A very, very, very weird golden child... and his pet

Harry Potter POV

I had had some weird days recently, discovering I was a wizard, learning about my parents' deaths, finding out I was supposedly famous for something I couldn't even remember. But I hadn't really met weird people yet.

I mean, Hagrid was a bit over the top with his pink umbrella and tendency to say things he probably shouldn't, but he was a gentle giant with kind eyes and a warm heart. The Dursleys were horrible, but they were horrible in ordinary, predictable ways.

This was different.

"Why the f-ck is that kid staring at us," came a high-pitched voice that definitely didn't belong to any human.

"Don't say that to a first year," replied a smoother, more melodious voice.

"I said it to you when you were a first year."

"Yeah but good student remember."

"Fine."

I blinked hard, looking at the spiked golden haired and golden eyes, twelve year old in front of me, with a ferret on his shoulder.

Not just any ferret, but a talking, black fur, red eyed ferret.

I mean, Hedwig was really smart and seemed to understand me in ways that sometimes felt almost magical, but she was still just an owl. She hooted and clicked her beak and ruffled her feathers, but she didn't engage in philosophical debates about proper conduct.

Hearing an animal speak in complete sentences, with what sounded like opinions and personality quirks, was definitely not something I had prepared myself for.

The boy, began to notice my staring and started to get closer to the compartment door. 

I backed away instinctively, my shoulder bumping against the corridor wall.

"Oh come on, I won't bite-" the boy said, his voice carrying an amused lilt that suggested he was used to people reacting oddly to him.

"But I will," the ferret on the boy's shoulder interrupted him, and I could swear I saw its tiny lips move as it spoke.

This was insane. Absolutely, completely insane.

"He's joking, aren't you Jarvey," the boy said in an almost chastising tone, looking sideways at his pet with the kind of expression I'd seen adults give misbehaving children.

"No I wasn-" the ferret started to protest, then suddenly went completely silent, its mouth moving without any sound coming out. It looked absolutely furious about this development, its tiny paws gesticulating wildly.

The boy seemed to have somehow silenced his own pet. Without a wand. Without saying any words that I could hear.

"Either way," the boy continued as if magically muzzling a talking ferret was the most normal thing in the world, which maybe in this world it was, "name's Felix Serendipity, second year extraordinaire, broadcaster of Hogwarts, nice to meet you."

He extended his hand toward me with a grin that was equal parts charming and slightly unhinged. It was.. unsettling to say the least.

"Uhm," I almost stammered, still trying to process the talking ferret situation. "Harry Potter, nice to meet you too."

The moment my name left my lips, Felix's entire demeanor shifted. His golden eyes widened, and his grin transformed into something much more intense and.. curious?

"Wait, Harry Potter? As in the Boy Who Lived, Harry Potter?"

"Boy Who Lived?" I asked, though I had a sinking feeling I already knew what he meant.

"Your moniker, of course, and a pretty cool one at that, how come you don't know your own moniker," he said excitedly, reaching out to take my hand with an enthusiasm that was somehow both flattering and deeply uncomfortable.

But as our skin made contact, everything changed.

Felix suddenly reeled his hand back as if I'd burned him, confusion washing over his features like a wave. His golden eyes went wide, not with excitement this time, but with something that looked almost like fear. His gaze snapped upward, not to my eyes, but to my forehead, where I knew my scar was hidden beneath my messy fringe.

"Your magic, it's... wrong," he said, his voice dropping to barely above a whisper.

The words struck me. "My magic?!"

What did that even mean? I'd only just learned I had magic a few weeks ago. How could it be wrong? Had the Dursleys actually managed to change me from what I was like they had been hammering on about the last month, that a good beating would take away my... abnormalities.

"It's fine," Felix said quickly, but his tone suggested it was anything but fine. "I'm just out of the loop, yeah, it's just that."

I nodded, my head a little calmer than before, if this kid said it was fine, it was probably fine, right?

"Either way," he continued, already turning to leave, "see you around, Potter. You seem to be a better sport than your dad."

The casual mention of my father stopped me cold. How could he possibly know anything about what my father had been like? James Potter had died when I was barely more than a baby. Most of the wizarding world seemed to know more about my parents than I did, but something about the way Felix said it suggested personal knowledge rather than general reputation.

Before I could ask what he meant, Felix turned around and began to walk away, his ferret, Jarvey, he'd called it, now apparently able to speak again and chattering quietly in what sounded like profanity-laced complaints about being silenced.

The door to my compartment slid shut behind him as he moved on to the next car, leaving me standing there with more questions than answers and a growing certainty that my time at Hogwarts was going to be far stranger than I'd imagined.

"HYA!!"

The compartment door burst open so violently I thought it might come off its hinges entirely. Two identical redheads, the twins, along with another redhead who looked younger, jumped through the doorway and onto the train with their wands raised high, pointed at the exact spot where Felix had been standing moments before.

"He's gone," one twin announced.

"Is he?" asked the other, not lowering his wand.

"Probably."

"We can't be sure."

"Should we fire spells?"

"Maybe, we can't risk it."

The twins continued their rapid-fire conversation as if they were two halves of the same person, their wands still trained on empty air. Their younger brother, who I assumed was also a Weasley based on the matching red hair, looked between his brothers with an expression of complete bewilderment that probably matched my own.

"Uhm, why are you like that exactly?" I asked, gesturing at their defensive positions.

One of the twins, I couldn't tell which, turned to me and gripped my shoulders with an intensity that suggested this was a matter of life and death.

"Harry," he said, his voice deadly serious in a way that was completely at odds with the joking demeanor I'd seen from what little I'd seen of him, "do not get jumbled up with Felix Serendipity. Neither should you, Ron," he added, turning to include his younger brother. "That was our one and only mistake, and we still regret it to this day."

Ron looked just as befuddled as I felt at his brothers' extreme reaction.

"You hear us," they shouted in unison, their voices carrying the kind of authority usually reserved for parents giving lectures about stranger danger. "Don't get involved with Felix Serendipity."

Both Ron and I nodded our heads automatically, too surprised by their vehemence to do anything else.

"Good, that's good," they sighed in relief, finally lowering their wands.

The twins left as abruptly as they'd arrived, leaving both Ron and me standing in the compartment staring after them.

"Don't mind what they said," Ron said after a moment, settling into one of the seats. "Fred and George are always playing pranks. I'm sure that was just another one. Either way, I'm Ron Weasley, nice to meet you."

A whistle sounded out somewhere in the distance, and I felt the train begin to move, carrying us toward whatever awaited at Hogwarts.

"I'm Harry Potter, nice to meet you too," we shook hands, which immediately reminded me of the boy who had recoiled at my touch just minutes before.

The memory brought back those two sentences that were now burned into my mind:

Your magic is wrong.

And.

You seem to be a better sport than your dad.

I couldn't mull it over properly though, because a familiar voice suddenly reached my ears, crackling through what appeared to be a magical radio somewhere in the train.

"Welcome one and all, to the first broadcast of Wizards F.M. of the year, brought to you by your very own Felix Serendipity!"

Other voices clamored over the radio, cheering and applauding.

"Now onto playing the greatest hits, we will be starting with a very special one to commemorate the year, KILLER QUEEN!!!!"