Eservanix

"Eservanix."

Chapter one-Aboard the Express

I looked up from reading my book. I had a compartment toward the back of the Hogwarts Express. My luggage and owl cage had already been loaded onto the train. Three students entered my compartment.

"Oh. Sorry. Um, do you mind if we share?" asked the boy.

I knew who he was. Half the wizarding world knew.

"Go ahead. I don't mind," I said, shrugging.

The boy flashed me a grin.

"Thanks. The rest are all filled up,"

They sat down across from me. The girl smiled at me next.

"Hi. You must be Holly Maxwell,"

I nodded.

"How'd you know?"

The girl gestured to my small book bag, which had my name embroided on it.

"Oh," I said, grinning. "Hi."

"Hi. I'm Hermione Granger. This is Harry Potter and Ron Weasley,"

"Hello," I said, softly.

I thought Harry Potter was extremely cute. He had black, untidy hair and these amazing emerald green eyes which, were behind a pair of thin black rimmed glasses. He was dressed in the Hogwarts robe and uniform. I was too. Ron and Hermione were also.

"Hi," said Harry. "Are you new to Hogwarts?"

I shook my head.

"No. I was here for all four years,"

Ron tilted his head.

"I remember seeing you," he said. "You were the quiet one in the back in all of our classes."

I nodded and smiled shyly.

"That's right! You wrote that good essay for Potions about Werewolves! Professor Snape nearly wet himself because he finally saw someone not his house get the information correctly!" said Hermione.

The three of them laughed. I chuckled.

"Probably," I replied.

Harry's eyes landed on the book I was reading.

Modern Quidditch Movements by Nick Harven

I realized he was looking at it and shy put it back into my bag.

He looked up at me.

"You like Quidditch?" he asked.

I nodded, and blushed.

"Yes. Actually, my dad plays on the Irish National Team. My mum works in London as a bank secretary,"

Harry and Ron's eyes were the size of Galleons.

"You mean Casey Maxwell is your dad?" Ron asked incredulously.

I nodded.

"Yeup,"

Hermione smiled.

"Wow. That's nice. What else do you like?"

I frowned thoughtfully.

"I like reading mostly. I don't have many friends really except books,"

Hermione looked surprised.

"Really?"

I nodded.

Just then, Draco Malfoy's head popped into the compartment.

"Oh look. It's shit with feet," said Hermione coldly.

Ron and Harry gawked at her.

"Shut up, Mudblood," said Malfoy sneering. "And here's Potty, Weasel and..."

His voice trailed off as his eyes landed on me.

"Oh. You're Casey Maxwell's daughter, right?" he asked indifferently.

I nodded.

"I see. Now I see where you get your figure from," he replied.

I felt tears brimming in my eyes. I was a little chunky, but not really overweight.

"Shut up, Malfoy," growled Harry as he narrowed his emerald green eyes at Malfoy. "Or else..."

"Or else what, Potty," Malfoy snickered.

"Leave you twit," Ron snapped.

Malfoy's eyes narrowed dangerously and he made a movement as if to take out his wand, but Ron, Harry and Hermione had already beaten him to it. All three of them had their wands pointed at Malfoy.

He just glared at me before he pulled his head out of the compartment and disappeared. Harry, Ron and Hermione put their wands away.

"Don't pay any attention to him. He needs a good enema," Hermione replied as she got up and sat beside me.

I looked at her and wiped a tear away.

"Thanks. It's just that I've had people give me a hard time because of my weight,"

Hermione looked upset as she looked up at Ron and Harry. They too, looked taken aback.

"That's rude," Ron replied firmly.

"It certainly is," Harry added.

I smiled.

"Thanks," I replied.

Harry winked at me.

I blushed and shyly lowered my eyes.

About twenty minutes later, the nice witch came around with the cart and Harry bought Cauldron Cakes, Fizzing Whizzbees, and Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans. The witch asked me if I would like anything. I kindly shook my head and said "No Thank you,"

She smiled and continued down the corridor. Harry offered me some of the Cauldron Cakes. I took it and thanked him. He shared the rest of the food with Ron, Hermione and I.

We still had about an hour to go before we reached Hogwarts. I leaned my head against the soft backing to the seats and shut my eyes. I dozed off.

"Hey, Holly! Wake up! We're almost there!" a voice called from in front of me.

I opened my eyes. Ron's face was inches from mine.

I sat up. The train was still rocking gently as it moved on the tracks.

"Hey, take a look outside!" Hermione said. "There's something on the track!"

She was looking out the window. Wind gusts blew her hair back off of her face.

I jumped up and opened the window, sticking my head out. A stalled car was several inches in front of us, stalled across the tracks.

"We're going to hit it!" I cried.

I felt the front engine collide with the car. Then, each car began derailing and zigzagging off the tracks like a domino effect. Students were screaming. Some of the cars were thrown off the tracks and landing on their sides. We rolled around inside the compartment until our car stopped on its side. I felt a small gash on my forehead. I looked at Harry, Ron and Hermione. Ron had been thrown out the window. I heard an explosion from somewhere up front and then it tricked back. A hot blaze of fire ripped through the train. From the intense heat, it blew the door off our compartment and the hot blaze hit us. I felt the heat.

I jumped awake. Ron, Harry and Hermione were watching me curiously and worried.

"We've got to stop this train! There's a stalled car parked on the tracks!" I said, urgently.

Getting up out of my seat, I went over to the window and pulled it open. I stuck my head out. Sure enough, there was a bright yellow object a few feet down the tracks...right on them, across them. Ron, Hermione and Harry were watching me curiously, but urgently now.

"Look!" I cried grabbing Ron.

He poked his head out next.

"Blimey...there is something on the tracks!" Ron cried.

I yanked open the compartment door, and headed out into the corridor. I turned to Ron, Harry and Hermione.

"Please! Help me! We've got to stop this train before we hit it!"

For some reason, they looked like they believed me.

"I'll go," said Harry.

He got up and followed me up the corridor.

"The train is going to hit a car! We've got to stop it!" I shouted up and down the corridor. Heads poked out of their compartments to see Harry and I heading up the corridor.

We went into the next four cars, me shouting. Everyone was now standing in the corridors, looking puzzled. We finally hit the engine. The conductor, an elderly wizard dressed in dirty, smudged tan robes was shoveling coal into the small oven.

"Stop the train! There's something on the tracks a few feet away!" I cried.

The wizard looked up, startled that students had gotten into the engine.

"What are you kids...?" he began to ask.

"Stop the train!" Harry cried urgently.

"This better not be some sick joke!" said the wizard angrily.

Desperately, I grabbed the wizard and pushed him over to the window.

"Look!" I cried.

All the color drained from his face.

"Bloody hell!" he cried.

The wizard grabbed the emergency brake and pulled it. The train jerked and slowly began slowing down. The pistons screeched. Harry and I were thrown to the floor. We could hear thuds and startled cries behind us as luggage and students were thrown to the floor.

After a few moments, the train finally came to a stop. I knew it took a mile for a train to stop fully, but I prayed we made it. I shakily got to my feet.

"Are you alright?" Harry asked as he too, got to his feet and offered to help me.

"Yeah. You?" I asked.

He nodded.

The wizard had gotten to his feet and was now looking out the window.

"Blimey..." he said as a startled and shocked expression was on his face.

Harry and I looked at each other before we poked our heads out the other window.

The front grill of the engine was about 3 inches from the bright yellow object...a car. There was someone in the front seat, not moving.

An owl was sent to Hogwarts explaining what happened. The students hopped down out of the cars, eager to stretch their legs for a bit, while others were shaking and first years were hugging one another frightenedly.

The bright sunlight was beaming down. The grass was shimmering under the sunlight. Harry and I hopped down off the engine and began walking back toward the passenger cars. We spied Ron and Hermione. We headed over to them quickly.

"Are you two okay?" Harry asked, worriedly.

They nodded.

"You two?" Hermione asked.

We nodded.

"What happened, Holly?" Ron asked.

They turned their eyes onto me.

I took a deep breath.

"I had a dream that we hit a stalled car on the tracks. The cars were thrown off the rails. A blaze of fire swept through the cars and we all died," I said, quietly.

"Blimey," Ron breathed.

"You saved everyone," said Hermione grinning. "Suppose you just regarded it as a dream? We would've all died."

"What made you act?" Ron asked.

I shrugged.

"I dunno. I just had this feeling,"

"Well it was a good feeling," said Harry, grinning also.

I smiled.

An hour later, help arrived from Hogwarts. We were taken the rest of the way in horseless carriages.

We arrived at Hogwarts a little bit into the evening. The students were thankful to be inside the castle. Then, they began asking what happened and when it finally sank it, eyes started following Ron, Hermione, Harry and I.

Whispers started going around whenever we walked to our classes.

Accusations followed next:

"She probably parked the car there..."

"How'd she know it was there unless she did?"

"She's always been weird,"

"I don't trust her,"

"I'm surprised she managed to run up the corridors at all,"

Ron, Harry, Hermione and I were heading to Potions class two days later. I was hugging my Potions textbook. As we approached the class, someone threw mud at me. I cried out and dropped my book. The mud was clinging to strands of my hair; it was on my cheek and shoulder of my uniform.

"There! Feel at home, Piggy?" the boy called.

Laughter followed.

Hermione narrowed her eyes.

"She saved all of your lives! How could you treat her like this?" Hermione growled angrily.

"For all we know, she put it there!" the boy shouted back.

"And how would she do that? Huh? She was on board the train the entire time!" Hermione argued.

"She could've before that! How'd she get to Kings Cross station?" the boy challenged back.

"My mother drove me," I said.

There was a silence.

"You're all being ridiculous!"

Hermione scolded as she glared at the boy.

Ron bent down to pick up my book for me.

"Thanks," I said, quietly.

"No problem," Ron said.

Ignoring the mud, I entered the classroom. Harry, Ron and Hermione followed.

We took our seats at the back of the dungeon. The rest of the students began entering the classroom. Glances were cast at me, but nothing more. Draco Malfoy, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle entered next, taking their seats across from us at the Slytherin side of the dungeon.

"Aw look. She wanted to roll around in her home," Malfoy sneered.

"Shut up," Harry snapped at him.

He snickered as we waited for Professor Snape to enter. When he did, the entire dungeon fell silent.

"Today we'll be making the Veritaserum, or Truth Potion," said Professor Snape, standing in front of the classroom, scanning the students' faces.

When his eyes landed on us, a small smile formed.

"Miss Maxwell. Kindly refrain from frolicking in the dirt before class,"

Snorts and sniggers went around the classroom.

"Yes sir," I said, quietly.

I wiped my cheek and pulled the bits out of my hair, then wiped off my uniform.

Harry leaned close.

"Don't worry. Just imagine him in Neville's Grandmother's dress and hat," he whispered. "That's what I do. It helps. He's such a git."

I giggled and nodded, remembering in my third year we had battled a boggart. Neville's grandmother's green dress had appeared on the boggart Professor Snape. It was hilarious.

We continued the lesson.

About five minutes before the lesson ended, I looked up at the window. A black shape appeared and seemed to hover over Chris Winters, a Slytherin. I nudged Hermione.

"Do you see that?" I whispered, gesturing toward the window.

Hermione gasped.

"Yes!" she whispered back. "What is it?"

Harry and Ron were watching also. Then, the black shape vanished.

"Weird," Ron muttered as he and Harry went back to their lesson as Hermione and I had. I looked up at Harry. His gaze met mine. I was having another one of those bad feelings again. I sighed and concentrated on my potion.