"Are you sure you've got everything? Wand? Books? Cat?" y/n's Grandmother asked frantically checking over her grand daughter's trolley.
It was September 1st and they were standing at Kings Cross station. The train was leaving soon and y/n was saying her goodbyes to her grandma before she would jump on the train and head off to her new school. The nerves were only now kicking in. y/n had only been homeschooled before and knew nothing about magic (excluding the ridiculous amount she had read the night before). And now she was on her way to school full of witches and wizards! It still seemed a bit surreal.
"Don't worry Grandma! I have my wand right here" she said as she held up her wand. "My books are all packed up and in my trunk, and Nimbus is with me." she pulled open her jumper to reveal a small little black cloud, nestled up to y/n's chest, purring softly.
"Well guess you're all set then." her Grandmother responded before pulling her into a hug. "Stay safe okay? And write to me whenever you get the chance."
"We'll see you at Christmas" y/n responded hugging her back.
She was the only family she had. No siblings, no aunts or uncles, not even a third cousin twice removed. It was just y/n and Martha. Once y/n pulled away she let out a sigh. The young witch then turned away and began pushing her trolley with all her belongings through the station. She checked her train ticket to see which platform she needed to be on but was only met with confusion. "Platform 9 3/4" it read.
Is this some type of joke?
She looked around and saw that she was on platform 9, and to her right was platform 10, but there was no sort of station in between them. After looking around for a while she began to get flustered. How was she going to get on the train if she can't even find the bloody platform?! Then, just up ahead, she heard a boy speaking to one of the platform officers.
"-to get to platform 9 and 3/4?" the ebony haired boy said. The man just walked off, laughing.
"He must be going to Hogwarts as well," y/n thought. She began walking up to him and spoke
"Hey you're going to Hogwarts too, right," she said once she was next to him
'"Oh, yeah," He said enthusiastically, looking happy to find one of his kind. "Do you know how to get on the platform?"
"Not a clue"
A loud family came walking fast past them, they all had bright ginger hair and were pushing trolleys packed to the brim with them.
"As always, packed with muggles, come on!" said a lady who y/n assumed to be the mother.
The pair looked at each other and then quickly went to follow them. As they came around a pillar, they saw two boys run at the brick wall between platforms 9 and 10. Just when y/n thought they were going to crash, they phased through it and disappeared! The boy y/n was with stepped forward
"Excuse me!" he called as he approached the mother, y/n quickly following suit. "could you show us-how to-to" His awkwardness was quite amusing to watch for y/n
"How to get onto the platform dear? Of course! It's Ron's first year at Hogwarts too!" she gestured to a boy standing with his own trolley, a rat sat in a cage that was mounted on top of his trunk. "Now all you have to do is run straight at the wall between platforms 9 and 10" The boy looked over to said wall, the nerves showing clearly on his face. "Better go at a run if you're nervous"
"Good luck" a small girl standing next to the woman announced
The boy started to run at the wall until he was almost sprinting then phased through it, just like magic. The lady smiled at where a black haired boy once was and then turned to y/n.
"Alright, you next, dearie," she said pushing y/n along.
She took one look at the wall before charging at it. She closed her eyes, bracing for impact but it never came. It went dark for a second, but when y/n felt light on her eyes, she opened them to see a beautiful scarlet red train, The Hogwarts Express. The black-haired boy was nowhere to be seen.
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The monochromatic English countryside flashed by as the train sped along the iron tracks towards Hogwarts. y/n was looking for a compartment to sit in but all the ones she had passed were already full. Nimbus was held in one hand and was being supported by y/n's side. She reached the end of the car and looked in the last compartment, she was surprised to see the black haired boy from the station and Ron, idly chatting. She pulled the door open, alerting the pair of her presence.
"Can I sit with you two? There aren't any other spots." y/n asked as she looked between the boys.
"Oh of course!" the black haired boy replied kindly, offering the seat next to him
y/n smiled and sat down "Sorry, I'm y/n, y/f/n. I didn't introduce myself back at Kings Cross," she explained sticking out a hand
"Nice to meet you y/n" He started and took her outstretched hand "Harry, Harry Potter"
y/n didn't register it at first she just thought: oh Harry, that's a nice name, it suits him, he's not really a Charlie or- wait... Potter?!
"Oh wow! Well nice to meet you too Harry!" She exclaimed, then she turned towards Ron. "And you're Ron, right?" y/n asked with a smile.
"Weasely, Nice ta meet ya y/n" he answered, extending a hand that y/n shook.
Wow, she was already making friends! Nimbus got up from y/n's lap and crawled over to Harry. He petted the cat as he looked around at the strange surroundings and then made a leap over to Ron's lap where it sat and mewed for attention. Ron wasn't the most keen on cats so y/n took him back and placed him on Harry where he was just as comfortable.
A rattling sound was coming from the corridor and the trio looked to see the trolley lady, with a wide variety of sweets and chocolates. "Anything from the trolley dears?" she asked sweetly
Ron took out a sandwich covered in cling wrap, "No thanks, I'm all set," He replied with sadness over the candy he was missing out on.
"We'll take the lot!" Harry declared as he pulled out about a dozen galleons from his pocket
Ron looked at the gold like it was the most money he had seen in his life "Wow!"
And so the trolley lady left the kids with way too much sugar, but there was no doubt they were going to finish all of it. y/n kept trying to insist to pay Harry back for it.
"Harry, come on I can pay you back you didn't have to get all of this!" She pushed
"Don't worry y/n! It's fine, consider it a new school year present from me." He protested whilst rifling through the wrappers to find another liquorice wand which he had discovered to be the most manageable of the wizard sweets.
y/n let out a sign of defeat and opened a packet of Honeydukes lemon drops, they were the most sour candy ever made and practically made your tongue shrivel up but y/n couldn't enough of them. They continued to chat and get to know each other as the train continued, it was now late afternoon so they shouldn't be far away now. Harry picked up a blue and gold coloured chocolate box.
"These aren't real frogs are they?" Harry inquired with caution.
"No, it's just a spell" y/n clarified, too busy trying to keep Nimbus away from Ron's rat.
"Besides it's the cards you want!" the redhead added, "I've got about 600 myself".
Harry opened the package and immediately the chocolate frog jumped out and onto the window.
"Watch it!" Ron exclaimed
But before Harry could grab it, it flung itself out the window, carried away by the wind. Although disappointed, Harry was happy with the card he got: Professor Dumbledore.
"He's the headmaster, how cool is it that we get to go to the school with one of the greatest wizards of all time!" y/n exclaimed when Harry announced his card
He smiled at you then back at the card, "Hey he's gone!"
"Well you can't expect him to hang around all day, can you?" Ron said with his mouth still full of some candy.
The rat on Ron's lap squeaked a bit catching both Harry's and Nimbus attention, y/n grabbed the kitten before something bad could happen. The brown rodent was munching on some Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans.
"This is Scabbers by the way" Ron announced, "Pathetic isn't he"
"Kind of yeah" y/n replied honestly.
"Fred gave us a spell to turn him yellow, wanna see?"
"Yeah!' Harry and y/n chorused.
Ron took out his wand and cleared his throat, he was about to start the incantation when a girl with wild brown hair dashed to the doorway, she looked around and then sighed.
"Has anyone seen a toad? A boy named Neville's lost one" she said with annoyance. The three shook their heads, the girl saw that Ron had his wand out "Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see then," she pressed.
Once again Ron cleared his throat, "Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow..."
y/n and the other girl made eye contact and gave each other a look of "what is he on about?"
"...turn this stupid fat rat yellow!" a faint light shot from his wand, but the only effects were the empty lolly box being knock off the rats head, it was still a simple brown rat. Ron looked at Harry and shrugged his shoulders in defeat.
"Are you sure that's a real spell, Ron?" y/n inquired with a chuckle
"Yeah it's not very good is it," The girl added on "I've only tried a few simple ones myself, but they've all worked for me" She then strode into the cabin, pulling out her wand from the robes she had already put on and sat down across from Harry and next to y/n.
"For example," she pointed her wand straight at Harry's face, y/n was a bit sceptical as to what she was going to do. "Occulous reparo," she said clearly and the cheap, broken glasses were instantly like new again. "That's better isn't it," after being able to have a good look at Harry she realised who he actually was. "Holy cricket! You're Harry Potter!! I'm Hermione Granger!"Hermione said looking at between Harry and y/n sat next to her
"y/f/n" you introduced yourself and Hermione gave a nod.
"And... you are?" she asked Ron a little less enthusiastic.
"Ron Weasley," he responded with his mouth, once again, full
"Pleasure, you three better change into your robes, I expect we'll be arriving soon" and with that, she left. Until she came back to tell Ron that he had dirt on his nose. Then she was really gone, her curly brown hair bouncing on her back as she walked.
"Hermione's probably right, we can't be far away now" y/n conquered, and they all left to change into their robes, the sky beginning to darken as night approached, they would soon be on the footsteps of Hogwarts.
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Whoo! We're getting into the juicy parts now! I'm genuinely having a lot of fun writing this book and always look forward to updates. Comment your thoughts and don't forget to vote! It really makes my day to see you guys enjoying it.
Have a good day loves ❤
PS: OMG I JUST SAW HOW MESSY THIS CHAPTER WAS AHHHHH IM SORRY
PPS (from future Garnet): I know I said that y/n brought her own broom, but I decided to edit it to be more accurate to the original story. I'll go back and make sure all the continuity makes sense too.
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