Kings Cross was as busy as ever on the 1st of September. Hurried looking commuters rushed past, eager to get a seat, barely even glancing at the two adolescents pushing unwieldy trolleys unsteadily along the platform
"The new wand is taking some getting used to, but I'm glad I managed to save up enough to get it, my last one barely even worked" Ron said excitedly, but trying his best to keep his voice down " I've got the other one in my trunk, just in case, but hopefully, this year will be less dangerous than last year" he said, laughing
"Yeah" Harry said distractedly, trying to keep up with the gaggle of Weasleys ahead "I can't imagine another professor will turn out to be a monster and try and kill us two years running"
"There is no way we are that unlucky" Ron said determinedly, willing it to be true
After Mrs Weasley had gone through the barrier with Ginny, Harry approached the entrance, ready to run through as well. Going through seemingly solid rock was still unnerving, despite all he'd seen and done in the last year, and as such he gave the wall a cautionary push. Nothing. Solid stone. He tried pushing his trolley through. Still nothing. He thought he heard a distant bell ring, but pushed the thought out of his mind
"What's going on Harry?" Ron asked, half curious, half worried.
"The barrier, it's not working!" Harry nearly shouted. By this point, a small queue of what appeared to be other Hogwarts students and their families had started to form behind them. They could hear people starting to get annoyed, asking them what the hold up was. Just as one of the parents attempted to cast a diagnostic spell on the barrier, a man in a maroon jumpsuit appeared almost out of thin air behind them.
Casting several privacy charms to keep the crowd, growing more disgruntled by the minute, away from prying muggle eyes, the man put his wand to his throat "Attention parents, and students of Hogwarts. Due to an unfortunate incident with the barrier to platform 9 ¾, we are unable to offer you a seat on the Hogwarts Express. Please accept my sincerest apologies, and, as an alternative, please follow me outside for the Hogwarts Rail Replacement Bus Service".
Ron and Harry looked at each other, puzzled.
"Have you ever heard of a rail replacement bus service for the Express?" Harry asked,
"No, but I bet Hermione would know, it's probably in Hogwarts: a History" Ron said, as they started to follow the small crowd out towards the street.
Out there, in front of the station, was a gleaming double decker bus, painted a deep maroon, with golden stripes on either side. As each student had their luggage placed on the lower deck, they were guided upstairs, to a magically enhanced space the size of a large common room, full of comfy looking armchairs, and what looked like muggle vending machines full of sweets and other food and drinks. By one corner, there were tables and chairs, and by another bean bags and bookshelves, full of comics, newspapers, and magazines
Being the last to get on, Ron was stopped by the station attendant.
"Are you Arthur Weasley's son?" the man asked, politely.
"Yes" Ron said, a little defensive, not one official ever seemed to have anything nice to say about his dad, at least, no one that he'd met in quite some time.
"Well, in your next letter, tell him thanks again from all of us at Wizard Rail. He really is a life saver. The man knows so much about muggles it's unreal, he even managed to secure this Bus for us!" the man laughed, "How he got the enchantments though the Wizengamot I'll never know, but this thing is a beauty. Anyway, best not to let you get any more delayed, have a safe trip" He yelled after the closing doors.
"Wow" said Ron, a little confused "I never knew Dad dealt with acquiring muggle transport for the Ministry as well"
"I suppose misuse and misappropriation are almost the same" Harry laughed, as they both looked for a place to sit down.
The Bus moved off slowly, it seemed as if they would be stuck in the thick London traffic, notoriously bad at all times of day, for quite a while. However, the bus managed to glide through it all with ease, picking up more and more speed. Soon enough, they had gone past the London Zoo, and were well on their way up the M1, making mincemeat of the traffic by Watford, and careening past the M25.
Harry was going to send a letter to Hermione, and the Weasleys, but since the bus had picked up such a pace, there wouldn't be much point. He heard someone say that this bus was much better than the knight bus, but he wasn't sure what that meant. Hopefully someone at Wizard Rail had informed Hogwarts, who would in turn inform their families, not that the Dursleys would care either way.
Ron and Harry settled into one of the collections of armchairs, occupied by a group of students from all four houses. Ron wasn't too happy to be sitting next to any Slytherins, but after last year, he wasn't sure houses really meant anything, as after all, Quirrel was a Ravenclaw, and he was downright evil.
Ron started talking to the Hufflepuff prefect, Cedric, as they lived very close together, in Ottery St-Catchpole. The conversation was a meandering one, but soon made its way to being about Hogwarts, and how to make school less painful for an admitted underachiever.
"Just find something you enjoy, something you're good at" Cedric had been saying, then he paused, placing a comforting hand on Ron's shoulder "The amount of times you and your friends ended up in the hospital wing last year I'm surprised one of you hasn't taken a crash course in healing" he laughed, before whipping his head up overhearing a rather angry sounding argument.
"Anyway, looks like there's a fight breaking out between the upper year Lions and Snakes, best sort that out" He said, flashing a winning smile before going over to shout at the unruly students.
A number of the yearly Hogwarts review magazines were strewn on one of the tables. They contained details of some of the extracurricular activities on offer, smaller wizard sports less popular than quidditch but still enjoyed by students, as well as extra courses and activities offered by the staff and ministry during the year. Ron leafed through quickly, hoping to see something he might enjoy, and pocketed a couple, mumbling something about how Hermione might want to read one later.
"This is much better than the muggle replacement services" and older Hufflepuff said cheerily, "Normally there's a twenty minute wait, you get crammed onto a broken down old rust-heap that smells of sick and cigarettes, and you turn up an hour later than you wanted too"
Harry had walked over to the vending machine, and was waiting in the queue when he overheard the strangest conversation coming from a group of students sat in the beanbag chairs
"Look, forget about the Statute of Secrecy for a minute, all I'm saying is, if we can provide unlimited energy to the muggles, why don't we?" said the tallest of the group "Two wizards, a pulley, and a tower, transfiguring weights to be heavy and light at the top and bottom, it'd be easy!" he laughed "That's just the simplest way, I can think of five diff-" he was cut off by an annoyed sounding voice
"But what wizards would agree to do that? And why would they? A wizards time is valuable you know, they can't just spend their time solving all the muggles problems!" said another, slightly chubby wizard
"They could inscribe a runic matrix on the parts" said a third, bespectacled and wiry, pushing up his glasses "One time investment of time and resources, clean unlimited energy for the muggles, their problems just melt away, think what they'd trade us for that? I'm willing to bet we could ask for almost anything and they'd just give it to us" he said triumphantly
"The arithmetic calculations alone would take months!" the chubby wizard said briskly "a runic matrix near anything that produces electricity is a gigantic undertaking, thousands of galleons if you get good rune scribes, for what you're describing, a complex time, height, and energy dependant permanent multiphase transfiguration?! Millions" he shouted " And anyw-" the voice drifted off
Harry felt a tap on the back, and realised he'd been so engrossed in the conversation he hadn't realised he was at the front "Cheers" he said sheepishly, and paid for a small collection of snacks. Out of one of the windows he saw a giant metal statue of what looked like a man with arms spread wide zoom past, the bus travelling at frightening speeds.
Meandering back to the armchairs, he overheard yet more snippets of conversation, this time from a group standing by a small table at the corner of the room.
"So polyjuice makes you look, and feel, like the person who's hair you use as the ingredient, along with all the ailments they have at the time of the harvesting of the hair, right?" said a very excitable boy standing with two others by a small table
"I wish you wouldn't use the word harvesting, but go on" sighed one of the others, a girl with long blonde hair
"Right, sorry" said the first "Anyway, this is what we have to test, first, can you poly-juice yourself as yourself, with a full head of hair after collecting your own to use later, two, if you then harvest the hair of the poly-juiced person when they're poly-juiced with the first set of hair, will that second lot of hair allow you to poly-juice again into a person with a full set of hair, and third, will that, effectively, assuming you never miss a dose, allow you to stay the same age forever, in which case, can poly-juice be made to last longer?" he rushed out, breathlessly.
"You're bloody scary when you're left on your own too long" said the third member, an almost strangled laugh coming from him as he shook his head
"Anyway" said the girl, a long suffering expression clouding her face "If we could do that, wouldn't someone have though of it before? I bet the Library will have a load of books detailing just how bloody dangerous all of this is, if it isn't, every wizard and witch on the planet would be themselves at twenty five, in perfect con-"
"That's another thing!" said the excitable boy "can you lose weight when poly-juiced, if you are poly-juiced for long enough that is, would you revert back every time? Anyway, you said it the first time we met, when we discussed why no one just uses the floo network to get to Hogwarts, wizards don't have an ounce of common sense between them, they'd never think to test it!"
Harry's mind was spinning by the time he slumped down into an armchair, looking up at a smiling Ron. "What are you so happy about?" He asked, smiling.
"Well" said Ron, in as cheery tone " You know how Cedric said that since we were always in the Hospital wing, we should look into learning some healing?"
Harry laughed "Yeah, what about it?"
"Well, I've just read that Madam Pomfrey runs a course on weekends for would-be healers, and anyone can join in, so I'm going to give it a go" said Ron happily
"Just wait till Hermione hears about this, Ronald Weasley voluntarily studying outside of classes" Harry said, laughing away
"Oh piss off Harry" Ron laughed back
The Bus was now careening through what looked like mountains on either side, the sun starting to set on the horizon. Harry and Ron were discussing their summer, their midnight ride in a magic flying car with Fred and George and how much fun that had been, the elf that had been pestering Harry all summer. They still weren't sure what to do about the elf, when and older student who had overheard mentioned that they might want to ask the elves in the kitchens at Hogwarts, as every elf in the country made their way through the kitchens at one time or another for apprenticing, or retirement, so they might be able to help. Harry was relieved that they had some kind of plan, and with that settled, they got onto the much more mundane topic of the subjects they were looking forward too, like Charms and Transfiguration, and weren't, like Potions and History of Magic.
They noticed with a start, that as the sun had been setting, the curtains along the windows had magically started to close and darken, blocking out the bright lights and noise of the motorway. The armchairs seem to be turning into recliners, and for some reason, they could feel something underneath grinding and changing shape.
"I think we're about to go off-road!" someone shouted "The wheels have turned into caterpillar tracks!"
As they finished, the bus swerved, crawling over what must be Scottish countryside with yet more frightening speed.
"We must be near to Hogsmede" Ron said, "there still aren't any proper roads in and out of that place, so Dad says"
They could just barely pick out the lights of a village in the distance, and could feel themselves slowing down, and then, finally, come to a gentle stop just outside of the train station near Hogsmede.
The man in the maroon jumpsuit appeared again, and welcomed them off the bus, and an annoyed looking Professor McGonagall started guiding students towards the carriages to take them up toward the School.
"When you get to Hogwarts, you will find your luggage already up in your dorms, do make sure to get changed and come down for the feast, which will start in one hour" she said, sternly
The assorted students, thankfully none first years, dutifully packed into the carriages, and looked up at Hogwarts appearing majestic in the moonlight.
"Well" said Harry "That was quite good fun"
"Right" Ron said happily "Lets hope that's the only weird thing that happens this year, eh?"
"Don't tempt Fate!" Harry groaned, but laughed along anyway
They both leaned back in their chairs, sighed, and started daydreaming about the rest of the year. It was going to be a good one, they were sure.
AN: Been a while, what better time to upload something new than christmas eh... I got stuck on a replacement service once that took hours to get where i was going, which should hvae only been half an hour at best, which kinda gave me this idea, anyways, hope you guys enjoy this little one-shot