HP 6 - A different Half-Blood...

The Hogwarts Express

Harry slept longer than he usually would sleep, but he still woke up well before he needed to wake up. Tom brought him up some breakfast and after he ate, he looked at his new Defense Against the Dark Arts book. It was dark, needless to say. It had many spells in it, especially for illegal magic, and it had no mention of how to block the spells.

He wondered who could have assigned such a book. He supposed he would find out when he got to Hogwarts that night, and just then realized he was going back within the next few hours. He sighed deeply, and then changed into Muggle clothes. He again put on the hooded sweatshirt. He knew he would not be able to wear his hood up in class, but to avoid questions, it would work for now. He packed all his new stuff. He pulled out the will of his wet clothes and put it in one of the corners of his trunk.

At half past nine, Tom came up to carry his chest down to the public street and called a Muggle cab. The driver put the trunk and Hedwig in the car, and they got to King's Cross and unloaded the car into a trolley by ten. Harry made his way to platform nine and three-quarters. The train did not leave until eleven, but he had nothing better to do. He slowly relaxed against the wall that led to platform nine and three quarters and slid through unnoticeably.

There were no other students there yet. The train was there, but it did not start boarding until half past ten. Harry found a dark corner on the side of the platform. He could see everyone arrive and conceal himself. To pass the time his started thinking about Gringotts. Many people were watching him there, especially since Seamus called out his name. Did someone send his car deep down into Gringotts to die? Moreover, what about the other cart? It was empty, was that sent to ram them? These questions he could not answer.

Some people were starting to arrive. He saw a few second years and a group of seventh years. Cho arrived and Harry noticed she had a badge on her robes. She must be the Head Girl, but he was not that interested in her anymore. The train soon started to let people on. Harry did not want to have to look hard for a compartment and he also wanted to decrease the chance that someone would spot him, so he moved to the train.

With some difficulty, he managed to hoist up his trunk up the stairs of the train and drag it to his compartment, near the end of the train. He could not lift it up on to the racks, so he put it on the seat and fixed it so that if anyone looked into the compartment, they would not see him behind his trunk. He could perfectly hide from view. He could see out the window a bit, too, and someone would have to come real close to the window to see him.

He looked out and saw Colin and Dennis Creevy, Luna Lovegood, with her waist-long, silvery-blonde hair, Lavender Brown, Parvati and Padma Patil, Seamus and his very stern mother, Susan Bones with her aunt, mother and father, but no Ron and Hermione. He saw Neville with his Grandma. They came pretty close to his window, but they did not look in. He could overhear a little of what they were saying.

"...that's what she said. We are all very proud of you. If only you didn't break your father's wand," Neville's Grandma said.

"Oh, Gran, I didn't mean to..." Neville stammered.

"Of course you didn't, but your parents would be proud of you, fighting them... now you be careful. No leaving the school! You're not an adult, yet!" she said, crossly.

"Ok," Neville groaned, and they said their goodbyes and disappeared from view.

Harry heard people walking through the hallway. Some stopped by his compartment, but realized it was taken and left. It was ten minutes until the train was set to leave, when he spotted six heads with flaming red hair. Ron, Ginny, Fred, George, and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley had arrived and Hermione was with them.

Mrs. Weasley was peering around, anxiously. Harry was sure she was looking for him, but he definitely did not want her to see his black eye and weakened appearance. Even if, he was not keen to be examined by the seven of them, not to mention all the other people on the platform.

They started to walk over to the train, but he could not hear them. Mrs. Weasley had stopped looking for him and was talking to Ron, who nodded and then to Ginny and Hermione. Fred, George, and Mr. Weasley also said good-bye and they separated, and Ron, Hermione and Ginny entered somewhere near the middle of the train.

Harry was amazed that no one had entered his compartment, yet, but he supposed people would want to be in larger groups and have their own compartments. He recognized a few voices, but they either went past or stopped before they got to his compartment. Then he heard Hermione's voice followed by Ron and Ginny's.

"He has to be somewhere around here..." Hermione said.

"What if he didn't come?" Ron said, apprehensively.

"Don't be ridiculous, of course he would come. It's not as though people wouldn't come looking for him if he didn't show up," Hermione said, slightly infuriated.

"I suppose so. Not unless he told Ginny something else..." Ron said, his voice trailing off.

"I already told you, he only said that he would see me when school started. That's it," she said, irritably.

"Yeah, he already decided that he wasn't coming on his birthday, that isn't good," Hermione said.

"Yeah, mum was about one second from going to get him. Been talking about it all summer," Ron said, annoyed.

"Well, it might have been better. She might have been able to convince him to come if she talked to him. What on earth could it been like to be with the Dursleys for these past months? It's not as if they'd even understand or care. What eats me the most is when I called him, I almost had him. I don't know why he changed his mind," Hermione said.

"He just lost..." Ron started.

"I know Ron, but I made it quite clear that we wouldn't make him talk about it," Hermione said, with her voice slightly raised. They were almost to his compartment. He squeezed up, as the footsteps stopped in front of his compartment.

"Come on, there's no one in here," Hermione said and he heard two of the footsteps walk away, but the third remained.

He heard someone press up against the glass, and as he heard Ron's voice down the hallway, it told him that Ginny remained outside of his door.

"We're almost to the end. We need to get back up front to the perfect's compartment. We can find him afterward," Ron said.

Ginny started after them, and a few moments later, he heard them come back down the hall.

"Where on earth could he be?" asked Hermione slightly infuriated.

"I have an idea, but we need to get up front, anyway," he heard Ginny say, and they continued walking toward the front, with Ron and Hermione asking her where he was.

He was quite certain that she knew where he was. He moved over to the window, with his left facing it and leaned back. He kept his hood up. Ginny must be a perfect, too, he guessed, since she went up to the perfect car.

A few people passed by and asked each other who was he, but they never opened the door. As they went by, he heard bits of what they were talking about. The main topic of conversation seemed to what did or did not happen at Gringotts, and whispers that Voldemort was there. Neville seemed to figure out who he was, because he entered his compartment.

"Hi, umm... Harry?" Neville said uncertainly, and Harry could not bring himself to ignore him.

"Hi," he said, leaning forward and pulled up his hood slightly, so they could see each other.

"Ron and Hermione were looking for you," Neville said, slightly worried.

"I know. They know where I am," Harry said.

"Oh... are you alright?" Neville asked.

"Fine," Harry said, quickly.

"Well, I'm at the end with Seamus and Dean. If you want to come..." Neville offered.

"No thanks," Harry said.

"Ok, see you later... then," Neville said, but hesitated.

"Yeah, bye," Harry said, quickly and Neville backed out the door, and Harry threw his hood back over to shut out some of the light.

The cart came by soon after, but he did not get anything, although he was hungry. He was still dreading the confrontation with Ron and Hermione that was coming up. They were bound to be back soon. He watched the houses and fields pass. There was still a long way to go. He was still exhausted from the Boes' attacks, and nodded in and out of consciousness. He heard the door slide open, but did not really understand what it meant, until....

"Harry?" a voice called out to him from his daze and it snapped him awake with a slight jump.

He pushed up his hood a little. Ron, Hermione and Ginny were already in the compartment, and Ginny shut the door.

"Oh, hi..." he said in a weary voice. He yawned and stretched a little.

"So, did you have a good summer?" he asked politely, forcing a smile.

"Harry, are you alright?" she asked, completely ignoring his question and towered over him.

Ron busied himself by easily hoisting Harry's trunk on to the luggage rack. He seemed to have grown another couple of inches since the last time he saw him. Harry also noticed that he had scars on his arms, a trophy of Harry's decision to go to the Department of Mysteries, but then Harry's gaze met Hermione's eyes.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he said.

"That's what you've been saying all summer," she retorted back.

"Yeah, so what?" he said, his voice starting to rise.

"So what? Harry... you don't look so good..." she said, slightly horror-struck.

She finally seemed to notice that he was thinner. She started to put the pieces together quicker than Ron did, who was trying to see what she was looking at. Dudley's old clothes did provide some camouflage to his appearance. Harry avoided their stares by looking out the window.

"Harry... have you been... eating?" she asked, fearfully. He looked up into her eyes, and then back out the window.

"Yeah," he said.

"How much?" she demanded.

"Enough," he dared to say, swallowing a lump in his throat, and avoiding her eyes.

"Well, it doesn't look like it!" she practically yelled at him. Ron and Ginny were also looking slightly horrified.

"I-umm..." he paused.

His plan to blame it on the Dursleys seemed wrong. Aunt Petunia and Dudley really took care of him. Hermione obviously was not thinking the same thing.

"Were the Dursleys giving you food?" she asked, angrily, staring at him.

His right eye met hers again and he only nodded.

"Well, you just didn't... eat... it?" she asked, now going white.

She was looking quite fearful, as though her worst fears about the past few months were true. He decided he would not lie about it. He again nodded and looked out the window, again.

"Oh, Harry, you need to start eating... you..." she broke off, not knowing how to address this problem.

Harry did not want a long lecture, so he cut in.

"Don't worry. I started eating again, about a week ago. Didn't want a long talk from you guys," he said and forced another fake smile, and then returned to looking out the window.

She sat down across from him, Ron sat next to her, and Ginny sat down next to Harry.

"Why'd you stop eating?" she said, in a slightly trembling voice.

Harry hesitated. He was still looking out the window, and finally said, "After of my birthday... I...." He really did not have an answer, but he hoped it was enough.

"Well, Harry we aren't going to let you stop eating, no matter what," she said, in an authoritarian-like voice.

"Really?" he said actually smiling.

"Yes," she said.

"You're not my mum, you know..." he said, sarcastically.

"Well, she... isn't here, and we're your friends..." she said, nervously.

"Don't worry. I really don't want to feel like that again," he said, truthfully.

"So you're going to keep eating, right?" Ron seemed to have finally gotten over his initial shock and spoke. Harry shifted uncomfortably in his seat, talking to Hermione seemed different than talking to Ron about it.

"Yeah, I promise, if you don't tell your mum I haven't been eating," he said meeting Ron's eyes, who then nodded uncertainly.

Harry was glad. The thought of Mrs. Weasley's reaction to him not eating was painful to even think about. He was also relieved that it put an end to the conversation. Ron was thinking along the same lines, too.

"Ginny's a perfect, too," he announced. "Mum went berserk. You could imagine."

"Yeah, I kinda figured. How'd you know I was in here?" he asked directing the question toward Ginny, who had been only listening to the previous conversation.

"You were the only one in here, and all the others were occupied. Besides I saw Hedwig," she said, pointing at his owl on the luggage rack.

They talked about who their Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher could be, pets, Quidditch, and Percy, especially. Ron loved living in Percy's room, but was somewhat mad that his parents let him come back after what he said to them last year. Ginny did not get along that well with Dean and they broke up. Ron did not hide the fact that he was relieved. They were all use to his jealous and protective behavior anyway. It was already dark when they finally came around Gringotts, and Ron was the one who brought it up.

"Did you hear about Gringotts? It was in the paper this morning. Somebody put a spell a cart and it went out of control!" Ron said excitingly, as if it was a big cover-up.

Harry smiled, but before he said anything, Hermione jumped in.

"Yeah! The goblins are not telling who it was... on the cart that went out of control. They said no one was killed, but they closed down completely yesterday. It is a really big 온라인카지노게임. They've been saying for years how safe and secure it is there," she said, shaking her head.

"Maybe that person was trying to steal something, like last time! And they were killed in the attempt!" Ron said.

"Well, they probably would've announced that they caught the thief," Ginny said.

"It's definitely weird, what do you think Harry?" Hermione asked Harry, who had his face hidden with his sleeve. He was laughing.

"Why, are you laughing, Harry?" asked Ginny, who did not find anything funny about what they were talking about.

"It was me. I was the one in the cart," he said, grinning. All the others looked at him surprised.

"The cart decided it wanted to plunge down into the depths of Gringotts, but no one died," he said.

He filled them in on what happened and how he asked the head of the bank to leave his name out of it. Hermione, Ron and Ginny listened and asked a few questions, but by the end, it shocked and scared them.

"And they don't know who did it!?! They could have killed you!" Hermione said.

"Yeah, I think Voldemort still wants me dead," Harry said and Ron flinched, but Ginny seemed to have gotten used to it.

"Yeah, they almost did kill me. You know that Patronus Charm was the best spell I ever learned," Harry said, with a little laugh.

Harry smiled and put his arms over his head to stretch. Hermione, who had kept a nervous eye on him the whole time, was now watching him intently.

"Yeah, it's saved you a couple of times. It's too bad that we had to stop right when you were teaching it to us... oh, yeah.... I think everyone in the DA got an O in the Defense Against the Dark Arts, even Neville! Mum was thrilled of course. And Ginny, you won't have to worry about it for your O.W.L.'s, will you!" Ron said, gleefully, and now it seemed like they would get around to their O.W.L.'s.

Harry still had not told them how good he did, but Ron and Ginny had stopped talking and were looking at Hermione, who was still staring at him.

"What?" he asked, but did not receive an answer.

Hermione put her hand up and started to move toward him. She was looking at him dead in the eyes. She went to pull up the hood on his head, but he put his hand up to stop her. She stopped, but did not put her arm down. She knew. She had seen his black eye, she would tell the others, and there was no way to hid it from them forever anyway.

He sighed, put his hand down and let Hermione lifted it up his head. Ron and Ginny gasped clearly seeing his healing black eye.

"Harry... how did... who hit you?" Hermione said, very uneasily.

"Well, I suppose saying that I fell down the stairs wouldn't be a good 온라인카지노게임," he said smiling, but he would lie.

He did not need to get the Dursleys in trouble, for if Dudley, who was the same age, hit him, it would not be a big deal. He would tell them the truth eventually, but later.

"Dudley and I had an exchange of words, among other things. He's a boxer, you know, but after that I started eating again," he said, looking down.

"Are you ok?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah," he said, grimacing slightly.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Ron asked, horrified.

"Well, I figured you mum would come storming up at any moment," Harry started.

"And what about right now!" Hermione yelled.

"I don't know. Didn't want everyone asking me about it. Especially people who don't know me," Harry said, desperate for an excuse.

"We know you!" Hermione said, irately.

"Well, honestly, I would have thought you would have noticed by now. And I knew I had to tell you all eventually. So, calm down," he said as though it resolved the matter.

"We'll be arriving soon. Why don't we change? We left our trunks in the perfects' compartments. One of us could..." Hermione started, still upset and shaking slightly with rage.

"No, I think I can dress myself," he said, with a slight smirk.

They left and he was happy for it. He did not want them to see any other injuries. With some difficulty, he pulled a robe out from his trunk and changed. He stuffed his sweatshirt into the trunk with his uninjured left arm. He gently got down from the seat that he had to stand on, and within a few moments, Ron, Hermione and Ginny came back in their robes.

"How much longer?" he asked Hermione more than anyone else.

"Less than a half-hour," she replied.

Harry looked up at his trunk and found a new topic that he had not thought about.

"Why do you think we were supposed to bring dress robes?" he asked, and they all looked at him and each other.

"We don't know either, we asked mum, too before we left," said Ginny.

"There must be a ball or something," Hermione said.

"Yeah, at least I have better dress robes. By the way, Harry, I managed to get out of Fred and George why they bought me new dress robes," Ron said, raising his eyebrows.

"Consider it self-preservation. I don't want to be seen around your old ones," he said and they all laughed.

Then an announcement came over the speaker that said they were almost there and to leave their luggage. Harry looked at the ceiling and whispered thanks, as he was sure he would not have been able to carry it anywhere. It had just started to drizzle, when the train slowed to a stop.