You Get What You Deserve

Mrs Weasley, Ginny, Hermione and I were downstairs. Mrs Weasley was just telling us about a Love Potion she’d made as a young girl, when Harry, Ron, Fred and George came down stairs for breakfast. Ginny, Hermione and Mrs Weasley were all giggly, and I quickly went to join the boys.

I didn’t have a chance to talk to Harry, Ron or Hermione in the chaos of leaving; we were too busy heaving all our trunks down the Leaky Cauldron’s narrow staircase and piling them up near the door, with Hedwig, Calandra and Hermes, Percy’s screech owl, perched on top in their cages. A small wickerwork basket stood beside the heap of trunks, spitting loudly.

“It’s all right, Crookshanks,” Hermione cooed through the wickerwork, “I’ll let you out on the train.”

“You won’t,” snapped Ron. “What about poor Scabbers, eh?”

He pointed at his chest, where a large lump indicated that Scabbers was curled up in his pocket. Mr Weasley, who had been outside waiting for the Ministry cars, stuck his head inside.

“They’re here,” he said. “Harry, come on.”

He marched Harry across the short stretch of pavement towards the first of two old-fashioned dark green cars, each which was driven by a furtive-looking wizard, wearing a suit of emerald velvet. Hermione, Ron, Percy and I joined Harry in the first car.

The journey to King’s Cross was very uneventful. The Ministry of Magic cars seemed almost ordinary, though I noticed that they could slide through gaps that Mum and Dad’s old car certainly couldn’t have managed. We reached King’s Cross with twenty minutes to spare; the Ministry drivers found us trolleys, unloaded our trunks, touched their hats to Mr Weasley and drove away, somehow managing to jump to the head of an unmoving queue for the traffic lights.

“Right then,” Mrs Weasley said, glancing around us once we’d reached the barrier. “Let’s do this in pairs, as there are so many of us. I’ll go through first with Harry.”

Mr Weasley strolled towards the barrier between platforms nine and ten, pushing Harry’s trolley and apparently very interested in the InterCity 125 that had just arrived at platform nine. He leant casually against the barrier, Harry soon imitated him.

Next minute, they had disappeared from sight. Hermione and I went next, running straight towards the barrier. I wasn’t scared, like I had been my first year; I was confident. I felt myself pass through the barrier and next second, I was on platform nine and three-quarters. I looked up to see the Hogwarts Express, a scarlet steam engine, puffing smoke over a platform packed with witches and wizards seeing their children onto the train.

Percy and Ginny suddenly appeared behind Hermione and I. They were panting, and had apparently taken the barrier at a run, too.

“Ah, there’s Penelope!” said Percy, smoothing his hair and going pink again.

I caught Harry’s eye, and we both had to try not to laugh as Percy strode over to a girl with long, curly hair, walking with his chest thrown out so that she couldn’t miss his shiny badge. The rest of the Weasley’s had soon joined us and Mr Weasley and Harry led the way to the end of the train, past packed compartments, to a carriage that looked quite empty.

We loaded our trunks onto it, stowing Hedwig, Crookshanks and Calandra in the luggage rack, then we went back outside to say goodbye to Mr and Mrs Weasley.