Harry was up early the next morning and had used the basic household spells to clean himself as if he had bathed, which was awesome to him, since he didn't have to worry about going upstairs while everyone was still asleep. He still liked taking baths, though. He just didn't want to risk it today. He also applied the cream to hide his scar and combed his hair, then he was done.

He checked his things and made sure he had it all sorted and inside his trunk. He left his cupboard and went to the window to look for Hedwig. He saw her sitting on the hedge by the window and used Silencio and the more powerful Alohamora to open the window and not just to unlock the latch.

“Do you want to come with me...” Harry held out his left hand. “...or do you want to fly to Hogwarts on your own?” He asked and held out his right hand.

Hedwig tapped his right hand with her wing and he nodded. He gave her a treat and promised to see her when he arrived at the castle later that evening. He closed the window and went back to his cupboard to get his jacket and his trunk. He was leaving quite a bit earlier than he had to, mainly because he didn't want his uncle or Dudley to be around to try and stop him.

Harry had successfully avoided them all month. His uncle was the worst, because his aunt couldn't stop herself from blabbing about how everything in the house had been fixed by Harry. She didn't say it was with magic, though. He knew his uncle knew it was and all he could think about was Harry fixing all of the broken things he had at work. He could also save the company thousands of pounds a year by just fixing the broken and returned drills and then sell them again.

Dudley had once tried to drag Harry up the stairs to repair all of the broken things in the second bedroom. Luckily, Harry had practised the full body bind spell at Bertha's and managed to cast it before they had gotten halfway up the stairs. Watching Dudley become a statue and tumble down the stairs was pretty funny... for about a second. He still had a hold of Harry's shirt and dragged him along.

They had both tumbled down the stairs noisily and Harry was blamed and grounded. He almost laughed in his aunt's and uncle's faces at the punishment, for two reasons. The first was for Dudley being the cause and the second was for restricting him from leaving the house. He wasn't allowed to leave normally anyway, so grounding him meant less than nothing.

Harry put on his jacket, picked up his trunk, and went to the front door. He silenced it and used Alohamora, stepped out and cast Colloportus to shut and lock it again, then walked out to the street. He took out his ticket for the Knight Bus and read the reserved time. He had an hour before it would come to pick him up, so he put his trunk down and sat on it.

He thought about taking out one of his books to read, mainly the one full of curses and hexes that he had only glanced at between studying the other books, and sighed. He didn't want to be seen reading a magic book outside of the house and he also didn't want to get caught practising magic outside of the house's protective enchantments. He definitely didn't want to get in trouble with the Ministry of Magic, not after everything they had done to help him.

Harry sat there and waited patiently. No one noticed him, to his surprise, even though he was right there by the street and they passed right by him. He made a note to find out the spells the Ministry had used to make that effect. His life would be so much easier at home if he could cast that spell on his cupboard and his family wouldn't notice him.

The Knight Bus popped into view with a small boom sound and swerved over the road. Harry smiled as he stood up and had his ticket ready. It screeched to a stop right in front of him and he gave the conductor the ticket.

“You've been waiting a while?” Stanley asked.

“About an hour.” Harry said and carried his trunk onboard.

“You could have just hailed us instead.” Stanley said and pointed. “We would have just looped back around for that lot.”

Harry turned around to see half a dozen other young people and they all had parents and family members with them. “You're all going to King's Cross?” He asked, surprised.

They all nodded and a couple of the girls waved.

Harry waved back, then he flicked his wrist and took out his wand. Everyone watched in surprise as he quickly cast Spongify on everything, including their seats, then he sat down himself.

“Okay, let's go.” Harry said with a smile at Stanley.

“You hear that, Ernie? Harry says we can go!” Stanley nearly yelled.

“I'm glad we've got his permission.” Ernie said and stepped on the gas.

Harry laughed as he and his chair immediately flipped upside down and rolled to the back of the bus and right into a family of four. “Isn't this great?” He asked them and stood up, then the bus took a sharp turn and he flew through the air, bounced off the side of the bus, then tumbled into one of the girls that had waved. He laughed as the bus turned back and he rolled off of her. One of the chairs bounced off of his head, ricocheted off of her, and lodged itself in the stairway to go up the stairs.

Harry enjoyed the ride and his laughter and enjoyment made the others see that if you took the proper precautions, the bus that they had always dreaded riding was actually kind of fun. When it came to a stop in London at the station, Harry was upside down in a pile of chairs and luggage, with two younger kids sitting on the pile and laughing as hard as he was.

“Come on you lot, get your things and get going.” Stanley said and helped sort out the luggage and handed it to the proper people as they stepped off the bus.

“See you guys later.” Harry said and stepped off with his trunk. “Oh! Do you like cauldron cakes?”

“I guess.” Stanley said, a little unsure why he was asking.

“I've got like six dozen left.” Harry said and opened his trunk, reached in and took out a box. “Here you go. They're really good.”

“Uh, thanks.” Stanley said and thought he knew what the boy wanted. “How much are they?”

“I'm giving them to you.” Harry said and waved as he walked into the train station.

“Nice kid, that Harry.” Stanley said and took the box over to Ernie. “Hey, Ernie. Harry gave us these.”

Ernie grabbed one and popped the whole thing into his mouth, then stepped on the gas.

*

Molly Weasley was in a bit of a pickle. She had received an urgent owl from Dumbledore about going to the train station early with her children and to walk around muttering phrases and words that would get one particular boy's attention. The famous Harry Potter. She wasn't sure why he wanted her to do it; but, he had never steered them wrong in all the years she had known him, so she gathered up her children and took them.

Dumbledore had told her that he had bewitched the station so that only wizards and witches could hear her when she spoke words that referred to things only wizards would know, so Molly had no problem leading her brood of redheaded children around both platforms nine and ten and kept saying things like 'lots of muggles around today' and 'Howarts Express right this way'.

The problem was, Molly had done it for nearly two hours and there wasn't a sign of Harry anywhere.

“Mom, can we get on the platform now?” Fred the twin asked. “This is boring!”

“Yeah, mom.” George the other twin said. “We're going to miss the train if you keep dithering around.”

Molly had explained what she was doing and her children had been good enough to follow her all this time. She checked the time and there was only ten minutes left, so she sighed loudly and nodded. She took her whole family through the barrier to Platform Nine and Three Quarters and into the large crowd of people there.

Damn, damn, damn. Molly thought and managed to get her sons onto the train and their trunks stored into a single compartment. “You all be good this year... in particular you two.” She said to the twins and then looked at Ron. “Dumbledore said you should look around for Harry. He'll probably be alone and he has messy black hair and a scar on his forehead. Oh, and glasses. He needs a friend and you can be that friend.”

“It's bad enough that I'm the youngest boy and my brothers all pick on me, now I have to be someone's friend that I don't even know?” Ron protested, not realizing the impact of what being friends with Harry Potter meant.

“Hush.” Molly said and turned him around. “Go look for him and make friends. He's waiting for you.”

Ron stomped out of the compartment and Molly gave her sons hugs, then took her daughter off the train to wait.

“I really wanted to see him.” Ginny said, sadly. “The famous Harry Potter.”

Molly pat her shoulder and gave her a little hug. “I did, too.”

The train pulled away from the station and a lot of the children leaned out to wave at their parents, except for a few of them. One of which was Ron, who was having trouble finding a boy with glasses, let alone with a scar on his forehead. Another one was Harry, who was chatting with the girl he had tumbled over on the Knight Bus and her brother. They were both second years and were filling him in on what the Sorting was like for first years.

*

What Dumbledore didn't tell Molly or her children, was that Harry would know nothing of the magical world. If Harry and Ron became friends, Harry would latch onto him and be dependent on him and his family to provide that knowledge. A family that would be warm and inviting and would show Harry what a real family should have been like.

What Dumbledore didn't know, or bothered to check, was that Harry was not the completely ignorant boy he had planned for him to be.