A/N: Well, here comes chapter 5… hope you like it! Thanks to all you LOVELY people for you reviews!!! All you other people, please follow their example and RR!!! VirginiaLilyPotter713 thanks for your comments! I'm glad you like it! I wasn't really sure where it was going… but I hope you'll stick around to read the whole thing! ShadowOfMoonlight, I take it as a HUGE compliment that you can't wait another minute to read my fic so you put me on your author alert! Lily Dwarf, WOAH! Commanding… hehehe… well, here's 'more' for ya! =) Wobble, I'm glad that you like it!!! Chapter 5 coming right up! Dianne, you've got to be my most consistent reviewer so far! Chapter by chapter comments are nice. Makes me feel a little more worthwhile! =) Glad you like the little Ron convo… I think I got the idea from another fic… but I'm not sure which one… sigh and the reason why Ginny tells Ron is because… =/ you'll find out later! =) In my little head… no one dies yet, so rest assured!

So here we go… Hope this ain't "goony goo goo doo doo"! [Mark Holden Australian Idol]

Chapter 5:

Harry glanced at his watch. Come on. Stupid train. He had managed to escape from hell (otherwise known as Number 4 Privet Drive), and had flagged down a taxi. He wasn't travelling with much, just an old backpack with a few necessary items, his wand, some food, a bundle of letters from Sirius, his father's invisibility cloak, his Gringotts key and the photo album of his parents that Hagrid had given him in his first year at Hogwarts. These were all the things that he would need.

Harry glanced at his watch again. Another two hours and the Dursleys would be back. Before they found him gone. They had gone out to celebrate Dudley's birthday, for the fifth time in a month. All the fat pig had to do was blubber like a baby, and his mother would come running to grant his wish. Where is that stupid train?

Waiting at Kings Cross Station was proving to be quite boring. He had only been to the station five times, to get to Hogwarts. Now, he didn't know where he was going. All he knew was that Ginny would have gotten is letter by now, and Hermione and Ron would already know. From there, he didn't know what was happening at the Burrow, but they hadn't asked him anyway. His only regret was having to leave Hedwig behind. She would have attracted too much attention.

A slow chugging of a train neared the station, and Harry sighed in relief. Where ever this train was going to take him, he didn't care. As long as it's far, far away from here. Far away from all the people I love, from Ginny. This one thought of Ginny caused his throat to constrict, his eyes to tear.

I love her. I've told her. She's just got to get over me.

Stop assuming that she likes you. You're just her brother's best friend. She doesn't see you that way. She is just a good friend who understand feelings a little more than your other friends.

But the way she used to tell me that everything would be ok…

Harry attempted to clear his head. He didn't want to dwell on what he was now considering his 'old life'. It wasn't going to do anything for him if he kept thinking about it. He'd only just change his mind about everything, turn up at the Burrow and tell them it was all a joke. No, I have to go through with this. I've lost too many people in my life. And Dumbledore didn't help one bit to prevent that. He kept my future, my FATE, a secret from me! If there's one reason that I never go back, it's so that HE can't control my life anymore. God knows, HOW many other things he knows about me.

As Harry stepped onto the train, he noticed a small sign above 'Kings Cross Station, Platform 9': Heathrow Airport.

That's entirely too convenient, thought Harry, but shrugged off his suspicions. This was a HUMAN world, no magic to speak of.

But Voldemort can penetrate into it, a tiny voice argued.

The train started up again, and headed in what seemed to be a southerly direction.

Harry had managed to secure himself a seat, though it was in the middle of two quite large men, and proceeded to delve back into his own thoughts.

How am I supposed to fight Voldemort? I mean, I can't do any Unforgivable Curses, and I'm not sure I even want to…

What about what Dumbledore and what he said about OTHER ways to hurt him?

Forget about Dumbledore! He's partly the reason I'm in this position right now! He kept so much a secret from me!

"Excuse me?" The speaker was not heard by Harry, who was still at war with himself.

But he's still like a grandfather figure to me.

Yeah, a hell of a grandfather!

Shuttup!

"Excuse me?" repeated the person, this time a little louder.

Harry was jolted out of his argument and he looked up. He was greeted by icy grey eyes, the likes of which he'd seen before, but couldn't quite place. "Uh… sorry?" he mumbled, still unsure of those eyes.

"Is this seat taken?" she asked, gesturing towards the now empty seat next to Harry.

He shook his head.

"Can I sit?"

"Yeah, sure," mumbled Harry.

She sat down, rearranging her skirt until it rested flat over her knees. "So… where are you headed?" she asked, trying to make small talk.

"Uh… Heathrow," he mumbled, unsure whether he should be telling her anything. For all he knew, Voldemort could be watching him right now, thinking that she was a friend of his, and wanting to kill her. Who knew?

Dumbledore probably knows more than anyone else…

SHUTTUP! I can do Occlumency. I can do Legilimency. I have more ties to Voldemort than anyone else does!

You keep believing that Lightning Boy.

SHUTTUP!!!

She cleared her throat, trying to attract his attention, again.

"Sorry, what was that?" he asked, blushing at his lack of attention to what seemed to be a really pretty girl.

WHAT ABOUT GINNY?!?!?

"Where are you headed from Heathrow?" she asked, again, patiently.

"Uh… sorry. I'm… uh… going to Romania…"

She considered his answer. "OK. So where are you REALLY going?"

Harry blushed. "I... uh… don't know."

"So why are you going to the airport?"

"I just caught a random train…" Harry was growing quite suspicious of her constant questioning.

"You're running away?" she asked, interested in knowing his story, but not noticing that she was making him uncomfortable.

"Uh… um…" he stammered, still not sure whether he should trust her.

"You don't know if you can trust me, right?" she continued, reading his thoughts.

He gave her a small smile. "How do you DO that?"

"Do what?" she asked, confused.

"Read my mind… know my thoughts?"

She gave a small laugh. "We're in the same boat, you and I."

He gave her a puzzled look. "You're running away too?"

"Yeah, surprises you doesn't it?"

He blushed. "Yeah, a little."

"So why are YOU running away?"

"Friends are… trouble." Harry wasn't sure how much he was going to tell her, but that seemed like a good enough excuse and described his dilemma a little anyway.

"Ah… you picked the wrong crowd?"

"No, not exactly," he replied in a small voice. "I just… don't want them to get hurt because of me."

"You? How could you hurt them?" She paused. "No offence."

"None taken. It's complicated, and doesn't really make any sense, even to me."

They sat in a comfortable silence, before the girl spoke up. "Say, I didn't quite catch your name."

This came as a shock to Harry. How was he to know that Voldemort hadn't planted this girl here to extract all sorts of information out of him, or that he wasn't just in the next train carriage, ready to grab her and torture information out of here? It was better, he figured, to use a different name, something common. "John Smith," he blurted.

She made a face. "Nice name… common though."

He laughed. "Yeah." Just the effect he was hoping for.

"And I'm Jane Doe."

His smile dropped. How did this girl KNOW all this stuff about him? It was starting to get to him. Even with all the weird and wonderful things he'd seen in the past five years, he had never encountered someone who seemed to know what he was thinking, BEFORE he was thinking it. He sighed, and put his hand out. "Harry Potter."

She smiled. "That's better." She grasped his hand in a firm, yet gentle handshake. "I'm Miranda Granger."

A/N: phew that was pretty long, but then again, I've had this for a couple of days. Thanks again to all you BEAUTIFUL people who reviewed… hope you like this chappie! And to any new readers? Well, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE review!! Hope everyone liked this! Sorry about the wait too… =/ I was suffering from a case of "ARGH! I don't know where this story is going, but now, thanks to Mel, I came up with Miranda… who was named after the daughter in The Tempest, another Shakespeare play. [Hermione comes from A Winter's Tale, according to the Lexicon, but there were only two other names in that: Paulina, which is pretty common, and Perdita… which is just really weird… then again, Miranda is pretty common too… =/]