Anchor Of Life

5. Hogwarts Express

Hadrianus brushed off the remaining dust of his Hogwarts robes from Floo flame, looking around the nearly empty platform of nine and three-quarters. They had just arrived via one of the many Floo networks, put in a row just like they had in the ministry. Father had advised them to catch the Floo earlier than most to avoid the traffic, which is why they arrived almost an hour before the time of departure. Apparently, after the new rules were enacted, they had to have three or four more carriages to accommodate all the students.

"It's not crowded yet, may I go see that portal gate, mum?" Hadrianus turned his pleading eyes to the Slytherin matriarch. According to Godmummy, they had a portal gate they used before father installed the Floo to separate the wiggles from mingling in the muggle world and avoid suspicion and exposure. Though the new muggle-borns, who were not placed in the magical world yet, still had to come through the portal gate.

Nagini sighed, "Fine, you may. But first, put your trunk in a compartment."

"Yes, mummy." Hadrianus tapped a specific button on his trunk with his wand, and two small wheels popped out. Hadrianus pushed his trunk forward, holding Hedwig's empty but big cage in his other hand. He had specifically asked Aunt Veronica to put on wheels beside other charms on his customary trunk, when she asked him for his input for his trunk. Hadrianus stopped before the gate of the train, preparing to push his very heavy trunk.

"Need help, Little Prince?"

Hadrianus looked up at the Lestrange twins, both grinning as brightly as him. "Hey, I was just wondering where you are. Where is she?" Godmummy promised to save him a seat in case he wasn't comfortable on his own. But Hadrianus planned to sit with Neville.

"Oh,she is one of the last ones. we were looking for the prefect compartment since Reylan is one." Reynaldo shrugged, "Now watch this, you go swish like this and then flick, and say 'wingardium leviosa'. It's a floating charm, similar to how you float your lightballs."

"Are you sure about teaching him that now? He will learn it in class in a few days." Reylan wondered.

"Yeah, but he needs it now."

"Like this?" Hadrianus mimicked the wand movement, visualising his trunk to float towards the train, chanting, "Wingardium Leviosa!" He had already read about this one in his textbooks, so it wasn't that difficult. As expected, the trunk obeyed the command of his magic silently, floating upwards and towards the train. 

A gasp caught their attention, and they turned to find a tiny girl with bushy hair and buck teeth looking at them, scandalised. 

"What are you doing?" She demanded, with her arms on her hips, "Students are not allowed to do magic in the station. You'll be expelled." She added with nose in the air, in a domineering attitude which had Hadrianus frown. The twins rolled their eyes and walked off, not at all interested in conversing with rude tiny firsties.

Hadrianus glanced at the girl, noticing the muggle trousers and top, Nike Converse, no wand in sight, pushing a trunk almost larger than her, carrying the name 'Hermione Granger' on top. Clearly, she's a muggle-born with an unfortunately poor attitude and a stickler of rules. Judging by how she talked about being expelled, Hadrianus could bet that she's a tattletale too. He needs to watch out for this one. God bless the poor house she will be in, Hadrianus sincerely hopes he will be saved.

"You forgot to add, 'before crossing the portal'. You're fine after crossing it, they can't see it anymore." Hadrianus replied, before turning and walking away. He didn't like being talked to like that.

Hadrianus pushed his trunk to the nearby empty compartment and levitated it on the bunk, then slid it shut to make it clear to the girl that she was not welcome in his compartment. Hadrianus could hear the girl huff and then walk in the opposite direction.