章节_32
the piece of paper he had pihe wall, g down
to september the first.
o day of august he thought hed better speak to his
aunt a getting to kings cross statio day,
so he went down to the living room where they were watg a quiz
show on television. he cleared his throat to let them know he was
there, and dudley sd ran from the room.
”er -- un?”
un gruo show he was listening.
”er -- i kings orrow to -- to go to
hogwarts.”
un grunted again.
”would it be all right if you gave me a lift?”
grunt. harry supposed that meant yes.
”thank you.”
he was about to go back upstairs wheually
spoke.
”funny way to get to a wizards schoic carpets
all got puhey?”
harry didnt say anything.
”where is this syway?”
”i dont know,” said harry, realizing this for the first time. he
pulled the ticket hagrid had given him out of his pocket.
”i just take the train from platform hree-quarters
at eleven oclock,” he read.
his aunt aared.
”platform what?”
”hree-quarters.”
”dont talk rubbish,” said uhere is no platform
hree-quarters.”
”its o.”
”barking,” said un, ”howling mad, the lot of
them. youll see. you just wait. all right, well take you to
kings cross. were going up to london tomorrow anyway, or i
wouldnt bother.”
”why are you going to london?” harry asked, trying to keep
things friendly.
”takihe hospital,” growled un. ”got to
have that ruddy tail remoes to smeltings.”
harry woke at five ocloext m and was too excited
ao go back to sleep. he got up and pulled on his jeans
because he didnt want to walk iion in his wizards
robes -- hed the train. he checked his hogwarts list yet
again to make sure he had everything he hat hedwig was
shut safely ihehe room, waiting for the
dursleys to get up. two hours later, harrys huge, heavy trunk had
beehe dursleys t petunia had talked dudley
into sittio harry, a off.
they reags cross at half past ten. un
dumped harrys trunk onto a d wheeled it iion
for him. harry thought this was strangely kind until un
stopped dead, fag the platforms with a nasty grin on his face.
”well, there you are, boy. platform form ten. your
platform should be somewhere in the middle, but they doo
have built it yet, do they?”
he was quite right, of course. there lastiumber
nine over oform and a big plastiumber tehe one
, and in the middle, nothing at all.
”have a good term,” said uh aier
smile. he left without another word. harry turned and saw the
dursleys drive away. all three of them were laughing. harrys mouth
went rather dry. what oh was he going to do? he was starting
to attract a lot of funny looks, because of hedwig. hed have to
ask someone.
he stopped a passing guard, but didnt dare mention platform
hree-quarters. the guard had never heard of hogwarts and
when harry t even tell him art of the try it was
ied to get ahough harry was being stupid on
purpose. gettie, harry asked for the trai
eleven oclock, but the guard said there wasnt ohe end
the guard strode away, muttering about time wasters. harry was
n hard not to panic. ag te clock over
the arrivals board, he had teo get oo
hogwarts and he had o do it; he was strahe
middle of a station with a trunk he could hardly lift, a pocket
full of wizard money, and a large owl.
hagrid must have fotten to tell hi