Chapter 2 – Introductions
Harry woke up in the morning, extremely groggy. He knew that Aunt Petunia would come knocking on his cupboard door very soon so he opened his eyes to find he was not in his cupboard, in fact, he wasn't even sure if he was in Surrey any more.
He was in a luxurious and large, four posted bed with crimson hangings. He was wearing a very, very large pair of pyjamas that were diffidently not his. And to top it all off, as he peeped out of the hangings, he saw he was in a room with other beds just like his in a large room with flagstone walls. Loud snoring was the only noise he could hear and it came from the bed closest to his. Harry drew his head swiftly back behind the hanging, his hand trembling just like his lower lip. He had no idea where he was or how he got there, and to make matters worse, if he ever got home his aunt and uncle, they would be very angry. Harry also noticed a very large pair or glasses slipping off he edge of his nose. They looked exactly like his glasses except for the fact they were about twice a big and didn't have any sticky tape around the bridge so he took them off and placed them beside him on the bed making his surroundings fuzzy.
Harry sat there on the bed and hugged his knees focusing very hard on trying not to cry. This proved very hard and he breathed short shallow breaths as tears stang his eyes. As Harry quietly sniffed and cried on his new grand bed, he heard footsteps coming from a staircase at the opposite side of the room. He panicked. What if Harry wasn't supposed to be here and whoever that person was would get really angry with him. Odd things such as this happened to him and he knew he wouldn't be able to explain himself. And then they'd telephone his aunt and uncle and they'd be even madder. Harry made a split decision to hide somewhere where he couldn't be found.
He forced his tiny hands through the giant sleeves of the pyjama shirt and quickly lowered him self off the bed. Harry held up his ridiculously long pants and ran to a door that seemed locked. Harry could here the footsteps becoming slowly louder and in desperation Harry simply flung himself behind a wall which was a small, three walled inclosed section with a flat cushioned surface on a seat just below a window. The curtains were drawn and Harry could only see small beams of sunlight coming through the tiny gap down the middle. He held his breath as he heard footsteps enter the room.
"Harry, Ron. Honestly you two, it's time to get up. We going to Hogsmeade today and we can't be late for the train!" A young woman spoke accusingly but Harry felt as if she weren't really angry. Harry did trembled when he had heard his name along with another boy's name called 'Ron'.
He heard her pull back his the hangings around a bed that was probably his because Harry heard the lady gasp quietly. "Harry? Harry, are you here?" she called her voice thick with worry and confusion. Harry decided that she was looking for him so he'd better face her.
"I'm – um – I'm over here…" he said nervously, not moving from his plastered position against the wall.
"Harry what wro-" she stopped in mid-sentence as she turned the corner and gazed down at a small boy with her mouth open. Harry flinched and continued trembling as she stared at him. She looked older…but young and Harry tried to guess how old she was, older than him at least. She had thick bushy brown hair that was tied up with a pretty blue ribbon and was wearing jeans and a pink sweater with a small burn on the side of it. She looked pretty, no matter what her age thought Harry.
"H-Harry," she whispered "What happened to you?"
"I-I-I'm sorry." He said unsure of what she had meant. Harry seemed okay to him apart from the large pyjamas even for Dudley's standard. Apologies were some of the first words he had ever learnt and even though they didn't save him from being punished he had fallen into a 'sorry' habit.
"What's-" The young woman re-thought her question as the answer seemed obvious. The little boy continued to look up at her, frightened. Hermione had never seen Harry look like that and her mind came to a very confusing solution.
"Harry, don't you know I am?" he asked him in that same shocked voice.
Despite spending years with the Dursley's, Harry felt a little stung by how she seemed so shocked by his appearance. It hurt to know that she didn't like him…even though he couldn't blame her really. He was a bad boy, and bad boys got punished, or so he was told often enough. He shook his head to answer her question because he was sure his voice would be teary if he used it. He was also punished if he cried, but usually his guardians could not hear him in his cupboard when he wept as he was a silent cryer,
"Really….how old are you, Harry?" she asked seeming flustered by his head shake.
Harry didn't like being asked these questions even though he knew he shouldn't be sad. He just wanted to go away from this strange place. He dropped his eyes to the floor as his throat crumpled and he felt new tears sliding down his cheeks and his breath becoming uneven. He didn't know how to talk without bursting into tears so he held up six fingers.
The woman looked horrified and swooped down so that she was kneeling and only slightly taller than him.
"Oh – Harry I'm so sorry I upset you! I didn't mean to, I was just surprised that's all." She said placing her hand on the shaking boy's shoulder. He looked up at her and she looked like she was on the verge of tears herself.
"I – I don't know what's going on." He whispered. He wasn't a terrified now that she wasn't looming over him but he felt bad for making her cry too. He was still shaking so she sat down; legs crossed, and picked Harry up delicately and placed him in her lap. She then pulled him into a hug and rubbed her hand against his back in circles.
"It's OK, Harry. I won't hurt you. Shush, now." She crooned soothingly. Hermione had spent quite a few of her past summers working part time as a babysitter for muggle children which she quite enjoyed. Despite his common sense Harry draped his small arms around her neck and under her warm hair and leant his head on her shoulder. He knew that if he'd have done this with Aunt Petunia or Uncle Vernon, he would have been slapped and locked in his cupboard for the rest of the day. But it felt so wonderful to have someone hold him like this that he didn't care. He eventually reduced his tears to a small sniffle.
"How – how do you know my name? Who are you?" he asked after awhile of cuddling.
"My name's Hermione Granger and I'm one of your best friends." She said quietly "Harry, you may find this hard to believe, but yesterday you were seventeen. Somehow you must have turned back into a six year old over night."
"Oh." Harry said confused. He tried to grasp this odd concept but eventually he decided it didn't matter very much because he had always been strange. "Where are we?" He asked pulling back from the hug and looking at Hermione testing the boundaries of her kindness towards questions.
"Where at school called Hogwarts," she explained "You first came year when you were eleven to learn about magic. You're a wizard, Harry, a very powerful wizard."
Harry's eyes widened. "Really." he asked bewildered "But Uncle Vernon said that there was no such thing as magic." He finished softly, fear in his eyes.
"There is," Hermione told him smiling "and you love magic and Hogwarts."
"I don't understand very well, I'm sorry" Harry said timidly looking up at her as if expecting punishment for his lack of knowledge.
Over the next hour Hermione explained all about Harry's past, leaving out all of the gruesome and sad parts that a six year old hardly needs to know. He listened intently eyes widening with every new chapter of his life. He smiled embarrassed when Hermione told him that he was the best Quidditch player in the school after explaining all about the sport to him in detail. Even at six he had a natural enthusiasm for the game.
When she placed him out of her lap and back onto the floor his pyjama pants fell down as they were absolutely huge for him. And even though his shirt went slightly past his knees, little Harry blushed scarlet. Hermione smiled at him kindly and apologised because she had forgotten the spell to shrink clothes to fit the person who was wearing them. (Something she rarely did, it startled her. It was probably the shock, she thought.) Still blushing, Harry nodded and looked down anxiously to see if the pyjama shirt covered everything.
"Harry, I'm going to wake Ron up now." She told him standing up herself. He was looking longingly at his pyjama pants and jumped when he realised she'd been eyeing him with amusement twinkling in her eyes. He tried to step back into the folds of cloth and held up one side with his left hand.
"OK." Harry said as he reached for her hand with his free one. Hermione took his and lightly rubbed his palm with her thumb. She walked towards the bed with a loud snorer behind the hangings. Harry was very excited to meet Ron as Hermione had said they were best friends the moment they met when thy where eleven. Hermione opened the hangings to reveal a boy curled up in sheets, snoring his head off.
"Ron, wake up! I – have someone I'd like you to meet." She finished glancing down at Harry with a smile. Harry clutched her hand tighter as a very tired someone sat up in bed. He took one look at Harry and his mouth fell open.
"Er – Ron this is six year old Harry. I found him this morning in Harry's bed." Hermione said, nervously looking at the little boy to see how he would take this tactless greeting. Harry's face fell and he began to tremble and Ron continued to stare at him and then looked down and his feet.
"Bloody Hell!" Ron said after a few seconds.
"Ron, language!" Hermione snapped.
"What happened to him…why's he turn into a little kid?" Ron asked completely dumfounded. "I'm dreaming, right? Tell me I'm dreaming this is just too weird." He mumbled rubbing his eyes. Harry's face and eyes burned a tinny bit from embarrassment. "This is insane! What's Harry been poking his nose into now, for Merlin's sake, to make him turn back into a – a – this?" Ron ranted looking at Hermione
"Ron!" said Hermione angrily "Harry has just woken up believing to still be in the Dursley's house and ends up here with no idea how he got here. Then I have to explain the last seven years of his life to him. He's only six years old and you're insulting! Can you be any more obtuse?" she finished.
Harry didn't like this situation at all. First, he thought he was being yelled at by his supposed best friend and then Hermione's fighting with her friend because of Harry. To make matters even worse, he was beginning to cry and was clutching Hermione's hand. Ron probably thought he was a big cry baby.
During Hermione's little speech Ron's face fell into a look of deepest shame. He also noticed that he'd made his best friend cry. His ears went pink as he looked down from Hermione's furious glare. This was not what some one want's to be greeted with first thing in the morning. He was feeling pretty darn crappy now.
"Oh – Harry its OK, don't be upset." Hermione pleaded after leaning over and picking Harry up to rest of her hip.
Ron was completely disgusted with himself. Mentally cursing his 'slow morning' attitude, he decided he wouldn't continue the bad first impression. He got out of bed and drew the hangings to hide the unmade sheets.
"Aw, sorry Harry," he said, still half bewildered himself "I didn't mean it. I'm just a little slow in the morning." He said using jokingly. "Look, let's restart. Hi, Harry, I'm Ron." he said, holding out his hand to the miniature of his best friend. The child, whose face was stained with tears from the whole morning, slowly reached out to shake the older boy's hand. Ron grinned a bit.
"C'mon 'Mione, you can let him down now." Ron said "Do you reckon we should go the hospital wing?" he added, lightly so not to frighten Harry into thinking that there was something wrong with him.
Harry was let down and he rubbed at his face to get rid of the tears. Ron handed him a clean hanky from a draw in his bedside table. He smiled at Harry as the boy gently took it from Ron.
"Thankyou, Ron." He said nervously. His friend leaned down to pat his shoulder and ended up hugging the boy instead. Harry thought he hugged almost as well as Hermione and so Harry told him. Ron laughed and then hesitated, he wasn't sure if he should treat Harry like Ginny. He looked awkward for a minute but then brushed away some hair and kissed Harry's forehead. Harry smiled, he couldn't remember the last time he'd smiled so much in one day. (This was only three, but it was a record for little Harry)
Hermione was looking at Ron with a grateful and proud expression on her face which was responded by Ron smiling cheekily and whispering, "Do you really think I have no experience with crying kids? I can be sensitive too you know." He smiled ruefully at her.
"Well you certainly don't show it very often." She said warmly.
"'cause that's no fun." He bit back at her playfully and then he kissed her quickly on her lips and Hermione blushed and then Harry blushed and looked down at his feet again. Ron smiled and then clapped his hands. "OK." He said in a business like tone, "I suggest we go and see Dumbledore!" said Ron as he disappeared behind his bed hangings to get dressed.
"Yes that's probably the best solution." Hermione said matter-of-factly. She was leading Harry down the stairs calling to Ron to be at the portrait in five minutes. Harry stopped right before they got to the stairs.
"What's wrong, Harry?" she asked, gently. Harry blushed again; he wasn't used to people being so concerned about him or his feelings. He was also blushing because Ron had said they were going to meet Dumbledore who Hermione had said was the greatest wizard the world has ever known and that he was the Headmaster of Hogwarts. He had just realised he's let his oversized pants fall down and Harry didn't particularly want to be introduced to anyone else without any pants on.
"Um…" he said and the expectant Hermione. "Could I have some pants, please?" he asked still wary about how far he would exercise his new friends' tolerance, growing steadily redder in the face. Hermione was struggling not to giggle at Harry in such a state and managed a very motherly and sympathetic smile.
"Well, we don't have and clothes that fit you Harry." She said apologetically. Harry looked even more uncomfortable than Hermione ever thought possible. "I'm sure Dumbledore will know the spell. In the mean time Harry, there's nothing to be embarrassed about and there's nothing that can be done to help it, so don't worry about it." She said. She couldn't believe that those awful muggles had made Harry so ashamed of himself. It could also be the fact that he had only known Hermione for a short time that he was uncomfortable being nearly naked in front of a girl. Hermione frowned slightly as she pushed the thought from her mind and guided Harry down to the dormitory. A boy that little shouldn't be so concerned about such things.
Little Harry stood transfixed at the big, squashy armchairs and roaring fire that were waiting for them. Hermione smiled at him as Ron came bounding down the stairs a minute later, with his hair very askew but he, himself, seemed fully awake.
"We're lucky that every one went to Hogsmeade today." Ron stated "I mean Harry draws enough attention as it is." Hermione shot him a warning glare but Harry was still gazing at the room with wonder in his eyes. Ron chuckled and stepped out of the portrait hole, holding the door open for Harry and Hermione. As they walked through, Hermione felt Harry tighten his grip as he first laid eyes on Hogwarts.
A/N: This chapter took a long time to perfect (not that it is) because I had to think of Harry's state of mind. Sad? Scared? Couldn't care less cause he was away from the Dursleys? As you can see, I picked scared. I really like this chapter it's really cute. I chose to make Harry really timid in my story because I was sort of drawing from the abuse he suffered as a child. He sort of toughens up when he gets around eight or nine. Love Ron in this chapter, he's so sweet!!!!!
P.S. I couldn't resist making his pants fall down, I honestly couldn't, it just seemed the right thing to do at the time…I know I'm a bully.
