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"Wow."
That was all Amanda could manage as she and her daughters stepped through the false barrier, Twilight having cast a magical-leak detection spell to locate it after Hagrid ran off, somehow forgetting to give them directions.
They all liked the man, really, but he was just so scatterbrained sometimes.
Fluttershy just nodded mutely in agreement, gazing in awe at the bright red steam train parked in the bigger-on-the-inside platform.
Then things began to go downhill. Some older boy with dark skin and darker hair pointed at the System, muttering something towards two identical redheads. Surrounding people began glancing 'discreetly' in their direction, stopping and staring at the strange metallic object that the first-year had in place of a left leg.
The System was wearing the robes they had been given by Madam Malkin, which turned out to be custom-made. the shirt and jumper were the same as everyone else's, white under grey with a black and dark grey striped tie, which would apparently change colour after they had been sorted.
The System's trousers, however, held the first sign of deviance from the norm. Whereas the right leg stretched down almost to the floor, the left cut off just under the knee, revealing the black, white and grey mechanical leg.
This piece of technology, designed by Twilight mere days after the split, was just a simple socket on top of a peg leg with spring suspension. The spring was designed to have just the right amount of give to allow for easy walking, while still looking nothing like a foot.
None of the system particularly wanted the prosthetic to be foot shaped; Twilight had compiled plans for a semi-realistic foot, but the plastic used for 'skin' left the whole thing looking just human enough to be creepy, so that idea was gladly scrapped.
The System's cloak almost looked identical to the other first years', the only difference being in the cut at the bottom. In order to keep the mechanisms of the leg from jamming, the cloak was unsymmetrical, shorter on the left than the right.
With the shoulder-length messy black hair, the brilliant green eyes and the round glasses, this boy stood out remarkably, even among witches and wizards surrounding them.
Fluttershy shrank in at the attention that the System had yet to become accustomed to, huddling into Amanda's side as she gently placed a hand on the shy girl's back, subtly steering her towards the Hogwarts Express.
Coming to the open doors of the scarlet steam engine, the kindly parent planted a kiss on her daughter's forehead, and waved her off into the train, desperately holding back her tears at the sight of her girls leaving. It wouldn't do to make them feel guilty, after all.
Hermione glanced up from her copy of Hogwarts: A history as the door slid quietly open, noting a messy-haired boy wearing glasses as she did so.
"Umm... May I sit in here please? If you don't mind, that is..." The strange boy seemed to curl into himself, hiding behind his shoulder length mane, before Hermione nodded, glad of any sort of company.
"I don't have a problem with that, I'm Hermione Granger by the way, I didn't even know about-" Hermione stopped mid-sentence, blushing slightly in embarrassment as she realised that the boy had pulled the door half-closed, hiding most of his face behind the frame, leaving just an emerald eye showing. She coughed lightly, restarting the conversation in what she felt was a better manner. "Come in, I could use the company?"
The boy smiled shyly, figuring out that Hermione was unsure herself from her tone of voice, and stepped inside, a clink on the floor highlighting the step.
Hermione held back a gasp as the boy's left leg came into view, a mechanical prosthetic from around half way down the shin. He was walking on it as if it was a normal leg, like he'd had it forever.
"I'm..." The boy's name was lost under the hissing of steam leaving a funnel, and Hermione realised she was still staring at the left leg. The boy seemed to notice too, and crossed his legs, hiding it behind the one whole leg he had left. Hermione gulped, worrying about losing her first chance to make a proper friend, but eventually her curiosity got the better of her.
"If you don't mind me asking, what happened to you leg for you to need a prosthetic?"
Cowering under the attention, the boy mumbled something too quietly to hear. That was when things got strange.
The boy straightened up, pushing his glasses up his nose and sighing exasperatedly. He pushed his messy fringe out of his eyes and reintroduced himself in a confident, almost pompous tone. "I'm System Baker, you probably didn't hear it over the train earlier, and w- I lost my leg to an infected mad dog." He pulled a book out of his small trunk, then turned back to the bushy-haired girl, far more confident than his earlier shy behaviour would allow. He was almost like a different person! "I don't actually remember the dog, w- I have amnesia up until my birthday a year ago."
System- what an odd name- flipped open the book, and grimaced as his hair whipped around in the sudden breeze from the pages. Hermione wondered why, until she saw a small dark line on his head. Hardly daring to breathe, she asked, "Is that-"
"A lightning scar," he confirmed, wincing slightly as if caught stealing cookies. "I changed o- my name to System Baker after- I lost Harry's memory. My uncle and aunt by blood had apparently been abusing Harry for his accidental magic, and just left him to die. The doctors think he specifically wanted to get the Dursleys in prison, from the way he spoke on the phone."
During this speech, Hermione's eyes had grown wide and her mouth had dropped open, but she did note a few anomalies in his speech. For starters, he always referred to himself before his amnesia as a different person. From what she had read, this didn't happen often, unless the amnesiac didn't agree with his past self and consciously separated themselves.
His speech difficulty was far more of an enigma. He seemed to stumble on first person pronouns, starting with 'w-' before correcting himself with 'I', and it seemed to be the same with 'o-' and 'my'.
She couldn't think of any useful connections to make, and left it for now, vowing to research as soon as she was alone.
The silence lasted a while as both students perused their choice of book, Hermione glancing up incredulously every now and then at the NEWT level book on wandless magic that System had picked.
Eventually, however, the quiet was broken by the sliding of the door, which revealed a chubby, red-faced, pink haired boy who seemed embarrassed at something or other; Hermione didn't know what, but she could probably guess.
"Oh my stars, whatever happened to your hair?"
Hermione jumped at the strange mixture between male voice and feminine mannerisms that System had just used, and set about wondering just what was different now to twenty minutes ago, to change his... His everything, really. He was sitting in a way that would impress most royalty!
Suddenly he was back to a far more normal sitting position, pulling out his wand and waving it aimlessly at the newcomer's magenta hair as he went back to reading his book. Hermione was about to interrupt with a rant about the correct usage of wands, the need of incantations and the incredible danger that pointing a wand at a person could have, when a quiet pop sounded and the boy's hair became a bright blonde.
The bushy-haired future Gryffindor-or-perhaps-Ravenclaw gasped as she watched System throw the basic laws of magic out the window, while the new boy's jaw had dropped. "How did you do that?" she demanded more than asked, and System hunched over a little and blushed, obviously embarrassed.
"It wasn't much, I just-"
"-Broke about fifty laws of magic, I noticed," she exclaimed dryly.
The one-legged tween blanched, caught off-guard, and his mannerisms changed once again, back to shy-System. He huddled into the corner, obviously terrified at something. It took Hermione a moment to realise what that face was.
It was a face that she herself had once made- the face of someone singled out. Her teacher had always acted awkwardly when she had made that wide-eyed face back before year four in primary school, and she finally understood why as she attempted to reason out a new path for the conversation. As if by some miracle, the door slid open once more to reveal a pale, platinum haired boy, whose eyes searched around the compartment. The once magenta haired boy had unconsciously sat down as the door opened, but the pale boy had eyes only for System.
"Baker," he spat, tinged pink as the addressed smirked cockily back at him. "We meet again."
"What is this, a showdown between the hero of light and the dork lord of all?" System scoffed, and Hermione marvelled once more at his sudden attitude swap. The pale faced boy, for his part, pulled a smirk of his own onto his face, which now resembled strawberry ice cream in colour.
"Watch yourself, Baker. I didn't come here for you." He turned to face the other two, smirk still in place (though now the pink was slowly fading), and raised his voiced a little. "I heard that Harry Potter was on the train for his first year at Hogwarts."
System seemed to be trying incredibly hard to not burst out laughing. He managed it, too, for around three seconds, after which he broke out into hysterics, muttering something unintelligible under the gales of laughter. Hermione managed to make out a few words, like 'get' and 'out', before he stood up, still giggling like a maniac, and calmly pushed the pale faced boy back through the door, where the latter collapsed into a pair of rather large thugs. The platinum haired boy muttered a few curses and stalked off, the thugs following dilligently.
"Sorry about that," the remaining half of the conflict murmured, obviously unsure of himself. "W- I met that idiot in Diagon." He sniffed lightly in disdain, adopting that perfect posture again, and continued in a voice of mild disgust. "Draco Malfoy. Bullies his father, whom has a high standing in wizarding society, for privileges such as taking his own broomstick into first year. Also thinks lowly of those with 'impure blood', at least judging by the conversation we had." He turned towards the other boy in the compartment and asked, "I don't believe I caught your name before?"
"Ne-Neville Longbottom," the blonde stuttered, and sank further into the cushioned seat as Hermione, too, turned to face him.
Luckily, the door once again interrupted the awkwardness by sliding open, and a kind woman's voice asked, "Anything off the trolley, dears?"
System was instantly on his feet bouncing around like a madman as he inspected the goods in the most hyperactive way that was humanly possible. "I'll have..." He continued to glance around at the sweets, the savouries and the sours, before eventually yelling, "I can't decide!" He thrust a hand behind his back and pulled a wallet from nowhere, thrusting his hand inside and taking out a handful of Galleons. "I'll take eight of everything!"
Twenty six Galleons and a considerably lighter trolley later, System began passing one of each product out to his new friends, who still stared at him like he was crazy. He probably was, Hermione's brain told her. After all, he had just... changed, more than five times in the train journey. It was like he was six friends at once, instead of just the one.
Come to think of it, she should start categorising his different moods for the future. She began making a note of what she had seen.
1: Shy, afraid of being singled out, quiet, unwilling to draw attention to himself.
2: Generally cool and confident. Was reading NEWT level textbook. The mood I have seen using the most magic, can most likely perform wandless magic, and can perform wordless magic. Embarrassed when I acted amazed, possibly doesn't want to draw attention like 1?
3: Posh and proper, but seems to dislike pureblood supremacists. Fairly outspoken against people he dislikes. The most feminine mannerisms and vocabulary.
4: Confident when facing others. Seems to dislike Lord Voldemort, and unafraid to insult him. Outspoken and a little cocky. Possibly the closest mood to what the wizarding world expects of Harry Potter.
5: Hyperactive, bouncy and generally maniacal. Indecisive, liberal with money. Bought eight of each product for three people, seems to love sharing. Random and off the wall sense of humour. Seems to materialise objects from nowhere, similar to cartoon characters. Essentially a living cartoon character.
Having finished her list, Hermione turned to the gigantic pile of candies sitting next to her. A voice attracted her attention, and she sighed as she registered what it had said. "Aint y'all gonna eat that?"
Looked like she would need to write this down somewhere.
This took a while, what with Fenton PokePortal and other stuff, but I found it in me to continue. The next chapter will once again be in the System's POV.