Link of Hogwarts

Twenty-Eight

"LINK!!"

Link looked up from his luggage to find Hermione rushing towards him. He distantly greeted her parents as he accepted her physical show of affection; being squeezed of his life by Hermione. His friend allowed him to breath sweet air after a moment and greeted Gaepora before blinking at the company owl kept in his vast cage, "Is that the Monster Book of Monsters? How'd you keep it so still without a belt?"

Link shrugged as he lifted Gaepora's cage into the train, "You stroke it like a cat?"

Hermione looked at her pet carrier, "Huh...oh, this is Crookshank! I got him from the Magical Menagerie from Diagon Alley," She introduced him her pet familiar; a rather distinguished ginger cat with a very flat face. Link greeted the animal and received a sniff of acknowledgement in return.

As usual, it took great maneuvering on his part to get Gaepora through the train and people had to flatten themselves to the side to let them through. Hermione walked ahead and found Neville flagging them over, "This way!"

After much help from his friends, Gaepora successfully placed across a sleeping figure in their compartment. Neville sheepishly gestured at their mystery guest, "It's the only one empty enough for all of us,"

Hermione looked at Simon who slithered out of Neville's neck, "How did your Gran take Simon's presence?"

He grinned, "She's surprised but didn't protest about him being there. Besides, Simon's a garden snake and I have someone to company me when I work in the greenhouse," He bopped his snake affectionately, "Never thought I'd be so happy to have a snake for company. Trevor usually tries to escape and I always ended up having to cage him; that always makes me feel like a bad person,"

As they shared new tales of their summer break, Ron and Ginny joined them. With her is a new face whom she introduced as "Luna Lovegood from Ravenclaw, she's our neighbor" who peered curiously at Gaepora. Luna greeted Link and handed him a magazine called the Quibbler, "My father is the founder, journalist and editor of the Quibbler. I hope you will find it informative,"

Hermione looked like she wanted to say some words but held back...

Link spent the beginning of their journey skimming through the magazine when Ron asked, "Hey Link? Did you know that the Ministry was trying to contact you? But for some reason no one can find you all summer!"

Link put the magazine down, "Oh, that's because of Dobby,"

Ron pulled a face, "That crazy house elf that tried to expel you from Hogwarts? What did he do this time?"

Link shrugged (he seemed to be doing that a lot lately) and said, "Rather, he kept me safe. Remember my tree?"

Neville brightened with interest, "Oh Ron told me about that tree. It sounded like a great place to spend some alone time in!"

Link nodded, "Well, Dobby decided to stay with me and I let him stay at the tree. I can't employ him being a minor and all...and I don't really feel like I would make a good master either so I just let him be my roommate," He then went on to explain what Dobby did before asking, "Why did the Ministry want to get in touch with me?"

Ron shrugged, "Dunno,"

Neville pointed at a picture, "Maybe it's because of Sirius Black?"

Link looked at the page he pointed, "Sirius Black?"

Neville nodded, "Yeah. He was a famous right hand man of You-Know-Who, right there with the Lestrange. He recently escaped from Azkaban,"

Link blinked, "The Muggle news covered about him too but I didn't know he's a wizard...what's Azkaban?"

Ron took over and explained how it was the wizard's equivalent of Arbiter's Grounds, not that Ron knew what Arbiter's Grounds is but the description reminded him so much of a great prison fortress built in the depth of the desert but guarded by Poes instead of being built on an island in the middle of the ocean and guarded by creatures called Dementors. Although this Dementors sounded worse than those undead. He knows some good, albeit mischievous, Poes.

Link listened and surmised, "So...this Sirius Black is out to get me, is it?"

Ron asked, "What makes you think that?"

Link ticked his fingers, "Well...he's one of Voldemort's (cue collective flinching) and the Ministry's looking for me when he escaped from a never before breakable prison. All this seemed to point out to one thing; he's looking for me...or at least that was the conclusion everyone involved seemed to have come to,"

Hermione huffed in confusion as his word choice, "Well, he's a fanatic of You-Know-Who so why won't he go after you?"

Link shrugged, "We all know Voldemort (shudder) did not really die from that fiasco in First Year so I would think that a true follower would have done something to revive him one way or another like Quirrel tried," He added, "Besides, Voldemort (flinch) marked me as his prey,"

Neville hummed, "Which means that no one but You-Know-Who alone can touch you,"

Link nodded, "A true follower would have realized this and seek out ways to help Voldemort (flinch) return to the physical realm. Trying to get at me personally will make them a traitor in that madman's eyes and knowing those types, that is the last thing they wanted to be,"

Hermione tilted her head as she pondered, "Then why did he escape in the first place?"

Ron shrugged, "Why won't anyone want to escape from Azkaban? It's a prison, Hermione, not spa resort," The unhelpful snarky comment received a whack from her.

As the group went back and forth at this new tangent that Link presented regarding Black's motive for escaping, the train suddenly lurched to a stop. Link frowned, "That does not feel like a normal break,"

Ron looked out the window, "Well of course not, we are in the middle of a bridge,"

Hermione peered over, "Then why-?" Her question was cut short as everything began to ice over and their breaths come out in puffs of fog. Ron shuddered as Ginny whimpered beside an equally disturbed Luna. Neville stared vacantly at the door, "I think something just got on..."

Hermione huddled close to her friend with a shiver, "I....I feel...empty..."

Ginny started to cry and hyperventilate, "No...please...Tom, stop, please..."

Ron quickly went over to his sister and tried to comfort her, "Ginny, it's alright. I'm here. I won't let him get you. I'm right here, I got you," Though he whispered comforting words, his eyes grew haunted. Luna seemed to be drained of any serenity and became gaunt with grieve. By her side, Neville stared into nothing as his eyes flooded with tears.

The light blinked shut and darkness descended with the cold...

Link saw the door to their shared compartment slide open by boney fingers and all he could see is the blinding golden light of salvation and Her shout;

"NO, LINK!!"

Then everything felt cold...