raised by dementor

chapter 18

Harry Potter walked through the Hogwarts Express; the train was moving now and he was looking for his friends; they would most likely be in the same carriage as before but it was still worth checking. Lucy had seen him off and hugged him again, everyone still looked shocked but she had made him promise again to be safe again. He promised but with Quirrel and the Stone just how safe could he be? He had seen Molly Weasley eying him; hoping that her flimsy enchantment had worked, Harry would need to be very careful in the future as she would undoubtedly try again when she realised it didn't.
"Harry," a familiar voice cut through the air; great this could only be one person and he really did not want to hear them right now, or ever.
"What do you want Weasley?" Harry snapped; having no time or patience with the boy today, Ron looked taken aback by his attitude. Obviously he was under the impression the compulsion charm had worked; well Harry was going to prove him wrong right now.
"Didn't you get my owl?" he wondered hoping Harry had not somehow resisted the effects of the enchantment placed on the package.
"Yes and the present, they both made very nice burning materials, now scram," Harry replied coolly, after what he and his mother had tried to do he had no time for the boy. Ron looked crestfallen and also worried, but Harry no longer cared; instead he was busy looking for the right carriage and also responding to the many greetings he received. Most were from fellow Ravenclaws but a few were from Slytherin and Hufflepuff; almost all the Gryffindors except a few still believed he was dark but Harry put them out of his mind. However as he walked through the long corridor of the train he realised he was being followed; he had no idea who but he wanted to find out. Whether friend of foe, two people were following him. So he led them on a wild goose chase to a quieter part of the train and as he did not have his cloak on him, he instead manipulated the minds of those around him so he seemed invisible
"Where did he go George?" Fred Weasley asked perplexed, not many people were around but a few nodded and smiled to the two well known pranksters. However Harry reached into the minds of the people surrounding and they suddenly were struck by the strange desire to walk back up the train or go inside a compartment. Once the last sliding door was shut and all but Fred and George Weasley had gone he heard;
"That's a good question Fred," George replied also slightly confused, Harry thought for a moment. On one hand he didn't have the greatest relationship with the Weasley family but on the other hand he didn't know these two and for all he knew they could be nice people; if he judged on family then he would be no better than the Parkinson's.
"Here," he answered suddenly appearing in front of the two, they jumped back surprised and Harry suppressed a snicker as he frightened the most competent pranksters in the school.
"How did you?" Fred begun but before he could finish his twin began to laugh
"You got us!" George exclaimed happily as Fred slowly began to chuckle
"Looks like we might have a little Prankster in our midst," Fred smiled after a while , the initial shock had worn off. For a moment the two chuckled away until suddenly their tone changed from fun to business like, obviously they wanted to talk to him and Harry got the impression they wanted him for something else as well.
"Anyway we the cool kids of Gryffindor,"
"The Pranking Princes of Hogwarts"
"Charmers and Geniuses in our field"
"Would like to apologise on the behalf"
"Of most of our idiot house and also,"
"Our idiot brother who is and always will be,"
"A prat," the two said simultaneously, Harry was slightly taken aback by how fluently they spoke together, must be a twin thing.
"Thanks, it's nice to know not all Gryffindors think I'm a dark wizard," Harry replied with a smile, he quickly delved into their minds and found they had no idea what their mother was up to.
"Not at all, in face most of don't; in fact a few think your normal"
"Which we all know is wrong but we know you're not dark," the twins joked and Harry tutted at the backhanded compliment.
"Anyway Harry we were wondering if you could give us a hand with something, we've got say a prank of some form coming up but we would me most grateful if say someone who could fly would be involved," Fred explained suddenly, his tone once more businesslike,
"Depends who and what are we talking about?" Harry wondered, he was tempted obviously but needed to know what they were actually planning first.
"Well we have pranked a lot of the teachers over the years but we haven't got around to Dumbledore yet, I mean we've done everyone else but we had an idea you see Harry we thought..." George began whispering in Harry's ear. As the explanation went on Harry felt like this would be something he would like to do very much, very much indeed.
Later
"Harry," Hermione greeted happily, they had been waiting for him for almost half an hour and they were beginning to wonder if they should send someone to look for him, luckily he had just walked into the compartment and she saw the Weasley Twins walk past. Hermione cast a look at Cho who had seen it too, they gave one another a look that said This isn't going to end well but decided not to mention it, at least not yet. If he wanted to get involved in a Weasley twin plot then it would give them all a few seconds of humour; before it went wrong.
"Hello everyone, how're doing?" Harry exclaimed happy to see his friends again. He had last seen them at the Christmas party and the end of that was spent explaining the ludicrous ideas on blood purity to Hermione who had not understood the mudblood insult. After it had been explained to her then she was even more grateful to Harry for sticking up for her. Cho had known about the small mindedness of wizards; it had been explained to her before but she didn't blink at the suggestion she was a mudblood; firstly she wasn't and the insults of the Parkinson's really did not bother her and secondly she was too busy thanking Harry for helping her to care.
"We're all good, now we were wondering what you and your," Draco began slyly obviously wanting to make a comment. Cho however was sat opposite him and she leaned forward so she could punch him in the shoulder
"No!" she warned shaking her head, Draco looked like he was going to protest but Cho's threatening gaze made him think twice. Harry for his part decided he didn't want to know what Draco was going to say and instead took the seat next to Hermione.
"Ignoring Draco, who won't be living much longer if he makes the comment I told him not to make how are you Harry," Cho asked sweetly, giving Draco another glare. The blond haired boy shrank back into his seat but Harry decided to ignore him; perhaps it was better if he didn't know what they were talking about.
For a while the group talked about what they had done over the holidays; there were some funny stories as well as exciting ones, luckily it seemed like everyone had enjoyed themselves. However slowly the conversation turned to Hogwarts and in particular Quirrel;
"So what are we going to do, should we tell a teacher?" Hermione wondered aloud
"No!" Draco declared "We have no evidence and if Dumbledore wants Quirrel to steal the stone then he's not going to help us at all,".
"This makes no sense, why go to the trouble of protecting the stone if you want someone to steal it," Cho wondered. She had a point and Harry had been pondering that very question;
"Maybe he doesn't want him to steal it, maybe he just wants someone to have a go at taking it," Crabbe suggested. Harry looked up; that made sense, if he wanted Quirrel to try and steal the stone it would explain a few things. It made more sense than any of the answers he had come up with
"Good idea, but why Dumbledore would want that to happen is another question," Harry countered.
"I say we keep an eye on him, all we need to do is set up one of those detector wards around the door and we will know if someone goes in," Draco announced.
"Not a bad idea but can anyone do a ward that will last a long time?" Cho asked,
"All of us, we could all cast part of the spell and that would make it last a long time and also alert us all when Quirrel goes in," Harry nodded thinking it through.
"Ok, we have a plan now what are we going to do about the whole Quirrel trying to kill us thing?" Draco wondered aloud.
"That's simple me and Cho worked it out already," Hermione answered reasonably.
"What did you come up with?" Harry wondered.
"Don't die," Cho responded grimly.
The next day
It was night and the halls of Hogwarts were dark and empty; however not completely for Harry Potter and his friends were stood around the entrance to the room containing a Cerberus. They were going to make a ward and Harry had spent the previous day trying to work out which ward would be the best. He had decided on one that would just alert them if someone entered the room as it would give the whole group time to meet up quickly and stop Quirrel.
"Ok, I know the incantation so you lot channel the magic around the area," Harry requested, his friends extended their wands and quickly Harry could feel magic in the air. He drew his wand, he muttered an incantation and a circle of purple surrounded the door before vanishing, if someone entered the room it would ensure the group knew about it, all of them as their magic had been combined. However it seemed they were not the only ones up and about, because as they turned to leave they heard voices. In particular the voice of Ron Weasley and two others
"What are they doing up at this time?" Harry mumbled. This was strange; they seemed to be heading towards the main entrance
"No here's the question do we follow them or not?" Draco inquired softly. Harry thinking about Dumbledore's manipulations and how the Weasley family was involved decided they needed to, so the group slowly made their way out of the castle. There were hit by cold air but Harry was more focused on Ron Weasley and his friends
"Why are they going to Hagrid's hut?" Cho wondered; Harry had only met the gamekeeper once and that was very briefly but he seemed nice enough. Harry wondered why Ron Weasley of all people would want to see Hagrid in the middle of the night
"That's a good question." Harry mumbled; as far as he knew these lot did not know or were friends with Hagrid and there was no need for them to be going to his hut during the night , then they dropped to the ground as if they were hiding.
"What are they doing?" Hermione sighed, it was like watching a pantomime where the dumb villain would act stealthy, the difference was this lot were not acting they were just dumb. Harry crept around the side as they approached the hut, he was confused and interested but suddenly something appeared at the window. Now he understood, Ron Weasley had brought his friends here to see something, how he knew about it he had no idea but sure enough at the window Hagrid was holding a dragon.
"How do we get involved in these things?" Draco sighed.