A Black Train Cometh

Preface: In light of a certain film that moved mountains in the box office, I have decided to share a dream I had a few years ago.

Dream: I am standing at the edge of a gravel driveway looking out on a mountain road. I am a younger lad, at a guess I would say I am 10. It is autumn and the ground and sky are separated by orange, brown, and red leaves. I look down the mountain road as it spirals away from my vision. The sound of shoes scrunching the gravel together can be heard behind me. I turn to see my parents in a youthful and excited state. They are carrying a piece of luggage each.
"Are you excited Sam? Today is finally the day!" I am uncertain of what they mean but I don't say anything. I turn back to the winding road and look for answers. I feel their hands rest on my shoulders as I search the wilderness before me for clues as to what they mean. My mother kneels down and stares me in the face.
"Your sister is so jealous Sam, please be nice to her about all this."
"Ok?" This was all I could think to say. The ground begins to shake, my mother smiles and stands back up looking eagerly towards the bottom of the road. I am terrified as I see the tiny rocks of my driveway start to shiver away from each other. Soon the sound of a train engine ripped through the autumn air.
I quickly look to the bottom of the visible road to see the source of the noise. A black train begins climbing and ripping through the spiraled black-top road. I grip my parents' pants and tremble before the roar of the train. My parents look down at me giggling and patting the top of my head as if I am some scared dog. The train rips alongside my drive and stops, smoke billows profusely from a metallic black tube atop the train. I feel a shove from two different hands and I begin to stumble towards the train with luggage in hand. My legs seem to have orders to get me aboard that train, despite my mind wishing to remain on the gravel driveway. The train was much nicer once inside, wooden floor hallway with nice roomy seating cabins with other kids like me aboard. I find a cabin with two girls and a boy sitting but room for a fourth. They wave me in,
"You look dreadful, are you ok?" said one of the two girls. I put my luggage on top of the racks provided in the cabin.
"Well my parents sort of forced me on this train..." I was swiftly interrupted,
"You nervous? Don't worry you're not the first or the last person to be nervous to attend Hogwarts."

"Holy Crap!" I screamed in my head.
"I'm going to f#@!ing Hogwarts!" I sat down with the three kids and began to ask loads of questions. Time seemed to gallop away from me because before I was done overloading the fellow classmates with questions the train had stopped again. More kids rushed out of their cabins and shoved their way out of the train. Things seemed to get away from me everyone knew what they were doing and I was at a loss(to say the least). I manage to follow the crowd of children to the great hall for the beginning of the school year feast. I am sorted into the Ravenclaw house and begin chatting with other people at that table. Two fellow Ravenclaws pull me into a jaunty discussion about why a raven is like a writing desk. The discussion and jokes distracted me from where the other students got sorted. Soon I found myself walking to the house portrait after the feast and getting myself acquainted with my sleeping arrangements.

The next day I blindly traversed the halls. My head two inches away from my schedule trying to make sure I was attending the correct classes. The first day consisted of teacher introductions, class overviews, and an essay about "What was magical about my summer?" I wasn't making friends particularly fast so I stuck to my studies, mostly transfiguration. A few weeks seemed to fly by and I had made excellent progress with school work and made a friend named Lisa Stemington. I was getting all sorts of positive attention in Transfiguration, Mrs. Mcgonagall was particularly impressed with my ability to conjure a mirror after a transfiguration to check my own work. Though I was getting wrecked by Herbology. Mrs. Sprout was a bore and the plants in her class were lame and uninteresting. Because of my lack of social life and excellent work ethic I found myself spending many nights alone in the lounge with not much to do. So I decided to try out for the Quidditch team.

The tryouts were not as crowded as I expected. I guess Ravenclaw doesn't have a lot of people with a huge desire to play Quidditch or maybe they are just smart enough to know they want to avoid having a broken body. Before it was my turn on the pitch I flew around on my broom to get a feel for it. The steering and acceleration seemed easy enough so I sat next to Lisa and chatted while I waited for my turn. She complained to me that Thomas kept cheating off her in potions. I tried to explain to her that he was a nice guy and she should share her concerns with him. She was too shy to talk to him about it and so at the end of the conversation I rolled my eyes like I often did with Lisa and headed off to the pitch. I decided to try out for keeper, and I met with a certain amount of success. I blocked most of the shots that came my way but lets face it I'm no “wiz” at Quidditch.

I spent the next few weeks awaiting the results of the tryouts and figuring out a way to make Herbology not suck the life out of me. After talking to Thomas about Lisa we became closer friends, which was nice because a change from Lisa's "jibber-jabber" was greatly needed. As Thomas and I walked to the great hall for lunch discussing how to use dust as get-away grenades we saw a mass of people swarming a bulletin. Surely enough it was Quidditch team postings, I had Thomas shove his way to discover the good or bad news. With a grin on his face he informed me that I would be Ravenclaw's new keeper. I ran to find Lisa and told her of the great news. She jumped up and down like the gitty girl she sometimes can be. I grab a bench and relax my eyes in success. Though as soon as I do I begin to feel the warmth of the great hall leave me and and freezing water pelt my face. My legs are wrapped around a wooden stick and I hear a stadium of voices.

I open my eyes to find myself in the middle of a Quidditch match. I am terrified, I can see tiny people off in the distance swirling around on their broomsticks while lightening lights the stadium periodically. I decide to focus on the offense of the other team. Two lads in red uniforms toss the quaffle once or twice to avoid the remaining defender and then zoom towards me. They toss the quaffle for the high hoop I ascend to try and prevent them from scoring. As I am within arms reach of the oddly shaped wooden sphere lightening strikes the quaffle and it shatters. I suddenly feel sharp warm pains all over my body, I blackout.

I open my eyes to a white ceiling and many dark figures hovering over my body.
"He looks like a scarecrow now..."
"Don't say things like that, that's how nicknames start!"
The largest figure says,
"Let's just put the poor bloke out of his misery." All the figures begin to raise their wands and my weak eyes could just barely make out a green hue at the tip of each of their wands.