The Journey to Hogwarts
Although Harry would have liked summer to last a little longer, he wasn't the least surprised that it seemed, instead, to fly by. Barely had Goku gotten his owl, and it was time to head back. Harry wasn't too terribly upset though. He rather enjoyed going to Hogwarts.
Again, the ministry sent a car to take them to London. When they got to the train station, they had to explain to Goku how one got to platform 9 ¾. Goku seemed to grasp the concept without fear. "I just run into the wall?"
Mrs. Weasley nodded. "But you won't really run into the wall, you'll see. The most important thing is not to be afraid."
"But I'm not afraid," Goku said, eagerly. "The worst thing that'll happen is that I'll hit the wall!"
Despite Goku's assurance, Mrs. Weasley decided to have Fred and George go first. When it came his turn, Goku didn't even hesitate, but went right into the wall and disappeared.
Harry was becoming much better at this himself, and slid in through the wall to platform 9 ¾ without any problem. Ron joined him shortly as did Mr. and Mrs. Weasley.
Harry looked around the crowded platform as students were greeting each other after the long summer break and parents were saying good-bye. Hermione came running up and soon enough, she, Goku, Harry, and Ron were finding a nice compartment in the latter half of the train and stowing their luggage. Unable to carry it all, Harry had left his book bag outside. He would bring it in after they all said good-bye.
They rushed out of the train. Mrs. Weasley was hugging Fred and George, admonishing them to behave themselves this year. When she saw Ron, she let them go and went to hug him. "You behave yourself too," she warned him. "I don't want to see any owls coming from Hogwarts with a note about you, young man."
"What if the note said I'd been made Head Boy?" Ron asked, his eyes gleaming.
"That would be different."
She and Mr. Weasley said good-bye to all of them. The whistle blew to announce the train was leaving in five minutes. Harry slipped away from everyone for a moment, to gather up his book bag. It was still in the luggage cart, which had somehow managed to roll away from the Weasleys and over towards the entrance to the platform, as if trying to get back.
As he reached out for his book bag, he saw an older man and younger boy, standing off towards the corner. Not quite meaning to, Harry did a double take at the young man. He appeared to be about Harry's age, and wearing a pair of jeans and a purple shirt that looked so new they still had faint traces of wrinkles from their packaging. But that wasn't the most unusual thing about him. The unusual thing was that the young man appeared to be rather short, but made up for some of his lack of height by having fairly long hair that seemed to almost stick straight up from his head, and peaking at the top, giving the appearance that someone had stuck a black artichoke upon his head. He had dark, piercing eyes and a small, sharply pointed nose. His lips were curled in an obvious sneer and his arms were folded across his chest. Harry had never seen him at Hogwarts before and even though he was short, Harry knew he was too old to be a first year student.
The older gentleman with him, was much taller, much more heavyset, and looked absolutely nothing like the boy did. He was looking at the boy with an expression that almost seemed fearful. "That was the whistle," he said. "You'll have to get aboard soon."
"I know," the boy said, shrugging. "Don't worry, I'll make it."
"Are you set with everything?" The man asked him.
"Yes." The boy rolled his eyes. "We went over this about twenty times on the way here, if I recall. Trust me. I'm not a scatterbrain like you are. I have everything, I know everything."
"I just-just want to make sure," the man stammered.
Harry grabbed his book bag off the luggage cart. As he did, the strange boy looked over at him, with a cold, disinterested expression, as if Harry were some sort of nasty insect. Harry held up his book bag, as if to let him know that he hadn't deliberately been listening, but only coming to fetch what was his and walked away. As he was heading back to the train, he could hear a bit more of their conversation.
"I-I'm really proud of you. I-I couldn't be more proud of you if you were my flesh and blood," the older man was saying.
"Which, thank god, I'm not," the boy snapped. He muttered something else, but Harry couldn't hear that part.
"Be careful!" the man admonished. "This won't be easy for you, but you're not stupid by any means. And we've caught you up on quite a bit. So, you shouldn't have a problem."
"I expect no problems at all," The boy said, airily, as if vaguely insulted the man would even imply there was one.
"We-we'd better head for the train," the man said.
Harry hurried on ahead. Ron and the others had already boarded. He hopped aboard and turned to look. The strangers were approaching the train. As he hurried to the compartment where the other three were waiting for him, he could hear them outside, talking loudly.
"Take care son, I'll see you next summer!" The man sounded louder and more cheerful than he had when they were talking alone.
"Yeah, I'll see you later… father." The boy's voice was more cheerful as well, but the word father had a definite sneering tone to it.
Very odd, Harry thought as he made his way to the compartment. Obviously, they weren't father and son, yet they were pretending to be. Why?
He thought about telling Ron, Hermione, and Goku about it, but when he opened the door to the compartment, all hell seemed to have broken lose inside. Goku had let his owl (who he had named Jouchi) out of the cage. Even though it was daylight and Jouchi should be sleeping, he seemed to have decided that it would be more fun to fly around the tiny compartment and do a lot of hooting. Ron, Goku, and Hermione were trying to catch him, and he was having a wonderful time trying to evade them. Pig had woken up and was squawking furiously in his cage, just to make things more interesting.
"Goku, it would be easier if you would just let me stun him!" Hermione said, holding up her wand.
"No!" Goku roared, as he leaped in the air trying to catch the owl. "We can catch him the old-fashioned way. We don't need to put a spell on him!"
Jouchi swooped out of Goku's way and came charging towards the door, which Harry had opened to enter. Harry quickly leaped up and grabbed for him, managing to get his hand around his legs. "I've got him!"
"All right!" Ron cheered. "Quick, get him in his cage, now!"
"I'll take him!" Goku ran over to Harry. "Please?"
Harry handed the owl back to Goku, who took him gently and put him back in his cage. "I guess it's not a good idea to let you out till we get to the school," he said, as he shut the door. "Sorry, Jouchi."
Jouchi flapped his wings a couple of times, then settled down and tucked his head under his wing.
"Do me a favor Goku, and don't do that again," Ron said, slumping in his seat. "That owl has as much energy as you do."
"Yeah, he's pretty lively!" Goku agreed with a happy grin as he flopped down next to Hermione.
The train whistle blasted sharply again, and the train speed off. Harry sat down next to Ron, settling himself in. When the train was well on its way, Ron pulled out a deck of cards. "Exploding Snap anyone?"
They played for a while. Even though Harry and Ron had taught Goku how to play over the summer, he still hadn't quite grasped it and kept losing, but he accepted defeat cheerfully. But, after awhile, Harry and Ron began discussing Quidditch. Hermione decided to read one of her books. Goku amused himself by looking outside the window and counting trees. When the witch with the cart came around, Goku bought everything on it and had everyone else help him bring it all inside.
"Didn't leave much for us, did you?" Hermione commented.
"Aw, help yourselves," Goku said, grinning. "I know I'll be able to eat anything you guys won't want."
"I'll bet they have more stuff in the back," Ron said, as he helped himself to the Cauldron cakes.
As they were enjoying their feast, someone walked by their compartment, talking loudly.
"Well, it's strange you know, he never even told us he was married," The voice was saying. Harry immediately recognized it to belong to one of his least favorite people, VincentCrabbe.
"Yeah, that is strange," another voice said. Harry recognized it as another of his least favorite people, Gregory Goyle.
"Two down," Ron whispered to Harry. "One to go."
"Maybe he wasn't," A third voice said, and Harry could almost see the smirk on his arrogant little face. Yes, the voice belonged to the top of the list of his least favorite folks, Draco Malfoy. "You don't have to be married to have a kid, Crabbe."
"Really?" Goyle asked, sounding honestly puzzled.
"I didn't-" Crabbe began, and then stopped. "Well, I guess you could have a kid without being married." He sounded a bit doubtful about this.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked at each other and tried not to burst into laughter. Crabbe and Goyle weren't exactly known for their sparkling brilliance.
"Of course you can," Draco said, managing to sound both weary and proud to be superior at the same time. "Besides, it doesn't really matter much anyways, seeing's his mother is dead and all such."
The boy with the weird hair! Harry thought. The one I saw outside the train. I'll bet they're talking about him. Now that he was thinking about it, the man who had been with the boy had looked a bit like VincentCrabbe, at least the build and hair color. He considered mentioning this to his friends, but once again, was distracted as the door to the compartment opened.
"Well, well, what do we have here?" Draco's lips were curled in their usual smirk, which did nothing to help his appearance. With his skim-milk complexion and pale blond hair, Draco always looked as if he had died a bit ago, but just didn't know when to fall down.
"Uninvited guests, obviously," Hermione answered snappishly and glared at him.
Draco looked at her with cold distain. "Wow, look guys," he said, nudging Crabbe and Goyle. "Granger is actually doing something without having her nose in a book. We thought that was impossible."
Harry could feel Ron stiffening next to him. "Go away, Draco," Ron growled.
"Is that the best you can do?" Draco taunted. He looked over at the half-eaten cauldron cake Ron held in his hand. "Wow, Weasley, I'm surprised you haven't wolfed that down. Probably the first decent meal you've had since you left school last year."
Dutifully, Vincent and Gregory laughed. Ron turned red up to his ears.
"No, Ron has had lots of decent meals," Goku said, looking at the three boys with a puzzled expression. "His mom is an excellent cook. I know, I stayed with him all summer!"
Draco stared at Goku for a moment in a bit of shock, as if the last thing he was expecting was someone to answer his sarcastic question with open honesty. "Who are you?"
"I'm Goku!" He rose to his feet and offered his hand.
Draco ignored Goku's outstretched hand and looked back to Ron. "What's this Weasley, your folks taking in orphans to help make ends meet? I hear the ministry will pay to take in wizard children."
"But not to take care of you, which is why your parents were forced to raise you," Harry snapped. "Otherwise, they would have given you up in a second."
Malfoy snorted. "At least my folks are alive, Potter. And even if they weren't, I'd have lots of wizard families I could stay at. I wouldn't have to go live at some muggle's house with folks that hate my guts."
"Harry stayed with us for the last part of the summer," Goku said, still looking a little confused as if he wasn't sure why these three strangers were saying mean things to his friends. "We had lots of fun."
"No one asked you to talk," Crabbe said, which was high wit, coming from him.
"No one said I couldn't," Goku retorted, his eyes beginning to narrow. "And I don't think you guys are very nice!"
Malfoy and his henchmen laughed as if Goku's comment was the funniest thing they heard in months. "Where did you find this one?" Draco asked, to no one in particular. "Under a rock?"
"I came from Kame's island, thank you," Goku said, his eyes getting narrower and narrower, his nostrils beginning to flare. "Not from under any rock. And I don't think I like you."
"Aw, that hurts my feelings so much," Draco sneered.
Goyle looked over at Goku, his eyes looking about as bright as wood. "Kiss my butt!" he suggested.
"Oooh, did you blow a gasket, thinking of that snappy comeback?" Ron taunted, rising to his feet.
"I won't kiss your butt," Goku said, moving towards the boys, very slowly. "But I'll be more than happy to kick it, if that's what you want."
Harry stared at Goku in amazement. Somehow, Goku seemed… different. Not just because he was angry, he'd been angry when "Blackie" had been destroyed, but he was still Goku. This was different. He no longer looked like the happy-go-lucky kid he usually did. The friendly, but not exactly brilliant expression he normally wore was gone. In its place was one of fury, and, Harry would swear, extreme intelligence, as there was a brilliant young man inside this child, that only came out when provoked.
"Oh, we're so scared!" Draco mocked, but his voice didn't sound nearly as confident as the words. Crabbe and Goyle were husky young men, but compared to Goku, they looked positively weak.
"You should be," Goku said, still advancing towards them. "I don't like it when people make fun of my friends and that's all you've been doing since you came here."
"So, whatcha gonna do about it?" Malfoy taunted.
Hermione leaped to her feet and grabbed onto Goku's arm, something Harry was debating if he should do himself. "Don't!" she cried out. "Goku, they aren't worth it."
Goku pulled his arm away, quickly. Although he had done it quite easily, Harry noticed Hermione wince. She didn't let that faze her, but grabbed on again. "Goku, listen to me, if you fight with them and you're caught, you can be expelled!"
Harry jumped up and grabbed Goku's other arm. "She's right, Goku. You don't want to be suspended before you even start!"
Goku didn't fight to get away from them, but he did keep his eyes firmly on Malfoy's. He spoke to him in a very low, even tone. "It would be best if you and your friends left, Right. Now."
Ron was already pulling out his wand. Harry and Hermione looked at each other, knowing that if Goku decided to, he could have thrown them off him like houseflies.
"Who's gonna make u--" Goyle began, but was interrupted by Draco.
"Aw, who wants to hang with you losers, anyway?" He sneered. "C'mon, let's go."
Harry noted that they left the compartment a lot quicker than they had sauntered in. Once the shut the door behind them, Harry and Hermione let go of Goku. Goku stared at the door, as if willing them to come back inside.
"You've now met Draco Malfoy and his ugly little shadows, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle," Ron commented, as he put his wand away. "Don't you feel honored?"
"I don't like them," Goku said, his eyes still narrowed, still looking so very…different from normal. "I don't like them at all."
"Join the club," Harry muttered. "And I wouldn't worry too much about that, Goku, they probably don't like you much either."
Goku shrugged as if to say that what they thought of him had little to do in this. "They'd better watch their step," he said. "Muten Roshi taught me it's not right to start fights, but if they want to start one first, I'll be more than happy to finish it."
"Oh, they probably won't start a physical fight with you," Hermione assured him. "Not their style."
"They're more like houseflies the size of ponies," Ron agreed. "A lot of buzzing, but little action. Malfoy is a little too fond of casting spells when your back is turned, but I don't think Crabbe and Goyle are even sure how to hold their wands, never mind use them."
"They really aren't worth the trouble," Harry said, although he wondered how true that was. Dudley was bad, but Draco made Dudley look tame.
"Sometimes not all fights are physical," Goku said, his eyes still fixed on the door to the compartment. "And I don't like anyone who picks on my friends."
"It's okay, Goku," Hermione said. "I'd be more afraid of them if they were friendly with us."
"Yeah, imagine if we had to be buddies?" Ron asked. "Oh, cripes, we'd end up having asking them to dance with us at the winter ball!"
"Dibs on Goyle," Harry said, more to break the tension than anything else. "He's so dreamy."
Ron and Hermione burst out laughing. Goku looked at him, his eyes widening to their normal state, then he laughed too. There seemed to be a brief flash of something, like a bright light hitting his eyes and suddenly, he was the same Goku he'd known for the last part of the summer.
"Boy, I'm glad I can't dance!" Goku said.
"I can't dance either," Harry confessed.
"Me either," Ron chimed in.
Maybe it was that Malfoy and his gang were gone, taking the tension with them, or maybe it was because all of them had seen the change in Goku, and were relieved to see he was back to his old self, but all four of them began laughing as if this were the funniest thing that had ever happened to them.
"What's so funny?" Goku asked, between bouts of laughter.
"I have no idea," Hermione admitted. Which made them all laugh even harder.
End Chapter Six
Author's notes: There are two wonderful illustration to this story, One by (sabrebabe@chartermi.net) and the other by Indigo (indigo@indigosky.net) They can be found here: http://doghouse.la.ca.us/~darqstar/otherfandoms/hpdbz/graphics/hp-goku.html.html and http://doghouse.la.ca.us/~darqstar/otherfandoms/hpdbz/graphics/vegetatrain.html Check it out. If you like them, email the artists and let them know, okay?
Further notes: I just want to thank everyone who has taken the time to write a review. Your support and encouragement mean more than words can say. When I started this project, I was convinced no one would read it, that crossing over DBZ with Harry Potter would just be too weird for folks.
I've tried to email everyone who has written a review, but some of you didn't leave email addresses. If you have questions, either leave your email address with the review, or write to me, thedarqstar@wmconnect.com I refuse to answer questions that might give away the entire plot, but I will write.
Again, thanks and Warmest Wishes
Darqstar