As it always was, the morning of September first was hectic. As usual, Bella was the first dressed, packed and ready to go by nine am.
"Honestly." sighed Ron, barging into the girls room, yanking his jumper over his head forcefully. "The sooner we're on that train the better."
"What have you done now?" asked Bella.
"I haven't done anything!" he cried. "It's Percy. He's accusing me of pouring tea on his picture of Penelope Clearwater. You know, his girlfriend?"
"Did you?" asked Emily.
"No!" replied Ron. "She's hidden her face under the frame 'cause her nose has gone all blotchy and I'm getting the blame."
"I bet it was you." laughed Bella.
"Oh shut up." he grumbled, storming off.
The girls left the relative peace of their bedroom and descended to the absolute chaos in the Leaky Cauldron dining hall.
"Ow Ron." cried Bella, stepping backwards as Ron's heavy trunk barrelled down the stairs and landed on her foot.
"Sorry." said Ron sheepishly.
Finally, after a lot of arguing, all of the trunks were piled beside the front door with Hedwig and Hermes' sat in their cages atop the trunks. A small basket sat on the floor beside them, hissing loudly.
"Shh Crookshanks, it's okay." cooed Hermione. "I'll let you out on the train."
"No you bloody well will not." huffed Ron. "What about Scabbers?" he patted his chest pocket, a large lump indicating Scabbers was curled up there.
"Oh come off it Ron, Scabbers lies in your pocket doing nothing anyway. Crookshanks isn't doing any harm." replied Bella.
"Giving my rat a heart attack is no harm?" cried Ron.
"That is enough!" barked Molly. "Be quiet the pair of you!"
Arthur, who had been waiting outside for the Ministry cars to arrive, popped his head around the front door, announcing their arrival.
"In you get Harry." Arthur ushered Harry to the front of the group and into the first of the two stretch limousines
Harry disappeared into the back of the first car with Hermione and Ron at his back. Percy followed after them with Ginny and their mother while Arthur, Fred and George loaded the luggage into the trunks of the cars. Bella climbed into the back of the second car followed by Freya and Emily. Fred, George and their father joined the girls in the back of the second car and they reached King's Cross with half an hour to spare; the Ministry workers driving the cars found them luggage trollies, tipped their hats to her father and set off back to the Ministry in their flashy cars.
"Right then." said Arthur when they reached the barrier to platform nine and three quarters. "Let's go through in pairs seeing as there are so many of us. I'll go with Harry."
Harry and Arthur leant nonchalnatly against the barrier and disappeared through it within seconds. Molly and Ginny followed after them and Percy followed them with Hermione.
"Come on, you big lug." said Bella, nudging Ron with her elbow and pushing her trolley towards the barrier.
"I'm not a big lug." replied Ron. Bella shook her head at him with a chuckle, leaning against the barrier.
The chatters of the packed platform mixed with the hiss of the engine of the Hogwarts Express made Bella smile. She yelped in fright when she was pulled, along with Ron, into her mothers arms.
"You have a good year at school, you two." she said softly. "Don't go breaking anymore rules."
"We won't." replied Ron.
"We'll leave that to Fred and George." added Bella.
Molly pulled back from her youngest twins with a smile. She squeezed their cheeks and kissed their foreheads, Ron huffing and rubbing his forehead embarrassedly. Arthur helped them onto the train with their luggage and wished them a good year at school with a hug.
Bella sighed in contentment when the scarlet steam engine rolled slowly out of the station, the London scenery aesthetically pleasing in the early morning sun.
"We need to talk, in private." said Harry to the others as they stood in the middle of the train corridor.
"We'll find a compartment." said Emily.
"Go away, Ginny." said Ron.
"Wow, that's nice." huffed Ginny, stalking off down the corridor in the opposite direction.
The six of them looked all down the corridor for an empty compartment and the only one they found at the veryend of the train was only semi-empty. In the far corner against the window, a man lay sleeping. He wore a set of well worn wizard's robes and had very sallow skin. His face looked that of a young man yet his hair was flecked with grey.
"Who do you reckon he is?" asked Ron as the six of them shuffled quietly into the compartment and pulled the door shut.
"Professor R. J. Lupin." whispered Hermione.
"How do you know?" whispered Ron.
"It's on his suitcase, Ronald." sighed Hermione, pointing to the trunk laying on the luggage rack above them.
They loaded their luggage as quietly onto the rack above their head. Hermione, Freya, Emily and Bella squeezed onto the bench across from the sleeping man while Harry and Ron nearly sat on top of one another trying to stay as far away from him as possible.
"What's going on, Harry?" asked Freya when no one made a move to speak.
Harry spent the next ten minutes explaining the argument he had overheard Ron and Bella's parents having the night before in the Leaky Cauldron and the warning their father had just given him.
"Sirius Black?" asked Bella and Harry nodded his head.
"Sirius Black has escaped Azkaban to come after you?" said Freya worriedly.
"Oh Harry, you must be careful." said Hermione, fretting. "You mustn't go looking for trouble."
"I don't go looking for trouble." said Harry. "Trouble usually finds me."
"Harry would have to be really thick to actually want to go looking for some crackpot who wants to kill him." said Ron.
Harry didn't look anywhere near as frightened as Bella felt.
"No one even knows how he escaped in the first place." said Ron. "No one's ever done it before."
"He was a high security prisoner as well." added Bella.
"They will catch him though, won't they." said Hermione worriedly. "I mean, even the muggles -"
"What's that noise?" asked Ron suddenly.
A soft whistling noise was coming from the trunks above Ron and Harry's head. Ron climbed onto the bench he had just been sitting on and reached into Harry's trunk, pulling out the sneakoscope he and Bella had bought for Harry's birthday. It was spinning rapidly in Ron's open palm, glowing brightly.
"Is that a sneakoscope?" asked Hermione, standing to get a better view.
"Yeah." replied Bella. "A cheap one, mind you."
"It went mental just as we tried to tie it to Errol's leg." added Ron.
"Were you doing something untrustworthy?" asked Emily, looking between the twins.
"No!" replied Ron.
"Well - we weren't actually supposed to use Errol for long journeys." added Bella.
"But how else were we supposed to get Harry's present to him." said Ron.
"Put it away." said Harry when it whistled loudly. "It'll wake him up."
"We can get it checked in Hogsmeade." said Ron, stuffing it back into Harry's trunk.
"They sell that kind of thing in Dervish and Banges, magical instruments and stuff, Fred and George told us." added Bella.
"Do you know much about Hogsmeade?" Emily asked.
"I've read that its the only non-muggle dwelling in Britain." said Hermione eagerly.
Bella tuned them out while they talked and when the trolley woman arrived at their carriage ten minutes later Bella decided she couldn't sit in the cramped compartment any longer.
"I'm going for a walk." said Bella, standing from her seat abruptly.
"Are you okay?" asked Ron.
"Yeah, I'm just too warm." she replied.
Stepping out into the corridor, she felt the cool air hitting her face and it felt like heaven. The rain was battering the windows as the train barrelled through the Scottish countryside and the darkness of the sky made the train seem cosy. She ambled down the corridor, no particular destination in mind.
"Weasley, are you deaf?"
Bella turned, hearing her name, only to collide with Draco's chest as he stopped behind her. She stumbled backwards and he caught her arm. Over the summer Draco had gotten taller, had stopped slicking his hair back with that god awful gel and his facial structure had become more defined. His ever increasing height only served to make Bella feel even smaller, being the smallest of her friend group, coming in at just four foot two. Bella had been so taken by how much he had changed that she had failed to notice he still had a firm grip of her arm and she was staring up at him.
"See something you like?" he smirked.
Bella shook her head, pulling her arm from his grip.
"You wish, Malfoy." she replied, rolling her eyes.
Draco laughed as she huffed, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Egypt? Nice." he whisteled lowly. "Shame those prankster twins of yours didn't lock you in a pyramid."
"Ha ha ha." she laughed mockingly. "You're so funny."
"Funny and handsome." he replied.
"Nice to know you think so highly of yourself." said Bella.
As Draco smirked, Bella turned her attention to the windows feeling the train begin to slow. She pushed her face against the steamy glass but could see nothing beyond the darkness of the sky and the rain hammering the windows.
"What are you looking at?" asked Draco, coming to stand beside her at the window.
"Don't you feel that?" she asked, turning to him. "The train's slowing down."
"That's what it does every year." he laughed. "It has to slow down to stop."
"Oh shut up." she replied, swatting his chest.
The lights up and down the corridor flickered violently. The train shuddered to a halt and the lights extingushed, leaving them standing in the darkness by the window.
"What the hell is going on?" asked Bella.
"Well I don't know, do I." said Draco.
"It was a rhetorical question." replied Bella dryly.
An icy chill fell over the corridor and Bella shivered, holding her arms around herself to keep in her body heat. The train door was pulled open and a large, black, cloaked figure towered in the doorway. It's face was entirely covered by the large cloak and it filled the entire doorway. Bella grabbed Draco's arm and squeezed, tight. She was absolutely terrifed, frozen in fear in front of the large cloaked creature.
The creature began to glide towards them and Bella's eyes widened in terror as a long, thin, fleshless hand extended towards them from below the cloak. Draco, with his arm still grasped tightly in Bella's small hands, edged his way in front of her, trapping her between the window behind them, and his back.
As quick as it appeared, the fleshless hand was concealed again beneath the cloak and whatever lay under the hood drew a long breath, as if trying to breath more than air into it's lungs. Bella felt her breath catch in her throat and the cold chill hit her as though she had been submerged in a pool of ice cold water.
Bella's eyes rolled to the back of her head and she began to convulse, shaking the wall of the train and causing Draco to fall forward. She slumped forward against his back and he turned, with some difficulty, trying to keep her upright. The cloaked figure disappeared further down the train and Draco lay Bella down on the ground gently, on her side, trying to shake her back to consciousness.
"Bella! Wake up!" he cried, shaking her shoulders lightly.
There was a relentless pounding in Bella's eyes as her vision came back to her. She rolled over onto her back, holding her hand over her eyes.
"Where am I?" she groaned.
"Bella!" yelled Ron, dropping down onto his knees beside her.
"Don't shout." she whispered.
"What did you do to her, Malfoy?" growled Ron.
"I didn't do anything to her, Weasley. In fact, I'm the only reason she didn't fall to the ground and break her nose." snarled Draco.
"You fainted?" asked Ron.
"I don't know, Ronald." snapped Bella, arm still draped over her eyes.
"Are you okay?" asked Draco, glaring out of the corner of his eye at Ron who was doing the very same.
"I'm okay." she sighed.
"If you're sure." replied Draco, getting to his feet.
"She has me." said Ron, glaring at the blond haired boy.
"She didn't five minutes ago." growled Draco, glaring venemously at Ron before he stalked off down the corridor.
"Are you sure you're alright?" asked Ron, pulling her to her feet.
"I'll be fine." she replied, rubbing her forehead.
The train had begun to move again and Bella wanted nothing more than to bury her head in the pillows of her four poster bed and sleep away her headache.
