Disclaimer: Still not JKR, still don't own Harry Potter.

A/N: I am thrilled with the response to this story. Three chapters up and already over 5,500 hits and 50 reviews, with 89 favorites and 158 alerts. You guys really know how to make a writer feel appreciated.

Harry Potter and the Master of Time

Chapter 4: Of Weasels and Ferrets

Harry spent the month leading up to his departure to Hogwarts studying and calling Hermione. Ever since they had met in Diagon Alley the pair hadn't gone more than a day without talking to each other. They were both either on the phone, reading ahead in their textbooks, or doing both at the same time for most of the month of August. Harry even had lunch with Hermione and her parents every Saturday, during these lunches Harry would drop subtle hints that his home life was less than congenial. Hermione's parents, David and Jean Granger, were concerned by some of the comments that Harry made about his relatives, but when they asked for more details he would simply evade the questions and change the subject. David and Jean had both seen cases of child abuse in their work as dentists and they had privately agreed to ask certain acquaintances in Child Services to have Harry's relatives looked into while he was away at Hogwarts. On the 31st of August, which was a Saturday, Harry found himself at the Granger house having dinner with the family of his best friend. After Harry had made a comment about how his Uncle would probably be furious that he had to take Harry to King's Cross earlier in the week Hermione had asked her parents if her new friend could spend the night before they both left for school. Virgil was pleased with these developments, because it was with his coaching that Harry had given just enough information to ensure that someone would be investigating the Dursleys in the muggle world, well outside the control of Albus Too-Many-Names Dumbledore.

Harry awoke the morning of September 1st in the most comfortable bed he had ever slept in, including the one he remembered from his dormitory in Gryfindor Tower. Thinking about it he realized that it wasn't that this bed was somehow the most amazing bed in the world, he had just never had a comfortable mattress. After a hearty breakfast Harry and the Grangers loaded his and Hermione's trunks into the back of David's Mercedes and drove to King's Cross. They arrived at the train station at five minutes to ten, they loaded the two trunks onto trolleys, Harry had sent Hedwig off to Hogwarts so she wouldn't have to wait in her cage for the entire train ride. In fact he intended to get rid of the cage completely if he had to return to the Dursleys the next summer, they couldn't really lock her in her cage if she didn't have one could they. Harry and Hermione said good-bye to Jean and David at the barrier to platform 9¾, Jean gave both children a hug good-bye and Harry, at Virgil's suggestion, made sure to tense up when Jean first hugged him, after all one last nudge towards the Dursleys couldn't hurt.

Having arrived an hour before the train was due to depart, Harry and Hermione found the platform much quieter than Harry remembered it being the first time he had taken the Hogwarts Express. The pair made their way onto the train and headed for the back, hoping to find a quiet compartment where they wouldn't be disturbed. At Harry's suggestion they had already changed into their robes, taking advantage of the relatively empty train, before sitting down to read and talk like they had been doing over the phone all summer. Harry was nowhere near as fast at reading as Hermione, but he had already finished reading through Hogwarts a History, Modern Magical History, and A Beginner's Guide to Defensive Magic, he had also read through most of his textbooks, so he was now getting started on reading Journey to Your Inner Beast: A Guidebook to the Animagus Path. He found the book to be quite interesting, it detailed the basic steps of becoming an animagus while pointing out the most common errors that witches and wizards made while attempting the transformation. He had just finished the first chapter, which served as a general outline to the entire process, when Hermione finally asked the question she had been dieing to ask since she had first learned what Harry was planning to attempt.

"Do you think you'll actually be able to do it Harry?"

Harry looked at her for a second before realizing that she was talking about the animagus transformation "I don't see why I couldn't do it. The book says it's a slow and tedious process, and that the reason most people don't accomplish it is because it is taxing on their determination, not on their magic or skill."

Hermione seemed to be considering her next question for a moment before asking "Do you think we could try to do it together?"

Harry was delighted that she had asked, he had been trying to think of a way to suggest that she join in "I think that would be great, this way we can both help each other out and keep ourselves from giving up if it starts to go to slowly. The first step is just meditation, the book says that this should be done outside if possible as it will help you focus on your instincts better. It also has tips on how to do it if you are having trouble clearing your mind."

"How long does that take?"

"According to the book it depends on a few different things, the more often you meditate and the longer you do it for the faster you will finish the first step, the fastest anyone has ever completed the first step was in two months, but he apparently meditated for ten hours every day. It also depends on how in touch you are with your instincts, and how in control of your thoughts you are. From what the book says if we can meditate for at least an hour three times a week, we should discover our forms within six months to a year."

While Harry and Hermione were having their conversation a troop of redheads were searching the muggle side of the station for Harry Potter. Molly Weasley was growing frustrated, they had been looking for almost twenty minutes and had seen no sign of the boy. Fred and George had been highly confused by their mother's behavior and had continued onto the platform after the first circuit of the train station. It turned out that Dumbledore had just assumed that Hagrid would forget to tell Harry how to get onto the platform, and hadn't bothered to ask him to be certain before sending Molly to ensnare the boy. At three minutes to eleven Molly gave up and told Percy and Ron to hurry up and board the train. Ginny was quite put out at not getting the opportunity to meet her future husband, and would most likely sulk for the next couple of weeks. As the last two redheaded passengers got on the Express pulled away from the platform beginning its journey north.

Harry had hoped that by taking a compartment at the back of the train he and Hermione would avoid drawing attention, unfortunately it was not meant to be. Minutes after the train started moving the compartment door slid open to reveal two people that Harry truly had no idea how to deal with, Virgil had said that in the end they had been on his side, but with what he already planned to change he wasn't entirely sure how to get them on his side.

"This ones a no go brother mine."

"Right you are, got a couple of firsties here."

"Well you know-"

"-It would be rude-"

"-If we didn't introduce ourselves."

"This is Fred,"

"And this is George"

"And we're the infamous Weasley twins." They finished together.

"Whatever you may hear about us-"

"-It's probably true."

"But enough about us-"

"-Who might you be?"

Harry couldn't help but smile at the antics of the loveable twin terrors. "This is Hermione, and I'm Harry."

"Blimey-"

"-It can't be-"

"-I think he is-"

"-Are you?"

Harry looked at the two with a confused look masking his inner smile "Am I what?"

"Harry Potter." the twins answered in stereo.

"Oh... last time I checked I was."

"Hmmm, I thought you'd be taller."

"Funny, I thought he'd be shorter."

"Oh well, it's been a pleasure meeting you-"

"-but we have business to attend to."

With that the twins exited the compartment, closing the door on their way out. Harry turned to Hermione "That was certainly interesting."

With the first conversation with the twins under his belt Harry settled back into his seat hoping that those two were the last redheads he would see on the train ride. For the next forty-five minutes Harry was beginning to believe that fate was going to stop fucking with his life and let him have some peace. Moments later all his hopes and dreams were destroyed by the arrival of yet another redhead. Harry had reviewed all the memories he had received about Ron, because the memories felt as though they were from someone else he was able to view them without the emotional bias he had clearly developed about Ronald Weasley. He had come to a conclusion about Ron, Ron was like a puppy, he had an adorable tenacity about things he wanted, he always seemed to have a helpless look about him, and he really could be fun to have around, but just like a puppy he had a number of bad habits that he didn't seem to realize were unacceptable in civilized society. It didn't matter whether it was his chronic jealousy, his tendency to be an insensitive ass-hat, or his human garbage-disposal impersonation, the biggest problem that Ron had was that he just didn't want to change for those around him, you either liked him when you met him and would overlook his horrible behavior, or you would see him for what he was straight away and he would completely ignore everything you say to him.

"Do you mind if I sit in here, my brothers kicked me out of their compartment." not waiting for a reply Ron took a seat on the bench across from Harry and Hermione as the two had taken up one entire bench with themselves and their books. Harry just shrugged his shoulders and went back to his book, hoping against hope that Ron would take the hint and stay quiet. "I'm Ron Weasley by the way. Are you really Harry Potter?" Harry nodded "Do you have really have the... you know..." seeing that Harry wasn't going to finish the sentence for him Ron plowed on "Scar" Harry nodded again "Can I see it?"

Harry just looked at him with a look of complete and utter annoyance at the redheads total lack of tact for a good minute "Why on earth would you want to look at my scar?"

"Well it's famous, you're famous. If I were you-"

"-You wouldn't be all that happy about people wanting to gawk at the constant reminder that your parents were murdered by some psychopath on a world domination kick." Harry cut him off before returning to his book. Hermione patted him on the arm trying to comfort her clearly hurting friend. Ron just sat there unsure how to respond to Harry's pronouncement, possibly because he couldn't understand someone not wanting to bask in their own fame, or possibly because he couldn't understand most of the words Harry had used.

The three sat in silence for half an hour, with Harry pointing out an occasional passage in his book to Hermione. At this point Ron again tried to strike up conversation by showing them is rat, when Ron pulled the rat from his pocket Harry had to suppress the urge to attack the treacherous animagus in the redheads hand. As much as he wanted to see his godfather released from prison, Virgil had insisted that it would arouse suspicion unless he could say exactly where he had learned about Sirius Black. Harry had begrudgingly accepted this reasoning and simply hoped that someone, probably Hagrid, would let Black's name slip so he could go about getting a trial for his wrongly accused godfather under the pretense of wanting to hear what the man who had supposedly betrayed his parents had to say about what he had done. Until then attacking the rat would serve no purpose and would most likely cause more problems than it would solve.

Eventually Harry had to face the one confrontation he had been almost certain would occur no matter how much he tried to avoid attention. The blonde ponce walked into the compartment as though he owned the entire train, trademark sneer firmly affixed to his face, and his personal neanderthals flanking him. "Is it true? They're saying all down the train that Harry Potter's in this compartment. So it's you is it?"

"Well it certainly isn't her." Harry said indicating Hermione, his voice dripping with sarcasm. Harry could see the small grin that came to Hermione's face, though it was unlikely that anyone else saw it as she was still hidden behind her book.

"This is Crabbe and this is Goyle" Malfoy said indicating his unnecessarily butch entourage "and my name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy." Ron snickered at Malfoy which brought his attention to the redhead "Think my name's funny, do you? No need to ask who you are. My father told me all the Weasleys have red hair, freckles and more children than they can afford." turning back to Harry he continued "You'll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there." He finished offering his hand to Harry.

Harry watched the blonde's face carefully, he didn't want to miss a second of his reaction, while answering "Hmmmm, well based on your not so subtle attempt to imply that you are somehow better than everyone else would suggest an almost pathological need for recognition from others. The fact that you are walking around with what appear to be trained gorillas with you, you obviously feel the need to over-compensate for your own inadequacies. So if it's all the same to you I have enough problems without taking on your emotional issues as well, thanks but I think I'm good for now. So if you wouldn't mind taking Tweedledee and Tweedledum with you, it is getting rather crowded in here." Harry absolutely loved watching Malfoy's expression change from one of confusion into one of anger as he slowly realized he was being insulted.

"You better watch yourself Potter. If you don't learn some manners then-" Harry never found out what would happen if he didn't learn manners, because while Malfoy had been beginning his threat Harry was drawing his wand and casting a simple knock-back hex to push Malfoy and his goons out of the compartment before slamming the compartment door in their faces.

Ron was clearly amazed by what Harry had just done, even if he only understood a handful of the words Harry had used. "That was bloody brilliant Harry. You'll be amazing in Gryfindor."

"Why would I want to be in Gryfindor? All that will accomplish is drawing me into more unnecessary confrontations. No I really think Hufflepuff will be the better house to be in" Harry said before once again returning to his book. Harry prayed to whatever gods might inhabit the higher planes of reality that there would be no further interruptions.

For once in his lives Harry's prayers were answered as the rest of the journey passed without anymore excitement. Ron eventually left the compartment to change into his robes. And when the train finally stopped at Hogsmead Station Harry and Hermione got off the train and made their way over to where Hagrid was gathering the first years. After a brief hello to Hagrid Harry and Hermione found themselves sharing a polite conversation with Susan Bones. When they got to the boats they would take to the castle Harry and Hermione were joined in their boat by Susan and a boy who Harry vaguely recognized as Terry Boot.

When they entered the castle Hagrid handed the first years off to Professor McGonagall, who gave the same speech about your house being your family. Harry placed his hand on Hermione's shoulder to calm her down while they waited for the sorting as she was getting overly nervous at facing some unknown challenge. They were shown into the Great Hall where the Sorting Hat sang exactly the same song it had in Harry's memory of his sorting. Hermione breathed a sigh of relief when she realized all they had to do was put on a hat. McGonagall began to call names and the sorting proceeded as Harry remembered it until McGonagall got to Hermione's name, the hat spent a little longer on Hermione than last time before it shouted out "HUFFLEPUFF" Harry smiled as he watched Hermione make her way to the Hufflepuff table.

The sorting continued until McGonagall called out "Potter, Harry" the entire hall grew quiet and everyone's undivided attention was focused on Harry as he sat down on the stool and placed the Sorting Hat on his head.

Hufflepuff please, Harry immediately thought toward the hat Hold your horses Mr. Potter, let me take a look first. Yes you definitely would fit in Hufflepuff, very loyal to your friends, ah, so you are the one who suggested Hufflepuff to the charming Miss Granger. But you have a good mind, plenty of courage, and you certainly are quite cunning, Slytherin would be a better fit. Why would I want to be in Slytherin? If I am as cunning as you seem to think I am then Slytherin would be the last place I would want to be, after all what good is being cunning if everyone knows you are cunning and ambitious. Very well Mr. Potter, I know when to give up better put you in "HUFFLEPUFF"

A/N Hope you all are enjoying the story. Next chapter we see how people react to the Boy-Who-Lived in Hufflepuff.