Chapter 6: The Journey to Hogwarts
Peggy held tight to Alice's hands, unwilling to let her get on the train. "You have to write me," she demanded.
"I will," Alice replied.
"Every day?" begged Peggy in her typical mendicant little-sister voice.
"We'll see," said Alice with a smile. As different as she was from her little sister, somehow Alice knew she was going to miss her this year. And while she seriously doubted that she would write every day, Alice expected that her time at Hogwarts would be enough to provide her with plenty of writing material.
"You kids take care," said Alice's father with a smile. "Don't let me get any letters telling me you've misbehaved."
Alice just smiled and said, "I won't." He knew she wasn't the type to get in trouble.
Mrs. Macmillan told Alice to be a good girl and make her proud. Both parents promised to write frequently.
Jeff, whose parents had bid him farewell before he got on the platform, was beginning to get impatient. He grabbed Alice's arm. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!"
Alice and Jeff stepped onto the train. Finding a compartment seemed impossible at first, but they were finally able to locate an empty one at the very back of the train.
They sat down across from each other, and Jeff wondered, "Do you know how much time we have until we leave?"
Alice peeked at her watch. "Er, I suppose we have about five minutes," she replied.
The door slid open. "Hey! What are you doing in our compartment?"
Two boys stood in the door. One of them was tall and fierce-looking, with dark hair that fell into his eyes, patrician features and a scowl on his face. The other one was shorter and less refined. His Muggle shirt was untucked and his black hair stuck out in every direction. He wore stylish glasses and had a big smirk on his face. "What makes you first years think that you can just plunk your things down in any old compartment?" he asked. "We've ridden in this compartment every train ride since our first year."
"Sorry. We'll leave," said Jeff. He got up to leave, but Alice wouldn't budge.
She scowled at the older boys. "So?" she asked. "You are no more entitled to this compartment than anyone else!"
The taller boy advanced toward them. "I beg to differ," he said.
"How do you mean?" Alice wanted to know.
The other boy's smirk widened. "We'll put it to you firsties this way: if you can successfully hex us, then you can have the compartment."
Alice was on her feet now. "That's not even fair! We're only first years, and magic on the train is surely against the rules anyway!"
The boys started to snicker, as though she had just said something funny. Jeff moved toward the door. "Come, on, Alice. There's no use staying here and arguing with them."
Alice started to protest, but Jeff grabbed her arm and dragged her out of the compartment. Two more boys walked past them and entered the compartment, looking less mean but looking as though they knew what had just happened.
"Jeff, you couldn't just let them have their way like that," said Alice. "They wouldn't have really hexed us, you know."
Jeff just shook his head. "I don't know what they would have done," he said. "All I do know is that there was two of them and they were bigger than me. Besides, I want to start my first day off on the right foot. Let's not make any enemies this quickly."
Alice opened her mouth to reply, but suddenly the train lurched forward. Jeff grabbed her arm to stop her from falling over and said, "Come on. Let's find a compartment."
They finally found one that only had two people: Michelle Longbottom and a boy with white-blonde hair. Jeff slid the compartment door open.
"All right if we sit here?" asked Alice cautiously, but Michelle waved them in eagerly.
"This is Flavius," she said cheerfully, gesturing at the blonde boy. "Flavius, this is Alice and Jeff."
The boy took in their appearance with wide eyes. "Are you first years too?" he asked them earnestly.
When Jeff gave him the affirmative, Flavius grinned. "Great," he said. "I don't much like older students. They act funny."
Alice and Jeff exchanged puzzled glances, and Michelle asked, "They act funny? How do you mean?"
Flavius shrugged. "I don't know...they kind of walk with their heads held too high and they probably think they can beat me in gobstones." And, to clear up any confusion, he added, "No one can beat me in gobstones."
This statement left a kind of awkward silence that Michelle filled by saying, "So, where did all of you grow up?"
"I'm from Hogsmede," responded Flavius blithely.
"But if you are from Hogsmede, why would you come on the train?" asked Alice. "Surely you could just walk to school!"
Flavius looked at her as though she was crazy. "And miss the train ride? This is how everyone gets to Hogwarts!"
Michelle turned and looked at the other two. "So where are you from?"
"Grayson," replied Jeff and Alice together. "It's a Muggle village," added Alice for clarification.
"That sounds different from my story," said Michelle. "I grew up in London, see. Lots of people; wizards and Muggles both. My mum mostly stayed home and taught me subjects like maths and reading. She has a lot of friends in the Ministry, though, so she would have people over for tea or take me places so I understand magical people well. What is it like to live exclusively among Muggles?"
As Jeff described his experiences growing up with Muggles, Alice realized that Michelle's life sounded a bit similar to the ways hers would have been, had she stayed in London. Mrs. Macmillan might not know many people in the Ministry, but Alice was still exposed to people of the magical world to some extent.
Her thoughts shifted to the two older boys that had kicked she and Jeff out of the compartment. In Alice's opinion, this was not fair at all. Regardless of the fact that the boys were older than them, they should not have been allowed to order people about like that. Alice hated letting people have their way unfairly. Jeff was definitely right to have walked away from that situation, but he should not have had to. The way the boys had acted in such a condescending manner was rude and unacceptable.
Alice's musings were interrupted by the arrival of the candy trolley. The few hours involved the children looking through their candy, sorting through chocolate frog cards, and discussing their hopes and fears about what Hogwarts would be like. One of Alice's hopes that was growing very swiftly was that she and Michelle would end up in the same house; she didn't think she could find many other girls that would be quite as amiable and easy to get along with.
As she contemplated this, the compartment door slid open once more. This time, it was a tall boy with dark brown hair and kind features. Alice recognized him instantly as Michelle's brother, Frank.
He poked his head into the compartment "I see you're making friends," he said, his eyes sliding over the scene and resting on Michelle, who was sitting near the door.
Michelle nodded eagerly. "This is Flavius," she said, gesturing at the blonde boy who had fallen asleep with his mouth gaping open. "And this is Jeff and this is Alice. We met them at Diagon Alley, remember?"
Jeff smiled and nodded. "That I do," he said. He looked at Jeff and said in his charming way, "I'm a third-year, so I've been around Hogwarts for awhile. If you ever need anything, even just directions to a class, be sure to let me know." He turned and looked at Alice too and smiled to show that this invitation applied to her as well. She tried to smile back without making it look too awkward.
Frank looked back at Michelle. "Well, it seems that you're doing all right without me."
Michelle just grinned. "You were worried?"
Frank's smile remained. "Well, you know, I have to make sure my baby sister is doing all right. I can't have you getting into trouble on the first day, you know. And I would sure hate for you to be sitting in your own compartment somewhere, crying because you miss me."
Michelle gave him a playful slap in the arm. "Get out of here, Frank," she demanded.
Frank just laughed and left the compartment, saying, "Take care, ickle Shellykins!" right before he slid the compartment door shut.
After the compartment door was back in place, Alice said, "You sure have a nice brother, Michelle."
Michelle shrugged. "He's Frank," she said, waving her hand as though that was a sufficient explanation.
Before they knew it, they were pulling into the Hogwarts station. Jeff shook Flavius awake, and the first years exited the compartment to hear the booming voice of an extremely tall, wide man with a hairy face, "Firs' years, follow me!"
"Well," said Jeff, echoing Alice's own thoughts, "here goes."
The foursome exited the train along with the other first years, prepared to perceive the castle they had heard countless stories about with their own eyes.