[ - ]
Table of Contents [Report This]
Printer Chapter or Story Microsoft Word Chapter or Story
- Text Size +
Malfoy at King’s Cross


Despite Sirius’s wish that the weekend would last forever, like most good things it had to come to an end. Sirius and Remus went with Peter and James back to Diagon Alley on Sunday afternoon and the boys wandered about, and they got most of their supplies for Hogwarts - including Remus’s uniforms, thanks to James helping out with the money to be sure Rey had a set of robes that covered his ankles. They bade their farewells and gave each other boyish hugs and slaps around the back and Sirius and Remus watched as James and Peter took it in turns to floo home from the Leaky Cauldron.

“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do on the Express!” Sirius called out, last moment before James stepped into the emerald green flames.

“Pretty wide margin you’ve given me,” James grinned and he disappeared.

Summer seemed to disappear after that. The days went by so quick that August seemed to come and go with very little fanfare. Peter turned fourteen without his father or sister acknowledging the day - but he got three owls from Remus, Sirius, and James. He hugged the letters to his chest and read them over about a hundred times, tucking them under his pillow with care. It was the first good dreams he’d had all summer - the dreams he had of running through the woods with the other boys, free...

On 1 September, Peter went to Platform 9¾ alone for the first time. He took a muggle cab to King’s Cross and loaded his trunk onto a trolley. He pushed it inside, feeling surrounded by a wide world that was swallowing him up as the trains roared into their platforms, muggles running about, trying to catch their outbound rails before they were left behind. Not a single one noticed the oversized teenage boy that ran into the barrier and disappeared.

It was easy to find James, whose weepy-eyed mum was attracting attention all over the Platform. “Mummm…” James was complaining as Peter walked up, pushing his trolley along, “Don’t, alright, just stop it… stop… I’m fourteen and a half, please. You’re embarrassing me.”

As they boarded the train, James complained, “I hate when she does that… blimey… smothering me like that…”

“I’d do anything at all in the world to have my mum smother me like that again,” Peter murmured.

James felt horrible. He didn’t know what to say, so he didn’t say anything at all. They got aboard the train after leaving their trolleys for storage, and walked down the hall to their usual compartment, which was blissfully still empty by then. It felt good to sit in the familiar space, even in the silence of James guilty feelings.

James stared across the Platform to where his parents stood, Charlus had insisted on coming to Platform 9¾, despite being in hiding. Dora had fought him on it as hard as she could, but he’d been sitting in the Potter’s motorcar first thing that morning, very proudly announcing that he’d figured out how to make it go invisible so they could get out of the house without the death eaters, who always hovered about somewhere near by, wouldn’t be able to see them leave to go to King’s Cross. He’d looked so excited… the new, horrible dragon scales on his face had even seemed to gleam with the excitement… that Dora had finally been unable to refuse him. Charlus had always been an adventurer, a risk-taker, and it was murder, keeping him locked up like they had been… nearly a year in quarantine, the poor man needed an outing… and the car was invisible, after all… so along he had come. James stared at him out there, waving.

James waved back.

He looked over at Peter. Peter was staring miserably down at his trainers.

James took a deep breath. He needed to cheer Peter up, so he looked around the compartment for some sort of inspiration. HIs eyes landed on the carved initials on the wall, Sirius’s wand work. What would Sirius do if he was here? James thought. He’d find some way to distract Peter, probably something funny. Some funny joke spell or... or something...

A prank.

Yes, thought James, What better way to start off fourth year than with a prank?

But what to do… what to do…

He rubbed his chin, then his eyes fell on his book bag on the bench beside him and he remembered the bag of pranking supplies he and Sirius had carefully selected together in the small joke shop in Diagon Alley… Sirius wouldn’t mind if James dipped into the supply a bit, he reckoned. Sirius would be proud, he was sure of it. So he opened up the book bag and reached deep inside to where he’d stowed the bag of tricks and felt about in it until his hand closed around what he wanted. Finally, he pulled himself back out of the bag and turned to Peter with a smirking grin, holding the item up.

“You up for a bit of marauding, Wormtail?” James asked.

Peter looked up and hs eyes widened. “You’re kidding. On the train?”

James grinned.




Lily and her parents were saying goodbye to one another, too, and Mrs. Evans was hugging her. “The summer seemed to rush by,” she sobbed. “I barely got to see you, we barely got to talk.”

“Summers are like that, mum,” Lily answered.

“We’ll miss you,” Mr. Evans said. “Write us those delightful letters with the owls.” He smiled, “We love hearing everything about… all of this…” he was marvelling about, looking at all the fantastic magical things that surrounded them on the platform, as always. His eyes trailed after a boy carrying an owl, and widened at the sight of a man with long, pale white hair… and Lily’s heart caught in her throat.

It was Lucius Malfoy.

He was guiding along two boys - Regulus Black and Severus Snape - directing them through the crowd toward the loading area with their trolleys.

What was Lucius Malfoy doing at Platform 9¾? Lily wondered.

She looked about for James, Peter, Sirius, or Remus, but none of them were anywhere to be seen. Of course, the one time she wants to see James Potter and he’s no place to be found. Ruddy git…

As she was trying to spot Potter or one of the other Marauders about the platform, she suddenly got the sinking feeling she was being watched herself and she looked over to see Regulus Black as staring at her from where he stood, waiting for somebody to load his luggage onto the train. His eyes were boring holes into her, narrowed. They flickered to her parents a moment, as her father was grinning and exclaiming will you just look at that as a boy walked by carrying a box that had some sort of fantastic beast contained within whose tail and claws poked out over the edge. The look on Regulus’s face was one of danger.

“Mum, Dad, I’ve got to go,” Lily said. “I’m sure you need to be getting home anyway - beat the traffic - you know… Plus Petunia leaves this afternoon, you don’t want to miss her going…”

“Do you want us to help you with your luggage?” offered Mr. Evans.

“No. No it’s okay. I’ve got it. Thanks.” Lily smiled and gave them each a quick hug, pecked her mum on the cheek, and said, “Love you both. Bye!” Hurriedly, she shoved off with her trolley, hoping they really would leave - just so that Regulus Black would stop watching them with those beady, evil little eyes of his.

Severus looked up and followed Regulus’s stare until he, too, had spotted Lily and his face flushed and he quickly looked away, concentrating very hard on the trunks.

Lily pushed her trolley into the queue for loading and started toward the train. She was nearly there when she spotted the Potters, and she gasped, seeing Charlus Potter’s face for the first time, with the dragon scales marring his handsome features. She swallowed back the surprise of it, feeling terrible for him, but at the same time glad because here he was at Platform 9¾, apparently doing quite well.

She climbed aboard the Express, wanting to get away from Regulus Black’s stare.

On board, she walked through the corridor, searching for Marlene, Annalee, Ali, Pandora, or any of her usual friends, but Pandora was in a compartment with Xenophilius Lovegood and a bunch of other Ravenclaws. Further along, she spotted Ali Prewitt with Frank Longbottom, but she didn’t fancy joining them just yet, as they were engaged in kissing one another already, their palms on each other’s faces as they snogged. Lily had blushed just peeking through the compartment window.

Then she spotted the compartment where the Marauders usually sat and, wanting to tell them about Malfoy, she shoved her way through the door. Peter and James were leaning forward together, whispering, and the moment the compartment door opened, James dropped something to the floor and kicked it under the bench as they both looked up with tremendously guilty expressions on their faces.

“Oh it’s just you,” Peter said, relaxing.

James’s mouth spilt into that fantastically obnoxious grin and Lily felt her stomach flip in annoyance. “Hey there, love,” he said.

“You got new glasses,” she said.

“I did,” James nodded. “Do you like them, Evans?”

“They’re very thick,” she replied, “They look like you.”

“Thanks, I --” James paused, realizing she’d just called him thick, and he blinked in surprise, “Why, Evans… that wasn’t very nice.”

“Did you lot see Lucius Malfoy’s here, out on the Platform?” she asked.

“What?” James whipped about to press his nose to the glass, “Where?”

“He was by the luggage compartment before,” Lily replied, and all three of them looked out together, eyes scanning the platform. “There. Over by Mrs. Longbottom. She’s the one in that horrible looking hat.” The hat, which had a great stuffed vulture on it, was easy to spot.

“Oi. That hat is almost as ugly as Lucius Malfoy’s face,” James commented. Then he glowered, “What the bloody hell is that Death Eater doing here?”

“You reckon he officially is one?” Lily asked lowly.

“He already was when he was in school,” James said.

“Yeah, talking to Voldemort in that awful mirror…” Peter nodded, “He had to of been.”

Lily hovered with them, all three watching as Lucius made his way through the crowd. Then James said, “Blimey, I hope he didn’t spot my Dad… Mum was right, he shouldn’t have come to see me off.”

“He wouldn’t dare do anything here, on the Platform, in front of everybody, would he?” Lily asked, concerned, looking toward her own parents, who, despite her having told them to leave, were still there where she’d left them.

“No… no, course not…” Peter murmured. Then he looked at James, “Right?”

“Yeah, no...” James said, sounding only slightly more confident than Peter had. “Course not.”

They watched as Lucius came to a stop not too far from the barrier and stood, staring across the platform toward the train. James craned his neck. “Ugh. It’s Snivellus and Regulus.”

“I think Lucius brought them to King’s Cross,” Lily said lowly.

“Well why would he do that?” James demanded.

“Aren’t they all cousins?” Peter asked.

“Yes,” Lily replied, “I know Severus is with Lucius anyway. I think with the Blacks as well.” She paused then, “Speaking of. Where are Rey and Sirius?”

Peter looked at James.

James made sure the compartment door was shut, “It’s the full moon. Rey’s flooed into Dumbledore’s office.”

“And Sirius?”

“Er… he’s, uh, he’s got alternate transportation.”

“Alternate transportation? What’s that supposed to mean?” Lily raised an eyebrow.

“He has to start a bit late, some stuff came up at home,” Peter explained quickly, coming up with a tale much faster than James.

James nodded eagerly. “He’ll be around in a day or two about the castle.”

“Not backpacking in Costa Rica again is he?” Lily asked pointedly.

James blinked up at her, “What the bloody hell are you on about?”

“Oh did Sirius not tell you all about the backpacking trip he took to Costa Rica?” Lily asked, rolling her eyes, “Though I suppose the owls are so slow he couldn’t write to you lot, either.”

“Seriously, what are you talking about?” James asked.

“Yeah, Sirius wasn’t in Costa Rica, him and Remus were in a tent all summer in the woo -- Oww!” James had jammed his foot on Peter’s foot.

Lily’s eyebrow went up. “A tent in the woods? With Remus? Whatever for?” Her hopes soared high for Remus’s sake.

James glowered at Peter, then turned to Lily, “It only seemed like the whole summer. We just all took so many camping trips together.”

“Oh so you lot were there, too,” Lily said, hopes dashed.

“Yeah,” James nodded, “We lot were there too.”

The door opened again behind her and there was Annalee, who looked at James and turned rather red before her eyes turned to Lily’s. “Marlene and I have a compartment down the way with Ali and Frank. Are you coming?”

“I’ll be right there,” Lily replied. Annalee ducked back out and Lily turned to look at the two boys. “Well. I’ll see you lot about the castle, then.”

“Yeah, we’ll see you, Evans.” James winked.

“Ugh.” She turned for the door, then hesitated and looked back. “I hope you lot had fun camping,” she said. She really wanted to ask if anything had happened between Remus and Sirius, but she didn’t know how much they knew about Remus’s crush and she didn’t want to betray his trust.

James nodded, “It was brilliant. I hope you had a great summer, too.”

“Brilliant,” Lily nodded, pushing the thought of Petunia’s petulance out of her mind.

“Knocker,” James said.

Lily hastened out of the compartment and the door shut tight behind her.

James glanced out on the Platform, where Lucius Malfoy had been - but he’d gone. He turned back to Peter. “What do you reckon Sirius told Lily he went to Costa Rica for?” Peter asked.

“Who knows,” James replied. “Sirius does weird stuff sometimes.”

Peter nodded.

“Anyway… So now we’ve got our idea for this…” James bent down and took the firecracker from under the seat, “We just need a plan for execution.”