Chapter Three - Return To Hogwarts
Time flew by and soon it was the day before their return to Hogwarts. Harry had rarely seen Mr. Weasley, who was incredibly busy with Order and Ministry work. The twins, too, were very rarely seen since Harry's first day back, being at their shop all day. The only time everyone was home was for dinner and sometimes not even that.
After a hurried breakfast, Mrs. Weasley took a pot of floo powder from a cupboard and everyone took a pinch. They would be going to Diagon Alley accompanied by Mr. Weasley, Remus, Moody, and, of all people, Mundungus Fletcher.
Once in Diagon Alley, Moody walked up ahead of them, Mundungus behind, and Remus directly beside Harry. He was surprised how deserted the once packed wizarding shops were. The atmosphere was cheerless, even forbidding.
"No one leaves their house unless it is absolutely necessary anymore. The ministry is encouraging it. Diagon Alley hasn't been this empty for fifteen years," Remus explained, "Mrs. Weasley didn't want you lot to come, but Dumbledore thought it best if you all got out for a bit after being shut inside for all of your summer break."
Their first stop was Gringotts bank. They had to take down separate carts down, as there wasn't enough room for all of them in one. Harry rode down with Remus and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley took a different one with Hermione, while Moody and Mundungus stayed with the others. When they arrived at his vault, Harry noticed that his money pile was incredibly larger than last time. He also noticed a stack of parchment in the far corner. His puzzlement must have shown because Remus spoke up.
"Sirius, he left everything to you. Those are the deeds to his house, bike, and all of his other belongings," he said softly, "I didn't know when to tell you."
Harry shoved a pile of Galleons, sickles, and knuts into his bag. He wasn't sure how he felt about all of this. He picked up the papers, flicking through them and stopped at the one to Sirius's flying motorcycle.
"Where is the bike?" he asked Remus.
"It's in the back yard at Grimmauld Place. I'll take you to see it when we get back, "Remus said, "Merlin, how he'd loved that thing."
"I still can't believe he's gone," Harry whispered, choking back tears. Remus put a comforting arm around him.
Harry quickly collected himself and pocketed the papers to look through later. He climbed back into the cart and they were winding back up the slope into the light again. Harry couldn't help but laugh as he saw Remus begin to look like Hagrid did when he first traveled in the cart. Then the cart began to lose its speed abruptly and as it made a sharp turn, Harry felt his own stomach lurch, and the smile slid away.
"Look who's laughing now," Remus said with a smile before the cart stopped completely.
Their next stop was Madam Maulkin's for robes. Harry and Hermione felt a bit bad as they were fitted and the Weasley's went to the second-hand shop across the street to get theirs. Moody argued about them splitting up, even if it was just across the street, but they ignored his protests.
Next, they went to the bookshop. They took out their book lists and handed them to the shopkeeper. While waiting for his books, Harry wandered down the aisles with Hermione, who was already carrying a load of five or six books, and she hadn't even gotten the ones from her list yet. Remus followed them, careful not to let Harry too far away from him, but walking far enough behind to give him his space.
"Harry, look here!" Hermione said excitedly, shoving a book under his nose. Occlumency: Beginner's Edition the title read.
"Oh wow," Harry said dully.
"Are you going to be taking those lessons with Snape this year?" she asked.
"No. Dumbledore's giving them to me this year. Snape will only give them if he's away," Harry said.
"Oh, good. I thought you might not want to," Hermione said.
"Dumbledore isn't really giving me a choice," Harry muttered resentfully.
"You have to--Oh this is ridiculous!" she put her pile of now seven books on the ground, "Do you think they have a catalog I can just order from rather than carry all of these?"
"They're right at the front desk," Remus said. Harry could see that he related to Hermione better than anyone else with the whole book thing. He and Hermione sat at a table and poured over it excitedly.
After all of the books were bought, they went to what was supposed to be their final stop. The group stocked up on quills, ink, and parchment. Then Ginny reminded her mother of the pet she had been promised for making prefect and the boys all made a fuss about wanting to go into the Quidditch shop. So as Mrs. Weasley, Ginny, and Hermione went to the Magical Menagerie accompanied by Moody and Mundungus, the rest of the group went to Quality Quidditch Supplies. They agreed to meet at The Leaky Cauldron when they were finished.
At the shop, Harry couldn't help but buy tons of new equipment. He spent more than half of the money in his bag in the shop.
"Look at the new broom!" Ron exclaimed.
"Wow," was all Harry could manage as he inspected the new product.
"Nimbus 2004," Ron marveled.
"We'll take two," Fred said. The shopkeeper excitedly brought out two of the new model and gave them to each of the twins. Their shopping didn't stop there. They bought new equipment for themselves and even got Ron a few things.
"Our team has to have the best of everything," George explained, when Ron was caught by surprise by this, "It's our last year at Hogwarts and we aren't going to lose that cup."
"Not going to happen," Fred said, looking at a new model of beater bats.
"Excuse me, do you have any muggle brooms we can buy?" George asked, earning a funny look from the shopkeeper.
"No, but you can get them next door at Odeon's Oddities," he answered, "They have all kinds of weird things like that."
"What do you want a muggle broom for?" Ron asked curiously.
George grinned, "Experimenting. Me and Fred been thinking about starting our own line of brooms."
"I'm guessing business isn't too bad?" Harry asked.
"Fantastic!" Fred said happily.
"Hey! Harry didn't get to see the shop yet!" Ron exclaimed.
The twins brought this to Remus's attention and after a lot of persuasion, they headed down the cobbled street for Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, stopping briefly at the shop filled with different muggle objects so the twins could get their brooms. They came out each carrying about ten.
Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes stuck out admirably. It was colored a bright blue with a yellow sign. When Harry walked in, he saw bursts of different color from every direction. Rows and rows of different items lined the shop.
"Wow, this is great," Harry said, looking at shelves of different kinds of sweets and other trick goods.
"Come up here," George said, "The test room."
Harry followed hesitantly up the spiraling stairs. There was a long hall with many doors. The twins threw the brooms into an empty room and led him around in a tour.
"These are new snacks we're working on. You know how Muggles talk about caffeine getting them all hyper and what not? Well, we devised a new potion to make a person so hyper, they'll be doing back-flips for the whole night," George said, showing him into a room, with a cauldron full of some steaming potion.
"Still working on it though," Fred said, "Now these are very fun."
They walked into a room that was splattered with different colored paint.
"You know how muggles have those neat guns that shoot each other with paint? We get most of our ideas from muggles, if you haven't noticed. Well, anyway, we got hold of a few of those paint ball things and have been working on them to explode into patterns and different colors," George said.
Fred led them into the next room, "This is where we've been working on Wild Wands. Stick this little thing to the end of your wand and it turns it a different color or pattern. Far from done with those, though."
"Cost us a fortune with all the wands we had to buy to experiment with. We hope to finish the solid color ones by Christmas. Then we'll move on to the patterns," George said.
"The next room is a surprise product we're working on. Can't show anyone yet. We're almost finished. They'll be ready when the Quidditch season starts, though," Fred said.
"Good work, boys. Very Proud," Mr. Weasley beamed at them, "Well, if you're finished here, we better get to the leaky cauldron. Moody'll have a fit if we're any more late."
"We want to stay here and work on the brooms a bit but we'll be home for dinner," Fred said.
"Can't we stay with them?" Ron asked.
"No. Out of the question. Fred and George can apparate if there's any trouble, but you two won't be able to escape quickly enough. Sorry, boys," Mr. Weasley said.
"Now before you leave, you must sign this," Fred brandish a sheet of parchment at them.
When they all looked questioningly at him, George explained with a grin, "It's a magical contract. You cannot tell a single soul of what you have seen, heard, smelt, or tasted in these test rooms or most unpleasant things will happen to you."
They were all forced to sign before hurrying to the Leaky Cauldron to meet the others and floo back to Grimmauld Place. After an exhausting day, Harry turned in for some sleep before he returned to Hogwarts the next day.
A small sandy haired boy of only five was running down an empty dirt road during the early hours of the evening. Tears were streaming down his cheeks and he was crying out to his parents for help.
"Mommy! Daddy!" he cried desperately, "Help me!"
He could hear the monstrous thing behind him, chasing him down. He was almost there. Only a little further, he thought. But he wasn't going to make it. The monster was just too close. And just as he reached the front lawn of his home, he felt searing pain as its jaws clenched down upon his leg. Falling to the ground, he saw the face of his attacker before it was stunned by his father. It's gleaming yellow eyes, long snout, and mass of brown fur were burned into his memory forever. The pain was indescribable. He was sobbing into the grass.
"Didn't like that, now did we Harry?" a cold voice Harry recognized as belonging to Voldemort hissed before Harry was thrown back into reality.
Ron was standing at the side of his bed, looking scared. Harry's leg prickled like something was irritating it. He sat up and wiped the sweat from his head.
"Are you okay, mate?" he asked, "You were screaming for your parents and crying."
"Fine," he answered mindlessly. He was confused for a moment but then his dream, if you could call it that came back to him. He sat up and wiped the sweat from his head.
"Are you sure? Not another one of those vision things, is it?" Ron asked. He looked exceptionally worried.
"I don't think so. More like a memory," he whispered, "It was like something that happened to me a while ago. But it didn't. It just felt like it did. I think I was being attacked by a werewolf."
"Harry, you should tell someone if those vision things are starting again," Ron urged.
"Of course. I'll just go wake up the whole house to tell them I had a scary dream," Harry said sarcastically.
"You know they aren't regular dreams," Ron said, "I don't think you've ever had a regular dream. You should tell Dumbledore."
"Dumbledore knows I have weird dreams. There's nothing he or anyone else can do," Harry said.
"He should still at least hear about them," Ron said.
"Look, if I have another one, I will, if it makes you happy. Okay?" Harry said, not intending to do so at all. He knew what Dumbledore would say, to continue with Occlumency and ignore the dreams.
"Okay. And as soon as I hear you so much as whimper in your sleep, I'm going to send for Dumbledore," Ron said seriously.
"Fine. I'm going back to bed," Harry yawned. This was a lie; Harry knew sleep wasn't going to come. Ron climbed into his own bed and was snoring again in minutes. Harry lay awake staring at the ceiling for hours as it very slowly lightened with the rising sun. He couldn't get over how real that dream felt. He had even felt his leg prickle when he woke, and the voice, Voldemort's voice. That was too real.
Finally, morning broke and everyone was soon up. The morning of the departure to Hogwarts was always hectic. Six students ran around the house, trying to retrieve all of their belongings. Harry soon forgot his dream in all of the commotion. He was trying to fit his new Quidditch things into his trunk and Ron was searching frantically for his other sneaker, when Mrs. Weasley came in.
"Only an hour until the train leaves! Hurry up or we're going to miss it!" she exclaimed, and seeing Harry struggle trying to jam everything into his trunk, she pulled out her wand, "Here you go, dear. Dilato."
Harry watched as his trunk became more spacious before his eyes. He easily fit the rest of his belongings inside.
"Thanks," he said.
"No trouble, dear. Now let's get going before we're late," she said, bustling out of their room and towards Fred and George's.
Harry packed his trunk into the magically expanded muggle cab with the two others. Then he climbed into the backseat with Hermione and Ron. Each had their pet on their laps. Mr. Weasley sat in the front. Mrs. Weasley rode with Fred, George, and Ginny in the other cab.
The ride to King's Cross was a noisy one. Pigwidgeon flew around in his cage animatedly, aggravating Hedwig, who hooted shrilly the whole way. Crookshanks spat and hissed, obviously not enjoying the basket he was being kept in.
The driver looked relieved when they arrived at King's Cross and the group got out. Harry helped an excited Mr. Weasley pay the cab driver. Then they got a trolley and hurried to the barrier, once again running late, as they always did.
"You two go first," Mrs. Weasley said to Harry and Ron, obviously remembering back to their second year, when they had flown the Ford Anglia to Hogwarts.
Harry and Ron took for the barrier together at a quick pace, emerging onto platform nine and three-quarters. There were a few lingering students left giving quick good-byes to their parents and hurrying onto the trains.
Mr. Weasley came through the barrier soon after them with Ginny. Then Hermione, the twins and Mrs. Weasley.
"Good-bye, dears. Write us. See you for Christmas," Mrs. Weasley gave each of them a hug and ushered them onto the train.
"Bye," they called as they climbed aboard the train.
The train whistle blew and it began to roll along the tracks picking up speed.
"We have to go to the prefect's compartment. We're going to hurry back, though," Ron said.
"This ought to be fun," George smirked. Both Fred and he had their modified badges pinned to the front of their cloaks.
"Very fun," Fred agreed.
"See you, then," Harry said.
He dragged his trunk along the train, searching for an empty compartment. Most seemed to be full or have people Harry did not want to sit with. As he was nearing the end of the train, he heard Neville call his name from behind him. Harry turned to say hi and walked into a brown haired girl he'd never seen before. She was coming out of the compartment door to his right.
"Sorry about that," he said, unknowingly running his hands through his hair. He noticed how pretty she was and his stomach did a bit of flip flop.
"No big deal," she shrugged, "Whitley Nott, by the way."
"Harry Potter," he said and was happily surprised when she saw this as nothing.
"Oh yeah, the Gryffindor seeker," she said, "I'm beater for--"
She was cut off by Neville, "Harry we have a compartment at the end of the train."
"Okay, Neville," he said biting back his urge to knock Neville's round head into next week. He wanted to talk with Whitley a bit more.
"So, I'll see you around, then," she smiled.
"Yeah. See you around," he said.
He drug his trunk to the last compartment and put it on a rack. Inside was Luna and another girl Harry didn't recognize. Her golden-brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail and her eyes had a startling azure color to them.
"Harry. Nice to see you again," Luna said, looking up from the Quibbler. Harry was beginning to think she went nowhere without it.
"Nice to see you too, Luna," he said, sitting across from her beside the other girl.
"This is Aira Bowden, Harry. She's new to our school. Transferred from some school in North America," Neville said.
"Hello," she smiled.
"Hi," Harry said returning the smile, "So, what year are you in?"
"My sixth," she answered, "I'm pretty nervous about starting here."
"Don't be. It's a great school. Teachers aren't too bad. And neither are the students," Harry said.
"As long as they're not in Slytherin," Neville added.
"Slytherin?" she put on a confused expression.
"Oh, right, you wouldn't know. There's four houses and the new students are sorted between them. We're in Gryffindor," Neville said proudly, "Luna is in Ravenclaw."
"Wit beyond measure is a man's greatest treasure," she said, as she had the year before when Ginny had said she was in Ravenclaw.
"What are the classes like?" Aira asked.
"They're always a good time. Unless you have Potions," Harry said.
"Not for me this year," Neville said happily.
"Lucky you. I need them to be an auror," Harry said, "I hate Snape with a passion."
"Snape's a slimy git," Aira muttered.
"You know Snape?" Harry asked.
"I met him when I was getting my schoolbooks," she said.
"Harry, you might like to look at this. It's an interesting read," Luna said, handing him her magazine.
Harry burst out laughing as he read the title of the article.
ALBUS DUMBLEDORE, PLANNING TO ELOPE WITH MINISTER OF MAGIC, CORNELIUS FUDGE
"What's so funny?" Aira asked.
Harry held the magazine so she could see and she began to laugh, also.
"I'm sure Albus would love that one," she said.
"You know Dumbledore?" Harry asked, still laughing.
"My parents did," she said quickly.
Harry began to read the first paragraph out loud sending them into fits of laughter once again as the compartment door slid open.
"Hi Harr-- Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to bother you," Cho said, glaring at Aira, who was leaning against Harry laughing. She stormed out of the compartment slamming the door shut.
"What's her problem?" Aira asked.
"I gave up trying to figure out long ago," Harry said, as the compartment door slid open again. This time Ron, Hermione, and Ginny entered.
"What did you do to Cho this time, Harry? She looked ready to spit fire storming away from here," Ron said.
"I probably breathed the wrong way. You know how she is," Harry said.
Hermione gave him a reproving look, "It's been hard for her, Harry. She's had a lot to deal with."
"Well, it isn't like life's been a piece of cake for me either," he said.
Hermione ignored him, "Hi Neville, Luna. And, I don't think we've ever met."
"I'm Aira. Transferred from Veneficus Academy," Aira introduced herself.
"I'm Hermione. And this is Ron and Ginny," Hermione said kindly. They all took seats. Ginny began chatting animatedly with Aira. T hey seemed to take to one another quickly.
"Hey, I was talking with Seamus and he says he's going to try out for the team this year," Ron said.
"We'll need chasers," Harry said.
"How many?" Ginny asked, narrowing her eyes a bit.
"Don't worry, Gin. You're on the team," Harry said.
"I was a chaser for a team at Veneficus. If I'm in Gryffindor, I'll be trying," Aira said.
"Are you any good?" Ron asked.
"Pretty good. Our team was third in the school competition," she said.
"What about the beaters?" Ron asked Harry, "Fred and George are back."
"We'll keep those other two as reserve beaters. We can train them so they're good for next year when Fred and George leave. We should get reserve chasers, keeper, seeker, too. Especially with my habit of missing games due to certain circumstances," Harry grinned.
It was until lunch that they discussed the upcoming team and who would be good to play, though they were careful to not reveal too much, with Aira there. They weren't sure if she would be put in Gryffindor. Harry bought a ton of snacks, as he usually did and the group ate through them. Then they traded Chocolate Frog cards, having a good time until Malfoy showed up with Crabbe and Goyle.
"Potter, you do have a habit of choosing the oddballs," he sneered looking distastefully at Aira.
"Shut your fucking mouth, Malfoy. I'm not going to take any of your shit this year," Harry stood glaring at him.
Aira stood, too. She looked torn between the urge to hex Malfoy and stop the fight. She settled for glaring at him warningly.
"Oh no, boys. We better leave. This looks like a dangerous group here," Malfoy laughed, "Look, I think the mudblood is getting angry."
He pointed at Hermione. She looked like she wanted to attack Malfoy herself, though Harry knew she wouldn't. They were all taken by surprise when Luna pulled her wand from behind her ear, pointing it at Malfoy's mouth and muttered, "Scourgify." nonchalantly. She returned to her book as if nothing happened at all. Pink suds were pouring from Malfoy's mouth like they did from the taps in the prefect's bathroom.
Everyone in the compartment started laughing at him. Even Hermione thought it humorous. Goyle grinned thickly and Malfoy smacked him in the head. He took off with his cronies following after him.
Later that evening, Whitley surprised Harry when she came for a visit.
"Hey," she grinned as she entered. Harry introduced her to his friends. She sat down next to Harry and he attempted conversation.
"So you said played Quidditch?" Harry asked.
"Live for it," she replied, "I went to all the Cannons games this summer. They won their first game in years. And now they're doing really good."
"That's a surprise," Ginny scoffed, receiving scowls from Ron and Whitley.
"She likes Puddlemere," Ron said, "They lost against Cannons this time around, as I recall."
"That was a good game. Close, if Wood had blocked another goal, we'd have lost. But it was no matter," Whitley said.
"Oliver Wood?" Harry asked, "He's not a reserve any more"
"They put him in halfway through last year, when Longhorn took a Bludger to the head," she said, "I'm going to try out for a few teams this summer when I leave Hogwarts. I don't know if I'm good enough, though."
"Are you on a house team?" Harry asked.
"Yeah. I hope I get in more this year. Flint never like to have girls playing. I was only a reserve, if that," she said.
"You're a Slytherin!" Ron burst out.
"Yes. Why?" she asked angrily.
Ron looked at Harry and repeated, "She's a Slytherin."
"I heard you the first time," Harry answered.
Ron shot an angry glare at Whitley and muttered indistinctly. Whitley stood up and made for the compartment door.
"I'll go now, seeing as some don't want me here," she spat and then turned to Harry saying nicely, "I'll see you around, then."
She left and Ginny, Harry, and Hermione all glared at Ron. He looked surprised.
"What?" he asked stupidly.
"That was rude!" Ginny shouted.
"You are such an ignorant pig, Ron Weasley," Hermione said.
"She was a Slytherin," he said looking to Harry for support but Harry only snapped at him.
"Don't even talk to me," he said.
He and the others totally ignored Ron for the rest of the trip. He thought Whitley was really nice. He knew that not all Slytherins couldn't be horrible. The hat had tried to put him in the house once and he knew he wasn't anything like Malfoy or most of the lot. The rest of the trip was tense, with everyone shooting glares at Ron every few minutes. Soon the train began losing it's speed and stopped completely.
As Harry was heading to an empty carriage with his friends, he spotted Whitley with one of her friends. He made his way through the crowd to her.
"Whitley, could I talk to you?" Harry asked. He didn't feel nervous like he did when he liked Cho. He surprisingly felt comfortable talking to Whitley.
"Yeah. Sure," she said.
"I just wanted to apologize for my oaf of a friend. He can be a bit of prat sometimes," Harry said.
"Don't worry about it. I think I overreacted a bit. I know what the other houses think of Slytherins and, actually, I agree with them. Most, well, nearly all are horrible pure-blood maniacs," she said, "But I don't want people to jump to conclusions, thinking I'm like that."
"I don't," Harry said. He liked her more and more every minute.
"Whitley! Come on!" called her friend.
"Well, I have to go," she said.
"Okay. See you," Harry said. He made his way to the carriage his friends were in and deliberately sat next to Ron. He couldn't stand to be mad at him. It didn't really matter, anyway. Whitley wasn't mad at him.
"You're such a prat sometimes," Harry smiled.
"So you're talking to me again?" Ron asked.
"Only if you apologize to Whitley next time you see her," Harry said.
Ron grimaced but muttered, "Okay." Then he laughed and said to Harry, "You like her, don't you?"
"Maybe," Harry blushed.
"You do!" Ron said, "Oh, another girlfriend for ickle Harry!"
"Just like you like Hermione!" Harry said. That wiped the grin off his face, though Hermione, blushing, shot him an angry look.
"I don't like Hermione. She's only a friend," he said a little too seriously to be telling the truth.
"Does," Ginny mouthed. And both of them smirked, making Ron's cheeks tinge red.
"We're only friends," he repeated.
Time flew by and soon it was the day before their return to Hogwarts. Harry had rarely seen Mr. Weasley, who was incredibly busy with Order and Ministry work. The twins, too, were very rarely seen since Harry's first day back, being at their shop all day. The only time everyone was home was for dinner and sometimes not even that.
After a hurried breakfast, Mrs. Weasley took a pot of floo powder from a cupboard and everyone took a pinch. They would be going to Diagon Alley accompanied by Mr. Weasley, Remus, Moody, and, of all people, Mundungus Fletcher.
Once in Diagon Alley, Moody walked up ahead of them, Mundungus behind, and Remus directly beside Harry. He was surprised how deserted the once packed wizarding shops were. The atmosphere was cheerless, even forbidding.
"No one leaves their house unless it is absolutely necessary anymore. The ministry is encouraging it. Diagon Alley hasn't been this empty for fifteen years," Remus explained, "Mrs. Weasley didn't want you lot to come, but Dumbledore thought it best if you all got out for a bit after being shut inside for all of your summer break."
Their first stop was Gringotts bank. They had to take down separate carts down, as there wasn't enough room for all of them in one. Harry rode down with Remus and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley took a different one with Hermione, while Moody and Mundungus stayed with the others. When they arrived at his vault, Harry noticed that his money pile was incredibly larger than last time. He also noticed a stack of parchment in the far corner. His puzzlement must have shown because Remus spoke up.
"Sirius, he left everything to you. Those are the deeds to his house, bike, and all of his other belongings," he said softly, "I didn't know when to tell you."
Harry shoved a pile of Galleons, sickles, and knuts into his bag. He wasn't sure how he felt about all of this. He picked up the papers, flicking through them and stopped at the one to Sirius's flying motorcycle.
"Where is the bike?" he asked Remus.
"It's in the back yard at Grimmauld Place. I'll take you to see it when we get back, "Remus said, "Merlin, how he'd loved that thing."
"I still can't believe he's gone," Harry whispered, choking back tears. Remus put a comforting arm around him.
Harry quickly collected himself and pocketed the papers to look through later. He climbed back into the cart and they were winding back up the slope into the light again. Harry couldn't help but laugh as he saw Remus begin to look like Hagrid did when he first traveled in the cart. Then the cart began to lose its speed abruptly and as it made a sharp turn, Harry felt his own stomach lurch, and the smile slid away.
"Look who's laughing now," Remus said with a smile before the cart stopped completely.
Their next stop was Madam Maulkin's for robes. Harry and Hermione felt a bit bad as they were fitted and the Weasley's went to the second-hand shop across the street to get theirs. Moody argued about them splitting up, even if it was just across the street, but they ignored his protests.
Next, they went to the bookshop. They took out their book lists and handed them to the shopkeeper. While waiting for his books, Harry wandered down the aisles with Hermione, who was already carrying a load of five or six books, and she hadn't even gotten the ones from her list yet. Remus followed them, careful not to let Harry too far away from him, but walking far enough behind to give him his space.
"Harry, look here!" Hermione said excitedly, shoving a book under his nose. Occlumency: Beginner's Edition the title read.
"Oh wow," Harry said dully.
"Are you going to be taking those lessons with Snape this year?" she asked.
"No. Dumbledore's giving them to me this year. Snape will only give them if he's away," Harry said.
"Oh, good. I thought you might not want to," Hermione said.
"Dumbledore isn't really giving me a choice," Harry muttered resentfully.
"You have to--Oh this is ridiculous!" she put her pile of now seven books on the ground, "Do you think they have a catalog I can just order from rather than carry all of these?"
"They're right at the front desk," Remus said. Harry could see that he related to Hermione better than anyone else with the whole book thing. He and Hermione sat at a table and poured over it excitedly.
After all of the books were bought, they went to what was supposed to be their final stop. The group stocked up on quills, ink, and parchment. Then Ginny reminded her mother of the pet she had been promised for making prefect and the boys all made a fuss about wanting to go into the Quidditch shop. So as Mrs. Weasley, Ginny, and Hermione went to the Magical Menagerie accompanied by Moody and Mundungus, the rest of the group went to Quality Quidditch Supplies. They agreed to meet at The Leaky Cauldron when they were finished.
At the shop, Harry couldn't help but buy tons of new equipment. He spent more than half of the money in his bag in the shop.
"Look at the new broom!" Ron exclaimed.
"Wow," was all Harry could manage as he inspected the new product.
"Nimbus 2004," Ron marveled.
"We'll take two," Fred said. The shopkeeper excitedly brought out two of the new model and gave them to each of the twins. Their shopping didn't stop there. They bought new equipment for themselves and even got Ron a few things.
"Our team has to have the best of everything," George explained, when Ron was caught by surprise by this, "It's our last year at Hogwarts and we aren't going to lose that cup."
"Not going to happen," Fred said, looking at a new model of beater bats.
"Excuse me, do you have any muggle brooms we can buy?" George asked, earning a funny look from the shopkeeper.
"No, but you can get them next door at Odeon's Oddities," he answered, "They have all kinds of weird things like that."
"What do you want a muggle broom for?" Ron asked curiously.
George grinned, "Experimenting. Me and Fred been thinking about starting our own line of brooms."
"I'm guessing business isn't too bad?" Harry asked.
"Fantastic!" Fred said happily.
"Hey! Harry didn't get to see the shop yet!" Ron exclaimed.
The twins brought this to Remus's attention and after a lot of persuasion, they headed down the cobbled street for Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, stopping briefly at the shop filled with different muggle objects so the twins could get their brooms. They came out each carrying about ten.
Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes stuck out admirably. It was colored a bright blue with a yellow sign. When Harry walked in, he saw bursts of different color from every direction. Rows and rows of different items lined the shop.
"Wow, this is great," Harry said, looking at shelves of different kinds of sweets and other trick goods.
"Come up here," George said, "The test room."
Harry followed hesitantly up the spiraling stairs. There was a long hall with many doors. The twins threw the brooms into an empty room and led him around in a tour.
"These are new snacks we're working on. You know how Muggles talk about caffeine getting them all hyper and what not? Well, we devised a new potion to make a person so hyper, they'll be doing back-flips for the whole night," George said, showing him into a room, with a cauldron full of some steaming potion.
"Still working on it though," Fred said, "Now these are very fun."
They walked into a room that was splattered with different colored paint.
"You know how muggles have those neat guns that shoot each other with paint? We get most of our ideas from muggles, if you haven't noticed. Well, anyway, we got hold of a few of those paint ball things and have been working on them to explode into patterns and different colors," George said.
Fred led them into the next room, "This is where we've been working on Wild Wands. Stick this little thing to the end of your wand and it turns it a different color or pattern. Far from done with those, though."
"Cost us a fortune with all the wands we had to buy to experiment with. We hope to finish the solid color ones by Christmas. Then we'll move on to the patterns," George said.
"The next room is a surprise product we're working on. Can't show anyone yet. We're almost finished. They'll be ready when the Quidditch season starts, though," Fred said.
"Good work, boys. Very Proud," Mr. Weasley beamed at them, "Well, if you're finished here, we better get to the leaky cauldron. Moody'll have a fit if we're any more late."
"We want to stay here and work on the brooms a bit but we'll be home for dinner," Fred said.
"Can't we stay with them?" Ron asked.
"No. Out of the question. Fred and George can apparate if there's any trouble, but you two won't be able to escape quickly enough. Sorry, boys," Mr. Weasley said.
"Now before you leave, you must sign this," Fred brandish a sheet of parchment at them.
When they all looked questioningly at him, George explained with a grin, "It's a magical contract. You cannot tell a single soul of what you have seen, heard, smelt, or tasted in these test rooms or most unpleasant things will happen to you."
They were all forced to sign before hurrying to the Leaky Cauldron to meet the others and floo back to Grimmauld Place. After an exhausting day, Harry turned in for some sleep before he returned to Hogwarts the next day.
A small sandy haired boy of only five was running down an empty dirt road during the early hours of the evening. Tears were streaming down his cheeks and he was crying out to his parents for help.
"Mommy! Daddy!" he cried desperately, "Help me!"
He could hear the monstrous thing behind him, chasing him down. He was almost there. Only a little further, he thought. But he wasn't going to make it. The monster was just too close. And just as he reached the front lawn of his home, he felt searing pain as its jaws clenched down upon his leg. Falling to the ground, he saw the face of his attacker before it was stunned by his father. It's gleaming yellow eyes, long snout, and mass of brown fur were burned into his memory forever. The pain was indescribable. He was sobbing into the grass.
"Didn't like that, now did we Harry?" a cold voice Harry recognized as belonging to Voldemort hissed before Harry was thrown back into reality.
Ron was standing at the side of his bed, looking scared. Harry's leg prickled like something was irritating it. He sat up and wiped the sweat from his head.
"Are you okay, mate?" he asked, "You were screaming for your parents and crying."
"Fine," he answered mindlessly. He was confused for a moment but then his dream, if you could call it that came back to him. He sat up and wiped the sweat from his head.
"Are you sure? Not another one of those vision things, is it?" Ron asked. He looked exceptionally worried.
"I don't think so. More like a memory," he whispered, "It was like something that happened to me a while ago. But it didn't. It just felt like it did. I think I was being attacked by a werewolf."
"Harry, you should tell someone if those vision things are starting again," Ron urged.
"Of course. I'll just go wake up the whole house to tell them I had a scary dream," Harry said sarcastically.
"You know they aren't regular dreams," Ron said, "I don't think you've ever had a regular dream. You should tell Dumbledore."
"Dumbledore knows I have weird dreams. There's nothing he or anyone else can do," Harry said.
"He should still at least hear about them," Ron said.
"Look, if I have another one, I will, if it makes you happy. Okay?" Harry said, not intending to do so at all. He knew what Dumbledore would say, to continue with Occlumency and ignore the dreams.
"Okay. And as soon as I hear you so much as whimper in your sleep, I'm going to send for Dumbledore," Ron said seriously.
"Fine. I'm going back to bed," Harry yawned. This was a lie; Harry knew sleep wasn't going to come. Ron climbed into his own bed and was snoring again in minutes. Harry lay awake staring at the ceiling for hours as it very slowly lightened with the rising sun. He couldn't get over how real that dream felt. He had even felt his leg prickle when he woke, and the voice, Voldemort's voice. That was too real.
Finally, morning broke and everyone was soon up. The morning of the departure to Hogwarts was always hectic. Six students ran around the house, trying to retrieve all of their belongings. Harry soon forgot his dream in all of the commotion. He was trying to fit his new Quidditch things into his trunk and Ron was searching frantically for his other sneaker, when Mrs. Weasley came in.
"Only an hour until the train leaves! Hurry up or we're going to miss it!" she exclaimed, and seeing Harry struggle trying to jam everything into his trunk, she pulled out her wand, "Here you go, dear. Dilato."
Harry watched as his trunk became more spacious before his eyes. He easily fit the rest of his belongings inside.
"Thanks," he said.
"No trouble, dear. Now let's get going before we're late," she said, bustling out of their room and towards Fred and George's.
Harry packed his trunk into the magically expanded muggle cab with the two others. Then he climbed into the backseat with Hermione and Ron. Each had their pet on their laps. Mr. Weasley sat in the front. Mrs. Weasley rode with Fred, George, and Ginny in the other cab.
The ride to King's Cross was a noisy one. Pigwidgeon flew around in his cage animatedly, aggravating Hedwig, who hooted shrilly the whole way. Crookshanks spat and hissed, obviously not enjoying the basket he was being kept in.
The driver looked relieved when they arrived at King's Cross and the group got out. Harry helped an excited Mr. Weasley pay the cab driver. Then they got a trolley and hurried to the barrier, once again running late, as they always did.
"You two go first," Mrs. Weasley said to Harry and Ron, obviously remembering back to their second year, when they had flown the Ford Anglia to Hogwarts.
Harry and Ron took for the barrier together at a quick pace, emerging onto platform nine and three-quarters. There were a few lingering students left giving quick good-byes to their parents and hurrying onto the trains.
Mr. Weasley came through the barrier soon after them with Ginny. Then Hermione, the twins and Mrs. Weasley.
"Good-bye, dears. Write us. See you for Christmas," Mrs. Weasley gave each of them a hug and ushered them onto the train.
"Bye," they called as they climbed aboard the train.
The train whistle blew and it began to roll along the tracks picking up speed.
"We have to go to the prefect's compartment. We're going to hurry back, though," Ron said.
"This ought to be fun," George smirked. Both Fred and he had their modified badges pinned to the front of their cloaks.
"Very fun," Fred agreed.
"See you, then," Harry said.
He dragged his trunk along the train, searching for an empty compartment. Most seemed to be full or have people Harry did not want to sit with. As he was nearing the end of the train, he heard Neville call his name from behind him. Harry turned to say hi and walked into a brown haired girl he'd never seen before. She was coming out of the compartment door to his right.
"Sorry about that," he said, unknowingly running his hands through his hair. He noticed how pretty she was and his stomach did a bit of flip flop.
"No big deal," she shrugged, "Whitley Nott, by the way."
"Harry Potter," he said and was happily surprised when she saw this as nothing.
"Oh yeah, the Gryffindor seeker," she said, "I'm beater for--"
She was cut off by Neville, "Harry we have a compartment at the end of the train."
"Okay, Neville," he said biting back his urge to knock Neville's round head into next week. He wanted to talk with Whitley a bit more.
"So, I'll see you around, then," she smiled.
"Yeah. See you around," he said.
He drug his trunk to the last compartment and put it on a rack. Inside was Luna and another girl Harry didn't recognize. Her golden-brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail and her eyes had a startling azure color to them.
"Harry. Nice to see you again," Luna said, looking up from the Quibbler. Harry was beginning to think she went nowhere without it.
"Nice to see you too, Luna," he said, sitting across from her beside the other girl.
"This is Aira Bowden, Harry. She's new to our school. Transferred from some school in North America," Neville said.
"Hello," she smiled.
"Hi," Harry said returning the smile, "So, what year are you in?"
"My sixth," she answered, "I'm pretty nervous about starting here."
"Don't be. It's a great school. Teachers aren't too bad. And neither are the students," Harry said.
"As long as they're not in Slytherin," Neville added.
"Slytherin?" she put on a confused expression.
"Oh, right, you wouldn't know. There's four houses and the new students are sorted between them. We're in Gryffindor," Neville said proudly, "Luna is in Ravenclaw."
"Wit beyond measure is a man's greatest treasure," she said, as she had the year before when Ginny had said she was in Ravenclaw.
"What are the classes like?" Aira asked.
"They're always a good time. Unless you have Potions," Harry said.
"Not for me this year," Neville said happily.
"Lucky you. I need them to be an auror," Harry said, "I hate Snape with a passion."
"Snape's a slimy git," Aira muttered.
"You know Snape?" Harry asked.
"I met him when I was getting my schoolbooks," she said.
"Harry, you might like to look at this. It's an interesting read," Luna said, handing him her magazine.
Harry burst out laughing as he read the title of the article.
ALBUS DUMBLEDORE, PLANNING TO ELOPE WITH MINISTER OF MAGIC, CORNELIUS FUDGE
"What's so funny?" Aira asked.
Harry held the magazine so she could see and she began to laugh, also.
"I'm sure Albus would love that one," she said.
"You know Dumbledore?" Harry asked, still laughing.
"My parents did," she said quickly.
Harry began to read the first paragraph out loud sending them into fits of laughter once again as the compartment door slid open.
"Hi Harr-- Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to bother you," Cho said, glaring at Aira, who was leaning against Harry laughing. She stormed out of the compartment slamming the door shut.
"What's her problem?" Aira asked.
"I gave up trying to figure out long ago," Harry said, as the compartment door slid open again. This time Ron, Hermione, and Ginny entered.
"What did you do to Cho this time, Harry? She looked ready to spit fire storming away from here," Ron said.
"I probably breathed the wrong way. You know how she is," Harry said.
Hermione gave him a reproving look, "It's been hard for her, Harry. She's had a lot to deal with."
"Well, it isn't like life's been a piece of cake for me either," he said.
Hermione ignored him, "Hi Neville, Luna. And, I don't think we've ever met."
"I'm Aira. Transferred from Veneficus Academy," Aira introduced herself.
"I'm Hermione. And this is Ron and Ginny," Hermione said kindly. They all took seats. Ginny began chatting animatedly with Aira. T hey seemed to take to one another quickly.
"Hey, I was talking with Seamus and he says he's going to try out for the team this year," Ron said.
"We'll need chasers," Harry said.
"How many?" Ginny asked, narrowing her eyes a bit.
"Don't worry, Gin. You're on the team," Harry said.
"I was a chaser for a team at Veneficus. If I'm in Gryffindor, I'll be trying," Aira said.
"Are you any good?" Ron asked.
"Pretty good. Our team was third in the school competition," she said.
"What about the beaters?" Ron asked Harry, "Fred and George are back."
"We'll keep those other two as reserve beaters. We can train them so they're good for next year when Fred and George leave. We should get reserve chasers, keeper, seeker, too. Especially with my habit of missing games due to certain circumstances," Harry grinned.
It was until lunch that they discussed the upcoming team and who would be good to play, though they were careful to not reveal too much, with Aira there. They weren't sure if she would be put in Gryffindor. Harry bought a ton of snacks, as he usually did and the group ate through them. Then they traded Chocolate Frog cards, having a good time until Malfoy showed up with Crabbe and Goyle.
"Potter, you do have a habit of choosing the oddballs," he sneered looking distastefully at Aira.
"Shut your fucking mouth, Malfoy. I'm not going to take any of your shit this year," Harry stood glaring at him.
Aira stood, too. She looked torn between the urge to hex Malfoy and stop the fight. She settled for glaring at him warningly.
"Oh no, boys. We better leave. This looks like a dangerous group here," Malfoy laughed, "Look, I think the mudblood is getting angry."
He pointed at Hermione. She looked like she wanted to attack Malfoy herself, though Harry knew she wouldn't. They were all taken by surprise when Luna pulled her wand from behind her ear, pointing it at Malfoy's mouth and muttered, "Scourgify." nonchalantly. She returned to her book as if nothing happened at all. Pink suds were pouring from Malfoy's mouth like they did from the taps in the prefect's bathroom.
Everyone in the compartment started laughing at him. Even Hermione thought it humorous. Goyle grinned thickly and Malfoy smacked him in the head. He took off with his cronies following after him.
Later that evening, Whitley surprised Harry when she came for a visit.
"Hey," she grinned as she entered. Harry introduced her to his friends. She sat down next to Harry and he attempted conversation.
"So you said played Quidditch?" Harry asked.
"Live for it," she replied, "I went to all the Cannons games this summer. They won their first game in years. And now they're doing really good."
"That's a surprise," Ginny scoffed, receiving scowls from Ron and Whitley.
"She likes Puddlemere," Ron said, "They lost against Cannons this time around, as I recall."
"That was a good game. Close, if Wood had blocked another goal, we'd have lost. But it was no matter," Whitley said.
"Oliver Wood?" Harry asked, "He's not a reserve any more"
"They put him in halfway through last year, when Longhorn took a Bludger to the head," she said, "I'm going to try out for a few teams this summer when I leave Hogwarts. I don't know if I'm good enough, though."
"Are you on a house team?" Harry asked.
"Yeah. I hope I get in more this year. Flint never like to have girls playing. I was only a reserve, if that," she said.
"You're a Slytherin!" Ron burst out.
"Yes. Why?" she asked angrily.
Ron looked at Harry and repeated, "She's a Slytherin."
"I heard you the first time," Harry answered.
Ron shot an angry glare at Whitley and muttered indistinctly. Whitley stood up and made for the compartment door.
"I'll go now, seeing as some don't want me here," she spat and then turned to Harry saying nicely, "I'll see you around, then."
She left and Ginny, Harry, and Hermione all glared at Ron. He looked surprised.
"What?" he asked stupidly.
"That was rude!" Ginny shouted.
"You are such an ignorant pig, Ron Weasley," Hermione said.
"She was a Slytherin," he said looking to Harry for support but Harry only snapped at him.
"Don't even talk to me," he said.
He and the others totally ignored Ron for the rest of the trip. He thought Whitley was really nice. He knew that not all Slytherins couldn't be horrible. The hat had tried to put him in the house once and he knew he wasn't anything like Malfoy or most of the lot. The rest of the trip was tense, with everyone shooting glares at Ron every few minutes. Soon the train began losing it's speed and stopped completely.
As Harry was heading to an empty carriage with his friends, he spotted Whitley with one of her friends. He made his way through the crowd to her.
"Whitley, could I talk to you?" Harry asked. He didn't feel nervous like he did when he liked Cho. He surprisingly felt comfortable talking to Whitley.
"Yeah. Sure," she said.
"I just wanted to apologize for my oaf of a friend. He can be a bit of prat sometimes," Harry said.
"Don't worry about it. I think I overreacted a bit. I know what the other houses think of Slytherins and, actually, I agree with them. Most, well, nearly all are horrible pure-blood maniacs," she said, "But I don't want people to jump to conclusions, thinking I'm like that."
"I don't," Harry said. He liked her more and more every minute.
"Whitley! Come on!" called her friend.
"Well, I have to go," she said.
"Okay. See you," Harry said. He made his way to the carriage his friends were in and deliberately sat next to Ron. He couldn't stand to be mad at him. It didn't really matter, anyway. Whitley wasn't mad at him.
"You're such a prat sometimes," Harry smiled.
"So you're talking to me again?" Ron asked.
"Only if you apologize to Whitley next time you see her," Harry said.
Ron grimaced but muttered, "Okay." Then he laughed and said to Harry, "You like her, don't you?"
"Maybe," Harry blushed.
"You do!" Ron said, "Oh, another girlfriend for ickle Harry!"
"Just like you like Hermione!" Harry said. That wiped the grin off his face, though Hermione, blushing, shot him an angry look.
"I don't like Hermione. She's only a friend," he said a little too seriously to be telling the truth.
"Does," Ginny mouthed. And both of them smirked, making Ron's cheeks tinge red.
"We're only friends," he repeated.