Chapter 7: The Hogwarts Express

The rest of summer flew by at a near frantic pace. Marinette spent the rest of July with Nino and Alya on the Lahiffe estate. They had an amazing time, and you could almost always find the three friends together, be it outside with the horses or inside doing homework.

Despite how much fun she was having, Marinette had been a tiny bit distracted. Okay, a lot distracted. Thoughts of Adrien often swept into her head at inopportune times, and Alya would pick up on it immediately. Marinette would try and invent an excuse as to why she suddenly had a dreamy expression on her face (Alya's words, not hers) and Alya would skeptically let the topic go.

But on the last day, when Marinette was packing, Alya confronted her. "You're lovesick." She accused.

Marinette jumped and knocked her phone off of the dresser. "Merlin Alya don't do that." She grumbled, picking up the phone. Fortunately it had landed in a small pile of clothes so it was okay. Then what Alya had said hit her. "I'm what?"

"Lovesick." Alya reiterated, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"What… I… I am not lovesick!" Mari spluttered.

"Ok. What were you thinking about before I interrupted your thoughts?" Marinette paused. What had she been thinking about? A blonde haired boy with green eyes immediately popped into her head. She glanced at Alya guiltily.

"Quidditch?" She offered. Alya huffed and refocused on her packing but Marinette was distracted again. Alya was right. The impossible celebrity crush had somehow morphed into something more. The one interaction with him had somehow granted him access to her mind at all times of the day. And night. She forcefully shoved him out of her mind again, and finished packing.

As summer continued on, Marinette felt more and more tempted to write him. But every time she started to write a letter, she crumpled it up and threw it away, telling herself she'd only be bothering him. "He's probably just a huge flirt." She told Tikki. "I bet doesn't even remember me."

Tikki glared at her, then at the letter that she had thrown away and then held out her leg, obviously trying to get across a message. Marinette glared at her owl.

"I don't need you playing matchmaker either. It's just a stupid crush." She grabbed the trash can, intent on removing the banished letters from her room. "It'll go away." She said confidently.

It didn't.

XxXxXxXx

The whistle of the Hogwarts Express pierced loudly through the air, and Marinette winced. That whistle was far too loud.

She looked at her mother apologetically. "What did you say?"

"I asked if you were sure you had everything dear." Mari glanced at her little trolley. It had two suitcases and Tikki in her cage. The owl was looking very peeved about being in said cage.

"Pretty sure." Marinette smiled. "If not my first letter home will have a list attached to it." Sabine smiled and hugged her daughter. Marinette hugged her back and the two stood there for a few moments.

"Alright I'll let you go." Sabine said, letting her go.

"I'll see you during Winter Break." Marinette said. She glanced at the clock. "I'd better go. Love you."

"Love you too dear." Sabine said smiling weakly. Marinette took a deep breath and pushed her trolley towards the wall, glancing back and waving. Sabine waved back and Marinette turned back around in time to watch her trolley disappear into the wall. She pushed her way through and walked out onto the hidden platform. The Scarlet Train sat there, gleaming from the lights above it. Marinette smiled as she saw Alya being fussed over by her parents, as well as her two little sisters, only to grimace as she noticed Chloe and Sabrina entering the train.

Marinette waved to Alya as she passed and Alya waved back before pointing to the train. Marinette nodded and headed onto the train, choosing an empty compartment and sitting. She sighed and glanced out the window, and was greeted with the incredible view of a brick wall. Nino poked his head in and grinned.

"Hey Marinette!" He greeted cheerfully.

Marinette smiled. "Hey Nino! How was the rest of your summer?"

Nino slid into the compartment and let out a content sigh as he sat. "Pretty good. Didn't really get up to much. How about yourself?"

"Finished homework, read the daily prophet, helped in the bakery." She listed off. "Not much else happened. Nothing life threatening."

"Ayy there you go." Nino grinned.

"How's your Dad doing?" Marinette asked.

"He's doing alright. He was kinda.. Weird about work the last few weeks though."

"How so?" Marinette asked, frowning.

Nino rummaged through his bag and brought out a croissant. "Well, about two weeks ago he started going into the Ministry a bit more often. I thought it was just normal work but whenever he comes back he seems upset. Not with me and not with anyone he's trying to catch, but angry at a co-worker or something. All he would tell me is that some sort of event was happening at school."

"Odd." Marinette commented.

"Yeah thanks I know." Nino said dryly, before hungrily biting into his breakfast. Marinette rolled her eyes but grinned as Alya moved into the compartment.

"Hey all!" She greeted.

"Hey girl." Marinette said back. "Have a seat."

Alya gratefully sank into the seat next to Nino and took a deep breath. "Siblings are exhausting." She muttered.

"Same as last year?" Mari laughed.

Alya clasped her hands together. "Please take me with you!" She said in a high squeaky voice. "Mum please please pleeease let me go with her." Alya shook her head. "I love my sisters but Merlin give it a rest." The group laughed and settled in as the train began to move. After about a half hour of comfortable chatting Marinette opened the window and nudged Tikki towards it.

"You know where to go." Tikki hooted and nuzzled her cheek before leaping out and flying away. Marinette watched her for a few moments before shutting the window. Marinette turned back to the sight of Nino pulling out a chessboard and groaned. "Not again?"

"It's been a month!" He protested. "And I've been practicing."

"Play Alya." Marinette grumbled. Alya sighed and moved across from Nino as the pieces aligned themselves on the board. Marinette watched in bewilderment over the next fifteen minutes as Nino began to take apart Alya's defense, before pinning her queen in a corner.

He looked exceedingly smug. "Check." He crowed.

"Yes thank you I know." Alya said, smiling sweetly. Marinette gulped. Alya had a dangerous look in her eye.

"Uh Nino…" Marinette started, trying to warn her friend, but fortunately Alya's anger was quickly directed somewhere else as Chloe Bourgeois entered their compartment, with her lackey Sabrina in tow. Marinette felt herself tense up, but managed to assume a relaxed position, leaning against the wall.

"You know Chloe if you keep making this a habit every year I feel like we could arrange a time table for it." Marinette said with a smile that looked more like a wolf baring its teeth.

Chloe sneered back. "Careful there Marinette. My father is minister after all."

Mari cocked an eyebrow. "And I care why? Last I checked I was going to school not into the Ministry of Magic."

"Well I'd hate for you to have an accident like last year." Chloe responded, inspecting her fingernails while Sabrina smirked behind her.

Marinette twitched, and felt her anger rising. "You mean when you bewitched my mirror to make me look normal when in reality you'd hit me with a stinging jinx? That one? Or perhaps you mean when I was helping Professor Bustier carry papers and you hit me with a trip jinx and I one, dropped them, and two, almost fell five stories?"

Chloe grinned widely. "Me? Why would I do any of those things? Such preposterous allegations. Unless you have proof."

Marinette glared at the blonde. "I did. Which was right about when you wrote a letter to your father and got everything called off."

Chloe grin became vicious. "Nonsense Marinette," Chloe said, pulling out her wand and twiddling it in her fingers. "Father only made a donation." Marinette narrowed her eyes. As annoying as Chloe was, Mari knew she was proficient in a number of nasty jinxes and hexes.

She put the wand out of her mind and rolled her eyes. "Yes I'm aware. Now are you done? Or will we have to hex you out?" Chloe turned to face Alya and Nino, who had not spoken, but had pulled out their wands and were pointing them at the two girls in the doorway. Chloe swallowed nervously and wisely backed out. Nobody wanted to be on the end of Alya's rictumsempra charm. More than one of Hogwarts occupants had learned that the hard way, having been reduced to screams thanks to her tickling charm.

Alya slammed the compartment door shut with a flick of her wand and drew the curtains as well, blocking the two slytherins from view.

"I hate those two." She growled. Nino nodded but Marinette just sighed. She had been hoping to avoid Chloe for as long as possible. She had never truly fit within Slytherin house, and was usually met with cold shoulders, and in best case scenarios, indifference. That wasn't to say she didn't have friends, but she hoped after last year when she had helped win Slytherin the Quidditch Cup, maybe the rest would be less hostile. That had held true for the rest of her fourth year, but she was unsure if it would carry through the summer or not.

The door was soon opened again, and a very tall and spindly man leaned in through their doorway. He was well over six feet in height, certainly closer to seven feet than six. He also had a rather large handlebar mustache, which he was currently tugging on. He peered in and glanced back down the hall, frowning. "Was that girl bothering you?" He asked.

Marinette shrugged. "Honestly we're fairly used to it at this point but yes." The man's frown deepened.

"That's rather unfortunate. Ah, where are my manners I'm the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. Armand D'Argencourt." Unsurprisingly, it was Alya who responded first.

"I'm Alya, this is Nino, and that's Marinette. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you." Nino and Marinette chorused.

"And you as well." the professor said with a nod. He began pulling on his handlebar mustache as he gave the three of them one last look. Marinette couldn't help but feel that his gaze rested on her a little longer than the other two. "Have a nice train ride. I'll try and speak to the other girl." With that he retreated from the compartment and shut the door. The three looked at each other.

"Well… At least he's not like last years… Yet." Nino muttered.

"Thank Merlin for that." Alya said, sitting back down. "Where were we? Ah yes." She said returning her attention to the chessboard. "Knight to C7. Checkmate." Nino gaped at her as he wondered what had just happened to his no longer perfect attack strategy. Conceding the game he nodded as his king also surrendered before turning to him and shouting various obscenities about how he was terrible at the game.

Marinette laughed at Nino's forlorn expression, and patted him consolingly on the shoulder. He sighed and just ignored his king until all of the players stomped off of the board and into their allotted slots. Nino put the game away and turned back to Alya.

"How was the rest of your summer?" He asked.

"Oh you know. Writing, reading, homework, siblings. Whole nine yards."

"Sounds dull." Nino commented.

"Dull can be a good thing." Marinette pointed out. "Remember last year when things weren't dull?"

"This year will be worse you know." Alya said. "What with our O.W.L.S. and all. I don't know how I'm going to manage anything. Classes were already bad enough but now they're going to be preparing us for tests that determine our futures. It won't be easy." The other two nodded, knowing she had a valid point.

"That means no investigations." Nino said, staring accusingly at Alya, who crossed her arms defensively.

"You two came along perfectly willingly!"

Marinette sighed. "Yes we did. But that was because we knew you'd do it by yourself regardless."

Alya opened her mouth to argue but quickly shut it. "Point made." She conceded after a moment. Did you see the article in the Prophet last week?" SHe asked, changing the subject.

"Which one?" Marinette asked.

"The one about how The Following might be regrouping I assume." Nino sighed.

"I thought Hawkmoth was dead!" Marinette exclaimed.

"It was never confirmed. And just because we arrested a good number of The Following doesn't mean that we arrested all of them by any means." Nino pointed out. "Plus there's that new spell that's clearly some modification of the Imperius curse. Those hit by it get a weird pink butterfly on their face, though it fades after a while. They do whatever the caster instructs them to, but it's really hard to undo the spell. Even worse it has some form of memory erasing on it. They're forced to do all of these terrible things and then they have zero recollection of it later."

"Apparently," Alya cut in, "The only thing they remember is the name of the spell but not the actual incantation."

"What's the name?" Marinette asked curiously.

Nino leaned forward. "Akuma." He said darkly. "And they're labeling it as a curse because of how destructive it can be. Apparently those who have been under its influence for too long can lose large chunks of other memories as well."

"And they really think Hawkmoth is back?" Marinette asked, concern evident in her voice.

"Not officially but as far as I can tell they seem to think so because of the whole butterfly thing." Alya said, chewing on her bottom lip.

"Most of the magical community is in denial of course." Nino said, rolling his eyes. "Nobody really knows what to think. They think Hawkmoth is involved to some extent but most seem to think it's a small group trying to create fear in his name. It doesn't help that all of the politicians are cowards. No strong political figure dares come out on their viewpoint for fear of being either wrong or sending the public into a panic."

The group sat in a nervous silence as the scarlet train whizzed through the English countryside. Chatter eventually broke out again, but it was now focused on the upcoming school year. Throughout the train, many conversations were going much the same way. Some in denial, some scared, others rolling their eyes as if it were the most ridiculous thing they'd heard.

"After all," They said. "Headmaster Fu is the one who defeated him ten years ago! Even if he was coming back (which he isn't) Fu would be able to beat him again. So don't worry!" And then they would quickly change the topic, because deep down, they were just as concerned. But as the train approached Hogwarts, these conversations were forgotten, returning to anticipation for what the school had in store for them this year.

A/N: We're going to Hogwarts! Woot Woooot!