Back in Black

1st of September, 1996.

Harry looked through his trunk. He was pretty sure he had everything he would need, but it didn't hurt to check one extra time. He closed it and shrank the trunk so he could put it in his pocket then he headed downstairs.

"Oh Harry, could you take Leoline for today?" Remus said. "I realised that I'll be doing a lot of running around and I could bring him, but it would be easier without him."

Harry started laughing. Remus seemed rather stressed out about something. He had been strangely silent since Harry's return to Britain. He and Hermione had been a few days early so Harry had dropped her back off with her parents. He was wondering if Remus was hiding something, but he wasn't going to push. "Sure, I can take Leoline. I'm just going on a train ride anyway," he said. He got Winky to bring him Leoline's travel bag and carrier and he strapped it on.

Remus handed him the now eight-and-a-half-month-old baby over to Harry. "Thank you," he said.

"No problems Remus," Harry said. "I'll see you later then." He headed towards the front door. "Bye-bye Remus."

"See you later Harry," Remus said. He leaned against the wall and watched Harry apparate out. It felt strange. It was like he was watching both his boys leave in a way, and maybe it could have been that if Harry wasn't twenty-two.

Harry in the meantime found a compartment to settle down in. He was already wearing his robes since he had just apparated straight to the platform. He left the compartment and wandered around for a bit, describing things to the wide-eyed baby he carried with him.

"Harry!"

Harry almost fell forward as an excited ball of energy slammed into him. He turned around and smiled at Tanya. "Hello seeker," he said teasingly. "You are here early."

"So are you," Tanya said.

Harry nodded. "Touché," he said.

"Harry, this is my mother," Tanya said happily. "Mom, this is the Captain of our quidditch team, Harry Potter."

Tanya's mother smiled at her daughter. They looked very much alike though Tanya was a bit paler than her mom. "That is great, Tanya," she said. "Now, I need to get going." She hugged Tanya and looked up at Harry. "I hope that it is okay that I leave Tanya with you, Mr Potter," she said.

Harry smiled. "That is fine," he said. "We'll keep an eye out for Natalie."

"Thank you, dear," Tanya's mother said. She kissed Tanya on the cheek and headed off with a good-bye.

"She seemed a little stressed," Harry said softly.

"She got a proposal from work that she really wants to take them up on and the meeting is today," Tanya said.

"Sounds like someone needs to learn that the start of school isn't the best day to plan an important meeting," Harry said.

Tanya nodded. She took Harry's hand and they got her trunk out of the way. Harry blocked his compartment and stepped outside so she could change clothes. "So how has your summer been?" he asked as he waited.

"Well, we have been to see grandmother and my cousins. Things aren't great over there and Grandmother is a little worried, but hopefully it will work out," Tanya said.

"Let me know if they need some protection," Harry said. "I know a guy that can help."

Tanya laughed. "You are impossible," she said.

"So Hermione tells me," Harry said.

"Hermione is very smart," Tanya said. "You should listen to her."

"I try, but I seem to have selective hearing at times," Harry said.

"Oh, we hiked along the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro. That was amazing. You have to come along sometime," Tanya said. "I bet you could cuddle a Lion. My cousin Zet kept saying he does that all the time. I told him that my quidditch captain has a dragon, but he wouldn't believe me."

Harry chuckled. "Most people would have a hard time believing that," he said.

The compartment door behind him slid open. "There, I'm done," Tanya said. She took Harry's hand and they headed back outside.

Natalie was usually pretty early to the train so Tanya hoped they would be able to catch her. They watched as people arrived and talked to quite a few of them.

Natalie arrived with her mom and dad about half an hour later. She smiled brightly as she saw them and rushed up to Tanya. "Hey Tay," she said before looking up at Harry. "Good morning Harry," she said. Then she smiled as Leoline looked at her. "Hello Leo," she said. "Are you coming with us?"

"His father needed to do something that seemed to stress him out so Leoline is coming with us," Harry said.

"Natalie dear, who do you have here?" Natalie's mother asked.

"Oh, this is Harry Potter," Natalie said. "He helps the younger years with homework and stuff, and he is the quidditch captain."

"Nice to meet you, Mrs McDonald," Harry said and took her hand before repeating it with her husband.

Leoline whined suddenly.

"Hungry, huh, buddy," Harry said. "Excuse me, I better go feed this little one." He disappeared onto the train to get Leoline's bottle.

Natalie smiled as she saw him leave. She looked up at her mother who looked worried. "Leoline is Harry's guidechild, mom," she said. "His father is busy today and his mother died when he was born so Harry helps out a lot."

"I even think they live together," Tanya said. "Though Harry has been travelling the world or something this summer."

"That explains the tan," Natalie said and they giggled.

Mrs McDonald rolled her eyes. She hoped that Mr Potter was a good guy since he seemed to have the attention of the younger students. She had heard her daughter speak of him before and he was mentioned often enough in her letters.

"Good morning, Natalie and Tanya!" Hermione said as she walked up to them. "Have you girls seen Harry?"

"I can take you to him in a bit once Natalie has said goodbye to her parents," Tanya said.

Natalie hugged her parents and said goodbye then she followed Tanya aboard the train. They found Harry and Hermione dropped her bag off with him before heading to the prefect meeting.

Natalie settled down and looked at Leoline as he crawled around on the seat next to Harry. "There won't be any pranks this year, right? Now that Fred and George are gone," she said.

"Not the way it was while they were at Hogwarts at least. Maybe we could figure out some fun things to do instead," Harry said. "Some arts and crafts for everyone or something."

"That would be really fun," Natalie said. "But there should be some kind of theme in that case," she said.

"Well, it is Hogwarts so maybe the founders should be the theme," Tanya said.

"That could work," Harry said. "But people shouldn't necessarily work just on their own founder."

"How about we split their most known traits up and people have to pick one each," Natalie said.

"Sounds like I should have a chat with the Heads of Houses and get something started," Harry said.

"Please do," Tanya said. "I think that could be a lot of fun. We could all get to do something other than lessons and homework."

Harry chuckled. He stopped Leoline from going further away from him and handed him his favourite stuffed owl. Leoline tossed it down on the floor and Harry picked it back up.

"We're taking Ancient Runes this year," Natalie said.

"Sounds good. I'm starting lessons this year. Hermione is overjoyed," Harry said.

The girls laughed. "That sounds like Hermione," Natalie said.

As the hills rolled by outside, Harry, Natalie and Tanya came up with ideas of things they could do during the year. Hopefully, the Heads of Houses would allow them to go through with it. Harry needed to talk to Dean. He was the resident artist after all. Maybe the two of them could make something out of the ideas that Tanya and Natalie had. The girls were great but they had some rather farfetched ideas for what could be done. He needed to find some other artists too. There had to be people in the other houses that could help him.

This year promised to be just as busy as all the others. Harry didn't mind though. He wanted to have things to do. He talked to Natalie and Tanya for a bit longer before heading out to look for Dean. If they were doing an arts and crafts year then he would need help, and Dean was the most obvious choice. He cast clairvoyance just so he wouldn't have to search forever. He found Dean with Seamus and Ron. "Could I talk to you?" he asked.

"Sure," Dean said as he stood up. "Wanna go outside."

"Yeah, in case things don't work out," Harry said. They found an empty compartment and walked in.

"So what do you want?" Dean asked.

Harry told Dean about Tanya and Natalie's idea, and Dean leaned back and looked intrigued. "You would be responsible for it?" he asked.

"Yeah, sure," Harry said. "I will need help, but I'll be the one scheduling and talking to the professors."

"I think it sounds good," Dean said.

"You wouldn't happen to know some other people that could help. Preferably from our year and cross houses. I would like at least one person from each house," Harry said.

Dean nodded. "Okay…" he thought about it for a moment, "well, I think Sue Li from Ravenclaw would be good. Justin is a bit artsy, but he does mosaic I think. Maybe one of them knows a good Slytherin, 'cause I don't."

"But you are on?" Harry asked. "I'll try to pull a mini-meeting together during the ride."

"You do that and come get me," Dean said. "I think it sounds like a pretty good idea."

"Sweet, then I'll find Sue Li and Justin and talk to them," Harry said. They split up and Harry headed down along the train. Justin was easy enough to find since Harry knew him well enough. Sue Li he had never really spoken to before so that took a bit more time. Thankfully, she both wanted to help, and she knew that Tracy Davis from Slytherin liked to do pyrography.

Tracy was another student Harry hadn't interacted with much. Finding her was a bit tricky, but he managed. Of course, she was surrounded by other Slytherin students who didn't feel charitable towards Harry.

"Hey, guys calm down," Tracy said. "He just wants to talk." She went with Harry and he explained his plans for the fourth time that day. "Open to all and everyone will be treated equally?" Tracy said.

"That is what I'm there to make sure," Harry said. "I also hope that you will all be willing to teach me so I can help you guys out."

"All of us should learn the basics so we can help," Tracy said.

"Do you want to come along and gather the others so we can talk this through?" Harry asked.

"Now?" Tracy asked and Harry nodded. "Sure why not? You are planning on attacking the Professors with this tonight?" she said.

"That kind of is the plan," Harry said.

"Just let me tell my friends that I'm heading off so they don't think you killed me or something," Tracy said while smiling.

"Do they really think that little old me would do that?" Harry asked as innocently as he could.

Tracy laughed. "I don't know. You have been really nice so I don't see why," she said. She poked her head into the compartment where Harry had found her and said something that Harry couldn't hear then she closed the door. She rolled her eyes as she looked at Harry. "You'd think that Gryffindors are demon spawn the way they act," she said. "So we're picking Sue, Justin and Dean up?" she asked.

"Yupp," Harry said.

They walked along the train and picked up the other instructors along the way before settling down in an empty compartment.

"So we do one each," Dean said once they had settled down.

"Except for me," Harry said. "I'm thinking two during autumn and two during spring. If Sue would take the first one."

Sue nodded slowly. "That might be smart," she said. "The spells are pretty simple to learn. We'll have to meet up so I can teach you guys."

Harry finished up a rough plan and gave it to the others. "What do you think?" he asked.

"These are just Sundays right?" Tracy said.

"Yeah, I was thinking that might be best," Harry said. "A bit of a chill craft Sunday and you have the day before to finish up homework. You don't have to come to every session either and I can announce it to the Great Hall overall someday when most people are there."

"We can get notices up in the common rooms too," Dean said. "People will appreciate a schedule."

"That is certainly true," Sue said. "I think this looks good. There is a little bit of a break between and we can learn what we need to know."

"We could easily meet up at other times too," Harry said. "I just figured that having one day pre-planned might be good."

"Certainly," Tracy said.

"Then I will talk to the professors today if I can," Harry said.

"How will we fund this?" Dean said. "The materials aren't necessarily cheap."

"I can stand for the material cost," Harry said.

"If you do, we need to make sure you get that money back somehow," Tracy said.

"Maybe we could say that people need to pay for the material cost of anything they want to keep?" Justin said.

"Then we should just calculate an average per item or something," Harry said. "Besides we don't know what the school is willing to pay yet. Let's not get stuck on price."

"Harry is right, we shouldn't ditch this idea just because of cost," Sue said. "I was wondering if we could make all of this for something that could last though."

"Like what?" Justin asked.

"I don't know."

"How about a common, common room?" Tracy said. "A place where we can spend time with friends that don't belong to our own house."

"That is actually a pretty good idea," Sue said.

Harry smiled as they all left to go back to their friends. He felt pretty good about their ideas. It wasn't too wild. Some of Natalie and Tanya's ideas had been out there and he had reined it in a bit. Now he just needed the professors to approve. He doubted that would be all that hard.

Leoline had fallen asleep while Harry walked around earlier, but now he woke up and he was not happy. At least they had made it through the meeting before he started screaming. Harry didn't mind too much. They would be reaching the station soon enough anyway.

Harry stepped off the train with Hermione and Neville. They headed up to the carriages and jumped into one. The ride up to the castle was quiet. Leoline had calmed down again after some food and a diaper change.

They walked into the castle and through the entrance hall. "That skeeving wolf," Harry said.

"What?!" Hermione said.

"Remus is sitting at the head table," Harry said. "It looks like we'll have a competent teacher again." He was already considering how he could best prank Remus for not telling him he was going to work at Hogwarts for the year. There was nothing he could do now. Maybe he would wait. He could let Remus think he was safe and strike in a month or so. He smirked briefly, but whipped it off his face as Remus looked at him. He didn't want him to get too worried.

Not long after, the doors to the hall opened and McGonagall walked inside with the three-legged stool and the old patched hat that would be used to sort the new students. She disappeared for a moment before she came back with a line of little boys and girls. She stepped to the side and the hall fell silent.

"Before I was now as you see

When Hogwarts was a child

And the founders were not three

The four of them they gathered strong

And built this castle great

Together they would right all wrong

And rid the world of hate

Gryffindor he took the brave

And showed them how to fight

How to go about to save

The world from its blight

Hufflepuff she reached out

And she took the loyal

Those who knew what it's about

To be unafraid of toil

Slytherin took only those with great ambition

The ones who could use any means

To achieve their mission

Ravenclaw she picked the wise

For she knew that without them

They would not see the lies

Together they taught the young

Until that awful day

When Slytherin he walked out the door

And left us all in disarray

Then Gryffindor he said that, "We need a way,

To sort our young though we are gone

And no longer have a say."

Then he ripped me from his head

And they pored into me

The knowledge that the Founders spread

So that I can sort thee

So come here don't be shy

I know what I am doing

I do not harm I do not pry

I'll see what you're pursuing," the Hat sang.

Harry leaned back as McGonagall started reading names from her list. There was no way he would remember all the names.

Dumbledore stood up once they were done and gave his usual pre-feast speech. He welcomed Remus back and the hall exploded with noise. Most people were very happy to have Remus back. Then the tables filled with food and everyone started eating.

…

Harry got up from the table with everyone else. He waved at Hermione and Neville as they headed off to help the first year students. He had a mission and a little one to return to his father. He headed for Minerva first and he could see the confusion in Remus's eyes. "I would like to speak to you and the other heads if that is possible, Professor," he said.

Minerva nodded slowly. "In the side room," she said. From experience, she took Harry seriously when he wanted to speak to her. She had failed him once and she wasn't going to do it again.

Harry gave Leoline back to his father on his way to the side room. "What are you up to now?" Remus asked.

"That is for me to know and you to wonder about," Harry said teasingly.

Remus sighed. "I signed the papers a week ago. I wasn't supposed to tell anyone. The ministry still has some issues with formers and Albus didn't feel like dealing with them," he said.

Harry shrugged. "That isn't the Marauder way," he said.

Remus looked at him with pain in his gaze. "Do you have to?" he asked.

"Marauder code," Harry said. "If I feel nice I won't tell Sirius." He waved and then he disappeared into the back room where he was soon joined by the four heads of houses.

"I thought that once the twin terrors had left school we would be done with these things," Severus said.

"I'm not planning a prank, Professor Snape," Harry said. "Some other students and I want to hold an arts and craft group open for all. I have a schedule." He copied it up for them quickly and handed a page to each Head.

"We are considering a common theme for everyone," Harry said. "And we hope that it can all be brought together and used in a room available as a common room for all houses where we can cross-mingle and just hang out."

Severus raised an eyebrow. "That generally ends in disaster," he said.

"The idea has merit though," Flitwick said.

"I think it sounds lovely. We just have to work out the chinks," Pomona said.

Minerva nodded slowly. She knew that Albus would approve too. It was yet another attempt at house unity. She was starting to think that maybe Potter could manage. He was reaching out to all houses even Slytherin and he treated everyone the same as long as they didn't act like idiots. "We will speak about this and get back to you," she said.

"As long as we know before the week is out we can get everything set up," Harry said.

"That should not be a problem," Minerva said. "Now head along and get some sleep. Sixth year is no walk in the park, Mr Potter."

"Will do, Professor. Have a nice evening all of you," Harry said. He smiled at them and headed off so he could have a chat with Neville and Hermione.

"Mr Potter has become a very mature young man," Pomona said.

"Some would say he is more mature than his years show," Severus said knowing that Harry Potter wasn't quite who he presented himself to be.

"I never thought I would hear you complimenting Mr Potter," Minerva said.

"He certainly has improved," Severus said.

"He is a lot like Lily," Flitwick said. He saw the pain in Severus' eyes for only a brief moment. "I think that is a good thing. She was kind and caring. It is good to see her son act the same way."

"It certainly is," Minerva said. "I'll talk to Albus about this tomorrow."

"I think you need to talk to him about a few other things too," Flitwick said. "Especially in regards to Mr Potter."

Minerva nodded. She knew that he was right and this time she was going to put her foot down.