The Outcasts Of Hogwarts

Chapter 3 A First Year's Welcome

It wasn't long before the train arrived at Hogsmeade station. Amaris had finished putting all her belongings back into her trunk and had once again taken to looking eagerly out of the carriage window. To her disappointment, she couldn't see anything. For one, it was night time and with the lights on inside, only her reflection stared back at her. It also began to hammer it down, which turned the silhouetted shapes she had just been able to make out into distorted blobs as the raindrops streaked across the glass.

But she knew that they were getting close when the train began to slow and she pressed her face against the cold glass with new determination. A faint yellowy glow in the distance was all she could make out but as it grew closer her excitement intensified.

With a final lurch, the steam engine heaved to a halt, thoroughly relieved to have completed its gruelling expedition. Amaris instantly scrambled to her feet, hauled her luggage off the seat and dragged it towards the compartment door. The corridor was bustling with students chatter and grunts of annoyance as they barged past each other to get off the train. Amaris was dragging her belongings out into the corridor when a rather condescending voice caused her to look up.

"You're supposed to leave your trunks on the train, you know. They're taken to our rooms for us," the voice belonged to a girl who matched it perfectly. She had buck teeth and an explosive mane of brown hair, along with an expression that told you that she thought the majority of the people around her were idiots, including the girl she was correcting.

The frizzy-haired girl waited for a few seconds, looking at silky haired one expectantly. Then she sighed, as though realising it was a lost cause and stepping off the train onto the doused platform. It was only them did Amaris realise that she had been expected to respond.
"Oh, t-thank- " she stammered but it was too late. The other girl was gone.

Leaving her case behind, she too joined the river of students exiting the train, while she lectured herself on the fact that she would never make friends if she acted so rude.

The platform was pure chaos. Due to the downpour, everyone had the hoods of their robes tugged low over their faces. This made everyone look a lot like a Despair of Dementors
(the rather fitting term for a group of the creatures). All of them looked the same but each seemed to have a different destination. Amaris stood in the middle of the throng, being knocked this way and that, as she tried to figure out where she was supposed to go. Once again she cursed herself for how she interacted with the girl on the train. If she had thanked the bucked teeth student instantly, she could have then asked for directions.

A sudden gust of rain-filled wind blew her hood off her head and her hair was soaked in seconds. Amaris spun in confused circles, looking desperately around her for what she was supposed to do.

Without warning, a powerful force collided with her shoulder, nearly causing her knees to give out beneath her. She turned to see an enormous hand was resting there and she jerked away from it instinctively. The enormous hand belonged to an equally enormous man, half-giant half-human she suspected. He had a large mane of hair that despite being drenched by the rain, remained as frizzy and out of control as the girl's from the train had been. He also had a matching beard so the only part of his face that could clearly be seen were his eyes. Kind eyes, Amaris noted rather surprised.
"I'm guessing you'll be Amaris Lovec?"
She nodded.
"I'm Rubeus Hagrid, Groundskeeper here at Hogwarts but you can call me Hagrid. I know you're ain't technically a fir'-year, but as it is your fir' year at the school, I've been told to take you with 'em"
He gestured to a huddling group sodden robes at the end of the platform which she assumed were the other new arrivals to the school.

Once Hagrid was sure he had all of the first years, he called for them to follow him down a narrow path. Amaris walked close behind him. Feeling so drastically small compared to him helped her forget how drastically taller she was compared to the other students who scurried after then.

Before long they reached the shore of an ink-black lake that stretched out into the darkness. Due to the rain that hit it, the surface was covered in tiny ripples that were constantly gliding across the water and overlapping each other.

Lined up along the shore was a fleet of small rowing boats each with a yellow glowing lantern attached to the bow. At Hagrid's instruction, Amaris and the first years boarded them, four to a boat and waited. Suddenly, the boats began to move across the water by themselves to the sounds of amazement from the children. They travelled across: a huddle of pinpricks of light amidst the darkness that surrounded them.

Then the Castle came into view. It was the most magnificent thing she had ever seen. It towered into the sky and spilt gleaming light from its large windows into the night like a lighthouse. Raindrops danced and swirled in the rays looking like droplets of liquid gold. Amaris stared, hypnotized. If she'd been able to tear her eyes away, she would have noticed that all the other students shared the identical mystified and disbelieving expression, that matched her own. They were going to live and be schooled here? How could that possibly be true? It was like something out of a Faerie Tale.