Chapter Three
"Ooooh, Harry!" A cheery voice crooned, accompanied by some loud banging on the door. Harry, not the least bit interested in what any of the other Potters (including Weasley-Potters) had to say, rolled over and pulled his pillow over his ears. But something yelled through the key hole made him change his mind.
"We've got to get to the King's Cross Station! We're going to be late!"
Harry sprang up in bed, his hair looking even worse then usual. He hopped around the room, trying to brush his teeth and pull on his shoes at the same time. He flung open his door and ran out into the hallways, his jacket only on one arm and one of his shoes only on his foot. The three girls trooped downstairs as Harry trailed behind with his luggage, since he was going to trust any Potter but himself with it from now on. He waved goodbye to Tom and exited the Leak Cauldron after Angel, Ariella, and Saka-Puko-Rana.
He was about to question how they were going to get there (and announce that he wasn't going to fly), but Ariella had already gotten them transportation. She had rolled her wand out into the middle of the street with her right hand, hailing the Knight Bus. It screeched to a stop in front of them, narrowly missing Ariella's wand.
That was about the last thing that Harry wanted, since having Stan Shunpike questioning him about his 'relatives' was going to get on his nerves after a while. Harry loaded before the other three had, interrupting Stan's speech on how much things cost and the price of hot chocolate by shoving a handful of silver into his hand and trying to get onto the bus before any questions were asked. But Stan had spotted him.
"Oy, Neville! 'Choo in such a 'urry for?"
"He's not Neville, he's Harry!" Angel said, giggling. "Harry Potter!"
"'Course 'e is. 'Oo're you?"
"Angel Potter!"
Stan's eyes widened as he stared at her. Harry buried his face in his hands. Finally he looked up, cutting Stan of in his attempt to say something.
"We need to get to the Kings Cross Station. Now."
"Right-o, Neville. Take 'er away, Ern!" Stan signaled to the nearsighted driver and the bus shot off with a loud BANG. Harry rolled over and was jolted against the back wall, though he felt a grim sort of satisfaction as he watched Ariella lose balanced and swing her wand into Angel and Saka-Puko-Rana. The ride was short; since there was barely anyone else on board.
They stopped in front of the station; rolling up onto the curb and forcing a lamp post to leap aside. Saka-Puko-Rana tumbled out first, holding a hand to her mouth and looking a little ill. Angel and Ariella followed, dragging their luggage (which hadn't been there before) behind them. Harry waved goodbye to Stan and exited, dumping his things on the curb- but well out of the way of the exiting Knight Bus. He then moved to get a trolley, loaded his luggage and cage onto it, then followed his already-loaded 'relatives'.
They entered the station and rolled towards Platform Nine and Ten, the four getting a few strange looks because of Hedwig and because Ariella ha decided to try and stash her wand in her miniskirt pocket. Finally they reached the barrier between the two platforms. They rolled their trolleys to a stop in front of them. Harry moved through first, followed by Angel and Saka-Puko-Rana. Ariella had some trouble because it took some time to realize her wand wouldn't fit going through sideways. They popped through the other side, and Harry looked around.
It was just as it had been every year (except for his 2nd, when he and Ron had missed the train). Mothers, fathers, and students were bustling about; loading luggage, meeting up with friends, saying goodbye to parents and family. A large, red steam engine was waiting beside the platform. Three quiet 'ooh's' of amazement were heard behind him.
"Harry! Oy, Harry!"
Harry quickly turned his head around, a large grin on his face. Running towards him, his red hair visible from a distance was Ronald Weasley.
"Ron!" Harry said happily, starting towards his friend and dragging his things behind him. Ron looked happy, but a bit concerned as he spoke.
"Where have you been, mate? Me'n Hermione- she's already on the train- were looking for you at Diagon Alley- thought you might have been there to get your new books- we couldn't find you anywhere. Hermione even called your muggles."
"You called the Dursley's!"
"Hermione did it- she knows about tellytones-"
"Telephones-"
"-Whatever. They just yelled a lot and said good riddance that you weren't there…" he wiggled a finger in one ear, "Blimey, they can sure yell. I wasn't even on the line and my ear is ringing…"
"That's the Dursley's…"
"Where have you been?" Ron questioned again. Harry shrugged.
"The Leaky Cauldron. Got a room there."
"Why didn't we see you in Diagon Alley, th- …Who's that?"
Ron had interrupted himself to step backwards and stare at a point behind Harry's left ear. Raising an eyebrow, Harry turned his head around to see what Ron was staring at.
"What's the mattAAAARRRGH!"
Harry had came nose-to-nose with Angel. He leaped backwards staring at her and glowering. Ron looked confused. He leaned over, whispering to Harry.
"Who's she?"
"I don't know." Harry mumbled, hurriedly steering Ron away from her before Angel could answer. He pushed his trolley and Ron quickly through the crowd of students, trying to lose his three 'relatives' in the crowd to avoid having to share a coach with them.
After loading his luggage onto the train, Harry let Ron show him to the coach Hermione was saving for them. Sitting inside was Hermione; but also Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood, and Ginny Weasley; Ron's younger sister. Right when Harry entered, Hermione stood up to leave.
"We have to go to the prefect's car." She started after greeting Harry. Ron sighed and followed Hermione as she slipped out the door. Surprisingly, Ginny stood up too.
"I'm a prefect this year, too- Mum was revolting when she found out," She winked very Fred-and-George-like and pointed to the badge on her robes. "I've got to go, too. See you, Harry!" And with that, she had followed Ron and Hermione from the car. Harry was alone with Neville and Luna, reminding him sadly of the ride to Hogwarts last year. Neville was struggling to keep a one-handed grip on his toad, Trevor, his other hand keeping a strange-looking plant stead beside him, one that Harry remembered as the Mimbulus Mimbletonia. It had gotten larger over the summer, its stinksap-filled boils trembling threateningly. Harry scooted over in his seat so that he was across from Luna, avoiding the boil-covered cactus-like plant.
Luna was again engrossed in an issue of The Quibbler; flipping through the pages. As Harry moved to sit in front of her, she lowered the magazine, staring at him with large eyes as the train started moving.
"You have sisters." Luna stated, still staring. Harry groaned. How did she know? He ignored her and instead took to staring out the window. But when he looked, he leaped backwards with a startled yelp.
There was no less than four thestrals hovering beside the train, sometimes swooping closer to look into the train windows with their staring, white eyes. Neville, seeing Harry leap back, looked out the window also. He let out a yelp louder then Harry and fell sideways out of his seat, making Trevor croak loudly and hop from his grasp. Luna glanced out the window, blinked, and returned to her magazine.
Neville and Harry stared at the thestrals- all three of the students in the car had witnessed death, so they could all see them. But what was scarier than the skeletal horses was what was riding on top of them.
They looked like dementors. Harry would have thought that they were so if he hadn't noticed that he wasn't hearing screams or feeling remotely cold, as he usually did around dementors. Also, he noticed that one of them had taken their hood down, and there was no soul-sucking mouth or twisted skeletal head peering out.
Instead, it was a young girl's head, looking as if she was around Harry's age. But what was even more frightening was her pale, white skin, her red eyes with black, slit-like pupils, and the curtain of black hair that flowed behind her. She looked like some sort of younger, female Voldemort. The four other riders did the same to their hoods, and Harry saw what looked like clones of the first one- except they all had different hairstyles, and the last Voldemort-female was very, very fat. As Harry was staring at the little herd of thestral and their riders, there was a knocking on the compartment door. Tearing his eyes away from the mysterious girls and stepping over a whimpering Neville, he moved to open the door. He assumed that Ron, Hermione, and Ginny had come back from the Prefect's car.
But, instead, a very familiar wavy-blonde haired girl tumbled out onto the floor. It was Angel. Harry immediately turned around and walked back to his seat, trying to ignore her.
"Harry, I've been looking all over for you! I- AAAAAAAAAHHHH!" Suddenly Angel let out a high-pitched wail, slapped her manicured hands to her forehead and began rolling around on the floor, twitching and screaming. Harry turned abruptly to stare at her. He felt something tugging at his trousers- Neville had crawled away from her flailing and was cowering on the floor behind him; staring. Luna didn't seem to notice anything different. After only a few moments of Angel screaming her head off and ripping at her bangs, she stopped. Harry sneaked a glance back at the window as Angel panted and gasped- the thestral-riding girls had left.
Angel stood up and brushed off her skirt- she had already changed into her school uniform. Strangely her skit was considerably shorter than the average one, and her shirt was considerably tighter. She looked at Harry as she smoothed down her hair, and then began panting and gasping again.
"Didn't you feel that?" she questioned, her eyes opened wide enough to rival Luna's. Harry shrugged.
"What, gas?"
"No!" Angel said, shaking her head in a dramatic way. She placed a hand upon her heart-shaped scar, rubbing it lightly. "Didn't your scar burn?"
"…Uh, no." Harry said, frowning.
"Harry's scar only hurts when You-Known-Who is near." Luna piped up from behind her Quibbler, flipping the page.
"Or when He's … angry or something, right?" Neville stuttered, looking around as if expecting Voldemort to swing down from the luggage rack. Harry nodded in agreement with them. Angel let out an angry huff.
"Well, Voldemort," Neville yelped, Luna's paper lowered to reveal her even wider than average eyes, and Harry just snorted, "Is here! Sort of. Well, his children are!" And Angel pointed to the window, where the Thestral-riding girls had once been. Neville gasped and said the question that everyone was obviously thinking.
"He-He has ch-ch-children!"
"Oh, yes. Of course. They're evil, too. Incredibly evil. There's Voldemorta Riddle, Mortavolde Riddle, Volmortade Riddle, Demortavol Riddle, and Sue." Angel said, listing off all their incredible hard to pronounce names- until she got to 'Sue'. Harry had a sneaking suspicion he knew which one that was.
"What were they doing outside of the train?" Luna questioned, turning her Quibbler upside-down and then turned her head to one side, not bothering to look at Angel when she asked.
"Oh, I don't think they'd really enjoy taking the train." Angel said, shrugging.
"…Don't take the… train?" Neville said skeptically, frowning.
"Well, they'd have to get to Hogwarts somehow, wouldn't they?" the blonde witch chimed, letting out a silvery giggle.
"…They're- they're- they're going to Hogwarts!" Longbottom squealed, turning quite pale.
"Why would Dumbledore let Voldemort's children in?" Harry snorted, rolling his eyes from behind his glasses.
"Well, he gives everyone a chance, doesn't he? Believes there's good on everyone, right?"
"…Well, yes…" Harry admitted, thinking of Snape and frowning.
"But the Riddles..." Neville whined, trying not to believe it.
"There's no question, then. They're probably good, anyways!"
But at that moment, Ron stuck his head inside the compartment, and was trying to shove Ariella out the way- she was trying to force her way in. His ears looked bright red.
"You did what with my sister when!"
"Ron, stop!" Ginny shouted, trying to shove her way between Ariella and her older brother. "She's not really- I mean, Merlin's beard, she's 16 and I'm 15!"
From that comment, Harry instantly knew what they were talking about. He moved move and opened the compartment the entire way, so that all three of them came stumbling into the room. Ariella smiled, struggling upright and then taking a seat on her wand.
"Well, all I did was tell them that I was Ginny's daughter, and Uncle Ron here got mad." Harry twitched back a smile at the words 'Uncle Ron'.
"And she said you're the father." Ron snapped, glowering at Harry. Harry laughed to himself and walked over to Ron, muttering 'Just play along. Ginny's right'. Ron looked at him, and then to Ginny, who shrugged. He looked at little confused, but tried to do as Harry said.
"Right. I'm Uncle Ron."
"Well, 'Uncle Ron', you were supposed to come in here and tell them that they should get their robes on- I can see the castle!" A voice said from the doorway. There was Hermione, grinning down at the jumble that was Ariella, Ron, Ginny, and a large log. Harry grinned at her, but the grin fell away when Saka-Puko-Rana stuck her head onto the compartment and looked expectantly at Harry.
"Aren't you going to get undressed?"
At least they were almost to the castle.