Harry's stay at Mrs Figgs was, well, mostly dull to be honest. She seemed a nice enough woman (although a little cat-obsessed) but she wasn't Sirius. Their trip to Diagon Alley had been fun. He had bought his wand, and his schoolbooks (which looked very interesting) and an owl who he called Hedwig. And he'd had the most fabulous ice-cream. He hadn't been able to choose a single flavour so he had three flavours all piled on top of one another.
But in general there had been very little excitement that summer. He missed Sirius, dreadfully. He had managed to send Sirius one letter, using Hedwig, addressed to "Snuffles" which was one of the code names he and Sirius had decided on before parting. The previous week he had had a note back, via a disgruntled looking post owl who had arrived in the middle of the night. He had retrieved the letter as silently as possible, hoping not to wake Mrs Figg. It hadn't been a long note and it had included instructions to read and destroy. Harry didn't like doing that, he'd have liked to hold on to the letter and read it as often as he could but unfortunately he could see the necessity. While people might guess that he kept in touch with Sirius, it could be disastrous if they knew.
While the summer had been dull and lonely, he had very mixed feelings as September drew closer. He wanted to go to Hogwarts, he had wanted to go there for ages as he had heard so many stories from Sirius. But it was hard facing people who knew him – or thought they knew him anyway. Before he really felt ready for it, it was September and he found himself, with Mrs Figg, at Kings Cross station. The previous night, however, he had come up with a plan. He'd posed it to Mrs Figg at breakfast and she had seemed to approve. He was going to seek out Muggle-born students on the train and get to know them. That way they wouldn't know about him and Sirius until someone told them, by which time they would have met him and got to know him and might be prepared to believe him about it.
So he looked around the station eagerly, searching out for people who looked like Muggle-born first years. It didn't take long to spot one. A tall black boy, standing with his family, looking rather lost. Harry made his way towards them determinedly.
"Hi, are you going to Hogwarts?" He asked the boy.
"Yes!" The boy replied looking grateful. "It's my first year and I was wondering …"
"How to get on the platform?" The boy nodded. "Don't worry, it's my first year too but my Godfather told me all about it. It's dead easy. I'm Harry by the way."
"Dean. Dean Thomas and this is my Mum and Dad."
"Hello Mr Thomas, Mrs Thomas. Don't worry, I'll show Dean the way – Muggles can't get on the platform I'm afraid."
"Thank you Harry, that's very kind of you. Goodbye Dean darling, take care and be good." Harry looked away politely as Dean said goodbye to his parents. He spotted Mrs Figg, coming towards him and quickly went over to her.
"Thank you for letting me stay this summer Mrs Figg. I've appreciated it."
"You were no problem Harry, it's been a pleasure. I suppose you want to go on to the platform alone so I'll say goodbye here." To his surprise she gave him a brief hug. "You are a good boy Harry, I'll miss you."
Feeling slightly embarrassed he turned back to Dean. "Come on, let's go." He explained how to get on the platform and in no time the two of them were staring at the huge scarlet steam train.
"Cool!" Dean said with an awed voice.
Harry grinned at him. "Yeah. Come on, let's find a seat."
The two boys dragged their trunks into an empty carriage and before long, Dean started firing questions at Harry. "Are all your family wizards?"
"My Mum and Dad were but they died. I lived with my Godfather who is a wizard but we lived in a Muggle village and I went to a Muggle school so I haven't been around wizards much. My Godfather told me all about stuff though."
"Cool! What's Hogwarts like? I met this boy on Diagon Alley and he said there were houses and we got sorted do you know about that?"
"There are four houses. My Godfather said Gryffindor's the best. I want to …" they were interrupted by a knock on the door and a red-headed boy in tatty robes, who was nearly as tall as Dean, poked his head around.
"Can I sit here, everywhere is full?"
"Of course." Said Dean quickly. Harry was more reticent. He could tell by looking that this boy grew up in the wizarding world.
"My name's Ron, Ron Weasley." The boy said as he manoeuvred his trunk and a small cage into the room.
"Dean. And this is Harry. We're first years."
"Me too." He paused, looking at Harry in shock. "Harry? Harry Potter?"
Harry looked him straight in the eye. Might as well get it over with. "Yes. Got a problem with that?"
Ron hastily looked away. "No, course not." He fiddled with his cage.
Dean looked puzzled but decided it wasn't the right time to pursue whatever it was. What's in the cage?" He asked. The cage was about a quarter of the size of Ron's trunk, covered with sawdust at the bottom and with a small cardboard box in the corner.
"Scabbers. He's my rat. He used to belong to my brother Percy but Percy got an owl this year 'cos of being made prefect. Wanna see him?
"All right."
"Come on out Scabbers come on, Ron called into the cage. "Show yourself to Harry and Dean." Two glowing eyes stared back out of the cardboard box at him. Scabbers, it seemed, wasn't coming anywhere. "Useless!" Said Ron. "Honestly I think he's sulking because of Hermes."
"Hermes?" Dean asked.
"Percy's new owl. Scabbers has been acting dead odd since Percy got him. I think he's jealous."
"What's your owl called Harry?"
"Hedwig. She's dead smart, really good with letters and stuff. You can borrow her if you want to send a letter home any time."
"Really? Cool. My Mum and Dad were amazed when they heard about post owls, It'd really stun them if I sent them a letter by owl!"
"You Muggle-born then Dean?" Asked Ron glancing at Harry in surprise. "My Dad loves Muggles, thinks they're fascinating. He's always talking about stuff they've invented like the fellytone." As both other boys looked a bit puzzled, Ron continued. "That thing Muggles use to communicate over long distances."
"Telephone." Harry and Dean said in understanding.
"Yeah, that. Hey, how come you know about that?" He said looking at Harry.
"Grew up in a Muggle village and all my friends were Muggles."
"Oh. Right."
Dean looked between the two of them. "So Ron, have you got any brothers and sisters?"
Ron groaned. "Lots. I'm the sixth boy, three of my brothers are still at Hogwarts. And I've got a younger sister. You?"
"Yeah, I come from a big family too. None of them are magical though, 'sfar as we know. No one knew the odd things I could do were magic until I got my letter. How 'bout you Harry?"
"No. My parents died when I was a baby and Siri – my Godfather never married."
There was an awkward pause again as both Harry and Ron seemed determined not to look at each other. As Dean groped round for something neutral to say the door to their carriage swung open. Dean's relief at the interruption, however, was short-lived as a pale pointy-faced boy with a sneer came into the carriage, followed by two large boys. They ignored both Dean and Ron and went straight to Harry.
"So it's true what they said then?" The pointy-faced boy said. "Harry Potter is coming to Hogwarts."
Harry looked him up and down before replying. "Yes."
"I'm Malfoy, Draco Malfoy. This is Crabbe and Goyle." He indicated the two gorilla-like boys behind him. "You don't have to sit here you know Potter." He glanced at Dean and Ron dismissively. "We have a carriage further up the train."
"I'm happy where I am thanks." Harry replied shortly.
"Come on now Potter, you can do better than this, a poor excuse for a pure-blood and what looks like a Mudblood."
Harry leapt to his feet and looked Malfoy in the eye. He paused remembering one of the things Sirius had said. 'If you are going to insult someone, Harry, do it with a smile – drives the other bloke wild!"
He smiled sweetly and said "I'm not such a fool as to think that blood status matters in this world Malfoy. If I were, from what I've heard about your family, I'd be better off making friends with the giant squid than you. Now apologise to Dean for that offensive comment."
Malfoy's eyes narrowed and behind him both Crabbe and Goyle cracked their knuckles menacingly. "Or what?"
Harry's smile broadened. "Come now Malfoy, are you really that keen to find out what my Godfather taught me?" Harry stood there looking straight into Malfoy's eyes, desperately hoping that nobody would call his bluff on this. Sirius had always told him to bluff with confidence, he only hoped he was convincing enough.
"You don't scare me Potter." Malfoy said sounding a little nervous.
"Really?" Harry said quietly. "Perhaps you'll be sorted into Gryffindor if you are really that brave?"
Malfoy shifted a little nervously. "You're not worth it Potter. Not worth it at all. Come on Crabbe, Goyle. Let's go."
Harry remained standing until the boys had left their compartment and then turned to face Ron and Dean.
"What … what did your Godfather teach you?" Asked Dean a little nervously.
"Well, I could probably have turned Malfoy's hair pink." Said Harry conversationally. "But I'm not sure it would work as I've never done it before."
"Turn his hair pink?" Dean asked. "But I thought – Malfoy acted as if …"
Harry smiled at them, a genuine smile not the one he had turned on Malfoy. "Yeah, but it's what Malfoy thought I could do that mattered right?"
"You mean you were bluffing?" Dean asked startled.
"Of course! I'm only a first year, what do you think?"
"Cool!"
Harry turned to look at Ron who was looking at him warily. "Honest Ron, I don't know anything I could have done to hurt them I was just bluffing."
"OK."
"Really." Harry said firmly
"Yeah." But Ron didn't sound too convinced and Harry's heart sank a little. Maybe he had bluffed too well.
"What does Mudblood mean?" Dean asked them curiously.
Ron and Harry exchanged glances, momentarily and silently calling a truce for Dean's sake.
"Ignore him, it's just a stupid insult." Ron said.
"Yeah, idiots like Malfoy think just because someone's parents are Muggles that makes them lesser somehow." Harry said. "It's nonsense, ignore it."
"Yeah most pureblood families have Muggle in them somewhere so it's all ridiculous anyway."
"Forget about him."
The door swung open again and the boys looked up nervously. "Anything off the trolley dears?" A kindly looking witch asked.
A/N OK, finally updating again and I've changed chapters 4 & 5 so you might want to re-read them. This chapter was originally going to includesome other things but I wanted to make this scene a little longer so they fell out, one into the amended chapter 5 and the rest have moved forward slightly.