Chapter Five: The Train to Hogwarts
Harry stayed at the Leaky Cauldron with Ron, Hermione and Ginny for the last few weeks until school started. He knew Tonks and Lupin were constantly watching him, and were staying in the rooms next to them, but he had only seen them once. He realized that Tonks would be impossible to spot, as she could turn into anybody she wanted, so Harry wouldn't notice her if he was standing right in front of him.
Since the incident at the joke shop with Malfoy, Harry had actually gotten worried. He was delighted to know that Malfoy was nearly dirt poor, but he still had managed to get the Thunderbolt, and remembering what Ron said at Quality Quidditch Supplies, the broom seemed to be far more superior to Harry's Firebolt. He wasn't sure if he would be able to keep up with Malfoy in their Quidditch match.
"Don't worry about it." Ron had told him. "In our second year, Malfoy had a Nimbus Two-Thousand and One and you still beat him."
Harry knew that was true, Malfoy's broom had been better that year as well, but he didn't think it was that much better then Harry's old Two- Thousand. The Gryffindor and Slytherin Quidditch match was all ready turning out to be a good one.
Even with dark Quidditch thoughts clouding his mind, Harry managed to enjoy the rest of his holidays, and was very happy that he hadn't had one dream about Voldemort since the one outside of the Weasley's house. The four of them spent their time eating ice cream, talking about the upcoming year, and, although this wasn't quite as enjoyable, finishing their homework under Hermione's guidance.
The newspapers, however, were not quite as cheery. Voldemort was moving swiftly. He was gaining power and followers faster then he had in his previous rising. Killings were now happening weekly. The Ministry of Magic and the Order were working like mad, but they could never find him. Harry knew that Lupin and Tonks weren't the only people watching him. Ministry officials, possibly aurors, were disguised in Diagon Alley keeping a close eye on him. Harry assumed they thought he hadn't noticed.
Harry had enjoyed his vacation so much that it was one of those rare occasions that he wasn't really looking forward to getting on the train to go back to school. However, as Harry had learned in his fourth year, when you don't want to do something it approaches rapidly, and the last night of August was suddenly upon them. The Weasley family came to the Leaky Cauldron to tell the group what was going on.
"Ok, we'll be here at eight o'clock sharp." Mrs. Weasley was explaining.
"Mum, we know, be packed and ready to go tonight." Ginny said. "Don't worry. You'll get here, we'll eat, and we'll leave."
"Right, okay, sleep well, big day tomorrow." Mrs. Weasley said, and started to turn, but stopped and stared at the group, her eyes getting misty. "I can't believe how old everybody is." She said.
"Aw, mum." Ron said, looking down with wide eyes and pink ears.
"I'm sorry Ron, it's just." She pulled out a handkerchief and dabbed her eyes. "I remember your first year, and Harry not knowing how to get on the platform." She made a chuckling sound mixed with a hiccough.
"And now my youngest child is in her fifth year." She said looking at Ginny, who made an expression similar to Ron's.
It was, again, another awkward silence.
"All right, I'll leave now," Mrs. Weasley said, and with one last look at the four of them, her eyes glazed with tears, she turned and walked out the door.
"I hate when mum gets like that." Ginny murmured.
"She's right though." Hermione said. Ron looked up in disbelief.
"Well, I mean come on." She continued. "We're going into our sixth year. We've got two more years to be kids."
"Hermione, you sound like mom." Ron said.
Harry stopped listening. Hermione was exactly right. They were about to be adults, but then Harry couldn't remember ever being a kid. He had always had a burden on his shoulders. It was like Dumbledore had said at the end of last year; he had faced more then grown up wizards. He had hardly had a childhood. The first ten years he spent with the Dursley's, and that hardly counted, but then he learned he was a wizard, and was famous for something he couldn't remember. Having people worship you wasn't exactly Harry's idea of a good child hood. He suddenly liked himself less. He knew he would never live a normal life, but some how the impact of knowing he had lived without a childhood made him angry about it. It was another reason why he hated himself.
After a few minutes of talking about growing up, and Harry thinking about his past, the four split up to go to get packed and go to bed. Hermione and Ginny walked into their room and Harry and Ron walked into theirs. After a moment, there was a knock on the door. Ron opened it and Fred and George walked in.
"Last night of freedom." George said. "I remember almost crying on these nights."
"You got everything packed?" Fred asked.
"Almost." Ron replied. "What are you guys doing?"
"Well, we were just sitting in our room and I thought, 'I wonder what Ron is doing.'" Fred replied.
"Actually we've got news." George said.
"Oh, but I don't think we should tell them that." Fred said grinning.
"How long did you rehearse this?" Ron asked.
"For about thirty seconds," George replied. "Actually, it's about the new Defense Against the Dark Art's teacher."
"No, George, we should just let them find out tomorrow."
"Well, I guess you're right. So, see you!" They turned to leave.
"Wait a second. You can't just leave." Ron said.
"Yes we can," Fred said. "But I will tell you that you'll like this teacher."
"How do you know?" Harry asked.
"Harry, in all your years of knowing us haven't you figured out that we always know?" George replied, and smiling they left the room.
"Who do you think it could be?" Ron asked. There was a knocking at Hermione's room, and Harry knew Fred and George were going to tease them with this information as well.
"I don't know, but I bet it's somebody from the order. We don't really know anybody else." Harry replied.
"But they never said we knew them, just that they did." Ron said, but his eyes widened. "I bet it's Lupin!"
"I doubt it. That wouldn't make many people pleased."
"Yeah, I guess so. Wish we knew who it was though."
Harry and Ron continued packing, and Harry dug to the bottom of his trunk and pulled out his prefect badge and Sirius's mirror. He had forgotten about both of these, and was relieved he had found his badge tonight.
"Excellent, your badge!" Ron said, pinning his to his shirt. "But what's that?" He asked, looking at the mirror.
"Oh," Harry said. He didn't realize he hadn't told Ron or Hermione about the mirror. "It's a two way mirror."
"Fred and George had those. Who has the other end?"
Harry hesitated. "Well, it. It was Sirius's."
Ron's jaw dropped slightly. "Oh." He said. "Have you tried-."
"Yeah." Harry interrupted him. "After it happened."
"Did it work?"
"No. I threw it and it shattered in my trunk. Some how it fixed, and for some reason it seems to work now."
"Try it." Ron said eagerly.
Honestly, Harry did not want to try this in front of Ron, however he was also interested to see if it would fully work this time. He looked into it, took a breath, and said, "Sirius."
The mirror quivered and the reflection began to swirl. Ron looked over Harry's shoulder, his eyes wide. The mirror stopped swirling, and to Harry's surprise, he wasn't looking into his own reflection anymore. He was looking at what seemed to be a magnificent ceiling, and Harry was sure he had seen it before. There was talking, but most of it was not understandable.
"Say something!" Ron hissed in his ear.
"Uh, hello?" Harry said into the mirror. The chatter stopped. "Sirius?" He asked hopefully.
"The mirror." He heard somebody say.
"I'm sorry, Harry." Said another, and the image swirled again.
"NO!" Harry shouted. "Come back!" But he was now looking into his own face of desperation.
"Whoa." Ron said. "What happened?"
"I don't know," said Harry annoyed and angry. Somebody was there, he knew that now. That person knew his name and seemed to know what Harry was trying to do. Now Harry knew the mirror was useless. He was inclined to shatter it again, and raised his arm to throw it, but an impulse stopped him, and he just tossed it into his trunk.
Harry sat down on his bed and thought. Ron was silent, and Harry was grateful.
Harry didn't remember falling asleep, but he woke up the next morning in cold sweat. He had had the dream where he went through the veil to Sirius. The dream had stopped occurring recently, and Harry assumed after last nights events he was thinking about it again.
"Mirror, what time is it?" He asked groggily.
"It's 7:34 dear." It replied sleepily.
"Already?" Ron asked rubbing his eyes as he woke up.
The door opened.
"Aren't you guys up yet?" Hermione asked in a shocked voice.
"Sorry, Hermione," Ron said, "but some of us don't like getting up at six to go to school."
Hermione blushed slightly.
"Is Ginny up?" Harry asked.
"Yeah, she was up before me." Hermione replied.
"No I wasn't!" Ginny said indignantly as she walked in. "You woke me up!"
"I thought I heard you people talking." Said Remus Lupin as he walked through the door.
"Hey, Remus." Ron said.
"Hello everybody." He replied. "All ready?"
"Yeah, I think so." Harry replied.
"Shall we eat then?"
They filed out the door, Harry last in line. Remus grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back. Harry looked up at him. His eyes were sad, sadder then Harry had ever seen them.
"Harry, are you all right?" He asked.
"Yeah," He replied.
"Harry, I know how much trouble you're going through. If you need anything, if you need to talk, send me an owl. I'll be there the next day."
Harry wasn't sure what to say. He really wanted to say everything. Tell him all the burdens he had on his mind. He wanted, very badly, to complain for once in his life. But he knew, even though that this would be hard, he had to be stronger then he'd ever been before. If the safety of the world was on his shoulder, he couldn't break down.
"Thanks," he replied. Lupin nodded, the same sad look in his eyes. It made Harry uncomfortable, as if he knew something that Harry didn't. And, Harry realized, this was probably true, as Lupin worked for the order.
"Remus, what's going on?" Harry asked.
Lupin sighed, his eyes sadder.
"Voldemort is growing stronger, Harry." He said. "He's gaining supporters, wizards and creatures of all kinds. He is closer every day to getting what he's after. Darker times are ahead, Harry, darker then ever before."
"What is he after? And why does he need me?"
"I wish I could tell you, Harry, but it isn't safe. If you found out and he saw it in your mind one night while you were sleeping it would put more people than you in danger."
Harry was confused.
"You will find out eventually Harry. I believe that Dumbledore is planning to tell you after some time has passed. Until then, don't go looking for trouble. Stay sharp; keep an eye out on things. Write me if you need me."
He gave one more sad look at Harry and walked down the hall, leaving Harry in confused thought.
They ate breakfast in a hurry and ran back into their rooms to make sure they had absolutely everything, and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley arrived five minutes later.
"Everybody ready?" Mrs. Weasley asked in a hurried, nervous voice.
"Let's go mom, we're ready." Ginny said.
"How are we getting there?" Harry asked.
"Ministry cars." Mr. Weasley said casually, but Harry knew he was the reason for this precaution.
The cars appeared outside of the Leaky Cauldron and everybody piled in, Hermione and Ginny with huge smiles on their faces, Ron and Harry slightly less enthusiastic, and headed off for the train station where the train would depart from platform nine and three quarters.
As they arrived everybody jumped out of the car. Harry noticed the driver take a last look at his forehead before getting out.
"Alright, everybody, let's go." Mrs. Weasley said cheerfully. They made their way through King's Cross Station and came to the barrier separating platforms nine and ten. It seemed to be solid, but everyone their new better. Even as they arrived they watched a young girl walk right through it.
"Okay, Harry and Ron, you first." She said. Harry looked around to see if anybody was watching this odd group hanging around a brick wall.
"Clear?" Ron asked.
"Go." Harry said. They walked briskly through the barrier and stepped on to platform nine and three quarters. A huge scarlet red engine was set, bellowing smoke and ready to leave. People were chatting happily on the platform and saying their goodbyes. Harry couldn't help smiling. He was going home.
After a moment Hermione and Ginny came, and finally Mr. and Mrs. Weasley.
"Alright, does everybody have everything they need?" Mrs. Weasley asked. "Got your prefect badges?"
"Yes." The four of them said, and then there was a moment of shock. Everyone turned to Ginny, who was smiling and turning red.
"Wha-." Ron said.
"Ginny? You're a prefect?" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed with wide eyes.
"Wha-." Ron said again.
"Yeah, I am." She replied.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Mrs. Weasley said, surprised and happy. She embraced Ginny in a tight hug.
"Because I knew you'd do this." Ginny wheezed.
"Did you tell anyone?" Mrs. Weasley asked, letting go of Ginny.
"-No." Ginny said, obviously lying.
"Who'd you tell?"
Harry realized Mr. Weasley had been unusually quiet. His hand was covering his mouth and his shoulders were shaking. Mrs. Weasley turned to him with a slightly angry look in her eye.
"Why didn't you tell me, Arthur." She asked.
"Because I knew you'd do this." He replied, holding back his laughter. She glared at him. "I made her tell you here though. She wanted to write you a letter. But then I said-."
"I would have sent her a Howler!"
"Exactly." Mr. Weasley said laughing harder.
The train let out a long, low whistle.
"First call." Ron said. "Shall we board?"
"Oh, alright." Mrs. Weasley said, although Harry knew she wanted to keep them as long as possible.
"Be careful this year, everybody." She said, slightly teary.
"Aren't we always?" Ron asked. Everybody looked at him. "Okay, maybe not."
"Good bye, everybody. We'll be here when you get back." Mr. Weasley said.
"Bye, mum, bye dad." Ron said. Ginny kissed her mother on the cheek, and for the first time today looked a little sad.
As they walked to the train, Mr. Weasley called Harry back. He had a look astonishingly similar to the one Lupin had worn.
"Harry, be careful." He said. "You are, at any time, at any place, in great danger."
Harry wasn't sure what to say to this. They certainly weren't comforting words.
"Don't worry, Mr. Weasley, I'll be fine." Harry replied. Mr. Weasley nodded.
"Yes, of course." He said. "Have a great year, Harry." He turned and walked to Mrs. Weasley, who was gazing at Harry. He nodded her a goodbye, and got onto the train to join the others.
Out of instinct and habit, Harry turned right when he walked through the doorway, but was immediately pulled back by Hermione.
"We have to go to the prefect compartment." She explained.
"Oh, right." Harry said. He had completely forgotten.
They walked through a door to the right and sat down amongst a group of the prefects. The only people standing were the people Harry knew were Head Boy and Head Girl. Harry did not know either of them. Harry saw Ernie Macmillan and Hannah Abbot, the sixth year Hufflepuff prefects; Anthony Goldstein and Padma Patil, for Ravenclaw; and to his dismay, Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson. Ginny was sitting with a group of the fifth year prefects, none of whom Harry knew, and the seventh year prefects were sitting closest to the Head Boy and Girl.
"They must be insane, making Potter a prefect." Draco sneered, sending a look of hatred toward Harry. "And look, three Gryffindor prefects. I wonder if Dumbledore favors them."
"That's enough Draco." Said a very familiar girl's voice to Harry. He looked around to find where it came from, and realized it had come from the Head Girl. Harry, however, had not noticed who the Head Girl was.
"Cho?" He whispered to Ron and Hermione. They were both averting his eyes.
Cho Chang was a seventh year Ravenclaw, and just so happened to be Harry's girlfriend from last year, and the only girl he'd ever kissed.
"Was she a prefect?" He asked in a harsh whisper.
"No, not last year. But she was two years ago." Hermione replied. Harry had never known. He looked at Cho. She was looking at him. Harry forced a smile to say hello, and was very relieved that she smiled back.
"Okay, I think everybody's here." Said the Head Boy, looking around at everybody. "You all were put into a small group of model students. This group is chosen selectively, and it is a true honor to be picked as a roe-model to the school. You are expected to follow and enforce all the rules of Hogwarts, show respect to the professors, and be kind to your fellow students." He paused here and looked around at the prefects. "Okay, enough official stuff. You all know what's expected of you, and we expect you to do it. I'm the Head Boy this year, Jeremy Greene, and I'm a Gryffindor. This is Cho Chang, the Head Girl, a Ravenclaw. If any of you new prefects have any questions, don't hesitate to ask."
"All right," Cho said, her voice higher then usual, "We will usually meet every two weeks, unless something important comes up. At these meetings, we'll tell you any necessary information, such as password or schedule changes."
"We'll help get ready for all feasts with the exception of tonight's." Jeremy said. "And remember, prefects cannot dock of house points themselves, they must refer to a teacher or one of us and suggest that we do it, and then the decision is in our hands."
"Any questions so far?" Cho asked. Nobody raised their hand.
"Good," Jeremy said. "Envelopes, Cho."
Cho reached over to a seat and grabbed four envelopes.
"Ravenclaw." He said as he handed the envelope to Cho.
"Slytherin." Malfoy outstretched his hand and grabbed it.
"Hufflepuff." He handed it a seventh year girl that Harry didn't know.
"And Gryffindor." He said, keeping the envelope himself. "Meet with your house and open this up. It has your house's first password and the password to the prefect's bathroom and other random information that really doesn't matter."
The Gryffindors got together with Jeremy and opened the envelope.
"Alright," he told them, "The house password is oddyseus and the prefect bathroom's is dragon's hide."
"What about Quidditch captains, when do we find that out?" Ron asked eagerly.
"I'm getting there." Jeremy said. "I just have to find it in all this unneeded information." He had taken out the rest of the papers and was scanning it quickly.
"Okay it's Katie Bell, I'll tell her after the meetings done."
"Damn." Ron said. Harry and Ron looked at him. "What, I can dream." He said.
"All right." Jeremy said. "Now, for everybody who doesn't know each other, we're just going to sit and talk for a while."
Harry, to his surprise, enjoyed this. He talked to Jeremy and the seventh year Gryffindor prefect, Sarah Polk, for quite a while, and liked them both very much. Jeremy was funny and Sarah was very nice. For the next forty-five minutes he went around meeting everybody, except the Slytherins, and talking to them. He even had a conversation with Cho, and it went smoothly enough.
After everybody had met, Jeremy stood up and told them to go find seat and get dressed in their school robes. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny worked their way to the back of the train where they'd have their own compartment. Neville was the only person in one of them, so they sat down with him.
"Hey Neville," Said Ron cheerily.
"Hey Ron," Neville replied. It was then that Harry noticed the thing in the seat next to him.
"You still have that?" Harry asked, gesturing to the giant plant.
"Yup, it's growing fast, too."
Harry could see that. The mimbulus mimbletonia that Neville had gotten last year had changed quite a bit over the summer. It had the initial plant that Harry had seen on the train last year, but now long black and red leaves were growing from it. Shooting strait up from the center was a yellow stock with a big, fuzzy purple ball on top. It was the most bizarre plant Harry had seen. Ron stuck out his finger to touch the ball.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Harry said warningly, remember the stinksap that had gushed out of it last year.
"It doesn't use stinksap so much anymore, although it still produces it. It's defense mechanism is much more violent." Neville said.
"What is it?" Ginny asked, her eyes narrowing at the plant.
"Watch." Neville said. He had his wand in one hand and an outstretched index finger on the other. In a quick motion, he poked the ball and shot his arm back. His finger was, to Harry's horror, on fire. A purple blaze surrounded it.
"Don't worry, it doesn't burn," Neville said. "But creatures don't know how to put it out, and after a while it eats away at their skin."
"Pleasant." Said Ron.
Neville took his wand and put the small fire out.
It was now that Harry realized how tired he'd felt. His night had been restless, as he had had the dream of Sirius's death again, but didn't realize how much he had desired sleep until just now. But then Harry noticed everybody else's eyes were drooping as well.
"Oh no." Neville said in mid yawn. "It's released its sleeping spell." Everybody tried to give him an angry look, but the effect of the spell overpowered their anger.
"Don't worry," Neville continued, "we'll only be asleep for five minutes or so." He said, his head dropping. Harry sat down. The compartment was blurry. He had to close his eyes.
"My lord. Tonight. The first day of school, we could do it tonight." He heard somebody say. He turned around.
"Wormtail." He heard himself hiss in a cold voice, "Don't be stupid. With the entire Hogwarts staff surrounding everything, and no doubt extra precautions on the boy. No, no dear Peter. We'll stick to the plan. We have what we need. He is inside the school as we speak. He will hide in the shadows, waiting for the moment when his forearm will burn black, and then he will get them and bring them to me. When we have these we can get the weapons. And then nobody will be able to stop us."
Harry felt himself smiling.
"Yes, my lord." Wormtail stammered. "I am a fool."
"Don't worry, we have known this for some time." Voldemort said. "Now, I believe that it is time to start our plan to get poor Lucius out of jail. He is a rather strong warrior and will no doubt help our plan." Harry felt him take his index finger and push his left forearm. His scar began burning. "I need Nott." Voldemort said. Harry was in utter agony. The room began to swirl, he felt himself rolling on the floor. He opened his eyes. Four faces were looking at him with concern. He blinked. He realized his finger was still pushing his forearm and he removed it hastily.
"You alright, mate?" Ron asked helping him up.
"Yeah." Harry lied, wiping the blood from his reopened scar. He was still a little woozy.
"Did you. See him?" Hermione asked. Harry nodded.
"He's going to try to get Malfoy out of jail." He said.
"He'd better not." Ron said.
"You know he will." Harry replied glumly. "The dementors are in Voldemort's palm."
"They didn't keep Malfoy in Azkaban." Hermione said. "They don't trust the dementors. They took Voldemort's supporters out and kept them guarded closely. They have to give the dementors some prisoners, or they'd automatically leave Fudge, but they couldn't risk having Death Eaters in their care."
"It hasn't work too well, has it?" Neville asked. "Most of them have escaped, even the ones we caught last year."
Harry flushed. He still couldn't stand the fact that he'd almost killed all of the people in the room with him.
"We didn't catch them, Neville, we were as good as dead." Ron said.
"But we helped." Ginny said simply.
"Not much." Ron replied. Harry still hadn't said anything. He felt like apologizing to them for his error. But somehow his throat had gone dry and his lips had sealed shut.
The door opened and Malfoy walked in with Crabbe and Goyle at his heals.
"I don't believe it. Potter the prefect. My, my, my the school is going down hill, isn't it?" Malfoy sneered. "And I can't believe that they'd elect another Weasley to be a prefect. Of all the scum." He said, looking at Ginny.
"Can't tease us for being poor now, can you Malfoy? Must be a shame to know the Weasleys have more money then you do." Ron said. Malfoy's temple shifted as his jaw clenched.
"You wait. My father will be rewarded." He whispered. "We'll be richer then you could ever dream."
"Your father will be dead." Harry said standing up; giving Malfoy the most evil, cruel eye of hatred he could muster. Malfoy was slightly taken aback by this for a moment, but quickly recovered.
"How do you know this, Potter?"
"Because," Harry said, his voice cold and full of hate, and very much unlike his own, "I'll kill him."
Everybody was stunned at this statement, including Harry. Malfoy laughed.
"You'll kill him?" He asked. "It's a pity, Potter. You'd have made a good Slytherine." Now, Harry's jaw clenched.
"Get out." He said, although he'd wished he'd said something more.
"I'll stay, Potter, thanks." Malfoy smirked. Harry felt something at the pit of his stomach, and suddenly every emotion left him. Malfoy shot of the compartment as if somebody had hit him very hard in the stomach and kept going. The door slammed shut. Crabbe and Goyle gave frightened looks at Harry and went into the other compartment.
Harry turned to his friends. They, too, were giving him frightened faces.
"What'd you do?" Ron asked.
"I was angry." Harry replied simply, as if this settled it.
"No, how'd you knock him out of the compartment?" asked a concern Hermione.
"I don't know." He replied truthfully.
"Have you done this before?" Hermione asked.
As a matter of fact, Harry had done this many times before. Wandless magic had occurred long before he'd even known he was a wizard.
"Yeah, you know it has." Harry replied.
"No, we don't." Ron said. "You never told us."
"Yeah, I did. Third year, when I blew up my aunt."
"You didn't do that with a wand?!" Hermione asked shocked.
"What's the big deal?" Harry asked
"Wandless magic is not a common gift, Harry." Ginny said nervously.
"The only common wandless magic is Disapparation, but that's using external magic. Internal wandless magic is. completely different." Hermione stated.
Harry was stunned. Surely they were wrong, everybody can do this. He knew, however, he was lying to himself. The only other person he'd seen do it was Dumbledore. Was their anything more about him that he didn't know?
They sat in silence for a second.
"Harry." Hermione said cautiously. "When you were talking about Malfoy's dad."
Harry saw where this was going.
"Hermione, think of who the man is." Ron said.
"If he does anything to hurt anyone," Harry said, "I'd do it."
"But Harry. That isn't you." Hermione said, her jaw dropped.
"But Hermione." Harry said quietly, "It is." They looked into each other's eyes for a moment. Harry noticed how sad Hermione looked. "If I didn't have to do this, I wouldn't. But, I have to either do it or die. If not Malfoy, then Voldemort. If I don't kill him." He trailed off. Hermione nodded sadly.
"I'm sorry." She said standing up. She walked out of the compartment muttering something about being six-teen.
"Well that was cheery." Ron said.
"She thinks we're too young for this." Harry said. "And in some ways, she's right. But we've got to prepare for the inevitable some time." He sighed.
The group changed into their Hogwarts robes, and Harry and Ron pinned on their prefect badges. Hermione didn't show up for another ten minutes, and dressed quickly when she finally arrived. They sat for five mort minutes until the train hit the brakes and slowly came to a stop outside of the Hogsmeade station. Harry stood up and the group worked their way to the front of the train. They stepped out and approached the carriages that would take them to the school. They were each pulled by two very large, and unusually beautiful black horses. However, Harry was one of the few people who could see these threstrals. Everyone else believed they were horseless carriages. You could only see a threstral if you've seen death. Harry had seen it twice.
However as he looked up at the great castle that loomed over the town, and heard Hagrid call out for the first years, he couldn't help but feel happy as he stepped into the carriage with his friends and the Threstrals started beating their wings as they climbed the hill up to the castle.
Harry stayed at the Leaky Cauldron with Ron, Hermione and Ginny for the last few weeks until school started. He knew Tonks and Lupin were constantly watching him, and were staying in the rooms next to them, but he had only seen them once. He realized that Tonks would be impossible to spot, as she could turn into anybody she wanted, so Harry wouldn't notice her if he was standing right in front of him.
Since the incident at the joke shop with Malfoy, Harry had actually gotten worried. He was delighted to know that Malfoy was nearly dirt poor, but he still had managed to get the Thunderbolt, and remembering what Ron said at Quality Quidditch Supplies, the broom seemed to be far more superior to Harry's Firebolt. He wasn't sure if he would be able to keep up with Malfoy in their Quidditch match.
"Don't worry about it." Ron had told him. "In our second year, Malfoy had a Nimbus Two-Thousand and One and you still beat him."
Harry knew that was true, Malfoy's broom had been better that year as well, but he didn't think it was that much better then Harry's old Two- Thousand. The Gryffindor and Slytherin Quidditch match was all ready turning out to be a good one.
Even with dark Quidditch thoughts clouding his mind, Harry managed to enjoy the rest of his holidays, and was very happy that he hadn't had one dream about Voldemort since the one outside of the Weasley's house. The four of them spent their time eating ice cream, talking about the upcoming year, and, although this wasn't quite as enjoyable, finishing their homework under Hermione's guidance.
The newspapers, however, were not quite as cheery. Voldemort was moving swiftly. He was gaining power and followers faster then he had in his previous rising. Killings were now happening weekly. The Ministry of Magic and the Order were working like mad, but they could never find him. Harry knew that Lupin and Tonks weren't the only people watching him. Ministry officials, possibly aurors, were disguised in Diagon Alley keeping a close eye on him. Harry assumed they thought he hadn't noticed.
Harry had enjoyed his vacation so much that it was one of those rare occasions that he wasn't really looking forward to getting on the train to go back to school. However, as Harry had learned in his fourth year, when you don't want to do something it approaches rapidly, and the last night of August was suddenly upon them. The Weasley family came to the Leaky Cauldron to tell the group what was going on.
"Ok, we'll be here at eight o'clock sharp." Mrs. Weasley was explaining.
"Mum, we know, be packed and ready to go tonight." Ginny said. "Don't worry. You'll get here, we'll eat, and we'll leave."
"Right, okay, sleep well, big day tomorrow." Mrs. Weasley said, and started to turn, but stopped and stared at the group, her eyes getting misty. "I can't believe how old everybody is." She said.
"Aw, mum." Ron said, looking down with wide eyes and pink ears.
"I'm sorry Ron, it's just." She pulled out a handkerchief and dabbed her eyes. "I remember your first year, and Harry not knowing how to get on the platform." She made a chuckling sound mixed with a hiccough.
"And now my youngest child is in her fifth year." She said looking at Ginny, who made an expression similar to Ron's.
It was, again, another awkward silence.
"All right, I'll leave now," Mrs. Weasley said, and with one last look at the four of them, her eyes glazed with tears, she turned and walked out the door.
"I hate when mum gets like that." Ginny murmured.
"She's right though." Hermione said. Ron looked up in disbelief.
"Well, I mean come on." She continued. "We're going into our sixth year. We've got two more years to be kids."
"Hermione, you sound like mom." Ron said.
Harry stopped listening. Hermione was exactly right. They were about to be adults, but then Harry couldn't remember ever being a kid. He had always had a burden on his shoulders. It was like Dumbledore had said at the end of last year; he had faced more then grown up wizards. He had hardly had a childhood. The first ten years he spent with the Dursley's, and that hardly counted, but then he learned he was a wizard, and was famous for something he couldn't remember. Having people worship you wasn't exactly Harry's idea of a good child hood. He suddenly liked himself less. He knew he would never live a normal life, but some how the impact of knowing he had lived without a childhood made him angry about it. It was another reason why he hated himself.
After a few minutes of talking about growing up, and Harry thinking about his past, the four split up to go to get packed and go to bed. Hermione and Ginny walked into their room and Harry and Ron walked into theirs. After a moment, there was a knock on the door. Ron opened it and Fred and George walked in.
"Last night of freedom." George said. "I remember almost crying on these nights."
"You got everything packed?" Fred asked.
"Almost." Ron replied. "What are you guys doing?"
"Well, we were just sitting in our room and I thought, 'I wonder what Ron is doing.'" Fred replied.
"Actually we've got news." George said.
"Oh, but I don't think we should tell them that." Fred said grinning.
"How long did you rehearse this?" Ron asked.
"For about thirty seconds," George replied. "Actually, it's about the new Defense Against the Dark Art's teacher."
"No, George, we should just let them find out tomorrow."
"Well, I guess you're right. So, see you!" They turned to leave.
"Wait a second. You can't just leave." Ron said.
"Yes we can," Fred said. "But I will tell you that you'll like this teacher."
"How do you know?" Harry asked.
"Harry, in all your years of knowing us haven't you figured out that we always know?" George replied, and smiling they left the room.
"Who do you think it could be?" Ron asked. There was a knocking at Hermione's room, and Harry knew Fred and George were going to tease them with this information as well.
"I don't know, but I bet it's somebody from the order. We don't really know anybody else." Harry replied.
"But they never said we knew them, just that they did." Ron said, but his eyes widened. "I bet it's Lupin!"
"I doubt it. That wouldn't make many people pleased."
"Yeah, I guess so. Wish we knew who it was though."
Harry and Ron continued packing, and Harry dug to the bottom of his trunk and pulled out his prefect badge and Sirius's mirror. He had forgotten about both of these, and was relieved he had found his badge tonight.
"Excellent, your badge!" Ron said, pinning his to his shirt. "But what's that?" He asked, looking at the mirror.
"Oh," Harry said. He didn't realize he hadn't told Ron or Hermione about the mirror. "It's a two way mirror."
"Fred and George had those. Who has the other end?"
Harry hesitated. "Well, it. It was Sirius's."
Ron's jaw dropped slightly. "Oh." He said. "Have you tried-."
"Yeah." Harry interrupted him. "After it happened."
"Did it work?"
"No. I threw it and it shattered in my trunk. Some how it fixed, and for some reason it seems to work now."
"Try it." Ron said eagerly.
Honestly, Harry did not want to try this in front of Ron, however he was also interested to see if it would fully work this time. He looked into it, took a breath, and said, "Sirius."
The mirror quivered and the reflection began to swirl. Ron looked over Harry's shoulder, his eyes wide. The mirror stopped swirling, and to Harry's surprise, he wasn't looking into his own reflection anymore. He was looking at what seemed to be a magnificent ceiling, and Harry was sure he had seen it before. There was talking, but most of it was not understandable.
"Say something!" Ron hissed in his ear.
"Uh, hello?" Harry said into the mirror. The chatter stopped. "Sirius?" He asked hopefully.
"The mirror." He heard somebody say.
"I'm sorry, Harry." Said another, and the image swirled again.
"NO!" Harry shouted. "Come back!" But he was now looking into his own face of desperation.
"Whoa." Ron said. "What happened?"
"I don't know," said Harry annoyed and angry. Somebody was there, he knew that now. That person knew his name and seemed to know what Harry was trying to do. Now Harry knew the mirror was useless. He was inclined to shatter it again, and raised his arm to throw it, but an impulse stopped him, and he just tossed it into his trunk.
Harry sat down on his bed and thought. Ron was silent, and Harry was grateful.
Harry didn't remember falling asleep, but he woke up the next morning in cold sweat. He had had the dream where he went through the veil to Sirius. The dream had stopped occurring recently, and Harry assumed after last nights events he was thinking about it again.
"Mirror, what time is it?" He asked groggily.
"It's 7:34 dear." It replied sleepily.
"Already?" Ron asked rubbing his eyes as he woke up.
The door opened.
"Aren't you guys up yet?" Hermione asked in a shocked voice.
"Sorry, Hermione," Ron said, "but some of us don't like getting up at six to go to school."
Hermione blushed slightly.
"Is Ginny up?" Harry asked.
"Yeah, she was up before me." Hermione replied.
"No I wasn't!" Ginny said indignantly as she walked in. "You woke me up!"
"I thought I heard you people talking." Said Remus Lupin as he walked through the door.
"Hey, Remus." Ron said.
"Hello everybody." He replied. "All ready?"
"Yeah, I think so." Harry replied.
"Shall we eat then?"
They filed out the door, Harry last in line. Remus grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back. Harry looked up at him. His eyes were sad, sadder then Harry had ever seen them.
"Harry, are you all right?" He asked.
"Yeah," He replied.
"Harry, I know how much trouble you're going through. If you need anything, if you need to talk, send me an owl. I'll be there the next day."
Harry wasn't sure what to say. He really wanted to say everything. Tell him all the burdens he had on his mind. He wanted, very badly, to complain for once in his life. But he knew, even though that this would be hard, he had to be stronger then he'd ever been before. If the safety of the world was on his shoulder, he couldn't break down.
"Thanks," he replied. Lupin nodded, the same sad look in his eyes. It made Harry uncomfortable, as if he knew something that Harry didn't. And, Harry realized, this was probably true, as Lupin worked for the order.
"Remus, what's going on?" Harry asked.
Lupin sighed, his eyes sadder.
"Voldemort is growing stronger, Harry." He said. "He's gaining supporters, wizards and creatures of all kinds. He is closer every day to getting what he's after. Darker times are ahead, Harry, darker then ever before."
"What is he after? And why does he need me?"
"I wish I could tell you, Harry, but it isn't safe. If you found out and he saw it in your mind one night while you were sleeping it would put more people than you in danger."
Harry was confused.
"You will find out eventually Harry. I believe that Dumbledore is planning to tell you after some time has passed. Until then, don't go looking for trouble. Stay sharp; keep an eye out on things. Write me if you need me."
He gave one more sad look at Harry and walked down the hall, leaving Harry in confused thought.
They ate breakfast in a hurry and ran back into their rooms to make sure they had absolutely everything, and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley arrived five minutes later.
"Everybody ready?" Mrs. Weasley asked in a hurried, nervous voice.
"Let's go mom, we're ready." Ginny said.
"How are we getting there?" Harry asked.
"Ministry cars." Mr. Weasley said casually, but Harry knew he was the reason for this precaution.
The cars appeared outside of the Leaky Cauldron and everybody piled in, Hermione and Ginny with huge smiles on their faces, Ron and Harry slightly less enthusiastic, and headed off for the train station where the train would depart from platform nine and three quarters.
As they arrived everybody jumped out of the car. Harry noticed the driver take a last look at his forehead before getting out.
"Alright, everybody, let's go." Mrs. Weasley said cheerfully. They made their way through King's Cross Station and came to the barrier separating platforms nine and ten. It seemed to be solid, but everyone their new better. Even as they arrived they watched a young girl walk right through it.
"Okay, Harry and Ron, you first." She said. Harry looked around to see if anybody was watching this odd group hanging around a brick wall.
"Clear?" Ron asked.
"Go." Harry said. They walked briskly through the barrier and stepped on to platform nine and three quarters. A huge scarlet red engine was set, bellowing smoke and ready to leave. People were chatting happily on the platform and saying their goodbyes. Harry couldn't help smiling. He was going home.
After a moment Hermione and Ginny came, and finally Mr. and Mrs. Weasley.
"Alright, does everybody have everything they need?" Mrs. Weasley asked. "Got your prefect badges?"
"Yes." The four of them said, and then there was a moment of shock. Everyone turned to Ginny, who was smiling and turning red.
"Wha-." Ron said.
"Ginny? You're a prefect?" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed with wide eyes.
"Wha-." Ron said again.
"Yeah, I am." She replied.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Mrs. Weasley said, surprised and happy. She embraced Ginny in a tight hug.
"Because I knew you'd do this." Ginny wheezed.
"Did you tell anyone?" Mrs. Weasley asked, letting go of Ginny.
"-No." Ginny said, obviously lying.
"Who'd you tell?"
Harry realized Mr. Weasley had been unusually quiet. His hand was covering his mouth and his shoulders were shaking. Mrs. Weasley turned to him with a slightly angry look in her eye.
"Why didn't you tell me, Arthur." She asked.
"Because I knew you'd do this." He replied, holding back his laughter. She glared at him. "I made her tell you here though. She wanted to write you a letter. But then I said-."
"I would have sent her a Howler!"
"Exactly." Mr. Weasley said laughing harder.
The train let out a long, low whistle.
"First call." Ron said. "Shall we board?"
"Oh, alright." Mrs. Weasley said, although Harry knew she wanted to keep them as long as possible.
"Be careful this year, everybody." She said, slightly teary.
"Aren't we always?" Ron asked. Everybody looked at him. "Okay, maybe not."
"Good bye, everybody. We'll be here when you get back." Mr. Weasley said.
"Bye, mum, bye dad." Ron said. Ginny kissed her mother on the cheek, and for the first time today looked a little sad.
As they walked to the train, Mr. Weasley called Harry back. He had a look astonishingly similar to the one Lupin had worn.
"Harry, be careful." He said. "You are, at any time, at any place, in great danger."
Harry wasn't sure what to say to this. They certainly weren't comforting words.
"Don't worry, Mr. Weasley, I'll be fine." Harry replied. Mr. Weasley nodded.
"Yes, of course." He said. "Have a great year, Harry." He turned and walked to Mrs. Weasley, who was gazing at Harry. He nodded her a goodbye, and got onto the train to join the others.
Out of instinct and habit, Harry turned right when he walked through the doorway, but was immediately pulled back by Hermione.
"We have to go to the prefect compartment." She explained.
"Oh, right." Harry said. He had completely forgotten.
They walked through a door to the right and sat down amongst a group of the prefects. The only people standing were the people Harry knew were Head Boy and Head Girl. Harry did not know either of them. Harry saw Ernie Macmillan and Hannah Abbot, the sixth year Hufflepuff prefects; Anthony Goldstein and Padma Patil, for Ravenclaw; and to his dismay, Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson. Ginny was sitting with a group of the fifth year prefects, none of whom Harry knew, and the seventh year prefects were sitting closest to the Head Boy and Girl.
"They must be insane, making Potter a prefect." Draco sneered, sending a look of hatred toward Harry. "And look, three Gryffindor prefects. I wonder if Dumbledore favors them."
"That's enough Draco." Said a very familiar girl's voice to Harry. He looked around to find where it came from, and realized it had come from the Head Girl. Harry, however, had not noticed who the Head Girl was.
"Cho?" He whispered to Ron and Hermione. They were both averting his eyes.
Cho Chang was a seventh year Ravenclaw, and just so happened to be Harry's girlfriend from last year, and the only girl he'd ever kissed.
"Was she a prefect?" He asked in a harsh whisper.
"No, not last year. But she was two years ago." Hermione replied. Harry had never known. He looked at Cho. She was looking at him. Harry forced a smile to say hello, and was very relieved that she smiled back.
"Okay, I think everybody's here." Said the Head Boy, looking around at everybody. "You all were put into a small group of model students. This group is chosen selectively, and it is a true honor to be picked as a roe-model to the school. You are expected to follow and enforce all the rules of Hogwarts, show respect to the professors, and be kind to your fellow students." He paused here and looked around at the prefects. "Okay, enough official stuff. You all know what's expected of you, and we expect you to do it. I'm the Head Boy this year, Jeremy Greene, and I'm a Gryffindor. This is Cho Chang, the Head Girl, a Ravenclaw. If any of you new prefects have any questions, don't hesitate to ask."
"All right," Cho said, her voice higher then usual, "We will usually meet every two weeks, unless something important comes up. At these meetings, we'll tell you any necessary information, such as password or schedule changes."
"We'll help get ready for all feasts with the exception of tonight's." Jeremy said. "And remember, prefects cannot dock of house points themselves, they must refer to a teacher or one of us and suggest that we do it, and then the decision is in our hands."
"Any questions so far?" Cho asked. Nobody raised their hand.
"Good," Jeremy said. "Envelopes, Cho."
Cho reached over to a seat and grabbed four envelopes.
"Ravenclaw." He said as he handed the envelope to Cho.
"Slytherin." Malfoy outstretched his hand and grabbed it.
"Hufflepuff." He handed it a seventh year girl that Harry didn't know.
"And Gryffindor." He said, keeping the envelope himself. "Meet with your house and open this up. It has your house's first password and the password to the prefect's bathroom and other random information that really doesn't matter."
The Gryffindors got together with Jeremy and opened the envelope.
"Alright," he told them, "The house password is oddyseus and the prefect bathroom's is dragon's hide."
"What about Quidditch captains, when do we find that out?" Ron asked eagerly.
"I'm getting there." Jeremy said. "I just have to find it in all this unneeded information." He had taken out the rest of the papers and was scanning it quickly.
"Okay it's Katie Bell, I'll tell her after the meetings done."
"Damn." Ron said. Harry and Ron looked at him. "What, I can dream." He said.
"All right." Jeremy said. "Now, for everybody who doesn't know each other, we're just going to sit and talk for a while."
Harry, to his surprise, enjoyed this. He talked to Jeremy and the seventh year Gryffindor prefect, Sarah Polk, for quite a while, and liked them both very much. Jeremy was funny and Sarah was very nice. For the next forty-five minutes he went around meeting everybody, except the Slytherins, and talking to them. He even had a conversation with Cho, and it went smoothly enough.
After everybody had met, Jeremy stood up and told them to go find seat and get dressed in their school robes. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny worked their way to the back of the train where they'd have their own compartment. Neville was the only person in one of them, so they sat down with him.
"Hey Neville," Said Ron cheerily.
"Hey Ron," Neville replied. It was then that Harry noticed the thing in the seat next to him.
"You still have that?" Harry asked, gesturing to the giant plant.
"Yup, it's growing fast, too."
Harry could see that. The mimbulus mimbletonia that Neville had gotten last year had changed quite a bit over the summer. It had the initial plant that Harry had seen on the train last year, but now long black and red leaves were growing from it. Shooting strait up from the center was a yellow stock with a big, fuzzy purple ball on top. It was the most bizarre plant Harry had seen. Ron stuck out his finger to touch the ball.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Harry said warningly, remember the stinksap that had gushed out of it last year.
"It doesn't use stinksap so much anymore, although it still produces it. It's defense mechanism is much more violent." Neville said.
"What is it?" Ginny asked, her eyes narrowing at the plant.
"Watch." Neville said. He had his wand in one hand and an outstretched index finger on the other. In a quick motion, he poked the ball and shot his arm back. His finger was, to Harry's horror, on fire. A purple blaze surrounded it.
"Don't worry, it doesn't burn," Neville said. "But creatures don't know how to put it out, and after a while it eats away at their skin."
"Pleasant." Said Ron.
Neville took his wand and put the small fire out.
It was now that Harry realized how tired he'd felt. His night had been restless, as he had had the dream of Sirius's death again, but didn't realize how much he had desired sleep until just now. But then Harry noticed everybody else's eyes were drooping as well.
"Oh no." Neville said in mid yawn. "It's released its sleeping spell." Everybody tried to give him an angry look, but the effect of the spell overpowered their anger.
"Don't worry," Neville continued, "we'll only be asleep for five minutes or so." He said, his head dropping. Harry sat down. The compartment was blurry. He had to close his eyes.
"My lord. Tonight. The first day of school, we could do it tonight." He heard somebody say. He turned around.
"Wormtail." He heard himself hiss in a cold voice, "Don't be stupid. With the entire Hogwarts staff surrounding everything, and no doubt extra precautions on the boy. No, no dear Peter. We'll stick to the plan. We have what we need. He is inside the school as we speak. He will hide in the shadows, waiting for the moment when his forearm will burn black, and then he will get them and bring them to me. When we have these we can get the weapons. And then nobody will be able to stop us."
Harry felt himself smiling.
"Yes, my lord." Wormtail stammered. "I am a fool."
"Don't worry, we have known this for some time." Voldemort said. "Now, I believe that it is time to start our plan to get poor Lucius out of jail. He is a rather strong warrior and will no doubt help our plan." Harry felt him take his index finger and push his left forearm. His scar began burning. "I need Nott." Voldemort said. Harry was in utter agony. The room began to swirl, he felt himself rolling on the floor. He opened his eyes. Four faces were looking at him with concern. He blinked. He realized his finger was still pushing his forearm and he removed it hastily.
"You alright, mate?" Ron asked helping him up.
"Yeah." Harry lied, wiping the blood from his reopened scar. He was still a little woozy.
"Did you. See him?" Hermione asked. Harry nodded.
"He's going to try to get Malfoy out of jail." He said.
"He'd better not." Ron said.
"You know he will." Harry replied glumly. "The dementors are in Voldemort's palm."
"They didn't keep Malfoy in Azkaban." Hermione said. "They don't trust the dementors. They took Voldemort's supporters out and kept them guarded closely. They have to give the dementors some prisoners, or they'd automatically leave Fudge, but they couldn't risk having Death Eaters in their care."
"It hasn't work too well, has it?" Neville asked. "Most of them have escaped, even the ones we caught last year."
Harry flushed. He still couldn't stand the fact that he'd almost killed all of the people in the room with him.
"We didn't catch them, Neville, we were as good as dead." Ron said.
"But we helped." Ginny said simply.
"Not much." Ron replied. Harry still hadn't said anything. He felt like apologizing to them for his error. But somehow his throat had gone dry and his lips had sealed shut.
The door opened and Malfoy walked in with Crabbe and Goyle at his heals.
"I don't believe it. Potter the prefect. My, my, my the school is going down hill, isn't it?" Malfoy sneered. "And I can't believe that they'd elect another Weasley to be a prefect. Of all the scum." He said, looking at Ginny.
"Can't tease us for being poor now, can you Malfoy? Must be a shame to know the Weasleys have more money then you do." Ron said. Malfoy's temple shifted as his jaw clenched.
"You wait. My father will be rewarded." He whispered. "We'll be richer then you could ever dream."
"Your father will be dead." Harry said standing up; giving Malfoy the most evil, cruel eye of hatred he could muster. Malfoy was slightly taken aback by this for a moment, but quickly recovered.
"How do you know this, Potter?"
"Because," Harry said, his voice cold and full of hate, and very much unlike his own, "I'll kill him."
Everybody was stunned at this statement, including Harry. Malfoy laughed.
"You'll kill him?" He asked. "It's a pity, Potter. You'd have made a good Slytherine." Now, Harry's jaw clenched.
"Get out." He said, although he'd wished he'd said something more.
"I'll stay, Potter, thanks." Malfoy smirked. Harry felt something at the pit of his stomach, and suddenly every emotion left him. Malfoy shot of the compartment as if somebody had hit him very hard in the stomach and kept going. The door slammed shut. Crabbe and Goyle gave frightened looks at Harry and went into the other compartment.
Harry turned to his friends. They, too, were giving him frightened faces.
"What'd you do?" Ron asked.
"I was angry." Harry replied simply, as if this settled it.
"No, how'd you knock him out of the compartment?" asked a concern Hermione.
"I don't know." He replied truthfully.
"Have you done this before?" Hermione asked.
As a matter of fact, Harry had done this many times before. Wandless magic had occurred long before he'd even known he was a wizard.
"Yeah, you know it has." Harry replied.
"No, we don't." Ron said. "You never told us."
"Yeah, I did. Third year, when I blew up my aunt."
"You didn't do that with a wand?!" Hermione asked shocked.
"What's the big deal?" Harry asked
"Wandless magic is not a common gift, Harry." Ginny said nervously.
"The only common wandless magic is Disapparation, but that's using external magic. Internal wandless magic is. completely different." Hermione stated.
Harry was stunned. Surely they were wrong, everybody can do this. He knew, however, he was lying to himself. The only other person he'd seen do it was Dumbledore. Was their anything more about him that he didn't know?
They sat in silence for a second.
"Harry." Hermione said cautiously. "When you were talking about Malfoy's dad."
Harry saw where this was going.
"Hermione, think of who the man is." Ron said.
"If he does anything to hurt anyone," Harry said, "I'd do it."
"But Harry. That isn't you." Hermione said, her jaw dropped.
"But Hermione." Harry said quietly, "It is." They looked into each other's eyes for a moment. Harry noticed how sad Hermione looked. "If I didn't have to do this, I wouldn't. But, I have to either do it or die. If not Malfoy, then Voldemort. If I don't kill him." He trailed off. Hermione nodded sadly.
"I'm sorry." She said standing up. She walked out of the compartment muttering something about being six-teen.
"Well that was cheery." Ron said.
"She thinks we're too young for this." Harry said. "And in some ways, she's right. But we've got to prepare for the inevitable some time." He sighed.
The group changed into their Hogwarts robes, and Harry and Ron pinned on their prefect badges. Hermione didn't show up for another ten minutes, and dressed quickly when she finally arrived. They sat for five mort minutes until the train hit the brakes and slowly came to a stop outside of the Hogsmeade station. Harry stood up and the group worked their way to the front of the train. They stepped out and approached the carriages that would take them to the school. They were each pulled by two very large, and unusually beautiful black horses. However, Harry was one of the few people who could see these threstrals. Everyone else believed they were horseless carriages. You could only see a threstral if you've seen death. Harry had seen it twice.
However as he looked up at the great castle that loomed over the town, and heard Hagrid call out for the first years, he couldn't help but feel happy as he stepped into the carriage with his friends and the Threstrals started beating their wings as they climbed the hill up to the castle.