Arrival at Hogsmeade

[phee]

It was growing dark outside the windows when a voice echoed through the corridors of the Hogwarts Express, penetrating into the compartments: "Any students who have not yet donned school robes, please do so now. We will be arriving in Hogsmeade in fifteen minutes."

Outside the train, the mountains and forests they wound through were growing darker against the purple sky. Inside, students were pulling school robes out of their luggage and down from the overhead racks. First year students looked nervous and awkward, struggling with the unfamiliar ankle-length robes. Most of the older or returning students had already pulled their robes on and lounged back, feet on the seats in front of them, ignoring the announcement altogether.

As if on cue, half a dozen prefects pushed their way down the train's corridors, Pippa Rush among them. Her eye fell on half a dozen first-years, pale-faced and nervous looking as they pulled on their Hogwarts robes; she hid a grin, remembering what it had been like on her own first train ride to Hogwarts---her first train ride anywhere alone, for that matter---and then she slid the nearest compartment door open and stuck her head inside.

"Right. Everyone into robes---next stop is Hogsmeade Station. Leave your luggage on the train. It'll be taken to the school separately. No---leave your luggage," she repeated, and a girl stopped in the middle of hauling her suitcase down from the overhead compartment. "That's right," Pippa said. "The school staff will pick it up. When you've been sorted into a house, your luggage will be taken up to your dormitory."

Pippa moved on, repeating the message in half a dozen other compartments. She'd stopped to help a boy coax his cat from under a seat when the train began perceptibly slowing, and Pippa looked up.

The lights of Hogsmeade Station were visible now, and the students were pushing into the corridor willy-nilly, friends and housemates laughing and calling to each other, jostling and bumping into one another as the train slowed further. Over all the confusion she could hear the other prefects raising their voices to maintain order, and then the final squeal of brakes as she grabbed the side of the compartment door and braced herself until the train came to a complete stop.

The train doors opened and the students poured out, pushing their way toward the tiny, dark platform beyond. It had begun to sprinkle, and Pippa hugged her school robes about her, smiling when she spotted the bobbing lantern some distance away and heard an unfamiliar voice calling out: "First year students! All first year students this way!"

Pippa Rush

<<FIRST YEAR STUDENTS ONLY MAY REPLY.>>
<<ADVANCED STUDENTS GO TO "Arrival at Hogwarts.">>

[Lily Potter]

Lily walks in with the crowd following the Prefects. This is her first year at Hogwarts. She hopes that she can be good at magic like her mother and father was. Her father Harry Potter, her mother Ginny Potter.

[Rubeus Hagrid]

Rubeus Hagrid was standing at the edge of the lake waving his hands in the air, "Firs' years this way!" he called over the croud of students. He saw Lily and immedietly recognized her as Harry and Ginny's daughter.

[Elvira DeKeel]

Elvira was wearing her plain school robes as to try avoid recognization. She'd been many times in the news with and without her parents whom were well known in the wizarding world. Though recognization wasn't always completely avoidable.... She was also wearing the patch. Something someone could easily spot and recognize, though she would take it humbly. Missing an eye though was also someone could tease her about, something she would try to ignore.
She followed the voice who was calling her onwards. Head held high she couldn't wait to discover what knowlage she would gain from the experiance. Education, as one of her nannies had once told her, was one of the key things in life, after peace and joy of course. Troubles couldn't possibly lie far ahead though... Her hard life was far from over, and she knew that Hogwarts would not become a sanctuary.

[phee]

As they had for generations, the first year students shuffled forward en masse, faces upturned, surrounding the staff member sent to fetch them. Pippa pushed in behind them and recognized Rubeus Hagrid, Hogwarts' half-giant groundskeeper, standing next to a tall, slender man in professor's robes beneath one of the station's lanterns.

"Right, you lot," Hagrid said. "Any more firs' years?" When no more first year students emerged from the train to crowd around them, Hagrid said, "No? Good. This here's Professor Albion--you go right ahead, Professor."

In the back of the crowd, Pippa struggled with a grin. In fact, it looked to her as if Professor Albion was having trouble hiding his own smile.

"Thank you, Professor," Albion said. "All right, quiet everyone. Do we have a prefect here?"

"Here, sir," Pippa called out. She raised her hand and the man's eyes found hers immediately.

He smiled. "And you are . . .?"

"Pippa, Sir. I mean Philippa---" She blushed, grateful at least that it was dark and Professor Albion was unlikely to be able to see her clearly. "Philippa Rush, sir. Sixth year."

"Good to meet you, Miss Rush," Professor Albion called over the heads of the first year students. He glanced from Hagrid beside him to the younger students clustered around them. "Now. We have a few minutes' walk ahead of us, and it's getting dark, so be careful. Two by two; I want everyone to find a partner. The path is fairly narrow and it can be a bit steep---"

"Professor," one of the first years piped up, and Albion stopped in mid-sentence.

"Yes?"

"My mum said to stay close to my older brother---"

"An older student?" Albion asked.

"Fourth year, Sir."

Albion nodded. "The older students have gone on ahead of us to the school. You'll see your brother there. As a first year student, however, it's traditional to get your first look at Hogwarts from across the lake, and that's where we're going now. Two by two, everyone---carefully now. We don't want anyone ending up in the lake, do we, Professor Hagrid? Miss Rush, you'll follow along, please. You'll want your wand."

"Yes, Professor," Pippa said, drawing it from her waistband.

At that Professor Albion turned, his robes swishing around him. "Lumos," he said aloud, and light sprang from the tip of his wand as he led the way.

"Lumos," Pippa said, following the professor's lead, and her own wand lit as well, showing the uneven track beneath their feet. Slipping and stumbling a bit, the first year students followed Professor Albion and Hagrid down the steep, narrow path to the water's edge, Pippa guiding the laggers firmly along from the rear. "Keep up," she called out, her voice loud in her own ears.

"Just around the bend here now," Hagrid called out a few minutes later, and there was a chorus of "Oooooh!" as the narrow path opened suddenly onto the edge of a great, black lake, giving those in the front of the line their first look at Hogwarts.

[Elvira DeKeel]

Elvira followed the path slowly, head still high. But a partener? That wouldn't be easy for her to get, and she definately wasn't going to make the first move. She would go alone if she was unable to find a partener. She crossed her fingers behind her back and didn't even pay attention to the magnificent school that was right in front of her. She was a tad worried.

[Rubeus Hagrid]

Hagrid was watching the students pick partners, and saw one girl who hadn't found one, "You can be my par'ner," he said with a friendly smile.

He held out his hand for her to grab it.

[Elvira DeKeel]

Elvira didn't take the half-giant's hand. Instead she nodded slightly and gave a brief "thank you." She then waited for him to take the lead so she could follow him onto a boat.

[phee]

Bringing up the rear, Pippa grinned as the first year students nearest her oohed and ahhed at their own first look at the castle. Perched atop a high mountain across the inky water, its windows sparkled with welcoming light; near the water's edge, she could see Professor Dumbledore's White Tomb.

"Pay attention, you two," she called out, grabbing the robes of two rowdy boys who were trying to push their way to the front of the queue. "You can go in order or I'll make sure you're the last to cross. You decide."

"Miss Rush, if you please."

Professor Albion waved her forward and Pippa made her way through the crowd to the front of dock. "I'd like you to go in the first boat and lead the students up to the castle," he said. "I'll follow in the last boat. Take the students in through the Entrance Hall to the anteroom. Wait with them there until a member of the staff relieves you. You can go into the Great Hall when you're relieved, and join your friends for dinner. All right?"

"Yes, Professor Albion," Pippa said.

"No more than four to a boat," she heard Professor Albion announce, and over the younger students' heads Pippa could make out the fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore. Her eyes met Professor Albion's and she grinned, thoroughly enjoying the first years' reactions to the adventure before them. Many, she supposed, would never have been in a boat before, and these were enchanted to make their way across the lake without assistance and come safely to berth on the other side.

Gathering her robes around her, Pippa stepped into the first boat, joined almost immediately by two excited first year students.

Professor Albion tapped the boat with his wand and murmured, "Locomotus."

Immediately, Pippa felt the little boat drift away from the dock, swing its bow toward the castle on the opposite shore, and begin moving silently across the lake toward Hogwarts.

Pippa Rush

[phee]

"All right," Professor Albion called, "who's next?"

Hagrid ushered the next four students forward and they clamored into their boat while Professor Albion held it steady. When they were seated he tapped his wand against the bow, saying, "Locomotus." He felt the boat swing outward and stood for a moment, watching it follow the first across the lake.

"Come on, then," Hagrid said, "don't be shy. Step on up."

Half a dozen times the process was repeated, until there was a long line of gently bobbing boats trailing their way toward Hogwarts.

"Is that everyone, then?" Professor Albion asked. He looked around, seeing only Hagrid for a moment, and then a slender girl stepped out of Hagrid's shadow, clearing her throat.

"I think I'm the last," Elvira said quietly.

"What?" Professor Albion looked surprised. "Are you all by yourself? Where's your partner, Miss---"

"DeKeel, Sir. Elvira DeKeel."

"I'm 'er partner," Hagrid said. "She didn't have no one else."

"That's very kind of you, Professor Hagrid," Albion said, "but I don't think it would be wise to crowd both of you into one boat---"

"Oh," Hagrid said. He blinked, looking down at the last boat bobbing at the edge of the dock. "Oh, right." He scratched his head, admitting, "I hadn't thought abou' that. It is a bit dinky, isn't it?"

"Yes, a bit," Albion said. "Um---I suppose I could enlarge it . . ."

"Hmm," Hagrid said, and he and Elvira stepped closer to the water's edge to look at the small wooden boat. "Well---"

Hagrid's feet went out from under him abruptly, his arms flailing in circles as he lost his balance. With a bellow, he slid forward rapidly, missing Professor Albion by inches and sending Elvira tumbling into the lake.

"Mobilicorpus!" Professor Albion shouted, whipping his wand toward Hagrid. The half-giant sailed off the dock and into the air at Albion's command, and there he hovered, still bellowing and flailing his arms while Albion kept his wand trained on him.

"Miss DeKeel, are you all right?" Albion called into the increasing darkness.

Dripping and soaked to the bone, Elvira stood shivering some 30 feet from the shore, the water up to her shoulders. She shoved her hair out of her face and took an unsteady step. "I---I think I'm all right, Professor," she said.

"Of all the . . . " Albion muttered. With one eye on Hagrid and his wand hand still extended, Albion stepped into the water, extending his free hand to Elvira. "May I help you?" he asked.

[Elvira DeKeel]

"No thank you" said Elvira. Instead she ducked under the water and slowly began to swim. She'd never done so in her life and this was such an experience for her. As she swam though she began to regret saying her last name. She could only imagine going the whole year being Miss DeKeel. She would try to keep her mouth shut from now on.
Now, Elvira really wanted to swim across the lake to the other side. But, like I said before, she'd never had the chance to swim before, so she had no idea what to do. Slowly she began sinking lower and lower to the bottom of the lake, loosing air every other second, unable to find her way up...

[phee]

Professor Albion sighed with relief as Miss DeKeel dipped below the inky water and started to swim. At least, he thought, that was one less problem to deal with at the moment. Wondering what else could go wrong, he began levitating Professor Hagrid gently back to the dock. After a few seconds Hagrid realized he wasn't going to end up in the drink and stopped bellowing; carefully, Albion brought Hagrid to shore again, landing him gently on his feet.

"Well, that was close," Hagrid said shakily. He wiped one enormous hand across his brow and grinned down at Albion. "You've got a right steady hand there, Professor, I don' mind tellin' ya. I don' know one wizard in ten could have managed it with someone my size, that I don't. I owe you a lot for that."

Phoenix Albion massaged his trembling wand arm. "Quite all right, Professor," he said. "I'm sure you'd have done the same for---" He broke off, his eyes sweeping the lake's bank. Surely, he thought, he should be able to see a dripping wet Miss DeKeel by now. "Where's the girl?" he asked suddenly. At Hagrid's blank look, he said, "Miss DeKeel. She was swimming to shore."

Peering offshore, Hagrid shook his head. "I don' see nuthin' but dark," he said.

"Miss DeKeel!" Professor Albion called. There was no answer and Albion's wand flared as he said, "Lumos!" There was nothing visible in the water and Albion lifted his wand higher. "Lumos maxima!" he said, and his wand flared brighter still, casting a stark white light across the lake's inky surface. "Miss DeKeel, answer me! Accio Miss DeKeel!"

At his words there was a dull rushing sound from some distance off shore and Elvira DeKeel burst from the water like a rocket, shooting skyward. "Descendo!" he commanded, holding his wand on her. He added a cushioning charm for good measure and brought her in as gently as he could. A moment later her feet touched the ground---absent any shoes, he noticed---and the girl crumpled to the ground at his feet.

[Elvira DeKeel]

Elvira was brought up to the shore by Professor Albion's summoning charm. She lay for a moment on the shore before she started to cough up water. Her eye remained closed when she lay still another moment. Finally, after coughing a bit more, she opened it.
"Oops."

[phee]

" 'Oops'?" Professor Albion echoed in disbelief. He stared down at Elvira, water soaked and coughing still. "You very nearly drown in the lake within your first hour at Hogwarts and all you have to say is 'oops'? Bloody hell, girl, why didn't you tell me you couldn't swim?"

[Elvira DeKeel]

"Try being a DeKeel" muttered Elvira slowly sitting up. She didn't think Professor Albion knew what she ment by that, nor did she care. Hell, she wasn't even sure he heard what she said. Again, she dind't care.