A Year at Hogwarts

chapter 1

 Harry Potter looked at the weird looking building he was being taken too and reflected on things that had brought him there, going back ten years. He was on holiday in Australia with his evil relatives – the Dursleys. From what he knew at the time, Petunia Dursley was his mother's sister, married to Vernon and his cousin was called Dudley. They had received an invitation to Petunia's younger sister's wedding (she was actually Lily Potter's twin sister) and the invitation specifically mentioned Harry and knew questions would be asked if he wasn't there, so they had to take him. It didn't stop them however from buying him the cheapest seat on the plane. They saw it as a chance to get rid of Harry once and for all and so had papers prepared to deal with it. In reality, it was the documents Petunia and Vernon received to transfer custody of Harry to them, but they were never signed. They were modified to take Sarah Evans into account. The moment they got there, Petunia ordered her sister to sign the papers to take custody of Harry otherwise she would not be responsible for what could and would happen if she didn't. She hinted that Harry would not live to return to England. Sarah and her husband Alex had a lot of work to do in order to undo what the Dursleys had done to him – physically and mentally. When he was six, they told him he was a wizard. Sarah was a witch herself. Petunia wasn't – she and Vernon hated the thought of it and drummed it into Harry that magic did not exist. At first, Harry didn't believe it but Sarah showed him magic. When he was 11, he was invited to attend both Hogwarts in England and the Sydney Academy in Australia. Harry choose to go to the Academy, not wanting to be too far from his family.

Earlier this year, his cousin Todd died after being knocked over by a car. He looked as if he was going to recover but he took a turn for the worse and sadly died. He left a girlfriend who was pregnant with his child. His death hit Harry very hard. During the summer holidays, in order to cheer him up, Harry was invited by his best friend to go to the Quidditch World Cup in England and with his aunt and uncle's consent, accepted. However, after the game, the grounds were attacked by strange men in weird masks. The group grabbed their belongings and made a break for it. However, the group got separated in the confusion. Harry was seen by some people who took him away following the appearance of a strange mark in the sky. He was taken to a hearing at was explained to him to be the Ministry of Magic, where it was made clear that he was reported missing eleven years ago by a Squib and was never found. It appeared that the Dursleys never informed the British Ministry about a change in guardianship, which by law they were supposed to. The Ministry refused to listen to Harry about his guardians in Australia and told him that until the issue of permanent guardianship was dealt with, he was to be placed in foster care and given a placement at Hogwarts. He heard them mention someone called Black and his claims over the boy. Both someone called Cornelius Fudge (who turned out to be the Minister of Magic) and Albus Dumbledore (who Harry knew by reputation was the Hogwarts headmaster) kept opposing motions by a Delores Umbridge to send him to Azkaban pending such a hearing and Dumbledore suggested the Weasley family. Fudge supported it as two members of the family were working for the Ministry – one of them was a Head of Department. Before Harry and an Auror left the room, Fudge also rejected a motion from Umbridge to confiscate Harry's wand until the latest term at Hogwarts began. She did tell him that owl post was forbidden, he was not to use the floo and he was not allowed to leave the house without someone to supervise him. His bag had been confiscated and Umbridge would not allow the return of it, citing it was 'evidence in a criminal investigation'. Harry began to protest but Fudge declared the hearing closed. Before leaving, the Auror who was escorting him gave him his bag. Her boss - the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement had authorised the return of it and it's contents. She explained that they were checked for Portkeys and nothing else. Oaths were given to that effect. Now, he was being escorted to this house which looked like it was being held up by magic (and Harry guessed it was – some of the upper levels looked so unstable, they might fall off at any moment) by the same Auror. The woman who was escorting him to the house (who happened to have bright pink hair) stopped and knocked the door. It opened and a middle-age woman answered it. "Morning Nymphadora." She said. The other woman scowled, apparently not liking the mention of her name. She turned to Harry, "Morning dear. My name is Molly Weasley." She showed Harry and the other girl in and led them to the kitchen. There was a group sitting around the table. "I saw you at the World Cup!" one of the five boys said. "This is Harry Potter," Molly Weasley said, "He'll be staying with us until Hogwarts begins. Harry dear, these are my sons Bill, Charlie, Fred, George, Ron and my daughter Ginny." They all said hello. Ginny went red. "You'll have to ignore her mate," the one indicated as Fred (or was it George) said, "She's had a crush on you for years." Molly told Harry to sit down while she sorted him out some breakfast. "Where have you been? People have been looking for you for over ten years!" Bill asked.