Ron Weasley was terrified of spiders. He always had been, ever since Fred and George transfigured his teddy into one. He also wasn't the kind of person to put up with his fears unless he seriously had to. So he stood up, made his way to the opposite corner of the room, pointed dramatically at the spider-man and yelled, "traitor!"

Harry blinked at this; he could tell Ron was scared, but he could also understand a joke when he saw one. "Feeling better now, Ron?"

"A little, yeah," the redhead admitted after a moment's silence. "Maybe I'll get over it if the spider is you, Harry, but do you mind..?" He made a vague chopping motion and Harry complied, changing back to human form. He had trouble with that, and he dreaded having to change back from his full Animagus form.

The rest of the journey passed without any major incidents, and Harry packed up the Guide and his quill in case Professor Lupin woke up, and Ron removed the Silencing charm and Muffliato. As they stood up to get off, Hermione frowned. She had gained an impeccable sense of direction from her currently unknown Animagus form, and she could tell that they weren't quite at Hogwarts yet. As she came to this conclusion, an icy chill spread through the carriage. The windows frosted over and the trio's breath fogged up. Hermione and Ron were shivering; they hadn't brought coats as it was the middle of summer.

Then they saw Harry.

He lay on the floor, curled up into a ball and shaking violently. His face had gone a sickly blue and he seemed to be hanging on the edge of consciousness. Ron lifted him onto the bed, still huddled into himself, and Hermione's mind went into a blur, working out possible courses of action. She couldn't use a heating charm; the water now frozen onto his skin would evaporate, taking the heat with it. She couldn't get help; he would be frozen solid in less than a minute at the rate he was going. She did the only thing her instincts would let her, and curled up around him, sending body heat washing into his frigid form. As the water slowly melted, she found herself casting wandless, silent drying charms and whispering encouragement into his ear.

Harry began to ease up, regaining control of his laboured breathing and smiling weakly. He tried to snuggle backwards into Hermione's embrace, and she apparently sensed his attempt, pulling him in closer.

"Thanks, 'Mione," he whispered, still weak, "I've got a headache and really don't want to move..."

She snorted at this, then huffed, "thank me later, survive freezing to death now!"

"'Kay."

The door slid open, Ron yelled and Hermione screamed. A scabbed, skeletal hand reached out from under a tattered cloak and the three felt their happiness draining away, sucked in by the cold and leaving them with terrible memories. Ron saw the inside of a cupboard and heard the name 'Ginny Weasley', spoken by professor McGonagall. Hermione saw Harry, once more dying of frostbite in front of her.

Harry saw a silver light, a vaporous fog covering the three of them like armour. The creature couldn't come into contact with them, couldn't remind them of events long passed, and it couldn't hurt his friends.

That was all that mattered as he collapsed, another silver shape blinding him even as he was dragged to unconsciousness.

"Eat," Harry heard, and he blearily accepted the gift and ate. The chocolate frog seemed to warm him from the inside out, but Hermione's still ongoing cuddle set alight his heart and put the sweet stuff to shame. He blinked, then reached out for his glasses, cursing his need of them to the depths of hell.

"Where are they?"

"Where're what, mate?" Ron was watching over him in concern.

"My glasses, obviously, I can't see!"

The professor, whom Harry now recognised, shook his head lightly. "You have them on, Mr. Potter. You just need to rest for a while. Don't try to focus, you'll simply damage your eyes."

Harry reached up to pull off the circular wire-rims. If he couldn't see anyway, why bother wearing them, after all? As he slid them off his face, the Boy-who-lived gasped. He could see. He instantly felt a small pang, a part of him that wanted the glasses, if only for the memories. He would change the lenses into regular glass later. For now he put his glasses away.

Nobody but Ron seemed surprised about Harry's fixed eyesight; Hermione seemed to be expecting it, and Professor Lupin handed him a certain Guide. "I know what this is, Harry. I found it while looking through your luggage for more chocolate, and I apologise for that. I shouldn't give it back to you, but I am not a Professor until we get to the grounds, thus I see no reason to confiscate it. You were lucky it wasn't cursed, so next time see Professor Dumbledore before writing in strange books."

Harry realised that he could have sent a letter to the Headmaster, and felt his face go pink in embarrassment, nodding all the while. Then a question surfaced in his mind.

"What happened, anyway? Where did the cold thing go?"

"Well," Hermione started, "after the thing came in, we were surrounded by this silver fog. We don't know where that came from. Anyway, the thing couldn't touch us until the fog cleared, but then Mr Lupin created some more and drove it off. I think that's around when you had a sort of... Fit. It was really scary and I couldn't even do anything! Oh, then Mr Lupin gave you some chocolate but ran out of it, so he looked in our luggage and found some more, along with the book."

"Back onto the topic of the book, use your Animagus forms wisely," Lupin told them sternly, recieving looks of shock. "Yes, I know you have them. The Marauders loved being Animagi and that is the first thing they would have taught you. Remember that a spell exists to reveal your human forms, so try not to act too rashly. A disguise won't work if everyone knows it's you, after all."

Ron pushed his jaw up with both hands, then did the same for Harry and Hermione, stirring them out of their daze. They all nodded, but Ron spoke up. "So you aren't going to tell the ministry, then?"

Mr Lupin chuckled. "I haven't seen any hard evidence of you three being Animagi, so I see no reason to turn you in. I would investigate, but I am not a teacher yet. Now," he clapped his hands together, "I must go and speak with the driver."

"Can't it wait?" Hermione pleaded. "There's only ten minutes left of the journey, and Harry needs medical attention!"

Ron and Lupin stared at her, but the awkward silence was broken quickly by Harry's mumbled "I'm fine, 'Mione."

"If you were fine, Mr Potter, you'd realise that I know how far we are from Hogwarts without looking outside or making any calculations!"

Now it was Harry's turn to stare. Hermione had never been brilliant with direction, but a look out the window made her estimate seem legitimate. An idea came to him. "Hermione, are you an owl?"

She blanched. "I hope not, I hate being off the floor."

"Are you saying the feathers didn't tip you off, Hermione?" Ron asked, trying desperately to keep a straight face and failing spectacularly.

"I never thought I'd see the day," Harry mused, a similar grin plastering his face, "Hermione bested by Ronald Weasley." He earned a punch on the shoulder for his cheek, but both potentially guilty parties were now looking out the window, whistling.

So Harry's form is accepted by Ron, and everything turns out well. Sure, the road was bumpy, but Harry and co. made it out alive. But who casted that first patronus? Why didn't they show themselves? What caused Harry's violent reaction to the cold? Is Hermione an owl? Find the answers to these questions and many more, sometime in the future! (Probably.)