Note: This chapter was betaed by MasterQwertster.

Chapter 4

Prepare for Hogwarts

28 August 1991, 4 Private Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey

Alexandra's last month with the Dursleys wasn't what she could call very enjoyable. True, Dudley was now scared of her, and believed she would use magic on him if he stayed in the same room with her. Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon's reaction to her official affiliation to the magical world was even more drastic: they didn't speak to her any more. Half-terrified, half-furious, they tried to act as if she didn't exist inside the boundaries of their home. Although this was an improvement in many ways considering the way she had been treated so many times in the last ten years, it did become a bit depressing after a while.

Alexandra continued to stay outside number four Privet Drive the majority of the day. Early in the morning and late at night, she kept to her room, with her owl Atalanta for company and magic books as reading material. The school books she had bought were very interesting, and for the first time in her life she was really excited to go to begin her school year. The single fact that Dudley Dursley and his gang would be nowhere in the vicinity was enough to make the magical school attractive.

She also learnt that the haughty girl she met at the clothes shop had been correct: Hogwarts was divided into four houses, in the alphabetical order Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Their emblems were respectively a lion, a badger, an eagle and a snake. Each new student entering the school was introduced to his new House at the "Sorting Ceremony", although History of Hogwarts gave no details on how this selection was done. The book just listed the supposed qualities of each House: courage and nobility for Gryffindor, loyalty and hardworking for Hufflepuff, wisdom and intelligence for Ravenclaw and cunning and ambition for Slytherin. While the book described it as a perfect system, she already had her doubts: any person could be courageous in certain circumstances, and every human has an ounce of ambition in him. Even Dudley has the ambition to become larger than an elephant for example.

Unfortunately, while she marvelled for the most part in front of her school books, the surplus history books horrified her. When her account manager Grimjaw had given her the basics of the war, she had honestly thought the old goblin was exaggerating things. It appeared it was to the contrary: the situation had been completely desperate when she was one year old. The period between 1978 and 1981 was just a period of massacres, bloody ambushes and vicious battles between witches and wizards. Despite the huge amount of propaganda in it proclaiming victory was in sight, it gave her clues how bad the situation had been. Hundreds of casualties every month in the best of cases. Thousands when a major offensive or battle was fought. Studying the book she had taken on the so-called 'pureblood' magical families, the disaster was even more evident. For a war fought on the ideals of blood purity, a quarter of the pre-war nobility was outright extinct. Others, like Alexandra's own family, but also the Bones family, the Longbottom family and many others were reduced to one or two members for the main line with a few cousins to take the name if the persons carrying the name died without heirs.

There was also a heavy effort to present her father as the right hand of the Dark Lord Voldemort, despite the fact he was 'only' a spy, and apparently like all his family before him had fought for the so called 'Light side' for many generations. The Potter family descended from Linfred of Stinchcombe, a rather popular wizard of the twelfth century who had been credited for inventing so many potioneer recipes that he was known as 'The Potterer'. His helpful nature and his affability had made him so universally liked in the magical and non-magical communities that he was a reference in potions by the time he died, and his eldest son Hardwin took the name 'Potter' from an adaptation of the nickname 'Potterer'.

In the centuries which followed, the Potter family had generally been considered of an average standing in the ranks of the nobility, often standing on the frontlines when a threat to Magical England manifested itself. That James Potter had been sent to Azkaban prison without a trial and apparently on hearsay in spite of this positive reputation (the author of the book seemed perfectly happy to explain a certain Bartemius Crouch had passed a law in 1981 which authorised the authorities to send every suspect to prison without any need for evidence) did not give her a very positive appreciation of how justice worked in the magical word. Although Alexandra had to admit that with her experiences at the Dursleys she was hardly an impartial judge.

On the other hand it had motivated her enough, along with Accountant Grimjaw's warning, to take her magical and physical training seriously. For all she knew, she could be attacked as soon as she mounted on the train for Hogwarts. 'Running away from the danger' didn't look too good if (or when) she ran into trouble. Unfortunately, learning magic was extremely difficult. So far she had only managed to use a spell named Fumos, which created a lot of smoke (extremely efficient to escape Dudley's gang but had the side effect of making Petunia scream because she believed there was a fire) and Petrificus Totalus, a spell which was known as the Full Body-Bind Curse in Curses and Counter-Curses. Piers Polkiss had been her 'volunteer' for this experience, and she had used real ropes to divert suspicions afterwards.

August passed at full speed, and soon there was only three days left until her departure to Hogwarts. As she had been informed by a letter carried by Atalanta, she was to be aboard the Hogwarts Express September the first. Of course for that to happen, she needed to be at King's Cross station where the platform 'Nine and Three Quarters' was. Who had thought of giving a platform such a name had been a question she'd not found the answer in History of Hogwarts.

As she had never been to that station before, teleportation would not be very useful and anyway she had a heavy trunk to carry with her, as there was no way she was leaving any of her clothes, money or other possessions at Privet Drive where the Dursleys could burn or destroy them. So she would need to use her uncle's car. Joy.

She went down to the living-room, where the entire Dursley family was watching a documentary on elephants on television. As they didn't even turn their eyes toward her when she entered the room, Alexandra cleared her throat to let them know she was there, and Dudley immediately screamed and ran from the room. Apparently he really feared her. Oh, well.

"Uncle Vernon?"

Her uncle grunted to show he was listening, his eyes fixed on the screen.

"I need to be at King's Cross station on September 1 to go to my new school."

Uncle Vernon grunted again.

"Could you please transport me there?"

Grunt. Alexandra supposed that meant yes.

"Thank you." For once she was sincere, as she had not had to use threat, bribery or logic to force him. She would have to be more paranoid in the next days. Her chance was never that good, unless something bad was going to happen.

She had already turned her back and was about to go back to her room upstairs when Uncle Vernon actually spoke.

"Funny way to get to a wizards' school, the train. Magic carpets all got punctures, have they?"

Alexandra didn't say anything. She supposed her uncle wouldn't be very interested to know that magic carpets had been forbidden after a rather intense lobby from the broom firms in 1954. History of Hogwarts was full of anecdotes like that.

"Where is this school, anyway?"

"In Northern Scotland," said Alexandra, thanking the fact her history book had that information. Else she would not be in the process of stealing warm clothes. "But I just have to take the train at King's Cross which leaves at eleven o'clock."

"Barking," growled her uncle, "Howling mad, the lot of them, having a school so far north. You'll see. You just wait. All right, I'll take you to King's Cross in three days. I'm going up to London on September first anyway, or I wouldn't bother."

That sounded more like the uncle she knew.

"Why are you going to London?" Alexandra asked, trying to keep things civil if not friendly.

"A meeting with a big client for Grunnings," said Uncle Vernon. "We'll drop you off at King's Cross before going there."

1 September 1991, Hogwarts Express

Alexandra woke at five o'clock the morning of September 1 as she was too excited and too nervous to sleep any more. She got up and pulled on a shirt and jeans since walking in a non-magical station in wizard's clothes would be the height of idiocy. The robes bought at Diagon Alley were a century out of fashion. She would change into her school uniform's clothes on the train, going to Scotland, the journey was certainly going to last the entire afternoon. She checked her Hogwarts list yet again and her entire bedroom to be sure she hadn't forgotten anything. Anything left there would be at the mercy of Dudley for more or less nine months. To use a military term, it would end up missing in action. Or killed in action.

Atalanta was sent directly to Hogwarts, as she would attract too much attention at the station and Alexandra had not bought a cage for her. Then she waited for the Dursleys to wake up. Two hours later, Alexandra's huge, brand-new trunk had been loaded into Vernon's car, and they set off for King's Cross. They reached King's Cross at ten o'clock. Uncle Vernon dumped Alexandra's trunk onto a trolley and then drove away at full speed, considering he had done his 'familial duty' towards her done.

Entering the station, she was stunned by the noise and the crowd in it. King's Cross Station was probably the busiest place in all of London. It was full of regular people going about their lives, rushing around to catch their trains. Thousands of people. And she was supposed to find her way in this rush? She had never had a reason to go to King's Cross or any other major train station, not that the Dursleys would have wanted to take her to one anyway. So this was her first visit to this part of London. As a result, she was a bit lost in the first minutes, trying not to lose herself in the sights and sounds of the place, and avoiding the employees who would have asked problematic questions to a young girl traveling alone. It took her very little time to acknowledge that Privet Drive, for all its faults, was relatively calm and silent compared to this kingdom of clamor.

Following the instructions on her letter, she slowly made her way over to Platform nine and three quarters, which too predictably had its hidden entrance in a wall between platforms nine and ten. Walking through the barrier were people in robes and other outdated clothes, disappearing at regular intervals, and she realized that she was fifty minutes early as she glanced at the massive clock over her head. The silence was deafening compared to the noise and chaos on the other side of the entrance. The platform was almost empty, save a few families who had arrived in advance like her, but an old stream train was already there. To be clear, she had nothing against the nineteenth century's methods of transportation. However, the bright red and gold coloring the train was simply flashing, ridiculous and aggressive to her eyes. If she had to bet some money, she would bet that a Gryffindor Headmaster had chosen to paint the train like this to exasperate his colleagues and his students. The only good point, as far as she could tell, was that only a blind student could miss it.

She got her trunk down out of the trolley and then proceeded to try to get it into the train. Needless to say, her strength wasn't enough, and after pushing the trunk in vain for the better part of five minutes she had to use her levitation skill to finally put it inside the wagon. Hopefully, getting her trunk out of the train would be simpler.

Most of the compartments were empty, as expected given how few people were on the platform. Choosing a compartment at the end of the train, she put her trunk in one corner of the compartment and opened it to take a book to read. With the need to change her robes before arrival at the school, she wouldn't put her trunk in a place she couldn't reach. Getting herself comfortable, she started to read Curses and Counter-Curses for the fifth time. Not for long however, as more and more families entered the magical platform and her attention was kept more and more on the newcomers. Watching them, she couldn't help but feel a bit jealous. Unlike her, these children looked happy with those who accompanied them, they were not alone, and they had someone who cared about their education and well-being. All things which never entered the Dursleys' minds, she was sure. For a moment, she really desired to have a family. She briefly wondered if her mother would be proud of her, before dismissing the thought. Asking something to her mother was beyond her power forever.

With fifteen minutes left to go before departure, smoke from the steam engine drifted over the heads of the chattering and growing crowd. The platform was now the site of a gathering of hundreds of people, with more arriving every ten seconds. Each had their own style of wizarding clothes and brought plenty of animals with them. There were cats of every colour, owls of every species. Toads were rare and far between, especially compared to the felines and the birds, but there were also animals which didn't enter any of the categories authorised on the school letter, rabbits and guinea pigs among them.

Trunks were loaded inside the compartments, students came aboard, and the train began to quickly fill itself. She saw a boy with dreadlocks surrounded by many others, opening a box containing a tarantula and unleashing a torrent of screams. Apparently some students felt species like owls were just too tame. The people around the tarantula shrieked and yelled when half of the spider's body started to move and poked outside the box.

Five minutes before eleven o'clock, the activity on the platform grew even more intense, as a round-faced, chubby-built kid with dark brown hair and a lightning scar on his forehead arrived on the platform. He was followed a very old woman carrying a dead vulture on her hat, several other wizards and dozens of fans and journalists (with their outdated cameras, no need to ask who they were). Hearing half of the platform shout "It's Longbottom!" all but confirmed it was indeed the famous and only Boy-Who-Lived, Neville Longbottom himself. From what she could view from the train, the boy seemed to deliberately attract attention while continuing towards the middle of the platform with a pace which would have made many VIP's in the non-magical world jealous. Alexandra had read in some books her family and Neville's had been political allies, but seeing the adulation directed towards him, she realized he profited completely from an event where his parents had ended up dead. Not a good point in her mind.

A minute or so after, another family, this one completely ignored by the rest of the platform arrived to the platform. There were a lot of kids coming together, all had red hair and similar faces affirming there were from the same family.

"Mom – geroff!"

There were five in total, a slightly fat woman with a nice smile on her face and motherly air about her, two older boys who looked like identical twins and displayed the air of persons about to play a prank on someone, a girl who looked to be around a year younger than Alexandra, and the last was the boy she assumed had just spoken. The boy looked to be around her age, but was at least three or four inches taller than Alexandra, and he was quite homely looking. Big hands, big feet, a long nose and ginger hair.

Apparently, said family was not wealthy, as the wizard robes they wore looked old and worn. Probably second hand robes from Madam Malkin's she figured, or another cheap shop of Diagon Alley. In comparison, her robes, the basic normal model, looked perfect. This family was without doubt having money problems with the education of their children. Hogwarts wasn't cheap after all. Alexandra had questioned her Gringotts account manager by letter on the subject, and she had been grateful when she heard her parents had paid her complete tuition at birth. The pile of gold she would have spent otherwise would have made a significant hole in her trust vault.

"Aaah, has ickle Ronnie got somefink on his nose?" asked one of the twins in a teasing voice. Definitely older brothers, Alexandra smiled, she had seen many siblings at Little Whinging and she recognised the signs.

"Shut up," said the one Alexandra had learnt was "Ronnie".

"Where's Percy?" said their mother.

"He's coming now."

The oldest boy, red-haired like the others came striding into sight, raising the number of the red-haired family to six. The newcomer had already changed into his billowing black Hogwarts robes and Alexandra noticed a shiny red and gold badge on his chest with the letter P on it. The insignia had been heavily polished, as it shone brilliantly under the September morning sun.

"Can't stay long, Mother," he said in a formal and pompous voice which reminded Alexandra some of the clients who were full of themselves that Vernon had received in his living room. "I'm up front, the Prefects have got two compartments to themselves –"

So the symbol P was the Prefect insignia. Good to know thought Alexandra, I really intend to avoid the people carrying them if they're all like you. She quickly grew bored of the speech from the older teenager, and decided to go back to her reading.

The train began to move when there was a knock on the door, Alexandra spoke a loud "Enter!" which was followed up by the door opening. Alexandra raised her eyes from her book to watch the person entering. It was a boy who looked about her age, with dark skin and slanted eyes. He had short black hair, and wore what happened to look like extremely costly clothes, the black school uniform in a sort of velvet with everything visible under it in the same material. She grimaced internally, knowing that the boy was certainly belonged to the same category of "haughty and arrogant" she had met at Madam Malkin's.

"Do you mind if I sit in your compartment?" he asked her in a bored, expressionless voice.

"No." she answered. While her reflex was to throw the boy out of her compartment, the fact was this boy was a first-year like her, and if she began to insult or lash out at every person she met, she wasn't going to make a lot of friends at Hogwarts. They could be in the same House at the end of the day for all she knew.

The dark-skinned boy nodded at her politely and then sat in the opposite seat, directly facing her.

Not ten seconds had passed when a second person knocked at the door of the compartment, but this time the knock was more brutal, and she had no time to answer in any way. The youngest red-haired boy she had watched on the platform barged in at full speed, breathing loudly like he had run a marathon.

"Anyone sitting there?" he asked without bothering with a hello or apologising for his lack of manners, pointing at the seat next to Alexandra. "Everywhere else is full."

"That's impossible." Replied the dark-skinned boy. "The Hogwarts Express is magically conceived to expand and take all the Hogwarts students, no matter their number." His voice, soft, and cultured with a trace of foreign accent, turned rather sarcastic after that. "Are you sure you did not enter the first compartment you found?"

The red-haired boy appeared monumentally embarrassed, as his face became as red as his hair. He was more or less looking like a tomato, reflected Alexandra. Pity she didn't have a camera to take the photo. Too bad the moment of shame he felt didn't last more than an instant too.

"Zabini..." seethed the red-hair boy with a voice which suggested the two boys weren't going to shake hands and discuss pleasantries for the next hour. "Did your mother marry another man to steal his fortune? Which number is it? Fifth, this time?"

"At least my family has a fortune Weasley." The dark-skinned boy answered coldly, but with his fists tightening, it seemed the argument had not fallen off its mark."Seeing you dressed in these clothes make me wonder how far your House has fallen."

At this, Weasley appeared to be ready to strike Zabini, but the latter held his wand to the former's face, forcing him to withdraw rapidly from the compartment. Zabini then closed the door.

"Thanks for your help," the dark-skinned boy affirmed humorously.

"You seemed to handle the matter well," Alexandra retorted, shrugging. "But thanks anyway. I don't think I would have been able to read while Red hair was in this compartment."

"Typical Ravenclaw material," sighed the dark-skinned boy, causing Alexandra to raise an eyebrow. "Red hair's name is Weasley, Ronald Weasley, and he's a first year just like us." Zabini grimaced. "His family is considered a bit of a joke, since they are as pure-blooded as possible, but poor as dirt. And of course their tendency to have a lot of children doesn't help."

"Five kids is a lot?"

"Oh there are seven children, not five. Two are already out of Hogwarts, I'm told. The one you have just met begins this year with us. The last one, a girl, will enter next year."

Alexandra was rather impressed by the size of the Weasley family. The biggest one she had ever met before today had been two parents and four children who lived half a mile away from the Dursleys' house in Privet Drive. Nevertheless, while having so many kids was admirable, it was certainly a drain in terms of tuitions and school supplies.

"But I didn't present myself. I am Zabini. Blaise Zabini. Heir to the Most Noble House of Zabini." He declared in a rather noble tone, flashing his family ring on the middle finger of his left hand.

"Alexandra Potter," she replied. "Heiress to the Most Ancient House of Potter." And she flashed her Heiress ring in the same way he had.

For a moment, the dark-skinned boy in front of her stayed completely still with wide eyes and an open jaw. Then he retook his cold, calm appearance.

"You know, rumours affirmed you were dead." And his voice didn't show any sign he was joking.

"I'm feeling really alive, thanks," she replied.

Alexandra had thought the conversation would continue after that, but Blaise Zabini seemed to believe he had talked enough with her, although he continued to stare at her for twenty seconds or so before opening his trunk to read a magazine. Zabini didn't utter one more word for the rest of the trip.

Around half past twelve there was a great clattering outside in the corridor and a smiling, dimpled woman slid back their door and said, "Anything off the trolley, dears?"

Alexandra had had a very light breakfast, and so she stood, noticing the boy in front of her did not, instead unravelling some food he had brought with him.

Not knowing the food of the wizarding world and suddenly having a lot of money in her life, she bought two sandwiches and then a bit of every sweet that was available. New names, as the woman had never heard about Mars bars or their equivalent, having instead Bertie Bott's Every-Flavour Beans, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, Chocolate Frogs, Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes, Liquorice Wands and a number of other strange things she had never dreamed could be real in the realm of sweets. She paid the woman fifteen Sickles and seven Knuts for her food purchases.

"Hungry, are you?" said Blaise, seeing her return with a mountain of food in the compartment.

"What gave it away?" she replied, beginning to eat her first sandwich without losing time.

Once she had eaten the sandwiches, she started with the Chocolate Frogs, which the name of appeared to be taken literally: the first she opened slipped out of the packet and she wasn't able to catch it before it escaped out the compartment window. This sweet gave the possibility of collecting cards of famous wizards and witches along the way and she got the cards of Agrippa, Dumbledore, Morgana, Circe, Paracelsus, Helga Hufflepuff and Merlin. Said pictures didn't stay put in photos, which was a shock to say the least.

She had not so much a good time eating the Every-Flavour Beans. Apparently, her bad luck had returned in strength and she got things as horrible as vampire's blood, worm, grass, burned bread, and turned milk.

While she ate, she noticed there weren't any houses or any type of human constructs in the countryside any more. If anything, it convinced Alexandra she was entering a new world, where plantations, harvested fields, and towns had no place. The only things now which could be seen were rivers, woods and hills. Seeing nothing spectacular, she took back her book and started to read again.

There was a knock on the door of their compartment and a young brown-haired boy came in. He looked tearful.

"Sorry," he said, "but have you seen a toad at all?"

When both Zabini and she shook their heads negatively, he wailed, "I've lost him! He keeps getting away from me!"

"He'll turn up," said Alexandra.

"Yes," said the boy, who in her opinion looked pathetic like that. "Well, if you see him …"

He left.

"Don't know why he's crying," said Blaise, snickering. "Toads went out of fashion two centuries ago."

She had had just read one more page of her book when the compartment door slid open again. The toadless boy was back, but this time he had brought a girl with him. She was already wearing her Hogwarts robes, which looked to be the same model as Alexandra's.

"Has anyone seen a toad? Nigel's lost one," she said. She had a bossy sort of voice, lots of bushy brown hair and rather large front teeth.

"We've already told him we haven't seen it," said Alexandra, but the girl wasn't listening, she was looking at the book in Alexandra's hands.

"That book isn't on Hogwarts list for first years," she said. "Where did you..."

Alexandra cut her off mid sentence. Rarely had she seen anyone so ready to comply with rules and edicts, but that didn't mean she had not seen the type at Saint Gregory's.

"I bought it with my own money. It's mine. And this is not a banned book. So can you please close the door so I can continue my reading?"

The girl looked taken aback, as if all the people she had met before them in the train had authorised her to barge into a compartment and carry out judgment on her fellows.

"Err – all right." The bushy haired cleared her voice. She cleared her throat.

"Anyway, we'd better go and look for Nigel's toad. You two had better change, you know, I expect we'll be there soon."

And she left, taking the toad-less boy with her.

"Whatever house I'm in, I hope she's not in it," said Alexandra, sighing, putting back her wand back into her pocket. That girl looked like the kind of person who was a total teacher's pet, but every other student would not stand a single minute of before committing a crime.

"Mudblood." Blaise muttered viciously before plunging back into the lecture of one of his magazines.

An hour passed, and it got dark enough that the Hogwarts Express turned its magical lights on. Knowing there was a good chance their destination was near now, Alexandra sent Blaise out of the compartment while she changed her clothes and put on her long black robe and the rest of her uniform. Due to the approaching night, the only thing that could now be seen of the countryside were mountains and a big forest. The train also appeared to decrease in speed regularly.

Just as she looked out the window a second time, a loud 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."

Alexandra felt suddenly nervous, and seeing how Blaise paled, she knew the boy was no stranger to the feeling of being ill-at-ease either. Both put their belongings in their respective trunks before locking them. She noticed her security system seemed to take longer to lock than Blaise's as he sang a short sentence in a language which sounded like Italian. Was her system of lock more complex than his or did the foreign tongue make things more difficult?

The train slowed down and finally stopped. People pushed their way towards the door and out onto a tiny, dark platform. Alexandra shivered in the cold night air despite her warm robe. Then a lamp came bobbing over the heads of the students and she heard a loud voice: "Firs'-years! Firs'-years over here!"

What appeared in her field of vision was without a doubt the biggest man she had ever seen. There was no way the colossus calling them could be a simple man. He was the size of at least two men, two great men. An ogre? A giant?

"C'mon, follow me – any more firs'-years? Mind yer step, now! Firs'-years follow me!"

Slipping and stumbling, the first years followed the giant man down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path. It was so dark on either side of them that Alexandra thought there must be thick trees there. Blaise followed her and did not speak at all. The boy named Nigel, who she had already catalogued as 'the boy who kept losing his toad', sniffed once or twice on her right.

"Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," called the giant over his shoulder, "jus' round this bend here."

There was a loud "Oooooooooohhhhhhhhhh!"

The narrow path had opened suddenly on to 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 and beautiful castle with many turrets and towers.

"No more'n four to a boat!" The huge man called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore. Alexandra and Blaise were followed into their boat by Nigel and the bushy girl, who glared pointedly at Alexandra. She had apparently not forgotten their last conversation. Too bad.

"Everyone in?" Shouted the giant, who had taken a boat for himself, a necessary thing considering his size, "Right then – FORWARD!"

And the fleet of little boats moved off all at once without any sign of outside help, 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 their guide as the first boats reached the cliff; they all bent their heads and the little boats carried them through a curtain of ivy which revealed 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 harbour, where they clambered out onto rocks and pebbles.

"Oy, you there! Is this your toad?" Said the giant, who was checking the boats as people climbed out of them.

"Glob!" Cried Nigel blissfully, holding out his hands. Then they clambered up a passageway in the rock after the man'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?"

The huge man then raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.