"We're nearly at the station. Gather your belongings, everyone! Leave your luggage; the house-elves will deliver it to your dormitories!" Professor Lupin returned to Harry's compartment. Finding that their earlier pallor had given way to agitation and anger, he asked curiously, "Did something happen while I was away?"
"We're fine, Professor Lupin!" Harry took a deep breath and tugged at Ron's sleeve, forcing down his anger. In the end, he chose not to tell Professor Lupin the truth and simply shook his head.
A gloomy silence hung over the compartment for the rest of the journey. At last, the Hogwarts Express slowly pulled into Hogsmeade Station, and the students rose to disembark. Within moments, the platform was filled with the sounds of their pets—hooting owls, meowing cats, and Neville's pet toad, Trevor, croaking beneath his hat.
Jerry held Hermione protectively against him as they struggled off the Hogwarts Express with the crowd and stepped onto the platform. Torrential rain poured from the sky like a furious beast, while the wind cut like a blade, piercing their clothes and chilling them to the bone.
"This weather is absolutely dreadful!" The biting wind cut through everything. Clutching Crookshanks, Hermione squeezed farther inside Jerry's warm overcoat and shivered against his chest like a frightened little rabbit. The students around them were trembling too, and complaints about the awful weather rose from the crowd every so often.
"First years, over here!" called a voice everyone knew well. Hagrid's towering figure appeared on a raised part of the platform. Waving his enormous hands, he beckoned the bewildered first years out of the cold to gather around him. Following Hogwarts tradition, they would cross the lake to Hogwarts Castle in boats, four to a boat.
"You lot all right? I heard there was a bit of