September first had come around again, usually a time of great stress for muggle children as it indicated the beginning of school. For Dudley and Harry, however, as well as countless other magical children, the excitement was palpable. Trunks were checked and rechecked, before having to go back for forgotten things. Younger siblings were feeling jealous of their older siblings and only children looked forward to seeing their friends again.

This year saw, for the first time, nothing but unabashed excitement from Harry Potter, and by extension his friends, his mere presence inspiring excitement in them. They had a few goals for the year; improve their combat skills, learn more powerful magic, but most importantly have fun. They planned pranks and, to make Hermione happy, also study sessions. The energy on the train was different to last year and the year before, somehow even with a serial killer on the loose, it was more positive than ever.

Unfortunately, this abundance of strong happy emotions, combined with the state of the Wizarding World since the escape of Sirius Black, was the perfect bait for the foulest creatures on Earth. About two thirds of the journey had passed when they began slowing down, eventually stopping, for seemingly no reason.

As Ron and Draco looked out the window, Harry choosing to open the compartment door to investigate from that angle, the glass froze in all the windows and the air became intensely frigid and frosty.

"Dementors… why would they be here, I mean besides from searching for Sirius Black," Theo called out, causing Hermione to repeat the word 'Dementors', as if trying to remember how to repel them, but her panic prevented her from achieving that goal.

Harry stepped fully out into the corridor and cast his Patronus, which looked stronger than ever, and waited for the arrival of these Dementors. He didn't wait very long as the door, separating this section of the train from the next, began to slowly open. As soon as it was open the white-blue doe charged at the dementors, forcing them to retreat.

"Well… that was a nonissue," Harry remarked as the air on the train began warming up and eventually the train began to move on its way to Hogwarts again.

/*******/

The atmosphere of the students was muted when they had arrived at Hogwarts, Dementors tended to have that effect on people. As they sat in the Great Hall, after the Sorting Hat's song was done, they could see a very frail looking man at the teacher's table. He was introduced as Remus Lupin and his was a face that Harry had seen before. He had also been at his parent's wedding, he was the perfect person to question.

Harry didn't know how he would even begin to talk to Lupin, but he knew he would have to do so soon, Harry was lost in thought about how he would interact with him.

While sitting there the Sorting ceremony had begun and Harry hadn't paid any attention to it, that was until he heard a very familiar name.

Elias Hawthorn - Slytherin.

"It couldn't be…" Harry thought as he stared at the lad who was just sorted, though he never noticed Harry.

Harry and his friend group were sitting together at the Slytherin table, enjoying the Welcoming Feast and the atmosphere of Hogwarts, just talking about whatever crossed their minds, while Harry was thinking about his "little brother."

Before they could leave to go to bed Professor Dumbledore had a few words for them about the presence of the Dementors at the school, in their search for the escaped felon Sirius Black. Harry watched Lupin's face during the mention of the name, but there was no reaction. Professor Dumbledore also informed them all that Duelling would be taught by a mixture of Professors: Flitwick, Snape, Lupin, and McGonagall.

/*******/

The first lesson of the term for the third year Slytherins was Defence Against the Dark Arts. They didn't expect much from it, and as Professor Lupin walked in, their perceptions were seemingly confirmed.

How wrong they were.

"Welcome, students, to your first defence lesson of the year. I see your last two professors have been primarily focused on theory and not practical lessons. While I'd never insult another person, I don't believe this to be helpful in any way. Theory without practice isn't learning, you have to learn from example and experience. Case in point, flick to the 42nd page of your textbook." He paused as the sound of loads of books being opened. "Now, does anyone want to try the spell listed?" After another pause he added "I'll give twenty points to anyone who manages the spell, let's move these desks to the side and we'll split you all into pairs."

The spell in question was the Cheering Charm and as Lupin split the class into pairs, Harry ended up with Draco, while Dudley ended up with Blaise, Harry found himself thinking about how easy this would be. Around him he heard the sound of the students on the opposite side of him, Draco included, try and fail to cast the spell the first time.

"Okay class, now the rest of you can try," Professor Lupin called out once the shouts had ended. Harry raised his wand and aimed it at Draco before calling out.

"GAUDIUM" Harry shouted it out in sync with all of the other students, the only difference was the sound of laughter from Draco, which was stopped in a moment by Harry.

This stopped Professor Lupin dead in his tracks, completely forgetting what he was about to say.

"Brilliant, Mr Potter, twenty points to Slytherin."

The rest of the lesson was spent trying to teach the class how to cast the spell, which resulted in a small number getting it, with the remainder being assigned the choice of practicing the spell or writing an essay on "How the lack of a practical application of instruction causes a lack of preparedness." Most students chose to practice for the rest of the lesson, while others resigned themselves to the essay.

/*******/

"Hey Blaise, can I talk to you for a moment?" Dudley called out after finally locating the boy, having searched for him for a week, he was always up, and asleep, before Dudley so finding time to talk to him hadn't been easy.

"I guess, as long as you're fast about it," Blaise replied after a single glance at Dudley.

"I've been giving things a lot of thought lately and I wanted you to know that I don't hold any of your actions against you. I lost my father last Christmas and something like that sticks with you, I've seen your personality change completely, you used to hold your head high and walk about with confidence, now? Now you're alone all of the time and always have a look on your face that makes me think you want to join in." He paused to take in Blaise's look of shock before he finished. "I know you're probably going to tell me to do one, but I have to say this, you have value, inherently just by existing, and that I forgive you." At this Blaise froze and didn't know what to say so he settled for nodding at Dudley, stiffly, before the two went their separate ways.

Having finally tracked Blaise down he could move onto the next project he had planned. He walked from the Dungeons to the Library in relative silence, it was sort of refreshing to have a moment of peace, which lasted until he heard a commotion down the hallway he was about to walk down.

"Nargles don't exist, neither do Crumple horn whatevers. The sooner you realise that the sooner you may actually have friends!" The first voice shouted, the end of their rant punctuated by the sound of a stack of paper being smacked to the floor. This sight angered Dudley greatly and so without thinking he stunned the girl who was shouting before levitating the stack of paper off the floor. As if this happened every day, which it may well do, the girl who was being shouted at grabbed the stack of paper before smiling at Dudley and talking to him in her dreamy voice.

"Thank you, Harry's Cousin. Some people will never see what is right in front of their faces."

"Are you okay? My name is Dudley by the way."

"Oh I know, I've just had it explained that people find it weird if you know their name before they tell you. Mine is Luna."

"Yeah, I can see that happening, it's nice to meet you Luna." Luna smiled again and walked off without further comment. Dudley took one more look at the girl who had been picking on Luna before reviving her and walking away.

/********/

Harry was sat in the Library with Hermione and they were, for all intents and purposes, studying the fifth and fourth year material respectively. They were however aware that outside of studying, and the occasional hang out time with the whole group, they realistically didn't have many chances to just spend time together last year. This year would be even harder, as they were both taking every class offered besides Divination; however, they had arranged at least an hour every other day to just sit in the Library and enjoy spending time together. Harry had just realised he was staring into space in Hermione's direction when he started blushing and, in the moment before he realised, Dudley walked in and joined the group. He gave them both a sly smile before sitting down and telling them of his encounter with Luna. As they spoke Dudley pulled out a book titled "Animagi, Animals and Actualisation" and then began reading, only joining the conversation every now and then.

"Would either of you like to try to become Animagi with me?" Dudley questioned after a long silence, thinking about how cool it would be to do it together.

"That sounds great, Dudley, but neither Harry nor I could give it as much focus as it needs with how busy we are this year," Hermione answered, followed by Harry.

"That's not to say we can't give it any of our time, if you remember, we did plan to lighten the atmosphere of the school with pranks." Harry paused for a moment before he continued.

"We could theoretically research the Animagus transformation while we're planning pranks. If anyone in the group doesn't want to become an Animagus then they can focus on more of the prank elements."

Speaking of the rest of the group, they had all finally arrived as Ron and Draco walked in together, followed by Neville and Theo minutes later. Now that they were all together they could gather their books and stuff and find a quiet area to plan their pranks and discuss the Animagus stuff.

/*********/

At the back of the Library, during this conversation, stood Professor Lupin who was currently lost in thoughts.

"Pranks and Animagi, maybe Harry isn't so different to James after all. Maybe I should talk to Harry sooner than I had planned, and let slip that I can help him with the process."