Harry Potter

School

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CHAPTER SIX
Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft And Wizardry
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Harry had never had friends before, so it was quite strange when she suddenly had three all at once. She had not truly expected to make any, certain that nobody would like her enough to want to be around her all the time. Ron had been strange enough, with his fascination with Harry's history and her status being the clear reason behind his interest in friendship. Draco had been much the same, though Harry's private fantasy concerning him made his interest seem much more like a day dream anyway. And originally, Hermione had not seemed to be an option at all. Thus it was quite surreal to her when the bushy haired witch readily accepted her request to sit together, and then she was introduced to two other people that were open to friendship, one more appealing than the other.

Regardless of her personal feelings, it looked like Hermione, Neville, and Theodore were there to stay when they continued to stick together after the train stopped. Harry could tell they were all supremely excited to finally be at Hogwarts, which reassured her towards the authenticity of the place. Neville and Theo had been raised in the wizarding world, she had discovered earlier, and if they were excited then Harry knew that Hogwarts would probably actually end up being a good place to stay. She had tried not to, but inevitably she had been projecting some fear of the place turning out absolutely horrid, worse even than living with the Dursleys. Hermione's excited bouncing also helped to allay some of that fear.

As Harry and her new crew of friends exited the train, they were bombarded by the masses of students. Having arrived rather late at the train, she had not realized just how many people attended the school for magic. Teenagers and preteens of all sizes were wandering on a platform that extended the length of the train, calling out to each other and elbowing past each other to get to their friends. A large group to one side was laughing while some girl in the middle squealed, and other smaller groups were continuing whatever conversations they'd been carrying while on the train. Farther down, Harry could see a giant of a man that towered over even the tallest student, with a huge, tangled beard and small beetle-like eyes, calling out, "Firs' years! Firs' years over here!"

Neville pulled on Theodore's sleeve—the dark-haired boy having been wandering the opposite direction towards a long line of carriages—and said quietly, "I think we should be going that way."

Theodore's brief expression of outrage wiped away in favor of awe as he caught sight of the giant. "Whoa! That must be the groundskeeper! My dad said he was huge but I didn't expect he would be this big!"

"Are giants real?" Harry asked, not really directing the question to a specific person in her group.

Surprisingly, however, it was Hermione that answered, nodding furiously. "I read all about all of the creatures there are, so that I'd know which ones are real and which ones muggles completely made up, and practically all of them are real!" Harry had to be impressed by the other girl's dedication. "Although I think giants are a bit bigger than him, even if he is quite large."

Of course, keeping in line with what Harry knew of the boy thus far, Theodore went right up to the big man and asked him: "Are you a giant, Sir?"

The man was obviously a little taken aback by the sudden (and rather rude) question, but he responded cheerily nonetheless. "Half-giant," he said proudly. "And who would you be, Mr.?"

"Theodore Nott," the young wizard replied exuberantly. "And this is Neville Longbottom, Hermione Granger, and" —his voice dropped to a whisper here— "Harry Potter." Harry rolled her eyes at the theatrics. She hoped the large man—a half-giant, and how cool was that!—didn't worship her or anything, that would be way more awkward than facing the idol-worship of eleven year olds.