CHAPTER SIX
where the barrier had been, with the words Platform Nine and
Three-Quarters on it. He had done it.
Smoke from the engine drifted over the heads of the chattering
crowd, while cats of every color wound here and there between
their legs. Owls hooted to one another in a disgruntled sort of way
over the babble and the scraping of heavy trunks.
The first few carriages were already packed with students, some
hanging out of the window to talk to their families, some fighting
over seats. Harry pushed his cart off down the platform in search of
an empty seat. He passed a round-faced boy who was saying,
“Gran, I’ve lost my toad again.”
“Oh, Neville,” he heard the old woman sigh.
A boy with dreadlocks was surrounded by a small crowd.
“Give us a look, Lee, go on.”
The boy lifted the lid of a box in his arms, and the people
around him shrieked and yelled as something inside poked out a
long, hairy leg.
Harry pressed on through the crowd until he found an empty
compartment near the end of the train. He put Hedwig inside first
and then started to shove and heave his trunk toward the train
door. He tried to lift it up the steps but could hardly raise one end
and twice he dropped it painfully on his foot.
“Want a hand?” It was one of the red-haired twins he’d followed
through the barrier.
“Yes, please,” Harry panted.
“Oy, Fred! C’mere and help!”
With the twins’ help, Harry’s trunk was at last tucked away in a
corner of the compartment.
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