So, I've been asked for another sequel and I'm not quite sure how it's going to go but I'm making a start. As ever, reading of the first five stories in this saga is recommended. I'm having a great deal of difficulty uploading Word documents to FF dot net for reasons that I'm yet to understand but managed to get this up somehow.
CHAPTER ONE: The New Year
The grounds of Hogwarts sprawled out in front of Harry Potter as he stared out the window of his quarters. It was the quarters of the Head of Gryffindor, the position he had taken on the previous year. A somewhat cataclysmic year, that had seen the school attacked by the muggleborn supremacists calling themselves the True Way. Harry gazed down at the students, making their way up to the castle for the beginning of the school. Among them, he picked out his daughter Nymphadora, now a second year, the youngest of his four children. Harry stopped, correcting himself. His three children. The death of his younger son Albus during the attack on the castle still cut deep.
His wife Hermione came up behind him. She put her arms round his waist and laid her head on his shoulder. "You ready to go down for the feast?"
Harry hesitated. "Maybe in a bit."
"We can't stay up here forever."
"Can't we? It feels like a good plan to me."
Hermione turned him round to face her and gently kissed him. "Nymphadora will get worried."
"She probably won't even notice." His gaze flickered away from hers slightly. "Then again, when I was her age, I'd have liked to have seen my parents." He took Hermione's hand. "Come on, let's go and show everyone we're still here."
"Come on, Auntie Dora!"Gemini Malfoy called excitedly.
Nymphadora gave a deep sigh. Gemini was her niece, her half-sister Rose's daughter, but given that they were in the same year it always felt strange when the blonde girl called her that. "I'll catch you up!"she called after her.
"Excitable, isn't she?"asked her friend Bradley Woods quietly, as he fell into step next to her.
"That's one word for it,"Nymphadora agreed. They were checked off by Ernie Macmillan, the school's deputy head, as they passed onto the grounds.
Beverley Cardogan, Nymphadora's housemate in Gryffindor, was waiting just inside the gates. She nodded a greeting to them and joined them as they walked towards the school. "I wasn't sure where to go,"she admitted.
"The Great Hall again,"Bradley answered.
"Another sorting?"
"For the new first years,"Nymphadora confirmed. "And the welcome feast."
"You think they'll mention what happened last year? The attacks and everything?"
"Probably don't want to scare off the youngsters that quickly,"Bradley suggested.
Beverley nodded. "Are there ever any normal years at Hogwarts?"
"A few,"Nymphadora answered.
"Just none when a student called Potter is here,"Bradley teased her.
Nymphadora blushed slightly. "Well, maybe I'll be able to change all that. A nice quiet year is just what we need."