Half an hour into our journey, the door to our booth was slided open and in came the all too familiar redhead knucklehead who had gone on to become my best friend, Ron weasley. Seeing harry and Hermione sitting and discussing, Ron understood that they should be familiar with each other before coming to hogwarts and was hesitating if he should intrude but seeing that neither had expressed any dissatisfaction on him entering the cabin he introduced himself and asked for their consent to sit together.
Hermione never had a friend other than Harry and knew that she could be a lot to get used to, but ever since Harry became her friend she had grown a bit more confident and Harry himself had encouraged for her to be a little more relaxed, so when she saw another boy coming into the cabin and introducing himself instead of the normal judging look she used to send she just listened and then introduced herself with a slight smile.
Harry was pleasantly relieved that his interactions with hermione had at least made her somewhat more sociable and that she should not have any major problems while interacting with other children. He too greeted Ron and introduced himself. As soon as he introduced himself, Ron gasped and asked in a stutter while pointing at his scar and just like the previous time Harry smiled and lifted the hair so that the scar could be visible and Ron responded with "wicked".
After the brief introductions Harry informed Ron that both he and Hermione were raised in the muggle world and had no idea that they were magical until their Hogwarts letter arrived. In confusion Ron asked that even if he understood Hermione having no idea as she was apparently the first witch of her family, how does he wrap his mind around the fact that The Harry Potter, the boy who lived, had not known about the magical world.
Harry explained to him that apparently the night of his parents murder he was brought away to his Aunt and his relatives had never mentioned about either the magical world nor his parents, he had just been told that his parents were killed in a car accident. Ron was feeling very sad for Harry at this moment thinking that the boy the world treats as a hero had not even known about his heritage. Seeing his sad expression Harry playfully tapped his shoulder and told him not to worry over the past and he should focus on the future.
Ron then went on to explain that he had come from a large family where everyone was a witch or a wizard for generations. He spoke about how his two older brothers had already graduated from Hogwarts and have went on to have careers in their field of choice, with Bill moving on to become a curse breaker for Gringotts, and Charlie going on to become a dragonologist in romania. He currently had three elder brothers still in hogwarts with Percy being in his fifth year, and a prefect, Fred and George the twins in their third years and a younger sister who will attend Hogwarts the following year.
They spoke till there was a knock on the door and the lady asked if they would like any snacks from the trolley, Ron took out some packed lunch that was given by his mother but harry took out a few galleons and asked for ever item on the trolley. They sat there discussing the mundane things and enjoying the snack from the trolley.
Harry had been waiting for Neville to come by searching for his toad so that he could befriend him but it did not happen, maybe because he did not have Hermione who was willing to help the awkward boy travelling all around the train. When it was near time and the bell on the train rang three times, hermione asked them to start changing while she herself proceeded towards a different booth to change.
We arrived at the Hogsmeade station and there we could clearly hear a loud voice at the end of the platform calling the first years to gather around it. Hagrid soon came into our view, he was hard to miss being a half-giant and all. Ron and Hermione both stared at the unusually large man along with almost every new kid. Hagrid lead us to the lake and we sat in the boats in parties of four. The boats began moving on its own and the castle came in our views.
The castle under the veil of stars was a sight to behold, it was as if this scene in itself had a large spell casted over it causing the observer to completely fall in a trance. Everyone was mesmerizingly looking at the castle and giving astonished remarks. They soon reached the stairs leading up to the castle and followed Hagrid till they reached professor McGonagall who was waiting for them, she thanked Hagrid and he left soon after.
'Welcome to Hogwarts,' said Professor McGonagall. 'The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory and spend free time in your house common room.
'The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule-breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the House Cup, a great honour. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.
'The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarted yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting'.
As was expected, just as the Professor left Draco came forward followed by Crabbe and Goyle and extended his hand in front of me introducing himself and disclosing my identity in the process. There was a sudden commotion among the students. I did not wish for the banter between Ron and Malfoy to begin on the first day itself, so I politely shook his hand and asked him to give me some time to settle down before we could talk further.
Professor came back and asked us to follow her so that we could be sorted.