45 Trains and transitions

The couple looked up as the door to their compartment opened and Neville and Luna entered. They had arrived early and secured a compartment near the front of the train, then settled in for the long ride. It had amused them to watch several people walk past their compartment multiple times as if searching for something, yet never noticing the warded door.

The last couple of days had been easier than they had expected. It was hard to leave the Grangers, but even that had been easier than last year.

"Hey Nev, Luna," Harry waved with his free hand, his other one holding Hermione's. "How was your summer?"

"Surprising," Neville said, fingered the silver badge on his uniform. "I suppose-"

"Hermione!"

Everyone in the compartment turned to see a huffing Faye standing in the doorway, her normally tame hair wispy like she'd just come out of the wind. "What happened, are you ok?"

"I'm fine Faye, why would you think otherwise?" she asked, looking up from her book at the concerned teen.

"This is why," Faye pointed to her prefect badge. "Why did I get your badge?"

"Ah, that." Hermione marked her spot and looked at their gathered friends. She noted Harry had shut the compartment door and put up a privacy ward before continuing. "We discussed the prefect situation with Professor McGonagall over the summer and it was decided that while we both were honored she wished for us to be the fifth year prefects, it was better to decline."

"Decline? Hermione, you've wanted to be a prefect since the night of our sorting," Faye protested. "I've seen your planner, you have each year planned out and that included prefectship and Head Girl."

"It did, and Head girl is still a possibility, but this year it was better not to create an issue," Hermione sighed. "Some of our reasons we can't discuss, not because we don't trust you but because there are other issues involved. Of those reasons we can, the biggest one is this: Who has broken the most rules in the school since we started?"

"Harry," Neville answered instantly, then chuckled. "He also has received the most points for breaking those rules."

"And those are just the ones you know about," Harry agreed with a grin. "Also, bear in mind that Hermione was there, either helping, or trying to help me avoid getting in trouble for every one of those. Now think about this, is it fair to give prefectship to the boy who holds that record? Or to two who are currently an exception to those rules? I doubt having a married couple as your fifth year prefects is the kind of example that needs to be shown."

"Married!?" Faye sat hard next to Neville. "What do you mean married?"

"That hasn't leaked yet?" Harry seemed shocked. "It was confirmed during a little, let's call it a misunderstanding, at the Ministry at the beginning of the month. I figured having it verified before the entire Wizengamot it would have been front page news."

"I haven't heard anything about it," Luna confirmed. "At least not since you told us at Harry's Birthday party."

"Okay then, Faye, if you would be so kind, please mention this to Lavender and Parvati," Hermione chuckled at the mock outrage on her husband's face. "Can you think of a faster way for it to spread through the train? Anyway, tell them that it is a Heart bond, confirmed during the first task. That was what that burst of light was."

"You know we're going to get inundated with visitors now, right?" Harry complained.

"Hush you," she smacked his chest before returning her attention to the two prefects. "In all seriousness, between the rule breaking and living together, it would not be a good representation of what to aspire to be."

"Plus we don't live in the dorms," Harry added. "It would be rather upsetting to have first years knocking on our door trying to wake us in the middle of the night and not hear them. With you guys they can actually go into the respective dorms and wake you."

"Like I could hear the door over Ron's snoring," Neville chuckled, then paused at the looks on Harry's and Hermione's faces. "What?"

"I…" Harry glanced at Hermione, before returning his attention to Neville. "They found some things after the end of the year last year. It's nothing that he did, but because of what they found neither Ron nor Ginny will be returning this year. Both need time to recover, probably all year. It will only be you, Seamus, and Dean this year."

"What happened to him?"

"We can't say, it's a family matter." Harry felt Hermione burrow into his side. "That said, there really was no contest on who the prefects should be. There was some discussion of others, in fact there were others chosen at one point, but that was by the Headmaster and not McGonagall."

"That isn't to say we won't help you, just that we can't be the official prefects," Hermione watched the understanding dawning on their friends' faces. "We really can't give just anyone else access to our rooms, even our common area. And that of course assumes we remain in the tower all year."

"Why wouldn't you?" Luna looked at them curiously. "Are you moving into Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff? I don't think you'd move to Slytherin, the Nargles are especially thick down there."

"No Luna, we…." Harry couldn't not smile at their eccentric friend. He paused to glance back at the door and then at Hermione, at her slight nod he continued. "The new Defense professor is suspect. She has been appointed by the Ministry and expressed some concerning views at my trial this summer."

"You think she's going to target you," Faye asked in a mix of surprise and shock.

"Probably, but that is another reason we're not official prefects. We also won't have the exact same schedule as you will Neville. We worked with a couple of Professors this summer and will be doing some independent studies."

"It's OWL year Hermione, surely you aren't saying you're dropping classes?" Faye asked in disbelief.

"No, not dropping, but History of Magic is actually not a required class. We are going to do independent study for it and free up the class time."

"That's it, just History?" Faye asked in confusion. "That's not that different… It's not just History is it?"

"No," Harry confirmed. "Given the extra work we have done, Professors Flitwick and McGonagall are going to use us as in class aides. We'll probably only be there for the practical lessons. The rest will be normal."

"Why?" Everyone looked to Luna, who was cutting right to the point. "Why take Defense normally? You two could probably pass your NEWTs in that class."

"We can't say. It isn't that we don't trust you, but the less you know the safer you'll be."

"So what did you do this summer Faye?" Luna's change of subject was generally accepted and the conversation shifted to other summer activities. Neville talked about some of the new plants in his greenhouse, and Luna about her safari with her father. Faye left after a bit to ensure the rumor about their wedding was sufficiently circulated and overall the mood of the compartment rose as the train rumbled north.

As with all good things however, it came to an end about an hour or so before they were due in Hogsmeade. Hermione was trying to figure out just what the creature Luna was talking about could possibly be or if it existed at all, while Harry and Neville were discussing Neville's attempts at a hybrid plant when the door to their compartment slammed open. Standing in the doorway, flanked as always by his two stooges, was Draco Malfoy.

"I thought I smelled something foul," the blonde sneered. "A blood traitor, a cur, and a couple of halfbreed mudbloods."

"Draco," Harry sighed, shaking his head while subtly drawing his wand. "When have you ever come out on top in one of these confrontations? At least one where your godfather wasn't waiting for the opportune moment to save you from yourself?"

"What are you talking about Potter," Draco's sneer was of epic quality. "Like you could ever win against purebloods like us."

"Really? Okay, let's review the highlights shall we? First year, you challenge someone who has known about the wizarding world for a couple of months to a wizard's duel, then you never show up for it. Second year, well, everyone remembers how our duel ended, with your godfather saving you after I put you on your butt. Then in our third year, well, Hermione didn't even have to use her wand to break your nose." He cocked his head to look at the pinking ponce. "It still isn't straight is it? Then last year, how many bets did you lose when I not only didn't die every task, but actually won the tournament? Plus you received the record for the most detentions and points removed from a single student in Hogwarts history."

"School isn't real life Potter, you think you've won but all you're doing is deluding yourself. You think you're so special, yet all you'll ever be is a filthy creature, just like that little bitch beside-"

Draco's rant ended when he impacted Harry's fist as he was summoned forward. The satisfying crunch as his nose broke yet again was joined by two more thumps. Those were made by his two goons hitting the floor bonelessly as Hermione stunned them. Draco joined them quickly enough. His fall was assisted not only by a stunner, but by a second fist to the face. From the time Draco had insulted Hermione, it was over in less than two seconds.

"What…" Neville looked between the couple and their downed, well, it was almost too much honor to call them opponents.

"I think Divination is as useless as these oafs, but even I could have predicted that outcome," Faye shut the door to the compartment behind her as she entered, then looked at the pile of bodies on the floor. "What I'm not sure about is how we deal with them."

"That's easy," Harry grinned, stepping on Crabbe to move back to Hermione's side. "Once you settle down a bit Nev, you and Faye are going to find an empty compartment or clear one out. Once that is done, we will disillusion them and throw them in it. We'll throw up a couple of wards and re-stun them once they're there. They should wake up on their own just about the time we get to Hogsmeade. I'm sure their story will be that we attacked them unprovoked, but without proof, no one will believe them."

"She will," Hermione pointed out, reaching over to rub his back. "She'll see it as an opportunity to get vengeance against us."

"She'll try, but we'll swear an oath to McGonagall that we didn't go looking for a confrontation with them." Harry groaned as she rubbed a particular point on his neck, "We can ask them to swear the same. If they do, they lose their magic, if they don't and we do, it'll be proven they are guilty."

"Like she'd take that as proof."

"She might not, but McGonagall would. Dumbledore might try to use it to gain control of us, but that oath he took should blunt that." Harry looked at their friends once more. "You guys okay?"

"Confused and still a little shook up, but yeah, I think so." Neville looked from the pile of bodies to his friends and back.

"It's okay Neville," Luna squeezed the confused boy's hand. "They may be able to calm a rampaging heffalump, but they're still our friends."

"What's a… no, I'm not going to ask." Faye returned her attention to Harry and Hermione. "Can you teach us how to do that?"

"You already know Faye," Hermione began to levitate their attackers into something a bit more organized. "Everything we did has already been taught to you, it's a matter of applying it effectively. Doing that is just practice and training your mind to react appropriately."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, it's like riding a… like riding a broom," Hermione shifted the saying as she realized riding a bike was not something her friends would be familiar with. "When you first learned how to fly a broom, you had to think about everything, how to go up, forward, turn, etc. After years of using them however, you just think where you want to go and go. You no longer have to think about how, it just happens. That is the key to Defense, training yourself to act and trusting yourself to do it. It doesn't matter how many spells you know if you can't cast them effectively."

"So you're saying our education is useless?"

"No, you have to learn how to cast the spells, just like you have to learn how to maneuver a broom. The key though is also learning how to use them without thinking about how to cast them. For example, stupify." Her wand whipped out and a red stunner impacted the still form of Draco Malfoy. "If you noticed, I didn't really look at him, I just thought 'stun Draco' and did it."

"Uh…"

"Alright then, Neville, stun Crabbe." Harry watched as his friend looked at the still form of Malfoy's goon and began to bring his wand up, his face shifting in concentration. "Stop. You were thinking about how to do that weren't you? The incantation, the wand movement, all the details, weren't you?"

"Yeah." Pink rose to color the boy's cheeks.

"No, it's nothing to be embarrassed about Nev, it's how you were taught. And that is our point." Harry caught each of their friends' eyes before continuing. "Last year I was forced to train harder than I'd ever thought possible, and learned more about magic than I had in all the years previous. One of the big parts of that is that if I have time to think in a fight, I've probably already lost."

"You also didn't tell your enemies what spell you were using." Everyone turned to Luna, who had been listening but was still reading her copy of the Quibbler. It was sideways, but that had never stopped her before.

"Wondered if anyone caught that," Hermione smiled at the young blonde, taking away any chance of her swords stinging.

"As Luna pointed out, it is not required that you speak the incantation, it goes all the way back to first year. Magic is about intent. We are taught the words, and we associate those words with an effect, but we could just as easily think about the effect and receive the same results." Harry waved his wand and all three of their tormentors rose and began to disappear. "That was not three separate levitation and disillusionment charms, I'll leave you to think about how I did that. In the meantime, Faye, Neville, I think it's time to remove the garbage."