Chapter 146

Harry Potter looked out of his compartment as the train slowly started moving, waving goodbye to his guardians. Hedwig had flashed right to Hogwarts from the apartment, and he had arrived well in time before the train left. The morning had gone pretty smoothly for him. For his friends though, not so much.

He glanced around the compartment, looking at the worried faces of Hermione and Dean.

"Where are Ron and Terry?" Harry asked Dean, starting to feel a bit worried himself.

"I don't know," Dean said, "Terry told me that he was going to be coming with Ron's family. But the train is already moving. I don't know why they are so late."

"If they don't make it onto the train and then tell me later that they were late because Ron decided to sleep in, I will honestly lose it" Hermione fumed as she fumbled with her book bag.

"Yeah, well we've got a pretty long train ride now to think of ways to punish them don't we…hey look! There they are!" Dean said, pointing through the window at the portal from the King's Cross. And sure enough, the orange haired Weasleys were bursting through the portal in ones and twos.

"Come on Dean. Let's go help them onto the train" Harry said before he and Dean slid open the door and headed towards the compartment entrance, where they helped up Percy, Fred, and George, who had all pushed their way through the dense crowd at the top of their speed.

Mrs. Weasley was next, dragging her daughter through the crowd with her as fast as she could, making sure that Ginny got onto the train without any more trouble.

Ron and Terry came through last from the portal and started running towards the train as fast as they could. But their smaller frames were hindering them from moving fast through the crowd.

'They won't make it,' Harry realized with a start as the train started picking up more speed. He wracked his mind for a minute before he quickly came up with a plan.

Swiftly, with a few mental commands, he equipped his Leader title.

Leader- Allows the user to control his followers easily and gives a +10 to all stats for all followers.

And suddenly, Terry and Ron both started pumping their legs harder, moving noticeably faster than before due to their boosted Dex stats. They made their way through the crowd in seconds and started running as fast as they could alongside the train.

"Take my hand," Harry yelled, the wind carrying his voice down to the two boys, as he extended his arm out towards them. He could hear the Weasley siblings behind him yelling encouragements at them to run faster.

It was Terry who grabbed his hand first, and Harry pulled him onto the platform with a heave. Then he extended his hand out again, and with another heave, he pulled up the last Weasley family member abroad the moving train.

"Th…Thanks…" Ron said in between pants, "Thanks Harry"

"Yeah. Good job Harry," Percy said, trying to pry off Ginny's death grip on his robes as she hid behind him.

"Don't reckon I've ever seen Ronniekins run so fast," George said.

"Didn't think he could," Fred added.

"Must have been the adrenaline," Harry said by the way of explanation, rubbing Ron's back to help him regain his breath.

A few greetings and pleasantries later, the rest of the Weasleys went off on their own as Harry, Ron, Dean and Terry headed back to the compartment in which Hermione was waiting for them.

"Are they alright?" Hermione asked, looking worriedly at the two late boys as they slumped into the seats, panting heavily.

"They're fine. Just out of breath." Harry heard Dean say as he shut the compartment and cast a Colloportus on the door.

"Then will you please explain why you were so late Ron?" Hermione demanded.

"Um…well…I fell asleep and forgot to pack…"

There was a small beat of silence, in which Harry promptly decided that Ron was screwed.

"RONALD BILIUS WEASLEY!"

Harry shared a grin with Dean as they sat down and watched Hermione ream into Ron and Terry. It was always so much fun to watch. High quality 'lazy' insults were being thrown at Ron and Terry like a barrage of missiles. Harry tried to suggest one he came up with on the spot, but didn't even get a chance to speak.

It was almost half an hour before Hermione's rant subsided, and they drifted to aimless conversation and Exploding Snap. The train had carried them out of London, and fields full of grazing cows, sheep and lanes were flicking past the window as they hurtled through the farmlands on their way to Hogwarts

The latest round of cards had just literally blown up in Terry's face, when suddenly Harry felt his locking charm on the door being dispelled. The compartment door slid open a second later.

A familiar blond haired boy stood at the threshold of the compartment, with his two burly bodyguards standing off to the side behind him.

Ron seemed to have some serious problem with Draco, a fact that Harry had known, but never really seen in person until now. The red-haired boy had his fists balled up as he angrily growled, "Oi Malfoy! Ge-"

"This doesn't concern you Weasley," Draco Malfoy interrupted the redhead before he looked Harry in the eyes.

"Harry. Compartment 4B. I'll owe you one," he said before sliding the door close and walking off with his two thugs in tow.

"When did you two start cozying up?" Ron said, his expression scrunched up and clearly disapproving.

"We're civil to each other. No point in pissing off rich kids," Harry told Ron absently, wondering what was in Compartment 4B. Draco Malfoy wasn't the type to give away favors easily, and if this was something that warranted a favor then it was worth looking into. Standing up and putting down his cards, he said to the others, "Count me out of this round. I will be back soon."

"Harry," Terry said, fidgeting a bit, "The Malfoys aren't the sort of people you should be dealing with. He could be trying to get you into trouble."

"He's right," Ron added, "Dad always says that if there's anyone that you can count on to shake your hand and then stab you in the back it's a Malfoy"

Harry frowned, "You guys know that I've met and talked to the Malfoys a few times right? Don't you remember? I went to their New Year's Ball."

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