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Chapter 2
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He couldn't believe he was here again.
It had been four years since his last visit to this spot and now he was putting himself through it all again, and there was really only one reason for it; He'd heard they were coming back as well.
The first time he'd ever been here it had been the start of something brilliant. In the back of his mind he was desperately hoping that this time it would turn out brilliant again, well, less life threatening at every turn kind of brilliant anyhow. The years had passed and they'd all been through something difficult but that wouldn't have made it impossible for them to come together again and rebuild what they'd had.
Kings Cross station was packed as usual, the crossing to platform 9 ¾ had people milling about it, a few of them attempting to appear inconspicuous and failing. it was alarming how many Aurors had no idea how to dress like Muggles. Really, it wasn't that hard; jeans and any old shirt or jacket, but no, they had to wear things that actually made them stand out. One of the female ones was wearing a dress with several layers under her skirt that had people all around her turning their heads as they passed.
The Aurors were guarding the entrance to platform 9 ¾ making sure any of the remaining Death Eaters on the loose didn't attempt anything funny. The Hogwarts Express had been rebuilt or refurbished after it had been attacked in April and had been ready and available for all the students to take it home by June.
His going back to Hogwarts had been a discussion with Sirius.
It was just Sirius left, Dumbledore had died from his injuries shortly after the final battle. He'd been the one facing off Voldemort in the Great Hall when Harry stepped in. And it was Dumbledore dueling Voldemort and beginning to exhaust him that really gave Harry the chance to end it, Voldemort had essentially dismissed Harry from the point of his stepping into the duel to him getting hit with the killing curse and dying for those few moments, Voldemort hadn't even looked surprised to discover that Harry was no longer dead, because he didn't remember him, then Harry returned the favor. The injuries sustained had been what finished off Dumbledore, and with his death the Fidelus on Harry had been lost.
Funny thing about the Fidelus though, when applied to a human being, or a building, once the Fidelus is gone you can see the person or place and remember them, or it, from then after, but not the history. Not unless you are given the key.
Most keys to the Fidelus are phrases, as was Harry's; and it was not something he was likely to say accidentally. In fact it had been something he'd scoffed at hard enough that Sirius decided it was perfect.
Harry hadn't revealed his history to anyone. Yet. He and Sirius had been busy these last five months. Since the Battle of Hogwarts the two of them had been keeping at it, taking out Death Eaters that had run away without the Ministry's knowledge or backing. It had been a very productive time, and a hell of a lot easier than it had been during the war.
An ugly, but productive time.
And cathartic.
There had been a few times over the last several years that he wondered if there was a chance that he was becoming just as bad as the Death Eaters, as he felt less and less remorseful about the handing over of them to the Aurors in varying levels of consciousness. There had been times when he wondered if he should still be fighting, if anything he was doing, the misery he was living in, was making a difference.
Every now and then there was this voice inside his head telling him he was becoming a monster, because he had been responsible for a few deaths. And not just Tom Riddle's.
He saw Remus around the house every now and again before the spell had been broken and had wondered if this was how the man felt all the time. Remus had been tasked with trying to gain information about the werewolf movement during the war and since then he had been busy helping plead the cases of his new friends he'd made to the Ministry, so Harry still hadn't shared with him who he was.
There were only a few Death Eaters left that Harry and Sirius knew about, but they had been so low down on the ladder that they certainly wouldn't have expect them to attempt anything. They were most likely going to try and slink back into society and attempt to put the whole mess and bad decisions behind them if they could manage it.
Sirius and he didn't have that ending in mind for them though.
Since the Ministry had turned around on its stance of good versus evil, he and Sirius had taken to simply dropping off bound and gagged Death Eaters at different Auror's doorsteps, so Harry felt better about that. He chalked his previous method of dealing with them up to simply doing what had to be done during war times. There was some kind of allowance during battle or war that gave soldiers, such as he felt he was, a pass for taking a life.
At least, that was what he told himself to make himself feel better. It was what Sirius told him too.
Repeating that to himself in the mirror didn't assist in helping him search for the humanity that had once been in his eyes. It didn't stop him from looking at his shaving kit and wondering if he should try giving himself a knick on purpose to make sure he could still feel the little things.
And nothing but a heavy dose of potion could stop his dreams of what he'd done, or what he might one day wind up needing to do again.
Harry watched as several returning students passed through the barrier to the platform in a hurry. He was cutting it close himself. There were only fifteen minutes left before the train was due to depart.
Sirius had understood that this was something Harry felt he needed to do. It would help him try and right his life again since it had been sideways since the day of the Third Task.
It being just Sirius and himself most of the time, he didn't feel he was missing too much in the way of companionship considering the years leading up to his first year at Hogwarts he had kept to himself, as Dudley had scared off any potential friends. But because of those four years he had been able to go to Hogwarts he knew what he was missing, in particular who he was missing.
Sirius was his friend, a father type figure too, and he'd been haunted, depressed and a borderline alcoholic for the first year. He'd started drinking less as he sensed the final battle drawing closer, but after every life threatening mission they'd gone on, he would hit the bottle hard and sleep for a full day. Which left Harry to fend for himself; something he didn't mind doing because he certainly didn't want to talk about what they'd done, but more often than not his way of dealing with what they'd done involved an excessive amount of hitting a punching bag at length followed by sitting or sleeping in a dark room until Sirius came to find him.
He didn't want to be that person anymore. That was another reason he wanted to come back to Hogwarts and do his NEWT year of studies. He was determined to have just one year of school that didn't involve someone trying to kill him. Even though now that someone was potentially himself.
Gathering his resolve, he pushed his cart towards the Aurors, the cart looked sad with just the one small trunk on it, no owl as Hedwig had become one of Hogwarts school owls after the tournament, and no side bag. His jacket had been equipped with extendable pockets so anything he might need was placed imperceptibly inside them.
It didn't occur to him until now that that might make him stand out.
Mentally he did an eye roll at that.
It didn't matter. No one at Hogwarts would recognize him, he was going to stand out due to that alone.
It really wasn't his education that he was interested in with this, for lack or better term, experiment. Education was the last reason why he was going back to Hogwarts. Sirius and Dumbledore had still made him study and learn everything he would have been missing out on in class. Without the distraction of friends and Quidditch he'd managed to do pretty well with the boring subjects and had extra motivation on the useful subjects like Defense, Transfiguration and Charms.
He knew that he wouldn't be the only eighteen-year-old going back there. Most all of the seventh years hadn't returned to school the previous year. Muggleborns and those that decided to join in on the fighting, they'd not gone back last year.
Hermione and Ron had not returned to Hogwarts the previous year.
But they were returning now.
Harry had missed them desperately.
He hurried through the barrier and maneuvered his cart through the people on the platform that were in the midst of their farewells, pulling up to the first open door he found he levitated his trunk inside it.
"Excuse me," said a small voice behind him.
Harry turned around and saw a boy there. He was struck a moment by how small the kid was. He was wearing a Hogwarts cloak though and had a trunk with him. Had Harry really looked that small when he first started attending Hogwarts?
"My, erm, my trunk is really heavy, and I was wondering…" the kid trailed off.
"No problem," Harry told him easily and levitated his trunk inside the train so it sat on top of his own. For a moment his mind flashed back to how Fred and George had been the ones to do this for him on his first Hogwarts Express trip.
And how Fred was no longer alive.
"Thanks," the kid grinned. "I'll put your cart away for you," he offered keenly and promptly began pushing both their carts back towards the kiosk.
Harry climbed into the compartment and got his and the kids trunks tucked away before looking out over the platform, trying to see anyone that might have looked familiar. Trying to spot a group of people with the same ginger hair.
He didn't see any though and sat back in his seat with a frown.
He couldn't expect that things would play out easily for him. The war had changed people, made them wary.
"My name's Joshua," the kid said, climbing into the compartment with Harry.
"Harry," he nodded in greeting. "First year?"
"Yeah. I'm hoping I do alright. Mum wasn't going to let me go this year, but then…. Well. Anyways. Now I can, cuz it's safe again." Joshua was looking full of nervous excitement.
"Yeah, it's safe again," Harry nodded. Because I killed a bunch of people, he added in his head. "I actually should have been done with school by now, but I'm going back to take my seventh year and get my NEWTS. There will be a lot of students that are slightly displaced this year. Means you might be sharing a dorm with quite a lot of boys."
"Still looking forward to it!" Joshua grinned.
Harry could only smile back at he kids enthusiasm, hoping the smile met his eyes, though he didn't feel it did. "Do you know anyone else on the train?"
"No one I would have seen in ages," he said, casting his eyes down.
"You should go and see if there's anyone you recognize," Harry offered. "Try and find another group of first years to sit with. I would bet there are plenty on board here that are too shy to go looking for a friend right now."
"W-what if I'm too shy as well?" Joshua asked, an embarrassed flush coming to his cheeks.
Harry shrugged. "Fake it?" he offered.
Joshua grinned at him.
"I'm going to go and fake it as well," Harry said standing up as the train whistled and started to pull away from the station. Be friendly, he reminded himself. "If we both strike out, I'll meet you back here, yeah?"
"Alright," Joshua said eagerly.
They both went into the corridor and headed in opposite directions.
Fake it, that was the mantra he was going to need to repeat over and over in his head this year. Brooding over how much you've missed of your friends? Fake that you've never met them. Starting to get lost in the black cloud of depression? Fake that you're happy. Get cornered in the Common Room by a group of your peers? Fake that you are enjoying the companionship and aren't desperate to climb into your four-poster bed and hide under the covers.
Harry peered into the compartments he went past, unfortunately he hadn't spent a lot of time getting to know many people at Hogwarts in the four years he attended and wouldn't have recognized anyone from the year below him except for Ginny Weasley and Colin Creevey.
He remembered a few people that were above him in school, but they certainly wouldn't have been coming back here.
He kept having to remind himself to put a polite smile on his face. The corners of his mouth had been set in a frown for so long that if he wasn't making the effort to control the muscles on his face then he immediately came off as sullen and unapproachable; or so said Sirius.
Bearing that in mind he kept checking in the compartments and nodding his head politely in greeting to anyone that he made eye contact with, but by the time he got to the end of the train he still hadn't found the people he was looking for. Turning around he headed back towards he front of the train, coming up on the Trolley Lady partway there.
It was as he was paying for a Cornish Pasty that he saw someone he recognized heading for him.
She didn't look anywhere near as downtrodden or hardened as she had the last time he saw her. Ginny Weasley was walking towards the Trolley with one of her friends following behind her, talking away. Harry recognized her friend. He was from his own year but in Ravenclaw, Michael Corner.
Michael Corner was a Pureblood, so far as Harry remembered. And he hadn't been part of the Order, had he? Maybe he'd been working somewhere on one of the branches of the resistance. Or maybe he'd simply sat out his exams and decided he wanted to take his seventh year all over again.
Ginny didn't look like she was paying attention to Michael, or she seemed to be doing her best not to be paying attention to him anyhow.
"Now that I'm the Quidditch Captain for Ravenclaw again and all," Michael was saying to her, his chest puffing out a bit with pride as he said it. "We should get together and plan when our practice times will be. You know, so they don't, erm, clash."
Harry collected his change from the Trolley Lady, thanking her absentmindedly as he tried not to stare at Ginny. He had wondered a bit about her briefly after that episode in the broom cupboard and had been struck with how the last time he really remembered talking to her was around the Yule Ball; Ron had offered her up as a date option for Harry, but she was already going with someone.
That can't possibly have been the last time they talked, was it?
She wasn't nearly the same girl now as she was then.
It had nagged at him what he'd heard between she and Neville for a short while after, until he got busy again anyhow. Clearly things had been much worse at Hogwarts than anyone wanted to believe, but no one was talking about it. He'd kept his ears open since for any tales of what people had been up to during and before the final fight.
"We discuss that with Madame Hooch, Michael. If you have a preferred pitch time, then book it right away," Ginny shrugged in response, telling him straightforward.
Harry couldn't help noticing the crestfallen expression that passed over Michael's face, clearly booking Quidditch times wasn't the only thing he wanted to 'get together' with her over.
Harry passed by them, making eye contact with Ginny as they brushed past each other.
He didn't know that he'd ever really looked into her eyes before. They were a lovely shade of deep brown, but there was this one orange freckle in her left eye. She had grown into a good-looking girl and for a fleeting moment he understood Michael's expression just then.
That moment went away when he looked down the stretch of corridor before him and saw Ron and Hermione heading in his direction.
They were holding hands.
Harry had to swallow his grin when he saw that. It had been something he had anticipated would happen in his fourth year after the whole incident with Krum. It was good to know that Ron finally plucked up the courage and did something about it.
He felt his heart drop down into his stomach from anxiety as he made his way towards them though. He wasn't sure how his reintroduction to them should go.
They were stopping at each compartment and saying a quick 'hello' to the people inside it before moving on to the next.
They were patrolling, Harry realized.
Hermione would have been made Prefect at least, but Ron? He'd had two Head Boy's in his family, sure, but he also had the Twins, now just George, and Ron wasn't particularly motivated. Dean probably would have made a better choice of Gryffindor Prefect for their year, as Neville was too timid, had been too timid anyhow, and Seamus had a habit of womanizing and blowing things up.
When they pulled back from the compartment and made their way on to the next one Harry spotted the 'P' badge pinned to the front of Hermione's shirt.
He felt awkward as he watched Ron slip an arm around her waist and whisper something in her ear before giving her a kiss to her jaw. It was weird seeing them like that. Particularly when it made Hermione giggle. Hermione was not a giggly girl.
Putting his resolve in place, he kept walking towards them at a casual pace.
He'd timed it just right so that the next time they pulled away from a compartment he was right in front of them, making it so they had to block his way a bit.
"Oh, sorry!" Hermione smiled at him.
"No harm done," Harry brushed it off. "Hi. I'm Harry," he held his hand out in greeting.
"Hermione Granger, Gryffindor Prefect. And this is Ron," Hermione introduced.
"Ah, just doing the rounds then?" he asked nicely, giving Ron a nod.
"For another one hour and thirty-two minutes," Ron said, a little grumbly about it.
Typical Ron. Harry tried not to grin at that.
"Uh, look. I'm new and a bit unsure of where or who I should sit with. This might be a little odd, but do you think you could point me in the direction of a compartment containing someone friendly? A bit concerned about possibly making the wrong choice and sitting with… how shall I phrase this nicely?" He pretended to think. "An arsehole?" Ron gave a snort but Hermione didn't seem to like his choice of wording. "I'm going into seventh year and I was hoping to get to know someone I might be in classes with. Only friend I've made thus far is a first year I helped with his trunk." It sounded lame but his hope was that Hermione would be endeared by that and stick him in the compartment that they would be going into once their patrol was done.
"Oh, of course," Hermione said instantly. "There would be plenty of students that are new this year, you shouldn't feel awkward about that at all. Ron and I missed out last year and are technically in eighth year."
Ron was looking at him skeptically, sizing him up.
"Let's see," Hermione thought on it. "What are your interests? What house do you think you'll be in?"
"Quidditch and Gryffindor," Harry said instantaneously.
"You like Quidditch?" Ron perked up.
He tried really hard not to look too relieved by Ron's reaction to that. He knew that would be an easy in with Ron.
"Oh, Ginny!" Hermione called out down the corridor behind Harry. He turned and saw Ginny had been making her way towards them already with her trolley purchases in hand and had shaken off Corner. "Ginny, this is Harry. He was just looking for somewhere to sit. He likes Quidditch and wants to be in Gryffindor and…" And that was really all she knew about him just then.
Harry tried to contain his amusement as Hermione floundered slightly.
"And he enjoys long walks on the beach?" Ginny finished off sarcastically with a quirked eyebrow.
Ron snickered and Hermione gave a slight eye roll. "And he doesn't know anyone. Could you introduce him around? We'll join you after."
It didn't look like that was something that Ginny was keen on doing though. "I'm," she started slowly.
Hermione didn't give her the chance to form a proper response though because there was a loud bang that emanated from a few compartments down and she hurried around them and towards it with Ron following in behind her.
Harry and Ginny were left standing there staring after Hermione and Ron as they dealt with a few younger students that set off what looked to be fizzing whiz-bangs. Harry turned back to see that Ginny wasn't all that thrilled having been given the roll of babysitter.
"Sorry," he apologized.
"It's fine," she sighed. "Follow me then."
She led the way past several compartments and stopped outside one that had the curtains drawn. "Wait here a moment," she told him and made a little scratch on the door before slowly turning the knob and letting herself into the compartment.
Neville had done that scratching thing on the broom cupboard door just after the battle. It must have been how the students let each other know that it was a friend or something on the other side of the door. Now Harry really wanted to know what had happened that made them need to implement something like that. Right now though he wasn't in a place to be asking those kinds of questions.
He turned around and looked out at the countryside that they were speeding past while he waited. He missed this train ride. The ride to Hogwarts always had him calling up awesome plans and scenarios about what the year to come would offer. Flying to school in his second year had been a cool experience though.
He wondered if Ron remembered doing that? It heavily involved him, so odds were that he didn't. To his understanding everyone that he'd had encounters with, their minds would simply glaze over any questionable empty spaces in their memory. That was a lot of Hermione and Ron's first four years of school that they wouldn't remember.
Maybe that was what had brought them closer together? They remembered being around only each other without him there and had drawn the conclusion that it was due to something more than just friendship?
Most of the student population wouldn't have had their lives affected too much. He'd really just kept to two persons company. Everyone at the Triwizard Tournament would have thought it went off without much of a hitch too.
"Travel much?" Ginny's voice came from behind him.
He turned in time to see her closing the door to the compartment. "No," he admitted. "Not by train anyhow." He gestured to the darkened compartment. "Your friend doing okay?"
"They're fine," she told him dismissively. "I'll be joining them later. Right now, I'll find someone to take you in."
Loath as he was to admit it to himself, that sounded like Ginny would rather not spend any more time with him than she had to. And that was a little upsetting.
He followed behind her and tried not to let it crush him too much that she was looking for someone to pawn him off on. Three years ago she would have wanted to spend as much time with him as possible. Maybe it had only been because he had been The Boy Who Lived; misplaced hero worship.
He'd been intrigued by the prospect of making friends in the Wizarding world based on who he was, just being himself without the notoriety behind his name, and here it was; little Ginny Weasley didn't care to be his friend or even try.
He frowned more at that thought. It wasn't as though he was trying to be her friend right now either though, he realized.
"So," he started. "Any helpful hints for getting around Hogwarts? Or word to the wise on a few teachers?" He couldn't very well make a good impression of himself by being the sullen presence following behind her quietly. He needed to make more of an effort.
"After you're sorted into your House the Prefect's will show you back to your common room, but first day of classes you're left to your own devices to find them. It's like an initiation, it is imperative that you get delayed by a moving staircase or a wrong turn" she said, throwing him a teasing smirk over her shoulder. "And as for the teachers, they know what they're doing, most of them anyhow. I'll hope for your sake that you haven't signed up for Divination though, because the professor for that is a crockpot and the subject is of no use to anyone that doesn't have 'the sight'." She said 'the sight' in a deep mystical voice.
Harry gave her an appreciative snicker at that.
"No Divination for me. Mostly just the core subjects; Transfiguration, Charms, Defense, Potions. I've got Care of Magical Creatures too." There wasn't any way he wasn't going to be seeing Hagrid as much as he could. The man was the honest salt of the Earth and though he had a bigger soft spot for the most dangerous creatures out there at least he still really knew his stuff and could handle them. He just had the unfortunate expectations that everyone else would be able to handle them as well.
His mention of that subject had Ginny turn to him with an endearing smile lighting up her face. "I love that class. Hagrid is great, that's the professors name. He's the groundskeeper as well." Her expression darkened at the next thought to come out of her mouth, "I don't know who the Defense teacher will be this year but no doubt the NEWT students will give them a run for their money."
"Why do you say that?" he felt compelled to ask. He knew the answer obviously had something to do with last year in particular.
"Because it wasn't so much about Defense Against the Dark Arts in the classroom last year," Ginny said in a dangerous tone.
Yep, that was what Harry suspected.
"It was terrible, wasn't it?" he asked sadly.
His beloved Hogwarts had been turned from a beacon of light and hope into a prison where the children were the inmates.
"We managed," Ginny said in a way that told him that line of questioning was now off limits. "Here you go." She gestured to the compartment ahead of them.
They'd made it halfway down the train and the compartment she was showing him into only had one other occupant, a blond girl that was staring out the window.
"Hey Luna," Ginny greeted the girl as she guided Harry inside. "This is Harry. He's new and intends to be a Gryffindor by the time the day is done."
This girl had impossibly blue eyes and had immediately focused all of her attention on him. Her gaze was direct and he felt almost as though she was seeing through him and into his soul, looking for a flaw in his character; all while simultaneously looking daft.
"Are you brave?" Luna asked him.
Harry could do no more than blink at her in response for a moment. Was this some kind of test? He turned his gaze to Ginny for some guidance. That was no help though because Ginny was resting back against the door jam with her arms crossed and waiting for him to answer Luna's question.
"Brave enough, I suppose," he managed. "When I have to be."
"When you have to be is the only time it is important," Luna told him. "Will you be joining me?"
This girl certainly was capable of making one feel off kilter. He remembered the name Luna though. Ginny and Neville mentioned her, she must have been the girl that Neville had kissed. She was a bit odd but if Neville and Ginny liked her then he supposed that meant she was alright.
"If you'll have me," he told her. "Are you where Ginny here brings all the orphans?"
"Oh, are you an orphan?" Luna asked sadly. "Is it new? I lost my mum when I was nine."
He stumbled over his words trying to find a response to that. It wasn't at all what he meant, but it was the case. "I am," he said uncomfortably. "I have a Godfather though that… I suppose there are probably a few of us missing a parents now."
"Hopefully we'll all learn from this experience we've been through," Luna said.
"On that pleasant note," Ginny cut into the tension in the room. "I hate to leave, but I've got to go see a few people about this, that and the other thing. Talk to you later," she said specifically to Luna and went forward to give her a light embrace and a kiss on the cheek. Before she left, she turned to him. He was still standing up and in the doorway and they were quite close together. Her voice lowered to just above a whisper and her tone indicated he'd best listen and take her seriously, "I'm leaving you here with her in good faith. If I find out you've done anything to upset her, I will hurt you in a way that you will never forget."
Harry was frozen in shock for a moment at the threat. He'd been in a few situations over the years that were life threatening. There was one occasion where he was caught and tied up, the moment the perpetrator had left the room though they'd completely forgotten that Harry had been stuck in there and it was a full day before he was stumbled across and managed to talk his way free. That had been a scary situation.
Ginny's threatening voice just then reminded him of it sharply. She was staring at him as though waiting for acknowledgment that he heard her and understood.
Her proximity and the threat she'd just given him was doing something to him too. He felt and intense attraction to her just now.
He gave her a nod and she slipped out of the room, closing the compartment door behind her. He let out a breath and tried to mentally shake the attraction away.
"She can be quite scary when she feels it might be necessary," Luna told him calmly.
"I have no intention of hurting you or your feelings," he told her in a slight daze.
"Oh, I'm sure you wouldn't mean to be rude on purpose, most people do it on accident because I am quite strange to them. I can see from your coloring that you are a nice person, you've seen and done a few terrible things over the past few years though, haven't you?"
"I, a... are you a Seer?" Harry asked her.
"No." She offered no other explanation, she simply sat and continued staring at him.
"Is that why she brought me to you though? Because you can read... aura's, or whatever?"
"Probably."
He had to admit, that was a good way to deal with someone you didn't know, particularly right now.
"But if the color of my aura is telling you that I am a good person, how can it also tell you that I've seen and done terrible things?" He didn't understand, weren't auras supposed to be all one color?
"What you've done does not affect the way you shine. You have optimistic expectations for this coming year, don't you?"
"I, er, yeah, I do," he admitted and took a seat across from her. "I admit I'm not all that bothered about the school aspect. I'm just hoping for some kind of normalcy before having to go out and make any more, for the lack of better terms, adult decisions." He gave a light-hearted chuckle at his admission.
"I think we're all hoping for that this year. Even the students that were being horrid last year that are returning, I like to think that they are seeking to simply revert to their pre-war selves."
There were several questions he wanted to ask then but he didn't want to bombard her with them. She was very intuitive, obviously. And if there was a chance that he could offend her accidentally and that got back to Ginny, well, he cared too much about the Weasley's to be on the shit list with one of them. Affecting his relationship with Ginny from the start might mean that Ron and he would never get the chance to become best mates again.
Eventually he planned to tell Ron and Hermione everything, but not now, not right away. It would be too suspicious if they were suddenly all best friends again.
He was already picturing Hermione lashing out at him for not letting them know sooner. He was looking forward to it actually. She could be a real mother hen and he hadn't had any kind of mothering in a long time.
Luna turned to stare out the window and began humming to herself, completely unconcerned about his presence there with her.
It was probably a good thing that Ginny had stuck him with someone he didn't know. This way he didn't have to pretend to be so clueless.
"What house are you in?" he asked her.
"Ravenclaw," she replied and kept humming and looking out the window.
Okay then.
He reached into his pocket then and pulled out his Cornish Pasty and Hogwarts: A History. He figured this might be another way to get himself into Hermione's good graces if she saw him with it. It would also be how he could explain his knowledge about the castle. There was a rudimentary map in there after all.
An hour went by in companionable silence before they were interrupted by someone at the door.
"Hey, Harry," Joshua had found him. He was flanked by two other kids who looked to be starting into their first year as well. "Do you remember which compartment my trunk was in? I have my chess set in there and we were going to play a game of it," he indicated to his new friends.
"Sure, I think I remember," he told him happily, glad for the task. "Excuse me, Luna."
Luna gave him a vacant wave of farewell and pulled a magazine out of her bag.
"Who're your friends?" Harry asked Joshua.
"This is Junior and Lincoln," Joshua introduced. "They're first years too. Junior is a Muggleborn and Lincoln has a Muggle dad," he said loudly as they passed a compartment with an open door and Harry saw Dean Thomas was in there with a few other students.
Harry gave Dean a nod in greeting and carried on with the younger boys down the corridor. "Great, so you guys will be getting the best of both worlds," Harry told them as he tried to find the compartment his trunk was in and finally located it. There were a few people in there now so he knocked twice before opening the door.
Three wands were immediately turned on him by the occupants and he held up his hands, throwing up a shield charm right away. "Sorry!" he said taking a step back.
"What do you want?" the girl closest to him asked with her eyes narrowed.
He pointed up to the luggage rack. "Those are our trunks. Joshua here was looking to get his chess set from it."
"Oh." They all lowered their wands but didn't look the slightest bit remorseful about their reactions.
"What was that about?" Joshua whispered to him.
Harry feigned ignorance and didn't answer. "Thanks," he said to the three occupying the cabin in a forced happy expression as he passed Joshua's trunk to he and his friends and then took his own for himself. "Sorry to have bothered you."
"Harry," came a voice calling out from down the corridor. It was Hermione and Ron coming towards him. "Have you been settling in alright?"
"Oh, yeah," he assured her. "Just helping him get his trunk," he indicated with his thumb to the first years that were now headed back towards the front of the train.
"Where abouts did my sister go?" Ron asked him.
"Oh, I, uh. Dunno," he shrugged. Then he remembered that he hadn't been told that Ginny was Ron's sister. "I'm assuming you mean Ginny?"
"I thought you were sitting with her?" Hermione frowned.
"No, I was sitting with a girl named Luna."
"Luna Lovegood?" Ron snorted. "Girl is mental."
"Ron," Hermione scolded.
"She's been perfectly nice to me," Harry shrugged. He wasn't going to say anything bad about her even if he did understand where Ron was coming from.
"Well anyway, it's good you have your trunk now. You should think about changing into your uniform shortly," Hermione told him.
"Yeah, I will," he assured her.
The two of them continued on their way down the corridor without him and he continued back to the compartment Luna was in, seeing no other option.
The rest of the train ride was passed in amicable silence with just he and Luna in the compartment. Not exactly what he had been hoping for, but when he disembarked the train there was a familiar sound that came to his ears and put a smile on his face.
"FIRST YEARS," the bellow of Hagrid carried across the platform. "FIRST YEARS THIS WAY. THA INCLUDES ANYONE THAT HASN'T BEEN SOR'ED YET."
Harry followed along in the sea of other students towards the half-giant, lumping himself in with the First Years, because, to everyone else there, that's what he was, a new student.
It had been good weather for a ride across the lake and it was Professor McGonagall that gave the introduction to the students about the different houses, her Scottish cadence carrying through the hall for the exponential number of new students to hear. The number of people to be sorted this year was easily double the usual number and they were not all going into their first-year studies. Harry spotted at least three other students that were fourteen or older.
He felt at home already just walking into the school, but going into the Great Hall he had a morose feeling come to his chest.
Dumbledore wasn't the Headmaster anymore, it was Professor Flitwick that had taken up that post, and there were a few teachers that were missing and had been replaced, but it still looked like the same place he remembered from his previous school days. Considering the last time he had been in this room he had killed three people, that bit of his personal history with the room wasn't affecting him so much, it was just the staff change from every other start of the year feast that was leaving an impression with him.
Standing through the sorting had not been the same nerve-wracking experience it had been the first time. When Professor McGonagall called his name, he went up and sat on the stool like all the other's before him,]. There was no gasping at the sound of 'Potter, Harry' echoing through the room, no one was standing up to get a better look at him this time either, and he liked it that way. Professor McGonagall though had given him a curious look as she put the hat on his head.
"Interesting," the hat's voice echoed in his mind. "I've sorted you already?"
"Yes," Harry thought. "Do you mind just calling out Gryffindor?"
"But I've never sorted the same person twice," the hat pondered.
"Right, well, first time for everything. Mind just calling out Gryffindor then?" he asked again.
"What has been done to you, boy?" the hat asked, ignoring his request yet again.
"GRYFFINDOR," Harry thought as loudly as he possibly could.
"Alright, alright. GRYFFINDOR!" the hat yelled out at last.
Harry let out a sigh of relief and headed towards the Gryffindor table that was all clapping politely. He didn't sit with the group of eleven-year-olds at the end of the table where everyone else had gone, he moved down to sit with the older students.
"Can I?" he asked to Dean..
"Yeah, of course," Dean invited him.
From there he was close enough to Ron and Hermione without it looking like he was trying too hard to be their friend. Dean had been alright, they just hadn't formed a strong friendship before. It was a good enough starting point.
After the last student was sorted McGonagall moved the stool and hat to the side of the room and Headmaster Flitwick stood up on his chair.
"Welcome, and welcome back students. I am very pleased to be able to stand here before you for this start of a new school year. This will be a new beginning as well, as your professors and I have worked very hard to bring about the changes we had wished so very hard for in the previous years, particularly last year.
"We have quite a lot of new students, I will ask that our returning students do what you can to make them feel welcome." He really emphasized the last word. "The Forbidden Forrest is aptly named; you will all please stay out of it. Our new caretaker has a list of banned items posted on the bulletins in the Common Rooms, and for any of you needing guidance or assistance this year we have a Mind Healer that has been brought in to assist us in recovering from the terrible times that had been brought on us all."
New caretaker? Harry did another look along the staff table to see who that might have been. He hadn't heard of anything happening to Filch, but the man was nowhere to be seen.
"With that," Flitwick continued, "We hope you all have a great start to your new year, and this new era of light and comradery your professors and Heads of House expect."
With a clap of his hands the feast appeared before them and conversation broke out among the students.
Beside him, Dean shared his tale of living in hiding, working in the Muggle world and finding other Muggleborns, and Hermione told of some of the efforts she and Ron had been involved in, not getting into too much detail. And Harry sat back and simply listened, pretending that he'd known nothing of their adventures and just enjoying listening to them all talk freely around him.
()()()
Finally, finally; he was back inside the tower he had missed so much for three years, Hermione had been the Prefect that rounded up all of the Gryffindor 'first years' and showed them the path to the tower, which was the longest way to get to the tower. All the portraits were exactly where he remembered them, and all of the Gryffindor students were milling about in the common room.
Actually, that last part was odd. He recalled all the students after the welcome back feast generally went straight to their rooms and got reacquainted with their living quarters and dorm mates, they didn't all stick around the common room occupying every seat until it was standing room only. The last time he'd seen that was when Sirius had been caught in the tower and they'd all been on high alert.
He looked over to Hermione and Ron, who had traveled up to the Gryffindor common room beside his girlfriend, to see if they knew what was going on, but from their expressions they found this situation before them odd as well.
"There are a few girls blocking the stairs," he heard Hermione saying to Ron. "I'll go see what's going on. Ginny is with them."
Harry watched as Hermione wound her way through the room and spoke to Ginny. Through the many bodies between them he could make out Ginny shaking her head and frowning at Hermione.
"It's not usually like this," Ron said beside Harry. "Generally, we all just head right upstairs and start setting up our rooms, you know, snagging the bed we want and the like."
"Doesn't look like your girlfriend is having any luck getting through the brigade of students over there," Harry told him with a nod of his head in their direction. When he looked back over though Hermione was on her way back to them.
"What's going on?" Ron asked her.
"Ginny wouldn't tell me. She said I'd just have to stay down here and listen for myself. Said they were waiting for the rest of the Gryffindors. I told her though that as a Prefect I should know what's going on." A dark look came over Hermione's face then, "but she told me that I could stick to my House points deductions and rounds organizing. She said that I wouldn't understand this, and she didn't have the time to explain it to me, that I'd just have to listen like everybody else."
Harry had to school his features quickly before he dropped his jaw. Sweet little Ginny Weasley spoke back to Hermione like that? He had to wonder if his leaving had caused the two of them not to be as close as they had been for some reason. He remembered them spending some time together before he left. They'd shared a tent at the World Cup at least.
There were a few more people that filed in through the portrait hole and forced him to shuffle a little closer to the people standing in front of him.
"That is all," the Fat Lady announced before swinging shut.
"If we could have everyone's attention over here please," a brunette girl standing beside Ginny called out across the room. "You'll be allowed up to your dorm rooms in just a moment but we will need everyone's undivided attention." She paused for a moment until the room was quiet. "Great, I will turn you over to Ginny Weasley, your Quidditch Captain."
There were some cheers and clapping going around the room, the loudest of which being from Ron who was apparently quite proud of his sister earning that title.
Ginny stepped up a step so she was higher than the brunette that had announced her.
"Heyya, thank you all for that applause, unfortunately I am not about to talk to you about Quidditch," she prefaced. "Although-" before she could say something that clearly was going to be about Quidditch she got an elbow in her side from a sandy haired boy that had joined them on her other side. "Right, right. Okay look; For those of you that were here last year you know that we have certain protocols in line to insure everyone's safety. These have been rather ingrained in everyone's routine and we will be continuing them this year in order to keep peace of mind.
"To everyone that is new," she gave a kind smile to those closest to her, must have been the first years that had made it to the front. "And to everyone that may have missed the last year or two, we wanted to give you fair warning." Ginny gestured towards the clock on the wall. "At ten o'clock every night we expect everyone to be back in the tower."
"Curfew is nine," Hermione called out.
A few of the older students around them snickered and cast Hermione an incredulous smile and shake of their head.
Ginny braced herself a moment and then continued. "At ten o'clock every night we expect everyone to be back in the tower," she said again, looking directly at Hermione. "If you are not back by this time the Fat Lady will tell one of us. Once you are found out, as a group we will lock you in a classroom the following night and you will sleep there instead of your bed. You will also have the lovely opportunity to have your name put up on the wall of shame." She indicated to the board at the side of the room. "The only exceptions to this rule are for Astronomy classes."
Everyone turned their heads towards the notice board and sure enough there was a section called 'The Wall of Shame'.
"You won't lose any house points, you won't be subjected to a detention, you will simply be the Gryffindor disappointment of the moment and be treated as such." Ginny took a breath. "Now, the reason I am telling you this is because I drew the short straw; I am not the Head Girl, I am not a Prefect, my title as Quidditch Captain has nothing to do with me being up here and telling you this. And while there shouldn't be any reason for your safety to be in question, there are a few of us that take turns each night to make sure everyone is safe. Once the last person comes in at night there is an alarm set on the Fat Lady's portrait, should it open. That alarm is there until 6:30 in the morning."
"What if it's a teacher?" someone asked that was out of Harry's eyeline.
"Then they should know better," snarled the brunette that was in front of Ginny.
"What the bloody hell happened here last year?" Ron whispered to Hermione just loud enough for Harry to catch it.
He wondered the same thing himself.
"Second years and above have a male and a female in each year that have been appointed to be your… representative. If any one of you feels unsafe, or just needs a shoulder to cry on, anything like that, please consult the other list on the notice board and you can talk to whomever on that list you are comfortable with. Each of them has promised to make themselves available and has sworn to keep your private issues private."
"There's the Mind Healer and Prefects as well," Hermione called out.
Ginny held up her hand before more people could say anything and addressed Hermione herself. "Those were chosen by the faculty. These representatives were chosen and approved by the student body. We know we can trust them."
A few other people around Harry started talking to the people beside them at that and the volume in the room was going up.
"That is all we had to tell you," Ginny called out over them. "I don't care how many other rules you break while you're here, but our Gryffindor specific curfew and that you aren't an arsehole are the only ones we really care about. You can head up to your dorms now." With that, she, the brunette and the sandy blond-haired boy got out of everyone's way.
Harry's first instinct was to turn and ask Ron if Ginny had told him anything about what had gone on at Hogwarts the last few years, what she had been referring to, but Ron was already on his way to Ginny, his and Hermione's hands clutched hard together as they wove through the other students.
It hit him hard again to see the two of them so together and himself on the outs.
()()()