Harry Potter and the Secret Nurse

Chapter Seventeen
Train Wreck.

"Get the fuck outta bed you shagging nobheads!" Harry called out as he tossed a string of firecrackers into the room where Ron and Luna were sleeping, "Time to catch the train to Hogwarts!"

Ron and Luna, naked under the cs, rs, retaliated with pillows tossed at Harry.

"This early?" Ron shouted over the fireworks, "We can just take the floo network and sleep in!"

Luna, getting up from the bed completely naked, chased after the fireworks and extinguished them with her wand.

Harry shielded his eyes like a gentleman and said, "You want to miss the train ride?"

Ron looked over at his naked girlfriend and said, "Yes!"

"Uh oh, I think I hear your mom coming upstairs," said Harry.

Instantly Ron and Luna dived out of sight behind the bed to quickly struggle on their clothes. Harry figured they both could have used a costume talisman to get dressed instantly in front of Mrs Weasley, if she ever really did drop in on them by surprise. Laughing, Harry returned to his own bedroom and ran into Hermione glaring at him with her familiar arms crossed stance.

"Lovely wake up call, Harry," said Hermione, "You want Tim to hear you use that kind of language?"

"Oh he's going to love this ride," said Harry, "Let's go downstairs and wake him up right now."

Hermione snatched Harry's second string of firecrackers from his armrest and said by all means they should go. Tim was staying in the room where Harry slept last year, in the very same bed Hermione killed Voldemort. The room had bright, almost sterile colours like a hospital room, Harry was going to be glad when Tim left there for Hogwarts and got a bed in Gryffindor Tower. Ginny was already there helping him get organized and Harry was greeted by a surprising charge into a hug from Tim.

“Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Good morning to you too!” said Harry.

“I’m sorry, Harry, I thought the whole day and before yesterday was a dream,” said Tim, “And when I woke up in a room full of beds, I thought I was just dumped into another orphanage. You must understand how grateful I am.”

Harry climbed out of his wheelchair and sat up on his knees on the floor in front of Tim.

“Tim, you must understand, you’re in the wizarding world now,” said Harry, “And around here we look out for each other. I grew up without my parents in the muggle world, and never had a home until I made it to Hogwarts. When you get there you will see that Hogwarts is your real home. Whatever life you had before is over now. You’re with us now, next year during the summer, I’ll be of legal age and... well... I’m hoping to become your legal guardian so you can stay hduriduring the summer.”

“You mean... you’ll be my father?” Tim asked.

“How about big brother?” asked Harry, “I’m only five years older than you.”

Tim was almost in tears and hugged Harry again. Then he ran off to join Ginny in getting breakfast down in the kitchen, as Harry tried to catch up to him in the hall, he was stopped by Hermione.

“Harry, I want you to know, of all the things you have ever done, I think this is the greatest,” said Hermione who then hugged Harry.

“Looking forward to being a big sister?” asked Harry.

Hermione kissed Harry on the lips, and they headed down to breakfast with Luna and Ron, who kept looking around for Mrs. Weasley. She was up before any of them cooking up breakfast in the kitchen like a pro. The ever-reliable Weasley den mother was definitely treating Tim like a son, filling him up full of bacon and toast. Harry noticed an unusual smell and went over to the skillet by the stove.

“What’s that you’re cooking?” asked Harry.

“Well, you kept saying ‘kippers for breakfast’, I thought maybe you liked them,” said Mrs. Weasley.

Harry snorked out a little, covering his mouth with a huge smile as Ron laughed at him.

“Uhm... kippers will be fine,” said Harry.

“I like kippers,” said Tim, “But... actually... I like bacon more, so I’ll just stick with what I’ve got if it’s okay.”

“Oh you gotta eat kippers,” said Ron, “Its all wizards eat all day.”

Harry held up the skillet and asked, “You want to demonstrate that for us Ron?”

Ron bravely scooped up a kipper, and in one gulp had it down with a forced straight face.

“Yummy,” said Ron.

“There’ll be no kissing you after breakfast,” said Luna, who immediately shut up as she noticed a little glare from Ron’s mother.

Before she even took a bite Hermione was going through the cupboards asking Harry if he had a phone directory for Hogsmead. Despite the fact it was an all wizarding village, Harry was certain he had seen one when he once looked up the number for the ministry. In the hustle and bustle of everyone getting something to eat Harry handed Hermione the directory and asked her what she needed it for.

"Crookshanks is just a frightful sight," said Hermione, "I was wondering if there was a pet groomer I could take him to when we got to Hogwarts."

"Is he going through the rubbish again?" said Ron with a mouthful of English muffins, "Couldn't you just perform the Scourgify spell on him?"

"I already have," said Hermione, "Twice, but he has fur missing in places and... well, he's just too much of a mess for any spell I know to handle."

"No Felino Repairo in the standard book of spells then?" asked Ron.

Hermione gave Ron a look and kept looking up a number with the phone held against her ear with her shoulder. Tim was fascinated with a story about Death Eaters spotted in London as he read a copy of the Daily Prophet shown to him by Ginny, who was proud to read up on the gossip of her twin brothers. Confused by the name of the paper in a literal sense, Tim asked if the Prophet actually reported the news before it happened. Everyone denied it, saying even in the wizarding world time travel was just a rumour. Harry whispered to Hermione to ask if Daily Prophet reporters ever actually used time turners.

"Did. Once. Ages ago," said Hermione as she was on hold, "Caused all sorts of hell. You wouldn't believe it. Well, maybe you would."

When he could get a moment alone, Neville explained to Harry part of the storage room had to be cordoned off until he and Hermione had a chance to categorize the rest of the Black family stock, which could take who knows how long. He put up a red ribbon that would be pushed further and further back as more of the storage room was cleared as safe. Oddly enough to Harry, Neville did not consider this to be a chore at all, to him this was like an adventure.

“Is there anything else down there you’ve come across?” asked Harry.

“No unforgivables,” said Neville, with an almost disappointed tone, butbrigbrightened up and said, “But loads of controlled substances and contraband!”

Immediately Neville covered his mouth as he realized what he just blurted out. Then he whispered this was the coolest summer he ever had. Harry and Ron were experimenting with this strange idea that everyone stuffed all their books into a single trunk in the kitchen.

“That trunk will be impossibly heavy to carry,” said Hermione as she jammed the lid shut down on her own books.

“We wont have to carry it further than a few feet,” said Harry.

Ron and Neville got behind the trunk and Harry picked up a handful of floo powder.

“You guys ready?” asked Harry.

Ron and Neville nodded, bracing themselves behind the trunk. Harry tossed the floo powder into the fireplace and called out;

“Gryffindor Tower!”

And Ron and Neville gave the trunk a huge shove into the fire where it disappeared into the great green flame.

“Ron!” Hermione called out.

“What?”

“Uhh, nothing, that was kind of brilliant actually,” said Hermione, “You sure that’ll work?”
y shy shouldn’t it?” asked Ron.

“Well, for one reason,” said Mrs. Weasley as she butt in, “The whole floo network will be bouncing around with all kinds of traffic today. Your luggage might collide with another on its way to Gryffindor Tower and get bounced into god knows where.”

Hermione suddenly took a disapproving expression and asked, “So you may have just sent all my books off to Knockturn Alley, then?”

Harry tried to answer but Ron cut him off by charging into the fireplace with two heavy suitcases in the grip of each hand and Crookshanks’ cage under his right arm, “One way to find out! GRYFFINDOR TOWER!”

And Ron then disappeared into a great green flame.

“We’ll be lucky he doesn’t wind up in Norway!” said Mrs. Weasley.

A moment later Ron came crashing back empty handed covered in dust. He got up brushing himself off.

“Everything’s fine,” said Ron, “I think I trampled a couple of house elves. They were there catching everything that went through. Now we just have to toss in Hermione’s and Ginny’s clothes and all we have to worry about for the train is our carry on luggage. But we better hurry, some elf told me someone is scheduled to start pushing their stuff through in ten minutes.”

Tim asked, “He was just at Hogwarts?”

“Yup,” said Harry.

“Cool!” said Tim.

Tim didn’t even ask why couldn’t they all go the same way and be there in an instant. Harry wouldn’t have it anyway. The first trip to Hogwarts by train was always a magical event for everyone involved. Arthur Weasley started to hit a bit of a panic when he entered the kitchen saying the ministry had not sent any car over to pick them up.

“I haven’t been able to get a hold of the ministry all morning,” said Mr. Weasley, “I better Apparate down there and see what the bloody hell’s going on.”

The young Auror, Ash Fundley, entered the kitchen looking haggard with his dark hair out of place.

“You don’t have to bother with that, Mr. Weasley,” said Ash as he nearly charged into the kitchen, “I just Apparated from there. Things are an awful fright, I must tell you.”

“What going on?” asked Arthur.

Ash did a take around the room to see it there were mostly members of the Order present and said, “Death Eaters were spotted near the London station. Might be the same ones who... mugged Tim.”

“They’re STILL after them?” asked Mr. Weasley, sounding like he didn’t believe it, “Bardwell must be too distracted about teaching at Hogwarts.”

“We’re they anywhere near platform 9 and ¾’s?” asked Mrs. Weasley.

“Not on my last count of it, no,” said Ash, “Still, it’s caused a hell of an uproar. The Aurors showed up inspecting the train. They even threatened to hold it up.”

“They may have done us a favour,” said Harry, “We don’t have a ride.”

“I just waved down two black cabs up front,” said Ash, “You all pack light? Good, let’s go.”

Ash explained he was sent to escort everyone to the train station. Despite the fact riding in a black cab was a thoroughly non-magical way to travel, you would never guess it from Tim’s expression. He and Ash rode with Hermione and Harry. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley said goodbye as they passed on the chance to come with them, figuring the Order would be calling on them any moment about the Death Eater sighting. Harry figured they were not over reacting, the ministry had shown up at the station in force. Right in plain sight of muggles everywhere there were Aurors walking about, but none of them were wearing robes. All of them were wearing a uniform with Auror colours that closely resemble muggle-style uniforms. Harry figured this must have been what they must have worn when having to work in close proximity to muggles.
There were also people dressed in plain muggle clothes like a police detective wearing Auror badges. Harry figured they must have been wizards in muggle guise, but another thought came across his mind as he remembered Daley Deval. Could it be possible that muggles were working in conjunction with wizards in combating Death Eaters? To Harry that idea just seemed bizarre, then he saw on several occasions Aurors talking with ordinary bobby’s, some of whom were wearing small Auror badges. Hermione slung her carry on bag over her shoulder and caught up to Harry’s chair.

“What a fright,” she said as she looked around, “Is the ministry recruiting muggles?”

Ash explained, “Most of them are squibs. Plenty of squibs are cops. They have the common sense not to try arresting Death Eaters themselves when investigating strange goings on, they also help keep the wizarding world a secret.”

Ron had a gum wrapper stuck to his shoe and hopped around to take it off.

“All this law around you’d think they could keep people from littering,” said Ron.

After he pulled it off Ron noticed the whole entrance was littered all the way past the ticket booth. As he bent over to pick them up, Ron noticed something strange in his hand. The wrapper had covered his fingers and palm with ash. Cursing a little, Ron clapped the soot off his hands.

At the ticket booth Ash said, “Right, you should be okay here. I need to be off. Good luck this year.”

Harry thanked Ash and they all said bye to him as he ducked behind a pillar and Apparated off. When Ron went to pick up his ticket at the booth, Harry noticed his hands were filthy.

“What happened to you?” Harry pointed and asked.

Ron pointed to the floor at the wrappers. The Harry noticed his wheelchair had run some of them over and his wheels were also covered with soot. When he looked to the platform, he noticed there were slightly larger wrappers, all black in colour and taking a funny shape. Neville noticed them and picked one up, then he tugged on Hermione’s sleeve and pulled her aside. Together the flipped through a book Neville had stashed into his carry-on bag.

Harry wheeled up to them and asked, “What are you two up to?”

Hermione shushed Harry and pulled him away from the platform so she and Neville can speak to him in private.

“Harry, I think we may have found another unforgivable,” said Hermione.

“Here?” asked Harry.

Neville held up a large piece of that black wrapper and said, “This stuff, I think it’s from the shell of an unforgivable.”

Neville held out a book that he took from the Black library.

“What are you doing with this?” asked Harry.

“Well, you have to admit, it’s a fascinating read,” said Neville, “It lists all known unforgivables in herbology.”

“It’s not a very big book,” said Harry.

“Well, there’s only thirteen of them,” said Neville as he pointed to one page, “This stuff on the floor, it matches the description of a shell that peels off of this.”

Neville pointed out the picture of a fiery demon that hatched from the shell of what looked like a large black acorn. The book explained these acorns were gathered from a magical fiery tree that only grew inside a volcano, the only place hot enough for it to exist. The tree was called the tree of Vulcan, the last one known to flourish was in the volcano of Krakatoa island. It hatched the acorns in a massive eruption that completely destroyed the island in the largest explosion ever recorded in modern history. In the blast the acorns were scattered across the globe, the total number of how many there were was unknown, anyone caught in possession of one was given an immediate sentence to Azkaban prison, due to the dangerous nature of them.
The acorns could only grow to a tree inside an active volcano, but if the acorns were cooked in a fire, the fire demons inside them would come out and wreck havoc and destruction until the air would become too cold for them to exist. Simple room temperature would be enough to keep them at bay, but if they had a source of fire they would be unstoppable monsters of destruction. These demons were known as Excardo Demons, more formidable in flame than any dragon.
After reading through these shivering facts, Harry was very disturbed to see a very detailed drawing of what the peeling shell from a hatching acorn of Vulcan looked like. Exactly like these little black wrappers they and every person in London station had been trampling over all morning.

Harry immediately began to feel doubts as he noticed a passage in the book and read it out loud, “According to this it takes three days to cook this thing to hatch. How could they use it as a weapon? Someone is going to notice a fire like that.”

Hermione thought for a moment, then as something horrible hit her, she took her carry one bag and turned it upside-down, dumping her contents onto the platform floor.

“Hermione! What are you doing?” asked Harry.

“No tim exp explainry,”ry,” said Hermione who kissed Harry, “Try to stop that train from leaving! I have to go back to the house and get something.”

“But you’ll never make it!” said Harry, “It leaves in five minutes.”

“I have a plan,” Hermione called out as she ran to the street, “Try to stop that train, and if you can’t then try to keep everyone as far away from the front of the train as you can!”

“The front of the train? What-?”

But Harry couldn’t get an answer, Hermione was gone running into the street.

“What’s she doing?” asked Ron as he and Luna noticed her leave.

“Bloody hell, we better do as she says,” said Harry, “Get to platform 9 and ¾’s, we’ve got to find an Auror and tell them to stop the train.”

Once they charged through the brick wall, startling Tim without giving a chance to explain what the entrance was, everyone noticed there weren’t too many Aurors on the other side. They seemed to be more concerned with finding Death Eaters at the station rather than in plain sight around platform 9 and ¾’s.

No time, thought Hermione, no time. No time to explain, hardly anytime to think, just run. Run for a magical bookstore she saw the very day she left for Hogwarts the very first time. Her father couldn't find a place to park by the station, so he had to leave the car in a multi level lot about a block away. Hermione saw a bookstore run by a wizard who recognized her Hogwarts' robes and sold her a map to all the magical places in London. Hermione remembered that store had all sorts of books and trinkets, but it also had a fireplace.

"We assure you, young man, the Aurors went over this train very carefully by all known magical means," said the uniformed Auror, who was dressed in full wizard robes rather than the muggle style uniform, "And I'm telling you, we would have found any unforgivables. Now you better get going."

"But you could have missed- ah damn!" Harry cursed as the stubborn Auror walked .
.

"What do we do now?" asked Ron.

"Do as Hermione said," said Harry, "Try to get everyone away from the front of the train."

"Oh that will be a lark," said Ron, "You do know the new professors will be sitting up the front of the train, don't you? They always sit up front."

"We'll wait here for Hermione until the train leaves," said Harry as he peered down the platform for a sign of anything, "Then we'll try our best to reason with them. Besides, maybe Bardwell will help us."

"Maybe we can hold up the train," said Neville.

"How?"

Neville looked at Harry's chair and said, "It doesn't have wheelchair access."

"But it doesn't need it, this chair can- wait, I get it," said Harry and he snapped his fingers, "We'll wait until the last minute, then make a big fuss, that should hold up the train."

"You think Hermione will make it?" asked Ron.

"Sheldn'ldn't have left without a plan," said Harry.

Todd Hoskinooksookstore had not been open on a Monday since he opened it over fifty yeago. go.

*CRASH*

With the help of a potted plant heaved through the glass his front door, it was opened today by Hermione Granger. With the skill and veracity of a hoodlum, Hermione kicked out the remaining pains of glass and forced her way into the store. Fortunately it was dark and looked abandoned inside, with typical untidy stacks of dusty books everywhere. Hermione made her way for the fireplace, kicking over piles of books on the floor that threatened to trip
T
The floo powder pot was a thoroughly ancient and rusty little thing, hung like a decoration right next to the fireplace. Muggles would walk by it all day not giving it a second glance thinking it was just a relic, Hermione reached in and pulled out a handful of magic that would have her at the House of Black in an instant. Crouched down in the fireplace, Hermione held the handful of dust and reflected, for just a second, she had never done this before.

"I'm telling you, the chair isn't going to fit!" Harry called out as the porter tried to wrestle Harry up the stairs.

An Auror trying to rush things along cam and pulled his wand out. Ginny gave an unnecessary shriek to get Harry's attention in her direction so he would see the Auror.

"I'll just shrink the chair," said the Auror.

"Not while I'm sitting in it!" Harry protested.

"Look, the only door wide enough to take the chair is either all the way at the front by the engine or all the way at the back," the porter explained.

Harry was about to say the front because that was farther away, but the Auror butted in and said, "To the back entrance, let's go."

The Auror tried to push Harry. Despite the fact Harry was riding in, by appearance, a modern chair, it had the most sorely rusted out stubborn wheels the Auror ever had to deal with in his life. Wedging the chair left and right the Auror pushed Harry's way to the back of the train, as Harry d thd the chair wouldn't frustrated the slow Auror too much and make him levitate or Apparate into the train.

Arthur Weasley was sharing a coffee in the kitchen with his wife Molly as they reminisced about some day they would soon miss sending their children off to Hogwarts.

"I tell you, Molly, it won’t be long before we send off our grandchildren to-"

*SPHOOO*

Hermione popped out of the fireplace.

"Hermione!" Arthur called out, "What on earth are you doing here? If you forgotten something we could have just-"

Arthur couldn't finish his sentence, Hermione got to her feet like hell was on her heels and hauled her carry on bag onto shoulder, then yanked the basement door open flinging herself down the stairs at a pace that could just as easily have her tumbling down them. Right at the bottom of the stairs, Hermione’s stomach collided with the handle of Sirius’ motorcycle, jamming painfully into her guts and she swore out loud.

"What was that all about?" asked Molly.

Arthur looked at his watch and said, "There's no way she's going to make it back."

.

"Don't think like that, Ron, she has to make it," said Harry.

Ginny, Tim, and Luna had got on near the front of the train, trying to talk students into heading to the back. Harry figured they weren't having the best of luck, as Luna was never really good at persuading anyone who wasn't in a habit of panicking at the sound of tall fables.

Harry turned to Neville and said, "Neville, think, what the hell does this fire demon have to do with the front of the train?"

Neville shrugged. Ron figured whoever wanted to set off the acorn of Vulcan they would probably want to take out the Aurors first, who would be riding at the front.

"But they need fire," said Harry, "Where are they-"

Harry's sentence was interrupted by the sound of the whistle, announcing the train was about to leave Hogwarts. A horrible thought immediately hit Harry's mind. "Sta"Stay away from the front of the train... OH MY GOD," Harry called out loud, "THE BOILER!"

Hermione yanked the drawer right out of the desk an upturned the contents onto the desktop. Deftly she snatched the keys and heaved the blackboard and panel aside. Then she said out loud;

"Left-centre-right-left... so the reverse to unlock it is left-right-centre-left."

The safe clicked open at a frustrating, slow pace that Hermione could not hasten no matter how hard she pulled. Breaking her nails, she tried to force the deposit box open, but it was stuck, then Hermione beat the lid with her fist.
The drawer was upturned on the desk. Hermione grabbed they keys and then heaved the panel aside. Out loud she said to herself;

"Left-centre-right-left... so the reverse to unlock it is- wait a minute! Didn't I just do this?!?"

Then it hit her, the failed time turner that randomly distorted time. She must have disturbed it when she banged the deposit box. Hoping that it threw Hermione back in real time instead of just repeating her lone actions, Hermione found the proper key for the drawer and lifted the unforgivable out. The heavy large and ugly root was in her bag and without bothering to close the vault or secure the office at all, Hermione ran back for the stairs knowing time was getting desperately scarce. She hit her side against the handle of Sirius' motorcycle, bruising her kidney badly before she could run up the stairs. Not five steps did she make when her watch beeped.

"OH FUCK!" Hermione cursed as she looked at the hour hand, "I didn't make it!"

Feeling the pain of her bruised side, Hermione despondently felt her kidney and looked ruefully at Sirius’ bike that held her up. Light reflecting from the silver bracelet dangling on its handle caused her eye to squint.

Harry looked out the back of the last car, watching the station pull away from him.

“Hermione, whatever you had planned, it’s going to happen without you,” he said woefully, then he turned to Ron and Neville, “Let’s find the D.A., they’ll listen to us if no one else will. Let’s save who we can and bring them all the way to the back of the train.”

“WE DON’T WANT NO TROUBLE!” a voice called out from the compartment next to them.

Harry looked in and saw Crabbe and Goyle sittinth ath a few Slytherins. It was obvious it was Goyle who called out to them as he stood up front with his fists ready.

“You don’t have to bring the D.A. back here,” said Goyle, “We tried to curse you last year cause Draco put us up to it, but he ain’t around-“

“Where’s Draco?” Harry asked in a demanding tone.

“He’s not riding with us,” Goyle said, “He’s way up front, somewhere.”

“Like the engine?” asked Harry.

“Maybe,” said Goyle.

“Fuck me! We betto,” o,” said Harry who turned his chair down the hall and took off.

Before Ron caught up he stuck his head in the coach, faced the Slytherins and said, “You might want to budge over, it’s going to get crowded in here.”

Arthur was on the phone in the kitchen as his wife fussed over.

“She just popped out of the bloody floo like a stripper from a birthday cake-“

“Arthur!”

“Sorry Molly,” said Arthur, who went back to the phone, “You better check that train, I think something’s up and... what’s that sound?”

Something like a chainsaw came from the basement, which roared and boomed with rattles of something thundering up the stairs. Then in an explosion of fright the basement door was shattered into splinters and Hermione Granger came through, riding a Norton 850 Commando in full leather regalia, right down do dragonhide boots, gloves, riding goggles and a hat that looked like it was stolen from Marlon Brando starring in “The Wild Ones”.
Hermione could barely control the bike and slammed the rear wheel against the kitchen table trying to face it towards the fireplace. The impact shoved the table back knocking over glasses and plates as Mrs Weasley just shrieked. Hermione grabbed the pot of floo powder, then revved tike ike away from the fireplace, put on the front brakes and spun the rear end around to face the floo.

“Hermione? What are you doing?” screamed Mrs. Weasley, “Have you gone MAD?”

Hermione only stopped to look at them for a moment and said as she placed the pot to her left on the kitchen table, “Get the Order! Dumbledore! The train to Hogwarts is in great danger!”

Hermione couldn’t hear what Mrs. or Mr. Weasley were saying in reply to that. She made sure her carry bag was secure around her shoulder, then revved the engine facing the fireplace. She would have to time this perfectly or she would crash into solid stone. First the clutch had to be released with her left hand, hit the gas and grab some floo powder on her way to the fireplace and toss it just in time toe ite it through. Ducking low with tire rubber chewing up kitchen tile, she gave it all she had.
Dodgy old Mr. Hoskins was hiding behind the cash register of his store, after being woken from the upstairs by the sound of glass smashing. He constantly pointed his shaking wand around, ready for attack as he spoke on the phone in a panic.

"Hoodlums! Hoodlums!" he stammered, "They broke in! They-they-they could be anywhere!"

"Is anyone there right now?" asked the patient voice on the phone.

*SPHOOOOM*BRAAAAW*

Quicker than poor old Mr Hoskins could even register, a motorcycle exploded from his floo, ran over a dozen books, and smashed through what was left of his front door.

"HOODLUM! BASTARD ROCKER SCUM! I RECOGNIZE YOU!" Mr Hoskins screamed, "I'M CALLING YOUR MOTHER, SIRIUS BLACK!"

On the street and in the open, Hermione finally opened up the bike and worked her way through the gears. In her mind she was running through how to properly keep the bike up to speed.

"Pull the clutch, ease up on the gas a little, shift up, release the clutch, give it some gas," Hermione said to herself as she whizzed past a delivery truck by mere inches," Oh, yeah, and DON'T HIT ANYTHING."

When she gave it some gas the bike's power surprised her greatly by suddenly accelerating and lifting the front wheel off the ground. Hermione wheelied through traffic for nearly half a block until she came upon the train station and put the front end down by applying some brake. Now all she had to do was get the bike past the turnstiles.
Passengers on their way to the platform were greatly startled by the sight of this leather clad Amazon riding an enormous black motorcycle, leaping it over the turnstiles and then burning rubber down the platform. A large bald porter stood in shock of this bike flying by.

"Lord Strewth!" he called out, "I've never seen the like."

His older co-worker shrugged and said in his Liverpoolian accent, "That's nuthin', I wunce saw Evul Ku-nevul at Wumbley Stadium. Now 'at wus a jump. Mind you, ‘e DID crash, the great pillock."

Hermione counted the pillars, hit the gas, and hoped no one was coming through the other way through the entrance to platform 9 and ¾’s. Two Aurors were nearly knocked down as Hermione rushed by so close to them it blew their robes up in the air and they coughed from the exhaust. The train had left, by Hermione's account only a few minutes. She leapt the bike off the platform and onto the tracks, hoping the suspension would take the beating and not crash the bike, it stayed upright, barely.
Several Aurors were giving pursuit and called out to her, but whatever they said was meaningless now. With the wheels bouncing on the rails Hermione really opened it up, this time taking the bike out of second gear and seeing just how fast its top speed was. The power of the machine truly impressed her, and as the cylinder was pushed to its stride she decided if she lived to see the end of the day, this was what she wanted to ride. She thought her experience riding a bicycle would prepare her, but it didn't. This machine was a heavy and lively thing rattling like a mad beast between her thighs, and it felt good.

Always pushing his glasses up, an excited and bouncing Tim was with his new friends, leading the pack Luna and Ginny gathered and then spotted Harry at the back of the car.

"Harry!" Ginny called out as she ran, "We found most of the DA. They agreed to round up whoever they can and head for the back of the car."

"Great!" said Harry, "Get Tim and everyone else as far back to the last car as you can, this might be a bloody disaster."

"What's going on? Where are you headed?" asked Ginny.

"I'm going to the front, Death Eaters may be sabotaging the engine," said Harry.

Dean Thomas bussled up to the front of the crowd and said, "Harry! We should go with you."

"No!" said Harry, "If the engine blows the chair can fly me out of there."

"You're not going alone," said Ron.

"Right, just Ron then," said Harry, "The chair can carry both of us if we have to bail."

"No!" said Ginny.

"Look, I need all of you to evacuate the forward cars, I can't do that myself," said Harry, "Dean! Try to find the porter and see if you can get them to uncouple the cars away from the train. Think you can do that?"

"I'll bloody give it a good try," said Dean.

As Harry and Ron headed up front through the crowd of students heading back, Tim pleaded to go with Harry but Harry refused. He wanted Tim safe. Then something cameRon.Ron.

"Did any of you see Malfoy up front?" he asked.

A Hufflepuff girl said, "I saw him hanging around the engineer just before the train left. I saw nothing of him since."

"Bloody hell, we've got ourselves traitor," said Ron.

"We don't know that, Ron," said Harry.

"He's trying to do us in!" said Ron.

"And himself?" asked Harry, "We haven't passed him on the way up. I wouldn't hang around the engine with that thing about to go off."

"I'll bet we'll find him, the nutter," said Ron.

Once in the forward car, Harry saw a very tall, and very dark haired lady trying to investigate what the fuss in the front car was. Harry could only surmise this must be the second Auror, and likely the new head of Slytherin House. She had an odd kind of dress to her that he more expected from a German teenage Goth with lots of highly ornate rings and bracelets inter-connected with chains and links. She even had, what Harry could see of the pale skin on her forearm a tattoo.
The woman and Professor Bardwell, now dressed in very attractive civilian clothes that showed off her endowed womanly figure both noticed Harry at the same time.

"You," the tall woman screeched in an accusing tone, "What's going on here?"

Harry took a deep breath, experience telling him this conversation was going to go nowhere fast and simply said, "Death Eaters have tampered with the engine, it can explode."

The woman's reaction was easy enough to predict, but the expression from Bardwell is what really hurt Harry, like she came to the realization Harry was a complete loon.

"Nonsense," said the woman.

Harry was prepared for a rebuttal and reached between his leg and the armrest and pulled out a piece of the withered black shell found by Neville.

"You’re a potions master, you tell me what this is," asked Harry.

Harry handed the tall woman the shell piece and she examined it expertly. Her expression did not change, but Bardwell, a trained Auror and expert in unforgivables instantly registered a serious tone.

Harry pointed towards the engine and said, "If someone arranged for an acorn of Vulcan to hatch aboard this train, where would they do it?"

The tall woman glanced behind her at the engine for a moment, then she looked to Harry and said, "It would take days to hatch in there."

"Not if they pre-cooked it for two days," said Harry, "Which is why the shell piece you're holding there was already peeling off."

That was it, thought Harry, Hermione already figured it out. The pieces they found on the platform were coming off an acorn that was cooked and timed to go off at a certain moment like a time bomb. All they had to do was toss it in the furnace and walk. But certainly anyone who planted it would take off right away, that was the whole point of using a timed device. Why on earth would Draco be hanging around the engine if he planted it?
A gush of steam poured from the engine stack as sparks suddenly exploded out the top. Then, a roar like nothing on earth rattled its way down the corridor, sending shivers like Dementors down everyone's spine. The expression on the two Auror's faces told it all to Harry, the acorn of Vulcan had hatched.

"We don't have much time!" said Bardwell, "If the fire demon builds up too much pressure in the boiler, it will explode! Gully! Take the students to the back and tell the porter to uncouple the cars away from the engine!"

"But you'll need help!" said the tall woman.

"They'll only listen to you, it has to be you," said Bardwell, who then turned to Harry, leaned on his wheelchair and looked him seriously in the eye, "Do you know the Glacius spell?"

"I taught it to the D.A. members," said Harry.

"Excellent," said Bardwell, who then faced Ron, "What about you?" "I l"I learned it from him," said Ron, who looked frightened and pointed to Harry.

"Right, good enough," said Bardwell, "Gully! Don't argue with me, just go. Leave this car attached to the engine, we'll escape on it if we can. You two, up front with me, now!"

As they made their way the train suddenly lurched forward with a gust of extra speed. The extra pressure was causing the engine to speed up out of control.

"The engineer must be down," said Bardwell, "It's worse than I thought, if he doesn't release the pressure valve or control the speed the train will hurl itself out of control around a bend somewhere."

"Draco probably knocked him out," said Ron.

"What?" asked Bardwell

"Dirty little scabber is riding up front," said Ron, "He wasn't anywhere on the train. And is father is a leader in-"

"I know who is father is," said Bardwell, "Let's go!"

Ron pulled his wand out and looked at it reluctantly, "Can we put out a fire demon with the Glacius spell?"

"No spell can put out a fire demon," said Bardwell as pulled out her wand and marched to the front of the car, "We're just going to rescue the engineer and the Malfoy boy and get the hell out of there as fast as we can."

"greagreat," said Ron, "Risk our lives to save Draco, the guy who's trying to kill us."

Professor Gully picked up a small first year girl from the forward car and lifted her over the porter who was tryto dto decouple them. The porter struggled with the pin, then inserted a crank into the link mechanism and tried to turn it. Dean Thomas stepped in and helped him muscle it around. The coupler separated the two cars and they slowly drifted back from the forward car. Professor Gully stopped the porter from hitting the brakes too hard.

"Let it coast," said Gully, "We should to see what happens to them."

Turning the brake wheel, the porter eased up on the brakes letting the cars' momentum carry them forward, but kept his hand on it ready to stop the cars quickly in case the engine exploded. He told Dean Thomas to man the brakes on the other car, and keep an eye on him.

"If you see me turn this wheel lad, you do the same," said the porter.

Dean nodded and was about to run off, then he pointed to a light approaching them from behind which could be seen around a turning bend.

"What's that?" Dean asked.

Then a distant buzzing sound could be heard. The light took to the air, and they could hear something hit the roof of the train. Carefully the porter stepped onto the railing to peer over the roof of the train, and nearly got a face full of Dunlop tire coming at him at 50 miles an hour. Below him Ginny struggled through the gaping crowd just in time to see the motorcycle land on the tracks and then accelerate to catch up to the engine.

"That's Hermione!" she cried out, "She's going to help rescue them!"

"Crazy girl," said Gully, "She'll never catch up, the engine is pulling away."

Members of the DA and Gryffindor cheered Hermione on as they watched the motorcycle rev so hard Hermione lifted the front wheel up for several dozen yards. Just a bit of flame could be made out in the distance and the porter leaned way out to peer at the chugging locomotive.

"I think the engine cabin is on fire!" he called out.

That put the students in the drifting cars into a bit of a panic, but that was nothing compared to the panic they would have been in if they had actually seen the cabin up close. Standing behind the sliding door in the narrow corridor of the coal car Harry could see flames and jets of smoke beating against the glass. Bardwell grabbed the door handle and took the battle stance of an experience warrior.

"Wands ready!" she called out as Ron took position to her right, "Brace yourselves! Remember, it doesn't matter if it's too loud for you tor thr the sound of your own voice. Just keep casting the Glacius spell. Don't aim for the tentacles-"

"Tentacles?" cried out Ron.

"Just fire at the furnace opening as much as you can to keep the flames back so we can evacuate the engineer and anyone else in there."

Harry couldn't believe anyone could remain alive in that hellish onslaught, and his opinion grew far worse instantly, as Bardwell waited for a pause in the e hie hitting the door and gave it a powerful shove aside. The whole engineer's cabin was blinded by smoke and flame. Occasional jets and explosions came from the furnace that had its door blown off. Dangerous blasts of steam were coming from several valves. Right away Harry could see Bardwell almost trip over the body of the engineer, and she bent down to perform and Invigorate charm on him to waken him.
There was a banging noise coming from the ceiling, and Harry looked up to see dark rooted tentacles, parts of which seemed to be made of flame, sprouting up from the furnace opening. What looked like a giant jet of steam, going in the wrong direction towards the furnace rather than from it came from above. It was Draco Malfoy, trapped in one of the tentacles and fighting back with the Glacius spell. He was being flung about the cabin, the monster was trying to keep him away from the furnace as Draco struggled to get a good shot. Harry called out the spell, but the power of his voice seemed to be utterly muffled by the maelstrom in the room, as though the blasting force of heat shoved Harry's very words back down his scorched throat. The torrential flurry of burning heat against his face felt like it could melt Harry’s glasses. The chair reacted and magically binded Harry with a six point restraining harness, then it stood its ground, advancing slowly on the furnace. Harry repeatedly fired the Glacius spell at the furnace as he ignored the hits he was taking.

Bardwell hollered up as loud as she could, "Keep it up, Harry!"

Ron was firing stunning spells at the tentacle holding Draco, and was missing badly. Draco looked like he was in bad shape, covered in soot and burns, his robes were tattered to a mess yet he kept up a fight. Bardwell tried to call out to Ron not to bother with stunning spells as they were useless against a fire demon. The engineer interrupted her.

"The gages," he sputtered out, "The release valve is fused, he have to get out of here. The boiler is going to explode."

"What if I bust the valve and bleed pressure-?"

"It's too late, we have to leave!"

Bardwell kept and eye on Harry, who was nearly beaten black by the smoke spewing from the furnace and was keeping up a fight mercilessly firing the Glacius spell at the furnace. Bardwell shot a demolition spell with superb aim at the tentacle holding Draco Malfoy sending him crashing to the floor. The tentacle reeled but extended again almost instantly, feeling around for another victim. With Draco protesting, Ron lifted Draco up under the shoulders and dragged him out of the cabin.

"C'mon Harry!" called out Ron as he struggled with Draco's weight.

"We're not finished!" said Harry, as though determined to extinguish the fire.

"The engine's lost, Harry," Bardwell as she helped the engineer to his feet, "Retreat, I'll separate the cars."

"No!"

"Harry! The Hogwart's engine is lost!" cried out Bardwell, "Don't throw your life away for a machine."

Harry turned back and said "It's not just a machine!"

Quickly Harry pushed his glasses up and eyes widened as he saw something behind them that made him cry out;

"DUCK!"

Ron pushed Draco down and hit the floor, right over him a flying motorcycle cycle leaping over the coal car crashed into the engineer's cabin. Dressed in her motorcycle dragon leathers that repelled the flames like an asbestos suit, Hermione staggered up off the floor and opened her carry on bag.

"Ms. Granger!" Bardwell called out, "What on earth are you doing here?"

With the flames beating against her back, Hermione lifted the root out of the bag. Instead of being shocked or horrified by what it was, Bardwell pointed to it and said.

"A Frigus root! That'll work!" said Bardwell, "If we can toss it in the furnace it will expel that demon instantly. But you're not strong enough, Hermione! We'll have to get close to get it in there, give it to me."

Bardwell was finally shocked to see that under the leather hat and goggles, Hermione's human features transformed into a werewolf like appearance with long whiskers. Hermione bent down lifted the whole weight of the grown engineer and hoisted his arm around Bardwell's shoulder.

"I'm strong enough," said Hermione, "You should go."

Not knowing how to react to what she just saw, Bardwell could only carry the engineer out of the cabin. Harry and Hermione made eye contact for a moment, he did not want to leave her to face this demon alone, but he knew she was far better equipped to face this task than he was, and he had faith in her. They could not speak, Hermione turned her cat eyes towards the blazing furnace with sparks bouncing off her goggles. Harry eateeated out of the cabin, but remained by the edge of the door in the coal car to follow what she did. He would not Apparate off the train for all the galleons in the world. Bardwell leaned over his shoulder to also follow Hermione's heroism.

"You can leave if you want to," said Harry, "I'm staying."

"I'm not going anywhere," said Bardwell.

Draco climbed up off the floor completely covered in ash and called out, "You lot can stay here and blow up, I'm getting the bloody hell out of here."

And he nearly pushed Ron to the floor as he ran to the back. Hermione kept her left arm up, using the massive dragonhide gloves to shield her face from the flames and held the Frigus root in her pitching arm. The weight of it seemed as light as a balloon in her grnd snd she worried it would just blow away from the furnace blast. She couldn't tell from her superhuman strength, but it had mass. Marching forward until her goggles blackened and her whiskers singed, Hermione raised the root. A long stem sticking out the side reached her mouth and she bit down on it with fanged teeth. The stem pulled away like the pin of a hand grenade, and Hermione raised the football-sized root up. Blasts from the furnace intensified as the engine rivets began to pop away from all over the boiler from the pressure. The demon inside intensified his battle as though it knew what was coming and tried to knock Hermione off her feet with a huge blast of flame.
Standing her ground, Hermione waited a moment for the flame to retreat and the furnace took a gulp of air. The negative pressure gave her the opportunity she wanted, and she flung the root deep into the furnace.

There was an explosion.

But not outwards, the boiler impacted from being instantly shifted from red hot heat to a frozen temperature. This caused a deformity in the engine frame that seized up the wheels, locking them and skidding the engine to a halt. Everyone behind Hermione was thrown to the floor, Harry tumbled from his chair from the sudden braking. Draco, who was looking to jump off the rear car was almost thrown onto the tracks. He was about to leap off the car after it stopped until he saw the other cars still drifting forwand and he panicked and ran back forward in the car, fearing they would collide.
The porter gradually worked the brake to stop the cars just a few yards behind the forward car, and he waved at Dean Thomas to keep turning the brake wheel until they came to a complete stop. The first thing Professor Gully could see was the engineer, carefully hopping off the cabin and limping around the outside of the engine to inspect it. She climbed down to the tracks and ordered the students to remain on board the train. The windows of the engine cabin looked completely blackened. She climbed up to the car and saw Draco Malfoy near the front.

"Did we crash?" he asked with a shaking voice.

"No we did not," said Professor Gully, "You, you're the Malfoy boy, you're one of mine, aren't you? How did you get your Slytherins robes in such an awful state?"

Malfoy looked as though he couldn’t answer, and covered himself in the corner, cowering and crying from his burns.

"Answer me!" demanded Professor Gully.

The door to the coal car slid open, revealing a slightly battle damaged Professor Bardwell.

"He'll have a lot of questions to answer," said Bardwell, "The least of which would be his dishevelled state of dress. Draco Malfoy? Until this act of terrorism is resolved, you will have to consider yourself under house arrest."

"He's one of my students!" protested Professor Gully, "It's my decision to his fate in Hogwarts."

"You decide his fate as a student, I decide his fate as a free wizard. He can remain in house arrest in Slytherin Tower," said Bardwell, "But I'm the Auror in charge of this criminal investigation."

"You can't teach and run a criminal investigation at the same time!" said Professor Gully.

"I don't have much of a choice, now do I?" asked Bardwell, "I'm the only Auror witness on scene. Any other Auror investigating this would have to be through second hand accounts to what happened, and this is too important to leave in anyone else's hands. Besides, I take it a little personal when somebody tries to kill me and every single student of Hogwarts."

Ron tried to shove past Bardwell as he shot a comment at Draco, "That's what this little Death Eater tried to do to us! Send him to Azkaban!"

Bardwell pushed Ron back and told him to leave her and Gully alone. Then she took Draco and gingerly led him into a cabin, Bardwell mentioning he would have to be taken to a hospital to treat his burns. Ron was disgusted over what he saw as the soft handedness Draco was getting and turned back to the engineer's cabin, there Hermione was lifting Harry’s chair upright and helped Harry back into it. Harry overheard Ron, and was scanning the cabin.

"What makes you think Draco did this?" asked Harry.

"Well he has to be on the top ten list of Hogwarts Death Eater recruitment list for one thing," said Ron, "Not to mention his father is probably in charge of the Death Eaters now."

"Aside from also killing all the Slytherins, do you think he intended to die?" asked H.
.

"What do you mean?" asked Ron.

"If Draco tossed that acorn of Vulcan into the fire, he didn't leave himself any way to get off the train," said Harry, "If he wanted to get away he should have at least brought his broom with him. I've been looking all over this cabin, there's nothing here."

"Maybe that demon caught it and dragged it into the furnace," said Ron.

"If it's in there they should still be able to find a few pieces of it," said Harry, "That broom was made of metal in several key pieces, all of them magicked to withstand just about anything. That's what makes the Nimbus 2001 such a durable broom, but I don't think they'll find it in there."

"What makes you say that?" asked Ron.

"If this was done by Draco, it just seems so poorly planned," said Harry, "IF he wanted to get away, all he had to do was chuck the acorn into the fire and leave on his broom."

"Maybe he got into a fight with the engineer after he tossed it in," said Ron. He wHe would have said something by now," said Harry as he looked outside at the engineer climbing over the cold and shattered boiler, "And if Draco intended to die, why did he put up such a fight at the end?"

"He's a coward, maybe he changed his mind or went crazy or something," said Ron, "I can see him changing his mind when he found out he would be burned to death instead of just blowing up instantly. Burning is a pretty messed up way to go."

"He botched it,” said Harry as he shook his head, expressing doubt, “If it was him he sure botched it up awful badly.”.

Harry thought it was odd Hermione had not said anything after she had transformed back to her normal self. She was bent over the fallen motorcycle and was looking strangely distraught. The weight of the bike had bent the handlebar with the clutch on it, and the fire had partially melted and ruined the front tire. Harry wheeled up to her as he could tell the stress of the event had gotten to Hermione and he asked how she was.

"The flight charm is broken," said Hermione as she ran her hand over the tank, "We can fix the bike, thank god the front forks aren't bent, but I'm not sure we can get it flying again."

"Hey, don't worry about it," said Harry, "If it was totally ruined, Sirius would have been proud it went out with style in a wicked act of heroism."

"Yeah, Hermione, you totally rocked when that thing crashed in here!" exclaimed Ron, "Especially when you tossed that unforgivable-"

Ron was suddenly cutting himself off in mid sentence as he realized what he just said. Being raised in the wizarding world, he knew the fate of all who handled Unforgivables, for good or bad reasons.

Harry looked to Hermione with a serious look on his face and said, "There's no way- NO WAY they're going to chuck you into Azkaban. Not for this. I'll turn before I let them take you away. I swear I'll take on the whole damn ministry-"

"Harry, it was my choice," said Hermione as she choked back tears, "And it's my choice to take responsibility for it. You're not going to throw your life away too for me."

The room seemed to blast again from the force of Harry's anger, "THEY'RE NOT TAKING YOU AWAY! I WONT LET THEM I-"

"What makes you think she's going anywhere, Mr Potter?" asked Bardwell as she poked her head into the engineer's cabin with a confused and casual look on her face.

"She's not?" Harry asked in an almost threatening tone.

"The only place she's headed is Gryffindor Tower," said Bardwell, "If we can get going before sundown, I hope. Thanks for your assistance, Ms Granger, but I'm afraid that motorcycle is an unregistered vehicle, and you were riding without a permit. 40 galleon fine."

"Consider it paid," said Harry.

Bardwell regarded the bike and said, "That's Sirius' old ride, isn't it? It's an excellent machine. If you want to get your rider's permit at Hogwarts this year, get it fixed up and I'll teach you how to ride it properly. How about you, Harry?"

"Thanks but no thanks, I'm into brooms," said Harry.

"Right, I need to talk to the engineer, don't try to levitate that bike anyway while I'm gone, okay?" asked Bardwell, "By the way, LOVE your outfit, Hermione. You wear that to your riding lessons. That is one proper bit of riding gear."

After she left Hermione let out an exasperated cry of emotional relief, combining crying and laughing.

"Sorry I wrecked your bike, Harry," she said as she sat next to it.

"Don't worry, we can fix it up."

"How?"

"Hagrid has got to be the closest thing to a mechanic around Hogwarts," said Harry, "He knows how to ride bikes, I bet he can help."

"But the damage-"

"I'll pay for the damage," said Harry, "And I'll cover the fine. That was obviously a message from Bardwell she's letting us off easy. Roll with it, Hermione."

"Harry, how do I pay you back?"

"I'll make a deal with you, you care for the bike until next year, when we have to take it back to London," said Harry, "You'll have your permit by then, and you can return it back to the House of Black. For now, it's your ride."

"Harry, that's too generous."

"I'm asking you to ride that thing across the whole of England to bring it home," said Harry, "That's no small deal, that's a big task, Hermione."

Hermione thought to herself, not to mention one heck of an adventure to look forward to next summer. Getting curious about the state of the engine, Harry and Hermione looked outside to the engineer who was talking to Bardwell and Gully. He pointed to the damage across the locomotive to explain their predicament.

"The boiler is collapsed and cracked and the frame is twisted," said the engineer.

"That sabotage sure did a number on it," said Gully.

"It wasn't the demon, missy," said the engineer, "That damage I could have fixed with a few welding spells. It was that whirl-a-maggig that put the fire out. It caused the boiler to implode. The frame is out of alignment and it warped the axels on all the drive wheels. I don't even want to assess the damage to the pistons, yet."

"So your saying even if we brought another engine to tow us, this engine wont roll?" asked Bardwell.

"Oh my, that would cause even more irreparable damage," said the engine, "This thing needs to be lifted onto a bed and hauled out."

"What do you recommend?" asked Bardwell.

"There's a muggle crane service about 50 miles up," said the engineer, "They can lift this out. The frame is still stable, that wont be a problem. Then we can hire another engine to come take us out."

"Another engine, from muggles?" asked Gully with a distasteful tone, "What do you think they'll s"
"

"Probably a diesel," said the engineer.

Gully sounded incredulous over the idea of a diesel taking students to Hogwarts. The neerneer just couldn't understand what the big deal was and mentioned the engine that had been taking students to Hogwarts for over a century was thoroughly muggle in nature.

"It's just coal and steam, no difference between that and diesel, it'll still get you there," the engineer explained.

After consulting that there was no magical options to get to Hogwarts any quicker, the engineer was left to his solution, and he used a cell phone to call ahead for a crane lift, and a bed, which proved to be quite a site. As they waited for the crane to arrive, Hermione and members of the DA lifted the motorcycle up and rolled it into the forward car where the luggage was stowed. Four hours after they were stranded, the Hogwarts engine was being lifted in the air by a massive crane, which hydraulically unfolded a mechanical counter balance that made the whole thing look like a magical construction of massive pulleys and steel cables.

Ginny marvelled at 75 tonnes of black iron being lifted into the air and she asked, "How do they get the engine around the crane to pull us away?"

"They don't," replied the porter, "They simply connect the cars to the train bed and haul the whole lot of us to the switch, then there we disconnect, transfer the crane and the Hogwarts engine to the train yard and connect us to the hired diesel."

When they did finally say good bye to the Hogwarts engine at the switch, everyone was a little surprised by the fact the diesel engine was less than half the size of what they were expecting. The new engineer waited on the far side of the switch and he walked up to the Hogwarts cars, Gully pointed disdainfully at his tiny engine and asked;

"What is that?"

The engineer looked at the Hogwarts cars and asked, "You said just five cars, right?"

"Yes."

"Right, well that's it, then," said the lean young engineer, looking confused, "What did you expect, a big spankin’ freighter? Let's go."

A lot of students unfamiliar with muggle technology had extreme doubts this tiny engine could haul them all the way to Hogwarts in any decent length of time, an were quite surprised to see it easily got them going to nearly one and a half times the speed the original Hogwarts engine could travel. Draco was riding in the same car as the professors, alone in a compartment just ahead of them. He was kept under a blanket and was treated by magical first aid as bestProfProfessor Gully knew. She also gave Draco a pain suppressing potion she kept in her travel bag. It kept Draco quiet and out of the way, though he did not seem to be in a talkative mood anyway.
Hermione secured the motorcycle to iron posts holding the luggage up with bungee cord with help from Ron and Harry. She admired how her leather outfit withstood the fight with the fire demon, then tapped the bracelet three times to put it away. Then Hermione tried to help Harry with his burned clothes and mentioned he should get into his robes to cover the mess. Ron was perfectly happy walking around like he just rolled in a campfire. When they left the luggage compartment they passed Draco, not saying anything, then came across Professor Bardwell in the other compartment who was holding up a magical device that looked like a thick brass magnifying glass. It measured the speed of the train.

"Better than 60 mph," she said, "At this rate, we'll only be three hours late."

Gully sniffed and said, "It's not natural, and I can't even hear the engine running from here."

Harry leaned forward in his chair to speak to Bardwell and asked if she needed him and the other DA members to make statements for her investigation.

"Not now but you will when we get to Hogwarts," said Bardwell, "We want to get the House sorting done before the end of the day so we may have to put it off until tomorrow. We may have to do depositiand and everything at the ministry before the end of the week. Sorry to drag you from school, Harry.”

"How's Draco doing?" asked Harry.

"We're going to have to leave him in the nurse's ward until further notice," said Bardwell, "Almost everyone I asked says he hasn't spoken a word all day. The engineer said he asked to ride up front because he didn't want to ride with the other students."

"I can understand that after the incident at the Ministry with his father," said Harry, "Did the engineer say anything else about him?"

"Like did he see Draco chuck anything into the furnace?" asked Bardwell, smiling knowing Harry was going to investigate on his own, "Nothing at all like that. The engineer swears Draco sat in that corner and kept to himself the whole trip until the furnace exploded. He says he would have seen Draco tampering with the engine, and since the engineer stokes the furnace I figure he's right."

"Couldn't he have turned his attention away from it for a moment?" asked Harry.

"According to him, absolutely not," explained Bardwell, "The only time the engineer was ever away from the cabin was when he went outside to inspect the engine, and that would have been before any students arrived, including Draco."

"And the Death Eater sighting at the London station was right after that?" asked Harry.

"If the Death Eaters planted the acorn into the furnace, that would have been their moment," said Bardwell, "Why don't you grab some seats and relax for the restthe the trip. See how your ward Tim is doing, he's got a lot to look forward to."

Harry insisted that the DA was at Bardwell's disposal if needed and left. He kept an eye open for Tim and saw him riding with two girls his own age. One had short hair, wore glasses and had an oriental look to her, the other had long curly red hair and a very wide mouth she didn't mind expressing with a huge laugh. Tim was speaking with them excitedly about the hat ceremony.

Harry didn't want to bud in and just asked, "Hey, have you guys seen the trolley yet?"

When Tim replied no Harry tossed him a couple of galleons and told him to treat himself and his new friends. Then he left him to get acquainted with his new friends.

"Two girls he's making friends with on his first day?" asked Ron, "Tim's a bit of a player he is."

Hermione slapped Ron's shoulder.

"I just heard that dark haired one say she has a relative in Slytherin," said Ron as he listened to the compartment, "Says she can't get in herself because she's not pure blood. Can you imagine a half blood WANTING to get into Slytherin? That's just weird, that is."

Harry thought about the Slytherins for a moment and said, "Let's go to the rear car. I want to check on something."

"Harry?" Hermione asked in a warning tone.

"It's not serious, itust ust something I want to confirm," said Harry.

After passing the car with the DA members gathered in it, Harry explained he wanted to go through the Slytherin's luggage to check on Draco's baggage. Hermione thought it was reckless, of course, and mentioned Harry shouldn't go interfering with Bardwell's investigation but Harry was persistent and suggested just he and Ron should go to remain unnoticed. There were no Slytherins in the corridor of the rear car and Harry's chair glided silently just an inch off the floor to make no noise.
In the luggage compartment there were two Slytherins sneaking a cigarette and having a snog. Harry waited until they left before going in as he and Ron hid behind the sliding door between the cars. Once inside he and Ron went through the luggage.

"What are we looking for?" asked Ron.

"This," said Harry, as he held up a polished handle with ornate brass inlay, "Draco's broom. He didn't take it with him. This proves if he planted that acorn he had no escape route."

"Maybe he simply forgot it," asked Ron.

"Would you forget something like this?" asked Harry.

"You know, the Slytherins always ride in the back," said Ron, "Maybe he figured they would survive the explosion."

"Have you ever seen a train derailment?" said Harry, "That big one that happened in Spain two years ago killed almost everyone on board, no matter where they were riding, front or back."

"So the nutter is suicidal," said Ron, "Take out the whole train, Slytherins and all, himself included."

"If he's guilty, then that's what we have to assume," said Harry as he put the broom back, "Have you ever thought Draco to be suicidal?"

"I heard Aurors mention the Death Eaters are terrorists," said Ron, "Terrorists perform id mid missions all the time."

Harry looked out into the hall to sneak out again.

"Terrorist is a muggle phrase," said Harry, "I agree it pertains to Death Eaters, but those people who commit suicide we've seen on the news, they do it because their religion promises them rewards in heaven. Is there anything like that among the Death Eaters?"

"Damned if I know," said Ron.

Just as they turned to leave the car, they ran right into Goyle, looking right at them standing in the hall. Both Ron and Harry reached for their wands but Goyle raised his hand.

"Wait!" he said.

Goyle looked around, then backed up into the space between the cars and beckoned Harry and Ron to follow him. Once they were in the space between the cars Goyle looked around to see if anyone saw them and slid the door shut.

"We’ve heard what's happen sai said Goyle.

"You must be pretty stuttered you're leader is in custody of the Aurors," said Ron, in a challenging tone, "Maybe he'll warm up a cell in Azkaban for the rest of you."

"Look, you have to know, all right? He hasn't spoken to any of us all summer," said Goyle, "No one from Slytherin has had any contact with him at all since last school year."

Ron whispered to Harry, "He's dodging us."

"Why are you telling us this?" asked Harry.

"We want you to know we've had no part in anything Draco has done," said Goyle, "I told you, we want no trouble. If Draco has been working with the Death Eaters he left us out of it. None of us have been near Death Eaters this summer."

"Your father is a Death Eater," said Harry.

Goyle retreated rather timidly from that statement, a rather unusual sight from him. He looked down and away as though he couldn't face Ron and Harry.

"I haven't seen him since last year," Goyle, le, "I've hardly ever seen Dad for the past four years. I've... I've been living alone with me mum all summer. Dad left her out of it."

"What about Draco, where has he been staying all summer?" asked Harry, "Both of his parents were implicated to be with the Death Eaters."

Goyle had to think for a moment, then he said, "Mum heard he's supposed to be living with his Aunt, but he isn't. He just stays in his mansion all by himself and that servant of his. Neither of them are of age, so I hear he's been on the run from Child Protection Services all summer."

"Draco's on the run from muggle CPS?" asked Harry, almost amused, "That must be bloody humiliating that is."

"They'll never catch him, he's too clever," said Ron, "Child protection is nothing more than a gussied up bunch of truant officers, they can't catch a wizard."

Before he left, Harry looked very seriously at Goyle and asked, "Do you think Draco could want to die?"

Goyle didn't know how to react to that and simply shrugged, looking scared by the question.

"Bardwell is going to be asking you that a lot," said Harry, "If you ever heard Draco mention he'd rather be dead you'd better tell her."

With that, Harry tugged on Ron's sleeve and they left, Ron not turning his back on Goyle as he back up several steps down the hall. No expression of intimidation came from Goyle at all.

"He's looking pretty down in the mouth," said Ron.

"I imagine a lot of them are," said Harry, "With your parents on the run from Aurors."

In the compartment where Hermione, Luna, and Ginny were staying Harry wheeled his chair and locked it down by the window. He showed off he was able to raise his legs up, and everyone had a little fun holding Harry up by his arms to get his legs to walk a little around the compartment.

"How's Tim doing?" asked Ginny.

"He's got himself a couple of girlfriend's a few doors down," said Ron.

"Still, a threesome on their first day to Hogwarts," said Hermione, "Remind you of anyone?" on won was baffled by Hermione's speculation, but Harry caught on and said that's why he decided to leave him, let Tim discover his own friends and have their own adventures. Harry mentioned his encounter with Goyle and everyone was quite surprised about the news of Draco. Ron was a little confused and asked;

“He’s been on the run all summer from muggles of all things. What were they called again? C.B- no wait, what you said, the C.P.S.?”

“Child Protection Services,id Hid Harry, “I know all about them. They take children into custody who are homeless and have no parents. Tim would have been in custody with them if we turned him back over to the muggles. I tried to turn myself over to them several times when I was a kid to get away from the Dursleys.”

“You tried to turn yourself over to Child Protection Services?” asked Hermione, “I never knew that. Lord, the Dursley’s must have been so horrible to you, Harry.”

“There was no guarantee being in foster care would have been any better,” said Harry, “God knows where I could have wound up. Not to mention I would have been an open target for Death Eaters.”

Harry was just glad to have it all behind him. He will never have to see the Dursleys home ever again, and he was quite sure the Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia had raised several toasts at dinner hour to his good riddance. The dessert trolley passed by and Harry waved it down.

“I’ve got plenty of chocolates left, but no Bertie Botts s,” s,” said the stewardess.

“Why not?” asked Ron.

“Some sweet little lad two doors down bought them all and he’s sharing them with a couple of girls,” said the Stewardess, “Oh you should have seen ‘im, he’s a right young charmer he is.”

Harry laughed as he instantly recognized the description of Tim, “I hope he doesn’t come across any vomit flavoured ones!”

Into the night, chugging northbound in the England countryside, the Hogwarts train diligently made it’s way to the magical world, to the sound of laughter, and three eleven-year-old children spitting up rancid yoghurt flavoured beans.