The door of the compartment slid open and Ron came in.
"Anyone sitting there?" he asked, pointing at the seat opposite Harry. "Everywhere else is full."
Harry shook his head and the boy sat down. He glanced at Harry and then looked quickly out of the window, pretending he hadn't looked. Harry saw he still had a black mark on his nose.
"Are you really Harry Potter?" Ron blurted out.
Harry nodded.
"Oh! Well, I thought it might be one of Fred and George's jokes." said Ron. "And have you really got- you know..."
He pointed at Harry's forehead.
Harry pulled back his bangs to show the lightning scar. Ron stared.
Harry had read a bit of(voraciously devoured with his eyeballs) the books he bought, and discovered that he was somewhat of a celebrity in the magical world.
The reason? A dark lord known as You-know-who (or as he is less known, Voldemort) attempted to kill Harry when he was a baby, but due to unknown reasons, he disappeared after killing Harry's parents, leaving only a scar on Harry's forehead instead of finishing him off.
The magical world believed that Harry, as a 1 year old, did something and vanquished the dark lord for good! The day is even celebrated as a holiday on some contries as 'Harry Potter day' or 'the day of The-boy-who-lived'! Stupidity if you ask Harry.
For starters, Harry's scar had a soul fragment on it. This clearly hinted at something bigger going on on that day. And second, a baby defeating the dark lord? How laughable! If someone is to gain credit for vanquishing the dark lord, it should be his parents at the cost of their lifes.
Either way, that is why Harry and his scar are famous.
"So that's where You-Know-Who...?"Ron asked
"Look, I was 1. All I know about what happened that day is what I've read in books."
"Nothing else?" said Ron eagerly.
"Nothing else."
Ron got a disappointed face and went back to staring out of the window.
While they had been talking, the train had carried them out of London. Now they were speeding past fields full of cows and sheep. They were quiet for a time, watching the fields and lanes flick past.
Around half past twelve there was a great clattering outside in the corridor and a smiling, dimpled woman slid back their door and said, "Anything off the cart, dears?"
Harry leapt to his feet, but Ron's ears went pink again and he muttered that he'd brought sandwiches. Harry went out into the corridor.
What the woman had were Bettie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, Chocolate Frogs. Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes, Licorice Wands, and a number of other strange things Harry had never seen in his life. Not wanting to miss anything, he got some of everything and paid the woman eleven silver Sickles and seven bronze Knuts.
Ron stared as Harry brought it all back in to the compartment and tipped it onto an empty seat.
"Hungry, are you?"
"Curious about the local cusine" Harry corrected "And no one ever beated me on a eating contest before." said Harry with a smirk, and proceded to swallow hole pumpkin pastys, Cauldron Cakes, Licorice Wands and etc.
Ron could not believe his eyes seeing the mighty dragonborn devour his meal at inhuman speeds. Little wiser to the fact that if he realy wanted to, Harry could eat hundreds of times more in less then a second.
Ron had taken out a lumpy package and unwrapped it. There were four sandwiches inside. He pulled one of them apart and said, "She always forgets I don't like corned beef."
"Swap you for one of these." said Harry, holding up a pasty. "Go on."
"You don't want this, it's all dry," said Ron. "She hasn't got much time" he added quickly "You know, with five of us."
"Go on, have a pasty."
They feasted and chatted. Harry learned Ron was from a poor magical family, had 5 brothers and a sister, was afraid of You-know-who, and had a pet rat named Scabbers
"Wait."Harry paused."You are bringing a pet RAT?! Is that ok?"
Ron also paused."Why wouldn't it be?"
"The letter to Hogwarts said 'owl, cat or toad', is it really ok to bring something else?"
"Oh."Realisation dawned on Ron "Yes, it is ok."
Harry was happy to hear that, now he just needed to confirm with a professor which pets were ok and which were forbidden.
Ron on the other hand learned that Harry did not liked to talk about himself.
'It is for the best, if at least for the time being, that no one knows about Skyrim.' Harry thought.
.
"What are these?" Harry asked Ron, holding up a pack of Chocolate Frogs. "They're not really frogs, are they?"
"No," said Ron. "But see what the card is. I'm missing Agrippa."
"What?"
"Oh, of course, you wouldn't know. Chocolate Frogs have cards, inside them, you know, to collect, famous witches and wizards. I've got about five hundred, but I haven't got Agrippa or Ptolemy."
Harry unwrapped his Chocolate Frog and picked up the card. It showed a man's face. He wore half- moon glasses, had a long, crooked nose, and flowing silver hair, beard, and mustache. Underneath the picture was the name Albus Dumbledore.
"So this is Dumbledore!" said Harry.
"Don't tell me you'd never heard of Dumbledore!" said Ron. "Can I have a frog? I might get Agrippa."
"Here."
"Thanks."
Harry turned over his card and read:
[ALBUS DUMBLEDORE
CURRENTLY HEADMASTER OF HOGWARTS
Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times, Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel. Professor Dumbledore enjoys chamber music and tenpin bowling.]
Harry turned the card back over and saw, to his astonishment, that Dumbledore's face had disappeared.
"He's gone!"
"Well, you can't expect him to hang around all day," said Ron. "He'll be back. No, I've got Morgana again and I've got about six of her... do you want it? You can start collecting."
Ron's eyes strayed to the pile of Chocolate Frogs waiting to be unwrapped.
"Help yourself," said Harry. "But in, you know, the Muggle world, people just stay put in photos."
"Do they? What, they don't move at all?" Ron sounded amazed. "Weird!"
Harry stared as Dumbledore sidled back into the picture on his card and gave him a small smile. Ron was more interested in eating the frogs than looking at the Famous Witches and Wizards cards, but Harry couldn't keep his eyes off them. Soon he had not only Dumbledore and Morgana, but Hengist of Woodcroft, Alberic Grunnion, Circe, Paracelsus, and Merlin. He finally tore his eyes away from the druidess Cliodna, who was scratching her nose, to open a bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.
"You want to be careful with those," Ron warned Harry. "When they say every flavor, they mean every flavor, you know, you get all the ordinary ones like chocolate and peppermint and marmalade, but then you can get spinach and liver and tripe. George reckons he had a booger flavored one once."
Ron picked up a green bean, looked at it carefully, and bit into a corner.
"Bleaaargh! See? Sprouts."
They had a good time eating the Every Flavor Beans. Harry got toast, coconut, baked bean, strawberry, curry, grass, coffee, sardine, and was even brave enough to nibble the end off a funny gray one Ron wouldn't touch, which turned out to be pepper.
The countryside now flying past the window was becoming wilder. The neat fields had gone. Now there were woods, twisting rivers, and dark green hills.
There was a knock on the door of their compartment and a round-faced boy came in. He looked tearful.
"Sorry," he said, "but have you seen a toad at all?"
When they shook their heads, he wailed, "I've lost him! He keeps getting away from me!"
"I'll help you look." said Harry.
Harry got up and accompanied the boy in his search for the the missing toad.
.
After a lot of door to door asking, they finally found the toad and Harry went back to his compartment.
One interesting thing that happened during the so called quest, is that another pearson joined them. A girl with bushy hair that introduced herself as Hermione Granger. She came out as a bossy and rude know-it-all, but Harry knew she meant well, Otherwise she would not have joined them in the toad search.
Back to his compartment, he continued to chat with Ron.
"So what do your oldest brothers do now that they've left, anyway?"
Harry was wondering what a wizard did once he'd finished school.
"Charlie's in Romania studying dragons, and Bill's in Africa doing something for Gringotts," said Ron. "Did you hear about Gringotts by the way? It's been all over the Daily Prophet, but I don't suppose you get that with the Muggles... anyway, someone tried to rob a high security vault!"
Harry stared.'So dragons exist here as well?'
"Really? What happened to them?" Harry went back to the gringotts topic.
"Nothing, that's why it's such big news. They haven't been caught. My dad says it must've been a powerful Dark wizard to get round Gringotts, but they don't think they took anything, that's what's odd. Of course, everyone gets scared when something like this happens in case You-Know-Who's behind it."
Harry turned this news over in his mind.
"What's your Quidditch team?" Ron asked.
"Er... what is quiddiq?"
"What?!" Ron looked dumbfounded. "Oh, you wait, it's the best game in the world..." And he was off, explaining all about the four balls and the positions of the seven players, describing famous games he'd been to with his brothers and the broomstick he'd like to get if he had the money. He was just taking Harry through the finer points of the game when the compartment door slid open and three boys entered.
The one in the middle had gold hair and an arrogant air and the ones on the sides looked like gorilas. 'boss and henchmen' Harry recognized.
"Is it true?" The middle one asked. "They're saying all down the train that Harry Potter's in this compartment. So it's you, is it?"
"Yes," said Harry.
"Oh, this is Crabbe and this is Goyle," said the pale boy carelessly, pointing at the gorilla like henchmen. "And my name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."
Ron gave a slight cough, which might have been hiding a snigger. Draco Malfoy looked at him.
"Think my name's funny, do you? No need to ask who you are. My father told me all the Weasleys have red hair, freckles, and more children than they can afford."
He turned back to Harry. "You'll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there."
He held out his hand to shake Harry's, but Harry didn't take it.
"I think I can tell who the wrong sort are for myself, thanks," he said coolly.
Draco Malfoy didn't go red, but a pink tinge appeared in his pale cheeks.
"I'd be careful if I were you, Potter," he said slowly. "Unless you're a bit politer you'll go the same way as your parents. They didn't know what was good for them, either. You hang around with riffraff like the Weasleys and it'll rub off on you."
Both Harry and Ron stood up.
"Say that again," Ron said, his face as red as his hair.
"Oh, you're going to fight us, are you?" Malfoy sneered.
"Unless you get out now," said Harry. craking his knucles.
Kids or not, Harry was ready to pound their faces in.
"But we don't feel like leaving, do we, boys? We've eaten all our food and you still seem to have some."
Goyle reached toward the Chocolate Frogs next to Ron, Ron leapt forward, but before he'd so much as touched Goyle, Goyle let out a horrible yell.
Scabbers the rat was hanging off his finger, sharp little teeth sunk deep into Goyle's knuckle - Crabbe and Malfoy backed away as Goyle swung Scabbers round and round, howling, and when Scabbets finally flew off and hit the window, all three of them disappeared at once. Perhaps they thought there were more rats lurking among the sweets, or perhaps they'd heard footsteps, because a second later, Hermione Granger had come in.
"What has been going on?" she said, looking at the sweets all over the floor and Ron picking up Scabbers by his tail.
"I think he's been knocked out," Ron said to Harry. He looked closer at Scabbers. "No, I don't believe it, he's gone back to sleep!"
And so he had.
Harry lowered his fists, a bit sad he coulden't get any action.
Hermione then chimmed in "You'd better hurry up and put your robes on, I've just been up to the front to ask the conductor, and he says we're nearly there. You haven't been fighting, have you? You'll be in trouble before we even get there!"
"Scabbers has been fighting, not us," said Ron, scowling at her. "Would you mind leaving while we change?"
"All right, I only came in here because people outside are behaving very childishly, racing up and down the corridors," said Hermione in a sniffy voice. "And you've got dirt on your nose, by the way, did you know?"
Ron glared at her as she left.
"Don't mind her too much" Harry said. "Her tone comes out wrong but she means well. Probably she is not used to dealing with people."
"You know her?"
"She helped me with the toad search." Harry explained.
Harry then peered out of the window. It was getting dark. He could see mountains and forests under a deep purple sky. The train did seem to be slowing down.
He and Ron took off their jackets and pulled on their long black robes. Ron's were a bit short for him, you could see his sneakers underneath them.
A voice echoed through the train: "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately."