School is back in session!
"Psssst, Harry!" Harry opened his eyes and sat up, wincing when Sirius shone a torch right in his face.
"What?" Harry hissed.
"Summer ends in a week!"
Harry blinked. "So?"
"So... we only have one week to make our dreams come true!"
Harry shot out of bed. "You mean it? We're going to Las Vegas?" Sirius chucked him a passport, and he caught it, grinning at the name in the front cover.
Daniel Radcliffe.
"We need to go quickly, before Molly or Minnie catches us." Sirius warned as Harry started throwing things into his school trunk, which Sirius then charmed to look like a muggle suitcase.
"What about Remus?"
"Don't worry, I've dealt with him."
Harry raised a brow. "You put a note on the fridge, didn't you?"
".... maybe?"
"You are such a coward."
They snuck down the stairs and had almost made it to the front door, when-
"Where do you think you're going, oh cousin of mine?" Tonks asked, wand pointed directly at them. Harry turned around and waved with a grin.
"Dearest cousin, why are you here?" Sirius hissed, hand still on the door handle.
"Mother had the night off and wanted to spend it rekindling her relationship with Aunt Narcissa." Tonks stepped closer. Harry stepped behind Sirius. "I came along, since Charlie's here." Sirius waggled his eyebrows and Tonks went red.
"He's my best friend, you idiot!" She whispered harshly. "Now, tell me where you're going or I'll go and wake up mum."
Sirius gulped. The Black sisters were terrifying alone, let alone together.
"We're going to America!" Harry said helpfully. Sirius facepalmed.
"Smooth, Potter, real smooth."
"Well it's not like she's going to tell anyone!" Harry retorted. "She's more likely to come with us. We're going by plane rather than by house elf, because you can't apparate to other countries and I've always wanted to go on a plane! Do you want to come?"
"Well, I do technically have a muggle passport." Tonks said brightly. "How about a deal? Take me with you, and I won't snitch. And that way you've got protection if Voldy finds out too."
"Oh, he won't." Harry said confidently. No one questioned him on it.
"If she's coming, we're going!" Harry's smile grew wider when he saw his favourite twins standing in the kitchen doorway, arms folded.
Sirius groaned and turned to face the two newcomers.
"Fred, George, absolutely not!" He growled. "Your mother will kill me!"
"She'll live. And she'll kill you for taking Harry anyway, he's her favourite. Besides, Lee and Angelina are running the shop for the next week anyway."
Fred and George had revealed their purchase of Weasleys Wizard's Wheezes on the third day of the summer break. They used their temporary expulsion to find a building, buy it and get all set up ready to open in the summer. They'd been extremely successful so far, and their siblings and parents were very proud.
"Fine!" Sirius sighed. "But you can work out your own passports."
They had a lovely time. After discovering that you have to be over 21 to drink in the USA, Sirius shrugged and took them all to Disney Land Florida instead. Harry was delighted to get on a plane again.
For Harry's first ever real holiday, it was a blast. He was surprised when instead of getting in trouble, Dobby appeared in their hotel room one evening with a letter from Dumbledore, telling them to have fun and to send a patronus if they found themselves in danger.
Then Remus, Kingsley, and Bill showed up, apparently to make sure they didn't all accidentally kill themselves. Susan coming with them was the icing on the cake.
"Auntie wanted me out of the country for a while, Voldy's got it out for her at the moment." She explained. "Oh, I've never been on a roller coaster before! Come on!"
When they returned no one told them off, but after two days of nonstop singing Snape laced their food with an apparently specially created potion of his own design, which silenced them whenever they tried to sing. At all.
He had smirked evilly and promised it would wear off by Christmas.
Harry and the twins brought several pairs of Mickey Mouse ears for all the others. No one wore them except for Luna, who chose the pink glittery ones.
And then they were back off to school. Harry had returned to all of his shopping done, as Dumbledore had apparently decided Diagon Alley was less safe than being in an entirely different country. He might have been right for once as apparently Moody, Molly and Charlie got ambushed when they went to get everyone's school supplies. They all survived, but Charlie almost lost his arm.
"I can't believe we've only got two more years at Hogwarts left." Hermione said sadly as she rested her head against the carriage window.
"If we even make it to seventh year." Draco chimed in, sounding bitter. Harry nodded in agreement with the blonde. Things were starting to look worse for their side of the war, and Susan's aunt had warned them that the ministry may not be on the right side much longer.
Harry didn't really think about sides much. He didn't agree with some of the things the light said and did, but he didn't like the dark side either. In fact, the only side he liked was Luna's.
Everyone looked up when Luna herself spoke. "I think." She said, tilting her head. "I think it's too early to think negatively."
It wasn't confirmation or denial of Draco's statement, but Luna's comment seemed to reassure Hermione, who gave the blonde a fierce hug,
"Luna's right." Susan said, sitting down next to Harry. "But it doesn't hurt to be prepared. You all know the plan for this year, yeah?"
They all shared grim looks, and nodded. They knew what they were up against, who they could and couldn't trust. Harry had told them about Dumbledore's request for private lessons, which Harry had agreed to as long as Ron and Hermione could attend with him. As the two friends he'd had since first year, he felt he owed them that much.
This year, they all sat together for the welcome feast at the Gryffindor table. Harry had been delighted to discover Katie had been made captain of the quidditch team, and she gave him his seeker position back immediately. Dumbledore had returned his broom during the summer.
"I'm surprised at how easily you just handed Umbridge your broom last year." Ginny told Harry, who shrugged.
"It didn't really bother me, since I had Kreacher go and buy me another firebolt as soon as we got back to Gryffindor tower." Everyone stared at him. "What, did I forget to tell you?"
"To be fair, none of us asked." Ron said, and Harry laughed loudly.
The group made a point to cheer for every single student that was sorted. Blaise joined them from the Slytherin table and Harry looked over at the Hufflepuff table, where Cedric had once done the same thing.
"It's weird without the twins, Lee, Angelina and Cedric, isn't it?" Ron whispered to Harry, who smiled sadly and nodded.
Dumbledore gave his usual speech, and Harry grinned proudly as he noticed there were several new rules put in place, mostly due to him.
"You can't ban jam!" One of the Ravenclaw fifth years had cried out in outrage.
"Oh yes he can!" Harry shouted.
"Oh no he can't!"
"Oh yes he-"
"Mr Potter!"
"Sorry Sir, thought I was at a pantomime. Carry on." Harry sat back down, along with all the muggleborns who had happily been shouting with him.
"Yes, well-"
The next morning, they received their new timetables, and Harry was pleased to see he had the exact same classes as last year. Except for History of Magic, which he was finally allowed to drop.
"Potions first!" He said, comparing with Neville.
"Not for me!" Ron said cheerfully. "Free period. "In fact, now that I have this timetable, I'm going back to-"
"You aren't going anywhere, Weasley." McGonagall said, rapping him on the head with her parchment. "I think the fewer free periods you lot have, the better. I've spoken to Professor Slughorn and he is very happy to have you in his potions class."
"No!" Ron groaned. "Also, what is it with you teachers and hitting me with parchment?" McGonagall smirked.
"And as for you, Mr Potter-"
Harry looked up. "Yes?"
"I see that you are free every Tuesday at ten, Wednesday at three, and Friday at 11." McGonagall informed him, eyes glinting in a way Harry knew fairly well by now.
"Yep!" Harry said. "Any particular reason why?"
"Because, Mr Potter, you received an O+ in your Defence Against the Dark Arts OWL. Which means that you now have the opportunity to gain an extra qualification."
"In what?"
McGonagall smiled. "Assistant teaching."
"Assistant Tea- is that really an actual thing?" Harry asked. McGonagall nodded.
"Your mother chose to take this extra qualification using her O+ in Charms. She decided not to pursue one in Potions."
Harry's eyes lit up, just as Snape walked past.
"And so because my O+ is in DADA..." He said slowly. Snape froze. McGonagall smiled wider.
"Yes, should you choose to, you can assist Professor Snape in teaching the first to third years Defence."
"No." Snape whispered, and the same time Harry exclaimed, "Yes!"
"Excellent!" McGonagall said briskly. "Your free periods will be spent with Professor Snape. You'll have the first years on Tuesdays, Third years on Wednesdays, and Second years on Fridays. Starting from next week, we'll let everyone get settled in for a week first."
Snape gave McGonagall a look of absolute horror, and Harry grinned wider than ever before.
"This is going to be awesome!" Harry squealed.
If looks could kill, McGonagall would have been very, very dead.
"Well now that's sorted, do have a biscuit Mr Potter. And you, Mr Weasley." Hermione covered her laugh with a cough.
Harry decided to partner with Hermione in Potions. Now that Slughorn was teaching and they were in their NEWT years, Harry had decided to restrict himself to only cooking in Potions lessons once a week.
"Oh yes, Harry, I've been meaning to ask." Hermione had said before their lesson. "Surely all the food you baked and cooked in these lessons wasn't safe to eat because of the potions fumes?"
"Dobby put up special wards for me." Harry explained. Daphne opened her mouth to ask a question, being the warding nerd she was, but before she could Slughorn asked them to sit down and take out their textbooks.
It was only once they'd all sat down that Harry realised he'd forgotten to pack his potions textbook.
"You are such an idiot, Harry!" Hermione exclaimed. "How did you forget it?"
"I was reading it the day before we left for Hogwarts!" Harry hissed back. "I needed to find something out."
Hermione rolled her eyes, and Harry asked Slughorn for a spare copy of the potions book. He sent Harry to the cupboard, and he returned with a far-too-pleased smile, flipping the book open and finding the right page.
"Well, this looks fun to brew." He said. "Oh look, my book is covered in writing. I'm completely surprised by this, how on earth could it have happened?" Daphne gave him a look, but he ignored it. The girl was always so suspicious of him, she was worse than Hermione.
Hermione snatched the book and skim read it, frowning. "Whoever owned this has changed the instructions, look." She said, pointing at crossed out parts of the instructions and the messy script in the margins.
"Look, Hermione, you're probably going to tell me it's a reckless and dangerous idea, but-"
"We should definitely use your book Harry." Hermione said firmly. Harry blinked.
"You sure?" Hermione nodded.
"None of these changes would cause the potion to blow up or anything, only maybe go a bit wrong." She explained. "So we might as well test them."
"I forgot how much you love experiments." Harry said, shaking his head fondly. "Okay, so the book says to crush those with the flat of the blade instead of slice..."
By the end of the session, Harry and Hermione's potion was perfect.
"Excellent work, you two!" Slughorn praised, handing them both a small phial of Felix Felicis. "I only have one, so I am afraid you'll have to share. But marvellous effort, both of you!"
Harry and Hermione high fived under the table.