Chapter 6: The Journey From Platform Nine and Three-Quarters

"The Journey from Platform Nine and Three-Quarters" Bill read.

"Finally. Getting to the good stuff" Tonks said her hair back to hot pink.

"Was it ever?" Ron asked.

Molly clinched her fists. How can ANYONE ignore a child?

"You READ that?!" the twins chorused horrified as Hermione shot Harry an approved look.

"It's like I don't KNOW you anymore!" Ron gasped to Harry.

"Lily was the same way" Snape muttered under his breath.

Only Remus caught it, but he decided not to say anything. If Snape's old friendship with Lily was important to the story, it would be mentioned.

"That's more like it" Ron said as Hermione sighed at Harry's procrastination.

"What if they had refused to take you?" Moody challenged.

"We would have come get him before the sorting" McGonagall said.

"More like illegal as they're considered muggle items" Arthur said.

"But so are brooms" Hermione pointed out.

"Brooms muggles use and flying brooms are different." Harry answered.

Everyone starred at him shocked.

"I had to use a broom when I swept the kitchen and I wouldn't use that broom to fly nor would I use my Firebolt to sweep up after Dudley." Harry explained. "Racing brooms are MUCH nicer than cleaning brooms."

"Exactly Harry" Arthur said breaking from his shock that Harry understood something that most muggleborn or raised didn't (no doubt from playing Quidditch for 4 years (well, three, but he did do some flying last year despite the lack of Quidditch). "Racing broom are easily distinguishable from muggle brooms where flying carpets aren't different at all."

"Until they're 4 feet in the air" Tonks pointed out.

"Scotland" Hermione and Remus chorused.

"Yes there is" Everyone chorused.

"But it looks so GOOD on him!" Ginny joked.

"Smart move" McGonagall told him.

"What?! Petunia knows full well how to get onto the platform!" Snape and the two Marauders exclaimed.

"Professor." Harry said unable to hold it in any longer. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you knew my mother and my aunt."

"We grew up down the street from each other" Snape told Harry sharply.

"He's not the only one who thinks that" Harry whispered to Ron and motioned towards Snape.

"Staying calm is the first thing to do" Remus said. "I hope you run into somewizards soon though."

Harry and Ron shared a knowing smirk.

"Finally" Sirius sighed with relief.

"I wonder who that family is George?" Fred joked.

"I'm not sure Fred. They sound too good looking to be Malfoys" George added.

"Oh bloody hell!" Ginny swore as she buried her face in a throw pillow.

"Ginny!" Molly scolded.

The Weasley kids growled at the mention of their treacherous brother.

Molly glared at said twins who were high-fiving each other while everyone else laughed (minus Snape).

"What a charming description of Ron" Charlie joked as Ron glared at Harry.

"But it didn't come" Charlie said.

Bill paused, looked at Charlie and then the twins. Then with a wink towards the twins, he pretended to keep reading "CRASH!. Harry's trunks and belongings scattered all over the floor with his new pair of boxers landing on Hedwig's trunk. Ginny ran up to her new crush and…"

"BILL!" Ginny and Molly exclaimed angrily as everyone laughed at the obvious ad-lib. Even Harry was chuckling.

"Glad he did that." Ron whispered. "It'll make the next book more interesting."

"Please read correctly Mr. Weasley" McGonagall said when she managed to calm herself enough to successfully keep from laughing as she had been using every ounce of strength to not laugh.

"Neville" the Golden Trio and Ginny chorused.

"Lee!" the twins chorused at the mention of their best friend.

"Who knew you two could be nice?" Charlie teased his brothers.

"If we hadn't been in shock," Fred said.

"That would have been BRILLIANT!" George told Harry.

"You heard all that?" Ginny asked going white.

"Yeah." Harry admitted.

Ginny's face turned from white to red in 5 seconds flat with embarrassment as she recalled how she had reacted to the announcement.

"I take it you two knew?" Harry asked the twins.

"Of course." Fred said.

"We saw you" George said. "How'd you guess?"

"A certain gift that was confiscated before I got it" Harry hinted.

"Brilliant" Bill praised the twins.

"Molly." Remus groaned as both Molly and McGonagall shook their heads in exasperation "NEVER give a prankster ideas."

"How long did it take you to learn that lesson?" Sirius teased Remus.

"Not so sure anymore" Ron whispered to Harry.

Ginny curled up into a ball as if trying to make herself invisible as she avoided Harry's eyes.

"Yeah Ginny." Fred teased.

"Wait until he's asleep to stare at him" George said.

Those comments were responded by two throw pillows thrown at them via Harry and Ginny.

"Not at that moment, but give me ten months" Harry answered.

Ron went red remembering his first conversation with his best mate as he tried to find a loophole to keep him out of trouble. Between his comments towards Hermione, the troll, Norbert, the duel, the fighting, and Fluffy and beyond…he would be dead by the time they got to the last page.

"All my brothers were leaving me!" Ginny defended. "And I wouldn't be able to get away with anything!"

"I never did get it" Ginny said giving the twins a pointed look.

"You two should have known I wouldn't go!" Ron told them glaring as it was their fault he was scared of spiders.

"Ronald Weasley!" Molly scolded.

"You told THEM not to ask" Ron said pointing at the twins.

"I expected you to understand that it went for you too." She said pointedly.

"Bill. Read" Ron told his brother.

"Why is talking about us…"

"…gloomy?" the twins asked.

"Evil book" Ron said glaring at the book.

"I'm almost scared of the reaction when they find out about the Mirror." Harry whispered.

"We are leaving the room for that. Hell…let's leave the room with the troll and Norbert" Ron suggested.

Harry nodded in agreement.

"That's not true Ron" Arthur told his youngest son.

Ron glared at the book at the mention of Scabbers and even Remus and Sirius let off low growls while Harry clinched his wand as if expecting Scabbers to jump out of the book.

Molly gave Ron a pointed look at the mention that Harry's abusive childhood perked up her son.

The teachers…well, at least McGonagall, Flitwick, Sprout, and Remus…looked at each other trying not to smirk. In all honesty, they would say that Harry would be able to give Hermione a run for her money if he would only apply himself. Of course, with Remus, Harry HAD been the top of his class, but Hermione wasn't far behind. After all, Harry had passed Remus' exam with flying colors while Hermione had an issue with the boggart.

But they all silently agreed that Harry had James' study habits. And that prevented him from completely being his mother's son.

"Mars Bars?" Moody asked.

"Muggle sweet" Tonks said. "Dad loves them."

"Now I'm hungry" Ron said.

"You should have said something!" Molly told Ron.

"You were busy" Ron reminded her.

"Besides Mum" Bill said quietly to his mother. "It's Percy that likes corned beef. Ron likes chicken."

"The way to Ron's heart" Fred confirmed.

"Is through his stomach" George finished.

Hermione gave Harry a pointed look.

"I did. It wasn't pleasant" George said making a face at the memory of the jelly bean.

"Wish he did" Ron muttered.

"But then there'd be no hope to clear Sirius' name" Harry whispered back. "We need the rat alive."

To Harry, Clearing Sirius' name was top priority as that meant a real family.

"Someone's keen" Tonks giggled

"You know…that sounds a bit like you when I first met you, but your teeth are a bit smaller" Charlie told Hermione.

The twins laughed…HARD.

"I can't believe…you…fell for that!" George laughed.

"It COULD be because that wasn't a real rat" Hermione whispered as if trying to patch-up Ron's injured pride.

"He was a rat Hermione." Harry said, eyes flashing dangerously as he recalled what Pettigrew had done. "Don't forget what he did to my parents."

"I can never forget" Hermione assured him. "I won't ever forgive him for hurting you like that and then betraying you again."

"Hermione . Try BREATHING once in a while" Bill said a bit out of breath from reading Hermione's quote.

"I was so relieved" Harry told Ron.

"Three books I have avoided even more than Hogwarts: A History" Harry admitted.

"You WILL read that. BOTH of you" Hermione declared to her boys. "Even if I have to strap you down and read it out loud."

"There a reason?" Sirius asked as he recalled a certain Redhead threatening to do that very thing to him and James.

"I'm tired of quoting it just to get these two to understand" she explained.

"RON!" Molly scolded as jaws dropped. Everyone knew that Ron and Hermione couldn't get enough of each other.

Ron went red as Hermione looked at the floor sadly as she recalled how much she wanted to be friends with the two, but now knew that she had gone about it all wrong and only caused them to hate her for two months.

"Yep" George confirmed.

"Why?" Arthur asked.

"It explains" Bill said before reading.

"We still would have loved you just the same" Molly told her youngest.

Harry tensed as he recalled his own sorting. He remembered admitting it vocally that the hat wanted to put him in Slytherin the next year. He made a mental note to ask his anti-Slytherin godfather about that.

"Really?" Charlie asked having been out of the country.

"Yeah. The goblins wanted to keep it quiet outside of Britain." Bill told him. "The vault had been emptied earlier, but the fact that they weren't caught really concerned them."

"The Cannons!" Ron answered.

"Ugh! No!" Ginny said making a face. "The Harpies are the best."

"Bill. Read" Hermione said knowing how heated Ginny and Ron could get on a Quidditch argument.

"I bet he was" Remus sighed. "Word was probably out that Harry was on the train."

"He just insulted the first friend my age I ever had" Harry defended his statement. "Not to mention what he said in Diagon Alley about Hagrid."

Snape looked at Harry and saw truth. He made a mental note to teach his godson proper tact.

Everyone in the room who hadn't been in that compartment jerked in anger. Even Snape couldn't believe those words came out of Draco's mouth as the Potion's master thought back on Lily as what Malfoy had said: Unless you're a bit politer, you'll go the same way as your parents. They didn't know what was good for them either.

Snape frowned. In Malfoy's version of this, Draco had been the perfect little gentleman and left to avoid confrontation.

Snape leaned back on his chair and tapped one finger on the chair making a mental note to keep track of how many lies his godson had told him. If it was a lot more, he was going to start using legimency on the boy: school policy be damned. He would just use his role as the boy's godfather and thus guardian as a loophole.

He may not like Harry for being Potter's boy, but the fact that Harry was Lily's son counted for SOMETHING, if only a little.

"Sorry Wormtail, but if you're going to make up for selling out Mum and Dad, you'll have to do a LOT more than biting Goyle's finger" Harry said quietly.

"I was also hoping to restart our meeting and try again" Hermione admitted.

"He IS pretty easy to spot in a crowd" Arthur mused.

"It really is magnificent" Ginny sighed.

"Even moreso when you don't think you'd ever see it but you know of it" Remus added with a grateful smile to Dumbledore for allowing him to go.

"If I recall correctly," Snape said with a smirk in Sirius' direction. "Someone in our year didn't duck."

"Shut up" Sirius said with a glare.

"What happened?" Harry asked, his interest peaked.

"Sirius was looking for the squid and bumped his head and toppled onto me and Peter." Remus said. "And knocked James into the water."

"That's it. Who's reading next?"

"I will" Ginny said.