Chapter Text
1st September 1991
There was no crash.
Harry opened his eyes, let out a yelp and barely managed to slam on the metaphorical brakes in time to keep from running over a large gray cat.
Around him, King’s Cross had disappeared entirely.
The bustling scene before him was unlike anything he had ever seen. Thick billowing clouds of steam, emerging from the scarlet locomotive that he assumed was the Hogwarts Express mingled with the crisp air, lending an ethereal haze to an already magical atmosphere.
Students of all ages were gathered on the platform, their faces alight with excitement, nervousness, or a mixture of both. A few feet away, a gangly, freckled boy with flaming red hair seemed to be struggling with a battered trunk almost as large as himself, while a girl who seemed to be on her own, her bushy brown hair flying wildly, was clutching a large book in one hand and was casting nervous glances towards the train. Nearby, a dark-haired youth with a rather prominent nose and a supremely bored expression leaned against a pillar, a sleek black cat winding around his legs.
A large number of parents and guardians filled the platform as well, offering last-minute advice, affectionate hugs, and stern reminders. A round-faced boy with a kind, anxious smile was being fussed over by an elderly woman in a tartan cloak, who repeatedly patted him down to ensure he hadn’t forgotten anything. Harry immediately recognized him as Neville, from Madam Malkin’s and toyed with the idea of going up to him to say hello. But the stern and severe expression of the boy’s guardian made him think better of the idea.
Further along, a set of twins also with vivid red hair, identical down to the last freckle, were loudly joking and demonstrating a series of tricks to a younger boy who watched them with wide, awestruck eyes.
Pets of all kinds were everywhere, adding their own chaos to the scene. Owls hooted from their cages, cats of various colors and breeds slinked through the throng, and an assortment of strange creatures peeked out from trunks and bags. A large, regal owl sat perched on a trolley beside a tall, wiry boy, its amber eyes surveying the crowd with a rather disdainful air that immediately reminded Harry of Snark.
Even the actual platform itself was a veritable riot of color and noise. Posters advertising new Quidditch brooms and other wizarding goods adorned the walls, and a couple of vendors roamed through the crowd, selling sweets and other treats. But dominating the whole scene, the Hogwarts Express stood proudly gleaming in the morning light, its polished exterior reflecting the excitement and anticipation that filled the air. Its carriages, each one marked with the emblem of Hogwarts, seemed to promise adventures yet to come.
Harry’s gaze swept across the crowd again. Not far from them, a surly-looking boy with sleek, platinum blond hair stood flanked by two hulking companions, all of them already dressed in what seemed to be their school uniforms, their matching sneers directed at the bustling crowd. For a brief second Harry’s eyes met those of the blond boy and the sneer seemed to intensify as he took in Harry’s hat and obviously mundane clothing.
With a final, lingering glance around the platform, Harry began to make his way towards an open carriage door nearby, careful to avoid bumping into folks with his trolley, or accidentally squashing someone’s pet.
Thanks to the charms on his trunk, it was easy for him to unload it from the trolley and haul it onto the train itself. With this done, he set off down the corridor, looking for an empty compartment. The other students he passed didn’t so much as give him a second glance, even though a lot of them seemed to be scanning the crowd as if looking for someone.
Probably looking to find and catch up with their friends after spending the summer away from each other, Harry assumed.
He had to walk to nearly the end of the train before he finally found an unoccupied compartment and dragged his trunk into it. He hesitated a moment before opening it up to extract a set of his black school robes, and then stowed the trunk on the luggage rack overhead.
That done, he settled into the window seat and resumed his perusal of the crowd of people on the platform.
As he watched more families bidding farewell to their children, just for a moment, he felt all alone. He had always had the comforting presence of Aunt Petunia or Uncle Vernon near him whenever he had left home for whatever reason, and going somewhere all by himself was a new and strangely overwhelming experience. He wondered if he should have kept Hedwig with him like most of the other children seemed to have done, just so he would have had the opportunity to write to them and let them know that he had gotten aboard the train safely…before reluctantly quashing the thought.
It was curious though how so many of the witches and wizards who were on the platform seemed to be dressed in a manner which indicated that they weren’t concerned about how they might be perceived by any non-magical folks they could run into. So, either there were other ways to arrive at the platform that Harry wasn’t aware of, or a lot of these folks simply didn’t care about the statute of secrecy or didn’t consider attracting the attention of mundane folks as something to be worried about.
Harry couldn’t tell if the latter was more likely to be caused by the innate superiority complex of magical folks to their mundane counterparts, or a dependency on freely using memory charms (something that he’d read about and was quite disturbed by the idea of) whenever things went awry. He also wasn't sure about which possible explanation he found more concerning.
With an effort, he calmed himself by entering into a trance for a few moments. It would not be helpful to start off by being overly critical of everything he observed in a world he was still so new to, he started to tell himself right as his musings were interrupted by the sound of the door to his compartment sliding open.
A couple of girls his age, each dragging a trunk behind them stood at the entrance to the compartment eyeing him with a bit of uncertainty, before one of them smiled brightly.
“Hello, are these seats taken?” She asked. “Most places are already full or occupied by upperclassmen.”
“Er, n-no.” Harry stammered, caught off guard. “Please feel free,” he gestured with a small smile.
“Thanks!” The girl in the lead grinned and strode into the compartment, her long and braided dark hair swinging behind her.
As Harry helped the two newcomers hoist their trunks onto the racks above them, he realized that they were twins. He vaguely recalled seeing them in Diagon Alley during his shopping trip.
“I’m Parvati,” the lead twin said, extending a hand once they had settled down. “And exhibit A here is my brilliant but socially awkward twin sister Padma.”
The second twin swatted the more talkative sister with a paperback novel that Harry hadn't spotted earlier and offered Harry a small smile.
“Hello,” Harry smiled in return. “I’m H-”
He was interrupted by the compartment door slamming open once more and the gangly, freckled boy with red hair, who he had clocked earlier, giving them a quick once over before abruptly turning on his heels and heading away, leaving the door still ajar.
“Wow, that was…rude,” Parvati commented, her dark eyes narrowing.
“He’s probably not going to be the only one trying to find and befriend Harry Potter,” Padma observed. Harry noticed that even though both sisters had the same voice, their mannerisms and even tone were starkly different.
“I mean, I’d like to say hello to him too, but imagine making a spectacle of yourself like that to find him,” Parvati said, shaking her head. “I’m almost tempted to lock the door to prevent any more such crass intrusions, but I guess there’s still more seats here in case someone needs them. You want the window seat, Padma? No? Ok, I’m taking it then!”
Padma rolled her eyes and scooted out of the way, as the more rambunctious twin dove for the aforementioned seat and offered a quiet sigh in Harry’s direction as if to say, ‘Sorry about this’.
Harry found himself grinning, as some of his earlier trepidations melted away.
True, he was about to enter a new world that he understood very little of, but first and foremost he and everyone else here was a child heading to school. It would likely still be years before he would need to worry about anything beyond getting good grades and learning magic, and instead of being surrounded by people out to get him, he would be around more Dudleys, Pierses and Wasims.
He allowed himself to relax and smiled at Padma to reassure her that he didn’t mind her sister’s exuberance, as the twin in question hollered out of the window, trying to get the attention of their parents who were presumably still on the platform.
He sat back and watched the twins interact with their parents through the window. They seemed to be of Indian descent and spoke rapidly in a language that Harry didn’t know, but their mother seemed to be exuding the same energy as Aunt Petunia did whenever she had to try and convince Dudley to curb his excitement. From experience, he suspected that this was just as futile an endeavor as what he was used to witnessing.
In the days leading up to September 1st, Harry had decided that it was probably a good idea to stop using a pseudonym when he met his fellow students. As it was, his identity was bound to be revealed once he arrived at Hogwarts, so there was no benefit in pretending to be someone else on the train ride over. He’d kept the hat and the lenses on for their drive into London and was ready to ditch the first and swap the second for his glasses as soon as the train started moving. He honestly preferred his glasses to the lenses, and only ever used contacts during fencing lessons and the like.
Which of course would be something he would be forced to discontinue except during the summer.
He’d have to look into what kind of sports and extra-curricular activities were available at Hogwarts, since he rather doubted that Quidditch could be the only thing there was. He didn’t suppose that he’d be able to try that particular sport himself since most kids from magical backgrounds would likely have had a significant head start in learning to fly on a broomstick, but the flying lessons still sounded interesting.
His thoughts were interrupted by the door to the compartment opening once more.
This time it was the blond boy from the platform with his two oversized companions. His gray eyes swept the compartment imperiously and paused when he noticed the twins’ parents just outside the compartment, as they had stopped their conversation to regard the newcomer.
“My apologies, I seem to have come to the wrong compartment,” he muttered with stiff politeness and left without another word while one of his mates closed the door behind them.
“Well, at least that’s an improvement,” Parvati giggled.
Harry was saved from having to respond by the sound of a whistle that indicated that they were ready to depart. He watched both twins hug their parents through the compartment window and wondered if Dudley, Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon were already on their way back to Surrey. He suspected that they may have stuck around for a while just in case and wished that they could have come through to the platform to see him off. But further reflections were terminated when the train finally lurched into motion.
As the Hogwarts Express slowly picked up speed and left the crowd of parents behind as it pulled out of the platform, Parvati finally sat back down from having leaned out of the window as far as she could go and waving at her parents until they were out of sight.
“Hogwarts! Here we come!” she said with barely contained excitement. “What house do you think you’ll be sorted into, er-Oh! I’m sorry, we never got around to catching your name!”
Harry took a deep breath.
“I’m H-”
The door opened right on cue.
“Has anyone seen a toad? Neville’s lost one.”
The new arrivals, this time, were the bushy-haired girl Harry remembered seeing on the platform and a sheepish-looking Neville following along in her wake. The girl was looking at Harry and the twins expectantly.
“Uh-no toad here, sorry” Parvati muttered, sounding a little amused.
“I can’t believe I’ve lost him already!” Neville wailed. “It hasn’t even been a full minute since we've left the station!”
Harry decided to take pity on the boy.
“I think there is a spell that could be useful in this situation,” he offered. “If you find one of the upper year students or a prefect they might be able to summon your er-toad with the summoning charm. And also, good to see you again Neville.”
Instead of Neville, it was the bushy-haired girl who replied.
“I don’t remember reading about a charm like that,” she stated flatly, suspicion clear in her eyes. “And I have read through the entire ‘Standard Book of Spells – Grade One’!”
“It’s not part of the first-year syllabus,” he offered weakly.
“So, how do you know about it then?”
“Um…I read ahead?” Damnit, it wasn’t even a full five minutes into this trip, and he was already drawing attention to himself. “Look, just ask a prefect, I’m sure they’ll be able to help out.”
“So, you can’t perform the spell yourself?” the girl asked, before continuing without giving Harry a chance to respond. “All the spells I tried have worked for me so far.”
“Oh Merlin, you’re annoying!” Parvati’s voice interrupted her, and Harry turned to stare at her in mute admiration.
“Look, we haven’t seen your friend’s toad, and he’s just offered good advice on how you might track it down. So do you want to follow it or just brag about having read the whole book or being able to use a few spells?”
The girl’s eyes bulged for a moment as the whole compartment went quiet.
“I-I’m sorry,” she stammered after a second. “I swear I didn’t mean to brag, it’s just that I’m very new to magic and I was very excited about all this and so I had read all the schoolbooks and some supplementary stuff ahead of time so I wouldn’t fall behind-”
“It’s ok, breathe” Padma stopped the sudden rant by getting up from her seat and placing a gentle hand on the new girl’s shoulder. “My sister has a tendency of being abrasive and harsh. All she meant was that perhaps what you should be focusing on is helping, er, Neville, find his toad instead of comparing notes about what we’ve read so far. Right, Parvati?”
“Well, partially,” Parvati muttered before sighing at the glare from her twin. “Yes, that is what I meant. I’m sorry it came out so rough.”
She flashed them all another bright smile as Neville and the girl looked at her a bit uncertainly.
“Look, tell you what. Papa told us that prefects travel the corridors during the train journey to make sure everyone’s doing fine and help the first years if they need anything. Why don’t the two of you wait with us, and once a prefect passes by, we can stop them and ask for help, yes?”
“I-if you’re sure?” the girl asked hesitantly.
“I am,” Parvati offered with another easy smile and extended her hand in the direction of the two newcomers. “Come on in and close the door, we have plenty of room. I’m Parvati by the way, Parvati Patil. This is my more tactful twin Padma.”
“I’m Hermione. Hermione Granger,” the bushy-haired girl said cautiously, accepting the offered hand and shaking it. “And I really am sorry about before,” she added, turning to include Harry in her apology.
“No harm done, and I really ought to stop reacting like that,” Parvati accepted the apology on both their behalf, much to Harry’s amusement and extended her hand towards Neville. “It drives Mama crazy. She calls it my ‘Gryffindorish tactlessness’.”
“Neville. Neville Longbottom,” Neville said quietly, accepting Parvati’s hand and giving it a limp shake.
“Merry meet both of you,” Parvati beamed, before realizing that everyone was still rooted to their spots. “Well don’t just stand there! Come in and grab a seat. The prefects won’t show up faster if you remain standing, will they?”
At Parvati’s prodding, Neville and Hermione finally sat down in the seats closest to the door facing each other. Padma rolled her eyes and resumed her seat, which put her in between Hermione and her sister and picked up the paperback she had been browsing whenever she hadn’t been corralled into a conversation by her twin.
“Oh wow! Was it the third time now?” Parvati suddenly laughed. “Every time you try to introduce yourself, someone interrupts you! Maybe the fourth time’s the charm?” she finished with a twinkle in her dark eyes as she surveyed Harry.
Harry smiled in spite of himself and took a breath.
“My name is,” he paused with an eye on the door which showed no sign of springing open again, “Harry. Harry Potter.”
He was met with silence.
“Oh…” Parvati eventually said, her eyes wide.
“You’re Harry Potter?” Hermione was the first to shake off the surprise in a sudden rush of excitement. “I’ve read all about you! You’re mentioned in ‘Modern Magical History’, ‘The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts’ and ‘Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century’!”
“Er…” Harry responded with his usual tongue-tied eloquence. He had read Modern Magical History and GWETC too and knew that he had been mentioned in passing in both. The second book in particular had made him sound like some kind of magical miracle on account of him having supposedly survived the killing curse as a baby. He wondered if everyone he was going to meet would have a similar reaction to finding out who he was.
“Ugh,” Parvati snorted in disgust. “You two are such Ravenclaws,” she declared, casting a disdainful glance at Hermione and Padma.
She turned back to Harry, “Don’t let them get to you Harry. Books might teach you a lot of things, but they clearly don’t teach subtlety. Hey!”
The last part was in response to being swatted on the head by her twin once more.
“Um, sorry,” Hermione said, blushing slightly again. “I mean, you are kind of famous. Is that why you’re in disguise? Apparently, no one knows where you went after you defeated You-Know-Who, but your family, the Potters, are all rumored to have distinctively messy black hair-”
“You’re doing it again,” Parvati smirked.
Hermione restrained herself with an effort as Harry smiled in amusement.
“Um, honestly…yes. My Aunt and Uncle thought it would be a good idea if I didn’t attract too much attention until I was safely on the train. Hence the hat and all.”
“Y-you’re really H-Harry Potter?” Neville asked very quietly.
Harry turned to face him, remembering that he had introduced himself to the boy at Madam Malkin’s back in July under a different name.
“Uh, yeah. Sorry about that Neville. My Uncle and Aunt thought that it might be simpler to er, not reveal who I was while shopping at Diagon Alley in case, er you know.”
Neville didn’t respond but still seemed to be staring at him.
“Um, I know who you are too of course,” Harry offered, speaking to fill the silence. “I’ve read about the, er, att-”
He had enough sense to break off abruptly the instant he recognized the suddenly rising panic in Neville’s eyes and tried to hastily change the subject.
“But er, enough about reading things…you were asking about which houses we would be sorted into, Parvati?”
“Huh? Oh yeah, right!” Parvati perked up again. “I’m definitely going to be in Gryffindor. I bet Padma gets sorted into Ravenclaw, bookworm that she is,” she added, deftly ducking a third attempted swipe from Padma’s paperback. “What do you all reckon?”
“I-I think Gryffindor sounds by far like the best house,” Hermione said contemplatively. “Even Dumbledore himself was one! And he’s considered the greatest wizard of our time! But to be fair, Ravenclaw also does sound pretty nice. Apparently they have their own private library in their common room.”
She took in their somewhat surprised gazes and shrugged, “I read about it in ‘Hogwarts: A History’.”
“I’ve read that too,” Harry said, feeling a little relieved that the conversation was back on familiar grounds for now. “But honestly, it feels a bit like a puff piece masquerading as a history book. All the fun facts are amazing of course, but the constant references to Hogwarts being the best school there is, are just plain misleading.”
“They wouldn’t print it if it wasn’t true!” Hermione immediately huffed with visible indignation.
“No, he’s right,” Padma chipped in. “Hogwarts is the best school for magical education in the British Isles, but worldwide there are lots of other prestigious schools that produce amazing witches and wizards every year. In fact, based on the recent rankings of quality and variety of education offered, Hogwarts ranks third in Europe alone, behind Beauxbatons and Durmstrang.”
“I-” Hermione began uncertainly.
“I think my g-gran really wants me to be in Gryffindor. But I might be a Hufflepuff,” Neville said in a whisper, heading off the imminent debate.
“The house of loyalty and hard work,” Parvati declared solemnly. “I think every house has merit and important values, so no matter where you go, I’m sure you’ll do great, Neville. What about you Harry?”
“I…honestly don’t know,” Harry conceded. “I am not sure if I even understand what the point of sorting students into different houses is, and how it’s supposed to be a good thing.”
“Of course, it’s a good thing! Without being sorted into a house how would we know what our most prominent traits are?” Hermione declared, sounding scandalized.
“We’re eleven,” Harry sighed. “Are you really saying that being a little brave, or bookish as we are now should automatically exclude us from being housed with folks who are loyal and hardworking, or cunning and ambitious? If anything, I’d think the reverse would be a much better idea. House the folks with a tendency of rash impulsiveness with folks that are more pragmatic. House the children who are ambitious with people who value loyalty…and try to ensure that you eventually have graduates who are well-rounded individuals instead of products of some kind of medieval echo chamber.”
Harry stopped for a breath; he hadn’t realized that he had inadvertently raised his voice above normal during the impassioned mini-rant. He calmed himself and continued in a more level tone.
“Look all I’m saying is, the idea of segregating children, and yes that is exactly what the sorting sounds like, based on their supposed qualities at the age of eleven, is more likely to produce young adults with less balanced personalities and almost tribalistic loyalties towards their own housemates and an innate distaste for others. Even the separation of classes based on the skills of the students sounds like a better way to split folks up, if the primary idea is to bring down the number of people per class to a more manageable number.”
“But the founders were wise! And surely, in all their wisdom-”
“The founders started something new. They decided to individually teach folks, who they personally approved of. The original Hogwarts was more akin to a massive mentorship program than an actual school. As a result, during their time it must have been a matter of convenience to house all of Gryffindor’s pupils in the same area and so on. From everything I’ve read and heard…that is no longer the case today.”
Hermione leaned back and bit her lip with a worried frown. Harry had a sense that questioning figures of authority or the status quo, or even the printed word, wasn’t something that came naturally to her. And it didn’t seem like the rest of the folks in the compartment were convinced either.
Harry gave each of them a small apologetic smile and tried to steer the conversation to safer waters.
“Well, that’s just what I feel. So…if it were up to me, I’d rather not be in any house at all and be able to spend time with everyone without associating any specific trait or stigma to them. But, as it’s not, I honestly couldn’t begin to guess where I’ll be sorted.”
“Well, I’ll still be a courageous Gryffindor,” Parvati said, recovering first. “So, regardless of where you end up, I’ll be sure to come and say hi from time to time...no matter how well you try and disguise yourself.”
And just like that the tension evaporated as they all chuckled.
Harry looked around again and received a small meek smile from Neville and a thoughtful nod from Hermione. Padma was still frowning at something though, and just as he met her eyes she spoke up abruptly.
“Lesson plans.”
“Sorry, what?” Harry asked, startled.
“Students of different temperaments, or ones who value different things, might require different lesson plans or teaching approaches to be effectively educated,” Padma said. “So, it would make sense that the children with more bravery than brains might benefit more from a more practical challenges-based curriculum than ones who prefer a more abstract and theoretical lesson.”
Harry considered the idea. It clearly had merit; he quickly accepted and nodded to Padma.
“That is actually a very good point,” he said, pretending not to see Hermione’s gleeful smile out of the corner of his eye. “So, is that how different classes are taught at Hogwarts, then? A different style of teaching based on the students’ temperaments?”
“No. To the best of my knowledge, the same instructor teaches every class of the particular subject, in exactly the same manner.”
Hermione deflated in the corner.
“Ah,” Harry shrugged. “Yeah, then I think I’d much rather be houseless.”
“What is this about being houseless?” A new voice suddenly intruded.
They all looked around, startled. They’d been so caught up in their discussion that they had completely missed the compartment door opening, and a tall older boy appeared on the other side.
“Oh, didn’t mean to startle you,” the boy began with a slightly self-important air, as Harry noted that this was yet another of the gangly freckled red-haired specimens that there seemed to be far too many of. In addition to the other traits, this one also had on a pair of horn-rimmed glasses and what appeared to be a shiny red and gold badge pinned to his dark robes. “I am Percy Weasley, one of the two fifth-year prefects from Gryffindor. Would I be correct in assuming that you are all first-year students?”
At their hesitant nods, he stepped into their compartment confidently and clasped his hands behind his back in the manner of a pastor about to begin a sermon.
“Allow me to be the first to welcome you all to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the finest institute for magical education there is. I am aware that starting out at such a prestigious institution can be a little daunting at first, but I can assure you that no one will suffer the ignominy of being houseless,” Percy the Prefect continued, with what Harry assumed was meant to be a reassuring glance in his direction. “The sorting process is a time-honored tradition at Hogwarts, since the days of its founding over a millennium ago, and while I am not at liberty to divulge its workings, I can promise you that it is nothing to be afraid of. Now, are there any other matters that I could perhaps assist any of you in?”
“Can you do a summoning charm?” Parvati shot immediately.
“Er-that’s. Why exactly do you ask?” Percy said, suddenly seeming a little off guard.
“Neville here has lost his toad,” Hermione spoke up. “H-We heard that there might be an upper-year spell, the summoning charm might be able to help?”
“I see,” Percy said, glancing at Hermione and then Neville. “Well, I am aware of the spell, it is part of the fifth-year charms curriculum, but most regrettably I haven’t had an opportunity to master it just yet.”
He saw the disappointment in Neville’s eyes and immediately pushed on. “But have no fear young man, I’ll find one of our senior prefects and bring them along shortly and they should definitely be able to assist. Oh! As a matter of fact, here are some of them now! Thruston! Merryweather! Would either of you have a moment to spare?”
The two students Percy had just hailed had been passing by engaged in conversation with each other but turned at the sound of Percy’s call.
“What do you want Percy?” the boy, Thruston, asked cordially.
Harry had seen a few wizards around so far, dressed in old-fashioned robes, or in some cases wearing mundane attire that they didn’t seem too comfortable in. But nothing he’d seen so far in Diagon, King’s Cross or anywhere else had prepared him for Thruston.
The pale boy, presumably a slight bit older than Percy, was dressed in an open-chested leopard print jacket over a gray tank top. His head was shaved completely bald on the left side, and he wore thick dark eyeliner along with a metal necklace that looked like an iron cross. Harry couldn’t be quite sure, but he guessed that the extremely tight dark pants the older boy was wearing were probably made of dragon hide.
“Orsino Thruston here,” Percy was saying, “despite appearances, was chosen to be the male prefect for Hufflepuff house last year. He turned down the position to focus more on his musical pursuits. He’s somewhat of a prodigy on the drums and already works with the band known as ‘The Weird Sisters’.”
He gestured at the girl who had been accompanying Orsino (who none of them had paid any attention to on account of being transfixed by her companion’s getup) and continued.
“Sarah Merryweather is the sixth-year prefect for Hufflepuff and one of the top students of her year. I’m positive that between the two of them, they’ll be able to help you out.”
“Wotcher fellas,” Sarah, a tall, slim, girl with her long blond hair in a loose braid said with an easy smile. Unlike Orsino, she seemed to have already changed into her Hogwarts robes, just as Percy had. But where his tie and Prefect badge were crimson and gold, hers were yellow and black. “I don’t know what Perce has been telling ya, but having a stick up one’s behind, is not in fact a requirement to become a prefect.”
“Plus, there’s much better things to do out there than prowling the castle at nights busting people anyway,” Orsino winked. “But what is it you need help with?”
“Um-Neville here has lost his toad. But can I have your autograph? I really love the Weird Sisters! ‘Yuletide Schmuletide’ is like my favorite track ever! I knew you were young, but I didn’t know you were still in school!” Parvati gushed, absentmindedly twirling a strand of her dark hair around her index finger.
Harry saw Sarah Merryweather roll her eyes theatrically and move closer to Neville while Orsino dealt with his fan. Hermione seemed to have asked Percy something to which he was responding. He shifted closer to Neville, to hear what the sixth-year prefect was saying.
“Ok, I should be able to help summon your toad assuming it’s on the train and not left back on the platform. But this spell requires visualizing the intended target. We don’t want to be summoning someone else’s pet now, do we? So, Neville, can you describe your toad as clearly as you can?”
“Uh-yes, I-I think so,” Neville stuttered. “He’s called T-Trevor. I’ve had him for two years n-now, and even though he’s supposed to be a smooth-sided toad, he’s brown and covered in wart-like bumps. My Uncle Algie picked him out of me because of the irregularity. He has black eyes.”
Harry made a mental note that Neville’s nervousness and stutter seemed to disappear when he was focused on talking about something that he was clearly invested in.
“Very good,” Sarah said approvingly. “I dare say that is gonna be enough. So, stand back lads and let’s give it a whirl, shall we?”
Harry watched with keen interest as Sarah withdrew a wand from her skirt pocket and fought the temptation to try and sense the wand’s wood or core. She squinted her eyes for a second and performed a curved horizontal slash in the air in front of her while clearly intoning what he assumed was the incantation for the spell. “Accio Trevor!”
For a second, nothing seemed to happen, but just as Harry was about to look away so as not to show his disappointment, there was a rush of air and a toad slapped into Sarah’s outstretched left palm with a muffled croak.
“Trevor!” Neville leapt up immediately and reached out to take the toad from the prefect, who seemed quite glad to hand him over.
“Try to take better care of him now Neville,” she called cheerfully as she dragged Orsino away from the compartment. “And welcome to Hogwarts y’all. Good luck with the sorting!” She yelled as they left.
Harry tore his eyes away from Neville stuffing a squirming Trevor into his pocket and caught the tail end of Hermione’s conversation with Percy as the door shut behind the departing sixth-year students.
“-the exception to the allowed pets is purely on the grounds that no witch or wizard can be legally separated from their familiars unless they are incarcerated. But, since it’s hard to predict exactly where a familiar bond might end up developing, a lot of students bring their pets along hoping that one day it will become their familiar through time and proximity. The school tends to take a lenient view of this-” Percy was explaining.
“But a tarantula?” Hermione interrupted.
“Well, they might look big and scary, but they aren’t harmful to people. Their bites are similar to a bee sting at best. But actually, that reminds me…my little brother Ronald, who is also starting Hogwarts this year, is deathly scared of spiders. And knowing my other brothers, the twins, they’ll think it a merry prank to find and put this tarantula in his bed or something. I had better go and warn him.” He looked around. “Assuming you do not require any additional assistance that is?”
Hearing a chorus of “No and thank you!” He smiled and took his leave.
“He’s a bit stuffy, but he seems helpful,” Padma observed once the door had closed again.
Harry and Neville nodded, while Hermione looked affronted and, in the background, Parvati declared that she wanted to be in Hufflepuff now.
The next few hours of the journey were spent chatting amongst themselves.
Neville, it seemed, had been raised by his grandmother and homeschooled by a large number of great uncles and aunts, and before anyone could ask him what happened to his parents, Harry shifted the focus by starting to talk about the Dursleys. He rather thought that Parvati and Dudley might get along like a house on fire.
Hermione it seemed was the first witch in her family, her parents being dentists who had set up their practice on the outskirts of London. To no one’s surprise, she also revealed that she had been a part of the gifted program in her former school and clearly couldn’t dream of doing any less brilliantly at her magical education. She squealed in joy when Harry mentioned Aunt Petunia’s plans for him to take his GCSEs eventually through summer preparations and asked him if they could meet up for some study sessions during the school year as well.
The twins’ parents were second-generation arrivals to the UK and helped manage the London office of their magical import and export business between India and England. Harry listened with fascinated attention as Padma spoke about the various different magical ingredients and products that would only grow in specific climates and regions and how their global availability benefited any new research into potion-making, by allowing folks to work with substances that would have been unavailable to potioneers even a few decades ago.
Sometime around midday, a lunch trolley arrived, pushed along by a friendly witch. And while all of the kids in Harry’s compartment had been sent packed lunches, they couldn’t resist buying a few small sampler packs of the more exotic-looking sweets.
They laughed, joked and talked about which subjects they were most looking forward to learning while coughing from the occasional weirdly flavored Bertie Bott’s Bean.
They also had fun catching and eating the animated chocolate frogs which Neville and Padma mentioned contained collectible cards inside them. Hermione and Harry had both looked a little horrified at the prospect at first, before Parvati had explained that these were just chocolate figures charmed to hop around and weren’t really alive in any sense of the word. She’d explained that if allowed to do so, the charm would merely wear off after fifteen or so minutes of the frog being unwrapped.
Apparently, Padma and Neville were both avid collectors of these chocolate frog cards and were looking for specific characters to improve their collections. They each generously offered Harry and Hermione all the cards they claimed to already have, and soon Harry found himself the proud owner of cards depicting his soon-to-be headmaster Albus Dumbledore, some horrifyingly evil wizard from ancient Greece called Herpo the Foul and master potioneer Damocles Belby along with an ancestor of his, Flavius Belby, the only known wizard to have ever survived a Lethifold attack.
He was however very interested in the card that Hermione had passed to him, citing a desire not to develop a reason to get addicted to chocolate products and thereby risk being disowned, which depicted ‘Merlin the Wild’.
The portrait within the card was currently blank (Parvati had scoffed at him when he’d drawn attention to the fact and asked why he was expecting them to stick around all the time), but Harry’s eyes were carefully re-reading the small blurb of text beneath the space for the picture.
“Merlin the Wild, also known as the Prince of Enchanters is perhaps the most famous mage to have ever walked the British Isles. Credited with founding the British Wizengamot during his tenure as the First Minister and Court Wizard of King Arthur, he is just as renowned for shaping the muggle governance of the time as he is for helping mold wizarding Britain into its current state. Merlin was one of the first generation of students to be educated at Hogwarts, supposedly directly by its founders, and is to date the only known Hogwarts student to have refused to be placed in any single house. Merlin is also known for creating the charms that allow for the animation of portraits and for rumors of recurring violent interactions with his far more divisive historical contemporary, Morgana le Fay. Whether the two were lovers or enemies remains unclear to this day with each account painting their relationship in a different light.”
Now that was a bit of information that Harry hadn’t known about Merlin. He carefully considered what it might mean in his head.
“Fifteen minutes from Hogsmeade! Everyone should change into their school uniforms if they haven’t already! Leave your luggage on the train!” The sudden booming voice that reverberated through the compartment, and most likely the whole train, made them all jump about a foot into the air.
As they hastily pulled on their school robes, and Harry finally doffed his baseball hat and stowed it in his trunk before similarly discarding his lenses and putting on his round glasses, it took every ounce of the mental discipline that he’d mastered over the last few years to keep his sudden nervousness from showing.
When the train finally began to slow and he carefully followed Neville and the girls off the train and onto a platform already crowded with students in Hogwarts uniforms, he let out an exhale and whispered, “Ok…Showtime.”