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"…" speech

Bold parseltongue

italics thoughts

Chapter 4

Harry's last month with the Dursleys was hilarious. The Dursleys let him do what ever he wanted so Harry had taken great delight in tormenting Dudley by never letting him watch TV. The rest of his time was spent reading. He had learnt to cast loads of simple spells with his wand. Although it was very different from wandless magic it was also much easier. Harry decided to keep practising without a wand, as it would probably be handy in a duel or something. It also increased his concentration and understanding of magic.

On the 1st of September Harry woke up at around 5 o'clock in the morning and was too excited to go back to sleep. He got dressed and then double-checked his stuff to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything. He had arduously charmed his trunk to be feather light the night before, as he didn't feel like lugging it around all day. Two hours later Harry sat grinning in the back seat of the Dursley's car with Dudley whimpering beside him. Harry had managed to threaten Uncle Vernon into driving him to Kings Cross Station. Uncle Vernon had then decided to make it a family outing and Harry had a sneaky suspicion that as soon as he left the Dursleys would have a massive party. After all, they'd be getting rid of him for nine months. Harry was definitely not going to come back over the Christmas holidays.

They reached the station at half past ten. As soon as Harry had got his trunk out of the boot the Dursleys drove off as fast as they possibly could. Harry thought he heard cheers coming from inside. Shrugging Harry walked to the platform between 9 and 10. Snape hadn't told him how to get onto the platform (typical thought Harry, I bet he couldn't wait for me to make a fool of myself) but luckily Harry had read about it in Hogwarts: A History, one of the most boring books he had ever set eyes on. After going through the barrier Harry pressed through the crowd until he found an empty compartment at the end of the train. Picking up his trunk he found that it was suddenly much heavier. He glanced around and saw two redheaded twins looking at him and laughing. Smirking Harry re-cast the wandless feather-light spell and lifted his trunk into the compartment. The twins stared in shock. Ha! Serves them right. No one pranks me and gets away with it, thought Harry, smirking. After he had settled himself into the compartment the twins came up to him and said,

"Sorry about…"

"The whole trunk thing. It was just meant to be…"

"A joke. It didn't work quite as we…"

"Intended it to though. This is Fred and I'm George by the way. Who are you?" They said this all very fast and Harry had trouble keeping up with them.

"My name's Harry Potter," said Harry. The two boys gawped at him.

"Blimey," said one twin. "Are you the Harry Potter?"

"Yeah," said Harry feeling a bit uncomfortable. He thought that he may as well get used to it though, as it would probably happen a lot.

"Wow!" said George in awe. Before he could say anything else though, their mother called them and they left after a last look at Harry.

After the train had started to move the boy from the robe shop walked into the compartment Harry was sitting in.

"Oh, hello. Do you mind if I sit here? All the other compartments are full," he asked.

"Sure," replied Harry.

Sitting down Draco prompted, "You never did tell me your name?"

"Oh, sorry. I'm Harry Potter."

"Really? I never would have guessed. You seem too, well, too Slytherin for the wizarding world's golden boy," drawled Draco. "It must be awfully useful though. You could probably do whatever you want."

"Actually, since I live with Muggles, I only found out I was famous a month ago. I'm still getting used to the idea," replied Harry.

"Poor you living with dirty Muggles. It's bad enough having mudbloods at school with us, but living with them?" said Draco in contempt.

"My relatives are the worst people you could ever meet. Some Muggles are okay though," said Harry, reasonably. "Why do you hate muggle-borns? After all, they're still magical."

"They may have magic but they weren't brought up knowing our ways. They either end up knowing nothing at all, or, even worse, thinking they know it all but always missing the finer points of our society. I don't have that much against them though. I mean I hate Muggles, I hate mudbloods, I hate muggle-lovers, I hate Gryffindors, I hate Hufflepuffs and I just about tolerate Ravenclaws. To sum it all up, I hate anyone who isn't a Slytherin, and even then I often don't like them much," said Draco shrugging.

"My mother was a muggle-born," said Harry, coldly.

"Yeah, I know. But she was a Slytherin muggle-born. It makes all the difference. My father was quite good friends with her actually. They were in the same year and he always respected her. According to him, she was the epitome of Slytherin. She had enough cunning and guile to pull off being a mudblood in that house, and that says a lot. She was powerful too, very powerful."

At that moment the twins walked in again.

"Hey, Harry!" said Fred or George, Harry couldn't tell which. Just then they caught sight of Draco.

"Malfoy," they said, glaring at him. "What are you doing here?"

"What does it look like, Weasleys? Although I must say it's a surprise to see you here, how long did your parents have to go hungry to pay for your school fees?" said Draco sneering at them. Before the argument could escalate any further Harry asked,

"Have you guys ever met each other before?"

"No," they replied, confused.

"Well then, stop leaping to conclusions then," said Harry. "I am not in the mood to listen to you fighting, so can you just spare the arguments 'till we get to Hogwarts?"

"Well, I suppose…" said George.

"It wouldn't hurt," agreed Fred.

"Just as long as they don't insult me," said Draco. "This doesn't mean I like you though," he said to the twins.

"No fear. Whoever heard of a Weasley and a Malfoy friends? We'll settle for civil acquaintances," replied the twins, laughing. "Anyway, we gotta go. Lee Jordan's managed to sneak a giant tarantula in. See ya later Harry, Malfoy."

After they had gone the snack lady came by and Harry and Draco bought as much as they could. After pigging themselves out for a while they began talking Quidditch. They were just in the middle of discussing which was the better team, the Falmouth Falcons, or the Wimbourne Wasps when the compartment door opened again, to allow a red-haired boy to swagger in. Harry took a dislike to him immediately.

"Is it true?" he said. "They're saying up and down the train that Harry Potter's in this compartment."

"Yes, it is true. Now will you kindly get out," said Draco, sneering.

"No one asked you. Just keep out of it. Who are you anyway," said the boy rudely.

"Draco Malfoy. 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," said Draco, maliciously.

"I didn't ask you, Malfoy. I'm sure Harry can answer for himself," said Weasley. Turning to Harry he said, "The name's Ron Weasley. I wouldn't hang out with Malfoy if I were you. They're all Slytherins and dark wizards."

"Why hello Ronald. I'm afraid I have to agree with my friend Draco here and say get the hell out," said Harry, haughtily. "I can pick my own friends. And never call me Harry again. I am definitely not, and never will be your friend. Got it?"

At this Ron Weasley went bright red with embarrassment and anger and stormed out of the compartment.

"That got rid of him quickly," remarked Draco. "That boy is such a prat and just doesn't seem to take a hint. Bet he's a Gryffindor."

"Well I definitely hope I get into Slytherin then. I definitely don't want to be in the same house as him," said Harry.

"I know what you mean," drawled Draco. "Where's your snake by the way?"

"You mean Nemesis. She's right here, curled around my arm. I think she's sleeping though. Please don't tell anyone about her. Snakes aren't actually allowed in."

"Don't worry, I won't. If you get into Slytherin it won't matter anyway. She could wander around no problem. Slytherins never care about rules and we never betray someone from our own house to a teacher," said Draco.

The two of them spent the rest of the time chatting about unimportant things until the train finally started slowing down. Shrugging on his robes Harry asked how they were sorted into different houses.

"I'm not sure actually. My father refused to tell me no matter how much I whined. He did say something about a hat, though that doesn't really help much," answered Draco, frustrated.

The train finally stopped and people began pushing their way towards the doors and out onto a tiny, dark platform.

"Firs' years, Firs' years over here," boomed a loud voice. The speaker was a huge man who was twice as tall as everyone else. Following him the first years made their way across a huge lake towards a vast castle with many turrets and towers. They clambered up a passageway coming out at last on to smooth, damp grass right in front of the main doors.

"Everyone here? Good," said their guide who raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.

A/N Yay! I managed to trick my parents into letting me on the computer. Thanks to all of my reviewers. This is not one of my best chapters. Sorry!

AthenaKetty: No Harry will not be friends with Ron, as you can no doubt guess from this chapter.

Death-theonlytruefreedom: Thanks! I know I get all my punctuation and spelling wrong. I do my best. You have to remember that I'm not actually English. I'm Swedish so please forgive my mistakes and bear with me!