The Witch's Daughter: Book 1| The Sea of Stone

~Chapter 12| Platform 9 3/4

“Now you dear,” the red haired woman said. Andrea gave her a smile before she too passed through the wall into platform 9¾.  There was a brilliant red—scarlet—steam engine with the words Hogwarts Express scrawled in swirling gold letters on it. She walked over to where Harry was standing, his mouth open wide as he gaped at the astonishing sight in front of them. Andrea would have gawked as well, but she had seen more impressive sights in her lifetime, so this one didn’t faze her as much.

She noticed two of the red haired boys helping Harry get his trunk on the train, once they cleared the doorway, Andrea brought her own trunk and attempted to lift it onboard the train—note: attempted, at that moment, she found it was much easier to drag her trunk then try to lift it two-and-a-half feet off the ground. After trying several times, and dropping it on her foot, she had finally had enough.

“That. Is. It!” she whipped out her wand, and jabbed it at her trunk, “Locomoter Trunk!” The trunk rose in the air silently and glided into the train. Andrea kept it in the air and directed it into the same compartment as Harry.

“You can make your trunk float?” one of the red-haired twins asked in awe as she made it land in the basket above the seats.

“Yup,” she said, popping the ‘p’.

“Brilliant,” said the other twin. “Fred, why didn’t we think of that?”

Fred shrugged, "Oh, hello, Percy!" he called merrily. Percy?

Andrea spun around so fast her neck popped. "Percy!" But it was only another of the red-headed family. He blinked at her through horn rimmed glasses.

"What?" he said irritably.

"You--you're Percy?" He nodded, still looking annoyed.

"Fred, George, just stopping by. The prefects have two carriages up front, you know. Be sure and behave yourselves--" he probably would've went on, but a voice called from outside the train "Boys, are you in there?"

"Coming, mum," they chorused.

When the door closed, Harry turned on her. "What's up with you and this Percy fellow?"

"Nothing. He's just an old friend . . .  Well, I got to go, Harry, met you here later, bye," Andrea said in a hurried voice; walking out, leaving a very confused Harry Potter in the compartment. Blinking back tears, she walked quickly down the aisle, coming to a stop outside a compartment near the end of the train. Draco Malfoy, sitting with two other boys who both were large and extremely heavy-set looked up at her and waved, her spirits lifted immediatley.

Andrea opened the door, “Hi, Draco!” she said, half-way smiling. He greeted her with his usual smirk, his usually cold grey eyes welcoming.

“Hello, Andrea,” he gestured to the boys on either side of him, “This Gregory Goyle and Vincent Crabbe.” Andrea waved at them, they smiled slightly, as if they weren't accustomed to courtesy.

She sat down across from the three boys, and started chatting--her mood lightening as they left the city and passed through the countryside-- the topics varied from what they wanted to do once they left Hogwarts to what their families did—Andrea skirted around this topic—and finally which house they wanted to be in.

“Slytherin is obviously the best, my entire family for generations has all been in Slytherin,” Draco said with obvious pride in his voice.

Vincent spoke up for the first time, “I expect that I’ll be in Slytherin too,” he said.

"I'm not sure where I'll be . . . Ravenclaw sounds okay . . . I guess," she said, thinking about the different houses. Her eyes drifted to the watch on her wrist, she leapt up.

“I had better go, I said I'd meet Harry in his compartment later nearly an hour and a half ago."

"Harry?” Draco asked, “Harry Potter?”

Andrea looked at them, confused, “Yeah, why? Do you know him?”

All three boys gaped at her. Finally, Vincent said in his soft voice, “Everybody knows him! He defeated You-Know-Who when he was just a year old! How can you not know about him?”

Andrea shrugged, “I’ve beenin Greece my entire life, first time I came to England was about two years ago and I spent that time with mortals. I only just met him in Diagon Alley a  few weeks ago.” 

She neared Harry’s compartment just as he leapt out to buy sweets from the trolley that was going up and down the aisle. He bought a little bit of everything in the cart—Andrea only bought a few items with interesting packaging.

As they brought their newly purchased snacks into the compartment, Andrea noticed that one of the boys from the red-headed family was sitting in one of the remaining seats.

“Andrea, this is Ronald Weasley. Ron, this is Andrea,” Harry introduced them. Andrea waved at him.

Harry opened one of his packages, “Ron, you want one?” he held out one of the packages.

“No thanks,” Ron muttered, “My mom packed me sandwiches.” Ron pulled out a package containing four slightly squashed sandwiches, “She always forgets I don’t like corned beef.”

“Ooh, I love corned beef!” Andrea exclaimed, “Here, trade you for one of these”—she looked at the wrapping for the name of the pasty—“Cauldron Cakes.”

Ears pink, Ron handed her his sandwiches and took the Cauldron Cake. Andrea took an experimentory bite, “Mmm, these are amazing. Needs a little more mustard, though. Your mum is a really good cook!" Ron stared at her for a moment, shook his head, then opened the Cauldron Cake and began to eat it in large bites.

“What are these? They’re not really  frogs, are they?” he asked.

“No,” replied Ron. “But see what the card is. I’m missing Agrippa.” At Harry’s raised eyebrow, he explained further, “Chocolate Frogs have cards inside them, you know, to collect—famous witches and wizards. I’ve got about five hundred, but I haven’t got Agrippa or Ptolemy.”

Intrigued, Andrea opened one of the Chocolate Frogs. Her first one was Merlin, she gave that one to Harry, who had already opened six others.

“So who else have you got?” Andrea asked Harry, after she had given him her Chocolate Frog card.

“Mmm, Dumbledore, Morgana, Hengist of Woodcroft, Alberic Grunnion, Paracelsus, Merlin, and Circe—hey!” Andrea had just snatched the card out of Harry’s hand. “What was that for?”

“It looks just like her,” she breathed, staring at the card in her hand.