The next day was the day when the students left school.
Jon went to the roof of the Hogwarts Castle and watched the students leave one by one like dragons, and suddenly noticed something unusual.
Normally, Naughty Ghost would be sitting here at this time of the semester, but she wasn't today.
Chown looked around and found him in another place. He was sitting on Hogg's shoulder. Although it looked weird for a spirit to sit on a spirit's shoulder, the two of them looked normal.
After all, Hogwarts was still very strong, a little less than Hagrid, but about the same size as the big guys in Muggle.
After all, this was the spirit of a castle.
Like Jon, they were all looking at the students leaving, as if they were sending them off.
Jon smiled and finally left school and followed the students onto the train. He, of course, still sat with Stephen and the others.
On the way back, there were bound to be some unpleasant episodes, but they were all expected.
First of all, Malfoy, Crabbe, and Gore had obviously been waiting for a whole week until there was no teacher present to beat Harry up.
They had ambushed Harry halfway back from the bathroom, and if they hadn't accidentally chosen to attack outside a box full of D.A. members, the attack would have been successful.
The D.A. members saw what was happening outside through the glass and rushed out to help.
In this battle, Ernie McMillan, Hannah Abbott, Susan Bones, and the others used all the various spells that Harry had taught them.
When Harry, Ernie, and Justin carried Malfoy, Crabbe, and Gore into the shelves and left them there limply, the three of them looked like giant slugs that had squeezed into their uniforms.
Harry thanked the others and accompanied Ron back to their box, where they bought a lot of pot cakes and pumpkin pie.
Hermione was reading the Daily Prophet again, Ginny was doing a quiz on Sing Sing Sing Sing, and Neville was stroking his Mee Boo. It had grown a lot in the past year, and now it would make a strange, low moaning sound when touched.
Harry and Ron spent most of the way playing Wizard, while Hermione read snippets of the Daily Prophet.
The newspapers were full of articles on how to fight off the Dementors, how the Ministry of Magic was trying to hunt down the Death Apostles, and so on. There were also some hysterical letters saying that the author had seen the Demon King Voldemort pass by their house early in the morning one day.
"It hasn't really started yet."
Hermione sighed dejectedly and folded the newspaper. "But it's not too far away."
But there was one good thing, because the notebook could be used again, which gave her a little incentive.
"Hey, Harry."
Ron said softly, nodding at the corridor outside the glass window.
Harry looked over and saw Autumn walking past, with Marietta Ekmore in her balaclava hat beside her.
Their eyes met, and they looked at each other for a moment. Autumn's face flushed, but she kept walking.
Harry immediately returned to the chessboard and saw that one of his pawns had been eaten by Ron's horse.
"What's — going on between you and her?"
"Nothing."
"I — oh — heard that she's going out on a date with someone."
Harry was surprised to find that he didn't feel uncomfortable when he heard this.
Wanting to impress Autumn seemed to be a thing of the past, and it didn't have much to do with him now. These days, he felt the same way about many of the things he had hoped for before Sirius died.
It had only been a week since he last saw Sirius, but it had been a long, long week. It stretched between two worlds, the world where Sirius lived, and the world where Sirius didn't.
"Just don't think about it anymore, man," Ron emphasized.
Ron emphasized, "I mean, she's beautiful and all that, but you want someone who's cheerful and happy."
"She might be happy with someone else," Harry said, hunching his shoulders.
"Who's she with now, anyway?"
Ron asked Hermione, but it was Ginny who answered. "Michael Kona."
"Michael — but —"
Ron said, craning his neck out of his seat to stare at Ginny. "But you're going out with him!"
"Never again," Ginny snapped.
"He didn't like it when Gryffindor defeated Ravenclaw in Quidditch, so he wasn't happy.
I didn't talk to him, and he went to Autumn to comfort her. "
She scratched her nose with the end of her feather, flipped through the pages of Antinomy, and began to compare answers.
Ron looked very happy when he heard this.
"Good. I always thought he was a bit of an idiot," he said.
He said, forcing his Queen into Harry's crumbling castle. 'Good for you. Wait, I'll find a better one. "
He stole a queer glance at Harry as he spoke.
"Yes, I've chosen Dean Thomas. Don't you think he's better?"
"What?"
Ron shouted, knocking over the chessboard: Crookes flung himself at the pieces, and Hedwig and Piggy squealed unhappily overhead.
The train slowed as it approached King's Cross, and Harry thought he had never been more reluctant to leave it.
A thought even flashed through his mind. What if he refused to get off the train, and just sat there stubbornly until the first of September, when it would take him back to Hogwarts? What would happen then?
But when the train finally puffed to a halt, he took down Hedwig's cage, carried it in his hand, and prepared to get off, as usual, dragging the box behind him.
As the conductor signaled to Harry, Ron, and Hermione that they could safely pass through the enchanted barrier between platforms 9 and 10, he found something unexpected waiting for him on the other side: a group of people he had never expected to see standing there to greet him.
There was Mad Mawdie, who, in his bowler hat pulled low over his magical eyes, looked as ferocious as he did without it, and who held a long wooden staff in his coarse, tangled hands, and wore a voluminous travelling cloak.
Tonks was standing behind him. The sun was pouring in through the dark glass on the ceiling of the platform. Her bubble-gum pink hair was shining in the sun. She was wearing a pair of jeans with many patches and a bright purple T-shirt with a picture of the Kinky Sisters.
Next to Tonks was Lupin, pale and grey-haired, wearing a long, old overcoat over a tattered jumper and trousers.
In front of them stood Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Fred, and George. The Weasleys wore their best Muggle clothes, while Fred and George wore their New Brand jackets of dark green scaly material.
These were the members of the Phoenix Society, waiting for Harry's return.
Jon knew this very well, for he was the one who had signaled for these people to come and pick Harry up and do something for him.
Otherwise Harry's holiday might not have been so pleasant.
... Although it was not pleasant at first.
But no matter what, time had moved forward by another year.
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