Friendship At First Sight (The Philosopher's Stone)

Chapter 8

Lea was pulling the three boys along as she so desperately wanted to break into a run, to see the famous wizard school that was going to be her home. Neville and Dean obliged but Seamus only rolled his eyes with, "Will you slow down? The castle is not going anywhere!"

"Sorry for being too excited to finally learn some magic" The girl said with sarcasm clear in her voice and Seamus narrowed his eyes at her but Star hissed at him as she went to defend her owner. Seamus widened his eyes and held his hands up in surrender, quickly switching places with Neville so he was at the far end.

"Right, then! First years! This way, please!" 

Lea looked up over the sea of heads to see the familiar giant man waving the children towards him, a lantern on his hand, "Come on, now, don't be shy! Come on now, hurry up!" Hagrid yelled as the quartet stood in front of him, the three boys quietly gaped at the man's height.

"Hello Hagrid"

"Hello Lea" Hagrid smiled down at her, "Having a good time?"

"The best" She smiled back at him, "Can't believe I'm here"

"Well you better start believing it" The man said before looking at all of the first years, checking to see if any other first years were coming out of the train. 

After seeing the Prefects leave the train and close the doors, he looked down at all the eleven year olds and said, "Follow me! Don't walk off the path!" Before starting to walk towards a dusty but noticeable path in a forest.

The four of them, along with the rest of their future classmates, had to walk quickly for the man's legs were so big he crossed a meter with just one step. Lea looked around them at the forest, at night they looked a bit...scary, a chill went up her spine as she saw some bloody red eyes looking at them in the distance, but as she looked back the yes were not there, maybe she was imaging them from her nerves. 

"These forest are pretty scary" Lea turned towards Neville, his eyes darting between all of the trees, as if they would suddenly move and grab him, "I heard that they are pretty in the day but in the night, you can see things that you may never forget"

"My mam told me that when she was here at Hogwarts, she would hear howls on the full moon and scratches on the trees, that gave her nightmares for days" Seamus commented as they looked uneasily at the trees before stepping closer to each other. 

About after 10 minutes, they reached a long, deep lake that had some boat near the shores, "No more than four per boat!" Hagrid yelled as others started pilling into boats, the four of them sat down but it didn't have any oars to sail with.

"How are we suppose to-"

Dean was cut off as the boat started moving forwards as if it was sailing by itself, Lea let it go as she was beginning to feel used to the magic but she wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. To distract her from her thoughts and put her nerves on a halt, she looked over the side at the boat and swore she saw gold blonde hair twinkle beneath the moon. She gripped the edge of the boat as she leaned a little further to see it again. 

"What're you looking at?" 

Lea gave a squeak as she nearly tumbled into the water if the boys didn't grab the back of her robes and pulled her back. "Sorry" Neville mumbled, his face as red as a rose, shifting in his seat as he looked down at his shoes for he had been the one to ask the question. 

"It's okay Neville" She smiled up at him as his face, if possible, turned even redder as he shyly smiled back, " I saw a head of blonde hair down there and I was trying to look at it again" 

"Oh those are merpeople" Seamus said, sitting in front of her, "They live in the Black Lake, along with the Giant Squid" 

"Giant Squid?!" The other three kids yelled, causing the boy to jump a foot in the air. But they all said it differently, Neville said it in fear as his face went pale, Dean with confusion as he arched an eyebrow and peeked at the lake and Lea with curiosity as she tilted her head a bit to the side. 

"Lea!"

They all snapped their heads to the owner of the voice, Harry was looking over at her a couple of meters away, he was beside Ron, they were sitting across from Hermione and a girl with blonde hair, who was talking with the bushy haired girl. But she saw Hermione and Ron shoot each other glares. Harry leaned a bit over as he yelled, "Are you okay?" Concern in his eyes for he had seen her almost fall into the water. 

"Yes, Harry, I'm all right!" Lea yelled back as she sent him a wide smile that made the concern inside him lessen but just smiled back at her and sat down before turning towards Ron and resuming to the conversation they were having. 

"Blimey! That's Harry Potter!" Seamus said in a low voice as he looked over at the said boy, "I didn't think I would see him before the sorting"

"Who's Harry Potter?" Dean asked as he looked over at the raven-haired boy with emerald eyes. 

Seamus opened his mouth, in shock, before remembering that he was new to this world, so he started to tell the tale of the night Harry got that scar, Lea frowned a bit before looking at all the boats around them to not hear the story of her, apparently, famous brother, the feeling in her stomach stronger than ever. 

Neville made his face look as if he was curious but he was not, not for wanting to be rude, but he has heard this story thousands of times since he was little. His grandmother would tell the story when he was little and with a proud face for the infant baby who brought down the Dark Lord, the same with the rest of his family, they would talk about him in awed voices that Neville wished they would talk about him the same way. 

But he grew a bit concerned when he saw the small frown on Lea's face as the story was told, how she pretended that she wasn't listening. Neville went to ask her what was wrong but stopped himself, reminding himself that it was suppose to be a night of celebration and decided to ask her tomorrow. He didn't have to be concerned for long as the frown was replaced by a bright smile and wide eyes as she spotted something. 

"Look!" Lea pointed ahead of her as the boys did so too, their jaws dropping in awe, in the distance stood, proud and tall, Hogwarts, it looked very old but also amazing at the same time. It took her breath away, for it looked so full of magic that she wondered how it couldn't be seen by any muggles. When they went to Diagon Alley, she saw this book called 'Hogwarts, a History' and asked Hagrid if she could buy it, for which he said yes. She read that several spells were placed so no muggles can see it in clear sight, they also placed a powerful spell that didn't allow you to apparate from or into Hogwarts.