Disclaimer: I would like to remind you all once again that I do not own the characters of my story nor their background. Everything belongs to J. K. Rowling. I own only the plot of my Fic:

"Harry Potter and the Return of the Dark Lord"

By: Cris.carla

IV

Harry's safeguard

The first day of September started early for Harry and his friends. Everyone was running around and as usual Harry and Ron hadn't finished packing their stuff the day before. When they finally packed everything they needed Ginny had already finished her breakfast and was waiting for them outside along with Fred and George that had decided to accompany them. They ate as fast as they could while Mr. Weasley took their trunks to the car. When everything was ready they all said goodbye to Mrs. Weasley and they were off to the train station. It took them a few hours to get there but as they arrived they had a nice surprise. Lupin and Mad Eye Moody were waiting for them there.

"Professor Lupin! Professor Moody! What are you doing here?"

"Hello, Harry!"

"How many times do I have to tell you I am not and I have never been your professor? Every time you say that you remind of the hard time I have been through inside that truck."

"I'm so sorry Pro… I mean Mr. Moody."

"That's better lad. Now off we go. We have to be extra careful and quick. We must not call attentions to our selves. Mix with the muggles that's the key." said Alastor Moody and Harry was sure he was rolling his magic eye searching for anything unusual.

He knew that it would be impossible not to call attentions. Mad Eye Moody was wearing a panama, a red pullover and orange striped pants and Mr. Weasley was wearing a pair of pants two numbers above his size and a tweed jacket that made him look like a clown and Lupin looked like a ragged.

"You're right. Let's get to the platform as quick as we can." said Mr. Weasley who obviously had no idea how muggles usually dressed.

They entered the station with Moody on the reared and headed to the platform 9 ¾. They crossed over to the other side and there it was, the train that would take them to Hogwarts. When the young wizards were about to say goodbye to the members of the Order Mr. Weasley and the others entered the train and asked them to follow, they probably wanted to check the train before they go. As they looked for an empty carriage Ron was trying to see if Hermione was on one of the already occupied ones, but he couldn't see her anywhere.

Everywhere they passed they made heads turn in their direction. It was quite odd to see grownup wizards in the train that weren't from the school staff but they ignored the looks and carried on.

"An empty one! Finally!" said Mr. Weasley, and Harry, Ron and Ginny entered the carriage. As they settled down they noticed that the others were doing exactly the same thing and they were stupefied.

"What are you doing?" said Ron astonished.

"Oh! We forgot to tell you. We talked to Dumbledore and he gave us permission to travel along with you."

"What?" said the three youngsters at the same time.

"You're kidding right?"

"Nope." said Fred amused "We are going to watch over you little brother."

Harry and the other were standing there mouse agape. When everyone had sat down they understood that the journey was going to be very long. The carriage was too small for them after all there were eight people stiffed in there along with three trucks and Hedwig's empty cage. She hadn't returned from last night hunting but he knew she'd be able to find them there.

They stood there in silence looking at each other as time passed by slowly. A few minutes later they heard familiar voices outside their compartment. The door was open and a very confused Luna and Neville stood at the entrance looking at them incredulous.

"What do you want?" asked Moody in an irascible voice making Neville wince.

"We wanted to say hello to our friends." said Luna fully recovered.

"You said it, now go away."

"Hey! No need to be rude." said Ginny looking angrily at Moody "They are here to protect us, or so they say" said Ginny looking at Luna and Neville.

"Have you seen Hermione?" asked Ron cutting in.

"No, we haven't isn't she with you?" said Neville.

"No, and we haven't seen her in our way here."

"Then she isn't on the train." said Luna "Neville and I have checked them all while we were looking for you." Arthur and the others changed concerned looks.

"What is it Dad?" asked Ginny.

"Well, Tonks, Kingsley and Mundugus were with her and we were suppose to meet here."

"Something is not right." said Moody alarmed "We have to warn Dumbledore. He will send someone looking for them. I'll send him a Patronus right away." He stood up but as he was about to live a beautiful white Owl approached the window.

"Hedwig!" said Harry excited as he opened the window for her to get in. He took the piece of parchment very gently from her as he cuddled her wigs softly and then he started reading out loud.

"Hey guys! Hope everything is OK with you. I'm sure that you have already noticed by now that I'm not on the train. Unfortunately I was delayed. Tonks and Kingsley were ready to cross the platform 9 ¾ with me when she dropped my trunk and she spread my stuff all over the floor. You know Tonks she's the Queen of clumsiness. And as you have already guessed, I'm sure we couldn't use magic in front of all that muggles so we had to pick everything from the floor.

But that's not all. Something very odd happened next. When we were ready to board Crookshanks got very weird and I knew something was not right. I turned around and I saw that foul Peter Petigrew. When he realized he had been sighted he quickly transformed into a rat and he disappeared in the mob. Crookshanks went after Petigrew and I went after him with Tonks and Kingsley at my heels. When I finally grabbed him the rat had vanished and the train had already left the station when we got back.

All we can do now is to catch the knight bus so we will probably arrive at Hogwarts before you do. I'll be waiting for you outside the Great Hall hoping that this is the time when we finally meet again.

A very tight hug from your friend,

Hermione Granger

"At least she's alright said Harry" as he sighed in relief.

"I don't like the sound of that." said Moody alarmed "He was probably up to something. Maybe he is on the train. We better go looking for him."

"Calm down Moody." said Mr. Weasley hastily. "We are not going to leave them until they are safe at Hogwarts. None of us is, you know that's what we have agreed to do."

"All right then, but if that foul creature attacks anyone on the train…"

"Excuse me?" said Luna interrupting the discussion "Who is that Petigrew?" but before they could answer Draco, Crabbe and Goyle burst into the compartment pushing Luna and Neville aside.

"Look the mudblood lovers are all gathered to…" but the words died on his mouth when he saw the members of the Order and he got white as a snowflake when Moody looked at him annoyed. He turned on his heels so swiftly that he bumped on his sidekicks and they all hit the floor. Everyone in the compartment, except for Moody burst in laughter as they got up and left the compartment stumbling in to the door as they tried to leave at the same time.

When they were finally gone they had to explain to Alastor Moody and the others why had Malfoy got so scared and they all laughed even harder at the Malfoy little ferret. After a while they fell silent again and they all started to feel drowsy. Harry couldn't talk to Ron and Ginny about what happened because the others were there and he was sure that they too wanted to discuss what had happened at the train but were not willing to do that in front of them. They never discussed the Order affairs in front of them and although that usually annoyed Harry a lot, after all he was one of the most interested persons in what they were doing to stop the Dark Lord, he didn't bothered him at the time for he was much too busy trying to take his own conclusions.

The fact that Petigrew had been in the train station was in fact very alarming because he was most certainly doing his lord's bidding's and they were usually sinister and harmful. It had to be a victim in the middle of all that and Harry hoped he had failed his mission after being seen by the members of the Order. Maybe Moody was right. Maybe he was already on the train and he was lurking in the dark waiting for the best moment to attack but there was nothing he could do about that. He knew there was no way Mr. Weasley was going to let him leave the carriage unless he wanted to go to the bathroom but even if he did he would probably suggest they would all go together so he just gave up on that thoughts and tried to concentrate on the landscape that they were leaving behind as the train moved on. Probably they were all being paranoid and they would arrive safely at the Hogsmeade station without any incident at least that's what Harry hoped with all his heart. He was getting tired of seeing people get hurt in the middle of the endless battle against the dark forces of Voldemort.

A/N Hope you have enjoyed this chapter as well. Pleaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaase review it.

I would like to thank once more to Purinsu Endymion and She-Elfgirl for their ever so nice reviews.

bye bye :)

cris.carla