The Fountain of Oblivion

Chapter 5: Hogwarts Bound

The days until the start of term passed at a quicker pace than Harry would have guessed. In no time he found himself packing and preparing for his trip to Hogwarts. He was eager to rejoin the school he had come to consider his home for the last five years and could easily see that Ginny, Ron and Hermione felt the same. Not that staying at the headquarters was boring, quite the contrary in fact, with new curses and hexes to learn, wizard chess to play, Weasley Wizard Wheezes jokes to discover, Order members to talk to and Buckbeak to care for. Harry's day were passing in an eye-blink. Yet, he had a longing for flying above the Quidditch pitch, for the mysterious contour of the lake and of the Forbidden Forest and even for Professor McGonagall's stern voice giving them myriads of essays to write.

On the last day of holidays, Harry woke very early, finished packing silently in order to not wake Ron, who was still snoring quietly in his bed, and with a wave to Phineas Nigellus went down to breakfast. Kingsley Shacklebolt and Remus Lupin were having an early breakfast, and he joined them, thoroughly enjoying the discussion they were having about how the Order was going to approach Madam Bones in order to co-operate in the second war. He had already finished eating when his friends came down. Ginny and Ron had pinned their Prefect badges on their cloaks and when Mrs.Weasley saw it, Harry had the distinct impression that tears where shining in her eyes. He spent a long time talking with her and wishing her well before leaving.

They travelled using ministry cars to King's Cross, accompanied by Hestia Jones and Nymphadora Tonks. Tonks spent all the travel telling jokes about her job and Harry was almost disappointed to have to leave her when they arrived at the station.

''Wotcher, Harry, Ginny, Hermione, Ron, work well and be nice to your teachers, mind you,'' she told them before going away, which made them all laugh once more as she had just finished telling them how she had metamorphed in her boss's boss the day before to avoid getting in trouble. ''I should try to impersonate Madam Bones. She is in charge now; it would be most useful,'' she had ended.

Platform Nine-and-Three-Quarters was as crowded as usual, and Harry greeted many of his friends from Gryffindor as well as members of the D.A. Dean and Seamus had spent their holidays together in Muggle London, and were telling how Seamus had got drunk in a disco they had entered using a Confundus Charm on the bouncer and how he had started casting summoning spells at random, and how the ''randomly cast spells'' always seemed to land on pretty girls clothes. As Harry was listening to their story, he realised that even though he had lived with the Dursleys eleven full years, he knew almost nothing of the Muggle world. He had never entered a disco himself, and wondered vaguely how it was. Surely a bit like the Yule Ball, he told himself, even though the Yule Ball had been very different from what Dean and Seamus were describing. Harry then saw Ron engaged in a discussion with Ernie MacMillan and Hannah Abbot, the Hufflepuff prefects and members of the D.A.. He set off to join their discussion when a cheerful voice called for him.

''Harry, hey, Harry!''

He turned around and immediately recognised the always eerie gaze of Luna Lovegood. She had grown taller during the summer, and her hair was even longer than last year but that only added to her oddly graceful appearance.

''How's your summer been?'' Harry asked.

''Brilliant,'' she said in an even voice. ''Dad and I have been following the trail of a Crumple-Horned Snorkack all summer. We almost captured it at the end but finally decided it was best to let it live in his natural environment. You will read about all this in the next issue of The Quibbler. How was yours?'' She said the last words without any pause so that Harry stared a few seconds into the silver always-surprised eyes of Luna before understanding she did not mean how was his Crumple-Horned Snorkack, but how his summer had been.

''It was okay. You know, I live with Muggles and they don't like me very much so I don't do many things during summer,'' he said.

''They don't?'' Luna said, genuinely shocked. ''That's strange, I would have thought everyone did. Is your good friend Ron here too?''

Harry told her he was and started to put his stuff on the train. He knew Ron and Hermione had to go to the prefects part at least at the beginning of the journey, so it was useless to wait for them. He just told Ron where he intended to sit before boarding.

''Have you noticed this girl?'' Ron said, pointing to a very pretty girl who was talking with Katie Bell. She seemed to be in seventh year, yet Harry was sure he would have remembered her had he seen her before.

''She is an exchange student from Beauxbatons,'' said Hermione, who had approached without them noticing. ''She already has her BAC but she wanted to see a bit of the world before settling for a job.''

''What's the BAC?'' asked Harry.

''Brevet AvancŽ de Charmes; that's how they call NEWT at Beauxbatons. What's wrong, Ron, do you object to the presence of a French girl so much you have to stay open-mouthed in protest?'' she added to Ron in a rather chiding tone. Ron, who had been indeed watching the girl with his mouth open for a quite long time, turned away in a second.

''I don't protest, as long as she does not force me to eat toads. Anyway, how did you know that Hermione?'' he said.

''It's frogs they eat, not toad,'' Hermione said and they started arguing at such an alarming rate that Harry preferred to go inside the Hogwarts Express for good. Just as he was setting foot on the train, he saw that Draco Malfoy and his mother were standing a few compartments away. Draco was staring at him with frantic blood-shot eyes, and his pale face was trembling with anger. Harry did not flinch under his gaze, reminding himself Lucius Malfoy had only got what he deserved. Yet he was troubled by the vision of Draco's mother. He had met Narcissa Malfoy on a few occasions before, and she was then good looking, even though extremely haughty. Now, it was a frail woman that was clutching Draco's arm. She had a feverish, unhealthy look, and a shadow seemed to be spreading on her once beautiful face, making it almost like a cadaver's. They turned away from Harry; Mrs.Malfoy barely bid her son good-bye and walked off Platform Nine-and-Three-Quarters. Draco cast longing looks in her direction as she disappeared through the barrier, but not once did she look back. When she was gone for good, he took out a bright blue bottle from under his robes and drank a small sip of it, before entering the train.

When Harry found himself a place in a compartment, he suddenly felt a strange uneasy nostalgia. Thoughts of Sirius and of his earlier more innocent years came and went through his head. He realised then for most of his three first years at Hogwarts, fighting Voldemort had been a kind of game for him. A game where he had to face death more than once, but still some kind of harmless fun where everything always seemed to smooth out conveniently in the end. How he wished the same was possible now! Harry would have preferred staying alone, especially because now all his closest friends were attending the prefects meeting, but he knew only too well that the Hogwarts express was always very busy and sure enough, the train had just started when a wind blown Neville, Luna, and a boy Harry did not know but recognised as a sixth-year Slytherin entered the compartment. Harry gazed at him but the boy sat just as if the compartment was empty and absorbed himself in the reading of a book, not acknowledging their presence in the slightest way. Harry must have looked quite grim because Neville felt compelled to ask him if he could sit here with him.

''Of course,'' Harry answered, lightning up a bit. ''How was your holiday, Neville?'' Neville had grown-up during the summer, and his face was now a mix of the familiar childish roundness and of the more square jaw that gave him a powerful appearance when he looked back at Harry. A second later though, Neville smiled, and all Harry could see was the moon-shaped visage he knew so well.

''Kind of busy and unexpected,'' Neville said. ''Dumbledore himself has stopped at home to have a tea with my Gran right in the middle of the holidays. He has insisted on taking me to Ollivander's in person, so I could chose a new wand. You know, now that my father's one has been broken,'' he added in a shy whisper that was reminiscent of the Neville Harry had known in the first years at Hogwarts. ''Of course, my Gran said a man like Dumbledore had better things to do, but he would not change his mind.''

''So what's your new wand then?'' Harry asked.

''Nine and a half inches, holly, unicorn hair,'' Neville said with pride. ''Told me it was good for Charms.''

''Dumbledore came to visit my Dad, too,'' Luna said. ''I think Dumbledore wanted to be sure that Hogwarts would be the first institution to study the Crumple-Horned Snorkack once we had one captured. Dad seemed to be very happy with the interview.''

They went on talking about anything that come to their minds. Neville had settled on the Herbology, Transfiguration, Charms and Defence against the Dark Arts NEWT. Of course, he had had an outstanding OWL in Herbology, and also in History of Magic, to his great surprise. ''I am not going to take it, mind you, too boring, and you don't know how relieved I am to have my Potion OWL.''

''You know, History of Magic wouldn't be so boring if Professor Binns taught us about the Dark Conspiracy during Middle Ages, or about how Ministers of Magic have used the Imperial curse to get elected,'' said Luna, without looking up from her issue of The Quibbler.

''You mean the Imperius curse,'' said Harry, suppressing a smile.

But Luna gazed back imperturbably and said, ''Of course not. The Imperius curse cannot be used to control more than one person at time. Everybody knows that. Only the Imperial curse can do so.''

The Slytherin boy let out a faint yet sardonic chuckle of laughter but said nothing. Harry had the impulse to ask him if anything was wrong with him, but before he had the chance to do so, Ginny burst in the compartment, quickly followed by Hermione and Ron. The compartment was now quite cramped but also much more lively. The discussion quickly drifted from the names of the new prefects (the other Gryffindor new prefect was Colin Creevey to Harry's great surprise, but Ginny assured him he was a capable wizard), to the constitution of new Quidditch teams to the D.A. starting again. When this last topic came out, Harry lowered his voice a little, though he was no more than a few feet away from the Slytherin boy and had no real hope of hiding it from him, then remembered Dumbledore was going to speak about it at the feast anyway.

''You know what Harry, I am glad you are going to teach again. You know I have practised casting a Patronus during the summer, but I can't do it really right yet,'' Neville said. At these words, the Slytherin boy threw a quick glance at Neville, trying hard not to show that he was surprised to hear about Harry teaching Patronus. But he remained silent. Harry noticed that Ron had been watching the boy since he had arrived, and was about to open his mouth, when the door of the compartment creaked one more time.

''Sorry, it's full now,'' Ginny started, but a spiteful drawl cut her off in the middle of the sentence.

''I have no envy to sit here, Weasley. Seeing you wearing a Prefect badge is despicable enough without having to lay my eyes on your freckled faced brother dating a Mudblood,'' Draco Malfoy said, for once standing alone at the door. Ron jumped directly at him, his eyes full of a rage Harry had never seen, but the six arms of his sister, Luna and Hermione grabbed him at the same time. Draco had not budged an inch, his blood-shot eyes still scanning the compartment.

''So that's Gryffindor bravery. How many more females do you still need at your side, Weasley?''

Harry stood calmly, tightly holding his wand. Just as he was doing this, Neville did the same. Harry remained calm and was determined not to loose control of the situation, although he could feel suppressed anger and hate. ''Give me a reason, Draco, and I swear I will do it,'' a voice inside him whispered.

''Leave, Malfoy, that will be my only warning,'' Harry said in a cold yet steady voice. ''Leave.''

''So the Potter boy makes threats now?'' Draco just said, and a wild and odd trembling shook his body. An ominous silence spread. Ron was still struggling against the three girls to get at Malfoy, while Harry and Neville were standing, motionless, their wands ready. With a surreal calm, the Slytherin boy flipped a page of his book.

''Why are you doing here, consorting with the shame to our kind, Zabini?'' Draco finally said, addressing the boy for the first time.

''Where I sit is not your business, Malfoy,'' the boy answered without interrupting his reading. ''Go harass some first-years and let me read now.''

The strange shiver shook once more Draco's body and with no warning he turned on his heels and disappeared. Ginny let go of her brother but Ron had apparently held himself for as long as he could because the longest and most creative series of epithets Harry had ever heard resonated in the compartment and in the train corridor. Hermione turned pale and looked at Ron with a scandalised face, while Luna dissolved in a high-spirited laugh.

''What kind of example are you giving to first-years, Ron?''

''That was so funny, Ron, you know what it made me think about?''

''Besides, you cannot lose your temper each time you are going to meet Draco this year.''

''Baboon's backside. . . .''

''Hello, I am Harry Potter,'' Harry said, reaching with his hand towards the Slytherin.

''Oh really, you are?'' the boy answered ironically. ''Who would have thought?'' But then he noticed Harry's hand, raised an eye-brow, hesitated for a second and shook it briefly. ''Blaise Zabini,'' he said.

The remainder of the journey was tainted by a strange atmosphere. Outside, the weather degraded quickly from a nice and sunny afternoon to a cloudy and dark evening. Unnatural forms appeared in the sky, materialised by black and thick clouds, and the sun rapidly vanished. Even though the members of the D.A. kept on talking, Draco's interruption had left a bitter mood, and soon Luna resumed her reading of the Quibbler, absent-mindedly joining the conversation from time to time. Hermione tried to speak about the forthcoming election of the new Minister of Magic, but no-one else had read the article of the Daily Prophet she was alluding too, so she too stopped talking. Ron was the only one who kept speaking heartily and he started giving advice to Ginny about how to be a prefect, under the amused looks of Harry and Neville.

''The trick is to make them all understand that you are the boss, right at the beginning,'' he said.

''Yeah, Ron, like by sinking in an armchair when your brothers are testing fainting fancies on first-years. Impressive authority and responsibility you showed then,'' said a scathing Hermione. Ron looked at her awe-struck, but she looked upset though Harry was not sure about what exactly. So Ron went on just as if nothing had happened. ''And watch out for Peeves too. . . .''

All-in-all, Harry was relieved to arrive at Hogwarts, and he happily took Hedwig's cage and the remainder of his luggage in order to get out as soon as possible. The night over Hogsmeade was star-less and both the cheerful voices of students and the powerful calls of Hagrid seemed muffled by the humidity-laden dusk air. Still, Harry felt more relaxed and ill-at-ease than he had been since the confrontation with Draco. It was even with some emotion that he saw the Thestrals, patiently waiting to carry the carriages, unnoticed by most. Harry saw that Luna was stroking gently one, muttering soft words to the dragonish head, and also that a group of Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs pointing at her and laughing like mad.

''You can wish you don't know what she is doing,'' he thought bitterly and entered the carriage he had saw Ron go in. Hermione and Ginny had taken another one, so they travelled alone. After a while, Ron turned towards him.

''Do you reckon we can trust that Zabini? I mean, he could be spying for Malfoy, right?''

''What could he tell him? Most of the talk was your advice to your sister on how to deal with Peeves. And I did not have the impression he was to fond of Malfoy anyway,'' Harry answered truthfully, but Ron's face was still tense.

''Why does Hermione always yell at me?'' he spurted without any warning. ''Listening to her, you'd think I'm a total failure.''

Harry racked his brain to find a comforting answer for his friend but was so puzzled by the question he only managed to clumsily reassure Ron that it was not the case. Then, without more warning than his previous question, Ron asked Harry who he thought would be Minister of Magic, and they were admitted that they were both perfectly clueless when they passed under the formidable oak doors of Hogwarts. The Entrance Hall was brightly lit by warm torches and the shouts of students were ringing loud in stark contrast to the outside gloom and silence. When Harry entered the Great Hall, he had the now familiar, yet always embarrassing impression that eyes were converging in his direction. Known and unknown faces were throwing less than discreet looks towards him as he walked alongside the four immense tables. Harry guessed that the Daily Prophet had kept on writing articles about him. He would have liked to dissolve in a silvery mist like the ghosts that were drifting above and he wished his fellow students would stop staring at him. He tried his hardest to ignore it and to show a friendly face to every one who smiled to him. Ron and Hermione had already sat and were speaking with Seamus Finnigan and Colin Creevey, while Ginny had sat a bit further away, close to Dean Thomas. Just as Harry was about to sit, he caught sight of Cho Chang sitting at the Ravenclaw table, and their eyes met. Harry waved imperceptibly at her, and he thought he saw her blush a little; she waved back, then sat and did not look at him anymore.

''Have you seen the new Defence against the Dark Arts teacher?'' Hermione asked.

''Er, no, you Hermione?''

''Well that must be her,'' she said, pointing to a young witch in purple and black robes seated between Hagrid and Flitwick. She had long dark hair with slightly coloured cowlick and a thin face with an olive complexion. She looked remarkably young to teach there, as Harry had the impression she was not older than Bill Weasley. He could not fail to notice that she was definitely prettier than most. She was talking with her neighbours, smiling openly.

''Now we're talking!'' said Ron. ''The times of Umbridge and the like are over.''