A/N: This is the longest chapter yet. I just couldn't stop writing. If you find it overly long and boring, feel free to fire criticism at me about which bits can be chopped up/out. Some of the beginning is annoying me, but I don't want to get rid of any backstory.

Ok, ok, it was cruel of me to chuck that cliff hanger in the last chapter, and I hope you can forgive me. Though I'm not apologising for it. Onwards…

Lost: Small Boy, Answers to Harry

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He'd never been on a train before.

He'd spent most of his life in the house in Godric's Hollow. Mum and Dad had explained that he was safe as long as he was in the house: he was a secret. So he had rarely been anywhere that was further than you could fly by broom in an hour, though sometimes he had visited Moony or Peter by Floo. He also went on trips with Sirius, but that was different, because Sirius had no permanent abode. He wondered what had happened to Peter. Mum and Dad had been worried about their old friend, because Peter was so shy and he was helping keep Harry a secret. Harry hoped he was okay.

He stood in awe of the huge scarlet train. He had never seen anything so huge and powerful in his life. He stood close to Andromeda, gazing up at the steam billowing out into the air. Nymphadora dashed down the platform and then back again, calling to her mother and father. There were so many people – and all of them wizards! Harry had never seen so many wizards together in one place. There were owls everywhere, so that some people had cast shields to protect themselves from droppings. There were trunks that walked on long black legs and electric blue and yellow rats running between people's legs. Among the robes and cloaks, there were more colours than Harry could name. And so many children!

"Won't I need a ticket?" Harry tugged on Andromeda's hand nervously.

"No, sweetie, don't worry," the regal witch assured him, "it's already been sorted out with the conductor."

"Come on, Harry!" Nymphadora beckoned to him. Her face shone with excitement. Ted was helping her carry her trunk onto the train, "it's leaving in a few minutes!"

Harry wrapped his arms around Andromeda's leg (the only part of her he could reach), "thank you," he said quietly, and then he ran to join her daughter.

Nymphadora was waiting for him at the door, but she took off as soon as she saw he was on board and he had to run to catch up with her, dodging around the looming students as he went. Some called out to him, "hey! You better get back to the platform!" but he didn't have time to explain that he was coming on the train with them.

"Here, Harry!" Nymphadora was waving to him from a compartment. The two of them sat at the window and waved to Mr and Mrs Tonks, who stood in the crowd of parents. Harry noticed that Andromeda was the only parent not smiling proudly at their children. And then the whistle was blowing, the floor beneath their feet began to shake and they were moving away from the platform and the crowd was out of sight.

They were soon joined in the compartment by other first-year students. The first was a dark, burly girl who barged in carrying an enormous silver case which she dumped on the seat next to her. She loudly introduced herself as Jamie Flint.

"I'm Nymphadora Tonks," Nymphadora replied.

"Nymphadora? What the hell kind of name is that?" Flint sneered.

"It's really just Tonks," Nymphadora said quietly. She bit her lip and did not continue the conversation. Flint glared suspiciously at Harry before disappearing behind a small compact mirror to touch up her make-up.

The activity did not die down very quickly. Students who were not first-years made their way up and down the corridor outside, greeting their friends and catching up on news. A few of the older students walked with serious faces, and Harry could hear them discussing the fall of the ministry in hushed tones.

"…Alastor Moody, that's what I heard. He's declared himself Emergency Minister for Magic: some of the officials who survived the attack at the ministry are calling it a coup…"

"Well, he hasn't got the right to put himself in charge…!"

"He's head of the auror division. Who's going to stop him?"

Harry leaned a little closer to the door, straining his ears to listen to the three six-years, who had lowered their voices.

"There are rumours you-know-who is too weak to even leave his bed."

"They're just rumours. I mean, he's…well…he's not sort of person to really get ill, is he? …but did you read about the Potters…?"

A shiver ran down Harry's back, but he kept listening all the same.

"…The Prophet speculated that they injured you-know-who somehow. And after all, who burned the house? Why was there no Dark Mark? There's more to this than just another murder…"

"Or it's just coincidence. Maybe they weren't killed by Voldemort at all."

"…bollocks! Dad says they've been in hiding from him for years!"

"…I heard from my Aunt that they secretly had a son. But his body wasn't found in the wreckage of the house…"

However, at this moment two second-year friends collided just outside their compartment and the six-years slipped off to continue their discussion in more privacy. Harry angrily watched the two second-years, wishing they had chosen a better moment to meet. One was a dark-skinned boy with glasses, the other had red hair and wore a knitted jumper with a dragon on it.

"Come on, come and look!" the red haired boy was saying as he grabbed his friend's arm, "Mum and Dad saved up to buy me a broom for school this year. So now I've got a chance to get on the Gryffindor team!"

"Like my toad's got a chance," the other boy replied as they headed off down the corridor.

Another first-year girl, wearing an emerald green skirt, opened the compartment door a few minutes later, hauling her trunk behind her.

"Hello. I'm Judith Vance. Is this seat taken? I was sitting with all these b-b-boys," she said in a rush, looking at her toes, "they were fifth-year and they kept talking about how we have to do a t-test to get in with a t-t-troll and w-wrestling."

"Come on in," said Nymphadora, motioning for Judith to sit down next to her. The new girl put her trunk overhead and lowered herself down between Harry and Nymphadora.

The two girls chatted happily from then on, despite Judith's stammer. An hour went by, and then another: Flint left, and came back, and a lady pushing a trolley knocked on the door and offered them something for lunch. Harry had no money, but his hunger must have shown on his face because Nymphadora and Judith both bought him a pile of sweets and pastries, apparently competing for his attention.

"My mother's an auror," Judith explained while she and Nymphadora chewed their way through three packets of every flavour beans, "so she's n-not at home m-much. I only see her a few times every month. She…hey, are w-we there already?"

The train began to shudder beneath their feet and Harry felt that they were slowing down. Nymphadora looked out the window and frowned, "we can't be," she went across to the door of the compartment and put her head out, "what's going on?"

People poked their heads out of their compartments asking the same question, but everyone else seemed just as bemused. Someone called out, "they're saying up front that the rails are blocked. We have to wait for them to be cleared."

Nymphadora shut the door tight and sat down next to Harry, and then took her wand out of her robes: it was brand new and had never been used. She pulled open her shoulder bag and took out one of her school books, and began to rummage through it.

"What are you looking for?" Harry asked.

Nymphadora glanced at him, "curses," she said.

"W-what? Why?" Judith looked alarmed, but Nymphadora brushed her off. Flint got up and paced back and forth between the door and the window, frowning.

A voice rang out from the corridor, "prefects! Prefects, to me!" it was one of the sixth-years who had been discussing the ministry, who wore a shining badge on their chest. In a few moments, three other prefects had materialised, and more were hurrying down to join the ground. Harry opened the compartment door a crack to listen to the sixth-year. She was speaking very fast and quietly.

"Go into the compartments, start asking for anyone who has their apparating licence. Get them to start taking the kids off the train, side-along apparation, as far into the forest as they can go. And I mean, as far as you can go – make it ten miles if you have the strength. Tell them to take two at a time if they can do it."

"Why? What's going on?" one of the other prefects demanded.

"We have to get everyone off this train," the sixth-year breathed, "right now. Go, for goodness' sake!"

The group broke up and the prefects were dashing up and down the corridor, sticking their heads into compartments, and the calls of, "is there anyone here who can apparate?" echoed up and down the train.

"Look!" Judith cried, grabbing Nymphadora's sleeve, "Tonks, look! In the trees!"

The two girls pressed their faces to the window. There was a few metres of clear space on either side of the railway track, so that the forest began a little way away. But as they watched, figures could be seen walking under the branches, two, three, five ten: they were closing in around the train, and every one of them was clad in black cloaks and white masks.

Judith began to moan. A seventh-year suddenly opened the compartment door with a snap, making them all jump. He was panting and his cheeks were pink from exhaustion.

"Quick. Someone take my arm," he gasped. Judith and Flint both leapt to their feet at once, but Flint was closer and got there first.

"Don't l-leave us!" Judith begged.

"It's alright. I'll come back. I've done two trips already," the boy promised. And then he closed his eyes in concentration and, a few seconds later, he and Flint vanished with a crack. Other cracks were audible up from other compartments.

People were scrambling back and forth in the corridor: a girl somewhere could be heard screaming. Judith chewed on her knuckle until it began to bleed.

Nymphadora put her arm around Harry and drew him close. With another crack, the boy reappeared in the doorway. Judith jumped forward and took his arm.

"No!" Nymphadora grabbed her hand, "Harry has to go next. He's younger. And he's important!"

Judith wailed and tried to shake her off. Harry pulled his knees up as Nymphadora got to her feet and began arguing with Judith, while the seventh year shouted at them to stop. Flint's silver case was knocked from the seat and burst open, spilling her black school robes across the floor and nearly tripping Judith up.

Then there came an enormous bang and the train itself rocked.

Screams rose in their multitudes. The seventh-year swore and apparated away with a crack. Judith babbled, pleading with thin air for him to come back and save her. Nymphadora tried to pull her into the compartment but Judith shoved her away and ran away down the corridor.

Harry put his head out and saw splintered wood on the floor further down the train. The doors had been completely blown of their hinges.

The people in the corridors were suddenly running away from the entrances. There were people coming onto the train: dark-robed people who were pushing children to the ground as they stepped into the corridors. Harry saw two fifth-years stand in the way of the aggressors, wands outstretched. One of the black-robed people lifted their own wand.

There was a flash of green light.

Harry looked away, horrified, not quite understanding but feeling bile rise in his throat. Nymphadora was bent over, bundling up Flint's discarded school robes. They looked about ten sizes too big for her.

"What are you doing?" Harry asked. Nymphadora picked up the compact mirror Flint had been using. She looked into the mirror, and Harry, beginning to panic and wondering what she was wasting time for, wanted to knock it out of her hands.

"Come on," Tonks muttered to herself, "come on," she threw the robes to Harry, "get into these, quick."

Harry stared at her face. She seemed to have gone pale with fear. But it was more than that. She had gone so white she could not have been spotted in a snowstorm. Her face seemed to have formed a more rigid shape. Harry realised she was using her Metamorphmagus gift. Her features became smooth and blank, as if made of porcelein.

From a distance, it looked as if she was wearing a white mask.

Nymphadora threw the mirror aside, her face expressionless. She grabbed the robes Harry was holding dumbly in his arms and shook them out, them pulled them over her head, and over Harry's head as well, so that not an inch of him could be seen. His back was pressed up against Nymphadora so that, in the folds of the enormous robes, his shape did not show against her body. He could not see them, but he could imagine the effect: Nymphadora would look like nothing more than a particularly short adult wearing black robes and a mask.

Hidden inside the robes, it was pitch black, but Nymphadora's hands were on Harry's shoulders, and she pushed him out into the corridor. Swiftly but calmly, they walked down the train. Blind, Harry nearly tripped on what he realised was a body, although dead or just knocked out, he couldn't tell. He could hear people crying, screaming, begging for mercy, but Nymphadora lead him on. A masked adult ran past them in the corridor, but did not try to hinder them.

"We're at the door," Nymphadora whispered from above his head, "watch the steps."

Slowly, trying to coordinate two pairs of legs, they managed to climb off the train and onto the bank along which the rails ran. Harry could hear Nymphadora breathing fast and feeling her hands shaking, and realised she was terrified. They began to walk down the mound towards the forest.

"Hey!" a rough voice called, "hey, stop! What are you doing?"

Nymphadora threw off the robes, grabbed Harry's hand and began to run towards the trees, her face twisting and her normal features returning as they went. But another masked figure appeared in the forest. The two children veered sideways and dashed down the clear space alongside the train. Harry ran as fast as he could, but he was already beginning to feel giddy. He looked over his shoulder, and saw that there were more masked people running after then, shouting. A bolt of red light flew over Nymphadora's head.

Harry tried to run faster, but his legs were short and slow compared to the masked assailants' long stride.

There was no where else to run. Nymphadora was calling and waving her arms, "help! Please, help us!" but Harry could see no one around.

Then something was falling out of the sky towards them, someone riding a broom with red hair and a look of terror and resolve on their face.

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TBC