AN: Pyrohub!? He had the best AIDS.
Yay! A new story, let's see him fuck this up.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry but I do own an Xbox 360
"Hi, Luna,ʹ" said Ginny, "is it OK if we take these seats?"
The girl beside the window looked up from staring fondly at the seat in front of her.
She had straggly, waist‐length, dirty blonde hair, very pale eyebrows and protuberant eyes that gave her a permanently surprised look. Harry knew at once why Neville had chosen to pass this compartment by after all the girl gave off this distinct an aura of distinct dottiness and strangness.
Perhaps it was the fact that she had stuck her wand behind her left ear, difficult for any situation, for safekeeping, or that she had chosen to wear a necklace of Butterbeer corks, or maybe it was the fact that she was holding a magazine upside‐down.
Her eyes ranged over Neville in silent judgement and came to rest on Harry. She nodded.
"Thanks," said Ginny, smiling at her.
Harry and Neville stowed the three trunks and Hedwigʹs cage in the luggage rack, next to two other trunks, and sat down.
"What the- !"
Harry spun around to see a body appear in the seat he was intending to sit in. The body had brown messy hair and piercing blue eyes and also a wand pointed at him.
The boy glared at Harry suspiciously and turned to the gIrl who sat across him, "You could have warned them about me Luna."
Luna raised her upside-down magazine high enough to hide her clearly amused face.
The boy lowered his wand and looked at the three newcomers with tired eyes.
"Nice to meet you," the boy said, "my name is Alexis Felling."
"Nice to meet you too," Harry said glad for the ice breaker, "my name is Harry Potter and they are Ginny and Neville."
"Ah! The madman!" Alexis said with a granduer clap of his hands.
Harry's expression grew dark, "Think I'm deluded do you?"
"As deluded as Dumbledore."
At his words Ginny whipped out her wand, "Mucu-"
But Alexis was faster, "Silencio! Potter tell your girlfriend to take a joke."
Ginny blushed at the comment and tried to protest but no sound came out.
"I'll cancel the charm if you promise to not be so trigger happy," Ginny nodded, "good and for your information Potter I never believe a word that comes out of the Prophets mouth and you shouldn't too."
He cancelled the spell with a wave of his wand.
Harry was glad someone outside his friendship group believed him, "I don't believe what they say."
"Then why get so worked up?" It was a rhetorical question.
"So how were your holidays?" Luna asked disregarding the tension in the room.
The train rattled onwards, speeding them out into open country.
It was an odd, unsettled sort of day; one moment the carriage was full of sunlight and the next they were passing beneath ominously grey clouds.
"Guess what I got for my birthday?" said Neville.
"Another Remembrall?" said Harry, remembering the marble‐like device Nevilleʹs grandmother had sent him in an effort to improve his abysmal memory.
"No," said Neville. "I could do with one, though, I lost the old one ages ago… no, look at this…"
He dug the hand that was not keeping a firm grip on Trevor into his well kept schoolbag and after a little bit of rummaging pulled out what appeared to be a small grey cactus in a brown pot, except that it was covered with what looked like boils rather than the usual spines.
"Mimbulus mimbletonia," Alexis said in wonder immediately recognising the rare plant.
"Yep!" Neville said proudly. "Can't wait to show it to Professor Sprout. My Great Uncle Algie got it from Assyria."
Harry stared at the thing. It was pulsating slightly, giving it the rather sinister look of some diseased internal organ, maybe it was a cancerous organ.
"You planning on breeding it?" Alexis asked raising an eyebrow.
"Course!" Neville awnsered with a proud smile on his face.
Harry knew that Nevilleʹs favourite subject was Herbology, the subject he did the best on as well, but for the life of him he could not see what he would want with this stunted little cancer plant.
"Does it ‐ er ‐ do anything?" Harry asked.
"Loads of stuff!" said Neville proudly. "Itʹs got an amazing defensive mechanism. Here, hold Trevor for me and I'll show you…"
He dumped the toad into Alexis' lap, who began to stroke the oaf into calmness, and took a quill from his schoolbag.
Luna Lovegoodʹs popping eyes appeared over the top of her upside‐down magazine again, to watch what Neville was doing but mostly to look at Alexis try to calm the frog down.
Neville held the Mimbulus mimbletonia up to his eyes, his tongue between his teeth, chose his spot, and gave the plant a sharp prod with the tip of his quill.
Liquid squirted at insane speeds from every boil on the plant; thick, stinking, dark green jets of it.
They hit the ceiling, the windows, and spattered Luna Lovegoodʹs magazine; Ginny and Harry, who had flung their arms up in front of their faces just in time and Trevor, who Alexis had used as a shield, the toad was less than pleased.
Neville, whose face and torso were also drenched, shook his head to get the worst out of his eyes.
ʹS ‐ sorry,ʹ he gasped out.
"Don't keep yourself up at night," Alexis said fighting off the angry toad, "Stinksaps not poisonous."
At that precise moment the door of their compartment slid open to show a pretty girl with shinny black hair standing in the doorway with a nice smile, that quickly fell, on her face.
"Oh… hello, Harry," Cho said in a nervous voice looking at the green sludge in disgust, "Um… bad time?
"Er... yeah, sorry." Said Harry blankly inwardly cursing his luck.
"Don't worry," said Cho. "Well… just thought Iʹd say hello… bye then."
Rather green in the face, she closed the door and departed in haste.
Harry slumped back in his seat and groaned to himself quitely.
He would have liked Cho to discover him sitting with a group of very cool people laughing their heads off at a joke he had just told.
Not dripping in Stinksap!
"Never mind," said Ginny bracingly. "Look, we can easily get rid of all this." She pulled out her wand.
"Scourgify!"
The Stinksap vanished.
"Suavify!" Said Alexis and the smell of rancid manure was beaten by the smell of Honeydukes finest chocolate, if asked none of the members of the room could decide.
"Sorry," said Neville again, in a small voice.
Ron and Hermione did not turn up for nearly an hour, by which time the food trolley had already gone by.
Harry and Ginny had finished their pumpkin pasties and were busy swapping Chocolate Frog Cards while Neville, Alexis and Luna where playing a game of Exploding Snap when the compartment door slid open and they walked in, accompanied by Crookshanks and a shrilly hooting Pigwidgeon in his cage.
"Who're you?" Asked Ron giving Alexis a curious glare.
"Alexis Felling, fifth year Gryffindor," he replied not taking his attention off the enthralling game.
"You're not a Gryffindor!" Ron said accusingly.
"Really," Alexis drawled, "I'm pretty sure I remember the Sorting Hat say I was in Gryffindor, must be going as senile Dumbledore."
Everyone laughed, even Ron gave a small laugh, but nobody laughed harder than Luna Lovegood.
She let out a scream of mirth that caused Hedwig to wake up and flap her wings indignantly and Crookshanks to leap up into the luggage rack, hissing worse than a snake.
Luna laughed so hard her magazine slipped out of her grasp, slid down her legs and on to the floor.
"That was funny!" Her prominent eyes swam with tears as she gasped for breath, staring at Ron.
Utterly nonplussed, he looked around at the others, who were now laughing at the expression on Ronʹs face and at the ludicrously prolonged laughter of Luna Lovegood, who was rocking backwards and forwards, clutching her sides.
"Are you taking the mickey?" said Ron, frowning at her.
Alexis just kicked her, "Sorry 'bout her she doesn't realise when to shut up."
Luna just gave an indignant look.
While everybody was focused on Alexis, Ron and Luna throwing harmless barbs at each other, Harry glancing at the magazine on the floor, noticed something that made him dive for it.
Upside‐down it had been hard to tell what the picture on the front was, but Harry now realised it was a fairly bad cartoon drawing of Cornelius Fudge; Harry only recognised him because of the trademark lime‐green bowler hat.
One of Fudgeʹs hands was clenched around a bag of gold; the other hand was throttling a goblin. The cartoon was captioned: How Far Will Fudge Go to Gain Gringotts?
Beneath this were listed the titles of other articles inside the magazine.
Corruption in the Quidditch League: How the Tornados are Taking Control
Secrets of the Ancient Runes Revealed
Sirius Black: Villain or Victim?
"Can I have a look at this?" Harry asked Luna eagerly.
SIRIUS ‐ BLACK AS HEʹS PAINTED?
Notorious mass murderer or innocent singing sensation?
Harry had to read this first sentence several times before he was convinced that he had not misunderstood it. Since when had Sirius been a singing sensation?
For fourteen years Sirius Black has been believed guilty of the mass murder of twelve innocent Muggles and one wizard. Blackʹs audacious escape from Azkaban two years ago has led to the widest manhunt ever conducted by the Ministry of Magic. None of us has ever questioned that he deserves to be recaptured and handed back to the Dementors.
BUT DOES HE?
Startling new evidence has recently come to light that Sirius Black may not have committed the crimes for which he was sent to Azkaban. In fact, says Doris Purkiss, of 18 Acanthia Way, Little Norton, Black may not even have been present at the killings.
ʹWhat people donʹt realise is that Sirius Black is a false name,ʹ says Mrs Purkiss. ʹThe man people believe to be Sirius Black is actually Stubby Boardman, lead singer of popular singing group The Hobgoblins, who retired from public life after being struck on the ear by a turnip at a concert in Little Norton Church Hall nearly fifteen years ago. I recognised him the moment I saw his picture in the paper. Now, Stubby couldnʹt possibly have committed those crimes, because on the day in question he happened to be enjoying a romantic candlelit dinner with me. I have written to the Minister for Magic and I'm expecting him to give Stubby, alias ‐Sirius, a full pardon any day now.ʹ
Harry finished reading and stared at the page in disbelief.
No way people thought what this woman was saying was real.
Perhaps it was a joke, he thought, perhaps the magazine often printed spoof headings.
He flicked back a few pages and found the piece on Fudge.
Cornelius Fudge, the Minister for Magic, denied that he had any plans to take over the running of the Wizarding Bank, Gringotts, when he was elected Minister for Magic five years ago. Fudge has always insisted that he wants nothing more than to ʹco‐operate peacefullyʹ with the guardians of our gold.
BUT DOES HE?
Sources close to the Minister have recently disclosed that Fudgeʹs dearest ambition is to seize control of the goblin gold supplies and that he will not hesitate to use force if need be.
'It wouldnʹt be the first time, either,ʹ said a Ministry insider. ʹCornelius ʺGoblin‐Crusherʺ Fudge, thatʹs what his friends call him. If you could hear him when he thinks no oneʹs listening, oh, heʹs always talking about the goblins heʹs had done in; heʹs had them drowned, heʹs had them dropped off buildings, heʹs had them poisoned, heʹs had them cooked in pies…ʺ
Harry did not read any further. Fudge might have many faults but Harry found it extremely hard to imagine him ordering goblins to be cooked in pies.
He flicked through the rest of the magazine. Pausing every few pages, he read: an accusation that the Tutshill Tornados were winning the Quidditch League by a combination of blackmail, illegal broom‐tampering and torture; an interview with a wizard who claimed to have flown to the moon on a Cleansweep Six and brought back a bag of moon frogs to prove it; and an article on ancient runes which at least explained why Luna had been reading The Quibbler upside‐down.
According to the magazine, if you turned the runes on their heads they revealed a spell to make your enemyʹs ears turn into kumquats.
In fact, compared to the rest of the articles in The Quibbler, the suggestion that Sirius might really be the lead singer of The Hobgoblins was quite sensible.
"Anything good in there?" asked Ron with a smile on his as Harry closed the magazine.
"Of course not," said Hermione harshly, before Harry could even answer, but Harry was sure that he would agree, "The Quibblerʹs a pile of rubbish, everyone knows that."
"Excuse me," said Luna; her voice had suddenly lost its dreamy quality and became emotionless "My fatherʹs the editor."
ʹI ‐ oh,ʹ said Hermione, looking embarrassed. ʹWell… itʹs got some interesting… 1 mean, itʹs quite…ʺ
ʹIʹll have it back, thank you,ʹ said Luna coldly, and leaning forwards she snatched it out of Harryʹs hands.
But suddenly.
"Cat fight! Cat fight! Cat fight!" Alexis egged from the side causing Ron, Ginny and Neville to burst out laughing while Harry and Hermione looked grateful at the release of tension, Luna just rose the Quibbler high enough to hide her clearly amused face.
The compartment door opened for the third time.
Harry looked around; he had expected this, but that did not make the sight of Draco Malfoy smirking at him from between his cronies Crabbe and Goyle any more enjoyable.
ʹWhat?ʹ he said aggressively, before Malfoy could open his mouth.
"Manners, Potter, or Iʹll have to give you a detention," drawled Malfoy, whose sleek blond hair and pointed chin were just like his fathers. ʹ"You see, I, unlike you, have been made a prefect, which means that I, unlike you, have the power to hand out punishments."
"Yeah," said Harry, "but you, unlike me, are a git, so get out and leave us alone."
Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Alexis and Neville laughed while Malfoyʹs lip curled in distaste.
"Tell me, how does it feel being second‐best to Weasley, Potter?" He asked smugly.
"How does it feel to have the Dark Lord in your home?" Alexis replied not liking the grin on the gits face.
The room stilled and froze.
"What did you say," Malfoy challengingly said his hand reaching towards his wand.
"Going deaf Goldilocks," Alexis said standing up and towering over Draco, "does the Dark Lord enjoy hearing your families failures at the diner table."
"How dar-!" Draco began to whip out his wand.
"How's Daddies hand Malfoy?"
At this Draco became silent and afraid he seemed to have realised who the person in front of him was.
After a long pause he spoke but this time to he spoke to Harry, "watch yourself, Potter, because Iʹll be dogging your footsteps in case you step out of line."
"And I'll be recruiting you for a beating Malfoy," Alexis butted in, "now get out before you end up lie Daddy."
Malfoy complied.
"What the bloody hell was that!?" Ron said surprised anyone had managed to stand up to Draco and not gotten an insult back.
"How did you know that Voldermort was at their house?" Harry more importantly questioned.
"Who's the dog?" Alexis replied not expecting an awnser.
"Snuffles he means the world to me." Harry quickly thought up.
"If that's so I'm a Death Eater then." Alexis said making something up as quickly as Harry.
"What!" Ron shouted as he fumbled for his wand.
"He's lying Ron." Hermione said with an amused grin.
"After all Harry lied so why can't I." Alexis said giving Harry a look that told him to drop the conversation.
"Okay," Harry was really getting sick of not knowing what was going on especially when he could get potential dirt on the Malfoy family.
The weather remained undecided as they travelled further and further north.
Rain spattered the windows in a half‐hearted way, then the sun put in a feeble appearance before clouds drifted over it as quickly as it appeared once more.
When darkness fell and lamps came on inside the carriages, Luna rolled up The Quibbler, put it carefully away in her bag and took to staring at everyone in the compartment instead.
Harry and Alexis were sitting with their foreheads pressed against the train window as Harry was trying to show Alexis a good glimpse of Hogwarts, but it was a moonless night and the rain‐ streaked window was grimy.
"Weʹd better change," said Hermione at last, and all of them opened their trunks with difficulty and pulled on their school robes.
She and Ron pinned their prefect badges carefully to their chests. Harry saw Ron checking his reflection in the black window.
At last, the train began to slow down and they heard the usual racket up and down it as everybody scrambled to get their luggage and pets assembled, ready to get off.
As Ron and Hermione were supposed to supervise all this, they disappeared from the carriage again, leaving Harry and the others to look after Crookshanks and Pigwidgeon.
"I'll carry that owl, if you like," said Alexis to Harry, reaching out for Pigwidgeon as Neville stowed Trevor carefully in an inside pocket.
"Thanks," said Harry, handing him the cage and hoisting Hedwigʹs more securely into his arms.
They shuffled out of the compartment feeling the first sting of the night air on their faces as they joined the crowd in the corridor. Slowly, they moved towards the doors.
Harry could smell the pine trees that lined the path down to the lake.
He stepped down on to the platform and looked around, listening for the familiar call of ʹfirsʹ‐years over ʹere… firsʹ‐years…ʹ
But it did not come.
Instead, a quite different voice, a brisk female one, was calling out, ʺFirst‐years line up over here, please! All first‐years to me!ʹ
A lantern came swinging towards Harry and by its light he saw the prominent chin and severe haircut of Professor Grubbly‐Plank, the witch who had taken over Hagridʹs Care of Magical Creatures lessons for a while the previous year.
"Whereʹs Hagrid?" he said out loud.
:I donʹt know," said Ginny, "but weʹd better get out of the way, weʹre blocking the door."
"Oh, yeah…"
Harry and Ginny became separated as they moved off along the platform and out through the station.
Jostled by the crowd, Harry squinted through the darkness for a glimpse of Hagrid; he had to be here, Harry had been relying on it ‐ seeing Hagrid again was one of the things heʹd been looking forward to most.
But there was no sign of him.
He canʹt have left, Harry told himself as he shuffled slowly through a narrow doorway on to the road outside with the rest of the crowd. Heʹs just got a cold or something…
He looked around for Ron or Hermione, wanting to know what they thought about the reappearance of Professor Grubbly‐Plank, but neither of them was anywhere near him, so he allowed himself to be shuffled forwards on to the dark rain‐washed road outside Hogsmeade Station.
Here stood the hundred or so horseless stagecoaches that always took the students above first year up to the castle. Harry glanced quickly at them, turned away to keep a lookout for Ron and Hermione, then did a double‐take.
The coaches were no longer horseless.
There were creatures standing between the carriage shafts. If he had had to give them a name, he supposed he would have called them horses, though there was something reptilian about them, too.
They were completely fleshless, their black coats clinging to their skeletons, of which every bone was visible. Their heads were dragonish, and their pupil‐less eyes white and staring. Wings sprouted from each wither ‐ vast, black leathery wings that looked as though they ought to belong to giant bats.
Standing still and quiet in the gathering gloom, the creatures looked eerie and sinister. Harry could not understand why the coaches were being pulled by these horrible horses when they were quite capable of moving along by themselves.
"Whereʹs Pig?" said Ronʹs voice, right behind Harry.
"Alexis was carrying him," said Harry, turning quickly, eager to consult Ron about Hagrid. "Where dʹyou reckon ‐"
"‐Hagrid is? I dunno,ʹ said Ron, sounding worried. ʹHeʹd better be OK…ʹ"
A short distance away, Draco Malfoy, followed by a small gang of cronies including Crabbe, Goyle and Pansy Parkinson, was pushing some timid‐looking second‐years out of the way so that he and his friends could get a coach to themselves.
Seconds later, Hermione emerged panting from the crowd. "Malfoy was being absolutely foul to a first‐year back there. I swear Iʹm going to report him, heʹs only had his badge three minutes and heʹs using it to bully people worse than ever… whereʹs Crookshanks?"
"Ginnyʹs got him," said Harry. "There she is…"
Ginny had just emerged from the crowd, clutching a squirming Crookshanks.
"Thanks," said Hermione, relieving Ginny of the cat. "Come on, letʹs get a carriage together before they all fill up…"
"I havenʹt got Pig yet!" Ron said, but Hermione was already heading off towards the nearest unoccupied coach. Harry remained behind with Ron.
"What are those things, dʹyou reckon?" he asked Ron, nodding at the horrible horses as the other students surged past them.
"What things?"
"Those horse ‐"
Alexis and Luna appeared with Luna holding Pigwidgeonʹs cage in her arms; the tiny owl was twittering excitedly as usual.
"Here you are,"she said. "Heʹs a sweet little owl, isnʹt he?"
"Er… yeah… heʹs all right," said Ron gruffly. "Well, come on then, letʹs get in… what were you saying, Harry?"
"I was saying, what are those horse things?" Harry said, as he, Ron, Alexis and Luna made for the carriage in which Hermione and Ginny were already sitting.
"What horse things?"
The horse things pulling the carriages!" said Harry impatiently. They were, after all, about three feet from the nearest one; it was watching them with empty white eyes.
Ron, however, gave Harry a perplexed look.
"What are you talking about?"
"Iʹm talking about ‐ look!"
Harry grabbed Ronʹs arm and wheeled him about so that he was face to face with the winged horse. Ron stared straight at it for a second, then looked back at Harry.
"What am I supposed to be looking at?"
"At the ‐ there, between the shafts! Harnessed to the coach! Itʹs right there in front‐"
But as Ron continued to look bemused, a strange thought occurred to Harry.
"Canʹt… canʹt you see them?"
"See what?"
"Canʹt you see whatʹs pulling the carriages?"
"Are you feeling all right, Harry?"
"I… yeah…"
Harry felt utterly bewildered. The horse was there in front of him, gleaming solidly in the dim light issuing from the station windows behind them, vapour rising from its nostrils in the chilly night air. Yet, unless Ron was faking ‐ and it was a very feeble joke if he was ‐ Ron could not see it at all.
ʹShall we get in, then?ʹ said Ron uncertainly, looking at Harry as though him.
ʹYeah,ʹ said Harry. ʹYeah, go on…ʹ
ʹItʹs all right,ʹ said a amused voice from beside Harry and Ron. ʹYouʹre not going mad or anything. I can see them, too.ʹ
They both looked to Alexis, "Really," said Ron sceptically, "What are they then?"
"That is a Thestral," Alexis said as he brought Rons hand to the beast, "Thestrals are, undeservedly, known as omens of misfortune and aggression by many wizards because they are visible only to those who have witnessed death at least once or maybe it's's due to their appearance."
Smiling faintly, Alexis climbed into the musty interior of the carriage helping Luna up as well.
Looking pleased, Harry followed them but a question rose from his mind.
Who had Alexis seen die.
AN: So what did you think of this one was it good or bad tell me in your reviews section.