A.N. Once again, I've been overloaded with studying, and I haven't been able to get this chapter out until, well, today. I'll try and hurry with the next one! Thank you to everyone who reviewed!!!!!
Mal
Harry slammed down the lid of his trunk and locked it securely. Remus had sent it over, for it had been magically enchanted to not burn, and therefore survived the fire that the Death Eaters had caused. He reached into his pocket to make sure that his wand was still there. Hedwig, who had been sitting on the windowsill patiently, flew over and into her cage when Harry motioned for her to get in. He locked her in her cage, just as Ron came in holding a load of his robes.
"Mom's going bonkers," He sighed, putting the robes in his own trunk. "Ginny's freaking out because she can't find her wand, Dad's rushing around not helping at all…"
"Whenever I've been here it's always been rather hectic on this day," Harry replied.
"Yeah, good point."
There was a knock at the door and Fred rushed in.
"Oh! Look! They're packing!" Fred exclaimed, putting on a high, squeaky voice. Then George came in, and exclaimed, "Ooh yay!"
"Shut up," Ron growled, putting a robe over Pig's cage, for he had started squeaking when the twins had arrived. "And I suppose you're done?"
"Yep! We have all the necessities!"
"Dung Bombs, Canary Cremes, Trick wands, Ton-Tongue Toffees…" Fred trailed off, counting on his fingers.
"Er… Clothes?"
"Hey, what's this?" George asked, picking something up off of the bed. "Er… Harry, did you forget this?" He held up a picture. It was the one of Harry's parents at their wedding.
"Oh! I must've forgotten to put it in the trunk. Thanks George," Harry took it from him and re-opened up his trunk. He could tell that the other three people in the room were staring at him, but he decided to ignore it.
"You know, Harry, you can always come and talk to us if you need to. We can help," George said, frowning slightly.
"And if we can't help, we'll make you laugh," Fred said, raising his eyebrows.
"I know," Harry said casually. "Don't worry-"
"FRED! GEORGE! WHERE ARE YOU!" Bellowed Mrs. Weasley from downstairs.
"Hmmm… I think Mom's found that exploding Gnome Trap," Fred said thoughtfully. "Let's go see how it's going." Then Fred and George departed from the room.
"Gits," Ron muttered. "Come on Harry, let's go see how Hermione's doing."
Harry nodded, glad for the distraction, and followed Ron out of the room.
~*~
Severus Snape was running down the lawns of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Why did a meeting have to be called now? Just hours before the students would be arriving. Snape dashed out through the gates of Hogwarts, and continued running until he was a good 30 feet away from them. He stopped, clutching his chest from running so hard, then he disappeared into thin air.
"You're late Severus," hissed a soft voice in Snape's ear, when he appeared at the place he wanted to. Severus jumped and looked around.
"I-I'm sorry my Lord," Snape whispered, bowing down before the Dark Lord, who had been staring at him with disdain. "Dumbledore delayed me, and then I had to run out of Hogwarts because you cannot Dissapparate-"
"Enough of your excuses," Voldemort snapped, grabbing Snape by the hair and flinging him to the ground. Snape whimpered, wondering what Voldemort was going to do next. "Get in line."
Snape sighed and scrambled to his feet and back to his spot between Lucius Malfoy and Goyle.
"Smart one, Snape," Malfoy drawled softly. "Tick him off even more. He's already put the Cruciatus Curse on Avery because he sneezed."
"Silence!" Voldemort barked, looking at the two of them, his red eyes flashing, and an angry look on his face.
The three of them shut up and stared intently at Voldemort, who was circling around the inside of the circle.
"I have called you here today because-"
COUGH!
Voldemort's eyes narrowed and he spun around, glaring at the spot that the intrusive sound had come from.
"Who. Coughed?" Voldemort spat. The Death Eaters backed away, except one.
"Avery… twice during this meeting you have interrupted me…"
"I'm sorry my lord!" The man squeaked. "I'm sorry! It's my allergies! Just don't- AHH!"
Before Avery could even spit out the whole sentence, Voldemort placed the Cruciatus Curse on him. Avery lay squirming and twitching on the ground, screaming loudly. Snape winced and looked away.
"Allergies. Next time think of something better," Voldemort said quietly.
"Y-Yes my Lord," Avery said, getting back to his feet and in the circle.
"Now, Death Eaters, I have called you here to tell you about a new plan that I have." Voldemort's rotten mood seemed to change, as he laughed lightly. The hairs on the back of Snap's neck raised.
"The new plan will be put into action immediately…"
~*~
"Okay! Everyone let's go! THE CARS ARE HERE!" Ron and Harry were walking down the stairs, holding Ron's trunk, when Mrs. Weasley had called to them.
"Here boys, let me help you with that," Mrs. Weasley said, magically picking up the trunk and transporting out the door and into the car.
"Are you sure you have everything?" Mrs. Weasley asked anxiously.
They nodded.
"GINNY! HERMIONE! TIME TO GO! You two can get in the car." Ron and Harry watched from the car as Fred and George practically threw their trunks across the yard.
"FRED! GEORGE!"
Ron sniggered as Mrs. Weasley came storming out of the house, shaking her finger at them.
"I don't know if Mum will be happy or sad when they graduate. They'll be finished with school, but they'll be home with Mum more often."
Harry laughed lightly and stared out the window.
"Harry?" Ron said.
"Yes?"
"Do you know where you're going to stay after this year?"
"'Spect I'll go back to the Dursleys," Harry lied, knowing that he would get to live with Sirius most likely.
"You know, maybe this summer we'd be able to arrange for you to come straight to our house," Ron said hopefully. Harry smiled, but before he could reply the door to the car opened and Hermione and Ginny jumped in.
"Harry, are you okay?" Hermione asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine Herm," he replied, staring back out the window.
"Harry, remember, you can talk to any one of us if you need to," Hermione said.
"I know," Harry replied. He was getting a little tired of people telling him that. He already knew that they could. After Sirius had "died" everyone told him that. Even more after Sirius had kidnapped him…
"Okay, is everyone ready?" Mrs. Weasley asked as she, Fred, and George, got in the car.
"Where's Dad?" Ginny asked.
"Your father was called to the Ministry urgently," Mrs. Weasley sighed. She shot a glance at Harry before saying, "Something about Death Eaters. That's why we're not driving in his car."
"And because of the fact that the second you start dad's car it could explode," Fred muttered.
The chauffeur started the car and they pulled out of the driveway.
~*~
"FRED! Where are you! Oh, there you are. No, you're George- FRED!"
"I'm right here, Mum."
"Oh. Good."
"Mum, where's Ginny?"
"GINNY!"
"I'm right beside you!"
"Oh…"
There was even more confusion when they reached the crowded train station.
"Where's the Platform?"
"I don't know! What number are we at?"
"Er… 12. No… 13. NO! 12-"
"We're at number 8 you moron!"
"Don't call me a moron!"
"Okay, both of you stop it!"
"HE STARTED IT!"
"Look, there's platform 9 and 10!" Ginny exclaimed.
All of them were extremely relieved to see the platform. They got into groups of two and ran through the barrier. Harry and Hermione were together. They talked nonchalantly while leaning through the barrier. They appeared on a crowded platform. Students were dashing around everywhere, finding their friends and putting their luggage on the train. Several other students stopped and stared as Harry and Hermione walked by. They whispered behind their hands. Ron appeared behind them with Ginny.
"C'mon," Ron muttered. "Let's go find a compartment and get away from all these people."
Harry agreed and they went walking up and down the isles, looking for a free compartment.
"Ron! Hermione!" exclaimed two familiar voices. It was Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan. They were sitting in a compartment with Neville Longbottom, who was stumbling about obviously looking for something.
"Come sit with us," Dean said.
"Can all six of us fit?" Hermione asked, looking around the compartment.
"Six?"
"Yes, Harry's with us."
"Oh. Well bring him in too then."
Harry could tell by the sound of Dean's voice that the next conversation they were going to have would be an awkward one.
"Harry! Come here!" Ron called. Harry walked down to where they were and walked into the compartment.
"Hey Harry," Neville said softly.
"Hello," Harry replied, giving him a smile.
"How've you been Harry?" Dean asked, getting up and patting Harry on the back.
"Okay," Harry replied.
"So… How was your summer?" Seamus asked.
"Er… odd."
"Yeah….." They trailed off and an uneasy silence filled the air.
"RON! COME GET YOUR TRUNK!" Yelled Mrs. Weasley from outside.
"COMING!" Ron bellowed back. He turned back to the others in the compartment.
"Maybe we should just go to our own compartment," Hermione said softly. "We'll see you later, k?"
"All right. Bye."
"Bye," Harry and Hermione replied, before exiting the compartment.
A few minutes later Harry, Ron, and Hermione were sitting in a new compartment, all by themselves. Harry was staring at the countryside zooming by. He was sort of reminiscing about what Mrs. Weasley had said to him right before the train left.
"Remember Harry, you're like a son to me, and I'm going to treat you like any one of my other children. If you need anything at all, just tell me. If you need a shoulder to cry on, or if you just want someone to talk with, just call me."
Harry had nodded, and smiled, and hugged Mrs. Weasley when she hugged him. It hadn't bothered him that much. It just made him a bit more wary of how people kept getting so worried about him. They were acting like he was going to dissolve into tears at any moment, at the slightest mention of Sirius, or his parents, or anything that had to do with Azkaban. Harry sighed and leaned against the wall.
"Harry, is something wrong?"
"No!" Harry replied, perhaps a little louder than usual. Hermione's eyes got slightly wider.
"Are you sure."
"yeah… no…"
"Come on, tell us what's wrong. You can tell us an-"
"-Anything. I know," Harry said.
"Harry, what's the matter?"
"It's just that… everyone is acting so weird around me."
"Well, everyone's worried about you," Hermione replied. "You went though a lot this year."
"I just want my life to get back to the semi-normalcy that it was. And I can't do that if everyone is all, "oh don't worry, everything will be all right" "Oh, you can always talk to us". And of course, everyone just has to repeat it five times a day, just to make sure that I've heard it."
"We didn't know you felt this way…" Hermione said, she looked a bit shocked. "I mean… we were just being supportive."
"And I thank you for that, really I do. But it was getting excessive. You've known me for, what? Four? Five years? I usually get over things sort of quick. This year it's just been one thing after another and…" Harry trailed off and stared out the window.
"I'm sorry," Hermione said, looking down.
"No, Hermione, don't be sorry. It's my fault. Just… forget it."
"I really shouldn't have-"
"Well, well, well," said a drawling voice. "What have we here… if it isn't our little convict."
Harry looked over at the doorway and saw Draco Malfoy standing there.
"Hello Malfoy," Ron spat.
"Shut up Weasley."
Draco turned back to Harry, a smirk firmly in place. "Potter, Potter, Potter…"
"What do you want?" Harry snapped.
"Just to offer my condolences for your… godfather," Draco hissed the last word gleefully. "Such a pity…"
"Malfoy is there a real reason you're here, or do you just want us to beat you into oblivion like we did before the summer."
"You mean before you got sent to Azkaban?"
"Is your memory that bad or did we just curse you to much?"
Draco's smirk flickered and he turned slightly pink.
"Better watch your step, Potter," Draco spat. "You might find yourself in even more trouble than you did this summer. Those Death Eaters weren't looking for your godfather you know…"
Draco smiled again and turned towards the door. Ron was attempting to use self-control, and his face was turning bright red with the effort.
"Goodbye Potter."
Draco pulled the door open and took a step outside, when all of a sudden-
CRASH!
The train lurched to a sudden stop. Ron went flying out of his chair, and hit his head on the wall. There were several loud explosions coming from the front of the train. Harry could hear the people screaming from other compartments.
"What's going on!" Hermione shrieked.
Harry struggled to the doorway and wrenched open the door and looked out into the hallway. There was twisted metal everywhere, and dust was impairing his vision. However, through the smoke he saw one figure. A tall man, wearing a long black cloak. The man spotted Harry, and raised his wand so it was aimed straight at Harry's head.
