Hermione told us everything about her time in France, including boring us half to death with all the extra stuff she'd learnt for her History of Magic essay.

"Hermione" I interrupted her when she was halfway through this, "please go and tell Percy this stuff, we aren't the right people to ramble on about ancient French magic to"

"I honestly wonder why Binns still teaches" said Amy "his style has to be the worst of any Professor in history, even Snape, as bad of a person as he is, has a more interesting class"

"Probably because he's a ghost" added Demelza "so he doesn't need to be paid for one thing, and for another, he will be around for the rest of time, so there is no need to ever hire another person for that role"

"Well, if Hogwarts wants to continue having the world's highest fail rate for that class, then they can keep him. Hermione, you're probably the only person who ever pays attention to him, aren't you?" I said

"Yes, and he may be boring, but I still think it's really important to pay him attention! He is a Professor after all, he deserves the respect" responded Hermione.

"Mate, there's respect, but then there's too much respect, like you making your essay two rolls of parchment longer than he asked for. He doesn't deserve that amount of work done for him when he puts us to sleep in every lesson" said Amy

"On the other hand, we can say that at least it gives us an extra 3 hours of sleep a week. If you've had a bad night and you've got Binns that day it at least means you can catch up" I said

"Swings and Roundabouts eh?" came from Demelza

Hermione scowled, then said "Look, tell me about your summers then since you're clearly so uninterested in mine"

I told her all about winning the lottery and Egypt.

"No offence" said Hermione "but surely it would have been better to put all of that money towards your cost of living instead of an extravagant holiday?"

"None taken" I said "We just don't see our cost of living as a huge issue, yes it may be a struggle at times, but we always get through it"

Hermione bit her lip, but seemed to accept my explanation and nodded.

Demelza and Amy's summers were much less exciting than mine of course, but they'd still had good ones. The former had attended the Harpies first game of the season, against the Wigtown Wanderers, where we'd won 170-160, with our seeker's snitch catch being what did it for us. That was a bit of a worry, as it meant we had been completely outdone chasing and beating wise. We needed to sort that out ASAP! We were getting our Firebolts in soon though so that would surely help. We'd had a draw and a defeat from our other 2 games up to that point.

Amy had been to Germany during our final 2 weeks in Egypt, where, in addition to seeing a German Quidditch game, she'd also been on a tour of the German Ministry of Magic, which sounded a lot more interesting than ours. She'd also enjoyed Wimbourne's perfect start to the new season, where they'd won all 3 games thus far in dominant fashion, which justified her earlier claim that they'd be favourites to retain the title.

Dinner that night was a very enjoyable affair. Tom the innkeeper put three tables together in the parlour and my family, Demelza, Amy, Harry and Hermione ate through five delicious courses.

'How're we getting to King's Cross tomorrow, Dad?' asked Fred, as we tucked into a sumptuous chocolate pudding.

'The Ministry's providing a couple of cars,' said Dad. Everyone looked up at him.

'Why?' said Percy curiously.

'It's because of you, Perce,' said George seriously. 'And there'll be little flags on the bonnets, with HB on them –'

'– for Humungous Bighead,' said Fred.

Everyone except Percy and Mum snorted into their pudding.

'Why are the Ministry providing cars, Father?' Percy asked again, in a dignified voice.

'Well, as we haven't got one any more,' said Dad, 'and as I work there, they're doing me a favour …'

His voice was casual, but I couldn't help noticing that Dad's ears had gone red, just like Ron's did when he was under pressure.

'Good job too,' said Mum briskly. 'Do you realise how much luggage you've all got between you? A nice sight you'd be on the Muggle Underground … You are all packed, aren't you?'

'Ron hasn't put all his new things in his trunk yet,' said Percy, in a long-suffering voice. 'He's dumped them on my bed.'

'You'd better go and pack properly, Ron, because we won't have much time in the morning,' Mum called down the table.

Ron scowled at Percy. After dinner everyone felt very full and sleepy. Demelza and Amy went home, with me promising to save them spaces in our compartment on the train, and we made our way upstairs to their rooms to check our things for the next day.

Hermione came into my room just before we all went to bed.

"So, do you fancy your chances of getting onto the Gryffindor first team this year?" she asked

"Yes, I'm hoping Oliver gives me a shootout against Alicia, who didn't seem very confident about her spot when watching me last year"

"The one annoying thing about being Muggle born is that I couldn't practice Quidditch myself this summer, so I'm not totally confident I'll make the reserve team again"

"Mate, relax. You're Hermione Granger, put the work in like you normally do and you'll be fine. I'll do a few drills with you pre tryout if you really need it"

"Yes please. That would be great"

"You, Demelza and Alicia will make a great chaser partnership without me, should I join the first team. Amy would become your captain, and I have no doubt she'd be a good one. Don't worry about it"

The next morning at breakfast, Mum entertained Hermione and I with a story about a love potion she'd made as a child, which made all of us rather giggly. She'd been trying to seduce a boy who lived next door to her, but her attempt had failed miserably when the boy's father had noticed her trying to slip it in to his water.

We reached King's Cross with 20 minutes to spare. the Ministry drivers found us trolleys, unloaded our trunks, touched their hats to Dad and drove away, jumping to the head of an unmoving queue for the traffic lights. Dad kept close to Harry's elbow all the way into the station with Percy and I just behind them.

'Right then,' he said, glancing around them. 'Let's do this in pairs, as there are so many of us. I'll go through first with Harry.'

Dad strolled towards the barrier between platforms nine and ten, pushing Harry's trolley and apparently very interested in the Muggle train that had just arrived at platform nine.

Once we had gotten through the barrier, Percy called out "Ah, there's Penelope!', smoothing his hair and going pink again. I caught Harry's eye and we both turned away to hide our laughter as Percy strode over to a girl with long, curly hair, walking with his chest thrown out so that she couldn't miss his shiny badge.

We found an empty carriage and stored all our luggage inside, then went back on to the platform to say goodbye to Mum.

Mum kissed all of us. Harry was embarrassed, but really quite pleased, when she gave him an extra hug.

'Do take care, won't you, Harry?' she said as she straightened up, her eyes oddly bright. Then she opened her enormous handbag and said, 'I've made you all sandwiches. Here you are, Ron … no, they're not corned beef … Fred? Where's Fred? Here you are, dear …

Dad took Harry away for a private word as we all got on to the train, and took so long that Harry only got on at the very last minute when the train had already started moving.

Demelza and Amy found us at that moment, and we then entered a compartment that had one person inside, a sleeping man. This was unusual, as none of us had ever seen an adult on the train apart from the conductor and the trolley witch.

The stranger was wearing an extremely shabby set of wizard's robes which had been darned in several places. He looked ill and exhausted. Though quite young, his light-brown hair was flecked with grey.

'Who d'you reckon he is?' Ron hissed, as they sat down and slid the door shut, taking the seats furthest away from the window.

'Professor R. J. Lupin,' whispered Hermione at once.

'How d'you know that?'

'It's on his case,' replied Hermione, pointing at the luggage rack over the man's head, where there was a small, battered case held together with a large quantity of neatly knotted string. Demelza, Amy and I laughed silently at Ron's oblivious nature, and he scowled at us.

The name 'Professor R. J. Lupin' was stamped across one corner in peeling letters.

'Wonder what he teaches?' said Ron, frowning at Professor Lupin's pallid profile.

'That's obvious,' whispered Hermione. 'There's only one vacancy, isn't there? Defence Against the Dark Arts.'

'Well, I hope he's up to it,' said Ron doubtfully. 'He looks like one good hex would finish him off, doesn't he? Anyway …' he turned to Harry, 'what were you going to tell us?'

Harry explained all about Mum and Dad's argument and the warning Dad had just given him. When he'd finished, Ron looked thunderstruck, and Hermione had her hands over her mouth. Demelza and Amy looked shocked too.

She finally lowered them to say, 'Sirius Black escaped to come after you? Oh, Harry … you'll have to be really, really careful. Don't go looking for trouble, Harry …'

'I don't go looking for trouble,' said Harry, nettled. 'Trouble usually finds me.'

'How thick would Harry have to be, to go looking for a nutter who wants to kill him?' said Ron shakily

"Guys, I have to admit, I already knew all of this" I said

Harry and Ron looked angry.

"Why the fuck didn't you tell us sooner then!" exclaimed Ron

"I only found out because I eavesdropped on our parents, Bill and Charlie talking about it in Egypt and they made me promise not to tell anyone"

"Bloody good at eavesdropping aren't you?"

"Look, guys, stop arguing" said Demelza, "otherwise Lupin's gonna wake up!"