Chapter four The Hogwarts Express As the end of two weeks drew nearer, I practised harnessing Excalibur and driving him in front of the cart. I estimated it would take two hours to get to King's Cross station. I harnessed Excalibur to the little cart at around quarter after eight. I felt quite foolish in my new clothe. My father had dressed me as what Muggles call an "Amish". So I wouldn't be noticed too badly driving a horse and cart. I dragged out my Hogwarts trunk outside, but soon found that I couldn't heft it into the small carriage. I was scrawny for my age and needed help. "Dad!" I called as I ran into our cottage. "What?" asked my dad. "I need help with my trunk, I can't lift it. Can you help me, please?" I nearly choked on my own polite words. "The sooner the trunk's in the cart the sooner I can go." I added at my dad's sceptical look. My dad seemed to be weighing my sooner absence and helping me in his mind, turning them over. I knew he would hate to help me, but would love to see me go. "Alright." he raised himself to his feet and walked out to the door where our horse was standing patiently in the lane way. He lifted my trunk like it was nothing into the back of the cart. "Thanks." I muttered and hopped up into the driver's seat. I took out the road map I had tucked under the seat earlier. I hit Excalibur on the rump with the reins and flicked the long black whip. He trotted forward down the lane and onto the dirt road. An hour later, I wiped the sweat under the brim of my hat. It was unusually hot today. We were now trotting down a Muggle highway. People passing in motor cars beeped at me. And every time they did, Excalibur would shy and dance sideways. I took a sandwich out of my bag and started munching happily as we went along. King Arthur hooted excitedly from under the canvas hood, hidden in the darkness, perched on top of his cage. I reached back and fed him a piece of sandwich, smoothing his feathers as he swallowed the chunk of bread whole. About half an hour later, we pulled into King's Cross. Stares followed us as we drew to a halt in a parking spot. I tapped the ground with my wand and a hitching post grew suddenly out of the pavement. I tied Excalibur's reins to it and fetched a trolley for my trunk. I yanked my trunk out of the back of the carriage, onto the trolley with a clang. I prodded King Arthur back into his cage and pushed the trolley in front of Excalibur. "You know the way back, don't you?" I asked the horse. He nodded his lovely head. "And remember to take the back roads home." the horse nodded one more time and turned away. "Come pick me up at the end of the year! I'll send an owl back home for you!" I called after the back of the carriage. I wheeled the trolley away from the parking lot. In the station I saw lots of people with Hogwarts trunks and owls. I peered through my glasses at the plastic numbers over the platforms. There was no platform nine and three-quarters. It went right from nine to ten and nothing in between. I glanced at a station supervisor in a green uniform. By the puzzled look he got every time he saw someone with an owl I guesses he was a Muggle and knew nothing about platform nine and three-quarters. "Excuse me," I said, approaching a couple with three children, one boy and two girls. "Oh, he's so polite, Ron." cooed the women with bushy, brown hair. "Yes, young man?" said the man with who was Ron with flame of red hair. "Could you tell me how to get to platform nine and three-quarters?" "We were about to go through it ourselves!" said one of the girls. "Why, this reminds me of the time Harry Potter asked my mother the very same thing, the day we met." said Ron, reminiscing, getting a sort of dreamy look in his eyes. "Allow us to introduce ourselves, dear." said the women, reaching forward to shake my hand, "I am Hermione Granger Weasley and this is my husband, Ron Weasley. And these are our three children, Rebecca, Chelsea, and Alex. Alex is starting this year, too. But the twins won't start until next year." "And you are?" asked Ron. Alex had red hair like his father but the girls had brown hair.   "Rubeus ... Rubeus Potter." I looked at the Weasley family. They were very well dressed and looked wealthy. Rebecca shrieked with surprise. "Oh, it can't be! You're Harry Potter's son! Well, where is the old chap? I'm dying to see him!" exclaimed Ron Weasley looking around. "He-uh- he's gone already" I lied. "Hermione and I were old school friends of his back at Hogwarts." Ron smiled broadly. "We're your godparents!" added Hermione Weasley clapping her hands with joy. "Can I come live with you?" I asked hopefully. The Weasleys laughed like I had been joking. "Oh, look at the time! The train leaves in ten minutes. Alex, Rubeus, you two can go together through the barrier." said Ron, looking at his watch. "What do we do?" I asked again, they had never really answered my question. "See that barrier over there, Rubeus?" asked Hermione, pointing to a barrier between platform nine and ten. "Uh-huh." I answered. "Well just run at it and you'll go right through it. And you'll find yourself on platform nine and three-quarters!" she gave me a encouraging push in the back. "I'll sit with you on the train." said Alex, rolling his trolley up beside mine. "Okay." I answered, I had made a friend. They headed to the barrier at a run. They were stopped though by running into a tall man with blonde hair, leading his blonde daughter and her trolley towards the barrier. They were both holding their heads high, proudly. "Watch where you're going!" said the girl hotly. Her father shot us a dirty look and they disappeared through he barrier. "Who was that?" I asked Alex, as we got up again and brushing ourselves off. "Draco Malfoy and his snotty daughter, Veronica. Unfortunately, she's starting at Hogwarts, too." replied Alex, pulling me to my feet. We walked through the barrier at a walk. And we arrived in front of a great scarlet engine hissing and giving off steam. We piled into an empty compartment. We sat down, waiting for the train to start moving. A couple minutes later the door to the compartment slid open and two girls entered. "Can we sit here? Every where else is full." asked one with short, light brown hair and blue eyes. The other girl had almost black hair and brown eyes. "Sure," Alex and I said at the same time. "Thanks," said the dark haired girl, dropping her trunk and owl cage. "I'm Beth Jones and this is my friend Serena Thomas." "Hi!" Serena greeted them warmly. "Harry Potter? Really?" said Serena, leaning closer to Alex about half an hour later as the train trundled easily down the iron tracks. "What's so great about my dad?" I asked looking from Serena to Alex. Serena and Beth gasped in shock. "Why, Harry Potter was only the greatest young wizard. Before he married Alicia Verth, than he locked himself away in that little cottage. And he's your dad?" "Yeah, if he was such a great wizard then how come most call him a Dark wizard?" I had never been told such tall tales about my dad. He wasn't exactly what you would call ‘a bad guy' but he was very anti-social. "Well, he doesn't really use Dark Magic on anybody but I've heard stories that he practises it." said Serena. "I have never even seen him use magic. Maybe he's lost it. That could be why he stays on our property almost always." I answered. "You can't lose magic." Beth said, "He defeated You-know-who seven times in his childhood. Once when he was a baby." "Who?" I asked. Who was this You-know-who. Serena and Beth gasped again. "Lord Voldemort." Alex lowered his voice to below a whisper. "Don't say the name." whispered Serena, glancing nervously over her shoulder. I had heard Alicia talking about him a few weeks ago but thought he was just the king of some foreign land. Not some severely evil Dark Wizard. And now, he had risen to power again and I wasn't sure to be afraid of Voldemort or to join him since my own father and step-mother were his followers. "He's killed hundreds maybe thousands, magical people and Muggles." said Beth, looking astonished that I didn't know all this information about Voldemort. Suddenly, the door to their compartment slid open again.