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Chapter 16: The Start of Term Feast and the Sorting Hat's New Song

Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny managed to claim one of the last carriages to themselves as Neville went off in search of Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnegan, his other roommates. Ron leaned back on the wooden carriage seat and sighed dramatically, "Oh, I'm not ready for sixth year to start - why don't you just wake me when we graduate, Hermione?"

Hermione slapped Ron playfully on the arm. "If you're not ready for sixth year to start, then why has all you've been able to talk about for the past two weeks been the house Quidditch team? That doesn't happen on holiday, does it?"

"Well, no," Ron said, straightening up, his eyes brightening at the introduction of his favorite topic, Quidditch. "Harry, you going to be back on the team this year, mate?"

"Well," said Harry, "if I'm allowed. I got a lifetime ban last year, and last I checked, I'm still alive."

"Don't be stupid, Harry," Ginny snapped, not liking to remember how close he had come to not being alive. "That ban will be lifted, I'm sure, now that Umbridge woman is gone. Of course you're going to play, and I'm going to try out for Chaser."

"Who do you suppose the new captain is going to be?" Ron asked the carriage at large.

"Katie Bell," Harry answered immediately. "She's the most senior member on the team."

"Yeah," Ron said, looking a bit disappointed. "She'll be good."

"At least she won't be yelling all the time like Angelina," Hermione remarked, remembering the former captain's tirades at Harry when he had missed practice due to detentions with Professor Umbridge. "I've always thought Katie was very nice."

"Yeah, she's nice enough," Ron answered. "But will that really make her a good captain?"

"I'm sure she'll be a fine captain, Ron," Ginny told him. "Besides, with the three of us on the team, how can Gryffindor lose?"

The conversation about the house Quidditch team continued until the carriages had halted in front of the impressive front entrance to the castle, the same doors Harry imagined in his mental fortress, which had grown stronger and more complete each day he had worked with Dumbledore. He felt an overwhelming sense of comfort, of safety, radiating off the stone walls of the castle, and the feeling only intensified as he walked with his closest friends through the door and into his second-to-last year of school.

*

As prefects, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny had to sit near the front of the table, where the first years would sit once they got sorted, and Harry took a seat beside Ginny and grinned at Seamus Finnegan and Dean Thomas, who were waving at them from about halfway down the table. He had to admit that it was nice not to have half the students in the Great Hall pointing at him and whispering, believing the Daily Prophet's insinuations that he was a lunatic and a liar. Most of the glances he got tonight were friendly, not counting the usual sneers coming from the Slytherin table.

"I hope the Sorting is quick this year," Ron said, just as he did at the beginning of every start-of-term feast. "I'm starving!"

"Honestly," Ginny sighed. "You would think we hadn't all eaten five galleons worth of pumpkin pasties and chocolate frogs on the train this afternoon. Don't you ever think about anything but food?"

"Not at the feasts," Ron grinned at her.

There was a soft tapping of a knife on a goblet from the teacher's table, and all heads turned towards the front of the hall. Harry looked at the teachers' table with interest. There was Hagrid, dwarfing all the other professors from his usual seat, and Professors Sinistra, Sprout, and Flitwick all looking attentively at the Headmaster in the center. Next to Professor Dumbledore stood Professor McGonagall's empty seat (she was waiting to lead the first years into the hall for the sorting), Professor Snape, who kept sneaking sideways glances at.../Tonks/, who looked quite sedate tonight, sporting long, dark hair and a completely normal face with fair, creamy skin.

"/Tonks/?" Harry whispered incredulously. He had wondered why she hadn't been part of his guard! Could she be the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor? Tonks noticed Harry and the others staring at her and gave a small wink, changing her nose subtly as they watched her, trying not to laugh.

"Welcome back to another year at Hogwarts!" Professor Dumbledore greeted his students with twinkling eyes and a small smile. "I am certain we have many things to say to one another, and some new faces to introduce, but first, let the Sorting begin!"

The door to the Great Hall opened and Professor McGonagall led the usual line of frightened-looking first years between the long tables and to the front of the hall. She held the frayed and patched Sorting Hat in her arms, and after she had placed it on its small stool, the rip near the brim opened, and the sorting hat began to sing:

"A very long, long time ago,
When I was just a hat,
Sitting atop a young man's head
If you'd have told me that
I'd be sitting in this proud hall
Perched upon a stool
Ready to Sort into houses
The students of this school
I'd never have believed you
For then, no brains had I
Before the founders of the school
In their wisdom high
Granted me discernment
And cast into me their thoughts
Of who should be in their houses
And who, they thought, should not.
Rowena Ravenclaw, the brightest witch
Wanted those who had most wit
So students with the sharpest minds
Into her House I sit.
Godric Gryffindor, the brave and strong,
Wanted those of stoutest heart
So I place the most courageous
Into his House from the start.
Helga Hufflepuff, the kindest soul,
Above all valued friendship
So I place the loyal and the true
Into her House's kinship.
Salazar Slytherin, most cunning one of all
Wanted those with most ambition
So I place into his House those
Who will work their dreams into fruition.
Ah, yes, I'll sort you, but I'm afraid
That once again I'm wrong
For more than ever, unity
Should be the meaning of my song.
War has come, make no mistake
And of those who enter here
Not all will return to their homes
Such are the times, I fear.
So band together, don't break apart,
And a victory we'll win,
I hope you'll heed my warning, and
Let the Sorting now begin!

The hat fell silent, and not even the slightest smattering of applause rang into the great all. The students were all completely flabbergasted. The sorting hat had warned them of danger the year before, but it had never said that there were those among them who would not be returning home. What could that possibly mean? Surely the war wouldn't come to Hogwarts!

After she took a moment to compose herself, Professor McGonagall began, as usual, reading from her long list of first years. "Adams, Rebecca!"

A haughty-looking girl strode up to the hat, not looking a bit fearful. Harry and the others were not in the least surprised when the Sorting Hat took only a few seconds to cry out, "/SLYTHERIN/!"

The first Gryffindor to be sorted was a very small, timid-looking girl with brown braided pigtails and rosy cheeks. When Professor McGonagall had called out, "Davies, Sylvia," she had walked slowly up to the hat and put it on, as Harry was reminded of his own trip to the front of the hall to be sorted. He sympathized with her. The hat did not take long to proclaim, "/GRYFFINDOR/," and the girl took the hat off and scampered gratefully to sit next to Hermione, who smiled warmly at her.

Not long after that, Ron had started to stare longingly at his golden plate, wishing it would fill so he could quiet the rumbling of his stomach. Finally, "Young, Alexander" was sorted into Ravenclaw and Dumbledore stood up to beam at his students from behind the teacher's table.

"Welcome, first years and returning students! I am happy to see you all looking so well tonight. I know you are hungry, so I will go through our start-of-term notices as quickly as possible." His eyes flicked over to Ron for just the slightest moment, as if he could hear Ron's stomach grumbling.

"First of all, I would like to inform all first years, as well as some returning students who seem not to have heard my previous warnings, that the forest on the edge of the grounds is forbidden. This year, you will find that strict security measures have been placed on the forest boundaries, and no one will enter or leave the forest undetected." Harry knew that this had been done more to stop people coming in than people going out, but he did not so much as exchange a glance with the others.

"Secondly, I am pleased to introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Nymphadora Tonks. Professor Tonks is an auror, and so is highly qualified for the position, and we are fortunate that she has taken time away from her duties at the Ministry to serve in this post." The Great Hall erupted with vigorous applause. Most of the students had no idea who Professor Tonks was, but everyone was extremely grateful to have a teacher other than Professor Umbridge, and thought that taking classes from an auror would be the absolute height of cool. No one, however, clapped more loudly than Ron, Ginny, Harry, and Hermione.

Dumbledore continued, "Our caretaker Mr. Filch has asked me to remind you that the use of magic in the corridors between classes is strictly prohibited, and that he has expanded his list of forbidden items to include portable swamps, skiving snackboxes, and generally anything else that can be purchased at Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes or Zonko's Joke Shop. The full list is, as always, posted on the door to his office."

Ron sniggered, but Harry wondered how Dumbledore had found out about the skiving snackboxes - for the most part, they had not been put into use until after the Headmaster had been temporarily replaced by Dolores Umbridge. Perhaps the twins had told him?

"Having said that, however," the Headmaster said, smiling gently at all of them, "I want you all to have a good year, and by that I do not mean simply to study hard, although that is very important as well. I want you all to have fun this year, to play games, and make jokes. By allowing our enemies to alter our lives, we have already given them a victory. Enjoy your time in school, for believe me, you will miss it when it is gone.

"And, now, I believe I have only one thing more to say," he added, and when he spoke again, Ron also said the words, considerably more quietly, "/Tuck in/." The plates and goblets filled immediately with the usual assortment of delicious-looking food. Harry heard Sylvia Davies' sharp intake of breath when the mountains of food materialized in front of her, while the other first years at the table, though impressed, did not seem as surprised. He wondered if she, like he, had been brought up having no idea about the magical community, but he never got a chance to ask her as Ron began piling huge amounts of steak and kidney pie, mashed potatoes, bread and vegetables onto Harry's plate.

"Mum's orders," Ron said in answer to Harry's incredulous look, now shoveling large amounts of food onto his own plate. "She said to make sure you ate enough."

"But she didn't tell you to choose what Harry ate, Ron!" Ginny broke in.

"I'd have to be Goyle's size to eat all of this, anyway!" Harry laughed. Ron had served him enough food for three people.

"Hey!" Ron protested, looking down at his own plate, which contained even more food than Harry's.

Everyone laughed and began to eat. Despite his protests, Harry was quite hungry. Ron, who had, after all, been taking three meals a day with Harry for five years, had selected the dishes that Harry liked best, and everyone was silent for a few minutes while they all concentrated on their dinners.

Just as the puddings appeared and Harry was about to serve himself a large piece of treacle tart, a shadow fell over them. Harry turned quickly, instantly on alert, but relaxed when he saw Tonks, grinning fit to burst.

"Tonks!" Hermione cried, earning several curious looks from nearby students who wondered why she had greeted this new professor so informally. She blushed and corrected herself. "I mean, Professor Tonks."

"Hello, everyone," Tonks smiled, and then lowered her voice so only Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny could hear her. "You lot can still call me Tonks, as long as we're on our own, OK?"

"Right, Professor," Harry said, grinning at her. He, too, lowered his voice. "So, is this what you really look like?" He was not sure if she would want the other students to know she was a Metamorphmagus.

"Right-O, Harry," she answered softly but cheerfully. "This is me as I am naturally. However, it might be best if we kept my...special abilities to ourselves, alright?"

All four of them nodded, and Harry was quite relieved that he had thought to lower his voice before he had asked about her looks. Now that he knew he had seen the "real" Tonks, he couldn't help but notice that she looked a bit like Sirius. 'Well,' he thought, 'they are cousins, after all, so why am I so surprised?'

Ginny noticed the sad look on Harry's face as Tonks walked back up to the teacher's table, and she thought she knew why. In her true form, Ginny thought that Tonks really resembled Sirius, with her black, wavy hair and pale complexion. She wanted to take Harry's hand, to say something comforting, but before she could summon the nerve to do either, Professor McGonagall had come up to the table.

"Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, Miss Granger," she said crisply. "I would like to have a word with each of you in my office. Miss Weasley, I trust that you and Mr. Creevey can escort the first years to Gryffindor Tower?" Ginny nodded and went to find Colin, who had forgotten that he was supposed to sit at the top of the table and was having a lively discussion with his brother Dennis near the other end.

Harry had barely registered that Colin Creevey had been made a prefect before his mind kicked into high gear and he frantically tried to think what he could have done to warrant a meeting with McGonagall on the first day of term. Noticing that Ron's expression was quite as worried as his own must have been, Harry followed McGonagall out of the Great Hall.

When they reached McGonagall's office, she asked Ron and Harry to remain outside while she spoke to Hermione alone. They obeyed, of course; you did not argue with Professor McGonagall unless the issue was worth a severe telling-off. Shooting a curious glance at her friends, Hermione followed the professor into her office, and the door closed magically behind them.

*

"What d'you reckon that's about?" Ron asked Harry with a worried glance at the closed door.

"Dunno," Harry answered, quite as mystified as Ron. "Have we done something to set her off?"

"If it was just you and me, mate, I'd be worried about that," Ron said, "but Hermione? She never does anything wrong!"

"Right," said Harry, and Ron suddenly looked at him with an expression of dawning realization. "What?" Harry asked him.

"I bet it's about you, Harry," Ron replied, looking away from him. He knew this would annoy his best friend, but he could not guess why else McGonagall would have wanted to talk to them.

"Come off it, Ron," Harry grumbled, but even as he said the words, he wondered if Ron was right. The adults in his life had certainly not trusted him to be on his own so far, and why should it be any different now he was at school? He supposed McGonagall was probably asking Hermione to take it in shifts with Ron to make sure someone was always with him, and the thought irritated him to no end.

Before he had time to think any further on it, the door opened, and Hermione strode out quickly, furious tears streaking her cheeks. "She wants you now, Harry," she said shortly as she hurried past them and down the hall, ignoring Ron as he called anxiously, "Hermione, what's the matter?"

After seeing Hermione in such a state, but not being able to follow her and find out what had happened, Harry had worked himself up into an almost panicked mindset as he went through Professor McGonagall's office door and heard it magically shut behind him.

*

Harry was panicked and irritated enough that he started speaking before Professor McGonagall even had a chance to tell him why she had called him in. "Professor, I know you've asked Hermione to watch me, and I'll have you know that she already does! I hardly ever get time to be on my own as it is, and now I never will! Hogwarts is safe, isn't it? Why can't I just be left alone?"

McGonagall glared at him sternly, reminding him with her eyes that he was being incredibly rude. "Sorry, Professor," Harry said, not really meaning it.

"Potter, I have not called you in here to discuss whether or not you will be watched while you are at school, and I did not feel the need to instruct Miss Granger to do any such thing, as I am confident that your friends will be near you most of the time. I had another matter to discuss with Miss Granger."

Harry was surprised. If that was not the reason they had been called in, then what did McGonagall want to talk to him about? He looked up at her, the anger in his face replaced by nervousness. He must have done something wrong, although he could not think what...unless it had been the argument with Malfoy on the train...but Harry felt as though, far from being reprimanded, he was to be commended on his restraint at not cursing Malfoy into a thousand tiny pieces.

"I wanted to discuss your timetable with you," she continued, smiling to herself at Potter's obvious unease. She would have to ask Remus Lupin if anything had happened on the train to give the boy a guilty conscience, because she knew that nothing had happened from the time he had reached school.

"My timetable?" Harry asked blankly.

"Yes, your timetable," she continued impatiently. "I see you have registered for six N.E.W.T.-level classes, and I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to drop one of them."

"But I need all those classes to become an Auror!" Harry protested, not even thinking to ask why she was requesting this of him.

"You need five of them to become an Auror. Care of Magical Creatures is not required," she corrected.

Harry stared at her. Drop Care of Magical Creatures? He would never get to see Hagrid. Why did she want him to do this? It seemed so out of character. He looked at her questioningly, not daring to protest.

"Professor Dumbledore wishes you to have a free period in which to continue with your Occlumency training, as well as some other special training he has in mind."

"Oh," was all Harry said. He had known that he would continue his training with Professor Dumbledore, but he had thought he would do it in the evenings, as he had with Snape. And what other training was she referring to?

"You will have to speak to Professor Dumbledore about his specific plans for you," Professor McGonagall continued. "I will be removing Care of Magical Creatures from your timetable. Are there any other questions you wish to ask?"

Harry knew that any further questions would really have to be posed to Dumbledore himself, as they all were about the special training Harry was to have. He shook his head wonderingly.

"Very well, then, you may go back to your common room. Please tell Mr. Weasley to come in." Professor McGonagall dismissed him with a slight nod, and he rose to leave.

"Oh, and Potter?" she called after him. He turned. "I am sure it is unnecessary to tell you that your Quidditch ban is no longer in effect, now that there has been a change of staffing at the school. I expect to see you as Gryffindor's seeker once again." She smiled slightly at his surprised look, and then gestured once again towards her door, which opened automatically for him.

*

"What was that all about, mate?" Ron asked him nervously as soon as he was back out in the corridor.

"Nothing much," Harry replied. "We're not in for it, or anything. She just wanted to talk to me about my timetable."

"What about your timetable?" Ron asked in confusion.

"I have to drop Care of Magical Creatures so I can keep working with Dumbledore on Occlumency," Harry replied. "Dunno what she wants to see you about. She said it wasn't about me."

Ron still looked worried as Professor McGonagall called sharply, "I haven't got all night, Mr. Weasley. You can talk to Potter later."

With one last look of deepest trepidation, Ron walked slowly into the office, and the door, once again, closed of its own accord.

Harry briefly considered going on to the common room, not knowing how long Professor McGonagall's meeting with Ron would take, but then he decided that he would rather wait on his friend. If Hermione was going to be in the same state she had been in when she left McGonagall's office, he thought it would be best if he and Ron were together when they faced her and found out what was wrong. Besides, Ginny would already be in the common room. She could stay with Hermione for a few more minutes.

Harry paced restlessly back and forth along a short space of corridor in front of the office door. He was very curious about this special training he was to receive from Professor Dumbledore. He would be working on dueling in Defense Against the Dark Arts, he was sure, and Dumbledore was already teaching him Occlumency - what else did the old wizard have up his sleeves?

Harry knew that his time to fight Voldemort was not far into the future. He doubted he would have even left school before it happened, and he knew that he was going to have to find a way to defeat the Dark Lord. Once again, Harry wondered what power that he could have against this experienced and deadly wizard. He stopped in his tracks as a disturbing thought occurred to him. Dumbledore was going to work with him on the Unforgivables...most specifically, the Killing Curse!

At this thought, Harry's pace became quicker and more agitated. According to the prophecy, either he or Voldemort would have to die in the final battle; it was the only way either side of the war could be won.

"For either must die at the hand of the other, for neither can live while the other survives..."

Harry felt sick as he heard the words of the prophecy replay in his mind. He did not want to learn the Killing Curse, and he doubted that even with Professor Dumbledore's instruction, that he would ever be able to perform it, even on Voldemort. Bellatrix Lestrange's evil cackle popped into his head, quite unbidden and definitely unwanted:

"Never used and Unforgivable Curse before, have you, boy? You need to mean them, Potter! You need to really want to cause pain - to enjoy it - righteous anger won't hurt me for long..."*

As much as he hated to give heed to anything that evil woman had said, he wondered if she had not been right. After Sirius' death, Harry had been nearly blinded by rage, by the need to avenge his godfather...and yet, he had not been able to effectively wield the Cruciatus Curse on Sirius' murderess. If he had not been able to do it then, why would anyone think he would ever be able to do it?

Harry stopped his pacing suddenly and sat down heavily on the floor outside of McGonagall's office, running his hands through his hair in his disturbance. There had to be some other way to achieve Voldemort's defeat, for if the Killing Curse was the only possibility, Harry did not know what chance he had.

The door to McGonagall's office opened, and Harry stood quickly, anxious to find out what the professor had wanted with Ron. Quite unlike Hermione, Ron emerged from the office with a huge grin on his face, his cheeks flushed with excitement.

"Ron?" Harry asked in amazement. "What's up?"

"Harry!" Ron suddenly seemed to notice his friend standing beside him as he began the long walk to Gryffindor Tower. "You won't believe it! I don't believe it!"

"What, Ron?"

"I've been made Quidditch captain!" Ron exclaimed rapturously, and Harry quite forgot his earlier consternation as his stopped in his tracks and grinned broadly at his friend.

"Wow, mate!" Harry congratulated him. "That's brilliant, that is! You'll make a great captain!" Harry noticed that he felt none of the hard feelings he had felt when Ron had made prefect last year. He knew that he would not have time for the captaincy, and besides, even if Harry was a good Seeker, Ron knew much more about Quidditch.

"Thanks!" Ron said, his grin growing even wider. "There was a condition though."

Harry was curious. A condition? Maybe McGonagall had told Ron that the only way he could keep the captaincy was if he kept his grades up, or something like that. There had been restrictions on that sort of thing in the Muggle primary school he had gone to.

"Yeah, just one condition," Ron continued. "I have to officially make you Seeker again."

"Well, are you, then?"

"You prat!" Ron exclaimed, punching Harry in the arm. "Who else was I going to have as Seeker? Neville Longbottom?"

The two boys grinned yet again as they each remembered Neville's first flying lesson five years ago, in which his broom had gone out of control and he had wound up falling off and breaking his wrist. As they reached the common room, both boys were still grinning hard, sure that the Quidditch Cup would be theirs again this year.

*

A fair distance behind the two Gryffindors, a solitary figure with blonde hair and a pale, pointed face waited until they had gone through the seventh-floor portrait hole into Gryffindor tower, and then stepped out from behind the statue of Horatio the Hapless and turned to go to the dungeons. He had been observing them ever since McGonagall had called them from the Great Hall, and he was anxious to give his report.

Draco had been told that Harry Potter was learning Occlumency to try and defend himself from Voldemort's mental attacks, but he found it interesting that their idiot of a Headmaster had required Potter to put aside an entire class period for it - was Occlumency all they would be working on? He sneered. Any skill Potter could possess in Occlumency would be no match for Draco's father, no match for his master...still, he knew the Dark Lord would find it significant that Potter was to continue his training with Dumbledore.

As he stepped down the many staircases back into the Entrance Hall, he couldn't help but let out a derisive laugh at the thought of Weasley's excitement over being made Quidditch captain. 'That muggle-loving fool,' he thought. 'Gryffindor will be pushovers this year with that idiot as their captain.' He had also not missed the obvious affection between Weasley and the Mudblood, Granger. He snorted. Leave it to a Weasley to fall for someone like her.

He pushed these thoughts from his head as he reached his destination in the dungeons, not the Slytherin common room, but another room, one that only he knew existed. He stared at a blank space of stone wall and muttered the password, "loyal follower," and the stones opened into a gap into darkness. As Draco entered, the wall closed once more, and he knelt in the darkness. "I am here, my Lord."

*

When Harry and Ron entered the Gryffindor common room, they found that most of the students had already gone up to their dormitories to unpack their trunks and settle in for another term. Ginny was sitting over near the fire, in Harry's favorite chair, talking earnestly to Hermione, who still looked furious. Harry's and Ron's grins faded slightly as they went over to her. Whatever had happened in McGonagall's office, Hermione was clearly still very unhappy about it.

"She just doesn't understand, does she?" Hermione was saying to Ginny as the boys came into earshot.

"Understand what, Hermione?" Ron asked as he sat down beside her on the sofa and put an arm about her shoulder. "You didn't get a telling off for something, did you?"

Hermione shrugged his arm from her shoulders and replied scathingly, "Of course I didn't get told off, Ron, I haven't done anything wrong."

"Then what's the matter?" Ron looked affronted that she had refused to let him touch her.

"Professor McGonagall is only letting her take six classes," Ginny explained. "She's had to drop Care of Magical Creatures, Astronomy, Divination, History of Magic, and Muggle Studies."

"Divination!" Harry interjected. "But you dropped that third year! What's that got to do with anything?"

"It's not just Divination, Harry," Hermione spoke furiously. "It's the other classes, too! And I'll have you know that I got an 'O' in Divination. I studied hard for it, and even if I don't have the 'Inner Eye' as Trelawney says, I have got the basics of the different forms."

"You took the Divination exam?" Ron asked. "But you hadn't taken Divination in years!"

"Ronald, you are not limited by the classes you have actually taken. You're allowed to sit any exam that you like! Honestly, didn't you read the Guide to Magical Testing Procedures that McGonagall handed out last term?"

"Hermione, I don't even remember getting anything like that," Ron replied, shrugging. "I must have binned it accidentally."

Hermione let out her breath in a loud hiss. It was obvious that anything anyone said right now would annoy her greatly. "I'm going to bed," she said shortly, and got up to leave without asking Harry and Ron what McGonagall had wanted to see them about.

"Wait, Hermione!" Ron exclaimed. "I have something I have to tell all of you!"

"What, then, Ron?" Hermione said irritably.

"I've been made Quidditch captain!"

There was a loud squeal as Ginny Weasley jumped out of her chair and threw her arms around her brother. "Ron! That's wonderful! Oh, it's going to be the best year ever! You'll let me play as a Chaser, won't you? Oh, I can't wait for the season to start!"

"Ginny, you'll have to try out with everyone else!" Ron told her, but he was grinning so widely his face looked in danger of splitting in two. Ginny broke off the hug and socked him in the arm.

"Ow! What'd you want to go and do that for?"

Ginny didn't answer, just grinned at her brother. She was so excited for him, and she knew he would be a fantastic captain. She had never met anyone, even Bill and Charlie, who knew as much about Quidditch as Ron.

Hermione had even found it in herself to smile. After Ginny had released Ron, she went over to him, wrapping her arms around his waist and standing on tiptoe to give him a kiss. "Congratulations, Ron," she said.

Ron's face went red at having had his girlfriend kiss him right in front of his best friend and his sister, but he looked pleased nonetheless. Harry and Ginny grinned at each other. Aside from Hermione's frustration at only being able to take six N.E.W.T. classes, they thought there had never been a better start to a new term.

-----------------------------------
*Direct quote from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, British edition, by J.K. Rowling, pg. 715.