Hmm not too sure about that last chapter. Ah well, not much I can do now, so on with a chapter I do like :)

Chapter 5 The Journey

As he had predicted, Damian woke up early the next day after only a few hours sleep. Not wishing to attempt to find a textbook to read from his tightly clamped bag, he had to endure watching Jeremy Kyle until his parents got up.

The clock seemed to move incredibly slowly for Damian that morning and by the time he sat down for breakfast he already felt as though several days had past. Nerves did not affect his appetite and in only a couple of minutes he polished off the fried breakfast that had placed in front of him.

"Chew your food, for goodness sake Damian."

"I did, I'm just a fast eater," said Damian innocently, giving his mother exactly the same answer as he did most days of the week. "Anyway you need to hurry up. I don't want to be late."

"Relax, we've got plenty of time," said his father, his face buried under that mornings paper.

Damian made no comment. He didn't want to relax, for all he knew trains only went to Hogwarts once a year.

"Look Damian, I've been meaning to talk," said his mother hesitantly. "It's just, this wizard thing, you don't have to do it if you don't want to."

"I want to do it," said Damian at once.

"It's just-"

"I want to do it," said Damian again.

"Are you sure?" said his mother doubtfully.

"Yes!" said Damian as loudly and firmly as he could.

"Umm Dudley." Damian's mother looked over to her husband for support but heard no reply for Dudley had lifted his paper even higher above his head and seemed to be concentrating intently on a column discussing the optimal colour to paint your shed.

"Fine," said his mother throwing her hands up in defeat. "We'd better get ready to go then."

As she walked out of the kitchen his father pulled back a corner of the paper and gave Damian a very deliberate wink. Damian chuckled to himself and followed his mother out of the room.

He knew he'd be coming back home in a few months time for Christmas but it was still a strange feeling when the family car finally peeled away from number 13 Bridgewell Drive. Pulling into Kings Cross station several hours later Damian couldn't help but compare the journey rather unfavourably to his last trip into London in Uncle Harry's supercharged Corsa. As they began to unload all of Damian's possessions his Uncle appeared from behind a pillar and walked over to them.

After his trip to Diagon Alley Damian had skimmed through his text books for any mention of Harry and had discovered that his Uncle's explanation of his fame had been rather modest. For Harry Potter was a wizarding legend and Damian felt glow of pride that this 'legend' had driven him to Diagon Alley and helped him choose his textbooks and was now about to walk through to platform 9 and 3/4 with him.

"So Damian, are you excited?" asked his Uncle.

"Can't wait," said Damian truthfully.

"I'll be honest Dudley if someone had told me twenty years ago that one day I'd be seeing your son off to Hogwarts I'd have laughed at them," said Harry turning towards Damian's father.

"You're not the only one," his father said grinning "I'd rather assumed that any wizard genes that had come into contact with my father would have been immediately wiped out."

"Maybe it came from his side of the family!" said Harry. At this, both men doubled up laughing, whilst Sarah Dursely forced out a rather uncomfortable smile. Whilst his mother had never stated outright that she disapproved, Damian had a feeling she was not entirely on board with the whole wizard thing. But then becoming a wizard had rather gone against her career plan for him becoming a merchant banker.

"Well we'd best say our goodbye's then," she said smiling down fondly at him.

Several hugs and kisses later and he was walking towards platform 9&3/4 with his Uncle. He had been told all about how to get to the platform from Lily but seeing the large solid wall in front of him for the first time, he hesitated.

"Don't worry Damian you'll be fine, do you want to go through at the same time as me," said Harry, looking down understandably at Damian.

"You know what, screw it!" He broke out into a run and charged head first into the wall.

"Ouch."

Damian had run through the wall at such a pace that he hadn't been able to slow down on the other side. He looked guiltily at the two girls he had run into and the pile of suitcases that were now on the floor.

"Watch where you're going," said the one of the girls crossly.

Damian looked closely at both girls. He assumed they must be sisters. Whilst they had both clearly made an effort to dress as differently as possible to one another there was no hiding the resemblance in their appearance. Both girls had the same wavy blond hair and golden brown eyes. The only major distinction that Damian could see was the most obvious, the girl that had spoken so crossly to him stood almost half a foot taller than her sister. Damian flinched under her glare. "Sorry," he said weakly. He quickly bent down to help pick up the suitcases.

"You could have hurt one of us you know," said the same girl. She had placed her hands on her hips and was staring down sternly at Damian.

Although the girl looked the same age as him she was several inches taller and Damian felt quite intimidated by her "Sorry," he said again. Damian could feel his face becoming increasingly red as embarrassment crept over him. He hastily got to work picking up the girls bags.

"Don't help him." Damian turned round to see that the other girl had bent down to help him and had earned the wrath of her sister. "This is his fault let him sort it out." She froze mid step before stepping back meekly behind the taller girl.

"C'mon Tina let's get out of here," said the bossy girl as soon as Damian had placed the last bag back on their trolley.

"I'm really sorry," called out Damian as he watched the girls make their way through the crowd to join a group of friends by the train. The platform was packed with students all saying their last goodbyes to their parents. It was so busy some people had to resort to manoeuvres more commonly seen on the rugby pitch to get their luggage through the crowd.

"Oi, are you going to stand there blocking the entrance all day."

He turned round to see his Uncle attempting to get his trolley through the wall. Muttering his apologies once again, Damian stepped to the side to let his Uncle through.

"You made it then," said Harry. Damian nodded, not entirely sure he'd just made the best first impression possible. "Well let's see if we can find the others.

Damian scanned the crowd to see if he could spot Lily but trying to find one person amidst a sea of bags, broomsticks and owls turned out to be too difficult.

"She's over there," said Harry indicating a large group of people to his left. As they approached the group Damian wondered if they had walked into a ginger convention for he was immediately swarmed by a sea of red heads.

"Damian you made it, we were getting worried," said a voice he recognised as Lily's. He glanced at his watch, it was 10.59 they had indeed pushed it a bit for time.

"Hurry up the train's leaving in a minute," one of the older red heads called out to the group. Goodbyes were immediately exchanged. Damian looked around awkwardly realising his parents probably should have come through with him.

"Damian." He looked up and saw it was Harry "Damian, if you ever want to discuss anything, anything at all, I'm only an owl away."

"Thanks," he mumbled quietly.

"It was really nice getting to know you at Diagon Alley and it's nice to see someone else has inherited my eyes."

It was the first time he'd really noticed it but looking up into Harry's eyes Damian saw they were the same piercing green eyes as his own.

"C'mon we need to find seats." He felt Lily grab his hand and start to move him towards the train. Harry's last goodbye was lost over the noise of the station.

Lily quickly found an empty apartment and along with one of Lily's relatives they sat down exhausted from carrying their bags on to the train. "Damian- Hugo, Hugo- Damian," Lily said lazily from her comfortable position lying on the seats.

Damian looked at the boy seated next to him, the colour of his hair and freckles clearly marked him out as one of Lily's relatives, though on closer inspection Hugo seemed to have he had a more ruffled look about him. He had messy curly hair and a dazed look that suggested he was half asleep. Damian was sure that if his mother had been there she would have described Hugo as looking like he'd been pulled through a hedge backwards "So you must be Lily's brother," he asked.

"Nope only her cousin but that's bad enough," said Hugo through squinted eyes.

"Oi shut it," said Lily throwing him an evil glance. "Yes as dear Hugo points out we are unfortunately cousins, you're probably thinking of Albus."

Ah yes he could remember now, it was Albus and James who were the brothers. Judging from the rest of the group that were at the platform he was going to have a hard job remembering everyone in their family. "So are all your family in Gryffindor?" he asked. He knew from his text books that his Uncle had been in Gryffindor and both James and Fred had appeared to be.

"No it doesn't always work like that, I mean it's more likely but ultimately it's down to the individual. My brother Albus ended up in Slytherin and take Hugo's sister for example, she was the first Weasly in a couple of centuries not to be in Gryffindor," said Lily, sitting up straight in her seat for the first time.

"Yep Rosie properly broke the mould when she got sorted into Ravenclaw, mind you she always was the clever one," said Hugo.

"You can be just as clever when you put your mind to it," said Lily looking at him pointedly.

"What, I'm not clever," he said, skewing his face up in disgust at his cousin, as though this would clearly be the worst thing in the world.

"Whatever," sighed Lily, not hiding the exasperation from her voice. Damian guesses this was a discussion they'd had before.

"So Damian, what house do you think you're going be in," said Hugo changing the subject.

Truthfully he wasn't sure, from what he'd read about the four houses he didn't think he'd really fit into any of them. He clearly wasn't clever enough to be a Ravenclaw and he definitely wasn't brave enough to be a Gryffindor. The Slytherin's sounded a right evil lot and whatever he was he knew he wasn't evil. Maybe a loyal Hufflepuff but then he'd never really had many friends and he certainly had never been described as hard working. "Not sure really, hope I'm with you guys though."

"Me too."

"Me three."

They spent the rest of the journey chatting more about Hogwarts and eating sweets. Lily had also refused to allow James and Fred into the apartment claiming she had seen James packing dungbombs earlier that morning. Whatever dungbombs were Damian had no desire to find out. Their only visit came late in the afternoon when three girls knocked on the door. Damian recognised two of the girls immediately. They were the sisters he had knocked into only hours earlier. He tried to put the incident out of his mind but could already feel his face heating up.

The sister that had been so cross with him earlier was the first to step inside their compartment "Excuse me," she began "But are you Lily Potter."

"Umm yes," said Lily who appeared as confused as Damian by this question.

"As in Lily Potter," said the third girl stepping into the compartment leaving the other sister hovering nervously outside. Damian suspected she had not been keen to come along.

"Yes," said Lily.

"As in Harry Potter's daughter," said the same girl.

"Yes."

"As in Ginny Potter's daughter."

Lily glared at her "Yes."

"Oh my god you're so lucky."

"Yeah Lily you really are blessed," said Hugo.

The sarcasm in Hugo's voice was either not picked up on or ignored. "Anyway," said the first girl. "We were wondering if you'd like to sit with us. My name's Tanya and this is Annabel. Oh and that's my sister Tina," she said indicating the girl who had still yet to come into the compartment and if anything was edging further away from the door."

"No," said Lily, not bothering to offer an explanation.

"Why not," said Tanya.

"For several reasons but mainly because I don't like you."

Tanya looked at Lily with the same angry expression she had given Damian earlier that day. "I see." Turning on her heel she marched out of the compartment with Annabel and Tina trailing behind her.

"A bit harsh," said Damian.

"I don't see why," said Lily "You've got to be clear with muppet's like that."

"I'm not sure Lily, I'd sleep with eye open if I were you, that girl gave you a pretty mean look," said Hugo.

"Life would be so much simpler if Dad hadn't bothered saving everyone," said Lily sighing.

Before they knew it the train was soon pulling in to Hogwarts and they were scrambling to get changed in time. Stepping out of the train Damian got his first view of Hogwarts and he had to admit it was impressive. He could see the large castle glowing in the distance, its spirals leaping up seemingly endlessly into the clouds above.

"First years over here." A gruff voice with a distinctive West Country burr called out.

"Hagrid," said Lily.

"Hi there Lily, Hugo, great to see you. Right then all first years follow me to the boats."

Looking at Hagrid, Damian could see why his father would be intimidated for the man in front of him must have stood nearly eleven feet tall. Still, he supposed for a half giant Hagrid didn't look that scary.

Quite why the first years had to travel to the castle in boats was a mystery to Damian but while the rest of the school happily made their way to the castle on dry land, the first years were ordered to the school boathouse on the edge of the lake. He wondered if perhaps they had taken on a few too many students this year and were hoping to lose a few on the water. Judging from the strength of the waves he suspected this was a distinct possibility.

By the time they had got to the boats they discovered most seats had already been taken. Deciding they had to split up to find places Damian headed in the opposite direction to Lily and Hugo. He saw a space on the last boat and went to climb in "Room for one more?" he asked hopefully.

"Oh I don't know about that Dursley, we wouldn't want the boat to sink would we."

Damian stared in horror, through the gloom he saw John Costello sitting at the end of the boat with a mightily smug grin plastered across his face.

"What...what are you doing here," said Damian.

"Well I'm attempting to get to Hogwarts, why, what are you doing," said Costello casually, causing the two other boys in the boat to start sniggering stupidly.

"You've got to be kidding me, we're both wizards," said Damian, more to himself than anyone else in the boat.

"Yes I did always think it was a bit strange," said Costello yawning as he said it. "I mean two wizards from the same tiny village who went to the same muggle school."

"You mean you knew."

"Knew what," said Costello lazily.

"That I was a wizard."

"Of course, I mean you'd have to be pretty stupid not realise you were a wizard." This remark caused the other two boys in the boat to burst into absolute hysterics.

"And you never told me," said Damian through gritted teeth, as water sprayed up viciously from the lake.

"It must have slipped my mind."

So hard were the two boys now laughing that Damian wondered if they would be plunged into the lake or at the very least be in need of hospital treatment.

Just brilliant he thought, the one person I wanted to get away from more than any other and he follows me to Hogwarts. He sat for the rest of the journey in a miserable silence glaring at Costello and wishing he had got into a different boat.