The girls giggled, ignoring his protests in the hall. Teasing Harry had become fun over the last few days... hours? Whatever. Mind time was odd.
Soon they allowed a red faced Harry to get dressed with only a LITTLE teasing. After all, Hogwarts awaited!
The kids were ready when they heard a voice: "Hogwarts in five minutes. Please leave your luggage, it will be taken care of." Hermione placed hers on the luggage rack before pressing the crest and expanding it to full size. Harry just moved his to hand storage, as he tried to follow along with the conversation. Apparently there was some sport called "Quidditch" which was very popular in the school, although he was not entirely sure why. Apparently two teams would alternate trying to score 10 point shots with a ball, while two other obstacle balls tried to knock everyone off. During the whole game, two OTHER players played hide and seek with a tiny golden ball, the winner of that game would give their team 150 points and stop all play.
Harry's criticisms were not welcomed. He eventually just nodded with their arguments, although the game itself sounded pretty rough. As far as he could tell, there COULDN'T be a close game. If a team was close (Like 100 to 100) then the only players that mattered are these 'Seekers'. If one team was ahead, the other team had to make sure to stay within 150 points and (again) pray for their 'Seeker' to win for them. If the game got beyond 150 points apart, then BOTH teams prayed for ANY 'Seeker' to end the stupid thing.
Needless to say, he was really only supported by Hermione, who was far enough from the culture to give it an outsider's opinion on the subject.
The conversation did do SOMETHING good. Harry was much too distracted to really get nervous about his new home.
The girls would randomly move on to talk about the skills they had practiced in "Harry's World" as they called it. Apparently it didn't translate perfectly to the real world, as Hermione quickly found trying to levitate a candy wrapper. Harry had told some stories about his first adventures with his powers, and how it took MUCH practice before he could do stuff nearly as well in the waking world as he could in his mind. Hermione tried to not shiver when Harry's eyes seemed to pierce her as he watched her try to lift the wrapper. She couldn't see the threads like in his mind, but she could feel the warmth in her arm and had a vague feeling about where the other two ropes were in her chest. She met Susan's eyes and could see that both of them REALLY wanted to learn how to control this in the real world like they could in the testing area.
Their conversation was stopped as the train reached the destination. Hermione moved to the right side of Harry, while Susan and Hannah followed closely behind, not wanting to be separated. She watched as other students, some their size or older, unconsciously moved aside from their group as they stepped out on a fairly small, dimly lit train platform.
"Al'right ya littles, All Firs' years over here!"
Harry was taken back by the size of the man. Huge, especially compared to the tiny first years gathering around him. Yes, Huge was so descriptive it may as well have been his name, as a shaggy bearded man with kind eyes towered over the kids on the platform.
"Right you lot, everyone here? Hey, stay close now, everyone together. FIRS' YEARS!"
The green-eyed boy caught up with reality and grabbed Hermione's hand, feeling Susan and Hannah follow behind. The towering man was guiding all the younger boys and girls down a fairly steep path. Harry had to steady Susan with a rope at one point when she almost slipped, but they managed to make it down the slope.
The light was really fading now, but the mass of children had reached some thick trees and the edge of a lake. Harry's group had started to ignore the large man's fairly repetitive conversation (It narrowed down to "Everyone follow me" really), when they caught sight of a vast castle. Hogwarts was marvelous. As the stars were coming through the black sky, the castle seemed to thrust from the ground in defiance to the cold air and black shadows. Light poured from all the windows, a bright light that clearly was fire and not some more modern convenience. With the flames inside creating light, the entire structure seemed to have a heart-beat, as if to welcome all students.
Tall stone walls led to spindly turrets. A multitude of towers rose up, as if the entire castle was a complicated crown that some king had forgotten to wear today.
Harry moved as he felt Hermione tug on his hand.
"Ok ye lot, no more than four to a boat for ya!" The bearded man paused and patted a slightly fearful boy who was clutching a toad. "Now now, ol' Hagrid won't let nothing happen to ye lad. Just a nice boat ride." He stood tall again and shuttled the children closer to the waters and a collection of finely crafted and worn wood boats.
Harry helped Hermione, Susan, and Hannah into a boat, two ropes holding the boat steady and a couple holding their hands. He grinned when Hannah thanked him on the way past and jumped in, ignoring their shrieks until Hermione swatted his shoulder. "Honestly Harry, the water must be freezing. DON'T even joke about dumping us in."
His grin was not helping convince anyone of his innocence, but he gave it a good try.
Hagrid watched the last of his charges get in a boat before he stood tall in his and waved. "Everyone good? Right. FORWARD!"
The boats moved like on rails, carving into the solid black surface of the lake without leaving a ripple. Everyone got really quiet as they could hear the soft sounds of nature on the shore passing farther away, and the stars in the sky were reflected on the water.
The castle seemed to get larger and larger the closer they got to the other side, and Harry had to tilt his head so far back he almost felt like he was falling up, into the sky where the towers lived.
As the reached a cliff covered in Ivy, Hagrid gave a good loud "Everyone, Heads down!" as boats started to pass through it into some giant cave. Harry didn't bother. If a man as tall as him didn't even have to crouch, why duck? The vines moved around their boat, guided by his ropes.
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