Spells and Visions; A Harry Potter story

Chapter 2: Hogwarts

The train stopped. People started getting up, so I assumed we had arrived. I stood up, took my stuff, and the twins led me to the station. I said goodbye to them, because I had to look for Neville. Luckily, he was already outside. He was talking to some boys of his age. The twins were out of sight, so I walked with my brother and his new friends. I didn't talk much on our way to Hogwarts.

Our mother might have said that she loved me sometimes, but she didn't really show that. There was no proof for what she used to do. Whenever Neville or I did something 'bad' or for example, we went to the Muggles, she punished us. We had to write lines with a quill. But with no ordinary quill. The one she gave us, and instead of writing those lines a lot of times, we mostly only had to write it a few times. But that wasn't a good thing. It was a magical quill, and when we wrote with it, the text magically carved its way into our other hand. We were basically writing with our own blood. That was incredibly painful. But of course then we could show everyone what a bad person she was, so the text would mostly immediately disappear. Only, the more we wrote, the more the scars remained. Then my mother would make them disappear with a spell I didn't know a counter-spell against, because I didn't know anything about magic yet.

Then a very tall and very big man showed up. He was thrice as tall as me, and had a long, dark beard and hair. I almost couldn't see his face. He also had a funny accent when he called us. He called all the first years, and we had to follow him to several boats. We had to sit with four persons in one boat, and I ended up with three boys which I hadn't seen before.
When the boats started (magically) moving, the boy with white hair spoke to me.
"Hello," he said. "I am Draco, and these are my friends Crabbe and Goyle."
"Hi," I said, with something that meant to be a smile. "I'm Jynx."

I looked behind me and saw my brother in a boat with a girl, a boy with red hair, possibly Ron, and a boy with dark hair and glasses.
"What are you looking at?" Draco asked me.
"That's my brother right there," I answered. "Just making sure he doesn't fall out of the boat or anything."
"Blimey, isn't that Harry Potter there?" Goyle asked.
"It is," Draco said. "I saw him the other day, you know?"
My heart skipped a beat. The dangerous boy was in the same boat as my brother. And they were talking and laughing? Maybe he wasn't so dangerous at all...
They must have been talking about the boy with the glasses, who looked like any normal kid of my age. How could he have killed the Dark Lord?

"Anyway," Draco continued to me. "What house will you be in?"
"I don't know," I said.
"I am sure I will be in Slytherin. My whole family has only gone there..."
I made a face, but it was dark and Draco was so busy with his story that he probably didn't even notice. I didn't hear much of the things he said, I only knew I didn't want to be in Slytherin.
"You're always welcome to be with us, you know," he said with a grin.
"Hm, yeah, we'll see," I said, looking to Neville's boat. I really needed to know more about this Harry Potter.

"Who's that big man, by the way?" I asked.
"Oh, that is Hagrid, he is the keeper of keys and grounds," Crabbe said.
"So he's not a teacher?"
"Nope."
That made me think that I had no idea who actually the headmaster was.

When we arrived at a gigantic castle, which was definitely Hogwarts, the Hagrid led us out of the boats and knocked with his staff on the door. I was relieved to see that Neville still got his toad. The door opened and there stood an old woman with a cloak and a hood.
The woman took us over from Hagrid and led us to a small room in the building. Her name was McGonagall, and she welcomed us to Hogwarts. She explained things I already knew from Fred and George, but also things I didn't know yet, like the fact that we would collect points in our houses and the house with the most points at the end of the year would win the House Cup.
Professor McGonagall made us wait a moment in the room, soon we would be sorted into our houses. Suddenly, people started screaming, and I looked behind to see what was happening. Ghost-like things came through the walls, and I was absolutely fascinated. The ghosts were arguing among themselves, and only then noticed us.
They started to talk again, but went away when Professor McGonagall showed up again. She led us to the Great Hall, because the Sorting Ceremony was about to start.

There were four large tables where students sat, and in the air floated candles. That was one of the first cool things of magic I had ever seen. On a chair in the front was a very old hat, which suddenly began to sing. All of the first-years had to stand in a line and wait. I was getting a little nervous.
After the song everybody applauded, and McGonagall led the students one by one to the 'Sorting Hat'. They put on the hat (which was way to big for their heads and fell over their eyes) and after a while of thinking and murmuring, the hat would yell: Hufflepuff! or Gryffindor! or Ravenclaw! or Slytherin!

Ron was, like his older brothers, placed in Gryffindor, along with the girl I saw earlier, apparently called Hermione Granger, and Neville and Harry Potter. Now I really hoped I was placed there as well. Then I could look out for my brother and find out more about Harry. Draco Malfoy was obviously placed in Slytherin, and of the other houses I didn't know anyone. Then it was my turn.
"Black, Jynx!" Professor McGonagall said. Nervously, I walked to the Sorting Hat. I sat down, and saw all the eyes staring at me. I even heard a few gasps, probably because of my last name. I put the hat on my head, which also fell over my eyes, so I couldn't see anything.
"Difficult, difficult," the Hat murmured to itself. "Brave, smart, always feels responsible for everyone, Ravenclaw maybe? No, no, GRYFFINDOR!" He yelled at last. Relieved and with a smile I put the hat down. The Gryffindor table applauded and I saw the twins laughing too. As I walked to their table, I saw in the corner of my eye Draco looking with an unpleased face at me.

I sat down next to Fred and Neville.
"Welcome, welcome!" Fred laughed, grabbing me by my shoulders. "Now you're part of the family too."
"Yeah, I guess so," I said above all the noise. While the remaining students were placed in the houses, Hermione looked at me as if she was try to read my mind. I tried not to notice, but it was making me feel uncomfortable.
"Are you family of Sirius Black?" she asked me softly. "He is a criminal, you know."
"He is my father," I whispered back. "I have never seen him, though. My mother won't speak about him."
"Your father?" Hermione whisper-screamed.
"Yeah," I sighed, so softly that I could barely hear myself.

With a head full of thoughts I looked past Hermione, to nothing. But instead looking to nothing I looked straight into the eyes of a Hufflepuff boy, who quickly looked away. I raised my eyebrow as I looked to where Harry sat. He looked like an ordinary boy, with taped glasses, but you know, not everyone is rich. Although, if he was special, why didn't he look... more special?
Then I saw a man with long white hair, and a long white beard.
"Who is that?" I whispered to Fred.
"That is professor Dumbledore, the greatest wizard in the world, how do you not know?"
"Welcome!" Dumbledore said to everyone. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin with our banquet, I would like to say a few words: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!"
Everyone applauded, but I didn't really know how to react.
"He is a genius! Best wizard in the world! But a bit mad, yes," I heard Percy say to Harry.
When I looked at our table again it was filled with all kinds of food. I suddenly felt very hungry and digged in.

While we were eating, ghosts were flying around. One introduced himself as Nearly Headless Nick, because he was nearly beheaded. I was very pleased with the food, while the others talked about how much percent wizard they were. When Ron asked Neville, my brother looked at me.
"We're twins," I said. "Our dad is a wizard, and in Azkaban for whatever reason. Our mum is half, and I'd rather not talk about her."
"Me neither," Neville sighed and looked down.
"But hey, on the bright side, we have a whole year now without her," I tried cheering Neville up.
"But what about the winter holiday?"
"We'll stay here, I don't know," I said, while putting my hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry about it."
"I trust she is not a very nice woman?" Harry asked carefully.
"Trust me, you don't want to know," I answered.
"Wait, was she the very pink woman on the train station?" Ron asked.
"Unfortunately, yes," Neville said.

I wonder who the pink woman is lol