Chapter 9. Train to Hogwarts

It was morning of 31st August and Harry would be leaving for King's Cross in half an hour. Windy had already packed his belongings in his newly acquired trunk.

He had woken up today, to the aroma of rich coffee wafting through his nose. After brushing his teeth and taking a shower, he had came down to the kitchen to have his breakfast.

Bload had gone an extra mile, these last few days. His cooking had became even more delicious, which Harry had not thought possible.

This past month had been a difficult one for Harry.

It had all started when after some laborious hours of thinking, he had finally decided upon the way he will deceive the sorting hat. It was pretty simple in fact. Harry had decided to built an occlumency wall around his memories of future and any other memories he had that would give sorting hat an idea of sorting him in any other house. When he had finally separated his future memories from his past one, he had started searching for those memories that had given sorting hat the idea of putting him in Slytherin last time. It was after he had searched for them in vain for a long time, he realised something.

To confirm his suspicions Harry had conjured a snake. After listening to the snake for a minute he had gotten rid of it. He had sat down heavily on his bed when he realised the implications of his discovery.

Harry was suddenly feeling all numb. He sat still, staring into space for quite some time. After the initial surprise had passed, Harry tried to think about his predicament and how he will solve it.

After a few days of brooding and thinking, he had finally decided upon a course of action. He will not destroy the horcruxes for now. He would let the time pass as it had before, till his fourth year. Just before the third task he would destroy all of the horcruxes and then by sacrificing himself in the graveyard he will make Voldemort mortal again. If he woke up again, then good and if not, then at least he had lived his life. It wasn't as if he was dying a virgin like last time.

Meanwhile for these four years he would continue living as he had, since he came back to the past.

After that problem was solved or as solved as it could be, Harry continued towards solving the iminent problem of sorting hat.

He had worked on only hiding his future memories while projecting his past ones. In this way the sorting hat will hopefully sort him in Gryffindor looking at his surface memories only, while remaining blissfully unaware about his future memories.

After making sure he had everything he needed, Harry said his goodbyes to the elves, donned his cap and left his home at ten fifteen. It took him around five minutes to reach King's Cross Station. He had let Hedwig fly to Hogwarts so that she was not cooped in a cage all day.

After reaching the station, Harry made his way towards platform nine and three quarters. He didn't see Neville anywhere so decided to make his way towards the compartment he would be sitting. He had already decided that the best place for him, would be with the Weasley twins.

Harry went down the platform looking for a boy with dreadlocks. He finally saw Lee sitting beside the window in an empty compartment. Harry opened the door to the compartment and went in. Lee Jordan who was a third year boy and a friend of the Weasley twins was sitting with a box in his hand.

"Hello, can I sit here," Harry asked Lee. "Yeah, sure. Need any help with the trunk."

After Lee had helped Harry with his trunk and they had both sat down, Lee took the box in his hand again. Harry who already knew what was in the box, wasn't surprised when Lee opened the lid and a long and hairy leg poked out. Lee was visibly surprised when Harry didn't react the way Lee thought he would.

"So what's your name kid," asked Lee. Just then Harry who had been looking outside the window, saw Neville waving at him. He was coming towards Harry with his parents and grandmother in tow.

"Hi Harry," Neville greeted him opening the carriage door. "Hi Neville, how are you?" Harry replied to him while helping Neville with his trunk. "I will come back when the train is ready to leave, okay." Neville ran back to his parents without waiting for a reply.

"So what have you got there Lee," Harry said breaking the silence which had fallen since Neville had left.

"It's a Tarantula," he told Harry. "They are large, hairy spiders and venomous."

"I didn't know that we were allowed to have Tarantula as pets?" Harry questioned him. He really wanted to know why Ron was allowed a rat and why Lee brought a Tarantula.

"He is not my pet, I just got him from my uncle who bought it from Knockturn alley as a gift for me. And since I couldn't have left it at home, I thought I would leave it at Hogwarts near forbidden forest," Lee explained to Harry.

"So, do you have any more scary pets at home," Harry asked genuinely curious.

Just then the door to the compartment opened and, Angelina and Alicia walked inside.

"Hi Lee," they both chorused. "And who is this young man here," Alicia asked. "He is Harry," Lee said before Harry could even open his mouth to answer. "Hey, I have got a giant tarantula here." Lee opened the lid to let them see the arachnid. "My uncle gifted it to me," Lee told them before they could ask any questions.

"It's poisonous," Harry told Angelina, who had extended her hand forward to pet the tarantula.

Angelina scooted over to the other end of seat from Lee. "Don't worry their venom only kills rats or mice. They are harmless to us." Lee told her. Lee closed the lid of the box seeing the look in Angelina's eyes, who was glaring at him.

"So you are a first year?" Alicia asked turning towards Harry. "Yes". "Why are you wearing that cap," Angelina asked leaning towards him. "To hide my identity," Harry replied. The three seniors chuckled at this and Lee told Harry in a patronizing voice, "You wear a mask to hide your identity, not a cap."

"My forehead is pretty famous," Harry said while removing his cap. "You know you never listened to my full name before,it's Harry Potter."

The other three were staring in disbelief at Harry's forehead. The silence in the compartment after this revelation was broken by Neville, opening the compartment. "Hi," Neville said then promptly sat down near the window beside Harry. He was shouting his final goodbyes to his family.

Harry also waved to Frank and Alice. Neville didn't stopped waving till the train hadn't passed the bed in the track.

Seeing Neville, sitting down with his shoulders slumped and looking morose, Harry put his hand on his shoulder, and said, "You'll see them at christmas."

Alicia also added, "It's just three months kid, don't worry."

The door to the compartment opened suddenly and the Weasley twins walked in.

"Lee, how are you our dear friend?" one of them said . "Hello Alicia, Hello Angelina," they both said, bowing to each of the ladies.

They turned and sat down between Lee and Angelina. "Lee, where is the giant tarantula we have been hearing so much about."

After the twins had examined the tarantula, to their pleasure, they turned towards Harry and Neville.

"He is," said the first twin. "Aren't you?" he added to Harry.

"What?" said Harry.

"Harry Potter," chorused the twins. "Yes" said Harry.

The two gawked at him. One of them was kneed in the kidneys and the other one was kicked in the shins to stop their gawking.

"Oh Hi, How rude of us. I am Fred and he is my twin George Weasley." " I thought we were Gred and Forge today," the other twin said.

After all the introductions had been made, amid the jokes of the twins, Harry and Neville started talking about how much Neville has studied and prepared for the school.

The third years were talking animatedly about their summer.

They had all reacted the way he imagined they would when they heard his name. At Least they had moved away from the conversation about his scar.

Fred and George were making jokes on the expense of Alicia and Angelina while Lee would revert back to his tarantula tactic from time to time.

"Anything off the cart dears," a smiling dimpled woman asked them, opening the door of the compartment. Harry had quickly stood up and said, "My treat every one." There were protests all around but Harry had already purchase 2 packets of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour beans and chocolate frogs and seven of everything else.

"You didn't had to do that you know," said Angelina with a guilty expression on her face. "Yeah we could have paid for it," one of the twins added. "And you didn't have to buy so much," Lee further added.

"Listen guys, I didn't do that because you couldn't pay for it. I did it because I felt like doing it," Harry said while shrugging his shoulders. Harry picked up a cauldron cake and started eating. He also handed one to Neville, who also started eating after saying, "Next time I will pay," after that they all started in on the food.

Fred and George had opened a packet of Bertie Bott's and started eating it, commenting loudly the taste of the bean they had eaten.

"Grass. Eh"

"Lemon"

"Mint"

"Argh! Earwax"

"How do you knew it was earwax. Have you ever eaten Earwax before."

Soon everyone else also started on them. When Harry started feeling thirsty, he opened the second compartment of his trunk and brought out two bottles of butterbeer from it. Everyone else was looking astonished seeing about two dozen bottles of cool butterbeer in the trunk. Harry gave one to Neville and told the others to help themselves.

Soon everyone was drinking butter beer and eating pumpkin pasties.

After they had all eaten and drank their fill, Fred and George started regaling Harry and Neville about their Hogwarts adventures and how they had defeated a troll to get sorted into Gryffindor. Neville had gone pale hearing this while Harry was thinking 'if it only was this easy'.

Soon they were all changing into their robes and were getting out at Hogsmeade station.

Harry was overjoyed to see Hagrid, and turned to say goodbye to others.

"We will see you both at the feast," one of the twins commented.

Harry and Neville followed Hagrid and other first years to the lake.

"Yeh'll get your firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," Hagrid said to them, " jus' round this bend here."

There was a loud "ohhhhh". Perched atop a high mountain, it's window's sparkling in the sky, with many turrets and towers was Hogwarts. Harry had forgotten how majestic the castle looked. They had never been able to recreate the castle after the war as many enchantment which had been used in construction of the school were forgotten.

"No more than four to a boat," Hagrid's voice called out. Harry and Neville made their way to a boat.

They were joined by the Patil twins. After they had introduced themselves to each other and the usual hysterics after hearing his name were over, they enjoyed their ride in silence. They all were feeling too nervous to hold a meaningful conversation. Soon they reached the underground harbour, where they clambered onto rocks and pebbles. They all followed Hagrid to the huge, oak front door.

"Everyone here?" After making sure they were all present Hagrid knocked on the door three times with his huge fist.