Chapter 10: Hogwarts Express

There was a definite end-of-the-holidays gloom in the air when Josh awoke next morning. Heavy rain was still splattering against the window as he got dressed in jeans and a sweater; they would change into their school robes on the Hogwarts Express.

Him, Harry, Ron, Fred, and George had just reached the staircase on their way down to breakfast, when Mrs. Weasley appeared at the foot of the stairs, looking harassed.

"Arthur!" she called up the staircase. "Arthur! Urgent message from the Ministry!"

Josh flattened herself against the wall as Mr. Weasley came clattering past with his robes on back-to-front and hurtled out of sight. When Josh and the others entered the kitchen, they saw Mrs. Weasley rummaging anxiously in the drawers –

"I've got a quill here somewhere!" - and Mr. Weasley bending over the fire, talking to a familiar face Josh had met at the World Cup.

Amos Diggory's head was sitting in the middle of the flames like a large, bearded egg. It was talking very fast, completely unperturbed by the sparks flying around it and the flames licking its ears.

"… Muggle neighbours heard bangs and shouting, so they went and called those what-d'you-call-'ems - please-men. Arthur, you've got to get over there —"

"Here!" said Mrs. Weasley breathlessly, pushing a piece of parchment, a bottle of ink, and a crumpled quill into Mr. Weasley's hands.

"- it's a real stroke of luck I heard about it," said Mr. Diggory's head. "I had to come into the office early to send a couple of owls, and I found the Improper Use of Magic lot all setting off — if Rita Skeeter gets hold of this one, Arthur —"

"What does Mad-Eye say happened?" asked Mr. Weasley, unscrewing the ink bottle, loading up his quill, and preparing to take notes.

Mr. Diggory's head rolled its eyes. "Says he heard an intruder in his yard. Says he was creeping toward the house, but was ambushed by his dustbins."

"What did the dustbins do?" asked Mr. Weasley, scribbling frantically.

"Made one hell of a noise and fired rubbish everywhere, as far as I can tell," said Mr. Diggory. "Apparently one of them was still rocketing around when the pleasemen turned up -"

Mr. Weasley groaned. "And what about the intruder?"

"Arthur, you know Mad-Eye," said Mr. Diggory's head, rolling its eyes again. "Someone creeping into his yard in the dead of night? More likely there's a very shell-shocked cat wandering around somewhere, covered in potato peelings. But if the Improper Use of Magic lot get their hands on Mad-Eye, he's had it — think of his record — we've got to get him off on a minor charge, something in your department — what are exploding dustbins worth?"

"Might be a caution," said Mr. Weasley, still writing very fast, his brow furrowed. "Mad-Eye didn't use his wand? He didn't actually attack anyone?"

"I'll bet he leapt out of bed and started jinxing everything he could reach through the window," said Mr. Diggory, "but they'll have a job proving it, there aren't any casualties."

"All right, I'm off," Mr. Weasley said, and he stuffed the parchment with his notes on it into his pocket and dashed out of the kitchen again.

Mr. Diggory's head looked around at Mrs. Weasley.

"Sorry about this, Molly," it said, more calmly, "bothering you so early and everything… but Arthur's the only one who can get Mad-Eye off, and Mad-Eye's supposed to be starting his new job today. Why he had to choose last night…"

"Never mind, Amos," said Mrs. Weasley. "Sure you won't have a bit of toast or anything before you go?"

"Oh go on, then," said Mr. Diggory.

Mrs. Weasley took a piece of buttered toast from a stack on the kitchen table, put it into the fire tongs, and transferred it into Mr. Diggory's mouth. "Fanks," he said in a muffled voice, and then, with a small pop, vanished.

Josh could hear Mr. Weasley calling hurried good-byes to Bill, Charlie, Percy, and the girls. Within five minutes, he was back in the kitchen, his robes on the right way now, dragging a comb through his hair.

"I'd better hurry - you have a good term, boys," said Mr. Weasley to Harry, Ron, Josh, Fred, and George, fastening a cloak over his shoulders and preparing to Disapparate. "Molly, are you going to be all right taking the kids to King's Cross?"

"Of course I will," she said. "You just look after Mad-Eye, we'll be fine."

As Mr. Weasley vanished, Bill and Charlie entered the kitchen.

"Did someone say Mad-Eye?" Bill asked. "What's he been up to now."

"He says someone tried to break into his house last night," said Mrs. Weasley.

"Mad-Eye Moody?" said George thoughtfully, spreading marmalade on his toast. "Isn't he that nutter -"

"Your father thinks very highly of Mad-Eye Moody," said Mrs. Weasley sternly.

"Yeah, well, Dad collects plugs, doesn't he?" said Fred quietly as Mrs. Weasley left the room. "Birds of a feather…"

"Moody was a great wizard in his time," said Bill.

"He's an old friend of Dumbledore's, isn't he?" said Charlie.

"Dumbledore's not what you'd call normal, though, is he?" Fred said. "I mean, I know he's a genius and everything…"

"Who is Mad-Eye?" Josh and Harry asked at the same time.

"He's retired, used to work at the Ministry," said Charlie. "I met him once when Dad took me into work with him. He was an Auror - one of the best… a Dark wizard catcher," he added, seeing Harry's blank look. "Half the cells in Azkaban are full because of him. He made himself loads of enemies, though… the families of people he caught, mainly… and I heard he's been getting really paranoid in his old age. Doesn't trust anyone anymore. Sees Dark wizards everywhere."

"Paranoid much," Josh snorted, earning a couple of smirks from the Weasley twins.

Bill and Charlie decided to come and see everyone off at King's Cross station, but Percy, apologising most profusely, said that he really needed to get to work.

"I just can't justify taking more time off at the moment," he told them. "Mr. Crouch is really starting to rely on me."

Mrs. Weasley had braved the telephone in the village post office to order three ordinary Muggle taxis to take them into London.

"Arthur tried to borrow Ministry cars for us," Mrs. Weasley whispered to Harry and Josh as they stood in the rain-washed yard, watching the taxi drivers heaving eight heavy Hogwarts trunks into their cars. "But there weren't any to spare… Oh dear, they don't look happy, do they?"

Neither Harry, Josh, nor Hermione liked to tell Mrs. Weasley that Muggle taxi drivers rarely transported overexcited owls, and Pigwidgeon was making an earsplitting racket. Nor did it help that a number of Filibuster's Fabulous No-Heat, Wet-Start Fireworks went off unexpectedly when Fred's trunk sprang open, causing the driver carrying it to yell with fright and pain as Crookshanks clawed his way up the man's leg.

The journey was uncomfortable, owing to the fact that they were jammed in the back of the taxis with their trunks. Crookshanks took quite a while to recover from the fireworks, and by the time they entered London, Harry, Ron, Josh, and Hermione were all severely scratched. They were very relieved to get out at King's Cross, even though the rain was coming down harder than ever, and they got soaked carrying their trunks across the busy road and into the station.

Josh was used to getting onto platform nine and three-quarters by now. It was a simple matter of walking straight through the apparently solid barrier dividing platforms nine and ten.

The only tricky part was doing this in an unobtrusive way, so as to avoid attracting Muggle attention. They did it in groups today; Harry, Ron, and Hermione (the most conspicuous, since they were accompanied by Pigwidgeon and Crookshanks) went first; they leaned casually against the barrier, chatting unconcernedly, and slid sideways through it… and as they did so, platform nine and three-quarters materialised in front of them, then Fred, George and Josh follwed with Bill, Charlie, Ginny, and Mrs. Weasley coming in last.

The Hogwarts Express, a gleaming scarlet steam engine, was already there, clouds of steam billowing from it, through which the many Hogwarts students and parents on the platform appeared like dark ghosts. Pigwidgeon became noisier than ever in response to the hooting of many owls through the mist. Harry, Ron, Josh, and Hermione set off to find seats, and were soon stowing their luggage in a compartment halfway along the train, except for Josh who threw his stuff in an neighboring compartment. They then hopped back down onto the platform to say good-bye to Mrs. Weasley, Bill, and Charlie.

"I might be seeing you all sooner than you think," said Charlie, grinning, as he hugged Ginny good-bye.

"Why?" said Fred keenly.

"You'll see," said Charlie. "Just don't tell Percy I mentioned it… it's 'classified information, until such time as the Ministry sees fit to release it,' after all."

"Yeah, I sort of wish I were back at Hogwarts this year," said Bill, hands in his pockets, looking almost wistfully at the train.

"Why?" said George impatiently.

"You're going to have an interesting year," said Bill, his eyes twinkling. "I might even get time off to come and watch a bit of it."

"A bit of what?" Josh asked.

But at that moment, the whistle blew, and Mrs. Weasley chivvied them toward the train doors.

"Thanks for having us to stay, Mrs. Weasley," said Hermione as they climbed on board, closed the door, and leaned out of the window to talk to her.

"Thanks for everything, Mrs. Weasley," said Harry.

"Thank you, Mrs. Weasley," Josh said.

"Oh it was my pleasure, dears," said Mrs. Weasley. "I'd invite you for Christmas, but… well, I expect you're all going to want to stay at Hogwarts, what with… one thing and another."

"Mum!" said Ron irritably. "What d'you three know that we don't?"

"You'll find out this evening, I expect," said Mrs. Weasley, smiling. "It's going to be very exciting - mind you, I'm very glad they've changed the rules -"

"What rules?" Harry, Ron, Josh, Fred, and George all said together.

"I'm sure Professor Dumbledore will tell you… Now, behave, won't you? Won't you, Fred? And you, George?"

The pistons hissed loudly and the train began to move.

"Tell us what's happening at Hogwarts!" Fred bellowed out of the window as Mrs. Weasley, Bill, and Charlie sped away from them. "What rules are they changing?"

But Mrs. Weasley only smiled and waved. Before the train had rounded the corner, she, Bill, and Charlie had Disapparated.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione went back to their compartment, and Josh went to his where he saw that he was the only one with his things inside.

Josh turned to look out the windwo which the thick rain splattering against them made it very difficult to see out of them. He turned his head forward yawning when the compartment door opened and in walked Blaise, dragging both his trunk and his owl.

"Hey," he greeted, hoisting his items onto the railings. "How was the World Cup?"

"Oh, you know," Josh started. "Irish won, muggles were spun in the air by Death Eaters, everyone freaked, Dark mark in the air. You know, the usual."

"Oh, yeah," Blaise said, taking a seat across from Josh. "I heard about that. That was some serious stuff, very frightening, I heard."

"A little," Josh said. "And you, what did you do the rest of the summer?"

"Nothing much," Blaise answered with a sigh. "Just hung around Diagon Alley, speaking to random girls."

"Ah, I see. And speaking of girls. I heard that you told Daphne about our little adventures over the summer including the top secret one where I found out that Sirius was my father. Why is that?" Josh asked, crossing his arms.

"Josh, you passed out on me, mate, for an hour," Blaise said. "I was horrified when you just started screaming like crazy. It was scary, and I needed to tell someone, and I just thought that telling Daphne would just ease things between you. It did, right?"

"Sort of," Josh answered, leaning back. "But you shouldn't have told her about my father. I wanted to tell her that."

"Oh, sorry mate," Blaise said as the compartment door opened up again reveal to beautiful girls, Daphne and Tracey.

"Hello, Blaise," Tracey greeted, sitting next to Blaise. "Hello, Josh Black!" She added with a smirk.

Josh turned to stared at Daphne, knowing that she was the one who told her his truth. "What?" Daphne said, noticing Josh's stare. "I'm sorry, but Tracey is my best friend, and I tell her everything."

"Right," Tracey agreed with a nod. "There are no lies and secrets betweens us."

"Yeah, that's great," Josh said, sitting up straight. "Just don't go telling anyone else. I want it to be a secret for a while longer. I don't want everyone glaring at me, knowing that my father is a convicted murderer and thinking I am to follow in his footsteps."

"But you told me he was innocent," Blaise said.

"He is. Its just that everyone doesn't know that. They like to believe the Daily Prophet more than a man's word," Josh explained.

"Wait, what are you guys talking about?" Tracey asked. Josh sighed and then told Daphne and Tracey the full story of his adventure last year at Hogwarts.

"You produced a full corporeal Patronus?" Tracey asked in awe. Josh nodded.

"Yeah, me an Harry did," Josh said. "I don't know, but I knew I could do it and I thought I was going to see my mother again which made me pretty happy, and boom, a silvery Raven flew out of my wand, shooing away hundreds of Dementors, with a silvery Stag by its side."

"What was it like to go back in time?" Blaise asked. "Did you see yourself?" Josh nodded. "That would be cool. If i could go back in time, I would leave secret messages to let me know what I should do, or just prank myself."

"First you're nearly killed by Quirell, then you're almost eaten by a giant snake and tortured with the Cruciatus Curse, and then your soul nearly gets sucked out by dementors. Your life has become dangerous, Josh," Daphne said, looking very concerned.

"Yeah I know," Josh said with a smirk. "Isn't it great?"

"No, its not great," Daphne said. "What if something else bad is going to happen this year, I mean, the Dark Mark at the World Cup? Tell me that is not a bad sign."

"Look, nothing bad may not happen this year, Daph," Josh assured. "At least not to me, more like to Harry. And I'll just be on the side lines this year, okay? I'll be there in the library, studying or hanging out with you, Blaise, Tracey, Neville, and Hermione."

"Granger?" Daphne said. Josh nodded, looking away and not noticing the small sneer upon Daphne's face. "Josh - "

"Shh!" Tracey whispered suddenly, pressing her finger to her lips and pointing toward the compartment next to theirs. Josh, Blaise, and Daphne listened, and heard a familiar drawling voice drifting in through the open door.

"… Father actually considered sending me to Durmstrang rather than Hogwarts, you know. He knows the headmaster, you see. Well, you know his opinion of Dumbledore - the man's such a Mudblood-lover - and Durmstrang doesn't admit that sort of riffraff. But Mother didn't like the idea of me going to school so far away. Father says Durmstrang takes a far more sensible line than Hogwarts about the Dark Arts. Durmstrang students actually learn them, not just the defense rubbish we do…"

Tracey got up, tiptoed to the compartment door, and slid it shut, blocking out Malfoy's voice.

"Durmstrang?" Josh repeated, looking puzzled.

"Yeah, it's the another Magical school," Blaise spoke.

"I know," Josh said, rolling his eyes.

"Yeah," said Daphne sniffily, "and it's got a horrible reputation. According to An Appraisal of Magical Education in Europe, it puts a lot of emphasis on the Dark Arts."

"But does anyone know where is it? What country?" Blaise asked.

"Well, nobody knows, do they?" said Tracey, raising her eyebrows.

"Er - why not?" Josh asked.

"There's traditionally been a lot of rivalry between all the magic schools. Durmstrang and Beauxbatons like to conceal their whereabouts so nobody can steal their secrets," said Daphne matter-of-factly.

"Come off it," said Blaise, starting to laugh. "Durmstrang's got to be about the same size as Hogwarts — how are you going to hide a great big castle?"

"But Hogwarts is hidden," said Tracey, in surprise. "Everyone knows that… well, everyone who's read Hogwarts, A History, anyway."

"So, how d'you hide a place like Hogwarts?" Josh asked.

"It's bewitched," said Daphne. "If a Muggle looks at it, all they see is a mouldering old ruin with a sign over the entrance saying DANGER, DO NOT ENTER, UNSAFE."

"So Durmstrang'll just look like a ruin to an outsider too?"

"Maybe," said Daphne, shrugging, "or it might have Muggle-repelling charms on it, like the World Cup stadium. And to keep foreign wizards from finding it, they'll have made it Unplottable -"

"Come again?"

"Well, you can enchant a building so it's impossible to plot on a map, can't you?"

"Er… if you say so," Josh said with a raised eyebrow.

"But I think Durmstrang must be somewhere in the far north," said Daphne thoughtfully. "Somewhere very cold, because they've got fur capes as part of their uniforms."

"Ah, think of the possibilities," said Blaise dreamily. "It would've been so easy to push Malfoy off a glacier and make it look like an accident… Shame his mother likes him…"

The rain became heavier and heavier as the train moved farther north. The sky was so dark and the windows so steamy that the lanterns were lit by midday. The lunch trolley came rattling along the corridor, and Josh bought a large stack of Cauldron Cakes for them to share.

As the afternoon progressed, Neville Longbottom, a round-faced, extremely forgetful boy who had been brought up by his formidable witch of a grandmother, had looked in on him and said hello to all four of them, and chatted for a bit.

Neville listened jealously to the others' conversation as they relived the Cup match.

"Gran didn't want to go," he said miserably. "Wouldn't buy tickets. It sounded amazing though."

"It was," said Tracey. "Krum was amazing. He is so wonderful, isn't he?"

"We saw Krum right up close, as well," said Josh. "We were in the Top Box -"

"For the first and probably the last time in your life, Black."

Malfoy had appeared in the doorway. Behind him stood Nott, and Crabbe and Goyle, their enormous, thuggish cronies, both of whom appeared to have grown at least a foot during the summer. Evidently they had overheard the conversation through the compartment door, which Neville had left ajar.

"Funny, don't remember asking you to join us, Malfoy," Josh said coolly.

"Oh, don't mind us, we're just passing by," Malfoy said.

"Well, then pass by."

"I was going to, but then I noticed a few of my Housemates sitting with a Bastard child and a squib," Malfoy said, glancing at his housemates. "So… going to enter, Black? Going to try and bring back the glory of your family name?"

"What are you on about?" Josh said, with a puzzled look.

"Are you going to enter?" Malfoy repeated. "I suppose you Potter will? He never missed the chance to show off, do you?"

"Either explain what you're on about or go away, Malfoy," Daphne said testily.

A gleeful smile spread across Malfoy's pale face.

"Don't tell me you don't know?" he said delightedly. "You've got a mother, oh wait, she's in Azkaban, but you do have a Grandfather at the Ministry and you don't even know? My God, my father told me about it ages ago… heard it from Cornelius Fudge. But then, Father's always associated with the top people at the Ministry…"

Laughing once more, Malfoy beckoned to Nott, Crabbe, and Goyle, and the four of them disappeared, along with a howling Rosalae.

Josh got to his feet and slammed the sliding compartment door so hard behind them that the glass shattered.

"Joshua!" Daphne said reproachfully, and she pulled out her wand, muttered "Reparo!" and the glass shards flew back into a single pane and back into the door.

"Malfoy is such a git, him and his stupid cronies, especially Nott," Josh growled, the memory of Nott indicating that he should get to know his cousin lingered in his mind.

"Don't let them get to you -"

"Them! Get to me! As if!" Josh said, clenching his hands into fist. "Malfoy and people like him need to be set straigh, and I would gladly be the one to do it!"

Daphne, Tracey, Neville, and Blaise all looked at one another then back at Josh with concern in their eyes. Josh didn't talk much as they changed into their school robes, and was still glowering when the Hogwarts Express slowed down at last and finally stopped in the pitch-darkness of Hogsmeade station.

As the train doors opened, there was a rumble of thunder overhead as they left the train, heads bent and eyes narrowed against the downpour. The rain was now coming down so thick and fast that it was as though buckets of ice-cold water were being emptied repeatedly over their heads.

First years traditionally reached Hogwarts Castle by sailing across the lake with Hagrid.

"So glad I am not a first year right now," Blaise commented as him, Josh, Daphne, Tracey, and Neville jumped into a carriage together.