Daisy and Dahlia

Harry's day started off well. Sirius had stayed overnight, and was there to share a very light breakfast with them, and hug them goodbye, and wish them a good term. He had to stay in the tent rather than actually travelling to King's Cross and bidding them farewell on the platform, as other families did; but it was still a much better send-off than Harry had ever had before. The actual Knight Bus journey to King's Cross could have gone worse, although Daisy did give Stan Shunpike multicoloured spots at one point. Harry had apologised, and made Daisy apologise too, and somewhere in the process Stan had recognised Harry as Harry Potter, and then made comments insinuating the twins were Harry's biological children. Even by the time they got to the train station, Harry wasn't sure he'd dissuaded him. Still, Harry thought at the time, that was quite a minor hiccup. Neither twin had actually vomited this time, and they hadn't gone so far as to use magic on each other while arguing about the bus. And he thought they were at least beginning to grasp the concept that it wasn't OK to use offensive magic on other people just because you were cross with them - not that they'd entirely meant to do so. The book that Healer Gambol had made him get, about mental and emotional control for young witches and wizards, had been very helpful in helping Harry understand about accidental magic. He'd even started the twins on some of the easiest exercises; and the way he was running into trouble with the intermediate exercises, they might well catch him up soon. Clearing one's mind was meant to be something five-year-olds could do, and Harry, at thirteen, couldn't do it for longer than about twenty seconds at best, and sometimes not at all.

Settled safely into the compartment, and with Dobby visible again, Harry opened the bag of pastries he'd bought in Godric's Hollow, so they could have a more substantial breakfast than just fruit. The platform was filling up. Hedwig had unexpectedly swooped down to join him in his compartment, and Harry waved when he caught sight of Neville. Once Neville's grandmother had levitated her charge's trunk into the rack for him, she dragged him off for a quick word, and since she didn't seem to believe in charms like mufflatio, Harry overheard more of the lecture than any of them might have preferred, given that Augusta wished to make sure that the existence of the family apartments didn't give Neville ideas, and also to reiterate exactly what her expectations were with regard to proper conduct. Eventually, Neville stumbled back inside, red-faced. With less than five minutes to go, the crowd of Weasleys, plus Hermione, charged onto the platform, scattering in different directions. Ron and Hermione made for Harry and Neville's compartment; Ron seemed a little put out to see Neville, but was mollified by the last of the pastries. The whistle blew and they were off. Introductions were made all round: Crookshanks was a hit with the twins, though his tendency to keep just out of grabbing range frustrated them a little.

"I'm really looking forward to this year," said Hermione happily. "I can't wait for all the new subjects! Which ones are you looking forward to most?"

"Probably Arithmancy," said Harry, waiting for the explosion.

"You're not doing Arithmancy!" said Ron. "Only swots do Arithmancy. You're doing Divination and Care with me."

"Actually, Ron, I changed my mind," said Harry. "I'm still doing Care with you, but I had a bit more of a think over the summer. The thing about Divination is, it's about getting hints of the future in advance, and that just doesn't interest me much. And I still don't know what I want to do for a career, and I'd be narrowing my options a lot if I didn't do Runes or Arithmancy. And Arithmancy looks like it's just fancy Maths with magic in, and I was quite good at Maths in primary school, so I actually have a chance of not being bad at it. I'm worried Runes might be too hard for me, but I'm starting off with the three, and I can always ditch Runes if it's too hard and just keep going with Care and Arithmancy."

"Narrowing your options?" said Ron, disbelievingly. "You sound like Hermione."

"I beg your pardon!" said Hermione.

"Well, at least you're apologising," said Ron. "Influencing Harry with your swotty ways. Seriously, though, mate, I'm not happy about this. And you're only telling me this now?"

"I only saw you twice over the summer," said Harry. "And there was a lot going on both times. I had meant to."

"Can't you switch back?"

"But I don't want to do Divination!" said Harry. "It just - I just don't care about it. I can't really see myself using it at all. If you want to have more classes with me, why don't you switch to Arithmancy? You like chess. There might be some cross-over."

"Eww, no!" said Ron. "Bill did Arithmancy, and Percy. Too much work. You have all kinds of charts to fill in and stuff, worse than Astronomy. Divination should be much easier."

"Everyone made Arithmancy sound very difficult, when I asked," said Neville. "My gran said she didn't want me doing as badly in another class as I do in Potions, and Divination would be much easier."

"Thank you, Neville!" said Ron. "See, somebody's got the right idea."

"I don't know, though," said Neville hesitantly. "You say it's 'fancy Maths with magic.' I - you know my family though I wouldn't be magical enough for Hogwarts - I went to Muggle primary school for four years. Even after I bounced from that window, they said I might as well keep going, just in case."

"So you did Maths," said Harry. "Were you good at it?"

"I don't know if I was good, exactly," said Neville. "But it was one of my best subjects, well, that and English. I just didn't know enough for science and history and the other things, so I was always scrambling to keep up there. But maths had less cultural stuff to get in the way, and I - I liked it."

"Oh, what a shame!" said Hermione. "I bet you would have been really good at Arithmancy, Neville. There isn't much memorisation involved, either, come to think of it; most of what you're learning is how to carry out various processes."

"It's not too late, actually," said Harry. "Professor McGonagall said that lots of people change their minds over the summer; that's why they don't give timetables out until the first day."

"Don't you ditch me as well!" said Ron. "I'm not being left all alone in Divination. What if they make me sit with a snake?"

"Um," said Neville. "I - er - I don't know if I could do three subjects. It's a lot of work."

"Why don't you start with three, like Harry," said Hermione, "and then if it's too much work for you, you can drop your least favourite? I really think that's a very sensible approach he's taking, very mature. And that would make you much more likely to get good marks, finding out what subjects you're best at. Your grandmother could hardly complain at that."

"I suppose not," said Neville.

"Why don't you owl ahead to Professor McGonagall and ask her?" she suggested. "Harry will let you borrow Hedwig, won't you, Harry?" Neither boy really felt like gainsaying her, and Hedwig didn't seem to mind. After all, she did normally prefer to fly to Hogwarts. So Neville got his writing supplies out, narrowly avoiding dropping the trunk on anyone, and set to.

Time passed. Ron and Harry played chess. Hermione had books to read. Neville found himself roped into reading to the twins. Ron approved of the extra snack-breaks that came with travelling with toddlers, but disliked having to vacate the compartment to give them privacy to use the potty. (Hermione was fascinated by the built-in Vanishing charm, and was sorely tempted to dismantle it to examine the runework.) Rumours had evidently spread about the twins, because a number of people passed by. Harry found himself having to repeat, again and again, that they were his cousins, not his daughters. He was only thirteen, and they were nearly three. He hadn't even started noticing people like that, never mind what was being insinuated! It was saying something when Fred, George and Lee were the least troublesome visitors they had; and they were very keen on sticking conjured bunny and/or kitty ears to the heads of all and sundry, including the twins.

If there had been a prize for the most troublesome visitor, it would have gone to Malfoy. He simply didn't seem to feel a trip on the Hogwarts Express was complete until he had taunted Harry; and this time, he had brought not only Crabbe and Goyle, but most of the rest of the Slytherins in his year group. His opening salvo was, "So, Potter, who did you get up the duff, then?" and it only got worse from there. Wands had come out, and Dobby had erected a shield around the twins, when the lights started flickering, and the train began to slow down. It was getting much colder, and really, why was Harry even bothering to argue with Malfoy? It wasn't as though Malfoy was wrong: Harry really was a pathetic loser. Daisy and Dahlia were crying: that just went to show what a terrible guardian he was for them. What had he been thinking, taking them to Hogwarts as if they were toads or cats? He was going to make a dreadful mess of things. Vernon and Marge had been right: he was a waste of space. His vision blurred, and in the distance, over the twins' howling, he could hear a woman's voice, screaming. She was saying something: "Not Harry! Not Harry! Please, not Harry!"