Chapter 2 - A Little Help
The day had finally come. It was happening. in just a few hours time he would be whisked off to Kings Cross Station and then he would be on his way to Hogwarts. He was so excited that he could burst. Of course he had to contain it at least until the station. His Aunt and Uncle didn't seem happy to be taking him and they would be less likely to take him if they knew how excited he was. When he had asked Uncle Vernon the night before he'd only barely gotten a yes, and that was with some unusually cryptic remarks about platforms. Uncle Vernon had said that the only reason they were going was because they had to get rid of Dudley's tail. Still, even with all the complications, as soon as he arrived he would be free and able show his excitement all he liked and no one would care so long as he remembered to cover his scar.
He went to go and make breakfast for the last time in almost a year, (he'd asked Hagrid so he knew that he wouldn't have to cook while he was at Hogwarts.) He said his goodbyes to his bedroom and after everyone had finished eating and sitting around for much too long, they loaded the car and were off.
Try as he might, he couldn't keep the grin off his face as he helped Uncle Vernon unload the car, or rather, dump his possessions on the ground. When he turned back to the car he saw Aunt Petunia standing there, she was staring at the top off his head, something she did every so often. As he watched she grew the mournful look she had every time she stared at him for too long, which admittedly wasn't often. He started to say his goodbyes but she stopped him. She pulled him close and in almost a whisper she said;
"You need to walk through the divide between platforms nine and ten. You'll think you're going to crash, but you won't" and with that she pushed him off towards the station.
Harry turned back to the car just in time to see her nearly dive back in and Vernon speed off, cackling all the way. Confused as all hell he began to pick up his belongings and move them onto a trolley which he then wheeled down along the platform to where he could see a sign with 'Platform 9' written on it.
When he got there he began to realise what Aunt Petunia had been talking about. His ticket said 'Platform 9¾' but there was only a platform 9 and a platform 10 there. There was a divider between the two but he wasn't sure what to do with it until he remembered what Aunt Petunia said. He decided to try it, it was better than waiting around for help at least. He began walking towards the divider and slowly pushed the end of his trolley at it, somewhat unsure. His hesitance was proven pointless in a moment however, when the edge of his trolley disappeared! He realised that he was beginning to gape and quickly shut his mouth before looking around to see if anyone had noticed. It didn't seem like anyone was paying attention to him and so, before he could second guess himself, he pushed his way through the barrier and onto platform 9¾.
Arriving on the platform his jaw dropped open in utter shock. It was even more amazing than he'd pictured. There were wizards and witches everywhere and a massive, beautiful, steaming, scarlet train right in the centre of them all. He looked about him but as many people as there were, he wouldn't have called it busy. He was still a half hour early and no one was rushing. He began to push his way through the crowd and in doing so he passed an older, slightly menacing looking boy who seemed surprised to see him. He watched Harry walk off with a glare and muttered something about 'weasels' and 'thyme' or at least Harry thought so, he couldn't be sure because of the joy he was feeling throughout himself while he pushed his trolley towards the train.
Getting on was a little more difficult, lifting the trunk by himself wasn't easy, but he managed it, and with a hoot from Hedwig he set off to find an empty compartment. It turned out finding an empty one wasn't actually all that difficult because while a few were filling up most were still empty. After putting away his trunk and sorting out Hedwig he took the seat closest the window and settled down to people watch. That was something Harry had always enjoyed, he found you could find out a lot about people if they didn't know you were watching them.
Just then a boy around his age walked through the barrier with a massive smirk on his face. He had silver blond hair that practically reflected the light it was so bright, and beside him stood a severe looking man with the same hair just, longer and the same smirk, just smaller. Behind them came a very beautiful woman with very dark hair and a stern but caring look on her face. The boy broke out into a grin when he saw the train and started to rush towards it. Harry was startled to realise that the boy's trunks were floating behind him and felt a quick pang of envy. He turned away as the boy and his family got closer to the train and turned back to the platform just in time to see a girl in a football jersey walk through.
It was only a few minutes later when he heard a knock on the door, he turned away from the barrier where a tall red headed boy was quickly coming through, and looked up to see the platinum blonde boy from earlier. He began to smile and stand up to introduce himself when the other boys face melted into a look of utter disdain.
"Red hair, and hand me down clothes. You must be a Weasley." He spat out.
Harry was shocked, he'd been hearing things about weasels every time he was around wizards but he hadn't realised it was some objection wizards had towards red heads. He was furious and he began to flush a bright red.
"I most certainly am not a Weasley, I am Harry Potter and I object to being called such a thing!" With that he strode forward and slammed the door in the other boy's face and strode back to his seat.
There was a brief pause before the other boy knocked on the door again, rather timidly. "I'm sorry I called you a Weasley, it's just, my father talks about them all the time, our families don't get along. Can I please come in and sit down?"
Harry thought for a moment, but rather reluctantly he stood and opened the door, he supposed he had been a little harsh, but the other boy seemed rude. Before Harry could sit back down he was forced into a handshake with the other boy who introduced himself as Draco Malfoy and began a torrent of questions about Harry. Harry was saved from answering however, by Draco's trunk which was pushing it's way into their carriage and rubbing itself against his leg. Draco started to put his trunk in the over head compartment, along with his massive eagle owl, while Harry sat back down. He turned back to the platform, to see what had happened to the other redhead, but was stunned to discover that he had multiplied and there was now a small sea of red hair swamping the platform and then stunned again when he realised two of them were holding a tarantula.
"Are they Weasley's?" He asked, still a little stunned.
Draco paused from guiding his suitcase above him and turned to the window. "Yes," he replied. "Father says they're riff-raff and deserve to be poor. Their father has it in for him, and is always trying to get him thrown in Azkaban." Draco's voice was dripping acid by this point and the glare he sent towards the redheads was enough to kill.
"Thats horrible!" Harry said, "but whats Azkban? I've never heard of it before."
Draco turned to him with a look of surprise, "Azkaban is wizard prison. How come you've never heard of it before?" He had just finished putting away his trunk at this point, and sat down to face Harry.
Harry wondered about why someone would want Draco's father in prison, but decided not to comment under the excitement that someone seemed to be genuinely interested in him for once.
"I was raised by my Aunt and Uncle," Harry said, "They're muggles, so I didn't find out about magic until Hagrid came and told me on my birthday. He's the one who bought me Hedwig and he gave me my ticket too."
"You were raised by muggles!" Draco replied shocked, "but you seem so normal? I always thought muggles were horrible people who hate magic and wizards and that they aren't worth anything except on the black market. How did you survive?"
Harry started to comment, then stopped himself and thought about the Dursleys, then about the kids who teased him at school, and the looks he'd gotten when he'd accidentally turned his teacher's wig blue at school, or accidentally jumped on the roof. He decided just to say, "Well I'm not sure about all that, they were pretty horrible but they treated me alright most of the time. They definitely don't like magic though."
"That must've been tough," Draco said, in an understanding tone. Then he looked out the window and exclaimed, "We're about to leave, Look!"
And they were! Looking out the window Harry could see families waving goodbye to their kids up and down the platform, and when he looked closer he could see Draco's family waving at them. Draco's father had a tight look to his face and was clearly avoiding looking at harry but they were both smiling. A little bit at least. Harry turned to Draco and saw a look of excitement that was a complete mirror of his own. He couldn't wait.
An hour and a half had passed, in which Draco had taken it upon himself to explain everything there was about wizarding life and had still not left the topic of Quidditch. After explaining the rules, he had gone into detail about the different teams, their current ranks, and his favourite, the Hollyhead Harpies. Somewhere in the middle of the positions in Quidditch the two of them were joined by two hulking brutish boys named Greg and Vince. And after some general introductions the two of them settled in, Vince next to Harry, and Greg next to Draco. All of them listening to Draco's explanation which from that point on was much more vivid and dramatic as Draco appeared to grow under the attention. Just as he was launching into why the Hollyhead Harpies would beat the Chudley Cannons in their next match he was interrupted by a knock at the door. Greg opened it to reveal a small witch dressed in uniform who asked if they "would like anything from the trolley dears?"
Harry wasn't sure what to get since he'd never really had much of an opportunity to buy candy before, but with the help of his new friends he decided on some Chocolate Frogs and Bertie Botts Every Flavoured Beans. Draco bought some Ice Mice and Vince and Greg each got some Liquorish Wands. As they settled back into their seats, each with their respective candy, Harry asked a question that seemed to puzzle all of them, "What house do you think you'll be in?"
Each of the boys began to loudly clamour that, "what could you mean of course I'll be in Slytherin, I couldn't go anywhere else" before Harry interrupted them all to ask, "But I thought that Slytherin was evil?"
The entire compartment erupted simultaneously into cries of "What?" And, "The house of Salazar Slytherin?" And, "Never!" Draco continued, louder than the others, "Where could you possibly have heard that from?"
Harry started again, "When Hagrid took me to get my school stuff he told me about the houses, he said there wasn't a witch or wizard who went bad that wasn't in Slytherin and he told me Voldemort was in it!" Harry said triumphantly but at hearing the name Voldemort the other boys reacted as if struck and all flinched back, Harry apologised quickly and said "I mean you know who."
Draco stopped him however, saying "Call him the Dark Lord. And Slytherin isn't a dark house, and it's not evil either. It's just misunderstood. Merlin was a Slytherin you know. All our families are in Slytherin and that's where we want to go too. Its the best house of the lot, and your Hagrid must be crazy to not think so."
Harry was confused now and wanted to defend Hagrid but then he remembered something "Well, Hagrid did say he wasn't allowed to use magic, so maybe he was wrong, he might not know much about it."
"There you go," Draco said, then Vince chimed in, "So you'll be in Slytherin with us?" He asked hopefully, if a little shy, he was followed by Greg who just grunted, "Slytherins."
Harry supposed they had a point but he was a little disappointed to realise how badly his first friend had nearly mislead him. but he supposed the other boys knew better, "Of course I'll be in Slytherin!" he said with a grin. He started to say something else but was interrupted by a cry of "What!?" from the door of the carriage.
Draco jumped up and opened the door to reveal a slightly frumpy, freckly redhead. "And what do you have to say about that." He asked so coldly that it was more of a command than a question.
"My whole family is in Gryffindor," the boy said, "thats the house you should be in. Anyone with honour anyways."
Draco stood and looked at him, "Well you're definitely a Weasley," he said, "no wonder you think Gryffindor is great, the whole lot of you have cat fur for brains."
The Weasley turned bright red and screamed to Draco and the rest of the occupants in the cabin "I bet the whole lot of you are dark wizards and shouldn't be allowed at Hogwarts!"
The boys were so furious the whole cabin felt like it grew a few degrees colder and all the boys rose behind Draco. "I happen to be Draco Malfoy, and you happen to be intruding on my cabin, so get out!" As he said that both Greg and Vince started to punch their fists.
"Not a problem!" the Weasley boy screeched, "I was just looking for Harry Potter, but he wouldn't be caught dead with the likes of you!" He turned to storm off the but before he did he noticed that every occupant in the cabin had begun wearing matching smirks.
"I'm Harry Potter," Said Harry as he strode forward, "and these are my friends, something that you clearly don't have. Why don't you go find another redhead to insult." and with that final statement he slammed the door shut and turned to sit back down with his friends, more certain than ever that he wanted to be in Slytherin.
The boys had a lot of fun after that, mocking 'the weasel' as they had begun to call him and talking about what they thought the school would be like. As the time approached the four of them changed into their robes, and just as the last boy finished dressing the door suddenly slammed open to reveal a determined looking girl with very bushy hair.
"Has anyone in here seen a toad? A boy named Neville's lost one." she asked while striding in. "Oh you've already gotten dressed, I've just had to remind some people to do that, since we'll be arriving soon." She added surprised, she was wearing her own robes and adjusted her collar as she said so.
"Yes, no thanks to you, you almost walked in on us changing. Maybe knock next time." Draco said, "and what is it with all you people and interrupting us? The door was closed for a reason," he continued.
The girl sniffed, "well maybe you should lock the door if you're getting changed," she said, "the kids in the other carriages said you were bullies but I didn't believe them, it seems they were right."
"Has the Weasel been badmouthing us to the other carriages? He came in here and called us all dark wizards for wanting to be in Slytherin," Harry burst in angrily.
"Well Slytherin is apparently a dark house, but even as rude as you are I think calling you all dark wizards is a bit much," the girl replied.
"So nice of you to think so, and let me guess, you want to be in Gryffindor? Little piece of advice, they're all bigots." Draco retorted with a hint of a smirk.
The girl appeared to get haughtier before the lot of them "Gryffindor is the house of the brave, all the heroes go there, and it's where I want to go too. They can't be bigots," she retorted but she appeared to get slightly more unsure of herself towards the end.
"Oh yeah?" Draco replied, with a bigger smirk "ask around, the only ones who like Gryffindor are the Gryffindors themselves."
The girl pulled back with a final retort of "fine, I will," before she closed the door to the carriage and left.
All four boys now sat back and began to joke about how rude the students on this train were and how hard it'd be to learn anything if Hogwarts was like this. They spent the rest of the journey talking about nothing much important, Vince and Greg both chimed in with their favourite Quidditch teams, and Harry decided he would barrack for the Hollyhead Harpies with Draco. Too soon they were arriving at Hogwarts, and their journey was over.