Harry Potter and the Unexpected

"A PI beta reader beta-read this (Tarhisie)."

We meet again on number four Privet Drive; plain and ordinary on the outside; a simple family with a husband, a wife, and a seventeen-year-old child. Petunia was tall and slender with a grouched face. There was Vernon, who was short, fat, and had nearly no neck with a face a tint of purple, and there was Dudley, the son, who resembled his father almost to exact fold of their chins, except with short, blonde hair that clung for dear life against his thick head.

No one would have thought that another boy the same age as Dudley could have lived in that house. This boy was special. He was tall and slender, much like his Aunt Petunia. His old, baggy clothes emphasized his thin face and scrawny figure. Glasses rested on his nose, and his thick, shaggy black hair could never be tamed. But his most noticeable feature was his eyes. They were exact replicas of his mother's, who had died with his father, James, when he was just a baby. They were killed by Lord Voldemort, an evil wizard with a heart colder than ice, who gave no mercy. So the Dursley family was stuck with this boy; different, messy― a wizard, Harry Potter.

"POTTER!" yelled Harry's uncle from the kitchen downstairs, "GET DOWN HERE THIS INSTANT!" Vernon had woken Harry from a daydream. It was a very odd one indeed. It was about white horses ― no ― unicorns. They were transforming into― "ARE YOU BLOODY DEAF?! COME DOWN HERE!" came Uncle Vernon's voice yet again. Harry sighed and tore his eyes away from the window, which displayed the rainy and cloudy day. He slowly got up from his chair and shuffled to the kitchen. The whole family was in there, including Dudley, who had one of his bully friends over. Dudley didn't mess with Harry anymore.

"What took you so long?" Uncle Vernon demanded as he put down his paper and coffee.

"Day-dreaming," said Harry sleepily. What did he do to deserve this?

"We're supposed to bring you to the station now," he said calmly, almost a little too much. Harry checked his watch and his eyes widened.

"It's 6:30 in the morning! The train doesn't leave until eleven and it only takes a half hour to get to London!" Harry said this so loudly that Petunia shot him a nasty look and another one to the window; it was as if the neighbors could hear every word he was saying. Uncle Vernon opened his mouth to reply when Dudley dropped his crumpet on the floor and stared at the television in an awed look of desperation.

"Special news bulletin: strange sightings seen in London at the train station," said the news anchorman. Uncle Vernon dropped his jacket. The last time there had been "strange sightings" was when Sirius Black, Harry's long-lost godfather, had been killed two years ago.

"White horses were seen galloping toward the middle of platforms nine and ten. They were caught and watched by special security, then vanished!" Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia turned their heads toward Harry, who froze and stared at the television in mere shock. Unicorns? Here? Platform 9¾? None of it made sense as he tried to work it out in his head. The Dursleys were still staring at him, but he didn't notice. Dudley's friend looked at them, wondering what on Earth they were looking at Harry for.

They pulled up at the train station at 7:30 and practically kicked Harry out of the car. Hedwig and his trunk came flying at him. Hedwig he caught, but his trunk flew several feet and knocked someone down. Harry rushed over to the man and pulled his trunk off of whoever it was.

"Mr. Weasley?" Ron's dad lay in a heap of flesh on the concrete.

"Harry, good boy, fancy meeting you here, eh?" he said cheerfully as he stood up to his fullest height, which was a few inches shorter than Harry. "Why are you here so early?" Just as Harry was about to reply, Arthur Weasley continued on.

"I was just here to inspect the―," he paused and lowered his voice, "―unicorn problem." He spoke so softly that Harry had to strain his ears to hear him.

"So there were unicorns!" Harry said a little too loudly; a couple walking past stared at him suspiciously. Mr. Weasley beckoned him over to the wall between platforms nine and ten.

"We don't know exactly," he started, "they just kind of... appeared out of nowhere and we think they went through here." He pointed towards the wall next to them. Harry followed Mr. Weasley through the magical barrier and planted his feet firmly on the platform. The same Hogwarts Express stood red and tall, but next to it was a smaller, black train that Harry had never seen before.

"That's the Ministry's train," added Mr. Weasley when he saw the expression on Harry's face.

"Is Ron here?" Harry said hopefully. It had been at least two weeks since he had heard from him.

"No, sorry," said Ron's dad absentmindedly, "I asked if he wanted to come along and help me investigate, but for some reason he said no." Mr. Weasley stared off into space as if it was a huge mystery to his son's answer. Harry snorted. The pair entered the large black train. It was much more elegant than the Hogwarts Express. All the walls were decorated in swirl patterns and a long, red carpet twisted and turned through every hallway.

"Right through here," Arthur pointed Harry to the left and he found many wizards dressed in multi-colored robes, muttering under their breaths over a large piece of parchment.

"Hello, Michael, Johnson, Peter." Mr. Weasley indicated each wizard quietly and all three jumped in the air.

"Arthur," said one aghast, "you gave us quite a scare."

"Yes," said another while folding up the piece of parchment. "Any luck with the unicorns? I haven't a clue why they'd be here. Not unless McGonagall did the prophecy―" he stopped when he saw Harry listening intently on their conversation.

"Who's he?" said the third wizard to Arthur.

"Oh, him? This here is Harry; Harry Potter. He came a bit early to catch the train. It's his seventh year, you know!" Mr. Weasley said proudly.

"Hum," one said quietly as he and the others turned back to their work.

"What prophecy?" Harry asked eagerly when they were well out of earshot from the wizards. "And what about McGonagall? They mentioned her, too!"

"Erm..." said Mr. Weasley nervously, "I'm sure you'll find out at school!" That was all he said. The last time someone had said that to him and the others, it had been about the Triwizard Tournament, but that wasn't going to happen for another fifty years. He mentioned a prophecy, though. What prophecy?

"Go ahead on the train now." Arthur pushed Harry onto its steps. Harry woke out of his pondering and found himself in front of the Hogwarts Express.

"But it's only 8:30, no one will be on yet," Harry whined childishly, but still he went onto the train to find several wizards in royal blue robes walking up and down the halls.

"Looking for the unicorns, they are," said the same woman who pushed the food cart over Harry's shoulder. "Make yourself at home, I'll be in a minute," Harry pushed his way through the wizards until he was at the last cabin, which was, of course, empty.

Hedwig hooted dully at the top of Harry's bench. For the past hour and a half, he had watched the wizards go past his cabin about twenty times each. His door opened.

"Anything odd going on in your cabin, Harry, anything unusual at all?" said a short, bald wizard who had the fondness to attempt to make small talk with Harry. He shook his head at the wizard and watched him close the door in disappointment. Just then, his door opened again.

"I told you there aren't any unicorns in my cabin!" Harry yelled. He turned around to find it was Mr. Weasley looking at him with joy.

"I almost forgot!" Mr. Weasley exclaimed as he reached inside his cloak and pulled out a small, silver chain with a pendant on it.

"What's this?" Harry took it and began to examine the oddly shaped, clear-as-glass pendant.

"Happy birthday! Well...erm...sort of. We picked this up from a muggle who brought it to us, thinking we were policemen. Before we modified his memory, of course." He said that last part so cheerfully. "I don't know what it is, but I was wondering if you could... you know, take a look at it. You could see if you feel any―" Mr. Weasley pointed to his own forehead where Harry's scar would be― "dark magic."

Harry looked at Mr. Weasley curiously. Was his scar now a dark magic detector? Harry grasped the pendant hard in his hand; so hard in fact, that it almost punctured his flesh. Harry concentrated hard on it and tried to make something happen.

"Nothing," Harry sighed as he began to hand back the clear pendant to Arthur.

"In that case," Arthur said as he closed Harry's hand over the pendant, "it's yours."

What Harry was going to do with a necklace, he didn't know, but he took it anyway.

As soon as Mr. Weasley left, Harry found a fascination with the pendant. It gave him a happy feeling and he discovered that it was unusually warm for glass. He even tried dunking it in a pitcher of water to see if it would cool off, but it remained as warm as ever. A tap on his window beckoned him out of his pendant fascination and he quickly slipped the necklace over his head and tucked it under his shirt. It was Ron and Hermione.

"What are you doing here this early?" he asked the pair as they heaved their trunks onto the rack above Harry. Crookshanks, Hermione's huge, orange cat, was already curled up and purring in Harry's lap.

"Harry, it's 10:30." Hermione pointed to her watch. "The train is leaving soon. Kids are already showing up." She was right. Harry saw that all of the Ministry wizards were gone, and Hogwarts students of all ages were beginning to file into other cabins. Ron walked past Harry silently and placed Pigewidgeon by Hedwig. He hooted in thanks to Ron and twittered at Hedwig, who gave a solemn rustle of annoyance in return. "What's beating you, Ron?" Harry watched Ron sit across from him, still not saying anything. Ron sighed.

"Percy came back," Ron started. "After three bloody years of no contact at all, betraying our family, coming back for a brief moment to get dirt on you, and being a thickhead the entire time, he came back and expected us to room and feed him!" Harry and Hermione looked at him with shock.

"And did you?" Hermione asked in an if-you-did-then-you-are-all-a-bunch-of-thickheads way.

"Well, yeah! My mum did anyway. No one's talked to him, though. Turns out the Ministry kicked him out for fraud. I don't know what he did, and frankly, I'm not too keen on finding out."

The train gave its final whistle and all of the parents waved their last goodbyes. Ron stared out the window. "He still thinks you're a loon, though," he said as he smiled at Harry.

"Thanks, Ron," Harry said happily as the train jerked forward to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

The rain had cleared up slightly and a ray of light shone cheerfully on the town they were passing. Harry noticed that their main topic was the unicorns arriving in the train station.

"Very odd indeed," Hermione said mindlessly while she turned a page in her book.

"What are you reading this time, Hermione?" Ron asked in curiosity. "'Ways to Entertain Yourself Other Than in the Library,' or 'Don't Feel Like You Can Cram Enough Into your Head?'?"

"No, Ron," she said, grinning slightly. "This." She held up the book 'Prophecy of Unicorns.'

"Such a catching title. That'll be the year's best seller!" Harry said sarcastically to them. He had just noticed that Crookshanks was now pawing at the lump on his chest where the necklace was.

"Crookshanks! No!" Harry whispered to the cat.

"Watcha got there, Harry?" Ron pointed to the necklace lump.

"Er... your dad gave it to me when I came. He said it was a birthday present." Harry pulled out the clear pendant and showed it to his friends. Hermione reached out to examine it.

"It's beautiful!" she said as she dangled it at eye level.

"Well... er... you want it? I really don't have a use for it." He gestured his hand toward the necklace.

"I didn't mean to ask for it!" Hermione blushed. "I suppose if you really don't want it, I'd―"

"Take it." Harry gave her a feeble smile. She draped it over her head and pulled it under her bushy brown hair where it hung gracefully under her collar.

"Okay then, love birds! Harry, do I get a gift, too?" Ron pouted. The three friends laughed loudly and Harry spotted Hermione stroking the pendant with fondness.