Teen Ink

The Hogwarts Express

“Kiera, wake up!” Kiera heard her father call as her head started off the pages of her potions book. Looking at the clock, she saw it said 10:30 A.M. She jumped up and shoved the school books she had strewn across the room into her cauldron. She had stayed up late reading her books the night before, and now she and her father only had a half an hour to get to Kings Cross station…using muggle means! She ran down the stairs to the kitchen where her father was waiting with a birthday cake that looked too good to have been baked by him.
“In twenty nine minutes you’ll be eleven, but I probably should have woken you up earlier,” he said to his daughter.
“You can keep the cake,” Kiera said, scribbling a thank you note to put next to the object commemorating the day she was born. “I just wanna get on the train before it leaves.”
“We should start now then,” her father said, helping her double check she had all her things quickly before transforming her cauldron into a backpack and leaving for the walk to Platform 9 ¾. They almost ran the whole way there, passing many irritated looking muggles, though fortunately it wasn’t very far from where they decided to start. Finally, they reached King’s Cross station. Kiera looked for a sign that would point her in the right direction, but she only saw signs for platform nine and platform ten.
“Here, follow me.” Kiera’s dad walked swiftly around packs of muggles and Kiera trotted after him quickly. She reflected how odd it was that her father didn’t tell her beforehand how to get to platform 9 ¾. Kiera watched as her father leaned on the barrier between platforms nine and ten … and then he disappeared.
She was baffled. Just fall through a brick wall? It was really that simple? Checking around to make sure no muggles were looking, Kiera walked right through the wall, and after a few seconds she saw a large, red steam engine. There were wizard kids everywhere, some already in their robes. Most were on the train already, seeing as there were only two minutes left to board the train.
“Here, let me fix that for you,” Kiera heard her dad say from behind her as he took the backpack and turned it back into a cauldron full of supplies. Kiera laughed.
“Why didn’t you tell me it was that simple to get here?” she asked her father.
“Because you’re more than smart enough to figure it out on your own,” he said, waggling his eyebrows comically. “Oh, before I forget, here’s your birthday present, it’s almost like a guide to surviving your first year at Hogwarts.” He presented his daughter with a book by a witch named J. K. Rowling titled “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.”
“Ha ha. Funny Dad,” Kiera said sarcastically. She put the book in her cauldron and gave her father a hug before running onto the train. On her way, she noticed many people were looking in the same general direction. She turned and saw the boy and girl she saw in Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes hanging out a window in the train, talking with their parents. Kiera could see a brown haired woman’s and a redhead man’s faces, but the other two parents (the man with black hair and the woman with red hair) were turned away from her. She jumped on the train and looked around for an empty compartment to sit in. When she found one, the train was pulling out, parents waving good-bye to their children. As Kiera looked out the window, she noticed a single blond boy about her age running to catch up with the train. She heard a parent near him call out “That’s Lorcan! Where are his parents? He’s going to miss the train!”
Kiera jumped to her feet and ran down the train until she found a door that would open to the outside of the door. She tried to shove it open, but it was closed shut. Briefly, she recalled a spell her father used to open a stuck cabinet drawer at home, and pulled her wand out of her pants pocket, hoping it would work.
“Alohamora!” She yelped, and the door sprung open. Shoving her wand back in her pocket, she grabbed a nearby metal beam and leaned out of the opening, feeling wind whip past her face. The blond boy was running as fast as he could go, but the train was quickly picking up speed. Kiera stuck out her hand for the boy to grab if he could. She hoped he would soon; he was running out of platform!
“Come on, come on! Almost there!” she urged him. Just when it looked like he wouldn’t make it, he latched onto her hand. Kiera gave a mighty heave and swung him inside the train, making them both topple onto the floor. Kiera quickly jumped up and slammed the door leading outside closed, and the boy sat up, panting.
“Thanks!” he said to Kiera. “I probably wouldn’t have gotten on the train if you hadn’t done that. My brother would’ve killed me if he had to go through his first year at Hogwarts alone.”
“You’re crazy, you know that?” Kiera asked him. “Waiting until after the last minute to get on the train!”
“Well, you’re just as crazy for leaning out the side of a moving train,” he said evenly. “Besides, people say I get it from my Mum.”
Kiera couldn’t help laughing. “Well, people say I get it from my Dad, so I guess we’re just about even. What’s your name?”
“I’m Lorcan. Lorcan Scarmander. What’s your name?” he asked, standing up and walking down the train.
“I’m Kiera Sable. Nice to meet you. Too bad it wasn’t a less eventful meeting,” Kiera replied.
It was the blond boy’s turn to laugh now. “Well, we all have our quirks,” he said, sitting in an empty apartment.
“Yeah, like my dislike of Harry Potter,” Kiera mumbled, not really meaning for Lorcan to hear. But of course, he did.
“Really?” He asked. “That’s definitely not something I hear every day. How come?”
“Well, from what I’ve heard he broke every school rule one by one, and he just seems conceded to me. I mean, he acts like he’s above the rules, just because he has a lightning scar on his forehead, and goes around saving the world like it’s an every day occurrence,” Kiera defended herself, feeling like he would just reject her different opinion.
But Lorcan just looked thoughtful. “Yeah, you could think of it that way. Of course, most people just like him because he killed off Voldemort, but it’s not like they actually know him personally.”
Kiera smiled. She liked Lorcan. He was thoughtful, carefree, and didn’t reject opinions quickly. He would probably be put in Ravenclaw, the Hogwarts house many clever students found themselves in.
Kiera looked at the open compartment door and saw a very familiar brown-red haired girl standing there, looking dumbstruck. Kiera wondered how long she’d been standing there. Lorcan noticed her too.
“Hi, want to sit down?” he asked.
“Uh, no, thanks,” the girl said warily before hurrying down the train.
“What was that about?” Kiera asked.
“I don’t know for sure, but I can guess that she idolizes Mr. Potter and is none too happy with your opinion of him,” Lorcan said.
Kiera groaned. “Great. If what my Dad says about Hogwarts is true, there’ll be rumors before we even get off the train.”