Harry Potter : In the shadow of divinity16.67%

Chapter - 14 : The Weasley Welcome

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(P).(A).(T).(R).(E).(O).(N)

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He'd intended on remaining curled up on the surprisingly comfortable benches and reading up on the ingredients of a Pepperup potion for the entirety of the train ride, but that notion was challenged not even a minute after the train departed from the station when someone knocked at the door to his compartment. Harry contemplated ignoring whoever was behind the door for only half a moment before pushing off from his cushioned bench with a put upon sigh.

A redheaded boy wearing a ragged jumper and sporting a smudge of dirt on his nose gave a start of surprise when the door slid open on silent hinges. He raised his hand in a tentative, slightly apologetic wave. "Sorry," he said by way of greeting. "I was hoping this compartment would be empty, they're all but full and my brothers ditched me."

Harry offered the redhead a smile. "It's all right. You can join me if you'd like, but I'm afraid I might be a bit of a bore." He gestured to the book resting on his vacated seat.

"I don't mind," the boy said, clearly relieved to finally have found someplace to sit. "I'll find something to do. Might do a bit of reading myself."

Harry and his new companion situated themselves on opposite ends of the compartment where they settled into a comfortable silence. Unfortunately, it only lasted a few minutes before another set of redheads, identical twins by the look of them, burst into the compartment.

"Ronnie!" one of the boys cried exuberantly. "We were wondering where you'd gone off to."

"Half convinced you'd jumped ship last minute to go back home with Mum and Ginny."

"But here you are, on the train and already making friends. Care to introduce us?"

The youngest of the three redheads faltered and glanced uncertainly in Harry's direction. "Oh, right. Well um…"

The older boys sighed in mock frustration "Ah, we see, you didn't have the common decency to ask for his name."

"Thus you are unable to introduce us."

Suddenly the two boys stepped toward Harry and held out their hands, forcing the eleven year old to cross his arms over each other in order to shake both at the same time.

"Please forgive our brother for his appalling lack of manners," they said in unison.

"Yeah, acts like he was raised in a barn, that boy. I'm Fred Weasley."

"And I'm his much more handsome twin, George."

"And that little runt in the corner is our little brother, Ron."

"A pleasure," Harry grinned. "I'm Harry Potter."

The three redheads froze in shock, but Fred and George recovered remarkably quickly and reached out to shake his hands again.

"Well who would have thunk it," Fred's grin grew impossibly larger. "We're shaking hands with the great and mighty Harry Potter."

"The-Boy-Who-Lived himself! What an honor!" Harry winced at the horrible moniker; his father had told him all that he knew about the events of that Halloween night ten years ago and his subsequent rise to fame in the wizarding world, and, to be honest, it all seemed like a load of hogwash to him.

"A privilege," the twins had released his hand and begun to bow to him.

"A treat."

"A pleasure."

"A right dandy-"

"All right, you two we get it," Ron cut in. "Don't you have some friends you want to catch up with?"

"Too right you are, little brother," George agreed.

"We'll see you two at the sorting."

"Sorry 'bout them," Ron apologized once the two had gone, "they like to joke around a lot."

"It's all right," Harry smiled. "I thought they were funny."

"Well don't go telling them, it'll go straight to their heads."

"Mum's the word," Harry settled back in his seat, eyes on Ron and book forgotten. "Are they your only brothers, or have you got more?"

"Loads more," Ron groaned. "I've got five ahead of me; Fred and George are right above me, then there's Percy, Charlie, and Bill. Ginny's the youngest and the only girl."

"I would have loved to have that many siblings," Harry sighed wistfully. "All I've got is my cousin, and he's the worst."

"Sometimes I wish I didn't have quite so many. Sometimes I think we would have been better of as distant cousins or something."

"The grass is always greener, I suppose," Harry said, nodding sagely as he did.

Ron cocked his head curiously. "What?"

"It means someone's life always looks better from where you're standing. It's a Midgardian-er muggle phrase."

"Oh," Ron sat in contemplative silence for a moment. "Yeah, that sounds about right. So you lived with your aunt, uncle, and cousin? Were they all a bad sort, or was it just your cousin?"

"All three of them were. They tried to keep my magic a secret from me, didn't tell me anything about my parents or Hogwarts."

Ron looked outraged. "So you didn't know anything about magic until you got your Hogwarts letter?"

"I suspected," Harry shrugged. "There's only so many times I could turn my least favorite teacher's wig blue before I began to wonder if there was something my aunt and uncle were keeping from me."

"But you know about Midgard and stuff!" Ron exclaimed. "You slipped up and called muggles Midgardians. I thought muggles only believed in that Geezy guy."

"Jesus?" Harry laughed. "Not all muggles do, some believe in different things and people, others don't believe in anything. My relatives were more of the second sort. I didn't know wizards believed in Norse mythology."

"They're mostly just legends and tales our parents told us about at night about the gods who granted us our magic," Ron shrugged. "Only the really old blooded families, the ones still rooted in tradition, worship them."