Hogwarts Express

Today was 1st September 1988. It was the day when the most important and dangerous part of my life would begin. I woke up early due to the excitement and quickly finished my morning routine and made sure I had packed everything I needed in the trunk last night. I was now ready for Hogwarts.

The Matron was kind enough to give me a ride to the King's Cross railway station as she could see that it was an important day for me. My trunk was in my pocket so I did not look like a fool pulling a trolley along the platform with big cage and trunk on the platform. I don't know why the people around the platform not get weirded by this but my guess is that since it happens rarely and on some specific dates they must think that it is time for some kind of fest like comic con.

I made my way towards barrier near the platform 9 and platform 10. The barrier only allowed magical people to go through it otherwise someone may have accidentally found the secret platform over the years and we would have said bye-bye to the Statue of Secrecy. The area around the barrier had a magical aura around it which told me there was some magical enchantment there. I think it is something to hide the process of children disappearing through the wall from the non-magical people around the area. it was either do this or put the entrance to the platform 9 ¾ entrance in a less crowded area. Since the wizarding world was not known for its common sense they chose the former method. I stood in front of the barrier and without any hesitation walked through the wall.

Coming out through the barrier, I saw the Hogwarts express with a red engine producing huge amount of smoke waiting on the platform 9 ¾. I looked around and did not see any other trains, only empty platforms. I guess the one who decided to build the secret station with a number of platforms did not think it through thoroughly and did not think that no wizard or witch would use trains for their travel when they had much better and faster modes of transport. Some Hogwarts Headmaster must have felt sorry for him and decided to make a tradition for Hogwarts student to go to and from Hogwarts via train to make sure that his efforts were made use of in some form and the tradition continues till now.

Since I had reached early at about 10:00 am, the platform was not crowded and I could see only a few parents saying their goodbyes to their children. I easily made my way to the train and boarded it. I found an empty compartment towards the back and went in and put my trunk on the overhead rack after enlarging it. I did this since I did not know what the elves would do if they did not find my trunk on the train when they transported trunks to the student's dormitories after the sorting. Sherry had gone early to Hogwarts to help the other elves with the feast and would meet me there.

At exactly 11:00 am, the train started to move. I did not think there would be many students in my year as the year I was born was during wartime and no one would think of starting a family during that time. The number of students started increasing from the year Harry started school as the war had ended.

I had a minor disturbance during the trip when a first year student like me opened the door to my compartment. The scene in front of me eerily reminded me of the scene of Harry's first meeting with Malfoy on the train. At the door stood a rich pureblood heir surrounded by two minions. The novels did not have any famous student that started Hogwarts during my year so I did not know anything about the three of them. The rich child looked at my clothes which were muggle clothes, gave me a disdainful look and said, "Another mud blood." He then left the compartment with his cronies without giving me another look. I smiled as the universe had given me my own Draco Malfoy to humiliate. Things were going to be more fun now.

After that there were no other disturbances. Since I had free time, I started to think about which house I wanted to go through.

Gryffindor is out since I am not dumb or reckless enough to rush into danger and it would also make me too close to the trouble magnet characters of this world. There was also the issue of privacy as the dorm room was shared by four people as per the books I have read and they would be too noisy as normal Gryffindors. They worshipped Dumbledore and that was a big no for me.

Slytherin was out due to obvious reasons. The teachers would play more close attention to the house and it would ruin my plans of being low key and I would be under Snape who may try to spy on me. Additionally, when people finally get to know my magical strength, I would be seen as the next Dark lord by the wizarding sheep. Another thing bugging me was the whole system of a cunning person openly saying to others that he was cunning and ambitious which is a stupid move in my mind. Due to this there would be open political competition between the students of the house and students will have to follow the leader of the House. But it was not all bad since competing with other clever people from a very young age can either break you or make you more cunning and strong. The ones who come out of the house successfully are people who cannot be underestimated as they have been tested in wit, cunning and strength for 7 whole years. At least this was Slytherin during my parents time. I don't know how it is under Snape.

Hufflepuff is also no go. It was a house of loyal, hardworking and caring people. The only person I am loyal to in this dangerous world is myself. I can't trust anyone with my secrets in this world and the case of privacy was a major issue in this house much more than Gryffindor. They would not leave me alone and would ask questions about where I go every day. They would also try to make me a more social person which I was not planning to be.

So my only option is Ravenclaw. It is also something I can work with. From what I read in the books about Hogwarts, Ravenclaws get individual dorm rooms so that they could concentrate more on their studies. Therefore, privacy won't be an issue. The people in the house will be busy with their own work and won't bother other people. Their only goal would be to study and do assignments. I also liked Flitwick from the novels but I will leave my final opinion on him for when I see for myself.

Now that I had time, I started arranging the fake memories that I had already created for the purpose of sorting and continued perfecting them in my mind. I had to make sure that the hat would directly place me into the house without any deep thinking as there was the chance of it finding something wrong if it searched too deeply into my mind. My idea of creating fake memories gave me an extra task that I had to do every day without fail. I had to change the memories I did not want others to know create fakes daily. The Heir ring would help detect intrusion but it did not stop them and this may not stop some people from trying. I also did not want to take risk. If someone suddenly gave me Veritaserum, I did not want to blurt everything out. On the bright side, this exercise would keep my Mindscape in perfect condition.

So time went on with me practising Occlumency and making the fake memories up to date. No one else came into my cabin and there were no other disturbances. After a few hours I heard an announcement that we were about to reach Hogsmeade station. I got my new school robes from the trunk, changed into it and waited for the train to reach its destination.