A/N: Sorry for the lack of chapter yesterday it was my brother's birthday party and I couldn't think with the group of screaming kids running around.

Thanks to JerseyGirl03; BookMaster3000; kittygirl220: Yeah, he was. Only Hagrid and Dumbledore know who he is, at least at Hogwarts; serapotter; Rowena Ravenclaw: Thank you so much!!! I had no clue where to find that!!!; PheonixFire; dragonmaster: It never says what house she is in, in the books, so I made her a Ravenclaw; and litine.

CH11: The Hogwarts Express

"~There," said Manda. "Now, we are done." Harry changed back and hit his head against the wall in response.~

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Before anyone knew it, September 1st had arrived and Manda, Elle, Miss Weston and Harry were gathering at King's Cross station to catch the train to Hogwarts. Manda was hugging Harry tightly.

"Air has become an issue, Manda," Harry breathed. The girl sniffled and let go.

"We better be getting tons of letters from you," she said and Elle nodded forcefully next to her.

"You will." Harry glanced up at the clock. "The trains going to leave in ten minutes, I really should get going." His friends attached themselves around his neck one more time. Even Miss Weston looked close to tears.

"Have a good school year," the headmistress said kindly. Harry bid them goodbye and, with one last look, took off to the platform. According to 'Hogwarts - A History', all he had to do was lean on the barrier between platforms nine and ten. He hoped that was right.

Harry casually made his way towards the wall and gently leaned back. The effect was instantaneous. He fell through and landed roughly on the other side.

"Ow." He got up and rubbed his back. Harry left his wand in his pocket and it was sticking into his back. But, there was a wrought-iron archway that proclaimed 'Platform 9 and 3/4'. He had gotten on the platform. "Note to self: Never do that again," he mumbled. There was a giggle next to him. He raised an eyebrow at the source.

"Do you mock my pain?"

"Yes," was the short response.

"I'll have to remember not to ask for your help if I ever seriously injure myself." He stuck out his hand to a girl with short blond hair. "Evan Andrews. Andy for short."

"Alicia Spinnet. And don't feel bad, most people fall when they first come through the barrier."

"Did you?"

She smiled. "Wouldn't you like to know." Someone called her name from the other side of the platform. "I've got to go. I'll see you later" and she ran off. Harry pushed his trunk to the end of the train where he hoped there would be some empty compartments. After he stored his things and the train started up, he started walking up the aisle, looking for a seat. About halfway down the car, he heard mutters from an open compartment.

"-no, we have to coat the fireworks in the powder before lining them up." Two red haired boys were bent over a diagram, arguing.

"But then the bag will catch on fire and they won't set off," said the other boy. Harry snuck up behind them and took a peak over their shoulder. He recalled something he read in '101 Magical Pranks' and said,

"Why don't you dip the only the first one in the igniting powder." The boys jump up in the air and spun around. Harry could now see they were identical twins. One of them narrowed his eyes.

"Would that work?"

"If you stand them up so they lean on one another. It'd be the Domino Effect." The twins broke out in to identical evil grins.

"Well this is a surprise. Come in, young mischief maker," said the first twin. Harry did his customary eyebrow raise at him.

"I'm already in." This, for some odd reason, only made the twins grin more.

"So, you are," answered the second. "Then, allow us to introduce ourselves. Fred -"

"and George-"

"or Gred and Forge-"

"the amazing - "

"incredible - "

"ingenious - "

"Weasley twins!" They finished together.

"Right," Harry said slowly. "I'm Evan Andrews. Or Andy."

"It's nice to meet you Andy."

"And how, may I ask - " "did you know how to - "

"help us with our prank."

"I play pranks like that all the time," Harry said. "And I read a few magical prank books this summer," he added. The Weasley Twins looked like all their dreams had come true as they turned to look at each other.

"I think this is it, Fred."

"I agree, George."

"Someone to pass all our trick expertise on to." They looked back to Harry.

"You see, Andy,"

"we are already in our third year - "

"we'll need someone to continue our legacy after we graduate - "

"and someone to help us shake up Hogwarts a bit now and then - "

"do you accept?" Fred had his fingers crossed and George was looking at him with a hopeful expression. Harry didn't hesitate.

"Do you need to ask?" The group spent the next ten minutes discussing exactly who they could pull pranks on.

"And we can't forget Professor Snape," Fred said offhanded.

"Who," questioned Harry.

"He's the potions master. Terrible person. And the problem is - "

George cut in. "No one has ever been able to prank him since he became a teacher. Rumor is, when he was at school he was the target of so many tricks, he can recognize them all now."

"I can see why he was pranked so often. Nasty. Hates all Gryffindors." Just then, a thought struck Harry.

"What if I'm not in Gryffindor?" "Good question," George said, biting his lip. Fred just shook his head.

"Doesn't matter. This is too good an opportunity to pass up. At this rate, we would still be friends if you were in Slytherin!" A sudden cheering came from down the hall of the train.

"Want to go check it out?" George asked. Fred got up.

"You to go ahead. I think I'll stay here," said Harry.

"Suit yourself." And they left. Harry watched as the scenery passed outside. They were in the country somewhere. A voice brought him out of his thoughts.

"Andy?"

Harry turned around to look at the door where Draco Malfoy stood and smiled.

"This seat taken," asked Draco.

"No, come in." They sat in silence for a minute until Harry said,

"We never got to finish our Quidditch talk from the robe shop." So they launched into a Quidditch discussion. Then the twins came back.

"You should have seen it, Andy. Lee Jordan had this giant spid -", Fred broke off at the sight of Draco. "Oh." The twins and Draco were staring at each other.

"Something wrong?" Harry asked.

"Malfoy," George nodded curtly.

"Weasleys," Draco said, softly.

"You do know who you are siting with, Andy?"

"Yeah," Harry began.

"His father's a Death Eater!" Fred exclaimed. Harry's mind clicked the 'Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts.' Death Eaters. Servants of Voldemort.

"Lucius Malfoy is a criminal!" George said with his brother. Draco looked down ashamed. Harry assumed Lucius was Draco's father and he got an idea.

"And is Draco?" he asked innocently. Fred's forehead knotted.

"Well, no -" Harry continued. "And have any of you three actually met each other before?"

"Not exactly -," George mumbled.

"Then maybe you should get to know someone before you judge them." Hesitantly, Draco stuck out his hand and each twin shook it. The compartment fell into silence once more.

"We were talking about Quidditch before you came back," Harry broke through the quiet. Soon, a very heated debate came up between the compartment occupants and all rivalry was forgotten. Around half-past twelve, a witch pulled a sweet cart up to their door. Fred, George, and Draco were too caught up in a discussion of the Montrose Magpies* to respond, but Harry, who had a pocket full of wizarding money, bought as much as he could carry.

As he dumped all the sweets on to a seat, Draco stopped the debate and asked, "Hungry, were you?"

"Missed breakfast," Harry grinned back. "Take some guys, I'm not going to eat all of these myself." Five minutes of pigging out later, the pile was almost gone. Suddenly, George exclaimed,

"Wood!"

"Hmmm," Harry asked, looking up from a chocolate frog card of Merlin.

"Oliver Wood," Fred explained. "He's the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain."

"Yeah, and he wanted to meet us at two for some thing or other. He'll kill us if we don't show!" George went on.

"We're on the team. Beaters." Fred turned to his brother. "What time is it now?"

"One fifty-five." The twins leapt out of their seats, yelling goodbyes as they bolted out of the compartment.

Harry and Draco stared after them. "Okay," Draco said. "They're weird."

"So am I," Harry stated.

"True."

"We've got one bag of Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans left."

"Yeah, what's your point?"

"How about we play a little game?"

"What kind of game?" Draco warily asked.

"It's called Facts. My friend Manda told me about it."

"How do you play?"

"Well, for every bean you take, you have to say something about yourself. For example," Harry said, taking a small white jellybean. "My favorite color is green. Then you eat the bean." He did so. "Mmmmm, marshmallow. Okay? Then, you take one and say your favorite color."

Draco took a purple bean. "Mine's blue." He nibbled on the end of the bean. "Yuck, it tastes like wax."

"Anyway, now you start."

"Alright. My favorite food is Macaroni and Cheese. Hey, this one is Brussel sprouts!"

"You have bad jellybean luck, don't you." Draco glared. "Mine is Chicken soup. Ha! I got strawberry shortcake."

"I hate you."

"I know."

It continued on like this for a while, going from books to muggle movies, friends to pets.

"My mom made me take 7 years of piano lessons. Apple!" Draco said.

"Yay for you, it's actually edible. And I had to take 5 years in school," Harry said taking another white one. "Not fair! I think I got yours. It's cotton flavored."

"Serves you right, Andrews.

"Shut up. On the subject of lessons, Miss Weston made me take 7 years of karate. Great, I'm back to normal! Chocolate."

"6 of horse-back riding. Another fruit, bananas. And who's Miss Weston?"

"Headmistress of Oakwoods, that's where I live." An uncomfortable silence settled over the compartment on the subject they were both avoiding: their families.

Draco picked up a blue jellybean and whispered softly, "My father is a Death Eater."

Harry hastily said, "You don't have to -" but Draco cut him off.

"I want to." He took a deep breath. "Shortly after You-Know-Who's fall, he and some others went on a mission to finish the job the Dark Lord started. They went after Harry Potter." At this, Harry's head snapped up. "But, they didn't know where he was. They thought he would be at his aunt and uncle's house, but....There were some alarms set up to detect dark magic in the area and the ministry was called in. He got sent to Azkaban, the wizarding prison."

"I sorry, Draco," Harry said softly. He felt responsible for this. After all, it was 'him' that the Death Eaters were after.

"Don't be." Draco shot him a smile. "From what I know about him, I'm better off. Anyway," he continued. "My mother works at the ministry. She's the Vice-head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports. Probably why I know so much about Quidditch. Yes! Blueberry pie! My favorite pie."

"Alright. My father was an Auror and my mother was - what are they called - an Unspeakable?"

"Wait a second, your mom worked in the Department of Mysteries?" Draco asked awed. Harry nodded.

"Uhhuh. But they were killed shortly before Voldemort's downfall." He picked up a pink jellybean. "Goodie, cotton candy." Then, he noticed Draco staring at him. "What?"

"You - you said You-Know-Who's name!"

"Oh, that. I was always told to say his name and, plus, fear of the name increases fear of the thing itself."

"Who told you that?"

"Dumbledore."

Draco made a strangled noise. "Let me get this straight, your mother was an Unspeakable, you say the Dark Lord's name, and you know Dumbledore?"

"Yup."

"Anything else?"

"Wouldn't you like to know," Harry smirked, mimicking that Alicia from earlier. They were interrupted by a knock on the door. A round-faced boy was standing there.

"Has anyone seen a toad?"

"No," Harry said gently. He noticed the boy looked very distressed. "But we'll help you look for it. Right, Draco?"

"Right," Draco confirmed. So the three - Harry, Draco, and the boy they learned was Neville - wandered up and down the Express looking for Trevor, the toad. Just when they were about to give up, there was a shriek from one of the compartments. The boys raced down to the shouts of, "Ewww, get that slimy toad away!"

Upon reaching it, Neville yelled, "Trevor!" Inside the compartment were five girls. One of a pair of twins, a short girl with blond hair, and one with auburn had jumped on the seats and were screaming. The other twin and a girl with bushy brown hair were snickering at them from behind a copy of 'The Standard Book of Spells - Grade 1'. Ignoring all, Neville swooped down and scooped up his toad, thanking Harry and Draco for their help, and rushed away. The other two boys turned back to the girls.

"You can get down now, it's gone," Draco said fighting down his laughter.

"Yeah, and we wouldn't let the big, bad, toady eat you," said Harry as he held out his hand to the nearest one. She took it and he helped her down. "What's your name?" he asked.

"Parvati Patil," she answered, smiling strangely.

"Well, Parvati, I think we have a problem."

"What?"

He leaned in close to her an whispered, "That toad was in here searching for someone to kiss it. It was really a Prince in disguise. But, you lost your chance now, hurt it's feelings." This proved to be the last straw for Draco and the girls behind the book. They started cracking up laughing as Harry leaned against the doorframe. Parvati blushed.

"If you want I can talk to him. Get you two couples' counseling." Draco let out a howl and was leaning on Harry's arm for support.

"Ha, ha, very funny," Parvati scowled. 'Are you done?"

"Sure. Oh, and by the way, I'm Andy. Evan Andrews, actually."

The two giggling girls got their bearings and all of them began to introduce themselves.

"Lavender Brown," said the one the blond hair.

"Lisa Turpin," one with the auburn.

"Padma Patil," other twin.

"I'm Hermione Granger," said the one with bushy brown hair. She looked at expectantly at Draco.

He had finally gotten his snickering under control. "Draco Malfoy."

"It's nice to meet all of you, but we should probably go and get changed. We'll be at Hogwarts shortly," Harry added. They left the compartment and went to their trunks to get their robes out. After changing in the bathroom, Draco and Harry went back to their own compartment where Fred and George were waiting.

"Where have you two been?" they asked.

"Frog Prince and Damsels in Distress," Harry explained shortly.

"Actually, it was a Toad Prince," Draco corrected. The twins looked at them strange but went on.

"Wood had to break us the bad news. Our Seeker, Todd, is now failing Potions and, if his grades don't improve, he'll be taken of the team."

"Damn Snape."

"Snape?" Draco questioned. "Isn't that the slimy, un-prankable guy. I heard some people in Zonko's talking about him."

"I bet I could get him," Harry said out of the blue. The twins cracked up.

"Yeah right, Andy. Even 'we' can't trick him."

"I could," he continued defensively. "I bet you - I don't know - one Galleon that I could prank him by the end of the week."

George and Fred glanced at one another and stuck out their hands. "Deal." A voice then announced they had arrived at Hogwarts.

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* = from 'Quidditch Through the Ages'