Disclaimer: I am not J.K. Rowling. She has a far more thought out writing style than I do, and is more based on actual things rather than how people are feeling and what they are thinking. I do not own Harry Potter. I own a copy of the book, but I don't own the ideas or characters used in any of those books. This is a non-profit endeavor, if I was getting money, Mrs. Rowling would get a royalty check. Please, go out and buy the books if you haven't. They are really good.

Crowded Train

Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger slowly carried their luggage onto the cherry red steam engine that awaited them on Platform 9 and three quarters, just like it had every year that they had attended Hogwarts, even the years that they had alternate forms of transportation. Ginny had decided to run on ahead with some of her friends, which included Luna Lovegood, and whoever else it was that she was hanging around with these days. Harry had noticed how Ron had seemed to be a little bit worried about his sister ever since she had started hanging around with new people, but that was a fact of life.

Ron sighed softly as they pushed their luggage down the aisle of the train, looking for a room that wasn't occupied. This was becoming more and more difficult with the newer students. It left Harry wondering how they could be gaining as many students as they were when there was still a graduating class every year, not to mention people like Fred and George who just dropped out. Well, it didn't really matter, at the moment they just needed to find an empty, or nearly empty space for themselves.

"This is hopeless…" Groaned Ron, "We might as well just sit on our luggage and wait for the train to stop. I don't want to end up sitting with some Slytherin or something…and spending time with the first years doesn't really sound like that much fun."

Hermione rolled her eyes at Ron, "Honestly, Ron. How would you know what the first years are like? It isn't like you've spent any time with them or anything."

Ron nodded, "That's sort of the point, 'Mione. I don't want to spend any time with them."

Harry ignored his friends' bickering. They were always like that and after all the time he had spent with them he knew that most of their arguing was just to argue and they didn't even mean most of it. Ron didn't actually dislike the first years. He looked up to his trickster brothers and since they had liked the first years, he liked the first years. He might not admit to it, but he didn't need to in order for the scarred boy to know this.

That was something that was particularly odd that he hadn't thought of until just now. His scar had yet to hurt. This was like some new record for him. Usually by the time he got onto the train he had experienced at least one burning sensation in his forehead as a result of that scar that Voldemort had left on him. Oh well, that just meant that nothing evil was going on that directly involved him. That should be a good thing, shouldn't it?

"Harry, lets just sit in this one? I mean, it only has one person in it, and I don't even think he's awake, we can just sneak in here and wait to arrive at Hogwarts." Hermione suggested. She was always right and even when Ron gave Harry that pleading look that he used in hopes that Harry would chose to side with him rather than Hermione, it wasn't really much of a choice. Sitting out here on some luggage wasn't really a choice that Harry was ready to make yet.

Harry nodded, "We'd better get in there before someone else has the same idea." It wasn't like anyone else was even looking for a spot to sit anymore. Most of the people had already gotten into their desired locations on the train, and it was just starting to move now.

Ron sighed as Harry and Hermione slid open the door and walked into the room that separated them from the rest of the train. This was how it had started to be. Harry always sided with Hermione rather than him. It was like there was slowly this chasm growing between the dark haired boy and him. It wasn't even like he had a romantic interest in Hermione. He was so stuck on that Cho girl that he didn't even see how Hermione had started to look at him a little different. Ron has of course noticed. It was hard not to notice that kind of look. It seemed like everyone knew how Hermione was starting to feel about Harry…except Harry.

It was easy for a lot of people to understand how Ron felt about this too. When he had explained it to them in his letters, even Fred and George had understood how the redheaded boy felt, and more than that they understood why he felt that way. One of his friends had developed an interest in a girl and now didn't have as much time for much other than spending time with her, doing his homework, and doing that defensive training. Hermione had started developing feelings for Harry, and she had already been spending all of her time studying and other such things. He was left standing there while his friends both started chasing after each other and some other random people, and the group was falling apart as a result.

He slowly pushed his luggage into the room by himself. He had been doing a lot of things by himself as of late. He just wished that things weren't the way they were. If only Hermione had fallen for him, or if Harry had returned her feelings then things wouldn't be so bad. Someone might feel a bit left out, but not the same way Ron felt right now. They would all still be friends and they would all be able to find time to help him carry his bloody luggage into to stupid room. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. His knuckles had turned white around the strap for his luggage. Getting angry like this wasn't good for him and it wouldn't help him to do anything. It would just end up getting him angry again and that just wouldn't help anyone. Things would be back to normal when they got back to Hogwarts and met back up with Hagrid. Things always got a whole lot better when Hagrid was around. He wouldn't let anyone feel left out like Ron felt right now.

Sitting in the small room of the train was a boy with hair that was even more red than Ron's. It was so red that there was no doubt that it had to be enchanted, or otherwise coloured. This was a scarlet, rather than the fiery orange that Ron's hair was. It was slightly frightening to look at, but once you accepted that it was just hair it was a whole lot easier to accept. It wasn't like he was going to open his eyes and they were going to be blood red too. Well there was that chance, but it wasn't a very plausible one. If he did open his eyes and they turned out to be as red as his hair then there was going to be a nice bit of leaving by Hermione. Studying such a phenomenon wasn't something that she particularly wanted to do before she got to school and the thing that she was studying was in a nice big cage where it couldn't hurt her.

It wasn't like the idea of red eyes frightened her, or the idea of something possessing them frightened her very much. There was always some spell to stop almost any monster, and besides Harry was here, it wasn't like they were in any danger so long as he was around. He would always protect them. He was after all, a very strong wizard in training, and he had after all, survived several encounters with Voldemort. It wasn't like one monster could be as powerful as the dark lord who had left that scar on Harry's head.

Besides, what kind of establishment would they be headed to if monsters were allowed on the train? Of course there was that time with the dementors…but that was completely different. They weren't actually attending the school. Then again Remus had been a teacher…and he was a werewolf…but they hadn't actually been in that much danger from him…had they? Well that wasn't really important. They wouldn't let some monster student attend the school. That would be a completely different scenario. Students were most likely highly more unstable and wouldn't be trusted nearly as much as an adult.

For some reason this whole logic wasn't helping Hermione to feel much better. If this boy that she had decided to sit in a room with was really some monster, it would be her fault when he decided to lash out at them. He didn't look particularly like a monster if you ignored his hair though. Sure he wasn't wearing his Hogwarts robes, but they were handing off of a hook to the side, so that made sense. The jeans that he was wearing were a dark blue, like he hadn't worn them for a long time yet since if he had they would have been faded. The t-shirt that he wore was simple and black, most likely having some sort of design or image on the back since there was nothing on the front. He was wearing a necklace that was basically just a piece of quartz crystal, but that was hardly out of the ordinary.

She'd just have to live with it. Besides, the fact that he was slightly frightening gave her an excuse to cuddle up to Harry for protection. She didn't mind any excuse to do that. She had noticed how Ron was acting weirdly wand had distanced himself from them completely and was sitting closer to the crimson haired boy than he was to them, but there wasn't much to be done about that. She wasn't going to give up pursuing Harry just so she could make sure that Ron felt comfortable. Once she had won Harry's heart everything would be back to normal, and if Ron decided to keep his distance until then, she wasn't going to worry about it.

Harry was going to worry about it though. This was unusual. Usually Ron was right beside them talking up a storm about what he planned to do, and how he wanted to do it. Instead, he was sitting on the other side of the cabin and was being completely silent. He understood how new people might bother Ron a little, and how the fact that he had decided to side with Hermione rather than him might have bothered him a little, but this was extreme for Ron. Usually it was a challenge to say anything to him because he was always talking so much. Either that or Neville would be talking.

That was odd too. Usually Neville would wander around until he had found them so that he could talk to all of them. This time he just had never showed up which was very strange. It wasn't like Harry was going to say anything about it, but he really would have liked to have talked to him. Ron didn't seem to want to talk, and Hermione seemed to be too busy burying her head into his arm to talk too much. She had been acting weird lately, but then again they hadn't seen each other much over the summer. Maybe that was what was going on. Maybe Ron was just giving Hermione a chance to catch up with him and Hermione was just so happy to see him again that she didn't have anything to say.

It all just seemed a little bit tense though. Maybe that was because of this person that they didn't know. That was probably it. It wasn't like they wanted to talk about all of their secrets with a stranger hanging around. Who knew what he could really be up to, or if he was even really sleeping for that matter. Well, that didn't really matter, he wasn't a threat, or he most likely would have already reacted as one. Still, not waking him up was probably as good an idea as any.

The train continued pushing through the countryside all the while growing closer to the final resting place that it would find at the Hogwarts school for witchcraft and wizardry. Of course Harry, Hermione and Ron weren't thinking about the challenging classes that they would be facing at the school in this year, but none of them seemed to really care about it. Right now they all seemed to have some more immediate worries in mind.