Chapter 11: Onwards to Hogwarts
The rest of the day had been a flood of events. After Mrs. Weasley had heard of Rons little achievement, she had been so happy she bought him a new broom - his wish instead of an animal or something - while getting all the books the students needed.
That meant Harry wasn't able to go to Diagon Alley himself, but there were still Hogsmeade weekends, he'd find whatever he needed then.
For now, a whole crowd of order members surrounded them, including Remus, Tonks and Moody, all of them disguised more or less obviously - since Tonks was a metamorphmagus and could change her appearance at will, her disguise was perfect, but Moody... well, with a bit goodwill one could think of him as a normal deranged old man... or something. Everything to protect them, though Harry wondered if Voldemort would really do something so stupid as attacking him on his way through Muggle London. It was a possibility, but chances were low.
Still, Sirius insisted on coming with them, earning a disapproving look from Mrs. Weasley, but wisely she didn't comment on it.
Instead she watched the black dog warily as he followed them through the streets, wagging his tail happily, scaring a few muggles again, until they finally reached Kings Cross.
They made their way through to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters where a few people commented on Sirius, telling Harry what a cool dog he had.
He just thanked them happily before Remus walked up to him to whisper something into his ear.
"I think Padfoot wants to talk to you..."
He led Harry and Sirius to a more private part of the platform, before waving his wand - Harry wondered what kind of spell that had been, maybe some privacy ward? - and turning his back to them.
Sirius looked around, sniffing a bit before deciding that the coast was clear and changing back. He once more had a few glamours applied, so Harry blinked for a second before he was already pulled into a hug.
"Have fun, pup, okay? Don't let your school year get spoiled by anyone." He let Harry go, smiling slightly. "I remember my fifth year, I had lots of fun back then. I'm sure you'll do fine."
By now, Harry was smiling too. "Thanks."
"You're welcome." He then pulled a poorly wrapped parcel out of his pocket. "Look, I actually wanted that to be your birthday present, but someone was against it, so I'm giving it to you now. It's a two-way mirror."
At Harrys confused look he added "It's one of two mirrors - the other one being in my possession - which are charmed to show the other ones reflection if you tell it the name of the other owner."
"Meaning if I'd say your name, it would connect to your mirror?"
"Exactly! James and I used it to keep in contact if we had different detentions. The teachers never found out how we did it," Sirius explained proudly and Harry had to chuckle. Yes, that did seem like something his godfather would do.
"That's wicked..."
"Absolutely. If you ever want to talk, just try it out. It doesn't even have to be something important - as long as you don't wake me up in the middle of the night to talk about the weather, that is."
Both of them grinned at each other and Harry put the parcel safely away, before looking at the clock. He had about five minutes to get into the train, now.
"Well... I guess it's time, huh?" Sirius said, having followed his gaze. "Good luck, pup."
With that, he hugged his godson once more before turning back into the black dog, dutifully trotting over to Remus, with Harry following him, and together they made their way back to the others.
"Harry, where have you been?" Hermione asked worriedly as she saw him. "We have to hurry or the train will leave without us!"
"Yeah, sorry...!" he answered, slightly distracted, before turning around, hugging Sirius in his dog form.
"Bye, Snuffles," he whispered, smiling at the intelligent eyes that reminded him so much of his godfather in his human form. "I'll write."
With that, he waved once to the rest of the group before following Hermione, Ron and Ginny into the train.
Once inside, Ron and Hermione had to hurry to get to the prefects compartment, leaving Harry and Ginny to search themselves an empty compartment. Which turned out to be quite difficult as most of them had already been taken by other students.
After walking through most of the train they found Neville standing on the corridor, looking nervously inside a seemingly empty compartment. When asked why he was not going in he mumbled something about not wanting to disturb anyone and Harry raised his eyebrow has he took a look inside himself.
There actually sat a blond girl who had a magazine in front of her, staring intently at it's pages.
"Oh come on, she looks nice."
"I know that," Neville mumbled defiantly. Ginny shortly seemed as if she wanted to say something but Harry had already opened the door so she stayed quiet.
"Excuse me, are these seats still empty?"
The girl looked at him with a dreamy expression on her face, probably due to her prominent eyes. Sure, she seemed a little strange, having her wand tucked behind her ear and a necklace out of Butterbeer caps around her neck, but she gave a small smile and nodded.
Harry smiled back and the three fifth-years seated themselves - Ginny sat next to the blond girl and Harry was sitting across her with Neville beside him.
There was silence for a few seconds afterwards, before the girl spoke up again.
"You're Harry Potter."
Harry blinked, slightly surprised - people asked him mostly if he really was THE Harry Potter instead of simply stating it - before nodding slowly. "That I am. And you are...?"
"My name is Luna. Luna Lovegood."
"Well, nice to meet you, Luna."
"She's a Ravenclaw in my year," Ginny interjected, but Luna didn't seem to notice. Instead, she had focused her eyes on Neville.
"I don't know your name..."
"Uh... I'm nobody..." Neville mumbled, blushing slightly as he suddenly held the whole attention of the three other students.
"Oh come on!" Harry prodded him with his elbow. "Luna, this is Neville Longbottom. A fellow Gryffindor."
"Then hello, Neville," she said, smiling at him.
"Hello..." he smiled back, slightly, and she nodded, before returning to her magazine.
A more comfortable silence followed as the train began to move and passed the landscape that would ultimately lead to Hogwarts...
Harry was already thinking of getting out a book - one of the more harmless ones of course, since he had chosen to bring a variety of books with him - as Neville suddenly started to speak up again.
"Harry! Do you know what my grandmother gave me as a birthday present?"
Slightly confused - Neville seemed surprisingly enthusiastic all of a sudden - Harry shook his head and Neville rummaged in his trunk before pulling out a slightly deformed looking cactus. He proceeded to show him how great that plant was - which ended in a temporary disaster, as they quickly found out that an irritated Mimbulus mimbletonia (the name of said cactus) could spew Stinksap. And a whole lot of it.
Thankfully, Ginny was quite apt at cleaning spells and Harry joined her after a few moments of shock - sitting next to Neville proved fatal when trying to dodge smelly green fluids - doing an acceptable job himself. Thankfully, no one seemed to have heard the quiet hiss of frustration Shiva gave as the rancid smell reached her sensitive tongue. So at least Harry didn't need to explain why he had a snake coiled around his body.
Instead, only moments after the Stinksap incident, the door opened. At first, Harry thought that Ron and Hermione might be back, but it turned out to be Cho Chang instead, the Ravenclaw Seeker who had seemingly come for some smalltalk. They chatted a bit, but mostly about how the summer had been and stuff and since Harry couldn't really tell her about the order - or, even worse, about the Dursleys - he stayed pretty vague, which didn't really help either so she soon said goodbye.
As she left he turned to look out of the window, wondering what he had liked about her last year. Sure, she was really pretty with her long, black hair, but the only conversations he had had with her were mindless chitchats... nothing of interest...
Ron and Hermione turned up about one hour later. The food trolley had already passed and the four students each munched on one or another sweet as the door opened and the prefects came in, both looking exhausted and frustrated.
Harry offered each of them a chocolate frog that they took gratefully as they bemoaned the choice of prefects in the other houses. Especially Slytherin, where Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson seemingly had gotten the badges.
And while Harry could understand their frustration about it perfectly well - his animosity with Malfoy had quite a history already - he wondered if it was just by chance (as it seemed to be with Ron) or if there was a reason why these two got appointed. After all, prefects should normally be students to look up to... who knew how Slytherins acted when they were alone?
At least Harry himself had recognized that Gryffindors were pretty funny to be with and everything but could get outright vicious if there was another Gryffindor-Slytherin quarrel coming up. So why shouldn't Slytherins be the same, only... sneakier? It held a certain logic if he thought about it this way, but - of course - he had to be pushed into that direction first.
Shivas train of thoughts where so different she really helped him seeing some things in a different light sometimes. Just one of the reasons he loved that snake.
They talked a bit about prefect duties, before falling silent, each following their own thoughts.
It was then that Harry looked a bit closer at the magazine Luna was reading. It was hard to guess, since she held it upside-down, but after a few moments he made it out to be "The Quibbler".
Wondering what a magazine with this name published, he concentrated on reading the headlines on the cover, making out something about Fudge, the current Minister of Magic, and... was that an article about Sirius?
"Um... may I take a look at that when you're finished?" Harry asked politely and Luna looked up, looking almost startled for a second before nodding and handing it to him.
"Sure. Take your time."
He thanked her and, ignoring the confused looks his best friends where giving him, began to study the magazine while Luna stared out of the window instead, a dreamy smile on her face.
Most of the articles were... just as strange as Luna was, really, but even though many things where rubbish - like "Sirius Black" actually being a false name for a singing talent named Stubby Boardman - most of them actually had a true core. Yes, Sirius was innocent. And yes, Harry could easily believe that Fudge had a few skeletons in his closet. After that whole 'Voldemort isn't back and everyone who objects will be declared mentally unstable'-thing he had pulled Harry saw the minister in a very different light now. Though he didn't think it had to do with killing goblins.
So maybe the Quibbler wasn't the most stable source of information, but nonetheless an interesting one.
Sadly, he couldn't finish the magazine as the door opened once more. This time, with a far more unpleasant guest.
The obligatory visit of Draco Malfoy.
At first, Harry tried to ignore the Slytherin by continuing to read, but sadly, the boy had other plans.
"Look at what we've got here...! Poor, non-prefect Potter is reading a magazine for loonies. Has the loss of that privilege hit you so hard?"
Harry just sighed, mentally memorising the page before closing the magazine.
"What do you want, Malfoy?" he asked, already tired of all this squabble. He knew, if he had lived his summer differently he would probably have jumped right into an argument, but as the things stood now he was bored of it. Why continue hating each other if ignoring would probably benefit both of them?
Malfoy himself seemed slightly startled about Harrys lack of response, but that didn't last long. "Loosing to Weasley must've been worse than I thought. But oh well, it wasn't me who did that bad. Shame that you still dare to come back to school."
Harry rolled his eyes. "Yes, yes, I'm such an idiot. Finished yet? I'd like to continue reading."
Malfoys eyes widened. "You little...!"
He didn't finish his sentence, having drawn his wand. The only problem? Harry, Ron and Ginny had drawn their wands too and even though Malfoy had Crabbe and Goyle to back him up, they weren't the best duellists.
"Tch. I'd be careful if I were you. Unlike you, I'm prefect now and can give out detentions. I'll be watching you!"
With that, he turned on his heels, going back to wherever he came from, Crabbe and Goyle behind him.
Harry just shook his head as Hermione closed the door again. He briefly considered magically locking it, but then again, Malfoy probably wouldn't bother them again today. Thankfully.
Still, that little encounter had left some kind of impact, which ended in Ron and Ginny talking loudly about what an arrogant prat the Slytherin was.
Harry just wished they'd leave it alone, he guessed that Malfoy just liked to be the centre of attention and they were practically doing him a favour by talking endlessly about him. Of course, someone like Ron wouldn't think about that so Harry tried to continue reading without being dragged into that particular conversation every few minutes with something like "Malfoy's a nitwit, right, Harry?".
Surprisingly, Luna acted as his saviour. She had been quiet for a while now, choosing to observe instead of taking part in it - like a true Ravenclaw he guessed - but now, she chose to speak up again.
"How do you like the magazine?" she wondered quietly, just barely audible over the noise the Weasley siblings were making. He was still glad for the distraction and leaned over to her.
"Well... it's interesting, really, but I think that some of the facts are... a bit mixed up. Like that article about Sirius Black. You know that he was at Hogwarts in our third - or, well, your second - year, right?"
She shrugged. "I have heard about it, but I don't think anyone saw him. Dumbledore has been really vague and father thinks that vague people have many things to hide. That was what you did with Cho before, too, wasn't it?"
Harry looked at her, surprised that she had noticed. Cho didn't seem to find it all too weird, talking about her summer in France with her parents...
"Well... yes, but that's beside the point. You know, Sirius Black has really been in Hogwarts. I've seen him."
"Are you sure you haven't been manipulated by a Blibbering Humdinger? They're prone to do that to you sometimes, making you see strange things..."
"Um... no, I don't think I've been manipulated. I've talked to him," Harry explained after shortly collecting himself. These weird names were everywhere in the Quibbler, small articles about creatures he'd never heard of before. Most of them seemed to be fantasy, but with some he wasn't so sure. Who knew?
"Really? Oh, my father would surely be delighted to hear that. He's the editor, you know?"
Well, that probably explained her strong belief in these creatures. But anyway, as he was talking to Luna an idea sprung up in his mind.
"You know, If you'd like I could give you an interview some time in the future. About my thoughts on Sirius Black."
Her eyes seemed to get even wider than they normally were. "You would do that? Of course, there are a few other stories that need to get printed first... we're having a new lead on Wrackspurts and someone who claims to have seen a few Heliopaths within the Ministry... but I'm sure we could do something about it around New Year's Day."
"Sounds good. Just tell me whenever you're free, alright?" Harry told her, grinning slightly as she nodded.
It was quite the plan he had in his mind and he really needed to elaborate it, but if he played his cards well there was a chance his godfather could be a free man again. If the Daily Prophet wouldn't listen he just needed to get creative...
The rest of the train ride was pretty uneventful, the worst thing happening was a small chaos that ensued as Ron and Hermione made their way outside for patrolling and Trevor got out of Nevilles hand, but as the toad stayed inside of the compartment the search didn't need long.
Harry had finished the Quibbler, even finding the reason why Luna had held the magazine upside-down - some runes that were told to have special effects if read that way - and given it back to her, before continuing his other book that he had gotten about halfway through before the train slowly came to a halt.
The six students departed, making their way to the carriages as they heard a female voice calling the first years instead of the known, deep voice of the castles gamekeeper.
"Hey, where's Hagrid?" Ron wondered aloud, voicing Harrys thoughts, who just shrugged.
"Maybe he's ill?" Hermione suggested, getting a frown from Ron.
"But that's Professor Grubbly-Plank, isn't it? If he was just ill, why should Dumbledore get her as a substitute?"
"Well... maybe it's something serious? We'll see soon, won't we?"
Ron nodded, though not seeming very happy about it.
Well, another thing to... more or less look forward to, now, wasn't it...?
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