On the morning of the first day of the new Hogwarts year, Harry drove the Jaguar with a firm yet light touch, with an approving Dr. Lecter in the passenger's seat, to King's Cross Station.
It had been decided to allow Harry to travel to school via the Hogwarts Express, in order to preserve the necessary illusion of normality -- and also in the hopes of tricking Voldemort into thinking that Fudge's head-in-the-sand opinions still prevailed at the Ministry, even though Fudge himself was gone.
Once at King's Cross, Harry dexterously slid the car into a safe parking spot, then, with the help of Dr. Lecter, transferred his baggage to a cart. Hedwig hooted softly as her cage was set atop the new trunks Dr. Lecter had bought for Harry earlier that week.
"Keep in touch with me, Harry," Dr. Lecter said, indicating with a nod of his head the magically-adapted pager and cellphone at Harry's belt, hidden under his Muggle jacket. "I expect things to be interesting."
And with that, Dr. Lecter watched as Harry pushed the cart towards the boundary and vanished.
==========
There was an air of tension on the train, a tension most keenly felt by those students who had an inkling of what was about to happen.
Hermione and Ron had already found a compartment, and Harry gladly joined them in it as the train pulled from the station. Hermione had cast a Rhubarb spell at the entrance of the compartment; anyone listening in from outside the closed door would hear nothing but knock-knock jokes and particularly boring Quidditch discussions.
In a hushed voice, Ron was filling in his friends with the latest from the Ministry. "That attack that Dumbledore and Dr. Reader were predicting is about to happen," he said, as Harry and Hermione listened with grim, set faces. "You know that surveillance team old Mad-Eye's been running? Well, they've found out that Voldemort's planning to send a contingent of Death Eaters and dementors to attack the train to take for hostages as many persons as possible. Some of the Death Eaters may well be on the train."
"And I'll bet Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle are among them," Harry murmured darkly. "Why do they want hostages? What's the ransom?"
"Azkaban. Voldemort wants his followers freed, so he can put them to work for him again."
"That makes sense," Hermione put in. "The dementors alone won't be enough -- there are too many powerful wizards on our side who can deal with them." She smiled at Harry as she said this.
"You know, it's not as if we don't have some reinforcements of our own," Harry grinned. "Uncloak yourself, Lucy."
And in the middle of the compartment, a smiling Lucy Stellanova suddenly doffed her Invisibility Cloak.
Both Ron and Hermione shot up from their seats.
"Lucy! What are you doing here?!?" Ron demanded.
"Like Harry said: I'm one of the reinforcements. Sorry I couldn't tell you earlier, but it was imperative that I not be seen entering the train. And I'm going to cloak myself again soon; I'm going to be exiting this compartment soon to scope out the rest of this carriage."
"But you've only been studying magic for two months! How can you face down a dementor?"
Lucy's smile didn't dim one bit. "I've had an intensive course of study, shall we say," she said as she pulled out her cellphone and pressed the vibra-page button. "Hold on a sec -- I have to check in with the other team members on the train." She held the cellphone to her ear, waiting for an answer to her page. It must have come, because after a few moments she spoke into the cellphone. "Goldilocks reporting to Team Leader. Athos and Porthos have been briefed by Aramis; I'm waltzing Matilda until ordered otherwise. Affirmative, Team Leader. Over and out."
Hermione had a hard time trying not to guffaw. "So Ron is Aramis?" she sniggered.
"Yupper. And you're Porthos, and Harry is Athos."
"Are you calling me an Athos?" Harry said in mock anger.
"Nothing we didn't already know," Hermione said, shaking with laughter as Harry gently cuffed her.
"What's an Aramis?" said Ron, who was totally at sea.
"One of the Three Muskeeters," said Lucy, once again donning her Invisibility Cloak. "Hermione can tell you all about it. We're going on the assumption that most British Death Eaters -- even assuming they can trace cellphone transmissions, which I doubt -- aren't familiar with French Muggle authors like Alexandre Dumas pére."
"Or with Aussie Muggle slang," snickered Hermione. "Let me escort you to the billabong, Lucy. It'll look strange to see the door to the compartment open for no apparent reason."
"Good idea," said Lucy. "When you get back, take turns patrolling the car with Ron and Harry. Pretend you all have a bad case of loose bowels or something -- school jitters or whatever. Make sure everyone else in the car is okay; offer them chocolate if need be." With that, she passed out a supply of Chocolate Frogs to each of them. "I'll be in the carriage somewhere with you. Make an excuse to open the compartment door in five minutes; I have to report back to Crawford at that time, and I can't do it out in the open."
"Jack Crawford's the Team Leader?" Harry said, surprised.
"Yupper. Dumbledore's over at Azkaban with Ron's dad and the better part of the MOM crew. They're expecting the heavier attack to happen over there. The Death Eaters think that a train full of kids will be far easier pickings, so they're not putting quite as much effort into the train attack." Lucy chuckled. "Little do they know."
Hermione got up to open the door. "Ready, Lucy?"
"Ready."
"All right, then," she said, and turned the door handle.
===========
Nothing much happened for the next forty-five minutes. The Three Musketeers, with Lucy silently and invisibly observing, took turns going up and down the carriage, handing out chocolate to those students who looked most in need of it, while avoiding, for the time being, the compartment occupied by Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle. Lucy had made the first few of her scheduled checks with Crawford.
Suddenly, there was a loud bang towards the front of the train. The carriage shuddered, but the train kept moving. Bright flashes of light could be seen at the front by the engine.
Draco Malfoy, followed by Crabbe and Goyle, burst forth from their compartment, wands out and pointed. "Victory for Voldemort! Death to the Mudbloods!" they shrieked, as they opened up a compartment containing a group of terrified first-years.
And that was as far as they got before an invisible voice behind them cried out "Stupefy!"
Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle all fell down as if they'd been pole-axed. Lucy, still invisible, followed up with the Binding Charm and had them trussed up and gagged before they hit the floor as the first-years looked on, goggle-eyed.
Another compartment opened up. Marcus Flint popped out; he had graduated from Hogwarts years before, but was apparently part of the Death Eater's contingent that was assigned to attack from inside the train itself. Flint was ready to strike for Voldemort -- but his resolve evaporated at the sight of Malfoy and his friends helpless on the carriage floor. He was about to turn and run when the invisible Lucy Stunned him as well.
Lucy waited a space for any other sudden bursts from concealment. Then, using the vibra-page feature on her cellphone, she silently summoned Harry from the compartment he shared with Ron and Hermione.
"Help me move these clowns into an empty compartment," she whispered. "I haven't mastered the Levitation charm yet. Ron, Hermione -- you keep watch on the rest of the carriage while Harry and I stow this baggage."
Once the junior Death Eaters were locked away, Lucy and the Musketeers went over the carriage, compartment by compartment. Finally, satisified that they had captured all the Death Eaters on that particular carriage, the still-invisible Lucy entered the Musketeers' compartment to wait for the five-minute vibra-ping from Team Leader. This ping meant that it was safe for her to contact Crawford. If Crawford didn't ping her pager every five minutes, and exactly at the five-minute mark, she was to assume he was in trouble and needed help up at the front of the train.
Four-fifty-eight... four-fifty-nine....
Lucy's cellphone vibrated in her invisible hand. She breathed an audible sigh as she put it to her mouth.
"Goldilocks reporting in, Team Leader. Green Carriage is secure. Need me anywhere else?"
"Negative, Goldilocks. They tried stopping the train, but we have the situation in hand. Soon we'll be able to end the Red Alert."
"Acknowledged, Team Leader. Over and out."