"Anyone sitting here? Everywhere else is full."
Harry looked up from his book at the tall, gangly, redheaded boy in the doorway. Harry arched an eyebrow at him but shook his head and gestured to the empty seats in the train compartment. He doubted everywhere else was actually full, but he did need to find other students to interact with and the boy looked like he could be in his first year as well. As the redhead sat down Harry carefully let some more of his magic loose, increasing his awareness of the compartment and feeling the boy's own small spark of power move through it.
The last month had been both exciting and extremely tedious. Harry devoured the books from Diagon Alley and wished he could go back for more, but he was already pushing his luck with his relatives. He still felt unprepared, an outsider entering a foreign world that played by different rules. He spent the rest of his time practicing with his power and continuing his habit of hiding inside whenever possible to avoid potential monster encounters, but following the revelations of the magical world he had felt restless rather than resigned.
None of the books mentioned anything resembling his abilities or monster attacks. Harry was left with a feeling of anxious foreboding, like something outside his sight was waiting to pounce. He had thought that the magical world would be the answer to his strange and violent questions, but instead he just found a larger game board with more unknown pieces.
At least one thing that he could do was practice his magic. Despite the discrepancies between his experience and the theory in his books, it was a huge improvement over the trial and error approach he had taken before. The revelation of the true potential of his abilities was overwhelming, but he was extremely excited to finally have a way forward rather than just treading water.
Harry returned to his book while the boy settled in and sat looking out the window. Harry knew that he would probably have to break the ice soon if he wanted actual conversation, but old habits die hard and he had chosen fading into the background for the last, well, forever.
"Hey Ron!"
The door to the compartment opened again, this time revealing two more redheads with a strong resemblance to his new companion.
"Listen, we're going down to the middle of the train. Lee Jordan's got a giant tarantula down there."
Hmmm. Maybe this isn't as different from normal school as he had thought.
One of the twins glanced over at him and waved. "Hi, we're Fred and George Weasley and this is our brother Ron. Want to help us blow up a toilet when we get to Hogwarts?"
What.
"Excellent, see you later then!" The other twin said, and they disappeared from the compartment as quickly as they came.
Exactly like normal school then.
Ron looked over at him awkwardly. "You don't actually have to go along with them, they just like throwing folks off their rhythm or something. You get used to it." He shrugged. "I'm Ron Weasley."
"Harry Potter."
"Are you really?" Ron exclaimed, his eyes widening dramatically and jumping automatically to Harry's forehead. "Do you really have... y'know..."
Harry raised his eyebrows but pushed his messy hair to the side to show Ron the inflamed red scar. The source of many of Harry's own questions. The mark that he apparently got from the Dark Lord's curse, the scar that burned when monsters approached and glowed brilliant green when he called on too much power. An angular, vertical figure-eight with a gap at the top, bisected top to bottom. Too precise to be an accident as his aunt had always claimed.
"So that's where You-Know-Who…" Ron trailed off, starting to look awkward again.
"I suppose," Harry shrugged. "Although I guess no one really knows what happened." He was trying his best to be patient with the inevitable questions, but still. Harry took a deep breath prepared for the true challenge of magic school.
Small talk.
"So, have you tried any spells yet?"
...
Harry couldn't help but laugh as Ron choked and spluttered on what was apparently a cat food flavored jellybean. Harry knew that witches and wizards were almost entirely separated from the mundane world, but he had still been surprised at the wildly different candy for sale. Combine that with his newly uncovered Gringotts vault and a large variety of magical sweets now covered the remaining seats of their compartment. Harry grinned as Ron frantically opened a chocolate frog to try and get rid of the horrible taste.
He was, to his surprise, enjoying himself. He never gotten close to his previous classmates; the combination of Dudley and his stalkers kept him at arm's length, but hanging out with Ron was... nice. Ron's comparatively straightforward issues with his many brothers and underwhelming rat (which was clearly magical despite its scruffy appearance) was a refreshing change of pace. Harry found himself relaxing for the first time outside of his bedroom in a long time.
Harry took his turn in the game of jelly bean roulette and was in the middle dramatically enjoying his lucky lemon flavored pull when the door opened again. Instead of more redheads, this time a blond boy with a round face and tearful eyes poked his head in.
"I'm sorry, but have you seen a toad at all? I've lost him, he keeps getting away from me!" the boy cried.
"Sorry, no toads in here. Chocolate frogs though, you want one?" Harry said, surprising himself again.
The boy sniffled but took the offered box. "Thanks, I'm going to keep looking. I'm Neville, by the way."
"I'm Harry."
Neville's eyes widened just like Ron's.
This is going to be my whole day, isn't it.
As Neville stammered out more thanks Harry cut him off, although not unkindly. "Maybe you should ask a teacher? Or some older students?"
"Oh!" Ron piped up. "You should ask a prefect; my brother Percy is one. I'm sure they would help!"
Neville still looked unsure but agreed before heading off again. Ron leaned back against the window.
"Not sure which is worse, a toad or Scabbers." He said, pulling the chubby rat out of the package of pumpkin pasties he was trying to burrow into. "Fred and George gave me a spell to turn him yellow. Probably messing with me, but maybe it will make him grow wings or something instead. Or it'll kill him. Probably not though." He pulled out his wand and looked at it with mild disgust. It definitely looked a little worse for wear, chipped and scratched with the core poking out of the end.
Just as he took a breath to start his dubious spell, the door opened again. Neville was already back, excitedly clutching a round, disgruntled toad. He wasn't alone this time though; Harry could see a girl behind him in the corridor.
"It worked! They just whipped out their wands and he came flying back! Thanks for the idea!"
Harry couldn't help but grin wider. He was doing okay at this whole making friends thing. "Nice! Do you want to sit with us? We may have bought a bit too much candy."
Neville seemed nervous again, but he nodded and moved into the compartment. The girl from the hallway followed him in and Harry smiled at her too. She looked a bit stern, but also nervous underneath the narrowed eyes. Her hair was wild and curly, and she was eyeing the mountain of sweets with concern.
"You know that too much sugar will rot your teeth, right? Just because we're away from home doesn't make that go away. You really should be more careful or you'll have cavities in no time at all. Thanks for helping Neville, my name is Hermione Granger by the way. Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it then!" She plopped down on the seat beside Harry, looking at Ron expectantly.
Ron looked like his brain had to reboot after whatever that was, so Harry cut him some slack.
"Ummm ok, in order: I'm sure magically dentistry can fix that. Happy to help. I'm Harry Potter and this is Ron. And his brothers gave him a possibly fake spell to turn his rat yellow. Or maybe kill it? We aren't sure. But better to ask forgiveness than permission?" Harry said, trying to match her rapid-fire tone.
Hermione looked away from Ron and gave Harry an unsure look, like she couldn't tell if he was making fun of her or not. Or maybe she just didn't approve of testing unknown spells on animals. Which was fair, all things considered. Before she could respond, Ron seemed to catch back up.
"Right. Um. Yeah. Spell to turn Scabbers yellow. Right." He aimed his wand at the rat again. "Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, turn this stupid fat rat yellow!"
Harry repressed a snicker. It was obviously not a real spell; he couldn't feel Ron's magic reacting or being channeled through his wand at all. Harry glanced at Hermione out of the corner of his eye and realized that she was clearly on the same page. She was taking a breath to explain exactly why it wasn't a real spell, and Harry had an intrusive thought that he just couldn't ignore. He hadn't done this before, but he had changed his teacher's hair color a couple years ago by accident and this couldn't be all that different.
He let just a tiny bit of his magic infuse Scabbers' fur and imagined it bright yellow, focusing his will and his desire to mess with his new friends. It actually felt exactly like the time he had done it to his teacher, and he barely managed to keep from cackling out loud at the look on Hermione and Ron's faces when the dull gray rat turned a brilliant, glowing yellow.
"I… what… but that…" Hermione looked like she just had a rabbit wearing a waistcoat tell her that he was late for a tea party. Harry managed to hold in his laughter for approximately two seconds before he lost it, leaning back and trying his best not to roll off the seat. He didn't want to tell them all of his secrets just yet, but hopefully they thought he was just laughing at Ron's spell actually working. After all, it's not like he could have done some wild, impossible, wandless, wordless magic, right?
Hermione still gave him a suspicious glare though.
"Well... that's... quite an unusual spell. I've tried a few spells myself and they've all worked, which is very exciting, even though none of them have been like that. No one in my family is magic at all, so finding out that magic is real was amazing even if it was a bit of a shock. I've already memorized all of our course books and I just hope that it will be enough."
Ron shook himself out of his dumbfounded expression to look aghast at the idea of memorizing textbooks before the school year had even started. She turned to Harry without taking a breath and continued, somehow.
"I've read all about you too! You're in Modern Magical History and the Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century. Have you really lived with non-magical people for your whole life? I would definitely advise that you do some research to see how your life is being portrayed to the public. The details seem to be sparse and inconsistent. Do you know what house you'll be in? I hope that I end up in Gryffindor but I suppose Ravenclaw would also be alright."
Harry just continued to grin at her throughout the barrage of words until he finally got an opening to respond. Hermione Granger was definitely forceful and probably more pushy than she realized, but she was the most interesting person he had ever met.
...
Much to Ron's consternation, Hermione (and Neville) ended up staying in the compartment. Despite her earlier concerns, Harry managed to convince Hermione to try some magic snacks and Neville only lost control of his toad twice. Hermione insisted on pulling out some of her "light reading" and showing Harry the bits that mentioned him, and Harry showed her some of the more esoteric spell books he had picked up on his trip to Diagon Alley. For someone as enthusiastic about books as Hermione, she seemed unsure about spells that weren't in school textbooks. Harry was trying to convince her to try a supposedly simple spell to force him to only speak in limericks when the door to the compartment slid open once again.
Harry stood up automatically as Draco Malfoy strode into the compartment, flanked by two large boys that seemed to be trying to play bodyguard. Draco's eyes narrowed as he stared at Harry, looking at him with interest and suspicion.
"So, it is you then. I thought you might have been having me on at Madam Malkin's but you're the real deal, eh Potter?" Draco said.
Harry raised an eyebrow at him. "Of course. Did you end up getting that broomstick from Daddy?"
Malfoy's eyes narrowed further. He glanced with disdain at the other inhabitants of the compartment before continuing. "This is Crabbe, and he's Goyle. I'm Malfoy."
Ron snorted.
"Heard my name before, have you?" Malfoy continued, his face twisting into a snarl. "No need to ask who you are. Red hair, hand-me-down wand, are you even really a wizard, Weasley?"
Ron's face went as red as his hair as he tried to stand up, but Hermione beat him to it. "That's not very nice, don't you have anything better to do?" Hermione said, clearly trying to look confident but Harry could tell that she wasn't sure how to handle bullies.
Malfoy looked down his nose at her. "You, I don't recognize at all. Please tell me you aren't one of... them. Are your parents muggles, Miss Very Nice?"
"Yes, my parents are-" Hermione started, but Malfoy turned away and cut her off as if she stopped existing.
"You'll soon learn that some wizarding families are better than others, Potter. You don't need to hang around with trash," He eyed Ron, "or filth." He glanced down at Hermione. "I can help you there." He stuck out his hand for Harry to shake.
Harry just narrowed his eyes further, his magic fluttering around him as he tried to control his emotions. He had played nice up until now, but Malfoy could clearly be tolerated no longer. He had outlived his usefulness as an information source and the look on Hermione's face made Harry want to rip the blond asshole's arm off and shove it down his throat. Instead he steadied himself and his power, giving Malfoy the most disgusted look he could muster.
"I can tell exactly who the filth is here, Draco," Harry hissed. "And it will regret it if it doesn't leave. Now."
Hermione, Ron and Neville looked frozen as Harry's magic subtly permeated the room. Not as obvious as his display at the bank, but some primal feeling in the back of their minds told them to stay still under the eyes of a dangerous predator. Malfoy looked unsure as well, but he was far too accustomed to getting his way to back down now.
"I don't think we will, will we boys?" He said, looking at Crabbe and Goyle and clearly getting some confidence back at the way they loomed over both Harry's scrawny body and the frozen children still sitting. "You clearly have more food than Weasley could afford for the next year. I think we'll take some of it off of your hands." Goyle chuckled darkly and reached for the candy.
Things got out of hand quickly after that.
Harry stepped forward and blocked Goyle's path. Goyle sneered down at him and tried to shove him back, clearly expecting the skinny boy to go flying. Harry let his magic sink into his bones and the floor beneath him, standing firm as Goyle stumbled backwards from the force of his own attempted push. Harry grinned at him; not the cheeky smile he gave Hermione but a feral, unhinged smile that he usually reserved for his demons.
Goyle momentarily looked scared before his normal habits took over and he threw a wild punch at Harry. It was clumsy, but still a haymaker with significant force behind it.
A small part of Harry's mind considered his options at rapid speed.
He wanted to destroy them. His power sang in his blood, demanding justice and retribution. He wanted to duck under Goyle's sad attempt to challenge him and crush his skull like a cantaloupe. He wanted to reach through Crabbe's chest and rip out his spine by the root before doing the same to Malfoy's arrogant tongue. He wanted to be the hero, valiantly fighting the evil bullies who dared to make Hermione sad.
But, unfortunately, he was smarter than that. He knew that course of action would backfire horribly. Malfoy's father was on the board of governors for Hogwarts. The school would not see a hero defending his friends. They would only see an unhinged child who murdered his classmates. They would dig deeper, maybe discovering the extent of his abilities and his monsters, and he would either lose any hope of independence or they would send him back to the Dursleys.
And Hermione would scream and cry in horror as the viscera rained down on her.
So, with an internal sigh of frustration, Harry took what he considered to be the reasonable option. He allowed his magic to flood his body further, his footing rooted and unmovable and his bones hard as steel.
He did allow himself to grin even wider as Goyle's hand broke against his jaw with a sickening crunch. Hermione couldn't see his face from her angle.
Goyle screamed and stumbled back towards the door, clutching his ruined hand. He really had managed to put quite a bit of force into that blow, evident from the current angle of some of his fingers. Malfoy and Crabbe were frozen now, both of their laughter turning to choking shock as they saw the remains of Goyle's normally powerful fist.
The compartment door slammed open with a loud bang and everyone except Harry jumped. Harry didn't actually mean to open it, but his magic got away from him.
Oops.
Harry looked Malfoy in the eyes and allowed his magic to leak into his voice a bit more than he originally intended.
"Leave." He said, his voice echoing in a strange double timbre with the finality of a death toll as his magic bore down on the pathetic, sputtering spark within Malfoy.
The blonde folded like wet cardboard under Harry's stare this time, grabbing Crabbe and a whimpering Goyle and all but running out of the compartment. Harry strode over and closed the door behind them before turning back to his cabin-mates.
Neville looked shocked and vaguely ill, staring at him like Harry was about to lose it and order all of them to leave as well.
Ron looked like Christmas had come early. A wide happy grin was already starting to form on his face and Harry could see the humiliation Malfoy just suffered start to sink in.
And Hermione...
"Oh God, he hit you! We need to report this to a teacher, they can't just get away with assault! How dare they barge in and throw insults and then attack you, what were they thinking? Wait, you just got punched in the face, are you ok? I didn't even check if you were alright, let me see your face. I think I saw some healing spells in the appendix of.."
...Apparently wasn't afraid of him. Or mad at him. Huh.
Ron finally started laughing raucously as Hermione examined Harry's face. "Did you see the look on Malfoy's face, I think he about pissed his robes. Great job taking that hit like a champ, Harry. I don't know how you pulled it off, but you made Goyle's punch look like it barely tickled. I guess looking like a gorilla doesn't automatically make you good at throwing a punch. Bloody hell."
Harry grinned lazily at him as Hermione finally determined that he was not, in fact, gravely injured and returned to the earlier subject of disciplinary retribution. When he could get a word in edgewise, Harry told her that he didn't want to cause trouble and that Malfoy would probably just leave him alone from now on. He wasn't sure that she believed him, but at least she seemed alright to drop it for the time being. As they finally pulled up to Hogwarts, she glanced over at Ron where he had zoned out at some point in her aggressive diatribe.
"You've got dirt on your nose by the way. Did you know?"
Harry burst out laughing again. It felt nice.
...
"You know it's bewitched to mimic the sky outside. Did you read Hogwarts, A History?" Hermione whispered as they filed down the center aisle of the Great Hall.
Harry shook his head. "I wonder if they would let me do that to the ceiling of my dorm room." Harry whispered back, grinning at the exasperated look on Hermione's face.
"The enchanting work was done by Rowena Ravenclaw herself, I don't think-" she was cut off as they arrived at the front and Harry grinned wider as she huffed at him and turned to Professor McGonagall.
Harry liked the stern professor already. He also enjoyed a lack of nonsense. Except for his own, of course.
With horribly ironic timing, the tattered hat that she placed on the stool in front of them began to sing.
Ahh, so this is the horrific trial that Ron's brothers warned him about. Harry thought as he tried to tune out the awful melody. I think that I'd rather fight that troll Ron was talking about.
Harry watched as student after student were called up and sorted, some being declared immediately and others taking minutes for the hat to deliberate. He gave Hermione an encouraging smile when her turn came, and even though she looked nervous she ran to the stool and jammed the hat onto her head. There was a moment of silence and then..
"GRYFFINDOR!"
Harry smiled at her again as she moved to sit at the red and gold table. Harry hoped that he would get placed there as well, especially if Ron was right and he followed his family there.
Neville followed Hermione to Gryffindor. Harry tried not to glare at Malfoy as the asshole swaggered up to the hat. Harry also resisted the urge to trip him. Barely.
The hat barely touched his head before declaring "SLYTHERIN".
It was finally Harry's turn. The Great Hall went quiet except for the buzzing of whispers when McGonagall spoke his name, and Harry tried to look confident as he sat down and put on the talkative hat.
"Oh my, aren't you an interesting one." A voice in his ear said. "You have already survived trials that your classmates could barely comprehend and have many more ahead, yet you are not broken. Plenty of courage. Cunning. Rage tempered with intelligence and power leashed by loyalty. You would rise to the occasion in any of our houses, Mr Potter. In Ravenclaw you will be a prodigy, in Hufflepuff a good man. In Slytherin you will be a king and in Gryffindor you will be a hero. What is your fate, Harry Potter?"
Harry's mouth went dry. He didn't think he would be allowed to pick. He thought back to the train, laughing freely with Hermione and Ron and Neville. He thought about standing firm and powerful against the bullies, pathetically weak though they were, doing the right thing rather than what was easy and Hermione's shaky smile afterwards.
"I will be a hero. Also your song was terrible by the way. Did you know?"
Notes:
Another chapter, still learning how to do this whole writing thing. Feedback and criticism are welcome. I don't own Harry Potter. Toodles.
