Chapter Three: The New Year Begins
On September the first, Harry rose at four o'clock and squeezed in half-an-hour of warm-ups and stretches, followed by an hour of the flips and rolls and punches, blocks, strikes and kicks of unarmed combat, then finished his practice session with another half hour of practice with his swordstick.
Once he was finished, he showered and dressed in black trousers and shirt, topped off with a dark red knitted jumper and his dragonhide leather coat. He was just about to head down to breakfast when Jamie popped her head in the door. She smiled when she saw he was already up. "Morning Harry."
"Morning Jamie," said Harry, picking up his bag and slipping his sticks into their hip pouch. "All ready to go?"
"Yep," Jamie confirmed. "Hopefully I won't have the problems getting to school you had in your second year."
"Hopefully not," Harry agreed. "Your first year was bad enough."
Jamie nodded grimly and was silent until they reached the dining room where Sirius, Remus, Leona, Mark, Susan, Anita and a couple of others were eating breakfast.
"Is everything ready?" Harry asked Sirius when he sat down opposite him.
Sirius nodded, "Tonks is doing the last check with Mad-Eye now, I'm not expecting any trouble though." Harry nodded and bent to his breakfast.
An hour later, everything was ready Harry, Civis and the other students - accompanied by Sirius, Remus, Tonks and Leona - Flooed to the Leaky Cauldron so that the Order could pick them up and drive them to King's Cross.
Harry and his friends said goodbye to Sirius and the others on the platform and helped Jamie and Mark onto the train. Leaving the luggage to Civis, and leaving Susan and Anita with a group of sixth and seventh year Hufflepuffs. Harry guessed that most of his other friends would be in the prefects' meeting so he set off down the corridor to find Neville and Luna. He located them about ten minutes later and they settled down for the long journey back to Hogwarts.
Civis returned from the baggage car after about ten minutes, and Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Harry's two Slytherin friends - Romulus Moon and Blaise Zabini - joined them after about two hours while they were making a start on the drinks and snacks Harry had bought from the old witch pushing the trolley.
"Do I know any of the new Prefects?" Harry asked Hermione once they were all settled.
Hermione nodded, "Claude Guile and Wilhelm Whisp have both been made Prefects. The others you probably don't know."
"Who's the other Slytherin Prefect?" Harry asked, then turned to Romulus. "Can we trust her?"
Romulus didn't answer immediately, but after a minute or two, he nodded. "Her name's Merlyn Ambrose. I think we can trust her, she is Professor Ambrose's great niece after all."
Harry was quite surprised to hear that there was another Ambrose already at Hogwarts and he realised that that raised interesting possibilities. "Is she a Spell-Weaver like Meredith?"
Romulus shrugged and looked at Blaise, who pondered the question for a minute before replying. "I don't think so. But she is powerful, very powerful. Nott tried to make a move on her after breakfast on the day before we left. She hit him so hard he cracked the wall of the Entrance Hall and he didn't wake up until we were about to leave for home."
"What spell did she use?"
"A Disarming Charm," Blaise admitted. "Luckily for him."
"I wish I'd seen that," Ron admitted with a grin. "Nott isn't as bad as Malfoy, but I still don't like him."
"Agreed," said Harry, and Jamie, Mark and Ginny were quick to second his sentiment.
"Who are the other Prefects?" Jamie asked after a pause.
"Hera McGonagall, Professor McGonagall's third cousin, is the other Prefect for Gryffindor," Ginny replied. "Plus Pat Arnold and Anna McKenzie from Ravenclaw, and Danny Seaman and Ellen MacArden from Hufflepuff."
"How many of them can be trusted, do you think?" Harry asked them.
"Well Hera can certainly be trusted if Merlyn can," Hermione asserted. "I'm fairly sure that Pat and Anna can be trusted too, they're best friends after all."
"Okay, but what difference does that make?"
"It makes a difference because Anna's Muggleborn, Harry," Hermione told him, in a tone which suggested that she thought he should already be aware of this fact. "Obviously if Pat was a Voldemort supporter he wouldn't have anything to do with her."
"I like Pat," Luna pointed out. "He's always helpful when someone's pinched something of mine."
There were several grins at this, if there were two things that Luna was famous for among the students, it was her somewhat distracted, some would stay loony, personality and the fact that certain students regularly stole her things - a habit that Civis was trying hard to persuade then out of.
"The Seamans are good people," Civis commented. "Typical Hufflepuffs and never supporters of the Dark. Of course they've never actually openly come out on the side of the Light either, but maybe with a little prodding and positive reinforcement..."
"I'll keep that in mind," Harry promised. "Any thoughts on Ellen MacArden?"
"She's a half blood," Ron offered. "I think her mum sails Muggle sailing boats and her dad works with Draper in the Defence League. He called her at your house when I was talking him about becoming a Hit Wizard."
"Okay then, sounds lime they're all decent prospects then," Harry decided. "Any other suggestions?"
There were only a few, as most of the students with a real talent for Defence had already been recruited the year before. However, they did add a handful of new third years to the list of possibilities, and the older students also approved the inclusion of Jamie, Mark and (if she wanted to) Anita, in the club's activities.
The group chatted for a while longer, but soon lapsed into a comfortable silence, broken only by the occasional visit from other students, and after a while, most of them were lulled into sleep by the soothing rocking of the train.
----
Civis woke them up as the train came within view of Hogwarts. They quickly changed into their school robes and when the train pulled into Hogsmeade station a few minutes later Harry lead the way onto the platform. Everything seemed quiet, but as they headed over to the carriages drawn by the school's Thestrals, Harry couldn't help noticing that there had been a slight increase in security at Hogsmeade - while Hagrid normally ferried the first years across alone, he had been joined this year by the Psi-Wraith Corva and the ice-mage Gareth Curran and Ray Harker, Sandra Troy and Rose Wilkes were guarding the carriages themselves. Ginny, Ron, Hermione, Jamie and Mark followed Harry - with Civis the crow perched on his shoulder - into one carriage, while Luna, Neville, Romulus and Blaise joined the Bones in a second.
It only took a few minutes for the carriages to traverse the lake and pull up outside the main doors. Harry, flanked by Ginny and Jamie on one side and Ron and Hermione on the other lead his friends and a large minority of the other students - mainly members of Dumbledore's Army - past the waiting Professor McGonagall and into the Great Hall. Romulus, Blaise, and the other non-Gryffindors split off from the group when they entered the Hall and went to join their respective Houses at their own tables. Harry sat down near the head of the table with Ginny on one side and Jamie on the other as usual and Ron, Hermione and Neville sat down opposite them and Mark in the seat on Jamie's other side.
The rest of the students followed them in and took their seats at the four long house tables in preparation for the Start-of-Term Feast. After a few minutes, Professor McGonagall entered the Hall at the head of a rather small group of first years. The new students lined up at the front of the room and waited for the Sorting to begin.
The Sorting Hat's song, which again urged the students to unite against a common danger, lasted a full five minutes and there were one or two grumbling bellies by the time Professor McGonagall was ready to begin. "Was it like that last year too?" Harry asked Ginny in an undertone. She nodded.
"Crane, Isias."
"RAVENCLAW!"
"Flitwick, Fineas."
"RAVENCLAW!"
"Fuerte, Jose."
"GRYFFINDOR!"
"Gibson, Cole."
"Slytherin!"
"Moon, Remus."
"SLYTHERIN!"
"Selenis, Serena."
"SLYTHERIN!"
"Skelton, Neela."
"Gryffindor!"
"Sommers, Davila."
"GRYFFINDOR!"
"Spinner, Lorna."
"Gryffindor!"
"Stokes, Claus."
"Hufflepuff!"
"Thorne, Roseanne."
This time the Hat had a bit of trouble, the severe-looking, slightly plump girl had to sit on the stool for a full five minutes before the Hat finally declared her to be a Hufflepuff. The girl frowned slightly but got off the stool and walked over to the Hufflepuff table, finally sitting down in an empty chair between Claus Stokes and Anita Bones.
Once the last student Dimitri Uramov ("Slytherin!") had taken his seat and Professor McGonagall had cleared away the Sorting Hat, Dumbledore got to his feet. "You may begin."
At once, the five tables were groaning with vast amounts of food and drink, Harry helped himself to steak-and-kidney pie and some roast potatoes and tucked in, content for the moment to merely listen to the conversations going on around him.
When the deserts finally disappeared from the tables, Dumbledore got to his feet again. "Now that you are all fed and watered, I beg your indulgence for a few brief moments, while I give out a few start-of-term notices: I am pleased to announce that for the first time in eight years, the post of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher will not be filled by a new person this year, but rather shall again be delivered by Professor Meredith Ambrose of Tintagel, ably assisted by Gryffindor seventh-year Harry Potter of Gryphon's Eyrie. First-years should also note that Forbidden Forest is so named for a very obvious reason, a few older students would do well to remember this also.
"Quidditch tryouts will be held within the first week of term, anyone interested in playing for their house team should see either Madame Hooch or their House Captain. Students should also note, that unless authorised by a member of staff or the holder of a Prefects badge, students are required to be back in their dormitories by nine pm every evening. Failure to adhere to this will result in severe sanctions.
"I believe that is almost everything of consequence. All that remains is to remind you that we are living in difficult times. Work hard, be vigilant, and report anything out of the ordinary to a Prefect or member of staff immediately." Here he paused for moment, then he continued. "Now, it is getting late, and I believe you were all in bed."
Harry and his group waited at the table until most of the younger Gryffindors - including the first years and their escorts, fifth year Prefects Wilhelm Whisp and Hera McGonagall - had left the Hall, then he led his own group of Gryffindors back to Gryffindor Tower.
After they said good night to their friends, Ron and Hermione disappeared up to their private rooms at the top of the tower, and most of the other students headed up to the dormitories. Harry and Ginny settled down in front of the dying embers of the common room fire to talk.
"How was the Burrow, Gin?"
"The same," Ginny told him with a sigh. "Everything's still tense and Mum was the only one that was around most of the time apart from Ron, Hermione and me... Dad, Bill and Fleur have gone back to work, the twins are busy with the shop, and Charlie spends most of his time up in the Hebrides with the MacFusty clan, I think he's trying to find out if we can use dragons for protection somehow."
"Well, if anyone can manage it, I'd put my money on Charlie and the MacFustys, what they don't know about dragons between them, isn't worth knowing."
"Agreed."
They were silent for a while, then Harry noticed a pensive look on Ginny's face. "What's up, love?"
Ginny sighed. "I don't know Harry, it's just... being back at Hogwarts, it brings everything into focus."
"I know what you mean," Harry admitted, slightly grimly.
"I'm scared Harry. The war, Trelawney's prophecy, the Amorae Excisium Spell... it's a lot to handle on top of everything else."
"We'll manage, Gin," Harry told her, wrapping his arms more tightly around her and turning her to face him. "We have each other."
"And our friends."
"And our friends." Harry agreed. "We'll be fine."
"I really hope so, Harry," Ginny said, snuggling close under his chin. "I really do."
They sat there until almost eleven o'clock, sometimes talking but sometimes just sitting there enjoying each other's company. Then Ginny yawned and freed herself from Harry's embrace. "Night Harry."
"Night love."
Ginny disappeared up the girls' staircase. Harry sat alone in the common room for a while longer, then headed up the boy's staircase to his own bed.
A/N: Hope you like this chapter, I know it's a little shorter than I normally write but I've been busy. The next chapter will be as soon as I can write which will probably be Monday at the earliest but probably next Thursday/Friday. As always, please review.
On September the first, Harry rose at four o'clock and squeezed in half-an-hour of warm-ups and stretches, followed by an hour of the flips and rolls and punches, blocks, strikes and kicks of unarmed combat, then finished his practice session with another half hour of practice with his swordstick.
Once he was finished, he showered and dressed in black trousers and shirt, topped off with a dark red knitted jumper and his dragonhide leather coat. He was just about to head down to breakfast when Jamie popped her head in the door. She smiled when she saw he was already up. "Morning Harry."
"Morning Jamie," said Harry, picking up his bag and slipping his sticks into their hip pouch. "All ready to go?"
"Yep," Jamie confirmed. "Hopefully I won't have the problems getting to school you had in your second year."
"Hopefully not," Harry agreed. "Your first year was bad enough."
Jamie nodded grimly and was silent until they reached the dining room where Sirius, Remus, Leona, Mark, Susan, Anita and a couple of others were eating breakfast.
"Is everything ready?" Harry asked Sirius when he sat down opposite him.
Sirius nodded, "Tonks is doing the last check with Mad-Eye now, I'm not expecting any trouble though." Harry nodded and bent to his breakfast.
An hour later, everything was ready Harry, Civis and the other students - accompanied by Sirius, Remus, Tonks and Leona - Flooed to the Leaky Cauldron so that the Order could pick them up and drive them to King's Cross.
Harry and his friends said goodbye to Sirius and the others on the platform and helped Jamie and Mark onto the train. Leaving the luggage to Civis, and leaving Susan and Anita with a group of sixth and seventh year Hufflepuffs. Harry guessed that most of his other friends would be in the prefects' meeting so he set off down the corridor to find Neville and Luna. He located them about ten minutes later and they settled down for the long journey back to Hogwarts.
Civis returned from the baggage car after about ten minutes, and Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Harry's two Slytherin friends - Romulus Moon and Blaise Zabini - joined them after about two hours while they were making a start on the drinks and snacks Harry had bought from the old witch pushing the trolley.
"Do I know any of the new Prefects?" Harry asked Hermione once they were all settled.
Hermione nodded, "Claude Guile and Wilhelm Whisp have both been made Prefects. The others you probably don't know."
"Who's the other Slytherin Prefect?" Harry asked, then turned to Romulus. "Can we trust her?"
Romulus didn't answer immediately, but after a minute or two, he nodded. "Her name's Merlyn Ambrose. I think we can trust her, she is Professor Ambrose's great niece after all."
Harry was quite surprised to hear that there was another Ambrose already at Hogwarts and he realised that that raised interesting possibilities. "Is she a Spell-Weaver like Meredith?"
Romulus shrugged and looked at Blaise, who pondered the question for a minute before replying. "I don't think so. But she is powerful, very powerful. Nott tried to make a move on her after breakfast on the day before we left. She hit him so hard he cracked the wall of the Entrance Hall and he didn't wake up until we were about to leave for home."
"What spell did she use?"
"A Disarming Charm," Blaise admitted. "Luckily for him."
"I wish I'd seen that," Ron admitted with a grin. "Nott isn't as bad as Malfoy, but I still don't like him."
"Agreed," said Harry, and Jamie, Mark and Ginny were quick to second his sentiment.
"Who are the other Prefects?" Jamie asked after a pause.
"Hera McGonagall, Professor McGonagall's third cousin, is the other Prefect for Gryffindor," Ginny replied. "Plus Pat Arnold and Anna McKenzie from Ravenclaw, and Danny Seaman and Ellen MacArden from Hufflepuff."
"How many of them can be trusted, do you think?" Harry asked them.
"Well Hera can certainly be trusted if Merlyn can," Hermione asserted. "I'm fairly sure that Pat and Anna can be trusted too, they're best friends after all."
"Okay, but what difference does that make?"
"It makes a difference because Anna's Muggleborn, Harry," Hermione told him, in a tone which suggested that she thought he should already be aware of this fact. "Obviously if Pat was a Voldemort supporter he wouldn't have anything to do with her."
"I like Pat," Luna pointed out. "He's always helpful when someone's pinched something of mine."
There were several grins at this, if there were two things that Luna was famous for among the students, it was her somewhat distracted, some would stay loony, personality and the fact that certain students regularly stole her things - a habit that Civis was trying hard to persuade then out of.
"The Seamans are good people," Civis commented. "Typical Hufflepuffs and never supporters of the Dark. Of course they've never actually openly come out on the side of the Light either, but maybe with a little prodding and positive reinforcement..."
"I'll keep that in mind," Harry promised. "Any thoughts on Ellen MacArden?"
"She's a half blood," Ron offered. "I think her mum sails Muggle sailing boats and her dad works with Draper in the Defence League. He called her at your house when I was talking him about becoming a Hit Wizard."
"Okay then, sounds lime they're all decent prospects then," Harry decided. "Any other suggestions?"
There were only a few, as most of the students with a real talent for Defence had already been recruited the year before. However, they did add a handful of new third years to the list of possibilities, and the older students also approved the inclusion of Jamie, Mark and (if she wanted to) Anita, in the club's activities.
The group chatted for a while longer, but soon lapsed into a comfortable silence, broken only by the occasional visit from other students, and after a while, most of them were lulled into sleep by the soothing rocking of the train.
----
Civis woke them up as the train came within view of Hogwarts. They quickly changed into their school robes and when the train pulled into Hogsmeade station a few minutes later Harry lead the way onto the platform. Everything seemed quiet, but as they headed over to the carriages drawn by the school's Thestrals, Harry couldn't help noticing that there had been a slight increase in security at Hogsmeade - while Hagrid normally ferried the first years across alone, he had been joined this year by the Psi-Wraith Corva and the ice-mage Gareth Curran and Ray Harker, Sandra Troy and Rose Wilkes were guarding the carriages themselves. Ginny, Ron, Hermione, Jamie and Mark followed Harry - with Civis the crow perched on his shoulder - into one carriage, while Luna, Neville, Romulus and Blaise joined the Bones in a second.
It only took a few minutes for the carriages to traverse the lake and pull up outside the main doors. Harry, flanked by Ginny and Jamie on one side and Ron and Hermione on the other lead his friends and a large minority of the other students - mainly members of Dumbledore's Army - past the waiting Professor McGonagall and into the Great Hall. Romulus, Blaise, and the other non-Gryffindors split off from the group when they entered the Hall and went to join their respective Houses at their own tables. Harry sat down near the head of the table with Ginny on one side and Jamie on the other as usual and Ron, Hermione and Neville sat down opposite them and Mark in the seat on Jamie's other side.
The rest of the students followed them in and took their seats at the four long house tables in preparation for the Start-of-Term Feast. After a few minutes, Professor McGonagall entered the Hall at the head of a rather small group of first years. The new students lined up at the front of the room and waited for the Sorting to begin.
The Sorting Hat's song, which again urged the students to unite against a common danger, lasted a full five minutes and there were one or two grumbling bellies by the time Professor McGonagall was ready to begin. "Was it like that last year too?" Harry asked Ginny in an undertone. She nodded.
"Crane, Isias."
"RAVENCLAW!"
"Flitwick, Fineas."
"RAVENCLAW!"
"Fuerte, Jose."
"GRYFFINDOR!"
"Gibson, Cole."
"Slytherin!"
"Moon, Remus."
"SLYTHERIN!"
"Selenis, Serena."
"SLYTHERIN!"
"Skelton, Neela."
"Gryffindor!"
"Sommers, Davila."
"GRYFFINDOR!"
"Spinner, Lorna."
"Gryffindor!"
"Stokes, Claus."
"Hufflepuff!"
"Thorne, Roseanne."
This time the Hat had a bit of trouble, the severe-looking, slightly plump girl had to sit on the stool for a full five minutes before the Hat finally declared her to be a Hufflepuff. The girl frowned slightly but got off the stool and walked over to the Hufflepuff table, finally sitting down in an empty chair between Claus Stokes and Anita Bones.
Once the last student Dimitri Uramov ("Slytherin!") had taken his seat and Professor McGonagall had cleared away the Sorting Hat, Dumbledore got to his feet. "You may begin."
At once, the five tables were groaning with vast amounts of food and drink, Harry helped himself to steak-and-kidney pie and some roast potatoes and tucked in, content for the moment to merely listen to the conversations going on around him.
When the deserts finally disappeared from the tables, Dumbledore got to his feet again. "Now that you are all fed and watered, I beg your indulgence for a few brief moments, while I give out a few start-of-term notices: I am pleased to announce that for the first time in eight years, the post of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher will not be filled by a new person this year, but rather shall again be delivered by Professor Meredith Ambrose of Tintagel, ably assisted by Gryffindor seventh-year Harry Potter of Gryphon's Eyrie. First-years should also note that Forbidden Forest is so named for a very obvious reason, a few older students would do well to remember this also.
"Quidditch tryouts will be held within the first week of term, anyone interested in playing for their house team should see either Madame Hooch or their House Captain. Students should also note, that unless authorised by a member of staff or the holder of a Prefects badge, students are required to be back in their dormitories by nine pm every evening. Failure to adhere to this will result in severe sanctions.
"I believe that is almost everything of consequence. All that remains is to remind you that we are living in difficult times. Work hard, be vigilant, and report anything out of the ordinary to a Prefect or member of staff immediately." Here he paused for moment, then he continued. "Now, it is getting late, and I believe you were all in bed."
Harry and his group waited at the table until most of the younger Gryffindors - including the first years and their escorts, fifth year Prefects Wilhelm Whisp and Hera McGonagall - had left the Hall, then he led his own group of Gryffindors back to Gryffindor Tower.
After they said good night to their friends, Ron and Hermione disappeared up to their private rooms at the top of the tower, and most of the other students headed up to the dormitories. Harry and Ginny settled down in front of the dying embers of the common room fire to talk.
"How was the Burrow, Gin?"
"The same," Ginny told him with a sigh. "Everything's still tense and Mum was the only one that was around most of the time apart from Ron, Hermione and me... Dad, Bill and Fleur have gone back to work, the twins are busy with the shop, and Charlie spends most of his time up in the Hebrides with the MacFusty clan, I think he's trying to find out if we can use dragons for protection somehow."
"Well, if anyone can manage it, I'd put my money on Charlie and the MacFustys, what they don't know about dragons between them, isn't worth knowing."
"Agreed."
They were silent for a while, then Harry noticed a pensive look on Ginny's face. "What's up, love?"
Ginny sighed. "I don't know Harry, it's just... being back at Hogwarts, it brings everything into focus."
"I know what you mean," Harry admitted, slightly grimly.
"I'm scared Harry. The war, Trelawney's prophecy, the Amorae Excisium Spell... it's a lot to handle on top of everything else."
"We'll manage, Gin," Harry told her, wrapping his arms more tightly around her and turning her to face him. "We have each other."
"And our friends."
"And our friends." Harry agreed. "We'll be fine."
"I really hope so, Harry," Ginny said, snuggling close under his chin. "I really do."
They sat there until almost eleven o'clock, sometimes talking but sometimes just sitting there enjoying each other's company. Then Ginny yawned and freed herself from Harry's embrace. "Night Harry."
"Night love."
Ginny disappeared up the girls' staircase. Harry sat alone in the common room for a while longer, then headed up the boy's staircase to his own bed.
A/N: Hope you like this chapter, I know it's a little shorter than I normally write but I've been busy. The next chapter will be as soon as I can write which will probably be Monday at the earliest but probably next Thursday/Friday. As always, please review.