Title: "One Plus One Equals One "
Rating: PG-13 for now, may go up to R later. Genfic.
Disclaimer: Honestly, I own nothing. Don't sue.
Summary: Daniel descended as a 11 years old Harry Potter…well, sort of.
Inspirited by Corwalch's "Two Shall Be As One", diverged as Daniel went back a bit further.
One Plus One Equals One
by novacarta
Y1: The Hogwarts Express
10 minutes or so before the scheduled departure time, the platform was jam-packed and buzzing of people and noise. Parents were doubt-checking everything and Children were dodging hugs and kisses. It took one extreme loud crash resulting in two overturned luggage trolleys and three entangled bodies to drive their attentions toward the platform barrier.
When it was revealed that the smallest boy had a lightening scar on his forehead, the incident turned into a serious disturbance.
The fallen boy was not back on his feet yet before being surrounded by the excited crowd. They kept trying to get closer for a good look at their favorite hero, then they scrambled for a handshake with the young celebrity, and when the first punch landed on someone's nose, chaos immediately became a riot.
"Better you than me." Harry had to bit back his giggles as he took in the messy mob scene from the carriage window. Although their telepathy stopped working when they were apart, he could still sense the frustration and annoyance coming from the older man through their metal link. When Daniel mentioned a grand entrance, he obviously had underestimated the popularity of the eleven years old boy hero and got flattened under a pile of overexcited fans as a result.
His two new friends also joined him at the window when the noise became louder. It was more interesting to see the adults literally tearing each other's hair out than comparing the family background, after all.
"Oh Merlin!" Neville Longbottom gasped. "Is that Harry Potter?" He pointed at the small boy squashed in the crowd. He couldn't see the famous scar from afar, but the crowd was chanting their hero's name as if saying a prayer.
"Merlin what?" Dean Thomas blinked at him blankly. "Harry who?"
"Harry Potter! The boy who lived!"
"You nickname someone because he is alive? I don't know living is a rare occurrence to wizards." Harry replied dryly.
"He is our hero! Everyone knows about him!" Neville looked astonished when he realized his new friends were completely ignorant of the famous wonder boy. "Harry Potter defeated the dark lord when he was a baby, and he is the only known survivor of the Killing Curse!" He proceeded to tell them the version favored by young wizards about a fateful and action-packed Halloween night, which, to the best of Harry's knowledge, was little more than a sheer fiction. A one-year-old toddler could never reduce a dark lord into a pile of ash with a blast of accidental magic aiming at his genitals.
Harry turned his attention back to the platform. The fighting went on without anyone dared to interfere. Then, all of a sudden, the train controller jumped out from his control cab, throwing a bunch of spells around and snarling murder at them for causing undue delay. Only when they all cringed and shrank away that he strode across the platform to the seemingly frightened boy.
"Shame on you!" the old man glared at the crowd and spat. He helped the boy gathered his trunk and led him onto the train. The train whistled a few minutes later, but it was already fifteen minutes behind schedule. It jolted into movement and pulled out of the station slowly. Harry and his two companions looked at the passing scene in silence, as the train rounded a corner, they could no longer see the platform and its waving crowd.
It suddenly hit Harry that they were heading into a new and unknown future, and he had a lot more to worry about than a normal student had. Eventually, a feeling of comforting warmth shook Harry out of his anxiety, like a small child tugged at his sleeve asking for attention, reminding him he was not alone along the way.
"Anyway, about this sorting thing." Harry turned to the other boys. "Do you know how would it done? I asked my guardian but he only smiled that annoying secret smile."
"My grand didn't tell me either." Neville sighed. "Might be it is a tradition to keep it secret from the first year."
"I only hope it won't be a test." said Dean. "I tried some spells in the school books but only managed a easy one. I will screw up for sure if they ask me to pull a rabbit out of a hat."
"Nah, it's advanced level transfiguration work." Harry assured him. "At most they'd tell you to turn it pink or shrink it or something."
"You are not helping." Dean groaned. Neville whispered weakly at his side.
"You know." Harry smirked. "We could just throw the hat at the headmaster. Such bravery will get us in Gryffindor for sure."
"Or the fastest expulsion in the history of Hogwarts." Dean snorted. "I prefer a proper sorting, thank you very much."
They threw in more stupid ideas about the coming sorting and laughed themselves silly. Then their conversation moved on to their families, which, for some reasons, none of them was very very forthcoming. Neville grew up with his grand and mentioned nothing about his parents, Harry lie his ass off on his upbringing in a country he had never visited. Dean had a happy childhood and a happy family, but he learned of his runaway biological father the day he received his Hogwarts letter, and that his mother suspected his missing father to be a wizard.
What a mass, Harry suppressed a grimace, truly and utterly. He asked Neville about quidditch to keep the mood from turning sour. Neville was not very keen in the sport, but he welcomed distraction nevertheless. He didn't even bother to conceal his relieved expression as he started a quidditch crash course.
Lunchtime soon rolled around. There was a tap on the door and it slid open. A food trolley stopped at the middle of the corridor and the old lady stood behind it smiled at them kindly.
"Anything sweet for you, dears?" she asked, indicated to the varied items on the trolley.
"A box of Every Flavor Beans, two chocolate frogs, and a licorice wand please." Neville placed his order quickly. It cost him six silver Sickles and nine bronze Knuts.
Harry had no idea what these sweets were, and he had a full supply of muggle snacks hidden in his suitcase already, so he only picked out the weirdest looking items from the trolley to satisfy his curiosity, and a bottom of pumpkin juice so that he could wash down anything that tasted horrible. Though he yelped and threw the bag of Cockroach Cluster back to the trolley when Neville told him it apparently was REAL cockroach. The trolley lady was still snickering as she slid the door shut behind her.
"Please don't tell me it is a real frog." Dean eyed the tiny box of Chocolate Frog with suspicion.
"It is just a animation spell." Neville opened a box and caught the chocolate frog before it could jump out of his reach. He bit off its head and showed them the transected body. "But see! All chocolate."
"Wicked!" Dean grinned at the struggling frog and its quivering legs.
"And each box has a Famous Wizard Card." Neville pulled a card out of the empty box. "Morgana again, I have five already. Do you want to keep it?"
Harry thanked him and took the card. On one side there was a picture of a witch waving and smiling. On the other side the framed character was described in a short paragraph:
Morgan le Fay
Bird Animagus
Medieval, dates unknown
Also known as Morgana. She was King Arthur's half sister and a dark sorceress. She was an enemy of Merlin and manipulated many events during her time. She ruled the island of Avalon as Queen and had great skill as a healer.
"Neville, what is an animagus?" Harry asked.
"An animagus is someone who can turn into a animal at his will." Neville said. "It is very useful but difficult to learn. Not everyone could become one. That's why we only have a handful of them nowadays."
"Um…" Harry filed the information away and ate some more sweets. It was a awesome idea, he would take with Daniel about it later.
Eating and chatting could only hold their interests for so long. As the hours passed they played a few games of Exploding Snap to pass time, though they had to stop abruptly after poor Trevor, the pet toad of Neville, jumped into the card house they built with Exploding Snap cards and got toasted in the violent explosion.
"At least it can't escape now." Neville bandaged it up with a handkerchief. "I will owl-order some potions for him later."
Around five thirty the sky began to darken, the lamp overhead lit up after a few flicker. Neville looked up from the chessboard. "I think we are nearly there."
"Yeah, nearly there." Dean murmured and moved his pawn. "Checkmate in 3 moves."
"We had better change into our robes." Harry put down his novel and stretched. "And I really need to piss, or I will wet myself in public if the sorting take too long." He made a short trip to a washroom nearby. When he came back, Dean and Neville had changed already and were cleaning up their mess. Harry took off his jacket to pull on the black school robe and helped them to separate unopened sweets from empty boxes.
"We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately." The train conductor announced in a bored voice.
It was a few minutes past six when the train slowed down and pulled into a dark, narrow platform. People started to pour out of the train as soon as the train stopped. The older students all walked in the same direction and out of the platform in no time. Harry was wondering whether they should follow them, then a loud voice called out from the front of the platform, a big lamp waving in the air as if it was greeting them.
"Firs' years! Firs' years over here!" The huge man smiled at the children friendly, but his smile made his big hairy face even scarier. Neville and a few others swallowed loudly, and they seemed afraid to approach him. Hagrid called out twice again, until he had a dozens of first years gathered around him. He looked around intently before his eyes landed on a boy standing next to Dean.
"Hello Harry, all right there?"
Everyone sucked in their breath sharply and turned to stare at the famous boy hero. Harry Potter nodded at Hagrid but said nothing, clearly feeling uncomfortable under the stares.
Hagrid coughed loudly twice to conceal his embarrassment. "C'mon, follow me -- any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!"
They left the platform and walked down a steep rocky path. It was too dark to see where they were heading or their steps, Harry had to grab tight on Neville's arm to keep him from slipping, Dean remained close by just in case. The three of them fell behind a little but not too far. The path ended abruptly at the edge of a great lake, its water dark and calm. At the opposite end there stood a beautiful castle glistening with candles under the starry sky. The children stared at it in awe.
"No more'n four to a boat!" Hagrid broke the moment with a yell, pointing at the little boats waiting by the shore. Harry got into a boat after Neville and Dean, sat at the back row.
Just as he sat down, a familiar sense of warmth wrapped around him like a blanket and slipped into him. He couldn't help but grinned. [Daniel, how was your day?]
[Marvelous.] Daniel grumbled.
[If these people bothered you so much, why didn't you come to find me?]
[And bring a troop of stalkers along?] Daniel explained. [I have people beating down the door every few minutes to shake my hand and ask to see the scar, and the worst thing is they kept coming back! They didn't even introduce themselves!] He was almost sulking, as if it was the greatest insult in the world.
The fleet of little boats sailed across the lake silently and entered an underground harbor, where they hit the shore and jolted to a stop. The air was cold and humid, the children shiveringly hurried down the pebbled path. It took them a while to reach the passageway, which led them to the huge oak front door of Hogwarts Castle.
Hagrid banged on the door three times. The door shook then swung open. Professor McGonagall stood there, obviously had been waiting for them.
"Thank you, Hagrid." Professor McGonagall glazed over the children. "I will take them from here." She turned around and walked inside, the first years followed closely. The entrance hall was large and sufficiently lit. Harry saw a closed door at the right, but the professor took them to a small chamber off the hall instead.
"Welcome to Hogwarts," Professor McGonagall gave a welcome speech to explain the sorting ceremony and the house point system. After reminding them to tide up, she left to check on the arrangement.
"She seems strict." Dean muttered. Neville nodded fiercely.
"She is strict." Harry corrected him. "But nice. Professor McGonagall is the one who gave me the invitation letter, and she didn't mind to answer my questions. A lot of questions." Dean opened his mouth, but before he could say a word, his mouth shut with a loud snap when a chorus of scream tried to deafen him.
"What the hell?" Harry turned around just in time to see some whitey half-transparent figures filed in through the back wall. Harry blinked at the shiny ghosts, totally unmoved, yet extremely curious.
[Do you think they are real?] Harry was itching to give it a poke. It so happened that a ghost was floating in front of him, just within his arm's reach.
[I don't know. I have met a real ghost in the first place. Hey, put down your finger!] Poking was a tempting but terribly rude idea. Daniel had to kick the boy mentally to stop him.
Twenty or so ghosts filled the chamber with chatters and a shivering chill, focused on each other and ignored the children at their feet. Finally one of them noticed them. "What are you all doing here?"
"We are waiting for the sorting ceremony." Harry replied politely and held out his hand. "Nice to meet you, sir."
"A little gentleman!" the Fat Friar beamed at him and made a motion to shake his hand. The whitey hand went right through, leaving a trail of goose pimples as if cold water washed over him. "Hope to see you in Hufflepuff, that was my old house, you know."
"Move along now," Professor McGonagall said sharply. "The Sorting Ceremony's about to
start." She told the first years to form a line and follow her. Harry stood behind Dean and Neville at the very end of the line, suddenly feeling nervous.
As Professor McGonagall pushed open a pair of double doors, the Great Hall came into sight.
Next chapter: the sorting
AN: Many thanks for the reviews! Your suppoprt is my motivation.
AN2: Which house should Harry go?