The alarm went off while I was already sitting on the bed.
I switched it off at once.
Hedwig opened one eye.
“You can blame that today.”
She adjusted her wing and tucked her head away.
I hadn’t slept much.
First I couldn’t stop thinking about the train, then I remembered the figure in the cemetery.
When I finally fell asleep, I woke convinced I’d missed my departure.
There had still been more than five hours to go.
At least I no longer needed to check whether the alarm worked.
I dressed, washed and looked through my bag again.
My ticket was in the side pocket.
My money pouch was where it belonged, as were my book and notebook.
I checked my wand separately.
Then I closed the bag before I could start all over again.
I barely ate anything at breakfast.
“You’ll get hungry on the train too,” the carer pointed out.
I knew she was right.
I took another slice of bread.
A few people asked about my new school.
I answered carefully, sticking to what McGonagall had arranged.
A boarding school.
A long way from London.
Home for the summer.
One of the boys asked whether they let you keep owls there.
“Apparently.”
“Must be a strange school.”
I smiled.
“A bit.”
Before leaving, I went back to my room.
Without the books on the shelf and the bag beside the bed, it looked different.
There was a pale patch on the desk where the stack of textbooks had stood.
The wardrobe still wouldn’t close properly.
For three years, I’d wanted to leave.
Now that I was actually going, I paused in the doorway.
I wasn’t sorry.
It was just strange to leave a place where I knew every sound.
Hedwig shifted in her cage.
I looked at her.
“All right. We’re going.”
***
I took the bus and the Underground to the station.
The trunk itself wasn’t much trouble.
The owl cage was another matter.
Not because it was heavy.
People stared.
For several stops, a little girl tried to persuade her mother to come closer.
An elderly man asked whether I was going to a bird show.
“School,” I answered without thinking.
He looked at the cage.
Then at me.
“I see.”
He sounded as though he saw nothing at all, but had decided to leave it alone.
At King’s Cross, I found a trolley and finally felt as though I had enough hands.
Trunk on the bottom, cage on top.
Hedwig didn’t look impressed with the journey.
“Not much further.”
I’d made her the same promise on the way out of the Underground.
I pushed through the crowd, careful not to run over anyone’s feet.
The closer I got to platforms nine and ten, the tighter I gripped the trolley handle.
I knew where to go.
McGonagall had explained it thoroughly.
I also had my memories of the books and films.
None of that made walking through a wall seem sensible.
I stopped a few paces from the barrier.
I could see the magic.
Thin strands wound around the bricks, vanished into the mortar and reappeared further along.
Up close, they formed a pattern far denser than ordinary shop wards.
At least I’d found the right place.
I glanced discreetly around.
People passed me, absorbed in their own business.
I took a breath and pushed the trolley forwards.
The last step was the hardest.
My eyes squeezed shut of their own accord.
There was no impact.
Instead, I suddenly heard a whistle.
I opened my eyes.
A red train stood before me.
***
I stopped the trolley so abruptly that someone behind me had to go around.
“Sorry.”
I moved closer to the wall.
Steam rose above the engine.
The carriage doors stood open, and families crowded the platform with trunks, cats and owls.
Children called to their friends.
Someone was passing a forgotten scarf through a window.
I looked at the sign bearing the train’s name.
Hogwarts Express.
I couldn’t stop smiling.
After three years of waiting, I was suddenly here, with a ticket in my pocket and an owl who’d just decided to peck at a cage bar.
“I know,” I told her.
“We’ll find a seat in a moment.”
Easier said than done.
Getting the trunk into the carriage involved considerably more heaving than I’d expected.
An older student held the door, then helped lift the other end.
I thanked him, slightly out of breath.
Another reason not to give up running.
I found an empty compartment towards the rear of the train.
I stowed my trunk, put my bag beside me and settled the cage securely by the window.
Then I sat down.
For a while, I did nothing.
I just looked.
On the platform, I spotted a girl with a mass of brown hair.
She was talking to her parents and gesturing so energetically that her father had to move his cup out of the way.
Hermione?
Perhaps.
I hadn’t heard her name, and hair alone probably wasn’t enough to identify someone.
Even so, I watched her until she disappeared behind a passing group.
A little further along, a boy was hugging his mother while clearly trying to make sure his friends didn’t notice.
I turned to Hedwig.
She was asleep.
“I can always count on you.”
***
The compartment door slid open a few minutes later.
A thin boy in glasses stood there, his black hair sticking out in all directions.
Behind him was a trunk that had apparently just lost a fight with the threshold.
“Sorry. Is anyone sitting here?”
For a moment, I stared without answering.
Harry Potter.
Of course.
Of all the compartments.
“No,” I said, moving my bag.
“Come in.”
He tried to pull the trunk.
It didn’t budge.
I stood and took the other handle.
Together, we hauled it inside, knocking it against the doorframe on the way.
“Thanks.”
“Mine wasn’t very cooperative either.”
Harry sat opposite me.
He glanced at me, then Hedwig, then back at me.
I expected a question about my eyes.
Instead, he pointed at the owl.
“She’s lovely.”
“Hedwig.”
She opened an eye at the sound of her name.
“Have you had her long?”
“A few weeks.”
I moved my bag down by my feet.
Harry fiddled with the edge of his sleeve for a moment.
“I’m Harry. Harry Potter.”
He held out his hand.
I shook it.
“Oliver Peverell.”
He waited.
It took me a moment to realise he was probably expecting more of a reaction.
I wasn’t quite sure what I was supposed to say.
“First year too?” I asked.
He nodded.
“I only found out about Hogwarts recently.”
“I’ve had a bit longer. But this is my first time on the train.”
He looked out of the window.
“I was worried I wouldn’t find the platform.”
“I found it. Then I spent a while being afraid to walk into it.”
Harry smiled.
“Me too.”
We watched the platform for a moment.
I didn’t feel the need to fill the silence immediately, and apparently neither did he.
There was something reassuring about that.
I’d imagined meeting Harry Potter in all sorts of ways.
Helping with his trunk and talking about a wall hadn’t featured among the more spectacular ones.
For now, that suited me.
***
A red-haired boy appeared just before departure.
He poked his head into the compartment and looked around at the seats.
“Mind if I sit here? Nearly everywhere else is full.”
“Go ahead,” Harry said.
Ron pulled his trunk forwards and swore under his breath when it caught on the door.
This time, we knew what to do.
A moment later, he was sitting beside Harry, red-faced and plainly relieved to stop lugging his luggage around.
“Ron Weasley.”
We introduced ourselves. Get faster updates on g.com.
At Harry’s surname, Ron went still.
“Really?”
Harry glanced at me, as though checking whether he ought to know what was going on.
Then he looked back at Ron.
“Yes.”
“Fred and George said, but I thought they were having me on. Have you got the scar?”
The question came almost immediately.
Harry hesitated, then pushed back his hair.
The scar was smaller than I’d imagined.
Perhaps because I’d spent years thinking of it as a symbol, and now I was looking at a mark on the skin of a boy my age.
Ron leaned a little closer.
“And you really don’t remember anything?”
“Just a green light. Not much.”
Harry lowered his hand.
Ron opened his mouth, but a whistle drowned him out.
The train lurched.
We turned towards the window.
Ron waved to a red-haired woman standing beside a little girl.
Harry raised his hand too, a little uncertainly.
I watched the people begin to slide past the glass.
Then the platform fell behind us.
We were leaving.
We were actually leaving.
***
Ron did most of the talking during the first part of the journey.
He had brothers at Hogwarts, so he knew things Harry and I could only ask about.
Or so I initially thought.
“Fred said you have to fight a troll to get sorted.”
I looked at him.
“At school?”
“That’s what he said.”
Harry had gone noticeably pale.
“Really?”
“Well…” Ron hesitated.
“Fred likes a joke.”
I settled back in my seat.
I’d have preferred it if he’d started with that.
Harry glanced at me.
“They wouldn’t make us do that when we don’t know anything yet, would they?”
“I wouldn’t think so.”
I didn’t tell them about the Hat.
I didn’t fancy explaining how I knew what the Sorting involved.
Ron moved on to his brothers, then the houses and Quidditch.
When he reached broomsticks, I asked a few more questions.
“Have you flown before?” he asked.
“No. I’ve looked at brooms in a shop.”
“That’s not the same.”
“That’s why I’m asking.”
He didn’t notice the slight impatience in my voice.
He began explaining how to stay on a broom, then quickly moved on to teams and players.
That part was more interesting.
I listened until he started telling us about one of his brothers’ exploits for the second time.
Then I reached for my book.
“What are you reading?” Harry asked.
I showed him the cover.
“It’s about spells. I wanted to look at—”
“We’ll get loads of reading at Hogwarts anyway,” Ron interrupted.
“Percy had his nose in a book all summer.”
I looked at him.
“I like reading.”
“I prefer chess.”
And he was already telling Harry about wizarding chess pieces.
For a moment, I held the book in my lap without opening it.
Ron wasn’t doing it on purpose.
Everything anyone said simply reminded him of something he wanted to say immediately.
After being interrupted a few times, I needed a moment’s quiet.
I turned to the window.
The scenery didn’t expect an answer.
***
The sweets trolley appeared just as I was beginning to regret my unfinished breakfast.
Harry was at the door almost immediately.
I followed.
That many colourful wrappers shouldn’t have fitted on one trolley.
Ron took out a packet of sandwiches and stayed in his seat.
Harry examined everything with the delight of someone who wanted to try it all.
He ended up with a pile of boxes and packets.
I bought pumpkin pasties, beans and a Chocolate Frog.
When we returned to our seats, Harry pushed some of his purchases towards Ron.
“We can share.”
“I’ve got sandwiches.”
Ron unwrapped one.
He looked at the filling with obvious disappointment.
“Corned beef.”
Harry nudged the sweets towards him again.
This time, Ron took a packet.
I spread the wrapper from my pasty across my lap so I wouldn’t drop crumbs on the robe I’d laid out to change into.
Harry opened a Chocolate Frog.
It leapt onto his sleeve.
He flinched, and Ron caught it before it reached the window.
“You have to watch them,” he explained.
I looked at my own box.
I knew they moved.
That didn’t mean I was prepared to see food trying to escape.
I opened the packet carefully.
My frog barely moved a leg.
“That one looks tired,” Harry observed.
“We make a good pair.”
The beans went less well.
Ron warned me that they could taste of anything.
I thought I understood the word ‘anything’.
After my first mistake, I understood it a great deal better.
Harry snorted at my expression.
Ron reached for the box.
“What did it look like?”
I pointed to a similar one.
He examined it closely.
“Might be pepper.”
“Might be.”
I had no intention of checking.
Harry pushed away a bean of the same colour.
***
The girl with the bushy hair looked into our compartment while we were gathering up the wrappers.
“Have you seen a toad? Neville’s lost his.”
So it was Hermione.
Over her shoulder, I saw the boy from Madam Malkin’s.
He looked close to tears.
“No,” Ron answered with his mouth full.
I looked under the seat.
My trunk, a scrap of wrapper and some dust.
“Not under here either.”
Neville peered inside.
“He keeps escaping.”
He seemed to recognise me just as I looked up at him.
“You were in the robe shop.”
“Yes. Oliver.”
“Neville.”
“We’ll call you if we see him.”
He nodded gratefully.
In the meantime, Hermione had inspected our compartment, Hedwig’s cage and Harry.
She lingered on him.
“Are you Harry Potter?”
Harry put down an empty box.
“Yes.”
She introduced herself and began listing the places she’d read about him.
With each title, Harry looked more astonished.
To her, it was apparently quite natural.
If she’d bought the textbooks, she ought to read them.
If they mentioned someone famous, she ought to remember it.
Only when Harry admitted he didn’t know the books did she pause.
“Oh. I thought…”
She looked at Neville.
“We need to keep looking. You should put your robes on soon. I asked up at the front, and we’re not far away.”
They left.
Ron watched the closed door for a moment.
“Bit bossy, isn’t she?”
I tucked a wrapper into an empty packet.
“She’s right about the robes.”
“I know. She didn’t have to say it like that.”
I shrugged.
I didn’t know her well enough to feel like judging the way she’d reminded us to get changed.
Ron went back to the sweets.
I took out my robe.
***
Outside, the fields gave way to hills.
The light was slowly fading.
It grew cooler in the compartment, and more and more students were passing along the corridor in school clothes.
We changed one at a time, trying not to knock the remains of our purchases onto the floor.
Ron got tangled in a sleeve.
Harry helped him get his arm through.
I hit my head on the luggage rack.
We all moved more carefully after that.
When I finally sat down, the black fabric settled across my knees.
I ran a hand over my sleeve.
I was closer than ever.
Harry was looking out of the window.
Ron started saying something about the Sorting, but stopped when the train slowed.
That was when I remembered the cemetery.
I’d barely thought about it all day.
The notebook was still in my bag.
I intended to speak to Dumbledore when I found the right moment.
I didn’t yet know how you went about asking the Headmaster for a meeting, but that was a problem for later.
The station lights were appearing outside.
I picked up my bag and checked that I hadn’t left anything on the seat.
The corridor filled at once.
“See you,” he said before stepping out.
“See you.”
Ron followed, adjusting his robe.
I stayed beside Hedwig’s cage for a moment longer.
There was no point trying to squeeze out with everyone else.
***
The platform was colder than I’d expected.
I pulled my robe closer and moved away from the door to let the others through.
Someone was calling for the first years.
I didn’t have to look far.
Hagrid towered over the crowd with a lantern in his hand.
I’d known he would be enormous.
Even so, the sight of him made me tip my head back a little further.
“Firs’ years! Over here! Don’t get left behind!”
Harry was already beside him.
I saw Hagrid bend down to say something to him.
Ron waited nearby.
Our luggage would be taken to the castle separately.
I checked that Hedwig’s cage was secure beside the other things.
She looked at me through the bars.
“See you soon.”
She didn’t look particularly concerned.
I followed the group.
“Hey. I saw you at Madam Malkin’s.”
I turned.
Draco Malfoy was a few steps behind me, with a boy considerably broader than him on either side.
Crabbe and Goyle.
Malfoy studied me.
“You were with McGonagall.”
“She was helping me shop.”
“Draco Malfoy.”
“Oliver Peverell.”
His gaze dropped to my signet ring.
“Peverell?”
“Yes.”
For a moment, he looked as though he was trying to remember something specific.
Then he indicated his companions.
“Crabbe. Goyle.”
I nodded to them.
One nodded back.
The other was watching where he put his feet.
The path was steep and uneven.
I soon decided he had the right idea.
“Much left after the robes?” Malfoy asked.
“Nearly the whole list.”
“We still had to go halfway down the street too. Mother went back to the shop because she thought the cloak would be too short.”
I glanced at his sleeves.
“Is it?”
“No. Neither was the first one.”
I smiled to myself.
Hagrid’s voice came from up ahead.
“You’ll get yer first sight of the castle in a moment!”
We quickened our pace.
***
Hogwarts appeared suddenly around a bend.
I stopped.
Someone behind me bumped lightly into my shoulder, but I barely noticed.
The castle stood on the far side of the lake.
Its windows glowed warmly above the dark water.
The towers rose so high that I had to crane my neck.
Stone walls grew out of the rock, their reflection trembling near the shore.
I’d seen this view on a screen before.
That did nothing to prepare me.
Here, I could feel the cold air on my face.
Hear the water and the whispers of the children beside me.
Far away, real lights were burning in rooms I was about to enter.
“No more’n four to a boat!” Hagrid called.
Only then did I look down.
Small boats rocked by the shore.
Malfoy pointed to one nearby.
“We’ll all fit in that one.”
Crabbe was already climbing in.
Goyle waited behind him.
I looked at the empty seat and nodded.
I climbed in last.
The boat tilted under my weight.
I grabbed the side.
“Careful,” Malfoy said, grabbing the edge himself.
“I’ve got it.”
Goyle moved his leg so I could sit down.
A moment later, we set off.
***
For the first few seconds, nobody spoke.
Water lapped softly against the hull, and the chill seeped steadily through my robe.
I began to see the magic.
Broad bands ran along the walls, weaving together above the windows.
Some vanished into the rock; others climbed the towers.
It was nothing like a shop’s wards, or even Gringotts.
There was too much to take in at once.
My eyes began to water.
I blinked and focused on the ordinary stones.
Slowly, the castle became the main thing I could see again.
“Which house do you want?” Malfoy asked.
I turned my head.
“I haven’t decided.”
“Really?”
“I’m hoping the Sorting will know better than I do.”
Crabbe gave a short snort.
Malfoy looked at the castle.
“I want Slytherin. Both my parents were there.”
“Have they told you much about school?”
“A bit. Father said the common room is under the lake.”
I glanced at the dark water beside the boat.
I knew that.
Hearing it here, though, made me picture the view from the windows much more clearly.
“I wonder what you can see through them.”
“The squid sometimes, apparently.”
Goyle raised his head.
“There’s a squid in here?”
“A giant one,” Malfoy replied.
Goyle moved his hand away from the water.
I also decided my fingers didn’t need to be quite so close to the surface.
For a while, we all looked down.
Nothing emerged.
“What about your parents?” Malfoy asked after a moment.
“Which house were they in?”
“I don’t know.”
He looked at me in surprise.
“Didn’t you ask?”
“I didn’t have anyone to ask.”
For a second, I regretted the answer.
Not because it was untrue.
I simply didn’t want to go into it in a boat full of people I’d known for a few minutes.
Malfoy’s gaze moved from my face to the water.
“Oh.”
He didn’t ask anything else.
I was grateful for that.
Up ahead, Hagrid called for us to mind our heads.
I ducked well in advance.
After the train journey, I didn’t need another reminder.
***
The boats entered an underground harbour and stopped by the shore.
I climbed out carefully, setting my foot on wet stone.
My legs had gone numb from sitting.
I walked stiffly for a moment until the feeling returned.
Hagrid was checking that nobody had been left in the boats.
Then Neville cried out somewhere behind us.
The toad had been found.
I turned and saw him clutching it to his chest with a relief the animal clearly didn’t share.
Hermione began saying something to him.
The rest of the group headed uphill.
I followed.
Malfoy drew level with me on the first steps, then stopped to wait for Crabbe.
I moved closer to the middle of the path.
I couldn’t see Harry or Ron any more.
They must have been somewhere ahead.
Up close, the walls looked even taller.
I ran my hand along the stone balustrade.
It was cold and slightly damp.
Real.
Like everything around me.
Huge doors waited at the top of the steps.
Hagrid raised his hand and knocked.
A moment later, Professor McGonagall opened them.
I straightened automatically.
She noticed me among the students.
Her gaze paused for a moment, then moved on.
“Firs’ years, Professor,” Hagrid said.
She thanked him and stepped aside to let us through.
The crowd moved forwards.
I crossed the threshold.
It was warm inside.
Somewhere further in, I could hear the hum of many conversations and the clatter of dishes.
Flames lit the stone walls, and staircases rose out of sight.
I wanted to go and see where they led immediately.
McGonagall showed us the way.
I followed the others.
The book I’d brought for the journey was still in my bag.
I hadn’t read a single page.