Harry Potter and the Slayerette
A/N
A lot of the people who reviewed this story commented on the fact that the first chapter is "just a rehash from the HP books" and "does nothing to advance the story". They also had some really nice comments to say and I value their constructive criticism. That said, I'm now going to explain why the first chapter is written the way it is.
Every Harry Potter book begins with a reintroduction to the lore of the books. This is so that new people picking up one of the books don't find themselves lost. I choose to write this fic as close as I can get to JK Rowling's style and so this is why the story begins here. Also, I thought it set up the sense of where the story is and hinted at a couple of possible directions.
Anyway, a big thank you to all of my reviewers; roswell_grrrrl, dracos-gurl (BTW, I really like Hermiones Dreams), Riverchic1998 (What the heck happened to Dawn?!), alienbeing, Kristine, X-Lander, Roswell-X5-Liz, Lilly, Brandy and the wonderful person who merely said "add"!
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Harry looked over his shoulder to make sure that no-one was watching and pushed his trolley through the barrier that lead into Platform 9¾. Once through, his trolley rebounded off of another left parked too close to the barrier.
"Ron! I told you you were standing too close." Hermione chided before turning to Harry and hugging him. "How are you?"
Harry shrugged, embarrassed. "I'm okay. Hey Ron. How are you guys?" He asked.
"Brilliant!" Hermione exclaimed.
"Can't wait to get back to Hogwarts." Ron said.
Together the three friends put their luggage on the train and found an empty compartment, chattering happily about their holidays. After a few minutes, they were joined by Ron's sister, Ginny, and the four of them spent most of the journey talking, only taking a break to eat when the refreshment trolley came round.
It was getting dark by the time that Ron remembered something. "Oh! Harry, mum got your school stuff like you asked. Hang on, I'll find it in a minute." He said, opening his trunk and flinging his belongings around the small compartment.
Hermione frowned as Ron's new dress robes landed over the book she was in the middle of reading and delicately picked them up, folded them and placed them on the seat beside her. Harry grinned.
"Here it is!" Ron exclaimed, passing an armful of belongings to Harry.
Harry opened his own trunk and began placing his new possessions inside, reading the title of every book as it passed.
"Standard book of spells, Grade Five; The Slayers Handbook; The Watcher's Chronicles, from 1956 to 2001; Unfogging the Future, Grade two; The Complete Guide to Demonology… I'm guessing Snape failed to get the Defence Against the Dark Forces job again. Who do you think it is this year?" He asked.
Ron shrugged.
"It's pointless guessing." Hermione told them. "It's always someone different from the last year. Besides, we'll find out soon enough."
"I wonder if Dumbledore's asked Professor Lupin to come back again?" Ron said excitedly.
Harry shook his head sadly. "Remember how upset the parents were last time? No way would they be happy if he came back."
"Yeah, but since when has Dumbledore done what's popular?" Ron said eagerly.
"I heard it's a woman." Ginny said.
Ron turned to his little sister. "Where did you hear that?"
Ginny shrugged. "Malfoy was moaning about it to Crabbe and Goyle. He doesn't think that a woman could be capable."
Hermione fumed silently from her corner.
"And since when did you hang around Malfoy?" Ron demanded to know.
Ginny went pink with anger. "I don't!" She shouted back at Ron. "He was hanging around in the corridor when I went to the bathroom earlier. Satisfied?" She subsided back into her seat, her anger spent.
"Sorry Ginny." Ron apologised, taken aback.
"You're really coming into your hair, Ginny." Hermione complimented with a grin, referring to the myth that redheads have fierce tempers.
Ginny went pink again, this time with a mixture of embarrassment pleasure rather than rage.
It was then that the train came to a halt at the station. In the confusion, Ginny was separated from the others who were joined in their coach not by her but by another member of their house, Neville Longbottom. They spent the short journey catching up with his news. Harry felt the weight of his silence most acutely. Last year he had discovered that Neville's parents had been kidnapped and tortured by Death Eaters when Neville was young. Because of the torture that they had undergone, Neville's parents had gone insane and Neville now lived with his grandmother and visited his parents in hospital every summer holidays. Harry had promised not to say a word until Neville chose to make the information common knowledge but occasionally he wanted to say something. This was one of those times. Harry couldn't help but feel that it might be easier to deal with his knowledge if Neville knew that Harry knew, but he didn't want to bring up the subject and cause Neville more pain.
Ginny caught back up with them in the entrance hall as the school passed into the Great Hall where their meal would be served and the five of them sat down at the table together. Fred and George Weasley, Ron's identical older brothers also chose to sit next to them and they offered Harry a humbug.
Harry declined, knowing the Weasley twins by long-standing association and therefore knowing to treat any previously untested food substance from them with extreme caution. George grinned at him.
"Go on, try one!" He urged.
"We've been working on them all summer." Fred added.
"Ha-ha Humbugs." George elaborated.
"One suck and you won't stop laughing for three days." Fred explained.
"No remedy can cure it either!" George told Harry with a wicked grin.
Harry smiled back at them. "I'm fine thanks." He told them as Ginny caught his eye.
Ginny nodded at the teachers podium with a slight smirk and Harry followed her gaze. There in the Defence Against the Dark Arts chair sat a young woman. Harry guessed her age to be in the early twenties. Vaguely he wondered if she was a distant relation of the Weasley's; her hair was bright red; but then he decided against it. Ron would have known the instant one of his relatives was asked to teach at Hogwarts. Harry shrugged to himself and then turned his attention to the sorting of the new first years, clapping everytime a student was allocated to Gryffindor.
After the sorting came the yearly speech by Dumbledore, who rose from his seat to address the student body.
"Hello and welcome to another year here at Hogwarts." Dumbledore greeted them. "I have a few notices to read out before we can all eat. Firstly, due to the events at the end of last year - " Here every student turned to look at Harry, even a few of the new ones. Harry felt the tips of his ears turn red and tried hard not to look as though he noticed. "- The Forbidden Forest is completely out of bounds and there is a ten o'clock curfew. Also, our caretaker, Mr Filch, has asked it to be made known to all students that once he finds the person who was liberally strewing the castle with canary feathers last year he shall personally assign the culprit detention for the rest of the school year." Fred and George exchanged a gleeful look. "And lastly, I would like you all to welcome two new teachers. Firstly, Professor Rosenburg," Dumbledore motioned towards the red-haired woman. "Who is here as our new Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor." He paused for the students mediocre applause. "And also, Professor Regan." Here Dumbledore motioned to another woman, who Harry hadn't noticed before. Although she had been sitting in a well-lit area, it was almost as though she had been obscured by shadows before. "Who is here as our new Divination Professor. Unfortunately Professor Trelawney was overcome by the burden of her Inner Eye and was forced to retire."
Hermione snorted. From what Harry could see, it looked as though she wasn't the only one, Professor Regan was having a great deal of difficulty keeping a straight face.
"That said," Dumbledore continued. "I have only two further words. Eat up!"
With that the plates in front of Harry magically filled and he and the rest of the student body commenced eating.