Getting the train was different from his first experience. It was almost strange to be standing on the platform, with a family bidding him goodbye through the flurry of the trains steam. Narcissa had given him a warm hug, with Lucius simply resting a hand on his shoulder and wishing him a good year. Draco received the same, and soon they were running into the red train, to meet with their friends. They entered a carriage and he sat by the window, hit by a sense of déjà vu as he saw all the parents wave to their children. He and Draco waved at Narcissa and Lucius until they were out of sight, returning to their seats.
The journey seemed different as well. The excitement was still there, but it was more peaceful. They knew each other, and with the happy reunion over, they began to discuss the coming year. "I wonder who we'll have for DADA this year. Is your father still teaching, Draco?" The blonde sadly shook his head, and Harry sympathised. Lucius had been a much more competent teacher, and it was nice to have the familiar face. Unfortunately, he had a sneaking suspicion of who the teacher would be this year. Lockhart was the opposite of subtle.
As the sun began to set, they arrived at Hogsmeade station. A flurry of first years clustered around the half-giant, so Harry and his friends followed the older years over to large black carriages. He didn't recognise the strange horses that led them, and poked Theo gently. "What are the creatures that draw the carriage?" Theo looked at him confused, before turning back to the crowd of students. "I can't see anything Harry, I thought they were moved by a spell." Frowning, he followed the group into a carriage, and it immediately began to move forwards, towards the castle.
As soon as they walked into the Great Hall, Harry groaned, startling the students around him. He was pretty sure he hadn't made a sound in front of them before. He silently pointed to the teachers table, where Gilderoy Lockhart sat in a cloud of ego. His presence received mixed reactions from the students. A great many groaned, already aware of the man's self-absorbed ways, but many of the girls began to twitter and squeal. He rolled his eyes, taking his seat with the other Ravenclaws, who luckily weren't as endeared by the man. From the look of disgust on Professor Snape's face, it was clear they weren't alone in that. In fact, the majority of the teachers seemed rather unhappy. His mind drifted from the Headmaster's announcements, and to him, the entire evening seemed to end rather abruptly, and they swiftly headed back to their rooms for the night.
Cavalier soared through the night sky, looking down at the castle from above. The black raven landed in the window of ravenclaw tower, looking in at the boy his master wished to protect. Marvolo looked through the crystal ball, watching as the young necromancer slept. He'd retrieved his journal from Lucius, reabsorbing the horcrux. It had been quite simple to spell the book, creating a link between it and a duplicate, which Cavalier now dropped on the bedside table, before flying off into the darkness.
Harry shot up in bed, wiping away the sweat that collected on his brow and breathing heavily. What kind of dream had that been? He'd found himself in a darkened manor, illuminated by a large fireplace. The strangest part was when he'd turned to look into some kind of crystal, finding his sleeping form in its reflection. Watching himself exactly as he was now. He wasn't sure why it shook him up so much, it was just a dream after all. But a part of him insisted it was more than that. Unable to sleep again, he stood, deciding to visit Helena. She and all the ghosts were in the room of requirement again, and they greeted him rather cheerfully. At least for dead people. He told them of his holiday, and his success of moving Sally, which the ghosts seemed very interested in, before a yawn led to Helena ushering him back to bed. Tired as he was, he didn't think he'd be able to sleep tonight, so instead went to the Slytherin dungeons.
He stood in front of the entrance, before realising he had no idea what the password was. Just as he prepared to turn back and face another sleepless night, a thought occurred to him. He could open the Chamber using parceltongue... "Open." The door swung open, and he grinned. Well that's useful to know. Silently, he walked through the common room, and up the steps to the boys dorms, looking for Draco, Theo and Blaise. When he found it, he opened the door, shuffling over to Draco's bed and tugging the boys covers. As usual, the blonde was incredibly grumpy at being woken up, but quickly shuffled over to allow Harry in.
This had happened more times than either really cared to admit. Quite often Draco had been woken by Harry's bad dreams, he wouldn't tell him what about, but he could imagine. Now he was no longer with those wretched muggles. Not long after that first night, the two boys had taken to visiting the others room if they had trouble sleeping. Draco was glad for it, feeling as though he finally had a brother, family he could go to. Whilst he knew his parents loved him, affection was restricted, and there were certain expectations of him. Harry didn't care if he was Heir Malfoy. He just cared about Draco.
The next morning, Harry had a house elf bring his uniform and school bag from his room, deciding to just meet the others in the hall, and getting ready with the snakes. The other Slytherins didn't even question his presence, evidently used to him being around. He met Terry and Lisa at the Ravenclaw table, reassuring them that he'd simply gone to see Draco, before starting breakfast. Hopefully today would go more smoothly.
Most of his lessons hadn't changed, the same teachers, sitting at the front with Lisa and Terry. Unfortunately the topics were still rather simple, and DADA was so much worse than last year. Painfully so. Lockhart was very clearly a fraud. The man didn't know what he was doing, which led to several Cornish pixies wreaking havoc in the classroom. The Hufflepuffs ensures everyone was okay whilst the Ravenclaws desperately tried to get them back in their cages. Luckily it was over rather quickly, though not quickly enough for his liking. Once Lockhart was reunited with his wand, they finally got to work... As if. He and Terry exchanged horrified looks as they received a quiz all about their terrible professor. Behind him he could hear the thud of Terry Boot's head hitting the desk repeatedly. The questions were ridiculous, including things such as his favourite colour, and what outfit he wore whilst defeating a troll. It was idiotic. He used Lisa to pass around a message to the other Ravenclaws, and by the end of the lesson, every test was blank. They'd speak to Professor Flitwick about this later.
It was potions next, thankfully, and he sat at the back reading third year material whilst Professor Snape shouted at some poor Hufflepuffs. He had a practical lesson with the man after this, which would be a good way to recover from the horror of Gilderoy Lockhart. He waved at Lisa and Terry as they left, and he hopped over to the Professor's desk, waiting patiently as he marked some work. "Well hello Harry, I hope you had a pleasant break?" He nodded, it definitely had been the nicest summer he'd ever had. He returned the sentiment, and the professor smiled slightly as he pulled some ingredients from the shelf.
"It was quite nice to have a break from exploding cauldrons." The boy huffed a quiet laugh at that, and Severus turned away to gather the last of the equipment. The summer break had been rather worrying actually. His mark had darkened considerably, now as black as the day he'd been accepted into the fold. It could only mean one thing. Somehow, somewhere, the Dark Lord was alive. He had yet to tell Albus, for a reason he couldn't quite understand. He had to be light, to protect Harry as he'd sworn to do. To protect the Malfoy ward. As much as he'd learnt about the boy, he still felt as if there was some dark secret the child held close. Perhaps it would be best to wait. Just for a while.
The practical ran smoothly, and Harry bid the man goodbye before running back to the common room. There, all the Ravenclaws were gathered, waiting for Professor Flitwick to arrive. The second the head of house walked in, he was met by shouts and complaints, and it took him a minute to settle the students. Harry saw Terry and Lisa sitting at the back, and he joined them, watching the chaos ensue. "Alright, alright! Everybody just calm down, and can someone please explain what is going on." No one spoke, and Harry looked over to Lisa and Terry, who sighed before walking over to the half-goblin. "Professor, we refuse to participate in DADA until Lockhart is removed from the faculty. He is an unqualified idiot." This was backed by several shouts and cheers of agreement, and it took a minute before everyone calmed again.
"Now I can see you are all very frustrated, but the headmaster chose Professor Lockhart to teach you and I'm sure he would not do so without a good reason." Harry rolled his eyes at that, stepping forward and showing Flitwick the copy of the test they'd been asked to do that morning. "I'm fairly certain his reason was filling a space. Lockhart, whether his stories are true or not, is too vain to teach. He doesn't even have a master's for Merlin's sake." Flitwick didn't have anything to say to that, simply looking over the paper with poorly disguised disgust. "So. Sir? What are you going to do about this?" Flitwick didn't respond for a while, before putting the test in his pocket with a sigh. "I will speak to the headmaster about this. Until then, I suppose I won't be taking any points if you were to indulge in self study. I will be greatly disappointed however, if I find that any Ravenclaw was using this as an excuse to skip studying." An echo of agreement rippled through the room, and Flitwick left the common room, the door shutting behind him.
The Ravenclaws dispersed, returning to their dorm rooms for the night. They each dressed for bed, and he bid goodnight to Terry and Kevin, before rolling over to pull the curtains closed. He paused, seeing a notebook on the bedside table that hadn't been there yesterday. Cautiously, he poked at it, internally scolding himself at the stupid move. He should have checked for spells or curses. Sighing, he picked up the seemingly harmless book, closing the curtains around him. Opening the leather bound journal, which strangely had his initials on it, he saw the pages were blank. He detected a slight charm on the paper though, and quickly summoned a quill and some ink. He paused, thinking what to write, and a drop of ink landed on the page, before simply disappearing. Harry? Shocked, he looked down at his name, which had suddenly appeared on the blank white. It's Marvolo, I sent this so we could talk. Ah, that made sense. Grinning, he brought the quill back to the page. Hello Marvolo. Long time no see.