Chapter 4 – Hogwarts Express

Emma dragged her trunk with some effort to the main entrance of the orphanage, set it down and sat on it. She didn't have to wait long until Mrs Cole came by.

'You're not going now, are you?' asked Mrs Cole stifling a yawn. 'When is your train?'

Emma knew Mrs Cole wouldn't let her leave now if she had said her train was eleven o'clock so she had to lie. She never liked lying, but she was desperate to leave, and desperate to see the magical world again. 'Eight o'clock, miss.'

'That early? I never realised. Well, we better get you a taxi sharpish then.'

Mrs Cole hurried to her office and phoned for a taxi and then they waited for it to arrive. Emma liked the black cabs, there was just something about them which made them special. The driver put Emma's trunk in the boot with a great deal of effort and she got in the back. When the driver got in, Mrs Cole went to his window.

'How much will it be to get to King's Cross Station?' she asked.

'Hmmm,' said the driver. 'bout ten pounds I should think.'

'Okay.' said Mrs Cole handing him a ten pound note. 'Emma has no money on her, so if it comes to more than ten pounds, she won't be able to give you any more.'

'No problem.' said the driver.

Mrs Cole nodded to the driver and then looked to Emma. 'Enjoy yourself now, and I'll make sure your room is free at the end of the school year.'

'Thank you, miss.'

'Well, you better go. Don't want to be late now, do you.' said Mrs Cole smiling.

Emma waved goodbye and the driver set off. She saw Mrs Cole walking back into the orphanage as they rounded the first corner.

For Emma the journey was surreal. There she was, travelling through the city of London, which she now knew to be filled with magic and secret places. Even with this knowledge, watching people go about their daily life, it all seemed so ordinary, and special. It was as if the journey itself was a goodbye gesture.

The driver spoke very little on the way, probably due to Emma's one word answers to everything he asked. She wasn't really paying attention to him, she was now worrying about Hogwarts again. The journey took just over fifteen minutes and the fare came to ten pounds and thirty pence, but as they had agreed the price before hand, the driver didn't mention it. He got her trunk out of the boot of the cab and let her take it.

'Good luck.' he said. 'See ya.'

'Thank you, sir. Bye'

Emma now made her way directly to platforms nine and ten. It was a surprisingly busy day, especially considering it was very early on a Sunday morning. Everyone was rushing about to get on their trains in time. She just saw the barrier in between the two platforms that Professor McGonagall had described. She hoped that it was busy enough for no-one to see her disappear through a wall. She walked up to the barrier and stood by it for a second, making sure no-one was looking. She then quickly jumped through it.

When Emma got to the other side, she couldn't believe her eyes. There was a scarlet steam engine there next to a platform that had very few people on it. She supposed this was because it was so early. If she was honest with herself she was surprised the train was even here this early.

There was now an archway where the barrier had been only moments before and above it was a sign that said Hogwarts Express, 11 o'clock. Emma went toward the back of the train to find a compartment. She was about to get on but found that she just could not lift her trunk up through the door, it was far too heavy. Luckily a man who appeared to work on the train was passing by and helped her get the trunk on board. She thanked him and made her way to a compartment.

The time was now ten minutes to eight in the morning so Emma had three hours to kill. She decided it would be best if she changed into her robes before more people started arriving. She also decided, grudgingly, to put her wand in the inside breast pocket of her robe, just in case she needed it. Emma put her trunk underneath the seats and picked out a book she hadn't read yet. She sat with her knees up to her chin and her feet on the seats in the corner next to the door in such a way that someone looking in wouldn't see her.

About two and a half hours had passed since Emma started reading the book and the platform had filled up quite considerably. She looked out of the window in curiosity and noticed a rather large family all with flaming-red hair. Emma thought about sitting by the window to people watch, like she had done in The Leaky Cauldron, but was interrupted from that chain of thought when a boy, another first year by the looks of it, walked in to the compartment. This boy had dark, messy hair. He set his things down and sat in the opposite corner from Emma, by the window. Emma watched him as he looked out of the window, at the family with red hair. This boy seemed not to have noticed Emma at all. It wasn't until the boy suddenly hid behind the frame of the window, obviously not wanting to be seen spying, that he saw her and jumped out of his skin.

'Sorry,' he said, breathing heavily, still recovering from his shock. 'I didn't think anyone was in here.'

'No problem.' replied Emma, giggling. The boy blushed in embarrassment.

Emma went back to reading her book and the boy looked out of the window again.

It wasn't long before the train started moving and Emma realised with excitement that she was actually going, after all this waiting, to a magical school. She had no idea what to expect, and that thought scared her a little. Her thoughts were interrupted again when another boy entered the compartment. This boy was one of the red haired family.

'Anyone sitting there?' he asked, pointing at the seat opposite the dark-haired boy. 'Everywhere else is full.'

The dark-haired boy shook his head and the red-haired one sat down. The two boys appeared to have met before. They started talking together and Emma discovered that the red haired boy was called Ron Weasley and the dark-haired boy was called Harry Potter. Emma, not wanting to eavesdrop, kept reading her book. She liked it when people weren't paying any attention to her because it was more peaceful that way.

There were fields outside the window now and Emma was quite content. That was until two things happened. Firstly, there was a loud clattering sound outside the compartment which distracted Emma, Ron and Harry, and secondly, Ron noticed Emma for the first time since he entered the compartment which was over one and a half hours ago. His shock paled Harry's earlier embarrassment spectacularly. He looked like he was about to have a heart attack. Harry also seemed a bit taken aback. Maybe he had forgotten Emma was there.

The clattering stopped and the door opened. The sound was caused by a small refreshments trolley being pushed by a smiling, dimpled woman. The smell of the food trolley made Emma feel suddenly sick. She really couldn't stomach food any more.

'Anything off the trolley, dears?' she asked the two boys.

Harry leapt up and spent a few moments buying a lot of sweets and then the lady left them.

'Hungry, are you?' asked Ron.

'Starving.' said Harry.

'If you want sweets.' said Emma, making Ron twitch nervously. 'Have these.'

Emma leaned down and got the second box of Bertie Botts Every-Flavour Beans from her trunk that she hadn't opened yet and threw them to Ron. 'I had two boxes, but one from the previous box put me off completely.'

'Thanks.' said Ron with a little suspicion. After he opened the box and found that Emma hadn't tampered with it, he became much less nervous of her.

'No problem. And I'm sorry for startling you both earlier.' she said, trying hard not to giggle.

'That's alright.' said Harry. 'What's your name?'

'Emma Pearson, and you're Harry, and you're Ron, right?' she asked, looking at each of them in turn.

'Yeah' they both said.

The three of them got talking about their families, where they lived, how much magic they knew and so on. Emma was quite happy that Harry seemed to know as little as she did. She was also very sympathetic with Harry when he had said he lived with his aunt and uncle because his parents had died. After Emma had said that she was an orphan who knew nothing about her parents and that she knew no magic at all, besides what she had read from some of the books in her trunk, the other two went quiet, although Harry did give her a sympathetic look.

The two boys continued talking about food. Emma had no interest in this and kept refusing them, politely, when they tried offering her sweets. She went back to reading her book in the hope that they would stop trying to give her food. The smell in the cabin was bad enough.

There was a knock on the door some time later and a tearful, round-faced boy walked in.

'Sorry,' he said, 'but have you seen a toad at all?'

Harry and Ron shook their heads and the boy left, wailing.

Emma had just got back into her book when the door opened again. It was the round-faced boy again but this time he had a girl with him. The girl, like Emma, was already wearing her school robes.

'Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one.' she said. Her voice was quite bossy, and her hair was bushy and brown.

Emma pretended to go back to her book but listened to what was going on. The girl seemed very interested in Ron, who was about to cast a spell on his rat, Scabbers. Emma lowered her book to watch too.

'Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow.' chanted Ron.

Nothing happened.

'Are you sure that's a real spell?' said the girl. 'Well, it's not very good, is it? I've tried a few simple spells just for practice and it's all worked for me. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it's the very best school for witchcraft there is, I've heard – I've learnt all our set books off by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough – I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?'

She said all this very fast.

Harry and Ron were quite stunned by this and Emma presumed neither of them had learnt their books off by heart either. She hadn't even finished any of hers.

'Emma Pearson' said Emma, while the boys were collecting themselves.

Hermione jumped a little, having not noticed Emma either. She took one look at Emma and was obviously happy to see someone else already in their robes, and unashamedly reading a book. It was when Ron and Harry introduced themselves that Hermione's attention went back to the boys. She then went on another speed-talk about Harry being in books, and school houses. Emma, feeling a little stupid, didn't know what school houses meant.

Hermione said goodbye, more to Emma than the boys, and then she left, taking the round-faced boy with her.

Harry and Ron started talking again and Emma picked a few bits of information out, like one of Ron's brothers works with dragons, and someone tried to rob the wizard bank, Gringotts. The subject then changed to Quidditch, which seemed to be a wizard sport, so Emma had no interest in listening to that, and instead looked out of the window and watched the fields, lanes and small towns that flew by.

A short while later the door opened yet again, and three boys stepped in. The middle boy was being flanked by the other two, who were much bigger. Emma knew the second she saw them that this would be trouble so she stayed silent, still, and apparently, invisible.

The conversation between Harry, Ron and the three boys, started out civil enough. The middle boy introduced himself as Draco Malfoy, and the other two as Crabbe and Goyle. The civilities didn't last long though and took a turn for the worse when something Draco Malfoy said offended Ron and Harry. Emma thought this might happen. They had taken the bait and a fight was bound to happen. She'd seen it so many times at the orphanage.

One of the thick, brutish boys, Emma didn't know which one, went to grab a chocolate frog from the seat and Ron went to charge at him, but before Ron even raised a finger, the boy let out a horrible yell.

Scabbers had bitten the boy right on the end of his finger and was holding on for dear life as the boy flailed his arms about trying to get the rat off. Scabbers finally let go and the three boys ran out of the room.

It was at the moment where the boy who was bitten ran out of the room that Emma smelt it. She knew what it was immediately. Blood. She found the smell irresistible and hated that she should think so. She had to hold her breath for a few moments to clear her head. Luckily, Ron and Harry didn't see her reaction to it as they'd left the compartment in pursuit and bumped into Hermione.

Emma heard Hermione tell the boys that they should change into their robes and when they came in, she looked away so that they could do so. Once they had changed, Harry pointed out of the window. It had gone dark and there were mountains and forests under the deep-purple sky.

Just then, a disembodied voice ran through the train: 'We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately.'

'This is it', thought Emma. All three of them looked at each other. The other two had turned very pale and Emma supposed she had done too. She was glad to see they were as nervous as she was. She put her book back into her trunk as the boys were gathering up their precious sweets and then they all went out into the now-crowded corridor.

The train slowed right down and finally stopped. People pushed their way towards the door and out on to a tiny, dark platform. Emma noticed Harry and Ron shiver as they went out into the cold, but Emma didn't really notice it herself. Then a lamp came bobbing over the heads of the students and Emma heard a familiar voice: 'Firs' years! Firs'-years over here! All right there, Harry? Emma?'

Emma and Harry looked at each other confusedly but were quickly distracted. Hagrid's big hairy face beamed over the sea of heads.

'C'mon, follow me – any more firs'-years? Mind yer step, now! Firs'-years follow me!'

Emma followed Harry and Ron as they slipped and stumbled behind Hagrid down a steep and narrow path. It was very dark and Emma thought they must be in a forest as she thought she could just make out trees on either side of them.

'Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec,' Hagrid called over his shoulder, 'jus' round this bend here.'