Hermione Granger was upset. She hadn't been upset at children her own age in a long time, the issues with her mother after her father's untimely passing had ensured that the petty teasing she'd experienced previously meant very little. Her gaze measured the blonde boy standing in front of her.

Draco Malfoy had interloped. He had deposited himself in her compartment and launched into a conversation with her friend, making demands of friendship on behalf of his father. He'd even had the audacity to tell her to put her wand away, dismissing her as irrelevant and not even worthy of being a tiny bit wary of. But Harry had told him to apologise and he had. Draco's face had softened and he looked somewhat lost as he asked her name, as if this entire encounter was foreign to him.

And then the door opened again, Hermione noticed the tension quickly returning to Harry's body and she was certain a pin drop would have echoed in that stupid compartment that must have been cursed to attract unwanted people.

"Sorry to interrupt, have any of you seen a toad? Only Neville here has lost his and my brother, he's a prefect, said we should find him by hand." A voice squeaked out as Hermione turned to level a glare at whoever else had arrived to interrupt her conversation. Her initial opinion wasn't very kind, compared to Draco this boy was scruffy to the extreme with ginger hair that erupted like a mop from his head, a spot of dirt contrasted heavily with his pale skin and freckles. He was accompanied by another boy, chubby and unsure of himself, who looked ready to shrink inwards at the slightest hint of attention.

"Does nobody know how to knock?" she asked, her tone exasperated as she looked to the ceiling. Bringing herself to her feet she took a deep breath. "We haven't seen Neville's toad or any toad for that matter. If we do happen to miraculously come across one in this revolving door of a compartment I'm sure we can come and find you." The ginger boy gawked at her and Hermione felt a twinge of regret, one she suppressed as she whirled to face the haughty blonde.

"Yes, my name is Hermione. You'd have known that if you'd bothered to ask me instead of making demands and speaking nonsense about some house or whatever." She felt her voice turning shrill towards the end, not really the tone she'd been hoping for but these things happened. She exhaled and returned to her seat, her face red with anger and embarrassment.

"She's right, you know?" That was Harry, his voice welcome in the silence that had settled after her outburst. "The door was closed before all of you barged in, without introducing yourselves first or even asking if you could come in."

A throat cleared, from whom she didn't quite know. Her eyes were locked on Harry once more and she found herself confused again. Gone was the timid boy, who had seemed unsure of himself when strangers had entered their compartment, sure the tension remained and he wasn't standing or doing anything to be physically imposing but there was something. In his place was someone fully assured of himself, an oddity for someone so young who, she was sure, had some form of issue with conflict. This Harry struck her as someone much more grown-up, perhaps a glimpse into who the boy would grow into. And he was defending her again. She looked away before Harry noticed, it wouldn't do for him to see the confusion on her face.

"I'm Ron, why are you hanging around with Malfoy of all people?" The ginger boy spoke, his voice no longer squeaking but instead dripping with disgust at the mention of the blonde. Malfoy's face twitched at that and Hermione found herself suppressing a laugh, despite the situation.

"I don't see what that has to do with you, Weasley. Chancers like you really should learn better when to mind their own business."

"Chancers? That's rich coming from a family of Death Eaters!"

Once again Hermione was confused, and hadn't that been happening too much lately? She'd read about Death Eaters of course, about how many of them had claimed to be under a form of mind control called the Imperius but none of the books mentioned who these members had been. She looked over at Ron, his face full of a type of hate that didn't seem quite right for a 10-year-old to possess. The boy behind him seemed to be standing further away than before and she was sure she noticed him slowly shuffling away from whatever was about to happen.

Another throat was cleared, Harry this time. "Could you not? I'm not a fan of the shouting and this is all becoming rather overwhelming."

Hermione blinked. The silence was back, more awkward now than before. She heard a strained noise from one of the boys and forced herself to keep quiet, Harry was right. All of this was becoming overwhelming, it felt like a game of table tennis, bouncing between children who were playing at being grown-ups.

"I'll be going then. Pot- Harry, Hermione" Draco had mumbled, striding out the door to escape the awkward air that lingered after Harry's statement. He had brushed past Ron on his way out, Neville seemingly having disappeared completely at some point.

"Was he going to say Potter? Are you really him?" Ron asked, his voice caked in excitement and any care for Neville's toad clearly gone.

Hermione watched him step further into the compartment and sighed, exasperation filling her every fibre.

-TIOF-

A light blue pattern danced before Harry's eyes, the words accompanying them were ignored rather soundly but he couldn't bring himself to fully ignore the red-headed boy that had spent the last few hours chatting his ear off. Ronald Weasley, Harry had decided, was too energetic. The boy wasn't necessarily annoying and he'd even tried to help another new student find a missing frog, so he definitely couldn't be a bad person. But he did like to talk. And he had years of stories from the magical world to share.

Harry glanced over to Hermione, watching as the girl dozed with a feeling of jealousy. Once Ron had begun his questioning of the boy who lived on his super secret missions to destroy dark forces she'd promptly closed her eyes.

"Do you have it then?" Ron asked, his eyes wide.

"Have what, exactly?" Harry replied, resigned to his fate. His arms itched something fierce but the heavy sleeves of his newly donned school robes provided enough of a deterrent to keep his hands from scratching at them. The urge had been steadily building since Draco had first barged in and there hadn't been much opportunity for him to sufficiently calm himself since.

"The scar! All the books about you said that you'd gotten a scar on your forehead when it happened. It's supposed to be a wicked lightning bolt."

He'd felt the other boy's gaze lingering on his face for a while but was convinced he was just somewhat starstruck. His mouth pulled down into a frown, Harry brushed his hair away from his forehead to reveal the physical reminder of one of his earliest memories.

When he had been younger Aunt Petunia had sat him down to talk about his nightmares and to tell him about his parents, she'd made sure he was aware of what the scar was from and made him promise to be careful when he eventually entered the wizarding world.

"That's so cool!" Ron whispered, his eyes wide as saucers. Harry watched as the boy's hand drifted upwards, seemingly intent on touching him.

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't try to touch my face, Ron." He chided, scooting slightly further away from the gangly wizard.

"Sorry, mate. It's not every day you meet the person who beat You-Know-Who, I got a bit excited." Ron's face flushed as he dropped his hand down. He twiddled his fingers for a second before gesturing at the sleeping form of Hermione. "Reckon we should wake her up? We'll probably arrive soon and she'll need to get into her robes."

Harry nodded and stood up, gesturing for the door and waiting until Ron had left before he crouched down and reached over to wake the sleeping girl. He gently shook her shoulder, watching as her face scrunched up in protest. Her lips parted and a mumbled word that could have been his name escaped. Suddenly finding the dark view out of the window to be very appealing he'd stepped back, waiting for his friend to awaken fully.

"Oh, you've already gotten changed, I didn't realise I'd slept for so long. Were you waking me to let me know we're almost there?" She asked, her voice heavy with sleep. A small smile tugged at his lips, he quite enjoyed how she sounded.

His eyes had followed the violet of her words but now settled on hers. "Yes, Ron just stepped out and I'll be joining him in a second. Just pop your head out when you're ready and I'll be back. I'll see if I can get him back to his brothers for a while, all that talking has really drained me and I could do with a rest."

"Did he bother you the entire time? Surely he'd have run out of those wizarding bedtime stories ages ago." She mused, her cheeks flushed.

"It wasn't so bad, Ron is friendly enough. Even if he's somewhat obsessed with the nonsense stories that have been told about me, I can't really blame him for that." Harry turned and left, bidding her a quick goodbye as he closed the door behind him.

He ignored Ron's quizzical look and let himself yawn, he truly was exhausted from all the excitement of the day so far.

"Ron, do you wanna go see those brothers of yours for a little? I could do with a nap once Hermione is done changing." He asked, not really waiting for a response before closing his eyes and leaning against the wall of the train. The redhead made a noise of assent and wandered off, calling out for his brother Percy as he made his way along the carriages.

A few minutes passed before Hermione's voice called to him, beckoning him back to their compartment for a well deserved rest.

I've been suffering for over a week with rather unfortunate psychosis but I'm back and will hopefully be uploading every 2-3 days again, excluding the 28th-30th. Feedback is always appreciated and I hope you enjoy.