It'd Probably Be Easier to Domesticate a Hungarian Horntail than Get a Straight Answer out of Harry Potter
Tuesday, 1 September 1998
The compartment was silent.
“Did,” Blaise started, “did you just say Regulus Black?”
“Yes, sir.” Harry said, still wearing that cheeky grin, “thus the ‘Arcturus,’ it was his middle name, and my mum decided it flowed better in the insane string of names than ‘Regulus.’ Which, I guess, is a solid point.”
“Didn’t he die before you were born?” Blaise asked in a slightly incredulous tone.
“Yeah,” Harry said, sobering slightly, “he died in late 1979. I think we told you lot about how he discovered the Horcruxes?”
“Yeah, you mentioned that when you and Neville were talking about the prophecy.” Theo confirmed.
“Well, he wasn’t ever necessarily with Voldemort,” Harry explained, “he joined because it was what his mother expected of him but he’d actually been in a relationship with my dad, well, with James,” he corrected with a wry grin, “during their time at Hogwarts. He took the Mark during Yule break of his 5th year, James’ 6th year and they got in a huge fight and broke up then, during James’ 7th year, he was named Head Boy and my mother was Head Girl, they’d been writing each other over the summer and Lily realized how much James had matured and then sometime during fall term those two started dating.”
“Right, I’d heard that,” Theo said, “and then they got married a year after Hogwarts?” he asked.
“Correct,” Harry nodded, “as far as anyone knew, those two got together, got married, then had me, simple as that. But, what really happened was that at the very end of their 7th year, Regulus approached James, telling them that he was sorry for how they’d ended, that he didn’t really believe in anything Voldemort was preaching but that he’d essentially been forced to take the mark and, with Sirius running away, he was the last option for Heir and it’d be essentially impossible for him to escape as well without literally being killed in the process, he then told James that he had been trying to find a way to explain this all to him earlier in the year, hoping they could get back together, even if it had to be in secret, but then James and Lily had started dating and he decided it was pointless.”
“Wait,” Theo interrupted, “how do you know all of this?”
“James and Lily left a letter explaining everything along with their journals in the main Potter Vault which I was supposed to be taken to before I started Hogwarts. It had the letters and journals along with notes I was meant to study on my Family Magics, but I only ever saw my School Vault,” Harry answered.”
“Why do I feel like that was Dumbledore’s doing?” Blaise hesitantly asked.
“Because it was,” Harry answered sharply before taking a breath and saying softly, “I still can’t figure out how I’m supposed to feel about him.”
“Feel however you want, Hadrian,” was Theo’s no-nonsense response.
Nodding in thanks, Harry continued, “Regulus, I guess, decided that he at least owed it to himself to explain and apologize, even if it didn’t mean getting James back so he’d approached Lily, asking her if it’d be alright if he explained himself to James because he didn’t want to overstep. She encouraged him to speak to James thinking that would be that, but then I guess she saw how happy and at peace James was after he and Regulus had reconciled, and she got an idea in her head. See, Lily had always had a bit of a crush on Regulus herself and thought, why not. Regulus and James would never be able to be together in the open at that point in the war so no one would know at least until the war was over, Lily and James would have their own private spy on the other side, and they could all work to keep the three of them and their respective friends safe.”
Here, Harry paused for a steadying breath before continuing, “what they didn’t account for was how absolutely bat shit crazy dear old Tommy Boy had become nor did they account for the fact that Peter Pettigrew was both a literal and figurative rat,” he sighed, “it all worked well for a while but shit really started hitting the fan in early 1979. They all started losing friends, one after the other, it became obvious that there was a spy somewhere in the Order and they all knew they weren’t the leak. Then, in November, my mom realized she was pregnant. They weren’t seeing Regulus as often at that point because he’d become obsessed with something they never figured out but that I know was the Horcrux, so he wasn’t around much. Anyways, they knew that I was the child of Lily and James. They were finally able to tell Regulus in early December, Lily wrote that Regulus was incredibly excited by the news. James wrote much the same thing but, by Lily’s own admission, James was always a bit better at reading Regulus. James said that while Regulus was incredibly excited, there was also something about him that was sad.”
“When, exactly, did Regulus die?” Theo asked softly.
“New Years Eve, 1979.” Harry answered.
“Oh,” Theo breathed out.
“Yeah.” Harry whispered.
“So, how’d you end up blood-adopted by Regulus?” Blaise asked after a moment of silence.
“He spent Christmas with them that year and then went to James on Boxing Day and gave him a phial containing a completed blood adoption potion ‘just in case,’ before heading back to Grimmauld Place, he disappeared on New Years Eve and no one ever knew what happened until I went to the cave with Dumbledore at the end of 6th year,” Harry said, starting to tear up, “he drowned in that cave. My papa’s body was in that cave,” tears were starting to flow freely down his cheeks, “after I forced that potion down Dumbledore’s throat and grabbed the locket, Dumbledore was begging for water and the spells on the cave prevented you from summoning any, so I was forced to take the goblet to the edge of the water and the inferi almost dragged me under. If Dumbledore hadn’t had that moment of strength and summoned flames I would’ve died the exact same way he did.”
Theo reached out and gently wiped the tears away from Harry’s face before running a hand softly through his hair and pressing a gentle kiss to his temple. Harry leaned into his touch before looking back up, taking a breath, and continuing his story.
“Anyways,” Harry said, shaking his head and pushing away his grief, “when I was born, James and Lily decided to give me the blood adoption potion. They realized at that point that it was incredibly unlikely Regulus would ever resurface but they wanted him to be a part of me, they wanted me to be his heir and his legacy. What they didn’t quite account for was the fact that I might inherit more than just the Black Family Magic. Lily’s journal said that I had some features that looked more Black than Potter, like my hair being jet black rather than dark brown and the shape of my nose. They didn’t think anyone would notice because, apparently, both of my grandmothers had had black hair, so it’d be an easy explanation, and the exact shape of my nose wasn’t necessarily noticeable unless someone was incredibly observant. The issue, however, was that the Black Blood made me a Metamorphmagus.”
“Wait, what?” Theo yelped, “you’re a Metamorphmagus? Like Teddy?”
As an answer, Harry switched the color of his eyes and hair, making his hair bright green and his eyes pure black, which, in retrospect, was a rather creepy look.
“Whoa,” Blaise breathed out.
“Yeah,” Harry responded, “it’s pretty cool, but the issue is that infants have very little control over the gift so I’d constantly shift the color of my hair and after a day, my mum and dad decided that they’d need to bind the gift until they were in a place where they could explain Regulus’ place as one of my parents. Their wills had very specific instructions to remove any and all bindings that they had to place on me to keep me safe but, in the aftermath of Halloween, their wills were never read so the literal infant binding on my core wasn’t actually removed until this summer.”
“Are you saying that you made it through 6 years of Hogwarts and several face-to-face encounters with the Dark Lord with an infant binding on your core?” Blaise demanded, utterly shocked.
“Yeah,” Harry shrugged, as if that were no big deal, “anyways,” he continued, “like I said, their wills had a request that this block or glamour be dispelled as soon as it was safe which, logically, wasn’t a super specific request but didn’t matter in the end because, again, their wills were never actually read.”
“So, then the Goblins just removed those blocks and glamours?” Theo asked.
“Yes and no,” Harry responded, “when my inheritance test showed the existence of blocks, glamours, charms, and potions that were never removed when they should’ve been, it became evident that no one had ever run a full diagnostic charm on me meaning –”
Theo cut him off, saying “meaning there was never any full record of your health?”
“Exactly,” Harry nodded, “when their healers ran a full diagnostic I swear, they almost proclaimed war against my relatives. I had injuries starting at the age of 2 running all the way until my 17th birthday with obvious gaps during the months I’d spend at Hogwarts, save for the few times I landed myself in Poppy’s care. Ragnok himself was ready to take up arms. Apparently the Goblin’s first rule is you don’t fuck with children.”
“I’m guessing they phrased it differently,” Blaise said.
“On my mother’s name, Blaise, Ragnok, the King of the sodding Goblins, literally said ‘the most important rule of the Great Goblin Nation is no one fucks with children,’ before he literally dragged me into one of their healing chambers and all but tied me to a bed.”
“But if you had so many bindings and injuries, how’d it only take, like, a day for them to deal with everything? You were back the next day to see Ron and Hermione off to Australia?” Theo asked.
“Well, once they realized how much time it was going to take and also realized that I might benefit from a little mind healing, we ended up spending that day making a plan instead of doing any actual healing.”
“What do you mean?” Blaise asked.
Just then, a knock sounded, “hold on,” Harry said, standing up and unlocking the door, finding Neville, Draco, and Pansy on the other side, “finish your meeting?” Harry asked.
“Yup,” Neville responded, “Ron and Hermione are on patrol right now with Ernie, Hannah, and the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff 5th years, but we’re all done for the moment,” he explained while the trio made their way into the compartment, Harry closing the door behind them and taking a seat in between Neville and Theo with Draco and Pansy sitting down on either side of Blaise. “So,” Neville continued, “what are you lot talking about?”
“That’s a loaded question,” Theo muttered.
Blaise gave Harry a questioning look, wondering what, if any of that, he wanted to share with them.
“Neville and Draco already know all of this,” Harry explained in response to Blaise’s look, “the long and short of it, Pansy, is that my parents were in a secret throuple and I’m actually the son of James Potter, Lily Evans, and Regulus Black.”
“Ah,” Pansy said, with a nod, “that explains a lot.”
When it became clear that that she was perfectly fine with that explanation Theo said, “really, Pansy, no questions?”
She just shrugged before saying, “he’s always sort of looked like a Black that somehow miraculously got a tan, it’s really not that far-fetched of an explanation.”
Laughing at Pansy’s response, Harry shook his head before continuing, “so, anyways, with all those injuries and bindings and whatever,” before being cut off by Pansy who, apparently had questions now.
“Wait,” she cut in, “bindings?”
“Yeah, I had an infant binding on my core as well as a block on a certain Black Family Gift,” he said, shifting the color of his eyes and hair again, “that were never removed because my parents wills weren’t read and then I had a few potions and compulsions that seemed to be Dumbledore’s way of making sure I wouldn’t become the next Tom Riddle which, on some level, I understand but maybe, I don’t know, making sure I grew up loved would’ve been a more simple solution,” Harry said before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, “anyways,” he continued, “with all of my injuries and the blocks, it was going to take a lot of time to heal me so Ragnok offered the use of one of the Goblin’s Time Chambers.”
“I didn’t think they let anyone use those,” Blaise said.
“They usually don’t,” Harry confirmed, “but somehow, despite breaking into the bank and releasing a dragon, I earned the favor of the Nation. So, Ragnok, Andromeda, and Narcissa,” he started to explain before being cut off by Draco muttering, “that is a terrifying combination.”
“Right you are, Little Dragon,” Harry responded, “so the unholy trinity spent a week or so gathering resources and recruiting healers from both the Goblin Nation and St. Mungo’s. The particular chamber I was in was created so that a full day inside the chamber was only an hour in the real world.”
“Wait,” Theo started, “so that weekend you spent at some unnamed Potter property you were actually at the bank?”
“Well spotted, Theodore,” Harry responded, shooting Theo a grin, “yeah, I spent 60 real world hours, so 60 days, inside the chamber with a staff of physical and mind healers, they removed all the bindings and such first so that my magic had time to settle and then they systematically healed all of my physical injuries. I had quite a few bones they had to entirely vanish and regrow, they were even able to fix my vision to an extent. Apparently some of my issues were due to head injuries, not just the bad eyesight that’s prominent in the Potter line. I also spent a fuck tone of time speaking to mind healers and working through everything. I’m by no means entirely better, but I think I’d be a blubbering disaster if I hadn’t taken that time and, better yet, taking the time to heal myself put me in a better place to be there for Teddy and the use of the time chamber meant I didn’t even need to spend that long apart from him.”
“Okay,” Blaise said, trying to process the utterly insane info dump that had taken place over the last half hour, “my next question is how the fuck did you grow so much in such a short amount of time?”
“Oh,” Harry said, “that’s an easy one.”
Easy one? Blaise mouthed to Theo.
“Yeah,” Harry said, undeterred by everyone looking at him like he’d finally snapped, “turns out,” he started, “when you no longer have someone else’s soul riding passenger in your brain and when you have full access to your body and, on top of that, are given an insane course of potions to correct years of malnutrition, you grow to the height you were always supposed to be,” he concluded with a shrug.
“You’re really lucky you have magic,” Draco said, “from what I understand, that type of thing would never be possible with traditional muggle healing.”
“Draco, I’m lucky I have magic because otherwise I’d be dead.” Harry answered, still slightly grinning, apparently unperturbed by that admission.
“I think I’m going to kill the Dursleys.” Draco decided.
“Get in line,” Theo muttered.
“I’m pretty sure Ragnok called dibs,” Harry said with a shrug, “I’m sure he’d be happy for your assistance,” he told them, before saying, “the issue, however, is that they’ve seemingly disappeared off the face of the Earth.”
“What do you mean?” Pansy asked.
“I mean, a few hours before the Order picked me up in the world’s most insane retrieval mission the night before my 17th birthday, the Dursleys were moved somewhere, probably to a place Dumbledore planned before he died, and the only person who knows where they went is Moody who was killed while we were moving from Surrey to the Burrow.”
“What do you mean by the world’s most insane retrieval mission?” Draco asked, “I don’t think I’ve heard that story.”
“I mean, someone’s bright fucking idea was that they’d have a dozen people Polyjuice themselves as me and each Harry would travel with a different guard, by broom, from Surrey to Ottery St. Catchpole in the middle of the night. We got found by a bunch of Death Eaters and, miraculously, the only casualties were Moody and Hedwig.” Harry explained, “granted, it was a tricky situation because the blood wards at Privet Drive would break when I turned 17 but, until I turned 17 I still had the trace so any magic that I used or that was used around me could be tracked by the Ministry and we had no way of knowing who in the Ministry would report that information back to Voldemort. The issue though is, like Hermione loves to say, wizards don’t have a lick of common sense.”
“Hey,” was the grumbled shout from everyone else in the compartment.
“They all forgot that cars existed.” Harry said.
“But,” Draco fumbled for an answer, “the Ministry cars are still technically magical transportation, and they’d have to have gotten one from the Ministry, so it still would’ve been tracked.”
“Draco, Muggle cars aren’t magic.” Harry answered in a matter-of-fact manner.
“Where would they get a Muggle car though?” Draco shot back.
“Hermione literally obliviated her parents and shipped them off to Australia, I really don’t think she would’ve drawn the line at also stealing one of their cars,” Harry responded.
“You’ve got a point,” Draco conceded.
“So,” Harry said, “long story short, I’m extra orphaned, the Goblin Nation is super fucking cool, and the Dursleys are missing. Oh, also, I’m finally tall,” he concluded with a grin.
“What name are you going to use at school?” Pansy asked.
“I’m not actually sure,” Harry answered, “everyone knows me as Harry Potter, and I really don’t want to use all of my names, but I sort of want it to be clear that I’m also a Black. It doesn’t feel fair to Regulus to gloss over that fact.”
“Trust me,” Pansy said, “it’s pretty clear you’re a Black.”
“You think?” Harry asked, seeming a little shy.
“I do,” Pansy answered with a decisive nod.
“She’s right,” Draco said, “you do still look like James’ son with the glasses and the messy hair and that stupid grin.”
“Aw, thanks Draco,” Harry said, sporting said stupid grin.
“I’m trying to be nice, shut the fuck up,” Draco responded, “so, you definitely still look like a Potter, but your face is all Black. The only thing that throws it off is your skin tone and the fact that you don’t have the signature grey eyes,” he concluded with a shrug.
“Yeah, I actually figured out where the eyes came from.” Harry said.
“You have your mother’s eyes, everyone’s always said that,” Theo said, “what do you mean you ‘figured out’ where they came from?”
“I guess I mean where her eyes came from then,” Harry responded, “you’re all more aware of magical inheritance than I am so we all know that when Draco says that I don’t have the Black’s ‘signature grey eyes,’ he’s being literal. It’s not like Muggle genetics, there are certain features that are passed down by Magic that are solid indicators of what family someone belongs to. Like Draco’s white-blonde hair is from the Malfoy line and the grey eyes are from the Black line, everyone knows where those features came from. So, logic and general knowledge of magical inheritance says that I should’ve ended up with the Black’s grey eyes, but I didn’t, the question is why?”
“Ah,” Theo said, remembering what Harry had shared earlier, “are the eyes a Gaunt trait?”
“The only way that’d happen,” Blaise argued, “is if the green eyes were a signature trait of an even stronger line than the Blacks and I don’t think the Gaunts were a stronger line.”
“Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner!” Harry exclaimed.
“Explain.” Draco demanded.
“Like I told Theo and Blaise earlier, Lily Evans, notorious muggleborn, was not, in fact muggleborn.” Harry said.
“Explain more.” Draco responded.
“My maternal grandfather, Henry Evans, was the child of a man also named Henry Evans, and a woman named Lillian Gaunt.”
“I thought the Gaunts died out when Morfin and Marvolo went to prison?” Theo said.
“Not entirely,” Harry responded.
Realizing that Harry was either too tired from explaining everything so far to give an actual answer or, more likely, he was being a little shit, Neville decided to offer an explanation, “from what Harry saw in a pensive memory with Dumbledore and what we were able to glean from the family tree, the Gaunts were near squibs after generations of inbreeding and exiling themselves from society. Marvolo Gaunt lived on the edge of Little Hangleton in the Gaunt Shack with his children, Morfin and Merope, but they weren’t the only remaining Gaunts. Marvolo had a younger brother, Marvin who ran away from his family at a young age and ended up in Birmingham, likely working a low-level industrial job as he wouldn’t have had any sort of education. As far as we can tell, Marvin was actually a squib. He didn’t have any of the family magic, namely, Parseltongue, but that doesn’t mean his blood didn’t have some magic.
“Squibs, as we know, are able to use passive magic and learn things like herbology and potions, they just aren’t able to use active magic. As such, logic dictates that magic would continue to be passed down. Our theory is actually that most, if not all, of the muggleborns are actually descendent of a squib line and Magic chose to bless certain children with the full gift.
“Anyway, eventually, Marvin Gaunt met a woman named Maureen Hogan in Birmingham. Marueen’s family had moved from Ireland to Birmingham when her father got a job at the local university. They got married and had Lillian who grew up to marry Henry Evans, they then had Henry Evans, Jr. who got married to a woman named Rose, they then had two daughters; Petunia and Lily.”
After taking a moment for that to sink in, Draco responded, “so the eyes are a Gaunt trait? And the trait made itself clear in Lily? How did it override a Black trait though?”
“Almost,” Harry said with a smirk, “the eyes are a Slytherin trait.”
“Which is strong enough magic to dominate a Black trait,” Pansy concluded, “that makes sense.”
At that point, they all sat in silence for a few minutes, thinking through everything Harry, and subsequently Neville, had just explained. Just as Theo was about to start talking about something random to try and change the conversation, someone knocked on the compartment door again. Neville opened the door to find that Ron and Hermione had returned from their rounds, meaning it was Draco and Pansy’s turn to collect the Slytherin 5th years and join the Ravenclaw 8th and 5th year prefects in patrolling the train for the last hour before they reached Hogsmeade.
When Pansy and Draco left the compartment, Blaise moved down the bench so he was next to the window and directly across from Theo while Ron and Hermione moved to sit next to him, with Ron across from Harry and Hermione across from Neville.
Neville succinctly caught Ron and Hermione up on what they’d been discussing which was rather easy as they already knew everything that Harry and Neville had shared.
While those three were chatting, Harry, Theo, and Blaise seemed to be having a debate entirely in looks and gestures before, seemingly, Harry and Theo won based on Blaise huffing an annoyed breath and slumping back in his seat with his arms crossed.
At the sound of Blaise’s huff, Neville turned toward the group saying, “I feel like I’m missing something here.”
“Nothing important,” Harry responded with a wave of his hand.
“Nothing important?” Theo asked with an amused smirk.
“You suck.” Harry said.
Leaning in to whisper directly into Harry’s ear, Theo responded, “not yet.”
“You know,” Harry said, trying to sound casual and trying to hide his blush, horrifically failing in both instances, “I’m going to go find Luna. She said she had something she wanted to talk to me about on the train.”
“Didn’t you already find Luna?” Blaise asked, faux-innocently.
“Did I say Luna?” Harry said, “I meant Ginny,” he stuttered out before rushing out of the compartment.
“I’m going to go stretch my legs,” Theo said, doing a much better job of coming off as casual, also doing a much better job of coming up with an excuse.
After Theo left the compartment and the door had closed, Hermione turned toward Blaise and simply said, “they’re fucking, right?”
While Neville choked on oxygen and Ron sputtered, Blaise simply smiled serenely.
“About bloody time,” Hermione said.
“What do you mean ‘about bloody time’?” Ron demanded.
“They’ve been circling each other for weeks,” Hermione responded, somehow sounding both fond and exasperated at Ron’s obliviousness.
“Even I noticed that and I’m almost as oblivious as Harry,” Neville said with a shrug.
“Harry’s not oblivious!” Ron said, trying to defend his friend.
“Ronald,” Hermione sighed, “Harry didn’t realize Ginny fancied him until part way through our 6th year.”
After spending a full minute trying to come up with a counterargument, Ron finally conceded, “you might be right.”
“The question is,” Neville started, “if Harry’s so oblivious, how did this happen?”
“I think,” Hermione responded, “that the amount of time he’s spent working with mind healers has helped him recognize emotions and has also helped him realize that he’s deserving of people’s love and affection.”
“You’ve got a point, Granger,” Blaise said, before continuing with a slight laugh, “but I’m about 95% certain that the key answer is that Theo kissed him first.”
Changing the topic, Blaise continued, “he never actually told us what name he wants to use at school.”
“What do you mean?” Ron asked.
“Pansy asked him earlier what name he’d be using at school,” Blaise explained, “and he said that everyone knows him as Harry Potter, and he doesn’t necessarily want to use all of his names because that’s just … a lot … but that he’d like to make it clear that he’s also a Black because he wants to honor Regulus.”
“Then,” Neville continued, “we went entirely off the rails when Pansy ensured him that he looked like a Black and Draco agreed, except for the eyes, then we had an impromptu genealogy lesson and then you lot showed up.”
“Exactly,” Blaise said, “so he never actually reached a conclusion on what he’d like to be called.”
“Potter-Black is a pretty easy change,” Hermione mused, “but we’ll just have to ask him when he gets back from ‘talking to Ginny.’”
At that moment, as if called, the compartment door opened to reveal Ginny who smiled at the group, ignoring the shocked looks on all of their faces in favor of asking, “anyone seen Haz?”
Shaking her head and ignoring Blaise’s sudden laughter, Hermione responded, “he left to look for you but, knowing him, he likely got thoroughly distracted.”
Laughing, Ginny responded, “you’re probably right, I’ll go sit with Luna, they have an uncanny ability to find each other anywhere, in any place, at any time so he’ll probably show up eventually.” She then turned and walked back down the hall.
Blaise, still laughing, choked out, “that was too good.”
“Merlin, someone should probably tell McGonagall why he’s Potter-Black now before she thinks she’s facing an ode to the Marauders and decides to quit,” Ron said, before a frighteningly mischievous grin spread over his face, “or” he started, “we could not tell her.”
Instead of letting that plot go any further, Hermione grabbed a piece of parchment and a quill out of seemingly nowhere and penned a quick letter to McGonagall, banking on her assumption that the professors, or at the very least Minerva “Minnie” McGonagall, knew of James and Regulus’ relationship.
Professor McGonagall,
Don’t fret, all is well on the train, just wanted to warn you – knowing that you haven’t seen Harry in person since early July – that he underwent some healing and cleansing at Gringotts over the summer and is hardly recognizable. He’s much taller and has finally put on weight which makes his facial features a little more distinct … meaning he finally resembles all of his parents rather than just having ‘Lily’s eyes,’ and ‘James’ hair.’ On that note, he may request that professors refer to him as Potter-Black rather than just Potter.
Ronald pointed out that his new look and last name might strike the Fear of God into the Hogwarts staff that remember James and Sirius, so I wanted to head off that, very reasonable, panic and let you know that, while Sirius did name Harry his heir, that is not why he holds the Black Lordship nor the last name. He hasn’t made any official announcement of this, and I’m not exactly sure what his plans are in that sense, but I know he’d be alright with you having this information; Harry is the son of James Potter, Lily Evans, and Regulus Black.
I’m assuming you were at least somewhat aware of the relationship between James and Regulus while they were at school so I’m guessing this isn’t too much of a shock.
See you soon,
Hermione Granger
She then folded and sealed the letter, opened the window and sent Pig toward Hogwarts.
“Buzzkill.” Ron muttered.
“Did you mention that he also looks nothing like he did the last time she saw him?” Neville asked.
Hermione nodded in response.
“Smart,” Neville praised, “everyone’s still on edge and he really does look different if you only ever saw him from afar, it’s a good idea to at least let her know that the Harry Potter everyone’s expecting to walk in the doors is long gone.”
“Solid point,” Ron conceded.
The group then settled into pleasant conversation for a while until Harry and Theo returned, trailed by Ginny and Luna.
“We’re almost to Hogsmeade,” Luna announced.
Looking out the window, they all saw the little village in the distance. Realizing they maybe had five minutes until they reached the station, Blaise, Theo, and Harry (who, unlike their Prefect friends, hadn’t had a reason to get into their school robes yet) shoved everyone out of the compartment so they could change.
Five incredibly frazzled minutes later, the train slowed to a stop at Hogsmeade station, and the friends made their way off the train to board the carriages toward their final year of Hogwarts.