Chapter- 4 :Lightning

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Besides, he could send Hedwig off to live at Hermione's parent's house, so he could stay within the 'one pet per wizard' rule, and that way Hermione could stay in contact with her parents during the school year. Harry didn't have anyone else to write to while he was at school, so it was good for Hedwig to get the exercise, and it should help the family of his best friend to stay in touch with their daughter.

Harry named his kneazel Augustus, or Gus for short.

Having started to use his mind, Harry had begun thinking ahead. He'd even gone so far as to go back to that magical luggage shop and bought a self-shrinking portable kitchen, just like his potions lab, only meant more for food preparation than brewing. And he'd already stocked it with food staples that should last him through next summer, so he'd eat in spite of the Dursleys trying to starve him. On thinking that, he'd also bought a matching Captain's bed, one with a big, lush mattress for sleeping on.

The worst upset of the summer had been getting a letter from Professor McGonagall telling him that it was too late to change his elective classes. The letter arrived too late to do much of anything about it, but once he'd shown it to Hermione, she insisted he still had to try. So, on her suggestion, he'd sent off owls to Dumbledore and the Minister for an appeal.

Harry was a little leery about doing that, but Hermione kept insisting that he HAD to do something! And the Minister was the most helpful person he knew who might have input outside of Dumbledore, and together they had to be able to do SOMETHING about the situation!

It was another small epiphany when Harry realized that his friend didn't want to go to all of those classes without him. And it made him feel good inside.

Next morning, it was once more the typical Weasley last minute rush to get on the train. They actually got there early, but Molly wanted them to come back out once they'd got on so she could give them all last minute advice.

Having learned so much about his real parents, Harry was a great deal less anxious to let Molly Weasley mother him, and probably make him late for the train. So he said his goodbyes quickly and climbed aboard, getting to an empty compartment early, so he could settle down and finish some reading.

Hermione came in quickly after him, for mostly the same reasons.

Neville joined them shortly after that, then a dreamy blonde second year who didn't say anything, just settled down to read a magazine upside down, and before Harry could say anything Colin Creevey and his brother had also joined in, making for a full compartment.

Ron and Ginny looked in on them briefly, after the train had started moving, but there was no room to sit in the compartment, nor any for squeezing out. Harry was stuck by the window, wedged in farthest from the door, and hoped Ron would find an empty compartment and come back for him, as the one he was in now was kind of crowded, but they didn't see the Weasleys again for the rest of that trip.

It was different riding the train without Ron there yakking on about Quidditch and playing Exploding Snap with him, but Harry managed. He did get to know Neville better, and learned that the second year Ravenclaw girl with them was called Luna. The Creevey brothers were just happy to bask in the glow of being so close to Harry, with Colin snapping the occasional picture.

Then Neville asked for help looking over his summer schoolwork, and Harry and Hermione both dove into that convenient excuse to go over all they'd recently learned, and help out Neville in the bargain.

The sun had set. The trolley had come and gone and the sky was black outside the window when the train started to stop.

"We can't be there yet," Hermione objected, looking at her watch.

Then the lights on the train went out.

"Lumos," Luna said quite calmly, bringing a light to the end of her wand, and popping the cap off of a bottle of chocolate milk. The others followed her example as far as the light went, all lighting up their wands.

"Something's coming aboard," Neville said, peering at half-seen shapes just outside the window.

Peering out into the corridor, they saw several other faces poking out of the other compartments, all of whom shortly followed their example in lighting up the points of their wands - something that made that which followed all that much more horrible.

Long robed figures were not unusual in the magical world, but pasty fleshed creatures that looked rotted, like they'd decomposed in water, were. The horrible creatures drifted inside of the car and went straight at Harry.

There came flashes of light, and a scream, and then nothingness.

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