"Here's your trunk, Harry"
"Thanks Mrs Weasley" Harry replied taking his trunk and leaving it on the ground next to him to say his last goodbyes. Ron, Ginny, Mrs Weasley, Hermione and Harry, who had stayed for most of the summer at The Burrow, had all arrived unusually early at 10:45 on Platform 9 ¾. The Scarlet steam engine marked 'Hogwarts Express' was gleaming in the morning sun waiting to take every student to their destination: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry smiled at the thought of the place he had called home ever since the September after his eleventh birthday, however a familiar sight brought him out of his reverie.
Out of the corner of his eye Harry had noticed Crabbe and Goyle, the Slytherin buffoons tripping up first years, laughing hysterically then turning to Malfoy to see if he appreciated their 'fun'. Without even looking at him, Harry could tell Malfoy bore a smirk on his face as usual; however he had to double take as he noticed Malfoy wasn't paying them the slightest bit of attention, he was frowning and staring fixedly at the floor. He had had a growth spurt over the summer and it seemed Malfoy had been working out, Harry could see his toned muscles underneath the top he was wearing and his trademark blonde hair and grown too so that it fell forward over his face in a very flattering way. He was deep in thought about something and Harry was curious. Why was Malfoy not bullying first years? What had happened to Malfoy over the summer to make him lose his usual sarcastic ways?
Obviously Harry wasn't the only one to notice Malfoy's odd behaviour, Pansy Parkinson walked up to him a moment later and put her arm round him only to be shrugged off and left standing on her own looking bewildered. Before Malfoy disappeared onto the train he caught Harry's gaze and stared back for a few moments, he seemed to be fighting an internal battle before giving up and Harry noticed the faintest trace of a smile on his lips, without thinking Harry had smiled back equally as discrete. It was only when Malfoy had vanished that Harry began to think how strange that acknowledgement had been, usually it was to see Malfoy coming out with hurtful, sarcastic comments with his cronies laughing by his side.
"What's got Parkinson's knickers in a twist?"Interrupted Ron's voice bringing Harry out of his dreamlike state wondering what on earth Ron was talking about.
"What?" He asked thoroughly confused having missed entirely what Ron had said.
"Parkinson" Ron said rolling his eyes, "she looks weird."
"Oh erm... dunno" Harry lied not wanting, for some reason, to tell Ron about Malfoy. "Since when have you cared about her anyway?"
Ron shrugged and started talking to Hermione about how much homework McGonagall was going to set on their first day back. This didn't really interest Harry so he went back to thinking.
It was their sixth year at Hogwarts and throughout their years there Harry, Ron and Hermione had been through a lot; however there was one journey Harry must face alone. Ever since last year he had known that it was him that would finally have to defeat Voldemort in a one on one battle till death. 'Neither can live while the other survives', the words haunted his nightmares, he knew a war was on its way, a war between light and dark and it was him, a mere boy of sixteen, who had to make sure the light prevailed.
Harry could hear someone talking to him and he was yet again brought out of his trance as he stared into the worried eyes of Mrs Weasley.
"Now you will be careful won't you, Harry, It is more dangerous now than it ever was before..." She was cut off as a tear made its way down her cheek, she wiped it away before smiling and continuing, "Don't do anything stupid and stick to the rules!" She appeared to have finished.
"I will, don't worry we'll all be fine" Harry replied as he was brought into a huge hug from his friends mother, Harry liked Mrs Weasley very much but something in the back of his mind always wished it was his mother doing this, not Ron's. Feeling incredibly self centred he grabbed his trunk and made his way onto the train leaving Ron and Ginny with Mrs Weasley to have a family moment.
They found a compartment and settled in ready for the train journey to Hogwarts. As Ron entered the compartment Harry closed his eyes pretending to be asleep so as to ponder Malfoy's unusual behaviour, yet again, undisturbed.
Harry, who had actually fallen asleep, was woken by Hermione telling him to put on his school robes. He opened his eyes to see Hogwarts looming into view and the familiar jolt of excitement ran through his body at the sight of it. He changed quickly and sat back down feeling the thrill of having nothing to worry about for a while. He knew there were a lot of things to worry about, the war being one of them but they seemed a long way away and worrying about them could wait. He was enjoying the last ten minutes of the train ride having meaningless conversations with his best friends, mostly to do with the feast, Dumbledore's speech, the Sorting Hat and sleep. Harry was extremely hungry and judging by Ron's irritated tone of voice so was he.
Harry was sat in his usual place at the Gryffindor table awaiting the sorting ceremony. He glanced at the Slytherins and noticed Malfoy looking anxiously at Dumbledore then down at his empty, gold plate. He repeated this several times before the heavy, oak doors opened and in walked the first years, nervous as ever. As a girl passed him he heard her squeaky, voice say "You don't think we might die do you?" Harry suppressed a chuckle, remembering what thoughts were running through his head when he was walking up to the greying old hat sat on a stool in front of the teachers table. Ron appeared to have heard her too as he turned to face Harry with a smile on his face.
The hat burst into song as soon as all the first years had gathered around it and most of their mouths were hanging open in surprise. The hat sang of sticking together, keeping friends close and the only enemies were the dark as well as the usual traits of each house; Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Harry thought about the message of the only enemies were the dark and came to the conclusion that the hat had meant to say good-bye to old school rivalries, He thought this was impossible considering Gryffindor loathed Slytherin on principle and vice versa. However the smile Malfoy had given him still lingered at the forefront of his mind and he decided that maybe the hat could be right, it had never been wrong once when it had made these sort-of predictions.
Ignoring McGonagall as she called out the names of the terrified first years, Harry took another look at the Slytherin table, Malfoy was back to anxiously looking at Dumbledore, Harry wondered what on earth Malfoy was anxious about when he looked at Dumbledore who gave Malfoy a knowing smile which faded and a look of seriousness stole over his face as if to say, 'Not to worry, I'll sort it all out.' Strange as this was Harry couldn't help but feel worried for Malfoy, (something he had never felt), because something serious had obviously happened. He was shocked when Malfoy looked directly at him with a pained expression, his grey eyes looked distant as if he was about to die at any moment, Harry mentally slapped himself as he realised that that could well be the reason for Malfoy looking so downhearted. Harry chanced a reassuring smile thinking it would only be returned with a grimace but was gobsmacked to find Malfoy half-smiling back as if he couldn't quite manage it. He seemed to have realised and quickly looked at Dumbledore again who had noticed the exchange between the two students and sat back as if he had known all along that they would put their differences aside.
That was the only logical explanation for the smiles that had been given, Harry and Malfoy had put their differences aside at last, however Harry couldn't help but remember that Malfoy was from a dark wizarding family, after all his Mother and Father were Death Eaters and somehow Harry had always thought that Malfoy would be one too. Since this was obviously not the case Harry went back to wondering what had happened to make him go against his family. It must have been a huge betrayal as the Malfoy's were close to Voldemort and it was considered that if you went against a Malfoy, you went against Voldemort too.
Ron nudged Harry as Violet, Hannah the last first year took her seat at the Ravenclaw table and Dumbledore stood up.
"Welcome all, to another year at Hogwarts, I'm sure you're all quite hungry so let us not hesitate to begin" He clapped his hand and the once empty plates were filled with the most delicious foods you could think of along
with the traditional humbugs. "Everyone, dig in!" were Dumbledore's final words before he himself sat down to eat.
After the feast Dumbledore stood up and said the usual things filch always reminds him to say and says similar things to that of the Sorting Hats song. It was a relief when they could go back up to Gryffindor tower and sleep before their lessons tomorrow and Harry remembered that they were now N.E.W.T students. That meant a hell of a lot of work so an early night would do him good. However before he could leave the Great Hall he spotted Dumbledore and Malfoy leaving and heading up the marble staircase obviously to go to Dumbledore's office. This left him a little puzzled but decided not to worry about it too much until he was on speaking terms with Malfoy, something he had been planning on doing ever since the incident before the feast began. For some reason he felt some truth would be told by becoming Malfoy's friend and he felt as if he had been searching for that conclusion all his life, he just hadn't realised it. Now all he needed were the answers he had been looking for and maybe the empty feeling in his stomach could be filled with this new knowledge, Harry would just have to wait and see.
Sleep could not come sooner for Harry and he slept as soon as his head hit the pillow. For once he didn't dream about that fatal night at the ministry a few months previously, in fact he didn't dream at all.