Chapter 7: First Year (Part 1.5)
4th, August, 1998.
Once everyone was seated in the living room again (Teddy in a magical playpen that alerted someone when something was wrong) Harry went over to the pensive and added the next few memories.
"We will start with the first time I went to Diagon Alley." he said.
Harry woke early the next morning.
Although he could tell it was daylight, he kept his eyes shut tight. It was a dream, he told himself firmly. I dreamt a giant called Hagrid came to tell me I was going to a school for wizards.
"It is kind of hard to believe magic exists when you first find out about it." Lily said, Hermione nodded her agreement.
When I open my eyes I'll be at home in my cupboard.
"Damn Dursleys," muttered James.
There was suddenly a loud tapping noise.
And there's Aunt Petunia knocking on the door, Harry thought, his heart sinking. But he still hadn't opened his eyes. It had been such a good dream.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
"All right," Harry mumbled, "I'm getting up."
He sat up and Hagrid's heavy coat fell off him.
The hut was full of sunlight, the storm was over, Hagrid himself was asleep on the collapsed sofa
"So it collapsed," Sirius said cheerfully.
and there was an owl rapping its claw on the window, a newspaper held in its beak. Harry scrambled to his feet, so happy he felt as though a large balloon was swelling inside him.
He went straight to the window and jerked it open. The owl swooped in and dropped the newspaper on top of Hagrid, who didn't wake up. The owl then fluttered to the floor and began to attack Hagrid's coat.
"Don't do that."
"I didn't know it wanted money." Harry said defensivley when everyone looked at him amusedly.
Harry tried to wave the owl out of the way, but it snapped its beak fiercely at him and
carried on savaging the coat.
"Hagrid!" said Harry loudly. "There's an owl—"
"Pay him," Hagrid grunted into the sofa.
"What?"
"He wants payin fer deliverin' the paper. Look in the pockets."
"You will never find it." the twins groaned, "Hagrid has tons of pockets."
Hagrid's coat seemed to be made of nothing but pockets
"See?" George said.
—bunches of keys, slug pellets, balls of string, mint humbugs, teabags… finally, Harry pulled out a handful of strange-looking coins.
"You found it. Good for you." said Fred.
"Give him five Knuts," said Hagrid sleepily.
Knuts.
"How are you supposed to know what Knuts are?" asked James.
"The little bronze ones."
"That's better," said James.
Harry counted five little bronze coins and the owl held out its leg so he could put the money into a small leather pouch tied to it. Then it flew out through the open window.
Hagrid yawned loudly, sat up and stretched. "Best be off, Harry, lots ter do today, gotta get up ter London an' buy all yer stuff fer school."
Harry was turning over the wizard coins and looking at them. He had just thought of something which made him feel as though the happy balloon inside him had got a puncture.
"Um—Hagrid?"
"Mm?" said Hagrid, who was pulling on his huge boots.
"I haven't got any money—"
"Don't insult us, Harry," said James. "We left you some."
"The Potter's are the richest family in magical Britain." Sirius said pointedly.
"Yup. The seccond richest are the Black's." Regulus added.
"Then there's the Malfoy's," Sirius made a face as he said it, "The Zabini's, the Lestranges are
pretty well off as well. There's also the Crouch's then the Dumbledore's. That's about it. My damned Mother made Reg and I learn all about The Ancient most Noble house of Black and other great wizarding families." he explained.
"—and you heard Uncle Vernon last night—he won't pay for me to go to learn magic."
"Of course not. He's a big fat git!" Draco said.
"Don't worry about that," said Hagrid, standing up and scratching his head. "D'ye think year parents didn't leave yeh anything?"
"Even if we didn't—which we did—Hogwarts lends money," said Lily.
"But if their house was destroyed—"
"What crazy people would keep money in their home?" asked Sirius.
"Some Muggles do that." Hermione pointed out, "Although most use their bank's."
"They didn't keep their gold in the house, boy! Nah, first stop fer us is Gringotts. Wizards' bank. Have a sausage, they're not bad cold"
"Way to change the topic." Sirius snorted.
"an' I wouldn' say no teh a bit o' yer birthday cake, neither."
"Wizards have banks?"
"Just the one. Gringotts. Run by goblins."
Harry dropped the bit of sausage he was holding.
"Goblins?"
"Yeah—so yeh'd be mad ter try an' rob it, I'll tell yeh that."
Harry, Ron and Hermione exchanged looks and quickly looked down to hide their smiles.
"Never mess with goblins, Harry. Gringotts is the safest place in the world fer anything yeh want ter keep safe—'cept maybe Hogwarts. As a matter o' fact, gotta visit Gringotts anyway. Fer Dumbledore. Hogwarts business." Hagrid drew himself up proudly. "He usually gets me ter do important stuff fer him. Fetchin' you—gettin' things from Gringotts—knows he can trust me, see. Got everythin'? Come on, then."
Harry followed Hagrid out on to the rock.
The sky was quite clear now and the sea gleamed in the sunlight. The boat Uncle Vernon had hired was still there, with a lot of water in the bottom after the storm.
"How did you get here?" Harry asked, looking around for another boat.
"Flew," said Hagrid.
"Flew?"
"Yeah—but we'll go back in this. Not s'pposed ter use magic now I've got yeh"
They settled down in the boat, Harry still staring at Hagrid, trying to imagine him flying.
"It is difficult to believe he flew." Dora said.
"He had one of the Thestral pulled carriges." Minerva smiled, "The Thestral's returned when they dropped him off."
"Seems a shame ter row, though," said Hagrid, giving Harry another of his sideways looks. "If I was ter—er—speed things up a bit, would yeh mind not mentionin' it at Hogwarts?"
"Of course not," said Harry, eager to see more magic. Hagrid pulled out the pink umbrella again, tapped it twice on the side of the boat and they sped off towards land.
"Why would you be mad to try and rob Gringotts?" Harry asked.
This time Harry avoided eye contact with Hermione and Ron, for fear of bursting out laughing.
"Spells—enchantments," said Hagrid, unfolding his newspaper as he spoke. "They say there are dragons guardin' the high security vaults."
"There are," said James. "I saw them on the way to the Potter family vault."
"And then yeh gotta find yer way—Gringotts is hundreds of miles under London, see. Deep under the Underground. Yeh'd die of hunger tryin ter get out, even if yeh did manage ter get yer hands on summat."
"Skipping to when I was getting my robes." Harry said with a glance at Draco. "Please don't hex Draco he's a prat through all our school days and is very sorry for that aren't you?" Draco nodded. "Oh and Hagrid emptied a vault with a small mysterious package." here he winked at Minerva when no-one was looking she had a look of understanding in her eyes.
"Might as well get yer uniform," said Hagrid, nodding towards Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. "Listen, Harry, would yeh mind if I slipped off fer a pick-me-up in the Leaky Cauldron? Hate them Gringotts carts." He did still look a bit sick, so Harry entered Madam Malkin's shop alone, feeling nervous.
Madam Malkin was a squat, smiling witch dressed all in mauve.
"Hogwarts dear?" she said, when Harry started to speak. "Got the lot here—another young man being fitted up just now, in fact."
In the back of the shop, a boy with a pale, pointed face was standing on a footstool while a second witch pinned up his long black robes.
"Thats you then?" James asked Draco. He nodded.
Madam Malkin stood Harry on a stool next to him, slipped a long robe over his head and began to pin it to the right length.
"Hullo," said the boy, "Hogwarts too?"
"Yes," said Harry.
"My father's next door buying my books and mother's up the street looking at wands," said the boy. He had a bored, drawling voice.
"Then I'm going to drag them off to look at racing brooms. I don't see why first-years can't have their own. I think I'll bully father into getting me one and I'll smuggle it in somehow."
Harry was strongly reminded of Dudley.
"Have you got your own broom?" the boy went on. "No," said Harry. "Play Quidditch at all?" "No," said Harry again, wondering what on earth Quidditch could be.
"Do you like it now?" James asked exitedly.
"Wait and see." Harry replied mysteriously, "No one say anything, please." James pouted while Sirius snickered. "I will tell you I love flying though." James cheered up a bit.
"I do—Father says it's a crime if I'm not picked to play for my house, and I must say, I agree. Know what house you'll be in yet?"
"No," said Harry, feeling more stupid by the minute.
"Sorry I didn't realise you actually didn't know what I was talking about." Draco apologised. "And I didn't know who you were either."
"So was all of my family, but I'm a Gryffindor, and damn proud of it!" Sirius declared.
"imagine being in Hufflepuff, I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?"
"Mmm," said Harry, wishing he could say something a bit more interesting.
"I say, look at that man!" said the boy suddenly, nodding towards the front window. Hagrid was standing there, grinning at Harry and pointing at two large ice-creams to show he couldn't come in.
"That's Hagrid," said Harry, pleased to know something the boy didn't. "He works at Hogwarts."
"Oh," said the boy, "I've heard of him. He's a sort of servant, isn't he?"
"He's the gamekeeper," said Harry. He was liking this boy less and less every second.
"Yes, exactly. I heard he's a sort of savage"
"He is not!" everyone (Except Cissy and Draco) cried.
"Sorry. I know he's not now, I had only heard my father's stories before Hogwarts." Draco said
getting an understanding look from Sirius.
"Yeah, I was like that in first year I only had my parents stories but I was willing to bet that not all of them were true." Sirius explained, "Like all werewolves were totally evil, but Remus isn't so I stopped listening to my parents stories."
"lives in a hut in the school grounds and every now and then he gets drunk,"
"Hagrid really needs to stop drinking as much." Minerva said, "It sets a bad example for the students."
"Maybe but it's fun if your with him when he's drunk, even better if your drunk too." James smirked at Sirius.
"Dont even think about it." Sirius growled.
"But Paddy, it's not our fault you ended up dancing about the grounds in your undies instead of going back to the castle after having a dirnk with Hagrid." Remus said innocently, "Or our fault you woke up on Hagrid's roof." he added.
Sirius groaned as the others laughed.
"When was that?" Dora asked curiously.
"Their 7th year." Minerva supplied, "Gave the staff a few laughs that story." she chuckled.
"You knew about it?" Lily asked.
"I did. Hagrid told me accidentally." she nodded.
"How come we didn't get in trouble then?" James asked.
"You were all 17, all adults, I couldn't exactly stop you. Plus Remus and Sirius suffered with the hangovers the next day anyway." she mused. "I am curious as to how you never had one James."
"I wasn't drinking." he shrugged, "Well I had a few fire whiskeys but I didn't drink too much."
"You decided to be boring." Sirius snorted.
"Better than waking up on Hagrid's roof in my boxers." he smirked, "And I had to patrol the halls the next night."
"And I wouldn't have been at all happy if you were hungover." Lily smiled, "It would've been bad for you."
"I'm aware. You were very irritated with me for letting those two get smashed anyway." he muttered.
"Still glad you got the pictures though." she shrugged.
"What pictures?" Remus frowned.
"Oh I had a camera with me so I decided to take a few of you two being idiots." James shrugged, "Like Paddy hugging a tree thinking it was Peter or you attempting to climb the rocks in the clearing not too far in to the forrest."
Sirius and Remus shared looks while everyone else laughed.
"Fine, if that's the way it is we'll just not tell you about the one's we've got of you on your stag night." Sirius smirked.
James looked alarmed, "You what!"
"Nothing Prongs." Remus smiled evily, "Just a little payback for doing it to us."
James groaned.
"Let's continue before these three start arguing." Lily suggested, the Marauders fell silent and they all turned back to the memory.
"tries to do magic and ends up setting fire to his bed."
"He actually did do that once." Minerva chuckled. "it was an accident though."
"I think he's brilliant," said Harry coldly.
"Atta boy, Harry!" Bill and Charlie cheered.
"Do you?" said the boy, with a slight sneer. "Why is he with you? Where are your parents?"
"You don't know who you're talking to do you?" asked Sirius. Draco shook his head.
"They're dead," said Harry shortly. He didn't feel much like going into the matter with this boy.
"Oh, sorry," said the other, not sounding sorry at all. "But they were our kind, weren't they?"
"They were a witch and wizard, if that's what you mean."
"Nice answer." James grinned. Harry grinned back.
"I really don't think they should let the other sort in, do you? They're just not the same, they've never been brought up to know our ways. Some of them have never even heard of Hogwarts until they get the letter, imagine. I think they should keep it in the old wizarding families. What's your surname, anyway?"
Before Harry could answer, Madam Malkin said, "That's you done, my dear," and Harry, not sorry for an excuse to stop talking to the boy, hopped down from the footstool.
"Well, I'll see you at Hogwarts, I suppose," said the drawling boy.
"Unfortunately." said Ron in an undertone to Harry who snorted.
"What's up?" said Hagrid.
"Nothing," Harry lied. They stopped to buy parchment and quills. Harry cheered up a bit when he found a bottle of ink that changed color as you wrote.
When they had left the shop, he said, "Hagrid, what's Quidditch?"
"Blimey, Harry, I keep forgettin' how little yeh know—not knowin' about Quidditch!"
"That made me feel worse." Harry commented.
"Don't make me feel worse," said Harry. He told Hagrid about the pale boy in Madam Malkin's. "and he said people from Muggle families shouldn't even be allowed in—"
"Yer not from a Muggle family. If he'd known who yeh were—he's grown up knowin yer name if his parents were wizardin' folk—you saw 'em in the Leaky Cauldron. Anyway, what does he know about it, some o' the best I ever saw were the only ones with magic in 'em in a long line o' Muggles—look at yer mum! Look at what she had fer a sister!"
"Exactly!" James said.
"So what is Quidditch?"
"Only the best sport in the world!" all the quidditch fans said (exept Harry who didn't want to give anything away to his Dad's earlier question).
"It's our sport, wizard sport. It's like—like football in the Muggle world—"
"Football?" the twins asked.
"Like Hagrid said, it's like Quidditch, but played on the ground with only one ball, using your feet to kick it around. And no bats." Lily explained.
"But what's fun about that?" asked Ron, genuinely confused.
"It is quite fun." Regulus commented, "Sirius and I used to sneak out from time to time and there were these muggle boys who taught us how to play it." he added at the confused looks, "It would be better if you could fly though." he shrugged.
"everyone follows Quidditch—played up in the air on broomsticks and there's four balls—sorta hard ter explain the rules."
"That's not even close to the full rules." James groaned.
"And what are Slytherin and Hufflepuff?"
"School houses. There are four. Everyone says Hufflepuff are a lot o' duffers, but—"
"Hufflepuffs aren't that bad!" Dora said, "I was a Hufflepuff and so was my Dad."
"I bet I'm in Hufflepuff," said Harry gloomily.
"Better Hufflepuff than Slytherin," said Hagrid darkly. "There's not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin. You-Know-Who was one."
"Vol—sorry—You-Know-Who was at Hogwarts?"
"Unfortunately." Minerva sighed, "I was at school with him, just few years up from him." she explained getting shocked looks from everyone else in the room. "So was Hagrid, he was in his 3rd year when Voldemort was in 5th. I was in 7th by that time." she added.
"Years an' years ago," said Hagrid.
They bought Harry's school books in a shop called Flourish and Blotts where the shelves were stacked to the ceiling with books as large as paving stones bound in leather; books the size of postage stamps in covers of silk; books full of peculiar symbols and a few books with nothing in them at all. Even Dudley, who never read anything, would have been wild to get his hands on some of these.
Hagrid almost had to drag Harry away from Curses and Counter-Curses (Bewitch your Friends and Befuddle your Enemies with the Latest Revenges: Hair Loss, Jelly-Legs, Tongue-Tying and much, much more)
"AWESOME!" James and Sirius cried simultaneously.
by Professor Vindictus Viridian.
"I was trying to find out how to curse Dudley."
"Good idea!" Sirius exclaimed.
"I'm not sayin' that's not a good idea, but yer not ter use magic in the Muggle world except in very special circumstances," said Hagrid. "An' anyway, yeh couldn' work any of them curses yet, yeh'll need a lot more study before yeh get ter that level."
"Unfortunately he has a point." Remus sighed.
Hagrid wouldn't let Harry buy a solid gold cauldron, either ("It says pewter on yer list"), but they got a nice set of brass scales for weighing potion ingredients and a collapsible brass telescope. Then they visited the apothecary's, which was fascinating enough to make up for its horrible smell, a mixture of bad eggs and rotted cabbages.
Barrels of slimy stuff stood on the floor, jars of herbs, dried roots and bright powders lined the walls, bundles of feathers, strings of fangs and snarled claws hung from the ceiling. While Hagrid asked the man behind the counter for a supply of some basic potion ingredients for Harry, Harry himself examined silver unicorn horns at twenty-one Galleons each and minuscule, glittery black beetle eyes (five knuts a scoop).
Outside the apothecary's, Hagrid checked Harry's list again. "Just yer wand left—oh yeah, an' I still haven't got yeh a birthday present."
James and Lily grinned.
Harry felt himself go red. "You don't have to—"
"I know I don't have to. Tell yeh what, I'll get yer an animal. Not a toad, toads went outta fashion years ago, yeh'd be laughed at"
"Well, thank God I didn't buy a toad like Mum wanted me to!" said Dora.
"You would probably lose it anyway." Andy said, "Either that or it would get squashed with your clumsyness." Dora went pink as a few of the others chuckled.
"—an' I don' like cats, they make me sneeze. I'll get yer an owl. All the kids want owls, they're dead useful, carry yer post an' everythin"
"So it was Hagrid that got you Hedwig?" Ginny asked Harry who nodded, smiling sadly at the memory of Hedwig.
Twenty minutes later, they left Eeylops Owl Emporium, which had been dark and full of rustling and flickering, jewel-bright eyes. Harry now carried a large cage which held a beautiful snowy owl, fast asleep with her head under her wing. He couldn't stop stammering his thanks, sounding just like Professor Quirrell.
"Snowy owls are the best." Cissy said making most people nod.
"Don' mention it," said Hagrid gruffly. "Don' expect you've had a lotta presents from them Dursleys. Just Ollivanders left now—only place fer wands, Ollivanders, and yeh gotta have the best wand."
Ollivanders, and yeh gotta have the best wand."
"Definitely!" agreed James.
A magic wand… this was what Harry had been really looking forward to.
"Took me ages to find my wand." James complained.
"Me too." Sirius muttered.
"I got mine first try." said Lily smugly.
"Mine took me three. 'Course I nearly brought the place down with the first one, so it took a while." added Dora.
"We almost did that too." George told her pointing to himself and Fred.
"I emptied a full shelf of boxes." Ginny added.
"Mine wasn't that bad." Remus said, laughing a bit. "Though I did make a vase explode."
The last shop was narrow and shabby. Peeling gold letters over the door read Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 BC. A single wand lay on a faded purple cushion in the dusty window.
A tinkling bell rang somewhere in the depths of the shop as they stepped inside. It was a tiny place, empty for a single spindly chair which Hagrid sat on to wait.
"Didn't it break?" Sirius asked.
Harry felt strangely as though he'd entered a very strict library; he swallowed a lot of new questions which had just occurred to him and looked instead at the thousands of narrow boxes piled neatly right up to the ceiling. For some reason, the back of his neck prickled. The very dust and silence in here seemed to tingle with some secret magic.
"That will be the amount of power that's in the shop." James said wisley.
"Good afternoon," said a soft voice. Harry jumped. Hagrid must have jumped, too, because there was a loud crunching noise and he got quickly off the spindly chair.
They all chuckled.
"There it is." said Sirius.
An old man was standing before them, his wide, pale eyes shining like moons through the gloom of the shop.
"Hello," said Harry awkwardly.
"Ah yes," said the man. "Yes, yes. I thought I'd be seeing you soon. Harry Potter." It wasn't a question. "You have your mother's eyes. It seems only yesterday she was in here herself, buying her first wand."
"Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow," said Lily immediately.
"Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wand for charm work."
Lily grinned.
Mr. Ollivander moved closer to Harry. Harry wished he would blink. Those silvery eyes were a bit creepy.
"Definitely." James agreed while others made noises of agreement or nodded.
"Your father, on the other hand, favored a mahogany wand."
"Eleven inches, pliable, better for Transfiguration," grinned James.
"Eleven inches. Pliable. A little more power and excellent for transfiguration. Well, I say your father favored it—it's really the wand that chooses the wizard, of course." Ollivander had come so close that he and Harry were almost nose to nose. Harry could see himself reflected in those misty eyes.
They all shuddered.
"And that's where…"
"Yeah, it's perfectly fine to poke my head." Harry said sarcastically.
Mr. Ollivander touched the lightning scar on Harry's forehead with a long, white finger. "I'm sorry to say that I sold the wand that did it," he said softly.
"Voldemort's?" Bill asked.
"Of course, who else would have made his wand?" Minerva said.
"Could've been Gregorovich." said Lily.
"Nah, he wouldn't have gone abroad to get a wand, and Olli is the best in Britain." replied James.
"It was Gregorovich who made my wand." Fluer said.
"I heard Voldemort was an orphan, and was really poor." said Dora.
"Really?" asked the twins.
"It's true." Harry said. "He was born and grew up in an orphanage after his mother died shortly after his birth and his father didnt care about him… There's more but it's better you find out through time."
"Thirteen and a half inches. Yew. Powerful wand, very powerful, and in the wrong hands… Well, if I'd known what that wand was going out in the world to do…"
"He wouldn't have sold it." Percy said sadly.
He shook his head and then, to Harry's relief, spotted Hagrid.
"Rubeus, Rubeus Hagrid! How nice to see you again… Oak, sixteen inches, rather bendy, wasn't it?"
"It was, sir, yes," said Hagrid.
"Good wand, that one. But I suppose they snapped it in half when you got expelled?" said Mr. Ollivander, suddenly stern.
"Er—yes, they did, yes," said Hagrid, shuffling his feet. "I've still got the pieces, though," he added brightly.
"But you don't use them?" said Mr. Ollivander sharply.
They all grinned.
"Oh, no, sir," said Hagrid quickly. Harry noticed he gripped his pink umbrella very tightly as he spoke.
"Hmmm," said Mr. Ollivander, giving Hagrid a piercing look. "Well, now—Mr. Potter. Let me see."
He pulled a long tape measure with silver markings out of his pocket. "Which is your wand arm?"
"Er—well, I'm right-handed," said Harry.
"Hold out your arm. That's it." He measured Harry from shoulder to finger, then wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, knee to armpit and round his head.
As he measured, he said, "Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance, Mr. Potter. We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers and the heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns or dragons or phoenixes are quite the same. And of course, you will never get such good results with another wizard's wand."
"Really?" Lily said surprised "He never told me that."
Harry suddenly realized that the tape measure, which was measuring between his nostrils, was doing this on its own. Mr. Ollivander was flitting around the shelves, taking down boxes.
"That will do," he said, and the tape measure crumpled into a heap on the floor. "Right then, Mr. Potter. Try this one. Beechwood and dragon heartstring. Nine inches. Nice and flexible. Just take it and give it a wave."
Harry took the wand and (feeling foolish)
"I remember, I felt stupid when I did that." Lily said happily.
waved it around a bit, but Mr. Ollivander took it out of his hand almost at once.
"Maple and phoenix feather. Seven inches. Quite whippy. Try—"
"Phoenix feather is the best." said James.
"They're all good." Lily said.
Harry tried—but he had hardly raised it when it, too, was snatched back by Mr. Ollivander.
"It was annoying when he did that," said Dora.
"No, no—here, ebony and unicorn hair, eight and a half inches, springy. Go on, go on, try it out."
Harry tried. And tried. He had no idea what Mr. Ollivander was waiting for. The pile of tried wands was mounting higher and higher on the spindly chair, but the more wands Mr. Ollivander pulled from the shelves, the happier he seemed to become.
"Tricky customer, eh? Not to worry, we'll find the perfect match here somewhere—I wonder, now—yes, why not—unusual combination—holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple."
Harry took the wand. He felt a sudden warmth in his fingers.
"That's the one!" Lily squealed happily.
He raised the wand above his head, brought it swishing down through the dusty air and a stream of red and gold sparks shot from the end like a firework, throwing dancing spots of light on the walls.
Sirius and James whooped, "Yeah! Gryffindor!" they cried together.
Hagrid whooped and clapped and Mr. Ollivander cried, "Oh, bravo! Yes, indeed, oh, very good. Well, well, well… how curious… how very curious…"
"What's curious?" Dora asked.
He put Harry's wand back into its box and wrapped it in brown paper, still muttering, "Curious… curious…"
"Sorry," said Harry, "but what's curious?"
Mr. Ollivander fixed Harry with his pale stare. "I remember every wand I've ever sold, Mr. Potter. Every single wand."
"How?" Sirius asked confused, everyone shrugged.
"Maybe he uses magic?" Lily guessed.
"It so happens that the phoenix whose tail feather is in your wand, gave another feather—just one other. It is very curious indeed that you should be destined for this wand when its brother—why, its brother gave you that scar."
There was shocked silence.
"Voldemort has the brother wand?" Sirius asked finally, "Does that make a difference?" they all shrugged, exept Harry, who nodded.
"It made a huge difference. You see, because the wands recognize each other due to having the same pheonixes feathers, it meant they wouldnt kill the others owner. It provided another form of protection for me. As long as Voldemort used that wand and I used mine, he couldnt use it to kill me." Harry explained.
Harry swallowed.
"Yes, thirteen and a half inches. Yew. Curious indeed how these things happen. The wand chooses the wizard, remember… I think we must expect great things from you, Mr. Potter… After all, He Who Must Not Be Named did great things—terrible, yes, but great."
Harry shivered. He wasn't sure he liked Mr. Ollivander too much. He paid seven gold Galleons for his wand and Mr. Ollivander bowed them from his shop.
The late-afternoon sun hung low in the sky as Harry and Hagrid made their way back down Diagon Alley, back through the wall, back through the Leaky Cauldron, now empty. Harry didn't speak at all as they walked down the road; he didn't even notice how much people were gawping at them on the Underground, laden as they were with all their funny-shaped packages, with the sleeping snowy owl on Harry's lap.
Up another escalator, out into Paddington station; Harry only realized where they were when Hagrid tapped him on the shoulder. "Got time fer a bite to eat before yer train leaves," he said.
He bought Harry a hamburger and they sat down on plastic seats to eat them.
Harry kept looking around. Everything looked so strange, somehow.
"You all right, Harry? Yer very quiet," said Hagrid.
Harry wasn't sure he could explain. He'd just had the best birthday of his life—and yet—he chewed his hamburger, trying to find the words.
"Everyone thinks I'm special,"
"You are Harry!" Hermione and Ron said together, as Harry rolled his eyes at them.
he said at last. "All those people in the Leaky Cauldron, Professor Quirrell, Mr. Ollivander… but I don't know anything about magic at all. How can they expect great things? I'm famous and I can't even remember what I'm famous for. I don't know what happened when Vol—sorry—I mean, the night my parents died."
"You must have felt awful." Cissy said sympathetically, Harry nodded.
"I wouldn't be happy either," Lily said sadly "I'd rather have my parents and no fame." James pulled her into a hug.
Hagrid leant across the table. Behind the wild beard and eyebrows he wore a very kind smile.
"Don' you worry, Harry. You'll learn fast enough. Everyone starts at the beginning at Hogwarts,"
"Exactly!" Hermione and Lily said together, then smiled at each other.
"you'll be just fine. Just be yerself. I know it's hard. Yeh've been singled out, an' that's always hard. But yeh'll have a great time at Hogwarts—I did—still do, 'smatter of fact."
Hagrid helped Harry on to the train that would take him back to the Dursleys,
"Shame you had to go back." Regulus said making Harry nod.
then handed him an envelope.
"Yer ticket fer Hogwarts," he said. "First o' September—King's Cross—it's all on yer ticket. Any problems with the Dursleys, send me a letter with yer owl, she'll know where to find me… See yer soon, Harry."
The train pulled out of the station. Harry wanted to watch Hagrid until he was out of sight; he rose in his seat and pressed his nose against the window, but he blinked and Hagrid had gone.
"Were skipping to september first." Harry announced. "Also we will see how I met the Weasley family." he added smiling at the mentioned family. "The Dursley's dropped me off at the station, but I didn't know how to get onto the platform, Hagrid forgot to tell me." he explained.
He stopped a passing guard, but didn't dare mention platform nine and three-quarters.
"Least you have that much sense." Minerva said.
The guard had never heard of Hogwarts and when Harry couldn't even tell him what part of the country it was in, he started to get annoyed, as though Harry was being stupid on purpose.
Getting desperate, Harry asked for the train that left at eleven o' clock, but the guard said there wasn't one. In the end the guard strode away, muttering about time-wasters.
Harry was now trying hard not to panic. According to the large clock over the arrivals board, he had ten minutes left to get on the train to Hogwarts and he had no idea how to do it; he was stranded in the middle of a station with a trunk he could hardly lift, a pocket full of wizard money and a large owl. Hagrid must have forgotten to tell him something you had to do, like tapping the third brick on the left to get into Diagon Alley. He wondered if he should get his wand and start tapping the ticket box between platforms nine and ten.
"No! Don't!" they all said quickly making Harry roll his eyes.
At that moment a group of people passed just behind him and he caught a few words of what they were saying. "packed with Muggles, of course—"
Harry swung round. The speaker was a plump woman who was talking to four boys, all with flaming red hair.
Fred, George, Percy and Ron smiled.
Each of them was pushing a trunk like Harry's in front of him—and they had an owl.
Heart hammering, Harry pushed his trolley after them. They stopped and so did he, just near enough to hear what they were saying.
"Now, what's the platform number?" said the boys' mother.
"It never changes. Why'd you ask?" Bill asked his Mother who shrugged.
"Nine and three-quarters!" piped a small girl, also red-headed, who was holding her hand. "Mum, can't I go…"
"Awww, that's cute!" Lily cooed, while Ginny glared at Harry who cringed.
"You're not old enough, Ginny, now be quiet. All right, Percy, you go first."
What looked like the oldest boy marched towards the platforms nine and ten. Harry watched, careful not to blink in case he missed it—but just as the boy reached the divide between the two platforms, a large crowd of tourists came swarming in front of him, and by the time the last rucksack had cleared away, the boy had vanished.
"Fred, you next," the plump woman said.
"I'm not Fred, I'm George," said the boy. "Honestly, woman, call yourself our mother? Can't you tell I'm George?"
"Sorry, George, dear."
"Only joking, I am Fred," said the boy, and off he went.
Everyone burst out laughing.
"That was always your favourite joke." Molly commented, "I could never tell which of you I was talking to or shouting at."
"And we're working on a way to be able to do it again." Fred smirked.
"Yup." George nodded, "And we need to find a way to do it without chopping Fred's ear off." he added.
"I'm good with it if we do it." Fred shrugged, "We could be the holey twins." he grinned.
"I refuse to let you chop your ear off." George said stubbornly, "One of us that has trouble hearing on one side is enough."
"Dose it cause you problems?" Regulus frowned.
"Sometimes, I can still hear out of it but not too well." he shrugged, "It's like having water in your ears, more a murmer than anything else. I can still hear perfectly well on the other side."
"How'd it happen? If your allowed to tell us." James added.
"A Sectumsempra caught it." Harry supplied, "There's more but that's all your getting told right now." he smiled at their annoyed looks.
His twin called after him to hurry up, and he must have done, because a second later, he had gone—but how had he done it?
Now the third brother was walking briskly towards the ticket barrier—he was almost there—and then, quite suddenly, he wasn't anywhere. There was nothing else for it.
"Ask her!" shouted the Marauders.
"Excuse me," Harry said to the plump woman.
"Hullo, dear," she said. "First time at Hogwarts? Ron's new, too."
She pointed at the last and youngest of her sons. He was tall, thin and gangling, with freckles, big hands and feet and a long nose.
"Not a very flattering description." Ron pointed out.
"Yes," said Harry. "The thing is—the thing is, I don't know how to—"
"How to get on to the platform?" she said kindly, and Harry nodded.
"Thank you for helping me Mrs. Weasley." Harry said.
"It was no trouble at all dear." she replied smiling.
"Not to worry," she said. "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. Best do it at a bit of a run if you're nervous. Go on, go now before Ron."
"Er—OK," said Harry. He pushed his trolley round and stared at the barrier.
It looked very solid.
He started to walk towards it. People jostled him on their way to platforms nine and ten.
Harry walked more quickly. He was going to smash right into that ticket box and then he'd be in trouble leaning forward on his trolley he broke into a heavy run the barrier was coming nearer and nearer he wouldn't be able to stop—the trolley was out of control he was a foot away—he closed his eyes ready for the crash It didn't come… he kept on running… he opened his eyes. A scarlet steam engine was waiting next to a platform packed with people.
A sign overhead said Hogwarts Express, 11 o'clock. Harry looked behind him and saw a wrought-iron archway where the ticket box had been, with the words Platform Nine and Three-Quarters on it. He had done 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 each other in a disgruntled sort of way over the babble and the scraping of heavy trunks.
The first few carriages were already packed with students, some hanging out of the window to talk to their families, some fighting over seats. Harry pushed his trolley off down the platform in search of an empty seat. He passed a round-faced boy who was saying, "Gran, I've lost my toad again."
"Oh, Neville," he heard the old woman sigh.
"Is that Neville Longbottom?" Lily asked. Harry nodded.
A boy with dreadlocks was surrounded by a small crowd.
"Must be our friend, Lee Jordan." grinned the twins.
"Give us a look, Lee, go on."
The boy lifted the lid of a box in his arms and the people around him shrieked and yelled as something inside poked out a long, hairy leg.
Ron shivered.
Harry pressed on through the crowd until he found an empty compartment near the end of the train. He put Hedwig inside first and then started to shove and heave his trunk towards the train door. He tried to lift it up the steps but could hardly raise one end and twice he dropped it painfully on his foot.
"Ouch," Dora winced. "I did that. A lot." she added sheepishly. They all laughed, except Remus.
"Come on it's hard doing it on your own." Dora smiled gratefully at her husband.
"Want a hand?" It was one of the red-haired twins he'd followed through the ticket box.
"Yes, please," Harry panted.
"Oy, Fred! C'mere and help!"
With the twins' help, Harry's trunk was at last tucked away in a corner of the compartment.
"Thanks," said Harry, pushing his sweaty hair out of his eyes.
"What's that?" said one of the twins suddenly, pointing at Harry's lightning scar.
"Blimey," said the other twin. "Are you—?"
"He is," said the first twin. "Aren't you?" he added to Harry.
"What?" said Harry.
"Harry Potter," chorused the twins.
"Oh, him," said Harry. "I mean, yes, I am."
They all started laughing.
The two boys gawped at him and Harry felt himself going red. Then, to his relief, a voice came floating through the train's open door.
"Sorry Harry." the twins said.
"We didn't realise we were doing it." Fred added.
Harry shrugged. "It's fine. Hagrid already told me most kids grew up knowing my name and my stroy, it was just odd to have people know who I was because of a scar on my forehead. It was practically a name tag." he explained. "Still is actually."
"Fred? George? Are you there?"
"Coming, Mum."
With a last look at Harry, the twins hopped off the train.
Harry sat down next to the window where, half-hidden, he could watch the red-haired family on the platform and hear what they were saying.
Their mother had just taken out her handkerchief.
"Ron, you've got something on your nose."
"Mum—geroff." He wriggled free.
They laughed.
"Aaah has ickle Ronnie got somefink on his nosie?" said one of the twins.
"Shut up," said Ron.
"Where's Percy?" said their mother.
"He's coming now."
The oldest boy came striding into sight. He had already changed into his billowing black Hogwarts robes
"Sounds like a prefect." Sirius commented wrinkling his nose.
"What's wrong with prefects?" Remus and Lily demanded. "Both of us were prefects!" Lily added.
"You two? Nothing, but some prefects are just…" he made a face.
"I was a prefect." Percy said, "And I was a bit of a prat about it." he admitted sheepishly.
"We were prefect's too." Hermione said pointing at herself then Ron and Draco.
"Yeah and I was a bigger prat about it than you Percy." Draco said, blushing. Harry, Ginny, Fred, George, Hermione and Ron nodded in agreement.
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 front, the Prefects have got two compartments to themselves—"
"Oh, are you a Prefect, Percy?" said one of the twins, 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," said the other twin. "Once—"
"Or twice—"
"A minute—"
"All summer—"
They all burst out laughing.
"Oh, shut up," said Percy the Prefect.
They laughed some more.
"How come Percy gets new robes, anyway?" said one of the twins.
"Because he's a Prefect," said their mother 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 turned to the twins.
"Urgh. I hated it when Mum turned to me and Sirius." shuddered James.
"Treated you both like proper sons, then, if she told Sirius off." said Lily.
"Yeah, but I got away with more." said Sirius smirking.
"Yeah, that wasnt fair. Mum seemed to think it was me causing trouble and Sirius just helped." James muttered.
"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—"
"Man, it was fun when we did that." James said reminiscently.
"That was back in third year, right?" asked Sirius.
"Yup." answered Remus.
"Blown up a toilet? We've never blown up a toilet."
"Bet you will now she's mentioned it," Sirius said to the twins, "Bit of advice Molly. Never give pranksters ideas." Molly nodded.
"I had figured that out eventually." she admitted.
"Great idea though, thanks, Mum."
"It's not funny. And look after Ron."
"Don't worry, ickle Ronniekins is safe with us."
Ron glared at the twins while everyone else laughed.
"Shut up," said Ron again.
He was almost as tall as the twins already and his nose was still pink where his mother had rubbed it.
"Hey, Mum, guess what? Guess who we just met on the train?"
"Sure, tell everyone." Remus muttered.
Harry leant back quickly so they couldn't see him looking.
"You know the black-haired boy who was near us in the station? Know who he is?"
"Who?"
"Harry Potter!"
Harry heard the little girl's voice.
"Oh, Mum, can I go on the train and see him, Mum, oh please…"
"I think someone has a crush!" Sirius said as Ginny went bright red and glared at Harry.
"Sorry Gin. I forgot that was in there." he said weakly before changing into Shadow and going to
hide behind his parents making everyone laugh again.
"You've already seen him, Ginny, and the poor boy isn't something you goggle at in a zoo. Is he really, Fred? How do you know?"
"Asked him. Saw his scar. It's really there—like lightning."
"Poor dear—no wonder he was alone. I wondered. He was ever so polite when he asked how to get on to the platform."
"Never mind that, do you think he remembers what You-Know-Who looks like?"
Their mother suddenly became very stern. "I forbid you to ask him, Fred. No, don't you dare. As though he needs reminding of that on his first day at school."
A whistle sounded.
"Hurry up!" their mother said, and the three boys clambered on to the train. They leant out of the window for her to kiss them goodbye and their youngest sister began to cry.
"Don't, Ginny, we'll send you loads of owls."
"We'll send you a Hogwarts toilet seat."
James and Sirius laughed.
"That cheered me up a little bit." Ginny admitted smiling at her big brothers as Harry who was still Shadow went back over and curled up at Ginny's feet.
"George!"
"Only joking, Mum."
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 too much 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. He didn't know where he was going to—but it had to be better than what he was leaving behind.
The door of the compartment slid open and the youngest red-headed boy came in.
"Anyone sitting there?" he asked, pointing at the seat opposite Harry. "Everywhere else is full."
Harry shook his head and the boy sat down. He glanced at Harry and then looked quickly out of the window, pretending he hadn't looked. Harry saw he still had a black mark on his nose.
"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."
Ron shuddered again.
"Right," mumbled Ron.
"Harry," said the other twin, "did we introduce ourselves? Fred and George Weasley. And this is Ron, our brother. See you later, then."
"Bye," said Harry and Ron. The twins slid the compartment door shut behind them.
"Are you really Harry Potter?" Ron blurted out.
"Nice." Sirius snorted "Very polite."
"Sorry mate." Ron said sheepishly to Shadow who nodded his head.
Harry nodded.
"Oh—well, I thought it might have been one of Fred and George's jokes," said Ron. "And have you really got—you know…"
He pointed at Harry's forehead.
Harry pulled back his fringe to show the lightning scar. Ron stared.
"So that's where You-Know-Who—?"
"Yes," said Harry, "but I can't remember it."
"Nothing?" said Ron eagerly.
"I told you not to ask," Molly scolded.
"You only told the twins not to ask." Ron defended himself making everyone chuckle.
"Well—I remember a lot of green light, but nothing else."
"That's still way too much." James said quietly.
Shadow shrugged thinking they won't like his third year too much.
"Wow," said Ron.
He sat and stared at Harry for a few moments, then, as though he had suddenly realized what he was doing, he looked quickly out of the window again.
"Are all your family wizards?" asked Harry, who found Ron just as interesting as Ron found him.
"This'll be interesting; you'll both want to know about each other's lives." said Remus making Ron and the wolf nod.
"Er—yes, I think so," said Ron. "I think Mum's got a second cousin who's an accountant, but we never talk about him."
"Because the man is horrible." Molly scowled, "He's a wizard though." she added, "Horrible man Artemius was, when Bill was born he suggested that Arthur and I were too young to have and we should just let him drown him." she spat.
"He got hexed and disowned for that." Arthur said, "We dont have to worry about him anymore Molly." he soothed.
"We should track him down so I can show him all the horrid curses I know." Bill growled. "Or drag him to Egypt and trap him in a pyramid."
"Artemius Prewett?" Dora asked, Molly nodded, "He's in Azkaban." she said, "I was with Kingsley on patrol in Knockturn Alley one day, when I was still in training, and he had a few illegal items on him so Kingsley and I arrested him on the spot. If I remember right he got a life sentance for having a dragons egg and a few illegal potion ingrediants."
"Good. Serves him right, no-one gets away with threatening our brother." Charlie stated. "And that applies to all of us."
"Sometimes to the point of being over-protective." Ginny muttered, "I agree with that though, no-one threatens a Weasley and get's away with it." she stated making her parents smile proudly while her brothers nodded.
"So you must know loads of magic already."
The Weasleys were clearly one of those old wizarding families the pale boy in Diagon Alley had talked about.
"Not quite the same." said Sirius.
"Definatly one of the nicer families." Draco agreed. "I'm ashamed at how I used to act." he admitted.
"You only knew your Father's stories though." Cissy pointed out, "Sure I told you some but you mainly listened to him."
"I heard you went to live with Muggles," said Ron. "What are they like?"
"Horrible—well, not all of them. My aunt and uncle and cousin are, though. Wish I'd had three wizard brothers."
"We were going to have more kids once you turned 2, Harry, but, quite obviously, we died." Lily said sadly.
"Yeah," James agreed, "we wanted to have one or two after you but as Lily said, we died."
"Five," said Ron.
For some reason, he was looking gloomy. "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 captain of Quidditch. Now Percy's a Prefect. Fred and George mess around a lot,"
The twins mock-bowed to the annoyance of Molly and Minerva and amusement of the others.
"but they still get really good marks and everyone thinks they're really funny." Ron reached inside his jacket and pulled out a fat grey rat, which was asleep.
Sirius, Remus, Harry, Ron and Hermione growled at the rat to the confusion of the others, they just shook thier heads at the questioning looks.
"It's explained later." Harry said.
"His name's Scabbers and he's useless, he hardly ever 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."
Ron's ears went pink. He seemed to think he'd said too much, because he went back to staring out of the window.
Harry didn't think there was 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 he told Ron so, all about having to wear Dudley's old clothes and never getting proper birthday presents. This seemed to cheer Ron up.
"and until Hagrid told me, I didn't know anything about being a wizard or about my parents or Voldemort—"
Ron gasped.
"Oooh, he said Voldemort." said Sirius dramatically.
"Yes, I do believe he did!" said James pretending to faint.
"Oh, the horror!" Sirius cried clutching his heart as if in pain.
Most pepole laughed.
"How I put up with these two for 11 years I'll never know." Lily muttered so that only Dora could hear her.
Dora chuckled a bit before saying, "I feel sorry for you but it's amusing, if a little annoying at times." Lily nodded grudgingly.
"What?" said Harry.
"You said You-Know-Who's name!" said Ron, sounding both shocked and impressed. "I'd have thought you, of all people—"
"I'm not trying to be brave or anything, saying the name," said Harry. "I just never knew you shouldn't. See what I mean? I've got loads to learn… I bet," he added, voicing for the first time something that had been worrying him a lot lately, "I bet I'm the worst in the class."
"You won't be."
"Thanks by the way, I needed to hear that." Harry said to Ron.
"No problem mate." he replied.
"There's loads of people who come from Muggle families and they learn quick enough."
They all looked at Lily and Hermione who both smiled.
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, who hadn't had any breakfast, leapt to his feet, but Ron's ears went pink again and he muttered that he'd brought sandwiches. Harry went out into the corridor.
He had never had any money for sweets 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 but the woman didn't have any Mars Bars.
What she did have were BertieBott's Every-Flavor Beans,
"Watch yourself with those! I once got liver once. And sprouts. Awful, those!" warned James.
"I've had a bogie flavoured one once." George said.
"Dumbledore told me he had a vomit flavoured one when he was younger, he's had earwax too." Harry added. "I was there with the earwax one."
"Bad luck for him." Minerva mused, "I must remember to ask his portrait about that later."
Droobles Best Blowing Gum, Chocolate frogs, Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron cakes, Liquorice wands and a number of other strange things Harry had never seen in his life. Not wanting to miss anything, he got some of everything and paid the woman eleven silver Sickles and seven bronze Knuts.
Ron stared as Harry brought it all back into the compartment and tipped it onto an empty seat.
"Hungry, are you?"
"Starving," said Harry, taking a large bite out of a pumpkin pasty.
Ron had taken out a lumpy package and unwrapped it. There were four sandwiches in there. He pulled one of them apart and said, "She always forgets I don't like corned beef."
"Sorry Ron." Molly said to her youngest son who just nodded in acceptance of the apology.
"It's ok Mum I understand that you were pretty busy making lunch for all of us." he told his mother.
"Swap you for one of these," said Harry, holding up a pasty.
"Go on—"
"You don't want this, it's all dry," said Ron. "She hasn't got much time," he added quickly, "you know, with five of us."
"Go on, have a pasty," said Harry
"That's nice you Harry," commented Lily.
Shadow changed into Harry again and he grinned.
who had never had anything to share before, or, indeed, anyone to share it with.
It was a nice feeling, sitting there with Ron, eating their way through all Harry's pasties and cakes (the sandwiches lay forgotten).
"What are these?" Harry asked Ron, holding up a pack of Chocolate Frogs. "They're not really frogs, are they?" He was starting to feel that nothing would surprise him.
"No," said Ron. "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 picked up the card. It showed a man's face. He wore half-moon glasses, had a long crooked nose and flowing silver hair, beard and moustache.
"Dumbledore!" Sirius cheered.
Underneath the picture was the name Albus Dumbledore.
"So this is Dumbledore!" said Harry.
"Don't tell me you'd never heard of Dumbledore!" said Ron.
"Can I have a frog? I might get Agrippa—thanks—"
Harry turned over his card and read:
Albus Dumbledore, currently Headmaster of Hogwarts.
Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times, Professor 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
"Who?" Bill asked.
"You will find out." Hermione said, "We had to look him up at one point." she explained.
Professor Dumbledore enjoys chamber music and tenpin bowling.
Harry turned the card back over and saw, to his astonishment, that Dumbledore's face had disappeared.
"He's gone!"
"Well you can't expect him to hang around all day," said Ron. "He'll be back. No, I've got Morgana again and I've got about six of her… do want it? You can start collecting." Ron's eyes strayed to the pile of Chocolate Frogs waiting to be unwrapped.
"Help yourself," said Harry. "But in, you know, the Muggle world, people just stay put in photos."
"Do they? What, they don't move at all?" Ron sounded amazed. "Weird!"
"I thought it was weird when photos moved." Harry chuckled.
Harry stared as Dumbledore sidled back in the picture on his card and gave him a small smile. Ron was more interested in eating the frogs than looking at the Famous Witches and Wizards cards, but Harry couldn't keep his eyes off them.
Soon he had not only Dumbledore and Morgana, but Hengist of Woodcroft, Alberic Grunnion, Circe, Paracelsus and Merlin. He finally tore his eyes from the druidess Clidona, who was scratching her nose, to open a bag of Bertie Bott's Every-Flavour Beans.
"You want to be careful with those," Ron warned Harry. "When they say every flavour, they mean every flavour—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 bogey-flavoured one once."
Ron picked up a green bean, looked at it carefully and bit into a corner. "Bleaaargh—see? Sprouts."
"I've had that," said James. "I know what you mean." he added sympathetically.
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 off a funny grey one Ron wouldn't touch,
"Isn't that just pepper?" asked Sirius.
which turned out to be pepper.
"Yeah, I've had that one," said Sirius.
"Yeah wasn't that the one Lucius made you eat when you were 6?" Cissy asked.
"Yup but Remus tricked me into eating one in our fourth year too." he replied glaring at the werewolf, who smirked.
The countryside now flying past the window was looking wilder. The neat fields had gone.
Now there were woods, twisting rivers and dark green hills.
There was a knock on the door of their compartment and the round-faced boy Harry had passed on platform nine and three-quarters came in. He looked tearful.
"Sorry," he said, "but have you seen a toad at all?"
When they shook their heads, he wailed, "I've lost him! He keeps getting away from me!"
"He'll turn up," said Harry.
"Yes," said the boy miserably. "Well, if you see him…" He left.
"That was Neville Longbottom." Remus told James and Lily who nodded.
"Don't know why he's so bothered," said Ron. "If I'd brought a toad I'd lose it as quick as I could."
"Mind you, I brought Scabbers, so I can't talk."
The rat was still snoozing on Ron's lap.
"He might have died and you wouldn't know the difference," said Ron in disgust. "I tried to turn him yellow yesterday to make him more interesting,"
"but the spell didn't work. I'll show you, look…"
He rummaged around in his trunk and pulled out a very battered-looking wand. It was chipped in places and something white was glinting at the end.
"Unicorn hairs nearly poking out. Anyway—"
He had just raised his wand when the compartment door slid open again. The toad less boy was back, but this time he had a girl with him. She was already wearing her new Hogwarts robes.
"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," she said.
"And thats the first time we met Hermione, by the way we didn't like each other at first." Harry said.
She had a bossy sort of voice, lots of bushy brown hair and rather large front teeth.
"Flattering." Hermione said rolling her eyes.
"We've already told him we haven't seen it," said Ron, but the girl wasn't listening, she was looking at the wand in his hand.
"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it, then." She sat down. Ron looked taken aback.
"Er—all right." He cleared his throat. "Sunshine, daises, butter mellow, Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."
He waved his wand, but nothing happened.
Scabbers stayed grey and fast asleep.
"Are you sure that's a real spell?" said the girl. "Well, it's not very good, is it? I've tried a few simple spells just 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,"
"Merlin I was annoying." Hermione moaned, going pink.
"I mean, it's the 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 will be enough—"
They all (Exept Ron and Harry) looked shocked.
"Did you really?" Charlie asked Hermione, she nodded "Wow."
"I don't think any of us could do that if we tried." Bill added making Hermione blush and the others nod.
"I remember all of the tranfiguration textbooks but that's because it's always the same books for each year I never change them as the books I set are usually the best for theory I just show students the wand movements and tell them the incantations as it's hard to learn them from a book." Minerva told them.
"Any subject is hard just to learn from a book." Harry pointed out, "Exept maybe history." he shrugged, "Most students couldnt listen to Binn's for more than a minute, I know the Ravenclaws just studied from the book."
"You and Ron just used my notes." Hermione huffed, "You didnt even attempt to listen."
"If we did we'd fall asleep." Ron muttered, "That ghost is just too boring."
"I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?" She said all this very fast.
Harry looked at Ron and was relieved to see by his stunned face that he hadn't learnt all the set books off by heart either.
"I'm Ron Weasley," Ron muttered.
"Harry Potter," said Harry.
"Are you really?" said Hermione. "I know all about you, of course—I got a few extra books for background reading, and you're in Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century."
"Is it a bad thing that I didn't know I was in a book? In fact it dosn't matter, those books were mostly guesses about what happened the night Voldemort dissapeared and what happened after it." Harry said.
"Am I?" said Harry, feeling dazed.
"Goodness, didn't you know, I'd have found out everything I could if it was me," said Hermione. "Do either of you know what house you'll be in? I've been asking around and I hope I'm in Gryffindor, It sounds by far the best, I hear Dumbledore himself was one,"
"Yeah, he was," said Sirius.
"How d'you find out?" the twins asked. "We found out one day we were in trouble it was involved in the speech he gave us." George explained.
"The Marauders have mysterious ways," said Sirius mysteriously.
"We just asked him," said Remus.
Lily snorted, "So much for your 'Mysterious ways'."
"but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad… Anyway, we'd better go and look for Neville's toad. You two had better change, you know, I expect we'll be there soon."
And she left, taking the toad less boy with her.
"Whatever house I'm in, I hope she's not in it," said Ron.
Hermione and Molly glared at Ron and he cringed and moved closer to Harry.
He threw his wand back into his trunk. "Stupid spell—George gave it to me, bet he knew it was a dud."
"Probably, I would've done the same thing"
"What house are your brothers in?" asked Harry.
"Gryffindor," said Ron. Gloom seemed to be settling on him again. "Mum and Dad were in it, too. I don't know what they'll say if I'm not. I don't suppose Ravenclaw would be too bad, but imagine if they put me in Slytherin."
"That's the house Vol—I mean, You-Know-Who was in?"
"Yeah," said Ron. He flopped back into his seat looking depressed.
"You know, I think the ends of Scabbers's whiskers are a bit lighter," said Harry trying to take Ron's mind off houses.
"So what do your oldest brothers do now they've left, anyway?" Harry was wondering what a wizard did once he'd finished school.
"Charlie's in Romania studying dragons"
"I was. I'm now at the reserve in Ireland, half of thier dragon keepers were killed in the war so I've been relocated." Charlie said. "Closer to home too."
"and Bill's in Africa doing something for Gringotts," said Ron.
"I was checking out an old temple." Bill smiled, "You should've seen all the cool drawings on it's walls, dated right back to the founders days I think."
"Did you hear about Gringotts? It's been all over the Daily Prophet, but I don't suppose you get that with the Muggles—someone tried to rob a high-security vault."
Harry stared. "Really? What happened to them?"
"Nothing, that's 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 took anything, that's what's odd. 'Course, everyone gets scared when something like this happens in case You-Know-Who's behind it."
Harry turned this news over in his mind. He was starting to get a prickle of fear every time You-Know-Who was mentioned. He supposed this was all part of entering the magical world, but it had been a lot more comfortable saying 'Voldemort' without worrying.
"Fear of a name, only increases fear of the thing itself." Remus said nodding.
"What's your Quidditch team?" Ron asked.
"Er—I don't know any," Harry confessed.
"What!" Ron looked dumfounded. "Oh, you wait, it's the best game in the world—" And he was off, explaining all about the four balls and the positions of the seven players, describing famous games he'd been to with his brothers and the broomstick he'd like to get if he'd had the money.
He was just taking Harry through the finer point of the game when the compartment door slid open yet again, but it wasn't Neville the toad less boy or Hermione Granger this time.
Three boys entered and Harry recognized the middle one at once:
It was the pale boy from Madam Malkin's robe shop.
They all groaned. Including Draco himself.
He was looking at Harry with a lot more interest than he'd shown back in Diagon Alley.
"Fair warning, I'm an even bigger prat this time." Draco said.
"Is it true?" he said. "They're saying all down the train that Harry Potter's in this compartment. So it's you, is it?"
"Yes," said Harry. He was looking at the other boys. Both of them were thickset and looked extremely mean. Standing either side of the pale boy they looked like bodyguards.
"Oh, this is Crabbe and this is Goyle," said the pale boy carelessly, noticing where Harry was looking.
"Just as bad and thick as Dudley if they're anything like their fathers." scoffed Sirius, and the others nodded.
"They were." Draco confirmed, "But I'd known them for years and they listened to me unlike the others."
"Others?" Lily asked.
"Other kids from the, mostly dark, pureblood families." Cissy clarified, "We used to hold them so the kids had more experiance with the people apart from their tutors and family members."
"Yeah, going from alone with only occassional contact with people to 6 hours a day of tutoring was hard enough." Regulus muttered, "Hogwarts is a bigger leap than that so for about two years before going there were constant social gatherings and visits so the younger kids get to develop better social skills."
"It was quite a difficult leap." Sirius nodded, "I was still a little overwhelmed by all the people on the platform and in the Great Hall when I first arrived." he admitted.
"You hid it well enough." Cissy mused.
"The 'mask' came in handy." he grinned, "So glad I learned how to do it."
"What mask?" Hermione asked.
"The one all traditionally dark families teach their kids." James supplied, "My Mum taught me when I was younger, basically it keeps your face blank. Usually people figure it out on their own." he added shrugging.
"And usually don't bother using it often." Andy said, "I only used it around the older members of the family."
"That's what we all did." Sirius snorted, "Most kids from families that do that just forget about all the things their parents tell them before Hogwarts."
"And act like the rest of the kids and teenagers." Draco added, "The majority of my year had strict orders from their parents to not act like kids. Like no rivalries, no dueling, no having fun unless it's done elegantly and has no way of embarrassing you and your family… Basically they were told to be adults." he shrugged.
"And I suppose you got two messages?" Cissy inquired, "I know I told you to behave and try your best but I don't know if Lucius said anything."
"He told me a few things but I'll explain them later." Draco said.
"And my name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."
Ron gave a slight cough, which might have been hiding a snigger. Draco Malfoy looked at him.
"Think my name's funny, do you?"
"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."
Draco winced as everyone glared at him.
He turned back to Harry. "You'll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there."
He held out his hand to shake Harry's, but Harry didn't take it.
"I think I can tell who the wrong sorts are for myself, thanks," he said coolly.
"Good one, Harry!" the twins cheered.
Draco Malfoy didn't go red, but a pink tinge appeared in his pale cheeks.
"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."
"Isn't zat kind of a death threat?" Fluer asked.
"Yes it is and had I known about this incident Draco would have found himself in detention for the whole year." Minerva said through thin lips, she was very protective of Harry, he was like a nephew or grandson to her.
"Sorry." Draco winced, "I spent way too much time listening to my Father say that."
"They didn't know what was good for them, either. You hang around with riff-raff like the Weasleys and that Hagrid and it'll rub off on you."
Both Harry and Ron stood up.
Ron's face was as red as his hair. "Say that again," he said.
"Oh, you're going to fight us, are you?" sneered Malfoy.
"Unless you get out now," said Harry, more bravely than he felt, because Crabbe and Goyle were a lot bigger than him or Ron.
"So? The bigger they are, the harder they fall," Remus growled.
"But we don't feel like leaving, do we, boys? We've eaten all our food and you still seem to have some."
Goyle reached towards the Chocolate Frogs next to Ron—Ron leapt forward, but before he'd so much as touched Goyle, Goyle let out a horrible yell.
"Wait, what happened?" Percy asked.
Scabbers the rat was hanging off his finger, sharp little teeth sunk deep into Goyle's knuckle, Crabbe and Malfoy backed away.
"Whimps!" said James and Sirius.
As Goyle swung Scabbers round and round, howling, and when Scabbers finally flew off and hit the window, all three of them disappeared at once.
Perhaps they thought there were more rats lurking around the sweets, or perhaps they'd heard footsteps, because a second later, Hermione Granger had come in "What has been going on?" she said, looking at the sweets all over the floor and Ron picking up Scabbers by his tail.
"I think he's been knocked out," Ron said to Harry. He looked closer at Scabbers. "No—I don't believe it—he's gone back to sleep."
And so he had.
"You've met Malfoy before?"
Harry explained about their meeting in Diagon Alley.
"I've heard of his family," said Ron darkly. "They were some of the first to come back to our side after You-Know-Who disappeared. Said they'd been bewitched."
"Yeah right." James muttered.
"That was my idea I didn't want Draco growing up without anyone there because I was in prison," Cissy admitted quietly, "Sure he may have had Severus but it wouldn't be the same."
"Why Snape?" Sirius asked curiously.
"He was my Godfather." Draco said sadly. "That's why he favoured me a lot. If I really was out of line he'd call me to his office and tell me I was wrong there and usually got me to re-arrange his potions ingredients as punishment." he said fondly. "Sometimes he'd just make me list them all by name and what they do, that's how I'm good at potion making, because he started getting me to learn them when I was 5 or 6."
"You were 5." Cissy told him, "You just turned 5 when he offered to start teaching you." Draco nodded.
"My dad doesn't believe it. He says Malfoy's father didn't need an excuse to go over to the Dark Side."
He turned to Hermione. "Can we help you with something?"
"You'd better hurry up and put your robes on, 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," said Ron.
"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,"
"Gee, acting childishly wouldn't be 'cause they're children would it?" Fred asked sarcastically.
Hermione blushed again.
said Hermione in a sniffy voice. "And you've got dirt on your nose, by the way, did you know?"
"As a matter of fact, I didn't." Ron said in the same tone as Hermione used in the memory making the women in the room, including Hermione herself, giggle and the men chuckle.
"I think that's enough until after dinner." Harry said looking at his watch that announced it was 4 pm. They all agreed and Molly went to make dinner with the other women following to help while the men chatted among themselves.