(Word Count: 2,330)
Several days have passed since his conversation with Arcturus and Sirius, and it was now the morning of the start of term. Harry was sitting on the Hogwarts Express, still stationed at King's Cross, in his own cabin.
Since his reveal that he was a horcrux himself, things have been… difficult to say the least. Both Arcturus and Sirius had nearly fainted hearing that. He tried to explain that he'll be fine and that he already had a way to remove it—by using the canon way—it did not help in the slightest to know that he had to take a Killing Curse to the face to do it.
Since then, they had both retreated to the library and had begun researching ways to save him. Not only that, but Sirius kept trying to cheer him up all the time as if he, Harry, was depressed! It had grown tiresome quite quickly.
Luckily, they agreed that it may be for the best if no one else knew about it, so they haven't told anyone else. Merlin only knows how Dora or Remus would act.
The only plus side about it was that Harry would hold onto the locket. It was kept in that lead box inside his trunk necklace, so it couldn't affect anyone. Normally, Harry wouldn't mind letting it sit in the Black's hidden vault in the Black Manor, but Fate—the goddess—seemed to like pulling strings. He couldn't let them out of his sight now, or else who knew what she would do.
Harry was musing to himself when the cabin's door slid open, and Neville entered.
"Hello, Harry!" He greeted cheerfully, sitting down across from him. "It's been ages, hasn't it?"
"Hey, Neville!" Harry smiled. "It does feel like it's been forever. How was your summer? Anything interesting?"
"Not as interesting as yours was! Congratulations by the way! All I did was look after my garden," Neville said.
"Gardening's cool too. What plants are you growing?" Harry asked.
Neville smiled excitedly, "We recently got some new rhododendrons! They'll take years to actually bloom, but when they do, they have the most beautiful flowers."
"Years? Are these a type of tree or something?"
"They can be. If you let them, they can grow into trees, but I'm planning on keeping them as shorter shrubs. Even then, they can get pretty big. I've got four of them to line the main path through the garden," Neville explained.
The conversation went on about Neville's garden on the Longbottom estate, and eventually some more friends filed into the cabin. Hermione, Susan, and Hannah.
Nearly right at 11 O'clock when the train was about to leave, the Weasleys showed up, along with Luna. Looking out the window, Harry watched them all scramble to get all of their luggage onto the train before hopping on themselves and waving a hasty goodbye to their parents. Ginny was pulled into one last hug and a kiss from Mrs. Weasley before she followed after her brothers.
A few minutes later, Ron, Ginny, and Luna showed up. Ron took a look at the five of them already in the cabin and decided it was too crowded for him. Which, to be fair, was reasonable. "Heya Harry, I think I'll just go sit with Seamus and Dean, yeah? I'll see you at the opening feast."
"Yeah, see you," Harry gave him a nod.
Ginny and Luna squished into the cabin briefly.
"Hey Ginny, Luna," Harry greeted. "Glad to see you all made it."
"It was quite a rush, trying to get everyone ready," Luna said. "I think next year I'll come on my own. Sorry, Ginny."
Ginny groaned. "I don't blame you. None of my brothers seem to pack anything beforehand. They just throw everything into a trunk at the last minute and call it good! But by the time they're done packing, we're already almost late!"
"You should look into a quick-packing spell. I can recommend a book for you to read if you want," Hermione suggested sympathetically.
Ginny's eyes widened, "There's a spell for that!? You've got to show me. I won't be able to take 6 more years of that chaos. I thought it was bad before, but now that I have to actually get on the train as well, it's way worse."
"5 years, actually," Luna corrected, "Ron will graduate the year before you."
Hermione looked at Luna curiously. "And what's your name? My name's Hermione Granger."
Harry stepped in to introduce her to everyone. "Actually, while we're at it, Ginny, Luna, these are Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom, Susan Bones, and Hannah Abbot. You may or may not have already met them before. Hermione, Neville, Susan, Hannah, these are Luna Lovegood and Ginny Weasley."
"Lovegood? Do your parents run the Quibbler magazine?" Susan asked.
Luna smiled brightly, "Yes, do you want one? I brought some to pass around." She dug into her bag and brought out a stack.
Susan started backtracking, " No, no that's okay! It's just I've heard my aunt mention it sometimes, saying something about it talking about consp—er, well, that it was an interesting read."
"Here, it's okay, you can have one. The first issue is free of charge." Luna handed her one before she could say no.
Ginny stopped her before she could pass more out to everyone else. "Actually, we should go find a cabin to sit in, with other first years. It was nice to meet everyone!"
Ginny pushed Luna out of the cabin, and the door closed behind them.
"Well, she seems… interesting," Hermione muttered.
"Hmph," Susan set the Quibbler aside, "I've heard about her family, they publish a bunch of nonsense in their paper. Nothing but a bunch of conspiracy theories."
"The Lovegoods may seem a bit odd, but they're good people. They're very kind and compassionate. They're my friends," Harry said.
"Oh! No, I didn't mean anything by it, Harry," Susan said. "It's just, I'm not a fan of their paper, that's all."
"Can I see?" Hannah asked, pointing to the Quibbler.
"Uh, sure," Susan said, passing the magazine over.
Hannah looked it over and giggled. "The text is all wonky." They watched in amusement as Hannah tilted her head and rotated the paper to read the text.
A little bit more time had passed, and the Hogwarts Express was well on its way to Hogwarts, when Harry stood up. "I'm going to take a little walk, and check around with everyone," he said.
He left the cabin, and walked down the train back towards the first years. According to the quest, the diary was in possession of one of the students. That meant the diary was here on this train somewhere. He was going to visit every cabin and scan the surface thoughts of everyone on the train to see if he could pick up any sign of the diary from anyone, starting from the back of the train with the first years.
The first years were the most suspicious, because older students knew the dangers of an object that can think for themselves, so they would be more on guard against it, and less likely to converse with it long enough for it to take hold into their mind. Plus, in canon it ended up with Ginny, a first year, and Fate seemed to like things moving in similar ways, so if she were to place the diary with anyone else, Harry was willing to bet it would be with another first year.
At the very last cabin, Harry looked through the window, and there were four first years, all girls. He thought for a moment and then knocked. The door opened, and one of them answered. "Yes?"
Harry smiled, "Sorry to be a bother, but I was looking for a friend's diary. She seemed to have dropped it somewhere, but we couldn't find it. Have any of you seen a small black book lying around?"
He glanced through each of the girls' minds. Nothing.
"No, I haven't," The girl at the door answered. She looked back at the other girls. "Have any of you seen anything?"
A chorus of "no" answered.
Harry smiled, "That's alright. Thank you anyway."
He went to the next cabin, and one by one searched through the minds of everyone present. Nothing too invasive, merely scanning their surface thoughts for any recognition of the description of the diary.
He came across Ginny's and Luna's cabin. Inside was Ginny and Luna, obviously, as well as Colin Creevey—Harry recognized him by the large camera he was holding—and another first year girl Harry didn't recognize. He gave a knock. Ginny looked up and saw him through the window. She smiled brightly and rushed to open the door. "Harry! What are you doing here?"
"I thought I'd drop by to check in on you two, to see if you've made some friends," Harry said.
"Right! These are Colin Creevey and Hayley Birch! Guys, this is Harry Potter, my friend!" Ginny announced proudly.
Colin gaped at him. "Wow! Are you really? I've read about you in the paper! Can I take a picture?" He raised his large camera and snapped a photo before Harry could say no.
"It's nice to meet you Colin, but I'd prefer it if you didn't take any more photos of me. If you do that, then we'll get along just fine," Harry said with a tight smile. He really didn't want a fan boy following him around and taking a bunch of pictures.
Hayley Birch looked at Harry curiously. "Are you famous or something? How did you end up in the papers?"
"It's nothing really, just a small dueling tournament," Harry said.
"Just a small dueling tournament? It's the world-wide tournament! Hayley, he's just being humble, he's the best in the whole world!" Colin exclaimed excitedly.
Harry sighed, glancing at him in annoyance, before looking back at Hayley. "It was only the under 15 circuit. I am nowhere near the best in the world yet," He explained.
Not wanting to stay any longer, he scanned through Colin's and Hayley's minds. 'Harry Potter! No way, no way! He's even cooler in person! I wonder if he'd be willing to teach me? Can I be as cool as him?' Colin thought.
'I don't know what dueling is for wizards, but I guess it's like fencing but with wands? This guy is a dueling champion? And from a global tournament? Wow!' Hayley thought, and she was beginning to look at him with the same fan-girl spirit as Colin.
"Well, it was nice meeting you. Ginny, Luna, it's nice you two made some friends. I'll see you two at the feast," Harry said, and left.
As he left, he could hear Colin tell Hayley, "He's not just a dueling champion! I heard he even defeated some dark lord when he was younger!"
Harry sighed in defeat. This kid was going to be annoying.
He continued on through the entire train, giving various different reasons as he went along. When he came across those of his year, or anyone else he knew personally, he would pause for a moment to talk with them before moving on.
When he came across Draco's cabin, he was sitting with Crabbe, Goyle, and Pansy Parkinson. He pulled Draco out into the hallway.
"What do you want, Potter?" Draco asked, shutting the door behind him.
Harry cast a muffliato. "The diary is here on the train right now. I'm visiting each cabin on the train to try and find it."
Draco paled but scoffed, trying to dismiss it. "You're still on that, Potter? Nothing happened at Flourish and Blotts like you said you would. How can you be sure my father even had this artifact? Are you just trying to pin the blame on my father?"
"Don't be ridiculous, Draco, I'm trying to make sure no one finds out about this. If I were trying to blame your father for something, wouldn't that defeat the purpose? I know it is here, Draco, I've done some divination on it, and narrowed it down to one of students having it. However, I haven't found anything so far," Harry said.
"If you're so sure, then what happened at Flourish and Blotts? Why didn't anything go like you said it would?" Draco asked.
"Because I had that vision, along with many others, when I was six. I have changed many things since then, so one of the things I changed must have caused your father to change targets for some reason. Perhaps it is because I was too close to the Weasley's, and your father knew I was a seer? It's not exactly a secret by now," Harry said thoughtfully.
"Fine then. What do we do?" Draco asked.
"Nothing. It's fine, Draco, I don't really need your help searching the train. I'll give you an update later," Harry said.
Harry moved on.
Eventually, he had searched through all the students. He had found nothing. No one happened to have the horcrux out, nor did anyone happen to think of it when he searched them. Harry groaned, rubbing his eyes tiredly. He had hoped he would be able to sense the diary somehow, or at least he could find the student that had it, but it seemed like the horcrux was subtler than he thought it would be. Or maybe it was too soon for it to have influenced the student too much? Or was Riddle's influence in their mind just too subtle for him to tell with just a surface glance? He was a master legilimens, after all.
He returned to his own cabin, and sat down with a sigh. Was he really going to have to wait until Halloween for Riddle to make a move?
"What's wrong?" Hermione asked, looking at him with concern.
"It's nothing, I'll tell you later," Harry said.
He could think on what this meant later. For now, he might as well enjoy the rest of the train ride.