Harry Potter and the Time of Shadows

- Chapter Four-

Chaos at King's Cross

"Harry Potter," Dobby said on the last night of August. "How is Harry Potter getting to the Hogwarts Express?"

Harry was about to answer Dobby, when he realised; he didn't know.

"I don't know Dobby, d'you have any ideas? I could ask Uncle Vernon to take me, but I doubt he would drive all the way to London. He's only ever done that once before, and that was only because he was going there anyway."

Dobby began rocking back and forth on his heels, and squeaked,

"Dobby will ask Professor Dumbledore." And with a cracking sound, Dobby was gone.

Harry walked to the chart on the wall, counting down the days until September the first. He crossed off the last day, and smiled. He was going home. On the other hand, he was going back into the world he had left two months ago, and he had no idea what kind of damage had been done in his absence.

Fifteen minutes later he reappeared saying, "Dobby spoke to Professor Dumbledore and he is sending an escort over."

"Great," said Harry. "I'll see Lupin again."

"Oh no, Harry Potter," Dobby smiled. "The escort is not Mr Lupin."

"Well who is it then?" Harry asked.

"No, Professor Dumbledore told Dobby to not tell Harry Potter who his new escort is."

Feeling he shouldn't push the subject, Harry got into bed. He was glad to get the summer holiday over and done with. He was glad that Dobby had been with him, but it had been hard hiding him for the last month, especially since the Dursleys knew he had been there. They had explicitly told him to get rid of him.

It was one of the worst holidays that Harry had had since he started at Hogwarts. He was not allowed to spend hardly any time with his friends, and he stayed in his room for almost the entire time.

*

He awoke early the next morning and checked his entire room to make sure he hadn't left anything behind. He searched every cupboard and drawer for his clothes, as well as the secret floorboard under his bed for all his birthday presents and letters from Sirius.

He locked his trunk with a regular, Muggle padlock, and set Hedwig's empty cage on top of it. She had been gone for a long time. Oh well, Harry thought, at least he didn't have to carry her to King's Cross, she would show up at Hogwarts and stay in the Owlery.

Harry waited upstairs for his escort to come, he didn't know the exact time, nor apparently did Dobby.

"Um, no Harry Potter, Dobby does not know when the escort will arrive."

At ten o'clock no one had come yet, the Hogwarts express left at eleven.

Ten fifteen, Harry was still waiting.

By half past ten Harry was starting to worry that his escort was not going to come. They definitely couldn't make it to London in half an hour.

But at twenty to eleven, the escort finally appeared. They appeared, in fact, in Harry's room out of nowhere. Harry was even more surprised than he had been when he answered the door to Lupin. Standing in front of him, ready to take him to King's Cross, was none other than Albus Dumbledore.

Dumbledore looked just as Harry remembered him, long crooked nose, white hair and beard, so long it reached far past his waist, today dressed in scarlet robes, making him look, in Harry's mind, rather like a thin Santa Claus.

Dumbledore smiled at Harry, and greeted him with a polite, "Hello Harry."

Harry returned the greeting, although seemed to be speaking rather quietly, still very surprised to see his headmaster in his bedroom.

"Now, now Harry," Dumbledore chuckled. "No need to be so shy. I am simply here to take you to the Hogwarts Express. Dobby," he continued, turning his attention to the elf standing behind Harry. "Thank you for keeping Harry company, you may return to Hogwarts."

Dobby stood up straight and spoke to his master. "Thank you Professor Dumbledore, Dobby shall return to the other elves."

"Bye Dobby," Harry said to him.

"Can Dobby still visit Harry Potter at Hogwarts?" Dobby asked.

"Of course," Harry gave Dobby a final wave, and Dobby vanished.

"Interesting creatures, house-elves," Dumbledore commented. "Very interesting creatures."

"Yeah, they are," Harry replied, wondering if the correct word was 'interesting' or 'weird'.

"Now Harry, I have here a Portkey to take us to King's Cross," said Dumbledore, holding up a quill. "it will activate in two minutes, quarter to eleven, so you may say your goodbyes to your relatives if you wish."

Harry nodded, walked to his bedroom door, opened it and yelled down the stairs, "I'm off now! See you next summer!"

The Dursleys did not reply, but a murmur from Dudley told him that they had heard.

"Alright," said Dumbledore, a little taken aback by Harry's goodbye. "Please pick up your belongings and take hold of the Portkey."

Harry took the handles to both his trunk, and Hedwig's empty cage in one hand, and touched the quill Dumbledore was holding with the other.

Dumbledore looked at a watch on his wrist and counted down.

"Five...four...three...two...one!"

Harry felt the familiar hook behind his navel, and saw his room disappear in a whirl of wind and colour. The quill pulling him forwards, he quickly felt ground underneath him again.

They were inside a very small room, from the view out of the window, it looked like they had appeared inside a ticket booth. In front of them, Harry saw a wizened old man working, who looked at the pair who had just materialised inside his place of work, and merely said, "Professor Dumbledore, Mr Potter, good to see you."

They stepped out of the booth, they were beside platform nine, Dumbledore stooped down and whispered to Harry, "We cannot appear on platform nine and three quarters, anti-stealth enchantments."

That made Harry think of something quite worrying.

"Professor, if you can Apparate into my house, what's to stop a Death Eater, or even Voldemort from just appearing in my room when I'm sleeping, and finish me off during the holidays?"

Dumbledore smiled beneath his beard. "Do you really think I would not have thought of that Harry? When you were a baby, and I first took you to live with your relatives, I placed many enchantments on the house. One of them, prevents anybody from entering the house by stealth. Portkeys cannot be used, and no one can Apparate in or out of it.

"However," he added, noticing Harry was about to comment, "I was sure that the time would come one day when you may need to escape from any place quite quickly, so I designed the protection so that the only people who could get around it are you and me."

Harry nodded, and dragged his trunk onto a trolley. The first person that he recognised was the Ravenclaw Seeker, Cho Chang. She looked as though she was trying to heave her large trunk onto a trolley, but couldn't quite do it. Harry walked over to her and asked,

"Need a hand?"

Cho looked and him, she looked as pretty as ever, and Harry felt his inside go weak looking at her.

"Er -- sure, thanks Harry," she smiled back. It may have been his imagination, but her smile seemed quite strange, forced almost.

They both lifted the trunk together, it was a lot heavier than Harry's, and managed to get it onto a trolley.

"How was your summer?" she asked him quietly.

"Urgh, don't ask," Harry replied. "What about you?"

"Oh, I had a good summer. I went to Hong Kong to visit my family there. It's really a beautiful place."

"Really?" said Harry, who had never been out of the country, unless he counted the fact that Hogwarts was in Scotland. "Are there any wizard schools there?" Since the Triwizard Tournament, Harry had started to think about magical people in other countries.

"Um, I think there's one in China," she said absently, who seemed to be making a point of not looking him in the eye. "I'm not sure what it's called, but it's a lot smaller than Hogwarts."

"So," said Harry after a tense silence. "Maybe I'll see you around at Hogwarts."

"Yeah," Cho replied awkwardly. "Maybe -- maybe we will."

She turned to him and smiled again, but as she did, he saw another image in his head. A tall body falling to the ground beside him, a pair of blank grey eyes staring up at him. Cedric, Cho had been Cedric's girlfriend. He pushed his trolley away from her, muttering a short, "See ya later."

Harry noticed several other people he knew: Angelina Johnson, a fellow player on the Quidditch team, Parvati Patil and her twin sister, Padma.

Eventually, Harry saw Mrs Weasley, with her children, Fred, George, Ginny and Ron. They all waved at Harry, then all their eyes turned wide with surprise upon seeing Dumbledore. Mrs Weasley went up to Dumbledore and said, "Professor!" to which Dumbledore replied,

"Molly! You are looking as good as ever, I trust you and Arthur are doing alright."

Mrs Weasley nodded, and said in a more hushed voice, that Harry was sure no one but he and Dumbledore could hear.

"Arthur has the support of several members of the Ministry, I think they will all be writing to you shortly."

Then it was Dumbledore's turn to nod, and he then turned to Harry.

"I shall leave you here Harry, remember I want to see you in my office."

"OK Professor," Harry replied, and Dumbledore stepped back into the ticket booth.

After all the Weasley children had put their trunks onto trolleys, Harry went with them to the entrance to platform nine and three quarters. Mrs Weasley then kissed all of her children, then Harry, and left.

Harry saw Draco Malfoy with his mother chatting about something. Then he pushed his trolley with a smirk, and with a final kiss from her, he went straight through the platform barrier, out of sight. Ron looked to where he had just disappeared with an intense look of dislike on his face, and whispered to Harry,

"I wonder what him and his mum were talking about, I bet he's spent all summer gloating about You-Know-Who's return."

Harry nodded, remembering that he would be made a Death Eater if Voldemort was still in power when Malfoy graduated.

Mrs Malfoy rushed away, and Harry noticed she was smirking about something too. Harry was getting a horrible sense that something bad was about to happen.

Two enormous men emerged from the men's toilets, quickly follow by another man. They were all dressed in black cloaks, and their faces were covered by masks. Harry had no doubt that they were Lucius Malfoy, with Misters Crabbe and Goyle. Harry thought that if they were planning an attack, they hadn't done a very good job of hiding their identities. Mr Malfoy's son and wife had been on the platform less than a minute before, and Crabbe and Goyle were the only men that size that would be likely to dress as Death Eaters.

Crabbe and Goyle stood on either side of Lucius Malfoy, all in front of the barrier, blocking a small girl about to go through it.

Lucius Malfoy raised his wand, and an explosion happened two yards away. The larger men raised their wands and set off several more explosions. As more explosions happened, huge chunks fell from the ceiling that covered the station. People were fleeing, wizards and Muggles alike.

Suddenly, the explosions stopped, and all three of the masked men pointed their wands at the ticket barrier, sending bright blue light towards it. They kept their wands pointed at the barrier, muttering an incantation under their breaths.

Harry pulled out his wand, walking towards them, but felt a hand hold him back. It was Hermione. She was alone, her parents had obviously just dropped her off, and she had a look of worry.

"No Harry," she whispered. "They could be dangerous,"

"Yeah, and they're not exactly gonna be pleased to see you," Ron agreed.

The light from the Death Eater's wands was brighter than ever, the barrier itself was glowing blue. Then, with a terrible scraping noise, it cracked down the middle. The Death Eaters lifted their wands, and Disapparated.

Harry turned to Ron and Hermione. They could not get through to Hogwarts.

About twenty witches and wizards Apparated on the scene, one looked at the broken barrier, and banged his hand against the metal, producing a loud, tapping noise but not going through it. The barrier was blocked. They were stuck, and the train was leaving in less than five minutes. Harry and many other Hogwarts students (as well as some of their parents) were looking terrified. Several first years were panicking, but the Ministry's biggest task at the moment was giving Memory Charms to all the Muggles who had witnessed the magic. Harry stood up on a bench in front of him and shouted,

"Anyone who is, er, going to school on the train," he tried not to give any detail on Hogwarts or magic. "Come over here."

They still got funny looks from Muggles, as many people came over carrying big trunks, many of them with cats or owls.

"OK," said Harry, getting down from the bench. "we have to get to the platform some other way --"

"There is no other way," Hermione interrupted, and began speaking very quickly. "It's written in Hogwarts: A History. The barrier is the only way to get in, but I have an idea."

She walked up to the remains of the barrier, and discreetly took out her wand. She motioned for everyone to follow her, which they did, careful not to attract attention. Hermione tapped one half of the barrier with her wand and muttered "Reparo". Nothing happened. Harry took out his wand too, and tried, still nothing. Many children tried to repair the barrier together, but it was hopeless. It was destroyed permanently.

"Well, got any more ideas," a voice from the crowd called.

"We could go to the Leaky Cauldron and use the fireplace to tell Dumbledore we're stuck," Ron suggested. "And we could call dad as well, he could probably tell the Ministry sooner than Dumbledore."

"Do you know where the Leaky Cauldron is from here?" Harry asked. "It could be in a whole other part of London. And how are you going to get there? It could be too far to walk, and have you got any Muggle money to ride the Underground, or take a taxi?"

"The Underground?" Ron repeated. "A taxi?"

Harry looked at the clock on the platform wall. The train had left thirty seconds ago. Harry went up to Ron and muttered,

"We need to send a letter to Dumbledore, to tell him we're stuck."

Ron picked up Pigwidgeon's cage and loosened the lock. Harry opened his trunk and took out a piece of parchment and a quill. He quickly scribbled down:

Professor Dumbledore,

A group of us are stuck at King's Cross, there was a Death Eater attack. Please send help.

Harry Potter

Ron let Pigwidgeon out, and Harry tied the note to his leg. It was hard to let a loudly hooting owl fly free without anyone noticing, but while people looked up at the owl flying by day, none of the Muggles thought a lot of it, and none of them noticed that it had a note tied to its leg.

Everyone looked slightly calmer, with the exception of a few, still panicked first years. The Hogwarts students all waited for some kind of reply.

"I should have stopped them," Harry said, sitting down on the ground in front of his trunk.

"You couldn't have stopped them Harry," Hermione reasoned. "These are Death Eaters we're talking about."

"I could've just Stunned them or something," Harry said, feeling so frustrated he could have easily blasted something close to him to pieces.

"All three of them?" Ron pointed out. "After you Stunned the first one, what's to stop the other two from just Killing you right there in front of the Muggles?"

Harry sank down even further, resting his head in his hands, and let out a loud, low groan. It had probably been building up inside of him for two months, ever since Voldemort had first returned.

He looked up again, and saw that Ron and Hermione looked taken aback with him. He did not respond, he just sank his head back against his trunk.

It seemed like they had been waiting for at least and hour and a half, when a response finally came.

Professors Sprout, Flitwick, McGonagall, and Vector emerged, one by one, from the small ticket booth. They were all dressed in Muggle clothing, (some more effectively than others) and were all looking very angry, even tiny Professor Flitwick was looking far more cross than Harry had ever seen him.

Professor McGonagall, wearing a thick sweater and baggy tracksuit bottoms, marched towards the students and said,

"Calm down children, we are handling the matter."

Professor Vector, the Arithmancy teacher, whom Harry had never properly seen, except at meals in the Great Hall, came forwards. She was a tall, fairly thin witch with pale brown hair tied back in a messy pony tail. She wore glasses, a cardigan and plain skirt, making her look rather like a librarian.

"Children, please come with us, it is a fair walk, so we shall be lightening your trunks."

The Professors moved through the crowd, quietly putting Feather-Light Charms on every trunk. The students dragged their trunks, pretending that they were still heavy, to not catch Muggle eyes, and followed Professor McGonagall.

After about ten minutes of silent walking, they reached the entrance to the train station. Professor Flitwick (who was the most conspicuous, being three feet tall and dressed in what looked like a large fluffy bathrobe, with black jeans, white loafers, and a thick gold chain around his neck) walked up to a locked door just off the entrance, and whispered, "Alohomora".

The door swung open revealing a small, dusty store room, but big enough for everyone to fit in.

Professor Sprout (who wore a flowery dress, with thick boots, a top hat, and a large leather belt) closed the door, and began speaking. "We have tried as best as we can to arrange a way to get you all to Hogwarts. We cannot take a Portkey, because of the enchantments around the school.

"So, we have alerted the Hogwarts Express, who have stopped on their way, and we will have to take a Portkeys onto the train."

Each teacher took out a Portkey from their pocket, there was a pencil, a book, a Muggle coin, and a CD.

"Everyone take hold of one of these objects," called Professor Vector.

Everyone touched one of the Portkeys, Harry went for the book. On one side of him, Ron took the book, and on the other side, Cho did. Harry saw Hermione holding the CD.

"Ready?" called Professor McGonagall.

Professor Flitwick consulted a small pocket watch and said,

"Thirty seconds, twenty-nine, twenty-eight..."

Ron nudged Harry in the side and whispered, "Wish we'd thought of sending an owl in our second year, this is much easier than flying that car the whole way."

Harry smiled, remembering the other time that they had missed the Hogwarts Express, and flown Mr Weasley's car the whole way. As much fun as that had been, they had crash landed in the Hogwarts grounds, been beaten up by the Whomping Willow, and had got into a lot of trouble, both with Professor McGonagall and with Ron's mum.

"Four...three...two...one...now!" Flitwick called.

Harry felt the hook behind his navel, he heard many others make disgusted noises, who had obviously never travelled by Portkey before, Harry had to admit that it wasn't a pleasant feeling.

He saw the swirl of colours as he flew past them, he felt Ron bumping into him, and was disturbed by how much Cho was being thrown against him.

Then he felt solid ground under him, he just managed to stay on his feet, but he was one of the few that did.

They were in a compartment of the Hogwarts Express, people in the compartment on either side were staring at them.

Professor McGonagall Apparated into the compartment, looked around, and gave a very tiny smile.

"Well, as you have all arrived safely, I shall inform the driver that he may continue."

She collected all of the Portkeys, and walked out of the compartment, towards the front of the train.

Soon, the train began to move again, Harry, Ron and Hermione tried to find an empty compartment to talk, but could not find one. They sat in a compartment containing Dean, Seamus and Neville. It seemed that Dean had been stuck at King's Cross as well, and was telling the others about it.

"--They aimed this spell at the barrier, and it just cracked, right down the middle."

"Did the Ministry catch the Death Eaters?" Neville asked, his face pale and his eyes wide.

"Of course not," Dean replied with a hollow laugh. "The Death Eaters Disapparated the second the thing broke."

"Why do you s'pose they did it?" asked Seamus.

"No idea."

"I'll tell you why," Harry interrupted. "For fun. Or maybe it was an attack on Dumbledore, to send a message to him, you know."

"A message?" Ron said blankly.

"Yeah, like 'be afraid, we're after you'," said Harry.

"Maybe," Dean said, with a thoughtful look on his face.

"Oh please," Hermione said, as if it were obvious. "The Death Eaters won't attack Dumbledore, You-Know-Who's afraid of him."

The conversation ended there, after a long pause, Harry tried to change the subject.

"So, what have you guys been doing over the holidays?"

"Well I went to Brighton to visit my aunt, we stayed at the beach most of the time," Dean said.

"We were going to go to America, but my sister got sick and she wasn't up for travelling. So we pretty much just stayed home," said Seamus.

"Er, I um, well I --" spluttered Neville. "I went to visit some -- some relatives."

He looked around uncomfortably, and Harry was sure he knew what Neville was talking about. He had gone to see his parents at St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. Harry was the only one of them who knew about Neville's parents, he had found out by accident from Dumbledore, and had promised not to tell anyone.

"OK," he said, feeling he should change the subject again. "Hermione, how's Viktor?"

He heard a quiet "hmph" from Ron, and Hermione replied shyly, "Well, after your birthday, he had to go back to train with the Magpies, they had a game against the Chudley Cannons the week after."

Ron made a louder noise, then spoke,

"Well, they may have won, but it was only because the Cannons' Seeker wasn't there, they had to use a sub."

Hermione opened her mouth to say something, but then closed it again, looking embarrassed. She then began to speak much quieter,

"Anyway, we've been writing to each other."

Another pause came, and this time it was Seamus who spoke first,

"So Harry, speaking of Quidditch, d'you think you're gonna be made captain this year?"

"I don't know. I mean I'd like to be, but I don't think I'd be very good at coming up with strategies, I just fly around looking for the Snitch."

"Yeah, but come on, we've got to have Famous Harry Potter as our captain," said a voice behind them.

Harry turned around and saw Fred and George standing in the doorway, dressed in their Hogwarts robes.

"So, we've spoken to the girls," said Fred. "And they said they're all gonna vote for you, so unless McGonagall says you can't, you're our captain!"

Harry smiled, wondering how good a captain he would be, he certainly wouldn't be able to wake people up at the crack of dawn the way Wood did. Harry thought of Wood again, he had to do something to remember him, he could get the team to wear black armbands as a memorial to him.

He thought of the Hufflepuff captain, Cedric. Did Hufflepuff have a new captain and Seeker?

Everyone changed into their Hogwarts robes, and Hermione pinned her silver Prefect badge onto her robes.

Just then, someone else came into their compartment, someone else wearing their robes, with a Prefect badge pinned them. Standing in front of them, was the pale, smirking form of Draco Malfoy.

His two henchmen, Crabbe and Goyle, were standing either side of him, and he was looking at Hermione with deep disgust.

"Well, well, the Mudblood's a Prefect," he said, his voice as cold and drawling as ever. "Has McGonagall lost her senses? Although it's not like she had anyone better to choose, isn't that right Potter?"

"Get out Malfoy," said Harry, standing up.

"Easy Potter," Malfoy said. "I'm not going to hurt you, yet. Don't think I forgot about that little incident on the train at the end of last year. I'll get you back for that."

Harry smiled, remembering the three of them unconscious on the ground, after they had been hit with about five different curses each.

"Get out," Harry repeated. "Unless you want to repeat the experience."

"Careful Potter, you could get into real trouble, threatening a Prefect. If you were in my house I would take points away for that."

"If I was in your house, I would have caught the train back home the second I took off the Sorting Hat."

"We'll see who's got the better house in the first Quidditch match, won't we?"

"Yes, we will," Harry said confidently, Slytherin had never beaten Gryffindor while Harry had been Seeker.

"Watch your back, Potter, if you know what's good for you," Malfoy threatened.

"Oh, I'm shaking," Harry retorted sarcastically.

And with a nod to Crabbe and Goyle, Malfoy left.

"Do you think he's the Slytherin captain?" Ron asked Harry.

"Maybe," Harry replied bitterly.

"We're slowing down!" Hermione said suddenly.

And they were, Harry looked out of the window and saw Hogsmeade station. The train gradually came to a stop, and Harry got out, eager to return to Hogwarts. He walked across the station, towards where the horseless carriages came to take them to the castle. He heard a voice calling, "First years! First years this way." But it wasn't Hagrid's voice, as he was the one who usually took the first years across the lake to Hogwarts. It was Snape.

He looked at Professor Snape, standing by a group of small boats, with a huddle of nervous looking first years around him. Harry didn't think that he was a very good way to introduce them to the school, he was sure to give a bad impression to children who knew nothing about Hogwarts.

Snape looked at Harry, and frowned. It was clear that Snape's feelings towards Harry hadn't changed, even though they were both on the same side, fighting Voldemort.

Harry wondered where Hagrid was. Was he still doing that job for Dumbledore, trying to convince the giants to fight Voldemort?

The carriages approached, and Harry got into one with Ron and Hermione. As they followed the long, winding path, Harry was excited about being back where he belonged, but also worried about the dangerous world he was going back to.

The carriage came to a halt, and they all got out, Harry avoided Malfoy, who had just got out of a carriage close behind them.

A magnificent marble staircase lead up to a giant pair of open doors. Harry entered the Entrance Hall, and turned towards the doors to the Great Hall. He saw all of the students sitting down at the four long house tables. He saw the teachers sitting at the front. But then he remembered that Dumbledore wanted to see him, so he went up the stairs and towards where he knew the Headmaster's office was. He reached the stone gargoyle that marked the entrance to it, and tried to remember the password Dumbledore had told him in his letter.

"Pixie stick?"

The gargoyle sprang out of the way, revealing a gap in the wall leading to a staircase moving smoothly upwards. Harry got on, and the staircase pulled him up. He reached the door, hearing the cry of Dumbledore's phoenix, and knocked.

He heard Dumbledore's polite voice say, "Come in."

Harry opened the door, and walked in.