“i told you he was going to ome on a tuesday! give me five sikles!” gee is howling, and ron, grumbling, grudgingly shoves a hand down the poket of his pants
there is a flurry of red hair and he finds his arms filled with ginny and his bak roughly patted by arthur
at the bak of the rowd, molly wipes at her eyes surreptiusly using her apron, and harry fshes her a shy grin
molly huffs, wipes at her eyes again, before waving a dle in his diren “well, ome on, then, harry, you’re just in time for lunh”
over the table, after gee tells him through a mouthful of food at how bad ron is at gambling, harry tells molly that drao liked her blueberry pie, enough to eat it at dinner and request it for breakfast again theday
molly dabs at her eyes with her apron again and again and again until arthur just ughs, pulls her in for a hug, and lets her ry on his shoulder
august omes to a lose, and the upoming shool year has everyone busy, so muh that the invitans for whatever funns have stopped he thinks that that’s why narissa has stopped asking him to ome to the manor, though she has told him that he’s welome anytime he wants to
harry doesn’t manage to anymore, though, beause herne’s bak and he’s been spending a lot of his time in the burrow again, doing st minute house repairs and st minute shopping in diagon alley they do it under gmours, of ourse, and harry wonders if drao’s well enough to walk around diagon alley, too
he knows that molly and narissa keep in onstant orrespondene, however, and molly doesn’t menn anything out of the ordinary, and so harry doesn’t ask
september 1 is just around the orner
ptform 9 ? is full and lose to bursting by the time harry pushes his art through the wall it is as kingsley warned him: on folk and paparazzi alike are going to be fighting tooth and nail to get a glimpse of him
he pulls his hat down further to over his eyes, even though he’s o his dirty blond hair and pudgy heeks won’t attrat any amera shutter he’s not even wearing his gsses, and only herne’s small hand on his bak is keeping him from pushing his art down the train trak
ron, also under a gmour, had already boarded ahead of them, as pnned people will be expeting them to ome together in a group of three, herne had expined any group of three students will automatially be a target of srutiny, no matter how good their gmours were
there were reporters shouting “there!” and pointing to vaus direns, but never the orret one harry resolutely ignores the vendors selling pins and balloons with his fae pstered on them it isn’t even a fttering piture of him
“look, it’s drao malfoy!”
harry immediately looks up, searhing, even though everything’s blurred he looks for where one person is pointing and where other people are looking, and he squints, willing his vin to fous, and realizes that they’re looking at him
and then, another person says, “naw, that’s not malfoy malfoy’s a thin d do yer job properly, why don’t ya?”
from behind him, harry hears someone mutter “good i don’t really want to see death eater sum today”
harry almost turns around in anger, but herne tightens her grip on the sweater on his bak
“zah,” herne’s voie, altered into a high-pithed squeak, sounds from beside him, and she turns green eyes to him, a smile pstered on her thik lips “i rekon we should hurry it up, don’t you? we don’t want to miss the train”
harry grumbles, but allows her to lead him away
as soon as they enter the ompartment where ron’s waiting for them, they olpse on the benh and immediately take off their gmours they sigh loudly as they sag on their seats
“it’s razy,” ginny says in disbelief, peeling one edge of the losed urtain away from the window to peek at the mess of people outside
“they’re bonkers, that’s what they are” ron shakes his head, a striken look on his fae “they were selling ginger quills! ‘show your love for ron weasley’ and all that **e! ginger quills!”
brushing her hair away from her fae, herne says seusly, “their nibs are atually really omfortable to use”
ron turns his horrified expresn her way “you bought a ginger quill?”
herne smiles, her eyes twinkling “i passed by a shop selling them in diagon alley show your love for ron weasley and all that **e”
and ginny bursts into ughter and harry ughs along with her as ron’s fae turns as red as his hair, and it’s definitely new, this dynami among them
he and ginny had ome to an uanding that they weren’t ready for a renship, with both of them still m all they’ve lost ron and herne had bravely taken on the hallenge, and harry had been auus at first, thinking that it was one more thing that had to hange but at the end of the day, he loves his friends, is immensely proud of them and their renship, and—tely—have been thinking that maybe it won’t be so different between all of them after all
the hogwarts express this year is, as predited, sparsely oupied
“parents wouldn’t really want to bring their hildren bak, after everything that’s hened st year with the carrows,” ginny says quietly, frowning at her hands on her p as she realls the things that hened st shool year as the train’s horn sounds and it lurhes into a start, she looks at harry with a worried expresn “and, i overheard some people talking in diagon alley word’s gotten around that malfoy’s also oming bak”
harry’s lips press together thinly he an imagine it, mothers whispering to eah other, onvining eah other not to send their sons and daughters to hogwarts beause of an ex- death eater he an’t really bme them, but it still sours his mood
“it’s just us an
