The journey to King's Cross was very uneventful, unless you count Mr. Weasley attempts on racing Thomas's dad with his magical car. The Ministry of Magic cars seemed almost ordinary, though Thomas had to admit that a flying car would best anything his father could afford right now. Luckly for them, they reached King's Cross with twenty minutes to spare thanks to Jonathan knowing the city better than Arthur ever did.
Still, it was quite a shock to wake up and find Mr. and Mrs. Wesley alongside all of their children at his house talking with his parents and waiting for him, Ron, Harry and Hermione to wake up before they could leave for the station. With almost half an hour to waste, no one was in a hurry to leave their families, but sadly for them, the older Weasleys were of another opinion. Because of that, both Mr. and Mrs. Weasley let out a sigh before turning towards Thomas, the kids and Jonathan.
"Jonathan, I believe young Tom over here had shown you how to get past the barrier right?" Arthur only to get a nod as a response. "Right then," he said, glancing around them. "Let's do this in pairs, as there are so many of us. I'll go through first with Harry."
Mr. Weasley strolled toward the barrier between platforms nine and ten, pushing Harry's trolley and apparently very interested in the InterCity 125 that had just arrived at platform nine. With a meaningful look at Harry, he leaned casually against the barrier. Harry imitated him.
In a moment, they had fallen sideways through the solid metal onto platform nine and three-quarters and looked up to see the Hogwarts Express, a scarlet steam engine, puffing smoke over a platform packed with witches and wizards seeing their children onto the train. Thomas and his father were next and soon just like Harry and Arthur they walked out of the barrier in the packed station.
A few seconds later, Percy and Ginny suddenly appeared behind them. They were panting and had apparently taken the barrier at a run, a strange way of passing as for some bizarre reason would always tire you out.
"Ah, there's Penelope!" said Percy, smoothing his hair and going pink again. Thomas rolled his eyes clearly annoyed at the perfect Percy's way of leaving his luggage to his family while he bloody chases a wild goose. At the same time, Ginny caught Harry's eye, and they both turned away to hide their laughter as Percy strode over to a girl with long, curly hair, walking with his chest thrown out so that she couldn't miss his shiny badge.
Once the remaining Weasleys and Hermione had joined them, Harry and Ron led the way to the end of the train, past packed compartments, to a carriage that looked quite empty. They loaded the trunks onto it, stowed Hedwig, Lola and Crookshanks in the luggage rack, then went back outside to say good-bye to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley.
Meanwhile Thomas quickly found where his roommates' compartment was and store his luggage and owl inside, but not before sharing a hug and a few words with Michael, Adam and James, who from the way they looked, couldn't wait to talk with Thomas, after all, he had gone quiet over the summer due to the Gremory incident.
Once he managed to leave the compartment, he walked outside only to find Mrs. Weasley kissed all her children, then Hermione, and finally, Harry only for Mrs. Weasley to smile at him before walking towards him and kissing him too.
Arthur and Jonathan were on the side watching the whole thing with a smile on their faces, not daring to interfere on Molly's show of affection for the kids. After kissing Thomas, she then turned back towards Harry.
"Do take care, won't you, Harry?" she said as she straightened up, her eyes oddly bright. Then she opened her enormous handbag and said, "I've made you all sandwiches. . . . Here you are, Ron . . . no, they're not corned beef. . . . Fred? Where's Fred? Here you are, dear. . . ."
Leaving Harry to get his share of motherly love, Thomas walked towards his father who by now was wearing a pained expression on his face. When Thomas reached his father he gave him a hug, one that Jonathan gave back to his son before he tried to smile at him, but it came out as a grimace.
"Tommy, my boy. I know that I say this a lot at him, but you've grown up so fast, and now you are leaving again. But I won't lie to you, it's not easy to see you leave. Even though this is not the first time, it still hurts to say goodbye."
He wiped a tear from his eye and cleared his throat. "But I know you have a great future ahead of you. Besides, you still have to get your diploma right? Becoming the first ever wizard in our family and all the fame that came with that."
By now Thomas was rolling his eyes at his father poor attempt on making both of them feel less emotional about this. It pained him to admit it, but maybe, he should have spent more time with his parents and grandparents rather than locking himself and training all the summer. Hell, he didn't even manage to meet Mars yet as he was still in the countryside ruling over the gnomes and overseeing their work.
It didn't took long afterwards for Thomas, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and the rest of the Weasley siblings to get quickly on the train as steam start billowing from the train and a few seconds later, the whole train had started to move. And so, it begging their third year at Hogwarts.
Ron's siblings, minus Ginny left them alone going to their own compartment where their friends must have been and as soon as they were alone, Harry start looking around like he was going to be caught doing something illegal.
"I need to talk to you in private," Harry muttered to Thomas, Ron and Hermione as the train picked up speed.
"Go away, Ginny," said Ron.
"Oh, that's nice," said Ginny huffily, and she stalked off.
With Ginny leaving in not of a good mood, Thomas and the others set off down the corridor, looking for an empty compartment since apparently whatever Harry was going to tell them was not something their other friends had to know yet, but all were full except for the one at the very end of the train.
This had only one occupant, a man sitting fast asleep next to the window. Harry, Ron, and Hermione checked on the threshold. The Hogwarts Express was usually reserved for students and they had never seen an adult there before, except for the witch who pushed the food cart. The stranger was wearing an extremely shabby set of wizard's robes that had been darned in several places. He looked ill and exhausted. Though quite young, his light brown hair was flecked with gray. But Thomas was the one who was brave enough to approach the sleeping man and take a look at his name, before putting one and one together.
"Who d'you reckon he is?" Ron hissed as they sat down and slid the door shut, taking the seats farthest away from the window.
"Our new professor." Thomas said pointing at the man's case.
"I would have never saw that. Nevertheless, what professor thought?" Ron wondered out loud.
"That's obvious," whispered Hermione. "There's only one vacancy, isn't there? Defense Against the Dark Arts."
"I pray to God he would last more than a year, but…" Thomas didn't' continue what he was going to say, after all in the past two years they lost two D.A.D.A. professors.
"Well, I hope he's up to it," said Ron doubtfully. "He looks like one good hex would finish him off, doesn't he? Anyway . . ." He turned to Harry. "What were you going to tell us?"
Harry explained all about Mr. and Mrs. Weasley's argument and the warning Mr. Weasley had just given him. When he'd finished, Ron looked thunderstruck, and Hermione had her hands over her mouth,only Thomas massaged his eyes knowing damn well that with Harry's luck they would stumble across the man sooner or later.
"Sirius Black escaped to come after you? Oh, Harry . . . you'll have to be really, really careful. Don't go looking for trouble, Harry …"
"I don't go looking for trouble, Hermione," said Harry, nettled. "Trouble usually finds me."
"How thick would Harry have to be, to go looking for a nutter who wants to kill him? Besides wouldn't we be more worried that," Ron stopped and pointed at Thomas "Thomas would end up fighting the bloody crazy nut? He does seem to end up fighting most of the bad guys."
"I'd be more worried about how easy the man escaped from Azkaban," Thomas decided to speak his mind. "From what the stories says, no one's ever done it before. Besides Sirius Black was supposed to be someone that should have been watched 24/7."
"But they'll catch him, won't they?" said Hermione earnestly. "I mean, they've got all the Muggles looking out for him too. . . ."
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