10 year's later

A taxi drew into an empty parking lot at Kings Cross Station. The back doors opened, and two people stepped out. One was a young boy, probably ten but possibly eleven years old. He had a wild mop of black hair atop his head and his eyes were a striking forest green in colour, wide and expressive. His name was Harry Potter.

The man, who was accompanying Harry, looked liked Vernon Dursely. A suspiciously thin Vernon Dursely, true, but still Harry's uncle. Only he wasn't. He was in fact Remus Lupin in disguise. No one knew that Remus Lupin (with the aid of Professor Severus Snape) had been raising Harry for the last ten years, and all three of them planned on keeping it a secret. Werewolves, by order of the Ministry of Magic's Young Wizards Welfare Act Paragraph Sixty-two Point Eight b), were not allowed to raise a child unless said child suffered from lycanthropy.

Remus dragged Harry's trunk out of the boot of the taxi and dumped it onto a trolley. On top of the trunk he placed a cat basket, inside of which a small ginger kitten named Oscar was batting at a thoroughly annoying bell. Harry nodded at Remus- fond farewells had been said in the cab, away from prying eyes- and wheeled his trolley to where both of his guardians had stated the entrance to Platform 9 ¾ would be. Before Harry was even half way to his destination, he heard a gravely voice call out to him.

"Boy, remember the warning." Harry turned and nodded at Remus once again, before continuing on his way.

Harry's mind flitted briefly back to the warning Severus had given him the night before.

"You must be aware Harry that once you are at Hogwarts, neither one of us must show even the slightest shred of recognition to each other aren't you? I will treat you just like every other student who does not make it into Slytherin house, unfairly. In your case probably even more so, due to… past situations."

Harry had nodded at Severus then as he had nodded to Remus only a few moments ago, understanding fully what knowing Snape would mean. Dumbledore would be able to effectively use Harry as a pawn to get what he wanted. Not that the Headmaster wouldn't try anyway, it just wouldn't work without blackmail.

Snape and Lupin, now there was a pair you wouldn't expect. It was true that through the majority of their school years, the pair, along with Remus's friends, had despised each other. It was approaching the final days of their last school year when Remus, who had not wanted to leave school with many extreme enemies other than Voldemort, had asked Snape to leave the past in the past and become friends. Severus had of course, at first at least, flat out refused to even be acquaintances with a "low-life werewolf scum-bag" such as Lupin. It was only after he had started seeing the error of his ways ( oh god that sounds so cheesy ) that Snape rethought the matter. This time it was he that approached Remus, thus beginning a tenuous friendship, that was for obvious reasons hidden from the eyes of James, Sirius and Peter. Severus had not wholly committed to the friendship until Remus had asked him to care for Harry over full moons and any other time he was unavailable.

Harry glanced around the station, looking for some other wizarding families. He didn't know many, but it would be nice to see some anyway. Suddenly his eyes set upon a family he did know, all had bright red hair, and a massive number of children/siblings (depending on who you were in the great scheme of things). Harry had not known the Weasley family for very long- only for that year he spent in their village when he was nine- but it was enough to know that he would avoid most of them if possible. Mr and Mrs Weasley always expected more from him than they got, and therefore were always putting him down. Percy Weasley was a dreadful snob, and tended to look down his nose at the ratty little boy who had supposedly saved the world from destruction (Harry had never thought this, and probably never would, to him he was just extremely lucky). The youngest boy Ron was a thug, though his parents couldn't see it, and the only girl child, Ginny was he name, had followed him around like a lovesick puppy. Harry assumed that having her around was rather like having a stalker follow you everywhere.

Not all the Weasley family was awful, the twins Fred and George were some of Harry's best friends, and he had kept in contact with them. The two oldest boys Bill and Charlie, also appeared to be pretty cool, but he had only met them briefly so he wasn't sure.

Judging by the gaggle of redheads, it was only those who went to Hogwarts Ginny and Mrs Weasley who were there today. Harry waited until Percy had passed through the barrier before wheeling his trolley up beside them. It was Mrs Weasley who spotted him first.

"Harry, oh how lovely to see you again dear! We haven't seen you in so long that I'm sure Ron will be ecstatic to see you." Mrs Weasley had never quite accepted that Harry Potter got on better with her older and more mischievous sons, rather than her younger more obnoxious one.

Fred, who was just about to pass through the barrier into platform 9 ¾, and George heard his mother call out to their young friend and whipped round. Fred back peddled with his trolley until he was level with the black haired boy. George simply scrambled over all the remaining trolleys to reach the other two. George sized Harry's hand and began pumping it up and down in an incredibly vigorous and enthusiastic handshake. Fred started to fill in the words that his excited twin was leaving out.

"Harry, absolutely corking to see you old boy. Really spiffing, it really is an honour to greet you again Mr Potter, a real honour."

Harry laughed at the twins' antics and said his own greetings. He was just starting to feel slightly more relaxed than he had done in days, when Mrs Weasley shooed the twins away, claiming that he didn't want to be smothered and greeted in such a fashion. Fred and George scattered, and Fred resumed pushing his trolley through the barrier.

Harry and George soon followed, and as Harry passed through the wall, he felt as though he was leaving his brain behind, as he suddenly felt very dizzy. Harry didn't mention this to George, as he was sure it was only the effect of being forcefully shoved into a realm saturated with magic. He had felt much the same in Diagon Ally, but the dizziness would subside eventually, only to be renewed when they finally reached Hogwarts. The twins had to leave Harry there, to go find and say good-bye to their mother, Harry went to go and find a free compartment where the three of them could sit. He was about halfway down the train, when he heard a shout.

"No, go away, I don't want to even be near you lo-" The voice, male by the sound of it, was cut off by a high-pitched sounding girl.

"But honey, why not? Don't you want to make your parents and myself happy?"

The voice obviously said something too low for Harry to hear, because the next second there was over exaggerated crying and a short blond boy storming out of the door of a compartment. Harry felt himself smile as the blond boy moved forward towards Harry, successfully crashing into him.

"Hey, watch where you're going you bi- Oh hi Harry." the other boy began before he looked up and greeted his friend. Harry looked down and shook his head at Draco before lending him a hand and hoisting him to his feet- Draco was shamefully light, but Harry decided not to comment.

The friendship between Draco and Harry was a strange one. By all accounts they should have been either bitter enemies or so blissfully unaware of each other's characteristics to care. However, since both were in strong connection with Severus Snape, who firmly believed that both boys were in need of real friends as they was growing up, they had known each other since they were toddlers. The friendship had naturally been kept a secret from Draco's father, Lucious Malfoy, and the boys had grown up with each other's presence only when Severus could provide it. Harry looked at Draco one last time, before ushering him along with the mission of finding an empty compartment. By the end of the train, they had both come to the conclusion that there were no empty compartments, so had to settle for one with only one person in. The carriage they chose held only a bushy and mousy haired girl who was probably a first year like them. She looked at them tearfully when they moved in; her cheeks were slightly wet from crying. Harry instantly let his concern-for-others-and-not-myself-mode take over.

"Hi, can we sit here, its just all the other areas on the train are full? Are you all right? Why are you crying?" The girl looked at him, nodded for the fist question and whispered "homesickness." for the second two.

Draco smiled at her and stuck out his hand.

"Hi, I'm Draco, and since he seems incapable of introducing himself, this is Harry."

Harry rounded on Draco, his veins twitching. "At least I'm not short." This remark triggered a full scale squabbling match, one that must have happened many times before if judging by the fluidity was anything to go by.

The girl laughed and grabbed Draco's still outstretched hand. "I'm Hermione." She said. Draco turned to her.

"What, sorry?"

"I'm Hermione."

"Oh, you're Hermione are you, no last name, we don't seem to be very big on those here do we?" Harry said as he too extended his hand in greeting.

"Um, do you mind if we have a few friends in here too? There'll only be three more at the most, if my suspicions are correct and Hannah is a witch after all."

Hermione shook her head and said that she didn't mind whether more people came or not.

Draco meanwhile, looked at his taller counterpart. "We have friends? Who are they? How come I don't know anything about these friends?"

Harry almost laughed at Draco's bewildered questions, and went on to explain his meeting with the Weasley's and Hannah Abbot a year ago in the village of Ottery St Catchpole. Hannah had thought that she was just a normal child, and Harry, Fred and George had kept quiet about their magical heritage. But all four of them had noticed the odd things that kept happening around Hannah, so had reason to believe that she too would be attending Hogwarts when she came of age.

As soon as Draco found out that Harry's friends were a muggle born and two of the Weasely family, he got very excited.

"This is brilliant, I've always wanted to meet a Weasely, purely because father says I'm not allowed to, throw a muggle born into the mix and I have a perfect recipe to piss him off."

Hermione looked at him strangely, her eyes begging an explanation. Harry rolled his eyes.

"Draco here comes from a very prestigious pure-blooded wizarding family, and is only allowed to talk to those deemed socially acceptable by his father. Muggle bourns and Weasleys are off limits, and I am even lower on this social ladder than them for reasons I don't really want to talk about."

Just as Harry finished, the door of the compartment slid open and revealed to identical redheads and a blonde girl who was by all accounts being dragged around.

"There you are Harry, you know you could have left us some indication as to where you were. Anyway, look who we found." One of the red heads said as he brought the blonde girl, who was smiling despite her show of reluctance, in front of him.

Draco smiled, "Hi, I'm Draco Malfoy, and you are?"

One of the redheads who Harry identified as George looked at the other and then they both turned to Draco.

"You're a-" George began.

"Malfoy?" Fred finished.

Draco simply nodded and stated calmly. "And you're both Weasleys."

It was Fred and George that nodded this time. All three looked at each other.

"COOL!" They all said at once.

Harry, Hermione and the blonde girl who could only be the Hannah that Harry had mentioned earlier just laughed at their newfound friends display of rebellion.