A/N: See one of the first five chapters for the disclaimer. :D To all who have been following this and my other fic 'Little Miss Longbottom' I say thank you for hanging in there. I'm still working on them. Married life and having a baby takes up more time than I ever thought it would especially when the baby comes to early (two months to early!). But she's doing well and life is slowing down a bit, I hope. So thanks for hanging in there. I appreciate it!
Despite Mrs. Weasley's fully rational fear that the next morning would be completely chaotic, everyone was up, dressed, fed, and ready to leave by the appointed time. There were no ministry cars to drive them this year, so they were walking to King's Cross Station to catch the train. They were splitting up into groups for the trek. Ron, Hermione, and Harry were with Mrs. Weasley, a young auror with pink hair named Tonks, and Sirius in the form of Snuffles. His face was still known in the muggle world and he didn't want to draw undue attention to the group. The other children had all been split up amongst various other order members that they had met during their brief stay at headquarters. They were all scheduled to leave at five minute intervals to leave some distance between each group.
As they walked Harry kept noticing smiling looks passing between the women of the group. It was quite unnerving. Ron seemed to be clueless, taking in all of the muggle sights around him, but Harry noticed. After yet another sideways look and smile from Hermione, he'd had quite enough.
"What do you lot keep smiling at?" He demanded as he turned on Hermione. She tried to quickly remove the smile from her face but it only seemed to want to get bigger. Mrs. Weasley intervened, giving Harry a brief one armed hug around the shoulders.
"It's nothing Harry, dear. It's just such a lovely day to be out and about." Snuffles gave a short happy bark in agreement and bounded around the group as Molly got them moving again. Harry gave her a suspicious look and walked on ahead to catch up with Ron. This outing was the first time they'd had the opportunity to see him walk more than a few feet at a time and all three had to smother large grins as they watched him. He was definitely beginning to develop a slight waddle.
It had been decided that they would wait for the rest of their group on the wizarding side of the barrier for platform nine and three-quarters. With in fifteen minutes the whole group was assembled and their trunks and various animal cages all unshrunk.
"All right dears. You have ten minutes until the train leaves." Mrs. Weasley said. "You'd better all go find your seats." She grabbed her nearest child, which happened to be Ginny and started bestowing hugs. When she reached Harry she gave him a gentle squeeze while placing a kiss on his forehead. "If you need anything at all you need only write or send Dobby, alright?" Harry nodded to her. "Good boy." She pulled him to her chest again. "You take care Harry." She said as she released him.
"I will Mrs. Weasley." Harry turned to retrieve his trunk only to find Tonks and the now human Sirius holding it between them. Harry was so glad that Wormtail's capture had cleared his god-father's name. The man smiled at him and motioned for him to lead the way onto the train. He quickly found the compartment containing Ron, Hermione, and Ginny and slid the door open. All along the train, compartment doors were opening and people were pointing and whispering. Harry could catch bits and pieces of conversations. Sirius' name was mentioned over and over again. Sirius, becoming uncomfortable with all of the scrutiny quickly gave his god-son a hug and left the train. Ron stuck his head out of their compartment door to see people still staring in their direction.
"What are you all gawping at?!" He said angrily. "He's been cleared, for Merlin's sake. Get a grip!" He slid the door shut with a solid thunk. Harry sighed as he slumped down in his seat. Hermione poked him in the arm.
"You're going to give yourself a back ache sitting like that." She said. Harry rolled his eyes at her but grudgingly sat up straighter in his seat. She smiled and reached up to release Crookshanks from his carrier. He jumped out and sprawled on the bench beside Harry who had started rubbing at a spot on his belly. Ginny smiled at him.
"Is she kicking?" She asked. Harry nodded and she reached across to lay a hand on his stomach. "I love feeling her move. It's so amazing." She said as she traced the movements across his belly. She quickly pulled her hand away when they heard a knock on the compartment door. Harry sat up straighter and fluffed his shirt out as the door opened to reveal Neville Longbottom.
"Hello." He said in a timid voice. "Can I sit in here? I got in late and all the others are full." Everyone looked at Harry. He thought for a minute before nodding. He shared a dorm with Neville. Harry figured that his dorm mates would have to be told. He wouldn't be able to hide his belly while changing and bathing. Neville smiled in relief and moved into the compartment. He handed his toad, Trevor, to Ginny and hoisted his trunk up in the rack. He sat down beside Ginny and smiled at everyone as he took Trevor back.
"I didn't think I would see much of you on this trip Hermione." He said. She gave him a puzzled look. "I thought for sure that you would get Prefect this year." Hermione ducked her head, looking guilty, and for some reason, so did Ron. Harry gave them suspicious looks. He glanced at Ginny who quickly averted her eyes.
"Alright." He said as he glared at them. "I'm obviously not being told about something." Hermione's face flushed a brighter red and Ron kept glancing between her and an interesting spot on the floor between his feet. Neville just looked down at his toad wondering what kind of trouble he'd stirred up this time. "Some one had better tell me what's going on." Harry said in a demanding voice. Ginny glanced at Ron and Hermione, who both looked threateningly back at her. Ginny sat up straighter and glared back.
"I told you he'd find out. It's not right to keep it from him." She looked back at Harry. "Hermione and Ron were both offered Prefect positions this year, but they decided to turn them down. They told Dumbledore to pick some one else." Harry looked at his friends, bewildered.
"Why on earth would you turn him down?" He asked them. They looked at him and Hermione sighed deeply.
"It's our fifth year Harry. We've got our O. this year and neither of us wanted the extra responsibility that comes with being prefect. You've got to patrol the halls at all hours and all kinds of extra work." She was setting these as reasons she had turned down the position, but her eyes sparkled as she said them. Harry gave her an exasperated look.
"Oh, come off it Hermione!" He said. "You really expect me to believe you would turn it down because of extra responsibility. Ron? Yes, I could see that. You? Not a chance." Ron looked slightly affronted when Harry said this, but decided not to argue when he realized it was true. He sighed and then spoke.
"We wanted to be able to concentrate on helping you, alright?" Harry looked confused. "As Hermione said, it's O. this year. You're going to have a hard time keeping up and we've all" He nodded at the Ginny and Hermione "decided that we're going to concentrate on helping you. We can't do that if we have to keep rushing off for prefect duties." Harry looked shocked.
"But... you can't turn down opportunities like being prefect because of me." He said. He rested a hand on his belly. "This is my problem to deal with, it shouldn't affect you guys." The other three looked insulted.
"Not affect us?!" Hermione said as she stood. "You're our best friend Harry. Of course this affects us. We spend all of our free time together, we're the only people aside from the staff that you can confide in, and we all love you. How can this not affect us? We've all decided that we're going to help you keep up, both before and after the baby comes, and we're not changing our minds, so deal with it." With that said she sat down and crossed her arms in huffy silence. No one said anything. Harry couldn't believe what they had done. He didn't want them to give things up because of him. He felt his eyes start to tear up as he looked at them.
"But...I don't want you to miss out on things because of me." He said in an unsteady voice. "You shouldn't have to sacrifice things like that." He said as a tear made its way down his cheek. Ginny quickly moved over to sit beside him and put a hand on his shoulder.
"That's what you do for family Harry. You sacrifice with out a second thought because your family is more important than anything else." He closed his eyes and drew in a shaky breath. "We chose what was more important to us." Harry leaned his head over on her shoulder. Everyone sat looking at him in silence. It was finally broken by Trevor, who croaked loudly as he tried to escape Neville. Harry gave a watery chuckle and looked around at him. Neville sat wide eyed looking at the group. Everyone looked back at Harry as they realized what they had done. They had all forgotten that Neville was there. Hermione brought a hand up to cover her mouth as she realized that she had mentioned the baby.
"I'm so sorry Harry." She said in a horrified whisper. Harry just shook his head.
"It's alright. I was going to tell our dorm-mates anyway. I have to change and bathe. They'll want to know where the big belly is coming from." He looked at Neville. "Can I trust you with this if I tell you Neville? Can you keep it secret?" Neville nodded slowly. "You won't tell anyone?" Harry pressed.
"I won't. I swear." Neville said as he shook his head. Harry sighed and Ginny rubbed his arm in support.
"Do you remember when Cho Chang died last term?" Neville nodded. "She was pregnant. She and Cedric Diggory had been engaged." Neville's eyes widened. "I was with Cho when she died. Peter Pettigrew killed her. The jinx that he hit her with blasted her into a tree and she was impaled by a branch." He paused and took a shaky breath as Ginny continued to rub his arm. "She told me about the baby before she died. She didn't want her child to die too so, she transferred the baby into me, and I promised her that I would take care of it." He looked up at Neville. "So here I am, two months later and five months pregnant." He said as he smoothed his shirt over his belly. Neville's eyes got bigger as he looked at it. "Neville." He looked back up at Harry's face. "We have to keep this quiet for as long as possible. Do you understand?" Neville nodded.
"I won't tell anyone. I swear it." Neville said. "Are you going to tell Dean and Seamus too?" Harry nodded.
"Do you think I can trust them?" Harry asked him. Neville shrugged his shoulders.
"I think so. I don't know them all that well, but, if you let them know how important it is...I'm sure they'll keep it secret." He looked quizzically at Harry. "Why is it so important to keep it secret?" He asked.
"If Voldemort finds out about this baby, she'll become a target." Harry said as he rested his hand on his stomach. "I don't want that to happen. I want her to be safe." Neville nodded in understanding.
"I'll help however I can." He said. "Just make sure you don't sit near me in Potions." He said ruefully making every one laughed.
"There's a class that should be lots of fun this year." Harry said with a sour tone. "All of the teachers are supposed to come up with alternate lesson plans for me when ever the regular lesson is dangerous for the baby. I'm sure Snape just loved doing that." Hermione nodded her head with a grin.
"That'll probably be at least half of his lesson plans. There are a lot of potions ingredients that you shouldn't be handling right now." Harry shrugged his shoulders and sighed.
"Not much that I can do about it." He said. They carried on in comfortable friendly conversation for the rest of the train ride, interrupted only by Harry's frequent trips to the loo and the snack trolley.
"We'd better get our robes on." Hermione said after a glance out of the window. "We're nearly there."
By the time the train started to slow they were all dressed in their robes and ready to head for the carriages. Harry was a little nervous, repeatedly glancing down to make sure that his robes weren't clinging to his belly. Neville leaned over after yet another nervous glance down.
"You can't tell." He said. "Honest. Just don't rub it. I noticed that you have a habit of doing that. It's a dead give away." Harry gave him a wry grin.
"Yeah, I know. I've noticed that about pregnant people. I don't know what it is. If your hands aren't busy then your belly seems to be the best place for them. It just became habit. Especially after the baby started moving." They all stood as the train stopped and the corridor started to fill with students. Hermione gathered Crookshanks up in her arms and Harry took Hedwig from her cage and carried her with him into the hall. As soon as they reached the exit she took off and flew away in the direction of the school. They waved to Hagrid as he went about collecting the first years and headed for the carriages. As they neared, Harry realized that the carriages weren't horseless this year. There was something that resembled a horse at the front of each carriage.
"What are those?" He asked as he pointed at the creature in front of the nearest carriage. Neville and Ron looked to where he was pointing and frowned. Ron looked back at him.
"That's a carriage Harry. We've been riding in them every year since the end of our first year." Harry gave him an annoyed and exasperated look.
"I know that. I'm not an idiot Ron. I'm talking about the thing pulling it." Ron and Neville gave each other rather worried looks.
"Pulling what?" Hermione asked as she and Ginny joined them. Ron was still looking between Harry and the empty space in front of the carriage.
"Harry reckons that there is something pulling the carriages." He said to Hermione. Hermione looked at Harry who was looking back and forth between them and the creature.
"The carriages are horseless Harry. They always have been." She said as she walked up beside him. "Are you feeling alright?" Harry was confused.
"You mean you can't see it?" He asked. "It's right here." He walked up next to the beast and pointed at it, creeped out a bit when it turned hazy white eyes on him. Hermione shook her head and frowned with worry.
"There's nothing there Harry." Ginny insisted. Harry growled in frustration and grabbed her hand, leading her around to the front of the animal.
"It's right here!" He said as he placed her hand on the animal's head. Ginny squealed in shock and yanked her hand back as she felt warm flesh where there should have been empty air.
"There is something there!" She said as she looked at the rest of the group. Hermione walked up and raised a hand feeling around until she encountered the side of the animal.
"What does it look like Harry?" She asked quietly.
"Kind of like a horse." He said. "But it looks dead. It's just skin and bone. And it has wings!" He exclaimed as he noticed them for the first time. Hermione nodded her head.
"It's a thestral. They're in our books for Care of Magical Creatures this year. You can only see them after you've witnessed death." She said as she looked up at Harry. He looked back at the beast and raised a hand to pet its nose.
"Oh. So that's why none of you can see it." He looked back at the group. "I thought maybe I was starting to go nuts." Neville looked around and saw that all the other carriages were full and ready to leave.
"We'd better load up. They're ready to leave." They all walked back to the carriage and loaded up. Harry gratefully accepted the help that Neville offered as he climbed into the carriage. Ginny looked around at Ron and Hermione with a wry grin on her face.
"If any of us had done that, he'd be biting our heads off." The other two laughed as Harry blushed.
"I would not." He said defensively. "I know when to accept help. I don't want to fall out of the carriage. Sturdy, stable steps are one thing. Something that might move at any moment is completely different." He argued as he sat between Neville and Ginny.
The sorting and the welcoming feast passed without incident. Gryffindor house received eight new students from the sorting and the food was as wonderful as ever. Harry encountered his first hurdle later that evening. He, Hermione, Ron and Ginny had all been sitting in their customary seats around the fire place when Harry spotted Angelina Johnson headed toward him wearing the quidditch captain's badge.
"Well done Angelina." He said with a smile with out getting up from his seat. "I wondered who would be captain this year." She smiled at him.
"Thanks Harry. I wanted to talk to you about setting up trials to fill our empty position. We need to find a keeper before we can have our first practice." Harry gave her a guilty look as she sat down next to him.
"What?" She said, immediately on her guard. "I know that look Potter and it never means anything good." Harry sighed.
"You'll have to find a new seeker as well." He said. She looked at him as if he were crazy.
"And why would I have to do that? The best one we've ever had is sitting right next to me." She said in a dangerous sounding tone.
"I'm sorry Angelina, but I can't play this year. I've got a medical condition that'll keep me grounded until Christmas at the least." She gaped at him. "I'm really sorry. I'll help the team in any way that I can as long it doesn't involve me getting on a broom. I can't fly." Angelina looked ready to cry.
"Why are you doing this to me Harry?!" She cried as she turned to face him and grabbed his shoulders. "This is my first year as team captain! Please, don't do this to me." She pleaded. Harry reached up and patted her hand before removing it from his shoulder.
"Trust me Angelina, if it were at all possible I would be up in the air with the team instead of in the stands. I love quidditch. I love flying. I wouldn't give it up unless I absolutely had to. And I do. I'm sorry." She crossed her arms in a huff and glared at him.
"What condition can you possibly have that would keep you grounded for four months?" She demanded. Harry shook his head.
"That's personal and you don't need to know. You can check with Professor McGonagall if you don't believe me." She wilted in defeat and let out an anguished groan before looking back at him.
"You'll at least help me at the tryouts, won't you?" She asked. "I can't put a new team together myself." Harry smiled.
"Of course I will. I already told you that. I'll do what ever I can to help as long as I can stay on the ground." She nodded her thanks to him.
"I'll let you know when the tryouts are going to be." She stood and left the group. Harry looked back at his friends and shook his head.
"I thought she'd throw a much bigger fit than that." He looked back at the girl who was sharing his news with the team chasers, Katie Bell and Alicia Spinet, both of who looked horrified. He shrugged and turned back to the fire. "Well, I'm heading up to bed." He said after a few moments silence. "I'm beat."