Last time -

Dudley pouted. Obviously Harry had purposely neglected to comment on the fact that he had called him beautiful, as if he didn't believe it himself. He would have to fix that. So Dudley, with slow, deliberate movements, began to train kisses up Harry's arms, starting with his pinky finger and moving up to his ear. Harry tried to pull away at first, but Dudley held on firmly, careful not to hurt him. In between each kiss, he said. "Harry," kiss. "You," kiss, "are," kiss "the," kiss, "most," kiss, "beautiful," kiss, "person," kiss, "I," kiss, "have," kiss, "ever," kiss, "met." After that, Dudley looked deep into Harry's eyes and said, without any hesitation, "And don't you think otherwise."

After that, Dudley pulled Harry closer to himself and hugged him until they both fell asleep.

Chapter 2: King's Cross Station - Train ride

Harry was being dropped off at King's Cross when an evil smirk appear across his Uncle Vernon's face. "Well, there you are, boy. Platform nine- platform ten. Your platform should be somewhere in the middle, but they don't seem to have built it yet, do they?"

Dudley and Harry exchanged worried looks. "Perhaps we should take him back home?" Dudley suggested cautiously to his father. "He has no place to go."

"Rubbish," replied his father. "We have the date and place right. He can figure it out," he said, pointing to Harry. Then, with sarcasm heavy in his voice, he turned on Harry and said, "Have a good term."

Dudley followed his parents back into the car, sharing one last look with his love. When his father hit the gas and drove off, he began to laugh. Knowing his father would be furious if they didn't play along, him and his mother laughed with him. But Dudley couldn't fake it as well as he normally did. The abandoned look on Harry's face was too much for him. Thankfully, his father's laugh was so obnoxious, he couldn't hear the hesitation in Dudley's voice.

Meanwhile, Harry was about to lose it. Just like he had thought, Dudley had abandoned him in the end. Could he have been more stupid? How could anyone love an ugly, awkward person like him?

He started stroking Hedwig through the cage to calm himself down. The bird had been his first friend, first confidant. Harry, of course, was not including Dudley in this, since he had never considered him a friend. He had been an enemy, but then transformed into a love interest. He had skipped right over friend. Hedwig had been given to Harry as a gift from Hagrid who and taken him on a, for lack of a better word, magical trip through Diagon Alley to get his schoolbooks and school supplies.

If Harry had ever been told the story of Cinderella, he would have equated his position to the clock striking midnight. It was all over.

Harry was about to fall into despair when he heard an ungrateful sounding boy, about his age and with bright, red hair, complaining about being late. To this, his mother replied with a pointed look, "It's your own fault for waiting till the last minute, Ron, with your first day of schooling being tomorrow no less. I told you that it would be packed with Muggles. Of course you didn't believe me, did you?"

Harry, upon hearing the name that Hagrid had used when referring to his adoptive parents, perked up. Perhaps all was not lost. Maybe he was in the right place, he had just missed a side corridor or something. Harry started to follow them, noticing that they, like him, carried an owl. More proof he was in the right place, he reasoned. What normal person would carry around a pet owl?

"Excuse me," Harry whispered to the one who he assumed was the kids' mother.

"Hello Dear. Did you need something?" she asked with hesitation, most likely wondering if he was possibly a lost Muggle or if he was, in fact, a first-year student at Hogwarts.

"The thing is I am looking for platform 9 3/4, but I can't seem to find it. I don't know how to get on to it either. Could you help me?" he asked, trying his best not to sound like he was actually feeling, scared and alone.

"Oh!" she said, understanding dawning on her. "This must be your first time at Hogwarts. Not to worry. Just follow my boys through the barrier between nine and ten. It's best if you do it at a bit of a run if you're nervous."

Harry, thinking she had perhaps gone insane, just shook his head and began to walk away. However, before he had turned his back completely on the family, he saw, to his astonishment, that two of the boys did indeed walk straight through the brick pillar.

Deciding that it was worth a try, since his day really couldn't get any worse, he started walking towards a pillar. At the last second, he thought to himself, What if this is the wrong pillar? Maybe only one pillar in the entire station works. Then he realized he was being stupid. It wouldn't make sense to try and fit hundreds of students through one little pillar, single file. It would take all day! That got him to wondering why the kid Ron's family had been in such a hurry, passing plenty of perfectly good pillars, until they came to the one nearest Harry. And what about all the Muggles at the station? Didn't they ever find it strange that people were running through walls? It just didn't make sense.

By the time all of this ran through Harry's head, Harry was through the pillar and on the platform. It was like walking into another world. The station was a mirror of the one he had just come from, but there was only one train. This train was like something out of a train set someone had gotten for Christmas. It was a deep scarlet and was packed with hundreds of kids, his age and older.

Harry pulled his trunk with his school books over to the train, along with his owl cage. Though the trunk had to weigh twice as much as Harry, he was able to pick it up without too much difficulty. After all, when you work in the yard, mowing the lawn and weeding the garden all summer, and slowing snow and cutting firewood in winter, you tend to gain muscles in all the right places. Though Harry was much too short and underweight for his age, it wasn't due to lack of muscles.

Apparently, he didn't look as strong as he was, and one of the kid Ron's brothers (he remembered him being with them at the station and they had the same flaming red hair) offered his help. Never being offered help before, Harry stood speechless, so the boy took it as a yes. "My name is George by the way. Oy, Fred! C'mere and help!"

Harry was even more surprised when George's doppelganger showed up. "Here, let me take that," the one named Fred both of their help, Harry managed to get his trunk and bird cage onto the train.

"Thanks," Harry said. The twins, in harmony, said, "No problem Harry," and went back to wherever they came from.

Only afterwards did Harry realize he had never told them his name...

But that wouldn't happen until later. Right now, Harry was more concerned with finding a compartment. It was like the first day of school again. As Harry walked down the aisle, he looked through the compartment windows for someone he could ask to sit with. But everyone seemed to already have their group of friends. I guess that was just what happened when you grew up with other wizards. You made wizard friends. Again, Harry thought about how unfair it had been to be left with his Aunt and Uncle. Though Hagrid had tried to explain how it was the safest place for him, Harry still couldn't see it. If they knew exactly where to send the letter (the deserted island that Harry had been on when Hagrid appeared), then how could they not know about his home life? The only good thing that he could figure that came of the whole situation was Dudley, and it would be almost a whole year before Harry would see him again.

Though this circular thinking brought back the sadness Harry was feeling earlier, he was able to look at the situation more clearly. Dudley couldn't have done anything about his parents leaving him at King's Cross. He had tried to convince his parents to bring Harry back home with them after-all. And it had all worked out in the end. Harry was now of the "Hogwart's Express," according to the sign, which would take him to his new home.

Harry finally decided on an empty compartment near the back of the train. After putting his things in the overhead, Harry plopped down in the seat and proceeded to stare out the window absentmindedly. He was about to fall asleep from his emotionally exhausting day when the kid named Ron poked his head through the door.

"Anyone sitting there?" he asked, looking at Harry like a lost puppy. "Everywhere else is full."

Harry shook his head, wondering what is was about himself that made the whole, redheaded family attracted to him like flies. Though Harry wasn't complaining of course. Perhaps he could find a friend in this one.

"Hi. My name's Ron Weasley. What's yours" he questioned, putting his arm out for a handshake.

"Harry Potter," Harry said, grabbing Ron's hand in his.

"No way! Are you really him?!" Ron blurted out, before putting his hand over his mouth. "Sorry," he said, almost at a whisper.

"S'ok," Harry said after a few moments. Harry, realizing he would most likely have to face this same situation multiple times, decided it wasn't something he should make a big deal about. Apparently, he had killed some infamous wizard when he was a baby, causing him to become equally famous, though why he was praised for taking a life baffled him. He didn't know if he should have felt guilty for killing some guy or proud of ending a wizarding war. And he was only one year old! It's not like he remembered any of it.

After Harry confirmed that he was in fact Harry Potter, Harry started asking Ron all sorts of questions, like how many brothers he had, did he know any magic, what was his favorite color, etc. Whenever Ron asked Harry any questions, he would often answer it vaguely and change the subject. None of this slipped past Ron of course, and Harry knew it. Thankfully, Ron didn't push too hard. He just pretended like he didn't notice and continued asking and answering questions.

By the time lunch came around, Harry was starving. He hadn't been able to make breakfast that morning due to the rush, and could now hear his stomach growling in protest. Though he had been hungry plenty of times before, Harry, for the first time, had the means of getting food for himself without getting in trouble. When he had gone to Diagon Alley with Hagrid, they had visited his vault which his parents, it turned out, had kept for him. He had never seen so much money in his life before, and had just grabbed a handful without counting it and stuffed it in his pockets. Though he had showed Dudley his find, he had been careful not to let his aunt and uncle find out about it. They would most likely take it from him without a thought, calling it rent.

After hearing a lady in the aisle yelling about the trolley, Harry had gotten up from his seat, mentioning to ron that he was starved.

"You won't find any real food out there. Apparently, all they sell are sweets and candies" Ron said quickly, not even looking up as he pulled out four roast beef sandwiches (no pun intended).

Harry sat back down, realizing that if he ate any sweets for the first time, on an empty stomach, on a moving train, in a cramped compartment, he would most likely get sick. Never one to complain, since if he complained at home he would be punished, he sat quietly, watching enviously as Ron ate ALL FOUR of the sandwiches, complaining of how dry they were the entire time. Harry just nodded his head, agreeing with him, as he thought to himself, At least someone you love made you lunch! I've had to make all my own food since I was seven, and I didn't even get to eat most of it anyways!

Harry was getting hungry that, by the time a Hermione Granger poked her head in their compartment, asking about a lost toad, all he had the energy to do was reply "Harry," when she asked who they were. He didn't really feeling like getting into the whole, "Yes, I was the one to kill Voldemort," speel. And apparently, this guy's name, who was dead in case it needed to be mentioned, seeing as Harry killed him, was taboo. Apparently, in polite company, one must call him, "You-Know-Who" or "He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named." Didn't make sense to Harry, so yeah, he would just call him Voldemort. The other names were too long to remember anyways.

Right before the one named Hermione left, she mentioned that they would probably want to get dressed. So Ron and Harry closed the compartment door, covered the window, and took out their robes to get changed into. Ron didn't comment on the fact that Harry was too skinny and had curious marks all up his back and arms and Harry didn't comment on the fact that Ron had beer belly and a birthmark shaped like a slug in an awkward place.

As the train stopped at their destination, Harry took a deep breath and followed Ron out of the train, hoping against all hope that there would be food at the end of their journey.

Dudley, on the other hand, was worriedly looking around a deserted King's Cross station for Harry, wondering if he had found the right platform or was sleeping at the side of the road somewhere on a bench. Dudley had hitched a ride after telling his parents he was hanging out with friends and came straight to the station. Unfortunately, it got dark soon and he had to hitch a ride back. For the next few hours after getting back home, he would lay awake, staring at the ceiling, wondering why the bed felt so empty, and hoping that he would get a letter from Harry the next day.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo xoxoxoxox

Just want to send a shout out to Zorpox and Tygo24911 for being my 2nd and 3rd follower. All of your support is amazing, and I hope you enjoyed Chapter 2 :)

P.S. I didn't forget you Brien James. You were included in that as well.