Authors' Note: Hi! This is the second chapter of Facing the Unknown. I hope you all like it and tell me what you thought about this chapter! I want to thank everyone who reviewed and everyone who added me to their alerts!! Thank you so much!
Disclaimer: Yep… still not mine.
Harry took one look at the train and smiled. "You bet!"
"Daddy pwease I want some sweets." Ryanne begged when she heard the Trolley Lady screaming that she had sweets.
"I'll get you some but we have to wait until she gets here." Harry said while passing his fingers through his daughter's raven locks.
Harry was seated in a compartment in the Hogwarts Express with Ryanne on his lap with Ron right in front of him.
"Harry, I'll be right back, got to use the loo." Ron said getting up from his seat and leaving the compartment.
"Don't tell him this, but I think Uncle Ron has a girlfriend." Harry staged whispered to his daughter. Ryanne giggled but Harry was pretty sure she had no idea what he had just meant.
After two more minutes of Harry stroking his daughter's hair she fell asleep. Harry sighed, he was exhausted. Raising a little girl all by himself was exhausting. Ryanne was always so full of energy; it was a miracle she fell asleep. Usually Harry did not have a single moment of silence in his life. He treasured his peacefully silent moments.
Unfortunately his peaceful moment was not to last because at that very moment the compartment door opened.
In stepped a young woman with slightly bushy, brown hair and dark brown eyes. She had a slightly larger than average forehead and full lips. The girl could be no taller than 5'2''. She was already wearing her Hogwarts robes and Harry sensed a powerful aura coming out of her. The girl was not what most boys would call beautiful but Harry thought she had a certain… something about her which made him think she was really, really pretty.
"Um… hi." She said blushing for some reason Harry did not know but still he thought it made her look cute. Wait… cute? Pretty? What the hell was wrong with him today? "Would you mind me sitting here? Everywhere else is full."
"No, not at all." Harry said picking Ryanne up so she was in his lap. The girl took a seat next to him seeing as the other two seats were full with either's Ron's pet rat's cage or with Ron's robes which he had left in his seat when he had gone to the loo.
"Hi, my name's Hermione Granger." The girl, Hermione, said smiling and extending her hand for Harry to shake.
Harry couldn't help but notice that the girl's upper front teeth were also larger than normal. Also smiling he extended his hand, making sure Ryanne was safely in his lap and shook her hand. "Hi, pleasure. I'm Harry."
Hermione smiled even wider. "That's a really pretty girl you have. She looks like you, is she your daughter?"
"Yes, her name's Ryanne. She's two." Harry answered stroking his daughter's hair lovingly.
"She looks really cute. And her mother?" Hermione asked.
Harry kept the smile on his face even when he answered. "No idea."
"Oh. Sorry." Hermione said blushing once more.
Harry chuckled. "No problem. It's not really a lost."
Before Hermione could say anything else the compartment door opened once more and Ron stepped in.
"Harry, mate, guess who I just saw- Oh, hi, I'm Ron Weasley." Ron said as soon as he saw Hermione extending his hand.
"Hermione Granger, a pleasure." Hermione said taking his hand.
Ron moved his robe before sitting down. "So do you like Quidditch?" he asked Hermione.
And so they sent the rest of the train ride to Hogwarts. The three of them made small talk with Harry learning more about the fascinating woman, Hermione. He learned that she liked Quidditch but only as a spectator. He learned that she had gone to Beauxbatons Academy of Magic and that she was muggle-born. Harry also learned that she was very smart and loved books. She spoke of them as if they were the greatest things in the world. Ron looked at her as through she was crazy but Harry just smiled. He liked to read from time to time, he had learned early in his life that reading was a great escape, somewhere he could go for a few hours without having to worry about real life's problems.
About an hour and a half after she had fallen asleep Ryanne had woken up. She had seemed to like Hermione good enough. She had asked her a few questions. Some which left Harry wanting to find somewhere he could hide. For example when she had asked Hermione how old she was, she was 18 by the way, about to turn 19 at the end of September. Or when she asked her is she had a boyfriend, to which to Harry's delight Hermione answered 'no'.
All in all it was a fairly good train ride which all three young adults and little girl enjoyed.
When they reached Hogwarts the sun had already set and you could see a beautiful moon surrounded by brilliant stars in the sky.
"Look Ryanne, look at the sky. See those blinking things? What are they?" Harry asked pointing at the sky as the group of new students rode boats through a lake before they reached the school.
"Yes Daddy. They aw staws." Ryanne said smiling while looking at the sky. She was once again sitting on her daddy's lap. Harry and Ryanne were the only one's in the boat seeing as it was a boat for person.
"And do you see that one? The one right next to the moon?" Harry asked hugging his daughter with one hand while pointing with the other.
"Yes" Ryanne said looking at the sky. Even in the dark Harry could see how her eyes sparkled with happiness.
"From this moment on it's your star. Every time you see it remember your daddy gave you that star." Ryanne giggled and hugged him tightly. Harry chuckled. Ryanne was such a smart child. Sometimes Harry could swear she acted older than she actually was. It surprised Harry that she was so perspective of the things around her. Ryanne could usually tell the way Harry was feeling. Every time Harry started to feel sad or down Ryanne would usually come to him and cheer him up one way or another and when Harry was happy Ryanne could almost always be seen with a smile on her face. Ryanne was an unusually cheerful child. She was always laughing and smiling. It brightened Harry's day just to be in the same room with her.
HPHPHP
"While you are at Hogwarts your houses will be like your families. The houses are as follows: Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Now I will be right back, stay still and behave like the adults you are." Professor McGonagall said before leaving the hall where all the new students, aka first years, where standing.
Harry was standing at the front of the mass of students with his daughter on resting on his hip. He was blowing in her ear making her glare at him when somebody tapped his shoulder. He turned around and saw a pointy faced young man with white blond hair and cold silver eyes. Right behind him where two buff tall men who looked more like bodyguards than anything else. The middle man looked slightly familiar to Harry.
"Hello. My name is Draco Malfoy. I heard you are Harry Potter. Pleasure to meet you." Draco drawled extending his hand.
Of course the boy looked slightly familiar. Ron had told him all about the Malfoy's and he had seen them a few time's in the paper. The Malfoy's, well at least Malfoy Sr, had a reputation of being dark wizards who had sided with Voldemort during the first war. But unlike so many other people Harry knew, Harry did not judge a book by it's cover or a man by his family so he extended his hand and shook Draco's.
"Harry." He said shortly before turning his attention once more to his daughter. He did not the see the scowl that appeared in Draco's face at being ignored.
"Follow me please." Professor McGonagall, who had just entered, said leading them into a beautiful, gigantic Hall with four tables parallel to each other and one horizontally in a raised platform. The ceiling looked just as the sky outside and Harry saw Ryanne grinning when she saw the star next to the moon.
The Professor led them to the edge of the raised platform where a stool with a ragged hat resided along with the table which housed all the teachers. The only one Harry recognize in the table was Dumbledore who sat at the middle of the table. He had a long silver beard and long silver hair with twinkling blue eyes behind half moon spectacles.
"Abbott, Hannah" Professor McGonagall read aloud from a long scroll which she was holding in front of her.
A girl whom Harry had never seen before stepped up to the platform where she put on the hat. After a few minutes of absolute silence throughout the Hall the Hat shouted "Hufflepuff!"
And so they continued with the sorting until they reached "Granger, Hermione."
At the name Harry paid attention. The hat was silent for a few minutes before shouting "Gryffindor!"
A couple more people were sorted. The hat hadn't even been placed on Draco Malfoy's head before it screamed "Slytherin!" finally it was Harry's turn. With his daughter still in his hip he made his way to the stool. McGonagall placed the hat on his head.
"Mr. Potter… well…well…well, I finally have the honor to meet you young man. Let's see… you are a very complex young man are you not? Oh yes I see plenty of potential, a great mind and an urging to prove yourself. And more than anything courage, you have the courage to do anything you set your mind to, but you don't believe me do you Mr. Potter? No, I can see it in your head for you all the attention is unmerited; you don't deserve anything do you? Well you are wrong Mr. Potter and I know just the house where you will gain the much needed confidence. GRYFFINDOR!" the hat said all this only to him except the last word which was screamed for all to hear.
The farthest table to the let erupted into cheers and Harry smiled at his daughter before making his way to the table. A little while later Ron was also sorted into Gryffindor along with a chubby, light brown haired boy named Neville Longbottom, another Irish boy named Seamus Finnegan and a black sinned boy named Dean Thomas. Along with Hermione two more girls were sorted into the house. The two girls wore way too much make up, one was blonde and the other brunette. The blonde was Lavender Brown and the brunette was Parvati Patil.
Once the sorting was over Dumbledore stood up. "I have three things to say: Buen Provecho Hogwarts!"
At once the table filled with delicious smelling and looking food. Harry's mouth at once started to water.
"Daddy, I want potatoes." Ryanne said from his lap.
"Of course honey." Harry said serving his daughter some mashed potatoes into an empty plate. She had recently started eating for herself and Harry was extremely thankful for small favors. Harry moved Ryanne into the empty seat right next to him before serving himself.
"We made it mate." Ron said from right next to him.
"We sure did." Harry said smiling.