Today's the day, Rio thought, barely able to contain his excitement. I'm going to Hogwarts. Hagrid, seeing that the normally collected, hard-to-impress child was visibly excited, smiled, as they continued along their journey in the Knight's bus. He won't have any friends already there, will he? And by the looks of it, there's a decent case he'll be a Gryffindor too. In that case …
"Rio."
"Yeah?"
"There's someone I want yer ter meet – he's going ter Hogwarts too, first year just like you. Yer interested?"
Seeing the positively surprised look on Rio's face, Hagrid chortled.
"I'll take that as a yes," he said, and the pair continued on their journey.
Will I finally make a real friend?
/
Hagrid knocked at the door. Number 4, on Privet Drive, Rio noted.
The door didn't open for a long time, and Rio heard shouting behind the door, before finally, a small child – a bit shorter than him, probably his age, opened the door.
"Hagrid!" the boy said, pleased. They've met before.
"Hello, Harry! How yer been? Are yer folks around?"
The happy look on Harry's face darkened slightly, as nodded, but then he turned to look at Rio. Before either of the 2 boys could say a word to each other, a thin, pale, pink-wearing, unpleasant-looking woman appeared at the doorstep. The mum?
"Oh," she said, in a small, nasal voice. "It's you."
"Vernon!" she summoned. That's probably the dad.
The woman looked over Hagrid, as if in a mixture of disgust and fear, and then swept her eyes over Rio with apprehension. I don't like her. Her look at Hagrid told him all he needed to know – this woman was clearly both pretentious, and a coward. What an unlucky boy you are, he thought pitiful for Harry.
As if by comical design, a man, who was the opposite of the woman, appeared at the door. He was … well, large was an understatement, but not in the way Hagrid was large. No, this man was just severely horizontally challenged, and very red. Probably takes a lot of energy for him to move, Rio thought to him, snickering internally.
"Oh, it's you," he said, repeating what his wife said, in the same, nasal voice.
"What do you want? We're taking the boy to the school later, as we were told. Why are you here?" he asked almost aggressively, but with that same hint of fear. They're afraid of magic, Rio concluded, that's why they're acting scared. Poor guy, though. If his parents are afraid of magic – wait, that doesn't make sense?
"Uh, well, I was actually hoping to take Harry ter Hogwarts a bit early, if that's alright with you?"
Both parents sighed in relief.
"Yes, take him! Get your stuff, boy!" As Harry dashed upstairs, Rio frowned. Why are they so eager to send him away? And who calls their own son boy? Do they even love him?
In a flash, Harry was back downstairs, holding books, bags and an owl cage – his owl was a stark contrast to Rio's – an almost angelic white and female, and beautiful to. I like James better though.
"Right, yer ready, Harry?"
"Yep! Let's go!" Harry responded enthusiastically, but before he could turn around, the door was shut. Not even a goodbye? Rio thought. There's no way they're his parents – a foster family, maybe?
To be fair, Harry seemed unsurprised, and barely fazed at all, even though Hagrid looked at him sadly. Rio decided to introduce himself, trying to be nice.
"Hello, Harry – I'm Rio," he said, extending his hand to Harry, with a small smile.
Grateful that the other boy had broken the ice, Harry grinned and shook his hand.
"Nice to meet you, Rio. Are you coming to Hogwarts too?"
"Yep! Are you excited?"
"Excited isn't a big enough word for it!" Wow, he seems just as excited as me!
"Any idea of what house you'll get?"
"House?" Rio asked, looking at Hagrid, questioningly.
"Oh, sorry, Rio, I haven't explained ter yer about houses. Well, there's four of 'em – Hufflepuff, Slytherin, Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, and each house represents different qualities. Ravenclaw is the smart ones, Slytherin is for the cunning and ambitious, Gryffindor is for the brave and loyal, and Hufflepuff is meant ter be the nice ones."
"Who decides what house a person gets?" asked Rio.
"The Sorting Hat – it's a hat all first years try on, and it sort of tests yer ter personality, and gives yer a house!"
"Wow!" Rio marvelled, before turning to Harry.
"I think I'll be in Gryffindor or Slytherin. What about you?" That was apparently the wrong thing to say, however, because upon mentioning Slytherin, both Harry and Hagrid's faces darkened.
"Oh – is something bad about Slytherin?"
"Uh, well," Harry began, but he didn't finish – probably doesn't want to upset me. Hagrid had no such qualms.
"Well, yer see, Rio – most, if not all wizards in Britain go ter Hogwarts. And sometimes, wizards become – well, Dark – we call them Dark Wizards – evil. And every single Dark Wizard, from the Global Wizarding War to the First Wizarding War, and even after that, they all came from Slytherin." There were Wizarding Wars too?
"Oh, I see," Rio said, now understanding – it made sense. People that were more cunning and ambitious were more likely to do underhand things and hurt people to get to their goals. But still …
"But not all Slytherins become Dark Wizards, right?"
"Well, no."
"So not all Slytherins are bad, right?"
"Well, no, but – y'know what, I'll explain it to you on the bus," Hagrid said, as the Knight Bus arrived on the road before them.
In the following conversation, Rio made sure to ask all the questions he could think of, and learnt many things: the Global Wizarding War, fought between the Dark Wizard Grindelwald, leading the bad side, with an ideology of Wizard supremacy over Muggles, and Albus Dumbledore, opposing it, all across Europe and even the United States. Then, the next Wizarding War, fought between the Dark Wizard Lord Voldemort – whose name was apparently taboo to say – and the British magical government, called the Ministry, led again by Albus Dumbledore. This Dumbledore seems to be involved in an awful lot.
Finally, Rio was disappointed to learn that some wizards – the purebloods, mostly – cared about what they called 'blood purity', and those purebloods were mostly in Slytherin, explaining Hagrid's apprehension. They would probably burn me alive if I was in their house, Rio thought, shuddering. Good thing I won't be in their house.
"They say if yer a muggleborn, then yer shouldn't be a wizard. Load of rubbish!" Hagrid said passionately, further reaffirming Rio's opinion of him.
Blood status was what the War was primarily based on, according to Hagrid – purebloods that cared about blood status joined Voldemort's side, and those that opposed that ideology fought on the Ministry's side. It was probably a cover-up though, Rio deciphered. Voldemort might have cared about blood status, but from the sounds of it, he just wanted power and control.
Most astonishingly of all, however, he learnt that Harry Potter, the shy boy sitting next to him, was apparently the one that saved the Wizarding Britain from Voldemort – as a baby no less!
"The killing curse was meant to be one that never failed," Hagrid told them. "That night in Godric's Hollow, no one knows how yer survived, Harry. It's a miracle! That's why they call you the Chosen One!"
Harry looked embarrassed and blushed at Hagrid's words. He's humble. That's good, thought Rio. Probably powerful too, considering he killed one of the most powerful wizards. It wouldn't hurt to be friends with him, would it?
Rio shook his head. What was he thinking? His mum would scold him for thinking like that – he shouldn't be friends with someone just for some type of gain. But despite that, the echoes of his father's last words played in his mind. He needed to take care of his family, and soon too. Carol didn't realise it, but Rio secretly read her letters. Seeing the unsurmountable, piling bills keep on increasing over and over, he knew it wouldn't be long until they were homeless, even with his mum working 60 hours a week. Either that, or she would become sick from overworking, just like his dad had.
"You're the man of the house now."
Whenever he had offered to help his mum in the past, she had declined, telling him that his father had meant for later in life, but now that he was a wizard, he could actually do something. He could make money, retire his mum and buy them all a big house with massive glass windows, a dog, and even gold-plated toilet seats, just like they'd always joked.
As the Knight Bus slowly stopped moving, and people began to get off, Rio reaffirmed his conviction.
I need to get ahead of everyone else. But how?
AN: Thanks for reading, everyone! Please remember to COLLECT and VOTE with POWER STONES for more chapters - I'll be releasing a BONUS chapter when we hit 25 Power Stones!