Chapter Three: Back to Hogwarts
The days rolled by and Harry managed to finish his homework from Hogwarts without Cassandra noticing exactly what he was study (she offered to help him with his math if he need it). Finally the day came that they were going to take the trip into London for Harry to meet with the Weasleys. It was the first day that Harry got up before Cassandra did, so Harry went down stairs and cooked breakfast for her as she had done for him all summer. When he finished cooking breakfast he went upstairs to wake Cassandra help; as he was about to open the door to tell her to wake up he heard Cassandra talking as if someone else was in the room.
"No you cannot have him!" said Cassandra. Harry listened from outside the door. "I won't let you harm him."
"Whom is she talking to? And who is she talking about" wondered Harry has he went to opened the door, but before he put his hand on the doorknob it started to turn and the door to open. Harry stood there waiting to see if Cassandra was the only person in her room as the door flew wide open. Cassandra was the one who opened the door and was now staring at him shocked.
"Harry?" said Cassandra and was about to say something else when Harry spoke first.
"I cooked breakfast do you want some?" asked Harry and then quickly went back downstairs, he didn't want to let Cassandra know that he heard her saying those things whatever they meant. By the time Cassandra got downstairs Harry's mind was full of questions he didn't want to ask, so they sat to eat in an odd silence. They both looked as though they wanted to ask the other some questions, but neither were speaking. It wasn't until the clock started to chime that they realized that they were going to be later if they didn't hurry up, so they quickly finished breakfast, got dress, and put all of Harry's stuff in Cassandra's car. All the way to London they talked about the great summer and what they had done.
"Harry that reminds me of something." Said Cassandra as she went into her purse to get something. "Remember that day at the zoo when that guy took our picture?"
"Yes."
"Well, I bought it off him." Cassandra pulled out the picture of the two of them walking through the zoo and he smiled slightly. "Did you want it?" asked Cassandra
"Yes, but there is only one. You would have a picture of me then." Said Harry.
"Okay." Said Cassandra taking the picture and carefully ripping it down the middle. Then she gave Harry the side of the picture with her no it and kept the side with Harry. "There you have a picture of me and I have a picture of you." Harry smiled, she was a clever Muggle if not the coolest Harry had ever meet, but his experience was limited to the Dursleys and their friends.
When they finally arrived in London Cassandra had to be told were to go, by Harry, to get to the street with the Leaky Cauldron, they parked across the street. Harry up out of the car and saw Mr. Weasley and Ron standing on the sidewalk in Muggle clothes waiting for him. Harry quickly got out his trunk and Hedwig's cage and placed them of the ground next to the car as Cassandra got out of the car and looked across the street at the two red headed wizards.
"So those are the Weasleys?" Cassandra looked at Harry with a smile.
"Part of them." Said Harry with a little giggle. "Cassandra can you bring the cage over I am going to take the trunk?"
"Okay I will be over in a minute." Said Cassandra. Harry carried his heavy trunk across the street and set it down right in front of Ron.
"Oh Harry there you are." Said Mr. Weasley. Still looking around as those waiting for someone else. "Where is that Muggle girl you lived with for the summer?"
"Oh she is right over there." Said Harry and turning to point where Cassandra was he noticed that she had disappeared. Both her and the car were gone, but the funny thing was that Hedwig's cage was sitting right next to Harry. "That's funny, where did she go?"
"Oh well." Said Mr. Weasley. "I guess it is all for the best. I would have probably asked her too many questions and she would of thought me mad, like so many Muggle often do." Mr. Weasley picked up Harry's trunk and carried it into the Leaky Cauldron. Harry stay outside with Ron, staring at the spot where the car was parked. Then he looked down at the half picture Cassandra gave him with a sad expression. For some reason he felt really sad that he couldn't see Cassandra anymore. Even thought they had only known each other for a little while, she felt like a sister to him.
"Harry, we better get inside everyone is waiting for us." Said Ron and he went into the Leaky Cauldron. Harry stay for a moment longer before following Ron in. When he got into the Leaky Cauldron, Harry noticed the rest of the Weasley and Hermione sitting. Harry waved at them and he went up to Tom, the innkeeper and asked if he could keep his stuff in a room so that he didn't have to carry them around Diagon Alley. Tom agreed to let him leave it in a small room at the back of the Leaky Cauldron, this room looked like it was the room that Tom lived in. Harry left it there and said thanks to Tom before joining the Weasleys and Hermione at the table they were sitting at. Ron had just joined Mr. Weasley, Mrs. Weasley, Fred and George Weasley, Ginny Weasley, the youngest member of the Weasley family and the only girl, and Hermione at the table where they were eating lunch. Fred and George Weasley, twins, both had identical excited looks.
"So, Harry we heard you didn't have to live with you relatives this summer." Said Fred and shot a sideways glance at his twin brother. "Was the Muggle girl good looking?"
"Fred!" exclaimed Mrs. Weasley, as she, Ginny and Hermione blush, and all the boys were looking at Harry expecting the details of his summer.
"Cassandra was little an older sister to me. That all." Said Harry with a half smiled. Harry eat lunch with the Weasley's and Hermione, as the Weasley twins and Mr. Weasley keep asking him about the mysterious Muggle girl that they heard have from Harry's letters (Mrs. Weasley, keep trying to get them to stop so that Harry could actually chew his food, but it was no use). The questions continued until Harry was done with his lunch and they headed for Diagon Alley. When Harry stepped in the brightly lit Alley full of magic shops, he felt almost at home. They walked down the Alley towards Gringotts Wizard Bank, so that they could get some wizard money. Harry, who had a small fortune hidden in the vaults miles below London, filled his moneybag full of golden Galleons, silver Sickles and bronze Knuts. When they were back outside Gringotts they all went three separate ways as usual.
Harry, Ron and Hermione headed towards Flourish and Blotts book shop to buy their new schoolbooks. All three of them pulled out their lists and handed them to the manager, who helped them find their book. When they finished buying their books they went to Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor and sat to have some ice cream. Hermione started to look over their new schoolbooks; she was particularly interested in a book called, Magic Amulets and Talismans, by Aderian Lomus. She thumbed through the pages of the book until she had finished looking at every page in the book, she start to look really excited.
"I guess we have a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, and whoever it is, that person must love their Amulets and Talismans. Have you guys looked at this book?" Said Hermione excitedly.
Harry and Ron watch Hermione as she look through the book again and when she was finally finished they got up and started to walk around looking at all the other shops in Diagon Alley. Harry was thumbing the ring that Cassandra had given him, that lay under his clothes. Ron noticed that he was playing with something.
"What's that Harry?" asked Ron. Harry took off the chain and showed it to Ron, who looked at it with great interest. Ron was going to ask Harry about it when they met Fred and George standing outside the Quality Quidditch Shop looking in the window to see if there was anything new, and when they noticed the three other them, they turned to talk to Ron.
"Hey Ron you need to come with us to Madam Malkin's." said Fred, but Ron only stood there looking at them cautiously.
"Go ahead Ron." Harry said, he knew what Fred and George were going to do; they were going to buy him new dress robes, as he asked them to do. Harry started to go with them, but he got a feeling that he was being watched. He let the others walk ahead as he started to scan the crowded alley. Then he saw her and his heart skipped a beat.
"Why is she here?" thought Harry as he watch Cassandra walk back up the alley towards the Leaky Cauldron. Suddenly the crowd around Harry went totally silent as Cassandra turned and stared at Harry.
"Harry..." said Cassandra her voice seemed to echo off the walls of the alley. She continued down the alley and Harry began to follow her. She entered the Leaky Cauldron and Harry hurried to caught up. He followed her into the dark pub, everything but Cassandra seemed to be covered with a shadow. Harry watched as Cassandra walked out of the pub and onto the street outside, he followed. When Harry got outside the street was completely empty. There were no cars; no people walking down the street, nothing. Cassandra walked to the other side of the street and stopped, turning she smiled at Harry and beaconed him across the street. Harry started to step into the street, when Cassandra opened her mouth to say something, but the only thing that came out sounded like the horn of a bus. It was so loud it filled Harry's ears as a great force pulled him back.
The next thing Harry knew was that he was on the ground in front of the Leaky Cauldron and there were people standing over him, all Muggles. There was a large bus stopped right in front of him. He couldn't understand what just happened until he heard a familiar voice call to him.
"Harry, what do you think you were doing?" asked Remus Lupin. Then Harry saw the face of his former Professor as he stood over him, with a very worried expression. Harry looked at Lupin confused, he didn't know exactly what he was doing, oh what, yeah, he was following Cassandra across the empty street. "You almost got hit by that bus." Exclaimed Lupin as he pointed to the bus. The people, who had stopped to look at Harry, were starting to walk away when Harry came to his senses.
"What are you talking about? The street was empty a moment ago." Said Harry as he looked across the street Cassandra had disappeared again. He was looking around to see where Cassandra had gone when Lupin spoke again.
"No, Harry. I watched you walk through the pub and out here. I was calling you, but when you didn't respond I followed you out. I watched you as you tried to walk out into the street right in front of an on coming bus." Said Lupin as he help Harry to his feet and dusted Harry off.
"Are you sure?" asked Harry. "Did you see that girl I was following?"
"What? What girl? There wasn't any girl, you walked out the door by yourself." "She would of gone out a little time before me."
"No, no one had gone out or in the door for a good while before you left Harry." Harry began to really worry about it now, and it must of shown up on his face because Lupin said. "What is going on Harry?" Harry didn't know what to say. He didn't know how to tell Lupin about the things that had happened to him over the summer, how Cassandra stayed with him when the Dursley's went on vacation, how he was having dreams all the time now, and how he saw Voldemort at the zoo, or thought he saw Voldemort. Harry was confused himself so how was he going to tell someone else about it.
"Nothing." Said Harry after a few minutes thought. Lupin looked at him as thought he knew Harry was being less than honest.
"Fine then. Lets go back into the pub." Said Lupin as he motioned Harry to the door. They both went into the Leaky Cauldron and headed for the counter. "Tom two Butterbeers please." A moment later Tom handed them a Butterbeer each. Lupin found a seat in the corner of the pub and they both sat there drinking their Butterbeer in silence. Harry was the first to break the silence.
"Have you seen Sirius lately?" asked Harry.
"No I haven't seen him since he first talked to me right before the summer." Harry had a concerned look on his face.
"Well I send him a letter two weeks ago and I still have heard back from him."
"You know how post owls can be sometimes." Said Lupin right to cheer up Harry, but Harry saw that he was worried as well.
"Yes, but I send Hedwig out to find him and she hasn't come back yet." Said Harry and with that Lupin turned to Harry with real concern.
"You say two weeks. Has Hedwig ever been gone this long?" asked Lupin
"No, she is the most dependable and quickest owl you will never met." Said Harry and went back to his Butterbeer. Then again they sat in silence thinking about Sirius when suddenly there was a great commotion from the entrance to Diagon Alley. Mrs. Weasley had rushed in looking for Harry and when she spotted him having a Butterbeer with Lupin she rushed over to the table where they were sitting.
"Oh there you are Harry. We have been looking all over for you. Why didn't you tell us you were going to come in here with Mr. Lupin?" She smiled at Lupin and Harry stood up.
"Thanks for the drink Remus, but I best be going." Said Harry trying to stop Lupin from saying anything about what happened outside to Mrs. Weasley, because Harry didn't want her fusing over him again. He hurried outside and caught joined the rest of the Weasleys in the alley. Mrs. Weasley told him all where she found him. When they all had finished buying everything they needed; they all had dinner in the Leaky Cauldron before collecting Harry's things from the small room in the back and Hermione's things in a room upstairs where she had spent the night. Mrs. Weasley pulled a bag of Floo powder out of her handbag and they all stood in front of the large fireplace in the Leaky Cauldron. They took turns taking some Floo powder from Mrs. Weasley, throwing it into the fire, calling out 'The Burrow' and then disappearing. When it was Harry's turned he slowly grabbed some Floo powder, he never really liked traveling by Floo powder, and when he finally found himself standing in the living room of the Weasley's house he took a deep breath.
When they were all there. Harry pulled his things, helped by Ron, up to the very top room of the house. They walked up the crocked staircase pasting Fred and George's room, which had a funny smell coming from it, Ginny's room, where Hermione had just opened her trunk and was look over her new books again, Percy's Room, Percy one Ron's three older brother who had already graduated from Hogwarts, Bill Weasley who worked for Gringotts Wizard Bank in Egypt and Charlie, who was working with dragons in Romania, were the other two brothers. Percy was sitting at his desk write what looked to be a very important report. Harry stuck his head in the room and said hello to Percy, but Percy was working to hard and didn't even hear him. They climb the rest of the stair and finally reached Ron's room. They dropped Harry's trunk in the middle of the small room. Harry looked around at the now familiar room with the wall covered with posters of Ron's favorite Quidditch team flying around in them. Shortly after Harry had put everything in place Hermione came in and they all talk about what they had done over the summer. Hermione told them all about Bulgaria and about how Viktor was so great, which seemed to make Ron a little angry when she talked about Viktor Krum.
The night wore on and just before they were about to say goodbye to each other a tapping sound came from Ron's window. They opened it and there was Hedwig sitting there a long letter tied to her leg. Harry went to the window and took the letter then opened Hedwig's cage so that she could rest, because she look rather tiered.
"I forgot I send a letter about a dream I had on my birthday." Harry told Ron and Hermione about the dream, when he finished they both looked like they were in shock.
"Why didn't you tell us about it. We would have had you here a lot earlier." Ron said as Harry unrolled the parchment and began to read it out loud.
Harry,
It took awhile for Hedwig to find me since I have been doing things for Dumbledore and haven't been in one place for to long. I am going to send a letter to Dumbledore to tell him about your dream so that he will know. By the time you get this you will probably already be at the Weasleys, which will help me from worrying so much about you staying in that house will that Muggle girl. She doesn't sound quite right, if you ask me. I will me glad when she isn't anywhere near you. Well I guess you will see Snuffles around Hogwarts.
Love Sirius
"Cassandra wasn't all that bad." Said Harry he went to playing with the ring on the chain around his neck but it wasn't there. Then he remembered that he gave it to Ron. "Ron can I have that ring back now?" asked Harry and Ron reaching into his pocket pulled out the chain with the ring and handed it to Harry. Hermione eyed the ring. "What's that?" she pointed at the ring.
"This is one of my birthday presents. Cassandra gave it to me. She said it the person who gave it to her said that it has protective powers." He reached out his hand and showed it to them. Hermione looked at it and she looked a little worried. "Don't worry Hermione I have been wearing it for two weeks now and nothing as happened." Said Harry, but Hermione didn't stop looking worried. Shortly after that they said goodnight to each other and went to bed.
The next day Harry and Ron came downstairs for breakfast and found Mr. Weasley reading a letter from Dumbledore and Mrs. Weasley fixing Harry's favorite breakfast. Harry and Ron sat down at the table and while they waited for Mrs. Weasley to finish, Harry picked up that mornings copy of the Daily Prophet. On the front cover the Headlines read, "Ministry of Magic found Muggle car destroy with Dark Mark nearby." He got a sick feeling when he read it.
Ministry wizards were called in yesterday to a deserted car in London. This car, whose owner in unknown, was destroyed by dark magic yesterday afternoon. Ministry wizard cleaned up the scene before any Muggle could arrive, but the Ministry fears that the owner of the car is no longer alive. This brings fear to the heart of witches and wizards everywhere, since the rumors of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named has returned. The Daily Prophet asked the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, about the rumors and he was quoted to say. "These rumors are unfounded and I will not comment on this, because they are simple not true." Fudge doesn't think that You-Know- Who has not come back, even though, Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry, announced at the end of school last year that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named had indeed come back after fourteen year of being gone.
"Did you guys read this?" asked Harry. He still had a sick feeling in his stomach. "London... yesterday afternoon... Muggle car." Thought Harry. "Could it be Cassandra?" Mrs. Weasley looked at him and he had gone pale.
"Are you okay Harry?" Harry looked at Mrs. Weasley and nodded. Mrs. Weasley took a hold of the Daily Prophet and read the front page. "Why would he start attacking Muggles? It just doesn't make sense."
"What ever made sense when it came to anything he did, and in that case anything anyone did around him." Said Mr. Weasley. "Take the Longbottoms, there was on reason for them to go down that alley, even if they did have reports about him in the area. They should have waited for help." Harry listened to his. He knew that the Longbottoms, the parents of a friend of his, Neville, were tortured by Voldemort and then went crazy because of it, but he never heard the story behind it. He wanted to know more about it but the sick feeling in stomach and the worry on his mind about the article started to bug him, which was obvious to everyone around the table, because they were all looking at him with questioning expressions.
"What's up Harry?" asked Ron.
"The article said in London, yesterday afternoon..."
"Yes?"
"I am just getting a very bad feeling about it, that's all." Said Harry, but everyone knew there was more to it, and someone would have said something, when Mrs. Weasley suddenly changed the topic, understanding that Harry didn't want to talk anymore about it.
"So are you guys excited about another year of school?" asked Mrs. Weasley, and the first one to get really excite about it was Hermione, as usual.
"Oh yes I can't wait. I want to know who our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher is, whoever it is they must really like Amulets and Talismans, because we had to get two books on the topic..." Hermione went no and no about interesting amulets that she had already read about and that she couldn't wait to have classes again, but Harry was really listening to carefully to her and by the looks of the faces around the table not many others were as well. Just has Hermione been about to stop talking there came a commotion from outside and then a knock at the backdoor. Mr. Weasley got up and walked to the door, he opened it and Harry could see a wizard in his mid-twenties standing at the door. He handed Mr. Weasley a letter and with a pop he was gone. Mr. Weasley read the letter and his face became more and more grave. When he was finished reading he handed the letter to Percy to read as he went to Mrs. Weasley kissed her on the check.
"Percy and I must be going to the office." Said Mr. Weasley.
"Why didn't they just send an owl?" asked Mrs. Weasley with a concerned look.
"It is quite serious Molly." Said Mr. Weasley. Harry looking at Percy who had now finished the letter, he also had a grave look on his face, as he looked up from the letter at Harry. Harry started to get the sick feeling in his stomach again. Percy got up from his chair and followed his father out of the house. The remaining people around the table looked at each other with questioning expression when Harry noticed that Percy had left he letter on the table and forgot it. He tried to reach for it, but was stopped by Mrs. Weasley who grabbed it before anyone could reach it.
"I don't think you children are allowed to read such things." Said Mrs. Weasley has she started to read it. "Oh my god." She slipped back into her chair; a tear started to fall from her eyes and as Percy had done before, the first person she looked at was, Harry. She stood up and walked to the fireplace. Throwing the letter into the fire she wiped the tears from her eyes and went back to the table.
"What's the matter mum?" asked George. There was a heavy silence hang in the air around the table.
"It would be better if you father explained it when he got home and had all the facts." Said Mrs. Weasley as she started to clean off the table in silence. The day wore on and no one felt like doing anything but sitting around the table reading books and waiting for Mr. Weasley to come back from work. Harry and Ron tried to practice some Quidditch but as soon as the started they decided to go back inside in case Mr. Weasley came back when they were practicing. Sometime after lunch an owl came. It had a letter for Harry from Hogwarts. Mrs. Weasley gave it to Harry. Harry opened it quickly, maybe this had some answers in it, but it didn't, inside there was a letter and a badge with the letter P on it.
"Oh Harry, why didn't you tell us?" exclaimed Mrs. Weasley. "Hey you guys, did you know that Harry is a prefect?" The Weasley twins looked over at Harry with evil grins, Hermione was jumping up and down happily, and Ron patted Harry on the back, as Harry turned red. He didn't want all this much attention. Harry read the letter to himself.
Dear Mr. H Potter
I am glad that you have decided to become a school prefect. There will be a meeting of all prefects right before the beginning of the school year feast you are required to attend. You will meet Professor Dumbledore in the room just off the great hall before the feast.
Sincerely
Professor M. McGonagall
Dinner came and went and Mr. Weasley was not home yet. A nervous Mrs. Weasley kept looking at the clock, which told the looker where everyone in the family was, right then Mr. Weasley was at work, where he had been since he left that morning, but a few moments later the clock hand suddenly flew from work to traveling and then landed on home. They stood up and waited for Mr. Weasley to enter the living room and inform them on what was happening. As he walked into the room they all was a grave look on his face, which made them all worry. He sat down in a chair by the fire and the next moment Percy, who had also went to work the moment he heard that Mr. Weasley had left that quickly, came into the room and handed a letter to Mr. Weasley. Mr. Weasley read the paper and looked back at Percy. "Are they sure?" he asked Percy and all Percy could do was nodded at him. Mr. Weasley stood up and began to speak.
"Okay this morning we got a letter from the Ministry of Magic tell us that they know who the car belonged to and also that a member on my department a very good friend of mine was killed by dark magic, when he went on the search for the person." Said Mr. Weasley and then looked at Harry. He reached into his pocket and pull out what looked like a torn piece of paper. "Harry this was found in the car." Mr. Weasley handed the piece of paper to Harry, when Harry looked at it, his heart leaped up into his throat. It wasn't a piece of paper; it was a picture, of him. It was the picture that Cassandra tore in half so that they could both have a picture of the other. "We don't know where the other part of the picture is." Harry looked at Mr. Weasley and then suddenly got up and ran upstairs. He searched his things until he found the other half of the picture and ran back downstairs. He gave Mr. Weasley the other half of the picture. Mr. Weasley looked at the picture with a very shocked expression, before giving the picture to Mrs. Weasley.
"Good lord." Said Mrs. Weasley. She looked at Mr. Weasley and then he continued to speak.
"I had most of the people in the Ministry look at the records to try and find out why this girl was taken or even if she was a witch pretending to be a Muggle, but Percy just gave me this note and Cassandra Knight is not a witch from anywhere, not England, not American, not Anywhere in Europe, they can't find her anywhere. When I say anywhere, I mean anywhere. They can't even find her in Muggle record either. She doesn't seem to exist, anywhere." This news hit Harry hard. "Well except in the records where they keep the name of the dead witches and wizards." Everyone looked at Mr. Weasley, shocked.
"They found that this girl is a one Cassandra J. Potter." Everyone in the room seemed to stop breathing all at once.
"What?" asked Harry? He was confused. "Who is Cassandra J. Potter?"
"Harry she is your cousin." Said Percy.
"WHAT?" How could he of had a cousin that he didn't know about, and how was in the records of dead witches and wizards?
"Harry." Said Mr. Weasley in a clam voice. "Your father had a sister, Jennifer Potter. She was one of the first people to be killed by you-know- who, and everyone thought that Jennifer's daughter Cassandra died with her, until one day Mrs. Longbottom, while patrolling a city for him she saw her in the middle of a circle of Death Eaters. They were walking her somewhere, we never found out where." Mr. Weasley took a deep breath but before he could continue Hermione spoke.
"So He took her when she was a child and he has her now?" asked Hermione.
"It seems that way." Said Mr. Weasley. "Then shortly after that the Longbottoms were attacked. Then a couple months later the ministry got a note at another of his attacks it said, 'Another Potter is dead and soon the last of them will be.' That is why your parents went into hiding Harry, because of that letter, and shortly after that... Well we all know that story.
"When we realized who it was that was taken and we do think that she was just taken and not killed. We sent out Ministry wizards to find anything that would lead us to where they might be. Then sometime last night a member of my department came upon something big, but before he could tell anyone what he found he was killed." When Mr. Weasley had finished there was a silence and everyone sat thinking about what to make of all of this. Harry stood up and walked out.
"No... Leave him be." Harry heard Mrs. Weasley says as he shut the door. He was glad for it because he had to be alone right now. How could he have a cousin he didn't know about? What other important things about his past had people forgotten to tell him about, a lot he imagined? He stayed outside thinking for along while and when he went back in he went straight to bed.
The next couple of weeks went by in a very confusing blur. It seemed to Harry that the details about this summer started to fade away as though he could even remember what happened. Harry found himself, one day, straining his memory to remember what exactly Cassandra looked like. The only thing that remain of her anywhere was a small picture of them that they had taken at the zoo, which Mr. Weasley gave back to him after the Ministry of Magic was done looking at it.
Finally the day came when they were supposed to leave for Hogwarts. That morning everyone was running around trying to get everything in there trunks and get their trunks into the two Ministry cars that Mr. Weasley had gotten for them. They made their way to King's Cross station in good time and had about a half an hour to get cart, put their thing on it and make their way to platform 9 ¾. Harry, who was getting stares from the Muggles around him, because he had a sleeping Hedwig in her cage on top of his cart, was the first to reach the barrier with Ron. The only way one could get onto platform 9 ¾ was to walk through the barrier-separating platform 9 and 10. Harry and Ron went through the barrier together and when they got on the other side they noticed that the platform was less crowded than normal, as if there were many people, who weren't going to come back to Hogwarts this year, after what happened last year.
The Hogwarts Express seemed almost empty as Harry and Ron found a compartment in the back of the train as they usually did. After they put all their things away in the luggage compartment and sat in their seats, Hermione joined them. "Can you believe how few people are on the train today." She looked worried. She couldn't understand why people weren't going back to school, either could Harry and Ron, and so it seem Fred and George where confused as well when they found them.
"What is going on around here?" Fred walked into the compartment with a bewildered look. "We can't find anyone." Fred and George looked at their confusing face then left to see if some people had gotten on after they left, but by the time the train was ready to go a whole crowd of people hurried onto the train. Still it wasn't the normal crowd of people, at least a quarter of the people were missing from the train.
When the train slowly picked up speed Harry started to feel a little better about the thought that by the end of the day he would be back Hogwarts, the only place where he really felt safe.
The days rolled by and Harry managed to finish his homework from Hogwarts without Cassandra noticing exactly what he was study (she offered to help him with his math if he need it). Finally the day came that they were going to take the trip into London for Harry to meet with the Weasleys. It was the first day that Harry got up before Cassandra did, so Harry went down stairs and cooked breakfast for her as she had done for him all summer. When he finished cooking breakfast he went upstairs to wake Cassandra help; as he was about to open the door to tell her to wake up he heard Cassandra talking as if someone else was in the room.
"No you cannot have him!" said Cassandra. Harry listened from outside the door. "I won't let you harm him."
"Whom is she talking to? And who is she talking about" wondered Harry has he went to opened the door, but before he put his hand on the doorknob it started to turn and the door to open. Harry stood there waiting to see if Cassandra was the only person in her room as the door flew wide open. Cassandra was the one who opened the door and was now staring at him shocked.
"Harry?" said Cassandra and was about to say something else when Harry spoke first.
"I cooked breakfast do you want some?" asked Harry and then quickly went back downstairs, he didn't want to let Cassandra know that he heard her saying those things whatever they meant. By the time Cassandra got downstairs Harry's mind was full of questions he didn't want to ask, so they sat to eat in an odd silence. They both looked as though they wanted to ask the other some questions, but neither were speaking. It wasn't until the clock started to chime that they realized that they were going to be later if they didn't hurry up, so they quickly finished breakfast, got dress, and put all of Harry's stuff in Cassandra's car. All the way to London they talked about the great summer and what they had done.
"Harry that reminds me of something." Said Cassandra as she went into her purse to get something. "Remember that day at the zoo when that guy took our picture?"
"Yes."
"Well, I bought it off him." Cassandra pulled out the picture of the two of them walking through the zoo and he smiled slightly. "Did you want it?" asked Cassandra
"Yes, but there is only one. You would have a picture of me then." Said Harry.
"Okay." Said Cassandra taking the picture and carefully ripping it down the middle. Then she gave Harry the side of the picture with her no it and kept the side with Harry. "There you have a picture of me and I have a picture of you." Harry smiled, she was a clever Muggle if not the coolest Harry had ever meet, but his experience was limited to the Dursleys and their friends.
When they finally arrived in London Cassandra had to be told were to go, by Harry, to get to the street with the Leaky Cauldron, they parked across the street. Harry up out of the car and saw Mr. Weasley and Ron standing on the sidewalk in Muggle clothes waiting for him. Harry quickly got out his trunk and Hedwig's cage and placed them of the ground next to the car as Cassandra got out of the car and looked across the street at the two red headed wizards.
"So those are the Weasleys?" Cassandra looked at Harry with a smile.
"Part of them." Said Harry with a little giggle. "Cassandra can you bring the cage over I am going to take the trunk?"
"Okay I will be over in a minute." Said Cassandra. Harry carried his heavy trunk across the street and set it down right in front of Ron.
"Oh Harry there you are." Said Mr. Weasley. Still looking around as those waiting for someone else. "Where is that Muggle girl you lived with for the summer?"
"Oh she is right over there." Said Harry and turning to point where Cassandra was he noticed that she had disappeared. Both her and the car were gone, but the funny thing was that Hedwig's cage was sitting right next to Harry. "That's funny, where did she go?"
"Oh well." Said Mr. Weasley. "I guess it is all for the best. I would have probably asked her too many questions and she would of thought me mad, like so many Muggle often do." Mr. Weasley picked up Harry's trunk and carried it into the Leaky Cauldron. Harry stay outside with Ron, staring at the spot where the car was parked. Then he looked down at the half picture Cassandra gave him with a sad expression. For some reason he felt really sad that he couldn't see Cassandra anymore. Even thought they had only known each other for a little while, she felt like a sister to him.
"Harry, we better get inside everyone is waiting for us." Said Ron and he went into the Leaky Cauldron. Harry stay for a moment longer before following Ron in. When he got into the Leaky Cauldron, Harry noticed the rest of the Weasley and Hermione sitting. Harry waved at them and he went up to Tom, the innkeeper and asked if he could keep his stuff in a room so that he didn't have to carry them around Diagon Alley. Tom agreed to let him leave it in a small room at the back of the Leaky Cauldron, this room looked like it was the room that Tom lived in. Harry left it there and said thanks to Tom before joining the Weasleys and Hermione at the table they were sitting at. Ron had just joined Mr. Weasley, Mrs. Weasley, Fred and George Weasley, Ginny Weasley, the youngest member of the Weasley family and the only girl, and Hermione at the table where they were eating lunch. Fred and George Weasley, twins, both had identical excited looks.
"So, Harry we heard you didn't have to live with you relatives this summer." Said Fred and shot a sideways glance at his twin brother. "Was the Muggle girl good looking?"
"Fred!" exclaimed Mrs. Weasley, as she, Ginny and Hermione blush, and all the boys were looking at Harry expecting the details of his summer.
"Cassandra was little an older sister to me. That all." Said Harry with a half smiled. Harry eat lunch with the Weasley's and Hermione, as the Weasley twins and Mr. Weasley keep asking him about the mysterious Muggle girl that they heard have from Harry's letters (Mrs. Weasley, keep trying to get them to stop so that Harry could actually chew his food, but it was no use). The questions continued until Harry was done with his lunch and they headed for Diagon Alley. When Harry stepped in the brightly lit Alley full of magic shops, he felt almost at home. They walked down the Alley towards Gringotts Wizard Bank, so that they could get some wizard money. Harry, who had a small fortune hidden in the vaults miles below London, filled his moneybag full of golden Galleons, silver Sickles and bronze Knuts. When they were back outside Gringotts they all went three separate ways as usual.
Harry, Ron and Hermione headed towards Flourish and Blotts book shop to buy their new schoolbooks. All three of them pulled out their lists and handed them to the manager, who helped them find their book. When they finished buying their books they went to Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor and sat to have some ice cream. Hermione started to look over their new schoolbooks; she was particularly interested in a book called, Magic Amulets and Talismans, by Aderian Lomus. She thumbed through the pages of the book until she had finished looking at every page in the book, she start to look really excited.
"I guess we have a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, and whoever it is, that person must love their Amulets and Talismans. Have you guys looked at this book?" Said Hermione excitedly.
Harry and Ron watch Hermione as she look through the book again and when she was finally finished they got up and started to walk around looking at all the other shops in Diagon Alley. Harry was thumbing the ring that Cassandra had given him, that lay under his clothes. Ron noticed that he was playing with something.
"What's that Harry?" asked Ron. Harry took off the chain and showed it to Ron, who looked at it with great interest. Ron was going to ask Harry about it when they met Fred and George standing outside the Quality Quidditch Shop looking in the window to see if there was anything new, and when they noticed the three other them, they turned to talk to Ron.
"Hey Ron you need to come with us to Madam Malkin's." said Fred, but Ron only stood there looking at them cautiously.
"Go ahead Ron." Harry said, he knew what Fred and George were going to do; they were going to buy him new dress robes, as he asked them to do. Harry started to go with them, but he got a feeling that he was being watched. He let the others walk ahead as he started to scan the crowded alley. Then he saw her and his heart skipped a beat.
"Why is she here?" thought Harry as he watch Cassandra walk back up the alley towards the Leaky Cauldron. Suddenly the crowd around Harry went totally silent as Cassandra turned and stared at Harry.
"Harry..." said Cassandra her voice seemed to echo off the walls of the alley. She continued down the alley and Harry began to follow her. She entered the Leaky Cauldron and Harry hurried to caught up. He followed her into the dark pub, everything but Cassandra seemed to be covered with a shadow. Harry watched as Cassandra walked out of the pub and onto the street outside, he followed. When Harry got outside the street was completely empty. There were no cars; no people walking down the street, nothing. Cassandra walked to the other side of the street and stopped, turning she smiled at Harry and beaconed him across the street. Harry started to step into the street, when Cassandra opened her mouth to say something, but the only thing that came out sounded like the horn of a bus. It was so loud it filled Harry's ears as a great force pulled him back.
The next thing Harry knew was that he was on the ground in front of the Leaky Cauldron and there were people standing over him, all Muggles. There was a large bus stopped right in front of him. He couldn't understand what just happened until he heard a familiar voice call to him.
"Harry, what do you think you were doing?" asked Remus Lupin. Then Harry saw the face of his former Professor as he stood over him, with a very worried expression. Harry looked at Lupin confused, he didn't know exactly what he was doing, oh what, yeah, he was following Cassandra across the empty street. "You almost got hit by that bus." Exclaimed Lupin as he pointed to the bus. The people, who had stopped to look at Harry, were starting to walk away when Harry came to his senses.
"What are you talking about? The street was empty a moment ago." Said Harry as he looked across the street Cassandra had disappeared again. He was looking around to see where Cassandra had gone when Lupin spoke again.
"No, Harry. I watched you walk through the pub and out here. I was calling you, but when you didn't respond I followed you out. I watched you as you tried to walk out into the street right in front of an on coming bus." Said Lupin as he help Harry to his feet and dusted Harry off.
"Are you sure?" asked Harry. "Did you see that girl I was following?"
"What? What girl? There wasn't any girl, you walked out the door by yourself." "She would of gone out a little time before me."
"No, no one had gone out or in the door for a good while before you left Harry." Harry began to really worry about it now, and it must of shown up on his face because Lupin said. "What is going on Harry?" Harry didn't know what to say. He didn't know how to tell Lupin about the things that had happened to him over the summer, how Cassandra stayed with him when the Dursley's went on vacation, how he was having dreams all the time now, and how he saw Voldemort at the zoo, or thought he saw Voldemort. Harry was confused himself so how was he going to tell someone else about it.
"Nothing." Said Harry after a few minutes thought. Lupin looked at him as thought he knew Harry was being less than honest.
"Fine then. Lets go back into the pub." Said Lupin as he motioned Harry to the door. They both went into the Leaky Cauldron and headed for the counter. "Tom two Butterbeers please." A moment later Tom handed them a Butterbeer each. Lupin found a seat in the corner of the pub and they both sat there drinking their Butterbeer in silence. Harry was the first to break the silence.
"Have you seen Sirius lately?" asked Harry.
"No I haven't seen him since he first talked to me right before the summer." Harry had a concerned look on his face.
"Well I send him a letter two weeks ago and I still have heard back from him."
"You know how post owls can be sometimes." Said Lupin right to cheer up Harry, but Harry saw that he was worried as well.
"Yes, but I send Hedwig out to find him and she hasn't come back yet." Said Harry and with that Lupin turned to Harry with real concern.
"You say two weeks. Has Hedwig ever been gone this long?" asked Lupin
"No, she is the most dependable and quickest owl you will never met." Said Harry and went back to his Butterbeer. Then again they sat in silence thinking about Sirius when suddenly there was a great commotion from the entrance to Diagon Alley. Mrs. Weasley had rushed in looking for Harry and when she spotted him having a Butterbeer with Lupin she rushed over to the table where they were sitting.
"Oh there you are Harry. We have been looking all over for you. Why didn't you tell us you were going to come in here with Mr. Lupin?" She smiled at Lupin and Harry stood up.
"Thanks for the drink Remus, but I best be going." Said Harry trying to stop Lupin from saying anything about what happened outside to Mrs. Weasley, because Harry didn't want her fusing over him again. He hurried outside and caught joined the rest of the Weasleys in the alley. Mrs. Weasley told him all where she found him. When they all had finished buying everything they needed; they all had dinner in the Leaky Cauldron before collecting Harry's things from the small room in the back and Hermione's things in a room upstairs where she had spent the night. Mrs. Weasley pulled a bag of Floo powder out of her handbag and they all stood in front of the large fireplace in the Leaky Cauldron. They took turns taking some Floo powder from Mrs. Weasley, throwing it into the fire, calling out 'The Burrow' and then disappearing. When it was Harry's turned he slowly grabbed some Floo powder, he never really liked traveling by Floo powder, and when he finally found himself standing in the living room of the Weasley's house he took a deep breath.
When they were all there. Harry pulled his things, helped by Ron, up to the very top room of the house. They walked up the crocked staircase pasting Fred and George's room, which had a funny smell coming from it, Ginny's room, where Hermione had just opened her trunk and was look over her new books again, Percy's Room, Percy one Ron's three older brother who had already graduated from Hogwarts, Bill Weasley who worked for Gringotts Wizard Bank in Egypt and Charlie, who was working with dragons in Romania, were the other two brothers. Percy was sitting at his desk write what looked to be a very important report. Harry stuck his head in the room and said hello to Percy, but Percy was working to hard and didn't even hear him. They climb the rest of the stair and finally reached Ron's room. They dropped Harry's trunk in the middle of the small room. Harry looked around at the now familiar room with the wall covered with posters of Ron's favorite Quidditch team flying around in them. Shortly after Harry had put everything in place Hermione came in and they all talk about what they had done over the summer. Hermione told them all about Bulgaria and about how Viktor was so great, which seemed to make Ron a little angry when she talked about Viktor Krum.
The night wore on and just before they were about to say goodbye to each other a tapping sound came from Ron's window. They opened it and there was Hedwig sitting there a long letter tied to her leg. Harry went to the window and took the letter then opened Hedwig's cage so that she could rest, because she look rather tiered.
"I forgot I send a letter about a dream I had on my birthday." Harry told Ron and Hermione about the dream, when he finished they both looked like they were in shock.
"Why didn't you tell us about it. We would have had you here a lot earlier." Ron said as Harry unrolled the parchment and began to read it out loud.
Harry,
It took awhile for Hedwig to find me since I have been doing things for Dumbledore and haven't been in one place for to long. I am going to send a letter to Dumbledore to tell him about your dream so that he will know. By the time you get this you will probably already be at the Weasleys, which will help me from worrying so much about you staying in that house will that Muggle girl. She doesn't sound quite right, if you ask me. I will me glad when she isn't anywhere near you. Well I guess you will see Snuffles around Hogwarts.
Love Sirius
"Cassandra wasn't all that bad." Said Harry he went to playing with the ring on the chain around his neck but it wasn't there. Then he remembered that he gave it to Ron. "Ron can I have that ring back now?" asked Harry and Ron reaching into his pocket pulled out the chain with the ring and handed it to Harry. Hermione eyed the ring. "What's that?" she pointed at the ring.
"This is one of my birthday presents. Cassandra gave it to me. She said it the person who gave it to her said that it has protective powers." He reached out his hand and showed it to them. Hermione looked at it and she looked a little worried. "Don't worry Hermione I have been wearing it for two weeks now and nothing as happened." Said Harry, but Hermione didn't stop looking worried. Shortly after that they said goodnight to each other and went to bed.
The next day Harry and Ron came downstairs for breakfast and found Mr. Weasley reading a letter from Dumbledore and Mrs. Weasley fixing Harry's favorite breakfast. Harry and Ron sat down at the table and while they waited for Mrs. Weasley to finish, Harry picked up that mornings copy of the Daily Prophet. On the front cover the Headlines read, "Ministry of Magic found Muggle car destroy with Dark Mark nearby." He got a sick feeling when he read it.
Ministry wizards were called in yesterday to a deserted car in London. This car, whose owner in unknown, was destroyed by dark magic yesterday afternoon. Ministry wizard cleaned up the scene before any Muggle could arrive, but the Ministry fears that the owner of the car is no longer alive. This brings fear to the heart of witches and wizards everywhere, since the rumors of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named has returned. The Daily Prophet asked the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, about the rumors and he was quoted to say. "These rumors are unfounded and I will not comment on this, because they are simple not true." Fudge doesn't think that You-Know- Who has not come back, even though, Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry, announced at the end of school last year that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named had indeed come back after fourteen year of being gone.
"Did you guys read this?" asked Harry. He still had a sick feeling in his stomach. "London... yesterday afternoon... Muggle car." Thought Harry. "Could it be Cassandra?" Mrs. Weasley looked at him and he had gone pale.
"Are you okay Harry?" Harry looked at Mrs. Weasley and nodded. Mrs. Weasley took a hold of the Daily Prophet and read the front page. "Why would he start attacking Muggles? It just doesn't make sense."
"What ever made sense when it came to anything he did, and in that case anything anyone did around him." Said Mr. Weasley. "Take the Longbottoms, there was on reason for them to go down that alley, even if they did have reports about him in the area. They should have waited for help." Harry listened to his. He knew that the Longbottoms, the parents of a friend of his, Neville, were tortured by Voldemort and then went crazy because of it, but he never heard the story behind it. He wanted to know more about it but the sick feeling in stomach and the worry on his mind about the article started to bug him, which was obvious to everyone around the table, because they were all looking at him with questioning expressions.
"What's up Harry?" asked Ron.
"The article said in London, yesterday afternoon..."
"Yes?"
"I am just getting a very bad feeling about it, that's all." Said Harry, but everyone knew there was more to it, and someone would have said something, when Mrs. Weasley suddenly changed the topic, understanding that Harry didn't want to talk anymore about it.
"So are you guys excited about another year of school?" asked Mrs. Weasley, and the first one to get really excite about it was Hermione, as usual.
"Oh yes I can't wait. I want to know who our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher is, whoever it is they must really like Amulets and Talismans, because we had to get two books on the topic..." Hermione went no and no about interesting amulets that she had already read about and that she couldn't wait to have classes again, but Harry was really listening to carefully to her and by the looks of the faces around the table not many others were as well. Just has Hermione been about to stop talking there came a commotion from outside and then a knock at the backdoor. Mr. Weasley got up and walked to the door, he opened it and Harry could see a wizard in his mid-twenties standing at the door. He handed Mr. Weasley a letter and with a pop he was gone. Mr. Weasley read the letter and his face became more and more grave. When he was finished reading he handed the letter to Percy to read as he went to Mrs. Weasley kissed her on the check.
"Percy and I must be going to the office." Said Mr. Weasley.
"Why didn't they just send an owl?" asked Mrs. Weasley with a concerned look.
"It is quite serious Molly." Said Mr. Weasley. Harry looking at Percy who had now finished the letter, he also had a grave look on his face, as he looked up from the letter at Harry. Harry started to get the sick feeling in his stomach again. Percy got up from his chair and followed his father out of the house. The remaining people around the table looked at each other with questioning expression when Harry noticed that Percy had left he letter on the table and forgot it. He tried to reach for it, but was stopped by Mrs. Weasley who grabbed it before anyone could reach it.
"I don't think you children are allowed to read such things." Said Mrs. Weasley has she started to read it. "Oh my god." She slipped back into her chair; a tear started to fall from her eyes and as Percy had done before, the first person she looked at was, Harry. She stood up and walked to the fireplace. Throwing the letter into the fire she wiped the tears from her eyes and went back to the table.
"What's the matter mum?" asked George. There was a heavy silence hang in the air around the table.
"It would be better if you father explained it when he got home and had all the facts." Said Mrs. Weasley as she started to clean off the table in silence. The day wore on and no one felt like doing anything but sitting around the table reading books and waiting for Mr. Weasley to come back from work. Harry and Ron tried to practice some Quidditch but as soon as the started they decided to go back inside in case Mr. Weasley came back when they were practicing. Sometime after lunch an owl came. It had a letter for Harry from Hogwarts. Mrs. Weasley gave it to Harry. Harry opened it quickly, maybe this had some answers in it, but it didn't, inside there was a letter and a badge with the letter P on it.
"Oh Harry, why didn't you tell us?" exclaimed Mrs. Weasley. "Hey you guys, did you know that Harry is a prefect?" The Weasley twins looked over at Harry with evil grins, Hermione was jumping up and down happily, and Ron patted Harry on the back, as Harry turned red. He didn't want all this much attention. Harry read the letter to himself.
Dear Mr. H Potter
I am glad that you have decided to become a school prefect. There will be a meeting of all prefects right before the beginning of the school year feast you are required to attend. You will meet Professor Dumbledore in the room just off the great hall before the feast.
Sincerely
Professor M. McGonagall
Dinner came and went and Mr. Weasley was not home yet. A nervous Mrs. Weasley kept looking at the clock, which told the looker where everyone in the family was, right then Mr. Weasley was at work, where he had been since he left that morning, but a few moments later the clock hand suddenly flew from work to traveling and then landed on home. They stood up and waited for Mr. Weasley to enter the living room and inform them on what was happening. As he walked into the room they all was a grave look on his face, which made them all worry. He sat down in a chair by the fire and the next moment Percy, who had also went to work the moment he heard that Mr. Weasley had left that quickly, came into the room and handed a letter to Mr. Weasley. Mr. Weasley read the paper and looked back at Percy. "Are they sure?" he asked Percy and all Percy could do was nodded at him. Mr. Weasley stood up and began to speak.
"Okay this morning we got a letter from the Ministry of Magic tell us that they know who the car belonged to and also that a member on my department a very good friend of mine was killed by dark magic, when he went on the search for the person." Said Mr. Weasley and then looked at Harry. He reached into his pocket and pull out what looked like a torn piece of paper. "Harry this was found in the car." Mr. Weasley handed the piece of paper to Harry, when Harry looked at it, his heart leaped up into his throat. It wasn't a piece of paper; it was a picture, of him. It was the picture that Cassandra tore in half so that they could both have a picture of the other. "We don't know where the other part of the picture is." Harry looked at Mr. Weasley and then suddenly got up and ran upstairs. He searched his things until he found the other half of the picture and ran back downstairs. He gave Mr. Weasley the other half of the picture. Mr. Weasley looked at the picture with a very shocked expression, before giving the picture to Mrs. Weasley.
"Good lord." Said Mrs. Weasley. She looked at Mr. Weasley and then he continued to speak.
"I had most of the people in the Ministry look at the records to try and find out why this girl was taken or even if she was a witch pretending to be a Muggle, but Percy just gave me this note and Cassandra Knight is not a witch from anywhere, not England, not American, not Anywhere in Europe, they can't find her anywhere. When I say anywhere, I mean anywhere. They can't even find her in Muggle record either. She doesn't seem to exist, anywhere." This news hit Harry hard. "Well except in the records where they keep the name of the dead witches and wizards." Everyone looked at Mr. Weasley, shocked.
"They found that this girl is a one Cassandra J. Potter." Everyone in the room seemed to stop breathing all at once.
"What?" asked Harry? He was confused. "Who is Cassandra J. Potter?"
"Harry she is your cousin." Said Percy.
"WHAT?" How could he of had a cousin that he didn't know about, and how was in the records of dead witches and wizards?
"Harry." Said Mr. Weasley in a clam voice. "Your father had a sister, Jennifer Potter. She was one of the first people to be killed by you-know- who, and everyone thought that Jennifer's daughter Cassandra died with her, until one day Mrs. Longbottom, while patrolling a city for him she saw her in the middle of a circle of Death Eaters. They were walking her somewhere, we never found out where." Mr. Weasley took a deep breath but before he could continue Hermione spoke.
"So He took her when she was a child and he has her now?" asked Hermione.
"It seems that way." Said Mr. Weasley. "Then shortly after that the Longbottoms were attacked. Then a couple months later the ministry got a note at another of his attacks it said, 'Another Potter is dead and soon the last of them will be.' That is why your parents went into hiding Harry, because of that letter, and shortly after that... Well we all know that story.
"When we realized who it was that was taken and we do think that she was just taken and not killed. We sent out Ministry wizards to find anything that would lead us to where they might be. Then sometime last night a member of my department came upon something big, but before he could tell anyone what he found he was killed." When Mr. Weasley had finished there was a silence and everyone sat thinking about what to make of all of this. Harry stood up and walked out.
"No... Leave him be." Harry heard Mrs. Weasley says as he shut the door. He was glad for it because he had to be alone right now. How could he have a cousin he didn't know about? What other important things about his past had people forgotten to tell him about, a lot he imagined? He stayed outside thinking for along while and when he went back in he went straight to bed.
The next couple of weeks went by in a very confusing blur. It seemed to Harry that the details about this summer started to fade away as though he could even remember what happened. Harry found himself, one day, straining his memory to remember what exactly Cassandra looked like. The only thing that remain of her anywhere was a small picture of them that they had taken at the zoo, which Mr. Weasley gave back to him after the Ministry of Magic was done looking at it.
Finally the day came when they were supposed to leave for Hogwarts. That morning everyone was running around trying to get everything in there trunks and get their trunks into the two Ministry cars that Mr. Weasley had gotten for them. They made their way to King's Cross station in good time and had about a half an hour to get cart, put their thing on it and make their way to platform 9 ¾. Harry, who was getting stares from the Muggles around him, because he had a sleeping Hedwig in her cage on top of his cart, was the first to reach the barrier with Ron. The only way one could get onto platform 9 ¾ was to walk through the barrier-separating platform 9 and 10. Harry and Ron went through the barrier together and when they got on the other side they noticed that the platform was less crowded than normal, as if there were many people, who weren't going to come back to Hogwarts this year, after what happened last year.
The Hogwarts Express seemed almost empty as Harry and Ron found a compartment in the back of the train as they usually did. After they put all their things away in the luggage compartment and sat in their seats, Hermione joined them. "Can you believe how few people are on the train today." She looked worried. She couldn't understand why people weren't going back to school, either could Harry and Ron, and so it seem Fred and George where confused as well when they found them.
"What is going on around here?" Fred walked into the compartment with a bewildered look. "We can't find anyone." Fred and George looked at their confusing face then left to see if some people had gotten on after they left, but by the time the train was ready to go a whole crowd of people hurried onto the train. Still it wasn't the normal crowd of people, at least a quarter of the people were missing from the train.
When the train slowly picked up speed Harry started to feel a little better about the thought that by the end of the day he would be back Hogwarts, the only place where he really felt safe.