Chapter 3: Hogwarts Express Yet Again

It was now August 31st, the day before term started. Harry, Ron, Fred, George, and Ginny, along with Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, went to Diagon Alley the day before to get their new books and some supplies. They arrived there after traveling with floo powder, which Harry didn't like very much. But he had to admit it; he was getting used to it, but very gradually.
He and Ron started packing their trunks early that morning. Ron told Harry they were going to travel by portkey again.
"I think dad's set up a portkey to go to an empty parking lot in the back of Kings Cross somewhere. He said we might have to walk a few blocks." Ron said.
"Oh, that'll look great! Five kids walking on the sidewalk with huge trunks and an owl and a rat!" Harry said.
Ron laughed.
"Knowing Fred and George, they're gonna do something to get the Muggles' attention...like set off some Filibuster Fireworks or something."

"Fred...George...Ginny..."
Mr. Weasley was counting the kids.
"...Harry...Ron...ok! All here! Let's go! The portkey will transport us in...2 minutes?!"
They all grabbed their trunks and other stuff, like, for Harry and Ron, Scabbers and Hedwig, and ran to the field by their house that was shielded by trees. Harry looked down in front of him to see the same empty can he saw when Fred and George got him at the Dursley's.
"Ok, fifty seconds..." Mr. Weasley said, looking at his watch.
"Ok, everyone touch the can..."
When Harry touched the can, he felt that same lifting feeling he felt the first time. Sooner than it started, he came to a halt on broken pavement.
"I definitely think this is a better way to travel than floo powder!" Harry said.
They looked around and jumped when Fred suddenly said, "There!"
He saw Kings Cross Station. It was just across the street.
"Ok, let's go!"
They walked across the street and into Kings Cross Station.
"Ok, Fred...you first." Mrs. Weasley said.
Fred ran through the barrier like it was a wall of air.
Then George ran through, then Mr. Weasley went, and, finally, it was Harry and Ron's turn. They ran through, glad that it didn't seal up like it did last year, and turned to see Ginny and Mrs. Weasley walking through the barrier. They all said their last goodbyes and boarded the Hogwarts Express.

Harry and Ron separated from Ginny, Fred, and George. The twins went to sit with their friend, Lee Jordan, and Ginny went and sat with some of her friends, who Harry and Ron didn't know.
"Looks like they're all full!" Ron said.
"Not a single one empty! I don't even see Dean, Seamus, or Neville anywhere!"
"Calm down, Ron! I'm sure we'll find someone we know!"
Harry's words had barely escaped his mouth when they saw a familiar face, alone in one compartment.
"Hermione!" Harry and Ron said in unison.
They sat down, Ron next to Hermione, and Harry, across from them.
"So, have you been having fun at Ron's, Harry?" Hermione asked.
"Yeah. We found something in a Quaf..." Harry started but got cut off by Hermione.
"I forgot to tell you!" She exclaimed. Then there was a long pause. "Well, then," Ron finally said, "On with it!"
"I was trying to think where I put...ah yes! I remember!" She said, suddenly springing up to grab a small, purse-sized bag.
"Here it is!"
And she held out her hand and Harry grabbed the parchment that she was holding. It was an article cut out from the Daily Prophet.

'Nicholas Flamel is, indeed, very ill.
One of the last things he was able to say was
"My granddaughter...to carry out my work...the
girl who's life is destined to be given for the boy who lived
3 times." We have no record of whom Flamel is referring to.
Here at the Daily Prophet, we believe Flamel was talking about the famous boy who
nearly destroyed He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, Harry Potter. Just 4 years ago,
Potter met up with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, and yet again, he succeeded
against him. And just 3 years ago, Potter stumbled upon a diary that concealed Tom
Marvolo Riddle's teenage self (He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's name when he was
younger). Potter destroyed the basilisk that was in the legendary Chamber of Secrets at
Hogwarts, and destroyed the diary as well. As mentioned previously, we are still to
discover who Flamel's granddaughter is.'

"Strange...seems their still in denial about last year, though." Ron said when he read it.
"Yeah, Fudge has forced them to believe that he's not back." Harry said. "But I saw him..."
Harry dazed off for a moment, thinking of the ever-present memory of that night in the graveyard. But something had been stoping the nightmares lately...what could it have been?"What is this about Flamel's granddaughter? The boy who lived three times? That's...that's..." Hermione cut off Harry.
"You, Harry!"
"Wait a second! That poem in the Quaffle! As Harry started to say before, the ghoul that lives in our house broke the Quaffle we had right in half! There was a poem inside it...here..." Ron stopped and went to his trunk and got the two ripped pieces of paper. Hermione read them and gasped.
"Do you think...that Flamel's granddaughter could've written this?" She said.
"Sounds very likely. She talks about existing to help who seems to be me..." Harry said.
"Wow!" Ron started, "You should feel really special! There's a GIRL somewhere who would give her life for you!"
"I guess..." Said Harry.

Then, just as everything seemed to be going all right, a voice Harry remembered all too well sounded from outside the door.
"Well, well, well...the little Mudblood found her friends...how touching..."
It was Draco Malfoy and his cronies, Vincent Crabbe, and Gregory Goyle.
"Cut it out, Malfoy!" Ron said, grabbing his wand out of his pocket and ready to strike at any time.
"Now, now, Weasley! Don't be starting any trouble...don't want anything to happen to that wand again, or daddy might have to sell your house to get a new one. No, wait..."
Malfoy paused for a second, and then resumed his sentence.
"...Your house is not worth seven Sickles!"
That was the last straw. Ron pointed his wand at Malfoy and yelled, "Rictusempra! Furnunculus!"
Suddenly, Malfoy fell to the floor, doubled up with laughter and covered in ugly boils that were growing bigger every second. He was laughing for several minutes before it subsided.

"Ooh, you're gonna...haha...get it Weasley, just...haha...you see!" Malfoy said, obviously still being tickled a little by the Rictusempra spell. He walked away, followed by Crabbe and Goyle.
"If he dares to call you Mudblood, or call me poor, or say ANYTHING about you, Harry..." Ron said, pointing his wand out, pretending that a beetle on the window was Malfoy.
The beetle curled up and died.