Deus Fax Machina

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

The First Arrival

There was chaos as the carriages arrived at the Hogwarts front steps. Sophie looked around in awe as she moved with the crowd of students up the steps to the main entrance. The castle was huge, it had towers and turrets, buttresses and battlements. The huge arched doorway in front of her spilt warm light from within, as did all the windows dotted up and down the castle walls.

'Miss Fax, over here.'

An old woman in tartan robes and a matching pointed hat signalled to Sophie.

'Ooh, already in trouble with McGonagall.' One of the twins nudged Sophie as she passed him on her way through the crowd. Sophie's stomach dropped but then he winked and was lost in the moving crowd.

'Welcome, Miss Fix, I'm Professor McGonagall, if you'll follow me please.' Professor McGonagall's face was stern and her hair was pulled back into a tight bun. Sophie had to listen carefully to understand the professor's Scottish accent. After a beat Sophie understood what Professor McGonagall had asked and followed her away from the loud and excited student body. Sophie glimpsed a grand hall, four long tables running its length, covered with shining goblets, plates and cutlery, and, suspended above the tables, where thousands of blinking candles, bobbing and flickering in cheerful waves.

Sophie followed the professor up a wide marble staircase and down a long hallway, stopping outside a door as the noise from downstairs began to fade.

'Now, if you'll wait in here just a few minutes, Madam Pomfrey will be up to see you, then I will return.'

Professor McGonagall unlocked the door and went inside. She collected a wooden stool and a battered old hat then left Sophie alone, and very lonely, in the cool office.

Though she did not have to wait long. Sophie had taken a seat in front of a neat desk when another woman hurried into the room. Dressed in a starched matron's uniform of blue and white Madam Pomfrey had in her hands a bubbling goblet which hissed and steamed.

'Here, love, down in one. It'll sort you right out!' Madam Pomfrey pushed the goblet into Sophie's hands, it was a shade of deep ocean green and smelt of peppermint.

'I'm not sick.' Sophie tried to decline.

'Oh no, love, it's for the yawns.'

Sophie was half way through another wide yawn. She stifled it.

'Professor McGonagall and I saw it a mile away, those horrible means of muggle transportation, oh, how do they do it? Drink up!'

Sophie could resist no longer; she took the goblet and drank its contents. Once the goblet was drained, she handed it back but not before the potion had started to take effect. Energy awoke inside her; Sophie was no longer breathing slow and deep and no longer was every movement exhausting. Sophie felt alive and rejuvenated and could not believe she had not been wide awake taking in all the wonderful things around her! Sophie smiled at Madam Pomfrey and sat up straight, looking around the room.

'Ah, there we go, Pepperup is not just for colds, is it!'

Sophie let Madam Pomfrey fuss about her while she took in the room around her; the grandfather clock with nothing but the planets on it, several boxes stacked behind the desk which were moving, and on closer inspection into the top most box Sophie found they contained an assortment of pin cushions and hedgehogs, and some which were both. There were several pictures on the mantle above the fire, the subjects of all of these were moving and waving at Sophie, or whispering to each other and pointing.