The last couple of weeks of summer holidays flew by far too quickly for Hari’s liking. Having finished their homework before they saw each other at Diagon Alley, most of the days were spent racing on their broomsticks in the back garden behind the house, climbing trees until Minerva shouted at them about breaking their necks and sitting outside talking in the grass. In the evenings, they ate dinner with Minerva and talked about the upcoming school year or the latest Quidditch matches until they had to go to bed. Draco was supposed to be staying in their guest bedroom across the hall from Hari, but he usually sneaked in to talk to Hari until the earliest hours, ending with them both falling asleep in Hari’s room. Now with a year of Astronomy behind them, they took out the telescope Hari got for his birthday the previous year and searched the night sky for constellations they liked, which were in abundance in the middle of nowhere.

Finally, on the last day before term, Remus came over for an early dinner so that they could go with him to King’s Cross Station the next day for the train. He looked exceedingly exhausted, far thinner than normal and had heavy dark circles under his eyes, but seemed relatively cheerful as he let Hari and Draco catch him up on their latest gossip. Hari often remembered Remus looking quite thin and sickly throughout his childhood, so he had always just written it off as him being easily ill, but he couldn’t help but notice how unhealthy he looked this time.

They arrived at Remus’ flat after dinner and Remus set up the pull out couch in the living room for them and made them cups of hot chocolate. After a brutal game of Scrabble in which Draco ended up beating Remus with ‘xylophone’ on a double word and Hari ended up elbowing boiling hot chocolate all over the table, they went to bed on the springy pull out couch, exhausted but excited for the coming year.

It took a while to get started the next morning. Draco was almost hysterical when he thought he forgot to pack his fancy French hair product, having to unpack his entire trunk until he found it hidden under a loose sock at the bottom. Then, Hedwig threw a tantrum about having to go back in her cage, hitting Hari in the face with one of her wings as he tried to shove her inside.

After a frantic morning, only having time to scarf down a slice of toast, Hari was ready to just get to school already.

They Flooed from Remus’ living room fireplace to a small, hidden grate around the corner from the station and Remus grabbed them both luggage trolleys. As they were wheeling their way through the busy station, they ran into half of the Weasleys as Hermione and the others had already made their way through.

“Oh, Remus! Hello! I see you brought Hari and Draco to London,” Mr. Weasley chimed as he saw them walking in their direction. “You’ll never believe the absolute nightmare of this morning—”

“Arthur! The train is leaving any minute, hurry!” chastised Mrs. Weasley as she pushed Fred and George towards the barrier. She grabbed Ginny by the arm and the two of them disappeared through the barrier as well. Mr. Weasley followed after his wife and daughter, leaving only Harry, Ron, Draco and Remus still on the other side of the barrier.

“I’ll go through and see you three in a minute, yeah?” Remus said, turning to the three boys. He stepped towards the barrier with a wave and then he was gone.

“Let’s just go together, we only have a minute and a half,” Draco said to Hari and Ron.

Hari made sure Hedwig was safe in her cage on his trunk and then turned to the others, nodding. They bent low over their trolleys and broke into a jog, moving towards the barrier to go straight through to Platform 9 and ¾ and—

CRASH.

Instead of going through, all three trolleys smashed into the brick wall and bounced backward. Draco’s trunk was thrown to the side, bouncing onto the pavement and bursting open, Hari was knocked over the front and Hedwig’s cage rolled onto the ground as she screeched angrily. Ron, meanwhile, went headlong into the stone barrier and with a horrific cracking sound that had Hari double-taking, his wand was snapped almost in half. People all around them stared and whispered at the scene unfolding and a passing train guard shouted, “What the devil are you three doing?!”

“Sorry, lost control of the trolley,” Hari gasped, leaning over to pick up Hedwig’s cage as people muttered about animal cruelty and dumb kids. He helped Ron to his feet as Draco scrambled to shut his trunk properly and they quickly put their things back on the trolleys.

Draco pushed all his weight against the barrier, eyes narrowing. “Why won’t it open?” he wondered aloud.

“I don’t know, but look!” Ron pointed up at a clock overhead. “The train will have left now!” He pushed against the barrier as well, rather uselessly. “What if Remus and my parents can’t get back out?”

“I’m sure they’ll be able to get out. Maybe we should just wait for them?” Draco suggested, going to sit down on his trunk.

Ron heaved Draco to his feet, however, shaking his head. “But what if they can’t? How will we get to Hogwarts?”

“I don’t know, but surely—”

Ron gasped, blue eyes bulging as he looked between Hari and Draco.

“The car! We have a flying car, we drove it here!” Ron exclaimed, shaking Draco’s shoulders.

“What about it?” asked Hari, exchanging confused looks with Draco, still being shaken by Ron.

“We can fly the car to Hogwarts!”

Draco scoffed, finally pulling out of Ron’s grip and rubbing his shoulders. “We are not stealing your car to get to Hogwarts, Ronald. That’s stupid.”

“No it isn’t. We’re stuck here and we’ve got to get to Hogwarts, but we can’t use magic and the car doesn’t require us to use magic!”

“But what about your parents? How will they get home if we’ve taken their car?” Hari asked skeptically, furrowing his brows and reaching a finger inside Hedwig’s cage to try to calm her down. “And Remus will be worried if he comes and finds we’ve disappeared.”

“Don’t worry about them! They can all Apparate and stuff. They’ll be fine.”

Ron was already starting to push his trolley towards the exit and both Hari and Draco were helpless to try and stop him. Hari turned his cart around and followed Ron, asking, “Can you fly it?” Draco huffed but followed as well.

“No problem. It’s easy,” Ron replied, leading the way out of the station and through the parking lot to where the Weasleys’ car was parked. The car in question was a blue Ford Anglia, slightly scratched but otherwise in good condition. Quickly, the three boys loaded their trunks into the surprisingly spacious boot of the car, slamming it shut and climbing inside with Hari in the back with Hedwig.

“This is insane,” Draco muttered as he slid into the seat beside Ron at the wheel.

“Check no one’s looking,” Ron said, starting the car’s ignition. He pressed a tiny silver button on the dashboard, next to where the radio would normally be, and Hari felt the strangest sensation as everything in the car disappeared from view. He could feel the thrum of the engine under him and could hear the others moving in front of him, but it was as though he wasn’t even there.

Slowly, Hari felt the car beginning to rise into the air, higher and higher until it was floating over the cars. Hari was about to make a comment on this when suddenly, they returned to view once again and the car started making a funny sputtering sound as they flashed in and out of sight, hovering in the air.

“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!” At the sound of a familiar voice screaming at them from the ground, they turned to find Remus standing on the pavement, staring up at them with an unusually angry look on his face.

Ron lowered the car with a heavy thud on the pavement, jostling the car and knocking Draco into the window roughly. Remus leaned over to open Hari’s door, scowling so that his scars looked especially contorted. “What do you three think you’re doing? Why weren’t you on the platform?” Remus asked as Hari clambered out of the back seat, clutching Hedwig’s cage.

“We couldn’t get through the barrier! We just rammed straight into it after you all left!” Ron explained, hurrying around the other side of the car to stand in front of Remus. “We thought you guys couldn’t get through, but we had to get to Hogwarts somehow!”

“Why didn’t you just wait for us to come out? Or sent Hedwig to Minerva to explain the situation?”

“I tried to say that, but this one here was panicking that you guys were all trapped for eternity,” Draco butted in, raising his chin up. Ron scowled at him, ears pink.

“I never thought it would be eternity…”

Remus sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. “Your parents are wandering the station trying to find you, Ron. What on earth made you think stealing a car would be a better idea than to wait five minutes?”

“Well, how are we going to get to Hogwarts now? The train’s left already!” Ron piped up defensively, elbowing Draco in the side as he smirked at him.

“First we need to find your parents, but I think the Knight Bus or Floo travel should be more sufficient,” Remus replied, rolling his eyes. He walked over to the boot of the car, pulled his wand discreetly out and tapped the car, unlocking it. Then he passed them each their own trunks, grabbed the trolleys they had ditched near the car’s original parking spot and began herding the three of them towards the station. “Honestly, Hari. To think you got raised by Minerva McGonagall,” Remus muttered half to himself as he led them across the parking lot.

Hari decided not to point out that he also spent a majority of his childhood with the Weasley twins and himself.

They found Mr. and Mrs. Weasley in the entrance to the station, looking incredibly worried. As soon as they saw Remus and the others, Mrs. Weasley shrieked and hurried over, followed shortly by her husband. She nearly knocked Ron over as she hugged him, half crying about thinking she’d lost him.

And then she pulled away and hit Ron sharply in the arm with her handbag. “Where have you been? Have you any idea how worried we were when you didn’t come through the barrier?” she snapped fiercely, gesticulating wildly and scowling at her son. She turned to Remus, softening slightly. “Now, Remus. Where did you find them?”

“Oh, they were just trying to steal your flying car,” Remus said with a shrug, sending Hari a teasing look that told him he would never be living this down.

“THEY WERE WHAT?” she screamed, causing passersby to glance at her sudden outburst.

Mr. Weasley placed a hand on her shoulder, trying to calm her down. “Molly, dear—”

“Oh, don’t you start as well, Arthur Weasley!” she snapped, shoving his hand off her shoulder. She turned to glare at Ron again. “You could have died! You could have been seen! We never had such trouble from Bill or Charlie or Percy!”

Ron huffed. “Perfect Percy—”

“YOU COULD DO WITH TAKING A LEAF OUT OF PERCY’S BOOK!” yelled Mrs. Weasley, prodding a finger in his face. “What were you thinking?”

“We couldn’t get through the barrier, Mum! We had to get to Hogwarts!” Ron said defensively.

“And you thought taking our family car instead was a better option?”

This time Remus was the one to put a hand on Mrs. Weasley’s shoulder, trying to get her to calm down. They were certainly drawing attention to themselves now as she continued to yell at her son in the middle of a packed train station. “Molly, I’ve already given them this lecture on the way here. Perhaps we should focus on trying to get them to Hogwarts now that the train has left?”

Molly took a deep breath, shutting her eyes and patting Remus’ hand on her shoulder. “Yes, I suppose we should,” she agreed, nodding her head once. “I don’t believe our car will be able to make the journey all the way up to the Highlands of Scotland…”

“Well, there’s a fireplace nearby that I believe can connect to Hogwarts,” Remus suggested, referencing the fireplace they travelled in earlier that very morning.

And so it was decided that Hari, Ron and Draco would be taking the Floo system to get to Hogwarts. Remus sent Minerva a quick Patronus call in a disabled toilet to sort out the situation and then a few minutes later, they were standing back in front of the same grimy fireplace hidden near the station.

Remus shrunk Hari’s trunk and Hedwig’s empty cage so that she could fly ahead of them. “Just say ‘Hogwarts castle’ very clearly and step through,” Remus explained to the group, handing Hari the bag of Floo powder in his pocket. “And try to get to the right place this time,” he added, winking as Hari collected a handful of powder. Hari stuck his tongue out and moved in front of the fireplace.

He threw the handful of ash into the fire, said, “Hogwarts castle!” and stepped into the vibrant green flames. Immediately, he felt the familiar rushing sensation and squinted as hundreds of living rooms flashed past him. Then, a moment later, he stumbled out into Minerva’s familiar office. She was standing in front of him with her arms crossed, silently removing the soot from his clothes and pulling him back just as Ron clambered out of the fireplace a second later.

“Er, hello, Professor,” he mumbled, brushing soot off his clothes and onto the floor. Minerva tracked the movement coldly, mouth twisting.

Draco arrived another few seconds later, stepping easily and gracefully out of the fireplace, not a hair out of place. Minerva side eyed Hari, lips twitching. “I presume Remus will be coming in just a—ah, there he is.” As soon as Minerva started speaking, the flames in her fireplace glowed violent green once again and Remus climbed out as well.

“Hello, Minerva. Good to see you again,” Remus greeted, waving his wand at the mess made from their arrival and giving Minerva a crooked smile. “Much sooner than I expected, honestly.”

“Yes, I admit the circumstances are rather unexpected,” Minerva replied, turning to eye the three boys looking fearfully up at her. “Now, can you please explain what exactly happened?”

¤¤¤

Meanwhile, on the Hogwarts Express, Hermione was sitting in one of the train compartments, looking out the window at the suburbs rolling past. She had spent the first twenty minutes on the train trying to find her friends as Ron and Hari seemed to have disappeared out of nowhere. After no luck finding anyone, she resigned to sitting in one of the empty carriages near the back of the train and pulled out a book to read to pass the time instead.

However, she could not see the pages through her tears, blinking rapidly as she continued to wonder just where her friends had gone. Her last conversation with Ron had been awkward and tense as she had snapped at him for nearly bumping her down the stairs as he hurried past her, having forgotten something. Was he avoiding her now? Had he told their other friends not to bother with her any longer? Surely not. They were good friends, always caring and all of them stood up for her on multiple occasions…

But they were nowhere to be found.

She sniffled, wiping a tear off her cheek with the back of her sleeve.

There was a commotion in the corridor that made Hermione look up, just before the door to the carriage slid open. Pansy Parkinson and Millicent Bulstrode of Slytherin House were standing in the doorway. Millicent, a larger, loudmouthed girl with wavy dark brown hair and a square jaw, stepped inside, dragging Pansy behind her. Pansy, by contrast, was a tiny, sulking girl with a straight raven black bob and a long face, looking slightly reluctant to follow her friend. Hermione stared, frozen, at the sudden intrusion.

“Hello, Granger. Mind if we join you?” Millicent asked, looking her over and gesturing towards the seat across from Hermione.

Hermione blinked, frowning. “Excuse me?” she asked skeptically.

“Can we join you in sitting here? Just cause you’re sitting all alone and we were getting sick of those brash Slytherin boys,” Millicent replied, rolling her eyes. She elbowed Pansy in the side, pretending not to notice the glare in her direction from her friend.

“What Millicent said,” Pansy said somewhat reluctantly. “Crabbe and Goyle hardly even count as human, honestly.” Hermione couldn’t help but snort. Pansy raised a dark eyebrow curiously. “Not a fan of them either, are you?”

Hermione smirked, shaking her head. “Not particularly, no.”

Millicent dropped into the seat across from Hermione, grinning. “Me neither. They’re so annoying sometimes. I’ve known them for years and they still haven’t learned anything. ”

“Nowhere near as bad as that Hufflepuff, Smith. Now he’s annoying,” Pansy added, sitting beside Millicent, on the edge of her seat.

“You don’t like Smith either?” Hermione asked. She was still not sure how to feel about this particular turn of events, but was curious as to where it would lead to. They certainly didn’t seem to be there to call her names or make fun of her blood status, but she couldn’t be sure…

Millicent wrinkled her nose, lips curling. “Definitely not. He cannot shut his trap, the arrogant tosser.”

Pansy snorted. “I’m surprised you don’t like him, Granger. Aren’t Gryffindors supposed to be all noble and forgiving or something?” Pansy teased, leaning forwards. A few dark strands of hair fell into her face and she tucked them behind her ear, only for them to fall away again. “Shouldn’t you be singing a song with the Hufflepuffs about friendship?”

Hermione winced, trying to imagine the scene. “I suppose some of the Hufflepuffs are certainly fine, but Smith? He’s rude to me and my friends, so why would I like him?”

Pansy hummed and leaned back in her seat, crossing her arms over her chest. She nodded, looking almost impressed. “You’ve got a point there, Granger. I’m glad we can agree,” she said, smirking.

Millicent rolled her eyes, leaning towards Hermione with a smile. She cupped her mouth with one of her hands, as though she were sharing a secret. “Don’t mind, Pansy. I’d say she’s normally nicer, but this is just her personality. Can’t start a friendship with lies, can I?” She snorted at the hand gesture Pansy sent her as a result. “Oh, by the way, Pansy and I were just saying in the corridor that your boots are cool. I’ve never seen any like that. They’re Muggle, yeah?”

Hermione glanced down at her shoes, which were new Doc Martens her parents bought her as an early birthday present. “Thank you. They were a present from my parents.”

“They look like they could do some serious damage. I’d wear them,” Pansy replied.

Hermione laughed, stretching her feet out to admire the shiny new leather in the light. “I could see myself kicking Smith where it hurts…”

Pansy burst out laughing, clutching her stomach. MIllicent laughed, eyes flashing with mischief. “Okay, I like you, Granger. That’s brilliant,” said Pansy once she stopped laughing. Hermione couldn’t help but join in this time.

¤¤¤

Once Hari, Ron and Draco finished their explanation about the barrier not working and the following attempts to steal the car, coupled with many side comments from Draco, Minerva gave them all detentions and tried to take house points.

“But Minerva, technically, the term hasn’t started yet and we weren’t even at Hogwarts, so taking house points isn’t really necessary, is it?” Hari interrupted before she could take any off, giving her an almost pleading look. He wasn’t in the mood for starting off his school year already having lost so many points from his house.

Minerva gave him a piercing look, but Hari swore he saw the corner of her lips twitch ever so slightly. “Fine. I will not take any house points off, but I still maintain the detentions,” she said. “Now, have any of you eaten recently?” Before any of them could even reply, she waved her wand and conjured up a plate piled high with sandwiches, three silver goblets and a jug of ice cold pumpkin juice.

“Thanks, Minnie,” Hari said at the same time Draco and Ron both said, “Thanks, Professor.”

“You will stay here for the rest of the day before you return to Gryffindor tower after the feast,” she said. At their protests, she shot them all a fierce look and they immediately silenced. “I daresay the feast will be too much of a privilege for you after this afternoon, but I may reconsider.”

“Yes, Professor.”

Once Minerva left them alone, taking Remus with her, they began stuffing their faces greedily with the sandwiches and pumpkin juice until they were absolutely stuffed. The plate seemed to be charmed to keep refilling endlessly, never quite empty despite how quickly they ate.

“I wonder what Hermione is up to,” Ron said a little while later through a mouthful of sandwich. He sprayed a few crumbs onto the table, earning a disgusted look from Draco.

“Yeah, I hope she’s not too lonely,” Hari agreed, taking a sip of the ice cold pumpkin juice. “I feel a bit bad for leaving her, to be honest.”

Draco frowned, looking down at his own half finished sandwich. “You don’t think she’ll think we left her, do you?” he asked worriedly, “As in, that we ditched her…”

Ron and Hari shared a look, Ron looking incredibly uncomfortable. “I hope not. I’d hate for her to be sitting alone on the train, thinking we’ve forgotten her or something…”

¤¤¤

“Oh, you are so much more fun than Pansy ever is. She never lets me practice braiding on her hair.” Somehow, Hermione now found herself sitting sideways on her seat as Millicent meticulously braided her long curly hair into two slightly lopsided French plaits. Her thick hands moved through her hair clumsily but not without talent, tugging only slightly as they worked to get the braids right. Pansy was half watching them, having stolen one of Hermione’s Muggle romance novels and currently trying to read through it.

“Well, my hair’s not exactly the type for braiding, is it?” Pansy said, turning the page. “It’s far too short and it’s too straight to ever hold it either.”

Hermione glanced sideways at Pansy, having already been chastised for moving too much several times. “I like your hair, though. I could never have mine that short,” she said. Hermione noticed a faint blush creeping onto Pansy’s pale cheeks.

She looked up from her book finally, blinking at Hermione, cheeks pink. “I could never have it that long,” she replied, jerking her chin towards both Hermione and Millicent. Millicent’s brown hair was incredibly long, cascading down her back and almost to her bum. “But you two suit it.”

Millicent paused her braiding to gasp sarcastically, reminding Hermione of Draco somewhat. “Was that a compliment from the great Pansy Parkinson I heard?” She snorted as Pansy gave her the finger, pouting. Millicent continued braiding once again and added to Hermione, “She must really like you. The bitch almost never compliments anyone.”

Hermione felt her cheeks burn and looked back out the window at the passing countryside. It was beginning to get much darker now, the sky turning to a mess of fiery red, orange and teal across the fluffy clouds. “Well thank you, then. Nobody usually compliments my hair, really.”

“Well that’s just bloody stupid, innit?” Millicent said immediately. “Clearly people are idiots.”

“Haven’t we already established that most of the boys in our year are idiots?” said Pansy, pulling her feet under her and leaning against the window. “Hermione, how do you even survive spending so much time with Gryffindor boys?”

“I ask myself that every day,” Hermione replied. “I mean, of course Hari, Ron and Draco are all lovely, but sometimes I really wish I had an actual girl to talk to. They’re such idiots sometimes.” She rolled her eyes, thinking of the many, many times one or all of them did something idiotic.

“Don’t you have Gryffindor girls to talk to?” Millicent asked, reaching over into her bag and pulling out an emerald green ribbon to tie off the second braid in a neat bow.

Hermione shook her head, taking the offered hand mirror from Millicent and admiring the two braids she had done. Her hair, which was always getting in her face and out of place, was pulled back into two sleek black braids, except for a few curls that Millicent left out, which framed her face well. “The girls in my dormitory are nice enough, but we just don’t share many of the same interests, I guess, so we don’t talk very much outside the dormitory. I’m not the greatest at making friends.”

Millicent huffed, sharing a look with Pansy over her book. “Good thing you have us instead now.”

¤¤¤

A few hours later, when the Hogwarts Express arrived at Hogsmeade station, Minerva allowed Ron, Hari and Draco to go to the feast. They jumped up from their seats, having been aimlessly discussing mundane topics, following Minerva out of her office. They thanked Minerva for the sandwiches and said goodbye to Remus before hurrying off to get to the feast before it started. By the time they got downstairs, most people had already arrived and only a few stragglers were left coming in from the front steps.

“Hermione?” Ron blurted as soon as they reached the bottom of the steps. Hari turned away from his conversation with Draco and felt his eyebrows disappear behind his fringe.

Hermione was walking into the entrance hall with her normally bushy hair tied back into two braids and, most surprisingly of all, giggling with a pair of Slytherin girls. Pansy’s head was thrown back in an explosive laugh while Millicent was rolling her eyes, arm linked with Hermione’s. At Ron’s outburst, Hermione whispered something to Pansy and Millicent and left them to go marching over to them.

“There you are! Where were you? I couldn’t find you anywhere on the train!” she exclaimed, stopping in front of them.

“It’s a long story. We’ll tell you at dinner,” Hari replied, looking at her braids once again.

Draco gestured towards the two girls that had just disappeared inside the Great Hall, arching an eyebrow. “And you. What was up with you and Parkinson and Bulstrode all buddy buddy?”

Hermione tilted her head, smiling almost mischievously. “It’s a long story. I’ll tell you at dinner,” she replied cheekily. She turned on her heel and began making her way inside the Great Hall, looking smug. Hari, Draco and Ron could only follow after her, gaping.