The rest of the summer was a blur to Harry. Time passed by so quickly he was almost surprised when it was time to go shopping in Diagon Alley for school supplies. He met Ron and Hermione at Mrs. Figg's house, and from there they flooed to the twin's shop in Diagon Alley where they were to meet Ginny and Mrs. Weasley. When they arrived in the back room of the store, they saw Fred, George, and Ginny all being lectured by Mrs. Weasley. Harry, being the last to arrive, only heard something about completely inappropriate things to take to school, and he had to force down a laugh.

"Hello, dears," Mrs. Weasley said, still fuming. "Are you ready to get your shopping done?" They all nodded. "Well then I'm going to have to trust you out on your own... I'm not quite done with Fred and George yet." Mrs. Weasley managed to shoo them out of the shop while never breaking her glare in the twins direction.

"Well I'm glad I got out of that one!" Ginny exclaimed, receiving three very confused looks. "Oh, Mum caught me packing up an assortment of, um, goodies, and lost it. She thought Fred and George had given them to me as advertisements. I just didn't bother to correct her. Oh well, they'll get over it soon, they always do."

"Right, well I say we get our books first," Hermione said taking charge. "Now since I received 11 O.W.L.S., I'll have the most books. Harry, you got 9, so you'll still have quite a few. Don't look at me like that Ron, 7 is still good, you just won't have quite as many books this year." Hermione seemed to think that was a simply upsetting fact. The others simply laughed at her. They all knew Hermione took every possible opportunity to work her O.W.L.S. score into conversation. "Ginny, I don't know why you're laughing, you have to take them this year!" Ginny groaned at the simple thought of having to take tests.

"The school year hasn't even started yet, can we please stop talking about tests?" Ron begged. But before anyone could respond, Harry groaned.

"Well, if it isn't Potty, Mudblood, and two Weasel twits," Draco Malfoy said smugly walking up to them.

"How's your daddy liking Azkaban?" Harry replied, determined not to let Draco get the best of him.

"Not very well, actually. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if you saw him... soon." Draco turned and walked away, disappearing back into the crowded street from which he came.

"I wonder what he meant by that?" Hermione thought out loud, but no one had the heart to say what they all were thinking.

After they had all recovered from there run-in with Malfoy, they continued their shopping. They had lost all desire to dwindle in the stores, so they quickly got what they came for and headed back to the Leaky Cauldron, where they were all spending the night. Despite all there worries, the night was calm. As was the trip to King's Cross the next day. Harry imagined it was the decreased number of Weasley's making the trip this year. After saying a tearful good-bye to Mrs. Weasley, and promising to be careful Ron, Ginny, Harry, and Hermione climbed onto the Hogwart's Express and looked for a compartment to sit in. They found Colin Creevey sitting with Luna in one of the very back compartments, and they decided to join them!

"Ginny!" Colin exclaimed as his best friend walked in. "I've missed you so much this summer!" He jumped up and pulled her into a tight hug.

"Well, I've missed you too, but I'd appreciate it if you didn't strangle me."

"Oh, hey Harry," Colin said anxiously. He had always admired Harry, and hoped that Harry considered him to be a friend.

"Hello, Colin. Hey, Luna. Thanks again for coming to my birthday party."

"Oh, it was my pleasure," Luna said with a smile. Colin looked on with a frown. He wondered why he hadn't been invited to the party. He sat, like an outsider, listening to the other's talk for 15 minutes. Ginny was his best friend, yet he didn't know anything about the topics they were discussing. She seemed to become the fourth in Harry's group. Hell, even Looney Luna seemed to be fitting right it. Why not him? Colin was interrupted from his thoughts when the door burst open.

"I've looked in every compartment for you guys!" Neville Longbottom said, obviously out of breath.

"Well, here we are," Ron responded, annoyed to have his conversation interrupted.

"Neville, I hope you didn't run into Malfoy and his cronies," Hermione said, her voice full of concern.

"Actually, they were the only other people I didn't find," Neville responded happily. Harry exchanged a worried look with Hermione. For some reason, hearing that Malfoy didn't seem to be on the train filled his body with dread. Almost as if on cue, the train began to slow to a stop. "What's happening?" Neville whispered.

"If I had to guess," Harry replied darkly, "the train is under attack." Harry ran out into the corridor, as did many of the students in other compartments. Harry looked towards the conductor's room, and saw the last image he ever wanted to see in his entire life: Death Eaters. They were walking down the hall, stunning any student who got in their way.

"Find Potter," he heard one of them growl. Harry quickly turned back into the compartment and yelled at the others to stay put. He grabbed his want from his back pocket and ran into the corridor.

"Here I am!" he screamed at the top of his lungs, hoping to draw the attention away from the innocent students. Harry aimed his wand at the Death Eater quickly walking towards him, but before he could mutter the words to any spell, he was hit in the back. He screamed in agony and collapsed to the ground, the world going black around him.

The next thing Harry knew, he was waking up. He expected to find himself locked away in a dungeon somewhere, but instead he found himself in the too familiar hospital ward of Hogwarts. The room was blurry and he felt around for his glasses.

"Here they are sleepyhead," Harry heard a familiar voice say. He took his glasses from an outstretched hand and realized it was Ginny sitting in the chair next to his bed. "We've been taking shifts sitting with you," she explained noticing the surprised look on his face. "We didn't think you should be alone when you woke up." Harry's expression turned to one of gratitude.

"What happened?" Harry asked, his voice hoarse.

"Well, we all heard you scream. It took about two seconds for us to decide not to stay put. Hermione and I stood back to back in the corridor, cursing the Death Eaters approaching from both sides. Fortunately they couldn't walk through much more than one at a time. There were still to many of them. We had both been hit several times and probably would have collapsed on the floor next to you is Lupin hadn't shown up. He was brilliant. He took care of the rest of them. Unfortunately they weren't so injured they couldn't disapparate. Apparently, they had killed the conductor and snuck onto the train."

"Malfoy." It was the only thing Harry could manage to say. He couldn't picture Ginny and Hermione taking on Death Eaters to save his life. He couldn't let his friends hurt to save him, he felt so guilty. "No," he thought to himself. "I'm not going down that road again. I promised."

Seeing the too familiar look of panic in Harry's face, Ginny spoke up again. "Don't worry, we were in and out of the hospital wing in no time." Harry smiled. It was like she could read his mind.

"How long have I been out?"

"A week. They definitely used a very powerful dark spell intended to knock you out completely, draining you of your energy. There's a counter curse, but not one we know. It's lucky Lupin brought you straight to Madam Pomfrey so she was able to do what she could to reverse the spell."

"Remind me to thank him later."

"She won't have to, you can tell him yourself." Lupin walked into the room, smiling brightly. He was followed by Hermione, Ron, Colin, Neville, and Luna. "You gave us all quite the scare!" Lupin got very serious for a moment. "Harry, why on earth did you give yourself up like that? You're lucky these young ladies were able to prevent them leaving with your body." Ginny and Hermione blushed furiously.

"They were hurting students," Harry said quietly, examining his hands. "I knew I was what they wanted, so I figured if they had me they would leave everyone else alone."

"Harry, your heart was in the right place, but you should have waited. There were aurors following the train at a safe distance. We can't afford to lose you before the war even really begins." Lupin's tone was soft but firm. Harry's friends looked at him curiously, each ignorant of the prophecy. Harry just couldn't yet bring himself to share his burden with his friends.

Sensing that Harry was starting to feel uncomfortable, Ron spoke up. "We're all just glad you're alright mate!" Harry was glad that he had a best mate who could pick up on his feelings.

"Well, if it isn't my most frequent patient up and making a racket!" Madam Pomfrey came in cheerfully, but frowned noticing the large group of people. "I believe you'll be able to return to the dormitory tonight, but for now I must insist on only one visitor at a time." Harry grinned at the thought of leaving the hospital wing.

"Well, since the lot of you has classes, I guess I'm the lucky one who gets to stay with the patient," Lupin said smiling. "Now go on, you don't want to be late." Harry's friends quickly told him goodbye, and then disappeared out the door. Lupin sat down in the chair that Ginny had occupied previously. "I'm sorry I dumped all of that stuff from your parents and Sirius on you and then left. I had a few things I had to take care of before I came here. I'm hope you're okay."

"I'm fine," Harry said, forcing a smile. "But honestly, I'm not sure if I have the strength to talk about it right now."

"I understand. But we do have to talk about it eventually. We also need to set up a time for your lessons."

"I'll look forward to it," Harry said, trying not to sound reluctant.