Chapter 3: The Forgotten

Harry generally knew his way around the area, but he wasn't planning on walking into London. He could probably get away with flying, but the invisibility cloak was likely to blow off. He thought about the Knight Bus, however, he didn't know exactly how to call it. He realized that he probably would need to either use less magical transportation or wait for the cover of darkness before heading into town.

Sighing, he began to walk north, thinking about what had just happened. Who exactly was his aunt? Was she connected somehow to the world of wizardry still? And what was with the Drakhen that now lay nestled in his suitcase? He remembered the eerie glow in the eyes of the snakes. Snakes were the symbol of Lord Voldemort as well as of Slytherin house. He wondered exactly why he had taken it along. Certainly, curiosity was part of it, but he also had some strange urge like it was pulling him towards it, as much as it repelled him. He still hadn't opened it and seen what was inside it, but it was most probably locked, and the key could be anywhere.

He reached the train station within half an hour and settled down on a bench to sleep below his invisibility cloak. It wasn't exactly the most comfortable of places to stay, but he was finally, after a lot of tossing and turning, and a few people accidentally sitting on him, fall asleep.

Harry dreamed that he was in the desert, walking along under a heavy, hot cowl as part of a procession of black-robed men. They bore with them a beautiful silver casket, designed like a larger version of the Drakhen. After walking for miles, they reached a door to the tomb. Cold, freezing air blew out of the tomb, but it was a refreshing change from the constant sun of the desert. The procession stopped for a moment. Then, the procession leader turned and entered the tomb doorway. The rest of the procession flowed, slowly. Just as Harry was about to enter the tomb, he awoke to someone talking to him.

"I said, what are you doing on my bench?"

When Harry awoke, it was dark outside, and he couldn't see more than a few feet in front of him. The speaker was a skinny, ratty-looking boy with messy blonde hair that was caked with dirt, about three years younger than Harry, with a heavy Cockney accent. His clothes were ill-fitting and dirty, his teeth were in terrible condition, and everything about him suggested he was a street urchin.

For one wild moment, Harry thought that his invisibility cloak had fallen off, but he felt the silky brush against his skin and realized it was still on. Harry looked around for anyone else the kid might be talking to, but the station seemed deserted. That left only one explanation: the kid could see through Harry's cloak.

"Can you see me…?" asked Harry tentatively.

"Of course I can. That old cloak won't fool one of the Forgotten."

"Forgotten…?"

At this, a ragtag bunch of dirty street kids, both girls and boys, popped out from all over the station. All the kids looked between 11 and 18, and they all looked abandoned, but relatively happy.

"How can you see me? Are you witches and wizards?"

"We're the orphans of the magic world," said the boy. "We have no one to live with, so we live out on the street, doing what we want, how we want. From the looks of it, you're from that stuck-up little school Hogwarts."

"Kevin!" warned a short brown-haired girl about a year older than Harry. She seemed to be the leader of the gang. "We're all friends here."

The kid paused for a moment, sizing Harry up.

"You know, this might be easier if I didn't have to focus. Take off that dumb cloak."

Obediently, Harry removed the cloak and threw it in his trunk. He stared around at all of the kids. There were only six, although it looked like many more when he first saw them.

"Oh, yeah. Pardon my manners. I'm Kevin."

"Annette," said the short girl who had spoken earlier. She had a slightly elongated nose, but seemed almost pretty beneath all the grime.

"Sarah," said a smaller girl who looked remarkably like Ginny, down to the freckles and the red hair.

"Benny," said a boy who was about 11. He very small, but looked like he knew what he was doing. However, looked sick, and his hair was matted with blood. Seeing Harry look at it, he said "My parents abandoned me because I'm a werewolf… Last night was full moon."

"Amy," said an older girl with a ponytail. She had a bossy, disapproving look to her.

The last kid stood apart from the others and looked a bit older, and was smoking heavily. He wore chains and punk clothing that had worn down over the years. There was a moment of silence as he puffed on his cigarette, and finally said, "Zack."

"I'm Harry," Harry said, smiling at them.

He was glad to see some wizards, even if they were orphans. He felt sorry for these kids, but also somehow felt he connected with them – he himself was an orphan.

"Yeah, we know," said Amy hollowly. "You've got that nice little scar on your head."

"Yeah, I guess so."

"So," said Annette, "Why aren't you staying with those muggles you spend the summer with?"

"They kicked me out."

"Why? Did you do any scary magic tricks that you learned at Hogwarts? Ooh, ooh!"

"Kevin!"

"I took something of my mothers that was lying around the house. I was going to give it back, but there was something drawing me to it."

"What was it?" asked Benny.

"I don't know exactly. It was a silver box thing called a Drakhen. Have you heard of it?"

There was a short silence, as they looked at him. They seemed to know something about it and each eyed Harry in turn. Finally, Benny said "No clue," and the others seemed happy with this explanation.

Harry watched them for a while. He realized that the kids smelled terrible. They probably hadn't had a proper bath in about a year.

"Um… so, what do you guys do?"

"We just try to survive. We can't blend in at muggle orphanages, and can't pay tuition to any schools, so we just do whatever we can."

"I think I know a place in London where we could all stay," said Harry, thinking of the Black household which was the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix and was still often used by Lupin, Moody, Tonks, and other members of the resistance.

"We're not looking for charity," Zack said, tracing lines in the air with his cigarette. "We were looking for a friend.

"Sorry, I was just offering…"

"We live on our own," explained Sarah. "We do what we want to do. We have no rules. Ever since our mentor was sent to Azkaban, nearly a year ago, we've been alone, our own masters."

"I didn't mean to-" began Harry.

"No need to apologize," said Annette.

"So who was this mentor?"

"The mentor went around the wizarding world looking for orphans. He found the six of us, raised us, fed us, clothed us, and taught us all he knew about magic. He taught us how to focus, to see things that aren't really there. He also taught us practical skills, like how to hide in shadows and pick locks, and even how to persuade people to give us what we need."

"He sounds like a nice guy. Why was he sent to Azkaban?"

"Well, he was put under the Imperious curse by Lord Voldemort - this was back when no one believed he had returned – and killed a man. And he wasn't ever exactly the most law-abiding man. To tell you the truth, he was slightly crazy. But he was a genius."

As she was finishing her story, Hedwig, Harry's owl, flew in, and landed on Harry's shoulder. Harry stroked her, smiling.

"Oh! It's a real wizard's owl!" Sarah said, squealing with delight.

"Can we barrow it? We should send a letter up to the Greg," Amy said.

"Who's Greg?" asked Harry.

"He was an old member of the gang. He was adopted by a muggle family in France who had another wizard for a son. He goes to Beauxbatons."

"Oh… yeah, sure, but I have to attach another message too."

"Sure."

He was about to use his want to cast a spell of light on his things so he could write, when he realized that he couldn't use magic in the summer. Annette seemed to realize what he was thinking, and pulled out her own wand, whispering "Lumos", and passing it to Harry. Harry took out his quill and ink and began another letter to Lupin, willing himself not to cry.

Remus,

How's everyone there? Is Mad-Eye back from his mission? Did you hear anything from Hagrid about Gawp? I'm going into London; the Dursleys kicked me out until next summer. I'll see you soon at Grimmauld Place, if that's okay.

Harry

He looked it over, rolled it up, and attached it to Hedwig. Soon afterwards, Sarah brought over her note, looking closely at the owl.

"I love owls! What kind is she?"

"She's a snowy owl. She's a great hunter."

Sarah poked and prodded at Hedwig, much to the latter's discomfort, and then, after Hedwig ruffled her feathers and snapped at it, Sarah attached her letter, and Hedwig took off. She soared out the door, and Sarah hurried to the window to watch her soar off into the starlight, visible by the red glow of Harry's ink. Annette walked over and took her wand back.

"Darn that's some bright ink," Zack said. "Can I have a light?"

"Err… I don't have any matches or…"

Zack dipped the cigarette into the ink, and pulled it out, glowing, and grinned.

"Wow, liquid fire ink," Sarah said as Hedwig flew off into the night. She ran over and stared at the dancing flames in the bottle.

"Err… yeah…"

"She takes an interest in everything," said Annette. "She's sort of curious but rather annoying as well…"

"Am not!"

"Are too!" said Kevin.

"Shut up, both of you," yelled Benny. "I'm really tired after last night, and I'm going to sleep."

"Harry, you want to go into London, right?" asked Annette.

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

"It was a lucky guess. I'll take you there. The last train of the day comes in a couple of minutes, and we can sneak on."

Harry could probably get to London by himself, but he decided not to protest against going with Annette, because he'd probably be thankful for her company. He was very glad he'd met the Forgotten; they were the only people besides Mrs. Figg from the wizarding world that he had talked to face-to-face all summer. He smiled and nodded in appreciation, and packed his quills and parchment back into his trunk. As he was doing so, he noticed the reflection of the flames in the Fire Ink reflected on the silver surface of the Drakhen. It seemed as mysterious as ever, and Harry longed to touch it, to open it, to see what was inside, but he held himself back, covered it with a pair of socks Dobby the house-elf had made for him, and shut the suitcase.

"Let me come too! I've never been under a real invisibility cloak!" Sarah said.

"We're not going to use the cloak."

"We're not?" Harry asked.

"We might have to move fast, and the cloak will just encumber us."

"Just let me come!"

"Fine, three is safer than two."

"Is there something we should worry about?" said Harry.

"Yes. This train is being watched by Death Eaters. They want us nearly as much as they want you."

"Why?"

"They want us because we can focus. The only other known wizard besides us and the mentor that can do so is Dumbledore."

"But it just lets you see through invisibility cloaks…"

"Well, no, not exactly. If you're focused, you can sense everything that is there, but you can also find traces of things that were there up to a day before. You can find out exactly where someone has been within the past day if you truly wanted to. You can even sense feelings and true intentions. If we put our minds together with the mentor, it might be possible to pinpoint Voldemort's location. It's not a well-known power and takes years of practice to gain."

"And the Death Eaters…"

"They want to kill us because we can find out who's a Death Eater and who's not, who's under the Imperius curse, and even pinpoint Voldemort's location. They got the mentor last year put in Azkaban, though I don't see why they didn't just kill him. After being tortured for days with the Crucias curse, he told them that he had trained us. Even if we wanted to, we couldn't stay in one place for very long."

They stopped talking for a little bit, and Harry gathered up his things. There was a sort of tense silence, then the train arrived with a whistle, and Sarah reached out and pushed the door button.

"See you tomorrow, right?" said Amy.

"Yep," replied Annette. "Let's meet up by the farm."

"Nice meeting you, Harry," said Kevin and Zack nodded.

Harry jumped onto the train, hauling along his trunk and Hedwig's cage, and Sarah was immersed in inspecting every detail of Harry's Firebolt, poking it and prodding it. Annette followed, and pointed to a seat in the middle of the car. Harry threw his stuff onto the luggage rack and collapsed sleepily in a chair next to Annette and Sarah.

"How long does it take to get into London by train?" asked Harry.

"We should be there in about an hour if everything goes alright. Where in London do you want to go?"

"Although the ministry is now involved in the planning of the war, the old Order of the Phoenix headquarters is still being used often by members of the resistance. Lupin, Moody and Tonks have effectively moved in. I think I'll go there. You guys should be safe there, if you want to stop in for the night."

"Hmm… I guess it couldn't hurt. We could use a good meal and a bath, but we'll be gone by six in the morning."

They lapsed into silence, broken only by Sarah's screams of delight as she looked at Harry's broomstick. Harry looked around the train. This car was completely empty, and from what he saw through the windows on the doors, the other cars were as well. He was certainly glad to have Sarah and Annette there, because it was certainly empty and slightly eerie. One of the florescent lights kept flashing on and off strangely. Harry pressed his head against the window, but could see only darkness. The train slowed down and stopped at the next station. At this stop, twenty or so passengers got onto their car. The car had gone from empty to halfway full at one stop. Strangely enough, Harry could see no one entering any of the other cars.

"Don't look," hissed Annette below her breath. "But there are Death Eaters. Two rows behind us, there are two wearing business suits. There's one on the other side one row in front wearing the red sweatshirt. The rest are muggles the Death Eaters paid off to cover their tracks."

"What should we do?"

"Nothing yet. Stay inconspicuous. Don't let them know we saw them."

Sarah replaced the broomstick on the rack, and sat down. She looked very calm, but her hand was shaking slightly. The train stopped at the next stop. No one got on or off. The doors shut, and the train was rolling again. The silence was uncanny. Not even the muggles were talking very much. As the train picked up speed, Sarah leaned in to talk to Harry and Annette.

"One of the bad thingies back there just took out his wandy thingy and looks ready to cast a spell."

"Right," breathed Annette, "when I say go, let's stun them. Harry, you get the one in front, Sarah the one behind on the left, and I'll do the right one. Ready…"

But they didn't have a chance. All three Death Eaters stood up at the same moment and yelled "EXPELLIMENTARUS!"

Harry and the two Forgotten fell back in their seats, the wind knocked out of them, and three wands flew through the air.