A Beginning
It was his first day of Hogwarts. The first of many days spanning 7 years. Harry was nervous, but anything was better than the Dursley’s. He couldn’t wait to get to his new home, or at least he hoped it would be a home.
His new found friend Hagrid was going on and on about how Harry was going to find himself at Hogwarts, and how he was going to have the time of his life. Some advice about the magical creatures was thrown in there too, ‘Fluffy loves music!’ and ‘be careful around the forest, the centaurs aren’t always nice to us wizarding folk’.
Harry just needed to board the train. He already made it through platform 9 ¾, but it was a whole other thing to actively allow another take him to a far away land. But he did it. The first step onto the train felt like a sense of freedom. The Dursley’s won’t get to him at Hogwarts. He only had to worry about the professors now, and compared to the Dursleys, it was like a walk in the park. Harry didn’t even think of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.
As soon as he could, he snagged a compartment to himself. Here he could calm down a little. It’s pointless to be anxious about a train ride. He was sure that the conductor knew what they were doing.
The sound of the door opening.
Harry turned his head, to be faced with a young boy, who’s red hair was in loose, wild curls. It was on the longer side compared to others around their age, going down to his chin, bangs hastily cut. His face was mousey- wide blue eyes looking around frantically. Freckles spotted his face, contrasting to his skin so pale that it looked like he hadn’t stepped outside for years.
“Have you seen a rat? About as big as a potato?” The boy asked, as if his life depended on it.
“Um… no, it is only me in here. I think I would have seen a rat.” Harry said hesitantly, glancing around for the aforementioned potato-sized rat.
All of a sudden a scream sounded, like one of those tea kettles Aunt Petunia would insist on having all the time. “A RAT!”
Outside of the compartment was a girl, hair looking tousled every-which way. It was a light brown, with tight ringlets starting to friz. Her skin looked like the golden of a sunrise. The shock of seeing a rat running around the train made her dark brown eyes widen as if they were the size of moons.
“SCAMPERS!” The boy called out, running out. He bent down, grabbing said 'Scampers'.
Harry sat up and leaned more to the side, so he could look out and see what was going on. The boy was petting the rat, murmuring words like, ‘don’t run away from me!’ and ‘you stupid rat’. The girl was very obviously tousled, and angry. The shock had worn off.
“Now why do you have a rat? And why must you let it out of its cage? I have read the Hogwarts supplies list nearly 500 times and not once have I seen a rat as an acceptable animal!”
“Hey! I’ll have you know that my older brother gave me scampers after using him at Hogwarts for years! It is totally acceptable. And who reads the supplies list that many times?”
“I’ll have you know that I like to be prepared. Preparedness is key to life.” The girl turned up her nose, and slightly turned towards the compartment. Then she saw Harry.
Her eyes widened, “Oh! I am so sorry for creating so much noise outside your compartment, my name is Hermione, yours is?” She stepped into the compartment and slightly bowed while holding out her hand.
He took her hand and lightly shook it, I hope she can’t feel my nervous sweat, he thought.
“Harry. My name is Harry.” This was new to him, back at muggle school people didn’t really pay attention to him.
“I’m sorry mate, my name’s Ron,” The boy said as he came in and sat down on the bench, “This here is Scampers. He’s pretty lazy, I dunno why he decided to run off today,”
“Well it is nice to meet you Harry,” Hermione smiled, her teeth showing slightly, “Would it be alright if I joined in your compartment?”
“Well, of course!” Harry smiled back. This is so much better than the Dursleys. Here people are talking to him for more than just scolding or bullying. It felt like they could maybe be his friends.
“I hope it is alright if we could all be friends, it is hard to adjust to new places without a friendly face…” Harry said, looking down at his nails. He didn’t want to get turned down.
“Of course mate!” Ron smiled.
Herminone looked over at Ron, “Well, I guess I could be friends with a person who owns a rat… And I would gladly be your friend Harry.”
Harry knew, as he and his new friends got candy from the trolly, that this would be a friendship that would last a very long time. They were too kind to Harry, and he was too happy to have more than a professor for a friend.