Ron Weasley
It was finally the day of their departure. The last month at Durselys hadn't been much fun. Sure, Dudley had stopped messing with them and their Aunt and Uncle had stopped bothering them but it became a bit depressing after a while to be ignored like that.
Harry had already talked to Uncle Vernon about dropping them at King's Cross Station and when Vernon saw the platform number on their tickets, he laughed out, telling them gleefully that there was no platform number 9 ¾.
As she stared at her ticket and wheeled her trolley across the station, she couldn't help but think that Hagrid had played a very sick joke on them by giving them a false ticket with a made up platform number.
By the worried look on Harry's face, he thought the same.
They asked around and no one seemed to know about such a platform. Boiling anger bubbled inside her.
Hagrid! How dare he play with them like this!? He at least should have made everything clear before disappearing like that!
She was so focused on her anger at Hagrid that she missed the family that ran past them. Harry taped her shoulder and nodded toward the family.
Four boys were pushing identical looking trolleys with huge trunks as theirs, were hurrying along the platform, a short plump woman was clutching a little girl's hand in hers, shouting at the boys to hurry up or they'd miss the Hogwarts Express.
Her eyes widened at that. Hogwarts Express?
They all had red hair, even the woman. She beckoned the tall boy with glasses to go on and the boy vanished through the wall right in front of them.
Then went the twins, they were identical. They also marched towards the wall and vanished.
The Potter twins leaped forward and addressed the woman at the same time, "Excuse me!"
The woman turned to them, a kind expression on her face as she smiled at them.
"Hello, dear," she said. "First time at Hogwarts? Ron's new, too."
She pointed at the last and youngest of her sons. He was tall, thin, and gangling, with freckles, big hands and feet, and a long nose.
"Yes," they replied in unison. Then Harry continued, "The thing is... the thing is, we don't know how to..."
"How to get onto the platform?" she said kindly, and Harry nodded.
"Not to worry," she said. "All you have to do is walk straight at the barrier between platforms nine and ten. Don't stop and don't be scared or you'll crash into it, that's very important. Best do it at a bit of a run if you're nervous. Go on, go now before Ron."
"Er-okay," said Harry. "Together?"
"Together!" She replied with determination.
They pushed their trolleys around and stared at the barrier. It looked very solid. She started to walk toward it, Harry a few paces ahead of her. People jostled him on their way to platforms nine and ten.
Harry walked more quickly, she followed. As the wall neared, she thought he was going to crash right into that barrier and then they'd be in trouble. Leaning forward on their carts, they broke into a heavy run-the barrier was coming nearer and nearer-
She thought they were definitely going to crash into it but she followed her brother's lead anyway and closed her eyes, waiting for imapct.
It didn't come... She kept on running... She opened her eyes. A scarlet steam engine was waiting next to a platform packed with people.
A sign overhead said Hogwarts Express, eleven O'clock.
Harry looked behind him, her eyes following his gaze, and saw a wrought-iron archway where the barrier had been, with the words Platform Nine and Three-Quarters on it, they had done it.
They grinned at each other and moved their carts towards the train.
Smoke from the engine drifted over the heads of the chattering crowd, while cats of every color wound here and there between their legs. Owls hooted to one another in a disgruntled sort of way over the babble and the scraping of heavy trunks.
The first few carriages were already packed with students, some hanging out of the window to talk to their families, some fighting over seats.
They pushed their carts down the platform in search of empty seats. They finally found an empty compartment at the near end of the train.
Harry put his owl, Hedwig, inside first and then took the cage in which her own owl currently resided. She hadn't thought of a name for him yet.
Harry started to shove and heave his trunk toward the train door. She tried to push it from behind and heave it from one end but she accidentally let go and it dropped painfully on his foot.
"Hayley!" Her brother winced in pain.
"Sorry!" She said apologetically.
"Want a hand?" It was one of the red-haired twins they'd followed through the barrier.
"Yes, please," Harry panted.
"Oy, Fred! Come here and help!"
With the twins' help, both of their trunks were at last tucked away in a corner of the compartment.
"Thanks," they said and Harry pushed his sweaty hair out of his eyes.
"What's that?" said one of the twins suddenly, pointing at Harry's lightning scar.
"Blimey," said the other twin. "Are you..."
"He is," said the first twin. "Aren't you?" he added to Harry.
"What?" said Harry.
"Harry Potter," chorused the twins.
"Oh, him," said Harry. "I mean, yes, I am."
The two boys gawked at him, and Harry turned red. Their attention focused on her and they gawked at her as well, looking at Harry then at her.
"And you must be his twin sister!" Said one twin.
"Do you have it as well?" Asked the other.
She looked at them in confusion, "Have what?"
"The Scar!" Again the twins chorused.
"No I don't."
They actually looked disappointed. Then, to her relief, their mum's voice came floating in through the train's open door.
"Fred? George? Are you there?"
"Coming, Mum."
With a last look at them, the twins hopped off the train.
Harry sat down next to the window where, half hidden, he could watch the red-haired family and hear what they were saying. Hayley took a seat beside him and also listened, their mother was gushing at them, making their appearance as tidy as possible, the siblings teasing each other.
She once again found herself wondering what it would have been like to have their parents here with them. Would her mother have fussed about their appearances, telling Harry to tame his untamable hair? Or maybe their father would tell them to write to him if anyone caused them trouble at school.
She shook her head to clear her mind. It had been a while since she felt like this. She focused her attention at the red haired family and now their mother was warning the twins to not blow up a toilet at their school.
Hayley couldn't help but smile at that. What a great idea for a prank, she thought.
It seemed the twins also thought the same as they thanked their mother for the idea. They started to tease their younger brother whose name was Ron.
She and Harry observed their interaction with amusement until they mentioned seeing the Harry Potter and his scar. Their mother warned them not to bother him and ask unnecessary questions about You-Know-Who. They said their goodbyes as a whistle sounded.
-•••-
Houses flashed past the window as the train gained speed. The twins looked at each other and felt a great leap of excitement.
The door of the compartment slid open and the youngest redheaded boy came in.
"Anyone sitting there?" he asked, pointing at the seat opposite Harry.
"Everywhere else is full."
Harry shook his head and the boy sat down. He glanced at them and then looked quickly out of the window, pretending he hadn't looked. Harry saw he still had a black mark on his nose his mother had tried to get off.
"Hey, Ron."
The twins were back. She offered them a grin and they grinned back.
"Listen, we're going down the middle of the train-Lee Jordan's got a giant tarantula down there."
"Right," mumbled Ron.
"Harry." said the other twin, then turned to her, as if asking for her name.
"Hayley Potter." She said.
They nodded with a smile, "Did we introduce ourselves? Fred and George Weasley. And this is Ron, our brother. See you later, then."
"Bye." All three of them said and the Weasley twins shut the compartment door behind them.
"Are you really Harry Potter?" Ron blurted out.
Harry nodded.
"Oh-well, I thought it might be one of Fred and George's jokes," said Ron. "And have you really got-you know...
He pointed at Harry's forehead. Harry pulled back his bangs to show the lightning scar. Ron stared.
"So that's where You-Know-Who..."
"Yes," said Harry, "but I can't remember it."
"Nothing?" said Ron eagerly.
"Well-I remember a lot of green light, but nothing else."
As Harry said this, a flash of memory appeared in her mind. She also remembered. The green light and the woman. Her beautiful green eyes.
They never talked about it. First, they thought they were just some random dreams. Then when Hagrid had told them about what exactly happened to their parents it became somewhat clear.
Still, Hayley never told her brother about the dreams she would sometimes have. Dreams about a woman with red hair, her green eyes filled with tears as she muttered over and over again how much she loves them.
"Wow," said Ron. She blinked her thoughts away and trained her attention at the red haired boy.
He sat and stared at Harry for a few moments, then, as though he had suddenly realized what he was doing, he looked quickly out of the window again.
"And what about me?" She asked curiously, everyone seemed to know who Harry was but no one knew her. "Do people know about me as well?"
Ron swallowed and shook his head, "Not much is known about you. No one actually knew about you until you were found with Harry in the crib-Well, that's what I have heard."
Silence filled the compartment as she nodded, feeling a bit dejected.
"Are all your family wizards?" asked Harry, who found Ron just as interesting as Ron found him.
"Er-Yes, I think so," said Ron. "I think Mom's got a second cousin who's an accountant, but we never talk about him."
"So you must know loads of magic already."
The Weasleys were clearly one of those old wizarding families the pale brat in Diagon Alley had talked about.
"I heard you went to live with Muggles," said Ron. "What are they like?"
"Horrible-well, not all of them. My Aunt and Uncle and cousin are, though. I wish I'd had three wizard brothers."
"Five." Ron corrected him. Ron told them about his brothers. Two had already graduated from Hogwarts. The oldest, Bill, was the Head Boy at Hogwarts. Then the second eldest, Charlie, was a Quidditch Captain. Now his third oldest brother was a Prefect, his name's Percy. He got all of his stuff from his brothers and his wand was Charlie's and his rat was from Percy.
He took out a fat, grey rat out of his pocket and told them his name was Scabbers. He looked gloomy as he told them how he got a rat from his brother when his parents had bought Percy a new owl for being a Prefect. And he almost said they couldn't afford to have another owl.
He went red as he caught himself.
She didn't think it was a bad thing to not be able to afford things. They had lived their whole lives wearing hand me downs and second hand clothes. So they told Ron about their life at the Durselys.
As they talked, an old looking witch came up to their compartment with a food trolley.
They had never had any money for candy with the Dursleys, and now that they had pockets rattling with gold and silver they were ready to buy as many Mars Bars as they could carry-but the woman didn't have Mars Bars. What she did have were Bettie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, Chocolate Frogs. Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes, Licorice Wands, and a number of other strange things Hayley had never seen in her life. Not wanting to miss anything, they got some of everything and paid the woman eleven silver Sickles and seven bronze Knuts.
They bargained with Ron, in exchange for the sandwich he could eat their sweets. He happily accepted. As they stuffed their mouths with new and sweet delicacies, Harry's eyes caught something.
"What are these?" Harry asked Ron, holding up a pack of Chocolate Frogs. Hayley looked on curiously, taking a bite from a Couldron Cake.
"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 says."
Harry unwrapped his Chocolate Frog and picked up the card. Hayley leaned closer to take a better look at 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 the twins.
"Don't tell me you've never heard of Dumbledore!" said Ron. "Can I have a frog? I might get Agrippa-thanks."
Harry turned over his card and read:
ALBUS DUMBLEDORE
CURRENTLY HEADMASTER OF HOGWARTS
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 of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel. Professor Dumbledore enjoys chamber music and tenpin bowling.
Harry turned the card back over and saw, to their astonishment, that Dumbledore's face had disappeared.
"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."
Harry opened a few other Chocolate Frogs and collected the cards of various Witches and Wizards. They also ate candy from Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans.
True to it's name, they got every kind of flavour. As they were doing this, a boy came looking for his toad. He looked on the verge of tears. They shook their heads and told him they haven't seen his toad. He soon left.
Their conversation resumed and Ron was about to show them a magic spell when the compartment door opened once again. The boy was back but he had a girl with him this time.
She had bushy brown hair, rather large front teeth and she was already wearing her new Hogwarts Robes. The boy next to her was named Neville.
She saw Ron ready to perform a spell so she insisted on watching. She had a bossy kind of voice and sat beside him.
He cleared his throat, "Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."
He waved his wand, but nothing happened. Scabbers stayed grey and fast asleep.
"Are you sure that's a real spell?" said the girl. "Well, it's not very good, is it? I've tried a few simple spells just for practice and it's all 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, Hayley hadn't even opened her new magical books.
She and Harry looked at Ron, and were relieved to see by his stunned face that he hadn't learned all the course books by heart either.
"I'm Ron Weasley," Ron muttered.
"Hayley Potter." She mumbled.
"Harry Potter," said Harry.
"Are you really?" said Hermione. "I know all about you, 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."
"We are?" said the twins, feeling dazed. Hermione blinked at them but she recovered quickly.
"No. Just you, Harry. Goodness, didn't you know, I'd have found out everything I could if it was me," said Hermione.
Of course there wasn't any mention of her. But why though? Was it because she didn't have a scar?
"Do either of you know what house you'll be in?" Now addressing both of them. "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, we'd better go and look for Neville's toad. You two had better change. You know. I expect we'll be there soon."
She left, taking the boy with her. Ron grumbled about not to be placed in her house. Then Harry asked about which house his brothers are in.
"Gryffindor." Ron said, gloomily. "Mum and Dad were in it. I don't know what they'll say if I am 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?" Harry asked.
"Yeah," said Ron. He flopped back into his seat, looking depressed.
"Well, you can't judge an entire house based on just one Wizard, can you?" Hayley said, a new worry blooming in her chest. What if she's put into Slytherin?
"Well its just not one Wizard. A bunch of them went bad." Ron said. She didn't say anything else for a while.
Harry wondered out loud what a Wizard does after school. Ron quickly and happily provided.
"Charlie's in Romania studying dragons, and Bill's in Africa doing something for Gringotts," said Ron. "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."
She and Harry shared a look.
"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."
Hayley shuddered at this. Harry had the same effect. Ron tried to ask about their favourite Quidditch teams but they had no idea about that as well. Then the compartment door slid open the third time.
She expected to find Hermione Granger or Neville guy but the pale brat from Madam Malkin's stood before them.
"Is it true?" he said. "They're saying all down the train that Harry Potter's in this compartment. So it's you, is it?"
"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 brat, they looked like bodyguards.
"Oh, this is Crabbe and this is Goyle," said the pale boy carelessly, noticing where their eyes were looking. "And my name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."
Ron gave a slight cough, which might have been hiding a snigget. 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."
"Your father sounds like a mean little bully." Hayley couldn't help but intervene. If there was anything she hated, it was the bullies.
He turned to her. His sneer back on his lips as he scowled, "No one asked for your opinion, you..."
He paused, looking over her, "Who are you anyway?"
She crossed her arms over her chest, giving him a glare, "Hayley Potter."
Recognition dawned on his face but his sneer deepened as he said, "Never heard of you."
She rolled her eyes at him and scoffed.
He turned 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. He was stupid enough to think Harry would actually shake his hand after he insulted his sister.
"I think I can tell who the wrong sort is 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 more polite 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 it'll rub off on you."
Both Harry and Ron stood up. Hayley remained seated. Her senses were flooded with overwhelming anger for the pointy brat.
"Say that again," Ron said, his face as red as his hair.
"Oh, you're going to fight us, are you?" Malfoy sneered.
"Unless you get out now," said Harry, more bravely than she had ever seen him because Crabbe and Goyle were huge.
"But we don't feel like leaving, do we, boys? We've eaten all our food and you still seem to have some."
Just as Goyle came to snatch one of Ron's chocolate frogs, Hayley had hurled a shoe at his big stupid head. All of them looked at her in shock, even Harry. Her other shoe was already in her hand and she intended to throw at the pale blonde but instead it hit Crabbe in the face.
Goyle now was fumming red with anger and he reached for Hayley. Ron and Harry leapt forward, but before he'd so much as touched Goyle, Goyle let out a horrible yell.
Scabbers the rat was hanging off his finger, sharp little teeth sunk deep into Goyle's knuckle- Crabbe and Malfoy backed away as Goyle swung Scabbers round and round, howling, and when Scabbers finally flew and hit the window, all three of them disappeared at once.
Hayley laughed out loud at them and the boys joined her as well. They told Ron about their encounter with Malfoy in Diagon Alley. Ron explained to them darkly about Malfoy's father's involvement with Voldemort and how they tricked their way out of punishment. The whole family seemed rotten to the core.
Soon, they changed into their school robes, and the train came to a halt. They got out and greeted Hagrid with beaming smiles.