"He's back"

"Voldemort's back"

Time seemed to stand still for a second, Harry's vision blurred as he looked upwards.

Pounding filled his head, all he could hear was a faint screaming in the background.

Wait... who was screaming. All Harry new was that he had to help. Someone was hurt! Someone was going to die, he could feel it. Sirius! It must be Sirius. He could hear Sirius shouting for him. Yes! There he was running towards him!

But no... That's Hermione... "Harry you need to get up!" Then who was screaming... "Harry!"

"Harry! Harry wake up!" Hermione shouted as Ron looked at Harry with concern, his head tilting slightly. "What! What happened," Harry whispered clinging to Hermiones arm as she softly held on to him "I heard someone screaming, I heard Sirius screaming!"

Hermione and Ron shared a look before glancing at Harry, sadness in their eyes. Hermione opened her mouth slightly to speak but choked up and only managed to grip Harry's arm tighter.

Ron spoke instead, "You were the one screaming mate" he scratched the back of his neck uncomfortably "we came back from the Prefect meeting and you were having a nightmare".

Harry slumped back into his seat, "Oh".

He stared down at his old converse, two sizes too big because they were hand-next-downs from his awful cousin.

Ron and Hermione continued to glance at each other and then back at Harry as he silently stared down, scraping his feet against the floor.

This summer had been one of the hardest yet for Harry Potter and that was a hard position to win...

Ever since Harry found out he was a wizard at the age of 11 his Aunt and Uncle had begun treating him even worse than usual. At least he didn't have to sleep under the stairs anymore though, a place he'd spent the first 11 years of his life but the constant bullying from his cousin Dudley hadn't stopped.

Every day Dudley and his goons would find a way of cornering him; leaving him with a new bruise every night. Teasing him about his nightmares...

His parents, Cedric, Sirius.

He'd lost too many people in only 16 years that Harry had started to retreat from everyone around him.

Sirius has been the closest thing he had to his parents and now even he was gone. For a second he had let himself imagine a life with his godfather, somewhere he could finally belong.

"Harry..." Hermione tentatively asked, "Are you okay?" Harry remained silent but looked up and instead turned to stare out the window of the train.

They were almost at hogwarts, a fact that should have filled Harry with joy but instead all he felt was numb. "I'm fine Hermione" Harry mumbled "It was just a nightmare". Sighing Harry turned and gave his two best friends a small smile "I'm okay, I promise".

The three best friends smiled tentatively at each other and slowly slipped into chatting about the last Chudley Cannons match, Ron excitedly telling Harry about Fred and George's bets and Hermione rolling her eyes, smiling softly. Harry's nightmare forgotten for a short time.

It had been 3 months since the battle at the Ministry and Harry had been having nightmares almost every night at the Burrow.

No one knew how to help him, Mrs Weasley smothered him constantly and Remus had all but retreated back into himself. Leaving Harry feeling more alone than ever.

Sirius has been the only proper family he had left and after seeing him fall through the veil Harry couldn't get it out of his head.

His scar had been hurting even more since the battle with Voldemort and Harry had the feeling that this year was going to be even more dangerous.

Most of the wizarding world had now excepted the reality that Voldemort had returned and because of it Dumbledore thought it was appropriate that the students at Hogwarts know how to defend themselves.

The trio found out early because Ron's dad worked at the ministry; Dumbledore had agreed to increase the amount of Defence against the dark arts lessons for students in 3rd year and above.

Ron found out that 5th year were going to have to learn how to withstand the imperious curse, something that Hermione desperately argued against and that they'd also have to fight a boggart again.

That one confused Harry a bit, they'd done that in 3rd year and I doubt it will help him much if he came face to face with Voldemort again...

Sighing Harry turned to gaze out the window of the carriage again as rain lightly pattered against it and the familiarity of travelling to hogwarts allowed the three friends to forget all that had happened that summer, if only for a while.

However Harry's nightmare still hung over the trio like a dark cloud, unpredictable and with the potential to strike at any moment.

———————————————————

To a normal student if they took a quick glance into compartment 24 of the hogwarts express they would see a group of three friends, laughing, joking and from Hermione's end occasionally rolling their eyes.

But if you were to stop for a second longer you'd catch a glimpse of something not quite right.

A boy shielding his face with his raven hair, not brushing it away when most people would have found it annoying. While green eyes scrunched up for a split second in pain as if from a persistent headache.

Another boy but this time ginger, making jokes to lighten the mood. Occasionally wincing when something he said hit a bit to close to home.

Finally a girl with bushy brown hair that seemed so confident and yet if you looked closer you would see the exhaustion in her eyes and the way she always tilted her body as if to protect the other two.

Most people would never stop long enough to witness those things, most people wouldn't decide there and then that they were going to become friends with this strange group but again those people weren't Kat Howard and she had already made up her mind...