“Come on, Neville, don’t dawdle,” said Gran, hurrying along over the bridge at King’s Cross Station and down onto Platform 9. “Get a move on.” Neville did his best, encumbered as he was with a huge trolley stacked with his personal belongings and with a complaining front left wheel that constantly seemed to want to go in the opposite direction to the other three. Several times he had barely avoided crashing into a wall or upsetting his stuff all over the floor. Very cautiously he manoeuvred the trolley down the ramp to join Gran.
It was a quarter to eleven on September 1st and the Hogwarts Express was leaving in just fifteen minutes. The platforms were packed with people, but they were mostly Muggles and they didn’t take any notice of Neville as he hauled his grudging trolley towards the barrier between Platforms 9 and 10 Gran was indicating. As he approached it, he saw a dreadlocked boy in front of him push his trolley right at the barrier “ and vanish into the wall. Neville gulped.
“For goodness sake, Neville, it’s terribly simple. Just walk straight at the wall and you’re there,” said Gran, urging him forward. Nervously, Neville crept towards the wall, screwed up his face and gently pushed the trolley forward. It bounced off the wall and rebounded to knock him on his back. He stared up into Gran’s disapproving face. She tutted in her usual fashion and picked him up. A few Muggles had turned to look at them, but they quickly moved on to wherever they had to go.
“Sorry, Gran,” said Neville weakly.
“I have to do everything for you, don’t I?” said Gran wearily. “Come here.” Putting him behind the trolley again, she grasped his shoulders and with surprising force pushed him and the trolley together at the barrier. As the wall approached, Neville shut his eyes and flinched. But when he opened them, there he was under the archway reading “Platform Nine and Three-Quarters”. Settled into the platform in front of him and puffing merrily was a bright scarlet steam engine, tailed by a succession of ornate carriages. The platform itself was thronged with young witches and wizards and their parents. In front of him the dreadlocked boy was talking with a pair of identical looking red-haired boys, surrounded by yet more redheads, apparently of the same family.
Neville went to unload his belongings. But then he noticed the cardboard box on the top had broken open and was empty. “Trevor!” he cried and began frantically scrabbling around the trolley.
“What is it, Neville?” asked Gran.
“Trevor’s escaped again,” squeaked Neville.
“Calm down,” said Gran, rolling her eyes with familiar frustration. “He can’t have gone far.” But Neville was now dashing around the platform, crying out and searching everywhere. What if he was still the other side of the barrier, he thought. He might never see him again. He rushed up and down in between the legs of the other passengers with Gran desperately trying to keep up. “Neville, come back here!” she snapped.
At the mention of the name Neville one or two people turned or let Neville get passed. “Have you seen a toad, have you seen a toad?” he kept asking, but no-one replied. Then, as he had almost got back to where he started, he all but ran into a young girl with bushy brown hair. “Sorry, sorry,” he said breathlessly. “I wasn’t looking where I was going. Have you seen…?”
“Was this what you were looking for, by any chance?” said the girl in a rather bossy tone. “I found it by the wall over there.” She opened her cupped hands to reveal Trevor, who croaked happily.
“Trevor!” cried Neville with joy. “There you are!” He grabbed Trevor and held him tightly between his chubby fingers. Trevor squirmed and tried to hop away but Neville held on. “Thank you! I thought I’d lost him.” He dashed back to the trolley and carefully replaced Trevor in his cardboard box. But as he turned back, he saw the girl all on her own, struggling with a pair of heavy suitcases as she tried to get them on board the train. Hurriedly pushing the trolley back over to her, he said “Hey, do need a hand with those?” He lifted up one end of the largest suitcase.
“Thanks,” said the girl gratefully and together (and with some help from Gran once she had got her breath back) they loaded all their belongings aboard the train. Neville hugged his Gran goodbye, and Gran gave him some forthright last minute advice, before letting him on board. The girl with the bushy hair was waiting for him. “Thank you again,” she said. “I don’t know how I’d have got all that aboard without help.”
“Weren’t your Mum and Dad here?” asked Neville.
“No. They, er, can’t come on the platform.” Neville nodded. The girl must be a Muggle-born. Muggles couldn’t get through the barrier. The girl stuck out her hand. “Hermione Granger. Pleased to meet you.”
“Er, Neville Longbottom,” said Neville, though he felt embarrassed and didn’t take her hand.
“My, my, so you are,” said Hermione. “I’ve read about you. Come on, let’s find a compartment. The train’s about to leave.” Neville gave one last wave to his Gran, and then the two of them bundled into the nearest compartment, which happened to be empty. Neville was tightly clutching hold of the cardboard box that contained Trevor. Hermione sat down opposite. “Is this your first year, then?” she asked. Neville nodded. “Mine too,” she said. “I’m so looking forward to it. I’ve read all about, I’ve even tried a few spells, but it’s not the same as being there, is it? Not really.”
“You can do spells already?” asked Neville, worried. He’d barely managed to do anything magical in his life, and certainly not deliberately.
“Oh, only one or two basic ones I’ve read. No more than anyone else I’m sure. For instance…” She took out her wand and held it up. “Lumos,” she said in a clear voice and the end of her wand lit up.
“Wow,” said Neville, impressed, but it didn’t improve his mood. He stared dejectedly out of the window as the train pulled away from the platform. “I’m not going to last five minutes at this school,” he murmured to himself.
“Why do say that?” asked Hermione, who had overheard him.
Neville’s voice turned a little bitter. “Because I’m useless. Because I’ve no skill at all. I’m barely a wizard really.”
“But you’re legend!” said Hermione. “You’re famous! I’ve read all about you!”
“Don’t trust all you read,” said Neville. Hermione looked doubtful at this statement. “I didn’t do anything. I CAN’T do anything.” He buried his face in his hands.
Hermione looked at him sympathetically. “You got your letter, didn’t you?” she asked. “You got into Hogwarts. That makes you a proper wizard in anyone’s book. Especially mine.” She handed Neville a tissue. Neville blew his nose loudly. “I love this train, don’t you?” she continued. “Did you know it’s enchanted to pass along Muggle tracks and past other trains without ever being seen? I read it in Wizarding Transportation of the British Isles.”
And so the journey progressed. Hermione proved to be an excessively talkative girl given the slightest provocation to display her considerable knowledge of the world for one who’d only found out she was a witch less than a year earlier. “Of course I had an advantage having an early birthday,” she said. “This lovely old man in a green suit came to our door the day after my birthday. He was very patient and explained everything so very clearly. He even gave me my first wizarding books to read. Of course Mum and Dad weren’t sure at first, but the wizard told them all about Hogwarts and they knew I’d be desperate to go. It’s so wonderful isn’t it?” She chattered on and on and Neville just let her speak. For one thing, it meant he didn’t have to, which he reckoned a considerable advantage. And also, to tell the truth, he found himself a little in awe of her. He was learning so much about his own world he never even knew.
A short while into the trip, an Irish boy called Seamus asked if he could join them as nearly everywhere seemed full. Hermione almost instantly started talking to him about Irish magic and leprechauns, so Neville was left to stare out of the window for a while. Soon he became drowsy and nodded off. When he awoke, he found that the train was travelling through a valley between steep mountains. The sun was fairly low in the sky and it was now late afternoon.
“How are you feeling?” asked Hermione. “You’ve been asleep for ages. I’m not sure where we are, but Seamus reckons we’ve less than an hour to go.” Seamus, who was munching on a Pumpkin Pasty, nodded. “Want one?” he offered between bites. Neville accepted gratefully, Hermione declined and looked slightly askance at the two boys wolfing them down. “Honestly, you’ll spoil your appetite. You know they have a big welcoming feast when we get there.”
“Really?” said Neville. “Fantastic.” But it didn’t stop him finishing off the pasty. When he’d finished he looked down at Trevor’s box, which was by his side on the seat. To his horror it was open again and Trevor was gone. “Trevor, where are you?” he yelled.
“Who’s Trevor?” asked Seamus.
“My toad,” said Neville, now scrabbling on the floor looking for him.
“You have a toad?” laughed Seamus, but Hermione gave him a stern look. “He can’t have gone far,” she said. “He’s probably just outside.” Neville dashed out of the compartment door and looked frantically up and down the carriage. There, two compartments down, just outside another door, was Trevor, happily squatting on the floor. Neville ran over and picked him up.
“Hey, what are you doing?” said a voice. Neville looked up. The compartment door he was in front of was open and inside were two boys, surrounded by empty sweet wrappers and various half-eaten treats. It had been the red-haired one who had spoken, his friend, with dark hair and round glasses, was tucking into a box of Every Flavour Beans.
“Sorry,” said Neville. “I, er, just, er, lost my toad.” He held up Trevor to show them, and then quickly hurried back to his own compartment. He returned Trevor to his box and clutched it tightly for the remainder of the journey, which in the end was only half an hour. The children all rushed to the doors as the train pulled into Hogsmeade station, but Neville didn’t hurry and slowly got himself down from his seat.
“Come on, Neville,” said Hermione. “We should stick together, right?” Neville nodded and hurried along behind Hermione, still clutching Trevor’s box. Hermione stood at the carriage door waiting for him and helped him down. Neville smiled. Maybe life at Hogwarts wouldn’t be so bad after all.
Neville Longbottom and the Philosopher's Stone by Sonorus
Chapter Notes: In which Neville shares a compartment with Hermione Granger and Seamus Finnigan on the journey to Hogwarts.