another love; harry potter

four

\ wherein the journey of her incredible life begins /

SEVERAL HOURS OF LISTENING to the rain patter against the windows later, through the darkness I could vaguely see the outline of the magnificent castle that awaited us. I heard the train doors open from down the corridor and stepped out of the compartment, now dressed in Hogwarts robes that Hermione had lent me, which thankfully fit perfectly. 

There was a rumble of thunder overhead as the four of us shuffled out, Hermione's ginger cat hidden in her cloak and Ron's dress robes over Pigwidgeon's cage as we left the train, heads bent and eyes narrowed against the downpour. 

The rain was now coming down so thick and fast that it was as though buckets of ice-cold water were being emptied repeatedly over our heads. 

"Hi, Hagrid!" Harry yelled, and I followed his gaze to see a gigantic silhouette at the end of the platform. 

"All righ', Harry?" Hagrid bellowed back, waving. "See yeh at the feast if we don' drown!"

"First years usually get to Hogwarts by sailing across the lake with Hagrid." Hermione explained to me, shivering as we inched slowly along the dark platform with the rest of the crowd. "Wouldn't fancy doing that this year, no thank you."

A hundred carriages stood waiting for us outside the station- however all of them had skeletal horses at the front, with  reptilian features, and wide, leathery wings that slightly resembled a bat. 

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and a boy with a plant in his hand climbed into one of the carriages, so I got into an empty one, but before the door could shut closed, three boys came in and sat down, one beside me and two across. The door shut with a snap, and a few moments later, with a great lurch, the long procession of carriages was rumbling and splashing its way up the track toward Hogwarts Castle.

"Hello," one of the identical ginger twins in the carriage said. "Are you Olive?"

"Yeah. Are you John?"

"Unfortunately, no; my name is Red, and this is Eorge."

"And I'm FG," said the boy with dreadlocks who was sat beside me. 

"Nice to meet you all."

"And you as well, Olive."

"Joe."

"What?"

"My name's Joe," I said calmly.

"How come we've never seen you before, Joe?"

"I told you: my name's Lee. I'm a transfer student."

"Lee? Didn't you just-"

"Alright, Lee-"

"Sam."

"Alright, whatever-your-name-is, where'd you transfer from?"

"Beauxbatons, and I already said my name's Billy." The three of them shook their heads at me, grinning and sharing amused glances.

"Okay, Billy, how do you feel about pranks?"

.✫*ﾟ･ﾟ｡.★.*｡･ﾟ✫*.