The AA visited Justin during the third week of August. The Finch-Fletchleys owned an estate in Devon, complete with a large manor house. The AA spent much of the time exploring the grounds, going down to the village, and learning about the history of the family. There was one bit of scandal, which most likely explained where Justin had gotten his magical ability from. Apparently, four generations back, the heir of the family at the time had fallen in love and fathered a child with one of the village maidens, who had gone away to school and whose family was known to be strange. He had married the girl in question, partly because he didn't care about their differences social-class wise and partly to avoid having an illegitimate son. His parents, while egalitarian, hadn't really approved, but considering the First World War was going on and he had enlisted as an officer, was relieved that he'd married someone at all and produced an heir, especially as he'd ended up dying in the war.

The night before the school year was due to start, Theodore went into Harry's room. "Can we talk, Harry?"

"Sure, Theo," said Harry, placing a bookmark in Mariel of Redwall and putting the book on the dresser. "What's up?"

Theo sat down on the other bed (which Ron had used back during the Christmas holidays). "I'm a little worried. What if I have nightmares about what my ex-father did to me while at Hogwarts? Healer Vicks gave me some Dreamless Sleep Potion, but I can't take it every night since taking it too often can lead to addiction or other side effects."

"Have you been having nightmares?" Harry asked, worried. "Well, besides the one that you had the first night after running away to us."

"I had one the night after the trial," answered Theo. "Sirius helped me recover from it and I asked him not to mention it to you. Or Justin, since he was visiting then."

"You could have said something to me earlier, Theo," said Harry. "I told you that I had many nightmares about my relatives during my first year after being rescued."

"I didn't want to bother you then. Besides, Healer Vicks has been giving me twice-weekly mind-healing sessions, so I'm getting over what happened. I'm just worried that I could get more nightmares and the last thing I want is having our dormmates finding out about it."

"Ah. I guess we could put a Silencing Charm on your bed-curtains so if you have a nightmare, our dormmates won't hear anything. And I could ask Uncle Sirius to magic something to alert me if you do have a nightmare, so I can wake you up from it and help you."

"That's a good idea," said Theo. "I don't think I'm likely to get many nightmares, since what happened to me wasn't as horrible as what you had to go through, but-."

"Theo, just because you were only treated horribly the one time doesn't mean you suffered," Harry interrupted sternly. "Besides, if you hadn't run away immediately after and got the courts to give Aunt Lia and Uncle Sirius custody of you, your ex-father would probably have continued to abuse you in an attempt to get you to turn back to his way of thinking. Furthermore, my time with my relatives could have been even worse."

"Even worse? What do you mean?"

"Aunt Lia has dealt with or heard of even worse cases of child abuse throughout the course of her job," Harry answered flatly. "There have been kids that got even less to eat than I did, to the point that it was a miracle that they hadn't died of starvation already. Or ones that were beaten to the point of having broken bones. Or ones that weren't being beaten or starved, but underwent being inappropriately touched, or worse. You remember the talk that Uncle Sirius gave us about reaching puberty."

Theo shuddered. "You're right. Thank Merlin you didn't have to undergo any of that, Harry." He then remembered something he'd read once. "And it's a good thing your relatives hadn't made it clear that they held your magic against you, or could have turned into, I think the term was Obscurial? Basically it's a magical kid that tries to suppress their magic and ends up creating this dark force inside them that they can't control and will lash out with magic whenever they're really emotional. The book that I read said that Obscurials normally die by the age of ten or so. It also said they were more common back when Muggles were hunting witches and wizards."

"I think Aunt Lia referred to that once," Harry said thoughtfully. "The day that she rescued me, she yelled at my relatives for trying to 'stamp the magic out of me', stating that it couldn't be done and that all it would have achieved, if they'd damaged me enough mentally, was to make me lose control and have my powers breaking out randomly. Lucky for me, they didn't even give me a hint that magic was real, or make it clear that the accidental magic they punished me for was something I should be afraid of or try to keep from happening. At the time, I just thought weird things sometimes happened and my relatives didn't like it. Anyway, let's go to Uncle Sirius now so he can magic something to alert me if you do end up having a nightmare while we're at school."

After the situation was explained, Sirius added a spell to the Shield-Charmed ring that the AA had given Harry for his birthday and another on Theo's ring and linked the two. So long as they were both wearing the rings, then if Theo were to have a nightmare, his ring would register it and 'send' some kind of signal to Harry's ring, which would turn warm and create a mild shock, enough to wake Harry up but not hurt him in any way.

The next day, after breakfast, Harry and Theo made sure that they were all packed for Hogwarts. Remus arrived, for he was baby-sitting Matt while Sirius and Lia were going to see the two boys off at the station, and wished the two well for their second-year at Hogwarts. The family set off for King's Cross Station and while there was some traffic, was able to arrive a quarter to eleven. Five minutes passed as Harry and Theo got trolleys for their trunks and they headed for the platform.

However, when the two headed for the barrier between Platforms Nine and Ten, they and the trolleys ended up crashing into it, instead of the usual of them passing through onto Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. Sirius helped the two up and made some excuse to the nearby Muggles that took notice by claiming that they'd been having a bit of a race and lost control of the trolleys. Lia examined the barrier for a moment and then said, "Harry, try to enter now."

Harry gently tried to push his trolley at the barrier, Lia holding on to his arm, but it was still solid. "That's odd," she said. "Why isn't it letting us through?"

At this point, the Patils arrived. Lia and Sirius explained about the barrier not working. Padma stuck out her arm and found that she could put her hand through it, but when she tried to go through with Harry, the barrier was blocked again. The adults were wondering if there was something wrong with the spells on the barrier when the Finch-Fletchleys turned up and had to have the situation explained to them. Muggles couldn't get onto the platform unless they were accompanied by a witch or wizard, but since it appeared that no-one could get through the barrier at the moment, that didn't matter.

By now, it was five minutes to eleven and the entire Weasley family showed up, apparently running late. Mrs. Weasley was apparently too preoccupied to really notice the crowd, for she helped Ginny push her trolley towards the barrier. To the others' amazement, the two of them actually got through.

"I guess the spells are working again!" exclaimed Sirius. "Harry and Theo, hurry up onto the Platform, and then the rest of you do the same."

However, when Harry and Theo tried again, they couldn't get through the barrier. "Is something preventing just us from going through the Platform?" Harry asked, while Sirius and Mr. Patil explained to the rest of the Weasleys about the barrier somehow not working,

"I don't know," said Sirius thoughtfully. He patted the barrier at various intervals, finding it completely solid. Meanwhile, Mr. Weasley cast a small spell so that Muggles (besides Mr. and Mrs. Finch-Fletchley) wouldn't take notice of their group or their odd behavior.

The other adult wizards took turns examining the barrier and found it solid as well. When they finished, the nearest station clock showed that it was eleven o'clock, the time that the Hogwarts Express pulled out the station. "Darn it, we've missed the train!" Theo exclaimed.

"Don't worry, you guys, you'll still get to Hogwarts," said Mrs. Patil. "There are other ways to get there besides the Hogwarts Express."

Lia nodded. "There's always the Knight Bus, or we can head over to the Leaky Cauldron or Sirius and my home to Floo over to Hogsmeade." She quickly explained to the Finch-Fletchleys about the Knight Bus, Floo Network, and that Hogsmeade was the all-wizarding village next to Hogwarts.

"The Knight Bus isn't all that comfortable a ride, especially as I think Ernie is still the driver," said Sirius, making a face. "I rode it once to the Potters' house when I ran away from my family and I didn't like it. Using the Floo would be better, not to mention that it doesn't cost you anything except the price of Floo Powder."

"Fine then, we'll use the Floo Network," said Lia. "Dad, you might want to Apparate onto the Platform to tell Mum what happened so she won't worry. Meet us at the Leaky Cauldron, okay?"

Mr. Weasley nodded and did as suggested. Harry volunteered Hedwig so that they could send a letter to Professor Dumbledore telling him what happened, and Padma and Parvati offered to send their owl out after the Hogwarts Express with a note so that the rest of the AA wouldn't wonder why six of them weren't on the train. The letters were quickly written and sent off and the group headed for the Leaky Cauldron, where they meet Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. Once there, Sirius sent another message to Professor Dumbledore, this time via his Patronus, so that a staff member could be sent down to Hogsmeade to meet the nine students, and a second one to Remus.

The group decided that they might as well have lunch first, and once they finished eating, got ready to Floo. Mr. and Mrs. Finch-Fletchley bid their son good-bye and then Lia helped Justin with Flooing over to the Three Broomsticks pub in Hogsmeade. The other students followed, with Sirius, Mrs. Patil, and Mr. Weasley accompanying.

Professors McGonagall and Flitwick were the teachers waiting to meet the students. The adults present further explained to the two Heads about the barrier being blocked for some reason. Good-byes were said and then the adults Flooed back or Apparated to the Leaky Cauldron, while Professors McGonagall and Flitwick escorted the group of students to Hogwarts. On the way, they pointed out the shops that they passed, and informed the second-years that they would be able to visit the village during certain weekends throughout the school year once they were in third year, providing their parents/guardians signed the permission slip for them to do so.

Once inside the Entrance Hall, Professor McGonagall said, "I suggest you all go to your common rooms and get settled in your dorm rooms. When you've finished, you have permission to visit the library, or in the case of those of you that are part of the Amity Association, visit with Hagrid or meet up in whatever empty room you normally spend time in. Just make sure that you show up at the Great Hall in time for the Welcoming Feast tonight."

The six members of the AA elected to visit Hagrid once they'd put their trunks in their rooms and changed into their school robes. The gamekeeper was quite happy to see them, though surprised, and when they explained about the barrier somehow not letting them through (though it did let in Mrs. Weasley and Ginny), he was just as puzzled as they were.

"I never heard o' th' barrier not workin' at all before," Hagrid said. "Maybe th' spells on it did go wonky for some reason."

"But how did it work for Mum and Ginny?" Ron asked. "That's what isn't making sense."

"You know, Dobby really didn't us returning to Hogwarts," Padma pointed out. "Well, to be more accurate, it was Harry that he didn't want returning to Hogwarts, even if he did say that he had to warn the entire Association. Maybe he did something to the barrier to try and keep Harry from returning to Hogwarts."

"You know, that makes sense," said Justin. "We just couldn't get on the Platform either because we were with Harry. Dobby could have removed whatever he did so that your mother and sister could go through, Ron, but put it back up right away to keep Harry from going. I bet if any of us tried to go through right after, we could have, but as soon as Harry made the attempt, he'd have been blocked."

"Well, if that's true, then Dobby really didn't want me coming back," Harry said. "Too bad for him that there's other ways to get to Hogwarts. And even if he somehow kept the Floo Network or the Knight Bus from working, I bet Uncle Sirius or Aunt Lia could have Apparated me to Hogsmeade, or asked the Ministry to provide us with a Portkey."

Parvati and Theo then took turns explaining to Hagrid who Dobby was and the warning that the house-elf had given them during Harry's birthday party. "Ah, so tha's why you had me send Harry's letters ter Ron an' Hermione an' why they were sendin' on his replies," said Hagrid. "An' why Professor Dumbledore asked us all to be extra careful durin' our staff meetin' this mornin'."

The group had moved on to other subjects and were outside being shown the pumpkins that Hagrid was growing for the Halloween feast when Parvati and Padma's owl turned up, a rolled up note tied to one leg. "Thank you, Lakshmi," said Padma, removing the note while Parvati gently stroked the owl's brown and white feathers.

Lakshmi the owl hooted in reply and then flew off towards the Owlery. The note turned out to be written by Hermione (though signed by the rest of the AA).

"We got the note about the barrier not working for you guys, though it is odd that Ginny and Mrs. Weasley got through. It's a good thing that there's other ways to get to Hogwarts, like the Floo Network. Anthony suggests that maybe Dobby has something to do with it, since he really didn't want you, Harry, returning to Hogwarts. The rest of us think that he (Anthony) has a point, so maybe it's something Sirius and Lia could look into. Neville's gone to tell Ginny what happened, so she doesn't worry about why none of her brothers are on the train. She's sitting with Luna, Colin, and Liam in the next compartment and it looks like they're really engrossed with some book or other. Anyway, we'll see you all at the feast tonight and if you can go down to visit Hagrid, pass on our greetings."

"Well, if the rest of the AA think that Dobby might have something to do with the barrier not working too, then I'd better let Uncle Sirius know," said Harry. He took out his two-way mirror from his pocket and called Sirius, who said that he and Lia had thought of the same thing and were working with Professor Dumbledore to investigate the matter.

"Be careful, Harry," Sirius added. "Lia thinks that it's possible that Dobby could try something else to get you sent home, since the attempt to stop you with the barrier not working failed. So you and your friends be on your guard, okay?"

"We'll do that, Uncle Sirius," promised Harry. The two then ended the connection.

A couple hours later, it grew dark. Hagrid left to meet the new first-years at the station and the six second-years headed up to the castle. Professor McGonagall meet them at the door and gestured them into the Great Hall, where they found seats at their respective house tables. The staff members filed in and took seats at the head table, and about twenty minutes later, the students began walking into the Great Hall.

Draco Malfoy didn't sit down right away, instead pausing by Theo and Harry and asking, "Where were you two? And the Patil Twins, the Weasel, and that Mudblood from Hufflepuff that're also part of your loser group? Why weren't you six on the train?"

"Don't use that term for Justin, or call Ron that!" Daphne snapped, sliding into the seat next to Theo. "Furthermore, it's none of your business why they weren't on the train, and we didn't ask you to poke your nose in our compartment anyway."

"Oh, Greengrass, are you their girlfriend now in addition to being Potter's?" asked Malfoy, sounding falsely surprised.

"Malfoy, what is up with you accusing Daphne of being the girlfriend of every person she defends?" Tracey asked. "Do you wish to date her and decided to make baseless accusations because you know she'd never give you the time of day?"

Malfoy sputtered at this, then finally retorted, "Like I would ever want to date a blood traitor!" before taking a seat at the end of the table, as far away from them as possible.

"Well, that got rid of him for the time being," Tracey said, while Daphne giggled and Theo and Harry sniggered at Malfoy's reaction.

Once everyone had settled down in seats, Professor McGonagall brought the first-years in. Harry spotted Ginny, Luna, Colin, and Liam in the middle of the line. Colin looked very excited and eager, while the other three gazed around the Great Hall with varying levels of awe. The Sorting Hat began singing a song about the four founders and their houses and when it finished, Professor McGonagall started the Sorting.

Colin Creevy was the fourth person to be called up. He ran up to the stool and eagerly placed the Sorting Hat on his head, which fell down almost to his shoulders since he was so small. A few seconds later, it shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!" Colin jumped off the stool and, pushing the Hat up so that he could see, dashed over to the Gryffindor table. Percy stopped him before he could sit down and reminded him to return the Hat.

"Sorry, I was so excited to be in Gryffindor that I forgot!" Colin exclaimed, and amid gales of laughter, ran back to the stool to give it to Patricia Daniels.

Luna sat on the stool for over a minute before she was finally declared a Ravenclaw. Harry, who could see some Gryffindor qualities in her, figured that the Sorting Hat had seen the same and needed some time to decide between Ravenclaw and Gryffindor. Hermione and Padma shifted over a bit to make room for Luna to sit next to them and the Ravenclaw members of the AA welcomed her to their house.

The Sorting progressed, with Liam Stanley joining Luna in Ravenclaw. Unlike hers, the Sorting Hat made the decision almost instantly. Ginny was the last one to be called up, and like the rest of her family, was sorted into Gryffindor. Professor McGonagall rolled up the list and took the Sorting Hat and stool out of the Great Hall. When she returned, Professor Dumbledore stood up and welcomed everyone, starting the feast.

At the Slytherin table, the prefects told the first-years about working to improve their house's reputation and at least tolerating those of non-pureblood parentage. The first-years digested this along with their dinner, and by the time dessert arrived, had all expressed the desire to go along with it.

"Let's just hope Professor Dumbledore doesn't do any of that 'no house winning' again this year," said Gemma Farley. "I'm all for inter-house cooperation, but I would like a clear winner for the House Cup and not make our efforts to win points pointless. Oh, no pun intended. I don't blame the Amity Assocciation, of course," she directed at Harry, Daphne, Tracey, and Theo. "You didn't ask Dumbledore to award your group points that made it so that all houses were tied."

"You should," Malfoy grumbled. "If it weren't for them, Dumbledore wouldn't have thought to award those points in the first place."

"I didn't see you complaining at the ending feast, Malfoy," Flint said. "In fact, you seemed happy that Gryffindor was no longer the clear winner of the House Cup."

Malfoy turned pink and focused his attention on the apple pie and ice cream he was eating.

When dessert was over, Professor Dumbledore stood up again, this time to make the requisite announcements. He introduced Gilderoy Lockhart as the new Defense teacher. Harry noticed that the rest of the staff didn't look particularly happy about this, other than one witch that he assumed was the Muggle Studies teacher, since he'd heard that Quirrell had been teaching that class until he'd taken off two years ago for practical experience in order to become the Defense instructor. Of the students, it was mostly the girls that greeted the news with any excitement, though a few of younger male students seemed to have been taken in by Lockhart.

When the announcements were over, there was the singing of the school song and then everyone was dismissed for bed.

Author's Note: I decided that Padma and Parvati Patil named their female owl Lakshmi, after a Hindu goddess with some association with owls. Since Dobby is determined that Harry not return to Hogwarts, he would still try to prevent it by keeping the barrier from working. Dobby's main goal is to keep Harry away from Hogwarts, so he lifted whatever blocking spell to let people other Harry through, but as soon as he tried again, immediately replaced it. After that, rather than keep removing and replacing the spell, he just left it in place until Harry left the station.