Malfoy made his customary appearance in their compartment door with his two flunkies trailing slightly behind. "Well, well, well," he sneered from his position in the doorway. "What do we have here? Potty, two weasels, a mudblood, Loony, and a glorified squib. What a formidable bunch you are. The dark lord must be shaking in his boots."
"If he isn't yet, he soon will be," Harry replied calmly without even bothering to look at his adversary. "Now why don't you be a good little boy and report back to daddy, or has Voldemort already done away with him for all his failures? You did know that he was in charge at the Department of Mysteries, don't you? Your dork lord wasn't too pleased about that. I can't imagine what Voldemort did to dear old daddy after he failed to kidnap Ron and Ginny here."
"Don't talk about my father that way, Scarhead!" Malfoy shrieked. "He's one of the Dark Lord's most trusted followers."
"I think you mean servant," Harry interrupted tranquilly.
"Why you," Malfoy cried as he reached for his wand. Harry held up his hand to the others in the compartment to stop them from doing the same. All listened except Ron. Malfoy's wand was leveled at Harry as Ron had his trained on the blonde haired Slytherin. The two Slytherin brutes were just cracking their knuckles waiting to be given instruction.
"Put your wand down, Ron. I'm not worried about this Death Eater wannabe." Ron looked unsure for a moment, then complied.
Malfoy smirked condescendingly and took his chance to strike. "Furnunculus!" he called, wand leveled at Harry. His spell rebounded off an invisible wall directly in front of him, and he was blown back a couple steps as boils sprung up on his face. Crabbe and Goyle scrambled to his side, unsure what else to do without being given direct orders.
Harry stood and strode to the door. "Do tell daddy I said hello, would you?" he asked as he shut the door on the faces of the three Slytherins. He smirked as he strode back to his seat and sat down. His friends were all staring at him in wonderment.
Ron finally broke the silence, "Bloody brilliant, mate! I didn't even see you pull out your wand."
Harry's grin grew wider. "Remember when I said I had a gift for each of you?" Seeing their nods he continued. "Well, this is what I was talking about," he explained as he took off his wand holster which instantly appeared before their very eyes. "It'll prevent your wand from being summoned while it's in the holder, and it'll turn invisible once it's strapped on, so no one will know it's even there."
"Wicked," Ron exclaimed. Apparently he was fine with presents so long as he wasn't the only one being given them, Harry mentally noted.
"That's really great, Harry," Hermione said, "but where did you manage to get them?"
"I owl ordered them from a place in Diagon Ally," he explained. This seemed to satisfy her as she just nodded and sat back against the bench. Ginny grinned at him knowingly, and he imperceptibly shook his head at her to try to get her to stop giving him those looks. She glanced around quickly and winked at him before adopting a neutral expression. Harry almost growled at her.
The rest of the train ride went by quickly. Soon enough Hermione was informing them all to put their robes on and dragging Ron out into the corridor to help organize the departure. The others grinned at each other knowingly regarding the bickering duo. "Do you think either of them will ever get a clue and just kiss the other one?" Harry asked the room at large.
Ginny giggled softly which reminded Harry slightly of Jessica's giggle. Neville just shook his head and said, "I don't know, Harry. But Merlin help us all if they don't figure it out soon."
"You said it," Ginny piped in.
Luna just gazed dreamily out the window seemingly oblivious to all that was going on around her. The train slowed down gradually and came to a stop after a minute. The four friends looked at each other briefly before filing out of the compartment. Harry led the way, followed by Ginny, Neville, and Luna bringing up the rear. As they stepped outside, Harry heard the familiar and ever comforting call of, "Firs' years. Firs' years over 'ere."
Harry turned and quickly spotted his half giant friend who literally towered above the rest of the crowd. Harry held up a hand to Hagrid and called to him, "All right, Hagrid?"
Hagrid looked down through the crowd and spotted Harry. An enormous smile broke out on his face, and he called back, "All righ', 'Arry," as he waved a beefy arm at him.
Harry smiled widely and turned back toward his friends. They quickly made their way over to the carriages. Harry took a moment to study the two thestrals at the front of the carriage and walked over to them. He patted each one on the head and thanked them for taking them to the school before entering the carriage and taking a seat beside Ginny.
They waited for Ron and Hermione to catch up before taking off. Ron sat next to his sister, leaving Hermione to sit next to Luna. The carriage ride lasted for a few minutes in companionable silence. They pulled up to the front entrance to the castle and disembarked. As they walked through the Entrance Hall to the doors of the Great Hall, Professor McGonagall's voice permeated into their hearing. "Mr. Potter, a word please."
His five friends looked at him with varying degrees of sympathy. Harry smiled at them all and gestured for them to continue without him. "Save me a seat, would you? I'll be in in a minute." They nodded and continued without him as he strolled over to his Head of House who led him off through a side door.
"Mr. Potter, the Headmaster will announce the reformation of your club this evening as well as your status as Assistant Professor," she informed him. "He would like to meet with you after the feast to go over the details of the club. The password is Canary Cream."
Harry smiled widely at the name of the password. "His tastes are expanding," Harry commented offhandedly.
"Indeed," she replied with the barest hint of a smirk. "You should be off to the feast, Mr. Potter. I have some First Years to attend to." Harry nodded and walked over to the door. As he opened it up she stopped him. "Mr. Potter, I will be glad to see you back on the Quidditch pitch this year. Your broom has been placed in your room with the rest of your belongings."
"Thank you, Professor," he replied.
"I hope you were right about your friend, Mr. Weasley," she said.
"Believe me, he knows much more about Quidditch than I do," Harry explained.
....
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