THE ROAD NOT TAKEN

Chapter 2: ...I over slept on the train.

Disclaimer: All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling.

September 1st 2001

Hogwarts Express

Harry entered a compartment near the end of the train and lifting his trunk, he placed it on the seat. While heavy, the trunk was no challenge for Harry as while normal eleven year olds would struggle to even move from place, Harry was stronger than normal kids. He had always been strong, even before he had actively started using his power, he had been stronger than Dudley and the fat boy had never tried to pick on him by himself.

At one point when they had just started going to school, his cousin and two of his friends cornered Harry and had been planning to teach the 'freak' a lesson. They had ganged on him and started beating and kicking him and that was when he had snapped, he didn't know where the burst of energy came from but he swung his arm and caught Piers square on the jaw. The kid had fallen like a sack of potatoes. The other boy had tried to jump Harry but he met with Harry's elbow and he too was knocked out.

Surprised by his own actions, he had done nothing while Dudley ran away and his cousin had reported him. Infact it was that evening when Harry started using his power as that night, Vernon had taken his beatings more seriously than even before. He knew he couldn't do anything to stop his uncle, and so he had tried to find a way of not feeling the pain. That was when he had started pulling on the feeling in his chest. He hadn't noticed a difference right away but the next day when Dudley got other boys and they tried to attack Harry, he had fought back, even knowing what was in store for him.

That night, Vernon had beaten him again, and he had pulled on his power the entire time. And this time he noticed the difference and how the blows weren't as painful as they had been the previous day, and so he knew what he had to do. The next day he was the one to provoke Dudley and when the fat boy attacked him, he got a repeat of what happened last time. When he went back home, he was actually looking forward to Vernon's punishment.

The following days, Dudley was actively avoiding him, even when Harry cornered him that evening and beat him to a pulp the boy did not report him to his parents. However, Vernon seemed to know that Harry was responsible and he decided to punish him. Harry received the beatings with a smile on his face. By this point the pain was almost non existent and he knew he was going to need only a few more...sessions with his uncle befobefore he became completely impervious to pain.

From that day, Dudley avoided Harry like the plague. No matter how much he tried he just never got the chance to do anything to him in order to provoke his uncle. And he decided to start provoking him directly. First by staying out late until Vernon came back was a sure way to get beaten. The next day he scratched his car, poured flour in the kitchen and poured trash on the backyard. That night, Vernon was like a man possessed, he had beaten Harry until nearly all the clothes he was wearing had been torn to pieces. And the entire time, Harry been smiling.

He had finally done it. Vernon could not hurt him, or anyone else for that matter. That was the last time Vernon ever raised a hand against him. They tried other punishments but they too were useless against his power...his magic. After that, they all came to an unspoken agreement, they would keep out of each other's way for as long as Harry lived in that house and he would do nothing to sabotage their 'normal' lives.

He was fine with that, and the last five years have been the best time of his life. All he did when he wasn't at school was eat, sleep and read, and it was probably why he ended up becoming so lazy. As if his body agreed with him, he let out a long drawn yawn. He looked outside at the station through the compartment window to see that parents were saying farewell to their kids while a large group of redheads had just arrived, almost missing the train.

Shaking his head at others that seemed just as lazy as him, he leaned on his trunk and using it as a pillow, he faced the wall of that compartment, closed his eyes and waited for sleep to take him.

He had just started drifting off when the door to his compartment opened.

"Anyone sitting there?" The boy who had just entered asked. "Everywhere else is full."

Harry didn't bother opening his eyes or even turning around. He just gestured at the empty seat across his and went back to sleeping.

The other boy heaved and grunted as he pulled his trunk into the compartment before sitting down. He had barely sat down when the door slid open again and two boys entered. From the conversation they had, Harry gathered that all three were brothers. It wasn't long before the two, twins apparently, noticed him.

"Oi, Ronnikins who is the firstie?" One of the twins asked.

"I dont know." The other boy replied. "I just got here, didn't I?"

"That you did." The second twin agreed. "You! Dont you know it's against the rules to sleep on the train!"

"Do you want to get detention on your first day at school?" The other continued.

"Or wake up with your hands in place of your feet?"

"Not a bad idea, brother." The first one commented

"Well, I'm the smart one, aren't I?"

"But I thought you were the handsome one." The other protested.

"That too."

"You can't be both." The first one said. "That's just common sense."

"Yeah, you're right." The other one agreed. "Maybe you're the smart one after all."

"Weren't you two supposed to find your friend?" The younger brother asked and the two gasped in unison.

"Right you're, Ronald dear!" One of the twins exclaimed as they opened the door of the compartment. "In that case, we shall be on our way."

"Do send our regards to the sleeping firstie."

And they were gone. The compartment was quiet for a few seconds as the train started moving. Harry was curious about other kids his age that were wizards. Did they have the same abilities as him? Were they perhaps also stronger than usual, though he doubted about the impenetrable skin as he knew that was a side effect of his uncle's beatings.

He turned around and blinked at the other boy who it seemed had been staring right at him. The tips of his ears turned red as he glanced away from Harry's piercing gaze.

"Your brothers seem...interesting." Harry rarely talked to people, much less kids his age. He preferred to stay in the background, only speaking when talked to and then only if he wanted to be noticed and isn't hiding himself with magic. The redhead was a bit tall, atleast by normal standards but Harry still had a couple of inches on him.

"Don't worry about them, they're just jokesters." The boy replied. "I'm Ron by the way. Ronald Weasley actually, but I prefer to be called Ron."

Harry sat up and shook the other boy's hand as he tried to get a feel of the other boy's strength. "Harry Potter. Nice to meet you, Ron."

"Are you really?" Ron's eyes widened and flew to Harry's forehead, clearly looking for his scar but he was disappointed as Harry's messy hair fell almost upto his eyes. "Can I see it?"

Rather than answering, Harry just lifted his hair and showed the boy his lightning bolt shaped scar.

"Wicked." Ron grinned.

"Right. So...uhm..." Harry had already forgotten the boy's name. "Can you tell me about your family."

"Well, there's not much to tell." His ears were becoming red again. "I have five brothers and a sister. And we are..."

Harry listened to the boy describe his family and from what he could tell, apart from having magic, they were practically normal people. None of them was physically stronger than normal and they all couldn't do magic without requiring a wand, apparently it was believed to be impossible. And yet he had been using his magic for almost six years now without one and didn't plan on becoming dependent on it.

Halfway through the boy's description, harry had already found out what he wanted and had started dozing. By the time the redhead noticed that his audience wasn't attentive, Harry was actually snoring. He jerked awake when he felt someone shaking him.

"Are you okay, mate?"

"Sorry, I slept late." He apologized, looking sheepish. "I'm just going to take a nap if you don't mind."

The redhead simply nodded and went back to his seat. Harry turned and faced the wall before calling up his magic to turn the boy's attention from him. He immediately stopped paying attention to him and in a few minutes, he had even forgotten that he had someone else with him in the compartment. By that point, Harry was already deep asleep.

When Harry woke up next, people were shouting. He turned around to see two new occupants in their compartment. One was a girl probably a first year just like them. She was already wearing her new Hogwarts robes and had a bossy sort of voice, lots of bushy brown hair, and rather large front teeth. She was in the middle of an argument with... Robb? Who kept gesticulating and gesturing at the terrified looking rat.

Standing to the side while watching the argument with equal parts amusement and nervousness was a round-faced boy. He was a bit on the pudgy side and he too was in his robes already.

"What is going on?"

Harry's soft voice startled the three. The blond boy who just happened to be standing nearest to Harry squawked and jumped, knocking the girl over who flailed around to grab something and caught Robb's robes and the three ended up falling together in a tangle of limbs and robes.

They immediately sprang away from each other, their faces burning in embarrassment. Harry was simply watching them with a raised eyebrow.

Ron was the first to recover. "Harry! Where did you come from, you scared me!"

"I was right here." Harry said. "What's with all the noise?"

"Well, this girl_"

"I can speak for myself, thank you very much." The girl interrupted as she walked over to Harry. "My name is Hermione Granger and this is Neville. I have to tell you, it's very rude to sneak up on people like that."

Harry didn't bother telling her that he had been there the entire time.

"Right." He said instead. "But could you please keep your discussion down, I'm trying to sleep here."

The girl seemed to have been caught off guard, clearly having been prepared for an argument. Before she could come up with something to say, the door to the compartment opened once again and three boys entered. Quite honestly, the compartment was starting to get a little cramped for Harry's comfort.

The boy at the front was extremely pale, with equally pale hair that was almost white. On either side of him were two boys, both as tall as Harry though certainly fatter than him. While not thin, Harry was more on the lean side, anyone would be surprised at his strength given that his body didn't exactly reflect it. The other two boys were however pretty thick, and Harry had no doubt they'll be getting some impressive muscles in the future.

The moment the pale boy laid eyes on the redhead, they immediately started insulting each other. Not wishing to be caught up in whatever was going on between the two, Harry quietly slipped out of the compartment without either of the others noticing. He walked down the train hoping to find a compartment where he could sleep in peace. It didn't take long as two compartments after his, he found one with three occupants. Two of the occupants, a boy and girl were asleep and the third one, a girl with blonde hair was reading a book.

With his misdirection up, the girl only glanced at him as he entered the compartment and went back to her book. However, about a minute later after he had already gotten a spot to sleep, the girl suddenly looked back at the door with a frown. She got up and checked outside the compartment on either side of the door before shaking her head and going back to sit. Harry had been observing her the entire time, apart from the professor that had visited him, this was the first person who had recovered from his misdirection though not instantly like the professor.

He knew it worked on magicals, having used it numerous times during their trip to Diagon alley. He wondered what made her and the professor different, vowing to find out as soon as he got a chance, Harry made himself comfortable and he was asleep in no time.

"I swear, Tracey if you don't wake up this instant I'm going to douse you with water!"

Harry slowly blinked and looked at where the voice had come from. The blonde haired girl was pointing her wand at the other girl who seemed to be deep asleep. The dark-skinned boy had already woken up and was watching the two with clear amusement. The train had stopped moving and it seemed like they had arrived.

Harry got up and slipped out of the compartment just a burst of water erupted out of the other girl's wand. He heard shrieking and a thump. When he reached his original compartment, he found it empty, even his trunk was missing. Groaning to himself, he got off the nearly empty train, still dressed in his normal clothes and joined a group students who were standing near a huge man.

Waving his hand over his head, Harry cast a warning charm to keep the cold away while the rest shivered besides him. Someone grabbed his arm and pressed herself into his side. Harry looked down and recognized her as the girl who had been sleeping that the others were trying to wake. She was quite short, and petite. Infact she didn't see to be old enough for Hogwarts, though since she was here, then obviously she was eleven and that was why she had been invited.

"Tracey!" The blonde haired girl hissed dangerously. "Let the boy go, this instant!"

In the dim light from the large man's lamp he could the small girl shaking her head. "He's warm."

"It's alright." Harry said, his voice as soft as always. "I don't mind."

Before the other girl could protest, the large man told them to start moving. Harry followed from near the back with the small girl, Tracey attached to his side. The moved down a steep slope which later turned into a narrow path and then almost everyone was gasping.

The narrow path had opened suddenly onto the edge of a great black lake. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers. It was the most beautiful thing Harry had ever seen in his entire life.

"No more'n four to a boat!" The large man called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore. Harry went towards one and surprised his escort when he suddenly lifted her and placed her into one of the boats. He got in after her before he was followed by Tracey's friends. Tracey was giving them both a smug look as she snuggled next to Harry.

"Everyone in?" shouted Hagrid, who had a boat to himself. "Right then -FORWARD!"

And the fleet of little boats moved off all at once, gliding across the lake, which was as smooth as glass. Everyone was silent, staring up at the great castle overhead. It towered over them as they sailed nearer and nearer to the cliff on which it stood.

"Heads down!" yelled Hagrid as the first boats reached the cliff; they all bent their heads and the little boats carried them through a curtain of ivy that hid a wide opening in the cliff face. They were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle, until they reached a kind of underground harbor, where they clambered out onto rocks and pebbles.

Then they walked up a passageway in the rock after the man's lamp, coming out at last onto smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle. They walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, oak front door.

"Everyone here? You there, still got yer toad?" The man asked the pudgy boy who Harry had left with Roland and Granger. The boy nodded as he cradled the large frog.

And with that, the man raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door. The door swung open at once. A tall, black-haired witch in emerald-green robes stood there. She had a very stern face and Harry immediately recognized her as the professor who had visited him, though he no longer remembered her name.

"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," said the large man.

Right! Minerva McGonagall.

"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here. "

She pulled the door wide. The entrance hall was so big you could have fit the whole of the Dursleys' house in it. The stone walls were lit with flaming torches like the ones at Gringotts, the ceiling was too high to make out, and a magnificent marble staircase facing them led to the upper floors.

They followed Professor McGonagall across the flagged stone floor. Harry could hear the drone of hundreds of voices from a doorway to the right - the rest of the school must already be here - but Professor McGonagall showed the first years into a small, empty chamber off the hall. They crowded in, standing rather closer together than they would usually have done, peering about nervously.

She then went ahead to welcome them and tell them about the sorting as well as telling them about the houses and their defining attributes. Harry had already heard this and so he spent his time observing the rest of the kids. He may not be very good at remembering people's names but he never forgot a face.

"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten_" she suddenly stopped as her eyes finally landed on Harry. "Mr. Potter, where are your robes!?"

He heard people gasping around him as they recognized him. Tracey however didn't seem to notice as she was snoring lightly from his side. If anything, it seemed the girl was even worse than him when it came to dozing.

"I'm sorry, Professor but I overslept on the train." Harry said softly, as he scratched the back of his neck sheepishly. "When I woke up, my trunk had disappeared and my robes were inside."

The rest of the kids would have laughed had they gotten over the shock of his presence. McGonagall however looked like she wanted to facepalm. Instead, she drew her wand and with a flick, plain black robes appeared out of thin air above Harry's head. Tracey jerked awake when the robes fell on them and Harry managed to detach himself from her to put on the robes over his clothes.

"Those won't last forever but they should take you through the welcome feast. Make no mistake, we shall be talking about this." Her voice was stern and her gaze unwavering. Harry nodded meekly. "As for the rest of you, make sure to smarten yourselves, I'll be back in a minute or so to call you for your sorting."

Their nerves at the sorting seemed to momentarily make them forget about him. Nothing much happened except for the arrival of ghosts which were swiftly chased by McGonagall when she came back and beckoned them to follow her.

They walked out of the chamber, back across the hall, and through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall. Harry had never even imagined such a strange and splendid place. It was lit by thousands and thousands of candles that were floating in midair over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. These tables were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets. At the top of the hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting.

Professor McGonagall led the first years up here, so that they came to a halt in a line facing the other students, with the teachers behind them. The hundreds of faces staring at them looked like pale lanterns in the flickering candlelight. Dotted here and there among the students, the ghosts shone misty silver. Harry looked upward and saw a velvety black ceiling dotted with stars.

He heard Granger whisper, "Its bewitched to look like the sky outside. I read about it in Hogwarts, A History."

Indeed, Harry had read about it too but nothing he imagined came even close to what he was seeing now. It was truly a magnificent sight. He wondered how it worked, maybe by the time he left Hogwarts, he would have figured it out. His attention was pulled from the ceiling by the hat which McGonagall had placed on the stool started singing.

It seemed wizards and witches used magic in the most bizarre or ways and despite his initial thoughts about the school, he was actually looking forward to learning. He wanted to knew ever way they used magic and how they differed from what he had figured out by himself. And once he had learned of the 'limits' of magic, then he will start from there by figuring out how to push those so called limits.

The sorting started and Harry made sure to commit every name and face to memory. The names weren't likely to stay there for long, but the faces most certainly will. Tracey went to Slytherin as well as Daphne Greengrass her blonde friend. Granger went to Gryffindor as did the pudgy boy. It wasn't long untill he was called. He had already dropped his misdirection magic the moment they entered the entrance chamber.

It took a few minutes to convince the hat to put him in Gryffindor rather than Slytherin like it wanted. He had thought about the houses and his initial goal of agreeing to come to Hogwarts and he had concluded that the easiest way to archive it was if he were a Gryffindor. He wouldn't have minded being in either of the other houses but that would have certainly made his goal harder to complete.

Albus Dumbledore had gotten to his feet, atleast Harry assumed it was Dumbledore from what McGonagall had described. He was beaming at the students, his arms opened wide, as if nothing could have pleased him more than to see them all there.

"Welcome," he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!"

He sat back down. Everybody clapped and cheered. Harry was looking at the man with a curious expression.

"Is he - a bit mad?" he asked the older redhead next to him uncertainly. Percy was his name if Harry remembered correctly.

"Mad?" said Percy airily. "He's a genius! Best wizard in the world! But he is a bit mad, yes. Potatoes, Harry?"

Harry's mouth fell open. The dishes in front of him were now piled with food. He had never seen so many things he liked to eat on one table: roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops and lamb chops, sausages, bacon and steak, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, fries, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots, gravy, ketchup, and, for some strange reason, peppermint humbugs.

A large smile appeared on his face, he was in heaven. Harry has always had a rather large appetite for as long as he remembered and thankfully, no matter how much he ate, he never seemed to grow fat. Had he been normal, he was sure he would have been even fatter than Dudley. So either all the food he ate was turned into magic or it just disappeared, either way, now he could indulge as much as he wanted without caring about anyone complaining.

And so he started digging in. Those around him were surprised at the rate the food around him was disappearing. The only one who seemed to match him was the young redhead though Harry was certainly not as messy as the redhead. Over at the staff table, Minerva was watching Harry eat with a small smile.

"He is just like his father, isn't he?" Filius asked from her left.

"No, he isn't despite what it may appear on first sight." She replied. "And neither is he like his mother though he certainly took from both in his own way."

"He is his own person." It wasn't a question, rather it was an observation.

McGonagall nodded. "He is. And I can't wait to see what kind of person he is."

Back at the Gryffindor table, Harry had eaten his fill, and just in time too as the remaining food suddenly disappeared along with the dessert.

Harry, who was starting to feel warm and sleepy, looked up at the High Table as Percy introduced the teachers to the first years around him. Hagrid was drinking deeply from his goblet. Professor McGonagall was talking to Professor Dumbledore. Professor Quirrell, in his absurd turban, was talking to a teacher with greasy black hair, a hooked nose, and sallow skin.

It happened very suddenly. The hook-nosed teacher looked past Quirrell's turban straight into Harry's eyes - and a sharp, hot pain shot across the scar on Harry's forehead. His vision shifted for a split second and he saw a flash of a young girl with red hair and eyes just like his own before it was gone. He blinked and stared at the swallow faced man in confusion. The man was looking back at Harry in what appeared to be fear with his dark eyes wide.

He suddenly pushed his chair back which scrapped loudly and a moment later, he had disappeared into a door at the side of the teacher's table. Everyone seemed to have stopped whatever they were doing.

"That's Professor Snape. He teaches Potions, but he doesn't want to - everyone knows he's after Quirrell's job. Knows an awful lot about the Dark Arts, Snape." Percy explained quietly. "I wonder what just happened though."

Harry did too, and he knew that somehow it had something to do with him and that red haired girl he had seen in his vision. Was she his mother, did she and Snape grow up together? There were alot of questions, and he was going to find the answers to them, one way or the other.

Dumbledore chose that moment to stand up again.

"Ahem - just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you. First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well. "

Dumbledore's twinkling eyes flashed in the direction of the Gryffindor table at the Weasley twins.

"I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors.

"Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch.

"And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death"

Students exchanged glances at that. Harry for his part had already dozed off the moment Dumbledore started talking and hadn't heard a single word. He was suddenly jerked awake as the hall erupted with noise. It took him a few seconds to realize that people were singing.

"Ah, music," Dumbledore said, wiping his eyes once the song came to an end. "A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!"

Harry followed Percy and the others almost in a trance. He was tired and his stomach was full, and if asked tomorrow, he wouldn't tell you how he reached his bed. All he knew that one minute they were leaving the Great hall, the next he was crawling into bed.

His arrival at Hogwarts had brought up even more questions than he had before. One thing he knew for certain, was that he will have them all answered by the end of this school year.

-00000-

AN: Harry is definitely going to be powerful in this fic if it hasn't already been made clear already.