It Meant Family

1st of September 1991

"We take the road less travelled, we fight to learn, to dismantle, to unravel and that will make all the difference"- The Revolution Will Be Teenagers, Olympia Miccio

King's Cross Station, London England

The past month had felt like an eternity, Harry had been counting the days until the train ride to Hogwarts since he got his letter and he couldn't believe it had finally arrived. The only thing that diverged from ideal was that he couldn't be there with all his family. Only Sirius was taking him to the King's Cross station that morning, Remus had stayed behind for two major reasons: 1. The night before had been a full moon, so he was ill and injured; 2. It would be perceived as rather odd to take your godchild to their first day of magical school accompanied by your childhood "best friend".

Harry had been very expressive when saying he wanted to use the muggle entrance to the platform 9 3/4, Sirius didn't understand the reasoning behind it, but the boy insisted and he gave in like he nearly always did. However it wasn't until they were both standing in the middle of a muggle filled King's Cross station that it hit him; he had no idea how to go about finding the magical platform.

"What now?" Harry asked, putting his fingers through his owl's cage to pet Hedwig.

"Good question, lad." Sirius looked a mixture of fascinated, confused and optimistic that made the boy wonder whether or not his godfather was joking.

"You could've asked renny, didn't he use this entrance when you were in school?" He crossed his arms against his chest and Hedwig gave a petty hoot.

"I didn't think of that" Sirius smiled amused, Harry rolled his eyes unsurprised and started to push his luggage around trying to find anything that seemed out of place. Eventually they ran into a large group of very loud redheaded wizards near platforms nine and ten.

"Okay Percy, you go first." Said a witch in the group, she was short and looked like a kind yet fierce woman, the kids, probably hers, stood quietly as one of the boys ran towards the barrier between the platforms and disappeared. They were Weasleys, Harry thought, he had studied about pureblood families and would recognise them anywhere, "Fred, you next." She spoke again.

"I'm not Fred, I'm George." Replied the boy, next to an exact copy of himself. "Honestly, woman, you call yourself our mother? Can't you tell I'm George?"

"Sorry, George, dear." She said, ushering him along.

"Only joking, I am Fred," the woman attempted to slap the boy's arm, but both him and his twin brother had vanished into the wall before she got the chance.

"Uhm.. excuse me," Harry cleared his throat, Sirius gestured behind him trying to stop him, but it was too late, Mrs. Weasley was already looking at him with caring eyes "can you tell me how to go through? You see, my godfather never used the muggle entrance when he was at Hogwarts." Black closed his eyes and tried to pretend he wasn't there while his godson was speaking, but the woman looked at him and he gave her a very uncomfortable smile and wave.

"Good day, Molly" she smiled back a little stunned.

"Hello, Sirius."

Harry didn't know they knew each other, but he had no time to ask questions as Mrs. Weasley turned around and proceed to explain to him that one of her sons was also a first year, - Ron, she called him - and said all he had to do was run into the barrier between the two platforms, Sirius raised his eyebrows and Harry recognised the expression as the one he made when he was pretending to pay attention to something he wasn't actually interested in and rolled his eyes to his godfather's arrogance in his mind. The woman gave them passage and Sirius thanked her in his most aristocratic manner, it was a talent he had, to sound a mixture of arrogant and extremely polite.

"I should go back to Remus." Sirius whispered as soon as he had taken Harry to hand over his luggage to the porter, he had set his owl free and turned in only the cage. "Will you be alright lad?" The boy nodded. "Okay then, don't behave too much, but don't go getting expelled in your first year yeah?"

"I'm not you, papa" they laughed, Sirius hugged him goodbye and apparated away.

Seeing himself alone in the middle of platform 9 ¾, next to an enormous red train and surrounded by countless witches and wizards, Harry felt overwhelmed and at home, scared and safe, lost and belonging. It was the weirdest mix of sensations he had ever experienced and he was someone who had felt mixed emotions for as long as he could remember.

Once, when he was 8 and was spending the month with his muggle relatives, his cousin Dudley tripped on loose carpet and fell down the stairs right after shoving Harry against a wall, his aunt and uncle took Dudley to the hospital and left Harry all alone. He felt guilty, he never meant to hurt his cousin - scare him? always, but never hurt him - yet, a part of Harry's mind was satisfied, telling him he deserved it, he told Remus about it when he got home later that week, but his reaction warned him that it wasn't something everyone experienced so he never mentioned it again.

The feeling at the platform and walking into the train wasn't quite the same, it wasn't scary like it had been at his relative's house, it didn't feel like they were coming from two different people, it was all Harry.

The Weasleys were talking outside the train and Harry watched them through the window, apart from the mother there were 4 boys and one little girl, who held firmly onto her mother's hand. The platform started to become more and more empty as the students boarded and their families left, but Harry was distracted by the Malfoy boy he had met at the Diagon Alley and didn't notice. His mother fixed his clothes compulsively, his father was speaking to him, without making any eye contact and seemed very displeased when a nervous voice stole Harry's attention.

"Excuse me, d'you mind?" The boy was redheaded, freckled and lanky, his back was curved, as if was trying to occupy less space. "Everywhere else is full."

"Not at all." Harry responded and the boy seemed surprised at his willingness to have him as company.

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

"I know" Ron raised an eyebrow "we met outside the platform" he smiled, glad the other boy had remembered him in particular "I'm Harry, Harry Potter." Ron meant to comment, but the train started moving. The conversation eventually circled back to Harry's scar, which he didn't like to talk about very much, they both looked out the window a lot, watching England disappear behind them and thus, a hero's journey began.