Year One Part 1

Platform Nine and three quarters was a watering hole for gorily disfigured shadows. It seemed that almost all of the wizarding world was doomed to die painfully. A dark haired boy who Harry heard introducing himself to another student as 'Dean Thomas', had a shadow who carried his severed head in his hands, lumbering around almost comically. Another girl, who stood talking animatedly with her parents, had a shadow who looked to be in her late teens, with a sown up mouth and a slit throat. There were countless others and Harry felt a wave of sympathy. Detaching himself from the horror show, Harry began to lug his trunk in the direction of the Hogwarts express, when a family came bustling through onto platform. He wouldn't have turned if they weren't so noisy, and yet once he did he couldn't look away.

The family was huge and each had their own gory shadows, but it was the smallest of them that caught his attention. At the end of the red headed procession was a tiny girl clinging to her mothers arm. The family was all talking at once and even if Harry had been trying to he wouldn't have been able to hear what the young girl was saying, but sound had settled to a dull hum in his ears as his eyes glazed past the young girl and focused on her shadow, he glanced at his own for clarity, taking in every cut and blemish on it's skin, before returning his attention to the girl's. They were identical. The same eye missing from the socket, the same cuts on the skin, and though Harry wasn't close enough for a side by side comparison, he could bet that the girl had whatever words were carved across his shadows chest on her own. As these thoughts were crossing his mind, the girl's shadow raised her hand and waved sadly, not at him, but at something behind him. Harry spun in time to see his own shadow raise it's hand in greeting, lips curling upwards in a strange parody of a smile. Harry felt his stomach churn, he'd never seen two shadows acknowledge each other before. Grabbing his trunk, he hastily moved towards the train, eager to move from the strange shadow that so closely resembled his own.

Eventually he found an empty compartment and sunk into a seat by the window with a heavy breath. His shadow sat opposite him, eyes peering out at the platform longingly. Harry shook his head and reached into his trunk, pulling out a book from his Defence Against the Dark Arts course. He furrowed his brow as the words blurred under his vision, thoughts filling his head too much for him to concentrate. Just as he slammed down the book, his compartment door slid open. One of the red heads from the platform stood there awkwardly, behind him an armless shadow leaned against the door frame.

"All the other compartments are full, do you mind if I sit here?" the boy asked, Harry shrugged, kicking his trunk over so that the boy had room to sit down. "Thanks," he said, Harry nodded turning his eyes once again to the window as the train started moving, watching as the small girl ran alongside the train until she fell behind and disappeared into nothing.

"My name's Ron Weasley," said the boy, extending his hand, Harry shook it politely and glanced up at his shadow, the figure smiled slightly at him,

"Harry Potter" he responded, Ron's eyes widened comically,

"Are you the Harry Potter?" he asked incredulously, Harry nodded, "Do you have the… You know… the scar?" Harry wondered whether this would be routine in his making friends in the wizarding world as he pushed up his fringe, much to the red head's delight.

"Woah…" Ron gaped, he opened his mouth, likely to ask more questions, when the compartment door slid open, and a blonde boy appeared in the doorway. Harry vaguely remembered him from his shopping excursion in Diagon Alley, but hadn't paid him much attention,

"I heard Harry Potter was in this compartment, is it true?" asked the boy, Harry raised his hand casually, the boy looked at him and nodded, "I see, well I just came to some advice, you'll find some wizarding families are better then others and you don't want to hang out with the wrong sort." the boy cast a disparaging look at Ron, who flushed a deep red, before extending his hand, "the name's Draco Malfoy, pleasure." Harry looked past the boy to his shadow, who sported a gaping hole in his chest. The Shadow glared at Harry with pure dislike and he could see his own shadow tense out of the corner of his eye. A smirk tugged at his lips as he slipped his hand into that of the Malfoy heir,

"Nice to meet you, seems you already know my name." Malfoy nodded, smiling,

"Oh, this is Crabbe and that's Goyle." he added as an afterthought, nodding to the two boys on either side of him. Harry tilted his head to each of them politely and they grunted in response. "Come join us in our compartment Potter, it reeks of filth in here."

Harry nodded, ignoring the churning guilt in his gut as he took in the flushed and embarrassed face of his fellow first year. With his head down he collected his stuff and followed the boy out.

Behind him, his ghost walked with his brow furrowed in confusion. Harry glanced back in time to see this shadow's emotions and his smile grew.

Sitting in the 'Slytherin' compartment, as Draco had dubbed it, was an interesting experience. There was a sharp juxtaposition between the smiles of the children, and the glares of their shadows. Harry's own shadow stood uncomfortably in the corner, eying the children suspiciously. Harry slid into a free seat with a smirk, lounging with the casual attitude he had seen mirrored in the other children. He learnt their names were Blaise, Pansy, Daphne, Millicent and Theodore, and saw that their shadows were either old and withered, or oddly unmarked and young. Either way, their fates seemed more generous then his own, and the disgruntled reactions of all of the shadows clued him into the fact he wasn't doing what he ought to be doing.

Harry spoke with them the entire train ride, picking up on every tip bit that they had about the wizarding world and attempting to mirror their cool confidence.

Upon reaching Hogwarts he was promptly sorted into Slytherin.