Disclaimer: The characters and settings relating to Harry Potter are the property of J.K. Rowling. I own nothing.

This is the second book of the Druid's Apprentice series. If you haven't read book one, 'Druid's Apprentice, please do so now or you might be a bit lost.

Druid's Apprentice: The Philosopher's Stone.

Chapter 3

At last Sept. 1st came around and Damon, his trunk tucked into his back pocket, stood with his grandfather on Platform 9 3/4. He was already dressed for school though in fashion that would be archaic and laughable on most people, but on him it looked right.

He wore a white tunic with slightly flaring sleeves and a Hogwarts crest on the left breast. Instead of the uniform slacks, he wore black breeches and mid-calf leather boots. Over it all was a very differently cut wizards robe. It was sleeveless and open down each side, a single silver chain around the waist held it in place.

While they waited, Merrill was busy brushing stray feathers from his grandson's robes. It seemed that Niffar was constantly molting. Hearing a commotion and much laughter coming from the barrier, they watched a pair of identical redheads, Fred and George Weasley, followed by Percy, Harry, Ron. They were followed closely by the Weasley Matriarch, Molly and their youngest child, Ginny.

Damon was a little curious how Harry could have hooked up so quickly with Ron, but as it was nearly eleven he would have to board the train soon. Turning he said his final goodbyes to his grandfather. The old druid looked the boy over with pride and with slightly misty eyes he addressed his grandson.

"I'll be seeing you for Christmas holidays. Gods know that for an old man, four months shouldn't seem so long. I guess I've gotten used to having you around."

Feeling a catch in his throat, Damon whispered, "I'll miss you too." He lurched into a tight hug with his grandfather until a shrill whistle from the Hogwarts Express snapped them out of it. Mustering a shaky laugh, Merrill held the boy at arms length and made him promise to keep in touch then sent him off to find a seat on the train.

Minutes later the Hogwarts Express pulled out of the station to begin its journey to the moors of Scotland. Damon worked his way between the cars looking for a familiar face. Eventually he found Draco along with two brutal looking boys that the young druid had run across a few times before at parties thrown by Draco's parents.

The blond reintroduced the two as Crabbe and Goyle. They had apparently elected themselves as Draco's bodyguards, though he suspected that they were also spying on the blond for their fathers. When they were introduced, Goyle squeezed Damon's hand tightly in an attempt set up the pecking order in the group with the young druid at the bottom. Damon, however had spent the last several years fighting for his life in Avalon and he was more than able to squeeze back just as tightly without even batting an eyebrow.

"Nice grip," he said breezily while Goyle grunted with effort as he tried to squeeze even harder. Damon quickly grew bored of the whole affair and was trying to figure how to end it without embarrassing the other boy and causing problems when Draco came to his rescue.

"Knock it off Goyle," the blond said lazily from his seat. "Damon is alright, you don't have to play this game." Relieved to have an excuse to stop, the thuggish boy released Damon's hand and silently went over to sit by Crabbe. Nodding his thanks to the blond, the young druid went over and joined him.

Settling on one of the seats, Damon spent a good hour talking with Draco and trying to draw the other two boys into the conversation. He was quickly coming to suspect, however, that he would have better luck getting an intelligent response from his decrepit pet owl than these oafs. They were saved from dying of boredom a short time later when two more friends of draco joined them in the compartment.

One was a blond girl who seemed to attach herself physically to Draco like some eleven-year-old leach. Damon recognized her again from several of the parties thrown by the Malfoy's as Pansy Parkinson. The girl had firmly decided that she would become the next Lady Malfoy and was unknowingly giving the young druid loads of ammunition for when he wanted to taunt his friend.

The other was a brown haired boy named Blaise. Damon also knew him from a few of the parties, but unlike Pansy and Draco, his family was not considered 'pure'. It seemed that several generations back his great-great grandfather had married a muggle. Regardless that they had only married with other purebloods since, the taint was still marked on the family bloodline and they would never have a full voice among their peers.

Blaise shared a smile with Damon at Draco's situation while the blond glared daggers them both. Unable to help himself, the young druid poured more fuel on the girl's fire. "Why Draco," he said. "I had no idea you have a girlfriend."

Squealing with delight, Pansy pulled herself even tighter against the blond's arm. Malfoy on the other hand was silently promising terrible retribution on Damon with his eyes. Satisfied that his friend wouldn't be lacking for attention, he turned his attention again to Blaise.

There was a bookish air about the boy. You could see the intelligence in his hazel eyes, though they revealed little about his thoughts. Damon could tell, however that the boy was missing nothing of what was going on around him and was filing it away somewhere in that head for future use. Blaise was funny and clever, the young druid instinctively liked him and considered him as a prospect to join the order. They were going on about nothing in particular when draco suddenly let out an exasperated snort and rose to his feet.

"Excuse me Pansy," said the blond with false civility. "I have to go check on something. Damon," he said to his friend through gritted teeth. "Come with me please."

Standing up, Damon took his time, checking on his owl, who'd fallen asleep surrounded by a nest of its own feathers as they continued to fall out. It was odd, there were so many of them out now that the bird should by all rights be bald but its feathers didn't seem any more sparse than when he'd first bought it.

The two boys escaped the compartment followed by the sounds of Pansy's inane chatter as she talked about her boyfriend. The young druid collapsed against the wall laughing as Draco punched his shoulder several times.

"It's not funny!" The blond huffed after he'd composed himself and they were making their way down the train. "The girl's a bloody nightmare, did you know she's already planning a wedding?" Damon, for his part, remained silent, not trusting himself to keep from angering his friend further.

While they stood there, the Weasley twins came into the car. The redheads gave each other an odd look and then greeted both boys as long lost friends, "Damon, and Draco Malfoy I'd guess," said Fred. "Hope you're enjoying your trip," continued George.

"Er . . . right." Answered Damon intelligently.

"Anyway, perhaps we can get a game of," put in Fred "football. I hear you're both really good." Finished George as they left the compartment.

The two boys looked at each other with worried expressions. "They remember," gasped Draco.

"We'll figure it out after the sorting," the young druid replied. "Lets get moving."

They passed several other students before bumping into a bushy haired girl with large front teeth and a podgy, rather shy looking dark-haired boy following behind.

"Have you seen a toad?" asked the girl. "Neville's lost his and we're looking . . . "

"Piss off." Interrupted Draco as he pushed past.

"Sorry," said Damon with an apologetic smile as he followed his friend. "Bad day, trouble with the misses."

Leaving the scandalized girl behind, he quickly caught up with draco and they found Harry and Ron's compartment. Playing the parts as they'd rehearsed it, Draco entered and said loudly, "they say that Harry Potter is on the train, is it you then?"

From that point the Malfoy/Weasley insult marathon fired back up as if it had never been interrupted. It was a bit more vicious than usual though, to maintain the illusion that they were enemies but their relaxed posture made it clear to the young druid that they weren't taking it seriously. It was as he was idly listening to them go at it that he noticed the rat.

The poor thing was pitiful to look at. It was all gray and scrawny, with patches of fur missing from several areas on its body. To be honest it reminded him of Niffar. He remembered Ron talking about his pet once, it had been Percy's originally, then handed down to Fred and George and then Ron. Doing the numbers in his head, the young druid realized that no normal rat could have possibly lived that long.

Casually Damon closed the compartment door and with a whisper, cast both silencing and impervious spells on the door and room. Finally, casting a quick detection spell at the animal, he nodded to himself at the expected result; Scabbers was an animagus. Moving with the speed of a striking snake, Damon snatched the rat from Ron's lap and held it in a tight grip.

The redhead, concerned for his pet and angered at its apparent mistreatment, jumped to his feet. "What are you doing to Scabbers?" he asked with his fists clenched.

"Scabbers isn't a rat, Ron," answered the young druid.

"What? Of course he's a rat he's been in the family for . . . "

"For almost ten years?" asked Damon. "I'm sorry but rats don't live that long, even in the wizarding world."

The whole time that the two boys had been talking, Scabbers was squirming in an attempt to free itself. In desperation the rat was able to turn and sink its teeth into Damon's hand. Rather than let go, however, the boy redoubled his grip, causing the rat to squeal even louder in pain.

"Here's what's gong to happen," said the young druid to Scabbers. "We both know you're an animagus and that you've been hiding and spying on Ron's family for something like ten years. Because I think you're up to no good, I'm going to start squeezing. If you are honestly a rat then you have my apologies and we'll give you a decent burial when we get to Hogwarts. If you're a man you'd best change soon before things inside you start to break."

Good to his word, Damon began to squeeze the rat ever harder, eliciting more desperate noises from the little rodent. The young druid was starting to feel badly and was thinking about releasing it when Scabbers suddenly began to writhe and grow in his hand.

Within moments the rat had vanished to be replaced by a short podgy man with sparse wispy blond hair and dressed in clothes ten years out of date. The man that had been Scabbers grabbed Damon's hand where it was still holding ineffectually to the front of his shirt.

Though he'd been half expecting the transformation, Damon was still caught off guard as the man grabbed and spun him about, hooking an arm around the boy's throat to use as a shield.

"Alright children, no sudden moves." Said Scabbers breathlessly as Harry, Ron and Draco all stood facing him. "Just hand over your wands, I'll cast a simple spell and you'll never even remember I was here."

The boys glanced at Damon who nodded imperceptibly as they slowly pulled out their wands and tossed them across the compartment while unseen by Scabbers, Damon' eyes had changed to a brilliant emerald green.

He started to push the boy over to collect the wands but found that he was having difficulty doing so. Damon's neck had become unaccountably thick and quite hairy. Glancing over at the boy he reeled back in horror as he realized he was holding onto the neck of a brown bear. The beast turned around and placed its paws on his shoulders and pushed him back into the wall, letting out a deafening roar directly in his face. Squeaking more pitifully than he had when he'd been a rat, sagged against the wall and passed out.

The bear sniffed at Scabbers a bit then returned to his human form. Damon cast a quick spell over the prone man leaving him glowing a faint purple color as the boy then pulled out and enlarged his trunk to full size. "Help me you lot, we don't have much time before we get to Hogwarts."

Together they levered the now rigid but sleeping man into the trunk and shrank it back to pocket size. "We'll meet at the place grandfather told us about after everyone else is asleep." Releasing the spells on the compartment, Damon and Draco said goodbye to their friends and went back to where Pansy, Blaise, Crabbe and Goyle were waiting for them. When they arrived, they found Pansy and Blaise huddled together and staring uneasily at the two goons who were being anything but menacing at the moment.

In truth, Draco's bodyguard looked at that moment like they'd snuck into their grandmother's cooking sherry and drank the entire bottle. "What happened?" asked Damon with a wary expression. Something else wasn't right but he couldn't put his finger on it. Then he spotted a pile of feathers but no owl. "Where's Niffar?" Damon turned back to the others looking for an explanation which didn't come until Blaise screwed up the courage and answered.

"It was Crabbe and Goyle," he said. "After you left, they got bored and decided to play with your owl. I think Greg was a bit miffed about you and the whole handshake thing because he started pulling on its feathers . . . the bird squawked a few times and then there was a puff of pink smoke and those two started acting like they are now. When the smoke cleared Niffar was just . . . gone." A thorough search of the compartment and the entire car showed no trace of the errant bird and Damon was about to turn his anger on the two stuporous boys when the whistle blew announcing that they were entering Hogsmeade.

Damon desperately wanted to question Crabbe and Goyle but he knew that now he would have to save it for later. They exited the train and milled about on the platform until Hagrid stepped out near one end calling for all the first years. Damon wandered further away from his friends and mingled with the other new students as they walked along the path to the boats. He got into an enjoyable conversation with a boy and girl who would likely end up in Ravenclaw, if he were to make a guess, so he spent a little time getting to know them.

The boy was Terry boot, a dark-skinned boy with a love of Quidditch to match Ron's own. The other was Mandy Brockhurst, a plump but serious witch who seemed to take everything just a bit too seriously. When they arrived on at the boats he, Terry, Mandy and a boy named Justin were together in one while he noticed that Draco had grouped with his Slytherin cronies. Ron and Harry had found themselves with the podgy boy and bushy haired girl from the train.

Half way out onto the lake a giant tentacle slid up out of the lake and tapped Damon on the shoulder. Turning, he stared in amusement as one of several appendages belonging to the giant squid performed as if it were a creature unto itself and bowed to him. Rubbing the rubbery arm he sent out a silent call, promising to visit the beast in a few days after he'd settled in.

They rounded a bend and Hogwarts came into full view. Shining like a beacon in the darkness, the structure exuded a presence that was second only to Camelot in its majesty. As they got closer, the boats steered themselves toward a cave that sat at the waterline below the castle. Damon couldn't help but notice how the wards about the school seemed to resonate with the presence of him and his friends. His fears were realized when the last of the four, Harry, stepped off of his boat and the sound of bells ringing shook the castle.

Startled at the sudden noise, Hagrid called all the children together, suspecting some attack. Cursing his luck, Damon placed his right hand on the nearest face of exposed rock and projected the danger involved in his friends being exposed so soon. The castle must have understood as the bells quieted as Hagrid relaxed and lowered his umbrella.

"Right then," the half-giant said as he walked to a large door set in the wall, "Everyone together now." With that he raised his massive hand and knocked on the door loudly three times.


Thanks for the reviews, yes I said that the next chapters wouldn't come out till after Blind Faith was finished but again I couldn't help myself.

Shadowblade613 thanks and the owl very interesting. As to the blade, I think it would be much safer for you if you just asked him nicely for it.

Asphodel Alghieri:... have you been reading my plot notes? Seriously you'll find out about the sorting next chapter and as you can see, Peter's been captured but not identified yet. Ooh next chapter is going to be a bear. (Pun)

Many thanks as well to Shazia)Riavera, Dimensional Analysis and EAV

keep up with the reviews.