Chapter six- The Hogwarts Express

The next day we travel to the London Train Station using Hagrid's motorbike. Up on a crossing bridge, I walked beside Hagrid while I pushed my cart that carried all my things in my trunk that Hagrid got me at Diagon Alley along with my owl.

A couple walking along the opposite way stare at Hagrid. Well, that's very rude. "What're you looking at?" Hagrid said in reply to them. He then looked at his watch and his face lit up in surprise. "Blimey, is that the time? Sorry, Reyna, I'm gonna have to leave you. "Dumbledore will be wanting his..." he was patting a hidden pocket near his chest that I presumed meant the package that I wasn't to speak about. "Well, he'll be wanting to see me. Now, uh, your train leaves in 10 minutes. Here's your ticket." He handed me a gold and red ticket that read '9 ¾: Hogwarts Express'. "That's very important Reyna. Stick to your ticket."

"Platform 9 ¾? But Hagrid, there must be a mistake. This says Platform 9 ¾. There's no such thing...is there?" I look up and Hagrid had just disappeared. No matter where I looked I couldn't see him. That was strange but I suppose it must be something that only witches and wizards can do.

~RP~

Three minutes later would find me walking down a lane between the platforms 9 and 10.

A man rushes by and bumps into me. "Sorry."

I then see a train master and decide to go see if he knows where platform 9 ¾ is. "Excuse me, excuse me."

He turns to me as he finished speaking with a blonde woman and her child. "Right on your left, ma'am."

"Excuse me, Sir. Can you tell me where I might find Platform 9 ¾?"

His eyebrow shot up in surprise. "9 ¾? Think you're being funny, do ya?" he asks me before he leaves. I am not being funny. I'm going to be late for the train.

Just then I spot a large family, a mother, a young girl holding her hand and four boys carrying carts with animal like me a long on the opposite side.

I caught a few words of what the mother, a rather plump woman who was called Mrs Molly Weasley said, "It's the same year after year. Always packed with Muggles, of course."

"Muggle?" I remember Hagrid calling the Dursley's Muggles. These people must be witches and wizards. They all had startling flaming red hair.

I decided to follow them and watch them as they stopped in front of the next platform between 9 and 10.

"Come on. Platform 9 ¾ this way! All right, Percy, you first." What looked like the oldest boy marched toward platforms nine and ten. I watched, careful not to blink in case I missed it and saw as he ran straight through the brick wall and vanished.

Wow, how was that possible?

"Fred, you next." Mrs Weasley was indicating one of two boys who I think were twins as they looked identical.

A twin, George said, "He's not Fred, I am!"

His twin Fred shook his head sadly while he said, "Honestly, woman, you call yourself our mother!"

Mrs. Weasley looked apologetic. "Oh, I'm sorry, George."

The first boy that was called brought his cart in line with the wall. "I'm only joking. I am Fred." His mother looks frustrated. He runs through the wall, and is followed by his twin brother George.

I shake my head in disbelief. Just how is that possible? That was even weirder than the Diagon Alley entrance.

"Excuse me!" I called to the mother and she and the rest of her kids looked over to me. I drew my cart up level with theirs. "C-could you tell me how to…?" I didn't know how to describe what I just saw.

Luckily though it seemed Mrs Weasley knew what I was trying to say and kindly asked "how to get on the platform?" I nodded in reply. "Yes, not to worry, dear. It's Ron's first time to Hogwarts as well." She indicates a tall gangly boy who smiled at me and is obviously my age and the youngest of the brothers. He had the same red hair as his family and had freckles dashed across his nose. Mrs Weasley put an arm around my shoulders and pointed to the wall where the three other bothers disappeared into. "Now, all you've got to do is walk straight at the wall between platforms 9 and 10. Best do it at a bit of a run if you're nervous."

"Good luck," said the young girl. I smiled at her in reply. I was definitely nervous. I took a deep breath and ran at the wall. Just before I would have hit it I close my eyes and feel nothing as I travel through.

I emerge on the other side to see a magnificent station with a red train and bundles of people saying goodbye and children boarding the training. A whistle blows, and I breathe a sigh with relief. I look up to see a sign says Hogwarts Express, 11 o'clock.

The first few carriages were already packed with students: some were leaning out the window and saying goodbye to their families while others were busy squabbling over seats. I managed to find an empty compartment near the end of the train and loaded my trunk in an overhead compartment. A train staff member had already put Hedwig in with other animals.

I got myself comfy next to the window and while I waited for the train to move I saw the tearful and proud reactions of parents leaving their children. The tearful parents I noticed were with all the younger kids so presumably they were first years like me. Though it just served as I reminded that I was alone and that my parents were dead so they couldn't see me off to my first year at Hogwarts.

~RP~

A few minutes into the train ride and we're already travelling through unknown countryside. I look up when I hear a throat being cleared to see the red headed by, Ron, standing at the door to my compartment with slightly red cheeks and what I thought was a tiny bit of dirt on his nose.

"Excuse me, do you mind? Everywhere else is full."

"No, not at all." I was all to myself in this compartment. There was plenty of space.

He came to sit in front of me. "I'm Ron, by the way. Ron Weasley."

Maybe he could be my first friend. "I'm Reyna. Reyna Potter."

Ron's jaw drops. "So-so it's true?! I mean, do you really have the...the..."

"The what?" what was he trying to say?

He leans forward and whispers "Scar...?"

So that's what he was going on about. "Oh, yeah." I lift up a side parting that somewhat covers my scar if I don't push it out of the way.

"Wicked." I grinned in reply. "So that's where You-Know-Who…"

"Yes," I said, "but I can't remember it."

"Nothing?" asked Ron eagerly.

"Well - I remember a lot of green light, but nothing else." It's all I've ever been able to remember.

"Wow," said Ron.

"Are all your family wizards?" I asked him who I found just as interesting as Ron seemed to find me.

"Er - Yes, I think so," said Ron. "I think Mom's got a second cousin who's an accountant, but we never talk about him."

"So you must know loads of magic already."

"No, not really. I heard you went to live with Muggles," said Ron. "What are they like?"

He certainly doesn't want to know but I told him anyway. "Horrible -well, not all of them. My aunt and uncle and cousin are, though. Wish I'd had three wizard brothers." They'd be able to teach me all they know.

"Five," said Ron, he was looking gloomy. "I'm the sixth in our family to go to Hogwarts. You could say I've got a lot to live up to. Bill and Charlie have already left - Bill was head boy and Charlie was captain of Quidditch. Now Percy's a Prefect. Fred and George mess around a lot, but they still get really good marks and everyone thinks they're really funny. Everyone expects me to do as well as the others, but if I do, it's no big deal, because they did it first. You never get anything new, either, with five brothers. I've got Bill's old robes, Charlie's old wand, and Percy's old rat." I feel sorry for Ron, having to live up to all the expectations. In fact, I think I'll probably have some expectations as well being the Girl Who Lived, so we were the same. Ron and I.

Ron reached inside his jacket and pulled out a fat grey rat, which was asleep. "His name's Scabbers and he's useless, he hardly ever wakes up. Percy got an owl from my dad for being made a Prefect, but they couldn't aff - I mean, I got Scabbers instead." Ron's ears went pink and he seemed to think he'd said too much as he went to stare out of the window.

I didn't think there was anything wrong with not being able to afford an owl. After all, I'd never had any money in his life until a month ago, and I told Ron that. All I'd ever owned having to wear Dudley's old clothes and never getting proper birthday presents. I'm glad it seemed to cheer Ron up.

"... and until Hagrid told me, I didn't know anything about being a wizard or about my parents or Voldermort."

Ron gasped.

"What?" I asked him. What was so shocking?

"You said You-Know-Who's name!" said Ron, sounding both shocked and impressed. Oh, so that's what it was. "I'd have thought you, of all people…"

"I'm not trying to be brave or anything, saying the name," I replied. I've never met the man so I have no reason to fear him and even if I did I don't know what there is to fear. "I just never knew you shouldn't. See what I mean? I've got loads to learn... I bet," I added. I voiced something that had been worrying me a lot lately, "I bet I'm the worst in the class." It's probably true since I've never learnt or done any magic."

"You won't be," Ron reassured me. "There are loads of people who come from Muggle families and they learn quickly enough."

We stared out of the window for a while and around half past twelve there was a great clattering outside in the corridor and a smiling, dimpled woman slid back their door and said, "Anything off the cart, dears?"

Ron's ears went pink again and he muttered that he'd brought sandwiches. I found I was quite hungry and was wondering what sweets they'd have. For you see, I'd never had them before.

I asked her what she had and she listed Bettie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, and Chocolate Frogs. Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes, Liquorice Wands, and a number of other strange things I'd never heard or seen in my life.

I didn't want to miss anything so I got a bit of everything and it cost me eleven silver Sickles and seven bronze Knuts.

Ron stared at my pile of sweets that I poured onto the empty seat next to me. "Hungry, are you?"

"Starving," I replied before taking a large bite out of a pumpkin pasty.

Ron had taken out a lumpy package and unwrapped it. There were four sandwiches inside. He pulled one of them apart and said, "She always forgets I don't like corned beef."

"Go on, have a pasty," I said, who had never had anything to share before or, indeed, anyone to share it with. It was a nice feeling, sitting there with Ron; eating our way through all of my pasties, cakes, and candies. I probably couldn't eat them all any way. Ron moved to sit next to the door on my side so we could share the sweets. Ron's sandwiches lay forgotten.

"What are these?" I asked Ron while holding up a pack of Chocolate Frogs. "They're not really frogs, are they?" They can't be.

"No," said Ron. "But see what the card is."

"What?" What card?

"Oh, of course, you wouldn't know - Chocolate Frogs have cards, inside them, you know, to collect famous witches and wizards. I've got about five hundred, but I haven't got Agrippa or Ptolemy." Don't know who those people are. I un-wrapped my Chocolate Frog and picked up the card. It showed a man's face. He wore half-moon glasses, had a long, crooked nose, and flowing silver hair, beard, and moustache. Underneath the picture was the name Albus Dumbledore.

"So this is Dumbledore!" I said, he smiled warmly at me. Hagrid speaks highly of him but I've never seen a picture of him.

"Don't tell me you'd never heard of Dumbledore!" said Ron. "Can I have a frog? I might get Agrippa – thanks."

"I've heard of him but never seen him before," I told Ron before I turned over my card and read:

ALBUS DUMBLEDORE

CURRENTLY HEADMASTER OF HOGWARTS

Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times, Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flammel. Professor Dumbledore enjoys chamber music and tenpin bowling.

I turned the card back over and saw, to my astonishment, that Dumbledore's face had disappeared.

"He's gone!"

"Well, you can't expect him to hang around all day," said Ron. "He'll be back. No, I've got Morgana again and I've got about six of her... do you want it? You can start collecting."

"Sure," he passed me the card before his eyes strayed to the pile of Chocolate Frogs waiting to be unwrapped. "Help yourself, but in, you know, the Muggle world, people just stay put in photos."

"Do they? What, they don't move at all?" Ron sounded amazed. "Weird!"

Ron was more interested in eating the frogs than looking at the Famous Witches and Wizards cards, but I couldn't keep my eyes off them. Soon I had not only Dumbledore and Morgana, but Hengist of Woodcroft, Alberic Grunnion, Circe, Paracelsus, and Merlin. I finally tore my eyes of them to open a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans.

"You want to be careful with those," Ron warned me as he saw me opening them. "When they say every flavour, they mean every flavour - you know, you get all the ordinary ones like chocolate and peppermint and marmalade, but then you can get spinach and liver and tripe. George reckons he had a booger- flavoured one once."

Ron picked up a green bean, looked at it carefully, and bit into a corner. "Bleaaargh - see? Sprouts." Uh, those I hate.

We had a good time eating the Every Flavour Beans. I got toast, coconut, baked bean, strawberry, curry, grass, coffee, sardine, and was even brave enough to nibble the end of a funny grey one Ron wouldn't touch, which turned out to be pepper.

~RP~

The countryside was now flying past the window was becoming wilder. The neat fields had gone. Now there were woods, twisting rivers and dark green hills.

Ron's rat, Scabbers, is perched on Ron's knee, a box over its head. Scabbers squeaked. "He's pitiful, isn't he?" Ron asked me, referring to Scabbers.

"Just a little bit," I shrugged. He was quite lazy.

"Fred gave me a spell as to turn him yellow. Want to see?"

"Yeah!" This will be my first sighting of magic, a spell.

Ron got out a battered looking wand and cleared his throat, "Ahem. Sunshine daisies…"

He was interrupted when a girl, Hermione Granger, who looked to be mime and Ron's age with bushy brown hair, a bossy sort of voice, and rather large front teeth, appeared at the doorway. "Has anyone seen a toad? A boy named Neville's lost one."

"No," Ron shook his head.

"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see then."

Ron cleared his throat out again and started waving his wand over the rat. "Aghhhemm. Sunshine, daises, butter mellow; turn this stupid fat rat yellow!" A spark comes out of his wand but nothing happens. Ron shrugs at me.

Hermione looked distinctly unimpressed. "Are you sure that's a real spell? Well, it's not very good, is it? Of course I've only tried a few simple spells myself, and they've all worked for me. For example..." Hermione went over and sat across from me. She pointed her wand at my face. I tensed. I sure hope she wasn't going to hurt me. "Oculus Reparo," she spoke slowly and clearly. I took my glasses off when noticed a spark sly at them and noticed that the noseband of my glasses that were quite broken was repaired and they looked brand new. I put them back on amazed. I've wanted new glasses for a while but as usual the Dursley's won't buy me anything. "That's better, isn't it? Holy Cricket, you're Reyna Potter." She must have noticed my scar like Ron did. "I'm Hermione Granger...and you are...?" she looked disdainfully at Ron.

"I'm...Ron Weasley." He replied with a mouth of sweets.

"Pleasure," though it didn't seem to be. "You two better change into your robes. I expect we'll be arriving soon." She gets up to leave but then comes back and looks at Ron. "You've got dirt, on your nose, by the way, did you know? Just there." She rubs where the dirt is on her own nose and Ron scratches his nose, embarrassed.

I don't think I really like Hermione Granger at the moment but I think I've made a definite friend out of Ron today.

When it started to turn dark me and Ron put our school robes. He puts his on first and then waits outside while I put mine on.