Let's Do It Right This Time, Chapter 11: The Hogwarts Express

On August 31, Aurelius made his last preparations. His trunk was packed with school books, robes, sweets, prank supplies, and a wicked-looking dagger for self defense, Tippy had been given last-minute orders (feed Pettigrew and keep him contained until the trial, make sure Sssasha was in good health, pop to Hogwarts to warn Aurelius if anyone tried to break into Haven Tower, and make sure Majestic got her bowl of peeled grapes every morning; that phœnix was so insufferable) and all the wards on Haven Tower were in lockdown mode. Aurelius made a batch of handpies for the train and turned in early, almost shivering with excitement.

Aurelius woke up on September 1 rather too late. After quickly gulping a handpie, he decided to flash straight to Platform 9 & 3/4 rather than going to King's Cross, partly because he was almost late for the Express, and partly because the entrance appealed to his sense of the dramatic. It would also help with painting him as a Light wizard; if he was going to go into Slytherin (and he was hoping he was, if only to spite James Potter) he would need all the help he could get.

So Aurelius grabbed his trunk and secured Hedwig's cage to the crook of his elbow, trying his best to ignore Hedwig's affronted screech as her cage bumped against the trunk. Then he held out his other arm for Majestic to latch onto. A sudden, intense cold, a flurry of powdery snowflakes, and Aurelius was standing on the platform, surrounded by very startled Wizarding families. Aurelius grinned.

"Majestic, go ahead and wait for me at school," he told her, secretly relishing the shocked and envious looks- it was nice to be stared at for something that he actually did, instead of something that happened to him when he was 15 months old. Majestic trilled in response, a white eyelid flickering as she blinked.

"And be good," Aurelius continued. "No freezing Mrs. Norris, however much you want to."

Majestic flipped her tail at him as she flew away.

Aurelius turned around nonchalantly and started dragging his luggage and the ruffled Hedwig to the train. He was waylaid halfway there.

"That,"

"Dear firstie,"

"Was amazing!"

"So as a token of our esteem"

"Would you like help with your trunk?"

Fred and George. Aurelius smiled widely, glad to see both boys alive and well, even if he couldn't tell them apart anymore, as George had both ears. "Absolutely! Who are you?"

"Gred and Forge!" they said in unison, sporting matching grins as they helped Aurelius heave his trunk up onto the train and into a compartment near the back.

"We gotta go check on our little brother," said Fred? after they had gotten Aurelius situated. "He's a firstie too, you know."

"And then our friend,"

"Lee Jordan,"

"Was going to show us"

"His tarantula." They said, starting back up with the twin-speak.

"So we must say goodbye"

"For a little while."

"That is if you don't mind."

"Of course not!" Aurelius responded. "Go right ahead. See you at Hogwarts!"

"Yeah"

"You too!"

And then the twins ducked out of Aurelius's compartment, and the time traveler pulled out his used copy of Mind and Meditation and tried to read it again, but it was so wordy that his head started to hurt and he didn't make any progress with the occlumency exercises, so he lost interest and stared out the open window, watching the Scottish countryside fly by.

After only about half an hour had passed, there was a knock at the compartment door. Aurelius opened it and, unbidden, his face creased into a giant smile.

"Um, is it ok if I sit here? All the other compartments are full and I don't really want to sit with my brothers..." Ron Weasley began nervously.

"Absolutely!" Aurelius knew that once he got into Slytherin, he probably couldn't keep up a friendship with the Weasley boy, but Ron had been the only friend who had stuck with him through it all in the last timeline (well, except for the whole goblet of fire fiasco) and Aurelius couldn't help but like the boy, hot-tempered and jealous though he might be at times. So to have the chance to share a compartment with him, unimpeded by house rivalries..."Absolutely." He said again. "So what's your name?'

"Um, Ron Weasley." Ron responded, heaving his trunk under a seat. "What's yours?"

Aurelius winced internally. This day could go either very well or very badly, and this would be one of the only few possible snags. His name, after all, was Dark with a capital D. Aurelius was starting to regret not picking Peverall. "Aurelius Gaunt, but please ignore my last name."

Ron blinked a few times, but at last nodded, and Aurelius let out an inaudible sigh of relief.

"You're a first-year too, right?" Ron asked, obviously fishing for something to say.

"Yeah, do you like Quiddich?"

"Do I like it? Heck yeah! What's your team?"

"Chudley Cannons." Aurelius had never actually followed another team; besides the ill-fated World Cup, he'd only ever been to seven professional Quiddich games, three with Ron, one on his own, and three with Ron and Luna to support Ginny, back when she'd been allowed to fly. He hadn't had the stomach to go to many after Scrimgeour had roped him into service; the might-have-beens made him too bitter.

"Go Cannons!" Ron cheered up considerably, evidently thinking anyone who liked the Cannons couldn't be all bad. "Did you see the June game with Sarina Saltmarsh?"

"No, but I heard about it," replied Aurelius, slipping into the conversation with casual ease. If he closed his eyes, he could momentarily imagine himself in the Gryffindor Common Room by a roaring fire, drinking hot chocolate and arguing about Quiddich with Ron over an unfinished game of chess, while Hermione tried to make the two of them do their homework. Aurelius sighed. He hadn't thought Hermione capable of such treachery, and he sometimes wondered if she had been lonely, desperate for guidance, and had listened to Dumbledore because he had no one else. Maybe this time around he could help her to become independent.

Abruptly Aurelius realized Ron was waiting for him to go on, and added "Wasn't that the game where Sarina had to sub in last minute, and still ended up catching the snitch faster than Clearwater?"

"Yeah," Ron responded, grinning, and soon they were embroiled in a friendly argument, about whether Seekers or Keepers were more valuable to the game, Ron positing that a Seeker pretty much did nothing but get in the way of the other players and face off with the other Seeker, and that they had no sense of strategy, while Aurelius replied that the game wouldn't end until the snitch was caught, so a Seeker was very necessary, and that a good Seeker would only get in the way of the opposing team.

After a while, the witch with the snack cart rolled into view, and Aurelius bought a sampling of his favorite snacks, and the ones that he knew Ron liked, and shared them over Ron's protestations, simply telling him that he had been going to get snacks anyway, and that he would have felt bad not sharing. Then they ripped open chocolate frog packages in companionable silence, broken only by the occasional comments on their card collections:

"If you find an Agrippa, can I have her? I'll give you a Merlin."

"Sure! Hey, do you want a Druidess Clotilda? I have six of her."

"Sure. Oh, look, Ragnar Shaggy-Legs! I've been looking for that one!"

"Who?"

It was then that they were very rudely interrupted, as Draco appeared in the doorway, flanked by his trolls...ehem...friends.

"They're saying all over the train that you've bonded a phœnix. Just come and bring it down to our compartment, will you? You don't need to sit with blood traitors like Weasley."

"Heir Malfoy." Aurelius's voice was as glacial as Majestic's feathers. Draco wasn't all bad, as he'd found out in the future, but he did need to learn basic manners. "I would have thought you'd have been taught not to interrupt?"

Draco's eyes narrowed. "And I would have thought you'd have learned politics. Or are you a mudblood, slumming it with a Weasley like that? What's your blood status?"

Ron flushed violently. Aurelius tightened his lips, toying with his wand in its holster. He knew better than to hex another student on the train, but he badly wanted to. "Red." He said finally, cold as ice. "And perhaps you could leave, as we were having a conversation."

"I could have you expelled if I wanted to. You don't order me around."

"I did not make an order. I suggested. And I'll make another friendly suggestion, too: don't you ever mess with me again. Or perhaps Madame Bones would like to hear about your father's interesting tattoo?"

"Did you just threaten me?"

"No, I suggested." Aurelius said again. His lips curved upward. "You'd make a very good Gryff, you know," he added conversationally. "No subtlety at all. Now, please let us go back to what we were doing?" And before Draco could react, Aurelius snapped his fingers and all three Slytherins to be slid out the door and into the corridor between the compartments.

Ron was staring at him in something that almost approximated awe. "Now that was bloody brilliant!"

Aurelius smirked. "Great changes will be coming to the Snake Pit." It was about then that he realized the chocolate frog he'd been holding halfway to his lips had begun to melt in his hand, and he shoved it into his mouth whole, then cast a scourgify. "I'm kinda done with frogs." He said. "Do you want to do anything else?"

"Chess?" asked Ron hopefully. Aurelius couldn't resist those puppy-dog eyes. "Sure. Just one game."

In the end, they played three games, one of which Aurelius actually won, after a bitter struggle, although part of that was that Aurelius was simply eight years older and had had the benefit of having helped the Ron of the other timeline work out all the kinks in his playing style over the years. Then they played Exploding Snap for a bit, in between daring each other to eat Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. (Aurelius had to stop after he got a lawn clipping flavored one.)

Neville and Hermione still came by, asking if they'd seen Trevor, only this time, Aurelius drew his wand and accioed the startled amphibian, then handed it to Neville and invited both the newcomers to stay in their compartment. The longing on Hermione's face was palpable, but at last she muttered something about having left her trunk in another compartment and left, while Neville shyly joined them.

They talked a bit more, and included Neville in the next round of Snap, discussing the classes they were looking forward to and trading bits of Hogwarts lore, until finally the train screeched to a halt. Aurelius got up shakily, almost as nervous as the actual firsties. This was it then. Win or lose, there was absolutely no going back.