━━━━━━━☆Harry☆━━━━━━━

I was walking down a long winding corridor that seemed to never end. The walls were so close that I had to walk sideways.

"Harry."

The voice echoed around the long hallway but I kept on going. I could feel that I was almost there.

"Harry."

I saw it. A door. I tried to open it but it wouldn't budge no matter how hard I pulled.

"Harry!"

I turned around. The face staring at me was familiar, too familiar.

Cedric smiled at me, "It wasn't your fault Harry. You did everything you could. Now you have to let me go. . . better hurry up, Mum's going ballistic, she says we're going to miss the train. . . ."

Cedric's face changed shape and started to resemble something more... Weasley.

"Harry! We're going to be late!"

That awoke me completely.

Ron was standing over my bed, already dressed and brushing his teeth. He had a worried look on his face. "You were mumbling something, it was Cedric again wasn't it?"

I brought my knees up to my chest and put my head down. After a while I popped back up. "It doesn't matter now. We can't miss the train again."

There was a lot of commotion in the house. From what I heard as I dressed at top speed, Fred and George had bewitched their trunks to fly downstairs with the result of hurtling them  straight into Ginny and knocking her down two flights of stairs into the hall.

Mrs. Black and Mrs. Weasley were both screaming at the top of their voices.

"COULD HAVE DONE HER A SERIOUS INJURY, YOU IDIOTS!"

"FILTHY HALF-BREEDS, BESMIRCHING THE HOUSE OF MY FATHERS!"

Hermione came hurrying into the room just as I was putting on my pants. Hedwig was swaying on her shoulder, and she was carrying a squirming Crookshanks in her arms.

"I brought Hedwig for you," the owl fluttered obligingly over and perched on top of her cage, "are you ready yet?"

"Nearly — Ginny all right?" I couldn't find my glasses and my scar was burning.

"Mrs. Weasley's patched her up," said Hermione. "But now MadEye's complaining that we can't leave unless Sturgis Podmore's here,otherwise the guard will be one short."

"Guard? We have to go to King's Cross with a guard?"

"You have to go to King's Cross with a guard," Hermione corrected him.

"Why?" this was starting to irritate me. "I thought Voldemort was supposed to be lying low, or are you telling me he's going to jump out from behind a dustbin to try and do me in? Anyway, isn't Percy supposed to be my new bodyguard?"

"I don't know, it's just what Mad-Eye says," said Hermione distractedly, looking at her watch. "But if we don't leave soon we're definitely going to miss the train. . . ."

"I'M WAITING FOR YOU LOT!" yelled Mrs. Weasley from the kitchen. Hermione helped me quickly pack all my robes and books into a suitcase.

"You knew we were leaving early in the morning, why didn't you pack up last night?"

"I..." I trailed off. After all she was right, I am kind of dumb.

That's when Percy bust into the room, his hair ungroomed and a toothbrush between his teeth. "Hurry up, she scares me."

Downstairs it was even more chaotic than it had initially seemed. Mrs. Blacks tapestry thing was howling in rage and Mrs. Weasley was howling right back.

"Harry, you're to come with me and Tonks," shouted Mrs. Weasley over the repeated screeches of "MUDBLOODS ! SCUM! CREATURES OF DIRT!" "Leave your trunk and your owl, Alastor's going to deal with the luggage. . . . Oh, for heaven's sake, Sirius, Dumbledore said no!"

A large black dog had taken its place on my right side. I scratched it's head and he seemed to really enjoy it. He even tried to roll around and get some belly rubs but Mrs. Weasley shooed him off.

"Come on Molly, no one would recognize me. And Albus doesn't need to know." The dog had dissapeared and I realized I was now patting my godfather on the back. I quickly pulled my hand to my chest.

"Oh fine!" Mrs. Weasley shouted, rolling her eyes dramatically. I started to understand where Percy got his attitude from. "But be it on your own head."

The black dog returned again, wagging it's tail happily. It followed the Weasley's out the door. I looked back at Grimoire Place. Can't say I would miss it. I gave one final middle finger to ol Mrs. Black and closed the door behind me.

"Where's Tonks?" I asked once I walked down the steps of number twelve, which vanished as soon as I turned around to look at it.

"She's right up over there." Mrs. Weasley pointed to an old lady with white hair and a hunchback. Her shawl covered her face but I could practically feel Tonks smirk under it.

"Wotcher, Harry," she said, winking. "Better hurry up, hadn't we,Molly?" she added, checking her watch.

"I know, I know. But MadEye wanted us to wait for Strugor. I don't know why Arthur couldn't get us some flying cars from the Ministry. How Muggles travel, I will never understand."

The walk to the Platform was uneventful. Sirius chased a few cats here and there and almost got ran over, but other than that, the next twenty minutes were silent.

Once inside the stationwe waited casually beside the barrier between platforms nine andten until the coast was clear, then we each leaned against it in turn and fell easily through onto platform nine and three quarters,where the Hogwarts Express stood belching sooty steam over a platform packed with departing students and their families. I inhaled the familiar smell and felt his spirits soar. . . . I was really going back. . . .

"Nice dog there, Harry!" I turned around, it was Percy running up to me.

"Oh thanks, his name is Siriu.... Puddle. Sir Puddles." I looked around but no one seemed to have caught my mistake.

"He reminds me a lot of my dog, Mrs. O'Leary. Well, she's not really my dog, she just shows up with Nico sometimes."

"Oh good," said Mrs. Weasley, sounding relieved, "here's Alastor with the luggage, look . . ."

Not far behind Percy was a man. A porter's cap pulled low over his mismatched eyes, Moody came limping through the archway pushing a cart full of their trunks. He must have been the one who took Percy.

"All okay," he muttered to Mrs. Weasley and Tonks. "Don't think we were followed. . . ."

A second later, Mr. Weasley appeared with Ron and Hermione.

"Uh! I don't understand why we have to all be separated like this. It's stupid. It's not like You-Know-Who is going to attack us in the middle of the street." Ron leaned against his cart but it slid away and he fell right on his arse.

"Do you really think the Evil Lord cares about a few Muggles? If he wanted Harry, he would even attack him in the restroom." Hermione said as she struggled to pick Ron up from the floor.

"Grandpa's a douche, isn't he. Imagine attacking a man while he's taking a piss. Not even Kronos..."

"Who?" I turned towards Percy. He was being weird again.

"Yeah.... that's my other grandpa. He was a crazy drunk." Percy started fidgeting with the collar of his robe.

"I've heard of that name, isn't that the titan from the myths?" Hermione had gotten Ron off the floor and was now trying to brush the dust off his arse.

"I'm Greek."

We all nodded like it made sense, it didn't. But after a couple weeks we knew better than to ask Percy about his life.

"How about some help over here?" It was Mrs. Weasley.

We had almost unloaded Moody's luggage cartwhen Fred, George, and Ginny turned up with Lupin.

"No trouble?" growled Moody.

"Nothing," said Lupin.

"I'll still be reporting Sturgis to Dumbledore," said Moody. "That's the second time he's not turned up in a week. Getting as unreliable as Mundungus."

"Hmmm..." Lupin seemed lost in thought for a while, then he turned towards me. He placed a hand on my shoulder, "Look after yourself Harry. Be careful."

I nodded obediently and Lupin hugged me. I could smell something that reminded me of a wild dog on him. Is this what Percy meant when he said he could smell his "kind."

"Yeah, keep your head down and your eyes peeled," said Moody,shaking my hand. "And don't forget, all of you, careful what you put in writing. If in doubt, don't put it in a letter at all."

"It's been great meeting all of you," said Tonks, hugging Hermione and Ginny. "We'll see you soon, I expect."

A warning whistle sounded; the students still on the platform started hurrying onto the train.

"Hurry, hurry!" Yelled Mrs. Weasley, hugging kids at random as they ran past. I think that at some point, she had lost count of how many kids she had and just went along with it. Even Lee got some Weasley love as he tried to get on the train.

For one brief moment, the great black dog reared onto its hind legs and placed its front paws my shoulders, but Mrs. Weasley shoved me away toward the train door hissing, "For heaven's sake act more like a dog, Sirius!"

"See you!" I called out of the open window as the train began to move, while Ron, Hermione, and Ginny waved beside him. The figures of Tonks, Lupin, Moody, and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley shrank rapidly but the black dog was bounding alongside the window, wagging its tail; blurred people on the platform were laughing to see it chasing the train, and then they turned the corner, and Sirius was gone.

"He shouldn't have come with us," said Hermione in a worried voice.

"Oh lighten up," said Ron, "he hasn't seen daylight for months,poor bloke."

"Well," said Fred, clapping his hands together, "can't stand around chatting all day, we've got business to discuss with Lee. See you later,"and he and George disappeared down the corridor to the right.

"You know, when you guys said you take a train to Hogwarts, I thought that was wizards slang for like, something more magical." Percy was already munching on some chocolate frogs, I had no idea where he got them from.

"Oh, I forgot you were raised in a world without magic like me!" Hermione started going on a rant, explaining different methods of magical transportation. Somehow she got to the topic of Hogwarts and when she started describing the dining room, Percy put up his hand to stop her.

"I'd rather be surprised."

"Well," I clasped my hand, "Should we go find a compartment?" People were starting to give us weird looks. After all, we were just standing in front of the door talking about trains.

"Er, well..." Hermione and Ron exchanged weird looks.

"We're actually supposed to go to the prefect carriage... up front..." Hermione was looking at everything except me as she said it.

"Oh," I tried to hide my bitterness. "That's fine."

"I don't think we'll have to stay there all journey," said Hermione quickly. "Our letters said we just get instructions from the Head Boy and Girl and then patrol the corridors from time to time."

"It's fine. I guess it's just me, Ginny, and Percy then. No worries."

As Hermione and Ron dragged their trunks, Crookshanks, and a caged Pigwidgeon off toward the engine end of the train, I felt an odd sense of loss.I had never traveled on the Hogwarts Express without Ron. As soon as they had dissappeared, Ginny turned towards me, an awkward expression on her face.

"Well, actually."

"No, not you too."

"I promised my friends we would hang out on the train. But I can always ditch them..."

"No, just go. It's fine." Ginny jumped up to hug me then ran off, not looking back.

Percy punched me in the arm. "Ow."

"I guess it's just me and you buddy!" He smiled a wicked smile. "Let's go find that compartment you were talking about and feast on these weird frog things!"

"Right," I said, picking up Hedwig's cage in one hand and the handle of his trunk in the other.

We struggled off down the corridor,peering through the glass-paneled doors into the compartments we passed, which were already full. I couldn't help but notice that a lot of people stared back at me with great interest and that several of them even nudged their neighbors and pointed me out. After I had met this behavior in five consecutive carriages I remembered that the Daily Prophet had been telling its readers all summer what a lyingshow-off I was.

Did people really believe all that nonsense about me? Oh, God, if they did... This year was going to be dreadful.

We had finally got to the very last carriage. I turned towards Percy, "Everything is full."

Percy peeked in through the window. "Don't be silly, there's only one girl in there. We can fit."

"I don't want to bother anyone..." Before I had finished, Percy slid the door open.

"Hey there, is anyone else sitting here?" He gestured to the seats across from the girl.

The girl beside the window looked up. She had straggly, waist length, dirty-blond hair, very pale eyebrows, and protuberant eyes that gave her a permanently surprised look. The girl gave off anaura of distinct dottiness. Perhaps it was the fact that she had stuck her wand behind her left ear for safekeeping, or that she had chosen to wear a necklace of butterbeer caps, or that she was reading a magazine upside down. Her eyes rested on me and she nodded.

"Thanks."

After much trouble, we finally got our luggage in and settled down. The strange girl was still staring at me.

"You're Harry Potter."

I looked down at my clothes and touched my glasses and scar tenderly. "Really? Oh my, why didn't anyone ever tell me!"

Percy snorted and the girl shifted her gaze to him.

"I don't know you."

"I'm Percy" he said, holding his hand out, "Percy Jackson."

She took it and shook it violently. When she let go she studied him a little longer. "You're a halfblood."

It might have been my imagination but he seemed to turn a little red.

"He's actually a pureblood, as pure as they get. He was just raised as a Muggle because his mom was a squib."

Percy spoke up, "You're both wrong, I'm actually a 3/4 blood!"