Chapter Two: The Sign in the Train Track
The room lit up, the source being his wand, and he pointed it at the group, shining it in their eyes. They shielded their faces and squinted, as he scoffed quietly.
"Well, well, well, I should have known." He said, and pointed his wand at the ground. "It's none other than our little celebrity and his fan club." He paused. "Although.. you seem to be missing one of your members. Where might miss Granger be?"
They looked amongst their group. Hermione was, in fact, missing. They exchanged glances worriedly; she had been there a moment ago. When Harry and Fae's eyes met, she jerked them to the door of a nearby closet, trying to be inconspicuous. He looked at her inquisitively and she barely mouthed the word 'closet', and he nodded slightly.
"Hermione's back in the compartment." Fae spoke up.
Snape looked at her and raised an eyebrow. "And you've gained a new fan club member. How delightful." Fae didn't say anything. "She's back in the compartment, is she? Well, while I return you, I'm sure you wouldn't mind showing her to me. Must be cautious, you know."
Fae folded her arms. "She's changing into her robes. She sent us out here and then the train stopped, so we came to see what was happening."
Snape didn't say anything, and looked at her long and hard. She looked back, and he finally nodded slowly. "I suggest that you get back to your quarters and wait outside then. I'll be out here, so don't even try sneaking back."
"Sir." Fae nodded, and they started to walk back. Once they were in the next car, with the door shut behind them, Ron turned to Harry.
"Are you all right, Harry?" he questioned. "You were grabbing your forehead again."
The nearly black-haired boy nodded. "Yes, I'm alright. It's just.. my scar. It was bothering me again." Ginny looked up at him worriedly.
"Doesn't that mean.You-Know-Who is near?" she questioned.
Harry shook his head. "Nah, nothing to worry about, Ginny. Besides, I'm fine. It doesn't really hurt any more. It was probably just a headache."
They reached the door of their compartment, and stopped before going inside. Fred turned to Fae, an inquisitive look
"Where is Hermione?" he asked.
She nodded with a sly grin on her face. "The girl jumped into the closet we were standing next to. She's hiding in there now, and I suppose that once Snape's gone, she's going to go have a look-see at what caused the train to stop."
"Nice work, Herm," Ron congratulated to no one in particular, seemingly amazed by her act of intelligence.
"Don't you think it's a little pathetic when a mudblood has to save your skins?" came Draco's voice. Nobody even bothered to turn around to see where the speaker was.
"You just love the surprise entrance, don't you." Fae said to herself, flipping her hair irritably.
Footsteps were heard behind them and Draco walked around to face them. In the darkness, he took out his wand and preformed the Lumos spell also. This revealed two other people standing behind him; neither of them looked exactly what you would call intelligent. Ginny backed up behind Harry. No matter where she was, Draco always had a way of making her feel uncomfortable, even when he wasn't addressing her.
"How long were you standing there?" Harry demanded, staring daggers at the bleach-blonde. He stepped forward subconsciously and put an arm out over Ginny. She felt herself go red and hoped that everyone was paying attention to Draco.
"Long enough Potter." He said, briefly looking over Harry like he was a bug. "And you're going to tell me what's going on."
Fae looked excited for a minute. "Hey! Let's.." her face fell, "not and say we did." She started to walk past him. The others followed, but Draco grabbed her arm.
"Ah, Fae. Didn't see you there."
I was hoping we could keep it that way, she thought. Draco turned to the two not-so-smart-looking boys behind him.
"This is who I was telling you about." He said, and they only nodded. He turned back to Fae, and she wriggled out of his grasp. "This is Crabbe. And this is Goyle." The two nodded in her direction, attempting to master the same smirk as Draco.
"Charmed." Fae mumbled. She didn't even really know them, but she had the rather accurate idea that they had to be pretty lame to hang around with someone as conceited and inconsiderate as Mr Draco.
More footsteps were heard behind them, heavier this time. It was Snape. He opened the door and stopped in his tracks. Ron sighed, knowing that this would most likely land them in some more trouble.
Snape raised an eyebrow. "If I'm correct, I think that you said you were heading back to your corridors." He seemed to completely disregard the three Slytherins (his own house). "It's a shame to be doing this before the school year has even officially started, but," he paused. "Five points subtracted from the Gryffindor House."
"But that's not fair! Malfoy's been-" Ron argued, but was cut off by Snape.
"Ten points. I assume you wish to go no further?"
Ron opened his mouth to argue again, but Harry stepped on his foot. The boy had become quite headstrong over the summer, so it seemed. The other Gryffindors were a little worried to see how many point deductions the year had in store.
"See back to your compartments." He looked at the Slytherins. "You too."
The Gryffindors looked at each other. How were they going to open the door if Hermione was supposedly in there? Snape was most likely going to wait and see if they weren't lying. And of course, Hermione was not in the room. They would be caught for sure!
Ron reached for the handle..
Suddenly, the door to the cart opened behind them and Hagrid's big bushy- hair-and-bearded head poked in. "Snape.we need yeh back out 'ere, Professor McGonagall needs ter speak ter yeh."
The others held their breath, and Harry could feel Draco glaring holes in the back of his head. Snape finally sighed irritably, and with the swish of his cloak, turned around and strode past Hagrid coldly. The extremely tall man winked at Harry and he nodded back, an appreciative smile covering his face. Hagrid turned back around and retraced Snape's steps, shutting the door behind him.
"Thank you, Hagrid.." Fred cooed and laughed, then turned around and ended up face to face with Crabbe. Or was it Goyle? He couldn't tell; they both looked like they lacked an extremely large amount of intelligence.
Draco was looking at Harry with disgust. "Listen, Potter." He spat. "I'll catch you one day, and your friend Hagrid won't be there to save your tails. I have it on my personal to-do list to rid Hogwarts of people like you and your little mudblood friends."
Harry shrugged coolly. "Well, have fun trying Malfoy, because I'll be here for a long, long."-his face inches from the other boy, he smiled-"long time."
Draco glared and watched them go into their compartment. He huffed angrily, involuntarily blowing a stray strand of his hair out of his face.
"Think whatever you like, Potter. I'll get you this year!" He called into the shut door, and received a lowering of the blind from the other side. He sighed, even more angrily this time, and stormed off to find the rest of the Slytherins. Crabbe and Goyle exchanged glances before Draco turned around and ordered them to follow him, and they obeyed.
+ + +
"It's been an hour. Where'd Hermione get to?" Ginny finally said, breaking the silence in the compartment.
Harry sighed and leaned his head back. "I don't know. Did she say how long she was going to be?" he asked Fae.
She shook her head. "She didn't really have time to.. Snape was walking through the door. I'm just glad I didn't ask any questions and figured it out a second later."
They had all changed into their robes one at a time, which was a very slow process. The others had to wait out in the hall while one of them changed, and then came out, and the next person went in. They had a hard time keeping the twins from 'accidentally' opening the door on whoever was changing at the time. Harry was right; it had been nearly an hour, and the train still wasn't moving. They hadn't received any information, but while waiting out in the hall, realized that the lights had come back on, and found the blinds to all the windows sealed down by magic.
"Whatever it is," Ron had said thoughtfully, "They obviously don't want us to see it."
"Ooooh, can't NOTHIN' get past you, Ron!" Fred had exclaimed loudly afterwards, and George grabbed his younger brother in a headlock.
But either way, they ended up sitting in a still non-moving train for an hour, and it was beginning to become quite hot. Fae shed her robes and dropped them by her side, then looked down at her school uniform.
"I can't believe I have to wear a skirt," she mumbled, and again fooled with the blind on the window. It was still marked with magic and unable to open. She sighed, and wondered when they were going to be told what was going on.
Suddenly, a voice came over the speakers in each compartment, causing them all to jump:
"Attention students, attention students. This is Professor McGonagall. We have been experiencing some difficulties with the transportation, but all should be fixed within a matter of minutes. We apologize for the delay, and we should be arriving at Hogwarts within the next hour or so. Thank you." There was a click, and everyone exchanged glances, and then lunged at the window.
The blinds still wouldn't rise. Fred sighed irritably and took out his wand. "I'm about bloody sick of this. Ginny didn't have time to stop him; he pointed the wand at the window and yelled, "Incendio!"
A spark of fire shot out of the tip of his wand, and struck the blind. It immediately flapped up and revealed the hilly, dark surroundings.
"Dumb-ass!" Ginny exclaimed, "We're not supposed to do that! You're going to get us into trouble." She tugged on her brother's arm. "I don't want any other points taken away from us already. We haven't even reached Hogwarts yet!"
Harry suddenly let out a yelp, and clasped his hand over his scar again. Ginny's speech was immediately forgotten, and they all turned to the green- eyed boy. George was busy opening the window and looking around.
"Again?" Ron asked, with looks of sympathy in his eyes. Harry could barely nod.
"Holy cricket!" Fred suddenly bellowed. He was now hanging halfway out the window, and they had to grab his legs to keep him from falling out with shock. "Look outside!"
They crowded around the window, and gasped. The tracks before them were completely broken off, and their pieces were hanging in the air to form the words Harry, Avada Kedavera.
They gasped and Harry fell back into the car, landing hard and pressing both hands over his head. Ron turned around.
"Harry!" he exclaimed, and kneeled by him. "Harry! What's wrong?"
Fae stood over him. "It's his scar. Something about what we just saw set it off. What does that mean? Ava-"
Fred cut her off, putting his hand over her mouth. Just for Harry to hear the words that killed his parents so many years ago, he knew, would definitely bring back some bad thoughts. She looked at him confusedly and he let her go.
"It's one of the unforgivable curses. It's the killing curse." He said grimly, stealing a glance at Harry. "Whatever, or whoever, you cast it on..will die."
Fae still looked confused. "But what does that have to do with Harry?"
Ron was still kneeling by his side. "Don't they add up? Harry's scar only hurts him when You-Know-Who is near. And someone wrote the killing curse, with his name next to it." He looked down at the writhing boy and George shut the window. "Someone's trying to kill Harry."
+ + +
"Attention students. Thank you for your time and cooperation. The.. dilemma has been fixed early, and we'll be reaching Hogwarts within the next half hour. Please see to it that your robes are on, we will be arriving shortly. Thank you."
Ron sighed. "It's about time." He said, and stretched out.
Just then, the door swung open, and there stood Hermione. Fae jumped to her feet and ran to her, crushing her with a hug. "Hermione!" she exclaimed, squeezing her tightly. "What took you so long?"
She was breathing heavily and had a crazed look in her eye. "I have been.. in that closet.. for two.. hours." She said, breathing heavily between her words.
Fred and George laughed with amusement and she shot them a glaring look. She then saw Harry, still rubbing his scar.
"You saw." She said, seating herself next to him, and he nodded. "I heard the professors talking.. they're very worried. They think that," she paused, "They think that You-Know-Who has found his way back to the school again."
"Every bloody year!" The twins exclaimed at the same time.
Hermione nodded. "Either that or one of his followers at least. Harry, just how bad is your scar hurting?"
"Bad." He said. "I was looking out the window and it hit me so hard I fell on the floor."
She bit her lip, and Ron met her eyes. She sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. "Sounds like You-Know-Who." She finally said bleakly.
Fae looked very lost. "I don't understand. What does V-I mean, You-Know- Who, have to do with Hogwarts?"
Ron stared. "You're very sheltered, aren't you?" he exclaimed, before he could help himself. Fae stared daggers at him and Hermione gave him a let- me-handle-this look. He raised his hands in defense and sunk back into his seat. Hermione turned to Fae.
Fae's gray eyes went wide. "But why would he want to do a think like that?"
Hermione lowered her voice to a whisper again. "Well, because Harry's the boy who lived." She received another blank stare.
"As opposed to..? What, the boy who die-"
She received a hand planted firmly over her mouth. "Shhh! Fae! You.. do know about what happened with Harry when he was a baby, don't you?" More staring.
"Good God, you really ARE sheltered!" George exclaimed; he had been eavesdropping.
"George!" everyone shouted, and Fred punched him in the arm. Hermione rolled her eyes and leaned in to explain what had happened to the boy with the emerald eyes.
+ + +
When she had finished her story, Fae was wide-eyed. She looked over at Harry. He was now asleep, and he looked like he was having some kind of disturbing dream. Hermione nodded.
"Yes.but best you don't bring it up to him. And just treat him like you would any other boy. He gets a little self-conscious when everyone stares at his scar."
Fae nodded vigorously. "Aye, sure thing." She said, and cast another glance at him.
+ + +
The door swung open, revealing a very excited-looking Neville Longbottom.
"Neville!" the male half (minus Harry) of the group exclaimed. He was showered with questions of how his summer was, and how he was doing, etc. However, they were all ignored.
"We're here!" he said, and ran off to tell as many people as possible.
The room lit up, the source being his wand, and he pointed it at the group, shining it in their eyes. They shielded their faces and squinted, as he scoffed quietly.
"Well, well, well, I should have known." He said, and pointed his wand at the ground. "It's none other than our little celebrity and his fan club." He paused. "Although.. you seem to be missing one of your members. Where might miss Granger be?"
They looked amongst their group. Hermione was, in fact, missing. They exchanged glances worriedly; she had been there a moment ago. When Harry and Fae's eyes met, she jerked them to the door of a nearby closet, trying to be inconspicuous. He looked at her inquisitively and she barely mouthed the word 'closet', and he nodded slightly.
"Hermione's back in the compartment." Fae spoke up.
Snape looked at her and raised an eyebrow. "And you've gained a new fan club member. How delightful." Fae didn't say anything. "She's back in the compartment, is she? Well, while I return you, I'm sure you wouldn't mind showing her to me. Must be cautious, you know."
Fae folded her arms. "She's changing into her robes. She sent us out here and then the train stopped, so we came to see what was happening."
Snape didn't say anything, and looked at her long and hard. She looked back, and he finally nodded slowly. "I suggest that you get back to your quarters and wait outside then. I'll be out here, so don't even try sneaking back."
"Sir." Fae nodded, and they started to walk back. Once they were in the next car, with the door shut behind them, Ron turned to Harry.
"Are you all right, Harry?" he questioned. "You were grabbing your forehead again."
The nearly black-haired boy nodded. "Yes, I'm alright. It's just.. my scar. It was bothering me again." Ginny looked up at him worriedly.
"Doesn't that mean.You-Know-Who is near?" she questioned.
Harry shook his head. "Nah, nothing to worry about, Ginny. Besides, I'm fine. It doesn't really hurt any more. It was probably just a headache."
They reached the door of their compartment, and stopped before going inside. Fred turned to Fae, an inquisitive look
"Where is Hermione?" he asked.
She nodded with a sly grin on her face. "The girl jumped into the closet we were standing next to. She's hiding in there now, and I suppose that once Snape's gone, she's going to go have a look-see at what caused the train to stop."
"Nice work, Herm," Ron congratulated to no one in particular, seemingly amazed by her act of intelligence.
"Don't you think it's a little pathetic when a mudblood has to save your skins?" came Draco's voice. Nobody even bothered to turn around to see where the speaker was.
"You just love the surprise entrance, don't you." Fae said to herself, flipping her hair irritably.
Footsteps were heard behind them and Draco walked around to face them. In the darkness, he took out his wand and preformed the Lumos spell also. This revealed two other people standing behind him; neither of them looked exactly what you would call intelligent. Ginny backed up behind Harry. No matter where she was, Draco always had a way of making her feel uncomfortable, even when he wasn't addressing her.
"How long were you standing there?" Harry demanded, staring daggers at the bleach-blonde. He stepped forward subconsciously and put an arm out over Ginny. She felt herself go red and hoped that everyone was paying attention to Draco.
"Long enough Potter." He said, briefly looking over Harry like he was a bug. "And you're going to tell me what's going on."
Fae looked excited for a minute. "Hey! Let's.." her face fell, "not and say we did." She started to walk past him. The others followed, but Draco grabbed her arm.
"Ah, Fae. Didn't see you there."
I was hoping we could keep it that way, she thought. Draco turned to the two not-so-smart-looking boys behind him.
"This is who I was telling you about." He said, and they only nodded. He turned back to Fae, and she wriggled out of his grasp. "This is Crabbe. And this is Goyle." The two nodded in her direction, attempting to master the same smirk as Draco.
"Charmed." Fae mumbled. She didn't even really know them, but she had the rather accurate idea that they had to be pretty lame to hang around with someone as conceited and inconsiderate as Mr Draco.
More footsteps were heard behind them, heavier this time. It was Snape. He opened the door and stopped in his tracks. Ron sighed, knowing that this would most likely land them in some more trouble.
Snape raised an eyebrow. "If I'm correct, I think that you said you were heading back to your corridors." He seemed to completely disregard the three Slytherins (his own house). "It's a shame to be doing this before the school year has even officially started, but," he paused. "Five points subtracted from the Gryffindor House."
"But that's not fair! Malfoy's been-" Ron argued, but was cut off by Snape.
"Ten points. I assume you wish to go no further?"
Ron opened his mouth to argue again, but Harry stepped on his foot. The boy had become quite headstrong over the summer, so it seemed. The other Gryffindors were a little worried to see how many point deductions the year had in store.
"See back to your compartments." He looked at the Slytherins. "You too."
The Gryffindors looked at each other. How were they going to open the door if Hermione was supposedly in there? Snape was most likely going to wait and see if they weren't lying. And of course, Hermione was not in the room. They would be caught for sure!
Ron reached for the handle..
Suddenly, the door to the cart opened behind them and Hagrid's big bushy- hair-and-bearded head poked in. "Snape.we need yeh back out 'ere, Professor McGonagall needs ter speak ter yeh."
The others held their breath, and Harry could feel Draco glaring holes in the back of his head. Snape finally sighed irritably, and with the swish of his cloak, turned around and strode past Hagrid coldly. The extremely tall man winked at Harry and he nodded back, an appreciative smile covering his face. Hagrid turned back around and retraced Snape's steps, shutting the door behind him.
"Thank you, Hagrid.." Fred cooed and laughed, then turned around and ended up face to face with Crabbe. Or was it Goyle? He couldn't tell; they both looked like they lacked an extremely large amount of intelligence.
Draco was looking at Harry with disgust. "Listen, Potter." He spat. "I'll catch you one day, and your friend Hagrid won't be there to save your tails. I have it on my personal to-do list to rid Hogwarts of people like you and your little mudblood friends."
Harry shrugged coolly. "Well, have fun trying Malfoy, because I'll be here for a long, long."-his face inches from the other boy, he smiled-"long time."
Draco glared and watched them go into their compartment. He huffed angrily, involuntarily blowing a stray strand of his hair out of his face.
"Think whatever you like, Potter. I'll get you this year!" He called into the shut door, and received a lowering of the blind from the other side. He sighed, even more angrily this time, and stormed off to find the rest of the Slytherins. Crabbe and Goyle exchanged glances before Draco turned around and ordered them to follow him, and they obeyed.
+ + +
"It's been an hour. Where'd Hermione get to?" Ginny finally said, breaking the silence in the compartment.
Harry sighed and leaned his head back. "I don't know. Did she say how long she was going to be?" he asked Fae.
She shook her head. "She didn't really have time to.. Snape was walking through the door. I'm just glad I didn't ask any questions and figured it out a second later."
They had all changed into their robes one at a time, which was a very slow process. The others had to wait out in the hall while one of them changed, and then came out, and the next person went in. They had a hard time keeping the twins from 'accidentally' opening the door on whoever was changing at the time. Harry was right; it had been nearly an hour, and the train still wasn't moving. They hadn't received any information, but while waiting out in the hall, realized that the lights had come back on, and found the blinds to all the windows sealed down by magic.
"Whatever it is," Ron had said thoughtfully, "They obviously don't want us to see it."
"Ooooh, can't NOTHIN' get past you, Ron!" Fred had exclaimed loudly afterwards, and George grabbed his younger brother in a headlock.
But either way, they ended up sitting in a still non-moving train for an hour, and it was beginning to become quite hot. Fae shed her robes and dropped them by her side, then looked down at her school uniform.
"I can't believe I have to wear a skirt," she mumbled, and again fooled with the blind on the window. It was still marked with magic and unable to open. She sighed, and wondered when they were going to be told what was going on.
Suddenly, a voice came over the speakers in each compartment, causing them all to jump:
"Attention students, attention students. This is Professor McGonagall. We have been experiencing some difficulties with the transportation, but all should be fixed within a matter of minutes. We apologize for the delay, and we should be arriving at Hogwarts within the next hour or so. Thank you." There was a click, and everyone exchanged glances, and then lunged at the window.
The blinds still wouldn't rise. Fred sighed irritably and took out his wand. "I'm about bloody sick of this. Ginny didn't have time to stop him; he pointed the wand at the window and yelled, "Incendio!"
A spark of fire shot out of the tip of his wand, and struck the blind. It immediately flapped up and revealed the hilly, dark surroundings.
"Dumb-ass!" Ginny exclaimed, "We're not supposed to do that! You're going to get us into trouble." She tugged on her brother's arm. "I don't want any other points taken away from us already. We haven't even reached Hogwarts yet!"
Harry suddenly let out a yelp, and clasped his hand over his scar again. Ginny's speech was immediately forgotten, and they all turned to the green- eyed boy. George was busy opening the window and looking around.
"Again?" Ron asked, with looks of sympathy in his eyes. Harry could barely nod.
"Holy cricket!" Fred suddenly bellowed. He was now hanging halfway out the window, and they had to grab his legs to keep him from falling out with shock. "Look outside!"
They crowded around the window, and gasped. The tracks before them were completely broken off, and their pieces were hanging in the air to form the words Harry, Avada Kedavera.
They gasped and Harry fell back into the car, landing hard and pressing both hands over his head. Ron turned around.
"Harry!" he exclaimed, and kneeled by him. "Harry! What's wrong?"
Fae stood over him. "It's his scar. Something about what we just saw set it off. What does that mean? Ava-"
Fred cut her off, putting his hand over her mouth. Just for Harry to hear the words that killed his parents so many years ago, he knew, would definitely bring back some bad thoughts. She looked at him confusedly and he let her go.
"It's one of the unforgivable curses. It's the killing curse." He said grimly, stealing a glance at Harry. "Whatever, or whoever, you cast it on..will die."
Fae still looked confused. "But what does that have to do with Harry?"
Ron was still kneeling by his side. "Don't they add up? Harry's scar only hurts him when You-Know-Who is near. And someone wrote the killing curse, with his name next to it." He looked down at the writhing boy and George shut the window. "Someone's trying to kill Harry."
+ + +
"Attention students. Thank you for your time and cooperation. The.. dilemma has been fixed early, and we'll be reaching Hogwarts within the next half hour. Please see to it that your robes are on, we will be arriving shortly. Thank you."
Ron sighed. "It's about time." He said, and stretched out.
Just then, the door swung open, and there stood Hermione. Fae jumped to her feet and ran to her, crushing her with a hug. "Hermione!" she exclaimed, squeezing her tightly. "What took you so long?"
She was breathing heavily and had a crazed look in her eye. "I have been.. in that closet.. for two.. hours." She said, breathing heavily between her words.
Fred and George laughed with amusement and she shot them a glaring look. She then saw Harry, still rubbing his scar.
"You saw." She said, seating herself next to him, and he nodded. "I heard the professors talking.. they're very worried. They think that," she paused, "They think that You-Know-Who has found his way back to the school again."
"Every bloody year!" The twins exclaimed at the same time.
Hermione nodded. "Either that or one of his followers at least. Harry, just how bad is your scar hurting?"
"Bad." He said. "I was looking out the window and it hit me so hard I fell on the floor."
She bit her lip, and Ron met her eyes. She sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. "Sounds like You-Know-Who." She finally said bleakly.
Fae looked very lost. "I don't understand. What does V-I mean, You-Know- Who, have to do with Hogwarts?"
Ron stared. "You're very sheltered, aren't you?" he exclaimed, before he could help himself. Fae stared daggers at him and Hermione gave him a let- me-handle-this look. He raised his hands in defense and sunk back into his seat. Hermione turned to Fae.
Fae's gray eyes went wide. "But why would he want to do a think like that?"
Hermione lowered her voice to a whisper again. "Well, because Harry's the boy who lived." She received another blank stare.
"As opposed to..? What, the boy who die-"
She received a hand planted firmly over her mouth. "Shhh! Fae! You.. do know about what happened with Harry when he was a baby, don't you?" More staring.
"Good God, you really ARE sheltered!" George exclaimed; he had been eavesdropping.
"George!" everyone shouted, and Fred punched him in the arm. Hermione rolled her eyes and leaned in to explain what had happened to the boy with the emerald eyes.
+ + +
When she had finished her story, Fae was wide-eyed. She looked over at Harry. He was now asleep, and he looked like he was having some kind of disturbing dream. Hermione nodded.
"Yes.but best you don't bring it up to him. And just treat him like you would any other boy. He gets a little self-conscious when everyone stares at his scar."
Fae nodded vigorously. "Aye, sure thing." She said, and cast another glance at him.
+ + +
The door swung open, revealing a very excited-looking Neville Longbottom.
"Neville!" the male half (minus Harry) of the group exclaimed. He was showered with questions of how his summer was, and how he was doing, etc. However, they were all ignored.
"We're here!" he said, and ran off to tell as many people as possible.