Hassle on the Hogwarts Express

Despite Ern’s apparent lack of driving skills, they reached the station with plenty of time to spare. Mr Weasley and Stan found some trolleys and shortly the strange group was working its way through King’s Cross toward platforms nine and ten.

“See you later then Harry?” called out Stan as he boarded the Knight Bus with a wave.

“Bye Stan, Ern,” Harry replied.

“Thank you for giving us a lift Ernie,” Mrs Weasley said. “Give my regards to Edna?”

“Eye,” Ernie replied as he settled into the armchair-like drivers seat after helping Stan unload the heavy trunks.

Then, with yet another loud BANG, the Knight bus was gone and they entered the station. Harry, who was walking beside Mr Weasley, was reminded of taking an almost identical journey two years previously. Back then he had been the supposed target of the most wanted wizard in the world and the escort to the station had been for his protection. Of course the most wanted wizard now happened to be his godfather, Sirius Black. Harry briefly wondered if he was being escorted to the Hogwarts Express because of Voldemort and that thought was quickly magnified in his mind when he caught sight of someone ahead of him.

Draco Malfoy.

Standing behind Draco and looking like he wanted to be anywhere but surrounded by a crowd of muggles, was Lucius Malfoy.

“Just ignore him Harry,” Mr Weasley said as he pushed Harry’s trolley a little faster. “We will go through the barrier first I think,” he said a little louder so Mrs Weasley could hear him.

“Good idea Arthur,” she replied.

Malfoy, whom had obviously caught sight of Harry as he passed, turned slightly to his father and said something that made Lucius stare at them as well. A look of utter contempt spead across his features while he leaned forward whispering something to his son who looked back at the precession as it passed, a malicious glint in his eyes.

Harry had no more time to watch them as he and Mr Weasley found themselves passing through the barrier between platforms nine and ten, and onto platform 9 ¾.

Once again, the impressive scarlet train stood at the platform hissing and blowing out white tufts of steam. A dozen coaches were coupled up behind it was already swarming with students and parents.

“Hey Harry!” called out the familiar voice of Colin Creevey, a fourth year who had an obsession with him.

“Hi Colin,” Harry replied with a nod as he continued to walk beside Mr Weasley who was moving down the train looking for an empty compartment. Finally finding one, they loaded all of Harry’s things, and waited for the others to catch up, which only took a few minutes.

Very soon Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, George and Ginny were on the train hanging out or leaning against the windows as it began to depart, waving goodbye to Mr and Mrs Weasley.

“Well,” said George, “here we go again.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Hermione asked.

“Fred and I didn’t really want to come back to Hogwarts this year,” George explained.

Hermione almost looked confounded as she stared at the twins. “Not come back to take your NEWT’s,” she said, “but why?”

“They wanted to start their joke shop, but mum wouldn’t let them,” Ginny explained as she settled into one of the seats where she could look out the window at the scenery as it now rolled by.

“But George and I only have to do one more year and then we will be old enough to do what we want.”

“That sounds very…” Hermione was cut off by a shake of his head from Ron.

“There's nothing you can say that mum hasn’t shouted at them all summer,” he said.

Fred and George both nodded sagely. “Yeah, we heard it all.”

Hermione frowned at them both and they suddenly looked from her and at each other. “Fred and I are going to go and find Lee,” George said as they got up from their seats, crossed the compartment and went out the sliding door.

Hermione shook her head. “I don’t understand. I would want to finish my education before I started working anywhere.”

“But your not Fred and George aren’t you,” Ron said. “Thankfully!” he quickly added with a grin to Ginny and Harry.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Hermione demanded indignantly.

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but you're more obsessed with education than anyone else I’ve ever met.”

Hermione frowned. “I’ll take that as a compliment,” she said.

“Lets just change the subject shall we?” Harry asked a little worried that this might turn out to be another argument between his two friends. “How about a game of exploding snap?”

“That’s right Potter,” came a drawling voice from the compartment door which had been opened again without drawing attention while Ron and Hermione had spoken loudly. “Play silly little childish games with your silly little friends.”

“I think you’re the one who needs to grow up Malfoy,” said Hermione coldly.

“I never asked your opinion, Mudblood.” Draco replied with a glare that would have killed Hermione on the spot if it were possible.

“You’ve asked for it now,” Ron said as he jumped to his feet and whipped out his wand.

But Draco seemed to have been expecting that as, from inside his long robe’s sleeve, his wand slid down into his hand and was pointed at Ron. “Ricter semper,” he barked, sending a bolt of magic at Ron who ended up flipping head over heels on the spot and landing upside down in his seat groaning loudly.

Harry and Hermione had their wands halfway out now and were about to start performing spells of their own, when from behind Draco, Crabbe, Goyle, Bulstrade and several other Slytherins from other years Harry recognised but didn’t know by name had their wands out. Ginny had almost frozen in her seat, torn between cowering in the corner and thinking about getting her own wand that was stored in the overhead luggage racks.

It only took a fraction of a second for Harry to do a wand count to see that there were eight wands pointed at them.

He and Hermione might be able to take on Draco, Crabbe and Goyle on their own, but there were simply too many wands pointing back at them.

“What’s going on here then?” came a sudden voice.

Harry knew it at once and didn’t need to see the speaker to know it was the little plump witch who staffed the dinner trolley. By some stroke of luck they were in the compartment next to the little section that acted as a store for all the sweets and the witch had been filling up the trolley in advance of lunch.

“Nothing,” drawled Draco whose wand had disappeared up his sleeve.

“Then you won’t mind going back to your own compartment then,” replied the witch with a tone in her voice that indicated she didn’t believe him for a moment.

“You got lucky Potter!” Draco muttered with an evil glint in his eyes. “Better watch out for next time.”

Harry narrowed his eyes and made a mental note to himself to keep an even closer eye on Draco this year. He knew that Lucius Malfoy had been one of the death eaters he had encountered at the end of last term and he wouldn’t be surprised to find that Draco was under instructions to cause Harry as much bother as possible.

The witch followed them down the train for a few steps before poking her head back in their compartment. “Are you all alright?”

“We’ll be fine,” Ron said as Harry and Hermione helped him the right way up.

“Well, I’ll be just next door if you need anything,” she said before sliding the door closed and going next door.

“Are you sure your okay?” Hermione asked worriedly.

“I’ll be fine,” wheezed Ron as he clutched his ribs. “It’s a good thing that Malfoy had backup though,” he said. “By the look on your face you were about to hit him really hard with something! I’ve never seen you look at anyone that way before. It was almost like you hated him!”

Hermione glanced nervously away. “Not hate,” she replied abjectly, “just despise.”

Ron smiled. “I know what you mean.”

“He was right though,” said Harry. “We will have to watch him this year.”

“He wouldn’t dare try anything at school though would he?” Ron asked. “I mean not with all the teachers and Dumbledore around.”

“I’m not so sure,” Harry replied while his mind recounted all the incidents involving himself and Draco over the past four years. He knew that he would have to be very careful indeed.

"Chapter 7 – Gathering Clouds"  [13+]