Chapter 16 - 16- Train Ride

Third's pov

It was 3 hours into the 8 hours long trip that a knock on the door woke Harry up, while stretching he called the person to come in.

The door opened and a small pudgy boy asked shyly: "Did you see a toad? I lost mine, he always escape!" That's the moment Harry recognized the boy, it was Neville Longbottom, the bravest Gryffindor, as he is the only one whose afraid and still does what he believes, and it looked like he isn't as different as you might think from the books, so Harry decided to help. "No, sorry, but I heard there is a spell to bring stuff to you, why won't you ask one of the older students to use it?" "Th-thanks" "Anything for a friend." "Are we?" "Sorry, I didn't meant to presume. I'm Harry." "Neville." "So Neville, when you find your toad, would you like to sit with me?" "I would love to." Neville smiled and closed the door while Harry thought 'my first friend is a Gryffindor, that would make things interesting' and went back to sleep

15 minutes later

Third's pov

Hermione was starting to really regret suggesting to help Neville search for his toad. She knew it wasn't nice, and her parents educated her to always help when she can, but she really hoped to meet someone she could call a friend before they arrived to the castle, because she knew that afterward it would be harder to find a friend, after all, even though Hermione wasn't dumb, she was a little naive, and she really thought that everyone here would be as excited to learn and about school,so while she really didn't expect to find a celebrity when she opened the next door, when she saw the wagon packed with people and everyone looking at someone doing magic, she just couldn't help herself "oh, you're doing magic? Lets see it then." She didn't mean to sound so demanding, she was just really excited about magic. When the boy said Lumos and a light was shining out of his wand, everyone clapped excitedly. To be Hermione thought it's a little strange that they were so mesmerized about a simple spell that took her 5 minutes to learn, but when she heard the red headed boy saying "of course Marcus can do magic before school he's the boy who lived." She understood. "You're Marcus potter? Did you know that you were written about in modern magical history, the raise and fall of the dark arts and even in Great wizarding event of the 20th century?" "Of course I know about it, it's me that is written about." Hermione started not liking this posh of a boy, she just wanted to leave the wagon so she quickly asked if anyone has seen a toad and when they replied negatively she left, just not before hearing the red headed saying "whatever house I'm in, I hope she ain't in it."

So, hurt and without much will she decided to check one more wagon, and one far away, so there won't be a chance to meet one of the kids in Marcus's wagon

3 minutes later

at the other end of the first years side of the train

Hermione took a big breath and told herself that she would just come in ask about the toad and then go find a someone who could become her friend, even if not now, maybe in the future, now she just hoped for a familiar maybe friendly face who she could have an interesting conversation with.

She knocked on the door and after a second someone said come in with a yawn, she got in and asked in a quiet voice. "Have you seen a toad? A boy named Neville lost his." "Actually, Neville was already here, he took my suggestion to go to an older student and ask them to use magic to help." "Oh, really? So I guess I would go now..." just as she was about to get out he said "Wait, do you want to sit together? I could use someone to talk to, maybe we can be friends?" Nodding while smiling she came in and closed the door. "By the way, I'm Harry." "Hermione, I hope we can be friends."

4 hours later

Harry's pov

I'm not sure how it came to this.

First, I was sleeping in the train when Neville asked for help, while seeing him like that made me impulsively help him, I decided it would be worth while to become friends with a pure-blood with money on the light side, then when Hermione showed up looking so defeated and asked about the toad, even though I decided not to get involved with any of the main cast, even if it would change the future even more than it's already changed and even though I had my reasons not to trust her, I couldn't leave her alone and invited her to stay inside with me. Then Neville came and soon we were all talking about the classes and what were we excited to learn, when the trolley lady came I bought some chocolate frogs and licorice wands, and we all ate them, even Hermione ate, though it took some convincing, just when we finished every candy, another knock was sounded, then the door opened and one blond and two big kids walked in, one of the big kids were even at my height! The blond kid who I immediately assumed was Draco Malfoy said "Have any of you seen the boy who lived?"

And Hermione immediately said "He is at the other end of the first year wagons." "Thank you" Draco simply said and left. 'Well, that was anticlimactic' Harry thought.

After that incident, they went on to talk about houses. "I hope to be Gryffindor, like my parents, but I will probably be a Hufflepuff" Neville said with a low tone. "What's wrong with being a Hufflepuff?" Harry asked "Do you have a problem with loyal and hard working people?" "No, it's just that my grandmother really want me to be in the same house as everyone else in the family was and I also want to be brave" "You are brave Neville, you want even though you are afraid to every wagon to ask about Trevor, bravery isn't the absence of fear, it doing the right thing despite it. I'm sure that you would be a Gryffindor if that's what you want" "thank you Harry, it means a lot that you said it." "Yea, so lets all three of us become Gryffindor" Hermione said with a smile

"I don't really care if I'm Gryffindor, I like all the houses." Harry lied as in truth the only house he didn't want to be in was Gryffindor. "Really? Even Slytherin?" Hermione was shocked "What's wrong with ambition?" "But that's the house 'you know who' was in!" Neville exclaimed "really? What year did he graduate?" "I don't know, how is that relevant?" Because when I heard his name I did a little research and there was never a student named you know what in all of Hogwarts" "of course not, it's a fake name, it's just that no-one knows his real name." Neville answered "exactly, so how do you know he was a Slytherin? And remember 'because everyone said so' isn't an answer" Neville and Hermione looked thoughtful so the rest of the ride was done quietly.