Harry Potter and The Shadow Of Death

Author's notes:

If you're a first time reader, skip this next paragraph.

Yes, there are a few chapters missing, as you may have noticed. No, I'm not canceling this story, I'm just redoing the first handful of chapters. If you've read this chapter before, I suggest reading it again, especially is you've been disappointed with my writing lately. It takes a small swing in a different direction halfway through; you'll notice if you're familiar. I like to think that this is the path most writers take in improving their skill. The next few chapters are already done, I'm just staggering them.

So, without any further ado, the new beginning of Harry Potter and The Shadow of Death.

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Chapter 2: Friends and Enemies, Old and New

Anyone who saw them standing next to each other would have assumed that Sirius was Harry's father. Some of it had to do with their similar hair: black, messy, and a tad over grown. More than that, though, every parent at platform 9 ¾ knew what first time separation anxiety looked like.

Despite his efforts to maintain his cool, Sirius was clearly stalling.

"And you're sure you have everything?"

"Almost pretty sure." Nodded Harry

"Your books?"

Harry patted his trunk, which concealed a small world of its own in its magically expanded depths.

"In the library."

"Clothes?"

"More than I'll wear."

"Spare galleons?"

"Locked away in the vault."

"Sneeze powder, instant darkness powder?" he paused "Fireworks, itch powder, dungbombs?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Sirius grinned. "And don't you forget it."

Harry laughed, reaching up and messing up his hair with one hand as he did so, just like James always did. If Sirius were to be completely honest with himself, the separation was harder on him than it was on Harry. Despite trying to act like a father, Harry was just too much like James for Sirius to resist acting like his playmate most of the time. Harry might miss his godfather, but he would go off and have fantastic adventures with Neville and whatever poor fools they picked up at Hogwarts, and would be too busy, too happy, to be homesick. Sirius, on the other hand, would sorely miss having a little piece of Lilly and James around to keep him company.

"What are you going to do when I get into trouble?"

Sirius mused. Harry had never really gotten into any trouble that Sirius hadn't somehow encouraged, or been part of."I imagine I'd be quite cross with you for getting caught."

Harry nodded. It would have been funnier if it hadn't been completely true.

Sirius sighed. "You know what to do if you feel things getting out of control?"

Harry patted the flask in his pocket. It wasn't alcohol, as some might think, but a cheering potion, one powerful enough to make a Dementor smile. It also had the side effect of making whoever drank it completely useless for the next hour or so, but if the alternative was Harry losing control….

"It won't get that bad." Harry assured him.

Sirius nodded, taking a shaky breath.

"You send me an owl the moment you need anything, all right?"

Harry smiled and nodded. "You can cry now if you want."

Sirius scoffed as if offended, but his mood lightened.

He heard the call for final boarding and playfully punched Harry in the shoulder. "Get on before they leave you and you have to walk."

Harry picked up his trunk. "I'll tell Neville you said hi."

"You do that."

Harry turned around and gave Sirius a sincere smile, an almost undetectable shift in the sheen of his raven black hair betraying his anxiety. "I'll come home to visit for Christmas, yeah?"

Sirius nodded. "Definitely."

He looked distant for a moment before turning around and heading for the train. They didn't need to say goodbye, they just weren't like that. Sirius gave his godson one last look as he boarded, and waited to watch the train leave the station before turning to leave.

Damnit, he thought, I'm going to miss Neville too.

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Harry watched platform 9 ¾ shrink in the distance.

I'm going to Hogwarts…..

The thought softened the blow of leaving his godfather for the first time in over three years. He hadn't had a single good memory before going to live with Sirius, but with all the stories he was told about the place, it felt like he had actually been there with Sirius and the marauders. He was looking forward to Hogwarts, and Sirius would've wanted him to be happy.

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After a bit of searching, Harry had found Neville's compartment.

Neville heard Harry enter and glanced back, a smile breaking out on his face. "Ah, Harry, glad you're here! Draco was about to show us how to make tea!"

Neville had no less than 8 wands pointing at him, all from older students with green and silver trimmings on their robes, Slytherin colors.

Standing among them was a first year who, though unsorted, would certainly be joining their ranks by the end of the day.

"Potter!" scowled Draco Malfoy.

Harry scowled right back. Despite him and his godfather each being part of a Most Ancient House, the Malfoy family treated them with nothing but disdain for their parts in the last war; Specifically, Harry's part in ending it.

Harry scanned the small crowd Draco had gathered to back him up. Most of them were third year or above. "I see you brought enough friends to make this a fair fight." Harry said sarcastically.

"Yes Potter, friends!" He gestured to his posse of Slytherins, "I have a lot of them, you, on the other hand…" He gestured to Neville and the scared looking bushy haired girl, "only have the son of two lunatics and a mudblood!"

Harry and Neville felt things get more serious with the mention of Neville's parents; they had been tortured into madness shortly after he was born, and it was a sore point for both of them. Harry, after all, was the heir to the House of Black, after Sirius, the same house as the insane witch that had used the cruciatus curse on the Longbottoms. Neville would never hold it against Harry or Sirius, but Harry still felt like he had a responsibility to defend him when the subject came up.

Harry stepped forward, wand out. "I have the kind of friends you don't have to buy, but you wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"

Draco sneered, "Tough talk from someone who's about to get hexed."

"You got it wrong Draco," Harry leered dangerously, "You didn't bring enough friends…"

Harry flicked his wand, and a door to Draco's right snapped open. The sound was loud enough to make the entire posse of Slytherins jump, drawing their attention away from Harry as he pushed one of the boys with a levitation charm, knocking down half the group in one swoop.

Without missing a beat, Neville pocketed his wand and charged Draco. The Slytherins had barely registered that they had been attacked before Neville pulled back his fist and punched Draco enough to spray his blood across their robes. The few who were quick enough to whip out their wands were blinded by harsh stinging hexes to their eyes, courtesy of Harry's practiced aim.

The few that were left standing ran.

A couple of the older boys who were on the ground reached for their wands, a problem Neville solved with a few well-placed kicks.

Draco pushed himself up, horror registering on his face as he took stock of the situation. He was now effectively outnumbered, and one of the snapped wands on the ground was probably his. He was unarmed and alone, and Neville was looking at him with a grin like a shark's.

Next to Harry, Hermione cringed as Neville grabbed hold of Draco's collar…

And flinched as his fist slammed into the prospective Slytherin's jaw.

She flinched again when he did it a second time.

And a third.

Neville let go of Draco's collar, letting the unconscious boy fall to the ground with a dull thump.

Neville shook his bloodied hand. "That's going to leave a bruise."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "On your fist, or his face?"

Neville just shrugged, looking around to survey the damage.

"You two might want to get out of here, those snakes that ran off probably went to go get a prefect."

"What about you?" Harry asked, honestly not that worried.

"What, me?" Neville asked, "People are going to know I did this. Street cred, man."

Harry shook his head, smiling. "Stop talking like a muggle…" he looked over to the bushy haired girl. "No offense." He looked back to Neville and sighed. "I bet there's an interesting story to this, right?"

Neville smiled knowingly at the girl, whose face and eyes had gone red and puffy from tears.

"I…." she stuttered, "Just wanted to know how to make tea…."

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Harry skimmed through his book, an edgy retelling of an old wizard story Harry had loved growing up. Neville didn't like unnecessary reading, only cracking open a spellbook if he really had to. Harry, on the other hand, enjoyed a spot of good fiction, especially when it was this good…

Which is why the sobbing in the corner of his cabin was all the more annoying.

Harry looked over his book at the crying girl sitting across from him. Despite all attempts at conversation, the girl refused to speak, calm down, or do anything other and cry for the past twenty minutes. Harry sighed, trying to keep his attention on his book the best he could.

Just then, the cabin door made a loud crack as it was thrown upen, causing both inhabitants to jump in surprise. Standing there was Neville, his hands still smeared with blood, looking nonchalant as ever.

Harry nodded. "Any trouble with the prefects?"

Neville shook his head. "Clear case of self-defense. Stupid little snaked got a Ravenclaw prefect, and she saw right through them. If it had been a Slytherin prefect…."

"We would probably be sending you on the first train back home." Harry finished.

Neville rolled his shoulders. "So, story time…"

Harry closed his book, giving Neville his full attention.

"So," He began "I was enjoying my train ride, having a rather pleasant day, and then Draco showed up. And usually, I could just stop there, end of story, right?"

Harry nodded. Just Draco being there was a bigger buzz kill than the plague.

"Well," continued Neville, "Draco's all high and mighty now that he's among his own kind, right? Comes up with his posse, starts running his mouth, and then this girl," pointing to the girl Harry now knew to be Hermione, "asks the most random question! Guess what it was."

Harry scratched his head. "She asked how to make tea?"

"You're damn right. She just walked right up and asked Malfoy how to make tea! Tea!"

The girl blushed. "I was trying to change the subject. They looked like they were about to get into it, and the boy…."

"Draco." Finished Harry.

She smiled. "Yes. Draco, he said he could use magic. He…. said he knew how to move Neville's nose…. Somewhere inappropriate. So, I asked if it was true that you could make tea without leaves, you know, with magic. Then he realized that I was, you know, muggle born, and he called me…."

"A mudblood!" shouted Neville, "After stopping you-know-who and all his blood purist crap, people are still buying into it!" He shook his head. "So I tell her not to worry about being called a mudblood, since Draco's full of something a lot worse than mud."

Harry could see how that could have been taken badly. "Is that when I came in?"

Hermione nodded. "Yeah. There was some other stuff too, but I don't think I should say it out loud…."

Neville disagreed. "It didn't really get bad until I called his family inbred. Then wands got pulled out."

Hermione blushed, but nodded, wiping away the remnants of her tears. Harry felt bad for her; she had just stepped out of the muggle world and onto a train to a school of magic, and not 10 minutes goes by before a bunch of prejudiced snakes start pointing wands at her, it had to be a rough introduction to magic.

"Don't worry about it, Draco's a git, and no one really thinks like that anymore. Plus, Neville's probably right about the inbreeding…."

Hermione nodded. "Thanks for helping us."

Harry nodded graciously. "And to answer your question: yes, you can make tea with magic, no leaves necessary. You still need real water, though. That conjured stuff usually disappears after a while if you're not really good with magic, and you're not supposed to drink it. People don't usually make tea that way, though. The quality of the tea depends on how good you are with the spell and how much magic you put into it, and most people end up making it pretty nasty."

"Oh," she said, her eyes lighting up, "why aren't people supposed to drink conjured water? Does the tea turn back into water afterwards? Does the spell automatically make the tea warm? And can you transmute water into food, then? I thought you couldn't transmute food out of something that wasn't, but since tea has calories, doesn't that mean…."

Harry stopped her, "Whoa, one question at a time!" He rubbed his eyes. "Okay, so, why can't people drink conjured water? Well, you're not supposed to eat or drink anything that you know will either change or disappear once it's inside your body….."

And so they went, Hermione asking questions while Harry and Neville answered them.

All the way to Hogwarts.

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Author's notes continuedL

And there it is. A new beginning to a fic that should have been done right the first time. there are only small changes now, but they'll get bigger as we go. As I've said before, this if my first time writing anything, so I guess I needed to stumble a bit before I got it right. That means no more time skip, more detail for previously ignored characters, and hopefully better writing. If you used to enjoy this fic, but have been dissapointed lately, I hope this is enough to convince you to give me another shot. I have alot of chapters lines up already done, I'm just staggering them a bit.

See you soon,

Giberson5