Hoggy Hoggy Hogwarts!

"We are now arriving. Please leave your belongings on the train, as they will be taken separately."

The train slows as it pulls into Hogsmeade station.

I can feel the atmosphere of the train get pumped up by the excitement and happiness of all the students for having finally arrived.

It's still a little disorienting even if it is a generally positive atmosphere, so I clamp down to make the feeling dampen.

Hermione looks over at me a little worriedly, since I randomly started feeling a little uncomfortable.

My empathy is useful, but whenever there are too many people with strong emotions, I start to feel dizzy and can even get a migraine.

"I'm fine." I assure her as I catch my bearings again.

We exit the cabin, only to find a tsunami of students all trying to make their way out.

We wait until a spot opens before making our way into the line, and eventually make it out the door and onto the platform.

We are met with a stone walkway with red wooden benches, and lamp posts along the entirety of the platform.

There are also a few buildings here. Likely where the conductor and whatever other engineers work on the train stay.

It is still warm even with the sun having gone down. September 1st is the first day of Autumn.

As we all waddle off the train slowly, a bear of a man walks up to all the students with a lantern in his hands.

"Right, then! First years! This way, please! Come on, now, don't be shy! Come on now, hurry up!"

'Is it just me or was that the exact phrase he said in the movie?'

Oh, well.

All the first years walk towards him and follow as he guides us all to the end of the platform, and down a rocky path that is quite uneven and poorly lit.

I stumble a bit as my foot catches on a rock that I didn't see until I hit it.

"Oh my gosh. Enough of this." I grumble out.

I fwip out my wand.

"Lumos."

Instantly a very bright light erupts from the top of my wand.

The other kids around me avert their eyes, and a flick my wand, shooting the ball of light off into the air so that it can illuminate everything like a flare.

As the light that was threatening to blind them has left, they start looking back, and opening their eyes again.

"Bloody hell." Someone says.

"Give us a warning next time, yeah?" Another says annoyedly.

I pause, sensing how some are a little angry at me having given no warning.

"Sorry... I just got annoyed at not being able to see where I was going."

Some relax little at that, but quite a few are still a little bothered for whatever reason.

One kid looks up at the floating light.

"At least we can all see now." Everyone agrees with that.

---

"Right! You'll get your first sight o' Hogwarts just around the corner here!"

As we turn the corner, the wall of dirt and stone finally ended, and we finally can see the beautiful castle. Lit by the moon and stars, and glowing with the light of torches from afar, it is a wondrous sight.

As we continue just a few more meters, we are met with the Black Lake. It's calm waters holding about fifteen boats at the shoreline.

"Right! Everyone into the boats! No more than three people per boat!" Hagrid calls out.

Everyone clambers into the boats, grabbing their friends to follow along with them.

I lead Hermione into one of the unoccupied boats at the last kid climbs into a boat, leaving Hermione and myself alone.

"Right then! Forwards!" Hagrid calls out after looking back and seeing no other students trying to get on a boat.

Instantly, the boat jerks forward, beginning to glide across the black, glossy water.

---

As we are about halfway across the lake, one of the kids, a somewhat well-developed child, makes a commotion.

What did he do you may ask?

Well.

The mad lad just did a headfirst dive into the lake from his boat. I'm a little confused since this never happened in the movie, or the book as far as I know. Though the Phoenix did say things were different than what I know.

Several students yell and scream in fear and surprise. I just look on calmly with my eyebrows furrowed. From what I know, the giant squid will be pulling him out in seconds. According to Hogwart's: A History, there are a few dangerous species living in the lake, but the squid is quite friendly, and will often help any students that accidentally (or purposefully in this case) fall in.

Not ten seconds later, the boy is lifted out of the water, with his clothes and hair dripping wet, but with a huge smile on his face.

Holding him in the air is a large slimy tentacle which is wrapped securely around his midsection.

The boy is plopped down onto his boat and the tentacle gently releases him. It recedes back into the water, but not before giving a bit of a wave. The boy waves back.

Hagrid, who was watching all this from his boat, starts to reprimand him about how dangerous that stunt was, and how he shouldn't have done it.

The boy just takes it all in stride and shrugs it off.

Funny.

---

"Watch your heads now!" Hagrid bellows as we pass under a bridge that requires him to duck, but all us kids have several feet of clearance.

Some kids who aren't paying attention to where we are going took his advice and ducked down, causing me to laugh along with several others.

We make it to the gravelly beach a moment later. We all climb out of the boats, and Hagrid leads us up a flight of stairs towards a very large wooden door with metal reinforcements.

Hagrid walks over to the door, and pounds on it with his thick, meaty hands.

*Bang Bang*

The door opens a moment later to reveal a fairly tall older witch wearing dark green robes and a pointed hat, the traditional dress of witches and wizards.

I think it is ugly, though it does have a certain style to it which makes it more pleasing to the eye.

I'm shaken out of my thoughts when Hagrid speaks.

"Here are the first-years, Professor McGonagall."

"Very good, Hagrid. I trust there weren't any problems?"

This makes him pause and sweat a little. I can feel him get a little nervous.

"No. No problems at all, professor." He gives a quick glance to the boy that jumped out of his boat and lumbers off before McGonagall can question him further.

Obviously, he isn't a great liar, as McGonagall easily picked up on nervousness and his glance at the boy, who is still sopping wet, and gave a piercing stare trying to figure out what could have happened.

She gives up on it a moment later as she realized there is nothing to be done without any evidence other than the fact that the boy is covered in water. For all she knows, it was a prank from another student.

Goodness knows how many pranks happen here at Hogwarts.

"Welcome to Hogwarts. Now, in a few moments, you will pass through these doors and join your classmates. But before you can take your seats you must be sorted into your houses. They are-..." Professor McGonagall starts her speech about how Hogwarts is organized into the four houses, but I block it out as I've heard it before.

However, in the middle of the speech, she is interrupted.

"Trevor!" Neville calls out.

He runs up in front of the professor to collect his toad that obviously ran away once again.

Professor McGonagall levels a chilling glare at him for interrupting her speech. She really does have that look down pat.

"Sorry." Neville says quietly, returning to his spot in the crowd of children.

"The sorting ceremony will begin momentarily." The professor says to everyone as she moves on and turns around to leave.