What would happen? (Hogwarts marauders era)

2: Hogwarts, It's Really There?

When Hagrid softly tapped his pink umbrella against the boat he sat in, slowly all boats started gliding over the water.
Trees in the distance looked more black than the night, and the depth of the water was somehow even more black. The stars were bright, the few clouds drifting away to give us a beautiful look of the moon.

The boat rocketed slightly as James moved. He was trying to loosen his messy tied tie. He clearly needed some practice for it, but I could say the same about myself.

"Stop," Remus hissed despite himself, his hands clenching the boat. My eyes were on the water as it rippled away from the boat. The moon shone on the water, making it glitter prettily.

James grinned and moved around some more, making Remus giving him a small glare. James only stopped when Hagrid said some thing about it, and it was clear how James wasn't going to be friends with the teachers here.

I realised I had been in a trance ever since the boats had started and stopped gawking at everything around us.

"You'll get yer firs' view o' Hogwarts soon!" Hagrid called out a little hushed and the students looked around even more. I realised just then I had been gawking even without seeing Hogwarts yet.

From behind the trees came the sight of many upon many stones forming a dark castle against the night sky. It looked up with many towers, some bridges connecting the castle together. Many fires showed through the windows, lighting the bricks with orange and yellow. The contrast of the light stones in the light, the stars in the back... it was hard to take my eyes off it.

Everyone let out their 'whoas' and 'aahs' and the boats glided forth.

A small thud was the only thing stopping me from staring my life away. The boat house we arrived in was small, though I was one of the first out, rocking the boat even though James, Sirius and Remus were still in there. Quickly I put my hand on the stones of the boat house, letting reality, or what I prayed was reality, sink in.
I was actually, seriously, without any joke or lies, touching some stones which were from Hogwarts. A smile appeared on my face. However this was possible, I wasn't complaining.

Hagrid helped some first years out of the boat and the students waited. I wasn't so kind to wait and hurried to the door, James following with a mischievous grin on his face.

"Whoa!" James said once more when we exited the boat house. The sight was something to say that to.

"That's a lot of stairs," Sirius pointed. Indeed, a large staircase led all the way up to the castle.

Remus hesitantly walked up to us and stared up as well, before he noticed Hagrid leading the other students out and urged us to follow them. I wondered where Peter was. The marauders were almost complete.

Now, Hagrid was a tall, I would say, not Dudley kind of big, but a big person. Exactly as described in the book he had untamed hair, black but kind eyes. But my point here is, he was tall with longer legs than us. He skipped a step once in a while, beckoning us to hurry after him, while our eleven year old small legs tried their best. If legs could, ours would be crying.
It was a slow process, in other words.
But I didn't mind. The castle kept being the most amazing thing I had ever seen in person, even if I had to crane my neck at some spots of the twisting and turning stairs. (I could see the tip of the astronomy tower reaching above the entrance hall!)

When Hagrid reached the door and I prepared for my first sight of the inside of Hogwarts. .

The doors opened and a large high hall, bigger than my house, gaped in front of us. Paintings littered the walls— moving paintings! Everyone looked around in amazement, someone calling out that the paintings moved, but of course I had noticed first— the moving paintings waved at us, smiling at our new faces.