"Hurry up, or you'll be late!" Ms. Yang told her children, lightly steering them through platform 9 ¾ by the shoulders.
"A wizard is never late, nor is he early!" the son declared, gesturing theatrically with his right hand while his left gripped the trolley even harder in quiet anticipation.
"He arrives precisely when he has to!" the daughter finished.
"A wise saying if it weren't for the fact that this train leaves at 9 o'clock! Get going now!" Ms. Yang pressed a kiss on each of her children's foreheads, rustled the flat hair of one while smoothing out the fluffy locks of the other's, before telling them to be safe, smart and careful, the little rascals.
And as she watched them load their trunks and pets up, she couldn't help but wish their father to be there for them, too.
Harry Potter had just gone through his first chocolate frog when the door to their compartment slid open.
"Mind if we sit here? The compartment we were in was full of racists," said the girl who had opened it. Her fluffy black hair was cut to chin length and her stormy grey eyes seemed to take up half of her round face.
Harry did not, in fact, mind, so he scooted over to make way for the two siblings- for there was no way they weren't related. Despite all the similarities between them, however, there were just as many differences.
While the sister's eyes were as big as saucers, the brother's were sharp and angled, strangely reminding Harry of the silver knives in Aunt Petunia's stash of fancy cutlery. While one's hair was bouncy and full of life, the other's sat atop his head flatly, silky and a little too long at the front and sides.
"I'm Lyrae, and this is my twin brother Leo!" the girl said. Harry noticed she omitted her last name, but decided to pay it no mind.
"I'm Harry. Harry Potter," he said.
The two stared at him, and then at his forehead. Lyrae hummed and nodded to herself while Leo frowned slightly, staring at Harry like he was a vaguely interesting lamp.
"Harry Potter," Lyrae said, as if Harry had not already told her his name. "Makes sense. You kind of look like the pictures. Of your dad, I mean."
This surprised Harry and he made no effort to hide it.
"Our p- mother was a close friend of Mr and Ms Potter," Lyrae explained. "Can you pass me a choco frog?"
"Poor way to make this poor boy receive poor information," Leo said. "Very poor execution, indeed."
Ron was still chewing through the rather large pumpkin pastry he'd stuffed into his mouth hole, unable to speak. He did try to share his bemusement about Leo's strangeness, but the effect from his eyes were undermined by the effect of him having an entire pastry in his mouth.
"Was she really?" Harry asked, hope rising in his chest. Lyrae nodded, taking a chocolate frog.
"She's got a whole album, right? And she shows us most of the pictures- well, showed us, we've gotten through the whole thing at least three times by now... I'll ask her if you can borrow it for a lil' bit."
She passed a cauldron cake to her brother, who currently seemed to have his head in the clouds.
"Are you a Weasley?" Lyrae asked Ron, who nodded. He swallowed the rest of his pastry and answered with, "Yeah, I'm Ron."
Lyrae stuck out her hand for him to shake with a flourish. Her grip was strong and confident when Ron took it.
"Could you pass me a choco frog?" she asked Harry again. He handed two of them over to her, which she took with a big smile and a little hop in her seat. "Thanks!"
She didn't talk for a while after that, instead eating the two treats painstakingly slowly while her brother had finished the cauldron cake within two seconds.
"You two are going into firs' year, right?" he asked. "Don't answer that. Of course you are, we're the same age. Anyway. What house are you two aiming for?"
"Everyone in my family are Gryffindors, so I kind of have to be one, I'm hoping to get sorted into there," Ron said. "Gryffindor's the best house," he added to Harry, who decided that his limited knowledge wasn't enough to form an opinion on that subject.
"The brave, noble and chivalrous," Leo said in a quiet voice, almost to himself. "Good house, yes... Our father was in Gryffindor. I'd be fine with Gryffindor... 'Course, Mum was sorted into Hufflepuff, I might have a chance to go there... Slytherin though…"
"Bunch of jerks, they are. Pureblood supremacists, all of them," Ron said. Leo shrugged, frowning into the wall opposite of himself.
"I have an aunt- more like a second cousin, but whatever -she's a Slytherin and she's one of the best people I've met." He smiled innocently at Ron's flabbergasted face. "I guess I would eventually not mind being in Slytherin… After getting used to it... Eventually."
"Well, I hope you get sorted into Gryffindor with me," the red haired boy told Harry, turning away from Leo. "If I was sorted into Slytherin, or any of the other houses, I think I'd just give up being a wizard altogether!"
"Even Hufflepuff?" Leo seemed to not comprehend Ron's preferences. "Loyal, open minded and honest. Good qualities. Or Ravenclaw- wise, clever and witty."
"Well- I mean, my entire family's been in Gryffindor," Ron repeated. Leo snapped his fingers and pointed at Ron with his index triumphantly.
"Loyalty, a Hufflepuff trait!"
Ron's face went red. He stayed quiet for a moment, before nodding half halfheartedly.
"I'm guessing you'd like to go to Gryffindor, Harry?" asked Leo, tilting his head to the side.
"Were my parents Gryffindors?" Harry said, trying to remember if he'd ever been told such a thing. Leo nodded in affirmative.
"Then I guess that's where I'd like to be."
"Pride in your family history- a common Slytherin trait-"
"Leave the poor blokes alone," Lyrae told her brother. She'd pulled out a notepad and had started to note and sketch in sharp strokes of the pen in her hands. She looked up at her brother, smiling in amusement. "Your obsession with pointing out other people's potential in all the houses except the one they want to be in is going to end you, one day."
"Your sister's right, mate," Ron said, reaching for a sack of Every Flavoured Beans. He opened it and showed Harry its contents.
"You've never had Bertie Bott's Every Flavoured Beans, I'm guessing," he said. "You need to be careful with them. When they say every flavour, they really mean every flavour. You've got the ordinary ones, like chocolate and peppermint and marmalade, but then you get spinach and liver and tripe. George reckons he got a bogey flavoured one once."
Ron took one and popped it into his mouth. Soon enough, his face contorted in distaste. "See? Sprouts."
Leo reached over and took four for himself and examined them carefully. He ate the plain red one and made the same face as Ron.
"Which one'd you get? Blood or something?" he half joked, dreading the answer.
"Cherry." He swallowed hard, his face still contorted. "Can you two find me cinnamon- dark red with dark spots, although some of those might be liver, they're pretty similar."
They had a good time eating the Every Flavoured Beans. Lyrae eventually joined in, but stopped soon after getting a pickle-flavoured one.
Harry was even brave enough to nibble on the grey one none of the others would touch, which ended up being pepper.
The countryside turned from big fields to trees, to a winding river and back to trees. Lyra had asked if she and Ron could switch places so she could look out the window.
There was a knock on the door of their compartment and a round faced blonde boy came in. He looked tearful.
"Sorry, but have you seen a toad at all?" he asked. When they all shook their heads, he wailed. "I've lost him! He keeps getting away from me!"
"He'll turn up," Harry said.
"Yes… Well, if you see him…"
"I could help you find him," offered Lyrae, but the boy had already left.
"I might've seen a frog when we went past compartment 28," said Leo, "but that one was in some other girl's hands. Honestly though, I don't think having a frog's going to help out at Hogwarts. You'd get teased endlessly." He pointed at the rat on Ron's lap, who was still snoozing away. "Same thing goes for your rat. Sorry, mate."
"I know, I know," Ron admitted. "Scabbers might have died and you wouldn't know the difference. I tried to make him yellow yesterday, but the spell didn't work. Look, I'll show you."
He rummaged around his trunk and pulled out a very old and battered wand. It was chipped in places and something like unicorn hair poked out from the tip.
"Unicorn's 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 buck toothed, bushy haired girl with him. She was already wearing her black school robes.
"Have any of you seen a toad? Neville's lost one," she asked.
"We've already told him we haven't seen it," Ron said, but she wasn't listening anymore. She was staring at the wand he had in his hand.
"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it, then." She sat down right next to Leo. The grey eyed boy froze up, his face getting stuck in a wide eyed and blank expression.
"Uh. Alright," Ron said, looking fairly taken aback. He cleared his throat.
"Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow,
Turn this stupid fat rat yellow."
Nothing happened. Scabbers stayed grey and asleep.
"No way is that a spell," Lyrae said, looking away from the window.
"What if you said it in Latin?" Leo suggested, grinning.
"I can't believe you ever thought that was a real spell, who gave it to you?" Hermione asked. "I've tried a few simple spells 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 learnt all our set books off by heart, of course, I just hope it'll be enough- I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?"
She said all this unbelievably fast.
They were all stunned. None of them had even tried learning one of the books by heart, never mind all of them.
"I'm Ron Weasley," Ron muttered.
"I'm Lyrae, this is Leo."
"Harry Potter."
"Are you really?" Hermione asked.
"I think he knows his own name," Lyrae said, rolling her eyes. Hermione frowned at her, but seemed to have decided that arguing wasn't worth her time..
"Do any of you know what house you'll be in?" she said instead. "I've been asking around. I hope I'm in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best. I heard Dumbledore himself was one, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be so bad."
"You know," Leo said, taking a crescent moon shaped lollipop, "you shouldn't see Gryffindor as your only option, or the best option. You might be disappointed."
"Yes, well, we'll see when the time comes, won't we? Anyway, we'd better go and look for Neville's toad. You four had better change, you know, I expect we'll be there soon."
And she left, taking the toadless boy with her.
"Whatever house she's in, I hope I'm not in it," Ron grumbled. He threw his wand back into his trunk.
"That's not very nice, Ron," Lyrae said, but there was no real conviction to her words.
"I don't care," the redhead said. "Stupid spell. George gave it to me, bet he knew it was a dud."
"Your brothers- you said your whole family was in Gryffindor?" Harry asked.
"Yeah." Ron got all gloomy again. "I don't know what Mum and Dad'll say if I end up somewhere else. But any house other than Slytherin is fine by me."
"That's the house Vol- I mean, You-Know-Who was in, right?" Harry said.
"Yeah," Ron answered, flopping back into his seat, looking depressed.
"You know, I think the ends of Scabbers' whiskers are a bit lighter," Harry said, trying to get Ron's mind off the subject. "So what do your oldest brothers do now they've left, anyway?"
"Charlie's in Roumania studying dragons and Bill's in Africa doing something for Gringotts," the redhead replied. "Did you hear about Gringotts?" he asked the grey eyed siblings. "It's been all over the Daily Prophet. I don't suppose you get that with the Muggles, Harry. Someone tried to rob a high security vault."
"You're kidding!" Lyrae gasped.
"I'm serious, mate. Nothing happened to them, which is 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've taken anything, that's what's odd."
"I think Mum was reading about it this morning," Leo said. "She looked worried and spilled her tea all over it. I got a look while it was in the bin."
"Exactly," Ron agreed. "'Course, everyone gets scared when something like this happens in case You-Know-Who's behind it." He turned to Harry and abruptly asked, "What's your Quidditch team?"
"Er, I don't know any," Harry admitted.
"No way," Lyrae breathed out in disbelief. "You don't know anything of Quidditch, do you?"
"No, not really," he answered.
"Oh, you wait, it's the best sport in the entire world," Ron said. And he and Lyrae were off, explaining the game played on broomsticks with hoops, different balls, seven players, what kind of broom they'd like to buy if they could. Ron even started describing the famous games he'd been to with his brothers. They were just taking Harry through the finer points of the game when the compartment door slid open again, but it wasn't Neville or Hermione Granger this time.
Instead, there were three boys. The leader of the gang was pale, with a very pointed face and platinum blonde hair. He was looking at Harry in great interest.
"Is it true?" he said. "They're saying all down the train that Harry Potter's in this compartment. So, it's you, isn't it?"
"Yes," Harry answered. He looked over at the two large boys standing behind the pale boy.
"Oh, this is Crabbe and Goyle," he said carelessly, noticing where Harry was looking.
"And my name's Malfoy. Draco Malfoy."
Lyrae's face twisted in displeasure, Leo's peaceful expression turned hard as stone and Ron gave a slight cough, which might have been a snicker.
"Think my name's funny, do you?" Malfoy asked, sneering. "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 some wizard families are much better than others, Potter. You don't want to make friends with the wrong sort."
"Now, you're technically insulting your own relatives, Malfoy," Leo said coldly before he could continue. Malfoy turned to him, his sneer coming back.
"And who might you be?"
"Leo…" Lyrae said in a low voice, shooting a hesitant look between Malfoy and her brother.
"Cousin?!" Ron whispered, turning wide, disbelieving eyes at the two.
"Leo Black-Yang, pleasure to make your acquaintance," Leo continued. Malfoy scoffed.
"As far as I'm concerned, we're not related, half-blood. If I remember right, your father married your mudblood of a mother. Wasn't he disinherited?" Harry didn't know what "mudblood" meant, but by the shocked faces of Lyrae and Ron, it must've been bad.
"Yes, he was. And that's the only thing I'm proud of him for, really," Leo said.
"Ah, yes, I remember. Isn't he in Azkaban now?"
"Which is more than anyone could say of your father, Malfoy, despite the fact that he deserves just as much," Lyrae snapped. Malfoy's face turned a very pale pink, before turning sharply to Harry.
"As you can see, I can help you with becoming friends with the right families. Stop you from mingling with the wrong sort." He stuck out his pale hand for Harry to shake.
The black haired boy regarded him coldly, ignoring the offered hand. "I think I can tell who the wrong sort are for myself, thanks."
Malfoy turned a slightly darker pink.
"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 riff-raffs like the Weasleys and that Hagrid and it'll rub off on you." He turned to Leo and Lyrae.
"As for these Blacks, well, let's just say making friends with them won't be in favour of your well being."
All four of them stood up abruptly. Ron's face was as red as his hair, Lyrae's grey eyes shone with anger and Leo's impassive face had begun twitching.
"Say that again," Ron growled out.
"Oh, you're going to fight us, are you?" Malfoy sneered.
"Unless you get out now," Harry said.
He knew they couldn't take them. It might be four against two- no way would Malfoy get involved in the fight- but Crabbe and Goyle were much bigger than them. They wouldn't win if a fight breaks out, that's for sure.
"But we don't feel like leaving, do we, boys?" Malfoy asked Crabbe and Goyle. "We've eaten all our food and you still seem to have some."
Goyle reached out to the chocolate frogs next to Ron. Ron leapt forward, but before he even touched Goyle, the large boy let out a horrible yell.
Scabbers was hanging off his finger, sharp teeth sunk deep into Goyle's knuckle. Crabbe and Malfoy backed away as Goyle swung Scabbers round and round, and when the rat finally flew off and hit the window, all three of them disappeared at once. Maybe they thought more secret rats were hidden in the candy, ready to pounce, or maybe they heard the footsteps of Hermione Granger. She came in, looking around at the sweets and rappers all over the floor and Ron picking up Scabbers by the tail.
"What has been going on?" she asked.
"I think he's been knocked out," Ron said, ignoring Hermione. He looked closer at Scabbers. "No. I don't believe it- he's gone back to sleep." Lyrae barked out a laugh at that.
"You've met Malfoy before?" Ron asked Harry.
"I was getting my robes fixed and all, and he was next to me. He wasn't very pleasant," Harry explained.
"That's an understatement," Lyrae muttered.
"I've heard of his family," Ron said darkly. "They were some of the first to come back to our side after You-Know-Who's 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."
"Got that right," Lyrae said. "Some people think that the Malfoys bribed their way to freedom. Which sucks, because Draco Malfoy's my dad's cousin's son, and it makes me and Leo look worse by association."
"I mean… we wouldn't have the best reputation anyway, with our dad being who he is an all…" Leo said, his face and voice still strangely blank. Harry was tempted to ask what he had meant by that, but something in the siblings' guarded expression told him not to.
Ron turned to Hermione, who was still standing there.
"Do you need help with something?" he asked.
"You'd better hurry up and pull your robes on," she said. "I've just been up the front to ask the driver and he says we're nearly there. You haven't been fighting, have you? You'll be in trouble before we even get there!"
"Scabbers has been fighting, not us," Ron said, scowling at her. "Would you mind leaving while we change?"
"All right. I only came in here because people outside are behaving very childishly, racing up and down the corridors," the bushy haired girl said in a sniffy voice. "And you've got dirt on your nose, by the way, did you know?"
And she left, Ron glaring at her from behind.
It was getting dark, the sky a deep purple behind the mountains and forests. The train seemed to be slowing down.
They all pulled their black robes over their muggle clothes. Lyrae helped Harry with putting it on correctly, telling him that he'll learn how to wear the wizard clothes sooner or later.
"We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time," a voice could be heard saying. "Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately."
Harry felt very stressed, and Ron didn't look any better if his pale face was anything to go by. Leo's calm demeanor had left him, replaced with a deep frown and trembling hands, while Lyrae was anxiously chewing on her bottom lip. They filled the pockets of their robes with the last of the sweets and joined the other students filling up the corridors.
The train slowed down to a stop. People pushed their way to the doors and onto a small and dark platform outside. It was rather cold outside. Then, a lamp started bobbing above them and they heard a loud, gruff voice.
"Firs' years! Firs' years over here! All right there, Harry?" Harry felt a burst of relief at the sight of Hagrid, as big as the last time they'd seen each other.
"C'mon, follow me," he was saying. "Any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!"
They did just that. Slipping and stumbling, they followed Hagrid down a steep, narrow path. It was very dark on either side of them. Nobody spoke much, too afraid to do so.
"Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," Hagrid promised them. "Jus' round this bend here."
There was a loud 'Oooooh!'
The narrow path ended and opened up to a big black lake. On the other side, a huge castle with many towers and turrets rested atop a large mountain, it's windows like tiny suns in the night sky.
"No more'n four to a boat," Hagrid boomed over the first years, pointing to a fleet of small boats sitting in the water by the shore. Harry, Ron, Leo and Lyrae all went into the same boat.
"Everyone in?" shouted Hagrid, who had a boat to himself. "Right then - FORWARD!"
The fleet moved off all at once, gliding across the smooth, dark lake where the sky could be seen reflected. Everyone was silent, looking up at the big castle overhead. It towered over them as they glided nearer and nearer towards the cliff on which it stood.
"Heads down!" Hagrid yelled as the first boats reached the cliff. They all bent down in their little boats, which carried them through a curtain of ivy hiding a large opening in the cliff face. They were carried through a dark tunnel, almost like a cave, Hagrid's lantern the only light source. The tunnel seemed to be taking them to right underneath the castle until they reached a kind of underground harbour.
Leo and Lyrae looked around, looking excited and pleased.
Hagrid and the tiny first years clambered onto rocks and pebbles up to a passageway.
Adhara heard Hagrid looking through the boats just in case some people forgot something. He found Neville's toad, who was apparently named Trevor. Aludra looked happy at the thought when Adhara told her.
Hagrid walked past the first years and they followed him through the entrance in the rock. They finally came out at the end onto smooth, damp grass in the shadow of the castle.
They all walked up a flight of stone stairs in front of the huge wooden oak doors.
"Everyone there? You there, still got yer toad?"
Hagrid raised his gigantic fist, and they all watched in anticipation and nervousness as he knocked three times on the castle doors.