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Disclaimer: If we really owned Harry Potter and/or One Piece, we probably wouldn't be making a weird AU fanfiction, but rather try to integrate our ideas into canon. But since we are here writing fanfiction… well. We're not getting rich anytime soon.
Warnings: Garp is present and that means cursing, implied dip in the Thames(those tends to not end well)
Chapter 6 - Brits and their bricks
Having put aside an entire week for shopping and introducing Luffy to the wizarding world, Garp had thought that they had plenty of time on their hands and that he would have had a hard time keeping Luffy (and himself) entertained. Alas, he had been wrong; except for the frog and the wand that they had acquired on their first day in Diagon Alley, they hadn't been able to buy anything else on the list until yesterday. A dip in the Thames, a trip to the movies and an upset Madam Malkin had resulted in a catastrophic week for the duo, which in turn resulted in them being seriously delayed on the day of departure and now they were running up and down through Kings Cross' station, trying to find platform 9 ¾ , or at least Garp was.
He had no clue what Luffy was up to, he was just pleased that the kid was still present and hadn't scampered off again; a habit that seemed to have become even worse during this trip than it usually was.
With ten minutes left until the train leaves the platform Garp started to sweat nervously; the longer it took to put Luffy on that train, the bigger the risk that the kid would realise that if Ace also went to Hogwarts, he should be present. Which he was not. Meaning that this was where shit got dangerous and had to be dealt with delicately.
Coming to a halt, Garp looked between the two platforms 9 and 10. There was nothing there except for a solid brick wall. No platform, no train. Garp gritted his teeth. If he just managed to get the brat on the train, then someone else would have to deal with the fall out.
The blank slot of wall almost seemed to be mocking him.
Turning around, all he could see was the station hall, no platforms in sight; especially not three-quartered ones. Turning back around, Garp looked between platforms 9 and 10. The blank slot of brick wall seemed to glare back at him.
Suddenly a small family of four - three kids and a woman, all with bright orange hair - made their way across the station, dragging three trunks and a rat in a cage with them, not doing a very good job of blending in with the crowd around them.
Keeping his eye trained on them, he watched as they paired up and walked through the wall. Crap did he feel stupid. Of course they had hid the platform. Fucking brits, hiding their platforms behind bricks. The entire city was made of the damn things.
"Come on kid, let's get going," Garp muttered, giving a nod in the general direction he wanted Luffy to walk in. The kid came along easily - getting him that frog had been a good decision after all. If he hadn't, Garp probably would have lost him to boredom by now, but as it was Luffy was content to just hold on to Balão. As long as Garp got him on that train, then all of this - dragging his trunk and carrying the terrarium - would have been worth it.
"Uh gramps, are you sure you know where we are headed?" Luffy asked, a fair question since they're heading straight for a wall.
"To platform 9 ¾ of course!" Garp bellowed confidently, rather satisfied over having figured out the brits' system of concealment by himself.
Luffy just stared at him, unimpressed, but decides not to question it; there's no point anyway. What Garp wanted you to do, you do.
Upon reaching the wall, Garp got ready to stop himself if he was wrong about being able to just walk through the wall.
Luffy however had no such reservations and walked straight through it, to his surprise. He almost causes Garp to crash into his back as he stops in his tracks to take in the view of the shining red Hogwarts Express billowing steam all over the station. He noticeably gapes at the mystical cats in every colour who are walking in and out of the stream of people, independent of their owners, as well as the people there. Garp always thought the brits were weird, and the fashions displayed on that platform just went to prove his point; tall figures dressed in stars and short people dressed in smoky greens come and go. Kids dressed in normal clothes or robes like the one Luffy is wearing are all over the place and the kid smiles a smile so huge that the people walking past him just have to smile too.
"Let's get you on that train, huh kid?" Garp said as he stepped around Luffy and started herding him away from the entrance so that no one else would trip over him. Eyeing the train in question, he had to admit that he was rather impressed by it despite himself.
"That's the Hogwarts express?!" Luffy exclaimed joyously.
The excitement made Luffy almost tremble in place, and before he could start wondering over why Ace never mentioned a train like this to him, Garp says hurriedly:
"Yeah kid, it is, now get moving or it's going to leave the platform!" And starts walking along the train, trying to find a less cramped area.
They end up almost walking down 'til the very end of the train before Garp deemed it unpopulated enough for Luffy to enter, throwing the trunk into the compartment before hoisting Luffy up on the train, too, and gets ready to tell his goodbyes. This had all gone better than expected; no realisation that he would be attending a different school than Ace, no catastrophes of epic proportions and no new (bodily) scars.
"Gramps, where is Ace?" Luffy asked seriously.
"Oh god." Garp groaned. "Eeh," he hesitated before continuing hurriedly: "Bye kid, love you, see you at Christmas!" and turned around, quickly heading off into the crowd.
"GRAMPS!" Luffy shouted in an impressive imitation of his own bellowing.
Oooooo
Having settled down for the trip, Luffy sat on the stuffed red seats of his compartment, kicking his legs and letting the consistent banging calm his raging feelings. He was still quite caught up in disbelief that his grandfather had tricked him into coming all this way, and for what? Ace wasn't even here! Also, what was even up with this place? Everyone had funny dialects and it was all grey and foggy all the time. No place for sunshine and sandals in this dull country.
"The only good thing is you, Balão." Luffy told the frog. In reply Balão changes his colours from purple body, black neck and blue face to brown body, blue face and a pink spot on the head. Smiling a bit at his only friend on this side of the world, Luffy calms down a bit.
"Is there an open seat in here?" A timid voice suddenly asks, its owner holding the compartment door open a few inches - just enough to peek inside carefully.
"Huh? Uh yes, you can take whichever." Luffy said, surprised that someone still wasn't seated. The kid is dressed in robes just like Luffy, but the hat is somewhere else; perhaps it will not stay still on the kid's curly hair?
"Great!" The kid in robes takes a seat across from Luffy and gives him a shaky smile, then casually adds: "Cool frog you have there."
"Thanks! His name is Balão and he can fly!" Luffy exclaims.
"Really?" the kid almost yells, clearly impressed by Luffy's frog.
"No, it's more like floating really." Luffy admits, he does not want this stranger to believe him to be a liar after all.
"Huh." the kid said and that's that for the moment. For a while they just sit there, Luffy swinging his legs with Balão in his hands and the other kid awkwardly switching between looking at Luffy, the frog and out the window.
"I'm Luffy by the way," Luffy introduces himself and the other kid jerks at being spoken to again so suddenly, but smiles nonetheless.
"I'm Usopp Yadav, and I know all there is to know about Hogwarts!" Usopp eagerly states.
"That's nice, I guess," Luffy said before looking out the window, petting Balãos head, completely uninterested in knowing more about the school he's about to attend without Ace. Just thinking about the school makes Luffy moody again, and soon he's forgotten about the kid across from him and is lulled to sleep by the rhythmic swaying of the train.
When he wakes up again, it's dark outside the window and the train carriage is lighted up by what seems like gas lamps. The beautiful red seats and the carpeted floor is covered in candy wrappers now. Most of them are wrappers that Luffy has never seen before, some of the foil that's been wrapped around the candy seems to be crackling and some of the boxes have moving pictures. He briefly wonders where it all came from, but does not dwell on it.
It seems like the Usopp kid has left the compartment, as there is no sign of the kid. That does not mean that Luffy is alone, though. Blinking sleep from his eyes, he studies the three kids sitting across from him. It looks rather cramped to be three on one side, but who is he to question other people's seating habits?
"Hi," He said, straightening up and really taking in their appearances. One of the kids makes a particularly striking impression and Luffy can't help what slips out next; "Onion?"
"Are you talking to me?" The kid with stripey blonde hair cut in a bowl cut looks a bit shocked before answering, but he does, because truthfully his hair does make him look a bit like an onion.
"I guess," Luffy replied a bit disinterestedly, still apathetic from his realisation that he's attending the wrong school. Instead of continuing the conversation he instigated, he studies the other two kids, who are wearing rather weird hats. The kid with orange hair wears a hat with a green tassel and the other wears a somewhat helmet shaped hat. The end result is that they end up looking like a carrot and a green pepper, respectively. Luffy stares blankly at all three of them for a few seconds before bursting out into laughter. They all look like vegetables!
"You guys look just like a carrot and a pepper! That's great!" Luffy said, smiling broadly at the kids, bad mood forgotten. Nervously the kids laugh a bit too; all four may be the same age, but somehow Luffy has taken the lead in the conversation just a few seconds after waking up.
"Can I call you guys Onion, Carrot and Pepper? I'm not very good with names:" Luffy said as if it was a question, but there's not really any choice in the matter. He gives them a bright smile and they readily agree without really considering just what it is that they are agreeing to.
"Uhm, what's your name then?" The kid dubbed Onion asked Luffy.
"I'm Luffy, nice to meet you!" Said Luffy and gives another bright smile before asking; "So do you guys know when we'll arrive?"
"Actually, you can see the castle through the window right now," The kid with orange hair, dubbed Carrot, said, pointing at something outside the train.
Luffy immediately faces the window and indeed, there it is; across the mist covered lake rises a castle like nothing Luffy could have imagined. It's huge and yellow light shines out of the hundreds of windows, reflecting off the water and the mist. Moving Balão from his shoulder to his lap, Luffy sits frozen in his seat for all of five seconds before he starts trembling from excitement.
"It's amazing, isn't it?" Onion said politely, clearly acting as the conversationalist for the three boys.
"Amazing? Heck, it's FANTASTIC!" Luffy exclaims loudly, making Balão croak upsettedly in protest. Petting his frog reassuringly, Balão quites down a bit. The four students smile excitedly at each other just as an older student comes into their compartment and informs them that they will arrive at Hogsmeade station in about five minutes. As the train keeps moving, the lake and the castle vanishes from sight.