The Other Side of Midnight

Ch 2

Back to Hogwarts

Harry sat quietly as Uncle Vernon drove him to the station; there was a relieved expression on his face as he was driving, the reason for which Harry could probably guess at accurately enough.

It had surprised Harry greatly when Vernon Dursley had asked him whether he needed a lift to the station, it had come at a time when Harry was wondering how he would get to the station as he had no money left for a taxi. He had gratefully accepted and he wondered if this too was Sirius' doing or just the Dursleys' fear that they would be stuck with him for the rest of the year if he missed his train.

"So you aren't coming back for Christmas are you?" Uncle Vernon said in an uneasy voice.

"No, only next summer like always," Harry replied looking straight ahead.

Harry heard a sigh of relief and he mentally shook his head, they (the Dursleys) would never change. They had hated him ever since he was left at their doorstep as a one year old and would probably hate him till he left the house as a grown up, then they would promptly forget that a Harry Potter even existed.

They arrived at the station with fifteen minutes to spare and Harry climbed out slowly and opened the boot of the car to take his trunk out. He lifted his trunk and Hedwig's cage out without needing any help, which was good for none, was offered. He would have been unable to lift his heavy trunk three months ago and again thanked his Martial Arts courses for his newfound strength.

Vernon Dursley didn't wait around after that and before Harry had gone three steps towards the station he had already zoomed away without even saying goodbye.

Harry had worn a faded pair of blue jeans and a sleeveless black t-shirt for the trip and they hung comfortably on him, as old clothes tend to do. What he didn't realize was that they also clung tightly to his frame and emphasized all his hard muscles.

Harry looked for a trolley and loading everything on it started walking towards the ninth and tenth platforms. He saw a lot of his classmates on the way and waved to them, the girls in his year- Parvati and Padma Patil, Susan Bones, Lavender and a few others from Ravenclaw were acting rather 'girly' as he called it, staring at him and giggling and pointing and whispering. Harry waved and smiled at them and then ignored them as he looked around for Ron or Hermione or the other easily spotted red haired Weasleys. He didn't find them anywhere on the platform and so he decided to go wait by the train for them, as he was tired of being stared at by the girls and Muggles alike. At these times he really felt that if people had their way he would be locked in a cage and put on display for everybody to see and poke and prod.

He quickly looked around and making sure that no one was looking, or rather no Muggle was looking, rushed towards the barrier and in a moment was through it. He looked at the Hogwarts express warmly remembering the first time he had seen it as a nervous first year old and the emotions he had felt upon seeing it - happiness at being a wizard, nervousness at being all alone at the platform, freedom from finally being rid of the Dursleys, fear of not being able to fit in and curiosity about the wizarding world.

He tore his eyes from the train and lifting his heavy trunk from his trolley, started walking towards the train with the aim of finding an empty compartment.

"Oy Harry wait up," said the hearty voice of Ron from behind him.

Harry twirled around and grinned at his best friend. "Glad you showed up! I for a minute thought that you were skipping this year."

"And you were going off without me? Some friend you are," Ron replied grinning broadly.

Ron suddenly stopped and whistled as he looked at Harry from up close, "Look Harry I know that you have been working out and all that, but if you dress like that it is going to give the rest of us a complex."

Harry looked down at his attire with the eyes of someone who had noticed it till now and groaned at seeing what it must seem like to the others.

'Harry Potter showing off!'

"Hey! I didn't wear this to show off, it was just the most comfortable thing around."

"I'm just teasing" Ron grinned. "Besides if you have it why not flaunt it?"

They were joined a minute later by Hermione who was rolling a trolley with her large trunk on it, Crookshanks was sitting on top of the trunk in his large wicker basket. Harry glanced at her and before he realized it, the glance turned into a stare when he was unable to look away. She was wearing a light blue polo necked t-shirt which clung like a second skin to her body and an old and tight pair of white jeans that sat low on her shapely hips. She was looking smashing, and Harry could not take his eyes off her. She in turn was staring at Harry just as fascinatedly and Ron clearing his throat suddenly brought them out of their reverie.

"If you two have done ogling each other shall we go find an empty compartment?"

Harry jerked up guiltily startled by Ron's voice and looked up to find Ron looking at him curiously.

He wondered whether Ron was jealous or if Ron liked Hermione too? He didn't know the answer to this, as he hadn't met Ron for three months now. He resolved to get to the bottom of this and have a long chat with Ron as soon as possible.

He looked back at Hermione who was looking down at her sneakers and blushing a deep red.

As he looked at her he wondered at her reaction. Was she blushing because she had been staring at him too and had been caught by Ron or was it that he embarrassed her by staring at her? After all he was a friend of hers and friends did not stare at each other like he had been doing.

Harry racked his brains for something to break the tension. "Hey all three of us are prefects aren't we? So why don't we go sit in the prefect's compartment?"

"Nah, no good! Malfoy's sure to be there and there's no way I'm sitting with him in the same compartment," Ron said gloomily.

They walked ahead and soon found an empty compartment towards the end of the train, Harry jumped in with his trunk and then setting it down came down again to carry Hermione's trunk up for her, as she was unable to lift it.

"Thanks Harry" Hermione said shyly.

"Would you mind helping me too please?" said Ron his eyebrow raised at Harry's sudden chivalry.

Harry grinned and removing his wand from his pocket lazily pointed it at Ron's trunk.

Wingardium Leviosa.

Ron's trunk rose a foot into the air and Harry grinned at him

"That good enough for you?"

Ron mumbled something about 'him not doing the same for Hermione' and climbed in dragging his now weightless trunk easily behind him.

Harry, Ron and Hermione put their trunks in the racks and then came outside to say their good byes to Ron's parents and Bill and Charlie who had come to see them off as well.

Mrs. Weasley took Harry aside and said rather sternly, "Now Harry you be sure to keep out of trouble this year. Don't go near the forest, don't go out of Hogwarts and for heavens sake don't touch anything that might be a portkey, I don't want you in any kind of trouble if possible."

Harry was touched by the underlying caring beneath her words and promised her that he would, Mrs. Weasley then hugged him tightly and gave him a quick peck on the cheek, "Oh and Harry try to keep Ron out of trouble will you?"

Ron heard this and spluttered indignantly. "He keep me out of trouble? He is the one that gets into the most trouble every year."

Harry grinned. "True enough. Maybe you should tell that bit to Hermione," he said to Mrs. Weasley.

"Oh I have don't you have any doubt's about that," she replied matter of factly.

Harry climbed back into the train, and it seemed not a moment too soon, as a minute later it started moving out of the station. The three of them stood at the door and waved to the Weasleys till they were tiny dots and could not be seen any more.

"Ok so now tell us in detail what happened during your holidays" said Ron to Harry when they had sat down at their seats.

So Harry started telling them how Sirius had written and how he had been saddled with so much freedom and how he had gone about enrolling for the classes and what they actually consisted of.

Ron had to be explained in detail as to what Martial arts actually was, when he finally understood he made a face

"Tell me something Harry, why do you want to learn to beat up somebody when you have a wand with you?"

Harry groaned and punched Ron playfully on the arm.

Ron gave a yell of pain. "Hey take it easy, you don't have to demonstrate on me"

"Oh! I'm sorry Ron; I didn't know that I hit you that hard. What I'm trying to tell you, unsuccessfully, is that you are missing the point completely. Martial arts is not only about self defense, it consists of a lot of things and has a lot of other benefits"

"Like what?" asked Ron doubtfully

"Like fitness, learning to control your temper, learning discipline, learning balance and improving your concentration, but most of all, for me at least, it has helped me to be relaxed. I was having horrible nightmares before I started learning it but it helped me to calm down and after I started learning Aikido the nightmares stopped. Maybe it was because I was so exhausted by the workouts, but whatever it was, I was glad."

"Sounds as fun as one of Snape's classes," Ron said dryly. "Honestly...discipline, controlling your temper, concentration!"

But Hermione had butted in and cut him off "Were they really bad?" she asked softly.

"What was?" asked Harry

"The nightmares."

Harry grimaced remembering them. "Yeah I couldn't sleep at all because of them, I kept seeing Cedric's dead body and the Death Eaters surrounding me and my parents dying. Worst of all was the one about the Cruciatus curse; I could almost feel the pain...

Anyway forget it, tell me about your vacation in Australia."

Hermione and Ron exchanged looks, they knew that Harry was downplaying it and even though he had painted a gruesome picture it must have been far worse than he had let on.

Hermione forced herself to smile. "Australia was wonderful, it was so warm and the sights were so beautiful! I spent most of my time at the beach catching the sun and even went deep sea diving a couple of times."

Harry had a sudden vision of Hermione in a bikini, tanning, and he gulped trying unsuccessfully to clear his head of the image.

"That's wonderful," he said hoarsely. "What else?"

"Well we went to see some of the farms or rather homesteads, they're huge I tell you, and so beautiful!" She sighed and continued, " The whole area is crisscrossed with lagoons and lush savannas and it was such a beautiful sight that I cannot explain in mere words and it needs to be seen to be believed."

Harry nodded " Go on..."

Hermione had a faraway look in her eye as she remembered the experiences "There were so many varieties of birds and lizards that you wouldn't believe me," she gushed. "And the flowers! They grow around wildly giving a lovely dash of color to the landscape. I just loved exploring the different varieties that were there, I counted up to fifty six but of course there are much more than that."

"What? Flowers or birds or lizards" Harry asked

"Well I was referring to the flowers, but the variety of birds were equally vast. And as for the lizards, do you really think I would spend my time counting them?" Hermione asked smiling

"Well it's you we're talking about isn't it, you would probably want to write an essay on the varieties of lizards and their possible uses in potions... Hey stop that!" Ron said laughing as he fended off Hermione's blows.

Harry listened to her quietly and smiled at her enthusiasm as he looked at the warm flush that came on her face, which was due to the memories of a beautiful faraway land. It gave her face a rosy glow and she looked to Harry like magnificent blooming rose in all its beauty.

He wondered where all this was going. He had just compared his best friend to a rose and he wondered what would be her reaction if he had unwisely decided to voice this view of his. She would probably slap him or refuse to talk to him. He gave himself a mental shake and tried to listen to her next words with more concentration on them rather than her.

"But I had a rather unpleasant experience there, I was roaming around by this lagoon when suddenly this huge six foot monitor lizard comes up. I tell you I was never so frightened, it looked big enough to eat me up whole," she said shaking her head.

"Pity it didn't Granger," said Malfoy who had entered silently and was standing leaning against the door, as always surrounded by his two cronies Crabbe and Goyle.

"Tell me Malfoy is it some sort of custom with you to come in uninvited and grace us with your pleasant company whenever we are on this train?" Harry asked sarcastically.

"Don't flatter yourself Potter," Draco sneered. "You aren't worth even the filthy Muggle clothing that you wear."

"Then please go elsewhere as we didn't ask you to come in here," said Harry mildly.

"Or what Potter?" asked Draco softly.

Harry looked at him briefly and shrugged "Or you can just stand there like a moron, but just keep your mouth shut. Even you must know that it's common courtesy to not interrupt when someone else is talking."

He turned back to Hermione, "Ah yes! You were saying something about a six-foot lizard..."

Hermione looked uneasily from the angry face of Draco Malfoy to the face of Harry, which was set in an expressionless mask revealing none of his emotions.

"Yes the monitor lizard..." she said stupidly. "Well I'll tell you one thing, it wasn't as nice to see as the Kangaroo."

Draco Malfoy stared shocked at his abrupt dismissal by Harry and his face became contorted in rage.

"You go on tempting fate Potter, one day you will regret it. It has already started by the Dark Lord's rising," said Draco.

"Yes maybe you can just put it down as my hobby," said Harry wryly not even looking at him.

Ron and Hermione just looked at him shocked. How could he just sit there and act so impassively where normally he would have been at Malfoy's throat?

"Well your so called 'hobby' will get you killed just like your parents," Draco spat.

Harry felt his anger rise and slowly counted to ten. "Yes maybe it will at that, but I'd rather die than be a slave of Voldemort like your family are," he said slowly.

"You had better watch your mouth Potter or I'll shut it for you," Draco said his face purple with rage.

At this point Ron could take no more and lunged for Draco but he was stopped by Harry's hand that pushed him back down on his seat.

"What's the big deal Harry? Let me go, he needs his mouth shut," Ron yelled.

"Leave him Ron. He isn't worth it," Harry said quietly.

"What's the matter with you? Are you going soft?" Ron asked bewildered. "Aren't you going to do anything?" Ron asked, his anger being replaced by puzzlement at Harry's behavior.

"No, I am going to do something - ignore him."

"What happened Potter? Chicken?" Draco sneered.

Harry finally looked at Draco and gave him a long and hard stare "Ok Draco, I'll tell you just once more, either go away and take your gorillas with you or shut up."

Crabbe and Goyle moved forward, menacingly cracking their knuckles.

"Or what? What can you and Weasley do against the three of us? Or maybe you'll get the mudblood to flash us, that's always sure to get us running" Malfoy smirked.

Harry's hand suddenly lashed out and caught Draco's throat and in one swift movement he was up and had Draco pinned against the wall his hand blocking any air from reaching Draco's lungs.

"You must learn Draco not to become too cocky, or else it will get you into serious trouble with me," Harry said through gritted teeth.

Harry saw over his shoulder that Crabbe and Goyle were making for him and he let Draco loose and turned around to face them. He noticed that both of them were very heavy and clumsy on their feet and it would be very easy to trip them up, but physical force would probably not work on them because of their size.

He looked around to check on Draco and saw that he would not be a problem as he was still lying in a crumpled heap on the ground trying to catch his breath.

Ron had got up to join him but Harry pushed him gently but firmly back in his seat.

Then Hermione and Ron were treated to one of the most amazing sights, They saw Crabbe and Goyle swinging their arms left and right but all they hit was air as Harry deftly dodged the blows and skipped around the compartment lightly on his feet.

They came at him from both sides and swung their meaty arms hard and fast and yet they weren't able to hit Harry, not even get close to hitting him, he was just too fast for them.

Crabbe suddenly charged him trying to knock him off his feet by sheer force and Harry seeing this moved aside at the last moment and catching Crabbe's outstretched hand tugged at it and moving his other hand swiftly to Crabbe's belt tugged at it also. He then fell backwards still holding Crabbe's hand and belt and putting his powerful feet on Crabbe's stomach gave a huge shove with them while letting Crabbe's hand and belt go.

Crabbe suddenly felt himself flying through the air with his own momentum and he crashed with a sickening noise against a wall of the compartment. It had all happened so swiftly that Ron and Hermione hadn't had time to even comprehend what had happened, all they had seen was Crabbe charging Harry and the next moment he flying through the air and hitting the wall.

Goyle seeing what had happened to his friend came forward enraged, and started swinging wild blows at Harry. Harry blocked them with ease, his hands shooting out swiftly to intercept the blows and suddenly moving his leg behind Goyle's pushed him hard. Goyle lost his balance and fell down hard on his rump, giving a squeal of pain.

Harry looked down at Goyle's fallen figure distastefully and quietly said, "Get up and get out. If you come near this compartment for the rest of the journey I will do more than just trip you, and if you have any doubt that I cant, try me."

Goyle looked into Harry's angry blazing green eyes fearfully and nodded, he got up hurriedly and helping Crabbe up scurried out of the compartment leaving Draco behind.

Harry then turned to Draco "Yes now say what you have to say."

Draco looked at Harry angrily and considered hexing him, but he saw that Ron and Hermione already had their wands out. He realized that he had been beaten and swallowing the bitter cup of his rage and humiliation walked out banging the door behind him. The tables had been turned on him.

Harry sighed and sat down running his hands exasperatedly through his hair.

There was a moment of silence in the compartment after which Ron said almost dreamily.

"Harry you'll never hear any snide comment about Martial Arts from me ever again."

Harry looked up irritatedly, "Stop it Ron! I feel bad enough already."

"Why? What is it?" Ron asked shocked. "You just beat up Malfoy and his goons and you are feeling terrible about it?" Ron said with an utmost shocked expression, as if this was incomprehensible to him.

"Ron why don't you try to understand? I'm not supposed to use it to beat up people, it goes against the ethics of the art."

"But Harry," Hermione said gently. "It was self defense, and besides you didn't really hurt them, all you did was defend the blows they aimed for you."

"Yeah I guess you're right. Damn it! Malfoy sure knows just how to spoil a day."

The door suddenly burst open and Fred soon joined them along with George followed by Lee, Angelina, Katie and Alicia.

"What happened? We heard a crash," asked Angelina

"Nothing! It was just Malfoy and his goons paying a visit, Harry sent them on their way," said Ron with obvious enjoyment.

Angelina sat down besides Harry, "So I hear that you have taken up Aikido and Taekwondo Harry?"

"That's right I have," said Harry, looking at Angelina carefully and noticing uncomfortably that her eyes were roving all over his body.

"Really nice! Be sure to show me some moves sometimes," she said smiling sexily.

Harry didn't know what she was referring to so he just kept quiet.

Katie and Alicia took a seat opposite them, beside Ron and Hermione, and Fred and George sat down next to Angelina.

Harry noticed that both Katie and Alicia were also staring at him rather interestedly, and he was glad when Fred started speaking.

"Well since we are here we might as well discuss a very important matter."

"And what's that?" Ron asked.

"The appointment of a new Quidditch captain," George said.

"Well I for one think that Harry deserves it," Katie said.

"Me too, he is one of the best players on the team and it was largely due to him that we won the Quidditch cup year before last," Alicia put in.

"He has our vote," Fred and George chorused.

"And mine, anyway we are all in our final year and it would do no good to appoint a captain for only one year," Angelina said smiling at Harry.

"Uh... do I have any say in this at all," Harry asked nervously

"No the votes say it all," said Fred firmly.

"Yeah and your first duty as captain is to appoint a keeper," George put in.

"Ok then I guess we'll have to hold a house practice for it when we get back to Hogwarts. But to tell you the truth I think that I already know a few probables - Dean Thomas, Sally-Anne Perks and Ron here."

Angelina nodded. "All three are good choices, I've seen them fly and they have the natural talent."

Ron burst into a huge smile as he heard Harry say his name as one of the candidates.

Harry noticed it. "Ron to be selected you'll have to prove yourself or else its no dice, so start practicing," he said sternly.

Ron nodded and grinned at Harry, nothing could stop him from being happy today, he was a prefect, he might get chosen for the house team and best of all he had just seen Malfoy get thrashed by Harry.

"Hey Harry we've invented some great pranks that we could use on the Slytherins during the match and they probably cannot get traced back to us," Fred said grinning wickedly.

Harry groaned. "You're not going to make it easy on me are you?"

"No!"

"Nope!"

"No chance," were the replies he got.

Harry and the others got down at the station and just as Harry was walking to one of the carriages he was stopped by Hermione's voice.

"Aren't you going to wear your prefect badge Harry?"

Harry slapped his head in annoyance and his hand dived into his pocket for it.

"I knew I was forgetting something."

"What a thing to forget," Ron said making a distasteful face as he fingered his own highly polished badge lovingly.

Harry saw this and grimaced, Ron was behaving quite a bit like Percy and he racked his brains for a delicate way to tell him so. He didn't have to though as George who was standing next to Ron winked at Harry and taking out his wand pointed it at Ron's badge, and whispered, Modifico.

Harry saw much to his delight that the letters on Ron's badge now read 'Percyfect.'

Harry looked away stifling his amusement and he saw the large figure of Hagrid herding the first years towards the boats. He waved to him and heard Hagrid's voice bellow,

"All righ' Harry."

Harry, Hermione, Ron and Ginny shared a carriage till the castle and then hurried inside to the Gryffindor table.

Harry sat at the center of the Gryffindor table and happily looked around, he was glad to be back and felt that he was now truly home. He was paying only scant attention to the Sorting Hat's droning and instead observing the new students, most of whom were scared just like he was during his first year, there were a few of them who were looking fairly comfortable and Harry concluded that these came from wizarding families.

Mcgonagall started calling out the names,

"Ambrose, Curly"

A black kid with dreadlocks who was tall for his age walked forward hesitantly.

The hat considered him for a minute before shouting

GRYFFINDOR

Harry clapped with the rest as Curly joined their table and took a seat.

"Bones, Jeremy"

Harry noticed that Susan Bones was looking eagerly at the kid as the hat considered him and thought that he was most probably a relative of hers.

GRYFFINDOR

Harry found himself clapping again, Gryffindor were getting their fair share that was for sure, and so far it looked like they were the cream of the crop.

The sorting went on and each of the houses got their share of the first years.

Finally Dumbledore got up to make his usual start of the term speech.

"I want to welcome all of you to Hogwarts for a new term, I hope that all of you enjoyed your vacation. I want to take this opportunity to prepare you about something very important. As you all know Lord Voldemort is now back to full power..."

He held up his hands as the first years gasped at the use of the Dark Lord's name, at least those who had heard about him- the Muggle born students didn't know what the dickens Dumbledore was talking about and wondered what the fuss was about.

"...And there is no doubt that we face dark times ahead, but I want you all to know that while you are at Hogwarts there is nothing to fear.

I hope that I don't have to remind you how dangerous it is to trespass out of bounds, especially now of all times."

Dumbledore's tone had gone unusually serious and he glanced at the twins warningly.

"The forbidden forest is forbidden like its name says, and there will be no after hours sneaking in the castle, those found sneaking around will be severely punished."

He now looked at Harry, Ron and Hermione who looked away shamefacedly.

"Our caretaker Mr. Filch has asked me to tell you that there will be no eating of Fizzing Whizzbees in the corridors or even Droobles best blowing gum for that matter. Also there will be no Hogsmeade weekends this year but the good news is that the Inter house Quidditch tournament is still on. Now I'm sure that I have bored you enough so lets begin the feast"

At his words the food appeared on the table and after a bit of initial groaning about the Hogsmeade weekends everybody dug in with gusto.

Harry avoided the greasy stuff and stuck to steak and kidney pie and tossed herbed vegetables. He knew that to keep fit he had to eat right too.

He looked around while eating and noticed that the chair for the Defense against the Dark Arts position was empty.

He turned to Ron "So who's going to teach us Defense against the Dark Arts this year?"

Ron stopped shoveling food in his mouth for a minute and looked around, "Don't know, hope its not Snape though."

"Do you know anything Hermione" Harry asked turning to her.

"Well it couldn't be Snape because then there'll be no one to teach potions then, so it must mean that the teacher has either not been appointed yet or has not arrived yet" she said wisely.

"Well do you think that maybe Dumbledore will teach it if there's no teacher," Harry asked hopefully.

Ron stopped eating and whistled, "That would be something."

"Yeah he would really know how to conduct a class," Hermione said dreamily.

"Well I guess we'll most probably find out Thursday," Harry said resuming to eat his steak and kidney pie.

The food got over and as they were getting up Susan, who was a prefect too, came up to have a word with Harry.

"Uh... Harry I just wanted you to ask you to look out for Jeremy" she said leaning over his shoulder.

Harry nodded "Don't worry he'll be fine."

"I know I trust you, but I just thought I'll warn you that he.... Well..."

"Go on," said Harry feeling in his bones that it would be something bad.

"Well he sort of... hero worships you," Susan finished lamely. "And I know how you hate that" she added quickly.

Harry was left speechless but Ron who had overheard said, "Well he can join the Creevey brothers and Ginny, I'm sure there will be a Harry Potter fan club this year at any rate" he said roaring with laughter from the look on Harry's face.

She had hardly left when Prof. Mcgonagall came up and glared at them and Ron stopped laughing abruptly.

"I have made you two prefects against my better judgement but you better behave and set an example, If I catch you sneaking out or rule breaking this year you'll catch it from me. Now take the first years to the dormitories the password is Griffin"

She turned to go but suddenly turned around "And by the way as you are now prefects you are allowed to use the prefects bathroom, the password is pine fresh"

Harry was just about to say that he was already aware of that when he managed to stop the traitorous words from escaping his mouth.

He looked ahead and saw that Angelina who was Head Girl and Hermione were already moving up with the girls. He and Ron gathered the first years around and started leading them to the Gryffindor dorm after giving the password to the others.

Harry found himself automatically giving warnings to the first years about the tricky steps and moving staircases just like Percy had given him during his first year. They finally reached the fat ladies portrait without any problem.

"The password is Griffin," said Harry to the first years as he gave it to the fat lady. "So don't forget it or else you'll get locked out. And please remember not to speak the password aloud in the presence of anybody from the other houses."

He went inside and was followed by the first years and Ron. He motioned to Ron to take the first years up to the old seventh year dormitories and walked towards his favorite armchair near the fire and sat down.

Ron who was grinning like the cat that had swallowed the canary joined him ten minutes later.

"What happened?" asked Harry warily

"Oh nothing," Ron said trying to hide his grin and not succeeding. "I just found out that Jeremy isn't the only one who hero worships you."

"Why do I get the feeling that you did more than just find that out," Harry asked wryly.

"Well they asked me about you so, I told them that the Creevey brothers knew a lot about you and even had pictures and stuff of your famous exploits at Hogwarts. They were very eager to meet them and I had to use all my persuasion skills to get them to postpone it till tomorrow."

Harry looked at Ron shocked, "You didn't!" he squeaked

"Yeah I did," said Ron grinning broadly.

"Ron Weasley you are the lowest, scummiest, most revolting specimen of a friend one can ever hope to have"

"Guilty as charged!"

Harry wondered whether he should get his revenge by making Ron notice his altered badge but decided that it would be a lot more fun to let him find out on his own.

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A./N- Thanks to my great Beta team of Mackenzie Herrick and Jacqueline Newton for Beta reading this chapter so fast and with such skill. Thanks also to the FA Mods. for all they have done to post this fic. Next chapter up soon.