For the first time in his life, Harry Potter was enjoying his summer from start to finish. He'd privately thought that after finally defeating Lord Voldemort once and for all it couldn't have improved – but he was wrong. The restoration of Hogwarts to its former glory had drawn grateful volunteers from all over the country and despite the hard work, the hours Harry and his friends had donated had been a lot of fun. Inspired by this, he'd also launched a fresh war against No 12 Grimmauld Place and with Kreacher helping instead of hindering, it was finally starting to look somewhat liveable. He'd received a secretive and badly spelled note from his cousin Dudley informing him that the residents of No 4 Privet drive were home safely. Apparently his Uncle was loudly telling the neighbours of the lengthy and expensive cruise they'd been on.

Finally, and perhaps best, he and his best friend Ron were newly enrolled in the Academy of Aurors at the Ministry of Magic. His other best friend, Hermione, was in Australia, tracking down her parents to remove the memory spells she had cast on them to prevent them falling foul of the Death Eaters. It was still weird to think of Ron and Hermione as a couple, but it was inescapable. They were as in love as he and Ginny were. Grinning slightly at the thought of her, Harry tried to marshal his attention away from his girlfriend and towards the Undeground map in front of him.

Today's assignment was proving gruelling, mentally and physically. They'd been assigned a random location to apparate to, in pairs, then travel by Underground to King's Cross station in time to see off the Hogwart's express. They were to do this without any magic (once they'd apparated) and they'd been told in no uncertain terms by Daphne Grievous – tutor of Concealment Among Muggles – that anyone using magic would not only fail her class but be arrested under the Statute of Secrecy Act. Thus Harry and Ron had strolled from a slightly smelly alley in China Town down to Leicester Square station, acquired oyster cards from the automated machine with only a couple of false starts, consulted the map, and discovered they were slightly lost. Despite the earliness of the hour, the end of season heat wave was in full force and Harry's glasses kept sliding down his nose.

"This is stupid," muttered Ron to his left. "I can't even see Leicester Square on here. Were these made to confuse tourists or something?"

"I had it a minute ago," said Harry. "I know it's near the middle. There it is, look, on the black line."

"The Northern line," said Ron, consulting the key at the side. "Well, That's a start. Now we just need to find out where everything else is…oy, love! Excuse me!"

This latter part was aimed at a young woman nearby, who was fishing around in her oversized handbag. She didn't even look around at Ron, who was offended.

"She's got headphones in," Harry explained. He hadn't said so aloud, but he fully agreed with Hermione. Ron was definitely going to benefit from a class teaching about muggles. Having grown up in a magical family, Ron was quite often clueless about things Harry took for granted about non-magical life. He walked over and tapped the girl on the arm.

"Yes?" she said, removing a headphone and giving Ron a weird look as he stared at it. It was emitting some rather tinny heavy metal.

"We're a bit lost," said Harry. Inspiration struck, "We're not from London. We need to get to King's Cross before eleven. Can you …?"

"Get on the Picadilly line Northbound. That's the Blue line. It's about four stops."

"I thought we were on the Northern line," said Ron.

"We're on both," said the girl. "Here, take this, uh..." She rummaged some more in her bag and produced a pocket map of the underground.

"Harry," said Harry, pocketing it. "Harry Potter. This is Ron Weasley. And thanks." Harry loved introducing himself to muggles. The complete lack of reaction made such a pleasant change from people gawking at his scar.

"No problem, Harry. I'm Lucie Scott." said the girl. "I hope you catch your train!" She smiled at them and beeped through the turnstyle before disappearing down an escalator.

"Is this one of those mobile phone things?" said Ron, bending over and picking one up. "She must have dropped it."

One quick dash later and they were just in time to see her board a train, deaf to their yells as she once more had her head phones in. Sprinting down the platform, Harry just managed to wave the phone at her as the doors slid shut. She shrugged and mouthed "I'll call you", but Harry wasn't looking at her any more. The man in the seat next to her was horribly, hauntingly familiar. He looked at Harry, looked at the girl and grinned disgustingly as the train pulled out of the station.

"What did she – are you all right?"

"On the train, Ron, next to her…"

"Who?"

"Fenrir Grayback!"