It was the day of the Hogwarts Express. Draco Malfoy and his coterie had not received a scrap of word on what they were to do.
Nevertheless, Draco had them all packed, clothes pressed, and ready to go.
Which would be exactly why Pansy was currently sitting on his lap, her arms entwined around him, while the Greengrass sisters looked on with sharply jealous eyes. Goyle and Crabbe were effortlessly standing at the corners of the room, trained eyes looking for signs of trouble. Not that the girls (or Draco himself) couldn't have handled that job, just that the girls were a bit better with finely tuned deception. Draco's friends could pull off, with a bit of work, looking dopey enough to be unnoticeable. They couldn't pull off "eyecatching" or half of the other Slytherin tools.
In a flurry of black robes, Snape whirled out of the floo, looking them up and down with a hurried smirk, "Still in one piece, children?" He gave a crisp nod, not waiting for any response whatsoever. "Here, take these. Schoolbooks, since you won't be going to Diagon Alley this year." Snape passed out shrunken copies of everyone's books (Draco was not at all surprised that Snape knew what everyone planned on taking).
"When you leave the floo, I want you to walk forward, exit the door and join the gaggle of hopelessly happy students returning to Hogwarts." Snape's eyes glittered like obsidian, cold and cruel. "Above all else, I want you to not look back. Pretend as if the room where you entered King Street Station does not exist."
Snape looked them up and down, and asked, "Am I understood?" There was a short, crisp chorus of "yes sirs," to which Snape nodded again.
They went into the Floo labeled King's Street Station, as Snape had commanded. Looking neither left nor right (despite his mounting curiosity), Draco led his friends out of the room, wondering what he'd find out on the main platform. Draco somehow doubted it would be as carefree and cheerful as it usually was.
They weren't loading the train yet, so Draco and his friends stood clustered - until Draco belatedly noticed Goyle inspecting the entrance to the room they had just left. Draco gave his friend an elbow, earning a sharp look - before Greg attended the room again. "You're not supposed to look," Draco hissed. Goyle nodded absently, smiled even more distantly. And then, just as Draco was about ready to explode at his friend from pure frustration alone, Goyle shot him a sparkly eyed look. Raising one hand, Goyle mouthed soundless words.
The meaning was clear - Who would I tell?
Draco stood there, pretending to be idle, as more people joined the waiting, impatient ranks. There were fewer parents here this year, particularly Slytherin parents. And were those - guards? It looked like there was some sort of rag tag bunch of people inspecting those who came onto the platform. Surely they wouldn't turn people away? Last chance to see iddle Wallace before he's gone for ten months?
From the patterns of people's motion, Draco was partially aware that more people were coming out of that room - the room he'd never seen before, never realized existed.
As was typical, Draco Malfoy noted the arrival of the Gryffindor Bunch - all the Weasleys, plus the Mudblood and Potter. Naturally they didn't have to be searched, to be questioned. And, just as normally, they were laggardly, just barely arriving before it was time to board.*
Only Goyle's trained eyes registered that the Golden Gits were stepping out of the very same room that the Slytherins had been flooing into.
*Author wishes to mention that this is actually good for the Weasleys! Very good!
[a/n: Time they have, not communication with Snape, or really anyone except house elves.
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