--- Chapter 3: A Job and a Half ---
"Right, follow me then", Professor McGonagall instructed, and led the way into the first carriage. When they were all in the hallway of it she turned around to face them and they waited expectantly for their instructions. "You are to stay inside the train until the rest of the school is off the platform, but there is an exit half-way down the train on the right hand side. You can step out of the right side of the train, as the rest of the school can not observe you there", with that she paused for a breath.. "Excuse me, but why isn't the rest of the school allowed to see us?", asked Harry inquisitively. "I will explain that to you all later, at the moment just please do what I say", McGonagall said, particularly looking in Dracos direction. "Now, Malfoy and Nott, you are to do the two end carriages, remove all luggage, and load it onto the floating trailer outside the right exit I just told you about. Weasley and Granger, you take the next two carriages, then Potter and Finch-Fletchly for the next two, then Bones and Turpin for the two carriages after that. The 6th and 7th year prefects handle the rest of the carriages. I want to see that all the carriages are clean once you have finish-", Professor McGonagall instructed. "But Professor", interrupted Draco, "Isn't this the type of work that Filch should be doing? By the time we have finished we will have missed the sorting ceremony".
"Cleaning the Hogwarts express isn't Filch's job Mr Malfoy, he is only contracted to do work within the school, and if we want to continue to use the train for many years to come, it has to be kept in order," said Professor McGonagall, looking sternly at Draco over her glasses. "Now off you go, I have things to do before you have finished", she said, waving her arm in the direction pointing down to the end of the train".
"Yeah.. to go and stuff herself full at the feast, probably", hissed Ron into Harrys ear as they set off towards the end of the train. When they reached the carriages near the end of the train, Ron and Hermione carried on and Harry and Justin entered the first of the two carriages they had to clean. The first thing Harry noted was that there where lolly wrappers all around the seats, not all that different from how they had left the carriages all throughout their junior years. Justin walked past Harry and got out his wand. "I think perhaps I should levitate the luggage in here out onto the platform", suggested Justin, "Judging by what you did before, you might need some time to get used to that wand". Harry nodded his head in acknowledgement, Justin had just put into words what he had been thinking next. "I'll clean up the sweet wrappers then", Harry said, hoping this would even begin to make up for not helping with the luggage. "Fine", said Justin levitating the first trunk off the shelf and out the door. As soon as Justin had left the compartment, Harry got out his wand and pointed it at a sweet wrapper, he was going to try this again, rather than just picking them up. He felt it was probably best not to have anyone watching. "WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA!" he said, not saying it with as much force as he would normally have done with his old wand, then he moved his wand up very slowly. The wrapper responded instantaneously to the slight movement, and shot upwards with a similar force (although slightly weaker) to that with which the trunk had responded earlier. There was a loud 'Ping' as it shot through the ceiling and metal roof of the train. Harry sighed and wondered if he dared do the repario charm on the ceiling of the train. Worth a try he thought, he would have to do magic with his wand sometime this year, and he could always get Justin to repair the damage when he returned for the next trunk. He pointed his wand at the ceiling rather hesitantly and then said the words, "Repario Ceiling!". He blinked. There was not even a pause and the ceiling was instantly repaired, not even that, but the whole ceiling looked like it had been repainted. Harry gaped up at the ceiling. It had repaired faster than he had ever seen even Hermiones repair charms do. Usually, you had time to watch whatever was being repaired come together.. he would have expected to see the fibres of the ceiling stretch and knit together, but it had happened too quickly. Just then Justin came back inside for the next trunk. "You haven't done much", observed Justin looking around at the piles of still untouched wrappers, what's been happening? "I tried to summon one of the wrappers and it um.. reacted again", explained Harry feeling rather depressed. "My repario charm on the ceiling worked alright though". "Oh", said Justin, "Well that's one good thing", he said sounding to Harry like he was trying, but not succeeding in offering encouragement. Justin then levitated the next truck out of the carriage ahead of him while Harry began to pick the wrappers up off the floor and seats. The wrappers where cleaned up reasonably quickly, Harry had had plenty of practice cleaning at the Dursleys after all. So he moved out of that carriage and into the next one along and repeated the process and then sat down to wait for Justin. After a long period of time Justin finally got to the second compartment and had removed the second last piece of luggage. "We have definitely missed the sorting ceremony by now", Justin said, his great disappointment showing, "They are sure to be at least halfway thought the feast by now". He then left and Harry sat and awaited his last return. Harry was just beginning to think that he should perhaps struggle with the last (rather heavy looking) trunk out of the compartment without magic when he thought he heard Justin on his way back. It was not Justin however who was the next person to enter the compartment.
It was Professor McGonagall. "I would have expected better from you, Mr Potter", she said sternly, looking down at him sitting there. Harry peered up at her anxiously, waiting for what was coming. "Everyone else is helping to take the luggage out, and I arrive back from the feast to find you in here sitting - not even raising a finger to help." With his and Justins suspicions finally confirmed, Harry in a moment of rage felt that this might be a good time to tell her what was wrong (and hopefully make her feel guilty about not letting them all go to the feast), so he explained the truth of the matter, "I wasn't able to help with the luggage, because I haven't been able to learn to control my new wand properly yet, and I was worried there would be an accident," he tried to keep the anger out of his voice. "You haven't been able to control it?", she said clearly outraged, "where did you buy it?". "Just from Ollivanders." Harry replied, then added, "He said my wand was quite powerful and I would have to be cautious; whatever that meant". "I see", said Professor McGonagall, looking rather concerned, "Well come outside now, we will be heading up to the castle soon. I'll see what I can do for you later when we have some time". Harry followed her outside into the dark night, passing Justin on the way who grinned apologetically and was holding his stomach - obviously in hunger. Harry sat himself down beside McGonagall on the edge of the floating trailer and waited for the others to finish levitating the luggage onto it. They were finished about 2 minutes later, and all the prefects sat down alongside Harry and McGonagall and the trailer began to move away from the train, up towards the castle of its own accord. Harry noted the trailer wasn't being pulled by anything, similar to those horseless carriages they usually sat in. The trailer stopped outside a side door to the castle and Professor McGonagall hopped off and unlocked the door with a key and instructed them to get ready to bring the luggage in one trunk at a time. Harry followed her inside this room in the castle, noting that it was a room he had never been in before. In each of the three corners was a large and very long mat - each one decorated with the animal of a different house and having numbers down the edge. McGonagall took a list out of her robe as a 6th year came inside with the first Trunk, and he read the name off the side of the trunk, "Pincipi Litmus". McGonagall scanned the list and said, "Hufflepuff, dormitory 4", and with that the sixth year directed the trunk onto the Hufflepuff mat and lined it up with the letter '4' on the mat. Next came Tertius with a green trunk, who had been watching with the other 5th years what the sixth year had done with interest. "Name?", prompted Professor McGonagall. Tertius bent over the trunk and read off the name scrawled on the side, "Mortimer Snivel". "Slytherin, dormitory 3 over there", Professor McGonagall said pointing to the place on the Slytherin mat.
Professor McGonagall told Harry to go outside and help keep everyone in an orderly line to the door of the room, and check that each person had picked up every bit of luggage belonging to a single student. It proved to be quite a task climbing over the mountains of luggage, checking. Then he had to stop the arguments erupting among the prefects who were pushing and shoving to get to the door first so they could just get the job over with quickly. Harry thought the sixth and seventh years where taking it much better than the fifth years, who where all very grumpy by now. Harry had seen Draco direct his trunk so that it swiped Justin out of the way, and Justin had lost his temper and given Draco a black eye.
After about an hour, they were finally finished sorting out the luggage into houses and dormitories, and Harry was just beginning to wonder whether they were going to be taking the luggage up or if it would go up magically, and importantly, what they would be having for dinner, when his question was answered in an unexpected way. "Right, is everyone inside?", asked Professor McGonagall sharply. Everyone was, it was quite a cold dark night, and everyone had drifted inside as they finished bringing the luggage in. "Alright, Mr Potter, please close and lock the door", she instructed handing him the key. Harry walked over to the large wooden door and swung it shut and then put the metal bar across it, and inserted the key and turned it. He then waited to hand the key back to Professor McGonagall who had gone over to a large grandfather clock leaning against the wall and was opening the glass front on it. She then turned around to face them and glanced around at them all. "Quiet down everyone, sixth and seventh years please be patient while I explain the procedure to the fifth year prefects who are not familiar with it yet", Professor McGonagall said sharply to the older students who were whispering together excitably. The whispering ceased, and Professor McGonagall proceeded to tell them. "I assume you are all familiar with the concept of time-travel?", she asked looking at them. Everyone nodded, most people Harry noticed looked rather nervous at this, Harry realised that they must be going to go back in time to get to the feast, and suddenly understood why none of the sixth and seventh years had been concerned during this evenings duties. "This whole room is used for time-travel, it has a charm enclosing everything in it, so there is no need for the use of timeturners which some of you are familiar with", she said eyeing Hermione in particular. Hermione nodded excitedly. Although, no doubt thought Harry, this new way of time-travel was news to her too. "We will be going back in time to just before the train arrives, and you will mix in amongst the students on the platform and head up to the school in the prefects carriages just after our past selves have entered the train as we did this evening. If all goes well none of the other students will notice. You are not under any circumstances to try and contact your past selves, as you would be putting yourself in grave mortal danger to do so. I will remind you of some other rules of time-travel, although, I don't think any of it will apply unless I am very much mistaken", she said looking sternly at Draco and Tertius. "Some general rules are, if you go back in time and for instance, kill someone, and that someone in your future had made an impression, such as saving someones life who could hypothetically have changed someone elses life in someway that caused a chain of events in the future, then it is likely that the universe could cease to exist. So I must ask you whenever you go back in time, never do anything that you know will change something that you know definitely could not be at all possible in your future. Some people may only be alive today because of that rule, which if it wasn't a fundamental rule of time travel that must be obeyed, certain people could have gone back in time to a vulnerable time in their lives and killed them", Professor McGonagall explained. Harry noticed that she was not looking at anyone in particular when she said this and a few people where glancing over at him. He felt his stomach squirm uncomfortably and stared at the floor as he realised that other people where thinking how he was lucky to be safe from Voldemort in that respect. Professor McGonagall turned around and reached inside the opened up inside of the grandfather clock and began winding it back. "It is now 10 minutes to 6", she announced closing the glass case. "There are 3 carriages outside that will take you down to behind Hogsmeades station, when I give the signal after I have seen our past selves enter the train, you will merge in with the others", she said, then checked her watch, "It was 15 to nine when we left. After the feast tonight you are required to meet me in the entrance Hall at 8.30pm, so we can come back here". "Unlock the door now please Mr Potter", she asked looking in Harrys direction. Harry walked over to the door and removed the metal bar and put the key in and turned it. The door swung open, and the last of the late afternoon sunlight streamed inside. Harry heard a sudden intake of breath from some of the fifth years behind him. It took a few seconds for his eyes to get accustomed to the light and when he turned around outside and looked back in at the time-travel room he saw Professor McGonagall standing there chanting what looked like an incantation and waving her wand. Suddenly all the luggage and mats that the luggage had been sitting on disappeared from sight with a flash, and she clapped her hands together, obviously pleased and came outside closing the door behind her. Harry handed her back the key, and then went and climbed into one of the horseless carriages with the other fifth years, it immediately began to move. It should have been a squash with the 8 of them in there, but it wasn't too bad with four of them sitting elbow to elbow with each other on each side. They sat in silence for a while, but Harry could see the looks of relief on everyones faces that they would indeed be feasting in the great hall. Lisa looked very happy, Harry had seen her take her sisters luggage into the room. Harry guessed that Lisas sister Sarah must have been sorted into Ravenclaw as well. As they neared Hogmeades station, Draco leaned forward to glare at Harry, and spoke. "How sad that You-know-who won't be able to go back in time to kill you Potter.. now he will just have to kill you this year - although, that shouldn't be too hard", sneered Draco, which was a mistake. Everyone in the carriage except Tertius immediately whipped their wands out and pointed it at Dracos' head. "Say that again, Malfoy, and you get it", snarled Ron, looking very angry. Draco put his hands up, "Alright, alright, no need to over-react", he said clearly worried. "Haven't got many guts now have you Draco, especially as it turns out your wee friend Tertius isn't standing up for you..", said Susan as she looked sideways at Tertius who was edging away along the seat. "Apologise to Harry, Draco", commanded Ron, who was now holding his wand to Dracos throat. Just then however, the horseless carriage slid to a stop outside the back of Hogsmeade station and Professor McGonagall opened the door. Ron quickly put his wand away, and made to look like he was just standing up to get out first. Luckily, Professor McGonagall didn't seem to notice and they all quickly followed Ron out of the carriage. "Hurry up, we have to be quick, the train is just arriving", she said as they heard a loud toot. A large billow of steam rose above the station as they hurried indoors through the back entrance, and Professor McGonagall pulled back a blind slightly that was facing into the platform and watched as all the students began to disembark onto the platform. The station room they were standing in was shabby and had a ticket counter at one end and 5 wooden tables and several chairs on a dusty wooden floor beside a cafeteria at the other. Harry noticed that Draco was looking over at him strangely, and irritably he wondered what it was this time. He then noticed that Draco didn't have his eyes on Harrys face, it was at the extra badge on his chest Draco was looking at. Draco must have realised what it was because just then, he glanced up at Harry forming a face of pure hatred. Harry smiled back triumphantly.
After about 5 minutes had passed, Professor McGonagall informed them that their past selves had just entered the train, and they were now to step outside and merge into the crowd discreetly. Harry, Ron and Hermione left the interior of the train station and stepped outside onto the cold windy platform. They picked their way across the platform, through crowds of excited students, and past the cluster of senior Durmstrang students that Harry had heard complaining earlier. Professor Flitwick was still calling out in his squeaky voice for the first years to join him. When Harry passed Flitwick, he saw that he was standing on a empty wooden crate of butterbeer (which didn't improve his height much), and some very nervous looking first years had managed to find him through the crowd, despite him still not being higher than anybodys heads. They passed George who was still with the pretty Durmstrang girl. Fred was standing nearby, and was the only one who noticed them approaching. He looked decidedly bored and stopped the three of them as they passed. "Hey! I was wondering when you would get those", Fred said pointing to Rons badge. "Pity you got given them so late, George and I won't have an easy time stealing them now", Fred said looking rather sad. "Cheer up Fred", Hermione said concerned, she'll probably be sorted into another house and George will forget about her." "Hey did anyone see which hou-", said Ron. Hermione nudged Ron and Harry stood on his foot, which shut Ron up quick, Fred wasn't meant to know about the time travel. The three of them passed a look between them, and then Harry asked Fred who was now looking quizzically at them, "So what's this girls name?" "Perigrene Jarvey", he said scrowling over at her. Hermione looked at Harry and shrugged to indicate that she hadn't been in the time-room when Perigrenes luggage was sorted, Harry did the same back and Ron followed suit. "Well lets hope she's in Slytherin then", said Ron trying to sound hopeful for Freds sake, "He'd never sink to the level of a Slyth girl". "Yeah, but she's not exactly a troll", said Fred, glancing over to where Millicent Bulstrode stood with Pansy Parkinson.
"Will you sit in the horseless carriage with us Fred?", asked Hermione nicely. "Yeah, might as well", sighed Fred. Harry, Ron, Fred and Hermione wandered over to where the horseless carriages where waiting at the end of the platform and found an empty one near the front. They climbed into the carriage and sat down, Harry and Ron on one side, Hermione and Fred on the other. It pulled away from the platform slowly and made itself up the road and through the big gates of the school to the front door. With a jolt it stopped directly in front of the steps to the door and the four of them clambered out and walked up the steps.
"Right, follow me then", Professor McGonagall instructed, and led the way into the first carriage. When they were all in the hallway of it she turned around to face them and they waited expectantly for their instructions. "You are to stay inside the train until the rest of the school is off the platform, but there is an exit half-way down the train on the right hand side. You can step out of the right side of the train, as the rest of the school can not observe you there", with that she paused for a breath.. "Excuse me, but why isn't the rest of the school allowed to see us?", asked Harry inquisitively. "I will explain that to you all later, at the moment just please do what I say", McGonagall said, particularly looking in Dracos direction. "Now, Malfoy and Nott, you are to do the two end carriages, remove all luggage, and load it onto the floating trailer outside the right exit I just told you about. Weasley and Granger, you take the next two carriages, then Potter and Finch-Fletchly for the next two, then Bones and Turpin for the two carriages after that. The 6th and 7th year prefects handle the rest of the carriages. I want to see that all the carriages are clean once you have finish-", Professor McGonagall instructed. "But Professor", interrupted Draco, "Isn't this the type of work that Filch should be doing? By the time we have finished we will have missed the sorting ceremony".
"Cleaning the Hogwarts express isn't Filch's job Mr Malfoy, he is only contracted to do work within the school, and if we want to continue to use the train for many years to come, it has to be kept in order," said Professor McGonagall, looking sternly at Draco over her glasses. "Now off you go, I have things to do before you have finished", she said, waving her arm in the direction pointing down to the end of the train".
"Yeah.. to go and stuff herself full at the feast, probably", hissed Ron into Harrys ear as they set off towards the end of the train. When they reached the carriages near the end of the train, Ron and Hermione carried on and Harry and Justin entered the first of the two carriages they had to clean. The first thing Harry noted was that there where lolly wrappers all around the seats, not all that different from how they had left the carriages all throughout their junior years. Justin walked past Harry and got out his wand. "I think perhaps I should levitate the luggage in here out onto the platform", suggested Justin, "Judging by what you did before, you might need some time to get used to that wand". Harry nodded his head in acknowledgement, Justin had just put into words what he had been thinking next. "I'll clean up the sweet wrappers then", Harry said, hoping this would even begin to make up for not helping with the luggage. "Fine", said Justin levitating the first trunk off the shelf and out the door. As soon as Justin had left the compartment, Harry got out his wand and pointed it at a sweet wrapper, he was going to try this again, rather than just picking them up. He felt it was probably best not to have anyone watching. "WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA!" he said, not saying it with as much force as he would normally have done with his old wand, then he moved his wand up very slowly. The wrapper responded instantaneously to the slight movement, and shot upwards with a similar force (although slightly weaker) to that with which the trunk had responded earlier. There was a loud 'Ping' as it shot through the ceiling and metal roof of the train. Harry sighed and wondered if he dared do the repario charm on the ceiling of the train. Worth a try he thought, he would have to do magic with his wand sometime this year, and he could always get Justin to repair the damage when he returned for the next trunk. He pointed his wand at the ceiling rather hesitantly and then said the words, "Repario Ceiling!". He blinked. There was not even a pause and the ceiling was instantly repaired, not even that, but the whole ceiling looked like it had been repainted. Harry gaped up at the ceiling. It had repaired faster than he had ever seen even Hermiones repair charms do. Usually, you had time to watch whatever was being repaired come together.. he would have expected to see the fibres of the ceiling stretch and knit together, but it had happened too quickly. Just then Justin came back inside for the next trunk. "You haven't done much", observed Justin looking around at the piles of still untouched wrappers, what's been happening? "I tried to summon one of the wrappers and it um.. reacted again", explained Harry feeling rather depressed. "My repario charm on the ceiling worked alright though". "Oh", said Justin, "Well that's one good thing", he said sounding to Harry like he was trying, but not succeeding in offering encouragement. Justin then levitated the next truck out of the carriage ahead of him while Harry began to pick the wrappers up off the floor and seats. The wrappers where cleaned up reasonably quickly, Harry had had plenty of practice cleaning at the Dursleys after all. So he moved out of that carriage and into the next one along and repeated the process and then sat down to wait for Justin. After a long period of time Justin finally got to the second compartment and had removed the second last piece of luggage. "We have definitely missed the sorting ceremony by now", Justin said, his great disappointment showing, "They are sure to be at least halfway thought the feast by now". He then left and Harry sat and awaited his last return. Harry was just beginning to think that he should perhaps struggle with the last (rather heavy looking) trunk out of the compartment without magic when he thought he heard Justin on his way back. It was not Justin however who was the next person to enter the compartment.
It was Professor McGonagall. "I would have expected better from you, Mr Potter", she said sternly, looking down at him sitting there. Harry peered up at her anxiously, waiting for what was coming. "Everyone else is helping to take the luggage out, and I arrive back from the feast to find you in here sitting - not even raising a finger to help." With his and Justins suspicions finally confirmed, Harry in a moment of rage felt that this might be a good time to tell her what was wrong (and hopefully make her feel guilty about not letting them all go to the feast), so he explained the truth of the matter, "I wasn't able to help with the luggage, because I haven't been able to learn to control my new wand properly yet, and I was worried there would be an accident," he tried to keep the anger out of his voice. "You haven't been able to control it?", she said clearly outraged, "where did you buy it?". "Just from Ollivanders." Harry replied, then added, "He said my wand was quite powerful and I would have to be cautious; whatever that meant". "I see", said Professor McGonagall, looking rather concerned, "Well come outside now, we will be heading up to the castle soon. I'll see what I can do for you later when we have some time". Harry followed her outside into the dark night, passing Justin on the way who grinned apologetically and was holding his stomach - obviously in hunger. Harry sat himself down beside McGonagall on the edge of the floating trailer and waited for the others to finish levitating the luggage onto it. They were finished about 2 minutes later, and all the prefects sat down alongside Harry and McGonagall and the trailer began to move away from the train, up towards the castle of its own accord. Harry noted the trailer wasn't being pulled by anything, similar to those horseless carriages they usually sat in. The trailer stopped outside a side door to the castle and Professor McGonagall hopped off and unlocked the door with a key and instructed them to get ready to bring the luggage in one trunk at a time. Harry followed her inside this room in the castle, noting that it was a room he had never been in before. In each of the three corners was a large and very long mat - each one decorated with the animal of a different house and having numbers down the edge. McGonagall took a list out of her robe as a 6th year came inside with the first Trunk, and he read the name off the side of the trunk, "Pincipi Litmus". McGonagall scanned the list and said, "Hufflepuff, dormitory 4", and with that the sixth year directed the trunk onto the Hufflepuff mat and lined it up with the letter '4' on the mat. Next came Tertius with a green trunk, who had been watching with the other 5th years what the sixth year had done with interest. "Name?", prompted Professor McGonagall. Tertius bent over the trunk and read off the name scrawled on the side, "Mortimer Snivel". "Slytherin, dormitory 3 over there", Professor McGonagall said pointing to the place on the Slytherin mat.
Professor McGonagall told Harry to go outside and help keep everyone in an orderly line to the door of the room, and check that each person had picked up every bit of luggage belonging to a single student. It proved to be quite a task climbing over the mountains of luggage, checking. Then he had to stop the arguments erupting among the prefects who were pushing and shoving to get to the door first so they could just get the job over with quickly. Harry thought the sixth and seventh years where taking it much better than the fifth years, who where all very grumpy by now. Harry had seen Draco direct his trunk so that it swiped Justin out of the way, and Justin had lost his temper and given Draco a black eye.
After about an hour, they were finally finished sorting out the luggage into houses and dormitories, and Harry was just beginning to wonder whether they were going to be taking the luggage up or if it would go up magically, and importantly, what they would be having for dinner, when his question was answered in an unexpected way. "Right, is everyone inside?", asked Professor McGonagall sharply. Everyone was, it was quite a cold dark night, and everyone had drifted inside as they finished bringing the luggage in. "Alright, Mr Potter, please close and lock the door", she instructed handing him the key. Harry walked over to the large wooden door and swung it shut and then put the metal bar across it, and inserted the key and turned it. He then waited to hand the key back to Professor McGonagall who had gone over to a large grandfather clock leaning against the wall and was opening the glass front on it. She then turned around to face them and glanced around at them all. "Quiet down everyone, sixth and seventh years please be patient while I explain the procedure to the fifth year prefects who are not familiar with it yet", Professor McGonagall said sharply to the older students who were whispering together excitably. The whispering ceased, and Professor McGonagall proceeded to tell them. "I assume you are all familiar with the concept of time-travel?", she asked looking at them. Everyone nodded, most people Harry noticed looked rather nervous at this, Harry realised that they must be going to go back in time to get to the feast, and suddenly understood why none of the sixth and seventh years had been concerned during this evenings duties. "This whole room is used for time-travel, it has a charm enclosing everything in it, so there is no need for the use of timeturners which some of you are familiar with", she said eyeing Hermione in particular. Hermione nodded excitedly. Although, no doubt thought Harry, this new way of time-travel was news to her too. "We will be going back in time to just before the train arrives, and you will mix in amongst the students on the platform and head up to the school in the prefects carriages just after our past selves have entered the train as we did this evening. If all goes well none of the other students will notice. You are not under any circumstances to try and contact your past selves, as you would be putting yourself in grave mortal danger to do so. I will remind you of some other rules of time-travel, although, I don't think any of it will apply unless I am very much mistaken", she said looking sternly at Draco and Tertius. "Some general rules are, if you go back in time and for instance, kill someone, and that someone in your future had made an impression, such as saving someones life who could hypothetically have changed someone elses life in someway that caused a chain of events in the future, then it is likely that the universe could cease to exist. So I must ask you whenever you go back in time, never do anything that you know will change something that you know definitely could not be at all possible in your future. Some people may only be alive today because of that rule, which if it wasn't a fundamental rule of time travel that must be obeyed, certain people could have gone back in time to a vulnerable time in their lives and killed them", Professor McGonagall explained. Harry noticed that she was not looking at anyone in particular when she said this and a few people where glancing over at him. He felt his stomach squirm uncomfortably and stared at the floor as he realised that other people where thinking how he was lucky to be safe from Voldemort in that respect. Professor McGonagall turned around and reached inside the opened up inside of the grandfather clock and began winding it back. "It is now 10 minutes to 6", she announced closing the glass case. "There are 3 carriages outside that will take you down to behind Hogsmeades station, when I give the signal after I have seen our past selves enter the train, you will merge in with the others", she said, then checked her watch, "It was 15 to nine when we left. After the feast tonight you are required to meet me in the entrance Hall at 8.30pm, so we can come back here". "Unlock the door now please Mr Potter", she asked looking in Harrys direction. Harry walked over to the door and removed the metal bar and put the key in and turned it. The door swung open, and the last of the late afternoon sunlight streamed inside. Harry heard a sudden intake of breath from some of the fifth years behind him. It took a few seconds for his eyes to get accustomed to the light and when he turned around outside and looked back in at the time-travel room he saw Professor McGonagall standing there chanting what looked like an incantation and waving her wand. Suddenly all the luggage and mats that the luggage had been sitting on disappeared from sight with a flash, and she clapped her hands together, obviously pleased and came outside closing the door behind her. Harry handed her back the key, and then went and climbed into one of the horseless carriages with the other fifth years, it immediately began to move. It should have been a squash with the 8 of them in there, but it wasn't too bad with four of them sitting elbow to elbow with each other on each side. They sat in silence for a while, but Harry could see the looks of relief on everyones faces that they would indeed be feasting in the great hall. Lisa looked very happy, Harry had seen her take her sisters luggage into the room. Harry guessed that Lisas sister Sarah must have been sorted into Ravenclaw as well. As they neared Hogmeades station, Draco leaned forward to glare at Harry, and spoke. "How sad that You-know-who won't be able to go back in time to kill you Potter.. now he will just have to kill you this year - although, that shouldn't be too hard", sneered Draco, which was a mistake. Everyone in the carriage except Tertius immediately whipped their wands out and pointed it at Dracos' head. "Say that again, Malfoy, and you get it", snarled Ron, looking very angry. Draco put his hands up, "Alright, alright, no need to over-react", he said clearly worried. "Haven't got many guts now have you Draco, especially as it turns out your wee friend Tertius isn't standing up for you..", said Susan as she looked sideways at Tertius who was edging away along the seat. "Apologise to Harry, Draco", commanded Ron, who was now holding his wand to Dracos throat. Just then however, the horseless carriage slid to a stop outside the back of Hogsmeade station and Professor McGonagall opened the door. Ron quickly put his wand away, and made to look like he was just standing up to get out first. Luckily, Professor McGonagall didn't seem to notice and they all quickly followed Ron out of the carriage. "Hurry up, we have to be quick, the train is just arriving", she said as they heard a loud toot. A large billow of steam rose above the station as they hurried indoors through the back entrance, and Professor McGonagall pulled back a blind slightly that was facing into the platform and watched as all the students began to disembark onto the platform. The station room they were standing in was shabby and had a ticket counter at one end and 5 wooden tables and several chairs on a dusty wooden floor beside a cafeteria at the other. Harry noticed that Draco was looking over at him strangely, and irritably he wondered what it was this time. He then noticed that Draco didn't have his eyes on Harrys face, it was at the extra badge on his chest Draco was looking at. Draco must have realised what it was because just then, he glanced up at Harry forming a face of pure hatred. Harry smiled back triumphantly.
After about 5 minutes had passed, Professor McGonagall informed them that their past selves had just entered the train, and they were now to step outside and merge into the crowd discreetly. Harry, Ron and Hermione left the interior of the train station and stepped outside onto the cold windy platform. They picked their way across the platform, through crowds of excited students, and past the cluster of senior Durmstrang students that Harry had heard complaining earlier. Professor Flitwick was still calling out in his squeaky voice for the first years to join him. When Harry passed Flitwick, he saw that he was standing on a empty wooden crate of butterbeer (which didn't improve his height much), and some very nervous looking first years had managed to find him through the crowd, despite him still not being higher than anybodys heads. They passed George who was still with the pretty Durmstrang girl. Fred was standing nearby, and was the only one who noticed them approaching. He looked decidedly bored and stopped the three of them as they passed. "Hey! I was wondering when you would get those", Fred said pointing to Rons badge. "Pity you got given them so late, George and I won't have an easy time stealing them now", Fred said looking rather sad. "Cheer up Fred", Hermione said concerned, she'll probably be sorted into another house and George will forget about her." "Hey did anyone see which hou-", said Ron. Hermione nudged Ron and Harry stood on his foot, which shut Ron up quick, Fred wasn't meant to know about the time travel. The three of them passed a look between them, and then Harry asked Fred who was now looking quizzically at them, "So what's this girls name?" "Perigrene Jarvey", he said scrowling over at her. Hermione looked at Harry and shrugged to indicate that she hadn't been in the time-room when Perigrenes luggage was sorted, Harry did the same back and Ron followed suit. "Well lets hope she's in Slytherin then", said Ron trying to sound hopeful for Freds sake, "He'd never sink to the level of a Slyth girl". "Yeah, but she's not exactly a troll", said Fred, glancing over to where Millicent Bulstrode stood with Pansy Parkinson.
"Will you sit in the horseless carriage with us Fred?", asked Hermione nicely. "Yeah, might as well", sighed Fred. Harry, Ron, Fred and Hermione wandered over to where the horseless carriages where waiting at the end of the platform and found an empty one near the front. They climbed into the carriage and sat down, Harry and Ron on one side, Hermione and Fred on the other. It pulled away from the platform slowly and made itself up the road and through the big gates of the school to the front door. With a jolt it stopped directly in front of the steps to the door and the four of them clambered out and walked up the steps.
