Harry Potter is pressing his fingers to the sides of his head and looking at the sticky gummy residue, and he can hear his aunt Petunia and uncle Vernon out in the hallway, and Petunia is clucking her tongue and Vernon is grumbling about having to get glasses for that good-for-nothing boy, and Harry shrinks in on himself until no one can get in and no one can hurt him.
***Ron
Ron Weasley is cuddling his stuffed bear Pendragon, when all of a sudden, it isn't Pendragon anymore, it's a huge squirmy spider, and it's got enormous fangs, and Ron screams and tries to back away from it, and Fred and George are laughing at him, and Ron doesn't stop screaming until his mum comes and turns the spider back into Pendragon with her wand and puts both twins in the corner, but even so, Ron doesn't touch his bear again.
***Hermione
Hermione Granger is curled up in her daddy's big armchair, and she's mouthing her way through Peter Rabbit while Mummy and Daddy are out doing whatever boring thing boring adults do, and when Hermione finishes Peter Rabbit she slides out of the big chair and goes into her bedroom and changes into her nightgown before she tucks herself into bed and reads herself a bed time story.
***Harry
Harry Potter is starting kindergarten and he can feel the other kids staring at him in Ms. Jennis' classroom in his too-big Transformers shirt and blue shorts, and he's the only kid in their without a mum, and he doesn't know anyone in here because Dudley's in the other kindergarten, and he can already tell school isn't going to be fun like the books say it is because of the way the teacher is looking at him like he's something funny that grows on the wall, and Harry curls a little more into himself, and his clothes look a little more baggy.
***Ron
Ron Weasley is looking out the window at all the muggle children going to muggle schools, and he wonders how come he and his brothers (and his sister, but she's only three) don't go to muggle school, and then Mum's calling him to come downstairs because Bill and Charlie are going to be late for the train, so Ron comes out of his room and resolves to ask his Dad about it later, but Charlie's friend-who-is-a-boy shows them all a spider, and the spider jumps on Ron, and he forgets what he was supposed to remember when John, Charlie's friend-who-is-a-boy, is trying to hex the spider off and giving him a packet of Droobles after.
***Hermione
Hermione Granger is walking down the hill to her school and double-checking that her backpack has all the things Ms. Lacing told her to bring, which were pens, markers, crayons, and colored pencils, and Hermione hopes that means she gets to draw because she's good at drawing, her Mum always tells her that, and Hermione can already tell she did something wrong when she gets to the school and all the other little girls are standing outside Ms. Lacing's room with a Mum or Dad, and Hermione starts to think of her mum and dad, who are orthodontists during the school year, and how right now her mum and dad are sitting around the kitchen table, signing papers and yelling about Hermione.
***Harry
Harry Potter is sitting in his cupboard, thinking about what he did, which he isn't sure what, but Uncle Vernon boxed his ears for it and that must mean it's bad, whatever it is, so Harry promises to himself that he won't let it happen again, and holds one of Dudley's old shirts from kindergarten against the sides of his head, and he goes to a place deep inside him where no one is going to hurt him, and he promises to himself not to let anyone see what's in there.
***Ron
Ron Weasley watches his brother Percy get his letter, and Percy acts ridiculously proud, and he struts about the house the rest of the day, yelling at Ron and Ginny, and then Charlie yells back at him, and then Ron goes and sits on the flat part of the roof, and he wonders if Percy and them would be proud if he went to muggle school and learned what the muggle children learn, which Percy and Bill and Charlie and Fred and George haven't done, which would make Ron stand out in his family of ginger freckled less-than-well-off wizard family.
***Hermione
Hermione Granger is going on the train to her dad's, sitting next to an old man who smells like peppermints and her mum's cleaning products, and she's reading a book she found in the big kids section of the school library called The Great Gatsby, and she's trying not to read too fast because her class is only up to chapter four, and Hermione's on eight, and then Hermione looks out the window and there's a unicorn galloping next to the train in the woods, a real live one, and Hermione wants to tell someone, but no one's in her compartment except for the old man, and he's snoring, so Hermione just keeps watching the unicorn through the window.
***Harry
Harry Potter is pretty sure that he wasn't supposed to end up on the roof of the school, but he doesn't know how he ended up there, only that Dudley's gang had almost caught him, and he wanted to get away from him, so when he was hiding behind the trash cans, the wind must have lifted him up, but Uncle Vernon is having none of that, so he boxed Harry's ears and sent him to his cupboard, and then Dudley jumped up and down on the stairs and shook plaster into Harry's eyes, and Harry could hear Uncle Vernon grumbling about that no-good boy, and Aunt Petunia clucking as she makes some tea, and Harry goes to his safe place, where he grew up with a mum and a dad who loved him and didn't make him sleep in a cupboard and didn't punish him when he did things wrong.
***Ron
Ron Weasley was sending an owl to Charlie, who's at his first job ever, and asked him about if he was taking dragons, like Bill was, or being an ambassador to a far-off country, like Percy said he'd be, when an owl landed on the ledge outside the kitchen window, and Fred and George skid into the kitchen, and they're both grinning like madmen when they take their letters and yell, "Dear Mr. Weasley- We are pleased to inform you- that you have been accepted to- Hogwarts School- Of Witchcraft and Wizardry!", and Mum comes in and hugs them both, and then Fred snatches Errol out of Ron's hand, even though it's Ron's day to send letters, and he complains, but Mum glares at him, and Fred and George write to Charlie together, even though Ron was writing to Charlie, and then Fred and George start laughing at Ron when he cries that he was supposed to get to send letters, and he gets grounded instead of Fred and George.
***Hermione
Hermione Granger is wondering what about her makes her different from the other girls, since she has a mum and a dad, and they're not divorced yet, and she does take pills, but only once a day, and not like how Mum used to take them, and her new dad, Joe, is more normal than her old dad, and Joe is an orthodontist too, not just during school, and Hermione hasn't seen anything in a while, not since the mermaid she saw when she was snorkeling in the middle of a lake, and Hermione didn't even tell anyone about that, so it can't be that, but no one she knows wants to be friends with her.
***Harry
Harry Potter is making breakfast for Dudley's eleventh birthday, bacon, which is Dudley's favorite, when Dudley runs down the stairs and shoves Harry down onto the pan, which makes Harry's face tingle, but it isn't burned because Petunia isn't chastising Dudley, which is what happens, so Harry finishes making the bacon, and he gives Dudley and Vernon three fat slices, because Aunt Petunia doesn't like bacon, so Harry is left with two crumbly burnt pieces, and a little after that Harry learns he's going to the zoo instead of being locked in his cupboard, but that little place inside Harry is still protected and safe from what Dudley and his friend Piers are planning.
***Ron
Ron is sitting with his dad at he Ministry, because Ron won't get his letter until June, and he doesn't want to hang out with Fred and George anymore, because they always snatch Errol away from him to write to their school friends even when it's Ron's turn and he hasn't written to Charlie in ages, but at the ministry everyone knows his name, and sometimes old witches will give him chocolate frogs because they like him, and Ron started collecting, and when Ron got home Fred and George had their faces stuffed with chocolates, and they told him Charlie had sent him a box of chocolate frogs but he wasn't home so they ate them, but he still got the cards, except Fred and George had switched out all the rare ones with Albus Dumbledore, and they even told him so, but Dad won't do anything unless Mum's home, and Mum never does anything.
***Hermione
Hermione Granger is no longer taking her pills every day, because she doesn't need them, thank you very much, and she can swing the highest on the playground, and when the bell rings to go inside, she jumps, and no one ever jumps from that high, and Hermione just sort of floats to the ground, and her skirt doesn't even ruffle, but instead of being impressed with her, like the kids were supposed to be, they all start whispering to each other about her, and Hermione feels the same way she felt on her first day of kindergarten and all the parents looked at her funny.
***Harry
Harry Potter is making sure that it's all real, from the letter in his hand to the giant standing in front of him, when Vernon opens his mouth, and suddenly it's an explosion, Vernon is yelling at Hagrid, Hagrid is yelling back, Harry is trembling, staring at the letter, and nothing seems terribly clear except for the emerald-green ink and the memo scrawled on, saying good luck, and then suddenly everything is quiet, except for Hagrid grumbling that he'll be back for Harry in the morning, and then Hagrid leaves, and the door is back on its hinges, and Vernon is boxing Harry's ears for opening the envelope, and Harry hopes morning comes soon.
***Ron
Ron Weasley is extremely proud of himself to have gotten his Hogwarts letter, and he sends the Hogwarts owl back with his prompt reply (yes), and he even has Errol for today so he writes to Charlie about what's happened, because Charlie is the only one who cares about it, and Mum is watching the twins practice potions, so no one knows Ron even got his letter, except Ginny, because Ginny always watches what happens to Ron.
***Hermione
Hermione Granger was staring at the letter in her hands, with the emerald-green ink addressed to her, and she looked around for her mum or Joe to tell that she was a witch, but neither one of them was home, so she scrawled a reply in ballpoint pen on the back of the letter saying she didn't know where to get her things, and sent it back with the owl, leaving her holding what little proof she had, her list of school supplies, to be bought at somewhere called Diagon Alley.
***Harry
Harry Potter was looking at everything in Diagon Alley, the wizard shopping center, and he just got his money from Gringotts, and Hagrid's getting an ice cream, so Harry's getting his robes, and he's standing up with his arms straight out, like the boy standing next to him, who reminds him of Dudley, which Harry doesn't like, so as soon as he gets his robes and pays he hurries out of the shop and into the ice cream parlor, where he can see Hagrid waiting for him, and Harry's nervous of all the wizards and witches that shake his hand for the rest of the day.
***Ron
Ron Weasley is in Diagon Alley with his dad, because his mum's busy with the twins, and his dad decided that he needed to spend a little time with Ron alone, and so far Ron's having a pretty good time being alone with his dad and just wandering around Diagon Alley, and his dad got him a wand, which Ron is using to shoot flowers out of, at least until he accidentally shoots out a bunch of roses into the face of another new student who's shopping, and they both blush and stammer so much that Ron's dad has to grab his son by the shoulders and steer him away, and Ron is thinking about how he didn't really mind standing there and stammering with the witch.
***Hermione
Hermione Granger is shopping with a ministry representative the school sent, and he introduces himself as John Weasley, and Hermione is having a really good time, especially in the book store, where they have loads of books, and every thing is so amazing, and then when she's walking back from Ollivander's, a young wizard with shocking red hair shoots red roses out of his wand at her, and they both stand there stammering for a few minutes, while John talks to the wizard's father, and when Hermione is back at her parents' house she's wondering if maybe she'll meet the young wizard again.
***Harry
Harry Potter is wandering through the train station with a young witch he met, whose name is Hermione who also can't find platform 9 3/4, and then they come across a family that all have the reddest hair you can imagine, and Hermione mentions that she recognizes one, so Harry goes up and asks the family how to get to the platform, and he runs straight at the wall like the twins did, and suddenly he's looking at an enormous red steam engine, and the two older boys who went through first help him with his luggage, and Harry thinks they're pretty cool, kind of, and then the younger boy comes into the compartment, and Harry figures he's cooler than his older brothers, and Harry's a bit less nervous about school.
***Ron
Ron Weasley cannot believe that he is sitting next to the Harry Potter, the boy who lived, and he has to wonder what's happening, and if he's dreaming, because surely the Harry Potter wouldn't want to sit next to a Weasley, the least important Weasley, and Ron is sure he's dreaming when the Harry Potter turns down a Malfoy's offer of friendship for his, and Ron is absolutely positive he's dreaming when Harry Potter looks at him like Ron's the only person in the world he can trust, and Ron knows there is no way this is real life when he and the Harry Potter become best friends.
***Hermione
Hermione Granger is thinking that maybe she should have sat in another compartment, because the one she's sitting in right now is most certainly not the one for her, with a girl and a boy who're ahead of her and can't stop kissing, and a silvery-blonde girl who is reading a magazine upside-down, red-haired twins who're whispering to each other and laughing mischievously, and a black-haired teen sitting next to them who's making faces, and Hermione already knows that she's not going to fit in here any better than at her old schools.