Chapter 2 – Train Rides and Trinkets

                Sakura stared around the huge train station – King's Cross – with wide eyes, obviously impressed by the size and hustle, and clutching her Hogwarts Express ticket tightly in her hand.  Syaoran crossed his arms and kept one eye on Sakura while examining the building critically with the other.  You'd think she'd never been in Tokyo Station before, he thought crossly.  She's practically star-struck.

                Syaoran was not impressed by the large building.  On the contrary, he was keeping his eyes wide open for magical auras and spells – anything and anyone that might give him a clue as to how to get to Platform Nine-and-Three-Quarters by eleven o'clock.  Because there was one thing he had ascertained: there was no Platform Nine-and-Three-Quarters – not a visible one, anyway – which meant it was hidden, and the spell to board it cleverly disguised.

                Syaoran had been amazed over the past several days by the length to which the English wizards were willing to go to prevent their magical world from being revealed.  According to Professor Flitwick, this was to avoid getting tangled up in and trying to solve Muggle problems with magical solutions.  Syaoran found he had to adjust to such a culture.  Certainly, 'magic' – raw, undefined, and powerful magic – was not acknowledged anywhere in the modern, visible world.  Syaoran was aware it existed, just as any sorcerer in a magical family might be.  In fact, he was quite good with it (his mother said it was a reflection of his fierce nature), and he commanded the elements through his ofuda often in his quest for the Clow Cards, but this was carefully hidden.  However, in Hong Kong (and even to a certain extent in Japan), magic was acknowledged to exist in the everyday world through such things as poltergeists, kekkai, and shikigami – mostly the arts of the onmyouji, which Syaoran was semi-rehearsed in.  Here in England, no one really believed in anything even semi-magical, except perhaps ghosts.

                And surely if I asked that serviceman over there about Platform Nine-and-Three-Quarters, he'd tell me to go find someone else to harass,  Syaoran thought wryly.

                "Li-kun, have you found the platform?" Sakura asked nervously.

                Syaoran shook his head and checked his watch.  It was ten-fifty.  Surely some young wizard would come by here soon, unless everyone was already on the platform.  After all, they were waiting calmly with all their bags directly between Platforms Nine and Ten.  No one could pass here without Syaoran knowing it, and besides, sorcerers here didn't know how to hide their aura.  He should have sensed them coming from a mile away.

                "Are we going to miss the train?" Sakura asked, cocking her head.

                "Of course not."  Syaoran snorted.  "The platform has to be here somewhere, and even you should be able to sense someone with magic coming –" he cut off.

                Because there was definitely magical aura coming towards them, and a lot of it.  More than one person, Syaoran decided.  "See, here come some wizards now," Syaoran pointed.

                Sakura craned her neck to see, and sure enough, moments later a family of redheads with numerous freckles appeared.  There was a mother, plump but kind-faced, who was speaking rapidly to a girl a few years older than either Syaoran or Sakura.  Two tall redheads who were obviously nearing adulthood (and looked exactly alike) followed directly behind them.  After that pair of grinning twins, came a boy who was younger than the twins, but older than the girl with the mother, and he was chatting amiably with a girl who had long, bushy hair and a boy who was –

                Was –

                Syaoran's jaw dropped.  That's Harry Potter!

                Sure enough, just visible under the thick, unruly black bangs was the hint of the famous lightning scar.  He wore coke-bottle-rimmed glasses over large green eyes, and was sort of thin, if tall, in his oversized street clothes.

                Syaoran snapped his jaw shut and swore up and down that he would not embarrass himself.  He grabbed Sakura's arm.  "Come on, they're who we want to follow," he said, pushing her to follow the train of wizards.

                And soon, they were facing a brick wall between the platforms.

                "We'll go first, Mum," said one of the twins.  "Kind of squeezing the time today, aren't we?"

                "Don't harp on it, just hurry," said the mother, wringing her hands but smiling pleasantly.  "We don't need to be where Harry can be found by You-Know-Who any longer than necessary.  You'll make the train all right, if you just go!"

                "All right, Mum, keep your shirt on, we're going," laughed the other twin.  Then they took the carts they were pushing – and ran through the wall.

                Syaoran blinked.

                Next to him, Sakura exclaimed, "Suge~!"

                At that moment, the mother seemed to finally notice them.  "Oh, my!  Are you two new?" she asked in her pleasant, friendly voice.

                Syaoran nodded.  "We are.  Is that wall the path to Platform Nine-and-Three-Quarters?" he pointed.

                "It is.  What an accent you've got!  Is it – oh, never mind, we don't have the time, do we?  Ginny, go on."

                The girl sighed.  "If Fred or George take my books because you're no there, can I bewitch them?"

                "No, of course not! Now go, go!" she shooed her off, and Ginny shot through the brick wall as easily as the twins.

                "How do you do that?" Sakura asked of Syaoran in Japanese.  Syaoran posed the question to the mother.

                "Why, just run at the barrier, and believe that you really will go through it.  Don't be frightened of the wall – it won't hit you unless you are."  She smiled at Syaoran and Sakura, saying, "Go on, Ron, dear, and Harry and Hermione, too.  I'll take these two through."

                Ron shrugged, said, "Okay, Mum," and walked through the barrier.  Syaoran watched in amazed silence as the girl, Hermione, and Harry Potter followed just as easily, before translating for Sakura what the mother had said.

                "All right, now.  Just run right through the barrier.  Running is probably best the first time," she pushed Syaoran forward.

                Syaoran looked back at Sakura, automatically asking, "Did you want to go first?"

                Sakura looked a little sheepish.  "Actually … can we go together, at the same time?"

                Syaoran shrugged his indifference, gave her the woman's last instructions in Japanese, then counted down – "Three, two, one, go!" and they plowed forward.  Syaoran closed his eyes for an instant as they neared the wall.  It's just a selective illusion, project your aura, if it knows what you are it will let you through –

                And when he opened his eyes, he was standing on Platform Nine-and-Three-Quarters.

He barely noticed when the mother of the redheaded family came onto the platform behind them, patting them on the head and remarking that they'd done a spectacular job on their first try. Sakura was obviously aware that it was a compliment and thanked her in 'Engrish', saying 'Sankyuu' almost absently.

Syaoran ignored the exchange in favor of being amazed by the sheer amount of magical aura (almost everyone was magical), the dress sense (awful – worse than the Japanese, even, in Syaoran's opinion), and the Hogwarts Express itself, which was absolutely magnificent. Syaoran had been around many old, magnificent things in his short lifetime, and still he was impressed by the nineteenth-century train. The smells told him there were a lot of animals – specifically owls – and that there was good food to be had, too. His stomach growled.

Sakura was equally amazed, drinking the whole atmosphere in with wide eyes. "Li-kun!" she said. "Have you ever seen so many sorcerers in one place?"

"Yes," Syaoran admitted, "but never so many Western wizards." It was incredible.

By reading signs Syaoran guided Sakura to a train car and a seat inside, and a bell boy aided them with packing away their baggage. Sakura hung onto one bag, which Syaoran suspected contained the Guardian Beast. The Plushy had been extraordinarily annoying, in Syaoran's opinion, over the past several days, insisting on trying every sweet available when he was around. Besides, he attracted a shocking amount of attention for a society of people in which magic was an everyday thing. Everywhere they had gone in Diagon Alley, people marveled at the 'flying stuffed toy', asking what sort of magic enabled him to use his wings in such a realistic fashion, and being surprised when the Plushy answered their questions in perfect, if accented, English.

"Clow Reed was a genius. Creating me was nothing for him," he told Syaoran, waving a spoon at him, when the Chinese boy got annoyed enough to demand explanations. "I'm basically a shikigami with flesh. Wait'll you see my real form, Sakura, I'm incredible!"

Sakura gave him a skeptical look, as per usual, and confided to Syaoran, "I think a big Kero-chan would be kind of scary." Syaoran eyed the Plushy, who had returned to stuffing his face, and was forced to agree.

But for now he was ensconced in the bag, perhaps sleeping, and Syaoran was able to put up with him that way.

Syaoran and Sakura sat across from each other in the box seat they had selected, silent for the moment, while Sakura looked out the window and Syaoran watched her. She was smiling and waving at someone. //Perhaps it's a little child who was simply waving at the train,// Syaoran thought, //and the Card Mistress is nice enough to wave back.// It wouldn't be surprising.

He suddenly realized that his hand was in his pocket, wrapped tightly around the handkerchief that the auburn-haired girl had given him when they fought the Shadowy.

He looked away, blushing, and furiously forced his thoughts to Yukito, which only made him blush more, until finally he was just trying not to blush. He was in this state when the train began to move and the door to the room opened. Syaoran jerked up his head; Sakura did the same.

And they found themselves staring at Harry Potter.

His two friends – the redhead Ron and the girl Hermione – were with him. "Oh, um …" Harry Potter looked uncomfortable. "Sorry to bother you, we'll go sit someplace else today."

He began to close the door, and Syaoran registered protest from Ron along the lines of 'But we've sat in there before! Don't we have a right to it?', before Syaoran managed, "No, don't go, we will, it's –"

He cut off. He had Mr. Potter's attention, but it wasn't because of comprehension. Syaoran had broken into Chinese. Blushing, Syaoran corrected himself. "No, this is your usual seat. We will go –"

"Oh, for heaven's sake," Hermione broke in, looking exasperated. "You're all being stupid. Why don't we all just sit in here together? There's plenty of room." She pushed past Harry Potter and sat by Sakura with a haughty air.

Harry Potter looked at Ron, who wrinkled his nose questioningly, shrugged, and sat down as well. Right next to Syaoran. Ron took a seat by Harry.

Syaoran forced himself to relax. He'd never expected to meet the Boy Who Lived, the one who had saved the entirety of the European magical world from the terror presented by You-Know-Who.  Supposedly, it was an accident; Syaoran's mother spoke with respect for the magic responsible nonetheless.  And as surprising and fascinating as it was, it was no reason to gawk.  It wouldn't be polite at all to gape at him and ask if he could see the lightning-shaped scar or ask if he was all right after all of the adventures he had suffered over the past three years.

Then Harry Potter smiled down at Syaoran. "Well, it's nice to meet you. My name's Harry Potter, and this is Ron Weasley –" he indicated Ron, who waved, "and that's Hermione Granger." He pointed to the girl, who smiled and waved too, as if to a little kid (which he was, Syaoran reflected). "And before you ask, yes, you can see the scar." There was just the smallest trace of annoyance and weariness in Harry's voice. He pressed his hand to his forehead to brush back his bangs with his hand, showing the small scar.

Syaoran blinked; it was small, almost unnoticeable. He looked away.  "Um … thank you," he said hesitantly. "My name is Syaoran Li." He abruptly remembered Sakura and pointed to her. "This is Sakura Kinomoto." Sakura, hearing her name, waved. "She does not speak much English, and mine is weak. If I make any mistakes, I apologize," he said.

"Where are you from?" Hermione wanted to know.

"I am from Hong Kong. She is from Japan."

"Well, you speak wonderful English," she told Syaoran pleasantly.

Syaoran thanked her, but his gaze drifted over to the Card Mistress, who was looking more and more lost.  He poked her.  "Hey, you."

Sakura blinked at him.  "L-Li-kun, I don't understand," she said, her voice an apology.  "I thought that I could do it, but I don't know any English – how am I supposed to understand—"

Syaoran shook his head sharply.  "Stop it," he commanded softly.  "Maybe Western magic can help, or the Plushy – it seems to know plenty of English.  And in the meantime, I'll— …" he trailed off, kicking himself. "I'll help you out, okay?"

Sakura looked at him wide-eyed, then smiled that blindingly bright smile she had.  "Thank you, Li-kun!"

Syaoran's face flamed; fortunately, a discreet cough called their attention back to the three others in the compartment.

"So, you're first year students?" Harry asked, including Sakura and Syaoran in his gaze. Syaoran nodded mutely. Sakura clearly didn't comprehend the question, but was politely nodding anyway; Syaoran explained softly, "Ichinen yo?", and her face lit up and she nodded enthusiastically. Harry gave them another smile. "It's not so bad, really. Don't let any of it intimidate you. Hogwarts is the most incredible school in the world! And the headmaster, Dumbledore, he's something else!"

Syaoran thought this last statement might be a figure of speech, but he wanted to be clear. "What is Headmaster Dumbledore?"

Harry blinked. Hermione looked as if she was suppressing laughter, but Ron let it out. "Ha ha ha! He's a man, just like any other, 'cept he's the only wizard You-Know-Who is afraid of. Saying somebody is 'something else' is just a figure of speech."

As Syaoran has suspected. "See? My English is weak. I am sorry."

"That's nothing to apologize for," Hermione said pleasantly. She indicated Sakura with a slight nod and asked, "Don't you know of any spell that could help her understand us, or something?"

Syaoran shook his head. "Eastern mysticism is not used for such things.  Wait a moment, please—" he turned to Sakura and translated.  Absently he wondered how people made a career out of repeating what other people said, just in a different language.  It was tiresome.

"Who is You-Know-Who?" Sakura asked him.

Syaoran shook his  head.  "I'll explain later."

Meanwhile Ron had leaned over to look at him. "You mean to say you know some magic already?"

"I do, but not Western magic."

Ron looked impressed regardless. "Can you show us?"

But Hermione was interested for another reason; she looked at Syaoran with awed curiosity. "You're tri-lingual, aren't you?"

Syaoran felt illogically proud of himself. "I know four languages – but not well enough."  His Korean was almost a joke, after all, and his English … he spoke it all right, he decided, but reading it was still a nightmare.  And he still hated Japanese.

Nonetheless, Hermione was very impressed, as were Harry and Ron.  "And you're only 11?"

"Mother pushes me hard," he said softly.  He glanced at Sakura, who had assumed a look of intense concentration again, and sighed.  "You want to see Eastern magic?"

"Do I?" Ron asked eagerly. "Sure, go ahead."

Syaoran nodded, but first he finally caught Sakura's attention and translated for her again – only to get the same reaction that Hermione had given for his lingual skills.  "Li-kun!  That's amazing!"  She smiled at him.  "I'm learning so many new things about Li-kun here.  You know a lot."

Syaoran looked away.  "Well … just watch, okay?"

He took an ofuda from the inner pocket of his shirt and held it up. "This is …" he trailed off, searching for a word.  "A magic paper.  It has words of Power on it.  Like a wand, it acts as a focus point for magic." He closed his eyes and concentrated on the piece of paper in his fingers. "Ka-shin!" he exclaimed, and the ofuda caught fire.

Everyone else in the box car gasped, and Syaoran, who now had to treat the fire he had set as he would any flame, placed it under his shoe and tamped it out. "That is Eastern magic," he said, then told Sakura the same thing in Japanese.

There was a general consensus that the skill was amazing and Syaoran was feeling for the first time in his life that his magic had a use other than the practical ones, when the door opened again to admit a young man about the same height and age as Harry and his two burly cronies. The boy had pale blond hair and a sneer on his otherwise handsome, pale face. "Well, Potter, can't get any friends, so you're socializing with first-years, Mudbloods, and the poor?" He sneered at Ron and Hermione.

Harry shot to his feet along with his friends. Ron looked as if he was seriously considering tearing the boy apart. "Like you have any right to talk, Malfoy! You're so friendless you have to have Crabbe and Goyle!" Harry snarled. The boys with the intruder seemed to be vaguely aware they had been insulted, but they did nothing.

The boy narrowed his eyes. "You won't survive the year, Potter, with the Dark Lord returned to life! I'm surprised you made it through the summer."

"At the rate you're going, you won't make it out that door without a black eye," Harry told him coldly. "Don't you have anything better to do – like throw yourself out a third-story window?"

"You'll pay for that hex you put on me last year," Malfoy warned Harry. "Watch your back." With that, he swept out the door.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione sat back down. Harry was visibly steaming. "That Malfoy! I hope Voldemort feeds him to vultures or something."

"It's all right, Harry," Hermione soothed. "He can't really hurt you. You're the better wizard."

"I hope," Harry said darkly.

Sakura finally asked, "What happened?"

Syaoran translated the conversation rapidly, then asked, "Who is Malfoy?"

"Draco Malfoy is an aggravating twit," Ron snorted.

Harry shook his head. "Malfoy can't really do anything as long as we're just flinging insults. Even a hex isn't really enough to get anyone in real trouble. He'd have to get me expelled from Hogwarts, and I don't think that I can be anymore." He said this gravely, and Syaoran was very much aware that he was unable to be expelled only because Hogwarts was probably the only safe haven for Harry, if this Dumbledore headmaster was the only man Lord Voldemort feared.

That was when the treats wagon came by, and Syaoran selected treats for himself and Sakura, translating all the amiable conversation that followed.

* * *

Suge – a shortened, altered form of 'sugoi', meaning 'Amazing!' or 'Wow!'

Ka-shin! – the phrase Syaoran uses to light an ofuda on fire in manga 4.

Author's Notes: It's hard to integrate Sakura in when she doesn't understand anything.  Kero-chan will help out in the future.  ^^;;  Please remember also that this is year four for Potter and company – Voldemort isn't alive yet.

~~Vikki