“Dad,” Donald asked on their drive over to King’s Cross Station. “What does this letter mean by Platform 9 ¾?”

“It’s one of their spells my boy,” his dad turned down the volume on his GPS, it was a long way to London from Bristol. “They put a perennial, or everlasting, enchantment on one of the pillars at the station. It’s a portal to the Hogwarts Express. That’s where you’ll have first contact with your fellow students. Try to get along, and ask a lot of questions, but not too many that it looks suspicious.”

“The boys play football, don’t they?” Donald was on a youth team and was a decent goalkeeper. “I could get along with them on that.”

“I’m afraid their sports are a bit more,” his father paused and looked around before chuckling. “Dangerous. Their pastime is a game called Quidditch that is a bit like football, but they play it flying on broomsticks.”

“You just made that up,” Donald protested in disbelief.

“I’m afraid when you come back during the summer and tell me everything you learned, I’ll be saying that to you a lot, son. I know a bit about the wizarding world, but I’ve only really stepped foot into it when we were buying your supplies at Diagon Alley. You’re going to have to pay attention and tell me everything.”

“I will dad.”

“Now son, I want to talk about something very serious,” King’s Cross was only a few more minutes away. “There are four different houses you might be sorted into, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Slytherin, and Gryffindor,” he said the last one with anger. “There seems to be a common misconception that all of the dark wizards and witches come from Slytherin; your mother’s killer I know for a fact was from Gryffindor.”

“That doesn’t sound very evil,” Donald looked down at his feet, hating the event being mentioned.

“Well, everyone gets sorted by a hat; I want to tell you my boy, that even if you do get sorted into Gryffindor or Slytherin, no article of clothing can tell you who you are or what you will become. Your destiny is your own, son, and at Hogwarts you will learn how to forge it.”

They parked their car and Donald pushed the trolley. His father pointed out where Platform 9 ¾ was. The busy train station was oblivious to the enchantment as Donald ran through the portal. There in front of him was the Hogwarts Express, exuding in its own magnificence.

“Wow,” Donald couldn’t help but say before boarding the train. He found himself a nice empty cabin where he could sit down and read through one of the books that caught his eye the most, the simply titled Book of Spells by Miranda Goshank. As a muggle-born, the book wasn’t the easiest to open and look through. He saw a small commotion of other students close to his age walk through and he motioned for any of them who wanted to come and join him on his first ride into Hogwarts…

Platform 9 and 3/4 . . . you'd think the most difficult part of Shiawase's day would be figuring out that she had to wheel herself through a pillar to get here. And yet, no, the hardest obstacle . . . was a ramp.

She had never been on an actual train before - and it looked like she wasn't about to be on one. The good news was that she had a ramp to get onto the train. The bad news was that there was the slightest lip to get onto the ramp from the platform. This wouldn't be so big of a deal if she were going off the ramp, but getting onto it meant going up a diagonal, and the lip made it impossible for her to roll herself over it, despite her constant readjusting and trying again. And so, she had to sit there and flush with embarrassment.

Someone offered to help, but she snapped, "I can do this myself!" She then sighed. "I mean. I appreciate the offer, but I will be okay. You needn't worry about me." She wheeled away from the train, clearing a space for anyone who wanted to get on the train ahead of her. She then leaned over and pulled her crutches out of their holder on her wheelchair. With no small amount of difficulty, she pulled herself up onto her crutches and walked behind her wheelchair. Carefully, she set her crutches onto the seat of the chair, then gingerly grabbed the handles. She could do this.

Putting as much of her weight as possible onto her chair, she wheeled it forward, over the lip. The strain of pushing it herself was evident on her face, the sweat on her brow, as she continued forward up the ramp.

Don't fall. Don't slip. You got this, Shiawase. Whatever you do, don't fall. Don't look like an ass in front of all these people . . . .

When she finally got onto the train, she lifted her crutches back up and used them to get the short distance from the back of her chair to the front and plop down. She took some deep breaths. Thank goodness that was finally over . . . now she just had to get out of the corridor. As students flitted to and fro, she found herself having a hard time getting anywhere before it was full up. And that's when she saw a boy beckon for people to come in. A bunch of students were standing before her, yet they seemed not to have noticed. She cleared her throat.

"Excuse me. May I please get past you?" People cleared the way as she wheeled herself forward, joining the young man.

"Thanks for that. I thought for sure everywhere would be full before I could get in. Or they wouldn't want me there. Either way." She offered a smile as she used her crutches to lift herself out of her chair. "Doesn't seem like there's enough space for this chair here, huh? Don't worry. It folds up. You'll see in just a moment." She bent over and took a cushion off the chair, when she set onto the seat nearest her, then moved around the back of her wheelchair, lifting the bar, slowly folding her chair and setting it aside. It was out of the way enough to not obstruct the path in or out. "I can also park it at the end if this car gets too full but I don't think that's a worry really." Now sitting across from the boy, she met his eyes.

"I'm Shiawase, by the way. Shiawase Mamori. I'm a first year . . . and I think you are, too, since I also have that book and also pore over it in my spare time! What's your name? How much progress have you made on reading your book so far? It's quite tricky to try to look at it on my own. But it's so interesting! I wasn't sure I understood what was in there, so I tried to search on the computer for an answer, but nothing really came up. At least, nothing useful. And that has me thinking, why? Why are those of us without magic made to think that magic isn't real when it is? Obviously there was a need during the Salem Witch Trials and plenty of times since where being different in any way was bad, but now, in modern times? I'm not so sure it needs to be a secret. And imagine what we could do if we combined magic with technology! We could have flying cars! Or, or, we could use magic to make our rocket ships safer. We could make other planets habitable! We could . . . ." Her face fell as she pondered her words.

"My mom's a doctor. She saw all kinds of horrible things when she was training during her residency. What if . . . the whole time, magic could have cured them? What if, the whole time, magic could have cured cancer? What if magic could cure me?" She clenched her fists. "I should think I'd be quite angry. My condition is cured best when someone is a baby. To find out I had to wait this long . . . to only be worthy of being cured because I'm special? That would be hard pill to swallow. Though I guess I don't know. Maybe magic is limited and can't cure certain things. Maybe that's what I hope. Few things hurt worse than knowing someone can do something to help you but won't because they just don't feel like it, you know?" She averted her gaze. "Anyway, I've rambled on far too long, and I'm overthinking this. So. Maybe, we drop it? This should be exciting! Do you know anything about Hogwarts? I know absolutely nothing, myself."

Tag @Donald McCollum

"Make sure they get watered on time!", Charlie yelled over her shoulder as she grabbed the handle of her trolly and begain to push through the pillar of platform 9^3/4's. Her mother yelled back as she disapeared through the portal, "I will, be safe darling...have a good time!!...Make lots of frie...". Her mothers voice was cut short as the sounds of the platform took over, the buisiness of it all making her fingers clamp down tighter on the handle of her cart. She knew what her mother was going to say but she chose to ignore her, making friends wasn't a big priority of hers as much as learning new things about plants and their magical properties.

Pushing past a few crowds of other kids as they made their way onto the train, setting her cart of to the side of the others that still needed to be loaded onto the baggage car, she turned to make her way onto the train with the rest. Taking a step up the stairs and turning to walk through the cars,cluthing her bag as she dodged a few others who bolted back and forth down the isle before settling in their cabins.

She caught glimse of a boy waving at any passerbys, willing them to join him, taking the opportunity of not missing a chance to have a not so packed cabin. Patiently she waited behind a small group as they made way for a girl as she politely asked them to move aside for her and her wheelchair. Taking her time as the way cleared to move to the cabin door, sliding it open slowly, thankful no one else so far had chosen to take him up on his offer.

She peeked inside, giving a soft smile to the two sittings, "Hello..I hope it is alright if I join you two...everywhere else seems to be filling up quite quickly." An awkward smile danced over her face as she sat down on the seat closest to the window, looking out at the platform before turning her attention back to the two, setting her bag on her lap, "I'm Charlie...I'm a first-year...I..", her words trailed off as she thought to herself, they wouldn't be interested in that, no one usually is. "Are you both excited to learn new things? What would be the subject you are most anxious to learn about?" Hoping she wasn't being too much with her questions, she wasn't sure how much they both knew about the world she grew up in, unaware of their conversation before she got into the cabin.
Fiddling with her bag she looked away before they would have the chance to see the anxious expression run across her face, she was trying to keep her nerves in check, she didn't feel like she was doing that great of a job.

@Donald McCollum @Shiawase Mamori

Colin and Liam watched as a couple of kids charged through the mighty brick pillar between platforms nine and ten at King's Cross Station. They were twins. Their arms were around each other's necks as they teased each other about who should go through first.

"I'm the older brother, Liam, so I should go first, right?" said Colin, scruffing Liam's pale blond hair.

"By two whole minutes you are, and no! I'm the smarter brother, so I'll actually go first, right!" said Liam, scruffing Colin's jet black hair.

As they waited their turn, they watched as a solidly built brown haired boy charged through, and then a girl with long black hair rolled through on some kind of wheeled contraption. The boys looked at each other in astonishment. "Must be some kind of racing rig," Liam said. "She was really moving!"

Colin could only shrug. Neither had ever seen more than an odd motor car in their entire lives, and now they were in London, surrounded by trolleys and busses and cars and lorries and pantechnicons of every shape and description and drivers hooting at one another and making a great commotion!

"Colin, would you mind if I sat for a while with the lads we met in Diagon Alley?" asked Liam. When Colin looked into his twin's eyes they looked like he was asking Colin to tear himself in half. He understood, though. They'd never been parted in their entire lives, and Liam had met some lads that he took a liking to. Colin's heart skipped three or four beats. With that one question, Liam opened up in his mind the first understanding that Hogwarts would very likely separate them in many ways. He really wanted to say, no, Liam! I want to keep my around your neck forever, just like we are now!

"Um. Okay, Liam. Promise, though, we'll stand together when we get to this school, right?" is what he actually said.

"Aye, Colin! I'll never be parted from you, you know that, lad!" said Liam in return.

It was their little sister, Ciarán, who had been watching the other kids cross over the threshhold of magic who spurred them into motion. "Alright, you two! Enough gobbing! You'll go together or not at all!"

Colin gave Ciarán a long hug and promised that he'd write her often, and then their great-great-grandmother who stood nearby. Her brilliant pink, spiky hair style surely drew the attention of passers by from the kids and families disappearing into the brick wall. "Well, awa wi ye, noo!" she said and the twins pushed their trolleys through the wall together.



Once on the platform, Colin could not help but stop in amazement at the huge machine puffing and chuffing before him. All black and red and wreathed in steam it seemed to him that muggles had created a magical dragon from iron and brass and harnessed it to waggons. Liam shouted: "See you at Hogwarts, Colin!" Colin could only nod dumbly as he stood transfixed by the iron monster before him.

Of course he'd read about the muggle wizards Trevethick and Brunel and the great things they'd built, but engravings in books couldn't prepare one to meet the marriage of magic and technology up close and in person! He suddenly understood his father's passion for 'muggle magic' and incorporating their works with wizard magic. He wondered if, all those years ago, he had not stood similarly transfixed by the mighty iron dragon that the steam locomotive for the Hogwarts Express.

At last he tore himself away and got on the train. He wandered along through the waggons and at last found a compartment with an open door. He peeked in. The brown haired boy was there, and so was the black haired girl with the racing rig. Another girl was there too, one with long black hair.

"Do yiz mind gin A sit me self doon there? -- Er! English, Colin!" he said with a blushing smile. "Can I sit myself down with you lot?" he asked. He sat across from the girl with the long black hair, by the window.

@Donald McCollum @Shiawase Mamori @Charlie Edwards

He smiled at the first girl who entered his car. Were he older and grew into his cheekbones a bit more, it would have been charming, for now it was just shy of goofy. Donald was not expecting to see a wheelchair in a place like this; the stories he heard about the magical world made witches and wizards seem superhuman to say the least. She quickly explained that she was born a muggle like him so it made a little more sense, though at first he thought it was a magical curse but figured it would be more polite to keep that to himself. Her idea of combining magic and technology fascinated Donald, though his thoughts on it were far more a product of his upbringing. She asked him about the Book of Spells and he hadn't the faintest clue as to what anything meant either.

"Medicine isn't the only thing I feel magic could enhance," Donald's smile receded back to the proper size for his young face. "Imagine if those folks from Salem had magical weapons? The world would be rather different right now if regular people could destroy things so easily." He wanted to get his piece in before discussing the book with her. Shrugging before admitting, "I have no idea what half of these words mean either."

Another girl entered the car with much less commotion than Shiawase did. Charlie only asked a couple of straightforward questions without revealing a whole lot about herself other than her name. Donald wasn't sure if she was from the muggle born as well or a native from this mystical world and the question sounded far too rude to ask. As he was about to answer her question, another boy their age came to ask if he could join them. Caught off guard at first, Donald thought that what he was saying was some sort of incantation before realizing that it was just an accent he had heard before.

"Grab a seat," he insisted. "I'm Donald, this is Shiawase and Charlie. Did you say your name was Colin? Shiawase and I have no idea what this book is saying. Charlie was asking what classes we were looking forward to. For me, I can't wait for whatever the Hogwarts version of PE class is. I've scored quite a few goals in football but I'm pretty excited about trying out that broomstick game. More, I guess academic of a class I'm interested in is Defense Against the Dark Arts. I've heard enough scary stories about warlocks and evil witches that I want to be prepared if anything attacks."

Donald was getting quite hopeful that he was already starting to fit in with this new world he was set to join. From a young age, he was always told to be wary of these sorts, but they were kids just like him. He still had a mission to do, but becoming their friends was exactly what he was supposed to do, Donald supposed he could have fun with it and leaned into the middle of the car for more discussions about the magical world.

@Shiawase Mamori @Charlie Edwards @Colin McCoire

"Indeed, it isn't! And I suppose you have a point. In the wrong hands, magic and technology combined would be very horrific. There are plenty of people who could not be trusted with such things. Then again, there are plenty of others who can be trusted. I guess the question would be, is it worth it? In my opinion, it'd be worth it, but it's certainly up for debate."

She waved to Charlie when she came in.

"Hi, Charlie. It's a pleasure to meet you!" And then Charlie asked if she and Donald were excited to learn new things. Shiawase's eyes lit up.

"Yes! Yes, I am! Very much!" She clapped her hands. "I'm so looking forward to this, I could scream. I won't actually do that, but you know! I just, I love learning! Oooh, I can't wait to see what kind of library they have here!" She then blushed slightly. "Sorry. I should probably move on before I get too carried away."

Charlie then asked what subject they were most anxious to learn about, and Shiawase pondered for a moment. That was when Colin came in. She smiled and waved at him, too.

"It's nice to meet you, Colin."

Donald began answering as she thought, and he mentioned looking forward to PE, sports types of things. Hmmm, a sporty one, huh?

"I admit . . . learning how to fly sounds very fun to me. But I'm not sure I'd go for sports. I guess I'll put a pin in it. I hadn't really considered it, but I should think I'd be able to fly as well as anyone else. In any case, if you should get on a sports team, I've been known to cheer people on. I've made treats for friends before on game days. Maybe I'd cook something for you, too. Although, I'm sure this school has professional kitchen staff. They might be miffed if some 11-year-old kid gets in their way. But I could cheer you on all the same." She nodded.

"Defense Against the Dark Arts sounds like an excellent class, too. I do love to be prepared in case of an emergency. Though for me, personally, I want to learn how to heal with magic. I'm not sure which specific class that would be, I just. I want to be able to help people." She looked to Charlie and Colin. "What about you? And, could either of you tell me a bit more about Hogwarts? I know very little and it would be nice for me to know generally how the school works before I actually get there, you know?"

@Donald McCollum | @Charlie Edwards |@Colin McCoire

Colin scooched around and smoothed out his dark green kilt so he could see Charlie and Shiawase and Donald. "Aye! I'm Colin. McCoire. Sorry aboot my accent --- we don't speak English at home, so I've only ever read it. I expect I'll get better at it soon enough!" He inclined his head towards each in greeting.

He took a look at the book Donald pointed at. "Oh, aye --- Book of Spells! Tis a text book. I've even tried a couple! See here," he said as he flipped through the pages to find a familiar one. "All these sections just describe the charms. You know, what they do, right? And then here, it shows you what directions to flit your wand aboot. And this bit here is the incantation, or spell. Da says you have to say the words very carefully or your tongue can fall off or something." He nodded. "I think there's more to magic than just waving a wand around. But --- I guess we'll have to learn all the basic stuff first!"

As Donald moved on to sports, Colin said: "Oh, football? I've heard of that! We've never actually played proper football, but me and my brothers and sisters made up all kinds of games where we kick and bat a ball around! I think the broom game you mean is quidditch. We don't play that where I'm from. We play camanacht, or hurling, like muggle folk, only we stand and fly around on charmed caber poles to play! Liam, he's my twin, we play that pretty well! But I think I'd like to try out for quidditch myself. Will you be too?"

Colin looked at the other two, and a thought struck him. "Say, are you muggle borns? Wicked! My Da loves muggle magic. He's always trying find clever ways of getting tecky nollogie to work better with magic."

But when Donald mentioned warlocks and evil witches, Colin winced a little. A vague sense of ill ease cast its shadow over his heart. But he shook it off. "Aye, Defense, I think, will be my favourite. You just never know when some nasty bloke will A.K. you!"

He turned to Shinwase next. "Hogwarts? Well, that's the best school for magic in the U.K.! I mean, not everyone goes there, but most do. My older sister, Moira, she didn't go. But she's daft. I'm pretty sure my younger brothers will, and I know Ciarán, my younger sister, will go. They say she's got an odd manner, but I'll look after her!

"Anyway, I know Hogwarts is huuuuge! It's this big castle up in the Highlands, actually not far from where I live, as the crow flies anyway. But as for the poor wolf who has to run up and down all the mountains and valleys, well, it's a long way to run! I know there's four houses they sort us into. Liam and me are hoping for Ravenclaw! There's also Hufflepuff, Gryffindor and Slytherin. I think they sort us on our personality or something. Ma says we'd better get Ravenclaw, like her and Da. But Mamó, she's our great-great-grandma, she says Slytherin is okay, too. Ma says that house attracts criminals and thugs and ---" he leaned in close to whisper the rest: "like a long time ago. You know. Voldmort and all those death eaters. Almost all of them were Slytherin."

"Otherwise, they've got a really grand library and loads of classrooms, green houses, potions labs and we'll get to learn about a lot of magical creatures too! Ma says they give us our time tables the first week we're there."

Colin leaned back into the corner of the seat cushion. He felt comfortable around these three kids, which made him happy. Perhaps Hogwarts wouldn't be quite so bad as he thought it might be.

@Donald McCollum || @Shiawase Mamori || @Charlie Edwards

Tucking her feet closer to the bench as the Colin walked in and sat in front of her on the other seat by the window, her brows furrowed slightly as she turned her attention back to Donald, "Football?... I am not familiar with the game as I spend most of my time inside a greenhouse." She didn't have much knowledge of the sports that were played, she rarely did ever watch television as she was far too busy, her time was just spent on other things she found more interesting and sports was not one of those subjects.

Her tone lightened slightly as she noticed the book Donald was holding, "I can help you with understanding what the words in that book mean...it is of course a first years book to basic spells to know..the easy stuff...to start out with." Nodding her head as she listened to Colin's version of his understanding of the book. "You do have to get the pronunciations of the words correctly...or they will backfire on you and go totally wrong." She scootched up to the edge of her seat once everyone was comfortable and settled, setting her bag down beside her.

"I am excited about herbology....and second for potions..plants can hold a vast amount of abilities...and to me at least..are quite fascinating." She cut her explanation a little shorter for fear of overwhelming them, and possibly revealed more than she would have about herself to them than anyone she's spoken to before, most people wouldn't even get this as she was usually too busy with her studies.

She sat and listened to the other three talking, her eyes sparkling as she let her mind wander to the possibilities of what they would all be learning this year. The thought crossed her mind as she tilted her head to the side, before she could stop herself she blurted it out, "I do agree we should all learn protection from the dark arts.....if the stories are true a lot of things happened at Hogwarts.....", she frowned before scootching back in her seat, an uneasy feeling hitting her as she looked out the window. "What are the cases of history ever repeating itself?"

She shook her head to clear her mind of such thoughts. Looking back over to the others she nodded to them and herself, "Right then...No such thoughts are needed on such an occasion as today. We are going to Hogwarts! There are so many things to do." Her sudden burst of excitement not only scared her but she was sure made her look mad to other others, her personality shifted so much with her nerves that it sometimes made her hard to read.

@Donald McCollum,@Shiawase Mamori,@Colin McCoire

Colin listened as Charlie spoke about her liking of herbology and potions. "You sound like you've read the herbology book already! Some of the plants are easy. My great-great-grandmother is a potions master and we've got a braw and bonny garden all around the house. She's only got a small greenhouse, but under her workshop, she's got a darkhouse, too, where she grows mushrooms and other creepy things that don't like the light. I don't think I'll like herbology too well -- I don't get on with gardens. I like the wild and open places!

"But potions, yeah, those are fun! Sometimes she let's us stir the cauldron or crunch things up in the mortar.

When Charlie talked about history repeating itself, she really got Colin's interest in focus: "What do you mean aboot history repeating itself? You mean like old Voldy Mort? Whoa! Do you think someone someone on this train could become a dark lord? If they did, well, I'd have to fight against them! There's no way I'd let someone try and mess about the way he did."

"Hmmm---" Colin looked each of the others dead in the eye, searching for some hint of darkwarlockery. Shiawase --- no, pure heart that one! Douglas? A muggleborn? Wasn't Old Voldy a muggleborn, too?

Suddenly, he winked at Douglas and gave him an impish grin. Then he turned suddenly back to Charlie with eyes wide and dramatic gasp! "Maybe it's you, Charlie! Maybe you'll be the Dark Queen!"

Then he fell back into the deep cushion of the bench. He liked these three. They made him feel comfortable.

@Charlie Edwards || @Donald McCollum || @Shiawase Mamori

“Who’s Douglas?” Donald asked snidely. He was not overly keen on being called the wrong name, but figured it was an honest mistake, at least the first time. If this was something that were to continue, Donald might start feeling differently about this new world; so far, he was quite enjoying it.

Charlie and Colin both explained how the words that Donald and Shiawase couldn’t make out or understand were the pronunciations for spells. Donald was not fond of the idea of his tongue falling off and was going to make very sure that he listened to exactly how the spells were said by the professors before trying them himself.

“I might try out for the team but I’m betting I won’t be making it on it this year. Back home, the older kids are always better at football,” he looked over at Charlie. “That’s a game where you have two teams trying to kick a ball into each other’s nets; you can’t use your hands at all, but you can use your head.” Donald shifted his focus to Shiawase, "If I do make any teams, not sure what else there is besides Quidditch, if you wanted to make some treats for the team and me, I at least would have to try as hard as I could to win!" Charlie mentioned that it was unlikely for history to repeat itself and that a lot of things had happened at Hogwarts. Donald thought that schools were supposed to be safe, "I hope we get to learn a lot about magical history too." Colin mentioned dark queens and lords, referring to one of the most recent. To Donald, the story of Voldemort inspired him to want to fight even harder against magic and the evils it was capable of. "Don't worry Colin, we will fight anything like that together. And what exactly do you mean by A.K. us? Like in those shooter video games?"

@Shiawase Mamori Charlie Edwards Colin McCoire