An End

"Harry, wake up. We´re there," Hermione whispered in his ear. He rose with a jolt, almost knocking Hermione over. Ron laughed as Harry tried to straighten his glasses.

"I´m sorry, Hermione," Harry said.

"It´s okay," Hermione laughed, helping Harry get his bags down. They were loaded with books, equipment -- everything he needed for his seventh year at Hogwarts. And they were heavy. Harry pulled out his wand and waved it lightly over the bags, saying "Fluito!" The bags rose a little and seemed to float an inch above the ground, making them easy to drag along. He noticed that Ron and Hermione had done the same.

"Harry, what do you think the seventh year will be like?" Ron asked.

"I don´t know. I just hope that I never see Voldemort again," Harry sighed. Ron and Hermione shivered in fear. "Oh, sorry," Harry said. Voldemort was the dark wizard who had spent the last six years trying to kill Harry, and the very mention of his name was considered taboo in the magical world of witches and wizards the three friends belonged to. "Hermione?" Ron asked.

"I think it´ll be great! I believe that Harry has finally defeated him and that he´ll not come back," Hermione said.

"Me too. I just hope McGonagall won´t give us too much homework," Ron said, shifting his bags to the other shoulder.

"Well," Harry said, as they followed a group of gossiping third-year girls. "I seriously think this year will be great. I mean, look, Sirius´ charges have been lifted. He can visit us any time he wants. I´m sure all the new professors will be great," Harry said happily.

"Yes, but I will miss Dumbledore and all the others," Hermione said, and a tear rolled down her cheek.

"Oh ´Mione, please don´t cry," Harry said, turning towards her.

"I´m not CRYING!" she yelled. "I´ve got something in my eye!"

"Hermione, you always say that when you´re about to cry," Ron said. Hermione glared at him. "Oh, sorry!"

"Hermione, they are gone. Voldemort took them down with him," Harry said. "We just have to work with it. I´m sure the new headmaster or headmistress will be fine. How bad could it be?"

"You´re right, Harry," Hermione said, wiping the tear. "We just have to push forward." Ron started to walk forward again. Hermione started walking faster, overtaking Harry who grabbed her by the hand, stopping her. She turned around. "What, Harry? We´ll be late for the feast."

"Are you sure you´ll be okay?" Harry asked.

"Yeah Harry, I´ll be fine," she said, gripping his hand tighter and pulling him forward. "Come on." Harry followed Hermione and Ron to the Gryffindor table and sat down next to Lavender Brown, who was now paralyzed from the neck down. She smiled at them.

"Hi Harry," Lavender said happily.

"Hi Lavender, how are you?" Harry asked.

"Fine, considering this wheelchair is the most uncomfortable thing in the world," Lavender laughed. Harry nodded and looked up as the room went quiet. The large doors of the Great Hall creaked open. A tall woman with waist-length white-blond hair and bright blue eyes entered the room. She was wearing robes of pure white silk that trailed behind her. Every student watched her in awe as she stood in front of the head table.

"Harry, it´s her!" Ron whispered, nudging Harry in the ribs.

"Who?" Harry asked.

"Fleur, Fleur Delacour! The part-veela from Beauxbatons! Remember?" Ron whispered frantically. Harry stared at her for a minute.

"Yes, it´s her!" Harry whispered.

"Hello ´Ogwarts students. First yerz, seconds, fifths, or seventh. I hope everyone has found zer´ way here. I am Fleur Delacour, your new Headmistress," Fleur said, bowing deeply. "Now, I shall introduce you to your new professors." Harry, with the rest of the hall, turned to the back of the hall again as someone else walked in.

"´Zis is Professor Alan Gresham. Your new Transfiguration teacher," Fleur said as a short man, around five feet tall, clothed in dark green cotton robes walked up and stood to the left of her. The hall looked back at the doors again. "Professor Cassa Durae, the Herbology teacher," Fleur said as a woman in dark purple robes of velvet walked up to the right side of Fleur.

"Professor of Divination, Alla Hie." A tall oriental woman in dark robes walked up and stood to the left side of Fleur.

"Professor Jared Brockman for Charms class." A young man with sandy blond hair and blue green eyes walked up and stood to the right.

"Professor Joanne Mitchell. Defense Against the Dark Arts." A woman with shoulder-length blond hair and bright blue eyes stood to the left of Fleur. Two other professors were introduced, but Harry wasn´t paying attention to them. He was waiting for the new Potions Master.

"And last, but not least, Professor Draco Malfoy." Harry almost jumped to his feet but Ron and Hermione held him down.

"What is HE doing here!" Ron asked.

"Yeah, I thought he said he wasn´t coming back to Hogwarts as long as he lived. Wasn´t he transferred to Durmstrang?" Hermione asked.

"Yes, he was. I was so happy to be rid of him in the fifth year," Harry said through gritted teeth. "Why the hell is he back again??!!"

Malfoy walked up to Fleur and bowed deeply. Then he walked to his spot to the right of her. "First years may enter," Fleur said. A dozen nervous first-year students entered the great hall. They all looked around, scared as anyone could be at a new school without their mum or dad at their side. By the time the first years had approached Fleur, all of the new professors had taken their seats behind the Head table. All except Malfoy.

"Professor Malfoy, will you do `ze honors?" Fleur said as a three-legged stool with an old ragged hat perched upon it appeared between them. "Of course," Malfoy said in a colder, darker voice than Harry had ever heard.

The Sorting Hat started to move, which frightened many of the first years. The rip in the hat started to move and a voice emerged from it.

"Hogwarts, Hogwarts
Tried and True
Gold and Blue
The Ravenclaws
Black and yellow
The best of fellows
The Hufflepuffs
Silver and green
The sly and mean
The Slytherins in the dungeons
But Scarlet and Gold
With brave souls
The Gryffindors succeed in all."
(A/N: I know, it´s a stupid sorting song but I´m tired.)

While the rest of the hall clapped, the first years stared in awe. "Come on, children. Come closer," Fleur said. The first-years slowly made their way to the front of the hall. Harry mentioned to Ron that they were all afraid of Malfoy and not the hat. "Now, when I call your name, you will come up here and sit down. I will place the Sorting Hat on your head and you will be sorted into your house," Malfoy said impatiently.

"Valentine, Alana," Malfoy said. A girl with long brown hair and brown eyes beneath glasses nervously made her way up and sat down on the stool. Malfoy put the hat on her head.

"Ah, HUFFLEPUFF!" The hat yelled. She smiled weakly and quickly ran down to her new classmates. "Stubbe, Kayla," said Malfoy. A girl with short blond hair made her way onto the stool. "Oh, Ravenclaw!" The hat said.

She also jumped down excitedly and joined the Ravenclaws. After a few more children there was only one left. Malfoy scowled as he read the name. "Reed, Ellali."

A girl with long, blue-black hair and dull blue eyes calmly walked up to the stool and sat down. Why Malfoy despised this girl, Harry didn´t know. Why did he not like anyone anyway?

The corner of Ellali´s mouth twitched as the Sorting Hat was placed upon her head. "Ah, a Reed. Haven´t seen one of you for centuries," the Hat said.

"Of course you haven´t. We´ve all been in China," Ellali said. She sounded irritated.

"Ah, I see. Well then..." The hat said. "GRYFFINDOR!"

Ellali didn´t smile, nor frown. Her face stayed as straight as the handle on Harry´s Firebolt. She slowly but smoothly made her way down to the table. The only Gryffindor sorted this year. Odd, but considering the small number of new students, it wasn´t that bad. "Vell then," Fleur said. "Shall ve eat?"

Food appeared on everyone´s plate as Fleur sat down. Everyone started talking about the summer holiday and what their new school year would be like. Everyone except Ellali.

She sat there and quietly at her potatoes and food. Every now and then, she took a sip of pumpkin juice with a look of disgust on her face. Although she had apparently came from China, she didn´t look Chinese at all. She didn´t sound like it either, she sounded like an American.

Harry was snatched out of his thoughts by Ron shaking him. "Harry, Harry are you okay?" Ron asked. Harry shook his head.

"Of course I´m okay," he said. "What made you think I wouldn´t be?"

"Well, for one thing your food is completely cold, and for the second, you keep staring at that Reed girl," Hermione said. Harry looked from Hermione´s empty plate to his cold, full one.

"Um... I wasn´t hungry, that´s all. And I wasn´t looking at her," Harry said.

"Then who were you looking at?" Ron asked.

"I was looking up to the head table at Malfoy," Harry said, trying to think something up that would sound true to them.

"Why Malfoy?" Ron asked.

"I want to see how much he´s changed. You know, see if I can spot a weak point or something."

"Okay... whatever," Ron said. "Are you ready to go then?"

Harry had just realized that many people had already left. He nodded and followed Hermione and Ron up to the Common room.

"So, how was your summer, Harry?" Hermione asked.

"Do you need to ask that?" Harry said, trudging up the stairs.

"Of course I do!" Hermione smiled.

"Well, if you really need to know, it was awful. Is that good enough?"

"Yep," Hermione said. "How `bout you Ron? Nice summer?"

"It was awful," Ron said. "The house was boiling hot, Mum was frantically rushing everywhere to do something or other, Ginny locked herself in her room because she was afraid You-Know-Who would come after her, Fred and George were playing their tricks, Dad and Percy were always working, and of course I never got to see Charlie or Bill." Ron was out of breath by the time he finished his long sentence.

"Okay then," Hermione said, trying not to laugh.

"Password?" The fat lady asked.

"What did the new prefect say it was?" Harry asked. Hermione stepped forward and whispered to the fat lady.

"Yes, of course dear. Dragon Scale is the password," the fat lady said, swinging open and letting them in.

"I´m so exhausted," Harry said, making his way through the crowd of Gryffindors. He sat down in a corner chair with Ron and Hermione.

"Would you rather go to bed, Harry?" Hermione asked.

"It´s seven o´clock. I´m just a bit tired from walking all the way up here. I got used to not walking up so many stairs during the summer. That´s all," Harry lied. He was really exhausted and he didn´t know why.

"Are you sure you´re okay?" Hermione asked.

"He said he´s okay, ´Mione," Ron said.

"Thanks Ron," Harry said.

"Well, if you´re sure, Harry. Would you like a butterbeer?" Hermione asked.

"Sure, that´d be great!" Harry said. He had been craving a butterbeer all summer.

"Get me one too!" Ron said as he watched Hermione walk off. She held her hand up as a sign that she had heard him.

"Ron, was your summer really that bad?" Harry asked. Ron nodded.

"Yep."

"Oh..." Harry said. Ron was usually partying with the others. But he seemed depressed. Very unlike the Ron he knew.

"Ron, are you okay?" Harry asked.

"Of course I am? What makes you think I´m not?" Ron asked.

"I don´t know, you just don´t seem like, like Ron I guess. What´s bugging you?" Harry asked.

"Oh, nothing. Seriously, the summer really wore me down. I just need some sleep," Ron said, getting up and walking up to the dormitories.

Hermione came back seconds later holding three butterbeer bottles in her hands.

"Uh, where´s Ron?" she asked.

"He´s not feeling very well, he went to bed," Harry answered.

"Oh... okay then, do you want to share this one then? After you´re finished with yours?" Hermione asked.

"No, you can have it," Harry said, taking one bottle from her and popping the top off.

"I can´t drink a whole other bottle though. And I have no place to keep it cold," Hermione pouted.

"Okay then. I´ll share it with you," Harry said. Hermione smiled. She set one bottle down on the table next to Harry and sat in a chair next to him.

"Harry?" Hermione asked after a while.

"Hmm?" Harry asked. Hermione looked over to him. His eyes were closed and there was a half smile on his face. He opened one eye and looked at her.

"Nothing... just checking to see if you were still awake," she lied. She wanted to ask him something. But she decided it wasn´t important right at that moment. She sat back as Harry closed his eye.

"Do you want to share that butterbeer now?" Harry asked.

"Sure," Hermione said. They both reached for the bottle at the same time. But Harry was quicker and he snatched it and popped the top off before Hermione could touch it. He smiled and handed it to her.

"Here, Hermione," he said.

The noise had dropped considerably in the Common room. It must have been about ten o´clock. Hermione was half asleep, but Harry woke her.

"Hermione, come and see this," Harry said.

"What?" Hermione asked, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"Just come and look," Harry said, grabbing her by the hand and leading her to a tall, open window looking to the south where the lake shone in the soft moonlight.

"What about it? It´s night? You know, it comes after day?" Hermione said sarcastically.

"Step up here," Harry said, climbing up on the ledge of the window.

"We´re not going to jump are we?" Hermione asked slowly.

"No, not at all," Harry said. "We´re on one of the tallest towers. I´m not that thick. Close your eyes."

"Okay," Hermione said, closing her eyes. Harry helped her up. He took both her hands.

"Follow me," Harry said. Hermione gulped and nodded. Harry walked out onto what seemed thin air. Harry had conjured up an invisible cloud strong enough to hold them both in mid air.

Hermione´s stomach was tied in knots. What was Harry up to?

They started to move at a slow pace, sometimes a little faster than other times but soon Harry ordered Hermione to open her eyes and what she saw amazed her. "Harry, it´s beautiful," Hermione said, smiling. There, in front of her, were the Northern Lights. She had only seen a handful of pictures and read only a small amount about them. There were also small meteors flashing across the sky in a shower of lights.

"I know," Harry said.

"But Harry, we really should get to sleep. We have," Hermione shuddered, "Potions first thing in the morning."

"Hermione... Look at that star over there," Harry said, turning to the brightest star in the sky, though it couldn´t be the north star, he was pointing to the west.

"Oh, it´s so bright," Hermione whispered. She watched it as minutes passed, it seemed to change colors, from white to blue, to red, to green, to gold and back to white just to start over. She didn´t notice that they were slowly making their way back to the window and soon the star was out of sight, behind a tall tower.

"Hermione," Harry whispered as he helped her back into the common room.

"Yes Harry?" she answered.

"You okay?" Harry jumped from the invisible cloud onto the window sill, narrowly making it to his destination.

"Of course Harry," Hermione said, yawning. "Ready to go to bed?"

"Yeah," Harry followed her up the stairs and they went their separate ways. But Harry barely slept that night. He wasn´t tired. But he felt weak as if he had been carrying something very heavy for a long amount of time. His back ached and his head throbbed with pain.

"Harry, you awake?" Harry heard the sound of Ron´s voice.

"´Course I´m awake," Harry said, as quietly as possible getting dressed behind his curtains.

"Okay, we´ll be leaving soon."

"I´ll be down in a minute," Harry said. "I need to get something quickly."

Harry lied, he didn´t need to get anything. Just get dressed. He had never slept in, not even on the weekends. Why now, why today? It was probably from his lack of sleep the night before but Harry didn´t think it. He rushed downstairs, books, quill, ink, and parchment filling his arms.

"Gee Harry, we thought you got lost or something!" Ron joked as they headed out of the common room.

"Ron. Be nice," Hermione said. Ron looked at her as they ran down the hall. "Be nice? You´ve never been so protective over our little Harry," Ron joked again.

"Ron, please, I´m very tired," Harry said. "Thanks ´Mione."

"You´re very welcome," she said as they stood at the entrance to the Potions classroom. They all took a deep breath and entered.

"Ah, the trio has arrived," Malfoy said as they entered the room. They knew he was going to be just like Snape, or worse.

"Yes Malfoy, and not a minute late," Ron sneered.

"That´s Professor Malfoy to you Weasley," Draco snapped. Harry, Hermione and Ron sat in the back of the dungeon, the same three seats they had sat in the past seven years.

Soon the rest of the class started to fill the room and not soon after it was time to start class. "Welcome all seventh years. I am your new Potions master, Professor Malfoy," Draco said smoothly. "As you know, this is your last year at this school. You will be learning more complex potions of course. Very dangerous ones at that. Including the Polyjuice Potion that we will be starting today." Harry, Ron, and Hermione smiled. Knowing that this would be easy for them, they had made it a few times but would always remember the first time the best. "But before we start that, I would like someone to tell me what a Polyjuice potion is, besides Granger there in the back."

Hermione looked down at the desk in disgust. Ron and Harry both raised their hands. Draco looked around the room to see if anyone else knew. He sighed deeply. "Weasley?"

"The Polyjuice potion makes you into the form of another person for an hour. One ingredient is lacewing wings. The color it is when fully brewed after a month is an acid green. And it´s also said to taste nasty," Ron said, wondering if he had said too much. "Oh, and you can´t change into an animal, like a cat or something."

Harry laughed quietly at the end of Ron´s last sentence. Hermione blushed a deep red. "Hm... nice Weasley... on then, shall we?" Malfoy had a disgusted look on his face, as always when someone knew more than he thought they were supposed to. But Ron, on the other hand, had a look of surprise on his face.

"Ron? Are you okay?" Harry asked.

"Fine, fine. But I never, ever heard Malfoy say the word `nice´ in a nice way," Ron said, still quite shocked.

"Now, get out your cauldrons. You will work in twos or threes. I don´t care who you chose to work with as long as you don´t cause a commotion," Malfoy said. Harry, Hermione and Ron did as they were told. "Now get out your new books, old in Weasley´s case, and open them to page 325. There you will find ingredients and instructions for the potion. Follow them and it will be simple. At the end of this month, after the final preparations are made, I will chose who will test the potion on whom."

Harry took out his new book "Intermediate Potions: Level Seven" and opened it to page three hundred and twenty five. There he found the familiar page Hermione had found in their third year.

"Here, we can use my book," Harry said. Pushing the book in front of him so his friends on either side could see it. They waited for Malfoy´s signal to start.

Malfoy say back in his desk chair and took a sip of something from a cup. "You may begin whenever you wish," he said lazily, eyeing the three way in the back.

"Hermione? You want to go get the ingredients from the shelves over there? Ron and I will clean the cauldron out," Harry said. Hermione nodded and got up from her chair.

"Harry, there´s a spider in your cauldron!!! Kill it! Quick!" Ron said, leaning back as far away from the cauldron as he could. Harry just smashed the spider with his hand and scraped it off on the bottom of the desk. Ron sighed deeply and returned back to his spot and helped Harry clean the cauldron out.

"Here we go," Hermione said, carefully setting a few bottles down in front of Harry and Ron. "Let´s get started!"

After about a half an hour of working on the potion the three sat down. Malfoy swiftly walked over to them.

"What are you doing? Resting? You need to finish the first part of this potion before the class is over," Draco said harshly. "Or it´s detention."

"It is done," Harry said, pointing to the semitransparent green liquid. Draco examined the potion and their work space carefully, making sure they had used every ingredient they needed for the first part of the potion.

"Very well then," Draco said. He walked away quickly and sat back down in his chair. Hermione, Harry, and Ron smiled as a Slytherin´s cauldron bubbled over. Crabbe and Goyle. They had been nothing since Malfoy had left. Ron suspected that Malfoy stole their brains because they were just getting stupider and stupider. But Harry agreed in a way. They did seem to do even more stupid things since Malfoy had left. Like the time Crabbe had set Goyle´s hair on fire for no apparent reason.

But Malfoy just sat there, letting them figure out how to clean the mess up. They struggled but after a bit found an old mop and cleaned up the steaming potion.

At least, everyone heard it. The bell signaling the end of the hour. Hermione, Harry and Ron quickly scurried out of the cold dungeon and up to where the light shone bright through the tall glass windows. "So, what do you have next Harry?" Hermione asked, looking at a piece of parchment.

Harry sighed and rolled his eyes. "We have to spend the next two hours in Divination," Harry said. "It better not be like it was with Trelawney, that was hell."

"Oh good, we have the same classes at the same time then," Hermione said. Ron and Harry stopped dead in their tracks.

"WHAT!!" they both yelled at the same time.

"Well it wasn´t the class itself, it was the teacher," Hermione said. "I´ve decided to take another whack at it. Maybe get some extra credit for graduation."

"Um... Okay," Ron said.

"We better get going then. No one knows how strict the new professor is," Harry said.

"Okay, come on," Hermione said, leading them up to the tower.