3 Chapter 3 - Platform 9¾

After going home, Lucifer went to the reception and poured himself a lemonade whereas Maze was looking at his stuff like a little school girl who got new toys. Eve quickly became her new friend.

"So, you started hitting on a school girl huh? Got some books and shit, but a damn good cat!" Maze, really liked to play with this cat, but Lucifer knew the dark truth, she just wanted to degrade his friend Eve, "Also, what're you trying to do with this weird looking stick?" This was the thing, she was still confused about.

Lucifer sighed heavily, "Mazikeen, will you stop asking me the same question?.....I already explained to you about the wands, and no I wasn't hitting on an eleven year old girl," he tried to defend his dignity.

Because, he doesn't think he has crossed the line of becoming a pedophile yet.

"But it looks like flirting to.. O-okay, Okay! I will stop.... But seriously what are you going to do? Attend this weird school.....what about me?" asked Maze curiously, she was also a little sad inside.

"Indeed, I am going to attend Hogwarts to find out more about this magical world?...Why are we hearing about this now? And you should stay here looking after Lux, but don't worry, I will find a way for you to visit me eventually. Just give me some time," replied Lucifer, totally unaware of the emotional turmoil of his partner.

It had been almost two months since that day in Diagon Alley, and now it was finally time for Lucifer to start his first year at Hogwarts.

During the time available, he had practically memorised his books and trained Eve to be on her best behaviour.....well, he had no comments on that.

When ten thirty struck, both Lucifer and Maze were standing between Platform 9 and 10. She packed the trunk in the back of the car, they didn't have long until the Hogwarts Express left.

"What exactly did that old loony say to you about this magical platform?" Maze asked him.

"Run at the wall between platforms 9 and 10," Lucifer said quietly, so the Muggles (non magic folk) couldn't hear the bizarre thing that came out of his mouth. When the platform signs came into view, both of them ran towards the damn wall.

"Well, fuck me! This is incredible isn't it Maze?" said Lucifer after watching the Red Hogwarts train.

"Yep, but don't you think, you should control your language a bit, yeah? There will be innocent kids there too!" Maze reprimanded him.

"When did you start acting like my mother?" asked Lucifer.

"When you get your Hogwarts letter pretty boy, I am your guardian now Lucifer.....So, don't forget to send me letters alright? I want to know, if you are still breathing? said Maze looking weirdly smug at little devil.

"Shut up, yeah I will write your stupid letters...Now go away, let me have some peace for the time being" exclaimed Lucifer.

Maze after giving him a peck on the cheek, just walked away from him quietly towards Lux.

"Lucifer!" He heard an excited voice yell. He turned to see Hermione rushing towards him, throwing her arms around his neck and pulling him into a tight hug. He was surprised about her touchy behaviour. But who is complaining?

"Um, did you come here alone?" Hermione smiled.

"No, Maze just went home 2 minutes 33 seconds ago, and I was about to board the train, when I heard your voice, Granger!" replied Lucifer

He followed Hermione onto the train after handing over his trunk to one of the workers, Eve laying in her cage, sound asleep.

"Good summer?" Lucifer asked, as the train rolled out of King's Cross.

"It was great! Mum took me to Paris!" Hermione said excitedly, taking a now awake cat into her arms. "What have you done? Anything productive?"

"I read the course books again, and went to Italy for two weeks with Maze. I did horse riding and some other stuff" replied Lucifer.

"Really, will you tell me about it?" questioned Hermione, while shaking her head up and down cutely.

"Well there is the Colosseum, The Grand Canal in Venice which was pretty fun, Vatican City which is a dreamland at sunset and there is some gallery in Florence which was quite fascinating actually!" explained Lucifer, but mostly he was just throwing the random names he heard about. Because, the things he really did, can't be revealed to this innocent child.

"Looks like you had a great time," said Hermione. He really did.

At that precise moment, a very upset and pale looking boy opened the door of the compartment, his lip quivering as a fresh tear rolled down his cheek.

"H-have you seen m-m-my toad? I've lost it," the boy managed to stutter out, looking at the ground as an embarrassed flush crossed his cheeks.

"We haven't, sorry," Lucifer said, offering the boy a reassuring smile.

"But we'll help you look," Hermione said, pulling Lucifer up by the front of his robes and following the toad-boy out of the compartment. "I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, and this is Lucifer Morningstar."

"N-Neville Longbottom," Lucifer smiled but got elbowed in the ribs by Hermione who glared at him, practically telling him to behave himself.

They were both looking for the toad then, Lucifer suddenly smacked his head and pulled out his wand. He asked Neville, "What's the frog's name?"

The chubby boy looked surprised to be addressed. "His name's Trevor," he answered softly.

Lucifer then concentrated on his wand, "point me: Trevor" and his wand lifted up a couple inches from his hand and started to spin.

It was the first bit of spellcasting Hermione had ever seen anyone her age do, and she wondered if she would be able to manage it. She had never casted any spells herself, not having learnt any when she got her wand from Olivaner's, and already home, where she wasn't allowed to use said wand by the time she learnt her first spell.

The realisation that she was allowed to use magic now made her want to whip out her own want and start trying out spells.

Lucifer's wand slowed down quickly, until it finally stopped, pointing straight at Neville.

"Huh?" The boy looked confused. "Why is it pointing at me?"

Hermione said quietly, "I think the spell is busted."

"I think it's pointing at Trevor," Lucifer said. "Longbottom, check your robes."

Neville did, and from within the folds, he pulled out a large, sleeping (?) Toad.

Oh. "I'm sorry, I didn't know, and thank you" Neville said.

"Don't worry about it," Lucifer called, then looked at his wand still floating above his palm and pointed in the direction Neville had gone.

Lucifer tried to snatch his wand from the air, where it kept dodging, always doing its hardest to point unfailingly at Neville (or Hermione supposed Trevor), before he got frustrated enough to shout, "Stop doing that, you stupid wand!"

It stopped floating, and fell on the ground.

Lucifer picked it up, mumbling, "Finally" under his breath causing Hermione to start giggling.

That has just been so ridiculous, and magical.

He rolled his eyes good-naturedly, "Yes, please, laugh at my disgrace."

"Sorry," she apologized as her giggles petered out. "That was wonderful spellwork though, where did you learn that? It wasn't in our course books " asked Hermione, now slightly looking at Lucifer with admiration and her puppy dog eyes.

"I ordered some more books by mail, and was watching T.V but couldn't find the remote. So, I started searching for some Summoning spells but found this one instead, and just used it for the first time now," replied Lucifer instantly.

Hermione snorted out loud even more this time and had to hold on to Lucifer's hand to balance herself,"How could someone be so lazy, to even think about using magic to summon TV remote?" She said between her laughs.

They were on the way to their compartment, while Hermione started using lumos and other first year spells she had read about in her books but then she suddenly stopped entering the compartment that was occupied by redhead and black haired boys.

"We've already told him we haven't seen it," said the redhead, but Hermione wasn't listening, she was looking at the wand in his hand.

"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it, then," she sat down. The redhead looked taken aback, which made Lucifer smirk .

"She gets like this," Lucifer reassured him, suffering another blow to the ribs from Hermione.

The redhead cleared his throat.

"Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."

He waved his wand, but nothing happened. The rat on his lap stayed gray and fast asleep, making Lucifer burst into laughter, holding his stomach.

"Are you sure that's a real spell?" said the girl. "Well, it's not very good, is it? I've tried a few simple spells just for practice now and it's all worked for me. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it's the very best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard -- I've learned all our course books by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough -- I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?"

She said all this very fast.

The black haired boy looked at the redhead, and was clearly relieved to see by his stunned face that he hadn't learned all the course books by heart either.

"I'm Ron Weasley," Ron muttered.

"Lucifer Morningstar," Lucifer waved from where he stood.

".....Lucifer Morningstar, as in the Devil? asked Harry warily.

"Finally! someone actually noticed,  and here I thought people don't have the Bible in this time period " said Lucifer with a wide smile.

Hermione looked at Lucifer like he is the most stupid person in the world and wisely chose to ignore both boys.

"I am Harry Potter, by the way," said Harry.

'So he is that child who is supposed to defeat some Dark Lord when he was a baby, huh?' Lucifer thought.

"Are you really?" said Hermione. "I know all about you, of course -- I got a few extra books, for background reading, and you're in Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century."

"Am I?" said Harry, feeling dazed.

"Goodness, didn't you know, I'd have found out everything I could if it was me," said Hermione. "Do either of you know what house you'll be in? I've been asking around, and I hope I'm in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best; I hear Dumbledore himself was in it, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad... Anyway, we'd better go . You two had better change, you know, I expect we'll be there soon."

And she left, taking Lucifer by his hand, and Neville followed them like a lost puppy.

"Potter guy seemed alright, that red-head definitely lacks etiquettes and looks like a nutshell in the head too," Lucifer shrugged.

"Language! you just met him. So who knows maybe he is not that nuthead.. but he definitely lacks manners" He was admonished by Hermione, who completely ignored her own beautiful language and just rolled her eyes at him.

When the train finally stopped, Hermione and Lucifer piled out of the train, being pushed around by the older years making their way to the carriages.

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

A giant big hairy face beamed over the sea of heads, making Hermione and Lucifer look at each other with dropped jaws.

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

"He is definitely not entire human that I am sure about mark my words, Granger" said Lucifer confidently.

"Oh! are you willing to make a bet then?" challenge by bushy-haired girl.

"Mm-hm, if I was right you have to kiss me" said Lucifer with a wink.

Hermione Granger did not expect that in a million years and after controlling her flustered expression.

She replied with an equal retort -

"A-alright , but if I win you have to take me on a date then," said Hermione looking proud of herself. 'I do hope, he will lose though.'

Lucifer just gave her a smirk and accepted the bet.

Slipping and stumbling, they followed the half- giant down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path. It was so dark on either side of them that Lucifer thought there must be thick trees. Nobody spoke much. Neville, who lost his toad again, sniffed once or twice.

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

There was a loud "Oooooh!"

The narrow path had opened suddenly onto the edge of a great black lake. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers.

"No more'n four to a boat!" He called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore. Hermione and Lucifer were followed into their boat by Ron and Harry.

"Everyone in?" shouted the giant, who had a boat to himself. "Right then -- FORWARD!"

And the fleet of little boats moved off all at once, gliding across the lake, which was as smooth as glass. Everyone was silent, staring up at the great castle overhead. It towered over them as they sailed nearer and nearer to the cliff on which it stood.

"Heads down!" He yelled as the first boats reached the cliff; they all bent their heads and the little boats carried them through a curtain of ivy that hid a wide opening in the cliff face. They were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle, until they reached a kind of underground harbor, where they clambered out onto rocks and pebbles.

"Oy, you there! Is this your toad?" said the giant, who was checking the boats as people climbed out of them.

"Trevor!" cried Neville blissfully, holding out his hands. Then they clambered up a passageway in

Hermione asked Lucifer incredulously "Did he just lose his toad again?"

"Apparently he did, he is a clumsy one isn't he?" replied Lucifer shaking his head. 'Seriously, what's wrong with this child? Even after helping him, it didn't matter in the end anyway?'

It always happened with him, even if he tried to change something, it would always go back like it's supposed to. At that time, he didn't know that every single thing he did was just predestined from the start.

Hermione looked like she wanted to smack his head again or she just liked to touch him. No one will ever know.

They walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, oak front door.

"Everyone here? You there, still got yer toad?"

At everyone's nod, he raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.