Platform 9 ¾

The rest of Harry's summer vacation passed quickly and quietly. The Dursley's maintained their lack of animosity and Harry endeavored to keep out of their way. Hedwig had returned to Harry with a letter from Hagrid explaining that he was to take the Hogwarts Express at King's Cross station, platform 9 ¾. With the the letter came a single ticket.

His uncle had agreed to give Harry a ride to the train station seeing as they had to go to London anyways so Harry was not forced to take the Knight Bus. And so now he found himself there, in a crowded train terminal, unable to find platform 9 ¾. Harry was standing there between platform 9 and 10 looking for a secret entrance to the magical train platform. He figured he would have to send off a note the the headmaster explaining that he had been unable to find the platform and would be arriving by Knight Bus as soon as he could when he heard from a about twenty feet away.

Silias had been amazingly reluctant to help him in this for some reason.

"Late as usual and the station filled with muggles."

A rather large family of, obviously magical, redheads was making it way towards a support pillar between platforms 9 and 10. As Harry approached on of the four boys, the eldest to be precise, gave his mother a peck on the check and started walking towards the support pillar. Harry kept a close watch on him but at the last possible moment a commuter blocked his field of vision and when he looked again, the tall redhead was gone.

Harry decided to approach the family and ask for help. The mother was obviously busy berating her twin sons about something she had just found falling from one of their pockets. The youngest boy was gleefully watching his brothers so Harry approached their sister.

"Uhmm, I'm sorry but I was wondering if you could help me. I don't know how to get on to platform 9 ¾."

The girl turned around looking very excited.

"Oh! You must be a muggleborn then. Your letter didn't tell you?"

"No, I'm not a muggleborn. My parents were a wi ... uhm, like us but they died when I was young. I was raised by my aunt and uncle."

"Oh ... sorry."

"It's alright, you didn't know."

"Now, you two – this year, you behave yourselves. If I get one more owl telling me you've – you've blown up a toilet or –"

"Your mom looks rather busy."

"Blown up a toilet? We've never blown up a toilet."
"Great idea though, thanks, Mum."
"It's not funny. And look after Ron."

"Yeah, she gets about twenty letters every semester from the school about them. They like to play pranks. I'm Ginny." The young girl extended her hand and Harry shook it. "I'm Harry."

"Mom! I'm going to help someone unto the platform. I'll be right on the other side." Ginny cried out to her mother.

Grabbing Harry's hand, the little redhead pulled him towards the support pillar.

"All you have to do is walk through the wall. You have to believe you can do it or else it won't work. It works best the first time if you close your eyes and just run at it." and as if to prove her point the little girl sprinted at the wall and disappeared.

Harry blinked. Even with all the impossible things he had seen since discovering the magical world, the knight bus; his trunk; the entrance to Diagon Alley, he was still surprised whenever he saw something unusual.

Taking his trolley Harry took a deep breath and ran at the wall closing his eyes only seconds before impact. A feeling like warm air swept over him and he opened his eyes.

"Welcome to platform 9 ¾." Ginny said with a flourish, pointing at the Hogwarts Express like a game show hostess.

The sight of the older model, fire engine red train took his breath away. The platform was bustling with magical and muggle families helping their children, some of them already in their school uniforms, unto the train. Looking around him, Harry felt a pang of loss. All these happy families hugging, giving words of encouragement. He had never had that in all his life and never would seeing how his parents were dead and his aunt and uncle hated him.

Ginny apparently noticed that something was wrong.

"I can't wait to go to Hogwarts. I'm not going this year, only next year. It's going to be strange being all alone at home. I always had Ron with me but he is starting this year since he's a year older than I am. Are you excited about going? How did you discover you were a wizard? Have you ever done any accidental magic?" the questions were fired in rapid manner and left Harry a little stunned.

"Uhm, where should I start?"

"Oh! There is my mom. I should really get back to her."

"Well, thanks for the help. Look, maybe I could write to you during they year? My owl Hedwig gets annoyed that I don't ever send her out since I don't really have anyone to correspond with."

This stopped Ginny in her tracks.

"You'd want to do that? Thanks, it would be great to hear about Hogwarts. My name is Ginny Weasley."

"Ok, I'll send you some post then. I should really get on the train now. Thanks for your help again."

As Harry turned away from her, he heard her mother.

"Ginerva Molly Weasley! What were you thinking going on on your own like that ..."

He walked away towards to express. Getting his trunk into the express proved to be a bit of a challenge. Technically, the trunk was empty since it's interior did not really exist in this world but existed in 'relative world' and was 'Dimensionally Transcendental' but Harry was a little small for his age and still the trunk proved to be too much for him to handle.

"Here, let us help ..."

"... you with that mate."

Harry turned around and found Ginny's twin brothers behind him. One of them grabbed Harry's trunk and easily lifted it off the ground.

"Oy! You sure you packed? This thing feels like it's empty."

"Yeah, it's a magic trunk. The inside exists in a relative world. Dimensionally Transcendental is what it's called I think."

"Ah Gred, I think we have a future Ravenclaw here." said one of the twins to the other.

"Oh! I don't think so. I mean, I did well enough in school but I don't think I'm that smart. I just know that about the trunk because when I opened it I found a cave in one of the compartments. Actually, I was wondering if you could help me out, I accidentally threw my potions book into the cave and can't get to it."

They put the trunk down and Harry opened the third compartment.

"Blimey! It's huge in there. That looks like spell damage mate. I don't know what happened in there but it looks like something blew up."

"Yeah! And we would know about magical explosions now wouldn't we eh Forge?"

"Windgardium Leviossa" cried out one of the twins with a swish and a flick of his wand.

The potions book started to slowly float it's way up to the opening.

"Aren't you going to get in trouble for doing underaged magic?"

"Nah! Magics ..."

"... allowed on the Express."

Harry grabbed the book and put it with the others in his second compartment.

Harry thanked them both, shaking their hands while whipping his forehead with his other hand. The twins eyes grew as big as teacups as they noticed his scar.

"What's that?" Said one of the twins suddenly, pointing at Harry's lightning scar.
"Blimey,' said the other twin. "Are you –?"
"He is," said the first twin. "Aren't' you?" he added to Harry.
"What?" said Harry.
"Harry Potter," chorused the twins.
Harry's heart fell. He had enjoyed being treated normally.

"Yeah." He replied despondently.

Oddly enough, as soon as this was confirmed, the twins went back to their normal casual demeanor.

"Well, it was nice to meet you Harry but we have to go see our friend Lee Jordan. I heard he brought a tarantula."

"See ya at the feast Harry." they both cried in unison as they left Harry in his empty compartment.

Harry sat down on the bench and opened the window. He could hear the Weasly twins talking to their mother.

"You'll never guess ..."

"... who we met ..."

"... on the train mom."

"Harry Potter." they said in unison.

"Harry Potter? Can I go and see him mom please? Oh! Please?" he recognized the small girls voice as Ginny's and was confused. He had already met him. Maybe she hadn't know who he was.

"You've already seen him, Gin-Gin!" said one of the twins.

"I did?"

"Yeah, he's that black haired boy you ..." Fred or George or Gred or Forge or whoever it was that was speaking did not have a chance to finish what he was saying as his sister let out a soft, panicked shriek.

"Poor dear - no wonder he was alone, I wondered. Is he ok? You didn't prank him now did you boys?" The last question held the promise of dire consequences should their answer not please their mother.

Their mother sounded concerned for him for some reason. Harry found himself with a sad smile on his lips. It was one of the first times he had heard genuine concern from an adult for him.

"Nah mom ..."

"... we helped him ..."

"... get his trunk into the train ..."

"He's a bit small ..."

"... even for a ikkle firsty."

"Never mind that, do you think he remembers what You-Know-Who looks like?"

Their mother suddenly became very stern.

"I forbid you to ask him, Fred. No, don't you dare. As though he needs reminding of that on his first day at school."

"Ron, you've got something on your nose."

The youngest boy tried to jerk out of the way, but she grabbed him and began rubbing the end of his nose.

"Mom -- geroff" He wriggled free.

Harry decided that he should stop eaves dropping and closed the window.

A few moments later the door to his compartment opened and another of Ginny's brothers tentatively walked in.

"Uhm ... mind if I join you?"

"No, I'm alone in here."

"I'm Ron Weasley." the other boy introduced himself as he sat down across from Harry.

Ron Weasley, that name seemed to ring a bell for some reason.

"I'm Harry ... Harry Potter."

Ron's eyes went wide and flicked to his forehead and then quickly looked out the window, trying to not let on that he had checked for the scar.

"Hey, Ron."

The twins were back.

"Listen, we're going down the middle of the train -- Lee Jordan's got a giant tarantula down there."

"Right," mumbled Ron.

"Harry," said the other twin, "did we introduce ourselves? Fred and George Weasley. And this is Ron, our brother. See you later, then.

"Bye," said Harry and Ron. The twins slid the compartment door shut behind them. Harry heard them talking as they walked away from the compartment.

"So, when do you think we should send Ginny a Hogwarts toilet seat?"

"Well, either Christmas, Valentines Day or her birthday."

"We should really get one from Snape's chambers ..."

Their voices faded away as they continued to walk away.

"So the twins were telling the truth. You never know with them."

They sat in silence for a time. Eventually the train started forward.

"So your scar. That's where ..." Ron stopped lamely not knowing how to finish his question.

"Yeah, that's where Voldermort ..." here Ron gave a hiss of fright "... Voldermort hit me with the killing curse. But no, I don't remember what he looks like. I was only one year old when it happened. All I remember is allot of green light and I dream sometimes of when I was flown to my aunt and uncles home on an enchanted motorcycle. Apparently that happened for real as well."

"How can you say his name? No one ever says his name. Well Dumbledore does but he's the most powerful wizard in the world so there's no surprise there."

"I never knew not to say his name. I just found out a few months ago that I had gotten this scar not from a car crash but from my parents murderer. Heck up until that time I didn't even know I was a wizard or that there was such a thing as magic."

Ron looked at him completely baffled.

"You didn't know you were a wizard? Every wizard and witch on the world knows your name. Heck my sister has been falling asleep to your story since she was like two years old."

"When did she stop?" asked Harry getting a little uncomfortable.

"What makes you think she has?" was Ron's smirking reply.

Harry gave a moan indicating he was rather embarrassed.

They spent the next few minutes in silence again. All of a sudden, a small rodent head poked out of Ron's shirt pocket sniffing around.

"This is Scabbers. My pet rat. Well, he was Percy's but my parents bought him an owl this year because he made prefect, and well they couldn't aff ... I mean so now he's mine."

"Yeah, I know about hand me downs. Until I came to the wizarding world I hadn't had a single piece of new clothing. Everything I had ever owned was a hand me down from my cousin and well, he's about three times my size."

Harry went on to explain his life on Private Drive. How he had never received a birthday present or a Christmas present.

The food trolley passed by and Harry, having only sampled a few wizarding treats, bought a bit of everything so he could share with his new friend. Ron was a little hesitant at first but eventually dug in as well. He explained to Harry about chocolate frog cards and Harry discovered a card for Albus Dumbledore.

"Oh! I got a Dumbledore!"

"Yeah, I have a bunch of those. He's real popular." was Ron's reply.

Harry turned over his card and read:

ALBUS DUMBLEDORE

CURRENTLY HEADMASTER OF HOGWARTS

Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times, Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel. Professor Dumbledore enjoys chamber music and tenpin bowling. Harry turned the card back over and saw, to his astonishment, that Dumbledore's face had disappeared.

"He's gone!"

"Well, you can't expect him to hang around all day," said Ron. "He'll be back. No, I've got Morgana again and I've got about six of her... do you want it? You can start collecting."

"Wow. That's what he looks like in robes. He looks real different in a muggle suit."

"You met him and he was wearing a muggle suit? Why?"

Harry explained that Dumbledore had to go and talk to the Dursleys so he could go to Hogwarts.

"They were going to stop you from coming to Hogwarts? Don't they know your famous here?"

"I don't think they know that or I'm sure they would try to profit from it."

A young man with a pudgy face poked his head into their compartment.

"Uhmm, have any of you seen Trevor? He's my toad and he's run off again."

"Sorry mate, haven't seen him." answered Ron.

"You might want to ask some of the older students if they can use magic to find him for you."

"Ok. Well if you see him, let me know."

After a few more moments of silence Harry started asking Ron about the wizarding world and his family. It was obvious that Ron was a little ashamed that his family was poor but he talked at great lengths about his home 'The Burrow' and about his various brothers and their occupations. Harry soaked it all in. Silias was good for factual knowledge but it had very little in the way of everyday life as a wizard. It was the difference between reading a report on casualties in a war and reading the account of the individual soldiers. Ron seemed to warm up to Harry after this.

Apparently Ron's whole family was magical. Considering the size of his family that was rather impressive. Ron had no less than five brothers and one sister. The only non magical person in the Weasley clan was his mothers second cousin who was an accountant.

"You must know a ton of spells then."

"Well the twins gave me one. It's supposed to change Scabbers's color."

"Well, give it a try. Your brothers did some magic on the train and told me that it was allowed."

Ron rummaged around in his trunk and pulled out a very battered-looking wand. It was chipped in places and something white was glinting at the end.

"Unicorn hair's nearly poking out. Anyway"

He had just raised his 'wand when the compartment door slid open again.

The toadless boy was back, but this time he had a girl with him. She was already wearing her new Hogwarts robes.

"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," she said. She had a bossy sort of voice, lots of bushy brown hair, and rather large front teeth.

"We've already told him we haven't seen it," said Ron, but the girl wasn't listening, she was looking at the wand in his hand.

"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it, then."

She sat down. Ron looked taken aback.

"Er -- all right."

He cleared his throat.

"Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."

A spark of magic jumped from the tip of his wand and shocked Scabbers.

"Are you sure that's a real spell?" said the girl. "Well, it's not very good, is it? I've tried a few simple spells just for practice and it's all worked for me. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it's the very best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard -- I've learned all our course books by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough -- I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you."

She said all this very fast.

Harry looked at Ron who looked rather apprehensive. The odds were that Ron had not learned all the books by heart like Harry and this Hermione girl had.

"Well, I haven't memorized all the books but I did have a boring summer so I did read up quite a bit. I've only done one spell and that was at Ollivanders when I got my wand. How come you didn't get expelled for under-aged magic?" was Harry's reply.

Ron looked at Harry. Apparently his statement that he had read some of the books and had done at least one spell was making him even more nervous.

Harry had a nagging suspicion that Ron had not even opened a single book yet.

"Well, I did receive a warning but seeing that we were new to the wizarding world, it won't be held against me. We really didn't know there was such a restriction. I wonder how they track under aged magic."

"They have a magical sensor outside muggleborn or muggleraised witches and wizards houses to track for magical use."

"Really? That's a little prejudices isn't it? I mean, that means purebloods can do magic without repercussions."

"I'm not sure were supposed to know this." Harry interjected worriedly.

'No, you are not supposed to have access to this information.'

"Well. This is my friend Ron Weasley." Harry pointed to Ron "And I'm Harry, Harry Potter."

"Are you really?" said Hermione. "I know all about you, of course – I got a few extra books. for background reading, and you're in Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century."

"Am I?" said Harry, feeling dazed.

"Goodness, didn't you know, I'd have found out everything I could if it was me," said Hermione. "Do either of you know what house you'll be in?

I've been asking around, and I hope I'm in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best; I hear Dumbledore himself was in it, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad... Anyway, we'd better go and look for Neville's toad. You two had better change, you know, I expect we'll be there soon."

And she left, taking the toad less boy with her.

"Whatever house I'm in, I hope she's not in it," said Ron. He threw his wand back into his trunk. "Stupid spell -- George gave it to me, bet he knew it was a dud."

"She sure is enthusiastic." replied Harry still trying to recuperate for the rapid barrage of questions and comments they had been subjected to.

"What house are your brothers in?" asked Harry.

"My whole family has been in Gryffindor so I'll probably end up there. I heard it doesn't really work like that and has something to do with who you are inside but I think that's where I'll end up. After listening to the two of you chat, " he said nodding his head at the door where Hermione had just left. "I don't think I'll end up in Ravenclaw. I haven't even opened my books yet. Hufflepuff would be O.K. but if I get sorted into Slytherin I think I'll just ask my mom to come and get me and home school me instead."

"That's the house that Volder-, I mean, You-Know-Who was in."

"Yeah," said Ron. He flopped back into his seat, looking depressed.

"Too bad we won't end up in the same house."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, your obviously going to end up in Ravenclaw. You and that Granger girl."

"It's funny, your brothers said the same thing but I don't think I'm cut out to be in a house full of smart people. I think I'm fairly smart but really I don't want to spend all my time with my nose in a book. I just did it this summer cause it was a good way to stay out of my relatives way and well all this is new to me."

"Oh, well that's different then." Ron looked happier at this.

Harry asked Ron about the kind of work that his brothers and his father did. His father working for the missuse of muggle artefacts office, Charlie working with dragons and Bill working at Gringots in Egypt.

"Did you hear about Gringotts? It's been all over the Daily Prophet, but I don't suppose you get that with the muggles -- someone tried to rob a high security vault."

Harry stared.

"Really? What happened to them? Did they get eaten by the dragons or sucked into a vault?"

"Nothing, that's why it's such big news. They haven't been caught. My dad says it must've been a powerful Dark wizard to get round Gringotts, but they don't think they took anything, that's what's odd. 'Course, everyone gets scared when something like this happens in case You-Know-Who's behind it."

Harry turned this news over in his mind. He was starting to get a prickle of fear every time You- Know-Who was mentioned. He supposed this was all part of entering the magical world, but it had been a lot more comfortable saying "Voldemort" without worrying.

"Yeah, Hagrid mentioned that he didn't think that Vold- I mean, you-know-who was really killed. He thinks that he was not human enough anymore to really die."

"So, what's your favorite Quidditch team?" asked Ron in an obvious attempt to change the subject.

"I don't really know. My information is about ten years old since all I have are my fathers journals."

"What!" Ron looked dumbfounded. "Oh, you wait, it's the best game in the world --" And he was off, explaining all about the four balls and the positions of the seven players, describing famous games he'd been to with his brothers and the broomstick he'd like to get if he had the money.

They were just exchanging tips on the finer parts of the game, Ron's knowledge was much better than Harry's, when the compartment door slid open yet again, but it wasn't Neville the toad less boy, or Hermione Granger this time.

Three boys entered, and Harry recognized the middle one at once: it was the pale boy from Madam Malkin's robe shop. He was looking at Harry with a lot more interest than he'd shown back in Diagon Alley.

Harry gave a small sigh of resignation.

"Is it true?" he said. "They're saying all down the train that Harry Potter's in this compartment. So it's you, is it?"

"Yes," said Harry. He was looking at the other boys. Both of them were thickset and looked extremely mean. Standing on either side of the pale boy, they looked like bodyguards.

"Oh, this is Crabbe and this is Goyle," said the pale boy carelessly, noticing where Harry was looking. "And my name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."

Ron gave a slight cough, which might have been hiding a snigger. Draco Malfoy looked at him.

"Think my name's funny, do you? No need to ask who you are. My father told me all the Weasleys have red hair, freckles, and more children than they can afford."

He turned back to Harry. "You'll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there."

He held out his hand to shake Harry's, but Harry didn't take it.

"I think I can tell who the wrong sort are for myself, thanks," he said coolly.

Based on the information he had read in his fathers journals, Harry had discovered that the Malfoys were suspected to have supported Voldermort.

Draco Malfoy didn't go red, but a pink tinge appeared in his pale cheeks.

"I'd be careful if I were you, Potter," he said slowly. "Unless you're a bit politer you'll go the same way as your parents. They didn't know what was good for them, either. You hang around with riffraff like the Weasleys and that Hagrid, and it'll rub off on you."

Both Harry and Ron stood up.

"Well, that will surely make me want to be your friend!" replied Harry sarcastically.

"Say that again," Ron said, his face as red as his hair.

"Oh, you're going to fight us, are you?" Malfoy sneered.

"Unless you get out now," said Harry, more bravely than he felt, because Crabbe and Goyle were a lot bigger than him or Ron.

"But we don't feet like leaving, do we, boys? We've eaten all our food and you still seem to have some."

Harry whipped out his wand from his back pocket and pointed it threateningly at the three boys. He had learned a few offensive spells from the Silias. True, he hadn't tried any of them yet but he knew there was no way they could take them on in a fist fight. Malfoy's two goon were as big as Dudley.

"And what do you think your going to do with that? You can't possibly know any spells yet. School hasn't started yet."

Goyle reached toward the Chocolate Frogs next to Ron - Ron leapt forward, but before he'd so much as touched Goyle, Goyle let out a horrible yell.

Scabbers the rat was hanging off his finger, sharp little teeth sunk deep into Goyle's knuckle.

Harry swished his wand and threw out the first spell that came to mind from his rather limited repertoire. "RICTUSEMPRA!"

Crabbe fell to the ground in fits of laughter. Malfoy, seeing that he was now outnumbered two to one grabbed hold of Crabbe and backed away as Goyle swung Scabbers round and round, howling, and when Scabbers finally flew off and hit the window, all three of them disappeared at once. A second later, Hermione Granger came in.

"What has been going on?" she said, looking at the sweets all over the floor and Ron picking up Scabbers by his tail.

"I think he's been knocked out," Ron said to Harry. He looked closer at Scabbers. "No -- I don't believe it -- he's gone back to sleep-"

And so he had.

"You've met Malfoy before?"

Harry explained about their meeting in Diagon Alley.

"I've heard of his family," said Ron darkly. "They were some of the first to come back to our side after You-Know-Who disappeared. Said they'd been bewitched. My dad doesn't believe it. He says Malfoy's father didn't need an excuse to go over to the Dark Side."

"Yeah, that's what my dad's journal says."

Ron turned to Hermione. "Can we help you with something?"

"You'd better hurry up and put your robes on, I've just been up to the front to ask the conductor, and he says we're nearly there. You haven't been fighting, have you? You'll be in trouble before we even get there! You've got dirt on your nose, by the way, did you know?" she said again in a rapid fire way that left no time to retort while pointing at Ron's nose.

"Would you mind leaving while we change?" Ron said , scowling at her.

"People are behaving very childishly, racing up and down the corridors," they could hear Hermione mumble in a sniffy voice as she walked away from their compartment.

"That was bloody brilliant by the way mate. That tickling charm took Malfoy's goon out of the fight real quick." said Ron as they changed into their school uniforms.

"First time I ever try it. Glad it worked. I think they would have beat us up pretty good. Good thing Scabbers was here." said Harry giving the rat a gentle pat.

'Bravo, bravo! That's they way to put the bully in his place.'

Harry nearly jumped up from his seat. Silias had been so quiet until that moment he had almost forgotten he was there.

'I am glad to see that I haven't been wasting my time these past few weeks.'

They stuffed their pockets with as much sweets as they could and packed their belongings. Their trunks were to be left on board and would be taken to the castle and to their dormitories during the welcoming feast.

As they stepped out of the Express, Harry noticed Hagrid huge bushy head bobbing over the sea of students. Hagrid was calling to the students.

"Firs' years. Firs' years over 'ere!"

He greeted Harry and guided them all to boats that would take them to Hogwarts via the lake.

Their first view of Hogwarts would be a memorable one. The night was perfect, the sky was clear and the moon shone just behind the castle sitting on the cliffs. The water was calm and every single students gazed in amazement at the castle that would be their home for the next seven years.

Finally, they docked on the shores of the lake and walked up to the main entrance of the castle where they were greeted by the deputy headmistress, Minerva McGonagall.