Chapter two
Once again to Hogwarts
/
Harry was leaning pensively against the foggy window of the riding train, watching the slowly falling raindrops. He felt really calm after a long time. Finally, he was heading back to his most favourite place – to Hogwarts.
Spending so much time in the house, where he used to meet and talk with Sirius was almost unbearable for him. Even though the second month of his summer holiday was a way better than the first one had been – thanks to his friends.
Ron arrived first, shortly followed by Hermione, who had returned from her holiday in France, and they brought him both funny and useful birthday presents. There was no big celebration. He did not want to pay much attention to his sixteenth year of birth and they respected that. And he was damn grateful just for their presence.
Both Hermione and Ron could tell Harry had changed since the end of their last school year. He was more closed up then before, taciturn and learnt to control his former explosiveness surprisingly well. But they didn't talk about it; they just tried their best to keep him good company and even begged Remus for a journey to Diagon Alley and succeeded. Naturally, it could happen only under the 'inconspicuous' supervision of several members of the Order.
Now, the locomotive of their express train roared forward. Looking at the bleak wet landscape, Harry was glad he wasn't outside and listened to the conversation his friends were having. It was enough for him to hear their voices.
"Harry, you know what I still don't understand?" Ron suddenly addressed him. "How could you have all your assignments and essays done by the end of July? You'll be like Hermione in no time."
Harry smiled wryly, "If you were as bored as I was, you might understand."
"Perhaps," Ron agreed, still shaking his head in disbelief.
A little later, Ginny slipped into their compartment, followed by Luna. The three girls began chatting merrily about their summer experiences, even successfully discouraging Harry from silently staring out the window.
As expected, there came a moment when Harry's eyes caught a figure standing behind the glass door of their coupe. It was no other than Draco Malfoy, watching them with a cynical smirk on his thin lips. Their eyes met with a hateful clash and neither of them wanted to be the first to avert them.
However, instead of Malfoy opening the door and pestering them as usual with his wannabe witty remarks, as Harry had expected, he haughtily turned on his heel and disappeared from their sight. Everyone looked at each other in amazement, except for Luna, who seemed not to have noticed anything unusual.
"Well, did you see that?" exclaimed Ron. "He must have had a heat stroke during the holidays!"
Harry just shrugged. He was rather glad for not having to deal with Malfoy.
Only Hermione was still looking thoughtfully at the door, "Did you notice how he looked?"
"What do you mean?" asked Ron. "He seemed just the same to me."
"But that unkempt hair and there were circles under his eyes… He seemed to be bothered by something."
"I was more interested in something else," Ron reacted mockingly. "That he didn't have his gorillas behind his ass."
But in the end, neither of them actually minded Malfoy's strange behaviour.
/
When they finally got to the Hogsmeade station, the Hogwarts students tried to get into the carriages as quickly as possible to escape to the safety of the castle. After the heavy downpour, during which they were fortunately sitting in the warmth of the train, a bright moon rose in the sky, but a strong wind arose, which ruffled their robes and hair into unreal shapes. The first fallen leaves were flying through the air and sound of large waves forming on the surface of the lake could be heard as far as the station was.
Harry, Hermione and Ron piled into the carriage among the last, along with panting Neville. The door slammed shut behind them and the carriage sped off. From time to time, the gusts of wind were so strong that the glass in the frames rattled under the blows.
After a not very pleasant but short journey, the carriages pulled by thestrals arrived at the main gate. Hermione got out first and hurried away. Harry went right after her, but while he was still standing on the narrow steps, he was shoved from behind roughly.
He didn't know what happened behind him, if Ron and Neville were arguing over who would go out first, or if it was their gleeful intention and he didn't even ask later. However, that single push started a series of events that probably wouldn't have happened otherwise...
Harry lost his balance and found himself flying face first into the rain-soaked ground. Unfortunately, on the way he managed to knock down someone who was passing by their carriage. Reflexively, he held his hands out in front of him so he didn't land so hard on the person who happened to lie directly below him at that moment, but his glasses still fell to the very tip of his nose.
With a flood of brown hair swept to one side by the wind, a muddied face turned to him and serious eyes looked directly at Harry.
"Could you get off me?" said a soft voice.
Harry only then realized what he had actually caused. He quickly scrambled to his feet, stuttering apologies.
"Sorry, I really didn´t… It's just… Someone pushed me," he directed the last sentence angrily behind his back, where Neville and Ron were giggling mischievously, apparently not bothered by the wind anymore.
Harry turned back to the girl, who had just raised herself up on her elbows and quickly reached out his hand toward her. With a slightly surprised smile, she slid her palm into his and stood up.
"I'm so sorry again," Harry repeated, really glad that he didn't even stutter this time.
"Nothing so bad happened," she said amicably, slipping out of his grip.
As she walked closely around him, he felt the light caress of her long hair on his face. Somewhat stunned, he turned and watched as she lightly ran up the stairs to the main entrance.
Still chuckling, Ron punched him over the shoulder.
"You should see what you look like now!" he declared apparently amused.
Harry gave him a grumpy look and took the same route as the girl before him. In the dark he didn't even notice which House she was from and wondered if he had ever seen her before at Hogwarts...
/
In the warm Great Hall, Harry received a clear answer to why the brunette hadn't existed for him until that moment.
He was discreetly looking around the surrounding tables while the little freshmen were sorted out and naturally had to get to the Slytherin table as well. And there he found that unknown girl. Leaning her elbow on the table, she was looking toward the professors´ table absently.
Disappointed, Harry put his chin in his hands and dejectedly concluded that he could forget about her right away. He doubted that the relations between Gryffindor and Slytherin were about to improve that year.
Then he noticed Draco Malfoy's piercing gaze next to the brunette. It could not be overlooked that the other girls sitting nearby were constantly giggling, trying to attract his attention. Harry sneered, and rather focused on sorting out to school Houses instead.
However, he suddenly realized something and half-turned back to Malfoy. Just as in the train, neither Crabbe nor Goyle were around him – they were sitting a few seats away, impatiently checking their empty plates. Malfoy's haughty expression didn't change at all from what it was used to be, but this new state of things still put a bug in Harry's mind.
