Chapter 7
Ponderings on Platform 9 ¾
After Harry, Ron and Hermione had been around the rest of Diagon Alley, buying their supplies, they met up with Mrs Weasley, Ginny, Fred and George at Florean Fortesque's Ice Cream Parlour, as they had arranged. When Mrs Weasley heard about what had happened with Malfoy, she swelled like a balloon, and turned a brighter shade of red than Harry had ever seen her. She started to quiver with repressed rage, and Harry was uncomfortably reminded of a howler when it has been left unopened too long.
It took her quite a long time to calm down, after which she started fussing over Harry, inspecting his nose to make sure the bleeding had stopped, and asking questions about exactly what had happened. Answering the questions only seemed to make Mrs Weasley fume more, and when the questioning was over, she continued to mutter something that Harry was relieved he couldn't hear. If Malfoy showed his face again, Harry had a feeling Mrs Weasley would launch into a furious tirade that would put a volcano to shame.
Throughout the explanations to Mrs Weasley, both Ron and Hermione stayed by Harry's side, trying to both answer questions and calm Mrs Weasley at the same time. Fred and George were unusually quiet as they watched, and they had very determined looks on their faces, and Harry was reminded that the Weasley twins were as famous for their long memories as for their pranks. It would not be long before some kind of retribution found it's way to Draco Malfoy's feet.
But Ginny seemed to be more affected by what happened than any of the others. Whenever Harry caught a glimpse of Ginny, she seemed to be staring at Harry, with a sad look on her face, and as soon as she noticed Harry looking at her, she turned away, or sometimes moved altogether. Once, Harry thought he saw a tear in the corner of Ginny's eye, but she turned away too quickly for him to be sure.
Once Mrs Weasley was satisfied, everyone walked to The Leaky Cauldron, and went back into Muggle London. Mr Weasley had arranged for a portkey to take them home, but it would be left somewhere away from the attention of Muggles. After a long trip on the Muggle Underground, Mrs Weasley took the children around the back streets, and eventually found a cardboard box, and told all the children to gather around it. Just as a nearby church clock chimed five o'clock, Harry felt the familiar jerk just behind the navel, and found himself standing in front of the Burrow.
When they got inside, Ginny ran upstairs to her room almost immediately, and after a quick look to Ron and Harry, Hermione ran after her. Mrs Weasley glanced in their direction, then decided to leave them alone, and carried the bags into the kitchen. Ron just shrugged and paid no attention, and the twins didn't even seem to notice, but Harry just stood there for a moment with a worried look on his face. He was worried about his encounter with Malfoy, but there was something else concerning him, deep in the back of his mind.
Ron called from outside, breaking Harry out of his thoughts. Harry looked out into the garden, and saw Ron holding two broomsticks, and two Weasley-shaped dots heading for the horizon at great speed. He shook his head slowly, as if to clear it, and ran outside to join the others.
Just over a week later, it was time for Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Fred and George to go back to Hogwarts. As usual, the morning came far too early for the children, and each one of them came down the stairs looking half asleep, rubbing their eyes and yawning. Before long, all the children, Bill and Mrs Weasley were assembled around the table, eating breakfast. Percy and Mr Weasley had to be at work early, so they had left well before anyone else had woken up, and would most likely not return until after Mrs Weasley returned home.
Mrs Weasley cooked one of her huge breakfasts, and while the children ate sleepily, she started fussing around them, asking if everything was ready for their return to Hogwarts. She seemed particularly attentive to Fred and George, and Harry assumed she was taking extra care with them because they were entering their final year. He also wondered if she was paying extra attention to make up for the absence of Mr Weasley.
Harry started eating the small pile of sausages that Mrs Weasley had piled onto his plate, and looked at Fred and George, thinking about how they felt about going into their final year of Hogwarts. He knew they were still planning on starting their own Joke Shop, Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, but what were they going to do while they saved up the money they needed to start? What did wizards do when they left Hogwarts?
As people started waking up a little more, conversations started, pulling Harry away from his thoughts. Fred and George talked among themselves, leaving Ron, Ginny, Harry and Hermione to have a quiet discussion while Mrs Weasley and Bill cleared away the breakfast table.
"So, are you ready for a new year at school?" asked Hermione, directing her question at Ginny, trying to draw her into the conversation.
"Yeah... I think so... I just hope I don't have Potions first thing every Monday, like I did last year." Ginny said, hesitantly.
"Snape picks on you too, then?" Harry joked, knowing perfectly well that Professor Snape held all the other Gryffindors in equal contempt. Ginny's cheeks tinged slightly, but she carried on speaking.
"Yeah, he hates us as much as any other year. He picks on Colin the most, making him test the antidotes and everything. Poor Colin..."
"He tries to poison Harry as well! Maybe he and Trelawney should get together sometime and arrange his death properly!" said Ron, laughing. Harry forced a smile, but both Ginny and Hermione just gave Ron a sharp look.
"And I just couldn't figure out the essay he made us write over the summer - I'm still a roll short! 'A History of Restorative Potions'..." Ginny complained, trying to divert the conversation.
"Oh, I can help you with that! There's this really good book in the library I used last year, we can go up there one day and have a look at it..." Hermione said, delighted to be able to offer some help to her friend.
"'Mione!" Ron spluttered, through a mouthful of pumpkin juice. "We haven't even got on the train yet, and you're already talking about work! Can't you wait until we get there?"
As soon as the words were committed to the air, Harry knew that another one of Ron and Hermione's tiffs was on the way. The relationship between his two best friends had always been prone to develop into arguments at short notice, but since he and Hermione had come to the Burrow, their quarrels had been happening more often than was normal. Glimpsing at Ginny, Harry saw she was trying unsuccessfully to hide a smile; clearly, she had noticed the change in them too.
"I could... But then I'd have to do my own work there, so I'd be too busy to help you with yours at the last minute!" Hermione replied, a familiar flash in her eyes.
"I don't need your help! I can do my essays on my own!" shouted Ron, starting to turn his usual red at the tips of his ears.
"I'll remember that next time you've got another six inches to write for Professor Snape because you've spent all weekend talking about Quidditch!" Hermione shrilled, giving Harry an uncomfortable reminder of Professor McGonagall.
"I'd rather talk about Quidditch than-" Ron bellowed, before being cut off in mid-sentence.
"Alright now, that's enough, you two... Go on! Go get your trunks so we can get going!" Mrs Weasley broke in, trying hard to look impatient with them.
All the trunks had been packed the night before, and all the children now ran up the stairs to get them. The older Weasleys helped them to bring the trunks down, and then Mrs Weasley waved her wand over the trunks, and muttered a charm that Harry couldn't quite hear. Suddenly, the trunks were magically shrunken, which Harry assumed was to make them easier to carry. Now that the trunks were ready, it was time for everyone to leave.
Mr Weasley had been unable to get a Ministry car this time, and because of this, Mrs Weasley was forced to take everybody to the station by Floo Powder. A short walk from King's Cross Station, there was a wizard pub called the Orb and Sceptre, which she explained was where many Wizarding families arrived when they took their children to take the Hogwarts Express. Harry was excited to be going to another wizarding pub, but as Mrs Weasley started to pass the vase of Floo Powder around, he felt the usual discomfort about travelling by Floo.
Harry watched Ron take some Floo Powder and throw it into the fire, but didn't hear him say the name of the pub. He was too busy remembering his first experience with Floo Powder; in his second year, Harry misspoke when he was trying to go to Diagon Alley, and found himself in Knockturn Alley, which was a place most wizards tried to avoid if they could do so. He had almost had an unpleasant encounter with Lucius Malfoy that day, and since then he had approached travelling by Floo with some trepidation.
Mrs Weasley jerked Harry out of his thoughts by passing him the vase of Floo Powder, and suddenly Harry noticed both Ginny and Hermione were looking at him. Clearly, he had been too engrossed in his thoughts again. Since the events of the third Triwizard task, Harry had noticed himself becoming increasingly introspective. At the Dursley's house, no one had paid enough attention to him to notice, but the Weasleys had noticed his pondering almost as soon as he arrived. He smiled reassuringly at them, and took a handful of the powder from the vase.
"The Orb and Sceptre..." murmured Harry, still a little uneasy about using the Floo Network, and threw his handful of powder into the flames. The fire glowed a bright blue, and then he leapt into the fireplace, and felt a familiar jerk on his body. What seemed like an instant later, Harry stepped out of a completely different fireplace, and saw Ron's smiling face in front of him, telling him he had arrived safely.
After looking around for the first time, Harry decided the Orb and Sceptre reminded him very much of the Leaky Cauldron at the entrance to Diagon Alley. The pub was dark and crowded, but the people gathered around made the place seem comfortable, and it was made to feel even more homely by the warm glow generated by the fireplace he had just stepped out of. Harry decided he would have liked to stop for a Butterbeer here, but Mrs Weasley urged them through the crowded pub, and down the street toward the station.
King's Cross station was the same as Harry saw it every year - crowded, full of people pushing around and paying as little attention as possible to what was going on around them. It was lucky that everyone in the station had so little concern for everyone else; if any of them had been paying attention, then the entrance to Platform 9 ¾ might have been found a long time ago. As Harry loaded his trunk onto one of the luggage holders, he wondered how many years wizards had been coming to this station and going to Hogwarts, unnoticed by the Muggle community.
Ron and Harry went through the barrier first, and as soon as they got onto the platform, they noticed that everyone seemed to be a little less attentive than usual, a little more guarded. Normally, most people would keep glancing at the entrance to the platform, looking to see their friends as soon as they arrived. By now, someone as well known as Harry and Ron would have been greeted with a wave or a call, but nobody paid much attention to their entrance.
After a nudge from Ron, Harry moved his trolley away from the entrance to the platform, so that the others would be able to come through. As he watched Ginny and Hermione arrive onto the platform, he realised why people seemed so closed off. He had always heard about how people acted when Voldemort was in power, and had started to notice it from the moment Dumbledore had announced his return.
This was one of the most unpleasant results of Voldemort's return, and one Harry felt very uncomfortable about. People were terrified of Voldemort and his supporters, to such an extent that they stopped reaching out to the people around them. If it continued like this, soon people would start to mistrust their friends, and draw away from the people around them. It was what turned the period of Voldemort's dominance into such a Reign of Terror; eventually, death, mistrust and suspicion would take away everyone you knew and cared about, leaving you alone.
Finally, Fred and George came onto the platform, and Mrs Weasley gathered everyone around to say goodbye. Fred and George looked eager to get onto the train and find their friends, but they still waited to listen to what their mother had to say. Mrs Weasley started by talking to Fred and George in hushed tones, no doubt telling them to behave themselves, before they ran off to get on the train. Then, she came over to Ron, Harry and Hermione, and hugged each of them one by one.
"Are you sure you've got everything?" Mrs Weasley fussed, clutching Ron tightly.
"Yes, Mum!" Ron replied, as Mrs Weasley went on hug Hermione.
"We're fine, Mrs Weasley... And thank you for letting us stay..." said Hermione, with Harry nodding in agreement behind her.
"I wouldn't have it any other way, dear..." Mrs Weasley replied, in a very quiet voice. She seemed to want to say more, but the words just wouldn't come.
"Come on Mum! The train will be getting ready to leave soon!" muttered Ron, eager to get on the train.
"Yes, of course... You will take care of each other, won't you?" said Mrs Weasley, who almost seemed to have a tear in her eye as she said it.
"Of course we will, Mrs Weasley... We always do, don't we?" said Harry, getting a small laugh from everyone.
After the laughter, Mrs Weasley nodded, smiled and hugged all three of them again, before turning to say goodbye to Ginny, which took quite a few minutes. Suddenly, a whistle blew, and the doors on the train carriage opened. Everyone on the platform slowly disentangled themselves from their relatives and started to board the train, but Mrs Weasley was still saying goodbye to Ginny, so Harry, Ron and Hermione had to wait and watch people trickle onto the train.
As Harry watched, he caught a glimpse of Draco Malfoy in the very last carriage. Malfoy was talking openly with Crabbe and Goyle, and there was nobody else in the carriage with them. For a moment, Harry considered getting a little closer, to find out what they could be talking about, but then Malfoy looked around, and spotted Harry. Once Malfoy noticed that Harry was looking at him, he just gave Harry a cold, chilling smile and looked away, making Harry shudder.
But it wasn't the smile that made Harry concerned, but something behind it. In Malfoy's eye, there was a tiny, almost unnoticeable gleam. It wasn't something Harry saw very often. It wasn't the cold contempt of Professor Snape's eyes, and it wasn't the seething hatred of Voldemort's. It was like Malfoy was looking past Harry, and seeing something else, something beneath his notice. Once again, Harry wondered what had brought Malfoy his newfound confidence; he was rarely this openly contemptuous, even toward him.
Once, just before his second year, Harry had overheard Lucius Malfoy telling his son that it was not wise to 'appear less than fond of Harry Potter'. Malfoy would not be so flippant if his father was still worried about how the family looked to the wizarding world, and the fact that he was so unconcerned made Harry think. This new-found social confidence could indicate something much more worrying than the insults Harry had already been subjected to.
Before Voldemort had been defeated when Harry was a baby, Lucius Malfoy had always been a member of Voldemort's inner circle, although the Ministry had never been able to prove it. He had also been one of the first to arrive when the Death Eaters had assembled after Voldemort's restoration to his body. Clearly, Lucius Malfoy was one of Voldemort's most important and trusted followers. If Voldemort was planning anything, or if he was close to some kind of victory, then Lucius Malfoy would know about it.
The fact that the Malfoys were less worried about their appearance could mean that Voldemort was close to reclaiming his former power, or at least meant that the Malfoys were confident he would soon do so. Harry had spent a great deal of time over the last week worrying about what could have happened to change their attitudes so much. He tried to tell himself that the Malfoys were being over-confident as a result of the Dementors' revolt, but one thought kept coming to him; something was going to happen, and soon.
Disclaimer: Are you still reading these? Look, let me make this clear - I don't own Harry Potter, and I wouldn't dare make any money off it... So why don't you leave me alone to write this in peace?
Okay, to start with, I'm sorry that this chapter doesn't have the things I promised last time... This is only about half of the planned Chapter 7, but if I'd written it all, it would have taken twice as long, and would be a ridiculous size. So, this is Chapter 7, and Chapter 8 will have the return of Voldemort... Oh, and the Orb and Sceptre pub is, of course, a tribute to the pub at gryffindortower.net...
Well, I almost didn't have any reviewers to thank this time! Thanks to Pickles, my only reviewer for Chapter 6... Maybe I should bribe you all with my virtual cookies again?
