Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling, and I do not intend to make any money off of this story, it is purely to satisfy the little muse inside my head. The only part that belongs to me is this little plot I've thought up.
From Kings Cross – Chapter 2
Harry's current train (A/N: heehee) of thought quickly lead him to his relationship with Ginny, and he resolved that he would make sure that he became friends, and then hopefully more, sooner this time around. He glanced over at her with a smile, before shaking himself and continuing his explanation of the future.
"Ron, while slightly off topic, does have a point," Harry spoke once more, drawing their attention. "We do need to go over what happened, will happen, in the future. And since we have plenty of time, we may as well get comfortable." Harry had just finished speaking as the compartment door burst open. It was Malfoy, and, as usual, he had his entourage accompanying him.
Harry let out a sigh, "What is it Malfoy?"
Malfoy looked taken aback at Harry's apparent lack of interest, but quickly schooled his features back into a sneer. "Potter. I see you still haven't come to your senses for your choice of company, a mudblood and two poor weasels. Tsk tsk."
"Malfoy I will give you one chance to leave this compartment with your dignity intact." Harry said calmly as he held an arm out to prevent Ron from lunging at Malfoy.
"And why ever should I listen to you Potter?" Malfoy then muttered under his breath, "Pathetic excuse for a wizard."
Harry just shook his head looking disappointed. "I gave you your chance Malfoy, I'm sorry it had to come to this. Depulso!" With a flick of Harry's wand, Malfoy flew back into his goons, knocking them all out into the corridor.
Harry's friends stared at him as he calmly locked the compartment door. "Colloportus."
Harry turned back to his friends and noticed them staring, "What?"
"Harry, did you think about the consequences at all?" Hermione questioned him.
"Yeah, there's no way he'll admit that I got the better of him so easily. His pride will keep him from winging about this to Snape."
"Hey, his logic is sound," Ginny said, shrugging at Hermione. "Anyways back to the topic at hand, you were saying, Harry?"
"Right," he sat down, patting off some invisible dust. "Yes, we have a lot to go over, but I think we should start with the most relevant topic. Our new defence teacher is an old Auror called 'Mad-eye' Moody, but that isn't the problem, the problem is that the man who shows up is most definitely not Moody. A man named Barty Crouch Junior, a death eater, is going to take his place under cover of Polyjuice."
"Honestly does Dumbledore just not have any screening processes for Defence teachers? We should tell him when we borrow his Pensieve," Ginny suggested.
"I was definitely planning on it. Come to think of it, I should tell you all how I actually came back in the first place. Well, things had been going pretty badly, Voldemort—" Ron and Hermione cringed slightly, but Ginny barely showed a reaction, "got resurrected at the end of our fourth year, honestly guys? It's just a name. Anyways, the war was not going well by the end of what would have been our seventh year, and I'll tell you more about that in a bit. At the end of it, it came down to a sort of final battle at Hogwarts, and I went to face Voldemort yet again, and I let him kill me—" He was cut off by gasps from the other occupants of the compartment.
"Oh Harry," Hermione said, distressed.
Ron looked worried and confused, "Harry mate, then how are you here? Are you a ghost or something?" He looked sick at that.
Ginny just looked shocked, her eyes wide, scenarios flashing through her mind, before she snapped out of it, "Harry! Why on Earth would you do something like that?!"
"Hold on a sec guys," Harry said, raising his hands up in front of him. "Let me explain a few things first, ok?"
The others reluctantly nodded their assent, and Harry quickly continued on. "Ok, so you know how Voldemort mysteriously survived after getting hit the rebounding killing curse? Basically what he did was put bits of his soul into different objects, which he scattered and hid. These objects, called Horcruxes, would anchor his soul to the land of the living in case of his death. I know you may be wondering, if they keep you alive, why doesn't everyone just make Horcruxes? Well, it isn't really that simple. To make a Horcrux requires an act of murder in cold blood, and most importantly, that the caster doesn't feel any remorse after doing so."
"Dear God, that horrible," Hermione said covering her mouth with her hand, "Why would someone ever create magic like that?"
"I don't really know Hermione, some wizard, like Voldemort, must have been obsessed with the idea of immortality. The worst part of it was that the night Voldemort came to Godric's Hollow, that's where my parents lived, his soul was extremely unstable, because by then he had made 6 Horcruxes already. The problem is, when he tried to kill me, a bit of his soul was transferred into my scar, making me his seventh Horcrux."
Gasps filled the compartment once again.
"Oh my— that means… is it still there? In your scar?" Ginny, horrified, voiced the question they were all thinking.
"No, when Voldemort killed me, he destroyed the final Horcrux in my scar. When I died, I found myself at some place that looked like Kings Cross. Dumbledore was there, and he explained that because Voldemort took my blood to resurrect himself, my mother's protection was in both of us, and because it was him who killed me, I was able to live, while the Horcrux was destroyed. So then he explained to me that I had a couple choices, I could go on, to death, or I could go back and finish Voldemort off, but then he realised that there was another option, I could take a train back in time to the beginning of my fourth year. And so I stepped onto the train from the platform, and suddenly I found myself here, on the Hogwarts Express."
"Oh, so that moment when you were disorientated, that was you arriving?" Ron realised and his mouth formed an 'o'.
"Yup, that's when the train changed into this one and I went and found you guys so I could tell you. This time I hope that we'll be able to make a difference. Last time so many people, too many, died in vain. Sirius, Remus, Tonks, Dumbledore… Fred, so many others too, even Snape."
Their eyes widened with each name, tears beginning to well up in Ron and Ginny's eyes as they thought of the lively twin dead.
"Harry mate," Ron began slowly, "I can see why you came back…"
"Yeah," Harry said, his head in his hands as he thought of his dead comrades. "They're the reason I came back."
Ginny stood and sat next to Harry, giving him a one-armed hug. "Think of the bright side Harry, everyone is alive again, and you now have the chance to make sure things turn out differently this time. Even if Snape has to be alive too." She added with a small smile, her humour breaking the tension a little as Harry allowed himself a smile.
"Thanks Ginny," he said simply. She gave him a squeeze and released him from her hold. Ron patted Harry on the back, and Hermione gave him a quick hug.
"Yeah mate, we've got your back."
"Things will be different this time Harry." Hermione said, as there was a knock on their door.
"Alohomora," Hermione whispered before opening the door. It was a prefect, "I just wanted to let you all know that we'll be there soon, so you should change into your school robes." She left with a smile.
"Well, then we can just take turns," Harry said as he and Ron stepped outside to give the girls privacy. Once they finished, Harry and Ron switched places with them, changed, and let the girls know they were done, opening the door to let them back in.
The train began to slow as they could see the lights of Hogsmeade approaching out the window to their right. As they neared a stop, Hagrid could be seen carrying a lantern, wearing a huge smile. After gathering their trunks, they paused to say hello to him as they passed by on their way to the not-so-horseless carriages. They hopped into the nearest vacant one, and began the bumpy ride toward Hogwarts.
A/N: It seems we didn't actually get around to the Pensieve scene yet, so that will have to wait until the next chapter. At any rate, thanks for reading, and reviewing if you so choose to.
