Wow, I'm really getting these chapters out there! I suppose that means I'm more likely go back and think 'oh god why did I write that' later, but for now it means I am really bored and on a Gabriel kick. I suppose you readers should count yourself lucky I spend so much time writing.
This may take a while to get up, since I've just seen Les Mis for the first time and I need a bit to recover before I start the chapter.
Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter.
King's Cross Station rattled and whistled with the sound of a hundred pedestrians going back and forth, tugging bags and other paraphernalia as they went back and forth across the gleaming station. Trains whistling, wheels chugging against the track as gleaming black cars go on their way.
Station one, two three, and there was even station thirteen in a little alcove off to the side, the station itself not nearly as frequented as its more major sisters.
Four, five six, seven, eight, nine.
And then on to ten.
Gabriel squinted at the ticket McGonagall had given him before he'd left. Then back up at the pillar in front of him, a ticket box off to the side. Then back at the ticket.
The number 9 3/4 shone up at him, gold leaf reflecting in the sunlight that the skylights allowed in.
"Forget my brothers," muttered Gabriel in annoyance. "Wizards will mess with you twice as badly." Where on Earth was platform Nine and Three-Quarters?
And who the hell had decided that three-quarters was a good platform number?
Gabriel tilted his head and regarded the pillar in front of him. "Hah! Three quarters. It's not like it's-" He rested his hand on the brick pillar and nearly tripped over his trunk when his hand passed straight through it.
Gabriel, arms windmilling, righted himself. He looked around. He looked at his hand. Then he looked back at the pillar.
"I'll be damned," he said to himself. "They mean it literally."
The wizarding half was very different from the Muggle side of the station. The white smoke coming out of the steam engine gathered in thick clouds above the crowd, and what a crowd it was. There was a group of students clustered around a boy with dreadlocks holding a big box, who was showing them something inside of it that made a lot of them scream. There was a woman in a hat topped with a stuffed vulture, berating her son for loosing his pet toad. Gabriel didn't blame the boy. If he'd been given a toad, he'd have lost it too, and probably far more quickly.
A group of red-headed people came through the barrier one at a time, their flame-colored hair making them easy to spot even out of the corner of his eye. Gabriel climbed onto the train with his trunk dragging behind him, narrowly avoiding two older girls dressed in robes with blue trim. They stepped aside to let him pass, and Gabriel had the funny feeling they were staring at him as he ducked into the first available compartment.
The train was wider than it really should have been, with hallways and compartments along one side, the glass letting anyone sitting down keep an eye on who passed by in the hallway. Gabriel heaved his trunk onto the luggage rack above the seats, cursing his eleven-year-old body, and say down heavily, flopping across the seat and taking up an entire side.
When the train started it was with a jolt that sent Gabriel tumbling onto the floor from his seat. He got up, glaring at the upholstery as if it had personally offended him. There was a knock on the door, and he saw a ginger-headed boy watching him.
Gabriel got up and unlatched the door. "What."
"I, um, I saw you fall. You alright?"
Gabriel stared for a minute before he fully understood what he was being asked. "Yeah...is there a reason you stopped to ask?"
The redhead blushed lightly and mumbled something about sitting.
"What?"
"I don't have anywhere to sit," he said louder. "I thought this compartment was empty."
Ah. "Can't you go farther up the train?"
Redhead's eyes widened. "You mean switch train cars? You can't do that while it's going!"
Right. Gabriel had forgotten how limited humans were. "I suppose you can sit here," He said grudgingly, stepping aside so the redhead could drag his trunk in.
"Thanks," the boy said gratefully, pushing his trunk up onto the rack. "I'm Ron Weasley by the way."
Gabriel caught himself in time to give Ron the name he'd have to go by for the next couple of years. "Harry Potter."
"You're who?" Ron was staring at him now. "Seriously?" He seemed in awe.
"No," said Gabriel dryly. "I'm only pretending to be him. I'm secretly a child agent of the Red Room, here to infiltrate Hogwarts and sell its secrets to the Soviet government." Comic books were one form of entertainment in the Muggle world, and Gabriel had always liked the Black Widow.
Ron took a moment to realize he was joking. "If you're Harry Potter..." he lowered his voice as he sat down across from Gabriel. "Do you have the scar?"
"I take it you're referring to the mark I was scarred with the night my parents were both brutally murdered." It didn't hurt to play on people's feelings, after all. And Ron was being rather annoying - Gabriel wasn't in the mood for hero worship.
Ron, luckily enough, went scarlet and didn't speak for a while. It was a comfortable silence, neither of them saying anything until the trolley came around.
"Anything from the trolley?" The woman pushing it asked.
Ron muttered something, but Gabriel turned towards the woman pushing it. "What do you have?"
She told him. Gabriel leaped up and bought a king's ransom of candy. He hadn't had any in years.
Ron's eyes were wide when Gabriel tipped it all onto the seat, and he cast disgruntled looks down at the plastic-wrapped sandwiches in his hands. Gabriel flipped one of the gold and blue packages at him, and it hit Ron in the forehead.
"Ow!" he rubbed the spot. "What was that for?"
"Do you want it or not?" Gabriel gestured towards the box lying on the floor. Ron glanced between him and it.
"Seriously?"
"I'm not going to eat all of this myself, you know." Well, he probably could, but Gabriel was never sure when it came to humans. Better safe than sorry.
"Thanks!" The package was snatched up quickly. Gabriel stared as a small chocolate frog leaped out of the box, but Ron caught it with what seemed to be practiced ease and bit into it. He noticed Gabriel looking. "What?"
"...I didn't think the name was literal."
"Oh." Ron seemed to instantly understand. "Well, if that's the case, you probably shouldn't eat the Bertie Bott's..."
"What, why?" Gabriel glanced down at the striped box on the seat next to him.
"Well, they mean every flavor, don't they?"
The door to the compartment slid open again just as Ron was daring Gabriel to eat a bean that looked suspiciously bogey-flavored. Gabriel didn't really taste them, and so had developed an impressive record for 'not gagging' when it came to Bertie Botts.
A girl with uncontrollable brown hair stood in the doorway, already dressed in the uniform, sans colors as was required of first years. Once she'd taken in the scene, she seemed regretful that she had opened the door. "Oh. Well. I see you're busy."
"Something the matter?" Gabriel glanced towards her, letting the bean fall back in the box.
"I was talking to a boy named Neville," she said, sniffing. "He's lost a toad. Have you seen it?"
"Nope."
"No."
"Pity." She lingered at the door. "What are you eating?"
"Bertie Botts," Gabriel explained, offering her the box. "Bet you wouldn't eat this pepper one."
"That's not pepper," objected Ron.
"Well, what is it then?"
The girl was reading the back of the box, where the flavors were listed, with an expression of revulsion. "This can't be serious! Earwax flavor?"
"Course they're serious," said Ron, baffled. "What fun would it be eating them if you only got good flavors?"
She handed the box back to Gabriel. "Well, anyway, let me know if you see a toad."
"You're leaving?" Gabriel placed a hand on his chest in mock injury. "I thought we were friends."
The girl looked at him strangely, one had on the door. "Huh?"
"You've been standing there for ages, might as well come in and try one of these." Gabriel waggled the box invitingly. "Seriously, bet you wouldn't try a pepper one."
"It's not-"
"Shut up Ron."
The girl hesitated, then drew the door shut and cleared a space next to Gabriel to sit. "I'm Hermione Granger," she said.
"I'm Ron," Ron offered through a mouthful of fudge. He'd helped himself to the rest of Gabriel's stash.
"Pleasure," Hermione said dryly, then turned to Gabriel expectantly.
"My name is Erik Lenscherr," Gabriel said with a completely straight face. Hermione would probably have bought it, if Ron hadn't snorted and nearly fallen over laughing.
Hermione turned pink. "That's not funny," she said shrilly.
"Alright, alright," Gabriel waved a hand vaguely. "I'm Harry Potter. You've caught me."
"Really?" Oh no. Here they went again. "I've heard of you, you know. I've read all about you. You're in Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Modern Magical History..." she trailed off, going slightly pink.
"It seems you know me better than I do," said Gabriel grandly. "Would you happen to know my favorite color? I forgot it."
This time, it was both of them who laughed.
Hogwarts castle was an imposing sight. It blended in with the background, the lights in the windows creating little pinpricks of light against a background speckled in stars. That only served to show how far they had gone - nowhere near a human city would you see this many stars in the sky. The train station was dark and chilly, and as Gabriel tugged at the robe he'd ended up wearing anyway he could hear a man in the background bellowing for "Firs' years! Firs' tears this way!"
"Where are we going?" whispered Ron as they walked. "The carriages are that way, I saw everyone else going up."
Gabriel shrugged, catching Hermione as she stumbled one one of the steps.
"Thanks," Hermione said. "These steps aren't very even."
"I've noticed."
The steps led around a corner and down to a small quay, where a fleet of boats waited in the dark water. The huge man who had led them there took the one in front, shouting "No more'n four to a boat!"
"They can't be serious," said Hermione. "Taking boats up to the school?" She stood nervously on the dock as Ron got in one, Gabriel following.
"Come on," Gabriel offered his hand. "You can sit down and slide in, if you're nervous." Hermione squeezed her eyes shut and took his hand, sliding in and stiffening when the boat rocked.
The little fleet set off across the water, cutting silently through it. Gabriel thought they were luck to have good weather, and then thought that even if it had been raining they still would have made the first-years go across the lake. It was impressive how the boats sailed on their own, though.
The first sight of Hogwarts sent up a collective 'ooh!' from the children in the boats. Gabriel gazed up at it silently, taking in the turrets and the many windows.
"Duck!" shouted the man in front as they approached what looked like an ivy-covered wall, and Gabriel resisted the urge to shout 'where?'. His head barely missed the wall, and Gabriel crouched slightly as they drew into another small quay.
It was trickier getting out of the boats, and several people nearly fell in, but eventually the first-years were grouped behind the man and letting him lead them up towards the castle.
He knocked three times, booming against the huge double doors of the school.
That's it for now. Read and review, please!