In fact, children living in the magical world were usually bored; the Burrow of the Weasleys was just south of the village of Ottery St Catchpole amongst the hills and trees, yet most Muggles had never even noticed that there was a house there.
There were only four Wizarding residents in the neighbourhood, and the Diggorys were the closest, but still miles away.
The families to could only really visit each other using at least brooms. In fact, the children of the four families basically didn't have much to do with each other.
The Weasley children basically don't go to the village of Ottery St Catchpole, much less play with regular muggles.
However, the twins stated that their elder brother had a muggle friend, a pretty girl.
"Muggles in general are harder to get along with, they always think we're weird and we usually don't get to play together, and... my house is farther away from the town."
Lee Jordan was off even worse, he was the only one in his family, so sometimes he didn't even have a playmate if he wanted one.
Albert was quite a bit better off than them, he had a younger sister and a bunch of books, and occasionally played football with others. However, usually it wasn't with a bunch of kids, after all that would be tedious.
Despite not having any really good friends, Albert was quite popular at school. After all, he had excellent grades, was great in all areas, and was also one of the more talkative types who knew how to manage relationships just as well.
Albert had asked the trio about the fact that kids in the magical world didn't actually go to muggle schools.
It was really hard to imagine a House of Malfoy type letting their children go to a muggle school?
Obviously they wouldn't.
Of course, some Wizards were exceptions.
The twins, however, had never been there; they had been taught their initial knowledge by their family.
"By the way, is there a family of Wizards called Smith?" Albert asked, his grandfather's original family was Smith. Later, when he followed his muggle relatives, he decided to change his name.
It showed how much he hated the family that abandoned him.
"Never heard of them, how about you George?" Fred looked to his twin brother.
"I've never heard of them either." Lee Jordan shook his head. "Why?"
"It's nothing, I don't know where I've heard that last name." Albert moved his gaze from the window, visibility was low and it was getting dark.
That said, he hadn't even realised that Lee Jordan was a talker, the guy loved to talk on and on.
The three of them should not be getting, but it was pretty dull in the cubicle, listening to him chatter about things felt like being hypnotised.
Albert reopened his eyes as he felt the train slowing down.
"The train will be arriving at Hogwarts in five minutes, please leave your bags on the train and we'll take them to the school for you." A voice echoed through the train through the speakers.
TL/N: It's not exactly clear what is used for the announcement here, the characters used are usually for speaker, but could also mean some sort of horn used before electricity to amplify your voice.
"Merlin's Beard, at last." Fred stretched lazily, not in the best of spirits after the too long train ride.
George, on the other hand, helped gather the snacks from the table and put them in Albert's suitcase.
The train finally stopped, and the four of them stepped out of the compartment, pushing and shoving as the mass of people on the train crowded towards the doors.
It was quite a rush to get off the train. They descended onto a dark, small platform, the cold rain pouring down, and the chill of the night made Albert shiver.
"I hate rain." Albert muttered, pulling out his wand and reciting an incantation aimed at his pointy hat, "Impervius."
"First Years! First Years over here!" A loud voice shouted from the station's as he held an oil lamp over the heads of the crowd and shook it to get the new students' attention.
"What are you doing, keep up." Fred reached out and pulled him by the hand.
"Just a moment." Albert chanted the same Impervius to the robes on his body, he wasn't sure if the spell would work, but something was better than nothing.
"Come on, Albert." Lee Jordan urged.
"Take it easy, here we go. Lumos." Albert held up his wand and made his way over towards Hagrid, a really tall man with a long beard that looked quite intimidating from a distance.
If you didn't know any better, you'd think it was some kind of dangerous person, he really looked quite intimidating.
"Are there any more First Year students? They're all here? Then let's get going!" Hagrid led them away from the platform, losing the shelter of the platform, the cold rainwater hit them, causing goosebumps to rise all over the freshmen's bodies.
"Watch your step." Hagrid's shouted, but it didn't help at all, the path was muddy because of the rain, and many of them fell down several times halfway.
Albert pulled on his pointy hat and robe, wrapping himself up a little tighter. Luckily, the Impervius Charm worked and he didn't turn into a soaking mess like the others.
Why didn't I learn to conjure an umbrella with my wand?
Albert was a little annoyed, and he decided to take the time to learn this useful magic so that he wouldn't have to worry about rain in the future.
"Are you okay?" In front of him, another unlucky individual fell down.
"Thanks, it's a really rough road." The young girl who was helped up said gratefully.
"Come on." Albert let go of the other's hand and used his wand to show the way, slowly walking forward.
This was definitely the most miserable class of freshmen, many had fallen and were covered in mud.
He also heard a low tirade of curses from Lee Jordan, who was reluctant to be away from him, and who had just been brought to his feet by someone close to him.
Albert suddenly thought it was a wise decision to stay back, at least he wouldn't be pulled down.
"Careful, it's going downhill." Hagrid at the front shouted. He went down and waited on the side to avoid any students slipping while walking down this steep little slope.
This proved to be a wise decision indeed, there were indeed three unlucky fella who almost fell, luckily Hagrid caught them in time.
"Watch out, we'll be at the lake soon."
Once the group had descended the slope, Hagrid went up to lead the way again, and they stumbled round a corner before finally reaching a black lake.
On the hillside on the opposite side of the lake loomed a castle, the Hogwarts Castle.
There were lights flickering in the windows of the castle, which stood out under the dark rainy night.
"No more than four people per boat. Remember, no more than four people!" Hagrid shouted to the newcomers, pointing to the boats on the shore.
"Albert, this way!" One of the twins waved towards him, Lee Jordan was with them too, they were all covered in mud and looked pretty beat up.
"You guys are okay." Albert held his breath a little and got into the little boat.
"Very bad, I fell once and was brought down twice."
"Get in the boat," cried Hagrid, who, after carrying a light to make sure none were overloaded, took a boat all by himself, "Very well, then... forward."
The boat, oarless and automatic, paddled forward across the lake.
Albert gazed up at the castle ahead with an inexplicable sense of excitement, Hogwarts, here I come.