Harry stood at the entrance of Kings Cross Station. His trunk was on a trolley to deceive the muggles. He could have just shrunk it and carried it in his pocket, but the guide had said it would be best if he looked like a normal muggle student on the way to his train to boarding school. Hedwig's stand was in the third compartment of his trunk, Hedwig would join him on the platform. She disliked being in a cage, so he had given her the options to meet him once he had crossed the barrier and reached the platform or fly to Hogwarts on her own. She had taken the first option. Harry had noticed over the last month that he more and more understood what she wanted to say with her hoots and behaviour. He guessed it was part of the familiar bond he had with her.
Harry was wearing clothes that could double as a school uniform in the muggle world. It was a relatively warm day, so he had forgone a jacket. He wore black pants, trainers, a dark blue pullover with his family crest on the left side of his chest and under the pullover the collar of his white polo-shirt could be seen. He had been shopping in muggle London two weeks before he started Hogwarts. He had exchanged five hundred galleons in pounds and went on a little shopping spree. He got a complete wardrobe including sportswear for him to continue his training. He also got some board games to pass time in the common room in the evening; he guessed there would be at least some students interested in playing as well. For the journey he had two card games. One simple double set for several games like poker, rummy and so on and one was a newer game called wizard fittingly. The description sounded interesting enough. Those card games together with a bottle of cooled pumpkin juice and a lunchbox were in a backpack on his back.
He walked up to the barrier between platforms nine and ten. He was glad the way how to reach the platform had been in the muggleborn guide as Hagrid, while he had given Harry the ticket for the train, had forgotten to explain that part. He didn't notice any others that were there, so he just walked a little faster, being a little nervous for being about to go through a wall. Then he reached the wall with his trolley and he closed his eyes, but nothing happened. When he opened his eyes again, he saw the platform where the red, steaming Hogwarts express was waiting for the students to board. He grinned. He would go to Hogwarts, the same school his parents had gone to. He looked up and saw Hedwig swooping down to him. He held out his arm for her to land.
"Hey, girl. Did you have a nice flight?" He asked and got a positive hoot.
Hedwig climbed on his shoulder while he looked around. There were a lot of people assembled already, even if the train wouldn't leave before eleven, which was still half an hour away. He took his trunk, tapped it with his wand and it shrunk to fit into his pocket again. He saw that most students were clothed in robes. He wondered how they got here without causing a stir with the muggles. Perhaps side-along apparition like Professor McGonagall had done with him on the way to St. Mungo's. He knew there wasn't a floo connection here as the coordination wouldn't be possible. He had asked Tom for that as it would have been the easiest way to get here from the Leaky Cauldron. Tom and his crew had made sure to pack him a nice lunchbox for the journey. He had really enjoyed his stay at the Leaky Cauldron. Sadly he hadn't managed to keep people from recognizing him for the whole time, so one evening at dinner many had greeted him after one man had heard Tom call him by his name and asked if he was Harry Potter.
He had had to shake a few hands, but Tom had prevented that it got too out of hand. After a while the regular patrons of the Cauldron had got used to him and Harry got to listen to some of their interesting stories. He had already resigned himself to the fact that something similar would happen once the students at Hogwarts found out his name during the sorting. Hagrid wouldn't tell him how the sorting went, it was part of the whole experience to not know it beforehand, but he said the students were called forth by name and then sorted while the rest of the school watched. Well, tonight he would find out. It couldn't be too bad. He listened to some bits of conversation that parents held with their children. Many wished them fun for the new year, some reminded them to study hard for their exams, one father told his son this would be his house's year for the Quidditch Cup. Owls all around hooted, he could hear toads croaking and some cats meowing.
He climbed into the train, intent on finding a compartment where some other first-years were in. He looked for some minutes, then he spotted a compartment where two girls and a boy were sitting in. They looked nice enough, so he knocked and opened the door.
"Would you mind if I joined you?" He asked.
"No, come in. We still have some free seats and the more the merrier." The blond girl said.
"Thanks." Harry answered and stepped inside.
"Where is your trunk?" The red haired girl asked.
"Shrunk in my pocket. I didn't think dragging it through the corridors would be smart if I could just use the shrinking feature." Harry explained.
"That's true. I wanted one of them, but we still had the old three compartment trunk from my uncle on the attic and it's still perfectly good to use for me. At least it is spelled feather-light." The brown haired boy said. "I'm Terry Boot by the way."
"I'm Hannah Abbott." The blond girl introduced herself.
"Susan Bones." The redhead said.
"I'm Harry Potter, nice to meet you all." Harry said, getting the estimated reaction of shock. "Come on, I'm just an eleven year old kid like you. And if you read any of the books Romanio Lockhart wrote, forget them, none of the things he wrote are true. I grew up with my muggle aunt and didn't know of the magical world until I got my Hogwarts letter."
Terry laughed. "I told you so." He said addressing Susan who was blushing. "I have been trying to tell some of the girls that I know from growing up that there was no way any kid, not even the one that defeated You-Know-Who, could do some of the things in those books. That Lockhart just has a blooming fantasy."
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