The first attack came before they'd even boarded the train headed for Hogwarts.
"Hey, Harry," Neville said, walking toward Harry, Hermione, and Steven. Ron was still with his family, but would join them later.
"Neville," Harry said. "It's been good seeing you again."
There was something wrong with the way Neville walked; he'd never been this self assured. His stride was almost cocky, and the look on his face was harder than Harry had ever seen it.
Harry wondered if something had happened to him over the summer; given the Ministry crackdowns it wouldn't be surprising if it had affected even the Longbottoms.
It wasn't until Neville's wand came up that Harry realized he was in danger.
"Avada Ked-" Neville said, but before he could complete the sentence, Remus Lupin was somehow there, knocking him over.
"Sorry about that, lad," he said, pulling the boy to his feet. "Wasn't watching where I was going."
He made as if to wipe the dust off the boy's robes, but somewhere in the process Neville's wand had disappeared.
Harry almost didn't see the flick of Remus's wand; a moment later a dazed expression came over Neville's face.
"We'd better get you looked at," Lupin said. He pulled the boy away from the train, and a moment later they'd vanished into the crowd.
"Harry," Neville's voice came from behind them.
Harry whirled, his hand on his wand, but Pearl was standing beside this Neville, her hand on his shoulder.
"Your friend seems to have gotten a little lost," she said. "It's probably better if you hurry up and get on the train."
Numbly, Harry did as he was told and the others followed behind him.
"Was that you?" he asked Neville once they'd gotten situated.
Neville shook his head. "Our house elves caught a strange house elf in my room earlier this summer. It was stealing hairs from my brush, and it got away. It was pretty easy to guess it was going to be used for a polyjuice potion, though I have no idea how they decided the attack was going to be right now."
Hermione looked troubled. "House elves can get through most Wizarding Wards, especially if they don't mean any direct harm to the people inside. They could have been stealing hairs from any of our classmates...maybe even any of us."
"Voldemort's offered a bounty on our heads," Steven said glumly. "A hundred thousand galleons for each of us. From what I heard, he'd have offered less for me, not being human, but I was the one who hit him in the head."
"That's reasonable," Harry said. At Steven's look, he said, "Your watermelon soldier's killed Quirrell, and we both killed his basilisk."
"Ginny was the one who killed his diary," Steven said.
"That didn't exactly hit the news," Harry said. "Who knows which of us got the blame for that? I killed him in the first place...as far as who he should hate more, we're pretty much neck and neck."
"There's probably a lot of pure bloods who wouldn't think of killing a child, but they wouldn't balk at killing a non-human," Neville said. "On the other hand, Steven's a lot harder to kill than you are, so there's some that might go for the easy money."
Harry didn't like the idea of being considered easy money. He also didn't like the idea that every mercenary in Britain being after him. Not all of them had to be as stupid as the death eaters.
It had been easy for Remus to spirit a seeming child away through the crowd; what was to keep a mercenary from doing the same thing to any of them. He'd end up dead in an alley.
The thought that Hogwarts, a place where his life had been in danger multiple times a year might be the safest place in Britain for him bothered Harry.
"We should probably have recognition codes for all of us," Hermione said. "So we can figure out if somebody's an impostor."
"What, like a secret code?" Ron asked.
Given that he didn't watch spy movies, Harry wondered where Ron had even come across the concept. Of course, Harry didn't exactly read much Wizarding literature, so maybe Wizard spy stories were normal.
"Aurors use em sometimes," Ron said. "My dad told me. There's shapeshifting monsters out there, and polyjuice, all kinds of ways for someone to fool you."
Harry looked at Steven, and they both nodded grimly.
It was Steven who noticed the second attack.
"What's that?" he asked as they exited the train.
Harry looked up and squinted. He could see two figures in the air; men on broomsticks flying directly toward them. None of the students around them so much as looked up.
A familiar purple figure sliced through the air, hitting one figure with a thump. Somehow, they both vanished at the same time.
The other figure got a little closer, only for the figure to twist and shimmer, shrinking as it fell through the air.
Remus stepped up behind them and said, "Hope you boys have a good year."
His wand was out, but quickly slipped into the folds of his robes to be replaced by a small box. Harry barely noticed, being more interested in the broom falling through the air.
"Going frog hunting?" A voice from behind them asked.
Lupin looked startled, turning to face a blonde student . She was wearing a necklace of butterbeer caps and had a wand tucked behind her ear.
"Yes, actually," he said. "It's the perfect season for them."
"I'd have thought you'd need a net for flying frogs," she said. "But I suppose a box will have to do."
Neville was staring at the box. "I should have gotten one of those for Trevor. It would have been loads easier keeping track of him."
Lupin gave them a jaunty grin and was soon headed off into the field, presumably to collect a transfigured assassin and his broom.
"Does it seem like they are pretty on the nose about these attempts?" Harry asked.
Steven and Hermione looked at each other, then at Harry. "Don't ask any questions."
"It's never good to question good luck," Luna said. "You'll drive the Grundels away."
Hermione blinked. "Isn't Grundel just a Muggle name for House elf?"
"It's easy to get confused," Luna said. "Grundels actually drive the wrackspurts away, making it easier to think and take advantage of any luck you do have."
Hermione looked dubious, but didn't look as though she wanted to argue.
"Hey Luna," Steven said. "Ready for another Nargle hunt?""
She smiled, looking momentarily less dreamy. "The last one was a lot of fun. It's too bad that Hermione dropped out early."
Hermione looked disgruntled. "I had better things to do than spend my afternoon looking for imaginary creatures."
Harry wondered why he hadn't been invited on a Nargle hunt. It might be fun looking for something that didn't exactly exist.
"You can come to the next one if you'd like," Luna said, turning to Harry.
He blinked. "S-sure."
Assuming they'd be allowed out on the castle grounds, he'd be happy to play. With assassins everywhere, any bit of freedom and fun was going to be particularly precious.
Whatever freedom they'd thought they'd have wasn't going to be in the cards.
Hagrid had been sacked and Pearl and Amethyst had been told that their services were no longer required.
Somehow, the Ministry had concluded that non-humans were likely to be loyal to Voldemort or Dumbledore, and so they'd created new decrees making it harder for them to keep a job or get a new job.
There were even rumors that non-humans might be rounded up and placed into protective custody. The Ministry position was that it was necessary for the protection of everyone, but Harry felt a chill go down his spine as he heard the decree.
The fact that the woman sent by the Ministry felt it necessary to talk about it at all in front of a group of students was a show of power. It was an implied threat; if the werewolves and giants and vampires and Veela could be rounded up, anyone could. Worse, the Ministry had people's children all in one place where they could get at them.
The previous year a good portion of Harry's classmates had left the school. Now, they were all back. The Ministry had made attendance mandatory.
Steven seemed to already know about it and so did Hermione. She admitted that she and Steven hadn't told them because they hadn't wanted to worry them.
Apparently they'd been told a week before, when the Gems had been sacked, and Dumbledore had activated the charm causing the temple to disappear. Now only the Gems and Steven could even find it.
As far as Harry was concerned, it was only a single step from sacking non-humans to getting rid of half-humans like Steven and Professor Flitwick. From there it was only another step to banning Muggle-borns, and then Half-bloods.
The Ministry was playing into Voldemort's hands. At the very least they were making it hard for non-humans to justify joining in on the fight.
The woman from the ministry seemed so smug and conceited, talking about the need for loyalty to the Ministry. She had the gall to suggest that anyone who didn't approve of Ministry policies were working for the Dark Lord.
Harry could tell that none of the students around him were happy with her. Her tone set everyone the wrong way.
The only thing that kept him from being even more upset was that Steven and Hermione seemed oddly calm and unperturbed. Steven should have been the most upset of anyone; as a half-human he had the most to lose.
Steven should have been outraged at the treatment of his "aunts." Furthermore, he seemed like the type to even get upset at injustice to trolls and vampires, much less Veela and Centaurs.
Maybe it was the fact that he'd had a week to process it. He'd probably talked about it with his aunts. Given that they were now doing more work for the Order, it might even work out; being a teacher took a lot of time.
Still, Harry could tell that Professor Umbridge was going to be trouble. For some reason, she bothered him even more than the assassins. After all, his time at Hogwarts had given him a lot of experience with people trying to kill him.
It was a bad sign that he'd already decided it was going to be a bad year, even though classes hadn't even started. Maybe it was a good thing. After all, most years he'd optimistically thought the year was going to be good and they never were.
Maybe thinking the year was going to be bad was the key to having a good year.
After all, how bad could Umbridge possibly be?