"Buried, almost tangible secrets filled the space between them, and so, without a second to think, she closed it."
The scars of war opened more wounds than Harry Potter thought possible. As he returns to Hogwarts for his eighth and final year, he le...
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IN AN UNPRECEDENTED TURN OF EVENTS, the Weasleys' (with Harry and Hermione) arrived at Kings Cross early. Ron and Hermione walked together, both laughing a little louder than normal while Harry and Ginny, who seemed to have gotten over her anger with Harry, chatted about which people were returning.
Harry quickly learned that barely any Slytherins had decided to come back: the Ministry roundup of any remaining Death Eaters had effectively imprisoned them and run off many students' parents.
When Harry expressed cheerfulness at this news, Ginny kept walking with a straight face, and turned to him sharply to say, "It's a horrible thing."
Harry, who felt it was very out of character for Ginny to be chastising him for laughing, stared at her. "How? They all deserve to get thrown in Azkaban, I reckon."
"Well don't you feel a little bad for them? I mean, if it had been my parents who got locked up...."
"Why would either of your parents get locked up?"
"They wouldn't, but it's still a terrible thing to have your parents out there somewhere... knowing what the Dementors do to them. They're alive and want to connect to you, but you can't reach out or anything."
"I wouldn't know," said Harry with a wry laugh.
Ginny became suddenly interested in watching the trains pull into the station, her brown eyes away from Harry. With far too much fixation, she watched a girl running past them on the platform.
A huge cat was perched on the girl's shoulders, its claws digging into her back as she powered ahead, almost tripping over her feet and then again over the trolley she had, topped with large school trunks and what was very obviously the book assigned to Care of Magical Creatures students by Hagrid. Fighting against an excessive amount of hair ties to restrain it, the Monster Book of Monsters brought the attention of almost all surrounding Muggles as the girl tried her hardest to shove it back into her things.
"So," Harry cleared his throat, "do you know if any Gryffindors are coming back?"
"Loads," said Ginny. "Everyone's been talking about it. The only people that I know aren't returning are a boy in the year below me named Dennis and some girl in Hermione's dormitory. Not for any particular reason, she just moved on to become an Auror."
"Dennis..." said Harry, thinking hard, "as in Dennis Creevey?"
She fell quiet for a heavy moment. "Yeah, that's him. Shame about his brother."
Harry stared off at the train, fighting against the large lump rising to his throat. Dennis Creevey's older brother, Colin Creevey had been one of Harry's biggest fanatics. Colin followed him around with a camera, pestered him with questions, and fought on his behalf at the Battle of Hogwarts even when his year was instructed to evacuate the astle. Colin, a Muggleborn fascinated with all things magic, snuck into the castle to defend Harry. He managed to come back even when Muggleborns were exiled from Hogwarts, a sanctuary that Colin could not get enough of. Colin died in the chaos that ensued.
