The Safeworld Network
In this chapter: Morgan discovers a strange new talent… and finally reaches Hogwarts!!!
Chapter 7: Encounters of the Amphibious Kind
About an hour later, the door to her compartment opened and a smiling witch appeared.
"Anything off the trolley, dear?"
"Um, no thanks. I'm good."
"Are you sure? They're not the same as they sell in Canada, you know."
This sparked Morgan's interest, and after examining the trolley in amazement for a few minutes, she bought a stack of Cauldron Cakes, a pack of Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, and a bag of Chocolate Frogs and returned to her seat.
A little while later she heard screaming in the corridor and looked out to see Malfoy and his goons running down the hall. While she was looking out, she heard a croaking by her foot. Glancing down, she spotted a large brown toad hopping into her compartment. She left the door open and sat back down. The toad, to her surprise, jumped into her lap and wandered around for a bit before hopping onto the seat beside her and burrowing itself in her school robes, which she had laid out to change into later. He looked completely ridiculous, and yet oddly charming.
"What's your name then?" she asked, aware that it couldn't understand her. The toad looked up at her and cocked its head. Morgan raised an eyebrow.
"I'll guess then, shall I?"
The toad moved its head up and down. Morgan raised her other eyebrow and continued.
"Let's see. Is it…Max?"
The toad didn't move.
"Um…Hoppy?"
The toad didn't flinch.
"Ah… Bob, Willy, Wilbur, Toady, Trevelyan…"
The toad tensed.
"No, not Trevelyan… but I'm close… Trevelyan, Trevelis, Trevor…"
The toad moved its head up and down.
"Trevor! Your name is Trevor!"
The toad nodded again.
"Well then Trevor. Are you hungry?"
Trevor nodded.
"Do you like chocolate?"
Trevor shook his head.
"Cauldron cakes?"
Trevor nodded vigorously. If she didn't know better, she would have sworn the toad was excited.
"All right Trevor. Cakes it is."
She grabbed two from the stack, opened them, and set one beside Trevor. He sniffed it, than started to nibble in a contented sort of way. Morgan watched him for a moment, then took a bit of her cake and settled back with Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century.
She was not surprised, then, when around 4:30 she heard a knock on her door. She looked up from her book.
"Yeah?"
"Excuse me," said a girl with lots of bushy brown hair and rather large front teeth, "have you seen a toad? Neville's lost one." She stepped aside, revealing a rather timid looking boy with brown hair.
"Trevor," said Morgan, "your owner's here to get you." Trevor shook himself free of her robes and hopped into her lap. She handed him to Neville, along with the rest of the cauldron cake. Neville stared at her, stunned.
"How did you know?"
"Know what?"
"His name! I didn't tell you, and I've never met you… I think…"
By now the girl was looking on curiously. Morgan suddenly realised that the answer "the toad told me" was going to sound insane.
"I'm just a good guesser, that's all." This seemed to satisfy Neville, but Morgan could tell the girl was not convinced. She sensed Morgan's unease, however, and chose to introduce herself, rather then press the issue.
"I'm Hermione Granger. Who are you?"
"Morgan. Morgan Ylime."
Hermione caught sight of Morgan's t-shirt. "Are you from Canada then?"
"Yeah. Do you two want to sit down? I have some more cauldron cakes, and there's a KitKat bar here somewhere…"
They accepted her invitation, and after leaving for a moment to let Morgan change into her robes (Hermione had been up to ask the driver, and they were supposed to be arriving soon) sat down.
Neville had been raised by his grandmother and had never seen a KitKat in his life, so Morgan dug one out and gave it to him. Hermione had a thousand and one questions about life in Canada, and Morgan was delighted to find that she was much more informed than your average Brit.
"What's the weather like? Someone told me it snows all year round… but they also told me that you all live in igloos,"
"And ride dogsleds to school. Yeah, I've heard it. They also say that all Natives are savages and you have to have perfect French to live in Québec."
"Which isn't true."
"No."
"I knew it!"
And thus Morgan passed the remainder of the trip, discussing Canada's culture and school systems with Hermione, and explaining some more muggle-related things to Neville, who found the concept of TV and video games fascinating.
Suddenly they heard a voice echoing through the corridor. "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately."
This sent Morgan into a frenzy of action.
"What the heck? Dumbledore never mentioned this!" She started rummaging through her luggage, pulling out several objects and tossing them in Hermione's direction.
"Neville, hand me that book, would you?" Neville just stared at her.
"Neville, the book, please."
"You've met Dumbledore?" Hermione tone was awed.
"Yeah," said Morgan, flipping through her pockets, "why?"
"Morgan, he's the most powerful wizard of our time! And you've met him!"
"Yeah, that's great…Hermione, have you seen my wallet?" She spotted it lying on the seat by Neville. She did up all the zippers, and straightened up. Grabbing a bag off the seat, she started stuffing thing into it, muttering to herself as she went.
"Wallet, passport, camera, thumb drive… I think that's just about everything!"
"What are you doing?" asked Hermione.
"I'm taking out all my documents, money, and valuables."
"Why?"
"To prevent identity theft. And 'cause I might want to take pictures."
"It's beautiful!" exclaimed Hermione, looking out over the lake. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many towers and turrets. Morgan slowly nodded, thoroughly awed by the sight. Then, in one smooth, practised motion, she reached down to the camera bag slung across her front, grabbed her camera and slide it open. She took a picture, and watched as the view screen turned black, then flashed her picture. Or, what should have been her picture.
"What the heck?" Morgan stared at the old, rundown house on her view screen. It looked nothing like the proud castle. Hermione looked over her shoulder.
"Can I see it for a minute?"
"Okay…" Morgan handed it to Hermione, who took out her wand.
"Technius Reconfig!" She handed back the camera. "Try it now."
Morgan tried again. This time, a magnificent castle stared up at her.
"Thanks! How'd you do that?"
"Essential Spells for the Muggle-born Student, chapter 13."
By now almost all of the boats had been filled. Hermione and Neville scrambled into a boat with a red-headed kid and a boy with glasses that they'd met on the train, and Morgan hopped in with two guys and an auburn-haired girl.
"Everyone in?" shouted the large man who was leading them. "Right then - FORWARD!"
The fleet of little boats moved off all at once, gliding across the surface of the lake, which was as smooth as glass. Morgan took picture after picture of the castle and the lake, as well as a few of the auburn-haired girl, who introduced herself as Susan Bones, with the castle in the background. She also snapped one of the three together, but one boy wasn't looking and the other blinked.
"Heads down!" yelled Hagrid as the first boats reached the cliff; they all bent their heads and the little boats carried them through a curtain of ivy which hid a wide opening in the cliff face. They were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle, until they reached a kind of underground harbour, where they clambered out on to the rocks and pebbles.
"Oy, you there! Is this your toad?" said Hagrid, who was checking the boats as the students got out of them.
"Trevor!" exclaimed Neville. Morgan rolled her eyes. They followed Hagrid up a passageway cut into the rock, coming out at last on to a smooth, damp lawn right in the shadow of the castle. They walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, oak front doors.
"Everyone here? You there, still got your toad?"
Hagrid raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.
Yay! She made it!
You may have notice that the last three paragraphs seemed familiar. I copied them, for the most part, directly from the book. I just couldn't find a better way to phrase it.
Oh, and the Technius Reconfig spell…I made that up. So I own it… It reconfigures your technology so that it can work within Hogwarts.
Next Chapter: Sorting. Morgan gets a pet, and makes some new friends…some of which are quite surprising.