The Son Becomes the Father by watercrystals
Summary: Following the death of Sirius, Harry isn't sure what to make of the sudden appearance of a six-year-old boy. The pair form a bond, unaware they're half-brothers, and Harry decides to take the boy to Hogwarts and hide him there. To aide the boy's education, Harry anonymously exchanges letters with Snape.

A story of a how a young boy becomes a father-figure to another while their own father is oblivious of their biological existence. But can sixteen-year-old Harry give what he himself has not gained? Can he go an entire year without being discovered? Just how far will Severus go to find the writer of those letters...Or are some things best left unknown?
Categories: Parental Snape > Biological Father Snape, Teacher Snape > Trusted Mentor Snape Main Characters: .Snape and Harry (required), Draco, Dumbledore, Eileen Prince, Ginny, Hagrid, Hermione, Luna, Narcissa, Neville, Original Character, Other, Pomfrey, Remus, Ron, Tonks, Voldemort
Snape Flavour: Canon Snape
Genres: Angst, Drama, Family, General, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Mystery, Tragedy
Media Type: None
Tags: Alternate Universe, Child fic, Kidnapped, Runaway, Sibling Addition, Snape-meets-Dursleys
Takes Place: 6th summer, 6th Year, 7th summer, 8 - Pre Epilogue (adult Harry)
Warnings: Alcohol Use, Character Death, Neglect, Violence
Challenges: None
Series: None
Chapters: 33 Completed: No Word count: 164477 Read: 236921 Published: 04 Mar 2011 Updated: 06 Oct 2013
The Train to Hogwarts by watercrystals
Author's Notes:
Wow, thanks to all of my reviewers! I had intended to update little earlier but had a unexpected distraction. No matter, here is the next chapter so enjoy!

Toby and Harry were up early that following morning. Despite how hungry and somewhat tired each of them still were, the boys focused only on packing Harry's trunk and leaving the Leaky Cauldron as soon as possible. They used muggle transport such as the London bus service to get to King's Cross station.

However, by the time they had arrived it was barely eight-thirty and there was still plenty of time until the Hogwarts Express was due to depart at exactly eleven o'clock.

'Can we get something to eat first?' Toby dared to ask.

Harry glanced down at the boy for a moment and nodded. 'Yeah, let's go in there.' He pointed to a small café and was thankful that he'd transferred some of his wizarding money into muggle money. If Harry hadn't done that than they would have no food until the train and feast; both in which Toby was be likely to miss out on.

As the two boys ate their sandwiches without much conversation, Harry mused on how strange it was to not only have to be aware of his surroundings but he also now had an entirely new responsibility on his shoulders. He glanced at Toby (who was looking around and swinging his feet while he ate), and prayed that he could achieve what he had originally thought to be a mere matter of careful planning.

This boy's life and future was in his hands.

'How long will it take to get to Hogwarts?' Toby wondered.

'A while.' Harry sighed and glanced at his half-eaten sandwich but made no move to take another bite. Despite his previous hunger; his appetite was gone.

'I'll be dark when we get there.'

'Must be a long way to go.' Toby commented as he brushed the crumbs from his shirt. He drank his soda and glanced at Harry with a curious expression.

'It's a secret, right? That I'm gonna be there too?'

'Yeah.' Harry replied. 'No one can know unless I've told them privately first. And that would only be my two best friends.'

'Won't everyone notice me on the train and stuff?' Toby frowned.

'I've thought about that'. Harry shared. 'And it's risky but it should work. I've got a cloak that can make anyone invisibly. If you wear that than no one should know you're there.'

'Oh wow, really?' Toby grinned. 'I'll be invisible?'

'Yeah.' Harry stood and grabbed his trunk from where he had propped it up against the side of their table.

'Come on, we'd better get going.'

Toby nodded and jumped off his seat. Like a few times since they'd met, Toby latched onto Harry's nearest hand with his smaller one and inched closer to the teenager's side as they entered the busy train station that was crowded with muggles.

Normally, Harry would be reminded to grab a trolley for his trunk to make transporting it much easier, but this was the first time he had come to Kings Cross without an adult to join him at least part-way. Even the Dursleys had made sure he'd had a trolley. And yet, the trunk had wheels and therefore it never crossed Harry's mind that it might be easier to maneuver with a trolley. Although that required the use of both hands and Toby had currently snatched one of them to fulfill a small longing for safety and reassurance.

Harry could feel the younger boy's movements each time Toby squirmed or looked over his shoulder. The teenager found amusement in the fact that the boy was clearly attempting to search for at least a glimpse of the magical train. Toby was oblivious to the fact that such a thing was not possible, seeing as they were surrounded by muggles, and yet Harry had decided not to tell him. Harry himself hadn't known that fact either until he'd been given his train ticket by Hagrid that told him the impossible.

'What's it look like?' Toby frowned as they stopped a few feet away from platform ten.

'It's red.' Harry shrugged. 'You'll know it when you see it. Muggles can't know about Hogwarts so the train is on a hidden platform.'

'Oh.' Toby stared at his feet. His moment of silence provided Harry with plenty of time to extract his invisibility cloak from his trunk.

'Once we're on the platform you've got to wear this. And be careful not to bump into anyone if you can help it.' Harry instructed. Ideally Toby should wear it before they went anywhere else but if muggles saw the younger boy suddenly vanish from wearing a weird item of clothing than the word might spread to a wizard and they'd be in serious trouble. It was safer to wait until a place where it would be less of a shock and without the risk of causing an undesirable scene.

'Yup.' Toby nodded. 'Is that the magic cloak?'

Harry nodded and glanced around at the area although there wasn't much to look at other than the late businessmen on their way to work or mothers talking on the phone as they walked with their kids. It was almost nine and they had two hours until the magical train was scheduled to depart the station.

Toby fidgeted on the spot and tried to remain quiet as he knew that Harry was thinking about something important. A tall, dark skinned man hurried past the pair and unintentionally startled Toby as he knocked him and sent the boy toppling sideways.

'Ouch!' Toby hissed as his arm smacked against the corner of Harry's trunk. 'Git.' He added and glared after the man that hadn't even noticed what he had done. Rubbing his arm, Toby huffed and decided to move several more inches towards Harry.

'That's why you need to pay close attention to what's going on around you.' Harry hated the lecturing tone his voice developed as he said that but the teenager was was getting quite stressed out about his plan. Especially when so far he had only been able to figure out the basics of getting Toby on board the Hogwarts Express; everything after that was yet to be properly considered.

'Do you see that wall there?' Harry pointed towards the important barrier between platforms nine and ten.

'Yeah.' Toby glanced at it and wondered if it had something to do with the special train he had been looking for.

'It's got a spell on it.' Harry explained in a low voice. 'If we walk straight at it than we can go through it, right onto the secret platform.' Harry knew very little about children of Toby's age and yet vaguely he wondered if simplifying his words was really necessary. Although he was talking to a young child and Harry had no intention of repeating himself several times over if there was an easier and quicker way around it.

'Are you sure?' Toby stared intently at the brick wall. 'It doesn't look any different to the other ones.'

'That's the point.' Harry clutched the handle of his trunk and hoped that being two hours early would not impact the barrier nor his plans to board the train as soon as possible.

The boys waited until a nearby train left the muggle part of the station because the area would be less crowded than before.

Once the timing was right, they each strode forward and directly towards the would-be solid wall. Toby had continued to hold Harry's hand as they increased their paces but just as he thought they were about to crash into the bricks, he pulled back a little and squeezed his eyes tightly closed. Toby allowed Harry to pull him along until they had stepped right through the wall and arrived onto platform nine and three quarters.

'Whoa.' Toby gasped as he stared the Hogwarts express for the first time.

Harry was relieved to notice that arriving early had changed nothing and the station looked as it always did; minus the obvious rushing about and shouting farewells.

Taking in the seriousness of their secretive situation, Toby held out his arms for the cloak that would enable him to hide from the view of others. He made sure to keep a close eye on as many people he could as he pulled it around himself. Harry gave Toby a brief thumbs up to let him know that he was indeed concealed. The young boy exhaled with relief and was proud of himself for achieving that tremendously important aspect of the plan.

Toby knew nothing of the magical world other than the few things Harry had told him and therefore in the little boy's mind he was convinced that if he could only get to Hogwarts unnoticed than everything else would be fine.

Harry however, was far more knowledgeable and didn't dare to take even a single risky move as he placed his trunk in the luggage compartment and remained cautious the entire time. Luckily, he had also released Hedwig from her cage when he'd sent the letter to Snape the previous night and in doing so he had made certain that she knew he'd meet her back at Hogwarts.

It was somewhat of a battle to walk from the luggage compartment to the actual interior body of the train; Harry was terribly paranoid that Toby was no longer at his side and yet could not check. Toby also wanted to grab Harry's hand for safety but was unable to as he knew that such an action would not assist in his concealment.

Harry had always intended to board the train rather quickly once they had reached the magical platform. He was further motivated to do so the second he spotted a familiar family of Slytherin blondes; the last thing he needed was any form of confrontation with a Malfoy.

It also caused a pit of anger to swell inside him at the sight of Lucius Malfoy. He had been at the graveyard during Harry's fourth year where Voldemort had tortured him. No one believed him and Mr Malfoy had escaped any form of justified punishment. Than he'd showed up with the other Death Eaters at the Ministry of Magic and tried to steal to prophecy for Voldemort; Harry believed Lucius also played a part in Sirius' death as dueling with him was what had further spurred Bellatrix Lestrange to kill Harry's godfather. Yet again, by some unknown miracle (or a particularly high level of bribery, no doubt), Lucius Malfoy had yet again escaped the clutches of Azkaban.

Forcing his gaze away from he Slytherin who had thankfully not even noticed his presence, Harry turned and boarded the train.

--

The compartment Harry selected was obviously empty (which was to be expected since they were early), and the only real reason he'd chosen it was because of how familiar it was. This was the same compartment in which he had first met Ron and Hermione on the way to begin their first year at Hogwarts.

'You can talk now.' Harry said to Toby as he shut and locked the compartment door. Harry sank into the same spot on the seat as he had five years ago and exhaled a breath of relative relief.

'Do I have to keep this cloak on the whole way?' Toby couldn't help complaining as he had to hold the cloak around himself to prevent it from sliding off around him. Even if it was twice his size.

'Isn't it a really long way?'

'Someone will notice if you take it off.' Harry was genuinely sympathetic toward the boy as it wasn't something he'd want to do either.

'Sorry, Toby.'

Toby nodded even though Harry was blind to his movement. He figured that even though the train ride would be boring and his arms were likely to ache, at least it was only for that one day and it would get him to Hogwarts unnoticed.

Harry leaned back against the seat and vowed the buy lots of sweets from the trolley to make the trip better for Toby.

It was then that he heard an odd tapping noise from above the large window of their compartment. Seeing the deep brown owl that clutched an important-looking envelope in its beak, Harry stood and opened the smaller window above and retrieved the letter. He winced when the owl nipped at his fingers, hard enough to draw a speck of blood. He hurriedly fished in his pockets for some change and once the owl was paid, it flew back out the window; Harry had even slammed it shut behind the offensive owl with an air of annoyance.

Breaking the weird crest seal, Harry ripped the envelope open and vaguely wondered why it had taken so long for Snape to reply. The letter was obviously from the sour dungeon bat of Slytherin loyalties; who else would own such a dark and offensive bird that seemed to hate Harry upon first sight?

'What's that?' Toby wondered as he invisibly watched what was happening from where he sat beside Harry.

'Nothing really. It's just a letter about school stuff.' Harry brushed off the boy's question and quickly unfolded the finest piece of parchment he had ever touched.

Inhaling a breath of anticipation, Harry lowered his eyes to read the letter's contents in which were written in the blackest ink he'd ever seen...

S.J.E,

Upon consideration of your unlawful request, I am unable to believe that there ought to be any reason as to why I should agree to such vague terms.

You have led me to believe that you are a student in my class and yet you deem yourself unacknowledged enough to answer the simple questioning of a six-year-old boy? As difficult as it may be for you to realize that taking a moment of your free time to venture to the library in order to fulfill the request of the demanding child, would hardly seem worth your effort. I however, have an extensive list of far more important activities in which will consume a great length of my time and the entirety of my concentration to complete.

I can hardly comprehend how satisfying the mind of a young child could be of such importance.

Harry was not at all encouraged by the letter so far. He half-considered just skipping over the complaints and insults to read the very end. But with less than two hours until the train was to depart, he honestly could not say that he had anything better to do.

Sighing heavily, Harry lowered his gaze to the lengthly page once again and fought the urge to skim over most parts of the long sentences in which he felt forced to read.

However, passing up the opportunity to nurture the interest in which your younger brother has clearly begun to develop for the fine art of potion-making would be illogical and a waste of potential talent.

If a six-year-old wishes to be informed of the complexity of potions over the foolishness of Quidditch than I shall reconsider your offer.

'What?' Harry gasped as he could not believe that Snape was really thinking of letting him ask random questions and in return he wold actually provide proper response. As creepy as it was to consider Snape to even know the meaning of “nurture”, this was still a good thing. Perhaps this additional aspect of the overall plan would work?

Imagine if the sour man knew that the six-year-old boy could be his son...

I was under the assumption that should this arrangement occur, I shall merely be providing answers to whichever idiotic, mis-informed question that boy is able to formulate. I hardly consider him to posses the capability of any real skill from mere knowledge alone. Therefore he would be in no conceivable way “equipped to become as good as myself”, as you say.

I can see why you are but an average student in my class. I do hope that such foolishness is not the main cause of your poor grades.

Another issue in which I wish to address immediately before I reach a decision involves the nature of this communication. As your professor, it would hardly be considered a strenuous task to simply remain behind after class for a period of two minutes in order to gain the answers your brother seeks.

The use of owls hardly seems necessary and I must strongly insist against such a time-consuming aspect of our potential agreement.

I shall await your response before I am to reach a decision concerning the primary matter in which you have requested.

'Are you in trouble?' Toby interrupted Harry's reading as he watched his guardian's face shift from anger to confusion and than rest with plain annoyance.

'I don't think so.' Harry huffed. 'He's just being a right foul git as always.'

'Oh, like Snape?' Toby wondered.

'Yeah.' Harry frowned and wanted to crumple the letter a hundred times over. There were still a few lines left in the letter in which Harry was yet to read. He decided to finish as soon as possible so that he could formulate a reply. Or perhaps Harry should wait a moment to cool down? Cussing at Snape was a highly unlikely method in which to get what he wanted.

Underneath the fancy “SS” signature was the following lines:

I do not appreciate being compared to a six-year-old brat. I demand that you refrain from making such atrocious assumptions in the future or else this method of correspondences shall reach an untimely end.

'Git.' Harry muttered again.

'It's sure getting busy out there.' Toby glanced towards the compartment door where several students of various ages passed by in the corridor. Harry looked up as well and wondered what the time was. If more people were entering the train than it must be getting closer to eleven.

He would answer Snape's letter later but for now Harry had more pressing matters at hand; he had to keep Toby hidden for as long as it took for the train to leave the station.

Hopefully such an achievement will proceed with continued success involving the concealment of the six-year-old boy.

'What are your friends like?' Toby remembered that Harry had mentioned two of his best friends in which were apparently going to be let in on their secret.

'Ron's got red hair and comes from a big family.' Harry answered with a light shrug. 'He's great and really funny. Hermione has brown hair and is a bit annoying at first but she's alright once you get to know her. She's really smart and comes up with lots of clever things. Her parents are muggles so she knows more about the stuff we do but if you mention something like a TV to Ron, he won't know what that is.'

'Really?' Toby found it strange that no one would know what a TV was. They never had one at the orphanage and yet he knew exactly what it looked like, how it worked and what it was used for. Maybe they just didn't have the right books in the magical world?

'Does it really matter if you're from a muggle family or a magic one?' Toby lowered his gaze to his lap as he had no idea which his own family had belonged to.

'No.' Harry said sternly. 'Some people think so though, but it's all rubbish. Everyone can be great at magic no matter what their blood is. Hermione is one of the best witches in the school and her parents are muggles! She's a bit better than Ron too and he's from an all-magical family.'

'There he is!' A voice called out before Toby could answer. The compartment door slid open to reveal none other than Ron Weasley himself.

'Blimey, Harry, we've been looking everywhere for you!'

'I thought we were going to meet you on the platform?' Hermione added as she came into view as well. She was in the process of tucking her wand away - which would explain how they had entered the compartment when Harry had previously locked the door.

'Change of plans.' Harry shrugged.

He couldn't help grinning at them both as he had really missed his two best friends. With Ron and Hermione around, things already felt a bit better and his excitement at returning to Hogwarts began to emerge.

'Shut the door.' Harry added when his friends moved to join him. 'And don't sit there.' He cautioned Ron as his redheaded friend made a move to sit right where Toby was concealed underneath the cloak.

'What's with all the secrecy, Harry?' Hermione asked with an amused smile.

'I'll explain later.' Was the only answer he gave them for now. He trusted his friends even though he dreaded having to tell them, but it was the possible eavesdroppers he didn't trust even the slightest.

Ron and Hermione exchanged concerned glances but neither decided to push the matter further. They didn't know what Harry had been going through in the last few months following the loss of Sirius. Just to be safe, Ron shut and locked the compartment door again before he joined Hermione on the seat across from their best friend.

'So...how are you feeling, Harry?' Hermione asked with a sympathetic sigh.

'Fine.' Harry responded and quickly dismissed the topic with his tone.

Toby fidgeted in his seat and he wondered if he had missed an important part of the conversation; Harry appeared to be bothered by something. Toby was also nervous that he and Harry were not alone anymore and that the other two who sat across from him were basically complete strangers.

'How long have you been here, mate?' Ron changed the subject. 'I didn't think your relatives would let you come this early. We're only here because mum had to leave early to help Charlie with something last minute. And dad is working to contain an outbreak of biting ribbons that someone's charmed and sold to a bunch of muggles.'

'My aunt and uncle are away on a trip so I came here myself.' Harry revealed and Hermione instantly gasped just as he had expected her to.

'But with you-know-who still out there? And with what happened at the Ministry? How could Dumbledore just allow this?' She scowled. 'You could have stayed with us! I hope they at least had some aurors watching the place.'

Harry had been concerned about that as well but for different reasons. He had considered that he was being watched and if that was the case than Dumbledore would surely know exactly what was going on...unless the entire Order of the Phoenix had been told as well.

And Snape was a member.

Harry suddenly experienced the urge to flee, although from what he wasn't quite sure.

'Calm down, Hermione.' Ron complained on Harry's behalf. 'He made it here, didn't he?'

'Yes, well, I suppose so.' Hermione sighed. 'But still...'

'Bet you had a lot of time to do homework or whatever than, eh?' Ron asked Harry with a huff of annoyance.

'Can you believe that horrible essay Snape set us? And during the summer too! How can he be allowed to do that? We don't even know if we're still taking his classes! I bloody hope not.'

Harry didn't answer as he felt Toby straighten with interest beside him. He could not resist the momentary glance he aimed sideways to make sure that Toby was still perfectly concealed.

'Oh honestly, Ron.' Hermione rolled her eyes. 'You can't just study during class, you need to keep refreshing what you know so you don't forget anything. I think Potions is a perfectly useful class and you'd be silly to drop it if you've got the choice.'

'Not bloody likely. And besides, I don't remember anything Snape tries to teach us anyway!' Ron grumbled. 'I'm more worried about my cauldron blowing up, or worst, Snape swooping down to hex us.'

Both friends chuckled at Ron's rant as the train began to move forward and the journey to Hogwarts for their sixth year of magical education officially began.

Toby listened to the friends conversations for a little while until he became bored and stared past Harry to watch the moving surroundings outside the window instead.


After two hours it became apparent to Toby that things had just gotten much worst. He had tried to ignore it at first but his bladder would hear nothing of it. There were still many more hours until they were to reach Hogwarts and Toby knew he was incapable of holding off going to the bathroom for that long.

Taking a huge but desperate risk, Toby aimed his completely invisible shoe at Harry's leg in dire effort to get the teenager's attention; it helped that the cloak was way too big on him and therefore Toby was still not seen by the others.

'Ouch!.' Harry hissed before he could stop himself and wondered what had gotten into Toby. The younger boy knew that no amount of boredom was worth giving up the secret of their mission; it was because of that fact that Harry knew something was wrong.

'Harry, please.' Hermione sighed and rolled her eyes skyward. 'It's obvious you're hiding something.' She reasoned.

'Like what?' Ron turned away from the chocolate frog cards in his hands and glanced at the seat beside Harry, although he saw nothing there.

'It was a bit weird when you told me not to sit there, mate.' Ron added.

Toby bit his lip and squirmed in his seat as he couldn't endure for much longer. Kicking Harry again, he tried to remain hidden even as he wanted to jump up and run for the bathroom. For a horrible second he actually wondered if the train even had one.

'What?' Harry scowled at Toby as he could not ignore the urgent kicking any more.

Tearing part of the cloak off his head and letting it fall to his shoulders, Toby whimpered towards Harry as he squirmed in his seat.

'I really, really gotta pee!' The boy whined desperately.

'Oh.' Harry glanced at his stunned friends as he tried to figure out a plan. 'We'll be right back and I promise I'll explain everything but it's really important that no one knows about this.' He said seriously.

'It's a matter of life and death.' Harry knew his last words were a tad dramatic and yet they'd had their effect; his friends nodded and became more serious as they watched Harry replace the cloak over Toby's head and lead the little boy to the compartment door.

It was difficult to manage, but Harry and Toby reached the bathroom without their secret being discovered. The only downside was that they had to share a cubicle, which was only weird for Harry as Toby didn't even care.

--

Once done, they ventured back to their compartment and had to increase their paces as Harry had spotted Draco heading their way. With a bit of luck, the Slytherin never saw him and turned the other way because his attention was fortunately elsewhere.

'Stay hidden.' Harry told Toby as he locked the compartment door once again. 'But you can talk now since they know you're here.'

Toby moved towards the seat but the train unnaturally jolted in reaction to passing over a bump and gave a violent jerk of motion. Harry quickly reacted by catching Toby as the boy became visible and fell backwards towards the floor.

'Thanks.' Toby mumbled as Harry placed him onto the seat. 'Sorry.' He added.

'It's okay.' Harry shifted the cloak back over Toby and sat beside him to befall his attention back to his friends.

As expected, Hermione was already in disagreement to the situation while Ron merely appeared curious. Harry's gaze darted to the compartment door for a moment, fearful that someone had seen Toby; no one peered in so their secret remained safe for the time being, at least.

'Who is this boy and why is he here?' Hermione whispered loudly although no one could hear them from outside their compartment.

'His name is Toby and...well, would you like to tell them?' Harry glanced at Toby as little kids always seemed to have a simpler way of explaining things and he was at lost on how to tell his friends.

'Yeah, I s'pose.' Toby inhaled a huge gush of air before he began to speak.

'It's weird talking to someone I can't see.' Ron muttered.

'Shh!' Hermione hissed as she listened to Toby telling them what had happened.

'There was a fire at my orphanage and Harry saids I used accident-magic to get to his house.' Toby explained the best he could.

'I didn't know I did it til he told me, though. But I was real scared and Harry was nice so I didn't want to leave. He said I could stay with him if we kept it secret. I promise to be good, please don't send me away!'

Harry decided that he'd made the right choice in letting Toby tell the tale because Hermione's face instantly softened at the younger boy's terrified tone.

'But you can't hide him at Hogwarts, Harry.' She reasoned.

'Why not?' Ron defended. 'We won't tell and I share the same room as Harry. It can't be too hard, it is a big school and all.'

'And I do everything I'm told!' Toby added. 'I promise I'll be good.'

'It's not just that.' Hermione sighed. 'What about the other boys in your dorm? And for a while year? It's just not going to work.'

'Fine.' Harry frowned. 'Than we'll sleep in the Room of Requirement, I don't care. Toby stays.'

'Neville at least will notice if you're not in the dorm at night and start asking around.' Hermione continued.

'It's an impossible situation no matter how you look at it.'

'Than it's good we have you here too.' Toby smiled although no one saw it. 'Cuz Harry said you're really clever!'

'Exactly.' Harry smirked at Hermione.

'Yeah, I bet you'll think of some brilliant way to hide the kid.' Ron added.

Surrounded by temptation and praise, Hermione couldn't help but become silent as she began to formulate a mental list of all their obstacles and how they may be overcome.

'Well, first things first...' She sighed again. 'We have to be at the feast, so where is Toby going to go then? Wouldn't it be too risky to bring him with us with all those teachers and not to mention being surrounded by hundreds of students?'

Toby instantly gulped and recoiled at those words. Now even he was beginning to doubt and worry.

'He can't go to the common room by himself, it's hard enough for us not to get lost.' Ron added. 'And we don't know the password.'

'He can wait in the Room of Requirement.' Harry decided. 'I'll get him after the feast and he can hide under my bed until we figure out what to do.'

'But-' Hermione went to protest until she paused and realized that it really was their only option.

'Well, okay.' She frowned. 'But I'm applying some cushioning charms an expanding the room under your bed.' Hermione reasoned as she began searching her book bag for the required reading.

'Um, Miss Hermione?' Toby wondered nervously. 'Do you have something I could read? It's a long way to Hogwarts, isn't it?'

Hermione smiled lightly and nodded as she fished out her copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard and handed it to Harry so that he could slip under the cloak for Toby to grasp.

'Thanks.' Toby added as he positioned the cloak so it wouldn't slide off him while he was reading and than turned to the first page with anticipation.

And so the train ride continued with one compartment so filled with secrecy and worry. They had no idea how to pull this off for an entire year and with everything they were concerned with now...the concept of their schoolwork, the upcoming Quidditch season and various other aspects of the school year were yet to be added into the mix.

It was risky and could end terribly bad. But if anything, Harry was determined not to give up. His friends could already tell how much this meant to Harry and his desperation to come up with a workable plan inspired them to stand by him and do the same.

It could all end up as a total disaster and yet they were each convinced that it would only turn out that badly if they gave up on finding a solution.

And so, this is where the story really begins.

To be continued...
End Notes:
Please review and let me know what you thought! :)


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