Percy Jackson and the Hound of Hogwarts [Book 3]

10) The Hogwarts Express

Harry told Ron and Hermione about overhearing Mr and Mrs. Weasley's argument. Then he told us what Mr. Weasley had said to him when he pulled him aside.

Hermione's hand were covering her mouth, and Ron looked thunderstruck. I nodded, having already been told this by the Minister.

Hermione lowered her hands slowly, "Sirius Black escaped to come after you? Oh, Harry... you'll have to be really, really careful. Don't go looking for trouble, Harry—"

"I don't go looking for trouble," Harry bristled. "Trouble usually finds me."

"How think would Harry have to be, to go looking for a nutter who wants to kill him?" Ron said, though his voice sounded a bit shaky. "No one's ever done it before. And he was a top-security prisoner too."

"But they'll catch him, won't they?" Hermione asked heartily. "I mean, they've got all the Muggles looking out for him too...."

"What's that noise?" Ron asked suddenly.

Going silent, we could all hear a faint whistling from the compartment.

"It's coming from your trunk, Harry," Ron reached into the luggage rack, digging around in Harry's trunk. A second later, he pulled out what I recognized to be a Pocket Sneakoscope. It was glowing brightly and spinning furiously in Ron's hands.

"Is that a Sneakoscope?" Hermione stood for a better view.

"Yeah... mind you, it's a very cheap one," said Ron. "It went haywire just as I was tying it to Errol's leg to send it to Harry."

"Were you doing anything untrustworthy at the time?" Hermione said sharply.

"No! Well... I wasn't supposed to be using Errol. You know he's not really up to long journeys... but how else was I supposed to get Harry's present to him?"

"Stick it in the back of the trunk," I said, watching the Sneakoscope whir, "or it'll wake him up." I looked pointedly at Lupin, and Ron stuffed the Sneakoscope into Harry's trunk. He closed the trunk, and it was nearly silent.

"We could get it checked in Hogsmeade," Ron sat down. "They sell that sort of thing in Dervish and Banges, magical instruments and stuff. Fred and George told me."

"Do you know much about Hogsmeade?" Hermione asked interestedly. "I've read it's the only entirely non-Muggle settlement in Britain—"

"Yeah, I think it is," Ron said offhandedly, "but that's not why I want to go. I just want to get inside Honeydukes."

"What's that?" Hermione asked.

"It's this sweetshop," Ron said dreamily, "where they've got everything... Pepper Imps — they make you smoke at the mouth — and great fat Chocoballs full of strawberry mousse and clotted cream, and really excellent sugar quills, which you can suck in class and just look like you're thinking what to write next—"

"But Hogsmede's a very interesting place, isn't it?" Hermione pressed happily. "In Sites of Historical Sorcery it says the inn was the headquarters for the 1612 goblin rebellion, and the Shrieking Shack's supposed to be the most severely haunted building in Britain—"

"— and massive sherbet balls that make you levitate a few inches off the ground while you're sucking them," Ron said, clearly ignoring Hermione.