Chapter 103: A Sluggish train ride

"Father has been going mad with worry over our home's safety. He had half a mind to send us all packing to Germany if it wasn't for you, Harry." said Astoria as she munched on a chocolate frog on the platform while students boarded the Hogwarts Express.

"I'm regretting my actions, you chocolate thieves." Harry glared at the Greengrass sisters for stealing his chocolate stash.

"A small price to pay for my company and my sister's favour." Astoria cheerfully said.

"You have a rather high opinion of yourself, Astoria."

"I learned from the best," Astoria said, pointing at Harry, making his eyes twitch.

"It's pointless to engage my sister in a war of words, Harry. She was born with a silver tongue." said Daphne without looking up from the chocolate frog card she was reading.

"It's rare when my sister compliments my prowess. But I'm usually in a good mood when that happens." Astoria grinned happily.

"See…" Daphne deadpanned.

"But I can't thank you enough for warding our home, Harry. Without that Fidelius Charm protecting us, I fear our father wouldn't have sent us to Hogwarts this year." said Astoria.

"I, for one, could not have thought of spending a second apart from my lovely betrothed." said Harry, throwing his left arm around Daphne's shoulder, making said girl blush.

But she also didn't forget to elbow his ribs in silent protest at his comment. At the same time, she didn't mind too much at his hand around her shoulders. Harry took it as a win and his ability to wear her out of the conservative outlook of Daphne. Usually, she was not game for showing any affection in public.

"I wish I had a camera." Astoria pouted as she stared at them.

"Hmm… You know it'll be an interesting idea to make a compact camera that can take as many photos as we want and is easily carried around," Harry mused aloud.

Harry had an aversion to wizarding cameras even though he always liked the sound made by the old cameras when the flash occurred. Come to think of it, he wondered why wizarding cameras made such a sound. He knew for a fact that the wizarding cameras worked on charms, so there was no possible reason why the flash should make any sound. The old muggle cameras made that sound due to the electric charge passing through the filament, which made the gas in the bulb expand rapidly, generating a small shockwave with a popping sound.

The more he thought about it, the less it made sense. Wizarding cameras used charms to generate light and a remarkable runic array to capture the reflected light, so there was hardly any need for sound and the camera's ridiculous size.

"Maybe we should work on that for our Ancient Runes project this year." Harry suggested to Daphne, who looked ready to punch his teeth out.

"I don't think so. I'll be changing my electives if I'm saddled with another one of your impossible and highly complicated projects." Daphne threatened with a huff.

"She is just joking. She loves it when I drag her into different projects," said Harry, seeing Astoria's concerned look, "Daphs likes to protest, but she ends up being a phenomenal partner in the project. Just last year, we reversed the effects of a Pensieve by projecting memories outwards in a holographic display."

"Don't call me that." Daphne muttered furiously with red cheeks.

While Harry might have obliged with her request, Astoria didn't let the matter drop. Daphne endured her younger sister's teasing until Tracey came to her rescue out of nowhere.

Harry made sure the Greengrass sisters safely boarded the Hogwarts Express, and he even left a few wards to keep an eye on them. He had personally vouched for their safety to Damien, and he had escorted them from their home. After all, the Greengrass family was a prime target for Voldemort because of his relationship with Daphne. So, he was covering all the bases. He had offered the Fidelius Charm to Andromeda and Nymphadora, but they politely declined his offer, just like the Weasleys.

He knew Voldemort well enough to understand how the little psychopath's mind worked. The Dark Lord was denied the destruction of Potter Manor and served the minor confrontation as a major embarrassment for the Death Eaters. The Ministry and Harry came out of that incident in a stronger position with many captured Death Eaters.

Voldemort had turned that embarrassment into a rage and channelled it into Diagon Alley and the muggle world. The Dark Lord's forces kidnapped Ollivander, leaving new Hogwarts students to depend on less-known wandmakers. The news in the muggle world was not great either. There were too many attacks, and most of them were vampire and werewolf attacks. The muggles were under the impression that it was an outbreak of rabies or some such infection.

Therefore, he knew the next target of the Dark Lord's ire would be his friends. For this reason, he approached most of his friends and their families, placing his skill in warding and protective charms at their disposal. Some had taken up his offer, like the Lovegoods, Grangers and Bells. While he couldn't keep watch over all of them, he felt relieved to have put his knowledge to some use to keep their homes under the best protective wards.

Harry traversed through the compartments of the train while he kept an eye out for the aurors standing on the platforms. While he personally disliked Amelia Bones for her hand in Sirius' issues with the Ministry, he had learned to work with the woman. At least, she had so far been competent in keeping up the fight against the Death Eaters.

From what Damien told him, Minister Bones had been secretly bolstering her auror force with foreign and local hit-wizards. She seems to have taken a leaf out of Voldemort's book and chose to obscure the identity of her hit-wizards to protect them from retaliation.

He could see how that'd boost morale within the Ministry forces, but it was also a double-edged sword.

Harry focused on the wizards and witches standing outside the train. Their faces were obscured, making them unidentifiable. The weakness of this move was that a Death Eater could sneak into the auror force unless precautions were taken to prevent infiltrations.

Either way, Harry was not worried about the aurors getting infiltrated. He was more than aware that he couldn't possibly micromanage all aspects of the war.

No, he had other methods of waging war against the Dark Lord. While he had handed over the ward scheme to screen for the Dark Mark to the Ministry, Harry kept a charm to track all those branded with the Dark Mark under wraps. He had developed a small prototype, but he was sure he could develop it further. He just needed more time. This year offered him that time, and he was going to use it to hunt down not just Voldemort but also his lackeys for good. After all, he had access to a group of mercenary wizards ready to do his bidding, thanks to Perenelle Flamel.

So, with a spring in his step, he entered the first compartment of the Hogwarts Express for the prefects' meeting.

****

The prefects' meeting went without a hitch, but Draco Malfoy never attended. The new Head Boy, Elphias Everton, was not happy with Malfoy's absence. There were security procedures in place in case an attack happened, and Everton was annoyed. Malfoy thought he could give it a skip. Everton took it personally as an insult and had taken all his frustration on the resident air-head Pansy Parkinson, who claimed Draco had better things to do. It took considerable effort from the Hufflepuff Head Girl to keep the peace.

"Don't you think it is strange Malfoy didn't attend the prefects' meeting? He usually never wastes a chance to pick a fight with you," Hermione said as they made their way out of the first compartment with their train patrol schedule.

"Maybe he lost his nerve with his daddy dearest in prison." Harry said, not wanting Hermione to dig too deep into Malfoy's shenanigans for this year.

"Still, it's strange. I think he's up to something." Hermione muttered.

"I'm sure he'll come up with some idiotic scheme to annoy us somehow."

"Or maybe Malfoy never boarded the Hogwarts Express." Ernie Macmillan said as the Hufflepuff prefect overtook them with Hannah Abbott.

"One could only hope, mate." Harry called after the puff.

"Don't keep your hopes up, Potter. Malfoy might just be hiding in some corner to get the better of you." Hannah shouted back as the Hufflepuff duo walked speedily away.

Harry snorted at the comment and sought out the compartments for his patrol with Hermione. After a round of patrol duty, he went straight after Daphne's compartment. To his surprise, Neville and Susan Bones were sitting along with the Greengrass sisters.

"This is a surprise. I thought your aunt would take you straight to Hogwarts herself," Harry commented as he entered the compartment.

"She nearly did. Then she remembered all those aurors moving along with the train. So, here I am," the redhead Hufflepuff shrugged.

"Uh-huh." Harry muttered, his eyes settling on Neville. "Hey, you. Did you go to the Stonehenge as planned?"

Neville perked up at the question.

"Oh yes. It was wicked." Neville said happily before his smile turned into a frown, "Although, grandmother had a hard time there. The muggles were giving her strange looks all throughout the day."

Harry wisely kept his thoughts on why that might've been the case. It wasn't exactly the norm for the muggles to see an old woman strolling through their streets wearing a vulture hat and dress robes. At Halloween, that might've been acceptable attire, but during July…

Shaking off that train of thought, Harry engaged in a quiet conversation with Neville about other important things, like the quidditch league matches. He had missed many of the games, all thanks to his impromptu reality hopping. Since no one really knew what happened, he had to come up with a ridiculous cover story that involved a training trip that involved his disappearance from the home islands. He was so engrossed in their conversation that he didn't hear someone knocking on the cabin's sliding door until Tracey opened the door.

It was none other than Luna Lovegood who stepped into the cabin.

"This one is for your Harry. And these are for Susan, Daphne, and Neville."

Two scrolls tied neatly with green ribbons suddenly came before Harry's eyes.

"Oh hey, Luna. What is this?"

Before Harry could pluck the scroll out of her hand, his magic jumped to work like an overeager child. The scroll jumped from Luna's hand, untied itself, and unruffled before Harry's eyes in a way that he could read in comfort.

Harry frowned as he once again met with the excitable nature of his magical power. Ever since he had rid the Horcrux in his scar, his magic was acting weirdly. It was almost as if his magic was overeager to get things done fast without waiting for his human instincts to catch up. He had to consciously keep his magic from acting out his thoughts all the time. He had relaxed his mind and let it unrestrained while he was among friends.

He could already see his friends giving him strange looks because of the apparent display of his telekinesis powers without the aid of a wand. It was not an unknown phenomenon in the wizarding world. Accidental magic had often resulted in such powers manifesting without the aid of a wand. There have been wizards and witches capable of doing the same, but they certainly can't do the other things that he was now capable of doing.

One reason he had become so attuned to warding, enchanting, and wielding the planet's natural magic to his needs was these newfound changes within his body. So long as he had a tight leash over his mind, he could assert complete control over his magical energy.

"Harry, you…" Neville let out a gasp, "…you mastered wandless magic."

He could see Susan also staring at him in awe. Daphne, Tracey, and Astoria looked at him with wide eyes. He supposed he should've mentioned it to Daphne, but the opportunity never came. Toward the end of the summer holidays, he had been busy visiting various homes and seeing to their protection.

"Something like that." Harry admitted, deciding to roll with it now that the cat was out of the bag.

His eyes briefly ran over Professor Slughorn's finely written invitation. With a thought, he banished the scroll into thin air.

"He wants us to be there in his compartment." said Harry.

"But why? What did I do?" Neville looked flabbergasted.

"You need not worry, Neville. Professor Slughorn is a man who likes to hold parties." Susan explained, "Aunty said Professor Slughorn might hold several parties, and he'd invite some famous personalities. It's good for making connections outside of Hogwarts."

"The Slug Club. Father told us about it. I never thought Professor Slughorn would hold a party in the Hogwarts Express." Daphne said with a pondering look.

"Maybe it's something else. Let's go see what he wants," Harry said, rising to his feet.

They walked all the way to compartment C, and Harry had to endure some staring more than usual. At least, his newfound status as the 'Chosen One' or the 'Prophesised One' was a boon when he made rounds. The younger kids would become obedient little ducks and look at him as if he was about to turn into a dragon. The braver few would ask for an autograph or even strike up a conversation with him.

His policy of random engagements with the crowd helped him avoid being swarmed by his 'fans' and 'well-wishers'. Running away would only cause too many problems. The Weasley twins were also a big help in averting too much crowding of his fans because they sold merchandise in his name and with his signature on it.

Besides, thanks to the Knights, he was quite friendly with many Hogwarts students from across houses.

"Harry, do you plan on continuing the Knights this year?" Susan asked as they trekked through the corridors and a sea of students.

"The Knights were created to give combat experience to defend themselves and their family from danger. Since that danger is ever prevalent and out in the open, I think it'll be wise to continue the Knights as it is." Harry said after a brief moment of thought.

"That's good. I was afraid you'd stop the Knights. I learned a lot more of DADA from you in one year than I did in five years at Hogwarts," Susan said happily, "Auntie was very impressed by my DADA score."

"Same here." Neville nodded along happily, "Gran was over the moon when I got an O. Sometimes, I can't believe it myself."

"It looks like you've got skill and patience for teaching Harry. After Hogwarts, maybe you could apply for the DADA post. I'm sure Dumbledore would happily accept you into the staff." Susan suggested making Daphne snort.

"If you plan on wasting months in Hogwarts teaching a bunch of children how to hold their wand after we graduate, you can find someone else to court Potter."  Daphne said in a way that brokered no argument.

"As you can see, my lovely yet ambitious girlfriend has plans for poor old me." Harry laughed while Daphne looked rather pleased that he didn't speak in favour of a post at Hogwarts.

While Hogwarts was a beautiful place, he would be bored to heaven if he were stuck there for ten months every year teaching magic to children. Such a position was unamusing and frankly too restrictive. His ambitions mirrored Daphne's to an extent. In his opinion, the Ministry offered far more flexible career options even though, as of late, he tended towards magical experimentation and spell crafting.

When they finally reached Slughorn's compartment, they saw they were not the only guests in the hasty little get-together the new professor had set up.

"Harry!" Slughorn greeted jubilantly once the man's grey eyes settled on him. "Good to see you, lad. And you brought Mr Longbottom, Miss Bones and Miss Greengrass. Wonderful!"

Neville was taken aback as the professor clapped on his shoulders happily.

"Professor Slughorn, I hope we didn't keep you waiting for too long," Harry said politely as the professor welcomed them into the compartment.

"Not at all, m'boy! Not at all. Come have a seat." Slughorn happily welcomed them in and offered them seats.

He also noted that the compartment had changed. The interior had expanded, and his magic could glean several other niche spells that folded space in on itself to make room without disturbing the fundamental structure.

"Ah, noticed it, have you?" Professor Slughorn looked at him with a knowing look as Harry sat across from Slughorn with Daphne by his side.

"Your mastery over spatial charms is most excellent, sir." Harry nodded at the professor with a grin, which made Slughorn clap excitedly.

"Thank you, Harry. I pride myself on my potioning skills, but it's good to know that my spells are just as sharp," Professor Slughorn said happily.

Harry glanced around at their fellow guests. He was not surprised to see Blaise Zabini and a few other upperclassmen Slytherins and Ravenclaws. Thanks to Daphne and Tracey, he knew most of them. His eyes then fell on the Weasley twins and Ginny sitting in a corner, making his eyebrows shoot up. The twins gave him a wink while Ginny waved in greeting. Close by the Weasleys sat Cormac McLaggen and Marcus Belby.

"Now, do you know everyone here…"

Slughorn went on to 'introduce' everyone in the cabin. The rest of the train ride went largely uneventful, with idle conversation as Slughorn 'interrogated' everyone. He had to admit the man had an uncanny ability to gently pry information out of everyone. One by one, Slughorn dug into their background to see whether they were influential or had any interesting connections. He was delighted and over the moon to prod into Susan and the infamous Bones family.

While Harry had reservations about Amelia Bones, the rest of her family were staunch enemies of the Dark Lord. Voldemort even killed most of their family members personally because of the threat they posed to his reign of terror. Slughorn's interest in Susan, however, stemmed from her close relation to Minister Bones.

In Harry's case, Slughorn wanted to know whether the Prophet was right to call him the Chosen One. For that, Harry had a ready answer, the same one he had given to anyone who bothered to ask.

"Voldemort started this conflict when he killed my parents. I was a small child then, and my mother destroyed him where he stood at the cost of her life to protect me. This time, I'll make sure there won't be even dust from his bones that remain."

If Slughorn was bothered by his statement, he didn't show it sans for the lengthy silence.

"You think your mother destroyed 'Him'." Slughorn asked hoarsely.

"My mother was a phenomenal witch, professor. It was her magic that protected me and made the killing curse rebound."

"Yes… yes, of course. Lily Evans was a very resourceful student." Slughorn blinked a faraway look in his eyes before snapping out of it to gaze at him with a growing smile.

"And you, Harry. You seem to have inherited much of that raw talent from your mother. To go toe-to-toe with a wizard like the Dark Lord and draw first blood. Not many can boast it, m'boy! You do your family proud." Slughorn beamed.

Then, Slughorn's eyes fell on Daphne, and it was her turn to face Slughorn with questions related to foreign relations because of her father's current position as the head of the Department of Magical Cooperation. By the time Daphne was finished, Slughorn's attention had jumped to the Weasley twins asking about their successful business, Ginny's stellar spell work, and on and on.

Thankfully, Slughorn had the grace to let them all go when the sun started to glow red in the sky.

****

Harry found Luna standing near one of the carriages with a half-eaten apple in her hand. Suddenly, the skeletal head of a Thestral came down and plucked the remaining apple into its mouth.

"I see you've gotten acquainted with our ride to the castle, Luna." Harry said as he patted the skeletal horse on its side.

"Oh, I've known Bob for quite a while." Luna said breezily with a disarming smile.

"You named a Thestral Bob?" Harry asked incredulously.

"Bob is a good name, is it not?"

"It is, but it's so plain for a unique creature like him," Harry said, patting the Thestral as it nudged his side with its head.

Harry unwrapped a chocolate frog and offered it to the skeletal winged horse, which happily munched on it. They moved out of Hogsmead station in carriages while Hagrid led the first-year students to Hogwarts in boats. He had hoped to see some aurors at Hogwarts, but there were none.

He let his senses fly, and he could see almost all living things in a minimal range in his mind.

'I was wrong.' Harry thought.

He looked in the direction where he could feel Tonks' magic and waved cheekily. He was sure his distant cousin saw that, as he could feel a subtle fluctuation in her aura.

"Why are you waving at that tree?" Daphne asked worriedly.

"Oh, just greeting a friend." Harry smiled charmingly at his girlfriend, who looked back at the tree and then stared at him with a speculative look.

"You two are weird." Astoria snickered, which led to Daphne turning on her younger sister with a glare.

As the Greengrass sisters exchanged heated words, he kept his eyes on the approaching castle. If everything went according to plan, he hoped to end the menace that was Voldemort this year. No more Horcruxes were protecting Voldemort, which left the Dark Lord mortal. It also left Dumbledore weakened as well. The withering curse was eating away at Dumbledore, and soon, he'd also be two feet under the ground.

Harry could not be happier as he stepped out of the carriage into the Hogwarts ground. The tidal wave of magical power in Hogwarts encompassed him, promising him days of glory and freedom from two of his enemies.

'The sun sets on Voldemort and Dumbledore. It's now my time under the sun,' Harry thought as he entered the castle with his friends.

AN:

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