Chosen & Hated (HP) {Book 2 of the Wild & Free Series}

9. Aboard the Hogwarts Express

Bill and Charlie decided to come and see us off at King's Cross station, the next morning, but Percy, apologising most profusely, said that he really needed to get to work.

"I just can't justify taking more time off at the moment," he told us. "Mr. Crouch is really starting to rely on me."

"Yeah, you know what, Percy?" said George seriously. "I reckon he'll know your name soon."

Mrs. Weasley had braved the telephone in the village post office to order three ordinary Muggle taxis to take us into London.

"Arthur tried to borrow Ministry cars for us," Mrs. Weasley whispered to Harry and me as we stood in the rain-washed yard, watching the taxi drivers heaving eight heavy Hogwarts trunks into their cars.

"But there weren't any to spare... Oh dear, they don't look happy, do they?"

I didn't like to tell Mrs. Weasley that Muggle taxi drivers rarely transported overexcited owls, and Pigwidgeon was making an earsplitting racket. Nor did it help that a number of Filibuster's Fabulous Wet-Start, No-Heat Fireworks went off unexpectedly when Fred's trunk sprang open, causing the driver carrying it to yell with fright and pain as Nymeria clawed her way up the man's leg.

The journey was uncomfortable, owing to the fact that we were jammed in the back of the taxis with our trunks. Nymeria took quite a while to recover from the fireworks, and by the time we entered London, Harry, Ron, Hermione and I were all severely scratched -- Lucy was in the other taxi with Fred, George, Bill and Charlie --.

We were very relieved to get out at King's Cross, even though the rain was coming down harder than ever, and we got soaked carrying our trunks across the busy road and into the station.

I was used to getting onto platform nine and three-quarters by now. It was a simple matter of walking straight through the apparently solid barrier dividing platforms nine and ten. The only tricky part was doing this in an unobtrusive way, so as to avoid attracting Muggle attention. We did it in groups today; Harry, Ron, and Hermione (the most conspicuous, since they were accompanied by Pigwidgeon and Crookshanks) went first; they leaned casually against the barrier, chatting unconcernedly, and slid sideways through it...

Fred, George and I went next, also leaning casually against the barrier and chatting, then sliding sideways through it.

As we did so, platform nine and three-quarters materialised in front of us.

The Hogwarts Express, a gleaming scarlet steam engine, was already there, clouds of steam billowing from it, through which the many Hogwarts students and parents on the platform appeared like dark ghosts.

Pigwidgeon became noisier than ever in response to the hooting of many owls through the mist. Harry, Ron, Lucy, Hermione and I set off to find seats, and were soon stowing our luggage in a compartment halfway along the train. We then hopped back down onto the platform to say goodbye to Mrs. Weasley, Bill, and Charlie.

"I might be seeing you all sooner than you think," said Charlie, grinning, as he hugged Ginny goodbye.

"Why?" said Fred keenly.

"You'll see," said Charlie. "Just don't tell Percy I mentioned it... it's 'classified information, until such time as the Ministry sees fit to release it,' after all."

"Yeah, I sort of wish I were back at Hogwarts this year," said Bill, hands in his pockets, looking almost wistfully at the train.

"Why?" said George impatiently.

"You're going to have an interesting year," said Bill, his eyes twinkling. "I might even get time off to come and watch a bit of it..."

"A bit of what?" said Ron.