Early the next morning, the Hogwarts Express bound for London was already waiting at the station.
The students who had not chosen to stay at school came out of the castle with their schoolbags on their backs, laughing and chatting as they headed toward the station.
"Ugh, just thinking about having homework over the holidays puts me in a bad mood," Ron said.
Some students were carrying schoolbags because they intended to study over the holidays-Hermione and quite a few Ravenclaw students, for instance.
But for most of them, it was because of that most evil of things: homework.
At least in Harry's and Ron's eyes, homework was definitely unwelcome.
Before the holidays began, they would usually make a last-minute push to finish their homework with help from Hermione or other top students. This year, though, the business with Mr. Weasley had cost them some time, so they had a little more left than usual.
Still, it was actually fairly little considering the length of the holidays. Ron was simply being a bit hard to please.
Lavender followed meekly beside Ron, smiling without saying anything.
Harry and Qiu, meanwhile, were reluctant to part. Unlike Lavender, who simply stayed beside Ron, Qiu still sat with her girlfriends on the train journeys, even though she often spent time with Harry at school.
Harry was a little disappointed, but he was actually used to it.
Once aboard, he went into a compartment with Ron, Hermione, and Lavender.
Unlike the journeys at the start and end of term, when all the compartments were full, quite a few students chose to stay at school over Christmas and Easter, so there were plenty of empty compartments.
"I wonder who's picking us up," Ron said curiously. "Mum must be at the hospital looking after Dad. Hmm, one