Chapter 6: Back to School

Platform 9 3/4 was a beehive of activity. Witches and wizards made their way along the platform as children dashed madly around, excitedly striking up conversations with their friends and classmates from the previous year. A pair of red-headed twins roared with laughter, surrounded on all sides by a throng of students vying for access to the pair. The heads of important Wizarding families met with curt nods and handshakes and began the banter that hid the maneuvering for political and social power such meetings almost always attended.

A tall man with thick, dark hair, an aristocratically trimmed beard and mustache stepped through the portal onto the platform, accompanied by a smiling brown haired boy with green eyes and a noticeable scar on his forehead. The entire station suddenly went still and quiet, only the whispers of "Sirius Black!" breaking the silence. And then there was a roar of fevered excitement.

"It's Him!"

"Harry Potter!"

"The-Boy-Who-Lived!"

"The genius who mastered Gilderoy Lockhart's homorphia charm and invented the charm that destroys dementors!"

"The next Albus Dumbledore!"

The awed whispers and half whispers that met the pair as they stepped onto the platform subsided as Sirius put his hand on Harry's shoulder comfortingly and strode forward into the crowd with the young wizard at his side. Harry glanced at his godfather, catching the warmth in the man's reassuring smile before the man slipped on the persona of Lord Sirius Black and a mask of self-importance and mild arrogance slid over his expression. Sirius strode forward as if he owned the platform, and Harry matched his guardian's pace and set his gaze straight ahead.

Several people who Harry couldn't remember ever having seen before in his life tried to approach Sirius and Harry as they walked forward along the train platform, but Sirius didn't even pause, and Harry stuck with Sirius, leaving them standing gawking as the pair moved unimpeded forward. When they reached Molly and Arthur Weasley, Sirius stopped, gave them a smile and shook hands with the both of them. The message was sent. Harry Potter would speak to who he wanted to, not to everyone who came rushing up to him.

"I must thank you, Arthur, for all of your support over the summer," Sirius said warmly.

"Oh, it was nothing," the red headed man humbly deflected. "You should thank Molly. She was the one always cooking up extras. All I did was drop them off on my way off to the Ministry."

"As if I could ignore the woman who kept me and Harry here from starving to death! I don't know what we would have done without your cooking, Molly"

Mrs. Weasley gave a self-conscious laugh as Sirius gave her a chaste hug.

"Mrs. Weasley," Harry broke in, "where's Ron? I haven't seen him on the platform. I see Fred and George. And there's Ginny. But I can't see Ron at all."

"Oh, I'm sure he's hiding himself up here somewhere, probably already on the train in one of the compartments trying to avoid the crowd. Had all sorts of visitors and attention over the summer holidays, our Ron," Molly changed mid-sentence from addressing Harry to Sirius, a hint of pride in her voice. "To think that we had a seer in the family the whole time…"

Harry took his leave of his godfather, giving the man a brief, but fierce hug before taking off for the train. A number of fourth year classmates called out to Harry, and he gave them a friendly wave and a smile, but he quickly made his way onto the train. Finding Ron wasn't hard. He was in one of only a few compartments with all the blinds on the doors closed. Harry stated to open the door, to hear a gruff voice call out, "All full in here, sorry."

Harry opened the door the rest of the way to see Ron sitting there alone in an otherwise completely empty train compartment. Harry gave him a grin. "Yeah, Ron, full of hot air!"

"Harry!" Ron shouted, much louder than he needed to, and bounded over to give his best friend a hug. "So glad to see you, mate! All the attention I was getting was about to drive me mental."

"And you think having Harry Potter around you again is going to bring you less attention?" a familiar voice called out from the doorway. "It seems you've gone mental already."

"Hermione!" Harry exclaimed with a grin, rushing over to hug the witch and help her with her luggage.

"Yeah, but now all the attention will be on him instead of me," Ron responded with a grin. "Who's gonna bother me about some lousy prophecy when we have the curer of werewolves and the bane of dementors with us?"

"Well, I for one, am looking forward to a year with absolutely no excitement, adventure, or life threatening situations at all," Harry said emphatically.

"Oh, come on, Harry, we're going to Hogwarts! There's no place safer!" Hermione chided.

"Oh, well, let's see. There was a three-headed dog first year, not to mention a unicorn killing ghost of the dark wizard who killed my parents. Second year there were only two of the deadliest creatures in the world at the school: a few thousand acromantulas and a basilisk. Oh, and another ghost of the dark wizard who killed my parents. And then last year we had hippogriffs, werewolves, and dementors. Oh, and the traitorous wizard who betrayed my parents to the dark wizard. Yep, sounds like the safest place in the world to me."

"Well, to be fair, Harry, the hippogriff was on our side. Even took a swipe at Malfoy for us," Ron chimed in with a grin on his face. "But after all that, what could possibly go wrong? What are they going to do? Make you fight dragons and then make you fight against seventh years?"

Ron had no idea how prophetic his words were going to be.

.

The start of year feast had scarcely finished when Harry found himself summoned to the Headmaster's office. He had been in contact with Professor Dumbledore frequently over the summer, but mostly in a social capacity to look in on him. And to apologize for every having stuck him with the Dursleys. When asked why he hadn't done something about the situation beforehand, Dumbledore had been very contrite.

"I'm afraid, Harry, that is the worst of my failing in this, and I must apologize for not doing more than I did to prevent what happened to you at that house. In truth, I was not aware of how badly you were treated until after you came to Hogwarts. I had placed spells to alert me if your life was in danger, and I looked in on your situation from time to time as my schedule permitted, but I never witnessed any of the worst of your treatment."

Harry nodded, accepting that much, but Dumbledore forestalled him.

"But that negligence on my part does not excuse my sending you back to your relatives after I knew better about your situation. You see, Harry, I was taking a bit of a gamble. It is true that the nature of your mother's sacrifice placed a special protection on you, one that I am certain was responsible for the defeat of Voldemort when you were still an infant. But when it came to the power and effectiveness on the blood wards that protected you at the Dursley's home, the truth is that they were not innately as powerful as I led you to believe."

Harry furrowed his brow. "What do you mean professor?"

"Blood magic does have power, it is true. But that power is tied more directly to the belief of those whose blood powers it than most magic does. The stronger your belief in its protection, the stronger the protection truly is."

"Right, so, as long as I believed that my mom's magic really protected me, it would be strong. But if I didn't believe in it, then it would be weak."

"Just so. But when I discovered you were being…ill-treated at home I made a decision that I have long regretted, but didn't dare to undo. I only hope that you can have it in you to forgive me."

Harry listened expectantly.

"I left you in their care, if it can be called that. I thought that if you were treated poorly, and you knew that I knew how you were treated, then you would think the protection the blood wards afforded you must be exceptionally strong. In a way, I counted on their abuse of you to strengthen the protection you received."

Harry sucked in his breath, understanding. It was true. When he realized that Dumbledore would do nothing about the Dursleys, other than sending them a stern warning, Harry had come to the conclusion that Dumbledore must know that the protection was impenetrable. Harry had believed it. And that would have made it true.

"I understand, Professor. You did it for my protection," Harry said, but biting off the words in an accusing tone. "For the greater good, right?"

"No," Dumbledore admitted. "Not entirely. There was a part of me, a prideful part of me Harry, that wanted to see just how much stronger those wards would be come as your belief in them strengthened. It was not worth it. The protection. Finding out. It wasn't worth what you went through." Tears trailed down the Headmaster's cheeks. "But even after I knew it wasn't worth it...I couldn't admit my mistake. I couldn't take you from it then, because, then, all of your suffering would have been…"

"For nothing," Harry finished. "Like it is now."

Dumbledore looked at Harry speechless.

It was the sincerity of the man's remorse that decided him. Harry walked over to Albus Dumbledore and put his hand on the man's arm and looked into his eyes.

"I forgive you."

Harry breathed in deeply, then entered Professor Dumbledore's chamber. This was the first time he had seen the Professor alone since that painful admission.

"Hello, Harry," the Headmaster greeted him.

"Professor." Harry stated, looking around the room curiously at all the objects the Headmaster had collected. Then he asked a question that had been on his mind for some time. "Professor, what am I doing here? Not your office. Hogwarts. Why am I coming to this school? Or why is anyone studying here for that matter?"

Dumbledore smiled, the twinkle in his eye lightening his often grave expression. "An excellent question. And to answer that is exactly why I called you here today."