Lucy's POV:
As Mrs. Weasley had promised Harry, she was going to see me off to the bus station.
Ginny took my hand and dragged me back to the other side of the wall and I let her.
When we were on the other side of the wall, I had to fight to keep the tears from spilling, but I couldn't let Mrs. Weasley and Ginny see that.
Ginny started a conversation I was very happy to participate in, for I only had to nod and laugh a few times.
"So you live with your aunt and uncle, Lucy?" Mrs. Weasley asked, ending the comfortable moment. "Why aren't they here?"
"Oh, they were, but er... my uncle had somewhere to go..." I said. "He said to take the bus back home."
"So are you and your brother close?" Ginny asked me, joining in now.
"We are actually... he's my only real friend at home..." I said, figuring how much I was going to tell them. "I guess people never really like me that much."
Ginny and Mrs. Weasley shared a look and I turned away.
I didn't want their pity.
"Why don't you and your aunt and uncle come over some time?" Mrs. Weasley said. "I'm sure they want to know what you and Harry will be up to the next eight years and beyond!"
Ginny nodded excitedly at the idea and I internally groaned, almost laughed at the thought of it.
Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia would rather dine with a toad then with a family as abnormal as the Weasleys.
"Maybe..."
We arrived at the bus, which was already coming into view.
"Are you sure we can't just take you home?" Mrs. Weasley said, hesitant to let me leave.
"It's fine, this won't be the first time I'm on a bus alone," I said.
And so, Ginny gave me an unexpected good- bye-hug and even more surprising, so did Mrs. Weasley.
"Thank you, for your help," I said. "You have no idea how much you've done for me and my brother..."
And with that, I turned around and entered the bus. I had to keep a low profile in the bus, or I'd be damned, because I didn't have money.
I sat next to a woman and stared out of the window, while I allowed my thoughts to go to Harry. I just hoped he made friends out there.
After about half an hour, the bus arrived back in Little Whinging pretty close to Privet Drive and I hurried to get out, pray- ing the driver wouldn't see me.
I got out safely, but then the driver saw me and started yelling at me, but I started running back 'home'.
*~*
(*A day later*)
"UP!" Uncle Vernon screamed at the door of the cupboard that was now only keeping me.
"DON'T YOU KEEP ME WAITING GIRL," Uncle Vernon went on. "GET OUT AND MAKE ME BREAKFAST!"
I groaned and got up, dressing in my usual too big shabby jeans, sweatshirt and a beau- tiful leather jacket I'd found yesterday on the street while walking to Privet Drive.
It was by far the prettiest accessory I had in my possession.
I entered the kitchen with a throbbing head, which was probably the aftermath of the beating from Uncle Vernon last night.
I couldn't say I was surprised when Uncle Vernon picked up his old hobby of hurting me again, now that I was alone.
I made breakfast for Uncle Vernon, who had to leave for work earlier, as always.
He didn't really like it or appreciate it, but I didn't really care about that. He complained a lot, but I just ignored it, knowing that if I didn't and spoke up, I'd get beaten again.
After Uncle Vernon left for work, I had only 5 minutes to make Dudley and Aunt Petunia's breakfast. I hurried to get it done and just in time, I put down Dudley's eggs with bacon and Aunt Petunia's salad.
I myself, ate notthing, because I wasn't allowed to eat when the Dursleys were eating.
After breakfast, when Dudley and Aunt Petunia were getting ready to leave, I did some of the chores I'd have to do tonight otherwise.
15 minutes later, we went to school: Dudley to his new one and I to the same old boring school I'd been going to since I was 5.
People looked at me weirdly, when they noticed I was alone. How was I gonna explain why Harry wasn't here?
Before I could enter though, Aunt Petunia ushered me back with a serious face.
"You'll tell everyone who asks that your brother went to a special school for helpless cases!" Aunt Petunia
I gaped at her. "No way! I'm not saying that!"
Aunt Petunia grabbed my elbow harshly and looked at me angry. "You WILL say that or you'll wish you'd never been born, you piece of scum!"
I felt tears prickling in my eyes from anger, but I turned around and walked inside. I wasn't going to do what she said, but I didn't tell her that yet.
In front of my new classroom, with only a new teacher, I sighed. Here comes one more year of torture and loneliness and then I'll be off to Hogwarts, like Harry.
*~*
Harry's POV:
When I came back from the bathroom, completely dressed in my new uniform, I found Ron already dressed in the compartment too.
He grinned and pointed at Hedwig. "You have a pretty owl," he said. "We have a family owl too: Errol, but he's old and not really good anymore..."
"I got Hedwig from Hagrid, he introduced me and Lucy to the wizarding world."
"Wait, but you did know about it, didn't you?" Ron asked. "Because you aunt and uncle must've known!"
I sighed. "They didn't tell us, so we found out on my 11th birthday actually, which was at the end of July..."
Ron looked as though he'd just had a punch to the face and frowned. "Bloody hell, I'd be angry for the rest of my life."
I shrugged and looked at Hedwig. I could only hope Lucy was allright, back at the Dursleys on her own, but I knew Lucy: she was tough and knew how to look after herself.
"I just still... have to learn so much, I'm never gonna catch up."
Ron waved my comment away. "Of course you will, there are loads of Muggleborn students who all catch up soon enough!"
"Easy for you to say, I wish I had three older brothers, though I love Lucy, don't get me wrong. It's just-"
"Five," Ron said. "I have two more: Bill and Charlie, but they're already done. Actually, last year was Charlie's last!"
"So how old are all your brothers and in what years are they?" I asked curiously.
"Well, Bill is 20, almost 21 now and he graduated when he was 18. He's curse breaker for Gringotts now, in Egypt. Charlie's 18 and just started studying dragons." Ron looked at Harry. "He loves dragons, but he was also really good at Quidditch, used to be a seeker for the Gryffindor team... Bill used to be prefect and later became head boy too."
"Percy's 15 and in his 5th year. He became prefect this year, those are chosen then. He's very ambitious and bloody annoying. He wants to work at the Ministry..."
"The... Ministry? There's a ministry?" I'm perplexed.
"Yes, the Ministry of Magic. The Minister of Magic's Cornelius Fudge right now. My dad works for the Ministry..."
"And you've already met Fred and George, they're 13. They also play Quidditch, but mainly, they love to prank people. Mom always gets letters from school about some mischief they've gotten themselfs into."
I grinned, that sounded like Lucy!
"Ginny's not as much into mischief as them, but she has the same humour and is very cheeky. People always love Ginny because she's so... confident and outgoing."
I laughed,"I think Lucy and Ginny will be amazing friends. Lucy's a lot like that and much like Fred and George too!"
Ron groaned, "bloody hell, I'll be screwed... Fred and George already give me the creeps when they're with two! I don't think I'll survive Ginny and your sister too..."
We laughed and talked some more, untill the compartment door slid open again. This time it wasn't Neville or Hermione, but the boy from Madam Malkins and he had two big, mean looking fat boys with him, like bodyguards.
"They're saying Harry Potter's in this compartment," he said with an arrogant tone Lucy would've definitely made some remark about. "So I s'pose that's you then."
He turned to me with an insincere smile on his pale face. He had platinum blonde hair that had a lot of gell in it and blue-grey eyes.
"I'm Malfoy. Draco Malfoy. Oh, and these two are Crabbe and Goyle," he pointed to the bodyguards carelessly.
Ron bursted out laughing at Malfoy's unusual name and Malfoy turned to him offended.
"You think my name's funny huh?" He said with a cold expression. "I don't have to ask yours: red hair, freckles and a hand-me-down robe?"
Ron became very quiet and I clenched my teeth at the mean remark that made me think of Dudley.
"You must be a Weasley." Malfoy's crony friends laughed and Malfoy turned back to me.
"Potter, you'll find some families *(he looked at Ron meaningfully)* are better than others. I can help you with that." And he offered me his hand.
I looked at it for a minute, before I looked back up at him with a frown. "I think I can sort out the good ones for myself, thank you."
Malfoy turned slightly pink and seemed be-
yond himself of shame and anger. Ron however, had a smug look on his face.
"What are you looking at Weasel?" Malfoy said to Ron, whose ears turned red. One of the bodyguards stepped forward, about to punch Ron when-
"OUCH!" The bodyguard, Crabbe I think, screamed.
Ron's rat, Scabbers, hang dangling from one of his fingers, blood dripping from the place Scabbers'd bitten in Crabbe's flesh.
Outraged, the three bullies left the com- partment, after Scabbers had let go of Crabbe's finger and fallen on the ground.
He lay there motionless. "Is he dead?" I asked, still in shock.
Ron bent down to get him. "I hope he isn't- oh merlin..."
"What?"
"He's sleeping again..."
It was true. Scabbers was indeed sleeping again.
After half an hour, the train slowly came to a halt and people started toward the train's exit, so Ron and I followed suit.
On the platform, everyone was crowded together, one big mess of people trying to walk in different directions.
"Where do we go?" Ron asked me and I looked around frantically when suddenly:
"Firs' years this way! Firs' years come with me!" I grinned when I looked around and locked eyes with the one person I knew: Hagrid was gathering all the first year students.
Ron and I slowly made our way through the crowd towards Hagrid and the growing group of first-years.
"Harry! Good to see you again!" He called when we arrived, which made several people turn to us, but I ignored them.
"Whoa!" Ron said perplexed, looking at Hagrid's big size.
"Follow me kids!" Hagrid bellowed over the crowd when everyone had either joined the groups of first-years or had set off following a path that led towards the HUGE castle that could only be Hogwarts.
I gaped at the castle amazed and so did most of the other first-years.
Meanwhile, we had started walking after Hagrid, who went towards a big, dark lake, where small boats were fastened to the river bank.
"Only 4 per Boat!" Hagrid said, taking one boat for himself.
I stepped into a boat with Ron, Neville and, to Ron's big dismay, Hermione, who started talking about something she'd read.
We were all watching the castle coming closer and the closer we came, the more magnificant I found it.
When we arrived on the other side of the lake, I noticed a tall, slim figure standing in front of the big oak doors, which had to be the entrance to Hogwarts.
We walked up to the figure with Hagrid and when we were there, I saw it was a woman.
She looked very strict, with her quite pale skin (much like Lucy's), black hair, tied neatly into a bun, dark green eyes and rectangular scepticals.
This woman was not someone to mess with, I realised and I thought the rest did too.
"Professor McGonnagall," Hagrid greeted, with a lot of respect.
"Thank you Hagrid," she said. "I'll take it from here."
Hagrid exchanged one look with me and went inside, leaving us all with Professor McGonnagall.
"Good evening students, I am Professor McGonnagall: deputy headmistress, head of Gryffindor house and I teach Transfigura- tion. Follow me, please."
She opened the doors again and entered the castle and we all followed obediently.
We were in a huge hallway, that was magnificent and I just knew the rest of Hogwarts would be just as wonderful.
We stopped in front of another pair of big oak doors. Wow, this castle did love oak doors.
The group remained quiet and I noticed most of us were looking at her a bit uneasy. Hermione however, seemed to admire her.
"Welcome to Hogwarts. The start of term feast will begin soon, but before that, you need to be sorted in your new houses. They are Gryffindor, Hufflepuf, Ravenclaw and Slytherin."
Everyone exchanged glances, but quietly.
"Each house values their own personality traits. While you're here, your house will be like a family to you. When you do something good, you earn points for your house. Any rulebreaking and you will lose points. At the end of the year, the house with the highest amount of points wins the house cup, which is a great honour." Professor McGonnagall paused and looked at us all.
"Trevors!" Suddenly, Neville jumped out of the crowd, to Professor McGonnagall's feet and grabbed a toad. His toad.
He looked up at Professor McGonnagall, probably realising what he'd just done and cowered back into the crowd, pale-faced.
"I need to have a word with the headmaster now, you will stay here and wait for me." With that, she turned around and went through the oak doors.
We stood there in silence. What house would I be in? Probably Hufflepuf, if I remembered what Malfoy had said about it that day in Diagon Alley.
Suddenly, a girl shrieked and several people gasped loudly. Through a wall on our left came people, floating just above the ground. They looked transparent.
"Bill told about those! They're the Hogwarts' ghosts!" Ron whispered in my ear. I eyed them again. This world surprised me more every minute.
The ghosts were talking lively, clearly excited about something, maybe the feast.
"Ooh look!" One exclaimed even more excited. "First-years!" The ghost was fat, round-faced and looked old and happy.
When the ghosts had all looked at us and decided to go on, through the wall to the room Professor McGonnagall had just entered, we remained quiet.
A minute later, Professor McGonnagall came back and ushered us to follow her into the room.
My jaw dropped at the side: it was a huge, majistic room with extremely high ceiling and candles floating above us. To our left and right stood four long tables, two on each side, with big flags hanging above them and people sitting at the tables. Older students.
On the other end was a sort of stage. On the stage was another long table without a flag above it and at that table sat adults, including Hagrid and in the middle was an old man with a very long, white beard.
"That's Albus Dumbledore," I heard a girl say breathlessly to my right.
"Who's Albus Dumbledore?" I asked Ron and he looked at me dumbfounded.
"You don't know?" He whisper-yelled back. "He's the most powerful wizard of all time. He's like a thousand years old and he's the headmaster!"
I remembered Hagrid mention his name to Uncle Vernon angrily, when he was insult- ing the school.
In front of their table stood a stool with an old hat on it. I frowned.
We stopped before the stage and Professor McGonnagall turned back to us. The entire hall was silent.
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A/N:
Another chapter done. I hope you like it!
Any ideas on this story would be great!
Any ships, new characters, new POVs or an idea for the story line, I'm still deciding on those things!
Comment, vote, like etc.
Love you all!