8

Someone's palm rested on Harry's shoulder.

- Hello?

It was one of the redheaded twins Harry had followed through the barrier.

- Hello," Harry replied warily. A breeze from the open window ruffled his hair.

- What's that? - One of the twins suddenly asked Harry, pointing to the lightning scar.

- Blimey," said the other one. - 'Are you...

- It's him," said the first one. - 'It is you, isn't it? - He added, turning to Harry.

- What?" asked Harry.

- Harry Potter," said the twins together.

- 'No,' said Harry. - 'It's definitely not me.

Both boys stared at him.

- And the scar?

- I banged my forehead against a tree," Harry said his aunt's version of the truth seriously. Why? He needs to remember...

The twins looked at each other.

- Are you kidding me?

- Are you kidding me?

Harry looked innocent with honest eyes.

- Me? Never! I swear on my aunt! And my uncle too!

The twins shook their heads, and Harry prepared for another attack on his brain, but a voice was heard through the open carriage door:

- Fred? George? Are you there?

- Come on, Mum.

With one last look at Harry, the twins jumped off the train.

Harry became comfortable in the compartment and began watching the redhead family. From his point of view, the mother was acting like a hen, and the boys were acting like complete fools. Liz would never wipe his nose in front of everyone there! Even Aunt Petunia understood that she shouldn't make fun of Dudley like that in front of other people.

However, the ginger family's chatter was helpful, too. From it, he learned that one of the redheads had become perfect (hadn't the police?) and that the twins had blown up the toilets. Since Harry himself had done the same thing a few years earlier with Dudley's help and managed not to get caught, he had no respect for the twins. What a comedian. They've done the hatchet job, and the brother's got them off. Pfft...

Wait a minute?

- Mum, Mom, you know what? You'll never guess who we met on the train!

- Who?

- Harry Potter! Only he says he's not him!

Yeah, neon gas," Harry said to himself.

- He also says he hit a tree.

Harry heard a little girl's voice.

- Mummy, Mummy, can I go to the train and see him too? Can I, can I? Please...

That snotty little brat...

- Ginny, you've already seen him, and there's no point in looking at him; he's not a crocodile in the zoo. Really, Fred? How would you know?

- You asked. And I saw the scar. Right on his forehead, like a lightning bolt.

Harry promised himself he'd drown the redhead in the toilet because, if anything, the explosion could be repeated.

- Poor little guy. I wondered why he was alone.

- That's all right. Do you think he remembers what You-Know-Who looks like?

The mother of the redheads has suddenly turned gray.

- I forbid you to ask him. Don't you dare? That's one thing he shouldn't mention on the first day of school.

- Come on, Mom. Be quick.

The whistle blew.

- Well, run along! - said their mother and the three boys climbed into the carriage. Harry wondered if he should lock the compartment from the inside, but on reflection, he decided against it. He would have to meet them sooner or later anyway. He'd discover how they'd made such a mess of the toilet.

The train started, and the compartment door slid aside a few minutes later. The younger redhead loomed up on the threshold, tall, unkempt, and giving the impression of not being the brightest of fellows.

- Is this seat taken? - He asked, pointing to the chair across from Harry. - There's plenty more where that came from.

Harry shook his head, and the boy sat down. He glanced furtively at Harry but immediately turned away and stared out the window. There was still a smudge of soot on his nose.

- Hey, Ron!

The twins were right there.

- Hey, we're going to the middle of the train - they say Lee Jordan's got a giant tarantula there.

- So be it," Ron muttered.

- Harry," said the other twin. - 'I think we still need to introduce ourselves. Fred and George Weasley. And this is our brother Ron. Well, hello there!

- I didn't introduce myself to you either," Harry said, but it was too late. The twins slid the door shut with a click.

- Are you really Harry Potter? - Ron blurted out.

- Maybe I am," Harry said thoughtfully. - But you see the problem? I don't remember anything after I hit the tree.

- You don't? - Ron wondered.

- Maybe it wasn't the tree," Harry shrugged. - I need to remember.

- You don't remember anything at all!

- Yes, I do. I think I bit someone. It hurt.

Ron looked at Harry apprehensively.

- Vold... the one who can't be named?!

- If he can't be named, how can he be defined? - Harry looked surprised.

- Well... he's the only one, isn't he?!

- Bitten?

- You know," the boy said grimly.

- I don't know," Harry smiled a happy, idiotic smile. - I don't know anything at all... I guess.

- Then how did you end up here? - The boy suspected he was being taunted and was determined to find out.

- I don't know...

- What do you even know?

- That I bit someone... And then there was the tree...

Carrot-top spat grimly on the floor and turned away into a corner. It didn't last long. That is until a rat crawled out from behind the scruff of Harry's robe.

- Oh, what's that?

- A crocodile," said Harry emphatically.

- No, it's not! It's a rat! - Ron grumbled.

- My crocodile's plastic surgery is none of your business.

- Pla... what?

Harry was proudly silent. But he couldn't stay quiet for long.

- Are you sure it's a crocodile?

- I don't know.... but it bit someone, too.

- And then bumped into a tree?

- That's why it's so tiny. It's got a lot of teeth, though.

- I have a rat, too," Ginger realized he was being mocked but didn't give up trying to make friends. - His name is Scruffy.

Ron reached into his jacket pocket and pulled a soundly sleeping fat rat. But it had been asleep for precisely three seconds. Seeing his rival, Mick lunged forward, and the two rats rolled across the floor in a gray-white ball.

Ron drew his wand from his pocket.

- Whoa! Snap! Oops...

A whirlwind of sparks exploded from the end of the wand.

Nothing happened to the rats. The table, on the other hand, gritted two rows of teeth. It snapped them and tried to bite Harry on the finger.

The boy shrugged, then tucked his notebook melancholically away from the table. A toothy desk? Did you see the explosion of rattlesnake gas? That's right...

- Finite!!! - Ron shrieked. - Finite cantata!!!

The table grinned even more expansive. The rats fought. The door to the compartment opened.

- Excuse me, have you seen my thi... ow!

Table grinned friendly at the boy.

The door slammed shut. Harry sighed and turned to the table.

- Shut your mouth, now. You'll be missing many teeth if you are okay with my putting fluoride toothpaste in your mouth.

The table obeyed and shut quickly.

- Mick!

Bitter chocolate was adored by rats and Harry alike. And it was today that Liz had slipped a whole two-hundred-gram bar into the boy's pocket.

It was enough.

The rat immediately spat at his adversary, lunged for his master, and did not stand. Master! Share it!

Harry somewhat broke him off a piece of tile.

Rats weren't allowed, of course, but he'd have one as an exception.

Ron's scruffy little lad weaved his way to his master as well. The table snapped its jaw.

- What's going on here!? Neville said your desk came to life!?

The voice belonged to a girl with lush brown hair and too-long front teeth. Without asking permission, she resolutely entered the compartment and sat down next to Ron.

- Is this true?

- What did Neville say? - Harry was in the mood to fool around. The chocolate was delicious, Ron was silent, and the girl was neither sympathetic nor annoyed.

- That your desk came to life.

- No. He just started biting," Harry shrugged. The girl looked at him like he was an idiot.

- Tables don't biteaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!

Taking advantage of his being allowed, table pawed at the girl's robe and began to chew vigorously.

- She's off to a good start," Harry said, glaring at the girl as she shot out of the compartment. - She could do a hundred miles an hour. Would she fall off the train?

Neville sprawled on the wall, shook his head stupefied, trying to come to his senses.

- What on earth was going on?!

Draco Malfoy appeared at the end of the corridor.

- Pilgrimage," said Harry.

- A what? Where?

- Who - and to whom.

A look of understanding dawned on the boy's face.

- Well, who to, I see, but who?

- I don't know. They ran away too fast.

- You didn't get a chance to ask?

- Didn't even try. No, I didn't. There's still one left. Meet Ron Weasley.

- Draco Malfoy," the blond boy said. - What are you doing?

- Table-training.

- Are you serious?

- Yeah. Hup!

At the gesture of his hand with the chocolate bar, his mouth opened - and he was rewarded with the delicious remainder of the bar.

- Oh, great! How did you do that?

- It's not me; it's Weasley.

- Oh, wow! The first Weasley to do anything.

- In the face? - Ron strode back to speechlessness.

- And muzzle has bodyguards," Draco interjected. - Crabbe, Goyle, come in. Harry, I'd like you to meet Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle.

I- Pleased to meet you. Harry Potter.

- You said you couldn't remember," Ron looked genuinely hurt.

- I'm not going to be able to remember anything else," Harry looked calm. - I'm not going near the table, he bites.

- Can I feed him?

- I don't know. It's not my table.

- Oh, there's the sweets trolley.

Harry didn't like the chocolate frogs. How can you eat something that twitches in your mouth? So did the pumpkin muffins, but the table ate everything on it and spent a long time spitting up some candy. According to Malfoy - in all flavours, from snot to sulphur.

Harry shrugged. Well, Muggles have that kind of candy in the trick-or-treat shop too. More varied. Anyway, I can understand a table. It's disgusting.

Ron sat silent, but Harry and Draco managed to chat the whole way. Draco was actively urging Harry to go to Slytherin, and the boy shrugged his shoulders.

- I actually want to study science. What's the difference between the faculties?

- Slytherin is the coolest," Malfoy began to tell him.

- "That's not true! - Ron grumbled. - Gryffindor is the coolest.

- That's because they take trash like Weasley! Us Malfoys...

- ...the Dark Lord's henchmen!

- And you're Dumbledore's bastard! And your father's a loser, so shut up.

- You shut up!

Ron tried to fight again, but Crabbe and Goyle thwarted that initiative. Harry was disgusted.

- So, here's the deal. I'm definitely not going to Gryffindor or Slytherin now. I'd have no business proving a point with my fists.

- We'll see," muttered both Malfoy and Weasley at the same time. They glanced at each other, then fell silent. They sincerely thought that their department was the coolest, and that's where the hat would send Harry.

Harry, aware that he must have some information, began to ask Crabbe and Goyle about all four faculties. The boys answered without any unnecessary flattery, and slowly the conversation flowed.

Someone's voice came through the corridor:

- "Our train arrives at Hogwarts in five minutes. Please leave your luggage in the compartment - it will be taken to the school separately.

Harry habitually slipped the bag with the most critical reagents over his shoulder. Not to be left behind! If he were a teacher, he'd shake out the luggage. And the bag, enchanted for its capacity and worth more than a cast-iron bridge, as Liz put it, held the most important things.

Let them rummage around in their socks; he wouldn't trust anyone else with the germ of a chem lab!

They were approaching their destination. The train went slower and slower and finally came to a stop. Everyone piled onto the small, dark platform. The cold night air was getting under Harry's robe. Soon a lantern flickered over the pupils' heads, and Harry heard the roar of some donkey:

- First graders! First graders, over here!

A giant towered over the crowd.

- Follow me, follow me... Any other first graders? Watch your step! The first graders are all with me!

Slipping and stumbling, they followed the giant down the narrow path. It was already pitch black on both sides. Harry thought the forest must be very dense here, so he took a torch out of his pocket. The light came in handy. No one was talking; only Neville, the boy who had lost his toad, was sniffing his nose.

- Now you'll see for the first time what Hogwarts is like," the giant announced over his shoulder, "just around this corner.

The response was a resounding "Uh-oh!"

The path suddenly broke off at the edge of a large, dark lake. On the other side, at the top of a high mountain, a castle with many arches and turrets was spread out; in its windows, the lights gleamed, twinkling with the starry sky.

- Four per boat, no more! - said the giant, pointing to a whole flotilla of small boats bobbing in the water near the shore. Following Harry into the boat were Malfoy and his bodyguards, who carelessly propped Ron's leg up. Carrot-top had barely jumped up before he'd gone for a swim.

- Is everyone here? - Shouted the giant, who was sitting alone in the boat. - Well, then, let's go!

The boats pulled off simultaneously and slid down the lake, smooth as a mirror. Everyone was silent as they stared at the castle. The closer they sailed, the more grandiose it seemed, looming over the rock on which they kept their course.

And at that moment!

Tentacles appeared out of the water! There were a lot of them, quite a lot of them. Straight ahead.

And there was a big head and a mouth and teeth.

- Fear not! - called out the giant. - It's our local...

Who's local Harry just didn't listen. Nervous chemists tend to defend themselves pre-emptively, you know.

A slingshot, a piece of sodium, clawed with his bare hand (remember to rinse and keep out of sight!!!) - and the part of sodium, a modest one, fifty grams, flies straight towards the mouth of the monster, which caught the gift and slammed shut.

Apparently, from surprise.

The exothermic reaction was highly successful. Harry realized this when splinters of teeth flew from the squid's mouth, and the tentacles convulsively twitched - and went under the water.

Following them, the head, with its eyes narrowed to its nose, sank.

- Squid!!!!! - cried the giant. - Oh, come on!!! Oh, come on!!!

It must be said that Harry's conscience was not awakened by this.

Squid is my friend, but sodium is more important to me.

- Well, you're cool," whispered Malfoy. No one but him and Crabbe and Goyle could see what came from where.

- And the squid will be crumpled now," Harry shrugged.

- My dad told me he never attacks!

- Do you want to be the first case in the stats?

From the look on Draco's face, he'd get over it without that kind of publicity.

Anyway, the boats moved on, though the giant tried to dive in to give first aid to the injured cephalopod. But alas, he could not swim.

- Get down! - A still wailing Hagrid commanded as the first boat reached the cliff, and they ducked, and the boats took them through the ivy underneath, hiding a wide opening in the stone wall. Then they paddled down a narrow, dark corridor that seemed to take them deeper and deeper under the castle until, at last, they stopped at an underground cave. Everyone made their way to the rocky shore.

Then, following Hagrid's lantern, everyone climbed steps carved into the rock, leading them to a damp, flat meadow in the castle's shadow.

Another flight of stone stairs, and they were standing in front of a vast oak gate.

- Is everyone here?

Hagrid raised his giant fist and slammed it into the castle gate three times.