Chapter 39: 1st September 1991, Sunday: Part 2

Once Remus and George disappeared into the crowd of muggles, they walked across the platforms until they reached the dividing archway between nine and ten. A brick wall roughly five feet wide separated the two platforms. Since George was merely a muggle-born first year, he waited for Remus to explain what needed to be done next.

Remus turned around next to the wall with a playful expression, "any guesses on how you get to platform nine and three-quarters?"

George could tell that Remus was making fun of his lack of experience. That werewolf looked so confident that he wouldn't be able to guess correctly.

Remus must have been thinking, "who would guess that you have to walk directly into the wall."

George didn't like seeing that look of superiority on Remus's face, so he decided to pull a little stunt for the sake of his pride. He didn't provide Remus with an answer, instead, he power walked directly into the wall headfirst. Remus stepped out of the way in surprise to clear a path for his advance. George instinctively squinted his eyes in anticipation of hitting the wall, but just as he had expected, his body passed right through with no resistance. In between the muggle platform and nine and three-quarters was a brief dark space that felt like being in a low-pressure environment, not too different from being on a plane.

He passed through the wall to the other side revealing a completely new platform and the giant red steam engine. Although the Hogwarts Express was quite a sight to behold, George ended up turning back around to admire the wall. This was a piece of spatial magic he found incredibly fascinating. There were thousands of magical strands weaving through the bricks and mortar, it was like looking at a glowing map of the London underground. He was incredibly curious to know where Platform nine and three-quarters were located relative to King's Cross Station, and how far the wall had teleported him.

A few seconds later, Remus passed through the wall and nearly walked straight into George. He still looked very surprised at George's boldness.

"How did you know to walk through the wall?", Remus clearly wanted an answer,

George shrugged his shoulders innocently, "I didn't. I just took a chance and it paid off."

Remus chuckled and ruffled Georgie's hair, "I love the confidence, but you're going to have to be a little more careful at Hogwarts. I don't want to hear that you spent a few days in one of Madam Pomfrey's Hospital beds just because you have been walking into walls."

George exaggeratedly faked disapproval as he retorted, "ye of little faith. What happened to calling me 'one of the greatest wizards of our time'?"

Remus avoided answering the question as he pointed towards the train, "come on now. All the good seats will be taken if you don't get on. You've been enough of a nuisance to me as it is."

Remus had no idea what George had in store, he could be considered an angel now compared to what trouble he may or may not get involved in at Hogwarts. Remus and George headed towards the train which had many families gathered around wishing their children final farewells. George was surprised to see no one he recognised. They all must have already boarded or hadn't arrived yet, the latter would apply to one red-head family and a boy with a famous scar. He had no plan of interacting with them yet until he was at Hogwarts, so it was for the best if he didn't hang around the platform for too long.

George turned to Remus to say his goodbyes, "I better get going. You have been a great help, Mr lupin. And in more ways than one if you know what I mean. I don't know what I would have done without you."

Remus waved his hand, "just call me Remus. Calling me Mr Lupin makes me feel like a teacher, and I've had quite enough people nagging me about that. Don't forget to send me those letters, and remember you can always tell Professor Dumbledore if you're struggling with you-know-what. I promise he will understand your situation. Anyway, remember to have fun and enjoy yourself."

George held out his arm to Remus, "well then. Goodbye Remus. See you in four months."

Remus returned the handshake, "goodbye George. Go and make your family proud."

George was very satisfied with his relationship with Remus. Some level of trust had been established between them. Now he had one less reason for Dumbledore to be sticking his nose into George's business.

George took the trunk from Remus and boarded the train with his arms full. He looked to his right and saw a poorly lit carriage with no windows. There were iron shelves full of cases and trunks on either side of the carriage, and some pets in cages toward the back half. George found an empty spot for his modern case among all the antiques and weighed up what he should do with Blinkie. This little pest had been trying to escape the cage ever since it had been parted with Ellie. It knew the separation was a bad thing, and it desperately wanted to be reunited with its bountiful supply of treats. If this owl was anywhere near as good as his step-sister at escaping, then it was for the best if he kept it with him at all times.

After leaving the storage carriage, George came back on himself and entered the student compartments. The corridors in these train carriages were very narrow which required George to shimmy sideways every time he wanted to pass a group of excitable first years. He passed plenty of perfectly serviceable seating compartments, but George had his heart set on sitting with his targets. There was someone he knew that would have definitely been punctual enough to have found a seat by this point in time. The carriages seemed to be divided up by years at Hogwarts, and George roughly calculated there were just shy of one hundred and fifty students each year on average. Needless to say, it didn't take George long to find who he was looking for.

Each compartment had an open glass door which made it easy to see inside. George stopped once he spotted a girl with bushy ginger hair, she was seated next to the window reading from a book titled 'A beginner's guide to Transfiguration'. George immediately recognised her as Hermione Granger, his main target. But she wasn't the only one in this compartment. Opposite Hermione was a feeble little boy with black hair and a chubby face, he also had a toad resting beside him. This boy happened to be the other target. This was a rare opportunity where George would have the two together. He knocked on the glass plane to get their attention. Hermione's head lifted from her book as the pair both looked toward him.

George formed his signature friendly smile, "do you two mind if I join you? The other compartments are getting a little full now that the train is about to leave."

There were plenty of compartments empty, but George would guess that neither of them would assume he was lying. The timid boy just shook his head back and forth, but Hermione didn't give an immediate response. Instead, she seemed to have recognised George as she cupped her chin with her hand.

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Hermione asked George, "I swear we've met before. Your voice sounds familiar."

George nodded, "I believe we have Miss Granger. We met thirty-four days and twenty-one hours ago in Flourish and Blotts bookstore. You were with your parents and Professor Sprout, I believe you were leaving after purchasing some books when we met."

Hermione's eyes widened in realisation as she clicked her fingers together, "ah yes of course. How could I forget? You're that boy who said he could see the future."

The feeble lad looked timidly toward George, he was probably scared because of what Hermione just said.

George's smile widened as he entered the cabin and held out his hand, "George Linwood. It's a pleasure to meet you again. I see that you're learning about Transfiguration, I would love to compare my thoughts on that subject with you sometime."

Hermione smiled with equal intensity after hearing George's genuine curiosity about the field of magic.

She eloquently shook George's hand, "it's a pleasure and I would love to. Transfiguration is such interesting magic, the fact that you can turn an inanimate object into an animated one is unbelievable.

I was just reading that more advanced transfiguration can even conjure things from nothing. How could that be even possible? Surely you can't make something from nothing, it's just not scientifically possible."

Since she was doubting the existence of conjuration magic, and George so happened to be particularly gifted in that field. He felt now was a good time to perform a little demonstration. Impressing both of these two should serve as a great ice breaker to start their blossoming friendship. The plan demanded he befriended both of them by Christmas, so what was the harm in getting started nice and early? George pulled out his wand, which he had kept in his pocket since arriving at the train station, and pointed it towards the palm of his left hand.

He then spoke the magic word, "Incendio!"

A tennis ball-sized blob of flame fell from the tip of the wand onto his palm, the flame held the structural consistency of a water balloon. George grasped the flame, which he was able to squeeze in his hand, and raised it into the air above his head. He tilted his head back, allowing the flame to fall into his mouth, and swallowed it in one gulp. The glow of the flame could be seen travelling down his neck proving that it wasn't an illusion. He finished his demonstration by blowing out a ring of black smoke from his mouth whilst rubbing his stomach as if he had just devoured a spicy meatball.

Once the act had been concluded, George put away his wand and was happy to see that his stunt had the desired effect. Since he had been practising on and off for the past month, he felt like merely conjuring a tiny normal flame was now beneath him. Although he pretended as if that magic was effortless, such meticulous control of conjured fire required his complete concentration. Summoning a flame was easy, but ensuring that the temperature was low enough not to burn his hand or his throat was incredibly tricky. Luckily, his constitution provided him with a certain level of flame retardance which made it all possible.

Hermione seemed to be completely in awe at what George had just accomplished, her mouth was open, but no words came out.

The feeble boy was the first to speak, "that was awesome. Can you show me how to do that?"

George looked towards the boy with an empathetic smile, he was going to have to sadly disappoint him. There was no way a normal first year could mimic George's magic, that's partially the reason he'd done it in the first place. But surprisingly, Hermione didn't even give George the chance to say a word.

She practically yelled, "Neville, do you have any idea what he just did!? That was Conjuration magic, it's a very advanced form of Transfiguration. It's only taught to sixth-years and above. No one at our age should be able to summon fire let alone be able to control it so calmly."

Neville cowered away from Hermione as she loudly explained the difficulty of George's spell, She had come off a little bit more aggressive than she probably intended.

Hermione looked back at George and demanded, "how did you do that?"

George felt he may have overdone it, he only wanted to impress them after all. He didn't realise Hermione would already recognise it as advanced magic, and he didn't know it was only taught from year six onwards. Perhaps he should have been paying a little more attention to the covers on those school books.

"It's nothing special, just a lot of hard practice", George brushed off.

He desperately attempted to redirect the conversation, "anyway, I've been awfully rude. I'm guessing that the name is Neville? It's nice to meet you.

Oh, and before I forget. You didn't miss-hear Hermione, I can actually see the future. Would you like to know your fate?"

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