Harry's summer had been downright miserable. The only positive thing about it was that Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger had both sent several letters to him. Harry had been surprised when the letters had shown up at all, each time delivered by different owls as he gardened or pulled weeds outside in the hot sun. He wondered each day if the owls hung around to wait for him since his cupboard had no windows.

Hermione's letter had come first and though Harry had opened it excitedly , his face had fallen to see that she was telling him off for running off recklessly like he had, to face down Quirril by himself. It was three pages of what Harry considered pure McGonagalish venom aimed directly at him. He wasn't going to answer at all until Ron's letter had come the next day, congratulating him on defeating He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named a second time. Ron's letter had concluded with, ‘I didn't know you had it in you, you were so quite all year, and then BAM! You're off fighting that git under the turban! The professors were right mad at you until they realized you'd almost died. I reckon that's why you didn't get detention. Write me back. You can send the message back with our family owl.'

Ron's letter was much friendlier and Harry didn't hesitate to sneak inside for a pen and Muggle paper to write a reply back. Ron's letter had also emboldened him to write back to Hermione too, a reply he also sent away with Ron's family owl.

The letters continued back and forth for the remainder of the summer, and while Harry felt like he might be becoming friends with Ron via owl post, it was weeks before he and Hermione stopped arguing and she started asking him about other things like his summer homework and how his holiday was going. He wondered if Ron had written to her on Harry's behalf, as Ron was telling Harry half of what to say to her via letter every other day.

Even with the letters of his schoolmates however, Harry couldn't wait to get back to Hogwarts. His family had treated him worse than ever over the summer break, even locking his wand and school trunk in the shed and not allowing him to do his summer homework. Harry would never consider telling his pen pals this, but as he boarded the Hogwarts Express the day they returned to school, he was covered in bruises under his ratty clothes. Dudley had even pushed him down the stairs the week before just to have a laugh, and Uncle Vernon had told Dudley ‘well done son' and had a good laugh too.

Sitting in a compartment by himself again, and not really expecting Ron or Hermione to want to sit with him, Harry gazed out the train window, surprised to see Calen carrying one end of a school trunk, and Professor Snape carrying the other. It didn't surprise him that they were together (he'd thought about them all summer and the unfairness of how Calen was there and Harry wasn't), but it was the length of Calen's hair. For the first time since Harry could remember, he no longer looked so much like Calen. Calen's hair was shoulder length and marginally straighter than Harry's. It wasn't as long as Professor Snape's, but it was on its way there.

Harry was frowning with his face nearly pressed up against the glass to see out, when he heard the compartment door slide open and found Ron there dragging his trunk in.

"There you are, been lugging this thing everywhere looking for you."

"For me?" Harry was surprised. Ron had wanted nothing to do with him the year before, and just as Calen had told him he didn't want to be made fun of by being seen with Harry, he figured now that the summer was over his communication with Ron would stop for the same reason.

"Yeah you. Help me with this."

Harry stood up uncertainly, feeling awkward, and lifted the other end of Ron's trunk to carry it inside so the door could slide closed.

"Dad said I can't use magic to lift it to the rack until the train pulls out of the station, but I want to do it before Hermione comes in and corrects my Wingardium Leviosa."

"So, you two are friends then?" Harry asked. He wasn't sure if he was friends with either of them or not. He'd never had a friend before.

Ron shrugged as he plopped down and opened his trunk to pull out two magazines and a comic book. "Well, after you fought Quirril she sat next to me and helped me study in the common room for the last two weeks, and she and I wrote over the summer, so maybe."

Harry wanted to ask if they were friends, but hesitated. He didn't know if that was an acceptable question to ask or not. Instead he glanced back out the window and saw that Calen and Professor Snape were gone, and asked, "Did you see Calen Snape's hair?"

"Down to his shoulders," Ron said with an air of distaste. "But he's Snape's son, I didn't expect any different. We saw them on Diagonalley when we went to get school supplies earlier in the summer."

Harry bit his lip. He hadn't been to get his school supplies yet, and he'd been worried about it for the last few weeks.

"Do you know... I mean, is there a way to get school supplies once we're at school?"

Ron looked up from the comic book he'd just opened. "You don't have yours yet?" Harry shook his head. "Not the books or robes or anything?"

"Nothing," Harry said. He'd tried on his robes that morning in the bathroom secretly to see if they still fit and was relieved to find that they did, though they were thin and worn and the color had mostly gone from them now from wearing them all year.

"Well," Ron said thoughtfully, "I reckon we can share books like Fred and George do, but I don't know about Potions supplies and the Dragon Hide gloves we were supposed to get. Maybe you can scrounge around the student supply cupboards for quills and ink and parchment too."

Harry sighed. That sounded like a plan, he thought. A better plan than he'd had that morning.

The train whistled then and Harry looked out the window again to see if he could spot Snape or his brother, but there was no sign of them. There were a few students hurrying to get on the train, but other than that the platform was empty.

A few minutes after the train had lurched forward and had started out of the station, the compartment door opened again and admitted Hermione. She looked stiff for a moment until Harry motioned to the seat next to him, and then she visibly relaxed and came inside levitating her trunk in from the hallway.

Ron and Harry watched her quietly as she put her trunk up next to Ron and Harry's.

"So," she said, sitting down with one of the new second year books, "will your second year be as exciting as your first?"

Harry mentally grumbled. It seemed like she was going to start in on him about the Quirril thing again.

"My first year wasn't exciting at all," Harry said.

"Well the end of it was."

"The end of it was a disaster," Harry admitted, remembering that his adventure had gotten him nowhere with his father or brother. For the millionth time since the meeting with Quirril, Harry wondered how his brother had gotten in good with their father. If he could figure that out, then he could figure out how to do the same. It was obvious that Calen wouldn't be helping him, so he'd have to do it on his own.

"This from the one who defended himself all summer about it?" Hermione asked.

"C'mon Hermione, lay off," Ron jumped in, finally putting his comic all the way down. "It was an epic battle and Harry won out."

"It was dangerous, and-"

"Did you come in here just to argue with us?" Ron's question hung in the air and Hermione's mouth hung open. Harry felt awkward again. He still wasn't sure if they were his friends or not or what was appropriate to say. He so rarely got to talk to anyone.

"I thought she came in because she liked us," Harry finally decided on saying. They turned to look at his quiet statement.

"I did," Hermione said, and picked up her book, cheeks turning red.

Harry raised his brows and Ron grinned, but Harry wasn't sure why.

After a few minutes, anxiety about Potions and Professor Snape started to fill Harry with dread. "Hermione, could I possibly borrow your potions text book?"

"Of course."

"Here," Ron said. He stood up and dug in his trunk for a quill and parchment and ink and handed them to Harry. Hermione watched as Harry took the book and writing utensils and started doing his summer homework.

"Are you doing homework?"

"Yes."

"You didn't do it at all over the summer?"

Sensing another argument, Ron said quickly, "He never got to go get school supplies. He doesn't have the books or any parchment or anything."

Hermione shook her head but didn't say anything. Instead she dug in her own trunk for a few minutes and came out with a neat stack of spiral bound Muggle notepads.

"Here are the notes you'll need for each assignment. It's not the answers, just the notes from the text so you don't have to read all of the chapters. The assignments are written on top."

Reaching up to take what was being offered to him, Harry felt grateful. "Thank you," he said quietly. No one had ever done something so nice for him before.

Harry worked on his assignments until Lunch when the trolley came through and Hermione bought him a sandwich and pumpkin juice since he had no money with him. Just as they finished lunch the compartment door opened again and a red head who turned out to be Ron's sister Ginny Weasley came in to sit with them, though she was as quiet as Harry was. Harry thought that he liked her very much, because he didn't feel like he had to force himself to talk around her to not feel awkward like he did around Ron and Hermione.

As it grew dark outside and they drew ever closer to Hogwarts, Harry's homework finally done, he was filled with a mixture of excitement, worry, and uncertainty. Last year had been Calen's year, he thought. Calen had figured the puzzle out and gotten himself a father. This year would be Harry's year. He'd do whatever it took to figure it out. The first order of business was to grow out his hair, he thought. If Calen had grown long hair then it was obvious to Harry that he'd done so to please their father. The second was to keep his grades up in Potions, Harry thought. Hermione was the first in Potions class right now, followed by Calen, and Harry was one point behind Calen, but this year he'd be on top, he was certain. And finally, the third order of business as soon as they got back to the castle, was to go to the library and figure out how he could possibly be Snape's son and Calen's brother. He supposedly looked just like James and Lily, but he also looked just like Calen with short hair! He'd been too smart to ask aunt Petunia how the whole baby thing worked this summer because he didn't want to get smacked, and he was sure his friends wouldn't know, so his only option was the library. Madam Pince had millions of books in there including Muggle ones, so he was sure she must have one on babies and parents.

With a plan in mind, Harry finally felt he was ready for the year, and just in time too as the train had pulled into Hogsmead and the students were disembarking. This would be his year, Harry said to himself again, deciding that he did have friends now as Ron and Hermione got off the train with him, Ginny trailing quietly behind. This is my year.