Chapter Text
The Weasleys, Autumn, and Lee arrived to King’s Cross early, which never happened, and Autumn noticed something peculiar as they walked in.
“Er, Mrs. Weasley?” She got the woman’s attention. “The boy over there with the black hair. Does he look a little lost to you?”
She turned to where Autumn was looking, at a skinny boy with messy black hair, a trunk, and an owl.
“Probably a first year.” Mrs. Weasley reasoned. “Come along everyone!”
She organized the group and they passed by the boy, loudly talking about muggles and Hogwarts.
He didn’t notice.
They went by again.
He still didn’t notice.
They went by a total of eight times before the boy noticed them.
“Er, excuse me!” He said timidly.
The whole group turned to him, aside from Percy, Fred, and George, who had already gone through the barrier in an attempt to show the boy what to do.
“Oh, hello!” Mrs. Weasley greeted, like she’d just spotted him. “First year? Ron’s new too.”
“Yes,” the boy nodded politely, “but I don’t know how to- how to-“
“How to get to the platform, dear?” Mrs. Weasley supplied warmly, and the boy nodded in relief. “Well that’s easy. All you have to do is walk straight into the barrier between platform 9 and platform 10. Here, watch Autumn and Lee.”
Autumn flashed the kid a grin and Lee waved, then they walked casually through the barrier together.
Platform 9 3/4 was packed, as always. People were yelling, greeting each other, getting scolded by relatives. They’d lost the twins already, but a loud cry of —
“Autumn! Lee!”
— drew their gazes to Angelina Johnson, who grabbed them both in a tight hug.
“How’ve you been? I haven’t seen you in so long!” She pulled back with a smile.
Autumn grinned. “Pretty well. How about yourself?”
“Excellent now that you two are here.” She declared with a smile.
“Hey Ange,” Lee said conspiratorially, “wanna see something?”
Angelina looked skeptical. “Is it one of your pranks?”
“Nope!” Lee grinned.
“A tarantula!” Autumn declared, with a grin identical to Lee’s.
“A what?” A voice behind them asked.
They all turned to see Cedric Diggory and a group of Hufflepuffs standing there, looking curious.
“A tarantula.” Lee repeated, pulling a cardboard box with holes poked in it out of his trunk. “Giant spider.”
“Can we see?” Asked Cho Chang, a Ravenclaw a year below them.
The others nodded in agreement. “Come on, Lee. Give us a look!”
Lee, never one to deny an audience, opened the box just enough for one hairy leg to poke out.
Almost everyone shrieked, including Autumn — despite having already seen it twice. Zacarias Smith jumped into Cedric Diggory’s arms, and Terry Boot hid behind Cho Chang.
Lee just laughed and took a bow. “More later, folks! Let’s get on the train now.”
The group mumbled their agreement and generally dispersed, except Lee, Autumn, Angelina, and… Katie Bell, who’d come out of nowhere. They greeted her with a hug, then climbed into the train, picking out a compartment.
Fred and George came in a little after the train started moving, accompanied by Alicia Spinnet, who waved at everyone.
“Alicia!” Katie jumped up to hug her friend.
Alicia’s face split into a wide grin. “Katie!”
“Fred!” George cried dramatically.
Fred pulled George into an over exaggerated hug. “George!”
Autumn threw Lee’s shoe at them.
“You’ll never guess who we met on the platform!” Fred sat across from Angelina, leaning forward with a conspiratorial grin.
George lounged next to his brother. “We were just telling Alicia on the way here.”
Alicia rolled her eyes in a very Katie-like way. “I don’t believe it.”
“Alright,” Angelina leaned against Autumn, “I’ll bite. Who’d you meet?”
The twins smirked at each other and leaned towards her in unison. “Harry Potter.”
The compartment burst into laughter.
*****
“Potter, Harry!”
Murmuring broke out through the hall and Fred and George turned to their friends in perfect unison.
“Ha! Told you so!”
But no one was really listening.
Autumn might not have been raised in a wizarding family, but there was no way you be in the wizarding world for almost three years and not have heard of Harry Potter. The boy who inexplicably conquered You-Know-Who as a baby. His story was told everywhere. And here he was at Hogwarts, being sorted into-
“GRYFFINDOR!”
The Sorting Hat’s loud announcement silenced the murmurings, replacing them with cheers from the Gryffindor table.
Percy stood up to shake Harry’s hand, frantically introducing himself while Fred and George made faces behind his back. Seamus Finnigan, a dark haired boy who’d sat next to Alicia at the very edge of their group, leaned over and smiled at Harry, introducing himself hastily, and Hermione Granger, a bushy haired girl who’d been talking to Percy quietly about homework, waved at him slightly. Harry waved back, but quickly turned back to watch the sorting.
All in all, they had eight new Gryffindors: three girls and five boys, including Ron, who Autumn and Lee waved merrily at while Fred and George tried to convince whoever was nearest that they weren’t related.
They struck up a good conversation over dinner, where Autumn introduced herself to Dean Thomas, a muggleborn, and she explained that she was raised in the muggle world too, and he would have no trouble catching up, mostly be a they were all at the same level. Aside from Hermione Granger, another muggleborn, who’d seemed to make it her mission to memorize every textbook they had and recite them perfectly.
Eventually, Dumbledore stood up and made a few announcements. Quidditch tryouts — Autumn, Angelina, Alicia and Katie grinned at each other, the twins had been able to get on the team last year as beaters, but Wood had chosen three seventh years as chasers.
Dumbledore introduced their newest Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Professor Quirrel, a nervous man with a large turban, then sent them all off to bed after a rousing chorus of the school song.
All in all, a good first day back at Hogwarts. (Even if the summer had been a little rushed)