So this is where the plot really starts moving! Up until now I've been trying to stay pretty accurate with the story of HFP. This chapter is when I begin to stray away and develop a plot of my own. Also, The romance aspects between Ron and Darren really start to form. More pairings will begin to reveal themselves as the plot escalates. Thanks to the people that are keeping up with the story thus far, I really appreciate your support and reviews! :)

Chapter 3

Molly Weasely lead what seemed to be a pack of wizards and witches toward platform 9 and 3 quarters

Molly Weasely lead what seemed to be a pack of wizards and witches toward platform 9 and 3 quarters. "Come on now! We're late! The platform is just this way!" as she waved toward the bunch of them. Both Hermione and Darren were thick in conversation about rights for goblins in the wizarding world. Hermione was turning red as she zealously attacked the Ministry for persecuting Goblins and House Elves. "Hermione!" Mrs. Weasely nearly screamed. "Watch what you say!" in a clenched whisper. Darren kept his arm intertwined with Hermione's as they walked in unison. A mere week at the Weasely's had really changed his relationship with the three. Especially Ron and Hermione. Darren was friendly with Harry but could tell Harry had something pressing on his mind, and Darren was not one to pry.

Security for the group of students was shocking. The ministry appointed 15 aurors in total however only about 6 were visible to the students. Darren knew there were four assigned to watch Harry and two to watch himself. The idea of it at first was really confusing. Why on earth would he need such an escort? Darren was still convinced that no one was after him. He was far too unimportant. Darren had let go of Hermione's arm and continued to walk toward platform 9 and three quarters. Mrs. Weasely's voice had grown silent which was highly out of character for her. Darren stopped dead in his tracks ; a small sweat growing on his back as the nerves began to take over. Muggles were bumping into him from every direction – His fear kept him paralyzed in place. Darren began to look around desperately hoping for some miracle that would allow him to see where he was.

"Ron! Hermione!" Darren yelled nervously .While in a week he had made progress that he would never be able to function alone. Darren's eyes were hot with tears when he heard a familiar voice and a hand placed in between his shoulderblades. Ron spoke quietly "C'mon you dork, You walked right past mum." He said with a laugh. Darren laughed and walked where Ron guided him. Darren tried to wipe the tears away from his eyes without Ron noticing. Apparently he failed because Ron asked "Hey mate…were you crying?" Darren put on a face of shock and awe toward Ron that caused him to let out an innocent laugh. "I wasn't crying" Darren pouted.

"Okay Luseppe. You go" Moody demanded. Darren Luseppe walked through what he knew to be a concrete pillar and could suddenly hear a rush of noises. His brain had a hard time piecing together all of the sounds. There were dozens of children and parents, the howling of the Hogwarts express, there had to be at least 20 owls near him hooting. Darren waited until he was confident that Hermione had entered the platform, then he called her name once in hopes that she would hear over all the noise.

"Yea Darren?" Hermione made it a question.

"Do you think…I could just ignore the Prefect badge until I get to the school? I don't think I'm in the right state to help...I'll only be an inconvenience."

"You wouldn't be an--"

"I know I know. But I'd just like to wait until I can talk to McGonagall. They may even want to revoke it, I wouldn't blame them."

Darren could tell from the silence that she wanted to argue but had given up on the topic. She dismissed it with a simple 'Alright.' Ron and Hermione told Harry and Darren they'd meet up after the both of them had patrolled the cards. Without looking toward Harry Darren asked, "Well Harry, lets find a car then?"

"Yea, sure." Harry nodded absent mindedly.

Using a thin cane he had purchased Darren tapped back and forth around the stone floor. Every so often there would be the unfortunate first year that would trip and fall over it. Darren wasn't entirely convinced that this helped him "see" but he promised Hermione he would practice. With very little success Harry and Darren eventually found a car with two people, Darren wasn't sure who was in the car with him but he was too afraid to ask.

"Everyone wants to hang around with us now Harry. Its because of that night last year." Neville said excitedly.

"Yea I s'pose." Harry said awkwardly. To be honest he was sick of the attention and he knew there would only be more of it now that the prophet was calling him the 'chosen one.'

Their conversation came to yet another interruption. This time it was from an eruption of giggles from outside the car. Darren had been silent up until that point where the sounds confused him. Darren's sense of space was entirely dependant on his sense of touch and sound. When sounds like this began he couldn't figure out where he was and where the surrounding sounds were coming from. "Harry, Who's here?" Darren asked staring straight forward at Luna, who seemed to be unbothered by it.

"I'm...Not sure. There are a bunch of girls." Harry said.

As he said this Darren could hear the car door open with an eruption of giggles. Then a girl's voice he found entirely unfamiliar. "I'm Romilda Vane! You should come to our car…there is better company there."

"These are my friends" Harry said with distinct warning in his voice.

Without another word Romilda and company had obviously left.

"Harry that was fantastic!" Neville beamed

"Ah it was no problem..I don't know what she was playing at"

"I wonder what its like for Ron and Hermione. Prefects and all..It might change how they look at things." Darren made an observation. Rather curious himself…He still didn't feel like a Prefect yet, maybe he would eventually.

"Aren't you a Prefect too, Darren?"

Darren shrugged "Yea, I guess I am."

"Dunno, I hope they come back soon though." Harry couldn't have done a Summoning charm that would have worked better, because with that both Ron and Hermione came into the car bickering. Darren felt something really warm sit beside him. The car was a bit packed with everyone in there leading Ron and Darren to be a little crunched together. Darren was confused at his own relief as Ron's leg touched his own. Dismissing the thought he turned to Ron, "How was it?" Darren asked.

"It was kind of crazy to be honest. I didn't know what I was doing. Hermione confiscated one of Fred and George's joke-wands though! What do you plan on doing once you get back to Hogwarts? Talk to Mcgonagall?"

"Yea..I planned on it atleast. We'll see how everything works out. I really can't wait to get back though, I miss lessons."

"Blimey..You're just as bad as Hermione."

Hermione shot him a scathing look but Ron chose to ignore it. His attention turned to a girl carrying two pieces of parchment she handed one to Harry and held one in front of Darren who was sitting there oblivious to it all. Both Hermione and Ron grinned until Hermione grabbed the parchment and went to hand it to Darren, but corrected her faux pas before it was too late.

"Darren, there's a message for you on this parchment. Do you want me to read it?" Hermione asked.

Darren frowned as his pride took a hit. He quickly recovered and nodded with a smile, "Yea that'd be great."

Darren could hear the unrolling of parchment. Her hands flattened out the parchment and he could hear her take a breath before she even spoke. "Its an invitation.." Hermione explained as she was obviously reading it "Professor Slughorn, to have lunch in his car with him and "some others". I've heard some things about him.

"Harry is that the new professor you…" Darren stopped himself in case Harry didn't want it revealed. "Told me about?"

"Yea that's him. I got an invitation too. I guess we should go, eh?"

"May as well… Why does he want to see us you reckon?" Darren asked.

"Dumbledore said he liked to pick his favorites. With Harry being The Chosen One, and he probably knows how influential your parents were in France." Said Hermione.

Harry shot her a look and Hermione quickly apologized "You know we don't think of you like that Harry. But a lot of people feed into what the prophet says."

Both Harry and Darren let out sighs in unison as they got up and headed outside of the car. Darren's objections to physical contact had lessened dramatically in the past two weeks. He placed his hand carefully on Harry's shoulders and grabbed a small piece of the shirt to help guide him. As they walked the noise was almost unbearable. The closed-in train hallways made the sound bounce in a weird way that began to give him aheadache. At first Harry had felt a bit uncomfortable when Darren had touched him as a guide, but he had quickly gotten used to it. As they passed the Slytherin car Malfoy yelled in their direction "Hey Potter! Is that your boyfriend?" the entire car bursted into laughter.

Darren felt Harry tense up at the joke and decided to let go of his shirt and walked carefully behind him. Darren started to look down and focus on his cane which carefully bounced back and forth between the walls. Lately his body had gone through a bizarre transformation that he couldn't begin to explain. Each time his walking-stick hit the wall it was as if he could see again. The vibrations in his hand let him know when he was walking too fast or too slow. If he could feel it brush against the denim of Harry's trousers he needed to take a step back. All of this was a bizarre realization and he still needed to get used to it. But the idea of being able to see – even if it wasn't with his eyes- was exhilarating.

Harry looked back and had noticed Darren pulled back after Malfoy's comment. Thinking of what he should say, he was interrupted by the booming voice of Slughorn, "Well Hello Harry! About time you get here! Come now come now. Who's behind you?" Harry had a look of surprise as he saw Ginny sitting there, but he chose to take a seat next to her while Darren stood there silently. He had a feeling everyone was staring him.

"I'm Darren Luseppe, Professor."

"Ahhh it's a pleasure! I only got the honor of meeting your parents once. Quite the pair they were, I bet then owned at least half of Southern France! About recent events…I'm genuinely sorry. It was a huge loss to the wizarding world.

"Yea..Me too" Darren said quietly. He had gotten quite used to people ignoring the fact that his parents had been recently killed. Actually, he quite liked it that way. Having it being brought up again made him awfully uncomfortable and cause everything to be that much more real. "Come now, Have a seat boy! We're all here to relax after all." Slughorn suggested. It felt very bittersweet the fact that most people did not know he was blind. He must have been doing something right, and that it hadn't become common knowledge. However…that means even more people he had to explain it to, each time the subject came up his mood turned grim. Having stood there for about 20 seconds after Slughorn pushed him to take a seat. Darren heard a small patting of the leather seats and Ginny said "You can sit here, Darren." Her voice had a friendly and airy tone; somewhat similar to Luna's. The small sound gave him a sense of direction as he took several very uncertain steps toward the seat and carefully sat down, whispering "Thank you" to Ginny.

Darren sat quietly while Horace started to introduce everyone to Harry and himself.

"Now you know everyone? Blaise Zabini is in you're year, you two have probably crossed paths. Cormac Mclaggen, His father works for the ministry." Slughorn continued to list off people that were sitting next to them. Darren lost count at 6 others besides Ginny.

Darren's thoughts rushed again at the mention of his family. He had been told he was a spitting image of his father throughout his entire life. Standing at just shy of six feet, Darren had walnut colored hair similar to his mother. It was shortly cut, however just long enough in the back where one could see little curls fighting desperately tobe seen. Darren had been told on many times (Mostly as a child) about the color of his eyes.Once a deep blue, they had the habit of turning to a hue of aquamarine when he was reall tired. Darren still wasn't aware of the physical changes his eyes had undergone due to the dark magic. The once rich blue was now a lifeless gray that seemed to capture the attention of strangers. While everyone at the burrow saw the change they had chosen not to tell him yet. It seemed as though no one had the heart to bring Darren back to a low once he started to smile again. All of his thoughts were interrupted by Slughorn's deep voice.

"Well then" as Professor Slughorn clapped his hands together. "Now I s'pose we can all get to know each other now eh?"

Slughorn started with Neville. He asked him questions such as "What's your favorite subject?" Has your Gran' ever told you the story about your parents and I trying to sneak into Borgin and Burkes when we were only 5th years?" Slughorn laughed at his own story before he even got the opportunity to tell it. Everyone in the room seemed to realize that Slughorn had decided to measure up Neville's abilities to that of his parents. However he began to quickly lose interest and turned to the next student, which, to his dismay, was Darren.

"Now then! Darren, I just say I'm pleased to meet you. I had heard some rumors that you wouldn't be returning to Hogwarts but going back to Beauxbatons. So you decided to stay?"

"Yes. We felt that I would be safer at Hogwarts. I also much prefer Hogwarts, to work on my English as well."

"Ah yes. Brilliant parents you had. Your mother blew me away when I attended a lecture of hers on the Singling and Destruction of Curses in Limbs. The things she could do with a wand..Things I have seen no healer ever do! No wonder she was appointed head of St. Adrienne's. That's the French parallel to St. Mungo's if any of you didn't know." He explained to the rest of the students. Slughorn stopped speaking for a moment and carefully examined Darren – who had a blank stare on his face. "Am I boring you Darren? You seem to be very interested in that empty car seat! Slughorn let out a booming laugh at his own joke.

Both Harry and Ginny sat very still. You could hear a dime drop in the car once Slughorn was done laughing at his own joke.

"Not at all sir, You have my full attention." Darren explained, he couldn't keep the confused tone from his voice. He couldn't decide whether or not he should come out and say it. Choosing the more political answer he said "I just can't see."

"Can't see? The lighting is fine here." Slughorn commented. There was something in Slughorn's tone of voice that was either offended or confused.

"No you see..Im blind now." Darren said in an unreadable tone. Darren heard what sounded to be a gasp from the students in the car. However for the most part it was complete silence. The tension in the room could have easily been cut with a knife. Professor Slughorn seemed lost for words for a moment. Working at a quick recovery he glanced outside and the looming darkness, and then took the pocket watch and his eyes opened considerably. "Rotten luck, but you all should go get into your robes. Looks like we'll be arriving soon. Darren come to my office before classes start. And Harry!" Professor Slughorn turned to Harry with a smile from ear to ear. "We'll have to catch up again! Stop by any time you're near my office, and that goes for all of you!." Harry unleashed an awkward smile that turned into a grimace as they all entered Slughorn's compartment to get their robes on.

After Harry and Darren separated with Ginny as she went to sit with Dean. After arriving in their car Hermione asked "How was it?" curiously. "Uhm, kind of odd. It was like you said ,a bunch of prats who have really well connected parents " said Harry.

"Ginny was there too" Darren said in a near whisper.

"Wha!?" Ron bellowed, clearly outraged.

"Professor Slughorn said he saw Ginny hex Zacharias Smith. I guess he was really impressed. Really Ron, you didn't miss anything. I wish he was invited. Slughorn seems to really be out for 'Arry though." Darren said, with a playful grin on his face. Harry had replied with a non-committal grunt as his thoughts loomed elsewhere,

"Darren, Ron, we need to get ready to show the first years about"

"Aw yea, I forgot about that…" as Ron stood up followed soon after by Darren.

"See you Harry" said all three as they left the car.

Ron, Darren, and Hermione made their way to one of the four exits of the Hogwarts express. The three Gryffindor prefects had been assigned to the fourth exit which consequently was right near Malfoy and the majority of Slytherin. Ron cringed at the thought of having to deal with all of them as prefects. The three of them had been sitting in silence for a couple of minutes when Ron chose to break it saying "Why do we need to show the first years anyway? Its less than a minutes walk."

"Remember how terrified we were when we were first years? It will only take a couple of minutes anyway." Hermione said lecturing him.

"But I'm hungry…" Ron complained.

Darren smiled. He had found it really cute. After a couple of seconds of surprising silence from Hermione, Darren chimed in "But you're always hungry." Both Hermione and Ron laughed. They all continued to make jokes much to Ron's dismay. "It's not a problem! I'm a growing boy" Ron pouted, crossing his arms as the train slowly began to reach a halt. After only a couple moments Darren took hold of the railing. The cold iron played with his hand as he waited anxiously. He could remember there were three steps to the ground, just in case he tumbled.

Darren could hear Hermione busy muttering to herself about something, probably the steps to lead the first years, he thought. Then Darren felt a familiar warm aura near him and Ron said quietly "How come you don't hold my shoulder when you walk anymore?" The question seemed innocent enough, but it was Ron's tone that confused Darren. Of course Darren could be mistaken – but he swore there was a feeling of regret in his voice. "Malfoy made fun of Harry when I did it...I don't want that to happen to you too. Really, its fine." Darren explained as he tried valiantly to keep the neutrality in his voice. Ron shuffled about uncomfortably. Darren could not tell, but Ron had turned a bright shade of pink.

"What if I …like it when you do that?"

It took Darren a couple of seconds to realize what Ron had just said – and once he did he could feel the heat rushing up toward his cheeks and new he would probably have rosy cheeks as well. Darren felt Ron's warmth almost cover his body. Although they were not touching, that radiating…feeling. Aura was the only way Darren could use to describe it. Then he felt that warmth cover his hands. "Then…You do this." Ron took that hand and put it over his further shoulder so that both of their bodies were touching. Darren had a smile that he couldn't take off his face, and closed his eyes at the warmth all over his body. It took a moment but Darren soon realized the warmth was not only on his body, but a really deep feeling in his chest he could not identity.

"Its okay, I'm smiling too." Ron whispered into Darren's ear. The sensation of it made Darren's body shudder.

"Come on you two!" Hermione interrupted. The doors of the train howling as they opened.