Voila! Chapter four. It's a little shorter than the last one, but that one was unusually long...

I'm sorry that it's been forever since my last update, but school took over my life. Urgh. Don't you hate it when that happens? Anyway, I hope you enjoy.

~Robin

Disclaimer: Belongs to J.K.R. Not to me.

Chapter 4

September 1st 1998

The morning of September first went by much more smoothly than usual because there were only four of them returning that year, and they could go around getting to the station the normal way. They all woke up on time, got Teddy up, ate breakfast, packed all their last minute things and were ready by ten thirty. They were ahead of schedule. It was too strange for Harry to imagine. They sent their luggage to the platform ahead of them and then apparated to the platform. Molly and Arthur followed behind them since they were seeing them off. Harry brought Teddy with them. Nobody would be at home that morning anyway, so there was really no other option.

Once they had stowed all of their trunks and animals on the train they went back for final hugs and kisses goodbye. Everybody was hugged and fussed over by Molly, and Arthur shook the boys hands, but gave Hermione and Ginny hugs. "Be good everyone. Just because Voldemort is gone doesn't mean that you can't get in trouble," he warned them with good humor.

"We will," the four of them chorused. They actually were going to try to obey the rules this year. Nobody's lives would be in danger, so Harry shouldn't have had any reasons to break the rules anyway.

Harry led the others onto the train. It was starting to fill up and it was good that they had gotten their carriage early on. Ron and Hermione had to go to the prefects carriage, so it was just Harry and Ginny for a while.

She was sitting between his legs across one row of seats, leaning her head against his chest. "It feels strange to be going back for just an ordinary year," she said quietly.

Harry kissed the top of her head. "I don't think it'll be that ordinary," he replied. "We'll have new teachers, a new headmistress, it's our N.E.W.T. year, and," he paused, "we're together."

She turned around to face him. "That may have been one of the sweetest things you have ever said to me," she said, kissing him gently before pulling back again.

He smiled at her before saying, "That's because its true," and pulling her back to her original position. She sighed and relaxed against him.

The compartment door opened and Neville came in, followed by Luna. He lifted his trunk into one of the overhead racks and then did the same with hers. "Thank you Neville, but I could have levitated it, you know," Luna smiled faintly at him. "Hello Ginny, Harry," she greeted them.

"Hello Luna, have a good summer?" Harry asked, turning to the compartment again and pulling Ginny against his side.

"Oh, pretty good," she said, before pulling out a copy of the Quibbler and starting to read it. Harry and Ginny talked to Neville until Ron came back from the prefect's carriage.

"She has to finish giving instructions to the prefects," Ron said before they had even asked where Hermione was. "She's going to be so busy this year, we won't have any time to ourselves," he grumbled.

"Yeah, you really need a lot of that. You're fine with snogging her in public," Harry pointed out, rolling his eyes.

"Yes, Ron. Remember Lavender?" Ginny asked.

"Lavender what?" Hermione said, looking from Ginny to Ron as she came into the compartment.

"Just that he's perfectly fine with publicly snogging," Ginny grinned.

"Oh, alright then," Hermione said. She sat down and curled into Ron's side. Ginny rolled her eyes at them. "You and Harry are in the exact same position as us," Hermione pointed out. It was true, the two couples were like mirror images of each other.

Neville had watched the whole display, with glances to Luna every now and then. It was obvious to Harry that Neville liked her, but he hadn't talked to the others about it yet.

The rest of the train ride passed by quickly. After getting food from the trolley they changed quickly into their robes. It was starting to get darker outside and the land was becoming more forested and mountainous, like the grounds at Hogwarts.

By the time they reached Hogsmeade station, it was almost completely dark outside. Everyone stumbled out onto the platform. It seemed much more crowded than usual though. It seemed that many people that would have graduated the year before had returned to get their N.E.W.T.'s, and that many of the first years from the year before who were muggle-borns were starting that year. It was going to be a full year for Hogwarts.

The six of them made their way to one of the carriages quickly. Ron, Ginny, and Hermione gasped when they approached. It was the first time they could see the thestrals. Many other students were having the same reaction. Neville, Luna, and Harry pulled the other three into one of the carriages before they all got full. "You'll get used to it," Neville said glumly to them. "It's just one of those things that'll happen after you go to war."

Everybody was quiet for the ride up to the castle, but once they were out of the carriages it was time for everybody to gasp in shock. The last time they had seen the castle, it had been half-destroyed from spells and giants, but now it was restored to its full glory. It was exactly what it had been like before the battle, except for the memorial near the lake, of course. "It's home," Harry breathed before taking charge and leading the way inside.

As he lead the way into the great hall, he was glad they had gotten one of the first carriages. The few people who had already gotten there were staring avidly at him, and he was extremely happy that there weren't more people there to gawk. Luna went to sit at the Ravenclaw table while the others all found seats in the middle of the Gryffindor table. The tables filled up quickly and Professor Flitwick was soon marching between the house tables, carrying the sorting hat and stool, followed by a long line of first years (most of whom were taller than him).

Once he had reached the staff table he placed the sorting hat on the stool and stepped back, waiting for the hat to begin its annual song.

What happened just fours months ago

Was really quite divine.

We came together to defeat

The dark lord of our time.

So let us hear the Gryffindors

Who always are the brave

Together with the Ravenclaws

Who do learn and behave.

The Hufflepuffs, they joined in too!

Their trust and loyalty,

Came together with the Slytherins,

Who's cunning we all see.

Do you now see that I was right?

We really have to bond.

It's only right, that when we fight,

We must come together strong.

With Gryffindor we fight the war,

With Ravenclaw we plan,

With Hufflepuff we all stay true,

With Slytherin we can,

Beat them all, we are the best,

The houses joined and new.

We are the ones, we are the all,

The brave, smart, wit, and true.

Everybody clapped for the sorting hat. It must have wanted to keep playing on its songs the few previous years about standing together as houses to go through that dark time. It might have to come up with a new concept the next year.

After the applause faded away Professor Flitwick took out the roll of parchment with the names of all of the first years on it and began to call names. By the end of the sorting there were fourteen more Gryffindors, twenty-one more Ravenclaws, eighteen more Hufflepuffs, and thirteen more Slytherins. Harry knew that his year was unusually small, but that was a big group of first years. The poor Ravenclaws were in for some full dormitories this year, but he figured they could change size. They were magic after all. Maybe sometimes they even had to split into more than two rooms. The class sizes probably varied a lot depending on the number of young witches and wizards.

Professor McGonagall stood at the center of the staff table and called for attention. Everyone silenced themselves quickly and she began to speak. "This year, the school will be undergoing small repairs that were not finished over the summers. Rules here will not have changed just because Lord Voldemort is gone. The forbidden forest is still forbidden to all students and Weasley's Wizard Wheezes products are still banned. For a full list of banned items you can see Mr. Filch," she nodded in his direction. "We also have some new staffing this year. Professor Shacklebolt will be taking the position of defense against the dark arts professor." Harry hadn't noticed Kingsley before then, but cheered with the rest of the students. Kingsley had been temporary minister of magic, but hadn't wanted to keep the post, so he must have accepted the job here.

After a minute or two the cheers died down and Professor McGonagall continued, "I will be continuing to teach transfiguration, and Professor Drawkley has been found to teach you all muggle studies." There was polite clapping for both of these and Professor Drawkley stood, before sitting back down again and turning to talk quietly to Hagrid. "For now, please enjoy the first feast of the our new era as Hogwarts, and quoting our previous headmaster 'Tuck in'," she smiled and sat down as everybody laughed.

Only Ron seemed to have missed the remark, being much too distracted by food appearing in large quantities and the process of scooping it only his plate as quickly as possible. His mouth was already full by the time Harry had started to serve himself food. Hermione was just shaking her head at him and he just shrugged. Ginny was trying not to laugh at his engorged cheeks. "He looks like a squirrel," she whispered to Harry, loudly enough for Ron to hear. Ron just gave her a look, but obviously decided that he would rather continue pursuing the food than the conversation.

Once everyone had finished with the main courses, they disappeared, and the pudding materialized on the tables. Harry helped himself to a hefty serving of his favorite treacle tart and listened to the talk babbling around him. After he had put the last bit of treacle tart into his mouth and pushed his fork away Professor McGonagall stood again. "Now, off to bed with you. You will need to be rested for your classes tomorrow," she said before the stream of talk flew over the hall again.

"The password's tickle me pink," Hermione told him and Ginny before pulling Ron over to help her escort the first years to Gryffindor tower. Harry chuckled and pulled Ginny out of the hall behind him.

With excellent use of Harry's knowledge of the castle they made it to the tower long before the first years, so they had time to share a terrific good night snog before they climbed up the stairs to their own dormitories. Once Harry reached his dormitory he said a quick hello to Seamus and Dean, who had gotten up there before him, pulled his pajamas on, and fell into bed. He was asleep within minutes and never even heard Neville and Ron come into the room. He always forgot how exhausting September first could be.

September 2nd 1998

Beep, beep, beep, the alarm sounded. Ginny groaned and sat up in bed, turning to the side to hit the off button on her alarm clock. It stopped, but before Ginny could fall back into bed, Lavendar had woken up too. She glared at Ginny before scolding her, "Don't even think about it. I am not having one of my roommates late on the first day of class!"

Ginny rolled her eyes, but grabbed her shower stuff and walked into the bathroom anyway. Lucky Hermione, gets her own room because she's head girl, Ginny thought. She had been looking forward to sharing a room with Hermione that year. The only reason that she was sharing with Lavendar and Parvati was because they were all technically seventh years that year, so they all shared a dormitory. Demelza and the other girls in her year were also up there with them. There were six of them up there now, so maybe it was a good thing that Hermione wasn't in their room. It would be pretty crowded with seven of them. Six was bad enough.

Ginny quickly finished shampooing her hair and stepped out of the shower, wrapping herself up in a fluffy white towel before putting a drying spell on her hair. She got dressed in her uniform, a grey pleated skirt, white button-down shirt, and grey sweater, and pulled on her Gryffindor tie, but left it just hanging around her neck. She pulled her knee-socks up and left the bathroom, going to the mirror next to her bed. Her hair was still messy, so she quickly pulled a brush through it, as the early morning sunlight reflected off of the shiny red strands. It was down to the middle of her back now and she had no intention of cutting it.

Before going down to the common room she made sure to tie her tie properly and pulled on her shoes. By the time she reached the bottom of the stairs it was just after seven thirty, so breakfast would still go on for another ninety minutes. There was no need for her to rush, so she walked over to the notice board, where a couple of bulletins were already up. A few were just for things that were lost. How people lost things after less than twenty-four hours, Ginny had no idea. The one that caught her eye was that Gryffindor Quidditch try-outs were going to be that coming weekend. Harry had managed to get it up already, which meant that he was probably already down for breakfast.

Just as she thought that, two arms slipped around her waist. She turned around and gave Harry a peck on the lips. "Shall we go down to breakfast and get our schedules?" she asked.
"Sure, I don't see why not, we can come back and get our books after," he replied, taking her hand and walking out towards the portrait hole.

They quickly reached the great hall and walked, hand in hand, over to the Gryffindor table. They looked quickly up the table. Ron and Hermione were down at the other end, so Harry and Ginny walked down to the end of the table and sat down across from Ron and Hermione. Ron was, as usual when there was food involved, stuffing his face from a heaped plate in front of him. Hermione was reading the Daily Prophet. "Why do you still read that junk?" Ginny asked her.

"It's still informative, and the ministry is trying to take more control over what it prints now too," Hermione replied, not looking up, just continuing to read.

"I switched to the Quibbler," Ginny retorted. "Even if some of the articles are garbage, it at least tells the truth, and even the garbage articles are entertaining."

Hermione just snorted, still reading the paper in front of her. Harry rolled his eyes at the two of them and started to load his plate with food.

Professor McGonagall started to come up the table around eight o'clock. She got to the four of them quickly and handed them their schedules. Ginny had double transfiguration and then a free period that morning. After lunch she had potions, a free period, then herbology. It wasn't too bad a day. Tough, but not terrible. At least she had some free periods.

She grabbed Harry's schedule out of his hands. He gave her a joking glare. She just rolled her eyes and compared their schedules. He was in all of her classes except for Ancient Runes. He didn't take it, but Hermione did, so they would be in that class together. "Come on, Harry," she said, grabbing his hand, "Let's go grab our books from Gryffindor tower."
Harry looked at her, "But its only eight thirty, classes don't start until nine fif-Oh," he exclaimed as Ginny gave him a meaningful look. "See you guys in transfiguration," Harry threw over his shoulder as he followed Ginny out of the hall.

He took the lead once they were outside and brought her to a passageway that almost nobody knew about. Once they were there, Ginny grabbed his face and met his lips with her own. She wound her hands into his hair as he pulled her up against him. She pulled back, "I've been waiting to do that all morning," she sighed. "We really do have to get our books though."

Harry sighed, but let her go and followed her up to the dormitories to grab his books and drop them into his school bag. He dropped in some quills, parchment, and ink in too. He was done quickly and walked back down to meet Ginny in the common room. He went back down to find Ginny waiting for him. It was now almost nine o'clock, and they had to start walking to transfiguration.
The class went by quickly, as it was just review from the year before. Everybody could do most of it in the first few tries. They did get homework though as preparation for the next class. It was a foot-long essay on human transfiguration. The year before they had done some, but this year they were starting more extreme transfiguration, not just changing the color of your hair or eyes.
They all had a free period after that except for Hermione. She had ancient runes. Ginny managed to convince the boys to start the essay though, even if it wasn't due until that Thursday, when their next lesson was. "If you save it, you'll end up freaking out at the last minute and doing a half-assed job," she pointed out to them.

Harry had to admit that she had a point, so he reluctantly took his books out and began work. It was very complicated and he was only halfway done by the end of the period. They met Hermione for lunch in the great hall, worked on the essay a little longer, and then went off to potions. The essay went much faster with Hermione's help, so Harry just had to write the conclusion by the end of lunch. Ron was a little bit behind, due to the fact that he had been a little bit distracted by Hermione being the one helping, even though she had been blatantly trying to get him to leave her alone and do his work while she started hers.

By the time they got down to the dungeons it was almost time for class, but Harry had to talk to Slughorn first. He had to tell him about the half-blood prince's book and how he wasn't really as good at potions as he seemed to be.

"Um, sir?" Harry questioned, standing in front of Slughorn's desk.

"Yes, Harry," Slughorn said, a smile on his face.

"Um, sir, about my potions in my sixth year..."

"Harry. Is there something that you need to say?" Slughorn questioned, now looking suspiciously at Harry.

"Yes, sir. You see, I-I had some help."

"Help, well its alright to get help, nothing to be ashamed of," Slughorn said jovially before Harry had finished.

"Well, it wasn't normal help," Harry tried to explain. "It-it was my text book. It had extra instructions written in the margins that I followed for most of the year," Harry blurted out.

"Oh, well, Harry. You were simply following different instructions. Nothing wrong with that, but I do wish you had told all of this earlier," Slughorn said, frowning slightly. "Anyhow, must get on with class. Go and take your seat, m'boy," he continued, slapping Harry on the back.

That went much better than I thought it would, Harry thought to himself, taking his seat again. Harry listened carefully in class, made sure to follow all of the directions for that day's potion, and actually managed to brew one that was almost exactly how it should have been. He was impressed by his own work.

His first day continued on well, with everyone making it through herbology and having no major problems. All in all, it had been a terrific first day back.

September 6th 1998

Harry woke up the first Saturday of the term satisfied with his first week bad. It had been tough getting used to the homework load, but overall uneventful. Today was Quidditch tryouts. It was Harry's second year running them and he had to get a good team together that year. As the captain and seeker it was difficult to instruct the team during games, so they had to be able to take care of themselves while he looked for the snitch.

He dressed quickly before going down to the great hall for breakfast. Tryouts wouldn't start until ten o'clock, so he had two hours to eat and get everything organized. He walked down and met Ginny and Ron at the table. They were up because they had to tryout for the team. Hermione was getting down to the pitch later, since all she was doing was spectating.

He ate quickly and then went back to grab his new broom. He had ordered a new firebolt from Which Broomstick. After the sudden increase of money in his account, he had felt like he could easily afford the new broom. It was still the best broom out, plus he already knew its kinks from having one previously.

Once he had grabbed his Quidditch robes from his trunk he headed down to the pitch. He walked there quickly and went into the changing rooms. He was having a tryout for every position, even though all of the previous chasers were still at Hogwarts. It only seemed fair to give new people a chance. He was trying the chasers out first with some throwing between a group of three. Then they would all take some shots at the goals. That would narrow it down. Aim was important. Then the bludgers would be released and they would have to practice dodging them without dropping the quaffle. Next were the keeper tryouts. He would have his newly chosen chasers take shots at each of the keepers. They would each have five shots to block. Whoever blocked the most shots would be the new keeper. Then there would be the beaters. Harry would basically set up a miniature game with all the beater wannabees trying to hit the chasers. Whoever had the best aim and strength overall would be the new beaters.

Once Harry had thought the tryouts through it seemed the slightest bit less complicated. It was nine thirty by then and people had started to arrive. He pulled his robes over his head, grabbed his broom, and marched outside into the waiting group of wannabee Quidditch players.

It was a smaller group than in his sixth year, thank god, but there were still a few dozen people there to tryout.

"Hey, all of you, quiet!" Harry yelled to get their attention. They quieted down surprisingly fast and Harry went on. "The first tryouts today will be the chaser tryouts. So, all of you who are trying out for chaser form groups of three." Everybody shuffled around and eventually he had five groups of three chasers each. He had the group that looked like it was all first years go first. Not one of them caught the quaffle once. Two more of the groups were terrible, so Harry had them all leave after that first test. It was easily narrowed down to the groups of Ginny, Demelza, and another girl who looked a bit younger, and Seamus, Dean, and another younger Gryffindor. They all took shots at the goals and the younger boy wasn't able to aim at all, so it was narrowed down to the other five. Harry released the bludgers. Demelza didn't even flinch when they came at her and Ginny did well too. The younger girl was hit pretty early on and Seamus had just barely avoided one as it went by his head.

After twenty minutes of this Harry called them all back down. He had made his decision. "All right. You've all done really well, but the chasers that have made the team are Ginny Weasley, Demelza Robins, and Dean Thomas," Harry announced to the waiting crowd. "Next we will be trying out keepers, so all people trying out for the keeper position please step forward."

Seven people stepped forward, including Ron. Two of them looked to just be first years, but the rest were all third year and above. Harry had a fifth year who he didn't know go first. He only blocked two shots. The third year, surprisingly, blocked four. Neither of the first years blocked any. A forth year only blocked one, and a sixth year Harry remembered seeing somewhere blocked four. Finally, it was Ron's turn. He blocked all five of the shots, surprising everyone, and was the new-returning-keeper of the Gryffindor team.

"Now everyone, can people trying out for beater please come to the front. Thank you. You will all be playing with the two bludgers trying to aim for the chasers. We don't need any injuries though, so don't aim for heads please," Harry explained what they needed to do. There were only five, including, and Harry was very surprised by this, the tiny Dennis Creevey. He was a forth year though, and was bigger than Collin had been at that age. All the beaters were pretty good, but two really stood out. Jimmy Peakes, who had been on the team before, was powerful and had pretty good aim, and Dennis had been hitting those bludgers like he had been doing it his whole life. His aim was impeccable. "Okay everybody. The final team is Ginny, Demelza, and Dean as chasers, me as seeker, Ron as keeper, and Dennis and Jimmy as beaters," Harry told everybody who was left.

Nobody objected to his choices that year. He was impressed by his new team and thought that they were about to have an extremely good season.

September 19th 1998

"Hey Harry," Neville greeted him as he sat down for dinner. He was just coming from a very successful Quidditch practice. It had been a good two weeks for the team so far. They practiced Mondays and Fridays and were already shaping up into a well-rounded team.

"Hey Neville," he responded while he started to load his plate with chicken and potatoes.

"Harry, err, how did you ask Cho out?" Neville asked, sounded nervous. That was a strange question.

"Um, well, I just kind of, said it," Harry replied unhelpfully. "Why do you ask?"

"No reason," Neville went back to eating.

"Yeah, I'm supposed to believe that?" Harry was grinning now. "This doesn't have anything to do with a certain blond witch name Lu-" Harry was cut off by Neville's hand over his mouth and he chuckled. "I'll take that as a yes then," he murmured when Neville removed his hand again.

"Err, yeah, fine," Neville admitted defeat. "I don't think she likes me."

"Of course she does Neville," Harry consoled him. "I'm pretty sure that she's been waiting for you to notice her for a while now actually."

Neville waved that off, "She doesn't like me Harry, but thanks for trying to make me feel better," he said as he got up and quickly left the great hall.

Ginny sat down next to Harry and leaned against his side. Harry automatically wrapped his arm around her waist. "Hey, what's up?" Ginny asked.

"Neville doesn't think that Luna likes him," Harry snorted, as he started to eat.

"Well, sometimes, boys are idiots," Ginny replied wisely.

"Hey, I take personal offense at that," Harry retorted.

"Oh, you know I love you," she said, kissing him gently. Harry knew she had been kidding and kissed her back.

He pulled away quickly, "I love you too," he whispered in her ear. She sighed and rested her head on his shoulder.

Harry started to eat again and she chuckled. "You can never keep a boy away from his food for long," she said, filling her own plate, "But if you can't beat 'em, join 'em."

Hope you liked the chapter. I'll try to get the next one up before the new year, but no promises.