Falling Stars
Chapter 2: The Hogwarts Express
'Is this seat taken?'
Harry looked up from the book he'd been reading – A Young Wizard's Guide to Defence Against the Dark Arts by Alice Longbottom – to see a nervous, gangly looking red-head standing just inside the doorway. 'No, you can sit there if you like,' he replied with a shy smile.
'Thanks.' The boy dragged his trunk into the compartment and stowed it away rather noisily before slumping into the seat opposite Harry. 'My name's Ron, by the way. Ron Weasely.'
'Harry Potter,' Harry muttered, turning a page in his book.
Ron gasped, 'I knew it! That's why you look so familiar.'
Harry felt blood rushing to his face and buried himself deeper in his book in a futile attempt to hide his embarrassment. Ron, oblivious to the discomfort he was causing, barrelled on.
'I heard you were in hiding. What are you doing here? Aren't you afraid of, er, of You-Know-Who?' The last three words came out as little more than a hesitant whisper, irritating Harry even through his embarrassment. He closed his book with an audible snap and looked sharply at Ron.
'The man's name is Voldemort,' he said, sounding a little unfriendly. 'Use it.'
Ron gasped, too shocked to even flinch at the sound of the name. Harry took a deep breath and let it out slowly, reigning in his emotions.
'Sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you,' he said sincerely. 'It just annoys me that people are afraid to say his name. He wouldn't be so powerful if everyone wasn't so afraid of him.
Ron nodded slowly. 'Makes sense, I guess.' He paused. 'So, back to my question.'
'I'll answer if you say the name,' Harry offered with a raised eyebrow.
Ron paled, showing a stark contrast between freckled and un-freckled skin. After much hesitation, he let a barely audible 'V-Volde-mort' escape his mouth.
Harry grinned in light of his small victory. 'All right. You were right, my family is in hiding. I'm not in any more danger here than I would be a home, though.' He paused and snorted derisively before adding, 'You wouldn't believe the lengths Dad, Sirius and Dumbledore went to to make sure it's safe.
'Sirius,' Ron repeated slowly, 'as in Sirius Black?'
Harry nodded, mentally kicking himself for forgetting that most people were not on a first name basis with the Auror infamous for his rash but courageous actions whilst on duty. Not to mention he'd finally replaced Gilderoy Lockhart as the winner of the Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award this year. He's my Godfather,' Harry offered by way of an explanation. He was already going to stand out at Hogwarts – he didn't need to give people any more reasons to think of him as 'the weird kid'.
Before Ron could ask any more questions, the compartment door slid open to reveal an elderly looking witch pushing a sweets-trolley. The witch peered at Ron and Harry. 'Anything off the trolley, dears?' she asked kindly.
Harry fished some coins out of his pocket and purchased a handful of chocolate frogs and a couple of cauldron cakes for himself. Ron, on the other hand, turned a dark shade of crimson and shook his head. 'No, thanks. I'm all set.'
No sooner had the trolley lady left than the door slid open again to reveal twin red-heads dragging a somewhat familiar looking boy by each arm and grinning madly from ear to ear. The boy's nose was red and he had antlers protruding from the top of his head.
'Ronniekins!' the twin of the left greeted Ron over-enthusiastically.
'Dear little brother, how we've missed you!' continued the one on the right with just as much enthusiasm.
Ron's face would've reddened even more if it were possible. 'Fred, George, what do you want? You're not testing anything on us.'
'Wouldn't dream of it little brother!' exclaimed the first twin – Harry wasn't sure which was which.
'And that's Gred and Forge to you,' admonished the other twin.
'Little Neville here is looking for a toad.'
'And we're helping him to locate the poor,'
'lost,'
'lonely,'
'scared,'
'little creature.'
Harry thought he'd get whiplash looking between the two of them as they filled in each other's sentences.
'We haven't seen any toad. Go away,' Ron snapped.
'Ooh,' taunted one twin, 'Ickle Ronniekins is getting'
'territorial!' finished the other, pronouncing each syllable separately so as to mock him more thoroughly.
'Who's your friend Ronnie?'
'His name's Harry. Would you leave us alone?' Ron was starting to sound distinctly irritated now.
'Harry?'
'Not as in -'
'Harry Potter!' the twins chorused.
Harry rolled his eyes and returned to his book, completely ignoring all others in the compartment.
In the meantime, Neville had managed to free himself from the twins' vice grips and edged his way into the seat next to Ron. As Neville slumped down slowly into his seat, the twins rounded on Harry, vigorously shaking one hand each.
'A pleasure to meet you Harry,' started one twin.
'Harry?' continued the other, 'may we call you Harry, oh esteemed one?'
Harry blinked slowly a few times as the twins continued in this manner, oblivious to how much Harry had tensed up on account of them. It wasn't long before Harry came to his senses and yanked his hands out of reach of Fred and George's grasps.
'Were you after something in particular,' Harry questioned, carefully maintaining eye contact with the closer twin, 'or are you just here to make a nuisance of yourselves?'
Both twins were silent for a few seconds as Ron gaped open-mouthed at Harry.
'Er,' stuttered Fred, 'well, actually we just wanted to make sure that, er,'
'Neville here would have somebody to sit with,' George finished lamely.
Harry blinked and shook his head.
Fred cleared his throat. 'We'll see you ickle firsties later.'
The twins exited the compartment. Ron goggled at Harry for a moment before exclaiming, 'That was bloody brilliant!'
Neville managed to pull himself out of his extended slump and nodded fervently in agreement.
'Not even mum can handle the twins that well,' Ron stated with a hint of awe in his voice.
Harry simply shrugged and turned to Neville. 'You surname's Longbottom, isn't it?'
Neville nodded. 'Yeah. I think my parents know your parents.'
'Aurors, right?' Harry probed.
Neville nodded again.
The three of them reverted to an awkward silence again until Ron asked, 'So, do either of you follow Quidditch?'
With the ice broken, the remainder of the trip passed quickly, punctuated only by the brief intrusion of a girl who introduced herself as Hermione Granger ordering them to change into their robes.
Author's note:
Right. Long time, no updates I hear you say. :blush: Well, I was kinda busy last year with doing my TEE so that I could get into uni this year and not wind up with no qualifications later on, as is my parents' worst nightmare. I felt horribly guilty every time I sat down to write last year since writing had nothing to do with my study and I really should have been paying more attention to assignments and whatnot. Anyway, I'm doing a unit in creative writing as part of my degree, so expect to see more updates now that I don't have to feel so crappy about writing. I'll post drabbles on my livejournal from time to time when if I don't get chapters up here as quickly as I would like to. My username's Sploogal, of course.