Harry wrestled his trunk onto the train and set off to find a compartment. He wasn't sure if he wanted to be by himself or not, but it was early still. He made his way to an empty compartment in the very back and set his things in there. He brought out his new Quidditch book and sat down to read, barely noticing the noise level rise as more students came on.
As it neared time to leave, no one disturbed Harry. Just when he thought he'd make the whole journey without interruption, the door slid open. A black boy about his age looked it, rather timidly. The boy was even shorter than Harry, with a short cut and rather ruffled robes.
"Sorry, but all the other compartments are full. Can I sit here?" He looked terrified that Harry would say no, or perhaps curse him.
Harry smiled in what he hoped was a reassuring way. "No problem. Come on in."
The boy looked as if he couldn't believe his luck. He set his trunk down opposite Harry and sat down. He looked absolutely terrified at being alone with Harry, and even more so when Harry spoke to him.
"What's your name?" The boy jumped, colored slightly, then responded.
"Dennis Averallo."
"Nice to meet you. I'm Daniel Graham. What year are you in?" He decided not to try to shake Dennis's hand. The boy might think he was attacking him.
Dennis smiled a bit, seeming to be more convinced of Harry's friendliness. "Oh, I'm a sixth year. I'm in Ravenclaw House."
Harry nodded. "Yeah, I think McGonagall said something about the houses. I wasn't really paying attention. I'm a transfer student here. I'll be in my sixth year, too."
Dennis looked interested. "Really? I didn't know you could do that."
Harry shrugged, then asked for more information about the houses. Dennis's voice was unsure at first, but when Harry didn't seem to be making fun of him he became more talkative, and flew into detailed explanations for each house.
"-And there's Slytherin House, full of buggers and future Dark Wizards, of course. They're all horrible, actually. Except this one girl, Malaya. She's a fifth year, but she's pretty nice. The others like to make fun of Muggleborns and Gryffindors, but more than anyone, me."
Harry was surprised. "Why?"
Dennis looked terrified again. "Suppose you should find out now, rather than later. The Averallo family is traditionally a Slytherin family. I'm the first to take another house for about ten generations. My family didn't take it well when I was put in Ravenclaw, and because of my family, a lot of the other students were afraid of me."
Harry nodded understandingly. He knew what that was like.
"That would be pretty bad luck, but you seem pretty nice yourself." Dennis looked delighted. "So why do the Slytherins make fun of you, if you're from a Slytherin family?"
Dennis rolled his eyes. "Because they think I wasn't good enough to make it into their stupid house. Those people have too much ambition and not enough common brains if you ask me."
A throaty voice interrupted Harry's response. "Better not let Mother hear you talking like that." The speaker was a slightly taller girl with long black hair, but she had the same perfectly oval-shaped eyes as Dennis. She already wore her Slytherin robes, and would have been quite pretty but for the smirk on her face.
Dennis paled. "H-hi, Alicia. What do you want?"
She spoke vaguely, now making a close examination of Harry. "Just checking in on my brother. Making sure he doesn't get any ideas." She now spoke sharply to Harry. "And who are you?"
He smiled without mirth. "My name's Daniel Graham, new student. And you are?" She ignored the question, and made another inspection of him, her eyes lingering a split-second too long on the empty space where his house logo should be.
Seemingly satisfied, she began talking again. "It's good to meet you, Daniel. Hope to see you in Slytherin." She turned on her heel and left.
"Hope to never see you again." Harry murmured softly.
Dennis looked nervous again. "Look, I'm really sorry about her-"
Harry rolled his eyes. "Don't be. Everyone has people they'd rather not know, much less be related to. Believe me, I understand."
Dennis looked relieved and intrigued, and Harry decided he may as well tell him, with some twists to the story, of course.
"I live with my godfather; my parents died some time ago." Before Dennis could say anything, he plowed on. "When they died… well, the authorities wanted to send me to my mum's sister, who's a Muggle. Problem is, the only thing she despises more than my mother is anything out of the ordinary, especially magic." Harry sighed. "She and her husband and my cousin treated me like I was scum under her shoe. My godfather fought for custody, and they were only too happy to give me to him. So believe me, you're not the only one with awful relatives."
Dennis looked sympathetic. "It must've been awful, living with them. But what about your godfather?"
Harry smiled. He had never actually lived alone with Sirius – but he imagined how it would've been…
"Oh, Chris has been wonderful. It's nice living with someone who was best friends with my parents, and he has all these stories about the stuff they did at school. He wasn't keen on me going to Hogwarts, though. I think he wanted me to follow in the footsteps of my dad and him, and continue their tradition of trying to break every detention record in the books. I'm not interested it that too much, though, and from what I've heard, Hogwarts is the best." He paused.
Dennis nodded excitedly, then burst into another long talk about how wonderful the school was. Even if he was picked on a lot, he did seem to love it there. He waxed lyrical about the best subjects and the teachers Harry would love for some time, before Harry asked him a question.
"What about sports? There's Quidditch, right?"
Dennis looked a bit sad. "Yeah, there an inter-house competition throughout the year." His gaze slid to Harry's Quidditch book, which was lying on his trunk, forgotten.
"I guess you like to fly, Daniel?" He seemed disappointed.
Harry's felt the familiar rush he always had when Quidditch came up, but tempered it a bit. "Yeah, it's the best game in the world, I think."
"Going to try for your team?"
Harry shrugged. "Dunno. What about you… you like to fly?"
Dennis looked highly uncomfortable, but took a deep breath. "Yeah, I do, but it doesn't matter."
Harry was surprised, "Why not?"
Dennis looked a bit sullen. "Because I'm only an good flyer, not a great one. If you can't be the best, there's no point in doing it, at least according to my parents."
Harry shook his head. "Who cares what they think?"
"I don't know. Me, I guess. But, even if I did try for it, I wouldn't make the team. People would think I was a joke."
"Not if we practice beforehand. Why don't we fly together when we get to school?"
Dennis had on a slight grin. He was looking at Harry a bit warily, giving the latter the feeling of holding a hot piece of bacon in front of a starving dog.
Dennis grunted slightly. "Don't have a broom."
"Use mine. If you make the team, maybe your parents will get you one."
Dennis looked a bit thoughtful, but undecided. Harry let it go.
"What about the Headmaster?"
Dennis smiled. "My family hates him, but I think he's doing a bang-up job. It's actually kind of funny to hear my father ramble on about he's poisoning the minds of children."
Dennis puffed himself up and began in a loud, obnoxious voice. " 'The nerve! Giving our children all these ideas about Muggles and how we should have good relations with them! Who knows what diseases they might carry!' "
Harry laughed, and Dennis grinned sheepishly.