The events of the Quidditch World Cup passed like a blur in Harry's mind. What with all the action that had occured on the pitch, not to mention the Death Eater raid of the celebrations the night of the World Cup Finals. It all had Harry very worried, something was in the works. He thought of the awful vision that he had had earlier in the summer where he listened in on a conversation between Voldemort, that slimy traitor Wormtail and the unknown mystery man. Yes, Voldemort must have been behind the attack on the Quidditch World Cup, but that didn't make any sense, there was no way that Voldemort had any contact with his former followers considering the condition he was currently in. Mr. Weasley had mentioned that perhaps the Death Eaters had simply wanted to enjoy the night and go muggle hunting (those sick bastards Harry thought to himself). The most confusing part to Harry however, was the conjuration of the Dark Mark by a shadowy figure he hadn't been able to recognize. It would seem that the Mark had such a reputation that even Voldemort's former (maybe former, Harry thought) Death Eater's had fled once they had seen it take to the sky. But that was all about a week ago, they had promptly left the World Cup as soon as the Death Eater Raid had ended and headed straight for the Burrow, the Weasley family home.
The Ministry of Magic seems to have had their hands full and their employees busy as Harry and the others saw very little of Mr. Weasley over the coming days. Caught up in all the excitement and anxiety of the events that had occured, as well as Mrs. Weasley's attempts to keep them all busy with chores, Harry completely forgot to mention what he had seen in the omnioculars to Ron and Hermione until several days after the World Cup. When he did finally show them, Ron had let out a burst of laughter while Hermione had a very thoughtful expression on her face.
"What a slick bastard! I wonder how many Galleons he made away with…. Just look at how he blends in with the Irish lot!" Ron had said, as he held up the omnioculars to his eyes rewatching the theft for the third time.
"You really think he was just after gold?" Harry asked him, though the question was open to both Ron and Hermione.
"I mean ya, either that or he hates the Malfoy pricks as much as we do!" Ron chuckled in response.
"I don't know Ron, everyone knows that Lucius Malfoy isn't someone you really mess with for a bit of gold-" Harry thought out loud.
"Ha, speak for yourself, if I had the chance to swipe some gold from under his pompous nose-".
"What I think is more interesting than the hypothetical gold you're talking about Ron.." Hermione interjected as Ron shot her a dirty look.
"is the fact that he did magic" Hermione stated.
"Well any bloke can do magic! Plus the spell didn't even look that complicated!" Ron said confidently while brandishing an imaginary wand that he used to wave around and illustrate his point to the other two while Hermione rolled her eyes and Harry grinned.
"What I meant was that he looked underaged Ron, and stop flailing your lanky arms around like that, you're gonna take someone's eye out!".
They continued talking about the different possibilities of what had taken place, speculating how and why the boy had done what he did. While Ron thought he was only after the hypothetical gold that was in the bag, Harry seemed to have different ideas. He told them that maybe the boy had stolen a dark artifact from Malfoy (they all shuddered at the thought, reminded of the Riddle diary that Lucius Malfoy had once possessed) and wanted to perhaps get Malfoy in trouble. Though both Ron and Hermione didn't seem very convinced by this theory, it was better than Ron's other theory about the boy being a goblin debt collector sent by Gringotts Bank to repossess funds on their behalf. Out of the trio Hermione seemed to have the least theories about what they had seen in the omnioculars. She continued to wonder about the potential underage magic that had occured and mentioned something about "Library", "Research" and "Hogwarts" which caused Ron to let out a big groan at the thought of reading or returning to school.
"What are you lot always whispering about anyway?" the trio turned to see Ginny entering the kitchen with a curious expression on her face.
"Butt off nosey" Ron said, though without any real malice in his voice.
"Shutup Ron..and nothing Ginny, we're just talking about the World Cup" Hermione said giving Ginny a smile and Ron a dirty look.
"Ya, ok" Ginny nodded, but did not look very convinced.
"Well sis, just let em have their super secret conversations, we all know they are planning the downfall of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named!" they all turned around to see Fred and George entering the kitchen, both supporting massive black eyes.
"What the hell happened to you guys?" Harry asked, looking intrigued.
"Ask us no questions young Harry..." George started.
"And we shall tell you no lies" Fred finished for him.
Ginny rolled her eyes at this and looked as though she had heard this exact phrase perhaps a thousand times before.
"Anyway, mom said start packing for the King's Cross. She doesn't want any of you to leave it for tomorrow morning, you know how fussy she gets." Ginny stated, before leaving the kitchen with an apple in hand. Everyone in the kitchen (except for Hermione, of course) gave a collective groan as they got up to pack their bags and belongings for the next morning.
It was the morning of September 1st, Platform nine and three quarters was jumping with activity as Harry, Hermione and the Weasleys entered the station. The bright scarlett train was billowing smoke into the clear baby blue sky and everyone seemed to have forgotten the Death Eater incident at the world cup. It seemed as if all was well. Mr. Weasley was telling everyone to have a good year and that they all had a surprise in store for them at school, which made everyone raise an eyebrow but Mr. Weasley refused to answer any of their questions because it would "spoil the surprise". Mrs. Weasley on the other hand fussed with everyone, fixing their hair and straightening their clothes in broad view of the entire platform which caused all of them to flush with embarrassment.
"Come on woman, we got things to do, places to be!" Fred exclaimed as his mother attempted to pull his pants up higher and straighten out the wrinkles on his shirt.
"At this rate Lee's gonna graduate before we get to school mum!" George chimed in.
"So you mean we'll be here for 15 years.." Fred muttered to George causing him to snort.
"Shut it you two! As if I can let you go to school looking like the mess you are!" said Mrs. Weasley sternly as if daring them to respond which they both wisely chose not to do.
Harry, Ron, Hermione and the rest of the Weasley children said their goodbyes to Mr and Mrs. Weasley and started boarding the train. The twins ran off to find Lee Jordan and do whatever mischief they had been whispering about on the way to the station. Harry was sure he heard the words "Toffy" and "Lee's gonna be pissed" thrown around. Ginny on the other hand was invited into a compartment by a third year girl with platinum blonde hair that Harry had seen around at Hogwarts and was sure was a Ravenclaw. Harry, Ron and Hermione finally saw an empty compartment which they quickly occupied.
They started to relax and put their bags away while Hermione pulled out a book. Just as Ron was about to say something to her, probably about to tell her what he thought about her reading on the way to school, Harry held up a hand to silence him. Hermione put her book down and they both looked at him as he pointed to the wall of the compartment. From the other side they could hear the voice of one Draco Malfoy and another voice they did not quite recognize.
They listened in as Malfoy droned on about something, though couldn't quite hear the words he was saying. The other voice would chime in a response every once in a while. Curiosity getting the better of him, he got up and left the compartment quietly with Ron and Hermione on his trail. As the other two approached Harry who was already crouching outside Malfoy's compartment staring through a section that wasn't covered by blinds, they saw a very surprised look on his face. Hermione crouched down as well to get a view of the inside the compartment. She saw Draco Malfoy sitting there with Crabbe and Goyle and some other boy, arrogantly talking while twirling his wand between his fingers. Realization suddenly hit Hermione, that was the boy she had seen stealing from Lucius Malfoy in the omnioculars.