Anyway, Harry felt that his alter-ego was about to initiate a conversation within his mind, and so he decided to enter his mind while he slept in his bedroom, which was a welcome upgrade for him. The cupboard was beginning to feel slightly cramped as it was.

Inside his mind he saw a reflection of himself which felt a bit darker. Not as dark, mind, as the extra soul he had inside his scar- which was puzzling him to no end as it was- but a bit dark in his thought process indeed. Harry called this dark version of himself Manny, and was, for the first time ever, pleased to see him.

"Hello, Harry. I presume you want to talk about why we possess two wands. But before that, I wanna know all the info that you have about magic, so wait a bit."

Harry waited while Manny absorbed all the information that Harry had assimilated- which was then stored in a shared portion of their minds.

"Interesting. I see now that we aren't psychic, but have Unique magic. As to why we have two wands, quite simply, the wands probably recognized the two alternate selves in this body, and thus they decided to bond with the same body." Manny thought before continuing, "From what I can surmise, one will feel warmer in the hand than the other for both of us, which we must test out. Also, it wouldn't hurt to use Unique magic to learn our portions for the year by heart. That actually might be for the best- seeing as you have been targeted by a murdering maniac when you were one year old."

Harry thought a bit before retorting, "But Manny, the problem is not that I haven't learnt the basics. I'm worried that the magic will be detected by the Ministry- you know that underage magic isn't allowed, right?"

"I don't think Unique Magic falls under that particular law. It is an unknown branch after all. However, it might be a good idea to remove that annoying magic detection on us- legally. I'll think up a way to get it removed. In the meantime though, how will you hide my existence?"

Harry was perplexed at that point- after thinking for a bit, however, he answered slowly, "Well, the best way, is to not let you switch for me as much as possible. If I find someone trustworthy, though, I will let you explain how you came into existence by switching."

Manny replied "I guess that will have to do for now. You saw the ticket, right? Where is Platform 9 3/4?"

This, Harry figured, was completely obvious- "Why wouldn't they magically hide Platform 9 3/4 in the pillar between Platforms 9 & 10? It is a train to a school of magic. We might be able to meet other muggle-born wizard's family or even a wizarding family at King's Cross. I hate having to ask Uncle Vernon for a ride though. Guess I'll have to go for broke and ask him."

The next morning, on August 31 that is, after testing the wand-ego compatibility (Manny was the 8 and a 1/2 inch wand and Harry was the 11 inch wand), Harry practised the magic spells in his textbooks. Once he was satisfied with the activation of each spell, which took till the evening, he figured he should ask Uncle Vernon now. The request was granted, although Vernon seemed to be quite irritated. Harry figured- and Manny agreed- that he might as well ask the Headmaster for permission to stay over the summer every summer- he couldn't take the abuse anymore.

As Harry had thought, Platform 9 3/4 was in between Platforms 9 and 10. However, he decided to ask a wizarding family just to be sure. As he waited alone (Vernon seemed to want to be present for the removal of Dudley's pig tail, which is why he got a ride to King's Cross), he suddenly found a family of freckled redheads, who started talking about muggles. He decided to wait a bit, inconspicuously, feeling shy. As the last boy- who seemed to be his age- was about to go, he decided to ask the motherly looking woman, politely.

The woman said "Oh dear, first time to Hogwarts? Well, you just have to go through the pillar separating platforms 9 and 10 and you'll get to the platform. How about you go after Ron here does?"

When he reached the platform, he decided to get on the train as fast as possible. The redheaded twins that went before Ron decided to help him with his hefty trunk. When Harry had wiped his brow after heaving it into an empty compartment, they had noticed the scar and immediately recognized him. Needless to say, they decided that they were coming to sit with Harry later (much to his chagrin- he had planed to spend the journey chatting with Manny), but all thoughts of resistance to company disappeared when he saw a girl with bushy tawny-brown hair and a cute (to him, at least) overbite, who he recognized as Hermione Granger. As it turns out, Hermione had unwittingly been in the same school as Harry, and they had spoken on a few occasions, but he had wanted to be her friend since he was 9. He decided against it though, as he didn't want her to be bullied by Dudley as well. Now that he had a chance, he decided to try calling out to her.

"Hermione, is that you?"

She turned around, obviously surprised to see him. Sounding startled, she squeaked, "Harry, what are you doing here? I thought you were going to Stonewall."

"Well, I was, but I was accepted into Hogwarts instead. I have a full compartment to myself, d'you want to sit with me?" he replied.

She accepted the offer, and moments later, Harry found himself meeting her parents. He assured them that he would be her friend and that he would look after her as classmates, for as long as possible. Then the train left, chugging along. When five minutes had passed in awkward silence, Harry asked her, "So, what were the magical things you did as a child?"

She replied, sounding sad and embarrassed, "Well, I mostly broke plates and levitated my parents when I was angry at home. Of course, once I learnt that it was magic, I had to read up on the history of it all, so I bought a few reference books, and found something interesting in recent history- when the war with Lord Voldemort was at its peak 10 years ago, he had apparently gone after a family- the Potters, I think- and had killed the mother and father. However, the baby, who coincidentally was also named Harry, was not affected. Instead, Voldemort seemingly had either died or lost his powers. I wonder, will we be able to meet that poor child? I would like to know how the family that adopted him treated him. What do you think?"

Harry was startled to find that he was in history books- Manny reckoned that he shouldn't have been surprised though, as the knowledge Harry had dredged up did include his past. He also wasn't sure whether he wanted to tell her about the Dursleys- embarrassed that he was. In the end, he decided to let her know that he was who she was talking about.

"You already know that, Hermione. You know how they treated him- at least to an extent." he replied quietly, showing an anxious expression on his face.

"How is that possible, Harry? We haven't met him at all!" was her exasperated reply. She was puzzled about his expression as well, but that was overruled by her irritation at his nonsensical words.

"The books mentioned a scar on Harry's head, right?" he asked, showing the scar that he had hid for nearly 10 years of his life. He vaguely wondered if she would have slapped him for his insolence, but that was a needless worry.

Once Hermione saw the scar, her eyes widened in appalled understanding, having been witness to some scenes when Dudley had bullied him. Her tears threatened to fall, as it always had whenever she saw Harry being bullied. She always wondered why Harry had never asked her to be his friend ever since she was 10. Then she had found that he was bullied constantly by his cousin. Since then, even though she had no friends, she always made it a point to talk to Harry whenever it was possible, regardless of anyone's thoughts, for she realized that he, like her, had no friends. She was too shy to ask him to be her friend though.

When the first tear finally fell, it was like a broken dam- she couldn't stop crying, feeling the pain that he must have felt in her tiny little heart as if it were her own. She had heard that Harry's parents had died in a car crash, of course, but couldn't believe that his relatives were that hateful of him- choosing to instead hide the truth from him, and torment him, as they must have. She now felt that Harry deserved loving strangers, not the neglectful relatives that he ended up with.

Seeing Hermione start to cry, Harry, who was sitting across from her, regretted telling her about it- he hadn't expected her to start crying. Manny decided to switch with him and make things easier for them. He instantly said, "I'm sorry, Hermione, I shouldn't have told you. Whatever happened in the past is, well, in the past. I expect you wouldn't want to be seen with me, famous as I am. I think no one would want to be misunderstood as being of the wron-"

He never got to finish that sentence, though, for she had flung herself on him onto him, hugging him with all her strength and saying "NO- I'm sorry! I should've stood up for you all those times, whenever I saw you being tormented by your horrid cousin! I was scared that you would be angry with me, as I was not involved, and I didn't want to be teased alongside you. I hope we can be friends, Harry- I always wanted to be your friend, you know. We could be each others' first friends!"

That had stunned both Harry and Manny into silence. Harry switched back, making a mental note to talk to Manny about his impulse decisions.