A/N: IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!
Sorry I took forever to update! Had major writers block.
Changes: transfiguration is no longer being taken by Abby or Albus (revised chapter 1 is now up).
Chapter 4 – The Train
Abby POV
I was shaken awake. I just turned over, almost falling asleep instantly. I had never been a morning person. "Abby you have to get up today!" Zeeva told me. I then realised what today was. I slowly got up from my bed, well slow for a vampire anyway. "You have five minutes to get downstairs, ready to leave the house." She then told me.
"I'll be there in two." I said back knowing that I could be quick. She then kissed me gently before leaving the room.
I went to the bathroom for all the essential things, before throwing the last few items I might need in the school year. I picked out my favourite clothes, a black t-shirt with a white skull and bones design, a short red tartan skirt, with fishnet tights and biker boots. I then put my hair into its signature style, high pigtails, before applying my make-up.
I closed the door to Midnight's cage, picked it and my case up and went downstairs, slower than my normal speed for Midnight's sake. I put them down by everyone else's in the hallway and went into the kitchen to have breakfast.
The kitchen was virtually empty bar the 'Dead People' and Zeeva; everyone else was running around upstairs trying to find everything they might need for school. I muttered morning to them all and went straight to the fridge, finding a flask with 'Abby' written on it. I guessed this was my blood. I poured it into a cup and stuck it in the microwave for a minute, it tasted better warm, more like it had just come from a body. I then sat down at the table next to Zeeva and waited for the others to join us. "Are there many people at Hogwarts?" I asked Zeeva
"There are quite a few people. We have four houses and seven years. Most of the Wizards and Witches in Britain go to Hogwarts. Does that answer your question?" With a quick mental calculation I realised that it was quite a big school then.
"And what is the Gryffindor table? Dad mentioned it last night." I asked again feeling like I should know all of this before I went to the place.
"When we eat we sit on a table according to our house. Like I said before there are four houses Gryffindor – symbolised by a lion, Slytherin – symbolised by a serpent, Hufflepuff symbolised by a badger, and Ravenclaw – symbolised by an eagle. The Gryffindors and Slytherins are like mortal enemies. You're normally chosen which house you go into in you're first year by the sorting hat. You'll see how that happens at the great feast. Each house has different qualities by which they select their members. Slytherin will only take pure bloods, Gryffindor takes those who are brave at heart, Ravenclaw takes those who are intelligent, and Hufflepuff takes those who are loyal." She described the system to me in detail. "Most people's friends will probably be in the same house, although there is some crossover between Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. Slytherin tend to keep to themselves, they think that they are better than everyone else because of their bloodline. If you want to know anymore about Hogwarts then I suggest you read my copy of Hogwarts A History"
"Thanks. I'll read it on the train." At that moment everyone else walked into the kitchen
"Are you ready? We need to go now, otherwise you'll be late for the train." Mum announced. We all then went to the car and got in smoothly. The car seemed to be bigger on the inside than the outside.
"You've used an extension spell!" I exclaimed as the car started towards the station.
"It gives us plenty of room for the big family and for the trunks in the back." Mum explained. I then realised that Dad was nowhere to be seen in the car.
"Where's Dad?" I asked, feeling like it was something I should have known.
"He works at the school, so he travelled there last night." My eyes opened wider, "He left right after he sent you to bed." But that was really late, he had stayed up to wait for me to get home and explain the situation, and then he travelled all the way up to Hogwarts. He must have been really tired when he arrived there.
The rest of the car journey was quiet except from when James made Al's nose bleed with a sweet, before allowing him to vomit with another. Mum made him give Al the antidotes sweets and made him clean the sick by hand at the station. I guessed he wouldn't be doing that again, in the car at least.
We started walking casually over to platforms 9 and 10 before mum hurried us along to a wall. "Hurry up you don't have that much time left. Abby have you ever been on platform 9 ¾ before?" She asked me. I shook my head in response. "Well you have to go through that wall there to get to it. James give her an example will you." She told explained. James walled over to the wall opposite the wall mum had pointed to. He then walled to the wall with his trolley and walled through it disappearing into it. "Do you want to try it now?" She asked me. It looked simple enough, so I nodded.
I walked over to where James had begun the journey though the wall. I began walking over to it quite calmly, but as I came face to face with the wall I closed my eyes and braced myself for either an impact or some strange magic feeling. Neither happened.
I opened my eyes, knowing I had just walked through the solid looking wall, and saw a bustling platform. I walked over to where James was standing. "Is that the train?" I asked him, pointing to the red steam engine.
"Yeah, Hogwarts is a little old fashioned with things. Although they are trying to accommodate a little for pupils with a Muggle background."
At that moment Al, Lily, Zeeva and Mum gradually joined us. "One last thing Abby, and you lot need to listen as well." The others turned back around when they realised they had been caught in escaping away. "Remember the cover story for you Abby is that you were very ill and couldn't go to school before, you are now well enough to go to school. You must all stick to that story. And you must stay with Abby until the feast is over. You're father will take over from there." She finished before they could escape again. We then made our way through the crowd to find a few people, some friends of theirs'.
"We're going to be too big for a compartment with your mates as well Al." James commented after we had found his and Lily's mates.
"We'll just get two facing compartments; they're meeting me on the train anyway." Al replied.
We then climbed onto the train and found a couple of compartments. James and Lily sat in one compartment with their friends while me, Al and Zeeva sat in the other waiting for their mates.
It wasn't long before three people walked inside with their trunks. "These are your mates!" I stated, already knowing each one of them inside and out.
"Abby!" Three voices exclaimed in unison, when they heard me.
"You know each other?" Al then asked in disbelief, after our weird greeting exchange.
"Um yeah. They're my band mates." I told him
"Oh well they're my schoolmates." He told me in reply.
James and Lily popped appeared in our compartment. "What's going on in here?" They asked in unison.
"Me and Al just found out that we have the same mates." I explained to them. "Guess we really are twins."
"You only just noticed?" James asked. "You two have been freakily alike since Abz arrived. However there are a few minor differences." He commented bolting before either me or Al could catch him in our attempt to retaliate to his comment. When we turned back around, the rest of the compartment was in fits of laughter.
OOO
About halfway through the journey a woman known as the trolley lady stopped outside our carriage, interrupting our catch up session of the summer holidays. The trolley she was pushing carried lots of food, mainly sweets. We all bought a few and shared them with each other.
"Um you lot are going to need to know my cover story." I told everyone.
"What are you talking about? Abz?" McGee questioned.
"I was really ill before which is why I didn't attend Hogwarts. Now that I'm better I can go. Apparently I'm a serious anaemic and was very weak for most of my life. Now I have my strength back due do a new treatment I can attend."
"But why would you need a cover story? I mean you've found your real parents now." Kate commented.
"The overall story is a bit complicated. We want to keep it as a family secret, I'll tell you the main details later, when it's a bit more private." The carriage then went silent for a bit. I supposed that they needed to digest that bit of information first, before they heard the other news as well. "What's it like to have lots of different teachers?" I asked changing the subject.
"Well they're all really different." Jenny replied before we all burst into laughter yet again. "Tell us what subjects you're taking and we'll tell you what the teachers are like for those subjects, before moving onto all the others." She carried on.
"Defence Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, Potions, Charms, and Ancient Runes. However no need to tell who the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher is, I already know him quite well." I rattled off my list of chosen subjects perfectly.
"We call teachers Professors' at school actually. I guess we should deal with the Herbology teacher first. Anyone want to pitch in?"
"Professor Longbottom's his name." Al started us off with. "Those often he's just Neville to us. He's a family friend. He's really nice and loves his plants. He knows just about everything to do with every plant. Not very good at much else though, apparently in school he was always blowing himself up or getting caught up in something else. And he has loads of stories about Dad when they were at school together." It seemed he knew the most about Professor Longbottom and so the others just let him explain.
"I'll deal with Potions." Kate stated when it appeared that Al had finished. "Professor Slughorn is a very old teacher. He was teaching back in the days of our grandparents, although he did retire for a bit he came back a couple of decades ago and has just sort of stayed. He's actually quite a nice fun teacher, lets you experiment a little as well sometimes." She said smiling. It was obvious he was one of her favourite teachers . . . professors.
"Charms is taught by Professor Vance. He's an American who decided to transfer over here to teach for some reason that nobody really knows. He's quite a strict teacher who doesn't tolerate people who are late or people who don't ask when they're stuck or if they don't understand something. He really hates people who mess around din his classroom, and don't talk to others while he's talking. Other than that he'll be perfectly nice to you." McGee explained in detail Professor Vance's pet peeves. Good to know so I don't get on his bad side.
"And now for Ancient Runes. Does anybody actually know who the Ancient Runes Professor is?" Jenny asked. Obviously this wasn't a well known subject.
"I do." Zeeva jumped in with. "She's Professor Athlon. She's really nice, although there is no way to describe her without meeting her, I suppose she's a bit strange or eccentric, but again they do not really describe her."
"Some other people you might want to know about are Gibbs, Ducky and some of the head staff." McGee announced moving onto other teachers in the school. "Gibbs is the Gym teacher, nobody calls him Professor because he's a Squib. He's really really strict, addicted to coffee, and often slaps people around the head if they do something wrong. Ducky is the school medic, he's really nice, but can ramble on about the past a bit. Oh and he likes to cut up dead bodies occasionally, find out how they died, ya know."
"McGee! Don't scare her off from him! Ducky is really nice and wouldn't hurt a fly." Kate scolded him.
"I was just telling the truth." McGee mumbled so that no one could hear him, however I could with my excellent hearing.
"I'll take over with explaining the head staff." Zeeva chipped in again. "The head teacher is Professor McGonagall; she used to teach Transfiguration but has been the head teacher for the last couple of decades. She's the first female head teacher ever. She's quite strict but is actually very nice underneath her exterior. Professor Vance is the deputy head. They have the overall decisions in the school."
"I'll deal with the house heads." Al piped up. "Professor Slughorn is the head of Slytherin. Professor Aaron is the head of Ravenclaw, she teaches transfiguration. Professor Grubbly-Plank is the head of Hufflepuff, she teaches Care of Magical Creatures. Last but not least, Dad is the head of Gryffindor." He said introducing the ones I didn't know of already. "Another person you should know about is Hagrid. He's the Game keeper and also teaches Care of Magical Creatures, but he's also a family friend. It's great to spend a Saturday down in his cabin."
"It looks like it's getting dark outside, which means we're close to Hogwarts." Kate commented. "It's probably time to change into our uniforms." She said before motioning to Zeeva, who then proceeded to shove the boys outside the compartment so we could get changed in private.