The Darkest Lord

The End of the Summer

Harry took one last look at the burrow as he hauled his suitcase down the path to Mr. Weasley's car. He dumped his suitcase into the magically expanded trunk of the car before hopping into the magically expanded back seat with the rest of the Weasleys.

"Alright everyone, to King's Cross we go!" Mr. Weasley said. He took  off down the street at almost 70 miles an hour.

Half an hour later, the car pulled up on the street next to King's cross station. The Weasleys, Harry, and Hermione piled out of the car and took their luggage out of the trunk. Then they packed their stuff into the trolleys and  made their way to the boundary between platform 9 3/4. 

"Alright Harry you go first" Mr. Weasley said. Harry took a deep breath before speed walking into the barrier between platform 9 and 10. On the other side of the platform was the hogwarts train and hundreds of students getting on it. 

After a few minutes, all of the Weasley kids and Hermione had followed Harry onto the platform. They said their goodbyes to Mr and Ms. Weasley, and then they got on the train. Fred and George went to find Lee Jordan, Ginny went off to find her friends, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione found a car and sat in it by themselves.

Harry sat on one side of the car by himself by the window while Hermione and Ron sat on the other side. Harry noticed that as they sat down, Ron scooted a little bit closer to Hermione. 

Harry shook his head and leaned back in his seat. The truth was, he had had a crush on Hermione since the first year but when he noticed that Ron liked her as well, he had kind of backed off because he didn't want to lose any friendship he had with Ron.

Harry reached into his bag and brought out the book "Advanced dueling spells for sixth year students." 

In truth, the real reason that Harry had lagged behind in his magical education was so that Ron wouldn't be the only one out of the "golden trio" that wasn't excelling at magic. Hermione was already considered one of the best witches in her year but Ron was behind, and if Harry joined Hermione at the top, that would no doubt make Ron feel some type of way. Ron had already been showing small signs of jealousy over the years, and Harry didn't want to give Ron another reason to be jealous of him.

Harry ,though, was tired of acting as if he was dumb and slow, and acting as if he didn't like school. In fact, he loved school. He loved reading, and learning magic in general. 

Now, as OWLs got closer and the threat of Voldemort got more and more real, Harry decided that he wasn't going to fake anymore. If Ron got mad then he could be mad. That's his problem. 

Percy opened up the book to where he last stopped reading and started reading again. Ron was already asleep but Hermione was reading as well. When she looked up and saw Harry reading her eyes widened.

"Harry?!" she said. Harry looked up.

"Yes?" he said. 

"You're reading a book... without me forcing you to" Hermione said. Harry shrugged.

"So?" he said. Hermione just shook her head with a small smile on her face. Harry went back to reading. 

When the sweets trolley came by, Ron woke up and Harry, as usual, bought almost all their candy out. The three talked and laughed for the next twenty minutes and everything was going great until the compartment door slid open and in stepped Draco Malfoy and his two goons, Crabbe and Goyle.

"Well if it isn't Potty, the mudblood, and the bum. All in the same compartment" Malfoy sneered. Ron stood up.

"Get out Malfoy" Ron said. Crabbe and Goyle cracked their knuckles and stared at Ron menacingly.