The pain does stop. A long time later, but it does. The door opens unexpectedly, revealing Julie with her wand and potions.
"Come on now, drink up," she tells me. "I know you've had a rough night, but this will help."
Eventually I comply, but I still whimper in pain. She murmurs spells under her breath, and I can feel the various cuts and bruises healing. She gives me a blood replenishing potion ("You did lose a lot of blood, you're pasty white!") and a Calming Draught ("You're making the injuries worse because you're so worked up about it!").
Soon, I'm able to make it downstairs with the help of my friends. "Thanks, guys," I tell them.
"No problem, we're just doing what we can to help with your furry little problem," James tells me.
"Don't forget Remus," Peter pipes up.
"Right, him too," James concedes, grinning.
I smell ham and cheese omelets cooking in the kitchen and make a beeline for one. I bite into one, ravenous with hunger (When's the last time I ate?) and promptly burn myself. "OW!" I shout, fanning my mouth to try and cool it off.
"Here," says Richard. "Aguamenti!" A jet of ice cold water pours into my mouth, cooling it instantly. However, a side affect is that I start spluttering, not having expected it.
"Whawathah?!" I say, still coughing. Sirius and Remus burst out laughing in the doorway. I glare at them, and they instantly stop, however.
The day arrives, though, when we have to go back to school. "Got everything?" Julie asks from the bottom of the staircase.
"Yeah, think so," comes James' response after a small scuffle from his room.
"Nearly," Sirius calls back.
"Yup," I say.
"JAMES GET OFF MY TRUNK!" Sirius shouts.
"Hey, could you please help me pack?" Peter asks me sweetly.
"Sure," I tell him, rushing off to his room.
"Okay, done now," Remus says.
I begin placing Peter's folded clothes into his trunk and in a few minutes, everything is ready to go. I check my watch. 10:17. We haul our trunks downstairs and I go back to grab our owls. At 10:23, we're headed out the door. "Well, this is goodbye, then," I tell Julie.
"'Bye, guys! I do hope to see you again for Christmas holidays," she tells us.
"See you, mum!" James calls as we walk to the curb.
"So how are we getting to King's Cross?" I ask, confused. I don't think people would let us Apparate there, and I'm certain there aren't any fireplaces there. I'm right.
"We're taking the Knight Bus, of course," Richard tells us. "Here..."
Richard sticks out his right arm and almost immediately, a large, purple, triple-decker bus pulls up.
"Hello, my name is Larson, I'll be your conductor today," a young man says after the doors open with a monotonous tone of voice that had the effect of reading from a paper that was memorized, which, it probably was. He sounds rather like Professor Binns, the ghost teacher, actually.
"Yes, we will need a ride to King's Cross Station," Richard says.
"Absolutely, climb on. Oh, and don't forget to hold on tight!"
As soon as everything is on board, I look around and find rows of armchairs. Witches and wizards are picking themselves up off the floor still, muttering. I grab onto a metal pole and feel my stomach lurch as we move. With a loud BANG, we get to the sidewalk next to King's Cross.
"Thanks," we tell Larson as we file out. Walking into the station, we make our way to the barrier between platforms 9 and 10. Checking to make sure no Muggles are watching, we make it through the barrier and onto the train.
"Well, what cabin this year?" I ask my friends.
"Well, we could sit with Lily," James suggests.
"Alright then," we agree and head off to the cabin.
"STACIE!" Lily shrieks as she runs over and nearly knocks me off my feet. "Where have you been? You haven't responded to hardly any of my letters!"
"I was at the Potters' house," I explain. "Did you try Muggle post or something?"
"Yeah, I did..." she says sheepishly.
"Well, there's your problem," I say, grinning.
***
Soon, the trolley witch comes rolling towards us. "Anything from the trolley, dears?" she asks us kindly.
"Yeah," Sirius says, and we buy an assortment of sweets, but most of which are chocolate frogs. We pass around cards and trade the ones we already have for new ones. Of course, I don't have many to give, since I just found out about the wizarding world, but I have a significantly larger collection after we've devoured all the frogs.
Soon, it's growing dark out, and we take it in turns once again to change. The castle zooms past our window, but we don't really pay it much attention anymore.
Finally, we get off the train and we get into the horseless carriages that pull themselves around.
After a short time, we arrive back up at the castle. "Firs' years over 'ere, firs' years over 'ere!" comes the familiar call.
"Hagrid!" I exclaim. "Hi!"
"'Lo," he says gruffly and turns back to the new students.
YOU ARE READING
Stacie Redmond and the Room of Requirement
Fanfiction"What is this place?" I gasp in amazement. I have never seen the cathedral-style room in my life, and I am quite impressed. Everything I could ever need is here at my disposal. Poking around the shelves, I see many things I've never seen before. ...
