Harry Potter and the House Divided

Chapter Sixteen A Journey and a Breakout

When they arrived at King's Cross, Hermione began crying, apparently guilty that she hadn't been ready to leave and frightened by her near failure to make it to the station.

Mrs. Weasley hastened to Hermione's side, giving Fred and George a nasty look as she swept past.

"Are you all right, dear?" she asked, solicitously.

"Y-y-y-yes," Hermione sniffed, still trying to bring herself under control.

"It's just that I thought I'd miss the train and, and I didn't want to miss the train just because I had been irresponsible and packed more things than I could take care of myself."

"That's all right, dear," Mrs. Weasley said kindly. "Everything worked out well and you're here now, which is all that matters. Fred and George will get you a trolley" she said, glaring at the twins to reinforce her words. "And we'll be on the platform in a moment, all taken care of and earlier than we've been since we brought Bill in his first year at Hogwarts."

"Th-Thank you, Mrs. Weasley," Hermione said, shoulders slumping with relief.

"No problem, dear." Mrs. Weasley said, kindly. "Getting away can be very stressful sometimes and I know that you've not been feeling your best the last few days. When you get to the castle, be sure to have Poppy give you a thorough going-over and she'll have you right soon enough I'm sure."

"I will," Hermione said, smiling for the first time since she'd seen Harry that morning.

"We'd better get onto the platform," Bill said softly, moving to take up a position on one side of Harry.

"Yes," Fleur agreed, moving to stand at Harry's other elbow.

"Wait a minute," Ron said as if something had just come to him. "I thought that Harry would be coming with Remus and some others from..."

"Ron!" Mrs. Weasley said sharply.

"What," Ron asked, surprised.

"Don't you know that this isn't a place to be discussing Harry's plans?"

"Right," Ron said, shifting guiltily.

"Well then," Mrs. Weasley said sharply. "Let's get this over with."

It was an unhappy group of witches and wizards who crossed the barrier between the muggle train station and platform 9 and 3/4 at 10:36 on the morning of the first of September. A lot of people were already on the platform, some in the black and gold of Ministry Aurors, but most in civilian dress of various sorts. Bill, Fleur, Fred and George walked near Harry but not so close as to make it obvious that they were guarding him. If Harry turned his head slightly to the right he could see Mr. and Mrs. Weasley walking near Ron, Ginny and Hermione, with Charlie walking behind them, occasionally looking at the people who were near him but mostly glancing right and left, his gaze swinging across a centrepoint that appeared to be somewhere between Bill and Harry's shoulders.

The group soon reached the train and Harry found himself bundled into a compartment near the locomotive. It was just behind the prefects' carriage and Harry was glad that he wouldn't be far from his friends, even when they were having their meeting.

Bill, Fleur, Fred and George left their trunks in the compartment directly across from the one that Harry and his friends would be in.

Ron, Ginny and Hermione put theirs with Harry.

During the next several minutes a number of students stopped at their compartment. When Neville and Luna looked in on them, Harry, Ron and Ginny rearranged things so that they could sit down with them.

It seemed that only minutes had passed before the train jerked into motion and Ron, Hermione and Ginny were off to the prefect's carriage. Fred and George had already broken into their trunks and given big boxes to everyone.

"You sure that you want to give Hermione that stuff?" Harry asked, grinning.

"Sure," Fred said. "After all, she's got mostly harmless stuff. The rest of you..."

Harry laughed, waving them off to spread mayhem in other parts of the train.

Fleur entered the compartment and frowned on seeing Neville and Luna there.

Both recognized her though Luna seemed somewhat unfriendly toward Fleur, which surprised Harry as he had never seen her be overtly unfriendly to anyone unless they had acted against her first. Obviously there was some history there and he was determined to ask the witches about it as soon as possible.

The situation grew even more uncomfortable when Fleur sat across from Harry and fixed Neville and Luna with a gimlet eye and requested that they leave for a few minutes. Neville scuttled away as fast as he could but it took Fleur a few minutes to convince Luna to leave since she wouldn't say what she wanted Harry for.

"What was that all about," Harry asked, once his friends had left.

"I need to work with 'u on your Occlumency and deedn't think zat zey should know what I 'ope to do."

"Maybe not," Harry said, hotly. "But it wouldn't hurt to be nice to them at least."

"Zere ees no time for being nice 'Arrry," Fleur said. "Ze prefects' meeting weel last only so long and I must get back out on patrol before zere can be any question of what I am doing 'ere with 'U."

"But why is it so important to do it now, anyway?" Harry demanded, nettled.

"Ze train ees a very difficult place in which to occlude your thoughts. Too many distractions and zings in ze environment. Zis ees ze perfect place to test your focus."

"Right," Harry said, seeing her point even if he thought that she could have handled things differently.

Fleur warded the door so that only the people who were in the compartment when the train left the station could get in. She then turned her wand on Harry who found that protecting his mind against her attacks was very difficult with the train rocking; wheels clacking over the rails and whistle blowing on occasion. His residual anger, the noise and rocking sensation did make concentrating on the feeling of being on his broom much more difficult but he succeeded in holding a shaky image for a few minutes at a time.

Badly though Harry thought he was doing, Fleur seemed pleased with his performance.

After the fifth attack she put her wand down, smiling.

"'U 'ave done well," she said pleasantly. "Conzentrating wiz ze background from ze train ees 'ard and 'U 'ave done much better zan I deed ze first time I tried to defend myself in zircumstances like zees."

"Thanks," Harry said, surprised at how tired he was.

"'U are welcome," Fleur said, waving her wand at the door, sending red sparks at it which seemed to be a signal that told Neville and Luna that they could come back in if they liked.

Excruciating pain exploded in his head before Harry could explain what they were doing. Before he lost the ability to think about anything other than what he was feeling through his connection to Voldemort, Harry felt himself slide to the seat, his head landing on Neville's chubby shoulder.

It was immediately obvious to him that Voldemort was excited and openly joyful at whatever was happening. He could literally feel the magic released every time Voldemort used his wand, and he was doing it a lot. If the pain in his scar was any sign, his enemy was using the killing curse nearly indiscriminately.

Harry had no idea how long he suffered but when the pain finally receded, his friends and all of the Weasleys who were on the train were clustered around him and he was lying across a couple of seats, his feet propped up on Hermione's trunk.

"Are you all right," Bill asked, face very pale.

"Am now," Harry croaked.

"What happened?" someone demanded, though Harry had no idea who had spoken.

"Don't know for sure", Harry said, wishing that he could have something to drink.

As if in answer to his unspoken wish, Fleur stepped into his field of vision, a glass of water in her hand. Much as Harry might have preferred something with more flavour than water had, drinking it did help to get the taste of vomit out of his mouth and helped sooth a throat that he realized had been traumatized by his screams and the acid from his stomach.

"Better?" asked one of the twins, as serious as Harry had ever seen them.

"A bit," he said weakly.

"Good," Bill said with a nod. "Can you tell me what happened?"

"Don't know for sure," Harry repeated, trying to sort out the impressions that he had received. "He was using a lot of magic, probably the killing curse I think. He was overjoyed with whatever was happening and satisfied that things had gone like he'd planned."

"Do you reckon he knew that you felt what he was feeling?"

"Doubt it," Harry said after a few moments' thought. "He was too busy with whatever he was doing to bother with me much. There were times last year when I'd feel his emotions but I don't think he used much magic because he was afraid that the ministry might catch him at it. He did a few unforgivables last year and I could see what he was doing when he did. This time I couldn't see what he was doing..." he said, glancing at Fleur "...but I could still feel it and I'm pretty sure I know what spells he used."

"Right," Bill sighed. "I'll get word to Professor Dumbledore. For the moment, I want everyone to act as if nothing's happened. It'll be hard since you've been out for almost an hour and there was a lot of commotion when Neville and Luna came to get me and the twins, but whatever happens, we can't let slip that you're channelling 'You-Know-Who'."

"That's fine for now," said Hermione from where she stood with Ron and Ginny "But how do we handle things if something like this happens when Order members aren't around?"

"Hopefully that won't be a big problem," Bill said, glancing at Harry. "But if it is you'll have a way to get word to someone who can help."

Harry sighed, frustrated that Mrs. Weasley wouldn't let her youngest children in on what was happening. Keeping Ron and Ginny out of things this year was going to be impossible and if he and Hermione tried to do it Harry was sure that he'd loose his best mate and another close friend too. Given the choice, he would tell Ron most of what was going on and let Mrs. Weasley send him a howler if she caught him out.

Before he could worry about it too much, a flurry of black robes crashed through the door.

"Weasley!" barked Professor McGonagall. "What do you think you're doing setting selective wards on that door?"

"Sorry, Professor," Bill said, apologetically. "Harry had another vision and we forgot to change the wards that Fleur set while she was working with him on his Occlumency."

"I see," Professor McGonagall said, eyeing Fleur beadily.

"'Arry was working with me on 'is Occlumancy and I deedn't zink zat eet would be well for someone to walk in on us while we were practicing." said Fleur, defensively.

"And you decided to risk practicing on a train full of students who might want to see Mr. Potter because?"

"Ze train ees one of ze few places where zere are environmental distractions that make shielding 'ard. I deedn't expect to be 'ere zat long and Professeur Dumbledore said zat ze prefects' meeting would be long so I deedn't zink zat we would be interrupted before we were done, and set wards to repel everyone not 'ere when ze train left for 'Ogwarts."

"And we wouldn't have needed to bother you except for the fact that young Mr. Malfoy told Severus that one of the compartment doors wouldn't open to him even though other students had been allowed through it without problems. Severus knew why, of course, but had to tell him that one of us would look into it since students aren't allowed to set selective wards on the Hogwarts Express."

"Great!" Harry muttered, furious that Malfoy was already up to his regular tricks.

The glances that Ron and Ginny shot him suggested that they were the only ones who had heard him speak.

"Well," Bill snapped. "Tell him that he's welcome to come in here now, or better still, obliviate him and let him think that he had a nice, normal journey bothering Harry, his friends and second year Hufflepuffs."

"Weasley!" Professor McGonagall cried. "I'm shocked that you would suggest such a thing."

"Well," Bill said, disgustedly. "You wanted us here to help if Harry had a vision and didn't think through the fact that Malfoy would be looking for him the minute he left the prefects' meeting? According to Harry, Malfoy and his gang want to get Harry back for what's happened with their fathers and the hexing they got last spring. He had visions before we left No.12, Grimmauld Place this morning and Professor Dumbledore wanted us on the train so I thought that we were supposed to look after him on the way to Hogwarts."

"You were," Professor McGonagall said angrily. "But you weren't to keep Hogwarts staff from entering any compartment or cast limited exclusionary wards either," she barked, glaring at Fleur.

"Ze door 'ad to be closed against anyone while I was working wiz 'Arry."

Fleur said implacably.

Bill then took up their case, eyes as cold as Harry had ever seen them.

"And I couldn't very well leave the door open so that anyone who wanted to could just come in and see Harry screaming to wake the dead," he said, furiously. "And we couldn't turn his friends away when that would be even more obvious than maintaining Fleur's wards should have been" he said, leaving the fact that having four students who couldn't access their things would be noted quickly unstated, but obvious all the same.

"Well," Professor McGonagall said, mouth still very tight. "What's done is done and we can't go back now."

"But Professor," Hermione said, nervously from where she stood next to Ron.

"What about Malfoy?"

"All that he knows now is that the door to this compartment was warded against him. I will simply tell him that I have spoken with you about this violation of school rules but that there is nothing that we can do to punish you since it wasn't on school grounds. I do think that we should be sure that none of the volunteers are seen in this compartment the rest of the journey to Hogwarts unless it is absolutely necessary."

Hermione nodded slightly and Harry was glad to see that she thought that the professor's plan would probably work. It seemed OK to him though he was still too unsettled by everything that had happened to think it through. He did know that he probably should have been angry with the adults for arguing about the need to keep watch on him but after Sirius's death he was far less sure of his ability to handle things without help from his friends and teachers than he had been most of last year.

*-*-*-

After an exciting beginning to the trip, things seemed to settle down for a while. Many members of Dumbledore's Army stopped by to catch up on how everyone's summers had been. Terry Boot and Anthony Goldstein from Ravenclaw were the first to ask about the D.A. and Hermione's obvious surprise at their questions reminded Harry that he needed to tell his friends about Professor Dumbledore's demands concerning its membership. In doing so, he hoped that he could get Hermione thinking about ways to ensure that anyone who joined would suffer consequences if they used the knowledge gained from it to hurt others.

"Of course I'll work on it," Hermione said thoughtfully. "Though Professor Dumbledore won't be very happy if I do something like the jinx that I used on Marietta."

"How about something that would just record spells that we learn there and tell us when and where they were used," Ginny suggested. "After all, that's what the ministry does with Underage Magic."

"That might work," Hermione murmured, "Though those spells are restricted and I'm not sure that I could recreate them."

"Maybe Bill, Fleur or Tonks could help us with that," Harry said, thinking that all three might have knowledge or abilities that could be useful.

"Right," Hermione said. "I'd better talk to one of them before we get to Hogsmead since they'll be going to London after that."

"Fleur won't," Harry said quietly. "She's staying to help Flitwick with his classes and probably Ravenclaw too."

"Why?" Ron demanded, ears reddening in a way that suggested that he was still uncomfortable around Fleur.

"Because Flitwick is a champion dueller and probably a member of the Order too," Hermione said, as if it were obvious. "I'll bet that McGonagall and the other heads of houses will have some kind of help this year as well."

"They will," Harry said, though I think most of them are going to be students. "Fleur's going to be at school to help me work on my Occlumency and some other stuff too, I think."

"Brilliant!" Ron said with a grin. "You've certainly got a nicer looking teacher than you did last year."

"Oh, she's only helping. Dumbledore'll be doing it most of the time," Harry said, embarassed.

"Still," Ron said with a little sigh, "I definitly wouldn't mind having her for a teacher, even if she is Bill's girlfriend."

"Ron!" Hermione said, cheeks flushing angrily. "Don't you think about anything other than the girls you'd like to look at?"

"Well, yeah." Ron said with a grin. "Quidditch's going to take a lot of my time since I'm captain this year!"

"All right!" Neville shouted, before glancing at Harry, face slightly flushed.

"Don't worry about it," Harry said with a grin. "Dumbledore's got so much for me to do that I'd fail all of my classes if I had to be captain. Ron's much better with plays and strategy than I am so McGonagall was definitely right to pick him."

"You're sure, mate?" Ron asked, desire for the position in obvious opposition to worry that Harry would be angry that he hadn't received it even though he was the senior player.

"Don't worry about it," Harry said, grinning. "With the Defence Club and working on Occlumency and some other stuff, I really won't have much time for anything this year."

"What other stuff," asked Ginny, curious.

"I'm supposed to work with the new Defence teacher on fighting since I'll have to teach everyone else. She'll help me with that and I'll do some stuff with Flitwick too."

"Wow," Ron said, impressed. "You'll spend more time with the teachers than you will in bed this year, mate."

"Probably so," Harry said, thinking that he'd be much happier in his warm bed than he would be duelling Professor Flitwick, seeing Fleur and working with Dumbledore every Friday morning.

As usual, Harry bought a pile of cauldron cakes, pumpkin pasties, chocolate frogs and other food from the witch who ran the lunch cart. By the time Malfoy returned to bother them, they had eaten everything that Harry had purchased from her.

Harry could tell that Malfoy was trying to show that he was ready to face everyone in the compartment by himself. He didn't miss the fact that although Malfoy was trying to look tough, there were an awful lot of people out in the corridor, and no real way to tell how many of them might be on Malfoy's side.

"So," Malfoy drawled. "It's Potter, Weaselking, the Mudblood, the Loony, the Squib and the Runt. Such a pitiful band I've never seen before in my life."

"Interesting you'd say that, Malfoy," Harry said, quietly. "After all, this pitiful band beat your father and almost a dozen of his friends in a fair fight last June. If we're pitiful, what does that make them?"

"Free," Malfoy said grinning evilly, waving a small piece of parchment over his head.

"What!" Ron roared, leaping to his feet.

"Free, Weasley." Malfoy repeated, a grin splitting his pointy face.

"How do you know that?" Hermione demanded.

"Because, Mudblood," Malfoy said, grinning triumphantly, I have a note that says so."

"Hand it over," Ron said, angrily.

"Come and get it, Weasley!" Malfoy said, backing up a step.

Ron leapt forward, getting partway through the doorway, even though Hermione, Neville and Ginny were holding him by the back of his jacket. As it was, a flurry of hexes whistled past the top of his head, clipping off some Ron's hair as they streaked past.

After Hermione, Ginny and Neville wrestled him back from doorway, Luna's dreamy voice cried "Colloportus" and the door slammed shut. Moments later, Bill, Fred and George's voices could be heard, ordering Malfoy and his friends away from the compartment.

Not long after that, Bill opened their door, a very serious look on his face.

"What's up?" Ron asked, seemingly started by Bill's attitude.

"Malfoy's note," Bill said quietly.

"What about it?" Harry asked, fear twisting his insides.

"I took it from him since I saw that he'd been baiting Ron with it," Bill said, Giving Ron a look that mingled disappointment and filial humour. "I read it of course and it says that there was a breakout from Azkaban this morning."

"No!" Hermione, Ginny, Ron and Neville cried, faces fearful.

"Yes," Bill said, face grim. "The thing is that he couldn't have got it since we left King's Cross because it's raining outside and there's no water or water-repelling charm on the parchment so he had to have had it before he left home this morning."

Harry glanced out the window and saw that Bill was right, about the weather at least. It was raining heavily and although only about four in the afternoon, the sky was nearly black with clouds.

"So what do you reckon it means?" Ron asked, nervously.

"Honestly, I'm not sure," Bill said thoughtfully. "It could mean that he was supposed to wind you up a bit before you got to school but I don't think so somehow."

At this, everyone glanced at Harry who cottoned on to what they were thinking.

"My scar this morning, do you think he was attacking Azkaban?"

"Probably." Bill said grimly. "And since 'You-Know-Who' was happy with how things were going, I'm betting that they got some prisoners out."

"As happy as he was," Harry said, fear flooding his chest, "I'd bet that it was a lot."

"Great!" Ron muttered, face white. "Now Malfoy's dad is out and 'You-know-Who's' got a lot more like him to do what he wants."

"Probably," Bill said grimly. "I'm tempted," he said, looking at Harry, "to portkey you to the castle but I think that we'd just single you out for no good reason. I'm going to let Dumbledore know about this and I want all of you to let your friends in the D.A. know that there could be an attack on Hogsmead station."

"Do you really think so?" Hermione asked, arms wrapped tightly around her body.

"It would be risky with Dumbledore so close but it's possible and having the twenty of you ready could be the difference between holding the attackers off and getting a lot of you killed."

"Right," Neville said, decisively. "I think we should do it, though I really hope that I don't have to break in my new wand the same way I lost Dad's last June."

"So do I, so do I," Bill said with the first grin that they'd seen him wear since he and the twins had chased Malfoy and his friends back to whatever compartment they were occupying.