“Transport assistance,” Adrian repeated smoothly.
Susan narrowed her eyes, reached over, and plucked the premium chocolate from his hand.
She broke off the larger half and took a bite.
“Emergency tax,” she explained.
The Hogwarts Express corridors were already filling with returning students collecting their bags, calling out to friends, and pulling on their house-coloured outer robes.
The train was beginning its final approach toward Hogsmeade.
Susan unceremoniously pushed Fred and George out into the corridor so Adrian could change.
The twins loudly protested that it was their compartment, rattling the locked handle until Susan threatened to hex their eyebrows off.
Adrian removed his jumper and travel shirt while leaving his trousers on.
He pulled on the crisp white shirt, dark waistcoat, tie, and neutral, uncrested outer robe of an incoming student.
Susan did not turn away.
She watched without making a dramatic comment, but stepped forward when Adrian struggled to get the knot of his tie right.
The train suddenly took a hard curve on the tracks, shifting their weight.
Adrian stepped forward to keep his balance, bringing his chest flush against Susan.
She kept her hold on his tie, letting the closeness last, and smoothed his collar rather than immediately stepping back.
Out in the corridor, Cho Chang walked past with a group of returning second-year Ravenclaws.
She met Susan’s eyes through the compartment glass and smiled knowingly.
Susan noticed the interest and deliberately took a few extra seconds fixing Adrian’s collar before stepping away.
A few minutes later, the Trolley Witch passed by while collecting rubbish.
She took a handful of empty wrappers from Fred, briefly met Adrian’s eyes through the glass, and let one corner of her mouth lift into a smirk before continuing down the carriage.
Susan saw the exchange, but she postponed her questions as the train brakes finally began to squeal.
The carriage doors opened onto a freezing platform.
The transition from the warm train was jarring—cold air bit at their faces, heavy boots struck wet stone, thick steam billowed around their knees, and dozens of owls shrieked inside covered cages.
Older students immediately moved purposefully through the fog toward a line of waiting carriages, perfectly familiar with the routine.
Fred and George disappeared into the returning-student crowd after promising to find Adrian inside.
“See you at the feast, junior,” Fred called, clapping Adrian on the shoulder.
George pointed toward the castle through the steam.
“Do not let the Hat eat your memories.” Ron remained with the incoming students, looking noticeably less confident once his brothers vanished into the mist.
“Firs’ years!
Firs’ years over here!” Hagrid raised a swinging lantern above the crowd.
Hagrid stood head and shoulders above everyone on the platform, his lantern swinging near the level of Adrian’s face.
The size of him made several students hesitate, but his broad smile and booming welcome quickly drew the scattered group together.
“Right then, follow me,” Hagrid called out, turning toward a narrow, tree-lined trail.
“Mind yer step now!” He led them away from the station and down a steep, root-covered forest path.
It was far darker than anyone expected; Hagrid’s lantern only illuminated the very front of the group.
Students immediately began stumbling.
Somewhere to Adrian’s left, Hermione Granger complained loudly that an academic institution ought to provide proper walkway lighting.
Right behind him, Ron swore as he nearly walked directly into Neville Longbottom’s back.
Susan remained close to Adrian’s side, her shoulder brushing against his in the dark.
Adrian pulled his ash wand from his sleeve.
“Lumos.” A clean white light flared at the tip of his wand and remained steady despite his uneven footing.
Several nearby students visibly relaxed as the glow illuminated the treacherous mud and roots ahead.
Susan studied Adrian’s steady wand for several steps before asking how a Muggle-born had arrived already knowing the charm.
“I had one month, a spellbook and very flammable curtains,” Adrian explained.
Hermione heard him from farther along the path and immediately pushed through the group to join them.
She wanted the name of the reference book, the exact wand movement and a list of every other spell he had attempted.
Adrian told her that he had only practised the basics.
“My Levitation Charm still treats the floor as a close friend.” Hermione looked as though she wanted to ask six more questions, but a student slipping ahead of them forced her attention back to the path.
Up ahead, Hagrid glanced back over his massive shoulder.
He saw the steady light cutting through the dark and gave an approving nod.
“Good lad.
Keep it pointed low so yeh don’t blind the people behind yeh,” he called out.
They reached the edge of the Black Lake.
A fleet of small wooden boats sat bobbing in the dark water.
Hagrid instructed them to sit four per boat.
Adrian stepped in and offered a hand, helping Susan aboard.
Hermione and Neville immediately joined them.
Harry and Ron climbed into a neighbouring boat, remaining close by.
“Forward!” Hagrid shouted.
The boats lurched, moving smoothly without oars across the glass-still water.
As the tree line broke, Adrian lowered his wand so the glare wouldn’t block the view.
The castle revealed itself gradually.
First, scattered lights hovered high in the dark, followed by the jagged, black silhouettes of massive towers.
Then, as they cleared the high cliffs, the complete castle came into view, its hundreds of illuminated windows scattering long golden reflections across the black water.
The students fell completely quiet.
Somewhere in the middle of the lake, Adrian stopped comparing the castle to the films.
The cold cut through his robes, the smell of deep water filled every breath, and the towers rose so high above the cliffs that he had to tilt his head back to see their peaks.
This was not a remembered scene anymore.
He was going to live here.
Susan noticed his expression in the moonlight.
“Are you nervous?” she asked quietly.
“Turning around now would be embarrassing,” Adrian admitted.
The boats slipped through a curtain of thick ivy, entering a dark, echoing cavern beneath the castle.
As the students climbed out onto the pebble beach, Neville’s foot slipped on a patch of slick algae.
Adrian caught Neville by the arm and hauled him upright before he could fall against the wet stones.
Neville steadied himself and gave Adrian a grateful, slightly embarrassed smile.
“Thanks.
I have never been particularly reliable around heights, water, or my own feet.” “We have eliminated one of those,” Adrian said.
“Stay away from cliffs until morning.” They followed Hagrid up a flight of damp, uneven stone stairs.
Adrian kept a low Lumos active to light the treacherous steps.
Minerva McGonagall was waiting for them at a pair of massive oak doors.
She thanked Hagrid, formally taking control of the incoming group.
Her sharp gaze swept over the students before pausing directly on Adrian’s lit wand.
“Mr Clarke,” Minerva said, her gaze settling on the glowing wand.
“Extinguish that before you scorch one of the portraits.” Susan looked at Adrian.
“Another curtain?” “It was one curtain,” Adrian muttered as the light vanished.
Minerva’s eyes moved between them, but she apparently decided that she did not want the explanation.
Minerva turned and led them inside.
As they moved through a vaulted stone corridor, the painted portraits whispered suspiciously, and empty suits of armour shifted with the grinding sound of old metal.
Without warning, a translucent, pearlescent figure drifted directly out of the solid stone wall.
Ron jumped backward with a yelp.
The Fat Friar floated cheerfully through the crowd, welcoming the students and joking that some of them looked pale enough to join him already.
Another ghost drifted past, passing straight through the shoulder of a nearby student, leaving the girl shivering violently.
Adrian watched the ghosts more closely than the other students.
When the second spirit passed through the nearby girl, the cold reached him from several feet away.
The films had never explained what Hogwarts ghosts truly were.
Souls, memories, magical imprints—whatever the answer, they were real enough to affect the living world.
Adrian stored the question away for later.
Minerva brought them into a small, echoing waiting chamber just outside the Great Hall.
She turned to face them and explained the Sorting process: houses would determine their residence, their daily community, their points, and much of their school life.
As soon as she stepped away to check on the preparations, the incoming students began trading frantic rumours.
Hermione worried aloud about a practical test.
Ron repeated Fred’s lie about having to fight a mountain troll.
Neville whispered that he’d heard everyone must cast a spell.
Susan listened with a perfectly straight face before explaining that Hufflepuff placed incoming students inside a badger enclosure and waited to see whether the animals accepted them.
“I heard the Hat asks deeply personal questions aloud in front of everyone,” Adrian added smoothly.
Hermione’s eyes widened in sheer panic.
She turned toward the stone wall and immediately began quietly preparing answers to questions nobody had asked.
Before Hermione could finish preparing for an imaginary interrogation, Minerva returned with a long parchment roll in one hand.
“Form a line and follow me.
When I call your name, you will approach the stool.” The heavy oak doors began to open behind her.
Warm light poured into the chamber, accompanied by the roar of hundreds of conversations.
Through the widening gap, Adrian caught his first glimpse of the floating candles, the four crowded house tables and the staff seated above them.
Hundreds of faces turned toward the incoming students.
Adrian drew a slow breath.
He had reached Hogwarts.
Now he only had to prevent an ancient, mind-reading Hat from exposing two lifetimes and the sealed system hiding inside his head.