The countryside now flying past the window was becoming wilder. The neat fields had gone. Now there were woods, twisting rivers, and dark green hills.

　　There was a knock on the door of their compartment and the round-faced boy Harry had passed on platform nine and threequarters came in. He looked tearful.

　　"Sorry," he said, "but have you seen a toad at all?"

　　When they shook their heads, he wailed, "I've lost him! He keeps getting away from me!"

　　"He'll turn up," said Harry.

　　"Yes," said the boy miserably. "Well, if you see him..."

　　He left.

　　"Don't know why he's so bothered," said Ron. "If I'd brought a toad I'd lose it as quick as I could. Mind you, I brought Scabbers, so I can't talk."

　　The rat was still snoozing on Ron's lap.

　　"He might have died and you wouldn't know the difference," said Ron in disgust. "I tried to turn him yellow yesterday to make him more interesting, but the spell didn't work. I'll show you, look..."

　　He rummaged around in his trunk and pulled out a very battered-looking wand. It was chipped in places and something white was glinting at the end.

　　"Unicorn hair's nearly poking out. Anyway

　　He had just raised his 'wand when the compartment door slid open again. The toadless boy was back, but this time he had a girl with him. She was already wearing her new Hogwarts robes.

　　"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," she said. She had a bossy sort of voice, lots of bushy brown hair, and rather large front teeth.

　　"We've already told him we haven't seen it," said Ron, but the girl wasn't listening, she was looking at the wand in his hand.

　　"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it, then."

　　She sat down. Ron looked taken aback.

　　"Er -- all right."

　　He cleared his throat.

　　"Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."

　　He waved his wand, but nothing happened. Scabbers stayed gray and fast asleep.

　　"Are you sure that's a real spell?" said the girl. "Well, it's not very good, is it? I've tried a few simple spells just for practice and it's all worked for me. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it's the very best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard -- I've learned all our course books by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough -- I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you.

　　She said all this very fast.

　　Harry looked at Ron, and was relieved to see by his stunned face that he hadn't learned all the course books by heart either.

　　"I'm Ron Weasley," Ron muttered.

　　"Harry Potter," said Harry.

　　"Are you really?" said Hermione. "I know all about you, of course -- I got a few extra books. for background reading, and you're in Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century.

　　"Am I?" said Harry, feeling dazed.

　　"Goodness, didn't you know, I'd have found out everything I could if it was me," said Hermione. "Do either of you know what house you'll be in? I've been asking around, and I hope I'm in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best; I hear Dumbledore himself was in it, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad.... Anyway, we'd better go and look for Neville's toad. You two had better change, you know, I expect we'll be there soon."

　　And she left, taking the toadless boy with her.

　　"Whatever house I'm in, I hope she's not in it," said Ron. He threw his wand back into his trunk. "Stupid spell -- George gave it to me, bet he knew it was a dud."

　　"What house are your brothers in?" asked Harry.

　　"Gryffindor," said Ron. Gloom seemed to be settling on him again. "Mom and Dad were in it, too. I don't know what they'll say if I'm not. I don't suppose Ravenclaw would be too bad, but imagine if they put me in Slytherin."

　　"That's the house Vol-, I mean, You-Know-Who was in?"

　　"Yeah," said Ron. He flopped back into his seat, looking depressed.

窗外迅速飞逝的乡野风光，渐渐变得越来越荒凉。平整的田野看不见了，取而代之的是茂密的树林，境蜒的河流和深绿的山丘。

　　这时，有人在敲门，那个哈利曾在九又四分之三车站见过的圆脸小男孩哭着走了进来。

　　"对不起！"他抽泣着，"你们有没有见到一只癞蛤蟆？"看到哈利他们摇摇头，男孩哭嚎起来："找不到了！它不喜欢我，不愿和我在一起！""它会回去的。"哈利安慰他说。

　　"也许吧，"男孩伤心地说，"如果你们看到它的话，请告诉我。"说完便走了。

　　"真不明白他为什么那么难过，"罗恩说，"如果是我的话，也许早就丢了呢。

　　噢，对了，我带着斯卡伯斯呢，还是少说为妙吧。"那只懒老鼠还在罗恩的脚上呼呼大睡呢。

　　"如果你不了解它的话，还会以为它已经死了呢。"罗恩不屑地说，"我昨天想把它变成黄色，使它看起来更有趣，但魔法没有成功。我试给你看看……"他在皮箱里翻了半天，然后拔出一根蝴蝶状的魔杖，它的末端还闪烁着白光。

　　"独角兽已经长出了毛——"

　　罗恩念着咒语，举起魔杖，正要施魔法，这时厢门打开了，丢了癞蛤模的男孩这次带着个穿着崭新的霍格瓦彻魔法袍的女孩子回来了。

　　"有谁见到一只癞蛤蟆吗？尼维尔的那只不见了。"她说起话来像是在发号施令，她那一头毛茸茸的棕发和宽大的门牙很不讨人喜欢。

　　"我们说过没见到。"罗恩说。但那女孩似乎并没有听见，因为她正盯着罗恩手上的魔杖看。

　　"哦，你在变魔术吗？那就让我们开开眼界吧。"她一屁股坐了下来，罗恩看起来像被吓了一跳。

　　"呃……好吧！"罗恩清了清嗓门。

　　"天灵灵，地灵灵，将这又笨又胖的大耗子变一变，黄色就行。"他摇摇魔杖，但没有任何变化。斯卡伯斯仍是灰色的，依然熟睡着。

　　"你肯定是这条咒语吗？"女孩说，"好像不大灵验哟。我也试过几条咒语，全都很有效幄。我家人没有一个是魔法师，所以当我接到录取通知的时候非常惊讶，当然，我也很开心，因为那儿是学习魔法的最好的学校。我已经将所有的教材内容都牢记于心，希望够用吧。对了，我叫荷米恩。格林佐，你们呢？"她说话就像连珠炮一样快。

　　哈利看看罗恩，从他那惊讶的神情看出他和自己一样还没有熟记教材内容。

　　"我是罗恩。威斯里。"罗恩嘟哝着。

　　"我是哈利·波特。"

　　"真的吗？"荷米思惊奇地说，"我知道很多有关你的事。我有一本介绍你的背景资料的课外书。而且你可是《现代魔法师》和《二十世纪神秘艺术兴衰及魔法大事记》里的名人呀。""是吗？"哈利感到莫明其妙。

　　"天哪，你自己还不知道，如果我是你的话，我一定会把事情弄得清清楚楚。"荷米恩说，"知道你们会被分到哪一个学院吗？我到处打听，希望能被分到格林芬顿，人人都说那里最好，而且我听说丹伯多本人也是从那里出身的。不过，卫文卡罗也不错……好了，我们得去找尼维尔的癞蛤蟆。你们两个也快换衣服，我想我们就快到了。"说完，她带着小男孩走了。

　　"无论我分到哪儿都好，千万别让我和她分到一起。"罗恩边说边把魔杖扔回皮箱里，"该死的魔法，一定是乔治故意捉弄我。"

"你兄弟们会分到哪里？"