DISCLAMER: I do not own Harry Potter
Chapter 7 – The return part 1
Harry pushed his way through the crowded platform, ignoring the strange looks from the muggles he passed, probably because he had a strange looking suitcase, but more likely because he had a cage sat on top of the suitcase with a snow white owl perched happily inside.
When he passed the station guard he felt the older man's eyes narrow, grinning at the man, he followed the familiar path to the plain wall standing between platforms 9 and 10. Taking a deep breath, he looked around at the oblivious muggles rushing passed in their busy lived not paying any attention to anyone else. Shaking his head, he pushed the heavy trolley at the very solid looking wall.
He felt himself slipping through the magic, as it pulled him through the wall. Before he knew it he was stood on the platform, lost among the mass of people preparing for the train. It is hard to imagine the pure happiness that surged through Harry when he found himself amongst people who understood him and were like him, it felt so much different than if he was standing with his Aunt and Uncle, enduring the looks of hate and whispers of freak or, in their case, just saying it straight to his face.
Harry shook his head 'they don't matter anymore I'm back and I don't have to go back for a whole year. So just forget about them, they won't care what happens to you so when should you give a damn to even think about them' he thought clearing all thoughts of the people from his mind.
He pushed the trolley through the parents careful to keep it from hitting into anyone, some gave him scathing looks when he nearly clipped their feet but when they saw who he was they would pull back in horror at being caught giving the hero of their world nasty looks.
He came to an empty entrance, he pulled his trunk onto the train, and to his surprise he found it to be amazingly easier than it was the year before, moving into the brightly lit corridor looking for an empty carriage. It wasn't long before he found what he was looking for, right to one end of a carriage there was a free room, except for one person, there was a man, who was clearly too old to be a student, sat in one corner head rested against the window. Harry moved closer cupping his hand to the glass leaning forward to see clearer.
The man looked to be about 35 to Harry, he had sandy blond hair and from what he could see of his face it was pale and had scars lining it. Some of them were old and some of them still had a nasty red hue around them. He seemed to be tall, he definately wasn't sleeping well, and he was shifting around uncomfortably in his seat. His eyebrows were furrowed together.
Harry considered going in, it was unlikely that there would be another compartment with no one in at the time; most people would be on the train by now so it's unlikely that there would be many compartments that would be free on the train after a certain point. After a moment of consideration, he pulled the door back and quietly walked inside.
He closed the door behind him softly careful not to wake the man in the corner, it didn't seem right to wake a man that looked so tired for a person so young. So Harry lifted his trunk placing it on the rack above his head, he settled himself down waiting for his friends to arrive.
It took a while for anyone to come to the compartment, leaving Harry a lot of time to think.
It took about 20 minutes before a knock at the door pulled Harry from his thoughts. Looking up he was only half surprised and really happy to see, Neville Longbottom, who looked a little bit nervous, shifting on his feet and his eyes flicking away from Harry.
Harry smiled at him gesturing for him to come inside.
Opening the door Neville joined harry sitting on the seat.
"Hi Harry," he said "sorry if I'm intruding but I couldn't anyone else that would let me sit with them… and I really wanted to talk to you about the letters." he finished, his voice getting so fast at the end Harry had to take a moment to comprehend just what he had said.
"Look Neville there nothing to worry about, I just wanted to help you, you were right I was shocked and I have been through the same things. To be honest I had no idea that you were being treated badly at home, maybe I should be a little bit more observant to how people look and are treated." He said a little ashamed of himself.
"You have always been a good friend to me. I know that I have never given any indication that I was having a problem with anything at home but I needed to have some help with her, and I thought that you would be the one to help it's not like I have anyone else to help with her" he said spitefully
Harry looked at him sympathetically "I won't pretend to know what's it's like to have no one to talk about it too but I will say that I know what you're going through at home and all I can say is that I want to help you to get through it." Harry said reassuring smile on his face.
"Thanks Harry." he said
Before they could they could say anymore the door opened, looking up in surprise they saw a tall red head entering the compartment.
"Harry, it's good to see you. How was your holiday with the muggles?" he asked not having noticed that Harry was not actually alone.
"Yes Ron it was fine thanks for asking. How was your holiday?" he replied smiling lightly.
He grimaced "Well I can tell you that it didn't start out well, Ginny insisted on coming home with us to collect her things before she left to go back to the castle. Let me tell you mate, mum didn't take that well, I thought there was going to be a full out duel in the station but fortunately dad intervened. It's not like she actually stayed long which is good because she could have made a big scene." he said
Despite the fact that he had been in the room for a few minutes he still had not noticed that Neville was sitting behind him.
"I don't understand what you mean." Harry said a little bit confused
"Well Ginny could have caused the same damage to us that she did to the students at Hogwarts she attacked." Ron had a look of disgust on his face as he talked about his sister… something that Harry wasn't too thrilled about. Although he didn't get a chance to do anything about it.
Neville had stood up and although Ron couldn't see him, Harry could see perfectly well the ominous look on his face as he loomed behind Ron.
Ron felt a tap on his shoulder, surprised he turned around expecting to find Hermione standing there with a happy smile on her face, when he turned though he was surprised to find a fist waiting for him.
Neville hit him square in the face, making him reel back in pain, and clutch his nose. Neville had a self-satisfied look on his face as Ron clutched his nose, blood pouring from the damaged cartilage.
"Damn it Neville what the hell do you think you're doing?" Harry said jumping up supporting Ron who looked a little bit sick.
"I'm doing what I think is right, when you realise that you come and join me." He said angrily.
Harry watch as Neville stormed from the compartment, paying no mind to the sleeping man, as the door banged he jerked turning his head the other way but did not wake.
Letting out a breath, he helped Ron to the seat.
"What the bloody hell was he thinking?" Ron tried to say, although it came out quite distorted through the blood filling his mouth.
"I don't know Ron, he went too far but you can't say that about Ginny, ok?" he said holding a cloth to the broken nose.
Ron nodded not in the mood for an argument.
"Ron what happened to your nose?" Hermione said rushing through the door.
"Nothing Mione, don't worry about it."
Before they knew it the train set off leaving behind parents and bringing them back to the wizarding world.
Neville crossed the train quickly taking peeks into all the compartments he passed, searching again for an empty compartment.
About halfway through his search he stopped a familiar flash of blond catching his attention. Sliding back one compartment and looking in as subtly as possible he saw a girl.
She was around his age or possibly a year younger as he didn't recognise her from anywhere, sat reading a strange looking magazine. He looked at her strange appearance, she had dirty blond hair, falling in messy waves down her back all the way to her waist, and she was small for her age looking to be extremely fragile in comparison to others. The one thing though that caught him of guard was her lack of any shoes and the strange jewellery hanging from her neck.
Making a quick decision, he opened the door and stepped in. The girl didn't look up for a moment leaving him standing there looking and feeling like an idiot. When she did look up he was struck by the bright blue eyes shining up at him.
"Hello," she said dreamily "nice to see you again. Why are you standing up there?" she asked as if it was the most natural thing in the world to say to a stranger.
"Well I didn't want to intrude" he said shifting nervously on his feet.
"Not at all Neville" she said
So he sat…
"So have you two heard about Sirius Black breaking out of Azkaban" Ron said, finally able to talk properly again after Hermione arrived.
"Who's Sirius Black?" Harry asked looking up from the exploding snap cards in front of him.
Both of his friends stopped everything they were doing and looked at him in shock.
"Harry how can you not know who Sirius Black is" Hermione said shocked.
"Why, should I?" he said becoming really confused now. It didn't make sense if he was someone from the wizarding world he would probably know who they were talking about, and if it was from the muggle world there was no way that Ron would know what was going on and who he was.
"Sirius Black is an infamous murderer in the wizarding world he killed 13 muggles and one of his best friends, Peter Pettigrew." Ron said in a patronising voice.
Dismissing his tone Harry said "But if he was arrested in this world, how is it I don't know about him. It would have been in the paper. Right?" He said still puzzling it out in her mind.
Hermione shook her head "No Harry, this wasn't recent. It was twelve years ago. But nobody talks about it, Sirius Black was the traitor in the light side." she finished.
Harry sat, so this man, on the loose, had sided with Voldermort, betraying his friends for power. 'That is unforgivable'.
"Anyway, he broke out of Azkaban" Ron said awe filling his voice.
"So what? People break out of prison all the time! "Harry said confused as to why this was such an incredible feat.
Ron shook his head "We really need to get you out into the wizarding world more Harry. Nobody has ever broken out of Azkaban before; it just can't be done. That's the mystery, how did he do it?" Ron said whispering the last part to himself.
Before the conversation could go any further the train stopped.
Recovering from the sudden jerk responsible from his current position on the floor.
"What the bloody hell just happened?" Ron asked
"Ronald, language!" Hermione scolded, ignoring everything else for the moment. Ron opened his mouth be was interrupted.
"This really isn't the time guys." Harry interrupted before the fight could even begin.
Harry moved next to the door listening, hearing nothing he slowly opened the door and lent out.
He could just make out something silver at the end of the carriage. Leaning more around the door, the lights flickered, bringing, just for a moment, a man dressed in black robes and wearing a silver mask into view. His wand which had been pointed down to the floor rose towards Harry.
Eyes widening in the realisation he had just been seen, Harry pulled his head inside just in time, he saw a red light flash past the window. Stumbling backwards he fell into the man sleeping quietly.
The man jumped up immediately wand drawn at the door.
"All of you get behind me right now." the man ordered eyed fixed on the door.
Harry went immediately, this man was not someone who he would mess with, he was serious business and he looked dangerous. Ron and Hermione though didn't feel that was necessary to listen to the older wizard.
Protesting Hermione and Ron tried to say they were fine and they were staying just where they were.
"You idiots, it wasn't a suggestion move now or you won't be getting to school ALIVE you understand me?" the man said forcefully turning his furious face to the two idiots refusing to move before storming out of the compartment…
A/N: okay I know that I haven't updated for like ages… but I am going to be putting this story on Hiatus sorry.
Betas Note: Yes I do know you haven't updated in ages! Come on you have epic plans for this! We're not that busy at the moment, write before exams start again WindSword! (I will bug you about this 'till you write again) Don't worry readers I'll find a way to get Wind writing again... *laughs evilly as a plan forms in her mind*