Harry Potter and the Secret Prophecy

Harry Potter
and the
Secret Prophecy

Alternate Universe Remix
fanfiction by Fox in the Stars

Chapter Ten
The Hogwarts X-Press

Between the Weasley Twins' absence and everyone's lingering shock at Molly and Sirius's row, the atmosphere around the Black House was more subdued for the rest of the holiday, but by then there were less than two weeks left before September 1st and the trip to Hogwarts.

No badge ever arrived for Harry, so he finally had to let go of the theory that the Headmaster had just reserved it for him until after the hearing. At least, though, that notion gave way slowly enough for the disappointment to come in manageable bits. By the last days of August, Hermione's chattering about her duties had Harry wondering why he or anyone else would ever want to be a Prefect, although he still had to wonder, if it wasn't him or Ron, who could it be? Maybe Dean...

As the date approached, Sirius also became more insistent on accompanying them to King's Cross station. Harry didn't blame him and in fact wanted him along, since it could be the last time he and his godfather saw each other until Christmas holiday, but at the same time, he didn't like the idea of taking Sirius out in public where someone might see him. Mrs. Weasley, however, would have been the strongest opposition, and she now seemed afraid to argue. The adults finally worked out a plan in which they would take Sirius with them to the station as a dog; he even agreed to "sit," "heel," and follow other basic commands. The day before the trip, Lupin got back from night duty a bit late, having stopped by a pet shop and gotten Sirius a harness with a leash, and also a safety break-away collar whose tag gave the name "Snuffles" and Miss Figg's address.

Harry had left most of his things in his trunk and was able to pack up the rest very quickly. Ron and Hermione had to do their packing at the Burrow, and Harry would've liked to follow them, but decided to stay behind on his last day with Sirius. That evening he again had the Blue Room to himself, and again his godfather curled up as a dog on the foot of his bed, but the trip the next day kept Harry awake and restless. After a little while, he got up, smoothed the covers down, and fetched more from another bed rather than pull them loose from under Sirius, so that he could lay down the other way. His feet pushed the pillow against the headboard as he rested his head on Snuffles' shaggy body, just behind the shoulder. The dog gave a sleepy snort and resettled himself; a moment later his tail could be heard patting against the bed.

One last night here... Also, Harry thought, it was one last night with the secret: what Voldemort was after, the thing Sirius refused to tell him. Harry didn't think he'd find out in the next twelve hours. Indeed, if this school year would be anything like previous ones, he might be better able to find out from there, but he couldn't help but be fascinated by it. For one last night, the answer was right here, wrapped in the snoring breaths just an inch beneath his ear... Laying still so as not to disturb Sirius, he drowsed off listening to that sleepy rhythm.

Harry was walking around the edge of a circular room. With every seventh step, he passed the same black door, tested the knob and found that it would open, but continued on, beckoned by another door beyond. This had become quite habitual when he came to another black door, just like all the others, but when he took the doorknob and turned it, it wouldn't move.

At that he stopped. He tried to rattle the knob, but it remained frozen as if carved in stone. He pushed and pulled it, but couldn't move the door a milimetre. He yanked it, pounded it, kicked it, wrenched the knob until his arms throbbed with strain, his palms were rubbed raw, and tears of frustration burned his eyes. You can't keep me out! he declared in his mind, and forsaking the knob he put his hand through the door --- not striking it as if to open it, just putting his hand into the room beyond, knowing that the door couldn't stop him, and it passed through. Harry followed that hand; he walked through the door as if it were a curtain of water.

Every part of him that passed into it felt as if it had found something warm and safe, but when he came through completely, he was spit out into a dank, lightless place, as foreboding as going through Sirius's Unwelcoming-Charmed door. When he turned around, the black door he'd passed through turned out to be cold iron, and he knew he couldn't go through it again.

But he wouldn't need to. Sirius was there, at the opposite end of the space. Harry called to him, but his godfather wouldn't answer --- like Dumbledore refusing to face him? Harry knew that Sirius was hiding something to his chest and wouldn't turn around, so he started across the blackness toward him, although the ground caught at his feet and tripped him up with every step. Sirius didn't want him to see and began walking away, but Harry focused his effort, scrambled over the brambly black floor and closed the distance. He caught hold of Sirius's elbow and pulled him around where he could see---

They were standing together in a pool of sickly evening light. Sirius held the edge of a wooden rail painted smooth, glossy white. As Harry ran his hand along it, he recognised it as a baby's crib --- but there was no baby. Inside, he saw only a blanket wadded into one corner and an orange teddy bear. Harry picked them up; nothing was hidden in the blanket, and nothing else was there but the pristine white mattress.

The teddy bear fell from his hand and bounced off something on the ground before coming to rest. Harry looked down and saw it laying against curls of red --- a woman laying facedown, utterly motionless even as the breeze tugged at her hair. Mother!!

His mind cried out, and an echo came back to him in Sirius's voice. James and Lily's house...

Harry looked up. There was now light on the black floor, revealing indeed the wreckage of a destroyed house. The ground was a twisted bramble of rubble and smashed wooden beams. His mother lay dead at his feet. The same sick fire filled him, the same sensation as in Sirius's memory, the cold wind shivering his skin even as everything beneath it burned like red coals... What happened??

He knew, came the echo.

Harry numbly began picking his way through the debris. ...Wormtail knew where...?

No. ...He...Knew...

Only those words, but Harry could catch something of the thoughts within them. It wasn't referring to Wormtail's crime, but to someone else --- Harry couldn't tell who --- someone else who had known the secret that Sirius was keeping. Harry looked back at him; they were several yards apart now. Sirius hadn't moved; he still clung to the side of the empty crib.

Harry glanced downward and found a smashed pair of glasses at his feet. Half-concealed by a fallen piece of wall was a limply-curled hand, a shock of untidy black hair... Harry froze; his insides knotted up, and by the sensation in his belly he knew that he was still frozen there even as some part of him, like a ghost, moved around the fallen figure, reached for the wild locks concealing the forehead. The thought terrified him so that the air seemed almost to freeze solid as he tried to push his hand through, but he had to know...

Is it Dad? Or could it be...?

His reaching fingers were ripped away from their goal by a raw, shrieking howl. Harry was thrown hard awake on the bed in the Blue Room with Sirius-as-a-dog crying out and struggling under his head. His hind paws kicked and scratched Harry's back in his panic before he finally freed himself and flopped onto the floor.

"Sirius!?" Harry cried.

The dog turned back, but snuffed at his face for only a moment before slouching away making low whines. As best Harry could tell in the dark without his glasses, Sirius curled up and settled himself in front of the fireplace, and Harry stared after him for a long time before finally giving up and laying his head down again.

He didn't want to move, not even to turn himself back to the pillow-end of the bed, so he just lay on the crook of his elbow. As Lupin had said, he'd found himself reading minds when he looked into people's eyes or touched their skin. Laying against Sirius, he'd apparently been doing it even in his sleep and had chased his godfather away. He pressed his eyes against his arm.

But what did it mean? Twice now, he'd mentally questioned Sirius about his secret, and both times the "answer" had brought him to the night of his parents' deaths --- their destroyed house, their bodies... The secret thing had somehow caused that, and now Voldemort was after it!? Harry vowed in his heart that Voldemort would never get whatever it was --- but how could Harry help keep him from it when he knew practically nothing about what he'd just sworn to guard?

After all, he hadn't thought there was really any mystery left behind his parents' deaths. Wormtail had betrayed them and told Voldemort where to find them. The Dark Lord had attacked them with Avada Kedavra, the Killing Curse. What more was there to explain? What else was left that the secret could be? Harry wondered if it could be some sort of weapon that Voldemort had used, but the idea didn't make any sense...

Nothing made any sense. Stop it; just stop it, he thought at himself, willing his mind to stop moving, but it would not. He had to say it in his mind over and over to keep from tangling himself up in more ponderings and questions, but even keeping them at bay, he couldn't fall asleep again and only curled up tight with his face buried in his arms.

Harry dozed in fitful snatches that left him feeling very little rested, but once the first pale rays of sunlight shone through the windows, it was useless for him to try to sleep any more. He draped his pajama shirt over Snuffles' eyes before getting dressed in the clothes he had set out. Should he say something to Sirius about last night? What could he say? An apology seemed appropriate, but would he be giving himself away? Sirius probably wouldn't have run away from him if he hadn't known it was Harry doing something, but...

When he was dressed he went to fetch the shirt and put it in his trunk; as he lifted it, Sirius reverted with a pop, and Harry uncovered him like a stage magician's trick producing a bird.

"'Morning," Harry said. He might have been able to give Snuffles a quick "sorry about last night," but found he couldn't say it to his godfather's human face.

"Good morning," Sirius yawned. "Excited about your trip?"

"Yeah. ---Not that I want to get away from you or anything," Harry hastily added.

"Oh, kids are supposed to want to get away from their parents. I wouldn't take it personally," Sirius said. He picked himself up, found his wand, and once Harry had stowed his pyjamas in his trunk, Sirius floated it up from the floor and started leading it out the door.

"I mean it," Harry insisted, following. "It seems like every time I see you, next thing I know, one of us is leaving again."

"Let me know when you have Hogsmeade weekends; I'll try to make it."

The two of them went down toward the kitchen; Sirius let Harry pass him on the stairway landing and lead the way down, carefully tiptoeing around Mrs. Black's portrait and down the stairs. People were already awake and talking inside the kitchen; Harry felt welcomed by the sound although he didn't understand their words, but when he paused in front of the door and made to open it, he realised that Sirius's footsteps and shadow had frozen. Harry gave him a questioning look, but he only stood there halfway down the stairs, holding the trunk in the air.

"...Still strange is all I'm saying." Harry recognised Prof. Moody's growly voice through the kitchen door. "Never been done before, and he's not the first Animagus they ever put away --- or the first innocent man, either."

"Yes, but he was the first Padfoot Black." Prof. Lupin's much-softer tone was harder to make out, even where Harry was standing.

"How do you figure it, Remus? Or do you? Twelve years is more than anything but the worst scum ever survived it, much less escaping. You know as well as I do, no one's ever come out of that place that wasn't black as tar or weak as water. Decent people can't take Dementors that long; it just can't be---"

Sirius floated the trunk down to the floor beside Harry, and at the slight clunk of it touching down, Moody's voice stopped as if turned off with a switch. Harry didn't need to open the door to see Moody's "Mad Eye" swivel around and fix on Sirius.

Sirius apparently didn't, either. Harry mouthed his name, but he just sighed and shook his head and started back up the stairs. At the sound of footsteps in the kitchen, Harry ran back up after him and was just turning the corner by Estelle's portrait when the door opened.

Sirius stopped and looked down over the railing; Lupin stood with one foot on the bottom stair. For a long moment, Harry glanced back and forth between them: his old teacher looking up with sad but warm eyes, and his godfather looking down with a cold frown.

"He doesn't understand," Lupin said at last.

Sirius was silent for a moment. "Get Harry some breakfast, will you?" With that he continued up the stairs and out of sight.

"Harry?" Lupin beckoned him down to the kitchen. "...He'll be all right."

Harry hesitantly followed him. Inside the kitchen, Moody was pouring tea into his personal flask, then staring into it and swishing it around before drinking it. Harry frowned at him as he sat down; after last night, he'd been hoping that this morning with Sirius would be a bit better, but apparently no such luck.

Moody's magical eye only flicked over him briefly, though; apparently his surly glare didn't seem like a threat. Both of Moody's eyes mostly tracked Lupin as he set the milk and juice out from the icebox and fetched breakfast dishes.

"Poached eggs?" Lupin asked.

"Actually, I'm not hungry," Harry said, pouring himself some juice, which he nursed slowly.

"I suppose you're angry that he heard me now," Moody said finally.

Lupin put a pan of water on to the stove and stayed silent for several moments. "I'm more angry that you didn't mean him to hear you."

Harry just stared away toward the fireplace and hoped that Ron and Hermione would come soon.

Moody departed on some sort of urgent business even before Lupin's saucepan came to a boil, but Harry remained sullen, so the kitchen left to the two of them was quiet until the fireplace flared green and Ron, Hermione, and Ginny came through, all dragging their school trunks, with Mrs. Weasley bringing up the rear. Once they arrived, the kitchen was warmly cluttered with luggage and people and voices. Mrs. Weasley took over the stove and soon had it sizzling; Pigwidgeon flapped about excitedly in his dented cage, and a litany of angry meowings issued from Crookshanks' blanket-draped crate even as Hermione cooed comfortingly over it.

Harry had put off caging up Hedwig, but when breakfast was almost done, he went upstairs with Ron to fetch her, and Sirius came back to the kitchen with them. Being a well-trained post owl, she stayed quite calm for the most part, but on the last turn of the stair, Harry passed her a bit too close to Mrs. Black's curtains. Hedwig tried to flap away from them, swinging her cage back from the painting, but then it had to swing forth again---

"SIRIUS LUCIEN BLACK!!! SHAME OF MY FLESH!! IT WOULD KILL YOUR FATHER ALL OVER AGAIN IF HE COULD SEE THE MONGRELS AND BEASTS TO WHOM YOU'VE GIVEN HIS MAGNIFICENT HOUSE!!! . . ."

Harry jostled Hedwig worse than he would've liked as he fled down the stairs trying to cover his ears. Ron was right on his heels, and Sirius slammed the kitchen door behind the three of them.

"THEY SAY THEY STILL HAVEN'T FOUND A NEW DEFENSE PROFESSOR!" Hermione shouted over the portrait's screaming as they came in. Mrs. Weasley was dishing up plates for them.

Hermione offered a Daily Prophet --- as if Harry could hear himself think enough to read. He hastily set Hedwig down and tossed the paper open on the table so he could look down at it while he held his ears. Glancing through it, he was actually thankful for Mrs. Black drowning out all but the basic gist. Naturally the reporters weren't sacrificing the chance to paint Dumbledore as incompetent and Fudge as riding in to the rescue, promising an appointment in time for classes to begin.

"You're sure you don't want your old job back?" Ron asked Prof. Lupin when the din from the foyer finally trailed off.

"It's not a matter of wanting it," he said into his teacup.

"Now, Ron, stop it," his mother scolded. "You oughtn't go teasing Remus when you know that's against the law..."

"Well, the law's only the law as much as everyone agrees to obey it," Sirius pointed out. Mrs. Weasley gave him a look as if she didn't know what he was talking about but was sure it wasn't anything good.

"That's what I don't understand!" Hermione ranted. "Professor Lupin's the kindest, safest Defense teacher we've had yet --- besides just being good at it --- "

Prof. Lupin turned away modestly.

"He's never cast an offensive Memory Charm at a student --- "

" --- Now, you're the one who thought Lockhart was --- " Ron interjected.

But Hermione just kept going. " --- He's not an insane Death Eater escaped from Azkaban, and he doesn't have You-Know-Who living in the back of his head! And yet he's the one that makes the Ministry jump into a tree! Oh, Great Merlin, a werewolf! We've got to protect our children!!"

"It's not an idle concern," Lupin said, not meeting her eyes. "That night when you met Sirius --- "

"Well we're not likely to have a night like that again," she said.

"Why not? We seem to have at least one every term," Ron pointed out. Hermione glared at him.

"It still doesn't seem fair," Harry weighed in. "There's got to be some better way to handle it than just tossing you out."

"Perhaps..." he said noncommittally. "I really ought to go on upstairs and let you all get ready for your trip..."

"You're not coming with us to the station?" Ginny asked.

"Oh, no, so many people there would recognise me..."

"Aww! You really should," she insisted. "I know a lot of people who hated it when you left. All the other Gryffindors would be happy to see you --- even Michael was wondering how you were."

"I wouldn't want to alarm anyone..."

"Come on!" Harry insisted. He heard a pop and a jingle, and then Snuffles bounded up and almost knocked over Lupin's chair when he planted his paws in his lap. It put them eye-to-eye as Sirius made pleading whines with his leash in his mouth, just like a real dog begging for a walk.

"Oh, all right..." the professor gave in at last and started fastening Snuffles into his harness.

With that decided, Harry tucked into his breakfast; while the house-elves of Hogwarts' kitchen did a good job, he thought he would certainly miss Mrs. Weasley's cooking.

Once she finished the serving, setting a plate for Sirius on the floor, she stood over the table and addressed them all. "Before we go, you kids will have to remember a few things while you're away at school, things being the way they are..."

"Don't blab about the Order, we know," Ron said.

"That's true. You'll have to be careful what you say, and I'd rather you didn't go talking about any of this in letters home, either. I'm afraid that means you won't be able to write to Sirius, Harry..."

Harry's fork stopped halfway to his mouth. Sirius gave a bark that he hoped was an objection, but he looked down to find his godfather's eyes so serious that he was obviously echoing her concern.

"But I mostly meant... Well, with You-Know-Who being about, I want all of you kids safe," she said. "Hogwarts is the safest place I know of, and of course Albus will be looking after you all, but I don't want you galavanting around outside the castle where you could get hurt, all right? No mischief this year, understand? If you go breaking the rules, nobody might be able to look out for you."

Her eyes sparkled as she spoke, so that Harry didn't have the heart not to nod. Having gotten wrapped up in time with his family and the ordeal with the Ministry, it had been strangely easy for Harry to forget about the danger lurking anywhere Voldemort could stretch out his hand --- but it obviously hadn't been so easy for Mrs. Weasley to forget that. Still, Harry considered the prospect of an entire term merely sitting around school, not even allowed news of the fight in letters, just being a good student and contenting himself to be kept in the dark --- like they'd wanted him to do at the Dursleys --- he doubted that things would happen that way even if he wanted them to, not to speak of the bit he could already feel inside his chest resisting.

He felt foolish to hold out in any measure against Mrs. Weasley's genuine --- and certainly understandable --- concern, but throughout breakfast she continued in that vein until her proposed rules became more and more specific and fussy, and by the time she was wondering if her children should all drop Care of Magical Creatures so as not to have to go out onto the grounds, that sliver of resitance broke through Harry's restraint and began to swell. Not writing to Sirius and risking giving him away, that he could understand, but if Mrs. Weasley didn't want him seeing Hagrid, not even for class, it was simply too much.

After the meal, they decided to go in two groups. Seemingly wanting to keep a closer eye on the boys, Mrs. Weasley sent Prof. Lupin ahead with Ginny and Hermione --- Hermione of course going early as a Prefect --- and she herself waited to set out for the following train with Harry, Ron, and Sirius. Feeling a little awkward, Harry asked to hold the leash as they headed out the door.

The instant they were out of the house, Sirius's tail set to wagging, and he leapt forward so energetically that he'd dragged Harry out to the sidewalk before thinking to circle back and nudge affectionately against him. Ron and his mother dashed down the path to catch up, and they set off along Grimmauld Place. After the first few minutes Sirius was more thoughtful about keeping pace, but he kept his leash almost constantly taut, exploring as far as it would allow. Harry could imagine how he must feel after being shut up in the house for weeks on end and now finally getting out on such a sunny day, with a gentle cool breath of autumn in the breeze. Despite occasionally being dragged a step this way or that or nearly tripping over the leash, he was glad to see his godfather in such high spirits and felt a little spark of resentment every time Mrs. Weasley called "heel!" Even when she didn't, Sirius would always double back tight to Harry's side, and Harry would lean over a little and pat his shoulder.

He was so content that all the way to the station he forgot --- and the Weasleys could hardly have known --- that passengers on the Underground weren't allowed to bring seventy kilograms of Newfoundland dog aboard with them. Harry, however, wasn't about to have his last hour with Sirius cut short, much less leave his godfather running through London alone after being reminded over breakfast that the Death Eaters were at large, and meanwhile Mrs. Weasley wasn't about to leave the boys alone on the train in order to walk Sirius home.

Harry saw nothing for it, took a determined hold on his trunk, turned about and started for King's Cross on foot. With he and Ron dragging their luggage and Ron's mother fretting the whole way about what if they missed the train and how they should have thought to just cast a Disillusioning Charm on Sirius at the station, it was a long, exhausting trek, but Harry had made up his mind and continued purposefully forward with Sirius trotting along now-more-seriously at his side. Mrs. Weasley worked herself into high agitation over the time just as Harry was convinced that they were getting close, and at last King's Cross Station came into view and they arrived with five minutes to spare. Mrs. Weasley did cast a Disillusioning Charm on Sirius here to get him past the Muggles at the station, Harry and Ron hefted their trunks on a hand-cart, and despite his fatigue Harry assumed most of the effort of pushing it through the barrier onto Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, with the adults just a few steps behind.

The platform was still bustling, even as the scattered crowds emptied themselves onto the train. Looking around, Harry caught sight of Fred and George's friend Lee Jordan in his dreadlocks talking to one of the Chasers on the Hufflepuff Quidditch team. Neville Longbottom was easily pointed out by the stuffed vulture on his grandmother's hat as she saw him onto the train, and Harry noticed several of the other Gryffindors in a little crowd above which Prof. Lupin's graying hair was just visible.

Harry made for them, and the knot of fellow students parted with a chorus of greetings to reveal Lupin at the center and Hermione by his side.

"I thought Prefects were supposed to be on the train already," Ron huffed, slumping exhaustedly over the hand-cart as it came to rest.

"Well, Ginny saw... saw some friends and took off, and I..." Her explanation fizzled out even as Mrs. Weasley left them and went searching through the crowd. Most likely Hermione hadn't wanted to leave Prof. Lupin, but she couldn't just say that.

"Yeah, who she went off and left me for, I really don't know," said Ginny's boyfriend, Michael Corner. Harry thought his tone disagreeably cocky.

"Did you have any trouble getting here?" Lupin asked.

"Um, well, they don't let dogs on the underground, so we had to..." Harry trailed off as the rest of the crowd raised their heads to look past him, and he felt a chill at his back. He turned around to find himself almost face-to-face with a slim golden-haired woman in a rich green robe --- Narcissa Malfoy, with her husband Lucius just behind her. Harry glanced furtively around for Draco, but didn't see him; he must have already been on the train.

Narcissa gave no sign that she even saw Harry and instead stared coldly past him at Prof. Lupin. Harry thought he heard a little growl in Sirius's throat.

"Mrs. Malfoy," Lupin greeted mildly. "My congratulations on Draco being named a Prefect."

Draco's a Prefect? Harry groaned internally.

"...I remember having him in my class; he's a very bright ---"

"What are you doing here?" Narcissa asked him, her face unmoved.

"Only visiting with some of my former students."

"I asked him to come," Hermione added, facing up to Mrs. Malfoy with surprising courage.

Narcissa ignored her; her face screwed up even tighter. "I would have thought it had been made quite clear to you..."

The growl in Sirius's throat was building; Harry nervously tautened the leash and gripped it tighter.

"...We do not want our children exposed to a disease-bearing anim---"

Before she could finish the insult, Sirius threw himself toward her, jerking his leash out of Harry's hand and barking viciously. Narcissa jumped back. "Wait, no---!" Harry cried.

"Snuffles, no," Lupin said firmly but calmly. "Come here." Sirius stopped barking and sauntered back to his friend, who picked up his leash and rubbed his shoulder. "Good boy," Remus said, although Sirius was still looking at the Malfoys with the most loathing Harry had ever seen on a dog's face.

Frightened by the outburst, Crookshanks was now crying from his crate and Hedwig flapped nervously. Harry heard several more cats meowling, and every owl cage he could see in the scattered crowd jostled --- except Pigwidgeon's; he had been fluttering around inside it but now huddled quiet and quivering in a corner.

"What's going on here!?" boomed a gravelly voice. Prof. Moody came clunking over to them on his wooden leg, with Tonks beside him.

Where did they come from? Harry wondered.

"Onto the train now! Off with you all!" Moody insisted, shooing the students away.

As the crowd broke up, the Malfoys moved on as well, but Narcissa gave a parting shot over her shoulder. "Don't be surprised if you hear from the Ministry about this."

"Careful of Dementors, Potter," her husband added before turning to follow her. "I don't think that guard dog of yours would be much good against them."

Harry felt a lump in his throat as Lucius Malfoy showed him a wicked smile and turned to walk away.

"I had a great summer! I'll miss you," Hermione was saying. "Take care of yourself." She gave Prof. Lupin a hug, to his obvious surprise, then hugged Sirius around the neck. "And you too! Bye!" She set off toward the train.

Ron had started after her with he and Harry's luggage, but Moody caught Harry's arm and held him back for a moment. "Good job doubling back, Harry. Throw 'em off the track, that's the way," he whispered in his ear before letting him go. Somehow he and Tonks must have been watching over their trip to the station --- that must have been his urgent business this morning.

"Have a good year, Harry," Tonks beamed, then shouted at the side of the train. "Have a good year, everybody!!" A scattering of voices called back to her, a few even calling her name.

"Take care, Harry," Lupin told him.

"I will," he said. He leaned over and hugged Sirius, cheek against his furry forehead. "You take care, too, all right?" he whispered into Sirius's ear, and got a soft bark in reply.

Harry had just started to follow Ron to the train when he heard Mrs. Weasley's voice shouting further up. "GEORGE FREDERICK AND FREDERICK GEORGE WEASLEY!!" The twins were leaning out the window of their compartment as she yelled up at them from the platform. "WHAT HAVE YOU TWO BEEN DOING YOUR FATHER AND I HAVE BEEN WORRYING OURSELVES SICK --- "

"We love you too, Mum! We'll be home for Christmas!" they shouted with broad smiles, waving their wands out the window and showering her with conjured daisies to her apparent confusion.

Ginny poked her head out between them. "Take care of Dad for us!"

Harry chuckled at the sight. He and Ron were on the edge of the last knot of students boarding and waited for others to clear the doorway ahead of them. Harry turned around for one last bittersweet look back at Sirius and the others from the Order, but no sooner had he picked them out than Sirius again yanked his leash taut and galloped toward him, dragging Lupin behind at a run. With a final bound, he planted his paws on Harry's shoulders and knocked him off balance. Harry fell to a seat and landed amid a flurry of snuffly canine kisses. "I love you too, Snuffles," he said with an awkward laugh, dodging around the wet, tickly tongue that attacked his face.

"Terribly sorry!" Lupin said, smiling despite himself. "You know he's just excited to be out today."

"Yeah, I know." Harry hugged Sirius's neck again as he got up. Following right behind Ron, he was the last one onto the train, and Sirius stood there whimpering as he climbed the stairs, then finally pawed in the air for a wave goodbye as Lupin gave a him one last wish for a good term. Almost as soon as the door slid shut behind Harry, the whistle blew and the Hogwarts Express started moving. Through the window and his smeary glasses, he just glimsed Sirius and Lupin and Mrs. Weasley regrouping with the others; for all the rows they'd had, Harry could swear his friend's mother and his godfather were both walking now with the same dejected shuffle. Nothing for it, he told himself, it was just something that happened every year --- although he realised it had never quite happened for him before.

Harry tugged a tissue from his pocket and tried to wipe the dog slobber off his face and glasses, and as the train pulled out of the station, Ron led the way up to where they'd seen Ginny and the Twins.

"Hey Ron, hey Harry!" Fred and George greeted. "Have a good rest-of-holiday?"

"Pretty good, yeah," Harry said, polishing his glasses with the tail of his shirt and putting them back on to bring the Weasleys into focus.

"Only one seat left?" Ron queried as a Ravenclaw girl edged past them.

"No, sorry, Lee's sitting with us," Ginny said. "It's really exciting, though --- he's starting a school newspaper this year!"

"School newspaper?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, finally!" Fred said. "He's been bugging McGonagall and Dumbledore about starting one up ever since fourth year, and this summer they sent an owl and finally gave him the go-ahead!"

"It's gonna be all written by students," George continued. "Each house'll have its own page, too, and we talked him into running some ads for us."

"Where did he get to, anyway?" Ginny asked.

"Last I saw him he was hunting down Dean to see if he'd do some cartoons and pictures..."

"We talked about it and came up with the name 'The Hogwarts X-Press,' kind of a joke with the train, see?" Fred said, tracing an "X" and a dash in the air with his finger to show the spelling. "...You don't look too excited."

"No, no, it sounds great," Harry said. After this past year's experience with the Daily Prophet, however, he had trouble getting too excited about any newspaper.

"Ah, Potter! There you are!"

Harry grimaced at the familiar drawling voice in the corridor, but he wasn't about to back down. He turned to face Draco Malfoy and his ever-present cronies Crabbe and Goyle. Draco had his father's pale blonde hair, ice-blue eyes, and superior smirk, but Harry now struggled not to notice how much his face looked like his mother's --- how much he looked like a Black. He also did his best to ignore the Prefect badge shining on Draco's chest.

"Not in your robes yet, I see," Draco said. "Waiting to put your badge on?"

"I haven't got one," Harry said flatly.

"We don't need a bit of metal to tack onto our robes before we can whip you!" Ron added.

Draco grinned and ignored him. "Oh, I'd already seen one on another of your lot, but I just couldn't believe it. Gryffindor's best and brightest, not the famous Harry Potter...?"

"So maybe somebody gets higher marks than me. That's never kept me from getting the Snitch before you do," Harry said.

Draco laughed unexpectedly hard. "Higher marks! That's right, Potter, they must have tapped someone with higher marks than you!"

His thugs laughed as well. "Especially in Herbology, right?" Goyle said.

Draco waved him off. "Especially in Potions," he corrected, and turned to go, still laughing.

Ron grumbled coarsely. Harry was puzzled by that last jab, but hastily pushed it aside.

"Hey wait up!" someone called down the corridor. It was Lee Jordan; he conjured a white flag on his wand and waved it jovially. "Draco, wait up!"

Harry wondered what he could possibly want as Draco doubled back past their compartment.

"Can I help you?" he drawled sarcastically.

"Yeah. I'm starting up a school newspaper, thought you'd be the man to talk to about getting a Slytherin house page together."

Harry braced himself for a regular "Potter is a Twerp" feature as he and Ron set off to find a seat while Malfoy was distracted.

Ginny poked her head out after them and shouted to Lee. "Lee, I wanna be the plucky reporter! Can I be your plucky reporter??"

"Sure!" he shouted back.

"Hooray!"

"Excuse us. Excuse us please..."

As Harry looked back, two Ravenclaw girls were trying to get past Lee, Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle, who were blocking the corridor. One of the girls was the Ravenclaw Quidditch Seeker, Cho Chang. Without thinking, Harry left his own trunk standing on its casters and dashed back to stretch an arm across Malfoy's thugs and crowd them to the side.

"Hey! Hands off, Potter!"

"Don't get your half-blood dirt on me!"

But Harry paid no attention to Crabbe and Goyle. As Cho slipped past him with her trunk --- "Sorry, sorry..." --- the ends of her silky black hair just brushed his arm, and he was glad to have saved them from contact with the Slytherin lackeys.

"Watch it, Potter!" Draco snapped. "The badge does mean something, you know. I might have to take this up with the staff when we arrive."

"Well, let a girl through, you --- " Harry was in mid-retort when he realised he couldn't say anything very nasty in front of Cho. " --- You uncivil person!"

Draco only blinked at him for a moment before turning again to snigger into his hand. He called after as Harry caught up with Ron and took his luggage again. "Just don't forget and take a step out of line, Potter! I'll be dogging you all the way!"

Crabbe and Goyle laughed as if it had been a joke, and Harry felt that lump in his throat again. 'Dogging'...?

"Thanks," said Cho's friend, a taller girl with a suntan, wheat-blonde curls, and no luggage. "I had found a compartment a little further up."

"You're doing better than us, then," Ron said. "What we get for getting on last..."

"The one we found is empty, if you'd want to sit with Marietta and me," Cho offered. Even as she replied to Ron, she was looking at Harry.

"Uh... Yeah, sure," he said.

The four of them followed the corridor up to a compartment near the front of the train where Marietta had put her trunk across the doorway to reserve it. Already they could see the witch with the tea trolley coming down the aisle, and they had barely stowed their luggage and sat down --- with Harry facing Ron from beside Cho --- before she knocked at their door. "Anything off the cart, dears?" the witch asked, smiling at them.

"Everybody, just get what you want; my treat," Harry announced impulsively.

Marietta wanted only a glass of pumpkin juice and a licorice wand. Ron got two pumpkin pasties; Harry belatedly realised that his friend might be uncomfortable asking for much on someone else's money, so he padded his own order up a bit just in case. Cho asked for cauldron cakes and chocolate frogs --- eight of each, plus pumpkin juice! Ron stared at her in a way that made Harry's face pinch.

As the snacks were handed out, Marietta sucked her juice through a straw, and Cho's mouth pursed up sweetly and gracefully as she sucked on a leg of her first Chocolate Frog. Harry watched her and was just starting to wonder why the food-cart witch didn't move on when Ron leaned toward him. "Um, Harry, mate...?"

"Hm?" He looked up. The witch smiled at him expectantly.

"Your treat, you said...?" Ron whispered.

"Oh!" As Harry dug out his money, he felt ready to collapse from embarassment. Fumbling several coins and having to pick them up off the floor didn't help matters --- and in front of Cho! As the door finally closed behind the snack trolley, he felt as hot as if there were a raging fire right there in the compartment, and he wished that he could just slide under the seat and curl up and hide there...

Nervously he took a Cauldron Cake on the seat beside him --- just as Cho reached for the same one. Harry barely had time to feel the pang of another mistake before Cho's dainty knuckles brushed against his ---

It was as if an electric spark jumped from her to him and lit his whole body with with a warm peach glow. Suddenly he knew as he felt his fringe against his forehead and his glasses on his nose just how they looked, framing his scar, magnifying his green eyes... He knew that looking at them felt the same as he himself felt looking at Cho's glossy hair, her mouth kissing the edge of the cake...

The way he felt about Cho, that delicious, delicate, terrifying surge of energy... That moment of contact had told him in a flash that it was the same thing she felt when she looked at him.

"Oy, Harry, trade one of my pasties for a Cauldron Cake?" Ron asked him. "...Harry?"

Harry couldn't take his eyes off Cho's face as she sipped her pumpkin juice with lightly closed eyes.

to be continued in...
Chapter Eleven: Fire or Flood or War or Strife

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