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AN: Should anyone object to Harry's reaction to his first meeting with Ginny here, let me make one thing clear; they are NOT going to start dating until around the fourth book in this AU series, although there may be… moments between them beforehand. It is simply that, thanks to Hermione's influence (Which, ironically enough, is only there because Harry encouraged her to have a more regular childhood as well), Harry is a bit more aware of girls than he was originally, and is thus more on a level with the average ten or eleven-year-old; not interested in a long-term relationship, but still slightly aware of the opposite sex
Harry Potter/Granger and the Philosopher's Stone
The next month or so at the Granger household was spent with Harry and Hermione doing a significant amount of research into the magical world, both while studying their own coursework and in doing a bit of independent research while studying some of the extra books. Hermione had once or twice asked Harry if he was sure he didn't want to check up a few extra books to find out additional information about his defeat of Voldemort, but Harry had declined; he knew the essentials, and that was enough.
Despite this little disagreement between him and his sister, everything had gone well; Harry had been particularly excited when his birthday had come around and he'd received an extra present that had been purchased in Diagon Alley by Hagrid, Jane and Hermione while Harry and Alan had been purchasing Harry's wand. The present in question was a beautiful snowy owl, which Harry had named Hedwig, and which he'd agreed to share with Hermione until she could get an owl of her own. With her inclusion in their lives, Harry quickly got used to cleaning out his room on his own, as Hedwig kept on bringing back dead mice and he had to clean them out before Jane found them; she'd never been comfortable around mice ever since a nasty experience as a child.
Despite these minor distractions over the next month or so, the books provided the main source of interest for the two children as they waited for their new school year to start. Harry particularly enjoyed Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling and A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch, while Hermione favoured The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk and One Thousand Magical Herds and Fungi by Phyllida Spore; it reminded her of the times she'd cooked with her mother. The two of them spent a great deal of time giving each other little pop quizzes on some of the topics to practice, with their parents sometimes helping them come up with questions.
All too soon, it was the first of September, and Alan and Jane were driving their children off to King's Cross Station to catch the train to Hogwarts. Harry and Hermione had left their school uniforms at the top of their trunks, reasoning that they'd just change on the train, and were both eagerly anticipating what their new school would be like.
Having reached King's Cross, and with their luggage now unloaded, Harry carrying Hedwig's cage while Alan took his trunk and Hermione dragged her own along, they began walking along to platform nine and ten, where, according to the ticket, their platform- Platform Nine and Three Quarters- should be located…
But there was nothing there.
"What in the world…?" Hermione said, staring at her ticket in confusion as she glanced back up at the railway before them, just in case they'd missed something. However, nothing seemed to have changed; it still went from platform nine to platform ten, as smoothly as you like, with nothing in between the two.
"Maybe someone made a printing mistake when preparing the tickets?" Jane suggested sheepishly, already knowing that it was stupid; the odds of someone making the same mistake with two different tickets were so high as to be nearly infinite.
"No, there's got to be something we've missed…" Alan said, staring at the barrier in confusion, as though asking it to reveal its secrets.
"Maybe there's some secret method of getting through you're meant to use or something?" Harry put in. "You know, like Hagrid used to get into Diagon Alley?"
Before anyone else could reply, however, a group of people walked past them, talking animatedly, and Harry and Hermione's ears picked up at the voice's words.
"-packed with muggles, of course-"
Spinning around eagerly, Harry and Hermione, along with Alan and Jane, were relieved to see a group of redheads; a plump woman who had to be the mother, four boys of varying ages (Two of them were apparently twins), and a small girl who was holding her mother's hand, standing in the middle of the platform as they looked around.
"Now, what's the platform number again?" the woman asked, glancing around herself.
"Nine and three quarters!" the girl piped up, looking eagerly at her family. "Mum, can't I go-"
"You're not old enough, Ginny, now be quiet," the mother said, before turning to her oldest son. "All right Percy, you go first."
The oldest boy nodded, picked up his trunk, and walked towards the barriers between platforms nine and ten, but before any of the Grangers could see what he did, a bunch of tourists walked in between them and the boy, and when they had gone by he had vanished.
Glancing down at his children, Alan smiled slightly at them as he indicated the woman.
"Well, shall we?" he asked casually.
Jane nodded. "We might as well; we're never going to get in at this rate," she said, as she walked over to the woman just as she was talking to one of her twin sons.
"…honestly, woman, call yourself our mother?" the boy was saying at the moment. "Can't you tell I'm George?"
"Um, excuse me," Alan said, taking advantage of the brief pause in conversation to attract the mother's attention. "Sorry to interrupt, but I was just wondering…"
"Yes?" the woman said, turning back to smile at the others as she waved her twins away with her left hand, the right still holding her daughter's arm. "Your children's first time at Hogwarts? Ron's new too," she explained, indicating her one remaining son, a tall, thin, gangling individual with big hands, feet, and a long nose.
"Yes, that's right," Alan said, smiling in relief. "It's just that, well, we're… 'muggles', I believe the term is?… and as a result, we have no idea…"
"How to get onto the platform?" the woman said, smiling reassuringly at the two children. "Not to worry; all you need to do is run towards the barrier between platforms nine and ten. Don't stop, and don't be scared you'll crash in to it; that's most important. Go on, you two go now, before Ron."
"Good luck," the girl said, giving Harry a small smile, which he gratefully returned.
"Thanks," he said casually, even as a rarely used part of his mind- so rarely used even he often wasn't aware when it was working- registered the fact that the girl was very pretty. Turning to look back at the barrier, the thoughts of his subconscious filed away for the moment, Harry and Hermione took their trunks with one hand, reached over with the other hand to give their sibling a comforting squeeze, and then ran towards the barrier, already instinctively closing their eyes in anticipation of the crash that was coming…
And then, to their surprise, they realised that they were still running. Opening their eyes, Harry and Hermione stared in awe at the hundreds of people gathered around the platform in front of them, filled with numerous adults saying goodbye to children, from their age to around seventeen years old, as they piled onto a long red steam engine. Glancing back, Harry and Hermione saw a large iron wrought gate where they had just walked through, with the words Platform Nine and Three Quarters on it. They were through.
"Incredible…" a voice said from behind them. Glancing back, Harry and Hermione were pleased to see their parents standing there; evidently, the woman had let them go ahead before coming through with her son and daughter.
"Yeah, it is, isn't it?" Hermione said, grinning at her mother before she indicated the trunk she was dragging along behind her. "Come on, let's get these things onto the train; I'd like to know we can find a good seat."
"Sounds sensible," Alan said, as he took one end of Harry's trunk while Jane carried Hermione's. Walking along the platform, Hermione briefly heard someone complain about a missing toad, while Harry thought he saw a boy with dreadlocks show his friends a box containing some kind of tarantula, but otherwise the trip to find a good carriage was uneventful.
Eventually reaching one of the last carriages on the train, Alan stopped, glanced at the windows, and smiled.
"This should do," he said, looking back at Harry and Hermione. "Empty enough to allow you to sit by yourselves if you want, but with enough people nearby to let you talk to them if you want."
Harry and Hermione smiled gratefully. They didn't have much trouble making friends, of course, but they still preferred to do it at their own pace; Harry in particular sometimes found it hard to trust people.
With their parents' help, Harry and Hermione quickly had their trunks loaded onto the carriage without any event, and then, all too soon, it was time to say goodbye; Alan and Jane would have stayed until the train had left, but they had a few appointments back at the surgery, and were already running late.
"So… this is it until Christmas, then?" Alan said as he looked at his children. "You will remember to write, of course?"
"Of course we will, Dad," Harry said, smiling reassuringly at his father. "Don't worry; we'll let you know how things are going, OK?"
"And we'll be sure to let you know if we learn anything particularly interesting about the wizarding world," Hermione added. "You know, the power structure, how long the school's been in existence, that sort of thing…"
"Hermione," Jane said, smiling reassuringly at her daughter, "you don't have to tell us everything you find out about your new lives; just give us a few details that we might be interested in, and your father and I will be perfectly satisfied."
Hermione looked slightly disappointed, and Harry chuckled slightly; she'd evidently been looking forward to having an excuse to practice her writing with a quill.
"Well, see you at Christmas!" he said, as he and Hermione hugged Alan and Jane one last time each, before their parents turned, walked back to the entrance of Platform Nine and Three Quarters, and vanished back into the muggle world.
After a moment or two staring after their vanished parents, Harry and Hermione grabbed their trunks, Harry taking Hedwig's cage for himself, but just as they were about to turn around to look for a seat, Harry bumped into one of the twins that they had seen on the muggle King's Cross, while Hermione collided with his brother; the twins in question had been so caught-up in talking about something that they hadn't noticed the two younger children.
"Oh, sorry 'bout that," one of them said, helping Hermione to her feet as his brother helped Harry up. "Weren't looking where we were going."
"That's us all over; we just don't look ahead that much," the other said casually.
Hermione smiled reassuringly at them.
"It's all right," she assured them, as she indicated herself and Harry. "I'm Hermione Granger, by the way; this is my brother Harry."
"I'm Fred; this is George," one of the twins said, indicating his bother.
"Muggle-born?" George asked, looking at them curiously.
"Well, she is, but I'm adopted," Harry explained. "My parents died when I was one, but I was moved to an orphanage after my uncle nearly killed me when I was six."
"Ouch," Fred said, wincing sympathetically as he looked at Harry. "Sorry to hear that."
"Wait a minute…" George said, suddenly looking at Harry with an expression on his face that resembled someone having been hit by a sudden inspiration. "Uh… sorry to sound hasty, but… your original surname wouldn't happen to be Potter, would it?"
Harry and Hermione glanced over at each other for a moment, before Harry shrugged.
"Well, they'd probably have found out when we got there anyway," he said, before turning back to look at Fred and George with a small smile. "Yeah, I'm Harry Potter, but I'd appreciate you not making too much of a fuss about it; I'd rather not have the whole train knowing I'm here all at once."
One of the twins- Fred- opened his mouth to speak, and Hermione took over.
"Please?" she asked, looking at him in that imploring puppy-dog look that she often used on their parents at home when Harry or her accidentally broke something. "You can tell your family if you want, but we would really appreciate it if you didn't start yelling about it; my brother is not interested in having the entire train coming to his apartment to gawk at his forehead."
"Uh… sure," Fred said, nodding at the young girl.
"Thanks," Hermione said, smiling brightly at the twins before grabbing her brother's hand and leading him into a nearby empty compartment. Settling down on opposite sides of the compartment, allowing them both to enjoy a full view out the window, Harry smiled as he and his sister studied the sight before them, Hedwig currently asleep in her cage after her long night away before the departure for King's Cross.
Glancing out of the window, Harry noticed the family of redheads talking animatedly, and his eyes once again fell on the little girl. He couldn't understand why, but there was something about her that seemed… interesting, he guessed was the best word for it. He couldn't place what it was about her that he found that way, though…
Well, she is rather pretty, a voice said in his head, but Harry shoved that thought aside; he must have been watching too many of Hermione's romance movies recently. She may have preferred books to other forms of communication on the whole, but Harry had grown rather fond of some television shows at the orphanage, and Hermione had eventually started to watch them with him. To her surprise, she'd grown to enjoy them, even going so far as to start to rent a few Disney movies to watch with her mother, which Harry had occasionally been roped into watching with the two of them while Alan was away on business. Although he would have denied it under oath, he'd actually grown rather fond of a few of them, such as 'Beauty and the Beast'…
But thinking a girl was pretty? He'd never done that in his life…
"Harry!" Hermione hissed, shoving her brother lightly on the shoulder and breaking him out of whatever daze he'd suddenly fallen into, jerking her thumb at the redheads as she spoke. "They just mentioned your name!"
Instantly Harry seemed more focused, leaning slightly closer to the glass as the red-haired family continued to talk, the girl speaking up for the first time.
"Oh, Mum," she said, suddenly sounding desperate, "can I go on the train and see him, Mum, oh please-"
"You've already seen him, Ginny, and the poor boy isn't something you goggle at in a zoo," the mother said scoldingly at the daughter. More was said, but Hermione was distracted by the brief expression that had flicked across her brother's face before it assumed its normal expression of idle curiosity.
Did he look… disappointed Hermione asked herself, as she looked at Harry in confusion. But he was complaining about getting attention earlier…
Then she shrugged and decided to put it aside. After all, it was hardly important why her brother reacted a certain way to a girl when they were about to start at a school of witchcraft and wizardry…
Although it does open up possibilities… Hermione thought jokingly to herself, as the train whistled once and everyone left outside began to pile onto it. Hermione vaguely caught an argument between the twins and their mother- something about a toilet seat- and then the train was running down the tracks, the mother waving after the train and the sister half laughing, half crying, running to keep up, until the train was going too fast and she simply stopped and waved until she could no longer be seen.
As Harry and Hermione settled down back into their compartment, there was a brief knock on the door, and the youngest male redhead came into the compartment.
"Anyone sitting there?" he asked, indicating the seat beside Hermione. "Everywhere else is full."
"No, go ahead," Harry said, looking briefly at his sister, who just nodded at him in confirmation.
"Thanks," the boy said, sitting down as he looked at them. "Oh, I'm Ron by the way; Ron Weasley."
"I'm Hermione Granger, and this is my brother Harry," Hermione said, holding out her own hand to shake Ron's, followed by Harry doing the same, although he noticed that Ron's eyes flicked to his forehead briefly, as though looking for the scar on his forehead.
"So, your brothers mentioned meeting me, I take it?" Harry asked, looking inquiringly at Ron.
"Uh… yeah," Ron said, nodding in response to Harry's question; he almost seemed to be functioning on automatic. "You… you really got adopted? We always thought you went off to live with your relatives…"
"Who nearly murdered him for being himself, thus proving they were unfit for raising a child and resulting in them going to prison while my brother went to the orphanage," Hermione put in, looking at Ron with a mixture of surprise and disappointment. "That was never mentioned anywhere? I would have thought the wizarding world would want to keep up with information about the boy who saved it."
"Hermione…" Harry muttered through gritted teeth, before his sister turned to look at him and flashed him a quick grin to assure him that she was joking.
"Eh?" Ron said, looking between the two of them in confusion. "What was that about?"
"Oh, just Hermione being herself; she's always teasing me about my newfound 'celebrity status'," Harry explained, rolling his eyes good-naturedly as he looked at his sister in exasperation. "Can't you come up with something new; you've been at it for the last month!"
"And I'll keep doing it until I get tired of it, thank you very much," Hermione retorted, smiling pleasantly at Harry before turning back to look at Ron. "And on that topic, why was your sister so keen to get on the train to see Harry again?"
"Ah," Ron said, looking at Harry apologetically. "Well, y'see, she was always rather keen on hearing the story of how you… y'know… defeated You-Know-Who when you were only a baby… Kept on asking for mum and dad to tell it to her when we were growing up…"
Harry was about to say something else- although he wasn't sure what he'd say- when Hermione broke into the conversation, sensing her brother's sudden discomfort at the direction this discussion was taking; as much as she enjoyed teasing him, she knew when she was in danger of going too far.
"Anyway," she said, looking over at Harry apologetically before turning back to Ron, "enough about my brother; what are your brothers like?"