Chapter 3
Back at the Dursley’s the air had been filled with tension. Dudley still avoided him like the pest, looking away whenever he tried to look him in the eyes. Petunia and Vernon took to a similar tactic, only conversing with Harry when absolutely necessary. Whilst it hurt, not being acknowledged, he could manage, he had enough books to keep his mind busy, reading had always been his favorite hobby and it was all too easy to lose himself in the countless words which filled the tomes and books so effortlessly, like fish in a pond. He got along at a slightly slower pace than he did last year. The books were at a higher level of complexity compared to those of his first year, so he had to spend more time to complete them. In the end, by the time that he was to enter the Hogwarts express, he had finished all books but two, the new Potions book(which he was only halfway done with) and the new charms tome, which he had just barely not finished in time.
On the day of his departure, Harry stood in front of the Hogwarts express, alone but eyes stuck on him. Someone must’ve recognized him, for boundless eyes gazed upon his visage, his forehead most of all, where the scar sat which marked him forever more as something special. This attention was still new to him but he could see himself enjoying it, in the future, in a year or two perhaps. Feeling those eyes on him, centered and concentrated, made him all tingly.
With a heavy sigh, Harry heaved his heavy trunk -filled to the brim with clothes, books and other items which he’d need at Hogwarts- up into the hot red locomotive. Before looking for a compartment, he went to the changing rooms -which were spaced out throughout the train- and dressed himself in his school robes, which were much more comfortable than his muggle attire. After being presentably dressed, he made his way around, looking for a compartment to call his own. The first he looked into was already filled with older students, as were the second, third and fourth. The fifth compartment was where he struck gold, inside there was only one student, a girl he was most aware of, his friend Cho, “Hi cho, nice to see you again”
“I can only say the same”, she smiled, “come, take a seat”
He did as he was told, occupying the seat across from Cho, “So, how were your holidays?”, he asked her.
“They were nice, my mum and I went to paris for a few weeks”
“Really? How was it, Paris I mean?”
Cho’s gaze went somewhere far away as she dreamily told him about her vacation, of the castles they visited and the food they ate. It did sound nice, he thought. The weather too -at least by the way she described it- was a lot better than what they’d gotten here in the UK over the holidays. What surrey had gotten most certainly. The weather had been atrocious back at the dursleys, hail and snow and rain and scorching heat after that. Not a single day of truly nice weather like Cho described it to have been in france.
Soon, another person came knocking at the compartment door, it was a bushy haired first year, whom Harry recognised as Hermione. Hermione took a seat with them and soon, the conversation switched from the holidays to school, her asking them about anything and everything, as well as gloating about how many books she’d already read, though for him, those were rookie numbers, he’d easily read twice as many before starting his Hogwarts career, not that he would tell her that, he wasn’t that mean.
He learned a lot about Hermione on that ride, her parents were both dentists, she had a younger sister and an older brother, both of which, she believed -or in the brothers case knew- to be non-magical. Her parents were called Frank and Maggi, whilst her siblings were Frank jr. and Chloe. Her favorite subjects, from the reading which she’d done were Transfiguration and History and she was as big a bookworm as he was.
Harry was almost completely sure that Hermione would soon wear the same blue and bronze as he and Cho did, ravenclaw colors.
As time went by, Cho and Hermione left the compartment to go change into their Hogwarts robes, leaving Harry alone to read by himself.
By the time they were back, he’d finished the charms book he didn’t get to finish back at the Dursley’s and was a good quarter through the half of the potions book which he had left. Cho was sporting the ravenclaw eagle, whilst Hermione still had blank robes, no house colors to be seen, as his robes had been before he’d been sorted.
“So what are your favorite subjects?” Hermione asked them curiously.
“Oh, I adore Herbology”, said Cho, “Plants are great, really the only thing better than working with plants is flying. Flying is so liberating, you can’t imagine the feeling of being free from the ground, soaring high above your worries”
“Same opinion on flying there”, he smiled, “though my favorite subject has to be charms, there is so much you can do with charms and many of the other subjects refer back to charms. DADA is a close second though, only the professor wasn’t great last year, I hope this year we get someone better, not a psycho like her”
“Well said Harry, well said. Oh, I think I hear the Trolly witch approaching, do any of you want some candy?”
Hermione looked away, “my parents won’t let me eat anything sweet, they say it’ll just hurt my teeth even more”
“Your parents aren’t here though, are they”, he laughed, “have fun, be free, this is Hogwarts, not your parents home”
With an eager, if unsteady, grin, she agreed, biting into a chocolate frog when Harry offered her one of the ones he’d bought off the trolley witch.