Harry walked up the train looking all around for an empty compartment. He finally found one near the end of the train. Settling in, Harry pulled out a book. Ever since his stay in St Mungo's he loved to read nearly as much as Hermione did. The book he was currently reading was a muggle book he had borrowed from Hermione. He was enjoying it and was nearly half way done with it.

The door to his compartment slid open. "Excuse me" The boy said. "Are you Harry Potter?"

Harry looked up from his book. "Um, yeah that's me" He said, confused as to why the boy knew his name.

"I'm Matthew Thomas. You knew my brother, Dean Thomas?"

"Yeah I know your brother. I didn't know he had a younger brother" Harry told the boy. Dean had never mentioned having a younger brother to Harry but then they had never been close.

"We don't live together. I live with our dad. I didn't even know Dean until I got my Hogwarts letter and my dad told me about him" Matthew explained.

"Oh well that explains it. Hi anyway. What year are you in?" Harry asked. Maybe the boy would be in some of his classes.

"I'm a second year. Gryffindor. Like my big brother" Matthew said proudly, puffing out his chest.

"Oh" Harry said, disappointed.

Matthew took a seat across from Harry. "Isn't it going to be strange for you being older than everyone here?" Harry shook his head. Hogwarts was his home. He would always feel welcomed there even after everything that had happened there. But there was no point trying to explain that to Matthew. He was only a second year. So Harry just stayed quiet, hoping the boy would go away so he could continue reading.

Getting the hint, Matthew stood up and silently left the compartment. Sighing with relief, Harry picked up his book and continued to read. After about half an hour he got up to change into his Hogwarts robes. Mrs Weasley had been nice enough to buy some new ones for him since he highly doubted his old robes would still fit.

Wearing his robes made Harry feel relatively calm. He was still nervous about walking into the Great Hall again. He hadn't set foot in the place since he had killed Voldermort. Lupin, Tonks and Fred's bodies had all lain there. He didn't know how he would feel about being back in the place.

The train came to a stop and Harry walked slowly off and onto the platform. He heard a familiar voice and turned around to see Hagrid shouting for the first years to follow him. Well at least some things never changed. Harry made his way over to him to say hello. "Well if it isn't Harry Potter!" Hagrid exclaimed patting Harry on the back and nearly knocking him over in the process.

"Hi Hagrid" Harry said, pleased to see someone he knew.

"Well Harry I don't have much time to chat right now. How about you come visit me on Friday? I'm sure you still remember where my hut is?" Hagrid said. Harry nodded and waved goodbye to Hagrid before making his way to the thestral drawn carriages.

Harry knew that hardly any of the people in the crowd could see the thestrals and he smiled as he heard the gasps of the people who could. He always remembered when he had first seen them and how shocked he had been.

Harry got into the nearest carriage and it began to move. He looked over towards The Forbidden Forest and memories of the war came flooding back. He remembered how he had sacrificed himself and by doing so he had survived. He would never understand how that had happened but he was glad he got a second chance in life.

The carriage stopped in front of the castle. The doors were wide open and light spilled out onto the steps where thousands of students were making their way into the castle. Harry hesitated, then got out of the carriage and made his way inside. The entrance hall looked exactly the same as when he had been a student at the school. Nothing seemed to have changed. The school looked exactly the same.

As he walked into the Great Hall, he glanced up at the teacher's table like he always did. This was where he saw the aftermath of war. Even after four years, the staff still looked pained and nervous. Hardly any of Harry's old teacher still remained. Many of them had been lost in the war. Flitwick, Snape, Sprout, Trewlaney, Dumbledore. All gone. All dead.

Harry saw Hermione and Ron conversing at the end of the table. Hermione looked up and waved at him. He waved back and made his way over to the Gryffindor table. Taking a seat, Harry turned to look at the teacher's table again. He gasped in surprise. So many of the teacher's were his friends and acquaintances from school. Even Kingsley, an auror who had fought in The Order Of The Phoenix, was sat at the table. He had never known Hogwarts to have such young teachers. But maybe that would make classes more exciting. They would just have to wait and see.

Once all the students had made their way to their seats, McGonagall stood up. "Welcome to another year at Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft and Wizardry! Let the sorting begin!"

And with her words the doors to the Great Hall flung open and the new first year students walked in, lead by Filch, the caretaker. Harry grimaced. So he was still here then. The man hated Harry and the feeling was mutual.

The sorting hat began to sing it's song. This year it was all about picking up the pieces and building a bigger and better Hogwarts. Harry smiled. At least the hat understood that although the war had been bad, they had to move on and build a better world for themselves. As always the hat finished with it's usual house unity speech and then it fell silent.

Professor McGonagall stood up from the Headmistresses Chair and walked in front of the table. Unrolling a piece of parchment she began to call the names of the new first year students for them to come up and be sorted.

Harry thought this was strange. She was Headmistress and still did the sorting? Maybe she had just enjoyed it and didn't want to give the duties up. It made Hogwarts seem even more as though it hadn't changed and Harry nearly looked for Dumbledore smiling at the new students. But of course he wouldn't be there.

Once the sorting was over, Professor McGonagall went back to her seat and announced the start of the feast. Harry barely ate anything, he was nervous as to what Professor McGonagall wanted to talk to him about afterwards.