THE POTIONEER | hermione granger

CHAPTER THREE

"It's on his suitcase, Ronald," Hermione pursed her lips, pointing up at it in the luggage compartment.

Ron followed her eyeline, shoulders slumping. "Oh."

"You obviously didn't make a good observation," Lizzie chuckled, earning herself a laugh from Hermione, the mere sound making her heart race. She leaned back in the seat, shuffling herself a fair distance from the other man and closer to Harry.

"Do you think he's really asleep?" Harry asked, leaning over to check himself.

"How about we check?" Lizzie said, excitement filling her eyes and she turned herself to face the stranger, pulling out her wand. "Maybe if we-" Hermione grabbed her wand, shaking her head. "What?"

"You're not spelling him, Elizabeth," Hermione hissed.

"Oh, no," Ron smiled teasingly. "Not the full name."

"Oh, shut it, Ronald," Lizzie retorted, snatching her wand back from Hermione. "Besides, I was just going to tickle his nose. Not harmless at all."

"Well, that's..." Hermione sighed, looking away from Lizzie and clearing her throat, her voice quieter than before. "That's quite smart, really."

"What was that, Granger?" Lizzie smirked, leaning forward, but only getting a glare out of the other girl. "No, really. I didn't hear you."

Hermione turned her head away from Lizzie, looking over at Harry. "What were you saying?"

"I gotta tell you something," Harry announced, getting up from his seat briefly, checking either side of the train corridor before sliding the door shut.

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"Let me get this straight," Ron shuddered, each one of them having leant forward as Harry told them all what Mr. Weasley had told him in the Leaky Cauldron. By now, the train was traveling down some back field of Scotland, rain scratching at the windows, thunder rumbling. "Sirius Black escaped from Azkaban to come after you?"

"Yeah," Harry sighed, throat scratchy from talking.

"But they'll catch Black, won't they?" Hermione asked, looking around at each of them with concern. "I mean, everyone's looking for him."

"Well, yeah... Hopefully," Lizzie shrugged, trying to twirl her wand around her fingers, blue sparks emitting from the end every now and then. "It's just- He did manage to escape from Azkaban. The supposedly inescapable wizarding prison... I don't think he'll want to go back anytime soon."

"Thanks, Liz," Harry looked at her with a blank gaze, sarcastic.

"Happy to help, Harry," the girl smiled, successfully twirling her wand, one more burst of sparks just missing the boy next to her's face as the train jolted underneath them. It seemed as if the whole thing stopped in its tracks, and that's just what it had done, all of them looking around with uncertainty at the disruption. The brakes squealed against the thunder and lightning, both battling for their attention.

"Why are we stopping?" Hermione asked, holding Crookshanks closer to her chest. "We can't be there yet."

Elizabeth furrowed her eyebrows, just as confused, and got up from her seat, sliding open the compartment door. Peering out into the corridor, she found herself being met with the same bewildered expression from other students up and down the train. The windows were clouded with condensation, raindrops breaking through it only just, but still nothing could be seen outside. All of a sudden, the train jolted to an absolute stop, Elizabeth's feet slipping out from under her as she fell back into her seat, Harry just barely catching her by the shoulders.