Harry Potter and the New Revelation
Ch. 1
Another Journey From Platform 93/4
Author's Note: I removed it because I wanted to update it . . . so I did. Here it is. :o) Hey! This is my first fan fic, so please be kind! Constructive criticism is greatly appreciated, though. Warning: MAJOR book four spoilers. If you haven't read the GoF, don't go any farther - unless you want to spoil it for yourself. I repeat: DON'T READ IF YOU HAVEN'T READ BOOK FOUR!!! Anyway, please r/r. Enjoy! (Oh, and for all you Hermione/Ron people out there, please don't flame me!!)
Disclaimer: Just about everything in this fic belongs to J.K. Rowling, with the exception of a few characters that I made up, so please don't sue me!!
Oi, Harry, hurry up!" called Ron Weasley, waving his freckled arms wildly out of the train car's tiny window.
Hermione Granger stuck her head out of the window next to Ron's and yelled as her thick, curly brown hair flew in the breeze, "Harry, it's gonna leave any second! Come on!"
Tweeeeet! The Hogwarts Express blew it's whistle loudly, as if chiding Harry for not hurrying to board it.
"I'm coming; just a second!" yelled back fifteen-year-old Harry Potter.
All around him, people hurried back and forth; some running to get on the train, others saying good-bye one last time to their sons, daughters, brothers, and sisters before the students once again boarded the train bound for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Harry turned to the tall, dark man standing next to him.
"Bye Sirius," he told his godfather as he hugged him briefly. "Don't spend too much time out of your disguise. Someone might recognize you."
"Don't worry about me, Harry; I'll be fine. Run along though; you don't want to miss your train," Sirius Black responded.
As Harry broke into a run, he turned to wave to Sirius.
"Bye!" Harry called one last time as he jumped into the small platform outside the last train compartment of the Hogwarts Express, which he and his two best friends, Ron and Hermione, had to themselves.
From the platform, Harry could see Fred and George Weasley - Ron's twin brothers - whispering seriously to each other. Probably thinking of ways to set up their joke shop in Gryffindor Tower, he thought. The two redheads had paid very careful attention to what kind of gags sold well at the joke shop in Diagon Alley last week. Harry thought over the events of the last week.
Last week, before they went to Diagon Alley, the place to get anything magic-related, Harry had given Ron and Hermione some money to buy whatever he wanted, kind of as a back-to-school present.
Ron used the five gold Galleons from Harry to buy two new sets of robes for school and another book on his favorite Quidditch team, the Chudley Cannons. He had saved about twenty-six bronze Knuts to purchase some candy on the train ride to school.
Hermione had taken forever in Diagon Alley to decide what she wanted to purchase with the wizard money that Harry had given her. Finally, after dragging Harry and Ron into practically every shop in the alley, she had made her decision.
"I just have to have an owl, Harry! You've got Hedwig, and Ron has little Pigwidgeon - I need an owl, too," she said, and strode determinedly into Eeylops Owl Emporium, pulling Ron and Harry with her.
Twenty minutes later, she had emerged triumphantly, staggering under the weight of a large silver cage, containing not one, but two owls: A beautiful, large, white snowy owl, and a cute, tiny, reddish-brown minute owl.
"I just couldn't resist; I know you both think I'm silly for getting two owls, but I just had to!" Hermione rambled quickly, as if she felt she owed Harry and Ron an explanation for her purchase of the two owls. "See, now Hedwig's got Eros to keep her company, and Piggie's got little Aphrodite to keep him company!" Hermione had said this all very fast, and looked very pleased with her reasoning.
Harry, too had a purchase to make, but he wouldn't tell his friends what it was. He gave them fourteen Knuts, so they could each buy an ice cream cone while they waited for him. He quickly walked away from them, and soon disappeared into the crowds of Diagon Alley.
While he was gone, Hermione and Ron sat, eating their cones. Ron poured over the pages of his new book as he finished his raspberry sherbet. Hermione took a bite of her mint chocolate-chip ice cream and watched her two new owls hoot to each other - Aphrodite twittering excitedly around the cage, and Eros watching her warily.
After she swallowed her bite of ice cream, she asked Ron, "Where do you think Harry went?"
Ron thought for a second, then replied.
"I dunno," he shrugged innocently. "Maybe he went to find some cat poison for Crookshanks."
He grinned evilly at his friend. Hermione just rolled her eyes, and went back to eating her ice cream.
About three-quarters of an hour later, Harry returned, happily smiling, swinging a small plastic bag from his grip. He plopped himself down in a chair between Hermione and Ron, and set the bag down on the table.
"Well, what'd yeh get?" Ron asked, curiously eyeing the bag.
"Go ahead, have a look!" Harry grinned again.
Hermione stuck her hand into the bag, and pulled something out. It was a very large glasses case. Ron peered at it, confused.
"You got a new pair of glasses?" he questioned his friend.
Harry laughed.
"No, no, I didn't get new glasses, keep looking in the bag; there's more in there."
Hermione pulled out something else. In her hand were two small boxes.
"Contacts?" she asked Harry excitedly.
"Yep," Harry answered proudly. "I don't have to wear my horrible glasses anymore."
"That's awesome, Harry!" Ron told his best friend.
Hermione checked her watch.
"Oh, crap! We're late! We were supposed to meet Fred and George at the Leaky Cauldron ten minutes ago!"
Ron cursed under his breath.
"If it's just George and Fred, they won't care, but if Percy's with them, too, there'll be hell to pay!"
They quickly gathered up their bags and packages, and ran off to go meet up with Ron's seventeen-year-old twin brothers - and hopefully not his nineteen-year-old brother, too.
From the purchase of her two owls, Hermione had about nineteen Knuts left over. She shoved those into Ron's outstretched palms when Loretta (the witch who came around with the lunch cart) knocked on the door and asked if they wanted anything to eat before she moved up to the other compartments.
"Buy me as much candy as that will get!" she hollered after him.
He waved her off, combined her nineteen with his twenty-six Knuts, and walked through the doorway into the corridor.
Harry passed Ron out in the hallway on his way into their train car. Hmmm, he thought to himself. Loretta's early with the lunch cart today. He checked his watch - Harry blinked in surprise - it was a quarter to noon already! The train is running really late, today, he realized.
Harry slid open the compartment's door and walked inside. Ron followed a little bit behind him. Harry surveyed his surroundings: Hermione, wearing a goldenrod spaghetti-strap tank top and khakis, was intently reading one of their new textbooks; Eros, Pigwidgeon, and Aphrodite were perched in their cages on the table across the compartment from Hermione's table, hooting softly to each other.
Ron brushed hurriedly past Harry. He had a gigantic pile of sweets in his arms, and staggered a bit as he carried them across the train car. He paused momentarily - turned his face to Harry and winked - then lugged the pile over to where Hermione was sitting, and dumped the load on the table.
Surprised, Hermione looked up, clearly annoyed at Ron, as a handful of Chocolate Frogs and Licorice Wands spilled onto the pages of Advanced Transfiguration.
"Oops! Sorry, Hermione," Ron said, sounding incredibly insincere.
He grinned when she gave him a very pissed-off glare.
"Ron, you git, dump that load somewhere else!"
"Why so sour, Hermione?" Ron appeared to be thoroughly enjoying how irritated his curly-haired friend was getting. "You've been awful grouchy lately - is it that time of the month again, or something?"
He tried hard - and unsuccessfully - suppress his growing smile. Ron leaned a bit closer to Hermione, waiting for her reaction. His grin now stretched from ear to ear of his freckled face.
Smack! Ron recoiled, the smile gone, gently massaging the side of his face that was now steadily throbbing.
"Grow up, Ron!"
Hermione rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to the chapter on how to transfigure a couch into a cow.
Harry let out a soft laugh and shook his head. He walked over to one of the compartment's windows. When Harry's emerald eyes looked out into the station, they saw a large, black dog jogging slowly away from the train. The dog looked back at the three friends' train car and then disappeared into the crowd of witches and wizards.
He sighed worriedly and ran a hand through his rumpled black hair. Harry hoped that no one had recognized Sirius.
Sirius Black was one of the few unregistered Animagus, therefore giving him the ability to change into a large, black dog on whim. Harry had warned him against shedding his disguise, but Sirius wouldn't hear of it. He had told Harry that he would see him off to his fifth year at Hogwarts as Sirius Black, Harry's Godfather, not as the black dog known as Snuffles.
I wish here were some way that I could clear his name, Harry thought to himself, as he turned away from the window.
Sirius Black had been convicted for the murder of over a dozen people, back around the time when James and Lily Potter (Harry's parents) had been murdered by Lord Voldemort. Because of his "crimes," Sirius had been doomed to a life sentence as a prisoner in the magic world's jail, Azkaban.
Two years ago, Sirius had escaped and fled to Hogwarts to try and warn Harry of the danger he was living with every day. Ron's old, fat, gray rat, Scabbers, wasn't really a rat at all. He was, in fact, a servant of Lord Voldemort, and the person who had really committed all of the murders that Sirius was charged for. Scabbers was really Peter Pettigrew.
By the time that Ron, Harry, and Hermione had finally figured out who Scabbers really was, and tried to do something about it, he had managed to escape. Wormtail (Peter, as he was known to his friends while he was at Hogwarts) had already fled to his master, Voldemort. No one but Dumbledore believed that Sirius was innocent, and that Peter wasn't dead.
The train started away from the station with a great lurch, causing Harry to loose his footing and sprawl, face-first on the floor. He stood up and brushed the dust off of his T-shirt. He looked down. He had tripped over one of Ron's bags that had been forgotten about on the floor. Harry righted himself, picked up the bag, and tossed it onto an overhead rack. He moved towards where his two best friends were sitting.
"'Bout time, Harry," joked Ron, as the train began to pick up speed.
Harry sat down next to Hermione - who was still intently reading their new Transfiguration textbook - and across from Ron - who was still rubbing his sore, freckled cheek. Harry turned to face Ron and grinned widely.
"Ready to kick some butt this year in Quidditch?"
"You bet," Ron replied, his mood immediately lifting. "Malfoy's going down!"
Hermione rolled her eyes and breathed something that sounded remotely like "men and their egos." She took a sip of her Dr. Pepper and shook her head.
Ron gave Harry a Cherry Coke out of Hermione's cooler and opened his own can of Sprite. He thought for a second.
"Harry, have you heard who the new Slytherin Captain is?"
"No, but I'm pretty sure it'll be Malfoy. He's gotten lucky when it comes to Quidditch, what with getting on the team a while back and everything - when he's really not that good."
Ron nodded in agreement, and Harry continued.
"All he ever does is cheat - but, then again, he plays for Slytherin, so that isn't a problem for him," Harry finished sarcastically.
"If he is the Captain, you know he'll tell us right away."
"Yeah," Harry added, rolling his eyes. "There's no way he could keep a secret like that for very long."
Ron chuckled.
"You're right about that, Harry."
As Hermione listened to Harry and Ron's conversation, she absent-mindedly stroked her cat, Crookshanks', back.
Ron was saying something about how Malfoy didn't deserve to be on any kind of Quidditch team in the first place, when Harry looked over at Crookshanks. Seeing one of Hermione's pets reminded him of something.
"Do either of you know where Hedwig went to?" he asked Ron and Hermione. "She was in her cage last night before I fell asleep, but you know how I leave her cage door open so she can fly around the room if she gets restless. Have either of you seen her at all, lately?"
Crookshanks purred louder. Harry glanced over at him again. Hermione was cooing him, saying, "Aww, isn't he so adorable; he wants attention. Who's a cute kitty? Who's a cutie? That's right, Crookshanks, you are! You're a cute kitty-cat!
"Sorry, I haven't seen Hedwig."
She turned back to the cat that was sitting on her lap, smiled at Crookshanks, and cuddled him in her tanned arms.
Harry stared at Hermione for a few seconds. He blushed and averted his eyes when she looked up from holding her feline and briefly met his gaze.
"Herm," he asked, using the nickname that only he - and sometimes Ron - called her, "did you do something new with your hair? It looks really nice."
Hermione smiled shyly and replied, "Un-huh. I got my hair permed in June."
Harry took one of her (at least, in his opinion) beautiful curls and wound it around his finger. He let it go, and it bounced back into place. He looked closer at her, and noticed something.
"Your teeth look straighter, and smaller, too. Did you get braces over the summer? Or did you put a spell on them?"
Like you put a spell on me, he thought to himself.
Hermione blushed at how much attention Harry was paying to her.
"Yes, actually-"
"I'll bet that stupid cat did it! I'll bet he ate poor Hedwig," Ron cut her off.
Ron had been lost in his thoughts while the brief exchange between his best friends had been taking place. He now quickly stood and checked to make sure his owl was still in his shiny silver cage.
"Hey, Pig, how are yeh? Are you still alive? You're not in that naughty cat's belly? Good. Sleep well, Pig, and whatever you do, don't open your cage door to strange-looking cats, okay?"
Ron grinned evilly at Harry, and Harry's laugh quickly turned into a hacking cough.
Hermione glared at Harry, and he immediately sobered and "apologized".
"Er, sorry . . . I, um . . . must have . . . uh . . . had something . . .caught in my throat!"
He nodded his head vigorously, as in attempt to make his brown-haired friend believe him. She scowled at him, and turned to Ron.
Hermione's hazel eyes narrowed into little slits, and as she became indignant, her cheeks flushed a darker shade of pink.
"Ron, you're horrible! How could you talk about my cuddly-wuddly-Crookshanks like that? He didn't eat anything that I haven't given him!"
She rocked her cat back and forth in her arms, as one would do to a small infant. Crookshanks, however, looked as if he desperately wanted to be anywhere else at that moment. As she squeezed him tightly again, the obese cat's eyes bulged and he let out a loud meow.
Ron turned on her, ignoring Crookshanks.
"Ah-ha!" he cried with fervor. "The true culprit has been discovered! So you fed poor Hedwig to Crookshanks, who turned out to be, dare I say, an innocent party in all of this, and then the fat cat ate her!"
Harry bugged his eyes comically and attempted to imitate - without her seeing him - Hermione stuffing an owl down Crookshanks' throat. Ron looked at him and sniggered. Harry, who had finished his antics, saw Ron sniggering, and he started laughing, too.
Pretty soon, they were both doubled over with laughter. They were grabbing their aching sides and holding on to each other to keep from toppling over. It didn't work very long. Soon, they were both rolling around on the floor, uncontrollable with laughter. Hermione tried to look very stern, and hide her smile, impending because of how incredibly stupid the two teenage boys looked.
The two stopped laughing for a second, and glanced up from their uncomfortable positions on the floor to look at their friend, who was glowering over them. They looked back at each other and cracked up, rolling over the floor in peals of laughter.
"He didn't do anything of the sort, and neither did I! He wouldn't eat Hedwig! And both of you, stop being such jerks!"
Ron and Harry stopped laughing and looked warily at each other. They couldn't look at each other too long with out starting to laugh again, though, so they quickly looked at the floor and ceiling. They didn't want to take the risk of being lectured by Hermione.
She held her cat possessively.
She looked him saying, "You're a good kitty, Crookshanks, you wouldn't eat Harry's pet, would you? No, you wouldn't. That's right Crookshanks, you wouldn't ever eat Hedwig, or Ron's owl, 'cuz you're such a good kitty!"
Crookshanks let out a loud yawn and licked his chops, grinning as much as a fat cat can grin. This caused the three pairs of eyes to simultaneously look at the cat: one hazel pair large with surprise, one bright green pair slightly smaller in suspicion, and one aqua pair narrowed over a scrunched-up, freckled nose in growing contempt. Crookshanks then resumed contentedly purring and looking smugly at the three faces peering curiously at him.
"He did it - I told you that he did it!" Ron burst out loudly; indignant that what was so obvious to him wasn't clear to his friends.
Hermione and Harry looked in surprise at Ron. Hermione glared at him sternly.
When she opened her mouth to speak, Ron looked knowingly at Harry, and mouthed here comes another lecture. Harry stifled his smile and nodded slightly, never once averting his gaze from Hermione, so she wouldn't suspect anything. Lucky for the two of them, she didn't notice their antics.
"Shhh, you don't want to get us in trouble before we even get to school, do you, Ron? You know all of us are prefects this year, Harry's the Quidditch Captain, and you're the new keeper."
Her voice grew louder.
"We should be setting good examples; not shouting so loud that people in other compartments might hear it! In fact, you should-"
BANG! The door to the compartment clattered loudly as Draco Malfoy and his gooney (and gooney-looking) henchmen, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, stormed into the train car, cutting Hermione's lecture short - fortunately for Ron. Unfortunately for Hermione, Malfoy choose her as his next target for his snide remarks.
"Awww, what'd Wesley and Potter do wrong this time, Granger? Yeh gonna give the bad boys a spanking for being naughty? Hmmm? Then again, they'd probably like that, wouldn't they?" Malfoy taunted sarcastically.
Hermione's face was beat red by now. She was about to reply when Harry stood abruptly, cutting her off.
"Get lost, Draco," he said, also sarcastically, emphasizing Malfoy's unusual first name.
"Or what? You'll Petrify me with Weasley here's ugliness?" Malfoy taunted.
Ron flew out of his seat, shouting at the Slytherin boy, "Get the hell out of here, you son-of-a-"
Harry clamped his hand over his freckle-faced friend's mouth.
"Don't, Ron. He's not worth it," Harry whispered so that only his friend could hear it.
Malfoy let out a deep chuckle at Ron's reprimand. Then, he paused, and looked expectantly at Crabbe and Goyle. They looked at each other, dumbfounded. Then, they finally caught on and let out a few forced guffaws. Suddenly silent, they looked at Malfoy, as if waiting for further instructions. Malfoy sighed exasperatedly and turned back to the trio of Gryffindors.
Hermione was extremely frustrated, trying - barely successfully - to hold back both Ron and Harry, while at the same time, attempting to shush Crookshanks, who was ready to pounce on Malfoy at any second.
Goyle suddenly let out a loud, smelly belch. "Oops, sorry, Boss," he told Malfoy. "Guess I drank too much . . . " Malfoy gave him a warning glare. "Umm . . . Butterbeer. Yeah that's it. I drank too much Butterbeer." He sniggered at his "genius."
Crookshanks, set off by the belch, pounced on Goyle, while Crabbe stood by and guffawed stupidly, looking confused about the whole situation.
Startled, Goyle fell backwards into one of the booths. Crookshanks, meanwhile, was doing an excellent job of tearing Goyle's tight Polo shirt to shreds. Forrest green strips of cloth flew wildly in the small train compartment. Hermione released Ron and Harry and mad a grab for Crookshanks.
Free of Hermione's grasp, Harry and Ron advanced slowly and meaningfully on Malfoy, causing him to pale even more than usual.
"Shit," Malfoy cursed under his breath.
His ice blue eyes, now obviously nervous, darted back and forth across the compartment as he backed towards the doorway to the train car.
He grabbed onto Crabbe's sleeve. Malfoy gave him a pull towards the doorway, and yelled to his other henchman, "Goyle, let's goooo -"
Thud. Malfoy landed on his backside after tripping over the doorway, unintentionally pulling Crabbe down along with him. Ron took one look at the two Slytherins, limbs askew, and burst out in laughter.
Hermione was pulling so hard on her cat that when he finally let go of Malfoy's large, dim-witted goon; it caused Crookshanks and Hermione to fall backwards into Harry. He managed to catch her, but not before the weight of her fall caused the both of them to tumble onto the carpet. Harry did manage to cushion her fall with himself, though unintentional. During the fall, Crookshanks flew out of Hermione's grasp and sprang towards the doorway.
Bang! Crookshanks had smacked into the door face first. Goyle apparently moved faster than they thought he could, managing to scramble quickly out of the train car and close the door before the angered cat could reach him.
Hermione quickly rolled a bit to the side, off of Harry, and he stood up, dusting himself off. He reached down a hand to help her up, and she blushed as she accepted Harry's hand. He gave a tug and pulled her up to her feet. Harry noticed a piece of lint on her shoulder from the carpet and gently brushed it off her skin.
As his hand made contact with her bare skin, she felt an electrifying tingle go up her spine. When she looked at him, she noticed how handsome he looked with the bright sunlight shining on the left side of his face. Just looking at him made Hermione's heart catch in her throat.
"Thanks," Hermione managed to breathlessly get out. "No problem," Harry awkwardly responded, dropping his head to glance uncomfortably at his shoes. He raised his head to look at Hermione's face, and saw her looking at him, too.
He took a small step closer to her, leaving them only a couple of inches apart. It was as if they were somehow connected. The world seemed to disappear. They gazed deeply into each other's eyes. Harry gently raised his hand, and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear, then leaned a bit nearer to her, closing the gap between them to mere centimeters, and -
"Harry! Hello? Anybody home?" Ron's freckled face squeezed in between Harry and Hermione, his hand waving furiously in front of Harry's face. He lightly smacked Harry on the side of his face, attempting to wake his friend from his trance.
Hermione blinked. The connection had been broken. She had completely forgotten that Ron was in the compartment with them. Harry glanced quickly her way once more, then turned and sat back down. Ron slid into the seat across from him, and Hermione resumed her seat next to Harry.
There were a few seconds of very awkward silence. Ron shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Hermione played with her hair, twirling one long curl around her pointer finger. Harry cracked his knuckles and back, anxiously trying to think of something to say. Finally, something came to him.
"By the way," Harry inquired, "where did Ginny, Fred, and George go to? I haven't seen them today, since we boarded the train."
Hermione - happy to be rid of the awkward silence - answered, "Well, George and Fred went a compartment ahead of ours, to chat with Lee Jordan, and Ginny went to hang out with Neville. Isn't it just soo cute that they're going out? Why do you ask, anyway?"
"Just curious," Harry responded.
Suddenly, one of the windows burst open, and in flew Hedwig.
"There you are!" exclaimed Harry as Hedwig flew over to him, landed on his outstretched hand. She then dropped a letter in the palm of his other hand and began nibbling affectionately on his ear. He stroked the feathers on her back, then looked at the piece of mail in his hand.
Hermione went over to the owls' cage and opened the door for Hedwig. Hedwig flew in, and perched on a stick near Eros. All four owls began hooting quietly to each other, as if discussing Hedwig's journey.
Harry looked at the letter she had delivered for him. It bore the Hogwarts seal and was on the same yellowish parchment, in the same green ink as the letter that he annually received, telling him what he needed for yet another year at Hogwarts. He opened it carefully, so as not to rip it. He pulled the letter out of its envelope. Harry read it to himself.
"Well, what does it say, Harry? Are you gonna read it to us or what?" Ron questioned him, running a hand anxiously through his bright red hair.
Hermione nodded vigorously - her curly hair falling softly around her face - and urged him, "Yes, go on, read it."
Harry grinned at them, and responded, "Sure. I'll read it to you.
"Dear Harry,
"How are you? Doing well, I hope. I am just writing to inform you that you might see a bit of Moony this year. Actually, since Dumbledore hired me as the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher again, you will probably see quite a bit of me.
"I hope that Hermione and Ron are also faring well. By the way, how is Sirius? I haven't heard from him in a while. I'll have to send him an owl soon. Is he out of hiding yet? See you in class-
"Sincerely,
"Moony
"(Professor Remus Lupin)"
"Professor Lupin's back?" asked Hermione. "This is great! He was always my favorite Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher."
She grinned happily.
"Mine, too," said Ron - who was thoroughly surprised that they were agreeing on something - and smiled. "He actually knew what he was doing."
A while later, they heard a soft knock on the compartment door. Ron looked up from his game of chess with Harry, and got up to open the door. A second later, Ginny came into their compartment with Neville Longbottom and her good friend Colin Creevey. Ron sat back down.
"All right, Harry?" Colin asked as he did so often.
As usual, Harry responded, "Hello, Colin."
He turned to also face Neville and Ginny, who was holding her boyfriend's hand.
Harry continued, "Hi Neville. Hey Ginny." He turned his head to Collin again. "Collin, how's your little brother? Is Dennis excited about the new school year?"
"Oh, you bet! He's doing terrific, Harry. Dennis is in the fourth compartment with a couple of his Second Year friends." Collin paused, and then continued, with a sly smirk on his face. "He's been hanging out with Natalie McDonald a lot. I think he may have a little crush on her."
Collin winked and Harry laughed. Collin, the Matchmaker, Harry thought. Who would've thought? He inwardly grinned at the thought. Boy, I sure wouldn't want him to pair me up with someone!
Ginny took Collin's brief silence as an opportunity to take her turn to say hello to her brother and his friends.
"Hey Ron, hi Hermione . . . hello Harry," said Ginny, blushing slightly.
Neville, who was looking around the train car confusedly, didn't take notice.
Ron leaned over slightly and whispered in Harry's ear - with a hint of amusement - "I think she's still rather fond of you, Harry!"
Ron sniggered softly, and Ginny's face went redder.
"Shut up, Ron!" Harry whispered back out of the side of his mouth.
Hermione turned to Ginny and smiled warmly - after a stern glare at Ron - and asked her, "Why don't the three of you sit down?"
Hermione scooted closer to Harry - making the two of them blush - and Ron scooted over next to the window. Ginny sat next to Ron. Collin sat across from her, looking at Hermione's book with interest. She let him see the page on how to perform painkiller charms.
Neville bent down, his rear end sticking up in the air, and was apparently looking under the seat for something. Embarrassed, Ginny tugged hard on Neville's black robes and pulled him up and he squeezed into the seat next to her.
"Anyway, Ron, I came in here to tell you that we'll be at Hogwarts in about a half an hour, and that you should probably pack up whatever you've got out and put your robes on," Ginny rambled.
She paused, turning expectantly to Neville.
He raised his head and saw the five friends looking at him, waiting for him to talk. Neville spoke up. "I'm checking with everyone to see if anyone's seen my toad. I've lost Trevor again. Have any of you seen him?"
"No, we haven't seen your toad, but if we do, we'll bring him to you right away," Hermione promised.
"Ginny, when you pass through Fred and George's compartment, could you tell them to come and get their baggage?" Ron asked.
"Sure thing. We should be going," she said as she pushed Neville out of the booth. Unprepared for the action, he fell on the floor with a dull thud. He laughed and got up, tripping over his too-large robes, and falling down again. Five other voices joined in with his, all six friends now laughing.
After the three smaller Gryffindors had left, Hermione took the new course book (The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 5) out again, and began intently pouring over its pages.
She was telling Ron and Harry about melting and freezing charms when a loud pounding on the compartment door interrupted her. Harry turned to look out the window, pretending awe at the beautiful countryside, so that she wouldn't notice his large yawn. He faced her again quickly, feigning rapt interest in the charms she was talking about. Welding charms, or something, he thought.
Ron stood, stretching his limbs.
"That'll be Fred and George," he said - with great relief over leaving Hermione's lecture on charms - as he walked over to the door.
He opened the door, and George stepped in. George had freckles and bright red hair, just like Ron - and all of the other Weasleys, too, for that matter. It would have been easy to identify the two as brothers. Unlike Ron, however, George wasn't tall and lanky, but more of an average height and sturdily built. All of the Weasley boys - with the exception of Percy, who now spent too much time in his office, working for the Ministry of Magic - were muscular.
Ginny, too, was beginning to develop strong muscles, as she had been enjoying a Muggle sport, gymnastics, lately. One of her friends from Hogwarts, who had grown up in the Muggle community, had taught gymnastics to her. Ron was starting to get fed up with Ginny showing him her new moves all the time. He didn't really understand why she enjoyed "twirling and flipping" so, when she could, instead, be zooming through the air on a broomstick, playing Quidditch.
The older Weasley walked briskly to the identical trunks, but paused a second, and looked around, as if he was missing something. He turned and walked quickly back to the doorway, and stuck his freckled head back out of the compartment. He gave a tug, and another freckled boy, also with bright red hair tumbled into the car.
"What'd yeh do that for, George?" Fred indignantly questioned his twin as he dusted himself off. He placed his hands on his hips, waiting for his twin's response.
George ignored him and yelled into the other compartment, "Angelina, he'll be right back, okay?"
Satisfied, he turned back to his identical brother.
"You can flirt with Angelina later; we need to take our stuff to our compartment and get changed," George said with a tone of finality in his voice, as if daring Fred to argue with him.
"All right already! I'm coming."
Fred stuck his head into the other compartment again and yelled back to his girlfriend, "Don't you go anywhere, Angelina! I'll be right back as soon as "Master" George and I have gotten our trunks."
He turned back into the last train car, away from the girlish giggling in the other compartment.
He pulled away from George's grasp on his shirt and strode over to the corner where their trunks had been placed on one of the tables. With a loud grunt, he pulled down his trunk first, and it landed on the carpeted floor with a dull thud. He then did the same to George's.
"Oi, Ron, Harry, give us a hand with these," George told the younger boys.
The four then dragged their trunks two compartments ahead where they were sitting with the dreadlocked Lee Jordan, and the four boys' other three Quidditch teammates: Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinnet, and Katie Bell.
While they were gone, Hermione started packing away the leftover sweets from the journey in a brown paper bag; a package of Bertie Bott's Every-Flavor Beans, some Chocolate frogs, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, Licorice Wands, Cauldron Cakes, and Pumpkin Pasties.
As she finished packing them away, Ron and Harry entered the compartment again.
"George and Fred are all set and getting changed," Ron told Hermione.
"Speaking of," Hermione commented, "we should probably get changed, too. You guys go ahead and get changed into your robes in here, and I'll go in the bathroom in the back of the car. Knock on the door when you're both done, and I'll come out then." She turned back to them, and continued. "Don't worry, I won't peek!" She laughed jokingly. She opened her trunk, which she had placed in the corner, and grabbed her new robes, She then walked over to the bathroom, closing and locking the door behind her.
Ron chuckled and turned to Harry, who was rolling his eyes exasperatedly.
"Girls," he intoned, and sighed.
"What's up with you, Harry?" Ron questioned his best friend.
"Nothin' . . . nothin', really," Harry quickly replied, and pulled on his black Hogwarts robes.
"Un-huh. Sure," Ron said, not believing him for a second.
He had an idea of what might be bugging his friend.
"You still like Cho Chang?" he asked Harry as he pulled his new robes out of his trunk.
Cho Chang was the Seeker on the Ravenclaw house Quidditch team. Harry had liked her since his third year at Hogwarts.
Ron yanked them on over his head. He looked down at his black robes, admiring how nice they looked. Probably the nicest I've had yet, Ron noted to himself, with more than a hint of bitterness and sarcasm. When Harry didn't answer his question soon, he turned to his friend, a concerned look on his freckled face.
"Harry?" Ron cautiously started. "You okay?"
Harry was silent for a few seconds.
"I dunno, Ron. I still feel bad about Cedric. I don't know if Cho was in love with Cedric, but she certainly liked him . . . and I got him killed! It just wouldn't be right -"
Ron turned on Harry, his robes swirling around him.
"Don't you ever, ever say that again, Harry! Ever! I never want to hear you blame yourself for Cedric's death again! It wasn't your fault! You didn't kill him. Voldemort killed him with . . . the unforgivable curse . . . the killing curse . . . you know . . . Avada Kedavra."
Ron paused and gulped. He was surprised at his ability to say the Dark Lord's name aloud. He hadn't meant to say it. It had just kinda . . . happened.
"It wasn't your fault . . . how could you be to blame for his death?"
Harry looked at Ron, and when he did, there was such pain in Harry's eyes that Ron couldn't bear it. Ron quickly averted his gaze.
Harry sat down and began talking quietly.
"I am to blame for Cedric's death. I was the one who suggested that . . . that both of us take the trophy. Cedric was going to let just me take it. He was willing to let me take the complete victory. He would have reached the trophy first, were it not for the giant spider . . . and the victory would have been his - all his. I saw the spider right before it attacked him, and I saved him. I didn't even think about it. I just helped him out."
The bathroom door opened a crack. When its inhabitant was sure that both boys had already changed, she inched the door all the way open.
Ron glanced momentarily Hermione's way, then made a small gesture for her to come over to the table with him and Harry. Ron sat down across from Harry. Hermione strode quickly and quietly towards them, her robes swooshing softly around her ankles.
Harry was preoccupied with his own thoughts, and wasn't paying much attention to anything. Hermione soundlessly slipped into the seat, next to Harry.
He looked so . . . full of pain. She wasn't sure what she should do. Should she hug him, or should she pat him sympathetically on the shoulder? Should she hold his hand . . . or should she dare to . . . kiss him? A tingle went up her back at the thought of her and Harry . . . kissing. She sighed. Hermione thought for a second, then made up her mind.
Carefully, she took his clammy hand in hers and gave it a gentle, calming squeeze. He briefly looked at her, gave a weak smile, and gently squeezed her hand back. He unconsciously rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand, calming both of them.
"Cedric was so grateful that I had saved him and - by nature, I guess - so generous, that he wouldn't take the victory that was rightly his. I wouldn't allow him to completely give up his victory, though. He was in his seventh year. It was his chance to be great . . . to really be sensational! Together, we would win the Triwizard Tournament for Hogwarts. Together, we would be victorious! We would both make all of Hogwarts proud!
The emotional pain of his memories was now so great that Harry could hardly bear it. He knew that he was very close to crying.
"So, we both took hold of the trophy. It was a portkey . . . but we obviously didn't know that it was. It took us directly to Volde- Sorry. I mean You-Know-Who. You- Know-Who apparently didn't see any need to keep Cedric alive . . . so he disposed of Diggory," Harry finished bitterly, almost at tears.
Hermione noticed this, and turned to Harry. She pulled him closer to her, giving him a hug. Ron turned away quickly, so the others couldn't see the tears forming in his eyes.
Harry was extremely relieved when Hermione pulled him into the hug. I needed this, he thought. I really needed this. Thank God for Hermione and Ron. I don't know what I would do without them. He held Hermione tightly, running one hand through her beautifully curly brown hair, and wished he would never have to let her go. Emotionally exhausted, Harry lowered his head a few inches, until it was resting gently on Hermione's shoulder.
Hermione's heart skipped a beat as Harry held her closer to him. This feels so right, she thought to herself, bringing the distance between the two of them to none. She felt him lay his head down on her shoulder, and she leaned down and kissed the top of his head. Hermione felt warm tears on her shoulder, soaked through her new robes. He's crying, she thought to herself, Harry's crying. He shouldn't have to bear this burden, and yet he does. He blames himself for the death of Cedric.
She sighed into his jet-black hair. She knew what she had to do. Hermione gently pulled back a bit, crooked her finger, and placed it horizontally under Harry's chin. She lifted it so that he was now looking directly into her eyes. Those are the deepest eyes I've ever seen, she thought, as she gazed into his vibrantly green eyes.
"Harry," she started soothingly, taking her finger out from under his chin.
She ran her hand through his rumpled black hair, unintentionally brushing aside a lock and revealing his scar. She dropped her hand to cradle the side of his face. Hermione looked at Harry tenderly.
"You can't keep blaming yourself. You did nothing wrong. Do you hear me? You did nothing wrong! There wasn't anything you could have done for Cedric. If he had taken the trophy alone, You-Know-Who would've still killed him without hesitation. Harry, don't you get it?
"There's nothing you could have done for him. You have to let go of it. It's in the past. It's over and done with. Honor Cedric by letting go. Remember him always - but don't let his memory continue to give you such pain. Do you honestly think that Cedric would want to be remembered . . . like that? As a memory that causes you pain? Remember him as the hero that he was - and still is - not as a painful memory for you."
Harry shook his head, his disheveled, jet-black hair flying wildly. The top of his head still felt warm from Hermione's tender kiss.
"You're right, Hermione."
He sighed and gave her the weakest of weak smiles, then leaned over and brushed his lips across her cheek. Her hand dropped gently to rest in the palm of his other free hand. He held her warm hand tightly, and pulled her back to him so he could hold her again. His next words were to himself, murmured into her brown hair.
"I need to start remembering Cedric by honoring him for dying his heroic death. If I keep blaming myself, I won't be able to bear it anymore."
Then, as if talking to Cedric himself, Harry raised his head to look up and said, "I let go. I'll always remember, though. I promise."
He gave Hermione a brief squeeze and then let go of her.
Still holding hands, they tried to make small talk with Ron about the new school year.
A few minutes later, the train lurched to a screeching halt. The three friends gathered their trunks and bags. Harry carried the now empty owl cage (they had let all four owls fly out the open window when the train stopped); Ron carried the bag of left over sweets.
When they stepped out into the bright sunlight, the three friends could see their home for the school year: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Author's Note: (another one) ;o) So, did you like it?? Please review now. Please, (I know I already said it, but I'm gonna say it again) review this! I'll post Ch. 2 if I get enough good comments!! *Please - no flames!!*
-Kel-
Ch. 1
Another Journey From Platform 93/4
Author's Note: I removed it because I wanted to update it . . . so I did. Here it is. :o) Hey! This is my first fan fic, so please be kind! Constructive criticism is greatly appreciated, though. Warning: MAJOR book four spoilers. If you haven't read the GoF, don't go any farther - unless you want to spoil it for yourself. I repeat: DON'T READ IF YOU HAVEN'T READ BOOK FOUR!!! Anyway, please r/r. Enjoy! (Oh, and for all you Hermione/Ron people out there, please don't flame me!!)
Disclaimer: Just about everything in this fic belongs to J.K. Rowling, with the exception of a few characters that I made up, so please don't sue me!!
Oi, Harry, hurry up!" called Ron Weasley, waving his freckled arms wildly out of the train car's tiny window.
Hermione Granger stuck her head out of the window next to Ron's and yelled as her thick, curly brown hair flew in the breeze, "Harry, it's gonna leave any second! Come on!"
Tweeeeet! The Hogwarts Express blew it's whistle loudly, as if chiding Harry for not hurrying to board it.
"I'm coming; just a second!" yelled back fifteen-year-old Harry Potter.
All around him, people hurried back and forth; some running to get on the train, others saying good-bye one last time to their sons, daughters, brothers, and sisters before the students once again boarded the train bound for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Harry turned to the tall, dark man standing next to him.
"Bye Sirius," he told his godfather as he hugged him briefly. "Don't spend too much time out of your disguise. Someone might recognize you."
"Don't worry about me, Harry; I'll be fine. Run along though; you don't want to miss your train," Sirius Black responded.
As Harry broke into a run, he turned to wave to Sirius.
"Bye!" Harry called one last time as he jumped into the small platform outside the last train compartment of the Hogwarts Express, which he and his two best friends, Ron and Hermione, had to themselves.
From the platform, Harry could see Fred and George Weasley - Ron's twin brothers - whispering seriously to each other. Probably thinking of ways to set up their joke shop in Gryffindor Tower, he thought. The two redheads had paid very careful attention to what kind of gags sold well at the joke shop in Diagon Alley last week. Harry thought over the events of the last week.
Last week, before they went to Diagon Alley, the place to get anything magic-related, Harry had given Ron and Hermione some money to buy whatever he wanted, kind of as a back-to-school present.
Ron used the five gold Galleons from Harry to buy two new sets of robes for school and another book on his favorite Quidditch team, the Chudley Cannons. He had saved about twenty-six bronze Knuts to purchase some candy on the train ride to school.
Hermione had taken forever in Diagon Alley to decide what she wanted to purchase with the wizard money that Harry had given her. Finally, after dragging Harry and Ron into practically every shop in the alley, she had made her decision.
"I just have to have an owl, Harry! You've got Hedwig, and Ron has little Pigwidgeon - I need an owl, too," she said, and strode determinedly into Eeylops Owl Emporium, pulling Ron and Harry with her.
Twenty minutes later, she had emerged triumphantly, staggering under the weight of a large silver cage, containing not one, but two owls: A beautiful, large, white snowy owl, and a cute, tiny, reddish-brown minute owl.
"I just couldn't resist; I know you both think I'm silly for getting two owls, but I just had to!" Hermione rambled quickly, as if she felt she owed Harry and Ron an explanation for her purchase of the two owls. "See, now Hedwig's got Eros to keep her company, and Piggie's got little Aphrodite to keep him company!" Hermione had said this all very fast, and looked very pleased with her reasoning.
Harry, too had a purchase to make, but he wouldn't tell his friends what it was. He gave them fourteen Knuts, so they could each buy an ice cream cone while they waited for him. He quickly walked away from them, and soon disappeared into the crowds of Diagon Alley.
While he was gone, Hermione and Ron sat, eating their cones. Ron poured over the pages of his new book as he finished his raspberry sherbet. Hermione took a bite of her mint chocolate-chip ice cream and watched her two new owls hoot to each other - Aphrodite twittering excitedly around the cage, and Eros watching her warily.
After she swallowed her bite of ice cream, she asked Ron, "Where do you think Harry went?"
Ron thought for a second, then replied.
"I dunno," he shrugged innocently. "Maybe he went to find some cat poison for Crookshanks."
He grinned evilly at his friend. Hermione just rolled her eyes, and went back to eating her ice cream.
About three-quarters of an hour later, Harry returned, happily smiling, swinging a small plastic bag from his grip. He plopped himself down in a chair between Hermione and Ron, and set the bag down on the table.
"Well, what'd yeh get?" Ron asked, curiously eyeing the bag.
"Go ahead, have a look!" Harry grinned again.
Hermione stuck her hand into the bag, and pulled something out. It was a very large glasses case. Ron peered at it, confused.
"You got a new pair of glasses?" he questioned his friend.
Harry laughed.
"No, no, I didn't get new glasses, keep looking in the bag; there's more in there."
Hermione pulled out something else. In her hand were two small boxes.
"Contacts?" she asked Harry excitedly.
"Yep," Harry answered proudly. "I don't have to wear my horrible glasses anymore."
"That's awesome, Harry!" Ron told his best friend.
Hermione checked her watch.
"Oh, crap! We're late! We were supposed to meet Fred and George at the Leaky Cauldron ten minutes ago!"
Ron cursed under his breath.
"If it's just George and Fred, they won't care, but if Percy's with them, too, there'll be hell to pay!"
They quickly gathered up their bags and packages, and ran off to go meet up with Ron's seventeen-year-old twin brothers - and hopefully not his nineteen-year-old brother, too.
From the purchase of her two owls, Hermione had about nineteen Knuts left over. She shoved those into Ron's outstretched palms when Loretta (the witch who came around with the lunch cart) knocked on the door and asked if they wanted anything to eat before she moved up to the other compartments.
"Buy me as much candy as that will get!" she hollered after him.
He waved her off, combined her nineteen with his twenty-six Knuts, and walked through the doorway into the corridor.
Harry passed Ron out in the hallway on his way into their train car. Hmmm, he thought to himself. Loretta's early with the lunch cart today. He checked his watch - Harry blinked in surprise - it was a quarter to noon already! The train is running really late, today, he realized.
Harry slid open the compartment's door and walked inside. Ron followed a little bit behind him. Harry surveyed his surroundings: Hermione, wearing a goldenrod spaghetti-strap tank top and khakis, was intently reading one of their new textbooks; Eros, Pigwidgeon, and Aphrodite were perched in their cages on the table across the compartment from Hermione's table, hooting softly to each other.
Ron brushed hurriedly past Harry. He had a gigantic pile of sweets in his arms, and staggered a bit as he carried them across the train car. He paused momentarily - turned his face to Harry and winked - then lugged the pile over to where Hermione was sitting, and dumped the load on the table.
Surprised, Hermione looked up, clearly annoyed at Ron, as a handful of Chocolate Frogs and Licorice Wands spilled onto the pages of Advanced Transfiguration.
"Oops! Sorry, Hermione," Ron said, sounding incredibly insincere.
He grinned when she gave him a very pissed-off glare.
"Ron, you git, dump that load somewhere else!"
"Why so sour, Hermione?" Ron appeared to be thoroughly enjoying how irritated his curly-haired friend was getting. "You've been awful grouchy lately - is it that time of the month again, or something?"
He tried hard - and unsuccessfully - suppress his growing smile. Ron leaned a bit closer to Hermione, waiting for her reaction. His grin now stretched from ear to ear of his freckled face.
Smack! Ron recoiled, the smile gone, gently massaging the side of his face that was now steadily throbbing.
"Grow up, Ron!"
Hermione rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to the chapter on how to transfigure a couch into a cow.
Harry let out a soft laugh and shook his head. He walked over to one of the compartment's windows. When Harry's emerald eyes looked out into the station, they saw a large, black dog jogging slowly away from the train. The dog looked back at the three friends' train car and then disappeared into the crowd of witches and wizards.
He sighed worriedly and ran a hand through his rumpled black hair. Harry hoped that no one had recognized Sirius.
Sirius Black was one of the few unregistered Animagus, therefore giving him the ability to change into a large, black dog on whim. Harry had warned him against shedding his disguise, but Sirius wouldn't hear of it. He had told Harry that he would see him off to his fifth year at Hogwarts as Sirius Black, Harry's Godfather, not as the black dog known as Snuffles.
I wish here were some way that I could clear his name, Harry thought to himself, as he turned away from the window.
Sirius Black had been convicted for the murder of over a dozen people, back around the time when James and Lily Potter (Harry's parents) had been murdered by Lord Voldemort. Because of his "crimes," Sirius had been doomed to a life sentence as a prisoner in the magic world's jail, Azkaban.
Two years ago, Sirius had escaped and fled to Hogwarts to try and warn Harry of the danger he was living with every day. Ron's old, fat, gray rat, Scabbers, wasn't really a rat at all. He was, in fact, a servant of Lord Voldemort, and the person who had really committed all of the murders that Sirius was charged for. Scabbers was really Peter Pettigrew.
By the time that Ron, Harry, and Hermione had finally figured out who Scabbers really was, and tried to do something about it, he had managed to escape. Wormtail (Peter, as he was known to his friends while he was at Hogwarts) had already fled to his master, Voldemort. No one but Dumbledore believed that Sirius was innocent, and that Peter wasn't dead.
The train started away from the station with a great lurch, causing Harry to loose his footing and sprawl, face-first on the floor. He stood up and brushed the dust off of his T-shirt. He looked down. He had tripped over one of Ron's bags that had been forgotten about on the floor. Harry righted himself, picked up the bag, and tossed it onto an overhead rack. He moved towards where his two best friends were sitting.
"'Bout time, Harry," joked Ron, as the train began to pick up speed.
Harry sat down next to Hermione - who was still intently reading their new Transfiguration textbook - and across from Ron - who was still rubbing his sore, freckled cheek. Harry turned to face Ron and grinned widely.
"Ready to kick some butt this year in Quidditch?"
"You bet," Ron replied, his mood immediately lifting. "Malfoy's going down!"
Hermione rolled her eyes and breathed something that sounded remotely like "men and their egos." She took a sip of her Dr. Pepper and shook her head.
Ron gave Harry a Cherry Coke out of Hermione's cooler and opened his own can of Sprite. He thought for a second.
"Harry, have you heard who the new Slytherin Captain is?"
"No, but I'm pretty sure it'll be Malfoy. He's gotten lucky when it comes to Quidditch, what with getting on the team a while back and everything - when he's really not that good."
Ron nodded in agreement, and Harry continued.
"All he ever does is cheat - but, then again, he plays for Slytherin, so that isn't a problem for him," Harry finished sarcastically.
"If he is the Captain, you know he'll tell us right away."
"Yeah," Harry added, rolling his eyes. "There's no way he could keep a secret like that for very long."
Ron chuckled.
"You're right about that, Harry."
As Hermione listened to Harry and Ron's conversation, she absent-mindedly stroked her cat, Crookshanks', back.
Ron was saying something about how Malfoy didn't deserve to be on any kind of Quidditch team in the first place, when Harry looked over at Crookshanks. Seeing one of Hermione's pets reminded him of something.
"Do either of you know where Hedwig went to?" he asked Ron and Hermione. "She was in her cage last night before I fell asleep, but you know how I leave her cage door open so she can fly around the room if she gets restless. Have either of you seen her at all, lately?"
Crookshanks purred louder. Harry glanced over at him again. Hermione was cooing him, saying, "Aww, isn't he so adorable; he wants attention. Who's a cute kitty? Who's a cutie? That's right, Crookshanks, you are! You're a cute kitty-cat!
"Sorry, I haven't seen Hedwig."
She turned back to the cat that was sitting on her lap, smiled at Crookshanks, and cuddled him in her tanned arms.
Harry stared at Hermione for a few seconds. He blushed and averted his eyes when she looked up from holding her feline and briefly met his gaze.
"Herm," he asked, using the nickname that only he - and sometimes Ron - called her, "did you do something new with your hair? It looks really nice."
Hermione smiled shyly and replied, "Un-huh. I got my hair permed in June."
Harry took one of her (at least, in his opinion) beautiful curls and wound it around his finger. He let it go, and it bounced back into place. He looked closer at her, and noticed something.
"Your teeth look straighter, and smaller, too. Did you get braces over the summer? Or did you put a spell on them?"
Like you put a spell on me, he thought to himself.
Hermione blushed at how much attention Harry was paying to her.
"Yes, actually-"
"I'll bet that stupid cat did it! I'll bet he ate poor Hedwig," Ron cut her off.
Ron had been lost in his thoughts while the brief exchange between his best friends had been taking place. He now quickly stood and checked to make sure his owl was still in his shiny silver cage.
"Hey, Pig, how are yeh? Are you still alive? You're not in that naughty cat's belly? Good. Sleep well, Pig, and whatever you do, don't open your cage door to strange-looking cats, okay?"
Ron grinned evilly at Harry, and Harry's laugh quickly turned into a hacking cough.
Hermione glared at Harry, and he immediately sobered and "apologized".
"Er, sorry . . . I, um . . . must have . . . uh . . . had something . . .caught in my throat!"
He nodded his head vigorously, as in attempt to make his brown-haired friend believe him. She scowled at him, and turned to Ron.
Hermione's hazel eyes narrowed into little slits, and as she became indignant, her cheeks flushed a darker shade of pink.
"Ron, you're horrible! How could you talk about my cuddly-wuddly-Crookshanks like that? He didn't eat anything that I haven't given him!"
She rocked her cat back and forth in her arms, as one would do to a small infant. Crookshanks, however, looked as if he desperately wanted to be anywhere else at that moment. As she squeezed him tightly again, the obese cat's eyes bulged and he let out a loud meow.
Ron turned on her, ignoring Crookshanks.
"Ah-ha!" he cried with fervor. "The true culprit has been discovered! So you fed poor Hedwig to Crookshanks, who turned out to be, dare I say, an innocent party in all of this, and then the fat cat ate her!"
Harry bugged his eyes comically and attempted to imitate - without her seeing him - Hermione stuffing an owl down Crookshanks' throat. Ron looked at him and sniggered. Harry, who had finished his antics, saw Ron sniggering, and he started laughing, too.
Pretty soon, they were both doubled over with laughter. They were grabbing their aching sides and holding on to each other to keep from toppling over. It didn't work very long. Soon, they were both rolling around on the floor, uncontrollable with laughter. Hermione tried to look very stern, and hide her smile, impending because of how incredibly stupid the two teenage boys looked.
The two stopped laughing for a second, and glanced up from their uncomfortable positions on the floor to look at their friend, who was glowering over them. They looked back at each other and cracked up, rolling over the floor in peals of laughter.
"He didn't do anything of the sort, and neither did I! He wouldn't eat Hedwig! And both of you, stop being such jerks!"
Ron and Harry stopped laughing and looked warily at each other. They couldn't look at each other too long with out starting to laugh again, though, so they quickly looked at the floor and ceiling. They didn't want to take the risk of being lectured by Hermione.
She held her cat possessively.
She looked him saying, "You're a good kitty, Crookshanks, you wouldn't eat Harry's pet, would you? No, you wouldn't. That's right Crookshanks, you wouldn't ever eat Hedwig, or Ron's owl, 'cuz you're such a good kitty!"
Crookshanks let out a loud yawn and licked his chops, grinning as much as a fat cat can grin. This caused the three pairs of eyes to simultaneously look at the cat: one hazel pair large with surprise, one bright green pair slightly smaller in suspicion, and one aqua pair narrowed over a scrunched-up, freckled nose in growing contempt. Crookshanks then resumed contentedly purring and looking smugly at the three faces peering curiously at him.
"He did it - I told you that he did it!" Ron burst out loudly; indignant that what was so obvious to him wasn't clear to his friends.
Hermione and Harry looked in surprise at Ron. Hermione glared at him sternly.
When she opened her mouth to speak, Ron looked knowingly at Harry, and mouthed here comes another lecture. Harry stifled his smile and nodded slightly, never once averting his gaze from Hermione, so she wouldn't suspect anything. Lucky for the two of them, she didn't notice their antics.
"Shhh, you don't want to get us in trouble before we even get to school, do you, Ron? You know all of us are prefects this year, Harry's the Quidditch Captain, and you're the new keeper."
Her voice grew louder.
"We should be setting good examples; not shouting so loud that people in other compartments might hear it! In fact, you should-"
BANG! The door to the compartment clattered loudly as Draco Malfoy and his gooney (and gooney-looking) henchmen, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, stormed into the train car, cutting Hermione's lecture short - fortunately for Ron. Unfortunately for Hermione, Malfoy choose her as his next target for his snide remarks.
"Awww, what'd Wesley and Potter do wrong this time, Granger? Yeh gonna give the bad boys a spanking for being naughty? Hmmm? Then again, they'd probably like that, wouldn't they?" Malfoy taunted sarcastically.
Hermione's face was beat red by now. She was about to reply when Harry stood abruptly, cutting her off.
"Get lost, Draco," he said, also sarcastically, emphasizing Malfoy's unusual first name.
"Or what? You'll Petrify me with Weasley here's ugliness?" Malfoy taunted.
Ron flew out of his seat, shouting at the Slytherin boy, "Get the hell out of here, you son-of-a-"
Harry clamped his hand over his freckle-faced friend's mouth.
"Don't, Ron. He's not worth it," Harry whispered so that only his friend could hear it.
Malfoy let out a deep chuckle at Ron's reprimand. Then, he paused, and looked expectantly at Crabbe and Goyle. They looked at each other, dumbfounded. Then, they finally caught on and let out a few forced guffaws. Suddenly silent, they looked at Malfoy, as if waiting for further instructions. Malfoy sighed exasperatedly and turned back to the trio of Gryffindors.
Hermione was extremely frustrated, trying - barely successfully - to hold back both Ron and Harry, while at the same time, attempting to shush Crookshanks, who was ready to pounce on Malfoy at any second.
Goyle suddenly let out a loud, smelly belch. "Oops, sorry, Boss," he told Malfoy. "Guess I drank too much . . . " Malfoy gave him a warning glare. "Umm . . . Butterbeer. Yeah that's it. I drank too much Butterbeer." He sniggered at his "genius."
Crookshanks, set off by the belch, pounced on Goyle, while Crabbe stood by and guffawed stupidly, looking confused about the whole situation.
Startled, Goyle fell backwards into one of the booths. Crookshanks, meanwhile, was doing an excellent job of tearing Goyle's tight Polo shirt to shreds. Forrest green strips of cloth flew wildly in the small train compartment. Hermione released Ron and Harry and mad a grab for Crookshanks.
Free of Hermione's grasp, Harry and Ron advanced slowly and meaningfully on Malfoy, causing him to pale even more than usual.
"Shit," Malfoy cursed under his breath.
His ice blue eyes, now obviously nervous, darted back and forth across the compartment as he backed towards the doorway to the train car.
He grabbed onto Crabbe's sleeve. Malfoy gave him a pull towards the doorway, and yelled to his other henchman, "Goyle, let's goooo -"
Thud. Malfoy landed on his backside after tripping over the doorway, unintentionally pulling Crabbe down along with him. Ron took one look at the two Slytherins, limbs askew, and burst out in laughter.
Hermione was pulling so hard on her cat that when he finally let go of Malfoy's large, dim-witted goon; it caused Crookshanks and Hermione to fall backwards into Harry. He managed to catch her, but not before the weight of her fall caused the both of them to tumble onto the carpet. Harry did manage to cushion her fall with himself, though unintentional. During the fall, Crookshanks flew out of Hermione's grasp and sprang towards the doorway.
Bang! Crookshanks had smacked into the door face first. Goyle apparently moved faster than they thought he could, managing to scramble quickly out of the train car and close the door before the angered cat could reach him.
Hermione quickly rolled a bit to the side, off of Harry, and he stood up, dusting himself off. He reached down a hand to help her up, and she blushed as she accepted Harry's hand. He gave a tug and pulled her up to her feet. Harry noticed a piece of lint on her shoulder from the carpet and gently brushed it off her skin.
As his hand made contact with her bare skin, she felt an electrifying tingle go up her spine. When she looked at him, she noticed how handsome he looked with the bright sunlight shining on the left side of his face. Just looking at him made Hermione's heart catch in her throat.
"Thanks," Hermione managed to breathlessly get out. "No problem," Harry awkwardly responded, dropping his head to glance uncomfortably at his shoes. He raised his head to look at Hermione's face, and saw her looking at him, too.
He took a small step closer to her, leaving them only a couple of inches apart. It was as if they were somehow connected. The world seemed to disappear. They gazed deeply into each other's eyes. Harry gently raised his hand, and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear, then leaned a bit nearer to her, closing the gap between them to mere centimeters, and -
"Harry! Hello? Anybody home?" Ron's freckled face squeezed in between Harry and Hermione, his hand waving furiously in front of Harry's face. He lightly smacked Harry on the side of his face, attempting to wake his friend from his trance.
Hermione blinked. The connection had been broken. She had completely forgotten that Ron was in the compartment with them. Harry glanced quickly her way once more, then turned and sat back down. Ron slid into the seat across from him, and Hermione resumed her seat next to Harry.
There were a few seconds of very awkward silence. Ron shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Hermione played with her hair, twirling one long curl around her pointer finger. Harry cracked his knuckles and back, anxiously trying to think of something to say. Finally, something came to him.
"By the way," Harry inquired, "where did Ginny, Fred, and George go to? I haven't seen them today, since we boarded the train."
Hermione - happy to be rid of the awkward silence - answered, "Well, George and Fred went a compartment ahead of ours, to chat with Lee Jordan, and Ginny went to hang out with Neville. Isn't it just soo cute that they're going out? Why do you ask, anyway?"
"Just curious," Harry responded.
Suddenly, one of the windows burst open, and in flew Hedwig.
"There you are!" exclaimed Harry as Hedwig flew over to him, landed on his outstretched hand. She then dropped a letter in the palm of his other hand and began nibbling affectionately on his ear. He stroked the feathers on her back, then looked at the piece of mail in his hand.
Hermione went over to the owls' cage and opened the door for Hedwig. Hedwig flew in, and perched on a stick near Eros. All four owls began hooting quietly to each other, as if discussing Hedwig's journey.
Harry looked at the letter she had delivered for him. It bore the Hogwarts seal and was on the same yellowish parchment, in the same green ink as the letter that he annually received, telling him what he needed for yet another year at Hogwarts. He opened it carefully, so as not to rip it. He pulled the letter out of its envelope. Harry read it to himself.
"Well, what does it say, Harry? Are you gonna read it to us or what?" Ron questioned him, running a hand anxiously through his bright red hair.
Hermione nodded vigorously - her curly hair falling softly around her face - and urged him, "Yes, go on, read it."
Harry grinned at them, and responded, "Sure. I'll read it to you.
"Dear Harry,
"How are you? Doing well, I hope. I am just writing to inform you that you might see a bit of Moony this year. Actually, since Dumbledore hired me as the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher again, you will probably see quite a bit of me.
"I hope that Hermione and Ron are also faring well. By the way, how is Sirius? I haven't heard from him in a while. I'll have to send him an owl soon. Is he out of hiding yet? See you in class-
"Sincerely,
"Moony
"(Professor Remus Lupin)"
"Professor Lupin's back?" asked Hermione. "This is great! He was always my favorite Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher."
She grinned happily.
"Mine, too," said Ron - who was thoroughly surprised that they were agreeing on something - and smiled. "He actually knew what he was doing."
A while later, they heard a soft knock on the compartment door. Ron looked up from his game of chess with Harry, and got up to open the door. A second later, Ginny came into their compartment with Neville Longbottom and her good friend Colin Creevey. Ron sat back down.
"All right, Harry?" Colin asked as he did so often.
As usual, Harry responded, "Hello, Colin."
He turned to also face Neville and Ginny, who was holding her boyfriend's hand.
Harry continued, "Hi Neville. Hey Ginny." He turned his head to Collin again. "Collin, how's your little brother? Is Dennis excited about the new school year?"
"Oh, you bet! He's doing terrific, Harry. Dennis is in the fourth compartment with a couple of his Second Year friends." Collin paused, and then continued, with a sly smirk on his face. "He's been hanging out with Natalie McDonald a lot. I think he may have a little crush on her."
Collin winked and Harry laughed. Collin, the Matchmaker, Harry thought. Who would've thought? He inwardly grinned at the thought. Boy, I sure wouldn't want him to pair me up with someone!
Ginny took Collin's brief silence as an opportunity to take her turn to say hello to her brother and his friends.
"Hey Ron, hi Hermione . . . hello Harry," said Ginny, blushing slightly.
Neville, who was looking around the train car confusedly, didn't take notice.
Ron leaned over slightly and whispered in Harry's ear - with a hint of amusement - "I think she's still rather fond of you, Harry!"
Ron sniggered softly, and Ginny's face went redder.
"Shut up, Ron!" Harry whispered back out of the side of his mouth.
Hermione turned to Ginny and smiled warmly - after a stern glare at Ron - and asked her, "Why don't the three of you sit down?"
Hermione scooted closer to Harry - making the two of them blush - and Ron scooted over next to the window. Ginny sat next to Ron. Collin sat across from her, looking at Hermione's book with interest. She let him see the page on how to perform painkiller charms.
Neville bent down, his rear end sticking up in the air, and was apparently looking under the seat for something. Embarrassed, Ginny tugged hard on Neville's black robes and pulled him up and he squeezed into the seat next to her.
"Anyway, Ron, I came in here to tell you that we'll be at Hogwarts in about a half an hour, and that you should probably pack up whatever you've got out and put your robes on," Ginny rambled.
She paused, turning expectantly to Neville.
He raised his head and saw the five friends looking at him, waiting for him to talk. Neville spoke up. "I'm checking with everyone to see if anyone's seen my toad. I've lost Trevor again. Have any of you seen him?"
"No, we haven't seen your toad, but if we do, we'll bring him to you right away," Hermione promised.
"Ginny, when you pass through Fred and George's compartment, could you tell them to come and get their baggage?" Ron asked.
"Sure thing. We should be going," she said as she pushed Neville out of the booth. Unprepared for the action, he fell on the floor with a dull thud. He laughed and got up, tripping over his too-large robes, and falling down again. Five other voices joined in with his, all six friends now laughing.
After the three smaller Gryffindors had left, Hermione took the new course book (The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 5) out again, and began intently pouring over its pages.
She was telling Ron and Harry about melting and freezing charms when a loud pounding on the compartment door interrupted her. Harry turned to look out the window, pretending awe at the beautiful countryside, so that she wouldn't notice his large yawn. He faced her again quickly, feigning rapt interest in the charms she was talking about. Welding charms, or something, he thought.
Ron stood, stretching his limbs.
"That'll be Fred and George," he said - with great relief over leaving Hermione's lecture on charms - as he walked over to the door.
He opened the door, and George stepped in. George had freckles and bright red hair, just like Ron - and all of the other Weasleys, too, for that matter. It would have been easy to identify the two as brothers. Unlike Ron, however, George wasn't tall and lanky, but more of an average height and sturdily built. All of the Weasley boys - with the exception of Percy, who now spent too much time in his office, working for the Ministry of Magic - were muscular.
Ginny, too, was beginning to develop strong muscles, as she had been enjoying a Muggle sport, gymnastics, lately. One of her friends from Hogwarts, who had grown up in the Muggle community, had taught gymnastics to her. Ron was starting to get fed up with Ginny showing him her new moves all the time. He didn't really understand why she enjoyed "twirling and flipping" so, when she could, instead, be zooming through the air on a broomstick, playing Quidditch.
The older Weasley walked briskly to the identical trunks, but paused a second, and looked around, as if he was missing something. He turned and walked quickly back to the doorway, and stuck his freckled head back out of the compartment. He gave a tug, and another freckled boy, also with bright red hair tumbled into the car.
"What'd yeh do that for, George?" Fred indignantly questioned his twin as he dusted himself off. He placed his hands on his hips, waiting for his twin's response.
George ignored him and yelled into the other compartment, "Angelina, he'll be right back, okay?"
Satisfied, he turned back to his identical brother.
"You can flirt with Angelina later; we need to take our stuff to our compartment and get changed," George said with a tone of finality in his voice, as if daring Fred to argue with him.
"All right already! I'm coming."
Fred stuck his head into the other compartment again and yelled back to his girlfriend, "Don't you go anywhere, Angelina! I'll be right back as soon as "Master" George and I have gotten our trunks."
He turned back into the last train car, away from the girlish giggling in the other compartment.
He pulled away from George's grasp on his shirt and strode over to the corner where their trunks had been placed on one of the tables. With a loud grunt, he pulled down his trunk first, and it landed on the carpeted floor with a dull thud. He then did the same to George's.
"Oi, Ron, Harry, give us a hand with these," George told the younger boys.
The four then dragged their trunks two compartments ahead where they were sitting with the dreadlocked Lee Jordan, and the four boys' other three Quidditch teammates: Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinnet, and Katie Bell.
While they were gone, Hermione started packing away the leftover sweets from the journey in a brown paper bag; a package of Bertie Bott's Every-Flavor Beans, some Chocolate frogs, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, Licorice Wands, Cauldron Cakes, and Pumpkin Pasties.
As she finished packing them away, Ron and Harry entered the compartment again.
"George and Fred are all set and getting changed," Ron told Hermione.
"Speaking of," Hermione commented, "we should probably get changed, too. You guys go ahead and get changed into your robes in here, and I'll go in the bathroom in the back of the car. Knock on the door when you're both done, and I'll come out then." She turned back to them, and continued. "Don't worry, I won't peek!" She laughed jokingly. She opened her trunk, which she had placed in the corner, and grabbed her new robes, She then walked over to the bathroom, closing and locking the door behind her.
Ron chuckled and turned to Harry, who was rolling his eyes exasperatedly.
"Girls," he intoned, and sighed.
"What's up with you, Harry?" Ron questioned his best friend.
"Nothin' . . . nothin', really," Harry quickly replied, and pulled on his black Hogwarts robes.
"Un-huh. Sure," Ron said, not believing him for a second.
He had an idea of what might be bugging his friend.
"You still like Cho Chang?" he asked Harry as he pulled his new robes out of his trunk.
Cho Chang was the Seeker on the Ravenclaw house Quidditch team. Harry had liked her since his third year at Hogwarts.
Ron yanked them on over his head. He looked down at his black robes, admiring how nice they looked. Probably the nicest I've had yet, Ron noted to himself, with more than a hint of bitterness and sarcasm. When Harry didn't answer his question soon, he turned to his friend, a concerned look on his freckled face.
"Harry?" Ron cautiously started. "You okay?"
Harry was silent for a few seconds.
"I dunno, Ron. I still feel bad about Cedric. I don't know if Cho was in love with Cedric, but she certainly liked him . . . and I got him killed! It just wouldn't be right -"
Ron turned on Harry, his robes swirling around him.
"Don't you ever, ever say that again, Harry! Ever! I never want to hear you blame yourself for Cedric's death again! It wasn't your fault! You didn't kill him. Voldemort killed him with . . . the unforgivable curse . . . the killing curse . . . you know . . . Avada Kedavra."
Ron paused and gulped. He was surprised at his ability to say the Dark Lord's name aloud. He hadn't meant to say it. It had just kinda . . . happened.
"It wasn't your fault . . . how could you be to blame for his death?"
Harry looked at Ron, and when he did, there was such pain in Harry's eyes that Ron couldn't bear it. Ron quickly averted his gaze.
Harry sat down and began talking quietly.
"I am to blame for Cedric's death. I was the one who suggested that . . . that both of us take the trophy. Cedric was going to let just me take it. He was willing to let me take the complete victory. He would have reached the trophy first, were it not for the giant spider . . . and the victory would have been his - all his. I saw the spider right before it attacked him, and I saved him. I didn't even think about it. I just helped him out."
The bathroom door opened a crack. When its inhabitant was sure that both boys had already changed, she inched the door all the way open.
Ron glanced momentarily Hermione's way, then made a small gesture for her to come over to the table with him and Harry. Ron sat down across from Harry. Hermione strode quickly and quietly towards them, her robes swooshing softly around her ankles.
Harry was preoccupied with his own thoughts, and wasn't paying much attention to anything. Hermione soundlessly slipped into the seat, next to Harry.
He looked so . . . full of pain. She wasn't sure what she should do. Should she hug him, or should she pat him sympathetically on the shoulder? Should she hold his hand . . . or should she dare to . . . kiss him? A tingle went up her back at the thought of her and Harry . . . kissing. She sighed. Hermione thought for a second, then made up her mind.
Carefully, she took his clammy hand in hers and gave it a gentle, calming squeeze. He briefly looked at her, gave a weak smile, and gently squeezed her hand back. He unconsciously rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand, calming both of them.
"Cedric was so grateful that I had saved him and - by nature, I guess - so generous, that he wouldn't take the victory that was rightly his. I wouldn't allow him to completely give up his victory, though. He was in his seventh year. It was his chance to be great . . . to really be sensational! Together, we would win the Triwizard Tournament for Hogwarts. Together, we would be victorious! We would both make all of Hogwarts proud!
The emotional pain of his memories was now so great that Harry could hardly bear it. He knew that he was very close to crying.
"So, we both took hold of the trophy. It was a portkey . . . but we obviously didn't know that it was. It took us directly to Volde- Sorry. I mean You-Know-Who. You- Know-Who apparently didn't see any need to keep Cedric alive . . . so he disposed of Diggory," Harry finished bitterly, almost at tears.
Hermione noticed this, and turned to Harry. She pulled him closer to her, giving him a hug. Ron turned away quickly, so the others couldn't see the tears forming in his eyes.
Harry was extremely relieved when Hermione pulled him into the hug. I needed this, he thought. I really needed this. Thank God for Hermione and Ron. I don't know what I would do without them. He held Hermione tightly, running one hand through her beautifully curly brown hair, and wished he would never have to let her go. Emotionally exhausted, Harry lowered his head a few inches, until it was resting gently on Hermione's shoulder.
Hermione's heart skipped a beat as Harry held her closer to him. This feels so right, she thought to herself, bringing the distance between the two of them to none. She felt him lay his head down on her shoulder, and she leaned down and kissed the top of his head. Hermione felt warm tears on her shoulder, soaked through her new robes. He's crying, she thought to herself, Harry's crying. He shouldn't have to bear this burden, and yet he does. He blames himself for the death of Cedric.
She sighed into his jet-black hair. She knew what she had to do. Hermione gently pulled back a bit, crooked her finger, and placed it horizontally under Harry's chin. She lifted it so that he was now looking directly into her eyes. Those are the deepest eyes I've ever seen, she thought, as she gazed into his vibrantly green eyes.
"Harry," she started soothingly, taking her finger out from under his chin.
She ran her hand through his rumpled black hair, unintentionally brushing aside a lock and revealing his scar. She dropped her hand to cradle the side of his face. Hermione looked at Harry tenderly.
"You can't keep blaming yourself. You did nothing wrong. Do you hear me? You did nothing wrong! There wasn't anything you could have done for Cedric. If he had taken the trophy alone, You-Know-Who would've still killed him without hesitation. Harry, don't you get it?
"There's nothing you could have done for him. You have to let go of it. It's in the past. It's over and done with. Honor Cedric by letting go. Remember him always - but don't let his memory continue to give you such pain. Do you honestly think that Cedric would want to be remembered . . . like that? As a memory that causes you pain? Remember him as the hero that he was - and still is - not as a painful memory for you."
Harry shook his head, his disheveled, jet-black hair flying wildly. The top of his head still felt warm from Hermione's tender kiss.
"You're right, Hermione."
He sighed and gave her the weakest of weak smiles, then leaned over and brushed his lips across her cheek. Her hand dropped gently to rest in the palm of his other free hand. He held her warm hand tightly, and pulled her back to him so he could hold her again. His next words were to himself, murmured into her brown hair.
"I need to start remembering Cedric by honoring him for dying his heroic death. If I keep blaming myself, I won't be able to bear it anymore."
Then, as if talking to Cedric himself, Harry raised his head to look up and said, "I let go. I'll always remember, though. I promise."
He gave Hermione a brief squeeze and then let go of her.
Still holding hands, they tried to make small talk with Ron about the new school year.
A few minutes later, the train lurched to a screeching halt. The three friends gathered their trunks and bags. Harry carried the now empty owl cage (they had let all four owls fly out the open window when the train stopped); Ron carried the bag of left over sweets.
When they stepped out into the bright sunlight, the three friends could see their home for the school year: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Author's Note: (another one) ;o) So, did you like it?? Please review now. Please, (I know I already said it, but I'm gonna say it again) review this! I'll post Ch. 2 if I get enough good comments!! *Please - no flames!!*
-Kel-