AN: I don't own. I love reviews. Esp. if you have some constuctive criticism. Any opinions about pace would be welcome, as I'm second-guessing myslef. Thanks so much to the constant reviewers, and those that care about my story enough to try and improve it or encourage me.
Last Chapter: "Hey! We just want to talk!" Isabel tutted. "Can you please take us to Kings Cross tomorrow at half past ten?"
That gives us half an hour to get our stuff on the train.
Yeah, okay.
Uncle Vernon glared at Isabel.
"Wouldn't take you, but we're going anyway."
"You are? Why?"
All of the Dursleys seethed at Isabel's impudence, but eyed her wand.
"Gotta get that ruddy tail removed before Dudley goes to Smeltings."
Chapter 8: Trains.
The next day found Harry frantically packing all his stuff while Isabel (who was still getting up so early she had been packed before Harry awoke) menaced the Dursleys with her wand whenever they tried to back the car out of the driveway.
Harry, come on! I can't make them stay forever!
Coming…where did you put my scales?
I don't know! Where did you put them? Have you checked under your bed?
No. Oh, here they are.
Under the bed? Isabel glared at Uncle Vernon and he thought the better of trying to sneak the car past her.
Yep.
Repeat after me: Isabel is always right.
Whatever, Iz.
Harry ran out the door holding his trunk, and stuffed it in the back with the owls and Isabel's trunk. Then he looked at Isabel and beamed.
Come on. We're going to Hogwarts!
#*~*#
The Dursleys were uncharacteristically silent all the way to Kings Cross. Uncle Vernon didn't complain once. Aunt Petunia pursed her thin lips and stared out the window. The only sound was Dudley's whimpering, as he rocked back and forth holding his bottom.
Uncle Vernon parked in front of Kings Cross and stared straight ahead.
Isabel and Harry slid out of the car, got their trunks and owls, and walked away from the Dursleys. Looking back never crossed their minds.
#*~*#
Platform Eight…Platform Nine….and….Platform Ten?-that's not right. Did we miss it?
Try again.
Eight….Nine….Ten. Isabel turned her head from side to side.
Harry! It's not here!
Okay, don't freak out. What did Hagrid say?
Nothing! He said nothing!
Look, we'll ask that guard.
The guard was apparently having a bad day.
Isabel showed him the tickets, asked him about the train at eleven, used her best manners that she had perfected when Aunt Marge visited.
The guard told her the tickets were bogus, there was no eleven o'clock train, and seemed impervious to charm. Then he stalked away.
By this time, near-identical twins with owls in a train station were drawing attention. Every head on the platform was turned towards them, and Isabel was having a panic attack.
We are running out of time, and our platform is missing, and we're stuck in London, and we're alone, and the train is going to leave, and we'll have to go back to the Dursleys and we can't keep pretending to them that we know magic forever and they'll-
CALM DOWN! What we're going to do, is we're going to send an owl to Hagrid (they had discovered the uses of owls in their schoolbooks) and explain that we couldn't find the platform. He'll help us.
"Packed with Muggles, of course," rang out across the station as Harry concluded and the twins spun around, questing for the owner of a voice that talked about Muggles.
A plump woman with red hair was herding four tall red-haired boys with trunks and an owl-an owl-towards them. Walking beside her and looking very excited was a little red-haired girl.
"Now Ginny, sweetheart, what's the platform number?"
"Nine and three quarters!" the little girl piped.
Nine and three quarters! FOLLOW THAT WOMAN!
Harry and Isabel tried to discreetly follow the woman. Harry whistled jauntily and Isabel pretended to be absorbed in the station roof. It was not absorbing.
"Now Percy, you first."
The tallest of the red-haired boys pushed his trolley straight at a pillar. Surely he was going to crash? A group of people walked in front of the pillar, and blocked Isabel's view. By the time they moved, he was gone. How very peculiar.
"Fred, you next."
"Ma, I'm not Fred, I'm George. I can't believe you can't tell your own children apart."
The little girl giggled.
"Sorry, dear. "
"Only kidding, I am Fred." And Fred walked towards at the pillar, and disappeared. Harry squinted. Had he done something to get in?
Iz? Did he wave his wand or something?
Not that I could see. I think you could see that far, anyway, Harry. Your eyesight isn't that terrible.
The other twin-George-followed Fred through. The twins watched closely but they didn't see him to do anything.
Oh, this is hopeless. Why don't we ask?
Nah, we can figure it out.
I'll ask then. You do it by yourself. Isabel left Harry leaning against the trunks.
"Excuse me? Hi! Look, I'm trying to find Platform 9 & ¾?"
"First year at Hogwarts?" The woman smiled kindly. "Ron's new too." She indicated the last and youngest of her sons. Ron was tall and gangling, with freckles, big hands and feet and a long nose. He also looked petrified. He smiled weakly at Isabel, who flashed a friendly smile back.
"Yeah. But, the thing is I don't know how to, uh,"
"Get on the platform?
"No. I mean, yes. I mean, I don't know how to."
"Not a problem, love. Just walk at that pillar. Don't stop, and don't be afraid that you'll crash. You won't. Maybe do it at a bit of a run, if you're nervous. Ron, show her what to do."
Is she telling you how?
Yeah. Come over here. We have to walk at the pillar. Like we're going to crash. But we don't crash.
Okay…
Harry joined them in time to watch Ron nearly sprint at the pillar.
"He's a little nervous." His mother sighed, and his younger sister, hiding behind her, giggled.
"I'll go next. I'm not scared." And she marched at the pillar.
Her mother chuckled fondly. "Why don't you go next? I'll make sure you get through. Oh!" she spotted Harry.
"This is my twin brother, Harry. My name is Isabel."
Please don't freak out, please don't freak out. Isabel chanted. To her credit, the woman didn't. She gasped, but she (with a bit of a visible effort) restrained herself from asking whether they were the Potter twins. Harry and Isabel breathed out in relief.
"Well, you go after her." The woman nodded vigorously. "I'm Mrs Weasley, by the way."
She refers to herself by her surname?
Wizards seem a bit old fashioned.
"It's a pleasure to meet you." Isabel offered her hand, and the woman shook hands with her, and repeated with Harry.
"Likewise." She seemed content to just look at them.
"Perhaps we better go through now?" Harry nodded at the clock.
"Yes, of course. I think you first, honey."
Isabel squared her shoulders, took her trolley from Harry, and ran before she thought better of it. She was going to smash into the ticket box, and then that horrible guard would be cross. She tried to stop-she couldn't-she closed her eyes-and felt a tremor. Like the world had shivered. She opened her eyes. A scarlet steam engine was waiting next to a platform packed with people. A sign on the front said Hogwarts Express. A guard was bellowing, "Hogwarts Express, leaving at eleven o'clock! All aboard for the Hogwarts Express, you have ten minutes!" Harry appeared beside her.
Hey.
They had done it.
Well, I suppose now we find a seat. Did you thank Mrs Weasley?
Yep.
She was so nice.
They set off, looking around them with interest. A few people saw them, but no-one approached them. Harry and Isabel thought that maybe fame might not be as bad as they'd thought. If no-one noticed them…
Mind, they might be just busy looking at everything. Platform Nine & Three Quarters was bustling. Smoke from the engine drifted over the heads of the chattering crowd, while cats of every colour wound here and there between their legs. Owls hooted to one another in a disgruntled sort of way over the babble and the scraping of heavy trunks.
Harry and Isabel were looking round, filled with curiosity.
Do you think he's in our year? Isabel indicated a round faced boy who was saying, "Gran, I've lost my toad again."
"Oh, Neville," the old woman sighed.
He looks our age. I wonder what houses all these people are in?
They've all got their house coloured jerseys on, look. Wait, what are we going to do about that? All our stuff is grey.
Did you not listen to Madam Malkin? It'll change once we're Sorted into houses. You're up in the clouds, Iz.
The twins slowed to watch a boy with dreadlocks surrounded by a small crowd.
"Give us a look, Lee, go on."
The boy lifted the lid of a box in his arms, and the people around him shrieked and yelled as something inside poked out a long, hairy leg.
Isabel shrieked a little and moved on hastily, pretending that she didn't know why Harry was laughing.
What?
Poor Iz. Scared of spiders, huh? Harry mocked.
Oh, shut up, Harry.
The twins pressed on through the crowd until they finally found an empty compartment near the end of the train. Together, they got their trunks in, and sat nervously.
#*~*#
Harry?
Yeah?
We have to be in the same house.
Harry wrapped an arm around his sister.
We will be.
But what if…?
Then we'll change.
But…
We'll make them let us change.
Kay.
Iz?
Yeah?
I've been thinking-
Wow!
Iz. I've been thinking-Harry gave her a warning look-and I think we should keep our mindspeaking a secret.
Okay.
Just okay?
It makes sense. We're weird enough, already.
Yeah, exactly.
#*~*#
Mrs Weasley's dulcet tones came floating through the window. "FRED! GEORGE! COME 'ERE!" Without discussion, the twins moved to the window seat to watch. They could just catch what Mrs Weasley was saying.
"Ron, you've got something on your nose." Ron tried to dodge, but she swooped on him and began rubbing his nose with a floral handkerchief.
"Ma — geroff!" He wriggled free, scarlet with embarrassment.
"Aaah, has ickle Ronnie got somefink on his nosie?" said one of the twins. They had strolled up to their mother, carefree and casual.
"Shut up," said Ron.
"Where's Percy?" said their mother.
"He's coming now."
The oldest boy came striding into sight. He had already changed into his billowing black Hogwarts robes, and was wearing a shiny red and gold badge with the letter P on it, pinned prominently on his chest.
"Can't stay long, I'm afraid, Mother," he said. "I'm up front, the prefects have got two compartments to themselves —"
"Oh, are you a prefect, Percy?" said one of the twins, with an air of great surprise. "You should have said something, we had no idea."
"Hang on, I think I remember him saying something about it," said the other twin. "Once —"
"Or twice —"
"A minute —"
"All summer —"
"Oh, shut up," said Percy the Prefect.
Isabel giggled.
"How come Percy gets new robes, anyway?" said one of the twins.
"Because he's a prefect," said their mother fondly. "All right, dear, well, have a good term — send me an owl when you get there."
She kissed Percy on the cheek and he left. Then she turned to the twins, who lost their grinning faces, and replaced them with overly angelic ones.
Now, you two — this year, you behave yourselves. If I get one more owl telling me you've — you've blown up a toilet or —"
"Blown up a toilet? We've never blown up a toilet."
"Great idea though, thanks, Ma."
"It's not funny! And look after Ron."
"Don't worry, ickle Ronniekins is safe with us."
"Shut up," said Ron again. He was almost as tall as the twins already but his nose was still pink where Mrs Weasley had rubbed at it.
"Alright, keep your hair on."
A whistle sounded.
"Hurry up!" their mother said, and the three boys kissed her and ran to the train. Right into Isabel and Harry's compartment. The boys didn't greet the twins, or appear to see them, even. All three of them were too busy waving. Their younger sister started to cry.
"Don't cry, Ginny, we'll send you loads of owls."
"We'll send you a Hogwarts toilet seat."
"Fred!"
"Only joking, Ma."
The train began to move. Mrs Weasley waved and their sister, half laughing, half crying, ran to keep up with the train until it gathered too much speed, then she fell back and waved.
#*~*#
Both twins watched the platform disappear as the train rounded the corner. Houses flashed past the window. Harry felt a great leap of excitement. He didn't know what he was going to — but it had to be better than what he and his sister were leaving behind.
The Weasley boys turned around, and sat opposite the Potter twins.
"Hello! I'm Fred, this is George and this one is Ronniekins. Well, Ronald, but he likes to be called Ronniekins." Fred smiled brilliantly at the twins.
"Hello again." Isabel said pleasantly. Ron stuttered a little.
So, we introduce ourselves?
Yes.
"I'm Isabel, and this is Harry."
The boys all gasped. It was almost comic.
Oh, no.
"The Isabel? The Harry?"
"Isabel and Harry Potter." Harry clarified.
"Wow! Really? Are you…? Did you guys….?" Harry tried not to hit his head against the seat.
"Yes, really." Isabel shrank against the seat.
You right?
I was hoping not to get this instantly. It's a little scary, that we're famous. I like flying under the radar.
"Wow," Ron breathed. The twins started firing questions.
"Do you remember anything?"
"No."
"Do you know what You-Know-Who looks like?"
"No."
"Can we see your scars?"
Isabel grimaced and pulled up her new fringe, courtesy of Harry. She dropped it just as quickly.
#*~*#
Eventually, the twins ran out of questions.
"We're going to get our trunks."
"We'll get yours, too, Ron."
They marched out. Ron pretended to look out the window, but kept sneaking looks at Harry and Isabel.
Why don't we try and get a real conversation going? Otherwise we'll he'll just be scared of us the whole way to school.
Good idea.
You're up.
Why me?
You're the guy. He's shy of me.
Fine.
"Are all your family wizards?" asked Harry.
"Er — yes, I think so," said Ron. "I think Mom's got a second cousin who's an accountant, but we never talk about him."
Keep talking.
"So you must know loads of magic already."
"Nah. Not really. Um, I heard you went to live with Muggles," said Ron. "What are they like?"
"Horrible — well, not all of them. My aunt and uncle and cousin are, though. Wish I'd had three wizard brothers."
"Five," said Ron. For some reason, he was looking gloomy. "I'm the sixth in our family to go to Hogwarts. You could say I've got a lot to live up to. Bill and Charlie have already left — Bill was head boy and Charlie was captain of Quidditch. Now Percy's a prefect. Fred and George mess around a lot, but they still get really good marks and everyone thinks they're really funny. Everyone expects me to do as well as the others, but if I do, it's no big deal, because they did it first. You never get anything new, either, with five brothers. I've got Bill's old robes, Charlie's old wand, and Percy's old rat."
Ron reached inside his jacket and pulled out a fat gray rat, which was asleep.
"His name's Scabbers and he's useless, he hardly ever wakes up. Percy got an owl from my dad for being made a prefect, but they couldn't aff— I mean, I got Scabbers instead."
Ron's ears went pink. He seemed to think he'd said too much, because he went back to staring out of the window.
Isabel had been silent for this whole exchange, trying to let Ron relax.
Harry! Re-assure him. Tell him that we have no money. There's nothing wrong with not being able to afford an owl, we can't let him get awkward over it.
Harry obeyed instructions. He told Ron about having to wear Dudley's old clothes, having no money and never getting proper birthday presents. This seemed to cheer Ron up.
"… and until Hagrid told me, I didn't know anything about being a wizard or about my parents or Voldemort —"
Ron gasped.
"What?" said Harry.
"You said You-Know-Who's name!" said Ron, sounding both shocked and impressed. "I'd have thought you, of all people —" The door banged open, and Fred and George entered. Harry pretended he hadn't noticed and replied to Ron.
"I'm not trying to be brave or anything, saying the name. I just never knew you shouldn't. See what I mean? I've got loads to learn. … I bet," he added, voicing for the first time something that had been worrying him a lot lately, "I bet I'm the worst in the class."
Rubbish. You'll do great.
"You won't be," said George, sitting down next to Ron. "There's loads of people who come from Muggle families and they learn quick enough."
Now that the Weasley twins had seen Ron treating Harry like normal, they appeared to have forgotten their awe. They started to talk and laugh and joke. The Weasley twins could talk and laugh and joke with the best of them, and they put everyone at ease. Soon, Ron was talking to Isabel as well as Harry.
#*~*#
Around half past twelve there was a great clattering outside in the corridor and a smiling, dimpled woman slid back their door and said, "Anything off the cart, dears?"
Isabel dug in her trunk. "I made jam sandwiches." Fred shook his head. "Nix on the cart. We're fine. We've got sandwiches too." Harry (who hadn't had any breakfast because he had been in such a rush earlier) leapt to his feet.
Harry! I made enough for both!
I hate jam, you know that.
Harry…
Despite Isabel's mental sighing, Harry went all out. He had never had any money, let alone for candy, with the Dursleys, and now that he had pockets rattling with gold and silver he was ready to buy as many Mars Bars as he could carry — but the woman didn't have Mars Bars. What she did have were Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, Chocolate Frogs, Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes, Licorice Wands, and a number of other strange things Harry had never seen in his life. Not wanting to miss anything, he got some of everything and paid the woman eleven silver Sickles and seven bronze Knuts.
Ron stared as Harry brought it all back in to the compartment and tipped it onto an empty seat.
"Hungry, are you?"
"Too hungry for the sandwiches I laboured over?" Isabel sniffed.
"I'm starving," said Harry, taking a large bite out of a pumpkin pasty, "and I hate jam."
George brought out a lumpy package and unwrapped it. There were twelve sandwiches inside. He handed four each to Ron and Fred, pulled one of his apart and said, "She always forgets I don't like corned beef."
"Swap you for one of these," said Harry, holding up a pasty. "Go on —"
"You don't want one of these, it's all dry," said Ron. "She hasn't got much time," he added quickly, "you know, with five of us."
"Go on, have a pasty. All of you. Iz?" said Harry, who had never had many opportunities to be generous. It was a nice feeling, sitting there, eating their way through all Harry's pasties, cakes, and candies (the sandwiches lay forgotten).
"What are these?" Isabel asked, holding up a pack of Chocolate Frogs. "They're not really frogs, are they?"
"No," said Ron. "But see what the card is. I'm missing Agrippa."
"What?"
"Oh, of course, you wouldn't know — Chocolate Frogs have cards inside them, you know, to collect — famous witches and wizards. I've got about five hundred, but I haven't got Agrippa or Ptolemy."
Isabel nodded and unwrapped a Chocolate Frog and picked up the card. It showed a man's face. He wore half-moon glasses, had a long, crooked nose, and flowing silver hair, beard, and moustache. Underneath the picture was the name Albus Dumbledore.
"So this is Dumbledore!" said Harry, peering over her shoulder.
"Don't tell me you'd never heard of Dumbledore!" said Fred. "Really?"
Isabel shook her head. "Not before we got our letters."
"Can I have a frog? I might get Agrippa — thanks —'
Harry took the card from Isabel, who was talking to Fred still, turned it over and read:
ALBUS DUMBLEDORE
CURRENTLY HEADMASTER OF HOGWARTS
Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times, Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the Dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel. Professor Dumbledore enjoys chamber music and tenpin bowling.
Harry turned the card back over and saw, to his astonishment, that Dumbledore's face had disappeared.
"He's gone!"
"Well, you can't expect him to hang around all day," said Ron. "He'll be back. No, I've got Morgana again and I've got about six of her … do you want it? You can start collecting."
Ron's eyes strayed to the pile of Chocolate Frogs waiting to be unwrapped.
"Help yourself," said Harry. "But in, you know, the Muggle world, people just stay put in photos."
"Do they? What, they don't move at all?" Ron sounded amazed. "Weird!"
Harry stared as Dumbledore sidled back into the picture on his card and gave him a small smile. Ron was more interested in eating the frogs than looking at the Famous Witches and Wizards cards, but Harry couldn't keep his eyes off them. Soon he had not only Dumbledore and Morgana, but Hengist of Woodcraft, Alberic Grunnion, Circe, Paracelsus, and Merlin. He finally tore his eyes away from the druidess Cliodna, who was scratching her nose, to open a bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.
Fred chuckled. "Go on, young Harry. Try a few."
Ron rolled his eyes. "You want to be careful with those. When they say every flavour, they mean every flavour — you know, you get all the ordinary ones like chocolate and peppermint and marmalade, but then you can get spinach and liver and tripe."
"I had a booger-flavoured one once." George boasted.
Ron picked up a green bean, looked at it carefully, and bit into a corner.
"Bleaaargh — see? Sprouts."
They had a good time eating the Every Flavor Beans. Harry got toast, coconut, baked bean, strawberry, curry, grass, coffee, sardine, and was even brave enough to nibble the end off a funny gray one Isabel wouldn't touch, which turned out to be pepper. t
The countryside now flying past the window was becoming wilder. Earlier, they had been passing by neat fields. These had gone. Now there were woods, twisting rivers, and dark green hills.
Thank y'all for reading. Please point out spelling/grammar mistakes. :)