1 Part 1: Back On The Hogwarts Express

Harry struggled with Hedwig's cage as he boarded the Hogwarts express. He made his way down the isle of the train amongst excited older students and the nervous first years. "Seems like only I few months ago I was a first year." Harry thought to himself but a very familiar sound shook Harry from his reminiscing. It was the sound of infectious laughter mixed with some higher pitched giggles. "Ron and Hermione!" Harry headed toward the sound then opened the door of the stall. His ears had not deceived him. There sitting opposite one another in the stall were Ron and Hermione. They looked somewhat older than Harry remembered them being but a lot could change over the holidays and he supposed that they probably thought he looked different too. He sat down beside Ron and was instantly bombarded with questions.

"Sowhatcouldn'tyoutellus?" Ron asked so quickly the words blurred together.

"Was it something to do with..you know...Sirius?" Hermione whispered with an excited look on her face.

"Yeah it was." Harry said as he gestured with his hands for them to come in closer so they could talk more confidentially. Ron and Hermione leaned in closer expectantly. "Well over the holidays.."

Suddenly Harry was interrupted by Neville flinging the stall door open. "Harry, Ron, Hermione!" Neville said in an excited voice with a huge smile beaming on his face.

"I'm happy to be back too Neville but don't you think you're taking it a bit far?" Ron said to Neville obviously frustrated by his intrusion.

"Have you guys seen Draco Malfoy?" Neville asked ignoring Ron's remark.

"No...why?" Hermione replied speaking for the three of them.

"You have to see it for yourselves I don't want to ruin the surprise!" Neville answered as he shut the door and headed to the next stall to spread the apparently hilarious news.

"Anyway where were we.... Oh yes." Harry said as the others leaned in closer. "Well Hagrid was away for the summer, you know spending time with Madame Maxime to rally the giants for support against Volde- you know who." He whispered.

"Yeah but what does that have to do with you and Sirius?" Hermione asked patiently.

"Because the school grounds can't be left empty especially these days with the rising support for you know who, Dumbledore asked Sirius if he would like to stay in Hagrid's hut and keep things in order." Harry explained.

"So you stayed with Sirius?" Ron asked

"Yeah for most of the holidays, until last week when Hagrid came home I had to go back to the Dursleys, that's why I was on the train"

"It would have been nice for you to spend so much time with Sirius! I'll bet he had some great stories to tell you about your Mum and Dad." Hermione said.

"Yeah I feel like I know them a bit better..." Harry said in a bittersweet voice then looked down at his hands.

Sensing the awkwardness Ron tried to take Harry's mind of his parents. "Still it was a shame you couldn't come and stay with us for awhile." Ron stated in a cheery voice.

Harry leaned back into the chair "So what did you two get up to?" He asked with a smile.

"Well I did as much work from the new textbooks as I could, but there are some things you just need to be taught...oh and I stayed at Ron's for a few days." Hermione told Harry.

"What about you Ron?" Harry asked turning to face him.

"Mum and Dad went off to visit Charlie and Ginny went with them, Bill and Percy had to work most of the time they only had a few days off so I didn't see much of them." Ron explained.

"So you were home alone with Fred and George?!" Harry asked astonished.

"Yeah it was brilliant! We just did whatever we wanted, Mum figured they were old enough to look after me, it was a bit of a responsibility test."

"Let me guess they failed miserably?" Harry asked with a smile.

"Yeah the place was a complete mess! But somehow we managed to clean it up just before Mum and Dad got home. Mum was so proud she nearly started crying!" Ron said with a huge grin.

"So Hermione, you were allowed to stay at Ron' even though his parents were away?" Harry asked in a confused voice.

"I sort of didn't tell Mum and Dad that little detail...."Hermione said turning red.

Harry was shocked, Hermione certainly had changed a lot over the holidays, it wasn't like her to do something like that at all! After a brief silence they continued talking and telling each other stories from their holidays and before they knew it they had arrived at Hogwarts.