Chapter 2 - Return to Hogwarts
Barney arrived at Kings Cross station and lugged his very heavy trunk (as he wasn't allowed to use magic to levitate it) onto a trolley and pushed it through the concourse of the station with his mum by his side. His brother and sister had grown bored of the yearly routine of Barney heading off to school so they no longer bothered to see him off. The novelty of their brother being a wizard had quickly worn off mainly due to the fact he wasn't permitted to do any magic outside of Hogwarts so he couldn't show them anything and also that they weren't allowed to tell anyone that their brother was a wizard.
They made their way over to platforms nine and ten and could see ahead of them people disappearing into the barrier that separated the platforms.
"I won't come through with you," his mum said as she looked at her son and still felt immensely proud as she had done the first year he had taken the train to Hogwarts. "It's always so noisy and crowded on the other side."
"That's OK mum," Barney said as he hugged her and they remained embraced for some time.
"Remember to write as often as you can."
"Yes mum."
"And be careful when you fly on those brooms."
"Yes mum."
"And try not to get in to any dangerous situations."
"Yes mum," Barney said remembering how furious and shocked his mum had been when he had returned after his first year at Hogwarts and had told her all about the 'Phantom' and the perilous situation he had found himself in.
His mum had not wanted him to return the following year as she felt it was too dangerous for him. It was only after an intervention from headmistress McGonagall who had explained how Barney had saved the school and how he had shown much courage and bravery that his mum relented and allowed him to return. And thankfully the last four years at Hogwarts had been pretty quiet. Well as quiet as can be when you're attending a school of witchcraft and wizardry.
Barney's mum finally let go on her son and he pushed his trolley towards the barrier before one last wave back to her before he disappeared into the seemingly solid wall.
His mum had been right. On the other side it was as noisy and crowded as it always was. Excited children were running up and down the platform to greet friends they hadn't seen all summer, owls were hooting wildly as their cages waited to be loaded and parents said emotional goodbyes to their children.
Barney looked at some of the young children on the platform and guessed they must be first years due to how nervous they looked and how small they were. Had he really been that small once? His first year at Hogwarts seemed so long ago now as he was about to start his sixth year.
Barney admired the glorious Hogwarts Express as it stood gleaming on the platform with steam bellowing from it's engine and he got the same feeling inside him as he did every year. It was a feeling of excitement and joy knowing he would soon be back at Hogwarts for another year of fun, adventures and magic.
He pushed his trolley towards the luggage carriage of the train so his trunk could be loaded when a voice shouted out to him over the clamour of the platform.
"So they're letting you back for another year then muggle?"
Barney turned and saw Silvanna Silvas, a fellow Slytherin and someone who had made his first year at Hogwarts very unpleasant, striding over to him.
"Well someone needs to help make sure Slytherin wins the house cup this year," Barney joked as Silvanna raised her hand and they high fived.
Barney's relationship with Silvanna and the rest of Slytherin had been some what unfriendly to begin with due to the fact they resented a muggle-born being placed in their house. However once he had saved the school and Silvanna's brother from peril they soon admired him and accepted him welcomely into their house. After a brief catch up about how their summers had been, Silvanna left to find her other friends and Barney managed to spot Thomas in the crowd, who was saying goodbye to his parents on the platform. With his own trunk now safely on the train he headed over to see his friend.
"Hey Thomas, hello Mr & Mrs Button," Barney said as he greeted them all.
"Hello Barney. Nice to see you again." Mrs Button replied. "Looking forward to the new school year? Did you get all the grades you'd wanted in your OWL exams?"
"Yes thank you. I got outstanding in my Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures and an exceeds expectations in my Charms."
"Now is Charms the one where you have to change objects?" Mrs Button asked.
"No mum that's Transfiguration. Charms is spell casting," Thomas replied.
"Oh yes of course. Silly me."
Like his own mum, Thomas' parents were muggles and had struggled at first to adjust to having a child being part of the wizarding world. Even now after five years that still didn't fully understand it all.
Thomas said goodbye to his parents who returned back through the barrier to the other side of Kings Cross and once his trunk was loaded on to the train, he and Barney boarded it too.
The sound of the train conductor blowing his whistle filled the platform as all the first years rushed to the window to wave goodbye to their parents. The train driver gave a hoot from the engine and smoke started to billow from it as the coal in the engine burned and the train started to move out of the platform.
A woman dressed in a full length black cloak that was wrapped up tight around her emerged through the barrier and strode across the platform. She had shoulder length jet black hair styled in a bob with a long fringe and she had a crooked nose. Her face seemed to be drained of all colour so that even her lips were pale. She carried in her left hand a holdall made from black dragon leather and in her right was her wand at the ready.
"Duratus," the woman commanded as she raised her wand only slightly and white sparks hit the train and stopped it dead in it tracks. Even the steam raising from it froze in the air and didn't move.
Everyone on the train was flung forward at the sudden stop and people scrambled to the window to see what was going on as the woman nonchalantly walked towards it.
With the faintest of swishes of her wand the door to a carriage opened and she stepped abroad and the door closed behind her. One more flick of her wand and the train was moving again.
"Who do you think that was?" Thomas asked as he pulled his head back in through the window where he had been watching the mysterious woman boarding the train.
"A new teacher I'm guessing but she doesn't seem the most friendly so fingers crossed she's not taking any of my subjects."
They continued up the train past packed compartments full of chattering and excited students and had to dodge a tabby cat that ran down the corridor followed by it's fuming owner who was trying to catch it.
"I hope Tabitha made it," Thomas said as they passed yet another full compartment. "I haven't seen her yet."
As if she had heard her name being mentioned Tabitha appeared at the end of the corridor and walked up to them.
"Hey Tabs, you OK?" Thomas asked. "Shall we see if we can find an empty compartment further up?"
"Oh I'm gonna sit with Hamish. He's got a compartment with his friends at the back of the train. But I'll see you at the feast later," she commented as she continued past them both.
"That's probably the most we'll see of her all year," Barney said half joking but also half serious.
As they travelled up the train they eventually came to a compartment that was only half full. Inside sat their friends Gwen and Theo from Hufflepuff and Theo's twin brother Arlo who was in Gryffindor. Gwen and Theo looked very cosy together with their arms around each other and Barney was tempted to keep walking further up the train as he wasn't exactly in the mood to spend a train ride with a loved up couple. But he felt sorry for Arlo being a third wheel on his own so he reluctantly entered the compartment with Thomas.
"Mind if we join you guys?" he asked as he slid the door up.
"Yes please do!" Arlo responded at once very enthusiastically, glad of the additional company.
"Where's Elio?" Barney asked to Gwen as he knew the two of them were close like brother and sister and often hung out together.
"Oh he's off somewhere with Daisy Lilith. They sort of started seeing each other over the summer."
Barney thought to himself had everyone being pairing up over the summer? as he settled into his seat next to Arlo and opposite the loved up couple. He knew that Arlo had been on a date to Hogsmead with Nora Quinn from Hufflepuff last term. It seemed that he and Thomas were the only ones in their year that hadn't had any romantic escapades. Unless Thomas had been on any secret dates that he hadn't told him about.
Gwen and Theo managed to tear themselves apart for each other long enough for them all to talk about how they had spent their summers before the conversation turned to the incident in Diagon Alley.
"I heard you two had a bit of bother in the junk shop?" Theo asked with his arm still draped around Gwen.
"Yeah someone had cursed a cat statue and it went berserk in the shop, made a complete mess and tried to take a bite out of me."
"Who would curse a statue?" Gwen asked rather puzzled.
"I dunno," Barney replied. "But it was meant to be for a Professor Grim at Hogwarts, whoever they are."
"Must be a new teacher," Arlo summarised. "Maybe our new Dark Arts teacher?"
"I can't believe we're getting another new Dark Arts teacher," Gwen said. "We seem to have a new one every year."
"I hear that position is cursed. That's why no one lasts that long," Thomas said as he offered around a bag of sherbet fudge to everyone else.
"That's just a stupid rumour Thomas," Theo said. "I mean Professor Goodwill left to have a baby."
"Yeah but Professor Oxgrave had a breakdown and left after that Boggart showed him dying in his classroom," Thomas noted.
"And Madame Doonbar ended up in Azkaban after nearly killing a bus load of Muggles on our field trip to Stonehenge. And what about Professor Winters?" Arlo said, seeming to agree with Thomas' view that the position was indeed cursed.
"Technically Professor Winters never left Hogwarts," commented Barney as he took a piece of fudge from Thomas.
"Yeah but he managed to turn himself invisible and no one can see him now so he couldn't exactly teach anymore," Arlo said as he took a piece of fudge too.
"And poor Professor McDougall last year. I hear he's still in St Mungos," Thomas added and the compartment remained silent for a moment as they all thought about their past teachers and the fates they incurred.
The rest of the journey was spent eating sweets (they replenished their supplies when the lady with the trolley came past) and playing games such as Exploding Snap, Guess the Wizard and Knights Battle (where they had bewitched two knights pieces from a chess set to do battle and they would bet sweets on which one would win). Though Theo and Gwen didn't get involved much, too busy looking longingly into each other's eyes.
After a while, and bored of listening to Gwen and Theo telling each other what they liked about the other, Barney, Thomas and Arlo decided to take a wander along the train to stretch their legs and see who else they could find.
They walked further along the train, past packed carriages and came to the buffet car which was just as rammed.
"Fancy a chocolate soda?" Barney asked checking how much money he had in his pocket.
Thomas and Arlo managed to find an empty table and soon Barney came over with three chocolate sodas and took a seat with them.
"Thanks for this," Arlo said before taking a sip of his drink. "I don't think I could have taken much more of those two."
"I didn't realise they were so serious," commented Barney as noticed Thomas now had a foamy chocolate moustache from his drink and did a subtle hand gesture to his friend who quickly wiped his mouth.
"Yeah they've been spending loads of time together over summer. Been a bit awkward for me."
"You not still seeing Nora?" Barney asked.
"We've been writing to each other but she was in France with her family for the whole summer," he said sounding a little disappointed.
As they continued chatting a boy from Barney's house, Marek Dorn, entered the dining cart and having spotted them he walked over to say hello.
"Hey how's it going?" Marek said as he took a seat next to Barney. "You ready to join the Slytherin Quidditch team this year?"
Marek had been on the Slytherin Quidditch team as a chaser since his third year at Hogwarts. And in his first year on the team Slytherin had won the Quidditch Cup. However the following year they only managed runner up and last year they were joint last with Gryffindor after an unfortunate incident when one of their beaters sent a missed aimed Bludger into the crowd and knocked out Professor Sprout and had left them disqualified from their last match. So the team was in need of some new energy and a big morale boost.
"Yeah I've been practising as much as I can over the summer," Barney replied. "You don't think anyone else will be going for Seeker this year do you?" he said sounding a little nervous.
"No one on the team will be. And we're looking for a new chaser and beater this year as well. Most people will be trying out for those positions. Plus you're a great Seeker. You were just unlucky that that we had Corinne in Slytherin the same time as you and she was a great Seeker too."
Barney felt more hopeful but didn't want to get ahead of himself. Even though all summer he'd been thinking about nothing else but playing on the Slytherin team he still had to wait for try outs later in the month. For the last three years he'd been left disappointed at not making the first team. He didn't know if he could handle a fourth rejection.
They continued to discuss Quidditch with Barney and Marek convinced it was Slytherin's year to lift the cup and Arlo bigging up Gryffindor's chances this year but Thomas was quietly confident as Hufflepuff were favourite to win for the third year in a row.
As they chatted the door to the dinning car slid open and in strode the woman who had caused the train to freeze at the station. As she walked everyone in the carriage stopped what they were doing and turned to stare at her in silence. She approached a table and without even asking the students who were sat at it, got up and vacated it for her and she sat down and placed her bag on the seat beside her.
As the room started to go back to normal and students started to chat amongst themselves again Thomas, who was looking a little worried, turned to his friends.
"Who do you think she is?" he asked in a whisper, afraid that she might hear them talking about her.
"Don't you know?" Marek asked back sounding a little surprised.
"No, why? Should we?" Barney added as both Arlo and Thomas looked on just as in the dark as he was about her identity.
"That's Pandora Grim. She use to be an Auror but then she disappeared for a few years," Marek explained as the other listened intently. "Some say she went off to Europe, frustrated at the Ministry's tame punishment of Dark Wizards and took matters in her own hands and killed a bunch of wizards. But nothing was ever proven."
"And they want her to teacher us?" Thomas said with a very big nervous gulp.
"Well someone's definitely not happy about her appointment. They tried to send her a cursed statue," Barney added, again wondering who had tried to send it.
"Oh was that the incident in the junk shop? I heard about that," Marek said as there was commotion at the other side of the carriage that drew their attention.
The girl who had been trying to catch her cat in the corridor earlier had yet to get her pet under control. She was chasing it as it ran through the carriage and jumped up next to Pandora Grim and started scratching at her bag.
Pandora Grim looked furious and disgusted at the same time and drew her wand.
"Crucio" she sneered as she pointed her wand right at the cat.
The cat lifted off the seat and was suspended in the air. As it hung there it wailed a sound that was so distressing and some of the students had to cover their ears. The girl ran up to her cat and started to sob as she looked at it hanging in the air.
"Please stop!" she begged to Grim.
"Cat's are filthy animals. You should take care to keep it under control or who knows what terrible fate may befall it."
Grim lowered her wand and the cat dropped down into the girl's open arms who caught it. She ran from the carriage crying and cradling her cat as everyone else was silent, numb from shock of what they'd just witnessed.
Barney was just as stunned as everyone else and he was filled with dread at the thought of being taught by Professor Grim.