"Boy! Those… people are here!"

The voice of Vernon Dursley echoed noisily up the stairs and Harry's heart gave a joyful somersault at that news. He was finally leaving! With an almost impossibly wide grin, the boy dragged his heavy trunk and Hedwig's cage out of his room and down the stairs, coming to an abrupt halt as he saw Remus Lupin standing in the doorway. For a moment his mind flew back to that fateful night at the Ministry of Magic but he pulled himself away from those unwelcome thoughts and focused on his Uncle, who seemed to be standing as far away from the front door as he could. Petunia peeked meekly over his shoulder and he could just make out the dulcet tones of Dudley complaining about the influx of freaks in his house.

"Ready to go?" Lupin asked cheerfully, smiling at Harry as he heaved his trunk and the cage over towards the door.

"Definitely."

"Well, let's go then. Don't want to be late for the train, do we? There's no flying car to help you out this time."

Harry grinned at the memory as he was ushered out the door, turning back slightly as he went to see Mr Dursley staring after the pair with a mixture of fear and dislike. As soon as the teenager's trainers had left the doorstep, the muggle slammed the front door shut so hard that the windows rattled in their frames. He then slumped against it, breathing a sigh of immense relief.

"Arthur managed to get us two Ministry cars… they're a bit more willing to cooperate after the events at the end of term," Lupin said, choosing his words carefully in an attempt to not make the boy think about Sirius. He took Harry's trunk and the cage and loaded them into the boot of one of the sleek black cars. The space expanded to fit in the extra luggage and the Gryffindor smiled, glad to be back with magic again.

Harry opened the door and slid inside, settling comfortably onto the leather interior as he was greeted with cries of, "Harry!"

Hermione was looking quite tanned as she leaned forwards as far as the seatbelt would let her, securing him in a tight hug, and he noted that Ron's freckles seemed to have doubled since they'd seen each other last as the redhead grinned at him. It felt good to be back amongst his friends but just seeing them again brought back the memories of when they had been together before. If only they hadn't all rushed in like that…

"Did you have a good summer?" Hermione asked as Lupin got into the passenger seat of the car, next to the suited driver. "I'm sorry we couldn't meet up, you know how everyone is right now what with all the confusion surrounding… surrounding Voldemort. They all thought it was for the best if you kept out of sight for the summer. Ron says you couldn't even come to Diagon Alley with him and that's just awful Harry, you must have been so bored—"

Harry cut the girl off, fearing that she would ramble on for hours if he didn't. "It was fine, really. It wasn't that bad, I mean, I had your letters so I wasn't completely cut off." That wasn't quite the truth but what they didn't know didn't hurt them. "So what did you two end up doing then?"

"I went to America for two weeks and it was brilliant, really great! That lot over there are rather strange but they taught me some really interesting spells, I'll show you them sometime if you want," the girl beamed, placing her tanned hands in her lap.

"Erm," he mumbled, doing his seatbelt up and looking awkward. "That's okay Hermione, you don't have to."

"Okay, if you say so… Oh! And I went to Hogsmeade with my parents when we got back. They were both really interested in it seeing as it's the only completely Wizarding village left. We didn't stay long though because everyone kept talking about You-Know-Who so they got a bit worried," she added, looking fretful at the mention of the dark wizard. The girl seemed on the verge of questioning him about that when Ron decided to chime in.

"I went to see Fred and George's shop, it's doing really well. Bloody packed when I visited."

Harry grinned. "I'm not surprised, I remember how popular their stuff was last year."

As the car began to pull away from the pavement, he turned slightly to stare back at number 4, feeling extremely glad to be getting away from the muggles he couldn't stand. Resting his forehead against the cool glass of the window as Ron and Hermione chattered excitedly amongst themselves, his thoughts drifted slightly as one message kept repeating itself over and over in his mind: I can't wait to get back.

---

The purr of the engine died down as they drew to a stop outside the station, amidst the masses of people rushing around. Ron and Hermione happily bundled out of the car, grabbing their trunks and heading off to platform nine and three quarters. Harry stayed sitting for a moment, watching the people move around, then finally hopped out and took a gulp of fresh air. It was good to be out of the stuffy car that, while a nice change from his usual transport, was still rather cramped. He then took his luggage out of the boot and settled it onto a trolley, watching as Lupin waved him over.

"Ready to go through?" said the older man, waiting by the wall between platforms 9 and 10.

The Gryffindor nodded slowly, eyeing the familiar spot with slightly narrowed eyes. No matter how many times he made the trip from muggle world to wizarding, it was still unnerving to hurl yourself at a wall. Still, there was only one way through. The boy backed up a bit then, after a deep breath, charged towards the entrance. He built up speed and then went hurtling through, skidding to a stop just in time to avoid crashing into Mad-Eye Moody, who was looking grumpy as usual.

"Sorry," said Harry sheepishly, smiling at Tonks as she appeared and then heading to the Weasley clan. Molly swept him up into a bear hug, patting him all over to check he'd not sustained any damage over the summer holidays and beaming at him like he was a long lost son finally home. Ginny smiled warmly at him but then looked decidedly moody as Cho Chang wandered past, saying hello as she went. Weird. The rest of the family of redheads greeted him cheerfully and it felt weird to be amongst people who actually liked him, after so much time with the Dursleys that summer.

"Train's leaving soon," Moody announced in a gruff voice, one eye on the great crimson train and the other on the assembled group. "You best be getting on, eh?"

Hermione nodded and bid farewell to the lot of them, then shepherded Ron towards the train, hands firmly planted on his shoulders as she guided him onto it. Ginny and Harry exchanged amused glances but said nothing; they were used to it by now. The two Gryffindors followed the others onto the Hogwarts Express after saying their goodbyes, heading down a long corridor until they found an empty compartment near the front of the train and quickly claimed it so they wouldn't be bothered by random students.

Ron was just going for a seat by the window, opposite Hermione, but the green-eyed boy beat him to it. Settling comfortably on the old seat and offering no reply to the other boy's indignation other than a grin, he turned automatically to stare out the window, watching all of the happy families as they said goodbye to their children and ushered them onto the train. His first year had been so different to that… If he hadn't joined the Weasleys, he would have been completely alone. No friends, no family. Nobody to see him off. Nobody to wave goodbye and tell him to be safe. No one.

Hermione looked over at the redhead hovering by the door, raising her eyebrows. "Are you going to stand there all day, Ginny?"

The girl blushed and then rushed in, sliding the door shut behind her and settling onto a seat next to the older student. It seemed that although she had become closer to the group in their time at Hogwarts, she still felt slightly out of place because of the age difference. Or at least, that's what he assumed it was. It couldn't have been anything else.

While the others began to talk amongst themselves cheerily, Harry continued looking out the window at the people yet to board. Everyone looked so happy, so normal… he envied them. His life had never been normal, even when he hadn't known he was a wizard. He was jealous of the fact that all those other people had stable, loving families while he had to go home to a group of muggles who despised and feared him. Those families didn't have a dark wizard after their blood, they were simply allowed to live their lives normally as they chose to. For a while he had thought that his life could return to something like normality with the return of Sirius but it was just not to be. Their lives were perfect and his never would be. He almost hated them for it. Almost.

These thoughts were so distracting that he almost fell off the seat when the train lurched suddenly forwards as the journey to Hogwarts commenced. Harry regained his composure after a second of looking rather stupid, pressing himself back into the seat, and squeezed his eyes shut to try and block out the parents who were waving goodbye to their children as the train left the station. However, their loving expressions seemed to be burned on his eyelids and he couldn't escape them no matter how hard he tried.

"Why can't I have that?"

"Pardon?"

At Hermione's inquiry, he looked up and realised he'd spoken out loud instead of continuing his internal diatribe. His face coloured slightly and he shook his head almost violently, averting his gaze out the window nervously. What a slip up. They would all think he was loony now.

"Nothing," said the Gryffindor, facing the passing scenery and missing the glance exchanged by the other occupants of the compartment.