Disclaimer: I do not own the world of Harry Potter, if I did, this wouldn't be on a fanfiction site. I am not making any money off this. I promise to not traumatize the characters too much, or at least not irreparably.

Author's Note: Sorry this took so long to appear, I was planning to have it done a two weeks ago and I almost was, then the file got corrupted somehow and I lost everything. But I think how this one's turned out better anyways. Thanks for the patience! Also, please forgive any changes from Canadian/British spelling to American and blame my laziness about changing to computer's setting every five minutes.

Reviewer Response:

SarahtheBardess: Um, oops? The adverb tab was from my beta reader, he thought I was using too many so he labeled them all and I guess I missed one. And thank you very much for the compliments, it's nice to know things are working out as I planned.

Linwe: Men indeed! Thanks! And I think I've seen Pronglet in a few others fics so I can't take credit for it

Smorefan: Glad you like it, see author's note for explanation of long wait

tvnerdgirl: I thought I did say why Lily kept him away. she didn't want him to find out about Voldemort and his father and his scar like that.

The morning of September 1st, Harry came pelting down the stairs, skidded to a stop by the table and looked expectantly at his mother and god-father. Sirius indicated a chair, "I am not leaving until we've had breakfast. The train doesn't leave til 11:00 anyways." Harry sighed but obediently sat down and accepted the toast and eggs his mother passed him, missing the amused looks Sirius and Lily exchanged.

Harry finished breakfast as quickly as he could, despite Lily's assertions that he was going to make himself sick, and raced back upstairs, scouring his room for anything he might have forgotten to pack. He found a few books he'd forgotten and threw them into his trunk. He pushed his trunk into the hallway so Sirius could levitate it down the stairs and grabbed Hedwig, the owl Hagrid had given him. He scooted past his trunk and hurried back downstairs.

"I'm ready to go!" Harry announced. He waited impatiently for the adults to get up but both of them looked up from their breakfast with tolerantly amused looks, or at least Lily did, Sirius was not looking particularly tolerant at the moment.

"Just because you are satisfied with inhaling your food, doesn't mean the rest of us are," Sirius informed him tartly. "Breakfast includes coffee, which must be consumed with the proper appreciation." Sirius pointedly turned away from his godson and went back to the Daily Prophet which he had spread over the table after Harry's rapid departure a few minutes before. Harry looked beseechingly at his mother who was buttering a piece of toast.

"It's not good, Harry," she laughed. "You should know he won't move til he's ready. Why don't you go say goodbye to your friends while you wait?"

Harry sighed dramatically and left the house. Only one of his friends would be awake this early in the morning and he lived too far away. Unable to think of anything else to do, Harry stopped to see Arabella Figg, a squib who lived a few blocks away. She provided him with slightly stale chocolate cake and a running commentary of the lives of her multiple cats, at least one of which Harry suspected was not a normal cat. At 9:30, Harry said goodbye to Mrs. Figg and went home. His uncle was getting the paper from the front proch when Harry passed and he scowled at him. Harry scowled back and went inside.

He couldn't understand why his mother had chosen to live next door to the Dursleys. He'd asked a few times and gotten vague responses about the importance of family that did not at all satisfy him. Petunia and Vernon hated them and everything they stood for and Harry knew his mother wasn't telling him something.

"Check your room again before we leave, Harry," Lily instructed, appearing from the sparkling kitchen.

"I already did!" Harry objected, moving aside as Sirius released the levitation charm to carry the trunk outside normally. Floating trunks tended to attract unwanted muggle attention.

"I don't want to be mailing you too much stuff, go check again," Lily responded, shooing him upstairs while absently flicking her wand to open the door for Sirius. Harry grumbled as he went upstairs and wrinkled his nose as a check under his bed revealed a forgotten bag of potion ingredients and a telescope. He smiled innocently at his mother as he joined her and Sirius in the car a moment later. Lily rolled her eyes.

At 10:30, Sirius was pulling Harry's trunk from the car while Harry dashed off for a trolley. Once his things and Hedwig were securely settled, Harry led the way into the station, eyes peeled for Ron and his family who were supposed to meet them here.

It wasn't until Harry had gone through the barrier between platforms 9 and 10, however, that Harry found the Weasleys.

"Oi, everyone, he's here!" a voice called. Ron's older twin brothers, Fred and George, bounded over to him, greeting him enthusiastically, obviously disgusting their older brother Percy who displayed his displeasure by scowling at their backs. Percy greeted him formally when Molly Weasley finally shooed to twins away. Ginny stood just behind her mother, blushing furiously as she watched her brothers with Harry. When Mrs. Weasley had said hello to him as well and then turned her attention to Sirius and Lily, with Ginny shooting furtive glances at Harry, still standing beside her mother, Harry turned to Ron.

"So have you gotten anyone to tell you how we get sorted yet?" Harry demanded. He had been bugging every wizard he knew to tell him, but all of them just grinned or made cryptic comments about singing.

"I dunno," Ron answered, looking over at where Fred and George were standing with a dark skinned boy who was showing everyone something in a box that seemed to be alarming the girls who were with them. "Fred kept going on about a troll," Ron continued, "and George was talking about dragons, but I'm pretty sure they're just pulling my leg...I hope."

"I'm sure they are," Harry agreed, trying to sound more confident than he felt. "I mean, we haven't learned any magic so they can't make it hard or dangerous...right?"

"No trolls or dragons," Sirius assured them from behind, causing both boys to jump.

"Then what do we have to do?" Harry asked urgently.

"Sing to the giant squid," he answered with an evil grin. Ron and Harry exchanged frustrated looks. Sirius ruffled his godsons hair. "You'll get through it, and you'll be in Gryfinndor and uphold the family tradition of making as much trouble as possible."

"Don't encourage him Sirius!" Lily objected, shooing everyone towards the train.

"No, I get enough letters about Fred and George!" Mrs. Weasley agreed, nodding towards them as they joined the group. "If I get another one this year about flooding hallways or exploding toilets, I am going to confiscate both your wands!" she added severely.

"Exploding toilets?" Fred asked. "Never thought of that! Thanks mum!" Mrs. Weasley scowled at them, and fortunately missed Sirius winking at them. Percy placed Hedwig in the empty compartment they'd claimed and excused himself with a very formal goodbye before going to join the other prefects. Fred and George said Ron said goodbye to Mrs. Weasley as well.

"Mom can't I go?" Ginny begged.

"Next year," her mother promised.

"Cheer up Gin," George told her, "we'll send you a Hogwart's toilet seat!"

While Mrs. Weasley began berating the twins for setting a bad example for their younger siblings, and Harry too, Harry said goodbye to his own family.

Finally a whistle blew, and the two mother witches hurried the boys onto the train, handing them last minute bags which they told them contained lunch. The three Weasley boys and Harry leaned out the window, waving while Ginny chased the train which was quickly gathering speed, until the station was out of sight.

Fred and George left to rejoin their third year friends, but not before dropping more ominous comments about trolls and dragons. Ron shut the door behind them and dropped onto the padded seat. "What do you say we don't think about it til we get there?" he suggested.

Harry agreed readily and produced a pack of exploding snap cards. It was a few hours later, after the witch with the food trolley had passed by, and Harry and Ron were busy trading chocolate frog cards and daring each other to eat funny coloured Bertie Botts while trading stories about who had encountered the worst flavours of the years. Harry had just been talked into biting into a bluish bean which turned out to be soap when the door to the compartment was opened by a bushy haired girl who was trailed by a nervous looking boy.

"Have either of you seen a toad?" the girl asked. When both Ron and Harry shook their heads, she crouched down and peered under the seats. The boy gave them an apologetic look as the girl moved some candy wrappers aside to get a better view.

"Not here," she declared, straightening. Her eyes fell on Harry and widened slightly. "Holy cricket! You're Harry Potter!"

"Really?" the boy asked, coming in.

"Er, hi," Harry replied, shooting a look at Ron who snickered quietly.

"I'm Hermione Granger. I've read all about you," the girl informed him, her tone reminding Harry vaguely of Percy. However, he was more disconcerted to learn that there were books about him.

"I'm Neville," the boy offered shyly.

"And you are?" Hermione asked, turning to Ron.

"Ron Weasley," he told her, while Harry took his own turn at snickering.

"Pleasure to meet you both. But you'd better get your robes on, we should be there soon." And with that she was gone, with Neville trailing behind, once again in search of his toad.

Well, that will do for now. Puching the purple button below will boost my ego and encourage faster updates (as long as my computer behaves anyway)

Also, the rest of the chapters will be divided between following Lily and following Harry.