On the 1st of September, as it was every year, Platform Nine and Three Quarters was a chaotic mass of bodies.
Moving in a buzzing hustle, a horde of parents led children, owls, and trunks across the platform and towards the shining red train. Their sons and daughters looking around for their friends, ignoring their parents who were reminding them to write often, all of them wondering what would happen in the coming year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Stepping through the barrier on her own, Hermione Granger moved to the side and quickly shrunk her trunk, slipping it into her pocket as she glanced around nervously before heading towards the train with her wand in one hand and Crookshanks' cage in the other.
Climbing aboard and peering up and down the hallways, Hermione made sure she couldn't see any of the people responsible for making her life at Hogwarts a living hell, before hurrying down the corridor towards the front of the train. Sitting near the Prefect's cabin usually meant that she and Neville were left alone, and on the rare occasion that They got to them, then the Prefects normally weren't too far behind.
Reaching the front of the train, Hermione threw open the door to her usual compartment and quickly slammed the door behind her, leaning against it with a loud sigh of relief. Now all she had to do was wait for Neville to arrive, before casting a compulsion charm on the door and hoping that it worked to redirect the most annoying people Hogwarts had ever seen.
Taking a deep breath to calm herself down, Hermione opened her eyes and promptly froze at the sight of the teenagers already sitting in what she admittedly thought of as her compartment.
"Oh," she exhaled softly, staring back at the black-haired boy who was glaring at her. "I'm sorry. Should I uh… should I go?" she asked dumbly, not at all prepared for the hostility the black-haired boy was showing her when they hadn't met before. She didn't look like a muggleborn did she? Hermione was normally careful to dress in fashions that wizards and witches favoured when going to magical areas.
"I don't really care," the boy admitted bluntly, returning his attention to the other teenager's hair, the brunet boy lounging across the entire seat with his head in the first one's lap. "As long as you're quiet".
Standing there awkwardly for a moment, Hermione glanced over her shoulder and out the window to the corridor. "You um, you don't mind if my friend joins us do you?" she asked softly, "Neville and I always sit together. I'm Hermione, by the way, Hermione Granger," she added as she mentally scolded herself for forgetting her manners.
"Hadrian. Hadrian Evans," the boy replied, not making a move to offer her his hand or even looking up from his softly snoring companion, combing and picking at his hair in a way that she could only describe as 'grooming'. "And as long as he's quiet, I don't care how many people you invite in here".
"Just Neville. He's my only friend anyway, so no-one else would want to sit with me," Hermione blurted, pausing for a moment and blinking in shock at how honest she was being with a complete stranger.
Shaking it off, Hermione set Crookshanks' cage down on the seat and then pulled out her trunk, unshrinking it and taking out the book of runes that she hadn't read yet. After levitating her trunk up to the luggage rack, Hermione sat back down and smoothed out her skirt, glancing up and freezing as she realised that Hadrian was studying her intently.
"You can let your familiar out of his cage," Hadrian offered slowly, "We're not allergic".
Staring at Hadrian in confusion for a moment, it took Hermione a couple of seconds to process what he had just said, straightening slightly and smiling thankfully as she reached out to undo the look on Crookshanks' cage. Reaching in to lift the large ginger cat out of the cage, Hermione wasn't prepared for him to thrash about suddenly, jumping from the seat where she dropped him straight onto the sleeping boy's stomach.
Moving to grab Crookshanks before he woke the light-haired teenager, she paused as the kneazle cross just curled up on his stomach and started purring like her father's motorboat.
"He'll be fine," Hadrian murmured, reaching out with his hand to scratch behind Crookshanks' ear, "It'll take more than that to wake Jared, he could sleep through the apocalypse itself".
"Right," Hermione mumbled, mentally kicking herself for feeling jealous of how quickly Crookshanks had apparently warmed up to the two boys. Fingers tapping on the cover of her book for a moment, she glanced around the compartment, searching for something to say that could break the ice properly. "So, Hadrian," she began hesitantly, his emerald-green eyes snapping from Crookshanks to her face, "I don't think I've ever seen you at Hogwarts before?"
"We moved here from… America" Hadrian explained simply, faltering only for a second. "Mom was called to England by an old obligation, and naturally we followed. And call me 'Harry', 'Hadrian' is just my formal name," he added as Hermione nodded in understanding.
"America? What school did you attend there? I only know of the Salem Institute, and that's a girl's only school," Hermione questioned curiously, only for the door to slid open so a tall brunet boy could trip into the compartment, slamming the door shut behind him with a panicked expression on his face.
As he spun around, his mouth moving silently, Hermione's eyes flicked guiltily to Harry in time to see him sliding his wand back up his sleeve. "Shut up," the black-haired boy demanded coldly, making Neville flinch back in shock as he finally realised someone had cast a silencing charm on him.
Mouthing what was obviously "I'm sorry," Neville quickly pulled his trunk out of his pocket and shot Hermione a hopeful look, making her draw her wand and unshrink it before levitating it up beside her own.
"Neville," Hermione began slowly after making sure that they hadn't accidentally woken Jared, "This is Harry Evans. He and his brother are transfers from America. Harry, this is Neville Longbottom, my friend".
Neville opened his mouth to speak but paused and shot Hermione a sheepish look, making her roll her eyes and flick her wand in his direction. "Uh, sorry. About before," Neville whispered guiltily, "But I saw Malfoy heading this way, and I guess I panicked".
As Harry murmured out a clearly reluctant greeting, Hermione quickly cast the strongest compulsion and notice-me-not charms she could manage on the door, hoping to keep Malfoy and the Slytherins away. With You-Know-Who's apparent return last year, as claimed by Albus Dumbledore and the Triwizard Champion Cedric Diggory, the Slytherins had become almost impossible to deal with. Hermione was fully aware that she was a 'mudblood', thank you very much, there was no need to remind her of that every single sentence.
"Harry Potter!" Neville suddenly exclaimed, making sleepy growls rumble from both Crookshank's and Jared's chests. "You're… you're Harry Potter," Neville repeated more quietly, making Hermione instantly start studying the other teenager.
He definitely had black hair and the emerald green eyes, 'The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts' did say he had his father's hair and his mother's eyes, but other than that Hermione had no way of knowing whether he was or wasn't Harry Potter beyond the lack of the lightning bolt scar on his visible forehead.
"I go by Evans now," Harry corrected bluntly, confirming Neville's accusation as he sniffed and turned his head to stare out the window.
"Why?" Neville blurted dumbly, "And where did you go? You and your mum just vanished years ago".
"We moved," Harry said coldly, sending Neville a look that screamed 'Leave me alone' before glancing out the window as the train started moving away from the station.
"Who's he?" Neville asked, apparently not picking up on either Harry's unspoken or spoken orders to stop talking. "You don't have a brother. Our parents were friends, I would know if you had a brother".
"He's my brother," Harry growled out, a hostile look flickering across his face.
"Did your mum remarry?" Neville asked curiously.
"Neville," Harry ground out, his eyes seeming to glow for a moment, staring down Neville who finally caught on and shrunk away from him, "Shut up".
"So Harry," Hermione said quickly, trying to distract Harry from the annoyance she could see in his green eyes. "Do you know about the Hogwarts houses? Which one were you hoping to get into?"
"Granger".
Hermione barely resisted the urge to curse as she scrambled to catch her book, the sudden appearance of one of Hogwarts' new celebrities startling her from her book as Jared Evans sat opposite her.
"Oh don't have a heart attack over little ol' me," Jared drawled slowly, Harry's blonde 'brother' from the train last night somehow managing to look both lazy and elegant as he lounged in his armchair, hazel eyes watching her in amusement. "From what I've heard, Hogwarts would lose her brightest student if you were to snuff it," he continued as Hermione straightened up to scowl at him.
"Well I won't have a heart attack if you stop trying to scare me," she snapped defensively, her heart beat pounding in her ears as Jared just smirked.
"Trying? Who's trying?" he countered innocently, "A downworlder could have rampaged through here and you wouldn't have even twitched".
Fighting to resist the urge to pull a face at him, Hermione's mind finally caught up to his words, and she frowned instead. "What's a 'downworlder'?" she asked curiously.
Jared's face twisted into an angelic grin, one that made her instantly suspicious as he waved a hand dismissively. "Don't worry your pretty little head about that," he said calmly, "Perhaps you could instead worry about escorting Harry and I to the Great Hall for breakfast?" he asked.
"No," Hermione refused without thinking about it, opening her book again and returning her attention to it.
One heartbeat passed…
Two heartbeats passed…
Three heartbeats passed…
Four heartbeats passed and Hermione peered up at Jared through her fringe to find that Harry had joined him silently and now both teens were staring at her expectantly.
"Oh fine!" she blurted before she could stop herself, a smug look flashing through Jared's eyes as she threw her book down and looked up at them both properly. "Good morning Harry," she said politely, promptly beginning to ignore the smirking Jared, "Did you sleep well?"
"The bed was too small and the redheaded boy snored," Harry said with a simple shrug, Hermione's eyes being drawn to a flicker of black beneath his rolled-up shirt sleeves. "You kept kicking me," he added absently, lightly nudging a bored looking Jared in the side of the head.
"Maybe you should've laid still then dumbass," Jared muttered dismissively as he flicked through Hermione's book. "Where are the pictures?" he whined as she snatched it back and clutched it to her chest.
"Or maybe," Hermione began with a sniff, "You could just sleep in your own beds".
"We've been sharing a bed since we were still in diapers," Harry snorted, elbowing Jared over and sliding down onto the seat as well. "And if I can't share a bed with my parabatai then what's the point in even having one?"
"For whither thou goest, I will go, and where thou lodgest, I will lodge," both boys said simultaneously without looking at each other, as Harry kept studying Hermione and Jared was once again flicking through the book that he had somehow stolen from her arms without her noticing.
"Parabaiti? Whether thou goest?" Hermione repeated dumbly, feeling her eye beginning to twitch at the slang the boys were using.
"Parabatai," Harry corrected absently as he tugged the book from the other's hands and held it back out for her, "We are parabatai, bonded together for eternity before the Angel".
"You're… married?" Hermione exhaled slowly, trying and failing to imagine herself being married at the age of fifteen.
Almost instantly both boys started gagging and pulling faces, "He's my brother," Jared exclaimed looking sick, "That's just gross".
"It's a platonic bond," Harry assured her quickly, looking a little green as well, as Hermione felt herself flushing and shifting awkwardly in embarrassment. "So how about that breakfast?" he asked hopefully after a moment' pause, during which they all strived to avoid the other's eye.
"Right!" Hermione blurted, grateful for the distraction, "I'll just go get my things".
As he watched Hermione rushing towards the girl's dormitory, Harry let out a slow sigh, relaxing back into the armchair with Jared's comforting warmth squished against him.
"'So how about that breakfast'," his brother in all but blood muttered beside him, making Harry grimace at what he knew Jared was about to say. "Talk about smooth, Harry".
"Bite me," Harry snapped, scowling at his brother. The dark look quickly transformed into a guilty one as Jared just raised an eyebrow at him, "Sorry".
"Don't apologize to me, apologize to Hermione," Jared dismissed, "It's her mind that will be destroyed when the Clave find out she knows about us, all because you couldn't get your mouth shut. Telling her about the parabatai? Really?"
Shifting uncomfortably at the judging note in his distant cousin's voice, Harry grinned sheepishly at him instead.
"Sorry," he repeated defensively, "I'm not an actor".
"Not with that poker face you're not," Jared agreed as he wiggled out of the armchair, giving Harry the whole seat to spread out across. "Seriously Harry, we're not here to make friends," he reminded bluntly, "We're only staying long enough to kill their Dark Lord and vanquish his demon-buddies".
Harry snorted at his parabatai's comment, "We're Shadowhunters, Jared, we hunt demons for a living, we never get to have friends".
Parabatai
Just in case it wasn't made obvious by their denial, this isn't a slash story. Jared and Harry are truly nothing than soul-bound brothers, using the parabatai concept from the Mortal Instruments.
Okay… so I've just finished reading the Mortal Instruments this afternoon on the bus home from work (Which is tiring, can't I just go back to high school?), and having the movie as well I couldn't resist writing a crossover idea like this.
Now, this story will never be posted, since if I'm going to post one it's going to be completely different, I'm just trialling out the mashup.
I don't own Harry Potter or the Mortal Instruments.
