"Are you sure you're ok, Harry?" Hermione asked, watching Harry anxiously.

In the time it took Harry to formulate an answer, Neville slid up to the end of the seat, and Ginny moved to the middle. I barely stopped myself letting out a relieved sigh as the physical contact stopped, and the burning feeling eased somewhat.

"I don't get it... what happened?" Harry eventually said, wiping his face.

"Well - that thing - the Dementor - stood there and looked around... I mean, I think it did, I couldn't see its face - and you - you-"

"I thought you were having a fit or something," Ron said, still looking scared. "You went sort of rigid, and fell out of your seat, and started twitching-"

"And Professor Lupin stepped over you, and walked towards the Dementor, and pulled out his wand," Hermione said. "And he said, 'None of us is hiding Sirius Black under our cloaks. Go.' But the Dementor didn't move, so Lupin muttered something, and a silvery thing shot out of his wand at it, like the one Ivory made, but much more powerful, and the Dementor turned around and sort of glided away..."

"It was horrible," the round-faced boy said, in a high voice. "Did you feel how cold it went when it came in?"

"I felt weird," Ron said. "Like I'd never be cheerful again..."

"But didn't any of you - fall off your seats?" Harry asked awkwardly.

"Well, Ivory collapsed," Ron said, glancing at me for a moment, before looking back at Harry. "And then Ginny started shaking like mad as soon as Ivory's silvery mist spell disappeared..."

I knew why this was; I'd heard my father punishing Lucius Malfoy a couple of months ago because of something to do with Hogwarts. From what I'd managed to infer, some sort of diary had possessed Ginny, who'd then opened the Chamber of Secrets, and spoken to a basilisk in a bathroom; Father wasn't happy about it because he'd left the diary with Lucius for safekeeping, but Harry Potter had destroyed it at the end of the year, as well as somehow killing the basilisk with a sword that had appeared in a hat. None of it really made much sense to me, to be honest, but it was clear that it had badly affected Ginny.

Wanting to avoid the topic of things my father had done, I quickly said, "Patronus Charm."

"What?"

"That's the spell Professor Lupin and I used," I explained. "It's a positive force that repels Dark creatures like Dementors - very advanced magic. Mine didn't go particularly well."

Then, Professor Lupin came back. He paused as he entered, looked around, and said to Harry and me, with a small smile, "I haven't poisoned that chocolate, you know..."

Harry took a bite of his, but I just slowly put mine down, finally making up my mind - I would take a punishment from Professor Lupin if it meant avoiding one from my father. Then, I took out my purse, summoned a couple of potions from it to help me regain my strength somewhat, and drunk them down, before putting the vials away again and slipping my purse back into my hidden pocket.

"We'll be at Hogwarts in ten minutes," Professor Lupin said, giving me another searching look. "Are you alright, Harry and Ivory?"

"Fine," Harry muttered, looking embarrassed, and I nodded silently.

As Professor Lupin left again, Ginny turned back to me.

"Ivory, this is Harry Potter, my brother Ron, Hermione Granger, and Neville Longbottom," she said, indicating to each of them as she said their names.

My breath caught in my throat for a moment when she introduced Neville, fragments of memories flashing through my mind - my mother's arrest, the trial, the Imperiused Minister of Magic, the photos in the Prophet. Three Death Eaters - Barty Crouch Jr., Rodolphus Lestrange (my stepfather), and Rabastan Lestrange (my step-uncle) - had been sentenced to life in Azkaban for torturing Aurors Frank and Alice Longbottom into insanity. The fourth - my mother - had walked free. And now, I was face-to-face with the Aurors' son, the one whose life had been all but destroyed by Mother's crimes.

When I counted it up, that meant I was allowed to be talking to exactly none of the people in the compartment. My heart started beating faster as I realised I was going against one of Father's orders - and worse, I was doing so willingly.

"Ivory?" Ginny said gently. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing! Nothing's wrong." I shook my head. "It's just - I mean, strictly speaking, I'm not supposed to be talking to any of you... I was given very specific instructions not to talk to Muggleborns, so-called 'blood-traitors', or Harry Potter, which is - well, all of you."

Ginny gave a slight smile. "And yet you're still here."

***

After spending the rest of the journey in near silence, we finally arrived at the station, where there was a great scramble to get out. The others had all left their trunks on the train, since a voice had explained about five minutes before that it would be taken to the castle separately, but I took my purse with me, not wanting anyone else to get their hands on it.

It was freezing on the platform; rain was driving down in icy sheets, and a cold wind was blowing ferociously, battering all of us as we started to move towards who knows where. The constant feeling of other people brushing past me made my breathing speed up, to the point I was almost hyperventilating, but I tried to hide it. I wasn't allowed to show weakness, after all.

"Firs' years this way!" a loud voice called over the howling wind.

Squinting to see through the rain pelting down on us, I could just about make out the outline of someone that was about twice the height of a regular man, and at least three times as wide. I could tell in an instant he had giant blood in him - a half-giant, most likely, since he was far too short to be a full giant, and far too intelligent as well, by the sounds of it. I noticed Harry, Ron, and Hermione waving at him, and, as I couldn't see Ginny anywhere, battled my way through the crowd to get closer to them.

"Harry, Ron, Hermione," I said, trying not to be pulled away from them in the current of people flowing away from the platform. "Where do we go now?"

"To the carriages, this way," Hermione replied.

I followed them to the carriages, each of which had a black horse with a skeletal body and bat-like wings stood in front of it. They looked sort of deathly, like my middle name, but they had an odd beauty about them that entranced me.

"What's this?" I asked softly, looking up at it in awe.

The three of them gave me confused looks.

"What's what?"

"This horse thing, pulling the carriage," I said, watching as it pawed at the ground, impatient to be off.

"What do you mean? There's nothing there... the carriages are pulling themselves, like always," Hermione said, a look of puzzlement on her face.

I reached out and stroked the winged horse, confused about why I could see it and nobody else seemed to be able to, but I put these thoughts out of my mind as we climbed into a carriage and started to move away.

As the carriage trundled towards a pair of magnificent wrought-iron gates a few minutes later, I saw two more towering, hooded Dementors standing guard. A wave of cold sickness threatened to engulf me again, and I fought the instinct to cast another Patronus, knowing I was far too weak for it to work properly. Instead, I just leaned back into the lumpy seat, and closed my eyes until we'd passed through the gates.

We started to pick up speed now, and I leaned out of the window to get my first proper look at the castle. It was absolutely beautiful, its windows glistening in the moonlight as I watched its many turrets and towers draw nearer. And then, the horse thing pulling the carriage came to a stop.

I took a deep breath. Finally, I was at Hogwarts.