Ron sighed and turned around, looking for a place to sit and saw that the entire compartment was full. He sighed again and pushed the door open into the next compartment. He spent the next few minutes going through the rest of them, trying to find one that was mostly, if not completely empty. He expected to find talk of Hogwarts dominating every conversation, but he was wrong. What he should have realized that everyone in the wizarding world did know how old Harry Potter was...and that they were all curious to find out where he was. There wasn’t a single cart on the whole train rumors weren’t flying through.
He found himself in the twins’ compartment, already filled. When he stopped, looking around in the hopes that someone would move over and offer him a seat, everyone fell silent.
“Go away, Ron,” Fred finally said, sounding annoyed.
“Is this another one of yours, then?” an older looking boy asked eagerly.
George groaned. “Don’t get your hopes up, Wood. Ron can’t play for Bertie’s Beans.”
Wood ignored him, standing up to shake Ron’s hand. “I’m Oliver Wood, fifth year. Captain for the Gryffindor Quidditch team. What position do you play?”
“He has to be Sorted,” Fred said loudly, almost complaining.
“He’ll probably end up in Hufflepuff“”
“Keeper, usually,” Ron answered over Fred, slightly amazed. So this was Wood? The twins had, at various times, made him out to be a raging tyrant with a need to win bordering on unhealthy. Most of the time though, it sounded as though they didn’t take him seriously. The fifth year looking back at him was acting like an eager puppy.
“You any good?”
“No, Wood, he’s not,” George said. “And it doesn’t matter because you’re our Keeper. Besides, he’s a first year. Can’t play on the team even if he played Seeker.”
Wood looked crestfallen. “Oh. Damn. Well, this is the rest of the Quidditch team, anyway,” he said, waving his arm out at the rest of the compartment. “Our Chasers: Katie Bell and Angelina Johnson“” Two of the girls picked their heads up to smile“ “And Alicia Spinnet.” The last girl smiled sheepishly.
“Shut up, Oliver. I’m not on the team yet.”
Wood gave Ron a knowing smile. “Alicia underestimates herself,” he told Ron, as though confiding a great secret. “She was only a reserve last year, but we’re short a Chaser and she’s already proved herself. The try-out is only going to be a formality,” he said to Alicia. “And I’m the Keeper, like George said. Our Seeker left us last year as well.” He looked like a puppy again with those sad eyes of his. “Don’t know what we’re going to do this year. We got smashed by Slytherin last year.”
He looked thoroughly miserable at the memory.
“We’re going to win this year, Oliver, don’t worry about it,” Fred said.
“Right,” Oliver said, squaring his shoulders and glaring at the team. “We are going to win this year! Our time has come!”
“The Gryffindors will rise again!” Fred exclaimed.
“We will overcome!” George exclaimed.
“Don’t you forget it!” Oliver said severely. “We’ve got a great team so far and we’re going to find a great Seeker“”
“A Seeker the likes of which Hogwarts“”
“The world“” Fred interrupted George.
““the world has never seen!” George finished.
“Shut up,” Wood said darkly. “You’ll jinx it.”
“Jinx our own Seeker?” Fred asked, wide-eyed. “We’d never!”
“Now, the Slytherin Seeker, maybe....” George said with a side-long glare at Ron.
The rest of the compartment laughed, and, sensing his cue, Ron left, weaving his way through other students in the corridors, looking through each door for a seat. By the time he reached what he was sure must be the last compartment, still without a seat, Ron realized that, like it or not, he was going to be sitting with the famed ‘boy who lived.’
He slid the door open slowly and stepped it. Sure enough, it was completely of anyone except for Harry Potter. “Anyone sitting here?” he asked, pointing to the seat opposite Harry. “Everywhere else is full.”
Harry shook his head without a word and Ron sat himself down. After a moment, he realized that he was staring, but he quickly turned away to face the window, concentrating deeply on his reflection; blasted dark mark was still there.
A few more minutes passed in complete silence as Ron tried to think of something to say that wouldn’t make his mother yell at him if she was in the compartment with them. But what else do you ask the boy who freed all the wizarding world other than questions about that night? He stared out the window, trying to get the best of his Weasley curiosity.
Stupid Weasley curiosity; they all had it. His father was nearly mad for Muggles and Bill was going to spend the rest of his life digging through ruins. Charlie wanted to know everything there was to know about anything alive in the world and Percy practically devoured books. (Ron thought this was more because he was a prat than curious, but still.) And Ron knew didn’t know what Fred and George were doing in there, but there had been explosions coming out of it ever since the first summer they had come home from Hogwarts. And himself? He had a tendency to stick his big feet into his even bigger mouth. He was going to bust if he didn’t“
The door was shoved open again. “Hey Ron,” Fred said.
“We’re going down to the middle of the train,” George said from behind him. “Lee Jordan’s got a giant tarantula down there.”
“Right,” Ron grumbled.
They turned to go, but Fred caught himself, and turned to the boy sitting across from Ron. “Harry, did we introduce ourselves? Fred and George Weasley. And this is Ron, our brother.” He paused; there didn’t seem to be much else to say. “See you then,” he added.
“Bye,” Ron and Harry said together, watching the twins turn around and leave, sliding the door shut behind themselves.
“Are you really Harry Potter?” Ron blurted out, unable to stop himself any longer.
Harry nodded.
“Oh“well, I thought it might be one of Fred and George’s jokes,” Ron said, as if to explain. “And have you really got“you know...” Ron trailed off, pointing at Harry’s forehead and suddenly thought of what his mother would say if she was there.
Harry answered by pulling back his uneven fringe to show a lightening shaped scar that until now Ron had thought to be only a rumor. Ron stared, gaping. “So that’s where You-Know-Who“”
“Yes,” Harry said. “But I can’t remember a thing.”
“Nothing?” Ron said, greedy for the information.
“Well,” Harry said slowly, as if he was unsure. “I remember a lot of green light, but nothing else.”
“Wow.”
Ron leaned back in his seat and stared at Harry. It took him a few minutes to realize he was doing it again and looked back out of the window, blushing furiously.
“Are all your family wizards?” he heard Harry ask.
“Err“yes, I think so,” Ron answered as something occurred to him suddenly: if it was true that Harry had grown up among Muggles and knew nothing about the wizarding world...he probably found Ron just as interesting as Ron found him.
“I think Mum’s got a second cousin who’s an accountant,” Ron continued, “but we never talk about him.”
“So you must know loads of magic already.”
“I heard you went to live with the Muggles, what’re they like?” Ron said, completely ignoring the question. He was still paranoid about his magical ability and everyone’s shock over the fact that he had been accepted.
“Horrible,” Harry said with a vengeance, surprising Ron.
“Well, not most of them,” he added after a moment with an apologetic grin. “My aunt, and uncle, and cousin are, though. Wish I had three wizard brothers.”
“Five,” Ron corrected, wondering where Harry had seen Percy. “I’m the sixth in our family to go to Hogwarts. You could say I’ve got a lot to live up to. Bill and Charlie have already left“Bill was Head Boy and Charlie was Captain of Quidditch. Now Percy’s a prefect. Fred and George mess around a lot, but they still get really good marks, and everyone thinks they’re really funny. Everyone expects me to do as well as the others, but if I do, it’s no big deal because they did it first. You never get anything new, either, with five brothers. I’ve got Bill’s robes, Charlie’s wand, and Percy’s rat.”
Ron put his hand inside his jacket pocket and pulled out fat, old, gray Scabbers, who was, not at all surprisingly, still asleep. “His name’s Scabbers, and he’s useless, he hardly ever wakes up. Percy got an owl from my dad for being made a prefect, but they couldn’t aff“” There he’d done it; not five minutes in and he’d stuck his foot in his mouth. “I mean, I got Scabbers instead,” he said, his ears turning pink. He turned back to the window, mortified.
A moment later proved that Harry didn’t think there was anything wrong with not being able to afford and owl. Ron found this out because Harry started telling him very simply, that up until he had found out he was a wizard“all of a month ago“ he had had no money. He had spent his whole life getting hand-me-downs from his cousin Dudley who, according to Harry, was the size of a small house. And worse, in his whole life, Harry could not remember ever getting even one, single birthday present.
For a reason that was not strange to Ron, this information cheered him up; his family may not have a lot of money, but at least he had a family...and they loved him. Harry didn’t. His aunt’s family (the younger sister of Harry’s mother) sounded like rotters, the whole lot of them, and they seemed to have hidden the real reason for the death of Harry’s parents for his entire life. Harry had been in the dark his entire life“
“And until Hagrid told me, I didn’t know anything about being a wizard, or my parents, or Voldermort“”
Ron gasped and nearly fell off his seat. He said it. He said it. Ron couldn’t believe it.
“What?” Harry asked, looking confused.
“You said You-Know-Who’s name!” Ron finally managed, his brain caught somewhere between shock, awe and fear. “I’d have thought you, of all people“”
“I’m not trying to be brave or anything, saying the name,” Harry said, sounding desperate. “I just never knew I shouldn’t. See what I mean? I’ve got loads to learn....I bet,” he continued, lowering his voice. “I bet I’m the worst in the class.”
“You won’t be,” Ron said, able to reassure him on that count at least. “There’s loads of people who come from Muggle homes, and they learn quick enough.”
The next few hours were spent talking about everything, from Ron’s description of a typical wizarding house, to Harry’s description of a Muggle’s. (They were both in shock at the end of that conversation.) They were still talking, completely oblivious as the train took them out of London and into the countryside. They were speeding past empty fields by the time they each fell silent, having both run out of things to say.
Around half-past twelve, there was a loud clattering from outside their compartment and they both blinked awake. The door slid open to reveal a smiling, dimpled witch. “Anything off the carts, dears?” she asked happily. Ron watched Harry leap to his feet, but he felt his own ears go pink again, mumbling that he’d brought sandwiches and Harry followed the witch into the corridor.
About two minutes later, Harry reappeared, and dumped two armfuls of every kind of wizard sweet that existed onto an empty seat.
“Hungry, are you?” Ron asked amused and shocked, taking out a lumpy package from his pocket and unwrapping it to reveal four sandwiches.
“Starving,” Harry answered, nearly inhaling a pumpkin pasty.
Ron opened up one of the sandwiches, and then closed it in disgust. “She always forgets I don’t like corned beef.”
“Swap you for one of these,” Harry said, holding out one of the pasties to him. “Go on“”
“You don’t want this, it’s all dry,” Ron protested. “She hasn’t got much time,” he added quickly, “you know, with five of us.”
“Go on,” Harry said again, “have a pasty.”
Two minutes later, Ron decided that it was rather nice sitting there, eating his way through the mountain of Harry’s food. He must have gotten one of everything on the cart. There was Drooble’s Best Blowing Gum, the Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes and Licorice Wands, just to name a few and Ron found himself completely forgetting that his mother had packed him sandwiches to begin with.
“What are these?” Harry asked Ron, showing him a package of Chocolate Frogs, a wary look on his face. “They’re not really frogs, are they?”
“No,” Ron said, feeling superiorly smarter than Harry. “But see what the card is. I’m missing Agrippa.”
“What?”
“Oh, of course, you wouldn’t know“Chocolate Frogs have cards inside them, you know, to collect“famous witches and wizards. I’ve got about five hundred of them, but I haven’t got Agrippa or Ptolemy.”
Ron watched as Harry unwrapped his frog, pulling out the card. “So this is Dumbledore!” he finally said, looking at the picture and then turning the card over to read what was on the back.
“Don’t tell me you’ve never heard of Dumbledore!” Ron exclaimed. “Can I have a frog? I might get Agrippa“thanks“” he said as Harry nodded absently, turning the card back over.
“He’s gone!”
“Well, you can’t expect him to hang around all day,” Ron said. “He’ll be back,” he added as he drew out his own card. “No, I’ve got Morgana again and I’ve got about six of her...do you want it?” he asked Harry, feeling stupid offering something that belonged to him to begin with. “You can start collecting,” he added, his eyes passing over the still huge pile of Chocolate Frogs, just begging to be eaten.
“Help yourself,” Harry said without him having to ask. “But in, you know, the Muggle world, people just stay put in photos.”
“Do they? What, they don’t move at all?” Ron shook his head, amazed. “Weird!”
Harry continued to stare at the card as Dumbledore came back into it, giving him a smile. But Ron, used to the moving cards, was far more concerned with eating the frogs that came with them. Harry couldn’t keep his eyes off of them. Harry spent five minutes looking at each card that Ron passed him and didn’t tear his eyes away from them until Ron had finished the last frog, who was licking his fingers when he saw Harry reach for the bag of Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans.
“You want to be careful with those,” he told Harry, checking his fingers for any last trace of chocolate. “When they say every flavor, they mean every flavor“you know,” he explained, “you get all the ordinary ones like chocolate, and peppermint, and marmalade, but then you get spinach and liver, and tripe. George reckons he got a booger flavored one once.”
Ron reached over the space between the seats and pulled a harmless looking green one from the bag. He gave it a careful study and then took a tiny bite from the corner.
“Bleaaargh“see?” he said, just managing to swallow it.
“Sprouts.”
They spent the next half hour of so going through the rest of the bag, having the time of their lives. Ron got apple, tea, trout and corned beef (Serves me right, he thought, making a face) while Harry bit into a weird looking grey one which ended up being pepper.
The countryside that they were speeding past was now becoming wilder. While the fields they had passed before had been neat with grazing cows, these fields were wild and overgrown. Houses and farmsteads had been replaced by small forests and twisting rivers. Not a long time into what looked like a deserted part of England (if they were even in England anymore), there was a knock on the door and a sad, round-faced boy came in.
“Sorry,” he said, “but have any of you seen a toad at all?”
Ron and Harry both shook their heads.
“I’ve lost him!” the boy wailed. “He keeps getting away from me!”
“He’ll turn up,” Harry said companionably.
“Yes,” the boy said wretchedly. “Well, if you see him...” he trailed off desperately, and turned around to leave, looking dejected.
“Don’t know why he’s so bothered,” Ron said after the door had closed and the footsteps had disappeared. “If I’d brought a toad I’d lost it as quick as I could. Mind you, I brought Scabbers,” he added, pointing at the rat still sleeping on his lap, “so I can’t talk. He might have died, and you wouldn’t know the difference,” Ron said utterly disgusted and annoyed with his pet. “I tried to turn him yellow yesterday to make him more interesting, bu the spell didn’t work. I’ll show you, look...”
He hunted through his trunk and took out his wand, rolling his eyes at the chipped wood, but had a cheerful look on his face by the time he turned back to Harry. “Unicorn hair’s nearly poking out,” he explained to Harry, who was looking at the wand with tremendous distrust. “Anyway“”
He raised his wand when the compartment door opened yet again; the boy was back. But he had brought a girl with him this time. Ginny’s much prettier, he thought instantly with natural big-brother protectiveness. She had big, bushy brown hair, large front teeth, and was already in her Hogwarts robes. Ron took an immediate disliking to her before she had even opened her mouth. And once she did, he felt warranted.
“Has anyone seen a toad?” she said in a very bossy tone. “Neville’s lost one.”
“We’ve already told him we haven’t seen it,” Ron said impatiently, wishing she would leave. But she was staring at the wand in his hand.
“Oh, are you doing magic? Let’s see then.” And she sat herself without so much as a by-your-leave, looking at him expectantly, her hands crossed primly over her lap.
Ron stared at her, completely thrown off. “Er“all right,” he said after a moment, clearing his throat. Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, turn this stupid, fat rat yellow.” He waved his wand over Scabbers, but absolutely nothing happened. Scabbers remained gray and fast asleep. He didn’t even twitch.
“Are you sure that’s a real spell?” the girl asked incredulously. “Well, it’s not very good, is it? 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 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 this all very fast, carefully enunciating her name (“Her-my-oh-knee”), and Ron was silent for a moment, waiting to see if she was finally done before turning to Harry, whose face was mirroring his own shocked one. Apparently he wasn’t the only one who hadn’t memorized his text books.
“I’m Ron Weasley,” Ron mumbled at last.
“Harry Potter,” Harry said.
“Are you really?” Hermione asked. “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?” Harry said, looking bewildered.
“Goodness, didn’t you know, I’d have found out everything I could if it was me. Do either of you know which House you’ll be in? I’ve asked 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.” She studied them for a moment.
“You two had better change, you know, I expect we’ll be there soon.” And she left, sweeping out of the carriage, Neville at her heels.
“Whatever House I’m in, I hope she’s not in it,” Ron said with a scowl as he threw his wand back into his bag. “Stupid spell“George gave it to me, bet he knew it was a dud.”
“What House are your brothers in?” Harry asked.
“Gryffindor,” Ron replied miserably. “Mum and Dad were in it too. I wonder what they’ll say if I’m not. I don’t suppose Ravenclaw would be too bad, but imagine if they put me in Slytherin.”
“That’s the House Vol-, I mean, You-Know-Who was in?” Harry asked.
“Yeah,” Ron said, slumping in his seat, dejected.
“You know, I think the ends of Scabbers’ whiskers are a bit lighter,” Harry said in a cheerful tone. “So what do your brothers do now that they’ve left, anyway?”
“Charlie’s in Romania studying dragons, and Bills’s in Africa doing something for Gringotts,” Ron answered. “Did you hear about Gringotts?” he asked suddenly, remembering what had been in news for close to the last month now. “It’s been all over the Daily Prophet,” he continued excitedly, “but I don’t suppose you get that with the Muggles“someone tried to rob a high security vault ”
Harry stared at him. “Really?” he finally managed. “What happened to them?”
“Nothing. That’s why its such big news. They haven’t been caught. My Dad says it must’ve been a real powerful Dark wizard to get round Gringotts, but they don’t’ think they took anything, that’s what’s odd. ‘Course, everyone gets scared when something like this happens in case You-Know-Who’s behind it.”
Ron went silent quickly as Harry paled. Shut-up he yelled at himself. Merlin’s Beard, but he was being a prat. You-Know-Who wasn’t a topic of popular conversation in the wizarding world because it only served to remind people of how bad it had been ten years ago, of the family they lost. But Harry“Harry had lost his parents directly to the Dark Lord; had almost been killed by Him, himself. He sought desperately for a change of topic.
“What’s your Quidditch team?” he asked Harry.
“Er“I don’t know any,” Harry admitted.
“What!” Ron shouted, completely dumbfounded before remembering, again, that Harry didn’t know anything about the wizarding world. “Oh, you wait, it’s the best game in the world ” he exclaimed. Quidditch was Ron’s element and he started explaining the game to Harry right there. He had just started taking Harry through the finer points of the game, using his team (the Chudley Canons as an example) when the door opened yet again. But it wasn’t Neville or Hermione; it wasn’t even the twins.
Three boys entered“no, they swaggered. The middle boy was very small and pale, and Ron was confused for a moment before placing him as the boy who had sneered at him at the station. The other two were standing on either side of him, much like body-guards, and looked the part too. They were both big and heavy, very mean expressions on their faces.
“Is it true?” the pale boy asked Harry, pointedly ignoring Ron. “They’re saying all down the train that Harry Potter’s in this compartment. So it’s you, is it?”
“Yes,” Harry answered, sounding distracted. He was staring at the two other boys, both of which could have flattened either of them without so much as a grunt.
“Oh,” the pale boy said, realizing that neither Ron or Harry was looking at him. “This is Crabbe and this is Goyle. And my name’s Malfoy, Draco Malfoy.”
Ron tore his attention away from Crabbe long enough to think on how Malfoy had said his name; like it was a good thing. Ron couldn’t understand what he was so cocky about; everyone knew that his father had been one of You-Know-Who’s top supporters during the War, claiming they be-spelled to follow him when they were found out and the Dark Lord had fallen and working hard to turn attention away from themselves when rumors and accusations flew that they had been in His league. They hadn’t even stuck by who or what they believed in. Ron knew that there were supporters of You-Know-Who rotting in the wizard prison Azkaban for the last ten years and more, mad and insane, claiming that the Dark Lord would return. They may have been evil and crazy, but they deserved credit for loyalty, no matter how misplaced.
He started to laugh, turning it quickly into a cough when Malfoy turned to him.
“Think my name’s funny, do you?” he asked with a sneer. “No need to ask who you are. My father told me all the Weasleys have red hair, freckles, and more children than they can afford.”
Ron saw red, but forced himself to stay in his seat. He would not get in a fight before term had even started. He would not“
Malfoy turned back to Harry. “You’ll soon find out that some wizarding families are 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 for Harry to shake.
Harry didn’t take it.
“I think I can tell who the wrong sort are for myself, thanks,” he said breezily.
Draco didn’t turn red; probably couldn’t with such pale skin, but a pink tinge appeared on his cheeks and Ron fought down a blush as the Draco gave Harry a calculating look. “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 out with riffraff like the Weasleys and that Hagrid, it’ll rub off on you.”
Ron stood up so suddenly, Scabbers fell off his lap. And Harry was just a second behind him.
“Say that again,” he said, more furious for Harry than himself, knowing and not caring that his face was as red as his hair.
“Oh, you’re going to fight us?” Malfoy sneered.
“Unless you get out now,” Harry said.
“But we don’t feel like leaving, do we boys? We’ve eaten all our food and you still seem to have some,” Malfoy said as Goyle reached for the Chocolate Frogs. Ron lunged at him, but before he had even touched the other boy, Goyle let out a terrible scream.
Scabbers was hanging off his finger, his tiny little teeth embedded in Goyle’s knuckle. Malfoy and Crabbe backed away as he swung round and round, trying to dislodge the rat, howling all the while. Scabbers flew off after what seemed like an eternity, hitting the window as the Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle ran from the room.
Ron didn’t have any illusions that they were afraid of him and Harry. But a moment later Hermione Granger walked back in and Ron held back a groan. Now there was someone to be afraid of.
“What has been going on?” she asked, taking in the mess that was now their compartment with a look on her face so reminiscent of his mother, Ron had to bend down, picking Scabbers up by his tail so that he wouldn’t laugh.
“I think he’s been knocked out,” Ron said to Harry, ignoring Hermione. He placed Scabbers on his palm, bringing him up to his face. “No“I don’t believe it!” he said in utter disbelief. “He’s gone back to sleep!” He stood up, put Scabbers on a chair and dusted off his pants. “You’ve met Malfoy before?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Harry answered. “In Diagon Alley. He wasn’t very nice.”
“I’ve heard of his family,” Ron said, his voice grim. “They were some of the first to come back to our side after You-Know-Who disappeared. Said they’d been bewitched. My dad doesn’t believe it. He says Malfoy’s father doesn’t need an excuse to go over to the Dark Side.” He turned, saw Hermione still standing there. “Can we help you with something?” he asked, utterly exasperated.
“You’d better hurry up and put your robes on,” she said. “I’ve just been up to the front to ask the conductor, and he says we’re nearly there. You haven’t been fighting, have you? You’ll be in trouble before we even get there!”
“Scabbers has been fighting, not us,” Ron said, glowering at her. “Would you mind leaving while we change?”
“All right“I only came in here because people outside are behaving very childishly, racing up and down the corridors,” she said in a haughty voice. “And you’ve got dirt on your nose, by the way, did you know?”
Ron stared fiercely at her back as she left, falling back into his seat in a huff, arms crossed over his chest, a scowl on his face. He didn’t want to admit it, but she was right: the train was slowing down. He stood up, and together with Harry, pulled his robes on, hoping that Harry hadn’t seen how short Percy’s robes were on him; his shoes were sticking out.
Suddenly, a voice floated through the train: “We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to school shortly.”
Ron’s stomach dropped into his shoes as he helped Harry stuff what was left of the sweets between both their pockets. He could barely walk straight as they pushed their way into the corridor, throbbing with people. The train was slowing down even further; slower, slower, slower...and then it stopped with a jerk. People were shoving and pushing to get out onto the small dark platform and into the cold night air.
Ron wrapped his robes more tightly around himself in a desperate attempt to ward off the cold mountain air. Suddenly a lamp appeared over everyone’s heads, moving up and down as if in step.
A rough voice called out as the light came closer: “Firs’ years! Firs’ years over here! All right there, Harry?” a voice asked right in front of them. A big“no, colossal, hairy face beamed down at them over the heads of all the other students. Ron didn’t have to ask who this was“he knew. He had heard stories describing Hagrid, the Keeper of the Keys and games-keeper of Hogwarts. True, he had only imagined him as being over-tall and over-weight, while the person“no, the giant towering over them must have been close to twelve feet tall and five feet around, but there was no mistaking him.
“C’mon, follow me“anymore firs’ years?” Hagrid asked. “Mind yer step, now Firs’ years, follow me!”
Walking unsteadily in the dark, Ron and Harry followed Hagrid down a narrow and steep path, joined by close to twenty other girls and boys, all feeling varying degrees of fright. Nobody spoke at all, but Neville sniffled a few times.
“Yeh’ll get yer firs’ sight o’ Hogwarts in a sec,” Hagrid called over his shoulder to them. “Jus’ round this bend here.”
There was a collective gasp from the boys; a loud ‘Ooooh!” from the girls.
The skinny path had abruptly opened onto the edge of a great black lake. Perched atop a huge mountain on the other side was Hogwarts Castle. Its windows sparkled, almost welcomingly, in the moonlight, beckoning to them as they took in the sight of the many turrets and towers, the sheer vastness and size of the castle.
“No more’n four to a boat!” Hagrid yelled, pointing to a number of boats sitting at the shore of the lake. Ron and Harry clambered into one of the last boats, followed, unsurprisingly considering Ron’s luck that day, by Hermione and Neville. “Everyone in?” Hagrid shouted, sitting in a boat by himself. “Right then“FOWARD!”
The boats took off, advancing soundlessly and smoothly through the water, creating not even one ripple. Everyone was completely silent, staring up at the huge castle. It towered over them, somehow more friendly then oppressive, as they sailed closer and closer to the cliff it stood on.
“Heads down!” Hagrid warned as the first boat reached the face of the cliff. They all bent their heads, carried through a mantle of ivy that hid an underground entrance to the castle beneath the cliff. They moved through a dark tunnel that had to be under the castle before reaching an underground (Under-cliff? Ron wondered) dock where they all got out of their boats, awkward and unsteady, onto pebbles and rocks.
“Oy, you there! Is this yer toad?” Hagrid asked, picking something up from out of their boat.
“Trevor!” Neville cried ecstatically, putting his hands out for his pet before they all turned to follow Hagrid and his lantern up a stone passageway which led onto smooth, damp grass. They were now right inside the shadow of the castle. They slowly walked up the stone steps, herding together around a huge oaken door, expectant looks on their faces.
“Everyone here?” Hagrid asked, looking over their heads, counting them. “You there, still got yer toad?”
Everyone was silent as Hagrid raised a fist the size of a dinner plate and knocked on the castle door three times.
A/N: WOAH! *wipes sweat off forehead.* That was a DOOZY; longest chapter after Letters and Ladders. Hope you enjoyed it!