At long last, the train stopped at Hogsmeade station, and there was a great scramble to get outside; owls hooted, cats meowed, and Neville's pet toad croaked loudly from under his hat. It was freezing on the tiny platform; rain was driving down in icy sheets.
"Firs' years this way!" called a familiar voice.
Harry, Charlie, Ron, and Hermione turned and saw the gigantic outline of Hagrid at the other end of the platform, beckoning the terrified-looking new students forward for their traditional journey across the lake.
"All right, you four?" Hagrid yelled over the heads of the crowd.
They waved at him, but had no chance to speak to him because the mass of people around them was shunting them away along the platform.
Harry, Charlie, Ron, and Hermione followed the rest of the school along the platform and out onto a rough mud track, where at least a hundred stagecoaches awaited the remaining students, each pulled by an invisible creature because as soon as they climbed inside and shut the door, the coach set off all by itself, bumping and swaying in procession.
Harry felt better since the chocolate, but still weak. Charlie, Ron and Hermione kept looking at him sideways, as though frightened he might collapse again. Other than that, the brown eyed boy chose not to speak about the dementor attack on the train until he had the chance to speak to his grandfather.
As the carriage trundled toward a pair of magnificent wrought iron gates, flanked with stone columns topped with winged boars, Charlie saw two more towering, hooded dementors, standing guard on either side.
A wave of cold sickness threatened to engulf him as he suddenly felt like the happiness in his body would disappear at any moment. He leaned back into the lumpy seat and kept his eyes on the floor until they had passed the gates. Charlie looked up to Harry to see him cower under the dementors gaze, clearly unwilling to succumb to the same fate as his last encounter.
The carriage picked up speed on the long, sloping drive up to the castle; Hermione was leaning out of the tiny window, watching the many turrets and towers draw nearer. At last, the carriage swayed to a halt, and the four of them got out.
Charlie watched from a distance as Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle and Zabini had walked up the stairs of the castle entranceway. He groaned in hatred - another year with those foul gits; god help us all.
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Hermione took notice in the brown eyed boy's unamused look, and quickly pulled him forward by his robes to take his gaze off of the Slytherins. The two of them met up with Harry and Ron before joining the crowd swarming up the steps, through the giant oak front doors, into the cavernous entrance hall, which was lit with flaming torches, and housed a magnificent marble staircase that led to the upper floors.
