A/N:

DavidoDaVinci came back online a few days ago (Hooray!) so we decided to finally get the chapter done.

We're going to leave the notice up as we probably will be another few weeks before the next update.

We have also decided that we will have Dramione in this story. It probably won't make sense at the moment but things will get more interesting with Hermione later on.

As always, please tell us suggestions, fixes, ideas and pairings we could use.

01/10/23

xXxDoubleKxXx

DavidoDaVinci

Disclaimer: Anything recognisable belongs to JK Rowling.

Chapter 5: Platform 93/4

When Harry woke up the next morning, he was still shaken from the night before. After having a quick shower and changing into jeans and a t-shirt that had been bought to keep his cover, he raced downstairs to breakfast. His father looked up from his coffee and grimaced at the sight of his only heir in muggle clothing.

"What a wonderful outfit. It really suits you," Voldemort drawled sarcastically as Harry took the seat next to him.

Harry rolled his eyes as he sat down and grabbed a piece of toast. "You chose the cover. I could have just gone as Lord Voldemort's son," He mumbled.

Voldemort sighed heavily. "They would have recognised you and taken you away from me. I don't want to lose you."

Harry raised his head to look at Lord Voldemort. "I know, Father. I just don't want to have to hide who I am."

"Hiding who you are will give you a direct path to-"

"To the fool and the Order of the Fried Chicken. I know, Father."

Voldemort chuckled slightly at the nickname his son had given to Dumbledore's secret organisation.

"Just make sure you're careful, Harry."

Silence reigned for a moment before Harry spoke.

"Father… Will I have to be in… Gryffindor?"

The Dark Lord sighed heavily. "I would rather you end up in Slytherin but, yes, I think it would be for the best if you were in Gryffindor to keep your cover. People might start to get suspicious if the Boy-Who-Lived were in Slytherin. I'm sorry, Harry."

Harry's eyes visibly darkened but he nodded in understanding. "That's okay, Father. When am I leaving?"

"In about half an hour. But before you go, I have a present for you."

"Okay?"

Lord Voldemort waved his hand and suddenly, a small cage appeared at Harry's place. Coiled tightly inside was a small snake with shimmering black and green scales.

Harry gasped in excitement. "She's beautiful."

xxx

About an hour later, Harry Potter and a Dark Lord in polyjuice potion arrived on Platform Nine and Three Quarters, looked around, and grimaced.

"A bit much on the smoke side of things, isn't it?"

Lord Voldemort smiled to himself. His son only complained about things immediately if he was certain he was going to enjoy himself very soon.

He looked around at his surroundings. Harry chose not to pay any attention to what the platform looked like, and instead chose to register the people moving around it. He heard snatches of conversation.

"You know, Hogwarts isn't that bad, provided you're not in Slytherin."

"I think you'll find he is VERY smart."

"Make sure to write to me as soon as you get there, sweetheart."

"Honestly woman, you call yourself our mother."

He grinned. It was time to board the train.

Muttering a hasty goodbye to his father, he ran off towards the scarlet steam engine.

"Oh, sorry George."

xxx

After grabbing an empty compartment, somewhere near the middle of the Hogwarts Express, Harry grabbed a book on Occlumency from his trunk and started reading.

Before long, there was a knock at the door, and a tall redhead sauntered into the compartment, carrying what looked like a dead rat.

"Can I sit here? Everywhere else is packed."

"Sure," Harry replied, hardly looking up from his book.

He sat down opposite the raven-haired boy and leaned against the back of the seat.

"I'm Ron, by the way. Ron Weasley,"

At that, Harry glanced up. He would have ignored him for a million years happily, but now he looked at him, up and down… red hair… hand-me-down clothes… was there any chance that it wasn't a Weasley?

"I'm Harry. Harry Potter,"

He blinked at him, and then allowed his eyes to wander.

"I've heard the name Potter before… somewhere…"

Thanking the heavens this Weasley hadn't heard of him, he replied.

"I was raised as a muggle in an orphanage, I only recently found out about the wizarding world and that Lord Volde- uh… You-know-who took me away from my parents."

Voldemort had taught Harry his cover well. He had almost said his father's name… but stopped himself. He decided he would not tell his father. Ron looked sympathetically at him.

"Imagine not knowing about Hogwarts until you got the letter," Ron said.

'Imagine being raised by muggles" Harry thought.

There was an awkward silence, during which Harry caught sight of 12 mountains going past. Eventually, Harry decided to break the silence by taking out Ebony and sitting her on his lap. He reminded him of Nagini. Ron stared at the black snake in amazement.

"That's- that's- that's a… snake."

He whispered the last word as if the word snake was some sort of disgusting swear word he was ashamed to be using.

"Er… yeah?"

"Well- I-" Ron looked alarmed now, "How were you… allowed it?"

"I wrote to professor Dumbledore and asked if I could bring her."

"How… you said you were raised by muggles."

Harry saw the flaw in the story now. He was brainstorming how he was going to get out of this one when the door opened. He heaved a silent sigh of relief as the figure of Hermione Granger walked in, already wearing her robes.

"Oh, hi Harry. And…?"

"Ron Weasley,"

Hermione turned to Harry and frowned at him.

"Harry, why do you… uh… look different?"

Harry blinked. He had not expected the question.

Looking unfazed, he said, "I was just practising some magical glamours I read about in a book." Which was perfectly true.

"Ooh, glamours? What are they?"

Harry spent the next half an hour explaining them and by the end, Hermione could do one on herself perfectly. Harry cursed very quietly in parseltongue. He had not meant to teach the mudblood magic.

Hermione looked at him strangely.

"Did you say something, Harry?"

"Yeah, I realised I forgot to feed my snake earlier." He replied smoothly. It was completely true though, he had been quite busy that morning and hadn't had time to feed Ebony. So he had stuffed a dead creature he had found the night before into his trunk, meaning to give it to his pet as soon as he had gotten on the train. But Hermione and Ron had come up to him and he had forgotten.

Harry reached into his bag for the dead squirrel he had found the day before. Smelling the prey, the black and green snake slithered out of his sleeve and into his lap where it gulped down the squirrel hastily before coiling up in Harry's lap to sleep.

Ron gulped.

"So… you… uh… wrote to… Dumbledore?"

"Yep."

Hermione jumped.

"We must be almost there! Quick! Get into your robes!"

She rushed out of the compartment. After muttering something about missing the food trolley, Ron obliged. Harry decided there and then that he didn't care what his father thought. He didn't know why he decided it when he did, but he was determined that it was the right way forward.

He was going to be in Slytherin.