As the trio chatted and snacked, the compartment door surprisingly slid open, revealing two fellow passengers. One was a short, round faced boy with dirty blonde hair and a rather distressed expression as though he fully expected the world to chew him up and spit him out repeatedly simply because it could. The other was a girl with a mass of brown curls cascading off her head and a determined expression on her face. Between the way she was gripping the boy's shoulder and seemed to be pushing him along and the way the boy seemed somewhere between confused, hopeful, and resigned about it, it was rather obvious the boy was struggling with something and the girl had decided unilaterally to help him with it whether he wanted her to or not. While Harry had never heard it put this way before, the pair were the spitting image of 'introvert who just got adopted by an extrovert'.
"Has anyone in here seen a toad?" the girl asked, her tone somewhere between bossy and focused. "Neville's lost..." Her voice trailed off as she caught sight of Penny, once more in Harry's lap and curled up for cuddles, her tail wrapped around his shoulders. "...his?" she finished, her voice now somewhere between shocked and meek.
"He's under the bench here," Penny pointed out helpfully. "I was kinda eager to see Harry again-" She poked Harry's cheek with her tail tip to indicate who she was talking about. "-and I think I accidentally chased him in here."
While the girl at the door stared with her eyes widening, Neville bent down and peaked under the bench, only for his eyes to widen as a smile split his face. "Trevor!" he called out in delight, reaching under the bench and pulling out a rather large, warty toad that somehow managed to seem put out at being found. Pulling the toad close in his embrace, he turned to Penny. "Thanks so much! I dunno what I would have done if I'd lost him!" He then paused. "Uh...why are you in his lap?"
"Because he needs hugs!" Penny stated bluntly. "Can you believe he'd never been hugged before he met me? It's just awful!"
Neville winced in sympathy as the other girls' eyes widened. "That does sound awful," he agreed, sitting on the bench next to Ron without thinking about it, even as Ron stared at Harry like he didn't know how to react.
"But...but you're Harry Potter!" the girl squeaked out in surprise and confusion. "I've read all about you! You saved the wizarding world by defeating You-Know-Who! Why wouldn't you have grown up loved and happy?"
Harry shrugged ruefully. "My non-magical relatives raised me. They weren't too fond of magic in general...or me in particular..." While it was still rough saying this, the way Penny snuggled into him a bit tighter as he did made it easier to bear.
"And...how do you know...?" the girl continued, glancing downward.
"I'm Penny!" Penny responded happily. "Penny Wyrm. We met in Ollivander's when we were getting our wands! I just knew there he'd be a good friend, and here I learned how hug deprived he is. And you are?"
The girl blinked in surprise at that rapid flow of information and shift of conversation. "Hermione," she finally introduced herself. "Hermione Granger."
"Did you want to join us, Hermione?" Penny asked, subtly shifting towards Harry's left side to lean into where he was scratching her behind her ear.
Hermione stood there for a time giving Harry and Penny a long, thoughtful look. She started to take a step forward, only for her eyes to dart towards where Ron and Neville were watching. Her cheeks promptly flushed as she quickly sat down on the opposite side of Neville from Ron, refusing to look anyone in the eye.
After a time, the awkwardness started to become too much and Harry decided to break the ice by continuing discussion of how each of them grew up. Neville apparently came from an old Wizarding family like Ron did, but seemed to have trouble expressing his magic. Apparently, one of his relatives had been so determined to prove he was magical that - among other things - he'd once dangled him upside down out a window, only to lose his grip when distracted. Lucky for Neville, he bounced. Hermione almost went into a full blown lecture on non-magical child protection acts that violated, but paused when she noticed that Harry and Penny were both uncomfortable with the discussion. Instead, she went into her own story. Both her parents were apparently dentists, and none of them had been sure of the causes of the 'odd things' that happened around Hermione until she'd gotten her Hogwarts letter, at which point she'd read everything she could get her hands on about magic and the magical world. The way she continued to go on and on about it, it was plain she was extremely book and academics focused, seemingly to the exclusion of almost anything else.
Just as everyone else was starting to get a little glaze-eyed from her lecture, the compartment door opened again. This time it was the pale blonde boy Harry had seen getting his robes at Madam Malkin's, and two others who were head and shoulders taller than him and at least twice as wide at the shoulder.
"Is it true?" the boy demanded curtly. "They're saying up and down the train that..." He paused as Penny's tail shifted in front of Harry's face as it moved to wrap around his shoulders from the other side, breaking his eye contact. "...Harry Potter is in..." he tried to continue, only for Penny's tail to reverse its course, as though trying to get more comfortable. "...this compartment. Is it-" He stopped as Penny's tail moved again. "Do you mind?" he demanded somewhere between angrily and haughtily of her.
"Mind what?" Penny asked in confusion.
"I'm trying to have a conversation here!" the boy snapped. "Will you get out of the way?"
"I'm not stopping you," Penny offered, shifting her tail again without even bothering to look at the boy.
Deciding to step in before the boy popped a blood vessel or something, Harry spoke up. "Yes, I'm Harry Potter," he explained, continuing to give Penny ear scratches. "And you are?"
"Draco Malfoy," the boy introduced himself with aplomb as though his name should carry a great deal of weight. The only reactions were from Ron and Neville, however. Neville shrank in on himself as though trying to hide, and Ron did his best not to sneer. "These are Crabbe and Goyle," he continued, gesturing to the two boys behind him.
"Which is which?" Penny asked curiously.
"Doesn't matter," the one on the left drawled slowly.
"We're interchangeable," the one on the right continued.
Draco turned and glowered at them both.
"At least, that's what Draco says," the one on the left continued.
"And he's the boss," the one on the right finished.
Penny suppressed giggles as Harry hid a smile behind one of her ears. Draco seemed to be pouting, but rallied gamely. "I just thought I'd stop by with an offer, Potter," he continued. "Some wizarding families are..." His voice trailed off as he noticed Penny nuzzling into Harry's face. "What are you doing, anyway?" he demanded irritably.
"Harry needs hugs," Penny responded readily as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
Draco paused, his finger going briefly to his chin as he frowned. He glanced from Harry to Penny before looking up thoughtfully, his expression becoming pensive. He then glanced towards Ron and Neville, and his expression turned dour. His eyes barely registered Hermione before he turned his attention towards Crabbe and Goyle with a thoughtful look, before glancing back and seeing how Harry was glancing askance at the pair. Sighing, he returned to speaking. "You'll soon find out some wizarding families are better than others," he explained calmly. "You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you with that." He extended his hand.
"And just what is that supposed to mean?" Harry demanded coldly, having not liked his impression of the boy in Madam Malkin's and having seen nothing here to improve it.
"Well, just look here," Draco pointed out, indicating the rest of the compartment. "You have a Weasley, a family of blood traitors with more kids than Galleons to rub together-"
Ron alternately bridled and sunk in on himself at that assertion.
"-you have the Longbottom heir who's barely magical enough to be at Hogwarts despite his bloodline-"
Neville simply sunk in on himself further.
"-a Muggleborn-" Maloy continued, dismissing Hermione as if she were worth no more than that, much to her irritation. "And then this...Beast," he concluded, gesturing contemptuously at Penny's tail. "They'll only weigh you down, and lead you to the same fate as your parents. You wouldn't want that, would you?"
Had Penny not been sitting in his lap and pinning him down, Harry likely would have leapt to his feet and delivered a punch to Draco's jaw for referring to Penny like that. However, not only was she keeping him pinned, but she didn't so much as twitch an ear at the name calling...literally. "You okay, Penny?" he asked, deciding to not focus on Draco for a moment so he could respond calmly.
"What, what he said?" she asked, pointing with her tail at Draco. "I've had more creative insults flung my way by six year olds. If that's all he's got in the way of vitriol, he's not worth the energy it'd take to respond." She let out a cute yawn and snuggled into Harry's chest and closed her eyes. "Mr.s Interchangeable, would you close the door when your boss leaves? The hallway's kind of noisy..."
Draco's eyes bulged at the dismissal inherent in her reaction. "How dare you!" he snapped out angrily. "When my father hears about this-"
"-he'll throw a fit just like you are?" Penny interrupted blandly. "Or does he actually have enough spine and character to handle his own battles, and will instead lecture you for crying to him just because someone chose to ignore you?"
Draco's eyes bulged, his fists clenched, and his teeth ground. "...you will regret making an enemy of me, Beast!" he snarled out.
"Won't be the first time," Penny replied, still without even bothering to look at him.
Having apparently become so enraged he was robbed of speech, Draco spun on his heel and stormed off in dungeon that was as high as he could manage, given his height. As soon as he was behind them, Crabbe and Goyle shook with silent mirth before schooling their expressions and turning to follow him, shutting the door on their way out.
Hermione, Neville, and Ron all stared at Penny in stunned silence. Ron was the first to find his voice. "Cor..." he managed to get out. "You don't pull your punches, do you?"
"Not when I actually make an effort, no," Penny agreed as she put her head under Harry's chin.
"That...that wasn't you making an effort, was it?" Hermione asked nervously.
"Nope!" Penny confirmed with a beaming smile.
"I'm genuinely scared of what that will look like, then," Neville murmured in awe. Trevor croaked an agreement. For her part, Hedwig had one wing over her beak and was rapidly clicking her tongue, for some reason.
Harry simply shrugged. "Well, we'll deal with him if we have to," he stated firmly, quickly returning to snuggles. He could definitely get used to this...