Chapter 2 Platform 9 and 3/4

Aphrodite

With quick movements I got up from the bed as it seemed impossible to stay still in one place. I was so impatient that the will to sleep had turned to dust.

With sudden movements I grabbed the clothes I had left on the chair and ran first to the bathroom, leaving Irene moaning sleepily on the bed.

"Aphro you play dirty , I wanted to go first" I could hear her grumbling outside the door while I laughed trying to put my pants on.

"Just a minute, I'm coming out!" I said and heard her mumble in reply.

After twenty minutes of panting to be ready, we ate breakfast on the leg first after pampering our four-legged friend who had kept us company during these difficult hours, we set off for the station fully stocked with all the essentials.

All the way, although relatively early in the morning, we encountered traffic in our driveway, as many people passed us, going to their work in a hurry. In the midst of the running people we were also chasing after Hagrid who, while talking incessantly about the school rules, kept repeating the phrase "they'll tell you about it there" and had a nigger on his back and forth.

In all the hubbub and crowds, I didn't notice those in front of me who had stopped and ran into Irene who let out an exclamation of pain first looking at me grimly and rubbing the spot where I had punched her.

"Why did we stop?" I said showing her a soft smile as I looked at Hagrit curiously.

"I just remembered I have something very serious to do. So I won't be able to proceed with you girls." said Hagrit sadly however I could tell he was hiding something.

"Really? And you remember now? If it's that serious you should leave." Irene replied suspiciously and he smiled nervously.

"I'm sorry but yes. Well this is where we part ways for now. Follow this corridor and when you get to platform 9 you will cross the wall to get to platform 9 3/4" he said and held out his hands holding two tickets on which were written in gold embossed letters " Hoguarts Express".

Taking the two tickets in my hands I looked at him with gratitude.

"We thank you for your help, Hagrit. If it wasn't for you, we might not have made it," I said as I looked at the bars leading to the tracks.

"Hagrid, what do you mean, get over the wall and what does it say here? " Irene asked and I leaned over to read the sign on the two all-gold tickets.

Silence reigned for a while and when we turned our eyes to the giant who accompanied us he had already disappeared .

"Damn! He left us without explaining anything " Irene said angrily and some people turned to look at us.

"Don't shout. Never mind, let's go find where the hell line 9 is and then we'll see. " I told her first grabbing the suitcase with one hand and Irene with the other and start pulling her along.

As we passed one by one of the lines, stepping over a lot of people and almost missing the cage with Phyllis, we arrived between lines 9 and 10. However nowhere the 3/4 we wanted.

"Well, we've come this far, now what do we do?" Irene asked what I was thinking as she looked around cautiously.

I shrugged awkwardly and looked around to see if we could find anyone in the same position as us.

"I remember Hagrit said something about a wall, 'Look, I'm sure someone like us will be here. We can try. "I replied uncertainly as I tried to distinguish between the crowd, each person dragging suitcases and maybe trying to find something that matched what we were looking for.

"I don't know, Aphrodite, I think it's a waste of time" Irene said in frustration and then a woman's voice sounded so loud and clear above the hubbub of the station, making us turn to look at its owner.

"Hurry, hurry. George don't disturb people. This way Jeanie, my girl don't go anywhere else, Harry, Ron you'll be left behind at the speed you're going, hurry up so we can get to the Hoguarts Express early and get seats. " he continued and now we were left amazed.

The voice was coming from a petite woman who was signing and trying to coordinate a bunch of kids, half of whom couldn't even hear her.

She looked quite nervous and ready to cry from nerves.

"Did I hear Hogwart's Express? " Irene said whisperingly and it was her turn to pull me towards them

"Wait don't they..." I tried to protest but it was already too late, we were already in front of her.

"Um, sorry. " I heard Irene say in a soft voice while gently nudging the woman's shoulder to get her attention.

The woman turned around and looked directly at us while the whole bunch with the kids walked over to us and looked at us.

With a quick glance I noticed that near her were, 2 twin boys at least two heads taller than me, with naturally red hair and white skin covered in freckles. Immediately after them was a little girl with the same features although she looked close to Irene's age. Then there were three more children, two boys and a girl who looked close to my age. One of the two boys had the same features as the other three and I deduced that they were brothers, the other boy was dark-haired with blue eyes and large black glasses and finally the girl who was looking at us smiling was also dark-haired with very broken hair. I fleetingly wondered if she would agree with Irene on the amount of broken hair they had, it was then that I noticed from the expression my cousin had made that she was about to say something.

"Did you say Hogwarts Express? We're confused and don't know where to go, do you know where to find the 9 and 3/4 line?" she said with a scared look on her face and I looked at her in surprise.

This girl could give me a stroke. What is she thinking?

"Sure honey, I'll help you. George, Fred, look at these lovely children. If only you were like that. " complained the woman and her children resented her as she continued to compliment us.

"Come with us. And my children go to the same school, what years are you in?" She asked us as we all started walking together.

" I'm in third and my cousin is in fourth " Irene replied and I smiled.

" What a beautiful thing kinship is and thank you for being so close. I wish my children were too. " said the woman in a sad voice and Irene laughed softly.

"Hey mom, who said we aren't close; we just don't want to bother each other" said one of the twins and the other agreed.

"Whatever you say." He told them and turned back to us again, continuing the questions.

"Here we are. Once you get past this wall you will be on platform 9 and 3/4 " he told us as I rolled my eyes in fright and pulled Irene further along.

"That doesn't make sense, we're going to go through that wall! At best we'll make fools of ourselves because we'll fall and get scratches " I said indignantly in Greek.

"Sure because everything we've been living so far makes a lot more sense , let me remind you that up until now we've been staying at the Leaky Cauldron , taking classes on magic and having a half giant for company. So what's weird about the wall? ' Irene said almost shouting and then the girl with the spiky chestnut hair approached us.

"Come on what are you waiting for. " She said and caught us both as she motioned for us to run towards the wall.

With a sharp jerk we found ourselves crashing into the wall and while I expected to find ourselves on it we ended up outside of it. It took me about two minutes to open my eyes and realize that we hadn't eaten our faces off after all.

I immediately elbowed my body to see if I was okay, and as was natural or not, I didn't even have a speck of plaster on me.

"Welcome to Platform 9 and 3/4. Sorry to interrupt you, I'm Hermione. " the girl said as she shook my hand and smiled politely.