Across To Elsewhere

Part One: Seven - The Barrier

It was a tired Harri who stared at the entrance to Kings Cross as the family car finally pulled to a full stop.

"Get out." Uncle Vernon bit out from the driver's seat.

With haste Harri unlocked then opened her side door, scrambling to grab Hedwig's cage and get her bird to safety. The boot had popped open as she passed behind the vehicle, revealing the large trunk filled with her school things that she hadn't seen since she'd last stepped off the Hogwarts Express. A small thrill went through Harri at the sight of it, just as it also reminded her of just how much trouble she'd be in with her Professors when they found out how she hadn't done any of the summer assignments. For a moment Harri wondered if she could visit Diagon Ally during the school year, before she was abruptly brought back to the present when a porter made his way towards her with an empty trolly.

"Good morning, young sir? Would you like some help?" The young man asked as he offered the trolly for her bird.

Internally Harri winced. The first thing Aunt Petunia had done at the start of summer was sit Harri down to cut her lengthening hair until it was shorter than the tops of her ears. It was a shoddy job at best, but Harri supposed it was better than the time Aunt Petunia had taken the electric razor to her head.

She had been so embarrassed at the time that when she'd gone to bed that night, she hadn't the courage to call Goku and his Grandpa and dreaded going to her very first day of school the next day. Luckily her hair had mostly grown back by the next morning, the inky black locks falling just past her ears in that naturally messy way that they wanted to, saving Harri from any public embarrassment and she'd spoken to Goku briefly that morning. Even after the flogging of her life when they'd found out about her hair, her Aunt never took a razor to Harri's head again. That didn't stop the woman from cutting it impossibly short though.

The clothes Harri wore were also ones that were once Dudley's. They were three sizes too big for Harri so the shirt hung off her slim form like some formless dress that Harri had to tuck into the pants to avoid it falling off completely and she'd had to use another one of Dudley's old shirts as a belt to keep  the pants from falling down constantly.

The nice clothes Harri had taken the time to buy for herself before the term last year had been in her school trunk under the stairs. But as Harri thought about it, she'd probably not fit in those either at the moment. She'd need to regain the weight that she lost first.

Still, gratefully, Harri set Hedwig down on the trolley, nodding her head. "Yes, thank you." She said softly, cringing somewhat at the grate on her throat talking produced. Harri still wasn't sure if it came from not talking for almost all summer or from all the crying she'd done recently. It also didn't help with strangers thinking she was a boy.

They got Harri's trunk out, the task made much easier for the girl when she let the porter do the job for her, and closed the car boot. As soon as it shut the car took off and Harri coughed some from the emissions left behind. She caught the porter staring off at the vehicle with a look that could have been disbelief but the expression had disappeared quickly as he noticed her stare.

"And where will the young sir be going this day?" He asked her, giving a warm smile. "I can accompany you there."

"Platform nine." Harri responded after a moment of silent debate.

There was no point in trying to tell him she was a girl, she'd tried it several times with the adults at the school she had gone to before Hogwarts and they either didn't believe her- and thought that she had some sort of problem in the mind- or they'd start asking a bunch of questions that made Harri uncomfortable. There was once even a teacher who made a house call to the Dursley's. It's result had forced Harri to stay in her cupboard under the stairs for two weeks straight. When she'd eventually returned to school she never saw that teacher again and she quickly stopped correcting people all together after that.