She felt him laugh hollowly. "It is a side effect of my conflict with Voldemort way back when." He tried to ignore everyone's flinch at the name. "Anger is easy for me, although I have become much better at directing it. It is why I want to learn healing instead of becoming a fighter. I want to help people, you know? Not just turn into another monster like he was."
Susan had seen body language like this from adults, men with dark pasts and heavy choices. She pleaded with Hannah with her eyes.
Hannah clapped. "Well, you just met Mr. Draco Malfoy! Wasn't he pleasant!"
Even Hermione gave a light chuckle at that. "I... I probably shouldn't feel this way, but I am kind of grateful you did that Harry. That was the jerk who hurt my feelings in the bookstore."
She felt a slight pulse that was quickly gone again. "Well, we know that kind of treatment will NOT be happening at Hogwarts. No one should be treated like trash, like filth. It is not polite."
Thankfully, only slightly after that a trolley with candy arrived on the train. Happy to break the silence, Harry bought all kinds of treats and started pouring things randomly on the center table. "Hey, who likes free candy?"
Hannah giggled. "Oh that just sounds wrong... Like, 'Hey, I got candy child!' Sheesh."
Harry shrugged. "Never had wizarding candy before, so why not try some? I bought a bunch, so feel free to grab something."
The bushy girl shook her head. "Parents are dentists, candy is a big no-no in our house." Seeing the two witches confusion, she added "Non-magicals have to remove stuff from their teeth with tools and stuff since they don't have spells. Dentists verify that they did it right and fix it if they messed up or they need help."
Harry pointed "I could just replace all your teeth for you instead. That way you get all the candy you want and a perfect smile too."
She rolled her eyes. "Ok, that was a terrible mental image." She glanced at the animated covers on the candy. "Still, I am interested about what kind of candy wizards and witches eat..."
Susan pointed. "Avoid those, Bertie Bott's Every Flavored Beans can be anything. Grass, whatever. Oh, and those blood-pop's, eww. Those are for vampires, they are... well, you can guess." She just picked up a golden box. "Here, a chocolate frog. Just normal chocolate with a spell to make it look and act like a frog." Harry made a face. "It doesn't feel pain, does it? I mean... I don't want to eat anything while it is still alive."
Susan AND Hannah paused while unwrapping their frogs. "Wow... I really wish you hadn't asked that." Susan put hers back, while Hannah thought some more, smiled, and took Susan's too.
Seeing the other looks she shrugged. "If I am going to eat something morally wrong, it might as well be delicious chocolate."
Harry tried to focus on non-animate treats. Licorice wands turned out to be safe enough.
After a while a tall boy had stopped by claiming to be a Slytherin Prefect. All four agreed that no wands had been drawn, no threats had been given, so there really wasn't anything the boy could do.
At this point Harry was feeling pretty sure that Slytherin would be a bad choice for him. He wish he had more positive examples of each house to work with, but so far it had been lacking.
Still, spending time with three nice girls was not a terrible way to spend time on a train.
Hermione seemed to be itching to ask a question, so Harry finally gave in. "Ok 'Mione, what is bothering you?"
She twitched her nose at the nick name but leaned forward. "So the mind-scape thing you told me about, can you bring me in to see it?"
He raised an eyebrow. "Could I invite you into my brain?" He shrugged. "Sure, I think. It was pretty easy to bring in Aunt Petunia that one time. It does require a lot of trust though."
Harry leaned back. "Time moves faster in my mind. A minute in here can be hours in there. Also, I have a LOT of power there, near god like. And... well, it IS my inner world. If you wanted, you could hurt me pretty badly." He lazily looked at the other two interested witches. "I would also have to ask Jim if he is ok with it. If he fights, you girls could get hurt in there. Being bit by my guys doesn't bother me too much because they are using my own memories, but to outsiders who have never lived it before? It would be terrible."
Hermione seemed even more interested. "Jim? The book mentioned that avatars could be created after an Occlumens reached mastery, an alternate personality sort of."
He mentally looked at Jim who shrugged back. Neither of them FELT like personalities of the other.
"Anyway, how about a compromise. I will have Jim set off a section of my mind, the training area. We can go in there and see how good you girls are with thread magic." He waved his hand vaguely making a fireball appear where some cords spun, making them gasp. "It shouldn't take long for basic stuff. More interesting too, if you ask me."
Of the three, Susan seemed the most hesitant. "How... How long would we be there?"
Harry shrugged. "I can have Jim pull us out whenever. He has a team manning Snail Quarters, so we should be good."
"... Snail Quarters?"
He nodded. "Jim likes Snails."
Hermione was becoming slightly nervous about trying to visit now.
Harry dropped into his world and got to work. He erected some thick green cable posts around the training/testing area, created a grid of cords. Green grids of ropes with a thick net of threads finished the job of sealing it in. The rock floor was fine, although he recreated the interior of the train car near one of the walls to give the girls somewhere to arrive. After hearing a faint quack he sighed and created a tiny door through the wall for Duck Passage. Jim gave him a nod as he waddled in and sat at a duck sized seat Harry added to the compartment.
Feeling that the place looked about as nice as he could get it, he partially returned to the real world... oh.
This was odd. He now thought at the speed of his mind scape while watching the world from his body.
Everything was moving in slow motion.
He made a mental note of this. It would ROCK for fights and stuff. For now he threw a rope to the core of each of the girls, and began pulling them back in. As the orange thread reached his mind, he directed it into the seat in the fake train car... Oh.
Looking away he waved a hand and wrapped her in clothing. He forgot how the first time he had reached his mind scape he had not bothered with clothing. It was two years ago after all.
He didn't bother to look as he wrapped the other two bright threads in nice shirts and pants as well. Each had blue jeans, but their shirts matched their thread color.
As he felt their power stabilize he tried to control his blush while Jim snickered away. Stupid duck.
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