Part 2
The next month flew past and before I knew it, it was a couple weeks before class started. During the previous month, I had prepared all of my classes for the first term and had started to communicate with the man who I was working with, Hagrid. I managed to convince him that a book that tried to eat the reader wasn’t the best idea for students and we settled on using ‘fantastic beasts and where to find them’. I awoke this morning to knocking on my door. I opened the door and looked down the twisting hallway, there was no one there, I was about to close the door when I saw a rolled up newspaper on the floor.
After picking up the newspaper I closed the door. I walked over to the bathroom and turned on the sink, I cupped my hands underneath the water, the cold water freezing my hands. I splashed it on my face, forcing my body to wake up fully. I walked over to my wand and placed it in my pocket, so if I ever needed it, it was just in my pocket. Dumbledore held true to his word and had taught me a few spells, including the patronus charm, though he hadn’t told me much about how the school worked, only the things needed for my class. The floorboards creaked as my feet walked over them. I got changed into some of the clothes I bought the day before and left the room to have breakfast downstairs. The hallway was a confusing mess, I was constantly bumping into sticking out pieces of wood or sharp corners. I eventually found the stairs and started to descend them.
The food wasn’t anything special, just some porridge and pumpkin juice. I looked for a table to sit at but all of them were full, all except for one which housed a black haired boy with glasses. He was all by his lonesome, walking over to him I started to recognise him from somewhere but I wasn’t able to tell where I saw his face before. I sat down opposite him. He hadn’t noticed my presence, he was just aimlessly playing with his cutlery.
“Hey, are you ok?” I ask
He looked up, surprised.
“Who are you?” he responded. His words were laced in suspicion
“I’m Scott McCall, who are you?”
In response he just lifted up his fringe to show a lightning scar on his forehead. I raised an eyebrow in confusion.
“Is that supposed to mean something?”
His eyes widened immediately and let his hair fall again.
“No sorry, I’m just used to people at school recognising my scar.”
I could tell through his heartbeat that he was lying but I didn’t want to push him on it.
“So what’s your name?”
“Harry Potter, nice to meet you.”
I offered my hand and Harry shook it.
“Where’s your family?”
“My parents died when I was 1, and my aunt and uncle hate magic and all things associated with it.”
“You’re here all alone?”
“Yeah, for now at least, my friends should be arriving in a week.”
“Which school do you go to?”
“Hogwarts. Are there any others?”
“I don’t know, in case you couldn’t tell from my accent, I'm not exactly from around here. Could you tell me a bit about Hogwarts?”
And so Harry did, he told me all about the house system and the rivalries that ensued due to them, he talked about the chamber of secrets being opened in the previous year, he talked for ages on a sport he called Quidditch. He then went onto the topic of teachers, he talked about how Snape was biased, and that his two previous DADA teachers have been horrible. I hope for his sake that Remus ends out better than the others.
“Have you got your textbooks for the year yet?” I asked
“No, not yet.”
“Want some help? I don’t know about you but I would like to have some company,”
“Sure,”
At that we both rose from the table and grabbed the stuff we needed for the day and stepped into Diagon Alley. Luckily for the both of us everything could be found in the same shop, Flourish & Blotts. It took us a little over an hour to get our books and materials. When we finished the book buying, I decided to treat Harry with a bit of ice cream. Harry got a strawberry and peanut flavoured ice cream while I stuck with chocolate.
Harry seemed to be enjoying his ice cream. I remembered seeing a Quidditch store during my stay here, so I took him there. As soon as he entered the store Harry’s eyes widened with excitement and he ran around the store, looking at all of the new brooms. I just chuckled to myself and walked over to the book section of the store and started to look through them. One book stuck out to me, it was a red and green book with a golden and blue binder, it was called ‘tips and strategies for seekers’ I remembered that Harry mentioned that he was a seeker for his house team so I picked up the book and walked over to the counter and paid for it. Harry spent a few more hours in that shop, eventually I convinced him to leave by offering to pay for his lunch.
Harry and I spent the rest of the week hanging out at the Quidditch store, unfortunately I wasn’t able to meet Harry’s friends as Dumbledore wanted all the teachers at Hogwarts a week early so they could start to prepare for the first week of classes. I wrapped up the book I bought Harry and left it outside his door with a note and a knock on the door. I walked out to the front of the Leaky Cauldron where Dumbledore was waiting and we apparated to Hogsmeade.
…
My eyes fluttered open to the knocking of my door, the sound of fading footsteps filled my ears as I fumbled around trying to find my glasses. Remembering what day it was I quickly ran to get into my clothes and brushed my teeth. I open the door only to find a present with a note with my name on it. I take both the present and note in and start to open them. I open the note first and start to read it.
Dear Harry
I’m sorry that I couldn’t stay to meet your friends. I'm sure it would have been great, but my boss has called me back into my work a week earlier than expected. See you sooner or later, though if all goes well you’ll be seeing me sooner rather than later.
Scott.
I understood that he didn’t have a choice on the matter, but it still stung that the only person who only ever saw me as Harry Potter the random kid, not Harry Potter the boy who lived, had to leave only a week after meeting them. Though I didn’t know what he meant by seeing him sooner rather than later.
I opened up the present, laying in there was a book labelled ‘tips and strategies for seekers’. I felt my body shake with excitement before today the only Quidditch book I ever was able to read was ‘Quidditch through the ages’ and now I had one for seekers. I quietly thanked Scott and placed the book on the bedside table. I then started to walk down stairs and eat breakfast. Breakfast felt empty without talking to Scott but I kept thinking about how Ron and Hermione were arriving today, who knows maybe they’re already here. I quickly scoff down my sausages and I run off to Diagon Alley.
I walked around trying to find any sign of my redhead and bookworm friends, I ended up finding them at the Ice cream parlour. Or should I say they found me.
“OI HARRY, GET OVER HERE MATE!” Ron yelled. His voice barely able to heard over the rush of pre-school shopping.
I ran over them, Hermione was eating an ice cream while Ron was holding two ice creams. When I reach them Ron hands over one of his ice creams.
“Hiya mate, we were trying to find you at the Leaky Cauldron but they told us that you had already left.” Ron exclaimed.
“Wait how did you know I was staying at the Leaky Cauldron?”
“My dad works at the ministry, remember? Is it true that you blew up your aunt?”
At that Hermione elbowed Ron in the rib. Hard.
“Of course Harry didn't, otherwise he would have been expelled. Honestly Ron try thinking for once.”
“Actually I may have, sort of, did.” I whispered,
Even though it was nothing more than a whisper both Hermione and Ron heard. Hermione’s face was aghast though I couldn’t tell if it was because of me or because she was wrong, while Ron was clutching at his sides laughing his arse off.
“HARRY! That was extremely irresponsible and reckless. I’m surprised that they haven’t expelled you, especially considering last year.” Hermione screeched at me.
“It’s not like I wanted to do it, and I don’t even know how I’m not expelled.” I claim,
Hermione’s glare didn’t falter so I tried to change the subject.
“Hey Ron, how was Egypt?”
Ron’s giggling slowed but didn’t stop completely
“Wait, give me a minute. Ok Ok i’m good. It was great, Bill showed us around a tomb and Fred and George almost trapped Ginny in a tomb, though Scabbers hasn’t been the same since the trip, I might need to get him checked out.”
“My family said I could get an animal this year as my birthday gift, let’s do that now.”
And so we started to walk over to the pet, and as soon as we entered the shop some sort of cat jumped down from the ceiling and attacked Ron. It scratched at the hand that was holding Scabbers and at Ron's face.
“CROOKSHANKS GET OFF HIM” the old lady at the desk screamed.
The cat jumped off Ron and trotted over to the lady, Ron glared at the cat as he walked over to the old lady. The cat’s eyes left Scabbers and turned to me, they stared right into my eyes, and looked like it recognised me, and for some reason I felt like I recognised it too, but that was impossible since I’ve never seen it before in my life.
“My rat’s been sick recently, could you check him out?”
Ron and the lady started to talk about Scabbers but my attention was fixed on the cat, it then looked over to Hermione and started to scratch itself. Ron was given a rat tonic and we both left the shop leaving Hermione to pick out her pet. I don’t know what about the cat made it familiar but I was just glad that I never had to see it again.
“Hey Ron, Harry, meet my new pet Crookshanks.”
I turn and see Hermione holding the cat. Of course the universe hates me.
“YOU BOUGHT THAT THING!” Ron Yelled
“Oh, hush Ronald, he’s such a poor thing, he hadn’t been adopted for 12 years. So I decided to give him a new home.”
“What about Scabbers, how’s he supposed to rest with that thing around him.”
“Crookshanks will behave, won't you?”
I tune their argument out and start to walk back to the Leaky Cauldron.
Ron, Hermione, and I spent the next week hanging out having fun, though some of the time Ron and Hermione fought over Scabbers and Crookshanks. Before any of us realised it was the first day of school. We were taken to the station in ministry loaned cars, when Percy inquired about the cars Fred and George mocked him by claiming that they were here to escort Percy to Hogwarts, Mr Wealsey claimed that it was because they had lost theirs last year but we could tell he was lying since he never met our eyes. At first it seemed like it was impossible to fit all of us into the car but when we got inside the car the interior expanded, it was like that old tv show, ‘it’s bigger on the inside’. It didn’t take long for us to arrive at Kings Cross, we exited the car flanked by four Aurors, and they didn’t leave our side until we had entered the platform. Ron and Hermione boarded the train and I was close behind until Mr Weasley grabbed my arm.
“Now Harry the ministry didn’t want me to tell you this, in fact I might be risking my job telling you this but you need to know this,”
“If it’s about Sirius Black trying to kill me I already know, I overheard you and Mrs Weasley talking about it last night.”
The whistle blew signalling the last minute call.
“Promise me that you won’t go looking for Black.”
“Why would I go looking for someone who’s trying to kill me?”
“Just promise me.”
The train started to leave the station and I hopped onto the train without answering Mr Weasley. Ron and Hermione questioned me on what Mr Weasley wanted and I promised them that I would tell them later, due to me being late all of the compartments had been taken, we ended up joining a compartment that only had one other person in it. The man in the compartment was clearly not a student.
“Who’s he?” Ron inquired
“Professor Remus J Lupin.” Hermione supplied
“How do you know that?” Ron exclaimed, clearly annoyed that she knew who he was.
“It’s on his suitcase.” Hermione pointed out.
“Oh,” Ron added, “Is he asleep?”
To answer his question the man snored, I then shut the door so no one else heard us and started to explain what I overheard to my friends.
“Wait so Sirius Black is out to kill you? Why? And why’d my dad tell you not to go looking for him.?”
“I don’t know, but whatever the rea-”
The train suddenly stopped and our bodies were flung forward, though somehow the teacher had still not awoken. The lights went out and the door to our compartment opened, two figures stumbled into our compartment. We found out who one of them was when Ron stepped on their foot.
“RON, that’s my foot.” snapped Ginny.
“Ginny, what are you doing here?”
“I was wondering if one of you guys knew what was happening, I ran into Neville who had the same idea.”
“Hi,” Neville sheepishly announced.
The air became stale and the window started to frost over, I was able to see my own breath and the tips of my hair started to freeze, Ron, Hermione and I all started to huddle together to conserve heat. A hooded figure was seen just outside the door of our compartment, all of the happiness disappeared from my body and the door slowly opened. I started to hear a woman screaming somewhere but I was struggling to move my body to help. The screams increased in volume as the creature started to approach me. Its clothed hand started to reach for its hood and my vision started to fade.
“Expecto Patronum.” a voice chanted
I was barely about to see what happened but from the sudden increase in temperature I guessed that the creature was sent away. I realised that my glasses had fallen off my face. I start to look around for them.
“Here mate,” Ron said as he handed my glasses to me.
“Thanks, who was screaming?”
Everyone started to shift uncomfortably.
“Harry no one was screaming” Hermione answered.
“But I heard screaming.”
It was at that moment Professor Lupin sat down next to me with a block of chocolate.
“Here, eat this. I need to talk to my colleague about what that dementor was doing here.”
And with that he left the compartment and walked down the train. Within a few minutes the train started to move again. The rest of the train ride was rather uneventful, we all got changed into our robes and started to play exploding snap. Ginny ended up winning most of the games, much to Ron’s dismay. When we got off the train we passed Malfoy and his cousin Scarlett Arcanum.
Arcanum has a personal vendetta against Hermione since Hermione always beats her in every exam. Ron, Hermione, Neville and I all got into one of the carriages and the carriage started to move on its own. We all arrived at Hogwarts and started to filter into the Great Hall. It was there I finally understood what Scott had meant when he said that he’d be seeing me sooner rather than later, because sitting at one of the professor's seats with a large grin on his face was Scott McCall.
Word Count: 2818