A few days into August, an owl arrived with a letter for Harry.
This was nothing unusual, even with how it arrived at breakfast, but as soon as Sirius saw it he pointed. "That'll be the results, then."
"How can you tell?" Harry asked, sort of interested, and took the proffered letter.
"I remember what mine looked like," Sirius explained. "It was square, like that."
He frowned, looking closer. "That might be the same owl, actually, unless all the owls they get look the same."
The owl gave Harry a slightly confused look, then chirped something at Hedwig. She barked back, and the owl took off to fly out the window again.
"It's always been a bit strange to me that Muggles don't notice owls carrying parcels," Harry admitted, turning the letter over and over in his paws.
"Worried?" Sirius asked.
"A little," Harry replied. "I know it's silly, because it's not like the letter is going to change if I look at it hard enough."
"No, you'd need a spell for that," Sirius agreed.
He snapped his fingers. "I know! Why don't you check and see if you could change it?"
"How would I do that?" Harry asked.
"I'd say open it," Sirius told him, solemnly. "That's the usual way to open envelopes, though I am out of touch a bit."
Harry snorted appreciatively, and slid his claw along the top of the envelope. (Dragons came with built-in letter openers.) Out came the heavy parchment, and Harry carefully unfolded it.
The first bit was just an assurance that these were the Ordinary Wizarding Level results, and that the pass grades went O-E-A and the fail grades went P-D-T.
Then it listed off the subjects alphabetically. Arithmancy and Astronomy came first, both E grades, then Charms was an O which made Harry feel quite good about himself.
"Blimey," Sirius said, from behind him – which made Harry jump, and realize he'd been holding his breath. "Nothing below an E?"
Harry hadn't got that far yet, but scanning down the letters he realized that Sirius was right. Everything was either an E or an O, and he had five Os in Charms, Defence, Potions, Runes and Transfiguration.
"I'm really impressed, Harry," Sirius told him, as Harry sort of stared at the results. "I bet Remus will be as well, that's the sort of thing he managed but I think he duffed up some class… I think it was Herbology, one of the practical questions involved wolfsbane and he had to leave it without doing it."
Harry winced. There wasn't really a way to get around that.
"He didn't do Astronomy in sixth year, either, which was probably the right choice," Sirius went on. "Imagine how badly he'd have done on that exam,because the NEWT practical was on the full moon."
"I thought Ron was the one who wanted to be the first wizard in space," Harry said, sounding confused.
Sirius made a strangled noise.
"How did I not see that one?" he asked himself. "It was right there!"
Harry felt quite pleased at himself for that one.
He also had the image in his head of an Astronomy NEWT going on with about a dozen students, one of them Remus in werewolf form, carefully using a quill to write out the word RAAARGH on an orbital chart.
Sirius insisted they go out for dinner, but then Kreacher overheard, and after about thirty minutes of negotiations an amicable conclusion was reached that Sirius would take Harry out for lunch and then Kreacher would make a dinner in a couple of days that Harry's friends could be invited to. And that Harry would teach Kreacher how to make a kind of pie that Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia liked, because Harry liked it as well and he knew how to do it and it felt like a nice thing to do.
After visiting Godric's Hollow a few days ago, Harry had started thinking a bit about what it would have been like if he'd grown up with his mum and dad. It wasn't something where he knew what it would have been like, maybe, but he had sort of an idea of what mums and dads were supposed to do – and the thought occurred to him, as they were halfway through some very large and meaty burgers, that Sirius had really been doing a good job at filling that gap.
It wasn't anything spectacular, and even though he was as rich as criminy Sirius didn't shower Harry with gifts or anything – not that he'd want to be, because while it worked for Dudley Harry mostly wanted things that were meaningful rather than things that were expensive. Instead Sirius was just sort of… an odd mix of a reassuring presence, help if Harry needed it, and a good friend.
It meant that Harry didn't feel alone, and that was important by itself.
"If you're wondering about how they sort out classes at sixth year," Sirius said, putting his burger down and taking one of the chips that had come with it, "it's worked out when you get back to school. It depends what O-W-, ah, what O levels you got, and your schedule is kind of sorted out that first morning."
He frowned, counting under his breath. "I think the first of September is a Sunday this year, so you'll be starting right at the beginning of the week. Might be a bit complicated, but there's only about ten students per House so it shouldn't take that long."
"How many subjects do you think is a good idea?" Harry said.
"Well, Remus did seven, but he was a bit mad," Sirius told Harry, then dipped the chip he'd been gesturing with into the ketchup and eating it. "Someone who was very mad could probably fit eight, but I did four. I think that's about what Fred and George did as well."
He brightened. "Speaking of them, when it's time for you to pick up your supplies we can visit the shop. Or sooner, if you want."
"Maybe we should all go together, so we get the first look together," Harry decided, and took the last bite of his own burger.
He hadn't started on his chips yet, so it wasn't like he was finished.
"Doesn't that mean I could pick my classes now?" he asked.
"With your results, probably," Sirius agreed.
That made Harry frown, though. "But if someone's not got that kind of results, and they're not sure if they can do a subject but they want to do it, do they buy the books for it?"
"...there, you have me," his dogfather admitted. "Sixth year swap market, maybe?"
Sorting out what was a good time for everyone took a bit of clever work with Hedwig, but it eventually got sorted out when would be available (about Tuesday, which nobody had trouble with because both Dean and Hermione could come over without needing parental help and both Neville and Ron could just use the Floo).
"This would have been harder to work out if I, you know, had a job," Sirius mused.
"Isn't your job basically Being Sirius Black?" Harry asked. "You seem quite well qualified for it."
"It is a good job to interview for," Sirius agreed. "What a coincidence, Mr. Black, your OWL results are exactly what we're looking for."
"What were your OWL results?" Hermione said, curious.
Sirius favoured her with a smirk. "A failed attempt to spell out 'Adopted' and a pity pass in Potions."
"Pity passes in Potions exist?" Neville asked.
"They did under Slughorn," Sirius replied. "At least, I assume that's why I passed."
Kreacher stepped through from the kitchen, and bowed. "Dinner is being served in a moment."
He snapped his fingers, and all the dishes appeared on the table.
"That moment, presumably," Sirius noted.
"Master is correct," Kreacher allowed. "Kreacher will make a note on the calendar."
As the House-Elf left again and everyone found their seats, Neville whistled. "Every time I'm here I notice how different he is from Tandy."
"I think at this point Sirius would miss him," Harry guessed.
Sirius was halfway through sitting down and stopped, hovering over his chair. "...damn it, now I'm faintly disturbed with myself."
He finished the process of sitting down, and took one of the big serving spoons. "Ah well. Anyone want some potatoes?"
Potatoes – and vegetables, and pie – were duly distributed, and then as everyone ate the discussions about what people had got started.
Harry felt quite proud of what people thought of his marks, and it turned out that he was the only person out of the five of them who hadn't got an Acceptable mark – though Acceptable was still a passing grade, after all, and nobody had got them in a subject they were really interested in.
That was probably part of why, really.
Hermione was the star, because she'd got eleven Outstandings and her only non-Outstanding mark was an Acceptable at Divination – she said that she thought she'd done quite well in the Theory but badly been let down in the Practical, and Harry thought that sounded about right.
As if to counter that, her Muggle Studies result had come with a postscript about how it was the highest score the examiners had ever seen. It seemed that it was rare enough for someone who'd actually been Muggle-born to take up Muggle Studies – and to be as studious as Hermione to boot – that she'd broken records.
"It was probably because I explained all of David Bowie's personas," Hermione guessed. "Maybe? I wrote a lot on that paper."
"I suppose that means we'll never know," Ron guessed.
For his part, Ron had got three Acceptables (in History, Potions and Herbology), but apart from that he had an E in Charms and everything else was an O. Transfiguration was probably helped by his becoming an Animagus – which was after all not even on the curriculum – and they'd all got an Outstanding in Defence, but of the other three Outstanding marks Ron had got they'd all come from things which Ron was passionate about – Astronomy, Runes and Muggle Studies.
Ron's career path was clearly on the verge of taking off – pun very much intended – and he admitted he was having trouble deciding whether to try for six subjects (including Muggle Studies) or just the five other ones he'd Exceeded Expectations on.
"I think it depends whether you think you'd be enthusiastic about them," Dean said. "You didn't do so well in the subjects you were just doing, like Herbology, but when you wanted to do something for a reason you did great."
"He's got a point," Neville agreed, taking some more broccoli.
Out of Harry's friends, Neville was the one where Harry thought he had most idea where he was going. All he really needed for that was Herbology, but other subjects would help as well, and Neville had stacked up Outstanding scores in Charms and Transfiguration to go with his Herbology and Defence.
He hadn't much enjoyed History, though, which explained his merely passing grade there, and Astronomy had never really interested him like the others. So that was the other passing grade, and everything else had been an E.
"I think I'd like to do Charms," Neville said, a minute or so later. "As well as Defence, which I think we're all doing?"
There were nods.
"Gran wants me to do Transfiguration, too, and I don't see a reason to disappoint her," Neville went on.
"I think that means we're all doing Defence, Charms and Transfiguration," Dean said. "What else?"
"Arithmancy, and Herbology," Neville decided. "I could do Potions, but… no."
"You're better at it than I am, probably," Ron said. "I only got an A."
Neville snorted. "That's five years of working with Hermione, not talent."
"It could be both," Harry suggested. "What about you, Dean?"
"You already know about the three we're all planning on doing," Dean said. "And apart from that, well, History's the only thing I couldn't definitely do because I only got an Acceptable in it, but I got an O in Care of Magical Creatures and that's been really interesting lately. I think I want to learn to speak Dragon if you've got the time, mate."
"I'll do my best," Harry assured him.
"I also kind of want to see what Divination's like," Dean decided. "I got the best score out of all of us in that."
Ron waved a fork around. "Out of the two people who did it, you mean."
"Still counts," Dean grinned.
"Doesn't Snape only take Outstanding students at NEWT level?" Hermione asked. "So only Harry and I could have done that class anyway."
Sirius sniggered. "Maybe that's so he only has to deal with people who can cope with him?"
"What do you think you'll go for, Harry?" Hermione asked.
Harry had already thought it through. "Charms, Transfiguration, Defence, Runes, and Alchemy if they're doing it this year," he said. "Otherwise… maybe Arithmancy? Or Creatures?"
"If you did Arithmancy and Alchemy, and Potions, you'd be doing the same thing as me," Hermione replied. "Maybe I should take Care of Magical Creatures as well."
"I don't want to wear my wing membranes out and end up falling," Harry said, then frowned. "No, that really doesn't sound right."
"Another try at a new saying?" Ron checked.
"Another try at a new saying," Harry agreed.
Dean put his fork down, changed into Upstart, looked at his wing, then changed back again. "I don't think my wings are similar enough to empathize."
The school letter arrived the next day, and this time it was a bit different. Instead of listing off what books would be needed, so that all someone needed to do was get all the listed books, the letter told Harry which books were needed for each class (so it said that Defence Against the Dark Arts required the Practical Defensive Magic books, which was nice because Harry already had those, and it also confirmed Harry's suspicion about The Hermetic Book of Alchemy while instructing him to get books like A Guide To Advanced Transfiguration and International Runic Alphabets).
Hermione was probably going to need to get quite a lot of books.
Everyone had already agreed at the dinner that they were going to go to Diagon Alley together on the first Saturday after the school letters arrived, because that way as many people as possible could come along. So, really, Harry didn't have to do much at all except read through The Hermetic Book of Alchemy and see if he could get as much of it understood as possible before the start of the term.
It was quite heavy going, but interesting as well. Sort of like a blend of magic with Muggle science more than anything, where sometimes something would have a property because of an association in how it looked or even how it was named (so a little mercury added to silver would make it easier to melt, because mercury was known as quicksilver) while otherwise something would have a property for scientific reasons (so adding cobalt to one mixture and nickel to the other would make them alloy more effectively, since both were magnetic materials).
Harry had the feeling that it was going to take a lot of work to be able to come up with new alchemical recipes himself, but it was going to be interesting learning how to think about this sort of thing.
When they went to Diagon Alley for their shopping, it seemed very busy down one end of the street. Diagon Alley wasn't that big, but there weren't that many wizards – though Harry thought there were definitely more creatures around than there had been back when he'd first seen Diagon Alley about five years ago.
It was still mostly humans, but Harry spotted Firenze ducking into Twinkle's Telescopes and someone he thought was Tanisis' mother talking to Florian Fortescue, along with a man with a very wide-brimmed hat and pale skin who might have been a vampire.
Or he might just have had a big hat.
It seemed as though there had to be a significant fraction of the wizards and witches in the country down at the end of the street near Gringotts, though, and as they got closer Harry thought about that before glancing at Sirius.
"Is that where MMM is?" he checked.
"Right in one," Sirius agreed. "Good spot, isn't it?"
Harry looked at where it was, at a bit where the street widened a bit, and noticed that on the other side was a restaurant with a front bit where they had some tables partitioned off from the street proper. It looked like even if the crowd did completely fill the street there'd be some space for people to get past through the restaurant area.
Plus, it meant there was a restaurant not far away.
Since it was so busy at the shop – Fred and George were doing a roaring trade, and Harry kept seeing people gingerly tasting potentially-worrisome sweets or trying out fake wands that turned into rubber chickens, to say nothing of the occasional whoosh as something turned out to be a cunningly concealed firework – Harry, and then his friends, did the rest of their shopping first.
There were new robes to be got, potions ingredients (for Hermione, and also for Harry who had to get some things for Alchemy), a better telescope (for Ron) and all sorts of other accoutrements, like Dean's fireproof cloak for Care of Magical Creatures and a set of bonsai pots for Neville.
Ginny had some new things to pick up as well, like owl treats for Pigwidgeon, and it wasn't until a bit after lunch that they finally got a chance to go inside Marauders' Magical Miscellany.
"Ah!" Fred announced heartily. "Welcome, Mr. Padfoot!"
"Are you going to use all those names for us?" Ron asked.
"Of course not, that would be way too consistent," Tyler told him, leaning around a shelf. "Hey, try one of these."
The Slytherin tossed it to him, and Ron juggled it around a bit before managing to get hold of it.
"It's a spider," he pointed out. "No way am I doing whatever you've rigged this up to do."
"Fine, have one of your friends do it," Tyler told him.
Harry volunteered, and once Ron had gratefully passed the small artificial spider over he examined it before giving it a tap with his wand.
It promptly turned into a small telescope.
"I spider," Tyler clarified, which drew a few groans.
"...I just realized that an acromantula technically could attend Hogwarts," Ron said, and sighed. "I'm not sure what about that made me realize it, but I did."
"How does this work, then?" Ginny asked. "I know Fred and George are involved, and Sirius is involved, and you're involved, but you're fifth years and they've left school and Sirius is a responsible adult."
"Oi!" Sirius complained.
"Technically," Ginny amended, which got Sirius to give her a thumbs-up. "So are you working here as a summer job, or…?"
"That's right, it's a summer job," Anne agreed. "But it's a sneaky Slytherin summer job."
"We're technically getting paid a lot more than we should be," Tyler clarified.
There was general agreement that that qualified as Slytherin.
"What would other types of summer job be?" Dean mused. "I think Ravenclaw would be a summer job which works for your career path?"
Neville frowned. "Or just library work would be. And Hufflepuff would be charity work."
"So that leaves Gryffindor to be…" Harry began, paused, and completed his thought. "Treasure hunting?"
Ron nodded. "Or testing what Fred and George and these two have invented."
"Speaking of which, we've got more than terrible puns," Anne went on. "...I think. Do we?"
"Probably," Tyler said, waving a hand.
"We've probably got more than terrible puns," Anne reiterated. "Want a look?"
There were indeed more things on offer than just terrible puns.
Harry noticed that some of the things on sale were sweets which would let someone fake some sort of medical issue so they could skip class, and decided the sensible thing to do was to quietly make a note of what they were so he could tell Madam Pomfrey about them.
It seemed to Harry that you could say that maybe if someone genuinely wanted to skip class so much they were willing to give themselves a nosebleed over it (or be sick, in one case) then they should be able to do it, but it also occurred to him that most children could be a bit short-term in their thinking and not attach the proper importance to going to class.
Besides, they'd probably end up banned anyway, and as a Prefect he did have to enforce that sort of rule.
They were about the most objectionable thing available, though, and a lot of the rest of what was on sale was much less likely to show up on a Prefect's radar. Their fireworks display (by which Harry meant their display of fireworks) was spectacular enough if mostly limited to indoor use by the possibility of Muggle observation – and that was before considering that they apparently offered custom fireworks which took on a shape requested by the customer, though that sort of order did take a few days to fulfil – and then there were things like reams of paper where each one could be labelled with a command word and when you said that word it would fold itself into an origami bird and fly around.
Hermione surprised everyone by buying seven packs, then explained herself by saying that she was going to use them for her notes on each subject she was taking.
"We also came up with these," George told them, producing some miniature Quidditch players – some of them wearing the colours of teams like the Chudley Cannons or Pride of Portree, others in Hogwarts Quidditch uniforms. "They play as much like the originals as we could manage, or you can fiddle with them to change how well they do."
"Think we can do one of you?" Anna asked Harry, with a speculative look. "We'd have to make it limited edition."
"Two of them in the same match would be kind of funny," Dean said. "It'd be a fight over the Snitch."
"Any chance you can give us some for free?" Ginny checked. "I don't mean loads, just enough that Ron can use them when he's working out tactics."
Neville looked mildly puzzled. "Ron works out tactics?"
"Well, yeah," Ginny replied. "What do you think the Quidditch Captain does?"
She shrugged. "I'll probably end up helping him, but those would be good too."
"I didn't actually know Ron was Quidditch Captain," Harry confessed. "I thought it was the oldest player, or the most responsible one in the highest year who's playing, or something like that."
"Katie would have been Captain, but she said she wasn't sure if she was going to play," Ron explained. "And she said something about Cormac and him being too focused, so…"
He shrugged. "Captain by default?"
"Congratulations, Ron!" Hermione told him, giving him a spontaneous hug.
That did mean she dropped all her new Flying Folios on the floor, though.
After the visit to Diagon Alley, the rest of the summer went by in the way summers did.
The Olympics ended with Britain having won very few medals, but Harry thought that supporting Britain in the Olympics was the sort of thing you did in the same way you supported the Chudley Cannons in Quidditch. Or for that matter England in the World Cup.
You weren't really supporting them because you thought they'd do well, more because it seemed the decent thing to do.
On the topic of Quidditch, Harry and Sirius went to see a game between Puddlemere United and the Tutshill Tornadoes. It was the first time Harry had seen a game at the League level – everything he'd seen and done before had been either at Hogwarts or the World Cup Final – and what this particular League game happened to include was Oliver Wood, now on the Puddlemere first team as their Keeper and doing quite a good job.
The game also, however, involved about seven hours of play before the Snitch was finally caught. Harry was quite glad they'd brought his tent along just in case, as it gave them a chance to make sandwiches (and then have Kreacher provide dinner) without having to leave the stands or pay the high price for food being sold at the grounds.
"Do you ever wonder if they make the game last ages so you have to buy the food?" Harry asked, looking at the scores which said that Puddlemere had won by a hundred points out of five hundred and sixty.
"I doubt anyone who does professional Quidditch would think like that," Sirius shrugged. "There have been much longer games."
Thinking about that, Harry had to admit that since it was the Snitch which measured when a game would end then it would be quite hard for someone to control it that well. The Snitch here hadn't been quite as fast as the one at the World Cup, from memory, but it had been faster than the school ones so that was probably part of it.
"Maybe there should be a rule about how the game lasts to a maximum amount of time, unless the Snitch is caught early," Harry wondered. "Or maybe it should always be between half an hour and three hours, say, so they release a new Snitch after half an hour if the first one has already been caught or something."
"Careful," Sirius warned. "You'll get lynched. Quidditch fans can get quite irrational about their favourite sport."
Harry looked at his wings. "Lynching is hanging, isn't it? I'm not sure that would work on me."
"Told you they could get irrational," Sirius nodded.
One day when they were visiting, Harry asked Remus whether it was likely he'd come back to do Defence Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts again.
"Maybe," Remus said, after thinking about it. "But not for a few years at least, I'm still working at the Office for Werewolf Support Services as a consultant."
"As in, someone who knows what it's like to be a werewolf?" Harry asked, sort of amused by that, and Remus nodded.
He indicated the rest of the Lupin Pack Or Whatever They Were Calling Themselves (name not final), who were absorbed in a game of Quidditch with the models the Twins had made. "I sort of feel responsible, and… to me that kind of has to come first."
Harry assured him that that made complete sense.
"I was partly wondering who the new teacher was," he explained. "Umbridge was the only choice last year, so I sort of wondered who Dumbledore had got for this year."
"Well, it's not Nymphadora, I can tell you that," Remus said.
"Doesn't she prefer Dora or Tonks?" Harry asked.
"...forget I said that," Remus requested. "Dora, then. And it's not her-"
He stopped, almost tripping over his words. "Oh, I just remembered – did you hear about what happened with that textbook of yours?"
"No?" Harry replied. "Which one?"
"That awful Defence book you had last year," Remus clarified. "Not the Slinkhard one, the other one."
When Harry thought about it like that, there'd been a lot of awful Defence textbooks in the past few years – though you had to count the Lockhart ones to get a really big number.
He remembered to nod slowly, to indicate that he knew which book Remus meant, and the part-time werewolf went on. "It turns out Umbridge actually wrote it. That's why it took so long to find out who the publisher was, she just duplicated all the books herself so it didn't really have one."
"Wow," Harry said. "How did you find that out?"
"She still had to get one copy printed so she could duplicate it, and I found the printers," Remus told him. "I really should have thought of checking that sooner."
Harry shrugged. "At least you didn't have to use ink samples or something. That turns up in some Muggle detective stories, looking really closely at things for clues."
"Normally wizards use magic," Remus said, then frowned. "Actually, I wonder if because normally wizards use magic they'd be more or less vulnerable to the Muggle things like that?"
"It could be either," Harry agreed.
Eventually September the First rolled around, and Harry got up nice and early to make sure he had all his things.
Not to be outdone, Sirius also got up nice and early (for Sirius, which meant he got up around half past eight and spent the next twenty minutes sounding a bit bleary), then wished Harry an excellent train ride and decamped through the Floo to Dogwarts.
That left Harry to finish the last of his preparations himself, and he gathered up a collection of books to read on the train – including three books in a new series about people turning into animals, if he'd read the book blurbs correctly, though the covers showing people turning into animals was quite a good clue.
Not a flawless one, though. Harry had run into plenty of books where judging them by the cover wouldn't help.
In any case, Harry had his backpack ready, and his tent (in his backpack) which had the rest of his things in it. Then there was some money to buy snacks on the train, which had become sort of a ritual even though Harry could have asked Kreacher to make him a four-course meal for the train and Kreacher would probably give it a go.
His dragon T-shirt and wand completed the set, and Harry shrugged on his backpack before letting himself out the door and taking off for King's Cross.
Fortunately, unlike the rain from late August, it was the sort of day that Harry thought was – if not the most spectacular sort of day, at least the most comfortable sort of day. It wasn't too hot, there were patchy clouds without any sign of incipient rain, and the air felt quite dense and easy to fly through. That meant Harry had no worries about rain getting to his bag, and he flew quite high over London to take in a good look at the city before slowly gliding back down and alighting outside the King's Cross concourse.
Furling his wings took a moment, and Harry walked through to the gateway to Platform Nine and Three Quarters with his eyes open in case he saw someone he recognized. Or in case someone recognized him, though Harry didn't think it was too egotistical to say that he thought he was one of the more recognizable students at Hogwarts.
There was also a danger that maybe someone's younger brother or sister would point at him and say he was a dragon, and even with his T-shirt to take care of that possibility Harry was still a bit apprehensive. Fortunately he reached the gateway without any trouble, and walked through to find himself in the now-familiar magically hidden platform.
"That's a dragon!" someone gasped.
"Hello," Harry said, turning to smile at the boy who'd spoken. "First year?"
"Yes – yes, that's right," the boy replied, while his parents looked slightly perplexed. "How did you come through the station?"
"I walked," Harry said, then took pity on him. "To people without magic I look like a normal human. I'm not really sure why."
"Oh, I see," said the boy's mother. "I was wondering what James was talking about. You actually are a… dragon?"
Harry nodded. "That's right. Most of the students at Hogwarts are humans, but there's at least a couple of people who aren't in each House. You don't need to be worried about dragons being dangerous, though, I've only ever had one detention and it was really short."
"And you're a…" Mr. James's Father began, and leaned forwards a bit. "A Prefect?"
"That's right," Harry said again. "If James is worried about something he can just ask one of the Prefects, they'll either be able to help out or know who to ask."
"I'm going to a school with a dragon," James said, under his breath. "That's really cool."
Harry checked the clock, seeing there was still more than an hour until the train departed, and decided that he could easily spend the time to help explain things to James a bit more – at least until some of his friends arrived.
He wasn't busy, after all. And it seemed like a very Prefect-y thing to do.
It turned out that James had a Game Boy, which meant he was just about the first person who Harry knew of to try and take Muggle technology to Hogwarts.
Harry did his best to explain that some Muggle technology didn't work at Hogwarts, others did, and they weren't really sure what the rules were for which, but that it might be difficult to use the Game Boy much because nobody at Hogwarts really needed batteries and so the only way to get them was more-or-less for Harry to go and get them.
Harry also answered a few questions about the sort of things that were taught at Hogwarts, but then Dean arrived and he begged off to go and claim a compartment.
This time they didn't have anyone from a higher year with them, because Fred, George and Lee had all left, and as a result it was Harry and Dean who expanded the compartment. Harry had to admit that it was trickier than it had seemed, especially with how they hadn't done any magic in the last couple of months, but it seemed to work out and there was easily enough room for Harry to put his tent up.
Harry couldn't decide whether 'having nobody in a higher year as a friend' to the same level Fred and George had been was going to be the bigger change than actually doing NEWTs instead of OWLs, and that was before considering how he was now one of the "oldest friends" in a group.
It seemed like only a short while ago that he'd been stepping through into Platform Nine And Three Quarters with no idea what was going to happen, and now he was unquestionably one of the people who helped other people understand what was going to happen. It was a strange sort of transition, and one that went almost entirely unnoticed until you stopped and thought about it.
Harry had been doing a lot of stopping and thinking about things that summer. It might have been part of being a teenager, though probably not.
"I just had a really weird thought," Ron said, as he put his stuff down and sat down with a sigh. "In, what, four years, there's not going to be a Weasley at Hogwarts. Which is going to be the first time since, um, nineteen eighty two?"
"Unless Charlie has had a girlfriend for years he hasn't told us about," Ginny countered. "...does that one work out? Maybe it doesn't."
"What about Bill?" Harry said. "Bill's older."
Ron shrugged. "He met that Beauxbatons champion somewhere, it might have been for work. They've been going out for the last few months."
That was news to Harry, but he supposed it wasn't like he was owed some kind of update on how his friends' relatives were doing romantically.
"Speaking of which, when are you actually going to officially ask to be Hermione's boyfriend?" Dean asked.
Ron's ears went pink. "No comment."
"It's at least as likely that Hermione will ask Ron," Ginny said.
She frowned, clearly actually thinking about that. "Okay, we need some sort of scheme to make each of them think the other one took the initiative."
"You know I'm right here, right?" Ron asked. "Don't you have a boyfriend?"
"Either I've not developed enough yet or I'm smart enough to disguise it from my siblings," Ginny replied. "And you can decide which you think is right, and whichever one you pick – you're wrong."
Ron sighed. "See what I have to put up with? I can't even get away from her during Quidditch!"
The Prefect Meeting in the Coach For Prefects went more or less like it had last year, though it wasn't exactly the same. Partly that was because Cedric wasn't there as Head Boy – instead it was someone from Ravenclaw who Harry didn't know particularly well – and Katie Bell was the Head Girl, and she ended up being the one to give the summary of what they needed to know.
She was quite good at it, Harry thought, even though she hadn't been present during Cedric's one.
The other difference was that the television was no longer stuck on Ceefax. Harry had at first thought it wasn't working at all, but once all the important formalities were over Hannah went over and sat in front of it.
A few seconds with the remote, and she was watching Country File. So was everyone else.
"Is this what Muggle television is all like, then?" Draco asked, after several minutes.
"It's what Muggle television for people who like the countryside is like," Harry replied, trying to think of a way to summarize it. "There's other stuff if you like other things."
Draco shook his head, turning for the carriage door. "I don't think this is my sort of thing."
Harry thought it was nice he'd given it a try, at least.
"You know, there's something I never really thought of before," Hermione said, as they went back down the train towards their compartment.
Harry looked at her, interested, and Hermione waved at the countryside going past through the nearest window. "We could be going a lot faster than this if we wanted, because it's magic and because Muggle trains like the ones in France can go a lot faster than this."
"Because… right, because one of the things that stops trains going as fast as they possibly can is that they might run into other trains," Harry realized. "But the Hogwarts Express doesn't have that sort of problem."
"Well, that's one part of it," Hermione agreed. "It was just a funny idea, that this takes something like eight hours but it could be a bit less time."
"I think the journey is supposed to be part of it," Harry guessed.
He thought about what he'd heard about Smeltings. "At least it's not like the school my cousin goes to, where they hit things with sticks because it builds character."
Hermione huffed. "One of those sorts of schools. I've heard dreadful things about them."
She paused. "Though, admittedly, mostly in Molesworth, which… might not be accurate."
About halfway through the train journey, and after everyone had more or less finished the various snacks and treats (snacks and treats that Neville had got from the trolley, this time, saying it felt like he should one of these years), Harry was most of the way into the second of those Animorphs books.
He wasn't quite sure if his reasoning was right, but he thought that in the situation that they were in he might try going to someone like the President of the United States or the Prime Minister or someone like that. That was because the invading aliens were mostly hiding out in a town in what seemed like California (though that was a guess) and it felt like they wouldn't be doing that if they'd already taken over a world leader or something.
Or if they had to be worried about being found out, too. It was sort of like how you knew that Riddle and the Death Eaters had never managed to get the Imperius Curse onto the Minister for Magic, or Dumbledore, because either way then they'd have pretty much just taken over the country.
As he was wondering if he'd missed anything, or if maybe the idea was that the kids had missed something instead, there was a knock at the door.
Ginny glanced around at everyone, then raised her voice. "It's not locked!"
"Excellent," Blaise replied. "I assume Harry's in here?"
Harry waved from his perch on what would have been the luggage rack under normal conditions. It took a few seconds for Blaise to notice, but then he brightened. "Ah, there you are!"
The Slytherin boy produced a plate with half-a-dozen small cupcakes. "These were left over from a family dinner, and I thought you might be interested in having them."
"Oh, neat," Ron said, interested.
"I wouldn't, Weasley," Blaise warned.
Ron put his hand back by his side. "Why, what's wrong with them?"
"Well, firstly they're a bit stale, but secondly they've got quite a lot of wormwood in them," Blaise explained.
Neville blinked. "Isn't wormwood an ingredient in the draught of living death?"
"There's no asphodel or any of those other fiddly ingredients," Blaise assured him, as Harry leaned down and took one.
He sniffed it, then took a bite.
"That's a weird taste," he admitted, taking the other bite. "And it's a bit crunchy."
"Told you they were stale," Blaise nodded.
Harry took a second, and Blaise left the plate.
"Why did you have those with you, anyway?" Dean asked.
"Mostly to make sure the House-Elf didn't eat them," Blaise explained. "You can have some very weird dreams if you eat too much wormwood."
The sun slipped slowly towards the horizon, shaded by clouds, and all the things that normally happened on the Hogwarts Express happened. Things like getting changed into robes, then reminding people from lower years to get changed into their robes before they reached Hogwarts. (For their expanded compartment Harry offered the bedrooms in his tent, because it meant people didn't have to wait in the hallway.)
Someone in first-year tried out magic and made a mistake, which Harry heard about when one of their friends knocked on the door, but by the time he got there June had successfully sorted out the problem. Harry thought it was a credit to her generally warm manner that the first-year – a half-blood who'd never met a warg before – had let her fix his Transfigured ears without getting worried, and he was happy for his friend.
Harry finished his book and then moved on to the next one in the series, spending about five minutes wondering about how he'd feel if he got trapped into a shape he hadn't been born in (before remembering with some embarrassment that it had already happened),and a strident discussion developed about a four-player variant of chess that Ron, Ginny, Neville and Hermione were trying out.
Most of the arguing seemed to involve the pieces, who simply weren't standing for this kind of nonsense, and by the time they'd all reluctantly agreed to give it a go the train was slowing down and it was too late.
"What do Second-Years do, again?" Isaac asked.
"There are Thestral carriages," Harry told him. "Or you can fly, nobody seems to complain when we fly. Don't fly over the lake, though, you might get in the way of the dragon flypast."
The griffin clicked his understanding, and Harry put his things away – ready for them to be taken up to his room by the efficient Hogwarts House-Elves – before joining in the general exodus from the train.
Isaac, as it turned out, had to fly – or, at any rate, he couldn't ride in the Thestral carriages. They didn't like griffins very much, which might have been because griffins sometimes ate horses, but Harry wasn't at all sure that was it.
They didn't attack, at least, because Isaac couldn't see the Thestrals and it would have been terrible to be attacked by something invisible.
"Hermione?" Harry asked, after a minute or so. "Is Thestrals a proper noun that gets a capital letter, or is it like with winged horses or wargs and it's just a description?"
"I think it's a breed of winged horse, so it does get the capital letter," Hermione told him. "It's like how Arabian horses are referred to with the capital letter, but horses aren't."
Harry nodded, pleased to have that answered.
"You don't mind walking alongside, right, mate?" Neville checked. "Sorry, just occurred to me."
"It's fine," Harry explained.
He thought he still didn't weigh as much as Dudley, or possibly even Ron (who was really very tall now), but he had all those long fiddly bits like tails and wings and so took up quite a lot of space in a carriage. He might have fit with one or two of his friends, but not all of them, so it was simpler to just walk alongside instead.
There was a sudden whoosh from over the lake, and Harry nodded to himself.
It sounded like Nora and her charges – all of whom were quite close to fully-sized now themselves – had introduced themselves to the First-Years. Which was polite of them.
"You know, now that I'm looking back at it from several years of distance, the Sorting seems like it's kind of nerve-wracking," Hermione said, as they waited in their seats for the aforementioned Sorting.
Ron blinked. "Now it seems that way?"
"Well, yeah," Neville agreed, responding at basically the same time as Ron. "It means getting looked at by most of the school. All of the school unless you're short enough that the middle tables block the view of everyone on the outside."
Hermione frowned. "I'm sorry, I don't think I thought about it before!"
"It's okay, it's not a problem," Dean hastened to assure her. "It's just… one of those things."
"If I remember right," Harry said, thinking back about five years, "Hermione was excited enough that it just didn't come up for her."
He shrugged his wings a bit, careful not to unfurl them too far in case they bumped into someone. "Really, it's probably something to be impressed with."
Ginny sniggered. "It's a good thing you don't have to be brave to that standard to get into Gryffindor, or the house would have about a dozen people in."
"How long do we wait before the food turns up?" Melody asked, curious.
"...um… can I just check?" one of the other second-years said. "When you say food, you mean-"
"-black pudding, lollipops, and various other things that are served on plates," Melody completed with a sigh. "Not, and I want to make it very clear, first years."
"Fair enough," the second year said.
"It's after the Sorting," Harry told her. "Usually it's not that long a wait until the first-years come in, so it should start in a few minutes. Then the Sorting usually takes about… an hour, maybe?"
Harry had to admit that he'd never really timed it, but with about forty pupils being sorted and some of them taking several minutes it was probably a good thing many of the others only took a few seconds. Or it might have taken a lot more than an hour.
Melody rummaged in her robes and got out a wrapped red lollipop, and as she was unwrapping it the doors opened to admit the new First-Years.
Most of them were normal humans, or as normal as they could be when they were eleven to twelve years old and also wizards and witches, but Harry had started expecting to see at least a few non-humans this year and he wasn't disappointed. Near the front of the line was a manticore, one who looked fairly nervous about the whole thing and had his scorpion tail tucked out of the way under his wing, which was as out of the way as it could possibly get.
There was only one other non-human in the line up, but she seemed to draw a lot more attention (something which was sort of impressive, if you thought of it that way) – a young goblin, who looked like a young goblin girl to Harry, and who was looking around at the Great Hall with interest.
"Blimey," Ron said softly. "That's going to annoy a few people, what with how much of what we learn in history is about goblin rebellions."
Ginny shrugged. "The last one was ages ago, and it'd be stupid to rebel over not having a wand because one of them got to have a wand."
"Good point," Ron admitted. "So… does she count as Gryffindor for breaking stereotypes?"
"If that counted, we'd have Harry's whole club in this house," Dean said. "Except maybe Matthew and Isaac?"
Hermione waved her hand. "Ssh!"
Professor McGonagall got out the stool and the Sorting Hat, and the Sorting Hat cleared his brim with a cough before starting on his performance.
It was sort of an interesting one, this time, where it said that Gryffindor preferred students who were brave enough to face uncertainty, while Hufflepuff liked those who could accept anyone. Ravenclaw taught those who recognized the truth about a new situation, and Slytherin was all in favour of students with a healthy respect for the opportunities that change could bring.
Harry thought it was a nice, uplifting song, especially because it said that Slytherins were crafty and cunning without saying that that was wrong in any way. He liked it.
Then the first student's name was read out, and it was 'Alexander, Dominic', which as it turned out meant the manticore.
"That doesn't seem fair," Neville muttered. "He gets two first names."
Harry successfully swallowed his giggle, and Dominic carefully lowered the Hat onto his head before sitting on his haunches for about twenty seconds.
"HUFFLEPUFF!" the Hat announced, at great volume, and applause rippled out from the Hufflepuff table – echoed at the other three – as Dominic took the hat off again and carefully put him back down before making his way to his new table.
"It's been six years and all the students with lion bits have gone to other Houses," Colin Creevey said. "Someone should complain."
"To who?" his brother asked. "The hat?"
"No, just generally," Colin replied vaguely.
It felt like the nervous energy of the Sorting began to dissipate a bit, after the first few people had found their new homes. It was probably because of how all four Houses were applauding every Sorting – though not always as much for some as for others – and so it was kind of clear that everybody was being nice and accepting.
The goblin's name turned out to be Skara, and she was about half a dozen people from the end of the list. She also got Sorted quite quickly, into Ravenclaw, and while the applause was a bit more muted Tiobald made sure to lead the clapping and they got over the awkwardness.
After the next person, though, Professor McGonagall inspected her list closely. That went on for long enough that Professor Dumbledore stood up.
"Is there something the matter, Minerva?" he asked.
"Merely a coincidence, Headmaster," McGonagall admitted. "Tuckett, James!"
"Pardon?" someone asked on the Hufflepuff table, loud enough to be heard.
Harry could understand the confusion. He remembered someone called James Tuckett being sorted three years ago, into Hufflepuff, and as the boy he'd chatted to on Platform Nine And Three Quarters sat down and put the hat on his head Harry wondered how often that sort of name coincidence came up.
It couldn't be very often. Maybe he could do some Arithmancy to work it out.
"HUFFLEPUFF!" the Sorting Hat announced. "And sorry for the confusion."
There was the same applause as happened every time, but it was accompanied by a sudden gale of laughter as people worked out what had happened.
"At least they look different," Neville shrugged.
After the last few people had been sorted, Professor Dumbledore stood up.
"I should like to say a few words," he explained, and there was a faint rustling as people leaned forwards to see what the trick was going to be this time.
Dumbledore favoured them all with a smile. "I realize that doubtless everyone is really quite hungry, and eager to get on to the most important part of the day, but I would like to welcome everyone to Hogwarts and everyone who has been here before back to Hogwarts."
He sat down, and the feast appeared.
"...somehow I should have expected that," Hermione said. "If there's one thing about Dumbledore, it's that he'll always find a way to surprise you. Even if you expect him to."
While a lot of the Sorting Feast was quite similar to the things there were every year – chicken, sausages, several kinds of potatoes and roasted vegetables – there was usually something new, and this time that was that quite a lot of the dishes were made with a mix of spices that Harry had never tasted before.
"I think that's ras el hanout?" Dean said, giving one of them a taste himself. "We tried it at home once a few years ago, it's kind of interesting but my sisters didn't like it much."
He stirred it around. "I think it's pretty good. If you kind of mix it all up together with the couscous it works better than if you have just one or the other, though."
"Sorry, the what?" Ron asked.
"This stuff," Dean explained, picking some of it up. It looked sort of like if someone had taken the shape of dust and the texture of rice, and averaged the size of the two.
Harry was quite willing to admit that that was a terrible description.
"Basically mix the meat and sauce and stuff up with the couscous," Dean went on. "Actually, I might take some more, it feels wrong to say it but this is better than when my mum made it."
While Dean was doing that, Harry belatedly remembered to look up at the top table to see if he knew the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher.
It was actually quite hard to tell. The new teacher was quite short, and evidently wasn't sitting on as many books as Professor Flitwick would have, so most of what was visible behind the table was a large purple top hat that wobbled around enthusiastically as the person beneath it talked to Professor Kettleburn.
"Wait, this is the same taste," Neville said, then elaborated when Harry gave him a quizzical look. "That ras el hanout stuff, it's in this stuffing as well."
Harry tried some, and nodded. "I think you're right."
"So, we're agreed," Ron announced. "The House-Elves worked out how to use this new spice stuff, but not how to stop."
"Don't be silly," Ginny advised him, and took a bite of beef wellington.
Her expression changed. "Oh. Fair enough then."
By the end of the meal, Harry felt quite full.
He'd remembered to leave enough room for dessert, of course, and fortunately that was mostly free of the new spices except for one well-labelled type of chocolate tart. Harry had some of that, but he didn't think it was as good as the normal things like Viennetta or a nice simple Black Forest gateau.
Still, you had to experiment or you'd never discover new tastes you liked.
"And now!" Dumbledore said, getting their attention, and stood up again. "I believe we are now all fed and watered?"
He considered for a moment. "If anyone is still hungry or thirsty, please do let me know."
"I could do with a peppermint," Anna called.
Dumbledore nodded sagely, and a peppermint each appeared on all the tables.
"With that taken care of," he resumed, "I would like to make a few announcements. Firstly, despite the departure of Mr. Fred Weasley and Mr. George Weasley from these halls, I would like to assure everyone who might be tempted to follow in their footsteps that the things which used to be forbidden are still forbidden; despite the best efforts of Mr. Filch no school rules actually mentioned either Mr. Weasley by name."
"And a good thing too," Hermione opined, in the pause. "They'd never shut up about it."
"Secondly, I would like to reassure all of our new students that if you see a dragon around the place it is nothing to worry about," Dumbledore informed them all. "Unless of course the dragon is attempting to harm you for other reasons, in which case you should be as worried as you feel like being at that time. Rest assured however that all the dragons around Hogwarts know the meaning of the word 'stop'."
He brightened. "Oh! And, of course, I would like to introduce our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Dedalus Diggle, who brings to the subject a great deal of enthusiasm and a rather fetching purple top hat."
Professor Diggle stood on his chair and gave a bow, sweeping the top hat in question off his head as part of the gesture, then replaced it.
"It's wonderful to be here again," he said, brightly, and hopped back down off the chair to take his seat.
"Professor Diggle has agreed to a contract that will expire rather abruptly at some point in May, so he will regrettably not be around for the whole year," Dumbledore told them all. "He will however be around for most of it, and I am quite sure that he will be significantly better at the teaching job than the previous Defence Against the Dark Arts professor."
Harry had the rather unkind thought that, really, just about anyone could be significantly better at the job than Dolores Umbridge had been. Even if they hadn't known anything about the subject themselves, someone setting an appropriate book as the reading for the whole year without any actual teaching besides that would have done better than Umbridge.
Quite possibly you could have had a better teacher than Umbridge without actually having a teacher at all, just a pile of three hundred copies of the same book in an empty room. Harry wasn't sure of that, though.
He supposed that you'd still need someone to set end of year tests.
There were a few more and more minor announcements, mostly things that Harry had heard several times before, and he kept an ear out for anything that might be different or that was only relevant now.
Dumbledore made the announcement about typewriters being available if a student needed them, which was nice, and he offered the helpful advice that school maps could be sourced from the Smith twins in Slytherin if someone was having trouble finding their way around – adding that he could not continue explaining because, alas, that would technically count as advertising for the shop Marauders' Magical Miscellany.
Harry saw Professor McGonagall sigh extravagantly.
"And now," Dumbledore went on, pleasantly, "there are two more things I wish to say. The first is to say a few words, and those words are: 'Let's hear from the Hogwarts Choir!'"
That announcement led to about three seconds of silence, then June and the other choristers darted out of their seats and went loping or scurrying (or in Conal's case, trotting) up to the front of the hall.
Seamus waved his wand and conjured some bandstands, though there was also a bit of a bang and a cloud of smoke – which people laughed at, but in a sort of understanding way – and the music went on the bandstandsin a bit of a scramble, until after about a minute they were all in place and June started thumping her tail on the floor.
"One, two, three," she said, and then the choir started to sing.
Much to Harry's delight, they started by performing The Road Goes Ever On And On from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and then performed the 'over the sea to Skye' song.
"Wonderful," Dumbledore said, applauding more loudly than anyone else once the second song was done. "And now, my final word – Goodnight!"
"Is he always like that?" one of the First Years asked.
"Sometimes he's more like that, sometimes less," Ron advised him. "But without it he wouldn't be Dumbledore, so it's great."
"Gryffindor first years, this way," Harry added, unfolding a wing to act as a marker. "There's a way up the stairs which is a bit quicker than just taking the main stairs themselves, so we'll be going that way."
"How does that work?" someone asked. "I thought stairs were the quickest way of going upstairs, because… well, it's called up-stairs!"
"It's magic," Harry told her. "You get to skip one of the floors. Just watch out when I tell you, because there's a stair where if you step on it your foot kind of sinks in."
"Hogwarts is a big place, and it can be kind of easy to get lost," Harry explained, as they reached the fifth floor. "You get used to it eventually, but if you're not sure where to go then you can ask one of the older students – especially a Prefect – or one of the ghosts."
"Unless it's Peeves, the Poltergeist," Hermione added.
As if his name had summoned him, the mischievous spirit cackled in the distance. He came swooping around a corner, holding a pair of large pies – one in each hand – and floated back and forth a bit, considering the corridor.
"Little firsties!" Peeves announced. "Ooh, ten little firsties, and only two custard pies! Who do you think should get pied?"
Harry spotted Hermione quietly getting her wand out of her pocket.
"I think everyone's had enough to eat," he said, and raised his own wand. "Expecto Patronum."
Peeves cackled, even as there were some low gasps from the First-Years at the sight of Ruth. "Potter's gone potty! Those don't work on Peeveses!"
"If you don't mind, your lordship, I would appreciate your help with Peeves on the fifth floor," Harry told Ruth, and his Patronus shimmered for a moment before vanishing.
"Who's a lordship?" Peeves giggled. "I thought teachers were just sirs!"
"It's the polite way to speak to a baron," Harry told him.
The grin slid off Peeves' face, and he threw both pies at Harry before turning to fly off.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" Hermione said, very quickly, and caught one of the pies with magic. Harry opted instead to catch the other pie with a paw, dropping his wand to do so, and after a bit of consideration about how hungry he was just ate the whole thing.
Including the tin, because there wasn't really a reason not to eat the tin.
He was about to cast a second Patronus, to let the Bloody Baron know he wasn't needed, but by then the silent Slytherin ghost had arrived and Harry made sure to thank him for his quick response.
And introduce him to the Gryffindor First-Years, because it seemed only polite.
After all that, and after explaining about the common room and passwords and where the First-Year bedrooms were (and how they'd have the same bedrooms all seven years), and how they'd get their timetables in the morning and all the things which Prefects had to explain to First Years, Harry was done with his Prefect-ing about eleven in the evening.
It was a good thing that he'd never really lost the ability to get by on not much sleep, especially since he still had Empress to talk to before finally heading off to bed.
And he had to come to a decision about whether to start up the Dungeons and Dragons club again this year. Doing the Unusually Shaped club was an obvious one where it was so helpful to so many students that Harry wouldn't have wanted to end it, but Dungeons and Dragons was much more of the sort of thing where Harry would be okay getting by without it – and if he did do it again, he'd need to find a day of the week for it which didn't interfere with anyone doing Astronomy.
Still, at least all the scheduling practice was good for if he eventually got the chance to be a teacher. Or if he did what Blaise sometimes joked about, and ended up running the country by accident.
Harry assumed it was a joke.
AN:
There was a brief author cameo in the last chapter.
Sorry for the delay; this pair of chapters kind of got away from me.
Both Jameses are from the video games.