Mr. Weasley followed Harry onto Platform 9 ¾. Although Harry truly liked Mr. Weasley, he really wanted to be out of the man's company. When two little kids and their mother walked between them, Harry took the opportunity and got lost in the crowd.

Watching the families all around him saying goodbye to each other as he sluggishly walked along the platform, Harry couldn't help but think that's what he desperately wanted; a family to say goodbye to at the start the school year. He had a little taste of it the prior year when against everyone's wishes Sirius, in his animagus form, went to see him off. He knew Sirius in human form wouldn't have been able to say goodbye at Kings Cross, but he still could have had a goodbye with someone that actually cared about him. But now he'd never have that. He sometimes wished he never met Sirius or found out that he was his godfather. All his hopes for a family were destroyed in the blink of an eye.

He shook his head sadly and took a deep breath, trying to rid the depressing thoughts from his mind. He knew it wouldn't do any good to dwell on things he'd never have. With one last longing look at the families down on the platform, he climbed the steps and boarded the Hogwarts Express.

Harry passed many open compartments that were crammed with kids, all discussing loudly what they did over the summer. He didn't really want to discuss anything that happened to him over the summer, mostly because whenever he thought of the summer, he thought of Sirius, and he was trying to forget the pain. He also still felt out of sorts from the past few days at Grimmauld Place and wasn't feeling completely well yet. He definitely didn't want to discuss any of it with anyone right now. The only thing he did want was his friends.

In search of Ron and Hermione, Harry continued down the cars. Walking by one of the open compartments, a hand flew out and grabbed his arm. Before he knew what was happening, he was being pulled inside the compartment.

"Hey Harry," said the voice who belonged to the person who grabbed him. "How was your summer? Do anything fun? How'd you do on your OWLs?"

After getting his bearings, he looked up and saw his classmate, Seamus. Not wanting to have a conversation or to stay with the group of fifth and sixth years, Harry gave a vague answer. "My summer was like normal. Sorry, but I promised to find Ron and Hermione when I got on board." He turned back to the compartment door to leave. "See you at the feast." He then rushed out of the compartment and continued down the train.

Moving on down towards the end of the train, he found the compartments were slowly becoming emptier. He hadn't found Ron or Hermione but figured they hadn't gotten on board yet. So instead he searched for an empty compartment, finding one in the last car of the train.

Sighing, he stowed his book bag on the overhead shelf, closed the compartment door, and sat down next to the window. Just after sitting down, the train gave a jerk then started on its way to Hogwarts. He put his head in his hand and stared out the window watching the scenery go by; his thoughts mostly on what a horrible summer he had. He also couldn't wait until he could talk to Remus. He hadn't realized how much he missed the man's company and warm smiling face.

Lost in his thoughts, Harry jumped when the compartment door opened a while later. Tearing his eyes off the passing scenery, he turned towards the door, getting his breathing under control.

"Hi Harry," came the voice of Hermione. She noticed his wide eyes and fast breathing. "I'm sorry I scared you." She sat down across from Harry and looked to Ron, who was trailing in after her. "With all the noise he was making," she nodded to Ron, "I'm surprised you didn't hear us coming. You could probably have heard him from Hogwarts."

Ron's face turned a light shade of pink as he sat down next to Hermione. "It's not my fault that Malfoy and his goons tried to trip me as I passed." He gave a smile to Hermione and looked at Harry. "Hullo Harry."

"Hi guys." Harry looked at his two best friends and noticed they didn't have their bags or anything else with them. "Erm…do you two already have a compartment for us? I didn't see you two when I got on board."

Hermione and Ron looked at each other, confused. "Harry," Hermione began, "Ron and I are Prefects, remember?"

"Oh yeah," Harry said, disappointed then shrugged. He'd forgotten that. "Sorry I forgot. Guess I'll see you two at the feast then," he said rather shortly. Not waiting for a reply, he returned his gaze to the window.

Ron and Hermione sat there just staring at their friend. Without Harry having to say it, they both knew that he wanted them there with him the entire ride. Unfortunately that wasn't possible this year.

Hermione stood up. "I really wish we could stay here longer Harry," she said quietly. "But we're late as it is. We were supposed to go to the Prefects car first thing, but we wanted to see you first." She waited for a response, but never got one. "Goodbye Harry. See you at the feast." She then turned and headed out of the car.

Ron followed behind her. "Bye mate. See you in a few hours." He then stepped out of the compartment and closed the door behind him.

After hearing the door close, Harry glanced to see if they indeed left him. Seeing the empty compartment, he gave a sad sigh and returned to staring out the window. He always looked forward to his trip to Hogwarts and spending the hours just having fun and talking. He knew he wouldn't do a lot of talking or having as much fun as he used to on this trip, but he still wanted to be around his friends. He was tired of being alone. It just made him think more about the past few months.

A while later he started coughing. He rolled his eyes once he stopped. He was sick of being sick. Not wanting to wait to see if it got worse, he opened his bag and took a vial of the potion he and Professor Snape had made the day before. About ten minutes later, he began to feel drowsy; a possible side affect of the potion or perhaps Snape had put in a light sleeping draught. Either way, Harry was too tired to contemplate the reason. He slowly lay down on the bench and within a few minutes, was asleep.

Harry stirred from his sleep a little over an hour later. When he opened his eyes, he was greeted with two blurry figures on the other side of the compartment. Hoping they were Ron and Hermione, he quickly sat up, rubbed his eyes, and then went in search of his glasses that had fallen off while he slept. Putting his glasses on, he saw the blurry figures slowly coming into focus were unfortunately Ginny and Neville. The two were lost in a game of wizard chess and hadn't noticed Harry stirring. "How long have you two been in here?" he asked them, breaking the silence.

Ginny gave a squeak of surprise at the sudden sound. "Hi Harry. We haven't been here long. Maybe about twenty minutes or so." She watched Harry raise his hand to his mouth to cover a yawn. "I hope we didn't wake you. We tried to be quiet."

"Don't worry about it Ginny. You two didn't wake me."

"Good." Ginny looked down to the chess board. "We haven't gotten anywhere with this game Harry. How about the three of us play exploding snap?"

Harry looked to Neville and then back to Ginny. "You two don't mind quitting your game?" He watched as Ginny and Neville looked at each other then shook there heads in the negative. "Brilliant. Let's play." He'd do anything to keep his mind off of summer.

~SH~

The three spent the remaining trip playing exploding snap and wizard chess. Before they knew it, they had arrived and were boarding the carriages to Hogwarts. Harry had searched for Ron and Hermione, but couldn't find them, so he ended up in a carriage with Ginny, Neville, Luna, and a second year no one knew.

As Harry entered the Great Hall, he gave a huge smile, glad to be back to where he considered home. He took at seat at the Gryffindor table and was joined a few minutes later by Ron and Hermione. The three were getting ready to talk when the first years walked in and the sorting began.

After the sorting was complete, Harry looked up to the staff table in search of Remus. He didn't see him, but spotted an empty seat next to Professor Snape. He was a bit disappointed to not see him up there, but fully understood. He just hoped that dinner would be over soon so he could go visit Remus. He was way too eager to see the DADA professor.

Before dinner was served, Professor Dumbledore got up and announced that Remus Lupin would be the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher again this year. Once all the clapping and cheering ended, Hermione, Ron and Harry started talking about their OWLs and what classes they were taking this year. Dinner was served a few minutes later and they stopped most of their conversation to eat.

Hermione took a sip of pumpkin juice, set her cup down, and looked to Harry. "Harry, a few of us were talking over the summer and we'd like to continue with…" she paused, looked around the table, and continued softer, "…we'd like to continue with the DA. If what happened at the Ministry is any indication of what we'll be up against, we definitely would like to continue."

Harry paled at the mention of what happened at the Ministry. He knew Hermione wasn't speaking about what happened to Sirius in particular, but that was all he could think about. He got angry with Hermione for bringing it up, for bringing all the memories of his godfather to the front of his mind. A painful lump formed in his throat and he began to feel a prickling behind his eyes. His need to go find Remus increased drastically, and he was shocked by it.

He looked up at the staff table one last time to make sure the man wasn't there. After seeing his seat still empty, his eyes locked with the cold black eyes of Professor Snape. Everything he was feeling increased tenfold while staring at the Potions Master. He felt that man was part of the reason Sirius was dead.

Needing to get out of the Great Hall immediately, Harry got up from the table and with a quick word to Ron and Hermione telling them he'd see them in the common room later, left to go see Professor Lupin. Harry ran up to the second floor and arrived at Lupin's office.

He knocked on the door to Remus' office and tried to push back his emotions. A few seconds later, the door was being opened by Remus. "Oh, hi Harry. I wasn't expect…" He stopped talking as he took in Harry's erratic breathing and pale complexion. He also noticed that the boy looked like he was on the verge of crying, something that totally shocked the man. Harry didn't even look like that after Sirius fell through the veil. "Harry, are you alright?"

Harry tried to control his breathing. "I'm fine professor," he lied between ragged breaths. "I just ran up here from the Great Hall."

Remus could tell Harry was upset about something and wasn't fine, but didn't want to push it. "Why don't you come in and let's go to my study and get comfortable." Harry nodded his consent then followed Remus through his office and into the study in his private quarters. "Take a seat on the couch while I light a fire in the fire place."

Harry sank down on one side of the plush dark blue couch as Remus lit the fire. He put his elbows on his knees and pressed his hands over his eyes, trying to stop from crying. He hadn't cried over Sirius yet and he wasn't about to start now.

After lighting the fire, Remus stood up and took in the sight of Harry, sitting on the couch. He gave a sad sigh while walking over to the couch and sat down a little bit away from Harry. "Harry," he said quietly. "What happened?" Remus wasn't expecting an answer, but decided to ask anyway. After all, the boy did seek him out instead of finishing dinner.

After a few seconds, Harry was satisfied that he had his emotions under control. He removed his hands from his face and clasped his hands together, elbows still on his knees. He felt his professor’s gaze on him but kept his eyes focused on his hands in front of him. "Sorry professor. I just got angry and upse…," he stopped abruptly. He had been trying to deny that feeling and didn't want Remus to know how he really felt. "I just had to get out of there. Everyone was talking like nothing happened at all while at the Ministry and didn't even take in to account what I might be feeling. I don't want anyone to feel sorry for me, but it would have been nice if they considered how I would be affected about what they were saying." He took a frustrated breath, having a difficult time trying to vocalize what he was feeling. "That's not coming out right. I mean…"

"Harry don't worry, I know what you are trying to say. Believe me. I can't speak for your friends Harry, but I know that it's hard for others to realize that even the most minor of things could bring upsetting memories. Just know they wouldn't intentionally hurt you." Harry finally looked to him and seeing the heartbreaking and miserable expression on Harry's face, he gave the boy a sad smile.

Harry returned the smile. "Thanks Professor." His eyes then wandered over his professor. He took in the man's tired appearance and fresh cuts on his face. After really seeing Remus, he thought it might be better to come back in a few days when Remus had time to recover from his transformation even though he really wanted to talk to him. He didn't realize how much just this little talk, if you could call it that, helped him so far. "I should go," Harry stated, and then got up quickly.

"No Harry," Remus stated, surprised at the quick change in Harry's attitude. "You don't need to go. You can stay as long as you like."

"I'd love to stay and talk all night, but I know you must be exhausted. I'm sorry I disturbed you tonight. I just needed..."

"Harry, stop apologizing," Remus interrupted, then stood up also. "I asked you to come tonight, remember? I've been looking forward to your visit since I left you."

"I know." He gave Remus a smile. "I just want you to feel one hundred percent better, or as close to it as you can be tomorrow for class. I can't wait to see what we'll be learning."

Remus laughed. "Fine. But you must promise you'll be back soon so we can talk."

"You don't have to ask me twice." Harry turned and started heading towards Remus' office and the door out to the corridor, with Remus following behind. He reached the door and turned around. "Goodnight Professor."

Remus opened the door for Harry and held it open. "Goodnight Harry." Harry smiled one more time at Remus and left for the Gryffindor tower. Remus stood at the door watching Harry's retreating form. He was glad to see that Harry's mood improved with just the short visit. After Harry disappeared from sight, Remus closed the door and went back to his personal quarters.