1st September
Over the past four days, I've packed and repacked my trunk (so many times you don't want to know). As for my home life, Mum has always told me to eat up, I presume this was the best thing about her- she cooked some lovely foods, which has its obvious downside. I can honestly say that I am not skinny, but I've gotten to the stage where I no longer care. I am quite tall for my age and at 11, I am 5ft 5inches which is rather impressive by most people's books! Mum also said that she didn't want "the services" thinking anything was wrong. I haven't a bauldy what she's going on about half the time!
So this morning, I was so nervous in the car and mum left me off at the entrance to King's Cross Station and drove off. I took out my ticket which said "Platform 9 3/4", I had never heard of such a thing, but after the summer I've had, anything is possible! I managed to find the barrier to platform 9 and a boy with jet black, messy hair was in front of me. He looked as lost as I felt. His head jolted and his eyes followed a woman with flaming red hair, followed by 5 other flaming red-haired people that must have been her children. The eldest ran at the barrier between platforms 9 and 10; I shut my eyes tight, waiting for a crash that never came. I opened my eyes, one by one to notice that the boy had disappeared. The black haired boy shot over to the woman after sons number 2 and 3 had disappeared through the barrier. I stepped closer to hear their conversation – apparently you had to run between the barriers to get onto platform 9 ¾. You must have been kidding me. I watched as the remaining 4 people disappeared and tried to pluck up the courage to go myself. I shut my eyes and ran straight at the barrier.
The next thing I heard was the whistle of the train. It was 10.55am; the train was leaving in 5minutes time. I pushed past several people to find a spare seat in a compartment with a group of girls who were considerably older than me.
I sat quietly, taking out my transfiguration textbook to have a look at what I would be learning. The girls talked in whispers and I decided to mind my own business. A woman with short, curly hair came to the door of our compartment with a mass of sweets, "Anything off the trolley, dears?" she asked. I was so hungry but had no money and the girls beside me laughed and said things like 'I couldn't possibly!' and 'Oh, my figure!' then went back to their mumbles. One of them suggested to me, "you should get your robes on, we will be arriving soon.' I took that as my cue to leave. I nearly stood on what looked like a toad when I closed the door!
When the train stopped, I met on the platform a huge, hairy man who must have been at least double my dad's height! He shouted, "Firs' years follow me!" I saw the messy black haired-boy from the platform and caught up with him and one of the red-haired boys. We followed the hairy man until we got onto boats where I sat with Parvati and Padma Patil. The other girl had long curly, dirty-fair hair, all three were friendly enough.
We peered around the cliff in the boats to see a magnificent castle that was lit up by thousands of candles. It was breath taking. I couldn't help but think that things could only get better from then.
We climbed out of the boats onto the rocks and pebbles and proceeded up a mass of stone steps up to a fantastic oak front door that was even larger than the huge hairy man! When the door swung open, I came face-to-face once again with Professor McGonagall. Fantastic. We were taken into a chamber of to the side of the castle entrance. She told us, "The start of term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seat in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses". I remember her telling me these at home- Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. That house would become our home and that we had to be good to earn points.
Moments later, we were swept into the Great Hall; eyes peered at us from all directions. I kept my eyes focused at the front. We gathered around a stool and the 'sorting hat' began to sing. Yes, the hat sang. I could hardly believe my ears!
Professor McGonagall opened a long roll of parchment and read out a series of names to try on the hat to be sorted into their houses. First off was Hannah Abbot who was placed in Hufflepuff. She was joined by Susan Bones and Justin Finch-Fletchley. I can only remember Padma Patil from the boat was in Ravenclaw. Draco Malfoy whose hair was pure blond (it could hardly be natural, could it?) and a girl called Pansy Parkinson joined Slytherin. The red-haired boy called Ronald Weasley joined Gryffindor. Hermione Granger, a girl with wild curly hair (who seemed to have a personality representative of her hair) joined the same table. When the name 'Harry Potter' was called out, the whole room fell silent. I looked around to see the boy with messy black hair make his way toward the stool. The room was silent for what seemed like hours until the hat shouted "GRYFFINDOR". The whole table erupted in delight as they welcomed their newest member. What was so special about him?
I can honestly say that I didn't hear the next name- apart from the fact that it was mine. Professor McGonagall repeated my name, 'Kathryn Pink!' she stared at me and my knees started to shake. I was glad of the relief the stool had to offer when the hat was placed on my head.
I heard a voice in my ear saying, "Pink, eh? Strange, very strange! Parentage seems to be Slytherin, but I just don't think that's right. Very talented, I see, Hufflepuff would be glad to have your creativity, but your grades, hmm... Ravenclaw wouldn't give you what you need... Difficult, very difficult." The hat was silent in my ears for a little too long. I thought to myself, "Am I going to be a total reject at Hogwarts now too? I need to learn to speak up for myself- grow a pair!" Then the hat spoke, "I knew there was fire in you! You may seem shy, but there's a lioness waiting to be released!" the hat chucked. "GRYFFINDOR!"
As I walked toward the Gryffindor table, I met the eyes of one of the red-haired brothers of Ronald Weasley. He smiled at me; I fought my inner shyness and smiled back. I swear he blushed a little. I most definitely did! I felt my cheeks go redder and redder. I could see him chuckle to himself. Instead of looking away, my heart started thudding. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! I felt marvellous! Then he was distracted by what looked like his identical twin.
Professor Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts rose and made a few announcements- something about the third floor corridor being forbidden to all students. To be honest, I'll be lucky if I know what floor I'm on half the time, this place is HUGE! How many floors even are there? As I was thinking this, Professor Dumbledore magically made dinner appear on the tables in front of us. Well, of course, I will be studying magic after all!
After a while, the eldest of the red-haired boys, Percy directed us to our dormitory. I was sharing with Hermione Granger, the girls Parvati and Lavender from the boat!
I fell asleep, thinking, "I really need to find out the name of that boy." I could still picture his perfect smile in my mind...