A Day On the Train

Predictably, Harry barely slept that night. The few hours he did get were filled with nightmares - he kept envisioning that night in the graveyard, except instead of Cedric being killed it was James, or Al, or Ron, Hermione and Ginny. He awoke at 2am to find himself covered in sweat and shaking. He vaguely remembered the image of walking down a long corridor ending in a locked door.

Knowing there was no point in trying to get back to sleep - after those nightmares, he doubted he'd get any decent sleep for a week - he resigned himself to climbing out of bed and getting started on the day. In less than an hour, he had showered, changed, packed and re-packed his trunk, and read through his school list for the thirty-second time, just to make sure he hadn't missed anything.

He heard the first signs of movement out in the hallway just after 4am, when the adults of the household started going about their day. He figured it would be fairly safe to make an appearance downstairs, maybe help out with the breakfast preparation. Boy, was he wrong.

"Morning," he said to a clearly irritated Sirius, who was stomping his way down the stairs.

"Yeah? What's it to you?"

Harry sighed. "Sirius, I -"

"- Don't," his godfather said, holding up a hand and stomping harder. "Just don't, Harry."

Harry could already tell this was the start of a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

"What is taking them so long?" Mrs Weasley was asking, running around the kitchen and constantly checking the clock. "They're going to miss the train!"

She went to leave the kitchen, but Harry stepped in, saying, "I'll go, Molly."

He smiled at Ginny as he passed the open door to the bedroom she and Hermione were sharing, but he didn't stop. He could tell by the closed door and general inactivity on the landing above that Ron and his sons were still fast asleep.

"Rise and shine, sleepyheads!" he announced confidently as he opened the door with a bang. "Up and at 'em, boys. Be grateful Gran sent me up, or you'd have hell to pay. So get a move on, or you'll miss the train."

He had to pull the covers off James' sleeping form, but once he had he took great delight in seeing both his boys were up and moving. Ron, on the other hand, has not.

Without thinking too hard about what he was doing, Harry picked up a glass of water from the bedside table and threw it on his best friend's face.

"Argh! Harry! What was that for?" Ron demanded, still very much half-asleep.

"Get moving, Weasley!" Harry reiterated, sounding very much like the drill sergeant he'd spent his whole career promising himself he would never be.

As he helped Ron throw the last of his things into his trunk, it occurred to Harry how much commotion there was in the house. From what he could gather, instead of carrying their trunks down the stairs like everyone else would have to do, the twins had tried to levitate theirs. Their plan went awry, however, when the trunks hurtled straight into Ginny and knocked her down two flights of stairs into the entrance hall. Which, of course, sent the two matriarchs - Mrs Weasley and the portrait of Mrs Black - screaming at the top of their lungs.

"- COULD HAVE DONE HER A SERIOUS INJURY, YOU IDIOTS -"

"- FILTHY HALF-BREEDS, BESMIRCHING THE HOUSE OF MY FATHERS -"

"Oh, for God's sake," Harry muttered, abandoning the boys in favour of the chaos outside. He marched down the stairs, weaving between the people and avoiding Hermione (who was trying to find him - he ignored her calling his name). When he reached the landing, he held out his left hand to Ginny to help her off the floor and with his right hand, pointed his wand at the portrait. With a single flick of his wand and a silent incantation, the curtains flew shut. To Ginny, who was very surprised, he said, "I can't wait for the day we put a sledgehammer through that damned wall."

She frowned at him. "We put a what through where now?"

He couldn't help but chuckle. "It's a really long story."

"And we're about to have a really long train ride," Ginny countered, pulling on his hand to move him out of the way when the twins came running through the hallway, trying to avoid their mother who was holding a rolled up newspaper. "We'll have plenty of time."

"Oh no," Harry said. "This is one story you're going to have to look forward to the long way round."

She released his hand as Hermione approached, Hedwig perched precariously on her shoulder. When the owl fluttered over to Harry and settled herself on his outstretched arm and he took a moment to pat her head softly, Hermione asked, "Are you okay?"

"me?" Harry said a little absentmindedly. "I'm fine."

"Uh-huh," Ginny said, clearly unconvinced. "Hey, has anyone seen Sturgis Podmore? Mad-Eye says we can't leave without him. Apparently the guard'll be one short, or something."

"Guard?" Harry asked. "We have to go to King's Cross with a guard?"

"You have to go to King's Cross with a guard," Hermione corrected him. "The rest of us just happen to be here."

Harry groaned and ran a hand through his hair irritably. "I thought Voldemort was still lying low. Or is everyone concerned he's going to hum out from behind a dustbin to try an do me in?"

"I don't know, it's just what Mad-Eye says," Hermione said distractedly. She paused to look at her watch, then added, "But if we don't leave soon we're definitely going to miss the train..."

At that very moment, Mrs Weasley bellowed, "WILL YOU LET GET DOWN HERE NOW, PLEASE!"

Predictably, that set Mrs Black's portrait off again. She was howling with rage, but this time nobody seemed to care.

"JAMES SIRIUS!" Harry himself bellowed, doing a very good impression of his mother-in-law. To his eldest son's horror, his voice quietened slightly as he added, "That had better not be a wand I see in your hand, young man!"

The son in question sheepishly pocketed his wand and obediently picked up the battered old trunk his grandmother has rustled up for him at the last second. He followed Ron and Al down the staircase, dragging the trunk along with great difficulty.

"Harry, you and the boys are to come with me and Tonks," Mrs Weasley shouted - over the repeated screeches of "MUDBLOODS! SCUM! CREATURES OF DIRT!" - "Leave your trunk and your owl, Alastor's going to deal with the luggage ... Oh, for heaven's sake, Sirius, Dumbledore said no!"

A bear-like black dog appeared beside Harry as he manoeuvred his way around the luggage that lay abandoned in the hall to get to Mrs Weasley.

"Oh, cool! It's Padfoot!" he heard James exclaim as he, too, clambered over the trunks. The dog surveyed him with interest, but gave no other indication he understood what James had just said.

"Oh, honestly..." Mrs Weasley muttered. "Well, on your own head be it!"

Harry darted around her to open the front door, which was ironically much more difficult than it appeared. He stepped aside to allow Mrs Weasley to pass through first, then inclined his head to indicate to his sons that they were to follow. Harry and the dog followed after them, allowing the door to slam closed behind them. The moment it did, Mrs Black's screeches were cut off.

"Oh, man," James said, rubbing his ear. "I think that portrait might have permanently damaged my hearing."

"We can only hope," Al muttered. To his father's strange look, he added, "What? It's the only way we'll ever beat them at Quidditch."

"In your dreams, sna -"

"- Hey!" Harry said. "You know we don't use derogatory terms in this family."

James looked at him closely for a second, then said, "You know, dad. I've been thinking. I really don't think I can take you seriously as a parental figure, now that you're a year younger than I am."

Between clenched teeth, Harry said, "That is a technicality."

"Be that as it may, I - ow! Hey!"

Over his shoulder, Harry shared a smile with Al, who shrugged. Apparently, he'd stepped in to give his big brother a not-so-gentle tap on the back of his head.

Ignoring his son's antics, Harry asked Mrs Weasley, "Where's Tonks?"

"She's waiting for us just up here," Mrs Weasley said stiffly, steadfastly looking only straight ahead so she didn't need to acknowledge the lolloping black dog beside Harry.

And old woman smiled at them as they approached the corner. She had tightly curled grey hair and wore a purple hat shaped like a pork pie. "Wotcher, Harry."

"Morning, Tonks," he said with a smile. Beside him, he could see James lifting a finger and opening his mouth as though he were about to ask a question. A swift elbow in the side from Harry stopped that, thank goodness. James asking questions of his pseudo-big brother's future mother would be incredibly dangerous for the timeline. The last thing any of them needed was for Teddy Lupin to be born early - or, worse still, not at all.

Though she frowned a little at the Potters' behaviour, she said, "Better hurry up, hadn't we, Molly?"

"I know, I know," Mrs Weasley moaned, though she quickened their pace. "Mad-Eye insisted we wait for Sturgis. Oh, if only Arthur could have got us cars from the Ministry again ... but Fudge wouldn't let him borrow so much as an empty ink bottle these days. How Muggles can stand travelling without magic..."

"Actually, Gran, it's not nearly as difficult as you'd think," Al said, seizing this opportunity to educate his grandmother. "Back home, even we have a car. Sure, it takes longer than using the floo network an you sometimes get stuck in traffic, but it's far more convenient than something like the Knight Bus."

"Not to mention safer," James muttered. "My arm still aches when it rains."

"Oh, it does not," Harry countered. "You just don't like admitting I was right when I told you to sit down. And besides, you were six years old."

"I seem to recall that being the last time we travelled on public transportation," Al added.

"Not true," Harry said. "You ride the train to and from school every time."

"That doesn't count," James said. "That's the school train."

James turned to his brother then. "By the way, I'm still mad that the first person in Hogwarts history to escape the train was you and not me."

"You what?" Mrs Weasley and Tonks asked at the same time.

Harry looked every bit the classic defeated parent as he held up a hand and said tiredly, "Don't even get me started."

The black dog's ears seemed to perk up at the prospect of troublemaking. He kept the group entertained the whole twenty minute walk to King's Cross station, joyfully barking and snapping at pigeons and chasing his own tail. Harry couldn't help but laugh, immensely enjoying Sirius' reaction to being out in the open for the first time in a very long time.

Inside the station, they lingered around the barrier between platforms nine and ten and then, when the coast was clear, they took turns leaning against the barrier. They fell easily on to platform nine and three-quarters, where the Hogwarts Express was waiting. It blew sooty steam over the platform packed with people.

Harry looked around in trepidation, while his sons eagerly peered through the crowds of people, probably looking for people they recognised. They pointed a few people out and whispered excitedly between each other, until Harry stepped in.

"Hey, guys," he said, calling their attention back to him. "Cool it, yeah? You're already the new kids. We don't need you drawing any more attention to yourselves."

Beside him, Mrs Weasley looked around anxiously, staring at the barrier where the others would appear. "I hope the others make it in time."

"Nice dog, Harry!" a tall guy with dreadlocks called.

"Thanks, Lee," Harry grinned. He noted the inquisitive look at his boys and decided the best approach was to face it head on. He gestured to them, saying, "Hey, you wouldn't have met these guys yet. James, Al, this is Lee Jordan. Lee, this is James and Al Prewett. Distant cousins of mine."

"Oh," Lee said. "Didn't know Hogwarts took transfer students. But, hey - welcome!"

"Lee's a good friend of Fred and George's," Harry told the duo, who greeted Lee with a smile.

Behind them, Mrs Weasley let out a sigh of relief. "Oh good, here's Alastor with the luggage."

Alastor Moody stood out wherever he was. Today, he looked more conspicuous than normal with a porter's cap pulled low over his mismatched eyes. He limped his way toward them pushing a trolley loaded with their trunks.

"All okay," he muttered to Mrs Weasley and Tonks. "Don't think we were followed."

Behind him, Mrs Weasley emerged from the barrier with Ron and Hermione. The group had almost unloaded Moody's luggage trolley when Fred, George and Ginny arrived with Lupin. They made small talk as they took the luggage off the trolley and onto the train, but there were too many eyes and ears around to safely hold a conversation.

"Well, look after yourselves," Lupin said once the last of the trunks was on the train. He reached Harry last and gave him a clap on the shoulder. "You too, Harry. Be careful. And do try to keep your boys under control."

Harry couldn't help but give a small snort of derision. "If I can't do it at home, I seriously doubt I can manage it here."

"Potter," Moody said, shaking Harry's hand. "Keep your head down and your eyes peeled. And don't forget, all of you - careful what you put in writing. If in doubt, don't put it in a latter at all."

"It's been great meeting all of you," said Tonks, who pulled Hermione and Ginny in for a hug. "We'll see you soon, I expect."

When the train's warning whistle sounded, Harry and the adults shepherded the teenagers toward the train.

"Quick, quick," Mrs Weasley said distractedly, hugging them at random and catching Harry twice. "Write. Be good ... If you've forgotten anything we'll send it on ... On to the train, now, hurry..."

For one brief moment, the big black dog reared onto its hind legs and placed its from paws on Harry's shoulders and licked his nose. Mrs Weasley, however, quickly shoved Harry through the train door, hissing, "For heaven's sake, act more like a dog, Sirius!"

"See you!" Harry called out the open window as the train began to move.

"Bye!" James echoed, while Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Al waved beside him.

The figures of Tonks, Lupin, Moody and Mr and Mrs Weasley shrank rapidly as they gained speed, but the black dog was bounding alongside the window, wagging it tail. The students on the train had a good giggle as they watched it chasing the train. Then, when they rounded a bend, Sirius was gone.

"He shouldn't have come with us," Hermione said quietly in a worried voice.

"Oh, lighten up," Ron told her. "He hasn't seen daylight for months, poor bloke. Locked up in that house with that awful portrait. Can you really blame the guy for wanting to have a little fun?"

"Well," Fred said, clapping his hands together, "can't stand around chatting all day. We've got business to discuss with Lee. James, you in?"

"Hell yes I am!" James exclaimed, hurriedly making a move to follow the twins.

"Language," Harry muttered under his breath.

James, however, wasn't listening. "See ya!" he called over his shoulder.

Harry sighed.

"What?" Ginny asked him.

"I'm just thinking the castle used to be a really lovely place to be," he said quietly. "With the three of them together, all I can see is the whole place going up in flames. Or worse."

"Worse than the castle bursting into flames?" she asked.

He shrugged. "Dunno, really. They could blow it up."

Ginny raised an eyebrow, unconvinced. Sounding more and more like the Ginny he knew in his own time, she said, "They could do a lot of things. I suppose you've just got to trust they were raised right."

"Yeah," he said, sighing again. "Unfortunately, even that doesn't inspire a whole lot of confidence."

"And now I'm thinking I should be offended."

Ron watched their exchange closely, noting very unhappily that his sister and his best friend were standing very close together. Harry looked up at that moment, meeting Ron's eyes with unease.

"This is the part where you two go off to the prefect carriage, right?" he said.

"I, uh ... Yeah," Ron said lamely.

Harry shrugged. "Go on, then," he said. "Don't worry about us. We'll find a way to keep ourselves occupied."

"That's what I'm afraid of," Ron muttered, though they all heard him quite clearly.

Ginny rolled her eyes, but she didn't dignify his comments with a response. Instead, she looked at Harry and Al and said, "Come on, then, you lot. If we get a move on we'll be able to save them places."

Harry picked up Hedwig's cage in one hand and the handle of his trunk in the other. To Ginny, he said, "After you."

The trio made their way down the corridor slowly but surely, stopping every so often to brace themselves against the walls as the train gained speed. Unfortunately for the currently dysfunctional Potter family, every compartment they passed was already full. It took barely two minutes for Harry to work out it was better for him to not peer through the glass panelled doors to the compartments. A lot of people were staring back at him with open curiosity or even great interest. Several of them nudged their neighbours and pointed him out.

In his normal life, he'd learnt to adapt to this curious behaviour over the years. Now, however, this was new. It took him seeing it out of the corner of his eye for five consecutive carriages to remember the Daily Prophet had been telling its readers all summer what a lying show-off he was. He wondered bleakly whether the people now staring and whispering believed the stories.

At the very last carriage, they met Neville Longbottom, who was covered in sweat after the effort of pulling his trunk along whilst also maintaining a firm grip on his run-away toad, Trevor.

"Hi, Harry," he panted. "Hi, Ginny."

"Hey, Neville," Harry said with a smile. He cleared his throat and said awkwardly, "Uh, this is Al. Al Prewett. He's a distant ... family ... relative."

Thankfully, Neville didn't pick up on how strange that sentence was. Instead, he grinned at Al and waved - dropping Trevor in the process.

"Oh, Trevor!" Neville called, looking around wildly for the toad.

To his joy, Al quickly dropped his trunk and dove to one side, catching Trevor securely in his hands in one foul swoop. With a secure hold on the toad in his hands, Al stood back up and offered the offending amphibian back to its rightful owner. "Nice to meet you, P - I mean," he paused, clearing his throat briefly, "uh, Neville."

"Thanks, Al," Neville said, taking Trevor back into his own hands. "Anyway, everywhere's full. I can't find a seat."

"What are you talking about?" Ginny, who had taken the opportunity of the confusion to squeeze past Neville and peer into the compartment behind him. "There's room in this one, there's only Loony Lovegood in there -"

Al looked up at Harry with wide eyes, only to see his father shaking his head ever so imperceptibly at him. Neville, on the other hand, was mumbling something intelligible about not wanting to disturb anyone.

"Don't be silly," Ginny said with a smile. "She's all right."

She slid the door open and dragged her trunk inside. "Hi, Luna," she said warmly. "Is it okay if we take these seats?"

Al had to stop himself from saying something out loud. He had all sorts of thoughts running through his head, but none of them seemed appropriate for him to say out loud right now.

The girl sitting by the window was exactly the same as the Aunt Luna he'd grown up with. Except her knew her as Luna Scamander. She had straggly, waist-length, dirty blonde hair, very pale eyebrows and protuberant eyes that gave her a permanently surprised look. The girl gave off an aura of distinct dottiness. Perhaps it was the fact that she had stuck her wand behind her left ear for safekeeping, or that she had chosen to wear a necklace of Butterbeer corks, or that she was reading a magazine upside-down.

Her eyes ranged over Neville and came to rest on Harry and Al. Eventually, she nodded.

"Thanks," Ginny said gratefully, smiling at the woman who would come to be one of her best friends in the world.

Harry, Neville and Al stowed the four trunks and Hedwig's cage in the luggage racks above their seats and eventually sat down. Ginny and Harry wound up side-by-side on one bench, while Al and Neville sat beside Luna. The blonde watched them closely over her upside-down copy of The Quibbler. She stared and stared at Harry, who found himself really wishing he had sat anywhere but the seat opposite her.

"Had a good summer, Luna?" Ginny asked her kindly.

"Yes," Luna said dreamily, still not taking her eyes off Harry. "Yes, it was quite enjoyable, you know. You're Harry Potter," she added.

"I know I am," said Harry.

Neville chuckled, and Al found himself biting his tongue to stop from doing the same.

"And I don't know who you are," Luna said to Neville. "Or you."

"I'm nobody," Neville said hurriedly.

"No, you're not," Ginny said sharply. "Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood. Luna's in my year, but in Ravenclaw."

"Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure," Luna said in a singsong voice.

Ginny smiled kindly. "And this is Al Prewett. He's a distant cousin of Harry's. A new student in our year."

"Does Hogwarts take transfer students?" Luna asked pointedly.

"Apparently," Al sighed.

Luna looked from Al to Harry and back, commenting, "You two really do look alike."

"Family resemblance," Al and Harry said in perfect unison.

Luna raised an eyebrow, but said nothing more. She raised her upside-down magazine high enough to hide her face and fell silent. Harry and Neville shared a look, while Al pointedly looked away and Ginny stifled a giggle.

"So, Al," Neville said conversationally. "You've really never been to Hogwarts?"

"Not exactly," Al said with a coy smile. "I, uh ... well, let's just say I'm looking forward to coming back."

Neville frowned at him. Al glanced to Harry, who shrugged - he knew exactly what his son was doing, not wanting to lie to someone he knew and trusted and respected. Unfortunately, given the situation, he didn't have a lot of choice.

"I've visited before," Al told him, covering his bad half-truth smoothly. "My mother's American, insisted my brother and I be educated at Ilvermorny. But with everything that's happening ... Well, my dad insisted we stay a little closer to home."

The train continued to rattle on, speeding them out into the open countryside. 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.

"Hey, what's that?" Al asked, diverting the conversation from himself and back to Neville, who held Trevor tightly in one hand and cradled what appeared to be a small, grey potted cactus in the other. On second glance, however, you realised that instead of spikes, it was covered with what looked like boils.

"Mimbulus mimbletonia," Neville said proudly. "Got it for my birthday."

Harry stared at the thing, remembering it vaguely from what felt like a lifetime ago. As he looked at the little plant, he found himself squirming in his seat. There was no getting away from what was about to happen, however. He remembered that much very clearly from last time around.

"It's really, really rare," Neville beamed. "I don't know if there's one in the greenhouse at Hogwarts, even. I can't wait to show it to Professor Sprout. My Great Uncle Algie got it for me in Assyria. I'm going to see if I can breed from it."

Harry and Al shared a brief look, both knowing Neville's interest in Herbology would serve him well in his lifetime. He was the best teacher the Potter kids had ever had for a reason.

"Does it - er - do anything?" Al asked, not knowing what his father knew about this plant.

"Loads of stuff!" Neville said proudly. "It's got an amazing defensive mechanism. Here, hold Trevor for me..."

He dumped the toad into Al's lap and took a quill from his schoolbag. Luna's popping eyes appeared over the top of her upside-down magazine again to watch what Neville was doing. Neville held the plant up to his eyes, his tongue between his teeth, chose his spot, and gave the plan a sharp prod with the tip of his quill.

Liquid squirted from every boil on the plant; thick, stinking, dark green jets of it. They hit the ceiling, the windows, and spattered Luna's magazine; Ginny, who had flung her arms up in front of her face just in time, merely looked as though she was wearing a slimy green hat. But Harry - who was expecting it and still didn't manage to protect himself in time - and Al - who had been busy trying to prevent Trevor's escape - received a faceful. It smelled like rancid manure.

"Oh," Al moaned. "Oh, that's -"

"- Bad," Harry finished for him. "Yeah."

"S-sorry," Neville gasped. "I haven't tried that before. Didn't realise it would be quite so ... Don't worry, though, Stinksap's not poisonous."

At that precise moment the door of their compartment slid open.

"Oh ... Hello, Harry," a nervous voice said. "Um ... bad time?"

He paused for a long moment, then slowly turned to the door, where the last person a married forty-year-old man would ever want to face stood. He wiped the lenses of his glasses just enough to actually be able to see through them. In the doorway was a very pretty girl with long, shiny black hair and a shy smile: Cho Chang, the seeker on the Ravenclaw quidditch team.

"Oh, uh ... hi," Harry said awkwardly.

"Um," Cho said. "Well, just thought I'd say hello. Bye then."

Rather pink in the face, she closed the door and departed. Harry slumped back in his seat and groaned. Though it looked to the others like he was disappointed for the pretty girl to have found him covered in Stinksap, in reality he was really upset to have yet another complication thrown into his life. Just when he was starting to forge a friendship with the woman who would one day become his wife - and who was acting more and more like the Ginny he knew in his own time - the one girl he sort-of-maybe-almost dated before her shows up. Back in time. When he was supposed to be totally into her.

"Never mind," Ginny said bracingly. "Look, we can easily get rid of all this. Scourgify!"

To everyone's relief, the Stinksap vanished.

"Sorry," Neville said again, this time in a small voice.

"Oh, it's okay. Really," Al said quickly. "Hey - tell me about Hogwarts. What can I expect?"

The two chatted away animatedly for the next couple of hours, talking about anything and everything all at once. Meanwhile, Luna went back to reading her upside-down magazine. All these distractions gave Ginny and Harry an opportunity to have a very quiet conversation of their own.

"So," Ginny said coyly. "Cho Chang, huh?"

Harry sighed. "Please don't. Really. It was the most embarrassing episode of my entire life. And you and I both know that's really saying something."

She couldn't help but laugh just a little. "So you're saying I have nothing to worry about, then?"

"On the contrary," Harry said, "if I'm remembering correctly - and my memory has been pretty good so far - you are currently dating Michael Corner."

She cringed. "You know about that?"

"I've done this before, remember?"

She went to say something sarcastic in response, but a short red head peering through the glass door of the compartment stopped her. Being the attentive husband he was, he knew immediately something was very wrong.

"Gin?"

"Yeah," she said quietly. "Uh, has that kid got anything to do with you?"

Harry turned slowly, then sprang to his feet all at once. He reefed the door open and pulled the kid into a tight hug.

"Oh, thank God," he breathed. "Lily."

Behind him, Al looked up and breathed, "Lily?" as Ginny slowly stood up and asked, "Wait - Lily? As in - as in Lily?"

Harry eventually stepped back, releasing the twelve-year-old from the hug but still holding her securely by the arms. He looked her up and down, as though checking to see there wasn't so much as a scratch on her. She, however, deftly manoeuvred her way out of his grasp and darted behind him where she approached Al and pulled him into a hug.

"I have never been so happy to see you," Lily told him as she squeezed him tight. "Dude, you never told me the Manor was so ... well, scary."

"Scary?" Al asked, stepping back and giving her a strange look. "Wait - why were you at the Manor?"

She shrugged. "Well, one minute I was in our living room, and the next -"

"- Hey, Lily, Al?" Harry jumped in, speaking right over the top of them. "Can I see you in the corridor for just a minute?"

The two immediately stopped talking and watched as their father gestured for them to head out into the corridor. Ginny made to follow them, but a warning look from Harry stopped her from rising out of her seat. It would look unusual, after all, if Ginny followed them out into the corridor. The last thing they needed was people realising Al was the spitting image of his father, and Lily of her mother.

When the door was closed securely behind them, Harry looked around, then took out his wand and cast a silencing charm.

"Are you okay?" he asked his daughter seriously.

"I'm fine, dad," Lily insisted. "Like I said, one minute I was in our living room and the next I was falling into the damn pond at Malfoy Manor."

Not for the first time today, Harry found himself reminding one of his children, "Language."

She waved a hand around, as though to say 'whatever.' Turning back to her brother, she said, "I got out of there as soon as I worked out where I was and what had happened. That place really is -"

"- Creepy, we know," Al said tiredly. "It's home to Death Eaters, Lily. What did you think it was going to be like?"

She frowned. "And yet you voluntarily spend time there?"

"They've redecorated," Al said defensively. "Besides, we all know the Ministry raided all those places years ago. There's nothing dangerous left in it anymore."

"Okay, okay," Harry said, pulling the kids' attention back to him. "Lily, do you know where we are?"

"You mean when," Lily corrected him. "We're in 1995. At the start of the War."

"Right. And you're sure you're okay?"

"I'm sure, dad," she insisted. Right before their eyes, she pulled herself together and asked, "So what's the plan?"

"Plan?" Al asked. "I'm sorry, you've just met your father in his fifteen-year-old body and you jump straight to asking about a plan?"

Lily looked at her brother like he was asking a dumb question. "Well what else am I supposed to ask? 'Hey dad, I see you're fifteen again. How's the weather?'"

"Weather?" Al asked. "Seriously? I say ask something more and you jump right to small talk?"

Harry shook his head. "Guys. Hey."

Both kids stopped, turning their attention back to their father.

"Okay," Harry sighed. "We'll, uh, we'll have to talk to Minerva. Wait, she won't be around before the feast. Okay, just follow my lead. We'll find one of the Order. They'll be able to get a message to Dumbledore. He'll know what to do."

"Wait a minute - Dumbledore?" Lily asked, turning to Al with an expression of awe. "You mean the Dumbledore. Right?"

Al nodded. "Uh-huh. I've met him."

"No!"

"Yeah," Al nodded. "He's just as cool in person as you'd think he'd be."

"Uh, yeah," Harry said, flicking his wand surreptitiously to stop the silencing charm. To his kids, he said quietly, "Back into the compartment, yeah? We're drawing too much attention."

"Oh - cover story," Al told his sister quickly. "We're transfer students. Our American mother sent us to Ilvermorny, but our dad's insisting we stay closer to home now. Also, your name's Lily Prewett. We're distant cousins of the Potters."

"Got it," Lily hissed back as Harry opened the door to the compartment and shepherded them back inside.

To Ginny, Neville and Luna - who all gave her interested looks - she said with a bright smile, "Hi! I'm Al's sister, Lily. Sorry - just catching up with the family. I spent my summer away. Haven't really had a chance to catch up."

She sat herself down between Ginny and Luna and offered each of them a box of bright coloured lollies she had pulled out of her pocket. "You want a sweet?"

"Yeah," Ginny said quietly. "Thanks."

"So," Lily said, settling herself back in her seat. "You're close with my, uh, cousin, then?"

Ginny glanced over to Harry, who was now sitting between Neville and Al on the other bench of the compartment. Slightly hesitantly, she answered, "Yeah. We're friends."

"Oh. Friends," Lily repeated. "You don't mean friends, do you?"

"No," Ginny said. "Just friends."

Ron and Hermione didn't show up for nearly another hour, by which time the food trolley had been and gone. Al couldn't bring himself to even so much as look at the old lady who pushed the trolley, not after his daring escape from the train. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he couldn't help but think she was looking at him just a little too closely. It was almost as though she knew.

The others had finished their pumpkin pasties and were busy swapping chocolate frog cards when the compartment door slid open and they walked in, accompanied by Crookshanks and a shrilly hooting Pigwidgeon in his cage.

"I'm starving," Ron said, stowing Pigwidgeon's cage next to Hedwig and throwing himself in the seat between Harry and Al. Wordlessly, Harry passed him an unopened chocolate frog. Ron ripped open the wrapper, bit off the frog's head and leaned back with his eyes closed. To anyone looking on, he looked as though he had had a very exhausting morning.

"Um, hi," Hermione said, noticing their newcomer. "I'm Hermione. That's Ron."

Lily grinned. "Hi," she said.

Hermione looked from Lily to Ginny and back, as though she were looking for someone to direct the conversation.

"This is Lily," Ginny said conversationally. "Al's sister."

"Oh," Hermione said. "Oh. Hi."

"Hi," Lily said again with a smile.

Hermione sat herself down on Ginny's other side, where she gratefully took hold of the box of lollies Ginny had offered her. Ginny gave her a quick gesture as though she were silently telling her to continue on. They had to keep up appearances, after all - they needed to look entirely normal.

"Well," Hermione said tentatively. "There are two fifth-year prefects from each house."

"And guess who's a Slytherin prefect?" Ron asked, eyes still closed and mouth half-full of chocolate frog.

"Malfoy," Harry said at once.

"Oh, right," Ron said, just realising that of course his best friend already knew. "'Course."

"And that complete cow Pansy Parkinson," Hermione said viciously. "How she got to be a prefect when she's thicker than a concussed troll..."

"And you'd know what that looks like," Al muttered. When Neville gave him a strange look, he added, "Or so I hear."

"Who are the Hufflepuffs?" Ginny asked. When Harry gave her a raised eyebrow, she added, "What? I'm interested."

"Uh, it's Ernie Macmillan and Hannah Abbott," Ron said, looking from his best friend to his little sister and back. "Are you two okay?"

"Fine," they said in unison.

Hermione gave them both an unconvinced look, then added, "And Anthony Goldstein and Padma Patil for Ravenclaw."

"You went to the Yule Ball with Padma Patil," said a vague voice.

Everyone turned to look at Luna Lovegood, who was gazing unblinkingly at Ron over the top of The Quibbler. He swallowed his mouthful of frog.

"Yeah, I know I did," Harry said, artfully avoiding his future wife's eyes.

"She didn't enjoy it very much," Luna informed him. "She doesn't think you treated her very well, because you didn't dance with her. I don't think I'd have minded," she added thoughtfully. "I don't like dancing very much."

She retreated behind The Quibbler again after saying her piece. Ron stared at the cover silently for a few seconds, then looked at Ginny with his mouth hanging open when she said, "If he'd pulled himself together a little earlier, he could've gone with me."

"But you had already said you'd go with Neville," Harry said in a very intentionally measured tone.

"Yes. Because he had the guts to ask me."

Still with a very unreadable face, Harry said, "I asked."

"Barely a week before the ball."

"But I asked," he reiterated. "I don't like you insinuating that I didn't."

"Uh, guys?" Al said tentatively. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"We're fine," Harry and Ginny said, not taking their eyes off each other.

Ron glanced over at his best friend and hissed, "You asked my sister to the ball?"

Harry shot him a lock that clearly said, 'Dude, we're married.' But Ron didn't seem to care.

"Don't you think we should've talked about that?" Ron added quietly.

Ginny picked up an empty chocolate frog box and threw it at her brother's head. "You don't get a say in my love life."

"Besides," Harry said coolly, "she's already got a boyfriend."

"She what now?" Al asked, looking at his mother oddly.

"Don't start, Al," Ginny said in a warning tone.

Beside her, Lily raised a hand. "I have a question."

"No," Harry said immediately.

"But you always let us ask questions."

"And I'm telling you now is not the time, and this is definitely not the place."

Neville looked on in interest, though he couldn't quite follow the conversation. Luna, however, seemed to be too busy reading her magazine to be paying too much attention to what was going on.

"Anyway, we're supposed to patrol the corridors every so often," Hermione said, shooting Ron a look. "We should really get out there and do our jobs."

Eagerly, Ron told Harry and Al, "And we can give out punishments if people are misbehaving. I can't wait to get Crabbe and Goyle for something..."

"You're not supposed to abuse your position, Ron!" Hermione said sharply.

"Yeah, right," Ron said. "Because Malfoy won't abuse it at all."

"So you're going to stoop to his level?"

"No, I'm just going to make sure I get his mates before he gets mine."

"For heaven's sake, Ron -"

"I'll make Goyle do lines. It'll kill him, he hates writing," Ron mused as he followed Hermione out of the compartment.

Harry noticed Al watching his uncle and aunt closely as they closed the door. Ron was still scheming to use his new position to his advantage, while Hermione was doing her best to chastise him knowing he would take very little notice of anything she said.

Al leaned over to his father and whispered, "Some things never change, hey?"

Lily had to cover a snort by pretending to have sneezed. Harry smirked, saying, "Bless you, Lily." Just as he did, the compartment door opened again.

He looked around and resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He had expected this sooner or later, but that did not make the sight of Draco Malfoy smirking at him from between his cronies Crabbe and Goyle any more enjoyable.

"What do you want, Malfoy?" he asked tiredly. (Today was turning out to be an awfully long day, after all. And they hadn't even made it to the school yet.)

"Manners, Potter, or I'll have to give you detention," drawled Malfoy, whose sleek blonde hair and pointed chin were just like his fathers - and the son he would have twenty years from now. "You see, I, unlike you, have been made a prefect. Which means that I, unlike you, have the power to hand out punishments."

"Yes," Harry said, already becoming incredibly irritated. "But you, unlike me, are a git. So get out and leave us alone."

Ginny, Neville, Lily and Al all laughed at that. Unsurprisingly, Malfoy did not. His lip curled.

"Tell me - how does it feel being second-best to Weasley, Potter?"

"Shut up, Malfoy," Ginny said sharply.

"I seem to have touched a nerve," Malfoy said, smirking. "Well, just watch yourself, Potter, because I'll be dogging your footsteps in case - hang on. What have we here?"

Al and Lily found themselves glaring at him. They both knew and respected the Draco Malfoy who had grown up and pulled himself together; Seeing him in this time, however, they both suddenly understood why their dad and Scorpius' dad had never really got along.

"You have mini me's!" Draco exclaimed sarcastically. "Where did these two come from, then?"

Lily frowned at him. "London. Like everyone else on this train."

Malfoy tutted. "Watch it, Weasley spawn."

"It's Prewett, actually," she corrected him defiantly.

"You know, I've got half a mind to give you detention."

"Ooh, detention on my first day," she said sarcastically. "You're terrifying me."

Harry stood up then, putting himself squarely between his daughter and his nemesis. He knew what the girl's temper was like - they hardly needed her starting a duel here on the middle of the train.

"Get out, Malfoy," he said strongly, forcing himself to use his carefully practiced measured tone.

Sniggering, Malfoy gave Harry a last malicious look and departed with Crabbe and Goyle lumbering along in his wake. Harry slammed the compartment door behind him looked over to Ginny. With one look, he knew she had registered what Malfoy had said, and she'd been just as unnerved by it. But they couldn't talk freely in front of Neville and Luna. Instead, he sighed, shook his head slightly and returned to his original seat.

Tiredly, he said to Lily, "Please don't goad him, Lily. It's - you're playing with fire."

"What's he going to do?" she retorted. "Hex me?"

"If you're lucky, that'd be it," Harry said darkly. "We don't need a repeat of the courtyard incident."

"The what?" Neville asked.

"Oh, she got into a fist fight with their big brother in her first week of school," Ginny told him. When he gave her a strange look - she knew more than she should for someone who'd only just met the girl, after all - she added, "What? The boys spent the whole summer with us. I've heard all the stories."

Harry met her eyes for a very brief moment, but he didn't say anything. They both knew they needed to keep up appearances, but they also hated lying to their friends. Unfortunately for all of them, it was a sacrifice they would just have to make.