Ok, here's chapter 10. It's a pretty short chapter but, I did get it in pretty early. I hope to have chapter 11, in which Volemort makes his first appearance, up by Sunday at the latest.

Thanks again to Ashere for contributing her knowledge of the German language! Taschenspielertrick is rather nifty word.

Chapter 10: The Pilgrimage

Harry stood on platform 9 3/4 and wondered why. He had flooed from Hogsmeade to King's Cross, to wait for a train that would take him right back to Hogsmeade. Mrs. Sleuw, while she had been fluttering about the kitchen making him a particularly large breakfast, had said it was a tradition. He personally thought it was a tradition he could do without.

The train station was thick with families and cats. A meaningless roar of voices punctuated by shouting and baby cries and owl shrieks and mewing. While Harry did have the benefit of leaving his luggage at Hogwarts, he had to remain constantly alert unless he was knocked by someone else's. He had intended to stay outside the train until he could meet up with Hermione, but the ruckus was getting bad enough that he started to worrying about injury. He squeezed passed a cluster of redheads and managed to board the train with only a bruised knee and a banged elbow.

Inside was chaotic, but not nearly as much as outside. The hallway was jammed with students dragging their trunks, broomsticks, and animal carriers as they searched for empty compartments or friends. Harry ducked into the first empty compartment he could find and kept the door open incase some of his friends should pass by. He made himself comfortable and stared out the windows at the menagerie of people talking, crying, hugging, and kissing. For a while Harry could imagine his mother and father out there, waving at him in the window.

"Harry!"

He turned to the door to see Hermione smiling at him. Behind her stood a boy with the palest blond hair he had ever seen. He recognized him immediately as Hermione's foster brother, Draco.

"Hermione, I was wondering when you would show up. I would have thought you would be the very first person to arrive."

"And I likely would have, but Draco kept dragging his feet this morning," she said, glaring half heartedly at her non-repentant sibling.

"You woke me up at 5 o'clock in the morning. Five," was all he said to that. He turned his cool, grey eyes towards Harry, taking in his modest clothes and wild hair. Harry could just barely detect the hint of a sneer he had no doubt learned from his godfather. After a moment, he held out his hand. "Draco Malfoy of the Malfoy family."

"Harry Potter." They shook, both perhaps a little tighter than was polite.

"Hermione!" someone called, distracting the girl. As she turned away, Draco stepped into the compartment and up close to Harry so he could speak softly into his ear.

"I don't know what impression my sister gave you over the summer, but don't think for a moment you have a chance with her. She's a Malfoy, and I won't have her name dragged through the mud by hanging out with muggleborn riff-raff. So you either turn out very impressive or don't turn up at all. Do we understand each other?"

Before he could respond, Draco moved away and took Hermione by the arm. "Come on, sister-dear. You can catch up with Harry later. You have other friends you haven't seen all summer on board."

Hermione threw him an apologetic look, but dutifully followed her brother down the hall. Harry just watched them disappear, blinking stupidly. Had he just been threatened by Hermione's 'sweet and charming' older brother? She had mentioned that he was a little over protective, but egad! He felt inexplicable torn from wanting to throttle the other boy to admiring him. Certainly, Harry didn't think he had enough confidence to go around threatening people for the sake of Hermione's honor.

Had he learned that from Snape too? Bloody hell, what had Hermione learned from the overgrown bat?

"Harry!" Clyde stood in the doorway grinning at him. He was flanked by twin red heads, who were looking more than a little mischievous. "Mind if we sit with you? The rest of the compartments are getting full."

"Sure, I could use the company."

"Oh, now, this-" started one of the twins, sliding inside.

"Must be, the illustrious-" continued the other.

"The infamous-"

"The indomitable-"

"Harry Potter," they finished in unison. Harry smiled.

"What have you been telling them about me, Clyde?"

The twins grinned at each other, and Clyde turned pink around the ears.

"Oh, we've heard quite a bit. Heard you were a real ladies' man."

"The two prettiest girls in the class are after you."

"And one a Malfoy, no less!"

"You player!" they said again in unison. At this Harry turned pink and turned a glare at Clyde, who was looking a bit sheepish.

"Ignore them!" he said, "They just like to tease everyone!"

It wasn't long before the train whistle blew and the train began to move, pulling away from the station and the horde of people waving goodbye. The twins and Clyde both waved to some people in the crowd.

"And if you don't mind me asking," Harry said, as they all settled in. "Who are you two?"

Both twins shared a sad sigh, as they gave mock disappointed looks at Clyde.

"You mean Clydiekins hasn't mentioned us?"

"I was trying to forget about your entire existence."

"I am Fred-"

"And I am George-"

"Don't believe them! It's probably the other way around!"

"Weasley of the Houghton family. We're Clydiekin's uncles."

"Uncles?" Frankly, Harry wasn't sure how that was possible. The twins only look a year or two older than Clyde.

"Yes, his uncles. It's a rather interesting story," said the boy who introduced himself as Fred (and probably lied).

"You see, our sweet nephew here has a muggle mummy-"

"And a wizard daddy, who alas-"

"Didn't make it through the war. So his mummy hid him away-"

"Until he was six-"

"And did a bit of accidental magic. Then in swoops WYRA. But it's learned that our dear sweet nephew, has living wizarding grandparents-"

"Who quickly take custody of their grandson, but not before adopting George and I-"

"I thought you said you were George," Harry pointed out.

"Semantics. Hush! Anyway, since we're the Houghton's adopted kids, and Clyde is their grandson..."

"You're his uncles. I get it," Harry said and sighed. "Jeesh. And I thought I had family drama issues."

"There you two are!" Another redhead entered the compartment. While Harry could easily see the family resemblances, the boy's demeanor couldn't have been more different from the others. He looked rather prim and proper, without a hint of humor.

"Percival! You old dog. What have you been up to?" asked Fred- or George- as they both rose to wrap him in their arms. 'Percival' tensed up and, as soon as they released him, checked his persons for any tricks they may have played. He was rather quick to find the sign on his back and the exploding ink cap in his pocket.

"Yes, yes. Nice to see you too," he muttered, then looked back, "I found them, Ronald."

Yet another redhead appeared in the doorway, the same age as Harry, and looking a bit timid. This was not helped by the fact that his much taller brothers, immediately began cooing over him like he was an adorable infant.

"Oh, I remember when you were just this tall! You used to take off your clothes and run around the house naked! Mum and dad would run after you, picking up your nappies as they went!"

"I was three!"

"Oh, but look at how tall you've grown! The photographs just don't do you justice! Did you see mum when you came on?"

Here the other boy smiled a bit.

"Yeah. Ginny too."

"Little nymph, isn't she? We'll be beating the boys off her next year!"

It suddenly occurred to Harry that not only were there a lot of Weasley's, but none of them apparently lived together. Harry, who had never had siblings, had a hard time imagining that many children in a single home (WYRA didn't count. They cheated with spells) and yet even more problems imagining so many related children in different homes.

"Oh now, Ronniekins, this is your nephew Clydiekins and his friend Harry Potter. They took those wretched wizarding culture classes this summer. If you have any questions, you can ask them!"

"Yeah, if you want to know about the outside of the castle," Clyde groused. "The entire school is closed off during the summer. Something to do with re-warding the castle."

"You're muggleborns?" Ron asked, looking suddenly hesitant.

"Technically, I'm half and half," Clyde said. "Harry on the other hand, is a muggleborn, I think. German raised too. Go ahead, spout something off in German!"

"Das ist kein Taschenspielertrick, du Idiot!" he said, rolling his eyes.

"Ooooohhhh..." the twins said in unison. "Brilliant!"

Ron, however, didn't look like he agreed. His expression darkened, his jaw set. Harry, who was becoming well versed in spontaneous animosity being directed at him, didn't even bother wondering why. He met the other boy's gaze openly, daring him to spit out exactly what he was thinking. When the boy said nothing, Harry stood. Ron moved back abruptly, posturing as if he was expecting a fight.

"There's not a lot of room in here," Harry said. "You guys are family, and should sit together. I'll go find another compartment."

"Ah! Don't let Ron's attitude scare you off! He's just got family issues of a different kind!" George said.

"Yeah! You can sit in my lap!" offered Fred, patting his leg in invitation.

"Was that suppose to encourage him so stay?" Clyde asked.

Shaking his head, he shuffled passed Ron, who made it a point to avoid touching him and glared as he walked away. Once he was outside, the door was slammed behind him and Harry flashed the door a rather uncouth gesture. He wandered up and down the hall, but it seemed all the compartments were either filled with strangers or older students. He was almost ready to give up and return to the Weasley's compartment, when one opened and he was pulled inside.

"Natalie! I didn't even see you get on," Harry said, smiling at her. She gave him her patented wry smile. The compartment was even more full than the Weasley's, this time with people he recognized from summer school. Someone had left a trunk on the floor for extra seating and he perched himself there..

"I'm surprised you're even on board. Isn't it kind of silly making you take the train?"

Harry just shrugged.

"And why isn't Hermione with you? You're normally inseparable," the blonde girl said, not without a little bitterness.

"She's sitting with her brother and their friends. Clyde's sitting with the Weasley brothers. Did you know there were so many?"

"Ha! They've got two more brothers out of school and a little sister who starts next year. They're a family of bloody rabbits."

Everyone laughed at that, and Harry smiled weakly.

"What is the deal with that anyway? I got the impression that they don't live together, but I know they're not muggleborns or halfblood or Ron would have been in summer lessons, right?"

"Oh, now that's a bit of a scandal," said Westfield, grinning. Natalie nodded in agreement.

"I used to go to primary school with Ron. He was ok when I first met him," began Natalie. "But then there was this big scandal with his father. Something about muggle contraband. You know, nothing that would be that big of a deal except it was like his fiftieth violation or something. Apparently, he'd pissed off some of the Wizengamot, and they complained to You-Know-Who, who had him thrown in Azkaban."

Harry shivered at the thought. They had learned about Azkaban in summer school. A miserably stormy isle, designated a maximum security prison, with soul-sucking wraiths known as Dementors set as guards. That anyone, for any reason, should be sent there had struck him as beyond cruel.

"After that, Ron turned into an utter bigot. Their mother, poor thing, was a house wife- what else could she be with that many children needing her?- and couldn't find work with enough pay to support them all and still take care of the baby girl's needs. WYRA ended up stepping in and taking all her kids except the daughter, and had them divided up and sent to other homes. I guess I can understand him being bitter, but he's turned into such a rotter. One day he's going to start a fight with the wrong muggleborn, and I can't wait to see it happen."

Now Harry could see the twisted logic in hating muggleborns. After all, since they were all completely isolated from muggles, muggleborns were the next best thing. However, he couldn't condone it and wouldn't tolerate it. His father used to say the men who bow to injustice and cruelty only welcome more of it onto themselves. His mother used to say no one had the right to make anyone feel like they were born inferior. If Ron came after him or Hermione or any of his friends, then he was determined Natalie would see that prophesied fight.

They went on to talk about the coming school year, about the past summer, of birthdays, and holidays, Quidditch and fashion, traveling and weather. They played exploding snaps, poker, and wizarding chess. The ate too much junk food, and they all started Harry his first collection of chocolate frog cards. He got Helga Hufflepuff, Bellatrix Lestrange, Bartolome Suigi, Horace Slugworth, and Hedwig Vance.

By the time their arrival at Hogsmeade was announced, Harry was glad he had taken the train after all.

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1. 'It's not a parlor trick, you idiot!' Actually, 'Traschenspielertrick' means prestidigitation, an uncommon word in America (can't speak for other English-speaking countries) but according to Ashere a fairly common word in German.

Author's note:

No, I'm not a Ron-basher. Like his brothers said, he's got issues, which unfortunately manifest themselves in bigotry. Will he be Harry's new arch nemesis in place of Draco? No, frankly I don't think he's savvy enough for that. Besides, Draco's just showed us a bit of arrogance and animosity we all know and love from Rowling's books. You'll just have to wait and see how it goes.