Part II
(Before the Meeting)
The sunlight flooded the previously dark dorm room, filling it with a warm atmosphere. All around him Harry could hear the sounds of his roommates still asleep in their beds. Rising early didn't phase in the slightest. The nightmares that had plagued his nights and hindered his sleep in previous years had disappeared all together. Lord Voldemort was no longer a part of his nightly escapades; in fact there were no dreams to speak of. Nights of dreamless sleep left Harry feeling surprisingly refreshed and rested the following morning.
Not feeling the need to get out of bed just yet, knowing well enough that he had sufficient time before breakfast would be served, Harry laid awake in his bed staring at the canopy above him. Ron and Hermione weren't mad at him, if anything it was just the opposite, they seemed to understand somewhat. Though this should have comforted him, Harry couldn't help but be a bit disappointed. Somewhere in the back of his mind he held the hope that they would have been infuriated with him for his calloused behavior over the summer holidays. It would have made avoiding their questions much more simple.
Sighing to himself in a bit of shame due to his thoughts, he realized that he was indeed pleased with his friend's responses. It was one thing to be left alone with your thoughts, and quite another to be left on your own with everything. They meant well, he knew that, but this was just something that he needed to handle on his own.
Harry was quite sure that no one else felt loss the way he did. A bit of a selfish opinion but his feelings nonetheless. Could anyone have ever felt as utterly alone as he did now, even surrounded by friends? No, he thought not. The simple fact that people had lost the ones they loved and still managed to carry on with the rest of their life proved to him that they couldn't have felt the same pain as he. But by being here, wasn't he doing just that? Albeit slightly withdrawn, but he was still putting forth minimal effort to keep somewhat of a semblance to a life.
Once the sun had fully risen and there was no longer any hope at all of going back to sleep, a stir came from across the round room, Neville's bed. The day had started and soon they would be heading down to the Great Hall for breakfast. Seeing as how he was going to be faced with the chatter of his roommates soon enough, Harry slipped out of his bed to head downstairs to have a bit more 'alone time'.
Upon arriving in the large dining hall, Harry noticed that he was not the only early riser. Usually he would be entering the hall accompanied by either Ron or Hermione, most of the time both, at a much later time than the majority of the other students. This was undoubtedly due to Ron. He didn't think he'd ever been down here this early in his life.
"Come to get an early start with your fan club this morning?" A voice asked behind him. Harry knew in an instance just who that voice belonged to. "Must be just your cup of tea to have not one but two Creepies, I mean Creeveys here to lick your shoes."
"Stuff it Malfoy." Was the only response he could muster at the time before meandering his way over to his place at the Gryffindor table.
"Heeeello Harry!" The overly obnoxious voice of Colin Creevey was the first to greet him as he sat down. Of all the people to be stuck with at the table without a scapegoat, Colin had to be the worst. The fifth year boy looked as though he was actually only in his second year, and in Harry's opinion, he acted like he should still be there some times as well.
"Hello Colin." Came Harry's dry response. "Do you always rise this early?"
"Oh yes! Mum says it's due to over active nerves, but Dad insists that it's because I eat more sugar than my body could ever possibly hope to process." His words poured out of his mouth as though he couldn't contain them any more. It was one thing to be up this early and quite another to be that excited at the same time.
"Explains a lot…" Muttered Harry under his breath, a comment that thankfully Colin didn't catch.
To his extreme relief, Harry found that Colin's chatter soon subsided when his mouth was filled with the tarts and muffins from the breakfast table. 'Colin Creepy', Harry thought to himself with a snort. The name would have been rather fitting if he hadn't known the sweet innocence of the boy. Still on Draco's words from just a while ago, Harry found his eyes searching the Slytherin table for his blond haired nemesis. Sure enough he found him, and not entirely to his surprise, he found him sniggering and pointing in Harry's direction with Crab.
Fighting off the urge to lob an oversized muffin straight at Draco's head, Harry's attention was brought round when he noticed Ron and Hermione entering with the steady filter of students.
"Mum and Dad are going to be arriving in about an hour or so." Ron's voice could be heard as he approached the table.
"Mine too. Do you think they are going to be here for the whole day? I mean, it does seem to be a bit of a waste to make them come all that way for one meeting." Hermione asked as she sat down across from Harry. "Good morning Harry. Sleep well?"
Harry nodded with a small smile.
"Oh god I hope not. I come to school to get away from them, it's not as though I'd want them here!" Ron's plate was quickly becoming filled with the assortment of breakfast foods laid out before him.
A snort emanated from beside the red head and Harry had to stifle a bit of a laugh. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were not that bad, but having to deal with them for sixteen years of your life may leave one with loads of memories of the over protectiveness and fuss. The conversation had died down a bit and the brief side-wards glances Ron was shooting at him didn't go unnoticed. "What?" He asked, not knowing what he had done to attract such looks.
Thankfully taking time to down the mouthful of flapjacks with some pumpkin juice, Ron hesitantly made an attempt at speech. "I was just wondering what you were going to be doing today."
A puzzled look must have made its way to the raven-haired boy's face, because he was cut off before he could fully express his confusion. "Wha-"
"Don't get me wrong, you're more than welcome to be part of my family today, god knows Mum would fancy it. And if you're unlucky enough to have the pleasure, maybe Mum or Dad will sit in with you for your meeting." Ron's face was still a bit apprehensive, what with Harry's sudden change in demeanor, he wasn't really sure if this was the best approach to the subject matter.
To Ron's relief and Hermione's surprise, a smile made its way to Harry's lips. "Thanks Ron."
"Sure, anytime mate."
"Though I think I'll take my meetings by myself." Harry's grin broadened. "I think I rather like making my own decisions about my future."
A groan worked its way out of the red-haired boy's throat. "I hadn't thought of that. Now I rather envy you."
"It will be great, we'll make an afternoon of it all and I will bring my parents along as well." Hermione beamed, thankful that this wasn't going to be a major issue with Harry… or so she hoped.
"Everyone please, may I have your attention." Dumbledore's voice resounded throughout the hall as the majority of the students had now arrived. "Schedules will be placed in each common room for the sixth year's meetings today. Since there are only four heads of house, all sixth years have been put into a time slot. Once your meeting is over, you may freely spend the remainder of the day with your parent or guardian. All other students please see your house prefects for your timetables."
"Wow, free day! Too bad it's got to be ruined by our parents." Ron turned back to his never-ending excavation of his breakfast plate.
"Yeah, too bad." Grumbled Harry, also resorting back to pushing around a few things on his plate.
"Sorry Harry."
The Gryffindor common room was buzzing with conversation when the Golden Trio made their way back up to the tower. About a dozen grown adults could be found lounging around the plush scarlet furniture and blazing fire. The sixth year's parents had arrived. Among the scuffling of his fellow classmates finding their parents, Harry spotted Mrs. Longbottom. The old woman, Neville's grandmother, was shaking her head at her grandson as he approached. "Really Neville, would it kill you to run a comb through your hair in the morning." She tried in vain to matte his hair down into a more presentable manner.
"Gran, I did." Neville whined as his cheeks flushed a bright pink, well aware that there were more than a few eyes on him.
Harry also noticed Hermione's parents, who he had met back in their second year. He was more than sure that they had caught Hermione's eye as well, but she made a straight b-line for the schedules that were tacked up on the common room's bulletin board. "Just like her, eh?" Ron elbowed Harry, signaling that he had noticed Hermione's over zealous lust for the order of it all.
With a nod, Harry turned his attention back to searching the room. Where were the Weasleys? His eyes caught another tuft of red hair, but it was only Ginny scurrying out of the portrait hole once more, obviously having forgotten something for her first lesson.
"Ok! Ron, you're first out of the three of us." Hermione piped up with a piece of parchment in her hands. She had apparently magically copied the schedule that had been hanging on the corkboard. "First is Seamus, then Lavendar, Pavarotti, Ron, Dean, myself, Harry, Neville…" but Harry stopped listening after he had heard his name. If his assumption was correct, this meant he would be going at around three o'clock.
"Mom, Dad!" Hermione bounced off to inform her parent's of her schedule.
"They were probably hoping she had forgotten about them over there." Ron motioned over his shoulder in the direction of the Grangers.
Harry suppressed a laugh. "Can your family ever be on time for something?"
"What do you mean, we are always where we're supposed to be."
"Yeah but not, when you're supposed to be there."
"Oh." Ron put his hand up to his face in mild contemplation. "I don't know really. I'm going to go with the 'fashionably late' theory." He grinned before plopping himself down in an oversized armchair.
Hermione made her way back over to where the two boys had set up for a bit of rest. "They've only allotted thirty minutes for each student to have their session. Really, how do they think we're supposed to discuss and figure out what we want to do with the rest of our lives in the matter of a half an hour?" She huffed as she reread the schedule for the umpteenth time. "I don't know about you, but I plan to look into every option thoroughly."
'A half an hour?' Harry thought to himself. That meant that his meeting would take place right after lunch.
"Lucky thing really that they put me right before break. If need be, I will do without my lunch for a while to take as much time as I can." She rolled the parchment up and stuffed it into her robes. Harry was quite sure she'd take it out once more to recheck herself in a matter of minutes.
"Not me, I know just what I want to do." Ron folded his arms across his chest.
"Oh Ron really, are you still on about becoming a professional quidditch player?" Her voice was breathless with exasperation.
"Well, yeah. Why not? I did get quite good at the end of last year." His defensive nature shown through his words, with his face becoming a bit more reddish.
"That's not really something you can count on, now is it?" As though making up for the absence of Ron's parent's, Hermione rounded on him. "What are you going to do, waltz right in there and demand they just make up classes for you to take so you can study formations and strategies for quidditch."
"You don't suppose they'd do that do you?!" Ron's eyes had widened, as though the thought was remotely possible.
"What about you Hermione? What do you have in mind?" Harry asked, not wanting the bickering to continue or Ron's dreams to be trodden any more.
With a brief look over her shoulder at her parents, Hermione turned her attention to him with a smile. "Medi-witch of course."
"Herm had always wanted to be a nurse before she had ever learned about the wizarding world." Her mother had taken a step into the conversation. She spoke in the same excited manner in which Hermione did and it was plain to see where Hermione had picked it up.
"Yes, and wizarding medicine would be much more interesting than muggle studies of it. Don't you agree?"
"Um yeah." Harry answered. Blood and guts were never really top of his list and he was quite pleased to find out that his injuries could now be mended magically without having to deal with it.
"How about you dear?" Mrs. Granger asked Harry with interest.
"An Auror." Harry answered with a smile. To him, there was nothing better in the world than being an Auror. It was beyond him why anyone would want to be anything else.
"An Auror?" Mrs. Granger questioned him again with confusion.
"Yes Mum, an Auror. Oh I've told you loads about them, don't you remember?"
"Yeah, Harry would be a great Auror, what with the experiences he's had, I'm betting they accept him into the position straight away after graduation." Ron beamed, showing his pride in his best mate. "Probably would have already gone and made you one if it wasn't for your age. That would really stick it to those stuff shirts at the ministry that didn't believe you before." A malevolent grin spread on his face and was immediately mirrored by Harry.
"Isn't it dangerous though?" Hermione's mom was on him again with her questioning.
"Yes Mrs. Granger, it is quite a dangerous profession." With listening to Ron's boasting, none of them had heard the portrait open and close, allowing Mr. and Mrs. Weasley to enter. Mr. Weasley came up quickly to shake the hand of Mr. Granger and gave a polite nod to Mrs. Granger.
"Hello Hermione. Hello Harry dear." Harry soon found himself in a rib-cracking hug compliments of an over stuffed, flame haired woman.
"Sorry we're late, had a bit of trouble at the ministry early this morning." Arthur Weasley sighed. "But no fears, we have it all straightened out now. Why anyone would want to bewitch a muggle toaster to sing and assault people with slices of burnt bread is beyond me."
Harry noticed Molly Weasley staring at him, searching him with her eyes. Though he didn't quite know why she'd be doing this, he assumed she was drawing her own conclusions as to his declination of their offer this summer. Quietly he tried to escape her gaze by moving to the end of the couch, where he would be free of the conversation that had started up between his best friends and their parents concerning Mr. Weasley's odd experiences at work.
"… and you should have seen the look on those poor muggles faces." Ron roared with laughter, Mr. Granger chuckled a bit while his wife and Hermione tutted their disapproval.
"Harry dear." Oh no, he would have no escape from her questioning now. He picked his head up to meet her gaze, telling her that he was listening. "I know I can't say enough how sorry I am for what happened. I know this is a soar subject to bring up."
'Then why are you bringing it up?!' Harry's mind answered, but his face showed nothing of his discomfort.
"I came across something this summer while I was going through the twins things, helping them move out, and well, I thought you might want to have it." Her hands shuffled around in her pockets momentarily. "I did debate a great deal, not knowing if this would help you or hinder you further, but in the end, I figured that you deserved to have it either way."
Her hands withdrew from her robes clutching onto a scrap of paper. Looking at it briefly, a flit of grief overcame her face, she shoved it into Harry's hand. "I knew you didn't have much of him."
Harry looked at the slightly crumpled piece of paper in his hand and realized instantly that it was a photograph. A man with chin length black hair and a mischievous expression stared back up at him. His lip curled into a bit of a smirk and some sort of catastrophe including a witch with bright red hair (who Harry recognized as a thinner, younger version of Mrs. Weasley) and a bewitched garden hose loomed in the background.
"I never did get him back for turning that hose on me." Mrs. Weasley must have thought it all right to speak to Harry again as she saw a small smile alight on his face.
"Thanks." Harry spoke in almost a whisper.
The two families and Harry got along well enough, most of the conversation concerning the differences and likenesses of the muggle world and the wizarding one. Not once had he felt out of place, for which he was grateful. Soon enough half passed ten had come on them and the Patil's were making their way back into the common room, signaling that it was Ron's turn to see Professor McGonagall.
"Chudley Cannons, here I come!" Ron pumped a fist in the air as he strode out of the portrait hole while Harry and Hermione wished him good luck.
"I can't believe it, I really can't believe it." Ron grumbled while grabbing for another half of a sandwich. Obviously his meeting had not gone as he had hoped; apparently Professor McGonagall was not keen on the idea of creating a quidditch based study course for him. "I mean, where does she get off telling me to be more serious about my future. When have I been more serious about anything?"
"Ronald Weasley!" Harry watched Ron wince as his mother stared sternly across the table at him. "Do not question the suggestions that Professor McGonagall has made. She knows a lot more about the world outside of Hogwarts than you could assume to."
"But Mum…" Ron trailed off in a whine.
"No buts. Honestly, is studying to be a flying instructor too terribly far off from playing quidditch."
"It is!" Ron looked over at Harry. "And you'd know that if you had your head screwed on properly." He added in an undertone.
Not to their surprise, Hermione had not come back for lunch; she had no doubtedly extended her meeting just as she had planned. Harry shook his head, but knew her well enough to not have suspected that she would have returned to join them.
He allowed his gaze to search around the great hall, taking in all of his fellow students with their parents. Briefly he let his thoughts conjure up an image of what it would have been like to have Sirius sitting beside him now. He was not in an overly bad mood as it was, but he wasn't sure if he could have contained himself if it had been possible. Words of encouragement that he may have spoken to Harry shot into his mind, while a dreamy expression blanketed his face.
Lost in his own world, he was completely unaware that lunch had ended until he felt the sharp jab to his ribs from Ron beside him. When he jerked to attention and his vision cleared, he found that Draco Malfoy had been in his line of vision the entire time. A haughty sneer was seated on his features and Harry was sure this was because the blond menace thought he, Harry, had been staring at him that entire time. "Stupid prat." Harry cursed as he got up from the table.
"I didn't rib you that hard, did I?" Ron looked over at him, slightly hurt.
"No, not you, I was talking about Malfoy." Harry looked as apologetic as he could.
"Oh well then, I agree." Ron grinned. "I can just imagine how his meeting will go today." Walking a bit behind his parent's, and heading towards McGonagall's office to deposit Harry for his meeting, Ron continued. He screwed up his face, making it look as evil as possible, complete with a sneer he began a tirade of acting, much to Harry's amusement.
Snape: So Draco what would you like to study?
Draco: Well the dark arts of course! (Ron imitated his drawl to perfection)
Snape: Very wise.
Draco: Yes, I want to become a Death Eater just like my daddikins! (Ron batted his eyelashes in the fashion of a little girl in admiration)
Snape: Well read this 'So you want to be a Death Eater' pamphlet and then I can initiate you into my special classes.
Draco: Oh goodie! Can I practice on Potter?
Snape: Yup, let's go find him together!
Ron latched onto Harry's arm and started to drag him, skipping, down the corridor in an impression of the scene. Harry felt laughter like he hadn't in a long while bubble up inside of him until he too was skipping along, side by side with Ron.
"Well isn't that sweet." A voice came, but this time it wasn't Ron imitating Draco, it was the real thing.
Harry and Ron's arms were quickly removed from one another and they had developed two identical scowls on their faces.
"Oh don't let me ruin your lovey-dovey moment." Draco's half smirk appeared, but was quickly wiped away when a walking cane was placed forcefully on his shoulder.
"Come Draco, we don't have time for you to chit chat with Potter and his friend." Lucius Malfoy's voice was cool and polite, but the way he looked down his nose at Harry and Ron was anything but. Taking one last glimpse at the pair, he turned on heel to head into Snape's office, which unfortunately was right next to McGonagall's.
As the 'happy family' walked on, Narcissa had looked back over her shoulder, daring to shoot a brief smile in Harry's direction when her husband wasn't looking.
"It's good to see she's cleaned the shit from beneath her nose, but it's still creepy to see any Malfoy smile." Ron and Harry stared on at their retreating forms, before none other than their head of house occupied the doorway of McGonagall's office.
"I have other people I need to see besides you today Mr. Potter."