Vernon drove Harry up to Kings Cross at eight a.m. to ensure Harry was going away and so that he could get on with his day, he dropped Harry on the curb and helped him move his trunk onto a cart then said "Remember boy, I don't expect to see you till next summer, be good or else." With that he drove off leaving Harry to wander onto the station to the barrier, Dumbledore had not actually said how to get onto the station, only that he needed to go to the barrier between 9 and 10, he could see that the barrier was glowing with a white light, Harry had theorised that human or "active" magic was all different colours, seemingly random, anything touched by a witch or wizard's magic shared the colour with whoever cast it, this is what gave Diagon Alley such a rainbow like effect as lots of magic had been cast over the years all overlapping each other.
Now faced with a new colour Harry wondered if that meant the barrier was enchanted by a witch or wizard with a white colour or if this was something new, Harry had been trying to figure out where magic actually came from as he never saw any magic enter him, he only saw the magic he cast leave meaning it must come from some inner source like with his orb, he suspected he just wasn't powerful enough to properly see where magic came from, if magical objects did need constant refilling did that mean someone had to come along and "refill" the barrier before people arrived? If so would that mean the white colour is Dumbledore's as he had not seen his colour when he visited as it was hidden, he could tell Dumbledore had an aura but at the same time Harry could not actually see it.
Harry pushed these thoughts away and walked up to the barrier, he placed his hand on it and as he expected his hand went through the barrier as if it didn't exist, he stood back and made sure his hand was still there in one piece before stepping forward and through the barrier, there was no indication he had stepped through anything apart from a bright red steam engine which had appeared on a previously empty track, looking around he realised that despite the fact he could still see the entire station everyone else had seemed to vanish and there were no other trains in the platforms, Harry was amazed, this was the first time he had seen something magical which could not be replicated anytime in the foreseeable future by Muggles, it was irrefutable magic.
Since Harry had many hours to kill before he even had to consider finding a compartment he went up to talk to the driver about the train, however, he said "I only drive the train kid, I don't know how it works, if I did understand it I wouldn't be here." Hogwarts a History only said it was a magical train, Harry could see that where a steam boiler would normally be there was a big block of the same white magic from the barrier, the wheels of the train also glowed and where they touched the tracks the glow spread about 20 feet down, Harry went out on a limb and pulled a piece of gravel to him from the track ballast and dropped it onto the tracks, as he expected the rock rebonded towards him before it even got close to the rails, Harry assumed this was to stop anything getting on the tracks and forcing the train to stop.
Harry decided to find a carriage as he wanted a good one before people started turning up, he settled on one about mid way up the train and then brought some magic to his hand, since Dumbledore visited him and told him about mithril he had experimented with what he could do but was severely limited by power as when he had tried to summon a large amount of magic he had fallen unconscious and when he woke again he was left with a large puddle of mithril rather than a refined solid shape like normal, while it was interesting it was completely useless to him and so he had tried to turn the metal back into raw magic inorder to change it, however he could only melt small areas of the metal which had left scorch marks on the floor, in the end he had just absorbed the magic back into himself which had left him full of energy similar to when he had eaten all of Dudley's sweets one Halloween.
Now that he was on the way to Hogwarts he felt it apt to try again but this time tried a much smaller sample size, he pooled his magic until it was about the size of a golf ball, rather than let it "cool" naturally he tried to force it to solidify by imagining the molecules of the magic to slow, immediately the mithril began to frost over the magic but rather than go top down like normal to started from where his hand held the ball, once he had the mithril golf ball he then imagined the molecules speed up again and then held them halfway between magic and solid, the ball looked like it was melting and rather than feel metalic it now felt more gel like. Harry experimented with this new discovery and found he could physically manipulate the mithril now, this made it easier for him to shape it rather than depend on imagining every single movement in his head.
A short while later he heard footsteps and forced the mithril back to raw magic and then absorbed it before the compartment door opened to reveal Hermione Granger, the girl from the wand store
"How do you do it?" She demanded
"Do what?" Harry was slightly panicking thinking she had seen him with the mithril when he had told Dumbledore he would not show anyone
"How do you make the coins move so effortlessly!" She shut the door behind her and sat opposite him as she said this
"Oh, that! Erm, well I just do it…"
"That isn't an answer! I've been trying to 'just do it' all month but I can't get it to work without a wand" The girl looked quite angry now and Harry was mentally preparing to flee the compartment if it got any worse, Dudley and his gang had taught Harry how to read levels of anger in others and whenever Dudley got this angry Harry often ran as far away as he could, in an effort to calm the girl he mentally summoned a few coins from the coin pouch on the side of his trunk above him and made them dance in his hand, looking up he was alarmed to see the girl look even more angry and quickly said
"I'm just trying to figure out how I do it" He eventually figured out he carefully imagined what he wanted the coins to do, then planned how the coins would achieve his goal and then finally forced his magic onto the coins to make them follow his instructions.
"What I do is three things, from what I can tell to do magic requires three major factors; imagination, planning and power. You first have to imagine what you want to achieve, in this case make the coins leave the bag, come down to my hand then dance in my palm, then you have to plan every detail on how to achieve this, then finally you need enough magical power to make them do what you want."
"How is that any different to what I do?" She seemed to have cooled down now that she had an answer and was more curious than aggressive.
"Why don't you show me what you have tried?" Harry didn't really know how he did it himself but in the interest of self preservation wanted to appease the girl.
Harry made two of his coins leave his palm and into Hermione's before cutting of his magic making them fall, Hermione knew what she wanted, she wanted the coins to rise out of her palm and spin around, she then planned how they would do this, but then she realised she didn't really know how to make her magic power the coins, whenever she used any other spell her magic just left her wand without any prompting, as such she just focused all her attention on making the coins follow her instructions, as she expected the coins didn't even twitch
"Are you feeding it any magic?" Harry could see the power building within Hermione but she wasn't releasing it
"I don't know how to feed it magic!" Hermione snapped, fed up over yet another failure, Harry was stumped, for as long as he could recall he didn't need to think about how to push his magic into anything, it just did.
Harry pulled his magic to the surface subconsciously and made his hand glow slightly, Hermione paused in shock at seeing such a casual example of how far ahead of her Harry was, after she had returned how she had read some of the books about the "Life of Harry Potter" and having met him she decided the books weren't all that accurate but they did get how good at magic he was, some books called him the new Merlin and for an eleven year old just introduced to magic to see someone the same age make his hand glow while also having several golden coins dance complicated movements when she couldn't even get one coin to move was humbling.
Harry noticed none of this of course, so focused internally on trying to figure out how he made his magic work
"From what I can tell, every witch or wizard has magic flowing through them, like a river, where it comes from and where it goes I haven't figured out yet but when ever we perform any magic we tap into that river, I imagine that the more you use magic and channel it the more magic you have available as your body gets used to it, like exercising a muscle. Try and imagine that magical river and tap into it while focusing on what you want to achieve."
Hermione thought she understood and thought of that river Harry had described, to her shock, she found that once she thought of that internal river she felt something within her, she held onto that feeling and focused once more on the coins, they still remained stationary but Hermione realised she only found the river, she hadn't tapped into it, she imagined sticking her finger into it to channel its power, the coins in her hand trembled despite her hand being stationary, mentally she stuck more of her hand into the river and the coins trembled even more, once or twice even rising a fraction, mentally she stuck her entire arm into the river and the coins jumped out of her hand and followed a rather crooked route that while it wasn't quite what she planned was still close enough that she could say it was her making the coins move.
"I did it! I did it!" Hermione stood up and hugged Harry then proceed to dance around the compartment, Harry had seen how difficult it had been for Hermione and once she had achieved it the result was quite poor in Harry's opinion, if Hermione was average then how far ahead was he compared to others, he had never interacted with a witch or wizard before Hermione and Dumbledore and although he could feel Dumbledore's power he hadn't seen him cast any magic but Harry strongly suspected he was nowhere near Dumbledore's level, at the same time he seemed to be several leagues ahead of Hermione who was only just figuring out how to apply magic, of course she had just learned about magic so maybe other children raised with magic would be closer to himself.
Hermione then went through all the spells she had learned and made Harry help her whenever she got it wrong or it could be improved, eventually the clock struck eleven and the train started to leave the station, the compartment door opened once again and a redheaded boy looked in "Is this seat taken? Everywhere else is full"
Hermione looked at Harry who just shrugged so she said "No it's just us, feel free, we were just practising magic" Harry shot her a look "Well okay, I was practising magic, Harry was helping me."
The boy glanced at Hermione then at Harry, immediately he froze and his eyes flicked upwards to his forehead "Blimey, your Harry Potter"
Rather than reply Harry looked back down at his book, he always hated people staring and when Dumbledore told him he was famous for surviving what killed his parents he knew he didn't want to be known for that, if he was to be well known it was to be from his own merits not his parents sacrifice, the boy seemed to realise he had done something wrong as he stuck out his hand and said "I'm Ron Weasley, it's nice to meet you" Harry glanced up at his hand and shook it not wanting to make an enemy on his first day then went back to his book, Ron then held out his hand to Hermione who said "Hermione Granger, it's nice to meet you."
Ron sat down next to Hermione and kept glancing up at Harry, just as Ron was about to leave the compartment due to how awkward it was for him, Hermione said "So were you raised in the magical or the muggle world?"
"Magical, my whole family is magic, what about you?"
"My parents are both muggles, I only knew about magic when I got my letter but as I was on holiday, I was only able to get my supplies a month ago where I met Harry"
Both of them then looked at Harry who sighed and said, "I was raised by my muggle relatives, I've known about magic for a few years now, I didn't know about the wizarding world until I got my letter."
"How would you not know about the wizarding world if you knew about magic?" Ron asked amazed.
"I realised the strange things I could do was magic and taught myself how to use it" Harry replied simply, not wanting to go into details, almost a decade under the Dursleys had taught Harry to horde secrets and to only reveal the bare essentials, if he didn't then it would often come back to hurt him some time later.
"Wicked, like what" Ron didn't seem to pick up Harry's reluctance and even Hermione looked excited to see what Harry had learned
Realising he would need to show something Harry summoned the two coins off the floor, the four he had placed in his pocket and also another four from the bag above him, they lazily flew around the compartment each going a different path, one moving around Ron's head, another moving through Hermione's bushy hair, two where flying around each other like aerial fighters, he then focused and each coin multiplied, it was a trick he had learnt in his cupboard but unfortunately after a short time they would join back together, it looked impressive though and that was what he was going for, he then turned each coin into a random colour a rainbow of coins where flying around the compartment, finally he pushed a small amount of magic into the coins so they glowed. Ron was amazed, here was the boy-who-lived, the boy Ron had grown up hearing about and now he was sat opposite him watching him do some quite extraordinary magic well beyond his own power, he had never even seen Bill or Charlie display this level of control.
Harry then quickly made the coins stop and return to his pocket just before the door opened once more and a blond haired boy walked in like he owned the train, "Word is that Harry Potter should be on the train, have you seen him?"
Harry looked down at his book and said "no, haven't seen him" Ron snorted causing the boy to look at him "No need to ask who you are, red hair, hand-me down robes, you must be a weasley" Ron's face flushed red but before he could respond the boy turned to Hermione "Muggle clothes, no hygiene, never seen you before, I assume you are nothing more than a filthy mudblood" Hermione didn't know what the word meant but by the way the boy said it she figured it was some kind of slur, finally the boy turned to Harry "Once more muggle clothes, messy appearance, your not just a mudblood, your a poor mudblood, this is priceless"
"Ha, jokes on you, he's Harry Bloody Potter" Ron blurted out, before covering his mouth with an "opps"
"Thanks Ron, cheers for that" Harry said wryly, there went that plan of keeping his identity a secret
"You wish you were Harry Potter, dressed like that you make Wheasley look rich" with that he left the compartment, maybe the plan to keep his identity a secret was going to be easier to uphold after all.
"Who was that?" Hermione asked after a moment's pause
"Draco Malfoy" Ron spat "His father was a death eater who claimed to be innocent and bought his way out of jail, my dad hates him."
"What's a death eater?" Hermione asked timidly, aware that Ron was on a short temper
This launched Ron into an explanation of the last wizarding war, Harry tuned it out and went back to his book as Dumbledore had already told him about the war when he came to visit and he had no wish to hear about it all over again, he happened to look out the window and noticed how fast they seemed to be traveling, much faster than any train, let alone a steam train, had any right to be going at.
Harry thought back to his inspection of the train earlier in the day, he guessed that the wheels must be enchanted to reduce friction and the tracks must also help the train move faster, add the magical engine and they could easily challenge the fastest train in the muggle world, Harry wondered what he would do if he was designing the train, to start with the would want to make the rooms bigger with an expansion charm like he saw in diagon alley, next he would use some kind of space manipulation to make the journey quicker, he had read that portkeys could only safely transport about a dozen people before there started to become a risk of the portkey collapsing mid journey so the train couldn't just teleport everyone to Hogwarts but he might be able to connect something similar to a portkey to the rails and then using magic and what ever made portkeys work to make a magical wormhole which the train would then go through using the rails as an anchor so that it wouldn't get lost. He would also use lightening charms to make the train lighter improving the speed, of course that could be what was happening anyway, he would have to ask a teacher once he got there to find out for sure.
As Harry was revolutionising magical travel Ron and Hermione were debating the traditions of the magical world, Hermione being of the opinion that everywhere should work like what she grew up with while Ron wanted to maintain what he grew up with, both left Harry alone as they were slightly afraid of him now that he had shown off his power, finally the sun started setting and Hermione left to allow the boys to change into their robes, then they swapped, Harry and Ron standing guard outside, eventually the train stopped and they left the train onto the platform, they then walked up to the towering man calling out for first years, Harry had never seen a man so huge before in his life, Vernon could hide behind him and not be seen!
Harry then got into a boat followed by Ron, Hermione and a boy introducing himself as Nevil who was softly crying, when Hermione asked what was wrong he replied "I've lost my toad Trevor, my gran is going to kill me"
"If I had a toad I'd be thrilled to lose it, don't know what he's complaining about" Ron whispered to Harry, not quietly enough though as Nevil started crying harder and Hermione shot Ron a dark look.
When they saw Hogwarts everyone was stunned, none more than Harry as he could see not just the beautiful castle but the magic flowing through it and around it, looking at the water at first he thought he saw the magic of Hogwarts reflected but then realised it was a giant creature following the boats a few feet below them, the darkness and colour of the creature made it almost invisible, Harry could only see it as it was glowing with its own white energy, a tentacle was connected to each boat moving it along, this must be the giant squid "Hogwarts: A history" spoke about.
Once they reached the underground harbour they were introduced to Professor McGonagall who lead them through the castle, already Harry was utterly lost and the constant sight of magic was giving him a headache, where in muggle Privet Drive magic was a pleasant highlight in filled to the brim with ancient magic, Hogwarts was like staring into the sun for Harry, by the time they got to the entrance hall Harry was mentally blocking his magical sight, as such when the ghosts appeared it was a complete surprise to him.
"I say, what do we have here?" One of the ghosts asked having noticed them first
"First years by the look of them" Another replied
Harry was getting over his shock and a bombardment of questions were being raised within his mind; how do ghosts exist, can only magical people become ghosts or can everyone become one, can magical creatures become ghosts, what does a ghost see when they go through solid objects, can they do anything or do they just walk around all day, can muggles see ghosts?
As these questions circled Harry's mind the great doors opened and they were led up the great hall, the other first years looked around amazed, even the pompous Draco Malfoy from the train looked awe struck, Harry, however, was less impressed by the hall, there was nothing magical going on aside from the floating candles, which seemed like a fire hazard waiting to happen, what would happen if the wax fell onto the students below? Harry's view of the wizarding world was finally soured by the ragged hat placed onto the three legged stool, did they not have any clothes fixing spells? When it started singing Harry's interest picked up but then came the wait, why was there only one hat, they could have a hat for everyone and just sort everyone at the same time rather than sit still and wait to be told your house.
When Mcgonagall called "Potter, Harry" he was feeling rather impatient, he had only eaten sweets since breakfast which was at 6 am, it was now close to 7 pm and he was starving, he walked up to the stoll ignoring all the whispering and pointing and sat down, the hat was then placed onto his head when it promptly slipped over his eyes, to his shock the hat then started talking to him within his mind.
"I will try and make this quick so that you may get your dinner, Godric knows you need the food, as you know each house prides itself on different characteristics and it is my job to find the best match for you, you have plenty of cunning, no doubt about that, but no ambition, that removes Slytherin, you are not brave, you would rather run than confront a problem, you are also not a team player, that removes Gryffindor, I sense you would have strong loyalties if you had anyone to be loyal too, you also know the importance of hard work and determination, Hufflepuff would benefit greatly from having you amongst them, however you work hard for the sake of knowledge rather than the work itself, already you are trying to work out how our world works, Rowena would have adored you, assuming you have no issue with my choice?" Harry shook his head and the hat said aloud for the entire hall to hear "Better be Ravenclaw then."
Finally at Hogwarts, I consider this and the last chapter to be like a hill in a bike race, you have to get through it but it's the most unpleasant part of the journey, now that they are out of the way it should be smooth sailing, mentally I already have the entire first year planned and now it is just a matter of actually writing it down!
For those interested the fastest train record in 1990 was 321 mph by the French SNCF high-speed train, TGV, the distance from London to Edinburgh is about 400 miles, with the Hogwarts express going straight from London to Hogwarts with no stops (When there are no dementors or death eaters that is) combined with magic the train taking from 11 am till around about 7 pm is utterly ridiculous, currently you can go that distance in about 4 hours with multiple stops, on top of that you could just enchant the express with the flying charm like on Mr Weasley's car mixed with the notice me not on the Knight bus to be even quicker.
Another point of interest is in the filming of the first movie Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Sorcerer's Stone to those in America which is a lot of you apparently) they did use real candles with wire which resulted in boiling wax dropping onto the actors below, little bit of trivia for you there, take notes there will be a test!