Y/N's last month in the Leaky Cauldron wasn't fun. True, he could now perform basic spells with his wand but the dreams were starting to become more often. Y/N stopped getting sleep because every time he did, he was back into the dream. It made him restless and always on guard.
Y/N kept to his room, with his new jackalope for company. His school books were very interesting. He lay on his bed reading late into the night when he woke up from his dreams. P/N ran around the room as she pleased. It was lucky that the cleaner didn't come in to vacuum anymore because P/N kept bringing back dead mice. Every time after nightfall, Y/N ticked off another day on the piece of paper he had pinned to the wall, counting down to September the first.
On the last day of August, he thought he'd better speak to Dumbledore about getting to King's Cross station the next day, so he to the fireplace in his room and yelled Dumbledore's name. The head of Dumbledore appeared in the fire.
"Er- Headmaster?"
Dumbledore nodded his head to show he was listening.
"Er- I need to be at King's Cross tomorrow to go to Hogwarts."
Dumbledore nodded his head again.
"Would it be all right if you gave me a lift?"
Nod. Y/N knew that meant yes.
"Thank you."
He was about to end the conversation when Dumbledore spoke.
"Would you prefer to use something else, the Floo Network? After all, I don't think I have time to send you."
Y/N didn't say anything.
"Y/N? Are you there?"
"Oh, yeah. I'm fine with using Floo Network to get there. Or at least to take the train from Platform 9 3/4."
"Excellent, I shall open the Floo Network from 10 am onwards. It will close on the dot." And with that, Dumbledore was gone from the fireplace.
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Y/N woke at 5 am and was too excited and nervous to go back to sleep. He got up and pulled on his wizard's robes. He checked his Hogwarts list yet again to make sure he had everything he needed, saw that P/N was shut safely in her cage and went down to get his last breakfast in the Leaky Cauldron. At 10 am, Y/N grabbed his heavy trunk and P/N's cage before using the fireplace to appear inside Platform 9 3/4.
Smoke from the engine drifted over the heads of the chattering crowd, while cats of every colour wound here and there between their legs. Owls hooted to one another in a disgruntled sort of way over the babble and the scraping of heavy trunks.
Not many people were here so there were a bunch of empty seats. Y/N dragged his luggage until he found a compartment near the end of the train. He put P/N inside first and tried to shove and heave his trunk in the overhead compartment. He could hardly raise one end of the trunk and twice he dropped it painfully on his foot.
With a huge amount of struggling, Y/N's trunk was at last tucked away in a corner of the compartment.
Y/N sat down next to the window and watched a bunch of families run through the wall into Platform 9 3/4. He remembered his parents and felt sad that they weren't here with him right now.
Y/N decided to read a book on Merlin he bought. After nearly dropping the trunk on his foot for the third time, he got his book out and shoved the trunk back to its corner in the overhead compartment.
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Y/N wasn't sure how much time passed but when he shut his book, the train was moving and two people sat in the opposite seat. One of them was a round-faced boy and the other was a bushy brown haired girl. Both were talking to each other before the girl noticed Y/N.
"Oh, you finally stopped reading. I'm Hermione Granger and that's Neville Longbottom." She had a bossy sort of voice and Y/N noticed her rather large front teeth. Neville just waved a shy hand at Y/N.
"I'm Y/N Wyllt," Y/N replied, a smile appearing on his face. Hermione and Neville seemed to be shocked by his accent because they started questioning it (Hermione did, Neville just stayed quiet in the corner).
"Are you American? You sound like one and did you say Wyllt? As in Myrddin Wyllt, more commonly known as Merlin?" She questioned everything and it was making Y/N's brain overload from the questions. Luckily, he kept calm and answered everything.
"Yes, I'm American. Merlin is my ancestor and since he studied at Hogwarts, everybody in my family tree studied there."
Y/N took note of Hermione's fascinated look but noticed Neville staring at P/N.
"Hey Neville, is something wrong?" Y/N asked, breaking the connection between Neville and P/N.
"Oh, nothing but your pet. What is it?" Neville questioned, having a curious look on his face.
"It's a Jackalope, her name is P/N. Dumbledore allowed me to bring her." Y/N replied, opening P/N's cage and dumping some wolf meat inside before closing it once more.
"That's way cooler than Trevor..." Neville replied gloomily.
"Who's Trevor?" asked Hermione.
"My pet toad. Let me show you. Wait, where's Trevor? I swore I put him in my pocket after I found him!" Neville frantically searched the compartment. Y/N and Hermione decided to help him and they went to every compartment, asking the students if they found a toad.
"It's no use if we stick together, let's split up. Neville, you search the front. Hermione, you search the back. I'll search the middle." Y/N instructed. The two nodded their heads before going their separate ways.
Y/N asked again and again but still no use. He was getting nearer to the back part of the train. Much to Y/N's disappointment, nobody saw Trevor. Neville didn't find Trevor in the front either, they decided to find Hermione and stick with her.
"Hermione, any luck on finding Trevor?" Y/N called out to Hermione, Neville trailing behind him. Hermione shook her head which made Neville look more stressed.
"This is the last for me." She opened the door to reveal a red-haired boy whom he didn't recognise and Harry.
"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," Hermione said. Y/N was leaning against the door frame, revealing Neville standing in the middle.
"We've already told him we haven't seen it," said the red-haired boy but Hermione wasn't listening, she was looking at the wand in his hand.
"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it, then." She sat down on the seat opposite of them. Y/N and Neville followed and they sat next to her. The boy looked taken aback.
"Er- all right. Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow." He waved his wand but nothing happened. The rat stayed grey and fast asleep.
"Are you sure that's a real spell? Well, it's not very good, is it? I've tried a few simple spells just 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 but I was ever so pleased, of course. I mean, it's the best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard- I've learned all our course books by heart, of course. I just hope it will be enough- I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?" said Hermione very fast.
"I'm Ron Weasley," Ron muttered.
"Harry Potter," said Harry.
"Are you? I know all about you, of course — I got a few extra books, for background reading, and you're in Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century," said Hermione.
"Am I?" said Harry, feeling dazed. Y/N couldn't help but have a small laugh which made Harry glare at him.
"Goodness, didn't you know, I'd have found out everything I could if it was me, do either of you know what house you'll be in? I've been asking around and I hope I'm in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best. I hear Dumbledore himself was in it but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad. Anyway, we'd better go and look for Neville's toad. You two had better change, you know, I expect we'll be there soon." said Hermione before leaving and Neville following behind.
"Well, see you, Harry. Oh and Weasley, you got dirt on your nose? Did you know? Just there." Y/N pointed to a spot on his nose before closing the compartment door and following Hermione and Neville.
Unfortunately, they weren't able to find Trevor. He most likely escaped the train and Neville was in a bad mood for the rest of the train ride.
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Hermione and Y/N were both heading up to the conductor when they heard a horrible yell.
"What was that?" asked Hermione, a worried expression on her face. Y/N decided he would check it out, he told Hermione to stay where she was.
Y/N ran to where the yell was, he opened the compartment door to see the rat was hanging off somebody's finger- two other people backed away as the injured person swung the rat round and round while howling in pain and when the rat finally flew off and hit the window, all three of them disappeared at once. Y/N went to examine the rat when Hermione came in a second later.
"What has been going on?" she said, looking at the sweets all over the floor and Ron picking up the rat by his tail.
"I think he's been knocked out," Ron said to Harry.
"He isn't, he fell asleep," Y/N stated.
"You've met Malfoy before?" Ron asked. Y/N realised they were talking about the boy from Diagon Alley.
Y/N helped Harry explain their meeting in Diagon Alley.
"I've heard of his family. They were some of the first to come back to our side after You-Know-Who disappeared. Said they'd been bewitched. My dad doesn't believe it. He says Malfoy's father didn't need an excuse to go over to the Dark Side." said Ron darkly. Y/N felt chills down his spine, were they still Lord Voldermort's followers?
"Can we help you with something?" Ron asked in an annoyed voice to Hermione. Y/N simply glared at him.
"You'd better hurry up and put your robes on, I've just been up to the front to ask the conductor, and he says we're nearly there. You haven't been fighting, have you? You'll be in trouble before we even get there!"
"Scabbers has been fighting, not us. Would you mind leaving while we change?" said Ron, scowling at her. Y/N couldn't help but think that this Weasley kid was extremely rude.
"All right- I only came in here because people outside are behaving very childishly, racing up and down the corridors. And you've got dirt on your nose, by the way, did you know?" said Hermione in a sniffy voice. Hermione left, leaving Y/N alone with Ron and Harry.
Y/N noticed Ron glaring at Hermione as she left and he completely lost his cool.
"OI! WEASEL! IF YOU ARE GONNA GLARE AT SOMEBODY, GLARE AT ME!" He was holding Ron by the collar, terrifying Ron and even Harry. Y/N finally let go when the train started to slow down, he gave Ron one last glance before slamming the compartment door shut.
People pushed their way toward the door and out onto a tiny, dark platform. Y/N shivered in the cold night air. Then a lamp came bobbing over the heads of the students. Y/N noticed it was Hagrid and he seemed to forget his anger.
"First years! First years over here! All right there, Harry? C'mon, follow me- any more first years? Mind yer step, now! First years follow me!" Hagrid's big hairy face beamed over the sea of heads.
Slipping and stumbling, they followed Hagrid down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path. It was so dark on either side of them that Y/N thought there must be thick trees there. Nobody spoke much. Neville sniffed once or twice.
"Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec jus' round this bend here," Hagrid called over his shoulder.
"Oooooh!" That was all that was heard.
The narrow path had opened suddenly 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'n four to a boat!" Hagrid called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore. Harry and Ron were followed into their boat by Neville and Hermione. Y/N ended up sitting with Malfoy and his two cronies, much to his anger.
"Everyone in? Right then- FORWARD!" shouted Hagrid, who had a boat to himself.
And the fleet of little boats moved off all at once, gliding across the lake, which was as smooth as glass. Everyone was silent, staring up at the great castle overhead. It towered over them as they sailed nearer and nearer to the cliff on which it stood.
"Heads down!" yelled Hagrid as the first 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. They were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle until they reached a kind of underground harbour, where they clambered out onto rocks and pebbles.
"Oy, you there! Is this your toad?" said Hagrid, who was checking the boats as people climbed out of them.
"Trevor!" cried Neville blissfully, holding out his hands. Then they clambered up a passageway in the rock after Hagrid's lamp, coming out at last onto smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle. They walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, oak front door.
"Everyone here? You there, still got yer toad?" Hagrid asked before raising a gigantic fist and knocking three times on the castle door.