Scully groaned under Mulder's weight as he leaned on her, limping after having survived yet another encounter with the Consortium. "Why did we have to come to England?" she complained. "I mean, what was the point, Mulder?"
"Look, Scully," he said through gritted teeth. "They're back. The cigarette-smoking man cloned them… they're back."
"I'm not denying that," she replied, feeling irritated. "Who the hell told you about this?"
"I don't know," Mulder replied. "Just some guy who came to my apartment, telling me that he had important news."
"Great." Scully rolled her eyes as she helped him along, annoyed with him. "And you supposedly trust no one."
"Well, he was my first new informant in ages!" Mulder protested. "I was starting to miss having them around." He smiled and Scully just had to smile back.
"Fine Mulder, have it your way then." She checked her watch. "We have to catch our train."
A few minutes later, the two agents were in King's Cross Station, waiting for their train rather impatiently. Mulder eyed a rather frightening looking woman with a vulture hat, with quite some interest. "You can't say this place isn't interesting," he said.
"Yeah," Scully grumbled, cursing her stars. Sure, thanks to Mulder, she'd gotten to come to London. But some of these people didn't seem like the rest of the people at the station. "Come on," she said, tugging on Mulder's arm. "Platform 9."
Mulder let himself get dragged along, despite the sharp pain in his leg, as he examined everyone closely. Aliens? Could it be? They were probably trying to learn how to be human. Well, they weren't doing a very good job. Fox Mulder was onto them. If Scully weren't there, he would have rubbed his hands together, and laughed maniacally. But if he did that, she would probably have him locked up once and for all. No point doing that.
The two of them stood on the platform, Mulder still leaning on Scully to get the weight off his leg, while she was getting slightly crushed. However, she chose not to say a word. She wasn't in the mood.
Meanwhile, the vulture lady was inching towards them, frowning at a miserable looking round-faced boy. "Neville, you'll be the DEATH of me!" she boomed.
"Sorry, Grandmother," he stuttered.
"No," she admonished. "Not sorry. I'm surprised that you have the least bit of magic in you." She suddenly glanced at Mulder and Scully, her face reddening, as she said no more.
Mulder watched her with amusement, while Scully tried to move away, but with Mulder practically on top of her, she couldn't. "Oh yes," she mumbled. "Wonderful place. I am absolutely, positively THRILLED to be here." She was suddenly feeling rather cruel.
"Oh Scully, lighten up," he replied. "It's not a big deal."
"Mulder," she said, causing him to cower slightly. "We were FORCED to take two weeks off for working too much. I've wasted 3 of those days, looking for clones in England."
"But it's been interesting, hasn't it?" Mulder pleaded.
"Sure, fine, whatever…." She frowned. Mulder was too busy looking at a woman with a vulture on top of her head.
"Neville, the only reason I'm letting you out of the house is, because I'm hoping that school will knock some sense into you. So far it hasn't, but I'm still waiting."
"Yes Grandmother."
The old woman folded her arms, shooting a Scully a dirty look that looked exactly like the vulture. Scully forced a smile on her face, and then turned away.
Neville gazed miserably at his grandmother, while Mulder continued watching. What had the boy done? Meanwhile, the woman dropped a strange looking stick, a slightly polished one. Neville went to pick it up, mumbling something, when all of a sudden there was a flash of light.
Mulder and Scully felt themselves floating backwards, into a wall. Scully was screaming obscenities at Mulder, which he found were not necessary, and the two were hurled against the wall, everything going black.
A few seconds later, the duo found themselves sitting in the middle of the station, with a few people looking at them with concern. A boy with jet black, tousled hair (probably 15 or so) blinked at them worriedly. His green eyes seemed to drill holes through Scully's head as she examined the odd looking scar on his forehead. "Are you okay?" he asked.
"Yeah," Scully said, getting up, and nearly getting pulled back down as Mulder clutched her to steady himself, as he tried to stand up.
"Alright then." The boy smiled, expecting them to say something about his scar, but they didn't. Maybe they were foreigners. Their accents did sound American. But everyone was supposed to know… maybe they were sensible.
"Come on Harry!" a girl his age exclaimed impatiently. "We better get going!"
"Yeah, come on!" another boy yelled.
"I've got to go," the boy named Harry said, smiling. "The train's about to leave."
"Oh the train!" Scully exclaimed. "We have to go too." She yanked Mulder's arm, nearly pulling it out of its socket. "Come on Mulder."
"Oh," was all Harry could say. He decided that they must be teachers.
And Mulder and Scully got onboard, not realizing that they hadn't been on platform 9, but instead 9 and ¾. They also didn't realize that they were on the Hogwarts Express, ready to take an amazing journey to Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
******************
Scully sat back and relaxed on the train. She couldn't wait to go to the hotel, pack, and leave. She just wanted to go home, why couldn't her life ever be normal? At least this was a nice, normal train ride.
Mulder sat back as well, a little bored, since Scully wasn't really talking to him. Then he raised an eyebrow as Harry and his two friends came into the cabin, along with the round-faced boy who had been getting scolded by his formidable looking grandmother.
Harry smiled. "Hello."
Mulder nodded in reply. "Hello."
"You're going to get a howler for that one," the red haired boy told the round-faced one, Neville. "That flash… the ministry's going to have to work hard to convince the Muggles that nothing was wrong. And after getting in trouble with your grandmother – you're going to be in worse trouble now."
"Don't remind me," Neville moaned. "Grandmother's been very upset with me, it's already our fifth year, and I'm still making a big mess!"
Harry was frowning. "I wonder what will happen this year, I wonder if Voldemort will come for us."
The red-haired boy shuddered. "Must you say his name?" He plopped down on a seat. "So much happened last year…"
"Ron," the girl said. "It'll be alright. We'll all get through this and we're going to support Harry if anything happens."
Harry tried to smile. "Thank you."
"Let's not talk about this," Ron said, "there's no need to talk about it. We're just going to go back and go with the flow."
The girl nodded. "That's right." She glanced at Mulder and Scully, who were staring at the group of kids, with wide eyes. "Hello."
Mulder nodded in reply again. "Hello."
"Hi," Scully said, her eyes narrowing.
"This is Harry, Ron, and Neville," the girl said, pointing to her friends as she introduced them. "I'm Hermione."
"I'm Mulder, this is Scully."
The girl raised her eyebrow. "Those are interesting names."
Scully laughed. "Well, we just call each other by our last names. I'm Dana, you can call me whatever you want. However, he-" she jerked her thumb towards Mulder's direction "-may not like being called anything but Mulder."
Hermione gazed at Mulder, without saying a word. She stared at him for about two whole minutes, until Mulder looked away uncomfortably.
"Not another Gilderoy Lockhart," Ron whispered in Harry's ear, laughing. Hermione turned around and scowled, then sat down.
"So Professor Mulder," she said, "what will you be teaching this year?"
"No," he replied, laughing. "I'm not a professor, whatever gave you that idea?"
"Well," she answered, her face reddening, "most adults are professors of some kind in Hogwarts."
"Hogwarts?" Scully raised an eyebrow, glancing worriedly at Mulder. "What are you talking about?!?"
"Why, our school," Hermione replied simply. "It's Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Are you feeling alright Miss Scully?"
Scully smiled weakly. "Yes." However, she did sit back, a little farther away from the kids.
Ron nudged Harry. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say she was a Muggle."
Hermione elbowed Ron, causing him to shut his mouth. "So what are you doing on your way to our school?"
Mulder was gaping at her, wondering if this was true. This was strange, even for him. "We have to m-meet someone."
"Oh, are you going to meet Professor Dumbledore?"
"Sure, why not?"
The children narrowed their eyes, then sat huddled together, as Scully whispered to Mulder. "Mulder, don't even humor them. We don't have to deal with this right now, I mean, let's just sit here. And then we can get off the train when the time comes."
Meanwhile, Ron was whispering furiously to Hermione. "That is not a wizard or witch. They're Muggles. Don't you know one when you see one? Your parents are Muggles."
"Yes," she hissed, "but Muggles can't really get on here! They seem clueless, they couldn't have known about it, unless…" She glanced at Neville. "Oh no."
"Oh no what?" Neville seemed somewhat terrified.
"You might have caused that… that's why they were sitting in the middle of the platform."
"Oh, even Neville couldn't do something like that!" Harry replied with confidence. "Leave him alone, his grandmother's going to have a royal fit anyway!" Hermione glanced at Mulder and Scully, but kept her mouth shut, as she observed them.
At that moment, a smiling woman with a cartload of food, walked in. "Would you like anything dears?" Scully smiled gratefully, ready to get something, but then stopped abruptly when the kids fished around in their pockets, pulling out some strange bronze and silver coins.
"I'll have some Chocolate Frogs," Hermione said, with Neville asking for some as well.
"I'll have Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans," Harry chimed in
"Same here," Ron said eagerly, his face shining as the woman handed out the candy. She turned towards Mulder and Scully.
"Would you like some as well?"
Mulder reached in his pockets, pulled out some pounds, and held them out. "I'm not sure about these."
"Those wouldn't work sir," she said suspiciously. "You don't have any money, do you?" And she stopped smiling and wheeled her cart out of the cabin.
Mulder sat there, flabbergasted. What was going on? This was all like a very bad dream. The same thought was occurring to Scully, who was slightly hungry at the moment.
"I got Agrippa!" Hermione exclaimed excitedly, holding up a card.
"No way!" Ron cried out jealously. "I've been looking for that for YEARS! Well, some people have all the luck…. Could I possibly have it?"
"Ron!" Hermione seemed slightly irritated.
"Can I see that?" Scully asked, unable to take it anymore. Hermione handed it to her wordlessly; as Ron grumbled about how she wouldn't even let her own friends see it. Scully frowned as she examined the card. It was like a trading card, with some writing on it. She turned it around and gasped at the sight of a person smiling and waving at her. "Oh my God, Mulder?" He turned to her. "Look at this!" And she held the card out towards him, with her hand shaking.
"Look, Scully," he said through gritted teeth. "They're back. The cigarette-smoking man cloned them… they're back."
"I'm not denying that," she replied, feeling irritated. "Who the hell told you about this?"
"I don't know," Mulder replied. "Just some guy who came to my apartment, telling me that he had important news."
"Great." Scully rolled her eyes as she helped him along, annoyed with him. "And you supposedly trust no one."
"Well, he was my first new informant in ages!" Mulder protested. "I was starting to miss having them around." He smiled and Scully just had to smile back.
"Fine Mulder, have it your way then." She checked her watch. "We have to catch our train."
A few minutes later, the two agents were in King's Cross Station, waiting for their train rather impatiently. Mulder eyed a rather frightening looking woman with a vulture hat, with quite some interest. "You can't say this place isn't interesting," he said.
"Yeah," Scully grumbled, cursing her stars. Sure, thanks to Mulder, she'd gotten to come to London. But some of these people didn't seem like the rest of the people at the station. "Come on," she said, tugging on Mulder's arm. "Platform 9."
Mulder let himself get dragged along, despite the sharp pain in his leg, as he examined everyone closely. Aliens? Could it be? They were probably trying to learn how to be human. Well, they weren't doing a very good job. Fox Mulder was onto them. If Scully weren't there, he would have rubbed his hands together, and laughed maniacally. But if he did that, she would probably have him locked up once and for all. No point doing that.
The two of them stood on the platform, Mulder still leaning on Scully to get the weight off his leg, while she was getting slightly crushed. However, she chose not to say a word. She wasn't in the mood.
Meanwhile, the vulture lady was inching towards them, frowning at a miserable looking round-faced boy. "Neville, you'll be the DEATH of me!" she boomed.
"Sorry, Grandmother," he stuttered.
"No," she admonished. "Not sorry. I'm surprised that you have the least bit of magic in you." She suddenly glanced at Mulder and Scully, her face reddening, as she said no more.
Mulder watched her with amusement, while Scully tried to move away, but with Mulder practically on top of her, she couldn't. "Oh yes," she mumbled. "Wonderful place. I am absolutely, positively THRILLED to be here." She was suddenly feeling rather cruel.
"Oh Scully, lighten up," he replied. "It's not a big deal."
"Mulder," she said, causing him to cower slightly. "We were FORCED to take two weeks off for working too much. I've wasted 3 of those days, looking for clones in England."
"But it's been interesting, hasn't it?" Mulder pleaded.
"Sure, fine, whatever…." She frowned. Mulder was too busy looking at a woman with a vulture on top of her head.
"Neville, the only reason I'm letting you out of the house is, because I'm hoping that school will knock some sense into you. So far it hasn't, but I'm still waiting."
"Yes Grandmother."
The old woman folded her arms, shooting a Scully a dirty look that looked exactly like the vulture. Scully forced a smile on her face, and then turned away.
Neville gazed miserably at his grandmother, while Mulder continued watching. What had the boy done? Meanwhile, the woman dropped a strange looking stick, a slightly polished one. Neville went to pick it up, mumbling something, when all of a sudden there was a flash of light.
Mulder and Scully felt themselves floating backwards, into a wall. Scully was screaming obscenities at Mulder, which he found were not necessary, and the two were hurled against the wall, everything going black.
A few seconds later, the duo found themselves sitting in the middle of the station, with a few people looking at them with concern. A boy with jet black, tousled hair (probably 15 or so) blinked at them worriedly. His green eyes seemed to drill holes through Scully's head as she examined the odd looking scar on his forehead. "Are you okay?" he asked.
"Yeah," Scully said, getting up, and nearly getting pulled back down as Mulder clutched her to steady himself, as he tried to stand up.
"Alright then." The boy smiled, expecting them to say something about his scar, but they didn't. Maybe they were foreigners. Their accents did sound American. But everyone was supposed to know… maybe they were sensible.
"Come on Harry!" a girl his age exclaimed impatiently. "We better get going!"
"Yeah, come on!" another boy yelled.
"I've got to go," the boy named Harry said, smiling. "The train's about to leave."
"Oh the train!" Scully exclaimed. "We have to go too." She yanked Mulder's arm, nearly pulling it out of its socket. "Come on Mulder."
"Oh," was all Harry could say. He decided that they must be teachers.
And Mulder and Scully got onboard, not realizing that they hadn't been on platform 9, but instead 9 and ¾. They also didn't realize that they were on the Hogwarts Express, ready to take an amazing journey to Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
******************
Scully sat back and relaxed on the train. She couldn't wait to go to the hotel, pack, and leave. She just wanted to go home, why couldn't her life ever be normal? At least this was a nice, normal train ride.
Mulder sat back as well, a little bored, since Scully wasn't really talking to him. Then he raised an eyebrow as Harry and his two friends came into the cabin, along with the round-faced boy who had been getting scolded by his formidable looking grandmother.
Harry smiled. "Hello."
Mulder nodded in reply. "Hello."
"You're going to get a howler for that one," the red haired boy told the round-faced one, Neville. "That flash… the ministry's going to have to work hard to convince the Muggles that nothing was wrong. And after getting in trouble with your grandmother – you're going to be in worse trouble now."
"Don't remind me," Neville moaned. "Grandmother's been very upset with me, it's already our fifth year, and I'm still making a big mess!"
Harry was frowning. "I wonder what will happen this year, I wonder if Voldemort will come for us."
The red-haired boy shuddered. "Must you say his name?" He plopped down on a seat. "So much happened last year…"
"Ron," the girl said. "It'll be alright. We'll all get through this and we're going to support Harry if anything happens."
Harry tried to smile. "Thank you."
"Let's not talk about this," Ron said, "there's no need to talk about it. We're just going to go back and go with the flow."
The girl nodded. "That's right." She glanced at Mulder and Scully, who were staring at the group of kids, with wide eyes. "Hello."
Mulder nodded in reply again. "Hello."
"Hi," Scully said, her eyes narrowing.
"This is Harry, Ron, and Neville," the girl said, pointing to her friends as she introduced them. "I'm Hermione."
"I'm Mulder, this is Scully."
The girl raised her eyebrow. "Those are interesting names."
Scully laughed. "Well, we just call each other by our last names. I'm Dana, you can call me whatever you want. However, he-" she jerked her thumb towards Mulder's direction "-may not like being called anything but Mulder."
Hermione gazed at Mulder, without saying a word. She stared at him for about two whole minutes, until Mulder looked away uncomfortably.
"Not another Gilderoy Lockhart," Ron whispered in Harry's ear, laughing. Hermione turned around and scowled, then sat down.
"So Professor Mulder," she said, "what will you be teaching this year?"
"No," he replied, laughing. "I'm not a professor, whatever gave you that idea?"
"Well," she answered, her face reddening, "most adults are professors of some kind in Hogwarts."
"Hogwarts?" Scully raised an eyebrow, glancing worriedly at Mulder. "What are you talking about?!?"
"Why, our school," Hermione replied simply. "It's Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Are you feeling alright Miss Scully?"
Scully smiled weakly. "Yes." However, she did sit back, a little farther away from the kids.
Ron nudged Harry. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say she was a Muggle."
Hermione elbowed Ron, causing him to shut his mouth. "So what are you doing on your way to our school?"
Mulder was gaping at her, wondering if this was true. This was strange, even for him. "We have to m-meet someone."
"Oh, are you going to meet Professor Dumbledore?"
"Sure, why not?"
The children narrowed their eyes, then sat huddled together, as Scully whispered to Mulder. "Mulder, don't even humor them. We don't have to deal with this right now, I mean, let's just sit here. And then we can get off the train when the time comes."
Meanwhile, Ron was whispering furiously to Hermione. "That is not a wizard or witch. They're Muggles. Don't you know one when you see one? Your parents are Muggles."
"Yes," she hissed, "but Muggles can't really get on here! They seem clueless, they couldn't have known about it, unless…" She glanced at Neville. "Oh no."
"Oh no what?" Neville seemed somewhat terrified.
"You might have caused that… that's why they were sitting in the middle of the platform."
"Oh, even Neville couldn't do something like that!" Harry replied with confidence. "Leave him alone, his grandmother's going to have a royal fit anyway!" Hermione glanced at Mulder and Scully, but kept her mouth shut, as she observed them.
At that moment, a smiling woman with a cartload of food, walked in. "Would you like anything dears?" Scully smiled gratefully, ready to get something, but then stopped abruptly when the kids fished around in their pockets, pulling out some strange bronze and silver coins.
"I'll have some Chocolate Frogs," Hermione said, with Neville asking for some as well.
"I'll have Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans," Harry chimed in
"Same here," Ron said eagerly, his face shining as the woman handed out the candy. She turned towards Mulder and Scully.
"Would you like some as well?"
Mulder reached in his pockets, pulled out some pounds, and held them out. "I'm not sure about these."
"Those wouldn't work sir," she said suspiciously. "You don't have any money, do you?" And she stopped smiling and wheeled her cart out of the cabin.
Mulder sat there, flabbergasted. What was going on? This was all like a very bad dream. The same thought was occurring to Scully, who was slightly hungry at the moment.
"I got Agrippa!" Hermione exclaimed excitedly, holding up a card.
"No way!" Ron cried out jealously. "I've been looking for that for YEARS! Well, some people have all the luck…. Could I possibly have it?"
"Ron!" Hermione seemed slightly irritated.
"Can I see that?" Scully asked, unable to take it anymore. Hermione handed it to her wordlessly; as Ron grumbled about how she wouldn't even let her own friends see it. Scully frowned as she examined the card. It was like a trading card, with some writing on it. She turned it around and gasped at the sight of a person smiling and waving at her. "Oh my God, Mulder?" He turned to her. "Look at this!" And she held the card out towards him, with her hand shaking.