Harry Potter and the Secrets from the Past

4. COMING BACK TO HOGWARTS

...

The lions’ den

Is still reality

Coming out is not possible for us

It is a false slogan.

...

“Our Dear Angel” by Lucio Battisti

Finally Harry was sitting at the Griffyndor table in the Great Hall at Hogwarts, and with Ron and Hermione, he was ready to listen to Albus Dumbledore’s welcome speech.

That morning he and his friends ran to King’s Cross station to catch the Hogwarts Express on time: as usual they went there escorted by Lupin, Moody, Tonks and a few other wizards from the Order to avoid any bad encounters. The trip to Hogwarts had been quiet, and they did not meet Malfoy and his cronies either. Harry thought that probably Malfoy was ashamed to show his face, since now everybody knew that his father was a Death Eater, confined in the Azkaban prison.

He was happy to be at school again, and sitting there with everyone chatting and giggling around him, his troubles seemed far away.

When Dumbledore was ready for the speech, everybody became silent.

“A warm welcome to all our students. As every year I expect that you will follow our school rules and I remind you once more that the access to the Forbidden Forest is still forbidden.

Now it is my pleasure to give a welcome back to Professor Remus Lupin, who will be our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher for this year.”

At hearing this, all the students burst into a great applause, since most of them remembered very well that Professor Lupin was a good teacher.

Harry, Ron and Hermione were for sure the most surprised of all, because during their stay at Grimmauld Place nobody told them about this news.

“But why didn’t they tell us anything at all?” complained Ron, a little bit upset.

“Maybe Lupin did not know about that until today,” said Harry, trying to find a good explanation, but Hermione remained silent with a large smile on her face.

“No, but... it is not fair Hermione, you knew about that! Isn’t it true?”

“Yes, I knew it! But Professor Lupin made me promise not to say anything to anyone...” admitted Hermione quietly, but Ron was even angrier.

“Are you our best friend or not? Then why do you always keep secrets just for yourself and don’t say a word to us?

Harry raised an eyebrow, fearing that his friends were starting to argue as usual, and he suddenly interrupted them before it was too late.

“Now that’s enough, please do not argue any more or I will start screaming!”

Harry frowned at them both and they immediately stopped arguing, turning their concentration to their dishes that in the meantime, have been magically filled with a great quantity of delicious food.

***O***

The week started busy as always: subjects were much more difficult in the 6th year, especially since they were going to prepare themselves for the 7th year N.E.W.T. examinations.

Harry and Hermione both had the same classes, while Ron, who did not pass Potion O.W.L.S., had an alternative class instead.

The three of them did not have subjects like Divination, Astronomy, History of Magic or Care of Magical Creatures anymore during the 6th and 7th year, but instead they had more weekly classes on the most important subjects like Potions, Transfiguration, Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts.

Since Harry came back to school, he noticed a really positive thing: he did not have those bad nightmares about Sirius death anymore, and he could not understand why; maybe after his return to Grimmauld Place, he sort of overcame his bad mood, or maybe Dumbledore’s positive vibrations were helping him feeling better. Anyway the important thing for him was that now, he could manage to sleep the whole night and that was giving him the strength he needed to go on.

The first school day, Harry and Hermione were going to start their Potion class with Professor Snape. After breakfast, they said good-bye to Ron, who was attending an altenative class, and went down to the dungeons. Ron would see them in Transfiguration class, two hours later.

In front of the class entrance, there were already many Slytherin students, who Professor Snape probably had helped pass the examinations; on the contrary, there were really a few Gryffindors apart from Harry and Hermione, like Lavender Brown, Parvati Patil and Seamus Finnigan. To their great surprise, there were also a few students from Hufflepuff, like their friend Ernie McMillan and Susan Bones, and a few others from Ravenclaw, who Harry did not know.

Harry and Hermione reached their friends, who were chatting quietly. Then Harry glanced quickly at the Slytherin group and noticed that Malfoy was coming closer, followed by Crabbe and Goyle.

“Uh oh, I smell trouble...” commented Seamus. In fact Malfoy did not lose time and came facing Harry and Hermione with an evil sparkle in his eyes.

“Look here, we have Saint Potter and his Mudblood friend.... I did not think that Snape would have admitted you two to the Advanced Potions Classes, but I was wrong. How much did you pay him to let you pass the O.W.L.S.? Or maybe Snape needed someone to make fun of during the next two years?” He ended the sentence with an evil laugh, imitated by Crabbe and Goyle.

Harry was already losing his temper, when Hermione stopped him grabbing his arm and whispering to him.

“No, Harry... he just want to provoke you... do not listen to him.”

Harry remained still, but he gave Malfoy an angry look to challenge him.

“What is it, Potter, cat got your tongue? Or maybe your Mudblood friend commands you like her trusted dog?”

Now, Harry had enough of that, and answered back.

“It is strange Malfoy, I thought that after your father had been sent to Azkaban, you would not have the courage to show your ugly face at Hogwarts again! Well, I was wrong, because you are still here, unfortunately...”

Harry’s challenge had the effect of a knife blade, which cut deeply into the pride of Malfoy, who immediately took his wand out of his robes.

Harry was faster and he took his wand out before Malfoy. In a second they were facing each other with wands ready in their hands. A worried whispering ran through all the students and Hermione brought her hands to her mouth, fearing the worst.

“Don’t...... you... dare... talking..... about.... my father..... Potter.”

Both gazed at each other full of hate, when suddenly the classroom door opened and Professor Snape reached them in a fury.

“What are you doing Potter? Put away that wand immediately! Do you want to get detention on your first school day?”

Harry lowered his wand and decided not to reply, because he knew very well that it would have been useless with Snape; Malfoy lowered his wand too, and when Snape turned to enter the classroom, he whispered to him, “You are going to pay for this, Potter”

The whole thing ended with Snape taking 10 points from Gryffindor.

As usual, Snape did not say anything about Malfoy having his wand out like Harry, but it was clear now that Malfoy was Snape’s favourite student.

Harry and Hermione sat together in one of the last desks. Hermione kept commenting on what had just happened and she was mad at Snape for how he had treated Harry.

“He took 10 points from Griffyndor and it is just the first lesson!! It’s not fair, I cannot even think about it!!”

Harry was already accustomed to Snape’s unfair treatments and he did not care any more about that.

Anyway, the rest of the lesson went on without any accidents, and Harry tried to keep his eyes low, to not provoke his teacher.

From his side, Snape was not taking his gaze away from Harry, and had made clear to all the students that the last two Potions years were going to be the hardest and that they was going to put out their maximum effort.

Thank God the two hours of Potions passed by quickly, and Harry and Hermione reached Ron in Professor McGonagall’s classroom for two hours of Transfiguration. The three friends sat in some desks backwards, and Hermione started to tell Ron about what had just happened.

Like Professor Snape, Professor McGonagall also pointed out that she was going to expect the maximum effort from all the students.

When they reached the great Hall for lunch, they were tensed like a violin string.

“And it is just the first day! I cannot imagine how the rest of the year will be!”

Ron was really exhausted. Harry and Hermione looked at him with understanding, but the day was not finished yet: they were still going to have two hours of Charms and one hour of Herbology.