Another Granger (Harry Potter Fanfiction)

Chapter 4- The Hogwarts Express

"Melissa!" Someone yelled.
"Mmm" Melissa groaned, trying to get back to sleep. She was tired. She didn't want to wake up.
"Melissa Harriet Granger, get your backside out of bed immediately before I kick it out!" the person, whom Melissa realised to be Hermione, shouted, wacking her head with a pillow.
"Fine. What's the rush?" Melissa asked, opening her eyes.
"It's September the first, dummy!" Hermione exclaimed as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"And?" Melissa asked before gasping, "We're going to Hogwarts!"
"Yes and the train leaves at eleven! Come on, it takes two hours to get to the station and we need to pack our trunks." Hermione urged. Melissa jumped out of bed in excitement and quickly . She still couldn't believe they were going to a school of magic! Along with her sister, she packed her trunk with everything she would need for the school year and they had breakfast at eight o'clock.
"I'm so nervous!" Hermione exclaimed. Melissa nodded. She was feeling exactly the same way. What if she was separated from her sister? What if she didn't make any friends? What if she arrived there and couldn't do any spells? The last one was unlikely though. She had read through her spell books and with a little help from Hermione, had successfully mended a broken vase. When it happened she could barely believe her luck!
"Ready to go, girls?" their Dad asked.
"I think." Melissa shrugged, nervous energy making her want to jump up and down.
"Have you got your tickets?" their Mum questioned. Hermione waved them in the air.
"What platform is it?" their Dad questioned.
"Nine and three quarters." Hermione read.
"What?" Melissa and her parents said in unison.
"You read them then." Hermione said, giving Melissa the tickets. They did indeed say Platform 9 3/4.
"Maybe it's a printing error." their Dad shrugged and they loaded their trunks into the car.

2 hours later, the Grangers had arrived at King's Cross Station.
"Have a nice school year." their Dad said.
"We'll be able to come home for Christmas I think and we'll write to you all the time." Hermione promised.
"Goodbye." Melissa sighed, hugging her parents.
"We love you girls." their Mum said. They waved one last time as Melissa and Hermione walked into the station, pushing trolleys with their trunks on in front of them. Each of the girls had their school bags on their shoulders, filled with ink, parchment and wizard money.
"Let's go to platform nine and ten." Melissa suggested. Hermione nodded in agreement and they headed there nervously, wondering how they would find the Hogwarts Express until Melissa saw a very relieving sight.
"Neville!" she called out, waving her hand to get his attention. The small boy turned around and waved back at her. Melissa hurried over to him with Hermione in pursuit.
"Hi Melissa!" he smiled.
"How are you?" Melissa asked.
"I'm Ok. Gran, this is my friend Melissa and.... who are you?" he asked Hermione.
"Oh, I'm Melissa's twin, Hermione. How do you two know each other?" Hermione asked.
"We met in Diagon Alley." Melissa explained.
"Well it's good to see you've made friends already Neville. Honestly, he's a clumsy boy. Never had any proper friends before." his Grandmother said. Melissa tried not to giggle.
"Gran!" Neville complained, going bright red.
"Well come on. We'd better get onto the Platform." she said before Melissa burst in,
"You know how to?" then realising it was rude to interrupt, she added, "Sorry Ma'am."
"Oh, not to worry dear. Muggle born are you? No problem. Just come with us, we'll show you." She smiled.
"Thank you." Melissa and Hermione chorused. They followed Neville to a brick wall in between platforms nine and ten.
"Now, all you have to do is run straight at it and you'll arrive on the platform.
"You mean the wall?" Melissa double checked, raising an eyebrow questioningly.
"Yes." Neville's grandma replied. Melissa breathed heavily.
"I'll go first." Hermione said nervously.
"I'll go with you." Melissa said suddenly. She was unsure where her newfound courage was from but she didn't want her sister to run straight at a brick wall all by herself. Why should Melissa miss all the fun?
"Ready?" Hermione asked. Melissa nodded and together, they ran straight at the wall. Melissa was now inches away from crashing into it. The wall was drawing closer and Melissa and Hermione were going to collide. She closed her eyes.
'Any second now.' she thought. But she kept running. Eventually, Melissa opened her eyes and saw to her astonishment that she was on a platform crowded with strangely dressed adults, many children around Melissa's age and above, and also a variety of owls, cat and toads.
"Wow." She murmered.
"Why haven't we crashed?" Hermione asked.
"Open your eyes." Melissa laughed.
"Wow, that's cool." her sister exclaimed just as Neville ran into them, knocking the girls to the floor.
"I'm sorry!" he gasped as Melissa and Hermione picked themselves up. To his relief, the twins were laughing.
"Nice toad Neville. What's it called?" Hermione noticed.
"Oh, this is Trevor." Neville grinned, holding up a fat green toad. Melissa found it surprisingly cute.
"Can I hold him?" She asked.
"Sure." Neville agreed. Melissa took the toad into her arms and nursed it.
"Well, you three had better get on the train and find a compartment." Neville's gran said.
"Ok. Thank you." Melissa said as she dragged her trunk and the toad on board. She found an empty compartment and was about to load her trunk up when two identical redheaded twins appeared in front of her. Melissa took in their appearance and gasped.
"You're the twins from the beach!" she told them.
"Oh yeah, you're Melissa. Believe us now?" the one she seemed to think was called Fred smirked.
"Yes. Although it would have been nice if you'd told me back then." she huffed.
"Ruins the surprise, doesn't it?" George shrugged.
"Need any help with that trunk, beautiful?" Fred asked.
"Yes please." Melissa nodded, ignoring the fact that he had called her 'beautiful' twice now.
"So you were were muggleborn after all." George noted.
"People keep saying that phrase. Is it a bad thing?" Melissa asked.
"No." George said. "Nice toad." he added.
"Oh, it's not mine. I'm holding it for this boy called Neville." Melissa explained.
"Say, do you have a middle name?" Fred asked.
"Yes, it's Harriet. Why?" she was curious to know.
"Because only Fred and I can call you Harriet now and we can only ever call you Harriet." George explained.
"Are you always like this?" Melissa asked with a smirk.
"No. Worse usually." Fred said. Melissa raised her eyebrow at him.
"I have a feeling we'll be friends, Harriet. But for now, our presence is no longer needed." George said, indicating out the door of the compartment. Hermione and Neville were stood there.
"See you around!" Melissa waved as the twins left and Hermione and Neville entered.
"Here you go." Melissa passed Trevor back to Neville.
"Who were they?" Hermione wondered.
"Fred and George Weasley." Melissa said, happy to have made friends without her sister's interference for once. Just then, the train set off and Melissa was on her way to Hogwarts.

"Trevor! I've lost him." Neville exclaimed only ten minutes into the journey.
"What should we do?" Melissa asked.
"How about we split up and ask everyone if they've seen him?" Hermione suggested.
"Good idea. Thank you." Neville said, giving Hermione a weak smile. Melissa left the carriage and headed off down the corridor. She didn't really want to go in and ask anyone if they'd seen a toad. It seemed rude and she didn't like talking to strangers. That was Hermione's thing. Once she was halfway down the train though, she decided it would be best to check with at least one person. She knocked on the door of a carriage and walked in. Inside was a boy with ginger hair who looked a little like Fred and George and a boy with dark, messy hair, glasses, a cute smile and a lightening shaped scar on his forehead. Melissa was sure Hermione had mentioned a boy with a scar like that but she couldn't remember much else.
"Hi, have any of you seen a toad? A boy called Neville's lost one." Melissa said, glad that she sounded a lot more confident than she felt.
"No, sorry." Said the boy with glasses, "Would you like to join us?" he asked.
"Thank you! Is that a rat by the way? I love rats!" she exclaimed suddenly before shrinking back at the sudden outburst.
"Why don't you take a seat?" The ginger boy suggested. Melissa did so.
"I'm Melissa by the way. Melissa Granger and in case you ask, I'm muggle born because I've been asked that a lot." Melissa said.
"I'm Ron Weasley." The redhead said.
"Are you Fred and George's brother then?" Melissa asked.
"Yeah, how do you know them?" Ron asked.
"I met them on a beach during the summer and just again then. They're a bit strange." she laughed.
"You're telling me?" Ron grinned.
"I'm Harry Potter." the other boy said, smiling. Melissa was certain Hermione had mentioned that name.
"Are....are you famous or something? My sister's mentioned you're name whilst reading I think." Melissa asked him.
"Yes I am. My parents were killed by a guy named Voldemort when I was a baby and he tried to kill me too but the curse rebounded and sort of killed him instead. I only found out a few weeks ago though." Harry explained briefly. Melissa gasped in shock.
"What? Tell me everything!" Melissa demanded and before she knew it, her, Harry and Ron were soon really close friends and were swapping stories all about their families ad friends as if they'd known each other their whole life. Melissa had even opened up to them about how she always felt like she was in the shadow of her twin sister, Hermione, all the time. In less than an hour's time, Melissa already knew these two boys so well she felt like they had met years ago. Suddenly, a disturbance arrived in the form of Hermione Granger.
"Have any of you seen a... Melissa? What are you doing here!" Hermione asked rudely.
"Sorry, I got talking to Harry and Ron." Melissa started to explain, her cheeks flushing red.
"Honestly. I can't trust you with anything.!" Hermione complained loudly. Melissa shrunk back in her seat, "Anyway, you'd better change into your robes. We're almost at Hogwarts" Hermione said before leaving.
"That," Melissa told them, "is Hermione."
"She's not nice to you at all!" Ron said.
"I'm used to it." Melissa shrugged. "Anyway, Harry sounds worse off."
"Like you said, I'm used to it. Anyway, when we get to Hogwarts hang around with us." Harry said.
"Yeah, you don't need to stay with Hermione all the time. We're your best friends now" Ron agreed.
"Thank you guys!" Melissa grinned, unable to express how grateful she was to have made two excellent friends.
"Wow!" Harry exclaimed. Melissa looked out the window and to her great surprise, saw the sandcastle she had once created on the beach standing tall and proud in front of her.
"That is magic." she gasped and she hurriedly told the boys all about the sandcastle she had built during the summer holidays. Once the train had pulled up to the station, Harry, Ron and Melissa headed off the train in their robes and followed a voice that boomed,
"Firs' years!"
"Hiya Hagrid!" Harry said to the giant man the trio had arrived in front of.
"Hello 'Arry!" the giant man replied. Melissa had already heard about this man from Harry but was still astonished at his size. "Who are yer friends?" he asked.
"These are Melissa and Ron." Harry explained. Melissa waved up at him cheerily.
"Everyone to the boats but no more than four in each." Hagrid said. Melissa, Ron and Harry were joined by an Irish boy called Seamus in theirs and the boats started moving across the lake and towards the castle.