A Tale of Hand-Me-Downs

Both of us shook our head as the boy took his seat. He glanced at the spot Harry's scar was then quickly looked out the window. Trying to hide his fascination. I noticed he still had some dirt on his nose.

"Hey, Ron."

The twins had returned.

"Listen, we're going down the middle of the train — Lee Jordan's got a giant tarantula down there."

Giant Tarantula?

"Right," mumbled Ron.

"Harry, Sarah" said the other twin, "did we introduce ourselves? Fred and George Weasley. And this is Ron, our brother. See you later, then."

"Bye," we all responded. The twins slid the compartment door shut behind them.

"Are you really the Potter twins?" Ron blurted out.

"Yep." I replied simply, while Harry nodded.

"Oh — well, I thought it might be one of Fred and George's jokes," said Ron. "And have you really got — you know…"

He pointed at Harry's forehead.

Harry pulled back his bangs to show the lightning scar. Ron stared. "So that's where You-Know-Who —?"

"Yes, but I can't remember it." Harry replied.

"Nothing?" said Ron eagerly.

"Well — I remember a lot of green light, but nothing else."

"Wow," said Ron. He sat and stared at Harry for a few moments, then turned to me. "What about you, remember anything?" He asked eagerly.

I didn't really know what to say, I did remember something. But really had no desire to share it with anyone...

"Um..." I shifted uncomfortably in my seat.

"Sorry, sorry." Ron said as he noticed my change of demeanor.

"It's fine."

After a moment of silence Harry spoke again.

"Are all your family wizards?" Harry asked, clearly interested in a wizarding family.

"Er — Yes, I think so," replied Ron. "I think Mom's got a second cousin who's an accountant, but we never talk about him."

"So you must know loads of magic already." Harry commented.

"I heard you went to live with Muggles," said Ron. "What are they like?"

"Horrible — well, not all of them. Our aunt and uncle and cousin are, though. Wish I'd had three wizard brothers."

"Hey I'm not that bad." I interjected teasingly.

"I mean you can be pretty boring." Harry replied grinning, and motioning to my books.

I shrugged. "Books are not boring."

"Anyways, three magical brothers."

"Five," Ron said gloomily "I'm the sixth in our family to go to Hogwarts. You could say I've got a lot to live up to. Bill and Charlie have already left — Bill was head boy and Charlie was captain of Quidditch. Now Percy's a prefect. Fred and George mess around a lot, but they still get really good marks and everyone thinks they're really funny. Everyone expects me to do as well as the others, but if I do, it's no big deal, because they did it first. You never get anything new, either, with five brothers. I've got Bill's old robes, Charlie's old wand, and Percy's old rat."

Ron reached inside his jacket and pulled out a sleeping, fat, grey rat.

"His name's Scabbers and he's useless, he hardly ever wakes up. Percy got an owl from my dad for being made a prefect, but they couldn't aff — I mean, I got Scabbers instead."

Ron seemed embarrassed and his ears went pink.

"We feel your pain, when we lived with the Dursley's we never got anything." I said.

"Really?" Ron asked us.

"Nope, nothing. We were forced to wear hand my down clothes." Harry began.

"Never anything for Christmas of birthdays." I added.

"I'm thankful they fed us at all."

"What we did get was horrible. They got me a comb that was sharp as knives. It was horrible."

"I got a pair of socks one year, and until Hagrid told us, we didn't know anything about being magic or about our parents or Voldemort —"

Ron gasped.

"What?" asked Harry.

"You said You-Know-Who's name!" said Ron, sounding both shocked and impressed. "I'd have thought you, of all people —"

"I'm not trying to be brave or anything, saying the name," Harry began, "I just never knew you shouldn't. See what I mean? I've got loads to learn… I bet," he added, voicing for the first time something that had been worrying him a lot lately, "I bet I'm the worst in the class."

"You won't be. There's loads of people who come from Muggle families and they learn quick enough." Ron assured him.

"Besides, worst comes to worst, I'll help you." I said confidently.

....

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