Harry Potter and the Dagger of Foreboding

Chapter One: Entering Hogwarts

Note: I don't own Harry Potter, nor do I plan on it. All of the characters, and the mythology itself is primarily the work of J.K. Rowling. The only thing that's mine is the plot.
Note 2: This story will take place over several years, and while the first part probably won't go over a Teen rating because most of the characters will be children, stuff in later chapters probably will, so I'm just going to rate it Mature for safety reasons.

Hesitantly Harry hurried through the cold bricks of Platform 9 and Three-Quarters, following the example of the nice red-headed family that had just gone through. Though the process of traveling through the Platform was instantaneous, Harry couldn't shake the awkward feeling of a long and lengthy travel through thick molasses.

He hurriedly pushed his taped together glasses up the bridge of his nose, while simultaneously brushing his thick black hair down over his scar, in the shape of a lightning-bolt on his forehead. His skinny frame was covered in oversized clothing, clearly designed for a small elephant. Or a large elephant. Really, any kind of elephant would have been better suited to wearing the baggy shirt and jeans then the scrawny eleven-year old that had them on.

Heaving his large awkward suitcase with one hand and the owl cage in the other, he shoved his way through the crowd surrounding the massive train. Several bangs and flashes caught his attention, and he almost stopped to see some magic in action, but the large white owl in the cage screeched, forcing Harry to turn back and enter the train.

The inside of the train was just as crowded as the outside, only with far less space for the people to run around in. Quickly sidling past a pair of giggling girls, Harry Potter clambered into the first empty room he could find, shoving his trunk under the seat and placing his owl, Hedwig, onto the seat above, before taking his place by the window. He stared out at the wizards and witches' running around, brilliant emerald eyes taking in the scenery like a green sponge absorbs water.

He still couldn't believe that only a few weeks ago he was just a normal, abused boy living in the pantry by the refrigerator. He shuddered slightly at the thought of what the Dursleys had done to him after the letter for Hogwarts came. Despite their desire to destroy magic, they couldn't deny the appeal of having the boy leave for three-quarters of the year, or the danger they'd face in trying to keep him from the wizarding world. Still, the things they did were especially brutal in that last month, as if they were trying to store up as many miserable memories as possible before he started squishing them to the side with all that poppycock about magic and mysticism.

Tears threatened to fall from his olive orbs and it was only his incredible excitement about actually attending a school for magic that stopped them. Before Harry could think any further, the cabin door opened abruptly, letting in a tall, wiry boy with orange-red hair. Harry started, recognizing him as a member of the family he followed in. The orange-haired lad stopped, apparently surprised to see the tiny boy sitting down already. He looked around, before realizing no one else was in the cabin and quickly shoved his ragged trunk under the opposite seat before extending his hand to Harry.

"Oi mate, I like Quidditch," the boy said, expecting a similar response from the boy across from him, although Harry wasn't really listening. He absent-mindedly shook his hand and introduced himself.

"My name is Harry. It's nice to meet you, Quidditch," Harry said, stumbling over the unfamiliar word.

The boy looked at Harry, rather confused and flustered.

"Uh…my name isn't Quidditch. It's a sport. Don't you know about Quidditch?"

Harry seemed to realize he had made some kind of social gaffe and looked up at him, while trying to puzzle out the meaning of the odd word.

"Does it involve money and a hole?" Harry asked hopefully.

The boy shook his head dejectedly before sitting down. He quickly launched into an elaborate and engrossing explanation of the popular wizarding sport. Despite his frequent use of odd terms, Harry picked up the gist of the game. Basically it involved seven man teams, split up into four different types of players, all of whom focused on the four balls, of which there three kinds. Some parts of the game didn't really make sense, and Harry was pretty sure the boy was pulling his leg when he mentioned two of the balls were made of iron and their job was to fly around and smash people in the skull.

After he finished describing about a tattle-tale ball, the boy seemed to remember something and extended his hand to Harry again.

"Sorry about that. I'm Ronald Bilius Weasley. You can call me Ron."
Harry shook the proffered hand again, but seemed confused by the nickname.

"It's short for Ronald," Ron said quickly, as it apparently had been a source of bewilderment for others.

"Ah," Harry said, "Harry is short for...Harry I think."

"Cool," Ron said, before sitting down again.

"So uh…you're a wizard?"

"Not yet, We have to go to school first," Ron said, "Geez those muggles don't teach you anything about magic, do they?"

"Muggles?" Harry asked.

"Non-magical people."

"Oh. Well, yeah, I guess they didn't."

"Hey wanna see a spell?" Ron asked Harry, pulling a rat out of his shirt-pocket.

"Sure?"

Ron extracted a long stick – wand, Harry reminded himself, he had one too – and pointed it at the rat. He mumbled a few words and then jabbed it at the sleeping creature's rather protuberant bottom. A small bang sounded and there was the sizzling of flesh. Startled, the rat leapt out of his hands and darted to the door. That wouldn't have been a problem except the door opened at that second, letting the rat out and a girl in.

She was rather plain looking, her bushy brown hair appeared like minimal effort was put into taking care of it and she had a face, that while not hideous, would not elicit a second glance from most people. The only thing about her appearance that was even remotely notable was the fact that she was clad in long, flowing black robes, obscuring most of her form.

"Are you doing magic?" she demanded, startling both boys.

"Maybe?" Harry said, still not sure if what he saw constituted as magic.

"My rat," Ron said, rather distraught.

"Magic is not allowed in the train. I remember reading that in Hogwarts, A History," the girl said, as if daring someone to correct her.

"Oh," Harry said disappointedly, "I didn't realize we weren't allowed to do magic."

He looked at the ground. Ron flashed an angry look at the girl.

"Oh good job. You made him upset."

"I didn't mean to," the girl said in a way that implied that she didn't care, "I just wanted to make sure that you know that I know that you can't do magic. I'm Hermione Granger by the way."

Harry and Ron introduced themselves. Ron started talking about Quidditch again, hoping that this girl would know more about it than Harry. Hermione stopped him, stating that she was a muggleborn and therefore had no interest in sports. She then exited the compartment before saying that the two should probably change into their school robes.

Harry nodded, reaching into his trunk and yanking out a set of robes that looked very much like Hermione's. Ron did the same, although his were threadbare and had numerous patches. Ironically after they got dressed Harry found that while his robes fit, Ron's were a bit too big, so he found their roles reversed.

The train came to a stop soon after and they found themselves exiting the train. Harry had wanted to get his stuff but Ron told him that his brothers had told him that their belongings would be sent to their housing. He also started to tell Harry about the four different Houses. He had just mentioned Ravenclaw and Gryffindor, the two best according to Ron and the two were about to get off the train when they were stopped by a sneering blond-haired boy and the two figures behind him.
Harry's first thought was "Why are gorillas on the train?" His second thought was "Oh."

"Hello boys," the blond boy said, "So eager to get off the train?"

"Yes," Harry said, "I would very much like to get off the train."
The boy looked at him, surprised he would be brave enough to stand up to him and his lackeys. Harry looked back, wondering why the boy had asked such an obvious question.

"I'm Draco Malfoy," the boy said slowly.

"Like the constellation?" A shrill voice said from behind him.

Draco and his goons turned around, only to see Hermione dragging a chubby boy holding a large toad. The boy was blubbering something about how he didn't know he could do that, and he thought he had fed the toad before. Hermione brushed off his sniveling and pushed past Draco and his friends, all three of which were too stunned that the girl was treating them like they weren't important to actually do anything about it.

"Yes, yes come here Neville," Hermione said, pushing the boy in front of Ron, who looked at them quizzically.

"What's going on?"

"I'm really sorry," Neville managed to get out between sobs. Ron looked at the toad, confused. He could see some kind of rope sticking out of its mouth and with a sudden sucking noise that vanished as well. He looked at Hermione, who shrugged.

"Found your rat."

Harry gasped, while Ron merely muttered the name of his pet rat.

"Peter."

While Ron looked at the creature that had eaten his most treasured possession, Draco cleared his throat and his minions cracked their knuckles threateningly.

"While this is all very touching," Draco drawled, "I do believe that we're at school and some of us have to go."

Harry nodded and slid past them, followed closely by Neville. Ron and Hermione tried to leave as well but the large boys stopped them.

"Whoops. Sorry about that. Crabbe and Goyle aren't fond of blood-traitors and mudbloods. Hope you don't mind, but we can't have you sullying the good name of Hogwarts."
"Hey," Harry said, starting to turn around, just as a massive shape stepped in front of him.

"You can't do this," Hermione said, "In Hogwarts, A History, it clearly states that all people of magical talent are allowed entry into Hogwarts."

"Too bad you don't have magical talent then," Malfoy said with a smirk that quickly disappeared as a massive hand reached through the train door and plucked Malfoy out. The hand did the same for Crabbe and Goyle.

"That's it now, ge' out," a humongous man said gruffly, reaching for Hermione and Ron, both of whom hurried out before he could grab them.

"Who are you?" Harry asked. The man turned around slowly, pushing the children along towards the rest of the student body who were far ahead of them. His massive bulk was wrapped in a thick overcoat, his black hair covered his face.

"I'm Rubeus, but you ca' call me Hagrid," the man said cheerfully.

The others only nodded slowly, still stunned by his vast size.

Hagrid directed them towards the lake, warning them of the giant squid that lived in it and told them that the boats would take them to the school. He would have gone with them, but a couple of older Hufflepuffs were snogging in some bushes nearby and he had to get them to the carriages.

There was only one rowboat left and it was barely big enough for the seven of them. Malfoy made a few comments to his giant henchman, both of whom snorted. Harry ignored them, too worried about the possibility of getting eaten by the squid. All thinking ceased as soon as Hogwarts came into view however, its vast size obscured by shadows and lit up by lights that made it seem majestic and beautiful.
In that moment of distraction Malfoy shoved Neville, yelling something about a squid. Startled Crabbe and Goyle stood up and within seconds the boat tipped and all of them were dunked. They had to swim to shore, where they crawled out, soggy and wet, like a group of dogs after chasing a cat into a river, only to find that the cat had not gone into the water but had instead climbed a tree and was well out of reach.

A tall severe looking woman rushed over, scolded them and sent them inside…where Harry caught his first look at the inside of Hogwarts.