Remus was allowed to come home after two days in the hospital. He was moving rather gingerly but was happy to be able to leave the confines of the ward. The last two weeks of the holiday passed very peacefully with nothing of any particular note happening. In this time, Remus had healed fully and was back to his old self. The near death experience had wrought a dramatic change in Tonks; she hardly wanted to leave the house in case something happened while she was gone. Mrs. Weasley gave her a firm talking to and told her that the best thing for her to do was to go to work, but this didn’t stop the young woman from being late to the Ministry almost everyday for a week because she was ‘seeing to Remus’. At one point Kingsley had to actually come and get her, he was forced to physically remove her from the house.
When the morning of August 31st came, Harry was to be found packing his stuff in a very orderly manner. His weathered brown trunk lay open at the foot of his bed and he was collecting his belongings into neat little piles on top of the soft covers. He now had half a dozen stacks on his bed; robes, underwear, pyjamas, books, Muggle clothes, and cloaks. He had already stowed his parchment, quills and Potion’s equipment, safely in the bottom of his trunk and was just beginning to match up his socks when there was a gentle knock at his bedroom door.
“Come in,” he answered cheerfully.
“We were wondering where you were,” Ellie said as she came in to the room. “Look at you. Very organised indeed.”
“I thought I should, what with it being the last time I’ll pack it for school.”
“Aww! You’re not getting a case of the last year blues are you, Harry?” she mocked.
“I think I am,” he sighed dramatically as he put another pair of matched socks in to his trunk.
“I remember the feeling well,” she nodded.
“I’m going to miss Hogwarts, the castle is the only place that’s ever felt like home,” he said thoughtfully.
“Just think, once this year is over you’ll be free! No more classes, no more wearing those silly hats and boring black robes, no more Potions, and more importantly no more Professor Snape!”
“Thank Godric! I’m not sure that I can put up with much more of him.”
“All you need to do is remember to smile and let it go because that will annoy him more than anything else,” she smiled jovially.
“I’ll try and remember that. The thing is, it also means no Hagrid, no Quidditch, and above all else, no Ginny. I’ll have to leave her behind.” Ever since Ginny had pointed out that his Hogwarts letter was the last he would receive he had been thinking about things. Leaving at the end of the year would mean that he would only have a little while before she would have to go back to school and he wouldn’t see her for months on end. It was a thought that depressed him thoroughly. He had visions of all these boys trying to get her to go out with them and Ginny feeling horribly lonely. He wouldn’t have blamed her for wanting to get a new boyfriend; nobody wants to feel alone.
“Stop right there, Potter! Do you deliberately set out to discourage yourself?” she asked him with concern.
“Of course I don’t!” he cried indignantly.
“Then you really need to start working on your way of thinking. Okay, Ginny will still be in school, BUT there are Christmas and Easter holidays and on top of that there are Hogsmeade weekends. I’m sure you’ll be able to drag yourself away from whatever job you get to spend a few hours with her on random Saturdays. Then there’s the fact that you own an owl. All you’ll have to do is write to her and it’ll keep her mind off anyone else. Trust me; I know what I’m talking about on this one.”
“I forgot about that.” It was official; he was overreacting.
“I guessed as much. At least you’ll only have to do it for one year; I had to do it for seven. You and Ginny will be fine, I have feeling,” she grinned madly at him.
“Have you been having many of those?”
“A few. Good things are afoot; I know it. But back on to the subject of your new freedom, you’ll be able to do what you want, when you want. No more following orders for you. I think you’ll like it; I certainly did. You can get a job and maybe move into Potter Hall and do normal things. You won’t have hundreds of people milling about you all day, staring at your scar and wondering what fiasco you’re going to get yourself into next.”
“You do realise I want to be an Auror, don’t you?”
“I do, yes, but in the Auror business your fiascos will be considered triumphs and they’ll earn you respect instead of a reputation as an attention seeker. You’ll bring yet more glory on the family name and I’ll be very proud.” Ellie held her head a little higher and puffed her chest out a little more.
“This all depends on whether I live long enough to make it as an Auror. Who knows I might die before then.” He shrugged his shoulders in what he hoped was an offhand kind of way. “I haven’t learned anything that’s going to help me defeat Voldemort.” He emphasized the point by waving his latest Defence Against the Dark Arts textbook under her nose before he dropped it into the bottom of his trunk.
“Well, that’s where you’re going wrong then,” she said reaching over the side of the brown leather box to straighten the book in to a corner properly. “You’re not going to find the answer to this riddle “ if you’ll excuse the terrible irony “ in a book.” She reached out and took the next book from him, placing it neatly on top of the other.
“Where will I find the answer?” It was more of a rhetorical question and he was surprised when she gave him a serious answer.
“The best place to look is inside yourself, Harry. The answer’s already there, you just have to find it and work it out. I know you’ll probably say that it sounds a lot easier than it actually is, but when you find it you’ll wonder why you didn’t think of it sooner.”
“And how long do you think that it’s going to take?”
“I haven’t got the foggiest. It could be tomorrow, next month or even next year but you’ll get there, I know you will.”
“You couldn’t just tell me what it is?” He knew that this wasn’t likely but it had to be worth a try. She’d given him more straight answers in the pass two minutes than her grandfather had given him in the last two years.
“I wish I could but you have to find it; this one falls entirely on to your shoulders. What I can tell you is that it’s something that you can’t just point your finger at go ‘Oh there it is! That’s what’s going to help me to defeat Voldemort!’ You probably won’t even realise when you’ve found it. It won’t be until you need it that you’ll finally know that it’s there.”
“That’s confusing,” he said honestly.
“That’s life. Thankfully once you’re out of school it gets much easier,” she smiled at him once again.
“I hope you’re right.”
“I’m always right,” she replied.
“We’ll see about that.” He watched her leave the room with a little bit of a spring in her step and smiled. At least Ellie had faith in him.
The next morning tradition was up held. Chaos reigned down upon number 12. Ron had not partaken in Harry’s organised approach to packing his things away. For this reason he was to be found rummaging through a cupboard on the third floor landing for his Quidditch uniform at twenty-five minutes past ten. His mother was raging a diatribe of chastisements and criticisms at him from the front door. They had all been ready to shuffle out on to the warm autumnal street when Ron had realised that he didn’t have the essential piece of his kit. Harry and Ginny had been talking excitedly about the upcoming season, who would be on the teams this year and who would win, when Ron’s strangled voice was heard over the other conversations that were taking place. “My Quidditch uniform! I don’t know where it is!”
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON’T KNOW WHERE IT IS?” Mrs.Weasley exploded.
“I didn’t pack it!” Ron said in a panic.
“YOU’VE GOT FIVE MINUTES TO FIND IT, RONALD WEASLEY, AND IF YOU DON’T THEN YOU’RE GOING WITHOUT IT!” she screamed at the top of her lungs. As Ron’s lanky legs disappeared up the staircase talk turned to how he could have forgotten something so important to him.
“It’s not like Ron to forget anything Quidditch related,” Harry said to Ginny as the others muttered with annoyance around them.
“Just between you and me, I think he got a bit distracted while he was packing,” she whispered back to him with a cheeky grin.
“What d’you mean?”
“I’ll give you a clue. She’s five foot five, curly brown hair and likes to campaign for House-elf rights,” his girlfriend whispered conspiratorially in his ear.
“Hermione? What’s she got do with Ron forgetting his kit?”
“Let’s just say that his distraction involved her engaging him in other activities that probably took his attention, and certainly his hands, away from the task in front of him.” Ginny gave him a very amorous wink.
“Tut-tut, I would have thought that the talk with your dad would have put him off that kind of stuff for a while, it certainly did for me!”
“Are you trying to say that you don’t fancy me any more?” she asked him so loudly that Bill turned round and gave Harry an iffy look.
“No, that’s not what I’m saying,” he pulled her in closer so he could whisper and also so she obscured his view of Bill, or rather Bill’s view of him. “It’s just that we were…advised to cool it off a little. For once in my life I was a good boy and did what I was told.” He realised he was going to have to elaborate on what he’d said because Ginny’s face fell. “But the only reason I did it was because I was terrified of what your mum would do to me if I didn’t, but your mum won’t be at school,” he said in what he hoped was a romantic voice.
“She certainly won’t,” Ginny said to him in such a seductive way that Harry did a brilliant impression of Ron as his eyebrows disappeared up in to his hair. “And on my rounds as a prefect last year I found some very nice broom cupboards,” she added leaning in extremely close to him. This movement allowed him to catch sight of Bill who was still watching the pair carefully. Harry could feel the heat radiating from his face and urged her away from him gently; afraid of what might happen if she got any closer. Ron stomping his way back down the stairs interrupted the highly charged air between them. The youngest Weasley son only narrowly missed getting clipped round the ear by his mother.
“I’ve got it! Who’s got the trunks?” he asked hurriedly.
“That would be me,” Ellie chirped from the back of the queue. She reached in to the cerise bag she had slung across her shoulder and began to rifle through the contents every now and then she plucked out a leathery brown Hogwarts trunk that was now the size of a lipstick. “Nope that one’s GW…. HP…. RW… there you are, Ron.” She sat the tiny box on the hall floor while Charlie waved his wand and the trunk immediately sprang back to full size. As soon as Ron had shoved his kit into it in a dishevelled heap the trunk was shrunk back down to lipstick size and put back in Ellie’s handbag. It was only then that they actually made it out of the house. They marched through the streets of London in their Muggle clothing and no one paid them any attention. Just twenty minutes later they were rushing in to the station with ten minutes to spare. They carefully made sure that none of the surrounding Muggles noticed their large group disappearing through the wall that formed the barrier between their world and the magical one that lay beyond it.
Harry’s heart leapt a little to see the steaming scarlet train that was the Hogwarts Express. For the last six years this train had been his symbol of hope, it had provided him with an escape from the Dursleys but this year was a little different. This year, instead of taking him home it was taking him away from it and, for the first time ever, Harry felt like he was being pulled away from where he wanted to be.
“Now, I want you all to remember to be careful. Don’t do anything dangerous…” Mrs. Weasley said, trying to flatten Harry’s hair down. “…Behave yourselves and don’t go causing any trouble.”
“They’ll be fine, Molly,” Arthur assured her as he reached around her to give Ginny a hug. Remus, Tonks and Charlie helped them pile their entire collection of luggage and pets into the carriage and then jumped on to the train behind the students. Charlie quickly reached his arm back out to pull Ellie onto the train as well.
“All of you take care and don’t forget to write!” Molly called as the train began to chug its way out of King’s Cross.
“We will,” Ron yelled back.
“Bye!” The others waved to the anxious woman.
“We’ve popped your stuff in that compartment,” Tonks pointed out helpfully as she and Ellie were tugged away by their other halves.
“I’m afraid that we have to head that way too, Harry,” Hermione told him sorrowfully as she, Ron, and Ginny looked down the bustling corridor.
“That’s okay, Neville will probably be a long in a minute,” Harry replied.
“Already here!” said a jolly voice from behind him. He turned around to find Neville looking very pink in the face and sounding slightly out of puff. The reason for this was quickly established, he was pulling Susan’s stuff as well as his own. Susan was already down in the front carriage with the other prefects. Seeing that Harry wouldn’t be left on his own, the other three quickly made their way to the front end of the train.
“All right there, Nev?” Harry asked as he leant forward to help the other boy with the extra trunk.
“Not bad, Harry, not bad. You?” he huffed as he and Harry pushed Susan’s trunk in to the luggage rack.
“I’m doing okay. I can’t believe that it’s our last year though?”
“Isn’t it strange. It feels like just yesterday I was sitting on here for the first time.” Neville patted the seat next to him with a smile.
“You couldn’t keep a hold of Trevor that day,” Harry laughed at the memory that felt like it had happened only hours ago.
“Still can’t. All up and down the train people were talking about the famous Harry Potter. You weren’t what I expected.” Neville said honestly.
“No? What did you expect?” Harry was genuinely intrigued.
“Someone tall and broad, someone kind of strong looking. But you weren’t, you were short, skinny and looked like you wouldn’t say boo to a Flobberworm.”
“Thanks, Neville. That’s just what I wanted to hear,” Harry assumed a hurt tone.
“I know different now. Is the DA still going this year?”
“I dunno, it’ll depend on how much homework we get. This is NEWT year after all and Hermione keeps giving us lectures on how much more difficult it’s going to be.
“I do no such thing,” announced the returning Head Girl.
“Congratulations, Hermione,” Neville said when he spotted the shiny badge that was attached to the robes she had changed into while she was gone.
“Did you need any help while you were getting changed?” Harry asked her.
“Why would I need help?” she asked him with a bemused expression.
“He just thought that Ron might have offered you a hand, considering everything you did for him when it came to packing his trunk,” Ginny answered on Harry’s behalf, she came sliding into the compartment and quickly climbed on to his lap. Hermione’s face burned almost as scarlet as the train she was travelling in. Ron was next through the door but he had missed the conversation.
“Is something wrong, Hermione?” he asked her with concern.
“No, no, everything’s fine,” she answered to her feet as she sat down on the same side as Neville.
“Where’s Susan?” a confused Neville asked. He hadn’t really understood the conversation he’d been privy to.
“I’m here,” the red haired girl replied. She had appeared along with Luna Lovegood and the two looked as though they had just been chatting enthusiastically. “Hi, everyone,” she smiled as she took a seat next to Neville.
“Hello, Harry,” Luna said dreamily.
“Erm… Hi, Luna.” It was quite rare for Luna actually to address him directly.
“How was your summer?”
“It was fine. How was yours?”
“Very good. My father and I went hiking in Switzerland to try and find the Schmoozel Klingmanger. It hides out in the caves of snow covered mountains,” she informed them reliably.
“Only if you’re a crackpot,” this was the voice of Draco Malfoy, who felt that now was the time to make his presence felt. Crabbe and Goyle were naturally shadowing him.
“Haven’t you learned your lesson yet?” Neville asked him bravely.
“Shut your mouth, Longbottom. I just came in here to give Potter a warning,” Draco sneered.
“What’s that then?” Harry managed to shift Ginny off his lap and stood eye to eye with the Slytherin prefect.
“He’s watching you,” Draco replied smugly. “You won’t have to wait long.” His two cronies nodded arrogantly.
“I fear you are very much mistaken, Mr. Malfoy. You are the one being watched.” Remus was standing in the compartment doorway looking thoroughly unimpressed with Malfoy’s display of loyalty to Voldemort.
“Don’t talk to me, werewolf,” he said disgustedly.
“I shall talk to whoever I please. I believe that you have already been warned about the consequences of your continued threats on this particular group of students. I may no longer be your teacher but I can pass a report of your behaviour on to someone with the power to take points from you. I should imagine that Professor Snape wouldn’t be particularly impressed if you had to explain to him how Slytherin managed to start the year off with minus points.”
“Do you honestly think that I care what that pathetic traitor thinks of me?” Draco snapped.
“Of course I don’t, but imagine what your father would have to say if you were to be expelled from school. Your expulsion would impress no one, especially not Lord Voldemort,” Remus continued. “Now, please leave.” The three seventh years made quite a show of trying to barge past Remus, but the former Professor reached a hand out to gently push them away from him. When his hand touched Draco’s shoulder the boy visibly recoiled in revulsion but he allowed himself to be steered clear of Remus nonetheless. “Everybody in one piece?”
“We’re all okay,” Hermione answered.
“I don’t suppose you’ll have any more trouble with him,” Remus said quickly and left them to their own devices once again.
The rest of their journey passed fairly quietly, they had very few visitors and those that they did have, only stayed for a few pleasantries before they moved on to find more people they knew. In an extraordinarily quick amount of time the sky had deepened and somebody had turned the great tap in the heavens on, so that the Hogwarts express was now rain lashed. When they eventually pulled into Hogsmeade station the rain was falling so hard that it was bouncing back up off the concrete. Hundreds of black cloaks swarmed around the platform as student pulled up their hoods against the downpour. It was a moment or two before Harry realised that there were teachers standing at regular intervals along the platform, they were ushering the students out of the station and into the carriages as quick as possible.
“Leave your luggage behind!” He heard Professor McGonagall shouting over the heads of the crowd. “Would all students please hurry to the carriages as quickly as possible? Prefects, please show the first years the way! All of you move as quickly as you can!”
“You there, leave that owl cage, someone else will get it!” Professor Flitwick shouted as loud as he could. The student in question immediately dropped the animal they were holding. There was a rush towards the carriages as the older students began to realise that something was going on.
“First years!” Hermione began to shout. Ron, Ginny, Luna and Susan followed suit and even though Neville and Harry weren’t prefects they joined in.
“First years over here!” Ron yelled, waving his arms towards a group of frightened looking children who were standing by the train.
“This way!” Hermione threw her lit wand into the air and forged a way through the crowd towards the station exit, where the carriages were lined up. “We should probably split up so that at there’s at least one person who can take care of the students in each carriage.”
“Five of you over here now!” Ron shouted at the terrified group. The five nearest to him rushed forward and climbed up into the relative safety of the coach, Ron jumped in after them and the Thestrals set off a good deal quicker than was normal.
“Next five,” Ginny called in a voice that was a significantly kinder. Her group rushed forward and departed.
“Another lot here please,” Luna asked politely, her voice no longer had her usual dreamy quality to it.
“And here,” Susan requested.
“Over here as well,” Neville added right after her.
“The rest of you can come in this one with me,” Harry said authoritatively to the six remaining students. Although there wasn’t actually a seat left for him, Harry climbed in behind them and stood lookout as the carriage rocked dangerously with the speed of their travel. He watched through the window as the last of the students filed out of the train station. Just as the last carriage was pulling away the several figures appeared on the recently vacated platform. There was a lot of confusion amongst them as they realised that they were too late. They shot a couple of angry flashes at the disappearing coaches before shooting the Dark Mark into the air in frustration.
“Are…are those…Death…Death Eaters?” one of Harry’s young charges asked him in a shaky voice that suggested he was close to fainting.
“Yes,” Harry answered shortly, as he did he caught sight of the stone boars that stood on pillars on either side of the school gates. The teachers that had been on the platform were now gathered in a small group at the front gates, watching the carriages arrive very carefully. “You don’t need to worry though, there’s no place safer than Hogwarts,” he said firmly.
“You’re Harry Potter, aren’t you?” a young girl with chestnut hair asked him quietly. Harry nodded in response; he wasn’t willing to come off his guard until they were safely inside the castle’s walls.
“Cool!” breathed several of the students he was travelling with.
“You’re a legend!” exclaimed the small blonde haired boy that had asked about the Death Eaters.
“Not really,” Harry said exasperatedly. He was glad to finally climb down from the cramped carriage. “This way.” He led them up the front steps and into the Entrance Hall where McGonagall was collecting the new students together. Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Susan, Luna and Neville had all ready released their students to her care.
“Thank you for your help, Mr. Potter, you have earned ten points for Gryffindor.” there was no smile on her face or in her voice, which surprised him. Although McGonagall wasn’t prone to smiling without very good cause, she usually couldn’t hide a hint of pride from her voice. Today she just looked worried. Harry nodded at her appreciatively and walked past her to join his friends.
“Gryffindor already has a hundred points and the year hasn’t even started yet!” Hermione said excitedly.
“The only people without any points are the Slytherins,” Ron added gleefully.
“Did anyone see what the problem was?” Neville asked as they deposited themselves in their usual seats at the Gryffindor table.
“Death Eaters arrived on the platform just as the last carriage got away,” Harry replied.
“No wonder the teachers were so worried,” Hermione fretted.
“They didn’t get anyone, they just shot the Dark Mark into the air,” he attempted to calm her a little.
“But still, Death Eaters on the platform, that’s not good…” She didn’t get the chance to finish her sentence because McGonagall marched past them with the sorting hat and stool, and the long procession of little students behind her.
A/N: Back Hogwarts, hooray!
The next chapter will be … The Broken Curse…hope it’s with you soon!