Harry and Hermione both pulled their trunks down the narrow corridors of the train checking each compartment in along the carriage looking for somewhere where there were kids their age, weren't full, and were also friendly to two muggle dressed students. Xingwei followed up talking animatedly to Sunbeam, meaning that, with a baseball cap covering his scar, Harry could be anyone. Eventually they came to a compartment with three girls in it, a ginger with dark eyes, a blond with wavy hair and grey eyes, and on the other side a blond with dead straight hair and pale blue eyes. They're looking out of the window at the commotion on the platform, but turn around when Harry opens the door.
"Hi, I'm Harry, do you have space for three more in here?"
The ginger says, "Sure, more the merrier, I'm Susan Bones."
"Thanks, Harry Potter."
As Harry's trunk levitates from the floor Xingwei says, "Harry just sit down, I'll deal with the trunks."
As Harry takes a seat, the other blond says, "Sorry, I'm Daphne Greengrass. Would you mind leaving this space for my friend? Oh and Susan, I was just going to say 'as long as you don't mind it being a bit crowded in here, as I've got a friend coming."
Hermione moves in once Harry's trunk is out the way and takes a seat next to Harry, "Hi, I'm Hermione Granger. I'm looking forward to learning magic at Hogwarts. I wonder how it differs from the Realm of magic."
"Don't start that conversation yet Hermione, let's at least to get to know everyone before we do that."
Xingwei finally comes into the compartment with Sunbeam on her shoulder. "Good Morning, I'm Xingwei. Mistress Hermione is my master."
Hermione flushes, "Xingwei, you don't have to put it like that. She's actually a red dragon, and my familiar."
Xingwei sits down at an angle next to Susan and the as yet unnamed girl, her tail becoming evident as it curls up the corner of the compartment.
Susan gestures at the other blond, "The quiet one here is Hannah Abbott, don't worry she's just shy around new people. Once she get's to know you she'll talk your ear off."
"I'm not that bad." Hannah says quietly.
"So, Harry Potter. You really don't look anything like your books say you should."
Harry smiles, "No, I suppose I don't, do I. That's probably because I've never done those things. The things I have done are amazing enough looking back at them. Full disclosure, I have access to the interface. The most germane thing about this is that it means that when you introduced yourselves I found out what your three most prominent traits. I can share them if you want, or I can keep them to myself. On a related note, would anyone mind if I set some music playing?"
Hermione gently elbows Harry in the side as Daphne gives him a speculative look, "Oh, and Hermione, do you have the first book of The Vampire diaries on you?"
Hermione looks up alertly, "Yes I do." Then she realises what Harry's just done, "Harry, don't do that. And, whoever is the book lover here, yes I do."
"Harry," Daphne growls, "you are going to set up the music. Then you are going to tell me what my most prominent traits are. After that you're going to tell me what yours are."
Grinning, Harry puts a Lin-Z Smart Speaker on the small window shelf, "This is a voice activated speaker, so just tell it what sort of music you want to listen to and it will play it, or you can tell it the name of a radio station, and it will play that. Lin, Play Radio 1."
"Playing BBC Radio 1"
"It can also turn the lights on and off, as well as a wakeup routine, and a couple of other things."
"Harry, stop showing off. Yes, it's possible to get the interface. No you can't just get it, it requires long term exposure to the grinning idiot here, yes I want it so I'm going to go into whatever house he does even if I have to… I don't know."
"You still haven't told me what you think my traits are."
"Susan, Hannah, do you want to know yours?"
Hannah nudges Susan, who has gotten into a conversation with the speaker about what music is available, "I'd like to know. Susan, Harry asked you a question."
"What, oh, yes I'd like to know. Auntie says that you should always know yourself."
"Tell you what Daphne, should we wait for your friend?"
"You, have a point dammit. Susan, stop hogging the speaker."
While they're waiting for Tracy to arrive, Hermione gets her trunk down with Xingwei's help and moves her books from the trunk to her book bag. When she comes across the Vampire diaries book she hands it to Hannah instead. While she's doing that, a brunette girl stops tapping her foot.
Xingwei says, "Mistress Hermione, get out of the way, the girl wants to get past."
Looking up from the trunk Hermione flushes, "Sorry, I'm Hermione Granger by the way."
"Tracy Davis, are you going to move the trunk?"
Daphne's voice comes from inside the compartment, "Trace, we were waiting for you. Xingwei, would you mind getting her trunk and putting it over head? Trace, get your arse in here."
As Hermione steps out of the way, Tracy steps over the corner of the trunk, "Daph? Slumming it with Mugg… Phoenix!" – Tracy freezes in place when she sees Sunbeam perched on Xingwei's shoulder – "Daphne, what's going on?"
"Trace, get your arse in here and sit down, shut your mouth, and be ready to apologise."
It doesn't take long for Hermione to finish transferring her books, once the trunks are back in place and Hermione is sitting down, Daphne gets up and closes the door before pulling out her wand, "Colleportus", with a creak, the door wedges itself into the frame.
"Trace, I'd like you to meet Harry Potter and his Phoenix familiar…"
"Sunbeam" Harry supplies with a grin.
"Sunbeam, and Hermione Granger and her Red Dragon familiar Xingwei."
"Tracy Davis, and I'm sorry about my language earlier. I was only funning with Daphne, as we've known each other for years. My mother's a muggleborn, so I don't actually have anything against muggles or muggleborns. Also, sorry I'm late, there was a hold up on the platform and the Aurors were restricting access to one family at a time while they were dealing with an emergency."
Harry has the grace to flush, "That's probably my fault, well Sunbeam's fault, but as she's my familiar it's kinda my responsibility. The flash she leaves when she teleports from one place to another is rather bright."
"Rather bright?" Hermione says, "Dad used the word Fulgent when he recovered the first time he saw it. I actually had to go and look that word up in the dictionary. I've not needed to do that for at least 18 months."
Daphne interrupts, "Enough talking, Harry you promised to tell us our traits."
"Well, you're an Ambitious Genius, that's also a Music Lover. Susan over there is an Outgoing, Cheerful, Music Lover. Hannah is a Creative, Bookworm, Insider. Finally Tracy is an Ambitious, Insider, that's also a Music Lover. I'm a Genius, Bookworm, that Loves Outdoors."
"And I'm an Adventurous, Genius, Bookworm. Also, Harry, I know you're doing this because you want to make friends. But you've been around L as much as I have, and even I know that it's not a good idea to share your traits, or the fact that you have bought a perk that allowed you to get all of them just by them introducing themselves."
"I actually agree with Hermione," Daphne adds, "just knowing that information would allow any of us to play on your traits to get you to do what we want."
There's a loud whistle and the train jerks as it starts to pull out of the station.
"I know, but it's not like in Glimmerstone or the Realm of magic where Hermione is the only person that doesn't have the interface. Here, at least for a few years, I'm going to be the only one with the interface."
Tracy adds, "Look, you can't hide that you've got the interface. But, you need to hide what the interface tells you. By all means, tell any friends you make in the interests of having an equal friendship. But don't blurt it out before you even know if you'll like a person. Especially around people like Nott or Malfoy. Not only would they use the information against you, but they'd also spread it around to all their cronies. Now Daphne and I were going to be shoe-ins for Slytherin, having met you, I think I'd be a fool to allow myself to go into that house now."
Daphne nods, "Yes, quite. If for no other reason than the state of the Slytherin house means that we'd be isolated from you. So, how did you get the interface?"
Harry's face falls, "I'd rather not talk about it, suffice to say that I've had it for as long as I can remember, and that my home life wasn't exactly a happy one."
Hermione nudges him, "There is the fact that your uncle is now pregnant. Have you heard anything about that by the way?"
"Oh, yes. Aunt Petunia had a visit from some Auror's to check out her story, and they told her that their obliviators tracked Vernon down and spent a couple of hours blurring his life at Privet Drive, and removing any instances of magic that he remembered, including the night that she got magic. They even charged us 2g for the privilege."
Susan looks up from the speaker, "That's robbery, they're supposed to do the obliviations for free."
"They said that was the case, but normally obliviations take seconds at most. This one took them 3 hours as he couldn't just disappear and wake up somewhere sans memory. The charge was to cover the last two hours, not the initial hour. Apparently it's something they do for all complicated obliviations that take longer than an hour."
"I'll still write to my aunt to see if that's correct."
Tracy changes the subject, "So, you have to be more than those three traits, what music do you like?"
Daphne unlocks the door as the conversation turns to more mundane things. Eventually Susan finds a radio station that everyone in the compartment likes and joins the conversation.
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It's around an hour into the journey that a freckled red headed boy with a ratty rat sticking out of his pocket sticks his head into the compartment and looks around. "Have any of you seen Harry Potter?"
Harry says, "No, can't say I have. Who are you?"
"Oh, I'm Ron, Ron Weasley. Hey, you're Harry Potter, I recognise your Phoenix."
"Ok Ron, you got me. So why exactly were you looking for me?"
"So that we can be best friends, obviously."
Harry rakes his eyes up and down his form, "Why would I want to be friends with a High-maintenance Lazy Glutton?"
"Hey, I'm not that bad. Have you been talking to my brothers?"
"I haven't been outside this compartment since the journey began. After all, there is superlative company, and the conversation is both stimulating and engaging. Now don't move, I'm just going to cast a cleaning spell on you… Scruberoo, I choose you."
A spark of light leaves Harry's hand and hits Ron, a moment later Ron shivers but his uniform is perfectly clean and pressed, and his hair is perfectly brushed.
"Hey, what gives?"
"Don't worry, it was only a cleaning spell. Now nobody else will know that you had corned beef sandwiches with mustard. You had a bit on your collar."
"Oh, thanks, I'm going to find my brothers."
Daphne stands up and closes the door before magically locking it again and turning to face Harry, "What, was, that?"
"Scruberoo, an apprentice level spell from the school of practical magic."
"I got that, I meant not using a wand."
"Oh, if you talk to one of the sages in the Realm of Magic, they can connect you to the realm so that you can channel magic directly. You can then learn how to summon a familiar and how to ride a broom. Once you've done that you need to learn your first spell from one of the sages so that you know how understand the tomes that contain the other spells. In order to learn any of the spells, you need to learn to speak and read Simian. There's two ways to do that, the long way and the painful and potentially embarrassing way."
Hermione flushes, "Hey, I regret nothing. I get on really well with L now."
"So, what do we need to do to get access to the Realm of Magic?"
"Ask Sunbeam nicely, maybe give her a rabbit. Or maybe tag along next time Hermione or I head over there."
Hermione perks up, "Oh, while I think of it. I picked up a tome of inferniate last night when I found Xingwei's orb. Could I borrow your tome on the Potion of Plentiful needs, and you can look at mine while I'm studying it."
"Sure, I just want to test making the potion first, as I think I've got it all figured out. The interface does too, as it gave me a potion. But I still want to make sure that I've got it right."
"Fair enough, when are you going to try it?"
"If I can buy one at School, probably tomorrow night. Otherwise, it will need to wait for the weekend. Oh, hey, does anyone want a serving of Butternut Gnocchi? Aunt Petunia made me a party platter of it for lunch today."
Daphne says, "Sure, but don't think you're going to change the subject that easily. How are you going to get to the Realm of magic from the school, they have anti-apparition and anti-portkey wards there, and students aren't allowed to leave."
Hermione fishes her Glimmerstone out of her blouse, "This is a piece of crystalised magic that's attuned to me, it's called Glimmerstone. With this I can travel to the Realm of magic. I can then use the portal there to return home. Hopefully, home will be the school as we're going to be living there for 9 months. On top of that, Xingwei said that she can teleport. So it might be possible for her to teleport to Glimmerstone and then I can walk through the portal from planetside."
Harry adds, "I have one too, but the interface won't let me take it out of my inventory."
"OK, so what house do you think you'll be in?"
Hermione grimaces, "I don't know, I think I'd prefer Hufflepuff even though I'd probably be more suitable in Ravenclaw or Slytherin. Over the last month L has taught me, rather pointedly at times, that I need to improve my social skills and make more friends. The only house I don't think I'm likely to go into is Gryffindor, as even though Albus Dumbledore came from that house, I really don't think I have the brash courage that the books suggest is typical of the house."
Harry nods, "Same, though for different reasons. I worked hard to avoid getting the Loner trait, and I have a feeling that playing politics or sitting in an ivory tower and studying till I fall asleep on my face would be easy to do. But it wouldn't allow me to grow as a person. That leaves Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. And quite frankly, I'm not the sort of person that would thrive in what I've read about that house. If for no other reason than I despise sports."
Daphne unlocks the door again as they all enjoy a serving of Gnocchi. Conversation first turns to what house the others were in, and then turns to quizzing Xingwei, who had been quiet so far, about her life growing up, and what magic she knows.
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Including a visit from the sweet lady, the journey continues with other students popping their heads in to say hi on their way too or from the bathrooms. Harry's swapped seats with Hannah so that she can talk to Hermione about books while Susan and Daphne talk to him about everything from music to what he knows of life in the other world. It's when a nervous looking blond boy pokes his head into the carriage that the mood in the compartment changes.
"I'm sorry to bother you, I'm Neville Longbottom. Have any of you seen my toad?"
Harry speaks for the carriage, "No, we haven't." Then continues, "However, I think you need to come in and talk with us. Daphne, can you do your thing with the door?"
Nervously Neville moves into the compartment and takes the seat that Harry vacates as he moves to lean against the door.
"Neville, need to ask. Is everything OK at home?"
"What, no they're fine. Why?" Everyone in the compartment can see the lie for what it is.
It's Susan that speaks up, "You know that's not true Neville, we've been sort of friends for years and even I know that. What made you ask Harry?"
"Everyone, and I do mean everyone, that has poked their heads into the compartment and introduced themselves has three traits, except Neville here. Who has two, Gloomy and Loves Outdoors. Couple that with my own less than stellar upbringing, and I see red flags."
"What do red flags have to do with this?"
Hermione explains, kindly, "It's a muggle expression, meaning sees warning signs of something. I could explain the history of it later if you want."
Neville responds, "No, it's fine. They just weren't sure I had magic until I was eight and uncle algie dropped me out of the top floor window and I bounced. They weren't even sure that I had magic until then. I remember uncle Algie pushed me off blackpool pier and I nearly drowned. My Grandmother was so happy when I bounced that she cried. Uncle Algie even bought me a toad to celebrate getting my Hogwarts letter, as they weren't sure I was even magical enough to get that."
The fact that Susan, Hannah, and Daphne are all nodding along as though it's something to be expected leaves Harry's blood boiling. He's only slightly mollified by the fact that Tracey looks uncomfortable.
Reigning in his temper, Harry speaks slowly and clearly, "Neville, what they did to you was abusive. Amongst other things, they've stunted your personal growth, as you should have more than enough things that you like or dislike for my interface to have picked up three traits. Afterlife, I had 4 separate notifications that said that a social worker was going to take me away since I was 6, so I should know something about this subject."
"What's a social worker?"
"They are a person that works for the social services department of the government. One of the jobs of that department is to look after the wellbeing of Babies, Toddlers, and Children. They have the legal power to remove a child from a household if they aren't being taken care of properly."
"They're not that bad, my gran even gave me my fathers wand for Hogwarts."
Daphne looks aghast, "Did you even try any other wands?"
"No?"
"That is absolutely deplorable, an Heir to one of the Most Ancient and Most Noble houses shouldn't be using the first wand that was given to them. They should either be using an ancestral wand that reacts to them, or getting one made to fit them. My own wand was first owned by Helga Greengrass 350 years ago."
"Look, Ollivander had me hold my wand up and say Lumos." At Hermione's glare he adds, "I won't demonstrate, as when I did it last it was a little, erm, bright."
When Neville does that the tip of the wand doesn't even glow, "Can the rest of you do that, not you Hermione."
The other three girl's wands all light up in various colours. With a sigh Harry pulls out a the Bone and Astral wands that Hermione passed over when she got her magic, "Give these ago and see if they work any better for you. I suggest you start with the bone wand, as Ollivandar was wary of touching my Astral wand."
Neville picks up the bone wand and then puts it down again, "Ugh, that feels horrible."
Picking up the Astral wand, Neville casts Lumos, and a bright spark of light appears at the end of the wand. He looks at the light in wonder, though after a moment he starts to sway in his seat.
"Neville, say Nox." Daphne says urgently.
"Nox. Woah, that was brilliant." Neville sways faintly in his seat before leaning against Susan, "I have to ask, why does the pretty girl in the corner have a tail?"
Xingwei smiles, "I am a Red Dragon, and Mistress Hermione is my master. Xingwei at your service."
"That explains it. Harry, thank you for lending me that wand." He holds it out to Harry.
"Keep it, it was a spare. If you feel you must, pay me back for it later."
"Thanks." Neville looks for somewhere to put the wand, before putting it back in his pocket with his father's wand.
Harry sighs again and pulls out the wand holster that Gene bought him, "Here, use this. It's a cross draw holster so put it on your off arm."
"Why are you being so nice to me?"
"To start with, I want to be. Also, you seem like a nice person, or that you'll grow into a nice person anyway. I also see some of where I could be if I hadn't gained the interface, so I don't want to see someone else in that situation. Finally, the sages helped me when I got to the Realm of Magic, so I wouldn't be a very good person if I didn't do the same for you."
Sunbeam trills softly, and Harry nods before reaching for the feeling of the raven in the back of his mind. When the interface options appear, he selects unbind familiar. When the familiar orb appears in his inventory, he pulls it out and hands it to Neville.
"Sunbeam, my phoenix, just suggested that I give you my other familiar. If you have it summoned it can warn you if you're at the point where you're going to hurt yourself using the wand. It will also be able to intercede occasionally if you're in a life-threatening situation. She seems to think that it's a simple enough familiar for you to bond it."
Xingwei says, "Mistress, you know you could do the same with that useless fairy don't you."
"Are you jealous?"
"Yes." She says simply.
"OK, so how exactly do I do this? After all I don't exactly have the interface to help me."
"I don't know, why not just reverse what you did when you bonded it?"
With a sigh, Hermione reaches for the feeling of Theresa in her mind and pulls it down to her hand. As she watches, fire streams down her arm and forms the blue orb that the fairy came from.
"That was easy." She says with more than a little surprise.
"I'm not surprised you find it so, compared to actually casting spells it is."
"I suppose so. Anyone want a fairy familiar, as Xingwei seems to be jealous of the idea of me having more than one familiar."
In unison three voices say "Me!"
Hermione places the orb on the shelf by the Lin-Z, "You can discuss it amongst yourselves, and I'll help whoever gets it bind it to themselves and summon it for the first time."
While they're doing that, Harry talks Neville through the process of bonding the Raven familiar, and summoning it. By the end of it Neville is almost falling off the seat with dizziness, low magic, and exhaustion. Wordlessly Harry hands him a large blue bottle, "Drink that, it should help. Though I suggest making sure you go to bed normally, even though you won't be tired tonight."
Bravely, Neville downs the potion and then immediately perks up. "Oh, wow, what was that?"
"An alchemical potion called 'Potion of Plentiful Needs'. It refills all of your needs, Hunger, Hygiene, Exhaustion, Social, Fun, and Bladder."
Daphne just looks at him, "Why didn't you say that when you said you could make that potion earlier? Does it have any downsides?"
"Nobody asked. And not really, the occasional potion may be wrong, and if it is you'll find your needs will increase. But, according to the tome, in most cases drinking another potion will correct that. If you drink too many alchemical potions in a short period of time, you could attract a curse. But apart from that, no."
"Wow, even pepper-up has downsides, it's addictive and it's just letting you tap into your reserves so you'll crash later. What! My family farm and sell potions ingredients, don't you think I'd know a bit about the more common potions?"
With Daphne distracted, Hannah wins the fairy by dint of having better puppy dog eyes than Susan. So the door once again gets unlocked after she's bound and summoned her new familiar.
"Phew, that was hard. Do you have another one of those potions?"
"Sorry, I only finished the book last night. If I can place a cauldron in wherever I end up staying, then I'll brew a batch and give you a bottle to keep in your bag."
It's not long after that when Harry is startled, as a prefect opens the door and pokes their heads in, "We're approaching Hogsmeade station, so you should all get into your school uniforms."
Neville goes back to his own compartment to get changed, while Harry just span on the spot and was suddenly wearing his school uniform, and wearing glasses. His scar a light pink against his forehead below his messy hair. He steps outside the compartment so that the girls can all get changed, followed by jealous gazes all round.