The holidays, Harry decided, had passed altogether too quickly. He was looking forward to Hogwarts, but still, the summer had been divine. His head was spinning from all the garden parties, he loved his afternoons with Neville more than anything, Ron turned out to be a very decent friend in time, and all in all, Harry had never been so happy before in his life.

Hogwarts was going to change his life, and for all his bravado in front of Abdulaziz, he was starting to feel a little apprehensive now that the time of departure approached.

The last evening of August, the Traverses took him aside. "We have an announcement to make, Harry," Alduin said. "Alexandra is expecting a child."

"Oh." Harry was taken aback. "When?"

"Oh, it will be a while," the lady in question smiled. "In fact, nobody else knows yet, but we wanted to tell you in person and by the time you come back for Christmas, everyone will know. So please keep it to yourself. We expect the birth at the beginning of April."

"Do you know if it is going to be a boy or a girl?" Harry asked, then hesitated. "Or is it too soon for that?"

"It is not too soon – with magic, you can know as soon as the child is actually conceived," Alduin explained, and Harry blushed at this. "It is a boy, and his name is Wynn, in my father's honour."

"Little Wynn..." Harry considered this. "Wait, you said the beginning of April? So by the time I come home for Easter, there might be a baby in the house already?"

"Given that Easter is relatively late this year, I should think very likely."

"Wow. That's...I mean, I don't have experience with small children. But it will be a little like having a much younger brother, won't it?"

"Very much like it, I imagine, though having no brother myself, I couldn't possibly confirm it."

"It's cool." Harry smiled. "I will be thinking of little Wynn."

"That is very nice of you, Harry," Alexandra said. "Is there something you want to ask about Hogwarts, before you go?"

"Hm, no, I think I got everything...we go by train from London, then there is the Sorting and then I just have to go to classes and try to earn points for my house..."

"And make friends," Alduin added. "That is one of the most important things one can do at Hogwarts."

Harry smiled. "I wouldn't have expected you to say that," he said, "but I'll do my best! I will have Neville and Ron, in any case."

"Yes," Alduin said slowly, "but that is the beauty of Hogwarts, that you get to meet people you would not come across otherwise. In all likelihood, no one will ever replace the people who were your first friends in your regard, but being at school gives you the opportunity for broadening your acquaintance, you know."

"Okay," Harry said, contemplating this. "I guess it makes sense. So you're saying I shouldn't talk to just Neville and Ron?"

"Precisely. It's sometimes easiest and most comfortable, and I certainly don't begrudge you your best friends, but it's possible you'll never be in such diverse company again. Make the most of it."

Harry slowly nodded.

And then it was the first of September. He was woken up by Sibby as usual, and trotted down to breakfast. His trunk was packed, his new owl was in her cage, and a basket of food for his journey was prepared. In spite of knowing that, he ate as much bacon and eggs as he could. It was a long journey.

Alexandra laughed at him. "There is cake for your elevenses," she said, "and then roast beef sandwiches for lunch and some buns and jam and honey for afternoon tea. Oh, and pumpkin juice and tea, of course."

That really sounded like it should be enough, Harry had to admit.

At nine, they rose from breakfast and, dressed in Muggle clothing, gathered in the hall, from which Alduin Apparated Harry to Diagon Alley, with Alexandra at their heels. "Are we going to walk from here?" Harry asked.

Alduin chuckled. "I see we should have spent more time studying maps of London! No, it's too far to walk with luggage, especially given that you are carrying a cage with an owl and the Muggles would absolutely stare. I ordered us a cab."

Harry stared. "A Muggle cab?"

"Yes. In future, we will be Apparating directly to King's Cross, but we wanted you to experience this the traditional way on your first run."

They passed through The Leaky Cauldron and entered the waiting taxi. The driver gave them all very strange looks, but he did not say anything and within half an hour, they were at King's Cross, standing in front of the barrier between platforms nine and ten. "Now remember what I told you, Harry," Alduin said. "Just pass through. Alexandra will go first."

She did, and Harry followed, a little nervous. But he had already seen much more admirable feats of magic than just passing through a wall, and so it did not cost him too much effort to believe that it could be done. And, just like that, he was there. He was at Platform Nine and Three-Quarters.

Alexandra was waiting for him, smiling. "Come on, then," she said, when Alduin appeared after him. "The train is already here, let's find you a compartment."

It was ten o'clock exactly. They headed to the front of the train, where Harry choose the place he liked best and watched his trunk and Hedwig's cage being deposited. Afterwards, he followed the Traverses back to the platform. "I agreed to sit with Neville and Ron," he told them, "because Draco will inevitably be with Vince and Greg and Theo, and probably Pansy and Millicent will join them too, so it will be quite full already. The future Hufflepuffs will be sitting together too, I guess, so I imagine some other people might come sit with us, because it won't be that full. At least we will meet someone new that way, like you said."

Alduin nodded. "Important friendships are often made on the train," he said. "Now, remember what I told you. You should do fine in your classes, with the preparation I gave you. Stay away from Filch and Peeves, and if you need help, don't hesitate to ask for it, either the teachers of the prefects, or even ghosts and paintings, really. And you can always call me. Do your classwork properly and in time-"

Draco with his parents appeared in this moment, cutting off Alduin's recapitulation of all the advice he had given Harry already, several times in some cases. The boys chatted together excitedly, gradually joined by more of their future schoolmates. Neville arrived at about quarter to eleven, looking haunted. Harry took one look at him and said. "Come on, I will show you the compartment I picked."

He was saying goodbye to the Traverses when the hassled looking Weasley family emerged from the barrier. Harry let Neville direct Ron, well aware that the boy was glad for every excuse to be away from his grandmother today. She had been pestering him with tips about Hogwarts for the last two weeks, too, but hers were more along the line of 'try not to mess up too much,' which Neville found understandably tiring.

"Have a great time, Harry," Alduin was saying. "And do not hesitate to write us about anything, or even call us with that mirror. We want to hear everything about your time there."

"Yes," Alexandra agreed. "We miss Hogwarts, and want to remember it at least through you, even if you aren't a Ravenclaw."

"He should get in already," Alduin pointed out, and so Harry boarded the train and waved from the window, next to Ron and Neville, as the train began to move and gained speed, until the platform disappeared from sight.

The future Slytherins – or so they hoped - had taken the compartment just next and the Hufflepuffs were beyond them, Daphne changing places every hour or so, sometimes accompanied by Draco, so their end of train was occupied entirely by first years and it was a cheerful journey. They were several hours in when an unknown girl entered their compartment. "Hello," she said, "are you all first years? You look like ones."

"Yeah," Harry said, while the other two nodded.

"Me too," she said. "My name is Hermione Granger, by the way. Who are you?"

"Ron Weasley," the ginger boy said at the same time that Neville introduced himself. Then Harry joined in with his name.

"Are you really?" said Hermione. "I know all about you, of course — I got a few extra books, for background reading, and you're in Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century."

Harry was amused. "And you think that reading about someone in a book makes you know all about them?"

Hermione frowned. "Not really, I suppose – that's not what I meant. Just that I know about how you defeated Voldemort."

"Do you? Because I had some historians tell me no one has a clue." Ron sniggered, but Hermione ignored him.

"You know some historians?" She asked. "Magical ones, I mean? I'm really interested in history." She sat down without being asked.

Ignoring this disregard of manners for the moment, Harry said: "Yeah, I agree, it's cool. Anyway, yes, the wife of the cousin I live with is a historian, and she knows lots of other historians too, so they sometimes come over. And I met Bathilda Bagshot."

"The author of our history book? Really? You know her?" Hermione looked ready to swoon.

"Yeah, I went for tea to her house on Christmas, and she's Floo called us a couple of times since then. She was a really good friend of my cousin's great-grandparents or something like that, and she has known him ever since he was a little boy. She helped me prepare for Hogwarts."

"Oh, I'm so jealous! And your cousin's wife, what's her name?"

"Well, she's Mrs. Travers now, but just a couple of month ago, she was Alexandra Burke."

"Seriously?" Hermione actually jumped in her seat a little. "I think she is the author of one of the books I have! I will have to check, but...it has to be amazing to know all those people!"

Harry shrugged. "Yeah, well, I think it sort of comes with the package of being a Ravenclaw, which my cousin and his wife both were. All those intellectual people know each other, it seems to me."

"Really?" Hermione frowned, and bit her lip. "Then maybe Ravenclaw is better...I mean, I have been thinking about the houses and I've been asking around, and I hoped I would be in Gryffindor, it sounded by far the best; I heard Dumbledore himself was in it. But if you say that being in Ravenclaw gets you an opportunity to know all these people..."

"None of us is going to disagree with you about Gryffindor being the best," Harry said, laughing, "because we all plan to go there. But if you're so interested in history, you probably should go for Ravenclaw. I should also tell you what my cousins told me – that History is taught in a terrible and really boring way at Hogwarts, and that you would do better to read the course book during the lessons than to listen to the teacher. My cousins made me a list of books I should read instead of the class and they want me to write them summaries."

"Better you than me," Ron muttered.

Hermione, on the other hand, was thrilled. "That's brilliant! I mean, it's bad if History is really taught so badly, but it's great your cousins try to mend that hole in our education. Could you share that list of books with me, please?"

"Oh, yes, of course." Harry paused, thinking that with Hermione in the compartment, there would never be a chance for a normal conversation with the boys again, and then said: "I have some friends in Ravenclaw, in the third year, maybe I could introduce you and you could ask them all about it?"

"Oh, thank you, that would be wonderful! You see, I don't know anyone magical at all, so it would really help."

Harry just hoped that Horatio Yaxley or Roger Davies were not one of those prejudiced people who had a thing against Muggle-borns. He remembered seeing Horatio at the other end of the same carriage, so he just walked Hermione there and, knocking lightly at the door of the compartment, opened it. "Hello," he said, sticking his head in. Horatio and Roger were sitting there with one boy and two girls he didn't know.

"Hello, Harry," Horatio said with a smile. "Can we help you?"

"Well, not me exactly, but..." He opened the door fully and gestured to Hermione. "This is Hermione Granger. She's going to be a first year, like me, and is deciding between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, and seems to really reads lots and lots of books about history and things like that, so I thought Ravenclaw would be better for her, but maybe you could explain better...she doesn't know any witches or wizards, you see..."

Roger rolled his eyes and one of the girls sniggered, but Horatio gave them a measuring look. "Interested in books?" He asked, looking at Hermione. "What does that mean exactly?"

"Well," Hermione said, clearly nervous, "I haven't read as many wizarding books as I'd like to, unfortunately, what with knowing I was a witch only for a month or so...and I spent most of my time studying for Hogwarts I'm afraid..."

"What did you study?"

"Oh, all the textbooks – I mean, I didn't want to be behind, I'm sure you all already know these things, so I tried to memorize them as well as I could and I did some spells-"

"And did they work?"

"Oh, yes, all of them, as soon as I understood the theory-"

Horatio's eyes widened. "I think Ravenclaw is just the house for you," he stated. "Do sit down."

When Harry returned to his compartment, Ron said: "Thanks for getting us rid of that thing."

Harry frowned at him, and Neville said: "I think she is kind of impressive, really."

"Impressive, maybe. So are dragons, and I don't want one of them around." Harry couldn't help but laugh at this.

The train soldiered on as darkness fell outside, and Harry emptied his food basket with significant help from the other two boys and Daphne, and Draco and Theo, too, who came over for tea. And then the train was stopping, and there they were.

They got out to the platform and Harry spotted Hagrid's form towering over the crowding students. "Firs' years," he called, "firs' years, over here!"

"Hello, Hagrid," Harry said, dragging Ron and Neville with him. "Thanks for the owl again."

"Yer welcome, Harry. Like I said, it was the least I could do. Now come on, firs' years, over here!"

Finally they were all gathered and could set off, on a dark path through a forest. Harry wondered why Alduin hadn't warned him about this - it was a bit of rough going, really, and Harry almost tripped several times in the dark. Neville did, more than once, and Harry and Ron had to catch him to prevent him from falling. Behind him, Draco was complaining in a low voice to Theo, and while Harry found it irritating at first and quite sympathized with Daphne, who'd told the blonde to be quiet several times from where she was walking behind him, after a while, even he began to wonder how much further it was. And then, a view suddenly opened before them, and he couldn't stop the low "wow" in reaction.

Hogwarts, he had to admit, was beautiful.

It was a castle with many towers, big and small, towering above a dark lake, the light in its windows glittering in the night. Magic seemed to weave around it like an invisible net, and Harry felt pulled towards it, as if this was the place where he'd always wanted to be.

He wondered how he would have felt is this was the first grand magical building he saw, because he was quite in awe even as it was. Hermione must be overwhelmed.