Chapter Text
Now it all ties together. Judging from the end, this is going to be a full-on story.
I know many of you wanted Colin Creevey, but he doesn’t start until next year. I might do a separate one-shot for him.
Thanks for the reviews.
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Harry was confused. He was standing in King’s Cross Station and had no idea what to do next. Hagrid hadn’t told him how to get onto the platform. He looked ridiculous with his trunk on a trolley and his owl hooting at him. Everyone around him was giving him queer looks. He tried to blend in, but with his secondhand clothes, which were much better than Dudley’s, and his pet being noisy he stood out.
He had had a heck of a great few weeks since his birthday. The Dursleys had left him alone, mostly. They didn’t particularly care that he had new secondhand clothes. He had told them that the school had given him a stipend of a few pounds. They believed him and tried to get it off him, but he threatened to rat them out and they left him to it. So, he shopped a few of the charity shops and now had his own things.
Now though, he was just getting to the point of a nervous breakdown standing alone in the station, when he spotted a girl and her parents. She stood out because she was already dressed in the school uniform, sans robes. She didn’t have an owl, but she had the Hogwarts’ crest on her blazer.
“Excuse me,” he called to them, “does the word Hogwarts mean anything to you?” he asked, quietly when they stopped near him.
“Oh yes, but shush, others can’t know,” the bushy-haired girl said, closing the distance between them. “Weren’t you told how to get to the train? That was very neglectful of them. You can come with us. I know the way,” she said hurriedly, and grabbed his shirt and started pulling him along.
“Hermione,” her mum chastised, making the girl halt her progress. “Let the poor boy follow on his own accord,” she reprimanded, smiling at Harry, who nodded thankfully back.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I’m just ever so excited,’ the now named Hermione said, letting Harry go, but hurrying along.
“It’s fine,” Harry mumbled, wondering what he was getting into. He walked behind her, and they came to the partition that separated platform 9 from 10.
“We have to go through the wall,” she said, looking around to make sure they weren’t overheard, and then seeing his confused look, she added, “It’s magic. Really, it won’t hurt you. Professor McGonagall told me all about it. It’s so non-magical folks don’t see the train. The barrier has a spell on it to hide us going through.” She sounded a bit imperious. Like she was used to being the smarter person in a group. “We have to protect the Statute,” she said, with a wrinkle of her nose.
Harry looked at the wall with trepidation. He wasn’t sure he wanted to run at what looked like a brick wall. He might hurt Hedwig, not to mention himself. Did he take this girl at her word? He didn’t know her from Jack. However, she did seem to know what she was talking about, and she said McGonagall told her about it. That was the woman who had signed his letter. She would know.
“I’ll go first,” she offered, seeing his discomfort. “But first I have to say good-bye to my parents. Their nonmagical, you see. So, they can’t go through. Well, my dad is from a magical family, but he doesn’t have much magic, so they call him a squib. Isn’t that the most horrid word?” she asked, then without waiting for a reply, she turned to her parents and tearfully said her good-byes.
“It’s okay, honey, we’ll see you at Christmas,” her mum said, petting her hair.
“Okay, Mum. I’ll see you then,’ Hermione said, then turned quickly, as if she would change her mind if she stayed another second, and ran, pushing her trolley through the wall. She disappeared without fanfare.
Harry gaped; she made it.
“Go on, young man,” the girl’s dad said, giving Harry a gentle push.
Harry took it as his cue and followed behind his new acquaintance. When he got through the barrier, he marveled at the red steam engine train. That and the crowd of magicals that were milling around. There was magic being performed everywhere as parents were putting things on the train and cleaning and straightening up their children.
Hermione grabbed his sleeve and proceeded to pull him towards said train. She rambled on about all the research she had done, including the first-year curriculum, while they stored their trunks. With her guidance, they found a compartment and settled in. Harry put Hedwig on the rack above and sat opposite the rambling girl. They fell into an easy conversation, while Harry ate up all the information.
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While Harry and Hermione were getting settled, another meeting was happening.
Sally-Anne Perks was waffling. She and her parents had talked about Hogwarts this last month. It was decided, after much reassurance from Professor Snape that Hogwarts was safe, and that she would attend. It was only after they had discussed it that they sent her reply. It was almost late, they waited until the last moment.
However, now that she was here, she didn’t want to go. She knew that her parents had spent quite a bit of money on this, so she tried to steel her nerves. Her breathing was erratic, and her palms were sweaty, but she was trying her best.
She was brought out of her indecision by a cheerful voice.
“Hey there, I remember you,” a dark-skinned boy said from behind her. “You were in the Alley. You were with that greasy-haired professor,” Dean exclaimed, coming to her side, followed by his mum.
“Yes,” she said, shaking a bit, trying not to hide behind her father. It did relieve her to see a familiar face, even if they had only met for mere moments.
“Do you want to sit together on the train? We can find other muggleborn and be in a big group,” he offered, thinking that she might feel safer with more people.
Their parents were chatting behind them, looking at the two smiling. The Perks were just glad the cheerful boy was nice enough to stop and help their daughter. They were fretting so. Their child was so delicate.
“Did you say muggleborns?” another boy asked, stopping next to them. His parents, in very spiffy clothes, nodded to the other adults, and said hello to them. They offered to have tea and chat when the kids were on their way. It was excepted by all.
“Yeah, oops, I probably shouldn’t have said that out loud,” Dean said, rubbing his neck sheepishly. “It’s all still new to me,” he explained with a wave of his hand. He had read the books that he had gotten from his dad’s vault when he and his mum had returned to the bank, but it was all so mysterious and new. His dad had talked about being a muggleborn in a new world and how frustrating it was, Dean was a bit discombobulated on what to do next. There didn’t seem to be anywhere for muggleborns in this new world, but they were brought here anyway.
“Don’t worry, I’m sure no one else heard. I’m Justin Finch-Fletchley,” he said, holding out a hand towards Dean and glancing at the painfully shy girl next to him.
“Dean Thomas,” the other boy offered, shaking hands. “I’m sorry, I never got your name,” he said, looking at Sally-Anne.
“Sally-Anne,” she replied with a quick nod of her head.
“Me and Sally-Anne are going to sit together, want to join us?” Dean asked with a bright smile.
“I’d like that,” Justin agreed, then they all turned to their parents and said their farewells. Sally-Anne was crying hard, so Dean took her hand and gently led her away, all the while telling her it was going to be alright. That he and Justin wouldn’t let anyone hurt her.
They made it to the platform and all three of them stopped and looked on amazed or frightened as their personality dictated.
“Cor, that’s a big train,” Dean said, his eyes wide with amazement.
“It’s a beauty,” Justin agreed as he took Sally-Anne’s other hand, placing the girl between them. He tucked her hand in the crock of his elbow, like a gentleman, and they moved off.
They put their luggage in the luggage car, each having a satchel for their robes, and made their way down the corridors, looking for someone their age. They came across a bushy-haired girl and bespectacled boy. The boy looked dazed and confused, while the girl was chatting at him a mile a minute.
“Hey there,” Dean said, poking his head in the doorway. “Can we join you?” he asked, waving to the two with him.
“Sure,” Harry said, waving them in. He was more than willing to welcome newcomers. He was here to make friends. “I’m Harry Potter,” he said, holding out his hand to Dean. “This is Hermione, sorry I don’t know your last name,” he added, looking at her shyly. He remembered her name from her mum snapping at her. It was a unique name.
“You’re Harry Potter,” Hermione all but yelled, not once having introduced herself. She was just so nervous. There was so much to learn and teach.
Harry slouched in his seat, trying to look smaller. “Um, yeah,” he said, his eyes darting to each of the children in the carriage. They were all staring at him with various degrees of awe.
“I’ve read about you…” Hermione started.
“I did too,” the three others voiced, loudly or shyly as their personality dictated.
“Um, okay,” Harry said, looking around, hoping to find a friendly face, which he did in Dean.
“No worries, we won’t fuss,” the dark-skinned boy said, then added pointedly to the others, “Will we?” He saw that Harry was uncomfortable with all the attention.
They all made noises of agreement, though Hermione did so reluctantly.
“So, how was your shopping trip?” Justin asked, hoping to draw their attention to him. “Mine was exciting. I found out I’m from a long-lost wizarding family,” he said smugly. “Professor Sprout said there’s no such thing as muggleborns. That we’re all related to magicals.” He took the seat across from Harry, Dean sat Sally-Anne next to him and then sat next to her.
“I found out I was a half-blood. Professor Flitwick said that it’s not well known. If I hadn’t run into Hermione, there, I might have never learned about my dad,” Dean explained, making Hermione blush at remembering knocking over the tiny professor.
“I did too,” Sally-Anne said softly, hiding her face in her long hair.
“That’s what my research said too,” Hermione said, then lowered her voice and waved them all to bend forward a bit so they could hear. “I found a book in a secondhand store, it’s banned, though I didn’t know that when I bought it. It tells of all the times in the past that this knowledge got out and the death threats that were made to keep them silent.” She was speaking in such a conspiracy like whisper that the boys were intrigued. Sally-Anne on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with it. She just wanted to go to school and then go home.
“Really?” Harry whispered, half afraid, half angry. This was fascinating and frightening at the same time. Death threats were scary.
“Yes. We’re going to need to not talk about it loudly. I want to start a conspiracy, just us muggleborn,” Hermione stated, leaning forward more and talking softer. “If we get a large enough group, on the sly, we can either stand up for our rights, or take our money out of the wizarding world, and let them suffer for their stupidity.” She nodded her head decisively, then sat back to see how they’d take it.
Justin glanced at the door to make sure no one was there. He liked the idea, right off. He thought about all the progress he and his dad had made in talking to the goblins and their lawyers. They were working behind the scenes to get the debit and credit cards going in Gringotts. There was a lot of laws to go through, and Justin didn’t understand half of it. However, his dad made sure he got the gist. He thought about what Hermione had just said, and with what they’d uncovered, and he felt that might be the right way to go about it.
“We can talk to the goblins,” he said, waving them all to lean forward again. “They want the vaults open. The head goblin, Ragnuk, he met my dad, said that the government, I think it’s call the Wizengamot, will take the vaults if they are not claimed. That’s why the purebloods don’t want us to know.”
That caused the other kids, bar Sally-Anne, to widen their eyes at the unfairness of it.
“That’s what I learned too,” Hermione offered, her tone soft and harsh. “I had my vault opened and there was ever so much information in there. My parents were very upset that the government is trying to suppress this information.” They had spent weeks going over it all, and they set up a game plan to get out from under the wizarding worlds thumbs. Well, the starts of one anyway. It all pended on how the other muggleborn reacted.
Dean, too, was angry. It was prejudice, pure and simple. Being of African descent, it made his blood boil that he would be looked down upon here too. He thought, perhaps, that he had gotten away from all that tripe, now it was just in a different flavor. His dad’s papers mentioned it and he had hoped that his dad was just a special case, but he could see it was widespread.
Sally-Anne was just plain worried that she had gotten herself into something that would hurt her. She wondered if it was too late to sit elsewhere.
“I have some parchment from a store down Knockturn Alley,” Hermione said, slyly, making the boys’ eyes go wide again.
“You went down Knockturn Alley,” Dean said in awe. “Professor Flitwick told me to never go there. At least, not until I was older.” He now had deep respect for the girl.
“My parents were with me,” she explained as if it were no big thing. “This secret parchment is not illegal, per se, but it is frowned upon. What it does is let people talk to one another. You only have to touch your wand to the master document, and we can all chat. No one else can read it, which is why the government doesn’t like it,” she said, reaching into her bookbag and handing them each a sheet. Then pulled out an index card, which was the master document, and nodded for them to do as she said.
This was part of the plan she and her parents had come up with. They had always been staunch supporters of equal rights, and if Hermione had not already been accepted at Hogwarts, they would have pulled her out. However, by accepting the invite, they were now bound to a contract that made sure that she finished up to her OWLs. Boy were her parents angry. They took it all the way to the Ministry but were told that it was a binding contract.
This conspiracy was them rebelling. Though they made sure to tell their daughter not to do anything dangerous.
The boys immediately pressed their wands to the card and put the parchment in their bookbags. However, Sally-Anne just shook her head no and handed it back. She wanted no part of this. She would keep her mouth shut, and her head down. Hopefully, she would make other friends.
Hermione opened her mouth to reprimand Sally-Anne, but Dean glared at her and shook his head. “Not everyone is as brave as you. Don’t push your ideals onto others,” he said, firmly. He wasn’t going to let her bully the shy girl into anything she didn’t want to do.
“Fine,” she said, giving the other girl a smile in apology. She knew that she could be pushy, and when she was nervous, it was worse.
“Harry,” Justin said, changing the subject and taking the focus off Sally-Anne, “wasn’t your mum a muggleborn?” he asked, having read about the Boy-Who-Lived. He really didn’t believe half of it, and now looking at said person, with his taped-up glasses and worn clothes, he was doubtful about the rest.
“Yeah?” Harry answered questioningly.
Justin leaned towards him and whispered. “My family spent a lot of time with the goblins. If you can get out of Hogwarts one weekend, they can do a full family tree, for a fee. I think it’s a galleon. You can find out who your mum was related to,” he explained, thinking another vault could be opened.
“Oh, well that’s good,” Harry said thoughtfully, wondering how he would get out of Hogwarts without being noticed. “If I can’t leave during the school year, I’ll go this summer.” He was more than anxious to learn about his family.
“Good plan,” the rich boy agreed.
Just then a chubby sandy-blond boy opened the door. “Can I sit here?” he asked, bashfully. He had a satchel on his shoulder, and a toad clutched in his hand.
“Yeah, we have room for one more,” Dean said, smiling at the boy and moving away from Sally-Anne. Maybe the two shy ones could bring each other out of their shell. He sat by Harry and gestured at his vacated seat.
Justin took it upon himself to introduce everyone, and they all learned the boy’s name was Neville Longbottom. Dean tried to hide his snicker with a cough and only just barely managed it.
“What House does everyone want to be in?” Harry asked, hoping to get on a safe subject.
“I’ll bet I’m in Hufflepuff,” Neville whinged. His gran would be so upset if he wasn’t in Gryffindor.
“Well, I don’t know much about all of the Houses, but Professor Sprout, who took me shopping, was a nice lady. She told me that Hufflepuff was for the hard working and loyal. I can see me either going there or Slytherin,” Justin said, his nose in the air, like he was daring them to complain. He thought he’d do well in either House.
“Those are two drastically different Houses,” Hermione said, tapping her chin in thought. “You must be very ambitious, but willing to work hard to get there.” She did wonder just how high he was aiming.
“I am,” he agreed.
“I’m confused,” said Harry. “I thought only bad people went to Slytherin. That’s what Hagrid told me.”
“What hogwash,” Hermione said, with a wrinkle of her nose, that someone on the staff of Hogwarts would say such a thing. “Eleven-year-olds are not evil. Sure, some of them repeat after their parents, but they can still grow up to see the light, so to speak.” She looked at him with gentle understanding. She was prone to believe what adults told her as well.
“Oh, yeah, I guess so. Anyway, I think I’d like to get into Gryffindor,” he offered his opinion. He thought himself brave enough for that House.
“I wanted to go there as well,” Hermione said, then shook her head. “However, I did quite a bit of research and decided that I prefer Ravenclaw,” she finished with a nod.
“I’m pretty sure I’m Gryffindor bound,” Dean put in his two cents worth. “I’m brave enough. And I’d like to think I’m pretty chivalrous,” he added with a pleasant smile. “Where do you want to go, Sally-Anne?” he asked, drawing the girl into the conversation.
“Hufflepuff,” she said, still hiding behind her hair.
“I think that would be the perfect House for you,” he agreed, proudly.
“I think, I’m going to try for Hufflepuff too,” Justin said, thoughtfully. “What better place for a Slytherin to hide than in the house of the loyal?”
Everyone smiled at that and then thought about their attributes. Each wondering if the boy had the right idea.
“No matter where we end up, I’d like us all to remain friends. I mean, we hardly know one another now, but I’d like to change that,” Dean stated firmly. “Most of us have something in common, and I’d like to see us stick together. Don’t worry, Neville, we won’t bar you. You seem like a nice bloke. Are you a pureblood, by any chance?” he asked, knowing they’d have to keep what they discussed earlier to themselves.
“Um, yeah,” the shy boy confirmed.
“Great, you can tell us when we mess up, and teach all we need to know to succeed,” Dean said, cheerfully, clapping the blond on the back.
“I think,” Harry said, taking in the expressions of all his new friends, “that this will be the start of something historical,” he offered, sharing a wink with the other conspirators.
‘Vive la révolution, was the thought of four of them.
The rest of the train ride was spent trying to keep Trevor, Neville’s toad, from escaping, and in mundane conversation. However, the thoughts of the four schemers were going wild. They were all making plans and thinking of the future.
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Rewrite 9/29/24: Added quite a bit and changed a few mistakes.