At the Edge

Chapter 3

Off to Hogwarts

Harry was all packed and ready to leave. He looked out of the window again wondering how they were planning to get to Privet Drive. Harry was sure that Mr Weasley would advice them against Floo because of the incident he had had at the Dursleys' two years ago. The memory of Dudley choking on his humongous tongue still brought tears of laughter to Harry's eyes. Feeling excited, he kept on pacing around his room and checking the time.

Where are they? Harry thought nervously, they can't have forgotten about him, can they?

Anxiously, he took out the rolled up piece of parchment from his shirt pocket and read it over again.

Dear Harry,

I hope you are well.

A couple of us would come along to take you to the station tomorrow. I have sent a note to the Dursleys as well. So, there won't be any trouble from them. We will be there at around 10 o'clock, have everything packed and ready by then. See you soon.

Remus Lupin

It was already ten past ten, and there was still no sign of any of the Order members.

They will be here, Harry thought while trying to convince himself.

Then again, what if something had happened to them? Maybe they had run into Death Eaters. They could be fighting for their lives, and Harry was just getting worried about not getting to the station on time. How selfish of him. Harry was starting to panic.

After a few more minutes of worrying and waiting, Harry heard a series of loud cracks followed by Aunt Petunia's high-pitched scream. Soon Uncle Vernon was yelling as well.

'What in Christ's name are you people doing in my kitchen?' bellowed Uncle Vernon.

Harry could not hear the response to that, but still raced out to the corridor to meet the Order members. Halfway down the stairs a very disturbing thought occurred in his mind. What if they were Death Eaters who had come to kidnap Harry? Worse, what if Voldemort was standing right there in the Dursleys' kitchen? But then, he tried to convince himself that the blood magic ensured his safety. Yet, the Dementors had been able to attack him last year, so couldn't a couple of Death Eaters do the same?

By the time Harry reached the kitchen, he had his wand drawn in front of him, ready to strike.

'We are just here to fetch Harry, Mr Dursley,' explained a voice that sounded very much like Lupin. 'I believe you got my letter explaining that we would be here,'

'Your letter said at ten o' clock, and it's quarter past ten now,' snapped Uncle Vernon. 'Your kind is always so ill-mannered.'

'Yes, and what are you going to do about that, Dursley?' retorted the harsh voice of Mad-Eye Moody.

'Er - nothing,' muttered Harry's uncle sounding like a person who was trying hard to keep his anger at bay.

Having heard enough, Harry sprang out from his hiding place behind the door and pointed his wand at the people assembled in front of him.

'What do you think you are ... er,' Uncle Vernon broke off his harsh words at Harry when Moody cleared his throat.

There was a chorus of greetings and Harry looked around feeling pleasantly surprised. Remus Lupin, Tonks - who had bright green hair today, Mad-Eye Moody, Kingsley Shacklebolt and Bill Weasley were all standing around in the kitchen in Muggle clothing, along with Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia. He did not think that so many of them would turn up to escort him to King's Cross-station.

'Lower your wand, Potter,' growled Moody; he was wearing the same bowler hat he had on whenever he used a Muggle disguise. The magical eye was usually covered by it, but today it was exposed and spinning around, examining the kitchen. Harry had a feeling that Moody wanted to look as threatening as ever for Mr Dursley.

'No,' said Harry.

His abrupt reply elicited four perplexed looks from the group. Moody was the only one with a guarded expression.

'Not until I know for sure that you guys are the real people,' stated Harry quietly.

To Harry's amazement Moody gave a low chuckle, and the others looked very impressed.

'You're going to make a hell of an Auror, Potter,' said Moody looking him over.

Harry swelled with pride, but still managed to keep a blank face. After all, the Death Eater - Barty Crouch - who had posed as Moody in Harry's fourth yeah had also said a similar thing. When he still did not lower the wand, Lupin stepped up towards him with his arms raised in a non-threatening gesture, wand held out. Harry kept his wand steady and gazed at his face, which looked open and truthful.

'It's nice to see you again, Harry. Ask us anything you want, to verify that it is really us,' he said solemnly.

'What shape does my Boggart take?' asked Harry without hesitation.

'A Dementor. Now can we get a move on?' asked Lupin calmly.

Harry stared at them for a bit longer, and then smiled. 'Alright, how are we getting to the station?'

'The Knight Bus,' Bill answered at once.

*

'Sara! Sara! Hurry up, won't you?' Rheah yelled loudly looking upstairs at her sister's room. She could hear Sara running around the room, still making sure whether she had packed everything. The train to Hogwarts would be leaving in about an hour, and since they lived in the outskirts of London, the drive to the station would take some time on such a busy day. When Rheah had tried to explain this to Sara, she had just brushed her off saying, 'Oh relax, Rheah. You worry too much. I can pack in less than ten minutes.' And here they were, getting late due to her quick packing.

Finally, when the Alis boarded the Knight Bus, they were running very late. So late that all of them were extremely pissed off at each other, and at the crazy loon who was driving the Knight Bus. To top it all, the conductor of the bus - who appeared to be quite young with a very bad case of acne - constantly tried to flirt with Sara, who looked as if she would hurl any minute. When Stan the conductor tried to get lucky with Sara for the eighth time, Rheah's patience that was hanging by a very thin strand just snapped.

'Look here, Stanley. Leave my sister alone! Or I'll kick your arse so hard; my boot's imprint would be tattooed across your bum forever.' She ordered him with a severe "don't-mess-with-me" glare.

Stan seemed to deflate and shrink under her stare, and he quickly shuffled away whimpering like a wounded puppy. Afterwards Rheah felt a bit guilty, but the small tendrils of guilt were blown away when her sister gave her a huge, grateful smile. It was a good thing that their parents were sitting about six rows behind them. Otherwise, Rheah would have received a long lecture from both of them for using such rude language. But really, enough was enough.

By the time they had arrived at King's Cross station, all of them were pretty badly shaken from the "great" drive. All Rheah wanted to do was fling herself at the pavement and hug it for as long as she lived. However, as only a few minutes were left for the Hogwarts Express to depart they had to dash off in search of platform nine and three-quarters.

What an odd number, Rheah could not help thinking as they almost ran through the station, pushing Muggles out of their way.

After what felt like an eternity, they stood in front of the barrier between platforms nine and ten. Mr Ali was panting hard, looking ready to collapse onto the trolley loaded with the girls' trunks and two cages, containing Rheah's tawny owl Caesar; who was sleeping, and Sara's eagle owl Storm. Rheah felt sorry for the man: steering a trolley with heavy trunks and cages while running could not be an easy feat.

'OK girls. Run into,' Mr Ali gasped, 'that barrier. Your mother and I will follow you,'

Both Sara and Rheah gaped at him. Did they just hear him correctly? Maybe he has finally cracked under all the pressure.

'Run into the barrier?' asked Sara tentatively.

'Yes, now hurry;' said their father as he checked his watch anxiously. 'We don't have much time.'

But they still kept staring at him.

Their mother gave an impatient sigh and said, 'Fine, if you girls are so scared I'll go first.'

And then she rushed towards the barrier.

'Mom!' cried out Sara, and Rheah cringed as their mom crashed into the barrier...wait! She did not crash; she had just vanished into it. Then it dawned upon both of them: the barrier was charmed to act as gateway for the platform.

Clever!

'Go on, girls. We are very late!'

Still feeling rather nervous, Rheah took hold of Sara's hand and looked at her to see whether she was ready. She nodded.

'Girls, if you want to do this anytime soon ... that would be great,' hissed their father urgently.

Some Muggles were looking at them curiously, probably wondering what they were up to. All of them must have looked pretty stupid, just standing there looking at the barrier as if it was the most important thing in the world. To make matters worse, Storm kept flapping her wings and hooting shrilly.

Taking a deep breath, both girls rushed towards the barrier. Rheah braced herself for any sort of impact ... but there wasn't one. When she opened her eyes, they were both standing on a platform where kids of all ages were running around trying to board a scarlet steam engine. They had managed to get onto platform nine and three-quarters, safely. Rheah looked over her back at the barrier just to make sure that what she had run through was still there.

'Alright, step away from the barrier. Your father needs to get through as well,' said her mom from somewhere behind her.

True to her word, Mr Ali emerged from the barrier very soon along with the trolley.

'Hurry up now, girls. The train will leave in four minutes,' he cried out as he ran down the platform trying to find an empty compartment.

It was not an easy task, as there were many families crowded around the train saying their goodbyes, and also most of the carriages at the front of the train appeared to be very full. Storm seemed to think that the rushing was exciting and kept flapping her wings and hooting enthusiastically. But by the time they caught up with their father, he had already found one at the rear end of the train and was busily heaving the trunks up into the empty compartment. With a simple Locomotor Mortis, he had managed to stow away both of their heavy trunks at a corner of their compartment. There was a flurry of hugs and kisses from their parents, and soon they were leaning out of the window of the compartment, waving at their parents as the train pulled away.

'Rheah, take good care of Sara,' yelled their mother while trotting to keep up with the trains slow pace, 'and don't get into any trouble.'

Yeah, sure thing mom, Rheah thought to herself.

'Oh, and owl us when you get to school. Take care, girls. We love you,' called her father with a hint of sadness.

'We will. Love you too' Sara and she chorused as the train picked up speed, and soon they were looking at two small dots that were their parents.

Looking exhausted, Sara collapsed onto a seat. Storm was still hooting, while Caesar still appeared to be asleep. He was so lazy.

Rheah felt the beginnings of a slight headache as she sat opposite Sara staring out the window. Though, watching the houses flash by wasn't the wisest thing to do, as she felt a wave of dizziness wash over her.

'Are you ok, sis?' said Sara.

'Yeah,' she replied without even looking at her sister, for Rheah was afraid that the slightest movement might make her puke all over the place.

Then to get the rid of the sick feeling, Rheah closed her eyes and tried to keep her breathing steady.

*

Meanwhile, Harry was staring out of the window of his compartment. There were two other people sharing it with him: Luna Lovegood and Neville Longbottom, who was holding a croaking Trevor in his hand. Hedwig was currently fast asleep in her cage that was on top of Harry's trunk in the corner. Ron and Hermione had left to go to the prefect's carriage promising to be back soon, and Ginny had gone off to find Dean Thomas. According to Ron, there had not been a single day that she had not received an owl from Dean. Therefore, Harry gathered that the couple were quite serious, much to Ron's dismay.

As the train sped off towards Hogwarts, Harry thought of the people who had been at the platform to see him off. Mrs Weasley had fussed over him as usual, and Mr Weasley had just given him some fatherly advice about being responsible. As usual, Moody's advice was to be alert at all times, while Tonks and Bill had just told him to relax and try to enjoy life. Lupin had hugged him, taking him by surprise, and then he had advised Harry to be careful just like Kingsley had. Even Fred and George had been there. They had given him a big package, winking impishly. Harry understood the message, as he suspected that the package was full of their brand-new inventions.

That was thoughtful of them, Harry thought smiling to himself.

'How was your summer, Harry?' asked Neville, breaking his train of thoughts.

'Er - it was ...' he replied trying to think of a word to describe his summer, and finally he said, 'dull. How was yours?'

Neville smiled and said, 'It was ok. I got some new books on Herbology,'

'I think Ancient Runes is more suitable,' said Luna faintly.

It was the first thing she had said ever since Harry and Neville had joined her in the compartment. Neville looked at her with a quizzical look on his face for a while, probably waiting for her to elaborate. But she didn't seem to think that her statement needed any further explanation, and once again buried her face behind her magazine that just happened to be The Quibbler.

Neville looked over at Harry, who shrugged in return. It was just Luna being herself, and Harry appreciated her along with all of her oddities.

Very soon, Neville had launched into a speech about the exotic plants he had learnt about during the summer. Harry thought that the Blood Roses sounded brutal; a plant that killed slowly and painfully by wrapping its branches around the victim and hence stabbing the victim with thousands of long thorns. Apparently, the plant sucked blood to give the roses the blood-red colour. However, Neville seemed quite keen on it, as the plant happened to be an ingredient for the blood-replenishing potion. He also told Harry sadly that his Mimbulus mimbletonia had grown too much for him to take it to Hogwarts. Harry felt very relieved to hear that.

A loud clattering noise halted their discussion after a long time, and Harry quickly checked his pockets for his money pouch. The compartment door slid open.

'Would you like anything off the trolley, dears?'

Harry paid the trolley lady ten Sickles and bought a collection of Chocolate Frogs, Cauldron Cakes, pumpkin pasties and Bertie Bott's Every-Flavoured Beans. Neville bought a couple of pumpkin pasties, and Luna got nothing. He ripped off the cover of one of the Chocolate Frogs and bit into it deeply, savouring the feeling. He was starving after all. Harry was munching on his second one when the compartment door slid open again. He looked at it, wondering why Ron and Hermione were back so early. However, it turned out to be someone else - a girl who Harry had never seen before. She reminded him of the Patil twins.

'Hello, Can I join you guys for a while?' asked the girl, looking around at each of them with a big smile.

'Yeah, sure,' said Neville.

He was looking at her curiously. At least Harry was not the only one who had not seen her before. Was she new? But that could not be right, as she looked too old to be a first-year.

She stepped into the compartment, closed the door and sat down next to Luna. When she saw Harry's pile of sweets, she raised her eyebrows and grinned.

'Wow, aren't you hungry?' she asked laughingly.

Harry blushed and grinned weakly. Looking like a pig was not the best impression to make. There was silence in the compartment for a while. Nobody spoke. Luna was still engrossed in the magazine, and had not even acknowledged the girl's presence. Finally, the girl spoke.

'Well - I'm Sara Ali,' she introduced herself, looking hopefully at both Harry and Neville.

*

'Who told you that?' grunted Vincent Crabbe.

'I've already told you. Malfoy said so,' replied Theodore Nott irritably.

'Really? Why didn't he tell us first?' Gregory Goyle demanded, looking confused like he usually did.

'Maybe because you are such a dolt?' snapped Millicent Bulstrode, staring at him in disgust.

'Huh?'

Nott interrupted them impatiently, 'Well, my point is - the Dark Lord already has plans to get all the captured Death Eaters out of Azkaban. After all, Azkaban is being guarded only by those pathetic Aurors. It'll be just a matter of time.'

Blaise Zabini rolled his eyes in exasperation. That was all his friends could talk about lately. How the Death Eaters - specifically Malfoy's father - planned to get out of prison. He could not care less. In fact, he would be delighted if that snooty little barstard's daddy rotted away in Azkaban.

The Zabini family got along really well with the Malfoys, apart from Blaise. He just could not be bothered to win the friendship of the great Draco Malfoy, resident king of Slytherin. It was too much work. Malfoy expected his friends to do anything he wanted and Blaise was not that keen on being his slave. Therefore, it was only natural that Malfoy detested Blaise as much as he hated Malfoy. Blaise had been happy with that mutual relationship until recently, and then Malfoy had suddenly decided that he wanted Nott as one of his slaves as well. He could not tolerate that, as Nott was his best friend, ever since they had met during first year. Unfortunately, Nott had wanted to lick Malfoy's polished shiny boots.

That was the reason why Blaise was stuck in a compartment full with Malfoy's fans. His bodyguards happened to be present because he had gone off to the Prefect's meeting with Pansy Parkinson.

'Of course, Mr Malfoy is the first priority of the Dark Lord. He is one of his most loyal followers after all. And since he is also so influential in the Ministry, the Dark Lord favours him a lot,' Nott droned proudly for knowing so much information.

Blaise watched him in disgust for a while, and then stood up abruptly. He did not want to listen to Nott worship either Draco or Lucius Malfoy. It sickened him.

'Where are you going, Zabini?' Nott had finally turned his attention to his best friend.

'Out, I need to get away from all this rubbish talk.' Then he walked out of the compartment, nearly slamming the door behind him.

'Damn him. Bloody arrogant git! Who does he think he is, prancing around with Malfoy and his goons....' he trailed off when he spotted a girl who was sprawled on the floor.

The anger drained away from him to be replaced with a feeling of bemused amusement.

'What are you doing down there?' he smirked down at her, as she looked quite ridiculous.

'I am simply trying to figure out whether the floor or the compartment seats are more comfortable,' she muttered, 'what did you think I was doing? I fell on my arse, that's what.'

Oh! Such a nice and sweet girl, he pondered as he heard the sarcasm evident in her answer.

'Oh, how did you manage that?' enquired Blaise, still smirking.

'I fell because a couple of brats pushed me, ok?' she snapped coldly.

Blaise was taken-aback. He had never met any person who dared to be rude to him except for Malfoy. The Slytherins usually feared him, and the rest of the school ignored him because he was a Slytherin. He looked on in bewilderment as the girl stared up at him expectantly. Finally, she climbed up to her feet and then frowned at him.

'Thank you very much for helping me up,' she thanked him sarcastically.

Oh dear! I didn't realise that I had to help any one, Blaise thought arrogantly.

'It was my pleasure,' he taunted her.

She glared at him, disbelief written all over her face. No matter how hard he tried, he could not place her among the Hogwarts student body. That was odd. Although he always hung around with Nott, neither of them talked that much. Hence, it gave him a lot of time to look around at others and find out amusing facts about them.

Maybe she is even better at hiding in the crowd than I am, he wondered curiously.

'By the way, my name's Blaise - Blaise Zabini,' Blaise said smoothly, blocking her way when she tried to get past him.

He tossed back his long dark hair out of his eyes, flashed a toothy smile, and stretched to his full height for more effect.

The girl just raised an eyebrow, unimpressed.

'Rheah Ali. It's such a pleasure to meet you,' she muttered mockingly.

She looked to be about his age, but he did not remember any Alis in his year.

'I don't remember seeing you at Hogwarts before, and that's very strange,' he drawled, still smiling brightly at her, 'as I'm sure I would have noticed someone like you,'

Blaise was considered good-looking in his house, and even charming if he tried. He certainly enjoyed his influence on the girls - and sometimes even the boys - from time to time, but he usually kept his arrogance concealed. After all, he did not want to seem like Draco Malfoy's twin. Nevertheless, today he felt like having a little fun with Rheah to teach her a small lesson for being so haughty to a Slytherin - namely himself.

'Have you considered the fact that I might be new?' asked Rheah, still staring blankly at his face.

He had not really expected that.

'Er - new? But you can't be a first year ... right?' Blaise enquired feeling his confidence falter a bit at the derisive look on her face.

Rheah rolled her eyes, and gave him a superior look. 'Brilliant deduction, you are so smart!'

He felt his irritation rise past his controlled expression. How dare she? Nobody insulted him.

He was still trying to figure out a clever comeback when she huffed in frustration and said, 'As much as I'm enjoying this enlightening conversation, I really need to get going. So if you could just move aside, I would be very grateful.'

He let the remark go past and stood his ground firmly.

'Are you a new student or not?' he demanded.

She set her jaw in what looked like a stubborn gesture and spat out, 'Yes, I'm new. I am a transfer student from Beauxbatons, and I will be starting my sixth year at Hogwarts. Any more questions?'

A transfer student? I thought that Hogwarts didn't take transfer students, he thought in surprise.

He wanted to ask her many questions, but she looked ready to strike if he uttered another word. There were a couple of other students roaming the corridors; he was not looking forward to being slapped by a girl in front of them. He had a reputation to hold on to, so he stepped aside allowing her to pass through. Rheah stared up at him with a judgemental look on her face for a while and then without a word, swept past him in a hurry.

*

'So you guys met at Flourish and Blotts - the bookstore?' asked Sara again.

'Yeah, I literally ran into her.' Neville chuckled.

'She didn't tell me. God! She never bothers to mention anything to me, honestly!' Sara looked quite put out about the fact.

Harry was listening to the conversation between Neville and Sara with a sort of detached interest. From what he could gather, Sara was a transfer student from Beauxbatons. Her parents were Aurors who had come to work in the UK. Apparently, Neville had run into the Sara's sister on the day that he was at Diagon Alley. And from what Sara was saying, he figured that her sister usually kept to herself. Harry then turned his attention to Luna to find her still staring at the magazine. She still had not even looked up at the new girl. Did she realise that she was being rude?

I wonder what's keeping her so interested in that magazine, Harry wondered. He thought of asking her for it, just to check it out himself.

'So what's your name?' Sara had turned her attention to him.

'Er - Harry Potter,' he replied, scratching his head nervously. He waited for her gaze to shift up to his forehead, but it did not.

Instead, she exclaimed, 'Are you, really? Wow, you look quite different from your pictures in the newspaper,'

'I do?' he asked curiously.

She then looked up at his forehead.

It was just a matter of time. I knew she would look! Harry thought grimly.

'Yeah, your hair is longer,' she said nodding towards his forehead, which was almost covered with his hair. 'Your scar is not visible now. Am I right to say that the long hair serves its purpose?'

Harry raised his eyebrows and nodded. She did not ask to see the scar. Instead, she turned towards Luna with an interested look on her face.

'Hi there, what are you reading?'

'The Quibbler' came Luna's faint reply from over the magazine.

'Pardon me?' Sara looked baffled.

Finally, Luna put aside her magazine and looked her right in the eye, 'The Quibbler. Tell me, have you ever seen a Bow-Fringe Bakamoose? It says right here that they are very common in France. That's where you are from, right?'

Harry glanced at Sara and was not very surprised to see her expression of utter bewilderment. Now, he was glad that he actually had not asked Luna for the magazine. Bow-Fringe Bakamoose? Really!

'Er -,' Sara's mouth was half-open in surprise.

Without waiting for her reply, Luna said dreamily, 'Sara is a very pretty name. I'm Luna,'

'Hi Luna. It's - nice to meet you,'

However, by that time Luna had already gone back to her magazine. Sara kept gaping at her, while Harry and Neville exchanged an amused look and tried to stifle their laughter.

'So, yeah. How come you actually transferred to Hogwarts?' Harry managed to choke out after a while.

Sara blinked slowly, looked at Luna once again and then turned towards Harry and Neville.

'Er - my parents transferred us. We didn't really want to. It was their work stuff ... so; they thought it would be better if we came to the UK along with them. You know, with You-Know-Who around and all ...' she trailed off when she saw Harry's face darken at the reminder of Voldemort.

'What? Did I say something wrong?' she asked him, looking confused again.

Harry shook his head quickly. Neville stared at his feet steadily and Luna decided to speak again, 'You-Know-Who. That is what you said. You shouldn't have done that,'

Harry stared at the blond girl, exasperated. He got the feeling that Luna did not really like Sara. Sara had a very guilty look on her face, probably remembering the reason why he was famous. Fortunately, before she could apologise to him, the compartment door slid open again.

'There you are, Sara. Why did you just go off like that? I was asleep only for a while; couldn't you have at least left me a note? I was worried about you,' the girl standing at the door rambled. She looked very aggravated for some reason.

'Calm down, Rheah. I'm fine; I can take care of myself.' Sara replied, rolling her eyes impatiently. 'And you were asleep for one solid hour! What did you expect me to do? Sit around, listening to you snore?'

Harry suppressed a snicker as Rheah blushed furiously.

'Hi, Rheah,' Neville said quietly.

Rheah looked around the compartment in confusion, and then her face broke into a smile when she saw Neville.

'Hey Neville, it is good to see you again.'

Meanwhile, Harry was busily observing the sisters who looked quite similar and yet so different. Sara looked like the easy-going and friendly one while Rheah seemed a bit tense and reserved. They seemed to balance out each other rather nicely.

Rheah chatted with Neville for a while, and then Sara introduced her to Harry and Luna. Luna stared at her pensively and then nodded a hello. Harry saw Rheah's eyes widen when he was introduced and she stumbled over her words for a while. It amused him to see such a composed person waver at his face.

'Why don't you join us?' said Neville, looking hopeful.

Harry stared at Neville suspiciously, wondering why he was so keen on this girl. Neville, on his part, was a bit red in the face.

'Oh, I would love to ... but we really need to get going,' Rheah said looking meaningfully at Sara.

Neville's face fell. Harry felt sorry for him.

Sara stared at her in puzzlement and asked, 'We do? What for?'

'Remember that thing we have to do .... Now, come on Sara,' she said impatiently.

What thing? Harry could not help wondering. Harry was ready to bet on his sweets that Rheah was bluffing. He was sure Rheah just wanted to leave because she felt uncomfortable in their presence. How strange.

After some more prompting on Rheah's part, Sara finally decided to leave with her. Harry could swear that he heard Rheah's sigh of relief from where he was sitting.

'I'll see you guys at school,' Sara said and Rheah just waved. Then they were gone.

*

Harry and Neville were playing a game of Exploding Snaps with Luna as their attentive audience, when they heard the raised voices of the Gryffindor prefects from the corridor.

'You really shouldn't have done that, Ron!' came Hermione's exasperated voice from behind the compartment door.

'But Hermione, he was the one who started it. Why aren't you telling him off?' Ron cried out as he slid open the door abruptly.

'He was just trying to provoke you, and I'll say he succeeded,' Hermione pointed out as she walked into the compartment with a huge frown on her face. Crookshanks was cuddled contentedly in her arms.

Ron was making faces at Hermione's back as he followed her in, carrying a cage containing a shrilly-hooting Pigwidgeon. Harry could not believe it. They had not even arrived at school yet, and his best friends had already started their customary bickering. It was as if arguing with each other had become one of their favourite past-times. Neville shot Harry a worried look, but Harry just shook his head in exasperation. Hermione sat down next to Luna and rubbed her eyes wearily, while Neville hurriedly cleared away the Exploding Snap cards to make space for Ron. Ron had stowed Pig's cage next to Hedwig's much to her annoyance.

'What happened?' Neville asked Ron as he slumped down on the seat, between Harry and Neville.

'Oh, not much. Malfoy was just being a prat,' Ron spat out, confirming Harry's suspicions, 'and kept calling Hermione a Mudblood through out the meeting. So I told him to piss off, and then surprisingly he started to attack my family for being poor - you know, the usual Malfoy insults,'

He paused to glare at Hermione when she tutted in disapproval.

'Anyway, I told him to get some new material if he wanted to insult me - because he was starting to bore my pants off. Then I mentioned the fact that he must have run out of money to buy his insults because daddy dearest is rotting away in prison. That ticked him off really badly. So, instead of insulting me, he started to threaten me -,'

'How?' Harry cut him off abruptly.

Ron did not reply, but just stared ahead with a wild look in his eyes. Harry looked at Hermione enquiringly.

'He said that he would make sure that each Weasley was dead by the end of this war - and that he would enslave Ron at his manor to perform his every bidding,' Hermione muttered darkly.

Harry struggled to resist the urge to dash out of the compartment, find Malfoy and beat him repeatedly until he was as limp as a boned fish. Hopefully Malfoy would be stupid enough to make his usual visit to their compartment. Ron was clenching his fists, looking like a tightly wrung spring. Hermione looked at Ron anxiously as if waiting for him to do something rash and outrageous - again.

'Bloody git!' said Neville looking quite murderous as well.

For a moment, all of them except for Luna stared at him in surprise. Luna had focused her full attention on Ron ever since he came in.

'Yeah - he is a nasty piece of work. I lost my temper for a while and punched that ferret right in the face, and he collapsed onto the floor like a weak little sod. All the other Slytherin prefects tried to do me in - but the DA members,' said Ron with a huge grin, 'got into action, and cursed a couple of the Slytherins. The rest scuttled off like a bunch of wimps. Bloody barstards!'

Harry suddenly felt like a very proud father when he heard of the heroism of the DA members.

'Ron! Mind your language,' admonished Hermione, and Crookshanks hissed angrily when her hands dug into its fur. 'Honestly, I think that you could have handled the situation in a better fashion. We are supposed to be supporting friendly inter-house relations as prefects - not have petty fights amongst ourselves! It's our duty to set an example for other students,'

'Inter-house friendship? With the SLYTHERINS?' spluttered Ron disbelievingly. 'Hermione, are you barking mad? Stop dreaming. That is never going to happen. Do you really see us having a nice cup of tea with Draco Malfoy? He will never change - he was a prat, is a prat and will be an even bigger prat!'

Hermione shook her head despairingly.

'Malfoy might be a little nasty -,' She quickly changed her choice of words seeing the looks on their faces, 'OK, so he is a huge prat! Nevertheless, that doesn't mean that all the other Slytherins are that bad. I am sure they will be nice to us if we give it a try,'

'But Hermione, they won't be nice to Gryffindors. It's impossible,' said Neville, shaking his head vigorously.

'Still ... can't we just give it a try? That's what Professor Dumbledore wants, after all,'

'Hermione! Do you really think that people like Malfoy, Parkinson and those two Malfoy's goons have enough decency in them to be nice to us?' Ron asked incredulously.

'Have you ever been nice to them, Ron? We always keep judging them because they are Slytherins. How can we know their decency level if we never socialise with them?' countered Hermione, looking thoroughly annoyed with Ron.

''Mione, just give it up, OK? We can survive this war without their help,' sighed Harry.

'That's not the point,' Hermione started earnestly, but she shut up when both Harry and Ron glared at her. 'Fine, be that way. It's your loss.'

'She's right, you should listen to her. I know a few decent Slytherins,' said Luna, looking unusually serious.

Ron just snorted and looked away stubbornly. However, Hermione gave Luna a grateful smile, settled in her seat and avoided their eyes. For the rest of the journey no one talked much. Everyone was lost in his or her own thoughts. Malfoy and his bodyguards never showed up much to Harry's disappointment. He had really wanted to vent out his frustration on that git. Harry felt guilty for being so harsh to Hermione; he knew that she was just trying to do the right thing. Even so, he just did not want to agree with her. He did not like Malfoy or any of the other Slytherins he knew. They were a nasty lot. Why should they waste their time trying to be nice to a couple of evil nutters who insulted them at every chance they got?

I bet all of the Slytherins are already serving Voldemort anyway, he thought darkly as they changed into their school robes when the train neared Hogwarts.

Night had fallen by the time the train arrived at the station, and it was drizzling slightly. Hermione quickly went off, mumbling about prefect duties. Ron did not follow her immediately. Harry glanced at Ron's face to see lingering hints of anger still evident on his face. Harry sighed in frustration; he hated it when his best friends fought. It was not the greatest way to start a new school year.

Even talking about the Slytherins is enough to ruin our moods and spread discord within us, Harry thought grimly. So, how could Hermione expect us to fraternize with them?

*