CHAPTER VI

Harry woke up early, even before Mrs. Weasley. He got up, and put on some close-fitting black jeans and a dark green shirt that wasn't tight, just snug. It was more an olive tint rather than forest green. He put on his new belt and went downstairs. He entered the kitchen and flicked his wand a few times, setting the kettle to boil and the coffee to start making itself. With more flicks of his wand he sent flower, eggs, baking soda, milk, and all the other ingredients it takes to make pancakes to mixing in a bowl. He chopped apples and nectarines by hand and put them in a bowl, where they waited to be mixed into the batter. Satisfied that everything in the kitchen had a job to do, he went into the dining room and began to set the table for breakfast for everyone. The Weasley's had always treated him with such hospitality that he felt the least he could do was save Mrs. Weasley the trouble of making breakfast on a chaotic morning like the day that school was due to start. Also, years of cooking meals for the Dursleys had trained him well in the culinary arts and cooking had become one of his hidden talents. The table set, he summoned milk, orange juice, jam, and maple syrup and set them in the middle of it. Struck by a sudden idea he went outside to the garden.

***

Ginny woke up and stretched languorously, feeling the satisfying pull at her muscles. Getting out of bed, she donned her kimono over her pajamas and slippers and made her way downstairs. As she entered the kitchen she saw a great industry of mixing, beating, cooking and cleaning. Glancing around confusedly (she was pretty sure she'd heard mum snoring in the master bedroom) she looked around for who was awake. Just then Harry entered through the kitchen door holding a huge bouquet of wildflowers. He retrieved a vase from the cupboard and filled it with water. He cut the ends off the stems of all the flowers and settled them in the vase, which he carried into the dining room without seeing her. Ginny followed him, impressed that he knew exactly what to do with flowers and intrigued to know what he was up to. Upon entering the dining room she smiled. The early morning sun filled the room, shining on dishes and the flowers that Harry was setting in the center of the table. Ginny seized the opportunity to stare at him unobserved, when he turned around to go back into the kitchen. He stopped abruptly.

"Ginny," he said in surprise "G'morning."

Ginny beamed at him.

"Harry this is wonderful! Did you do this all yourself?" She went over and smelled the flowers, picking up traces of mint and rosemary along with the flowers' perfume. Looking back at him she saw him blush.

"I always cooked breakfast for the Dursleys, I've had practice." He said modestly.

Ginny smiled slightly.

"Yes but I'm sure you never brought them fresh wild flowers." She said with a wink.

Harry half-smiled back at her.

"Your family has always been so nice to me," he explained. "I wanted to do something nice in return."

"Well this is great." Replied Ginny. Then she grinned. " Eventually you'll realize we consider you family and then you won't have to do us favors anymore." She chuckled and went into the kitchen, listening to Harry protest.

Ginny served herself some tea and helped Harry carry the steaming dishes out to the table. He'd made apple, nectarine and plain pancakes as well as eggs and bacon. He'd also cooked sausages, hash browns, tomatoes, and made stacks of toast. Ginny covered the dishes with dishtowels or saucepan tops and set a charm on all of it to keep it hot while they waited for everyone to wake up. She and Harry were in the middle of washing up when Ron, Hermione and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley came in. Harry looked up and went back to scrubbing, but Ginny dried her hands and smiled widely at them all.

"All of you go into the dining room and see what Harry did for everyone." She said. Harry dried his hands as well and he and Ginny followed them all into the dining room to see their reactions. There were lots of exclamations such as "How wonderful!" and "How thoughtful of you Harry" and in Ron's case " Wow Harry you can cook? Can you knit as well?"

Not bothering to wait for the twins, they all sat down to eat and there were more compliments passed around about the excellent food.

***

At 45 minutes to 11:00 Harry went upstairs to grab his things. He sat down on Ron's bed and began to put his boots on, taking time to make sure all the straps and buckles were in the right places. He put on his school robes but left them unfastened so they revealed his clothing. Shrugging into the trench coat he decided against wearing the gloves and placed them in one of the numerous pockets of the coat. He surveyed himself in the mirror. The coat emphasized his height and broad shoulders. It went well with his olive shirt and black jeans and black school robes. He nodded in satisfaction and practiced getting his wand quickly out of its holder on his belt for fun. Finally having succeeded to do so smoothly, he went back downstairs.

Half and hour to eleven had the Weasley family rushing out the door to go to Kings Cross Station. They trundled out of the drive way in Arthur's latest car: A dull greenish-tan Volkswagen bus. They arrived, running a little late and hurried into the station. Harry didn't bother with the barrier. He waved to Mr. Weasley and blew Mrs. Weasley a kiss, then ducked behind a stone column and apparated inside. Ron and Hermione could apparate now as well, but they had too many possessions with them, and only amplified powers like Harry's would give them the ability to apparate with a huge trunk.

He arrived on platform 9 and 3/4 only a minute or two ahead of Ron, Hermione and Ginny. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley had seen the three off outside the barrier. Harry magically lifted the others' trunks onto the train and followed them inside as the warning whistle blew on the Hogwarts Express.

"Whew." Said Ginny, flopping down in a seat, "that was close."

Harry sat down too. He flipped up his collar and leaned back, propping his boots on the table in front of him, intent on taking a nap. Just as he was drifting off to sleep, a familiar nasal voice startled him out of sleep.

"Well now look at this," Drawled Draco Malfoy. He cocked his head and made a mock baby face, "Two weasels and a mudblood. Oh! And someone else has joined the dream team! Where'd Potty go? Would it be too much to hope he's dead?" Crabbe and Goyle chuckled stupidly behind him. Harry rolled his eyes and got up. Malfoy obviously hadn't recognized him. He strolled right up close to Malfoy and looked down on the shorter boy with his best menacing expression on his face. Malfoy was already about 3 inches shorter (about 5' 10") than Harry but his boots gave him an extra inch.

"What? You don't recognize your favorite person Malfoy?" Harry growled. He stepped back, folded his arms. Turning to the Ron, Hermione and Ginny, he sniffed.

"It's stupider than I guessed" he told them. They chuckled. Malfoy went pink. He reached into his pocket for his wand, but his hand came out empty. He looked up at Harry, who was leaning against the wall, nonchalantly twirling the missing wand in his fingers (thanks to a silent wandless summoning charm).

"Looking for this?" he asked innocently and stuck it in an extra loop in his belt. Malfoy growled and pulled a knife out of his own belt. Harry chuckled, silently his temper was running thin but he didn't let it show on his face. He simply zipped up the lapel of his trench coat, and pushed away from the wall spreading his arms.

"Come on Malfoy" he said quietly. "Stab me. Go right ahead."

Malfoy look slightly perplexed, but took a hard swipe at Harry's chest. The blade glanced off sharply and shattered. Harry looked down at his chest and noted that there was no trace of a mark on the hydraskin. He laughed.

"It's made out of hydraskin, Mr. Malfoy" he spoke as if to a small child. Then he reached out grabbed Malfoy and Goyle by their collars, and using his muscle strength, and quite a bit of wandless magic, chucked them both out the carriage door. He looked at Crabbe. The boy looked terrified, and ran out on his own. Harry chuckled, threw Malfoy's wand out the door after them, and went to sit back down, unzipping the coat again as he went.

"Brilliant Harry!" said Ron. He and Harry exchanged a high five.

Harry laughed, "If the slimy bastard had any brains, he would have noticed me zipping up my coat and realized something is up. If he had then he'd have swiped at my face not my chest."

"And what would you have done if Malfoy was smart enough to go for your face?" Hermione wanted to know.

Harry smirked. "I'd have ducked."

When they arrived at Hogsmead it was raining. During the train ride, Harry had discovered an attachable hood to his coat, which he attached now, but left it down, seeing as how they were still on the train.

***

Ginny followed close behind Harry and hesitated at the door step; it was pouring hard by now. Harry flipped up his hood and turned to look at her. He opened half of his coat wide and beckoned to her. She saw that there was plenty of extra space on the one side of his coat. She ran quickly over, ducked and took cover under it. Harry covered her and pulled her to him snugly, so that she wouldn't get wet except on her hair. They ran as quickly as they could and got in an empty carriage. They'd lost Ron and Hermione along the way somewhere, and the carriage was empty.

***

Ginny messed with her wet hair self-consciously, pulling it up in a bun and sticking her wand through it like a chopstick. Harry watched in fascination as little drops of water fell from the stray tips of her fiery auburn tresses, glinting like little diamonds. His heart thumped madly and he hastily looked out the window before she caught him staring.

***

When they arrived, they were ushered into the great hall by Professor Mcgonagall.

"Alright everyone," she said briskly, "Smarten yourselves up a bit. Neville, tie those shoes, and Harry, take that gigantic thing off, and fasten up your school robes now."

Harry grinned at her and obliged. He swung if off with a flourish and draped it over his arm while he fastened his robes loosely so he could still reach inside and get his wand if he needed to.

Ginny watched, as most of the girls above fourth year who had been eyeing Harry all evening gasped when they heard his name and recalled what he used to look like. She grinned, but felt a little pang of jealousy. The rest of the school settled to their seats at their house tables and started up conversations.

"Hey look guys professor Snape's not there." Said Ron with excitement.

"Don't get your hopes up," said Harry,"He's probably on the prowl somewhere, rounding up first years."

"Well if that's the case then may some higher being have mercy on the poor little things." Said Hermione matter-of-factly. "And look, there's no Defense against the Dark Arts teacher either. I wonder who the new one is this year."

Just then, the first years entered trailing behind Professor McGonagall (no Snape in sight) and lined up in front of the staff table. Many of them were trembling as Professor McGonagall set up the stool and sorting hat.

"Were we ever that little?" Ginny whispered to Harry, Ron and Hermione.

"Hard to believe isn't it?" Harry asked with a smile. "I know for a fact I was smaller than most of them."

Ginny pressed her hand to her lips and suppressed a giggle, as the sorting began.

***

Authors note: Sorry about skipping the sorting guys but I'm hopeless at poetry and I thought it would better to skip it rather than steal someone else's sorting song.

***

When the sorting had finished, Professor Dumbledore rose carefully out of his seat

"Welcome, all of you new comers to Hogwarts! Now let us begin the feast!"

He sat back down at his table as the noise of many conversations started up all over the hall. They huge oak tables creaked under the weight of several tons of meat pies, lamb, chicken, pork, gravy, mashed potatoes, roast potatoes, chipolatas, soup, green beans, peas, more vegetables, pints of pumpkin juice, and more. Harry sighed in satisfaction and served himself a little bit of everything. At the staff table, a young woman had come in through a back door, and sat down in Professor Snape's old seat. Someone across the table tapped his sleeve.

"I'm Neville Longbottom, are you an exchange student?" Harry chuckled at looked over at Ginny, Ron and Hermione next to him.

"I don't look that different do I?" he asked them. Ron and Hermione nodded.

"You'd be surprised." Said Ginny.

Harry turned back to Neville, who had been watching the exchange curiously, an expression of understanding dawning on him slowly. He coughed slightly.

"Harry?" and Neville wasn't the only one who said it. Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnigan and several other fellow Gryffindors all stared at him as well.

Harry chuckled and shook his head.

Dumbledore got up when everyone had eaten his or her fill.

"Welcome welcome, I am glad to see that most are back here at Hogwarts this year. Just a few announcements before you all go off to bed. First of all I regret to inform you all that Professor Snape had urgent matters to attend to this year and will not be joining us." No one looked disappointed. "I am therefore honored to introduce to you our new Potions Master, Professor Jeanne Guilleminot. She was a student at Beauxbatons Academy and has come all the way from France to fill this post." Everyone clapped enthusiastically, some because they were glad she wasn't Snape and some because she was good looking. Dumbledore motioned for silence again.

"We have another new teacher with us this year. Professor Sandra Mackintock is from the U.S. She sends her apologies that she could not be here with us this evening because she missed her Apparating Departure time. You will all meet her in Defense Against the Dark Arts class." He smiled at everyone. "I am also happy to announce that we will be having a Yule Ball this year," girls giggled, guys groaned. "The Yule Ball is limited to fourth years and up, younger students are welcome if invited. There will be three Hogsmead trips before the Yule Ball, this should all give you sufficient time to get the perfect robes for the occasion. And finally I would like to say that Quidditch tryouts are to be held in mid September. Now off to bed with all of you!" Everyone began to get up and make their ways to their dormitories, chatting about new teachers and who would try out for Quidditch.

"I hope we find a good reserve keeper," said Ron as they got ready for bed, "Last years was a disaster, I couldn't get anything through to him." Ron had been keeper since fifth year. Once he had gotten over the stage fright, he was quite brilliant.

Harry agreed, and got into bed, his head full of thoughts about school, his stomach full of food.