All of the characters except for my own handful of originals, as well as locations, names, titles etc are and remain the property of JKR and I hope you like it.

Principles such as Splicing are mine as well as all unique books, histories, titles, traditions and spells. I give users permission to use them, but only if you reference me in your work.

Review please whether you like it or not. Tell me what you do and do not like and why! I do love having my ego stroked with 'Wow, great!' etc, but it's not as useful for my process as having some real examples and effects.

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Chapter 13: On Board the Hogwarts Express

Harry followed Angelina into a compartment on the train and sat down, mind reeling and utterly overwhelmed. Angelina kissed all her friends and they walked in that way that only girls of a certain age walk out of sight before she sat down opposite Harry.

'You're brave, wearing that before you've even been sorted.' She said to Harry as she smoothed out her kilt and crossed her legs.

'What do you mean?' Harry asked, trying not to stare.

'The shirt, that's Gryffindor Scarlet.' She said, pointing the same colour out on her skirt.

'Oh yeah, I know. Professor McGonagall changed it from green.'

'Minerva McGonagall?' Angelina looked stunned, 'The head of Gryffindor house, transfigured a shirt into her house's colours for you?'

Harry nodded. 'So what?'

'So, she must like you. McGonagall doesn't like anyone. She's probably the hardest teacher to please in the whole school! Doing that pretty much means she wants you in our house.'

Harry smiled. Such an acclamation made him immensely proud.

'It's pretty much a sure thing anyway, given that your folks were both Gryffindors, but still you should be bloody proud of that! I don't know If she'd even know my name if I wasn't on the house team.'

Harry was about to reply when the door to the compartment was pulled open and a burly, powerful looking boy a little older than Angelina walked in with the Weasley twins, a pale girl with large brown eyes and another girl who looked a little snooty with thick ringletted hair and a stud in her nose.

The boy looked from Angelina to Potter and spoke in a thick Scottish accent. 'Angie, who's this?'

Alica grinned. 'Oliver Wood, Fred and George Weasley, Katie Bell and Alicia Spinnet, I'd like you to meet Harry Potter.

The standard silence that Harry had come to expect happened, broken a moment later by George laughing, 'Wow, I can't believe I almost killed the Boy-Who-Lived with a luggage cart!'

They all crammed into the compartment and Harry found himself bombarded as usual by the seemingly endless tirade of questions about his childhood, Voldemort and his parents. As usual everyone was amazed that he had very little actual experience in the wizarding world. Apparently it had become common opinion that he must have been introduced to the wizarding world in Brittany or America to avoid being bombarded by his own fame.

After the train had been underway for a couple of hours, discussion of quidditch became the focus of all conversation. Alicia, as the newest recruit to the team explained the rules to Harry and how the three different types of ball, the single quaffle, pair of bludgers and tiny, elusive golden snitch, were to be thrown, beaten and caught in order to play the game.

They paused when a tiny old woman with white hair walked down the train with a cart filled with food and drink in all shapes, types and sizes. Everyone's mouths fell open when Harry produced a handful of golden galleons and bought some of everything from the cart and insisted that everyone share it around.

A few minutes later, Wood tapped Harry's knee and said, through a mouth full of pumpkin pasty. 'It's just a pity that first years don't get to play.'

Harry's heart sank. 'Why not?'

'Well first years aren't allowed their own brooms, you see,' put in Angelina Johnson, 'you get flying lessons throughout the year and as soon as you're safe then you're allowed a broom.'

'It's really rare that second years get to play to be fair,' Said George who was playing exploding snap with Alicia.

'In fact this is probably the youngest team in long time.' Said Fred finished his brother's sentence.

Harry fell into a brooding glumness for a while, watching the others who would all be enjoying flying free on their brooms in no time while he would be land-bound except for flying lessons.

An hour after they had eaten, Wood cleared his throat. 'Right Harry, I hate to be rude, but me and the guys have some pretty hush-hush strategy to be talking before we get to school.'

'Shut up, Oliver. You can't be serious, term hasn't even started yet!' Groaned Alicia who was in the same year as Wood.

'I'm the captain now and Gryffindor hasn't won the cup since Charlie left the school. This year we will win.' Wood growled.

Charlie was the Weasley twin's second oldest brother and had been seeker and captain of the house team up until he had left school just after Wood had started. Wood idolised Charlie as the epitome of a captain and desperately wanted to follow in his footsteps. The rest of the team joined in with Angelia against Wood's dismissal of Harry from the cart, especially after he had bought them all lunch.

'He just spent almost five galleons on food for us!' Angelina spat at Wood, her nails scratching the varnished wood of the table that Wood had created by charming a tray into a larger size. It was propped up by a similarly charmed pair of fizzy drinks cans.

'It's fine, I understand!' Shouted Harry over the noise. 'I understand what you mean Oliver, I really do. I'll just go and wander around and get into my robes.' Gesturing to Fred and George he said, 'I saw your brother earlier, I might go and find him.'

Fred laughed, 'Good luck with that, he's probably hiding in the loo, crying about how much he misses mum!'

Harry got up and left the compartment to roars of laughter followed by a cry of pain from Wood who had apparently been slapped by Angelina.

'See you at the Gryffindor table, Harry!' shouted Fred and George as Harry slid the door closed and headed down the car grinning.

He had friends! People who seemed genuinely interested in him and they had interests in common! All he had to do next was figure out a way to get his own broom and onto the house team. The idea of following in his father's footsteps and playing quidditch was too potent a dream to ignore.

And why had he ever imagined wanting to be sorted into any other house than Gryffindor when it's members were so friendly?

He walked into the next train car lost in thought and oblivious until he trod on something that made a squelching noise followed by a crack.

He looked down.

He had trodden upon a large toad.

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The toad was most definitely dead. Harry had been stepping harder than normal to balance against the slight rocking motion of the train and his foot had come down straight on the toad's head. He lifted his foot, wrinkled his nose and was about to call for help when a small, chubby boy appeared with a frantic expression on his face.

'Trevor?' He called, looking into a compartment. The inhabitants of the compartment shouted at him to get lost and he closed the door.

Then he turned, looked at Harry who was trying to wipe Toad brains from his shoe, looked down, vomited on the floorand promptly passed out.

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Harry ran over to the boy who was very pale and, stepping around his vomit, tried to sit the boy up.

'Trevor…' he moaned as his eyes fluttered.

Harry's mind whirled and he stood up and was about to run to find help when a bushy-haired girl with large, slightly protuberant front teeth appeared, already in her school robes.

'Neville!' She cried, dropping to her knees beside the boy and slapping his face gently.

The boy moaned the name again and went limp.

The girl looked up at Harry, her eyes sharp and accusing. 'What happened?' She asked sharply.

Harry recoiled, having heard that tone many times before and knowing what normally accompanied it. 'I… I just stepped into the car and stepped on something, just as he came round the corner. Is he looking for a toad?'

'Yes, Trevor. His uncle bought it for him.'

'Right.' Harry said, swallowing hard and pointing to the crushed toad. 'I think I need to apologise to his uncle.'

The girl grimaced at the sight and shuddered. 'You really should be more careful you know. Have you called for help?'

Harry shook his head as the inhabitants of the compartment that had shouted at the boy pulled the door open to see what all the fuss was about. They looked at the boy, Neville on the floor and covered in his own vomit and burst into howls of laughter.

'There's a conductor in the next carriage,' the girl said, scowling at the onlookers, 'go and fetch her.'

Harry nodded and ran toward the end of the carriage which was already becoming busier with other people drawn by the sounds of laughter. He pushed through the door into the next carriage and ran to a tall wizard wearing blue-grey robes and spinning a wand in his fingers.

'Excuse me,' Harry said, pulling the man's sleeve, 'but there's a boy who has passed out and a dead toad in the next carriage along.'

The man laughed and after Harry had explained in more detail, followed him back to where Neville lay, still ashen-faced with his head in the bushy haired girl's lap.

By the time the wizard had created a glass of water out of thin air with a wave of his wand and splashed it over Neville's face, the whole carriage was full to bursting. The boy woke up with a start, saw his audience and that one of the Weasley twins was holding the flat-skulled toad and burst into tears.

The wizard picked the boy up, ushered him into the nearest compartment and shut the door.

The girl stood and patted her robes smooth. 'That was rather careless of you, don't you think?'

Harry was about to reply but wasn't given chance, the girl continued on in the same breath.

'I'm Hermione Granger. That was Neville Longbottom and as I'm sure you've deduced, his toad you stepped on. I think you should be more careful where you're walking in future or at least see about getting the prescription checked for your glasses. You do know that there are spells to correct less than perfect sight, don't you? I'm considering something similar for my front teeth, though my parent's who're dentists insist that braces are the right way to go about fixing them when I'm a little older.'

Harry blew out a breath, not sure how to reply and deciding on starting with her first point. He ran his hands through his hair and started, 'I'm,' but never finished.

The girl's eyes had gone predictably wide and she said, 'You're Harry Potter, I know all about you, of course — I got a few extra books for background reading from Diagon Alley and you're in loads of them.'

It was true of course, Harry had seen his own name in many of the books he'd read over the last month and the content of them varied from praise for whatever incredible power the infant wizard possessed to grand and speculative theories about how he must have channelled one of the old gods who chose him as their vessel in order to save Britain.

Hermione Granger hadn't stopped, leading Harry to wonder if she'd used magic to make it so she didn't need to breathe. 'You're in Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century."

'I know,' Harry said, holding up a hand which made Hermione pause, 'I'm also in The Ninth Age of Britain, Modern Worship of Ancient Gods, Dark Lords and their Vanquishers and Protect Your Home, Protect Your Family; a Self-Help Guide to Home Defence, but none of the writers actually know anything about me. I only found out I was a wizard a month ago, until then I thought I was just a bit weird and had the worst family in the world.

Hermione had pulled out a small notepad while he was speaking and was jotting down the names of the books in his list that she hadn't read.

'Really? I did read somewhere that you had been taken someplace safe after you defeated You-Know-Who and no one had really seen much of you since then. There were the rumours on the day I was taken to Diagon Alley that you were there of course and the Daily Prophet is always talking about sightings and speculating about your arrival at Hogwarts.'

'It is?'

'Yes, absolutely!' she said, grabbing his hand, 'I'll show you!'

She pulled him along the corridor back past Fred, George and the rest of the Quidditch team and into her own compartment in the last-but-one carriage. Inside there were a few people reading books and newspapers, two playing chess and another asleep. Hermione picked up a satchel and hefted it out into the corridor.

From inside she pulled a leather folder that fell open revealing hundreds of newspaper clippings divided into sections. They went into the next compartment which had a couple of spaces and sat reading over cuttings about Harry and all the wild speculation about his whereabouts and activities. It turned out that there was a small fringe group in Wales that actually considered Harry to be the reincarnation of King Arthur himself and another that believed he was born to fulfil a prophesy that said a person would be born of magic that would be destined to bring balance to the light and dark.

At several points they almost fell off their seats laughing. When they finished the Harry Potter section of her folder, they moved on to the rest and read until the sky was dark and the train started to slow and make its final climb. Hermione reminded Harry to get changed again.

He ran back to the first carriage where the quidditch team gave him his satchel which he had left with them, then got changed in a toilet.

He returned to Hermione as the train pulled into the station.

Hermione took a deep breath and grabbed Harry's hand. 'Here goes. Be calm, just stay calm!' She whispered.

Oddly enough, Harry was suddenly absolutely calm.

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