Chapter 4: The News That Kills

"Harry! Ron! Get your ass down now! You're going to be late! Ginny! Hermione! Janieve" hollered Mrs. Weasley from the kitchen below. Harry stuffed his last piece of clothing into his suitcase and slammed the lid shut. He grabbed Hedwig by the neck and pushed her unceremoniously into her cage. Ron was scrambling around in the room, overturning bed sheets and pillows to look for his prefect badge.

Downstairs, they could hear Mrs. Black's portrait ranting and cursing the dwellers of the house. As before, nobody bothered to draw the curtain over her. Ginny popped her head into their room on her way down with Janieve and Hermione. "We are going to be late you know, if you guys don't leave your room now." Ginny warned.

"I can't find my badge!" Ron yelled uncharacteristically.

"Mom had it pin to your robe already." Ginny informed him. Ron let out a weird noise that sounds something between a grunt and a sigh.

"Ron! Ginny!" came Mrs. Weasley's voice again.

"Coming!" The five of them dragged their suitcases and owl cages down the stairs noisily.

Breakfast was a messy affair. Flying jars of butter and jam, and cartons of milk and orange juice in the kitchen was the twins' idea of a way to speed things up. However, the flying glasses often crashed into one another, making things more chaotic than it was. Mrs. Weasley cries of protest at the twins did not make the situation any better. Finally Ginny, Janieve, Hermione, Ron and Harry found themselves standing on the porch of Grimmauld Place number twelve. Harry felt as if he had just emerged from a battlefield.

"How are we going to the station?" asked Ron, speaking what exactly was on Harry's mind.

Mr. Weasley pointed at Janieve's jeep wrangler and Janieve's mouth fell opened. "That's not going to fit," she protested. She looked around frantically at Fred, George, Ginny, Ron, Hermione, Harry, Lupin, Tonks, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Moody, and Kingsley, counting numbers off her fingers as she did so and realised that there were not enough fingers.

Harry felt his mouth twitch involuntarily. The look on Janieve was priceless. He could not wait to see her expression when she got in the car.

"We did a charm on the car to make it fit," informed Tonks brightly.

"Get on with it then," growled Moody.

They piled into the pink vehicle and the twelve of them fitted into it perfectly. As Harry had predicted, there was a look of awe on Janieve's pretty face.

"Bloody brilliant," she muttered disbelievingly, having caught on with Harry and Ron's lingo. The inside of the vehicle seemed to have expanded to the size of a limo. The backseats had curved into a circular shape that allowed comfortable space for ten.

"Oye guys, do visit the Weasley's Wizard Wheezes during Hogsmeade," said Fred cheerily.

"Yeah, ten percent discount off your first purchase," added George.

Mrs. Weasley shot the twins a stern look but did not say anything. Harry heard from Ron that the twins had got into a lot of trouble with their mother after they were expelled from school before the end of school term last year. But after much teary debate (tears supplied by Mrs. Weasley), she had allowed them to fulfil their lifelong dream – open their own joke shop.

Using what remained of Harry's Triwizard money and some savings they had stashed from selling their products to the Hogwart's students, the twins had taken over Zonko's, the joke shop in Hogsmeade.

They entertained themselves with small talk until they reached King's Cross station. They carried their trunks, Crookshanks, Pidwedgeon, and Hedwig, and struggled to the wall between platforms nine and ten. Lingering casually beside the barrier between platforms nine and ten, they leaned against it one by one and fell through easily on to platform nine and three-quarters when no one was looking. Hogwarts Express stood over a platform of departing students and their families. Harry took in the familiar surroundings and felt a fresh pang of pain and regrets, and his ribs throbbed. One year ago, Sirius had transformed into a large black dog to send him off on this very platform. Harry looked around him, as though hoping for the dog to emerged once again from the crowd.

"Take care now, Harry," said Lupin, drawing him into a hug and patting him on his back, "If there's anything, anything at all, that you need help or advice on… Well, not that I am exactly a role model, but if you just need someone older to talk to, feel free to write to me."

Harry smiled at Lupin gratefully. He knew that Lupin had said that to Harry because he could no longer turn to Sirius. Lupin remained the last living connection Harry had with his father. "Will do," said Harry.

"Harry," said Mrs. Weasley as she came over to Harry, "if anything should happen, talk to Dumbledore. He'll know what do." Harry nodded. He had not quite forgiven Dumbledore for keeping Harry in the dark about the prophecy of Harry and Voldermort, which had cost Sirius's life. However, he also knew that Dumbledore always has his interest at heart, hence he did not argue with Mrs. Weasley.

After they had all bid their goodbyes, Harry, Ron, Ginny, Hermione and Janieve board the Hogwarts Express, a scarlet steam engine.

"So, let's get an empty compartment, shall we?" suggested Harry.

"Er…" began Ron.

"We need to attend the prefect meeting," finished Hermione for him. Right, Harry nearly forgot, Hermione and Ron had been made head prefect for the house of Gryffindor and Ginny too had been appointed the new prefect for the fifth years. Hermione handed Janieve Crookshanks while Harry struggled with two owl cages – Hedwig's and Pidwedgeon's after they left.

"Come on," Harry said to Janieve, "we might still find seats."

Janieve followed Harry quietly down the aisle and finally Harry found Neville, Dean and Seamus sitting in one of the cabin. He pushed open the sliding door and took a seat beside Neville. That was when he noticed Janieve still standing awkwardly at the doorway.

Harry cleared his throat, "Er, everyone, this is Janieve Walker, a new student who will join us sixth years. Janieve, Seamus Finnigan, Dean Thomas, and Neville Longbottom," he said, motioning at each of the boys as he ticked off their names.

"Hi," Janieve said shyly as she took a seat beside Harry. Dean and Seamus said 'hi' back but Neville was too absorbed in reading the Daily Prophets to notice her or Harry.

"Will you be sorted, like the first years?" Seamus was asking Janieve.

"Uhh…," said Janieve.

"Well, Harry didn't tell you about the houses?" Dean asked, giving Harry an incredulous look.

Harry shrugged. And then they launched into a full description of the four houses that Hogwarts was divided into – Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. They gave her the bit by bit low down on the type of people that will be sorted into the type of houses. Then, they ended the description with Slytherin, describing them as unscrupulous and evil.

"What house is that Malfoy character in? Janieve asked Harry curiously.

"Slytherin," Harry answered.

"You met Draco Malfoy?" asked Dean, a look of dislike written on his face.

Before Janieve could answer, Neville gave out a loud frustrated cry, catching everyone's attention.

"I can't believe this!" he shouted in a very un-Neville way, crushed the Daily Prophets, threw it aside, and stormed out of the compartment, crushing Harry's toes as he did.

Dean, Seamus and Harry stared after Neville in disbelief while Janieve reached across Harry to pick up the crunched up newspaper. She smoothed it out and began reading the article that had caused the bizarre reaction from Neville. Harry peered over Janieve's shoulder.

Ministry's Blunder

Once again, the Ministry had proven its incompetence in the handling of Voldermort's return. Due to the previous denial of Harry Potter's claim of the return of the Dark Lord two summers ago, the Dark Lord had been able to gather and regroup his supporters easily and quickly. Muggles and Muggle-born wizards had been attacked all over the country over the past two months and the situation was aggravated when some of Voldermort's most loyal supporters were broken out of Azkaban a week ago. The Ministry had been trying to hush the matter rather than admit the serious negligence on their part. The escaped prisoners, which includes Lucius Malfoy, Rodolphus and Bellatrix Lestrange, who were regarded as highly dangerous supporters of Voldermort, was suspected to have escaped with the help of the Dementors, guards of Azkaban. Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts, had long warned the Ministry of the Dementors being not trustable as they were known to be on Voldermort's side before his fall fifteen years ago. It seems as though the Ministry need to step up their fight against Voldermort and prove themselves worthy before the people start losing their faith in them…