Chapter 7

"August 31st already?" Tom remarked, "They say time flies, I suppose. Still, that means you're off to Hogwarts tomorrow, right?"

Harry looked up from his Butterbeer. "Yeah, it does."

"Well, you know you're welcome here in the holidays if you want to come," Tom remarked.

"Really? Thanks, Tom. That means a lot."

"It's no problem, lad. Still, we don't want any more Titus Thorne incidents. This," Tom handed him a small book the size of a deck of cards, "Is from my time in the war. It just got declassified, so you can read about it now. Some of the spells in there I reckon will be useful to you."

The book looked to be a pocket journal. Harry pocketed it gratefully.

"Spells are usually passed through the family, but I don't have any myself and they're suited exactly for your problem of being extremely ransomable. Use them well, and don't share them lightly."

"I look forward to learning them."

The book was fascinating. It detailed Tom's occupation of a small inn in Nazi-occupied France, gathering intelligence from the drunken soldiers and sending it through the menu, of all things!

Once the information had been passed along, it would be disguised as an Enigma-Coded message, but be easily crackable by codebreakers at Bletchley Park. He also hosted secret meetings of French resistance members in the cellar of the inn.

Three spells jumped out at Harry in particular, the three that Tom used for eavesdropping:

Sentinel Echo, an adaptation of a spell used for stage magic tricks, was taught to Tom by an illusionist who joined the resistance. The spell created a Doppelganger of the user, which talked like, acted as, and looked like them. The downside was that it took a good chunk of your magic, which was not returned until the dissipation of the Doppelganger.

Shadowstepping, a predecessor to the Notice-Me-Not Charm, shrouded the user in shadows but was not quite as effective in brightly lit environments.

Finally, an ancient alternative to Apparition, Riftwalking pulled the destination to the user like a doorway, making it suitable over short distances, but too magically taxing over long ones.

Tom used these spells in combination, leaving a Doppelganger at the bar, Cloaking himself in shadows in the dimly lit pub, and rather than getting close to the people he eavesdropped on, he pulled the space closer to him so he could hear without actually going through.

The main hallmark of these spells was the invisibility and magic efficiency necessary in a war, where the use of magic around muggles could spell not expulsion from Hogwarts, but death.

King's Cross Station bustled with life and impatience, crowds of people boarding and leaving. It was no different on the other side of the magical barrier, with wizards and witches sending their children off to Hogwarts. On the scarlet Hogwarts Express, Harry Potter sat in an empty compartment, ostensibly reading the day's newspaper, but actually reading Tom's Diary.

A knock sounded, and Harry put down the book inside the newspaper, standing and opening the door. Neville stood in the corridor.

"Harry!"

"Neville! Come in!"

Neville came in, followed by a girl with bushy hair, whose presence Neville quickly explained. "This is Hermione Granger. Hermione, this is Harry Potter."

"Harry Potter? You're in 'Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts'!" Hermione blurted before Harry could greet her.

"How exactly did you remember that? Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts is some thousand-odd pages long!" Harry said.

"Oh, I just have a good memory," Hermione said.

"I think we're going to get along very well," Harry said. "Harry Potter, nice to meet you." Harry stuck out his hand for shaking. Hermione shook it, beaming.

"Check."

Harry and Neville were playing Wizard's Chess with Neville's set, in which all of the figures were some kind of magical plant: Harry recognized Devil's Snare and Venomous Tentacula, but the rest were a mystery to him. Harry had just taken Neville's vulnerable f7 pawn with the bishop, supported by the knight, forcing Neville's king to e7.

"King to e7."

"Pawn to D3."

"Pawn to h6."

"Pawn to h4." Harry enunciated, seemingly giving up his knight.

"Pawn takes knight," Neville said, grinning.

"Bishop takes pawn."

"King takes Bishop on f7. Really, Harry? Two free bishops?"

"Pawn to C3. Why not make it a bit harder for myself?"

"Knight to C6. I don't think you can win this, Harry."

"Queen to B2, Check. I wouldn't be so sure."

"King to e8."

"Queen to D5."

"Knight B2."

Neville was sure he was winning after this.

"Queen takes e5, check."

"King to f7. There's no checkmate."

"Queen to f4. Look a bit further."

"King to e7."

"Pawn to h5."

"Pawn to g6."

Neville looked down at the board, feeling his advantage slip away.

"Queen takes f6."

"King to e8"

"Queen takes g6, checkmate."

"Bloody hell! How did you win that one?" said Neville.

"It was elementary, my dear Watson."

Hermione looked up from her book.

"You've read Sherlock Holmes?"

"Of course I have!" said Harry.

"But didn't you grow up in a magical castle? How did you get the books there?" said Hermione.

"A magical castle? Where on earth did you hear that?" Harry asked.

Hermione pulled a book out of her bag. It read: Harry Potter and the Castle of Mystery across the face.

"This is a book about you. There were about 20 of them at Flourish and Blotts."

"Let me see that," Harry demanded. He flipped through it, laughing at various parts. "Loving foster family? Ha! This is complete rubbish. I grew up with my Aunt and Uncle, and my room was the cupboard under the stairs."

"What! They can't do that!" Hermione said.

"They did anyway. I might have to sue whoever wrote this for using my image." Harry handed the book back.

Just then, the door to the compartment opened, revealing a short blonde boy with sharp features, flanked by two tall, gorilla-looking boys.

"They're saying Harry Potter is in this compartment. Is it true?" The blonde asked. Without waiting for a response, he turned to Harry and said, "The name's Malfoy. Draco Malfoy. You'll soon learn that some folks are better than others. You shouldn't hang around with riff-raff like these."

"Draco Malfoy. Of the French Malfoys?" Harry drawled. "This is Neville Silverstone, descendent of famous alchemist Argentius Silverstone. And this is Hermione Schwartz, of the German line of Blacks. As you can see, they are very much not riff-raff."

Draco paled. "Forgive my presumption. I- I will take my leave now."

Lucius Malfoy sipped his tea, looking at the morning post.

"Taxes, hmmm, a letter from Fudge, and a letter from Draco."

He opened the letter from Draco first.

"He made it to Hogwarts... good. He made a presumption about a Silverstone and a Schwartz. Very good...wait."

Lucius did a double take and fell out of his chair. He was going to have to smooth things over or be politically destroyed.

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"Why did you tell him we were Silverstones and Schwartzes?" Neville asked Harry.

"Oh, just for fun. And so that Daddy Malfoy will think he's in trouble with them," said Harry.

"Good one," said Neville. "I think we're approaching Hogwarts now, we'd better change."

They were lined up, ready to be sorted. Professor McGonnagal was reading out names from a scroll.

"Abbot, Hannah!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Bones, Susan!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!

"What house do you want, Harry?" Neville whispered.

"I don't know," Harry whispered back.

"Granger, Hermione!"

The hat took several minutes on Hermione's head.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Hermione stepped down from the stool, looking relieved.

"Do you think we should all try for Gryffindor?" Neville asked.

"Wouldn't hurt," said Harry.

"Longbottom, Neville!"

Neville sat on the stool.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

With a grin, Neville went to sit next to Hermione.

Harry was left waiting by himself, until finally:

"Potter, Harry!"

The hall went silent. Harry sat on the stool and put on the hat.

"Well, Mr. Potter, where shall we put you?"

"I thought that was your job."

"Hohoho, true. Yes, I see it all. Better be-

A/N: I apologize for the cliffhanger haha. The full PGN of the chess game is this if anyone wants it.

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ng5 Na5 5. Bxf7+ Ke7 6. d3 h6 7. h4 hxg5 8. Bxg5 Kxf7 9. c3 Nc6 10. Qb3+ Ke7 11. Qd5 Nb8 12. Qxe5+ Kf7 13. Qf4 Ke7 14. g3 g6 15. Qxf6+ Ke8 16. Qxg6#