Legs hanging from the seat dangle in the air and sometimes bump into each other. So Harry kills the minutes of waiting.
" Where…? - he says aloud, - Hermione and…"
But the boy with a scar on his forehead doesn't have time to finish and the compartment door opens and a smiling Hermione appears from it.
"Harry! " she says happily.
"Hermione! I'm glad to see you! "
The expression of feelings is not only words, but also friendly hugs.
"And where…? " the girl asks, but she also doesn't have time to finish, just like the last time the compartment door opens.
"We're here." Ron says, squeezing through an opening door with many things. Ginny appears behind him.
"Hi everyone." she greets.
"Hello! " Harry and Hermione answer in chorus.
Ginny sits down next to the guys. Ron, having packed his things, does the same.
"How did you know, - Ginny asks, - that it was the fifth compartment that would not be occupied?"
"We didn't know when we agreed." Granger replies.
"Hermione, have you used any spells by any chance?"
The girl shakes her head.
"It's just that I came early and took the compartment." Harry clarifies.
"We met Neville on the way, - says Ronald. - He confided to us that McGonagall had been offered the position of Headmaster of Hogwarts. "
"Did she agree?! " Hermione and Harry ask at the same time.
"No, she refused." Ginny shakes her head.
Then there was silence in the compartment.
"How are you?" Hermione asks cautiously.
"Mom still can't move, - Ron says grimly. - She still sets the table for him and when George is messing around, she says, "Fred, George, stop it. These aren't toys for you." and pretends to be angry, but she almost cries. "
Hermione puts a sympathetic hand on Ron's shoulder. Ginny turns to the window, hiding her tears. Harry hugs her.
Now the four teenagers are silent, a lump in their throat prevents them from speaking.
A sharp roar, which entailed a good shake, makes the whole company alarmed. This sudden incident, similar to an explosion, makes you go deaf, even if for a moment.
"What's happened?" Ginny asks worriedly.
"Stay here!" Harry shouts and runs out of the compartment without looking back.
He rushes along the corridor, not sorting out the way, in search of something unusual or suspicious. After a couple of meters, he can't see anything at all. And it's all smoke. Grey and thick smoke.
After a couple of seconds, the wizard still sees the outlines of the crumpled door of one of the compartments. Harry jerks it open, after which it, apparently miraculously surviving, finally falls off.
A coughing girl appears from behind the smoke, then a second, a third, and a fourth.
"Don't do that again." says the last girl who appears. This is Enie.
"She wanted to kill us." Will and Paige are indignant.
"I didn't mean it, I didn't think it would happen…" Sabrina justifies herself.
"What's happened? Is there anything to help you?" Harry asks, looking around nervously.
"Thank you. It's all right." says Sabrina, still coughing.
Someone calls Harry's name and tugs on his elbow. He turns around. It's Ginny. Nearby are Ron and Hermione.
"Why are you here? - Harry asks.- I told you to stay there. "
Ginny looks at him calmly.
"Harry, I understand, - she says, - but we're safe now. It's over, Harry. Understand? It's over. "
Ginny looks at her friend's wand and Harry is surprised to find it in his hands. He didn't even notice how he got it. Apparently, on a subconscious level, he still cannot survive the last events, loss, and therefore clings to the past.
"I understand," he says, and puts his wand away.
Hermione and Ron are also surprised to find that they are holding hands. The couple, looking at each other, decides not to disengage their hands. Hermione responds with a smile, barely visible, at Ron's. Yes, this couple seems to be alone here. But in fact, there are already a lot of people near the compartment of four of our acquaintances, and with every second everything arrives and arrives.
"Disperse! There's nothing to see here," Sabrina says, trying to do it loudly.
"Yes, everything is in perfect order, - Enie confirms, - don't worry! "
The crowd reluctantly disperses.
"Sabrina, be careful next time," Will says.
"Absolutely!" the sorceress promises.
"And so, - says Enie, - we have sticks. Now we need to mask the jamb from where we cut it out."
"I do." Sabrina decides, walking to the door frame with her wand.
"Better me! - Enie stops her. - You already have enough for today."
"Okay," the friend agrees.
Enie begins to conjure and does it with great zeal. Sabrina hands the Muggle girls their new wands, which she has just made herself.
"These aren't quite magic wands," the sorceress says.
"In terms of?" Page asks.
"Well… - Sabrina began to explain, - Enie and I have magical powers. And inside a magic wand there is always a core, it can be anything up to a dragon vein."
"What about in yours? " asks Will, a little bewildered.
"A piece of a unicorn's hoof," Sabrina says.
"Of course, not perfect, - Enie says, looking at her work, - but it's ok!"
"What do you have inside your magic wand?" Paige turns to her.
"Mermaid scales."
"Add to the core. It's nothing to do! " the green-eyed Muggle girl suggests.
"We can't." Enie shakes her head.
"Only a master can make a magic wand," says Sabrina.
"Clear! " Muggles answer and all four are shaken. This train has moved.
"Time to leave." Sabrina says, fixing her bangs.
"See you againe," Enie smiles.
"So, - Sabrina explains hastily, - there will be wand practice at school, I enchanted yours in such a way that you need to touch someone and your wand will do the same as the wand of another."
"It's a pity we don't have time to tell you more," Enie sighs with regret.
"But you'll figure it out, right?" Sabrina asks.
"Absolutely! " two friends assure the sorceresses.
The girls hug, after which Enie and Sabrina hide in the hallway. But Will and Paige again see the head of a girl with bangs in the doorway.
"We forgot to tell you our last names. I have Radcliffe, and Enie has Grint. Well, that's all for now," the sorceress smiles and two friends smile back.
"For now," they say goodbye.
Sabrina waves and, fixing her bangs, disappears.
Standing at the window after a while, Muggle girls have no idea what they can see!
"I wonder how long we'll be going? - Paige asks rhetorically, flustered - I can't wait to see this school of wizardry and sorcery."
"Me too, - Will says emotionally, - I wonder what it is? I don't think it looks like a regular school."
"Of course, - Paige chuckles, - I think it's magically quirky and I'm willing to bet this school will surprise us "
"Yes." Will agrees.
The girls look out the window and there is an ordinary green landscape. Ordinary but very pretty.
"I have never seen such beauty anywhere!" Will is delighted.
"Me too!" Page says.
But that was just the beginning. And the farther and closer to Hogwarts, the more unusual for Muggles.
The train derails and continues through the clouds. Girls with amazement "stick" to the window.
"This is ... This is great! I can't believe my eyes, " Will almost screams.
"I would give a lot to be like this every day!" Paige squeaks with delight.
Euphoria during the whole trip doesn't leave the two friends. And the eyes don't shrink in size. It is impossible not to be surprised by what is behind the glass. Friends do not have time to close their mouths in surprise.
"Look, Will! " Paige shouts.
A real owl flew by with a letter. With a letter! Yes, so fast that the girls barely had time to follow her, sharply turning their heads from left to right.
And below in the meadow lies a blue haze. It shimmers with sparkles and crawls over the grass, leaving violet-colored flowers. The wizards who seem to have conjured this blue haze have captivating robes fluttering in the wind.
Mermaids sit on the rocks near the lake, the sun shimmers in their scales and in their excessively long hair. And the water of the lake itself seems emerald.
The majestic and light running of a unicorn, its mane develops in waves.
The express dropped to the ground just as easily as it had risen.
"We've arrived! " the girls say happily.
Taking the suitcases left by Sabrina and Enie, the Muggles throw open the door to the compartment that Grint fixed, and with some solemnity they want to go out into the corridor of the express. The girls have already stepped forward, but they don't have time to put their feet.
"Why aren't you wearing your school uniform yet? " a girl with short black hair asks reproachfully.
Paige and Will look at each other in bewilderment, forgetting about their legs, which are still in the air.
"Now let's get changed." Paige says, and with a smile on duty, slams the door.
"I wish I knew which suitcase they were in," Will says worriedly.
Meanwhile, the door is opened by the same girl with short hair.
"Hurry up! The train will leave soon. "
"Thank you. We know." Paige thanks and, again smiling on duty, barely closes the door, because this sorceress, apparently, doesn't want to leave.
Will sit down on one of the suitcases.
"She looked at us like that... - she says even more preoccupied than a minute ago, - as if she guessed that we were not sorceresses and ... "
Before Will has time to finish, the door swings open again and the same sorceress with a short haircut is shown again.
"I want to ask, are you new?"
"No, - Paige says sharply, and closes the door with some effort.- Didn't anebody teach her to knock?"
"She is annoying fly, - Will says. - We need to be careful and not say out loud anymore that we are not sorceresses."
"Yes. I hope our random friend didn't hear anything."
The girls change clothes quite quickly, but not so fast that it is possible to calmly, like everyone else, get off the train.
"It's already moving off." Paige worries.
"Hurry, throw out your suitcases." Will shouts and jerks one to her friend. The suitcase was not thrown away at all, as much falls out of Paige's hands.
"It seem to be broken," she says, fussily throwing the rest away.
"Now by ourselves," Will commands.
The express started to take off and it is difficult for the girls to keep their balance. Paige prepares to jump, but Will cannэt keep up and falls, knocking her friend in the process.
"Aaah!" she screams, flopping to the ground.
Paige slumps beside and, barely recovering, parry:
"We need to catch up with the others."
The retreating crowd is about to be out of sight. Shaking off, the friends, taking things in an armful, run to catch up.
"Paige, hurry up!" Will says, looking back.
"Carefully!" her friend screams.
A very tall wizard appeared in their path. Will doesn't have time to slow down and crashes into him. Flying off, she runs into Paige, and the girls fall.
"It's been a few times a day." Paige grumbles under her breath.
"Sorry girls, - the man says, - I just want to call you to the boat ."
He stretches out his huge hands and helps both girls up at once.
"What boat? " they ask.
"I'm taking the first years across the lake by boat, - the wizard explains. - It's such a tradition. "
"Are we first-year schoolchildren?" Will whispers Paige.
"Even this year, several students transferred from other schools. I was ordered to carry them too. "
"How did you know we were new? " Paige asks.
"It's very simple: I haven't seen you here before." he explains and, picking up his suitcases from the ground, he and the girls head towards the lake.
"Where did the others go?" Will is interested.
"They get to school in carts. You will be going there next year too. "
"Do you know everyone here?" Paige is amazed.
"Yes, I have been the keeper of the keys and gardens of the school for many years. I'm Hagrid, by the way. "
"Very nice to meet you." the girls say and say the names that are now theirs.
The boat floats on the water, quietly cutting through its smooth surface. Friends even managed to swim in the lake.
"Which one of us came up with this wonderful idea?" Will asks grumblingly.
"Actually, it was you, - Paige replies. - You wanted to see what's in the water. "
"And why did you have to hold on to me, bending dangerously low?"
"And who shouted . I see a mermaid and a newt! He has a trident ? " Paige asks, parodying her friend.
"The bottom is full of algae. And I decided to joke." Will says conciliatoryly and the girls laugh out loud.
In addition, Hagrid dried them easily with a spell.
"Well, what about school? - Paige asks. - Oh, why didn't we ask Hagrid to help with the suitcases? "
"I think he wanted to take them, - Will suggests, - but then he was distracted, so he probably forgot."
The girls, taking their luggage, joyfully walk towards the building, but they do not pass for long and they are stopped by one spectacle that they do not understand. Suitcases fall out of Will's hands right on Paige's leg.
"And this is a school? - she wonders, jumping on one leg. -Why are they all going there? Written same "Danger Zone!".
"Maybe they all went crazy at once, - Will suggests. - It's all falling apart now!"
Having trampled a little, the girls, having packed their suitcases, are heading where everyone else is going.