Disclaimer – I do not own Harry Potter or anything associated with it, blah blah blah.

A/N – I am really sorry for taking forever to write this, it has not been the easiest chapter to write, nor was finding the time to write, and when I did find the time I have so many plot bunnies running around inside my head it was difficult to focus on this story. Anyway, you don't want to hear my excuses you just want to get on with the reading, so ladies and gentlemen, somewhat later than planned, here is chapter 13, enjoy :).

Journeys

Harry met up with Ron on the train, trying to keep the heartbreak off his face, although judging by the look Ron was giving him, he wasn't completely successful, "Let's go and find some other first years, see if we can make some friends before we get to the castle?"

Ron nodded and after Harry had let Hedwig out and shrunk her cage, the two began dragging their subtly lightened trunks down the train; Harry did not know what compartment Hermione and Neville had gotten originally, but knowing Hermione, he figured it would be near the front of the train.

After walking for several minutes they were in the first carriage of the train, Harry turned back to Ron and gestured to the compartment containing the two first years. Ron looked in, his eyes lingering slightly on the girl before he shrugged and said, "Seems alright."

Harry gave him a slightly smug smile, and slid open the door "Hi, do you mind if we join you?"

The girl looked up from staring at her lap, when Harry saw her eyes, it took all he could to not run over and pull his sister into a hug, Hermione seemed depressed, 'this is not right, what have I changed to cause this?' Harry was pulled from his musings, when the boy stood quickly and said, "Sure, I'm Neville Longbottom." whilst sticking out his hand, Harry smiled at him; it seems not every change he had made was negative. Harry took his outstretched hand "Nice to meet you Neville, this is my friend Ron Weasley, this lovely lady on my shoulder is Hedwig, and I'm Harry Potter."

As predicted the reaction to his name was immediate, Neville's hand froze mid-shake, as his eyes quickly darted up to Harry's forehead, "Ni…" Neville coughed quietly, "Nice to meet you Mr Potter, I hope we might be able to become acquaintances."

Harry smiled at him, "For starters Neville, it's Harry, and secondly I don't want to be acquaintances with you." Before Neville could become completely crestfallen, Harry spoke again, "I'd like to be friends with you. I'd like to be friends with you both, Miss?"

Harry turned to look at her as she looked up to meet his gaze, "Hermione Granger." Harry barely heard the mumbled introduction; Harry heaved an internal sigh, he knew he would hate himself for it, but he needed to know what he had changed to cause his formally hyperactive friend to be so subdued, with that thought Harry dropped into her mind.

Harry saw a young girl's wonder and delight at the Wizarding world, only to turn to bitter disappointment when she picked up a daily prophet in Diagon alley. The young girl rushed to confront her parents, asking how such bad people were not in jail, and how some of them were even in the government. The parents struggled to answer the girls questions as they themselves were asking the same, although with the added undercurrent of 'are we doing the right thing'. The parents speaking to the girl a few nights ago, asking if she still wanted to attend Hogwarts, when Harry saw how much time and thought the girl put into the decision he pulled out of her mind, sat down next to her, and put his arm around her shoulders, ignoring Ron's small huff.

"Hi Hermione, I'm Har-"

"I know who you are, I've read about you in The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and-"

"The Greatest Wizarding Events of the 20th Century." Harry interrupted the young witch's timid voice, "I wouldn't believe everything in those books, or any books for that matter, given how much corruption there was in the ministry, there is no way of knowing if what books say is truth, most if not all of them have had interference from the ministry at some point in their shelf life. There is also the fact that there were only four people present that night, two are dead, one is missing, and I have never been questioned about it, so where did they get their facts from?"

The compartment sat in shocked silence aside from the odd hoot from Hedwig who had left Harry's shoulder and was resting on the overhead rack, Hermione had finally raised her face to look into Harry's eyes, she blushed when she realised he had his arm around her, yet still asked "But why?"

"Why was there such corruption and nasty pieces of scum that tried to pass themselves off as respectable wizards?" She blinked at his tone and statement, but nodded.

Harry gave a one arm shrug, "Because at the end of the day, magicals, and no offence to you two here, especially pureblood's, are just plain lazy. The older families have house elves for all the day-to-day needs, and enough accumulated wealth that they never have to work, so they just sit back and do nothing. But when something comes along that threatens to change their perfect little world they leap up in riot protesting about the old-ways and insulting or in a fair few cases, attacking the entire population of first generation witch's and wizards, which they believe are the cause of the problem. When in fact without the constant ever increasing influx of first generation magicals our world will die out; much sooner than people think."

Harry's rant had once again shocked the compartment into silence, this time it was Ron who broke it, "Did you really mean all that stuff?"

Harry looked across at his friend and nodded, "Every word."

Neville blew out a breath he did not realise he had been holding, "Yo… You're right, I let the house elves do everything for me, I mean the only time I ever climb the stairs, is when I get up or go to bed. Oh god no wonder my family things I'm a squib, I-"

The rest of Neville's tumble into depression was silenced by a slightly pissed off Harry Potter, "Neville, your family is completely blind, you are a wizard, and to quote a big friend of mine, 'a thumpin' good one I'd wager, once you get trained up a little.' In addition, yeah you are right, you could use some physical exercise, it not only improves your fitness, but it is good for your health, and it helps improve your magic as well. I go for a run and work out each morning, once I find a place to do so I plan to continue that at Hogwarts, you are all welcome to join me." Harry looked at Hermione so she would know she was included, she gave him a small smile, the first he had seen.

Harry gave her one back as he gave her shoulders a squeeze, "That's better, now see here, yes the ministry was full of corruption, and yes there were murderers walking around free, but they are all either behind bars or enjoying their next great adventure."

Harry looked back across to Neville as the timid boy spoke, "I think I would like to join you for that morning run, you don't run far do you?" Harry kept a perfectly straight face as he replied, "That's great Neville, and nah I don't run that far, only a couple of miles."

Neville blinked a few times, mouthing to himself 'miles', after a few seconds he locked eyes with Harry, and gave him a stiff nod.

Harry beamed at him, and as he turned to look at Ron, he received a steady nod as well. Harry looked at Hermione he smiled when he saw her smile and give him a nod as well, 'well it looks like the golden trio, has become a quartet' Harry thought as he smiled at his new old friends.

They sat in a comfortable silence for a while, until Ron looked up at Harry, "You said about th… that night, only being four people there, you said on… only two were…"

Harry gave him a sad smile, "Yeah, my parents."

Neville interjected, "But what about you-know-who, he died as well… didn't he?" Neville finished in a very small voice.

Harry looked them all in the eye, "For starters Nev, his name is Voldemort-" Harry gave a small glare at the two purebloods who yelped at the name, though Harry was happy to notice Ron's shudder was quite a bit smaller than Neville's, even Hermione gave a small shudder. "Or if you prefer you can call him by his real name, 'Tom Riddle'"

Harry got some very curious looks, "Oh come on you didn't really think he was a proper Lord did you?" He got blank looks of incredulity back at him, causing Harry to roll his eyes, "Fine I'll show you." Harry whipped his wand out, to the shock of Neville and Hermione who had not seen wand- holsters before, and showed them the anagram that made up the dark lords name.

Hermione commented on it first, "It doesn't mention that in any of the books about his rise to power."

Neville nodded "Yeah and Riddle isn't a magical name that I'm familiar with… wait does that mean that…"

Harry smiled at him and nodded, "Yep, the greatest dark lord in history one who believes that the mixing of magical and muggle blood is a crime that is punishable by death, is the son of a muggle."

"I wonder if all those death eaters knew they were serving a half-blood, when they were… you know..." Ron interjected.

"Shoved through the veil into the great beyond?" At Ron's nod, Harry shrugged "No idea. One thing I do wonder though is that with all the new laws regarding Death eaters and the dark arts, if they are going to retry the people already in Azkaban." Harry pondered that for a few moments, 'maybe I'll owl Amelia about that, we do need to get into the Lestrange vault after all.'

Hermione asking what classes they were most looking forward to snapped Harry out of his musings. Ron was the first to answer "I'm not sure, Charms looks good, and I like the subject of potions but from what my brothers have told me, the professor is, erm, what were Bill's words… ah yes that's it 'a greasy git of a bully, who couldn't teach a goblin how to count'"

Harry snorted "Yeah that about sums him up."

Everyone looked at him "He was in my parent's year along with Remus and Sirius, they knew him. Plus Alb- the Headmaster has spoken to me about him."

Ron shrugged accepting that Harry and the Headmaster talked about many things, "I think Defence against the Dark Arts should be good as well."

Harry smiled at him, "Yeah I think Defence should be the best class." 'I might start the DA a bit early this time around.' Harry looked at Neville, "What about you Nev?"

Neville blinked at the nickname before giving a small smile, which quickly turned into an embarrassed look, before mumbling something under his breath.

Before Ron or Hermione could ask what he said, Harry who had heard what he said, spoke up "Neville Longbottom, your grandmother is a complete idiot, I don't know what she's thinking, but she is holding you back." Harry sighed as a plan started to form in his mind, but before he could speak again, Hermione interrupted "What did he say Harry?"

Harry looked over at the young witch, "He said that his grandmother hasn't let him read any of his school books in case he hurt himself." Harry turned back to look at the sullen looking Longbottom, "I mean come on Neville, what did she think you were going to do, get a paper-cut?"

Neville was just staring blankly at the young wizard who had just insulted a woman most men cowered in fear from.

Harry gave a head jerk to Ron, who picked up on the message and stood up so the two of them could swap seats. Harry sat down next to Neville and let the old future couple talk by themselves, "Neville," Harry sighed, "You are a great wizard, and whilst I'm certain your family didn't mean it, they have… erm, not… treated you as you would have been, or rather should have been…"

Neville just looked at Harry blankly for a few moments before the Knut dropped, "You… you know… about… my par-?"

Harry interrupted him with a sad smile, "Yeah, I know."

After a long pause, Neville asked in a very quiet voice. "You really think my family hasn't treated me right?"

Harry sighed, "I know a thing or twenty about not being treated right by family; hang on." Harry whistled to get the attention of the two on the other side, the both looked up at him quickly, Hermione had a small blush on her face, whilst Ron was trying to hide a smile. Harry cocked an eyebrow at them, which just caused the blush and smile to deepen, "Whilst I'm sure whatever is turning Hermione into a tomato is fascinating I could use your help with a few questions."

After turning a deep crimson they both nodded slightly sheepishly, "Right, first question, how many times have you been hugged by a family member?"

Both of them just blinked at the question, Ron was about to ask what the question was about, when he got a knock on his leg, he glanced at Hermione and saw her looking at Neville, who was looking down trying to shrink into the bench. Ron frowned and looked at Harry who gave him a sad smile and a nod, he nodded back and spoke honestly, "More than I can count, I got one from mum and dad, before I got on the train." Hermione nodded and added "Same here."

Harry nodded at them both then looked at Neville who seemed to be trying unsuccessfully to hide in the seat, "Until Sirius was freed, I had never had a hug, from anyone." Neville looked up at him sharply with wide eyes, Harry heard Hermione gasp, and saw out of the corner of his eye Ron's eyebrows had all but disappeared.

"Neville?" Harry gently questioned.

Neville took a deep breath and then nodded, "I've never had a hug."

Only Harry's hastily cast mild sticking charm kept Hermione in her seat, as she tried to lunge across the gap and hug the two young wizards.

Harry gave him a sad smile and a pat on the back, "That's what I thought. You live with your grandmother right?" At Neville's timid nod, he continued "And I'm guessing she has never once praised you?" Neville just turned his head away from them, Harry sighed, "I bet she also compares you to your parents, particularly your father at every opportunity?"

Neville seemed to shrink even further into the seat until Harry spoke up again, "She is a stupid bi-" Harry stopped mid word and snuck a quick glance at Hermione who was giving him a small glare at his language slip up, whilst Ron was smiling at him. Harry cleared his throat, "She is a stupid cow, who is defiling your parents memory, especially your father's by constantly belittling you. You are not your father, the same as Ron is not his, I am not mine and Hermione is not hers, yes, we may have some attributes from our fathers, just as we have some from our mothers, but that is what makes us who we are. You need to just ignore pretty much everything your family has ever told you and just be yourself, don't be what others want you to be or expect you to be, just be yourself, and no matter what that is; your parents will always be proud of you; and I would always be honoured to call you a friend."

Everyone sat there for several minutes, with only the sounds Neville sniffling and Hermione crying breaking the silence in the compartment, eventually Neville wiped away the several tears that had dripped down his face, before he sat up straight and nodded at Harry.

Harry smiled and nodded back, as he saw 'his' Neville begin to emerge, granted it was only a small step, but you would not have bet anything on the Neville who was in this compartment thirty minutes ago being capable of charging down Voldemort's line on his own.

Hermione, after being realised from Harry's sticking charm jumped up and hugged all three occupants in the compartment much to Neville's shock, and Harry's surprise, whilst Ron just sat there trying and failing to hide a smile, Harry thought to himself 'surely two months of differences can't have made that much of change…can it?'

For the next couple of hours after the heavy discussions finished, they talked about nothing of real consequence, just the classes and quidditch, Harry was surprised that Hermione seemed more interested in quidditch this time around, and Neville managed to convey his impressive skills and knowledge in herbology.

Harry sensed a group of three approaching the compartment; he recognised one of the magical signatures and groaned as he dropped his head, before he sighed and sat up straight staring at the door, the others looked at him surprised, although Ron having seem Harry do similar things before guessed what it was, "Someone unfriendly coming Harry?"

The look Harry shot him had the young redhead quickly grabbing his wand, the other two saw this, and looked at each other before shrugging and doing the same; the three of them didn't see Harry's wand out so they kept theirs out of sight.

The compartment door was opened without so much as a courtesy knock, and there in robes that looked like they were fresh from the shop was the blonde pain in the arse to Harry's six years at Hogwarts. Draco may have escaped Azkaban by his parent's actions during the final battle, but in Harry's mind, he was still an arrogant nasty little piece of work, 'time to see if a month and a half without daddy has done some good'.

Harry stood up to meet him, "Draco. Crabbe, Goyle" Harry could sense a small amount of trepidation in Draco, so decided to see if the blonde prince had learned anything in the past months, "Was there something you were looking for Draco? Or perhaps someone?"

Draco nodded, "Yes Po- Mr Potter, I was looking for you so that I could introduce myself."

Harry inwardly smiled 'it appears there is half a brain-cell in that blonde head of his', "Well Mr Malfoy as I am aware of who you are, it would appear that I need to make the introductions." Harry gestured to the people in question as he spoke, "Neville Longbottom, Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger; let me introduce you to, Draco Malfoy, Vincent Crabbe, and Gregory Goyle."

Draco gave a very small nod to Neville, and purposefully ignored the others, Harry frowned at this but let it go for now, "So then Mr Malfoy, now that introductions are over, is there something I can help you with?" Harry asked as he pinned the young wizard with a steely look.

Draco squirmed ever so slightly under Harry's strong gaze, whist the two gorilla impersonators behind him shuffled back slightly, "I was… intrigued, by your choice of friends and wanted to offer you a better alternative."

'Perhaps I was wrong' Harry thought as his gaze became a glare, "And pray tell Draco, just what is wrong with my friends?"

Ron who had been at Sirius's trial, recognised the ice that was leaking into the voice that Harry had used and even though it wasn't directed at him it still sent shivers down his and all the other compartments occupant's spines.

Despite having an involuntary shudder at the tone of Harry's voice, Draco replied "Two blood-traitors and a mudb-"

Before Draco could finish his sentence he had three wands pointed at him, the fourth quickly followed but Draco only had eyes for the wand that was pointing directly at his forehead, being held steady by a glowing eyed pissed off Harry Potter. Draco gulped, as he stood frozen in shock and no small about of fear, not just at the speed in which Harry had gotten his wand out, Draco had not even seen him move; but also the fact that the tip of the wand was pulsating a rather ominous looking dark red.

Harry managed to hold the curse he was itching to fire inside his wand as he spoke to the blonde ponce in a voice laced with icy venom, "Draco Malfoy, that kind of thinking is exactly what got your father executed. It's funny we were talking earlier about how we are not the same as our fathers, yet it would seem that you are an exact copy of yours." Harry closed the gap between them, as he pressed his wand directly into Draco's forehead, "You might want to have a rethink about just which way is the right way Draco, that tongue of yours will get you arrested if you don't keep it in check, and open your eyes to the real world."

Harry stepped back and slowly lowered his wand, the two gorillas had already moved away down the corridor showing a sense of self-preservation Harry was surprised they possessed at this age. The others all followed Harry's lead in lowering their wands, but they kept them out.

Harry gestured to the doorway behind Draco as the blonde haired boy brought himself out of his shocked state and moved slowly towards the door, his eyes not once wavering from Harrys. As he was about to close the door Harry spoke again, "Oh and Draco, if you ever utter that word in my presence again, I promise you, it will be your last." With that, Harry pushed Draco out the way and slammed the door shut.

Harry took a few deep breaths to calm himself, before he turned back to face the others, Ron and Neville were looking at him with looks of shock and no small amount of awe. Harry barely managed to refrain from rolling his eyes at that, as he looked to Hermione and saw her staring at him with a confused look on her face, he guessed what it was about, and sighed as he put his wand away and sat down.

"Hermione, to answer your first question, I know you have read the Daily Prophet and thus know that those three boy's recently had their fathers executed by the Ministry?" Harry waited for her to look at him and nod, "Right, did you happen to read what the charges were?"

She scrunched up her face in concentration as she tried to remember what the charges were, after a couple of minutes of silence, she opened her eyes and her face paled slightly, the two boys barely hard her speak, but Harry heard it loud and clear, "Crimes against muggleborns."

Harry nodded at her, "Yes, the word that the delightful Mr Malfoy was going to say was 'mudblood'" Harry spat out the word, disgust clearly evident in his voice, "It is an extremely derogatory term for muggleborns, and even the term 'muggleborn' is somewhat derogatory, that's why I use 'first-generation.' If I had my way, and I'm close to getting it, the utterance of that word will get you a pretty substantial fine, with repeated use getting you a jail term."

Hermione gasped, "Is it really that bad?"

All three boys nodded, Ron was the one who spoke "Yeah it means dirty blood; the blood supremacy people use it on mugg- first-generation witches and wizards because they think they are unworthy to study magic because of their parents."

Hermione looked a little ill at that but Neville soothed her fears, "All of the worst practisers of the blood purity rubbish are either d…dead or in Azk…Azkaban. It's really only the death eater children and the pureblood elite that managed to evade all the new laws from the Ministry, that would dare use it, and if what Harry says is right, they will soon stop."

Harry smiled at him and nodded, "Yep Ame-Minister Bones has been having a bit of opposition from some of the older members of the Wizengamot, since this is a tax on the people, it needs a 95% majority vote to pass. I might have to get Sirius to take up his seat and act as proxy for mine."

After that, they began to talk about their classes again, when suddenly Harry had a brain wave, "Neville?"

The boy in question looked away from his discussion about plants with Hermione towards Harry "Yeah Harry?"

Harry quickly thought of the best way to phrase what he wanted to say before he spoke, "When we all had our wands out earlier, I noticed that yours seemed older, it's not yours is it?"

Neville started to look down, as he wanted to shrink away, but Harry's words from earlier stopped him, he locked eyes with the green-eyed boy and nodded, "Yeah it was my fathers."

Before Harry could reply Ron opened his mouth, "You can't get the best results with another wizard's wand."

Neville across at Ron with a small hint of anger in his features that shocked the red-haired wizard, "Is this something that an adult witch or wizard should know?"

Before Ron could open his mouth again to reply, Harry responded, "Yes Neville it is, if they remember their visit to Ollivanders. Even if they don't remember it, they should know that trying to force a wand on an individual would mean it doesn't work properly. Ron and his brothers have used older wands for a while, but that's because they and I'm sorry for saying this Ron, but they couldn't afford them, at the time."

There was a pause as Ron glanced looked at Harry; money had always been a touchy subject for the youngest Weasley male, but his father's new position in the Ministry, and a few subtle donations from Harry and Sirius had removed most of the Weasley's financial worries. The twins still wore their old robes on principal, but the family went back to the alley to get Ron and Percy all new stuff after Arthur got his pay rise.

Harry watched fascinated as his friends anger became apparent for all to see, "She… She Argh"

Harry gently placed his hand on Neville shoulder, with a small calming charm on it, after Neville had relaxed Harry thought it was safe to speak, "I'm guessing the She is your grandmother."

Neville let out a resigned sigh as he nodded, "Yeah it is, I'm going to have to wait till Christmas before I can get myself a wand; that is if she will even take me."

As Neville sighed again Harry spoke, "Neville, I will be having words with your grandmother before you go anywhere near her." Neville was about to object to that, but his protest died on his lips as he saw the steely tint in Harry's eyes.

Once Neville had nodded, Harry spoke again, "As for waiting till Christmas whats wrong with getting it now, we still have about four hours before we get to the castle?"

The three others were doing goldfish impressions that had Harry relying on his mastery of occlumency to prevent himself from rolling about on the floor.

It was Hermione who finally managed to regain the power of speech "But… but we can't get off the train until it stops. And the magical methods of travel are-"

Harry stopped her, "Yes we can't simply step off the train, and floo powder won't work from a moving location, but as for portkey travel we could do that, if we knew how to make portkey's, and it is illegal to create an unregistered one. We could also apparate, and whilst I do know how to, I don't have a license so again that would be illegal."

Harry had decided to show off a few of his advanced abilities as he doubted he could keep them secret for long, he just hoped and prayed that all his changes weren't going to cause Voldemort to do anything drastically different. Harry had already been running plans past Ginny, Sirius, Remus and Albus about what to do if Voldemort differed, their biggest problem was of the Horcrux within Harry, and that even if they found a way to remove it, they didn't know what would happen to Voldemort's spirit, despite Albus poring over every book he could find on the subject.

All three occupants shouted out at once, "What!"

Harry simply smiled at them "Yes I can apparate, I've been able to do it since I was seven, when I did it accidently to get away from my cousin and his gang and ended up on the school roof." It was only a partial lie.

Harry somewhat enjoyed the slightly gobsmacked looks he got from them, "Could you please keep it quiet though? At least until I can persuade Amelia to let me take the license test."

The others just nodded still slight shocked, Neville asked the obvious question "If you are not allowed to apparate how do you expect to get us to London?"

Harry smiled at him and sent out a thought, "Fawkes?"

The phoenix answered by appearing in a flash of flame in the middle of the compartment, to the shocked screams of three of its occupants, Harry merely laughed at them, "You really like making an entrance don't you?"

Fawkes didn't dignify Harry's question with a response he just flew up to the luggage rack next to Hedwig who was sitting there proudly with her feathers preened, Harry quirked an eyebrow at his owl 'does Hedwig have a crush?' Harry stopped that line of thought before he got to distracted, "Fawkes can you please take me and Neville to Ollivander's shop in Diagon Alley?"

Fawkes gave a trill of affirmation before speaking, "Yes young one I can, yet why not simply take him yourself?"

"Because that would require me revealing my phoenix form, and I plan on keeping that as secret as possible for a long time, I haven't even told Sirius and Remus that I'm an animagus." Was Harry's reply.

Fawkes gave a trill of amusement as he spoke "You are not an animagus yet my young friend." as the others in the compartment looked between Harry and the phoenix, it was Ron who spoke first, "I think they can talk mentally, I've seen them do this a couple of times when the headmaster sends him with a letter."

Harry glanced over at Ron, "Yes we can talk inside our minds." Harry turned back to the smug looking phoenix "What do you mean I'm not an animagus!"

"You are a phoenix not an animagus, now when are we leaving?"

Harry just blinked at the red swan sized bird in shock as he digested what Fawkes was saying, upon thinking about it, he wasn't really like an animagus, they normally take years to become one, he thought back to when he first took his phoenix form.

Harry was lying in his bed in Bill's old room at the Burrow about two months after the War ended; he was practically confined to the house, as he hated his public attention. There were reporters by the dozen camped out around the Burrow hoping to get a glimpse of him, if he went anywhere he was swamped by well-wishers offering their congratulations, he didn't want it, he may have succeeded but the cost had been high.

He turned over to face the window and caught sight of the edge of the pitch the Weasleys used to play Quidditch, he lay there thinking about how he used to feel on a broom, the feeling of just being free with nothing but the wind for company. Harry remembered with a pang that his beloved firebolt his only true gift from his godfather was destroyed.

As he lay there just thinking about being back flying he started to feel a tingle through his body, recognising the signs of his magic, he quickly tried to calm his mind, but the tingle wouldn't go away if anything it got stronger.

The feeling of his magic quickly became strong enough for Harry to try and grasp it, but before he could, pain exploded from his entire body as he was blinded by light, as quick as it came it vanished.

Harry noticed his perception had changed and shook his head, he stopped when he realised his neck felt different, hell his whole body felt different, Harry moved his head to see and fainted when he saw the golden wings of a phoenix.

Once he woke up and the shock had worn off, Harry thought he might be stuck like this, and tried to change back, after finding the feeling he got before he changed he tried to recreate it, and soon after he landed on his backside in the bed.

With nothing much else to do, Harry tried shifting back and forth a few times, once he felt he had that down, he tried flying round his room and found it completely instinctual as he did on a broom. Whilst mastering flying around his room, Harry was wishing desperately that he could go flying outside, when he disappeared in a flash of flame, in his surprise at flame travel he forgot to keep flapping and started to fall to earth, he managed to right himself as he was about ten feet from the ground, and landed softly.

He tired flashing around the ground a few times then back to his room, he let out a cry of joy that came out as a trill filled with such love and power that Harry finally started to understand why people were always going on about him, he was special.

With that thought Harry took flight around the Burrow, he spent hours soaring around the Burrow's orchard and the surrounding countryside. He flew all the way down to the Rookery and saw Luna outside, he gave a trill that had her looking up, he flashed beside her and she smiled at him, he gave another trill before flying away back to the Burrow.

That day marked a turning point as he finally decided to stop trying to be 'just Harry' he and Ginny resumed dating the next day, as Harry simply walked down to breakfast for the first time in weeks and kissed her.

Harry was snapped from his musings when Neville gently shook his shoulder, reacting purely on instinct, Neville was on the floor face down with a wand pointed at the back of his neck before anyone could blink. Harry quickly realised his mistake and put his wand away, "I'm so sorry about that Nev, you just caught me lost up in my thoughts."

Neville gave a shakey laugh as he climbed back onto the seat "Its ok Harry just remind me to never try and surprise you."

"Or wake him up." Ron added on the end.

Harry cringed as he remembered the rather vicious stinking hex he had hit Ron in the face with when he had fallen asleep in the lounge one evening.

Neville and Hermione saw Harry cringe and Ron subconsciously rub his face, and after a quick glance at each other thought it best not to ask. Neville cleared his throat to get everyone's attention "Erm there is the small problem of me having no gold on me."

Harry smiled at him "That's fine Nev; just think of it has an early Christmas present."

Harry stood up and was about to offer his hand to Neville when the boy in question spoke again, "Harry no you can't spend-" Neville was interrupted by Ron, "Don't bother arguing with him Neville, you will lose." At the questioning looks from Hermione and Neville, Ron clarified what he meant, "I have never seen him lose an argument to anyone other than my sister, and she only wins those because she gives up arguing and just silences him with a kiss."

Harry smiled at the redhead whilst Neville just shook his head slightly, "You clean out the Ministry, get your godfather out of prison, get all the death eaters of the streets, get several new laws passed, and you have a girlfriend."

Harry nodded at the herbology expert, "Yep." Then held out his hand, Neville shook his head again, as he got up and grabbed Harry's hand, Fawkes swooped down on to Harry's shoulder and the three of them disappeared in a flash of flame.

Harry and Neville flashed back into the compartment almost an hour and a half later to find a completed game of chess between the other two occupants in the compartment. That wasn't what surprised them though it was the fact that Ron was in the process of kissing Hermione on the cheek that had Harry beaming at them and clearing his throat loudly.

The two of them leapt apart sending the chessboard and its pieces flying, Fawkes trilled in amusement before leaving in another flash of flame. "Did you have fun whilst we were gone?" Harrys question was met with spluttering from Ron, and Hermione turning so red Harry was concerned her legs might give out due to lack of blood flow.

After some more good natured micky taking the four friends settled down into quiet conversation with Harry's thoughts occasionally wandering to what Fawkes had said, the phoenix's previous words at the hospital rang through Harry's mind, "your phoenix nature, although you seem to have not embraced it fully."

Harry was wandering what Ginny was doing right now, when the announcement came over that they were approaching the station, Hermione waited outside whilst the three boys quickly changed, after that they waited until the train stopped. Harry stroked Hedwig as she landed on his shoulder, he had been much more affectionate with than before and her behaviour showed that, "I'm sorry girl, but you're not allowed to come with me right now, why don't you go and grab some nice mice, and I'll see you later, ok?" Hedwig hooted and nipped his ear playfully before flying off out the window.

Harry turned to the others staring at him he rasied an eyebrow "What?"

It was Hermione who answered first, "You talk to her like she is a person."

Harry nodded at her "Yes. She can understand me perfectly."

Hermione looked at Harry oddly, "Can you talk to her too?"

He smiled at her, "Not yet."

They got onto the platform and heard the cry of the gamekeeper, "Firs'-years this way!"

The group of four met up with the other first years as they walked down the platform, Harry glanced around at all of them, recognising quite a few, he saw Malfoy had his head down seemingly deep in thought, Harry gave a half smirk, 'maybe I did get through to him.'

They made their way down to the boats, the four friends grabbed one to themselves, once there were all seated Hagrid's bellowed cry of "FORWARD" set them moving towards Harry's other home.

Harry could already the feel Hogwarts magic before they even got off the train, and it was just getting stronger as he got closer, he closed his eyes and just let the feeling of it wash over him. He snapped his eyes open when Hagrid called out that Hogwarts was coming into view.

He heard Hagrid speak up over the gently splashing against the boats, "Blimey I ain't ever seen the Castle ligh' up like that 'efore."

Harry ignored Hagrid's comment and smiled as he laid eyes on the castle; it was nice to see it whole without any of the scars of battle again. He was about to close his eyes again, when he felt a presence enter his mind, straight through his occlumency shields, panic began to set in as Harry got set to ready his wand, before he could get it out though, a soothing voice greeted him calmly.

"Welcome home my young master."

Harry's eyes almost fell out of his head as he realised to whom the voice belonged, he feebly returned the greeting, "Hogwarts?"

A/N – There we are then, all done. You like my cliffhanger :P As you can see I have placed a memory within this chapter, and I'm going to go back and rework my three other memories into their respective chapters. I'm not going to bother even making a guess as to when the next chapter will be up, but I do make a promise that it will be before Christmas. I do really enjoy my warm fuzzy feeling :)