Chapter 3. Introductions
One month later, the door to my room banged open, startling me wide awake. "Ron! Have you seen– You're still in bed?! Get up! Get up, you, now! Packed up at least?" my mom called me in a hurry.
I blinked, not comprehending anything yet, didn't even notice when I had sat up, and nodded towards the full trunk and other packages. "Yeah, yeah. Since yesterday". I yawned.
"You sure? What if you forgot something? All your cloaks?" and she just opened my trunk and started shuffling around, "oh, could pack it up better, dear. Cloaks I see, good, what– ah-ha shirts, yes. Where are your nice green trousers? And footwear?" she kept shooting questions, while still rifling through my stuff.
"Er–," my brain stopped working for a moment from the sheer absurdity of the moment. "What are you doing, mom? And I don't have any green trousers. Footwear is in another bag… Mom! Stop messing with my stuff!" I cried in indignation. "What did you even come for?"
She gasped. "Right, I forgot! Percy can't find his prefect badge. Have you happened to see it?"
I lifted an eyebrow and said only one word. "Twins."
She huffed at me. "Really, Ron? You should stop blaming twins on everything like they are a source of all evil." Well, it was you who said it.
I just lifted another eyebrow and kept staring deadpanned.
"I already asked them, they said they hadn't touched it." she admitted.
Technically, they didn't need to touch it to steal. Still they wouldn't have lied. They might be pranksters and love fooling around with people, but they don't mess with stuff that was really important to them. They did have sort of standards. Not much, mind you, but they did.
On the other hand, Percy had seemed to aggravate them more than usual last evening. So who knows.
"I don't know then. How could it have been here anyway?"
"You never know, Ron. Percy's been looking for it all morning," she sighed. "Alright, enough lying around! Get dressed, wash up and get down for breakfast." She tossed and left.
As I was left alone in my own room at last, I pondered for a second that this was it. I was leaving for at least four months, maybe even till next summer.
Something in the corner of my eye caught my attention, making me turn. I groaned exasperated "Mom!".
After putting back all my stuff mom had pulled out in a hurry, I rushed into the thankfully empty bathroom to perform my morning ritual.
The task that laid ahead was by far the most adventurous today. I had to drag all my luggage down through the hectic warzone that was surely waiting for me on the second floor.
I quickly carried all my things down to the third floor. What followed next was an impressive combo of acrobatics skills I hadn't known I possessed, heavy lifting, patience and looking through the futures. Still it was extremely difficult to avoid all the bodies flailing around and objects flying over my head that weren't supposed to be doing that, whilst ignoring all the disorienting noises.
All in all, I managed to do a pretty good job, if I said so myself, only getting knocked over twice and hit in the face by a dirty jar full of a black unidentifiable liquid.
With a few more bruises I happily left my trunk, bags and a cage in the front yard and left for the kitchen.
"What's for breakfast?" I asked dad upon entering. Dad, lucky git, was lazily reading the newspaper with no care in the world. Right, he was leaving for work soon, far from this crazy. He silently nodded towards the plate, not even lifting his eyes from the paper.
At the same time Ginny was listening to all the happening chaos with an occasional giggle, very much entertained. I let her enjoy the show while she still could.
You would think that people would learn in all these years how to pack things up in advance, but no, they apparently liked too much to impersonate chicken with a head cut off.
I shook my head and sat to eat.
"Arthur!" my mom's voice rang, making me wince. It was too close to ultrasound to my liking. "Arthur, we have a problem! We ran out of floo powder." She entered the kitchen with the last sentence.
Dad finally deigned to tear his eyes from the newspaper at last, gaping. I stifled a laugh at his face. "But–"
"Will you give us a lift to the station?" she asked with pressure.
"... Of course, dear", he agreed with a sigh, neatly folded the paper and stood up. "Kids! I'll be waiting by the car in twenty minutes." Just like that he was gone.
Twenty had been naturally too optimistic of him, but forty minutes later all family was eventually gathered inside the car. Thank Merlin for space extension charms. All luggage was tightly packed in the car trunk. Only Scabbers was sound asleep in my pocket. Lazy bugger.
Dad started the car.
"Everyone's ready? Belts fastened?" our dad instructed. "Arthur," mom rushed him. "Alright, alright! Mind you, we won't be going back, if you forgot something, okay?" Everyone nodded, even Ginny.
He drove the car off onto the road and, after letting it to gain some speed, he flipped the invisibility booster, yelled "Here we go!" and lifted the thing up into the sky.
It still caused an exhilarating feeling in me, no matter how many times I flew in this banger before. There was something fundamentally different between when you yourself controlled a broom under you and when you trusted some device to keep you in the air. But the view outside was stunning, I won't deny.
Next followed an hour and a half drive to London. Good old Ford Anglia was supposed to get us there in three hours minimum, but the distinct lack of traffic up here and a series of magical upgrades gave it quite a boost.
Nonetheless, we made it in a nick of time. We barely managed to get out the last piece of luggage from the trunk, before dad swiftly drove away, leaving us by the entrance of King's Cross with less than ten minutes to get on the train. By that moment, mom had already acquired trolleys for everyone from somewhere. We frantically put our stuff on and scurried after her.
Our family certainly made quite a spectacle: a rowdy herd of redheads and an owl. Percy's new screech owl Hermes looked around from inside his cage with the same regal air that my brother adored.
Mom couldn't resist grumbling along the way: "Didn't I tell you to leave earlier? To pack earlier? I did. Anyone listened to me? No, of course not. As if it's me who needs it the most. And now what? Now we have to rush our way through the whole station that's completely packed with Muggles, of course it is. Just try and not listen to me next year." No one wanted to disturb her ranting so we all kept silent. Soon we stopped near the familiar barrier.
"Here we are! Alright, Percy, you go first."
He just nodded and calmly strutted towards the barrier, disappearing from view. Funny enough, at that moment a large group of tourists swept by, and no one noticed anything extraordinary. It was amazing how little muggles were willing to see when it was right under their noses.
"Fred, you next," mom said to, I believe, Fred.
"I'm not Fred, I'm George," he replied cheekily. "Honestly, woman, you call yourself our mother? Can't you tell I'm George?"
I rolled my eyes so hard. It had been their running joke for quite a while.
"Sorry, George, dear." I was pretty sure mom wasn't fooled either, but often it was easier to just play along.
"Only joking, I am Fred." he admitted predictably and disappeared as well. His twin rapidly followed next.
Now it was my turn. I took a deep breath.
"Excuse me," a sudden voice called.
The voice belonged to a small black haired guy with a white owl and big round glasses, who had been trailing us for a while now. 'Must be a first-year muggleborn', I decided.
"Hello, dear," she greeted him. "First time at Hogwarts? Ron's new too." and gestured at me.
He shifted his attention to me, momentarily sizing me up. He didn't seem awfully impressed, but that was okay – he didn't look much either.
"Yes," he answered to mom's early question. "Only I don't know how–".
"–to get on the platform?" she finished for him. "It's very easy, dear. You see, all you have to do is walk straight at the wall between platform nine and ten. Don't worry, you won't crash into it. If you're nervous, you could do it with a bit of a run for the first time."
"Okay," he said.
The kid didn't look as incredulous as I thought he'd be. Poor guy must have seen enough weird things in the wizarding world already. Instead he looked almost resigned.
"Why don't you do it now, before Ron?" mom suggested.
The spectacled boy hesitated very little. He lined up his trolley with the barrier and stared at it for a second. Then took a deep breath and sprinted towards it. He was almost knocked around by some passers-by, but moved firmly forward. In no time at all he vanished into the brick wall.
I whistled. The guy didn't even flinch. I instantly dubbed him a sure Gryffindor.
I turned to mom. "Was it really a good idea to go through the barrier 'with a bit of a run'? He could just walk calmly and didn't have to fear crashing into it."
"Hush you, it was faster. Now you hurry up! You don't want to be left behind, do you?" With no more arguments I went to the platform with the girls appearing behind me right away.
The scarlet steam engine was majestically standing here naturally already packed with loads of people.
I looked around. There's no hope in catching the twins, surely they're already on the train with Lee or another three year old Gryffindors. Percy is in the perfect compartment, no doubt. But there was no sign of that muggleborn guy either. Pity, he seemed alright, if a bit stalkerish. Heh. He and Ginny gotta get along, I imagine.
We came to a step in front of steps to a carriage. I turned to mom and Ginny to say goodbyes, but mom caught me in a hug before I could do anything.
"You be a good boy, hear? Me and dad are so proud of you." I felt warmer inside at those words. "I know, mom."
She released me. "Oh, you grew up so fast, Ron," she smiled wistfully.
I was about to bid farewell again as it was starting to feel awkward, but mom had other plans.
"Fred! George! Are you there? Come here!" It was not really a yell, per se, but no matter how relatively soft her voice sounded, I'm pretty sure it could be heard from anywhere on the train.
But luckily, or not – it was a matter of perspective, we heard the twins' "Coming!" before they hopped off the same carriage we were standing in front of.
"How can these two handsome–"
"young men be of assisstance?"
I stood silently rubbing my nose, when I wanted to leave but didn't know how.
"Ron, hold on, you've got something on your nose." she said, taking out her handkerchief.
And before I could let out as much as a squeak, she grabbed me firmly and started to scrub my nose furiously.
"Mom, get off," I squeezed out, finally breaking free of her harassment. I was blushing heavily.
Twins couldn't pass up an opportunity to tease me mercilessly. "Aah, has ickle Ronnikins got somefink on the nosie?"
"Shut up," I glared at them.
"Where is Percy?" asked mom, before we could argue further.
"Oh, he's coming now."
True to their words, Percy came up from behind us, proudly showing off his shiny silver badge on the chest. Apparently it had been tangled somehow in his bedsheets. I hoped he didn't sleep with the blasted thing.
"Can't stay long, mother," he said. "I'm up front. Prefects got two compartment to themselves–"
"Oh, are you a prefect," started one of the twins, as if it's the first time they heard it. "You should have said something, brother mine, we had no idea, you know?" Here it begins…
"Hand on, I think I remember him saying something like that," another twin argued back. "Once–"
"Or twice–"
"A minute–"
"All summer–"
"Shut up," Percy threw an icy glare at them.
I hated to say it, but the twins did have a point. One thing is when you're proud of your achievement, fine; but another thing is… whatever he'd been doing.
"How come Percy gets new robes, anyway?" complained a twin not for the first time either. I raised my eyebrows, 'You do not get to complain about new things'.
"Because he's a prefect." she said pointedly. "Alright, dear. Well, have a good term, do you hear me? We're so proud of you – send me an owl as you get there."
She kissed Percy on the cheek, and he left.
Mom then turned back to the twins.
"Now, you two – this year, behave yourself, do you hear me?!" she said sternly. "If I get one more owl telling me you've– you've blown up a toilet or–"
"Blown up a toilet? We've never blown up a toilet."
"Great idea thought, thanks, Mom."
I sighed exasperated, she should know better than give them ideas. I hoped it would be a girl's toilet blown up.
"It's not funny! And look after Ron."
"Don't worry, mom, ickle Ronnikins is safe with us."
"Shut up," I reflexively said to that bloody nickname.
"Hey, mom, guess what? Guess who we've met on the train? You know that black haired kid from the station? You know who he is?"
"Who?"
"Harry Potter, that's who!"
My eyebrows jumped upwards. I couldn't tell if they were pulling my leg or not.
Ginny lightened in an instant at the name.
"Oh, mom, can I go on the train to meet him, please?"
"You've already met him, Ginny, and the poor boy is not something to gawk at. How do you know, Fred?"
"Asked him. Saw the scar and everything."
"Poor dear – no wonder he was alone. He was ever so polite there on the station. Though where're his guardians, I wonder. If they're muggles, they wouldn't know anything anyway, but still."
She did have a point, but I figured it was none of our business anyway.
"Never mind that, do you think he remembers what You-Know-Who looked like?"
"Don't you dare ask him something like that, Fred!" she told them harshly. "I forbid it! He doesn't need to remember any of that on his first day at Hogwarts."
"All right, all right." he backpedaled.
Suddenly a whistle was blown.
"Hurry up! And help Ron!" She gave a last command, and with twins' help we three and my stuff were safely on the train. We leant out of the window one at a time for mom to kiss us on the cheeks.
Ginny looked like she was about to cry. It was gonna be a pretty lonely year for her. At least, he had the Lovegoods, that was always a plus.
"Don't, Ginny, we'll send you lots of owls," I reassured her.
"We'll send you a Hogwarts toilet seat."
"George!"
"Only joking, mom."
The train finally began to move. I waved them off and went deeper into the carriage looking for a compartment.
As I walked down the hall I checked the futures of opening that or other door. I could just do it the old-fashioned way, but it had already become a second nature to check the doors in advance anyway.
Most compartments appeared to be full of older students, besides that one at the beginning with a bushy-haired girl and a round-faced blonde boy. But something in her self-righteous look and tone of voice irked me, so I moved along.
Closer to the end, I finally found the almost empty room that was occupied by an already familiar black-haired boy. I slid open the door.
"Do you mind if I join? Everywhere else is full."
He just shook his head. As soon as I dragged my stuff inside, twins' voices rang from the still opened door. "Hey, Ron. Listen, we're going down to the middle of the train – Lee Jordan's got a giant tarantula down there."
"Right, of course, he has," mumbled I.
"Harry," said Fred. "Did we introduce ourselves? Fred and George Weasley. This is Ron, our brother, if the hair hadn't already given it away. See you."
"Bye," Harry said, while I threw "Yeah, yeah, get out already" at the same time. And they were gone, shutting the door behind them.
Finally. First things first, I felt a need to clarify something really fast, "Are you really Harry Potter?".
A bit of skepticism must have slipped through, because he frowned.
"Nothing personal, it's just the twins are the worst pranksters you'll ever see, so everything they say you take with a grain of salt." I explained before he got too defensive.
"Yes, I am," he said at last and pulled back the hair from his forehead, as if to prove a point."
"Cool," I said nonchalantly, but still couldn't help but stare.
I wanted to say something but not sure what exactly. Fortunately Harry didn't have the same issue.
"No, I don't remember You-Know-Who," he stated blatantly. "Well I think I remember the green light, but nothing more."
I started. How– I glanced at the window. "Heard that, didn't you?"
He nodded. He didn't seem offended, but didn't offer anything else either. There was an awkward pause.
"Are all in your family wizards?" he asked.
"Er– I think so," I half-lied. There was always mom's second cousin, that I'd never even met, but he didn't need to know that.
"So you must know plenty of magic already."
"Er– I wouldn't say so," I said after a pause, deciding not to mention anything about my divination. "While it's true that I've seen a lot of magic throughout the years, I'm no more capable than anyone else." He had no idea how true it was.
"So, I heard that you're living with Muggles. What are they like?"
"Horrible. Not all of them, I guess. But my aunt and uncle and cousin are, though. At least, they mostly leave me alone, now," he said gloomily. "Wish I had three wizard brothers instead."
"Five," I corrected, "not three. Bill and Charlie, the oldest, have already graduated and moved away. I'm the sixth in the family going to Hogwarts. In a sense, you could say that I have a lot to live up to. Bill was the Head Boy, Charlie – captain of Quidditch and a prefect. Percy, you've seen him already, is a prefect now too. Even the twins, though they mess around a lot, they still get good marks; they're just brilliant this way. And now everyone will expect me to be the same. Even if, by some miracle, I do as well as the others, it's sorta no big deal. Not likely in my case, anyway."
Harry looked like he wanted to ask something, but before he could I reached inside my pocket and took out Scabbers by the tail, still asleep.
"This is Scabbers. He's completely useless, just sleeps all the time." I laid him down on my lap and poked him a little.
"Got him from Percy, when dad bought him an owl, so he was passed down to me. As always, basically, I'm used to it. When you're the youngest boy in a huge family, who are not rich by any standards, you have to put up with a lot of little things like this."
At that one Harry, who till that point had been silently listening to me, went on about his life at Dursleys. Apparently the guy knew what I was talking about, as he always wore hand-me-downs from his cousin and didn't get many presents.
"–and until Hagrid told me, I didn't know anything about being a wizard or my parents or Voldemort–"
That startled me.
"What?" he asked in confusion.
"You said You-Know-Who's name! You, of all people–"
"That's what I'm talking about," said Harry, "I'm not trying to be brave, you know. I just didn't know you shouldn't. I've got so much to learn… I bet–" he wanted to stop himself, but then seemingly got up the nerve and spilled, "I bet I'm the worst at class."
I couldn't help it, I snorted hard and went to a feat of laughter. The mere thought that the Harry Potter would be the worst at magic, was too hilarious.
But then I noticed his hurt look, and I sobered a little. "No, no, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that," I got through the last giggles. "Trust me on this one, you won't be the last in class, I assure you. You have nothing to worry about."
"Besides, " I kept going, before he could retort something, "you're not the only one who comes from a muggle family. There are loads of them every year, and they learn quickly enough."
As we had been talking, the train steadily moved us farther from London. Now it was speeding through the green fields full of cows and sheep. We were silent for a while, just watching the scenes outside.
In about an hour the door slid open once again as a smiling woman asked us "Anything off the cart, dear?"
Harry leapt to his feet while I shook my head. "No, thanks, I've brought my own."
In a moment Harry was in the corridor. There was a lot of shuffling noise outside and soon he got back with arms full of candies.
As he tipped the whole pile on an empty seat next to him, I stared at it all. I incredulously wondered if he really just bought it all.
"Hungry, are you?"
"Starving," he said, taking half of a pumpkin paste in one bite.
I shook my head amused and took out my own package and unwrapped it. There were four sandwiches with– "Is it corned beef? Argh, she must have mistaken it with George's." I hated corned beef.
I glanced up at Harry tentatively, "Wanna trade?"
He smiled. "Go on, have a pasty," Harry urged me, looking exceptionally delighted for some reason. In no time at all, we two were going through the whole assortment of candies the magical world was able to offer. The sandwiches stayed untouched long forgotten.
"What the–" Harry exclaimed when the Chocolate Frogs he had unwrapped suddenly jumped on the glass and swiftly fled through the open window. "Erm–" He seemed at a loss of words. I was amazed by this guy. Running a full sprint into a seemingly solid wall was totally fine, but moving candies was where he drew the line.
"Yeah, you ought to be careful with these ones. They are brilliant, but pretty quick."
He stared at me incredulously. "Could've warned me, y'know. I hadn't expected it to escape, when it wasn't even alive."
I snorted. "You'll realize very soon that loads of magical things move on their own. Case in point, look at the card."
"What?"
"The Chocolate Frog. They have cards inside them, to collect – famous witches and wizards. I've got them a lot, so take a look."
He looked down. "So this is Dumbledore!"
"Don't tell me you never heard of Dumbledore either!" exclaimed I exasperated. "Yeah, it's him. He's quite common. Hey, can I take a frog too? I might finally get Agrippa– thanks–".
As he read through the entry on Dumbledore, I carefully checked through the futures what cards other untouched Frogs contained. Nothing interesting. I sighed and picked one at random.
"He's gone!" Harry yelled suddenly.
"Of course he is gone. You can't expect the man to hang around all day." I muttered absentmindedly while unwrapping. "He'll be back, don't worry. Look, I've got Morgana again, and I've got six of her already… wanna take her? You could start collecting."
My suggestion was apparently to his taste, as a few minutes later he sat proudly with the newly started collection of not only Dumbledore and Morgana but several others, even Merlin. After we effectively murdered an army of chocolate amphibians, Harry's wandering hands made it to a bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.
"Ah, you want to be wary of those," I warned him. "When they say every flavor, they mean it, you know. Besides the ordinary ones, like vanilla, chocolate or peppermint, you can get something like liver, onion or ear wax." I picked one up at random, and looked at what it'll taste like. I mentally groaned, sprouts.
Sadly even my divination magic helped very little with these ones, because I got full experience of the future me, including all the senses. It did help somewhat that I didn't actually have anything in my mouth, but the phantom aftertaste wasn't much better.
I pretended to carefully examine the green bean, even sniffed it. "Urgh, some plant, no thanks."
Harry looked surprised. "How do you know?"
"Coloring and the faint smell, mostly. You quickly learn to recognise things like that." I lied through my teeth.
We had a very good time eating the Every Flavor Beans. Harry even made a mini game to test how accurate my 'guesses' are, and became steadily impressed.
The train had long passed the neat fields – now it was mostly rivers and hills outside.
Suddenly a loud knock rang through the room and a familiar round-faced boy showed up.
"Erm, sorry. Have you seen a toad?"
Me and Harry glanced at each other and shook our heads at once. It seemed to upset the guy. "I lost him. Again! Erm, if you see him–" he trailed off.
We nodded in sync again. An instant later he was gone.
We looked at each other, unsure of what to say.
"A game of Exploding Snap?" I asked, suddenly remembering that I had a deck here somewhere.
"Sure," Harry said. "If you explain the rules."
I rummaged through the trunk, pulled out my deck of visibly frayed, blue cards and started shuffling them.
"Alright. It's not very interesting with two players, but anyway." I paused, choosing my words. "First, we deal out all the cards between us and put them in front of us face down." I rearranged the cards in two neat piles at random and placed them between us on the seat. "It doesn't matter if they are not equal."
"I turn over my top card and put it face up starting a new pile next to my face down cards like this." I did as I said. "Then you do it," I did the same for Harry, "then me and so on.
"If at some point in time you see two identical cards," I pointed at a Mountain Troll and a Hebridean Black cards between us, "you need to be the first one to shout 'Snap!' and touch another players' matching card," I took out my wand and demonstrated, placing its tip on his dragon card. "If you are, then you win both these face-up piles and add them to the bottom of your face-down pile."
"Sounds simple enough," Harry remarked.
"Yeah, but it takes some reflex. Also there's a little problem of these cards violently exploding from time to time." At that Harry's eyebrows skyrocketed. "But don't worry, this deck is so old, the enchantments have mostly worn off by this point."
He just opened his mouth to say something I'll never know, when the compartment door fiercely slid open once again. The toadless boy was back, but not alone this time, along with the bushy-haired girl. Curiously she was already in her robes.
"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," she had a rather bossy kind of voice, and large front teeth.
'Hey, guys," waved us, apparently, Neville meekly.
"We've already told him we haven't seen it," I replied, but she had already shifted her attention.
I traced her line of sight and realized that I was still holding my wand.
"Oh, you're doing magic? Let's see it then," she declared and took a seat opposite of us.
I did a double take. 'Is she serious?'
"If you must know, we weren't doing any magic. It's just a game, look," I pointed at the cards lying down.
"Hmph, playing childish games, I see. Don't you have anything better to do? We're going to learn magic! I've tried a few simple spells just for practice and it's all worked for me quite well. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was certainly a surprise when–"
"You know what? Okay, I'll show you magic," I was already fed up with it. My words seemed to shut her up at least. Harry and Neville looked at me with interest, too.
I collected all the cards lying around and shuffled them skillfully, then held them out fanwise. "Pick a card, don't show me. May show the others."
"A card trick, really?" she asked unimpressed, but did as instructed with a strong air of skepticism. I ignored her remark.
"Now hold on." I pointed a wand at the card she held in her hand and intoned drammatically "Acumelucri!" I nodded to myself. "Alright, now put it back into the deck. Here, you can even shuffle it yourself." She did and passed cards back to me.
And then I made a big show of turning the cards one by one, muttering under my breath "No", "Not this one", "Not this one either", "Still no". Until a "Giant Squid" card revealed itself. "Aha! Here it is. This is your card, isn't it?"
"You're right!" confirmed Harry for her.
'Of course I'm right', I thought – I looked at the card the instant she grabbed it, still in the deck.
She pursed her lips. "Hmph, are you sure that's a real spell?" she asked eventually. "I've never heard of it. It's just a silly trick, if you ask me– I've seen boys in school doing something similar: you just marked the card somehow, am I right?" I shrugged. She wasn't totally wrong, it was just a trick, but it was a bit more magical than she believed, than I let her believe.
"Have you already read your course books? – I've already learned them by heart of course– I mean, it's the very best school of witchcraft there is, I heard – I just hope it will be enough. Oh, I'm Hermione Granger, by the way– who are you?"
The girl had an impressive lung capacity, that's for sure.
"Ron Weasley, at your service," I nodded jeeringly. Merlin, the twins surely had rubbed off on me somehow.
"Harry Potter," said Harry.
"Are you really?" lightened up Hermione. "I know all about you, of course– 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'."
"Am I really?" Harry seemingly completely lost track of what was happening.
"Oh my goodness, you didn't know? I'd have already found out anything if it was me," said she. "Do either of you know what house you'll be in? I've been asking around and I hope I'll be in Gryffindor, I hear it's where Dumbledore himself was in–".
"Do you have a point with all this?" I interrupted again.
"What do you mean? And quit interrupting me, it's rude, you know," she said.
"Are you– Are you serious right now?" I started incredulously. "You just barged in and started bossing everyone around, and you call me rude? Really?"
"Yeah," backed me up Harry.
She choked in indignation. "Why I never– I just asked–" but I interrupted her once again.
"Didn't you have anything to do?" I nodded towards the poor Neville still standing in the doorway awkwardly.
Hermione humphed one last time and left.
"Erm– sorry about that," mumbled Neville. "Nice trick, by the way." and slid the door shut leaving our compartment in blissful silence.
"Whatever house she'll be in, I hope I'm not in it," I decided. Harry nodded.
I sighed and put away the cards back into the trunk, with no mood to play now. "Sorry, some other time."
"That was so cool!" Harry suddenly blurted. "And you told me you didn't know magic already. Could you teach me?"
I looked at him. "Harry, there was no magic in there," I shamelessly lied. "She was right, as it pains me to admit it – it was just a trick. The spell I made up on the spot."
"Oh," he said somewhat disappointed. "Would you teach me?"
"Erm– maybe later, okay?" I hoped he'd forget it soon, as I had no idea how to explain it right now.
He didn't mind as he suddenly got distracted by what I said earlier. "What house are your brothers in?" he asked instead.
"Everyone in my family is Gryffindor," my mood dropped further. "I don't know what they'll say if I end up somewhere else. I guess, Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad, but imagine for a second if I'll be in Slytherin." I shuddered.
I didn't want another reason to feel more different than my family.
"That's the house Vol–, I mean, You-Know-Who was in?"
"Yeah," I flopped back into my seat.
"So, what do your elder brothers do now that they've graduated?"
"Charlie's in Romania studying dragons, of course he was always drawn to all sorts of magical creatures, fire-breathing especially," I rushed into a more or less safe topic. "Bill's a curse-breaker. If I'm not mistaken, he's now doing something in Egypt for Gringotts. By the way, did you hear about Gringotts? Ah, right, where from. Anyway, it's been all over 'Daily Prophet', supposedly someone tried to rob a vault in Gringotts."
Harry stared at me in surprise.
"Really? What happened to them?"
"Nothing! That's why it's such a big deal, they haven't been caught! Whoever tried to do it surely is completely bonkers, but dad says that it must have been a very powerful Dark wizard to get around Gringotts undetected. But what's really odd is that nothing has been stolen. But still everyone gets really scared when something like this happens in case it's somehow the fault of You-Know-Who or his followers."
Silence fell. Trying to get back from the morbid topic, I asked. "What's your favorite Quidditch team?"
"Er– I don't know any?" Harry said.
"What– How–? Sorry. Do you know the rules at least?" I wondered in desperation. As he shook his head to my horror, I immediately took upon myself the mission of rectifying that horrific mistake. I started off animatedly explaining all about the four balls and the seven players and their positions, which gradually turned to describing games I'd been to with my brothers. I was just discussing with Harry what positions we'd like to play in the game, when the compartment door slid open yet again, making me scowl in irritation. It wasn't Neville the Toadless or Hermione Granger this time.
Three boys entered: a blonde boy with quite an arrogant air in the middle and clearly a cheering squad by his sides in the form of two big guys who didn't seem to have a speck of intelligence on their faces. It made me think of gorillas for whatever reason.
I didn't like them already.
"Is it true?" the front brat said. "They're saying all down the train that Harry Potter's in this compartment. So it's you, is it?"
It brought me up short. I wondered who these good people were who told anyone willing to listen where to find Harry. Not many people were actually aware where our compartment was: there were twins and – I swallowed a groan – Neville and Hermione. I would bet on the last one.
"Yes," said Harry with a challenge in his voice, while looking at the gorilla boys. They looked thick and extremely mean. I was afraid things would go poorly for us if it'd come to a fight here.
"Oh, this is Crabbe and Goyle," said the boy carelessly. "And my name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."
He spoke those words with such a posed air of superiority, with this sort of a drawl, that I couldn't help but snort hard and fall into sniggers. It gave me the impression that he had actually rehearsed such a thing.
His look narrowed at me at once.
"Think my name's funny, do you? No need to ask who you are. My father always said all the Weasleys have red hair, freckles and more children than they could afford."
I rolled my eyes on that one, 'Yeah, yeah, tell me something new'. Still it made me consider looking into how punching him in the nose would feel.
He turned back to Harry. "You'll soon find that some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there." I snorted again.
He held out his hand for Harry, but Harry didn't even glance at it.
"So you presume," he started with a chilling voice, " that you can tell me what to do, don't you?" He abruptly stood up. "Is that it? I think I can tell who the right sort is by myself," he spoke coldly, eyes sharp and threatening. "And you, Malfoy, are certainly not it." Even though physically Harry ought to be the smallest in the compartment, at that moment he seemed to completely dwarf everyone else.
Air itself seemed completely still and menacing as if a snake poised for a strike. I started to feel nauseous from the eerie feeling of his magic. Judging by their looks, the others didn't seem to fare much better.
"Leave!" Harry barked, and all three of them disappeared at once.
The instant they were gone, the deadly stillness immediately dissipated and colors came back. I took my sweet time to catch my breath. I slowly turned my gaping face to him. Harry was still tense all over.
"That. Was. Amazing!" I laughed and grabbed my head in awe. "Did you see their faces?! They were about to piss themselves. Even I felt faint."
He looked at me as if thunderstruck, but before he could say anything he was startled by Granger appearing in the still open doorway.
"What has been going on here?" she demanded.
I groaned internally. "Can we help you?" Harry asked politely, as if he didn't radiate his suffocating and utterly dangerous presence merely seconds ago.
"You'd better hurry up and put your robes on, I've just been up to the front to ask the conductor, and he says we're nearly there. You haven't been fighting, have you? You'll be in trouble before we even get there!"
"None of your business!" I snapped at her. "You mind leaving while we change?"
She lifted up her nose and replied with a sniffy voice. "And you've got dirt on your nose, did you know?" I glared at her as she left.
I leaned back in the seat and groaned. "I hope it's all guests for today." Only then I noticed Harry still staring at me with the same odd expression.
"What?" I asked bewildered.
"You– But I– Sorry, I just–" he stumbled over words.
"Oh, relax already," I waved off his concern. "It's fine. Did you think I'd go bonkers and run away? It's totally normal for a mage, especially a stronger type, to put off a magic pressure when mad."
Harry got exceptionally relieved and finally fell back on his seat with a sigh.
"Thanks," he said. "I just got so angry, and–."
"Yeah, you were pretty intimidating right there. And the air itself– are you an air mage?" I blurted out without thinking. "Sorry, sorry. Forget I said anything."
Harry furrowed his brows in confusion and went to speak but decided to drop the topic and nodded.
We didn't say another word for a while, only pulled on our black robes in silence and sat waiting, both of us deep in thoughts. Outside the window was too dark to see anything.
Every second we got closer to the school, my agitation grew.
A voice echoed through the train: "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately."
We both looked like a bunch of nervous wrecks at that point, stuffed all the last candies into our pockets and joined the crowd in the corridor.
Notes:
Here it is, full Hogwarts Express experience. It was pretty funny to write.
Also, I'm totally aware that Chocolate Frogs in the books absolutely didn't do that – move on their own, I mean. But I needed that to give a small clue.