Chapter 2
Fabian devoured the books. He couldn't help himself, he was learning magic after all, who wouldn't be excited about learning magic? He cast charms, brewed potions and transfigured household items.
“Fabian… you haven't eaten today”, his mother came into his room, worried.
“I haven't?” A growl of his stomach confirmed it, “well, I'll better eat then”
He sprung up from his chair and walked towards the dining room, where a plate of food was already sitting. His parents had eaten without him. He ate slowly, thinking about Hogwarts. He could only speculate how amazing the school would be. He was sure the movies didn't do it justice. Should he interfere with the plot? On one hand, doing so could lead to serious butterfly effects, on the other it would be more fun to interfere… well, he was already Harry's friend, so why not join him on his adventures?
Maybe he could use his ‘seer’ status to his advantage. Flitwick already thought that he was a seer, so convincing the other teachers wouldn't be a problem. Maybe he could hint about the troll? Yes, that sounded like a plan!
“Dear, your father told me that his owl to you aunt has finally come back, they want to meet you. They will come here, tomorrow afternoon, as will your father”, his mother told him.
“Great news”, Fabian beamed, smiling brightly. He wondered what his family was like? In the books, Amelia was stern but fair.
The next day, Fabian was nervous all day, walking up and down in his room. His father arrived an hour before Amelia and Susan did. The two witches arrived with a loud *pop*, side along apparating to their house. They then knocked three times.
Brutus opened the door and immediately hugged the person standing there, “Amelia, it is so good to see you again”
“Same goes to you”, Amelia was a square jawed woman with natural grey hair, not due to age but due to actual pigmentation. Besides her stood a small girl, petite, with her grey hair cascading down her shoulders and her blue eyes staring into his soul.
Amelia broke from her hug and turned to Fabian, “you must be Fabian, nice to meet you, I am sorry for never visiting before”
“All good, you didn't even know about me”, Fabian shrugged, turning to the girl, “hi, I'm Fabian and you must be Susan, right?”
“Yes…” she whispered, unsure of herself.
“Let me show you my room”, he pulled her by the arm and showed her his room. She was staring at a poster on the wall.
“Why isn't it moving?”
“Because it's a muggle poster, they don't move”, Fabian snickered at her perplexed expression.
“Really? I didn’t know that”, Susan stared at the poster, as if trying to make it move, “what house do you reckon you will get into?”
“I think I’ll be in gryffindor or ravenclaw”, he shrugged, “not really sure which of the two… did you know, I actually am friends with Harry Potter”
“What? You are bluffing, no one has seen him in ten years!”
“I met him in madam malkins’ when I went to be fitted for my robes”, Fabian proclaimed proudly, taking note of Susan’s wide eyes, “He seemed pretty nice, so I asked him if he wanted to be my friend and he agreed”
“Awesome!”, Excitement shined in her eyes.
They kept on chatting for a few hours before Susan and Amelia left.
Soon, it was time to go to platform 9 ¾ with his father. Brutus got in first, showing him how it worked but Fabian decided to wait for Harry. It didn’t take long for the raven haired boy to arrive, “Oh, hello mate”, Fabian waved to him. The boy seemed to be relieved to see a familiar face, so, he walked up to him.
“Do you know where the platform is? I’m pretty sure I have never seen a platform 9 ¾ ”, he scratched the back of his head, as Hedwig hooted softly.
“Yeah, you just have to walk through the barrier over there, here, let me show you”, Fabian walked through the barrier and was soon followed by Harry. The two of them stared at the crimson locomotive resting in front of them. There were countless wizards and witches all over the platform, some alone, others in big groups, “Bye dad, I’ll write you an owl once I’m sorted”, he took Harry by the arm and guided him into the train. Most of the compartments were already full but Fabian spotted one with only one person inside, Susan, his cousin, “let’s sit in here, Harry”
“But there is already someone in there, shouldn’t we be looking for an empty compartment?”, Harry looked at the grey haired witch with unease. He didn’t know what to think of her. Fabian was nice enough but were the others nice too or was this just an exception?
“Don’t worry, she’s my cousin, Susan”
Harry visibly relaxed, though he still was tense.
“Hey Susan, look who I brought”, Fabian walked in, Harry behind him.
“Blimey… it really is Harry Potter, you weren’t lying…”, Susan jumped up from her seat, “Hello, I’m Susan, Susan Bones. It is so great to meet you! Say… do you really have the… y’know, the scar?”, Susan looked but she couldn’t see it, it was hidden beneath his shaggy black hair. How did she recognise him as Harry Potter then? Well, she had seen her Aunt’s school fotos and a young James Potter was on one of them, he looked exactly like Harry.
“Yeah”, he awkwardly stroked away the hair on his forehead, exposing the branching lightning bolt scar.
“Wicked…” Susan gasped, “Well, anyways, what about school houses? I want to be in Hufflepuff, it’s where my mom was back when she was in school, what about you? And Fabian, have you decided if you want to go to Ravenclaw or Gryffindor?”
“I- I just don’t want to be in Slytherin”, Harry placed his trunk overhead whilst putting Hedwig’s cage under the seats.
“Good, most Slytherin’s are gits. I heard that the head of Slytherin is a real jerk. Severus Snake-?”
“Snape”, Fabian corrected.
She nodded affirmatively, “Yeah that”
“Well, I think I want to be a Gryffindor”
He had made that decision a few days ago. If he wanted to be in the golden trio(quartet? Whatever), he needed to be in Gryffindor. That way, he was closer to the main plot.
“Hey, can I sit here? Everywhere else is full”, Ron came in, he was a tall child, easily a head taller than Fabian, with freckles over his nose and very short, ginger hair, not a buzzcut but close.
“Sure, we have place for one more”, Fabian patted the seat besides himself, “I’m Fabian, that’s Susan and over there is Harry. We were just talking about the houses we wanted to be in, what is your wish?”
“Well, I want to be a Gryffindor of course! Gryffindor is the best, though I suppose Hufflepuff wouldn’t be so bad. My whole family is in Gryffindor though”, Ron smiled brightly, before his eyes flickered to Harry’s forehead, “Blimey… are you-?”
“Harry Potter? Yeah”, he squirmed under Ron’s gaze, before changing the subject, “Say, do you guys have any pets? I have hedwig, my snow owl”
“An owl? I’m so jealous, all I have is Scabbers”, he pulled out the rat from his pocket, “he is pretty old and mostly only eats and sleeps… I would love to have an owl”
“Aren’t the allowed pets for first years owls, toads or cats? How were you allowed to keep a rat?” Asked Susan, a question that Fabian had asked himself before as well but the answer was quite easy as it turns out.
“Oh, he was my brother’s rat before and scabbers is known to be harmless, so, I was allowed to bring him”, Ron shrugged.
“Anything from the trolley, dearies?”, the trolley Witch asked.
“I already have some sandwiches”, Ron looked at his wrapped sandwiches sadly.
“We’ll take one of everything”, said Harry, pulling out a galleon, more than enough to buy one of everything.
“And on top of that, give me five chocolate frogs”, Added Fabian. When they had their sweets, Harry invited for the others to join him and Fabian gave everyone one chocolate frog.
“They aren’t… real frogs are they?” asked Harry, eyeing the chocolate frog in his hand.
“Nope, just enchanted chocolate, the real fun though is collecting the cards”
Harry ate his chocolate frog and read the card, “Albus Dumbledore. Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times. Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses for dragon’s blood, and his work in alchemy with his partner, Nicholas Flamel. Professor Dumbledore enjoys chamber music and ten pin bowling… Woah- the picture just moved!”
“Let’s see what my card says… Godric Gryffindor. Co-founder of Hogwarts. Gave his name for one of the houses. Well known sword duelist”, Fabian looked at the card, which smiled and waved at him, his sword by his waist.