Oh God Not Again!

Chapter Twenty Eight

"Can we PLEASE sit down now, Harry?" Hermione asked after Harry had dragged her, Ron, and Neville after him while he systematically searched the entire train twice. "If you haven't found whoever you're looking for by now; you're not going to find them. And look! Ginny and Luna are in the next compartment; let's go in there."

"But…but I haven't found Professor Lupin yet!" Harry protested.

Hermione's eye twitched. "You mean to say we've spent the last twenty minutes traipsing around with all our luggage because you're looking for a teacher?"

"Uh…yes?" Harry scratched the back of his head nervously and wondered why Hermione looked like she was two seconds away from beaning him with her trunk.

"Professors don't ride the train with the students, Harry," Ron added, giving him a look that implied that he was convinced Harry had recently – or not so recently, depending on how you looked at it – suffered a severe head injury. "This is our third year; surely by now you've grasped that fact?"

"I know!" Harry did not appreciate Ron's lack of faith. "But I just thought that Professor Lupin might."

"Why?" Neville asked.

"…because he's weird like that?" Harry suggested.

Hermione sighed noisily. "At least you're not bringing your scar into it this time. Now come on, let's sit down before Harry thinks of somewhere else we can look."

"You know, you didn't have to come with me," Harry said defensively as they headed off to join Ginny and Luna.

His friends exchanged looks. "Yes we did," they chorused.

"After all, who knows what you'd get up to when left to your own devices?" Neville asked rhetorically.

"Good point," Harry deadpanned. "After all, the last time that happened, Sirius and I defiled someone's grave, burned down a house, vandalized a family heirloom, and…expediated… Binn's journey to the afterlife."

It was a measure of how often Harry said things like this that they all completely failed to react.

"I'm sure you had a good reason," Luna said cheerfully. "Except for that last one. I suspect for that you just wanted to spend some quality time with your new guardian."

"There's nothing wrong with wanting to connect to new family members, right Ginny?" Harry turned to the redhead.

She studiously ignored him, as she had been doing all summer. No matter though, they had a long train ride ahead of them and sooner or later, she'd have to talk to him – if only to hex him.

Sure enough the next few hours passed very quickly with Harry annoying everyone by ending everything he said with a 'right Ginny?', 'what do you think, Ginny?', or something else to that effect.

Then – just as the conductor made the announcement that they were nearing Hogwarts and might want to start changing – Ginny snapped, "Alright already, I'll talk to you if you just shut up!"

Harry beamed. "Of course, I-" He broke off as Ginny glared pointedly at him and he mimed zipping his lips.

"Good," Ginny said, satisfied. "Now you boys get out of here; we need to change."

Obediently, the boys trudged out.

"Wow, you broke through the silent treatment through sheer annoyance," Ron said, sounding slightly awed.

"And it only took three months," Harry smiled self- deprecatingly.

"Don't feel bad, Harry," Neville said, patting him on the back. "It's not like you even saw her at all during most of June and all of July."