(replaces chapter 5 of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets)

The end of the summer vacation came too quickly for Harry's liking. He was looking forward to getting back to Hogwarts, but this summer away for the Dursleys had been the happiest of his life. It was difficult not to feel jealous of Ron and Ben when he thought of the Dursleys and the sort of welcome he could expect next time he turned up on Privet Drive.

On their last evening, Mrs. Weasley conjured up a sumptuous dinner that included all of Harry's favorite things, ending with a mouthwatering treacle pudding. Fred and George rounded off the evening with a display of Filibuster fireworks; they filled the kitchen with red and blue stars that bounced from ceiling to wall for at least half an hour. Then it was time for a last mug of hot chocolate and bed.

It took a long while to get started next morning. They were up at dawn, but somehow they still seemed to have a great deal to do. Mrs. Weasley dashed about in a bad mood looking for spare socks and quills; people kept colliding on the stairs, half-dressed with bits of toast in their hands; and Mr. Weasley nearly broke his neck, tripping over a stray chicken as he crossed the yard carrying Ginny's trunk to the car.

Harry couldn't see how nine people, seven large trunks, two owls, and a rat were going to fit into one small Ford Anglia. He had reckoned, of course, without the special features that Mr. Weasley had added, as Ben had hinted.

"Not a word to Molly," he whispered to Harry as he opened the trunk and showed him how it had been magically expanded so that the luggage fitted easily.

When at last they were all in the car, Mrs. Weasley glanced into the back seat, where Harry, Ron, Fred, George, Percy, and Ben were all sitting comfortably side by side, and said, "Muggles do know more than we give them credit for, don't they?" She and Ginny got into the front seat, which had been stretched so that it resembled a park bench. "I mean, you'd never know it was this roomy from the outside, would you?"

Mr. Weasley started up the engine and they trundled out of the yard, Harry turning back for a last look at the house. He barely had time to wonder when he'd see it again when they were back. George had forgotten his box of Filibuster fireworks. Five minutes after that, they skidded to a halt in the yard so that Fred could run in for his broomstick. They had almost reached the highway when Ginny shrieked that she'd left her diary. By the time she had clambered back into the car, they were running very late, and tempers were running high.

Mr. Weasley glanced at his watch and then at his wife.

"Molly, dear -"

"No, Arthur -"

"No one would see - this little button here is an Invisibility Booster I installed - that'd get us up in the air - then we fly above the clouds. We'd be there in ten minutes and no one would be any the wiser -"

"I said no, Arthur, not in broad daylight -"

They reached King's Cross at a quarter to eleven. Mr. Weasley dashed across the road to get trolleys for their trunks and they all hurried into the station.

Harry had caught the Hogwarts Express the previous year. The tricky part was getting onto platform nine and three-quarters, which wasn't visible to the Muggle eye. What you had to do was walk through the solid barrier dividing platforms nine and ten. It didn't hurt, but it had to be done carefully so that none of the Muggles noticed you vanishing.

"Percy first," said Mrs. Weasley, looking nervously at the clock overhead, which showed they had only five minutes to disappear casually through the barrier.

Percy strode briskly forward and vanished. Mr. Weasley went next; Fred and George followed.

"I'll take Ginny and you three come right after us," Mrs. Weasley told Harry, Ron, and Ben, grabbing Ginny's hand and setting off. In the blink of an eye they were gone.

"Let's go together, we've only got a minute," Ron said to Harry and Ben.

Harry made sure that Hedwig's cage was safely wedged on top of his trunk and wheeled his trolley around to face the barrier. He felt perfectly confident; this wasn't nearly as uncomfortable as using Floo powder. Both Harry and Ron bent low over the handles of their trolleys and walked purposefully toward the barrier, gathering speed. A few feet away from it, they broke into a run and -

CRASH.

Both trolleys hit the barrier and bounced backward; Ron's trunk fell off with a loud thump, Harry was knocked off his feet, and Hedwig's cage bounced onto the shiny floor, and she rolled away, shrieking indignantly; people all around them stared and a guard nearby yelled, "What in blazes d'you think you're doing?"

"Lost control of the trolley," Harry gasped, clutching his ribs as he got up. Ron ran to pick up Hedwig, who was causing such a scene that there was a lot of muttering about cruelty to animals from the surrounding crowd.

Ben had slowed before he had crashed into the pair.

"Why can't we get through?" Harry hissed to Ron.

"I dunno -"

"Perhaps it's been blocked by magic?" Ben suggested as Ron looked wildly around. A dozen curious people were still watching them.

"We're going to miss the train," Ron whispered. "I don't understand why the gateway's sealed itself -"

Harry looked up at the giant clock with a sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach.

Ben snapped his fingers before quietly hissing, "Kreature!"

There was a loud crack similar to that of Dobby's. Harry looked towards the source and saw an ancient house-elf standing where he wasn't before. It spoke in a croaking voice.

"Who's called Kreature and -" Kreature broke off as he spotted Ben. "Master Benjamin?"

"Yes Kreature. Unfortunately, we don't have time to catch up. Could you transport myself and my two friends here onto the Hogwarts Express with our luggage and remove the memories of this event from the mind of the surrounding Muggles?"

"Of course, master," Kreature said, snapping his fingers.

The next thing Harry knew, everything went black; he was being pressed very hard from all directions; he could not breathe; there were iron bands tightening around his chest; his eardrums were being pushed deeper into his skull and then -

He gulped a lungful of air and opened his streaming eyes. He was in a cabin aboard the Hogwarts Express with Ron, Ben, and a girl with straggly, long, dirty-blonde hair, very pale eyebrows, and protuberant eyes that gave her a permanently surprised look. The look was exacerbated by the fact that she was probably surprised by three boys appearing in her cabin. Harry noted that she was probably a first year, judging by how small she was.

"Sorry about this," Harry said as Ben went to the window and yelled out a goodbye to the Weasleys, briefly explaining what happened.

Kreature appeared in the cabin. "Was there anything else Kreature could do, master?"

"No, thank you, Kreature, you can return to what you were doing," Ben replied.

"As master commands," Kreature replied, muttering under his breath too low for Harry to hear before disappearing with a crack. There was a moment of stunned silence. Ben was the first to recover enough to speak.

"That was … eventful."

"Yeah," Harry breathed out.

Ben looked at the girl. "You two go find Hermione and explain what happened. I'll stay here and explain it to miss … ?"

"Lovegood," the girl said in a dreamy voice. "Luna Lovegood."

Harry nodded, picking up his truck and Hedwig's cage, nudging Ron out of his stupor. The pair left as Ben launched into an explanation for the girl. As they walked through the train, they ran into Hermione.

"There you are," she said, giving the pair a disapproving look. "Where have you been? I thought -"

"We just got on the train," Ron interrupted. "The barrier was closed, we couldn't get onto the platform before Ben thought of a solution."

"Really?" Hermione asked, sounding skeptical. "What did he do?"

"He called a house-elf named Kreature," Harry said.

"Oh."

The three friends went back to the cabin that Hermione had chosen for them. They spent the rest of the ride to Hogwarts talking about various topics, school, Quidditch, and this summer's vacation being the most prominent.

The sorting and feast were unremarkable, as was after, with the exception of the Weasleys pulling Harry and Ron aside to clarify what happened on the platform. Needless to say, Fred and George found the whole thing amusing while Percy didn't fully approve.

AN: Hello, and good evening! I hope you've had a good few weeks. I made sure that this section was better edited than the previous one, which I'm switching out for a more polished version. I'm feeling much better about writing, so my productivity will shoot up. I will, however, keep to my current schedule unless I finish this story and one of the sequels sooner than anticipated.

Uploaded Mar. 6th, 2020