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"Muggles?" Harry breathed, surprised to hear the word.

"Is that something special?" Kodachi asked, noting his interest.

Harry turned back to her with a grin. "It's the wizard word for non-magic folk. Whoever is saying it has got to be a witch. That means they'll know where the train is!"

Eleven-year-old Kodachi leapt to her feet, carrying the motion up to clear the heads of those around her by three feet, then landing lightly again by Harry's side. "It was a woman with red hair who said it?" She confirmed, she hadn't really been paying attention. When Harry nodded, she pointed and pushed off with her cart. "She went this way."

They caught them in only a few steps. If Harry'd been alone he'd have been onto them right away, but he was glad Kodachi was there. Even if she didn't know any better than him how to get onto the train she was company. At least he wasn't alone.

The woman he supposed was a witch was talking to four boys and a girl, all with flaming red hair. The boys had trunks like Harry's and one of them had an owl, so he grew more confident with each step this was the right sort of bunch, and he whispered the same to Kodachi. "I think these are the right sort. Do you see their baggage? Alot like ours, don't you think?"

His companion nodded, studying them intently and inwardly cursing her short height. When the group they were following stopped, Kodachi and her companion stopped also, just within hearing range to overhear what the woman said. When the woman sent her oldest son first, a crowd of tourists cut in between cutting off Harry's view, but Kodachi simply leapt to the top of a nearby station sign and perched there.

She watched a moment, then hopped back down beside the stunned Harry, reporting. "He went straight at the wall, walked into the bricks, and disappeared."

"It's got to be magic." Harry concluded.

Kodachi demured the obvious answer. "But is there a magic word or something to make it work?"

The boy bit his lip. He didn't know. Hagrid hadn't told him, hadn't told him anything of how to get onto the platform. "There's only one thing, then. We've got to ask."

Kodachi agreed, and pushed her cart after Harry's as the boy closed the distance and said to the plump woman, "Excuse me."

"Hello, dears," the woman returned, frankly stunning Kodachi with her friendliness - a trait she had never much experienced, and here she was receiving it unasked, unearned, and completely out of nowhere. The woman went on to say, "First time at Hogwarts? Ron's new this year as well." She indicated her youngest son, who nodded completely without fear.

Kodachi was reeling. She had never experienced anything of the sort. The closest she had ever come to this lack of hostility was Ranma, who barely tolerated her at best. Combine a family without natural affection, a harsh childhood, neighbors and schoolmates poisoned by their mothers with stories of her family and their foibles, and she had been on guard most of her life.

Here, not only had Harry accepted her without qualms, but this group of open, cheerful people was treating her as an innocent, harmless girl.

She'd fought battles, battles she knew she would always lose, fighting for scraps of attention of a man who'd only treated her with a gram of kindness. Her reaction to this flood was completely predictable.

She turned on 'sweet' mode, and determined to keep it on until she grew old and died, or something tried to come between her and this flood of kindness.

"Come on, dear," the woman prompted. "You've got a bit of a rush if we're to catch the train on time. Did you hear what I told your brother?"

"Yes, ma'am." Kodachi bobbed a curtsey, also not really thinking, and skipped with her cart before her onto the platform.