Disclaimer: I own nothing to do with Harry potter (apart from the books I have bought)

Warning OotF Spoilers! Basically don't read if you haven't read Order of the Phoenix.

Here is the 1st chapter of my 1st fan fic, Enjoy!

Chapter 1: Back at Hogwarts.

It had been a long summer and Ron was glad it was over and he was able to go back to Hogwarts. He was fed up of not being able to communicate properly with his friends just in case their letters fell into the wrong hands. He knew Harry must be feeling very cut off from all information but even he knew next to nothing. His parents wouldn't tell him what was going on it the order, they told him he was too young to know too much and that it wasn't important anyway. It was so frustrating to be the second youngest in a large family, everyone seemed to know what was going on but him and his little sister Ginny. If Ron was feeling this frustrated he could not imagine how angry Harry must be feeling, I mean it was Harry's godfather who had died not Ron's. It was Harry's parents, who had been killed off by you-know-who, and Ron's letters would have been of no comfort to him at all.

There was a knock on the door of Ron's bedroom.

"Come on Ron, you had better get up we'll be leaving soon"

Ron clambered slowly out of bed and rubbed his eyes. His room looked strangely empty as a lot of his things had now been packed ready to take to Hogwarts. His trunk and his owl cage were gone and so were all his spell books and his wand. He got dressed and ambled down the stairs wondering how Hermione would look after her holiday in Spain. He supposed she would be beautifully tanned from sitting on the beach in a bikini……. But knowing Hermione she would have been sitting there with a pile of books studying, which ruined Ron's mental image slightly.

He arrived in the kitchen and sat down. It was unusually quiet for the Weasley household as Ron's family consisted of nine people, but today the only people to be seen rushing around were Ginny and Mrs Weasley. Bill, Charley and Mr Weasley were all busy working for the order (Ron greatly envied them) and Percy was busy at the ministry. Fred and George were off working ####### their joke shop, which was doing remarkably well. They had come to visit them a few times over the summer and each time they were very well dressed and came bearing gifts. Even Mrs Weasley's disapproval didn't stop her from loving the new cookbook, or designer dress robes that they got her. They gave Ron a lot of their new products to try out (and sell, they had given him order forms for students) at Hogwarts, (maybe to get at the new defence against the dark arts teacher, as they needed a new one…again) and a Chudley Cannons signed poster, which was going straight up in his dormitory at Hogwarts.

"Ron! Ron hurry up the taxi is here!"

Ron looked up and saw his little sister Ginny leaving to kitchen. He finished the piece of half eaten toast in his hand and went outside to see his mother talking to the taxi driver, it appeared she knew him well. Ron looked at Ginny questioningly.

"Apparently she knew him as a child, don't ask me how, and he's a squib so set up a wizard's taxi service or something…. I don't know but we'd better get going or we'll be late."

"Oi! Mum! We've gotta get going!"

**********

They were soon at Kings Cross Station and getting ready to walk through the barrier separating platforms 9 and 10 (this was the only way to get to platform 9 ¾). They all went together as there were only 3 of them. Ron, Ginny and Mrs Weasley all leant against the barrier and came out on the other side and were greeted by the familiar sight of platform 9 ¾ . The noises of students greeting each other and owls screeching were to be heard up and down the platform. Ron hurried onto the train and found Hermione sitting in a compartment with Crookshanks.

"Hiya."

"Hi Ron! Have you seen Harry? I'm a little worried about him, he didn't seem too happy in his letters. Have you heard anything about what's happening in the order?"

"Um…" Ron didn't know which question to answer first.

"Yes Ron I would like to know what's going on in the order, would you please tell us what you seemed to be unable to tell us in your letters." Harry Potter, Ron's best friend walked into the compartment and sat down opposite him.

"Well? What's been going on?" Harry looked at Ron.

"Umm…. Well you see I don't really know, my parents wont tell me anything, but I'm sure if anything major had happened I would have been told." Ron looked apologetically at Harry and Hermione. "I'm sorry I can't be of any more help."

Hermione put her hand on his knee, " don't worry Ron, we know its not your fault, right Harry?" she looked at Harry who was scowling.

"Yeah, don't worry about it Ron, I'm sure we will be told about anything important" Harry grinned. Ron was glad to see his friends again, he was especially glad that Harry was still capable of a grin.

"So how was your holiday?"

"It was alright. It was really boring 'cause everyone stayed out of my way, but I really didn't care as I hate being near them as much as they hate being near me. The totally uninformative letters were annoying, but I was glad nothing really bad has happened yet. The only consolation was that I could talk to Mrs Figg about the wizarding world. I did ask about the order, but she wouldn't say anything."

"Anybody would think we were just nosey little kids who didn't need to know anything about the order, but we are concerned about what happens as well! We all knew Snuffles well, we were all there fighting the death eaters! I think we have a right to know!"

"Yes I know Ron but there is not much we can do about it at the moment, lets just enjoy the journey." Hermione sighed and started stroking Crookshanks.

Throughout the journey Ron told Harry about what had happened in the holidays, including the new things Fred and George had invented and showed him a few.

"Look there are these really cool, they are talking temporary tattoos! They are so funny, some of them shout insults at people and some of them complement you and some will tell you the answers to your homework! Oh wait look at this its chewing gum that glues your teeth together, you give that one to your enemies. I've also got some exploding tea bags, I'd love to see Trelawney tell your fortune with those! Um… what else have I got? These are funny, they are post its that change around the message written on them so the person who wrote it will be very confused, hee hee…"

The food trolley soon came round and Ron had his usual sandwich's, but as before Harry bought enough to feed the three of them and Ron's sandwiches lay forgotten. 

The countryside rolled by and before long Hermione was suggesting they got into their school robes, as they would be arriving at Hogwarts soon.

The train stopped with a jolt and they all clambered off. They could hear the familiar voice of Hagrid calling "Firs' years this way!"

Ron, Harry and Hermione went in the opposite direction to the carriages that the invisible Thestrals pulled up to the castle.

Ron was very glad to get in to the Great Hall, he was starving and it seemed along time since they had eaten on the train. He looked up at the ceiling of the Great Hall, which was bewitched to look like the sky outside (tonight the sky was clear and revealed a new moon and many bright stars). Ron sat at the Gryffindor table with Harry and Hermione on either side of him and looked longingly down at this plate.

Ron's stomach moaned and grumbled all through the sorting that he barely noticed who was being sorted from the first student (Miranda Allen - Hufflepuff) to the last (Darren Young - Gryffindor). He was about to faint from lack of food when the Headmaster of Hogwarts stood up.

Professor Dumbledore though very old gave an air of authority and power and the whole school went silent. He smiled around at the school and his long silvery beard shone in the candlelight.

 "Welcome to another year at Hogwarts! Before we eat I would like to say a few things to you all. I would like to tell you all that the Forbidden Forest is out of bounds, a few of our older members may do well to remember that," he smiled, "I would also like you to welcome back Professor Lupin who will be filling the post of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher for a second time, but it will only be for this year as Professor Lupin has other commitments. So without any further ado lets eat."

The golden plates and goblets in front of them were suddenly filled with food and drink. Ron grabbed as much food as he could manage and started gobbling it down as quickly as was possible.

"I didn't know Lupin was coming back as the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, didn't he say he couldn't come back now people knew he was a werewolf." Hermione looked at Harry.

"Yeah, he did say that but maybe Dumbledore couldn't find anyone else. Its not like it's a bad thing though, he is the best Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher we have ever had."

  Hermione looked at the ceiling. "Mmm, but Dumbledore did mention that he has got other commitments," she lowered her voice and lent towards Harry and Ron, "I think he's referring to the order, so why is he here instead of helping the order?"

"I dummo" said Ron, spraying Hermione with food ("Ron!!" Hermione shrieked). Ron swallowed, "maybe he's been sent to keep an eye on Harry after… you know, to help him."

Both Ron and Hermione looked at Harry who was staring at the remains of his meal.

Harry shrugged "He could be in fact I hope he will give me a chance to talk about it with him as I've not really been able to talk about it since, since..………." His voice tailed off. Ron decided not to press the matter and apparently so did Hermione as she had suddenly started pointing vigorously at the entrance to the Great Hall.

Ron's head turned towards the door and so did many other's because slinking through this door was a very large cat that was completely black, apart from the end of its tail, which was pure white. Ron and everyone else in the Great Hall watched this over sized cat prowl across to the teacher's table, walk strait up to Professor Lupin and nuzzle its head on his arm. Lupin scratched this cat behind the ears apparently unaware that everyone in the hall was looking at him in amazement.

A few seats down Ron heard Dean whispering, "How can he stroke that thing! Look how big it is. I'll bet it could do loads of damage with those teeth and those claws!"

Ron looked at the cat, it was indeed as Dean has described it, very big with sharp teeth and claws. He wondered if it was a creature that Lupin expected them to defend themselves against, he didn't fancy his chances against that thing. Just then Lupin stood up. Ron's thoughts were gone and he moved his attention to Lupin.

"I can see you are all very interested in my companion here," there was a murmur of agreement around the hall, "I was going to introduce her in my lessons to each class but it looks like I will be able to do so now instead. This is Midnight and she is, as you may have guessed, a panther. She will be with me most of the time I am here, including all of my classes. I would like to warn students not to tease her or to do anything to offend her as it may result in some retaliation on her part, but" he looked around, "but she will not harm anyone who does not do what I have just warned you not to do, in fact I do believe that many of you will grow to like her tremendously as she has a very friendly nature and is quite cuddly." Lupin sat down.

  The chatter slowly started again in the hall as people moved onto desert (which had appeared in front of then whilst Lupin was talking). Ron took some strawberry cheesecake and started to eat.

Hermione took some apple crumble. "I wonder why Lupin's being accompanied by a panther this year? I wonder if this has anything to do with you-know-what"

"My mum did tell me that they had managed to get many more people working for the you-know-what now they believe you-know-who is back."

"Um, Ron" Harry interrupted, "I think you will find that a panther is an animal not a human."

"Oh yeah, good point Harry."

Ron finished his cheesecake deep in thought, what is with the panther?  The crumbs on his plate soon dissolved and Dumbledore gave the word for them to leave. Ron, Harry and Hermione approached the teachers table to talk to Lupin but many students had beaten them to it. They were all very interested in Midnight and were crowding round her and Lupin. The three of them walked out of the hall and up to the Gryffindor common room. They reached the hidden entrance to Gryffindor Tower. A large portrait of a fat lady in a pink dress asked them for the password. Ginny came up behind them and said "unicorn". The portrait swung open to reveal the Gryffindor common room full of comfy armchairs. Ron was suddenly feeling really tiered. He and Harry climbed the spiral staircase and reached their familiar, circular dormitory. Ron changed and collapsed onto his four-poster bed feeling full and happy to be back among his friends. Ron was so tiered he really didn't want to wonder about Lupin's new friend. He decided he could ask Lupin later as they were sure to have a lesson with him soon.       

---This is the first chapter(of many) of my first ever fan fic! I hope you like it and will want to read the rest, I have tried to write it in a JK-ish style, reviews would be helpful so I can improve my next chapter's! (sorry about any stupid spelling or grammatical errors{dyslexia})---