CHAPTER 6: THE JOURNEY TO HOGWARTS

"I was surprised at the time that Ed was also admitted to Hogwarts, it was great! My brother from the orphanage finally went to the same school with me!"

-Richard Neil talking about the time when he discovered that Edgart was also admitted to Hogwarts

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It is 1st of September 1991. A Raven-haired boy with blue tinted glasses is walking around the king's cross station with an old couple following him behind, he has a suitcase with an owl symbol on his left hand, and an owl cage on his right hand, he didn't bring any trolley because he only brought those two, the rest is inside the suitcase. This is of course Edgart Aldrich, his height is now around 4'11" trying to find platform 9 ¾.

"Where is it?" Roger asked.

"The entrance is between the barrier of platform 9 and 10 I think." Ed said.

He arrived at the supposed entrance; Ed then saw an old woman with a round-faced boy beside her walking toward the supposed entrance as well. He approached them.

"Excuse me, are you going to platform 9 ¾?" Ed asked.

"Well, yes, is it your first time?" The old woman said.

"Yes, it is." Ed said, embarrassed.

"It's Neville's first time as well, all you have to do is walk straight at the barrier between platforms nine and ten." The old woman said and smiled.

"Thank you, my name is Edgart Aldrich by the way, nice to meet you." Ed said thank you to the old woman and introduced to the round-faced boy.

"N-Neville Longbottom…" he stuttered.

Ed just smiled at the boy, then faced his foster parents.

"I can take it from here, you don't have to come in, I think you can't anyway." He said to them,

"Well, that's disappointing, but alright, see you at Christmas Ed." said Anna.

"Remember to take pictures." Roger said then winked.

Ed Hugged them both and entered the platform. There he saw quite a lot of people, owls, and cats on cages, he awed at the sight, the red and black train is resting on the rail, with smoke coming out of the front, students were saying goodbye to their parents, waving at them, reading it on a book and actually seeing it is a totally different, he took a picture of the scene, then followed Neville and the old woman, and spoke.

"Thank you again Mrs. Longbottom, Neville, you want to find a compartment together?" he offered Neville. The round-faced boy just nodded but his face changed when he realised something and said to the old woman.

"Gran, I've lost my toad again."

"Oh, Neville." The old woman sighed, ruffing the round-faced boy's hair.

"It's all right, let's find it together." Ed said, comforting the boy.

Neville nodded, he then said goodbye to his grandmother and the two searched a compartment together. After they found one, they dropped off their things and went searching.

He opened a few compartments, asking for a toad, but no one had seen it, he met a few people from the books, he met Fred and George, Lee Jordan, Seamus, Dean, the Patil twins, etc. After he opened a few more compartments he then stumbled upon a familiar face.

"Hey, have you seen a toa-" he stopped speaking. "Richard? What are you doing here!?"

The boy, who is Richard, then turned around from the windows and saw Ed.

"Ed? You're going to Hogwarts too?!" he said, looking surprised at Ed's presence.

"Of course, I am! You're going too! That's great!" Ed exclaimed, hugging his brother from the orphanage.

"Yes! We finally went to the same school together!" Richard shouted, then after a few seconds of hugging, they separated.

"All right Richard, I'd love to talk to you, but I need to find Neville's toad, coming with?" said Ed, pointing outside the compartment.

"Sure, I'll help." Said Richard, exiting the compartment together.

The three boys now continued searching, they split up, Ed opened some more compartments with no success of finding the toad. Ed then stumbled across another compartment, he peeked inside of it, he saw a girl with bushy brown hair, and large front teeth, looking outside the window, she's already wearing the uniform. 'Hermione Granger…' he thought, he hesitated for a while, he's hesitating because he's still thinking about whether he wants to be involved in her and her friends' story but he suddenly remembers what Gilligan said, that Dumbledore will try to involve Ed in his complicated plan, so it doesn't matter anyway if he avoids her and her friends, because at the end of the day, he will try to avoid most of it, but he probably will be dragged to the conflict either way, he then took a deep breath, opened the compartment door and asked the girl.

"Hey, have you seen a toad, my friend Neville lost one." He asked while smiling

The girl then turned around from the window and saw a handsome raven-haired boy with the blue tinted glasses looking at her.

"N-No, sorry do you want my help?" she stuttered shyly.

"Um, sure, let's go back to Neville, I've already checked this part of the train." Said Ed to the girl, pointing his hand towards the direction of Neville.

The girl then exits her compartment and walks with Ed towards Neville.

"I'm Edgart Aldrich by the way, at your service, you can call me Ed." he introduces himself and slightly bowed while walking.

"I'm Hermione Granger." She introduced herself.

"Hermione? As in the Shakespeare play?" he asked, making some small talk.

"Yes! I'm surprised you know that" she exclaimed, looking rather impressed.

"Let's just say I got a thing for art." Ed said vaguely, his interest in art is not to be underestimated.

"Are you a Muggle-born?" Hermione asked curiously.

"No, not really, but I grew up in a muggle family, my biological parents are far away, so I only know magic exists around a month ago."

"Oh, well, my parents are dentists, so I'm a Muggle-born, they're very surprised when the letter came, they freaked out when Professor McGonagall transfigured our sofa into a pig." She chuckled.

"My foster parents too, they were pissed when Dumbledore changed an expensive sofa to a statue, they told him to change it back." He chuckled, reminded himself about the first time Dumbledore came to the house.

"Dumbledore? THE Dumbledore is your messenger?" she asked, looking shocked.

"Yes, why?" Ed asked, looking at Hermione strangely.

"Well, he's the headmaster, I thought he wouldn't be a messenger." Said the bushy haired girl.

"Oh, it's complicated. I'll tell you later if we have time." He said to the girl.

They then arrived at Neville, his face still looking panicked, his eyes starting to go red, and his hands shaking.

"Have you found it Neville? Oh, this is Hermione Granger, Hermione, this is Neville Longbottom, and this is Richard Neil." He asked Neville then introduced everyone.

"No, we haven't found it yet, let's go split again." Said Richard, then they said hi to Hermione and split up again.

Ed looked at the other compartments and there's no sign of Neville's toad, he knows he's going to find it after the train stopped, but it's a good excuse to say hi to everyone anyway, so why not. He looked at Hermione and Neville who were stuck in a compartment and came over.

"Oh, are you doing mag-"

"What's wrong Hermione, Neville? Have you found it yet?" Ed cut her off.

"No, but he's doing magic." Said Hermione, pointing at a redhead boy, holding a wand. They are surrounded by candies and toys.

"Magic? alright let's see it then." Said Ed curiously.

"Er — all right." A redhead boy groggily said.

He cleared his throat.

"Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow,

Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."

He waved his wand, but nothing happened. The rat stayed grey and fast asleep, the redhead boy just shrugged, he reached on one of the chocolates near to him and began to eat it.

"Are you sure that's a real spell?" said Hermione with a bossy voice. "Well, it's not very good, is it? I've tried a few simple spells just for practice 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?"

Ron grunted at her voice tone, his face showing dissatisfaction.

"Slow down Hermione, wait you've practised spells? I thought it was illegal to use magic outside Hogwarts while you're underage, you could be expelled for that." Ed said calmly, trying to make her panic.

"Wait really?" she asked, looking panicked.

He succeeded, then Ed just shrugged and turned to the redhead boy and said, "I'm Edgart Aldrich by the way, call me Ed, this is my friend Richard Neil, Neville Longbottom, and of course, Hermione Granger." While pointing at each of them.

"Ron Weasley." The redhead boy said while still eating the chocolate.

"Pleasure." Hermione said, looking at the redhead boy disgustingly. Ed chuckled at her behaviour and looked at the black-haired boy.

"Harry Potter, good to see you again, I've read about you, I didn't know at first when we first met, quite heroic act you did, although you won't remember anything because you're just a baby."

"Hello Ed, good to see you too, and yeah I only remember seeing some green lights." Harry said, happy because he met an acquaintance.

"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, "Anyway, we'd better go and look for Neville's toad. You all had better change, you know, I expect we'll be there soon."

"All right, see you at Hogwarts Harry, Ron." Said Ed.

"Oh, you got dirt on your nose by the way, did you know that?" Hermione then said in a 'as matter of fact' tone to Ron. While the redhead boy just cleaned the dirt and grunted dissatisfiedly.

The three boys and the girl then closed the compartment and walked toward their compartment.

"I've already checked everywhere Neville, let's go back to our compartment, maybe when we've arrived, we can ask the professor to find it." Said Ed, comforting the almost crying Neville, while the round-faced boy just nodded weakly.

He then looked at Hermione and asked. "Hermione, do you want to go and sit with us?"

The girl pondered a while and nodded vigorously.

They sat at the compartment, Ed looked at the window, he saw the train was passing through a muggle town, and suddenly Richard asked.

"Ed, how'd you know Harry Potter?" Richard asked, and Hermione nodded as well, "And just wondering, what's with the tinted glasses?" She continued.

"Well, I met him when I was buying things in Diagon Alley. He went with Hagrid, a big guy that one, around 8 ft tall." Said Ed. "And the glasses are to hide my eyes." He took off his glasses and showed his eyes. "You see, I have bright silver eyes that glow in the dark, people thought that I am blind because of it, so I hid it in order to avoid people asking, though it clearly backfired now that you asked about the glasses, perhaps I'll stop wearing them someday."

"That's really cool." Said Neville.

"Thanks Neville." Ed said to Neville while smiling.

Hermione just nodded. i looked outside the window of the train and suddenly remembered.

"Wait, what did you say about practising spells? Am I really getting expelled before even going to Hogwarts?" she said panickily, she dreads at the thought of being expelled before even entering the school grounds.

Ed just chuckled. "Don't worry, I think."

"You think?" Hermione said angrily.

"Well, if you only practise harmless spells then it's probably fine, you won't get expelled, but I think technically it's not illegal yet, because the trace magic hasn't been put on you then, I studied it, I theorised that when you entered Hogwarts express for the first time is when they put it. But it's just my theory, don't take it by heart."

Hermione calmed down, she pondered awhile and asked.

"So, what House do you think you will be put in? I hope I will get to Gryffindor, everyone I asked around and I heard Dumbledore himself studied there! So, I think it's a great house to be in."

Ed just chuckled at Hermione and said, "There's no Greatest house in Hogwarts Hermione, if you're brave you'll go to Gryffindor, if you're smart you'll go to Ravenclaw, if you're hard working you'll go to Hufflepuff, if you're cunning you'll go to Slytherin."

"And if we use your logic here, every house is a great house, Merlin was a Slytherin, Newt Scamander, a genius Magizoologist was from Hufflepuff, Ignatia Wildsmith, the inventor of floo powder was from Ravenclaw."

She was about to refute, but couldn't think of a way to do it, she then asked, "You know how they will know where we will be sorted?"

"It's a Talking Hat." Ed said casually.

"A Talking Hat?" Richard suddenly joined the conversation.

"Yes, they put it on top of your hat, and the hat will sort you."

"That's it?" Richard asked, wondering if it is just as simple as that.

Ed just nodded, then Richard asked again, "What do you think then? What house will you probably enter?"

"Probably Ravenclaw" Answered Ed, 'Or at least I hope so, I hope Dumbledore won't interfere with the ceremony.' he continued on his head, and then he looked at Richard and said, "You Richard, you're definitely going to Ravenclaw with all the history books you read." Ed said. "I don't know about you though Neville, I haven't known you long enough."

"Probably Hufflepuff." Neville said calmly.

Ed nodded. The compartment went silent for a minute, everyone was trying to digest the information they got from Ed, but Suddenly Hermione asked.

"Right, you said you're going to tell me about your parents?" asked Hermione to Ed.

"Oh yeah, I did, didn't I? well, my parents are magical, they're both graduated from Hogwarts, and they are still alive, so technically, the school detects that I'm not a muggle-born, so I didn't get a special messenger, just owls, and because of that we thought the letter was a prank, but then it keeps coming for about a week or so, but then Dumbledore came, he apologised on behalf of the school and I quote 'want to see the boy who caused a mess in the ministry'."

"Mess? What mess?" Richard asked.

"Oh, I caused a high-profile magical accident, a car almost crashed into me, but an invisible wall popped out and the car crashed into it instead, the driver died in an instant, it was horrible." Ed shivered. "So, then the whole street saw the scene, they saw the car crashed into thin air, it even got into the newspaper at some point."

"Wait, why didn't I remember it?" Richard asked. Hermione also nodded with a suspicious look in her expression.

"That's because the ministry obliviated everyone that saw the news and the witnesses, that is why you probably don't remember." Ed answered.

"You did all that? Damn!" Richard murmured.

After that the compartment went silent, Ed just admired the view outside the window, green pastures as far as the eye can see. But then Richard suddenly broke the silence.

"Wow, you got a tattoo? I didn't see that before." He said while pointing at the owl mark behind Ed's left hand.

"Tattoo?" Hermione questioned; her voice was a bit higher than before.

"Oh this?" Ed said while rubbing the mark, "Not a tattoo, a family mark, I got it when I turned eleven, it just appeared out of nowhere." He lied.

"How do you know it's a family mark?" asked Hermione once again, her voice volume is lower this time.

"I saw the symbol on the letter from my parents." Said Ed, while rubbing the mark longingly.

"Alright, enough about me, how about you Richard, how come you got admitted to Hogwarts, I don't remember you telling me." Ed said.

"Well, we can't tell anyone who's non-magical, is it? So, I assumed you're non-magical, so I never told you, I mean you never told me too! Anyway, my foster parents were sceptical at first, but when the messenger showed the demonstration, they were excited that I am a wizard, they can't wait to see their son doing magic in front of them" he explained

"Well, that's good they're quite supportive, you're going to need that." Ed nodded, then his face turned serious. "But you're a muggle-born you know, you too Hermione, surely you two have noticed the prejudice to muggle-borns from the books you've read and what you have seen so far."

Both nodded seriously, noticing the serious topic, but then Neville said, "Well not everyone is like that, my Gran said that all that pure-blood nonsense is ruining the reputation of wizards and witches."

"Well even if everyone is not like that Neville, we still have to be careful."

After that, they talked about all sorts of things, Ed learned that Richard had been diagnosed with photographic memory, which explained how he absorbs knowledge quickly, he also learned that Hermione has a tendency to show off her knowledge any chance she gets to make friends, which is a quite bad idea.

Then a voice echoed through 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."

Hermione then shouted; a bit nervous they mentioned that they will arrive in a couple of minutes. "You, Ed, you better change, you're the only one that hasn't changed!". Ed then looked at the other two boys and saw that they were wearing their uniforms, 'When did they change?!' Ed thought.

"Ah, right I forgot!" Ed panicked. He then puts the uniform out of the suitcase and starts to wear it, when he lifts his shirt, suddenly Hermione once again shouted. "What are you doing! I'm still here!", a blush can be seen on her face.

"Shit! Sorry, I panicked. I've got no time, look away, I'll cast a spell on myself." He then cast a Disillusionment Charm on himself and started to wear his uniform.

After he finished, he looked around and saw everyone's mouth making an 'o' shape.

"How did you do that?" Richard asked, looking impressed.

"What? the spell? with a wand of course. Disillusionment Charm." Ed said casually.

"No, I mean, I know you use a wand, but HOW did you know the spell?" Richard pointed out.

"Reading a book about it of course." Ed said, looking at Richard strangely.

He then looked at Hermione and saw an expression of jealousy, but before anyone could say anything again, the train slowed right down and finally stopped, the four people got out of the compartment and joined the others. People pushed their way toward the door and out onto a tiny, dark platform.

"Firs' years! Firs' years over here!" a sudden shout can be heard, Ed looked at the source and saw Hagrid, holding a lantern. He followed the others, closing in on Hagrid, the giant greeted Harry, but he didn't saw Ed, he's beside Neville, nervously looking around trying to find Trevor the toad.

"Everyone here? Right then! This way te the boats, follow me." Hagrid shouted once again, he led the first years to the lakeshore, he told them to enter the boats, four people per boat, he sat with Hermione, Neville, and Richard, the boat then sailed across the lake, Ed can see the castle, it looks majestic, it's big, the full moon that was popping out of the clouds make the castle looked more beautiful, he took a picture of the scene. Ed can see the giant squid in the lake showing itself by surfacing, everyone was at awe of how beautiful the view is.

After a short voyage, they disembark on an underground stone pier, they walk through the pier, then Hagrid suddenly points at Neville.

"Oy, yeh there! Is this yer toad?" said Hagrid while picking up a toad from one of the boats.

"Trevor!" Neville cried, he hugged the toad tightly, so that the toad won't run again.

"What did I tell you, Neville? We found it now, so don't cry now okay?" Ed said, comforting Neville, the round-faced boy just wiped his tears and nodded.

After that Hagrid led them up the stone steps and grouped up in front of a huge wooden door.

"Everyone here?" he shouted, confirming the attendance of everyone. Then he knocked on the wooden door with his gigantic fist.

"All right, let's do this." Ed whispered, anticipating what will happen in the future.