CHAPTER 4 - THE TRAIN 2

Damn, 2839 words without the author's notes, you guys should thank me by writing some reviews... :) haha just kidding... but I wouldn't complain if you did it.

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In the next half-hour, they talked about their lives in the muggle world, Ron's brothers and things like that, until Andrew remembers what he promised Harry.

"Hey, Harry, I forgot to tell you what I know of your parents right."

Both Ron and Harry stopped talking and paid attention to Andrew.

"Well, just saying, my mother and father didn't tell me much, but I guess you will at least understand your parents better after what I'll tell you.

To start, they told me that your parents always fought against the dark lord, they wanted to stop that madness. The main reason for this is probably your mother's origins as a muggle-born and the fact that lots of your parents friends were muggle-born as well.

My mother used to say that your mother was really gentle and friendly, she even had some friends in Slytherin, for example, my parents.

But they also told me that your father was some kind of prankster? They didn't elaborate too much on the matter, and I don't know exactly what they mean, all I know is that when they were in Hogwarts my father couldn't stand your father, this only changed a few years later."

"Thank you, Andrew. Its the first time someone actually told me something about my parents." Harry thanked him with watery eyes.

Andrew just smiled and gave him the photo inside his pocket.

"This is..."

"My father asked me to give it to you, he didn't tell me the history behind the photo but still, it's better than nothing."

"Than-" Before Harry could finish Andrew interrupted him and said.

"If you truly consider yourself my friend, then stop thanking me for everything, friends are meant for things like that, Harry."

With a smile on his face, he nodded.

After a few seconds of silence, Ron reached inside his jacket and pulled out a fat grey rat.

"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."

Ron's ears went pink. He seemed to think he'd said too much because he went back to staring out of the window.

Harry and Andrew didn't think there was anything wrong with not being able to afford an owl. Harry because he basically didn't have any money until a month ago and could only wear Dudley's old clothes and never got proper birthday presents.

As for Andrew, he said that he basically studied at the muggle schools all his life before going to Hogwarts, so he had quite a few muggle friends that were in a bad monetary situation.

This seemed to cheer Ron up.

Harry then continued explaining his situation.

"And until Hagrid told me, I didn't know anything about being a wizard or about my parents or Voldemort —"

Ron and Andrew gasped.

"What?" said Harry

"Harry, you should never say his name, it's cursed!" Replied Andrew.

"Wow Harry, you are really brave!" said Ron, with amazement in his eyes.

"I'm not trying to be brave or anything, saying the name," said Harry, "I just never knew you shouldn't. See what I mean? I've got loads to learn... I bet," he added, voicing for the first time something that had been worrying him a lot lately, "I bet I'm the worst in the class."

"You won't be. There are loads of people who come from Muggle families and they learn quickly enough." Andrew replied with a smile on his face.

As they continued to talk, the train soon carried them out of London, taking them between green pastures full of cows.

At around half-past twelve, there was a loud noise outside in the hall and a smiling, dimpled woman came through the door and said, "Anything off the cart, dears?"

Ron's ears went red when he murmured something. Harry, on the contrary, seemed really excited as he bought literally everything the woman had.

"Hey, Harry, be careful not to get a stomach ache," said Andrew, laughing at his friend's actions. "Eat too much and you will spend a few hours in the toilet."

"Don't worry, I won't eat everything, do you want anything? Just take what you want."

"Thank you." Said Ron with a wide smile on his face, as he reached out his hand to grab a few snacks.

A few minutes later, Harry grabbed one of the candies and had a confused look on his face.

"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."

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 —"

Andrew didn't really care about those cards, in his opinion, collecting potion formulas was much more interesting.

As soon as he finished his line of thought, Harry exclaimed.

"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's eyes strayed to the pile of Chocolate Frogs waiting to be unwrapped.

"Help yourself," said Harry. "But in, you know, the Muggle world, people just stay put in photos."

"Do they? What, they don't move at all?" Ron sounded amazed.

"Weird!"

"Do you guys really like those things? They are just overpriced pictures with chocolate." Andrew asked, seemingly confused.

"You wouldn't understand my peculiar tastes, I've been collecting those things for quite some time now!"

...

A few hours later.

There was a knock on the door of their compartment and the round-faced boy Harry had passed on platform nine and three-quarters came in. He looked tearful.

Behind him was a girl with light skin, bright brown eyes, lots of bushy brown hair that was already wearing Hogwarts uniform.

Andrew looked at her and couldn't help but blush a little, in his mind there was only one thing, "She is so cute!"

"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!"

"Don't worry, He'll turn up," said Harry.

"Yes," said the boy miserably. "Well, if you see him..."

The boy was almost gone when suddenly Andrew grabbed his arm pulling him and girl inside the compartment.

"There is an easy way to solve this problem." Said Andrew with a smile on his face.

"Oh, really?" Said the girl, she had a bossy sort of voice, "Will you use magic then?"

"Eh, y-yes, it's a simple spell!" Andrew replied while still blushing every time he looked at the girl.

"Let's see it, then." She sat beside Andrew making the boy's head even redder.

Trying to not mind the girl's presence, he turned to the boy that came with her and said.

"What's your name again?"

"Ah, it's Neville."

"Can you describe your toad, the better your description the easier it will be to find it."

The boy nodded and said everything he could remember of his toad's appearance.

As soon as he finished, Andrew took out his wand and with a flick, he said, "Accio, Trevor!"

Soon after, a toad appeared out of nowhere on Andrew's hands.

"Trevor!" Neville took the frog and hugged it.

"Thanks, er?"

"Jacobs, Andrew Jacobs."

Neville nodded and thanked him again, soon after he left but the girls stayed behind.

"How did you do it? I read about this spell somewhere and it clearly stated that you can't summon living things with it."

"Well, this is just a mistake from the one who created this spell, it is possible to summon livin' beings, however, to do so, one needs a lot of magic control and profound biological understanding of the being you want to summon, this or a lot of luck."

The girl looked at him but didn't seem convinced.

"Quite a useful spell. I've tried a few simple spells, and all of them worked for me. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it's the very best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard — I've learned all our course books by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough — I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?"

She said all this very fast.

Seeing that Ron and Harry were panicking because they hadn't learned all the course books yet. Andrew tried not to laugh and answered Hermione first.

"My name is Andrew Jacobs, it's a pleasure to meet you."

"I'm Ron Weasley," Ron muttered.

"Harry Potter," said Harry.

Hermione looked at Harry and Andrew with a surprised look on her face.

"Are you really?" said Hermione. "I know all about you two, of course — I got a few extra books for background reading, and you're in Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century."

"Are we?" said Harry, feeling dazed.

This time Andrew was the one who replied.

"Yes, we are, but not for the same reasons, my name is only mentioned because I'm the heir of the Jacobs, one of the families who fought against you-know-who, you, on the other hand, is because of your family and the legend about you being the one responsible for the dark lord disappearance."

Hermione nodded and said, "Do either of you know what House you'll be in? I've been asking around, and I hope I'm in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best; I hear Dumbledore himself was in it, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad... Anyway, I've to go, you should wear your uniforms, we are almost at Hogwarts."

After she left.

Ron a little upset because he was ignored said.

"Whatever house I'm in, I hope she's not in it."

"What House are your brothers in?" asked Harry.

"Gryffindor," said Ron. Gloom seemed to be settling on him again. "Mom and Dad were in it, too. I don't know what they'll say if I'm not. I don't suppose Ravenclaw would be too bad, but imagine if they put me in Slytherin."

"That's the House Vol-, I mean, You-Know-Who was in?"

"Yup, not all wizards there are bad, however, the worst ones came from there." Replied Andrew as he sighed.

"Did you hear about Gringotts? It's been all over the Daily Prophet, but I don't suppose you get that with the Muggles — someone tried to rob a high-security vault."

"Actually, this happens more than it should with the Muggles." Said Andrews

Harry stared.

"Really? What happened to them?"

"Nothing, that's why it's such big news. They haven't been caught. My dad says it must've been a powerful Dark wizard to get round Gringotts, but they don't think they took anything, that's what's odd. 'Course, everyone gets scared when something like this happens in case You-Know-Who's behind it."

Harry seemed to be deep in his thoughts while Ron went back to eat the snacks.

A few moments later, the compartment door slid open revealing three boys.

One of them being the rat-boy, as for the others Andrew didn't recognize them.

The rat-boy looked at Harry with interest and said, "So, are you really Harry Potter, the boy who lived?"

"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 this is Goyle," said the pale boy carelessly, noticing where Harry was looking. "And my name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."

Ron gave a slight cough, which might have been hiding a snigger. Draco Malfoy looked at him.

"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."

Draco then turned to Andrew.

"As for you, golden eyes, raven hair, and light pale skin. Humph, the biggest blood traitors in the history of magic, you must be Andrew Jacobs."

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."

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.

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 stupid families like the Jacobs, and it'll rub off on you."

The trio stood up, but before Harry and Ron could say anything, Andrew's voice exploded in everyone's ear.

"What did you just said!? I dare you to say those words again!"

"Oh, you're going to fight us, are you?" Malfoy sneered.

"Fight? No, I'm gonna do exactly what my parents told me to do with death eaters, in case they attacked me!"

Not willing to say any other world, Andrew extended both of his hands making a gripping gesture.

At that moment, everyone looked at Andrew with fear in their eyes.

Andrew's eyes seemed to be glowing while he somehow made Malfoy and his thugs levitate and hit the wall of the train outside the compartment if anyone looked with attention, they would notice the hand mark on their necks.

They were struggling to breathe and not lose their conscience.

Andrew them approached the trio and said.

"You think I'm some kind of pushover? Let me warn you, you might think that Voldemort is the incarnation of evil, but those who lived in the muggle world, know very well that he is merely a sissy in comparison with the truly evil ones!" With every word, Andrew's grip on their neck seemed to tighten even more, "I've learned quite a lot there, and my family always told to never show compassion to my enemies, if I see you saying something like that again, you will pray that you can die from a heart attack because I'll make sure to kill you and torture you slow enough so that you don't die so easily!"

After he finished speaking, Andrew released his grip on them, Harry and Ron could even swear that the trio had literally urinated in their pants, while they ran back to their compartment. |(Thanks to BarnicanEmpire for helping me fix this part of the text!)|

Soon after Hermione, appeared and wanted to ask what happened, but she looked at Andrew's glowing eyes and was mesmerized.

"Hermione?"

"Ah, yes. Uh... what happened?" she asked, trying not to focus too much on Andrew's eyes.

"Nothing much, just a bunch of fools who doesn't know the word respect."

"All right — I only came in here because people outside are behaving very childishly, racing up and down the corridors," said Hermione in a sniffy voice. "And you've got dirt on your nose," she pointed at Ron, " did you know?"

Ron glared at her as she left. Harry peered out of the window. It was getting dark. He could see mountains and forests under a deep purple sky. The train did seem to be slowing down.

"Hey, Andrew, you were so amazing, what was that?" Asked Ron.

"Just an ability of mine, I developed this a few years after awakening my magic, and now can I control it at ease, however, I can't lift things heavier than what I can lift normally."

Harry looked at Andrew as if he was looking at a monster.

"Wait, you mean that you can carry three boys with almost the same weight at the same time?"

"Uh... Yes?"

Harry and Ron only sighed with a little bit of envy.

A few minutes later, Harry and Ron took off their jackets and pulled on their long black robes. Ron's were a bit short for him, you could see his sneakers underneath them.

A voice echoed through the train: "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minute's time; Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately."