𝐋𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭 ✓

𝟖

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𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟖: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐇𝐚𝐭

A voice echoed through the train: "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately." 

My stomach lurched with nerves. Belle and Cassie gasped as the hurried back inside their compartment. They crammed their pockets with the last of the sweets and joined the crowd thronging the corridor.The train slowed right down and finally stopped. People pushed theirway toward the door and out on to a tiny, dark platform. 

"Harry! Ron! RON! HARRY!" I hollered. 

"Harry?" Leslie asked, titling her head in confusion. 

"As in Harry Potter?!"  Lily asked, her eyes wide. 

"You know Harry Potter?!" Belle asked, grinning. 

"H-how do you know him?" Cassie asked. 

"He's my cousin," I replied as I looked around.

I spotted Ron's red hair in a second. 

"Ron! RON!" 

Ron turned around, looking at me. He smiled and then tapped the boy next to him — Harry. 

"I've been calling you for ages," I said angrily as Harry and Ron made their way to me. 

"Sorry — who're they?" Harry asked, pointing at the Fawleys. 

"I'm Leslie." 

"I'm Lily." 

"I'm Belle." 

"I'm Cassie." 

"And we're the Fawleys!" 

I nodded to Harry and Ron who gave me a quizzical look. 

"Well, I'm Ron Weasley," Ron said shaking Belle's hand first. "And this is —" 

"Harry Potter," chorused the Fawleys. 

"Yes, this is Harry," I said, smiling. 

Harry smiled at the eager Fawleys. 

"Well, we better get going. We'll see you in the Sorting!" Cassie said for all her cousins as they hurried off. 

Harry shivered in the cold night air. Then a lamp came bobbing over the heads of the students, and I heard a familiar voice: "Firs' years! Firs' years over here! All right there, Harry? An' you, Diane?"

Hagrid's big hairy face beamed over the sea of heads.

 "C'mon, follow me — any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!" 

Slipping and stumbling, we followed Hagrid down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path. It was so dark on either side of them that U thought there must be thick trees there. Nobody spoke much. Neville, the boy who kept losing his toad, sniffed once or twice. 

"Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," Hagrid called over his shoulder, "jus' round this bend here." 

There was a loud "Oooooh!" 

The narrow path had opened suddenly onto the edge of a great blacklake. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling inthe starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers.