King's Cross Station - part one*

[flying_ford_anglia]

Original Yahoo! HPFG Header:
No: HPFGUIDX C3575
From: flying_ford_anglia
Subject: King's Cross Station - part one*
Date: 7/8/00 11:03 am  (ET)

*

I stayed up all night in the end. There were some owls swooping around
my chimney pot, and a few cats sitting on the wall outside, crying,
"go to bed, you fool!" But, I couldn't sleep.

I made it to the book shop by 9am to collect my "...Goblet of
Fire". "Someone dies in it," said the assistant, conspiratorially, as he
wrapped it. "I know who it is!" said his spotty friend. "Say it and you'll
be the next dead person," I said, handing over my '8.99 with a huge smile.

I arrived at King's Cross Station at 10.28pm, and found BabyNick standing
between platforms 9 and 10 in a blue Hogwarts t-shirt. He'd already
sussed out the best vantage point, so we scurried over the footbridge
onto Platform 1, which had been made over, rather perfunctorily, as
Platform nine and three-quarters.

And there she was, in all her glory - full of pride and surrounded by her
press and public - The Hogwarts Express. Actually, the steam engine was
maroon, not bright red, and attached to a straggle of assorted carriages,
headed up by one labelled "Queen of Scots". Steam huffed toward the
arched, skylit roof of the station, and all around us children and adults
of all ages clutched a familiar-looking book, the size of small lunchbox.

Nearing 11 o'clock, there was a murmur in the crowd, and those press
people who were behind us ran frantically towards the front of the
platform, waving equipment above their heads. There was a hubbub as a tiny
Ford Anglia - sky blue, not turquoise - screeched backwards, dangerously,
along the platform. From it emerged JKR and her small entourage. She'd
scrubbed up well, and with bouncy blonde hair, mauve cardigan and a
bewildered expression, fashioned a slow walk alongside the train.

On almost every shoulder sat a camera, a boom microphone or a small
child. JKR grinned, bobbed and chatted amiably, but looked like she'd
rather be anywhere else.

[continues in next message]