Their last day of freedom went very quickly and before Harry knew it they were on platform 9 and 3/4 meeting up with Hermione to climb aboard the Hogwarts express. In the excitement of seeing everyone again and going through the usual greetings, Harry almost forgot that the world had transformed.
Until the initial exuberance of going back to school was over he barely thought about the changes the summer had wrought. Only when Hermione and Ron settled into talking together did Harry find himself looking out another window. As the train trundled through the English countryside he was reminded of his thoughts.
Harry found himself pondering everything again, but nothing would sort itself out in his head. He was waiting for something, a clue or a sign that would show him the right way, and it was doing no good trying to rationalise it all. He had to wait he found out what the sign might be, it was that simple. When Ron stood up and excused himself to go to the loo Harry pulled his eyes away from the window and he caught Hermione looking at him. Their gazes locked, but only as Ron closed the door to the compartment did she speak.
"There's something different about you," she said only a tiny crinkle between her eyes giving away her consideration. She paused for a moment. "You look ... better."
Harry did not quite know how to reply, but after a while he smiled at her.
"I think I am," he told her, finding that the complete honesty was refreshing.
"I'm glad," Hermione said with a smile of her own.
Then she picked up the book she had had sitting on her lap since the beginning of the journey and finally began to read it. It was not the longest conversation in history, but Harry realised that they had said what they needed to say. He felt more comfortable with the whole situation and went back to looking out of the window. He hoped he would begin to understand what he was looking for soon.
It was when the train reached the platform at Hogsmeade that things took a turn for the even more strange. That was when Harry's eyes landed on Draco Malfoy for the first time that school year. As his gaze settled he felt every cell in his being sit up and take notice.
There was something very different about the Slytherin as Harry caught sight of him through the crowd of milling pupils, and it had nothing to do with the fact that he was wearing his hair slightly longer so it fell around his face, or that he had grown taller over the holidays. It was the way he didn't seem to be listening to his constant companions, Crabbe and Goyle, and that he looked as though he was deep in thought.
Even when he glanced up and caught Harry watching him the patented Malfoy sneer did not instantly appear. Only when Crabbe noticed that the two of them were looking at each other did that expression grace the arrogant Slytherin's face.
"What you looking at?" Ron asked as he bundled out of the train and onto the platform.
"Malfoy," Harry said without thinking about it.
"Maybe this year that snake will get what's coming to him," Ron said, tone positively acidic.
His best friend didn't seem to realise Harry was not in an adversarial mood.
"Maybe," Harry agreed.
The thing was, he now knew, without a doubt, that what he was looking for had something to do with the boy who had been his enemy from his first day at Hogwarts. It should have been a very unsettling feeling, but somehow Harry found it puzzling, but not uncomfortable.
"First years this way," Hagrid's familiar tones broke him out of his preoccupied thoughts and he looked up to see the half giant standing at the end of the platform.
YOU ARE READING
Gold Tinted Spectacles (Hecatemus Book #1)
Fanfiction(Drarry) Harry Potter is about to enter his seventh year, and things are not quite what he expected. He is no longer the angry boy who watched his world fall apart at the end of his fifth year, but neither has he completely found his place yet. He i...
