Chapter 8: Platform 9¾
A few months pass by. Tomorrow we have to board Hogwart's express. During these few months, we spend most of the time learning as much as we could about the wizarding world. Hermione, we ahead and learn a few common Household charms from the books she brought. I was not very interested in these simple tricks but I tried a few together with Hermione like Reparo and Alohomora. It was pretty easy and I was able to learn it quicker than Hermione.
I tried to get her interested in learning Occlumency, but with all other flashy magic, she seems to be least interested in it. I let her be and practice it myself on regular basis. In these months I am able to enact a crude version of occlumnecy shields if I focus hard enough.
I also got a little bit familiar with healing magic. Most of them were pure light magic and they are generally enhanced by potions. Most spells only deal with the symptom and don't affect the root cause.
"Jack, have you packed all your things in the trunk?" My mother asked after entering my room." I already told you to pack at dinner" I looked around, most of my stuff was on the bed rather than in the trunk. I looked over the window where Gonzo was perched with the dead mouse in her beak.
I named my owl Gonzo after thinking for a while. He really seems to love his name because he pecked me softly after I started calling it that. It also reminds me that I still have to clean his cage that I have been neglecting for a while. I looked over my mother with a helpless face hoping she would help me.
"I knew you will be like this, Hermione already packed all her stuff beforehand" she replied.
"That's because you helped her in packing yesterday" I said as I started grabbing all the clothes and stuffing them inside the trunk.
"Not this way, Look I will help you so let's get this over with quickly" She immediately took out all the clothes which I stuffed earlier on and started folding them neatly. I took those neatly folded clothes and started placing them in the trunk.
"So big day tomorrow huh"
"Yeah it is, I will send you an owl every day for sure" I replied. She seems to be a bit sad seeing that her little children will be leaving her for a long time. "But don't worry mom, we will come back home on Christmas and Easter holidays" I said while giving her a hug.
"I will miss you both"She replied while bringing me closer.
"We will miss you too mom"
The next day the whole Granger family woke up early to prepare for early. Unlike some other family, my parents prefer to be punctual so we arrived at London King's Cross Station an hour before the departure. We reached on the barrier between the platform 9 and 10 but there seem to be only a few people around.
My father didn't believe Filtwick's explanation before so he headed directly toward the barrier but he was unable to get inside.
"Maybe only wizards can go inside" I said getting closer to the barrier and sure enough I could easily passed through it. I returned back and saw the shocked face of my parents.
"Mom seems like you will not be able to go inside" I said.
"That's okay sweetheart, we can say our goodbyes here" she replied while taking me and Hermione in a hug.
"Hey save some for your dad too" my father said. We immediately pounced on him and started laughing together with our parents.
"Okay be safe out there and remember to send a few letters through gonzo"
"Sure dad and I will keep an eye on Hermione too" I replied
"More like Hermione should keep an eye on you" My mom chimed in. 'Only if she knew.' I thought
"Then Goodbye we will send a letter tomorrow" I said while going back inside. Soon Hermione followed me and we went near the train.
The train looks exactly similar to the one depicted in the movies. It was large red, 4-6-0 steam engine, named Hogwarts Castle. We went to the end of the train and looked inside to spot an empty compartment. Being early has its advantages and we were able to get a good compartment in the back of the train. Thanks to magic, we were able to levitate our trunks easily and carried them around.
Once we were seated I allowed Gonzo to get out of the cage and hop on my shoulder. I looked around to spot any more characters from the novel. I was seated in such a way that I was able to view the entire platform. I saw some blondes helping a kid board the train. I am still not sure if he was Draco.
After a while, I saw a lot of reds coming on the platform. I immediately knew that they were weasely family. I was able to locate twins leading the group to the carriage which is ahead of us.
Well I know I was going to meet them later at Hogwarts so I opened my trunk and took out the potion book and started reading it, Hermione already had her head buried in charm's book. After a while, someone entered our compartment. I looked over and saw a fat kid holding a toad in his hand.
"Hello, I am Neville Longbottom, can I join you guys." He looked around and said "All other compartments are full"
"Sure, do you need help with that" I looked over and saw him dragging a large trunk with one hand."yes please"
I immediately used a levitation charm and placed the luggage above his seat. "Wow you can use magic" He exclaimed. Hermione looked at him confused
"You should be able to use magic too?" she asks.
"Well, my grandmother didn't allow me to learn magic till I was eleven. It was quite common within wizarding children. As I turned eleven just a month ago, I am still learning to cast any spell voluntarily" he replied.
"Why did wizards don't allow their children to do magic?" I asked after getting myself comfortable in my seat.
"My grandma said that it can affect the growth of magic core. Only after we reach eleven it is mature and we can start to draw powers from it safely otherwise there is a chance we can become squib."
"What's a Squib? I have heard about muggles before but nothing about squibs"
"Well, They are people born in magical families but are not able to use magic." Neville said while hopping right next to me.
"Keep an eye on your frog, he seems to be going out of compartment" I said while watching his toad hopping away from Gonzo's gaze.
"Trevor!" He exclaimed and ran to catch his toad before he hops away.
"Just put him in a cage and he will not run away." I said while helping him get the toad. Meanwhile i was thinking 'If the toad never gets missing then Hermione will never meet those fools like before and she will be safer'
"Yeah, I better do that." He replied looking at Gonzo as if he was going to devour his toad any minute now so I helped him to get Trevor inside the cage. After a while, the silence resumed as we started reading our books. Neville also took out the herbology book 'One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi' from his trunk and we all started to read in peace.
Or so I thought..
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