Chapter 71: The Game Is On

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1 September 1992, King's Cross Station

He might have lost a chance at getting the Diary, but at least, he didn't come back empty-handed. There was still the possibility of stopping Riddle before anyone dies. When he came back to the compartment, he was oddly smiling. He barely even batted an eyelash at the Thestrals pulling the carriages to the school. They were oddly beautiful in a dark sort of way. Alas, he was back at Hogwarts, and he couldn't wait to see what would happen next.

Harry stared mostly at the Thestrals in silence as they slowly trotted towards the castle. It wasn't as beautiful as the scenery from the lake the previous year, but it was still relaxing, in an odd sort of way, and it gave him some time to think.

Hogwarts, on average, was made up of roughly three hundred students in the castle, that's from first years to seventh years. It was a bit low, but it was logical since Voldemort's war practically wiped out a generation, and the survivors didn't really want to risk having children. The number of students should risk in the next few years, a baby boom occurring in the safety of a post-war magical society.

That number was of course outside of apprentices and journeymen that often visited the castle for some obscure book or to ask one of the professors about a subject or another. Knowing that the diary was in the train, the chance of a seventh-year student being its holder is quite rare, since they tend to apparate to Hogsmeade. It would be possible, but very unlikely, and there was still the risk that someone would be intelligent enough to realize that the diary was odd. Of course, Harry wasn't really holding his breath.

Removing the 40 NEWT students, it ends up with 260 students in all, and considering that Harry had covered all the compartments but the ten, statistically, he would have twenty-six suspects, which he would round it up to thirty, but that's assuming that the train was equality divided and that was just unreliable.

Also, there was also the fact that a compartment can't hold more than six people and that they were resistant to expansion charms. Yeah, a student almost blew himself up a few years back for trying to fit in more people. Now, that gives a maximum of sixty students, which was a lot, but better than three hundred.

Harry did his best to memorize the faces of the people in the last compartments. One of them was full of Slytherin upper years. Harry recognized the Burke twins and a girl that sneered at him. Her name was Selwyn, maybe? He wasn't sure, but it was probably not them; Malfoy wouldn't risk people who had family in his pocket. If they're caught, his political party would take a big hit in both reputation and support.

Another had a gaggle of first years, four to be exact. They didn't have any house crest on their robes, so they weren't sorted yet. They were two boys and two girls that a Ravenclaw prefect, Penelope Clearwater, was reassuring.

There was another compartment of Slytherin Purebloods later, and then one with Katie Bell, Angelina Johnson, and Alicia Spinet. Harry had recognized them from the Quidditch matches. They seemed to be yelling at a boy, Cormac McLaggen, who was in Harry's duelling club.

Thankfully, a few of the following compartments were empty, but there were two filled with Hufflepuffs in Harry's year. Hannah Abbot and Susan Bones were in a compartment together, and Zachariah Smith and Justin Finch-Fletchley were also in one of their own. And of course, there was also Luna Lovegood who was in a compartment on her own. It was a shame because she was a lovely girl. And finally, there was a compartment with Cho Chang who was talking animatedly with her friend Marietta Edgecombe.

The Potter scion noticed that none of the Weasleys were there, meaning that his elimination of Ginny as a suspect in Diagon Alley was somewhat correct.

Honestly, Harry didn't think he had forgotten anyone, but he'll do his best to try to remember. But as for now, he had a list of suspects. Removing the Slytherin that wouldn't make any sense for Malfoy to frame them, there was Luna Lovegood, Cho Chang, Marietta Edgecombe, Susan Bones, Hannah Abbot, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Zachariah Smith, Angelina Johnson, Katie Bell, Alicia Spinet, Cormac McLaggen, Penelope Clearwater, and the four firsties. That's sixteen suspects. The end of the train must have been quite a bit emptier than the rest.

Of course, there was still the possibility that someone had left the diary in their trunk and moved to another compartment, but that was unlikely. Tom Riddle wouldn't have wanted someone to lose his diary accidentally, or to just forget about it at the bottom of a trunk, there has to be a compulsion to keep it closed, and that means that it was probably one of those students. Still, the Potter scion needed to keep his options open and not get any tunnel vision.

His thoughts were interrupted by Daphne hitting him in the shoulder, "What are you staring at?"

Harry just noticed that he spent the entire ride thinking while staring at the Thestrals, "Just looking at the Thestrals, beautiful creatures, very misunderstood. Most people think they're bad omens."

The blonde looked concerned, "What are you talking about, Harry? There's nothing there."

"No, they're pulling their carriages," He explained, "however, they're invisible. There's a very specific condition that would allow you to see them."

"And what is it?" Tracy asked, curious.

"You must have seen Death," the young Potter simply answered.

Honestly, the implications that Harry could see Thestrals were groundbreaking. Harry had never seen anyone dying, outside himself that is. Even then, he had read of a few reports of people that still couldn't see them after they had seen someone die. They had refused the concept and lost themselves to the grief of madness. The truth is, you need to accept the very concept of Death to see the Thestrals, to understand the finally of it, and Harry, well, he knew exactly what the emptiness of Death entailed, and it seemed that this was enough.

Harry's answer must have made his friends uncomfortable since they just stayed silent until their carriage like the others passed two great wrought-iron gates with large columns and winged boars on top of them, looking a bit ridiculous by the posture they were represented. The coach accelerated, as the towers, walls and turrets of Hogwarts grew more and more imposing from the tiny window available. When it came to a halt, they came out and found themselves directly in front of the entrance.

Harry led the group, climbing up first the stairs which guided them into the castle itself and when they passed the huge oak front doors, the cold disappeared in an instant, proof of the magic existing in the school. They did not stay long in the Entrance Hall, as the crowd of incoming students was growing without sign of interruption. Entering the Great Hall, they all went to the Slytherin table and sat down.

Around fifteen minutes later, Professor McGonagall opened the door to the Great Hall, showing the firsties towards the sorting hat. The damn hat started to sing rather horribly. You'd think after hundreds of years doing this, he'd know how to hold a tune or something, but it was as aggravating as usual. When this affront to music was happening, Harry made sure to pick out the faces of his suspects during the sorting. The first was Colin Creevey who was then sorted in Gryffindor, followed by Ethan Glover who was sorted in Hufflepuff. Alice Morris was sorted in Gryffindor and Angela Smith in Ravenclaw. Of course, Luna Lovegood was also sorted in Ravenclaw, having spent the longest under the hat with that same dreamy look on her face, although Ginny Weasley took almost that long to be sorted in Gryffindor.

Harry recognized the four students that Clearwater was talking to in the Hogwarts Express. Colin Creevey, Ethan Glover, Alive Morris, and Angela Smith. These were his main suspects. They were obviously Muggleborns; their amazement at everything magical was rather obvious. Malfoy would have an easier time tricking some ignorant young muggleborn than a child born in this world and aware of its dangers.

The rest of the feast went as expected. They ate, and then Dumbledore started his yearly announcement, saying that the Forbidden Forest was, well, forbidden, and he announced Gilderoy Lockhart as the Defense Professor as if it wasn't in the Daily Prophet for weeks straight. The funniest one was the speculation on whether the celebrity would be able to break the 'alleged' defence curse and save the school. It was funny, imagining the ponce trying to break a curse that Voldemort, at the height of his power, put on the position. Of course, The teenage female students, being well, normal teenagers, kept sighing at the sight of the admittedly handsome celebrity. This would get annoying really quickly.

Of course, the aged headmaster was starting to say something about Quidditch tryouts, a loud bang appeared, and the enchanted ceiling showed a flying car, falling from the sky erratically. The entire room watched, gaping, as the car kept going to the other side. Ten seconds later, an enormous crashing sound reverberated across the castle.

Damn, Harry had forgotten about Longbottom and Weasley getting a flying car. Why the hell didn't they just floo to Hogsmeade or something? It wasn't that hard. In the stories, Harry's counterpart in the stories had the excuse that he didn't know much about the magical world, but Longbottom and Weasley had lived here all their lives. Was Longbottom even visited by Dobby like Harry's counterpart in the stories? Harry didn't know and honestly, he didn't care. He decided to stop bothering himself with Longbottom and his little gang. He wanted absolutely nothing to do with them. He definitely wasn't going to rely on the boy who lived to kill a fucking Basilisk out of sheer dumb luck. He wasn't going to rely on the story.

He had reflected during the summer, and he realized that for all his thoughts of dismissal, he was still attentive to the boy who lived's activities. Maybe it was because of the stories, or maybe it was because Harry was curious about what Longbottom would do differently. But the encounter with Quirrell taught Harry to throw the stories out of the window and stop relying on them too much. This was real life, and in this life, he had nothing to do with Longbottom.

Still, breaking the statute of secrecy this openly and coming to school on a flying car – which was illegally enchanted – was something that Harry had to notice. Honestly, Harry was sure that if it was anyone else, especially an adult, they would have been arrested and sent to Azkaban. If it was proven to be a malicious act of actively revealing the magical world to the muggles, then they could even be executed. Yeah, the enforcers of the Statute of Secrecy weren't particularly merciful and didn't take any bullshit. Fortunately for the two idiots, Longbottom was a nationwide celebrity and would probably get a slap on the wrist, and some bad publicity, of course.

The entire room unfroze when Dumbledore practically ran out of the Great Hall radiating anger and worry, followed by half the faculty. And of course, the room turned into a cacophony of noise.

Tracy looked at them with wide eyes, "Did that just happen?"

Blaise nodded, looking just as stunned, "Wanna bet they get away with it?"

"That's a sucker's bet and you know it," Harry replied.

A first-year girl who had sat next to him after being sorted, Harry didn't really remember her first name, but she was a Yaxley, asked meekly, "Is this normal?"

Harry snorted and raised his goblet filled with his coffee, "Welcome to Hogwarts kid. I hope you survive the experience."

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Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.