Chapter Eight - Somewhere Between Two Platforms

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—∞·Chapter Summary·∞—

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Harry's summer is about to end. Now, it is time to go back to London and catch the train.

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Somewhere Between Two Platforms

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Harry woke at five o'clock the next morning, too nervous to go back to sleep. He ended up outside his room's terrace stroking Hedwig's feathers who just got home from a hunt in the evening. The night before they went to bed, Bill made sure he got everything he needed. All his stuff is now packed inside his Royal Blue trunk that bore the distinctive Potter's crest. The older men hadn't woken up until after six. They had their breakfast in the garden as per Harry's request which the house-elves complied to without any hesitations.

They made it back to London at half-past ten. The train is scheduled to leave at eleven o'clock so they have enough time to send him off.

"Bloody hell, Billie. Why on Merlin's beard do we have to be wearing muggle suits, eh?" Charlie kept complaining since they'd left Bucharest. Both boys wore identical pitch-black suits with matching scarlet ties. The only thing the younger Weasley liked about their outfit was the aviator sunglasses they wore as part of the disguise. He didn't mind wearing it despite the heavy glamour charm they applied on their faces so as not to be recognized.

Harry couldn't keep himself from sniggering at the sight of the two. Bill's obsession over muggle fashion seems to have gotten overboard to the point of catching attention. Contrary to their goal of keeping a low profile, they look like formal bodyguards looking after a spoiled brat wearing V-necked jumper over a powder blue shirt and a crimson tie. Harry looked more casual in it causing Charlie to groan enviously at his mate for enjoying such leniency.

"Tone your voice down," Bill shushes him. "The more you whine, the more they'd notice us." He warns. "Get used to it. You're lucky we have less than an hour left before you can put them off later."

"Urgh! This is ridiculous."

"Here we are. King's Cross Station."

They stood before a busy railway terminal in Central London. Charlie loaded his trunk onto a cart and wheeled it for him as they went into the platform. On their way, Harry looks at his train ticket. It was the first time he glimpsed at it after they bought it for him the other week.

"It says here that I take the train from Platform Nine and Three-quarters at eleven o'clock." He read out loud. "Is there such a thing?"

Both brothers smirk at him. "You'll find out soon, Harry dear."

They halted between the spot where a big plastic number nine over one platform and another big plastic number ten over the one next to it. There's a stone brick wall separating both from each other. If he understood the ticket right, his platform should've been somewhere in the middle.

"Charlie, look around." Bill grunts.

"Don't worry, brother o'mine. I cast us all a disillusionment charm."

"Good thinking on that. Harry and I will go first."

The boy gaped at both boys with a dumb look asking, "where we going?"

Bill points at the brick wall in front of them. "We're going to walk straight at the barrier between platforms nine and ten. Now, pay attention. Don't stop and don't be scared, you'll crash into it, that's very important. Best we do it on a bit of a run if you're nervous."

Harry thought it was a good idea, so he nodded.

They started to walk toward it. People jostled them on their way to the two platforms in between. Harry walked more quickly. His mind tells him he was going to smash right into the wall and then, they'd be in trouble. But then again, Bill's right next to him. Being reminded of the man's presence made him feel more at ease.

Leaning forward on his cart, he broke into a trot. The barrier was coming nearer and nearer— he won't be able to stop. The cart was out of control and they were a foot away. He closed his eyes ready for the crash but nothing's happening yet.

It didn't come… he kept on moving further. He opened his eyes, and a scarlet steam engine was waiting next to a platform packed with people. A sign overhead said, "Hogwarts Express", Eleven o'clock". Harry looked behind him to see a wrought-iron archway where the barrier had been, with the words "Platform Nine and Three-Quarters" whittled on it.

Smoke from the engine drifted over the heads of the chattering crowd, while cats of every color wound here and there between their legs. Owls hooted to one another in a disgruntled sort of way over the babbling and scraping of heavy trunks.

Charlie appears from the said archway shortly after them. He turns to Bill, whispering, "mum and the others are here. We better hurry."

The other redhead agrees. They headed forward a bit faster as soon as they heard a familiar voice muttering, "it's the same every year, packed with muggles, of course" until they reached nearly far behind the train. The first few carriages are already packed with students, some hanging out of the window to talk to their families, some fighting over seats. They passed a round-faced boy who was saying, "Gran, I've lost my toad again."

"Oh, Neville," he heard the old woman sigh.

A boy with dreadlocks was surrounded by a small crowd.

"Give us a look, Lee, go on."

The boy lifted the lid of the box in his arms, and the people around him shrieked and yelled as something inside poked out a long, hairy leg.

"Pretty sure the twins will be excited to see that," Bill growled under his breath.

The trio pressed on through the crowd until they found an empty compartment. Charlie put the sleeping Hedwig inside her cage first and with Bill's help, carried and shoved his trunk toward the train door's slide panel.

"Better. You're all set." The older guy brushed the dust off his hands. "Now, remember what we told you..."

"That I'll be a good boy and keep myself out of trouble and if possible, Dumbledore."

Bill chuckles, "that's good to know."

Charlie took his hand gently and messed his hair, "I'll miss you, little guy." He said.

"Me too," the boy admitted without looking him in the eyes.

"You will write to us soon, wouldn't you?"

"You bet I will."

Bill pulls a small blue notebook from his coat pocket and hands it over to the kid."Here. This is faster than sending over poor Hedwig."

Harry looks at him, then at the blank pages. He's waiting for instructions on how to make it work. It's been weeks but magic still confounds him, you know.

"All you have to do is write the name of the person you wish to send the message to. Charlie and I have the same we can use. This would also keep anyone from suspecting. The goblins told me people at the castle expect you to receive nothing."

The boy scowls. It makes him angrier how people did an almost perfect job in making sure he had a miserable life. If not for the goblins or for Bill, he couldn't imagine what his life would've been.

"We have to go now, Kiddo. We will move to the hamlet before the weekend." The older Weasley ruffles his hair. "We expect to hear from you tonight, okay?"

"Okay."

With a farewell smile, both boys disappear. Harry was left outside his compartment standing. He whirled around when he heard the noise of two boys struggling. Why? It's the twins! They try to heave two trunks toward the train door but are having a hard time. Twice they dropped each painfully on their feet cussing in pain afterward.

"Want a hand?" He politely asks the two.

"Sure, mate. Would love to." One of them panted.

With Harry's help, both trunks were at last tucked away in a corner of an empty compartment at the end of the train.

"Thanks," they said all together.

"Oh, it was nothing," says the boy shyly who pushes the sweaty hair out of his forehead.

"What's that?" One of the boys gasped all of a sudden. He was pointing at Harry's lightning bolt scar that looked almost faded like it's barely there.

"Blimey," says the other twin. "Are you—?"

"He is," adds the first one, stupidly smiling. "Aren't you?"

"What?"

"Harry Potter." They blurted in a chorus.

"Oh, him." Harry shrugs. He wondered how they noticed the scar when it's no longer that noticeable. "I mean, yes, I am."

He made a mental note to be more careful with these two.

The two boys gawked at him and Harry felt himself turning red. To his relief, a voice came floating in through the train's open door.

"Fred? George? Are you there?"

"Coming, Mom."

With a last look at him, the twins hopped off the train.

Harry sat down next to the window where he was half-hidden. He took a book Bill charmed to shrink inside his jumper so he can use it to kill his boredom during the entire duration of the trip. Despite being hidden, he could hear Bill and Charlie's family talking. Their mother had just taken out her handkerchief.

"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 nostrils.

"Mom— geroff", He wriggled free.

"Aaah, has ickle Ronnie got somefink on his nosie?" said one of the twins.

"Shut up," Ron retorts.

"Where's Percy?" Their mother looked around for another redhead in the jostling crowd.

"He's coming now."

The oldest boy came striding into sight. He had already changed into his billowing black Hogwarts robes, and Harry noticed a shiny silver badge on his chest with the letter P on it.

"Can't stay long, Mother," he said. "I'm up in front, the prefects have got two compartments to themselves—"

"Oh, are you a prefect, Percy?" one of the twins teases him with an air of great surprise. "You should have said something, we had no idea."

"Hang on, I think I remember him saying something about it," the other twin chides. "Once—"

"Or twice—"

"A minute—"

"Hang on—"

"All summer—"

"Oh, shut up," snaps Percy the Prefect.

"How come Percy gets new robes, anyway?" one of the twins asked out of curiosity.

"Because he's a prefect," their mother responded fondly. "All right, dear, well, have a good term— send me an owl when you get there."

She kissed Percy on the cheek, and he left. Then she turns to the twins when she's done with the rest.

"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—"

"Blown up a toilet? We've never blown up a toilet before."

"Great idea though, thanks, Mom."

"It's not funny. And look after Ron."

"Don't worry, ickle Ronniekins is safe with us."

"Shut up," Ron retorts angrily once again. He was almost as tall as the twins already and his nose was still pink where his mother had rubbed it.

"Hey, mom. Guess what? Guess who we met on the train?"

Harry leaned back as quick as he could so they couldn't see him looking their way.

"You know that black-haired boy who went through the station ahead of us with two big men in black muggle suits? Know who he is?"

"Who?"

"Harry Potter!"

Harry heard the little girl's voice. If his hunch was right, and the way Bill and Charlie describe her fandom over the boy-who-lived, this must be Ginny, their youngest sibling.

"Oh, Mom, can I go on the train and see him, Mom, eh? Please…?"

"You've already seen him, Ginny. My, what a handsome boy. And he isn't something you goggle at in a zoo. Is he really, Fred? How did you know?"

"Asked him. Saw his scar. It's barely there. If he didn't brush his forehead filled with all the sweat on it, we wouldn't notice it but it's there— like lightning."

"Poor dear. I wonder who those two muggles he's with though."

"Us too, but they look like huge men with those enormous muscles that can compete against that of Bill's and Charlie's build."

The color left Harry's cheeks. Those two were right. Their family is the nosiest brood ever existed.

"Do you think he remembers what you-know-who looks like?"

Their mother becomes furious all of a sudden. "I forbid you to ask him that. No, Fred, don't you dare. As though he needs reminding of that night on his first day at school."

"All right, keep your hair on."

A whistle interrupted their conversation.

"Hurry up!" Their mother calls out, and the three boys clambered onto the train. They leaned out of the window for her to kiss them goodbye and their younger sister began to cry.

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

"We'll send you a Hogwarts toilet seat too!"

"George!"

"Only joking, mom."

The train began to move. Harry saw the boys' mother waving and their sister, half laughing, half crying, running to keep up with the train until it gathered to a much faster speed. Then she fell back and waved.

Harry watched the girl and her mother disappear as the train rounded the corner. Houses flashed past the window. Harry felt a great leap of excitement as he watched the breathtaking view. He didn't know where he was going but it had to be better than the life he'd left behind before Bill and Charlie rescued him.

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Somewhere Between Two Platforms

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The door of the compartment slid open as the youngest redheaded boy stuck his head in. "Anyone sitting there?" He asked, pointing at the seat opposite Harry's. "Everywhere else is full."

Harry shook his head and the boy sat down. He glanced at the boy across him who was busy reading a book. The cover wrote, "10 Thousand Ways to Disgrace One's Lordship".

"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," Ron mumbled, rolling his eyes.

"Harry," the other twin smiles at him, "have we introduced ourselves yet? Fred and George Weasley. And this is Ron, our brother. See you later, then."

"Bye," says Harry and Ron all together. The twins slid the compartment door shut behind them.

"Are you really Harry Potter?" Ron blurted out.

Harry nodded.

"Oh— well, I thought it might be one of Fred and George's lame jokes," he said. "And have you really got— you know…"

He was pointing at Harry's forehead.

A bit irritated, the boy runs a finger in his bangs to show the faded lightning scar. Ron stared at it, agape.

"So that's where You-Know-Who—?"

"Yes, although I can't remember anything. So, I'm sorry, I can't tell you any more details about what happened."

Ron's ears turn pink at the dismissive response. He didn't mean to pry in this boy's life.

There was an awkward silence after that. Harry continued reading while Ron decided to focus watching the view outside the train.

"I heard you went to live with Muggles. What are they like?" once again, the redhead asks. He couldn't seem to control his mouth.

"Horrible— I mean, my aunt and uncle and cousin are," he said anyway. "But not all of them." Harry laid down his book deciding a conversation might shut the kid. "How many brothers do you have?"

"Five," Ron replied. For some reason, he was looking gloomy for saying that. "I'm the sixth in our family to go to Hogwarts. You could say I've got a lot to live up to. Bill and Charlie have already left— Bill was head boy and Charlie was Quidditch Captain. 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. Everyone expects me to do as well as the others, but if I do, it's no big deal because they did it first. You never get anything new either with five brothers. I've got Bill's old robes, Charlie's old wand, and Percy's old rat."

He makes it sound like it's bad. Well, it's his opinion. So Harry didn't bother making a fuss. All his life, he lived with Dudley's hand-me-downs and he's fine with that.

Ron reached inside his jacket and pulled out a fat gray rat which was fast asleep.

"His name's Scabbers and he's useless. He hardly wakes up. Percy got an owl from my dad for being made a prefect, but they couldn't aff— I mean, I got Scabbers instead."

The boy's ears went pink. He seemed to think he'd said too much which Harry would mentally agree with. He went back to staring out of the window to give Harry more space and time reading.

There shouldn't be anything wrong with not being able to afford an owl. After all, he'd never had any money in his life until a month ago. And based on the stories the two older Weasley boys had regaled him about their family, they may be less fortunate when it comes to financial matters, but their parents smothered them with love and care that money couldn't compare with anything else.

And so he told Ron. He told him all about living the miserable life with his muggle relatives, being deprived of everything including not getting proper birthday presents. This seemed to cheer Ron up a bit.

While they had been talking, the train had carried them out of London. Now they were speeding past fields full of cows and sheep. They were quiet for a time, watching the fields and lanes flick past.

Around half-past twelve, there was a great clattering outside in the corridor and a smiling, dimpled woman slid back their door and said, "anything off the trolley, dears?"

Harry looked at the treats as if they were a feast. Bill's dietary plan does not include candies and other sweets, so he leaped to his feet and bought some of everything. He noticed Ron's ears went pink again and he muttered that he'd brought sandwiches.

He had never had any money for candy with the Dursleys, and now that he had pockets rattling with gold and silver, he was ready to buy as many Mars Bars as he could carry. Well, the thing is, the woman didn't have Mars Bars. What she did have were Bettie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, Chocolate Frogs, Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes, Licorice Wands, and a number of other strange things Bill had failed to introduce to him about.

Ron stared dumbly as Harry brought all the candies back into the compartment and tipped them onto an empty seat.

"Hungry, are you?"

"Not really," says Harry. "Just curious what they'd taste like."

Ron shrugged. Anyone who'd spent living the muggle life would probably do the same thing as Harry did. He took out a lumpy package and unwrapped it. There were four sandwiches inside. He pulled one of them apart and said, "She always forgets I don't like corned beef."

"Swap you for one of these," Harry says holding up a pasty. He'll forgive him now for complaining too much, but it would also be nice to have a friend the same age as Ron. "Go on," he urged.

"You don't want this, it's all dry," Ron warns. "She hasn't got much time," he added quickly, "you know, with the five of us."

Harry took them anyway and munch on the sandwich first much to the redhead's surprise. He wouldn't understand but if it would be Harry, he'd gladly eat whatever his mum would've prepared knowing she had made them out of love for all her children.

"What are these?" He asked Ron, holding up a pack of chocolate frogs. "They're not really frogs, are they?" Harry scolded himself. This is a magical world where he's at. Nothing should surprise him after everything he'd seen in the last month.

"No," Ron replied. "But see what the card is. I'm missing Agrippa."

"What?"

"Oh, of course, you wouldn't know. Chocolate Frogs have cards inside them, you know, to collect— famous witches and wizards. I've got about five hundred, but I haven't got Agrippa or Ptolemy."

Harry unwrapped his Chocolate Frog and pulled up the card inside. It showed a man's face. He wore half-moon glasses, had a long, crooked nose, and flowing silver hair, beard, and mustache. Underneath the picture was the name Albus Dumbledore.

"So this is Dumbledore!" He almost gasped.

"Don't tell me you'd never heard of Dumbledore?" Ron gapes at him looking incredulous. "Can I have a frog? I might get Agrippa— thanks —"

Harry turned over the card and read:

ALBUS DUMBLEDORE

CURRENTLY HEADMASTER OF HOGWARTS

Considered by many as 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 rolled his eyes. So much for praising the old guy, this is the same person who tried to ruin his life. So he set the card aside and opened the other boxes. Soon, he had not only Dumbledore and Morgana, but Hengist of Woodcroft, Alberic Grunnion, Circe, Paracelsus, and Merlin. He looked stunned when he noticed the last wizard that he opened wink at him. He didn't know his great, great-grandson is the one staring at his card right now, did he?

He finally tore his eyes away from the Druidess Cliodna, who was scratching her nose, to open a bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.

"You want to be careful with those," Ron warned him. "When they say every flavor, they mean every flavor— you know, you get all the ordinary ones like chocolate and peppermint and marmalade, but then you can get spinach and liver and tripe. George reckons he had a booger-flavored one once."

Ron picked up a green bean, looked at it carefully, and bit into a corner.

"Bleaaargh — see? Sprouts."

They had a good time eating the 'Every Flavor Beans'. Harry got toast, coconut, baked bean, strawberry, curry, grass, coffee, sardine, and was even brave enough to nibble the end of a funny gray one Ron wouldn't touch, which turned out to be pepper.

As they shared each other's laughter over every flavor they'd come across, Harry realized hanging out with Bill's and Charlie's little brother doesn't sound so bad as he'd thought after all.

He's enjoying this whole train ride to Hogwarts all in all.

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To be continued in the next chapter...

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