Chapter Three
As promised, Professor Sinistra met Charlie at Kings Cross station at half ten on the first of September. She hugged and kissed her mother farewell, before turning to her teacher.
"To get onto the platform, you just need to walk straight through that brick wall," she said in soothing tones. Charlie looked at her in disbelief.
"You want me to walk into a wall?" she asked incredulously. Sinistra just laughed, and Charlie began to doubt everything she had seen. What if it had just been one huge acid trip?
She took a deep breath, and walked purposefully towards the wall, closing her eyes, bracing for impact and glad that her trolley would hit the wall before she did. But she never felt any kind of jolt, so she opened her eyes to see what was taking her so long to cross the short area of ground, and found herself on a station platform.
All around her, witches and wizards bustled around, collecting luggage and pets, waving cheerful goodbyes and greeting their friends. A large red steam engine stood proudly on the tracks, almost gleaming in the sunlight. Charlie stared in awe at the engine, as the steam was blown gently across the platform. She was reminded of one of the times her dad had taken her out, before he had vanished, to a steam railway. It wasn't the best thing to remember just before starting a new school, as on that occasion her dad had left her behind in the carriage to get a beer in a pub, completely forgetting about her.
"This is where I leave you, Charlie," Professor Sinistra said suddenly, making her jump. "If you need any help at Hogwarts, you can come and find me, but I'm sure you will get on just fine by yourself." She smiled brightly, and Charlie smiled back, uncertainly, before pushing her trolley towards a carriage.
An older student, wearing the same 'P' badge that the boy in Diagon Alley had been wearing, helped her get her trunk on board and into a compartment. She introduced herself as Penelope Clearwater, and told Charlie to find her if she had any difficulties. Charlie thanked her, and she left, presumably to help some other struggling first year,
Charlie settled back into her seat, tucking her feet up underneath her, and pulled out her book Wandering with Werewolves and began to read. She hadn't been reading very long, when there was a tentative knock on the window of her compartment. She looked up to see a nervous looking sandy haired boy at the window.
"Hello," he introduced himself. "I'm Colin. Colin Creevy. It's my first year." He sounded shy, but brimming with excitement, a rather fancy looking camera strung around his neck. Charlie smiled at him.
"Hi, Colin. I'm Charlie, Charlie Lane." She held out her hand for him to shake, and he took it.
"Do you mind if I sit in here with you?" he asked, starting to sound less nervous and more excited.
"Not at all," Charlie replied. "Do you need a hand with your trunk?" He did, and Charlie set aside her book to help him drag it in and push it under a seat. "Are you a muggle born as well?" she asked him.
"Yeah, I was so excited when I got my letter. My dad couldn't believe it, he's a milkman, you see. We reckon it came from mum's side of the family," Colin explained as Charlie went to shut the door again, only to see the girl from Diagon Alley again, Ginny Weasley. She waved at her, and she notice her brother, one of the twins, pointing down the corridor towards her. Ginny shook her head, and the twins shrugged.
"Well she's unfriendly," Charlie said, frowning slightly.
"Maybe she's just nervous?" Colin suggested.
"Maybe," replied Charlie, not sounding convinced.
At that moment, the train began to move. Charlie sat down, and watched as London flashed past her window as the train gained speed and, with a surprising speed, they were in the countryside. Trees and farmhouses zipped by.
"What house are you hoping to get into?" Colin asked her.
"I think I'd probably be a Hufflepuff," Charlie answered. "I don't think I'm particularly cunning or brave or smart."
"You're brave," Colin argued. "You've just entered into a completely different world with no idea how it works. That's brave, I reckon. All muggle borns are brave, really."
Charlie liked his way of thinking, but wasn't sure that was how whoever sorted them would see it.
"How do you think we're sorted then?" asked Charlie.
"I've got no idea," Colin said. "I heard some older students telling another first year that we had to wrestle a troll and play some game of chess."
"Maybe we've got to do a test for each house, and whichever we pass best is the house we belong in," Charlie suggested.
Their speculations were interrupted by a kind old woman looking in on them.
"Anything from the trolley, dears?" she asked.
Colin and Charlie jumped happily to their feet, prepared to buy as many sweets as they could, but were shocked when they didn't recognise any of the food.
"What is it all?" Charlie asked. The witch patiently talked through all of the sweets and what they were, and by the end of it, they each had a rather large sample of food to try. Charlie was particularly eager to try a cauldron cake, although she was fairly sure it would just be a filled cupcake, whereas Colin couldn't wait to try a Bertie Botts Every Flavour Bean.
"Is it really every flavour?" Charlie asked, uncertain. Colin shrugged.
"I dunno. I guess we'll have to find out." He pulled a white one out the packet, and sniffed it cautiously. "I think this is coconut?" he said, and bit into it carefully before gagging. Charlie laughed.
"What flavour was it?" she asked.
"Soap," he replied, grabbing the bottle of pumpkin juice he'd bought to wash the taste away. The two were soon trying the various different flavoured beans, with Colin taking the occasional picture when Charlie ate the beans which were particularly disgusting.
"A prefect told me that if I develop the photos in the right way then they'll move!" he said excitedly.
Charlie didn't believe this, and privately thought that he'd be better off with a camcorder rather than believing what this prefect had told him. She was sure that people who had grown up around magic would wind them up a fair bit before the year was up. She bit into the caldron cake, not surprised to find that the inside was full of melted chocolate, but slightly shocked that it was hot.
Colin laughed at her reaction, and took a picture. Charlie stuck her tongue out at him and laughed as well.
"You should put your robes on, now," the prefect, Penelope Clearwater said, sticking her head into the compartment. "We will be arriving soon. You can leave your trunks here, though. They'll be taken up to the castle for you."
The two stretched, and put on their robes over the uniform they were already wearing. Both of them had had the foresight to wear their trousers and shirts onto the train, although Colin was reluctant to put his jumper on as well.
"Scotland is a cold place," Charlie said, warningly.
"You sound like my dad," Colin grumbled. "Besides, don't wizards have heating spells for that?" Charlie rolled her eyes.
"If they did, do you really think they'd get us to wear multiple layers and cloaks?" she asked. Colin reluctantly put on his jumper as the train rolled into the station.
Outside, it had grown dark, and the street lamps and the lights shining out from the train were the only things lighting their way. All around them was the slight chaos of a thousand children making their way in different directions. Charlie tried to find Penelope Clearwater to work out where they needed to be. Instead, she saw the girl from the bank, Hermione Granger.
"Have you seen Harry and Ron?" she was asking a boy about the same height as Charlie. He shook his head, and Granger looked around, worried. Charlie thought that she would know where to go, but from the look on her face she could tell that she wouldn't appreciate being spoken to right now.
They were saved from any more confusion when they heard over the crowd the sound of a great booming voice calling: "Firs' years, over here!" Colin and Charlie exchanged a look, relieved that someone was telling them where they needed to go. They followed the sound of the voice, until they were in a rather large group of people, around forty odd.
"Is tha' everyone?" the owner of the voice, a large hairy man asked, looking around, and doing a quick headcount. "Alrigh', follow me, firs' years!"
"Hagrid!" Charlie heard a voice calling, and she looked around, along with the rest of the first years and the giant.
"Alrigh', Hermione?" he asked, his ruddy face breaking into a smile. "Where's Harry and Ron?"
"I've been looking for them for the whole train ride," she said, concerned. "I don't think they got on the train!" The giant, Hagrid, frowned.
"You leave it with me, Hermione. I'll sort it out." He turned around again. "Come on, firs' years!"
The group followed the man down a slippery slope for a long time. Charlie could hear someone complaining, and she thought she recognised the voice. When she looked around, she saw the boy from the clothes shop, Harper. A girl in the group, one with very pale hair and a dreamy expression, was chatting away to the Weasley girl.
"Your aura is clouded," she was saying. "Have you tried talismans?"
Charlie wondered if auras were real and, if they were, if seeing them was something they would be taught. To be honest, she had no idea how magic classes would go.
They reached a large lake that stretched away from them and around a cliff face, the water framed on each side by a forest. Near to where they stood, about a dozen boats bobbed on the surface of the lake.
"No more than four to a boat!" Hagrid called again, and Charlie found herself in a boat with Colin, Ginny and the strange blonde girl, who introduced herself as Luna Lovegood. Charlie supressed a laugh at the name.
"You'll get your first glimpse of Hogwarts Castle soon," Hagrid said, his loud voice carrying clearly across the water. Sure enough, as they rounded the cliff face, they were met with the sight of the castle in all its glory.
Charlie was lost for words. It rose as if it were a part of the landscape, both majestic and humble in its grandeur. A multitude of turrets rose from the fortress, reaching for the sky and almost making it. Lights shone from every window, and reflected in the lake below, making it appear as if the castle not only touched the sky, but also reached into the depths of the waters. A slight mist was in the air, making the castle appear ethereal. Charlie realised that this was her home for the next seven years. She had seven years to explore this miraculous building, and she wouldn't waste a second of it.
Briefly, she wondered if there was a potion or a spell that took away the need for sleep.
A/N: Thanks to PixiePatronus13675 for your fantastic reviews! In answer to your concerns, I've always thought that Hermione didn't go to a primary school after about year two, and was instead homeschooled. Because of this, her only experience with anybody younger than herself would have been children at the waiting room in her parents' dentistry practice, and the ones who would have wanted to engage with her would have been considerably younger. So Hermione is not an awful person who feels that people can't name themselves, but has little to no experience with people who are only slightly younger than she is. As for the wands, I know the readers are aware, but Charlie isn't, and the details of the wand would have been told to Ollivander by Lorcan McLaid, not by Quintana, so no issues of secrecy have been broken. I hope you continue to enjoy this fic!