Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to the Harry Potter universe. It is the property of Joanne Rowling. The only things that belong to me, are the original characters and stories that I have written.

The sun had barely risen when Petunia burst into his bedroom and parted the drapes to wake him on the first of September. Vernon's old alarm clock by his bed showed the time as a little before seven. Harry who'd been entirely too excited the night before and not fallen asleep until way past his usual bedtime, blearily wiped at his sleep-crusted eyes.

"Good morning, it's time to wake up." He heard Petunia's sing-songy voice from the foot of his bed, she was entirely too chipper for this time of the day.

He muttered out a wish for another hour of sleep before he burrowed deeper into his pillow and pulled the blanket over his head.

"Oh no, you don't!" Petunia exclaimed as she threw off his blanket. "If you're not out of this bed in the next minute I'll call in Dudley, and we'll have the tickle wars to end all tickle wars."

Harry curled up into a foetal position and rolled the pillow over his head.

"One, two, three…"

As Petunia began the countdown to destruction Harry sighed deeply, his adoptive mother was entirely too good at being a mother. In his previous life, there hadn't been anything that could motivate him the same way she was able to. With a great heave, he forced himself up into a sitting position.

"All right, all right, I'm up."

"There, do you see how much easier everything is when you do as I say?" Petunia chuckled lightly as she patted him condescendingly on the head. "Go take a shower and brush your teeth, I'll have breakfast ready for you when you're done. We're leaving around nine, so if you have anything left to pack, you better get to it."

"No, I got it all done yesterday," Harry grunted.

Hurricane Petunia pinched his cheek and muttered out a quiet, "You're so responsible." Before stepping out of his room.

Harry after his morning shower, now much more awake, sat down at the kitchen table for breakfast. Vernon was reading the morning paper while munching on a piece of toast. His mother was humming some unknown tune while working away at the stove. When she noticed him sitting at the table she quickly scooped up the bits and pieces needed for a full English breakfast onto a plate and set it down in front of him.

"Good morning Harry," Vernon greeted from behind the paper. "Excited about going away to your school?" he questioned a moment later.

He took a moment to swallow his food before answering. "Mornin' dad, it's a mixed bag of feelings, to be honest. I'll miss you, mom, and Dudley… But I get to learn magic from real professionals, no more floundering in the dark. I can do magic whenever I wish and I don't have to hide a part of myself outside the house."

"It's good that you're not forgetting us lowly normal folk now that you're going off to learn how to be a lofty wizard," Vernon grumbled playfully from behind his paper.

Harry chuckled lightly before he resumed devouring his breakfast. The three of them enjoyed their breakfast in companionable silence until Dudley came thundering down the stairs complaining loudly about having to wake up so early.

The trip to King's Cross had taken roughly an hour, during which he and Dudley had discussed all the upcoming video games they were going to enjoy when they got home from their respective boarding schools for the winter holidays. They had also spent time making fun of each other's uniforms. Harry's they'd agreed looked like something a monk from the twelve hundreds would wear, while Dudley's hat and stick made him look like a pretentious fool.

After parking and acquiring a trolley to load his belongings and pets onto, they'd entered the station in search of platform nine and three-quarters. It didn't take them many minutes at all to locate the barrier between platforms nine and ten, and there they waited as Professor McGonagall had advised them to. Even though it was barely past ten it didn't take long before Harry spotted the first family on a collision course with the barrier, and the moment they should have collided with the wall, they simply disappeared.

His family however hadn't reacted at all, it would seem like there was some kind of simple spell to keep non-magical people from noticing anything around the entrance.

"It's over there," Harry pointed towards the barrier where he had seen the family of three disappear. "I think it works similarly as the front door to the Leaky Cauldron."

"Well this is it then," Vernon began, "we're expecting at least a letter per week and if there is not I'll drive up there myself to fetch you." His adoptive father bent down on one knee and hugged him tightly. "You take good care of yourself now." He said before moving aside to allow Petunia her turn.

"Dad you can't even see Hogwarts or Hogsmeade, all of it will just appear as a ruin for you," Harry stated exasperatedly.

"I'll find a way," he heard Vernon grumble from behind Petunia.

Dudley and Harry shared a quick grin at their father's ridiculous declaration. Petunia on the other hand seemed in no mood at all for laughter. She nervously started the impossible task of trying to neaten his cursed Potter hair with her fingers.

"The world you are about to enter, Harry, is dangerous." Came the solemn voice of Petunia. "I've tried my best not to project my insecurities and worries regarding the magical world onto you. But if something were to happen to you and I hadn't done my best to prepare you, I could never forgive myself." She paused for a moment to remove an imaginary piece of lint from his shirt.

"Professor McGonagall touched a bit on the civil war that they credit you with ending. For some reason, she omitted the fact that some of them still hold great value in keeping their blood pure, like the royal families in the normal world used to, but with magical blood instead. My sister frequently complained about 'arrogant toe-rags' as she called them, your father included." They shared a quiet laugh at that.

"What I'm trying to say is… There are people in the magical world who hold a lot of power and will look down upon you for who your mother was. They will say that your father settled below his station and that he sullied his lineage. Do not let anything they say bother you. Your parents loved each other very much, and you even more." Petunia finished her statement by manhandling him into a backbreaking hug.

"I can't help you in the magical world, and that scares me." His adoptive mother whispered in his ear. "Promise me you'll be careful," she pleaded.

"I promise." He whispered back. If only she knew the trouble that awaited him on the other side of the barrier.

When Petunia finally let him out of her grasp, he and Dudley shared a quick fist bump before his brother stuck a finger through the cat carrier to scratch Minerva on the head. "You'll have to look after Harry at Hogwarts, you know how he is." Minerva lazily opened one eye and meowed what sounded like an affirmative.

"Hey, I'll have you know I'm very responsible," Harry said as he poked his tongue out at Dudley.

"And you're also a total scatterbrain once you get interested in something. If not for me and mum you'd forget to eat and sleep." Dudley grinned at him.

Harry rolled his eyes at his brother's words. "I'll see you Christmas Dudders."

As he started pushing his trolley towards the entrance to platform nine and three-quarters, he paused for a moment to turn around and give one final wave to his family. Then he started picking up speed while aiming straight at the barrier, a few moments later he passed through it and out onto the magical side of Kings Cross station.

His gaze was instantly drawn to the bright red steam train occupying the entire station. Seeing the Hogwarts express in person was something else entirely. It felt like his stomach was doing somersaults, in a few hours he was going to be at Hogwarts.

The rest of the platform was sparsely populated, with a few families milling about here and there. He wasn't surprised though, since all students at Hogwarts went through this ritual at least two times a year, and if his memory was correct, few stayed at school over winter break. That would mean that most students rode the train roughly thirty times during their seven years at school. When you did the math, it wasn't any wonder why most families didn't make a big deal out of the Hogwarts Express after the first year.

It had taken him a couple of minutes to get comfortably situated in an empty compartment. With magic, lifting his trunk up on the shelves had been child's play and next to it, Hedwig was asleep in her cage. He had taken off his shoes and propped himself up along the bench next to the window. He was lazily petting the dozing Minerva in his lap as he watched the comings and goings of people on the platform when he spotted a veritable horde of redheads enter from the barrier.

If the Weasleys were arriving it wasn't long until departure now, taking a quick peek at his wristwatch he saw that it was less than ten minutes left. It would seem that the books he once read weren't incorrect when it came to the tardiness of the large family of redheads. Not that he blamed them, corralling that many children seemed like an impossible task.

He lifted the backpack he had brought with him off the floor and into his lap, within it, he had packed a few games, a deck of cards, and some light reading. It would take quite a few hours to reach Hogwarts and he wanted something to pass the time with.

While rooting around in his bag, there was a hesitant knock on the door before it slowly slid open. "Excuse me, can I sit in here?"

Harry looked up from the backpack in his lap, to meet the eyes of a lanky red-headed boy his age. This had to be Ronald Weasley. When Harry didn't answer, the redhead nervously continued. "Everywhere else is pretty full already."

That snapped Harry out of his thoughts. "Of course, come on in, there's more than enough space for both of us."

Ronald breathed a sigh of relief and pushed his trunk inside the compartment, his trunk was old, ratty, and barely held together. The redhead tried a few times in quick succession to lift it up on the rack over their seats, but he barely got it off the ground without toppling over. Harry lifted Minerva off his lap despite her protestations and took pity on the boy and helped him lift it.

"Thanks," Ronald mumbled as they sat down opposite each other.

Minerva meowed at Harry as he was settling down into the same position before she jumped back into his lap and demanded scratches. "No problem," he replied as he pet his silver-striped Kneazle.

As silence settled like a blanket in the compartment the other boy started fidgeting. He looked around the compartment several times, out the window, and at Minerva, before settling on Harry's face.

"Ehrm… my name's Ron Weasley, what's yours?" The redhead stammered out.

"My name is Harry, and the fluffy wonder in my lap is called Minerva." He responded with a slight grin, and Minerva meowed ut a greeting and waved lazily with her paw.

"Uh, she seems pretty smart for a cat, it wouldn't happen to be a Kneazle would it?" Ron asked with a little more confidence than before. "All I've got for a pet is Percy's old rat and he just sleeps all the time."

"Yeah, Professor McGonagall told us about Kneazles when she introduced my family to Diagon Alley. I grew up in the normal world and we got her from an old lady who breeds cats. The Professor explained that because Kneazles are unregulated there's probably a bunch of them running around the muggle world pretending to be normal cats." Harry explained

"The normal world?" Ron questioned with a weird look in his eyes.

Harry chuckled, "Uh-Huh. There are like five and a half billion normal people. Almost sixty million in the United Kingdom alone. From what I could gather from the books I read, there are not even sixty million magical people in the entire world. Hence, normal world."

Ron's eyes widened at that. "Five b-billion?" he stuttered out.

"I take it you're from one of the old magical families that home-school their kids? Professor McGonagall explained that most kids went to school before Hogwarts, but there were some that didn't." Harry directed the conversation further.

The tips of Ron's ears reddened. "Yeah, mum taught me and my siblings."

"Cool, I bet you learned a ton about magical things that I didn't." Harry returned, not wishing to make the other boy feel stupid.

"Mum is very strict on not letting any of us do magic until we turn seventeen," Ron muttered.

"That's not what I meant though," Harry said quickly. "Simply by constantly living in a completely magical household, you must have learned a bunch of things that I know nothing about."

"Well… Mum did teach us how to handle the normal pests in a garden like gnomes. We also learned about a bunch of magical plants and some simple potions." Ron's ears started to redden again. "Though I can't remember much of it."

Their conversation lulled into a back-and-forth on the merits of their respective worlds. Ron seemed interested in video games and even became more fascinated when Harry started describing the different foods and candies that had exploded in popularity in Britain over the last few decades.

Harry asked questions about the magical world, to which Ron admitted that he didn't know most of the answers. It was a different story when they broached the subject of quidditch. Ron came alive when speaking about his favourite sport. He described the few matches he had seen in person and spoke about how he and his brothers usually listened to the matches on the wireless.

The conversation was interrupted when the lady with the trolley opened the door to ask if they wanted anything. Ron – like in the original story – declined and brandished his sandwiches while he went red in the face.

He like the original Harry was very interested in the magical candy. Fishing out his coin purse from the mokeskin bag around his neck, he quickly handed the nice lady a handful of coins in exchange for a handful of every type of candy she carried on the cart.

Pouring the overflowing candy in his arms onto the seat next to him, he invited Ron to dig in.

"Are you sure?" Ron asked hesitantly.

"Oh yeah, this is way too much for me to eat all alone." Harry grinned at him.

Ron's smile was so bright it almost hurt to look at, Harry had definitely made the right decision. "Thanks, Harry."

"In return, you'll have to teach me about the candy, I have no idea what anything is."

Ron's eyes sparkled at him, "Sure! You should start with the chocolate frogs, they're one of my favourites. You get cards of famous wizards and witches with them that people collect." The redhead tossed him a package from the pile. "I've got over six hundred cards myself, though most of them come from Bill and Charlie's collections."

The chocolate frog tried to jump away when he opened the package but he caught it instantly. Ron uttered a mumbled "Good catch." while nibbling away at a Pumpkin Pasty. Time passed swiftly as they had the time of their life swapping stories while sharing Harry's hoard of candy.

Their afternoon delight was interrupted by their door being shoved open, in the doorway a bushy-haired bucktoothed young girl was standing. "Excuse me," she began while looking them over, "have any of you seen a toad, Neville has lost his."

Harry spoke before Ron could open his mouth, "No toads in here as far as I am aware, but if you find a prefect, they should be able to help you locate Neville's toad."

"A prefect, I've read about those in 'Hogwarts a History'. Yes, why didn't I think of that? Thank you." She said very quickly and all in one breath.

"You're very welcome, my name is Harry and this here is Ron." He turned to the redhead. "Didn't you say that one of your brothers was a prefect?"

"Huh?… Oh, yeah – Percy – my brother, he's a prefect. Looks like me but taller, he'd love to help you if you find him. Just don't ask the twins, they might prank you instead." Ron replied.

"Oh, thank you all so very much." The bushy-haired girl said as she almost ran out of the compartment. She returned a moment later, "How very rude of me, I didn't introduce myself. My name is Hermione Granger." Then, in the blink of an eye, she was gone again.

"Mental, that one," Ron muttered as he twirled his finger towards the side of his head.

"That's rude Ron," Harry admonished. "She's probably from the muggle world, same as I, and just terribly excited."

Ron's entire face flushed in shame, "Yeah, sorry. I just forget – you know – that not everyone knows about the magical world and Hogwarts."

"It's all right, just remember that you can hurt people with your words." Harry smiled at him.

They had barely had the time to get comfortable in their seats again before the door flew open once more. Entering their compartment as if he owned it was a short boy with albino blonde hair and a sneer on his face. He was flanked by two much taller and broader boys who had befuddled looks on their faces.

The blonde boy zeroed in on Harry while completely ignoring Ron. "Are you Harry Potter? He's supposed to be on the train this year and-" Ron interrupted the almost albino boy by snickering loudly.

"And what do you think is so funny?" The boy questioned before muttering to himself, "Red hair, freckles, and second-hand robe. Father has told me all about you Weasleys, no magical skills to speak of and more children than they can afford." He sneered at Ron.

Ron's entire face and ears took on a deep crimson colour as he answered. "He can't be Harry Potter, stupid. He's not got the scar or the glasses and he's muggle-born."

"A mudblood?" The blonde-haired boy scowled at Harry. "I thought it smelled foul in here."

After he had spoken his bigoted dogma, the boy turned on his heels and strode out of the compartment. Or, at least he tried. As soon as he took his first step he fell over and hit his face on the floor with a sickening crunch.

The boy began screaming in pain as blood flowed out of his nose. His followers looked at each other questioningly before bending down and lifting the boy up on his feet. Then the bookends each slung an arm around their shoulders and half-carried him out of the compartment.

As soon as they had left and Harry had closed the door behind them, Ron started sniggering quietly before it turned into full-blown laughter. "D-Did you see his face?" The redhead wheezed out. "The git got what he deserved."

Harry pondered whether to tell Ronald that he was the one responsible for Malfoy's fall or not. In the end, he decided not to, that would stay his little secret. "Yes, he was certainly an unpleasant person." He said instead.

"All the Malfoys are like that, bad people the lot of them. You shouldn't care about what he said, they're all bigots." Ron stated.

"Well even if I cared about his opinions, what he called me wouldn't be true." Harry replied.

"You aren't a muggleborn? But you said that you grew up in the 'normal' world." Ron's tone was accusatory as he spoke.

"Yes, I grew up in the normal world, but both of my parents were magicals. They were killed by Voldemort so I grew up with my non-magical relatives." Harry responded.

Harry's response froze the expression on Ron's face and the words he had been about to say died in his mouth. "Sorry, I let my mouth get ahead of my brain again," Ron mumbled without looking at Harry.

He chuckled at that. "That's a good description. It's okay though, I don't remember my birth parents. I live with my aunt and uncle, but I call them mum and dad, and their son - my cousin - is more like my brother."

Ronald by this point realized something from what Harry had said earlier. "You said V-Vol… You-Know-Who's name."

"I understand that people that went through the terror of the civil war might be afraid of him, but I don't remember it, and he's gone isn't he?" Harry said simply.

The redheaded boy gave him a quizzical look in return before the metaphorical lightbulb turned on in his head. "You're him aren't you?" Ron asked with a bated breath.

Harry rolled his eyes, "Him who? You'll have to be more specific if you want me to answer that question."

"Harry Potter." Came the whispered response.

"Yes, my name is Harry Potter. If you mean the boy from the incredibly stupid storybooks, then no that's not me." He responded.

Ron gulped while looking at Harry's forehead. "Why don't you have the scar? Or glasses for that matter?"

Harry harrumphed and looked out the window before he replied. "As I said, those books are stupid. I grew up in the normal world and they were written entirely without my or my family's permission. There's even a disclaimer in the books about it."

"Do you re-" Ron's brain seemed to, for once, put a stop to his mouth's actions, as he paused before asking what he had been about to ask. His eyes started to dart around and the tips of his ears were turning red once again.

Taking pity on the boy, Harry told him what he wanted to hear. "No, I don't remember anything about him. I was one, do you remember anything from when you were one?" Of course, the night was seared into his memory, it was after all the night he had been reborn. But he didn't remember anything about Voldemort, all the action had already happened when he woke up.

"Sorry." Ron apologized once again.

"It's fine. This time you almost managed to stop your mouth." He grinned at Ron.

The other boy grinned back awkwardly.

BANG

Once again the door flew open, and this time Ron who had been completely focused on Harry, almost flew out of his seat in terror. Hermione was there to visit once more.

"Thank you very much for your advice," she started before she turned to Ron, "we found your brother and he helped us track down Trevor - that's Neville's toad." She paused as her eyes found the bloodstain on the compartment floor. "Have you been fighting?"

Harry cut her off. "No, some boy was in here and he tripped over his own feet. I think he might have broken his nose."

She calmed down after hearing his explanation. "That's good. You should switch into your robes, according to the conductor we're going to arrive at Hogsmeade soon." Then, as quickly as she had arrived, she disappeared out the door again.

It didn't take long after they had switched to their uniforms before the train started to slow down. With the slowdown came a message over the loudspeakers, that informed them that they would be arriving at Hogwarts in five minutes, and to leave their luggage and pets on the train.

Harry locked the asleep Minerva in the cat carrier and she didn't even bother to open an eye when he bid her goodbye.

"Hey how come you get to bring two pets?" Ron questioned.

"Well I was going to bring Minerva, but then Professor McGonagall bought me Hedwig as a gift. We had some problems with not being able to contact the magical world, so she thought it was prudent if I had an owl." Harry paused for a moment to scratch Hedwig on the head. "And since my family lives in a non-magical neighbourhood they can't really keep an owl, without risking the statute of secrecy."

"That makes sense, the ministry is very hard on those who break the statute according to Dad. He works in the ministry you see. His department deals with enchanted items that escape out into the muggle world." Ron explained as they exited the train onto the platform in Hogsmeade.

"Where do you think we're supposed to go?" The redhead questioned.

Harry laughed lightly. "I think we're supposed to go with Hagrid," he pointed to the giant of a man that was walking towards the platform "he's the gamekeeper at Hogwarts, also he's the only faculty member here."

"Woah he's huge," Ron muttered.

"He's also as kind as he's large." Harry smiled as he started to walk towards Hagrid.

"Firs' years over here!" Hagrid's voice bellowed out over the crowd.

The two of them squeezed through the throng of people in front of them to reach Hagrid.

"Everything all right there Harry?" The half-giant questioned with a bright grin as he spotted them.

"Very well, and you Hagrid?" Harry replied with a slight smile on his lips.

"Can't complain. Now, stay close to me." Hagrid said before he started shouting for the first-year students again.

As soon as Hagrid seemed confident that all the first-year students were arrayed in front of him. He strode off towards a small path that led them out of Hogsmeade and onwards to the school.

It took maybe ten minutes until the path got smaller and started slanting downwards, and as they rounded a bend, he could see the dark and foreboding lake that housed the giant squid and the mermaids. As they walked he kept his eyes directed towards the direction he suspected Hogwarts was going to be.

His guess was correct, and as they rounded a great cliff, he saw it. The giant castle, with its towers and spires, pointed towards the sky. It had thousands of large and small windows that all were lit. Hogwarts was like nothing he had ever seen before, and he wasn't the only one who thought so by the gasps he heard around him.

Hagrid came to a stop at a small dock, where there were a flock of boats. "No more than four per boat." The gamekeeper yelled out.

Harry and Ron took a boat, and a few moments later they were joined by Hermione and whom he suspected was Neville. They both seemed to be completely lost in their thoughts, so as the boats set off out over the lake, he didn't bother speaking with them.

The boats took them into a dark tunnel that seemed to lead under the castle and soon they were all disembarking at a small dock. As soon as they were all on their feet, Hagrid was leading them up towards the majestic and ornate front doors of Hogwarts. The half-giant struck his meaty fist thrice upon the door. A moment later it swung open and out stepped Minerva McGonagall.

"The first years, professor." Hagrid said in greeting.

"Thank you Hagrid, I've got it from here." The deputy headmistress stated primly.

Hagrid nodded in affirmation as he walked past her into the castle.

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