Chapter 7: The New Student.
September 1st
"Hurry up Ronald!!" The Weasley Family Matriarch called up the stairs of their shaky house. "You'll miss the train again and this year we don't have a flying car lying around!!"
"I'm coming Mum!!" The youngest male Weasley shouted, slightly agitated. If it weren't for that ruddy furball, I would be on time, but Nooooo, the dungball has to escape and have me chasing it for half a bloody hour.
Ron came rushing down the stairs, almost tripping over his own feet, not yet fully accustomed to the most recent growth spurt he had had, it seemed that the youngest male Weasley was now the undisputed tallest Weasley. He now estimated himself at about 2 metres.
Pig was teetering excitedly in his cage flying against the bars, barely noticing the bump-ins.
Ron was the last of the bunch to arrive and quickly made his way to the front of the house where a Ministry car was waiting for him to climb aboard. He threw his luggage clumsily in the trunk and stepped in the car, which had magically expanded on the inside to fit the exited teenagers and their worrying mother.
"I can't wait to talk to Harry." Ginny said, bouncing slightly in her seat.
"Why's that?" Ron asked his little sister .
"Well, for one thing, I want to know all about his summer and also, Harry might know what happened exactly in the Diagon Alley attack, because what the Prophet wrote was obviously complete rubbish, I mean come on. Like we are dumb enough to believe all that."
"I don't know, you know how formidable Dumbledore is, it could be true, Gin."
"Whatever you say Ron, whatever you say…"
Platform 9¾ was buzzing with excitement and gossip. Some of the students who had arrived early at the Platform had seen an older student board the train. A student whom no one knew or recognized.
The descriptions that were running wildly varied from a disguised Hag to a new professor boarding undercover.
The man in question, for it was a male student, no longer a boy, had worn a long sweeping cloak made of a hard looking leather, the hood had been flinging about and exposed long sweeping jet black hair, tied in a loose ponytail, held by a simple rubber band in the nape of his neck.
Some loose strands had escaped the ponytail and were hanging style-fully next to a handsome face . The man's jaw was not too outspoken but made him look very masculine none the less.
He had a neatly trimmed small beard and a small moustache that met the beard around the corners of his mouth, made a self styled 'O' around his mouth.
His eyes were a deep brown, calming and comforting in a way that almost put Dumbledore to shame.
He strode quickly towards the Hogwarts Express, noticing but not caring that all eyes on the platform had been on him.
A few students had been trying to peek through the window of his compartment, but found it had been shut tight.
Maybe this man could have been transferred from Durmstrang or Beauxbatons or maybe the American school in Salem.
Yes, this should turn out to be another interesting year at Hogwarts.
"You go through first, Ginny, we'll be hot on your tail" Molly said to her only daughter.
Ginny leaned against her trolley one moment, next thing, she seemed to have disappeared.
"Go on Ronald, you only have three minutes left to board the train. And see if you can find Harry or Hermione in the crowd, will you?"
"Yes mum," Ron said in a low grumble.
He pushed his trolley through the barrier and found himself on the familiar sight of Platform 9¾ with the red train blowing smoke over their heads.
"Ron!!" A voice called out, a voice that filled him with warmth, a voice that belonged to Hermione Jane Granger, number one sixth year student at Hogwarts if not number one student of Hogwarts.
"Hey Hermione, how've you been?" Ron asked with a broad smile on his face.
"Great, me and my parents went to Belgium this year, loved it there, it's a small country but just overflowing with excitement. They have several wizarding communities around Brussels and Ghent. Hey Ron, everyone's talking about a mysterious new student, probably a new sixth or seventh year. Possibly a transfer from Durmstrang."
"Cool, maybe we'll see him on the train. Have you seen Harry somewhere?"
"No, but I think he might have already boarded or he might have just went with Dumbledore."
"Let's go find him, but let me say goodbye to Mum first."
"Have a good term dear, and don't go running all over the place again. Be a good boy and keep an eye on Harry for me. Tell him to come to The Burrow during the Christmas Holidays.
You too Hermione dear."
"Thanks Mrs Weasley," Hermione said brightly "See you in a few months!"
"Yeah, bye Mum" and Molly Weasley swept the both of them and Ginny in a bone-crushing hug, no longer able to restrain herself.
The three of them boarded the train, in search of an empty compartment, but found that every one was already full, except for one where one person was reading a book. Ron knocked on the door and the stranger looked up, a small smile playing around the corners of his mouth.
"Excuse me, do you mind if we sit here?" the redhead asked hesitantly.
"No, not at all" was the answer.
The three shuffled in the compartment and put their trunks, cat cage and owl cage in the luggage rack. Hermione let Crookshanks out immediately and Ginny was about to shut the compartment door when a blond girl with a dreamy expression led a boy with brown hair in.
"Hi Luna, hey Neville" Ginny said.
"Hey Ginny" they both responded and took a seat next to each other, all the while holding hands.
"Anything you wanna tell us?" Ron said amusedly.
A blushing Neville Longbottom murmured something about dating and last year and DA meetings. This was met with laughter from the rest of the compartment, except for Luna and the stranger.
"Right," Neville said, trying to get the spotlight of him, "Hi, the name's Neville Longbottom, pleased to meet you" He said to the stranger.
"Hi Neville," the man said with a pleasant bass voice. " The name's Harry Potter." And while he said it, slowly a lightning bolt shaped scar swam into view on his forehead, only to fade away after a few seconds.
"Harry!!" Ron exclaimed "Wow man, what happened to you, you're totally different from two months ago. What did you do during the Holidays?"
"Oh, you know, a bit of this, a bit of that, mostly some training with Dumbledore." Harry replied calmly.
"I like the beard, looks good on you," Ginny said and Hermione nodded in agreement. Luna was to busy reading her Quibbler upside-down to notice what was being said.
"What's that you're reading, Harry?" Hermione asked curiously.
"Oh, a book about magical creatures with Elemental abilities."
Hermione scowled "Elemental Guidance is a myth Harry, there's no such thing."
At this, Luna perked up, "No it's true Hermione, Veela's and Vampires for example.
They are magical beings but they have Wind Elemental abilities. The Veela's use the winds to surround themselves until they look irresistible and Vampires Guide the Winds so that they can fly. Their transformation into bats is magical, but the flying is all Elemental Ability."
"Yeah, turns out my parents both had Elemental Possibility, but didn't use it. They never learned how, but I now have a natural aptitude for Wind and Fire Guidance. Mum had the Possibility of Fire and my Dad had Wind. It showed in their actions and temperament too."
"Let's test to see if any of you have any Elemental Possibility, shall we?" Harry said while conjuring a glass of water and a small rock. " We'll go by your characters and actions in the past. Ron, you go first, I think Fire will be the best guess, maybe the Earth to, seeing as you can be as stubborn as a rock."
"Ha, ha, ha," Ron said sarcastically, "All right, what do I do?"
"Focus on the rock, see every curve, every little outcrop, every little nerve, think about what a large quantity could do to anyone and feel humble to the earth around you. Now, slowly Guide it up, doesn't have to be much, just a few inches."
Ron focused solely on the rock for a few minutes, then closed his eyes and calmed himself, opened his eyes again and stared fiercely at the conjured object again. Then, too his own surprise the rock suddenly shot up, hurtling for the ceiling at incredible speed, it never reached it, as Harry had reached out with his own control and slowly let it flow down, all that showed that he ever moved was a little twitch of his finger.
"Very good for a first try, I'll help you control that during the year, because you might need it someday, now, let's try for Fire…"
It turned out that Ron was a natural at Fire Guidance, as was Ginny, but Hermione seemed to pull more to Water Guidance as did Luna. Neville however was an undisputed Earth Guide.
Ginny also had some Wind Guidance, but it was limited. They spent the rest of the train ride practising techniques Harry showed them. If they wondered how he could Guide all four Elements, they didn't voice it.
Their relatively quiet ride was however disturbed by Malfoy and his goons. Ron and Neville were practising floating the rock between them faster and faster. When Ron shot the rock at Neville and watched the compartment door open, he saw the rock coming at him at shot it towards the door, hitting Malfoy right between the eyes. Neville gave a cheer and Harry cracked up.
Malfoy stumbled, but was held upright by Crabbe. When he had regained a steady footing, he fumbled for his wand, but it shot out of his pocket, hurtling down the train. Malfoy was turning a bit pink, but said nothing more, he would talk to the new student later.
When the junior Death Eaters had left, everyone in the compartment was howling with laughter. Neville, mirth in his eyes asked "Who did that with the wand?"
Harry grinned sheepishly "That would be me."
"But how did you do that?" Ron asked, "A wand doesn't contain water or something, does it?"
"Well, wands are made out of wood, and wood comes from trees, who once were in touch with water and the earth, so you can manipulate wands if you're a Water or Earth Guide.
You can hold him upside down as a Wind Guide and burn out the wand as a Fire Guide."
Ron couldn't keep a silly grin of his face as he thought about the many consequences of that theory.
The Hogwarts Express started slowing down, and Hermione said they should put on their robes. They were ready to go and when the train pulled into Hogsmeade, they stepped onto the platform, to be greeted by the usual shout of their half-giant friend. "Firs' years, Firs' years, Gather 'round now, yeah that's it."
"Hey Hagrid!!" They all waved to the Hogwarts Groundskeeper. He waved to them, but looked curiously at Harry, whom he didn't recognise and turned around towards the waiting boats, the firsts years terrified about how they were going to wrestle a mountain troll to get sorted.
The six of them walked towards a carriage with a Thestral waiting for them and climbed in.
When they walked out at the front of the doors of Hogwarts, a slightly singed Ron was blowing at his finger, which had a minor burn on it. Harry, Ginny and Neville were still snickering about the incident while Hermione was casting Ron disapproving looks and Luna just didn't seem to care.
