Chapter 41: Hogwarts Express
Chapter 41:
Hogwarts Express
Days flew by and in the blink of an eye, the day has come to board the Hogwarts train. Richard did not sleep that night at all. The excitement of boarding the train and seeing the castle of his dreams was not letting him fall asleep.
Therefore, he meditated for the night after he gave up on sleeping. Morning came soon, and he went along with the others for their morning routine. Never having skipped this training, he would feel uncomfortable about not doing it.
This morning was like any other morning, only with much more excitement in the air. Sirius came over for this day and all of them had a nice morning meal together.
Having not much to pack for the trip, Richard just went over the list in his head and searched for a thing that he had forgotten to put into his spatial ring.
After breakfast, Sniffy was handing out their cloth bracelets which she had changed to include their Hogwarts equipment. She was working on them for the past week, and Kyle and Richard found out that they really depended on them until now.
The two were much too used to just channeling magic into their bracelets and letting them form any clothes they imagined. Since then, they found it really weird to put on clothes in the normal way. Both of them felt naked without their bracelets and their enchantments and hugged Sniffy when she was handing them over to show their happiness.
Sirius looked at the three of them and could not help and think back to his school days when everything was okay and good.
He had told them many stories of his time at Hogwarts and very much missed these uncomplicated times. The trio had heard about the Marauders map from him, but he did not know where it currently was and they would need to depend on themselves to find it. Sirius was sure that one of them would find it, eventually.
The atmosphere was exploding inside the house and everyone was running around, looking for things that they had forgotten to pack or things that they could need for their extended stay in Hogwarts.
This lasted till it was about 10 o'clock and they only calmed down after Sirius reminded them of the time. Richard was mentally a lot older than he looked, but this whole thing excited him completely and he was feeling like a child at the moment.
Maybe it had something to do with his childlike physique or that he would soon undergo puberty. Who knows?
Sirius had changed his looks into his second persona, as it would be not a good idea to show up with his actual appearance. Right now, he was playing the "uncle" of Sniffy and Richard.
All of them were ready and grouped together in a circle. Grabbing each other's hands, Sirius smirked at their emotional states and they vanished in the next moment.
The feeling of being squished into a tight hole appeared for a moment and in the next, Richard and Co were standing inside Kings Cross station in a corner, where no one usually looked at. It also had a notice me not ward around it and muggles would notice nothing strange going on there.
Richard detested the feeling of being apparated and much more preferred to teleport with Sniffy or Kyle's magic. Both of them used gentler methods to get around. Side-along apparition was just not for him. Every time he used this form of traveling, he felt disoriented.
He could only let this feeling cool down as he looked around. It was a Friday and only a few people could be spotted from this faraway corner.
"Come along, kids. You don´t want to be late, do you?" Sirius said, and they followed him while looking around. Although all of them had spent some time in the muggle world, they had never seen an actual train station. Sniffy and Kyle were fascinated by these big means of transportation and looked around with glee in their eyes.
Richard, on the other hand, could only count the borders of each platform. It took them not long, and he saw 9 and 10. Looking at the "gate" with excitement all over his face, he could not wait and made a run for it.
Sniffy and Kyle saw this and were also sprinting along. Standing now in front of the entrance to the magical train station, every one of them looked at the wall with expectations on their faces. Sirius had told them about this entryway and they all were curious about how it worked.
When he heard this question, Sirius was also stumped and could only smile weirdly and say "with magic, naturally."
"Ready?" Richard looked at his two friends and asked. Both of them were more than ready to go through the wall and nodded their heads at Richard.
"On three, we go through it at the same time." Sniffy spoke and looked at the wall.
Counting loudly to three, all of them stepped through at the same time.
The feeling was peculiar. It was like going through a thin membrane. This remembered Richard of the time they went through the wall in the mountain. It was akin to that, but also somewhat different. There was not the same feeling of going through space. In practically no time, they appeared on the other side.
Hustling around were parents alongside their children, with all kinds of boxes and trunks. Sounds of pets were heard all over the place. The entire space was filled with magical people dressed in different clothes. Most of them wore robes and cloaks, but it felt more diverse. Every color could be found in their clothes.
About a fifth of the people was wearing muggle clothing.
A steaming red train was standing in the middle of the platform, ready to depart anytime. The trio looked at the spectacle of hustling people and got lost in the moment. Richard and company all were wearing muggle clothes since they wanted to try out the muggle entrance and did not want to look out of place.
"Kids, stop staring. If you want to find a good place to sit, then get on to it." Sirius's voice shook them out of their minds and they walked to the train. Saying their goodbyes in front of the train, Richard and Sniffy hugged him and said that they would write every once in a while.
They had grown much closer in the last few years, and hugging on such occasions just felt right. Waving their hands in goodbye, the trio then got onto the train and searched for a free space to sit.
Children were running around like headless chickens, to find a place to sit alongside their whole belongings. Most normal wizards could not afford enchanted trunks and could not shrink them with a tap of their wand.
The shrinking charm was also quite complex and it would only be learned in the 5th year, therefore many children were heaving their belongings around in an annoyed manner. Some older students were walking around and helped the younger students with their things.
Richard cursed at this moment inside his head. They should have come sooner. Finding a good place to sit was next to impossible. They passed the middle of the train and continued with their search, while occasionally helping some people by placing their belongings on the racks.
Kyle and Richard had enough strength to easily accomplish such things, and Sniffy only helped every now and then with her magic. Many children thanked them and were astonished by the easiness of how they grabbed their enormous trunks and heaved them to their places.
It took them some more time to find an empty compartment, and they seated themselves.
Richard and Sniffy sat next to each other and Kyle across from them. Looking outside the window, they saw much more bustling than before. A brief glance at the clock showed it was 3 minutes till eleven.
"Next time, we should get here sooner. It was quite the hassle to find this empty place." Kyle said, slightly annoyed by all the people. He was not a crowd guy and disliked it when he would need to get through a crowded place.
"Yeah, you're right. It was also kind of our fault to get here this late." Richard answered with a smile on his face. They would have been here long ago if they had not been so excited and run around the house like possessed people.
"And whose fault was that? You just kept shouting things that you could have forgotten and completely swept us up in your emotions. Such things are contagious. I could only think about all of my things that I may have forgotten again and got overwhelmed, and Kyle was the same."
Sniffy said in a berating voice as she remembered their morning. Hearing this, Richard could just scratch himself behind his ear in embarrassment. Kyle could not help but remember the chaotic morning and laughed.
"Hahahaha, we truly looked like some headless chickens running around." Kyle said while laughing.
Richard and Sniffy joined him after they recalled what happened this morning and the whole compartment was filled with laughter.
"Toooooooth"
It took them some moments to calm down again, and the train was sounding the last signal to close the doors.
Feeling a ripple through the train since it started to move. Outside the window could be seen many parents waving at their children. The train sped up in no time and now the landscape was changing rapidly.
"Knock, Knock"
Hearing a knocking sound at the door, all looks were fixated on it, as it was opened. In looked a shy-looking girl and asked in a tiny voice.
"Hello, is there a place to sit for me and my friend?"
Having no reason to deny them, Sniffy answered with a smile on her face. "Hi, of course. You can sit with us here. The more the merrier. I am Sophia by the way, but my friends call me Sniffy and these two are my brother Richard and our friend Kyle."
Welcoming the two of them inside, Richard and Kyle nodded at the two of them when Sniffy introduced them.
"Thank you for letting us sit here. I am Mia Turner and this is my friend Alex Woodberry. Nice to meet you." Said Mia as she was coming inside and introduced the two of them. Mia had brown hair, which was bound in a ponytail, and fell to her shoulders. It gave her a lively look. Her eyes were a mixture of green and brown.
Alex was shyer than her friend and only smiled at them. She wore her blonde hair open which fell down to her back and had bangs that accentuated her face. Both of them also wore muggle clothes. Jeans, T-shirt with a jumper over it.
Kyle got up and took their belongings and stored them. Both of them thanked him as they were truly to heavy for them.
Sniffy was intrigued about these two and asked. "Are you two also first years?"
"Ahh, yes. We just learned that we were witches a few months back, and it was quite a shock to us. When Professor McGonagall showed us to my house, we were truly stunned when she told us this. It was quite the coincidence that Alex was over with her parents for the afternoon. This made things a lot easier to know that she was a witch, too."
Richard was a little surprised when he heard this. It was truly a marvel. What are the chances of two friends being magical with two muggle parents?
"At the beginning, we all thought that she was pranking us, but when she turned herself into a cat and back, we could only believe her. Did you also know you're magical?" Mia quite like to tell them her story and spoke with no problem.
Richard answered at this and spoke. "Mhmm, we knew since long ago. That means you two are muggle-born. Do you know about the houses at Hogwarts?"
Mia and Alex were a bit confused about the houses and could only shake their heads. After that followed an explanation from Richard, who told them about the four different houses and how they operated.
The three of them had discussed this before and concluded that Richard would most likely end up in Ravenclaw, Sniffy in Gryffindor, and Kyle in Slytherin or Gryffindor. They debated this issue for a long time since all of them could not see each other around the clock. But Richard had said to them they could see each other during the day and often in classes.
They should also be able to teleport around in Hogwarts and could meet up in one of the common rooms. It would also do them good to meet new people, as they never had much of a chance to socialize with others. All three decided to wait for the outcome.
Mia looked at Alex and said. "It looks that you are more suited for Ravenclaw. You just love books too much so as not to go there. Mhmm, and I might end up in Gryffindor or Hufflepuff."
Alex could not refute her but also got sad at the same time to be apart from her best friend. "I don´t want to be alone there, sniff." She then jumped up, and with tears in her eyes, hugged Mia, who consoled her.
After calming down, Sniffy explained that they could see each other all the time and that it was not too big of a deal. Moreover, if she truly wanted to stick to her friend, then she should just say that to the talking hat as he would listen to her.
Telling Alex that she was having a smile on her face only a few seconds later.
All of them started talking about the magical world. It was mostly Richard or Sniffy answering their questions, but Kyle occasionally chipped in.
Richard studied both the girls and found it quite funny that he was also this excited about Hogwarts. Stars in their eyes could be seen every now and then while they talked about magical things. In Richard's case, it was a bit more hidden, as he was much more in touch with magic, but it did not change the fact that he loved everything magical.
When he was explaining to them about magical things, a smile was always on his face. Kyle was a lot more reserved than this, since he had had terrible memories of earlier "friends" but got gradually used to both of them.
"Knock, Knock, something to eat, dears?"
The door to their compartment went open and the trolly lady stood there with many goods. Sniffy was the first one that got up and looked over all the good things. After picking out some things, she paid and sat down with them in hand and lap. The Lady looked around once again but found no one that wanted anything anymore and left after saying goodbye.
Mia and Alex looked at Sniffy with their eyes practically jumping out of their place when they saw all the sweet stuff, but they could not afford them and could only look in envy at Sniffy.
Sniffy, the good elf that she was naturally had seen their looks and said. "Come, try whatever you want. I could never eat so much stuff."
"Can we really?" Mia asked in a polite voice, and after seeing Sniffys nod, she was about to get up. Alex was surprisingly the first one to jump up and practically teleported in front of Sniffy and sitting down beside her. She then thanked Sniffy and tried out some sweets.
Richard and Kyle looked at this and smiled at each other. Both of them were not much of sweet tooths and liked more salty stuff. Taking that as a cue, he took out some chips and diverse drinks, which consisted of water, hot tea, and a few soft drinks. He passed them around and the two newcomers were stunned when they saw this. Asking him where he took them from, he could only laugh a bit and say that it was magic.
Both of them started pouting and glared at him, but that made it even more amusing for him and he laughed louder. Kyle and Sniffy could only shake their heads at his manners, but were also happy.
As the three girls were indulging themselves, Richard and Kyle were chatting with each other in hushing tones. Sniffy told them to just ignore the two of them and they were just planning something crazy.
It took the three of them quite some time to go through all the sweets and the sun was gradually setting down. Hours had just gone by in the blink of an eye and they were nearing Hogwarts.
"We will arrive shortly. Please change to your school robes and be ready to depart in 20 minutes."
Was heard all over the train. This suddenly appearing voice made Richard curious where it came from and he looked all over the compartment, but could not find any source of it. Judging that it had to be some spell, he wrote it on his list to figure out what exactly it was in the future.
Sniffy hushed both of the boys out since they needed to change themselves. Getting out of the compartment, both of them shut the door and then channeled some magic in their bracelets and it changed their clothes into their uniforms.
But they differed from usual as they had the signature magic of Sniffy on them but much fainter than on their usual clothes. Richard's snow wolf could be only seen if you looked for it. It could only be clearly seen out of the corner of the eye. It was quite strange, if you looked at them, they looked like your everyday school robes, but if you glimpsed at it, then you saw the snow wolf prancing around.
Marveling at Sniffys magic, both of them went back to the ladies, and it did not take long for the train to arrive at Hogsmeade.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone