꧁☬☬꧂

"Well, well, well - Arthur Weasley."

Not another trouble.

"Lucius," said Mr Weasley, nodding coldly.

"Busy time at the Ministry, I hear," said Mr Malfoy. "All those raids... I hope they're paying you overtime?"

He reached into Ginny's cauldron and extracted, from amid the glossy Lockhart books, a very old, very battered copy of A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration.

"Obviously not," Mr Malfoy said. "Dear me, what's the use of being a disgrace to the name of wizard if they don't even pay you well for it?"

Mr Weasley flushed darker than either Ron or Ginny.

"Mr Malfoy, I do not think that's a nice thing to say. I get it you're wealthy and stuff, but you do not have a right thing to say those to them." I spoke and walking right in front of them.

"Ah, yes, yes. Y/N Dumbledore. One and only grandchild of famous Albus Dumbledore. I heard a lot about you, from my son." we all turned our head to Draco who's face is red.

"From my wife and my companions. Who their sons goes to Hogwarts too. About how beautiful you are, smart and cunning." he suddenly walks towards me.

He bent down to my height; he placed his hand to my cheek as he rubs it. ""whispered that only the two of us could hear.

"Pa-pardon?." I move back; I stood next to Harry. Behind me was the twins and Percy.

"Anyway, we have a very different idea of what disgraces the name of wizard, Malfoy," Mr Weasley said.

"Clearly," said Mr. Malfoy, his pale eyes straying to Mr. and Mrs Granger, who were watching apprehensively. "The company you keep, Weasley... and I thought your family could sink no lower."

There was a thud of metal as Ginny's cauldron went flying; Mr Weasley had thrown himself at Mr Malfoy, knocking him backwards into a bookshelf.

Dozens of heavy spellbooks came thundering down on all their heads; there was a yell of, "Get him, Dad!" from Fred or George; Mrs Weasley was shrieking, "No, Arthur, no!"; the crowd stampeded backwards, knocking more shelves over; "Gentlemen, please - please!" cried the assistant, and then, louder than all--

"Break it up, there, gents, break it up--"

Uncle Hagrid was wading toward them through the sea of books. In an instant, he had pulled Mr Weasley and Mr Malfoy apart. Mr Weasley had a cut lip, and Mr Malfoy had been hit in the eye by an Encyclopedia of Toadstools. He was still holding Ginny's old Transfiguration book. He thrust it at her, his eyes glittering with malice.

But then there was the bell; it got everyone's attention. It was four kids, around our age, entered the shop.

"Oh my, father wouldn't be happy hearing about this fight here in the bookshop." the kid in the middle spoke.

Mr Malfoy pulled away from uncle Hagrid and dust himself.

"You. I remember your voice; you're the kid back then. Who are you." Mr Malfoy spoke.

We all looked at him confused, but then it struck me, he's talking about the three people from the shop.

But out of nowhere.

"Kneel"

"I beg your pardon?"

"Did I stutter? I do not like repeating myself." The middle kid glared.

"Mr Malfoy it is rude to disobey the royal highness. The King shall hear about this-" the boy on his left spoke.

"Shut up! Who are you kids anyway, and what do you mean by the King and Royal Highness."

Mr Malfoy yelled.

"The name is Parker, Benjamin Parker."

"Grey, Henry Grey"

"Hamilton, Easton Hamilton"

"And how rude of me. Knight, my name is Kayden Knight." The kid smirked as he bowed.

Wait a minute. Kayden!? She looks like a guy!

"Kayden Knight? I never-" but then his eyes widen.

"Your Highness, it is a pleasure to meet you-"

"Don't act oh so nice with me Malfoy. I've heard a lot of stuff from your family." She walked towards him.

"I saw and heard what you did to the Weasleys and Potter... and how you just touched her and said some stuff that made me trigger." Kayden pointed at me.

"The King won't like it..." She continued

""

The book shop became silent, and the tension became even extra darker as soon as she mentioned the Emperor.

"I-"

"Better run now. Don't make me change my mind, or else I'll mail the emperor for what you did." after that, he beckoned to Draco and swept from the shop.

"what was that all about?" I asked them.

"Oh about that, yeah um. I got way too serious. I saw what he did." She awkwardly scratches the back of her neck.

"By the way. What does he mean by "Your Highness"?? Are you a royal?" Ron asked.

"I'm not, I'm just... Related to them?"

"I thought you're a girl, why do you look like a guy?" Harry asked.

"About that, I took the wrong bottle while drinking my medicine. It was a gender-bending potion. But I do still have the female part down there."

"Kayden, they don't need to hear about that." I smacked her back head.

➱➱➱➱

The end of the summer vacation came too quickly; I also mailed the others about me not able to send them back.

On our last evening, Mrs Weasley conjured up a sumptuous dinner that included all of Harry's and my favourite things, ending with a mouthwatering treacle pudding.

Fred and George rounded off the evening with a display of Filibuster fireworks; they filled the kitchen with red and blue stars that bounced from ceiling to wall for at least half an hour. Then it was time for the last mug of hot chocolate and bed.

It took a long while to get started the next morning. We were up at dawn, but somehow we still seemed to have a great deal to do. Mrs Weasley dashed about in a bad mood looking for spare socks and quills; people kept colliding on the stairs, half-dressed with bits of toast in their hands; and Mr Weasley nearly broke his neck, tripping over a stray chicken as he crossed the yard carrying Ginny's trunk to the car.

"Oh, my Goddess."

Harry couldn't see how nine people, seven large trunks, three owls, and a rat we're going to fit into one small Ford Anglia. Harry and I had reckoned, of course, without the unique features that Mr Weasley had added.

I turned towards Harry and tug to his clothes, "Do you think this will work?" I asked.

He shrugs his shoulder "Not sure. But I hope it will." but then Mr Weasley went to us.

"Not a word to Molly," he whispered to us as he opened the trunk and showed us how it had been magically expanded so that the luggage fitted quickly.

When at last we were all in the car, Mrs Weasley glanced into the back seat, where Harry, Ron, Fred, George, Percy were all sitting side by side comfortably.

"Muggles do know more than we give them credit for, don't they?" She, Ginny and I got into the front seat, which had been stretched so that it resembled a park bench, and I'm sitting close to the window. "I mean, you'd never know it was this roomy from the outside, would you?"

Mr Weasley started up the engine, and we trundled out of the yard, I turned back for a last look at the house. I also saw Harry looked back too maybe he barely had time to wonder when he'd see it again when we were back.

George had forgotten his box of Filibuster fireworks. Five minutes after that, we skidded to a halt in the yard so that Fred could run in for his broomstick. We had almost reached the highway when Ginny shrieked that she'd left her diary. By the time she had clambered back into the car, we were running very late, and tempers were running high.

Mr Weasley glanced at his watch and then at his wife.

"Molly, dear--"

"No, Arthur --"

"No one would see - this little button here is an Invisibility Booster I installed - that'd get us up in the air - then we fly above the clouds. We'd be there in ten minutes, and no one would be any the wiser--"

"I said no, Arthur, not in broad daylight--"

We reached King's Cross at a quarter to eleven. Mr Weasley dashed across the road to get trolleys for our trunks, and we all hurried into the station.

Harry and I had caught the Hogwarts Express the previous year. The tricky part was getting onto platform nine and three-quarters, which wasn't visible to the Muggle eye. What you had to do was walk through the solid barrier dividing platforms nine and ten. It didn't hurt, but it had to be done carefully so that none of the Muggles noticed you vanishing.

"Percy first," said Mrs Weasley, looking nervously at the clock overhead, which showed we had only five minutes to disappear casually through the barrier.

Percy strode briskly forward and vanished. Mr Weasley went next; Fred and George followed.

"I'll take Ginny and you three come right after us," Mrs Weasley told Harry, Ron and I grabbing Ginny's hand and setting off. In the blink of an eye, they were gone.

"Let's go together; we've only got a minute," I told the boys.

I made sure that Red's cage was safely wedged on top of my trunk and wheeled my trolley around to face the barrier. We felt utterly confident; this wasn't nearly as uncomfortable as using Floo powder. The three of us bent low over the handles of our trolleys and walked purposefully toward the barrier, gathering speed. A few feet away from it, we broke into a run and--

CRASH.

Three trolleys hit the barrier and bounced backwards; Ron's trunk fell off with a loud thump, Harry was knocked off his feet, I hit my head to the wall, and Hedwig's and Red's cage bounced onto the shiny floor, and they rolled away, shrieking indignantly; people all around us stared, and a guard nearby yelled, "What in blazes d'you think you're doing?"

"Lost control of the trolley," Harry gasped, clutching his ribs as he got up. Ron ran to pick up Hedwig and Red, who was causing such a scene that there was a lot of muttering about cruelty to animals from the surrounding crowd.

"Why can't we get through?" I hissed to Ron and Harry.

"I dunno--"

Ron looked wildly around. A dozen curious people were still watching us.

"We're going to miss the train," Ron whispered. "I don't understand why the gateway's sealed itself--"

I feel like crying.

I looked up at the giant clock with a sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach. Ten seconds... nine seconds...

I wheeled my trolley forward cautiously until it was right against the barrier and pushed with all my might. The metal remained solid.

Three seconds... two seconds... one second...

"It's gone," said Ron, sounding stunned. "The train's left. What if Mum and Dad can't get back through to us? Have you got any Muggle money?"

Harry gave a hollow laughed. "The Dursleys haven't given me pocket money for about six years."

Wait, I could teleport us, no. They'll think I'm crazy if I do that they'll get scared. They'll think I'm a freak. They're freaked about the incident with the troll already. I don't want it to happen again.

Ron pressed his ear to the cold barrier. "Can't hear a thing," he said tensely, "What're we going to do? I don't know how long it'll take Mum and Dad to get back to us."

We looked around. People were still watching us mainly because of Hedwig's continuing screeches; Red already calmed down, but he looks grumpy and mad. I saw his eyes turned into red colour in a split second.

"I think we'd better go and wait by the car," said Harry. "We're attracting too much atten--"

"Harry! Y/N!" said Ron, his eyes gleaming. "The car!"

No.

"What about it?" I raised my eyebrows.

"We can fly the car to Hogwarts!"

"But I thought--"

"We're stuck, right? And we've got to get to school, haven't we? And even underage wizards are allowed to use magic if it's a real emergency, section nineteen or something of the Restriction of Thingy--"

"But your Mum and Dad..." said Harry, pushing against the barrier again in the vain hope that it would give way. "How will they get home?"

"They don't need the car!" said Ron impatiently. "They know how to Apparate! You know, just vanish and reappear at home! They only bother with Floo powder and the car because we're all underage and we're not allowed to Apparate yet..."

I can do that. I'm just scared.

Harry's feeling of panic turned suddenly to excitement.

"Can you fly it?"

"No, problem," said Ron, wheeling his trolley around to face the exit. "C'mon, let's go. If we hurry, we'll be able to follow the Hogwarts Express--"

"No, Ron, I'll do it. I'll drive." I said.

Ron crossed his arms "But you did already last time when we took Harry."

"Still! You don't know how to drive." I argue. "Let me do it once. I promise we won't get into trouble."

We marched off through the crowd of curious Muggles, out of the station and back onto the side road where the old Ford Anglia was parked.

Ron unlocked the cavernous trunk with a series of taps from his wand. We heaved our luggage back in, put Hedwig and Red on the back seat, and got into the front.

"Check that no one's watching," said Ron, starting the ignition with another tap of his wand. Harry and I stuck our head out of the window: many cars were rumbling along the main road ahead, but their street was empty.

"Okay," he said.

Ron pressed a tiny silver button on the dashboard. The car around us vanished - and so did us. I could feel the seat vibrating beneath me, hear the engine, felt my hands on my knees and floating a few feet above the ground in a dingy street full of parked cars.

"Let's go," said Ron's voice from his right.

Help me.

~~~~~~

Aidan Gallagher/Number Five

As

Kayden Knight