Chapter 2: The Hogwarts Express

Harry was staring idly out of the window at the mass of Wizards and Witches waving their children goodbye as the Hogwarts Express departed from Kings Cross station. Some of them were smiling proudly as they watched their kids wave back from inside the train, while others openly let out some tears.

'Probably parents of first years,' Harry thought bitterly to himself. No one was there for him, of course. Not that he would want any of his relatives to be there, the only ones he knew of were his aunt and uncle and If he never saw them again, it would still be to soon. His father was an only child, so any hope of having another aunt or uncle who were, at the very least, decent people was quickly extinguished.

At least he finally knew how his parents really died. It wasn't in a drunk driving accident like harry had believed for all those years. No, they were murdered. He found out the truth when he had asked Quirrell about it. Quirrel's expression had gone grave when he heard about how Harry was told his parents had died.

He told Harry everything, Voldemort's rise to power, the first great wizarding war until the final night when Voldemort tried to kill a young child, named Neville Longbottom, who would later be known as the boy-who-lived, all because of some prophecy. And the lesser known tale, how the Ancient and Noble house of Potter almost died out on the same night. The night Voldemort himself went out to kill Alice and Frank Longbottom, believing their son to be the one from the prophecy, his right-hand man, or woman, in this case, Bellatrix Lestrange was sent out to end the Potters. Just to be sure.

Harry still remembered hearing his mothers' screams pleading with Bellatrix to 'Please don't hurt Harry' and how the woman responded with a dark chuckle before pointing her wand at Lilly and speaking two words. A flash of green light later and Lilly Potter was no more. She then pointed her wand at a young Harry and intended to cut his stay on earth short, she began to speak the words of the spell but was abruptly cut off as she felt her connection to her master disappear. For at that exact same time Voldemort's killing curse rebounded and his body was destroyed. The shock of it all caused Bellatrix Lestrange to be reduced to a sobbing mess.

That was the scene the aurors found when they finally arrived at the Potter mansion. It was that day a young boy named Neville Longbottom was hailed as the Boy-Who-Lived, and for Harry, it was the day he had lost everything. the loss of the Potters was a source of great sorrow at first, but over the years people moved on, and slowly but surely they were forgotten.

Harry swore to himself he would make the Potter name great again as he tightened his fist in anger.

KNOCK KNOCK

Only to be ripped from his thoughts as someone knocked on his compartment door. Harry turned his head to see who it was as the door opened and a pretty brown haired girl, who seemed to be about his age, peeked her head in the compartment before speaking. "Excuse me, do you mind if we sit with you? Everywhere else is pretty much full."

"Ehh, sure," Harry answered after taking a second to recollect his thoughts.

"Thank Merlin, if we had to listen to Malfoy talk about his father for one more second I would have killed myself" she replied as she let out a sigh of relief before smiling brightly at Harry. "The name's Tracy by the way, Tracey Davis. And these two are Blaise Zabini and Daphne Greengrass," she finished pointing at the two people still standing behind her as she sat herself down on the opposite side of Harry.

The first one, Zabini, was a tall, dark-skinned boy with high cheekbones and an almost regal appearance, who nodded at Harry with a "Nice to meet you" before sitting down next to him.

The las one to enter was Daphne Greengrass, a blonde girl with grayish-blue eyes and very pale, almost white skin. It was obvious to anyone who saw her the girl would grow up to become a very beautiful woman. She stiffly nodded at him and didn't say a word as she took her place next to Tracey.

"You'll have to forgive Daphne for being a bit grumpy," Tracey said as she looked disapprovingly at her friend, "She just spent the last fifteen minutes being hit on by Draco Malfoy, of all people."

Harry just nodded, pretending to understand, not really sure who this Draco was.

"I swear I was this close to cursing the git," The blonde grumbled in response.

It quickly became clear to Harry that Tracey was the most talkative of the little group as she turned back to him and gave him an expectant look. "Soooooooo," she said drawing out the word longer than necessary. "Are you going to tell us your name?"

"Oh, uhm, of course," Harry managed to stumble out, cursing his lack of people skills. He would have to work on that. "My name is Harry, Harry Potter."

"Huh, I didn't know there were any Potters left," a surprised Tracey answered. "Why have we never met before?"

"Very tactful as always, Tracey." Zabini scolded her.

As Tracey realized what she said her face immediately fell, "Oh, I'm sorry. I have this bad habit of just blurting out the first thing that pops in my head."

"Apology accepted," Harry responded and a smile of relief made her way back on the embarrassed Tracey. "The reason we never met was because I was.." he paused for a second and tried to keep the bitterness out of his tone, "raised in the muggle world. I didn't even know magic was real until recently."

They all frowned at that before falling in a slightly uncomfortable silence.

"So what house do you want to be sorted into?" the dark skinned boy, Blaise asked in an obvious attempt to break the silence.

This was a question Harry had been thinking about after reading 'Hogwarts: A History' "Honestly, I'm not sure yet. But if I had a choice it would either be Ravenclaw or Slytherin," he truthfully responded.

"A Potter wanting to be sorted in Slytherin," Blaise said while raising his eyebrows disbelievingly, "I don't think that ever happened before. Your family is rather known for being Gryffindors."

"So all the Potters were Gryffindors then?" Harry asked, curious to learn a bit more about his family.

"Most of them, yes. Sometimes one gets sorted in Hufflepuff, but for the rest always Gryffindor." then, Blaise smiled, "Except for your grandfather, Charlus Potter, he was a Slytherin."

"That must have caused quite the uproar," Harry commented, already knowing about the ever-present rivalry between the two houses. Over the past few days Harry had also researched his family tree, in an attempt to find any more living relatives and when he came to the name Charlus Potter, one other word stood out: Hunter. "He was a Hunter, right?"

"Not just any Hunter, he surpassed everyone's expectations and became one of the greatest Hunters the Magical world had ever seen." he confirmed.

"What exactly is a Hunter?" Harry continued, "When I asked Professor Quirrell about it, he was very vague."

"Of course he was, Hunters are always a bit… let's just call it excentric," He paused for a moment, probably thinking about how to answer, "To put it simply, they are the best of the best. They can do anything from finding a missing person, to discovering new recipes for the best kinds of food. When the government wants to take down some new up and coming Dark Lord but their Aurors aren't up for the task, they call the Hunters. And they all have one thing in common, they are the best at what they do."

"Do you know how my grandfather died?"

"He didn't," Blaise responded quickly, "At least not that we know of, according to my mother, he just left on some incredibly dangerous mission and never returned."

"Your mother is a Hunter too, then?" Harry asked.

Blaise responded with a nod of the head.

"Thank you, this has been very informative," Harry said grateful to have learned more about this new world he was only recently introduced to. It was at that moment Harry made the first decision that would guide the course of his life forever; on his quest for power, becoming a Hunter was his first trial. 'I'll become the greatest Hunter this world has ever seen,' he vowed to himself.

"I'm pretty sure us three will be sorted into Slytherin. So should you get sorted there too, at least you will have some friendly faces around." he finished, presenting his hand as a sign of friendship. It took Harry less than a second to make the second important decision of that day.

They shook hands.

"I'd like that," He accepted the offer of friendship, and for the first time in his life, Harry smiled.

'And perhaps I don't have to do it alone' he added to his previous thought as he looked at the three people surrounding him.

I forgot how good it feels to see every follow and review. Hopefully this will get me back into writing!