Scribe!

Gwendolena! I was just wondering how you were—

Cease thy idle prattle! I hath completed my reading of TV Tropes and have much to discuss.

TV Tropes is a giant wiki. How on Earth did you "complete" it?

By reading the whole thing, of course. I hath been reading it since right after you created that bookmark for me.

You mean you've done nothing but read the entirety of TV Tropes for weeks? I've only read about a quarter of the trope pages and that was over a period of five years while I was commuting on the bus.

Thou hast more to distract thee. I hath nothing but time and I spent it wisely on this endeavour.

Um…OK…are you alright? You look a little wild eyed.

Never have I been better. I am one with the story, and the story is one with me.

Oh, dear. I never thought I'd say this, but let's sit you down for some nice pictures of shirtless firefighters rescuing animals.

Hath they a plot? Is that animal about to be kicked by a malefactor or break a vase in a cute way?

No, it's just simple hotness. That's all.

Oh. That…would be most pleasant. I thank thee.

No problem.

Amelia Bones cocked an eyebrow at her subordinate. "I've engaged the privacy protocols, Auror Vance. What is it you wanted to discuss?"

"You need the truth, Director." Emmeline placed a mirror on the desk in front of her. "Contact Padfoot."

Sirius Black's face appeared in the mirror. "Hello, Director Bones," he said.

"I don't normally make a habit of having business meetings with people who aren't actually in my department, Lord Black," Bones said. "This had better be good."

"It's about the Carrows," Vance said. "Sirius explained what they were after."

"I read your report," Bones replied. "It was a prophecy about He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named."

"That's only partially true. Sirius explained the rest of it to me."

Sirius nodded. "The prophecy was about Old Mouldy and Harry Potter, and it was not fulfilled as of three days ago when we saw it."

Both of Amelia's eyebrows shot up this time. "I may steal that nickname," she said, "but let's focus on the more important part: there's an active prophecy about the two of them?"

"Yes," Sirius said. "Old Mouldy only knows the first half of it and he'll do anything to get the rest of it. Albus is the only person who knows the whole thing, and he can't tell anyone due to a Vow."

"That's immensely important," Bones said. "Thank you for bringing this to my attention. Can you give me any hints about what's in there?"

Sirius's face grew grim. "I need your word not to tell anyone what I'm about to tell you."

"Very well, but I don't like these games, Black."

"I don't, either, but this information could get people killed," Sirius said. "I can't tell you anything at all because Harry took the prophecy orb and destroyed it without listening to it. The orb that's in there is a fake."

"Oh." Bones blinked. "I was not expecting that answer. So we'll never know now?"

Emmeline nodded. "That's correct. I was with them and saw it happen."

"The key," Sirius said, "is that Old Mouldy will never know, either, and he doesn't know that. I recommend booby-trapping it in some way."

"I will," she said. "So Mr. Potter really didn't listen to it?"

"He really didn't," Sirius replied.

"Huh." Bones stared off into space for a moment. "I don't know if that was a terrible idea or a brilliant one."

"Me, neither," Sirius said. "It's done, though. Do you have any more information on who sent the Carrows?"

"None, not that I'd technically be allowed to tell you even if I did," Bones said. "Auror Vance had best not, either."

"Listen to me, please," Sirius said. "Another war is probably coming. We couldn't trust the entire Auror Corps last time and you know you can't trust them all now. Trust us and we all have a better chance of surviving this."

"Aurors had a better chance of surviving the war than the members of Dumbledore's fucking club!" Bones snapped, then looked away. "I'm sorry, you brought up a bad memory that I wasn't prepared to face just now. You didn't deserve that and you know what those losses felt like as well as I do."

"I do," Sirius said gently. "For what it's worth, Dumbledore's not in charge of this one. We are."

"You…are?" Bones asked. "But…how?"

"Old Mouldy is just a man," Sirius said. "He's a powerful one, but he's still just a man. Frank, Lily, James, Alice, and I surprised him on a raid once, killed Evan Rosier, Senior, injured Bellatrix, and drove him off. I mean, we needed a muggle hand grenade to do it and I'm not sure that trick would work again, but the fact remains that it worked the first time." He sighed. Dumbledore made a lot of mistakes, Director. He may have won the war with Grindelwald, but he didn't win the war against Old Mouldy and he certainly lost the peace. We won't."

"I remember hearing about that incident," Vance said. "It gave the rest of us hope, though Dumbledore read you the Riot Act about Rosier's death. The grenade was Lily's idea, wasn't it?"

"Yes, it was." Sirius smiled wistfully.

"I see what you mean," Bones said. "He's daunting, but he could never conquer us alone." She rubbed her temples. "Damn it, Black, I don't want to get sucked into the kind of cloak-and-dagger work that killed my brother."

"I know," Sirius said. "It's just…you're a target, too. Old Mouldy can't buy you or convert you, so he's going to have to kill you. There's no way any of us are going to survive this if we let him pick us off individually."

"What do you propose, then?" she asked.

"Work with us to find his horcruxes," Sirius said. "Get some of the old Order on it full-time as an assignment with the Department of Mysteries. We have to make him mortal before we can kill him."

"I like the idea of muggle weaponry, too," Bones said. "It won't slow down a prepared wizard, but they're not likely to see it coming. Do you have any suggestions?"

Sirius furrowed his brows. "I…think I do, actually. I'll contact someone."

"Good. Do you have any more of these communication mirrors in the Black Vaults? We could use as many as you can spare."

"Well, no," Sirius said. "I don't think any are in there. Peter's was destroyed in our fight in the street, James's doesn't seem to have survived the explosion at Godric's Hollow, you've got Remus's there, and this one's mine."

"You made these?" Bones asked.

"Before I answer that, are they illegal?" Sirius responded.

Vance snorted.

"Illegal?" Bones said. "No, they're fucking genius, Black. How many more can you make?"

"I'm not sure," he said. "Peter didn't really contribute anything to this project, Remus did some of the runic arrays, I did a lot of the runework that involved embedded Charms because that's my specialty, but James did the rest of the arrays and I'm not sure we could replicate his work."

"You did those at Hogwarts?" Bones asked.

"Yes, why?"

She put her head in her hands. "This is one of the most brilliant pieces of magic I've ever seen and you used it for pranks, didn't you?"

"Of course. We took our pranking seriously."

"I don't want to think about this any more," Bones said. "Just make as many as you can."

"That number may be zero," Sirius said. "I'm no James."

" Vance, did you get a N.E.W.T. in Runes?" Bones asked her.

"Yes, I did," she said. "I thought it'd be more useful than Herbology. Not only that, but Sirius's girlfriend was Head Girl and became a freelance cursebreaker. She's probably better at Runic arrays than all of us put together."

"Oh, good point," Sirius said.

"Is she trustworthy?" Bones asked. "Even I have heard of Black's reputation with witches."

"She is," Sirius said firmly. "That part of me died in Azkaban."

"She definitely is," Emmeline added.

"Good," Bones said. "Vance, I'm partnering you with Shacklebolt now, and I'll assign you both to work with Dumbledore in the DoM. Help Sirius if he needs it with the mirrors, but otherwise focus on the horcruxes. We've got a war to gear up for and a bastard to put in the ground."

Miranda and Isaac stood between platforms nine and ten in Kings Cross Station staring at a solid brick support column. "Sirius," Isaac said, "when we met you, it seemed like a long time before we'd have to send our children to Hogwarts."

"I thought it was, too," Sirius said.

Hestia smiled. "I remember how excited Hermione was about going to Hogwarts and how she couldn't wait."

"It's been an eventful year even without Hogwarts," Hermione said.

"Merlin! Has it only been a year?" Hestia said.

"Eleven months almost to the day since we met you," Hermione said. "Four months more to the day since we met Sirius…in his human form."

Miranda shook her head. "I know how Hestia feels. Everything has been changing so much and so quickly."

"I think a lot of it is my fault," Harry said. Before Isaac could reassure him that they weren't upset at him, he continued, "Things get pretty crazy around me, with me being a pirate and all."

They all laughed and Isaac pulled Harry into a hug. "You're right, kiddo," he told him. "We should have seen this coming, what with having the greatest wizarding pirate of all time living with us."

"Awww, I'm not the greatest wizarding pirate of all time," Harry said. "Not yet. That's why I need to go to Hogwarts."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Let it never be said that Harry doesn't appreciate the value of learning."

"He has a very practical bent," Miranda said as she patted both of them on their shoulders. "Goodness knows he didn't get that from us."

"Lily," Sirius said immediately.

"That makes sense," Miranda said as Harry's face lit up with a smile. "I'm sure he won't actually engage in any piracy at school, though, right?"

"Of course I won't," Harry said.

"Thank you, dear," Miranda said.

"Where would I get a ship?" Harry continued.

Miranda sighed. "Just quit while you're ahead, Harry."

"Don't worry, Mother," Hermione said. "We'll be fine."

Harry nodded. "We've got this."

Sirius knelt in front of Harry and put his hands on the boy's shoulders. "I know you do. Remember what I told you, though."

"Right." Harry held up his right hand and closed a finger. "Don't really hurt anyone unless they're using Dark curses or a knife or something." He closed another finger. "Not everyone in Slytherin is our enemy, but some of them probably are." Another finger. "Don't try to become an animagus until at least Fifth Year." Another finger. "Keep some of our skills hidden in case we need to surprise an enemy." His thumb. "And remember to have a little fun, too."

"Excellent." Sirius turned to Hermione. "And…?"

She sighed. "Fun that doesn't involve books."

"Exactly." He reached over with one hand and clapped her on the shoulder. "You two are ready to go."

Isaac eyed the brick pillar ahead of them sceptically. "They may be ready, but I'm not convinced our path is."

"It is," Sirius said confidently. "Harry, you lead the way with your trolley. Hermione, you follow him. Isaac, you walk arm-in-arm with Hestia." He held out his arm to Miranda. "Miranda, you'll walk with me. You need to be touching a wizard or witch to get through the pillar."

They all nodded and formed up an orderly line. Harry got into position first and was bouncing from one foot to another until Sirius gave him the go-ahead, at which point he hurried forward and charged straight through the pillar. Hermione strode after him, nervously but purposefully, and disappeared a moment later into the brick.

"Close your eyes," Hestia whispered to him as they walked. "I'll lead you."

Isaac shrugged and closed his eyes. "That's probably for the best," he said. "I've not walked into a wall since dental school and that's a hard habit to break."

The witch laughed as she gently guided him forward with pressure from their linked arms. "How in Merlin's name did you run into a wall?"

"I was debating the best methods of treating tooth abscesses with this beautiful classmate I'd just met and got distracted."

"Really?" He couldn't see Hestia's face, but he could hear her arched eyebrows. "Does Miranda know about this?"

"Know? She still makes fun of me for it, though she doesn't have much room to talk given that she walked into a closed door approximately half a second later."

Hestia laughed. "You two are too cute together. By the way, you can open your eyes now."

Isaac blinked as the sound of a steam whistle assailed his ears. The children were just ahead of him, walking slowly and staring at the scarlet passenger cars on the tracks to their left. Steam swirled around them and the handful of wizarding families who'd chosen to come so early in the day. Sirius and Miranda were right behind him, so they did a little dance to reorganise the couples.

"That train looks amazing," Harry said. "I'll bet it's so cool that even pirates would use it."

Hermione sighed. "I'm almost positive that there have never been railroad-based pirates. It doesn't really work."

"Well," Isaac said, "there was one time in Korea when an American SeaBee unit…"

"Don't encourage him," Miranda and Hermione said simultaneously.

"Col. Fairbairn said the SeaBees were construction teams," Harry said. "How could they be pirates?"

"Because they're Americans and should therefore never have been left unsupervised," Miranda said. "Harry, I shall be quite cross with you if I hear that you've stolen this train and pillaged anything."

"Fine." Harry rolled his eyes. "No pillaging."

A blonde witch with a prefect's badge pinned onto her dark blue robes had been walking up to them and stopped suddenly. "I…I think I've come at the wrong time. I'll just be going…"

"Don't worry, dear," Hestia said. "That conversation made much more sense in context."

The teenage witch furrowed her brows. "It did?"

"Well…maybe not that much more."

Harry gave the girl a broad smile. "We were just talking about how the train was so cool that it would even be worthy of pirates."

"It is a cool train," the young witch said, smiling back. Isaac was once again struck at how naturally Harry could put someone at ease with him. "By the way, my name is Penelope Clearwater. I'm starting as a Ravenclaw Prefect this year and I thought I'd keep my eye open for firsties who look lost, especially ones who look like they might be muggleborn."

"That's lovely of you," Miranda said. "My name is Miranda Granger and this is my husband Isaac, daughter Hermione, and our friends Sirius Black, Hestia Jones, and Harry Potter."

Clearwater blinked. "Oh. Um…good morning. My goodness. I suppose you don't need my help, then."

"Not as such," Sirius said, "but we do appreciate your initiative, Ms. Clearwater. You're doing a fine thing here and I know it will mean a lot to the Firsties you help, especially the muggleborns."

"Definitely," Harry said.

"Thank you. I'll just be…um…going now." She scurried off, blushing.

"Blimey!" Harry said. "Every time I start to forget I'm a celebrity here, something like that happens."

"Part of that was probably Sirius, though," Hermione said. "She was suddenly confronted with not one, but two dashing celebrities."

"I'm dashing?" Harry and Sirius asked her simultaneously.

Hermione stuck her nose in the air. "Fishing for compliments doesn't become either of you."

"We're totally dashing," Harry said to Sirius. They high-fived one another, grinning.

"Oh, look at the time," Hermione said pointedly. "I think Harry and I should get to the train before Sirius encourages him to behave in an even sillier manner than normal."

"Already?" Miranda asked. "We only just got here and it's still early."

Isaac patted her shoulder. "They should go make friends," he told her. "We have to let them go sometime."

Miranda scooped both children into a hug. "Be careful," she told them. "Write us every week."

"We will, Mother," Hermione said.

"I'll try," Harry said.

Hermione shifted one of her arms.

"Ouch!" Harry said. "Do I have to write every week?"

"Honestly, Harry, it's not that much of an imposition," Hermione said.

"We're going to be sad enough without you both," Miranda said. "Don't make us worry about you, too."

"Oh, fine," Harry said. "We don't want you to worry."

"Thank you." Miranda relinquished them so they could hug Isaac, too.

"Don't get into too much trouble, you two," he told them.

"Got it," Harry said. "We'll try to keep a low profile."

Hermione nodded enthusiastically and shot Harry a smile, presumably because he'd agreed so readily for once.

"Thank you." Isaac released them so they could give Sirius a hug.

"You're both going to be brilliant!" Sirius told them. "Just try not to do anything I would do and you'll be fine."

"I think you're awesome," Harry said. "I promised I wouldn't get in too much trouble, though."

"You really are a brilliant wizard when you put your mind to it, Sirius," Hermione said. "That map sounds amazing. We'll keep an eye out for it."

"You two…" Sirius shook his head. "Get out of here before you make me cry."

As soon as he released them, they turned and latched onto a surprised Hestia.

"We'll miss you, too," Harry said.

"Thank you for taking care of Sirius and helping to introduce us to the wizarding world," Hermione added.

She hugged them tightly back. "This has been the best year of my life," she said as a few tears began to trickle down her face. "I'm so glad you all invited me into your lives."

"Us, too!" Harry said. Hermione nodded.

A few minutes later, after everyone had said their final goodbyes and the children began to walk to the train, Isaac put his arm around Miranda. "I wasn't ready to be an empty-nester yet," he said.

"Me neither." She rested her head on his shoulder.

Hestia sighed wistfully. "I'm suddenly not ready to be an empty-nester now."

"I've got to tell you," Miranda said, "that sounds like the worst case of baby rabies I've ever heard of."

Isaac nodded. "Only one cure for that."

Sirius arched his eyebrows, but before he could say anything, Miranda responded, "Babysitting."

"Touché," Hestia said. Sirius just chuckled and shot them an appreciative smile.

"Harry?" Hermione said as she walked down the train passageway behind him. "Thank you for convincing me to spend a few galleons more to get our trunks with a Featherlight Charm built in."

He smirked, knowing she couldn't see it. "No problem. I thought it would come in handy since we're not likely to be able to reliably cast the Featherlight Charm for another year or two. Shall we find an empty cabin and await Nev?"

"Yes. Don't forget your hat!"

"Oh, right!" Harry pulled out his tweed flat cap and put it on snugly. "That will hopefully keep people from recognizing me."

"It helps that they still think you have your scar," Hermione said as they walked.

"And castles. And tons of servants."

"I know you hate that," Hermione murmured.

"Is it bad that I'm glad Lockhart is dead?" Harry asked. "He stole my whole life and made me something I'm not. I'm not sure I'll ever be rid of him."

"He did that to a lot of people and tried to do much worse to you," Hermione said. "I think it's reasonable to be glad that he can't hurt anyone ever again."

"Thanks," Harry said. They passed a gaggle of older students in the passageway, then found an empty compartment. "How about this one?"

"It seems as good as any," Hermione said.

Once they were inside and had their trunks stowed, Hermione pulled a textbook out of her handbag. "Is Charms OK?"

"Sure," Harry said. "We can finally practise with our real wands now."

"Right, so no setting the train on fire or doing anything else dangerous."

"So none of the fun stuff, is what you're saying." He shot her a grin.

She glared at him. "Not while we are literally on the train."

"I know, I know. How about the Lumos Charm?"

Hermione nodded and opened the Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) to its index. "Theory first," she said.

"Come on. We already know the Lumos Charm to Sirius's standards."

"Remember what our Hapkido instructor told us about the importance of not learning bad habits?"

"Fine." He settled in next to her as she flipped to the correct page.

They spent the next half-hour alternately reading Charms theory and applying it to basic Charms before there was a knock on the door.

"Good morning," one of the Indian twins said. "Parvati, Hannah, and Sophie were chatting and they've just made an even more talkative new friend named Lavender, so I gave up on getting any peace in that compartment. May I join you?"

Ah, so it was Padma. "Sure, Patil. We're just saving one seat for Neville."

"Oh, that's nice. He seems quiet, as well." She put her trunk on the rack above a seat across from us and settled in. "What are you working on?"

"We're just practising some basic Charms," Harry said. "Hermione said I'm not allowed to practise any of the fun ones, though."

"He means the ones that might destroy the train," Hermione added.

"I wouldn't destroy the train!" Harry said.

She raised her eyebrows. "Remember the training dummy?"

Padma's eyes widened.

"It was saying nasty things about you." Harry crossed his arms. "It had it coming. The train hasn't once called you that word."

"You're still not allowed to practise the Severing Charm indoors anymore unless there's a professor supervising."

"I know, I know," Harry said.

"I'm starting to understand," Padma said, "why we're generally not supposed to use our wands until we get to Hogwarts."

"Same here," Hermione said. "Even with Sirius supervising, things still got a bit hairy a few times. That was after we'd both read the textbooks, too, so we thought we had a good handle on the theory."

"You've read all of the textbooks?" Padma asked.

"Of course," Hermione said. "I thought they were fascinating."

Harry shrugged. "I need to know what's in them at some point, anyway. I figured if I do it now then I don't have to worry about doing it again later, and I like spending time with Hermione."

"Oh." Padma's eyes widened again. "And here I thought I was getting ahead just by reading the first few chapters of each."

"I'm sure you are," Hermione said in what Harry thought she meant as a reassuring tone, but he had a bad feeling about the way Padma's eyes narrowed at that statement.

"Maybe we could practise Charms together," Harry said.

"Just the safe ones," Padma said.

Harry grinned.

Hermione just rolled her eyes. "Don't get him started."

"What do you mean?" Padma asked.

"I've talked with Sirius about this and he's of the opinion there are no safe Charms, except maybe the Soap-Making Charm. He's still working on weaponising that one," Harry said. "You should see some of the crazy uses he's come up with for stuff."

"I'd rather not, if that's all right," Padma said. "Maybe we should just study together."

"That's fine," Hermione said. "Magic doesn't have to be all about finding new ways to use household spells offensively."

"Household spells?"

Harry smiled and opened his mouth to respond.

"Nevermind!" Padma said. "Forget I asked." She shook her head. "You would really worry me if you hadn't saved my sister's life."

Hermione shrugged. "It's OK. He's just like that."

"Hey!" Harry said. "I resemble that!"

Padma opened her mouth, furrowed her eyebrows, closed her mouth again, and then started giggling. "That was really funny. For the record, though, I meant I was a little scared of both of you."

"Both of us?" Now it was Hermione's turn to furrow her brows. "What did I do?"

"All of the reading for the entire year," Padma replied. "Do you have any idea how intimidating that is? I thought I was going to get into Ravenclaw, but now I'm not so sure."

"Oh." Hermione fell silent. "I just…didn't want to fall behind. I didn't mean to worry anyone."

"Fall behind?" Padma snorted. "You're both going to be two of the top students at Hogwarts…assuming Potter doesn't level the place."

Harry stuck his tongue out at her, but she just rolled her eyes at him.

"Well…you all grew up with all of this magic," Hermione said. "We didn't. I feel like you're all years ahead of us now."

"You didn't?" Padma said. "But you know Potter…"

Harry nodded. "I've known her since before we knew about Magic."

Padma raised her eyebrows. "So those books about you…they weren't even close to true, were they?"

"Not even close," Harry said.

"Wow. I need some time to think about that." She sighed. "You're not going to be behind, though, I promise you that."

Before they could respond, Neville poked his head in. "Oh, there you are," he said, then nodded politely to Padma, who nodded back. "Mind if I join you?"

"We've been saving you a seat," Harry said, and jumped up to help Neville stow his trunk. While they did so, Hermione reached down and deftly plucked Neville's toad from the floor when it tried to escape his robe's pocket.

"Your toad tried to do a runner," she said drily.

"Oh, thanks, Hermione," Neville took it and stuffed it back into his pocket. "Trevor keeps hauling off to go exploring."

"You brought a toad?" Padma asked.

"They're brilliant at sussing out problems in greenhouses," Neville said. "I know all of mine at home like the back of my hand, but Hogwarts has even larger ones and I'll have to learn them from scratch."

Padma blinked. "I was not aware of that."

"Harry?" Hermione asked. "Will you help me get my trunk down? We need to give Neville his wand, anyway, so we can use the shoebox it's currently in as a place to stash Trevor."

"Sure!" Harry jumped up to help.

"Oh, right!" Neville said. "That would be great."

"Wait, what?" Padma asked as Harry and Hermione took the trunk down.

"Long story," Neville said.

After they'd poked a few air holes in the box and safely stowed Trevor, Hermione gave Neville his wand. He gave it a few swishes and grinned. "This is perfect. Thanks a million, Hermione."

"It was no trouble, really," she said.

The door flew open with a bang, startling them all. "I feel sorry for Patil," Draco Malfoy drawled. "I hope she doesn't end up trapped in a compartment with a mu…muggleborn, scarhead, and squib for the whole ride. Crabbe, Goyle, why don't you get her trunk for her?"

Two boys big enough give Dudley a fright loomed behind Draco. One was fat and hulking, while the other was built more for strength, with a thick brow and arms so long Harry thought he might be related to a gorilla.

"It's kind of you to offer to help me, Malfoy," Padma said in a sickly sweet tone. "The only person bothering me in this compartment is the vicious bigot, though. Do you think you could get him to leave me alone?"

"Good morning!" Harry said brightly as Malfoy's face began to redden with rage. "I don't think I've had the pleasure of your friends' acquaintance."

Neville, who had been opening his mouth to speak, closed it and stared at Harry in shock. Padma's eyebrows shot up. The corners of Hermione's lips twitched up and she shifted her wand slightly, but she didn't react otherwise.

"Wait, what?" Draco asked.

"My name's Potter," Harry said as he rose to his feet and stuck out his left hand. "Harry Potter. It's a pleasure to meet you boys." He carefully angled himself so his left shoulder was facing toward the boys, allowing him to both present a smaller target and create a slightly clearer field of fire for Hermione.

"Um…hello," the fatter one said. His voice was surprisingly soft for such a large boy. "My name is—"

"Don't introduce yourself, you oaf!" Draco snapped. "He's not worth your time."

"Shouldn't he be polite to me?" Harry said. "I thought there were rules."

"They don't apply to blood traitors like your family," Draco shot back.

"So we shouldn't be polite to each other?" Harry asked.

"Of course not!"

Harry shrugged. "OK. In that case, get that gel-encased festering pustule you call a face out of my sight, you foppy plonker."

"Why you—" Draco went for his wand, but Harry was already holding his.

Harry closed his eyes and said, "Lumos," without even raising his wand, and a brilliant light flooded the entire compartment.

Everyone except Harry, who had closed his eyes, cried out in pain, and Draco and his friends lurched backwards, away from the light. Eyes still closed, Harry grabbed the door with his left hand and slid it shut.

"Nox," he said, and then he yelled, "Colloportus!" He also shifted his foot so his trainer was planted right in the path of the door and wedged up firmly against it.

Draco grabbed the handle and pulled, but made no headway against the rubber sole of Harry's trainer as he put all of his weight onto it. "Hey! You can't charm the doors on the Hogwarts Express!"

"Maybe you can't," Harry said from just on the other side of the door.

"You'll pay for this, Potter!" Draco said. The blond stormed off with his goons in tow, still rubbing their eyes.

Harry turned around. "Sorry about that light," he told them.

"I should have known you were going to do that," Hermione grumbled. "I'm still seeing spots, you know."

"Merlin, Harry!" Neville said. "That was amazing."

"Now I see what you meant about dangerous First Year spells." Padma said. "Remind me never to ask him to clean anything for me."

"Good call," Hermione said. "You don't want to see what he can do with a Scouring Charm."

"You're right; I don't," Padma said. "I don't even want to be in the room when he casts one of those. But how did you lock the compartment, Potter? That's not possible. It says so in Hogwarts: A History."

Harry winked. "Trade secret."