Second Chance at Saving Them {Harry Potter}

Foiled Plans and Pranks

I'm sorry about this chapter being late, I was writing for "Discovering the Truth" all weekend so I could get the first chapters out. Which, they are if any of you somehow missed the last chapter, which was just an announcement for the chapters. Anyway, it's time for the question, or, it would be, but this time, I'm looking for reviews, let me know a way for me to improve as a writer, I'm always looking for ways to improve. (Though I will say somethings are artistic choices.)

---

After a relatively peaceful Easter, it was only a few days before the kids were off to school on the Hogwarts Express once more. Harry and Ron were looking forward to at least a few days without the twins' pranks. Harry's plan of telling the twins to lay off Percy every once in a while had backfired and they were now targeting him and Ron. While they did have the advantage of knowing a lot of the twins' arsenal, they still managed to catch them by surprise sometimes and it was exhausting avoiding the pranks on a daily basis.

They were getting ready to leave the Burrow when the final prank of the holidays was revealed. To everyone's surprise, it wasn't the work of Fred and George. It was Bill. He had charmed everyone's trunks to eject anything put into them, it took an hour to figure out how to counter the charms, as Bill conveniently volunteered for the last minute necessities trip to the local village and was nowhere to be found. They made it to the train with less than a minute to spare, and they practically had to leap onto the train to make it. The train seemed nearly empty compared to the beginning of the year (which Harry suspected Bill found hilarious, even if he did feel bad about it). There were hardly any fifth or seventh years on the train due to the quickly approaching O.W.Ls and N.E.W.Ts and many fourth years had stayed as well, going through their "rebellious" phases as they avoided family whenever possible. Despite this, Draco Malfoy still somehow managed to stumble across the compartment Harry and his friends were seated. As he opened the compartment door, Ron saw him and stifled a groan. 

Harry looked up and sighed, "What is it now, Malfoy?"

"What, I can't just stop by? Hiding something, Potter?"

"No, you can't. In fact, you're known for only showing up to cause problems. So I ask again, what is it now?" Harry told him, ignoring his second question.

"Just wondering what you five are planning. After all, you seem to talk about nothing at all over entire train rides. I've never heard a peep from this compartment."

"Are you telling us you frequent the door to our compartment, Draco?" Luna looked at him with slight amusement clear behind the dreamy expression she had on. Ginny snorted as Draco glared at the Ravenclaw.

"Of course not. The only reason I'm even here is-" Harry could hear the slight hesitation in his voice before he continued his sentence, "Because no one else is bothering to ask and I'm sick of hearing about Potter and his friends."

Harry had a sneaking suspicion as to why Draco was acting so weird and the source of his hesitation. Draco was sitting in this compartment on Snape's orders, which were Dumbledore's orders if Harry was correct. It wasn't the best feeling, but he supposed the suspicion was warranted, considering the five of them really were hiding something big. Unsurprisingly, Hermione had also figured this out, and she was quick to come up with a reason for Draco to leave the compartment.

"Well, we're getting rather close, we should probably get into our robes." Harry and Ron quickly got to their feet and left, pushing Draco out before them so the girls could change. Thankfully, Draco left once he was forced out so Harry and Ron could change in peace after the girls had finished. Once they were all changed and back in the compartment they took a moment to put their charms back up before talking about what had just happened.