Chapter 17 Crossing the Lake
In fact, children living in the wizarding world are usually very boring. The Weasley family's burrow is located among the hills and trees south of the village of Ottery-St. Catchpole. However, most Muggles have not even discovered it. There is a house there.
There are only four wizarding households nearby. Diggory's house is the closest to them, but it is still several miles away.
The two parties can visit each other only by riding a broomstick or by other means. In fact, the children from the four families have basically no contact with each other.
Weasley children rarely go to the village of Ottery-St. Catchpole, let alone play with ordinary Muggles.
However, the twins said that their brother had a Muggle friend who was a beautiful girl.
“Generally, Muggles are difficult to get along with. They always think that we are weird, and we usually can’t play together. Besides, my home is far away from the town.”
Lee Jordan's situation is even worse. He is the only one in his family, so sometimes he doesn't even have a playmate.
Albert is much better than them. He has a sister, a pile of books, and occasionally plays ball with others. However, I usually don’t play with a bunch of brats, it’s boring after all.
Although he has no real good friends, Albert is quite popular at school. After all, he has excellent grades, is great in all aspects, is a good talker, and also knows how to manage interpersonal relationships.
Albert asked three people that children in the magical world actually do not go to Muggle schools.
It’s really hard to imagine that a family like Malfoy would let their children go to a Muggle school?
Obviously not.
Of course, some wizards are exceptions.
However, the twins have never been there. Their initial knowledge was taught by their families.
"By the way, is there any wizard family named Smith?" Albert asked. His grandfather's original family was Smith. Later, he casually changed his name along with his Muggle relatives.
It shows how much he hated the guy who abandoned him.
“Never heard of it, what about you George?” Fred looked at his twin brother.
“I haven’t heard of it either.” Li Qiaodan shook his head. "Is something wrong?"
“It’s nothing, I still don’t know where I heard this last name.” Albert moved his eyes towards the window. The visibility was very low and the sky was getting dark.
To put it bluntly, he didn't realize that Li Qiaodan was a talker. This guy liked to talk non-stop.
The three of them wouldn't be bored. The cubicle was boring anyway. Listening to him talk about things was like being hypnotized.
Albert opened his eyes again, and he felt that the train seemed to have slowed down.
“The train will arrive at Hogwarts in five minutes. Please leave your luggage on the car and we will take you to school.” A voice echoed on the train through the loudspeaker.
"Merlin's beard has finally arrived." Fred stretched out lazily. He was not in good spirits after sitting on the train for too long.
George helped pack the snacks on the table and put them into Albert's suitcase.
The train finally stopped, and the four people walked out of the compartment and rushed to the door as the people in the train aisle pushed and shoved.
When we got off the bus, it was really hectic. They went down to a dark and small platform, cold rain was pouring down, and the chill of the night made Albert shiver.
"I hate rain." Albert muttered, took out his wand and chanted a spell on the pointed hat, "Invulnerable to water and fire."
“Freshmen! Freshmen come here!” A loud voice shouted on the platform. He raised the oil lamp above everyone’s heads and shook it to attract the attention of the freshmen.
"Wait a minute." Albert also chanted the invulnerability spell to the robe he was wearing. He didn't know if this spell would be effective, but it was better than nothing.
“Hurry up, Albert,” Lee Jordan urged.
"Don't worry, it's coming. Fluorescent light." Albert held up his wand and walked towards Hagrid. He was really a tall man with a long beard, who looked quite scary from a distance.
If you didn’t know better, you would have thought he was a dangerous person. He looked really scary.
"Are there any more first-year students? They are all here, let's go!" Hagrid led them away from the platform. Without the shelter of the platform, the cold rain hit them, making goosebumps appear all over the freshmen's bodies.
“Be careful where you step.” Hagrid shouted, but it was of no use. Because of the rain, the path was muddy, and many people fell down several times along the way.
Albert pulled up his pointed hat and robe to wrap himself more tightly. Fortunately, the fire and water invulnerability spell worked, and he didn't become a drowned rat like the others.
Why didn’t I learn to use a magic wand to make an umbrella? No, Albert remembered that he had a folding umbrella in his suitcase.
He was a little annoyed, angry with himself.
Albert decided to take the time to learn that useful magic, so that he wouldn't have to worry about not bringing an umbrella when it rains.
“Are you okay?” In front of him, another unlucky guy fell down.
“Thank you, this journey has been really rough.” The girl who was helped up said gratefully.
“Let’s go quickly.” Albert let go of the other person’s hand, used his wand to explore the way, and walked forward slowly.
This is definitely the worst class of freshmen. Many people fell down and were covered in mud.
He also heard Lee Jordan, who was away from him, swearing in a low voice. He had just been taken away by the people around him.
Albert suddenly felt that it was a wise decision to stay behind, at least he would not be taken down by others.
“Be careful, it’s going downhill.” Hagrid shouted from the front. After he went down, he waited aside to prevent any students from slipping while walking up the steep slope.
Turns out, this was indeed a wise decision. Three unlucky guys almost fell down, but luckily Hagrid caught them in time.
“Be careful, we’ll be at the lake soon.”
After everyone went downhill, Hagrid stepped forward to lead the way. They turned corners and finally arrived at a black lake.
On the hillside on the other side of the lake, there stands a castle, that is Hogwarts Castle.
There are lights flashing on the windows of the castle, which are particularly conspicuous under the rain in the dark night.
"Each boat can't have more than four people. Remember, no more than four people!" Hagrid pointed to the boat on the shore and shouted to the newcomers.
“Albert, this way.” One of the twins waved to him. Lee Jordan was also here. They were all covered in mud and looked very embarrassed.
"Are you okay?" Albert couldn't help laughing and got on the boat.
“It’s very bad. I fell down once and was knocked down twice.”
“Get in the boat,” Hagrid shouted. After holding up a light to make sure no one was overloaded, he took a boat by himself. “Very good, then... move forward.”
The boat moved forward across the lake on its own without oars.
Albert looked up and stared at the castle in front of him, feeling vaguely inexplicable excitement. Hogwarts, here I come.
(End of this chapter)