"Please, have a seat!"
Harry gestured to the empty spot across from him, his voice warm and welcoming. He recognized this boy; it was the boy's parents who had kindly guided him to the entrance of Platform Nine and Three-Quarters earlier.
"Ron Weasley. You can call me Ron."
The red-haired boy carefully skirted around Goku—who was still in the middle of his inverted push-ups—and sat down.
"Harry Potter. Just Harry is fine."
"Son Goku. You guys can just call me Goku."
The three of them exchanged simple introductions.
"You're really Harry Potter!" Ron exclaimed, his excitement getting the better of him as he pointed toward Harry's forehead. "So... so it's all true? Do you really have...?"
Harry was used to this by now. Hagrid had explained the day before why everyone knew his name. He brushed back his bangs to reveal the lightning-bolt scar.
"You mean this?"
"Is that where You-Know-Who...?" Ron's eyes were wide with curiosity.
Harry nodded. "I don't really remember it, though. Just a lot of green light."
"Who's 'You-Know-Who'?" Goku chimed in, pausing his workout.
"You don't know who He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is? He was the most terrifying, horrible Dark Wizard ever!" Ron looked shocked, but then a flash of guilt crossed his face. He realized that if the boy was Muggle-born, it made sense that he wouldn't know the dark history of the wizarding world.
"You mean he's really strong?" Goku applied pressure to his fingers and flipped himself back into a standing position.
He had promised Nymphadora he would help catch Dark Wizards, and this "You-Know-Who" was apparently the baddest of them all.
"He was very strong," Harry said, his jaw tightening. "Hagrid told me he killed many powerful wizards. That's why people are still afraid to say his name. They call him You-Know-Who, but his real name was... Voldemort."
Harry spoke the name through gritted teeth. Those "powerful wizards" included his own parents. If they hadn't been killed, he wouldn't have spent his life in a cupboard under the stairs at his aunt and uncle's house.
"Voldemort. I'll remember that name," Goku nodded. He decided that after his duel with Dumbledore, he would go find this Voldemort, challenge him, and bring him to Nymphadora as a gift.
...
*Whistle—!*
At eleven o'clock, a long, mournful whistle echoed through the station, and the Hogwarts Express finally lurched into motion. The train swept out of London, racing past fields dotted with cows and sheep, heading toward the mystery of Hogwarts.
"Harry, the books say you lived with Muggles. What were they like?"
"Ron, is your whole family wizards? You must know so much magic already."
"Goku, why do you move like that? Are you from a Muggle family too?"
As the three became more comfortable, the conversation flowed freely.
"My aunt and uncle? They're horrible," Harry sighed. "Not all Muggles are bad, I'm sure, but they definitely are. And my cousin Dudley..."
"I have five older brothers," Ron said, looking a bit discouraged. "They all did really well at school, so everyone expects me to be just like them. Even if I do well, it won't be special because they did it first. Plus, I never get anything new..."
"I do this to get stronger," Goku explained. "And what's a 'Muggle'? I don't have parents; my Grandpa found me in the woods..."
At first, Harry and Ron did most of the talking—Harry venting about the Dursleys and Ron about being overshadowed by his siblings. But once Goku started sharing his stories, the other two fell into stunned silence.
He told them about summoning a dragon to grant wishes, fighting in the World Martial Arts Tournament, taking down the Red Ribbon Army, and meeting a cat hermit at the top of a massive tower.
Compared to their everyday problems, Goku's life sounded like an epic legend. If an adult heard this, they would have assumed Goku was making it all up. But Harry and Ron were only eleven.
One knew nothing of the wizarding world, the other knew nothing of the Muggle world, and neither had seen much of the "real" world yet. They believed about eighty percent of what he said.
"Goku, you're amazing!"
They looked at him with a mix of sympathy, envy, and admiration. Sympathy for being an orphan, envy for his freedom and adventures, and admiration for the fact that he'd survived so much on his own. If it were them, they figured they'd have been goners ages ago.
...
At half-past twelve, a clattering noise echoed from the corridor. A smiling woman with dimples slid open the door and asked, "Anything off the trolley, dears?"
"Yes!" Harry jumped up. He'd missed breakfast and was starving. Back at the Dursleys, he never had a penny for treats; now, his pockets were heavy with gold and silver.
"No, thanks. I'm all set," Ron mumbled, his ears turning red as he pulled out a lumpy paper package containing sandwiches. He didn't have the spare cash for snacks.
"Food?" Goku looked at the trolley but frowned at the brightly colored packages. To him, they didn't look like real food, and he doubted they'd be filling. He reached up and pulled down his trunk. He wanted the roasted birds Nymphadora had bought him—that was a real meal.
"I'll take some of everything," Harry said, noticing Ron's embarrassment. He'd been in that position at his Muggle school many times. He piled a heap of snacks onto the table and smiled at his friends. "Why don't we swap? That way we can all try different things."
"It's corned beef," Ron said, unwrapping his sandwich. "Mom always forgets I don't like corned beef. But she has to look after five of us at once, so she's busy." He looked at the sandwich, then at Harry. "You won't want this, it's a bit dry."
"I like corned beef," Harry insisted. He pushed a pile of pastries toward Ron and took a small piece of the sandwich.
"Beef? I love beef too!"
Goku finally dug out the four roasted turkeys from the bottom of his trunk and set them on the table.
"Merlin's pants!" Ron gasped, staring at the birds that now occupied most of the table. "You're going to eat all that for lunch?!"
***
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