It was time to go back to Hogwarts. Harry had fully settled into the Longbottom household over the summer and it felt like he had always meant to be there from the beginning. Harry stepped onto the Hogwarts express with his friends as Alice and Frank waved goodbye from within the crowd. He had already said his goodbyes to them a minute ago and they had assured him that he could write them a letter if he wanted to ask anything at all.
Harry felt inside his robes to his wand as he was suddenly in a thick press of students running back and forth, luggage trailing behind them. The four wizards and witch that had trapped him at the Dursleys had been arrested and after some time Harry had his things returned to him by the Ministry.
He felt much better now that he had his wand again for self defense. Everyone in the train seemed to have arrived at the same time as them and the train corridors were absolutely packed. Ron and Hermione led the charge to push forward through the crowd while Harry and Neville followed behind in their wake.
All the compartments were filled until they reached near the back where they saw there was a man inside. He was wearing a ratty old cloak that he had thrown over his face. His clothing had patches all over it and he appeared to be asleep, huddled in the corner. Ron drew back and whispered something to Hermione before leaving his luggage to check the remaining compartments.
After a few minutes he came back and shook his head. All the rest were filled. After a few seconds of hesitation, Ron eventually shrugged and opened the door and went inside. The rest of them followed, eyeing the sleeping man as they loaded their luggage in the overhead storage.
The train started moving and Neville stumbled as he was putting his bag away. He fell backwards and his bag was about to fall on him. With a flick of her hand Hermione used her wandless magic to casually halt his momentum and stabilize Neville in mid-air.
Neville turned to look at her after standing back up, “Thanks, Hermione,” he said before putting his bag in securely this time. They all sat down and started talking about what they were going to do once they were all back in Hogwarts again. Harry stared at Hermione’s hands for a moment.
Her wandless magic really was useful, and since she didn’t have the trace she was able to practice her magic all the time over the summer. The only time she had to stop was when she had Ginny sleep over at her house, since Ginny’s trace would catch Hermione’s magic otherwise. According to Hermione, they had their sleepover so Hermione could show Ginny more of the muggle world since Ginny had lived at the Burrow for her whole life.
The food trolley came by and they ordered some snacks and candy to munch on while they were talking. Eventually the candy ran out and it started raining hard out the window as the landscape blurred by as the train traveled. The man curled up in the corner of their compartment hadn’t moved the whole time, seemingly asleep.
Suddenly, the window started fogging over and the room suddenly became cold. Everyone’s breath became visible and fog as they all started shivering. The train kept moving as everything went deadly quiet around them as the temperature dropped farther.
Harry straightened as it all clicked, was this…
A skeletal gray hand grabbed the door to their compartment revealing a cloaked figure, its featureless gray skinned head just peeking out from underneath the cloak.
‘Harry Potter! I knew I saw you and your big delicious soul! What are you doing here among the Hogwarts student humans?’
‘235?’ Harry asked in surprise, working his jaw silently. He glanced at his friends and saw them pale faced and shaking in fear.
‘Yep, that’s me! So, how about it? 104 and I are going to Hogwarts too! We’re guarding the weir- war- warders? Wizards that cast the big spells to help fix up the castle.’
‘I think you are scaring my friends with your Aura,’ Harry told 235, ‘Could you lower it, so you’re not hurting them?’
‘Hnnnnng. Only for you Harry Potter,’ 235 replied.
‘I did get lots of food by coming here on the train, I guess I shouldn’t be too greedy,’ 235 said as it retracted its aura slightly and Harry’s friends let out gasps of relief and suddenly looked much better, ‘You know how much the Ministry annoys us about how we should be constantly retracting our auras?’ 235 started to rant, ‘It’s always ‘retract your Aura near groups, never let it loose in crowded areas’. How are we supposed to feed without our Aura? Places with lots of humans are the best places to let your Aura free!’
‘Grrrrrr, 235. What are you doing here?’ another voice called out from the hallway, ‘We weren’t supposed to come onto the train. The human leaders will be very upset with you.’
‘But it is Harry Potter, 104! Come and see him! He’s here with all his little human friends too.’
‘The Harry Potter? Show me… oh. Yes, I would recognize that big soul anywhere.’
104 came into view and slowly approached until it was standing next to 235.
‘Hello again, the Harry Potter,’ 104 said, ‘Good choice for humans to hunt. Their souls look very tasty.’
‘Hey!’ Harry said, ‘They are friends, not food. I’m never going to eat them. And don’t you try it either!’
‘Sorry the Harry Potter,’ 104 said apologetically, ‘You are a very strange creature. I still do not understand you. We will not harm you ‘friends’ if you say so.’
235 drifted closer to the door as if to come inside and suddenly the man in the corner stood, throwing his ragged cloak back behind him in one motion.
“Expecto Patronum!” he shouted and a burst of bright light shot out of his wand, blasting right into 235 who was floating at the door.
‘Agh, gross!’ 235 shouted as it flinched back under the onslaught of light from the man’s wand, ‘Bye Harry Potter, got to go before more humans start attacking us!’ 235 said as it floated away down the train corridor.
104 raised its arm and gave a small wave to Harry. ‘Hr, hr, hr. I did the human motion,’ 104 chortled, ‘Goodbye the Harry Potter,’ it finished before floating off to follow after 235.
The ragged man who had cast the bright spell pulled something from his cloak. He placed it at the table in the center of the compartment.
“The chocolate helps with the Dementors,” he said, “Just take a bite and you’ll feel much better. I’ll be going to the conductor to figure out why exactly the ministry sent Dementors onto a train full of students.”
He left and closed the door behind him.
Everyone opened the package and took a small bite of chocolate. Harry did feel much better after eating the chocolate. Not that he was very affected by the Dementor's Aura, but the chocolate was just that good. How had the man afforded something this tasty and still wore ragged old clothing like that?
“That was bloody horrible,” Ron whispered after they had all nibbled on the chocolate for a while, “Like all the joy had been sucked out of the world.”
“I know,” Neville said and shivered, “It felt like I would never be happy again.”
“It was rather horrible,” Hermione said, “My magic did something when that creature showed up. I felt like I was sick, but I don’t think it was as bad for me as it sounds like it was for you two. It was like pressure on my head and as if I was in a bad mood maybe? Maybe it is because, you know, my special magic…”
“That’s something at least,” Ron said, “At least not all of us had to deal with it.”
Neville turned to Harry, “How did you feel Harry? It looked like you were trying to say something, but you couldn’t get the words out.”
Harry thought about it. He still didn’t want to tell anyone about his transformation, even his friends, and telling them about his relationship to the Dementors probably would be part of that. No matter what he didn’t want to have to lie to them even if he was leaving some information out.
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“I didn’t feel that bad at all,” Harry eventually said, “I just felt a little cold. But this is really great chocolate. I wonder how that man managed to get something this good considering the state of his clothes?”
Everyone blinked and stared at the little brown squares in their hands. “Wait, it's not because of what just happened?” Ron said, “You really think they are just that good?”
“I don’t know,” Harry said as he took another bite, “I was mostly unaffected and I think I can still say this is the best chocolate I’ve ever had.”
Everyone stared down at the candy. “We have to ask him about where he got them when he gets back,” Hermione stated resolutely and the rest of them nodded in agreement.
The mood was a little down from before, but their conversation started up again in starts and stops. When the ragged man came back, he laughed lightly at them questioning his chocolate supplier. Luckily it was from some place in Knockturn alley, so they could actually go and buy some if they wanted more.
To their surprise the rather ragged man was their new Professor of the Dark Arts, Remus Lupin! Hermione was very excited and started asking him all sorts of questions about the upcoming class that the man happily answered. He seemed rather impressed with her enthusiasm for learning as he spoke with her for a little while with the rest of them occasionally interjecting for a comment or two.
From how he told it, they would mostly be covering magical creatures of what he planned. He was shocked as Hermione described the teachers and lessons from the last two years of classes. She looked rather sad when she described Lockhart and his self centered curriculum.
Apparently she had been enamored with his books before the events of last year exposed Lockhart as a fraud. There had been an article in the paper over the summer as it was found that the man had obliviated and taken credit for the heroic acts of other wizards and witches throughout his whole career after people started looking deeper into his background. He was now a well known villain despite him still being treated at St. Mungo’s from his backfired attempt to use the obliviation charm on Neville.
Harry noticed that although the professor was polite, his eyes often darted to Harry unconsciously for a moment before he looked away again almost guiltily. How strange.
Eventually they reached Hogwarts and the train came to a stop. Professor Lupin stood and spoke, “Well, it's been nice getting a student's perspective on your last two years of… scattered learning in my future class. I think I will have to adjust some of my lesson plans,” the man’s eyes slid to Harry before he glanced away again, “I look forward to having you all in my class this year. Goodbye for now.”
He walked out the door into the milling crowd and quickly made his way through as people avoided him due to his ragged appearance.
— — —
At the Sorting Ceremony, Harry noticed Snape shooting Lupin hateful looks. Harry frowned slightly, did they know each other? Snape’s glare was far too heated to be pointed at a random stranger.
Harry thought it would be strange being in Snape’s potions class this year. All benefit of the doubt the man might have had before was long gone. He had helped Dumbledore somehow, and that meant that Harry would have to be careful around him.
The new Headmistress stood and started giving her opening speech. Headmistress McGonagall was taking over now that Dumbledore was gone. Harry was glad, he liked her and he thought that she really was innocent in working with Dumbledore. It remained to be seen if the new transfigurations teacher they had hired would be any good. Harry had heard much grumbling from others about how their favorite teacher was being replaced by someone less competent.
Harry watched as the sorting hat called out the houses of the lines of nervous first year students. Ron had said that the hat had summoned that sword in his moment of need. What would have happened if Ron had been wearing it at the time? Would the sword have fallen and knocked out Ron? What if one of the new students became worthy of something with the hat inside of it? Would it just drop it out in front of everyone or was it only activated in specific situations.
“Hey, Harry!” Fred sat down next to him, shoving aside Ron who squawked indignantly. George muscled in on Harry’s other side, although he was far nicer in asking Hermione to shift over to make room.
“Hello, Fred,” Harry replied to the Weasley twin on his right side.
Fred shook his head, “Nah, sorry mate, I’m actually George. You can’t tell the two of us apart? Shame, for shame…”
“No, you are Fred, I’m sure. You have a different freckle pattern on your face than George.”
Fred froze and his eyes widened as he put his hand to his face to his cheek.
“That’s not even bloody fair!” Fred protested, “How in the world can we even counter that?”
“You don’t,” Ron said smugly from the other side of Fred, “You’ve finally met someone unbeatable to your tricks. He’ll always be able to tell who’s who. Not so identical now, are you?”
“I’ll show you!” Fred said, “I’m sure there’s a way, we just have to up our game…” he finished thoughtfully.
“Anyway, Harry,” George said from Harry’s left. “We’ve got a bet of sorts going on from some of the upper years. Some of them don’t believe in your mighty eating prowess. It seems the weaklings need to be put in their place. We’ve managed to get them to wager quite the number of galleons on it. So, what do you say…”
“Okay,” Harry said, “It is good I haven’t started eating yet. You just want me to eat as much as I can while they watch, right?”
“That would be perfect, mate! Now just come with us…”
Hermione reached out and forced George to sit back down.
“Now, Fred and George,” she said sweetly, “How much are you paying Harry for his help?”
“Oh!” George said, “We’re paying him ten…” Hermione tightened her grip and narrowed her eyes, “-twenty five percent of our earnings! It is good money!”
“You don’t have to do that, guys,” Harry said, “I don’t really care about the money.”
“Don’t let them exploit you, Harry!” Ron said, “Take them for all their worth! You are the one doing all of the work for them.”
Everyone looked at Hermione, “It’s not about the money Harry, if you don't care about that,” she said, “But don’t you want a prize when you win? Otherwise you would have a big contest and it would end with only Fred and George getting something.”
George rubbed his chin, “You know, I didn’t think about it that way, Hermione,” he said, “That would be an anti-climactic ending. I knew you were a natural talent for the dramatics. I hope you have practiced your dramatic entrances since last summer.”
Hermione blushed, “It wasn’t like I was going to do that again.”
“Hmmm, so just natural born talent,” George shook his head mock sincerely, “Without hard work all that potential will be wasted. Be the drama queen we all know you were born to be!”
“I am not a drama queen, you dolt!” Hermione said with heat.
George shook his head, “So you still deny your true nature. Sad. C’mon Harry, you have an eating contest to win.”
Harry stood and went to leave. He slowed his walk and hesitated slightly as he looked at the slightly embarrassed Hermione who was looking at him since he was lingering there in front of her.
“Thanks for looking out for me, Hermione,” Harry told her abruptly before turning and quickly catching up to Fred and George.
— — —
“No, Harry! No way!”
The crowd was cheering as Harry started digging into another plate. The expressions of the older years were crumbling as he started digging in, not even slowing down on the next plate.
“Feeling nervous?” Fred taunted them, “Get ready to pay up, Harry can eat at least twice this much.”
Harry finished the last plate and tried to look bloated and full as George had instructed him to do on the way over. He held a hand over his stomach and curled in slightly. He was not the best actor, but Fred and George had told him he didn't need to be.
The assembled upper years glanced between each other and the apparently stuffed Harry,
“Prove it, double or nothing!” One of the seventh year Hufflepuffs shouted. Harry waited for a bit and Fred and George made sure everyone agreed before theatrically taking another full plate of food and placing it in front of Harry.
Fred and George grinned wickedly as one as they stared into the crowd, “Let it rip, Harry!” they said in unison. Harry dropped his poor acting and reached forward and started eating just as fast as he had started. The eyes of the crowd widened and several laughed, “By Merlin, he was faking it! That cheeky bastard…” one of them said.
Harry finished all the food and stood up, actually full this time.
“Pay up!" Fred said, "Deliver your winnings to us and the rightful champion of Gryffindor, Harry Potter!”
There was much grumbling, but eventually almost everyone handed over their money. Harry noticed a few near the back sneaking away to avoid having to pay. Harry looked up and saw that the professors table and McGonagall had observed the spectacle at the Gryffindors table with apparent amusement. Besides Snape who just wore his usual sneer. The crowd of students around them began to disperse now that the action was over.
“And here is your cut, Harry,” George said, handing Harry a bag with a few galleons inside, “Good thing we planned ahead and brought some bags just for this occasion, eh? Thanks for the help, mate.”
“No problem,” Harry said, slipping the money into his robes before making it back to where his friends were sitting farther down the Gryffindor table.
“How much did you make?” Ron asked curiously when Harry had sat back down with them.
“About five galleons,” Harry answered, causing Ron to choke on his food.
After a few seconds he recovered and cleared his throat, “Blimey, Harry. That’s way more than I thought it would be. I can’t believe Fred and George even got people to bet that much on it.”
Harry reached inside and took out a single gold galleon and held it out to Hermione. She looked down at it and blinked.
“What are you doing, Harry?” She asked in confusion.
“I want to give you this,” he said, “Without you helping me I wouldn’t have made any money. You deserve to have some of it.”
“No, Harry, I really…” she said.
“C’mon, take it Hermione,” Ron interjected, “He’s right you know, he only got any money at all because you bullied Fred and George into it.”
“Oh, well. Alright,” she said as she took the coin from him and slipped it into her robes. “Thank you Harry,” she said, “I’ll make sure to share if I order a good book with it.”
“It still feels so strange that the curse is gone now,” Harry said, “I’ve had it my whole life and now I can just… read books without it being so painful.”
"I've been a book worm my whole life," Hermione said, "Without that curse holding you back you'll get to learn so much more."
"Yeah," Ron said, "All that nonsense in the last two years are behind us. It's time to relax and enjoy ourselves."
Enjoy ourselves, huh... Harry liked the sound of that. He could do with a little less excitement in his life.