Harry Potter, aged 14, leans against the window onboard the Hogwarts Express as the train speeds by the English countryside. He is looking forward to starting his 4th year at Hogwarts, but he is already missing the days of his summer vacation.
When he said good-bye to his parents on platform 9 3/4 just a few hours ago, his Mom's eyes turned misty as she tried to accept that this year when she returns home from the train station, for the first time since Harry was born, their house will be completely emptied of the sounds of children laughing.
This is because she is here. Harry looks across at the young scarlet haired girl sitting across from him, twisting back and forth on her seat, switching her attention between looking out the window and the bustling of activities in the corridor outside their train compartment. His sister was starting her first year at Hogwarts.
Harry smiles as he looks at the eagerness and excitement that shone in her bright green eyes. When he thinks about the passing summer, he knows what he'll miss the most were those evenings when he and she would flop down on the grass in their backyard after dinner. Most nights it was just the two siblings, but sometimes when their parents were not busy, they would join them, and the four of them as a family would watch the changing colours of the sky as the sun fell west, until the gleaming stars of the night came.
They talked about everything as they looked at the vastness of the sky that blanked their little cottage in Godric's Hollow. The latest Quidditch match. Their Dad's day at the Ministry office. Their Mom's work at Gringotts. The interesting things they heard on the muggle radio that day. The small spells that Julianne had successfully or not so successfully performed that day. And from time to time, they would talk about Voldemort. They would recall their memories of close family and friends, as well as acquaintances that they met briefly; lives that had been lost in the years of struggle between Light and Dark. His Mom told them it was important to remember them. That they stood bravely before the power of Voldemort, and even though they did not defeat him this time, one day, some one who stands against him will. His Dad said that this is what he and Julianne must do if ever one day, they had to face Voldemort; Stand strong, stand brave, do not be afraid.
He loves his family and he knows he will be missing his parents a lot this year.
But Harry was going to have a good year in school. He has missed being able to talk and spend time with his best friends over the summer. Even though they kept in touch with owls, traveling to actually meet them was made impossible by the surge in Death Eaters attack this summer. In the first week of June, the Death Eaters launched an attack in Diagon Alley. Ten dead before the Aurors arrived, and dozens others were left injured. Floo networks were closed, security was tightened, and children were advised to stay within the protection wards of their own home.
The attacks by Voldemort and his Death Eaters have been persistent for more than twenty years. Neither side giving up, neither is tipping the scale to the other. But the attack at Diagon Alley had been the most deadly incident in at least the last five years, and Harry could tell even his parents were concerned that perhaps the balanced scale would not remain so for long.
They will be safe at Hogwarts though. Safe with the Headmaster, the only wizard Voldemort has ever feared, and their teachers, undeniably a group of some of the strongest magic users in the wizarding world. They will be safe to enjoy their school days, thriving in their house rivalries, playing Quidditch, attending class, and able to enjoy their days sheltered from the battle that rages on beyond the castle's boundaries.
After two months, Harry has missed spending time with his best friends. Though, as he glances at the red haired boy and the brown bushy haired girl on the two seats to his left, he is not sure how much longer he will be able to play the buffer between them. At the moment, Ron and Hermione were once again absorbed in a highly charged argument that neither particularly cared about except for the sake of defeating the other. Harry sighs silently and then glances at Julianne again.
She doesn't seem to be aware of Ron and Hermione's argument, but continues to turn her head back and forth from the view outside and the students passing along the train corridors. She feels her brother's eyes on her, and she turns to face him. She gives him a bright smile. Harry smiles warmly back. He hopes that she will be sorted into Gryffindor. He tells people he just wants to fulfill his duty as an older brother properly, which would be made much easier if they were in the same house. The truth is, to have her so close in the castle but yet be divided by the school houses, he knows he will just end up missing his younger sister more than when he was the only Potter at Hogwarts. Harry laughs silently to himself. He really doesn't need to worry. His parents were in Gryffindor, he is in Gryffindor, and judging by what he knows of his sister, she will be in Gryffindor too.
Harry turns back to the look out the window. This is going to be a great year. He can't wait to arrive at Hogwarts.
Distances away, in an old castle that was hidden from view with some of magic's most powerful wards and charms, a tall aged fellow with a long gray silver beard stood by a window, also staring out at the British countryside. But his anticipations and feelings about the upcoming school year are drastically different from the hopes and optimism of the young 14-year-old boy sitting on a train.
There is no twinkling in his eyes. No merriment. Instead, they look burdened with heavy pain and worry.
This is the year that he must do it.
He was much too young when he first arrived at Hogwarts. He was still too young in his second year. When the boy was in his third year, he contemplated that perhaps it was time, but then he looked into the emerald eyes of a boy who was barely a teenager, and he told himself that he must wait. Not yet. Not a good time.
Just one more year. He wanted to give the boy just one more year of having no greater worries than what to eat for dinner, the next potions assignment, or who was going to win the House Cup.
But he knows that there will never be a good time. There will never be a good time to ask a young boy, or any person for that fact, to accept such responsibilities. But the consequences of not asking for the boy's ultimate sacrifice, were thousands, hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions of lives.
Darkness arrives before the tall fellow moves from his position by the window. He has seen the smoke and he knows the train has arrived at Hogsmeade. He will be here soon. And he will soon have his whole live taken away. And it was he, Albus Dumbledore, who will have to commit this great crime against the young Harry Potter.