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A Rose at Hogwarts: The Wiping of Sweat Episode 52482 by Lionheart

For the universe, this was a tense moment. If Harry's scar was shown, news would be all over the train that the famous Harry Potter was on board moments after it was out of the station yard. That would lead to a run-in with Malfoy, and Harry's determination not to join house Slytherin - which determination put him in it's rival, Gryffindor.

Harry moved to wipe his sweat, and found Kodachi's elbow in his side, and she slipped him a frilly handkerchief, which he gratefully accepted, dabbed instead of wiped so his hair stayed more or less in place, and looked at the yellow sweat-spot on the cloth with chagrin. "Uh, look. Why don't I wash this and return it to you?"

Pleased at his manners, Kodachi accepted, then took him by the arm and led him off to where the boys went after they'd thanked them.

"Where are we going?" Harry asked, willing to let himself be led but wanting to know where.

"Did you see those boys?"

"Yah, sure. They went this way. But didn't we already thank them?"

"We did. But their mother thinks they are rascals. That may be true, but they did us a favor and it is only right we tell their mother so."

"But why?" Harry wondered.

Kodachi smoothed her dress and looked him over once, finding him satisfactory. Boys this age always looked rumpled, as if their clothes never quite fit. "Because she probably only ever hears bad things about them."

"oh." Harry blinked, then they were there, intruding on the family.

"Aaah, has ickle Ronnie got somefink on his nosie?" One of the twins teased as their mother used a kerchief to wipe a spot of dirt from her youngest boy.

"Excuse me," Kodachi pushed herself into the mess, dragging Harry with her to stand before the mother. "But we would like to thank you. These two boys helped us without being asked. It was ever so kind of them."

Both the twins blushed and looked away. Their mother stared at them in wonder, putting hands on both hips and scowling after a moment. "Fred, George, what prank did you pull on this girl?"

"Oh, they did nothing but behave like perfect gentlemen." Kodachi objected on their behalf. "They saw that we needed help getting our boxes on the train, and gave it. We just wanted to tell you how nice they were, that's all."

Harry nodded, saying, "That's right," something at a loss.

The mother looked puzzled for a moment, but could read no guilt in her boys, only their embarrassment. Having been tipped off, Harry could tell this probably was the first report of goodness she'd heard on them. The woman gave a great roll of her eyes and bent low, smiling to thank the reporting pair with warmth in her eyes, even if she didn't quite know to believe them. "Thank you for saying so."

"Good day." Kodachi curtseyed. It was archaic, but effective. Inspired by her example (she'd been on the button about the other thing) Harry bowed, also muttering the polite phrase.

"Oh, but you haven't told me your names." Mrs. Weasely objected.

Introductions come, but the misconception continues that Kodachi is Harry's sister.

"Hecate Kodachi." The girl replied, momentarily forgetting the proper order for family name and given name in this culture was different from Japan, in her distraction over seeing the oldest boy appear, already in Hogwarts robes, and wondering what the silver 'P' badge meant.

"Potter. I'm Harry Potter." Harry said himself in a rush, practically stepping on Kodachi's introduction, sounding to their ears as if he was finishing her sentence for her, and so her name would be Hecate Kodachi Potter, probably got her first name given after that ancient, and famous Greek Witch...

But that was if they thought about her at all. Once Harry's profoundly famous name was said nothing more could be understood until the babble died down under the train whistle and they all had to rush to their compartments.

Fred and George went with the pair to their seats, finally able to press a question that they had them to themselves. "Do you remember who You-Know-Who looks like?" They asked in eager relish.

Harry frowned. "Not really. All I remember is green light, and high-pitched laughter. It's not much of a memory."

"Cool!" The twins echoed, looking at each other and rising up. "We've got to tell our friends. Look us up at Hogwarts, Harry. We'll show you a great time." They vanished, rushing forward.

Kodachi smiled at her bench-mate. "Looks like you've found two friends."

"Yeah." Harry grinned. Friends, what a concept! And no wicked Dursleys around to say he couldn't get any! "Actually," he said, on a bit of sober reflection, looking at her closely. "Don't I have three?"

Kodachi blushed.

"Yes, Harry, I would like that very much."

The door slid open and the youngest redhead, Ron, came in.

Ron leaned in the door. "Oh, there you are? Do you mind if I join you? Everywhere else is full." Taking their nods at full value, he moved in and sat with them. "It was all we could do to keep Ginny off the train. She wanted to ride to Hogwarts with you, even told mum that she could borrow your sister's things 'til mum and dad could send her books."

Kodachi's eyes widened. If Harry had a sister, why wasn't she with him?

"I have a sister?" Harry asked, confirming the question.

"Blimey, you don't have to be ashamed about it. Look at all the brothers I've got. You don't have to be bashful."

"It's just..." Harry shook his head in wonder. "That I don't know much about my family. Only on my last birthday did I even learn how my parents died."

Ron's jaw dropped open. "Cor, is that true?"

Kodachi had already moved closer to Harry's side, taking his hand. Her mother had told her countless times the function of women was to soothe hurts and comfort feelings - but that was akin to an alcoholic telling his children not to drink while waving the bottle at them like a club. Still, the facts were there, if lacking in implementation.

She took Harry's hand and squeezed it. It was more difficult to do than it had once been to leap upon a man barely clothed, offering him her body (which never got taken, her attitude was downright scary back then), but the smile of gratitude she earned was worth it. It made her think this way of behaving may actually have worth to it, beyond manipulation value.

Percy, Ron's oldest sib still at school, shoved himself into their compartment. "Excuse me, but as a school prefect I'm required to send a letter ahead assuring everyone that the first years got on the train, but I'm afraid that I've forgotten the name of Harry's sister."

"Oh, this is Hecate Potter." Ron bubbled, having caught that part.

"Kodachi." The girl corrected.

"Oh?" Ron misunderstood. "So you go by your middle name, then? That's alright. Kodachi Potter, then."

"Right." Percy vanished out of the compartment.

Ron rose up to follow, vanishing with the words. "I'd best make sure he doesn't mispell it. I've seen your name on your bag, so it's alright. I'll take care of it." He shot off, so well used to old or second, third or even older hand-me-downs that he just automatically assumed the 'Potter' part of her bag had rubbed off long ago, or it was a relic from a grand-aunt who had mostly the same name or something. It had happened often enough to him, after all.

Harry and Kodachi looked at each other.

"They think I'm your sister?" Kodachi wondered.

Harry gave a helpless shrug. "For all I know, you could be."

Kodachi was about to disabuse him of the possibility, when she thought back to her family. They were crazy loons, the lot of them. It was entirely within the realm of possibility that she might've had extra sibs no one ever told her about because they'd been high on spiked Cheese Whiz at the time they'd sold him to cannibals, or misplaced one at an airport and it was never important enough to look, or something.

Contrarywise, what if she was adopted? Or kidnapped? Or just bought from a black market child dealer because having their own proved too difficult or inconvenient? Considering how wacky her parents were generally such a thing was well within the realm of probablility, and how would she know if such a thing had happened? It was hard enough getting them to reveal they'd replaced the traps on the bathroom door or which of the kitchen cupboard knobs released a hail of poisoned spikes today.

Harry noticed her pause and she turned to him somewhat apologetically. "I'm sorry. I can't say for certain it might not be true." Thinking back upon the letter, she added. "They already appear to know more about my lineage than I did. Perhaps it is true, and we just didn't know it?"

"Wow." Harry sat heavily back in his seat.

He'd thought he'd had enough surprises already today.

"Excuse me," the door slid open again. "Have either of you seen a toad? A boy named Neville's lost one."

"Yes," Kodachi answered absently, her mind on other questions. "My snake ate one as we were boarding the train. I didn't know it belonged to someone. I'll gladly pay to replace it."

"Oh." Hermione said limply.

The snake hissed.

Kodachi sat up, arising out of her thoughty stupor. "For what it's worth, Shirousagi says it was delicious."

"You don't mean you talk to snakes, do you?" Hermione stood rooted to the spot.

"Sorry I took so long." Ron shoved his way into the compartment, incidentally bringing Hermione in with him because of the cramped quarters. "Oh sorry. Anyway, this boy named Neville stopped me to ask about his lost toad. Don't know why he's so bothered," said Ron. "If I'd brought a toad I'd lose it as quick as I could. Mind you, I brought Scabbers. So I can't talk."

"Who is Scabbers?" Kodachi inquired as politely as she could.

"He's Percy's old rat, he is, and he's useless. He hardly ever wakes up. Percy got an owl for being made prefect, so I got Scabbers. Now where is he?" He started looking around. "He's got to be around here somewhere."

Kodachi bit her tongue. "Uhm, yes, he is. But I'm afraid..." She trailed off, keeping to polite mode was harder to keep up than you'd think. Times like this she wanted to bounce crazily off of rooftops dispensing black rose petals and laughing maniacally. It was safer. You were always sure what your reactions to that would be.

"Go on. Where is he?" Ron prompted, stopping his search to ask.

All eyes tracked to Kodachi, Hermione included.

Hecate took a long sigh and let it out, plunging on ahead. "Well, I am sorry about the toad, but how was I to guess that someone would own a rat?" She patted a second lump in her pet serpent Shirousagi to the accompaniment of wide eyes from the rest of them. "I would like to pay to replace your pet, mister Weasely, if you would give me that chance."

"Cor! Blimey!" Ron stared at the snake. "You mean that thing ate him? Oh, wait a minute. You said you'd buy me a new one, right? Can I have an owl instead?"

The young girl gymnast sighed in relief this time. "Yes, mister Weasely, I should be delighted to buy you an owl for a pet."

"Well, that's alright then." He sat back comfortably, crossing his arms behind his head. "I think a barn owl, or maybe a hoot owl. Actually, what I'd really like is a great horned owl, if that's alright, that is?"

"I should be delighted, mister Weasely." Kodachi repeated. "To get you a great horned owl."

"Oh, call me Ron. Everybody does. You make me feel like my parents or something saying 'mister Weasely' like that. That's what strangers call my dad."

"Look, I don't mean to interrupt," Hermione interrupted. "But..."

"I think you should look at your snake. It's getting wider."

"Wider?"

All eyes tracked to the serpent in question. It was, indeed, swelling, though the muscles of the snake seemed to be fighting it, and the object in question, the second lump in the snake's gullet, didn't seem all that sure of what it was doing.

Wormtail, for his part, dealt with a situation both complex and confusing, and he wasn't entirely awake due to simple things like crushing pressure and lack of oxygen. It was more a 'this isn't right' feeling of a sleeper only vaguely aware of something like his bedroom catching on fire.

He may die, or he may wake. There's no guarantee of either.

Having passed himself off as his animal for simply years, Wormtail had become so used to being Scabbers the Rat that he had some very ingrained defenses against resuming his normal form.

Since virtually all he did in rat form was sleep, eat, and occupy space, it wasn't very hard for Kodachi's hungry boa to happen upon him, gently squeeze him from slumber to simple unconsciousness without waking him up and then the tasty snack slid straight down the gullet.

But something about this situation suggested to his oxygen-deprived mind that maybe something was off, and it was growing more serious by the moment. Serious enough, it was coming near to making the mage revert to human form.

Struggling to survive, torpid to begin with, and lazy from all those years of sloth, Wormtail's already-unconscious mind was battling against itself as much as outside pressures.