Author: mony2208
Rating: PG-13
Summary: 'In the past decade, the indications have been that wizard kind is living through nothing more than a brief calm between two wars' as Firenze said in Divination class, fifth year … In Harry Potter's 6th year, will this 'brief calm' end and the 2nd war finally begin? Will he have the power to become the murderer or the murdered? … All that can be said is Harry's sixth year proves to be his most difficult yet, with his connection with Voldemort growing stronger everybody and his worst nightmares haunting him at every turn. Ootp spoilers.
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Forewords: This is going to be pretty much a transitional chapter, where nothing much happens. In fact, far less than I thought as I had originally planned to include everything up to the Sorting Hat, but there wasn't enough room. Unfortunately, I think this is one of my less favourable chapters, which makes it all the worse because I haven't updated in such a terribly long time. I was going to have this chapter done by Christmas but that was an impossible feat, what with some relatives staying over, and 'Christmas cheer abound'. Just take note, that although I've only done one chapter, I have been working on future chapters of this story, including the ending.
This next bit is important for people who might want a slightly more detailed version on my fic that I've been working on.
I've been doing a lot of editing for this story lately; that is, filling in all the bits and pieces I missed before posting the chapters. Anyway, part of the editing I've been doing was on this program called etext reader. My uncle just installed it for me on my computer. So what I've done is fix my story so that it can be read on that reader, like in a proper book format. I've also added extra scenes and changed a few things that I have yet to do here on ff.net, so if anybody wants do download the full version so far, join my yahoo group, where in a couple of days I'll have the whole story so far, posted!!
Harry Potter and the Green Flame Torch
Chapter Nine
Returning home
The next morning, Harry woke early enough that the house was, for once, completely silent. Climbing out of bed, he quietly changed into some clothes, and after packing his pyjamas into his trunk, he picked that and his owl cage up and tiptoed his way down to the kitchen, where he deposited them outside the door.
To his surprise, the only person Harry met inside the kitchen was Snape, who was already sitting down and drinking a cup of something steaming; possibly tea, coffee ... or blood, Harry guessed, snickering slightly.
As it was too late to go back upstairs, Harry boldly walked through the doorway and without talking to or even acknowledging Snape, began to make himself a simple breakfast of toast and eggs. Snape seemed disgruntled to be sitting at the same table with Harry, and quickly finished whatever he was drinking before standing up and making his way out of 12 Grimmauld Place. Harry guessed he was on his way to Hogwarts as well, but couldn't really gain enough energy to care about it.
Soon after Harry finished his second piece of toast, signs of other life began to show itself. First down of the Weasleys was Mrs Weasley, who quickly began to busy herself with everyone else's breakfast. Next came Hermione and Ginny, who were yawning wildly and eyeing Harry with sympathetic looks. Obviously, Harry thought, they'd heard his screaming last night too.
He pasted a smile on his face at the girls in return, and then turned his attention to the rest of the house as Mr Weasley walked through the door. Some other Order members showed up next, including Remus, who had been sleeping upstairs and Tonks and Kingsley who had just arrived via the front door.
Ron was one of the last people to come stumbling into the dining room, still half-asleep as he dragged his trunk after him. His hair and clothes were in its usual disarray, but Harry could tell his mind was only on breakfast, according to the noises that Ron's stomach was making.
Harry stifled a snicker as Ron let loose on his breakfast, and continued to watch on in amusement as everyone else in the household finished their own breakfast and rushed to get ready to leave. Remus was the first to leave the table, disappearing outside along with Tonks and Kingsley for something or rather. Mr Weasley soon followed, and Harry wondered if it had something to do with their transport to Kings Cross Station. Maybe now the Ministry was on their side, they'd get to go in the cars again.
Even after the events of last night where Hermione had commanded them all to be ready and packed by the morning, amazingly enough Mrs Weasley had still managed to find a few bits and pieces belonging to both Ginny and Ron. This resulted in the both of them having to lug their trunks back upstairs to pack again, this time leaving nothing behind, or in an ungainly mess.
So apart from Harry, only Hermione seemed completely unscathed by the Weasleys' running to and fro. Together they merely sat on their trunks by the doorway, waiting patiently, or in Harry's case, laughing softly, for everyone to finish getting ready.
Finally, at a quarter past ten, Ron and Ginny came rushing back down the stairs with their mother yelling behind them at the mess that they would have left behind if it wasn't for her. Needless to say, both Ron and Ginny were sporting the traditional Weasley red-eared look as they joined Hermione and Harry, who up until that stage had been lightly dozing with his head against the back of the wall.
"Mate," Ron shook Harry out of the peaceful daze one gets before falling asleep, making Harry slip off the trunk with a crash. Ron looked sheepish as Harry looked up to glare at him. "Uh – sorry, we're ready now."
Still feeling rather disgruntled, Harry nodded and bent to pick up his trunk, and Hedwig's empty owl cage.
"Oh no – no Harry," Mr Weasley exclaimed suddenly, coming from behind Harry to levitate Harry's trunk and owl cage up off the ground. It was low to the ground as though the trunk had suddenly sprouted wheels, so it wasn't enough to warrant any suspicion from any muggles. "Let myself, Remus, Tonks and Kingsley take the luggage. It'll be quicker for the Ministry cars at the least."
Harry took a hasty step back as Mr Weasley accidentally waved his wand around, which made Harry's trunk take a quick dive towards his feet.
"So we're going in the Ministry cars again?" Ginny asked, letting Tonks levitate her own trunk. This was short-lived when her trunk only ended up toppling over the coat rack when Tonks walked past it. Mrs Weasley stepped in for her, politely shooing Tonks outside as Kingsley took Hermione's trunk. At that stage, Mrs Black's screams started up again, so nobody could answer until they were all led outside, and the door firmly shut behind them.
Mr Weasley was the one to turn back to his daughter after 12 Grimmauld Place shrunk into nothing and pushed houses 10 and 14 back together with a forceful thump. "Yes, the Ministry has given us full use of their entitlements." he replied, then as though it was an afterthought added, "But of course, if it wasn't for Amelia temporarily taking over Fudge's spot, our requests would have taken weeks to be adequately processed and accepted."
"Why?" asked Harry, his eyes squinting into the sunlight to see if there were any cars parked on the road yet. There were none, only an old lady walking past with her pit-bull terrior, which was barking rather viciously at their large group.
Harry was unpleasantly reminded of Aunt Marge and her nasty dogs and quickly turned back to listen to Mr Weasley. "Well, though the Ministry do support us now – some – are rather sore about the whole incident, and they've been rather reluctant to admit that they'd been wrong for so long. It's rather a mad house there at the moment."
Harry and the others nodded, understanding the situation immediately. After a moment, Harry - remembering his trial last year - added curiously, "Amelia is Madam Bones, isn't she?"
"That she is." Mr Weasley nodded, "She's the Head of Magical Law Enforcement, but due to her high influence in the Ministry, she's been temporarily assigned to be the acting Minister, until the election campaign has finished."
"Is she going to be running for Minister?" Hermione asked excitedly, making Harry wonder the reason behind it. That mystery was solved after Tonks and Kingsley nodded, and she added quickly, "There hasn't been a female Minister in over one hundred years – not since Matilda Biggs of Winchester, who was the first to-"
"-The cars are here." Ron interrupted quickly, cutting Hermione's lecture off short, before she really got into things. He pointed towards the end of the road and sure enough, two black Ministry vehicles came swerving around the corner to come to a stop right in front of them all.
Hermione stopped talking at once, closing her mouth with a frown at Ron.
Remus drew the attention away from the two by talking for the first time since breakfast. "Great, they've arrived." he exclaimed with a satisfied grin. He levitated Ron's trunk over to the car nearest to them, and after looking around, carefully levitated it higher into the trunk of the car. Kingsley, Mr and Mrs Weasley did the same, before directing everyone into a car.
Harry found himself wedged into the second car, in-between Tonks and Remus, and facing Ron, who was next to Mr Weasley, whose head was turned around to speak to the Ministry official driving the car.
"And off we go." Tonks cried out, grinning widely, as the cars pulled off the kerb a few minutes later. She looked out the window as they shot past traffic and sighed as their car managed to weave through two red traffic lights. "I always wanted to drive these cars …" she said wistfully.
"Why didn't you just get a licence?" asked Ron.
Tonks gave an embarrassed laugh. "I – uh failed every time I took the test …" she admitted ruefully. "Seemed that although there were many spells and protection charms on the cars that I drove, I somehow managed to – uh - damage each one beyond repair."
Harry and Ron burst out in raucous laughter, and even Remus started to chuckle as Tonks's face turned pink enough to match her hair. Mr Weasley turned around at that point, no doubt hearing the laughter and smiled a bit.
"It won't be long before we reach the station," he said, then his face took on a serious turn as he glanced at Tonks and Remus. "but when we do, we have to stick close together. I want you-"
He pointed to Harry.
"-To stick in-between Tonks and Remus as soon as you get out of the car. If anything happens, you'll be the main target."
Harry nodded solemnly, remembering the trip to the Order's Headquarters, where he had been the main one being protected. He knew now, why it was so important that he had survived that trip … and all previous others as well. After all, he'd ultimately be the only one who could kill Voldemort, because who could doubt Trelawney's actual first real prophecy.
"Good," Mr Weasley acknowledged, then moved on to tell Ron to stick close to the two girls, himself and Mrs Weasley. Kingsley would be the one behind them all, watching out for anyone suspicious.
The conversation dwindled down eventually, and the rest of the trip was carried out in silence; Harry mainly looking over Tonks' shoulder to watch as the car zig-zagged in and out of traffic.
Mr Weasley wasn't wrong though; it wasn't long for the cars to arrive at Kings Cross Station, which luckily for them, was a very fortunate thing as it was now 'time to get on the train', according to Harry's new wizarding watch.
Tonks climbed out of the car first, and almost immediately began to shield Harry from view of everyone as he himself climbed out. Finding it only vaguely annoying, he stayed within Tonks' shadow as the rest of them got out of their cars. Remus joined him on the right side and gave Harry a reassuring pat on the back.
"Nearly over," he said lightly. "Then soon you'll be back on the train to Hogwarts."
Harry gave a weak smile in return. Though he was excited about returning back to Hogwarts, his really only home, he was feeling slightly agitated. Everything would change again at school this year; he'd be back to being the good old hero … and truthfully, he didn't feel like one, nor did he want that extra attention again.
He sighed softly and followed Tonks and Remus as they entered the station behind everyone else, except for Kingsley who was hanging back a bit. Luckily, they didn't meet any trouble along the way to the platform, other than a few strange looks from muggle passers-by, because of the unusual way they were grouped together.
Unfortunately, their luck almost ran out as they neared Platform Nine and Three Quarters. They almost stumbled directly into the path of a large crowd of people standing and talking loudly beside Platform Nine.
"Reporters," Harry heard Mr Weasley moaning under his breath as they all came to a complete stop. "And no doubt after a personal interview with Harry."
Harry looked over at the crowd and realised that Mr Weasley was right, if the quills only half-concealed behind some of their ears and rolled up parchments in their hands were anything to go by. The only stroke of luck was that none of them were currently facing Harry's direction. Instead they were intently watching the platform as though Harry would suddenly materialise there.
"Let's go back around this corner." Kingsley ushered hurriedly, coming up from behind them with a narrowed expression on his face.
Without being able to have another closer look at the reporters to see if he could recognise any of them, Harry found himself pushed into the said corner along with Ron, Ginny and Hermione. The adults placed themselves just in front, shielding them, yet again from view.
Kingsley didn't look at all happy, when he spoke. "Should have known they wouldn't be deterred from the platform being blocked to them." he said in a low voice.
Harry's curiosity was piqued yet again. "What do you mean?"
"This year, the Ministry's fixed the platform so that anybody not connected with a student at Hogwarts, can't enter through the platform." Mr Weasley explained, peering around the corner ever so slightly.
"So the reporters aren't allowed through unless they've got a child of their own starting or already at Hogwarts?" Hermione guessed. Harry had come to the same conclusion and he looked on in interest.
Kingsley nodded in the affirmative.
"Well what about all of you? Except for Mr and Mrs Weasley, that is." Harry asked warily.
"Not to worry." Tonks said dismissively. "Ministry officials and Order members can go through without a problem."
"Then what about the death eaters not in Azkaban who have children at Hogwarts?" Hermione added worriedly, which immediately reminded Harry of Malfoy and how if his father wasn't still in Azkaban, he'd no doubt use his son to safely get him through the platform. "Couldn't some of them come through under the guise of bringing their children to the train, and then attack?"
"Any known death eater that has either been previously accused or even suspected, has automatically been excluded from entering as well," Kingsley replied, "Not to mention on the other side of this platform there are four aurors stationed waiting to inspect your trunks and anything else you may be wearing or holding."
"-So you see, this only leaves us with the problem of having to go through the crowd of reporters, which is the last thing we need to be doing right now." Mrs Weasley huffed, looking extremely stressed out. "There are no protections outside of the Platform … muggles would notice them if there were."
"Maybe I should have just used my Invisibility Cloak," Harry mumbled softly to Remus, who was standing directly in front of him. Remus seemed to agree as he too turned to look around the corner.
Tonks didn't hear Harry but she said, "There does seem to be a bit of a problem that we didn't think of." which would have sounded bad if she hadn't have sounded so cheerful. Instead, she seemed delighted at the extra obstacle. "How about I cast a Disillusionment charm on all of you right here?" she suggested, not noticing that though the reporters couldn't see them, various muggles could.
"Tonks!" Mr Weasley stopped Tonks from taking out her wand just as a group of muggle children went walking past. "Not in front of the Muggles. We'll have to think of something else-" He moved over a few feet talking with the other adults, leaving Harry and Ron to whisper to themselves, seeing as the girls were involved in their own little conversation right in the corner.
"How about we set up a little diversion?" Ron suggested softly to Harry, nudging Harry out of the corner just enough to point out Rita Skeeter amongst the throe of reporters. She was back with her quick quotes quill in her hand and was looking around with a bug-eyed gaze. Harry nodded with a grin.
"What were you thinking of?" he whispered back, making sure the others couldn't hear. He doubted Hermione would approve of any kind trouble they'd be causing, especially anything courtesy of the twins' store.
Ron smugly pulled out a long, dynamite-looking stick from his pocket that Harry immediately recognised as being one of the twins' new creations that had caused Ron's trunk to smoke up and explode … Smoking Sticks. "One of them wasn't a dud so I managed to snatch it up before mum found it." replied Ron, holding it in one hand. "How about I - accidentally let it fall over there?"
"Let what fall over where?"
Both Harry and Ron looked at each other as Hermione and Ginny sidled up to them with narrowed eyes.
'Uh oh,' Ron mouthed to Harry, then said aloud quickly. "Nothing."
Hermione's expression changed to one of practiced indifference that Harry saw through immediately. She was up to something.
"Oh," she said in an off-handed manner, studying her nails. Now Harry knew she was up to something. Hermione was never one for worrying about her nails. She must suspect that he and Ron were about to do something wrong. "Pity. Ginny and I were discussing ways to get past those reporters. We thought you might have an idea."
Ron's face lit up in surprise and Harry inwardly groaned. It was obvious that Ron hadn't cottoned on to the fact that Hermione was acting way too non-Hermione'ish. Harry just couldn't deny that Ron just had a natural block when it came to anything involving Hermione. One that Ron probably wasn't even aware of.
Harry was proved correct. "Really?" asked Ron, gullibly.
"Yes, well it's too bad there isn't any a way to do it." replied Hermione, sighing.
"Well actually," Ron's chest puffed up proudly, and Harry found himself praying to find some sort of a self-mute button for Ron. Unfortunately no such thing came. "I just thought of something that might work." And like with Harry, he pulled out the Smoking Stick.
"Aha!" Hermione cried out knowingly, snatching the stick up and ignoring Ron's indignant "Hey!" This time Harry did groan out-loud. Ron had fallen for it, hook, line and sinker.
"I knew you two were up to something bad." she let out a sniff of dissatisfaction. "And to think you are supposed to be a responsible prefect who sets a good example to the younger generation."
"Oh come on Hermione," Ron complained. "I'm not exactly a prefect here, am I? Besides, it was the only way to set up a diversion for them reporters."
And once again he pointed over to the crowd of reporters. Hermione followed his arm and a few moments later made a sudden sound of disapproval. At first Harry thought it was directed at him and Ron again, but was shocked when Hermione mumbled "Stupid Rita Skeeter's back at it again."
She wordlessly passed the stick back to Ron, whose jaw opened and closed fruitlessly.
"Well, aren't you going to throw it?" Hermione asked exasperatedly.
"Huh?" replied Ron, not at all intelligently. He was still too busy staring at the stick and then at Hermione, whose eyes had taken on a mischievously dangerous look. Ron seemed taken aback every time Hermione showed a rebellious streak, Harry thought with no small amount of amusement, even though he too had been speechless for a few moments. "What happened to being a responsible prefect, Hermy?" he asked sarcastically.
'I suggest you aim straight for the middle," Hermione replied sweetly, pointedly ignoring Ron's last comment. Ginny began to giggle. She was obviously finding this situation amusing too. "right where Rita's standing with her photographer."
Whilst Ron found his wits again, Harry quickly flicked his gaze over again to the adults who were still conversing softly. Harry could see that they weren't getting anywhere; Tonks was still obviously hung up on the disillusion charm, and Mr Weasley was arguing against it because of the presence of Muggles. Harry caught him saying something suspiciously like "… giving them a heart attack."
"Looks like they're still not coming up with anything reasonable, so come on," he said impatiently. "Otherwise the train's gonna leave without us again." The last part Harry eyed Ron with a meaningful gaze that made Ron redden.
Ron nodded. "Are they looking?" he asked, motioning to the adults as he wandered over to the edge of the corner.
Harry turned back again, and caught Remus looking back at them with a suspicious look. Harry mustered up an innocent looking smile, and to his surprise, Remus retaliated with a small wink, before joining the adults' conversation again.
"All clear." Harry announced, still looking at Remus. Remus had been right; there still was some Marauder left in him, after all.
When nothing happened for a few moments, Harry turned back to see Ginny trying to wrench the stick out of Ron's hands. "Let me do it, Ron." Ginny pleaded, then pouted. "Please."
Ron gripped his hands tighter around the stick, and frowned. "No way. It was my idea."
Ginny wasn't one to give up. "Well, I've got better aim. Remember what happened to Perce when I was nine?"
Still, Ron wouldn't let go, whatever it was that Ginny had done to Percy, not impressing him. He wasn't one to give up either. "The twins gave me this one, so I get to try it," he said stubbornly. "Besides, I was the one who taught you how to throw."
Ginny sighed irritably, but then a wide grin spread on her face as she turned her head to look over Ron's shoulder.
"Oh look," she cried, winking slightly in Harry and Hermione's direction. "There's Dean!"
Harry and Hermione, who were facing the same direction that Ginny was, knew at once what she was doing and Harry could hardly hide the grin threatening to play around the corners of his mouth. He could tell that Hermione was the same; her cheeks were reddening and she was biting her lip fiercely.
Poor Ron though, who remained clueless, immediately dropped the stick he was wrestling with, and spun around with a scowl on his face. "Where?" he demanded, his eyes skirting desperately around the station. "I've got some words for-"
He stopped as Ginny let out a giggle, and he indignantly turned around again to look at Ginny, who was holding the stick with a triumphant grin. "Sorry, but it looks like I get to throw it now." she said innocently.
"Oh alright, fine." Ron sighed, though he had no choice about the matter. Ginny was the one who held it in her hands. "Just be careful Gin." he warned, shifting to the side so Ginny had more space to aim.
"Middle name." Ginny grinned, quickly lighting the stick with her wand. Looking around cautiously, she waited a few moments before pitching it over everyone's head to land neatly at Rita Skeeter's feet; exactly where Hermione had suggested.
"Turning more into the twins, that one." Ron mumbled grumpily to Harry, but nonetheless was grinning slightly. "Mum'll have a fit."
Ginny faced them again with a smug grin as chaos spread through the reporters. Harry could hear Rita screaming, and he couldn't resist poking his head around the corner again to see her stomping her feet every which way as the smoke began to thicken all around her. It even seemed to follow her around as she moved, which Harry couldn't help chuckling at. He still couldn't stand that woman.
"What on earth?" He heard Mrs Weasley suddenly say, and knew that she had caught sight of the smoke billowing from the reporter's direction. Ignoring Ron's protests to shove over or tell him what was happening, Harry's head snapped back over to them; Mrs Weasley was looking adequately astonished, and Mr Weasley was scratching his head in bewilderment. Even Tonks and Kingsley were looking on in mild surprise, Tonks mouth partially open in what Harry guessed to be a gape. In fact, the only person looking completely unaffected by the whole situation was Remus, who calmly broke off from the adults and walked over to Harry.
"Another of the twins inventions?" he asked, eyebrow raised as he looked on at the reporters who, like everyone else within ten feet of them were being completely covered by a thick and ever-increasing cloud of smoke.
Harry nodded, grinning when Tonks sidled up to them and out of the corner of her mouth, mumbled. "Nice."
"I think it's time we left though, don't you think?" Remus suggested, waving both hands over to the platform, where people could be half-seen running around wildly. The platform itself was only half- visible, and from experience with Ron's trunk, Harry knew it wouldn't stay that way long either. It would get worse. "Before everything gets even more out of hand than it is already."
Even as he said it, Harry suddenly heard the muggle smoke alarms go off, and his grin grew wider as he saw the outline of muggle security guards running towards the origin of the smoke with fire extinguishers in their hands. He heard the accompanying screeches as the muggles began to spray the extinguishers, and hoped desperately that some had found the target of Rita Skeeter.
"Yeah - maybe we should go now." Harry said quickly, pushing Remus in the direction of the platform. Remus took the hint, and soon enough everyone collected together to begin walking quickly through the commotion.
Harry found himself in the thick of everyone, which didn't help things when people started pushing at them from all directions. Neither did the smoke, which still hadn't receded by the time they grew closer to the platform.
Though it indeed was effective at distracting the reporters, at one stage, even they had momentarily lost their bearings as the smoke became thicker around them.
"Which way?" Mr Weasley had shouted, just behind Harry's left ear.
"It's this way," Tonks had called back promptly, moving away from Harry. That had been quickly followed by a loud clang, and Tonks returned back to him and steered him in the opposite direction. "… maybe not." Harry had heard a few moments later.
When they were finally safely past the smoke and through the platform, Harry was allowed to slow his fast pace beside Tonks - who wasn't bothered by the swelling lump on her forehead - and Remus. He was coughing slightly from inhaling the smoke, but other than that, he was grinning from ear to ear as he was stopped to have his things searched by the aurors waiting by the train.
"Phew," Ron panted, wiping away a sheen of sweat on his forehead as he waited for an auror to finish waving a wand over his clothes, (much like a muggle metal detector). He was then waved through over to Harry who had already been checked over. "What a rush." They watched as Kinglsey and Tonks explained about the smoke to the other aurors.
"What a rush?" Mrs Weasley repeated exasperatedly, throwing her hands up in the air as she followed behind Ginny. "We were lost in a curtain of smoke, caused by another one of the twins' ridiculous inventions- and don't give me that look Ronald Weasley, I know it was one of you who threw that thing at the reporters-"
Ron weakly closed his mouth and wiped the shocked expression off his face.
"-Any one of us could have disappeared or been abducted by going through that mess, and the only thing you can say is WHAT A RUSH!"
"Well it got us past them, didn't it?" Ron retorted against his better judgement, Harry personally thought. So did, apparently Ron, who quickly added, "But it doesn't matter now … we uh have to get on the train now." Mrs Weasley looked ready to explode, and if it wasn't for Hermione's quick words, future Howlers would have been sent to the youngest Weasley son, in a repeat incident of second year.
"Mrs Weasley, we did get past safely, and we really should board the train now." She coaxed gently. "Ron, Ginny and I have to go to the Prefects meeting, which starts as soon as everyone arrives." Ginny had been made a prefect for her year; Harry only finding out the night before as she had received the letter at the same time Harry had been told of Sirius's will.
The word 'prefect' did it for Mrs Weasley and she calmed down enough to give everyone her goodbye's - with her usual teary hugs of course. Mr Weasley and Remus followed, though less emotional.
When Remus got to Harry, he also affectionately ruffled up Harry's hair, to Harry's discontent. "I know this is rather hypocritical for me to say, but please be careful this year, Harry." he said softly, holding out his hand to shake Harry's. "And don't go looking for more rules to break."
Harry grinned back. "I'll try." he replied, shaking the offered hand.
Tonks and Kingsley then both sent him off with a handshake each (Tonks also with a wink), and soon enough, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny were comfortably settled by a compartment window and waving at everyone, as the train set off for its journey to Hogwarts.
… where unknown to Harry, he would begin his sixth and most adventurous year yet.
A/N: Right, well there's Chapter Nine for you! Sorry again for the late wait, but the next should be coming out soon. Parts of it are already done, I've just got to tizzy up a few things before updating … it'll probably take a week. Anyway, please review and tell me what you think. Oh, I'm also determining on whether or not to have the new DADA professor to be a character we have already been introduced to at one stage in any of the five books … or it to just be an original character I have made up completely.
As usual, thanks goes to jaximillion, Kemanran, Sammi, Serpent of Light, Brightest Star, and Kathryn the Great 787 for reviewing.
And an extended thanks to:
PhoenixPadfoot89: Thanks, sorry for the long wait, but this chapter is pretty long too. Hope you like!
Nana-hedwig: Hey, thanks for reviewing. Umm, basically Harry and Snape will develop further on in the fic. They've got to go through quite a bit first to actually accept each other, and I can't tell you exactly how that's going to happen yet, because it'll spoil my story. I can definitely assure you though, that it will be gradual, and Snape's not going to just click his fingers and suddenly stop hating Harry. Oh and the address to my yahoo group is on my author bio page, and the reason I might update there quicker is because sometimes I have major problems with updating on ff.net.
Tami: Thanks for another review, and I definitely understand what you're saying. If you're interested, I've been editing the story a bit on my etext reader, so I've taken out some of Harry's more emotional moments and modified them a bit. So if you want you can download the whole story so far off my yahoo group.
Mikee: Yeah, I had to pack a lot in that chapter, because I had to have them return to Hogwarts soon, lol. I'm glad you liked it, and think my characters' aren't OOC. I pride myself on making characters sound as they would in JKR's books … although I know I'm nowhere near her league of course. Anyway, thanks for the review and hope to have you continue reading this fic.
Kathryn: Thanks for reviewing multiple times for this story, and of course for joining my club. I hope you're still around to read more!!
Chantelli: Lol, ok. Thanks for the review. Sorry for the long wait though.
John: Thanks!! Sorry for the wait though. Don't kill me!!
Aliba: lol, thank you for reviewing again! I'm glad you continue to like my story, and I hope you haven't lost interest yet!
Dragonsprincess: Thanks for reviewing!! Glad I made you cry, he he. I'm not sadistic or anything, but it made me feel flattered that my writing had actually influenced someone to cry. Anyway, yes Harry's going to continue to work on his Occlumency, and I am definitely going to have some surprises regarding that, which will be revealed soon.
WinterWonderland02:Hey! Thanks for reviewing. Yes, I do know Val, though I haven't had the chance to write to her for ages, which is not very good :( Say hello to her for me!! Anyway, I'll try and read your fics very soon, I promise. I'm just a bit busy at the moment. I've got the flu back again, after having it just before Christmas as well.