Chapter 18 – The Incident on the Hogwarts Express

James' last few days of the holidays were even better than the first as his dad actually made the effort to spend some time with him. Harry still had to go to work but he made sure he was back home early each day to spend some quality time with James and they even managed to get to the Burrow to do some broom flying together.

Soon James was back at Kings Cross with his mother and father waving him off as the Hogwarts Express departed platform Nine and Three Quarters once more.

"Hey James, have a good Christmas?" his friend Noah asked after bumping into him in the corridor of the train.

As the pair of them moved up the train to find a carriage to sit in they discussed their holidays until they found an empty compartment.

"So have you had any more dreams?" Noah asked, now they were alone and in private.

"Actually no so hopefully that's the end of that," James replied as he put Atticus and his cage on the seat beside him and made himself comfy for the long journey ahead.

"But what about the whole 'Heir' thing? I have been thinking about it and I have an idea," Noah said.

The last thing James wanted to do was discuss his dreams anymore or the possibility of Voldemort returning. But Noah had been helping him out a lot with it so he felt a duty to listen.

"Look Voldemort is dead. He's not coming back," James responded, trying not to sound rude or dismissive.

"I know but what if it's not referring to him, what if it's a different heir," Noah said with a knowing expression on his face.

"How do you mean?" James asked, feeling confused.

"What if Voldemort was never the true Heir of Slytherin? Or what if there's another heir, like once Voldemort died then someone else became the next in line to be the heir?"

James thought it through. It was obviously a much better prospect than the thought of Voldemort having somehow returned. But then who was the new heir? A worrying thought crossed James' mind. All these visions had been happening to him. What if it was him?

Before James and Noah could discuss the idea anymore the door to the compartment slid open.

"Mind if we join you?"

James looked up to see Polly giving him a rather sneering look like someone who had just stepped in something unpleasant. He wanted to tell her no and to go away when he saw that she was with Seth and Neville so couldn't really refuse them all.

"Sure," James said begrudgingly and moved Atticus up to the luggage rack to make room. Polly took a seat next to Noah with Seth sitting beside her and Neville sat down beside James.

Once again the conversation turned back to how everyone had spent their Christmas holidays.

"I thought you were spending Christmas at Hogwarts?" James asked to Neville, knowing that Professor McGonagall thought it best he remained there for the holidays as he had no family he could stay with as his parents were still in St Mungo's and he couldn't exactly go back to his own house on his own what with having the memory of an eleven year old.

"I was but my friend Luna invited me for New Years," Neville replied and James remembered meeting Luna Lovegood before as she was a friend of his parents and though he found her a bit odd he thought she was probably the perfect company for a grown man who thought he was eleven years old.

As they continued to discuss their Christmases and what presents they had got, Seth became a bit jealous at all the magical presents they had received. His Muggle parents certainly hadn't brought him a broomstick or a Wizard chess set or a Chocolate Frog or a box of Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans but they were all more than happy to share some of their treats with him, which made him feel a lot better.

As the train journey went on, the door to their compartment was slid open again.

"Oh my mistake," Greta smirked as she looked in with her friends Edward and Nancy stood behind her. "Didn't realise this was the loser carriage."

"Get lost Greta," James snapped back, unimpressed by her very lame jibe.

"You going to make me Potter?" Greta fumed and immediately pulled out her wand.

"What are you going to do?" Polly asked in a high and mighty tone. "Curse him? Even your father won't be able to protect you when Professor McGonagall hears that you cursed another student."

"Who asked you brown nose?" Greta said with detest.

"Leave her alone," James said as he now stood up and faced Greta.

"What a pathetic bunch you are. The disappointing son of Harry Potter, a teacher's pet, a half-blood, a teacher, and a Mudblood. I could almost feel sorry for you all. Come on lets go. The stench of failure is getting too much for me."

Greta slammed the door shut and James could see her and her friends laughing as they walked off down the corridor.

"Why did she say a teacher?" a confused Neville asked.

"It doesn't matter," Polly replied. "And I don't need you to stand up for me James," she said defensively.

"Sorry I won't bother again," James replied and after an awkward silence Noah quickly changed the topic and they began talking about Hogwarts and the school year ahead.

"I think I need the loo," Neville said as the conversations continued and after finishing his third can of chocolate soda.

"I'll come with you," Seth said before the pair of them left.

Once they had gone Polly gave Noah a rather forceful nudge and started giving him some strange looks and glances over to James.

"Yes alright," Noah finally said, giving in to Polly's unsubtle hints and then turned to James. "I think she wants me to remind you about asking Slughorn about the thing we discussed."

James knew exactly what Noah was talking about and kind of hoped it had been forgotten about.

"I mean I deserve to be in the Slug Club anyway," Polly said in a rather snobbish manner. "I'm a much better student than you are. You were only invited because of who your father is."

James really didn't like her attitude and thought she was being rude and wanted to teach her a lesson.

"You know I don't have to ask him if you're going to speak to me like that," James said with glee. "So why don't you ask me nicely and remember to say 'please' and 'thank you' this time."

Polly was gobsmacked and her face clearly showed it, much to James' delight.

"What? Noah we had an agreement!" Polly said furiously.

"I think the agreement with Noah was for him to ask me to ask Slughorn about you joining, which he has done. Now if you want me to ask Slughorn for you you're going to have to ask me nicely," James said with a smirk and enjoyed watching Polly squirm.

"But… that wasn't the agreement," Polly moaned.

"Come on Polly just ask him," Noah intervened, not wanting to take sides but knowing what James was asking for wasn't exactly unreasonable.

Polly crossed her arms in a huff and after a long pause she resentfully asked, "please can you ask Professor Slughorn if I can join the Slug Club?"

"See that wasn't so hard was it now?" James said smugly but Polly remained silent and turned away from James in a sulk.

The atmosphere in the compartment was rather frosty when Neville and Seth returned and even the arrival of the lady with the food trolley soon after didn't do much to lift it, though they did all replenish their sweet supplies.

"Hey look James I got your dad," Seth said joyfully, holding up the wizard card from his Chocolate Frog.

"They'll put anyone on those cards these days," Polly vented under her breath but James clearly heard her.

"What did you say?" James said furiously and Polly was about to respond when they were all suddenly thrown to the front of the compartment as the wheels of the train screeched violently and the Hogwarts Express came to an almighty stop.

James found himself on the floor of the compartment with Noah on top of him and someone else's leg in his face and there was frenzied shrieking as both Atticus' and Polly's owl's cages had fallen from the rack above.

"Is everyone alright?" Noah said as he got off James and stood before offering a hand to help him to his feet.

"Yeah but why have we stopped?" James asked, rubbing his head, which hurt, before up righting Atticus' cage.

"It must have been an emergency for us to stop like that," Polly said as she too got back on to her feet and they could all hear worried voices shouting from further along the train.

James helped Seth and Neville up, the latter having somehow managed to get his head wedged between the chairs as Noah looked out the window and all he could see were trees.

"Doesn't look like we're at a station," Noah noted.

"Maybe we should go see what's happening," Polly said as she reached for the handle of the door to the compartment.

"No wait!" James shouted as suddenly he felt the temperature in the compartment drop and then they all heard a scream from further along the train, which was proceeded by a chorus of more people screaming.

At once a thick black smoke began to fill the corridor of the train and Polly immediately stepped back from the door.

"The train is on fire!" Seth yelled frantically and James had to hold him back from racing to the door to try and escape.

There was something about the smoke that didn't seem right. It was too thick and jet black to be from a fire. Plus there was something unnatural about the way it moved.

"What is it?" Neville asked, visibly shaking as he cowered towards the back of the compartment.

James looked at the black smoke that had engulfed all of the corridor through the glass window of the door, unsure of what exactly it was but then he heard it. The strange voice.

"Can anyone hear that?" he asked alarmedly.

"Hear what?" Noah said back as the only thing he could hear were screams and panicked cries from elsewhere on the train.

"That voice," James said as he felt compelled to take a step closer to the door.

"What voice?" Polly asked in confusion, not sure what James was talking about.

James listened intently to it, he knew it was speaking to him but like always he didn't know the language or what it was saying. But suddenly James began to understand some of the words.

'James Potter,' the strange voice hissed before resorting back to words he didn't recognise.

'Heir,' the voice said and James was able to pick this word out from the rest of the indecipherable things it was saying.

'Mudblood,' was the next word James was able to understand amongst the strange language.

'End,' the voice finally said before two menacing green eyes appeared in the thick smoke and James jumped back in fright before the eyes disappeared again and the smoke began to clear from the corridor.

"Did you see those eyes?" James said, his heart racing.

"What eyes?" Polly asked, still just as confused as she was before and was beginning to wonder if James was just trying to wind them up.

"We didn't see or hear anything James," Noah said as he put a hand on his friends shoulder to reassure him. Even though he couldn't say anything in front of the others, Noah felt he knew what had just happened to James from his past experiences.

"Alright everyone no need to panic it's all under control," the train conductor shouted as he walked down the corridor, wafting his hand in front of his face to clear the last of the smoke. "The train will be moving on again shortly. And anyone else who thinks it's funny to be unleashing pranks in the corridor will be going straight to the headmistress as soon as we get to Hogsmeade."

"What happened?" the trolley lady frantically asked as she came racing down the corridor to the conductor, who was now just outside James and his friends' compartment.

"There was a tree down on the track. I've levitated it away now but then some numpty thought it would be funny to drop a load of Peruvian Darkness Powder in the corridor," he said, reassuring the obviously startled lady. "There's nothing to worry about."

The atmosphere in the compartment had somewhat calmed down though Neville still looked a bit nervous and James was being rather quiet as he turned away from the others and looked out the window.

"We need some help down here!" a girl's voice shouted in the corridor as she ran towards the conductor and the trolley lady. "It's my friend, she's collapsed."

"Gerald you get the train moving. I will see to the young woman," the trolley lady said as she preceded to follow the girl back down the train and the conductor headed off in the other direction.

James immediately turned and stepped out into the corridor.

"Where are you going?" Noah asked but James didn't reply and headed off in pursuit of the trolley lady.

"I think we should stay here," Polly said to Noah, who looked like he was about to follow James. "I'm sure they don't need everyone gawping at that girl. She probably just fainted with all the commotion."

James had to squeeze past numerous people as students began to filter into the corridor to see what was going on as the train started to move again. James reached the compartment where the trolley lady was bent over a girl who had now been laid out across the chair of the compartment so he couldn't see much.

One of the other girls in the compartment saw James and some other students peering in and she pulled the blinds down rather abruptly to give them some privacy.

James turned and looked down the corridor and thought he caught a glimpse of a small boy with black hair darting out of sight at the very end of the carriage. Quickly James began to run down the corridor and gave chase but when he entered the next carriage it was not one of the ones with different compartments but was laid out with rows of chairs and it was full with chattering students a buzz with all the commotion of the trains recent emergency stop. James looked around and he could see at least half a dozen shortish students with black hair but he couldn't be sure if any of them were the one he had just seen or even if it was the same person he had seen around Hogwarts by the graffiti.

James reluctantly headed back to his friends in their compartment with the unwelcome thought that maybe the new year wasn't going to be as quiet as he had hoped.