Disclaimer! I dont own anything! Disclaimer!
If the weather was any indication to how the day would be, it didn't look good. The dark grey clouds hovered in the sky like a blanket threatening a storm. But today was the 1st of September and to Hermione Granger nothing could ruin it. She was a witch. It was like the missing piece had finally found its place. She knew who she was. There were other people like her, she wouldn't be ridiculed for being different anymore. Now, she had her place.
"Sweety! Come along!" her mother shouted up the staircase. "We don't have long until we have to leave for your train!"
"Coming!" Hermione screamed excitedly back. She had been ready to leave since 7 O'clock in the morning, too wired to sleep through anymore of the day. Her trunk was packed, her hair brushed into bushy brown curls and the butterflys were playing havoc with her insides. A fresh wave of nausea would flush through her chest at any given moment and allow worries to filter through. What if she couldnt make friends?
"Hermione!" Mrs Granger shouted again. Hermione charged into action, gripping hold of her trunk and thundering down the stairs like a woman on a mission. She sped out onto the driveway and helped her dad pack her school trunk into the boot of the family car.
"You excited Jelly Bean?" Mr Granger asked while giving his daughter a quick hug.
She nodded happily and tried desperatly to hold back the tears that were sure to rise when she had to say goodbye; at the train station. Mrs Granger walked steadily out of the house and locked the door before ushering everyone into the car. The time had come.
They arrived at Kings Cross at Half past ten. Hermione was sure that it wouldnt be enough time, they needed to find the platform and a seat on the train and not to mention say goodbye. Hermione half dragged, half lead her parents to the platform 9 and 10. "Are you sure this is right Hermione?" her mother asked worridly.
"Its what the letter says.."-she quickly pulled out the parchment letter from her pocket and read it through for the twentieth time that day-"...we have to go to the seventh archway connecting the platforms and then I have to walk through the wall." It seemed simple enough when she read it to herself. So they walked, the Grangers counted down the archways, eyes wondering every which way in order to see another family making the same trip. So far only businessmen and women were walking steadily around the platforms or reading their newspapers.
Upon reaching archway number seven they stopped slowly so not to catch the attention of the morning commuters. Hermione looked down at her acceptance letter and hesitantingly up at the archway. "Just walk through" she repeated to herself eyeing the seemingly solid wall.
"Mione?" she turned to her parents who were watching their only daughter expectantly. All of a sudden a great surge of loneliness raked through her small frame. She ran at her parents and smothered them both in a terrified hug. They grasped onto her too, unwilling to let their only daughter just leave them. "We're going to miss you" Mr Granger whispered into Hermione's curly brown hair.
"I'm going to miss you too. I love you daddy" she cried quietly into his warm navy blue coat, a pillar of strength. Hermione turned to her mum, her strong willed and caring mother. The one who didn't leave her side when she had chicken pocks or always greeted you as if she hadn't seen you for years. Her mum was her hero. They looked like eachother, her dad always joked that they were clones not mother and daughter.
Mrs Granger clasped both of Hermione's hands in her own and kneeled down to the eleven year olds eye level. "I love you Hermione"-she said sniffing back her tears-"I know your going to do amazing at this new school. I know you'll make the best of friends who'll love you for you. Who'll recognise what a wonderful person you are"-she gently stroked the side of her daughters face, wiping away a tear-"I just wish you didn't have to grow up."
Hermione leapt forwards into her mothers arms and almost knocked her off balance if not for Mr Grangers steadying hand. "I won't then" Hermione sobbed. "I won't, I'll stay."
"Shhh" her mother soothed. "That won't stop you growing up. That'll just mean you'll miss out on a big adventure. One you don't want to miss" Mrs Granger tidied up her daughter and gave her a teary smile that spoke a thousand words. "You have to go now Mione. You have to walk through."
"We love you Hermione Granger" Her dad smiled proudly, Mrs Granger cradled happily at his side. "We love you."
Hermione summoned all of her courage and stood tall behind her trolley, holding her trunk. She didn't walk like the letter said. She ran. She ran so fast and so hard at the solid brick wall she thought she'd be knocked out by the collision. But she didn't. Suddenly the world changed. The platform wasn't the same. It was crowded with school children and parents, with shrieks from owls and the laughs of her peers. "Mum look!" she said looking at the great scarlet steam engine waiting at the paltform. Hermione was about to turn around to look at her parents reaction when she realised they weren't there. They were back at Kings Cross. She was alone.
It took every ounce of self control she had in her not to run back through the barrier. Instead she mustered some strength and walked on down the platform. Smoke from the engine drifted over the chattering crowd, while cats of every colour wound their way between peoples legs. Owls hooted to each other in a disgruntled sort of way over the babble and the scraping of heavy trunks. The first few carriages were already packed with students, some hanging out of the window to talk to their families, some fighting over seats.
Hermione pushed her trolley off down the platform in search of an empty seat. She was too nervous to pick a compartment already full of people. She found an almost empty compartment down the end of the train. The only other person in it was a blonde haired girl who looked as if she were in a dream. Hermione opened the door and attempted to heave her trunk on the train. It didn't work. She was worried she'd be left out on the platform and the steam engine would leave without her.
"Would you like me to help?" a wispy voice annouced from inside the compartment. Hermione looked up at the girl who was still seated in her seat.
"Yes please. I don't think I can do it myself" she smiled half heartedly at the girl, quite unsure how to talk to a stranger. They both made short work of heaving the trunk aboard the train. The girl even helped Hermione place her trunk neatly in the overhead compartment. "Thanks, I'm Hermione Granger" she said extending her hand to shake.
"Your welcome, I'm Luna Lovegood" she said, then suprising Hermione by giving her a quick hug. She didn't know how to react, was this good? Hermione took a seat opposite Luna at the window and closed the compartment door to the platform. "Your a muggleborn" Luna said, not a question. "I'm a pureblood"
"A what?"
"A pureblood. All my family have been witches and wizards for generations."
"Oh." Hermione felt the loneliness surge again. Great, she was different here too.
"I like you." Luna smiled dazily. "I'm an excellent judge of character". This Luna girl was very confusing. Hermione had never been around someone so bluntly honest before.
"Oh, I like you too." she was at a loss for words, which didn't happen very often.
"ALL ABOARD!" The conductor boomed in a great bellowing voice. It was not a second past eleven o'clock when the train pulled away from platform nine and three quarters and sped off out of the station. For a while Hermione and Luna just sat in silence, watching out of the window as the city turned to countryside.
"Do you think I'll be very far behind? I mean magical education wise?" Hermione asked Luna in conversation.
"I don't think so. You'll catch up pretty quickly. First year is all about the basics." At that moment a round faced boy opened the door to their compartment and stepped inside shyly.
"Errm have either of you seen a toad?"
Both Luna and Hermione shook their heads. "Would you like our help looking for it? It must be frightened without you?" Neville couldn't be sure if Luna was mocking him or not so just agreed to the help anyway. Hermione was pleased for something productive to do but asked if she could change into her school robes first. Neville left then and agreed to meet up with the two further up the train.
Luna and Hermione quickly changed into their first year school robes and caught up with Neville who was hovering nervously outside of a compartment filled with third years in yellow robes. "Why are their school clothes different to ours?" Hermione asked.
"Its a different colour for each house. Hufflepuff gets Yellow, Ravenclaw gets blue, Gryfindor gets red and Slytherin gets green" Luna explained kindly. "I hope I'm in Ravenclaw, my mother and father were".
"Mine were Gryffindor" Neville said proudly.
"What does that matter? Which house your parents were in?" Hermione was pretty prepared for general knowledge about Hogwarts but she wasn't quite sure about the sorting. Her school book, A Hogwarts History had been a little vague on the matter.
"Students often follow in the same house as their parents, are you a muggleborn?" Neville asked. Hermione nodded but didn't make eye contact. "Just means you get a clean slate when you're sorted, pretty exciting really."
Hermione smiled at his kidness, maybe she could make friends. "Anyway, why are we standing out here?"
Neville went beetroot red and simply mumbled "I'm too nervous to ask". So Hermione did what any good friend would. She opened the door and asked a group of Hufflepuff third years whether or not they had seen a toad. When the group answered no she closed the door quickly and spun around to Luna and Neville; adrenaline shooting through her veins.
"You're definatly a Gryfindor" Luna mused dreamily. Hermione beamed and offered to look up at the front of the train. So she set off. She set off to find a boy called Neville's toad, while her mind focused on whether or not she would make a good Gryfindor. Not far from when she had left Luna and Neville did she hear a sudden commotion and three boys legging it past her and up the train. She saw some familiar white blonde hair shoot past her, Hermione was sure it was the same that had run into her at Diagon Alley. He went to Hogwarts too? She watched in interest as he dissapeared out of sight along the narrow corridor.
Hermione entered the compartment she had seen the three boys leaving and was suprised to see two boys chatting happily while looking amazed at a sleeping rat between them.
"Have anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one" she asked a little too forcefully.
"We've already told him we haven't seen it" the red headed boy said. But she wasn't lisenting she was too busy staring in wonder at the wand in his hand. It was a little beaten with Unicorn hair poking out of the end. But if he was going to do magic, she wanted to see.
"Oh, are you going to do magic? Lets see it then" her mind to excited for pleasentrys and sat down in the compartment, the boy looked taken back.
"Er-alright" he cleared his throat.
"Sunshine, daisies, butter, mellow,
turn this stupid, fat rat yellow" He waved his wand but nothing happend. The rat just lay their sleeping as peacfully as before.
"Are you sure thats a real spell?" she was thoroughly dissapointed. "Well its not very good, is it? I've tried a few simple spells just for practice and its all worked for me. Nobody in my family is magic at all, it was ever such a suprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, its the very best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard - I've learnt all the books off by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough - I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?" she had rambled on for so long, she could feel her red cheeks burning with embaressment.
The dark haired boy and the red head looked at eachother with stunned faces, which only added to Hermione's embaressment. She always rambled when she got nervous.
"I'm Ron Weasley" the red head boy muttered.
"Harry Potter" said the dark haired boy. The name sounded so familiar. Something clicked in her head. She knew the name, he was famous. He was the boy who lived.
"Are you really?" Hermione asked, her eyes wide. "I know all about you, of course - I got a few extra books for background reading, and you're in Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the twentieth century."
"Am I?" the boy looked rather dazed. All that extra reading was good for something more then pleasure.
"Goodness, didn't you know, I'd have found out everything I could if it was me." Hermione gushed. "Do either of you know what house you'll be in? I've been asking around and I hope I'm in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad..."-she said thinking of Luna-"Anyway I'd better go and look for Neville's toad. You two better change I expect we'll be there soon" she quickly swooped out of the compartment as quickly as she had came. But Hermione couldnt help but feel she left the wrong impression in the two boys minds.
Eventually she met back up with Luna and Neville, none of them had had any luck finding Neville's toad, Trevor. The sky had turned dark, the clouds previously hanging there had morphed into a great dark blue sky dotted with tiny silverly pinpricks. The longer you looked the more you'd see. Until every inch was glittering and the night wasn't so dark afterall.
A voice eachoed through the train "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggaged on the train, it will be taken to the school seperatly".
Hermione's stomach lurched as the train stopped. Neville looked similar to how Hermione felt, completly sick to the stomach. Over the remaining part of the journey she had been too busy obssessing over the sorting to be very social. Luna hadn't seemed to mind and Neville was very glum over losing his pet toad. People pushed their way towards the doors and out onto a tiny, dark platform. Hermione shivered in the cold night air, Luna fastened her robe tighter around herslef and Neville searched frantically on the platform for Trevor.
Then a lamp came bobbing over the heads of the students and Hermione heard a gruff voice yell out "Firs'-years! Firs'-years over here! C'mon, follow me - any more firs'-years? Mind yer step, now! Firs-years follow me!" Slipping and stumbling all the expectant first years followed a giant of a man down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path. It was so dark that Hermione hung at the back of the group terrified she might slip and fall. Nobody said much, although Hermione could hear Neville sniffing uphead. The poor boy missed his toad.
"Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec"-the giant called over his shoulder-"Jus' round this bend here".
There was a loud "Oooooh!" which caused Hermione to quicken her speed. She wanted to see her home for the next seven years. The narrow path opened suddenly on to the edge of a great lake. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers. Hermione was too busy staring up in wonder at Hogwarts that she hadn't been watching her footing. She let out a shrill scream and toppled over, she was about to hit the cold hard ground when someone grabbed hold of her arm and steadied her.
She looked up cautiously and caught a glimpse of white blonde hair before looking down quickly at the hand steadying her. The ring. The black diamond ring. He was the boy from Diagon Alley. He'd caught her again.
"Be careful wouldn't want to fall" he said quietly, his voice smooth for an eleven year old. She just nodded her head, trying to control the butterflys that had started to eat away at her insides. She could swear her heartbeat was loud than the steam trains engine.
"Thankyou" she squeaked out, releasing his arm from her death grip and refusing to meet his gaze for fear of him seeing her burning cheeks.
"Nothing to it" he replied and walked off to a group students that must be his friends. She wished she could go with him, although she was also pleased she had time to compose herself before the sorting.