A boy with untidy jet-black hair, of roughly eleven years, lie sound asleep in a field of grass whilst an owl flew overhead. The boy opened his eyes slowly, and he caught only the smallest glimpse of what he believed to be a roll of paper, tied around the owl's right leg. He shrugged in disbelief and continued to rest in the grass when moments later, a voice called out to him. "Brandon, get in here! I told you we were leaving at one o'clock!" bellowed the voice of a man. Brandon stood up from the crumpled patch of grass he was lying on and slowly dusted himself off. First his shoulders, then his back, his thighs and then his knees and ankles. He started off towards a two-story house, white with finely inlaid jewels around the roof trims. Then he opened the door, and he was quickly pulled into the kitchen. The kitchen of this house was quite large, misleadingly larger than one might think as it seemed bigger than the house did from outside. Marble tables and silver pots and pans were neatly placed upon every shelf and hung with obvious care. A woman, with jet-black hair like the boys started "Brandon, I can't believe you don't even care about this! This is a momentous occasion and you're finally going to fulfill your destiny today!" Brandon stared up at her blankly as if she were speaking another language, as the man who's voice had bellowed throughout the grass patch appeared in the kitchen.
"Brandon" he said in a slightly calmer tone, "Today you realize the truth of your past, and you will embrace your future. Today, you are a student of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry." Brandon looked at the man as if dumbfounded by his statement, and then he said "Come again? Did you just say wizard?" The man nodded and beamed at the boy as if he had just received a large sum of money. "I thought you said that was nothing but nonsense?" the boy asked as he gazed around towards the woman." The man replied, "Your mother and I agreed to keep this a secret from you until you were of age to attend the school, and we've just received confirmation, that you have been accepted into Hogwarts. The reason of course, as to why we've kept this a secret.. is because of the lineage of our family." "Potter, you mean? A person who sells potted plants down at the market?" the boy inquired with a sarcastic tone. "You have to n understand we did not want the legend to inflate your ego excessively, and more over... we did not wish you to live up to such a legend either" the woman chimed in. His father continued to convince Brandon but he explained finally that it would all make sense once he was in school at Hogwarts. As the three moved out of the kitchen and out onto the front sidewalk, the boy looked overhead and noticed an owl pass by as if returning to someplace beyond.
The family proceeded towards a shiny silver car which was parked out in-front of the house. The father opened the doors, the mother got into the passenger side of the car, then Brandon followed by climbing into the backseat. The father then sat behind the steering wheel of the silver car and the car started off into the distance. After a long ride of uneasy silence, and Brandon peering out the back window, the car stopped at an old train station. The trains appeared as if they were from the 20th century, perhaps steam or coal powered. After entering the train station, Brandon found himself and his parents in front of a wall with a sign behind him which read "Platform 9" and the sign in front of him "Platform 10". He and his parents who were struggling to push a large cart quickly followed and let him to the third post in between platforms nine and ten. "Well, here we are, are you ready son?" questioned the father to Brandon. "Ron honey, how could he be ready? He's never done anything like this before..." the mother said in a confiding manner. "Oh he'll be alright Karen dear," he consoled as he gestured Brandon and his wife towards the post.
Suddenly, he ran into the wall, and vanished into thin air as if the wall were not even there. Brandon looked astonished as his mother Karen quickly followed, pulling Brandon along with her. Miraculously, the family re-appeared unharmed, on an identical platform to those they visited moments ago, but on this platform, hung a large sign which read "Platform 9 ¾". Brandon gazed up in awe, as a steam engine whistled throughout the platform. Ron and Karen rushed the luggage on the cart over to the storage compartments and pushed Brandon on board. "You'll be fine son, just remember, don't believe everything everyone tells you, sometimes its better to find out the truth for yourself!" Ron yelled as the train started to blow smoke from its stacks. The train then chugged away from the platform labeled "Platform 9 ¾" and Brandon's parents slowly, yet surely faded away as if shrinking into tiny little ants.
Brandon turned around after his parents seemingly shrunk into nothingness, and peered around at his surroundings. He had never been on a steam engine before, the closest he had ever been was viewing a model at the museum on a school field trip, or on a television history channel's tour of "Old and Outdated modes of Transportation." He remembered that there were train compartments and a main hallway in every cart in the documentary on television, just like the train he was standing in now. As he crept around each cart, he found an open door, and gazed inside. Not even after five seconds of peering into the compartment did he hear the shrill voice of a young girl, "So are you going to get inside or are you just wandering?" Brandon stumbled into the apartment as the girl pushed him down into a seat across from her own.
The girl had bushy brown hair, her teeth seemed a little uneven and she carried a very content look upon her face. "Hermandus, Hermandus Molly Weasley, 4th Order of Dumbledore and daughter of Rumina Granger-Weasley, Minister for Magic" the girl said in an upbeat fashion. Brandon just looked at her as she held out her hand which she had thrust out moments ago before introducing half of her family tree. "Oh... uh... Potter, Brandon Potter," Brandon answered. But before the girl named Hermandus could respond, a boy with fiery red hair and spectacles crashed into the compartment and slid open the door. "Is this seat taken?" he asked the two, despite already shoving his bag in the storage space above the seats. Brandon and Hermandus simply avoided eye contact with him. "Hello, nice to meet you, name's James, James Harry Weasley," the boy said in a giddy voice. "Weasley... so... are you two related?" Brandon asked as Hermandus and James looked at each other. Hermandus grudgingly introduced herself to James, who then remarked "Oh, you can call me Jimmy, no need to be formal, mind if I call you Hermy?" he chuckled. "Most definitely NOT," she said with her face swelling up, "if you MUST call me something shorter, you may call me Mandy," she retorted. "So you're not related then?" inquired Brandon once again, as Jimmy explained the situation to him. "See... the Weasley family's pretty big, one of the largest wizarding families around these days, so even if you're a Weasley, its pretty possible that you're less than 1/10th related to another Weasley." "Thank Dumbledore for that..." Mandy muttered under her breath." Brandon then snickered slightly as Jimmy asked him for his name.
Brandon once again introduced himself and Mandy was finally able to say what she had wished to say moments before their cart was crashed into. "So you're a Potter? Seriously? Honestly I thought there wasn't a wizard alive who'd dare bare the name" Mandy grimaced. "Why not?" said Jimmy, "It's like the greatest wizarding family name in history... wish I were a Potter..." Brandon looked confused, as Mandy offered her opinion once more. "It's true that it is one of, if not the greatest wizarding family name to date, but can you imagine the responsibility and burden of holding such a name, that's why all those Potters changed their names." A spark lit in Brandon's stomach, as if the answer compelled him to know, "What kind of burden are you talking about? What responsibility? Why did those people want to change their name from Potter?" Jimmy and Mandy stared at him in shock, they gasped and glanced towards each other, then looked back at Brandon speechless.
"You mean you don't know?" they both asked, as Brandon shook his head politely. "You've never heard of the legend?" they asked again, once more Brandon shook his head in disagreement. They gasped again, and then Mandy started "I can't believe you don't know... I'd think if anyone knew of the legend it should be a Potter... not knowing your own family's story... " she rambled but started again, "Well, if you don't know I guess we can tell you, its not as if we'll be getting off this train anytime soon." Jimmy nodded with agreement. "OK, here goes, the legend starts with a boy named Harry Potter, the boy who lived. He was raised by muggles and on his eleventh birthday, started to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry. When he was a baby however, he was attacked by the evil and most foul dark wizard known in history, the Dark Lord Voldemort. As the legend suggest, Harry was able to survive death many times throughout his years at Hogwarts, under the care of another legendary wizard, Albus Dumbledore, he was unquestionably the greatest wizard at the time and he..." Mandy started to ramble as Jimmy cleared his throat and she started over again, "sorry I mean, after countless deaths Voldemort was finally defeated at the hands of Harry Potter, where so many wizards failed to do so, and were even so terrified they wouldn't dare to utter his name." Jimmy then added, "I can't believe you've never heard of that legend mate, I mean.. its like your family's legacy right? Personally I know the Weasley family is related to the Potter family somewhere back around the days of the great Harry Potter, but some of those family trees got pretty complicated after awhile, so the Potters and the Weasleys are probably even less related now than a Weasley and another Weasley." Brandon simply sat in his seat for the rest of the journey, as he couldn't believe the story he had just heard, more than that however, despite Mandy's words, he could not fully understand why his parents had concealed the story from him. "Were they really worried about his burden? Would they really think he would be crushed by the responsibility or did they believe that his ego would expand to a size beyond that of the train engine he sat?" He contemplated these thoughts as Mandy and Jimmy compared family charts during their journey towards Hogwarts as he dozed off into a light sleep.
Brandon woke up suddenly as the train came to a stop. Mandy shook him violently and said to him "Brandon you should probably change into your school robes before we get to the castle, or it might leave a bad impression upon the professors!" Brandon looked at her with his confused look once more, but proceeded out of the cart towards the back of the train where it seems, other boys and girls of his age were scrambling to put on long black robes which they hastily pulled out of bags and trunks. As Brandon made his way through the crowd, he bumped into something quite solid, but obviously not a wall.
He peered up at the object he hit and gazed directly at a boy no older or younger than himself, but who's stature would otherwise lead anyone to believe he was over the age of fourteen. The boy was bespectacled like James Weasley, but rather than having fiery red hair, had simple, short and neatly cut brown hair. "Oh... uh... so sorry about that! Didn't notice you there," said the tall boy, in a frantic and embarrassed manner. "That's alright, what's everyone doing?" questioned Brandon. The boy explained that everyone was just told by several older children to change into school uniforms before proceeding towards Hogwarts Castle. "And what pre tell is a school robe?" asked Brandon to the tall boy again, but then realizing the nature of his rudeness quickly added "oh sorry, I forgot to introduce myself... Potter, Brandon Potter, and you are?" "Uh... oh, Longbottom! Newton Longbottom! Then.. this bag must be yours right? If your name is Brandon, there's a bag here labeled "B. Potter" right next to mine." Brandon took a gander in the direction Newton was pointing, then looked no more surprised as he could be curious.
After saying goodbye to Newton, Brandon quickly picked up the bag, pried open the contents and found a school robe, decided it best to follow the crowd, and returned to the cart he was seated, whilst throwing the robe over himself and sliding open the door. "There you are, we were waiting for you" Mandy said in an abrupt manner, "Let's go, they're all waiting for us outside!"
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