'How can something I've done now six times feel different each and every time?' Harry thought to himself as he made his way through the station and looked at the Hogwarts Express. The old train was the same as it had always been, most likely the same as it had been when his parents had stepped onto it and his father's parents before that. The station too, even with the LCD screens all over and the modern shops and stands that sold all sorts of high tech gadgets that his ancestors would have thought to be the creations of demons and devils, felt like it had remained trapped in time for all eternity. The whole process was the same too. How he got to the station through the South Gate because it seemed like the West one, even though it would have been more convenient, was always closed for some new repairs that needed to be made JUST when the school children needed it. The crush of people, partially because of said West Gate. The chatter of people, the clatter of luggage, and the patter of feet as everyone tried to get in some last minute shopping, a few hugs between families, and find old friends.

And yet for Harry, despite how similar it all was, everything felt different this year, as it had every year he had set out to journey to Hogwarts.

His first year he had been filled with nerves, scared at what Hogwarts might be like, that it might not live up to all the delighted fantasies he'd dreamed of ever since he'd learned of it. He'd wanted to explore the castle and see all the places his parents had been and find out how to be a better trainer to his new Eevee. He'd left home and leapt feet first into the unknown and he'd been scared and excited and delirious with wonder at what he might discover.

As he thought of that time Harry reached down and stroked Leon's head.

The second year had been so very odd. On one hand he knew what to expect and had been looking forward to seeing his friends again… though the very concept of HAVING friends had been such a new and wondrous sensation for him. Hermione, Ron, and Neville… he had come to care for them in that short year before and the idea of getting to see them again had thrilled him. Yet there had been mourning too, for he had found in Remus the first chance to have a home he wanted to return too and the idea of leaving him behind had made his gut twist with worry. What if he didn't want to see him again? What if he decided he liked life better without Harry being a part of it? All foolish things to think of now, Harry knew, but back then he had felt those fears all the same. And then there had been Dobby's warning, that he was in danger at Hogwarts and someone was seeking to do harm to him…

His third year had seen him not knowing how he was going to handle being around Hermione after the events of the Chamber as well as dealing with the conflicting feelings that came from having Remus as a teacher. It had been nice to have his guardian nearby all year round but it had also made him feel so very odd because he truly wasn't used to adults actually BEING there for him.

Fourth year... well, by fourth year he'd come to expect the unexpected when it came to Hogwarts. He would never have a normal time there like all the other students. The attack in Ilex Forest had cemented that fact, that Harry's life was one destined to be filled with the strange, the bizarre, and the unpredictable. Because Fate had plans for him... and as he'd pointed out to his friends once, Fate had also had plans for his mother and they all knew what had happened there.

For his fifth year he had been foolish enough to believe he had a plan. That he could predict the madness and thus ensure that it didn't take him by surprise. Chaos wouldn't bugger him over, he would bugger over chaos! He'd use the madness as his weapon, his tool, and with it finally take control.

'Heh,' he mentally laughed bitterly.

Now it was his sixth year and he didn't know what to expect. Everything was so very... very different. There was blood on his hands. The school would be filled with new teachers and it was his fault they were there... and everyone would know it. His friends had all been changed by their ordeal and while they had assured him that they accepted what had happened wasn't his fault (they hadn't said it like that, stating that merely that it 'wasn't your fault' but he could hear the unspoken worlds)... he couldn't stop blaming himself. Especially since he needed to smile and nod and act like everything was fine when in reality he was lying to them all.

"You okay?" Remus asked, placing a hand on Harry's shoulder and jolting him out of his thoughts.

"Yeah..." Harry said before grimacing. "No. No use lying about it, is there?"

"Not really," Sirius said softly from his other wise, for once not trying to make everyone smile with jokes. He was actually acting like an adult and that was a scary thing because it proved how serious, no pun for once intended, things truly were. "You know that we're here for you if you need us. And we can be close by."

Harry nodded at that; it wouldn't be public knowledge but Sirius had bought a home in Le Fay's Landing, so that if things got too bad at Hogwarts Harry would at least have a place to flee to. He'd promised both men that this year he wouldn't retreat into the Chamber of the Unown to be all by himself, consumed by guilt. It would also be there at Le Fay's Landing that Harry would be able to teleport for his visits with Dr. Linda. All in the name of keeping him sane.

"It will be alright, Harry," Remus said, giving Harry a pat on the shoulder. "You have us. You have your friends. And you have the headmaster."

Dumbledore. How very odd it was for Harry to consider that Remus telling him that Dumbledore was his ally, especially since the year before hand they had all gone into his year at Hogwarts planning on what to do to get around the headmaster. Now his guardians were preaching that the man was his own hope.

How very… very odd life could be.

"Send us a message after the feast tonight," Sirius said with a smirk. "Let us know if there are any pretty young ladies to stare at this year. New teachers, transfer students, someone that makes you want to howl at the moon…"

"Sirius," Remus complained.

"What? I'm not going to date them but I can admire them. Best thing about young ladies is that while I get older they stay the same!"

Remus though shot him a look. "Not that." He nodded towards Harry who absolutely hated it that one guardian was utterly clueless about things and the other was making a massive deal out of it. He honestly didn't know what was more frustrating. Part of him wished Sirius would shut up… and the other wanted him to keep making jokes because it was better than the silence.

"Oh?" Sirius looked to Harry before his eyes went wide. "OH!" He blushed and rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry Harry. You know I was just-"

"I know," Harry said and then to show that there were no hard feelings (or at least make sure Sirius and Remus thought that) he gave them each a hug. Perhaps he was too old to be doing that, too mature for such public displays. He knew that there were plenty of students who were watching him now and rather surprised that he was being so open about his affection for his guardians. 'Let them spend a decade with Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon and then judge what they think about having people that not only love you but you know you can openly love without fear.'

Making his way towards the train, his final goodbyes before the journey made, Harry let his smile fall as the pain of Sirius' mistake, and the memories it brought up, rolled within his head. Maybe Sirius had known what he was talking about. Maybe he had remembered but this being Sirius, who could barely tolerate matters that weren't pleasant or pleasurable (and those were different things in Sirius' world), had decided to play the role of dopey fool who blurted things out in hopes of making a point: Harry needed to move on.

But that was so much easier said than done.

'Everyone thinks I'm being foolish,' he thought to himself as Jasmine's smiling face floating into his mind's eye. 'They look at the two of us and see it as nothing more than a high school romance. My first romance too. How many people stay together with the first person they fell for?' He mentally huffed. 'Mum and da, I suppose.' Sirius, Remus, and Snape (Harry still couldn't bring himself to call him 'Severus' outside of school and Snape disliked being called 'Professor' when they weren't in a school setting and thus they'd decided to stick with Snape) had all told him stories about his parents and how Harry's father had only had eyes for Lily Evans from the moment he'd seen her during first year. Of course his way of grabbing her attention was to pull pranks and annoy her because, as Harry had told all three after the tale, his father was clearly a fucking idiot.

Sirius had sputtered, Remus had nodded his head after a moment, and Snape had promptly patted him on the shoulder and called him wise beyond his years before leaving the room. Harry was PRETTY sure he'd heard Snape then burst into laughter but considering Grumpigs had begun to fly he doubted it.

James Potter had apparently tried to date other people but there was a difference between going on a date with someone and actually being with them. His father had taken plenty of young trainers to Le Fay's Landing or sat with them during dinner but he hadn't had a true relationship until his 6th year when he'd actually stopped a prank from going off on Snape and apologized in front of the entire school for being an ass. It had taken a month for Harry's mother to decide that his father wasn't doing it just to get in her good graces and only then had they begun to date.

As for his mother? Snape had stated that she had sworn not to date anyone until she left Hogwarts and settled into her career and he frankly had been worried that she was going to go his route and swear off getting married and having children until she was as old as… well, as old as Snape was now.

(That had led Sirius to trying to set up triple dates for himself, Snape, and Remus and Harry had quickly fled at that point)

But most first relationships at Hogwarts didn't last. A lot of people met their significant other at the school, that was true, but not at first. There was heartbreak and pain and lessons learned. That was how it was with him and Jasmine… in the eyes of everyone else.

Harry knew different though. Him and Jasmine? They were different. They were special.

And they were currently broken.

He hadn't had a chance to talk to her all summer. He'd respected her wishes, sending only one text telling her that he'd allow her to make the next move.

Jasmine had been utterly silent.

That was the worst thing.

"Hey mate," Ron said with a grin, slapping Harry on the shoulder and snapping his dark and depressing thoughts. "How are things?"

"Real answer or fake answer?"

Ron considered that. "How long for each?"

"Long is probably 20 minutes, fake is 10 seconds."

Ron chuckled. "Save the long for the train ride. We can use it as an excuse when Hermione wants us to begin doing studying for our exams."

"Our exams aren't until the end of the school year and… yeah, she'll actually do that, won't she?" He chuckled and the two of them headed onto the train, making their way towards the last cabin, which had become theirs by unwritten rule. "Things seem kind of quiet?" he asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Normally we have to deal with people yammering at us, making snide comments, threats that we are going to be defeated or humiliated… nothing like that today." Harry nodded to a couple of Hufflepuffs who just silently nodded. "It's odd."

"Well, the Slytherins have been removed from the equation," Ron pointed out.

"What?"

"The Slytherins. Not a problem. At least not at the moment." Harry stared at his friend in confusion but Ron didn't say a word until they were in their cabin. "Okay, so I only know because Neville has been talking with Daphne-"

"Not calling her Greengrass?" harry said, interrupting his friend. "That's a big step up for you."

"Hahaha," Ron said, rolling his eyes. "And yeah, she and Tracey aren't that bad. Nice enough when not having to act all smug and superior."

"Which Gryffindors are never like."

"What does that-"

"Cormac."

Ron frowned. "Point taken." Shoving his suitcase in the overhead (Harry having decided to just leave his at home and let Dobby teleport it once they got to Hogwarts) Ron sat down and continued on. "Anyway, Neville and Daphne got talking because he needed to ask Millie a question-"

"Why is Neville chatting with Millie?"

"Apparently they both are into Pokemon Tracking… Neville sees it as a way to hone his skills-"

"Makes sense."

"And Millie just loves nature."

Harry shrugged. "Huh. You think you know a person. Anyway, Neville and Daphne?"

"Right. So I never realized this but the Slytherins have this weird sort of hierarchy thing going on. There are certain students that just end up being the leaders and everyone either follows them or quietly go about their business. Mostly because it's just easier that way. It's part of their little game, to out sneak each other."

"I think all the houses have that," Harry stated.

"Not Gryffindor."

Harry shot him a dry look. "Ron… WE'RE the leaders of Gryffindor."

"We are?"

"You aren't this stupid."

Ron chuckled at that. "I know, I just like messing with you." Harry glared at him for several moments before he broke down and began to chuckle as well. "Do you want to know how many times I play stupid just to screw with you?"

"Less than when you do it to Hermione?"

"That's more that she expects me to be dumber than her in everything," Ron said with a shrug. "I get it… she's the first in her family to go to Hogwarts, my entire family has gone for ages, so she thinks she needs to prove something by being the best at everything. Pokeball making is easy for me and I like that so I don't hide how much I know there but I do keep quiet about the rest of the stuff… it makes her happy."

"That… does not sound healthy."

"For me or her?"

"Both."

"Meh. Who cares, I don't need good grades in anything except ball making anyway."

Harry rolled his eyes, not even bothering to ask if Ron was once more screwing around with him, purposely making things up just to get a rise out of him. Instead he asked, "So the Slytherins?"

"Right. So I was talking to Daphne and she said that Draco put it out there, through quiet channels mind you, that he wasn't going to be focusing on any of us this year. That he had bigger priorities than to bother with some 'pathetic Gryffindors'. He'll hit back if we go after him but he's not going to bother starting stuff."

Harry hid his smirk; seemed like Draco could learn. Of course it had taken a threat to his life and a robotic hand but still. The blond bastard had taken his threats seriously and that was all that mattered.

Out loud he said, "Okay, and Draco has that much power? He can boss around the other Slytherins?"

"Its not like that," Ron stated. "Draco by himself has nothing. But him and his gang, for most of our time at Hogwarts, did have the rest of his year group's nuts in a vice. His father's money was a major thing, after all, and he knew enough people that if Draco made a big enough fuss he would be willing to cut off deals that would harm the Slytherins. Why do you think my family and Luna's family stuck with our businesses and never tried to venture out and attempt no things?"

"Because your parents are stuck in the a past and Xeno Lovegood is insane?"

"…okay, that is a fair point," Ron admitted. "But it was also because Lucius Malfoy had the money and the means to make things hard on us."

"What about Neville? You didn't mention the Longbottoms."

"They are old enough and rich enough that they can compete," Ron said with a shrug. "Anyway, with Draco no longer painting a target on the back of anyone that tried to actually treat us with human decency the final domino fell right into place. Pansy's gone so the pressure on the lady snakes disappeared-"

"That sounds dirty when it shouldn't," Harry stated.

"-Crabbe and Goyle do whatever Draco commands anyway…"

"Why is that?" Harry asked. "I never understood why they became his bookends."

"Family life debts," Ron said. "I never explained that? Old Noble Family shit. Lucius bailed both of their mothers out after the last Civil War, said that they were innocent."

"Wait, their MOTHERS?" Harry exclaimed.

"Yeah…? What's the big deal?"

"I just assumed it would have been their fathers."

"Why?" Ron asked. "Their fathers are punny." Harry blinked and Ron chuckled, grabbing his dex and pulling up a photo from some Ministry event. Harry quickly recognized Lucius and Narcissa, along with a much younger Draco who was standing next to Crabbe and Goyle. And there were the two body guards' families: their slender, unassuming fathers and their huge beefy mothers, towering over everyone.

"…wow," Harry muttered to himself in shock.

"Yeah. Part of the reason why I'm glad my folks aren't chummy with their ilk. Those two look like if they pinched my cheeks they would tear them off… and eat them." Ron put his dex away. "Anyway, Crabbe and Goyle do what Draco says. That eliminates the main group that had problems with us. The younger Slytherins go with the flow, following what their elders do. The 7th years are too focused on their finals this year to care about us… especially since Flint finally managed to graduate." Harry chuckled at that. "And with Draco and his cliché not bothering us the rest of the Slytherins see no need."

"Clique. Not Cliché."

"I know what I said. The point is that Draco is leaving us be."

"Huh… so we might actually have a quiet-"

"DON'T!" Luna screamed, bursting out from under Harry's seat.

"GAAAA!" Harry leapt right into Ron's lap. "Damn it Luna! How long were you down there?!"

"Only a few seconds. My Luna Sense told me you were about ready to jinx us and the jinx is real! Just like the Noid, who ruins pizzas." Wiggling her way out from under the seat she reached in and pulled out her suitcase… and then an actual pizza, steaming still. "If you see that bastard you let me know, okay? I will NOT have him ruin another pizza!"

"…I vote we don't ask how she did that and just move on with our lives," Ron said.

"Deal," Harry said before wiggling slightly. "Ron… please tell me that's your Pokedex…"

"It is," Ron said.

"Thank Arceus."

"My penis is much bigger."

Harry groaned and got off his friend's lap just as Neville, Ginny, and Hermione entered, looking rather out of breath. "What's up with you three? I thought you'd be here waiting for us."

"We would have been if someone-" Ginny glared at Luna, "-hadn't declared, "I have to go now, my planet needs me!" leapt into a telephone booth, and disappeared! We searched for 20 minutes and barely made it to the train!"

"You act like this is the first time I've broken the laws of physics!" Luna complained. "You should all be used to that by now!"

Neville sighed. "She has a point." He stuffed his suitcase in the overhead and sat down, Luna snuggling up next to him, resting her head on his shoulder. "Hey Harry."

"Hey mate," Harry greeted with a smile. "Ginny, Hermione. How were your summers?"

"Visited Cedric in Unova," Hermione said with a smile that wasn't quite as bashful as it might have been a year or so earlier. "Visited the lab so they could get a new reading on how my psychic powers have grown."

"And?" Ron asked.

Hermione shrugged. "Not by much." She fell silent, staring intently at her bag… and a book slowly pulled free from it and floated over to her. There was no way it could be called smooth, as the movement was wobbly to the point that Harry was afraid the thing would suddenly lash out and strike him in the face. Still, it managed to come over to her and rest in her lap, Hermione panting but smiling all the same once she had the tome in her hands.

"Okay, that is damn impressive," Ron admitted. "Just seeing and moving things with your mind?"

"Mind Reading and Telekinesis," Hermione corrected him and Harry, remembering what Ron had told him moments earlier, wondered if Ron purposely had dumbed down his comments. "The mind arts are all about figuring out how to find the similarities in one that can be carried over to another. At least that is what the lab is figuring out. Dream Walking is something most people can do but I figured out how it was similar to reading minds while awake, and thus Mind Reading. And then I began to look into how I can affect things that don't have minds, manipulate them and move them and… well…" she shrugged.

"…I am a bit scared that she is viewing moving things with her mind so casually," Ginny whispered.

Harry chuckled before looking at her. "What did you do during the summer?"

"Hacked into the Unova's government to try and get the codes to their weapons of mass destruction."

Harry blinked at her in shock at that.

"I didn't get them!" she complained. "Geez!"

"The fact that you tried to get them is worrying," Hermione pointed out.

Ginny rolled her eyes. "You people act like I am some sort of supervillain."

"You're rubbing your hands together gleefully right now!" Ron exclaimed, gesturing towards his sister.

"I am n… oh. I am." She looked down at her hands and forced them to stop. "There. Not acting evil."

"Total world domination," Luna said from her spot on the ground, having never gotten up.

"hehehehe," Ginny cackled before catching herself. "I mean… how absurd."

"It really is," Neville piped in. "Everyone knows that Unova doesn't keep the codes for their most powerful weapons on a computer. They are kept in a suitcase with 5 different locks including a biometric with in a building shielded from all electronic signals."

The others stared at him.

"What?"

"Neville… how do you know that?" Hermione asked.

"…I think it best you not ask me that," he said quickly.

"Why are all my friends interested in taking over the world?" Ron complained, throwing up his hands in the air. When the others all let out cries of protest he began to point at each of them. "Hacking into governments for fun and to get WMDs?" Ginny shrugged at htat. "Knows how to get said WMDs and probably already has the codes?" Neville kept his face utterly impassive. "Hermione is already plotting to become the new head of Avalon's government…"

"Well, if Fudge can get elected…"

"Luna… well, it's Luna."

The blonde grinned. "I can't decide if I should go with twin clones of Hitler, making a blue mutant the pope-" her eyes suddenly flashed and her features went utterly calm and serious, "or if I should manipulate the easily influenced peons that make up Avalon to put a puppet I control into power and then use that to make inroads to taking over the International Governing Bodies that rule our world, followed by remaking the Avalon Empire with me as Empress Lunagusta Loveengoodal the First." She shook her head, snapping out of whatever spell she'd gone through. "Or give out hamburgers for free in order to corner the restaurant market."

"and me?" Harry asked.

"Honestly I think you'll be handed control of the world by some mystic monk without trying anything," Ron admitted.

"…that sadly sounds about right," harry muttered, his friends chuckling as the trainer started and the pulled out of the station, finally making their way towards the unknown that was their 6th year.