Author's Ramblings: If you find this fic confusing, here's a summary so far, just tell me when you need another one: Everyone is on the Hogwarts Express. Draco is on a mission from Lord Voldemort to capture a traitor (Lucius Malfoy) who has been leaking information to the Order of the Phoenix, but he doesn't know who it is. Snape and Dumbledore do however. Harry and the ghosts have discovered Lucius in the baggage compartment and have had the situation explained to them. In the meantime, Ron is searching for his sister who is under a spell brought about by Neville's plant, which means she's kind of crazy and lusting after Neville. Neville and Hermione are hiding in a broom cupboard again after discovering the plant has disappeared. Hope that helped.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, his friends, Hogwarts express, or anyone/anything associated with him. They belong to J. K. Rowling, and are her property; I'm merely borrowing them for a short time.
Omigosh! A coherent Disclaimer::dances:: I've never done one of them before!!!!!! Aren't you proud????? Sure you are, stay smooth duckies.
Triple thanks to horntail07 for spectacular betaing throughout, give her a hug for surviving exam land!
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Mind: The Gap.
Chapter 6.
Harry handed the ex-Death Eater his wand back, to the protests of a certain Gryffindor ghost.
"But no funny business," warned Daring Darla, watching the transaction carefully. The elder Malfoy nodded his agreement.
"I'm not going to take you to Dumbledore," said Harry as he let go of his end of the wand.
"Why?It's likely that he already knows what is going on." Lucius said. " I've never been fond of the man, but I've also never known him to prosecute an innocent unjustly."
A snort of disbelief was heard at the spectral end of the baggage cart. Lucius turned to glare at the offending noise, "I'm not as innocent as some people, but neither am I wholly guilty. Even I know that I will be spending some time confined in a cell for previous actions, but I am reformed. Just don't push me."
Harry held up a hand at the bickering and continued, "the teacher's compartment is all the way on the other side of the train, someone will see you. No. We need to hide you and get some help first, then we'll decide what to do after that. I assume you're being chased? Why are you using this train as a hiding place?"
"That sounds like a good idea, you may be smarter than I thought, although, that in itself isn't hard. And yes, I was fairly high in the ranks; I expect the Dark Lord's minions are scouring the country for me, which brings me to why I'm on a train to Scotland. Further more, I've heard a lot about your school, seems to me that Hogwarts is the safest place around right now- where better to hide from Death Eaters than under Dumbledore's thumb? Not to mention yourself."
"Come on then," said Harry. He opened the heavy door and peeked around, looked down the currently empty corridor, sections of which were moving very slowly as the train progressed on its route to the wizarding school. A bird flew by outside the windows, moving faster than any bird should as it rode the trains air currents.
"We're coming too, I'll have you know!" announced Nearly Headless Nick, who seemed to be doing a lot of the talking lately.
Harry just shrugged, "As long as you keep quiet, and don't go floating through the wall, you might end up outside, and you're not as good at flying as that bird." The Duchess was about to protest at this, but opted not to for times sake. Shedecided that she could complain later.
The unusual party made their way down the train in eerie silence, and were about a quarter of the way down before they found an empty compartment. It was much like the others, but still had some bags in it. There were some small leaves and a petal on the carpet.
"Looks alright for now, I think, maybe they went to see some friends? Anyway, we don't need to stay here for long," said Harry, ushering them in. "You guys look after him while I go get some people who can help, I'm counting on you Sir Nicholas."
The ghosts saluted, well, three of them did, the Bloody Baron just nodded his head politely, not happy about taking orders from a Gryffindor, but consenting to help an ex-Slytherin. Harry carefully left the small room after checking to see no one was around and slid the door shut behind him, leaving Lucius Malfoy with the ghosts.
"Care for a game of I Spy?"
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Two large Slytherins made their slow, hulking way to the end of the train.
'Go and find him! Find him and bring him to me, make sure no one sees, is that clear?'
They were on a mission of their own, and they were determined not to fail their master. It took them a good five or ten minutes before they reached the baggage compartment, by which time both were getting slightly nervous, what if he wasn't there? What if they couldn't take him on? What would Draco do to them then?
The iron door swung open to reveal a baggage compartment.
It was empty.
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"Look, I don't know! Bag? Baron? Blood?"
"Nope!"
"Brrrrrwindow?"
"That's not a word."
"Yes it is."
"No, I don't think it is. I think you're trying to make 'window' start with 'B' because you can't think of anything."
Daring Darla adjusted her curls in an effort to stay dignified whilst being backed into a corner.
"Fine then. Bo-"
The door slid open, sticking as ever, in the carpet. The ghosts tensed.
"Password?!" shrieked Nearly Headless Nick, several octaves higher than normal.
"What password?" asked Harry, walking in followed by two identical Weasley brothers. There was a collective sigh of relief. Or there would have been if ghosts could sigh.
Harry sat down opposite Malfoy senior flanked by the twins. "I've explained everything to them, and they think they might be able to help you. On one condition though- you're not to pull any tricks, right?"
The twins narrowed their eyes at the platinum-haired man in scruffy robes. The man in question inclined his head at both of them submissively. Satisfied, they relaxed and sat down next to Harry.
"We have a new product-"
"-Just finished it last week, we did-"
"It failed it's first test, but we modified some things, tweaked it a bit- we're sure it'll work fine now."
George rummaged inside a horribly familiar miniature bag and drew out a love heart- shaped locket with a gold embossed cupid on a brass surface at the front. The chain looked delicate, but in the wizarding world this meant nothing. There was a hinge on the bottom tip of the heart and a clasp on each of the two bumps at the top. The Weasley handed it to Lucius, or rather, dropped it into his hand from a good distance and sat back.
"That there," Fred pointed at the piece of jewellery sitting comfortably in Lucius' hand, "is the 'goody two shoes' locket, trademark."
"You undo them clasps, right, and just twist it round like this," he demonstrated in the air, "then inside there are two little pear drops- it's a muggle sweet- that fit together in a heart. You take the left one now, and when you want to change back you just pop the other one in your mouth and Bob's your uncle!"
"And what, exactly, am I changing into?" asked Lucius suspiciously, staring incredulously at the locket. He could swear that cupid had winked at him.
The twins grinned, and in synchronisation sang:
"A drop for you and a drop for me,
And I will learn what it is to be you,
And you will learn what it is to be me,
And we will learn what it is to be
The other,
And we will wear the other's shoes,
And live the other's life,
For a while,
To learn
The goodness of another's love."
"…And that means?"
Harry, who was becoming increasingly aware of the time, spoke up.
"It doesn't matter! Just eat the damn thing; we don't know when these other guys are coming back. What if they catch us?"
"Yeah!" said one of the twins, still sour about the lack of performers' appreciation, "Just eat it!" The locket was snatched, opened and a sweet pastel drop was rammed down the blond's unsuspecting throat before anyone could blink. Lucius himself looked quite shocked at this turn of events and swallowed in reflex, much to the twins' delight.
He stiffened.
Slowly, a breeze began to blow, only around him it seemed, making his clothes ripple and his hair rise and whip about his suddenly much too pale face. It picked up, getting faster and faster, his hair began flying more violently around his head in a full-blown gale, a halo of chaos. The air buzzed with magic, singing in the ears of the students. The ghosts huddled together, trying to remember solidity as hard as they could, so as not to be carried right out of the closed window. Then, just as suddenly as the wind had picked up, it died down. A few leaves floated gently to the ground.
Harry peeked between his flickering eyelashes at the fuzzy shape before him; he opened them wider, then wider still in shock.
"Neville?!"
The one addressed as Neville looked up.
"That's Mister Malfoy to you, young man," he said. Then glared angrily at the two redheads who were laughing their little red heads off. "What's so funny?"
"Ahhahahaaa, em, ha, oh…one minute…" Fred sniggered, but seemed to achieve some level of control. "It's just…shut up George! Well, it's supposed to turn you into your, yes I know George, um, your-"
"-True love!" gasped George, before breaking down in fits of laughter again.
"Yeah," Fred grinned sheepishly, scratching the back of his head, "thing is, last time we tried, it turned into Neville too…so your true love probably isn't-"
"Longbottom! Oh! I think I- aha- burst a gut! Oh! Hahaaahaaa…"
Harry, in the meantime, was having a difficult time trying not to laugh, but realising this was a reaction out of his control, decided it was a good time to leave. Standing up quickly and trying not to let his mouth twitch he opened the door and walked out, saying to an oblivious crowd, "I'm just going to go find Hermione and Ron okay?"
The door shut.
"George!" Fred smacked him upside the head, "as I recall, you were the one who thought you were in love with Neville for an entire day!"
The two redheads left, still bickering and laughing loudly, and once again, the door slid shut.
"Alright then, I Spy with My little Eye something beginning with, erm, 'S'!"
"Shut up, stupid spectre."
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Author's Ramblings 2: This one's a little shorter than the last one, but don't worry! I have it all planned out, and the next chappie's gonna be a big 'un! Although I have to say, that transformation bit dragged on a bit… Have fun reviewing!
This is Squibakou signing out.