"Nice to meet you, Mr Potter," Tyler said with an easy smile. "My name is Tyler Blake, but you can call me Tyler."
He held out his right hand. Harry hesitated for a second, then quickly wiped his own hand on his clothes before reaching out to shake it. The gesture was a little clumsy, but there was something painfully sincere about it.
"The one beside me is my best friend and my brother in all but blood," Tyler continued. "His name is Jamie Campbell, and you can call him Jamie."
"Nice to meet you, Mr Potter," Jamie said with a smile of his own. He also extended his hand, his manner polite enough that no one would have guessed how sharp his eyes truly were.
"Nice to meet you too, Tyler, Jamie," Harry said, shaking Jamie's hand as well. "You can call me Harry."
His eyes were faintly red, though he tried to hide it. Perhaps because he had been bullied since childhood and had never really had friends, Tyler and Jamie's simple kindness struck him harder than either of them had expected.
Harry Potter's childhood had indeed been miserable. He had lost both parents as a baby, been sent to relatives who treated him poorly, and grown up under the constant bullying of his cousin. He had even been made to do chores in a house where he was never truly welcomed.
In that sense, his childhood was not much better than Voldemort's had been. Yet Harry had not turned bitter or cruel, and perhaps that stubborn kindness had been the greatest inheritance his parents left him.
"Um… Tyler, Jamie," Harry asked after a moment, glancing between them. "Are you two Hogwarts students too?"
"Of course," Tyler said. "Same as you, we're first-years this year."
"You're first-years too?" Harry sounded surprised. He had assumed Tyler and Jamie were older students, partly because they seemed too calm and confident to be just as new as he was.
"And where's your luggage?" Harry asked, looking around them in confusion. "Did you already send it ahead?"
"It's all here." Tyler patted the small pouch at his waist, which looked more like an elegant coin purse than anything capable of holding school trunks. Its surface was embroidered with a fine pattern, and even Harry could tell at a glance that it was expensive.
"This pouch has an Undetectable Extension Charm on it," Tyler explained. "There's a lot of space inside, enough to hold plenty of things."
"An Undetectable Extension Charm?" Harry repeated, curiosity immediately overcoming his nervousness. "What's that?"
"A kind of magic," Jamie said. "You probably won't understand it properly yet, but once you've been at Hogwarts for a while, you'll learn more."
"It's nearly time," Tyler said, glancing toward the station clock. "We shouldn't keep standing around. The Hogwarts Express leaves at eleven sharp, and it won't wait for us."
"Tyler, Jamie, how do we get to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters?" Harry asked, suddenly anxious again. Now that he knew the train was real and close by, the thought of missing it became even worse.
"See that wall in front of you?" Jamie said, nodding toward the barrier between Platforms Nine and Ten. "It's enchanted. Wizards can pass straight through."
To demonstrate, Jamie walked up to the wall and stretched out his right hand. Harry's eyes widened as Jamie's hand passed through the solid barrier as if it were made of smoke.
"Let's go, Harry," Tyler said, lightly patting him on the shoulder. "If you're nervous, run at it instead. I'll be right behind you, so don't worry. Nothing will happen."
"Oh. Okay." Harry swallowed and nodded.
Jamie had already disappeared through the wall. Harry took a deep breath, gripped the handle of his trolley, and pushed it forward at a trot. As the wall rushed closer and closer, he squeezed his eyes shut.
"Well?" Tyler's voice sounded beside him a moment later. "Told you it would be fine."
Harry opened his eyes and found Tyler and Jamie standing beside him. He exhaled in relief, then finally looked at the platform in front of them.
A scarlet steam engine stood beside a crowded platform filled with students, parents, trunks, owls, cats, and excited voices. White steam drifted through the air, wrapping around everyone's legs and blurring the edges of the scene until it looked like something from a dream.
The sign on the train read: Hogwarts Express, Eleven O'Clock.
Harry turned back and saw that the solid barrier behind him had become a wrought-iron archway. The words Platform Nine and Three-Quarters were written above it, and for the first time that morning, he truly believed he had found the way.
"Oh! Children, hurry up," a woman's voice called from behind them. "The Hogwarts Express is about to leave."
Another family had just come through the barrier. There were seven of them altogether: a middle-aged couple and five children, all with bright red hair. They moved together with the easy noise of a large family, speaking over one another as though this chaos was completely normal.
"That's the Weasley family," Tyler said when he noticed Harry staring. "They're good people, Harry. They should welcome you warmly."
"Why?" Harry asked, curious. He had never met the family before, though something about their warmth already made him feel drawn toward them.
"Besides the fact that you're the Boy Who Lived, the Weasleys had a decent relationship with your parents," Tyler said. "Your parents were in Gryffindor at Hogwarts, and so were the Weasleys, though they were a few years ahead."
"I never knew much about my parents," Harry said quietly.
He looked toward the red-haired family again, and this time his expression changed. There was hope there now, fragile but obvious. If they had known his parents, perhaps they could tell him things the Dursleys never had.
"Then let's get on the train first," Tyler said. "You can go talk to the Weasleys after that. Maybe they know something about your parents."
"Tyler, Jamie, I'll come find you later," Harry said.
In the end, he could not resist the chance. He pushed his trolley toward the Weasleys, moving quickly before he lost his courage. Tyler watched him go, then exchanged a glance with Jamie.
"Let's go," Tyler said.
Jamie nodded. The two of them were travelling lightly, with only their wands on them. Everything else they needed was stored inside their enchanted waist pouches.
They boarded the Hogwarts Express and moved down the corridor until they found an empty compartment. After settling inside, Tyler looked out through the window and saw Harry speaking with the Weasleys. From the way Mrs Weasley smiled and began helping him, it seemed their first meeting was going smoothly.
"Gran, I've lost my toad again."
"Let us have a look, Lee. Hurry up and show us."
"Oh, I heard you went to France over the summer. What was it like over there?"
Outside the compartment, the voices of the crowd chattered.
.....
Join my p@treon and read ahead by more than 60+ chapters.
Link : [email protected]/InfinityWeaver
Free members can read the next two chapters for free on my p@treon