--Ok, thought I'd better mention, the standard disclaimer applies - I don't own any of the characters/things you recognise, J.K. Rowling does. Everything else belongs to me. Also.. one last warning.. if you haven't read the prequel you should do so now, otherwise, soon you are going to be very *very* confused! LOL. ...Enjoy--

--- Chapter 2: Bad Omens ---

Ron and Harry heaved their luggage into the carriage and slid the door to the compartment open. The prefects compartment was a much more spacious compartment than the ones they had sat in for the previous 4 years at Hogwarts, and was decorated in the colours of the four houses. Draco looked round when they came in and stood up in a menacing way. "Well, Grangers returned with her little friends.. only prefects are allowed in this carriage", he said scrowling at Ron and Harry. "That would be the three of us then", said Harry dragging his trunk inside. "You mean.. we have to sit by muggle lovers for the whole journey? -Crap", said the Slytherin boy whom they didn't know. Harry looked at this boy with interest, he had remembered seeing him around the school over the previous four years, but had never had to have anything to do with him. Any classes they had shared, this boy had kept a relatively low profile in. Harry thought that this boy must perhaps come from a family as wealthy as the Malfoys, judging by his clean new robes and the generally groomed look about him. He had a turned up nose, and a look of extreme dislike on his face as he surveyed Harry and co. His light brown fringe came down just above his eyebrows and he had a blond streak dyed in his hair. Harry wondered how best to ask this boy his name, without getting made fun of by Malfoy for not knowing. "By the way muggle lover - I'm Tertius Nott the Third", the boy drawled.. as badly, if not worse than Dracos patented way of talking. Harry noted, however, the boy made no motion to extend his hand for a shake. Well, Harry thought, I certainly wouldn't have shaken it, this was certainly the son of the Death Eater Nott, whom had been in Little Hangleton cemetery with the other Death Eaters. "Not the third?!", sniggered Ron, "What are you, the second?" "For your information I am the third person in my line to be called Tertius, and with my family being much better than yours, we have numbers after our names to show that". Ron rolled his eyes upwards while Harry tried to keep his face straight.

Hermione pushed past Harry and Ron just then and sat down primly in the space between the two Ravenclaw prefects Lisa Turpin and Susan Bones. Harry took his luggage to the seat at the furthest edge of the carriage from Draco and Tertius and heaved it up onto the rack, and then sat down beside Justin Finch-Fletchly, the only Hufflepuff prefect. Ron shuffled with his luggage over to Harrys end of the carriage too, avoiding Dracos outstretched leg as he passed him and then Ron plonked himself down opposite Harry, and started looking through the pockets of his jacket. "Oh darn.. I must have left it on the table back at the Burrow", Ron said irritably. "Live in a wheelbarrow, Weasley?", mocked Draco who hadn't heard the name of Rons house before, "I'm not surprised!", he said passing a look to Tertius and rolling his eyes. Ron went red and looked like he was going to explode, but Hermione mouthed at him across the carriage to ignore Draco and shut up, and so Ron closed his mouth. "Um.. left what?", asked Harry who was still wondering what Ron was looking for. "My wand. I was going to levitate my luggage onto the rack, it's too heavy to lift", explained Ron. Draco smirked at Ron and said, "Been taking memory classes from Neville, Weasley?". Ron continued to ignore him, but then Hermione spoke up, "Why don't you do it, Harry, this would be a good opportunity for you to try out your new wand." "You mean you actually managed to find a new wand then Potter?", asked Draco eyeing Harry as he took his wand out of his pocket, "I'm surprised Ollivander didn't tell you to go home". "And how would you know about Harry needing a new wand, Draco?", asked Ron scrowling across at Draco, "It's not like he's told anyone you know, unless of course your father told you!". Draco looked a bit stunned for a minute, caught in his own trap, and then recovered enough to say, "Very good Weasley, my father does work for the ministry, and has a better position than your muggle-loving father, so of course he would have heard". "Actually Draco, he wouldn't have", said Harry quietly, "No-one in the ministry knows about my new wand except for Mr Weasley". Harry saw that Ron had a look of extreme disgust on his face, obviously he couldn't believe his bad luck that they would be stuck here for the next 6 or so hours with the two Slytherins. Harry felt the same way, there was no chance they would be able to relax with Draco and Tertius around, they couldn't even talk normally, for fear of what they might accidentally say. Especially now that there was the possibility that Draco had been made a Death Eater himself over the holidays. Harry realised he was still holding his wand, which was tingling in his hand, expecting to be used. His old wand never tingled, and he wondered if anyone had noticed although, probably not, since everyone was so angry with each other. He pointed his wand at Rons luggage, and said "WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA!" which was the charm to make the luggage levitate, so that he could direct it up onto the rack. When he moved his wand up to direct the luggage onto the rack however, the luggage responded with much more force than he expected, and it shot upwards like a bullet. There was a loud bang as it went straight though the ceiling of the carriage, and continued skywards out of sight. "What the hell did you do that to my luggage for, Harry?", said Ron standing up, temper finally breaking. Harry stood there stunned, staring up at the sky through the hole in the ceiling of the carriage. He noticed that the whole carriage had gone suddenly very quiet. Everyone else was either looking at the hole in the ceiling too, or gaping at him, probably expecting an explanation as to why he had chucked his best friends luggage away. "Um.. I didn't mean to", Harry said rather lamely, it was all he could think to say, he was still a bit shocked by what he had just done. "You didn't mean to do that then?", asked Ron almost relieved, staring at him. "You're wand must be really powerful", said Hermione taking out her wand. "More likely it's cos he's only a halfblood", said Draco gleefully looking between Harry and the hole, "..lost control." "Watch your mouth Draco", said Hermione, pointing her wand at him. Harry could see Draco wasn't going to say anymore this time, perhaps he was remembering for once that time she had punched him. Hermione then pointed her wand upwards directed at the hole in the ceiling, "ACCIO TRUNK!" she yelled. "My trunk has probably already smashed onto the ground and broken into a million bits", said Ron gloomily. They waited for about 5 minutes, until finally they saw the (still intact) luggage whooshing past the window in the slipstream of the moving train. A few seconds later it entered though the hole in the ceiling and Hermione directed it onto the rack above Rons seat. "Hey thanks Hermione", said Ron gratefully. Harry sat back down on his seat, still rather embarrassed, while Hermione did the repario charm on the ceiling of the carriage.

They all sat in silence for sometime, even Susan and Lisa who usually were quite chatty didn't say anything. A cloud of depression had settled down over Harry and he sat absorbed in his thoughts as the train whisked them northwards. The plump lady with the food trolley turned up at lunch time, and Harry bought a large amount of food that he was going to share with Ron. Then Hermione gave him a look that clearly said that Ron would rather eat soggy sandwiches than accept food from Harry in front of Draco and Tertius. Harry therefore stashed most of his sweets into his jacket pockets to share with Ron up at the school some other time. Ron looked at Harry gratefully, when he saw that Harry wasn't going to embarrass him like that.

Everyone in the carriage ate his or her lunch in the continued silence, a silence which stretched out long after lunch had finished. It was a bit of a shock therefore, when several hours after lunch Ron finally spoke sharply. "Hey! There's an owl outside the window". Harry looked up and saw a large brown owl flying level with the window, it looked like one of the regular school owls. Harry stood up with Ron and they both heaved the window open and let it fly in. It settled down on Rons seat, so Ron took it upon himself to remove the letter from its outstretched leg. "It's addressed to all of us", exclaimed Ron ripping it open. The others looked up in interest. Ron read it aloud:

"Hogwarts Fifth Year Prefects,

Please note that your first duty as prefects is to patrol the train between 4pm and arrival, keeping all junior students under control. If you need assistance, please ask the 6th and 7th year prefects in the carriages beside yours for help. You are expected to stay behind on the train after arrival and assist with taking the luggage up to the dormitories."

"That's servant stuff", interrupted Draco angrily, "They can't make us do that, that's what Filch is for". "It looks like you don't have any choice if you want to stay a prefect", replied Hermione scowling across at him. "We'll miss the feast", said Tertius, "I've been looking forward to that all day". Harry had to agree with Tertius on that one, although fortunately he had been properly fed this summer, and could afford to miss a meal this year. "Well I haven't finished with the letter yet, if you want to hear what else we have to do?", snapped Ron glancing at Draco and Tertius who were both looking annoyed.

"Please meet Professor McGonagall on the platform to be given further instructions and to receive your prefect badges".

Professor Albus Dumbledore"

"Well it's nearly 4pm now", said Hermione looking down at her watch, "Who wants to g-"

"We will", said Draco interrupting her and grabbing Tertius' arm and pulling him up, "It's not like sitting with any of you is exactly thrilling".

"Same with you, Draco", said Lisa Turpin crisply, "You are hardly a good male specimen!".

"What's that meant to mean then?", said Draco swaggering up to where she was sitting with Hermione and Susan.

"It means exactly what you think it means, Draco, now please leave so we can talk to the good specimens", said Hermione smiling sweetly.

"I'm a better wizard than even you Granger, and you know it", he said loudly before pushing Tertius out the door ahead of him and then slamming it shut behind him. Fortunately, the glass didn't break.

"Thank god they're gone", said Lisa raising her hands in relief.

"Do you really think we are good specimens then?", asked Ron who was grinning from ear to ear.

Harry adopted a puzzled but interested look and waited for a response from either Lisa or Hermione.

"Well the three of you are a million times better than Draco any-day", said Lisa looking Ron in the eye, and then glancing sideways at Justin and Harry, who felt himself blushing.

Harry tipped his sweets out of his jacket just then, and shared them out amongst everyone in the carriage. Lisa, Susan and Justin, who had never sat in the Carriage with Harry, Ron and Hermione, couldn't stop thanking Harry for the sweets and cauldron cakes. None of them had felt the need to buy a great deal of food at lunch, and were now feeling quite hungry.

"I sure hope we don't miss the meal", moaned Ron when it was nearly time to arrive and they had started putting on their robes. "We won't!", said Hermione irritably, "If Professor McGonagall shows the fifth years how the luggage is taken up every year, then we definitely won't, she is always back at the castle before the first years are off the boat". "It may not be her usual job, Hermione", said Lisa tensely, "She might miss the feast this year to do it and I want to see my sister Sarah get sorted". "Well what other teacher would normally do it?", asked Hermione, "All the teachers are always at the feast, and if it's Filch that usually does it, then where is he?".

Before anyone had time to think of an answer for this, the train slid to a stop outside Hogsmeade, and they could hear Professor Flitwicks squeaky voice calling the first years to come and stand over by him. "I see Hagrids still not back from that mission Dumbledore sent him on", observed Harry gloomily as they stepped out into the chilly wind on the platform at Hogsmeade which was however, still bathed in the last rays of the late afternoons sunlight. "Over here prefects", said Professor McGonagall who was standing over beside the engine. As Harry walked across the platform to meet her he overheard a small group of older Durmstrang students indignantly commenting in their direction as he passed - "Ve should have been made prefects, Ve vas prefects at Durmstrang, ist unvair". Harry felt sorry for them, but there was nothing he could do, so he ignored him and continued over to McGonagall. Professor McGonagall smiled thinly at Harry when he reached her and took two shiny silver badges out of a velvet pouch. "Here's your Prefects badge and your Quidditch captain badge, Harry", she said handing them to him. "Thank you", said Harry examining them. The prefects badge was crest shaped and just said 'Prefect', while the Quidditch captain badge was round and had folded wings engraved on the side just like a real snitch when it's wings are folded up. It had 'Gryffindor Quidditch Captain' engraved on it. He then pinned them both onto his robes beside each other and then stood and watched as Ron was given his badge. Ron beamed as he pinned his badge on and they both stood around and watched as Professor McGonagall handed badges to all the other prefects as they arrived. Harry noticed that Draco hadn't been made Quidditch captain; although whether there had been a vacancy or not he didn't know. Draco hadn't noticed Harrys Quidditch Captain badge yet.