As it turned out Ron and Hermione were to be staying at the Leaky Cauldron, too. They got the rooms on either side of Harry. The next few days flew by; they spent a lot of time exploring Diagon Alley, and hanging around in Fred and George's shop trying out new items.

Finally, September 1st rolled around and the Trio was as ready as they would ever be, to board the train and head to Hogwarts. The trip to the platform was, as it usually was, uneventful. They said good-bye to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, and soon boarded, got their trunks on the train, and found a compartment.

"We better make this trip memorable." said Ron.

"What should we do to make this memorable, Oh great one?" joked Harry.

"Well, first we could- Nice Harry" Ron burst into laughter.

"HARRY!" snapped Hermione. Harry quickly withdrew his index finger from his nose.

"What?!?! I'm trying to make this trip memorable....I am going to tickle my brain and find the gold that's up there!" he declared. Ron, who was already laughing hard, rolled around and fell to the compartment floor, clutching a stitch in his side as tears fell from his eyes.

"Calm down Ron." Said Harry.

Ron sat back down on the seat and dug around in his pockets just as the food trolley came by.

"Anything off the trolley dears?" she asked.

Harry bought a large amount of Chocolate Frogs and they spent most of the journey watching the frogs jump around and swapping the cards inside.

About half way through the trip the train started to shake violently, throwing them from their seats, Crookshanks who slept the whole way, was now sitting in his basket spitting.

"Ouch, Ron! You're on my hair! Ouch! What's happening?" Yelled Hermione.

"Ah, Oh! Sorry, I don't know, make it stop!" They all screamed. "I'm blind! I'm blind! Am I dead?!"

"Where are the lights?" yelled Harry, steadying himself on one of the seats.

"I don't know! Oh, I don't want to die!" said Hermione, starting to panic.

The lights flickered on and Harry saw that Ron was huddled in the corner of the compartment and Hermione was supporting her elbow.

"What happened?" asked Ron

"Hermione are you ok?" asked Harry crawling over to her.

"I should be." She replied as Ron came over to her, helped her up into her seat, and sat next to her.

The train had stopped shaking, but everyone on the train was out of nerves.

"What was that?!?" yelled Ron.

Just then a voice came over the loud speaker, and they covered their ears.

"This is your conductor speaking, and we are experiencing some problems with the train, nothing to be afraid of though, we will-"

"This is very not good!" said Hermione, trying to open the door. "Oh no! It wont open!" she tugged harder and harder at the door, it wouldn't budge.

The lights flickered once more and the train started to move. They sat in silence for a long time, still shocked at what happened.

"I feel bad for the 1st years." said Harry.

"Yeah me too, they must be scared beyond belief!" said Ron.

Hermione sighed.

All of a sudden the train started to rock back and forth, then there was a loud grinding noise and the train started to speed of the tracks and into the woods, knocking over trees as if they were toothpicks. Finally it came to a halt with a jolt and the trio was thrown forward. The motion was so strong that the train flipped over onto its side, and everyone was thrown into complete darkness.

Hermione opened her eyes to find herself covered in blood and dirt, her whole body was sore. She looked around her and saw Harry and Ron sprawled out, about 5 feet away from her. She crawled over to them and checked that they were all right. They were alive but unconscious.

Hermione looked around, the sight was unbearable, her class mates were sprawled everywhere. The sight mad her sick, taking a deep breath she fainted.

Hermione was being shook as she opened her eyes and saw Professor McGonagall's worried face. "Miss Granger, I need you to help us get the other students up and see if there's anything broken or that needs fixed."

"Professor? Oh, what happened? I feel like I got hit with a ton of bricks."

"Just be glad that's all you feel like. You're OK, nothing is broken or fractured, just some minor bruising." She said as she walked off to help other students.

Hermione got up and went over to Ron and Harry. After them reassuring her that they were OK, she went off to other students.

Once everyone had been checked over by the seventh year students, they started to make their way into groups where portkeys were waiting with staff to bring them to the entrance of Hogwarts.

Hermione was one of the last to leave the site of the wrecked train, looking back see saw a sight that made her stomach drop, a green symbol above the train at the far end, shaped like a skull with a serpent. She looked around to see if anyone had noticed the symbol, but it appeared that nobody had. She looked at it once more and saw that behind a tree, a dark cloaked figure was watching her. At first she thought it was Snape, but she had an uneasy feeling that it wasn't so she turned on her heel and ran to the group.

If she had stayed a little longer she would have seen a friend of hers, and maybe she could've been spared.