Harry thought the Order of the Phoenix was making a mountain out of a molehill.
Just to escort him, Ron, Ginny, Hermione, and Neville to school, the Order of the Phoenix had assigned more than ten people. There seemed to be even more people protecting them from hiding, clearly determined to leave nothing to chance.
Yet, just as Harry had expected, the journey passed without a single scare, with no sign of any Death Eaters.
Nothing happened at all, right up until they boarded the train.
"I told you nothing would happen, didn't I?" Harry said to the person beside him, looking a little smug.
"Safety comes first, doesn't it?" The person beside him smiled gently, then leaned against the compartment window. "Actually, I could sit somewhere else. Won't you feel uncomfortable with me here?"
The person who had boarded the train with Harry and the others and joined them in their compartment was Lupin.
At the end of the previous school year, Dumbledore had mentioned that a familiar professor would be returning this year. Harry and the others had guessed it would be Lupin, and that had indeed proved true.
Lupin had been rehired as Hogwarts's Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts.
Well, perhaps that was precisely why Lupin had finally managed to get engaged to Tonks?
The year before last, when Harry and the others were in their fourth year, Lupin and Tonks's relationship had already seemed rather special. At the time, Harry had wondered whether the two would get engaged before long.
Last year, however, the falling-out between Dumbledore and the Ministry of Magic had led to questions about whether Lupin was safe to have around as a werewolf, and he had been forced to resign. This had greatly upset all the young wizards who had