survivor | HARRY POTTER

-Chapter 3-

Millie was awoken the next morning by a bleary eyed Jess, who was trying to help Alyssa persuade a disgruntled Pygmy into her cage. Both were already dressed but incredibly bleary eyed and sluggish. They met Harry out in the hallway, who was in no better shape, and were about to head downstairs when Ron came barging out of his room, wrestling a sweater over his head. "The sooner we get on that train, the better. At least I can get away from Percy at Hogwarts. Now he's accusing me of dropping tea onto his photo of Penelope Clearwater. You know, his girlfriend." Ron grimaced, as if the word was sour on his tongue. "She's hidden her face under the frame because her nose's gone all blotchy."

Alyssa glanced over at Harry, who had remained awfully silent ever since she saw him, and took notice for the first time of his dishevelled appearance. Dark smudges were smeared under his emerald eyes to show lack of sleep and his black hair was messier than usual. Her fingers itched to reach up and fix it, but she fought the urge and settled for frowning up at him instead. "Are you okay?" She whispered to him, bumping him on the shoulder so that he knew she was talking to him. "Hmm?" Harry asked, jolting as if she had snapped him out of a trance. Upon noticing her worried stare, he grinned slightly and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, ignoring the scowl that immediately twisted on her lips. "I'm fine, Ali. I have something to tell all of you-" He began, but they were interrupted by Fred and George, who had looked in to congratulate Ron on infuriating Percy again.

The seven of them headed down to breakfast, where Mr Weasley could be found reading the front page of the Daily Prophet with a furrowed brow, and Mrs Weasley was seen telling Hermione and Ginny all about a love potion she had made as a young girl. All three of them were rather giddy, which terrified Jess beyond belief. "What were you saying?" Millie asked Harry as they all sat down around the table. Harry opened his mouth to speak, but shook his head when Percy stormed into the room. "I'll tell you later. Promise." He whispered.

Despite his promise, however, he had no chance to speak to them in the chaos of leaving; they were all far too busy heaving all their trunks down the Leaky Cauldron's narrow staircase and piling them up near the door, with Hedwig and Hermes, Percy's screech owl, perched on top in their cages, Pygmy, Red, and Shimmer beside them in small baskets, and a small wickerwork basket standing beside the pile of trunks, spitting and hissing loudly. "It's all right, Crookshanks, I'll let you out when we're on the train." Hermione cooed through the wickerwork. "You will not. What about poor Scabbers, eh?" Ron snapped as he pointed at his chest, where a large bump indicated that Scabbers was curled up inside his pocket. "I have to agree with Ron here, Mionie. Pygmy hates him." Alyssa said as she reached through the bars of the dog cage to stroke the tiny creature, which was yapping and growling at Crookshanks's basket. Mr Weasley, who had been waiting outside for the Ministry cars for quite some time now, stuck his head inside and waved them over. "They're here, come on." Mr Weasley marched them across the short stretch of pavement towards the first of two extremely old fashioned, rather spacious, dark green cars, each of which was driven by a furtive-looking wizard, wearing a suit of emerald velvet.

Harry climbed into the car first, Alyssa beside him and Jess in middle. Millie was beside Hermione and Ron on the other side and, to Ron's disgust, Percy squeezed into the car beside them. The journey to King's Cross was very uneventful compared to the last two weeks at Diagon Alley. The Ministry cars seemed almost ordinary, apart from the fact that they could slide through gaps that any regular car most certainly wouldn't have managed. They reached Kings Cross with twenty minuets to spare; the Ministry drivers found them trolleys, unloaded their trunks, touched their hats to Mr Weasley and drove away, somehow managing to jump to the head of an unmoving queue for the traffic lights.

Mr Weasley, Alyssa couldn't help but notice, kept close to Harry's elbow all the way to the station, casting his eyes about suspiciously as he did so. "Right then, let's do this in groups of two or three as there are so many of us. I'll go through first with Harry." With that, Mr Weasley strode through the crowd towards the barrier between platforms Nine and Ten, pushing Harry's trolley and apparently extremely interested in the InterCity 125 that had just arrived at platform nine. With a meaningful look sent back at the others, he leant casually against the barrier, Harry doing the same and looking avidly awkward whilst doing so. Alyssa snickered at his bemused expression, making boy glare at her playfully as he and Mr Weasley sank through the wall, vanishing from sight.