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Harry anxious waits for the end of the summer holidays.
Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon and Dudley take Harry to King\'s Cross, where he has to go to platform nine and three-quarters to catch the train that will take him to Hogwarts. The Dursleys leave, but Harry can\'t find the platform.
Suddenly he hears a woman talking about \"muggles\" with 4 boys and a girl. The girl\'s name is Ginny. The boys\' names are Percy, Fred, George and Ron. The red-haired woman explains to Harry that he should \'walk right through the wall\'.
After going through the wall he arrives on the platform where the Hogwarts Express is already waiting. He hears a boy called Neville telling his grandmother that he lost his toad again. Fred and George help Harry with his trunk. They realise who Harry is because of his scar. Percy, with a silver badge on his chest with the letter \"P\" on it, can\'t stay long because he has to go to the prefect\'s compartments.
Ron joins Harry in his compartment and they start talking. Ron got Percy\'s old rat Scabbers and he tells, that he also has two other brothers, Bill and Charlie. He tells Harry that his brother Charlie is in Romania studying dragons and Bill works in Africa for Gringotts.
During their trip a women comes by selling Bertie Bott\'s Every Flavour Beans, Drooble\'s Best Blowing Gum, Chocolate Frogs, Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes, Liquorice Wands, and other strange things. Harry buys them both some of everything. The chocolate frogs have collector's cards in them featuring Famous Witches and Wizards. Ron\'s still missing Agrippa and Ptolemy. Harry has gotten a card with a photo of Albus Dumbledore. The card reads:
"Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times, Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon\'s blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel. Professor Dumbledore enjoys chamber music and tenpin bowling."
Ron has a card with a picture of a witch named Morgana.
Harry also gets cards with photographs of Hengist of Woodcroft, Alberic Grunnion, Circe, Paracelsus, Merlin and Cliodna.
Then a girl named Hermione Granger comes to their compartment. She tells them she has read about Harry in 'Modern Magical History', 'The rise and fall of the Dark Arts' and 'Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century'. Hermione starts talking about the two of the houses of Hogwarts, Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. Three boys enter the compartment, Crabbe, Goyle and Draco Malfoy. They start arguing and when they almost end up in a fight, Scabbers bites Goyle\'s finger.
Finally the Hogwarts Express arrives at the railway station.
Hagrid instructs all first year students to follow him. Awaiting them are small boats which they will ride in, four to a boat. The boats will carry them across the lake to the castle.
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