Disclaimer: Given any influence whatsoever over the real Harry Potter books (which I do not and have not ever had), I would have taken a moment out of my busy day Scrooge McDuck swimming through piles and piles of gold to explain why Lupin claimed it took him three days to shake the Death Eater tailing him before he could join Harry and the others at Grimmauld Place when apparating once would have freed him up immediately. And for that matter, since it was protected by the Fidelius Charm, Lupin should have been able to walk straight up to the place with the Death Eater directly behind him, and still lost the guy as soon as he passed into the protection of the charm, unless the other wizard was physically holding onto him.

Chapter Five

"Harry!" A fraction of a second after receiving that joyous-sounding warning, Daphne found herself stumbling backwards with a face full of of frizzy brown hair as Granger hugged 'him' so tightly she couldn't breathe.

Spitting out bits of hair and making a face at the taste, Daphne awkwardly returned the hug for a second or three before pushing the girl back. "Err, hey, Gran-" She coughed. "Great to see you, Hermione."

"Harry, you've changed into your school robes already." Hermione noted with a curious frown. "Why?"

Daphne had worn the robes onto the train for two reasons. The first was that it meant she wouldn't have to try to explain why she wouldn't change clothes in front of Ron, and the other was that she still wasn't quite comfortable playing a boy in front of people vaguely more observant than the Dursleys had been. Wearing the shapeless, unflattering robe, in spite of how much she had complained in her first year, was quite helpful in that regard now.

Instead of saying so, of course, she simply shrugged. "Eager to get to school I guess. How was your summer?"

She yawned while waiting for an answer. Daphne hadn't slept well the night before, which had been spent alternately going over everything she had done in order to try to figure out how Moody had figured out 'Harry' had been sneaking into the Ministry and watching his lessons, and panicking about what else he might have figured out. Even telling herself that if Moody had known the truth, he wouldn't have called her 'boy' didn't help.

Finally, she'd dozed off for a few hours before waking up with barely enough time to have Vernon drive her to the station. She'd given the huffing, grumbling, unhappy man the cure to Diddykins piglet problem, telling him to make the pig eat anything with the potion mixed into it, and then made a mad dash onto the platform, arriving just in time to squeeze her luggage into the right compartment, then hop onto the train before it pulled away.

And now she was facing one of Harry's best friends, without any layer of protection like a burned face or the business of packing to leave school between them. Of course it would have to be the smart one. She couldn't have warmed up with the Weasley brat.

"Interesting!" The brunette chirped. "I was quite busy with schoolwork, of course-"

Another voice complained, "How, that's what I'd like to know. How do you have schoolwork when there isn't any school?" Ron Weasley, speak of the devil, arrived and folded his arms while gazing quizzically at Granger. "Haven't you ever heard of vacation? It's this magical time when there isn't any school." He waggled his fingers at her.

"Sounds like a nightmare." Hermione replied rather dryly, waggling her own fingers right back at the boy. "But your appalling study habits aren't what we should be focusing on."

"Right." Ron turned to Daphne. "You're the one we need to talk to."

"You do?" Daphne had a bad feeling about this. How had they figured it out? What mistake had she made? Was there something in the letters? Had Moody talked to them? No, wait, that was ridiculous.

Before she could work out just what she should be getting defensive about, Hermione and Ron had each linked their arms through 'his' and began dragging 'him' into one of the train compartments. Daphne found herself rather firmly pushed down into a seat, while the other two sat next to each other across from her.

Weasley's head had tilted and he studied her with an uncertain look. "Blimey, Harry, you really changed over the summer."

Daphne tried not to look nervous. "Oh?" Nonchalant. She told herself. Nonchalant, be nonchalant. Be completely and utterly nonchalant. "Why do you say that? I mean, doesn't everyone change over the summer? What's so special about me? I don't think I've changed." Damn it, Daphne, you're totally chalanting!

Hermione, after giving 'Harry' an odd look, nodded. "It's mostly in your face. It seems... softer. You look kind of... pretty."

"Oy!" Ron shot a scandalized look at the Granger girl. "You don't call a bloke pretty, Hermione. You just don't."

"It was the best word I could think of for it!" Hermione defended herself, before shaking her head. "We're getting off subject anyway. We had something else to talk about with you, Harry."

"Right, mate, we wanted to talk about how you barely talked to us this summer." Ron began.

"I sent letters." Daphne protested rather weakly.

"Letter." Hermione held up a single finger. "You sent one letter to each of us, and that was for your birthday."

"Sorry." Daphne flinched and gave a little shrug. She was trying to come up with a logical excuse, since she couldn't very well say that she'd been sneaking into the Ministry to learn from one of their best aurors so that she could get the magic stone from Quirrel and bring the real Harry back to life.

"We know what's going on." Ron's voice was low, confidential.

Stiffening, Daphne looked from one of Potter's friends, then to the other. "You do?" She asked, carefully.

Both of their heads bobbed. It was Hermione who spoke. "Of course. You're upset about Daphne."

"I am?" Daphne blinked, then ducked her head to hide her expression.

"Anyone would be." The red haired boy sounded for a moment like he wasn't sure how to go on, after what he had said at the end of the school year. "I mean, anyone dying is a very bad thing, no matter what house they're from."

Hermione shot him an exasperated look. "Nice, Ron, did you read that off the back of your hand, or just memorize it?" Her hand came out to take 'Harry's', squeezing it with a worried look. "The point is, we think you've been obsessing over Daphne's death, thinking that it was all your fault, or that you could have done something different. We were afraid that you were cutting yourself off from everyone."

Weasley's head bobbed in agreement. "But you can't think that way. There's nothing else you could have done. Quirrel was a full grown wizard on his own, however he acted in class."

"And-" Hermione's voice lowered a little. "You-know-who was living inside the back of his head."

Daphne looked back and forth between the pair. "You two have rehearsed this, haven't you?"

Granger's arms flew up. "Well what else were we supposed to do?! You weren't sending letters. We wrote to you all the time but you only responded the once. We were even going to go to Diagon Alley and shop for our books together, but we had no idea when you were going to go. Oh but Harry, you'll never guess who we met while we were there. He even signed my books."

In truth, Daphne had gone for her- or rather, Harry's new books alone precisely so that no one would notice that she hadn't used the real Harry's vault. She'd had enough galleons saved up from her father's gifts over the previous year to take care of everything that she had to buy, though that had nearly wiped out her remaining savings. "I meant to write more." She sighed, resigned. "I really did. I just got busy."

"Busy with what, is what I'd like to know." Ron had gone from apologetic to vaguely offended. "What was so important over the summer that you couldn't write a letter to your best mate?" At Hermione's pointed look, he amended to add the plural, "Ssssss."

Daphne was saved from having to try to come up with a response when there was a quick knock at the compartment door before it was slid open. A small red-haired girl with a quite put-upon expression stepped inside and proceeded to kick Ron in the leg and announce, "Jerk."

Ron's hand dove to his leg and he cringed. "Ow! Ginny, what the hell was that for?"

"You left me at the front of the train!" The younger girl exclaimed, throwing both hands up. "You and Fred and George and Percy all ran off and left me behind!"

"That doesn't sound right." Ron objected. "Percy's far more responsible than that."

"He had to go to the prefect car." The girl, Ginny apparently, finally looked toward the other occupants. When her eyes found 'Harry', they widened dramatically.

"Oh, right." Ron gestured between them. "Harry, this is my sister, Ginny. Ginny, that's Harry Potter."

Daphne raised her hand in greeting. She had the feeling that she knew what the poor girl was going through. Ginny would be far from the only girl who had grown up hearing the stories of the boy-who-lived. Particularly for girls within two or three years of Harry's age, many of whom had grown up with dreams of marrying him the way that other little girls dreamed of marrying handsome knights. Harry Potter was a handsome knight, who had vanquished the most evil wizard who had ever lived. And he was their age. It didn't matter that they'd never met the boy. Who he actually was remained immaterial, because they knew his soul.

Or something.

Daft bints.

"Is she okay?" Hermione asked, leaning closer to Ginny. The girl's mouth had fallen open as if she was trying to speak, but no words were coming out. Finally, the red-head spun on her heel and fled from the compartment.

Ron, by that point, was gazing at Daphne with eyes that were almost as worshipful as Ginny's had been. "You have got to teach me how to do that. I can't make her go away for the life of me."

Daphne, however, was distracted by the sight through the still open doorway of someone else passing by. "Luna!" She came off her seat and sprang to the train aisle, ignoring the two gasps of surprise from Potter's friends.

Luna, for her part, simply stood there holding an empty cage in one hand and a rather large pickle in the other. Her wand had been stuck behind her ear rather than in a pocket. "Hello, Harry."

"The book." Daphne took the other girl's arm and squeezed it firmly. "Tell me you and your father found that book. I need it."

Luna's head shook then. "I'm sorry, Harry. Daddy is convinced that the nargles stole it, but we're not sure which tribe. Can you tell me when the author's birthday is? Oh, and his favorite flavor of ice cream. That should narrow it down enough for father to parley with the right chieftain."

"Harry?" Hermione had exited the compartment. "What's going on? Who's this?"

Oh sure, now bloody Granger was more interested in human interaction than burying her nose in some book. Where was this when Daphne was staying up until midnight six days a week trying to study herself into a coma just to get one single solitary mark higher than the half-blood witch?

"This is Luna." She managed not to snap, though it was a close thing. "We met over the summer, when she and her father..."

"We were looking for Blibbering Humdingers." Luna announced with absolutely no concept of the word shame.

"Those don't exist." Hermione stated with an imperious tone that made Daphne wish she wasn't right. "It says quite clearly in Newt Scamander's Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them that there is no such thing as a Humdinger, Blibbering or otherwise. They're a myth, invented by older wizards to scare those younger and less apt to look for the facts."

Knowing how Luna felt about the creatures that her mother had been obsessed with finding, Daphne interrupted quickly. "Luna, why don't you sit with us." She ignored the looks that Granger and Weasley were giving her. Having the Lovegood girl as a buffer would stop them from asking too many pointed questions.

And maybe, just maybe, she could find a way to rack Luna's brain and find a hint as to where the journal had gone.

"Well lookie here." A voice that Daphne had been hoping to avoid for a while all but crowed. Draco Malfoy sauntered down the aisle with his two cronies. "Ickle Harry Potter's already dressed for school. What's the matter, Potter, afraid if you don't wear the robes all the time, people'll realize what a complete fraud you are and not let you in?" Crabbe and Goyle each registered their approval with full throated laughter, bringing a proud smile to Draco's face.

Oh for the love of Merlin. She didn't care about Potter's little rivalry with the Malfoy scion. Daphne had far more important things to do than trade childish barbs in some stupid ego contest. The boy only wanted attention, and every time that Harry engaged him, he rewarded that behavior. "Sure, Draco." She said simply before turning her back to the boy to walk away without further comment.

It was apparently the wrong move, as far as Malfoy was concerned. "I'll teach you to walk away from me, Potter." He snarled. "Calva-"

That was as far as he got. The second she heard the boy start the jinx that would have made her hair fall out, Daphne spun. Her wand came up into her hand and pointed in the same twisting motion, the way she had practiced hundreds of times over the summer.

"Stupefy!" The jet of red light shot from her wand, caught Draco in mid-cast, and hurled him backwards several yards down the aisle, pitching him head over heels before he fell to the floor in an unconscious heap.

Crabbe and Goyle were caught motionless. Their eyes went wide, and they looked first at 'Harry', then at their fallen leader. Then the two scrambled to pick up Draco and cart him off, falling over themselves in their haste.

For a long moment, silence reigned. Then Ron's strangled voice came, full of shock and confusion. "Bloody hell, Harry. Where did you learn how to do that?"

v~^~v~^~v~^~v~^~v~^~v~^~v~^~v~^~v~^~v~^~v~^~v~^~

It took some rather fast talking for Daphne to avoid even more intense interrogation over her use of the stupefy spell. She told the others that 'he' had simply read the spell in a book and practiced without a wand, and that that had been the first time she actually managed to cast it. She acted just as surprised as they had been that it had worked so easily.

Granger was never going to object to the idea of learning something from a book, and Weasley was just insistent that 'Harry' teach him that spell so that he could 'shut Malfoy up any time'.

The rest of the train ride passed relatively uneventfully, for Daphne anyway. She told them that the Dursleys had kept 'him' awake all night and passed most of the time by curling up on one corner of the seat and napping.

"Harry?" Hermione was shaking 'his' shoulder. "Harry, wake up. We're almost there."

Daphne's eyes opened, and she straightened. The others had changed into their school robes, and Luna was gazing out the window at the lights of the approaching Hogsmeade Village.

"Harry," Ron had leaned in close to peer out the window as well. "Isn't that the train platform over there?" He pointed to the dark, unlit station where the train should have been stopping.

"Uh huh." Daphne remembered to answer, her brow furrowing.

"But if we're already passing it," Ron turned his head to look at her. "Wouldn't that mean that we're about to drive straight into the-"

The train gave a shriek of protest in the middle of Weasley's sentence. There was a series of terrifying bangs, followed by the echo of screaming that tore back through the various compartments, and then theirs gave a violent heave and Daphne found herself flung upward into the ceiling painfully. Sideways became up as the compartment tipped over, and then there was an explosion of glass as water began to fill the compartment and everything grew much darker.

Daphne found herself caught in the influx of water, its sudden coldness shocking the breath out of her, and swept out of the sideways compartment while Hermione screamed Harry's name.

Down through the train corridor Daphne was hurled, hitting a wall next to a window before that one shattered and more water joined the wave that had carried her. The rushing torrent caught hold of the hidden Slytherin and tossed her helplessly down toward the back of the train. She kept opening her mouth to scream, but every time she did, water choked off any of her cries.

All around her, Daphne could see other students either being tossed around by the water in the rapidly flooding train, or struggling to help those who were. Before long, the train had completely filled with water, and Daphne could barely see. She held her breath as the last bit of air disappeared, her fingers lashing out desperately, grabbing for something, anything that she could hold onto. Finally, she managed to grasp one of the doorjams near the rear of the train with one hand.

Perfect. Now all she had to do was get her other hand up so that she could pull herself into one of the air pockets, then get through one of the many broken windows and swim to the surface.

Before she could do that, unfortunately, Daphne caught sight of something large and fast coming her way. She looked up in time to see someone's spinning trunk just before it collided with her face. Harry's glasses were snapped, and her own vision went black. The force of the blow sent her backwards, through the badly mangled rearmost train car and into the lake itself.

Daphne drifted backwards and down, deeper into the lake. Her senses were rattled and it took a Herculean effort to blink her eyes open. All she wanted to do was sleep. She had been holding her breath for far too long, it was impossible to think straight. Her eyes drifted closed as the dim light from the surface grew fainter with each passing second. She sank further... further...

Strong arms caught her around the back, pulling her upright. Daphne's eyes opened blearily in time to see the most handsome, powerful face she had ever seen. The man who had caught her gave her a rather roguish wink, his head enveloped in a bubble charm. Then he touched his wand to her own face, and a similar bubble appeared around her own head.

The wizard pointed his wand at his mouth at the edge of the bubble and when he spoke, Daphne heard him. "Are you all right?"

All Daphne could do was nod rather dumbly at this man who had rescued her in mid-drowning, who had clearly saved her life. Who was he? Where had he come from?

"Time to swim." Her savior pointed upward, kept an arm around Daphne, and began to head for the surface. Daphne tried to help by kicking her legs, but she was still mostly disoriented.

When they broke through the water into open air, the wizard dispelled the bubble and Daphne sucked in fresh air. She turned slightly to see many more students already treading water, or swimming toward the shore.

The wizard who had rescued Daphne swam with her to the shore, keeping one arm around her shoulders to support her weight. He came up out of the water, lifting Daphne in his powerful arms easily as if she was a doll. The man carried her up to dry land, before carefully setting her down. "Are you sure you're all right?"

She tried to answer, but kept getting lost in staring at his blue eyes and his long, coppery hair. He'd saved her. He'd saved her life, like a hero. Like a real hero, the ones she'd read about and eventually dismissed as childish fantasies.

Yet he had literally carried her up and out of a lake before she could drown. And he was handsome. Just like a fantasy knight.

"Harry!" A distant voice interrupted her shock-induced daydreaming, and then Ron and Hermione came splashing up through the shallow water until they reached them. "Harry, you're all right!" Ron gasped in relief.

Daphne received another hug from Granger, who didn't seem to want to let go at first. She sniffled a little. "When the water took you from the compartment, I didn't think..."

"He'll be okay." The man who had saved her assured them. "I think he's just a bit stunned."

Ron turned his attention from 'Harry' to her savior. His own exclamation was almost as startling as the cold water had been. "Bill? What're you doing here?"

"Saving your friend, seems like." The man nodded down at Daphne. "You've seen Ginny, right?"

The other boy nodded distractedly at that. "Of course, she was the first thing I checked. She's over there somewhere with that Luna girl and some boy named Creevey that keeps moaning about his camera."

Satisfied that her friend was alive and well enough, Hermione had gotten back to her feet to point out at the lake. "What about others? Someone should search for anyone else that's trapped down there."

"Already taken care of." Bill assured her. "I checked while I was pulling Harry there up. He was the last one out. Everyone else should be just fine. Kind of a miracle, really. There's a lot of bruises and a few are going to have to see Madame Pomfrey, but overall, everyone seems to have come out in one piece."

"It's not a miracle." Hermione sniffed. "It's magic. The Hogwarts Express is enchanted to protect its passengers from outside harm like... an accident." She hesitated to call it such, looking at the lake.

Bill flicked his wand toward Daphne, and she found her water soaked robes turning immediately dry once more. "Can you stand up?"

Swallowing, Daphne slowly nodded before picking herself up. She rose, gazing out at the lake where the last remaining students were hauling themselves out. There was no sign of the train itself, which had sunk all the way to the bottom. She felt numb.

"Come on then." Bill ushered them toward a spot where Daphne could see the giant form of the gamekeeper Hagrid gathering all of the students. "Trust me, Dumbledore will be looking into this. All you have to worry about is getting up to the castle."

"But what are you doing here at Hogwarts?" Ron insisted. "I mean, thanks for saving Harry and all, but why? You're supposed to be out doing Curse-Breaker stuff for Gringotts."

Daphne gasped softly, looking at the ruggedly handsome man. "You're a curse-breaker?"

"He sure is." Ron sounded proud. "One of the best—err... Harry?" A quizzical look crossed the boy's features when he saw the expression on 'Harry's' face. "Are you sure you're all right? How hard did you hit your head?"

Flushing, Daphne looked down and tried to hide her reaction. Stupid, stupid. Harry Potter would not be crushing on Ron Weasley's oldest brother!

Bill paused, then shook his head. "Took a sabbatical. Turns out Professor Dumbledore needed a new teacher. And with... well, the you-know-what developments for you-know-who last spring, I guess he wanted reinforcements."

"My brother's a teacher at Hogwarts?!" Ron's face paled, as though this was somehow worse than the entire Hogwarts express driving into the lake. "That's worse than Percy being a prefect."

Daphne's eyes had grown progressively wider. This... the hero who had saved her life, who had carried her up out of the lake and made her heart beat so fast she couldn't believe no one could hear it, was a Weasley!?

"Bill!" Little Ginny Weasley had come splashing up through the shallow waves and threw herself at the man, letting herself be swept up into a hug. "Bill, you've got to come to school with us. Everyone else keeps leaving me behind!"

As he pulled his baby sister up into his arms, Bill used his wand to magic the girl dry as he had done for 'Harry'.

Ron, apparently feeling that his earlier outburst hadn't been taken seriously enough, exclaimed even louder, "My brother's a teacher?! Why didn't mum say anything?"

"I asked her to keep it secret." Bill replied as they reached the gathering group. "Didn't want you jumping off the train and transferring to Durmstrang or something."

Hagrid, giant that he was, waved both massive hands over his head. His voice bellowed, "Ev'ryone over here! All yeh students, form up here!" He called, giving Daphne and the others a quick wave and a relieved smile when he saw them. "Tha's righ'. It's all gonna be just fine."

Ron had paled by that point, as something else obviously occurred to him. "Bill! You can't teach Defense Against The Dark Arts. That job's cursed! Everyone knows the teachers don't last."

Bill shook his head, still carrying Ginny. "Not teaching that. Professor Dumbledore hired me to teach History."

"History of Magic?" Daphne frowned at that, finally finding her voice. "What about Binns?" Not that she minded losing the boring old ghost, especially if it meant that the very best Weasley of all was going to be teaching them.

"You'll have to ask Dumbledore for specifics." Bill said with a shrug. "All I know is Binns was no longer available, so they needed a replacement on rather short notice."

"Then who's teaching Defense?" Hermione wondered aloud.

"That, my dear lady, would be me." A rich, cultured voice announced. Daphne looked up to see a man with a dazzling, perfect smile, perfectly curled blonde hair, and robes as blue as the sky.

Daphne knew the face. It had graced many book covers and posters in her family's house. And even if she hadn't known it before, the book list she'd received before shopping in Diagon Alley had included half a dozen of his work. "Y-you... you're..."

"Mr. Lockheart?" Hermione exclaimed. "You didn't say that you were going to be teaching us this year when we got your autographs!"

The man gave that dazzling, blinding smile once again, holding up a finger. "Ah, that's Professor Lockheart, my dear..." He tilted his head a little in an attempt to read the name printed on the front of the book that she held to her chest. "... Hedgemony?"

"Hermione." The young witch corrected. "Hermione Granger, sir. We met in-"

"I'm sure it was an amazing experience for us all." Lockhart looked away and toward the lake, shaking his head regretfully as he made tutting noises. "It's too bad that I wasn't waiting here for the poor students. I would have been able to stop the train from going into the lake, had I but had the opportunity." He lamented with a sorrowful shake of his head before perking up. "Ah well, who wants a personalized copy of my autobiography, Magical Me?"

There was a clamor, mostly from the female students, before Bill cleared his throat. "Does anyone know why the train went off the tracks?"

Daphne, who had looked away, shook her head and pointed. "It didn't, see?" There were train tracks leading from the main track, all the way down and into the lake.

Bill set Ginny down and moved to the tracks, taking a knee to examine them. "How could this happen? The tracks for the Hogwarts Express are enchanted. Someone would have had to disrupt the enchantment, move the tracks all the way out here, and use an illusion to stop Hagrid or anyone else from noticing." He glanced up toward the castle that they could see across the lake. "And stop Dumbledore or any of the other staff from noticing. That'd take a lot of wizards."

"Or one really powerful and dangerous one." Daphne said pointedly.

Ron paled. "You think it was..."

Bill was frowning. "Why? What's the point?" He seemed to realize belatedly who he was talking to, and shook his head. "Never mind. Let's get everyone up to the castle." Flicking his wand out once more, he summoned a great, silvery stallion patronus. Daphne had only ever seen one corporal version, her mother's turtle. This one was beautiful, large and wild, whipping its mane back and forth. It stomped its hooves in a way that seemed like it should have actually kicked up dirt.

"Message to Dumbledore." Bill said to the stallion patronus. "Accident on the train. All students accounted for. Bringing them straight away." The stallion trotted in a circle around them, then galloped off across the lake and into the air toward the castle.

"Ah, don' think we should be goin' on the boats with the firs' years this time." Hagrid had managed to get everyone into one large group, though everyone looked cold, wet, and miserable.

"Professor Lockhart," Hermione tugged at the man's robe. "Couldn't you dry all the students off at once? Like that time you had to save the village of Porthet from freezing after that dark wizard summoned the flood."

"Ah, too right, dear Hedgemony." Lockhart nodded. "Too right indeed." He paused, seeming to adjust his wand before making a few flicking motions as though to warm up.

Bill cleared his throat. "Ah, I can give you a hand if you like."

"Nonsense." Lockhart gave a couple more practice swishes of his wand, and then set himself. "Now, let me see just how much I need to dry... what phase of the moon it is... ah, I don't suppose anyone here is allergic to milk? Anyone? Might interfere with the spell. Might just... nobody? Not a single person is allergic to milk here? Peanuts maybe? Don't be afraid to speak up. Wouldn't want anything bad to happen."

Getting no answer, the man cleared his throat, raised his wand... and then Daphne blinked. She'd been looking up at a cloud that had been passing in front of the moon, only now the cloud was past the moon by a couple of minutes. Everything seemed... off.

"There we are." Lockhart lowered his wand, every student's robes dry. "Just like new."

Bill was shaking his head, making a face as though trying to shake off some strange feeling. His wand was in his hand, and Daphne distinctly remembered him putting it away after sending the patronus messenger off.

She shook off the confusion to focus on the important question. Namely, who had expended all the power needed to divert the train full of students into the lake?

And why?