The Half Blood Prince Revealed

Summary :

Harry's summer before sixth year is no different from the others. Around every corner surprises, good and bad, and adventure of all kind await. And it looks like the gods have finally granted Harry a possibility for a nicer life. What will this mean for his 6th year at Hogwarts ?

General Disclaimer :

I am just playing in the sand of JKRowling's literary produced beach and am attempting to build my own sandcastle for others to enjoy.

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31 Hogwarts Bound

From previous experience Harry knew how chaotic September 1 mornings could be in the Weasley household but surprisingly things were going really smoothly this time. Due to their summer habit to get up for classes even the notorious late sleeper Ron was up early leaving them plenty of time for an unhurried breakfast. When they returned to their rooms to do a bit of last minute packing they found the house elves had already taken care of that for them so that by the time the car arrived at 10 they were all set and ready to go.

They said goodbye to the Tonks family in Grimmauld Place as all three had other things to do that morning. Harry invited them for a stay at Black Manor from Boxing Day on and they readily accepted the invitation.

There was a bit of a panic when they realised their transport was a muggle limousine but Mad-Eye who'd arrived to accompany them had arranged the whole deal. The driver cum business owner was in fact a muggle born wizard. He and his muggle born wife had realised they had limited opportunities in the wizarding world but all the more in the muggle world. When dealing with muggles they used very little magic, only a very slight enlarging charm on the boot of the car and a very mild calming charm on the car that gave even the most stressed out person a relaxed feeling. For wizards the already large limousines could be tripled in size and be made to look a lot less noticeable by muggles and wizards alike so as not to draw too much attention.

That last feature was highly in demand as they would have drawn quite a lot of stares once they'd made it to King's Cross Station. Even a limousine did not often hold 19 people, 5 large trunks, 4 pet carriers, a plant carrier and a picnic basket. Nevertheless their party drew quite some attention as they made their way to the entrance of platform 9 ¾. They were not nearly the first ones to get to the train station as quite a few other families with the tell tale wizarding paraphernalia were present in the muggle train station. Seeing so many most likely muggle born students and their families around Harry wondered if there was a problem to get to the platform but Mr Weasley explained that there was normally a welcoming witch or wizard around to guide the muggle born first year students and their family through the barrier. As ministry worker Mr Weasley along with Hermione and Ron took on that role while waiting for the official guide to arrive. Harry and Neville would show the families around on the other side of the barrier. Luna and Ginny in the mean while secured them a compartment for the trip and were guarding their assortment of pets and food.

The first five minutes or so were hectic as there were already quite a few families waiting on the muggle side, but with the arrival of several old hands more help was available to lighten the load of explaining and showing the way. Keeping busy like that was a good way to make saying goodbye just that bit easier. For a short time Harry felt like staying on the platform and allow the train to simply leave without him, but Remus, as if sensing his mood, came to say goodbye and hit just the right tone for Harry's spirit to lift. And so, in a hectic round of hugs, kisses and handshakes the six remaining students got on board of the majestic red steam train that would take them off for another term at Hogwarts.

Hermione and Ron had joined them in the compartment for only a few moments before they were off for the prefect meeting. As Harry had more or less guessed would happen half an hour or so into their journey they started to get visitor after visitor into their compartment. Some stayed only a few minutes while others stayed a little longer bringing them up to date on some of the typical school gossip. Hermione and Ron's return brought the best bit of gossip of the day though : Malfoy was no longer 6th year Slytherin prefect.

Throughout the day the old DA members had visited inquiring after the plans for the DA but all they got was the message to meet the next evening at 8 at the usual place. About a third into their journey Harry had a slight feeling of dread starting to creep up but much to his surprise rather than getting stronger as it had when dementors had attacked Diagon Alley the feeling was suddenly cut off. Halfway through the journey Harry started feeling anticipation but of what he had no idea.

By the time they made it to Hogsmeade station the anticipation that had been growing steadily bigger now made Harry feel anxious to get to Hogwarts so much so that when the six of them entered the thestral drawn carriage Harry urged the horses on for speed. Harry had hardly been seated when the carriage gave a lurch. Luna, Ginny and Harry who'd been sitting next to one another almost fell out of their seats by the force and the surprise squeak from Hermione was as much due to their movement as it was because of the force with which she was pinned to her own seat.

Shouts of surprise could be heard from outside and it wasn't until Ron took a look outside to see what was going on that they realised the thestrals were taking the carriages to the sky. They were flying ! They made the short journey in record time and were deposited softly in front of the stairs up to Hogwarts' main entrance. Despite the even larger pull now coming from the castle Harry made to pet the closest thestral and thanked the creatures for their assistance. Once inside the castle however Harry could feel the joy and relief of the castle and its denizens at their arrival.

Making their way inside the castle and on to the main hall the exited chattering students did not pay overly much attention to the staff table or they would have noticed the bareness of said table and the only occupant, Professor Dumbledore, was looking at them with some surprise. One by one the teachers too arrived and just when Harry started to look out for the new DADA teacher in came Hagrid, looking even wilder than usual with windblown hair and beard.

"Harry, look, is that Tonks at the head table ?"

Harry drew his attention from Hagrid to the other teachers and saw indeed a very toned down Tonks sitting amongst the staff.

"Looks like her, at least."

"You don't think she's the new DADA teacher, do you ?"

"Well, she might well be. After all Professor Dumbledore did mention it would be a female teacher. But that's good, right. After all she's an auror and we already know she's fun and good at teaching. Ha, no wonder Professor Dumbledore mentioned the new teacher would have no problem with the DA."

The doors of the Great Hall opened and in came Professor McGonagall, accompanied by an awful lot of young and slightly dishevelled students.

"Is it me or are those first years getting smaller ? And there are so many !"

"Oh no, " said a hungry looking Ron, "It's going to take ages to get them all sorted."

Ginny started giggling and said "It's the famous Harry-effect."

Harry looked up at her, startled. "What Harry-effect ?"

"Mum told me it took a while for everything to be back to normal after your parents died and you got rid of Voldemort in 1981. There were a few more Death Eater attacks, then there were all the trials and more reported sightings that needed to be investigated, but slowly life started picking up again. It is unusual for there to be this few students around and in the coming years you'll notice that first year classes will be getting even bigger. And I might add you'll find quite a few Harry's, James's and Lily's among them."

Harry stared at her in disbelief but by now the Sorting Hat had been introduced and the first line of his song caught Harry's attention.

"I shall keep it short

With so many to sort

Though I must still obey

The rules of the Four

I've plotted a way

To save the day

Into Houses and Classes

Shall they be divided

To make of the masses

A Hogwarts United !"

"Wow," came Ron's comment, "that was short ! Must be a record for sure."

"But what can he mean by sorting them into houses and classes ?" asked a worried Hermione. "What is he up to ?"

"Relax, Hermione, he's been going on about uniting the houses, maybe he's found a way to do so. We'll soon find out."

The first student, not a Harry, was sorted into Ravenclaw, Class 1. The second student was also sorted into Ravenclaw but put in Class 2. The third student, the first Harry, was actually sorted into Slytherin and Class 2.

At the end of the sorting, which had gone surprisingly fast, the 96 first year students had been sorted into 4 equal size classes of 24 students per class. The classes contained a fair mix of students from all four houses. Slytherin was least represented with 20 new students, Ravenclaw had 22, Hufflepuff had 24 and Gryffindor had a staggering 30 new 'ickle firsties'.

The new class system made sense to Harry. Looking at his fellow 6th years most of them he'd only gotten to know last year with the DA. Before that he might just about know they were in the same grade but would hardly be able to recall their names. Mixing them up from the start like this would probably mean their view on the other houses and students would be broader then when limiting them to just fellow house mates.

With the sorting over Professor Dumbledore quickly announced the start of the Feast as a few tummies had been protesting rather loudly at the long wait.

Dinner was over much faster than usual, with most students too hungry to talk much, and as the tables cleared, once again Professor Dumbledore asked for their attention.

"A warm welcome to all the new students ! It is also good to see the rest of you all back at Hogwarts after a nice long summer vacation and I hope you are ready to start another year at Hogwarts.

There are the usual Start-of-Term notices I would like to remind you of. The Forbidden Forest outside the Hogwarts grounds has that name for a good reason. You see the Forest is forbidden to all students. The caretaker, Mr Filch, has a list available of products that are banned from use anywhere in the castle, and I believe the entire range of Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes are included in there. He also wanted me to remind you once again that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors.

On another note I would like you to welcome Professor Tonks as our new Defence against the Dark Arts teacher. She has kindly offered her services while she recuperates from injuries sustained while in her actual job as Auror."

There was a polite applause at the news. Previous experience had taught the students to await their first classes with any new teacher and especially DADA teachers had a bad reputation. Harry and his friends joined in the general applause, not wanting to draw attention to the fact they knew her so well. But Harry managed a quick "thumbs up" sign when Tonks was looking their way.

"Students of Ancient Runes will be sorry to hear that Professor Jane Bingley has gone on early retirement. Circumstances are happy though as she decided to leave to be able to enjoy the presence of the newest member of her family, her lovely granddaughter Jane.

I was however very fortunate to be able to recruit the lovely Professor Vitkarsdottir who will gladly share her vast knowledge of ancient runes with any interested student."

As the young professor stood up to acknowledge the headmaster's words Harry observed more than one male student going starry-eyed at the sight of the pretty woman. If anything, the applause that followed the announcement was just a tad more enthusiastic than it had been for Tonks.

"Quidditch captains will be posting their call for new players and tryout dates on your Common Room Notice Boards, along with all the other Societies and Student Groups active after classes. So make sure you check it out on a regular basis.

Last but by all means not least, all returning students will be interested to hear that all decrees and changes made last year have been revoked and are no longer valid."

The first year students who were close to falling asleep in their seats, had the shock of their lives when nearly the whole student body erupted into a thunderous applause, whistling and yelling their approval of that last announcement. Looking around Harry saw most teachers were wearing big smiles, but Snape along with some of the Slytherin students and Mr Filch were clearly less impressed by the changes.

After the noise had died down some he continued :

"Yes I rather thought you'd like that. Well, it's gotten late so off to bed with you. Have a good sleep so you are all nicely rested for your first classes tomorrow."

With so many first years, Hermione and Ron offered their help to guide them to the Gryffindor Common Room. Harry told the others he'd catch up with them and stayed behind to have a word with Tonks. He got a bit worried after hearing about the recuperation she needed. He made his way over to the head table when most students had left the Great Hall. He smiled his hello and was about to ask after her health when he spotted a familiar beetle on Tonks' robes.

"Excuse me, Professor Tonks, but there is a problem with a Padfoot look-alike. Do you mind ?"

Tonks seemed to catch on that Harry had spotted something and nodded her approval. With his Seeker reflexes Harry snatched the beetle off of her robes and hid it under a goblet. Leaning closer to Tonks he whispered "Rita Skeeter in animagus mode" which made Tonks cast a quick spell on the goblet, lifted it and cast a second spell on the beetle.

Professor McGonagall came to inspect what had happened and was quickly filled in on the situation. Professor McGonagall conjured a glass jar much like Hermione's back in fourth year and the beetle was locked in.

"Leave it to me Harry," said Tonks, "the auror department already had its suspicions about her and this is just what we were hoping for. Now was there anything else ?"

"Not really, Tonks, oh sorry, Professor Tonks. I was just wondering about your injuries. I didn't know they were that bad."

"Oh Harry, don't worry so. They are not. But with getting injured last June it was the perfect cover story to get me to come. When Professor Dumbledore told us he wanted to avoid a situation like last year, Kingsley Shacklebolt and I found it a perfect situation to allow me to take on the role. I'll be limping in the beginning to make the cover plausible so don't worry too much OK."

Harry was relieved to find Tonks really was all right and said goodnight to both professors before catching up with the others as they slowly made their way to the Gryffindor Common Room.

Ginny, Neville and Harry sat in the sofa by the fire waiting for Ron and Hermione to join them. Ginny had taken to tease Harry about the ten first years who'd been named Harry and he was secretly happy that Ron and Hermione joined them so soon. Neville asked about Tonks' health too and Harry explained about the cover story and mentioned the discovery of beetle Rita.

After talking a little more of the new DADA teacher surprise Harry decided to go to his dormitory, unpack and go to bed early. Not knowing what tomorrow would bring he wanted to start his first day well rested. Especially knowing he had the DA meeting in the evening.

Upon entering his new dormitory he was quite surprised to find that place much bigger than before. That was needed because apart from the usual furniture there was now also a large desk and bookcase for each occupant. Probably the additions were a result of the self study each student had to undertake the next two years. It was immediately clear also which bed he was to occupy because all his things had been neatly unpacked and put out very much like they'd been at the Manor. The two picture frames holding the images of a young James, Remus, Sirius and Lilly taken upon their graduation and his grandparents took pride of place on his desk. Dobby must have been busy indeed as he noticed Ron's and Neville's places had had the same treatment. Dean and Seamus' things were unpacked too but the tops of the desk just had their assorted items placed in the middle as Dobby obviously didn't know how they liked them set out.

Knowing the house elf would hear it anyway, he said a silent "Thank you Dobby", asked the Black box for a few more of the old letters from Remus to read and installed himself on his bed. The ten letters he held were dated between the first Christmas since his parents' death and his birthday three years later. They were as diverse in writing style as they were in subject. The later ones innocently enough expressed the hope of a few nice presents for Christmas and wishing him a happy fifth birthday. But the early ones were clearly written by a man seriously grieving for what he'd lost. One of the letters Harry was almost certain, had been written when Remus was either drunk or delirious and almost had Harry in tears at the pain contained within the written lines. Harry also learned from them that Remus had tried to visit him at his aunt's but despite Professor Dumbledore's permission his aunt had not allowed him to see young Harry.

By now the four others in his dormitory had arrived and voiced their approval over the new set up of the room and the unpacked state of their trunks. They were all soon sleeping, the fatigue of the day catching up with even these strong young men.

Harry's first reaction at seeing the scarcely lit dungeon and the robed and masked occupants of the room was one of disappointment. He'd hoped to be rid of these and it looked that now he was back at Hogwarts his peace was over. But he soon realised the dream was different in many ways. Rather than looking through either Nagini or Voldemort's eyes he was 'visiting' like he was experiencing a memory in a pensieve.

Voldemort was angry. One of his masked death eaters was trying to explain a situation he didn't understand himself. The dementors had been present as planned, had started making their way to the train when all of a sudden they had stopped as one, turned around and fled. So when the death eater didn't give the desired answer Voldemort was ready to strike. Harry braced himself for the pain he was sure to follow from these curses. But to his relief no pain came and he was able to pick up the fact that a Basil from the Ministry Transportation Department had informed Voldemort of the whereabouts of the captured Death Eaters and that plans were made to free them in two days time. Voldemort continued to describe in detail the roles of each of the very junior death eaters to cause distractions by attacking residences of muggle parents of several Hogwarts students, information he'd gained by having Basil perform an Imperious Curse on the witch working in the Muggle Liaison Office, while the more senior of death eaters would then attack the holding area and liberate their comrades. He stressed the secrecy of the plans towards the other death eaters, which to Harry made no sense until he saw that a few more Death Eaters were called, one of them clearly recognisable as Professor Snape. It was obvious that the newcomers would have no knowledge of the earlier discussed plans and instead were fed an entirely different plan of attack.

Following this dream he did not wake up but instead found himself in the familiar room at the Ministry where Sirius was waiting for him and explaining that although they knew Harry would prefer not to have these dreams, they figured he would prefer to experience them if it meant he could prevent those Death Eaters escaping and most likely come up with a way to capture quite a few more.

Harry had to agree with the outcome of that reasoning. He would never forgive himself to know that he could have prevented that escape but had opted instead for a Voldemort-dream-free life.

Harry woke up after that and decided he'd better warn Professor Dumbledore. Even with two days in which to plan a counter plan, they would need to know of Snape's false information or likely blowing his cover as spy.

Casting a small Lumos spell, Harry sat at his desk, even happier now that Dobby had already unpacked his trunk, and quickly penned a note to Professor Dumbledore.

Dear Professor Dumbledore,

I'm sorry for interrupting your evening, but I had another dream in which Voldemort explained his plans to free the captured Death Eaters from the Ministry rooms K19, K20, K21, K22 and K23. He received information on these locations from a man called Basil from the Transportation Department. From an imperious cursed woman (by Basil) in the Muggle Liaison Office they found the home addresses of eleven first year muggleborns. Junior Death Eaters will attack those homes in order to create diversion on this Wednesday evening at 22:30.

After this initial meeting five more Death Eaters appeared (including Professor Snape) but they were given plans for an attack on Tuesday evening. Not sure what they plan to do, but I guess it's best to NOT send any visible backup.

If you like I'll provide the memories for you to review this dream. Sirius gave the message that they're going to let these dreams through in order to help prevent attacks and possible deaths.

Signed feeling sleepy but reassured I can still help

Harry Potter

He called Lilly and she appeared with a small merry tune and he asked her to make sure Professor Dumbledore received the note immediately if he was still awake, or otherwise the moment he woke up. Even if it was Professor Snape doing the waking up it was important he saw the note before undertaking any action.

From the little bowl on his desk he took a few phoenix treats for her before she went off and Harry returned to bed, to fall asleep almost immediately, the only dreams he had of catching lots of golden snitches in a row.

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Author's Note :

While waiting for the corrections and changes to be made to the manuscript I typed for a friend I had hoped to be able to write at least a little, but it looks like all my inspiration has vanished after that boring monstrosity. Since this chapter was ready I decided to post now but I'm not sure if I'll be able to post again next week. Keep your fingers crossed that the juices start flowing again soon !

Thanks for your continued reading. Would love some feedback from you though. If you have any questions about the story, please don't hesitate.

Have you enjoyed this (and previous) chapter(s) ? You might be interested to know the story is a few chapters further along and offers a little extra info and pictures on my yahoo group (for link see profile page).

cheers

kadedeetje