The emo-boy stopped dancing, and looked confused at Ron. The white-haired boy did the same. Oh, what have I done.. Ron thought, knowing his chance to be friends with the boys was no more. How could he be so stupid to ask something so random, he did not know.
The seconds flew and the boys hadn't said a thing yet, in fact they still looked at Ron with bewilderment. Then, they looked each other in the eye and burst out laughing. Ron was so relieved he laughed with them, not really knowing for sure why they were laughing.
"Like gardening?" the blonde one managed to say after a minute of non-stop laughing. "We love it!" exclaimed the emo-kid, doing a weird move with his legs, and sat down next to the other boy. "What kind of spades have you got?" one of them asked.
"I have many!" Ron exclaimed. "But my most favorite has to be the Slight Slacker VI, it is powerful, yet gentle". And the boys chattered and laughed on for a few hours. Ron was happy he finally found some friends, well at least some boys who share the same interests. Who knows, he might be happy there at Hogwarts!
"My dad bought me the newest Rad Rake a few weeks ago. I love it! It is the best rake I've ever got!" said the white haired boy, with a look of pride and arrogance on his face. "In fact-"
The compartment door was rudely opened by two very big blokes, one looking like a pig, the other having much in common with a baboon. When the blond boy spotted them, he jumped up immediately and pulled out his wand and pointed it towards the emo. "Get the hell away from me, Potter" he said, with a voice full of hate.
"Malfoy? What are you doing here?" one of the blokes asked.
"Shut up, Crabbe" the boy, apparently called Malfoy, almost yelled. "Let's get out of here. I don't want to waste my time with Pothead and Redneck here". They left the compartment, leaving a confused Ron, and the emo-boy, well, he looked disappointed, not confused at all. Ron got the feeling that there is more in the picture, but decided not to ask anything about it, he didn't want to loose the only friends -or friend?- he got.
"So, er... you're Pothead?" Ron asked.
Emo looked at Ron, and sighed. "No.. My name is Harry Potter. But everyone in Slytherin calls me Pothead". Ron remembered his father talking about Slytherin, it was one of the four Houses of Hogwarts.
"Oh, they're the evil ones, aren't they?" he asked.
"Not all of them," Harry said softly, with a sad smile on his face, looking at the floor. "Some of them are actually really nice - once you get to know them. They are just misunderstood".
Ron nodded. "Ah..".
"So what's your name?" Harry said, shooting his head up, really wanting to change the subject.

A few hours later the train stopped, Ron and Harry had already changed into their robes, and they walked out of the train into the students-mass. "Firs' years over 'ere! First years! All first years over 'ere!" a huge man bellowed. He was standing a few meters away, but Ron could see him nonetheless, his shoulders were about two heads higher than the students were. "Ah, 'Arry!" the man said. "Hagrid!" Harry said, receiving a big hug from the giant. "How's yer vacation been?" Hagrid asked.
"You know, just the usual". Harry smiled. "No Dursleys-problems?" Hagrid asked worriedly. "Nothing out of the extraordinary".
Harry had told Ron already all about the Dursley's, how they've treated him, how they're still treating him.
"We have to go, Hagrid, or all the carriages will be full!" Harry said. "Bye!"
"Yes, go on then. Goodbye!" Hagrid waved. "See you" Ron brought weakly.
"That's Hagrid, the Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts. He's our Care of Magical Creatures teacher as well" Harry told him. Ron nodded.
They managed to find an empty carriage, and they stepped inside. When Harry slammed the door closed, it opened again and a surprised voice said: "Harry! That wasn' very nice, was it? Here - hold Crookshanks, I'll be right back". A cat was pushed into Harry's lap, and it started to make himself comfortable right away. "Who was that?" Ron asked.

Harry was silent for a moment. How could he even begin to explain Hermione? "Well," he started to say, but then stopped. "She's.. different. You oughta be careful with her, since well, in the beginning of school, she was this really hard studier. But then, she dated Glorflindel, and let's say, for an elf, this dude's got some attitude. So, he had some fun with her, they went to huge parties. And, she forgot all about her old friends. Then he dumped her, because she wouldn't go to you know.. Third base. And well, ever since, she just hasn't been the same. She's jumpy around boys and even talks to her cat." Harry held up Crookshanks, shaking him more violent than necessary. "So well, I don't know. She's been through a lot. Draco, you know, the blond kid, gave her a hard time. Then she let the school nurse use magic to let her shrink her teeth. And now she's not a nerd anymore, and they don't give her any credit." Ron listened to this story carefully, and he figured, that maybe Hogwart's wasn't much better than his old school. He empathized to Hermione, whom he'd never met, and completely adored Harry, who, while telling the story, changed his expressions from loving, to worried, to hopeless. Ron figured Harry and Hermione must be very good friends. So he decided to ask a question: "When d'you meet Hermione?" Harry shook his head, obviously shaking the last confused memory-bits of Hermione and Glorflindel off, and then said:" Oh, since the first day of school. We started off real bad, because, like I told you she was this total nerd, telling everybody how much she knew. But then I saved her from a cave troll. And we've been best friends ever since." Ron felt a stab in his chest, and instantly knew it was jealousy. "Hey," Harry changed the subject with not much subtlety," wanna play some Mario?" Ron looked confused. But then, Harry flipped open the wall of the carriage and rolled a television-set out. There were hand controls and 3 games, Mortal Combat, Zelda and Mario. Ron let out a happy yelp. "I wanna play mortal combat!!" He whined. Totally. Harry looked satisfied. "Sure, do you want to be the girl?" Ron nodded, of course he wanted that. The girls totally had the best way of killing people. They stabbed their fingers in someone's head.

Soon Harry and Ron were completely lost in the game. The carriage opened again. A girl with small teeth, and bushy hair entered. Then she stopped moving in shock, as she saw Ron. She opened her mouth, and looked flushed. Her skin turned a whiter shade of pale, and Ron was afraid she might faint. In fact, he was so worried, he let his mortal Combat figure unprotected, and immediately got killed. Harry let out a happy yelp and turned to scream: "yaaay ! I beat you! "But then he saw Hermione and changed the sentence. But that wasn't working out. "yaaay! I behermione!" Hermione still stared at Ron as if he were the ghost of her dead grandparents. Harry took Hermione's hand and pulled her into the carriage, as they were about to leave. Then he cast a look at Ron, begging him to remain silent, just by using his eyes. Ron, of course, took the hint, and began babbling about how dangerous it was, not sitting in a carriage but standing. About what he had for dinner, and his expectations of Hogwarts. "So you know, if everyone is just as nice as you are, I'll have friends in like a nano-second!.... And then I hope we could visit the gardens and stuff… And where do we sleep?" Finally Ron looked up, and SMACK, someone had hit him. Very hard. Ron streched his jaw. " Jesus! What's that all about?" Harry, the awesomely good hitter, smirked. "Had to shut you up one way or the other."

Ron grinned. Before Harry knew it Ron had hit him back. Harry laughed, Ron was not so good a hitter as himself, and hit Ron again, this time on the shoulder. Ron couldn't do nothing now, he hit Harry back and a true hitting-match began. The boys had much fun hitting each other, totally forgetting about the mortal combat game they were playing. Hermione however wasn't, she thought it was childish and didn't want to have to do anything with it. She just rolled her eyes from time to time, stroking Crookshanks, looking outside the window thinking about Merlin knows what - or who.
A little while later Harry and Ron were stopped by Hermione shrieks: "We're there! Look, Hogwarts!". Hermione was jumping around hyper, a little too much for Ron's likings. When Harry started to do the same, and Ron could hear a lot of excited shrieks coming from the carriages around him, he looked outside the window as well, to see what all the commotion was about.
All he saw was a castle. Yes, it was a pretty one, but to get all hyper about it? Ron didn't get it.
When the carriages stopped in front of the castle, the students got out as fast as possible. It was a humorous sight: students were dancing and jumping excitedly, pushing each other to get through the door as fast as possible. There were an old woman and an old man trying to get the children to calm down, to form a line and to quietly enter the castle. But it was all useless, of course. "Always the same - Every single year!" the woman cried out desperately, trying to stop two youngsters who were fighting. The old man responded with nothing but a growl.
Ron didn't know what to do. Harry was doing exactly the same, Ron could see a glimpse of white-blond hair fighting off a brunette, and Hermione was standing on a statue, screaming "Free the House elves!". It reminded Ron more of a riot.
Since he was the only one not jumping and screaming and god knows what more, it was easy to spot him, which the elderly woman did. She made her way towards him, with a "Out of my way, Pucey!" and a "Drop that stick now, Ms Bell!" once in a while. "Ah, you must be the new student? Ronald Greenleaf?" she said on the top of her voice, trying to be louder than the children's hyper screams. Ron yelled a "Yes." back, but the woman didn't hear him, so he nodded, thinking if she couldn't use her ears, her eyes might work better. "Good, follow me then, if you please." she yelled, pushing Ron through the crowd.
Once they finally got inside -it was a good ten minutes later-, not without a bruise or two, the lady pushed Ron towards a chamber, saying "We'll wait here for the first years". Ron nodded. He didn't know what to do, so he decided to check the room out. It wasn't a real room exactly; it was more of an open space, with several stairways and a giant door. Ron wondered where the door would lead to. Soon the door opened and a pack of first years came out of it. Curious... Ron thought. I must ask someone about that.
He was startled out of his thinking when he heard the old lady speak. "Welcome all to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I am Professor McGonagall, Deputy-Headmistress of Hogwarts, Head of Gryffindor House and Transfiguration teacher", she said, not without some pride. "Now, in a few moments, you will pass through these doors and join your classmates. But before you take your seats, you must be sorted into your houses. They are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Now while you're here your house will be like your family. Your triumphs will earn you points. Any rule breaking and you will loose points. And the end of the year, the houses with the most points is awarded the house cup. If you would wait here - the Sorting Ceremony will begin momentarily". With that, she walked through the door, quickly closing it not to give the students a glimpse of what was going on inside there. The first years start chattering, about how excited they were, in which houses they want to be, and what classes they were looking forward to. Ron was feeling uncomfortable; he was with his 6ft a lot taller than the first years. Some were staring up at him, wondering why he was with them. Ron saw a few girls staring at him, when he looked back the girls quickly turned around and giggled. Ron flustered, and his face burned almost as red as his hair.
It was then when the door opened; Professor McGonagall came through, and said: "We are ready for you. Follow me".