Chapter 6: Return to King's Cross
When they arrived at the station, there were at least a hundred witches and wizards just casually standing outside platform 9 3/4. Harry saw Seamus Finnagan, another Gryffindor 5th year and went to talk to him.
"Hi, Seamus."
"Hey, Harry, what's up?"
"I should ask you the same thing, why isn't anyone going in?"
"The gate's been blocked."
"What? How?"
"I don't know, but someone has said Dumbledor is coming to clear it up."
"Well I guess that's better." Harry said, feeling a little depressed at the thought of having to stand around with all these muggles just staring at them. But he did cheer up a bit when he thought of what the Dursley's would do if they caught sight of such a collaboration of magical folk.
When Harry saw Ron staring in utter shock at something coming towards them, he thought for a fleeting second that it might be Voldemort coming to kill them all, but when he looked in the same direction he saw the explanation; a tall and quite beautiful girl walking toward them. She was obviously a witch, judging by the Hogwarts trunk on her trolley, but there was something familiar about the bushy hair, and the bow-legged cat.
"Hermione?" Ron said in complete disbelief.
"Hi Ron, Harry." Ron then did something strange. He held himself up as if he were trying to impress someone, and he also seemed to take pride in the fact that Hermione had said his name first.
"Hello, Hermione." Ron said, in an unusually deep voice.
"Why isn't anyone going in?" she asked, laughing a little at Ron's foolish behavior. She touched Harry's arm, and was pleased at the reaction it brought about from Ron.
"Well, there's a slight problem with the gate, but it's under control, and someone will be out to fix it soon." He said, with a very knowlegable air.
Suddenly an old homeless man walked up behind them, covered in old, tatered robes,and walked straight passed them onto the barrier between gates 9 and 10. He put his hand up on the wall and left it there for a few seconds. He then let his hand pass completely into the wall just before stepping completely through himself. Immidiately the first twenty or so people stepped through, gaurded by the mass of people gathered around them. Eventually, Harry and the rest were able to step through. The old hobo was standing next to the gate, assuring himself that all were passing through safely. His hood was pulled back to reveal--
"Dumbledor, thank you." said Mrs. Weasley
"It's no problem, Molly." He said with a cheerful tone. "There was a slight mixup. The gate was set to let people pass tomorrow, not today. I simply had to reset the spell for today."
"Well, it was very nice of you. Will you be riding the train with the rest of the students?"
"No, I'm going to apparate to Hogsmead station as soon as the train leaves with everyone safely aboard."
"Oh, well, I guess that's okay."
"Yes, I'm sure it is." He said, with his amiable chuckle.
They found an empty compartment and stored their things. Harry immidiately went down the train in search of the witch with the snack trolley so he colud get some pumpkin juice for his seemingly unquenchable thirst. about half-way down, he saw Draco Malfoy sitting in a compartment with Crabbe and Goyle, looking completely dejected and not at all himself.
"Draco?" Harry asked, feeling a little sorry for the wretched figure.
"What do you want, Potter?" he said, with a hint of hatred, but not near as much as he usually reserved for just Harry.
"Nothing, I guess. just wondering why you were looking so....so.....not you." He said. Then he remembered what had transpired at the World Cup, and realized that Draco's Father was now locked away in Azkaban. Draco seemed to notice Harry's realization on his face.
"Oh, figured it out, have you?" With a lot more of that old hatred that made Harry wonder why he had ever felt pity for him. "My father is in wizard prison because of you, Potter."
"No, Malfoy, he's in prison because he sided with the wrong wizard, and you know it!" Harry retorted, with the same amount of hatred, but at least a more controlled anger.
"Potter, you have no idea the pain I can-" He stopped short, seeing the fire in Harry's eyes that matched so closely the fire everyone had, in the past, seen in Dumbledor's.
"Malfoy, you have no idea the pain I can withstand. If you want to threaten me, why don't you do when you're ready to stand up to the words you put out. Otherwise, you keep your mouth shut." He said in such a commanding tone that Malfoy closed his mouth tight, and gave a repremanding look to Goyle when he acted as if he were going to hit Harry.
"Have a nice day." Harry said, and kept walking. He went another six or seven compartments until he found the witch with the trolley and got what he needed. Then he headed back to his friends, with a strange pleasure at the fact that Malfoy had closed and locked his door. But, as he thought about on his way back, it was better not to go down the road of threats and overpowerment; it was better to be on the fair side.
As he came up to his compartment, he noticed the door was shut,and there was a strange sound coming from within. It sounded like grunting and ruffling. He thought there was a fight, or something. He opened te door to see a very ruffled Ron and Hermione sitting across from eachother, with a look that said they did something wrong.
"You two haven't been fighting, have you?" Harry said, apparently completely oblivious.
"No, not exactly." Hermione said, a little amused by Harry's ignorance.
"Well, whatever it was, stop it. I have some important things to tell you."
"Okay, Harry, let's talk." said Hermione, going into the serious mood she always used when talking about 'important' things with Harry.
He then launched into the full story of the events that transpired at the Quidditch World Cup, including teh phony letter that got him there.
"Let's start with the letter." Hermione said, trying as she always did to make sense of everything that happened to Harry. "Why did he send it through Dumbledor?"
"I think that was the only true part of the letter. He really didn't know how to reach me. He had to send it through Dumbledor. But why didn't he figure out that it was fake?"
"I think he did." Hermione said, as a thought occured to her. "He knew it was fake, but he sent it anyway with Sirius and Lupin so they could deliver it without being followed. Then Sirius went with you to provide protection along the way. I'm sure that when you were at the match, there was more protection than just Dumbledor with you. They just got past it, and Dumbledor was their last line of defense." Once again, she had made perfect sense of everything.
"Yeah, that does sound good. I'm just glad that Dumbledor has come up with anti-Death spell charm." Harry said
"I'm not so sure he did." Said Hermione. "What was it he said to you about how he caught the Death Eaters?"
"He said 'sometimes the simplest spells are the most effective' or something like that."
"And what was the spell he used to counter the Death spell?"
"Reteso, Reteska, something like that."
"Retexo?"
"Yes. That's exactly it. How did you know?"
"Because, it's a very simple spell. It's just a spell-reversal charm."
"No, it can't be." Harry said, in disbelief that such a simple charm could undo so devestating a curse.
"Yes, it can. Watch. Here, Ron, you try to hit me with a full body bind."
"Okay, then." He stood up and pointed his wand at Hermione's legs. He got distracted staring at her legs.
"Ron!" Hermione yelled, a little embarased.
"Right, sorry. Uh, Petrificus Totalus!" He yelled
"Retexo!" She yelled, and a silver light came out of her wandand disappeared half-way to Ron's wand, apparantly countering Ron's spell, and she was never affected.
"But his light was white." Harry said
"Well Dumbledor's a bit more powerful than I am, isn't he?"
"Well, yes, I guess that makes sense." Harry said.
Suddenly there came a knock at the door.
"Hello?" Harry said, not wanting to open the door to anyone he didn't know.
"Harry? It's me, Seamus." came the voice on the other side.
"Oh, okay, I'm coming." He said, and went to open the door. Bu twhen he did so, Seamus seemed to be moving very stifly, as if he didn't want to take the next step. He raised his arm with wand in hand, although he really seemed to be fighting his own movements.
"Av....Ava..Avvvvv." He was really fighting to not say the words.
"Desino!" Came Dumbledor's voice from the right of Seamus, and he fell to the ground in a dead faint.
Dumbledor came around the corner and lifted Seamus onto the couch inside.
"Professor?" Hermione said in dismay. "I thought you said you wern't riding the train."
"I wasn't. I apparated here when I saw Harry was in trouble."
"How did you see that?" Ron asked.
"I have my ways." He said with the same mischevious grin Fred and George use when talking about their map of Hogwarts. "Anyway, I'm sorry I couldn't have come faster, but I had to leave Hogwarts grounds before I could Apparate. So let's be glad Seamus here was strong enough to resist the Imperius Curse for that long, or Harry wouldn't have had a chance."
"He was under the Imperius Curse?" Hermione asked.
"Yes, by one of Voldemort's Death Eaters, no doubt. That spell I used is designed to end any lasting spell such as that. Harry, I need to teach you how to use the Retexo charm to reverse those kinds of things."
"I don't think I can learn to make it as powerful as you did very soon."
"You learned the Patronus spell within one year, didn't you?" Dumbledor said with a bit of pride.
"Well, yes. I did do that." Harry said, a bit embarased.
"Yes, you did. I bet I can teach you to make it very powerful within three weeks. Especially if you have this." He held out a wand.
"Why do you have my wand?" Harry asked, grabbing it quickly.
"I don't. If you'll check your pockets, you'll find that your wand is exactly as you left it."
Harry reached into his pocket and pulled out his wand, just were he had put it. He examined the second wand carefuly, and came to the conclusion that they were the exact same wands.
"What's this mean?" He asked. "Why do I have two wands?"
"It's a little experiment." Dumbledor said. "We thought that maybe if one wand made a wizard powerful, a duplicate of his wand would double his power. The first test seemed to have worked."
"What was the first test?"
"The Quidditch World Cup. When I used Retexo to fend of Voldemort's attack, I was using two wands."
"That explains it." Hermione said, sounding relieved.
"Oh, that reminds me." Dumbledor said. He puled out two more wands from his pocket and handed them to Ron and Hermione. "If you're going to be staying around Harry alot, you will also need extra protection."
"Thanks, Professor." Said Hermione, testing out how it felt to hold two wands at a time.
"Wicked!" Ron exclaimed as he used his two wands to transfigure his empty chocolate frog case ito a brand new chocolate frog.
"I see Mr. Weasley has taken to the idea quite well." Dumbledor said with a chuckle.
Seamus stirred on the couch.
"Oh, yes. Onto this." Dumbledor said. "Harry, it is now clear that Voldemort will take any chance he can to kill you. And because of this I advise that you, under no circumstances-"
Harry sensed what was coming.
"Please don't ban me from Hogsmead. I'll be so bored."
"No, Harry, I wouldn't do that again, you would just try to go anyway. No, what we need is for you to be guarded for as much of the time as possible. If you go to Hogsmeade, take your map. And be sure to look for the name Voldemort. If it appears at any time, come back to Hogwarts as fast as you can. For this, I suggest you take your Firebolt with you. If you wish, you can shrink it for easiest holding. He can't touch you when you're on grounds, you're to protected there. He shouldn't even try. If he does, we can probably hurt, or, if we're lucky, kill him."
Harry took in his new rules with the air of someone reading the morning paper. He seemed to understand the amount of danger involved, and had no intention of getting himself into danger.
"Well, now that we have that sorted out, I think I'll grab a couple of couldron cakes and head back to my office." With that Dumbledot was off down the corridor.
They waited for a while until, just as they were pulling into the station, Seamus woke up. They departed quickly from the train, and got their own horseless carriage up to the front doors.
*Author's Note*
Does any girl out there think that someone fitting this description would be atractive:
5' 8", Short, Blonde hair. Blue Eyes. Male. Big Head (So I'm told.) and Big Nose (So I'm Told)
not to sound pathetic, I'm just curious.
When they arrived at the station, there were at least a hundred witches and wizards just casually standing outside platform 9 3/4. Harry saw Seamus Finnagan, another Gryffindor 5th year and went to talk to him.
"Hi, Seamus."
"Hey, Harry, what's up?"
"I should ask you the same thing, why isn't anyone going in?"
"The gate's been blocked."
"What? How?"
"I don't know, but someone has said Dumbledor is coming to clear it up."
"Well I guess that's better." Harry said, feeling a little depressed at the thought of having to stand around with all these muggles just staring at them. But he did cheer up a bit when he thought of what the Dursley's would do if they caught sight of such a collaboration of magical folk.
When Harry saw Ron staring in utter shock at something coming towards them, he thought for a fleeting second that it might be Voldemort coming to kill them all, but when he looked in the same direction he saw the explanation; a tall and quite beautiful girl walking toward them. She was obviously a witch, judging by the Hogwarts trunk on her trolley, but there was something familiar about the bushy hair, and the bow-legged cat.
"Hermione?" Ron said in complete disbelief.
"Hi Ron, Harry." Ron then did something strange. He held himself up as if he were trying to impress someone, and he also seemed to take pride in the fact that Hermione had said his name first.
"Hello, Hermione." Ron said, in an unusually deep voice.
"Why isn't anyone going in?" she asked, laughing a little at Ron's foolish behavior. She touched Harry's arm, and was pleased at the reaction it brought about from Ron.
"Well, there's a slight problem with the gate, but it's under control, and someone will be out to fix it soon." He said, with a very knowlegable air.
Suddenly an old homeless man walked up behind them, covered in old, tatered robes,and walked straight passed them onto the barrier between gates 9 and 10. He put his hand up on the wall and left it there for a few seconds. He then let his hand pass completely into the wall just before stepping completely through himself. Immidiately the first twenty or so people stepped through, gaurded by the mass of people gathered around them. Eventually, Harry and the rest were able to step through. The old hobo was standing next to the gate, assuring himself that all were passing through safely. His hood was pulled back to reveal--
"Dumbledor, thank you." said Mrs. Weasley
"It's no problem, Molly." He said with a cheerful tone. "There was a slight mixup. The gate was set to let people pass tomorrow, not today. I simply had to reset the spell for today."
"Well, it was very nice of you. Will you be riding the train with the rest of the students?"
"No, I'm going to apparate to Hogsmead station as soon as the train leaves with everyone safely aboard."
"Oh, well, I guess that's okay."
"Yes, I'm sure it is." He said, with his amiable chuckle.
They found an empty compartment and stored their things. Harry immidiately went down the train in search of the witch with the snack trolley so he colud get some pumpkin juice for his seemingly unquenchable thirst. about half-way down, he saw Draco Malfoy sitting in a compartment with Crabbe and Goyle, looking completely dejected and not at all himself.
"Draco?" Harry asked, feeling a little sorry for the wretched figure.
"What do you want, Potter?" he said, with a hint of hatred, but not near as much as he usually reserved for just Harry.
"Nothing, I guess. just wondering why you were looking so....so.....not you." He said. Then he remembered what had transpired at the World Cup, and realized that Draco's Father was now locked away in Azkaban. Draco seemed to notice Harry's realization on his face.
"Oh, figured it out, have you?" With a lot more of that old hatred that made Harry wonder why he had ever felt pity for him. "My father is in wizard prison because of you, Potter."
"No, Malfoy, he's in prison because he sided with the wrong wizard, and you know it!" Harry retorted, with the same amount of hatred, but at least a more controlled anger.
"Potter, you have no idea the pain I can-" He stopped short, seeing the fire in Harry's eyes that matched so closely the fire everyone had, in the past, seen in Dumbledor's.
"Malfoy, you have no idea the pain I can withstand. If you want to threaten me, why don't you do when you're ready to stand up to the words you put out. Otherwise, you keep your mouth shut." He said in such a commanding tone that Malfoy closed his mouth tight, and gave a repremanding look to Goyle when he acted as if he were going to hit Harry.
"Have a nice day." Harry said, and kept walking. He went another six or seven compartments until he found the witch with the trolley and got what he needed. Then he headed back to his friends, with a strange pleasure at the fact that Malfoy had closed and locked his door. But, as he thought about on his way back, it was better not to go down the road of threats and overpowerment; it was better to be on the fair side.
As he came up to his compartment, he noticed the door was shut,and there was a strange sound coming from within. It sounded like grunting and ruffling. He thought there was a fight, or something. He opened te door to see a very ruffled Ron and Hermione sitting across from eachother, with a look that said they did something wrong.
"You two haven't been fighting, have you?" Harry said, apparently completely oblivious.
"No, not exactly." Hermione said, a little amused by Harry's ignorance.
"Well, whatever it was, stop it. I have some important things to tell you."
"Okay, Harry, let's talk." said Hermione, going into the serious mood she always used when talking about 'important' things with Harry.
He then launched into the full story of the events that transpired at the Quidditch World Cup, including teh phony letter that got him there.
"Let's start with the letter." Hermione said, trying as she always did to make sense of everything that happened to Harry. "Why did he send it through Dumbledor?"
"I think that was the only true part of the letter. He really didn't know how to reach me. He had to send it through Dumbledor. But why didn't he figure out that it was fake?"
"I think he did." Hermione said, as a thought occured to her. "He knew it was fake, but he sent it anyway with Sirius and Lupin so they could deliver it without being followed. Then Sirius went with you to provide protection along the way. I'm sure that when you were at the match, there was more protection than just Dumbledor with you. They just got past it, and Dumbledor was their last line of defense." Once again, she had made perfect sense of everything.
"Yeah, that does sound good. I'm just glad that Dumbledor has come up with anti-Death spell charm." Harry said
"I'm not so sure he did." Said Hermione. "What was it he said to you about how he caught the Death Eaters?"
"He said 'sometimes the simplest spells are the most effective' or something like that."
"And what was the spell he used to counter the Death spell?"
"Reteso, Reteska, something like that."
"Retexo?"
"Yes. That's exactly it. How did you know?"
"Because, it's a very simple spell. It's just a spell-reversal charm."
"No, it can't be." Harry said, in disbelief that such a simple charm could undo so devestating a curse.
"Yes, it can. Watch. Here, Ron, you try to hit me with a full body bind."
"Okay, then." He stood up and pointed his wand at Hermione's legs. He got distracted staring at her legs.
"Ron!" Hermione yelled, a little embarased.
"Right, sorry. Uh, Petrificus Totalus!" He yelled
"Retexo!" She yelled, and a silver light came out of her wandand disappeared half-way to Ron's wand, apparantly countering Ron's spell, and she was never affected.
"But his light was white." Harry said
"Well Dumbledor's a bit more powerful than I am, isn't he?"
"Well, yes, I guess that makes sense." Harry said.
Suddenly there came a knock at the door.
"Hello?" Harry said, not wanting to open the door to anyone he didn't know.
"Harry? It's me, Seamus." came the voice on the other side.
"Oh, okay, I'm coming." He said, and went to open the door. Bu twhen he did so, Seamus seemed to be moving very stifly, as if he didn't want to take the next step. He raised his arm with wand in hand, although he really seemed to be fighting his own movements.
"Av....Ava..Avvvvv." He was really fighting to not say the words.
"Desino!" Came Dumbledor's voice from the right of Seamus, and he fell to the ground in a dead faint.
Dumbledor came around the corner and lifted Seamus onto the couch inside.
"Professor?" Hermione said in dismay. "I thought you said you wern't riding the train."
"I wasn't. I apparated here when I saw Harry was in trouble."
"How did you see that?" Ron asked.
"I have my ways." He said with the same mischevious grin Fred and George use when talking about their map of Hogwarts. "Anyway, I'm sorry I couldn't have come faster, but I had to leave Hogwarts grounds before I could Apparate. So let's be glad Seamus here was strong enough to resist the Imperius Curse for that long, or Harry wouldn't have had a chance."
"He was under the Imperius Curse?" Hermione asked.
"Yes, by one of Voldemort's Death Eaters, no doubt. That spell I used is designed to end any lasting spell such as that. Harry, I need to teach you how to use the Retexo charm to reverse those kinds of things."
"I don't think I can learn to make it as powerful as you did very soon."
"You learned the Patronus spell within one year, didn't you?" Dumbledor said with a bit of pride.
"Well, yes. I did do that." Harry said, a bit embarased.
"Yes, you did. I bet I can teach you to make it very powerful within three weeks. Especially if you have this." He held out a wand.
"Why do you have my wand?" Harry asked, grabbing it quickly.
"I don't. If you'll check your pockets, you'll find that your wand is exactly as you left it."
Harry reached into his pocket and pulled out his wand, just were he had put it. He examined the second wand carefuly, and came to the conclusion that they were the exact same wands.
"What's this mean?" He asked. "Why do I have two wands?"
"It's a little experiment." Dumbledor said. "We thought that maybe if one wand made a wizard powerful, a duplicate of his wand would double his power. The first test seemed to have worked."
"What was the first test?"
"The Quidditch World Cup. When I used Retexo to fend of Voldemort's attack, I was using two wands."
"That explains it." Hermione said, sounding relieved.
"Oh, that reminds me." Dumbledor said. He puled out two more wands from his pocket and handed them to Ron and Hermione. "If you're going to be staying around Harry alot, you will also need extra protection."
"Thanks, Professor." Said Hermione, testing out how it felt to hold two wands at a time.
"Wicked!" Ron exclaimed as he used his two wands to transfigure his empty chocolate frog case ito a brand new chocolate frog.
"I see Mr. Weasley has taken to the idea quite well." Dumbledor said with a chuckle.
Seamus stirred on the couch.
"Oh, yes. Onto this." Dumbledor said. "Harry, it is now clear that Voldemort will take any chance he can to kill you. And because of this I advise that you, under no circumstances-"
Harry sensed what was coming.
"Please don't ban me from Hogsmead. I'll be so bored."
"No, Harry, I wouldn't do that again, you would just try to go anyway. No, what we need is for you to be guarded for as much of the time as possible. If you go to Hogsmeade, take your map. And be sure to look for the name Voldemort. If it appears at any time, come back to Hogwarts as fast as you can. For this, I suggest you take your Firebolt with you. If you wish, you can shrink it for easiest holding. He can't touch you when you're on grounds, you're to protected there. He shouldn't even try. If he does, we can probably hurt, or, if we're lucky, kill him."
Harry took in his new rules with the air of someone reading the morning paper. He seemed to understand the amount of danger involved, and had no intention of getting himself into danger.
"Well, now that we have that sorted out, I think I'll grab a couple of couldron cakes and head back to my office." With that Dumbledot was off down the corridor.
They waited for a while until, just as they were pulling into the station, Seamus woke up. They departed quickly from the train, and got their own horseless carriage up to the front doors.
*Author's Note*
Does any girl out there think that someone fitting this description would be atractive:
5' 8", Short, Blonde hair. Blue Eyes. Male. Big Head (So I'm told.) and Big Nose (So I'm Told)
not to sound pathetic, I'm just curious.
