Incoming surprise OC for you all! I have some very specific reasons for this character's inclusion, but as always, it's up for interpretation!
"And you're sure you have everything?" asked Helen thickly.
"Yeah... mum are you alright?" asked John.
She nodded tearfully.
"It's just... you're still just a baby!" she wailed, hugging him tightly.
Normally, John would've tried to pry her off in embarrassment with such an overt display in public, in King's Cross station, no less, but given that she would see him so little over the coming year, he allowed it.
"Not that small am I?" he asked, grinning and hugging her back. He was already as tall as she was and noticeably bigger.
He, his mum, dad and Ella continued walking along King's Cross until reaching platform 9.
"Wait... there's no nine and three quarters", said John.
"I'm sure we can ask around", said Jeremy.
"We can't ask other muggles though, can we?" Helen asked rhetorically.
"Let's just find some wizards then", said Ella. "They shouldn't be hard to find... owls, big trunks and all"
It didn't take too long however; not too long afterwards, a tall black girl walked past them, wheeling a trunk not dissimilar to his own and John quickly jogged up to her.
"Excuse me... are you - are you going to the school where owls are normal?" he asked, not knowing how to refer to Hogwarts around so many muggles.
The girl confusedly looked at him for a moment and giggled.
"First year?" she asked, grinning.
"Uhh... yeah", said John.
"Don't worry. All you've got to do is walk at the barrier between platform nine and platform ten. You'll go right through it", she said.
"What?" John asked, astonished.
"I'm serious. Watch this", she said, walking up to the barrier and to John's astonishment, she pushed her hand against it and half of her arm went straight through it.
"Wow... can... can muggles come through too? My family are muggles" John asked.
"Oh yeah they can, no problem", said the girl.
"Great, thanks! I'll just see you at the school then!" said John.
"Hope you're in Gryffindor", the girl called after him before John watched her vanish straight through the barrier.
John walked back to his family and explained that they needed to walk at the barrier like the girl earlier.
He felt an incredible rush when he did so himself and his family followed.
Ella and Helen gave him tearful and very affectionate goodbyes and even Jeremy seemed to be struggling to hold back tears.
"Make sure that owl flies to us with letters at least twice a month, alright?" he asked, looking down at his son.
"Yeah... yeah, of course I will", said John, feeling an uncomfortable tightness in his own throat.
"I uhh... I'll just wait here for Harry", he added.
"Of course. We'll see you soon", said Helen.
John watched as his family walked away, not expecting the strong sense of loss that he felt, but he shook his head.
It wasn't until a few red-haired wizards found their way through the barrier did he see Harry however.
"Hey Harry!" said John grinning broadly, the feeling of of loss he felt ten minutes earlier suddenly dissipating.
Harry smiled back at him and walked over to him.
"Was beginning to worry you'd never find this place", said John.
"So was I. Let's get on board before it leaves without us", said Harry.
He and John walked onto the train, dragging their heavy trunks behind them. John seemed to be having a much easier time hauling his trunk around than Harry and so he helped Harry get his safely on board after his own.
The two of them took an empty compartment and got to chatting animatedly about what would happen on their first few days, before one of the young red-haired wizards from earlier walked up to the compartment.
"Err... d'you mind? I can't find a compartment that's not full", he asked.
"Go ahead", said John.
"Thanks. My name's Ron by the way. Ron Weasley", said the boy, sitting down next to Harry.
"I'm Harry. Harry Potter", said Harry.
Before John could introduce himself, Ron gaped at Harry.
"So... blimey... d'you really have- I mean- on your forehead?" Ron stammered.
Harry moved some of his hair out of the way to reveal the lightning-shaped scar on his forehead.
"Blimey... sorry, and what's your name?" Ron asked, blushing slightly, apparently embarrassed about his awestruck behaviour.
"John Potter", said John simply.
"I thought you looked alike! I didn't know you had a brother though!" said Ron.
"Yeah... I sort of went under the radar apparently. Some weird stuff that I don't even know about happened and we were separated but here we are I guess", said John, shrugging.
"And I heard you went to live with muggles, did that happen to both of you?" Ron asked.
"Yeah, though we're living with different families. Like John said, we were separated. Is your family all made up of wizards then?" Harry asked.
"Yeah, all of us. I think one of my distant uncles or something is a muggle accountant or something but we don't really know him. I'm the sixth in our family to go to Hogwarts though", said Ron.
"Sixth? You probably know loads then", said John.
"Not really... I mean, I just think I've got loads to live up to. Bill's my oldest brother and he was a prefect and head boy, Charlie was the Quidditch captain and he was bloody amazing at it, Percy's already a prefect, Fred and George are really popular and everyone thinks they're really funny. Problem is, if I do any of that stuff it won't be a big deal since one of my brothers already did it and if I don't it's just... sort of disappointing, isn't it?" Ron asked.
"Just find something you're good at that they're not. Or do all of it. Something'll come up", said John confidently.
"Maybe... I dunno. You never get anything new in a big family like that either though. I've got Bill's old robes, Charlie's old wand and Percy's old rat", said Ron, pulling out a fat, grey, sleeping rat.
"Scabbers. Bit pathetic, isn't he?" asked Ron.
"I dunno... he's just... a rat, isn't he?" John asked.
Before long, a plump witch pushing a trolley completely laden with what appeared to be sweets and other snacks arrived at the compartment.
"Anything from the trolley dears?" she asked.
"No thanks. I'm all set", said Ron, sounding very slightly disappointed and holding up some badly wrapped corned-beef sandwiches.
"Three of everything", said John, handing over a large fistful of coins without hesitation. Ron gaped at him for a moment.
"Let's start eating then. I may eat like a freak but I'm not getting through all of this alone", said John, grinning.
"You're serious, aren't you?" Ron asked.
"Completely. Don't get used to that though", said John.
Ron grinned at him and before long, the three boys were tucking into the assortment of wizarding snacks, Ron explaining some of them as he went. There was a brief interruption where a distraught looking round-faced boy with blond hair came to their compartment in search of his lost toad and while Ron was about to show Harry and John a spell which would apparently turn Scabbers yellow, another interruption, this time by a bushy-haired girl who was interrupting for the same reason.
"We've already spoken to the guy, we haven't seen it", said John. However, the girl didn't seem interested in the toad any more - her eyes were drawn to Ron's wand and rat.
"Are you doing magic? Let's see then", she said in a bossy sort of voice.
Ron shrugged and pointed at Scabbers.
"Sunshine daisies, butter mellow... turn this stupid fat rat yellow!" Ron chanted. Nothing happened. Scabbers was in fact, still grey and still asleep.
"Are you sure that's a real spell? It's not very good, is it?" asked the girl. Ron scowled.
"I've had a read through all of our school textbooks and tried out a few simple spells and they've all worked for me. I do hope I've done enough, I've memorised all of the information from the textbooks so far but I don't know what else they'll be expecting from us academically. I've read so much about the school as well and my parents were so excited for me to go. I'm Hermione Granger by the way, what're your names?"
She had said all of this seemingly within one breath and very quickly. All three boys stared at her and then each other. Relief coursed through Harry's veins when he realised than neither Ron nor John had actually memorised the textbooks' information like this Hermione girl had.
"R-Ron Weasley", Ron mumbled.
"I'm Harry Potter", said Harry. Like Ron, Hermione interrupted John's introduction with a look of awe and something to say for herself. Harry wondered if this would become a pattern. If it would, he was already growing tired of it.
"Oh goodness! I didn't realise - you're in The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and so many others! I've read all about your story!", said Hermione.
"I'm in a bunch of books?" Harry asked blankly.
"Yes! Goodness, if I was you, I'd have found out everything I could about myself by now. I'm sorry, what's your name?" asked Hermione.
"John Potter", said John.
"John P- what? Are you- are you his brother?" she asked.
"Yep. Didn't learn that in your books, did you?" John asked, smirking at her.
"N-no... I... you were never ment-", Hermione trailed off, blushing.
"It's alright, no one seems to know. Guess I'm meant to make a name for myself the old-fashioned way", said John.
"Make a name for yourself? School's are meant to be places to learn!" said Hermione disapprovingly. John looked at her as if she'd suddenly started speaking fluent Maori.
"It's just a figure of speech, keep your hair on!", said John.
For some reason, that comment seemed to bother Hermione quite a lot for an innocuous piece of idiom and she turned to leave.
"You've got dirt on your nose by the way. Did you know?" she asked, addressing Ron, before leaving. Ron rubbed his nose, looking rather irritated.
"I dunno what house I'll be in but let's hope she's not in it", said John.
Harry and Ron nodded in agreement.
"What house do you think you'll be in?" asked Harry.
"Well my family's all been in Gryffindor so maybe I'll go there too. At least, I hope so", said Ron.
"How do they decide?" asked John.
"Not sure... Fred told me that it's some sort of test and that it'd hurt a lot but I think he was joking", said Ron unconcernedly.
Harry's stomach dropped. No one mentioned anything about a test! He wracked his brain to try to remember some of the magic in his textbooks, but only fleeting mentions of what the spells did came to mind.
His thoughts were however, interrupted when again, their compartment had another set of surprise visitors.
One was the pale, blond-haired boy Harry had briefly met in Madame Malkins' Robes at Diagon Alley. Harry didn't get the best impression of him back then. He was with two larger boys, both roughly as heavily built as John and a very pretty blonde-haired girl who had similar features, though softened in a more clearly feminine manner. If it was obvious that Harry and John were brothers, it was equally obvious that the boy and the girl were also siblings. They had the same hair colour, the same eyes, they were almost the same height, with the boy being perhaps a hair or two taller and the same expression of mild curiosity.
"So it's true then. Harry Potter is coming to Hogwarts. It's you then?", the blond-haired boy asked.
"Err... yes. And who are all of you?" asked Harry.
The boy smiled.
"This is Crabbe and Goyle", he said motioning to the two larger boys flanking him. Crabbe was the taller and fatter of the two with a flat nose and a pudding-bowl haircut. Goyle had short, bristly hair and long, gorilla-like arms. Both of them had vacant looking expressions, but they were standing in a way which John didn't seem to like, so he stood up to his full height, though he shook their hands.
Something about the four of them rubbed Harry the wrong way as they did John too and Harry was glad to see that while Crabbe was slightly taller than John, neither he nor Goyle had shoulders as broad. John also looked to be in much better shape.
"This is my sister Elena. And I'm Draco Malfoy", said the boy motioning to his sister and himself. John shook both of their hands whilst Harry and Ron remained seated. Elena was eyeing Ron with a somewhat disdainful look on her face but Ron snickered.
"Think my name's funny, do you?" Draco asked, snarling at Ron.
"Rather rich coming from you. Red hair, a rat that looks like it's been around longer than you have and a trunk that probably belonged to your grandmother? You're obviously a Weasley", said Elena, lifting her nose up high as though to look anywhere above Ron.
Ron glared at Elena and Draco.
"And who are you then?" asked Elena dismissively to John.
"John Potter. Harry's brother. Yes, I know I'm not mentioned in the books and stuff, we were separated when we were babies, no we don't live together", said John in a bored tone.
"Right", said Draco, disinterestedly. "I get that you're new to the wizarding world Potter but you need to make sure that you don't go hanging around with riffraff like the Weasleys. You need to be able to tell the right sort of wizard from the wrong sorts. I can help you there", said Draco, extending his hand for Harry to shake too.
"I'll be able to tell the wrong sort quite easily on my own thanks", said Harry, coolly.
Something flashed across Malfoy's face and he looked as if he had been slapped.
"Come on Draco. If they want to make a bed like that, let them lie in it Let them be pathetic together", she said disdainfully, tugging on her brother's arm.
"I'm not sure I want to leave. We finished all of our food but they still have some", said Draco.
"Right... like we're sharing it with you", said John.
"What're you going to do? Fight us?" Asked Malfoy smugly. Crabbe and Goyle stepped in front of the two Malfoys menacingly.
"Unless you get out now", said Harry rather bravely. Crabbe and Goyle were both as big as John and Harry and Ron were a lot smaller. Ron was the tallest present, but also the lankiest and Harry was just short and skinny.
"Ugh!" said Elena, before she stalked off.
"Have you ever been in a fight Malfoy?" John asked, sounding rather bored.
"I- of course I have!" Malfoy stuttered.
John grinned and made a sudden movement towards Malfoy, making him flinch and step further behind Crabbe and Goyle, but John only threw a dummy punch and laughed.
Crabbe made moves towards John, but before anything happened, Goyle let out a yelp of pain.
Looking at him, they saw that Scabbers had sunk his small but incredibly sharp teeth into Goyle's knuckle. Goyle yelled in pain as he tried to shake the rat off, but the rat's jaws were locked around the boy's knuckles and weren't coming off easily. Harry, Ron and John stood and laughed as Goyle continued to shake his arm violently until eventually, the rat was thrown loose and flew into the window.
Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle walked away huffily, Goyle nursing his hand as he went.
"I think he's been knocked out", said Ron, picking Scabbers up. "I don't believe it... he's fallen asleep again"
John let out a single bark of laughter and they continued their journey on the train, eating the remainder of their snacks.
Not long afterwards however, Hermione Granger re-appeared, looking rather annoyed.
"I've heard that you've been fighting. You haven't, have you? You'll be in trouble before even arriving!" she said angrily.
"Scabbers has been fighting, not us", said Ron grumpily.
"If you say so... well I've spoken to the driver and he said we're arriving soon so you'd better get changed into your school robes!", she went on authoritatively.
"Alright", said John simply and Hermione stood there, glaring at them with folded arms.
"Are you going to stay and watch?" John asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Oh! Sorry!", she said, blushing before scampering away.
Harry and Ron laughed as she went before the three of them began getting changed.
"John... what's that scar from?" Harry asked as John switched from his t-shirt to his Hogwarts shirt.
"Broke my collarbone playing rugby about a year ago", said John nonchalantly.
"Broken collarbone? Ouch!", said Harry, cringing.
"Rugby? What's that?" asked Ron.
"It's a sport. Muggles play it, it's really fun but it's also really rough. I go to my dad's club and play in one of the junior teams", John explained.
"Cool... d'you reckon you'd be able to show me how to play it some time?" asked Ron.
"Yeah, why not? I'd need a ball though... think I'll bring my rugby ball next time I'm home", John mused.
When they exited the train with the rest of the students, they began hearing a loud, gruff and familiar voice with a strong West-Country accent calling them (and the other first years).
"Firs' years! Firs' years this way!"
Harry grinned as he, Ron and John walked up to Hagrid. However, Harry realised very quickly that only he and John had seen Hagrid before. Every other first year was in shock at Hagrid's sheer size. It was strange to think about - Harry and John had spent a day with Hagrid, but every other first year clearly had never seen a man who stood at over eleven feet tall and about six feet wide shoulder to shoulder.
"Hi Hagrid!", said Harry and Hagrid smiled through his thick, black beard down at Harry and John as Ron gaped at the massive, bearded man.
"Follow me! I'll be takin' all of yeh ter the school!", Hagrid boomed, before turning to walk down a pathway, the many timid first-years following his hulking form.
"How is he so big?" Ron whispered to Harry.
"No idea. He's a really nice guy though, he took me and John around Diagon Alley to get out school stuff", Harry explained.
"Oh yeah, he bought our owls too as birthday presents. Really nice guy, even though he looks like some kind of horrifying giant", said John.
"He doesn't look like a giant", laughed Ron.
"Wait... are giants real then?" asked Harry.
"Of course they are, they're twice the size of him!", said Ron incredulously. "Blimey I keep forgetting you were raised in the muggle world", he added.
"Tw-twice his size? Wow", Harry whispered.
"They're not even the wierdest creatures out there you know? I mean dragons are running around most continents. My brother Charlie studies them in Romania", Ron explained.
"That's so cool", said John, in awe of the idea of studying dragons.
"There's all sorts of cool stuff you'll see here though, my brothers have told me all sorts of crazy stories about what you can get up to in Hogwarts, especially Fred and George", said Ron.
A wicked smile spread over John's face - it was obvious to Harry that he was imagining himself off on some wild adventures whilst at the school. Harry could safely say that he wouldn't mind joining him.
However, if they were looking forward to it then, by the time they reached a lake with over a dozen boats at the shore, the excitement of their fellow first years was palpable.
"No more n' four to a boat!" Hagrid called. The first years scrambled into the boats, which seemed to detect their presence, as they propelled themselves of their own accord around the lake, following Hagrid, who stood alone in a boat at the front of the group.
The lake looked almost completely black and yet somehow very reflective of the night sky and its many stars, as well as the moon. Hermione Granger, who had joined Harry, Ron and John was reciting some facts about the boats they were sat in, though none of them were listening and even Hermione herself was promptly shut up when their first sight of Hogwarts came to them.
It was a castle. An enormous castle with multiple turrets and towers, looking like something out of a fairytale or a fantasy story.
"And Hogwarts has... seven years?" John asked, in awe of the castle.
"Yeah", said Ron, breathlessly.
"Better make the most of them, hadn't we?" John asked needlessly. Harry had already vowed to do exactly that.
Hermione looked like she wanted to say something, but chose not to - she remembered that the three boys sharing her boat weren't particularly interested in what she had to say. She bit her lip and slumped slightly. It was looking to her like she'd be friendless here too.
The first years followed Hagrid up a grassy hill once they'd landed on the shore near the castle, eventually into the castle itself.
They walked up a short set of stairs to see a tall, aged witch with emerald green robes and a pointed hat on her head.
"That's Professor McGonagall. She explained that I'm a wizard to my family", John whispered to Harry and Ron.
"She's exactly what I pictured when Fred and George talked about her", said Ron, smirking.
Harry thought that she looked like a rather strict, severe teacher. Apparently she was strict by reputation too.
"The firs' years Professor!" said Hagrid, happily.
"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here", said McGonagall. Hagrid thundered off through a massive, grand set of double doors behind McGonagall, from which a great deal of noise was emanating.
McGonagall then turned to the first years.
"Welcome to Hogwarts. I am Professor Minerva McGonagall, the deputy headmistress. Before you begin your time here in earnest, you must be sorted into your houses. While you are here, your house will be something like your family. The four houses are: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. All four houses have a long, proud and illustrious history and I do hope you will be a credit to whichever house you find yourselves in", McGonagall explained.
Harry had already heard plenty of less than savoury things about Slytherin thus far and so he hoped that he'd be in any of the three others quite dearly. That, and Draco Malfoy had said in Madame Malkins' that his family had been in Slytherin for generations and he expected to be there himself.
"Each year, and inter-house competition is run. House points are gained for any of your triumphs. House points are deducted for any rule-breaking or general misdemeanours and they are counted by these four hour-glasses", said McGonagall, pointing at four enormous hour-glasses filled with differently coloured gems.
One was filled with emeralds, one with rubies, one with sapphires and another with Citrines.
"They cannot be tricked or bewitched, and never have been, even by the most powerful wizards. I must dissuade you now from any attempts to do so at any point in your Hogwarts careers", McGonagall explained.
"Now. Without further delays, follow me and we will sort you", said McGonagall, who led the first years through the massive double doors, and into the most magnificent hall that any of them had ever seen.