Sunshine & Daisies

Harry smiled at him. "I'm Harry Dursley."

Just as they were introducing themselves, a trolley rolled by their compartment, covered in all sorts of sweets that were completely unfamiliar to Harry's eyes.

"Anything off the trolley, dears?"

"No, I'm good..."

"Yes please!" Harry said with a brilliant smile.

Now, the woman didn't seem to have anything at all (literally, nothing) that he recognized, but what she did have were (and he was being completely serious about the names, here) Bertie Bott's Every-Flavour Beans, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, Chocolate Frogs, Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes, Liquorice Wands and a number of other odd looking treats. Not wanting to risk missing out on anything, Harry did the completely reasonable thing, and bought a bit of everything.

Weasley stared on with wide eyes as Harry brought it all back into the compartment and tipped it on to an empty seat.

"Hungry, are you?"

"Somewhat."

"Sweet tooth?"

"Oh, definitely," said Harry, taking a large bite out of a pumpkin pasty. He really did like sweets - not that anyone had ever cared to ask before. He was already liking Ron Weasley quite a bit.

Meanwhile, the boy had taken out a lumpy package and unwrapped it. There were four sandwiches inside, one of which he pulled apart and said,

"She always forgets I don't like corned beef."

"Swap you for one of these," said Harry, holding up a pasty. "Or two, or four."

"You don't want this, it's all dry," said the Weasley boy. "She hasn't got much time," he added quickly, "You know, with five of us."

Harry just smiled. "I assure you, I've had worse. I just happen to fancy some corned beef right now, you know? So come on, indulge me."

Ten minutes later, the compartment was littered with candy wrappers. Truly, Harry felt quite bad about that. He was making a mess! Seriously, how undignified of him...if Tom were around, he would no doubt be in a lot of pain. Fortunately, though, his behaviour seemed to ingratiate him with the Weasley boy, and what Tom didn't know couldn't hurt him.

"So," Weasley said with a mouth full of chocolate, "You're muggleborn, then?"

Harry shook his head. "Halfblood...but it's complicated."

At that moment, three boys showed up at their compartment door – two very large ones, and a much smaller boy, who was extremely pale and had the lightest blonde hair Harry had ever seen. Ooh, ooh, he knew this one just by looking! Definitely a Malfoy.

"I heard Harry Potter is on this train," the boy said imperiously, "Have either of you two seen him?"

Harry and the Weasley boy both shook their heads.

"You know, it's polite to introduce yourself before asking questions," Harry could not help but comment.

The boy straightened his posture and puffed his chest out a bit. "Malfoy, Draco Malfoy." After mightily introducing himself, Malfoy leered at Weasley, cold grey eyes narrowing. "Red hair, Tattered books, second hand robes...you're a Weasley, aren't you?"

Before Weasley could snap back, Harry interupted. "Yes, this is Ron Weasley. My name is Tom Evans. It's a pleasure to meet you." He held out his hand for the Malfoy boy to shake.

But Malfoy just stared at it as though it were some offensively dirty object.

"Evans? That's not a wizard's name, is it? You're a mudblood then?"

He didn't wait for an answer, and settled on a sneer. "Come, Crabbe, Goyle, let's keep looking."

After Draco Malfoy left, Harry turned back to Weasley, to see him staring at him with confusion.

"Are you alright, Weasley?"

"I thought you said your name was Harry Dursley."

"Did I?"

Weasley nodded. "And you just told Malfoy that your name is Tom Evans."

Harry blinked. "So I did. Oh well, I guess I'm Tom Evans now. Please refer to me as such."

Weasley nodded slowly, looking at Harry warily.

Meanwhile, Harry cringed inwardly. His name game was probably going to come back to bite him...but he really didn't want to deal with the whole Harry Potter business at the moment, not to mention he sort of fancied making a dramatic entrance at the sorting ceremony. Oh well, what's done is done.

He looked over at Weasley. "You know, before you showed up, I was practicing some spells."

The other boy looked at him with interest. "Oh, I know one! My brothers taught me!"

Harry grinned at that. "Oh, please show me!"

Eager to impress, Weasley reached into the small cage beside him, pulling out a fat grey rat. It was an odd, pathetic sort of creature, with a long bony tail and exceptionally large eyes. Harry also could not help but notice that it was missing a toe. Did someone cut it off?

"His name's Scabbers and he's useless, he hardly ever wakes up. My brother Percy got an owl from my dad for being made a Prefect, but they couldn't aff– I mean, I got Scabbers instead. He'll probably die soon, though. He's been in the family for ten years already..."

Ten years? That's a long time. Harry nodded. "It's quite funny looking."

Weasley grinned. "And I can make him look even funnier." He cleared his throat.

"Sunshine, daisies,

butter mellow,

Turn this stupid,

fat rat yellow."

He waved his wand, but nothing happened. Scabbers stayed grey and fast asleep.

Harry looked at him with a sheepish smile. "I'm fairly certain that's not a real spell."

"Fred and George, think they're so bloody smart..." Weasley huffed. "Why can't anyone show me some real magic?"

Harry looked at him amusedly, and then a curious look came over his face. "Say, Weasley, I could demonstrate a few spells for you.."

"Demonstrate?"

"Yes, well, I've found that this spell practicing thing is really a two person affair. I won't know if they're working right if I'm all alone, you see? So what do you say - would you mind helping me out a bit?"

Just as Harry was practicing his Silencio charm on Weasley, who was a bit put off by the whole thing (despite having explicitly agreed to being a part of Harry's series of experiments), their compartment door flew open, revealing a stiff bushy-haired girl with rather large front teeth with a small but plump dark-haired boy, who looked terribly nervous, cowering behind her.

....

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