Chapter six

On the Hogwarts express, Ron was sitting with Neville, Seamus, Dean, Luna was in the compartment as well. There was an adult, asleep in that compartment, Dean had pointed out that he was a new professor. He stayed asleep so he never joined in with their conversation. It only took half an hour for Hermione to find them.

'Where is Harry?'

'He said he will be late, he has a few things to do.'

'Late, are you sure he's really okay, Black might have taken him?'

'He's fine, he wrote something that only me and the twins know.'

'I better send word to the castle.'

'Leave it Hermione, Harry already wrote that he knew you would run straight to a teacher that is why he didn't tell me much. He just said that he wouldn't be at Hogwarts for a week or two. Harry said he doesn't trust hardly anyone and I think you're one of them. If you don't want to lose Harry as a friend then I suggest you keep quiet, the teachers will know when we arrive.'

'But he's thirteen, he shouldn't be alone.'

'No, but it has nothing to do with anyone else what he is doing, it's his life. Harry is probably working on the Dursley's. I mean they don't really want him there, they don't even like him, but they are his only family. He may need this time to smooth things over with them after blowing up that woman.'

'Who was she, his aunt?' Seamus asked.

'No, his uncle's sister, Harry said she's really mean and lets her dog chase and bite Harry, none of them do anything.'

'Is that what happened?' Neville asked.

'No, she was calling the Potters drunks, no hopers and a heap of other stuff. But the worst is what made Harry lose it, she called Harry's mum a whore. They used to tell Harry that his parents were drunks, didn't work, took muggle drugs, all types of stuff. They told him they were driving drunk and died in a car crash. Harry had no idea about anything until Hagrid gave him his Hogwarts letter.'

'Why would Hagrid give him his letter?'

'Don't know Dean, he just arrived on Harry's eleventh birthday and explained he was a wizard.'

'Eleventh, but I got a visit from McGonagall on my ten birthday, a year before.'

'You did, why did she visit?'

'All muggleborns or muggle raised children receive a visit a year before so the parents can have everything explained about being magical. It allows the parent's and child to correspond with the staff at Hogwarts, in case they have any questions,' Luna said conversationally.

'Harry knew nothing, not until he was eleven, and it was Hagrid. Harry also didn't know how to get onto the platform, it was lucky he heard my mum talking about muggles so he came over to ask. Something is wrong, why would they leave out visiting Harry especially with how he's known? That was another thing that shocked Harry, he had no idea about you-know-who or that he was known world-wide. He says the name, he has no trouble saying it, and he couldn't understand why most refuse to say his name. Our first train ride, I had to explain some of it to him yet I still don't know a lot, just what is known by everyone,' Ron saw Hermione get up, 'Where are you going?'

'Bathroom.'

Ron waited until she left, 'I bet anything she's going to send word to the school. Even though we've been friendly with Hermione, Harry's begun to dislike her because she always tells on us. To Harry, she's not acting like a friend.'

'She also doesn't like anyone beating her in class. If she was put in Ravenclaw then she would have to compete with all the brains,' Neville said.

'I don't know how you put up with her, I really don't,' Seamus said.

'I don't really want to, but if I find out she has sent word then I'm not going to talk to her again. I gave her a chance, I won't give her another. Harry's like that, he will forgive if someone does something once, but if they do it again then he doesn't forgive or forget. His big on trust, truth and loyalty, he hates people that betray or turn their backs on him for no good reason. I know half the school is in Harry's bad books right now.'

'Because of what happened last year, the snake?' Dean asked.

'Yeah, almost everyone began to call Harry the next dark lord. It's not Harry's fault his a parselmouth, he didn't even know until that day. He told the snake to leave Justin alone, I had to tell him that it sounded like he was egging the snake to attack.'

'Why is he a parselmouth?'

'Harry was told something by Dumbledore, but since Harry doesn't like or trust Dumbledore he doesn't believe it. He didn't tell me what he was told, he just said there was no way, and the old man had lost it, that he was too old to know what he is doing.'

'Wow, not many people will say something like that about Dumbledore,' Neville said.

'Oh Harry really doesn't like him, he doesn't trust him nor does he take in anything he has to say for truth. I know part of the reason Harry hates him is because of where he lives.'

'His muggle family,' Seamus said.

'Yeah, you see, he heard that many magical families offered to take him, but he was left with muggles, muggles that hate him and hate all of us.'

'There was a rumour that you and the twins rescued Harry, can you tell us why?' Dean asked.

Ron sighed, 'I can tell you some, Harry doesn't really like anyone to talk about it,' Ron ran his hand through his hair, 'We kept sending him letter's but they returned unopened, we began to worry. We thought he might like to stay with us for part of the holidays. We knew the muggles didn't like him and all sorts of images came to mind. Well, we heard that he had a warning about using magic in front of muggles, which made us worry more. The twins and I decided to take dad's car to Surrey, it has a flying charm and an invisibility charm on it. We got there and found bars on Harry's bedroom window, even a small owl wouldn't fit through. I looked through the window, which was open, Harry's room was really bare and most of the furniture was broken. Well, we used the car to pull the bars off, then told Harry to pack. His trunk was locked downstairs so he couldn't do his summer assignments, that's when we spotted the locks on the door and a small cat flap in the bottom of the door. Um, the room didn't smell too good, there was a bucket in the corner, you know, to go the toilet in. He had been locked in there for a couple of weeks, he had been let out to use the bathroom a few days before and to empty his bucket, they would do that every few days. They pushed food through the cat flat, but he hadn't eaten in days by then, the last thing he had was a can of cold soup he shared with Hedwig who was also locked in her cage. Well, Fred and George knew how to pick the locks using muggle methods, they got the trunk while Harry and I got his clothes and stuff. The clothes he had were Dudley's old stuff, nothing new, he owned hardly anything, not toys, no games, nothing, just his school stuff. The thing is, it was a house elf that used magic, yet Harry got blamed, by the Ministry, and his relatives who decided to lock him up and stop him returning to Hogwarts.'

'That sounds like neglect, they could get into trouble for that, in the muggle world or the magical world,' Dean said.

'More in the magical world, they take child neglect or abuse really seriously. Since there are so few of us children are more protected than the muggles. They see a magical child as a gift, well, most do, not dark wizards but everyone else,' Neville said.

'Yeah, but Harry didn't want anyone finding out how he was treated, no adults anyway. He said McGonagall knew some of it anyway so it's not like anyone would do anything if we did tell. We told mum that he hadn't eaten in days, so she fed him a lot.'

'If McGonagall knew then why didn't she do anything but also why doesn't Harry want anyone to know, they could help?' Seamus asked.

'At first he said he was embarrassed, he was supposed to be some big hero, you know, the-boy-who-lived, but he couldn't help himself with a couple of muggles. Then he said he didn't want anyone to pity him or feel sorry for him. Okay, I get that, it would be embarrassing if everyone found out he had to use a bucket as a toilet. But if an adult that did care knew then maybe they could allow Harry to stay with us. He really liked being at my place last summer, we had a great time, he even liked de-gnoming the garden and feeding the chickens. And dad, dad hardly left Harry alone, wanted to talk to him all the time. You know how my dad is obsessed with muggle stuff, he kept asking Harry about things in the muggle world, like, what is the use of a rubber duck.'

The boys all laughed, Luna smiled, but Hermione had not returned. What they didn't know was that the man who was sleeping in the corner was wide awake and listening to everything the boys said about Harry Potter. He learned more in the last hour than he had in years and he also realised he had been lied to. Maybe when he finally got to speak with Harry he would find out everything or at least the truth to some of his more important questions.