Disclaimer: I really, really wish I came up with Harry Potter, but unfortunately I didn't.
Okay, I am officially changing to the perspective of Fred, but in third person (just like the HP books). Enjoy.
Fred closed the window as the train station fell behind, and slumped down in the seat across from George. Excitement coursed through him. He had been hearing about Hogwarts since he could walk, first listening to stories from Molly and Arthur and their time at school, and then later dragging every last detail from Bill, Charlie, and Percy about Hogwarts. For as long as he could remember, he had envied his older brothers for the fun they had at Hogwarts without him, while he was stuck at Lewis Elementary with George, Ron, and Ginny.
But this year, he was finally going, and after all he had heard about it, he just couldn't wait. He glanced across from him at his twin, who grinned at him and squirmed impatiently in his seat. Fred smiled back knowingly, and looked out the window. They were passing the suburbs of London now, where the houses weren't as cramped and the buildings not as tall.
Fred turned as they heard the sliding glass door roll back a ways into the wall and a dark skinned boy with dreadlocks appeared in the doorway. "Mind if I sit there?" he said nervously, motioning towards the seat next to Fred.
"Sure," said George. Fred grinned encouragingly at him.
The boy looked relived. As he walked in, his trunk clunked softly as it rolled over the track in the floor made by years and years of sliding the compartment door open and closed. He didn't bother to heave his truck all the way up to the luggage rack, but settled instead for the seats next to George. "I'm Lee, by the way," he said as he set his bag atop his trunk. "Lee Jordan"
"I'm Fred"
"And I'm George" George inclined his head politely; perhaps he thought it would be too formal to shake hands like Molly had taught them many years ago. "Weasley," he added. There was a long pause before anyone said anything.
"So how old are you? I'm eleven."
"We're eleven too. D'ya know what house you want to be in?" Fred asked, trying to make conversation with Lee.
"Er… house?" he asked.
"There are four. They're kind of like… I don't know-your team when you're at school," Fred explained. "They're Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff."
"Really?" he said. "How're people… you know… picked?"
Fred grinned at him. "Well, I think you'll find that the mean people are in Slytherin, the smart people are in Ravenclaw, the awesome people are in Gryffindor, and everyone else is in Hufflepuff. My personal opinion."
George snorted. "Yep, that pretty much sums it up. Are you from a muggle family? Non-magic, I mean?"
"Yeah, I think so. You?"
"Our parents were magic," said George
Lee looked intrigued. "So do you know any spells?"
Fred and George shook their heads. Even though Molly and Arthur used magic all the time at home, they rarely spoke the incantation aloud. The only time when Fred had actually been able to do anything with his wand was after they had purchased it at Mr. Olivander's, when he'd accidentally made several duplicates of the measuring tape. He'd tried it again at home, but all he'd managed to do was make the particularly dirty pair of socks stick like glue to the ceiling of his bedroom. It didn't matter though; he'd never liked them anyway.
George had just opened his mouth to say something when they heard loud footsteps accompanied by two girl's voices nearing their compartment. "Look, I promised my friends I'd meet them in this compartment, so I really have to go. I'll see you later," one said.
"No, I'll come too" said the other in a very bossy tone that sounded remarkably like Percy.
"No, I… um, I promised them that I'd come alone. They… er… they said they have to tell me something—a secret."
"But-"
"Bye!" said the first, turned on her heel. She ran towards Fred, George, and Lee's compartment, slipped inside, and quickly shut the door behind her with her back to the lot of them. She sighed in relief.
"Er…" said George from the corner.
The girl gave a start. "Oh!" and she turned around to look at all of them. Behind her black sheet of side bangs, Fred saw that she had bright blue eyes, a button nose, and skin like charred toast. Around her neck, she wore a thin silver chain adorned with a stone the color of her eyes, except that the blue itself was swirling around like smoke on the stone's surface. "I'm so sorry! I didn't realize anyone was actually in here, I just really had to get away from her…" she trailed off, glancing back over her shoulder at the now deserted corridor.
"It's okay; we'd love to have you join the party," Fred said to her.
George heaved Lee's trunk away from him on the seat to make room for the girl to sit next to him. "Come 'n sit down."
"Okay," she said, smiling jovially at them for accepting her. "Thanks. I'm Angelina Johnson."
"I'm Fred, and this is Lee, and my twin, George."
"Wow, I've never met twins before! What's it like?"
"Don't really know, to tell the truth," said George.
"What's it like not to be one?" said Fred.
"Perfectly ordinary, to tell the truth" she said in a mocking voice.
Lee laughed and twirled one of his dread locks with his fingers. "So who was that? The girl?"
Angelina took a deep breath and began to talk very fast. "Fiona Horan. I hate her guts. Her older sister, Emma, is friends with my older sister, Crystal, so she thinks we should be friends. But she's rotten and spoiled and really bossy to top it all off. She's really smart, but she knows it, and so she brags about her brains all the time. She insults people all the time too, and the problem is I'm horrible at comebacks, and so I usually just stand there sputtering at her—and then she thinks she's even smarter—and even after she insults me, she thinks I want to be her friend! And she's all perfect and pretty and has everything!" she looked like she had wanted to say all this for a very long time.
"I'm sorry. We can definitely help you with your comebacks; we've been practicing for years," Fred said.
She laughed. "Thanks, guys. Want to see a spell? I've been practicing."
"Yeah!"
"Yes, show us!"
"Okay," she said. She withdrew her wand from a pocket in her robes, cleared her throat, pointed her wand at Lee's bag, and said clearly, "Impervius."
Nothing appeared to have changed apart from Lee's worried expression, but she looked very pleased. "Wait, I'll show you what happened" she then grabbed a small bottle of water from yet another pocket of her robes, unscrewed the lid, and promptly dumped the whole contents over Lee's bag. But the bag didn't soak up the water; in fact, when the water hit the cloth, it bounced right off—spraying the lot of them. "See?" she said, grinning wildly.
"Very nice," said a woman's voice. The looked up into the worn, crinkled face of the trolley lady standing in the doorway of their compartment. She gestured to the cart in front of her, which was filled to overflowing with sweets. Fred's mouth watered, but he knew he couldn't afford any of it. "How about a few sweets to go with that lovely little charm?"
"Thanks!" said an ecstatic Angelina, her face glowing with pride. "How much for… eight chocolate frogs and a packet of Drooble's gum?"
"Excellent choice, young lady! It'd be eleven sickles, but I'll take off two for your magical talent," she squawked, winking cheekily. "Nine silvers', please, and here you are." She handed Angelina the sweets, deposited the money into her bag, and pressed on down the corridor.
Angelina sat back down beside George and tossed each of them two chocolate frogs. There was a general murmur of thanks from the three friends, and they sat in silence for a while, enjoying their chocolate.
Fred usually only had these on special occasions, but he'd been saving his collection of cards for a long time. He and George had compiled their cards (six hundred forty seven cards in all) setting the family record. Ron always complained that because they were sharing it wasn't fair, and that he was the real winner because he had almost as many as they did by himself.
Fred got Potter and Merlin this time, but he was only excited about the Potter boy's card because he already had about ten of Merlin. He liked Potter of course, but he knew he'd never keep the card—just give it to Ginny because she'd pay him for it. Sometimes, if he was feeling nice, he'd give them to her for free, but usually he made her pay between three and five sickles just because he knew that she'd never decline. It was cute, really, her obsession with Harry Potter (she only ever collected his card, she didn't care for the others).
Fred only realized how long he'd been staring out the window when the compartment lights came on; it was getting dark outside, and chances were they'd be arriving soon. From what he could remember of the stories that he was told, they were going to be led up to the castle by the legendary Hagrid and then into the great hall to be sorted.
He looked around at his fellow first years, wondering what house they'd be in. He really hoped Lee and Angelina would be in Gryffindor, because he wanted to stay friends with them. Lee probably would be, but he had his doubts about Angelina. She could already control some of her magic and they hadn't even been to school yet! Did this mean she would be a Ravenclaw for sure? He admired her for her talent, but hoped she'd put on her brave face for the Sorting Hat so they could all be in the same house. He already knew he and George would be in Gryffindor, there hadn't been a Weasley who hadn't been one yet.
Fred suddenly realized that George was asleep on Angelina's shoulder while she read her Quiditch book. He kicked him in the shin to wake him.
George woke suddenly and tried to speak before he quite got his tongue around his words. "Wawazatfor?"
"Rise and shine, sleeping beauty. We're almost there; we need to change."
"Yeah," said Lee, setting his cards down and reaching for his trunk.
"See you boys in a bit, then," said Angelina, and she left.
A few minutes after they had all changed and reunited, the conductor's voice boomed out over the train, informing the passengers that they would be arriving at the train station in five minutes, and to please leave all their belongings on the train so they could be brought up separately. And indeed, the train did seem to be slowing down a considerable amount.
"Finally!" Lee said, stuffing the remains of his chocolate frog wrapper into his pocket and wrapping his grey scarf around his neck. "My mum made me this scarf. She said once I'd been sorted, I could change to colors to match my house," he said.
"Cool. I'll bet you 20 knuts you're a Gryffindor," Fred said, nudging him.
"Really?" George said, turning to his twin. "I'll bet you 10 that he's a Ravenclaw, then."
Lee grinned as the twins shook hands firmly. "I'll bet you both a sickle you're Ravenclaws," he said.
"No, I wouldn't say that, if I were you." Angelina piped up. "Haven't you heard of the Weasely's? Every one of them has been Gryffindor, as far as I know."
"Darn it." George frowned at her.
"There goes my sickle," said Fred, pretending to be deeply disappointed.
"Oh, so sorry."
Just then, the booming voice of the conductor was back, telling them to get off the train, now, please.
They left their compartment to join the throng of people now headed to the exits. People squashed them from all sides, breathing down their necks and pushing impatiently to get onto the Hogsmeade platform, making those long moments incredibly uncomfortable.
Once they stepped outside, however, Fred wished he was back in the heat of the train corridor. The icy September wind whipped their faces and the chill nearly froze them all solid before they heard a booming voice bellowing out over the babble of the crowd and howling wind.
"Firs' years, over here! FIRS' YEARS! C'mon, over this way!" Fred knew immediately who this was; he had heard all about Hagrid from his brothers. They pushed their way through the crowd, which was made difficult as the people surrounding them were nearly two feet taller than they were. Finally though, they reached the giant of a man, who was standing by the water's edge, waiting for them.
When the rest of the first years had arrived, Hagrid took role. He winked at Fred and George when he got to their names. "All' righ', c'mon. We're ridin' in these—no more 'n four to a boat!"
They all clambered awkwardly into their boats. Angelina went to sit with two other girls that Fred didn't know, because a brown haired boy named was Billie Davis asked to sit with them first.
"Everyone in?" Hagrid bellowed. "alrigh' then, FORWARD!" And the little fleet of boats took off across the choppy water.
The moon was shining brightly over their heads, illuminating the scene before them. The vast, black lake was surrounded on all side by cliffs and rocky slopes, which cast dark shadows across the water and grounds. Fred started to shiver from the cold. Billie was trailing his hand through the water's surface (no doubt numbing his hand), creating a wake to match that of their boats as they watched the cliff up ahead growing ever closer.
When they rounded the corner, Fred's eyes fell at long last on the many turrets and towers of Hogwarts. The castle was perched on top of the hill on the far bank, its windows emitting a warm, welcoming glow that complimented that of the moon above. It was a huge place, and Fred suddenly felt very small in comparison. Towers pierced the cloudless sky, reaching endlessly for the heavens and casting yet more shadows across the grassy lawns. At the base, great stone structures seemed to be growing from the earth itself, creating magnificent rooms Fred couldn't wait to explore with his friends.