She Was Loaded and He Was Well... You Know

Chapter 6

Harry'due south terminal month with the Dursleys wasn't fun. Truthful, Dudley was at present and so scared of Harry he wouldn't stay in the same room, while Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon didn't shut Harry in his closet, strength him to do anything, or shout at him -- in fact, they didn't speak to him at all. Half terrified, half furious, they acted equally though any chair with Harry in it were empty. Although this was an improvement in many ways, information technology did become a bit depressing after a while.

Harry kept to his room, with his new owl for company. He had decided to call her Hedwig, a proper name he had found in A History of Magic. His school books were very interesting. He lay on his bed reading late into the night, Hedwig swooping in and out of the open window as she pleased. It was lucky that Aunt Petunia didn't come in to vacuum anymore, because Hedwig kept bringing back expressionless mice. Every night before he went to sleep, Harry ticked off some other day on the piece of paper he had pinned to the wall, counting down to September the kickoff.

On the last day of Baronial he thought he'd better speak to his aunt and uncle about getting to Male monarch's Cross station the next mean solar day, and so he went downward to the living room where they were watching a quiz testify on tv. He cleared his throat to let them know he was there, and Dudley screamed and ran from the room.

"Er -- Uncle Vernon?"

Uncle Vernon grunted to show he was listening.

"Er -- I need to be at King'southward Cross tomorrow to -- to go to Hogwarts. "

Uncle Vernon grunted once again.

"Would it exist all right if you gave me a lift?"

Grunt. Harry supposed that meant yes.

"Give thanks you. "

He was about to become back upstairs when Uncle Vernon really spoke.

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

Harry didn't say annihilation.

"Where is this school, anyway?"

"I don't know," said Harry, realizing this for the first time. He pulled the ticket Hagrid had given him out of his pocket.

"I just take the train from platform nine and 3-quarters at eleven o'clock," he read.

His aunt and uncle stared.

"Platform what?"

"Nine and three-quarters. "

"Don't talk rubbish," said Uncle Vernon. "In that location is no platform nine and three-quarters. "

"It's on my ticket. "

"Barking," said Uncle Vernon, "howling mad, the lot of them. Yous'll meet. You just wait. All right, we'll accept you to King's Cross. We're going up to London tomorrow anyway, or I wouldn't bother. "

"Why are you going to London?" Harry asked, trying to keep things friendly.

"Taking Dudley to the hospital," growled Uncle Vernon. "Got to have that blood-red tail removed before he goes to Smeltings. "

Harry woke at five o'clock the next morn and was too excited and nervous to go back to sleep. He got up and pulled on his jeans because he didn't want to walk into the station in his wizard'south robes -- he'd change on the train. He checked his Hogwarts listing yet again to brand sure he had everything he needed, saw that Hedwig was shut safely in her cage, and then paced the room, waiting for the Dursleys to get upward. Two hours afterward, Harry's huge, heavy body had been loaded into the Dursleys' car, Aunt Petunia had talked Dudley into sitting next to Harry, and they had set off.

They reached King's Cross at one-half past ten. Uncle Vernon dumped Harry's torso onto a cart and wheeled it into the station for him. Harry thought this was strangely kind until Uncle Vernon stopped dead, facing the platforms with a nasty grin on his confront.

"Well, in that location y'all are, boy. Platform nine -- platform ten. Your platform should be somewhere in the middle, merely they don't seem to have built it nonetheless, do they?"

He was quite right, of form. There was a big plastic number nine over one platform and a big plastic number ten over the one adjacent to information technology, and in the middle, nothing at all.

"Have a expert term," said Uncle Vernon with an even nastier smile. He left without another give-and-take. Harry turned and saw the Dursleys drive away. All three of them were laughing. Harry'southward mouth went rather dry. What on world was he going to exercise? He was starting to attract a lot of funny looks, because of Hedwig. He'd take to enquire someone.

He stopped a passing guard, merely didn't dare mention platform nine and three-quarters. The baby-sit had never heard of Hogwarts and when Harry couldn't fifty-fifty tell him what office of the country information technology was in, he started to get bellyaching, as though Harry was being stupid on purpose. Getting desperate, Harry asked for the railroad train that left at eleven o'clock, but the guard said there wasn't one. In the end the guard strode away, muttering nearly time wasters. Harry was at present trying hard non to panic. Co-ordinate to the large clock over the arrivals board, he had 10 minutes left to get on the train to Hogwarts and he had no idea how to do it; he was stranded in the center of a station with a trunk he could hardly elevator, a pocket full of wizard money, and a large owl.

Hagrid must have forgotten to tell him something you had to exercise, like tapping the 3rd brick on the left to get into Diagon Aisle. He wondered if he should go out his wand and kickoff borer the ticket inspector'south stand between platforms nine and ten.

At that moment a grouping of people passed just backside him and he defenseless a few words of what they were saying.

"-- packed with Muggles, of grade--"

Harry swung round. The speaker was a plump woman who was talking to 4 boys, all with flaming red pilus. Each of them was pushing a trunk like Harry's in forepart of him -- and they had an owl.

Centre hammering, Harry pushed his cart afterward them. They stopped then did he, only nigh enough to hear what they were maxim.

"Now, what's the platform number?" said the boys' mother.

"Nine and three-quarters!" piped a modest girl, besides carmine-headed, who was holding her manus, "Mom, can't I go. . . "

"You lot're non old enough, Ginny, now exist quiet. All right, Percy, yous go first. "

What looked like the oldest boy marched toward platforms nine and ten. Harry watched, conscientious non to glimmer in case he missed it -- but just as the boy reached the dividing bulwark betwixt the two platforms, a big crowd of tourists came swarming in front of him and by the time the final haversack had cleared abroad, the boy had vanished.

"Fred, you next," the plump adult female said.

"I'm non Fred, I'm George," said the boy. "Honestly, adult female, you phone call yourself our female parent? Tin't yous tell I'm George?"

"Deplorable, George, dear. "

"Only joking, I am Fred," said the boy, and off he went. His twin chosen afterwards him to hurry up, and he must have done then, because a second later, he had gone -- simply how had he washed it?

Now the 3rd brother was walking briskly toward the barrier he was nigh there -- so, quite all of a sudden, he wasn't anywhere.

At that place was nothing else for information technology.

"Excuse me," Harry said to the plump adult female.

"How-do-you-do, honey," she said. "Beginning time at Hogwarts? Ron'due south new, also. "

She pointed at the last and youngest of her sons. He was tall, thin, and gangling, with freckles, big easily and feet, and a long nose.

"Yep," said Harry. "The thing is -- the thing is, I don't know how to--"

"How to get onto the platform?" she said kindly, and Harry nodded.

"Not to worry," she said. "All you have to practise is walk straight at the barrier between platforms 9 and 10. Don't stop and don't exist scared yous'll crash into it, that's very important. Best do it at a bit of a run if yous're nervous. Go on, go at present before Ron. "

"Er -- okay," said Harry.

He pushed his trolley around and stared at the barrier. It looked very solid.

He started to walk toward it. People jostled him on their way to platforms nine and ten. Harry walked more chop-chop. He was going to blast right into that barrier so he'd be in trouble -- leaning forwards on his cart, he bankrupt into a heavy run -- the barrier was coming nearer and nearer -- he wouldn't be able to stop -- the cart was out of command -- he was a foot away -- he closed his eyes ready for t

he crash --

It didn't come. . . he kept on running. . . he opened his eyes. A scarlet steam engine was waiting next to a platform packed with people. A sign overhead said Hogwarts' Express, eleven o'clock. Harry looked behind him and saw a wrought-atomic number 26 archway where the bulwark had been, with the words Platform Nine and Three-Quarters on it, He had done information technology.

Smoke from the engine drifted over the heads of the chattering crowd, while cats of every color wound here and there betwixt their legs. Owls hooted to one another in a disgruntled sort of mode over the babble and the scraping of heavy trunks.

The first few carriages were already packed with students, some hanging out of the window to talk to their families, some fighting over seats. Harry pushed his cart off downward the platform in search of an empty seat. He passed a round-faced boy who was proverb, "Gran, I've lost my toad again. "

"Oh, Neville," he heard the old woman sigh.

A boy with dreadlocks was surrounded by a small crowd.

"Requite us a look, Lee, get on. "

The boy lifted the chapeau of a box in his artillery, and the people around him shrieked and yelled every bit something inside poked out a long, hairy leg.

Harry pressed on through the oversupply until he plant an empty compartment nearly the end of the railroad train. He put Hedwig inside showtime and and so started to shove and heave his trunk toward the railroad train door. He tried to elevator it upwards the steps but could inappreciably raise one end and twice he dropped information technology painfully on his human foot.

"Desire a hand?" It was one of the red-haired twins he'd followed through the bulwark.

"Yes, please," Harry panted.

"Oy, Fred! C'mere and help!"

With the twins' assist, Harry'south torso was at concluding tucked away in a corner of the compartment.

"Thanks," said Harry, pushing his sweaty pilus out of his eyes.

"What's that?" said ane of the twins suddenly, pointing at Harry's lightning scar.

"Blimey," said the other twin. "Are yous -- ?"

"He is," said the first twin. "Aren't you?" he added to Harry.

"What?" said Harry.

"Harry Potter. " chorused the twins.

"Oh, him," said Harry. "I hateful, yes, I am. "

The two boys gawked at him, and Harry felt himself turning red. Then, to his relief, a voice came floating in through the train's open up door.

"Fred? George? Are yous in that location?"

"Coming, Mom. "

With a final expect at Harry, the twins hopped off the train.

Harry sat downward side by side to the window where, one-half hidden, he could picket the red-haired family on the platform and hear what they were proverb. Their mother had just taken out her handkerchief.

"Ron, you've got something on your nose. "

The youngest boy tried to jerk out of the style, only she grabbed him and began rubbing the finish of his nose.

"Mom -- geroff" He wriggled gratuitous.

"Aaah, has ickle Ronnie got somefink on his nosie?" said one of the twins.

"Close up," said Ron.

"Where's Percy?" said their mother.

"He'due south coming now. "

The oldest boy came striding into sight. He had already changed into his billowing black Hogwarts robes, and Harry noticed a shiny silver bluecoat on his chest with the letter P on it.

"Can't stay long, Mother," he said. "I'thousand upwards front, the prefects have got two compartments to themselves--"

"Oh, are you a prefect, Percy?" said one of the twins, with an air of great surprise. "You should take said something, we had no idea. "

"Hang on, I think I call back him proverb something nigh it," said the other twin. "Once--"

"Or twice--"

"A minute--"

"All summer--"

"Oh, shut up," said Percy the Prefect.

"How come Percy gets new robes, anyway?" said i of the twins.

"Considering he'due south a prefect," said their mother fondly. "All correct, dear, well, have a good term -- send me an owl when y'all get there. "

She kissed Percy on the cheek and he left. Then she turned to the twins.

"At present, you two -- this yr, you behave yourselves. If I get ane more owl telling me you lot've -- you've diddled up a toilet or--"

"Blown upward a toilet? We've never blown up a toilet. "

"Not bad thought though, thank you, Mom. "

"It's not funny. And wait after Ron. "

"Don't worry, ickle Ronniekins is rubber with u.s.a.. "

"Shut upwards," said Ron again. He was near as tall as the twins already and his nose was still pink where his mother had rubbed information technology.

"Hey, Mom, guess what? Estimate who nosotros just met on the train?"

Harry leaned back quickly so they couldn't see him looking.

"You lot know that black-haired boy who was most usa in the station? Know who he is?"

"Who?"

"Harry Potter!"

Harry heard the little girl's vocalization.

"Oh, Mom, tin I become on the railroad train and encounter him, Mom, eh please. . . "

"You lot've already seen him, Ginny, and the poor boy isn't something you goggle at in a zoo. Is he actually, Fred? How do you know?"

"Asked him. Saw his scar. Information technology'southward really there -- like lightning. "

"Poor beloved -- no wonder he was alone, I wondered. He was ever so polite when he asked how to get onto the platform. "

"Never mind that, do you retrieve he remembers what You-Know-Who looks like?"

Their mother of a sudden became very stern.

"I forbid you to ask him, Fred. No, don't you lot dare. As though he needs reminding of that on his first day at schoolhouse. "

"All right, keep your hair on. "

A whistle sounded.

"Bustle upward!" their mother said, and the 3 boys clambered onto the train. They leaned out of the window for her to buss them good-bye, and their younger sister began to cry.

"Don't, Ginny, we'll transport you loads of owls. "

"We'll send you lot a Hogwarts' toilet seat. "

"George!"

"Only joking, Mom. "

The railroad train began to move. Harry saw the boys' mother waving and their sister, half laughing, one-half crying, running to keep up with the train until information technology gathered besides much speed, and so she fell dorsum and waved.

Harry watched the girl and her mother disappear equally the train rounded the corner. Houses flashed past the window. Harry felt a great jump of excitement. He didn't know what he was going to -- but it had to be improve than what he was leaving behind.

The door of the compartment slid open and the youngest redheaded boy came in.

"Anyone sitting at that place?" he asked, pointing at the seat contrary Harry. "Everywhere else is full. "

Harry shook his caput and the male child saturday down. He glanced at Harry and then looked apace out of the window, pretending he hadn't looked. Harry saw he nonetheless had a black marking on his nose.

"Hey, Ron. "

The twins were back.

"Listen, we're going down the middle of the railroad train -- Lee Jordan's got a giant tarantula down there. "

"Right," mumbled Ron.

"Harry," said the other twin, "did we introduce ourselves? Fred and George Weasley. And this is Ron, our blood brother. See you later, and then. "

"Bye," said Harry and Ron. The twins slid the compartment door close behind them.

"Are you really Harry Potter?" Ron blurted out.

Harry nodded.

"Oh -- well, I thought information technology might be one of Fred and George's jokes," said Ron. "And have you really got -- you know. . . "

He pointed at Harry's forehead.

Harry pulled back his bangs to show the lightning scar. Ron stared.

"So that's where You-Know-Who -- ?"

"Aye," said Harry, "but I can't recall it. "

"Aught?" said Ron eagerly.

"Well -- I remember a lot of green light, but naught else. "

"Wow," said Ron. He saturday and stared at Harry for a few moments, and so, every bit though he had suddenly realized what he was doing, he looked chop-chop out of the window over again.

r /> "Are all your family unit wizards?" asked Harry, who found Ron just as interesting as Ron found him.
"Er -- Yeah, I think and so," said Ron. "I think Mom's got a 2d cousin who'south an auditor, but we never talk about him. "

"And then you must know loads of magic already. "

The Weasleys were clearly one of those old wizarding families the pale male child in Diagon Alley had talked about.

"I heard yous went to alive with Muggles," said Ron. "What are they like?"

"Horrible -- well, not all of them. My aunt and uncle and cousin are, though. Wish I'd had iii wizard brothers. "

"Five," said Ron. For some reason, he was looking gloomy. "I'm the sixth in our family unit to go to Hogwarts. Yous could say I've got a lot to live up to. Bill and Charlie have already left -- Bill was head male child and Charlie was helm of Quidditch. At present Percy's a prefect. Fred and George mess around a lot, but they still get actually skilful marks and everyone thinks they're really funny. Everyone expects me to practise equally well as the others, but if I do, it's no big bargain, because they did it first. Yous never get anything new, either, with five brothers. I've got Bill's old robes, Charlie's quondam wand, and Percy'southward sometime rat. "

Ron reached inside his jacket and pulled out a fatty greyness rat, which was asleep.

"His proper name'due south Scabbers and he'due south useless, he hardly e'er wakes up. Percy got an owl from my dad for being made a prefect, merely they couldn't aff -- I hateful, I got Scabbers instead. "

Ron's ears went pinkish. He seemed to think he'd said besides much, considering he went back to staring out of the window.

Harry didn't call back there was annihilation incorrect with not being able to afford an owl. After all, he'd never had any coin in his life until a month ago, and he told Ron so, all about having to wear Dudley's onetime apparel and never getting proper birthday presents. This seemed to cheer Ron up.

". . . and until Hagrid told me, I didn't know annihilation about being a magician or about my parents or Voldemort--"

Ron gasped.

"What?" said Harry.

"You said You lot-Know-Who'southward name!" said Ron, sounding both shocked and impressed. "I'd have thought you, of all people--"

"I'm not trying to exist brave or anything, proverb the proper noun," said Harry, "I but never knew you shouldn't. Run into what I hateful? I've got loads to learn. . . I bet," he added, voicing for the first time something that had been worrying him a lot lately, "I bet I'yard the worst in the class. "

"You won't be. At that place's loads of people who come from Muggle families and they learn quick enough. "

While they had been talking, the train had carried them out of London. Now they were speeding past fields full of cows and sheep. They were placidity for a time, watching the fields and lanes pic past.

Around half past twelve there was a bully clattering outside in the corridor and a smile, dimpled adult female slid back their door and said, "Anything off the cart, dears?"

Harry, who hadn't had any breakfast, leapt to his anxiety, only Ron'due south ears went pinkish again and he muttered that he'd brought sandwiches. Harry went out into the corridor.

He had never had any money for candy with the Dursleys, and now that he had pockets rattling with aureate and silver he was ready to buy as many Mars Confined as he could deport -- but the woman didn't have Mars Bars. What she did have were Bettie Bott'southward Every Flavor Beans, Drooble's All-time Blowing Gum, Chocolate Frogs. Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes, Licorice Wands, and a number of other strange things Harry had never seen in his life. Not wanting to miss anything, he got some of everything and paid the adult female eleven silver Sickles and 7 statuary Knuts.

Ron stared as Harry brought it all dorsum in to the compartment and tipped it onto an empty seat.

"Hungry, are you?"

"Starving," said Harry, taking a large bite out of a pumpkin mucilaginous.

Ron had taken out a lumpy package and unwrapped it. In that location were 4 sandwiches inside. He pulled one of them apart and said, "She always forgets I don't like corned beef. . "

"Swap yous for i of these," said Harry, belongings up a pasty. "Go on--"

"You don't want this, it's all dry out," said Ron. "She hasn't got much time," he added quickly, "you know, with five of u.s.. "

"Proceed, accept a pasty," said Harry, who had never had anything to share earlier or, indeed, anyone to share it with. It was a nice feeling, sitting at that place with Ron, eating their manner through all Harry'due south pasties, cakes, and candies (the sandwiches lay forgotten).

"What are these?" Harry asked Ron, holding upwards a pack of Chocolate Frogs. "They're not really frogs, are they?" He was starting to feel that nothing would surprise him.

"No," said Ron. "But see what the card is. I'm missing Agrippa. "

"What?"

"Oh, of form, you wouldn't know -- Chocolate Frogs have cards, inside them, yous know, to collect -- famous witches and wizards. I've got about five hundred, but I haven't got Agrippa or Ptolemy. "

Harry unwrapped his Chocolate Frog and picked up the card. It showed a human being'south face. He wore one-half-moon glasses, had a long, crooked olfactory organ, and flowing silver hair, beard, and mustache. Underneath the film was the proper noun Albus Dumbledore.

"So this is Dumbledore!" said Harry.

"Don't tell me you'd never heard of Dumbledore!" said Ron. "Can I accept a frog? I might get Agrippa -- thanks--"

Harry turned over his card and read:

ALBUS DUMBLEDORE

CURRENTLY HEADMASTER OF HOGWARTS

Considered by many the greatest wizard of modernistic times, Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark magician Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon'southward blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel. Professor Dumbledore enjoys bedroom music and tenpin bowling.

Harry turned the card back over and saw, to his astonishment, that Dumbledore's face had disappeared.

"He's gone!"

"Well, yous tin't expect him to hang around all 24-hour interval," said Ron. "He'll be back. No, I've got Morgana again and I've got virtually six of her. . . practise you want it? You can beginning collecting. "

Ron's eyes strayed to the pile of Chocolate Frogs waiting to be unwrapped.

"Help yourself," said Harry. "Simply in, you know, the Muggle world, people just stay put in photos. "

"Do they? What, they don't move at all?" Ron sounded amazed. "Weird!"

Harry stared as Dumbledore sidled back into the moving-picture show on his card and gave him a pocket-sized smile. Ron was more than interested in eating the frogs than looking at the Famous Witches and Wizards cards, but Harry couldn't keep his eyes off them. Soon he had not only Dumbledore and Morgana, but Hengist of Woodcroft, Alberic Grunnion, Circe, Paracelsus, and Merlin. He finally tore his optics away from the Druidess Cliodna, who was scratching her olfactory organ, to open a pocketbook of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.

"You desire to be careful with those," Ron warned Harry. "When they say every flavor, they mean every flavor -- you know, you lot get all the ordinary ones like chocolate and peppermint and marmalade, just and then you tin can become spinach and liver and tripe. George reckons he had a booger-flavored one once. "

Ron picked up a light-green bean, looked at it advisedly, and bit into a corner.

"Bleaaargh -- encounter? Sprouts. "

They had a expert time eating the Every Flavor Beans. Harry got toast, coconut, baked edible bean, strawberry, back-scratch, grass, java, sardine, and was even brave enough to nibble the terminate off a funny gray ane Ron wouldn't touch, which turned out to be pepper.

The countryside now flight past the window was becoming wilder. The neat fields had gone. Now there were woods, twisting rivers, and dark dark-green hills.

There was a knock on the door of their compartment and the circular-faced boy Harry had passed on platform 9 and three-quarters came in. He looked tearful.

"Sad," he said, "simply take you seen a toad at all?"

When they shook their heads, he wailed, "I've lost him! He keeps getting abroad from me!"

"He'll turn up," said Harry.

"Yes," said the boy miserably. "Well, if y'all see him. . . "

He
left.
"Don't know why he'due south so bothered," said Ron. "If I'd brought a toad I'd lose information technology every bit quick as I could. Heed you, I brought Scabbers, so I can't talk. "

The rat was still snoozing on Ron'due south lap.

"He might have died and yous wouldn't know the difference," said Ron in disgust. "I tried to plow him yellow yesterday to make him more interesting, merely the spell didn't work. I'll show you, look. . . "

He rummaged around in his trunk and pulled out a very battered-looking wand. Information technology was chipped in places and something white was glinting at the end.

"Unicorn hair's nearly poking out. Anyway--"

He had just raised his wand when the compartment door slid open up once more. 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 big forepart teeth.

"We've already told him we haven't seen it," said Ron, but the girl wasn't listening, she was looking at the wand in his hand.

"Oh, are y'all doing magic? Let's see it, so. "

She sat down. Ron looked taken aback.

"Er -- all right. "

He cleared his throat.

"Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow,

Turn this stupid, fat rat xanthous. "

He waved his wand, but nothing happened. Scabbers stayed gray and fast comatose.

"Are you lot certain that's a real spell?" said the girl. "Well, it's not very good, is information technology? I've tried a few elementary spells but 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 of the alphabet, but I was always and then pleased, of course, I hateful, it'due south the very all-time schoolhouse of witchcraft there is, I've heard -- I've learned all our course books by eye, of class, I just hope it will be plenty -- I'm Hermione Granger, past the mode, who are you lot?"

She said all this very fast.

Harry looked at Ron, and was relieved to see past his stunned face that he hadn't learned all the course books by eye either.

"I'm Ron Weasley," Ron muttered.

"Harry Potter," said Harry.

"Are you really?" said Hermione. "I know all nearly yous, of course -- I got a few extra books, for background reading, and you're in Modern Magical History and The Ascension and Autumn of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century. "

"Am I?" said Harry, feeling dazed.

"Goodness, didn't you lot know, I'd take found out everything I could if information technology was me," said Hermione. "Practice either of you know what house you lot'll be in? I've been asking around, and I hope I'chiliad in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best; I hear Dumbledore himself was in it, merely I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be besides bad. . . Anyway, we'd better get and look for Neville'southward toad. You 2 had better modify, you know, I expect nosotros'll be there shortly. "

And she left, taking the toadless boy with her.

"Whatever business firm I'm in, I hope she'due south not in information technology," said Ron. He threw his wand dorsum into his trunk. "Stupid spell -- George gave information technology to me, bet he knew it was a dud. "

"What house are your brothers in?" asked Harry.

"Gryffindor," said Ron. Gloom seemed to be settling on him once again. "Mom and Dad were in it, too. I don't know what they'll say if I'm not. I don't suppose Ravenclaw would exist too bad, only imagine if they put me in Slytherin. "

"That's the house Vol-, I mean, You-Know-Who was in?"

"Yeah," said Ron. He flopped back into his seat, looking depressed.

"You know, I think the ends of Scabbers' whiskers are a fleck lighter," said Harry, trying to take Ron'south mind off houses. "So what practice your oldest brothers practice now that they've left, anyway?"

Harry was wondering what a wizard did one time he'd finished school.

"Charlie's in Romania studying dragons, and Bill's in Africa doing something for Gringotts," said Ron. "Did you hear about Gringotts? It'due south been all over the Daily Prophet, but I don't suppose y'all get that with the Muggles -- someone tried to rob a high security vault. "

Harry stared.

"Really? What happened to them?"

"Nothing, that's why information technology's such big news. They oasis't been caught. My dad says information technology must've been a powerful Nighttime magician to get round Gringotts, but they don't think they took anything, that'southward what's odd. 'Form, everyone gets scared when something like this happens in case You-Know-Who'due south behind it. "

Harry turned this news over in his mind. He was starting to get a prickle of fear every time You-Know-Who was mentioned. He supposed this was all part of entering the magical world, but information technology had been a lot more than comfortable saying "Voldemort" without worrying.

"What's your Quidditch team?" Ron asked.

"Er -- I don't know any. " Harry confessed.

"What!" Ron looked dumbfounded. "Oh, you wait, information technology's the best game in the world -- " And he was off, explaining all nigh the four balls and the positions of the seven players, describing famous games he'd been to with his brothers and the broomstick he'd similar to become if he had the money. He was but taking Harry through the effectively points of the game when the compartment door slid open up yet over again, but it wasn't Neville the toadless boy, or Hermione Granger this time.

Three boys entered, and Harry recognized the middle ane 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 Aisle.

"Is information technology true?" he said. "They're saying all down the train that Harry Potter's in this compartment. And so it's you, is information technology?"

"Yes," said Harry. He was looking at the other boys. Both of them were thickset and looked extremely mean. Continuing on either side of the pale boy, they looked like bodyguards.

"Oh, this is Crabbe and this is Goyle," said the pale male child carelessly, noticing where Harry was looking. "And my name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy. "

Ron gave a slight cough, which might have been hiding a snigger. Draco Malfoy looked at him.

"Remember my name's funny, do y'all? No need to ask who yous are. My father told me all the Weasleys have carmine pilus, freckles, and more children than they tin afford. "

He turned back to Harry. "You'll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. Yous don't want to become making friends with the wrong sort. I tin can help you there. "

He held out his paw 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 scarlet, just a pink tinge appeared in his pale cheeks.

"I'd be careful if I were y'all, Potter," he said slowly. "Unless you're a fleck politer you'll get the aforementioned way as your parents. They didn't know what was good for them, either. You lot hang around with riffraff like the Weasleys and that Hagrid, and information technology'll rub off on you. "

Both Harry and Ron stood up.

"Say that again," Ron said, his face as crimson as his hair.

"Oh, you lot're going to fight us, are y'all?" Malfoy sneered.

"Unless you lot get out now," said Harry, more than bravely than he felt, because Crabbe and Goyle were a lot bigger than him or Ron.

"But we don't anxiety like leaving, practise we, boys? Nosotros've eaten all our food and you lot still seem to take some. "

Goyle reached toward the Chocolate Frogs next to Ron -- Ron leapt forward, but before he'd so much as touched Goyle, Goyle let out a horrible yell.

Scabbers the rat was hanging off his finger, abrupt little teeth sunk deep into Goyle'due south knuckle -- Crabbe and Malfoy backed away every bit Goyle swung Scabbers round and round, howling, and when Scabbers finally flew off and hit the window, all 3 of them disappeared at once. Peradventure they thought there were more rats lurking among the sweets, or perhaps they'd heard footsteps, because a second later, Hermione Granger had come in.

"What has been going on?" she said, looking at the sweets all over the floor and Ron picking up Scabbers by his tail.

"I remember he's been knocked out," Ron said to Harry. He looked closer at Scabbers. "No -- I don't be
lieve it -- he's gone dorsum to sleep. "
And then he had.

"You've met Malfoy before?"

Harry explained about their meeting in Diagon Alley.

"I've heard of his family," said Ron darkly. "They were some of the first to come back to our side later You-Know-Who disappeared. Said they'd been bewitched. My dad doesn't believe it. He says Malfoy'south father didn't need an excuse to become over to the Dark Side. " He turned to Hermione. "Tin can nosotros assistance you with something?"

"You'd ameliorate bustle up and put your robes on, I've only been up to the front to ask the conductor, and he says we're nearly there. You oasis't been fighting, accept you? You'll be in problem before we even get in that location!"

"Scabbers has been fighting, non u.s.," said Ron, scowling at her. "Would you heed leaving while we modify?"

"All correct -- I but came in hither because people outside are behaving very childishly, racing up and downwards the corridors," said Hermione in a sniffy vocalism. "And you've got clay on your olfactory organ, by the manner, did you know?"

Ron glared at her every bit she left. Harry peered out of the window. Information technology was getting dark. He could run across mountains and forests under a deep purple sky. The railroad train did seem to be slowing down.

He and Ron took off their jackets and pulled on their long black robes. Ron's were a bit brusk for him, you could see his sneakers underneath them.

A voice echoed through the train: "We will exist reaching Hogwarts in 5 minutes' time. Delight leave your luggage on the train, it will exist taken to the school separately. "

Harry's stomach lurched with fretfulness and Ron, he saw, looked pale under his freckles. They crammed their pockets with the last of the sweets and joined the crowd thronging the corridor.

The train slowed right down and finally stopped. People pushed their way toward the door and out on to a tiny, dark platform. Harry shivered in the cold night air. And then a lamp came bobbing over the heads of the students, and Harry heard a familiar vocalism: "Firs' years! Firs' years over here! All right there, Harry?"

Hagrid's large hairy face beamed over the sea of heads.

"C'monday, follow me -- any more firs' years? Heed yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!"

Slipping and stumbling, they followed Hagrid down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path. Information technology was so nighttime on either side of them that Harry idea there must exist thick copse 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 of a sudden 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 than'northward four to a boat!" Hagrid called, pointing to a fleet of trivial boats sitting in the water past the shore. Harry and Ron were followed into their boat by Neville and Hermione.

"Anybody in?" shouted Hagrid, who had a gunkhole to himself. "Right so -- FORWARD!"

And the fleet of fiddling boats moved off all at once, gliding across the lake, which was as smooth as drinking glass. Everyone was silent, staring up at the slap-up castle overhead. Information technology towered over them every bit they sailed nearer and nearer to the cliff on which it stood.

"Heads downwardly!" yelled Hagrid as the get-go 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 up. They were carried along a night 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 lot there! Is this your toad?" said Hagrid, who was checking the boats as people climbed out of them.

"Trevor!" cried Neville blissfully, belongings out his hands. Then they clambered up a passageway in the rock after Hagrid's lamp, coming out at last onto smooth, clammy grass right in the shadow of the castle.

They walked upwardly a flight of stone steps and crowded effectually the huge, oak front door.

"Everyone here? You at that place, nevertheless got yer toad?"

Hagrid raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.