Hogwarts One Half
Chapter Two

by Lionheart

I O I O I

"You don't mean you talk to snakes, do you?" Hermione stood rooted to the spot.

"Sorry I took so long." Ron shoved his way into the compartment, incidentally bringing Hermione in with him because of the cramped quarters. "Oh sorry. Anyway, this boy named Neville stopped me to ask about his lost toad. Don't know why he's so bothered," said Ron. "If I'd brought a toad I'd lose it as quick as I could. Mind you, I brought Scabbers. So I can't talk."

"Who is Scabbers?" Kodachi inquired as politely as she could.

"He's Percy's old rat, he is, and he's useless. He hardly ever wakes up. Percy got an owl for being made prefect, so I got Scabbers. Now where is he?" He started looking around. "He's got to be around here somewhere."

Kodachi bit her tongue. "Uhm, yes, he is. But I'm afraid..." She trailed off, keeping to polite mode was harder to keep up than you'd think. Times like this she wanted to bounce crazily off of rooftops dispensing black rose petals and laughing maniacally. It was safer. You were always sure what your reactions to that would be.

"Go on. Where is he?" Ron prompted, stopping his search to ask.

All eyes tracked to Kodachi, Hermione included.

Hecate took a long sigh and let it out, plunging on ahead. "Well, I am sorry about the toad, but how was I to guess that someone would own a rat?" She patted a second lump in her pet serpent Shirousagi to the accompaniment of wide eyes from the rest of them. "I would like to pay to replace your pet, mister Weasley, if you would give me that chance."

"Cor! Blimey!" Ron stared at the snake. "You mean that thing ate him? Oh, wait a minute. You said you'd buy me a new one, right? Can I have an owl instead?"

The young girl gymnast sighed in relief this time. "Yes, mister Weasley, I should be delighted to buy you an owl for a pet."

"Well, that's alright then." He sat back comfortably, crossing his arms behind his head. "I think a barn owl, or maybe a hoot owl. Actually, what I'd really like is a great horned owl, if that's alright, that is?"

"I should be delighted, mister Weasley." Kodachi repeated. "To get you a great horned owl."

"Oh, call me Ron. Everybody does. You make me feel like my parents or something saying 'mister Weasley' like that. That's what strangers call my dad."

"Look, I don't mean to interrupt," Hermione interrupted. "But...I think you should look at your snake. It's getting wider."

"Wider?!"

All eyes tracked to the serpent in question. It was, indeed, swelling, though the muscles of the snake seemed to be fighting it, and the object in question, the second lump in the snake's gullet, didn't seem all that sure of what it was doing.

Wormtail, for his part, dealt with a situation both complex and confusing, and he wasn't entirely awake due to simple things like crushing pressure and lack of oxygen. It was more a 'this isn't right' feeling of a sleeper only vaguely aware of something like his bedroom catching on fire.

He may die, or he may wake. There's no guarantee of either.

Having passed himself off as his animal form for simply years, Wormtail had become so used to being Scabbers the Rat that he had some very ingrained defenses against resuming his normal form.

Since virtually all he did in rat form was sleep, eat, and occupy space, it wasn't very hard for Kodachi's hungry boa to happen upon him, gently squeeze him from slumber to simple unconsciousness without waking him up and then the tasty snack slid straight down the gullet.

But something about this situation suggested to his oxygen-deprived mind that maybe something was off, and it was growing more serious by the moment. Serious enough, it was coming near to making the mage revert to human form.

Struggling to survive, torpid to begin with, and lazy from all those years of sloth, Wormtail's already-unconscious mind was battling against itself as much as outside pressures.

Shirousagi was in distress and the gathered youths could plainly see it. Fact of the matter was, Wormtail had been swallowed to a rat-length, and now in his unconscious strugglings he was coming close to reverting to full human form.

It was a moment of decision, decided when a blearily half-awake and half-suffocated animagus finally overcame the blockage which he'd previously erected to retain his rat shape.

The result was that the boa's mouth split open and disgorged a rat the size of a small dog into the crowded compartment. Hermione shrieked, Ron stared in disbelief, Harry was wonderstruck and Kodachi amused as the wet-with-digestive-juices critter swiftly elongated and lost hair, reverting in moments to a wretched, naked and slimy man.

Awakening to realize his position, Peter Pettigrew apparated away at once.

Sadly, though no longer asleep he was far from clear-headed, and apparated into the most familiar spot of safety he knew.

I O I O I

It was widely, and truly, reported that you cannot apparate within Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. However, what most students fail to understand and subsequently overlook is how far that protection extends.

It doesn't cover all of Scotland. In point of fact, it doesn't cover all of the front lawn. Teachers were all experienced witches and wizards and they had to be able to come as go as their lives and jobs required. Albus Dumbledore in particular was always being called on by the Ministry of Magic, nor was he the first headmaster so blessed with official attention.

While the blocks and barricades within Hogwarts prevent vast amounts of student mischief, there were several spots within Hogwarts grounds faculty and staff knew of and could walk to where apparation was easy. None were in the sprawling buildings, but if you knew which statue on the grounds or a particular place on the Quiddich field and just what rocks to stand near in the Forbidden Forest, apparation went smoothly indeed.

In times of emergency these could be blocked, or simply guarded, but for normal operation times they meant a faculty member could eat and work at Hogwarts and apparate home in a commute that would make any muggle squirm with envy.

It was not the first institution to pretend something didn't exist for the benefit of the masses while secretly enjoying the same privilege for their own benefit all of the time.

Teachers did not take the train. There was no need. They began somewhere around the week before classes popping in to get things ready, and not infrequently business at home kept them til the last few hours before the students arrived.

Wormtail had spent more time at Hogwarts than anyone who wasn't staff. He knew of one such location just by happy chance.

Unhappily for him, he only knew of it because the teachers used it most often out of all of them, and Albus Dumbledore was just greeting an arriving McGonagall for a new year when Pettigrew appeared between them, naked and dripping digestive slime.

Another BAMPH of displaced air broke the scene, and Snape's voice came sneering. "Peter Pettigrew, well, well. It would seem reports of your demise were somewhat in advance of the facts... Pity."

I O I O I

Arthur and Molly Weasley were a pair of loving parents in a somewhat disorganized home. It was inevitable when mess-causing kids outnumbered cleaning parents and getting those same kids to wash themselves was enough effort on a typical day. So organizing so large an escapade as a Hogwarts trip left the pair of them exhausted.

So exhausted they missed out on the fact that their ten year old daughter spent the entire trip home from the station pouting under a blanket in the back seat, only her red hair spilling out, refusing to respond to Molly's few, tired attempt to cheer her by pointing out the things she could do with her friends now that her brothers were gone - Molly had forgotten for a bit how Ginny's two best friends of long association were both a year older than her and would now be gone at Hogwarts also.

When Mrs. Weasley recalled this she lapsed into embarrassed silence, sure she had made her only daughter's pout worse.

They made the rest of the trip home in a mingled state of awkward and exhausted quiet so bad Ginny didn't stir from her pout even when they pulled up to their home and both her father and mother got out of the car to go inside the house.

Undoubtedly Molly would have gone back to the vehicle bearing treats for her distraught daughter, but a naked and dripping Peter Pettigrew apparated into their house at that moment. Molly and Arthur recognized the former Marauder instantly.

Peter in an increasing panic apparated yet again to that last place he viewed as being safe, or a refuge: The Potter's House in Godric's Hollow.

Unfortunately for him, there was a tour group there for a memorial held in honor of the Potters, the anniversary of their death being just the night before. It was a shocking amount of old friends, including Remus Lupin, who saw the old and supposedly dead confidant of those very people the crowd was there to remember.

The crowd gasped in horrified recognition.

Still sleep fogged, Pettigrew at least knew his frantic apparations were granting more and more attention each time he did it. So he did what next occurred to his reflex to hide, he turned back into a rat...

...right there in front of hundreds of witches and wizards who had focused their entire attention on that supposedly dead 'hero'.

I O I O I

Ronald Weasley had left the compartment with a sealed note, signed with Kodachi's hanko, addressed to Eyelop's Owl Emporium and calling upon a suitably extravagant account (fitting for a Kuno, or a Hecate) in the local branch of Gringott's for a great horned owl with courier training and permanent speed and weatherproofing charms. The boy was beside himself and couldn't be stopped from seeking out his brother Percy to get his owl to send the note before they even got to school.

Hermione had disappeared, off to find Neville and tell him about his toad (and that Kodachi had offered to replace it). Plus she wanted to dive into her books and find out what type of magic could make transforming rat-men. She thought it might be a rodent version of a werewolf, but wasn't sure, and if it was she wanted to know if it was contagious.

Neither Kodachi nor Harry knew what to make of it, so dismissed the topic from their minds in favor of issues they could relate to, and informing each other of their shared family insanities had seemed to fit the bill nicely. Harry had been telling her about being kept in the cupboard under the stairs and Kodachi had been telling him about the deadly traps one had to bypass if one were to use the bath in her home.

It appeared to each of them, the more they said the more they had to be related. No two families could be that mixed up by accident.

As pleasant as that conversation was, it had a sudden interruption in the form of a ten-year old, redheaded ball of energy barreling in their door and slamming it behind her.

"Thank goodness I found you!" Ginny Weasley gasped out, lunging over to sit next to Harry. Her embarrassment was easily forgotten in the scale of difficulty of her current... well, you could call it a prank. The redhead panted to Kodachi, "Please, you've got to let me borrow a robe before we get to Hogwarts. I couldn't get any of my own things before we left. I had to sneak on the train. Please, you wouldn't mind sharing just until my mum can mail me my own, would you?"

Kodachi lifted an eyebrow in sardonic amusement. "Not at all, miss..?"

"Weasley. Ginevra Weasley, but you can call me Ginny."

"Ginny." Miss Hecate nodded sweetly in acceptance before standing up on her seat to open her portable wardrobe above her on the luggage rack. That item held a small roomful of clothes in it. Ginny's arms were soon full of the regulation attire, including panties, which at last had her attention returning to Harry and the girl's blush threatened to consume her.

Kodachi resumed her seat, having closed her luggage. "I'm afraid if you want a training bra I can't help you. I never wear them, myself."

"Oh, that's alright." Ginny desperately pretended Harry didn't exist so she could survive this necessary moment of girl-talk with his sister. "Thank you. Thank you so much! I knew, since Harry was such a hero, that you would be wonderful too! After all, you are his sister. Oh, thank you so much!"

"You aren't supposed to be here, are you?" Harry asked, slightly amused. "I mean, Ron was just talking about having to keep you off the train."

Ginny blushed furiously, looking at Harry and clutching the clothes to her chest. "You've already met my brother Ronald? Fred and George helped me by transfiguring a scrap of paper into a wig I stashed in my parents' car with some pillows. But Percy or Ron would turn me in, I'm sure. You won't tell them?"

"Nah." Harry smiled, getting in on the gag. "I think it's fun."

The door rattled on its lock. "Hey, who locked me out? Harry? Are you in there?" Ron's voice came through the sliding panel.

"Ack! Ron's coming! Hide me!" Ginny pled in a strangled whisper.

"Uuuh." Harry groaned, unable to frame words.

Kodachi raised her voice calmly. "Ronald, I locked the door to change. Do be a dear and wait patiently while I finish."

There was a moment's shocked pause behind the door. "Uh, I don't mean to imply anything, but didn't I just hear Harry's voice just now?" Ron asked, scandalized.

Kodachi didn't bat an eyelash. "Yes, you did. However, while I do not care what my brother sees, you, Ronald Weasley, are not him."

"Uh, sure." Ron's voice came humbled. "I'll just wait out here then."

Kodachi stood up on her seat once again, reaching for her wardrobe trunk, on top of her potions trunk, her books trunk and lying beside her library trunk.

"You aren't going to actually change!" Harry gasped out a strangled whisper.

Miss Hecate looked back at him over her shoulder.

"Is there a reason why I shouldn't?" Kodachi had already released the straps on her dress and it fell to pool down around her feet, leaving her in panties, stockings and a long blouse.

Harry made a strangled noise before clamping both hands over his eyes and desperately retreating to shove himself in the tiniest corner of his bench possible.

"If you are going to shut your eyes our guest should change, too."

"GUEST?!" Ron's strangled voice came from outside the door, before his steps faded to a safe distance.

"Now's your chance, dear." Kodachi cast aside her shirt, informing the redhead currently flaming in embarrassment.

Checking to make sure Harry's eyes were tightly closed and he wasn't peeking or anything, Ginny made for the fastest rush of clothes changing she had ever attempted in her life, and got caught up on awkward bits and had to redo them, burning brighter than her hair as she tried not to think what would happen if Harry suddenly opened his eyes.

"Panties too, dear. You wouldn't want your dorm mates seeing you in an old pair when you change for sleep tonight." Kodachi was now halfway dressed, not ever hurrying, the Japanese lacking what westerners considered a decent amount of body modesty.

Ginny never knew before that it was possible to faint with embarrassment, but she nearly did when Harry's sister commented on her underwear. True, they were old, had a few holes and were a bit worn around the edges. But did she have to say that in front of her BROTHER?!

Harry's nose began to leak a thin trail of blood and Ginny scowled, nearly certain that he had sneaked a peek when she wasn't looking. But she changed her underwear, watching him like a hawk for a repeat performance.

Harry didn't make one, and soon both girls were decently dressed in regulation Hogwarts robes. Kodachi cracked open her potions trunk and showed Ginny a rank of colored vials, saying, "Pick a color, dear."

"For what?" The girl Weasley asked, calming down now the worst was over.

Kodachi blinked. "To change your hair color, of course. Your brother who might betray you is still just outside. Your robes hide quite a bit, and I can give you a mask for your face, but we'll want to hide your voice and hair tonight if you are to get past him. I can make you a drink and you'll be a pleasant soprano..."

Ginny had stabbed a yellow vial and Kodachi proceeded to wash the younger girl's hair, each stroke applying a bit of the dye. The subject of this treatment felt it must be magical because each brush went on cleanly without spill or mess, washing the color from red to blonde.

"Can I open my eyes now?" Harry pled.

Both girls giggled, though Ginny was still blushing. "Of course, brother dear. You never had to close them on my account, you know. As family it is something of a duty to see that our siblings are prepared for their futures. A few glimpses and a bit of advice when needed are the kind of support we ought to be able to expect from each other. But we are both quite well dressed now." Harry cracked his eyes open just in time to hear Kodachi continue. "Now you'll want to change your own attire."

The distressed look on Harry's face was fitting revenge for her own embarrassment, Ginny felt.

Harry, blushing madly, turned his back on them to change his outer clothes only, the girls noted with no small surprise. Apparently he'd decided to wear pants under his robes. How odd.

While he was changing apparel, Kodachi went on working on altering Ginny's appearance. Since receiving her Hogwarts invitation and materials she had been studying, long hours on the plane rides and extra nights in hotel rooms. While some of the material was esoteric and odd to her, potions was just an extension of her already phenomenal knowledge of herbs, admixtures and rare powders. She'd purchased extra reading material and found herself comparable to a third year potions student at least.

In the act of getting a feel for her skill level she had prepared numerous potions, elixirs and so on, partly out of an act of self-preservation (bombs, paralysis powders and poisons could be so much fun, but had to be prepared in advance of a need) or simple curiosity.

Soon she had Ginny's hair blonde, long and braided, curled up in two buns on either side of her head like some princess out of a muggle movie she'd once seen. With a pointed hat on her crown and a mask on her face, make-up, a beauty spot and a bit of blush, Ginny's own family wouldn't recognize her.

And that was the point.

Harry had long since finished changing, it had taken him only seconds. Since then he had sat and watched Ginny's gradual transformation into a strange girl no one could relate to her brothers. The new robes helped somewhat with that, of course.

The former miss Kuno had her basic potion set out and it was the work of a few minutes to mix up a simple voice-changing potion. Then it was time to open the door and wait for Ron to get back.

"So," Harry asked, once he had checked the corridor both ways, finally recovering enough from his near brush with 'death by embarrassment' to talk. "Once you get past this stage, how do you plan to get in to the school? They must have a roster of those they expect to attend, right?"

"Oh, that's easy." Ginny smiled, licking a lollipop she'd brought with her. "My two oldest brothers, Bill and Charlie? They've graduated now so you won't meet them at school, but Bill was Head Boy and both were prefects. They told me all sorts of things about how the school works, and they should know. Anyway, Percy had to write a letter once we'd started saying we were all on the train, including a list of the first years. Charlie says that Professor McGonagall, who reads the names in, should go get the master copy written by a magic pen of who is really expected, but she hasn't done that in dozens of years. She just reads off the list the Prefects send because it's easier than climbing twenty sets of stairs. So I caught my brother's owl before it left and added my name to the list. Easy really. It knows that if it sees me waving it can expect a treat, and it flew right over to the window I was hanging out just as Percy released it."

"Wow." Harry once again grew impressed.

Kodachi loftily smirked with the young girl. "But Ginny dear, how do the teachers know if a student is missing? Surely this McGonagall should do some checking. After all, is that not the point of the prefects sending in a list? To perform a count, or some other safeguard?"

Ginny removed her sucker with an audible 'pop', clearing her mouth to speak. "Oh she just casts a charm for that. The owl drops her the prefects' list and she says a spell over it. Any new students who should be on the list but aren't are written in the air in red, that way they can send out search parties or whatever to find out how they got missing. Older students are expected to be able to notify the school if something goes wrong."

"But the charm doesn't tell if there are too many students, does it?" Harry was catching on. "An ordinary faker wouldn't know how to put his name on that list, but when McGonagall calls attendance you'd be on it. After all, you aren't a missing student, so her spell wouldn't say a thing, would it?"

"That's what Bill and Charlie said." Ginny popped the lollipop back into her mouth and resumed sucking, trying to hide a smile of glee. "The prefects get their own copy of who should be on the train, and they do the checking from that. An extra student would be left off the first list and they'd send a special notice of any person who shouldn't be attending. But that hasn't happened in ages anyway. So no one is looking for it."

The trio shared a grin.

With a sudden blur of motion Hermione barged into the compartment, planting herself down in the spare seat. "Can you really talk to snakes?"

"No. Her snake just talks people-talk." Harry corrected. "Couldn't you hear?"

The Granger girl cocked her head curiously. "What do you mean?"

Harry just shrugged. "I heard her say normal words to it, and it spoke back just the same as you or I could have. Didn't you hear the same?"

Hermione regarded him strangely. "But all I heard were hisses. I was wondering, because a person who can talk to snakes is called a Parselmouth, I just looked it up, and it's among the rarest of all magical gifts. Supposedly only three known Parselmouths have ever attended Hogwarts in all of its long history, and one of those was a Founder."

Ginny was shaking her head. "Magical gifts travel in family bloodlines, and all Parselmouths were dark wizards. Harry couldn't be related to any of them. It's just wrong."

"Harry?" Hermione asked, confused by the turn of conversation. She'd been asking about this Kodachi girl talking to her boa.

"Oh, you haven't met?" Ginny sat up straighter in her chair. "This is Harry Potter, and his sister Hecate Kodachi Potter. I got the middle name right, didn't I?" Ginny turned to ask. "It's ever so hard to say."

Hermione's eyes grew wide and she sparkled. "Harry Potter? I read about you! You're in..." The litany of books she was about to recite got cut off by Ron's reappearance in the door.

The youngest Weasley boy gave a look at the compartment full of girls, then Harry, and plainly his mind was on the last things he'd heard from this compartment before he'd left. "Blimey, Harry! You don't mean to say you changed clothes with all those girls? A sister I can sortuv understand, but how did you get the others in on it?"

The redhead gave a wondering look to his friend of short acquaintance. "You sure work fast. I guess that's what being famous does for you, though," he finished with a jealous glance.

I O I O I

Draco Malfoy had received clear instruction from his father (and we all know how he idolizes his father). He was to approach Harry Potter as a Pureblood and an equal in case he could be subverted to the Dark Lord's side.

"After all, the Potter family line could be a great asset," were his father's exact words.

Several older Slytherins were already befriending Draco, and their aid proved invaluable. One of the Slytherin Prefects had overheard that Weasley Prefect talking with one of his mates about Harry's sister, and passed that along to Draco, who'd already owled his father with that bit of information.

Harry's parents had been hiding from the Dark Lord since before he was born. They'd tried concealing his birth from the Death Eaters, obviously with his sister they'd succeeded. That could be vital, tactically. More than one opponent of the Dark Lord had folded when Death Eaters had threatened their family. And if they could be won over then this sister could be married into a pureblood line, maybe even to a scion like Draco.

The young Pureblood wasn't the only one convinced that resistance to the Killing Curse might be a magical gift, and thus inheritable. A strong line of future Malfoys, all immune to the death curse, could dominate the wizarding world for ages.

So he had quite eagerly sought out the Potters, seeking to make friends, and came up on their compartment just in time to overhear Ron's last comments.

Draco proudly insinuated himself, shoving aside the mudblood-loving blood-traitor to get a good look inside. Crabbe and Goyle at his elbows, Draco gave his most ingratiating smile and said something he knew a fellow pureblood would love to hear.

"So, you're already banging these mudblood whores? Good job, Potter." Draco's voice was congratulation tinged with envy as he sneered at the girls. "That's all they're really good for anyway: slaves and toys, or breeding half-bloods. I don't know why they even bother to educate them at all. It's like teaching a mule to fly."

Spotting the one girl with similar features to Harry was trifling easy, as she was the only one in the whole compartment with his black hair. Draco gave her an appraising look before an ingratiating smile. "Hecate Potter? Harry, your sister is a vision of loveliness. May I take her and you aside for a moment? I've got an offer for both of you."

Kodachi's lips twisted into a disapproving frown and with a soft 'BANG!' smoke filled the compartment. Everyone coughed for a few seconds until wind began to clear away the pitch black vapor.

"Thanks for opening the window, sis." Harry breathed in good, sweet air at last. That fog had been nightmarishly thick!

Standing by the open portal, Kodachi smiled softly. "Anything for you, brother dear. Oh, dear. Our guests seem to have left us."

I O I O I

On a tree they had just passed, Crabbe, Goyle and Malfoy hung by their ankles almost mummified by green silk ribbon. The trio of first year students watched the departing train with wild eyes.

Unfortunately for them, the gags prevented much crying out.

I O I O I

"Good riddance." Ron reentered the compartment, squeezing in on one end blissfully ignorant of the trio's true fate. "His kind give wizards a bad name."

Hermione was scowling. "I'd bet he turns out to be a Slytherin. From what I've read they're all pretty much like that."

Harry was nodding. "That's what Hagrid was telling me: Better a Hufflepuff than a Slytherin. He said there never was a witch or wizard who went bad that wasn't in that house."

"I'm hoping for Gryffindor. Ravenclaw sounds alright, but Gryffindor definitely seems the best." The Granger girl spouted.

I O I O I

Author's Notes:

Would Draco act like that? Well, from what I've read it's clear he and his type all see themselves as the nobility of wizard-kind (and they also see wizards as the natural rulers of all muggles, so the nobility of the nobility, or in other words - royalty). So the question becomes instead: would a medieval noble say something like that?

And the answer to that is, unfortunately YES! They often saw debauchery as a privilege of the 'peerage' as they liked to be called, and weren't ashamed about admitting that to small, semi-private audiences like this one - which, if you'll stop to think about it, consists (at least in Draco's mind on initial observation) of a man, a bunch of women he is banging, and another man who'd just commented on that. In essence, a group all 'in on the secret' anyway, so nothing's to be lost by showing that you know it too.

Too bad for him he was mistaken. BADLY mistaken.

Draco is hardly a paragon of good judgment in any case. But he really was winding up for a pitch. It's just that he'd not gotten so far as to say, "But while it's all good fun to seed a few bastards around, you really ought to have a proper pureblood to bear your heir - and I could show you around the right circles and introduce you to the best there are."

After all, a key to entering ANY group is to espouse the same views, and he came upon a situation that led him to believe that Harry was already acting in a way he himself understood, living out a 'pureblood priviledge'.

Oh, and to him, the only women to be taken in groups are those that are individually worthless, so, on the Hogwarts Express, that would automatically mean mudblood whores.

So you see, he really was trying to be friends. He just doesn't have any idea how different his world view is from some others.