Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Harry Potter, or any of the characters from these universes. I am making no money off of this fanfiction.

A/N: Thank you once again to those who reviewed.

I would like to comment on one concern that came up fairly regularly in reviews, which was that many people don't think that Harry punished the thugs who attacked him in the previous chapter harshly enough. And...you are probably right about that. I make no excuses for Harry's behavior, nor do I condone everything he has done and will do in this story. But like it or not, he tends to see even murderous attacks against him with the same seriousness others would see a group of five year olds throwing water balloons. It's not really a good thing, and will eventually get him in trouble, but that is how he is at this point in the story. Only when others he cares about are threatened does he generally become truly serious in his punishments.

Chapter 6: Taking the Train

Harry arrived at King's Cross Station about an hour before the train was scheduled to leave. He had already completed his morning workout, and sitting around Privet Drive sounded much less interesting than getting to the train and meeting some wizards and witches. So he had briefly said goodbye to Dudley and his aunt, making sure to mention that he didn't know if he would be returning for Christmas or not, but that he would either see them then, or next summer.

The two were still a little jumpy around him, as they had been ever since Hagrid's visit, but they were finally starting to settle down once again into their more normal behaviors - that of two people aware that they had absolutely no control over his actions and a bit tentative around him for fear of pranks, but not actively afraid of him. Occasionally they even acted like something vaguely resembling an actual family, if not a particularly loving one. Still, it was progress.

So once he finished saying goodbye, he then used his standard techniques of becoming invisible and using Kamui to teleport over to just above the train station before finding an abandoned area to become visible again. Hedwig had already been sent ahead to Hogwarts, and his school supplies were either stored in his sub-space dimension or in one of the several storage seals he had placed on his body over the past decade.

It only took about a minute after releasing his Chameleon technique and wandering out into the crowds that filled King's Cross Station for him to find the portal to platform nine and three quarters. It was well hidden from normal eyes, but with the Sharingan, the magic of the barrier itself was visible. And he kept his Sharingan active almost all the time behind the illusion which made his eyes appear their normal vibrant shade of green.

The barrier itself between the muggle side of King's Cross Station and the magical side of platform nine and three quarters was very interesting though. He really didn't know enough about magic to be able to tell much about exactly how it functioned, but it was by far the most complicated piece of magic he had seen so far, and that included the so called unbreakable goblin wards around Gringotts. Granted, those had a much higher sheer amount of magic running through them, but as for complexity? This portal won easily.

It seemed to be split into two different main parts of the enchantment. The concealment part was complicated enough, and he would want to take a closer look at it once he learned more about magic, but what really interested him was the stable portal. That piece was so complicated the only reason he could tell what it did at all was because he could see the bending of space with the Mangekyo Sharingan. The magic itself was far beyond him. But the fact that it could be done at all impressed Harry greatly. It had taken him almost four years to create something similar with seals, and he honestly was pretty sure that this was superior to his version.

It was one of the first things which had truly made him excited about learning magic. It was one thing to learn it as a curiosity just because he didn't really have anything better to do with his time while he waited for whatever prophesies he was supposed to be involved with to show up. But to see something that could actually be done better with magic than even he could manage with chakra...Well, that was motivation at its finest. Especially since he could see what seemed to be runes as the primary support for the magic.

He had discovered the subject of Ancient Runes a couple weeks ago when he had been casually looking around Diagon Alley during one of his return trips. As soon as he had, he began to study the subject. In fact it was the only subject he had started any studying in at all, which was probably especially unusual since it wasn't even one of the core subjects, and was not available for formal study until the third year of Hogwarts.

But it wouldn't have surprised those who knew him when he was Naruto. It had always been hard to motivate him to study almost anything. It was made especially difficult because he had always had a way of managing just fine without this academic knowledge. Sakura especially had hated that about him, since she insisted that it should have been impossible to do some of the things he had done without at least a basic basic academic knowledge of multiple subjects. But he had just ignored her and gone right on creating S-Rank techniques before he bothered to obtain even an Academy level understanding of basic chakra theory.

That wasn't to say he was lazy. Harry was perfectly willing to practice and exercise sixteen hours a day or more. But he had always thrived when thrown directly into the practical applications of the theory he rarely bothered to learn. In fact, a significant amount of the time he had been able to do the impossible simply because he had never bothered to learn from all the textbooks that would have told him it shouldn't be possible. Then he would just keep working on what he wanted to do until he found a way.

However, there was one, and only one exception to his general resistance to putting any time into learning academic subjects. And that exception was seals. Seals were awesomely complicated. Easily as complicated as all other branches of ninja techniques combined. And they were not something that could be just 'jumped into' either. It took a significant amount of learning just to know all the symbols and understand the intricate rules required to make even something as simple as a basic storage seal. The pure in-depth understanding required for more complicated tasks went up exponentially from there.

But during his first childhood, Naruto had found himself entranced by seals. He had spent thousands of hours poring over the symbols and rules that formed a basis of the subject. It had just made sense to him in a way that mathematics or chakra theory had not. And it had not taken long before he started getting to the practical applications he had never seen in learning something like how to calculate the exact angle needed to throw a kunai to hit a target a certain distance away. First with simple things like storage seals, but eventually, in spite of all of his power in other areas, he considered Seals the basis of his greatest power. It had been a seal that had given him his bloodlines, and ultimately seals that had provided the edge he needed in many of his most difficult battles during the Fourth Shinobi World War and even after.

More recently, it had not taken long to see the link between Ancient Runes and Seals. While obviously Ancient Runes were powered by magic rather than chakra, the purpose of the two disciplines was very similar. And as he had began to learn pieces of the many languages that made up Ancient Runes, he began to find that even some of the most basic rules of Ancient Runes were the same as the rules at the core of Sealing techniques. Of course there were differences too, but the pattern of similarities was beginning to give the appearance that Ancient Runes had evolved directly out of the Sealing Arts. This was especially apparent in some of the very oldest forms of Ancient Runes, such as Sumerian Runes, though he had been unable to find much on anything older than Ancient Egyptian Runes.

But once he had begun to see this link, as well as find his interest in a subject so similar to seals, he had bought a copy of every book in Flourish & Blotts on the subject. And ever since, he had began to put hours every day into reading through these books, starting with the Hogwarts textbooks, though he had many more to continue with once those were complete. But he was not nearly far enough to even begin significantly deciphering the magic behind the portal, so after giving it one last brief examination, he walked through to platform nine and three quarters.

It was still early enough that the platform was not very crowded, and almost everyone there was still in the process of saying goodbye to family members, so Harry ignored the scattered families for now and entered the bright crimson train, quickly finding an empty compartment and settling down to continue reading his Ancient Runes textbook. He was looking forward to meeting other wizards and witches, but there wasn't any point while they were still talking with their families, so he allowed himself to get lost in his book while he waited.

It didn't turn out to be a very long wait. Just a little over a quarter hour, to be precise. At that point, the door to his compartment opened, very hesitantly at first, but with more confidence as the girl outside got a look into the compartment. Of course Harry had been aware of her since before she had even stopped outside the compartment. He wasn't that lost in his book.

She looked like she was about his age, and she had extremely bushy hair and somewhat oversized front teeth. Once she took a step into the compartment, she asked, "Do you mind if I sit here?"

Harry nodded as he answered, "Sure, have a seat," and helped the girl move her trunk into the storage space set aside for them.

Once the girl settled down in her seat, she sat perched on the edge, looking over at the book Harry had earlier been reading before speaking all in one rapid fire burst without taking any breaths. "So what were you reading? It looks like a textbook, but I don't recognize it from the first year course books. Are you a first year too? Of course I learned all my books by heart. I hope I am ready. I'm the first one in my family to have magic. I was ever so surprised when I received the letter from Hogwarts. I am Hermione Granger, by the way. Who are you?"

Harry chuckled quietly at Hermione's enthusiasm and replied, "Take a breath Hermione." He grinned a little wider as she blushed and breathed a bit deeply. "I am a first year, but this isn't a first year textbook. It's an introduction book on Ancient Runes. We don't even get the option to take the class until our third year, apparently, but it's an interesting subject, so I got started a little early, I guess. If you actually memorized your entire first year's text books, I'm sure you are more than ready though. I highly doubt anyone else in our classes will have done the same, muggleborn or otherwise."

After a short pause in which Harry looked at Hermione speculatively, he continued, "And my name is Harry Potter."

Her eyes widened at that and flicked up to his forehead, where now that she knew to look for it, the seal he had placed over his scar a month earlier would allow her to see the famous lightning bolt pattern. "Oh, wow," she exclaimed. "Are you really? Of course I have read all about you. I got a few extra books for background reading, and you're in Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century."

Harry just shrugged. "Yeah, wizards seem to like to make a big deal over the whole thing," he said dismissively. "Anyway, are you looking forward to Hogwarts?"

Hermione seemed a bit surprised by his attitude towards his own fame, but she seemed willing to ignore it as she replied, "Oh yes. I'm a bit worried about not knowing some of the things that people who were raised by magical parents might, but I did my best to learn all I could in preparation. But I am very excited about all of the classes. There is just so much to learn about magic and the magical world. And Hogwarts is the very best school of magic there is. Which of the Houses do you think you will get into? I'm hoping for Gryffindor, myself. It sounds like the best house. I read that it was the house Professor Dumbledore was in. Though I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad." Once again she spoke without pausing for breath or giving Harry a chance to answer.

Harry just chuckled in response and said, "I will probably be in Gryffindor too. I read a little describing the four houses in one of the books I got, and that one sounds like it fits my personality best. I have been told that I am suicidally foolhardy several times in the past. Always rushing in headfirst without thought to the consequences and whatnot. It seems to work out ok though." He shrugged and ignored Hermione's slightly indignant look at his fairly negative portrayal of the Gryffindor traits. "I don't really think any one house is better than the others though. Just different."

Hermione raised her nose slightly, clearly disagreeing. "Well that wasn't the impression I received from what I read." But after a moment's thought, she seemed to force herself to be a little more conciliatory. "But I suppose there are some people like that in Gryffindor."

"Well, I'm sure it will work itself out well enough." Harry just shrugged, as he was perfectly willing to let it go. Hermione seemed nice, and there wasn't any reason to start a conflict over something quite that pointless this early on. So he allowed the conversation to move onto other things as they continued to get to know each other a little better.

Over the next half an hour or so Harry had been talking to Hermione, and he had been growing more amazed the longer they talked. It turned out that Hermione was a virtual duplicate of Sakura. He would have been even more shocked if he hadn't already been half expecting further similarities with his old life such as he had already encountered.

But even so, the similarities were impressive. Both were academic geniuses to a monumental degree with near perfect memories, but somewhat lacking in common sense or practical skills. Both had been ridiculed for and eventually became ashamed of their hair and a physical imperfection - excessively bushy hair and large front teeth in Hermione's case just as Sakura had hated her pink hair and large forehead as a child. Though both were also not nearly as unattractive as they believed, it seemed to have created identical deep insecurities.

Both had been isolated in their younger childhoods because of their intellect, perceived physical imperfections, and general bookworm ways, and had developed very poor people skills as a result. They even both had fangirl tendencies, though Hermione's mindless adoration seemed directed at authority figures in general and was in a non-romantic sense, for which he thanked the gods. Though mostly, he was just glad that she wasn't being a fangirl over him.

The only real major difference was that Sakura had tried to emulate Ino's brash personality, while Hermione had retreated inwardly, but overcompensated by being bossy and trying to show others her worth by demonstrating her impressive knowledge whenever possible. And she seemed a lot less physically abusive and instead just resorted to lecturing. He didn't mind that though. It was certainly a lot easier to ignore than repeated blows to the head. On the whole, it was rather nice. He had missed Sakura a lot, and though it probably wasn't the healthiest thing to look to Hermione as a 'replacement', she did seem to sort of fit a little too well for it to be ignored.

A few minutes earlier, another boy had asked to enter the compartment and been welcomed. Neville Longbottom turned out to be an almost painfully shy boy, and so hadn't contributed a lot to the conversation. But Harry had been able to draw him in a couple of times with questions about the magical world which he could better answer, being a pureblood and raised in the magical world.

He had also left his shell briefly when the conversation hit the topic of Herbology, which was apparently Neville's favorite subject, and one about which he was quite knowledgeable. Prior to Neville's comments, Harry's knowledge of Herbology had effectively been the question "is that like gardening?" It turned out the answer was "sort of, but with magical plants." Which, granted, did make it more complicated. It sounded interesting anyway though. Harry had always enjoyed gardening and taking care of plants. Add in plants often even more beautiful than the best of the muggle varieties that will frequently literally try and kill you, and what's not to like?

Harry did make sure to praise Neville's knowledge, which the shy boy didn't seem to know how to take. Harry quickly realized that it was likely Neville had never really received encouragement or acknowledgement before. Harry could empathize from his own childhood as Naruto, and he made sure to remember to be encouraging towards Neville in the future. From personal experience, he knew the difference even a single person who cared for and acknowledged you could make.

Besides, he had an awesome toad named Trevor, which Neville let him hold. It made Harry question why he hadn't gotten Hagrid to get him a toad. Sure, Hedwig was very pretty, and impressively intelligent, but she wasn't nearly as awesome as a toad. Trevor even liked to escape too. Harry had been forced to catch the toad as he suddenly leaped away from his perch on Harry's lap several times already. And best of all, he was trying different angles of escape with irregular timing. Trevor was learning from his escape attempts. Harry couldn't wait to see what he would try in the future.

But after a few minutes of this, the Hogwarts Express finally pulled away from platform nine and three quarters, and they all took a pause from their conversation to look out the window to the crowds of families. Hermione's parents had already left, but Neville waved goodbye to his grandmother, who apparently took care of him, until the train turned a corner and was out of sight of the platform.

A few seconds later, before they could begin speaking again, there was a knock at the door to the compartment. All three of them looked up to see a redheaded boy who was quite tall for his age. The boy paused when confronted with all three of their gazes, but eventually said, "Err...Is anyone sitting there?" He pointed to the empty seat beside Harry. "Everywhere else is full."

"Sure, have a seat," said Harry as he gestured welcomingly to the seat the boy was pointing at.

As soon as he had said the words and the redhead started to move his trunk into the compartment, two other identical red-haired boys poked their heads in through the doorway. They looked a little older than the rest of the compartment's eleven years, and were likely related to the redhead who had entered a few seconds earlier given their similar appearances.

"Hey, Ron," one of them spoke. "Listen, we're going down the middle of the train - Lee Jordan's got a giant tarantula down there."

The other then spoke as they both looked around the compartment at Harry, Hermione, and Neville. "Looks like Ickle Ronniekins found some Ickle Firsties to be his friends."

Harry smiled back at the twins, but didn't say anything. The others seemed more hesitant though, with Hermione seeming unsure of how to answer the identical mischievous grins the twins gave while Neville just looked down at his feet.

Ron just glared at them and muttered in a tone of clear annoyance, "Whatever. Just go away. And keep your spider away too." When he spoke of the spider, his tone quickly shifted into one of genuine fear.

The twins just laughed and turned to leave the compartment, and one called over his shoulder, "Who knows," which was then picked up by the other, "where it will get too Ron." Then the first picked the statement up once again, "Guess you will have to watch," and finally finished by the second just as they shut the door, "Where you step."

Ron shuddered once again at their words before turning to the others in the compartment, apparently resolved to get his mind off of the spider possibly roaming the halls of the train. "Hi, I'm Ron Weasley. And those were my older brothers - Fred and George. Don't bother trying to tell them apart...even mum can't all the time. Probably best to keep your distance anyway. Those two are big pranksters, so don't trust anything they give you."

Harry's eyes lit up at the mention of some fellow pranksters. Perhaps they could teach him a thing or two about pranking using magic. "Oh really? Are they any good?"

Ron just shrugged and grimaced. "According to them they are the best pranksters that have been through Hogwarts in over a decade, even though they are just third years. They have gotten me enough times they might be telling the truth though."

Harry nodded, and put that topic aside for later. Clearly Ron was not particularly appreciative of his brother's talents in the fine art of pranks. "Anyway, I'm Harry Potter. Nice to meet you."

Hermione and Neville also quickly spoke up and introduced themselves, but Ron's mouth had dropped open slightly and he was staring at Harry's forehead, so Harry got the impression he probably wasn't paying them much attention. "Are you really?" He asked in an astonished voice.

"Why do people keep asking me that?" Harry asked in a confused tone with a frown. "Do they think that I am lying, or just that I don't know who I am?"

Ron flushed red and pulled his gaze from Harry's scar while the other two in the compartment also blushed a little and looked away for a moment. "No, it's just...Well, all the kids in the magical world grew up hearing stories about you. Even knowing you are the same age as me, it's kind of a shock to actually see you going to Hogwarts in the same year as me, you know?"

Harry waved it away and said, "It's no problem. I guess I'm just not used to people being that shocked to see me."

Hermione broke in at this point. "Well, from what I have read, there has been a lot of speculation about where exactly you have been for the past decade and what you have been doing. All Professor Dumbledore was able to reveal to the public was that you were safe and well cared for. So I think it is going to be a while before everyone gets used to you suddenly being in public again after so long."

Harry nodded thoughtfully, but finally shrugged and said, "Well, anyway. It must be pretty nice to have two older brothers though. I have always kind of wished I had some siblings."

Ron stared at him like he was insane, then said, "Fred and George? They are horrible...always pranking me for no reason." He then seemed to get more depressed as he continued, "I actually have five older brothers though. Bill and Charlie have already left Hogwarts - Bill was head boy and Charlie was captain of Quidditch for Gryffindor. Now Percy's a prefect. And everyone thinks Fred and George are so funny, plus they get pretty good marks too. You could say I have a lot to live up to. Everyone expects me to do just as well as them, 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 into his jacket and pulled out a fat sleeping rat. "His name is Scabbers and he's useless. He hardly ever wakes up."

Hermione frowned indignantly at this and said, "Rats were not on the list of approved pets in the acceptance letter to Hogwarts. I don't think they are allowed."

"Well it is a magical rat," Harry responded. "So that makes it kind of cool, even if not nearly as cool as Neville's toad. And it's fine Hermione. No one cares what pets you bring as long as they are not harmful." Harry was actually fairly impressed with the level of magic he could see in the rat. It was more magic, and more complicated, than he had seen in any other animal so far.

Neville had perked up at Harry's compliment of Trevor, though the others looked at him a little oddly, and Ron responded, "Well, I don't think he is magical. Percy just found him in the garden one day...though I guess he has lived for a long time. Almost a decade, I think. I guess that is kind of long for a rat, so maybe he is a little magical." Ron seemed to brighten at that thought, though he did add, "Still doesn't change that he is sort of useless though."

Neville finally seemed to gather the courage to speak up as well. "I also have a...used wand, I guess. It is my father's old one." He pulled out a clearly somewhat worn wand, though equally clearly great care had gone into polishing and maintaining it. "My gran says that using dad's wand is a way of honoring him. So maybe you could think of it the same with your brother's wand?"

Ron shrugged, though he did seem much less depressed than earlier. "Yeah, I guess so. Just wish I had some new stuff instead."

At that point Harry changed the subject, since it was clear that talking about money would probably be a sore area for Ron regardless. So they moved onto many of the same topics covered earlier between Harry, Hermione, and Neville.

Eventually though they came to the topic of Quidditch, which wasn't something that interested Hermione or Neville. Honestly it didn't really interest Harry either. Civilian sports of any kind were decidedly boring to a shinobi. When an average Thursday consisted of going out to duel another ninja to the death in order to complete a mission because you needed some extra money for the poker game that weekend...well, throwing around a ball just didn't provide a lot of excitement even if the ninja wasn't using their physical training to give them an advantage no civilian could match.

Even if the ball in question was being thrown from brooms flying through the air far faster than any non-ninja could possibly normally move, though the ability to move in a third dimension did add a little interest to the game. Still, Ron was able to convert Harry to his favorite team, the Chudley Cannons, purely on the basis of their team colors. Any team which wore that brilliant orange couldn't help but to be awesome, regardless of if they won or not.

Which they didn't, he was informed, though Ron didn't state it outright. Ron did seem very hopeful for this year though, but Neville's incredulous look at that didn't produce a lot of confidence in Ron's opinion on the topic. Still, having his team lose didn't really bother Harry, especially in something that mattered to him as little as Quidditch. Besides, their official team motto of, "Let's all just keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best" couldn't help but make Harry laugh.

Eventually Harry started looking for a way to change the topic though, since Neville and Hermione had long grown bored with Ron's ceaseless enthusiasm for Quidditch and the Cannons, and Harry was rapidly moving in that direction. Fortunately though, Harry didn't have to come up with a distraction. Someone else was kind enough to make one for him.

Malfoy, the same prat from the clothing store in Diagon Alley a month before, seemed to have been able to re-grow his hair into the same ridiculous slicked back hair-cut he wore previously. He had also obtained two fairly pathetic looking bodyguards who, if looks meant anything, were likely even less able to think for themselves than Malfoy was.

But as the three came barging into their compartment without knocking or even particularly looking around as they entered, Malfoy announced in his standard arrogant tone, "I heard that Harry Potter was on the train today. Have any of you..." He then trailed off as he looked at Harry for the first time, his expression going from haughty to furious in seconds.

"You!" He repeated. "You are the one from Madam Malkin's last month! No one knew your name when I tried to track you down. Who are you?"

"Me?" Harry answered in a too innocent voice. "Oh, my name isn't really important," he said quickly before Ron or any of the others could say anything. "I did find out that your name is Draco Malfoy, though."

Ron snickered at the name, and Harry joined him, making Malfoy even more furious. "What is wrong with my name?" He demanded. He then took a moment to look around the compartment as he continued, "Red hair, ratty clothes. You must be a Weasley. Couldn't afford anything new with all those children I suppose? And the Squib Longbottom too. And one of your mudblood friends, I suppose? Draco is an ancient name of the Malfoy family, and is worth far more than all of your names combined."

Harry just shook his head, still chuckling. "Well, I don't know about Ron, but I wasn't laughing about the Draco part of your name. That is actually kind of a cool name, if a little mini-dark wizard wannabe for my tastes. No, I was talking about the Malfoy part."

This shocked Malfoy out of his rant, at least for a moment, as confusion overtook the rage that had been building. "Malfoy? Malfoy is a noble house of ancient and pure heritage, and worth ten of even Longbottom's, much less the rest of you. And how pathetic is that, that Longbottom is the best you can find to befriend."

Harry ignored this statement for now, though the steadily growing slump of Neville's shoulders as he stared at the floor did stir the beginnings of actual anger in Harry towards this little prick. But he forced his voice to maintain the same amused detachment that aggravated Malfoy so much as he answered, "You don't even know what your own name means, do you? Well, I don't want to strain your brain making you look it up, so I will tell you. Malfoy comes from French, and basically translates into Bad Faith."

Malfoy's mouth opened and closed like a fish several times as Harry gave him a chance to think about that before Harry continued, "At some point in the past, you're oh so noble family must have lived in France and betrayed someone - probably the king at the time. They renamed you Bad Faith and drove your family from France in disgrace. That is the ancient heritage you seem so proud of. Every time you speak with such pride in your name as a Malfoy, you are proudly proclaiming that you are not to be trusted and have no honor. Perhaps it is the muggleborns who are more pure after all...at least they start with a clean slate, rather than the long history of backstabbing and traitorous dealings your family must have gained the reputation for to reach the point you were renamed to reflect it."

It was at this point that Malfoy finally overcame the shock of having someone not only talk to him in such a manner, but also dare to spit on the mighty name of Malfoy. So his wand quickly came out, followed much more slowly by those of his two apparently mute bodyguards who hadn't even seemed to understand Harry's statement. "How dare you, you little commoner mudblood. My father will..."

Harry once again interrupted him, rising smoothly from his seat for the first time since Malfoy entered, though he didn't bother to take out his own wand. He was vaguely tempted to take out one of his swords from his storage seals and show Malfoy what real intimidation looked like though. It would have been overkill though. Just a touch of killing intent would be plenty for this pathetic child.

Killing intent was a strange ability. It was basically the ability for someone to focus their willpower and knowledge that they had the ability to kill the target and impose that knowledge on their enemy. This would result in an instinctive fear or even visions of the target's death flashing before their eyes if it was strong enough. It could be either directed only at a single target, or even just leaked out to an entire area, though that did reduce its intensity.

And the exact strength of killing intent was based on a comparison of two things between the user and the target - first strength of will, and second the strength of their chakra. Both of these were areas in which Harry was quite powerful, so he had tremendously intense killing intent when he wished to. Powerful enough that he could stop the heart of almost any civilian from pure terror if he unleashed it at full power and bring even most ninja to their knees.

Of course, though it utilized chakra, it was mostly based on spiritual energy, so wizards should be able to at least resist it far better than civilians. Harry guessed that a powerful wizard like Dumbledore or Voldemort could probably mostly shrug off all but his most powerful killing intent. But a young and mostly untrained wizard like Draco could be scared silent with just a small pulse of it directed at him.

"I don't care how much money or power your father has stolen over the years, Neville is worth far more than ten of a bigot and idiot like you." Harry said with contempt. "So are the rest of them. Maybe someday you will actually learn to think for yourself rather than just spit out the words your father taught you without even considering how stupid they are. Maybe someday you will learn to stand on your own feet rather than just fall back on daddy's power and his assigned bodyguards, as pathetic as they are. If you should, come back and talk to me again. Until then, stay out of my way. And get out."

With that, he sent another small flare of killing intent targeted at Malfoy and to a lesser degree his two goons which had them backing away quickly with bloodless faces. Though Malfoy did manage a stuttered out "My father will hear about this," as he fled the compartment.

Harry didn't bother to keep his laugh quiet as he yelled back, "Sure, then everyone can know how powerless you really are when even he doesn't do anything as revenge for you not being able to take an insult."

Malfoy slammed the door closed behind him and sent Harry a combined look of both fear and anger before storming off. Harry just kept laughing at the idiot.

The other three in the compartment were looking at him with mouths agape and awed expressions on their faces. Especially Neville, who looked like he might be coming down with a case of hero worship. Harry thought he must have been the first person to truly defend him like that before, and given Neville's responses to Malfoy's taunts, it certainly hadn't been the first time such things had been said about him. Well, hopefully he could become Neville's friend and help him in that way, rather than as some hero to be looked up to. Harry was pretty good at making people aggravated with him to the extent that they didn't idolize him anymore though, so hopefully it wouldn't be a major issue.

With a hesitant, but growing in strength voice, Ron said, "Harry...wow. That was...that was awesome. I don't think anyone has ever talked to a Malfoy like that! I bet my dad would have given a week's pay to see that!"

Harry just turned back to them and gave a smile as he shrugged. "Well...I ran into him on Diagon Alley a month ago, and he was pretty annoying. Then he just walks into here and starts insulting everyone for no reason again? I'm not going to put up with that, and you shouldn't have to either.

The others all grinned at him and nodded before Hermione spoke up. "I'm kind of surprised he was talking about you like that though. I mean...you are the boy-who-lived. Why would he come in here and immediately start insulting you?"

"Well, he doesn't know who I am, I don't think." Harry replied. "We never actually got to the point that we introduced ourselves when he asked me about Quidditch, and he made the assumption I was a muggleborn from my answer." Harry shrugged while everyone looked at him with slightly confused expressions.

Thankfully, before they could ask more questions, there was another interruption, though this time it was a polite knock on the door of their compartment and a kindly question of, "Anything off the cart, dears?" from a friendly looking woman with dimples as she smiled at them.

Harry ignored Ron's blush and mutter about having brought food, as well as Hermione's comment that candy wasn't very healthy. Instead, he walked up to the cart and looked over the wide variety of treats. It was only then that Harry realized he had never tried any Wizarding candy, which was clearly very different from the muggle kind.

So he took a few of everything that looked remotely interesting, quickly paid for it from the small amount of coins he kept in his pockets, and returned to his seat, spreading everything out in the open space beside him.

"Feel free to try whatever you want." Harry said as he looked around at his new friends with a grin.

And so the group spent the rest of the long train trip through the British countryside eating strange magical candy - even Hermione, after a fair bit of prodding, and talking about their future at Hogwarts.

A/N:

I don't like Ron. I just don't. He isn't evil, but he has almost no good traits, and a huge pile of annoying ones. However, one thing I do not like in fanfiction is how people who don't intend to make Ron a member of the standard Golden Trio inevitably have Harry immediately hate Ron when they first meet on the Hogwarts train. Ron doesn't really do anything to deserve hate that early. Yeah, wanting to see his scar might be described as slightly annoying, but that's the worst that could be said. So having Harry hate him that early makes him come across as unreasonable, or just immediately puts the fic in the category of 'Weasley bashing fic'.

This will not be a bashing fic. There are some characters that I don't like, but I will try and keep them in character. Some might go to slightly more extreme lengths than they did in canon (all three of Dumbledore, Snape, and Ron to varying degrees), but that will be because Harry's actions will drive them to be more extreme. Not because I hated them in canon and want Harry to be able to do terrible things to them without coming across as the bad guy. So Harry will eventually come to dislike Ron, but only when he gives Harry actual cause to do so.

Please review though! I don't care if it's just a short, "I liked it," a detailed breakdown of what you think I did wrong (and hopefully can improve on), or even just informing me of a grammar or spelling mistake, I would appreciate it. But please no flames. I don't mind criticism as long as it is constructive, but a simple, "This is the worst thing ever written," or "You made Harry too powerful. You suck" will be ignored.