Chapter 16: The Hogwarts Express
Chapter 16: The Hogwarts Express
In the early morning of September 1st, Sherlock packed his belongings and boarded the train to London from the Surrey railway station. He lives near downtown London, and reaching King’s Cross Station took only thirty minutes.
Sherlock easily found the wall between Platform Nine and Platform Ten with the ticket that Professor McGonagall gave him.
Many people can clearly see that some peculiar people are gathered in this area. For example, a group of children pushing carts, most of them with an owl on them, and some adults dressed in weird clothing.
They wore dark robes, and some even wore pointed hats that can only be seen in theatre clubs, attracting the attention of many passersby.
“I need to remind you to put away your hat when you get to the Muggle station! These Muggles think your hat is weird!” Beside the witch with the pointed hat, her husband wore a suit and beach shorts on his lower body. He glared at her and muttered lowly.
In dissatisfaction, the witch removed her hat from her head, “But why do I think these people seem to be looking at you more than me?”
“Nonsense, I’m dressed according to how Muggles dress normally. Do you think it’s because of Vicky?”
Hearing his father’s question, the fifth-year Hogwarts student covered his face, and now he wanted to find the crack to get in quickly. He had already reminded his parents at home, but nothing changed.
Sherlock couldn’t help but laugh when he saw this family, but he was acting professional and didn’t laugh to the point it was noticeable. To avoid attracting attention, these wizards who came to send their children to school did not gather together and stay put.
Instead, they casually loitered around the station, waiting for everyone to pass through that wall individually. Even if some of them dress strangely, when they pass through to Platform 9¾, those Muggles who have been paying attention to them will be unaware and divert their attention.
After that, they will forget about it, as if nothing had happened.
This is an effect of the Muggle-Repelling Charm. Wizards will use this magic when they have large gatherings or cannot avoid Muggle’s existence, so they use this to avoid exposing their identity.
Those with the children entered Platform 9¾ in an orderly manner, and it was Sherlock’s turn who was also waiting.
He didn’t have many things in his hand, only a simple suitcase. As for the owl he specially bought, he let it fly to Hogwarts by itself yesterday. Holding the suitcase in his hand and looking at the wall before him, Sherlock took a small and trotted all the way forward.
Just when the tip of his nose was less than ten centimeters away from the wall, he closed his eyes, but his steps did not slow down. In the next moment, he seemed to have passed through something, but he didn’t feel anything as if he had passed through anything.
But the surrounding voices have become different.
Many animal sounds can be heard, including owls, cats, and even the squeaks of mice. The noisy conversations of people also sounded in his ears, most of which were parents giving warnings and advice to their children.
With this, Sherlock opened his eyes.
The smoke of the steam train flew over the chattering crowd, cats of various colors were under people’s feet, and wizards and witches in modern clothes or medieval robes said goodbye to their children on the platform.
Seeing this scene that was completely different from modern society, Sherlock couldn’t help raising a smile, shrugged his shoulders, and walked onto the Hogwarts Express with his suitcase in hand.
There were still many empty cars in the front, but Sherlock kept walking toward the back of the train until he came to the last car and found an empty compartment to sit down in.
The train will take at least a whole day to arrive at Hogwarts.
Taking advantage of this, he didn’t do anything else but take out a quill and parchment from the suitcase, place it on the table, quietly lean back in the chair, close his eyes, and fall into a deep thought.
Sherlock was trying to remember how things would go, as he didn’t remember much of the original plot.
In the entire Harry Potter series, except for the first book he read in the original English version, the other six books are all learned through the movie recap videos. This led him to have a very one-sided knowledge of the plot of the original books.
Though, he knew very well how it ended. Justice defeated evil, and the boy who lived defeated the Dark Lord or Voldemort.
But when it comes to a specific part of the story, he really can’t remember much of it.
After thinking about it for a moment, Sherlock took a quill and wrote two words on the parchment.
“The Chamber of Secrets” and “The Basilisk”. These are the only things he knows from the second Harry Potter book.
Roughly, a secret room in Hogwarts was opened, and a large serpent called “The Basilisk” was released, which has been attacking students at Hogwarts throughout the year. But it seems that none of the students in the castle died because of it, and a person named Voldemort is behind all of this.
As for what happened to the rest, he didn’t remember any of it.
He was unable to recall anything more and stopped thinking. He took out his wand and tapped lightly on the parchment with “The Chamber of Secrets” and “The Basilisk” written on it. The piece of parchment was instantly torn.
The Severing Charm is the most difficult of the basic spells, and it is also one of the spells that Sherlock has been able to use proficiently. After he opened the window and threw the pile of paper scraps out, he found that there was a Ford sedan flying in the sky just above the moving train.
Inside the car, he could clearly see Harry and Ron’s faces. Harry seemed to see him and waved at him excitedly.
Sherlock’s eyes widened, and it was only at this time that he remembered that Harry and Ron driving the flying car to school was part of the original plot of the second book.
He looked at the car above his head that gradually lifted into the sky and turned into a small black spot. He couldn’t help but sigh.
“Those kids, they are still young and already doing this kind of stuff.” He muttered again.
“Did they reach the destination safely? They should be.”
Harry and Ron did find it fun at this time.
“I think I saw Professor Forrest on the train just now!” Harry said excitedly.
Ron was sitting in the driver’s seat and couldn’t help but get excited, “He must be impressed by us now!”
“Not only him, but I think everyone at Hogwarts will be impressed!”