On the other hand it had motivated her enough, along with Accountant Grimjaw's warning, to take her magical and physical training seriously. For all she knew, she could be attacked as soon as she mounted on the train for Hogwarts. 'Running away from the danger' didn't look too good if (or when) she ran into trouble. Unfortunately, learning magic was extremely difficult. So far she had only managed to use a spell named Fumos, which created a lot of smoke (extremely efficient to escape Dudley's gang but had the side effect of making Petunia scream because she believed there was a fire) and Petrificus Totalus, a spell which was known as the Full Body-Bind Curse in Curses and Counter-Curses. Piers Polkiss had been her 'volunteer' for this experience, and she had used real ropes to divert suspicions afterwards.
August passed at full speed, and soon there was only three days left until her departure to Hogwarts. As she had been informed by a letter carried by Atalanta, she was to be aboard the Hogwarts Express September the first. Of course for that to happen, she needed to be at King's Cross station where the platform 'Nine and Three Quarters' was. Who had thought of giving a platform such a name had been a question she'd not found the answer in History of Hogwarts.
As she had never been to that station before, teleportation would not be very useful and anyway she had a heavy trunk to carry with her, as there was no way she was leaving any of her clothes, money or other possessions at Privet Drive where the Dursleys could burn or destroy them. So she would need to use her uncle's car. Joy.
She went down to the living-room, where the entire Dursley family was watching a documentary on elephants on television. As they didn't even turn their eyes toward her when she entered the room, Alexandra cleared her throat to let them know she was there, and Dudley immediately screamed and ran from the room. Apparently he really feared her. Oh, well.
"Uncle Vernon?"
Her uncle grunted to show he was listening, his eyes fixed on the screen.
"I need to be at King's Cross station on September 1 to go to my new school."
Uncle Vernon grunted again.
"Could you please transport me there?"
Grunt. Alexandra supposed that meant yes.
"Thank you." For once she was sincere, as she had not had to use threat, bribery or logic to force him. She would have to be more paranoid in the next days. Her chance was never that good, unless something bad was going to happen.
She had already turned her back and was about to go back to her room upstairs when Uncle Vernon actually spoke.
"Funny way to get to a wizards' school, the train. Magic carpets all got punctures, have they?"
Alexandra didn't say anything. She supposed her uncle wouldn't be very interested to know that magic carpets had been forbidden after a rather intense lobby from the broom firms in 1954. History of Hogwarts was full of anecdotes like that.
"Where is this school, anyway?"
"In Northern Scotland," said Alexandra, thanking the fact her history book had that information. Else she would not be in the process of stealing warm clothes. "But I just have to take the train at King's Cross which leaves at eleven o'clock."
"Barking," growled her uncle, "Howling mad, the lot of them, having a school so far north. You'll see. You just wait. All right, I'll take you to King's Cross in three days. I'm going up to London on September first anyway, or I wouldn't bother."
That sounded more like the uncle she knew.
"Why are you going to London?" Alexandra asked, trying to keep things civil if not friendly.
"A meeting with a big client for Grunnings," said Uncle Vernon. "We'll drop you off at King's Cross before going there."
1 September 1991, Hogwarts Express
Alexandra woke at five o'clock the morning of September 1 as she was too excited and too nervous to sleep any more. She got up and pulled on a shirt and jeans since walking in a non-magical station in wizard's clothes would be the height of idiocy. The robes bought at Diagon Alley were a century out of fashion. She would change into her school uniform's clothes on the train, going to Scotland, the journey was certainly going to last the entire afternoon. She checked her Hogwarts list yet again and her entire bedroom to be sure she hadn't forgotten anything. Anything left there would be at the mercy of Dudley for more or less nine months. To use a military term, it would end up missing in action. Or killed in action.
Atalanta was sent directly to Hogwarts, as she would attract too much attention at the station and Alexandra had not bought a cage for her. Then she waited for the Dursleys to wake up. Two hours later, Alexandra's huge, brand-new trunk had been loaded into Vernon's car, and they set off for King's Cross. They reached King's Cross at ten o'clock. Uncle Vernon dumped Alexandra's trunk onto a trolley and then drove away at full speed, considering he had done his 'familial duty' towards her done.
Entering the station, she was stunned by the noise and the crowd in it. King's Cross Station was probably the busiest place in all of London. It was full of regular people going about their lives, rushing around to catch their trains. Thousands of people. And she was supposed to find her way in this rush? She had never had a reason to go to King's Cross or any other major train station, not that the Dursleys would have wanted to take her to one anyway. So this was her first visit to this part of London. As a result, she was a bit lost in the first minutes, trying not to lose herself in the sights and sounds of the place, and avoiding the employees who would have asked problematic questions to a young girl traveling alone. It took her very little time to acknowledge that Privet Drive, for all its faults, was relatively calm and silent compared to this kingdom of clamor.