notes: this story came to me once in a dream lol with harry and hermione reaching their full potential and friendship

i adore ron but idrk how he'd fit into this story dw tho he'll have a redemption arc that gets rid of his arrogent griffindoreish behaviour

summary:

Harry isn't found by the Weasleys on the station and finds his own way on board where he meets a much darker and powerful Hermione. Together the two struggle through Slytherin politics and blood prejudices whilst developing a fond liking(obsession) for the shy Hufflepuff they share the boat ride with.

Lush green rolled past him, the hills of Scotlands beautiful scenery, a refuge for his tired mind. Harry Potter was sat in an empty carrage on soft leather seats with a heavy book tucked onto his lap. Despite his tired eyes trailing the words on the page he couldn't quite focus. His mind - reeling and tired - was drifting to the burly man who gifted him his ticket, and the unusual cercumstances that came before.

A week of vicious pain and suffering had come before his Hogwarts letter. At first he garnered a cruel beating that had him bed ridden and starved for the next twenty hours, all for taking a letter rightfully addressed to him. The next time letters had appeared he had been dragged away before he could reach them and been tossed uncerimoniously into the cold wall of his cupboard with the door slammed shut and locked behind him. No food for two days. When he was finally let out, the letter box had been boarded shot with a large peice of wood and some rusty nails. the malicious sneers he was sent had his fists curling in hatred and his jaw starining in anger.

The final straw was when thousands of letters tumbled through the chimney. Once in a blue moon was Harry permitted into the lounge, this time he was passing out hot cookies to his fat uncle and cousin. The tray dropped to the floor where he stood and his hands grasped for the hundreds of papers that were tumbling towards him. His small hand finally reached to the floor and gripped at the thin papers, clutching it to his chest and sprinting for the door. His fat uncle tumbled after him, tripping on the ever building paper and landing flat on his face ina pile of shame. Harry wasted no time and made for the door. Days of constant work in the garden and years of running form his careless cousin made him a strong runner. He had no dought in his young mind that his fat uncle would fail at catching him

His compartment was empty, one of the only left on the train. He had almost missed the ride completely and was made to witness a rowdy bunch of red heads tumble through a wall to know where on earth he was sent to. He wondered the train for a short time before finding a compartment and hefting his trunk onto one of the upper shelves. He sat comfortably in the compartment as the train began to move and was happily suprised when no one came to interrupt his quiet atmosphere.

As Harry reached the halfway point in his large book, a History of Hogwarts, an unrully girl with shedfulls of hair, heaved open his compartment door.

"Hello there," her eyes skimmed his empty compartment quickly before focusing on him once again," Neville here has lost his frog," she gestured to a timid boy standing a few steps behind her," and we were just wondering if you had seen him?"

She tilted her head at him in question and waited patiently for his answer.

"Uh… no I don't think so," Harry looked away from the girl and turned to the tubby boy behind her," sorry Neville."

Harry could see the tears form at the corners of his eyes and gave his best attempt at a comforting smile, which gathering from the boy's reaction clearly wasn't all that good. The girl turned back to the boy, Neville, and gave him a sad smile.

"Sorry Neville, I tried, go back to your compartment, I'm sure he'll turn up." With that she steps into Harry's compartment and closed the door, rather abruptly, in his face. She waits like that for a moment waving cheerily at Neville before turing to focus on Harry

"Hi," she paused," my names Hermione Granger, what's yours." Whilst she spoke, she made her way over to the seat opposite harry, closest to the window, and made herself comfortable. The question came out as more of a demand and harry was inclined to deny the information before the iawareness of his lack of allies in his new school reared uncomfortably in his head.

"Harry."

"Harry, what?"

Hhe (non)question from the girl made harry narrow his eyes and stare her down, when she gave no signs of backing down he smiled.

"Harry Potter."

this is the first story i have ever written and published so please be nice but ofc critisism is welcome

unfortunately english is my first language so this fic my not live up to ur standards lmao