Disclaimer: Harry Potter is owned by JK Rowling
Chapter 13: Red Engines and FriendsHarriet and Daphne's last month at Greengrass Manor before going to Hogwarts was a mixed bag of anxiety and excitement. Nance crammed in more excursions into muggle London during those last few days than the entire year previous that it seemed even Hew and Cossima believed that they were running out of time and came with them to watch 'Terminator 2: Judgement Day' (a real eye-opener for the two senior Greengrasses). In fact, it seemed that their every waking moment was filled with fun activities, their favourite meals or stories about the things their parents experienced at the school. At night Harriet and Daphne would read through their books (Harriet a bit more dutifully than Daphne) or play cards.
On the last day of August they had Harriet's favourite meal for lunch and Daphne's favourite for dinner with their favourite desserts afterwards. Nance had joined them for the meal as she had to work the next morning and thus wouldn't be able to see them off. Hew and Cossima ran through what would be expected the following day.
"Make sure you have your bags packed after breakfast," he had told them, unnecessarily for they both had already packed their bags… twice, "we shall floo to King's Cross Station promptly at ten thirty. Your tickets are on the mantle next to the floo powder bowl."
Both girls dutifully nodded and when it was time for bed, Nance was crying almost as much as the two of them combined at the prospect of spending so much time apart. When Hew and Cossima came to wish them good night, they both overheard Cossima telling Nance that, "just because your sisters won't be here will not be a good enough reason not to come around to visit and have dinner."
They did not read or play cards that night, wanting instead to get a good night's sleep, for they both knew that the next day would be very long indeed.
They woke up around eight and were presented with a full English breakfast in the dining room by a very emotional Dippy. After breakfast they had a bath and got dressed in their school robes and fixed their hair, checked over their luggage and read quietly until it was time to go. At ten thirty the family was standing in front of the floo, Daphne and Harriet with tickets in one hand and shrunken and lightened luggage in the other. Then, after a short trip through the floo, they were standing on platform 9 ¾ at Kings Cross looking at a large crimson steam engine. The front of it was painted black and had a big red and gold sign that read 'Hogwarts Express' with the number '5972' in white underneath it. There were wizarding families all along the platform where the adults were politely chatting with each other while the children were all eager to get themselves situated in the train.
Harriet noticed one strange wizard dressed in a muggle waterproof coat with fur lined hood at the end of the platform standing by himself with a notepad and wizarding camera taking photographs of the train.
She did not point at him, for that would be impolite, but did ask Hew what the man was doing.
Hew noticed the man and discreetly tapped Cossima's elbow. Once he had her attention he said quietly, "look who's still around."
Cossima rolled her eyes rather exaggeratedly and Hew snickered, "his name is Gunzel Round-head Harriet, he used to be around when we were catching the Hogwarts express to school. He's obsessed with the train, loves taking photographs of it and noting things into his notebook. He's a harmless fellow, just a little strange."
He pointed at the train, "come along girls," he said louder, "best get yourselves onto the train. I see Mister Davis over there, but no Tracey; so it's likely she's already on the train in a compartment."
The girls nodded and gave their parents a hug and a kiss before heading towards one of the carriage doors.
"Don't forget to leave room for your trunks to expand again, my charm should end an hour into your trip," Hew reminded them.
Once on board the train, Daphne took the lead, "come on, let's find where Tracey is."
Most of the other students already on the train were older and it was possible that Tracey and the Greengrass girls were the only first years so far. They did find her fairly quickly, in compartment two from the back of the train. The compartments were all on the platform side of the carriages and so once they had stowed their luggage, greeted Tracey and were situated, they were able to open their window and wave to their parents. Hew, Cossima and Mister Davis all walked over to their window and made a fuss over the three of them as the train slowly filled up. Each was reminded to write at least four times and questioned to make sure they had everything at least three times each.
Tracey caused a mild panic when Mister Davis asked her and she let out a gasp, "where's my wand?"
"What?" Mr Davis exclaimed in a panic, "you had it when we floo'd here! I made sure that you had it!"
Tracey's laughter was the best indication then of the trick that she had played on him and his laughter soon joined hers (although slightly more of a 'relieved laughter' than Tracey's).
Hew snickered and even Cossima laughed lightly behind her hand.
Hew remarked, to Mister Davis, "I suppose Tracey's absence at Davis Manor will prove a relaxing experience?"
To which Tracey gasped in mock outrage, "Mister Greengrass!" She protested.
This caused a new round of laughter.
The compartment door opened to reveal Pansy Parkinson, "good morning!" She greeted them politely, "do you mind if I join you?"
"Not at all," Daphne said after a quick glance at Tracey and a very discreet nod was received in turn.
Their parents were soon joined by Mister and Missus Parkinson, who greeted Hew and Cossima politely and Mister Davis slightly more frostily.
Pansy suffered through the treatment that the other's already had, with assurances that she would write and that she had everything that was required.
Daphne, Harriet and Tracey all shared an amused look as Pansy seemed to get more and more frustrated.
The crowds on the platform had grown as it got closer and closer to departure time and the noises from the corridor increased as students walked past.
With some final goodbyes, most of the adults (including the girl's parents) moved away from the train to continue their discussions. They would stay until the train pulled out, to wave goodbye to their children.
The door kept getting opened as children looked in to see who was occupying the compartment and they soon just left the door open until it was time to go so that they wouldn't keep getting interrupted.
Soon the familiar blond topped head of Draco appeared in the doorway, flanked by his friends Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle.
"Miss Parkinson, Miss Greengrass, Miss Harriet Greengrass," he greeted them, then paused longer than was polite before continuing, "... Miss Davis. Good morning to you all."
"Mister Malfoy," they all returned, before Pansy asked rather animatedly, "do you have a compartment yet?"
"We will be taking this one," he said indicating the carriage next to theirs towards the rear of the train, "the company in this carriage is happily," his eyes flashed towards Tracey very briefly, "... mostly polite. Blaise, Theo Nott and Millicent Bulstrode have occupied the compartment on the other side of this one while I believe Marcus Flint, Miles Bletchley and Adrian Pucey have occupied the final compartment."
The girls all nodded and Pansy stated with satisfaction, "what good luck," then screwed up her face in wry amusement, "I may have to rescue Millicent from those boys before the train ride is complete."
Draco and his friends left to go back to their own compartment, closing the compartment door behind them. Harriet noticed that the platform was starting to empty and her attention was taken by a large group of red-heads who seemed to be making some sort of fuss over near the muggle entrance to the platform. There seemed to be a lot of them, all talking very loudly and excitedly. A lot of the other adults on the platform turned their heads to look at the spectacle, but the red-headed family didn't even notice. Four ginger boys all eventually got onto the train one carriage forward of theirs just before a whistle blew and it began to move, leaving a mother and younger sister behind.
Harriet heard the woman screech out "remember to keep an eye out for Harry Potter!" and immediately sucked in a breath at hearing that name and was immediately comforted by Daphne's reassuring hand on her own.
There was a creaking of brakes and the sound of steam blowing from somewhere as the great engine Hogwarts Castle shuddered to life. Parents waved from the platform and children waved back from the windows as the Hogwarts Express departed Kings Cross Station on it's long journey to Scotland.
The girls discussed the latest gossip amongst their set for a short while before Harriet decided to pull out one of her textbooks for a bit of reading while Pansy continued to chat to (or mostly at) Daphne. Tracey sat there listening, but rarely interjecting. After a while, Pansy declared that she was going to either visit Draco, or rescue Millicent and left.
"Finally!" Tracey exclaimed, "I can't stand that stuck up little… witch."
"Oh Tracey," Daphne sympathised, "we are likely to have a whole year together, unless you are sorted into Hufflepuff of Gryffindor."
"Hufflepuff?" Tracey shouted, "Gryffindor?" She followed, equally as loud before she seemed to calm instantly and asked in a much more normal tone, "why not Ravenclaw?"
Daphne giggled, "oh Tracey, if anybody were to be sorted into Ravenclaw it would be this one here," she indicated Harriet.
It took Harriet a few moments to notice that they had stopped talking and were both staring at her, "what?" She asked confused.
Daphne and Tracey both burst into laughter which caused Harriet to let out a huff and go back to her book, but she paid a little more attention to their discussion.
"No, no," Tracey said, calming herself down, "no. Even more importantly, what makes you think I could be sorted into Hufflepuff? Or Gryffindor?"
"Well," Daphne said, "I know for a fact that you would never sacrifice your relationship with your mother to make things easier for you in Slytherin."
Tracey could only nod at Daphne's logic, "so Hufflepuff is a distinct possibility. You would have to be incredibly brave to march headfirst into Slytherin knowing that you would never sacrifice your relationship with your mother, hence Gryffindor."
Tracey huffed, "you know me so well, where do you think I'll really end up?"
"Definitely Slytherin," Daphne said with a smile and asked her sister, "what are the traits of Slytherin, Harriet?"
Harriet hummed as she flipped through the pages of Hogwarts, a history.
"Slytherin," she read, "epitomises: resourcefulness, determination, pride, cunning, ambition and self-preservation."
Daphne held up a finger for each of the Slytherin traits that Harriet listed off and said with a smirk, "looks like six reasons right there."
"Fine," Tracey said with a smile, "but doesn't Hufflepuff represent family?"
Daphne smiled, "I wouldn't be too disappointed with Hufflepuff, or Ravenclaw honestly… anywhere but Gryffindor. But I think I'll end up in Slytherin with you, the only real wildcard will be Harriet here, I think."
"You really think that I'll end up in Ravenclaw?" Harriet whispered over the top of her book, she didn't really want to be separated from her sister and heading to a different house was one of her bigger concerns.
"No," Daphne said with a smile, "but even if that did happen I think that you'd find a welcome home there. You are much more studious than I am and I imagine that they would mostly be the same as you. I can't really see you in Hufflepuff and definitely not in Gryffindor. I can't even imagine that!"
Harriet and Tracey let out a giggle and it was Harriet's turn to mock outrage, "me? In Gryffindor? I would sooner marry a troll."
Daphne laughed, "I hope you wouldn't go quite that far."
Harriet laughed while Tracey 'ewwww'd.
"How do you know how the sorting happens?" Tracey asked, "Father wouldn't tell me a single thing about it, except to joke that I'd have to swim with a giant squid."
Daphne hummed, "well, Father didn't say anything about a giant squid, but he did say that we had no choice in the house we ended up in. He said that the sorting was always right and would always sort according to the house traits."
They were interrupted by the door opening violently and one of the red-headed boys from the platform, the youngest looking one, poked his dirt-smudged nose into their compartment.
The girls all looked at him, entirely unimpressed at the rude interruption, with identical raised eyebrows questioning his temerity.
"Yes?" Daphne.
The boy looked at each of them and let out a disappointed sigh, "uh. Looking for someone, but he's not here obviously."
"Did your search necessitate a lack of knocking?" Daphne asked and Tracey piped in with, "or a lack of introductions and politeness?"
"Uh," the boy let out and his head poked back out of their compartment and his eyes looked up and down the hallway before he closed their door with a bang.
"How remarkably rude," Harriet observed.
A few minutes later there was a knock at the door and Harriet got up to open it for whoever was on the other side. It turned out to be Draco, minus his two book-ends.
"Did you have a red-headed weasel burst into your compartment like an uneducated mudblood?" He asked.
Daphne cleared her throat and gave Draco a stern look.
He blushed a little, "my apologies Miss Greengrass, I meant muggle of course."
"Yes, we did," Daphne answered, "that was a… Weasley, was it? He didn't even have the courtesy to provide his name."
"You can tell by the hand-me-down robes and the complete lack of decorum," Draco said haughtily, "he claimed that Harry Potter was on this train and was looking for him. Father said that I should ensure that he knows the right wizards from the wrong ones should he be here. You haven't seen him, have you?"
Harriet felt her muscles all suddenly tense up and her breathing started to become short, but Daphne's hand soon found hers and although it didn't stop her anxiety, it did seem to prevent it from getting worse.
"No Draco, we haven't," Daphne told him, "I'm sure that there would be a disturbance up and down the train should that person be here."
"That's true," Draco agreed, "that Weasley seemed to know something though, arghhh, why are we going to have to put up with a Weasley?"
"I think that there are about four of them on this train," Harriet spoke up, happy to move the discussion away from the previous topic.
"Really?" Draco moaned, "four weasels all at once? Father says that they are a disgrace to the name of wizard."
"Don't worry Draco," Daphne said, "If my memory serves me correctly, they have traditionally all been sorted into Gryffindor."
"Thank Merlin for small mercies!" Draco declared before stating, "if you'll excuse me, I think I'll go and see what Blaise and Theo are up to."
"Blaise and Theo?" Daphne questioned with a smirk as he was backing out of the doorway, "or a certain Miss Parkinson?"
Draco blushed bright red and all the girls burst into a round of giggles once the door was closed.
At around twelve there was a great clattering outside in the corridor and a smiling, dimpled woman slid back their door and said, "Anything off the cart, dears?"
Each of the girls bought a pumpkin pasty and while Daphne and Tracey also bought a chocolate frog each, Harriet bought a packet of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans.
As they were eating their pasties a noise overhead attracted their attention and the girls all looked up to see that Daphne and Harriet's trunks had expanded.
"Oh good!" Harriet exclaimed, then explained to Tracey, "Mother and Father would not let us carry our wands, nor our main class textbooks. All of it had to be packed away into our trunks. I've had a bit of a read of them since we got them but wasn't allowed to practice any magic. The rules allow for magic to be performed on this train, however."
"She's read the textbooks already?" Tracey asked Daphne incredulously, while Harriet undid the latches on her trunk, Harriet paused for a moment to turn her head and stick out her tongue at Tracey.
"Hence… Ravenclaw," Daphne remarked with smirk.
"Well, forgive me for getting excited and wanting to do well at school," Harriet said with a huff as she sat back down; The Standard Book of Spells, Year One under one arm and her wand in the other hand.
As Harriet read the book and noted the description of the wand movements, she copied them a few times with the wand in her hand while still reading the book. She practiced each step individually, quietly, while Daphne and Tracey talked.
"Lumos!" She eventually commanded, accompanied with a wand movement forward and then up with a backward loop.
"She did it!" Tracey exclaimed pointing at the glowing tip of Harriet's wand.
"Well done Harriet," Daphne congratulated her, then said to Tracey, "honestly, I think she'll be the best in our year."
There was a knock on their compartment and a round-faced boy came in. He looked tearful, but was distracted and staring at Harriet's wand.
"Neville?" Tracey obviously recognised him, then introduced him to the Greengrass sisters, "Neville Longbottom, this is Miss Greengrass and Miss Harriet Greengrass; Daphne and Harriet, this is Mister Longbottom."
The round faced boy dragged his eyes away from Harriet, sniffed and calmed himself briefly to greet them, "Miss Greengrass, Miss Harriet Greengrass, it's a pleasure to meet you."
Daphne spoke for Harriet as well, "Mister Longbottom, it's a pleasure to meet you."
As soon as Daphne finished Tracey immediately asked, "what's wrong?"
"Sorry," the boy apologised to them all, "but have you seen a toad at all?"
The girls looked at each other and shook their heads, Tracey answered, "sorry Neville. I'm sure it'll turn up. Would you like me to come with you, for this carriage at least?"
"Thank you Tracey, I'd appreciate that," he looked at Daphne and Harriet as Tracey stood, "if you see him?"
Neville and Tracey left to search the rest of the carriage for the runaway toad.
"Longbottom…. Longbottom…" Daphne pondered.
"Great great great grandmother Esther?" Harriet offered.
"Oh yes," Daphne answered, "I had forgotten about her, but I was thinking about a contemporary."
She had only paused in thought for a few moments before she snapped her fingers, "the dowager Madam Augusta Longbottom. She holds the Longbottom seat on the Wizengamot. That Neville must be her grandson, I think. Light family, I think Father said, but leaning towards Grey."
"You've got a good memory for these things Daphne," Harriet complemented her.
"And you've got a good head for other things that I don't," Daphne returned with a grin, "if only we were one person, we'd likely be perfect!"
The two giggled at the thought, before Harriet went back to her books to learn how to turn the light off.
Tracey returned a short moment later as Harriet was practicing the wand movements for nox, which should extinguish the light emitted from the end of her wand.
Tracey and Daphne both opened their chocolate frogs and each managed to skillfully pick it out before it could escape.
"Agrippa!" Tracey declared triumphantly, with a mouth full of chocolate and holding up a card.
"Well done," Daphne congratulated her, "I've got another Morgana. Agrippa's quite rare, isn't he?"
"Yes," Tracey crowed, "there's many a collection missing an Agrippa or a Ptolemy. In fact, I think Neville is the only other one I know with an Agrippa."
Daphne was asking Tracey how she became acquainted with the Longbottoms when the compartment door slid open again, this time without a knock. They looked up in confusion at the appearance of Mister Longbottom once more, but this time he had a girl with him.
"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," she said. She had a bossy sort of voice, lots of bushy brown hair and rather large front teeth.
Daphne let out a long suffering sigh and looked at the intruder with icy eyes, "Miss?"
"Oh, I'm Hermione Granger, who are you?" She answered very very quickly.
Daphne looked pleadingly at Tracey, whilst Harriet gently pat her knee. Tracey took pity upon her and spoke up, "it's a pleasure to meet you Miss Granger. I'm Tracey Davis, this is Miss Greengrass and Miss Harriet Greengrass." Her usual happy and carefree manner was suitably controlled.
The muggleborn, for she must have been muggleborn with a name like Granger and with a lack of manners like those displayed, had a brief moment of control.
"Miss Greengrass?" She whispered to herself in confusion before her eyes went wide in some sort of recognition.
"M...my apologies for… uh… interrupting you," the muggleborn stuttered out, "it's a pleasure to meet you all."
Daphne slowly nodded to herself in satisfaction and told the new girl, "Mister Longbottom has already informed us of his missing toad."
"Oh, of course," Miss Granger said, but she seemed to be distracted by the light being emitted by Harriet's wand.
"Page twenty-six of The Standard Book of Spells, Year One?" Hermione asked, tentatively of Harriet.
"Yes," Harriet answered in surprise, "you've studied your textbooks?"
Hermione nodded in relief, "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 books by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough."
"Take a breath, Miss Granger," Daphne admonished, "perhaps you ought to have studied Madam Marchbank's Guide to Modern Manners?"
The muggleborn witch repeated the book title under her breath and gave a little nod to herself, "th… thank-you Miss Greengrass. I'll be sure to look for it in the school library once we arrive at Hogwarts. I read that there are over eight thousand books in the library, according to…"
"Hogwarts: A History," Harriet interrupted, which seemed to please Hermione.
There was a slight pause, where Hermione seemed to look around the compartment a little and Neville seemed torn between apologising and tugging at the girl's robe sleeve.
"Do any of you know which house you'll be in?" Hermione asked suddenly, breaking the silence.
"Miss Davis and myself will likely be in Slytherin," Daphne answered, "and I'm unsure if Harriet will be in Slytherin or Ravenclaw."
"Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad," Hermione offered, "I hope I'm in Gryffindor though, it sounds by far the best. I hear Dumbledore himself was in it."
Harriet scoffed, which attracted a disapproving look from Daphne, but she ignored that as she said, "a glowing endorsement I'm sure, for a house of unthinking fools."
"Oh," Hermione let out and seemed to visibly deflate, she looked over her shoulder into the corridor, "anyway… we'd better go and look for Neville's toad. It was a pleasure to meet you all."
The muggleborn and the stunned toadless boy left and closed the door behind them.
"Well that was… moderately successful," Daphne remarked, "for a muggleborn. She might be able to be educated."
Harriet smiled, "she was very quick to pick up on her mistakes, much quicker than I did with Madam Dallywatkins."
"Oh, you did very well Harriet," Daphne praised, "she did seem very eager to learn. You might have a friend if you do happen to be sorted there."
Although Harriet wanted to dispute the chances of her ending up in Ravenclaw, the idea of a friend there did help to put her mind at ease a little.
It was only a few minutes more of reading and practicing before Harriet commanded, "nox", with a slight jab of her wand. The illuminated tip was immediately extinguished. Tracey and Daphne both clapped at her efforts.
They noticed that the train seemed to be slowing down and a quick glance out of the window showed that it was getting dark. Mountains and forests sat under a deep purple sky.
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."
The train slowed right down and finally stopped. People pushed their way toward the door and out onto a tiny, dark platform. The girls shivered in the cold night air and they weren't the only ones.
Then a lamp came bobbing over the heads of the students, and a deep booming voice called out, "Firs' years! Firs' years over here! C'mon, follow me — any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!"
The owner of the voice proved to be a veritable giant of a man, at least eleven feet all with a great bushy brown beard and long brown hair. He wore a long coat of some sort and towered above all of the children that soon gathered around him.
Slipping and stumbling, they followed the man down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path. Nobody spoke much. Neville, the boy who kept losing his toad, sniffed once or twice.
"Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," the man called over his shoulder, "jus' round this bend here."
There was a loud "Oooooh!"
The narrow path had opened suddenly onto the edge of a great black lake. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers.
"No more'n four to a boat!" The man called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore.
Daphne, Harriet and Tracey expected to be joined by Pansy, but she seemed to have sequestered herself with Draco, Crabbe and Goyle. Hermione, the bushy haired muggleborn eventually got into their boat after a moment of indecision.
"Everyone in?" Shouted the gigantic man, who had a boat to himself. "Right then — FORWARD!"
And the fleet of little boats moved off all at once, gliding across the lake, which was as smooth as glass. Everyone was silent, staring up at the great castle overhead. It towered over them as they sailed nearer and nearer to the cliff on which it stood.
"Heads down!" Yelled the man as the first boats reached the cliff; they all bent their heads and the little boats carried them through a curtain of ivy that hid a wide opening in the cliff face. They were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle, until they reached a kind of underground harbor, where they clambered out onto rocks and pebbles.
"Oy, you there! Is this your toad?" Said the man, who was checking the boats as people climbed out of them.
"Trevor!" Cried Neville blissfully, holding out his hands.
Then they clambered up a passageway in the rock after the lamp carrying man, coming out at last onto smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle. They walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, oak front door.
"Everyone here? You there, still got yer toad?" The man raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.
AUTHORS NOTES:
Lots of stuff from the 'original', so it's an extra long chapter. So far it's been the most fun chapter to write.
Thanks so much for the following story favourites / follows: CookieHunter, gartal, Oxygen Destroyer 1954, grechri, Revo777, Similonion, thomasciesielski54, Nathaly2005.
Thanks extra special super much for the author favourite / follow: Nathaly2005!
Yuzuk1: You are so very welcome. I hope you enjoyed this one as well!