Fun With A Toad

It was the day after Ron and Hermione had awakened when Harry entered the hospital wing to find them as well as Neville, Ginny and Luna who had decided to visit as well. They were all looking at a bed at the far end of the hospital wing with a look of utmost loathing in their eyes. Harry followed their gaze and what he saw made his blood boil. Lying peacefully at the other end was Dolores Umbridge.

With a supreme effort, Harry managed to rein in his turbulent emotions (he did not want to alert anyone of his feelings). The sight of that evil toad had made Harry see red. He never thought that he would be able to hate anybody more than he hated that woman. She was right up there next to Bellatrix Lestrange and Voldemort. But, Harry thought maliciously, the important difference here was that Harry could actually do something about it.

Harry smiled coldly to himself for a brief second before quickly schooling his expression and turning his attention back to the conversation that was occurring around him.

'-dunno, she was there this morning when I woke up,' said Ron.

'How did she get here?' asked Neville with an odd hardness in his tone,

'I saw Dumbledore carrying her inside last night when I woke up for a brief while, she hasn't changed her position,' said Hermione. 'I suspect that she is suffering from shock,' she continued.

'Wait, Dumbledore brought her in? How did he manage that?' said Harry incredulously.

'Well, it is Dumbledore we are talking about innit?' said Ron sagely as if Harry was slightly dim for even thinking of asking that question. 'He probably waltzed right in and plucked her off from the centaurs.'

'First and foremost, it is isn't it! Honestly Ron, there is no reason to butcher the English Language!' said Hermione in a bossy tone. Before she could start off on a rant that would probably degenerate into another patented Ron and Hermione Squabble, Neville interjected diplomatically.

'I don't expect that the centaurs would have been too happy with Dumbledore over that,' he said. He had noticed that irritated look on Harry's face at Ron's sentence and took measures to smooth things over. 'I have a feeling that the centaurs would have been pretty reluctant to hand over Umbridge over. I am surprised that they had acquiesced.'

'Well, he is the Headmaster,' said Hermione in a self righteous manner, 'They do respect him for that, as they should.' With that she looked meaningfully at Harry. Harry knew that she was talking about him breaking things at Dumbledore's office and his irritation grew; he wasn't sorry about the whole thing, though now he regretted ever telling her about it. He rolled his eyes at her, got up and said shortly, 'I have to go, I've got some things I need to do.' Nodding at the rest, he ignored Hermione's look of irritation and left the hospital wing silently vowing not to tell the witch everything anymore.

Fuming, he headed up towards The Room as he started calling it. He wanted to vent and learning some new curses was the best way to do so. On his way upstairs, he passed a doorway and froze; his foot still suspended in the air. Backing up, he gave a second look to the sign tacked sloppily on the door reading 'Headmistress', a slow grin forming on his face till it positively looked evil.

'And what are we up to Mr. Potter?' came a voice behind him just as he was about to open the door. 'Oh, it's you Ginny,' said Harry when he hurriedly turned around and saw her. 'I was, erm, redecorating,' he continued after noting the mischievous look in her eyes.

At this, Ginny's eyes lit up and became devious, 'Oh is that right?' she sounded eerily like her elder twin brothers. 'Want help?'

'Not really, but I think there's room enough for the two of us,' said Harry accommodatingly.

Ginny smiled at him and pulled out her wand. With a grand flourish, Harry opened the door and gestured, 'After you Miss Weasley.'

Giggling, Ginny entered with Harry following her into the garishly decorated room with a smirk.

'I claim the plates on the walls. I especially hated those,' he said, surveying the room and eyeing the kittens gambolling viciously. He noticed that Umbridge had collected more of the foul things till they dominated two of her four walls.

Ginny pouted cutely, 'Aw I wanted the kittens.' She looked up at him hopefully through her fringe. Finally relenting, Harry gestured at the walls and said, 'Fine, you take that half and I'll take this half. We'll meet at the centre above the mantle where the largest plate is.'

With that, they moved to the opposite directions. Harry raised his wand at the nearest plate and said with relish, 'Reducto.'

Immediately, the large technicolour kitten that was looking at him haughtily widened its eyes before diving to the neighbouring plate yowling loudly as the plate it was currently occupying blew up spectacularly.

Harry and Ginny both took their time destroying plate after plate watching as the obnoxious felines within scurried to the next plate. Finally reaching the largest plate at the centre, they took a moment to let the dust settle while watching all the cats within crowded up against each other in the largest plate looking at them in fear.

'Bye-bye kitties,' said Harry as he unleashed a final Reducto, shattering the plate.

Flushed, Harry looked at the rest of the room for his next target. Spotting the lace, he said, 'You take the doilies, I'll do the lace.' Upon receiving her nod, he began to imaginatively and systematically destroy the furniture in the office while Ginny destroyed the doilies and shredded the dried up plants within.

A few minutes later the two of them stood in the centre of the office and surveyed their handiwork. 'The room looks rather improved don't you think Ginny?' said Harry as he laid his eyes on the burnt armchairs that once had a flowery pattern.

'Oh yes, Harry. Personally I think that the black paint that you had splashed on the table linen is a nice improvement,' said Ginny surveying the tar like substance on the tables. 'I hear that black is the new pink anyway, and the smell!' She took a great big sniff. 'The smell is especially divine. A powerful mixture of burnt animal and wet dog, adding strength and body to the already strong smell of the month old rotting corpse of a particularly unhygienic mountain troll who had fallen into a pile of ten day old dragon dung and died,' she continued affecting a posh accent.

They looked at each other for a moment before breaking out into laughter.

'That was great Ginny!' said Harry wiping his eyes, 'Where did you learn that charm that sends out all that green gloop anyway?' he eyed the rancid neon green stuff with an expression of fascinated disgust. 'It's really foul!' He exclaimed holding his nose.

'Fred and George showed me that,' replied Ginny easily, 'I have wanted to use that for ages!' She enthused.

'I would love to learn that one.'

'I don't mind showing you,' said Ginny 'It's got the added bonus of being slimy and slippery. Banishing charms won't work on it and unless you know the correct counter, you will be forced to remove it using muggle methods. And it tends to stain if you try to remove using muggle methods.' She added with relish.

'Wicked,' said Harry, 'Care to show me now?'

'Sure,' said Ginny. 'The incantation is Caliga and you move your wand like this,' she made a sweeping motion with her wand. 'Keep sweeping the wand to and fro to get more of the stuff.'

Harry looked around the ruined (improved in his opinion) office and spied another door. Opening it he saw that it lead into Umbridge's private quarters which he noted with sadistic relish was even more flowery and full of little knick-knacks than her office.

'Caliga!' he shouted sweeping his wand in a wide arc. Immediately the poisonous green sludge started spewing out of his wand in a torrent. Harry held the spell for a while ensuring that it soaked the drawers and into Umbridge's clothes as well as her sheets which he noted were adorned with what only could be her family crest. The irony of the crest being a toad was not lost on him.

Ginny looked on amused at him, 'Had fun?'

'Definitely,' Harry beamed, 'That spell was bloody brilliant!'

'I'll be sure to tell the twins what you thought,' said Ginny with a smile. After a moment of silence, she asked in concern, 'Are you alright Harry?'

'I'm fine' replied Harry automatically. Ginny raised an eyebrow, 'Okay, not really,' he admitted, 'But I'm getting there. I just need my space and time.'

'I guess that is the best we can hope for huh?' said Ginny sympathetically. 'Sirius was a great guy, I've not been around him as long as you have, but spending summer with him was really fun.'

'Yeah,' said Harry. Changing the subject he said, 'Anyway, I have to go ... I enjoyed doing this by the way,' he said gesturing at the office and room.

'So did I,' said Ginny with a smile. 'The next time you need to desecra-er-decorate the personal quarters of any old hags, you know who to call.'

Harry smiled and reached for the door. Just as he was about to step out, Ginny called out, 'Wait! I haven't shown you the counter curse yet!'

'Oh, yeah,' said Harry stepping back in.

'The incantation is Abeo, and you sweep your wand the other way and add a little flick at the end,' said Ginny demonstrating the wand movement.

Harry practised a bit on a part of the slime in the office. Meeting with success, he re-applied the sludge in greater quantities. Thanking Ginny for the impromptu lesson, he left. While trashing Umbridge's office and ruining her personal effects was satisfying, he wasn't yet done. Besides, Ginny had taken some of his thunder away; he did not begrudge her wanting to join in though.

Harry slunk into The Room and practised a few spells from some of his new books. Along with the hair-loss curse and Flatulence jinx, he had practised a few fire-based spells as well. His ultimate goal was to master the Fiendfyre spell that the book had mentioned in passing. The author had advised that he start out small and then build up from there. Harry found that he could more than easily perform most of the spells. He guessed this was because Voldemort had already mastered them and this muscle memory had transferred to Harry. It was like riding a bicycle after a really long time; you don't really forget the motions, and after a little practice, you are back in form. After practising most of the curses and spells, Harry found that he could perform them just by thinking about them without needing to articulate them. He understood the tactical advantage this gave a person in a duel. One cannot block a spell when one does not know what it is.

Harry noticed that magic was coming easier to him now. Whatever Voldemort had tried to do to Harry that night had benefited him greatly; he could concentrate more, hold his spells longer and could cast new ones with an ease he hadn't had before. He also felt lighter somehow, as if a great burden he was unaware of had been lifted from his shoulders.

In addition to this, Harry had also started to organise his mind. It was subconscious at first and done in his sleep, but Harry had quickly gotten around to understanding the mechanics of the art of Occlumency when he started meditating the previous day itself when he had first started training. This had helped him in recalling most of the spells he had learnt in his fifth year more clearly. For some reason, he found himself starting to organise recall and catalogue his memories backwards. He theorised that remembering yesterday's events helped in recalling the day before and so on till (he hoped) the first few hazy memories he had as an infant. He hoped that he could recall those memories clearly; he really wanted to remember his birth father and mother after all.

So far, Harry had nearly reached the beginning of his fifth year winter term. He hoped to be done with first year by the beginning of his summer holidays, so had set aside every waking moment he wasn't doing something in mediation. He wanted to remember all his pre-Hogwarts time around the Dursleys. He would be able to vent properly then, and any guilt he felt would probably be minimised to the point of being negligible.

From reviewing the memories of that night, Harry had come to the conclusion that Sirius' death truly wasn't his fault. He had acted on the information that he had on hand at that time. Besides, if Sirius had taken Bellatrix seriously, he might still be alive. Harry knew that he had thought similarly before, but this was the first time he had truly accepted it as fact.

Harry had also come to another startling revelation that he wasn't too happy about. He realised that the bad publicity he had suffered this past year and in his fourth year had partly been his fault. Had he taken a firmer stance with Rita Skeeter from the beginning, or managed his publicity instead of running and hiding from reporters and being unwilling to speak to them, he might not have been a subject of such ridicule and slander in his fourth and fifth year. He also couldn't truly blame the public for believing the lies the prophet had printed about him (as much as it pained him to admit it), after all, what did they know about him besides what they had read in the papers about him? In fact come to think of it, not even his best friends knew about the real Harry Potter. They too were enthralled by the feats he had done. And looking back on it, they were pretty impressive. No matter how lucky he had been in those situations. The fact was that he had done things normal people would either fail in or run away from and had lived to tell the tale.

All in all, Harry had slowly started accepting his lot in life, starting with his status as a celebrity. It would be some time before he started exploiting it however. There still were some things he still wasn't comfortable with. Yet.

After breaking for lunch Harry asked The Room for a book on rituals that he lost himself in for a while. After a bit more meditating, Harry had his dinner which he had delivered to him by one of his new house-elves. He then spent the rest of the night socialising with Neville before heading to bed. He laid awake waiting for midnight.

As the clock chimed twelve times heralding the anticipated hour, Harry took a moment to listen to the snores and soft snuffling that indicated that the other occupants of the dorm were asleep. Satisfied, he got out of bed and slipped on his shoes and his invisibility cloak. As he was about to step out of the door, he noticed Seamus' hand peeking out of his curtains. Getting an idea, Harry gently stuck the sleeping boy's fingers in a goblet full of water that he had filled with the jug near the windowsill after warming it with a charm. He then cast a useful mild sleeping charm used on small animals that he had learnt in the Care of Magical Creatures class from Professor Grubbly-Plank. He poured in an extra amount of his magic to ensure that the boy did not wake up till later in the morning. Snickering, Harry slipped out of the dorms.

Activating the map and the charm on his necklace, he set off towards the hospital wing. He knew that the necklace would be redundant because of the cloak and also of not much use as at this time of the night as people would be highly suspicious about any noise and bound to notice, but he used it anyway.

Harry made it to the hospital wing in no time, keeping an eye out for Filch and his cat as well as any teachers that had decided to patrol the castle.

Once he reached there, he silently eased the doors open and slipped inside. He crept to the end of the room to where he knew Pomfrey had her quarters and office. He slipped inside thanking his good fortune that the door was open. He found the matron sleeping at her desk, a thin strand of drool connecting the bottom of her mouth to the page of the book she had been reading.

Harry nonverbally cast the sleeping charm again on the matron (he was getting rather good at nonverbal spells) before slipping back out to the infirmary.

Swiftly casting the charm on Ron and Hermione, the only other occupants, he turned his attention onto the one woman he had gone to all this trouble for. He briefly sneered at her before casting a strong stunner. As Umbridge's sleeping body slumped into the bed in unconsciousness, Harry cast a whispered disillusionment charm at her. He had specifically practiced that spell earlier for this purpose.

Quietly levitating her, Harry went out into the forest. Stopping a few yards into the forest, near a clearing with a small stagnant pond, concentrating intensely, he cancelled the disillusionment charm while keeping up the levitation charm. He was about to enervate her when another thought came to him. Smiling cruelly, he levitated her a little higher over the shallow pond before enervating the fat toady woman; as soon as he saw the spell impact her body and take effect he let the levitation charm drop.

Immediately, the fat woman's body dropped unceremoniously into the pond. The pond was deep enough to submerge her but too shallow to adequately slow Umbridge's fall causing her to painfully hit the bottom of the pond.

Harry lazily watched Umbridge flounder about wildly. Being enervated before suddenly finding themselves being plunged into a mucky pond really caused one a fair amount of disorientation, Harry noted with glee as he saw the foul woman flail about convinced she was about to drown.

Finally, the former Headmistress regained her bearings enough to stand up. She was so short or the pond was deeper than Harry estimated as the water came up to her neck. Covered head to toe in muck and slime with her already frazzled hair even more dirty, Dolores Umbridge slowly and painfully extricated herself onto solid ground.

Harry silently got behind her as she hacked, coughed and puked out the foul water she had inhaled. As soon as he thought she had regained her bearings, he whipped off the cloak, deactivated the necklace and said 'Hello there ... Headmistress,' stressing on her former title with a sneer on his face.

Suddenly, Umbridge jumped and, still choking, slowly turned around to lock eyes with Harry Potter. She barely registered his presence as she looked around her wild-eyed.

'Or is it Undersecretary? I forget,' said Harry after a pause.

'Wh-where am I?' stuttered Umbridge fearfully. The last thing she remembered was being in the hospital wing. Harry pretended to look around before saying in mock concern, 'A bit lost are we? Shame, whatever shall we do? Why it seems that we are back in the Forbidden Forest. But you should know that already, after all you are here and have been here before ...' Harry trailed off keeping his eyes on her watching as she squeaked at finding out her location.

'H-how d-di-did I get here?' said Umbridge fearfully. She finally registered who was talking to her. She shuddered as she saw the cold look on his face and glinting emerald eyes that looked very eerily like the curse he was famed for surviving.

'Ah, good question, you see, I brought you here,' said Harry conversationally. 'After all, we do not want anybody interfering our little tête-à-tête now, do we?' he added maliciously.

Umbridge blanched at his last statement, 'Wh-what d-d-do you w-wa-want from me?' she shrieked, her voice getting higher.

Harry slowly and mockingly shook his head, 'We really do need to do something about that stutter of yours, it is getting rather tiring. Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, you see dear professor, I wasn't happy to know that you had survived capture at the hands of the centaurs. No, not at all! After everything you have put me through, and all the trouble me and my friend had gone through to lead you to them, you just did not have the decency to just die did you?' Harry's tone had morphed from mocking to angry by the end of his diatribe. 'So it looks like I need to, handle this myself. After all, as they say, "if you want something done right, do it yourself."' He cocked his head to one side twirling his wand between his fingers.

Umbridge gulped, nervously eyeing Harry's wand before saying in a falsely confident voice, 'You wouldn't dare Potter; I'm the Undersecretary to the Minister! The minute Cornelius hears about this he will have you expelled and thrown into Azkaban for attacking a Ministry employee!'

Harry threw his head back and laughed, 'Fudge?' he said between bouts of laughter, 'Ooooh I'm so scared!' he mocked, 'Fudge is too busy covering his stupid pinstriped sweaty arse to bother with you right now! Now that he has seen Voldemort with his own eyes,' he snarled.

Umbridge flinched at Voldemort's name before recovering, 'that again? The Dark Lord is dead and gone, you nasty little liar!' she raged, 'It looks like we will have to take more serious measures with you Mr. Potter. Now get me back to the castle before things become even more dire for you.'

'Shut up you stupid bitch!' snarled Harry, 'Voldemort has come back, in fact, he was there right in your precious Ministry and your dear Minister was there to see him personally! It's there in the fucking paper too you silly cow! That twat Fudge is scrambling to cover his arse now that the truth has finally come out. He will be lucky to last the month before being chucked out into the street.'

Umbridge got paler and paler at this revelation, 'No, this cannot be! Lucius personally reassured us that-'

'Oh yes Lucius Malfoy, funny story; he was also there cavorting in full Death Eater Regalia along with his other Death Eater friends. In fact, joining them were those who had recently escaped Azkaban,' Harry drawled, watching with relish as Umbridge's toady face went even paler with that revelation. 'In fact he and eleven others have been caught inside the Department of Mysteries, which they had broken into really easily by the way-you should really look to increasing your security, because it is just atrocious. Anyway, they should be halfway to Chateau Azkaban for a lovely summer holiday right now!' he added clapping his hands together in mock glee.

'But enough chitchat now, the hour is getting late, and I need my beauty sleep,' Harry rubbed his hands together.

'We can do this the easy way or the hard way,' he continued, 'personally I hope you choose the former for your sake but I am not adverse to the second choice. Where is my broom?'

Umbridge remained stubbornly silent. 'Ah the hard way then, very well,' saying this, Harry pointed his wand at her and concentrating, flicked his wand lifting Umbridge into the air before slamming her into the nearest tree. Umbridge landed there with a pained squeal. Harry nodded satisfactorily, he did not know if that would work but remembering what Voldemort had done to Pettigrew, worked on a hunch that there was no incantation needed for that. Obviously it was what Voldemort had done as well.

'Still not talking? Very well,' with that, he flicked his wand and sent her flying back into the pond. As soon as she hit the water, Harry lifted her up again before plunging her back in. He did this a few times not giving the former headmistress time to breathe before throwing her back into the same tree she had impacted a few minutes back.

Harry watched her hack and cough dispassionately, 'Are we ready to talk?' he said.

'Go to hell you stupid little brat!' spat Umbridge vindictively, 'I will never tell you where your precious broom is! I hope that the trolls break it. You will have to pull it from my mind, and I doubt you can do that you pathetic little worm!'

'That can be arranged,' said Harry with a glint in his eye. With that, he cast a full body bind on her to her shock before levitating her till she was at eye level with him.

Looking into her eyes and smirking at the fear he saw in them he pointed his wand and said, 'Legilimens!'

Immediately, he violently dove into the fat woman's mind. He brutally perused all her memories not caring if he caused her any pain or if he was ripping her sanity apart. He not only extracted the location of his broom, but also found out a lot of her dirty little secrets. A useful piece of information he had found was the utility of the Blood Quill that she had used to torture the students with. It seemed that it was a family heirloom and had more uses than just torturing people with.

Satisfied, he pulled out just as violently from her mind shredding the last vestiges of her sanity. He watched the gibbering broken woman in front of him in contempt before turning around and heading towards the castle. He did not feel any remorse for his actions. She deserved everything she had coming to her.

The last few days of term flew by, and before Harry knew it he was packing his trunk. He had spent the days discreetly going into the Room of Requirement and practising spells. He was especially happy with that book he had bought with Dudley in mind as it was more than worth his money. Harry chuckled to himself; the author was as vindictive as his name (that is, if it was his real name). He had tried it out on dummies so far, but hadn't had the pleasure of seeing their effects on humans. He did not want to risk it right now even though he was tempted.

He would have ample opportunity to test them out this summer. Dudley wouldn't know what hit him! Harry cackled evilly, rubbing his hands. He really should have bought that book ages ago despite Hagrid not letting him in the summer before first year. It was true that he had picked up most of the spells, but there were some real gems in there that weren't known to the average Hogwarts student.

Harry had also read up on some other rituals as well. The adoption ritual had certainly piqued his interest. Though, he had only managed to try out a strengthening ritual which would increase his overall body strength by a small amount. It wouldn't make him super strong (and Harry was disappointed at first that he wouldn't be lifting cars with a hand) but it would probably win him a few arm wrestling and weight lifting competitions for his size and weight. He also would be able to throw quite a mean punch! There was a darker version with more impressive results, but Harry didn't fancy the side effect of becoming huge and bulky. He liked his current looks and body too much for that.

Harry was lucky that Ron and Hermione were in the hospital wing all this time, otherwise he was certain that slipping off would have been problematic. He did visit them when he could, but found the exercise a challenge on his patience; Hermione kept trying to bring Sirius up, and she always had that look of smug superiority on her face and just buried in her surface thoughts that Harry found to be really annoying. He was lucky that Ron at least in a rare display of good sense had the decency to shut her mouth up. Then again, judging by the method he used to distract her, and knowing him for nearly half a decade, Harry was pretty sure that it was more a case of Ron putting his foot in his mouth rather than any cleverness on his part. He would always make some inane comment or another that would really get the bushy haired witch riled up, causing her to rant and rave with the ginger.

And Ron in typical ginger fashion would reply back heatedly. This would then lead to them arguing nonstop for hours on end with Hermione getting shriller and shriller and Ron getting redder and redder till he was, in Harry's humble opinion, almost Vernon Dursley purple.

Harry supposed that it was a blessing that they were under the auspices of Madame Pomfrey who (after repeated attempts at calming potions and cheering charms) had resorted to just silencing them to spare her other precious patients, for he was sure that the two of them would have driven him barmy. He did enjoy the show though; after silencing the two, Pomfrey would then retreat back into her office muttering suspiciously to herself about love potions, locked cupboards and hormonal teenagers. He was even gladder when a harried and thoroughly fed up Madame Pomfrey had finally decided to ban any and all visitors from visiting them and had placed the two of them in separate areas of the room like naughty children and had forbidden them to talk to anybody.

All in all, it was a rather relieved looking Madame Pomfrey who had seen them off the hospital wing just two days left till the Leaving Feast.

Not being able to talk to anybody for four days straight had given both of them ample opportunity to start arguing with each other as to whose fault it was. This had the added bonus of allowing Harry to slink off while they were in the throes of their latest passionate argument.

So it was a rather reluctant Harry who was packing his trunk just before the Leaving Feast. He did not look forward to going back to the Dursleys for the summer despite the new freedoms that he had gained. And he was looking forward to the train ride even less. There was only so long those two could argue before Hermione decided to get on his case about his feelings and Sirius. Harry finally slammed the lid of his trunk with a scowl on his face placing the communication mirror he had just found given to him by Sirius just after the Christmas holidays. Its discovery had not helped his current bad mood. Harry was careful not to shatter the mirror. It was after all the last link he had of his new father besides the Firebolt.

Thinking of the Firebolt had brought a smile back to Harry's face. This then turned into a vindictive grin as it reminded him of Umbridge. She was found the following evening after he was done with her. Dumbledore had organised a large search party with the ministry which had some really reluctant participants. The only person enthusiastic in the quest to find her was Filch. Though, if the rumours were true, Percy had petitioned to join in but was forced to back out as he was under a lot of stress due to the investigation headed by Amelia Bones into Fudge's activities as Minister.

It turned out that Arthur Weasley was right about one thing; Percy's promotion definitely was suspicious. It was too bad that Amelia did not know why Fudge had promoted him suddenly, and Arthur couldn't say much; Dumbledore had learnt his lesson after Pettigrew and had taken the necessary steps. Though Harry was certain that Dumbledore would find a way to save Percy; he valued the Weasleys too much to not do that. It looked like everybody and their kneazle got a second chance from Dumbledore. No matter what they had done in the past.

At any rate, they had eventually found the woman nearly comatose. More specifically Hagrid had found her and carried her out. The theory was that the trauma of being a "guest" of a herd of pissed off centaurs was so severe that she had a delayed reaction and had wandered out. Some suspected foul play after her office and quarters were found all but destroyed. But nobody could say for certain.

Harry's mood had steadily worsened as the end of term came. He did not want to go back to those sorry excuses of human beings that he was related to. No matter what reasons Dumbledore cited. His resentment and anger towards the old man was only increased as he thought of the prophecy that was hidden from him and the death it had caused because of it. He could not cope fully with the grief and so his body strived to turn it into the one emotion he did understand that was close to what he was feeling; anger.

He avoided attending the end-of-term feast as he did not want to hear whatever waffle Dumbledore planned on spewing out then.

Aside from that one hiccup of being accosted by Malfoy and his two moronic goons who seemed to think that Harry was responsible for Lucius Malfoy's incarceration, (they were taken care of by DA members who happened to be around when the Slytherins had tried to ambush Harry) the train ride towards Kings Cross was spent peacefully with his friends.

After contemplating just sitting till the train emptied fully, Harry reluctantly got up from his seat in the compartment and hefting his trunk, entered the Muggle world.