Something is wrong. I can't seem to make any paragraphs. I will try to fix this as soon as I can.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

A/n: The reason I haven't updated in a while is because my computer broke down, and those losers at the CPU repair shop lost it at my expense (next time I'm reading the fine print on the contract). And if you think that would be enough well you're wrong. Afterwards I used a computer in a college next to me (They reluctantly let me use it once), finished the Chapter and before I could upload it, the file was corrupted. So a few weeks later I started again, and guess what, that's right it was corrupted again. So I'm tried a new trick, which as stupid as it was, actually worked. So [with great expense to me] without further ado, here's the 8th chapter.

Chapter- 8

The last remaining days went by very slowly for Harry. Aside for getting some money out of Gringotts, and buying all of his school supplies, Harry never left his room. As soon as he was settled into his room, he had returned to his original summer plan: keeping busy. His average day started with him getting out of bed after a sleepless night, exercise, shower, eat breakfast (which was delivered to his room), and spend the rest of the day trying to keep himself busy with books. It had been a lot harder for him now than it had been all summer, because now he didn't only have his previous problems to worry about, but now he had to worry about coming back to school, and face Hermione and the Weasleys.

As the first day of school was getting closer, Harry was becoming more distressed about it. He couldn't concentrate on his studies, couldn't read for enjoyment, he even had trouble eating sometimes. The only thing that stayed on his mind was the first day of school, Hermione, and what she must have thought of him. It was unbearable. There were many times when Harry wanted to run away and never return. To sneak out of the Leaky Cauldron, take all his money out of Gringotts, and live in hiding until things blew over.

He never followed through with this thought, because going along with it would mean breaking his promise to Sirius; and that was completely out of the question. To Harry, Sirius was like a father, and he was one of the only two people that Harry actually looked up to and respected. Breaking a promise to Sirius would be much worse than facing the consequences for something that was his fault anyway. To Harry, the decision had been made, whatever happens, happens; but Harry would not betray Sirius' trust, no matter what.

After many days of worry and anguish, the day that Harry had been dreading finally arrived. The first day of school, the day he would see Hermione and the Weasleys again. Normally, unlike normal kids, Harry would look forward to his first day of school. It would mean freedom and happiness. But not this time; this time it would mean more pain, more anguish, and more sorrow. That was what Harry was expecting.

Harry rolled around in bed all night, thinking about the coming day; wondering if what he was doing was truly the right decision. Thinking about what to say to Hermione when he finally saw her again. He remembered the night he left her, it was the hardest thing he ever did. It took all of his strength to leave her in tears, to not comfort her, to not help her, to just leave. 'What she must think of me', was the phrase that he kept repeating in his head all night.

He got out of bed very early that morning, took a shower, and left the room dragging his trunk with his right hand, and carrying his broom in his left. He stopped as soon as he got to the front door. He ran back up the stairs leaving his trunk and broom near the front door. A second later he arrived with Hedwig's empty cage. He placed it on top of the trunk and was about to leave when a voice stopped him.

"Aren't you even gonna say goodbye?" the voice asked.

Harry looked to where the voice originated, and saw Tom sitting beside one of his tables. "Goodbye Tom," Harry said in a low voice.

"How are you going to get to Kings Cross?" Asked Tom, making Harry turn to him once again.

"I'll use a cab," Harry answered. "I took out some muggle money as well as wizards money out of Gringotts that day. I knew it would come in handy."

"Well, instead of waiting for one to just show up, why I order one to come here," Tom offered.

"Thanks," Harry said.

"I'll get right on it," with that, Tom Walked into the back room, picked up the phone and made the call.

A few seconds later he came back out and told Harry that the cab would arrive in ten minutes. Harry thanked him, and resumed exiting the Leaky Cauldron, when something that Tom said made him stop. "You know, your friends came by looking for you," Tom said.

Harry closed the front door and turned back towards Tom. "Who came by?" he asked.

"It was the Weasleys," Tom casually answered. "They said that they were worried about you."

"What did you tell them?"

"I told them that you were here at one point, but that you left just as quickly as you arrived. I also told them that I didn't know where you were."

"Thanks you." Harry said feeling a little depressed as well as relieved.

"Is something going on between you guys," Tom asked giving Harry a concerned look. When he saw that Harry wasn't answering he just shook and off. "It's okay, you don't have to answer. It's none of my business anyway."

"Thanks", Harry said automatically.

"Well, I guess you'd better get going," Tom said looking down at his watch. "You don't want to keep the muggle waiting, do now."

"Goodbye," Harry said while getting a firm hold onto his trunk. He opened the door and left the Leaky Cauldron.

"They really care about you," Tom said as he watched Harry leave. "Accept their help."

Harry dragged his trunk to the corner of the street carefully trying not to drop Hedwig's cage. He let go of the trunk as soon as he got there, and started looking down the street trying to find the cab that Tom ordered for him.

After waiting for about twenty minutes, Harry was ready to go back to the Leaky Cauldron and ask Tom to call again. He decided that he'd wait five more minutes before going back. He continued to wait, until he couldn't take it anymore, he bent down and grabbed his trunk and was about to go back, when he saw that the cab finally arrived.

'Finally,' Harry thought. 'It's a good thing Tom was there to make the call, or I'd be waiting here forever.'

The cab pulled over right beside Harry. The driver opened the door, stepped out of the car and immediately faced Harry. "Sorry I'm late," he said casually, as if it happened all the time.

"Do you want me to help you with your trunk," the driver offered.

"Thanks," Harry replied.

After Harry and the driver were finished loading all of Harry's stuff inside the car, the driver faced Harry and said "To King's Cross right?"

"How did you know?" Harry asked giving him a quizzical look. "Did Tom tell you?"

"No. A lot of people with owls take the cab to the King's Cross station on this date. I figured your cage was an owls cage."

Harry just stood there silent, not knowing what to say.

"Where do all of you guys go, an owl convention or something?" The driver asked giving Harry a suspicious look.

"Yeah," Harry answered in an awkward way. "Something like that."

"Okay," The driver said. He obviously didn't want to push this any further, so all he said was "get in."

"Great," Harry said feeling relieved. Not being in the mood to be questioned, Harry sat in the back of the cab.

Harry and the driver remained quiet during the entire ride. As soon as they arrived at King's Cross, Harry jumped out of the car, grabbed the nearest cart and loaded all of his stuff on it. He was about to leave when the driver yelled out to him.

"Hey!" the driver yelled. "You forgot to pay me!"

Harry immediately stopped in his tracks. "Sorry," he said. He walked by the window handed the driver some money and left. "Keep the change!" he yelled as he returned to his cart.

As soon as he had returned to his cart, he grabbed hold of it and dashed right for platform 9¾.

Platform 9¾ was a secret platform located right between platforms 9 and 10. To get on it, all you had to do was walk through the metal wall dividing the two platforms. The only difficult part was not letting the muggles see you doing it. This would not be a problem for Harry today, however. It was still so early in the morning that almost no one had arrived.

Harry stopped right next to the metal wall dividing platforms 9 and 10, looked around to see if the coast was clear, as soon as he saw that it was, he sprinted through the wall.

As soon as he arrived at platform 9¾, he stopped to see if anyone was there. To his surprise, there were quite a few people there already. Harry saw students chatting, cats crawling around the platform, and he heard owls hooting from their cages. They obviously arrived early in order to get to the platform without being seen by the muggles. Harry didn't recognize anyone he knew so he just headed straight for the train without saying a word.

Inside the train, Harry found an empty compartment at the end of the train. He loaded all of his things inside the compartment, took a deep breath and sat down next to the window. 'This is it', he thought to himself. 'In a few hours Hermione and the Weasleys will arrive.'



For the next few hours, the same thoughts kept floating around in his head. What will the Weasleys think of him? More importantly what does Hermione think of him? What will he say to her when he sees her again? It was new and weird to him. He never had these kinds of thoughts before. Before Hogwarts he never had any real friends, thanks to Dudley. And all throughout Hogwarts he never did anything horrible to his friends, so there was no need for them to think badly of him.

Harry looked at the clock hanging on the station wall, and realized that the train would leave in a half an hour. 'Well, this is it,' he thought. 'They'll be here any second.'

Harry was getting more and more anxious with every passing second. What would he do when they arrive? What would he say? He was starting to sweat a little. He opened the window for some fresh air, but that didn't help at all.

So, he decided that the best thing to do was to go outside and greet them. 'The first thing I'll do when I see Hermione is apologize.' That was his plan, to try and put the whole thing behind them.

Harry stepped outside of the train, took a deep breath and started to look around. He walked through many crowds, but couldn't find Hermione or the Weasleys anywhere. Maybe they haven't arrived yet.

Harry found an empty corner where he could get a clear view of the entrance to the platform and decided to wait until his either the Weasleys or Hermione would arrive. Harry stood there motionless for about fifteen minutes. 'Why haven't they arrived yet?' Harry wondered. 'Are they even coming back?'

Harry continued to wait, getting anxious once again. Still picturing what their meeting will be like. Then after a few more minutes he noticed two people with red hair walk through the platform entrance. He recognized them as Fred and George Weasley. They were both tall and thin and had the weirdest grins on their faces. Next came Ron and Mrs. Weasley. Harry noticed that Ron didn't grow much over the summer. He looked exactly the same as the previous year. Next was Hermione and Ginny. Ginny looked a little more mature, and she seemed to fill out a bit. Hermione looked exactly like he saw her a few days ago, only now her hair was brown.

Harry wanted to walk up to them, but for some reason he couldn't. His mind told him to, but his legs wouldn't obey. Instead, they turned him around and headed in the opposite direction toward the end of the station.

As soon as he arrived there, he felt something knock him off of his feet, and onto his back. He looked up and saw a person run away. He tried to see who it was, but the person was too far away. Harry couldn't even tell if the person was a boy or girl.

Harry got up, dusted himself off and was about to head back towards the train, when something on the ground caught his eye. It was a book, and a very old one at that. 'That person must've dropped this.' Harry thought. He knelt down and picked up the book. It was old and dusty, the pages were all yellow and ripped; the entire book was held together with spellotape.

He opened the book to a random page and was immediately shocked by what he saw. It was the interious curse. A curse that would make a person grow large and very sharp spikes out of his bones. The spikes would rip through the person's blood vessels, organs, and skin causing the person to die a slow and painful death. Harry turned to another random page and saw another curse, called the venocuous curse; a curse that would change a person's hair into very poisonous snakes, which would immediately bite their host. He turned to another random page a saw a potion called the change of heart potion. This potion would reverse its drinker's personality.

Harry closed the book and realized that this was a book dedicated to the dark arts. 'Who would have a book like this?' Harry wondered.

He reopened the book, and started skimming through it, hoping that he was wrong. That this wasn't really a book about the dark arts. However, he concluded that he was right when he found what he was looking for. It was the avada kedavra curse, aka the killing curse, with an entire chapter to itself.

Harry couldn't believe it. Why would anyone have this book? Harry felt really angry with himself for not seeing the person who ran into him.

Harry sat there for a minute thinking of anyone who might have a book like this. Then it came to him: Malfoy. It had to be him. Who else could it have been?

At that moment Harry remembered what Malfoy said to him on the train in the previous year. He remembered how Malfoy threatened him. "It has to be him," Harry thought out loud. "But why would he bring this book to Hogwarts. It doesn't make sense. If Dumbledore or anyone else would find him with it, then they would be able to connect his father to Voldemort. Something isn't right."

Harry got up and began to look around. His plan was to find Malfoy and confront him at that moment, before the situation got out of hand. 'I'm sure his fingerprints are on this book, there's no way he'll be able to deny it.'

Harry started to look at the crowds and realized that none of the students were there. 'They all must have boarded the train already,' Harry thought. He looked in the direction of the train and saw that it was starting to move. Then he heard a loud whistle blow from the head of the train. The train was starting to accelerate, and Harry wasn't on it.

'Oh no,' Harry thought. 'I must not have heard the warning whistle.'

Immediately, Harry broke into a sprint. He ran as fast as he could hoping that someone on the train would see him running towards them, and tell the conductor to stop the train.

As Harry got near the train, he stopped running and started waving his hands around and yelled for the train to stop. He hoped that someone would see or hear him. However, no one did. Everybody on the train was too busy settling in to notice what was going on outside.

Once again Harry broke into a sprint. He ran in the same direction as the train was accelerating. He continued to wave his hand around as he was running. He finally stopped and took a breath when he reached the end of the line. He looked around and saw that all the parents were giving him strange looks. Harry paid them no mind. All he wanted to do was to get on that train.

Immediately, without thinking twice Harry jumped off the platform and onto the tracks. As soon as landed, he started running after the train. He was running at top speed, while at the same time trying desperately not to trip.

After running for a few minutes he stopped to catch his breath. He looked up at the direction of the train, and realized that it had accelerated too much for him to be able to catch up with it.

Suddenly Harry started to panic. "What am I going to do?" He cried. "Hedwig isn't here, and all my stuff is on that train. My Gringotts key, my clothes, my money, my firebolt." Harry stopped for a moment. His face had lit up as if he had a solution.

"That's it!" He cried out. "My firebolt!" Immediately Harry dug into his pocket and took out his wand. He always made sure to keep it with him when he was in the wizarding world. And at that moment, he was happy that he did. Harry raised his wand and yelled out "accio, firebolt."

A few seconds later, he saw his trusty broomstick flying towards him. He put his wand back in his pocket and caught the broom as soon as it arrived. He was about to mount it, when he noticed that he couldn't grip it with his left hand. He looked down and realized that he still had the book of dark arts in his hand. Through all of that running and waving, the book somehow managed to stay attached to his left hand. Harry tucked the book under his right arm, mounted his broom and immediately flew into the clouds as fast as he could.

When he was stabilized in the air, Harry gripped the book with his left hand once again, while gripping the firebolt in his right.

Harry flew along the tracks hoping to catch up with the train, and try to get inside it somehow. As soon as he saw it, he lowered himself right on top of it. He slowed down when he was close to the train, and allowed it to pass him. When it did, he lowered himself even more so he was at the same level as the back door of the last car. Harry moved in closer to it trying to see if there was enough room to land. "Darn it!" He yelled out. "There's barely enough room to even stand. There's no way I can get off my broom without breaking my neck."

Harry looked around, sighed, and flew up into the clouds once again. Harry looked down sighed again, and began to speed up a bit. 'That's it,' he thought. 'I am going to be in so much trouble when I get there.'

A/N- This chapter was supposed to be a lot bigger, but I decided to split it into two chapters instead. Please read and review-tell me what you want to see.