Neville Longbottom and the Sorcerer's Stone

Chapter 2

"Do you have your ticket, Harry?" asked James Potter, for what felt like the millionth time.

They were at King's Cross train station in London on September the first, and it was ten fifty-five, according to the large clock on the wall. Harry was getting ready to leave for Hogwarts.

"Yes, Dad," Harry replied, for what seemed like the millionth time.

"Alright then, let's go. Just walk into the barrier between platforms nine and ten. You go first, and your mother and I will come in right after you. We don't want to attract the muggles' attention."

Harry took a deep breath, and pushed his trolley straight into the brick wall. Where a muggle would have collided with the barrier, Harry just went right through it, as if it weren't there. He pushed the trolley off to the side next to an overweight woman with red hair and waited for his parents to come. They did just that seconds later.

James looked at his watch. "Go, or you'll miss the train," he said.

"I'll miss you!" Lily exclaimed. She threw her arms around her son.

"Lily..." said James, tapping her on the shoulder.

"Oh...right..." She took a step away from her son.

"Have a good term," said James.

"Don't forget to write!" called Lily as Harry walked uneasily up the stairs to the train.

As he walked down the train, trying to find an empty compartment, he saw two boys with flaming red hair running to the window. "Hey, Mom, guess what?" said one of them out the window to the red-haired woman Harry had stood next to. "Guess who we just met on the train? Neville Longbottom!"

Harry continued through the train. Oh, he'd heard of Neville Longbottom, all right. Neville was the one who had stopped Lord Voldemort. Maybe not for good, but it had been ten years since Voldemort had been seen, so Neville had definitely put all of Voldemort's plans on hold.

Lord Voldemort was, and there is no better way to explain it, the bad guy. Before he tried to kill Neville Longbottom, he did many terrible things—such as torturing muggles—all for amusement. Then he had gone after Neville's parents, Frank and Alice. The two had died for him. Lord Voldemort then tried to kill Neville, but something about him had stopped the killing curse Voldemort had used, and the curse had bounced back and hit Voldemort instead. Many people were so scared of Voldemort that they wouldn't even say his name. Almost everyone called him "You-Know-Who" or "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named".

Harry had reached the end of the train. When he looked into the last compartment, he saw that there was only one person in it—a tall, skinny boy, with red hair. At first he thought it was one of the boys he had seen when he first boarded the train, but they had been taller, older. Also, he reasoned, they would have had to pass him to get down here.

He opened the door anyway, and let himself in. "May I sit here?" he asked the boy.

"Yeah...go ahead," he replied. "I'm Ron Weasley, by the way." He held out his hand.

"Harry Potter," said Harry, shaking Ron's hand. Everything his mother had said to him about being courteous flashed back through his head. He couldn't be getting homesick already; he'd only just left. "You don't have any brothers, do you?" he asked, thinking of the two boys.

"Yeah," Ron replied. "You probably saw them on the train. They're not really that easy to miss."

Harry laughed.

Just at that moment, the compartment door opened, and in walked a girl with very bushy dirty blonde hair and overly large teeth. "Have you seen a toad?" she asked. Neville Longbottom's lost his."

Harry and Ron both shook their heads "no".

"Kind of pathetic," said the girl. "Nobody has seen it and there were several people who volunteered to search the train, but they weren't any help...they seemed a bit overexcited at the task, if you ask me."

Harry hadn't planned on asking this girl anything, but Ron said, "I bet it was Fred and George. Did they have red hair?"

"Yes they did," the girl said, matter-of-factly. "Actually, they looked quite a bit like you," she said, pointing at Ron.

And remember, it's rude to point, came a voice in Harry's head. He'd have to make his mother's words of manners go away; he didn't think he could stand going the whole term hearing his mother every time he did something polite.

"I'm Hermione Granger," she said, holding her hand out to Ron and Harry. As Harry shook her hand, he concentrated as hard as he could on not hearing words of wisdom about manners. He must have screwed up his face in concentration a bit too hard, because the girl that was Hermione Granger said, "Are you feeling alright?"

He relaxed his muscles. "I'm fine," he replied. When he saw that Hermione was raising her eyebrows at him, he said, "Really, I am."

She let her eyebrows sink back down to their normal position. "Well, tell me if you see the toad," she said, and walked out of the compartment, closing the door gently behind her.

Once he was sure she was gone, Ron said, "I hope she's not in my house."

Harry laughed. "What house do you think you'll get?"

At Hogwarts, there were four houses that you could be in: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. Each house had separate character traits it was looking for.

"Well," Ron began, "All of my brothers have been in Gryffindor. Fred and George would never let it go if I was in Slytherin. I guess Ravenclaw would be okay, but Hupplepuffs are sort of dim, don't you think?"

"Yeah, my parents were in Gryffindor. I wonder if it runs in families," Harry replied. "That's definitely the house I want, but, yeah, Ravenclaw would be okay."

"You-Know-Who was in Slytherin," said Ron suddenly.

"Yeah. There's never been a wizard that's gone bad that hasn't been in Slytherin. It would be awful to be in Slytherin."

"Neville Longbottom is really on the train right now, isn't he?" Ron asked.

"Yeah. I wonder what it would be like to be him."

Ron nodded. "Having no parents and all," he said.

"Not just that," Harry added, "But just knowing that it was YOU who defeated You-Know-Who."

There was silence.

The door slid open, and, Harry, half expecting it to be Hermione Granger again, quickly said to Ron, "So, do you like Quidditch?"

But the person at the door was not Hermione Granger. Instead, it was a plump woman, pushing a cart covered in magical sweets and foods. Harry recognized Drooble's Best Blowing Gum and Bertie Bott's Every Flavored Beans immediately. He also saw that there were pumpkin pasties, cauldron cakes, sugar quills, and many other sweets. "Anything off the trolley, Dears?" asked the woman.

"No thanks," Ron replied, reaching into his pocket and pulling out what looked to be a smashed peanut butter and jelly sandwich in a plastic bag.

"And for you?" asked the witch, nodding at Harry.

"Uh... I think I'll have a pack of Bertie Bott's Every Flavored Beans," he said. He reached into his pocket and removed the sock containing the money he had gotten from his Gringotts vault and handed the witch the appropriate amount of money.

The boys amused themselves for the rest of the journey by talking about Quidditch. Harry learned that Ron's favorite team was the Chudly Canons, which made sense, seeing as their emblem was embroidered on his T-shirt.

It was dark when Harry looked out the window, but he could see the silhouette of a large castle not too far away. He suggested that they put their robes on, and so they did. By the time they had their robes on and were ready to go, the train was already slowing down. When it came to a complete stop, Harry and Ron stood up, picked up their trunks, and walked out of the compartment. They exited the train.

"Firs' years, come this way!" came a loud, booming voice.

Harry and Ron followed the voice to what had to be the biggest man Harry had ever seen. He was nearly two times taller than the average man and nearly three times as wide. He had black hair and a beard that looked as if they had never been combed. The boys stood by the man, with many other kids their age, each looking frightened. Either it was because of standing in the presence of such a large man or the knowledge that soon they would be inside Hogwarts and be sorted. Even Harry didn't know why.

"Firs' years, righ' here!" called the man again.

After a moment or two, he turned to Harry, as he was the closest one to him, and said, "Do ya reckon tha's everyone?"

Harry just nodded; he didn't know what to say.

"Alrigh'y then," said the man. I'm Rubeus Hagrid—tha's Hagrid to you lot—an' I'm the keeper o' keys an' grounds here at Hogwarts."

Some of the kids looked around at each other. Their expressions clearly said, "He's going to be here at Hogwarts?"

"Now then," continued Hagrid, "We're supposed to row across the lake to the castle."

This didn't make anyone happy.

"Four to a boat now, we don' want ter overcrowd them."

Nobody wanted to argue with Rubeus Hagrid.

Harry walked with Ron to the nearest boat and climbed in. They were soon joined by Hermione Granger and a boy Harry had only seen in photographs. It was Neville Longbottom!

No one said anything the whole way across the lake to the castle (the boats were like the cart at Gringotts; they moved by themselves). It could have been because of what awaited them, but just like before, Harry didn't know.

The boats pulled up on shore and Hagrid beckoned for them to follow. They followed him up the path and through the castle's front doors. They were in Hogwarts.