Harry Potter made his way through a large crowd of people packed tightly together on a train platform, pushing a trolley carrying a large trunk and a cage containing a snowy white owl. A scarlet steam engine sat at the platform, smoke billowing from its funnel and A sign overhead read 'Hogwarts Express: eleven o'clock'. The first few carriages of the train were packed with students, many of whom were hanging out the windows, chatting to their families. Once Harry reached a carriage that seemed to be fairly empty, he took his trunk and owl, who he had named Hedwig, from his trolley and started to try and lift it on to the train.
After several attempts, which ended with Harry having very sore toes, two red headed boys, who appeared to be identical twins appeared next to him.
"Need a hand?" they asked in unison, smiling widely at Harry who nodded gratefully. The three of them lifted the trunk, with Hedwig perched on top, on to the train, and the twins helped Harry take it to an empty compartment and place them in the overhead lockers.
"Good to meet you..."
"I'm Fred..."
"I'm George..."
"Who are you!"
The two twins seemed to be able to bounce their speech between them without problem causing Harry to have to rapidly turn his head to focus on which twin was talking.
"I'm Harry." he said, brushing his hair from in front of his eyes. At this point Fred and George stared at Harry's forehead and gasped. Harry realised too late that he had revealed his lightning-shaped scar, that apparently attracted an uncomfortable amount of attention from wizards.
"You're Harry Potter," said one of the twins, Harry couldn't tell which. The other jumped in and said, "Our little brother Ron is starting out this year too."
"He's disturbingly obsessed with you,"
"So if he comes in here, tell him that,"
"We were looking for him."
"Anyway,"
"Best be off,"
"And nice to meet you."
Harry smiled with relief that the twins didn't make a big deal about who he was and waved as they headed out of the compartment. He settled down in a seat next to the window and staired out at the busy platform and his reflection in the glass. Harry was a small boy, with messy, jet black hair, vivid, emerald green eyes and a lightning bolt scar on his forehead, which he had recently discovered to be the mark he received when an evil wizard attempted to kill him, and failed.
Harry watched as Fred and George reappeared on the platform and spoke with an older, plump woman who was attempting to rub something off of the end of a younger, red headed boy's nose. This, is whom Harry assumed to be Ron. A whistle sounded a few moments later and the three boys clambered on to the train, which started moving.
"Mind if i sit here?"
Harry turned to see a girl with mid-back length dark brown hair, brown eyes and a warm smile standing in the doorway.
"Sure." Harry said.
"Cheers." she said, dragging a trunk into the compartment and lugging it on to the overhead rack, "You're a firstie I take it? I don't recognise you."
Harry nodded, "I only found out i was magical a month ago."
"My dad's a wizard," the girl said, "but my parents didn't tell me about magic until i got my letter. Katie Bell, by the way. I'm a second year."
"Harry," Harry said, "Harry Potter."
Katie settled into the seat opposite Harry, "You the one that everyone was talking about at the end of last year? The one that defeated some evil guy as a baby?"
"Yeah, I am him, but I hate the attention, I can't even remember it. Its people basically just celebrating the death of my parents." Harry said, shrugging slightly.
"That's fair," Katie said. They sat in silence for a few minutes before Harry asked, "Where are all the other second years?"
Katie grinned, "I was trying to escape them. I'm the only Gryffindor girl and the two boys also in Gryffindor are right idiots and get on my nerves."
"Gryffindor?" Harry asked.
"Right, you wouldn't know," Katie said, "Its one of the school houses. There's Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin. Slytherin is full of bigots though."
"So there's only three of you in Gryffindor in your year?" Harry asked.
"My year had a particularly small in take," Katie said, "Not many people had kids during the peak of the war, I think your year is apparently much bigger but we'll see."
It was at this point that the twins marched passed the door, holding the younger red head by the ears.
"Oi, you brats, why are you dragging me by the ear, OW!" the younger boy yelled, struggling against Fred and George.
"Because,"
"Little Ronikins,"
"We don't want you,"
"hunting for,"
"Our good friend,"
"Harry Potter."
The twins bounced back and forth, giving Harry and Katie a wink as they passed. The two cracked up the moment the twins and Ron were out of sight.
"Good to see you've got Fred and George on your side already," Katie giggled, "They're right pranksters, but they were really friendly to me last year when i refused to become friends with McClaggen and Pelley"
"Yeah, they helped me get my stuff on the train. And warned me about their brother's obsession with me." Harry said, grimacing slightly.
Harry and Katie continued to chat as they watched the sprawling city outside the windows turn to rolling countryside. At about one o'clock, they heard a clattering outside the compartment and the sound of someone calling,
"Anything from the Trolley dears?"
Katie grinned and stood, gesturing for Harry to follow.
"Time to splash out, magical sweets are awesome!" she said excitedly, sliding open the compartment door and stopping by a smiling old lady who pushed a trolley piled with packages; Harry followed and the two bought a large selection of sweets. Harry had expected Mars Bars and other muggles sweets, instead they reentered the compartment with arms full of pumpkin pasties, chocolate frogs, liquorice wands and boxes of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans.
"Start with one of these before you destroy your teeth." Katie said, throwing Harry a Pumpkin Pastie with a wide grin on her face. Harry caught the pastie and grinned.
When he finished munching on his pastie, Harry picked up a chocolate frog box and as he opened the cardboard flap, Katie made a muffled cry warning through a mouth full of food. But she was too late. The chocolate frog leapt from the box and bounced through an open window. Giggling at the expression of surprise on Harry's face, Katie said,
"Oh well, we've more. Look at the card in the box though, they're cool."
Harry pulled a small rectangular card from the box and looked at it. It showed a man's face. He wore half-moon glasses, had a long, crooked nose, and flowing silver hair, beard, and mustache. Underneath the picture was the name Albus Dumbledore.
"So this is Dumbledore!" said Harry.
"Honestly, he's a bit strange." said Katie, giggling slightly.
Harry turned over his card and read:
ALBUS DUMBLEDORE
CURRENTLY HEADMASTER OF HOGWARTS
Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times, Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel. Professor Dumbledore enjoys chamber music and tenpin bowling.
Harry turned the card back over and saw, to his astonishment, that Dumbledore's face had disappeared.
"He's gone!"
"Yup," said Katie, "terrified me half to death first time i saw a moving portrait in the castle. The castle ones talk too."
Harry just grinned and said, "Magic's awesome."
Katie giggled and nodded.
Harry stared as Dumbledore sidled back into the picture on his card and gave him a small smile.
"Want to try one of these?" Katie asked, dragging Harry's attention away from Dumbledore. She was holding up a box of Every Flavour Beans and was smiling mischievously. Popping open the lid, she held it out to Harry, who tentatively took a bean and bit into it.
"Hmm, coffee." he said.
"Lucky," Katie said enviously, "My first was salt."
Taking a bean herself, she bit it into it and squeaked in surprise and her eyes began to water, "God, i think that was ghost pepper."
Harry winced.
There was a knock on the door of their compartment and a round-faced boy Harry had passed on platform nine and three-quarters came in. He looked tearful.
"Sorry," he said, "but have you seen a toad at all?"
When they shook their heads, he wailed, "I've lost him! He keeps getting away from me!"
"He'll turn up," said Harry.
"Yes," said the boy miserably. "Well, if you see him…"
He left.
"I hate toads," said Katie, "Absolutely disgusting, all slimy and just, gross."
Katie was biting into another chocolate frog when she noticed the bridge of Harry's glasses were taped up.
"Here, pass us your glasses," she began, pulling her wand from a pocket on her jeans, "I'll fix them..."
But before Katie could finish the compartment door slid open again. The toadless boy was back, but this time he had a girl with him. She was already wearing her new Hogwarts robes.
"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.
"He just looked in here," said Katie, but the girl wasn't listening, she was looking at the wand in her hand.
"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it, then."
She sat down. Katie looked annoyed and rolled her eyes at Harry. She reached forward and plucked Harry's glasses from his face; Harry started squinting to try and see what she was doing. Tapping the pear of glasses she pronounced,
"Reparo."
She preceaded to rip the celotape, which had been holding the glasses together, from the bridge and place them back on Harry's face. He blinked and smiled gratefully.
"Very impressive." said the girl. "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 — I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?"
She said all this very fast.
Harry looked at Katie, and was amused to see an expression of astonishment on her face.
"I'm Katie Bell," Katie said.
"Harry Potter," said Harry.
"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."
"Am I?" said Harry, feeling slightly uncomfortable.
"Goodness, didn't you know, I'd have found out everything I could if it was me," said the girl. Katie cleared her throat loudly. Hermione didn't seem to notice Katie and continued, "Do either of you know what house you'll be in? I've been asking around, and I hope I'm in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best; I hear Dumbledore himself was in it, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad...Anyway, we'd better go and look for Neville's toad. You two had better change, you know, I expect we'll be there soon."
And she left, taking the toadless boy with her.
"If she ends up in Gryffindor," Katie said rather amusedly, "She's gonna be clashing with Fred and George, a lot."
Maybe half an hour later, Katie was explaining the basics of Quidditch to Harry when the compartment door slid open once again, but it wasn't Neville the toadless boy, or Hermione Granger this time.
Three boys entered, and Harry recognized the middle one at once: it was the pale boy from Madam Malkin's robe shop. He was looking at Harry with a lot more interest than he'd shown back in Diagon Alley.
"Is it true?" he said. "They're saying all down the train that Harry Potter's in this compartment. So it's you, is it?"
"Yes," said Harry. He was looking at the other boys. Both of them were thickset and looked extremely mean. Standing on either side of the pale boy, they looked like bodyguards.
"Oh, this is Crabbe and this is Goyle," said the pale boy carelessly, noticing where Harry was looking. "And my name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."
Draco Malfoy turned and looked at Katie,
"I don't recognise you," he said, "Presumably you're a half-blood or muggle-born then."
He turned back to Harry. "You'll soon find out some people are much better than others, Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there."
He held out his hand to shake Harry's, but Harry didn't take it.
"I think I can tell who the wrong sort are for myself, thanks," he said coolly.
Draco Malfoy didn't go red, but a pink tinge appeared in his pale cheeks.
"I'd be careful if I were you, Potter," he said slowly. "Unless you're a bit politer you'll go the same way as your parents. They didn't know what was good for them, either. You hang around with lower class families and that Hagrid, and it'll rub off on you."
"leave." Harry said coldly as Katie gave a venomous glare to Malfoy.
Malfoy gave a glance at Katie who was now holding her wand very tightly in one hand and glaring daggers at the three boys. He smirked slightly and they left the compartment.
Katie sighed,
"People like that are who end up in Slytherin. We better be getting are robes on. We'll be arriving soon."
They grabbed their long black robes from their trunks and pulled them on. While Harry's were plane, Katie's robes had a large scarlet and gold crest of a roaring lion on the right side of her chest.
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."
Harry's stomach lurched. Katie gave him a reassuring smile and started cramming the last of their sweets in her pockets. They joined the throng of people in the corridor and the train slowed and stopped. People pushed their way towards the door and out on to a tiny dark platform. Harry shivered in the cold night air. Beside him, Katie said,
"You'll be taking a different way to the school as a first year. So good luck, and I'll see you later."
She gave Harry a pat on the shoulder before she was swept away by the crowd, waving as she was. Then a lamp came bobbing over the heads of the students, and Harry heard a familiar voice: "Firs' years! Firs' years over here! All right there, Harry?"
Hagrid's big hairy face beamed over the sea of heads.
"C'mon, follow me — any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!"
Slipping and stumbling, they followed Hagrid down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path. It was so dark on either side of them that Harry thought there must be thick trees there. 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," Hagrid 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!" Hagrid called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore. Harry was followed into a boat by Neville and Hermione and soon after Ron.
"Everyone in?" shouted Hagrid, 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 Hagrid 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 Hagrid, 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 Hagrid's lamp, 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?"
Hagrid raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.