Chapter 6
Chapter 6: The Journey From Platform Nine And Three-Quarters
Harry's last month at the Dursleys wasn't fun.
Many people looked at Harry in sympathy.
...
Harry kept to his room for the most part, with his owl for company. He had decided to call her Hedwig, a name he had found in A History of Magic. His school books were very interesting.
"So you've actually read your school books before you came to Hogwarts?" Snape commented with a raised eyebrow.
"Oh, piss off Snape." James said, annoyed and upset on Harry's behalf.
Snape sneered at James, while James just looked back completely unfazed. The students from three fourths of the school, looked at James in awe. He was now their hero.
He lay on his bed reading late into the night, Hedwig swooping in and out of the open window as she pleased. It was lucky that Aunt Petunia didn't come into vacuum anymore, because Hedwig kept bringing back dead mice.
There were a few scattered chuckles around the hall. Snape suppressed a smirk as he thought about her reaction if she came into Potter's bedroom and found a pile of mouse bones to greet her. The scream she would give.
Every night before he went to sleep, Harry ticked off another day on the piece of paper he had pinned to the wall, counting down to September the first.
"I did the same thing too." Hermione said smiling. Ron nodded his head in agreement.
Many people around the hall all said the same thing. All saying that they did it, because they were excited about going to Hogwarts.
Two weeks before Harry was scheduled to leave for Hogwarts, he left Privet drive in the morning. Walking down the road, and to the nearest bus stop, where Harry waited patiently for the next bus to arrive.
After a ten minute wait, and another 30 minute ride on the bus, Harry arrived at his destination. Looking up at the tall building, Harry read the sign which proclaimed to be, "Westfield London Mall".
Some of the muggle-born girls squealed, "I love that mall! We should go there when we get back." they said to their friends.
With his pockets heavy with the muggle money that the goblins had given him, he walked inside.
Stepping up to the map of the building, Harry quickly located the shops he wanted to go to. His first stop was to a variety of clothing stores. Taking a break after every two or three stores to go into the bathroom, and store away most of his bags inside of his new trunk. When he got his trunk, the proprietor of the shop told him about the many applications that could be applied to it. He decided to get one that had several enchantments on it. Such as, having a few different compartments, the inside being expandible, it can shrink and grow back to its actual size on command, and several other little surprises.
Toni pulled out her phone, only to remember what she was told, about magic and technology not working together very well. Instead, she grabbed a little notebook and pen that were left on the table by their hosts. And began to write down equations and theories at a rapid pace.
Once Harry was done shopping for a new wardrobe, he went looking for a different kind of shop. An electronics store. He wandered around, looking for the best one. Listening to the adults' questions, and the answers that were given. Each time he left disappointed, and without what he wanted. Until he saw it.
He saw the bright lights of the sign, in the high end part of the mall. Spelling out, 'Stark Industries'.
Toni cheered, "Finally!" and Peter clapped.
Walking inside was like walking through a portal. A portal that led to the future.
"Aw, thanks Harry." Toni said, holding one of her hands up to her chest, right above where the arc reactor was.
"Can I help you?" a kindly girl asked.
"Yeah. I'm looking for a really good cell phone and laptop." Harry shrugged. "All the other tech stores didn't have quite what I'm looking for."
The girl smiled and said, "Let me show you what we have."
Harry followed her over to a table set up in the middle of the room, where a few different phones and laptops were set out.
After a lengthy discussion on which ones are the best, Harry left the shop with a brand new Stark phone and laptop of his very own. Harry's last stop was to a bookstore. Harry ended up spending over two hours there, before he checked the time with his new phone, and seeing the time, made his way to the cashier with his stack of books. Harry left the mall with his bags, and went around to the side of the building. He pulled out his trunk and stored away his shopping bags into it.
He got himself something quick to eat, and then headed back to the bus station to go back to Privet Drive. When he got back, Vernon and Petunia both pretended that Harry had never left. In fact, they pretended that he did not exist like they have been doing ever since he and Hagrid left on his birthday.
...
"Well, there you are, boy. Platform nine - platform ten. Your platform should be somewhere in the middle, but they don't seem to have built it yet, do they?"
He was quite right, of course. There was a big plastic number nine over one platform and a big plastic number ten over the one next to it, and in the middle, nothing at all.
"Have a good term," said Uncle Vernon with an even nastier smile. He left without another word. Harry turned and saw the Dursleys drive away. All three of them were laughing.
"You don't just leave children to fend for themselves in the middle of a train station!" Mrs. Weasley yelled. Mr. Weasley had to calm her down, while most others were nodding in agreement. Snape also agreed, but he would never admit that.
...
At that moment a group of people passed just behind him and he caught a few words of what they were saying.
"-packed with Muggles, of course -"
Harry swung round. The speaker was a plump woman who was talking to four boys, all with flaming red hair. Each of them was pushing a trunk like Harry's in front of him - and they had an owl.
Heart hammering, Harry pushed his cart after them. They stopped and so did he, just near enough to hear what they were saying.
"Now, what's the platform number?" said the boys' mother.
"Nine and three-quarters!" piped a small girl, also red-headed, who was holding her hand. "Mum, can't I go ..."
There was nothing else for it.
"Excuse me," Harry said to the plump woman.
"Hello, dear," she said. "First time at Hogwarts? Ron's new, too."
She pointed at the last and youngest of her sons. He was tall, thin, and gangling, with freckles, big hands and feet, and a long nose.
"Yes," said Harry. "The thing is - the thing is, I don't know how to -"
"How to get onto the platform?" she said kindly, and Harry nodded.
"Not to worry," she said. "All you have to do is walk straight at the barrier between platforms nine and ten. Don't stop and don't be scared you'll crash into it, that's very important. Best do it at a bit of a run if you're nervous. Go on, go now before Ron."
"Molly! You can't just go about saying that in the middle of the station!" Mr. Weasley said exasperated.
"Molly, why would you do that?" Madame Bones asked.
"... Dumbledore asked me to." Mrs. Weasley said guiltingly, "He told me that since Harry was going to be starting school last year, and that he was raised in the muggle world, that he wanted me to help him get on the platform. Without me letting Harry know that I knew who he was the whole time."
Mrs. Weasley then turned to Harry, "Dear I am so sorry I didn't tell you. I just wanted to help you."
Harry nodded his head, smiling, and said, "It's okay. I forgive you."
Mrs. Weasley sighed in relief, and smiled at Harry in thanks.
...
A scarlet steam engine was waiting next to a platform packed with people. A sign overhead said Hogwarts Express, eleven o'clock.
The student body along with several of the ghosts, began to cheer. Away from the Dursleys Harry-will-a-go.
...
He passed a round-faced boy who was saying, "Gran, I've lost my toad again."
"Oh, Neville," he heard the old woman sigh.
Alice and Frank looked at Neville, "Why do you have a toad?"
"He was a gift." Neville said, shrugging.
A boy with dreadlocks was surrounded by a small crowd.
"Give us a look, Lee, go on."
The boy lifted the lid of a box in his arms, and the people around him shrieked and yelled as something inside poked out a long, hairy leg.
Ron gave a shudder, and muttered under his breath, "I hate spiders."
...
"Want a hand?" It was one of the red-haired twins he'd followed through the barrier.
"Yes, please," Harry panted.
"Oy, Fred! C'mere and help!"
Fred and George grinned at the mention of them.
With the twins' help, Harry's trunk was at last tucked away in a corner of the compartment.
...
"Oh, are you a prefect, Percy?" said one of the twins, with an air of great surprise. "You should have said something, we had no idea."
"Hang on, I think I remember him saying something about it," said the other twin. "Once-"
"Or twice-"
"A minute-"
"All summer-"
"Oh, shut up," said Percy the Prefect.
The twins both laughed, that even the books call Percy that. "See, Ickle-Percy-kins."
"Even the book-"
"knows about you-"
"being a prefect."
"You certainly-"
"Talk about it-"
"Enough."
"Enough you two." Mrs. Weasley said, "You two stop picking on your brother!"
...
Harry leaned back quickly so they couldn't see him looking.
"You know that black-haired boy who was near us in the station? Know who he is?"
"Who?"
"Harry Potter!"
Harry heard the little girl's voice.
"Oh, Mum, can I go on the train and see him, Mum, oh please. ..."
"You've already seen him, Ginny and the poor boy isn't something you goggle at in a zoo. Is he really, Fred? How do you know?"
"Asked him. Saw his car. It's really there - like lightning."
"Poor dear - no wonder he was alone, I wondered. He was ever so polite when he asked how to get onto the platform."
"Never mind that, do you think he remembers what You-Know-Who looks like?"
Some people gasped disapprovingly, while some were intrigued.
"You two didn't ask him, did you?" Mrs. Weasley asked them both sternly.
"No."
"We didn't."
"We promise."
"Well, you just keep it that way." Mrs. Weasley told them.
Their mother suddenly became very stern.
"I forbid you to ask him, Fred. No, don't you dare. As though he needs reminding of that on his first day at school."
"All right, keep your hair on."
A whistle sounded.
"Hurry up!" their mother said, and the three boys clambered onto the train. They leaned out of the window for her to kiss them good-bye, and their younger sister began to cry.
"Don't, Ginny, we'll send you loads of owls."
"We'll send you a Hogwarts toilet seat."
The humor inclined people in the hall all laughed.
James turned to Sirius and Remus laughing, "Remember that time in fourth year, when-"
"Filch and his cat-" Sirius said.
"I don't think he's ever forgiven us for that." Remus said thoughtfully.
The other two laughed.
"What?" Fred asked.
"What happened?" George continued.
Before any of them could reveal more, McGonagall jumped in. "Don't you three dare."
James looked at them when McGonagall turned away, then mouthed, "Later."
Fred and George both grinned excitedly.
...
The door of the compartment slid open and the youngest red-headed boy came in.
"Anyone sitting there?" he asked, pointing at the seat opposite Harry. "Everywhere else is full."
Harry shook his head and the boy sat down. He glanced at Harry and then looked quickly out of the window, pretending he hadn't looked. Harry saw he still had a black mark on his nose.
Ron rubbed his nose self consciously.
...
Ron reached inside his jacket and pulled out a fat gray rat, which was asleep.
"His name's Scabbers and he's useless, he hardly ever wakes up. Percy got an owl from my dad for being made a prefect, but they couldn't aff- I mean, I got Scabbers instead."
...
Around half past twelve there was a great clattering outside in the corridor and a smiling, dimpled woman slid back their door and said, "Anything off the cart, dears?"
Many of the students got wistful looks on their faces as they remembered the trolley. All, except about half of the first years.
"No thanks," Ron said, holding up wrapped sandwiches. "I'm all set. Thanks."
Harry saw the sad, and slightly disappointed look on his maybe new friend. Then he turned to the woman in the doorway, while pulling out a handful of galleons and said, "We'll take the lot."
"That was you?!" many of the students yelled in outrage.
"Yeah, go Harry!" James laughed.
"James! Don't encourage this kind of behavior!" Lily scolded.
"I'm sorry." Harry said guiltingly when the room quieted down. "I just wanted to make a friend."
"Next time, just buy a few things from the trolley. Not the whole thing." Lily said gently. Harry nodded his head.
...
Ron took out the lumpy sandwich package and unwrapped it. There were four sandwiches inside. He pulled one of them apart and said, "She always forgets I don't like corned beef."
Mrs. Weasley took out a bit of parchment and a quill from her bag, and began to write down on it. A reminder to herself about Ron's dislike of corned beef.
...
"What are these?" Harry asked Ron, holding up a pack of Chocolate Frogs. "They're not really frogs, are they?" he was starting to feel that nothing would surprise him.
"No," said Ron. "But see what the card is. I'm missing Agrippa."
"What?"
"Oh, of course, you wouldn't know - Chocolate Frogs have cards inside them, you know, to collect - famous witches and wizards. I've got about five hundred, but I haven't got Agrippa or Ptolemy."
"Ptolemy and Agrippa were wiz-er-sorcerers?" Peter asked.
"Yes, dunderhead." Snape sneered.
"That was completely uncalled for, Severus. He was just asking a question." McGonagall scolded.
Snape just rolled his eyes and turned back to the book.
"Asshole." Toni stage whispered. Making sure that the hook-nosed teacher heard her.
Snape glared at Toni, and Toni glared right back. Snape finally gave up, and looked away. Toni smirked in victory.
Little did Toni know that the entire student body was staring at her in awe. For that was the first time that they knew of Snape having been the first to look away. They were truly in awe of her.
Harry unwrapped his Chocolate Frog and picked up the card. It showed a man's face. He wore half-moon glasses, had a long, crooked nose, and flowing silver hair, beard, and mustache. Underneath the picture was the name Albus Dumbledore.
"So this is Dumbledore!" said Harry.
"Don't tell me you'd never heard of Dumbledore!" said Ron. "Can I have a frog? I might get Agrippa - thanks -"
Harry turned over his card and read:
Albus Dumbledore
Currently Headmaster of Hogwarts
Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times, Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the Dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945
"Oh. So you finally got up off of your ass and got rid of him did you?" Bucky asked sarcastically.
Dumbledore bowed his head, as though pained by the memory.
For the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel.
Harry looked at Ron and Hermione, and they all shook their heads.
Professor Dumbledore enjoys chamber music and tenpin bowling.
Harry turned the card back over and saw, to his astonishment, that Dumbledore's face had disappeared.
"He's gone!"
"Well, you can't expect him to hang around all day," said Ron. "He'll be back. No, I've got Morgana again and I've got about six of her... do you want it? You can start collecting."
"Ron, you do know that in the Muggle World, pictures don't move. At all." said Hermione.
"Well, yeah. I do now, Harry told me." Ron said.
"Help yourself," said Harry. "But in, you know, the Muggle world, people just stay put in photos."
"See." Ron told Hermione.
"Do they? What, they don't move at all?" Ron sounded amazed. "Weird!"
Toni took even more notes at the mention of moving photos.
...
There was a knock on the door of their compartment and the round-faced boy Harry had passed by on platform nine and three-quarters came in. He looked tearful.
"Sorry," he said, " but have you seen a toad at all?"
When they shook their heads, he wailed, "I've lost him! He keeps getting away from me!"
"Why don't you go ask one of the older years to help you? They may know a spell that will help you find him." Harry suggested.
"Yeah. That's a good idea. Thank you!" the boy said before closing the door and taking off down the train. Presumably looking for an upperclassman.
"That was very sweet of you Harry." Alice said, smiling at Harry.
...
He had just raised his wand when the compartment door slid open again. The toadless boy was back, but this time he had a girl with him. She was already wearing her new Hogwarts robes.
"We already told him," Ron pointed at the round-faced boy, "we haven't seen him."
"No." The girl said. "I came here to tell you how appreciative we are for you helping Neville find his toad."
The girl looked at Ron's wand in his hand.
"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it then."
She sat down. Ron looked taken aback.
"Er - all right."
He cleared his throat.
"Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow,
Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."
He waved his wand, but nothing happened. Scabbers stayed gray and fast asleep.
"Uh. Ron. Are you sure-" Fred said.
"that you did the spell right?" George finished.
"Yeah. I did it as you said to do it. But nothing happened. You gave me a dud spell."
"Actually Mr. Weasley," Professor McGonagall said. "That is a very real spell. A simple, obscure spell. It should have worked."
"Well then, why didn't it?" Ron asked.
"Let's finish this chapter and then we will look into it." Lily said, while looking at her husband and their friends.
...
"What's your Quidditch team?" Ron asked.
"Er - I don't know any," Harry confessed.
James and Sirius began anew in their dramatic wails.
"What!" Ron looked dumbfounded. "Oh, you wait, it's the best game in the world -" And he went off, explaining all about the four balls and the positions of the seven players, describing famous games he'd been to with his brothers and the broomstick he'd like to get if he had the money. He was just taking Harry through the finer points of the game when the compartment door slid open yet again, but it wasn't Neville, or Hermione Granger this time.
Three boys entered, and Harry recognized the middle one at once: It was the pale boy from Madam Malkin's robe shop. He was looking at Harry with a lot more interest than he'd shown back in Diagon Alley.
"Is it true?" he said. "They're saying all down the train that Harry Potter's in this compartment. So it's you, is it?"
"No," Harry said, overly sarcastic, "I'm the bench that Ron was sitting on."
Harry got chuckles from his fellow students.
"Yes," said Harry. He was looking at the other boys. Both of them were thickset and looked extremely mean. Standing on either side of the pale boy, they looked like bodyguards.
"Oh, this is Crabbe and Goyle," said the pale boy carelessly, noticing where Harry was looking. "And my name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."
"The name's Bond." Lily said under her breath. "James Bond."
Ron gave a slight cough, which might have been hiding a snigger. Draco Malfoy looked at him.
"Ron why did you snigger?" Hermione asked.
"Okay so, my Dad loves Muggles." Ron explained. "So he had us watch a few different muggle movies, in what he said were called drive through movie theaters. One of the movies that we watched was a 'James Bond' movie called 'Quantum Solace'. And there was at least once in the movie, where James Bond had said, 'The name's Bond. James Bond.' So I thought it was funny that Malfoy was unintentionally quoting/parodying a muggle movie."
Over at the Slytherin table, Malfoy sat horrified. He couldn't believe that he had, albeit unintentionally, quoted something from the muggle world.
"Think my name's funny, do you? No need to ask who you are. My father told me all the Weasleys have red hair, freckles, and more children than they can afford."
He turned back to Harry. "You'll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there."
"Don't accept it Harry." Sirius said.
He held out his hand to shake Harry's, but Harry didn't take it.
"I think I can tell who the wrong sort are for myself, thanks," he said coolly.
"OOOOHHHHH!"
"Burn!"
"Apply cold water to that burn." a Ravenclaw first year said.
"But, Lizzie," a girl said to the aforementioned ravenclaw, "cold water just makes burns worse."
"Exactly." Lizzie said to her friend.
Draco Malfoy didn't go red, but a pink tinge appeared in his pale cheeks.
"I'd be careful if I were you, Potter," he said slowly. "Unless you're a bit politer you'll go the same way as your parents. They didn't know what was good for them, either. You hang around with riffraff like the Weasleys and that Hagrid, and it'll rub off on you."
"You did NOT just say that!"
"Take it back!"
"Insult my friends again, cousin," Sirius sneered with all of the Slytherin-ness that was ingrained into him by his mother. Lessons that he had chosen to ignore when he came to Hogwarts as a student, "and you'll find out just why your head of house hates me."
Harry gave him an odd look. Wondering what he could have done that would cause Snape to hate him.
...
The train slowed right down and finally stopped. People pushed their way toward the door and out onto a tiny, dark platform. Harry shivered in the cold night air. Then a lamp came bobbing over the heads of the students, and Harry heard a familiar voice: "Firs' years! Firs' years over here! All right there, Harry?"
The hall broke out in cheers once more. For Harry was at Hogwarts at last.
Hagrid's big hairy face beamed over the sea of heads.
"C'mon, follow me - any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!"
...
They walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, oak front door.
"Everyone here?"
Hagrid turned, raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.
As the hall broke out in cheering, once again, James and co. made their way down the hall where Ron was sitting.
When the noise went down, James reached out his hand to Ron and said, "May we see Scabbers for a moment, please?"
Ron slowly brought out the rat, as the said rat was struggling to not be brought out. As soon as it saw James standing there, it bit Ron's finger and ran.
"Ow! He bit me." Ron said. His mother and Madame Pomfrey came down to take a look at Ron's finger. Making sure that it was properly healed.
While that was happening, the others had cornered the rat. Lily levitated him up and then brought him to her. Remus made a barrier around the rat, then nodded at James to give the go ahead.
As one, all four of them cast the spell that would force an animagus back into its real form, out loud, so that there could be no doubt as to which spell they used.
The entire hall sat horrified as the fat rat turned into a short, fat, mousey looking man who was missing his left ring finger.
"Hello Peter." James said sarcastically, "Did you miss us?"