1 September 1992, King's Cross Station
He might have lost a chance at getting the Diary, but at least, he didn't come back empty-handed. There was still the possibility of stopping Riddle before anyone dies. When he came back to the compartment, he was oddly smiling. He barely even batted an eyelash at the Thestrals pulling the carriages to the school. They were oddly beautiful in a dark sort of way. Alas, he was back at Hogwarts, and he couldn't wait to see what would happen next.
Harry stared mostly at the Thestrals in silence as they slowly trotted towards the castle. It wasn't as beautiful as the scenery from the lake the previous year, but it was still relaxing, in an odd sort of way, and it gave him some time to think.
Hogwarts, on average, was made up of roughly three hundred students in the castle, that's from first years to seventh years. It was a bit low, but it was logical since Voldemort's war practically wiped out a generation, and the survivors didn't really want to risk having children. The number of students should risk in the next few years, a baby boom occurring in the safety of a post-war magical society.
That number was of course outside of apprentices and journeymen that often visited the castle for some obscure book or to ask one of the professors about a subject or another. Knowing that the diary was in the train, the chance of a seventh-year student being its holder is quite rare, since they tend to apparate to Hogsmeade. It would be possible, but very unlikely, and there was still the risk that someone would be intelligent enough to realize that the diary was odd. Of course, Harry wasn't really holding his breath.
Removing the 40 NEWT students, it ends up with 260 students in all, and considering that Harry had covered all the compartments but the ten, statistically, he would have twenty-six suspects, which he would round it up to thirty, but that's assuming that the train was equality divided and that was just unreliable.
Also, there was also the fact that a compartment can't hold more than six people and that they were resistant to expansion charms. Yeah, a student almost blew himself up a few years back for trying to fit in more people. Now, that gives a maximum of sixty students, which was a lot, but better than three hundred.
Harry did his best to memorize the faces of the people in the last compartments. One of them was full of Slytherin upper years. Harry recognized the Burke twins and a girl that sneered at him. Her name was Selwyn, maybe? He wasn't sure, but it was probably not them; Malfoy wouldn't risk people who had family in his pocket. If they're caught, his political party would take a big hit in both reputation and support.
Another had a gaggle of first years, four to be exact. They didn't have any house crest on their robes, so they weren't sorted yet. They were two boys and two girls that a Ravenclaw prefect, Penelope Clearwater, was reassuring.
There was another compartment of Slytherin Purebloods later, and then one with Katie Bell, Angelina Johnson, and Alicia Spinet. Harry had recognized them from the Quidditch matches. They seemed to be yelling at a boy, Cormac McLaggen, who was in Harry's duelling club.
Thankfully, a few of the following compartments were empty, but there were two filled with Hufflepuffs in Harry's year. Hannah Abbot and Susan Bones were in a compartment together, and Zachariah Smith and Justin Finch-Fletchley were also in one of their own. And of course, there was also Luna Lovegood who was in a compartment on her own. It was a shame because she was a lovely girl. And finally, there was a compartment with Cho Chang who was talking animatedly with her friend Marietta Edgecombe.
The Potter scion noticed that none of the Weasleys were there, meaning that his elimination of Ginny as a suspect in Diagon Alley was somewhat correct.
Honestly, Harry didn't think he had forgotten anyone, but he'll do his best to try to remember. But as for now, he had a list of suspects. Removing the Slytherin that wouldn't make any sense for Malfoy to frame them, there was Luna Lovegood, Cho Chang, Marietta Edgecombe, Susan Bones, Hannah Abbot, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Zachariah Smith, Angelina Johnson, Katie Bell, Alicia Spinet, Cormac McLaggen, Penelope Clearwater, and the four firsties. That's sixteen suspects. The end of the train must have been quite a bit emptier than the rest.
Of course, there was still the possibility that someone had left the diary in their trunk and moved to another compartment, but that was unlikely. Tom Riddle wouldn't have wanted someone to lose his diary accidentally, or to just forget about it at the bottom of a trunk, there has to be a compulsion to keep it closed, and that means that it was probably one of those students. Still, the Potter scion needed to keep his options open and not get any tunnel vision.
His thoughts were interrupted by Daphne hitting him in the shoulder, "What are you staring at?"
Harry just noticed that he spent the entire ride thinking while staring at the Thestrals, "Just looking at the Thestrals, beautiful creatures, very misunderstood. Most people think they're bad omens."
The blonde looked concerned, "What are you talking about, Harry? There's nothing there."
"No, they're pulling their carriages," He explained, "however, they're invisible. There's a very specific condition that would allow you to see them."
"And what is it?" Tracy asked, curious.
"You must have seen Death," the young Potter simply answered.
Honestly, the implications that Harry could see Thestrals were groundbreaking. Harry had never seen anyone dying, outside himself that is. Even then, he had read of a few reports of people that still couldn't see them after they had seen someone die. They had refused the concept and lost themselves to the grief of madness. The truth is, you need to accept the very concept of Death to see the Thestrals, to understand the finally of it, and Harry, well, he knew exactly what the emptiness of Death entailed, and it seemed that this was enough.
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