Arriving onto The Hogwarts Express

The smell of stale ale was the first thing Rose noticed as her feet touched the floor. Stepping out onto the cold tiled floor and carefully putting Smutz down, she checked herself over… she was absolutely filthy. Looking around the room she saw that the bar was already filled with over 20 witches and wizards, though some were clearly too young to be patrons. The room itself was a rustic brown coloured wood, with different shaped animal busts on the wall. To add to the decor all the animals seemed to be wearing different hats - a goat wearing a fez being Rose's personal favourite. Rose had been to this pub a few times when she had needed to get down to London, but it hadn't been for years, not since Charlie was at school. It was nice to see that nothing much had changed.
Making her way over to the bar, Rose caught the sight of Aunt Molly who was talking to a witch with frizzy black hair and ruby red robes.

"Oh thank God, I was wondering what was taking so long, Rose hand me Smutz and go get changed, the ladies is to the right of the bar over there, hurry!"

Rose nodded, checking the time on her watch as she walked towards the ladies toilets. No wonder she was getting a little frantic, the train was going to leave in 30 minutes with or without them. It was a good job the pub was a 3 minute walk away from Kings Cross Station. Washing her face and tying her hair in a messy bun, she quickly got changed into a white t shirt, black leather jacket, new set of jeans and white converse. Squirting a few sprays of perfume for good measure she rushed out the door.

Bumping into Ron on her way out she could tell that the taunt George had done earlier was still bothering him. His silence was deafening.

"Ron, please don't include me in the moody club. This is our first day at school and meant to be exciting! Try and enjoy it with me please?"

"Suppose"

"Ron" Rose scolded, hoping this would snap him out of it.

Rose tutted in frustration.

"You have dirt on your nose."

As she walked past she watched him vigorously rubbing his nose on the wrong side.

Fred and George were the last to leave the toilets, purposely not making eye contact with each other as they joined the rest of the group. They had been up to something, that was obvious, a shared look amongst the group conforming it. What was surprising was that Aunt Molly now pushing them all towards the exit of the pub had chosen to completely ignore it.
All six Weasleys and Rose made the quick walk to the station putting their luggage on the train station trollies. To save time Rose put Smutz on top of her suitcase, that way she wouldn't have to worry about accidentally running him over. He sat there like a proud statue clearly enjoying the novelty of not having to walk. The station was completely packed, with no floor space that wasn't covered by someone or a trolly. It would have been claustrophobic if it wasn't for the clear glass ceiling bringing light and a sense of space to the station.

"Come on off we go! packed with Muggles of course" Aunt Molly shouted, beckoning them all with her spare hand (that wasn't holding Ginny) towards the right side of the station.

Rose physically shrunk at Aunt Molly's words. Clearly Aunt Molly sometimes forgot that "Muggle" is an unusual word to most of London society, with a couple of Muggles even turning around and staring at her as if she had used a rude word.

A boy came into view as Rose returned his gaze. He came up to her shoulders with fantastic acid green eyes that were framed with circular glasses. Catching Rose's eye she smiled warmly as she observed his hair, which was very messy. He smiled weakly back as if he wasn't allowed to inquire about what Molly had said, then very quietly he muttered.

"Excuse me?"

Aunt Molly stopped in her tracks, the boy had said it so quietly she wasn't sure whether it was addressed to her.

"Yes Dear?" Molly said Smoothly.

"How do you… you know… erm"

"Get on the platform?" Percy was quick to reply.

The boy stood and nodded, standing awkwardly holding the handle to the cage that held a beautiful snowy white owl.

"Its very simple my dear, all you need to do is simply run at the barrier directly between platform nine and ten."

The boy looked at her like she had lost her marbles making Rose grin unapologetically. Rose observed Aunt Molly, who clearly felt that he did too because she made Fred and George demonstrate first.

"Okay! Fred - George show how its done, go together to save time"

The twins grinned and sprinted at the barrier.

"See you later amigos!"

"Smell you later more like"

"I think one of them just farted, they have no shame" Rose whispered to Ron giggling.

He smirked a little at that, his mood seemed to be improving. Good.

Aunt Molly asked if the messy haired boy wanted to go next. Offering it as a way of reassurance, she would have been mortified if she realised that the air still possibly smelt of gas. The boy nodded, giving Rose and Ron a nod before walking through the barrier without glancing back.

"Hopefully it didn't smell too bad" Ron said in a deadpan voice

Percy went next, muttering something about "Prefect duties."

Rose looked at Ron, giving him an encouraging smile.

"Together?"

"Together"

As they made their way toward the barrier, Rose noticed a girl standing to the right of platform ten. She knew that the girl hadn't been there moments before and presumed that she must have come through the barrier the same time Percy. She came up to Rose's hips, her ebony skin sparkling under the bright light. With short black hair, and pixyish complexion, Rose couldn't believe how beautiful she was. There was something about the way she was beaming at Rose, that made her feel like she knew her. Turning her head so that she was now parallel with the beautiful stranger, violet eyes locked with amber. Rose lifted her free hand to wave at the girl who grinned in return but it was too late the barrier swallowed them from view. Slightly dazed, on the bright platform, surrounded with noise, Rose turned swiftly around, half expecting to see the pixyish girl behind them.

"Everything okay?" Ron asked inquisitively.

"Did you see that girl just by platform ten? Do we know her?" Rose asked impatiently

"Nope" was his simple reply, making a popping noise for affect.

Rose frowned in frustration. There was something about her amber eyes that looked at Rose knowingly. She wanted to go back, curiosity getting the better of her, that was until she remembered where she was.

The air with full of thick smoke from the enormous steam train standing before them. There was a loud hum of chatter and laughter with the majority of student ignoring their parents, more focused on greeting friends. Fred and George were nowhere to be seen, whilst Percy seemed to already be in Hogwarts uniform and breaking up some over eager students playing too near the train. Rose checked her watch, they had five minutes to get on the train.

"Percy, where are Fred and George?" Rose asked over a sea of heads.

"help-ing the boy from ear-lier" he said completely out of breath whilst wrestling someones cat, it looked like the cat was trying to claw at his face.

"Muuum gerrof me!" Ron grumbled loudly making Rose jump.

"You still have a mark on your nose Ron, let me wipe it off"

Aunt Molly was in the process of spitting into her handkerchief, when luckily George appeared.

"Aw has little Ronny got something on his face"

Ginny was the only one who giggled, clearly not picking up on Ron's mood all morning.

"Right! Ron, shall we get on the train and have a look around?" Clocking eyes with him and giving him a Rose look.

Ron quickly agreed, moving closer to Rose and away from his Mother.

"'I'll miss your singing Rose" Ginny sighed. "The place will be too quiet without you."

Singing was something they had all liked doing but the boys had grown out of it by the time they started Hogwarts.

"I will be back singing with you before you know it" Rose replied giving her an encouraging smile. "Besides if you can live without the terror twins around you can without me."

"Yeah it's not like she is going to join the school choir, its laaame" Fred had appeared back to say goodbye to Molly and Ginny.

"You will haw to write to them instead" Molly said to Ginny, she turned to Ron and gave him a huge huge. "The first few carriages are full, best walk further down. Good luck for the sorting later sweetie, and Rose dear stay safe. I will let your parents know. Have a lovely term and I will see you at Christmas" She looked at them both with motherly pride before Rose was engulfed into the safety blanket of an Aunt Molly hug, It ending too soon.

"Yeah go for the fourth carriage in, the guy we helped earlier is in that one." Fred winked.

Nodding and waving their final goodbyes to Ginny and Molly they started to walk down the side of train platform edge.

"It felt weird saying goodbye like that didn't it?" Rose muttered looking at Ron for his reaction " I mean to say we've never really had to do that before."

"Good. She was starting to annoy me with the whole nose thing."

"You do realise you do still have dirt on your face" Rose couldn't help but smile, he was extremely stubborn when he wanted to be.

"And do you know that everyone is looking at you" Ron retorted, looking at Rose with an amused look on his face.

"No no, it's defiantly your nose" Rose replied rolling her eyes.

He was right though, people were staring at them. Rose tried to convince herself that this was the first time they had seen a girl this tall, or maybe Smutz was bringing too much attention to them. But there was something about Ron's smile and the stink eye from most of the girls that made Rose cautious of her own appearance.

"Judging by the fact this has a number 4 painted on, I presume this is carriage number 4?" Ron said with a wiggle of an eyebrow, making Rose chuckle. "It does seem ridiculously busy back there, shall we walk on and find an empty compartment?"

"No Ron, let's keep that boy company like Fred said. We have each other that's an unusual experience, remember for most people they are by themselves."

Ron nodded sticking his head in all the compartments until he found the one with the boy with the messy hair and snowy white owl.

"Hey is this compartment free? It's just me and my cousin, but it would be nice to meet new people." Ron asked nervously.

"Not at all, please take a seat anywhere, there is plenty of room as its just me." He seemed relieved that he wouldn't have to do the journey by himself.

They struggled slightly with all their luggage, moving it to the designated area above their heads. Smutz a little freaked by the loud noises jumped before Rose could stop him, onto the boys lap.

"Oh my goodness I'm so sorry, he is an attention seeker and presumes everyone on this planet is here to fuss him." She groaned mortified her hands still busy tugging luggage. "Smutz - get - down - now!"

Smutz just lay there, looking at Rose with his chocolate eyes and long eyebrows giving her a very hard stare. She knew the stare very well, he was saying "why would he want me to get off him?"

"No please don't make him get down, I love dogs, and he seems really friendly. I love his beard!"

"As long as you are sure. I'm worried he will presume everyone will have your attitude towards him"

"Are you kidding? I bet everyone will love him! I didn't know you could bring a dog to Hogwarts, but it's a brilliant idea."

"Mmm thanks" Rose grinned, biting her cheek.

Ron looked at Rose and then to the boy.

"She isn't too sure whether she can bring Smutz or not, but she is bringing him anyway" Ron was smirking now, it wasn't too often Rose was lost for words. "I'm Ron by the Way, Ron Weasley and this is Rose, Rose Ward"

"Pleased to meet you both, I'm Harry, Harry Potter"

It was Ron this time that was at a loss to say, mouth dropped like a cartoon character.
Rose simply held out her hand to shake Harry's, a warm smile present.

"Pleased to meet you Harry".