Disclaimer: I still don't own Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling does.
He walked along the train corridor. It's true, there weren't any empty compartments. Empty compartments. Unless he wanted to sit with Percy…
A few spaces ahead, Ron saw his two brothers, Fred and George, walk out of one of the compartments, laughing about something. He heard only part of what they said.
"-it just be… rather interesting to see Ron's face if he were to see it crawling around-" said one of them.
"-on him," said the other.
He walked right up to them.
"Maybe if you hadn't turned that bloody teddy bear into a giant spider when I was- oh, what was it- an infant!" Ron went at them.
"Well, in our defense-" said one.
"-it was accidental magic," said the other.
Ron glanced into the compartment his brothers had just come out of.
"So, who was in their anyway? Lee Jordan?" he asked.
"No, but we are on our way to see Lee," they said in unison.
"It's Harry Potter-" said one.
"-and his sister-" said the other.
"-dear brother," they said together.
"Really?" Ron said in awe, "Harry Potter's on the train?"
"Indeed-" said one.
"-in fact-" said the other.
"-they were both the ones trying to get on the platform," they said together.
"Also-"
"-did you know-"
"-they're twins, too. Could you tell?" they both chimed.
The train lurched and the warning announcement rang through the hallway.
"Yeah, okay," Ron said, thinking. He could say hello, just to be nice. Maybe even ask about Harry Potter's scar. "I think I'll go say hello to him."
"Them, ickle Ronnikens," said one.
"We would find it very discourteous to mention one twin-" said the other
"-and ignore the other," said the first.
Ron just stared at them, "How could anyone not mention you both? You're practically the same person!"
They were suddenly very serious- extremely uncharacteristic for them- as they said, "But they are not."
They both walked off, their strides matching exactly.
Ron thought, made up his mind, and headed towards the door, only to change his mind and walk away, only to change his mind again. It went on like that until he wore a trail in the thin carpet.
Come on, he reprimanded himself, if you're going to say hi, suck it up and say just say hi.
He gathered his courage, took a deep breath, and went into the compartment.
The twins' conversation was interrupted by one of the red-haired boys entering the compartment. He took one look at them and his face blushed with a fair pink.
"Do you mind- I mean, all the other seats are taken and…" he sort of trailed off.
"Please."
He sat down across from the two of them. "I'm Ron, see- Ron Weasley."
"I'm Harry Potter," Harry introduced, "And this is my sister,-"
"Iris Potter," she cut in, smiling slightly.
"Harry Potter," Ron repeated, his face in awe at him, "Do you- do you have that scar?"
"What? Oh, yeah," Harry moved his hair away from his forehead, showing Ron his famous scar.
"Oh, bloody hell," he murmured. He looked at them both again, and then looked away in a sudden wave of embarrassment. "I'm sorry, I'm just acting like some crazy fan," he apologized sincerely, "It's just- you're really famous… Harry," he stumbled, unsure of what to call him.
Iris gave a small laugh, "Oh yeah, we know."
"Look," Harry explained, "I'm just a normal boy."
"That is to say, as normal as could be expected under the circumstances," Iris put in.
"What do you mean?" Ron asked.
"Well, up until about a month ago, we didn't even know magic really existed," Iris said.
"Really? But, you're not muggleborns, are you?"
"No, our parents were magical," she explained, "but we've had to live with our muggle relatives since we were, well, young."
"You're lucky to have a large wizarding family," Harry told Ron.
"Oh, not always. Mum is always mothering us and I have loads of siblings," he shrugged.
"You say that like it's a bad thing."
"It's not always that great," Ron just said, feeling sort of odd.
"You have," Iris counted them from her head quickly, "four siblings, then?"
"Actually," Ron corrected, "I have six. Two older brothers that already left Hogwarts."
"Six?"
"Yeah," Ron said, "We're a pretty big family. More than we might- well, never mind. I always get hand-me-downs and stuff, see."
"Better than having a fat, spoiled brat for a cousin," Harry commented.
"Or sleeping in a cupboard for 10 years," Iris added.
"A cupboard?!" Ronald exclaimed with a slightly disgusted look on his face, "Is that normal for muggles?"
"I- I don't think so," Iris tried to answer, "Our cousin sure didn't have to. And we never heard of anyone else that had to."
"That sounds, well," Ron said cautiously, "abusive."
The twins gave a glance at each other. They sure weren't the nicest of people, they knew that, but they had never really thought of their relatives as 'abusive.' At least, in that exact word, anyway.
"I'm sorry," Ron said, quickly.
"No, it's alright," they waved it off.
They continued on the slightly lighter conversation path. Harry and Ron got along well, and it didn't take long for them to consider each other their first, true friend at Hogwarts. Relations between Ron and Iris, on the other hand, were slightly more forced, but friendly enough, for the moment.
The compartment door slide open again.
"Anything off the trolley?" a stout witch in a work uniform asked them. She pushed a cart covered in sweets, all bright and colorful. Most of them were barely recognizable from muggle ones.
"I'm alright," Ron said slightly grimly, briefly holding up a dry, crusty sandwich.
The twins glanced at Ron and each other before going up to the trolley. Not entirely sure what to get, they grabbed some of almost everything. They paid a rather fair amount, but that didn't matter at the moment.
Ron stared at them as they brought back the loot, "You're going to eat all that?" his eyes widened.
Well, they were hungry, but
"Of course not, Ronald," Iris said, she passed him a large pile, "you're going to help."
"You don't have to do that," Ron said in a full-on blush, he added to Iris, "and don't call me Ronald. It sounds like I'm getting told off."
"Oh sure we do," Harry said to his new best friend, "Ronald."
The red-haired boy gave a cheeky smile to his new best friend.
Iris held up a box labeled, 'Chocolate Frog.' "Ron, are these real frogs?"
"No, don't worry, they're just chocolate," Ron explained, digging into a pumpkin pasty, "they're bewitched to look and act like real frogs. They come with a famous witch or wizard trading card. A lot of people collect them," he added, "let me know if you get Agrippa."
Harry picked up one of them and opened it. Immediately, a very convincing- for more than one reason- frog-shaped piece of chocolate hopped out of the box. It even gave an indignant "Ribbit," before it started to bound away.
Iris took out her wand, "Immobulus," she muttered. An invisible pulse escaped her wand and it hit the frog- who, in turn, froze.
Ron picked it up and handed it to Harry, "That was wicked," Ron said with a smile.
"I've been wanting to practice it," Iris said as she flushed.
Harry bit into the chocolate frog. As he chewed, he picked up the card tucked inside the package. On the one side was a picture of an old-looking wizard with a long, white-silver beard, half-moon glasses, and midnight blue eyes. He smiled up at Harry.
"It's moving!" Harry exclaimed, surprised.
Ron looked confused, "Well, yeah, they do that."
"In the muggle world, pictures just stay put."
"Really? Weird."
Harry looked back to see that the man was gone. Apparently, they could leave their pictures, too. Shaking his head slightly, he read the label, "Albus Dumbledore."
He flipped the card over and read it to himself,
Albus Dumbledore
Currently Headmaster of Hogwarts
Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times, Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel, Professor Dumbledore enjoys chamber music and tenpin bowling.
Ron remembered something and took a rat out of his pocket. It limped in it's hand, as he held it up for them to see. It was a pitiful looking thing- tufting gray hair and several bald spots.
"This is Scabbers," Ron explained, "he was Percy's rat, but I ended up with him. Pathetic, huh? All he ever does is sleep and eat."
"How old is he? It could be normal for his age."
"'Bout ten years old, or, that's how long we've had him, but I think he's been like that since we found him," Ron answered.
"That's a long lifespan for a normal rat," Iris commented.
"We've taken good care of him," he glanced at the sleeping creature, "Not that he cares."
The rat in question gave a loud, squeaky snore as it twitched.
"Anyway, my brother told me a spell that he said would turn him yellow, want to see?" Ron asked.
The compartment door opened again. This time there was an 11 year old girl. She had bushy brown hair, large brown eyes, and two buck teeth.
"I'm Hermione Granger, nice to meet you," she said in a fast-paced, almost bossy voice, "a boy lost his toad, his name's Neville. If you see it, could you let him know?" she saw Ron's wand out, "Oh, are you doing magic, let's see it then," she settled herself down next to him to watch.
"Oh, um," Ron mumbled, uncomfortable with the new audience, "Well, alright, then,"
He cleared his throat and recited in a forced-enthusiastic tone,
"Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow,
Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."
He whipped his wand around wildly and nothing happened.
"Ron, I don't think that's a real spell," Iris told him. She absentmindedly floated a few empty candy wrappers, practicing another charm.
"Typical," Ron muttered bitterly, blushing harder, "George gave it to me, should've known it was a ruse."
Hermione rolled her eyes. She noticed the floating candy wrappers.
"Hey, you're really good at that!" Hermione said suddenly.
Iris, having been startled a bit, lost her concentration and the candy wrappers flopped down to the floor, "Oh, um, thanks."
"By the way," Hermione said, suddenly friendlier, "I didn't get your names."
"I'm Ron Weasley," Ron said with his mouth full of two different types of candy.
Hermione gave a brief, disgusted look.
"Iris Potter," Iris said.
Hermione gave her a friendly nod.
"Harry Potter," Harry said.
"Really? Harry Potter? Oh, I've read all about you," Hermione got excited, "You're in quite a few books, like Modern Magical History, The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts-" it was clear she was going to go off on a long list.
"I am?" Harry just said, partly dumbfounded.
"Yes, Harry," his sister said, "Honestly, you don't even open up a book to read about yourself?"
There was some smirking at that. Harry just gave her a look, which she returned cheekily.
"But my favorite book is definitely Hogwarts, a History," Hermione stated.
Iris got interested at that, "Really? I find it to be a rather good read."
Hermione sat down in the available seat, "Though, there were quite a few obvious grammar errors," she went on.
"I noticed that," Iris agreed, "Like in that one chapter-"
The boys just stared at the girls. They were just meant to be friends, that's all they could reason.
While the girls conversed over books, and later on to similar topics, the boys talked about Hogwarts.
"So what house do you think you'll be in?" Ron asked.
"I'm not very familiar with them," Harry just said, "You?"
"Well, my whole family's been in Gryffindor, so that's where they all want me to be, and if I don't make it…" Ron said uneasily, "…well, I'd probably never hear the end of it."
"Well, I'm sure they'll still love you," Harry reasoned.
"Maybe. Unless I'm in Slytherin," he shuddered, "they're a load of evil gits, all of them."
"Ron," Iris interjected, "that's a bit insensitive, isn't it?"
"How's it insensitive, they are," Ron shot.
"You can't just automatically assume that a person is 'evil,' just because they're in a certain school house!" she argued.
"Well, which one would you want to get into?" Harry tried to end it.
Iris just shrugged, "I don't know. Whichever one I'm sorted into," she looked to her knew best friend, "What do you think, Hermione?"
"From what I've heard," the bushy-haired girl said, "Gryffindor is the best. Dumbledore, himself was in it. But, I suppose, Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad."
"Well," Harry commented, "I guess I'd be in Gryffindor, then."
He tried to push off some odd feeling he got in the back of his mind.
Slytherin.
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