| Veneficium By Skylar Inari ~Chapter 3: All Aboard!~ A man who appeared to be in his mid - thirties leaned against the wall watching as students of all ages began piling on to the Hogwarts Express at Platform Nine and Three - quarters for another year of learning at Hogwarts. Sandy hair touched with grey and the weary eyes that made the man seem older as well as his threadbare robes and too thin frame spoke louder than words that this was a man of little to no means. Yet, for all that, the man did not seem to have the sullen bitterness that so many others his own age had. Indeed, at the very moment he was talking to the large dog at his side with an amused look on his face. The dog , for it's part was ignoring the man, looking a tad ridiculous with his canine snout stuck rebelliously in the air. Large and black, the thin dog was a match for his owner to all appearances, and - probably without even consciously realizing it - the excited students gave the pair of them a wide berth. "I told you that it'd be necessary." Murmured the man. Snorting, the dog gave the man a disgusted look then stared pointedly at the end of the leash that was clasped loosely in the man's left hand. "I know you don't like it, Snuffles." Snuffles flopped down to the ground putting his head on his paws and giving a long-suffering whine. "Professor! Professor Lupin!" Remus Lupin's head came up as he heard his name being called, he smiled as he noticed the bushy-haired Hermione coming towards the two of them. Interested as he was in the problem posed by the muggle band Veneficium, it was not his sole reason for appearing at Platform nine and three-quarters on September first. Indeed, he was once again pressed into the job of the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. Near the end of July, Dumbledore had contacted him, asking if he would care to take that position again. He had refused (even though he had been loathe to turn down a well-paying job), pointing out that most parents would be unwilling to have their child taught by a monster such as he. However, the Headmaster had wondered that if they contacted the parents (explaining his condition and how the Wolfsbane potion neutralizes the dementia that makes the werewolf so very dangerous.) if many parents would, in fact, be willing to have their child taught by a werewolf. Lupin had smiled and nodded, thinking privately that it was a lost cause but allowing Albus to believe that the idea stood a chance. How shocked he had been when the letters had started coming back, many of which gave the go ahead to Dumbledore. Such was people's trust in the old wizard, that if he said that their child would come to no harm in being taught by werewolf then it was alright with them. So, it was with shocked surprise that Lupin had accepted the job he had had so much fun teaching once again. He greeted Hermione, and was about to ask how her summer had been when Snuffles' head came up. Scrambling to his feet the giant dog's ears were perked and his tail began to wave in excitement. Barking enthusiastically at the thin, messy-haired boy that was approaching them pulling a heavy trolley (that was loaded with his trunk and Hedwig). Harry's answering smile when the fifteen year old boy recognized his godfather's exuberant yaps was like the sun coming up. Smiling at Harry, Lupin let go of the leash and watched with amusement has Sirius bounded over to his godson. *** They had finally gotten on the train, not five minutes before it had left. Hermione, while certainly not begrudging Harry his time together with Sirius, would have wished that they could have just a easily greeted each other in the confines of the train. But, as no harm had come from it, it didn't really matter so she put it out of her mind. Seated in the compartment, were her, Harry, Ron (who had had to run to get on the train, his parents running behind schedule), Professor Lupin, and Sirius Black. Because it would be easier to have the discussion with all people in human form the curtains were tightly drawn and a careful eye was kept on the door. Once that had been accomplished and everyone had settled in, Hermione started in on the topic that had been bugging her since Harry had brought it to her attention. Explaining, mostly for Ron's sake, what Harry had heard and what Hermione had found out about the band Veneficium. It took a while, during which the snack trolley was brought around and food was bought for all. The preliminaries done with Hermione brought out the CD's and showed them to the others. 'Voldemort' in particular having an effect on the others, for on the CD's jacket was a still picture of the Dark Mark. Which spoke louder than words that the muggles who were singing the songs knew quite a bit about the wizarding world. Sirius was staring at the cover of 'Love's Magic' frowning slightly. "What's wrong, Padfoot?" Inquired Lupin, who was looking at a different CD's. "Nothing, I just, I swear I've seen this picture before." "Anyone you recognize?" "It's a baby! One baby looks pretty much the same as all..." Sirius trailed off, looking suddenly at Harry. "Lupin...this is the picture of Harry that appeared in the Daily Prophet after he was born..." "What?" Lupin grabbed the CD's and peered at it closely. "I believe you're right, they took a still frame of the picture." "Why was I in the paper?" Demanded Harry. Sirius shook his head, "Every Potter was in the paper when they were born. The Potter's were one of the most powerful of the pure blood wizarding families after all. It was just a matter of course." "But, why would someone put a picture of Harry on a cover?" asked Ron, turning over 'Glimpse of Shadow's' in his hand, "After all, at that time Harry wasn't famous or anything, right?" "The thing is that 'Love's Magic' came out after You-Know-Who was defeated by Harry. That's why it's interesting." Spoke up Hermione. "Oh...but how did muggles get their hands on the Daily Prophet?" "Hermione," Professor Lupin interrupted," Do you have any pictures of the actual band members? If we saw what they look like we might be able to answer some questions." "Yes," Hermione dug into her bag, "After realizing that the CD's had nothing of who the actual people were, I looked into magazines and stuff for information. I found out quite a bit more than I expected to about them. They have quite a cult following. But I didn't recognize anyone." She gave the magazines to Lupin, "All the pages that have salient information are book marked." He handed her back the CD's, settling the pile of magazines on his lap to go through, with Sirius looking over his shoulder. Hermione had one more surprise for them, "The lead vocalist, Sirius Black and the secondary vocalist Remus Lupin - " That was as far as she got. "They took our names?" Choked Sirius in astonishment."Why, for god's sake?" Lupin wasn't much better off, and Harry and Ron were just staring at her. Taking a deep breath, Hermione continued with what she had been saying before, "That's why I think that either you or Lupin might recognize them." Lupin started flipping through the magazines, until he got to a picture of the lead singer, 'Sirius Black'. She was small-boned with long white blond hair and dark blue eyes who looked to be in her early twenties. A mischievous grin was on her face and her entire posture spoke of a person who was completely at home with herself. Harry and Ron moved to get a closer look at the picture that Sirius Black and Lupin were studying. Hermione having had the magazine for nearly three weeks stayed put, nibbling on a chocolate frog. After a few minutes Lupin, gave a soft cry of recognition. "Isn't that the girl, what's-her-name that started Hogwarts the year Lily and James became Prefects, the one that was horribly homesick and followed Lily around?" Sirius frowned, "Cassus? Emmi Cassus?" He looked at the picture more closely, "It could be her, but why would she do that? If the Ministry of Magic found out about it, she'd be in Azkaban for sure. This is breaking so many wizarding laws. It's one thing if you slip up and mention something you weren't supposed to but she's been doing this for nearly thirteen years." "What house was she sorted into?" Asked Harry. "Gryffindor." Lupin answered shortly, flipping the pages to another picture. "We'll need to see at least the other vocalist to be able to tell any more than that." He had found a picture of 'Remus Lupin'. The man was tall and slim, his longish light brown hair pulled back from his face, a single earring hanging from one ear. He was wearing loose, causal clothes in muted greens and browns and the grin on his face was strangely infectious. However, Lupin and Sirius could not place him. They were certain that they had meet him at some time in the past however. Ron, suddenly asked to have the magazine for a moment, taking a sip of his pumpkin juice as he did so. His eyes widened, and he coughed, spewing his juice all over the compartment, narrowly missing the picture as Hermione grabbed it from his hand at the last possible second. Harry pounded on Ron's back, as the youngest Weasley boy recovered from choking. "Bill..." He gasped, "That's Bill!" *** Very little had been accomplished after that shocking pronouncement. Ron had been asked so many times if he was certain that it was Bill, that he'd gotten quite surly about the whole matter and had finally snapped, "I know my own brother!" And the compartment had gotten very quiet after that, because it was obvious that Ron had not known as much about his brother has he had believed. Being proven wrong, was not one of Ronald Weasley's favorite ways to spend time with other people. So, he was in an absolutely miserable mood by the time they reached Hogwarts. He was so preoccupied that he paid no attention what so ever to the sorting ceremony, snapping out of his thoughts only twice. First when he noticed that both Harry and Hermione had Prefect badges pinned on to their robes and secondly when food appeared. Thought tended to take second place to food after all. By the time they were all ushered up to their dormitories, Harry and Hermione weren't the only one who had noticed that something was wrong with Ron. Fred and George Weasley had also noted that their brother was acting slightly off. Grabbing Ron by each arm the twins cornered him in against the wall. "Wha - a - ?" Spluttered Ron, jolted out of his sulking. *** Ginny Weasley had been heading back to the dormitory when she spotted Ron being dragged off by Fred and George. Not feeling the least bit guilty she followed them, they were after all family and therefore were exempt from the idea of privacy. At least in her mind. What she heard however, made her wish that she hadn't been nosy and followed them. Bill? A rock star? Bill? Did mum know? If mum didn't know, Bill was dead. Very very dead. Mum thought that Bill was doing charms work for Gringotts in Egypt. Bill was so dead. She had to tell mum. Mum would kill her if she discovered that she was keeping something like that a secret from her. Unaware of the fact that she had gasped, she was surprised when Fred and George abruptly let go of Ron and turned to her. *** Great, thought Ron bitterly, now Ginny knows too. He wasn't that worried about the twins telling on Bill, they had enough secrets of their own after all to understand why Bill wouldn't have wanted to be told on. But, Ginny... Her first thought would be to save herself. Which normally wasn't much of a problem, seeing as there were few things that actually required her react that way. And while it was true that if mum found out about Bill and discovered that her children had known about it and hadn't told her they'd all be dead. But that wasn't the point. The thing was that Bill hadn't wanted it to be known, and until he told mum himself they shouldn't say a thing. Fred and George had already promised not to tell, and Ron was certain that they were going to owl Bill at first opportunity (just like he was) and ask him about it. "Ginny, don't tell. You can't tell. Mum will kill Bill." George was saying to the youngest Weasley. "You don't want to get Bill in trouble do you?" "Mum'll kill us too." Protested Ginny. "Mum doesn't have to know that we know." Pointed out Fred, "Bill will be pissed if you rat on him." "But..." She was weakening, it was true after all that mum didn't need to know that they had known as well. "Come on, promise you won't tell." Ron pleaded, "At least wait until we can get a reply back from Bill. If he's okay with it then we can tell." Ginny bit her lip. "Alright. I won't tell." Her face was nervous. "I promise." She then turned on her heel and left, heading up to the dormitories. Fred frowned, "We should keep an eye on her, make sure she doesn't send an owl." George sighed, "We'll take care of that. It's not that hard after all." The three Weasley boys stood there for a few minutes before Fred turned to Ron, "So, how about we write that letter? Sending one letter is better than sending three. Less hassle, I mean." Ron grinned. "Let's go do that now." ~0ooo0ooo0~ Review please? Comments and Criticism welcome! 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