"York must have gotten him
this," Harry thought to himself. Snuffles put his paw over his nose, which
Harry guessed meant that he was embarrassed.
"Can, you show, me how, to
get, on, Platform, nine and, three, quarters?" Victoria asked, putting
her hand on his shoulders.
Harry didn't like how open
she was, but agreed to help her anyway.
"Hey, Harry!" he heard a familiar
yell. Ron came running forward, and stopped instantly when he saw Victoria
smile at him. He walked closer towards Harry and nudged him slightly, "...
And who is this, my friend?"
"Victoria," Harry answered,
"She found Snuffles sitting on my trunk and wanted to give him to me."
Ron crossed his arms over his
chest and sighed.
"You have a girlfriend and
you didn't even tell me?" Ron whispered into his ear. He was joking, but
Harry blushed immediately, punching Ron in the shoulder. Victoria giggled
and sat down on top of what must have been her own trunk.
"We, should, get going," Victoria
said, standing up again, "How do, you get to, the train?"
"Just follow us casually,"
Ron said, walking over to his own trunk. Pig's cage was sitting on top
of it, but Pig wasn't merrily hooting inside, "Now where did that fuzz-ball
go?"
Harry looked up at the clock,
and noted that there was only 15 minutes until they'd have to get onto
the train. "Come on we'd better hurry."
Snuffles ran quickly through
the barrier, holding Hedwig's cage in his mouth. Victoria gasped when he
disappeared through the barrier, then she tried it herself.
Making sure no Muggles were watching,
she lifted her trunk easily and walked through the barrier. Harry and Ron
grabbed a trolley. Fred and George caught up with them and they put all
four trunks onto it.
"Goodbye, dears, stay out of
trouble you two! Goodbye Ron, goodbye Harry. Have a nice year," Mrs. Weasley
said, waving quickly.
Not to attract to much attention,
Ron volunteered to push the trolley threw the portal. Once he disappeared
it was easy to get Fred, George, and Harry through quickly without being
noticed.
The Hogwarts express was waiting
for them. Several people were waving from the windows to their parents.
A brushy haired girl ran forward and quickly assisted them in getting their
trunks on to the train.
"How has your summer been?"
Hermione asked, as they headed for the back of the train.
"Not too bad," Ron responded,
"Why did you come to the Highlands?"
Ron already knew the answer to this
question, but wanted to see if Hermione would tell them the truth or not.
She flushed slightly and opened the last carriage she found.
"This one looks empty," she
said looking inside. But she was wrong; Draco Malfoy, arch-villain and
enemy to Mud-bloods, Muggleborns, and all persons by the name of Harry
Potter, sat there quietly with his head down.
"Oh great, it's him," Ron said,
gesturing towards Draco.
Malfoy looked up, but didn't
glare or scoff at them. His eyes were sad for an instant, but they turned
cold seeing Hermione standing in the door.
"I'll leave. You can sit here,"
he said slowly getting up. Hermione jumped back and let him pass. Draco
kept his head down, and Harry noticed a large red slash on the back of
his neck. He wanted to ask Malfoy something about it, but he didn't bother.
"Well at least we got this
carriage," Ron said, walking in.
"Do you think he's OK?" Hermione
asked, still glancing down the hallway.
"Why do you care?" Ron asked,
lifting his trunk and putting it above his seat.
"I dunno... just a feeling,
I suppose," she responded. She started to lift her trunk, and with Ron's
help it was safely tucked away. Harry could barely lift his trunk on his
own but refused their help. Snuffles trotted in shortly after, still holding
Hedwig's cage, but this time with the shrieking Pig inside of it.
"Thanks, Snuffles," Ron said,
taking the tiny bird from the cage, "Stupid traitor," he hissed at the
him.
Pig didn't seem to be growing
as fast as Hedwig did. He remained irresistibly cute to any girl who happened
to walk by. He hooted around the cabin happily and landed on Hermione's
shoulder.
The train hadn't even started to
move, when there were several screams coming from the hallway. Ron peered
out, and gasped weakly, "There's a fight!" he explained, "I can see Malfoy
and that... that Victoria girl... I think the rest are Slytherins, too."
Harry and Hermione jumped to
their feet and looked down the hallway. True enough, Victoria was there,
and it looked like she was protecting Draco from the other Slytherins.
Speaking fluently in German,
she shouted commands to her wand, while warding off several seventh year
Slytherin boys, who seemed to be trying to get whom she protected. Her
magic seemed more powerful then a normal soon-to-be-fifth-year-students
should be. The Slytherins had never experienced such spells in their lives.
As some were thrown into walls, others shrunk to a mini size. One seventh
year grabbed Victoria's wand out of her hand, and threw it down the hallway.
This didn't stop her. Someone
grabbed her wrists, and tried to yank her away from Draco. She lifted her
foot quickly, and kicked the seventh year in the stomach.
"You will leave him alone now,"
she said firmly. Her english seemed to have improved, but her temper was
still flaring. She raised her fist to strike again, when they slowly backed
away.
"We'll get you someday, Draco.
You can't have your little girlfriend protect you everyday," they laughed,
turned and left, one still holding his stomach which hurt more when he
joined in their humor.
"Are, you, OK?" Victoria asked,
turning to Draco. He didn't seem frightened of her, although his hand shivered
as he pressed it against the wall and stood up.
"Thank you," he said slowly.
He started to walk away, when she grabbed his hand.
"Something happened to you,"
she said slowly, taking his other hand, "Please come with me." She led
Draco away by the hand, and they entered the carriage next to Harry's.
"Well, that was weird," Hermione
said, sitting back down. The train started moving and they soon burst into
discussion.
"Why was she being so nice
to Malfoy?" Harry asked, thinking over the situation again.
"Maybe she didn't know how
much of a lying prejudiced arseole he is," Hermione said, petting Pig in
her hand.
"But... why would the other
Slytherins be after him in the first place?" Harry wondered out loud.
"Who knows?" Ron said, swiping Pig
from Hermione, "You're still a traitor!" and he locked Pig in his cage.
Snuffles let out a dog-like sigh and looked up at them.
"What are you doing here, Snuffles?"
Harry asked, as it became clear to him that Sirius could be in potential
danger sitting there on the floor of the train.
Sirius decided it was easier to
explain as a human, so he transformed quickly. Harry, Hermione, and Ron
gasped as they gawked at Sirius. He no longer had the shaggy black hair
they were used to. It was dark blond, and his eyes were light brown. Even
his appearance seemed to be slightly altered, you could barely the Sirius
was Sirius.
"You're now looking at your
knew Defense Against Dark Arts teacher," Sirius explained, taking a bow.
Everyone clapped and then started laughing.
"Are you really going to teach
us?" Harry asked.
"Yes," Sirius answered, "But
I can't choose favorites, Harry. I have to be equal to everyone." Sirius
sat down next to Hermione and sighed weakly.
The lunch cart came by, and
Sirius decided that it was his time to buy everyone their lunch. They happily
dined on chocolate frogs, Botts Every Flavor of Beans, and a rather new
treat, 'Coots', which were designed to be extremely powerful little sweets,
that changed the colour of your skin.
There was a knock on their
cabin door. Ginny walked in rather flustered, "You could have waited for
me," she gasped, leaning against the door.
"Sorry, sis," Ron said, throwing
a Coot in his mouth. His skin turned magenta red. Ginny looked at him strangely,
but didn't say anything.
"I heard that there was a fight.
Are you all OK?" Ginny asked, looking particularly at Harry.
"We're all fine, it was a bunch
of Slytherins," Hermione answered, scooting over so Ginny could sit next
to her. There was a loud crash in the cabin next to theirs, but it didn't
sound like another fight.
Everyone had grown slightly
uncomfortable as the crashes continued, but once several moans echoed into
their cabin, they all looked quite repulsed, "Honesty," Hermione said crossing
her arms. There was an awkward moment of silence, then they all started
laughing.
"We'd better get our robes
on," Ron said standing up to get his trunk open. Ginny disappeared down
the hallway to find her trunk, whilst everyone else slipped on their robes
over their clothing.
When the train pulled to a
stop, people happily darted off, and headed to the horse-less carriages
that awaited them. Hagrid was standing on the platform a high lantern held
above his head.
"Firs' years! Firs' years over here!,"
Hagrid shouted, "Hullo Harry." He said, waving to him as Harry got off
the train. Jumping into a horse- less carriage with Ron, Hermione, and
Ginny, they started off.
The strong smell of hay filled
their noses. Ginny coughed weakly, and wiped her nose, "My allergies are
acting up," she explained, sneezing again. Hermione opened her backpack
and took out a bottle of eye drops and a medicine holder.
"Here, put one drop in each
eye, and swallow two of these," she said, handing them to Ginny. Ginny
and Ron both looked fascinated by these contraptions Hermione had given
her.
"What am I supposed to do?"
Ginny asked, turning the little bottle upside down. Hermione grabbed it
swiftly and told Ginny to lean her head back. Despite the small space she
was in, Hermione succeeded in applying the eye drops and with a glass of
water Ginny swallowed the pills.
"You should feel fine in a
few minutes," Hermione explained, closing her backpack again.
"Thank you," Ginny said happily.
Her eyes no longer appeared to be bothering her. Ginny rocked slightly
back and forth, put her hand on her forehead and nearly instantly fell
asleep leaning against her brother, "What did you give her," Ron asked,
sitting her back up.
"It's just some Muggle medicine,"
Hermione said, taking out the bottle, "Take one every six hours for instant
allergy relief. I guess since she's a full blood witch, the medicine must
take effect much more quickly. It says that one side effects is drowsiness.
When they pulled up to the
Hogwarts castle, Ron and Harry carried Ginny out of the carriage, while
Hermione shut the door and followed them.
"How are we going to get her into
the great hall?" Harry asked, dropping her feet onto the ground.
"I dunno... she'd probably
just want us to take her up to the common room," Ron said, slowly lowering
her head to the ground. The thought about the situation quickly, when they
heard footsteps running towards them.
"My God! What happened, to
that, girl?" Victoria asked. She was in a light yellow sun dress which
stood up quiet dramatically around the many robes of black.
"She's just fallen asleep," Hermione
said, blocking Ginny from her view. Victoria stopped and looked at her
strangely.
"Did she, take any, medicine?"
Victoria asked pushing Hermione aside. Hermione scowled, but before she
could do anything to her, Ron grabbed Hermione by the shoulders and stopped
her.
"Yeah, just some allergy medicine,"
Harry said, = answering her question.
"She is, full blood, witch,
no?" Victoria asked, kneeling on the ground. Harry nodded a yes. Victoria
lifted the sleeping Ginny off the ground and turned her sideways.
"Stand back, please," she said,
gesturing for them to move and give Ginny some air. Victoria blocked Ginny's
nose with her her fingers, easily lifted her to her feet and tapped her
on the base of her neck with times with her wand. Ginny's eyes opened instantly
and she jumped seeing Victoria looked at her.
"What? um... where... I?" Ginny
said looking around, "Did I fall asleep?"
"When you, took, that medicine,
it reacted, with your, magical, blood." Victoria explained. She ran off
without another word, although Hermione was glaring after her the whole
way.
"Come on, the feast will be
starting soon," Ron said ,trying to change the subject. Ginny dragged Hermione
up the stairs, while Harry and Ron slowly followed. It was a relief that,
finally, he'd be back at his real home.
(a/n: Sometimes you just gotta
be nice to Draco; Even though I know most of you probably hate him, I kinda
feel sorry for him............... I know I know beat me up later k. -E.B.)