Chapter 3: A Travel Down the Road
Summer had finished very slowly for Quen, who had counted the days that she had to wait until she went to hogwarts. Now the day had fianally come, and Quen felt excited, yet peeved and nervous. She packed her things and waited for Mr. Hooker to arrive. Fianally, the old man appeared on the Morrison's doorstep.
"Hello," He said.
After a goodbye to her family, Quen turned to Mr. Hooker.
"How are we going to get there?" She demanded.
"Simple, Quen my dear." He said, and he held out a broomstick.
"Mr. Hooker!" Quen exclaimed with exasperation. "We can't ride on those things! The muggles will see us!"
Mr. Hooker smiled. "No they won't," he insisted. "I put an invisibility booster on them. No one will see us."
Quite reluctantly, Quen took a broomstick.
"Know how to ride?" Mr. Hooker asked with a smile.
"Oh, of course I do," Quen insisted.
"Alright," Mr. Hooker said. With that, they pushed off. When they got up high, Quen began to feel nervous. What if she fell off? But soon, she began to have fun. She cackled as she watched the looking muggles.
"Enjoying yourself Quen?" called Mr. Hooker from her right, who was also cackling. Quen felt a little sorry for leaving him. They landed at King's Cross (the train station) and went in. While ignoring the muggles who stared at them, wondering why they were carrying broomsticks.
"Well, I guess this is goodbye," said Mr. Hooker.
"Yep," Quen agreed. "Well, goodbye."
"Wait Quen," Mr. Hooker whisper. Quen leaned in closer to the old man as he whispered exactly this in her ear: "Have fun at Hogwarts."
Quen reared back in shock. "You know?" she exclaimed, her nervousness turning into anger. "Why didn't you tell me? Fine, take me back, you know you want to. Take me back to my parents, where they'll scold me and limit my privileges and tell me it's for my own good! And from then on, I'll spend tho rest of my days working in an old book where I'll-" She stopped to find that Mr. Hooker was chuckling.
"What's so funny?" Quen demanded.
"You didn't think I'd tell anyone, did you?" Mr. Hooker asked. "I think this would be a grand achievement for your sort, Quen. I wouldn't ruin it now."
Quen was overjoyed. "Oh, thank you Mr. Hooker," she exclaimed. "But how do I get on the train? I don't see a platform 9k,"
Mr. Hooker smiled mischieviously. "Platform 9k," he said, pointing at a nearby barrier. "Is over there."
So, Quen thought. The old man has fianally cracked.
"Mr. Hooker, thats a barrier!" Quen said aloud. "We can't go throught it!"
Mr. Hooker just smiled. "Yes we can, it only pretends to be a barrier," he explained. "You just run throught it,"
"You're mad," Quen replied.
"Have I ever lied to you?" Mr. Hooker demanded.
Noting that Mr. Hooker had never had lied to her, Quen closed her eyes and charged forward, rolling her trolley in front of her. She continued forward until she heard a thump and someone yell out "OW!".
Quen opened her eyes to find a girl with red hair hopping up and down saying, "Ouch, that hurt, watch where you're going with that thing!"
"Sorry," Quen murmered. "I didn't see you standing there-"
"Of course you didn't!" the red haired girl said, rubbing her foot. "You can't push a trolley with your eyes closed!"
"Sorry," Quen muttered again as Mr. Hooker walked over.
"Whew! That was a mighty good push there Qu-" he was interuppted as Quen pulled him to the side.
"Look," she said. "As long as you're hear, call me 'Zelma'"
"What?"
"The Hogwarts letter was to someone named Zelma Zeppli and it would be suspicious if I said my name was Quen and the name Quen wasn't called to the Sorting Hat."
"Ah, I understand now," said Mr. Hooker. "I do hope you know what you're doing Quen. Well, goodbye."
Quen waved as the old man disappeared out of the platform. She was all alone now.
Quen boarded the train, the compartment she had entered contain the red-haired girl she had hit with the trolley.
"Um, hi," Quen said.
"Hi," The red-haired girl replied. "Name's Ginny Weasley. What's yours?"
"Qu- Zelma Zeppli," Quen answered, remembering the name on the letter.
This simple trade of names turned into a conversation, and the more Quen talked to Ginny, the more she began to like her. They were interupped by the entrance of a cute red haired boy.
"Ginny," he demanded. "Have you seen my wand?"
Quen simply stared at him, thinking, Gee, I wonder who he could be. Her giddy thoughts were interuppted by Ginny, who said, "Zelma, Zelma? Can you hear me? You're sitting on his wand."
Quen snapped back to reality.
"Huh? What? Oh, sorry." She said, handing the boy his wand. The boy then said "Thanks!" and hurried out of the compartment.
"Who was that?" Quen asked.
"Oh, that was just my brother Ron." Ginny said.
"Ron" Quen echoed.
"Hello in there," Ginny teased. "Can we spell 'crush'?"
"Don't be silly," Quen snapped. "I-"
She was interuppted by a loud bang and a blond boy with gray eyes came barreling in, followed by someone that Quen could make out as a small girl. The small girl was beating the boy over the head with her suitcase as the boy called out, "Stop! Stop! I was only kidding!" The boy kicked out with his foot and the small girl trip. Seizing the opportunity to escape, the boy ran out of the compartment. The small girl was about to run after him, when Ginny grabbed her by the back of her robes.
"Restrain yourself you little savage, or you'll get yourself hurt someday," Ginny insisted. "What's your name?"
Quen observed the small girl for a second.
The girl was so small that she could have fit in Quen's suitcase. She had long hair was went down her back. Her hair was a mixture of blonde, but it had a slight rainbow tint to it that could only be seen when there was bright light shining thought it. It resembled unicorn hair. Her eyes were a bright purple. She simply stood there, looking from Ginny to Quen.
"I said, what's your name?" Ginny demanded.
The tiny girl didn't speak. Instead, she grabbed a necklace that hung around her neck and showed it to Ginny. It was a pretty necklace, with a sunflower in the middle. The girl pointed to the sunflower charm and then back to herself.
It took Ginny a few seconds to figure this out.
"Oh," Ginny said fianally. "Your name is Sunflower."
The girl nodded.
"I don't think she talks, Ginny." Quen suggested, turning to Sunflower. "Do you talk?" she asked Sunflower.
Sunflower shook her head.
"I wonder why she doesn't talk," Quen thought aloud.
Whether Sunflower talked or not, she proved herself a good companion. The three new friends held a long conversation until it was time to get out of the train. Quen stood there. Holding her suitcase. A huge castle stood before Quen, Ginny, and Sunflower.
For the first time in Quen's life, she saw Hogwarts up close.
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