Harry Potter: Instant Kill

"Goodbye Arcturus, take care of the others. I will send a letter every week to keep you informed of what is happening." I say as I prepare to board the train. He waves goodbye before apparating away, leaving me to find a compartment, most of which is empty with only one or two people inside. I chose an empty compartment to settle into, I placed my bags which were not shrunk onto the baggage rack and placed the cage where Nyx resides at the same time. Nyx being the owl Arcturus brought me to deliver my letters.

I settled into the seat and started to mess around with my magic, I was working on my control by drawing some of the moisture from the air into a cube of water and slowly freezing it while keeping its shape. As Arcturus predicted Daphne arrived 30 minutes later, with Tracy Davis in tow. Tracy is a very active girl who I have met more than a couple of times, she has an avid love for quidditch and anything related to it. "Good morning you two, how have you been since we last met?" I say as they enter the compartment. 

"We are good, nothing much has happened during this time. How are you holding up after the funeral?" Daphne replied for the both of them as Tracy squeezed the breath out of me with a hug. "I am doing alright, Aunt Bella and Cass made sure of that." The lightness in my tone told them that I was indeed doing better than when they last saw me. I helped them put their bags on the rack and we got settled, Daphne leaning on me while reading the book I am at the same time while Tracy was people-watching since she was excited to see a certain green-eyed boy.

Time passed and the train started to fill up, not many disturbed us but a few still poked their heads in to see if we were their friends. One interesting was with a short, plump round-faced boy whose pocket seemed to wriggle while croaking at the boy to let him out and that he shouldn't treat his uncle like this. The boy did not stick around since he seemed to have been scared by what he saw in the compartment and left quickly.

The next notable visit was a black-haired boy and a redheaded girl who looked as if they were going to ask to sit in here before the boy looked at me and winced slightly. The boy then politely excused himself, dragging the girl away as well, if I was right in thinking that may have been the little savour boy but who was the girl?

The train started to move not too long after and Tracy decided to start up a conversation with Daph and me, "So did either of you find out how we are sorted?" She was practically bouncing when she asked clearly anticipating something fun or maybe an adventure. "My parents told me it was a quiz on various magics to sort you into the houses," Daphne said with a lot of scepticism in her voice clearly showing that she did not trust what her parent told her. "Bellatrix told me that we would have to duel the headmaster and he would decide the house we would reside in," I say with no belief in that since I knew how we would get sorted already.

As we were having this conversation the door was opened by an annoyance. "Have any of you seen, Harry Potter?" Draco asked before noticing who he was asking, when he did his face turned sour even more so when he saw the Black heir ring on my finger. "Couldn't be content with stealing my future wife had to steal my future heirship as well." Draco spat with venom in his voice. "No matter how much your father would have paid, I would never have married you," Daphne replied with the same if not more vitriol in her voice. The prat's face turned red at her words and he said "I would have given you a much better marriage than anything this heirship-stealing wannabe Nobel can." After spitting that he promptly left with the classic line about his father.

We relaxed back into the conversation we were having before but this time I was interrupted by an unusual source. "Oh dear it seems my time has come, the reaper has come for me in the form of a schoolboy." A small voice croaked out. I looked towards the source of the voice to find a green frog with black speckles all over the back of it, I slowly picked the frog off the floor and asked, "Who's frog may you be?" The frog startled by me picking it up stayed perfectly still in my hand lest I decide to end its life. "Mr. Reaper sir, I am currently the frog of my nephew. Neville is his name, he is trying to find a cure for me however my family's cure is affecting his memory. I am ready to go but please spare him," The frog croaks pleadingly. 

"I am not the reaper, but I may be able to help with both your transformation and your family's curse," I say cautiously. While I was talking to the frog, Tracy was giving me weird glances and decided to ask Daph. "Does he believe he can talk to it?" Tracy said with confusion in her voice, chuckling softly Daphne replied "It's a feature of his ring, he has the ability to understand any spoken language, it appears animal noises count as spoken language. Either that or he is making fools out of us but that is unlikely." 

Not long after she said that the compartment door was opened, "Has anyone seen a toad, a boy named Neville has lost one." She paused when she saw the toad in my hand seemingly croaking at me and me croaking back. She turned to the girls and asked "Is he alright? I heard that most maladies were dealt with at St. Mungo's."

The loud laughter broke me out of the conversation with the frog who I now know as Gerald Longbottom. "What's so funny?" I ask while looking at Daphne. She, unable to get her breath from laughing so much just pointed to the new girl who I recognised instantly as Hermione. "How can I help you?" I said to her. She gave me an odd look before asking, "I came to ask whether you have seen a toad, a boy named Neville lost his. I then saw you conversing with that toad." 

"Ah, yes this is indeed Neville's toad and I would be happy to return it to him, I was just getting the owner's description from the toad to return him myself," I say while hiding the truth about the toad and the rest of the conversation I had with it. I stand and am led to Neville by Hermione, the compartment with Neville inside looks to have been occupied by just him and Hermione. "Hello, Neville I have come to return your frog and have a private conversation with you. May I?" I say as I gesture to the seat opposite him. "Sure, I do not know what you would want to talk to me about though," He says in a self-deprecating way.

Hermione respects my wishes and waits outside even though she is curious about the conversation. "So Neville, I have had a small conversation with your toad or should I call him Gerald?" I say causing Neville's eyes to widen. "I knew it, I knew I was forgetting something," Neville says before breaking down at forgetting one of his uncles had turned into a toad. "It's ok Neville. I happen to have the power to remove both curses. The curse on your family and the curse on your uncle should you wish." I say which causes Neville to look at me as if he was a man in a desert who saw an oasis. "Please do, I may not be very competent but I am still heir Longbottom so if you manage to cure these curses, I will do anything in my power to aid you." He said seriously.

I waved him off "No need for all of that it is nothing much to me, quite easy in fact." I say before snapping my fingers and the frog on the floor starts to shift until standing before both of us is a man who looks like he is in his late 40s. He is dressed in classic robes that clearly show he is of pureblood origin and on his face is a smile that could blind people. He quickly scoops Neville into a bone-crushing hug before doing the same to me, "Thank you. Thank you very much for allowing me to be me again. It's so good to be back." Neville through all this was also in tears, partly because of his uncle being un-froged but partly also because he could feel the fog clearing from his memories.