Chapter 2
The day was September 1st of 1991, which was a very important day to a certain pair of twins. The twins were going to go to a magical school named Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Both girls were up at seven o'clock in the morning, jumping on their parent's hotel bed to wake them up. They ate their breakfast for a full two hours till it was nine o'clock, but they still have two hours till they had to get to Platform Nine and Three-quarters. But, the Gunnarssen family still when to King's Cross earlier that suppose to. They wanted to find their kids a compartment before crowd came at half past ten.
After an hour of searching for the platform, they gave up and sat down on the ground next to platform nine and ten signs. They noticed that they only had ten minutes till the departure of the Hogwarts Express and they couldn't even find the entrance. But Åsa noticed that there was a group of red heads with two familiar boys that were messing around a plump lady with red hair, supposedly there mother. They were heading this way, which excited Åsa because that meant they will show the way to Hogwarts.
"Fritz, look. It's the two boys from Diagon Alley." Åsa pointed towards the large family, making Fritzie look up with a sparkle in her violet eyes. They watched as the red head family stopped at a dividing barrier that separated the two platforms, but the other one than the one they were leaning against. They watched one of the boys, probably the oldest, go through but it looked like a large number of tourists hid his disappearance.
"Far, Mor!" Åsa exclaimed, but in a whispering voice. "We found the way to get to Hogwarts Express. We love you, bye!"
After hugging and kissing them good-bye, they started to push their duel cart towards the group, who was at the last three people. They noticed that a boy with messy black hair and emerald green eyes, plus circle-like glasses, was walking towards them. The twins stopped and the four go through before going through themselves. The two held hands while pushing the cart through the barrier with their available hands. It wasn't as scary as the two thought it was going to be. Fritzie grabbed their duel trunks while Åsa got their wands and familiars.
The two looked for an empty compartment but it seemed like most of them were full or taken already. So they decided to find a compartment that only had one or two people in it. They did find a compartment and it only had one person it at the time. The person what the boy that went ahead of them to get to Platform Nine and Three-quarters was sitting alone in a compartment looking out the window.
"Hi there!" Åsa surprised the boy, making his jump a little from shock. "May my sister and I sit here?"
"Sure." Smiling gratefully at the boy, Fritzie got their trunks tucked under the seats they were going to sit at. Midnight and Lilo were set next to the snowy owl that the boy had. They sat across from each other, Åsa next to the boy while Fritzie was alone on the other side. While the boy looked back at the window, Åsa and Fritz had another silent argument about the books in their trunks.
Sighing in defeat, Fritzie got on her knees and pulled out the deep blood red trunk, which was Åsa's. Opening it up, the brunette gave the blond her favorite book Dracula by Bram Stoker. Setting everything back in place, Fritzie sat back down and messed with her black long-sleeved shirt hems. It was about two minutes before the compartment door opened and a young boy with red hair, freckles, a bit taller than all of them, and had a little bit of a long nose.
"Anyone sitting here?" The boy asked, pointing to the seat next to Fritzie and across from the other boy. "Everywhere else is full."
Both the boy and Fritzie shook there head and let him slide in the seat. The boy glanced at all of them but mostly the boy across. Åsa noted that he had some black on his nose when she looked up.
"Hey, Ron."
Nearly jumping in fright, Åsa turned to see that it was the Weasley twins, Fred and George. Fritzie rolled her eyes at them and decided to look anywhere other than the boys who got some of their wizardry money.
"Listen, we're going down the middle of the train – Le Jordan's got a giant tarantula down there."
"Right," The boy, Ron, muttered back.
"Harry," the other twin, Fred, said. "did we introduce ourselves? Fred and George Weasley. And this is Ron, our brother. See you later, then. Bye, Danish Princesses!"
Fritzie nearly cursed the two boys in English, but quickly switched to Danish. It wasn't much of a difference but the two boys, Ron and Harry, didn't seem to notice them at all.
"Are you really Harry Potter?" At this point, Åsa put down Dracula while Fritzie stopped looking around the room from shyness to listen into the conversation the two boys were having. The two saw that Harry nodded in reply to Ron's question.
"Oh – well, I thought it might be one of Fred and George's jokes," Ron said. "And having you really got – you know. . ."
The red head pointed to Harry' forehead where both twins noticed that there was a light scar that looked like a lightning bolt.
"So that's where You-Know-Who—?"
"Yes," Harry stated, "but I can't remember it."
"Nothing?"
"Well – I remember a lot of green light, but nothing else."
"Wow," Was all Ron said as he stared at Harry for a few moments. But when he noticed what he was doing he looked away and out the window like Harry did when the twins came in at platform nine and three-quarters. The brunette and blond looked at each other in confusion before Åsa spoke up, scaring the boys a little bit.
"What so great about having a scar on your forehead? I have one on my toe, does that count?" Fritzie nearly smacked Åsa for saying her second sentence. It was weird to talk about someone on your foot; at least Fritz thought it was weird. The two boys looked at them for a second before replying.
"Are you muggleborns?" Ron asked, making the two girls even more confused.
"What is a – never mind. Sure, we are muggleborns." Fritzie stated, making it easier to get to the point of Åsa's question.
When Ron explained all about You-Know-Who, or Voldemort in the twins and Harry's case, and why the scar is important, they just nodded but they still didn't think that Harry was really as important as he was thought of. The four sat in silence for about another ten minutes before Harry spoke up, breaking the unhealthy silence.
"Are all your family wizards?" Harry questioned Ron.
"Er – yes, I think so," Ron replied. "I think Mum's got a second cousin who's an accountant, but we never talk about him."
"So you must know loads of magic already."
"I heard you went to live with Muggles," Ron said. "What are they like?"
"Horrible – well, not all of them. My aunt and uncle and cousin are, though. Wish I'd had three wizard brothers."
"Five," Ron sighed, unpleasantly. "I'm the sixth in our family to go to Hogwarts. You could say I've got a lot to live up to. Bill and Charlie have already left – Bill was head boy and Charlie was captain of Quidditch. Now Percy's a prefect. Fred and George mess around a lot, but they still get really good marks and everyone thinks they're really funny. Everyone expects me to do as well as the others, but if I do, it's not big deal, because they did it first. You never get anything new, either, with fiver brothers. I've got Bill's old robes, Charlie's old wand, and Percy's old rat."
He showed them the rat, which was named Scabbers. All he said about it was nasty remarks about the smelly, fat rat.
"Well, at least you have less family members." Åsa said before Harry could go on about his family. "We are the eighth and ninth child in our family. We have a twenty year old brother named Runo who works in England. Then we have another pair of twins who are named Kickan and Gerrit. We also have Sakso, Hampus, Leonora, Steff, and then us. Kickan and Leonora, the other girls, go to a girl's private school in South France and then all the boys, Gerrit, Sakso, Hampus, and Steff go to a boy's private school in the Norwegian and Swedish borders."
"We are also getting a new sibling in May of next year." Fritzie stated, reminding Åsa that they were going to be older siblings now.
"Er – wow, that's a lot of siblings." Ron stated when the two were done speaking. After a little bit of silence, Harry told them about his 'horrible' life at his aunt and uncle's house. How he never got presents and how he had to wear his cousin Dudley's clothes. This seemed to cheer up Ron, which was weird for all three of them.
". . . and until Hagrid told me, I didn't know anything about being a wizard or about my parents or Voldemort—"
The word made Ron gasp, catching all of their attention.
"What?" Harry questioned.
"You said You-Know-Who's name!" Ron sounded shocked, impressed, and a little bit frightened. "I'd have thought you, of all people—"
"I'm not trying to be brave or anything, saying the name," Harry stated. "I just never knew you shouldn't. See what I mean? I've got loads to learn . . . I bet—I bet I'm the worst in the class."
"You won't be. There are loads of people who come from Muggle families and they learn quick enough."
"Yeah! We just learned that we were witches and we kind of feel the same way as you do, Harry." Åsa smiled, making Harry's mouth twitch into something like a smile.
As the four kept talking about random things, like there familiars or family, an old, smiling woman slid their door open and said, "Anything off the car, dears?"
Harry was the only one who went up to the cart because he had lots of Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts. Åsa and Fritzie had to give their wizardry money back to Snape on the twentieth. The three left stared at Harry when he brought back lots of wizardry candy, like Cauldron Cakes, Licorice Wands, and Pumpkin Pasties.
"Hungry, are you?"
"Starving," Harry smiled, taking a bite out of some pumpkin pasty.
Ron took out a lumpy looking package and opened it. The package had four sandwiches inside with corned beef. Åsa nearly drooled when she saw that her favorite type of beef was on the sandwich, which made Fritz giggle slightly. The two boys looked over at them when they heard Fritzie giggle.
"She always forgets I don't like corned beef." Ron sighed.
"Swap you for one of these," Harry held up a pasty. "Go on—"
"You don't want this, it's all dry," Ron stated. "She hasn't got much time, you know, with five of us."
"Can I have one?" Åsa spoke up, holding out a hand. "I love corned beef."
Ron sighed and gave Åsa one of the four sandwiches, making her nearly squeal out a thank you. The two boys went back to their conversation before Åsa interrupted.
"Go on, have a pasty," Harry stated. The two boys talked on and on, forgetting about the girls sitting next to them. When Åsa finished her sandwich, giving one piece to Fritzie, they were still kind of hungry. Using her talent, Fritzie stole a couple of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Licorice Wands, and two Cauldron Cakes. Starting out with the Beans, they took out a gray one and a lighter gray one.
Fritzie ate the gray one, which turned out to be pepper. She didn't shout out like Åsa, who got sardines.
"Gross!" Åsa spat out the bean in her hand, trying to get the taste out of her mouth. The boys noticed that they had some candy, which made them laugh a little. Åsa told all of them that she got her least favorite food while Fritzie told them that she ate the entire pepper one. The boys started in their package of beans while the girls started on the wands and cauldron cakes, which were way better tasting than the beans.
Suddenly the door opened and all looked towards a boy who had a round face and was about to burst into tears.
"Sorry," he said. "but have you seen a toad at all?"
All of them shook there heads, making him wail, "I've lost him! He keeps getting away from me!"
"He'll turn up," said Harry.
"Yes," the boy said, miserably. "Well, if you see him . . ."
"Don't why he's so bothered," Ron said after the boy left. "If I'd brought a toad I'd lose it as quick as I could. Mind you, I brought Scabbers, so I can't talk."
The rat was still sleeping on Ron's lap since they first saw it.
"He might have died and you wouldn't know the difference," Ron said in a disgusted voice. "I tried to turn him yellow yesterday to make him more interesting, but the spell didn't work. I'll show you, look. . ."
Ron looked around in his trunk before pulling out an old-looking wand. It was chipped in many places and something was sticking out the end of the wand.
"Unicorn hair's nearly poking out. Anyway–"
As Ron raised his wand, the compartment door opened quickly and there were two people standing at the door way. It was the toadless boy and girl with bushy brown hair, rather large front teen, and looked a little stuck up by the way she stood.
"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," she said, her voice a little bossy too.
"We've already told him we haven't seen it," Ron said, but she wasn't listening, she was looking at the wand in his hand.
"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it, then."
She sat down, but in a spot between Fritzie and Ron, which was very small. Both Fritz and Ron looked taken aback by her barging in.
"Er— all right." He said, clearing his voice. "Sunshines, daisies, butter mellow, Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."
Ron waved his wand, but nothing happened. Scabbers was still a grayish-brown and asleep in the red head's lap.
"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 of witchcraft there is, I've heard – I've learned all our course book by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough – I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?"
"Åsa Gunnarssen." Åsa said slowly, still trying to process all of Hermione's words.
"Fritzie Gunnarssen." Fritzie stated, slightly annoyed.
"I'm Ron Weasley," Ron muttered.
"Harry Potter," Harry said.
"Are you really?" Hermione said. "I know all about you, of course – I got a few extra books for background reading, and you're in Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century."
"Am I?" Harry said, feeling a little dazed by all the books.
"Goodness, didn't you know, I'd have found out everything I could if it was me," Hermione stated. "Do any of you know what House you'll be in? I've been asking around, and I hope I'm in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best; I hear Dumbledore himself was in it, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad . . . Anyway, we'd better go and look for Neville's toad. You four had better change, you know, I expect we'll be there soon."
After that, Hermione and Neville left.
"What ever House I'm in, I hope she's not in it," Ron said. Chucking his wand in his trunk, he sighed. "Stupid spell – George gave it to me, bet he knew it was a dud."
"What House are your brothers in?" Harry questioned.
"Gryffindor," Ron went back into his gloom stage. "Mum and Dad were in it, too. I don't know what they'll say if I'm not. I don't suppose Ravenclaw would be too bad, but imagine if they put me in Slytherin."
"That's the House Vol-, I mean; You-Know-Who was in?"
"Yeah," Ron said, depressed.
"You know, I think the ends of Scabbers' whiskers are a bit lighters," Harry stated, trying make Ron a little happier. "So what do your older brothers do now that they've left, anyway?"
As the two boys talked, Åsa and Fritzie were listening in. They truly were interested in Ron's family because it was a big one like theirs.
"Charlie's in Romania studying dragons—"
"Romania?!" Åsa cut off Ron. He nodded in reply.
"I love Romania! I actually want to meet a vampire who is Romanian one day!" Åsa went into dazed as she started to think about her favorite things.
"—and Bill's in Africa dong something for Gringotts," Ron spoke up again. "Did you hear about Gringotts? It's been all over the Daily Prophet, but I don't suppose you get that with the Muggles – someone tried to rob a high security vault."
"Really? What happened to them?"
"Nothing, that's why it's such big news, they haven't been caught. My dad says it must've been a powerful Dark wizard to get round Gringotts, but they don't think they took anything, that's what's odd. 'Course, everyone gets scared when something like this happens in case You-Know-Who's behind it."
There was some silence after they finished talking about Gringotts and the break in. Suddenly, Ron broke the silence again.
"What's your Quidditch team?" Ron asked.
"Er— I don't know any," Harry confessed.
"What!" Ron looked shocked. "Oh, you wait, it's the best game in the world –" After those words, he went off into his fantasy like Åsa did with Romania. He talked about the seven players, famous games that went to, the broomstick he would like. He talked about the finer points when the compartment door slid open but it was Neville or Hermione Granger.
Three boys entered the compartment, nearly stepping Åsa's and Fritzie feet but the two lifted up there feet right before. There were two thickset and mean looking boys and a pale boy with platinum-like blond hair.
"Is it true?" the pale boy said. "They're saying all down the train that Harry Potter's in this compartment. So it's you, is it?"
"Yes," Harry replied.
Oh, this is Crabbe and this is Goyle," The boy pointed to his goons, who were being looked at by all four of the original settlers in the compartment. And my name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."
Ron gave a slight cough while Åsa and Fritzie shared an amused glance, but Draco only looked at the Weasley.
"Think my name's funny, do you? No need to ask who you are. My father told me all the Weasleys have red hair, freckles, and more children that they can afford."
Draco Malfoy turned back to Harry. "You'll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there." Draco held out his hand for Harry to shake, but Harry did even go near it.
"I think I can tell who the wrong sorts are for myself, thanks," he said, feeling cool.
"I'd be careful if I were you, Potter," He drawled, with a light pink tint on his cheeks. "Unless you're a bit politer you'll go the same way as your parents. They didn't know what was good for them, either. You hang around with riffraff like the Weasleys and that Hagrid, and it'll rub off on you."
The two boys stood up bravely while Åsa and Fritzie watched, eating food like it was a movie going on.
"Say that again," Ron said, going red in the face.
"Oh, you're going to fight us, are you?" Draco sneered.
"Unless you get out now," Harry said, sounding brave but didn't look even closely brave.
"But we don't feel like leaving do we, boys? We've eaten all our food and you still seem to have some."
Goyle reached towards a Chocolate Frog case that was next to Ron, but he let out a horrible yell. They all saw that Scabbers was hanging off the goon's knuckle. He was swinging Scabbers round and round but the gray rat didn't let go for a while. Then the rat hit the window, but all three of the boys disappeared after that. After they left, the one and only Hermione Granger came in.
"What has been going on?" She asked, looking at all the sweet across the floor and Ron, who was picking up Scabbers by the tail.
"I think he's been knocked out," Ron said to the original settlers. "No – I don't believe it – he's gone back to sleep."
"You've met Malfoy before?" Harry explained about the meeting they had in Diagon Alley.
'I've heard of his family," Ron said, darkly. "They were some of the first to come back to our side after You-Know-Who disappeared. Said they'd been bewitched. My dad doesn't believe it. He says Malfoy's father didn't need an excuse to go over to the Dark Side." He turned to Hermione. "Can we help you with something?"
"You'd better hurry up and put your robes on, I've just been up to the front to ask the conductor, and he says we're nearly there. You haven't been fighting, have you? You'll be in trouble before we even get there!"
"Scabbers has been fighting, not us," Ron scowled at the girl. "Would you mind leaving while we change?"
"All right – I only came in her because people outside are behaving very childishly, racing up and down the corridors," She stated. "Also, Åsa and Fritzie, I found an empty compartment you can use to change away from the boys."
"Thanks Hermione!" Åsa stated, while Fritzie only nodded. They got their uniforms from their trunks and left the compartment, only to hear Hermione say, "And you've got dirt on your nose, by the way, did you know?"
The three walked only about three compartments away from their original to find an empty compartment to change in. They slipped on the robes and uniform, and then went back to their original compartment. The boys were done and they all started to talk for a little bit till a voice echoed 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." All four of them looked nervous. Harry looked like he could puke, Ron looked pale, Åsa was tapping her fingers against the glass, and Fritzie was playing with the hem of the uniform.
The train finally slowed down and then stopped completely. People were pushing their way towards the door and out on to a dark platform. The twins followed Harry and Ron out the door and towards a man with a big, black beard and huge smile on his face.
"Firs' years! Firs' years over here! All right there, Harry?" The man, who they were told was Hagrid, said to Harry. "C'mon, follow me – any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!"
Nearly falling over by a crowd of first years, Åsa and Fritz followed Hagrid down a steep, narrow path. It was dark on each side of them because the trees were so thick. No one really made a noise except Neville, who sniffed.
"Yeh'll get yer firs' sigh o' Hogwarts in a sec," Hagrid called over his shoulder, "jus' round this bend here."
Then suddenly there was a bunch of people saying "Oooh!"
The path stopped at the edge of the great black lake. Perched on a mountain on the other side was a vast castle with many towers and turrets.
"No more'n four to a boat!" Hagrid told them. Harry and Ron went in a boat with Neville and Hermione, so Åsa and Fritzie went on a boat with a boy name Seamus Finnigan and a girl named Lavender Brown. After everyone was in, the boats moved on their own towards the cliff of the mountain. They had to bend their heads down so they wouldn't hit their heads on the cliff. They went into a dark tunnel, which took them underneath the castle, and then they reached an underground harbor.
"Oy, you there! Is this your toad?" Hagrid, who was checking the boats as they all climbed out.
"Trevor!" Neville cried happily, grabbing the toad out of Hagrid's hand. They followed Hagrid again then stopped after climbing a flight of stone steps. They all crowded around a huge, oak door.
"Everyone here? You there, still got your toad?" Hagrid asked. After replies he raised his giant fist and knocked on the door three times.