Ch. 13

"Sorry, Tony Goldstein"

Hermione focused on the boy with messy hair and glasses. "Harry Potter? Are you really? I've read all about you of course. I picked up some extra material when we went to get our class texts."

Harry frowned. "I probably read some of the same rubbish. None of them got much right and they certainly didn't get my life after my parents' murder right."

"They could not publish it if it wasn't true," Hermione protested. "I read scholarly works that had proper citations and everything. Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts even won the Golden Quill award last year! So it must be the truth."

Harry scowled at her protest. " Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts provides a blow by blow account of the fight with my parents. How would they know? The book claims 'eyewitness accounts'. My parents couldn't tell them. Voldemort (here everyone jumped a bit at the name) wasn't in any condition to tell them, and I probably just wanted my nappies changed. On top of that, I can tell you I sure didn't grow up in a hidden Potter Manor or a castle floating in the clouds."

Harry paused to grin. "Okay, the castle in the clouds one would have been cool."

Then his grin dropped away as quickly as it came. "Not one fact of my life since that night is correct in those books. That rather throws the rest of their 'facts' into question too. Doesn't it?"

Hermione was taken aback by the vehemence in the Boy-Who-Lived's voice.

"I… I am sorry," she stammered before closing the door and making her escape. She felt like such a fool. She had embarrassed herself in front of the most famous young wizard in the entire world. This wasn't a great start to her Hogwarts career.

Well, she would just help Neville find his toad and focus on her classes. Surely if she performed well in her classes they would accept her and it would all be forgotten.

....

Ron Weasley was having a wonderful time on his first trip to Hogwarts.

The day hadn't started that great. He had stayed up late the night before in his excitement of finally going to Hogwarts. Then he'd overslept and barely had time to eat enough breakfast before leaving for Kings Cross.

When they had arrived at the station, his mum had led them through the Muggle potion of the station. He didn't remember doing that before with his brothers but he reckoned his mum knew what she was doing. He was a bit concerned when she asked what the platform number was though. Was she lost?

In the end they reached the platform just before the train was due to leave. Fred and George helped get his trunk on board before leaving to see their friend Lee and his pet spider. He'd be lucky if the gits didn't put it in his bed tonight. He swore he'd kill it if they did.

He started down the train looking for a compartment. Most of them seemed to be full or had much older students in them. A few had students that were probably Second or Third years but he really wanted to sit with some students in his own year.

Finally he came across a compartment that had some First years in it. It looked a bit full but he hadn't seen anything better yet. He opened the door just as the train jerked as it started to pull out of the station.

"Do you have room for one more?" he asked.

"Come on in," a boy invited. "We were outnumbered until now."

"Tony, you would be outnumbered in a room by yourself," a blonde girl commented with a sweet smile.

"Be careful, mate," Ron warned, "when my sister smiles like that I find someplace to hide."

The blonde turned her smile on Ron. "Oh how nice. A male that has already been partially trained." The girls started to laugh while the blokes shared commiserating looks.

"So, come on in," the boy who had been silent until now. "Have a seat. The girls have been trying to scare Tony and me with rumours of the Sorting."

"Well, my brothers said we have to fight a troll but I don't believe them."

Before Ron could sit down, one of the girls changed seats to sit between the other two boys. That left the only seat left between the two girls. The blonde patted the seat next to her.

The other girl, a twin to the one that moved, smiled and said, "Have a seat. We don't bite."

"Much," the blonde added.

Ron's face turned a tomato red as he sat down between the two girls. Fortunately, the seat was wide enough to fit three adults so there was plenty of room for three eleven year-olds to sit without touching.

Ron soon learned the twins were that Patil sisters while the blonde girl was Daphne Greengrass. All three were Purebloods raised in the magical world. The Patils were born in India but the family moved to London when they were three according to Parvati. Anthony (call me Tony!) Goldstein was a Muggleborn but his aunt was a witch that attended Hogwarts. His aunt and Daphne's mum were friends from school and were still best friends although his aunt worked in the Muggle world as a doctor. His aunt recognized his early accidental magic letting him in on the secret early. He had been introduced to Daphne and through her to the Patils back at the start of summer.

His biggest surprise was to find out the other boy was Harry Potter!

"Bloody hell! Do… do you have the scar?" he blurted out.

Harry looked a bit annoyed but brushed aside his fringe to reveal a thin, white lightning bolt shaped scar. It was highlighted slightly by the light tan colour of his skin but it blended in surprisingly well. Ron had to really look and he was just a short distance away.

"That's wicked, mate!"

Now Harry looked really annoyed.

"It is not wicked. It is a reminder of what killed my parents."

Ron felt like he'd been told the Quidditch season was called off. "Er, sorry mate. It's just… well my mum lost her two brothers in the war. We're just happy it's over."

Harry grimaced. "I guess. It still bothers me though."

Padma patted Harry's knee and said, "We won't talk about it anymore. Will we?" The last part was said to the rest of the compartment.

After a short, awkward period, the conversation turned to other areas. Ron was quiet for a bit but perked up when the talk turned to his favourite topic.

Quidditch

They started explaining Quidditch to Harry. Tony had managed to see three matches over the summer and was an instant fan. The Patils proved to be Harpies fans while Tony backed Montrose Magpies. Ron, of course, backed his beloved Cannons.

"Sure they had a few bad seasons, but they added Gowan as Seeker and Smyth as Keeper. Plus their coach is brilliant! They're on the ups!"

Daphne gave him a smirk. "So, you like their coach? I heard he's something of a goofball. Thinks he's something special just going by his first name."

Ron's face turned red with indignation. "Coach Steven has the best tactical mind in the game today!" he protested indignantly. "And Quidditch Week named him Leader of the Year after he became acting coach of the Wasps and led them to the league championships!"

Ron's face turned red with indignation. "Coach Steven has the best tactical mind in the game today!" he protested indignantly. "And Quidditch Week named him Leader of the Year after he became acting coach of the Wasps and led them to the league championships!"

Parvati grinned across to her sister. "I think Ron's in love."

"Do you sleep in a Cannons jersy?" Padma asked.

"Or maybe cuddled up with a stuffed Chudley the mascot?" Daphne asked. "That would be soooo cute!" she gushed.

Ron's indignation grew as the girls continued to wind him up. The other two boys wisely kept their mouths shut and enjoyed the show. The girls' taunting continued as Ron's face grew red. Parvati seemed to take great enjoyment out of commenting on Ron's adoration of Coach Steven.

Finally, Daphne took pity on him.

"Oh, relax Weasley before you hurt yourself." Ron continued to huff. "Do you know your hero's last name?"

"Yes!" Ron spit out. "It's Green…" Ron's eyes popped out a bit.

Daphne nodded. "He's my father. We were just having some fun with you."

The rest of the compartment's occupants started to laugh at the look of shock on Ron's face as Daphne grinned impishly at him.

"That's not funny," he grumbled. "That was mean. I was right about you being as bad as Ginny."

Eventually, Ron and Daphne started up a serious conversation about the Cannons chances at the League Cup that year. The others started playing Exploding Snap on the floor.

They were interrupted by a girl with buck teeth and thick bushy hair looking for a toad. While her visit started nicely enough, it soon turned nasty when the girl mentioned the published accounts of the fall of You-Know-Who. The girl fled soon afterwards.

The compartment was quiet for several moments after she left.

"I shouldn't have blown up like that," Harry admitted quietly.

"Maybe not," Padma allowed, "but it was kind of understandable."

Parvati nodded agreement. "She was a bit pushy about it."

"Definitely a future Ravenclaw," Daphne commented condescendingly. "Too much time with her nose in a book, her head in the clouds and a wand up her arse."

Padma glared back at the girl. "I want to be in Ravenclaw."

Daphne smiled back innocently. "Oh, I forgot that. Sorry." Parvati and Tony started to laugh at the two friends while Ron just shook his head in disbelief.

...

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