Chapter 26: Chapter 26
The awkward silence in the compartment was soon broken as the girls started talking and the midget returned to her original form. Her sheer renewed presence seemed to break the ice as she chattered their ears off. They talked about quidditch, Hogwarts, houses, famous wizards...almost everything really. When the midget gets going, there was no lack of topics.
Halfway through the ride Ron brought out a broken set of wizarding chess, instantly capturing Harry's attention.
"You play chess?" The boy asked him, eager to have something in common with him.
"No." Harry responded. "But I would like to learn. And you shall teach me."
The dejected boy perked up with a grin. "Sure mate, I'd love to!"
Wizarding Chess was a complicated but fun game. The pieces suggested moves and strategies of their own, depending on how good it's user was. Harry quickly devoured the rules, creating the skill 'Chess'. Ron was a strong player, and playing against him rapidly made him level up.
The group found a good way to pass time with chess. Especially when Susan revealed her own chess set, which was much more pristine and impressive looking than Ron's, making the boy terribly embarrassed.
Something harry found idiotic but didn't comment.
So for the next few hours, they played chess and ate their tiffins. Their parents did give them around 50 galleons to spend on whatever they wanted but Harry was more than satisfied with the fried chicken burger Lily had packed for them.
Their peaceful harmony was broken once again when the compartment door opened once again, and in came two first years.
One was a girl with bushy hair, already dressed in her Hogwarts robes. The other was a chubby boy, looking ten times more nervous than Ron, with watery eyes that were seconds away from crying.
Even as he scanned them calmly, Harry couldn't quite manage to stifle his rapidly growing irritation.
Did a closed door not mean anything in this train?
"Anyone seen a toad around here?" The girl who'd just entered demanded with a commanding tone, irritating Harry further. "Neville's lost one."
Her large front teeth did nothing to sooth that irritation.
Harry was sure there must be a spell to find lost objects but it wasn't in his repertoire. Yet. Not that he was going to help this girl anyway.
"Oh, a toad!?" His twin answered for them. "We haven't seen one but I'd love to get my hands on it. Are you making a potion? I've seen mum cut up a few toads you know? They make this really bad smelly smell though so I wouldn't recmend..ah...recommend it."
The boy, Neville, stared at his sister with wide fearful eyes. "D-Do you think... someone used him in a p-potion?"
"Don't be silly." The bossy girl snapped. "We'll find it here somewhere."
"Harry, checkmate in three." Ron cut through the chatter, his concentration fully on board.
He stared down with a frown, quickly calculating the moves, before accepting his fate with a sigh. "I resign."
The boy gave a whoop lf joy. "You hear that? I beat Harry Potter in chess! Again!"
"Count your days, Weasley." Harry's lips curved up in a slight smirk as the familiar sound of a skill leveling up rang in his ears. "I'll be beating you consistently before this year is done."
"Yeah you probably will, mate" Ron admitted with a sigh, surprising him. "I've never seen someone improve so fast. And I've played chess since I was five. Not because I wanted to, mind you. But cause we had this chess board lying in the attic an–"
"Are you really Harry Potter?" Their conversation was interrupted by the bossy girl, as she stared him up and down. "I'm Hermione Granger by the way."
"Why are you here still?" Harry asked with a frown.
The girl wasn't listening as she took a seat beside them. "I know all about you, of course. I got a few extra books for background reading, and you and your sister are in 'Modern Magical History', and 'The Rise and Fall of Dark Arts', and 'The Great Wizarding Events of Twentieth Century'."
He glanced at the midget. "We are?"
"Goodness, didn't you know?" The buck-toothed girl interrupted. "How could you be so ignorant? I would've read everything I could if I was in your place."
"You want to read fictional stories about yourself?" He asked drolly, his annoyance through the roof. "Quite narcissistic, aren't you? I suggest you leave before you make a bigger fool of yourself."
She jerked back as if struck. "I'm...I'm not.."
"What's a narcisit?" Ron muttered.
"I think it's some kind of jam." Rose whispered back. "Or butter. A muggle butter."
The girl turned around in a huff. "C'mon Neville. We are clearly not wanted here."
"The boy is welcome to stay." Harry stated, dismissing her away. "You aren't."
He could see tears well up in her eyes as she stared back in venom.
"Fine." She spat and left, though still dragging the boy with her.
"Blimey, mate." Ron exclaimed. "That was savage."
"That was bad, brother." Rose mumbled at him. "You made the poor girl cry and run away."
Harry couldn't careless. "She was annoying me."
He had just come to a realization that it would be very difficult to act civilly with everyone. He cannot go to this school expecting to talk with mature, understanding people. No, he was going to stay with a branch of humans he had the least experience handling: Children.
And he was beginning to realise that treating children like adults will never work. So, he simply couldn't care anymore.
He was here to learn magic. If in the process he makes enemies, inconvenient though it may be, he must simply deal with them as he does his targets:
With extreme efficiency.
"Good riddance, I say." Andrea commented as things went back to normal in their compartment. "Didn't you hear how she talked? Like she knew better than all of us."
"She was just nervous." Rose argued. "You saw how she was already dressed in uniform? Poor girl must've wanted to impress everyone."
"That doesn't give her the right to say whatever she wants to," Andrea countered. "If she can dish it out then she should be ready to take it back twice as harsh. You shouldn't go around insulting people if a simple few words could make you cry."
"Or we could've been a little bit patient and made her feel more welcomed." Rose spoke passionately, and Harry couldn't help but notice as the mask finally slipped. "We're going to be in this castle for the next seven years. Why can't we try to be friends instead of enemies from the start? Regardless of our houses?"
Andrea sputtered a little, not seeming to have any argument, before pointing a finger at Harry. "He was the one to make her cry, you know? Why are you saying this to me?"
Harry frowned, surprised at having his name thrown around. "You will not question my actions. I did what I felt like doing. If any of you want to be friends with others, you will do so outside this compartment. All of have freedom to do whatever you wish to, do you not?"
"...I s'pose." His midget twin muttered, seeming to shrink into herself as she visibly lost her fire, looking like a chastised baby.
"Bet you, she's going into Ravenclaw." Ron cut in as their chess board reset itself, unaware of what just transpired. "They're all like that. I heard my brothers say they will happily backstab each other for a few extra marks."
"Dorea isn't like that." Andrea muttered under her breath. "How do your brothers know that anyway? Are they in Ravenclaw too?"
"Goodness no!" Ron exclaimed. "Everyone in my family is Gryffindor. My mum and dad, my five big brothers, all of them. I hope I'm too."
That was a huge family. He couldn't remember ever meeting a family with six children.
"Your brothers are still in Hogwarts?" Harry asked, though his eyes were on the chess board as he opened with pawn to E4 once again. He didn't know anything else with white pieces.
"Nah, two of them graduated." He replied, playing E5 on board. "Charlie's in Romania studying dragons, and Bill's in Africa doing something for Gringotts."
"I see." His attention was on board. He'd just played bishop to c4, and Ron responded with queen h4. It was a trap that he'd already fallen for once, may it be losing a pawn or even getting checkmated. But he wasn't one to repeat mistakes.
"Queen to E2." He commanded, and his happy queen quickly moved in front of his king with a cheer.
"Oh that's smart." Ron muttered. "Bishop move to c5."
He thought about it for a second. Black's bishop and queen were now both targeting his F2 pawn. But it wasn't in danger. If black queen takes f2, then his white Queen will take the queen. If bishop takes his queen then king can take the bishop. Ron will be down two points.
"Knight go to f3." He commanded, without worrying about his pawn.
The horse jumped over a pawn to take its new position, and stared at the black queen threateningly.
"Merlin's pants mate." Ron swore. "How did you improve so fast anyway?"
Harry smiled, enjoying the sport. "Wouldn't you like to know?"
The boy huffed and shook his head. "Queen come back to e7."
Ron's queen was definitely pissed because she made a few threatening gestures towards him as she furiously retreated.
The door to their compartment once again slid open but this time it wasn't the bossy girl. Three boys entered inside, with the middle one looking like a blonde ferret. The two were large, even taller than him, and seemed to be the blonde's body guards, which was quite comical for Harry.
"Is it true?" The blonde asked. "They're saying the Potters are in this compartment."
His eyes shot a dismissive gaze at Ron before looking at Harry and Rose. "It's you, isn't it?"
"What do you want?" Harry asked bluntly.
He was done with these moronic children. If this bunch did not leave soon...
The boy didn't seem to take the hint, appearing unbothered by his words as he pointed at his Stooges. "I'm Draco Malfoy, and these are Crabbe and Goyle."
Ron coughed lightly in his hands, his shoulders shaking from suppressed mirth.
The blonde turned to him with a sneer. "Think my name's funny do you? No need to ask who you are. My father told me all the Weasleys have red hair, freckles, and more children than they can afford."
Ron blushed in anger and embarrassment, though kept quiet.
"You know some wizarding families are better than others, don't you Potter?" The boy said, extending his hand. "You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you here."
"Leave." Harry commanded. "Now."
He will not tolerate another kid advising him on how to behave.
Did everyone in this Hogwarts think they know the best for him? 11 years he'd lived on his own, only to get life advices from stupid children.
His rebuttal made the boy take back his hand, while his face turned a dark shade of red.
"I would be careful if I were you, Potter." The boy warned with a stupid scowl. "Your parents didn't know what was good for them either. Look what happened to them, becoming vegetables for six–"
Harry didn't lose his temper easily, but this day was really testing his patience.
And he decided to let loose a bit.
Before the boy could say another word, Harry was already out of his seat, taking two quick steps to approach the boy.
What a shame he didn't have his wand on his person. He'd love to get familiar with the Cruciatus again.
"Crabbe! Goy–"
Before the two giant boys could move, he launched a jab to the boy's throat.
The blonde ferret stumbled back from the light hit as if Harry had struck with the force of a truck. He choked on his words, looking unable to breathe, while his hands desperately clawed at the air for help.
His two stooges were rooted on the spot, as were his own group.
"Pl-please..." Malfoy gasped out at them, his face red and sweaty.
Harry wasn't satisfied.
He brought up his second hand and slammed into the downed blonde's nose with a satisfying crack.
Blood spurted in the compartment, and the ferret's widened eyes stared at the red liquid that dripped down his hands incredulously, before slowly losing light as he entered the world of unconsciousness.
"Take him and screw off." Harry waved them off. "And close the doors behind you."
He then turned away, quite done with the day's bullshit. Approaching back his position, Harry quickly pulled down his trunk as the doors slid shut.
He'd just realized that he didn't want his wand to be away from him.
"Bloody hell mate, that was wicked!" Ron exclaimed, though he looked queasy at the sight of blood spots on the floor.
As did the rest of the kids with him. Except Rosalia. She seemed to have stars in her eyes as she stared at him.
'Very surprising.'
He would've thought his midget sister would be the first one to criticize him.
"Are you not angry?" He asked the girl, glancing at her from the corner of his eyes as he picked out his wand.
"No, why would I be?" She said. "He deserved it. No one should call our parents vegetables. Cause I don't like Vegetables. Now if he'd said they were chocolates on the other hand..."
Harry sighed. He was coming to truly care for his midget sister; she was loyal, obedient, caring, helpful, and quite talented in magic...but sometimes she still said things that his brain would have trouble comprehending.
He had a mind to just call her out on her frankly amateur acting. The only reason he hadn't was due to his own understanding of how comforting it felt to hide behind a mask.
But if she kept giving him brainspams like this on a daily basis, he may just start not caring about her privacy anymore.
After retrieving his wand, he put the trunk back up and turned to the door.
"Colloportus." He intoned with precise movements of his wand, and an invisible wave of magic locked the door up tightly.
"Oh the locking Spell!" Rose exclaimed. "That's so smart! How didn't I think of that?"
"Well you just said it's smart. How could you think of that?" Harry asked 'seriously', barely suppressing a smirk.
"...I'm smart too." She mumbled out softly. "You said so yesterday."
"Of course you are." Harry agreed. "But only when you try to use your brain."
He tucked his wand inside his Jean's pocket. The eleven inch thing still poked out from the pocket so he made sure to sit carefully.
A few minutes later a prefect came and knocked on their door, unable to open it. Harry shot a quick Alohomora, though the prefect didn't seem surprised. He informed them to change into their uniforms as Hogwarts was close and left.
He and Ron went outside to give the girls some space, then the girls did the same for them.
"We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes!" A voice echoed throughout the train. "Please leave your luggage on the train. It will be taken separately."
Suddenly the mood in the compartment changed completely. Harry could only stare in confusion as his friends got pale and nervous. Even Rose. Though hers was an excitable kind of nervous.
The train soon began to slow down and they opened the door to join the crowd of students thronging the train's corridor. Their compartment was one of the first ones so they were relatively close to one of the exit doors.
The train finally came to a stop and Harry quickly clutched his midget sister's hand and dragged them out to a tiny, dark platform.
Night had completely set in, and the cool outside air caressed his skin in comfort. Though Rose seemed to shiver under it so it most likely wasn't for everyone.
Still, they were finally at Hogwarts as last.
And while he didn't show it, Harry was even more excited than his twin.
'Finally...my future calls.'
-----------------------------
AN: Finally! Hogwarts is here, and Harry's at Hogwarts.
For the first year, there won't be any original overarching plot as I'm going to show the changes that I've made to the world, introducing some new sub-plots, while Harry will start exploring his new gamer abilities and learn new magic.
Basically, think of this as a training arc and world building (with some canon events still happening) where our Mc is finally getting his hands on some big guns.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter, and Harry's relation with Rose. Also, don't be disappointed by Harry being rude to Hermione. This does not mean he and Hermione will be enemies or anything, just that they had a rough start to what could eventually (maybe) lead to a beautiful friendship.
Well that's it for today! The next chapter will be for Mortal God of Olympus on 2 march.
Next chap for MS will be 9 days later, so on 8th march.
Till then, stay safe and Good day!
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone