Harry Potter and the Year After

Chapter Thirty-one: Another Year at Hogwarts

Chapter 31: Another Year at Hogwarts

"Come on! It's time we be off!" Hermione called up the steps. She was standing by the door of Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place.

"Hold on, hold on," Ron called as he hurried down the steps, levitating his trunk in front of him. Hermione ducked as the trunk nearly hit her in the head. "Sorry--" he said, lowering his trunk to the floor. "I thought Harry was down here with you?"

"No, I thought he was upstairs with you?" Hermione said, glancing around as though maybe Harry would suddenly appear in the hallway with them.

"It's not a rush. We can just Apparate you know," Harry said, walking down the stairs, his trunk floating after him. In one hand he held his wand, and in his other he held Bilius's empty cage--Bilius had flown on ahead of them.

"No," Hermione said, hiking a hand to her hip. "Ron is Head Boy and I'm Head Girl, and we really must--"

"Oh, are you?" Harry asked as he reached the bottom of the steps. "Congrats."

"Did you really not know?" Hermione asked. She lifted a cat carrier by the handle, which contained Crookshanks (freshly back from living with Hermione's parents).

"You only got back from Australia last night. How would I have known? I don't read your mail."

"Well," Hermione began.

"Right, let's be off," Ron said, cutting her off and grabbing the handle of his trunk. He Disapparated.

"Ugh, let's go," Hermione said, grabbing her trunk. She and Harry both Disapparated as well.

When Harry materialized on Platform 9 ¾, he immediately ran into someone.

"Sorry," he said automatically before he saw who it was.

"Quite--" the man responded. And then their eyes met. It was Draco Malfoy. "Quite alright, Potter," he finished. He didn't sneer or grimace. It was odd to Harry to see Draco's face in a relaxed state.

"Mm," Harry said, nodding awkwardly. Then, dragging his trunk, he walked away further down the platform through the gathering crowd. It wasn't long until he caught a glimpse of bright red hair.

"Ginny, over here!" Harry called as he came near her, gently pushing his way through the crowd toward her. "Have you seen Hermione and Ron?"

"Hi," she said, leaning up and pecking Harry on the cheek. "I thought they came with you?"

"They did, but by Apparation--"

"Um...," Ginny was scanning the crowd. "Oh, Hermione's on the train already." She pointed to a window. Surely enough, Hermione brown bushy hair could be seen through it.

"They're Head Boy and Head Girl," Harry explained.

"Yeah," Ginny said, nodding. "Well, want to sit with me? Maybe we can find Luna."

"Yeah, of course."

They pushed their way onto the train and after not finding Luna, they found an empty compartment.

"Neville is already there, you know, since he's a professor now," Ginny said as she sat down across from Harry after they were done stowing their trunks.

Harry had a panicked moment where he wondered if he was supposed to come ahead as well since he was a professor now too. Surely he would have been instructed to do so? Instead, his letter, which he'd gotten only a week ago after having visited McGonagall in the headmaster's office, had only said the normal things--which books to buy, that classes started September first, and details about pets and robes and things.