Angela Cross and the End All Spell

Angela Cross and the End-All Spell

--a Harry Potter Universe fanfiction--

Chapter Five

**Goodbyes at the Train Station**

The next two weeks in London were unfortunately very much like Broken Arrow in one respect: Angela's mother always had a habit of being an early riser, a habit she had developed to aid her in hunting for early-morning bargains at garage sales and flea markets. Whenever Sheri woke up, Angela wouldn't be far behind her, though it was far from a voluntary need to help.

"Ang, are you up?" she would ask continually, standing over her bed and questioning her until Angela was awake, bleary-eyed and desperately wanting to stick her head back under the covers and pillows. Amusingly to Angela (and annoyingly to her mother, who preferred to have first crack at everything), whenever they'd get dressed and head downstairs for breakfast there would always still be people occupying various parts of the pub to varying degrees, and the old, bald barkeep would still be there as well.

Despite her mother's prodding, however, Angela still enjoyed herself quite thoroughly. There were so many shops to still visit, so many books to read, and so many things to experience. She was also beginning to feel much more comfortable walking around all the wizards and witches in the Leaky Cauldron, though she still kept quiet and to herself just to be on the safe side.

After eating they'd always start the day trolling the length of Diagon Alley, which Angela found seemed to go on forever if you really tried to cover the entire length of it. Sheri had found a couple of magical junk stores that she couldn't get enough of, and strangely enough the junk store owner had found Sheri equally fascinating since she could identify any Muggle junk he happened to find in his storage. Angela, meanwhile, found a variety of bookstores and toy stores that left her jaw wide with awe despite their relatively small sizes, as well as a great second-hand robe store not too far from Gringotts where she once spent a whole day in experimenting with their wares. One of her favorite hangouts, much like many of the kids her age that were in Diagon Alley, was Quality Quidditch Supplies, which carried a wide variety of brooms and other fancy flying gear (pillows, broom maintenance kits, guides to cherrying out your own broom, handle stickers, etc.). It just helped to drive Angela's enthusiasm as she saw books on aerial tricks and the amazingly wide assortment of broomsticks that were available. The store owner, recognizing her as Muggle-born from the same fascination he claimed all Muggles seemed to have when it came to broomstick flying, was even kind enough to steer her towards a yellow and black book labeled Quidditch for Dummies, which strangely enough was published by the same company that published all the other Dummies books.

In the afternoons the two found that the magical ice cream shop, Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor, was the ideal place to go, especially for ice cream that changed color with every lick. After a while even Sheri was able to put aside her business inklings and join Angela for a gander or two in places like the magical instruments store, where they saw small scale models of the solar system spinning around as though they were real (unfortunately, also priced much too high for Angela to risk blowing a good portion of her stipend on). On the day Angela purchased her school robes, she and her mother had even picked up some outlandish robes for each other and despite their wild look completely blended in with the other magic users that cruised the cobblestone streets.

Angela had also learned how easy owl maintenance could be: aside from cleaning the cage on occasion, Percy actually took good care of himself. Overcoming the initial fear of losing him, she soon learned he would always come back to his cage if she let him fly out of the window on his own, and in fact rejoiced about it after a few nights of him hooting incessantly when he was locked in his cage. He'd always come back in the morning, apparently well fed (as she could tell by the occasional mouse-skull she'd find when cleaning his cage) and quite sleepy, which suited Angela and her mother just fine as long as it kept him from being a non-stop noise machine in the nights.

She was also happy to see she was not the only person new to the wizarding world to walk the streets of Diagon Alley: judging from the awed face of the occasional family wearing regular-world clothes, she could tell Muggle-born witches and wizards were still picking up their remaining supplies for school. Often a wizard or witch was with them, explaining things as they went like Mr. Weasley and Professor Quirrell had done with her.

To her surprise, Angela and her mother didn't tour regular-world London as much as they had anticipated they would. They did venture out on a couple of occasions, but at first found they had no regular British currency and had to actually convert some of their dollars from Sheri's credit card at the local exchange. True, London was a fantastic place to travel through, and it was certainly a lot more open than wandering the cramped and often crowded streets of Diagon Alley, but the Muggle-world just seemed to pale in comparison to the magical one now, and they kept finding themselves drawn back to the Leaky Cauldron (which Angela would always have to help her mother into since she couldn't see the entrance).

There was one occasion where the two of them wished they were back in the regular-world though, when they had strayed down an extension of the alley that was known to the locals as Knockturn Alley. The moment they set foot on the street it was like a completely different feel: the sun stopped shining as brightly and the sky became gray and even dark, as did the people who all seemed like they hadn't been under the sun in ages. The buildings had became shadowy and full of cobwebs, and everyone they walked by gave them a dirty eye or, more disturbingly, a friendly eye with an evil glint hiding behind it. Even in their new wizard robes they felt out of place, as the robes they had chosen for themselves were brightly colored and patterned whereas everything else in Knockturn Alley were shades of gray or brown. The two were about to turn about and leave when a man twice as large as any they had seen, with a thick frazzled beard, a heavy coat that looked like it belonged on a massive beaver-trapper, and fists the size of watermelons, had rounded the corner and was walking their way. Not wanting to cross paths with him, Angela and Sheri had accidentally ended up going deeper into the alley, having to duck into a dilapidated store that apparently specialized in selling shrunken heads until he had gone past them. After they were sure the coast was clear they made a break back to Diagon Alley, the only temporary distraction being an old hag of a woman who tried to sell them a jar full of toenails. After that incident, the two avoided the entrance to Knockturn Alley like the plague, always crossing to the opposite side of the street when they approached anywhere near it.

For two weeks, the time just shot by at an unfathomable rate. It wasn't until Professor Quirrell had sent an owl their way with a letter that she realized just how long she had been there; the term would be starting in two days and that she needed to make sure everything was in order.

And for those two days it was a massive rush to make sure what she had and what she needed. Being asked by her mother every couple of hours if she'd forgotten anything wasn't helping Angela's nerves, which she suddenly found were on end with the unexpected approach of school time.

Another factor that was causing her intense stress was that she had absolutely no idea how she was supposed to get to Hogwarts. She remembered vaguely someone mentioning the Hogwarts Express, but didn't know what that meant, and was finding herself too embarrassed to ask a random person in Diagon Alley just what it was and where she could find it. Irritatingly enough, Professor Quirrell's letter didn't give her any specifics and didn't even mention when he'd come to take her, which only added to the mess. And she quickly discovered that she didn't know exactly how to send Percy out to deliver letters to people, meaning she had no way to get more information out of him.

It came down to the very morning end of the departure day, at a point when Angela was practically manic from her situation; she hadn't been able to sleep a wink from both anxiety about school and absolute terror that she didn't know how she was going to get there. She had her trunk packed at tightly as she could get it full of books, clothes, and other amenities, Percy was in his cage, her wand was placed neatly on the trunk in its carrying case, her cauldron was by the trunk with a candied apple she had picked up for the trip, and she even had her black school robes on her shoulders in case she needed to be wearing it on the journey out. But without any word from Quirrell it was beginning to look like she was going to miss her first days at school because she didn't know what to do. Had she known earlier no one was coming she might have been able to make it to the Ministry of Magic and find someone to help her out, but she didn't want to risk being away in case someone did come by, and frankly she wasn't sure she remembered just what the code dialed on the telephone to get into the Ministry was anyway. She was so frazzled that whenever her mother even opened her mouth to say anything Angela practically bit her head off in anger; the angry silence that followed between them only made the situation worse, and Angela felt like she was going to be on the verge of tears in a moment, when a sudden arrival at 10 o'clock took that immeasurable weight off her shoulders.

"Knock knock!"

"Mr. Weasley!" Angela exclaimed as she opened the door to the familiar voice.

"All packed?"

Angela bent over and took in a series of deep breaths. She was going to make it after all. After collecting herself, Angela looked up at Mr. Weasley with a smile. Mr. Weasley it seemed was a little winded himself.

"Yup," she said.

"Sorry about the last-minute mess, Professor Quirrell had some urgent business out of town and wasn't able to come. We just got his owl twenty minutes ago, so I ran over as fast as I could."

Angela couldn't care less about Professor Quirrell's whereabouts now that Mr. Weasley was there. Rushing slightly, Mr. Weasley levitated her belongings down to the front door, though from there they had to physically carry them out to his little blue car, which was currently visible and parked on the curb, to avoid attracting attention.

"What about my mom's stuff?" Angela asked as everything was placed neatly into the trunk.

"No time at the moment, I'm afraid, your train leaves in less than an hour and we've still got a few blocks to go. We'll come back for her belongings later. Now, in we go!" he said cheerfully.

Sheri and Angela hopped into the back seat, Percy's cage placed on the floor between her legs, and as soon as they shut the doors Mr. Weasley hit the gas and off they went.

Now, while Mr. Weasley may have been a skilled auto-pilot before, his driving skills on the ground were nothing short of heart-stoppingly terrifying. He ignored traffic lights, swerved between cars, and even jumped the curb a couple of times, forcing people and (oddly enough) anything else, inanimate or otherwise, to leap out of his way. Despite the fact that Angela and Sheri were screaming for their lives in the back (and even Percy was flapping in a total panic), Mr. Weasley looked totally calm and collected, as though he were on a pleasant Sunday jaunt out in the country. Car horns blared constantly around them, and Mr. Weasley had even managed to force another car coming from the opposite direction off the road and into a lamppost; Angela caught a glimpse of the fat, mustached driver swerving desperately to get out of the way, his face completely red in shock, his pencil-thin wife and what looked like a spectacularly fat pig in the backseat waving their arms about crazily as they went. Yet surprisingly enough not a single police officer ever showed up to stop them, and despite an awful lot of traffic they actually succeeded in making it to the train station with forty-five minutes to spare. This was perfect for Angela and Sheri, because they needed fifteen to fall out the doors and get back on their legs. Even Mr. Weasley wobbled a bit as he got out, though he looked as though he just ridden an amusement park ride and couldn't wait for another go at it.

The sign above the train station read Kings Cross Station, with scores of people pouring in and out and the sound of clattering trains on tracks coming from behind the building, the strong scent of fuel hanging in the air. For a moment Mr. Weasley looked around at the crowd, and Angela could see the glee in his eyes - all these Muggles on their ways to who-knew-where was a thrill for him; she wondered for a moment if there was a National Geographic magazine for wizards that had articles on the 'eccentric ways of the native British Muggle' or some similar topic circulating out there. He pulled himself out of his awe though and grabbed a cart, heaving Angela's belongings up into it, and into the station the trio hurried along.

As they headed in, Mr. Weasley reached into his jacket, his bomber coat replaced now by a dated Member's Only windbreaker that was a size too small for him, and pulled out a ticket. He handed it to Angela as they went, and she opened it up.

"Platform Nine-and-Three-Quarters?" she asked aloud. It was an odd number to use for a train platform, but it was probably just a British thing she figured.

"Yes," he puffed out as they went, "that's where the Hogwarts Express is waiting for everyone. I actually just came from here, I was dropping my own family off when the owl found me. I'll bet they're already on the train." Mr. Weasley sounded rather disappointed, apparently he had wanted to say goodbye to his children before the train left, and Angela felt a pang of guilt that she probably caused him to miss them.

"Ah!" Mr. Weasley started, just as they turned the corner for platforms nine and ten, "Molly??"

A small group of people were standing right at the entrance to the nine and ten platform, and judging from the flaming red hair and freckles on the two children Angela quickly assumed this must have been Mr. Weasley's family.

"Molly, what are you still doing here, I dropped you all off half an hour ago!" he said as he pushed Angela's cart towards them.

"Oh, it's Percy," said the plump woman with light-brown hair, slightly impatient, "he left his prefect's badge somewhere in the house and had to Apparate back there to look for it. So, we're waiting for him to get back," she added with a shrug. "Meanwhile, Fred and George ran off while my back was turned, no idea if they'll make it in time now. Honestly, those boys will be the end of me unless you do something to set them on the straight and narrow like Percy."

Mr. Weasley gave her a weak smile back, obviously embarrassed somewhat, especially that he was being reprimanded by his wife in public like this. "Ah, very good. Well, I'm certainly happy about it at any rate, gives me a chance to see all of you off!" Mr. Weasley seemed very happy indeed about it, and the smiling faces of the little girl and the boy that seemed to be Angela's age showed they were in complete agreement.

"Wouldn't have forgiven myself if I'd missed Ron's first trip to Hogwarts. Ah, which reminds me: Molly, this is Angela Cross and her mother Sheri." He gestured to the twosome, who waved back at the group. "And this is my lovely wife Molly and my two youngest, Ron and Ginny."

"Ah, so this is the one you had all that business with the other week," Mrs. Weasley said. "Well, it's nice to meet you, dear, you have a fun trip and good luck with your first term at school."

It was almost funny to see Mrs. Weasley switch from being demanding to her husband to being sweet and pleasant with Angela. She smiled at Mrs. Weasley, and then looked at the two children beside her. The little girl was holding onto her mother's hand and looked at Angela in curiosity, while the boy was barely paying attention to anyone, looking bored and impatient at the same time as his head arced about looking at the people and trains around him.

"Alright, I'll be at the platform when the rest show up, see you all inside." Mr. Weasley gave his wife a peck on the cheek and ruffled his son's hair playfully before returning his attention to Angela.

Meanwhile, Angela was looking back and forth between tracks nine and ten, wondering where nine-and-three-quarters was. When she looked back at Mr. Weasley though, the pleasant look on his face told her it was going to involve more magic, so she quickly paid full attention to him.

"Now," he told her, leading her cart farther down the platform between nine and ten, until they reached a large brick divider near the middle of the platform, "It's very simple. You just take your cart and head straight into the barrier."

"Huh?"

"And try not to worry about hitting it or hurting yourself, otherwise you probably will. Best to give it a little speed if you're nervous."

"Uh, I don't suppose you could show me first?" Angela asked, not understanding what he had said at all.

"Of course," he said with a smile. He walked right in front of the barrier, and then looking back once to make sure she was watching, he walked briskly straight into the stone column.

But instead of slamming into it or bouncing off, he simply vanished.

"Now you try," came a weak, muffled sound from inside the bricks.

Angela and Sheri looked at each other, a bit worried, but Angela had seen him vanish with her own eyes and knew she could do this. Well, she hoped she could at any rate...

Lining the cart up with the barrier, Angela wrapped her fingers around the handle bar and, taking in a deep breath, pushed right at the barrier. She moved closer and closer, picking up speed as she went, and with a gulp hoped she was doing this right.

And with a whoosh she went right through the bricks and found herself on the other side of the barrier. However, there were no ordinary people about any more, just loads of people in robes and pointy hats, and the black passenger liner she had seen once before on her left was now replaced with a crimson red vintage steam-engine.

Pushing her feet down as hard as she could and pulling back, Angela suddenly saw Mr. Weasley standing before her, a little surprised at her velocity. He promptly grabbed the front and together they brought her speeding cart to a complete stop just underneath a sign that was positioned in front of and above the barrier, reading Hogwarts Express, eleven o'clock.

"That was great!" Angela exclaimed, and looked back quickly to see if her mother had followed her. The barrier was no longer there, but instead replaced with a wrought-iron archway that read Platform Nine and Three-Quarters upon it.

A moment passed, and Angela waited for her mother to suddenly appear through, but instead what she heard after a strange amount of time was a muffled and very unhappy Ow!

"Oops, one moment," Mr. Weasley said, quickly running through the archway and vanishing. A minute later after some muffled talking Angela could barely make out through the archway, another Ow!, and a little more talking, he walked back through with his hands on Sheri's shoulders. Angela's mother had her eyes shut as tight as could be, and she seemed to be holding her breath, walking stiffly like a mummy though with a good deal of speed. Angela saw a dual bruise and scrape on her forehead, and Mr. Weasley looked totally embarrassed as he walked her.

"I am so sorry," he apologized. "It's going to take me forever to remember Muggles just aren't used to the way the wizarding world works. I am very, very sorry." He quickly explained to Angela that Sheri had tried to walk through the barrier but was so sure she was going to hit it that she did, twice. On the third try he had convinced her after her eyes were closed that she was farther away from the barrier than she was and walked her through that way.

Rubbing her forehead tenderly after she had finally opened her eyes, Sheri took her own quick look around before helping Angela place all her belongings in the luggage compartment of the train. Like Diagon Alley and the Ministry, the train station was magical in its own right. Dozens of children her age and older were moving about with their parents, putting their own trunks and school supplies onboard, stowing owls that filled the area with the resonating sound of annoyed hooting, and there was talk coming from every direction. Angela noted a good deal of them involved goodbyes and assurances that they were going to do well in school (along with the occasional You're GOING to do well in school threats from parents).

"Well, I guess it's time to go," Angela said, picking up her little travel backpack and turning to Sheri.

"Oooh!" Sheri had all of a sudden become quite emotional and out of nowhere bent down and hugged Angela tightly. "You do good," she said, and Angela immediately felt bad that she'd even gotten mad at her earlier in the day about this. She hugged her mother back with a smile and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

"I will," Angela said, still hugging her, and she found that neither wanted to let go at this point. Angela was quite used to being on her own for periods of time and taking care of herself, but she was about to leave her mother's presence completely and go live with a bunch of strangers for what Professor Quirrell had told her before was going to be seven years. Like in the Ministry when Mr. Weasley had taken her up to meet with the delegates, she suddenly found herself afraid and didn't want to be separated from her.

However, the bellow of the train whistle and the shouts of the conductor brought her back. "The Hogwarts Express will be leaving in twenty minutes, please make sure you have all your trunks and owls stored in the proper compartments!" he yelled as he made his way down the platform. Slowly, Angela and her mother let go, though Sheri took longer. When Angela had finally pulled back, she saw her mother had tears in her eyes.

"Well, g'bye, Ang," she said, wiping her eyes a little and trying to look collected, "have fun in magic school." Angela wiped her own eyes a little bit and smiled.

"I will."

"Good luck to you, Angela," said Mr. Weasley, taking her hands. "You're going to love Hogwarts. I certainly did when I attended."

Angela smiled at him and gave him a quick hug, before stepping up onto the stairs leading into the passenger compartment. She turned around one more time and waved to them both.

"Make sure to send me lots of owl-grams!" Sheri shouted loudly, though she was close enough that didn't necessarily have to.

"I will, mom!" Angela shouted back. "Take care while I'm gone! I'll see you at Christmas!"

And with one final wave of goodbyes, Angela stepped back into the car.

Kids of all ages abounded, some as young as herself and some probably as old as seventeen, moving about the cars. Many had robes, some had pointy hats... There was more than one instance of kids greeting each other like old friends, as well more than a few children who, like her, had been ignorant of the world of magic until not long before.

She was in a school-train full of other kids, her peers.

Now, Angela had dealt with going to new schools before: her mother had moved her around so much that despite the fact it was for magic-school this time it was still a situation she was well-acquainted with. Despite that fact, she still felt somewhat out of place amongst all these magical types. For a moment she wondered just what they were like, how many of them she would meet and get to know during the upcoming years. Then, without her even realizing it, an old reflexive habit began to kick in - a defensive reaction developed from years and years of meeting new people, only to move almost as soon as friendships began and be alone once more - and Angela suddenly began to feel very anti-social.

Avoiding eye contact with those around her, she made her way down the passageway. Where was she going to sit?? Kids kept filing in and out of the various compartments on the car, and Angela quickly looked at her ticket. It just said she was allowed to be on the train and to be at Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, but it didn't give any info on what to do from there. Quickly, she, looked desperately in every windowed door for an empty compartment. Every single room had someone in it though, and Angela was getting more and more worried until lo and behold she found one room at the very end of the car that was free of other students. Angela wasted no time in sliding in, shutting the door behind her quickly, and taking a seat.

The room was a nice size, cushiony red fabric covering the long seats and a huge window to look out of for the trip, and the compartment looked spacious enough to accommodate three others or even more within, which Angela hoped wouldn't be the case, wanting to be by herself.

So many other children!

Angela slumped her head, a little depressed. She didn't want to, but it looked as though she was going to end up falling into her old habit of being an outcast at school all over again. She was starting it all off right, first year just like so many others, from a non-magical home - again like so many others - right at the beginning of the term like everyone else. But like before, she was going to end up screwing everything up by making herself an outsider without even being able to help it.

The problem stemmed from the fact that she moved about so much, and she knew it, though often noticing it only after the fact: any time she had started to make new friends or feel a connection with a place, her mother would come around shortly after and uproot her, jaunting off to destinations unknown, and Angela would lose connection with whoever she might have met forever. And it would happen again. And again. And again. Until through almost Pavlovian training, Angela eventually found herself avoiding people - why make friends when she would inevitably lose them?

Finding her heart growing heavier as she thought about it, Angela quickly looked to her side and saw out the window. There were still so many people coming in, throngs of students placing their belongings on the train. Then she saw her mother, who was looking even more like an outsider than she herself felt, standing a few feet behind Mr. Weasley who was tightly hugging a pair of tall thirteen-year-olds sporting his offsprings' trademark red hair and freckles and looking particularly embarrassed to be getting so much public affection from their father. Standing by him was his son Ron, who was also loading a trunk, as well as an older boy, about fifteen with the same features as all the other brothers, though he was sporting glasses and a shiny gold badge on his robes and looked utterly impatient with the entire spectacle.

Sheri was still rubbing her forehead and looking very much out of place in the scene when she looked in Angela's general direction. Not wanting to miss her, Angela banged on the window a few times and immediately caught her mother's attention. Seeing her face immediately light up with a smile made Angela feel much better, and the two waved at each other. Sheri made a couple of hand-gestures and a hugging motion at the Weasleys, which told Angela that apparently they had been doing nothing but hugging each other goodbye since she stepped on the train, and Angela let out a silent laugh to let her mother know she agreed that it was a pretty funny scene.

Angela looked around and tried to figure out how to drop the window down so they could talk some before the train headed out, but just as she figured it out and opened it up the train whistle blew and the conductor shouted yet again.

"All aboard!!" he hollered at the top of his lungs. "Hogwarts Express is now leaving on track nine and three-quarters!"

There was a last-second rush to get the last bits of luggage on the train, as well as a flurry of people waving at the various windows and mothers giving their girls and boys goodbye hugs and kisses before shooing them into the passenger cars. Sheri continued to wave at Angela, though Angela couldn't help but chuckle and feel a bit embarrassed that her mother was doing it with such a wide, outstretched arc of a wave, her fingers all spread out as though she were trying to catch a baseball or something. Angela waved back at her for a couple of minutes before the whistle tooted loudly again, and then there was a slight shudder. With the heavy sound of chug-chug-chugging and the subdued grind of the metal wheels against the track, the platform and station began to slide away from her, large puffs of steam wafting from the engine and spilling throughout the air around them, and as the Hogwarts Express began to make its way down the tracks Angela kept waving at her mom, as wide-handed and wide-arced as Sheri was. She kept at it until her mother slowly vanished from sight, along with the rest of Kings Cross Station and the regular world she had once been a part of.

And with that, Angela was finally alone and on her way to magic school.

"Erm..."

Angela looked up at the door, a little surprised at the sound. She had been so lost just staring out the window at the zipping countryside for the current leg of the journey that she had completely forgotten anyone else was even on the train.

A young, round-faced boy with a shoebox in his hands was standing in the doorway, looking extremely nervous and apparently feeling spectacularly shy by the looks of things. "I, uh... Is anyone else using that seat?" he asked quietly, his head down slightly while pointing at the row opposite Angela.

Angela looked at the seat for a moment. She was enjoying having the compartment all to herself and wasn't sure she wanted that interrupted.

A moment without a response passed from her passed. "B-because I'll understand if it is," he said, even quieter with a little sadness in his voice, "it's just that there aren't any other places to sit that I can find. But... I'll just go try and find somewhere else."

The boy began to turn and look down the hall for somewhere else to sit, and he even seemed to be eyeing the hallway to see if it was wide enough for him to sit in for the trip to Hogwarts, but Angela knew it wouldn't be right to send him away.

"No," she said promptly, "it's okay, you can sit here." She would just avoid making any eye-contact with that side of the compartment for the rest of the trip, there was plenty of scenery to see outside and she had her sketchbooks if she got bored.

The boy gave a grateful, albeit nervous smile and came in, pulling a small trunk alongside him. He sat on the seat exactly opposite of Angela and continued to look down, though occasionally his eyes would dart up at her to see if she were going to acknowledge him. Angela didn't know exactly what to say, though... Just what did magic kids talk about?

The silence getting to her, Angela reached into her bag and pulled out her Walkman, popping a tape into the deck. The little boy, who had otherwise been remaining completely quiet for the last ten minutes, suddenly looked up at the tape with his face scrunched a little in confusion.

"Nin?" he asked, sheepishly.

"Huh?" Angela was confused what he meant at first, then saw he was referring to the case the tape had come out of, which was sitting right next to her with thick white letters on a solid black background. "Oh, yeah, Nine Inch Nails. They're great."

"Um, what is that?" he asked, obviously nervous at the prospect of starting a conversation.

Angela quickly felt a little apprehension ebb away from her; if there was one thing she could discuss, it was music.

"Oh, they're an industrial band from the U.S. I love their Pretty Hate Machine album, I could listen to any of the songs on it-"

"Er, sorry," the boy interrupted, "I, um, meant what is that thing you're wearing on your head?"

Angela blinked at him, not sure what he was referring to. "You mean my headset?"

"Yes, those, um, earmuffs with the string attached, and the box you're holding, what is all that?"

Angela looked in her hands at the tape deck, and couldn't help but giggle a little. "You've never seen a Walkman?" she asked him. The boy shook his head.

"Well," she said, feeling a little funny explaining this to anyone, "it's a, um, 'Muggle' machine that lets you hear music."

The little boy's eyes lit up. "Really?"

"Sure," Angela said, feeling less and less anti-social. She had felt like such a total outsider a moment ago for not knowing anything about the wizarding world, it had never even occurred to her that coming from a non-magical background had its wonders to the right kind of person as well. "You can either use the radio," she said, pointing at the tuner portion, "or you can put in your own cassettes and listen to whatever you like," she said, popping the tape out and back into the deck.

"Wow, that's amazing," the little boy said enthusiastically, also losing his resistance to speaking. "I didn't know Muggles made things like that."

"Let's see. I have, um, Nine Inch Nails, the Cure, Blondie..." Angela rummaged through her bags to see what tapes she had, as well as to see if she had any other pieces of the Muggle world she could show this young boy. Unfortunately, aside from the tape deck she didn't have anything with her except her sketch books, some reading materials, and a change of shirts.

"I'm Neville," the boy quickly squeaked out, "Longbottom. Neville Longbottom." His cheeks turned slightly red as he introduced himself.

"I'm Angela Cross," she said, introducing herself to him. "Nice to meet you." Angela smiled a little bit. This wasn't as bad as she had expected, already she had met someone friendly who also thought her Muggle-ness was interesting. She was beginning to feel more comfortable on the train already.

"Can I try it?" Neville asked, looking at her tape deck.

"Oh, sure," Angela said, removing the earphones and handing it to him, "you just put the earphones on your head like I had." Neville did as she said, smiling as though this whole process was a little thrilling. "Now, push that big button on the side."

And then the chaos ensued.

The last time she had listened to the tape she had neglected to rewind it properly. She had also completely forgotten to make sure the volume was down first before giving him the deck. What followed was a loud, terrified wail from Neville as Trent Reznor started Head Like a Hole halfway through at close to maximum volume; even with the earphones the music was loud. Neville leapt up, trying to yank the phones off his head, accidentally throwing the tape deck through the air, causing it to land onto its side on the compartment floor and cracking the plastic casing open. Worse yet, the shoebox on Neville's lap went flying as well and hit the ground, popping open and sending its contents bounding out onto Angela's lap in a panic.

Looking down she saw a fat amphibian, its skin glistening deep, wet green, its bulbous eyes staring right at her.

There was a single croooooak, and Angela proceeded to freak out: a loud scream, a flailing of limbs, and the toad found itself hurtling through the room. It landed on the ground with a thud, shook its head in a quick daze, and became a flash of green hopping around madly from the surprise before it bounded out the open compartment door and down the hall.

Despite the tears in his eyes from the shock, Neville immediately noticed the toad streak out of sight and opened his eyes wide.

"Trevor!" he shouted. Before Angela could even apologize for what happened or offer to help him catch his toad, Neville bolted out the door and into the hallway, running down its length and shouting Trevor! the entire way.

There was dead silence again in the compartment, though this was not the kind of silence she wanted. In one fell swoop she had totally freaked out the first magic-school student she had met and lost what must've been his pet toad. If she was in a any mood of sorts before, she was absolutely miserable now.

Her Walkman was still in one piece, but when Angela tried to turn it on to see if it still worked all she could hear was a strained whirring noise and a series of unpleasant clicks, as though the tape wheels didn't want to turn any more. When she shook it gently she could hear something rattling inside. What should have been the best day of her life was sliding downhill rather quickly.

She definitely didn't feel like drawing or reading, and she had nothing else she was going to be able to do for the rest of the trip, so Angela gathered up Neville's box and placed it as neatly as she could where he had been sitting, then pulled her legs up to her chest as she sat on her seat and looked out the window, trying as hard as she could to put the whole embarrassing scene out of her head.

There was nothing but the sound of the train clattering down the tracks for about half-an-hour, and Angela peeked towards the opposite seat on occasion to see if Neville had come back while she wasn't looking, but he apparently was still hunting for Trevor - she hoped he would come back soon so she could apologize to him for causing such a disaster. All she could feel now was a dull pain in her stomach from what had happened. This unfortunately also reminded her she hadn't eaten all day and was now starving. She checked on the candied apple she had brought, only to discover the apple under the caramel was rotten, so she had to throw that away. While she sat, she heard a loud clattering reaching her door, and when she looked up a smiling, dimpled woman was passing by with what appeared to be a food tray. Angela looked at the tray longingly and was about to ask what there was to eat, but the woman gave her an apologetic smile. "Sorry, luv," she said, "all empty. Some young spender a few rooms down bought out my entire inventory."

Angela just returned her gaze out the window, completely miserable and starving. She hadn't even thought of bringing some food in her bag, a mistake she had been regretting for most of the trip. She thought about pulling her wand out and playing with it, making trailing lights like she had at Ollivanders, but had to dismiss the idea; Professor Quirrell had told her underage kids weren't supposed to use magic away from school grounds, and she wasn't sure just how extensive the rule was or if she was close enough to the school to even try. So sadly she left her wand case in her bag and just watched the trees and grass zip by outside. Down the hall she heard kids running and yelling and what sounded like a lot of hollering and thudding as well, and considered closing the door. But that would involve getting up, and Angela just didn't feel like moving at the moment.

"Aw, now isn't that the saddest sight you ever saw?"

Surprised, Angela turned and looked at the doorway. A thin, blonde boy with a pointed face was standing there, looking at her with a sneer, though his face was a little red as though he was slightly out of breath. At his side were a pair of large, heavy-set boys that looked about as dumb as posts but sharing the same sneering gaze, also a little winded. One of them was sucking his finger, which appeared to be bleeding.

"Huh?" Angela wasn't sure she'd heard him right.

The boy didn't bother answering but instead stepped into the compartment followed by his two flunkies, regaining his composure and strutting about like he owned the place. He then proceeded to inspect the empty shoebox, then moved onto the trunk Neville had left on the floor.

"Longbottom?" the boy read off the trunk's nametag, "I thought you were supposed to be a boy." His voice was full of contempt.

"It's not mine," Angela said, suddenly finding herself feeling irritated.

"Hm," the boy muttered, before returning his attention to the trunk, which he began to fiddle with in an attempt to open it.

"Hey!" Angela said, quickly sitting upright.

"It's not yours, what do you care?" the boy said without looking at her, trying to figure out how to open the lock.

Before Angela could voice any more protest, one of the big boys picked her broken Walkman off the seat at her side and looked at it curiously.

"What's this thing?" he said, drawing the attention of both the others.

"Give that back!" Angela said, getting up sharply.

The boys ignored her, pulling and tugging on the headphones and the fiddling with the switches on the Walkman. When they pulled enough on the cord the plug popped out of the jack.

"Hah, looks like you broke it, Crabbe," said the other big boy with a chuckle. Angela knew the jack could easily be stuck right back in, but she knew if they kept at it they would really break something on it.

"It looks like some kind of... Muggle thing," the pale boy said. He turned to Angela and shot her a crooked look of disgust as though he was staring at some sort of mangy rat. "Is that what it is?"

"It's mine, give it back," Angela said angrily. She was already upset enough, and these boys were only helping to push her buttons.

"What were you crying about?" the boy said, taunting her and enjoying it, "Do you miss your Muggle-mommy and Muggle-daddy?"

Angela stopped trying to convince them to return her Walkman and shot them an evil eye, but they were just enjoying their bullying too much to care. The one called Crabbe held the tape deck up above his head, waving it in the air like he was going to toss it out the open window if she gave him enough reason.

Angela was contemplating where would be the best place to kick him with her boot when, suddenly, Crabbe stopped laughing as the Walkman was yanked out of his hand from behind. The others noticed and turned around, where a young pale-blonde girl was standing with the tape deck in her hands, throwing them all an ugly look.

"Didn't I just see you three running out of Harry Potter's room crying like babies?" the girl said in disgust. The boys stopped their sneering and glowered at the girl.

"Go away, Milliman," said the pale boy, "we're just having a bit of fun with our new friend is all. Isn't that right?" He turned to Angela and gave her a devious smirk, which Angela returned with an angry glare.

"You're not my friend."

"Oh, now you're hurting my feelings," he laughed back. "And here I thought you were going to share some more of your stupid Muggle toys with us." The two big boys laughed along with him, and Angela's anger and misery at both her situations was become overwhelming. She didn't know these people, why were they being so rotten to her?? Why were they so determined to make her life so hellish before she even set foot in the school?

"Don't you have better things to do than pick on new students, Draco?" The girl apparently wasn't intimidated by any of the boys there and walked right through them, standing face to face with the pale boy and giving him a nasty stare. Despite the obvious differences in size, the boys actually kept a little distance from her.

There was a moment of silence as the girl just continued to let her stare bore into the pale boy, until he finally blanched and turned away. "Fine," he grumbled, "you can hang out with your Muggle-loving pal here, we've got better things to do anyway. Crabbe, Goyle, let's go," he said with a jerk of his thumb.

The threesome stepped out of the compartment, but not before they all shot a derisive sneer at Angela. Angela just glared back, her teeth clenched and fists balled up, doing her best to hold back the flood of emotion that was boiling over inside of her; the fading laughter from them as they continued their way down the hall showed they saw how frustrated she was.

"I'm sorry about that," the girl said, surprising Angela as she'd forgotten she was even there. The girl's face was now a big apologetic smile, a stark change from the look she was shooting the one she called Draco. "He can be such a jerk sometimes," she continued, hading Angela the tape deck and head phones. "Well... He's always a big jerk. But anyway..."

Angela didn't say anything. This was turning out to be one of the most frustrating days she'd had in a long time, and after everything she had recently been through she just didn't feel like speaking up.

"I'm sorry they broke it," the girl apologized.

"It's ok," Angela said without realizing it. She wished she had just stayed quiet, but the affirmation was enough to bring a smile back on the girl's face.

"Oh good," she chimed, ready to engage in normal conversation. "I'm really excited about going to Hogwarts. I've been looking forward to this for years."

Angela just stayed quiet. So far all attempts to talk with people on the train had proven disastrous, and she didn't want to chance anything else going wrong before she had at least set food on the school grounds. The girl didn't seem to mind the silence though and kept right on going.

"I'm the first one in my family to go to school here, you know," she said. "My brothers ended up going to one of the smaller local wizarding schools in the Ukraine, but I was able to come to Hogwarts because I have an aunt that works there."

"Uh huh?" Angela found resisting talking to the girl was becoming difficult. Much as she would have liked to have been by herself, she wasn't about to shoo away someone who had stood up for her like that.

"Yes, I know, it's a long trip, but the Ukraine is so cold! And who wants to be stuck in Kiev all the time anyway? I'd much rather be out here where it's so much warmer and the winter doesn't last as long. Besides, the education is so much better at Hogwarts, I mean who wants to focus on the Dark Arts all the time anyway?"

"The Dark Arts?" Angela asked.

"The only decent school near where I live is Durmstrang, bleh."

"That was one of the school choices I got," Angela found herself saying. She remembered unpleasantly the man with the fake smile and goatee from the meeting a couple of weeks back.

"School choices?"

"I had a bunch of schools asking me to come, but Professor Dumbledore - the person who runs the school - said Hogwarts would be best for me."

"Wow," the girl exclaimed, "if Dumbledore asked for you personally then you must really have some great connections! I only got to choose Hogwarts because of my aunt, she teaches Divination at the school.

"Oh, sorry, I'm Katrushka Milliman. You can call me Kathy, though, Katrushka sounds so clunky."

"I'm Angela Cross, nice to meet you." Angela smiled before she had even realized it. "Thanks for sticking up for me with those jerks earlier. I don't know why they had to pick on me like that," she added with a frown.

"Don't take it personally, from what I saw they went down the hall and picked on every first-year they came across. They just came out of Harry Potter's compartment, you were next in line."

"Who?"

"Who what?"

"Who's Harry Potter?"

Kathy just looked at Angela dumb-struck. "You don't know who Harry Potter is??"

Angela shrugged and shook her head. "Am I supposed to?"

Kathy just laughed at this. "He's only the biggest celebrity to come to Hogwarts in years!

"So I guess that means you come from Muggle parents," Kathy said with a smile.

Angela looked around, a little ashamed all of a sudden. She was beginning to feel that outsider-sensation seeping back into her again, which was not how she wanted to feel around this new person. Kathy quickly saw Angela's reaction and waved her hands.

"Ah, I'm really sorry" she said, trying to be reassuring, "I didn't mean to make it sound like that."

"I know I don't have any magical family," Angela said, becoming a little irritated, "so I don't get to know all the stuff you people know."

"I'm really sorry," Kathy repeated. "Look, Malfoy and a few people might have something against it, but they're just dorks. There are tons of kids on this train that have non-magical parents."

Just as she said this, a young girl with lots of wavy brown hair and rather large front teeth stuck her head in the door.

"I just talked to the conductor, the train's going to be stopping soon, so get ready." She promptly headed off and Angela could hear her repeating this the next door down as well.

"Her, for instance," Kathy said, thumbing behind herself. "I don't know her name, but she's been visiting every car on the train trying to get to know people and tell them to read that ridiculously large Hogwarts: A History book."

So the only person Angela had anything common with was some buck-toothed mother-hen? She wasn't exactly feeling more confident by this.

"Anyway, don't feel bad, alright? I mean, we're about to be Hogwarts students!" Kathy became so glittery-eyed that Angela forgot her own foul mood and could remember how excited she had been before about going to school. That's right, Angela thought, I was completely psyched up to go before, and I'm about to start learning magic! Angela smiled and felt a little glittery-eyed herself. Both of the girls giggled a little bit at the thought of it.

A voice suddenly echoed throughout the train: "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately."

Angela's glitteriness was immediately replaced with a tight knot in her stomach, and from Kathy's suddenly-pale expression she could see they were both feeling the sudden nervousness. Both kept smiling about the thought though, even if they were suddenly getting a little panicky.

Angela's robe was already out, but she still needed to throw on her slacks, school shoes, cardigan and tie. Kathy was already wearing her complete outfit so she required no rushing, but she was happy to help Angela out with her tie which the young girl had absolutely no experience putting on. Soon they stepped out into the hallway where all the other students began to congregate as well; Kathy quickly pointed out Harry Potter as he stepped out of his room with who appeared to be Ron Weasley: Harry was a young boy with poorly-kept black hair, glasses, and what appeared to be some kind of nasty chicken-scratch on his forehead, which Kathy quickly explained in a whisper was part of the reason why he was so famous. She didn't get the chance to go into more detail though, for the train finally came to slow, lurching halt, and then the doors to the car hissed open and the cold air of the night outside spilled in. If one thing made Angela feel like part of the crowd, it was that every single first-year student there had the same wide-eyed, throat-gulping, sweaty-browed look of trepidation and nervousness about them.

As the crowd shuffled out of the car and onto the small platform outside, bumping and scooting against each other as they went, there was what appeared to be a bobbing lantern coming slowly at them, shining against the crimson red of the train, until out of the shadows came the biggest man Angela had ever seen. Actually, his size was unmistakable, Angela had seen him before, when she and her mother had accidentally stepped into Knockturn Alley that one day. She wondered what he was doing there, until with a loud, booming voice he called out to all those present:

"Firs' years! Firs' years over here! All right there, Harry?"

The man towered over the entire crowd and possibly over the side of the train car he stood next to, and he seemed to be beaming a smile to someone in the crowd to Angela's left.

"C'mon, follow me - any more firs' years? Mind yer step now! Firs' years follow me!"

The giant turned and began to trudge down a long winding path that was so narrow that Angela was wondering just how the throngs of students were making it down without slipping and falling off into the darkness surrounding them at each side. Everyone just kept quiet as they headed down the long path, and Angela and Kathy made sure to not lose each other in the crowd: last thing she wanted to do was lose another friend on her first day there.

"Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," the giant said, shouting out over his shoulder, "jus' round this bend here."

Angela had seen some spectacular sights in the last couple of weeks, but this one took the cake. The path had opened up onto the edge of a gigantic lake that stretched into every direction, hills and mountains cropping it at every side, moonlight shining down brilliantly on the entire scene. And directly ahead of the entire crowd, who all "Oooh"'d simultaneously, across the long, smooth-as-glass-lake, was a humongous castle, lights twinkling through windows, turrets and towers standing straight into the air like rockets.

"No more'n four to a boat!" the man called out, pointing to a small fleet of tiny boats sitting on the lake's edge. Everyone slowly made for an empty boat, and Angela stepped into one alongside Kathy, who was making sure there would be one for the both of them. Two boys followed them in, both looking at the castle was amazement as well. One of the boys, Angela found funny enough, was wearing black sunglasses, even in the dark, though he didn't seem to have any problem finding his way around in nothing but moonlight.

"Everyone in?" shouted the giant, who was so large that he needed a boat of his own. "Right then - FORWARD!"

And with that, all the small boats pulled themselves from the dock and headed off across the smooth water on their own, heading for the castle. They moved closer and closer to the cliff on which the castle was perched, and it wasn't until they got much closer that Angela could see a giant curtain of ivy hanging along the cliff side.

"Heads down!" the giant yelled from his boat far ahead, and all the students ducked down to avoid the hanging ivy, which Angela could now see covered a wide cave entrance that led into a dark tunnel beyond. She gave Kathy a quick look of excitement, though Kathy was trying to avoid getting caught up in the ivy and wasn't able to give her a look back before they were engulfed in the darkness of the tunnel.

They traveled for a few minutes, deeper and deeper, farther underneath where the castle stood, until they came out to a makeshift dock in the cave, stones and pebbles spread all along the ground while the walls were lit by torches; it reminded Angela of some kind of pirate ride from an amusement park, though when the boats stopped and everyone disembarked it certainly was a change from the rides that normally kept on going till you got back out to civilization.

The giant began walking past the students, making sure everyone was out and ready to continue on the journey, when he stopped in front of one of the boats, bent down, and lifted something out on the palm of his hand. It was too dark for Angela to see what it was. "Oy, you there!" he called to some students Angela couldn't see past the others in the crowd, "is this your toad?"

Angela heard a familiar voice squeal in delight over the students' heads. "Trevor!" shouted Neville happily, and Angela let out a relieved sigh. Apparently he had found his toad, and with not a minute to spare either. Angela felt a weight come off her shoulders and felt herself feeling even more justifiably ecstatic about the mysterious journey they were all on.

The gigantic man smiled at who she assumed was Neville, handing him the toad he held in his hand. Angela looked at Kathy quickly, hoping she would notice her mood improvement, but was surprised to see Kathy busily looking at the big man with a funny smile on her face. Before she could think any more of it though, the giant turned and headed up a staired passageway in the rock, leading the way with his lantern, until the entire first-year student body stepped out onto a landing of smooth, well-cut grass, covered in the ominous shadow of the castle which was at this range much more impressive and imposing than far away.

They continued up a huge flight of stony steps leading to the front of the nearest castle building, where they were met with a pair of massive oaken doors that stood tall enough to let three of the giant men in had they been standing on each others' shoulders.

The man turned a moment to face them. "Everyone here? You there, still got your toad?" He was met with an affirmed silence, so he raised his humongous fist to the door and rapped upon it three times, a powerful boom resonating from it as he did.

And the door swung open immediately.