A First Meeting
He had dreamed of this day for a long time. He stood at the top of a grand stairway overlooking the bustling platform beneath him. He started descending the stairs not perturbed by the scurrying people rushing down besides him to catch their train. To the people around him, the boy looked like your average 11 year old. He was an average height, had black hair and black eyes. He was clad in a sweater and a pair of trousers.
''You know how to get through the barrier, I have to attend some business, so I will see you on your next holiday.'' A tall man said to the child when he had made his way down the stairs. Right beside him stood a trolley with a trunk laying on it.
''Yes father.'' Came the answer shortly from the young boy.
''Now remember to not mingle with mud-bloods, they will only hinder you.'' The man said as he looked around with a sneer on his face.
''Yes yes, you've told me this at least a hundred times by now.''
''Good, now off you go.''
The child sighed as he took hold of the handlebars on the trolley and moved down the platform. It didn't take long to get to the signs platform 9 and platform 10. The only thing separating the two was a brick wall. It looked inconspicuous to the crowd around him, but in actuality it was a gateway into the magical world. As it stood, Timothy Ashwood was a wizard.
Without hesitation he set off in a small run with the trolley, straight towards the brick wall. As expected he didn't crash into it, but came out from the other side in a totally new platform. The sign hanging just above where he stood said 9 3/4. Waiting on the tracks was the Hogwarts Express. It was the train which transported studying witches and wizards to the school called Hogwarts. It was adorned with gold and scarlet colours, with the Hogwarts crest at the front of the train.
As Timothy made his way onto the train he saw the compartments filled up with both new and old students. As neared the end he found and empty compartment. The cozy seating and the large window would make for a comfortable ride. He put his trunk on one of the seats, before attempting to put it in the overhead luggage compartment. Due to the size of trunk and his lack of height it took a bit of struggling be he got it up.
Just as he sat down, the compartment opened and two boys appeared. They both had distinctive red hair and a thrilled expression adorning their faces.
''Hey can we sit here, most of the other compartments are almost fully packed, isn't that right George?''
''Most definitely, lets introduce ourselves first. I'm George and this is my twin Fred. Or was it the other way around.'' Presumably it was George, as he a gave Timothy a playing smirk.
''Nice to meet ya.'' It came from who he guessed to be Fred.
Timothy stared at them confused. It all happened so quick. He was quite sure George had been joking when he had said the last thing, but he honestly couldn't tell them apart, they looked like a carbon copy of each other.
''Nice to meet you both, I'm Timothy Ashwood.'' He answered politely.
''New at Hogwarts?'' One of the twins asked. They had sat down so they were facing him, and in that time he had lost who of them was who.
''Yeah, my family has told me a lot about it, but I'm excited to see it for myself.''
''Two of our brothers are also here, one of them is a third year and the other a sixth year, and our eldest brother have already graduated.'' The other said this time.
''You have 3 brothers?'' Timothy asked curiously, he himself didn't have any brothers or sisters, and had always wanted one.
''No, we have 4 and a sister, just 2 of them aren't old enough to start at Hogwarts yet.'' They said in unison.
As soon as they finished the compartment opened up again, and and elder version of the twins stood their with a disapproving look on his face. He had the same red hair as them, and most of the same features, he was however taller than them which would be expected, but also quite a lot bigger especially in his upper body and arms.
''What have you two done with Scabbers, if you don't tell me Percy is going to march over here and give you one of his long lectures.'' He said with an almost sadistic smile.
''Jeez Charlie, you don't have to threaten us like that.'' Said one of the twins.
''Yeah it was just joke nothing serious. We just hid Scabbers in Percy's trunk, in one of his pants.'' It came from the other.
''So you didn't try and turn him yellow?'' It came from Charlie.
The twins looked at each other barely containing their laughter.
''Nooooo, of course not Charlie, what would make you think, we would do something like that.''
Timothy, now even more confused, looked at the scene unfolding before him. He wanted to interject and ask who Scabbers was but before he could say anything Charlie turned to him.
''Charlie Weasley, I'm these two idiots brother, could you keep them in line when I'm not there?''
''Timothy Ashwood, uhm, I guess I can try.'' He answered uncertainly.
''Thanks, well I have to go now, prefects duties you know.'' He ruffled the twins hair as he left the compartment.
''What was that about?'' Timothy asked the two sheepishly looking boys in front of him.
''That was our brother Charlie as you heard, and Scabbers is our brother Percy's rat. He says he doesn't like him, but whenever we do something to it he gets quite mad.'' Said one of them.
''The only problem with pranking Percy is that we have to hear his endless tirades about how to behave and stuff like that. He is only 2 years older than us, but he acts like he is our parent.'' Said the other.
Timothy looked at them with amusement. They certainly what you would call boring it seemed like. Deciding to shift the conversation Timothy asked them a question.
''Do you have any idea where you will be sorted?''
''Yep, whole family has been Gryffindor for as long as I can remember, maybe except an uncles cousin that was a Hufflepuff, and we wouldn't want to break tradition, would we know, George.'' He looked at his brother with a grin.
''Definitely not Fred, what about you?'' George asked Timothy.
''Well, both my mother and father were Slytherin, but I would rather avoid it if I could. Maybe Gryffindor wouldn't be a bad place to end up. My father would have a fit if it came to that.'' He answered thoughtfully with a bright smile.
''Well it does happen, and you don't seem to be that bad to be placed in Slytherin.'' George said.
The most of the journey was spent chitchatting about all kinds of stuff from, Hogwarts to learning magic, and pranking people.
''Charlie said that new students have to go on boats over the lake, and even said that their is a giant squid living there, wouldn't it be cool if we could see it.'' Said Fred to the other two.
''I'm not sure they are going to just allow you to jump off the boats to see it,'' Timothy said with a grin, ''but yes it would be cool.''
''Who said anything about allowing, and I didn't say now of course, just some other time.'' Fred defended himself. As they went a voice rang out that told them they were approaching Hogwarts and people should be in their robes. So, quickly they all dressed into their robes with Timothy's almost sparkling from its pristine condition, while the twins' were shabby. George saw what Timothy was looking at.
''We don't have that much money, so they had to be bought used.'' He said as with a shrug of his shoulders not caring that much. Timothy just nodded at him not asking further questions. As they went out into the bustling platform the heard a loud and deep voice.
''First years over here, first years over here.'' A giant of a man stood with a gruff beard looking over all of them. As Timothy looked at him it felt that the man was 3 times his height and 4 times his width.
''He's not that scary, it's just Hagrid. He is the gamekeeper here at Hogwarts, Charlie is quite friendly with him.'' Fred said as he looked at Timothy. When they went over to Hagrid, Georg spoke in a loud voice.
''You all right there Hagrid?'' Hagrid looked down to see three first years looking at directly at him. His deep voice spoke with a hearty tone as he saw who spoke to him.
''Ha, another couple of Weasleys, how many are there of you lot. Well, if you are like Charlie I shouldn't see a problem, now who is this who you have brought with you.'' His focused had turned to Timothy.
''Timothy Ashwood nice to meet you Hagrid.'' He stuck his hand out. Hagrid's giant hand completely enveloped his own and shook it. It felt like his whole body was shaking from the greeting.
''Always good to see some first years with some manners, I have heard a bit about you from Charlie.'' He said eyeing the twins as they stood there innocently. ''Well that should be all,'' Hagrid said in a low voice, then it boomed out again, ''All first years follow me, I'll guide you to the boats and then we will sail towards Hogwarts.
They all followed him down a narrow path towards the bank of the water. A dozen or so boats were lined up. ''Everyone get in a boat, 3 or 4 in each and in a few minutes you will get your first glimpse of Hogwarts.''
Timothy, Fred and George took a boat nearest to them, and suddenly they took of without a sound. Around 10 minutes after they had set off they turned around a cliff and there it was. Loud gasps could be heard from all of the boats. Timothy had heard loads about Hogwarts of course, but even he was taken aback about how it looked.
''Some castle.'' It came from George, both Fred and Timothy nodded in silent agreements. Around another 20 minutes of getting closer and closer to the castle, they went under a cliff inside where a small dock was. Getting out of the boats, Hagrid let them through the castle.
As they went Timothy looked around he saw, the moving staircases, the portraits that littered the walls everywhere and much more else. Then they came to a stop at the top of some stairs. A witch stood just before the stairs looking over the new students.
''Thank you Hagrid, I can take it from here.'' She said to the gamekeeper in a high pitched voice.
''Welcome to Hogwarts, I'm Professor McGonagall. The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory and spend free time in your house common room.''
She then spoke about each house, their nobility and the house cup. She ended it off with that she would come and get them in a couple of minutes, so they should tidy up. Not even after 10 seconds after she had left, they were all full of chatter. About how the sorting worked and what house they would be in.
And as she had said, McGonagall returned 2 minutes later. ''The Sorting Ceremony's about to start. Now, form a line,'' Professor McGonagall told the first-years, ''and follow me.''
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Hello readers, as you probably can see this is a new fanfic. I've had this idea for quite sometime, and now I've decided to act on it. I still haven't forgotten my first, but I'm not sure if I'm going to be updating that anytime soon. I like writing, but that fanfic just wasn't what I wanted to write, so I'm trying something different, which is this fanfic.
For any new readers, English is not my first language, so there probably will be some mistakes throughout the story. This is my second time writing a fan-fic, the first one was a MHA fan-fic, try and give it a read, even if its not that long, I quite like it what I got produced.
Well happy holidays to those who have it and a happy new year.
- POC