height. "I'm Professor Hagrid. I teach Care o' Magical Creatures. I 'ope to be seein' yeh in yer third year. But fer now, we're going to take a short walk to the lake. Then, we're goin' to take boats across it, and walk up ter the castle. It's a special treat fer Firs' Years on'y. Let's be off."
Hagrid started walking away from the train station. It was a moment or so before the group of young students ran after him. No one paid very much attention to what they were passing. Everyone was running after Professor Hagrid, silently, praying that they didn't fall behind and wind up lost wherever it was they were.
They turned left, then went down a hill, turned slightly right, then hopped over a ditch, walked up a hill, turned left, walked between stunted trees, and walked through a grove of massive oaks. The trees were three times Professor Hagrid's height, the size of a small factory building. Morgan couldn't see anything in around her. The sky peaking through the uppermost branches was a deep blue, nearly black, and stars were beginning to show.
Next to Morgan, Margaret hastened to keep up. Behind her, James and Braden were panting. Why was everyone so out of shape? Maybe all those hours of sprinting up and down the soccer pitch had paid off.
Suddenly, Hagrid stopped. Morgan, being the closest to him, ran into the back of his leg. Margaret banged into her, and Braden and James followed. And soon the whole group had either slammed into someone else or had been slammed into.
Hagrid turned around to see every first year rubbing sore spots on their bodies. "Sorry abou' that".
There was much grumbling in the back of the group. The students who had regained composure first had move to either side of Hagrid and as each one looked out at their unobstructed view, they gasped. Morgan moved quickly, wanting to see what the big deal was.
It was… big. Big and Beautiful. And Black. It was a large expanse of black; the lake. The water was calm and looked incredibly thick, like tar. The shore glowed in the moonlight, but the lake remained dark. And up above the lake on a cliff was an ancient, glowing castle; Hogwarts.
"Alrigh', there are the boats. Get in, hold up yer lamps, and I'll get us where we need to be. No more'n four ter a boat."
Morgan hadn't noticed the seven small tethered row boats. They were tied to the trunk of a near by oak. Morgan pushed Margaret forward, a silent command to grab a boat. Next, she turned and grabbed onto Braden and James' wrists and dragged them to the boat, Margaret had started to climb into.
The settled into the boat; Morgan in the back, Margaret next to James (they held the lamp between them), and Braden up front. Hagrid was in the boat next to them, by himself. He waited until the last student was seated, before tugging the lines free. He unsheathed a wand, nearly two feet long, and pointed it at the blackened water. The pond began to ripple and all at once the line of boats propelled slowly forward. Most students stared transfixed up at the castle. They pointed at the tall turrets and the towers with towers. The gawked at illuminated windows and at enlarged shadows that passed in front of them.
Morgan stared at the lake, cautiously. She adored and feared the water. It was the one thing she had ever really felt frightened of. But this water, as she was so close to it, though black and daunting, seemed harmless. Morgan brought a hand to its surface and ran her fingers over it. When she looked for a residue on hand, she found none. It was clear.
"Professor Hagrid, what's in the lake, like what lives in it?" Morgan sat up straight and looked over at the giant.
"Oh, lots of things, fish, grindlylows, merpeople, a giant squid."
"Merpeople?" Morgan wondered if they were friendly like the merpeople in the story books she and Margaret used to read.
"Yeah, half fish, half human. They have a whole city down there."
Morgan thought carefully about her next question. She wanted to know if the giant squid had ever eaten a student, but didn't know how to ask without scaring anybody. It wasn't exactly a question you could just blurt out.
Before she could even open her mouth, the boats slid onto shore and everyone was climbing out. Hagrid had already vacated and was setting a brisk pace up to the castle. This time, even Morgan had trouble keeping up with the Professor. The castle had to be on a hill, didn't it?
Hagrid stopped short, just as he had before and only half the group collided this time. Instead of fanning around Hagrid, the first years all stayed behind him, and looked up at the huge solid oak doors that led to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Author's Note:
Righto, well, here it is, Chapter 5. This took a while for me to be happy with. I had it done a month ago and began working on Chapter 6, but I had this niggling feeling in the back of my head, like there was something wrong, so I stopped writing Chapter 6 and rewrote this one. Then I edited it, added, omitted, deleted a middle section, and wrote a new one. I'm twice as happy with this chapter as I was when I finished it the first time, so brownies for me. YAY!
I'm sorry to say that I slagged off on spell check... I hope (besides Hagrid's purposeful words) that nothing is too bad.
Now, I have to go back to writing chapter 6: which will have the sorting, descriptions of the new professors, meeting the Gryffindors, the first day or week of classes and possibly the first flying lesson.
Then, (Chapter 7) will be a break from the Wood Twins and be a semi Auror semi bad guy chapter, so we all understand why the bad man is a bad man and why it's important to catch him. I'm not gonna reveal all his secrets at once, but we'll see.
I've posted this chapter despite not having the next one done, but hopefully it won't take so long to finish.
Everyone should go back and read the notes, summary, disclaimer page, because I edited it a while ago…. Hopefully it fits the direction I'm going for now. I checked it just today and it did, so I hope you see the changes.
Eventually this story might have to be rated M, because the bad guy has issues and can't be given a low rating because I want readers. It wouldn't be very nice of me.
I've also decided that I'll probably only write the first, fifth and seventh years (and possibly and epilogue) but combine as one wicked long story instead of three separate ones, because I'm not sure how much detail I'm going to be going into in later chapters. If I hit over 25 chaps with Year on then each year will be a separate story.
And now for the Fank You's:
Joe and Izzy: As always I am beyond thrilled to receive a new review from you. Thanks for taking the time to read my work and to review it, I appreciate it more than I can say. I'm not sure how well I detailed this in comparison to the last chapter and the ending might've come on too fast, but I hope you like it anyway. YAY!