"He's right there, that's him" Harry whispered to Ron who was crouching behind his best mate and hadn't gotten a chance to look inside yet. Although the mystery man did look a little different when he was not covered in the celtic green paint he had plastered over himself at the world cup, it was undoubtedly him.

"Who?" came a reply from Ron who was now trying to lean over Harry to get a better view of the inside of the compartment.

"The boy from the omnioculars. I wonder what he's doing on the Hogwarts Express. He can't be a Hogwarts student, can he?" Hermione muttered, more to herself than the other two.

"Well I guess this proves he is underage. So how in the world did he perform magic at the world cup without the ministry finding out?" said Harry who looked almost as lost in thought as Hermione.

"Look at him, all buddy buddy with those Slytherin prats! Must be another one of those elitists like Malfoy if he's so close to him." Ron spat sourly.

"You know this doesn't make any sense, right?. I mean he can't really be an ally of Malfoy's if he stole from his father, can he?" Hermione whispered to the other two.

Without any warning, the door to the compartment that held the Slytherin trio and Hogwarts' new mystery man flew open. Harry and Ron who had been near the edge of the door fell backwards in a tangled flurry while Hermione quickly got to her feet. Malfoy was standing at the door with his two Slytherin cronies, Crabbe and Goyle, who cracked their knuckles in an intimidating fashion. A smirk had taken its place on Malfoy's face as he saw Harry and Ron quickly getting to their feet, looking flushed with anger and embarrassment.

"Look at that, cockroaches listening in on our conversation. How sweet! Didn't your parents teach you it's rude to eavesdrop, Potter? Oh wait, oops, I forgot…." finished Malfoy, a big smile now plastering his face.

Harry's face flushed redder than it had been just a second prior. He balled his fists in anger at Malfoy's words as his face began to heat up. He was trying his very best at this point not to lose control and cave in Malfoy's face with his fist.

"Watch your words Malfoy, before I throw you off this train!" said Ron, as he stepped forward towards Malfoy, his face within a foot of the other boy's.

"Weasel, nice to see you. Must be living in a tent now, what with all the money you and your family spent on those World Cup tickets. How's papa Weasel doing by the way? Father told me the ministry has him running around like a dog recently, must be trying to put some food on the table with all that overtime he's doing." smirked Malfoy, as he crossed his arms waiting for Ron to respond.

By this point, both Hermione and Harry were doing their best to restrain Ron from kicking Malfoy in the face. Not only were the gorilla versions of boys standing beside Malfoy in the form of Crabbe and Goyle, but there was no way that Harry and Hermione were willing to let Ron get suspended or even possibly expelled from school before their fourth year had even begun.

"Now, now fellas. Let's not get overly excited before we even get to our fine school. I doubt our wonderful headmaster would appreciate that very much." the voice came from inside the compartment, as the mystery man was now slowly stepping out.

He spoke with a slight accent, though Harry couldn't quite pinpoint exactly where it was from. He had muggle clothes on, wearing worn baggy jeans and a sweater. There wasn't anything that particularly unique that stood out about him, he was of about average height supporting a thin frame with pale skin and dark brown eyes. The thing that had helped Harry initially recognize him as the boy from the World Cup was the hairstyle he was supporting. It was light brown hair, slightly on the longer side and parted to the left. Altogether, if Harry had seen him on the streets of London, magic and wizardry wouldn't necessarily come to mind.

"And who might you be?" Hermione asked, now looking towards the direction of the boy like everyone else was.

Ron seemed to have calmed down considerably and supported a curious look on his face like both Hermione and Harry.

"Carson... Frode Carson" he said in a sort of mock demeanor, with a laugh to follow. Harry and Hermione realized the boy had attempted to emulate a Bond entrance, but this seemed to fly over the heads of the others who were standing there looking somewhat confused. Before either Harry or Hermione could respond to this however, Draco Malfoy spoke up.

"No need to introduce yourself to these lot, Carson. The great Harry Potter isn't all he's cracked up to be. I mean what kind of great wizard has a Weasel and a mudblood for sidekicks?"

"So the girl is a mudblood eh?" asked the boy named Carson, narrowing his eyes, though it seemed like a rhetorical question.

The boy was staring at Hermione now, almost through her as if she wasn't there at all. He looked as if he was lost in his thoughts for a moment. Both Harry and Ron were seething at this point as Hermione was putting her absolute best effort to stand in front of the two boys and prevent them from doing anything stupid.

"Absolutely disgusting." said Carson, though still looking a little lost in thought and talking to no one directly.

"Tell me about it." agreed Malfoy.

"Filthy little mudblood walking around Hogwarts like she's the-" but before Malfoy could finish, the onslaught began.

Harry and Ron had broken past Hermione and made to attack the other boys. Ron dived at Malfoy, grabbing a fistful of his shirt and connecting a satisfying punch to his gut before he was jumped by Crabbe and Goyle from both sides. Malfoy fell backwards holding his midsection while Crabbe and Goyle started connecting Ron in the ribs with sharp smacks and punches. Harry on the other hand had felt his own fist connect right onto Carson's nose, hearing a crack followed by a cry of pain by the other boy. Before Harry could look at the result of his handiwork however, the boy had dived at his legs and tackled him to the ground.

Hermione watched in horror as Crabbe and Goyle held Ron by the arms while Malfoy made his way towards him with a nasty look of anger on his face. Before Malfoy could do anything, Hermione ran behind the two behemoths, kicking Goyle as hard as she could right behind the kneecap. The boy buckled in pain, and Ron who had been freed from hold on his right side kicked Malfoy right to the ribs with his lanky leg. Malfoy, while grimacing in pain managed to hold onto Ron's leg, as him, Crabbe and Ron all went down in a tumble.

Ginny Weasley was sitting in a compartment with her quirky Ravenclaw friend, Luna Lovegood. Luna was going on about how nargles were giving off bad energies or something on the train, just some weird Luna mumbo jumbo, while Ginny was looking outside the window, enjoying the Scottish scenery that was in her field of view. She loved Luna but sometimes it was best to let Luna be herself and just not really listen to everything she was saying or else you might be prone to losing brain cells. Out of the corner of her eye, Ginny saw that the corridor outside their compartment was getting awfully crowded.

"What in the world is going on. We don't get to Hogwarts for another few hours, or am I losing my marbles?" she asked.

Luna didn't voice a response, just shrugging, not looking at all interested in what was going on outside in the hallway. Curiosity getting the best of Ginny, she got up to see what everyone was fussing about. Pandemonium would have been an understatement to what Ginny witnessed as she stepped outside. Almost every single compartment door was open, everyone had stepped out of their compartments like Ginny had, trying to get a better look at what was going on towards the other end of the train. Ginny quickly pushed through the murmuring crowd before she could see what all the commotion was about.

Marcus Turner, the Ravenclaw prefect, Cedric Diggory, the Hufflepuff prefect, as well as a few older Gryffindor and Slytherin students were all working together to separate six boys who looked as if they had been to hell and back. Ginny recognized Harry, supporting broken glasses and bruises all over his face with Hermione standing beside him. Of course he had found trouble, Ginny thought, the first day of school hadn't even started and he had gotten into a fight. She then saw the twins holding up Ron, who looked like he had been put through a blender, though he had a grin on his face. Mom is going to kill him, and probably me and the twins as well for not preventing this, Ginny thought to herself.

On the other side stood Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle, all looking just as bad as Harry and Ron. She also saw another boy whose face was covered in so much blood she couldn't even recognize him. No wait, she thought to herself, she wouldn't have recognized him anyway, that face was one she had never seen before. Before she could inquire any further or get any closer to the scene, Turner, who was standing between the six boys turned to the crowd.

"EVERYONE, BACK IN YOUR COMPARTMENTS NOW!" he shouted at the students, who were all staring at the scene. No one made to move at all.

"Everyone, get back in your compartments right now and let the prefects handle the situation. Anyone outside their compartments will be dealing directly with their head of house the second we get to Hogwarts." this time it wasn't Turner, but the calm, stern voice of Diggory who was addressing the crowd.

Everyone started muttering but didn't disobey his orders as they headed back in. Ginny took one glance at the scene of the fight, before reluctantly turning around to head back inside the compartment. This was going to be a long year, she could already tell.