2
"Dear Miss Russo…" The letter began. "Congratulations on your admission to the Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft. We look forward to your further schooling and education in the science of magic and the mystical arts" Gabrielle finally read the letter which had been sent to her five hundred and eighty-six times before. It went on to describe the school and her required belongings to bring to school. Through the portal in the Russo's Secret Magic Lair, Hagrid took her to London and the secret wizard community known as Diagon Alley walled up within a secret section of alleys and levels closed off to regular mortal man in London's White Chapel district. Their first stop was to take money from Gabrielle's inheritance at Gringotts Bank. It was a little scary for her. It was run by troll-like beings that Hagrid claimed were goblins, but once she had her account reopened and a few coins in her pocket, Hagrid made a side trip to Vault 136 to collect those contents as well. He said it was Hogwarts business. Gabrielle was now financially capable to go off to get her magic supplies. She needed a master wand to replace her starter wand, a copper pot for spells, certain required textbooks and an animal familiar. Most young witches liked cats or birds; some of the boy wizards liked owls, rats or frogs, but Gabrielle visited Eeylops's Owl Emporium and immediately fell in love with a small white and silver barn owl named Maddie. Maddie seemed to love her too, perching on her shoulder and riding on her neck as she walked through Diagon Alley. However, when Hagrid took her to catch up with the train, Maddie went into her cage to be transported.
"Well, Gabrielle's got her spending money and supplies…" Hagrid met with Jerry and Theresa at the London Train Station. "I must be off, I've very many chores to do, but Gabrielle… I'll be seeing you a lot at Hogwarts." He stepped back to depart.
"See you there, Hagrid…" Gabrielle looked to her aunt and uncle standing with her on the stairway above the loading areas to the trains. Jerry had just sent Alex and Justin on to Wiz-Tech by the train at Gate 11 3/5 at Grand Central Station and now they were seeing their niece off to school in much the same way in the London train station.
"Honey, I am so going to miss you." Theresa hugged and kissed her niece wearing the Hogwarts uniform. "If you don't like this school, call us and we'll come get you…"
"Hogwarts is not like Wiz-Tech…" Jerry warned her as they looked for the gate. "Don't go touching any weird stones, fighting any dragons, flying any Griffins, drinking any weird potions your friends give you… Oh, and stay away from any boys. In fact, don't talk to anyone who's not a teacher."
"Jerry!" Theresa stopped him as the Danforth family rolled by them looking for Gate 9 ¾ somewhere in the station. Among them, brown-haired and boyishly cute Troy Boyden looked up to Gabrielle and gave her a little smile.
"Don't worry about that stuff, honey." Theresa walked with Gabrielle pushing her supplies on a court. "He gave the same talk to Alex." She looked up as the one of the Danforth youths in a Hogwarts uniform raced toward one of the arch supports and vanished into it. Jerry laughed at the sight of it. He'd never seen such magic before.
"Hi, I'm Troy…" The kids started getting to know each other. "This is my buddy, Chad…"
"Hi," Chad was a good-looking African-American boy with a lot of hair. "You're a First-Year? We're First-Years too!" He looked as one of his sisters raced ahead. "My big brother is a prefect there. My sisters are Second-Years."
"You have a big family." Gabrielle lit up to meet other young wizards who were not her foster brothers or sisters. "I live with my cousins, but they attend Wiz-Tech…"
"What did I tell you about talking to boys?" Jerry turned to her then made a face to warn Troy and Chad.
"Sorry, Uncle Jerry." Gabrielle stopped talking as Troy and Chad stopped talking as well. Chad's other sister rushed through the mystical portal next as Chad followed behind.
"Your uncle's kind of strict." Troy whispered to her.
"Not really, just over protective…." Gabrielle beamed to her with a secret smile then gestured her to go next. She really liked his sense of chivalry. Clutching the handle of her luggage cart with Maddie riding on top, she charged forward expecting to hit the wall, but as the level of bricks moved over her, she found herself in a pocket of darkness and then sudden light on an entirely new platform. Instead of a modern steam locomotive, she saw an old-fashioned steam locomotive with a red chassis and gold cab with a gold stack and fixtures. On the cab where the train engineer stood, it was stenciled in bold black letters, "Hogwarts Express." It puffed pure white smoke and blew a loud pure whistle of air. There were a lot of other kids her age here pushing luggage carts with suitcases and cages with their animal familiars. One blonde girl walked ahead as her parents pushed her two carts of suitcases ahead of her brother pushing his own.
"Hey, come on…" Troy came through to join her on the train. Behind them, their parental guardians came through getting to know each other.
"So, you're part of the Wizard's Council…" Jerry met Michael Danforth, Chad's father. "I've never actually met anyone from the council."
"I'm actually a co-chair in the Office of Muggle Affairs." Michael confessed. "Tell me, what exactly is the role of a rubber duck?" Both Theresa, Chad's mother, Debbie Danforth, and Troy's mother, Monica Boyden, had to kiss and hug and embarrass their kids with all the other parents. The blonde girl with the huge volume of luggage just waved her mother off and boarded the train carrying her animal familiar represented by a nervous Chihuahua. Her twin brother meanwhile shrieked and bawled to be separated by his mother. Sporting a little red cap on his head, he took his pet frog, Spencer, and hesitantly boarded the train ahead of Chad. The blonde girl started to board, stopped a second to admire Zack and then climbed on board herself. The call came from Hagrid checking the kids on board the train, and Gabrielle was kissing her Aunt Theresa again for the last time with the young girl now on the train.
"Write me every day!!!" Theresa waved her niece goodbye as the train started moving. "I'll miss you so much!"
"Honey…" Jerry passed Gabrielle a small pocket purse of money. "If you get to Honeydukes near the school, buy me some of those exploding licorice pops. I haven't had any of those things since I was a kid!"
"Sure thing, Uncle Jerry!!!" The train lurched a bit, and Gabrielle was rushed by the conductor to find her private stateroom on the train. On the platform, Jerry felt a bit of accomplishment, but his wife was still crying and bawling her eyes out.
"You didn't cry this much when we saw Alex off to Wiz-Tech." He remarked.
"I know…" Theresa wiped her eyes of tears and blew her nose. "But I already know Alex won't write me!!!"
On the train, Gabrielle checked her ticket and counted the staterooms on the train. There were a lot of kids in Hogwarts uniforms like her uniform. Not all of them were First Years like her. She looked for Troy and Chad from the platform and traveled the length of the car looking for him until she found the compartment with the letters matching her ticket. She had one room all to herself. Two rows of seats to look out the window by herself, she looked around once and again up and down the hall trying to see Chad's hair to point the way toward Troy. They had to be somewhere. She tucked her uncle's money purse into a pocket of her skirt and sat down to catch her breath. The train was pulling forward at a good pace by now behind stores and markets and through crossings. Her first voyage by train, and Gabrielle didn't want to miss it. She watched as stores started giving way to houses and homes whirring past northward from London toward Hogwarts.
"Excuse me…" A girl appeared in her entryway with short brown hair, small thin glasses and First Year Uniform. "Some of the boys in my room are a bit rowdy. Can I sit with you?'
"Of course," Gabrielle welcomed her in sweetly and warmly. "I'm Gabrielle Russo."
"Kelsey…" The girl responded nervously. "Kelsey Nielsen." She looked round once and sat across from Gabrielle. "My mom's a witch, and my dad's a muggle. I'm not very good at this magic stuff."
"My parents were both wizards…" Gabrielle responded happy to have found another friend. "But I was raised by my uncle. He's retired, but my aunt is a muggle… In America, we call them mortals." She looked over to look closely at Kelsey's glasses. "You know, you've got a bit of a crack there. Let me get that for you…" Gabrielle reached inside her uniform and pulled out her brand-new Griffin feather wand. "Occulus Repairo!" She gestured and Kelsey's glasses sparkled a moment and started shining. Kelsey reacted with surprise. Once the sparkling stopped, she removed her old and worn glasses. They were new again! The silver was untarnished and the lenses were clear and shining.
"Wow!" Kelsey lit up with a smile very impressed. "I never heard of that spell." She returned her glasses.
"My Cousin Justin and I make up spells all the time." Gabrielle confessed freely. "He's at Wiz-Tech with my Cousin Alex."
"What's she like?"
"She's…." Gabrielle tried to think. "She's… she's… a piece of work!!"
"How'd you get that scar?" Kelsey noticed the mark on Gabrielle's forehead by chance.
"Alex did that to me." She confessed. "I was trying to fly, and she decided to use me as target practice."
"She just sounds horrible."
"Actually… she's my best friend… sometimes… part of the time… most of the time…" Gabrielle paused. "You know, the more I think about it… she's really mean to me!" They giggled together to be sharing stories. In the hall outside their compartment, things had settled down as the snack car stopped from room-to-room selling candy, drinks and junk food of mystical motif. It had chocolate frogs that came to life, soft drinks that changed color, potato chips that tasted like fruit and hard candy that exploded with flavor among so much more.
"Would you ladies like anything off the trolley?" The saleslady inquired.
"Those cherry tarts look good…" Kelsey pushed her hand into her pocket to check how much money she had. "I don't think I have enough.."
"Wait…" Gabrielle thought a moment. "We'll take a little of everything!" She reached into her pocket and pulled out a handful of gold coins, copper-colored crowns and silver doubloons. Kelsey grinned and rocked back a bit in her seat laughing just a little over her breath. Not loud enough to bother anyone, she was just having a lot of fun. In the corridor behind the snack cart, Troy and Chad were checking room to room. What happened to that cute girl he met on the platform? He knew she was here somewhere. He rapped on the next stateroom and pulled the door open.
"Excuse me…" Troy looked in. "Do you guys know anyone named Gabrielle?"
"Do you mind?" Hermione Granger stood up from her private talk with Harry Potter and Ron Weasley and spoke with a very rude British accent. "But we just have to be in the middle of something very important!!!" She jerked the hatch closed.
"Sorry!" Chad made a face and spoke very abruptly annoyed by her rudeness.
"Okay…" Troy popped Chad to the chest lightly as his friend to get his attention. "She was cute… but not cute enough!"
"Is it just me, or did that one guy with her look like Daniel Radcliffe?" Chad made a vague movie reference as Troy checked the next compartment. They moved on to the next door, rapped on it and slid the door a bit as Gabrielle and Kelsey looked up from enjoying the candy and fruit drinks.
"What did you do?" They recognized each other. "Start the party without us?"
"Troy!" Gabrielle grinned to see him again with a mouth full of cherry chocolate. "I was looking for you!" She grinned warmly again. "Oh… this is Kelsey…" They started introducing each other and sharing their life histories. Both of Troy's parents were Wizards. Chad's mother was a witch and his father was a Wizard along with his brother and sisters. Troy was an only child like Kelsey. They all liked each other and laughed together as the train started eventually reaching Nottinghamshire, the midway point for the Scottish border on their ten-hour train ride. By time they passed through the county, Gabrielle, Kelsey, Troy and Chad felt as if they had been friends their whole life.
"Excuse me," Someone else in a First Year Hogwarts uniform poked her head into the compartment. "But some kid named Ryan just lost a frog named Spencer. Has anyone seen a it?"
"I might have…" Chad hiccupped a bit after his third chocolate frog. "Ate it."
"Funny…" The attractive African-American girl responded barely amused and rolled her eyes. "Taylor McKessie…" She held her hand out to meet Gabrielle and Kelsey before the guys. "Can I join you guys? I just can't get any quiet reading time in my compartment."
"Sure…" Gabrielle invited another guest in glad to make more friends. "We're just showing each other spells. Troy, do that one you just did."
"All right…" Troy sat up straight in his seat and levitated one of the empty Bertie Blott's boxes from the end of his wand. "Edifice transformus!" The wrapper started crunching up by itself, transforming and folding itself into a tiny white cardboard model castle that dropped into his other hand. The first one he had given to Gabrielle, this one he gave to Kelsey.
"That's really good!" Taylor was impressed. "How about this one?" She reacted solemnly and looked to Chad from the length of her wand, passing her hand over his head and making a little mischievous smile. "Glamour Follicula!" She chanted and turned Chad's brown hair a bright shade of red as the gang started laughing.
"What?" Chad didn't get the joke. "What?" He saw his refection in the dark part of the window as they passed through a grove of trees. "My hair!!! You turned me into Carrot Top!!!"
"It looks really good, buddy!" Troy was laughing the loudest.
"Really funny…" Chad glared at Taylor giggling at him. "Change it back!"
"Don't worry…" Taylor smirked as the laughing died down. "It'll wear off… in a hour… or three…"
"An hour???" Chad rolled his eyes and punched Troy harmlessly for laughing. "Or three???" Parts of it were already fading away.
"Did I say an hour…" Taylor corrected herself. "I mean a minute… or three…" She snickered again and joined the gathering as she tried one of the jellybeans from Bertie Blott's. Each one was a different flavor ranging from the hundreds. They ranged from mint to licorice and were as diverse enough to include liver, spinach, eggplant and tripe as well the truly offensive such as vomit, earwax and baby diaper. Taylor tried a green one expecting it to be safe.
"Ugh…" She spit it into the wrapper. "Old sock." She described the taste as Gabrielle and the others started laughing together again. The noise was too much for the students in the next compartment. One of them came over to complain about the noise.
"Can you please keep down the noise?!!!" Hermione Granger pulled their door open and scolded them. A roll of her eyes and the five First Years drew silent as the little diva rolled their door shut and returned to her friends. Gabrielle looked round to her new group of friends.
"She's just jealous that we're more popular." Troy mentioned out loud to stave off the anxiety.