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Light of Hope: Part One
Chapter Six: Platforms

On September first, Harry and Hope arrived at King's Cross station with one trunk inside another, ready to board the Hogwarts Express.

The Dursleys had been distinctly unhappy that they were required to take the twins to London. They also seemed to think that Hope had spent the duration of her stay at Hogwarts learning different hexes that could be used on errant family. So Uncle Vernon had driven them there, muttering about Dudley needing more school supplies. When they got there, he had found a cart, dumped Hope's trunk on it, and asked for the platform number positively civilly.

"Um," Harry said. He hadn't checked. He dug his ticket out of his pocket and squinted at it. "Platform nine and three quarters."

\\Harry?//

\Hmmm?/ He was obviously not paying much attention. He shot her the image of Vernon, who was rapidly turning purple. \Think the strain of being polite finally got to him?/

\\Harry, say the platform number again. Think about it.//

Harry looked at the ticket. 9¾.

\Oh. What do we do?/

\\Why are you asking me?//

\Didn't they mention anything about it to you?/

\\No. Think it's like Diagon Alley?//

\Do you think that, after all of that bother, what with trying to keep the muggles from noticing anything odd, they would have everyone getting on the train do something like that? Someone would definitely notice the wall dissolving./

They were interrupted by Uncle Vernon, who had had enough of the twin's silence. "They don't seem to have built the platform yet, have they?" He lumbered off cheerfully.

Hope stood there in silence. Thanks to McGonagall's advise, they had only one trunk that they could probably lift together, but it would be difficult. Besides, where could they go?

They could hardly stay at the train station, but if they went back to Privet Drive, the Dursleys would never let the matter rest.

Her reverie was interrupted by a plump, cheerful woman herding a small gaggle of teenagers; one boy with horn-rimmed glasses and an owl, two boys who were identical down to their freckled noses, a lanky boy almost as tall as the twins, and a small girl. All had hair the same shade of fiery red, all pushed carts that held trunks, and the one with the glasses, who looked to be the oldest, had an owl.

Harry pushed the cart behind them, close enough to hear but far enough so as not to be suspected of eavesdropping.

"Now, what's the platform number?" said the boys' mother.

"Nine and three-quarters!" piped the small girl. "Mum, can't I go..."

"You're not old enough, Ginny, now be quiet. All right, Percy, you go first."

What looked like the oldest boy marched toward platforms nine and ten. Hope slipped behind Harry's eyes and they watched, careful not to blink in case they missed it-but just as the boy reached the dividing barrier between to the two platforms, a large crowd of tourists came swarming in front of Harry and by the time the last backpack had cleared away, the boy had vanished.

"Fred, you next," the plump woman said.

"I'm not Fred, I'm George," said the boy. "Honestly, woman, you call yourself our

mother? Can't you tell I'm George?"

"Sorry, George, dear."

"Only joking, I am Fred," said the boy, and off he went. His twin called after him to hurry

up, and he must have done so, because a second later, he had gone-but how had he done it?

Now the third brother was walking briskly toward the barrier-he was almost there-and

then, quite suddenly, he wasn't anywhere.

There was nothing else for it.

"Excuse me," Harry said to the plump woman.

"Hello, dears," she said. "First time at Hogwarts? Ron's starting this year, too." She nodded at the last of the boys, who was tall and gangly with a long nose and large hands and feet.

"Erm, yes, except we, er..."

"Don't know how to get onto the platform?"

Harry nodded. Hope felt a blush stain her cheeks as she felt the woman's scrutiny.

"Nothing to it, dear," the woman told Harry. Just walk strait on through--best to do it at a bit of a run if you're nervous. Go together, now, ahead of Ron."

Harry nodded and moved over so that Hope could stand next to him behind the cart. They matched their paces as they set off towards the wall, and Hope slipped out of her own skin and into Harry's.

They were getting closer to the very solid metal barrier, any moment they would bash into it. Hope stepped back into her body just before the impact and they reached the wall--

Or what should have been the wall.

Harry opened his eyes (he had closed them when Hope abandoned ship) to find that he was about to run the cart into a rather large group gathered around a boy with dreadlocks who was holding a topped crate.

He slowed in time to hear one of them say "Give us a look, Lee, go on."

The boy lifted the lid of a box in his arms, and the people around him shrieked and yelled as something inside poked out a long, hairy leg

The twins looked around, seeing a platform crowded with people: cats either twining around legs or protesting confinement with loud yowls; owls, in cages or on shoulders, hooting mournfully at each other.

The train looked nothing like Harry had imagined. It was quite ordinary (other than being extraordinarily well kept), coloured scarlet and gold.

\Let's put the trunks up./

\\Right.// Hope was a bit nervous, there were people everywhere; and even though she had become used to her professor's powerful presence sparkling in her mind and had barely noticed it in Diagon Alley, the glittering crowd was just a tad overwhelming.

They made their way to the train and, working together, managed to hoist the trunks up and onto and empty train compartment. As they got themselves settled (Hope with a book and her reading device, Harry looking interestedly out the window at the passers-by), voices sounded from the compartment door.

"Oh, hello," one said.

A slightly--very slightly, if he hadn't had Hope's help, Harry would have thought them the same--different voice took up the conversation, as smoothly as if he'd read the other's mind--or practiced it beforehand. "First years, are you?"

Harry whipped his head around as Hope look over and shoved into his mind.

\Ouch!/

\\Sorry.//

The speakers were the twins from the Muggle station, Fred and George.

"What's that?" said one of the twins suddenly, pointing at Harry's lightning scar, which had become visible when he turned his head so violently.

"Blimey," said the other twin. "Are you-?" He glanced at Hope. "-Two?"

"They are," said the first twin. "Aren't you?" he added to Harry.

"What?" said Harry.

"Harry and Hope Potter," chorused the twins.

"Oh, them," said Harry. "I mean, yes, we are."

The two boys gawked at them, and Hope felt himself turning red. Then, to both of their relief, a voice come floating in through the train's open door.

"Fred? George? Are you there"

"Coming, Mom."

With a last look at Harry and Hope, the twins hopped off the train.

Harry went next to the window where, half hidden, he could watch the red-haired family on the platform and hear what they were saying.

Their mother had just taken out her handkerchief.

"Ron, you've got something on your nose."

The youngest boy tried to jerk out of the way, but she grabbed him and began rubbing the

end of his nose.

"Mom-geroff." He wriggled free.

"Aaah, has ickle Ronnie got somefink on his nosie?" said one of the twins.

"Shut up," said Ron.

"Where's Percy?" said their mother.

"He's coming now."

The oldest boy came striding into sight. He had already changed into his billowing black Hogwarts robes, and Harry noticed a shiny silver badge on his chest with the letter P in it.

"Can't stay long, Mother," he said. "I'm up front, the prefects have got two compartments

to themselves-"

"Oh, are you a prefect, Percy?" said one of the twins, with an air of great surprise. "You

should have said something, we had no idea."

"Hang on, I think I remember him saying something about it," said the other twin. "Once-"

"Or twice-"

"A minute-"

"All summer-"

"Oh, shut up," said Percy the Prefect.

"How come Percy gets new robes, anyway?" said one of the twins.

"Because he's a prefect," said their mother fondly. "All right, dear, well, have a good

term-send me an owl when you get there."

She kissed Percy on the cheek and he left. Then she turned to the twins.

"Now, you two-this year, you behave yourselves. If I get one more owl telling me you've-

you've blown up a toilet or-"

"Blown up a toilet? We've never blown up a toilet."

"Great idea though, thanks, Mom."

"It's not funny. And look after Ron."

"Don't worry, ickle Ronniekins is safe with us."

"Shut up," said Ron again. He was almost as tall as the twins already and his nose was

still pink where his mother had rubbed it.

"Hey, Mom, guess what? Guess who we just met on the train?"

Harry leaned back quickly so they couldn't see him looking.

"You know that black-haired boy and the redheaded girl who was near us in the station?

Know who they are?"

"Who?"

"The Potter Twins!"

"Are they really, Fred? How do you know?"

"Asked Harry. Saw his scar. It's really there-like lightning."

Harry heard the little girl's voice.

"Oh. She looked scared."

"Who?" one of the twins said.

\\George//

\Hmm?/

\\That was George.//

"She did. Oh the poor dears-no wonder they were alone, I wondered. He was ever so polite when he asked how to get onto the platform."

"Never mind that, do you think he remembers what You-Know-Who looks like?"

Their mother suddenly became very stern.

"I forbid you to ask him, Fred. Or Hope! No, don't you dare. As though they need

reminding of that on the first day at school."

"All right, keep your hair on."

A whistle sounded.

"Hurry up!" their mother said, and the three boys clambered onto the train. They leaned

out of the window for her to kiss them good-bye, and their younger sister began to cry.

"Don't, Ginny, we'll send you loads of owls."

"We'll send you a Hogwarts toilet seat."

"George!"

"Only joking, Mom."

The train began to move. Harry saw the boys' mother waving and their sister, half laughing, half crying, running to keep up with the train until it gathered too much speed, then she fell back and waved.

Harry watched the girl and her mother disappear as the train rounded the corner. Houses flashed past the window. Harry felt a great leap of excitement. They were going to Hogwarts.

The door to the compartment slid open and the youngest redheaded boy 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.

"Hey, Ron."

The twins were back.

"We're in a compartment down the middle of the train--Lee Jordan's got a giant tarantula."

"Right." Ron said. Hope noted that he looked rather green.

\Stop it./

\\Stop what?//

\Stop looking over there. I'm going cross-eyed./

\\Oops.//

"Harry, Hope," a twin \\(FRED!)// said. "Did we introduce ourselves earlier? Fred and George Weasley."

"And that's Ron," George said. "We'll be seeing you, then."

They popped back out, accompanied by Ron and Harry's goodbyes.

There were a few moments of silence before Ron couldn't take it anymore. "Are you really the Potter Twins?"

Harry, and with a sharp mental jab, Hope, flipped up their bangs to show Ron that, indeed, the scars were there, lightning bolts and all and no, he had not been lied to for nearly a decade.

Ron's eyes bugged out. "I thought it might just be Fred and George having me on--but... So that's where You-Know-Who did it?"

Harry shrugged. "I guess. I mean, I don't remember anything." Just a lot of green light. \Talk now.

Hope cleared her throat quietly. "Neither do I." She gave Harry the mental equivalent of a kick and was about to follow it with a scolding when heated voices rose in the hall, slightly sharper than the tide of conversations.

"...We're here, aren't we? ...Haven't missed...train." The voice was male, just a bit deeper and smoother than Harry's.

"Just barely...Almost eleven o'clock!" This voice was a girl's, becoming more and more shrill as she argued.

"...Didn't miss it."

"...what if our clock had been late? And we still...find a compartment."

"I'm sure there'll be an empty one--or one nearly empty, anyway. Don't freak out, Hermione." The voices were growing even closer now: they were right outside the door.

"No, there won't be. This is the end of the train."

"But we haven't checked this compartment yet." The door slid open and a boy about the same age as the twins looked in. He had dark brown, wavy hair and eyes that were a curious shade of grey. "Oh. Hello. D'you mind if we sit in here? It's the least crowded place on the train."

"Fine with us," Harry said, glancing at Ron with raised brows. Ron nodded and the boy came in, stumbling slightly on the door track and dragging his trunk. A brown-eyed girl with a lot of bushy brown hair and rather large front teeth followed him more gracefully.

"Hello," she said. "I'm Hermione Granger and this is Tair. Are you first-years as well?"

"Um, yeah. I'm Ron Weasley."

"Harry Potter."

"Hope Potter."

"Are you really? I've read all about you, of course, and I knew that you'd both be starting at Hogwarts this term."

"Um." Harry blinked. "You've read about us?"

"Of course. You're in Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century, didn't you know?"

"No." \How did they write books about us?/

\\Well, you see Harry, when a person knows a lot about a person and they want others to know about them too, they take a quill and load it with...//

\I MEANT, how did they know anything about us? They've never met us./

\\We're probably just mentioned in those books. They sound more like genealogies that anything else.//

\Right./ Harry tuned back into the others' conversation. Hermione Granger was talking again.

"..so we suspected that Tair might be magical, because of his father, but we never guessed it about me."

"Until you stopped Miss Henderson's clock when we were learning about American Government."

"How do you know that was me?"

"Who else wanted to know about how the Americans run their country?"

"Erm," Ron said, seeming to try and hold off an argument, "You two twins, or something?"

"Of course not!" Tair said, greatly offended. "This is my dear old Auntie Hermione!"

Hermione gave him a glare comparable to one of the Looks McGonagall had given the Dursleys. "My sister Athena is eighteen years older that me."

Something stirred in Hope's memory. "Athena?" she asked softly.

"Yes," Tair answered. "She was married to a wizard, so they thought I might be one."

"She married a wizard?"

Tair gave a short nod. "A casualty of the war. After that, Mum moved back in with her parents, and the house is fairly large, so she stayed, and I've had to put up with my dear old Aunty all this time."

"You had to put up with me?"

"Well, you didn't think that you had to put up with you, did you?"

"Hmph."

Tair broke the silence a few moments later. "When will we get there?"

Hermione sighed gustily and said "We're going to Scotland. It'll be a while."

Tair gave Hermione a pitying look. "I knew it would happen eventually."

"What?"

"Hermione, where are we going?" He said it very clearly, as if he were speaking to a very young child.

"Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry," said Hermione, using the same tone.

"Very good. Now, do you suppose they know how to do magic there?"

"I know they can lower travel time, I'm just not sure how much they will."

Ron broke in. "I don't think they will. Fred and George always talked about a feast, and since Mum gave us lunch..." he shrugged.

"Fred and George? Are they your brothers?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah, two of them. I've got five."

"Five?"

"Five," said Ron. For some reason, he was looking gloomy. "I'm the sixth in our family to go to Hogwarts. You could say I've got a lot to live up to. Bill and Charlie have already left-Bill was Head Boy and Charlie was captain of Quidditch. Now Percy's a prefect. Fred and George mess around a lot, but they still get really good marks and everyone thinks they're really funny. Everyone expects me to do as well as the others, but if I do, it's no big deal, because they did it first. You never get anything new, either, with five brothers. I've got Bill's old robes, Charlie's old wand, and Percy's old rat." Ron reached inside his jacket and pulled out a fat grey rat, which was asleep.

"What about your sister?" Hope asked. "The one that was running after the train?"

"She's the only one younger than me." He gave Hope a puzzled glance. "How do you know? I mean--er..." He was getting rather red in the face.

"Harry told me." It was even partway true.

"Are all of your family wizards?" Hermione asked.

"Er-yes, I think so," said Ron. "I think Mum's got a second cousin who's an accountant, but we never talk about him."

"Oh, I'll have so much to learn! You're probably so far ahead of me and Tair--I've memorized the textbooks, of course, but all of you've been around magic all of your lives, you probably know loads more about it..."

She stopped and looked expectantly at Ron. He blinked and said, "Erm, no... I mean, I just got my wand, and mum wouldn't let me try any spells..."

"Oh, really? I've tried a few--"

"Of course, they all worked," said Tair dryly.

The door slid open, and a round-faced boy looked through the opening. "Has anyone seen a toad?"

Hope blinked. "What colour?"

The round-faced boy said "Uh...brown...ish...I guess."

\\The luggage compartment.//

"Did you check the luggage compartment?"

It was the boy's turn to blink. "Er...yes."

\\The toad's behind the weird orange box.// "C'mon." Harry got up and lead the way as they boy followed, still looking confused. Hope trailed them.

The baggage compartment held very few school trunks, but a great deal of crates marked with names like Madam Puddifoot's (FRAGILE! CHINA), Honeyduke's (KEEP AT ROOM TEMPERATURE) and Zonko's (CAUTION: EXPLOSIVES)

The toad was behind the Zonko's box.

Hope didn't know how she knew it, she just did. It was as if there was a spot of brownish green energy behind the crate. She walked around it, wary of the flickering spots of orange-red light inside it.

She got the toad and went back to the boy and her brother, holding the slightly squashy package out. "Here."

Harry looked up immediately, but it took the boy a few seconds to notice her. When he did, her blinked yet again. "Trevor! Um, thanks. I'm Neville Longbottom."

Hope sighed inwardly. \\Yet again.//

\He might not be that bad./ "Harry and Hope Potter."

The boy blinked. "Really? But you-" he glanced at Hope, noting her cane. "-oh."

\He's surprised you found the toad--Trevor./

\\I got that, actually. //

"Are you a first year?" Harry asked rather abruptly.

"Um...yeah. Glad I got in--everyone thought I was a Squib for ages." Unspoken seemed to be that he was frightened about being allowed to stay. Hope could understand that--wasn't her greatest fear being sent back to the Dursley's?

"Where are you sitting?"

"I'm not, actually--couple of redheads and a guy with a spider came in my compartment."

"They kicked you out?" Hope was too incredulous to remember that she did not know this boy and he did not know her. She had begun to like the Weasley twins.

"Um, not exactly--they asked if they could stay, and all, but then some others came in and they got into an argument about Gryffindor's Seeker. I left."

They had been walking, and as he said 'Gryffindor's Seeker,' Ron's ears perked up. "What?"

"Ron, Hermione, Tair, this is Neville. Fred and George chased him out of his compartment."

"Did you get your trunk? We'll have to change before we get to Hogwarts. And did you find your toad?" Hermione seemed to have been arguing with Tair; now she stopped an looked at Neville expectantly.

"Yes." Neville held up Trevor, who took advantage of the changed grip to make a leap for freedom. Harry caught him as he went past his ear and handed him back to Neville. "Thanks. My trunk's still in there."

"I'll get it later. What about the Gryffindor Seeker? Have they found one yet?" Ron was leaning forward with wide eyes as he gazed at Neville. "Do you like Quidditch?

"It's okay," Neville shrugged.

"What's Quidditch?" Tair sounded as confused as Hope felt.

"Oh, it's great! You play it on broomsticks with seven people to a side, and there's three goalposts on each end of the pitch..."

Hope listened with one ear as Ron continued his explanation as almost quickly and with more enthusiasm than Hermione. Hermione herself listened at first, but when Ron began to explain the more minute details of the game, she pulled out a large tome and began to read it. Hope joined her, reading A Beginner's guide to Transfiguration with her devise The thrill of reading something for herself hadn't worn off yet, and she didn't halt until the lunch cart came. Armed with Galleons, Sickles and Knuts, she and Harry bought a bit of everything, from Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans to Pumpkin Pasties.

Hermione was looking at everything with a slightly dismayed look on her face.

"Oh, come on, Hermione," Tair said, rolling his eyes. "Eat. Don't you think a wizard could fix cavities?" to Ron, Neville, Hope and Harry he added "Her parents are dentists." He was rewarded with an elbow in the ribs. "Ow!"

Hope stopped listening.

A/N Like? Love? Loathe? Review! (Yes, corny, but how else am I going to know what you think?) Constructive criticism is appreciated, praise is delightedly devoured, flames are decidedly unappreciated--for Pete's sake, people, if you don't like my fic, tell me why, don't netscream it in a dialect so peppered with cursing that it's hard to see the actual words.

As for the Chapter: Sorry, sorry, sorry! I do have an excuse this time, though. We hosted a Short-term Foreign Exchange Student over the last few weeks. I was banned from the computer unless it was for school. I got stuck for a while after that, but I realized that this was long enough that I could just stop here.

I'm saying that 'Miss Henderson' had an obsession with American Government like Binn's obsession with goblin wars.

I certainly don't. We've spent the last semester on the Federal government, and I am slowly being driven insane.

I'm so sorry about the delay. I had chapters six and seven written a long time ago, and I could have sworn I posted them here, but I didn't. Sorry about any confusion chapter eight caused.