Harry Potter and the Serpent Slayer

Chapter 4: The Goblin's Potion

Harry didn't tell anyone about the Serpent Slayer when they got back to the Burrow, and he kept the backpack hidden inside his trunk all the way up until it was time to go the following morning. He had an odd sense of déjà vu as he witnessed the utter chaos of trying to get all the Weasleys plus himself and Hermione into three ordinary Muggle taxis with all their stuff. It was amusing, but at the same time Harry felt a sense of wistful sadness that Hermione noticed. When she gave him an inquiring look, Harry shook his head and spent the entire journey to King's Cross looking out the window, unaware that he was actually crying.

As always on September first, platform nine and three-quarters was a cacophony of noise and hundreds of people rushing around to get ready to go to Hogwarts. Bill kept dropping hints of something happening at Hogwarts this year, annoying Harry, Ron and the twins because he refused to tell them despite their insistence. It took Mrs Weasley threatening to hex her sons to get them to back off, and soon they were making their way inside.

The trip itself wasn't all that bad for the most part, right up until the annual visit from Draco Malfoy.

"Weasley, what is that?" said Malfoy, pointing at Pigwidgeon's cage. One of the sleeves of Ron's dress robes was dangling out from under it. Ron made to hastily hide it away but Malfoy was faster and he ripped it out, held it out in front of everyone to see and laughed. "Look at this! Weasley, you weren't thinking of wearing these were you? I mean- they were fashionable in about eighteen ninety..."

"Eat dung, Malfoy!" said Ron angrily as he snatched the dress robes out of Malfoy's hands and quickly stuffed them away back in his trunk. The whole time Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle cackled derisively.

"Jesus fucking Christ Malfoy, don't you ever get sick of it?" asked Harry tiredly.

Malfoy's laughter instantly ceased as he looked at Harry in astonishment. "Would you look at that, Potter's got himself a potty mouth!" he sneered. "You going to enter? You never could resist the chance to show off in front of everybody."

"If I show off then what do you do? Prance like a peacock?" Harry snapped back. "Get out of here, before I break your jaw."

"You wouldn't dare," seethed Malfoy.

Harry took a deep breath and stood up, looked Malfoy in the eye and said, "Wouldn't I? You make the first move. Your father's not here to protect you now."

Malfoy looked on the verge of pulling his wand out, but he looked over his shoulder to Crabbe and Goyle. Both boys folded their arms and puffed their chests out, doing their best to try and intimidate Harry. Malfoy smirked. "I think I'll be fine," he said.

Harry stepped forward so that he was right in Malfoy's face and grinned. "No, you won't," he promised. "Get out now or I'll make you."

There was a tense moment of silence where it looked like Malfoy was contemplating actually fighting Harry, but he thought better of it and scoffed. "Come on, we've got better things to do," he said before turning and leaving.

Once he was sure Malfoy and his cronies were gone, Harry sank down into his seat and let out a deep breath. Only then did he see Ron and Hermione staring at him. "What?" he asked.

"Bloody hell, I don't think I've seen you shut Malfoy down so quickly like that before," said Ron in awe.

"It was quite... impressive," agreed Hermione.

Harry shrugged, and he was about to say something when their compartment got yet another visitor. This time however, it was someone who Harry had been expecting the least. Knocking on the door before opening it, the head of Cho Chang, the Seeker for the Ravenclaw Quidditch team poked inside and gave them all a happy smile. Harry's stomach did a flip at the sight of the very pretty girl. He'd developed a crush on Cho last term when he went up against her in their Quidditch game, and since then he'd been too much of a coward to speak to her. That being said, Harry didn't feel as nervous as he thought he would be, at least until he saw that Cho had a gaggle of about four other girls behind her.