Harry Potter And The Lord Of Shadows

And The Journey Begins

Boarding the train, the siblings found an empty compartment at the end of the train. Alex placed their luggage and laid to sleep, while Nicole sat beside the window, looking at the parents who came to send their children off.

"Brother, don't you ever wonder who and where our parents are?" Nicole asked without turning her gaze away from the people outside.

"No"

"Liar, don't you wish that we would have also come with our parents today?" looking at his brother who seemed indifferent she asked. She does not believe that he never missed their parents.

"No" yet again, an indifferent reply came from Alex.

"You..." Nicole wanted to continue but was cut short.

"Let me sleep, I couldn't sleep because of you today" an annoyed Alex replied.

"Humph... liar you were in bed till eight" Nicole pinched his waist grudgingly, but there was no reaction from Alex, she could only swallow her anger.

Nicole was looking outside the window, lost in her thoughts when someone knocked at the compartment door and opened it. A black-haired boy peeked in.

"Can I sit here?" the boy asked softly. He checked all the compartments, but they were already full and full of commotion.

"Sure come in," Nicole said, full of smiles. If she were to travel alone with her brother, she might die of boredom now there was someone she could talk to.

"Hi, Nicole Ashbridge, and he is my twin but older brother Alexender Ashbridge," Nicole said while extending her hand.

"Harry Potter" the boy introduced while shaking hands.

"Ohh... you are the famous Harry Potter, I have read about you in books glad to meet you," Nicole said, sitting down and patted the seat beckoning him to sit beside her.

Soon the two of them engrossed themselves in chatting about Hogwarts, magic, Diagon Alley and so on. 

A whistle sounded, and soon the train began to move. Both Nicole and Harry looked outside the window and saw families waving to their children bidding farewell.

Soon the station disappeared from their sight, and there was complete silence in the compartment. All of a sudden the door of the compartment slid open and a redheaded boy came in.

"Anyone else sitting there?" he asked, pointing at the seat opposite Harry and Nicole. "Everywhere else is full."

Before they could even reply, the boy walked up to Alex and shook him.

"Wake up dude, no time to sleep," the boy said.

"Hey if you want to sit, feel free to sit here don't wake him up" Nicole stopped him and pointed at the space beside Harry.

The red-haired boy looked at Nicole then Alex and finally sat down beside Harry. He glanced at Harry and then looked quickly out of the window, pretending he hadn't looked.

"Hey, Ron" two boys came in the compartment. Both of them looked alike.

"Listen, we're going down the middle of the train, Lee Jordan's got a giant tarantula down there," one of the twins said.

"Right," mumbled Ron.

"Harry," said the other twin, "did we introduce ourselves? Fred and George Weasley. And this is Ron, our brother" the twins introduced themselves.

"And who is this pretty lady beside you, Harry?" one of the twins asked.

"Nicole Ashbridge, nice to meet you" Nicole replied.

"Likewise" the twins replied.

"Well, see you later" and the twins darted off like the way they came.

"Bye," said Harry and Ron. The twins slid the compartment door shut behind them.

"Are you really Harry Potter?" Ron blurted out.

Harry nodded.

"Have you really got... you know . . ." Ron asked, pointing towards Harry's forehead.

Harry pulled back his bangs to show the lightning scar. Ron stared.

"So that's where You-Know-Who... ?" Ron pried further.

"Yes," said Harry, "but I can't remember it," Harry said stating, the facts.

"Nothing?" asked Ron eagerly.

But before Harry could reply, Nicole snapped at Ron "Hey, isn't it a bit rude to bring out someone's painful memories just so you could kill your curiosity?".

There was complete silence in the compartment for a while, but soon Ron and Harry got themselves into a conversation about muggles and their families.

While they had been talking, the train had carried them out of London. Now they were speeding past fields full of cows and sheep. They were quiet for a time, watching the fields and lanes flick past.

Around half-past twelve there was a great clattering outside in the corridor and a smiling, dimpled woman slid back their door and said, "Anything off the cart, dears?".

Ron just shook his head, taking out sandwiches his mother has packed. Harry took out a few coins from his pocket and bought some of everything. 

"Brother give me some money," Nicole said, shaking Alex.

Without opening his eyes, Alex threw a pouch towards Nicole "Keep that it's for you". Alex has already stored some money for Nicole to use separate from his stash.

As the old lady left the compartment was full of snacks, and except for Alex, everyone was busy gulping them down. There were Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, Chocolate Frogs, Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes, Licorice Wands, and several other strange things, Harry and Nicole had never seen in their lives.

"Mind if I have them?" Alex opened his eyes and sat. He pointed towards the packed sandwiches beside Ron and asked.

"Sure you can have them" slightly taken aback Ron replied.

After finishing the sandwiches and having a few snacks, Alex again went back to sleep.

Nicole, Harry and Ron were having a good time eating the Every Flavor Beans. Harry got toast, coconut, baked bean, strawberry, curry, grass, coffee, sardine, and was even brave enough to nibble the end of a funny grey one Ron wouldn't touch, which turned out to be pepper. The compartment was full of laughter, and it was hard for Alex to 'rest in peace'.

As they were having fun there was a knock on the door of their compartment and a round-faced, plump boy came in. He looked tearful.

"Sorry," he said, "but have you seen a toad at all?" he asked in a very soft tone.

When they shook their heads, he wailed, "I've lost him! He keeps getting away from me!"

"I don't think you need to worry too much, he can't leave the train, and after reaching Hogwarts, you will eventually find him," said Nicole.

"Yes," said the boy miserably, "Well, if you see him . . ." He left.

After the boy left, the compartment fell silent.

"Hey want to see some magic?" Ron suddenly asked.

"Can you do it?" Harry asked Ron with excitement.

"Well, I tried to turn him yellow yesterday to make him more interesting, but the spell didn't work. I'll show you, look . . ." Ron said, pointing towards his rat who was lying in his lap as if dead.

He rummaged around in his trunk and pulled out a very battered-looking wand. It was chipped in places and something white was glinting at the end.

"Unicorn hair's nearly poking out. Anyway..." Ron said while clearing his throat.

He had just raised his wand when the compartment door slid open again. The toadless boy was back, but this time he had a girl with him. She was already wearing her new Hogwarts robes.

"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," she said. She had a bossy sort of voice, lots of bushy brown hair, and rather large front teeth.

"We've already told him we haven't seen it," said Ron, but the girl wasn't listening, she was looking at the wand in his hand.

"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it, then." throwing Alex's legs to aside, she sat down. Others looked at her taken aback.

"Er... all right," Ron said and cleared his thought once again ready to cast the spell.

"Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow,Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."

Ron waved his wand, but nothing happened. The rat stayed grey and fast asleep. Ron's face flushed red with embarrassment.

Since nothing happened, the girl looked at Ron and asked.

"Are you sure that's a real spell?" said the girl. "Well, it's not very good, is it? I've tried a few simple spells just for practice and it's all worked for me. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever sucha surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it's the very best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard, I've learned all our course books by heart, of course, I just hope it..." as the girl was going on about whatever was coming in her mind she felt light and wind passed her ear. The next moment the girl was outside the compartment, and the door slid shut. After taking a moment to come back to her senses, she tried to open the door but failed. She banged the door for a while but finally gave up and left.

Inside the compartment, both Harry and Ron were in astonishment. They didn't know what happened so suddenly, only Nicole was looking at her brother, with her mouth open.

"Brother that was rude, you know" finally Nicole said to Alex.

Both Ron and Harry looked at the boy who was still lying down with his eyes closed, but right now, there was a wand in his hand.

"She was being too loud, and was disturbing my rest," Alex said indifferently to her sister's remark.

Listening to the siblings talking, they knew that whatever happened now was done by the lazy looking boy.

"Ron, you are from a family of wizards so you must know a lot about Hogwarts right? tell me"

"Well after we reach we will be sorted in houses namely Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin" Ron explained and continued " All my brothers have been in Gryffindor even my mom and dad, don't know what will they say if I am not. I don't suppose Ravenclaw would be too bad but imagine if they put me in Slytherin." Ron replied.

"What's wrong with Slytherin?" asked Harry.

"That's the House Vol-, I mean, You-Know-Who was in?" Ron said in a very low voice.

"Well, what else is there?" not wanting to know more about the houses, Harry asked.

"Well there is quidditch the best game in the world..."  and Ron started explaining about the game.

"By the way have you heard about Gringotts? It's been all over the Daily Prophet, but I don't suppose you get that with the Muggles, someone tried to rob a high-security vault." Ron suddenly asked.

"Really? What happened to them?" Nicole asked. She has read about Gringotts, and it is said to be one of the most secure places.

"Nothing, that's why it's such big news. They haven't been caught. My dad says it must've been a powerful Dark wizard to get round Gringotts, but they don't think they took anything, that's what's odd. 'Course, everyone gets scared when something like this happens in case You-Know-Who's behind it." said Ron.

Listening to Ron, Harry had an odd expression on his face as if something was on his mind.

A voice echoed through the train: "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately."

Listening to the voice, Alex stood up, opened his case and took out his robes.

"Hi, man I am Ron Weasley, and this is Harry Potter. We never got to introduce ourselves" Ron said, extending his hand towards Alex. Alex was about a head taller than Ron and Harry.

"Alexender Ashbridge, Nicole's brother," Alex said, shaking Ron's hand and nodding towards Harry.

"So in which year are you?" Ron asked.

"This is my first year".

"So you two are twins?" Ron looked at Alex and Nicole at amazement.

"Can't we? You have two in your family" Alex replied.

"Well, yeah..." listening to Alex Ron was at a loss of words.

Alex wore his robes and opened the door only to bump into someone. The girl from earlier came back and bumped into his chest. Not paying attention to the girl Alex left.

"Who was that rude guy?" the girl asked rubbing her forehead.

"I apologise on his behalf, my brother is not very social" Nicole apologised.

"Is he a senior?" the girl asked.

"No, he is also a first-year. We are twins" Nicole replied.

"Can we help you with something?" Ron asked the girl.

"I just came to tell you that we are reaching soon, but before that they announced it. By the way, I am Hermione Granger" the girl said.

"Ron Weasley"

"Nicole Ashbridge"

"Harry Potter"

The three of them introduced themselves.

"Are you really?" said Hermione. "I know all about you, of course, I got a few extra books for background reading, and you're in Modern Magical History, The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century."

"Am I?" said Harry, feeling dazed.

"Goodness, didn't you know, I'd have found out everything I could if it was me," said Hermione. "Well, can you tell me what happened the last time I was here?"

Both Harry and Ron looked towards Nicole.

"I am sorry once again, that was my brother. He wanted to rest but with all the commotion you..." Nicole wanted to curse his brother for leaving her behind to clean up his mess.

"It's not that I am angry, it's just that the magic was cast so skillfully, I wanted to know who did it," Hermione said and continued "What's your brother's name?"

"Alexender Ashbridge" Nicole replied.

"Alexender" Hermione murmured, she was going to remember this name.

Soon the train slowed down and finally stopped.

Alex along with Nicole, Harry, Ron and Hermione got off the train on a tiny, dark platform.* * *