But with music by your side, you’ll see, the time passes by, leaving new memories, new friends and new perspectives in life.
Human beings may be the only creatures in existence with a clear concept of time, maybe that’s why we tend to feel out of time, each one’s perception of time differs from one another, when you’re bored, time seems to enjoy torturing you with his dreadful beat. But likes to tease you when you are having fun, going from zero to a hundred in the blink of an eye.
Time surely flies, the very next day after my chat with Mr. Ragnok, I met Connor Kauffman, a young muggle, why a muggle someone my ask, well he’s no regular muggle, he’s a particularly handsome muggle. Apparently, he was a Stockbroker in Wall Street prior to the Black Monday incident, funnily enough it was his first day. I couldn’t stop laughing when he told me that. I know it was very impolite of me to laugh at him like that, but in my defense, I must say, that he was laughing to.
After that crash, he was laid off and decided to have a trip around Europe with his severance check. Who would have thought it? In his first stop he met a trendy London witch; it seems she was trying to pry open a tv set when they met. They clicked and his dreams of exploring the old continent were thwarted by that evil witch, they’re expecting their first baby. And if I can help someone like him, then I think reopening of the store is meaningful, at least I met a lovely couple. So, I decided to rent them the flat, just one gallon, this way they’ll take care of the flat while I’m gone, and we’ll have company in Christmas. That’s what I call net gain.
My days with them were very colorful, she is a Ravenclaw, I asked her how the houses were assigned, and she told me that we had to prepare a two feet long essay of what magic was, and what we wanted to learn from it. If that’s it, I don’t know what to do, I didn’t know that homework was measured in feet, not a word count, does that mean that I can just enlarge my writing so that it passes the standard. We’ll have to try it out.
She helped me study the Lumos and Incedio spells, and told me that I should talk to professor Flitwick if I wanted to develop my own charms, she told me some of her experiences in Hogwarts, and some gossip in the magic world, she told me that the last Dark Lord, the man whose name shall no ne pronounced, died at the hands of a one year old child, and that if everything went well, I’ll attend Hogwarts with that child. And I thought that I was the protagonist. She also said to me that I should buy a subscription to the Daily Prophet, and The Quibbler. That way I will never be out of tune with the trendiest topics in the wizarding world.
She brought with her a Wireless, and we listened some of her favorite songs, Celestina Warbeck’s “A Cauldron Full of Hot, Strong Love” was good but was something was a little too jazzy to my liking, it was good, but not something that I could put on repeat. The Weid sister was more of my cup of tea, their “This is the Night”, gave me some “Bring on the Night” Vibes.
But after all, time surely does fly. Today, the first of September 1st, I had an appointment with Neville, so I had to be sure to be on time, I wouldn’t like to take the Knight Bus to Hogwarts, it was enough to experience it one time to never, ever take it again. I don’t enjoy that kind of thrill, my poor heart couldn’t take that kind of experience more than one time.
So, I carefully prepared myself for today’s new adventure, so I put on my Skywalker One outfit, with matching poncho, belt and boots, fastened my sling bag, and hit the highway with Camille, Biggie was enjoying his seat atop the gear shifter, he was my copilot, I disguised him with an Ewok outfit, so there shouldn’t be any problem. Charlize told me that the ministry of magic doesn’t pay too much attention to this kind of stuff, so I don’t have to worry about it.
Radio G was tasked with sending a letter to Bill wherever she was, Charlize told me that the Owl would know where to find me after he’s done with the mail. Fully decked-out with the J-max and my antennas, I rode from Tottenham to King’s Cross Station.
Yes, the only thing I can say is “this is life”. I didn’t have any mishaps in my way to the Station and had plenty of time to spare. So, I parked Camille and just waited for Neville.
At around 9:30 am, Neville arrived with his grandmother, I could spot Mrs. Longbottom from the other side of the station, you won’t find any other ladies wearing a stuffed vulture in their hats, her presence was intimidating to say the least, I kind of know why Neville is that introverted, if you didn’t know her, you may be led to think that she was angry of something along those lines, but no, she was just a proud and elegant elderly witch, and to be fair, she had many reasons to be proud, by what Charlize told me, not many wizards had the guts to stand and resist the Dark Lord. So, I could understand why she pressured Neville, she was preparing him for any difficulties that he may encounter when she’s no longer by his side, that was what good parents do.
So, I waved to them showing them were I was.
“Here Neville, this way!”
They looked at me and briskly made their way up to me”
“Good morning Mrs. Longbottom, good morning, Neville”
- “Morning, Mr. Solé. We didn’t make wait for too long, I presume?”
“No, Mrs. Longbottom. I just got here a minute ago.”
- “Good, Neville! Why don’t you greet Mr. Solé, I didn’t teach you to be this ill-mannered.”
- “Sorry grandma, sorry Jas, good morning.”
“Don’t worry Mrs. Longbottom, Neville is my friend, he was just catching his breath. He didn’t ignore me, right Neville?”
- “Right”
“But we should get going, that way we can get a good compartment.”
- “Well, let’s get going.”
Mrs. Longbottom took us to platform Nine and Three-Quarters.
- “Here we are, just go walk straight up this barrier, just don’t stop until you have crossed, we don’t want to catch the muggles attention. You go first Neville.”
- “Got it grandma, just walk...”
- “What are you waiting for, just do it.”
Neville kept nodding and pushed his trolley, luckily the he went in the right direction, because he wasn’t looking where he went. After he crossed the barrier, Mrs. Longbottom looked at me.
- “Your turn Mr. Solé”
“Right up ma’am”
I pushed Camille and smoothly crossed to the platform nine and three-quarters, there I saw Neville apologizing to a senior, it seems that he bumped into him when crossing the barrier. Mrs. Longbottom didn’t cross with us.
After apologizing, we took a stroll around the platform, there we saw many Hogwarts students pushing their luggage around. Some were trying to catch their pets, of rummaging through their trunks, making sure to have everything that they needed, they still had time, but they were running around, some took parchment and began writing, I don’t know if they were writing home, so that their parents could mail them anything that they forgot, or simply were trying to finish their summer assignments. The train looked, like something that you could see at a museum, but it was well maintained, the red paint gave it a certain classical charm and the water vapor added something to the atmosphere.
We walked all the way to the Hogwarts Express, then I saw Mrs. Longbottom escorting a little witch, she had fluffy brown hair, from the distance if you squinted your eyes for long enough, it looked like a little lion mane. Mrs. Longbottom walked up to us, behind her stood the little witch, she seemed a little nervous, I wouldn’t blame her, going to a new place, and getting separated from your parents, was hard.
- “Neville!”
- “Grandma”
- “I would like you to be a gentleman and escort this little lady, don’t blemish the name of our Longbottom family, do you hear me?”
- “Of course, grandma!”
Neville almost blew my ears off with his reply.
“Don’t Worry Mrs. Longbottom, we will take care of her”
- “I’ll very much appreciate that Mr. Solé. Seriously, the people at the ministry don’t change, how can they not give clear instructions to the newcomers, or at least they should let their non magical parents escort the children to the train…”
“Alright ma’am. We should get going if we want to catch a good compartment. Neville, lend me a hand with her luggage.”
- “Coming”
The three of us took Neville’s and the little witch luggage to the Hogwarts Express. Mrs. Longbottom stood in the station, watching silently as we boarded the train.
We found an empty compartment and carefully put our luggage, I believe the only inconvenience was Camille, there wasn’t a bicycle rack nowhere to be found. But I secured her in our compartment. I tasked Biggie with taking care of her, he loved riding her, her shiny metallic colour, captivated the Niffler.
Once seated, I caught a glimpse of Mrs. Longbottom, she just stood there, Neville shrank back to his seat when he saw her. The years haven’t been kind to the elderly lady, but her firm gaze told a story of courage, pride and honor. We briefly fell into silence, I don’t like this atmosphere so I needed to break the ice, maybe presenting ourselves will do the trick?”
“Please allow me to introduce myself, I’m a boy of wealth and taste (Owner of a Record Store), I’ve been around for a long, long year, stole many man’s soul and faith (Got first place in the science fair for six consecutive years, led his team to win the Jr. Little League). Pleased to meet you, hope you guess my name”
Neville and the little witch just stared at me, completely gobsmacked, their gazes made feel like some kind of weirdo. We froze like that until the prefects passed by inspecting the carriage and introducing themselves. Those were the hardest two minutes in my life.
“Cough, hmm… I’m sorry, my name is James Acrux Solé, you can call me James, Jas, Jay or whatever you feel comfortable with, I own a record store in Tottenham, got first place my school’s science fair, for six consecutive years, and was the captain of my football team, the Jr. Tottenham Hotspur’s, nice to meet you”
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The little witch looked at me and said “Nice to meet you James, my Name is Hermione Jean Granger, you can call me Hermione, and until my 11th birthday I didn’t know anything about the wizarding world. By the way, I know that song my father has that album, but he won’t let me listen to that kind of music.”
“That’s a shame, it’s one of the Rolling Stones best songs.”
Then Neville presented himself “Hello my name is Neville Frank Longbottom, but everyone just calls me Neville, my whole family are wizards, but my uncle and the rest of my family thought for a very long time that I didn’t have any magical qualities, what song was that, I’ve never heard about those Rolling Stones”
“They’re a muggle rock band, they’re super good, their album’s fly off the shelves, we can listen to them, if you want? What do you think Hermione?
Hermione fidgeted in place, wanting to agree, but worrying about something at the same time.
“Your parents aren’t here, we can keep a secret, don’t we Neville?”
Now I was a true devil, tempting the little witch. Oh Lord have mercy. Neville nodded repeatedly, it gave me the illusion that his head was about to fly off.
She replied almost whispering “We can listen to them, but just once, and we have to keep it a secret”
One of the best ways to establish relationships is to have common secrets, even if they were meaningless. So, I started searching for the song in the J-max, flipped the Headphones and turned them into speakers. And started playing the song.
Neville liked the song, but didn’t understood a great deal about the song, it’s not that I could either, but the song was great, and we grooved with the rhythm, by the fifth replay, we were singing at the top of our lungs.
It was all fun and games, till the Hogwarts Express announced its departure, by the window I saw many students running to catch the train, as we left the station I could see Mrs. Longbottom, not having moved one inch from where we left her, at the distance I could see a faint smile being drawn in her face.
Whoo-hoo, Whoo-hoo
Whoo-woo, whoo-woo
The train in synch with the song left the station, next stop, Hogwarts.
Judging by the name, I was led to believe that, the Hogwarts Express was, well… like his name “Express”, we had left the station about one hour ago, and got tired of the rolling stones. Well, we could still listen to them, but we couldn’t continue singing, so I let the J-max skim through it’s library. I feel that the J-max it’s learning or something, when I got it for the first time, just changing the volume was a hassle, but the more familiar I get with it, the more easy it is to use, its super intuitive once you get the hang of it.
I started to feel hungry, I had a light breakfast, believing that I would arrive at Hogwarts for lunch, but apparently, we won’t get there till the evening, I’ll die of hunger before we even get close to the school.
“I’m hungry”
Hermione just looked at me for a second before rummaging trough her luggage. “My mom, packaged me some biscuits, apple slices and an orange juice, would you like some?”
Neville also hurriedly took a package from his luggage “My grandma also packaged some Cornish Pasties, we can eat them together”
“Thank you both, I believed today to be the anniversary of my death, what a shame, I could have been the first wizard to die of hunger in the Hogwarts ?Express?”
Just then, an old witch pushing a trolley opened our compartment door. The trolley had a sign that read “Honeydukes Express”
- “Anything of the trolley dears?”
I can swear to the lord that her voice was like an angel choir, she sent me to heaven and back.
“Yes ma’am” (No ma’am/No thank you)
I looked at Hermione and Neville.
“You gave me part of your lunch, let me treat you to something, that’s what friend do, don’t they?”
The trolley lady just waited patiently.
- “What will you want dear? I have Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans, Cauldron Cakes, Chocolate Frogs, Drooble’s Best Blowing Gum, Jelly Slugs, Liquorice wands and Pumpkin Pasties.”
“Yes”
- “Excuse me dear?”
“Sorry, I would like, a box of every Flavour Beans, Three Cauldron Cakes, Three Chocolate Frogs, one pack of Blowing Gum, Six Sickles worth of Jelly Slugs, Three sickles worth of Liquorice wands, and three Pumpkin Pasties. Do you have any beverages?”
- “Coming right up dear, and for beverages, I have pumpkin juice dear, would you want some?
“Thanks’ ma’am, three large pumpkin juices please.”
- “That would be 7 gallons and 6 sickles dear, can I help you with something else?”
I felt cold for a moment, that was the exact amount of change that I carried in my pouch. I emptied the contents of my pouch into the trolley and looked away. I didn’t want to see the trolley lady, counting all those knuts and sickles, maybe I should have paid with a banknote, or a check, but I didn’t know if she accepted those.
After a minute or so, the tinkling sound stopped, and the trolley lady left our compartment. My face was burning, from now on I should carry 7 gallons, 119 sickles and 3451 knuts, never again, never again. The first thing that I should do at Hogwarts should be writing to Gringotts, I feel naked having my pouch empty, maybe that’s the way Nifflers feel all the time.
“Let’s eat, there’s enough for everyone”
Neville just started eating “Thuanks Jos”
“Thank you, James,” Hermione was a little more reserved, but ate at the same rate than Neville if not faster than him.
I just took my time, what can I say, shame can be a great appetite suppressor.
Once we finished ravaging the improvised lunch, we just sat dazedly, looking at the roof, the music continued playing in the background, but frankly speaking, we didn’t have the energy to do anything. Biggie was dead on the train seat, weakly trying to reach out to Camille. I gave him many snack, I just hope he’s okay, I wouldn’t want to hold a funeral for my little friend.
Neville was just looking dazedly at his chocolate frog, he was trying to remember something, don’t know what, but whatever it was, it should have been important. He sighed, opened the box and swiftly decapitated the frog.
He took the card from the box and gave it to me, the frog continued fighting for his life in Neville’s mouth. “Take it, I don’t collect them”
Hermione took also took hers and gave me the card.
From my box, I got Professor Armando Dippet, it had golden borders, I don’t know if its rare, Hermione’s was silver, she got Artemisia Lufkin and Neville’s also was silver, he got Andros the Invincible. I’ll keep them in my sling bag, a good memory from my first trip to Hogwarts, from my first magic friends.
Mom always said that we should help our friends, so I should ask Neville, what’s troubling him.
“What’s wrong Neville”
He looked at me with those giant watery eyes and said “I don’t know, but I feel like I forgot something, I just can’t remember what it was.”
I started listing everything that we could and couldn’t bring to school.
“Let’s see, we don’t have summer assignments, your grandmother helped you pack, so you shouldn’t have forgotten your school gear, we couldn’t bring broomsticks, so it shouldn’t be that either, you also didn’t bring an owl for pet so…”
“Trevor!” he jumped from his seat and started frantically searching around for Trevor, whatever that was.
Hermione stood up and tried calming Neville “Calm down Neville, who or what is Trevor?”
“Trevor is my pet toad, he was a gift from my uncle Algie” Neville answered in the brink of tears.
“Oh, your pet toad, it’s the same uncle that repeatedly tested your magical qualities”
Sniffing Neville was frantically scanning the room, searching for Trevor “Yes, after I proved myself to be a wizard, uncle Algie gave him to me.”
“Well, let′s search for him, he shouldn’t have gone too far”
We carefully searched around the compartment, cleaned up our mess, but Trevor was nowhere to be seen. Hermione started to walk in circles, pondering about something, she slammed her fist onto her palm and said “Why don’t we go to the other compartments and ask if anyone has seen Trevor, we can split up and finish quickly.”
That was a good idea, but mom always told me, “When in doubt, look for a uniform”, maybe asking the prefects or the conductor would be more efficient, I don’t think this was the first time a pet got lost in the train.
“Why don’t we go ask the prefects, or the conductor, they should know what to do, in these situations.”
Hermione looked a little dejected “Well you’re right, we should ask an adult first”
I couldn’t bring myself to thwart her enthusiasm
“We can do both, you and Neville go search in the nearby carriages, and ill go to the prefects”
“Yeah, let’s do that” and just like that Hermione took Neville’s arm and flew out of the compartment.
I went to the front of the train and searched for a prefect. There I met a tall and thin red haired young man. He was trying to look stern, but frankly he looked a little silly, even more so when you looked at his prefect badge. Sorry I mean his “Pinhead” badge.
“Excuse me, sir pinhead”
I know I shouldn’t have said it, it was so lowly, I shouldn’t be like this, I’m better than this, and yet. His badge says “Pinhead”.
- “How did you call me?”
“Pinhead sir, that’s what your badge says sir”
He looked super pissed off, his face was completely red, I could see smoke sipping through his ears. He muttered a something, I couldn’t hear him clearly, but at least he calmed down.
- “It’s Prefect Weasley, not pinhead.”
He took out his wand and changed his badge.
“Right sir, umm… Prefect Weasley, my friends toad got lost, and we didn’t know where to find it, I was thinking that you could help us searching for Trevor, that’s the toad’s name, sir.”
- “Don’t worry, all pets will arrive safely at Hogwarts, tell your friend to be more careful with his pet. And you, you should go back to your seat, change your robes, we’ll be arriving at Hogwarts soon.”
“Thanks sir, ill go back to my seat sir.”
I left before he could begin talking again, I have the belief that if I don’t hurry up, he will begin reciting the holy scriptures.
Once back in the compartment, I put the school robes over my clothes, to be honest I felt a little down, no one recognized my outfit. At least biggie appreciated my style, I have to say that he looked like Sith with his little Ewok tunic. These wizards seriously lack culture.
After a little while, Hermione and Neville got back to the carriage, they didn’t find Trevor. I explained to them what the prefect had told me, Neville sighed with relief and Hermione, was a little dejected, so I changed the topic.
“You should put the school robes, the prefect told me that we’re about to arrive to Hogwarts.”
“Thank you, James,” Hermione began searching for her robes, I took Neville out of the compartment, she just had to put the robes over her normal clothing, but mama raised a gentleman.
After a little while, Hermione exited the compartment and ran away, I dragged Neville back to the compartment, he should hurry up, we are about to arrive.
He put on his robes, and then we just waited for Hermione. After a little while she came back, her face was flushed, she should exercise a little more, being out of breath is never a good sign.
“Sorry, but you won’t believe who did I met. Harry Potter, the boy who lived, I have read all about him before school, he’s a living legend, and he’ll be attending Hogwarts with us.”
“Oh, so you met him, how is he, did you see his scar? Charlize, my tenant told me that he was just one year old when he defeated the one who’s name should not be pronounced.”
“Yes, I saw him, I just ran and told him to change into his school robes”
“Wow, we are going to attend school with a celebrity, this should be the way Luke’s neighbors felt, living next to him.”
“Who’s Luke? Jas.”
“Neville, don’t you know Luke? The last Jedi, the one that brought down the Empire, restored peace to the galaxy, galactic hero, Luke Skywalker, where have you lived, you are breaking my heart, Neville. You’re missing out one of the most important events of modern day history…”
- “I’m sorry, I don’t know him…” poor Neville was going to cry.
- “That’s enough James, you shouldn’t bully Neville like that”
“I’m sorry Neville, maybe this Christmas holiday I can show you who is Luke Skywalker”
- “Thanks Jas”
- “So that’s why you were dressed like that James”
“Like what Hermione?”
- “The white clothes, boots and utility belt, you had the same costume that Luke had in the first movie”
“I’m glad you noticed it Hermione, I thought no one could appreciate my style.”
- “I thought that it was normal Muggle clothes, I didn’t know it was a costume”
“No Neville, it isn’t a costume, I just got a very refined fashion style”
- “Don’t pay attention to him Neville, that’s a costume, I thought those were traditional wizarding clothing, so I didn’t said anything.
- “Oh, well it looks good on you Jas.”
“Thanks Neville, I believe that you can, one day be cultured man, just like me.”
- “I’ll do it Jas”
- “Sigh… boys…”
And just like that, we continued chatting, I told Neville, many things about the muggle world, from time to time, Hermione said a thing or two, to complement my narration. And we waited, and waited, but we were ages apart from Hogwarts, that pinhead lied to me.