Chapter 4

August was an uneventful month for the children. They were counting down the days until September 1st. Henry and Grace were a tad disappointed because they would not have Ms. Blanchard as a teacher any more, but they were still excited to be going to Hogwarts.

Jefferson, Grace, Henry, and Emma had all flown to London together a few days before the children were due to leave. They wanted to see the sights in London and wave their children off at King's Cross Station.

Jefferson and Emma had left after they said their goodbyes once they had gotten the children safely into the station.

Harry had convinced his Uncle and Aunt to drive him to London while they were doing some muggle shopping.

All three children were ready and had brought everything they would need. They had their trunks, robes, new books, owls, and of course, their wands.

They met each other in the lobby of the huge station at 10:30am. They found platforms 9 and 10 but they did not know where platform 9 ¾ was.

Grace asked a passing guard if there were any trains scheduled to leave at 11am. The guard said there wasn't. Henry tried asking another guard if a train left to go to Hogwarts. This guard hadn't even heard of Hogwarts and was getting annoyed when they couldn't say where in the country it was. According to the large clock over head, the children had ten minutes left to board the train that they could not find. The children were getting a little worried but then they saw a large group of people who all had red hair.

The mother of the group said something about the place being packed with muggles, and they had owls with them.

Three of the older boys disappeared into the wall between platforms 9 and 10.

"Excuse me!" Harry called to the woman. "We don't quite know, um, how to-" he pointed at the wall where the boys had just passed through.

"Get onto the platform," she said, finishing his sentence.

"Yes," the children mumbled sheepishly.

"It's quite easy," the red haired woman answered cheerfully. "Just line your carts up so they are in the center of platforms 9 and 10, then run straight through the wall and you will come out at platform 9 ¾. It's best to do it at a run if it is your first time."

"Thank you," the children all said as they sighed with relief.

"Ladies first," Harry said while motioning Grace toward the wall.

She scowled at him then ran at the wall and disappeared.

Henry ran after her with Harry close behind him.

Henry thought that he was going to crash into the wall but the crash never came. When he opened his eyes, he saw Grace standing in front of him and a few seconds later Harry was standing behind him. In front of the children was a scarlet steam engine with a sign overhead that said Hogwarts Express.

Finally, they were on platform 9 ¾. The children quickly boarded the train and stood by the windows waving goodbye, even though there was nobody they knew who was there to wave back to them.

The clock struck 11 and the train's whistle blew. Some children jumped onto the train at the last minute before the train started to pull out of the station, slowly at first but then it picked up speed.

Henry, Grace, and Harry found an empty compartment near the back of the train. After they had gotten all of their belongings situated, there was a knock on the door.

"Erm… can I sit with you?" the red haired boy asked nervously. "There aren't any more free seats left on the train."

"Sure!" Grace exclaimed. "I'm Grace Hatter."

"Hi I'm Ron Weasley," the red haired boy said.

"I'm Henry Mills," Henry said as he extended his hand to shake Ron's.

"And I'm Harry Potter," Harry said after Henry had introduced himself.

"Harry Potter," Ron said amazed. "And do you really have…the…you know…" he pointed to Harry's scar.

"Oh my scar, yeah." Harry parted his fringe to show Ron.

"Whoa!"

Harry had never had that type of reaction to his scar before, it made him wonder if other people would stare at him like Ron was doing now.

Eventually a lady came by and asked if the children wanted anything off of the cart. There were about 30 different kinds of candies and Harry, Grace and Henry had never seen this kind of candy before so they decided to try all of it.

"Are these real frogs?" Harry asked as he picked up a chocolate frog.

"No, they are just charmed. It's the cards that you want," Ron explained.

Harry opened the box and pulled out the card.

Albus Dumbledore

Current Headmaster of Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Considered one of the greatest wizards of all time. Dumbledore is famous for defeating the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Rumpelstiltskin.

An hour went by and the four children talked and ate candy, while Ron wanted to show them a spell that his brothers had taught him.

Just as he was about to start the spell a bushy haired girl knocked on their door.

"Hello, have you seen a toad? Neville's lost one," the girl said.

"Nope we haven't seen it," Grace answered.

"Oh are you doing magic?" the girl asked Ron when she saw him holding his wand. "Let's see it then."

"Erm… ok," Ron mumbled. "Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."

Nothing happened.

"Are you sure that's a real spell?" the bushy haired girl asked. "I've tried some simple spells and they worked for me. For example," she walked over to Harry and pointed her wand at Harry's glasses. "Oculus Reparo."

Harry's broken glasses were instantly repaired.

"I'm Hermione Granger. Who are you?" she said very quickly.

"I'm Ron Weasley," Ron mumbled.

"Henry Mills," Henry said.

"Grace Hatter," Grace said.

"I'm Harry Potter," Harry said.

"Holy Cricket! I've read all about you. I bought a few books for background reading. Do you know what house you will be sorted into? Gryffindor sounds good; I've heard that Dumbledore himself was in that house. Then again, I suppose that Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad. Well I have to go and help Neville find his toad," Hermione said this all very fast and she didn't wait for an answer.

"I hope she isn't in my house," Ron said.

"What house are your brothers in?" Henry asked.

"They are all in Gryffindor. My parents were too." Ron groaned as he realized that he had a very good chance of being in the same house as Hermione.

As the sky became darker and the train kept travelling north, the children were becoming more, and more restless.

They had all changed into their school robes.

The train started to slow down so the children knew that they were getting closer to Hogwarts.

One of the topics that Ron brought up was that Gringotts had been broken into. It was on the same day that Harry, Grace and Henry had been to Diagon Alley with Hagrid. And it just happened to be in the same vault that Hagrid had retrieved the grubby package out of earlier that day.

Before they arrived at the station, the blonde haired boy that the three children had met in Diagon Alley came into the cabin.

"Is it true then? Harry Potter is on the train," he sneered.

"Yes, that's me," Harry said.

"I'm Malfoy, Draco Malfoy," the blonde boy said.

Ron sniggered.

"Do you think my name is funny? No need to ask who you are; red hair, freckles, hand-me-down clothes, you must be a Weasley," Malfoy sneered at Ron. "Some wizards are better than others; you don't want to be making friends with the wrong sort. That is something I can help you with."

"I think I can tell the wrong sort for myself," Harry replied calmly.

"Fine, have it your way then," Malfoy called over his shoulder as he left the cabin.

They finally reached the station around 6pm.

As soon as the children had got off the train, they heard a familiar voice.

"First years, first years over here," Hagrid shouted.

The children made there way over to Hagrid and greeted him with a hug.

Hagrid led them to the boats that would take them to the school. They must have been magical because they moved by themselves.

The boats rounded a bend in the lake and the children had their first view of Hogwarts.

It was a huge castle many towers and windows. It looked absolutely amazing.

The boats docked themselves in a passageway under the school. The children got out and they heard a voice above their heads.

"Welcome to Hogwarts!"