~Chapter 7~

Come morning, as early as it was, Harry and Tom were excited. They quickly got themselves dressed and made sure their things were packed. Their owls would be caged just before they have to leave. With an hour to spare, they snuck out of the house and went to a nearby shop and bought themselves some sandwiches and a couple of bottles of water, storing them in their school bags. It could be a long ride getting there, unsure if food would be provided or not.

When they were taken to the train station, it was already a little past the time Tom had said, both were doing their best to look worried which wasn't hard. They were worried as they still didn't know how to get to the train. Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, how do they find it? Is it really hidden or maybe it's magically disguised so only wizards see it but not Muggles?

"Sorry about that, hope your train hasn't left yet," Vernon sneered as he dumped their trunks onto a trolley. The boys were holding the cages, placing them on top, and making sure they wouldn't fall. After that, he got back in the car and left them at the station.

Certain they wouldn't see, Tom stuck his tongue out. "Good thing he's stupid."

Harry snickered as they pushed their trolley into the station, looking for the platform, only finding nine and ten.

"You think it's hidden?" Harry asked.

"It has to but I don't know how we'll find it. I'm worried about using our wands with so many people around."

"Yeah…"

Their heads snapped in the direction of voices, spotting a group of people, all redheads passing them.

"…packed with Muggles, of course…"

Relieved to hear there are others, they hurried after them, hoping they'll see how to get through. They stopped the trolley when they stopped between Platforms Nine and Ten, the woman, likely the mother talking to the kids with her.

"Mum, can't I go?"

"You're not old enough, Ginny, now be quiet. All right, Percy, you go first."

A bespectacled teen nodded as he readied his trolley, aiming it at the brick wall connected to nine and ten. Harry and Tom watched, trying not to blink as he marched to the wall but they missed it. One moment he was there at the dividing barrier, then he was gone.

"So that's how we get in!" Tom awed.

They watched as others went through, a pair of boys, twins based on how similar they looked teasing their mother. Not wanting to lose them, they pushed their trolley towards the woman before the last boy went through.

"Excuse me, ma'am?" Tom called, catching her attention.

"Hello, dears," the woman smiled warmly. "First time at Hogwarts? Ron's new too."

She pointed to a boy their age who gave a small wave. They returned it.

"Yes, we are," Harry nodded. "We're just not sure how we get there."

"Well, we think we know, but we want to be certain. We saw those boys vanish, but we don't know how," Tom finished. He felt Harry take his hand, giving it a squeeze which he returned.

"That's because they went through the barrier," she explained with a kind smile. "All you have to do is walk straight at the barrier between platforms nine and ten. Don't stop and don't be scared you'll crash into it, that's very important."

"So it's an illusion to keep Muggles away?" Tom awed.

"That's correct, sweetie. If you're both still nervous, start at a run," the woman suggested, urging them forward. "Go on, go now before Ron."

"Thank you," Harry smiled as they readied themselves.

Their hands were clasped tightly over each other's and on the handle. While they felt she was truthful, having seen the boys go through, they were still nervous.

Facing the wall, they started slowly, picking up the pace faster and faster, having it come closer and closer. They were going so fast they wouldn't be able to stop in time even if they wanted to. As they were just about to hit the wall, they were shocked when there was open-air and a scarlet steam engine. It happened so fast; they barely had time to stop, skidding to a halt. Overhead, they spotted a sign that read Hogwarts Express, eleven o'clock. Behind them was a wrought-iron archway with the words Platform Nine and Three-Quarters on it.

"We…we did it," Tom laughed, his legs trembling. "We did it!"

He threw his arms around the other, both laughing with relief that they've made such a huge step, ignoring the stares sent their way. When they pulled apart, they looked around at all the different people coming and going. There were so many people, so many wizards! Some were in robes, others in Muggle wear, and there were some in a mix. Owls were hooting with cats meowing and hissing from cages. People were talking, adults conversing with their young or each other. Children chattered animatedly, some innocent others more mature.

They pushed their trolley, trying to find a place where they can unload and find themselves a compartment.

"This one looks good," Harry pointed to a spot that looked less busy. It was near the end of the train.

"Great!" Tom grinned as they pushed closer.

As they began to unload, the elder boy ran in to drop their owls off before coming back. They were startled when someone talked to them.

"Want a hand?"

"Oh…um…thank you," Tom flushed. The twins they saw earlier helped bring their trunks inside.

"Wow, did you two get them charmed to be lighter?" the other twin asked.

"Er…yes?"

"We kind of had a lot we wanted to bring…"

"Nice," the other laughed as they helped load them into the compartment.

"Thank you so much," Harry thanked.

"You really didn't have to but it was really nice," Tom continued.

"No problem. Name's Fred," one twin introduced.

"Name's George," the other finished.

"I'm Tom," he greeted, shaking their hands as Harry did the same.

"I'm Harry," the boy greeted.

"Harry? As in Harry Potter? That Harry?" one of them, Fred they think, asked.

"Yes?" he answered a little meekly.

"So what if he is?" Tom huffed protectively.

"Sorry, we just weren't expecting…" the other, George probably, stammered with an embarrassed look.

"You know, having someone famous…"

Before things could become more awkward, the woman from before shouted for the twins. They bid them goodbye, still embarrassed as they hurried down to see their mother.

"That could have gone better," Harry sighed as they slumped into their seats.

Their owl cages were set where they wouldn't be in the way, both birds settling for a nice nap. Harry sat next to the window, Tom joining him, both peering out at the crowd outside. They couldn't hear much what was being said unless the pulled the window down, neither interested at the moment. They were a bit amused though when the woman began washing her youngest son's face and he was clearly fussing against it.

"Do you think your mum would have done that? If things were different I mean," Tom asked as they sat back.

"You mean washing our faces before getting on the train?"

"Yeah… Do you think she'd do that?"

"Maybe… I kind of hope so even if it would be embarrassing," Harry hummed softly before a mischievous smirk formed. "I can just picture how red your face would be if that happened."

"You would be red too!" Tom pouted, his cheeks already burning.

Harry laughed, pulling him into a hug, the other not resisting. They continued to look out the window, watching other families bid their young farewell as they boarded. They turned back to the redheaded family, seeing the oldest had joined them. He was already changed into his uniform, scarlet visible on the trims of his robes.

"He must be in Gryffindor," Tom suspected.

"Because of the colours?" Harry wondered.

"Yeah, I saw a few others already dressed in their robes. Some had yellow, some blue, some red, and some green."

"I guess that makes sense. Makes it easy to know who's in which house than nametags alone."

Tom nodded just as the whistle sounded, startling the boys. They looked out, seeing the mother hurrying the boys onto the train. They leaned out a window for her to kiss them goodbye, the little girl started to cry. Being closer, they could hear their last conversation.

"Don't cry, Ginny, we'll send you loads of owls."

"We'll send you a Hogwarts toilet seat."

"George!"

"Only joking, Mum."

As the train started moving, the mother waved while the little girl tried to chase after, half laughing, half crying while waving her family goodbye. Tom and Harry watched it all, a little saddened they had no one to wave them farewell as much as that woman and her daughter had. As the station disappeared, the boys watched the scenery, watching the houses the train passed. They idly wondered if the train could be seen or if it's been made invisible to Muggles. Either way, the scene was relaxing.

Tom pulled out his charms book, reading over some interesting spells they could learn or try practicing. He had his wand out, resting gently between his fingers. Harry still had his in its holster. He was busy watching the scenery, feeling the other snuggle closer, back pressed against his side. He smiled at how content he looked.

The door to their compartment slid open. Standing there was the redheaded boy they saw earlier, a hopeful look in his eyes.

"Is anyone sitting there?" he asked, pointing at the empty seat opposite of them. "Everywhere else is full."

Both shook their heads, allowing him to steal the seat for himself. The redhead looked at them briefly before looking out the window nervously.

"Hey, Ron."

Eyes turned to the source, seeing the twins had returned.

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

"Right," the boy, Ron, mumbled.

"Harry, right? And Tom?" one of them started.

"Sorry about before. Didn't mean to upset you or make you uncomfortable."

"I suppose it's okay," Harry said quietly, Tom peeking from his book.

"By the way, that's our brother, Ron."

"See you guys later. You're going to love Hogwarts."

With that, they were gone, the door shutting, leaving them with some peace. After a few minutes, Ron shifted.

"So you really are Harry Potter?" he asked. "I mean, when Fred and George said they saw you, I didn't believe them. I thought it was one of their jokes."

"I'm real," Harry answered. He could feel Tom tensing up, having him wrap an arm around him.

"Are you two neighbors or something?" Ron asked.

"We live together. I…I was going to be adopted by Harry's family before…" Tom answered, trailing off. "Well, because of what happened, I was sent to live with Harry's relatives as well."

"Really? I heard rumors there were two babies but hardly anyone believed it."

"Why wouldn't they?"

"I don't know."

"Well, we were together then and still together now."

"I can see that. I also heard you were sent to live with Muggles. What are they like?"

"They're horrible," Tom spat, his hold on the book tightening. "The Dursleys don't even deserve to be called Muggles."

"They're not the nicest," Harry said, tightening his hold over his friend. "But there's this librarian we'd visit a lot and she's really nice. She lets us read all sorts of books and give us snacks if we're there for a long time."

"Muggle books?"

They nodded figuring the chances of a real magical book being inside are slim to none. They told him about the different books they've read, amused whenever anything educational was mentioned, the redhead would make a face. Yet, he was also fascinated because of it.

"Is your whole family full of wizards?" Harry asked curiously.

"Er…yes, I think so," Ron answered. "I think Mum's got a second cousin who's an accountant, but we never talk about him."

"Did he do something bad?" Tom asked worriedly.

"Dunno, he's hardly mentioned. He could just be a private guy."

"I suppose that makes sense," Harry mused. "But even so, that means you must know a lot about magic, right?"

"I guess, I mean I don't know all of it or I wouldn't be going to school," Ron joked.

"Touché," Tom chuckled.

"How much do you guys know?"

"We only just found out we're wizards," Harry answered.

"But we've been trying to catch up," Tom added.

"He makes studying fun."

"Because it can be if you do it right."

Ron chuckled at the light banter between them, already liking them.

"So you know about the houses?" he asked between laughs.

"A little."

"Do you know which ones you'll be in?"

The two shrugged before Tom answered. "I don't really care so long as I'm with Harry."

"Same," Harry added. "What about you?"

"My whole family has been in Gryffindor. It's almost like a family tradition, so I'm probably going to get in," Ron half-joked. "Do you know what houses your parents were in? I mean…"

"We don't know. No one's told us," Harry answered.

"Oh, sorry."

"You didn't know. Maybe Hagrid knows?" Tom said thoughtfully.

"Hagrid? Do you mean the groundskeeper? Charlie's told me a lot about him, how friendly and nice he is. He's supposedly really knowledgeable about magical creatures."

"Hagrid took us out shopping on my birthday," Harry said, relaxing further, feeling Tom doing the same.

Years of bullying from Dudley, it made it difficult for them to make friends. They had tried, but no one at their former school wanted to. They were either too scared of Dudley and his gang to be seen associating with the "freaks," or simply didn't like them. Strangely, it might have been a good thing. Neither knew if they would be able to keep it a secret they're wizards if they had actual Muggle friends. However, now that they're going to be going to Hogwarts, maybe they could try making friends?

"Really? That was nice of him."

"He also got us our owls. Hedwig belongs to Harry. Eliana belongs to me," Tom chimed in, pointing to the owls resting in their cages.

"They're really pretty. All I've got is Scabbers." At this, Ron pulled out a fat grey rat that was snoozing away. "He's pretty useless though. He hardly ever wakes up. Percy got an owl from my dad for being made a prefect, but they couldn't… Well, I just got Scabbers."

"It's better than what we had before," Tom said, feeling a pang of sympathy. It wasn't that long ago they were in rags.

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, well, we just didn't get a lot is all," he answered softly.

Ron looked confused by what he meant before noticing the creature book sticking out of the boy's bag. "Hey, that's pretty cool."

"You can read it if you'd like," Tom offered, passing it to him. The redhead thanked him, thumbing through various pages, amazed by the details.

"I read a bit in our school book for magical creatures but this looks way cooler. It looks like it has some really interesting information I didn't see or ever heard before."

"That's why I thought to bring it. I figured it could have some useful stuff for reports or research," Tom smiled.

"I heard there's a class called Care for Magical Creatures, I bet this would be awesome to use," Ron grinned as he read a few interesting pages. "Charlie would love reading this."

"Is he another brother of yours?" Harry asked.

Ron nodded, "Yeah, I've got five brothers actually. Bill's the oldest, he's already graduated, and so has Charlie. Then there's Percy, Fred, and George. There's also my little sister, Ginny. She'll be starting next year."

His smile fell a bit after mentioning his brothers, causing the other two to wonder what was wrong.

"It's going to be tough, being the sixth to attend," Ron said, closing the book and passing it back. "Bill was head boy and Charlie was captain of Quidditch. Now Percy's a prefect. Fred and George mess around a lot, but they still get really good marks and everyone thinks they're really funny." He let out a sigh, hands clenching. "Everyone expects me to do as well as them, but if I do, it's no big deal, because they did it first."

"Just do what you can," Tom said. "Focus on what you want to do. No one's going to expect you to do well on the first day let along your first year. That'd be pretty stupid. Try and find out what it is you like doing and try and put effort into it, especially if you enjoy it. Who cares if your brothers did it as well? It'll at least still be something you'll like if you don't let the pressure get to you."

"You think so?"

"I'm pretty certain. I'm excited to see how much I can learn and find what I like doing than what people might expect me."

"Yeah, Hagrid even told us to be ourselves," Harry chimed in.

"That's pretty good advice," Ron hummed, feeling a little better. "So what classes are you excited about learning?"

"Charms looks really fun, but Potions looks interesting as well," Tom answered.

"Same. But this Defense Against the Dark Arts looks cool, so does Astronomy."

"Astronomy? But isn't that just looking at stars and planets?"

"Yeah, but it's cool when you think about what those planets and stars can do. There's a lot of astronomy books at the library."

Tom nodded, "I like astronomy to. Given how much information there is for Muggles about it, it'll be interesting to see how it applies to wizards."

"I didn't think about it like that. You guys must have been really good at school."

Neither answered, giving small, but strained smiles. They had wanted to do well, but if they did, they would be punished, so had to purposely fail tests or do poorly on their assignments. It made them feel awful with the looks they'd get. At least now, they should be safe to excel since Dudley's no wizard.

"I suppose. A lot of what we learned was simply from reading at the library," Tom finally answered.

"Oh, well I guess that works. My family's been homeschooled."

"You were?"

"Yeah, lots of magical kids get homeschooled."

"That's rather interesting. But that means you and your family must have learned some unique things that probably wouldn't be taught in school."

"Maybe. Mum showed us a few simple potions and Dad when he was home would talk to us about some Muggle stuff he learned. But they mostly focused on making sure we knew how to read, write, and know math."

"Those are important, math especially. It has a lot of uses," Tom smiled.

"Mum said that to and has us practice. Percy and Bill are really good. It makes sense for Bill since he's working at Gringotts."

"I thought only goblins worked in Gringotts?" Harry blinked in surprise.

"Pretty much, but they do hire wizards now and again. Bill mostly works as a curse breaker but he'll work in other departments that require advanced math. Percy though really likes it. He's been talking about working for the Ministry and I know they use a lot of math. My dad works there and I sometimes see his paperwork on his desk and there can be a lot of numbers on it."

They were interrupted when the door opened, revealing a smiling dimpled woman pushing a cart full of treats.

"Anything off the cart, dears?"

Enticed, Harry was on his feet, almost dropping Tom who shot him a halfhearted glare as he sat more upright. Ron's face went red, muttering about bringing sandwiches. Harry looked at what was in the cart, wondering what sort of food would be served. It was mostly snacks, mildly grateful they brought sandwiches not that it stopped him from picking a bit of everything. Some thought looked really good and got more of, knowing he and Tom would enjoy it. Ron blinked in surprise when Harry came back with as much as he could carry, Tom wearing an amused smile.

"You know we got sandwiches, right?" Tom teased.

"Yeah, but why not try snacks and candies made by wizards?" Harry teased back.

"You never had this stuff before?" Ron questioned.

Both shook their heads, Tom commenting they rarely ever got candy.

"At least, you're getting to try them now, right?" Ron said with a laugh.

"Yeah," Harry smiled.

Tom nodded as he pulled out his sandwiches and water, Harry doing the same. They noticed Ron pulling out sandwiches of his own, though he was grimacing at them.

"She always forgets I don't like corned beef," he sighed.

"I can trade you one of mine. I've never tried corned beef before," Tom offered, holding a sandwich out to him.

"It's all dry, you won't like it. She hasn't got much time, you know…"

"It's okay."

"If you say so," Ron said, passing one over, taking the offered sandwich. Harry was already nibbling one of his. Seeing Tom not getting sick or looking grossed out, he traded one of his sandwiches and a pastry for one as well.

After a few minutes, they finished not only the sandwiches but began on the various sweets. Tom let out a yelp when a frog bounced out of its box. Ron was laughing, having to explain what they were and what they did. He also told them about the cards, Tom finding his being a wizard named Archibald Alderton. Harry unwrapped one of his own, finding his card to be someone named…

"So this is Dumbledore!" Harry awed, showing Tom.

"Whoa…"

"You never heard of him before?"

They shook their heads.

"Wow…hey um…is it okay if I have a chocolate frog? I want to see if I can get Agrippa or maybe Ptolemy."

They passed Ron some, the boy unwrapping as the pair went to study their cards, finding the wizards in them gone. They showed Ron who told them that was normal, the boys sharing that pictures normally don't move where they lived. Holographic images maybe but that's more a trick of the eye than actual magic. Ron found that weird but cool Muggles made something like that.

Tom and Harry agreed that magic was amazing as they opened more boxes and got more cards. They watched them come and go, reading about who they are and what they're famous for. Ron would pass them any he already has to add to their newly forming collection much to their delight.

This was a bit fun to work on from how Harry and Tom react to the interactions they have with more people they meet.

I want to thank Krysania (Tat) for helping me with this chapter.