I've been working really hard on my final speculations before the sixth book comes out for my web journal and so my room is a mess of HP books, reference books, and notes. I decided to ignore it all, put on some music, and write some fanfiction! Go me!

Goddessa39: Um…this is an AU. Meaning, the laws of the CU or 'canon universe' do not apply to my story. Thus, if I want Harry to go to big hideout in mountains to learn magic when he's thirteen, that's the way it is.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

Warnings: Not really…oh, wait! But I can't warn you about that. The suspense wouldn't be as good if I warned you about that.

Fool

Part the Third

The carriage made its way down the long road. Hagrid was driving up front and the two boys were inside. When the carriage had first started out, Harry watched with relief through the curtains as the house he grew up rolled out of sight. He never wanted to see that place again…

But the red-haired, freckled boy across from him was a lot more interesting than watching scenery go by and they immediately started to get to one another.

"I can't wait to get there!" Ron declared. "My brothers have all gotten to go but my mum reckons that anyone below thirteen is too young to learn magic."

"Why?" Harry questioned.

"Dunno." Ron shrugged. "That's just the way she is. I never even get to visit when she goes—she says it's safer if just she goes."

"How many brothers do you have?" Harry was intrigued with the idea of having siblings. He hoped having any sort of siblings was nothing like living with Dudley.

"Three." Ron answered promptly then he stopped for a moment. "No, sorry, five. I keep forgetting about Fred and George."

"Alright." Harry was faintly puzzled by this. How could you forget that you had two extra brothers?

"I've never really met them…well, mum says I have but I just can't remember because it was so long ago." Ron shrugged. "They were sent away when they were little so they wouldn't get processed. They're twins."

"Twins!" Harry exclaimed. "I've heard about that…two people, looking just like each other…but aren't they bad luck?"

"Nah, my mum says that's just what the Death Eaters want us to think." Ron puffed up a little. "And then there's my little sister too—I do remember her. Ginny's her name. She got caught by slave traders when she wandered too far from the Burrow—that's we call our house—" Ron interjected when he saw the confused look on Harry's face. "But she was sold to this man and…it's kind of a long story…"

"I don't mind." Harry shook his head, curious to know the rest. "We have lots of time to pass, go on."

"So, when Fred and George were sent away, they were supposed to go straight to Dumbledore but the person who was taking them turned out to have tricked my mum." Ron continued. "They ran away and I think someone took them in or something like that. Then they left that person's place and went to live in Fal, that's a city up North."

"I've heard of it." Harry put in, nodding.

"They were living there for awhile on the streets until they ran into Ginny one day. But they didn't know they even had a little sister. So, they became friends and then they all ended up escaping Fal together and going up to the mountains." Ron finished. Then he leaned in conspiratorially. "My mum says they Apparated."

"What's that?" Harry questioned, eagerly wishing he knew as much as Ron did.

"It's disappearing and reappearing somewhere else, like this." Ron snapped his fingers. "It's supposed to be really hard and they didn't know any magic at all so it's a bit of a mystery as to how they did it."

"Wow." Harry gasped. "Your family sounds really interesting." In Harry's mind, nothing sounded more fantastic than growing up in a family full of wizards. "Can everyone in your family do magic?"

"Yep." Ron looked proud. "What about your family?"

"My mom and dad could—at least that's what Hagrid said." Harry wished he knew more about them. Maybe Hagrid would tell him more later. "My aunt and uncle, and my cousin, they couldn't do any magic…"

But they can make you feel worthless…

"That's alright." Ron shrugged, clearly seeing no problem with it. "Know any spells?"

"Nope." Harry shook his head.

"Do you have your wand?" Ron pulled a long, thin piece of wood from his pocket. "Sometimes I can make it shoot sparks."

"Yeah?" Harry thought that was very impressive himself. "I don't have a wand."

"How can you be a wizard without a wand?" Ron questioned.

"I dunno." Harry was suddenly worried. Was he supposed to have a wand? What happened to it? The Dursleys burnt that letter…what if his wand had been inside? A cold feeling of dread crept into his stomach and stayed there. He heard a small squeaking noise coming from Ron.

"It's Scabbers." Ron immediately pulled out a rat from behind himself. It wasn't a very impressive looking rat, but Harry had always wondered what it would be like to have a pet. Ron really did seem to have everything. "He's old and useless but my mom says we can't afford—" He cut himself off and turned red.

They can't afford a new one?

Does he mean he's poor? Well, what's wrong with that?

But Harry could tell that his new companion probably didn't like discussing this particular matter. They continue to talk about other things until they stopped and went over to the side of the road to pitch some tents and have some dinner.

"Why didn't we stop at an inn?" Ron pondered out loud.

"People don't like ter see me." Hagrid grunted as he hammered a peg into the ground for one of the tents. When they were finished and Hagrid was cooking an animal over the fire, Harry decided to ask him about his wand.

"Don' worry abou' that." Hagrid assured him. "Dumbledore's got it. Yer parents thought it'd be safer—turns out they were right."

"Oh." Harry felt the worry vanish into thin air.

"It's a long ride yet…" Hagrid looked off into the distance. "I expect you'll both be wanting something ter do tomorrow."

"What?" Harry didn't mind just talking to Ron for the next couple of days but could see how they might run out of things to talk about. Hagrid began to fish through his enormous coat and pulled out miscellaneous items such as a ball of red string, a ring of keys that had so many on it that Harry thought it was probably impossible to find the right one on the first try, and a huge bag of toffees, which he let Ron and Harry have. Then he pulled out what looked like a worn deck of playing cards and then what might have been a set of marbles.

"Gobstones and a pack of Exploding Snap cards." Hagrid explained them. "Me dad gave 'em to me when I was little." Harry glanced at the huge man. He couldn't really imagine Hagrid ever being what people called 'little'.

"Cool!" Ron eagerly pounced on them and began going through the cards. "Do you have a chess set too?"

"Nah, never understood it." Hagrid shook his head. "You like chess then?"

"Yeah," Ron nodded, barely looking up from the cards. "It's my favorite game. My mum has a set of wizard chess which is much better than regular chess because the pieces actually fight each other."

"Really?" Harry was wide-eyed. "They fight each other?" He had a sudden mental image of two knights tussling over a rook.

"Blimey, Harry, I keep forgettin' how much you don' know." Hagrid slapped his knee. "You'll learn it all when we get to the castle."

"The castle?" Harry wanted to know more about the places he was going to learn magic. "What's it like there?"

"It's beautiful." Hagrid declared. "It's deep in a valley, surrounded by mountains. It was built a thousand years ago, by four of the greatest witches and wizards to have ever lived. They built it as a safe place in bad times and these are bad times…"

"It sounds amazing." Harry sighed happily. "I remember my Aunt Petunia talking about how she'd love to live in a house as huge as the Malfoy manor…wherever that is. Is it a castle?"

"Practically, but the lot that lives there is scum." Hagrid spat. "Dark wizards through and through. And we'd never call our castle a manor…"

"What'd you call it, then?" Ron looked up from the cards. "Something like, 'The Laurels'?" He noticed the looks Hagrid and Harry were giving him and he blushed. "It's something I read in a book." He muttered defensively.

"We call it Hogwarts." Hagrid beamed with pride. "The four founders named it really. All four of 'em had a sense of humor about them. Fer the most part."

"Hogwarts?" Harry grinned, a delicious feeling of happiness spreading through him. "I think that's a lot better than 'The Laurels'." Ron groaned and buried his face in his hands.

"I have a question." Ron straightened up. "How'd you get that scar, Harry?"

"I don't know." Harry reached up, brushing his fingertips against the scarred skin. "I've always had it. Do you know Hagrid?" He glanced over at the giant man who suddenly seemed very preoccupied with stoking the fire.

"Not really the one you should be askin'." Hagrid grunted, not looking up at all. "Dumbledore's the man for that."

"My dad says that Dumbledore's the greatest wizard that ever lived." Ron shared this piece of knowledge with them. Harry was still stuck on the subject of his scar. Was Hagrid lying about not knowing anything? Or did he really have no idea? Something wasn't quite measuring up.

I guess I'll find out everything…when we get to Hogwarts…

They spent their days traveling, playing game after game of Exploding Snap and Gobstones. Scabbers would sometimes wander into the middle of the game of Gobstones, which irritated Ron but always made Harry laugh.

As they traveled on, longer and longer, Harry felt like it was some wonderful journey they were on. After all, he was going off to a school where he would learn magic, but even getting there was better than all the rest of his life put together. He hoped that he and Ron would still be friends when they got to Hogwarts.

And then one day, Hagrid announced that tomorrow they'd get to Hogwarts. They were in the Northern mountains by then and Harry couldn't say how happy he was to get this far. For days he and Ron moaned that the mountains weren't getting any closer and now they were there. The next day, they were going through forest and Hagrid stopped several times. From the sounds of voices, Ron and Harry figured that there must be people stationed around to make sure no one got to Hogwarts who wasn't supposed to be there.

He kept peering out the window but saw nothing but forest all around. Until, suddenly, put a bump, they were out of the forest and in an open valley. He saw a lake on one side but then the carriage turned and he got his first glimpse of Hogwarts. It was a large castle, made of enormous pieces of stone that looked like you would need magic to lift. (Harry reminded himself that the builders probably did use magic.)

It looked almost ordinary, sitting in the middle of the green valley. There were enormous double doors in front and when they rolled to a stop, Harry could barely contain his excitement. Ron next to him was trying to get a grip on Scabbers who had suddenly began to squeak in a terrified manner and kept trying to crawl away.

"Hold still, Scabbers!" Ron muttered in frustration. Hagrid opened the door to the carriage and Harry blinked in the sudden rush of daylight. He stumbled out, Ron right behind him.

"Welcome to Hogwarts."

To Be Continued