Harry Potter: Don't touch

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First of September, King's Cross Station, 10:30. Half an hour before the Hogwarts Express was due to depart

Harry slowly rolled the trolley that held his suitcase and the cage with the Elemental. He looked around the station for the third time, but persistently failed to notice platform 9¾.

'Maybe there's some kind of trick here?' - he thought.

Like The Leaky Cauldron you have to tap your wand somewhere to get on the train and Hagrid forgot to tell him about it. At first, such thoughts were only in the back of his mind, as Harry couldn't believe that Hagrid could forget to mention such an important thing as not getting on the platform in the first place. However, after the third attempt he finally realised, there was no platform 9¾ in the station.

Perhaps meaning to look between platform nine and ten? Harry walked over to the sign with the number ten written on it. Ideally there should be some sort of entrance next to it, but there were no suspicious places between platform ten and nine, except for the separation barrier itself.

That barrier had made Harry suspicious already after the first go round. People with owls and suitcases were approaching it, and then doing some manipulation and disappearing. After the second round, Potter had even gone to the side of the barrier and tapped it with his wand, but nothing happened.

Now that he was convinced that Platform 9¾ couldn't be found so easily, he planned to follow some wizards and see how they would get onto the platform.

The wizards Harry decided to look for followed the example of the ones he had seen before. Wizards, of course, wouldn't talk loudly about their world, but they could still be recognised by a couple of signs. For example, the presence of a pet. The letter said that it was possible to take a cat, a toad or an owl to Hogwarts. So he should have looked for people with cats, toads, or owls.

He had seen the ginger family from a distance. He didn't even see them. He heard them. It was all over the station:

'I figured there'd be a whole bunch of Muggles here...'

Harry smiled. Wizards disguise themselves admirably. Well, it worked to his advantage. He pretended to be busy making sure he had all his things.

The family of redheads approached the dividing barrier and began to discuss something amongst themselves.

Harry knew that the barrier had something to do with the passage to Platform 9¾, now it was left to find out how.

Meanwhile, the number of wizards standing in front of the barrier began to rapidly decrease. One by one they 'drove' into the dividing barrier and disappeared into it.

After waiting until all the redheads were 'in the barrier', Potter approached the potential passage to the platform and gently touched it with his hand, or rather, tried to, as his hand felt only emptiness.

Harry quickly picked up his luggage trolley and rolled it towards the barrier. Two seconds of pitch darkness and there he stood on platform 9¾. Seeing what awaited him on the platform made him want to go back into the darkness.

There was a huge amount of people and sounds everywhere. Harry could hear voices, the creaking of heavy suitcases and the disgruntled grunts of owls talking to each other.

And in the centre of all this crowding stood the cherished scarlet-coloured steam train, the first few carriages of which were already packed with students. They were leaning out of the windows to have a last word with their parents.

Harry walked quickly towards the train. The journey had consumed an enormous amount of nerves and time.

He tried not to take the shortest route, but the route with the least amount of people. If there were ten people in his way, he would make a big detour and pass where there were eight. In this way he minimised the risk of accidental touching.

His efforts were rewarded. All along the route, no one was able to touch Harry. No one even noticed his strange manner of travelling. Everyone was busy minding their own business and had no time to observe the boy who walked as if he was trapped in a maze.

Entering the carriage, Harry, trying not to notice other people, quickly went to look for a free compartment.

Finally, almost at the end of the carriage, luck smiled on him - there was no one in the compartment. He took the cage with the Element inside and tried to throw the suitcase onto the luggage rack, but he couldn't get it to the right height. The suitcase fell twice and hit him on the leg painfully.

- Do you need help? - A voice came from just below his ear.

Harry turned around and recoiled in horror. It was one of the redheads.

- No, thanks,' Harry replied, trying to keep his voice calm.

- Suit yourself,' the redhead shrugged and went to his compartment.

Harry's leg complained at that statement. He was already regretting refusing to help. Because it took him two more attempts to get his suitcase onto the luggage rack.

Finally having sorted out his belongings, Harry closed the compartment door, pointed his acacia wand at it and uttered:

- Colloportus!

Harry had learnt this spell in a book about staying undetected.

He tried to open the compartment door. It swung open.

I mean, he'd learnt it... Or rather, Harry thought he'd learnt it.

- Colloportus,' Potter said again.

This time he felt a wave of strange energy. He was sure he had succeeded this time.

Harry went to the door and tried to open it....

The door opened nonchalantly.

- Fucking hell! - was all Harry could utter.

He'd often noticed that when wizards argued, they were always referring to Merlin or some Morgana. Harry hadn't seen a wizard who had ever once said 'damn' or anything like that.

He hadn't heard wizards swear that many times though, only Hagrid and a couple of others he'd seen through the window of The Leaky Cauldron room.

Harry on the other hand preferred the swear words he heard from the Dursleys, they sounded more respectable to him. Though it probably depended on one's upbringing.

Potter pulled out his book and carefully went over all the information about Colloportus again. He seemed to be doing everything right... Although, maybe he was moving his wand wrong?

Harry pointed his wand at the door again and, clearly executing the movement, pronounced it in syllables:

- Col-lo-por-tus.

Harry didn't feel anything at all. It felt like he hadn't said a spell, but just a word made up of random letters.

He walked over to the door and tried to open it.

What was his surprise when the door refused to open. He pulled with all his might, but it didn't even creak.

A smile lit up Harry Potter's face.

* * *

All the way Harry read Miranda Hussockle's Cursive Book of Conspiracies and Spells.

He was in a great mood.

He had been knocked on six times during the trip. If he hadn't mastered the Colloportus spell, he would have had to socialise, and possibly shake hands (Harry got goosebumps at this point) with these people.

'The Cursic Book of Conspiracies and Spells' was very interesting. On par with Salamander's 'Fantastic Beasts.'

Miranda Hussockle's book devoted an entire chapter to the Colloportus spell.

Harry might not have even bought a book on stealth to learn this spell. However, the purchase wasn't useless anyway, it described many other spells and tricks such as eye diversion, some sort of disillusionment spell that was supposed to give complete invisibility.

Although all of these spells didn't work out for Harry, he was sure that sooner or later he would learn how to use them.

That was how Harry spent the trip on the Hogwarts Express. The only discomfort he felt during that day was a strong feeling of hunger. But he was happy and ignored it.

At the same time as Harry finished reading The Cursive Book of Conspiracies and Spells, the steam train started to stop. Potter started looking for his robes to change into. It took him quite a while, and when he got off the train, no one was in the carriages anymore.

Harry looked around: there was a huge crowd of people all around, all seated in carriages.

If Potter hadn't been so worried about the crowd, he would have discovered that no one was harnessed into the carriages, and the harnesses that were supposed to hold the horses to the carriages were hanging in the air as if they were resting against something.

But Harry did not notice any of this. He looked around wildly for someone he knew: Hagrid or Justin. After two minutes of searching, however, he found no one. And Hagrid wasn't easy to lose, he was so big he could be found anywhere.

There were a lot of upperclassmen and upperclasswomen around. Harry was wildly afraid of them all, but he needed to get over his fear and ask someone where to go. But just who?

A senior girl with pink hair walked right in front of him. Pink hair? Well, the choice of who to ask for directions from was obvious.

- Wait,' Harry called out to the girl. - 'Can't you help me? I don't know where I'm supposed to go.

- Hi!' the older girl smiled. - You're a freshman, aren't you? What a question. Of course I am. You go on boats with Hagrid, it's a giant so big, you should spot him. Except he's already gone. About five minutes ago. Over there.

The older girl pointed in the direction of the forest.

If it weren't for the pink hair, Harry would have thought he was being bullied.

Why did Potter trust this senior girl? Just because she had pink hair? He himself didn't really know how hair colour could affect trust.

But after turning his teacher's hair pink had become his favourite colour, and all the good people he had met had a speck of pink in them. Hagrid's pink umbrella. Justin - hmmm. Justin - the pink flight book, though it couldn't really be called his thing, it was the topic of their conversation. Yes even during their purchase of the Elemental there were pink parrots sitting in cages nearby.

So Harry tried to make a smart and confident appearance and took a step right into the thicket of the forest. The smart and confident look quickly came off his face as right after his first step he managed to trip and fall.

Harry got up, pretended that was the plan, shook himself off and set off in the direction the Head Girl had indicated.

He walked for a long time, or rather, as long as he walked, after a couple of metres he remembered that Hagrid had left a full five minutes ago, and ran as fast as he could.

His efforts were rewarded. When he came running to the boats, the last one was still near the shore. Harry quickly got into it, hoping no one had noticed he was so late.

There was only one girl in the boat.

- Settled in? - Shouted Hagrid, who had a private boat. - Then let's go!

And off they went. They didn't have to row. The boats floated themselves, unaided. Harry looked up at the castle in the distance. So this is what Hogwarts is like! It looks really cool. Harry admired the beauty of the castle for a moment.

- Hi, I'm Hermione Granger,' came a girl's voice.

Potter turned around. The girl was looking straight at him and waiting for an answer. What was it?

- Erm. Well hello,' Harry said.

The girl continued to stare at him.

- I'm Harry,' he said, realising she was waiting for him to introduce himself.

- What's your last name? Potter, by any chance? - The girl squinted at him suspiciously.

Harry huddled on the edge of the boat in horror. He was quickly calculating the variations of wizarding surnames he knew. Yeah, Ollivander, Dumbledore, Hagrid, Merlin... Hmmm, doesn't fit. There was someone else, wasn't there? Right!

- No, not Potter, I'm Harry Finch-Fletchy,' he said, remembering Justin's last name.

- Nice to meet you,' Hermione held out her hand to him.

Harry gave a fake coughing fit and pretended not to notice the hand.

- What department do you want to go to? - Hermione asked.

'Well, either she's not offensive or she believed I didn't notice her hand.

- 'Well, Gryffindor or Ravenclaw, I guess...' Harry replied after thinking for a moment.

- Oh, that's an excellent choice. I'm thinking about those two faculties too. But I think Gryffindor is the best option,' Hermione said with much more warmth.

Throughout the boat ride they had a great conversation about their studies and the books they were both reading to prepare.

Hermione was horrified when Harry said that he hadn't even started the transfiguration book. She wasn't even relieved that the boy had completely read all the other books that only needed to be bought.

Despite her insistence and slight arrogance, Hermione took a liking to Harry Potter.

That was until one topic of conversation she brought up. As they were nearing Hogwarts, Hermione suddenly asked:

- What do you think of Harry Potter?

Harry was so taken aback by this question that he thought about the answer for about ten seconds. And never came up with anything but:

- Well, I don't know... Do you?

- Oh, he's a legend of the magical world, I've read everything I can find about him. He's supposed to be studying at Hogwarts this year. Of course, he could go to another wizarding school, but I'm sure he'll follow in his parents' footsteps. I wish I could hang out with him, though I don't think it's just me, everyone would like to.

All the good mood Harry had gained on the train evaporated in a second. His legs shook. He had time to regret going to Hogwarts. What do you mean: everyone wants to socialise with him? What if he doesn't want to hang out with everyone?!

Hermione didn't notice the change in her boat mate.

- We're here. Let's get out,' she said calmly and carefully stepped out of the boat onto solid ground.

All the boys climbed out of their boats and followed Hagrid.

Harry, trying not to show his face to anyone, also followed the column of boys.

* * *

At last they reached a door of some sort, which immediately swung open.

Behind it stood a tall black-haired sorceress in emerald green robes. 'Probably the Dean of Slytherin,' Harry decided. He knew that Slytherins wore green colours.

He was a little wary of the Slytherin faculty, but what horrified him more was the wizardess's face, such a stern expression he had never seen anywhere before. Even Aunt Marge's face was more welcoming.

Harry swallowed.

- 'Professor McGonagall, here are the first-years,' Hagrid informed her.

Professor? She would be leading something from him. Potter hoped it wasn't Transfiguration, a textbook he hadn't even opened.

- 'Thank you, Hagrid,' the wizardess nodded at him. - 'I'll take them.

Professor McGonagall, as Hagrid called her, led the first-years into some small hall. It was so small that everyone was cramped and the boys were breathing down each other's necks.

Feeling someone's touch, Harry quickly moved further away and sat down on the bench next to him.

Professor McGonagall looked around at all the first year students and began to speak:

- Welcome to Hogwarts. The banquet for the start of the school year will begin shortly, but before you sit down at your tables, you will be divided into faculties. Selection is a very serious procedure, because from now until graduation, your faculty will be your second family. You will study together, sleep in the same bedroom and spend your free time in a room specially allocated to your faculty. There are four faculties in the school - Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each of them has its own ancient history, and outstanding wizards and sorceresses have come out of each of them. While you are at Hogwarts, your successes will earn your faculty prize points, and points will be deducted for each breach of routine. At the end of the year, the faculty with the most points wins a competition between the faculties - this is a huge honour. I hope each of you will be a worthy member of your family. The selection ceremony will begin in a few minutes in the presence of the entire school. In the meantime you have some time, I suggest you gather your thoughts.

Harry was beginning to fear Professor McGonagall even more. That was a harsher speech to make.

- I will return here when everyone is ready to meet you,' Professor McGonagall announced.

No sooner had she walked out the door than everyone started discussing the selection ceremony. A pale blonde haired boy approached Harry.

- 'Hello, you're Harry Potter, aren't you,' he said and, without waiting for agreement, continued: - 'I'm Malfoy. Draco Malfoy.

A phrase from an old film suddenly popped into Harry's head, 'Bond. James Bond.'

- You're about to find out, Potter, that there are a few dynasties of wizards in our world that are far cooler than the rest. You don't need to be friends with those who don't deserve it. You've already proven yourself a worthy man. I'm talking about killing that muggle. You did the right thing, don't worry. If you need my help, I'll be happy to help you,' Malfoy held out his hand for a handshake.

Voluntarily shake hands? No way!

Malfoy, seeing that Harry wasn't going to shake his hand, looked at him with surprise and even hatred.

- I'd be careful if I were you, Potter,' he said slowly. - If you're not more polite, you'll end up like your parents. They, like you, didn't know what was right or wrong for them.

If up to this point Harry had been afraid of this tall boy with the icy stare, after these words he retreated a couple of steps in horror, opening and closing his mouth over and over again like a beached fish.

- Line up,' Professor McGonagall, who had suddenly returned, commanded the first-years. - And follow me!

Everyone quickly followed her commands and followed the professor out of the small hall.

Harry, on the other hand, couldn't even move after that Draco Malfoy phrase. He sat on the bench and looked at his feet, wondering what he should do. That's how he sat until someone walked into the Small Hall.

- Harry Potter, all your classmates are already in the Great Hall, why are you still here? - Professor McGonagall's voice rang out.