2-01

I gave another wave, a smile plastered on my face. Beyond the train's window stood Aunt Petunia, Remus and Sirius and they were staring back at us with facades of happiness over their haunted eyes. More than anything I focused on Sirius, though, because he'd scared me over the past few weeks we'd spent together.

Most times he would be happy, eyes shining with mirth and an air of mischief but something would happened and all at once that would be gone. In its place only left the haunted gaze of someone who had nothing in his head except his worst memories.

Was that what it was like before? Had Sirius been that miserable but I, who'd been focusing on himself, had been none the wiser to it? It didn't help the guilt which would crop up at time for not being the one to personally handle it.

I lurched forward as the train started to move and I watched as a short conversation was shared between my aunt and godfather. I made a mental note to, at some point, learn how to read lips. There were spells that could magnify sounds but as was always said in Auror training, it never hurts to learn to do things the muggle way, because as powerful as it is, the wand is still a stick made of wood.

"We'd better find a compartment," Dudley says and we start walking, moving through the halls and past people who stop to gawk at me as we pass. Most of the compartments are full, people who'd taken to coming in early and friends that chose to room together.

We were almost at the end of the train before the numbers in each compartment started to dwindle. The first we can across that we could enter as one with three people, Vincent Crabbe, Pansy Parkinson and another girl that had been sorted into Ravenclaw in my timeline, Su Li. The three of them were talking, with the latter being more animate that Crabbe, but as I passed Su Li turned her gaze on me and I flinched: a sharp and sudden pain had slammed into my forehead, right where the scar was.

There was a reaction from Su, too, a small smirk touching her face as she returned to the conversation with Pansy. I took a breath, pushing myself to move forward while my features were cooled. That could mean one of two things, other the Su had a piece of Voldemort stuck in her or she had a Horcrux in her possession, both things which weren't good all things considered.

Did this have a connection with the murders in Malfoy Manor or was it something else? There were too many Horcruxes out there and some without the protections of the others, for all I know it was possible that the ring also had a play in all of this since I hadn't picked up or searched for it. I'd thought about going back to Little Hangleton, but that was unfeasible with how much my guard had increased since Hermione's news headlines—it was a wonder that the girl could print a daily newspaper with how sparse news could be at times.

Another compartment we passed was filled with third years and though one of them invited me in I chose to forego that, instead moving along with Dudley until we found a compartment with only three people: Seamus Finnigan, Dean Thomas and Justin Finch-Fletchley. The trio were talking about soccer as we entered, discussing a match that had taken place only the week before. Apparently the three of them had been present, but with how packed the stadium had been, they hadn't seen each other.

"Do you mind if we join you?" Dudley asked the boys. "I'm really not looking forward to walking down more of this damn train."

"Yeah, sure," said Dean. He got up and extended a hand, introducing himself. The other boys did the same and we in turn returned the social grace. The moment I introduced myself there were surprised expression being spread out, asking to see the scar and all of that but I when I looked beyond the surface level there really wasn't much surprise.

But then, the working hypothesis was that the only people that had been affected by the mental time travellers were those that had attended their first year in Hogwarts with me, or at least people that were around the same age as I was. Dudley seemed to be an outlier in the Hogwarts regard and so was Hermione if we thought about age since she was older than both Dudley and I.

Simplified though, that was what we were running with. And as I looked at all of them, I was working with that in mind. That these people were older than they acted to be and that it was likely through their experiences that they weren't the people I knew in my own timeline.

Dudley took up the brunt of the conversation and quickly he set up into a rhythm, speaking with the other boys as though they'd been long-time friends. Watching all of this and remembering everything else I was struck with a sort of jealousy as I looked at Dudley, sure I knew the magical world better than him and I was better with the wand, but he could talk to people where I couldn't.

I spoke a bit, participated in the questions that were clearly directed my way, but further than that I was stuck thinking about the future. Su, Dumbledore, how I would react to Quirrell, which house I would chose, when I would first have a chance to go into the Room of Requirements to grab the Diadem and other such things.

"That's really cool," said Dudley. "Can I touch her?"

"Yeah," said Seamus, he held out his hand and let the small salamander walk down its length before it passed over to Dudley's hand.

"Feels warm. Is it magic?" he asked. At that Seamus gave a nod.

"My mum works for the Department of Mysteries," Seamus explained. "Her particular sect gets things like Sally a lot. People who experiment with animals, trying to create new species. Mum's department mainly tests out the animals that have been created, tests out their threat level and how the ecosystem will react if they're released in the wild. Sally's only augmentation is that she's a warm-blooded lizard and she can't breed with any other salamanders so mum gave her to me to keep as a pet."

"Lucky," said Justin. "I wanted a Crup as my pet and they're within bounds to the limitation size-wise that the school's beholden to, but I'd need a licence for that. Something I can't have until I'm at least fifteen."

"Or you're a legal adult," said Seamus. "Like that Malfoy, bloke. Lucky bastard."

"Lucky?" I said. "His parents were killed."

Seamus shifted at that, maybe it was something he'd overlooked. "Well that was really unfortunate, sure," he said quickly. "But looks at his life now. He lives on his own by his own rules and he's free to practice magic since he's technically an adult."

"That's the most stupid thing I've ever heard," said Dean. "Letting an eleven year old have freedom to practice magic without supervision."

"It's why the law that served as a loophole for him is getting overturned," said Justin. "I heard the Wizengamot has never been more divided on an issue as this. Especially the Ancient Houses."

"Wizengamot?" said Dean. "What is that?"

Justin and Seamus started explaining, with me putting in some additions there at points at how the entire thing worked. The Wizengamot was made up of three types of people: the Ancient houses, which were houses that had at least seven generations of purebloods in their history, the Noble houses, which were houses with people who'd earned an Order of Merlin First Class, and then people with seats because of their position within the government.

The Wizengamot acted as the High Court of the Wizarding World, holding such powers as to bring new laws into place or over turning laws that had become stale through the years. They were the people Remus had successfully convinced into bringing forth a law that prevented prejudices by blood, specie or infliction; something that had gone on to mean that Lily Moon was accepted in the school as the first open werewolf—of course countermeasures had to be taken to ensure everyone's safety.

By the time we finish that particular branch of the conversation the Trolley Lady has rushed through and we're all stuffing our faces—though not as much with candy as I was expecting—and the morning is turning to afternoon.

"I'm going to explore," said Dudley. "Sitting around here is starting to get tiring. You up for it Harry?"

I shake my head. "I've been wanting to practice a spell or two," I said. "I'll keep the compartment, you guys go ahead."

The others nod as I take out a book and start rifling through it. When they're gone I make another Age-Line on the door, but this time making it so that the change it will make will be smaller: a small change in the eyebrows, changing their colour to white before it's gone again and since I'm the only one who knows about the spell I'll be the one paying particular attention the eyebrows.

Not a minute after I'm done and the door is pulled open.

"Harry," said Hermione as she entered, a bright smile on her. She stepped through, her eyebrows switching to silver before they switched back. "I was looking for you, thought we could have a compartment together, maybe talk."

"Give me a sec," I said, pulling out my wand and muttering Muffliato. "No one will be able to hear anything we say."

"Snape's spell," said Hermione. "Did he teach it to you too?"

"No," I said. "Yes? Indirectly, maybe. You wanted to speak?"

"I wanted to ask what you thought about the newspaper," she said. "I've started getting subscriptions. Even murder threats that I should stop printing what I'm printing if I know what's good for me," she said in such an excited tone that it was scary.

"And that's good?" I asked.

"It means people are reading," she said. "Next I'll be working on hiring people to man the stands I'll have across most of the Wizarding Great Britain. They'll have to be people who can handle themselves, of course, but that's not going to be too hard to achieve."

"How are you going to pull that off being in Hogwarts?" I asked.

"Patronus until something better comes along," she said. "It's going to take some getting used to with everything I'll be doing in Hogwarts but I've already got ideas I'm going to be running through. How goes things on your side, anyway? Finding the Horcruxes?"

"Haven't had much freedom to go out roaming," I told her. "But I did pull something off that was good. You first story, that minor in the midst of a Killing Curse?" Hermione nodded. "That was me getting something to stop what I thought were plans to revive Voldemort."

"And the bones they found there? They were the target weren't thy?"

I nodded. "A decoy transfigured by me," I told her. "The real bones have been disposed of." Which was untrue, but the first chance I had to get lost in Hogwarts and I would burn the things.

"That's good at least," she said. "About the others. What we've spoken about, have you discovered more?"

"I think Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnigan and Justin Finch-Fletchley might be time travellers too," I said. "But I'll know for sure when we return."

I briefly thought about telling her about Su Li, but knowing Hermione it would be a short jump to figuring out how I might know about her either having a Horcrux or a part of her being Voldemort. It was better if I didn't tell her for now, because I still didn't know Hermione enough that I could trust her with everything, just as she hadn't been able to trust Dudley and me with the names of her investors.

Dudley I would have to tell, though, because I trusted him.

A figure passed over the window, looking through before he moved to open the door. I jabbed my wand in the direction, breaking apart the Muffling Charm on the door. It disappeared just as Draco Malfoy ran his eyes through the room.

"So it's true, then," he said. "I'd heard that the Harry Potter was in the train with us."

He stepped through, eyebrows flashing white before they returned to their normal colour. Hermione spared me a questioning look and my expression must have given something off because I could see recognition there. She must have pieced it together.

"I thought I'd look around, introduce myself," Draco continued.

"You're Draco Malfoy," I said. "I read the papers. You made the headline for a few weeks. I'm sorry about your parents."

Draco was quiet, expression set as he gave a nod. "Thank you," he said. "I know you know how that feels."

Why does everyone always mention that? Or is it because they're trying to hurt me just as I'm hurting them with bringing it up?

"My apologies," said Draco. "I don't know your name."

"Hermione Granger," the girl said, extending a hand. Draco took it and gave it a peck. Hermione and I shared a look, my expression projecting that she should just go along with it.

"Granger," she said. "It's not a surname I've heard in a long time. Any relation to the Hector Dagworth-Granger?"

"No," said Hermione. "I'm muggle born."

Draco nodded, putting on a sharp smile. "We need all the need blood we can get," he said. "Keeps us from stagnation."

"It does," said Hermione.

Draco looked back at me. "Well, I just wanted to finally introduce myself to you, Mr Potter. Nothing beyond that. I'll let you return to your conversation."

I nodded and watched as Draco left. "That was the strangest thing I'd ever seen," I said.

"No, not really," said Hermione. "He tried to get into my mind. He knows about us most probably."

"At least we know about him in turn," I said with a sigh.

"I think that's what he wanted. He must have known that at least one of us would be an Occlumens and yet he still went through with his plan. Speaking of which, you should really learn Occlumency."

"I know it," I said. "But I'm not too good at it. He probably didn't get much beyond my shield without a wand, but I still wouldn't be able to feel except if he was brute forcing it."

Hermione shrugged at that. "Well," she said, coming to a stand. "I should get going. Parvati, Padma and Megan are still waiting for me. I said I'd only be a minute."

"See you in Hogwarts," I said.

I lay back as the door closed before getting up and stretching my legs, walking through the small compartment before sitting again. The day had waded when the others returned, the compartment a little fuller because they brought two more boys with them, Michael Corner and Kevin Entwhistle.

We didn't get much time to chat before the train was grinding to a stop and giant bellowed, "First years this way!"

I was amongst the first to arrive and was custom at this point I engulfed Harry in a hug he barely noticed.

"What's this, then?" he said towering over me much further than Dumbledore had when I'd met him. "Who's this little scamp that's got my leg?"

"It's me, Hagrid," I said, a grin on my face.

"Well I didn't notice. The last time I saw you, you were no larger than a bowtruckle," the man said. "Now. Well now you're nearly a grown man, aren't you?"

"We I do have a wand and everything now," I returned.

"Yeah. You do. But I know something you don't have yet," he said. "And I'll show it to you when this is done. I'll meet you once you're sorted and bring Dudley too."

"Okay," I said. At that Hagrid put on his official voice, moving us towards the boats and towards Hogwarts. The trip was short and whimsical, gasps at points and wonder. For some I actually bought it, but I was suspicious that everyone of us was middle-aged or close to it.

All things considered the next part would be the most interesting of all, the Sorting.

888

AN: Didn't do the accent with Hagrid. I'm not going to do accents. Ever. Where they're concerned I'll tell not show because…yeah, accents are a beast to get down on 'paper' and it would slow down the rhythm of my writing.

Next part will be the sorting. Expect a lot of names and descriptions because I'll be going through each and every one of the students so as to establish a list of the first years.