They boarded the Train Back to King's Cross and there was a creepy silence
that followed the train all the way from the Station.
The four of them managed to get a compartment to themselves, and Pigwidgeon was, once again, hidden under Ron's dress robes to stop him from hooting continually.
Hedwig was dozing, her head under her wing.
Crookshanks was curled up in between Hermione and Lucifer, sleeping the day away.
The four of them felt like they were able to talk more freely and fully than they had all week.
They were able to talk about what Dumbledore was potentially doing to combat Voldemort's return, and only stopped when the Lunch Trolley arrived.
Hermione volunteered to get them food, and when she returned and was busy putting her money back into her school bag, she dislodged a copy of the Daily Prophet that she had been carrying in there.
She caught Harry's gaze and saw that he was staring at it, "There's nothing in there. You can look for yourself, but there's nothing at all. I've been checking every day. Just a small piece the day after the Third Task saying you'd won the Tournament. They didn't even mention Cedric. Nothing about any of it. If you ask me, Fudge is forcing them to keep quiet."
"Nothing better than a state run media..." Lucifer said, scoffing.
"He'll never keep Rita quiet," Harry said, "Not on a story like this."
"Oh, Rita hasn't written anything at all since the Third Task," Hermione said in an oddly constrained voice, "as a matter of fact,"she added, her voice trembling slightly, "Rita Skeeter isn't going to be writing anything at all for a while. Not unless she wants me to spill the beans on her."
"What are you talking about?" Ron asked.
"Lucifer found out how she was listening in on Private Conversations when she wasn't supposed to be coming onto the grounds," Hermione said in a rush.
"How was she doing it?" Harry asked Lucifer at once.
"How did you find out?" Ron asked as well.
"Well, he brought up the idea to me," Hermione said, getting their attention again, "he brought up that what if Rita Skeeter could be wherever she wanted at Hogwarts, because she was small and easily dismissed?"
"How?" Harry and Ron asked together.
Hermione pulled out a small glass jar, "Rita Skeeter can turn... into a Beetle. She's an unregistered animagus."
"You're kidding," Ron said, not believing her, "You haven't... she's not..."
"Oh yes she is," Hermione said, brandishing the jar at them.
Inside the glass jar were a few twigs and leaves, and one large, fat beetle.
"I'm more surprised she isn't a Cockroach with how revolting and disgusting she is," Lucifer said.
Hermione just laughed and shook her head, but she stopped laughing when he spoke next.
"Skeeter is lucky Hermione got to her first after Rowena brought her into the Common Room, because I would've crushed her like the bug she is."
The beetle skittered around in fear.
"Ron!" Harry got Ron's attention, "there was a beetle on the statue the night we heard Hagrid telling Madame Maxime about his mum!"
"Exactly!" Hermione said in a trembling voice, "she was probably hidden on a tree when you were in Divination as well when you passed out. And the Slytherins were talking to her to get small snippets from them. We saw Malfoy talking into his hands before we saw Lucifer barge over to them and hold Blaise by the neck. Of course the Slytherins wouldn't care about Skeeter being on the grounds even though she's supposed to be banned." Hermione took the glass jar back from Ron and smiled at the beetle.
"I've told her I'll let her out when we get back to London. I've put an Unbreakable Charm on the jar, you see, so she can't transform. And I've told her she's to keep her quill to herself for a whole year. See if she can't break the habit of writing horrible lies about people."
Smiling serenely, Hermione placed the Beetle back inside her school bag.
The door of the compartment slid open.
"Very clever, Granger," Malfoy said in the doorway.
Crabbe and Goyle were standing behind him, all three of them looked more pleased with themselves, more arrogant and more menacing, than Lucifer had ever seen them.
"So," Malfoy said slowly, advancing slightly into the compartment, but backed out after second-guessing his action, "You caught some pathetic reporter, and Potter's Dumbledore's favorite boy again. Big deal."
His smirk widened. Crabbe and Goyle leered.
Lucifer wasn't looking threatening at that moment, so they didn't feel threatened.
"Trying not to think about it, are we?" Malfoy asked softly, looking around at all four of them. "Trying to pretend it hasn't happened?"
"Get out," Harry said angrily.
Malfoy smirked, "You've picked the losing side, Potter!" His smirk widened, "I warned you! I told you you ought to choose your company more carefully, remember? When we met on the train, first day at Hogwarts? I told you not to hang around with riffraff like this!"
He jerked his head towards Ron and Hermione.
Lucifer breathed in and out carefully, trying to remain calm, "Too late now, Potter! They'll be the first to go, now the Dark Lord's back!" Breathe in. "Mudbloods and Muggle-lovers first!" Breathe out. "Well - second - Diggory w-"
It happened in half a heartbeat.
Hermione saw Lucifer stand up and yelled with a fury she'd not heard from him in some time.
Lightning was coming from his fingertips, hitting Malfoy with an unwaning power.
Malfoy fell to his knees as Lucifer stopped a second, and then yelled as Malfoy was electrocuted again.
He stopped and had begun to march out of the compartment, Crabbe and
Goyle grabbed Malfoy and ran for it.
Lucifer turned once out of the compartment, hell-bent on following them and killing Malfoy, but Hermione grabbed his arm, "Lucifer, please, come back in the compartment..."
Many people had opened their own compartments to see what was happening, and their faces were of pure fear and horror stricken.
They all closed their compartments, afraid of feeling Lucifer's wrath.
He turned his face to Hermione, and all three of his friends caught sight of his glowing red eyes.
It was burning more brightly than ever before as he walked back in and sat down, with Fred and George appearing a moment later, "Good show, Lucifer, I've never seen Crabbe or Goyle move so fast before," Fred said as the twins stood there.
"Thought we'd see what those three were up to," George said matter-of-factly, stepping into the compartment. He and Fred both had their wands out, but they hadn't had to use them, "Should've known Lucifer would take all the fun for himself," he prodded lightly.
Lucifer, however, wasn't laughing. He was still trying to calm down, 'I just used Crucio on him... and it felt great... the scream he emitted as he was being tortured with the spell...' he thought sadistically.
Fred shut the door and then proposed the question, "Exploding Snap, anyone?"
Lucifer didn't play as he felt like he'd get angry and destroy his cards, and then halfway through the fifth game, Harry asked them, "You going to tell us, then? Who you were blackmailing?"
"Oh," George said darkly, "That."
"It doesn't matter," Fred said, shaking his head impatiently, "it wasn't anything important. Not now, anyway."
"It was Ludo Bagman, wasn't it?" Lucifer asked them, but didn't look at them.
"How did you-" George started to ask, but Lucifer cut him off.
"I had a sneaking suspicion since I first heard you talking about it. Back at the World Cup, every bet Bagman made, he probably paid back anyone that won with Leprechaun Gold, didn't he?"
"Yeah, the bastard did," Fred said.
"We'd been trying to get him to answer to us all year, but no luck. We thought it was a mistake at first. We thought if we just wrote to him, and told him he'd made a mistake, he'd cough up. But nothing doing. Ignored our letter," George said, "We kept trying to talk to him at Hogwarts, but he was always making some excuse to get away from us."
"In the end," Fred said, "he turned pretty nasty. Told us we were too young to gamble, and he wasn't giving us anything."
"Kind of funny, since he was so eager to let you two gamble at the World Cup. He needed money, and I'm guessing he owed money to the Goblins?" Lucifer asked.
"Right in one. He's borrowed loads of money off of them and he has yet to pay them back. They cornered him after the World Cup and took everything he had on him, and it was nowhere near enough to pay his debts. He hasn't got two knuts to rub together. And you know how the idiot tried to pay the goblins back?"
"How?" Harry asked.
"He put a bet on you, mate," Fred said, "put a big bet on you to win the Tournament. Bet against the Goblins."
"So that's why he kept trying to help me win!" Harry said loudly, "Well - I did win, didn't I? So he can pay you your gold!"
"Nope," George sighed, "the goblins play as dirty as him. They say you drew with Diggory, and Bagman was betting you'd win outright. So Bagman had to run for it. He did run for it right after the Third Task." He dealt out another hand for them, minus Lucifer, who still didn't feel like playing.
The Hogwarts Express slowly pulled into King's Cross, and Lucifer grabbed his things and made his way for the train's exit, Hermione right behind him, with Ron right behind her.
He looked around at the people, the adults, who would be told what Dumbledore told their kids, who ran or walked up to them, hugging them before leaving the platform.
He saw Luna with her father and she said something, pointing to him.
He was about to walk over, but Luna waved and yelled, "See you on the Express September First!" And her father apparated away with her.
He walked off Platform 9¾ with his friends and he saw Harry's Uncle standing there beside Molly.
She hugged Harry and whispered something in his ear, but Lucifer didn't hear what.
"See you, Harry," Ron said, clapping him on the back.
"Bye, Harry!" Hermione said and she kissed Harry on the cheek, wishing him well.
"If you need any help over the summer with that," Lucifer said casually, pointing to Vernon, "just Owl me."
"See here, boy-" Vernon started, but he stopped talking immediately when Lucifer glared at him with a look that could probably literally kill if he wanted it to.
Vernon just grumbled and Harry walked back with him to the car.
Lucifer watched them walking off when Hermione stood beside him, the Weasleys leaving a moment earlier, "So... shall we wait?"
"Of course," he said and both of them went and sat down on a bench, waiting for her family to pick her up.
"Hermione?" He asked, getting her attention, "If... if you want me to help, in whatever way I can, even to help you with medically or financially... just let me know... and if you ever want to visit me at Lux, or need a getaway for a little while, just say Lux inside any fireplace, and you'll be taken there. I've set it up so that it will only allow you to visit as of right. Anyone else that tries to visit me would be burned alive by the green flames."
"Lucifer... thank you... I may need it, honestly... before we go and visit Harry and Ron for the summer when he's allowed away from his horrible family," Hermione said, knowing that his family was less than pleasant for him.
It was a bit of a longer wait than usual, but eventually her mother showed up.
It seemed, to Lucifer at least, that Jane did look much better emotionally than previous descriptions from Hermione, for her daughter's sake.
xxxxxx
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