Harry Potter and the Year of Toil and Trouble

Harry Potter and the year of toil and trouble

(Many thanks to Jo for beta-reading)

Chapter one

It was July the 31^st and for the third summer in a row, Harry Potter was doing his homework in the middle of the night, with a torch aimed at his History of Magic textbook, and his quill writing on a piece of parchment. He was forced to do his homework in the middle of the night, due to the outrage which he would be met with if his aunt and uncle were to catch him. This was because Harry Potter was no ordinary boy, and the Dursleys of number 4 Privet Drive had no intention of anyone ever finding out this. The Dursleys were unfortunately Harry's only living relatives. Harry's own parents had been killed by an evil Dark Wizard called Lord Voldemort when he was only one year old. The murder of his parents was why he lived with Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia. They were Muggles (non-magic people) who hated anything associated with magic, especially Harry. Harry had only just survived Voldemort's attack on him, which left only a lightning shaped scar on his forehead, which burned painfully whenever Voldemort was planning another bout of evil. Harry had had no idea he was a wizard until he was eleven years old, when he had received a letter from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry telling him he had been accepted there as a student. Harry's aunt and uncle had told him his parents had died in a car crash. Harry now spent every year at Hogwarts, apart from the summer holidays, which he was forced to spend with the Dursleys.

Harry Potter was now fifteen years old. He had turned fifteen two hours ago, but had barely noticed. His relatives had never bought him a present, although his friends from Hogwarts, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley always did. As Harry put away his spellbook, quill and parchment, feeling very tired, he hoped that his owl, Hedwig, would return soon, hopefully with presents from his friends. He did not have long to wait. Just as he was climbing into bed, through his window soared his snowy white owl. She was carrying a neatly wrapped package, which no doubt came from Hermione, who did not have an owl of her own. A small owl accompanied her, flying around the bedroom very fast and hooting loudly, making Harry terrified his aunt and uncle would wake up. Therefore, he relieved this owl first of its parcel and carried it to Hedwig's cage before put a sheet over the cage to muffle the hoots. Then a third owl, a brown one, which Harry guessed came from Hogwarts, entered his room, followed by a fourth dark coloured owl Harry did not recognise. As he relieved each owl of its package, the brown owl and dark owl soared back out of the window, but Hedwig joined the small, hooting owl, which was called 'Pig' in her cage. Harry opened the dark owl's package curiously and out fell a box. Harry froze. He had experience of strange things in his years at Hogwarts and knew to be careful of pretty much everything. Harry had not recognised this dark coloured owl, and considering that many people wanted to kill him right now, it passed through his mind that this might be another attempt. But his curiousity got the better of him. Harry opened the box cautiously and jumped back, expecting something to jump out at him but nothing happened. Harry slowly approached the box and looked inside. He gasped.

Inside was a collection of things that were obviously quite old. But at the top of the pile, was something that made it clear who this present came from - Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, who had been Harry's father's best friends. Sirius Black was Harry's godfather, and had spent most of Harry's life locked up in Azkaban - a wizard prison, blamed for the deaths of Harry's parents and thirteen others. But Sirius was innocent of these crimes; he had managed to escape prison in Harry's third year, and was currently on the run. The Ministry of Magic had not yet found him innocent. Remus Lupin had taught Harry Defence Against the Dark Arts two years ago, also in Harry's third year, and was a secret but safe werewolf.

Harry now lifted this item out of the box and stared at it in wonderment. It was a photograph, a photograph of his father and his friends when they were about Harry's age. And he looked so much like Harry. The same black untidy hair and also with glasses. The only difference was a lack of a lightning shaped scar. He was grinning at Harry and had his arms around two other people. On his right was Sirius, Harry's godfather and Harry barely recognised him as the Sirius he knew. This Sirius was also grinning and waving. He had chin length dark brown hair and big sky blue eyes. He was fuller in figure and in face; today's Sirius had had much longer hair (until it was cut last year) and was thinner, due to Azkaban imprisonment. On Harry's father's left was a light brown haired, shy looking boy, who was quite thin and ill looking but was also smiling. This was Remus Lupin; no doubt, his monthly werewolf transformations made him look this weak. Next to Remus was a small, chubby boy with sandy hair and freckles and Harry scowled as he watched him grinning alongside the people who were supposed to be his friends. For this boy, Peter Pettigrew, had committed the crimes Sirius was imprisoned for. Peter had turned to the dark side and had told Voldemort where to find Harry's parents, and it was Peter had killed these thirteen people, before turning into a rat and escaping (James Potter, Sirius and Peter had become animagi - people who could turn into animals - to help Remus with his transformations). Peter had framed Sirius for these crimes. Sirius hadn't even had a trial. Harry forced his eyes away from Peter to notice that lying across the laps of all four boys, was a long red haired girl, with green eyes whom Harry immediately recognised as his own mother, Lily. He smiled sadly, but felt happy. He liked learning about his parents and was grateful for Sirius and Remus for sending him this present.

The other items in the box were more photographs of his parents and their friends. Some of them were also of Harry as a baby, on his first birthday with a cake and on his first Christmas. This made him feel strange. It reminded him that he had once lived in a happy home, where he had been welcome. There were also old Quidditch books, such as Quidditch through the ages, which probably belonged to his father. Under these was a beautiful necklace of emeralds, which had no doubt belonged to his mother as she had emerald green eyes. There was also a strange looking book called "a wizard surprise". Intrigued, Harry opened the book, only to get squirted with a foul-smelling blue liquid. The book laughed, a dog-like laugh Harry recognised as Sirius's. This must have been one of his childhood tricks. Remus, Peter, Sirius and James had been renowned pranksters during their time at Hogwarts. They had called themselves 'Marauders'. Harry shut the book quickly in case his aunt and uncle heard Sirius' laughter. "I'll have to kill him." Harry muttered to himself, with a grin.

Next Harry opened Hermione's present, which Hedwig had brought, it was a book and Harry was not surprised, knowing Hermione, who was very studious. It was a book on Eastern-European Wizardry. Hermione was in Bulgaria visiting her boyfriend, Viktor Krum, who was an international Quidditch player. Harry had seen him at the Quidditch world cup last summer and had wished he could fly so well. He loved Quidditch; a sport played on broomsticks with six tall goalposts, four balls and fourteen players. Harry was seeker for Gryffindor house, whose job it was to catch the golden snitch, which earned the team 150 points and finished the game. Harry really missed playing Quidditch. He now picked up Hermione's letter, which was surprisingly short.

Dear Harry,

I do hope you like your present. I've been busy doing a lot of reading on Bulgarian magical history while I've been visiting Viktor. It will help me with my History of Magic essay. Viktor's very busy practising Quidditch with the rest of his team, so while he does this, I've been visiting their local library a lot, using a translato charm so I could understand the books. I've found out loads of interesting stuff! I wish I were back at Hogwarts with you and Ron. I shall be back next week though, and I can't wait! Shall we meet in Diagon Alley again?

Happy Birthday!

Love from

Hermione

Harry frowned. It wasn't like Hermione to write so little. And he thought she would write more about Viktor and what Bulgaria was like, as she had seemed so exited about going. He thought he could detect a little unhappiness in her letters and hoped she was okay.

Next, Harry turned to the brown owl's parcel, which came from Rubeus Hagrid, who was the gamekeeper at Hogwarts as well as their care of magical creatures teacher. Harry was worried about opening this, Hagrid had once sent him a book that could bite, but this present was extremely small, so it could not be dangerous, so Harry opened it to find it was a necklace, with a glass amulet. "A necklace?" he exclaimed in horror. He looked at Hagrid's letter. It was written in a barely legible scrawl:

Harry,

How are you? This amulet has got unicorn blood inside it... I'm sure you remember from first year, me telling you that unicorns have magic powers. Their blood gives life. The idea came to me after last year. You're in so much trouble, I thought it might help you. Save your life maybe. I said to Dumbledore and he thought it was a good idea. Don't worry, I didn't kill any unicorns to get it. I don't want to go back to Azkaban, do I? This one was dying when I found it, old age I guess. I know it's a necklace, but it's worth wearing if it protects you, isn't it?

Have a great birthday! See you at Hogwarts!

Hagrid.

Harry now looked back at the necklace in his hand, feeling less horrified. Protection was exactly what he needed right now, especially after last year, when Voldemort came back to power and had tried to kill Harry in the Triwizard competition by making a Death Eater (Voldemort supporter) pose as a teacher and enter Harry as the fourth competitor. Harry had survived but not before another competitor and Hogwarts student died - Cedric Diggory. Harry felt incredible guilt surging through him as he remembered, but there was nothing he could do about it now, so he put the necklace on, thinking that if Dumbledore believed it would protect him, then he'd better wear it.

Finally, Harry turned to Ron Weasley's present, which had been brought by the small, hooting owl Ron owned and had strangely named 'Pig'. It was a Chudley Cannon Quidditch shirt (the Chudley Cannons were Ron's favourite Quidditch team) but Harry barely acknowledged the present for as well as this shirt, there was also a newspaper cutting from Wizarding newspaper, the Daily Prophet. Harry picked this up and read the article, his mouth falling open as he read:

Lucius Malfoy arrested

Prominent member of the wizarding community and former governor of Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry, Lucius Malfoy, was arrested today by the Ministry of Magic, under the Muggle Protection Act. After receiving information, the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts department of the Ministry searched Mr. Malfoy's mansion (with seven bedrooms, a living room, two dining rooms, sitting room, conservatory, potions room, three bathrooms, two dressing rooms, a kitchen, a utility room, cloakroom, study and also a very large garden with its own Quidditch pitch). The department ministers found a secret chamber under the dining room floor, which contained amongst other things, shackles and deadly, illegal, poisons from tarantulas, scorpions and snakes.

The head of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts department, Arthur Weasley said today "Lucius Malfoy has brought shame on the wizarding community. The possession of such objects of Dark Magic usually leads to the owner being sentenced to at least six months in Azkaban."

Lucius Malfoy is understood to have claimed the objects in question were placed there while he was acting under the Imperius curse, placed on him by Death Eaters, and he has no recollection of how they got there. Mr. Malfoy spoke to the Daily Prophet, saying he was "horrified" that such objects were found and would destroy them immediately. Arthur Weasley dismissed Mr. Malfoy's claims as "pure nonsense. He knew exactly what he was doing."

The Ministry is expected to make an announcement about this arrest later today or early tomorrow. See your Evening Daily Prophet for details.

Harry was delighted. He hated the Malfoy family. Lucius Malfoy's son, Draco Malfoy, was Harry's enemy at Hogwarts and Harry knew from his last year at Hogwarts, that Lucius Malfoy was a Death Eater and had never been under the Imperius curse, like he claimed. Mr. Weasley had been saying for years that he'd like to get Lucius Malfoy for something, for he hated Lucius Malfoy as much as Harry, Ron and Hermione hated Draco. Mr. Malfoy believed the Weasley family lacked 'proper Wizarding pride.' Still trying to take things in, Harry picked up Ron's letter:

Harry,

I know what you're thinking, that this is great news. So did we. We were jumping about like mad when Dad told us. But then the Ministry put their announcement out, saying that they believed Lucius Malfoy's story and were letting him go without charge! Can you believe it? Dad's absolutely spitting here. I can't believe it either. I'm so angry! But there's absolutely nothing we can do. He's got the Minister of Magic on his side. I'd hoped they'd lock him up, he deserves Azkaban, and you-know-who would have lost his main supporter. School's going to be hell now, thanks to Draco Malfoy. I'd love to see him turned back into a ferret, like last year.

Have you heard much from Hermione? She doesn't sound very happy in her letters. I hope Krum is being nice to her. I don't know what she sees in him anyway.

I hope you like your present. See you in Diagon Alley if you can make it.

RON

Harry jumped off his bed on reading Ron's letter and started to pace his bedroom, full of rage. He couldn't believe that Lucius Malfoy had got off without even a fine, considering that he was a Death Eater, and enjoyed torturing Muggles (non-wizards) and wizards alike. But like Ron said, there was nothing they could do. Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic, believed Malfoy's story, and he was 'top guy' in the Ministry. Harry felt another surge of anger when he remembered Fudge's complete refusal last year to believe that Voldemort had returned to power, despite the evidence, and he had refused to do anything about it. Harry also imagined that Lucius Malfoy was very angry right now, but not as angry as Mr. Weasley probably.

Harry stopped his pacing at last and glanced at his bedroom clock. It was now four o'clock in the morning and Harry felt his eyelids get more heavy. He should really get to sleep, particularly as Aunt Petunia was making him do all the housework, cooking and gardening the next day. He would write to Ron tomorrow or see him soon in Diagon Alley. Harry climbed back into his bed and fell asleep.