[Hogwarts Between] Heath Arrives at Platform 9 3/4

[Karen Klutzke]

[OOC: written by Brandon, but sent to the list by Mom.]

"And we dub thee, Heath Johnson, knight of Camelot!" cried King Arthur
knighting Heath as he kneeled before Arthur. A thunderous applause
went up from the audience. Heath waved at the bystanders when a large
gray dragon shoved its massive scaled head into the throne room.
Instinctively Heath drew his sword and charged at the great beast.
The monster saw Heath and reared back its head and bellowed,

"BBBBBBBRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!"

Groggily Heath wiped the sleep from his eyes, mumbling something not
even he fully understood. Reaching to turn off the alarm clock Heath
instead accidentally knocked it to the ground where it started to
vibrate across the floor. His dad couldn't just get him a normal alarm
clock, noooooo, Heath had to use his old man's old alarm clock; the
one three feet tall and three feet wide and bell loud enough to wake
the dead on the other side of the planet. Sliding the covers off,
Heath reached down to pick up the clock, only to slide off the bed and
bang his head on the nearby wall. Upon closer investigation Heath
realized that his feet were some how tied up in the sheets. He tried
to squirm his feet free but to no avail. Sighing he tried to reach for
his clock. His fingers just barely touch it, and then the clock
vibrated out of reach and got stuck on the floor vent. Infernal rings
could be heard echoing through out the house. Just when Heath was sure
things couldn't get any worse Cinrus, his barn owl, fluttered down and
landed on Heath's head. "How the bloody heck did you get out of your
cage?" questioned Heath. Cinrus just looked down at her owner with an
expression in which to say, "You actually thought that stupid cage
could hold me?" and hooted what was most likely the owl equivalent.
She then bent over and started pecking his head.

Needless to say the rest of the morning didn't go much better. First
off breakfast was burnt, which was amazing considering it was cold
cereal. Both Samantha and Collin refused to shed light on the subject.
Afterwards it turned out that Cinrus had found her way in through a
neighbor's open window and made a late night snack of one of their
gerbil pets. The pellet was found by Heath when he stepped on it while
taking a shower. Later an animate andmalevolent suitcase was created
by Samantha when she messed up her charm because of Heath's bathroom
finding. The suitcase managed to take out a vase and trample the
flowers inside, rip its way through Collin's favorite jacket, and bash
into the families' computer, knocking it onto the floor; and that was
only the tip of the iceberg. The Johnsons finally cornered it in the
laundry room where it was tipping over the trash can and mixing the
clean clothes with the dirty ones. A few smashes from a baseball bat
that Collin was holding took out the demonic cargo carrier once and
for all.

About an hour later the Johnsons packed Heath's school supplies
(robes, cauldrons, books, etc.) into Heath's suitcase. When Samantha
found her son staring intently at the bag she explained her family's
legacy. The Makars, Samantha's side of the family, came from a long
line of wand makers, artificers, and the magical equivalent of
scientists. Samantha herself was planning on being an enchantress
before she met Collin. Of course such lines of work come with their
own dangers. One mispronunciation could lead to a disaster, as
demonstrated by the previous suitcase. She was trying to charm a
suitcase into a bag of holding, which would allow it to hold anything
that could fit through its opening. The down side was that even though
an infinite amount of things could fit inside, their weight didn't
diminish.

About another two hours after that (traffic was a pain) the Johnsons
arrived at the train station. It was full of people bustling this way
or hustling that way. More than once Heath almost lost sight of his
parents. Then one time he did. Standing near a wall Heath scanned the
crowd for his parents, but it was like they fell off the face of the
earth. Suddenly a hand reached out through the wall and pulled Heath
through. Stumbling through Heath rubbed his eyes and reoriented
himself. He was in another train platform. "Behind you," said a voice.
Turning around Heath saw his mom with a beaming grin on her face and
his father who looked a little more white than shaken. "Welcome to
platform 9 and 3/4. This is where young witches and wizards take the
train to Hogwarts," explained Samantha. Heath looked puzzled at the
wall he just passed through. Glancing at where Heath was looking
Samantha chuckled and said, "Oh that. Yeah, that wall can give you
quite a scare if you don't know what it is. It's mainly just an
illusion to make sure that muggles don't stumble in."

Looking around Heath did in fact prove his mom right--there was no
train. A few people stood around with worried looks on their faces.
One was a girl with a woman. A little ways off Heath could see a
different girl arguing with a boy. An old man stood nearby looking at
one of the many moving posters. Finally Heath found what he had been
looking for, a train schedule.