AN: I appolagise for the wait between chapters. I had no motivation to write and realised it stemmed from having to drag myself through writing the quidditch world cup sequence. Assume everything exactly the same as it went in cannon following on from the last chapter. I'll be writing more now that I have taken the liberty to skip past the bit that I'd been struggling on for a whilst.

Harry awoke the morning of September 1st as if it was any other day. He got out of bed early, Ron still sound alseep in his bed, and got dressed into athletic-style muggle clothes. He grabbed his Firebolt out of his trunk, before clambering quitely out of the window to fly into the sunrise. Harry assumed that the Weasleys had no idea about his morning escapades, the whole family being very anti-morning; Ron was probably the worst for getting up, and without the help of Harry, would sleep in at almost every important event. This meant that when it came to going back to school, Ron would be particularly difficult in waking, and would probably need to be awoken earlier to have any hopes of making it to King's Cross for 11. Harry flew a few for a few more minutes, accelerating around the forrest line, before pulling up to vertical, leveling out just below the tree level, before going into a steep descent, weeving in and out of trees. Having underwent a long 30 practice session, Harry decided to call it quits, flying his way back slowly towards and through Ron's bedroom window.

Harry quickly dismounted his broom and returned it back into his trunk. He found out his best muggle clothes he had, that despite being owned by Dudley over 2 years ago, still looked massive on him, and made his way into the shower opposite of the bedroom.
Harry showered quickly and got dressed, returning to Ron's room to finish the last bits of packing he had to do before the return to Hogwarts. He found his toothbrush and night-wear, placing them at the top of his trunk, before slowly closing it and applying a featherweight charm onto it. He had yet to tell Ron of being allowed to perform magic over the holiday, realising that his friend would only use it to take advantage and allow him to sit down for almost the entire day. Harry's last task before breakfast was feeding Hedwig. Whilst usually she would eat little and go out and hunt, she knew she had the day of flying ahead, and decided on a larger breakfast and a sizeable drink of water, before flying out of the window that Harry had flown in only 15 minutes earlier.

Hearing the familiar sound of a Weasley wake up downstairs, Harry began his own descent towards the lowest floor of the Burrow. Whilst the house definately felt homely, and Harry felt welcomed and accepted, it still felt a bit like he was intruding into the families life. He was however, forever greateful of the service that Mrs Weasley provided him. She fed him and gave him a loving home to spend some of the summer in, and against Harry's own wishes, she definately favoured Harry when it came to food servings, noting him to always be thin compared to what someone his age should be. Breakfast this morning was most likely to be porridge, as the Weasley clan was most likely unprepaired and unpacked, meaning they would need to have as much time as they possibly could in order to get their belongings packed into a trunk and ready to be shipped off to Scotland for the next year.

As anticipated, Harry was given a bowl of porridge almost before he had even reached his seat. Harry chose not to talk much over breakfast, partially because he didn't want to disturb the conversation that Mr and Mrs Weasley were having, but mostly because he had very little idea of who "Mad Eye" was, or why his bins would be going wild. Either way, Mr Weasley eventually concluded it to be muggles messing with the man, and how the bins were mostly likely sent out by "Mad Eye" to scare them away. Harry finished his porridge quickly, having mentally prepaired himself to wake Ron up, he knew any waiting around would only make him less likely to do so. Harry put his bowl in the sink and turned to walk up the stairs when he saw Mr Weasley put his head directly into the fireplace. Whilst this would have shocked him, his knowledge of the insane methods of the wizarding world, combined with Mrs Weasley's lack of reaction, made him realise this was probably something normal to wizards and witches, and guessing based off his previous fireplace interactions, was something similair to that of floo powder, perhaps the way that wizards had developed to call each other, opting out of the muggle invention of the telephone.

Harry reached the door outside of Ron's room fairly quickly after. He pressed a door to the ear to listen out for the sound of Ron's signiture snores, then quitely made his way to his bed, opting to shake him as his method of waking him up. Predictably, he was met with alot of shouting and flailing of Ron's various lanky limbs, only able to avoid a particularly nastly looking swing of the leg due to the flying practice he had been doing over the summer. Coming down from the sudden rampage, Ron quickly realised the situation he was in, and slowly gathered why he had been woken up early. Ron left the room to shower quickly after he woke up, leaving Harry alone in the room. Taking the oportunity to get his friend ready early, Harry began to pack everything back into Ron's trunk that, except for clothes, looked remarkably the same as it did when they packed at the end of last year. Having packed all of Ron's belongings into the trunk for him, Harry got out his transfiguration textbook. Whilst initionally intending to get slightly ahead in all of his lessons, Harry found himself finished or nearly finished in most of his classes except potions, in which the most he had read was enough to produce a pacable essay on wolfsbane potion, a final stab into the dying corpse that was Lupin's reputation following the end of the year.

Before he knew it, Harry was placed into the back of a muggle car provided by the ministry, and being driven off towards London ready to embark onto the Hogwarts Express for a new year. Before he knew it, Harry was whisked out of the car and into the heart of London, and then suddenly found himself having to mentally prepare himself to run head on at a wall. Thankfully, he made it through, making it only 1 in 4 times that the wall actually forfilled its purpose of stopping objects from going through it. Saying their last goodbyes to Mrs Weasley, the group of children made their way onto the scarlet train and made their way to their carriages to meet their own friends. Making their way into their own empty compartment, the trio of Ron, Hermione and Harry sat down and closed the door, when they heard Malfoys voice from down the hallway.
"Father actually considered sending me to Durmstrang rather than Hogwarts, you know. He knows the Headmaster, you see. Well you know his opinion of Dumbledore - the man's such a Mudblood lover - and Durmstrang doesn't admit that sort of riff-raff. But Mother didn't like the idea of me going to school so far away. Father says Durmstrang takes a far more sensible line than Hogwarts about the Dark Arts. Durmstrang students actually learn them, nit just the defence rubbish we do."
"Maybe he should have gone to Durmstrang, if he really wants to go to a school were they teach the type of spells his father used at the world cup then he should. At the very least he would have learn't not only the spells, but what impacts they have on a whiney little feret who runs his mouth around with everyone, doubt it would go down the same way it does in Britain up in Scandinavia.
"Durmstrangs in Scandinavia?" Ron questioned, "I assumed it was somewhere outside of Europe. How do you know about it anyway Harry? The only place it would be mentioned would be in Hogwarts A History, and I very much doubt you've read that."
"I have read it actually, It has alot of useful information in it. Had you bothered reading it when we asked you in first year we would have known he Nicholas Flamel was alot earlier, He's mentioned alongside Dumbledore in a section of the text." Harry said, pulling out a chocolate frog card from a section of his case, "We had heard about him alot earlier, he was on the chocolate frog card of Dumbledore, the same one that I got on the first train ride here 3 years ago.

The train ride continued for the next 15 minutes in silence. Ron in silence, brooding as to being exposed for having let his friends down in their first year and lying about it, and Hermione in shock that Harry had actually bothered to read Hogwarts a History, let alone reatain any information from it. Harry pulled out his wand out of his pocket, aiming at the card, muttering a spell under his breath to make the card to orbit around Ron's head and avoid his frantic grabs. Simultaneously, Harry took his leave from the room in order to get changes into his uniform, leaving Ron and Hermione alone to deal with the spell. When he returned, the card still circled around Ron's head. Hermione sat laughing at the frantic swipes and jabs made by her friend to stop the spell, and was enjoying the scene to much to save him from the situation he was in. Harry quickly pulled out his wand, and deciding against the logical approach of ending the charm, decided to set the card on fire, muttering "incendio" under his breath, letting the card ignite, falling to the floor and shrivelling up. Ron found himself unable to speak at Harry's actions, whilst Hermione's laughter stopped, replaced by her asking Harry about when he had learned how to do that.
"We weren't taught that last year Harry, when did you learn how to do that, getting a perfect result for two spells on the first attempt is unheard of when your our age, let alone it being nearly a year ahead of where we are!"
"I read about the spells in our textbooks and decided to give them a go, the spells weren't meant to be that advanced, just required a grasp on the concepts, thats why they are taught in fourth year. Besides, the trace isn't all that effective, it only detects magic being cast near underage witches or wizads, at the Burrow there was no way to prove who cast the magic, and therefor couldn't prove it was me, as it was just as likely to be Mr or Mrs Weasley. Anyway, it's not the only spell I've been practicing over the summer." Harry said, aiming his wand at Ron "Cantis".
Ron burst out into an uncontrollable rendition of "What is Love" in which despite his best attempts to shut his own mouth, he found it only caused himself to sing louder. Allowing this to continue for another couple of seconds, Harry quickly ended the charm, saving Ron from too much embarrasment if anyone were to walk into the carriage and find him singing. Ron took it upon himself to leave to go change into his robes, Hermione following to go do the same, else risk turning up to the castle without the right clothes on.

Keeping up with traditions, Malfoy found himself entering into Harry's carriage again. Ron stood up, ready to start an argument with Malfoy, but before either party was able to exchange any words, Harry muttered "Depulso", sending Malfoy backwards out of the carriage. Harry then promptly walked over to the doors, shutting and locking them, creating a physical barrier between them. Shortly after their altercation, the train reached Hogsmede station. The trio grabbed their bellongings and made their way out into the downpoor that greated their return to Scotland. Hagrid towered over the crowd, a gathering of small eager children huddled around him under his umbrella as a last ditch attempt to not be drenched for their first day at Hogwarts. Harry greeted Hagrid, then moved over to the horsless carriages, thankful for the roof, before it set off autonomously towards the castle.