t had been less than two weeks since Steven had given his belated birthday present, and in that time Harry had learned things that he hadn't wanted to know.

A deranged maniac had escaped the Wizarding prison, and most people thought that he was planning to kill Harry. Molly Weasely had wanted to keep him in the dark, but Ron's father had told him. Harry was happy that he had. There was no way he could protect himself without knowing that he was in danger.

Of course, given his past experiences in Hogwarts, any time he was at school was a time he was in danger. After all, at least one quarter of the school hated him, and Voldemort had showed that the protections at Hogwarts were laughable.

It was enough to make him consider dropping out of school, but that would mean living with the Dursleys full time, which was the only thing worse than facing Voldemort.

Additionally, he wasn't sure how the blood wards on his aunt and uncle's house worked, but he was reasonably certain they didn't cover Muggle public schools. The last thing he needed was to get a lot of helpless Muggle children hurt because he was afraid.

So he was here, on the train to Hogwarts. At least Steven was here.

"It's kind of weird, really," Steven said. "I'm actually living on the grounds and I still have to take the train from London to go to class. It's the same with the kids from Hogsmeade. They could just walk to school if they wanted to."

"I think the headmaster just has a sense for the dramatic," Harry said irritably. "It would spoil the whole thing with the carts with invisible horses and boats and all that if children were just showing up willy nilly."

"They aren't invisible," Steven said. "I can see them just fine."

"Me too," Harry said. "Listen, we need to find Ron and Hermione and find someplace to talk."

Steven stared at him for a moment, but seeing something in his expression he nodded.

It didn't take long to find them; Ron had a huge family of people with outrageous red hair and Hermione was always wherever Ron was. In short order he'd gathered them and they'd found the only semi-empty coach.

The sleeping man there had to be a professor, but none of them bothered to wake him.

"There's a killer escaped from Azkaban," Harry said shortly. "Everybody says he's out to kill me. He betrayed my parents and killed one of their best friends and a whole lot of Muggles."

"What?" Ron asked, staring at him stupidly.

Hermione and Steven didn't seem nearly as slow on the uptake, probably because Hermione was smart, and Steven already knew something about it through Amethyst.

Steven nodded grimly. "It's Sirius Black. Amethyst heard the school staff talking about it."

"I've seen stories about him in the Muggle newspapers," Hermione gasped.

"Ron's parents are worried that I might go after him," Harry said. "They warned me off."

"You'd have to be barmy," Ron gasped.

"Besides," Steven said. "It's not like you'd have to go after him if he's coming to you."

"Steven!" Hermione said reprovingly. She glanced at Harry and said, "I'm sure the adults will keep Harry perfectly safe."

They all looked at each other and then chuckled uneasily. Even Hermione looked a little embarrassed at what she'd just said. The adult track record in protecting Harry wasn't good.

"I'll protect you," Steven said. "Amethyst too, and maybe even Peridot."

"You can depend on us too, mate" Ron said, although both he and Hermione looked anxious.

There was a sound from Harry's luggage. Harry reached into his bags and pulled out a spinning, whirling device that was glowing.

"I've been meaning to ask you about this," Harry said.

"It's a pocket Sneakoscope," Ron said. "It's supposed to light up if anybody is doing anything untrustworthy nearby, but it's been acting up lately. I should have paid for a more expensive model."

"You live with the twins," Steven said. "Aren't they pretty much always doing something untrustworthy?"

Ron frowned. "That's a good point...but we still ought to get it checked out. There's a store in Hogsmeade that should be able to help."

"Put it away," Hermione whispered, looking back at the sleeping professor. "Or it'll wake him up."

Harry nodded and stuffed it deep into his bags so that his clothes muffled the sound almost completely.

"Dervish and Bangs," Steven said. "They're pretty good."

"You know about Hogsmeade?"

"Amethyst has been taking me sometimes," Steven said. "It's not off limits during the summer. Besides, I've been old enough to go since first year, I just never wanted to."

"What? Steven? Just how old are you?"

"I'll be seventeen in February."

Harry stared at his friend. He looked barely eleven and he hadn't aged in all the time he knew him.

"But...how?"

"I don't age like a regular human being," Steven said shortly.

"You're supposed to be eleven when you go to Hogwarts," Hermione said.

"The quill put my name in the book," Steven said, shrugging. "And I didn't know any magic. I hadn't even been in a real school before. What were they going to do, put me in fourth year classes when I didn't know anything?"

"You aren't going to age at all?" Hermione asked.

"The gems never age;" Steven said. "But I'm not really like them. Nobody knows how it's going to work with me."

"So when we graduate you'll still be a little kid?" Ron asked, staring.

"It used to bother me," Steven said. "But with Connie gone there's nobody to really grow up for, I guess."

"Still," Ron said. "That's going to make it hard with the...girls."

He flushed and looked at Hermione.

"I can look older if I want to," Steven said.

"Really?" Hermione asked.

Steven closed his eyes for a moment, and then his body began to glow a little. A moment later his body changed.

Harry stared at his friend; beside him he could see Hermione staring as well.

His friend looked every bit of sixteen, although his robes were ridiculously right around his arms and the hem left a ridiculous amount of his calves showing.

His jeans were tight around his calves.

"Can't get any older then this without ripping my clothes," Steven said.

"Why don't you look like this all the time, mate?" Ron asked. "You'd be brilliant as a beater."

"He's already brilliant as a seeker," Hermione said. "He'd hurt someone as a beater." She was staring at Steven with an expression Harry hadn't seen since Gilderoy Lockhart's class.

"I can only hold this for a few hours," Steven said. "Or I end up turning into a baby. Trust me, being a baby with an adult mind is not something you want to do twice."

Ron stared at him, and Steven sighed.

"Somebody still has to change you."

"Into what?" Ron asked.

Hermione whispered in his ear and Ron flushed. He said, "Right, mate."

Steven glowed and a moment later he was back to himself.

"I think I'm only as old as I feel," Steven said. He looked uncomfortable. "So hopefully someday..."

Harry nodded. He knew what it felt like to be a freak, to be considered abnormal and have people want to stare at him for something he had no control over.

"You may be old enough to go to Hogsmeade," Harry said. "But I'm not going to get to go."

"What? Why?" Ron asked.

"With an escaped criminal on the loose, there's no way the school will allow him to leave," Hermione said.

"Also, the Dursleys refused to sign my permission slip."

The four of them stared at each other grimly.

The presence of the sleeping professor was useful; it kept other people from interrupting as much as they normally would.

Even Malfoy turned away quickly when he saw the professor sleeping.

Hours passed and Harry enjoyed being with his friends again after a summer filled with nothing but his relatives, at least before his time at the Leaky Cauldron.

The train began stopping and Hermione frowned. "We can't be there yet."

She glanced at Steven, and the way she looked at him was different in a way Harry couldn't understand.

"Maybe we've broken down," Ron said.

Harry got up and opened the door to the hallway outside. People were looking out of their compartments and there was a low murmur of voices.

Neville staggered toward their compartment.

"What's going on?" he asked.

He looked uneasy.

"I'll go ask the conductor," Hermione said, but Steven put his hand on her arm and shook his head.

"I don't like this," he said.

The professor had woken up by this point, and he pulled his wand. It was suddenly lit by an unearthly glow.

"Stay here," he said.

Before anyone could protest, the door to the cabin opened, and on the other side was a cloaked figure.