Chapter 3: Hogwarts Express
Harry sat and watched as numerous people made their way through the crowds and disappeared through the concrete barrier that led into Platform 9 ¾. Some successfully pulling off the 'muggle' look, and many many more who were... not. Some didn't bother much at all, and just wore their wizard robes as they escorted their children, while others 'tried' to look muggle, but really only just looked ridiculous.
Harry giggled and chuckled as he sat there, people watching, waiting for the band of red-heads to arrive. Addy poked her head out of the top of his pocket and quietly hissed jokes at the more ridiculous looking ones, causing Harry to laugh even harder.
Finally a familiar voice carried through the air that caught Harry's attention. He quickly stood up and Addy tucked herself into the bottom of his shirt pocket.
Harry watched as the Weasley matriarch, followed four sons and one small daughter began to hurry towards the barrier. The eldest son present made his way through first while the woman began talking with a pair of identical twins who seemed to be teasing her about getting them mixed up.
Harry walked up behind the girl who was looking rather sullen.
"Cheer up. It's only another year and you'll get to go too," Harry said in a quite voice as he leaned over her shoulder and spoke.
She jumped and turned back to look at him with confused shock.
"What?"
"You aren't going this year, right? But you'll get to go next year," Harry said, in what he hoped was a reassuring voice.
"How'd you know that? Who are you?"
"I'm Harry," he said as he stuck his hand out, offering it.
She looked at it curiously for a second before reaching out and giving it a hesitant shake.
"Sorry if I come off as a bit odd. I know it's none of my business – you just looked rather sad."
She pulled her lip in between her teeth and scowled. "I'm not sad... I'm just annoyed. I should get to go too. Instead I have to stay at home, all alone with no one to keep me company but my mum. It's going to be so boring, and she's going to make me learn to knit or something, I just know it."
Harry chuckled. "Well, if you want a friend, I could be your quill pal. I'll write you about some of the stuff that happens at school, and then you'll be more prepared and know what to expect next year when it's your turn."
She looked at him curiously. "You don't even know me, and you'd write me letters?" she asked, incredulously.
Harry shrugged. "Sure. I don't have anyone else to write. I'm sort of an orphan. I don't know anyone outside of school to write to, but I got a post owl of my own in Diagon Alley last month. If I don't find someone to write letters to, she'll just end up spending the whole year bored off her rocker in the owlery."
"Um... okay. I guess."
"Ginny, dear, what are... oh, hello there," the woman said, noticing Harry there for the first time.
"Hello. I'm Harry," he said, smiling brightly at the woman who he had seen as a surrogate mother figure in his visions for years.
She smiled warmly down at him. "It's a pleasure to meet you Harry. I'm Molly Weasley."
Harry turned his attention back to the girl. "And you're Ginny Weasley. Right?"
Ginny looked a bit stunned for a moment but smiled slightly and nodded.
"Come on, Ginny. The train is leaving soon, we have to get onto the platform. Do you need any help dear?" she ended, turning her attention to Harry.
"No, I'm fine. I know how to get on."
"Alright then."
The next moment Molly Weasley and Ginny disappeared through the barrier and Harry quickly followed.
Once through the barrier Harry waved to Ginny and made his wait towards the train. When he got in, one of the twins offered to help him get his trunk into the compartment since it looked heavy, and Harry was too short to really reach it easily anyway.
He began to pick it up and coughed a bit in surprise.
Harry chuckled. "Feather light charm. Came with the trunk," he said, in explanation for the surprising weight.
"Nice," the twin said with a grin. The other one nodded his head in agreement.
Harry ran his hand through his hair and heaved a soft sigh as he looked around the train compartment.
"Blimey!" one of the twins gasped. Harry looked over at them confused and saw as the one the just spoke elbowed the other in the ribs and nodded his head towards Harry.
"You're Harry Potter!"
– –
Harry watched out the window as the train pulled away from the station, quickly vanishing from view. He was in the last compartment and still alone, although he knew that wouldn't last much longer.
As if right on cue, the compartment door slid open and a young red-headed boy popped his head through asking if he could join and saying that everywhere else was full.
He glanced at Harry, his eyes flicking towards Harry's forehead, which was covered by his black, scuffy hair, and his eyes quickly darted away and out the window.
The compartment door slid open again and the twins were back. They told the younger boy that they were going to the middle of the train to hang out with someone called 'Lee Jordon' and mentioned something about a giant tarantula that made the young redhead flinch.
They introduced themselves to Harry as Fred and George, and told Harry that the younger redhead sitting with him was their younger brother, Ron, and then they departed.
A moment of silence passed between them before Ron turned his attention to Harry and blurted out, "Are you really Harry Potter?"
Harry chuckled and nodded his head. "Yup."
"Oh... I thought that Fred and George might have been joking. They do that a lot. Never trust a word they say... for that matter, never eat anything they give you either."
Harry smiled. "I'll remember that, thanks."
"So have you really got... you know..." Ron said, pointing at Harry's forehead.
Harry reached up and pulled back his fringe of black hair, exposing the lighting shaped scar there.
Ron gaped and stared at it in awe. Harry felt like rolling his eyes, but refrained.
"So that's where... you-know-who..."
"Yup. He shot me with the killing curse, but my mum did some ancient protection spell and sacrificed her own life for it. The magic protection she created went into me, so when his killing curse hit, it bounced right back off and hit him instead."
"Blimey! You're kidding! I've never heard that before."
"I don't see how anyone could. It's not like anyone ever interviewed me about it. I hear there are books written about it, but how could they have any idea what happened? The only ones that were there that night and still alive to tell about it is me and Voldy, and I doubt Voldemort's been giving interviews either, considering he's just a formless wraith now and all."
Ron gasped and sat ramrod straight in his seat.
"You said the name! You're not supposed to say the name!" Ron hissed and then paused, "and what do you mean, he's still alive? He's supposed to be dead now."
"Nope. Just his body was destroyed. He's been a spirit without a body for the last decade, wandering around the forests of Albania trying to find some way to get a body back. I imagine it's a right dreadful way to exist."
"He's alive?" Ron gasped, looking pale and horror stuck. "How do you know, though?" Ron whispered, leaning closer, as if he were afraid that their subject matter was too dangerous a topic to be discussed a full volume.
"I just do, really. I guess I'm a seer. I have dreams and visions about stuff. Been doing it my whole life."
"What kinds of stuff?"
"Well, I've got two different kinds of visions. First person, and third person. The first person visions are almost always of various possible futures, and the dream feels more like reality than a dream. Like, I'm actually living in that moment. I feel my own feels from that moment, think my own thoughts from that moment... everything. And when I wake up, I remember it just like I would remember the stuff I actually did the day before.
"It's always been really confusing. Took me forever to really get a handle on it all. Sometimes I'd just dream about really mundane stuff, like being in class the next day, or some day the next week. Then when I'd actually get to that day, it was like, I've already done this, and it'd be really boring and annoying.
"But I've lived through loads of time at Hogwarts this way too, so I actually feel like I've already been there. Like I've already been so a bunch of my classes, and met everyone. I mean... well, honestly I've seen you in my visions for years."
Ron blanched. "Me? You've had visions about me!"
"You and everyone else at school. Yeah."
"Ruddy hell, that's crazy!"
"Tell me about it. Anyway, the other kinds of visions are 3rd person. They're more like I'm watching something happen from far away. Or like I'm just floating around in the background. It's almost like watching a pensieve memory. They're usually a lot shorter than my future first person visions too. Sometimes they're of the future, but usually the 3rd person visions are of the past. Things that happened before I was even born. I've seen visions of both of my parents that way. They're time in the Order, and even some stuff from when they were at Hogwarts at students. They're probably my most precious memories..."Harry finished in a whisper.
"Wow..." Ron whispered. "So... so you know what's gonna happen? You really know the future?"
"I know possible futures. The future is always changing. Every different choice people make changes everything. The only really detailed stuff I get comes when I'm sleeping. I've seen possible futures fairly far into the future. Farthest I've really seen is about 6 or 7 years from now, but I've only gotten bits and pieces from that far away.
"I may have an idea of what could happen on a certain day, but the second something unexpected happens, or me, or someone else make a different choice than I'd anticipated, everything can get changed and I really have no idea whats gonna happen, just like everyone else. If I focus I can sort of get glimpses of visions when I'm awake, and I get these gut feelings, but they're not as detailed or always as useful.
"This conversation, for example... it's going completely different than any of my visions because I just sort of ran off on a tangent. I'm always trying to make plans, so I know what's going to happen, but I'm utter rubbish at sticking to them."
"So you've had visions about us sitting in this train car, talking?" Ron gaped.
"Yup. For years, really. You're gonna be my best mate. This is how we meet, so it's sort of significant. I see the significant stuff a lot, in lots of different variations. I guess it's mostly because I keep trying out different ideas of how they might play out."
"Best mate?" Ron's jaw dropped and Harry laughed.
"If that's alright with you, at least," Harry said nodding.
"You wanna be my best mate?" Ron asked, apparently flabbergasted by this concept.
"Yup."
Ron looked at Harry with stunned skepticism for a moment before shrugging and grinning. "Okay, I'm fine with that."
Harry laughed and nodded.
The two talked some more for a while after that and began to talk about Ron's family. Harry already knew everything Ron told him, but he was very accustomed to knowing exactly what people were going to say to him, and gave no sign of boredom or disinterest. Seeing this moment actually playing out, for real, was a real thrill. His first real, human friend.
Harry had intentionally kept away from making friends with any of the muggle children at his school growing up. He knew that he couldn't tell them about magic, or his unique ability. Plus there was the fact that anyone he got close to could potentially be put in danger because of it. At least when Harry became friends with other witches and wizards, they had the potential to be able to defend themselves.
Muggles were utterly defenseless against the dangers that would eventually haunt Harry's future.
At about half past twelve there was a loud clatter outside the compartment and a smiling witch appeared and opened the door.
"Anything off the trolley dears?" she asked, motioning towards a cart in front of her that was loaded up with various wizarding sweets.
Harry grinned and quickly jumped up, picking through the candy by the loads. Ron remained quiet and looked rather glum, mumbling something about a sandwich.
"Come on Ron, help me pick some stuff out. I've never actually gotten to eat any of this wizard candy before. Pick out all your favorites and I'll get a load of each."
"Whut?" Ron said, looking up confused.
"Look Ron. Candy. I'm buying it, and you're going to help me eat it. Now get over here and help me pick out the best stuff."
After they'd loaded up on sweets the trolley witch told Harry the total and he spoke it aloud to his money pouch, put his hand in, and pulled out the exact amount to hand to her.
"Is that a bottomless money pouch?" Ron said in awe.
The two settled back into the compartment and began to sort through the mountains of candy.
"Yup. I hooked it up to my trust account when I visited Gringott's for the first time to get my school supplies. I only just gained access to it for the first time last month. It's absolutely fantastic to have access to my own money for a change. Loadd better than have to beg my blasted muggle uncle for money that I earned him in the first place," Harry grumbled.
"Huh?" Ron said, while chewing on a liquorish wand.
"Ever since my parents died, I've had to live with my muggle aunt and uncle, and their son, Dudley. They absolutely hate magic, and they hate me. Treated me like utter rubbish. They basically treated me the way most old pureblood families treat their house elves."
Ron's eyes bugged out and his jaw dropped slightly at that.
"When I was about six, I figured out how to get them to start treating me like a human being instead of a servant. See, my uncle was always telling me how much of a freeloader I was, and how I was such a burden on their finances," Harry said sarcastically and rolled his eyes, "so I started giving him stock tips, and telling him the results to the horse and dog races. Once he realized that he could make a load of money off my 'freakishness', he started acting a bit more civilly towards me.
"Even so, he still makes a huge fuss whenever I ask for anything. He gives it to me, but not without a lot of moaning and complaining first."
"That's awful," Ron said, but then he looked away with a sad scowl on his face. "But at least you've got money now."
"I've got loads of it, actually. Way more than I'll ever know what to do with. I'm the last Potter left alive, so I've got everything. Including a load of land, and various investments that the goblins will continue to manage for me till I'm of age. I looked over one of the statements they sent me, and I suspect I could sit on my bum for my whole life and not work a day, and still die with a mountain of gold left over. It's ridiculous."
Ron's ears turned pink and his mouth thinned into a line, but he didn't say anything.
"You know, it's funny," Harry continued, pretending not to notice Ron's reaction, "most people would give anything for fame and wealth. I've got both and I hate it. I'd do anything for people to not notice who I am, and I'd give all the money away in a heartbeat to a worthy cause.
"As is, I already told the Goblins that half of it goes to your family if I get knocked off in the next few years."
Ron choked on the piece of candy he was chewing on and gaped at Harry. "You did what!"
"The rest is set to go to Remus Lupin. I think he'd be just as confused to –"
"Wait, wait! What? Harry, we... we just met! How could you have told the goblins... oh... but..."
Harry laughed at Ron's confused and clearly flustered expression.
"Honestly, Ron, I'd walk into my bank vault, fill a sack full of galleons and just hand it over to your dad, if I thought he'd take it. I know that won't work though. You all have this big thing about charity – which it wouldn't be! It's frustrating! I've been trying to work this one out in my head for ages. Especially once I realized how much ruddy money I've got. It's just insane. Load and loads of money I didn't earn... and of course, if I actually did control the investments, I could easily quadruple my holdings in a year thanks to my 'gift'. Money is so bloody easy for me to make that it has no meaning. It's not a big deal. But I know that it is a big deal for your family because your dad is the only one that works, and you've got a huge family.
"I know that a nice pile of gold would bring a lot of happiness to your family. Real, pure, elated, happiness. I would love to be able to give that to you guys. Your mum is gonna be great to me... I know it's weird when I do that whole talking about stuff that hasn't happened yet thing, Ron... sorry, but it's true. Your family is going to be great to me, and I'd love to be able to give you guys something that would really make the lot of you happy."
Ron just sat there, staring at Harry with an utterly dumbstruck expression, and his jaw hanging wide open.
"I hate all these stupid stigmas attached to money though. The idea that I'd be 'buying someones friendship' – which I'm not. I know we'd be friends with or without any money. Or then theres the idea that I'm handing the money out because of some sense of pity or something. It's all ridiculous. I've got money. Why can't I just give it away without having some stupid stigma attached to it? Bloody frustrating is what it is."
The two sat in somewhat uncomfortable silence for a minute after that. "Sorry I ranted. It's just one of those things that bugs me a bunch. I hate money. It's too damn complicated. Anyway, tell me about the candies. What's your favorite?"
The mood lightened a bit after that, and the two were quickly chatting and joking about the various sweets. Harry explained to Ron that pictures in the muggle world don't move at all, and told him about some of his favorite muggle candies.
Ron told Harry about the Wizard cards that came with the chocolate frogs and Harry pocketed the card with Albus Dumbledore in case he needed it for later.
The pair bravely ventured forth into the dangerous realm of Bertie Bott's Every Flavored Beans, taking turns in eating the potentially questionable ones.
Ron showed Harry his pet rat who he said was named Scabbers. Harry had to try very hard not to react poorly to the sight of the small light gray vermin.
Ron complained about how the darn thing could have died and you'd barely notice a difference with as much as it slept. As it was, even after pulling it from his pocket and jostling it around quite a bit, the thing refused to wake and Ron just left him to sit on the seat beside him.
Harry looked down at his wristwatch and made a face.
"What's up mate?"
"I forgot that this would stop working."
"Huh?"
"My digital watch. The magic on the train is already enough to start throwing it out of whack."
"What's a digital watch?" Ron asked, confused.
"It's a... well, it's a watch. I guess, like a pocket watch, but you wear it on your wrist. Do wizards have anything like that?"
"Um... no. But what's di... digi-whatever."
"Oh, digital. It's got a tiny computer in it. Instead of running off of a physical mechanism like an old fashioned clock or watch, it runs off of electricity and displays the numbers on a tiny screen... only now, it's already starting to malfunction. It's just showing garbled numbers right now. By the time we get to Hogsmead, it'll probably just go blank. Blast! I wish I'd thought to buy a pocket watch while I was in Diagon Alley."
Harry sighed and stuck his hand up his sleeve, grabbing his holly and phoenix feather wand from the holster strap he'd put there, and pulled it out.
"What are you doing?" Ron asked, looking surprised.
"Casting a tempus. I want to know what time it is."
"The time telling spell? You know how to do it?" Ron asked, sitting up straighter and looking far more interested than he had a moment earlier.
"I think so. I mean, I know it in my head, I've just never actually done it in reality."
Harry was about to flick his wand when the compartment door slid open and a round faced boy and a very bushy haired girl appeared there.
"Have any of you seen a toad?" the girl asked.
"What?" Ron asked.
"A toad. Nevile here lost his toad. Have you seen one? Oh! Are you doing magic? Let's see it then? What is it?"
Harry blinked. This was slightly different. Nevile usually showed up alone first in his visions, and then they'd come back together a bit later. But anyone on the train could have changed their mind about any number of things and done something slightly less likely and changed things. These little changes were pretty common so he just smiled.
"Um, alright. It's the tempus charm. I was wondering what time it is, but my wristwatch stopped working because it's digital and all the magic is interfering with the electricity."
"Well, of course a digital watch won't work here. This is a magical train. Okay, on with the spell. Let's see it," the girl said, folding her arms across her chest impatiently. Ron scowled at the bossy girl, but Harry just chuckled at her and refocused on his wand.
He wondered if he'd be able to pull it off. This would be the first actual spell that he tried with his wand. Before this, he'd refrained from using it at all since he didn't want to risk setting off the underage magic trace, and his parcel magic and Addy worked fine for any of his magic needs.
He made a small circle with the tip of his wand and then a small flick before saying "Tempus," in a soft whisper.
The glowing outline of a traditional clock face materialized in front of him with hour, minute, and second hand, displaying the correct time. Harry smiled and the bushy-haired girl nodded with a look of approval on her face. Ron and the sad round-faced boy both looked very impressed.
Harry lowered his wand, and the clock faded. He turned his attention back to the girl and boy. "So you said something about a toad?"
"Yes, Nevile lost his toad and can't find it," the girl answered.
"What was his name?" Harry asked, turning his attention to the boy.
"T-trevor," the boy whimpered. "He keeps getting away from me."
"Well, I think I might know of a way to get him back," Harry said with a smile.
The boy's head whipped up and he looked at Harry with bright hope in his eyes. "Really?"
"Yeah. You two come in here, and one of you hold the compartment door open," Harry said, standing to his feet.
"What are you going to do?" the girl asked as she moved in, and held the door as he'd asked.
Harry shrugged and lifted his wand. "Summoning charm. Never actually tried it before, but I'd never tried the tempus charm before either. No guarantee that it'll work, but it's worth a shot. And if I can't do it, I'm sure you can find one of the older kids to give it a shot."
Harry stuck his wand out and let out a small breath. He flicked his wand and said "Accio Trevor!" in a quiet, but forceful voice. He kept his wand extended and his mind focused on the mental image of the boy's toad as he felt a tug on his magic. A moment passed where nothing appeared to be happening and the round-boy's face fell, when suddenly a green-ish brown toad flew through the open compartment door and hovered in the air, at the tip of Harry's wand.
"Brilliant!" Harry yipped. "It worked!"
"Trevor!" the boy yelled as he reached forward and grabbed the floating frog.
"That was really something," the girl said, looking rather surprised. "I've tried a few simple spells myself, just for practice, and they've all worked for me, but I've read that summoning something it supposed to be really hard. They don't even teach a spell like that till 3rd or 4th year. Where'd you learn it? I know it's not in any of our textbooks for this year because I've read them all, and I would remember if any of them covered summoning charms."
"Harry's a seer," Ron said, as he sat back on his seat and unwrapped another chocolate frog and began to bite off it's limbs. "He probably remembers sitting through the class in 3rd or 4th year when he'll learn it in the future."
The girl looked very confused at this statement.
Harry chuckled and shrugged. "He's actually partially right."
"That's bloody crazy! You're going to be so far ahead of us, aren't you?" Ron said, biting off the head of his chocolate frog, that was still squirming. Harry cringed at the visual.
"It's not like I remember every class taught for the next six years or anything." Harry said defensively, "I've only had visions of some days here and there. Certain classes and certain events. I have memories of using the Accio charm, and that's how I really remember it. I don't necessarily rememberlearning it, but I remember knowing it... so I do know it. Does that make sense?"
"Sort of," Ron said, shrugging.
"No," the girl said, looking at Harry dubiously. "I've never heard of anything like that before. What does he mean that you're a 'seer'?"
"I have visions of things that haven't happened yet, and sometimes of things that happened a long time ago." Harry went on to explain to the girl, and round faced boy, what he had said to Ron earlier about the difference between his 1st and 3rd person visions, and then about how he'd helped his uncle Vernon with his money investing for years.
"Isn't that sort of like cheating?" the girl said, making a face.
"Well, it's all gambling anyway, but I suppose so. Knowing which dog is gonna win the race, and placing a bet on that dog... I guess that's cheating. But I really didn't feel like I had much of a choice. I could see that if I didn't do something, things were only going to get much much worse. He was going to start smacking me around soon and I had to do something to stop that. It's one thing to have him constantly yelling at me, but I didn't think I could handle getting regularly beaten."
"That's horrible!" the girl gasped. "You should have reported them to the authorities for child abuse!"
"I couldn't. Dumbledore would never let me leave the Dursley's. He'd probably Obliviate them, and put them under a compulsion charm rather than let me leave."
"What? What does the headmaster have to do with where you live?"
"He's got custody of me, according to the magical world. He's the one the placed me with my aunt and uncle."
They were all silent for a moment as they stared at Harry.
"Professor Dumbledore has custody of you?" Ron asked in awe. Harry made a face.
"Sort of, but he shouldn't. My parents made a will, and listed several people I was to go to if they died, and Dumbledore was not one of them. But if Dumbledore hadn't stepped in, the Ministry would have tried to take control of my custody situation, and that would have been even worse. Dumbledore stuck me with my aunt because she's my only blood relative left and he thought being with her would help with the blood protection that blocked Voldemort's killing curse."
They all gasped at the name, but it was the found-faced boy whose eyes widened his hand flew up to point at Harry from a different realization.
"You're Harry Potter!"
Harry blinked three times before he grinned, laughed lightly and shook his head.
"Sorry. I didn't even realize I hadn't introduced myself," Harry said, sheepishly. "Here, let me do the introductions," he smirked and pointed to Ron. "This is Ron Weasley. Ron Weasley, this is Hermione Granger, and this is Nevile Longbottom."
Hermione and Nevile gawked at Harry, and Ron laughed.
"You're going to be really entertaining to be around, aren't you?" Ron asked, rhetorically.
"How'd you know my name?" Nevile asked.
"He's a seer, remember?" Ron said, chuckling.
"Oh... right," Nevile said, turning slightly pink.
Hermione seemed to get over this much quicker, and refocused on Harry. "Are you really Harry Potter? I've read about you. I did some background reading when I discovered I was a witch and you're in Modern Magical History, The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts, and Great Wizarding Events of the 20th Century."
"Those books are all rubbish," Harry said rolling his eyes.
"What!" Hermione gasped.
"Well, I guess I can't say that the whole book is rubbish, but the sections in them about me are."
"Why do you say that!" she asked, looking horribly offended that he would make such remarks about her precious books.
"Well all those books say that 'Harry Potter defeated the Dark Lord', right? Well that whole statement is utter rubbish, and since it's the foundation for all their so-called history lessons, that just proves that the whole thing is wrong."
"What on earth do you mean?"
"Well, first off, I didn't defeat anyone. I was a 15 month old baby. How the bloody hell does anyone honestly believe that a fifteen month old baby could defeat anything, let alone a powerful dark lord? It's ridiculous! And second, Voldemort –" all three of them gasped, but Harry didn't even pause, "isn't actually dead. His body was destroyed, but he'd done all these crazy dark rituals and made these really nasty objects that would make him immortal, so his spirit is trapped in our world as a non-corporeal wraith."
Nevile looked so pale, Harry wondered if he were about to pass out. Ron had already heard all of this earlier, but he still looked ill, hearing it again. Hermione, however, looked fascinated.
"I bet not one of those books said anything even remotely like that, did they?" Harry asked Hermione, who quickly shook her head, no.
"What I really hate about the whole blasted 'Boy-Who-Lived' nonsense is that everyone thinks that I'm some sort of savior of the wizarding world. It's rubbish. No one ever acknowledges my mum, and she's the one who really did it."
Hermione leaned forward, utterly enthralled. "What do you mean?" she whispered enthusiastically.
"My mum sacrificed her own life to power a protection spell that went into me, and blocked the killing curse. I mean, everyone knows that the Avada Kedavra curse can't be shielded or blocked, but she used some sort of really really ancient and powerful magic and by giving up her own life, voluntarily, she was able to put enough protection into me that when the curse hit it rebounded off of me.
"It was her magic, and her sacrifice that saved me, and destroyed Voldy's body. Not me. Not something that I did. But does anyone talk about Lily Potter, savior of the wizarding world? No. Of course not. Especially since she was muggle-born. Having to admit a muggle-born witch was responsible for destroying the Dark Lord's body would upset too many of the old families. So it's always boy-who-lived this and boy-who-lived that. Pfft." Harry shook his head, obvious annoyance in his eyes.
The group was quiet for a moment, and surprisingly enough, it was Nevile who asked the first question.
"Do you actually remember it? That night, I mean?"
"Yeah... sort of. It's hard for me to tell what exactly is an original memory of the event, and what's a memory of my vision of the event."
"Huh?" Nevile asked.
"Well, I've seen the whole night in visions too, so I remember it really clearly from that. I don't know if I'd actually remember any of it, if it weren't for the visions. I mean, I was only 15 months old, after all, and I don't really remember anything else from that far back."
"What did it feel like? Getting hit with the killing curse?" Nevile whispered.
Harry crunched up his face and looked thoughtful.
"Well... it hurt like hell. I remember the green light coming at me, and totally blinding me, and then so much pain I was sure I would die... but I didn't. My whole body tingled for hours after that. Took quite a while for the pain to subside too..."
"So it did actually hit you. It didn't just get shielded and bounced back," Hermione asked with surprise.
"Oh, it hit me all right. Where the curse hit is where my scar is. Bastard hit me right in the head. Wish he'd hit me in the chest or something instead. At least then the scar wouldn't be somewhere so obvious.
"Sharing the killing curse actually connected us somehow. There's this whole convoluted prophecy about it that's gonna cause me no small amount of trouble, but I'm not going to let myself worry on it too much just yet."
"What do you mean, connected? And what's this about a prophecy?" Hermione asked.
"Well the connection is pretty complicated. I actually gained some of his innate skills – not his power," Harry quickly added as Ron's eyes began to bug out, "just the same potential strengths. I mean, if I actually wanted to, I could probably be utterly brilliant with the dark arts, but I don't think I really want to go mucking around in that too much. But I also gained the ability to speak parseltongue from him because of the connection."
The three gasped.
"It's just a language. Bloody hell," Harry said in an exasperated tone. "So I can talk to snakes, that doesn't make me evil. Anyway, the prophecy is another nasty can of worms. Like I said, he's not actually dead, and someday he's going to get a body back and try to start another war. When that happens, this prophecy says that I'm the one who has to kill him. The prophecy was made before I was even born, and it's why he came after my family and me."
"You have to kill You-know-who?" Ron whimpered, turning completely pale.
Harry sighed and his face turned grim. He turned his head to stare out the train window for a moment before turning back to them and nodded his head. "Yeah. Well, it's either me or him. That's what the prophecy says. Either I kill him, or he kills me. It's why I've gotta take school seriously. I need to prepare. I've seen how bad it could get if... it won't be pretty."
"You've seen him coming back into power?" Hermione asked in a whisper.
"Yeah... I mean, there's a whole slew of different potential outcomes. Different times when he could come back, depending on which set of circumstances play out. I'm aiming for one of the circumstances where he doesn't manage to come back until I'm at least in my 4th year or later, but I also hope to make sure I kill him before it gets to my 6th year, because it's around then that the war really starts, and people start to die."
The other three children in the compartment each looked as if they had just been kicked in the gut, but Harry continued anyway.
"Theoretically, I actually have a really really slim possibility of even taking him out this year, but it's really unlikely."
"This year!" Hermione said in a horrified whisper. "He won't be getting his body back this year, will he? Harry, we're only eleven! You're only eleven! What chance could you possibly stand against him?"
"He won't have a body back this year," Harry reassured her. "Basically, I need to work on counteracting some of the dark magic precautions that he took to make himself immortal. I have to do that no matter what. He can't die until they've all been destroyed. If I managed to destroy them all right now, the second his current host body died, he'd be screwed. There'd be nothing holding him here and he'd pass on."
"Well that's perfect then. Why not just do that? Do you know what they all are? And how to undo all his immortality things?"
"I... do," Harry said hesitantly. "Thing is I'm not entirely sure how to destroy one of them... without dying myself... and there's another one that I honestly have no idea how I'd get to it."
"Oh..." Hermione said as her temporarily hopeful expression crumpled to despair.
"It's okay you guys. Cheer up. I mean, like you said, we're just eleven. This isn't something that's going to come up and kill us all right now. We've got years before the really dangerous stuff starts, and if I'm lucky I can take care of it before he gets his deatheater followers back and war breaks loose. My focus this year is going to be on laying a solid magic foundation and on getting stronger. I'm going to focus on learning as much magic as I can so I can prepare."
The group talked for a bit longer and Harry eventually managed to get the topic back to lighter subjects. He had been afraid that knowing what sort of danger his friendship came with might scare them all away, but he was unwilling to let them get close to him, ignorant of how dangerous that would be. He was going to train and prepare during these early years, but he wanted them to train too. Getting 11-year olds to put forth serious effort into their training took some serious motivation, and what better motivation was there then knowledge that a nasty dark lord was returning in a few years?
He shared his candy with Nevile and Hermione, but eventually it neared arrival time at Hogsmead station and they all needed to get into their school robes, so Hermione and Nevile left to return to their original compartments.
Harry was glad that Malfoy hadn't felt the need to come find Harry on the train, and managed to steer clear of him and his two enormous companions as he and Ron disembarked from the train and met up with Nevile and Hermione again. Malfoy did make eye contact with him for one brief moment though. The look on his face seemed rather contemplative and calculating. Harry shrugged; it was at least better than a sneer and a scowl.
He heard Hagrid calling out for the 'firs' years'only a moment before he spotted the man's towering form standing on the platform. Hagrid lead them all towards the boats and Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Nevile all climbed into one together.
Harry patted Addy in his pocket as subtly as he could and he felt her wiggle against him and smiled. He still hadn't determined exactly how he was going to introduce his familiar to his new friends, but he knew he would need to tell Ron and Nevile at some point, just so that they could help him hide her from their other two roommates.
"Any idea which house you'll go into?" Hermione asked the group at large.
"I don't know, but I better get into Gryffindor. I'd never hear the end of it if I got sorted anywhere else," Ron said with a glum look on his face.
"I'll probably end up in Hufflepuff," Nevile sighed.
They all paused for a moment and turned to look at Harry, who was grinning at them and trying to hold in his chuckles.
"Well?" Ron prodded.
"Gryffindor. All of us," Harry said with a smile.
"Even me?" Nevile gaped.
"Yes, Nevile – even you. You're not nearly as weak as you think. You just need some confidence. You've got loads of magic in you, you just need to learn to tap into it. That's why we're all here, you know. To learn to use our magic. You wouldn't have gotten in if you were really a squib like all your silly relatives keep telling you."
"Squib? What's a squib?" Hermione asked, scowling at the idea of not knowing something.
"You won't come across it in most text books, Hermione," Harry said, reassuringly. "It's a derogatory term. It's basically the opposite of a muggle born. Instead of a magical person being born to muggles, it's like getting a muggle born to magical folk. It's when a non-magical person is born to a magical family. They call that person a squib."
"Why would your family tell you that you were a squib?"
Nevile shrugged. "Guess I didn't show any of the normal signs. They didn't think I had any magic in me until Uncle Alby accidentally dropped me out a window and I bounced when I hit the ground."
"Your uncle dropped you out a window!" Hermione shrieked. "That's horrible! How do you accidentallydrop someone out a window?"
Harry coughed and looked away.
"It was an accident, wasn't it?" Hermione gasped in a hushed voice.
"He says it was..." Nevile said weakly. He looked a bit ill, honestly. "He gave me Trevor as a congratulations gift... for finally showing I had some magic in me."
"More like a 'don't report me to the ministry'gift," Harry mumbled.
"Why would he intentionally drop Nevile out a window?" Hermione asked in a hushed voice to Harry.
Harry glanced worriedly at Nevile, who was looking with a rather focused scowl at his hands.
"Do you want me to tell you?" Harry asked Nevile.
The boy looked up at Harry with fear and hesitation in his eyes. He sucked in a long breath and finally nodded his head with determination.
"Okay," Harry began hesitantly. "Basically he was working towards one of two situations. One, Nevile finally shows he's got some magic in him, and saves himself, which, fortunately, is what happened."
"And the other option?" Hermione asked.
"That he would go splat before it got out to the public that the Longbottoms had produced a squib," Harry said with a grimace.
"That's awful!" Hermione yelled.
"Great Uncle Alby has always been a bit old fashioned," Nevile mumbled, turning pink in the face and looking into his lap.
The four were quiet for a moment when Harry spoke up.
"Prove him wrong, Nevile."
Nevile looked up, confused.
"Prove to them how wrong they were. Become strong. You've got it in you. I know it. You are Frank and Alice Longbottom's son, and you will make them proud someday."
Harry smiled and gave a determined nod to Nevile. The round-faced boy just stared back at Harry with awe in his eyes.
"Will I really?" he whispered.
Harry nodded and smiled wider.
"Definitely."
