A New Beginning

Chapter 1

Harry Potter slowly wheeled his trolley over to the division between platforms 9 and 10 at King's Cross Station. Hedwig, his snowy white owl, screeched loudly. A crowd of Muggles turned their heads, but then went back to the tedious task of wheeling their own trolleys to the correct platform and complaining loudly to the dubious conductors that always seemed to be walking around.

Ten minutes to wait. Ron promised he'd meet him there, but, knowing Ron's family, they might have forgotten to take along quills and had to rush back home. Oh, well. He would catch him on the train. Very slowly he eased his trolley through the wall, then leaned through himself. The enormous red train of Hogwarts sounded its whistle, and a cloud of scream hissed off. Harry wheeled his trolley to where most of the students were congregated.

Nearby Malfoy, and his two fellow idiots Crabbe and Goyle laughed ape-ishly at Neville Longbottom, who was trying to stuff his toad, Trevor, into a very small carrying cage. He wasn't succeeding. A few steps away from him, Hermione, her nose buried in a book, was sitting on her Hogwarts trunk. She already had on her robes, and had gotten glasses over the summer. A welcome face, finally.

Uncle Vernon hadn't really been especially foul that day- since he had mentioned Sirius to his Muggle side of the family, they had been especially lenient, even if they were always ignoring him. Fortunately, Dudley had been sent off for the summer to a special "fit camp" where boys were taught to have a good time and burn fat at the same time- at least, that's what the brochures said. Aunt Petunia spent most of her hours, since she didn't have to cater to Dudley's enormous appetite anymore, knitting sweaters or crocheting blankets for Duddy-dumpkins to use for camp, and trying to persuade Uncle Vernon to bring him back. Uncle Vernon occupied his time by playing golf. Harry expected he had never been happier in his life.

"Harry!" Hermione had seen him. He waved, and wheeled himself and his trolley over to her. She smiled at him. "Harry, have you seen Ron? He said he would meet us here."

For a minute Harry sighed inwardly. Ron again? But then he smiled. "No, just got here myself. I s'pect Fred and George tried to get him to turn some Muggle yellow."

"Well, I hope he won't miss the train. But I'm really glad to see you Harry! Sorry we didn't write much- do you know how hard it is to get a letter over here from the East?" She frowned. Hermione and her family had taken a vacation to China this summer, and evidently Hermione hadn't enjoyed it very much. "All that hassle! The country was beautiful, but with all the people running around, you'd never get to see it! Huge towns. The Chinese wizards are super, though. Do you know that some can transfigure themselves into dragons? It drives the China-Muggles mad! And they don't have broomsticks over there- just flying carpets."

Harry smiled, then noticed a few sprigs of red hair just coming onto the platform, wheeling trolleys. "Ron!"

"What has he got himself into now?" Hermione asked under her breath. Harry nodded. Ron was completely covered in black soot. Mrs. Weasley paced after him with a wet cloth and tried to clean some of it off. Fred and George were laughing. Ginny was blushing, and walking along.

Ron dragged his trolley toward them, and waved his Mom's arm away. Half of his face was still soot covered. Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle pointed and sniggered. Mrs. Weasley frowned and handed him the cloth, then walked away through the wall.

"What went wrong, Ron? Hey, Ginny, Fred, George." Fred and George smiled. Ginny nodded, then looked over in Malfoy's direction. Ron looked disgusted.

"Dad was trying to make another enchanted car, and decided to enlist my bloody self to help. The bloody thing blew up! Or, at least, the radio did. Got Dad worse than me- he got a scratch up the side of his face- nothing serious. But Mum wanted to race home help him." He rolled his eyes.

"S'pect she wanted to get away from us," Fred said.

"From you, you mean," said George.

"Quit it. The train's about to leave. Hurry." Ginny left, without so much as a good bye. Ron shrugged. Just then, the train whistle blew.

"Another year," Harry grinned.

"Thank gosh," Hermione said, "I was just about to go crazy. I enlisted in half as many classes as last year. Who d'you think's the new Dark Arts teacher?"

They raced toward the train, and stepped in just a few seconds before the train started and the whistle blew. Fred and George ran off to find the other Quidditch players, probably to discuss the new season, (he thought Wood had sent detailed plans to cover them for the next thirty years) and Ron, Harry, and Hermione went off to find an empty car. Ron went off to the restroom to try and wash off the rest of the soot.

Just then, Malfoy walked onto the car, his father close behind him.

What now?

"Hello, Potter. I would like to introduce you to my father- the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Yes, I'm afraid it will be a very interesting year for us, Potter. And you, too, Mudblood."