Chapter 6: The Hogwarts Express
Charles Gaunt POV
Fortunately, the traffic got better, and they arrived at King's Cross with ten minutes to spare. Charles had convinced Allister to let them find their way to the platform themselves, they just had to follow someone their age with a trolley full of luggage. He seemed unconvinced but the two had rushed off before he could object.
Charles was worried he crash into a passer-by with the speed they were moving but he found that, despite the occasional confused look, most people would kindly get out of their way. Still there was one small problem. No matter how much they looked, they could find platform 9 ¾ and maybe it was because they were late, but no one else there looked like they could be students. Emily was starting to panic when –
"Now, what's the platform number?" came a woman's voice from behind them.
"Nine and three-quarters!" a small voice piped in, catching Charles's attention. He swung his head around to see a group, most likely a family, of bright flaming red-haired children following what looked to be their mother, each of them pushing a trunk similar to Charles and Emily's own. "Mum, can't I go…" the little girl holding her mother's hand said.
"Finally," Charles spoke to Emily, "Let's follow them." She nodded and moved towards the family, almost bumping into another boy their age who wasn't looking where he was going.
"Careful!" she called out to him and his owl hooted in response.
"Sorry," he responded, lowering his head. His black hair fell over his glasses and he swiped it away with his hand before running off behind the red-heads in a hurry.
'Guess we're not the only ones who don't know where to go.' The boy was clearly a new student like them, with his large trunk and snow-white owl, what else could he be?
"Did you see his forehead?" Emily giggled, "I think he was hiding a massive spot there, I saw it."
Charles didn't get how that was funny and wasn't in the mood for jokes, so he rushed her. "Who cares about that. They're getting away!" That seemed to switch her focus and she rushed off the same way as the boy with glasses. He could only just see the top of the red heads through the crowd that had built up behind them and didn't want to lose them.
When they caught up, they found the family stopped by a barrier between the ninth and tenth platforms. Charles spotted that there were less of them than before, there only being the mother and her daughter stood there, watching as a boy, a little taller than Charles charged straight at the barrier. Emily gasped when she saw him run, expecting him to crash.
Surprisingly, the boy went right through and was soon followed by the plump woman and her daughter. Charles and Emily looked at each other, unsure what to say before Charles noticed the time on the clock in his eyeline – ten-fifty-five, it read. 'Shit' he cursed inwardly. "Emily, quickly! We've only got five minutes left!"
The girl was fast on the uptake and sure enough she ran right into the barrier. Charles watched her go straight through, a little stunned at her lack of hesitation or perhaps thought. He shook his head and followed after her, though not as fast as she had. Just as he was about to hit the barrier, he shut his eyes closed and kept going. When the impact he expected didn't come, he opened his eyes, one after the other and quickly closed his mouth, which had unknowingly slacked open.
A steam engine, scarlet in colour and massive in size, waited by a platform packed with people. Charles looked up above to see a sign that said, 'Hogwarts Express, 11 o'clock'. He looked behind him, seeing a wrought-iron archway, with the words 'Platform Nine and Three-Quarters' inscribed upon it.
A gust of wind blew the smoke from train towards him making him cough. Holding his breath, with his eyes squinted, Charles moved towards the train where he saw Emily standing, waiting for him.
"Do you see this!" she exclaimed as she waved her arms at the steam train. He took in its visage again and marvelled. She said some other things, but Charles struggled to hear her over hurried goodbyes between the rowdy students hanging out the carriage compartments, and their parents on the platform.
"We should get on. Find somewhere to sit." Said Charles, when the whistle blew. The two hopped onto the train. They heard something about a lost toad on the way but didn't hear enough to care.
They pressed on through carriages, looking for an empty compartment. When they didn't find one, a head popped out from a sliding door further ahead. "Um, excuse me. There's room in here if you want to come in."
"Ah, Thank you!" Emily answered for the both of them. The girl smiled at them and opened the door wider. Thanks to that they were able to get a better look at her. Slightly short brown hair and blue eyes and seemed nice enough, Charles thought.
"I'm Fay by the way, Fay Dunbar." She told them.
"Emily Clark," Emily replied, "This is Charles." He raised an eyebrow at her choice to make his introduction for him.
Fay looked to him, "Charles?"
"Gaunt," he said quickly, not wanting Emily to say it first, "Charles Gaunt." Charles tried to give her a friendly smile, knowing he could be intimidating at times, even when he didn't mean to be. Sadly, it didn't seem enough as she was silent as she stared at him with wide eyes. A bit troubled, Charles rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly which snapped her back to reality.
"Sorry." Fay said. "You just surprised me, that's all." Emily didn't appear satisfied by that answer, but Charles gave her a pointed look, stopping her from causing a fuss. "Anyways… come in." Fay smiled apologetically and led them in.
Inside the compartment were two other girls, brown and dirty blond hair, and Charles swallowed but nervously. He wasn't good with girls. He wasn't good with anyone really, but he was especially bad with girls.
"Lavender Brown." The girl with light brown hair and eyes said sweetly.
"And I'm Isobel MacDougal, pleasure to meet you both." Isobel spoke more reservedly, almost uninterested, which Charles preferred at this moment. The train started moving and Charles grabbed the doorway for support whist Fay and Emily grabbed onto him. When they were steadied, he tucked his trunk away and moved to sit down.
Charles spent the next hour of the journey quiet, reading his potions ingredients book and coming up with methods to help memorise them. Emily had integrated into their group quickly and had clearly forgotten Fay's reaction to him as they now looked to be best friends. Both Lavender and Isobel had had similar reactions themselves, which made Charles hesitant to talk to them.
The clock had just gone past twelve, and he had decided to make an excuse to leave and sneak off to another cart. 'Preferably one with less girls.'
"I'm gonna go change into my robes and use the toilet," he told them, getting up.
"Be right back," said Emily.
"I will," he lied, taking his robes and wand out of his trunk and exiting the compartment. He went to toilet they passed on their way through the train, and luckily, it was free to use. Going inside, he did his business washed his hands, and changed. He left the washroom holding a neatly folded stack of his regular clothes and started looking for a quiet compartment with preferably less people inside than the one he was in before.
Every one that he went past, had at least four people inside and more often than not, more. He realised that he hadn't seen Hermione yet and decided to start searching for her. She was friend two after all.
It was then that the bushy haired girl walked out of the compartment room just two doors ahead of him, looking proud of herself, a chubby and weak-willed looking boy was waiting outside for her.
He called out to her and joked when she looked his way. "Hermione, I was worried you might have missed the train."
"Charles!" she beamed back and hopped towards him, "I was looking for you earlier, but then I ran into Neville here who's lost his toad."
"A toad? Ah, you're the who was talking about his toad at the station" he realised.
Neville looked away, embarrassed and got quieter as he spoke. "Trevor's always getting away from me you see, he was a gift from my g-," he cut himself off, perhaps thinking it unimportant, "…anyway my gran will kill me if I don't find him."
"Have you seen a toad running about?" piped Hermione. 'Wouldn't it be hopping about' he mused.
"Sorry, can't say I have."
The two looked as though they expected that answer. "Let's keep looking Neville. We'll find him, don't worry." Hermione tried to cheer the boy up, but she didn't think it was likely herself. "By the way," she turned back to Charles, "I see you're in your robes already, but why are you wandering around?"
"The compartment I was in was full of girls and it was awkward, so now I'm looking for somewhere with a few less people to sit." Charles informed her, "Either of you seen somewhere with only one or two people inside? It would be a great help if you had."
Neville spoke up, "Actually the you just came out of only had two people, didn't it?" he asked Hermione.
"One of them was Harry Potter you know." She told him.
"Harry Potter?" Charles prodded having never heard of him.
Neville looked at him as though he were crazy. "You've never… you've never heard of Harry Potter before?! But everyone's heard of him, he's famous for defeating You-Know-Who! Even Hermione's heard of him."
"You-Know-Who?" Charles truly had no idea what the boy was talking about and he didn't like how that felt.
"It must be because Charles is muggle-born, like me," said Hermione, "I only know because I did some extra reading on the subject. Harry Potter's in Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century."
'Obviously I don't have those books,' Charles felt bitterness build up in his throat, but he swallowed it down. "What's a muggle-born?" He was pretty sure he knew what the answer would be, but it was better to make sure.
Neville and Hermione couldn't believe their ears, Neville more so than Hermione. "That doesn't make sense," he said leaking his thoughts accidently, making the two look to him. With their eyes on him, he stammered out, "A-ah I mean… the teachers are meant to explain all of this stuff before you enter Hogwarts. Gran told me about it once, something to do with a ministry law,"
"Yeah. I learned about Harry Potter myself, but Professor McGonagall was the one who explained what a muggle-born was to my parents and they explained it to me… ah!", Hermione seemed to think she'd found the answer, "Your parents must have forgotten to tell you. I mean, weren't they too busy to take you to Diagon Alley. That's why you were with the Professor right?"
"I don't have parents!" he hissed out, far more coldly than he had intended, causing them to flinch back. They looked back at him silent, with shocked faces. The way Charles was looking at them made them feel like they were dead meat, and they frightened by his sudden change in demeaner.
'Shit. This is exactly what I didn't want to do!' Charles cursed. He knew he was over reacting, but he didn't like they how they were making assumptions about his life. He had spent the majority of his life keeping to himself, holding his secrets and the way he felt guarded and close, and because of this, he had lashed out. But this didn't matter right now. No, what mattered was that he repaired the damage done.
"Sorry guys." Charles said quick and panicked. "You didn't deserve that, I was wrong. Sorry." He didn't know what else he could say, other than that.
It took a moment, but soon Neville spoke up. "It's ok Charles, I feel like we were wrong as well. Neville's eyes were wet, but neither Charles nor Hermione knew exactly why, "I- I should have known better. I should have…" Neville chastised himself.
It was Hermione's turn now. "I'm sorry too."
Charles felt terrible. Somehow his apology had ended up making them apologise to him, and Neville looks close to tears. 'Am I really that scary?' Charles felt like another apology wouldn't help so instead he tried to change the topic, "Um, so what is a muggle-born?"
Neville blinked his oncoming tears away and answered, "A muggle-born is just when a witch or wizard is born from a family with no known witches or wizards in the family."
Hermione was relieved that the topic was changed, "According to a book I read, a lot of the magical community believe that muggle-borns are worse than pure-bloods and half-bloods. Something I intend to prove wrong, if I might add."
"People like that are all narrow minded and raised wrong. At least that what my Gran says." Neville let out a small chuckle, "Luckily at Hogwarts, outside of Slytherin, you won't find many people like that."
"I hope I'm not in Slytherin," Hermione shuddered at the thought, "I'd like to be in Gryffindor. Ravenclaw wouldn't be so bad either."
Neville sighed, "My parents were in Gryffindor, but I reckon I'll be put in Hufflepuff."
"What about you, Charles. What house do you want to be in?" Hermione asked.
Charles didn't care about what house he would be in, they all sounded fine to him. "I don't know, maybe Ravenclaw." Truth be told, while he was grateful that the tension was gone, he as still feeling rather awkward and wanted to go. "Anyway… I think I'm going to go sit down now. My legs are feeling tired." It was a lame excuse, but it didn't matter, he needed to get away.
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