Harry Potter and the Series of Short Stories

Together

Harry stood on Platform 9 and 3/4, eagerly awaiting the Hogwarts express. He had been told his entire life of this moment. When he received his letter, his mother had giddily made him a cake and decided they could do no less than celebrate. In the midst of the craze of new and returning students, Harry found his mind wandering. In his trunk he had a copy of his father's potions book, the only thing which his father kept from his years in Hogwarts. His mother on the other hand, had given him all of her hand-me-down books. These books were in good shape, their spines kept together, unlike his father's. His father's book had writing in it, some pages nearly tearing from being dog-eared for so long. "Take it, it will help you immensely," his father had said. 

Harry boarded the train, looking around at the various empty seats and saw a boy with bright red hair. His father had told him about their family: the Weasleys. Harry sat down beside the Weasley boy and smiled kindly. "Hi, I'm Harry." The boy looked up, his mouth full of small snacks his mother must have packed him. 

"Ron." The fiery-haired boy replied. Ron pushed his candies and snacks towards Harry and Harry picked up a chocolate frog. He first took out the card with a picture of Dumbledore, moving with pride and confidence in the oval frame to which he was confined. Ron peered over and shrugged, "I've got plenty of those ones."

"Me, too," Harry set the card aside and looked up at the sound of a knock. There was a girl with bushy hair standing at the doorway, asking if she could sit with them. "Sure," Harry replied, his voice muffled from the chocolate in his mouth. Ron didn't look keen on the girl sitting beside Harry. There was a loud clatter coming from outside of their compartment and a boy fell inside.

"Blimey! It's Neville Longbottom!" Ron spat, both his words and his food flew from his mouth. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Neville!" Ron scooted to the side so that Neville fit comfortably inside of the already small compartment. 

"My father has told me about you," Harry smiled, trying not to sound too overwhelmed by "The Savior's" presence. Neville's face turned a deep red as he sat down. He obviously stumbled into the compartment with the intentions of avoiding this type of conversation.

"My name's Hermoine. Hermoine Granger." The girl offered her hand and Neville took it softly. Hermoine beamed as she turned back to the boys sitting with her. "Have you guys started reading any of the books?"

. . . 

By Harry's sixth year, he wasn't phased by anything that happened on Platform 9 and 3/4. He walked aboard the train and sat down in a compartment, looking around for Ron and Hermoine before realizing they were doing prefect duties. Harry sighed and slumped down into his seat, looking out the window to wave at his parents as the train lurched forward. When he looked back to his compartment, he saw Luna Lovegood and Neville Longbottom standing at the doorway. "Come in, come in," Harry said, sitting up straight as he did so. Harry was looking forward to the coming year, especially excited to find that he had gotten all O's on his OWLs, except Divination, which he never expected better than an A in. He was on track to becoming an Auror, despite the Headmistress' objection. Professor Umbridge never liked Harry, perhaps because he was always a little bit of a troublemaker. He had a flare that always caught his least favorite teachers off guard. 

A boy strolled down the compartment aisle and peered into the compartment that Harry was in. "Neville, Harry, Professor Slughorn would like you to come see him in the front compartment." The boy left as quickly as he had come. Neville and Harry exchanged confused glances. "Neville, you met him once, didn't you?" Neville nodded shyly and shrugged.

"He seemed keen on knowing how my grandmother was doing. I told him she's just an old bat, and I think he thinks I've got a sense of humor now." Neville got up and Harry followed him to the first compartment where he saw various other people, including Hermoine, Ginny Weasley, Cormac McLaggen, Blaise Zabini, and Melinda Bobbin.