Chapter 1: Waiting to Leave (and Traveling and Arriving)
AN Ranma dose have his curse and doesn't mind which form he is in, but will for convenience be staying in girl form for most of the story. (Also I just like Ranma Chan :D) as for why they are here at the age they are… well just wait and see nothing on that this chapter though.
As he stepped onto the station Harry could hardly believe how many people were there, mostly wandering around in a most disorganized way. "Seems quite peaceful eh Nabaki?" Ranma's voice came from behind their luggage (Ranma didn't bother with a trolley claiming they all had at least one wheel that went in the wrong direction, or sometimes all four).
As they pushed their way through this latest crowd Nabiki said "Hmm... Your right nowhere near as bad as Tokyo" Harry looked at them wide eyed "You came all the way from Japan? I heard Hogwarts was the best school in the world but..." Nabiki smirked and cut him off "No that's not that, it's more like... they wouldn't let Ranma into any of the Japanese or Chinese schools." Nabaki's Grin widened "In fact didn't they practically beg you not to come? One of them even offered to pay you to stay away."
At this point Harry was surprised that Nabiki's face hadn't split in half her grin was so wide and also he was starting to wonder about what kind of people his new friends were. "Hey stop it Nabs you're goin to scare our new friend of!" At this Nabiki started to giggle "You should've seen his face though! Nhahahahaha!"
Shortly after this they final reached the train "Harry how bout you go and find us a compartment? We've got a couple of things to do first." She paused looking thoughtful for a moment "We might bring a couple of people with us so see if you can find an empty on near the back. Come on Nabs!" and with that the pair of them rushed off after Ranma handed Harry's luggage to him.
By the time Harry found a nice large empty compartment near the back of the train, most of the other students were already on the train and it wasn't long before Ranma and Nabiki returned with a couple of people following them, well three people to be exact "Hello again Harry! Allow me to introduce Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom and Daphne Greengrass!"
As Ranma introduced the three Harry took a closer look at them Hermione was (in his opinion) the prettiest girl he'd ever seen. She had long curly brown hair, chocolate colored eyes and a very friendly face.1
Neville looked rather nervous but he somehow seemed to be much stronger than he looked. He had short blond/brown hair, a toad that was looking to escape who Neville introduced as Trevor (the toad had been half way across town the day before and was well on the way to crossing a duel carriageway before he was caught) and a rather muscular body. He also had on his robes (Harry still thought that they made the wizards look like they had just got out of bed) a coat of arms (crossed shovels with a rampant badger on a field of gold2)
Daphne was also very good looking she had ice blue eyes, strait blond hair to her waist and an aura of calm around her. She also had a coat of arms on her robes (in Harry's opinion most witches had much more stylish robes than the wizards) although hers appeared to be solid black.
After the introductions (with Neville and Daphne being surprised at how nice Harry was) and Daphne went to meet another friend the five that were left sat down and started to exchange story's about their experiences with magic and there reasons for coming to Hogwarts.
Hermione began first "I was really surprised at first because I'd figured that the stuff I could do was the Force or psychic powers, but when Professor Flitwick turned up and showed us what he could do… it kind of made sense."
Neville and Harry looked at her in surprise "You could already do thing with your magic?! That's Amazing!" Neville bushed after saying this and continued "I didn't even do accidental magic until I was eight! And that was when my uncle dropped me out the window!" Seeing the looks on the others faces he quickly added "Ah don't worry I'm fine and my Gran gave him a right boll… er telling off." This relieved everyone that Neville's Gran at least gave his uncle a right… telling off.
"So how about you Harry? Did you have any ideas about what your magic was?" Nabiki asked "Well at first…" Harry stated but at that moment the door opened revealing a tall Red haired boy (not red like Ranma's more orange).
He spoke (loudly) "Hey do ya mind if I sit ere? Everywhere else is full!" at this he came in without waiting for a response and said to Nabiki "Oy budge up! I need a seat too!" For some reason he didn't seem to notice the cold look Nabiki was giving him (or that the compartment seemed somehow colder) and just carried on.
"Come on move it ya stupid girl! Didn't ya hear me?" At this point Harry decided he had better say something before things got nasty (Nabiki was giving the boy an icy look and Ranma was giving him a murderous glare) "Excuse me but who do you think you are barging in here like this and being so rude? We don't even know you! Besides there were plenty of empty compartments, and this one is nearly full." (The compartment had six seats)
The boys response left them wondering about his intelligence "Huh? My names Ron, Ron Weasley. So er where am I supposed to sit?" At this Ranma had had enough "Grrr How bout outside?" She growled picking him up by his collar despite being considerably shorter than him. As he flailed helplessly he shouted "Oy what do ya think you're doing shorty?!"
He turned to Harry "How can you let her do this to me mate? You should be helping me out here!" At this stupidity Harry knew Ron wasn't using his brain to think with (to be honest he wasn't sure that he had a brain) "Why should I? You just barged in here uninvited then your rude to my friend Nabiki! And why are you calling me mate? You don't even know me and all I know about you besides how rude you are is your name!" At this Ron just spluttered (although that may have had more to do with the fact he was being held up by his collar) and with that Ranma threw him through the door with Hermione slamming it before he could get up.
After this Ron fortunately decided to go and find another seat and the rest of the journey passed quite peacefully other than a boy with almost white blonde hair briefly visiting them:
The door opened for the second time but this time it was a pale skinned boy with almost white hair, "I hear that Harry Pot…" just then he noticed the other occupants of the compartment and at the sight of Nabiki his eyes widened in terror "Oh god! It you! I'm terribly sorry I didn't mean to bother you!" And with that he ran out of the compartment as if hellhounds were chasing him; however when they asked Nabiki about this she just smiled in a rather evil way.
At last they arrived at the station of Hogsmead. As they stepped off the train and onto the platform they could see the distant silhouette of the castle and hear a voice calling "Firs' Years to me! Firs' years to me!"
This was coming from a huge man who must have been at least ten feet tall with a Big Bushy Beard to match and when he saw Harry "Hello There Harry!" Harry returned the greeting then turned to his friends and introduced the man as Hagrid. Both Nabiki and Hermione were greeting the man as if they met ten foot tall men everyday but Neville and Ranma were stood back looking really surprised.
By some strange coincidence the reaction was exactly the same: "Huge!" Ranma continued "Your even bigger than the Dojo Destroyer! Although you do have some he doesn't…" Nabiki rolled her eyes and muttered "He's been waiting for a chance to say this ever since he saw that film…"
However none else heard this as Hagrid appeared to find the "Huge!" comment highly amusing. When he finally stopped laughing he said "Oh yes an what do I have that this Dojo Destroyer doesn't?" Ranma grinned "A Great Big Bushy Beard!"
1) This is from Harry's POV so he may omit things others feel are important or include things that others feel are unimportant.
2) This was due to the fact that one of Neville's ancestors had saved the King from an incident involving a pack of twenty-five trained war badgers, sixteen gardeners and a Chinese assassin. He defended the King from this vicious attempt on his life with nothing more than two shovels and an acer of gold leaf. (This is left out of the history books as most historians considered it to be too silly.)
Next time: The Sorting, tantrums, insane headmasters and trying to make things make more sense.