Chapter Fourteen
Pansy, Daphne and Neville stood closely, side by side on Platform Nine and Three Quarters, having never felt so afraid.
The feeling on the platform had changed more dramatically that they could have guessed was possible in the two short months since they'd left school for the summer holidays. Daphne gripped Astoria's hand tightly, fearing she'd get separated from her sister in the crowd.
Alice and Frank clutched at their three sons; they'd left Hallie and Hannah at home with their Grandmother, it wasn't fair to expose them to what was going on right now.
Bellatrix and her husband stood proudly and openly in the middle of the platform, revelling in the greetings they were getting from parents and students that wouldn't have bothered to look twice at them except to sneer two months ago.
"You see darlings," Bellatrix purred, "No matter how difficult times can be, those who are pure, and follow the ways of those who are born superior, will always come out on top."
Gemini looked around hungrily at the crowds around her. People were showing her respect, people who had mocked her last year for being a no one, a stupid child that was trapped in her relatives' house while her parents were either in prison or on the run. There was no mocking now, if they even dared to look at her it was with awe and respect, or even better… fear.
"We should find a compartment on the train." Corvus said quietly, feeling far less comfortable with his family's new status than the rest of them were.
He fought the urge to look over to Thomas, being held tightly by his mother in a way that Corvus had never known. The last thing Thomas or his family needed right now was Corvus dragging them into the limelight but all Corvus wanted to do was go and stand with Thomas.
"That one will do nicely." Rodolphus said to his children, looking over the carriages.
"That one is full." Corvus pointed out, gesturing to the dozens of empty compartments.
"So you make it un-full." Bellatrix smirked.
Gemini grinned and walked confidently through the crowds, pushing anyone who dared to get in her way to the ground.
"You need to leave." Gemini smirked.
The six children in the compartment looked briefly between Gemini and her parents before nodding and grabbing their trunks, clumsily leaving the carriage and mumbling their apologies.
"Sorted." Gemini beamed proudly. Her father grimaced at her, wishing it had been Rodolphus who'd cleared their seats.
Gemini ignored her father however and happily jumped into the compartment and looked pointedly at Corvus, who grabbed her trunk for her and started to heave it into place.
Thomas saw and couldn't stop himself; he broke away from his mother and grabbed the other end of the trunk.
"Here, let me give you a hand." Thomas smiled. He struggled not to smile when he was around Corvus and it had been a long summer.
"I don't need your help." Corvus snapped, far harsher than he'd meant to.
Thomas looked shocked and confused at him for a moment, "I was just trying to help, this thing weighs a ton."
"I said I don't need your help." Corvus repeated, "Please."
Thomas shrugged, letting the trunk drop, "Whatever."
Corvus sighed and watched his friend walk away, hoping the crushing feeling in his chest would go soon as otherwise he was about to burst into tears.
Pansy said goodbye to her parents, both of whom looked very strained. America wasn't blind to what was going on in the UK, but they didn't want to get involved. Being caught in the middle was more stress than they'd had to deal with over the last few years.
"You make sure that you keep your nose clean." Seraphine told her daughter, "We know that you have things to do just… please be careful and stay out of it as much as you can."
Pansy nodded and gave them yet another hug, "I will, Mummy." she lied, hoping they would be able to forgive her when it was all over, assuming she was still there to forgive.
The train blew its whistle, telling them that they had five minutes to get on board. Neville helped his brothers into the train, before lifting in Astoria's trunk for her as well and sitting in his seat.
"It feel so weird." Daphne whispered, "Without… without them being here."
Neville nodded, "Tell me about it."
The train lurched into action, all of the children waving madly from the windows as their parents shrunk into the distance.
It wasn't long before the door to their compartment slammed open, Gemini looking down at the six seated figures.
"It's it sweet, family all sitting together." Gemini laughed.
"Can we help you?" Daphne said sweetly.
"Yes." Gemini said, emphasising the hiss at the end of the word, "Well, you can't. I'm here to collect your Prefect badges. I have a written instruction from the headmaster. They are to be given to… more suitable students."
Neville and Pansy didn't argue, pulling the badges from their robes and handing them over without a word.
"Well, wasn't that easy?" Gemini smiled, "I suggest you hold on to that helpful attitude, you're going to need it."
She slammed the door behind her striding off down the corridor.
"Well, that was a rather pathetic blow." Pansy sniffed, "Of all the things they could pick at."
"I know what you mean." Neville said shaking his head, "It's going to be a long year I think."
"Harry will get back to us sooner rather than later." Daphne said, as hopefully as she could, "I'm sure of it. We just have to play our part."
It seemed like no time at all before they were pulling into the station at Hogsmead, the journey was not that different than normal. Less people were walking up and down, and the trolley full of snacks didn't come round, or at least didn't make it to them, meaning they were all very hungry when they prepared to get off the train.
"I don't want to do this." Astoria whispered, the blood draining from her face at the thought of having to go to school again, the castle looked almost scary under the current circumstances.
"We have to do this." Daphne told her sister, wishing more than anything that they could all just stay sitting on the train and go home, "Are you ready?" she asked Pansy.
Pansy gripped the handle of her trunk tightly and nodded, checking for the hundredth time that her small bag was tucked in her robes pocket.
"As ready as I'm ever going to be." Pansy smiled, trying to put a brave face on things as worry started to build painfully in her stomach.
Neville made sure that his brothers had all of their things while Daphne fussily did up Astoria's cloak.
"I'm fine." Astoria said, not pushing her hands away like normal, allowing her sister to fuss over her, "Honestly."
The castle had never looked foreboding to them before, but there it was, looming over them with dark clouds playing at the tops of the towers, threatening to rain down on them.
The Thestral-pulled carriages arrived in neat rows as normal, as a somewhat subdued Hagrid stood waiting for that years unfortunate first years.
"Should we go check on Hagrid?" Matthew asked, "He looks kinda down."
"We don't have time." Neville said quickly, forcing himself not to look at Pansy. They hadn't told their younger siblings the plan, it was strictly need to know and they didn't need to know, "And he's busy. Come on."
They walked quickly to the carriages and loaded everyone's things into it.
"Someone's trunk isn't going to fit, not with all of us." Daphne said, loudly enough to be heard but not drawing too much attention to herself.
"I'll wait." Pansy offered, "You both should stay with your siblings."
Neville jumped out the carriage and wrapped her in a tight hug, "Take care of yourself." he whispered, so that she was the only one to hear.
"You too." She whispered back.
Pansy watched as the carriage containing her friends roll away, reminding herself it really wouldn't be long before she saw them again. She flicked her wand behind her, causing one of the student's trunks to pop open in the group behind her.
"Do you need a hand?" Pansy asked, looking at the swearing girl who was busy shoving clothes and books back into her trunk along with her friends.
"Don't worry about it." the girl said with a smile, waving her hand dismissively.
Pansy didn't waste any time, hopping into the next carriage and sending it rolling towards the castle, empty apart from her. She leaned back for a moment, resting against the cool wooden frame to summon the strength for phase two of their plan.
It wasn't a long carriage ride, ten minutes at most meaning that for all Pansy wanted to take her time and take several deep breaths, it wasn't an option. She knelt down on the rickety, moving floor and opened her trunk.
She pulled out Harry's invisibility cloak and made sure, once again, that her small bag was still tucked in her robes pocket. She shrunk her trunk, stuffing it into the small bag and risked a quick look out of the window.
They weren't stopping people at the boundary this year; they must not care what Dark magic students smuggled in, Pansy couldn't claim she was surprised really.
Pansy waited until the last moment, giving her the greatest chance of being seen briefly in the carriage, before pulling up outside the large stone steps that led to the castle to throw the invisibility cloak over her head.
The carriage pulled to a stop and Pansy quickly slipped from the carriage, heading not towards the castle with the other crowds of students, but alone, towards the darkness that was the Forbidden Forest.
No one seemed to have noticed that a carriage was empty as teams of house elves took trunks from the students and made sure everyone was getting into the castle safely. When they saw the empty carriage, it was assumed that one of the others had simply gotten there first.
Pansy was not looking forward to heading into the forest alone. She could see the Thestrals but it wasn't exactly a huge help, apart from anything else, she had to find them first and many of them were busy pulling the carriages.
She made sure she was deep enough in the forest, so there was no chance of anyone seeing her, before she pulled off the invisibility cloak, stowing it safely away and pulling out a large chunk of pork.
Pansy was painfully aware that there were a lot more things that would want this meat in the forest with her, things that, unlike the Thestrals, would quite happily eat her as well.
She was more happy than she could express when a narrow, skeletal face showed itself through the trees, slightly older than the others she'd seen.
"Hi… hi… you're OK…" she said softly, giving the strange creature a stroke, "Now… you know, I'm still not one hundred percent sure how Harry managed to tell you where to go but… we'll give it a go. You're a little bit older than the ones we used before as well, I hope that's not going to have an effect."
With some difficulty, Pansy hauled herself onto the Thestrals back and tucked her knees under its' wings as it finished off the meat she'd brought with her.
"There's a camp, other side of the forest… you need to fly low. Inside the tree line." Pansy told it.
The Thestral shook slightly, unfurling it's huge wings and kicking off from the ground. Pansy clung on, trying not to look at the trees they barely managed to swerve around. The Thestral listened though, never moving above the tree line and softly touching down within sight of a tiny camp site.
It was tucked neatly in the trees, barely visible and easily overlooked if you didn't know it was there. The camp consisted of three small, triangle tents and a brightly flickering fire.
Pansy jumped from the Thestral's back and gave it another pat before walking quickly towards the camp. The Thestral watched her with mild interest before taking off again and heading back into the depths of the forest.
"William, Cho!" Pansy called, "It's me."
"Come on in." William smiled, "Welcome home for the next… long, long time."
"It could be worse." Cho laughed, "I think we managed to get all the tents set up alright. They're not very big though."
"Harry did warn me that muggle tents are really small." Pansy shrugged, "I hate to be rude but I'm starving."
"Well we did sort of manage to cook." William said, leading her over to the fire and the three large logs positioned around it.
Pansy didn't say anything as the soggy looking pasta in a lumpy, slightly watery, red sauce was spooned into her tin bowl. It was warm, but that was the best thing that could be said about it.
Pansy ate it though, she was hungry and it was getting far colder than she'd been anticipating.
"We have enough food for the next few days." Cho said, after forcing down a couple of mouthfuls of the meal and putting it to the side, "But we will have to go shopping sooner rather than later."
Pansy nodded, pleased of the distraction, "I have money, plenty. Have you two managed to work out where the nearest shops are?"
"We looked on a tourist map, there is a couple of big supermarkets only twenty miles away." William explained, "But, we wont be able to apparate from here, not really. I don't think they'd find us from just a few apparitions but better safe than sorry."
"We both brought our brooms with us." Cho said, "So we can use them to travel a couple of miles away before we apparate."
Pansy nodded, "Sounds like a plan."
The first few drops of rain fell on them. The fire sizzling each time a drop landed on it.
"Let's leave the dishes for tonight." Pansy suggested, with a shiver, "We can finish getting set up in the morning but I think we're going to get soaked if we're out here for much longer."
William and Cho nodded, piling the dirty dishes in a neat heap by the slowly dying fire.
"Would you two mind if I kipped in with you tonight?" Cho asked, "I don't fancy being alone on our first night."
Pansy smiled. She hadn't pictured her first night alone with William to be in a small, musty smelling tent, company would hopefully make it slightly less awkward. She loved William and had no doubts that at some point, she'd be taking 'the next step' with him, but this experience was messing with her mind. It was going to be that much more complicated.
The three of them climbed into the tent, William turning to face away from the girls as they changed into the thickest sets of pyjamas they'd brought with them, the temperature dropping suddenly as the skies opened, sending bucketfuls of rain crashing down around them.
William wrapped his arms tightly around Pansy as she shivered.
"Not to sound ungrateful." Pansy said, through chattering teeth, "But I'm not sure that water in meant to be on the inside of the tent."
It was raining so heavily outside that the rain was running across the ground sheet, creeping up the blankets that hung over the sides of their slowly sinking air mattresses and adding to the cold.
"Nope." Cho said, giving half a laugh, "I don't think so either. Tomorrow we go shopping, we need to get better stuff. We're not going to last long like this."
Pansy nodded, trying to squeeze herself even closer to William. She just hoped they wouldn't get too cold before they could go shopping.