The Hogwarts Express rattled along the railway, along a brick bridge and across a vast lake. The reflection of the train in the water of the lake was a blur of black and red, racing across the waves. I looked in awe at the birds, flying gracefully along beside us, their wings flapping gently in the cool breeze.
A voice pulled my attention away from the birds.
"Candy from the trolley, my dears?" Said an elderly woman in a pink pinafore, pushing a loaded cart full of various sweets and chocolates. All sorts of mysterious and colourful packaging lined the trolley, and I could have sworn I saw a lollipop packet that said 'Blood Flavoured Lollipop'. I gulped at the thought.
My new friends got up from their seats and brought some snacks for the rest of the journey, nearly buying everything on the trolley. When they realised that I had not gotten up, they looked at me with confusion.
"Aren't you going to buy anything, Hannah?" Asked Tiffany.
"Oh!" I had forgotten that I had an allowance from Hogwarts. I joined them and used some Sickles to buy myself a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans.
"I'd be careful with those," Tilly warned me, as she sat down, seeing that I was opening the box. "You may think you have a nice-tasting flavoured one, and then you realise that it's actually vomit flavoured or something."
"Oh, I'm sure it will be fine.." I said, carelessly popping an orange coloured bean into my mouth. I chewed it for a while, tasting its peculiar flavour, realising that in fact, the bean that I was chewing was the flavour of earwax. I swallowed it whole, in an attempt to rid my mouth of the horrible taste. Why would people even think to make these? I put the box down on the seat, not wanting to try my luck with another.
"Here." Tiffany handed me a sparkly yellow sweet.
I held it in my hand apprehensively after the earwax-flavoured sweet I had just encountered. It was a little yellow chunk, surrounded by what seemed to be some kind of sugar coating. It looked delicious, but I had thought the same thing about the earwax bean. "What is it?"
"It's crystallised pineapple," She said. "To get rid of the earwax taste."
I smiled at her, and sucked on the sweet, which was a lot nicer than the bean I encountered earlier. "Thank you." I said.
"It shouldn't be long now," Abi said, looking out of the window. "I think we're nearly there."
"I can't wait to see the towers!" Tiffany squealed, her hands clapping together with excitement.
I felt a rush of exhilaration run through me, as I watched the top of the mountains intently. I looked for the signs of the top of the towers, my face squashed against the window. Tiffany, Tilly and Abi did the same, all wanting to get a glimpse of the magnificent castle as soon as it emerged.
"Look!" Tilly shouted, pointing to the top of the mountains. There, at the top of the mountains, was the top of the topmost tower, revealing itself to us. As the mountains started to decrease in size, and as the train was getting closer, more and more of the castle came into view. I felt the carriage tip slightly over to the side of the window as everyone clambered over to look at Hogwarts Castle. People gasped in awe at the sight of it, wanting to look at it forever.
"Its.." Tilly started, losing her speech. "I.. It's just so.."
"I can't believe I'm actually here.." I said, pressing my hands harder to the window. The castle was now in full-view, its numerous amounts of towers nearly touching the clouds. It just seemed too real and too magical to be here, like it was all a dream.
"I think we'd better go and get changed." Tilly said. I didn't want to leave the window, I wanted to stay and just look at it, but she pulled me by my arm and all four of us went off to get changed into our robes.
...
The train came to a halt as we pulled on our robes. I felt a tingle as I slipped it on, a step closer to the magic.
"Come on! Let's go!" Tiffany squealed and grabbed my hand as we walked off of the Hogwarts Express and onto the platform. Lanterns lit up the platform as students stepped off from the Express. Children chatted quietly in small groups, as a great big figure lumbered towards us in the dark, carrying a flickering, glowing lantern.
"Who's that?" Abi said.
I tried to make out the figure, but it was impossible to decipher who it was until he stepped into the light of the lanterns.
"Hagrid!" I shouted, running over to him.
"Alrigh' there, Hannah?" Hagrid smiled, and gave me a very hard pat on the back. He looked at my friends, who stood behind me, somewhat scared and apprehensive.
"It's alright, guys, this is Hagrid. He helped me get here to Hogwarts." I said, wincing as I rubbed my back.
They all gave a nervous wave to Hagrid, intimidated.
"Hagrid, this is Tiffany, Tilly and Abi." I introduced them, pointing to them one by one.
"Alrigh' there? Welcome to Hogwarts!" Hagrid smiled. He turned to the whole group of students. "I'm Hagrid, I'm the Groundskeeper here at Hogwarts, and the Keeper of Keys. Also I'm a professor in the Care of Magical Creatures. Now, enough about me, come along, and we'll get you inside. Come on.." Hagrid ushered us along a short pathway to dozens of lantern-lit boats floating peacefully at the side of a giant lake.
"So we just get in, then?" I asked Abi.
"I guess," Abi shrugged. "I think they take us to the other side of the lake."
"Fours and no more in one boat, please!" Hagrid said, as Tiffany, Tilly, Abi and I clambered into a boat. On no command, our boat started to glide slowly through the water, as did several others. We grasped onto the sides of the wooden boat for stability, not sure if we liked the boats having a mind of their own. I looked up at the castle, hundreds of windows glowing brightly, reflected in the water.
"It's so magical.." Tilly said, looking across at the magnificent castle.
I looked behind us to see a trail of glowing lanterns on the lake, gliding smoothly along in the water. It looked like hundreds of glow bugs in the air, floating in the gentle night breeze.
The boat came to a halt on the other side of the lake, and all four of us got out and waited for Hagrid's next order. He came stomping up to us, with his massive giant feet plundering the ground. "Alrigh' you lot, this way to the castle!" Hagrid shouted. I looked behind us, realising how many of us there was here. It seemed as though we were all First Years.
We walked up a dirt road towards the castle, and walked through some tall iron gates. Behind us, as the last of the group walked through, a frail old man sealed the gates with his withered old wand. He looked at least eighty, his beard long, thin and white, and there was wrinkles by his eyes. He was hunched over, and wore long, dark, navy wizard robes. A small glow of the brightest blue ran up the gates as he waved his wand shakily, locking us in, and whatever lied out there, was hopefully locked out. I looked at him curiously, as he stumbled back to his little wooden rocking chair. I wanted to go and talk to him for some strange reason, but Tilly pulled on my arm to lead me away. Maybe I'd get a chance to talk to him sometime later on in the year.
The cold started to get to us under our thin robes, and when we finally reached the tall, wooden castle gates, we were all shivering and huddled together. Hagrid pushed open the doors with his giant hands and led us into the castle.
I had never seen any place so big – it was enormous, even if it was just one section of the castle. There were marble staircases leading up to various parts of the castle, somewhere where I would explore at a later date. I heard a murmuring from somewhere, and I looked around, trying to figure out the noise. I wandered over to a painting, and to my shock, realised that it was moving, and the murmuring was coming from the painting.
"Guys!" I shouted over to my friends, signalling for them to come over. "Come and look at this!"
They hurried over and gasped as they saw too, that indeed the picture was in fact, in some way, alive.
"It's not just me, is it? The picture is actually moving, right?" I asked them, unsure if I was just seeing things.
"You're not seeing things," A girl came up behind us, smiling. We turned to her.
"The paintings are actually moving, yes. It's no trick of the mind, but it is magic!" She giggled, and flicked her hair over her shoulder. She saw us looking at her bewildered, and shook her head. "Oh! I'm sorry – my name's Florence. I'm a first year too – it's nice to meet you all."
We shared names and I decided that I liked this girl. Florence had light, blonde hair, which lay on her back. She had bright blue eyes and pale, fair skin. She came back to the group with us, having no-one else to stand with, seeing as everyone else had made their own separate groups.
A woman walked into the room. She wore emerald-green robes and a matching witches' hat that had some sort of a bird's feather attached onto the side.
"Good evening, First Years." She had a very posh voice and structure, and eyed us all intently. "My name is Professor McGonagall, the Headmistress here at Hogwarts. Through these doors, lies the Great Hall. In there, you will be sorted one by one into your Houses by the Sorting Hat. There are four Houses at Hogwarts, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Gryffindor, and Slytherin. Then, once sorted, you will go to your House table, and will sit with your peers. Now, if you will follow me.." She turned to the doors and opened them, and we followed her in a line into the Great Hall.