Prisoner of Lies (HP Fan Fic)

Train Rides and Dementors

Chapter 6: Train Rides and Dementors

Ginny woke Emily and me up early the next morning.

"The faster we get ready, the faster we can get away from all of Percy's yelling." Ginny told me while shaking my shoulders. We all got ready and helped each other cram the rest of our school stuff into our trunks.

"I'm kinda excited to go back to school." I confessed to Emily and Ginny.

"You're crazy! I'm excited to go back to Hogwarts, but I'm not so happy about the learning thing that comes with it." Emily told us on the way down to the tables. Ginny and I both laughed at that as we met up with everyone else.

Mr. Weasley was reading the front page of the Daily Prophet with a furrowed brow and Mrs. Weasley was telling Lauren and Hermione about a love potion she'd made as a young girl. All three of them were rather giggly.

We all hurried to heave our trunks and cages of our animals down the stairs of the Leaky Cauldron's narrow staircase and piling them up near the door.

Mr. Weasley, who had been outside waiting for the Ministry cars, stuck his head inside.

"They're here," he said. "Harry, come on."

Mr. Weasley grabbed Harry by the arm and left the rest of us to drag our trunks and follow behind. There were two old-fashioned dark green cars, each of which was driven by a furtive-looking wizard wearing a suit of emerald velvet.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, Lauren, Percy and Mr. Weasley piled into one car while Ginny, Emily, Fred, George, Mrs. Weasley, and I piled into the other.

The journey to King's Cross was very uneventful. We reached King's Cross with twenty minutes to spare; the Ministry drivers found us trolleys, unloaded our trunks, and drove away.

"Right then," Mr. Weasley said, glancing around us. "Let's do this in pairs as there are so many of us. I'll go through first with Harry." They went through the barrier followed by Percy and Ginny, Fred and George, Ron and Hermione, followed by Mrs. Weasley and Emily. Lastly, came Lauren and me.

"Ready?" she asked, cocking her head to the side to look at me. I nodded and we ran through the barrier.

In a moment, we had fallen through the solid metal onto platform nine and three-quarters, and looked up to see the Hogwarts Express, a scarlet steam engine, puffing smoke over a platform packed with other witches and wizards seeing their children onto the train.

We pushed down to near the end of the train where there were empty compartments and we heaved our trunks onto the luggage racks and then went back outside to say good-bye to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley.

Mrs. Weasley went in a line and kissed all of us. She smiled and then pulled out her enormous handbag. "I've made you all sandwiches...Here you are, Ron...no they're not corned beef...Fred? Where's Fred? Here you are dear..."

Mrs. Weasley then started shepherding us onto the train. "Arthur!" she called. "Arthur, what are you doing? It's about to go!"

There was a loud whistle as I saw Mr. Weasley talking to Harry. Guards were walking along the train, slamming all the doors shut.

"Arthur, quickly!" I heard Mrs. Weasley cry.

Steam was bellowing from the train; it started moving. Harry ran to our compartment door. I threw it open and stood back so Harry could get on. We all leaned out the window to wave good-bye to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley until they were out of sight.

"I need to talk to you in private," Harry muttered to Ron, Hermione, and Lauren as the train started to pick up speed.

"Go away, Ginny," said Ron while looking at Emily and I too.