The Divergence

Harry stood there at the curb, his uncle's jibes and laughter ringing in his ears still, even though their car was now turning out of the parking lot at King's Cross Station. He was nervous – scared that his uncle's words held even the smallest bit of truth. Platform 9 3/4's... could it really exist?

Hedwig hooted softly from her cage and he turned to her with a smile. She and the wand in his pocket were the proof he had that this all wasn't some fantastical dream. “Lets go, girl,” he said, sticking a finger in the sage and suffering the nip, the price needed to pay for running his finger over her head. Cleopatra Hedwig; Cleopatra because Draco insisted Hedwig was a ridiculous name for an Owl, and a strong and independent Queen better suited the snowy owl, and Hedwig because both he and Evie had taken a liking to the name, and what they had declared she could be called. He knew he could have left it at Hedwig, but Draco had said he would never call her that, and that she would always be a regal Queen to him. So... Cleopatra Hedwig.

Walking up to the platforms, he began to walk. Watching the numbers go by. One... two... three... four... five... six... seven... eight...

“Harry!”

From the little sign that had the number eight, Harry's eyes slid over until he caught sight of a voice he would never forget. Well, one of two. Evelyn, on of two of the very first friends he had ever made. He smiled hesitantly, pausing from pushing his trunk on the trolley and moved back just in time to be thoroughly hugged.

Hugging, it was such a strange concept to him. Any physical contact that didn't involve some measure of discomfort or pain was, really. He'd had trouble accepting Hagrid's bit of encouraging touches, but a full on hug like this? Harry was at a loss for what to do. He knew in theory, but the practice of it... He ended up awkwardly patting her shoulder.

“Da was right, you were coming this way! I just had to come and see you. Da said the entrance from the muggle aid is just horrible if you don't know it. So confusing.” Somewhere in her rambling, between the initial hug and her actually releasing him, Harry had become aware of the towering presence nearby. By the sign of Platform nine was Professor Snape, all regally dressed in his black robes, looking intimidating, despite how very different he looked from the muggles around him. Though... from what he had seen other wizards wear in Diagon Alley, his clothes did seem rather... tame.

“Hi Evie,” he got in finally with a smile, “I was wondering about that. Hello, sir. Umm... where is the platform, exactly? Was about to ask someone...”

“Oh, its right here, right da?”

“Do let me talk, Evie,” her father said as he stepped in closer, a swift motion with his hand putting Hedwig's cage in a less precarious position; Harry hadn't noticed the jostling of the trolley had her almost slipping off the trunk. “The platform is hidden from the sight of the mundane, how our protection. I will see that Draco explains the Statute of Secrecy to you on the train ride to come.”

“He is better at that stuff than I am,” Evie said with a smile at his side.

“You would be as well if you sat long enough to do your studies justice, Evelyn.”

“Yes, daddy.”

“Now, to enter...” What else Professor Snape had been about to say was drowned out by the raucous arrival of a family of redheads that had Harry's eyes widening. The kind of people that his Uncle and Aunt would have stuck their nose up at. It all seemed rather chaotic, the lot of them. Chaotic and loud, and Harry instinctively drew closer to his trolley and the Professor – he was intimidating, but... he was nice to Harry, and safe. Evelyn moved with him, her hand snaking out to take his. When she squeezed his hand he looked to her to see a smile leveled at him. Harry tried to smile back.

“Mrs. Weasley, I'm surprised to see you here. I would have thought you would have flooed like any other self respecting witch with a brood in tow.” Harry blinked up at the Professor. The man seemed dour and formal, if a bit reserved, but he hadn't expected him to sound so... condescending? It was the first time he heard the man talk down to someone.

“Oh, Severus, hello there. Well fancy seeing you and your daughter here as well! 'Ello dears,” the woman turned her eyes on them and Harry smiled a bit. She seemed nice enough.

“I am here to escort a first year who knows nothing of the wizarding world onto the platform since he was not properly introduced to our ways and what he would need to do. I still do not understand...” The Professor said, not finishing his sentence, but even Harry could follow along that line of wording to finish it himself.

“Oh, we just had to make a stop off in muggle London is all.” Her eyes trailed back over to Harry and Evie, but Harry got a feeling she was looking more at him than Evie, and that... made him shy away a bit more.

“What're ya talkin' 'bout, mum, we...” spoke up the youngest read haired boy.

“Oh, hush up now Ronald. All of ye, off to the platform now. Two at a time, dears. Percy, take Ronald through, if you please. Come on, hurry it up now. Severus, dearies,” She smiled at them again as Harry watched the Weasley's disappear in to the barrier by twos, with the mother and little girl the last to rush on through.

“She kept looking at me... like at the Leaky Cauldron...” he mused and reached up to tug at his fringe, putting it in place to hide his forehead.

“It is a sad state of affairs that even adults are capable of forgetting their good manners. But as you saw, Mr. Potter, you merely walk through the barrier, though doing so at a fast walk or a sprint tends to make the transition easier.”

“It looks like a lot of fun, doesn't it?” Evie asked at his side, having lent in to say it lowly. “Draco is going to be so jealous he didn't get to come and do this with us! But Mr. Malfoy would have never let him come.”

Harry smiled a bit, Evie's excitement catching a bit, helping to ease his nerves.

“Why don't you two go in first, and I shall follow directly behind you,” the Professor suggested.

“Okay,” Harry replied, looking to Evie to make sure she was alright with that.

“I will help you push your cart! Come on, lets get in position and do it at a run like those boys did.”

Pulling back a bit, he got excited as they stood side by side, their hands on the cart railing, and leaning into it. “Ready,” Evie asked, looking straight ahead with a wide smile.

“Yes,” Harry replied as he returned his eyes forward.

“Get set. … Go!” And off they went, barreling toward the wall as fast as their varying leg lengths could take them. Harry felt his stomach lurch the moment before they would have hit the wall... except they never did. They both stumbled a bit on the other side, laughing as they stopped, Evie giving out giggling apologies to the wizards they had sent scurrying on the other side. And behind, directly after, came the Professor in his long, quick stride.

“That was brilliant!” Harry exclaimed happily as he reached out over the cart to right Hedwig's cage again.

“There you lot are, Severus, Evie, bring your friend on over to meet us, and look who I found.”

Harry looked over to see a petite brown haired woman with the kind of soft, kind smile that instantly had Harry trusting her. She seemed to genuine and sincere.

“Mum! Thom!” Evie called out happily from his side. She then was clapping. “Oh, I know that blond hair anywhere! It's Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy! Which means Draco! Come on Harry.”

She helped him push his cart over, the Professor trailing at their side until they reached their destination, where the woman in her brown and green robes stood, hand holding that of a brown haired and black eyes young boy who looked utterly bored. And with them was the Malfoy family, two of which were familiar, but one was most certainly not, though Harry easily guessed she had to be Draco's mother. When Draco smiled at Harry, he could only return it brightly as Evie went to give Draco the same treatment she had given him, which was a warm hug that the blond boy seemed well practiced in returning with an arm around her shoulder, though he did blush some at it.

“Mum, Mrs. Malfoy, Thom, this is Harry! He is perfectly brilliant! We both got to run through the barrier, and it was wicked fun. Draco, you should have been there.”

Harry wondered over to them, absently aware as the Professor pushed his cart over to join two others, not really minding too much. Though it didn't seem like they got to talk all that much before Mrs. Snape and Mrs. Malfoy was telling them it was time to get on the Train, it would be leaving soon.

Harry watched as Draco and Evie hugged and bid their parents goodbye, and while both did it so differently than the other family did... there was a sense of love and rightness about it that left Harry looking away, as if he was intruding... and feeling jealous. And, perhaps, a bit sad. He had no one to be sad he was going off to school.

The thoughts did not last long before Evie and Draco were with him, Draco despairing over Harry's lack of not knowing how to levitate his trunk already – it was so basic! - and levitating them both, since, apparently, they were allowed to use magic.

“We should go and find Pansy and the others. Get a good spot from everyone else,” Draco was saying.

“Oh no. We can... we can be near them, but not all in the same room. That is too many people. Lets find the car they are in and take the one across the way. Then we can just visit and, you know, have someone to get away from Pansy and Daphne when they start in on ridiculous things.” Harry could only smile as they talked like this, since he did not know these kids himself, or any of what they were talking about.

“You say that as if you're not always going on and on about silly things with them. But then, you are a girl...” Harry chuckled at the haughty, smirking look Draco was giving Evie, a look Harry was coming to realize meant he was teasing and not serious.

“Draco...” Whatever she had been about to say become lost as something caught her attention. “Oh look, there is Theo. Theo! Where is everyone?”

Harry followed on after them to meet a sandy haired boy named Theodore Nott, or Theo as he quietly, and politely, asked to be called. And after him came many others. Plenty of others. There was Pansy Parkinson, a brown haired and pug nosed girl who was even worse than Draco was and clung to Draco in a way that made Harry frown in a mirror of Evie's. Then Daphne Greengrass, a blond girl less ridiculous than Pansy, and Millie who was kind of scary looking and intimidating, large than all the boys. But then she had smiled a bit and Harry hadn't felt so scared anymore. Blaise Zabini, a dark skinned boy with a strange, slight accent. Italian, he said. He seemed like a cross between Draco and Theo, whom Harry was noticing was quiet and reserved. Then Gregory Goyle and Vincent Crabbe, a duo who seemed like... two peas in a pod, ridiculously so. A bit slow on the uptake, maybe, but Harry didn't think they were stupid. Their minds just seemed to work at a slower pace. Then there was Franklin Ollivander, a great nephew to the Ollivander who had made Harry's wand, or Frankie as he asked to be called. Nesta and Sian Selwyn, twin girls as different as night and day. It was a relief when they made barely a fuss over him, unlike most others had.

When Finally Harry, Draco and Evie, pulling quiet Theo on with them, finally returned to the room they had claimed as their own across the way, Harry learned of why they all knew each other. There were not a lot of Wizards in the world, and the old families kept in touch, and made great pains to socialize kids of the same age to foster connections. So, essentially, they had grown up together.

As loud and rambunctious, full of trying to talk over each other, and show off as they had tried to do when all in one small room... when they had broken off, it was... better, easier on Harry. He found himself relaxing more, smiling. Harry found that Theo talked only when he had something to add, like when Draco was explaining things about wizarding culture. Eventually Greg and Vince joined them, followed by Blaise. It was an informative trip, and through them all he learned about the world, to a degree, and the school he was about to arrive at.

When uniforms were put on, they settled down to snacks and light conversation. Evie curled up with her kitten, Snowflake, on her lap and her head on Greg's shoulder as she slept and he read aloud to her – never mind she had fallen asleep in five minutes. Theo and Blaise playing cards with Vince, and Draco putting on a running commentary about the game for Harry... it was so easy to forget Harry never had this before. That friends were a new, strange concept. It was so easy to feel comfortable.