A year in the life of Harry Potter
Chapter 36: September, 1 A
A/N: I am deeply sorry for these abnormally short chapters, but I haven't had much time to write as I had to get all my things for school. Hope you like this one. I'm splitting September 1 in two because I think it's easier than write everything into one chapter
"Harry calm down!" Lucy exclaimed. "Normally you never fidget like that! Calm down and eat your breakfast, otherwise we'll be late for the train!"
Quentin who had already changed her appearance wrinkled her nose. "You do still look awfully pale," she commented.
"I can't help it," Harry replied, ignoring Quentin. "I'm nervous nd excited. I can't wait to go on the train!"
Severus looked on the wall clock. "If all of you don't hurry up you'll miss the train. It's already ten o'clock."
"Finished!" Quentin said, pushing her half-full plate away.
"Quintella," Lucy said. "Finish eating. Your plate is still half-full."
"Half-empty," Quentin corrected cheekily.
Severus rolled his eyes. "It doesn't matter if it is half-empty or half-full, you won't be going until it's totally empty, and the same goes for you, Harry."
Harry grunted, eating the fried egg Lucy had put on his plate. He was so excited he could hardly eat a thing.
Severus cleared his throat. "Quentin, could you come outside a minute?"
She nodded and followed him out of the dining room.
Lucy looked at Harry's plate.
"Doesn't seem like you're going to eat much more," she commented. Harry nodded.
Minutes later Quentin came back in, rubbing her blood-shot eye. It was clear that she had been crying.
"Daddy just flooed to Hogwarts," she said quietly.
"Then we'd better go too," Lucy said. "I bring you to the platform and afterwards apparate to Hogwarts."
"Appa- what?" Harry asked irritated. It was another magical word he didn't understand.
"I'll explain later," Quentin replied.
Quarter past ten they stood outside the house.
"How are we going to get to the train station?" Harry asked.
"The ministry lets us drive in one o their cars," Lucy replied. "The minister thought it better for you."
Just like she had said a middle-seized car appeared moments later up the hill. A uniformed driver got out. He helped Quentin and Harry to put their trunks and Hedwig's cage into the trunk.
"Wow," Harry muttered as he sat down on the back seat. "'Tis a lot bigger then I expected."
Quentin shrugged carelessly. "Spells."
They started their journey towards King's Cross. They reached their destination shortly after twenty to eleven. The driver unloaded the trunks and the cage and put them onto luggage trolleys. Then he nodded his good-byes and drove away again.
"Which platform?" Harry asked, steering his trolley towards the entrance of the station.
"9 3/4," Lucy answered. At Harry's confused face she couldn't help but smile. "You'll see in a few minutes."
They made their way past platforms 1-8, numerous shops and then went into the attached building in which platforms 9 and 10 were.
"Where's here a platform 9 3/4 or whatever number it was?" Harry asked irritated, looking around.
"Easy," Quentin said. She steered her trolley towards one of the wall bits between platform nine and ten.
"What the hell do you do?" Harry gasped as she started running. A moment later she disappeared.
"Now you," Lucy said, giving him an encouraging push.
Harry looked disbelievingly at her, but then he too steered his trolley towards where Quentin had disappeared.
I'm going to crash into the wall, he thought, his eyes tightly closed. I'm going to crash, I'm going to crash!
Instead of crashing however he felt a sudden difference in temperature. As he opened his eyes he couldn't believe what he saw. He was on a platform, Platform 9 3/4 he read on a shield.
"There you are," Quentin smiled. "Thought you'd never come." Behind Harry Lucy appeared.
"You've got roughly ten minutes," Lucy said. "Better hurry up I'd say." She followed the children towards one of the doors and helped them load their luggage on. They talked some more, said their good-byes, and then a loud whistle sounded, the doors closed and the train started moving.
"Until this evening!" Quentin yelled, waving to her mother a last time. "Wait here," she said as she started walking into one direction. Seconds later she came back. "There's an empty compartment. Help me get the luggage in there, then I'll look for Audrey and Draco."
So, five minutes later the luggage was stored away and Quentin had begun her search for the Malfoys. Harry took out the photo album out of his trunk and started looking through it again, staring at the pictures of his parents.
Suddenly the compartment door opened. He looked up, expecting it to be Quentin.
"I-Is there a place for me and my sister?" a red-head stammered, looking in. Harry guessed that he too was a first year, and then he remembered Severus' description of the Weasleys. Red hair. However, he didn't want to seem rude so Harry nodded, and the boy and a girl entered. The Weasleys. Ronald and Ginevra.
"I'm Ronald Weasley," Ronald said once he had stored his luggage away. "But everyone calls me Ron." He didn't lift a finger to help his yonger sister who struggled doing so, so Harry got up and helped her.
"Ginevra," she said quietly. "But call me Ginny."
"Take no notice of her," Ronald said loudly. "It's like, I can't believe Dumbledore makes me be in the same year as her! That's like having a twin, only that it's your younger sibling ad that makes it even worse!"
"I'm Harry," Harry said. "Harry Potter."
"TheHarry Potter?" Ron gasped, spraying spit through the whole compartment. "The Boy-Who-Lived."
Harry nodded, somehow disgusted.
The doors opened again and Quentin entered.
"Harry, I found," she started, but stopped herself when she saw the Weasleys.
"What's the matter?" a female voice behind her asked. "Why are you not going on, Quentin?" A pale face appeared over her shoulder. It was framed by long, so blond it was nearly silver hair, and a pair of two grayish-blue eyes which mustered the people sitting in the compartment thoroughly. A boy pushed Quentin aside. He looked similar to his sister's face.
"Weaslys," he snorted. "What are you doing here?"
"Harry Potterlet us in here," Ronald sneered. "Malfoy."
"Unfortunately these seats were reserved for my sister and me by your Harry Potter," Draco Malfoy snarled. "So get out here."
"Hey, hey, hey," Hary said, standing up. "There is exactly one seat f each of us, we can all stay in here."
"I'm not sitting with a Malfoy," Ron snarled, standing up. He pushed Draco, Quentin and Audrey out of the way and vanished.
"Can I stay here?" Ginny whispered anxiously.
Draco shrugged. "You're a Weasley but as long as you're quiet I don't have anything against you, other than your stupid brothers."
It was a bit uncomfortable with five people in the compartment, but everyone forgot about that as Quentin and Harry started telling about Holland. The whole time Ginny sat in her seat next to the door, reading a book which half fell apart. She didn't make any sound.
Suddenly the doors opened. Ronald Weasley, his head and ears as red as ripe cherries, entered. "Forgot my trunk," he muttered.
"Watch where you put your stinking feet!" Draco exclaimed as the redhead stepped onto his foot.
After some more yell of pain and muttered excuses Weasley let again.
Draco shook his head.
"Really," he said, speaking to Ginny. "I cannot believe how your mother can cope with him, Weasley. He's as loud as a hurricane and leaves the same mess behind. You on the other hand are quiet and haven't even moved an inch since we entered!"
Ginny blushed at the praise, but she stayed silent.
When the lady with the sweet trolley came Audrey and Quentin, ho had both received money from their fathers, bought sweets for everyone, and Harry gave some to Ginny who only reluctantly accepted them.
"You need to be careful with that," Draco said as Harry ripped a packet of chocolate frogs open. "They've got one jump to live and they use it as best as they can."
Before Harry could react the brown frog had leapt out of the packaging and jumped through the half-open window.
"Happened to me the first time as well," Quentin shrugged. "Which person do you have?"
Harry turned the cardboard card around. "Albus Dumbledore," he read.
Draco grunted. "Got that coot thirteen times already. Threw every single one away, but they see to keep coming back to me." He too took a chocolate frog. Slowly he opened the package and grabbed the frog midair as it jumped away. He bit off the head. "See?" he said, showing the back of the card. "Dumbledore."
"Maybe you should stop throwing them away then," Audrey suggested.
"I do not need that old muggle-lover," her brother replied.
"My Mum says he's a great wizard," Ginny whispered.
Quentin shrugged. "My parents say the same, but I personally could do without him."
Audrey looked at her knowingly.
Draco looked out of the window. "I guess we're half-way there," he said after a while.
"When do we get changed into uniform?" Harry asked.
"About half an hour before we arrive at Hogsmeade," Audrey answered. "From there Quentin and I'll take the carriages while you, Draco and the Weasley girl take the boats."
"Do you have to call her that?" Harry asked. "She does have a name you know." From the corner of her eyes he could see that Ginny's head and ears had reddened in embarrassment. He guessed she wasn't used to being the center of attention.
Audrey rolled her eyes. "Fine. You, Draco and Ginevra take the boats."
"Anyway what house d'you think you're gonna be in?" Draci asked to change the subject. "I'm definitely in Slytherin."
"Quentin reckons I'll be in Gryffindor," Harry said.
Draco looked expectantly at Ginny.
"Oh - er...," she stammered. "G-Gryffindor, too - I think."
"Where's the toilet?" Harry asked, standing up.
"Back end of the train," Quentin said, grabbing a packet of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. She looked through it before she took one. "Draco, I dare you to eat this."
Without thinking the boy took it and swallowed it.
As Harry exited the compartment he could hear Draco making noise as if he was ging to throw up.
"Spider gut!" Draco gasped, and then the door fell shut.
Harry made his way past many different compartments. Some students already had their uniform on. In one compartment there was Ronald and two older boys who looked like him and Harry guessed that they were twins, together with a third boy. He was making wild hand movements while talking, and the twins laughed loudly. Then one of them gave something to Ron. He eyed whatever it was that lay on his open palm, then put it in his mouth and began to chew. a moment later his skin and hair changed colour. Yelling something he stormed out of the apartment, right into Harry.
"Oh - hey," he said, startled. Then he laughed. "Had enough of my stupid sister, Malfoys and that Wintergarten girl?"
"No, I have not," Harry said icily. "And that Wintergarten girl as you called her is my adoptive sister."
Ronald paled but you couldn't see the difference with his red skin as he, a moment later, reddened with embarrassment. "Oh - I-I'm sorry."
"Course you are," Harry sneered, continuing his way to the toilet.
As he was washing his hands someone tapped his shoulder.
"I'm Percy Weasley," a boy said.
How many kids to the Weasleys have? Harry thought, annoyed, as he shook Percy's hand.
"You shouldn't take care of what my little brother says," Percy continued. "He's an imbecile. Ginevra - as I saw she is in your compartment - is a better influence on you for sure if you should come to Gryffindor too." Harry saw that Percy already had his uniform on. His tie was red and a lion was on it. Gryffindor.
Harry nodded slowly.
"Of course," the older boy continued, "if you have any questions you can always ask me. I would be delighted to help you find your way around Hogwarts."
"Thanks, but I'm sure I'll manage," Harry said as he left the toilets.
As he came back to his compartment there was a girl with bushy brown hair standing in the doorway.
"How often do I have to tell you?" Draco's voice could be heard. He sounded annoyed. "There is no toad in here!"
"I was only asking," the girl snapped, walking away.
"What was that about?" Harry questioned as he sat down.
"Only some idiot having lost his pet toad," Audrey replied. "Nothing to worry about."
The rest of the travel time passed away gradually. About half an hour before they arrived the girls made Draco and Harry wait outside while they were changing. They heard some talking going on inside.
"Ginevra, you can't really enter the Great Hall in those," Audrey said. Ginny replied something neither of the boys could hear. Then Quentin muttered something. A moment later she opened the door.
"You can get changed," she said.
As Harry saw Ginny she smiled broadly.
"Fixed her uniform with some spells," Quentin muttered in his ear.
After the boys had changed all of them noticed that the train lost speed.
"We must be pretty near now," Audrey commented, looking out of the window. But it was already too dark to see much.
With a lot of noise the Hogwarts Express came to a halt. They all left the compartment and went off the train.
"Firs' Years over here!" an enormous man yelled above all the chatter, waving a gas lamp around. "Firs' Years over here!"
"See ya later," Quentin said as she and Audrey made their way over to the carriages while Ginny, Harry and Draco went over to the half-giant.
"That's the grounds keeper," Draco told Harry.
"'Tis all of yer?" the grounds keeper asked as no other students came towards him. "Then come with me." They walked out of the village and up a small hill until they reached the shores of a lake. there were eight boats there. The half-giant stepped into the first one. "'Bout six of yer in a boat!" he yelled over to the first years who slowly divided themselves into six groups of six and one group of five. Harry, Draco, Ginny, the bushy-haired girl from earlier, Ronald and another boy shared one boat. As soon as everyone was seated they set off across the lake towards the school.
"Whoa!"
"Wow!"
"Look at that!"
"Isn't it amazing?"
That and a lot more did the First Years exclaimed when they got the first sight of the castle.
"You know," the bushy-haired girl whispered, "Hogwarts is one of the most famous wizarding schools on the world. Children sometimes even travel abroad just to go here." Harry thought about Tony.
"No one is interested," Draco snarled, looking with big eyes at the school.
Minutes later they arrived at some kind of harbour where they went off the boats. The grounds keeper led them towards the school gate and along the school grounds to the main entrance. There was an old lady waiting for them all. With her hair in a bun and her old looks she seemed to be pretty strict. Harry remembered what Quentin had said. Professor McGonnagall is strict and you'd better stay on her good side.
"I'm Professor McGonnagall," the woman said. Harry couldn't help but smile. Maybe one day he would be able to solve crimes like Sherlock Holmes.
"Is there anything funny about that Mr. Potter?" Professor McGonnagall asked.
"No, Professor," he replied.
"Then I suggest you should wipe that smile off your face," she said as she turned around on her heels. She led them away into a small, dark room. "I will come back when everything is ready for you," she said.
Harry felt someone clinging onto his arm. When his eyes adjusted to the darkness he could make out Ginny.
"I'm scared of the dark," she whispered apologetically.
And then it began.