Hagrid was waiting for them, the mountainous man clear, even in the bustling, curious crowd. From one oversized hand hung a bird cage containing a snoozing snowy owl who snoozed with her head tucked beneath his wing. In the other, curled up, was a cat, a tiny black cat.
As they approached Hagrid presented them proudly - birthday presents, he called them, even if Ichigo's was a fairly late one. He didn't mind the delay, he had nothing until then aside from a pair of socks that had not once belonged to his spoiled cousin. The kitten continued to doze as it was transferred smoothly from Hagrid's hand to Ichigo's arm, held tight to and supported by his chest.
In its sleep the kitten yawned, wriggling and pulling itself inwards, snuggling into the copious amount of extra fabric that made Ichigo's t-shirt. Through the old, worn fabric he could feel minute claws like barely-there pinpricks.
Harry just stared at the caged owl he now held in complete awe. The sleeping bird was a sight he seldom saw. Careful not to jolt the cage as he walked, he followed behind Hagrid taking long, smooth, prolonged paces to stay as close as he dare to the hulking form of the wizard.
"Toads are ou' a fashion," Hagrid began "Owls are the mos' practical. I'm not much for cats typically either," He admitted "Bu' somethin' abou' that' one made me pick it." A giant arm flailed backwards towards the kitten that was beginning to stir.
Round eyes flittered open tiredly, dark and unlike any others Ichigo had ever seen in the face of a cat. They were too big for the face they sat in, sparkling brightly in the daylight, looking right at Ichigo with almost human intelligence to them.
"Yeah," he agreed dumbly "Something."
The Dursley's seemed to treat them more like outsiders than ever, turning the house into a prison and their room into a cell. They preferred the cell to the grounds, the confined safety to the 'freedom' in which they were targets to the wardens.
Hedwig, for that was what harry had chosen to call his owl after reading it in a book, had been confined to her cage for days and was growing exponentially more restless the longer she was trapped. They had tried to limit the movement of Ichigo's kitten as well, to no avail. The tiny creature found escape routes from everywhere and, even if he didn't often seem to want to leave Ichigo's side, would do the same when he returned, showing up out of nowhere without warning.
The kitten had been named Kaidah after a while, once name after name had been considered by the orange-haired youth before, ultimately, being rejected. Ichigo hadn't offered an explanation, he didn't have one himself, it just seemed right.
It was like the very human though not very normal - their wishes for life had simply not come to fruition - Dursleys' were walking on eggshells around them both even if they knew they could win in any battle, that the boys knew not what they were doing when exposed to the new world they had suddenly been pulled right into.
At last, the day came when they would be allowed temporary leave from the house that was no home to either of them: it was a day of joy for two young wizards who were still hesitant to consider themselves as such.
Vernon had only agreed to take them to the station as he would be in London that day anyway, getting Dudley's unsightly and unusual pigtail removed before he began his first term at his new, pretentious school.
The station, like the rest of London, was full of more people than it was surely intended to hold. Harry couldn't help but fear someone would be shoved, perhaps by another person's desire not to be late, onto the tracks.
He looked at his ticket, at his cousin, at the numbers that labelled the platform before repeating the cycle
9 ¾.
9 ¾.
9 ¾.
But, no matter how long or hard he searched, scoured the station, he could find nothing. There was no platform between nine and ten.
The raucous chorus of the crowd made each dialect and conversation almost indistinguishable from the next, worsened by the screeching and squealing, the mechanics of the trains.
Harry was about to ask a man who clearly worked at the station the location of the mysterious platform but was soon halted by his much taller cousin grasping him by the shoulder and entirely preventing him from moving any further.
"Don't be stupid." He warned "Do you really think he's going to know anything about this platform, the one that a wizarding train departs from?"
"I suppose you're right." he conceded "But what do we do then?"
Ichigo paused, unable to fish an answer from anywhere. At least, until one word, after a train had left with a substantial amount of people piled onto it, seemed to pierce through the previously impenetrable crowd that stood between him and the speaker.
"As always, full of muggles."
Hagrid had said that before: "Muggles" - surely it was not possible one outside of the seemingly tight-knit, exclusive wizarding community would find familiarity in, let alone use, the term.
Green eyes met brown for a moment and, in unspoken communication, it was decided they would approach the speakers, a large family of redheads carting trolleys as highly piled as their own.
And, God, were those trolleys hard to manoeuvre through the bustle! They were heavy and, due to the way the items that formed their luggage (including small, temporary cages containing animals) were precariously stacked atop one another, a liability to topple.
Thankfully, by some miracle, they did not.
They reached the red headed family safely. Harry smiled slightly as he glanced from his cousin to the family. He glanced from orange to ginger, orange to ginger, orange to ginger. Really, as similar as, had he not known Ichigo, he would have considered them, they really were wildly different.
The two cousins moved at the same time, approaching the kindly, motherly-looking woman.
They spoke for a moment before she smiled down at them and her youngest son, the same age as themselves.
"It's Ron's first year, too." She seemed to be completely unbothered by them being there, even with the numerous children she had herself, introducing them to him kindly before sending them all through the barrier.
Harry watched as the first redhead ran at the solid-looking column that divided platforms nine and ten, sure he was going to go barrelling into the unforgiving surface, his trolley spinning out of control, sending the owl upon it into a flurry of squawking and feathers as the spill of luggage took don passersby.
He didn't even look away to see Ichigo next to him, looking far too casual with the strange as he always seemed to. The scowl had not shifted by any fraction of an inch.
To his surprise, the boy, Harry believed he was called Percy, continued running straight through the column like it was made of fluid, melting around him, shimmering slightly and reforming after he passed through.
The next to go was the first of a pair of twins. They had played a slight trick on their mother before departing, leaving with grins on their identical, and they were, down to the very last detail, faces, the woman tutting through smile as she shook her head, gently shielding her eyes with a pale, freckled hand.
But then it was their turn and Harry felt the wonder that had accumulated in his gut melt away, revealing the dread and fear that resided underneath uncovered. He could feel his stomach fluttering; he could see his hands shaking as they clasped the trolley tightly, knuckles white.
Harry wasn't sure whether it was because he had realised his cousin's state or just because he decided he was going first, but ichigo went before him. There was no hesitation in the taller boy's lengthy strides.
For the first time, s he neared the platform, harry squeezed his eyes shut tight, choosing to watch the colourful light show dance across the black background rather than his cousin go crashing into brick.
But that did not happen.
Harry prised his eyes open as he felt a hand lightly place itself on his shoulder. The motherly woman was smiling at him, urging him to follow her own children and the one relative of his he actually liked, even if he had not known he existed until two years before.
He ran as fast as he dared on shaking legs that felt as though they belonged to someone else. The trolley before him wavered, moving slightly from right to left a he planted the opposing foot on the floor.
One foot in front of the other, he went sailing through what he still was not convinced was not an entirely solid, normal, mundane platform divider.
He felt like he was dreaming, perhaps even comatose - more so than ever - as the busy, dirty, loud, perfectly ordinary platform melded into one that made him feel, truly, for the first time, as though he had been immersed, without warning, into a universe entirely foreign to him.
At least he thought as he le out the air he had not been aware he was storing prolongedly in his lungs We made it in time to catch the train.
Thick smoke billowed through the air as the old-timey steam engine launched into action. It was accompanied by a shrill whistle that seemed to be just as outdated.
With that whistle came a barrage of footsteps as families rushed to the sides of the train and the latest of the children ran in. Harry and Ichigo, with no one to bid farewell to, ran straight in, finding themselves seats.
Ron, on the other hand, was stuck outside as his mother tried diligently to remove a smudge from his nose that, just as diligently, remained in place.
"Mum! Geroff!"
A/N after such a long time giving you such a short chapter seems unfair…
I'm sorry!
Also, if you can't tell, I really hate London and trains are not my friend either, especially trains going to London. You know what? Busy places and public transport do not like me and I do not like them, especially when the two are paired. I did plan to have this sorted and up a couple of days ago but I was too ill to refine my draft (thank you jabs[!]).
Anyway… Thanks to everyone who has read, followed, favorited and reviewed. As always, if there's anything you want to ask or say or whatever, leave it in a review or PM me if you'd rather .
Someone pointed out to me that there was an inconsistency in Kaidah's name, so I went back and fixed it. Thank you Phoenix-Rose-Black.
See you next time,
~We'reAllABitOdd
