– CHAPTER ONE –
A JOURNEY TO FORGET
Harry looked across the station, and caught sight of Ron, and grinned more than he had in days; he had had a rough summer.
The Durselys, of Number four, Privet Drive were the reason for such a rough time. Just before the summer, Harry had lost his godfather.
Not surprisingly, Harry was quieter than usual; he didn't answer back as much, and spent even more time than usual out of the house. Not that this bothered the Durselys. Uncle Vernon was most displeased when he had to drop Harry off at the station, though he wasn't nearly as disappointed as Harry. Harry was promised that he could go over to the Headquarters of the Order of Phoenix, but nothing ever came. Even on his birthday he only received cards; but what was he really expecting? Although he also had several letters from Ron, Hermione and Hagrid, none of them said when he could pick him up from the house, even when he had asked to.
'Harry! Over here, mate!' Ron's voice called over to him. Ron looked ganglier then ever, and though the freckles looked the same, Harry noticed that Ron had had a haircut.
'How're you, Ron? Good Summer?' Harry called out, as he bounded over to him.
'Never mind me, how're you? I know we couldn't let you stay, or anything, but Dumbledore said –'
'Harry!'
Someone called out his name. Harry spun round, and was immediately obscured by a bushy-haired person. She let go of him, and he called out.
'Hermione! Where've you been? You never said in your letters – what?' he added blankly; Hermione was looking at him significantly, and all three of them, with Crookshanks, Hedwig and Pigwidgeon, sidled through the magical barrier to platform 9 ¾.
'Hey,' Ron said grumpily, 'how come I don't get a greeting like that?'
Hermione smiled and hugged him too.
Harry's mind was taken off his friend's travels as he looked up at the old-fashioned train before them. Harry quickly shoved his suitcase into the luggage rack, and found Ron through the crowd.
'Come on,' Harry said; at this rate they would miss the train, 'Lets get a compartm– what now?' Ron looked down at his rather large feet, and Harry caught sight of a shiny badge, and remembered that Ron and Hermione were prefects; they would be going down to their own carriage. Harry grunted a quick good bye, and sped off to find his own carriage, knocking a few people to a side as he went. A few people called out to him as he went past them. Whether they were friendly or not, Harry ignored them.
Harry found himself a whole carriage alone, and he flopped down onto the seats. As he shut the door by magic, a brown owl zoomed past the window of it. With a heavy sigh, Harry was reminded of the owl that had brought his O.W.L results over the holidays. Harry had been in such a depressing mood that he had not even opened them.
Harry remained quite alone until the food trolley came along. He bought himself some food, but not nearly as much as he usually did; he had no one to share it with.
Feeling desperately alone, and almost as bad as he did over the holidays, Harry bewitched the remains of his food to jump, skip and tumble over the carriage. Although this amused Harry greatly, after a while he felt bored and forlorn again. His eyes kept on darting to the Hogwarts-stamped envelope on his right: his O.W.L results.
Following another lifeless half hour, Harry could bear it no longer. He tapped the envelope with his wand, and the letter swiftly protruded. Harry ripped it off, and to his amazement, he hadn't done as bad as he thought.
He had failed Divination, History of Magic and Astrology, with two 'D's, and a 'P'. He didn't mind so much about the Divination mark; he already knew he had failed it when he left the test. What was bothering him was his Astrology mark. Even if he had tried harder, he wouldn't have been able to concentrate; that night Hagrid was attacked, and Harry couldn't think about exams. Even Hermione was focused on Hagrid that night.
He glanced back to the sheet, and found that he wasn't surprised to see the curly 'D' next to his History of Magic mark. He didn't want to relieve his exam. His heart sank as he remembered what would have happened if he didn't see the vision he saw, or if he didn't go from the hall, but went to talk to Snape in private. Harry snapped his eyes open, and looked at the rest of his results.
To his surprise, Harry had got an 'Exceeds Expectations' O.W.L. in everything else, including Potions and Transfiguration, except for defence against the Dark Arts, in which he got an 'Outstanding' owl. Harry's heart sank a little bit on the prospect of more of the Potions Master, Snape, but his fantasy of becoming an Auror hadn't faded, and he would probably need an O.W.L. and an N.E.W.T. in Potions, so he had to take the Potion lessons, one way or the other.
When Harry had just finished reading through his letter of Congratulations, Ginny came through the door.
'Hello.' Harry said automatically, smiling up at Ginny, who had grown a bit over the summer holidays. She had already changed into her Hogwarts robes.
'Harry Potter,' she stated. Harry was taken aback.
'What?' he said blankly and, knowing he sounded rude, casted around for a change of subject. 'Er, what did you get up to over the, er, holidays?' Harry usually hated talking about the holidays, especially when his had been so appalling, but this was a desperate case.
'I speak not of my travels,' she said coolly, and strode out of the room, not even saying goodbye. Harry sat stunned for a minute, but before he could think about what had just happened, Seamus, Neville and Dean, Harry's fellow Gryffindor's, entered.
'Hey Harry!' said Neville. 'How are you? You look a bit pale…'
Assuring Neville that he was fine, Harry tried to change the subject from him. At that moment, Seamus started asking for results.
It turned out that Harry had not done as bad as he thought. He was not the only one to have got an 'E' in Transfiguration and Potions; everyone else did, apart from Neville, who had an 'A' in both.
Neither was he the only one to have failed Divination, History of Magic and Astrology – all four of them had failed. With raised spirits, they spent the rest of the journey talking about who they thought had failed, or passed.
When they had reached the end of their stop, the magical voice that came through the corridors told them to go down to the Carriages. Harry looked at the Thestrals leading them. One of them fixed a beady eye on him, and Harry walked up to him, and stoked him. He recognised him vaguely as Tenerberus, Hagrid's favourite. The Thestral lazily nodded his head, as though he was enjoying it.
'What are you doing Harry?' said Seamus, who stuck his head out of the carriage.
'Nothing,' said Harry quickly, and he clambered into the carriage, but, as he turned around to get on, he saw Neville giving the Thestral a shaky pat. The journey up to the castle was fine; it was a bright day. Harry, on the other hand was feeling somewhat miserable, and he had not seen Ron or Hermione since the station, and he missed them. Harry felt almost as lonely as he did when he was alone on the train.
Harry stared outside the window, and saw Hogwarts castle against the cloud-less sky. It looked particularly astonishing today, but, Harry thought to himself, that's probably because I haven't seen it in days.
As the carriages drew closer to the castle, Harry's spirits rose considerably; he got out of the carriage, and saw the boats coming in.
'All righ' Harry?' boomed Hagrid. Harry grinned and waved, looking around for Ron and Hermione. He spotted them walking up to the castle, talking. Harry ran over to join them.
'Hey – where've you two been?' he asked, even though he knew perfectly well.
'Didn't you know? We were in the prefects' carriage. We asked Ginny to tell you. She did, didn't she?' Hermione said in a worried voice.
Harry nodded his head; he wanted to have a good first night back which stopped him from asking where they had been all holiday, and speaking his mind.
'Blimey, I'm looking forward to the feast,' said Ron, 'I'm really hungry…'
Hermione and Harry nodded hungrily, looking into the entrance hall. Professor McGonagall was in there, waiting for the first-years. She smiled wanly at the three of them. Peeves was floating about, but he didnt dare do anything with Dumbledore in the Entrance Hall. Harry made strait for Dumbledore, fully intending to ask him why he had been locked up last summer.
Dumbledore, without so much of a preliminary 'hello' said to him 'You need not to take any more Occlumency lessons, now that you know' he paused, 'the truth.' Dumbledore smiled at him; Harry grinned back. He now thought why Dumbledore wanted to keep Harry at his Uncles house: for his own safety. Harry thanked the Headmaster, and returned to Ron and Hermione, who were looking at him curiously. Harry explained to them what Dumbledore had said, but he changed it around a bit, and made out that Dumbledore thought he could already close his mind. Ron seemed impressed, but Hermione was still suspicious. Harry sat down next to Ron to avoid any questions. He looked up at the table. Most of the seats were empty, and, although Harry had expected this, he still ran through the absent teachers anyway. Professor Dumbledore was watching peeves, Professor McGonagall was waiting for the first years, Hagrid was presumably still herding the first years in. Harry spotted two more empty seats.
'Snape's not there,' he muttered to Ron.
'Great. All we need now is – wait! – Maybe he's left!' Ron finished excitedly.
'I hope so,' said Harry, and he opened his mouth to talk more, but Dumbledore came into the hall, with Snape at his heels. Ron groaned. Snape was looking exceptionally pleased with himself. The whole Hall fell silent, now looking at the patched Hat, which had been placed on the three legged stool, and the nervous first years. The hat took a deep breath, and, amid gasps from the newcomers, started to sing:
Welcome to the sorting,
And I'll make it nice and quick,
So put me on, and I'll tell you,
Which house I ought to pick,
I have more brains than you could think,
And you can't hide from me,
I'll look inside your head and tell
Where you ought to be,
Firstly, we have Gryffindor,
Where brave is not the word,
If you're in need of some help,
They are sure to have heard,
Then we have kind Hufflepuff,
Where they'll always understand,
All the people in her house,
Will always lend a hand,
Not forgetting Ravenclaw,
Where they've wit of mind,
They come top in everything,
With people of their kind,
And last but not least, Slytherin,
Is made up from ambition,
Sly folk in this house are,
Almost certain of division,
But don't worry your little heads,
I always pick correct,
For Hogwarts, being the grandest school,
Only picks the best!
The hall ruptured into great applause, and all of the first years smiled weakly, all of them quite glad they didn't have to do anything else.
Professor McGonagall was unrolling a long scroll, and calling out names.
'Applebry, Julie!'
'Gryffindor!'
'Branstone, Euan!'
'Ravenclaw!'
'Bricel, Amy!'
And it went on. Once they had got past the 'M's' there were only three people left: a girl with long, black hair, a scared boy about half the size of Harry, and a dark girl with glasses so magnifying, Harry was reminded horribly of Professor Trelawney. He felt grim pleasure that he never had to take another Divination lesson again. He was just about to say this to Ron, but the girl with the dark hair was made a Gryffindor, and he clapped politely instead. There was still another empty seat at the table. The last two people were sorted, and everyone looked up expectantly to Dumbledore, who stood up, and was obviously about to talk.
'May I take this opportunity to welcome you all to Hogwarts; May you all be happy tonight, for tomorrow you all have lessons, and none of us want you to miss out on those.
'Remember, though, with the wrath of Voldemort –' he paused, as many students shrieked and gasped. Someone audible said 'How dare you!' but Harry, with his fellow Gryffindors listened intently. 'With the wrath going on, it may be unwise to send letters astray or to land yourself into trouble as most of us have a lot to be getting on with.
'Now, before we get on with our stuff which ought to be dealt with, let us be enlightened by our feast. Thank you!'
Harry started to eat gusto, and hardly talked. He listened, though, to what people were saying about Azkaban.
'No one could ever break out of there,' Seamus piped up.
'Black did, though,' said Dean, seriously.
'Ah, well, he's innocent, isn't he? It was in the Prophet. Don't know where he is now, though …'
Harry turned red, and, out of the corner of his eye, saw Ron and Hermione look down at their plates. Hermione sniffed. Ron looked from Harry to Hermione, froze, and had the sense to change the conversation.
'Did you hear – the Chudley Cannons won the match!'
'No!'
'Yeah,' said Ron, looking at Harry, plainly wanting him to speak.
'Did – did any of you see the match?' asked Harry, with some difficulty.
'I didn't,' said Neville, who also seemed to realise how upset Harry was. 'Just like I didn't see the World Cup.'
The topic of the World Cup caught on, led by Neville, who had just been given an obvious stare but Harry. Harry was very grateful, and made a mental note to thank Neville later; he was there when Sirius had died.
Harry had rather lost his appetite, and had only picked at his food when Dumbledore went to address them again.
'Now,' he said, 'It is time for us to all stand united and go–'
'We do NOT!' shrieked some one from the Hufflepuff table. Harry turned in his seat, and saw Hannah Abbott on her feet, wand pointing at Dumbledore, who simply said nothing. Harry suddenly realised who had called out when Dumbledore had been talking. Snape strode over to Professor McGonagall, and whispered in her ear. She nodded, and shooed him away. Hannah Abbott screeched again, 'we don't stand united, and never will be, how DARE you ever say that, you foul, you old, dirty little worthle–'
Harry had had enough.
'STUPFEY!' he yelled, and the jet of red light hit right on course, on Hannah's chest. She was lifted up by the force that Harry put into the curse, and her body lay still on the stony floor. Harry didn't even glance at where all the staff was sitting. He just sat down, anger pumping through his veins. Ron looked edgily at Harry, but Hermione whispered, 'Good shot, Harry.' He looked past Ron and beamed at her.
Dumbledore stood back up; he had sat down when Harry had stunned Hannah, and said, in a clear voice (no one was talking again) 'Will Ernie McMillan please take Hannah to the Hospital wing.' Ernie sat there, looking stunned. 'Now, please.'
Ernie dragged Hannah out of the great hall, and, at the doors, shot one last curious glance at Dumbledore, whose eyes flashed. Ernie's footsteps faded into the distance.
Dumbledore dismissed them ten minutes later, asking them all to be back here the next day, as he had an urgent appointment. The crowd of Gryffindors were chatting, but most of them, like Hermione, seemed to think that he had done the best thing.
'Good one, Harry!'
'I couldn't've done it'
'Wonder what Dumbledore'll do to Hannah?' said Hermione pensively.
'Well, he can't do much to Harry, he only shut her up,' said Ron, grinning, 'You should've seen his face when she said all that stuff, you know, holding her wand up like that. You were good, though.'
'Super good,' said Neville.
'Super good,' agreed Ron.
Harry, who felt rather embarrassed, went up to his dormitory, with Ron behind him.
Harry leapt on his bed, and after he said goodnight to Ron, went strait to sleep, without even removing his glasses.
