Rating: T, might go up

Warnings: slash, swearing

Disclaimer: I own none of the canon characters. They belong to J.K. Rowling. Story adopted from taylor-996 with changes belonging to me.

A/N: This story has the same general outline of the story it is adopted from. But some things have been changed. Because some of it has been changed, it took a while before I could decide where and how I wanted the story to go while also trying to keep taylor's ideas.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

Chapter 1

Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, stood alone on platform 93/4 an hour before the departure of the Hogwarts Express from King's Cross Station. The Dursley's usually dropped him off as late as possible but they had plans to visit a new restaurant and did not want Harry around longer than necessary. Harry was not peeved as he wanted to escape them as soon as possible. He looked around in an attempt to find his best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger but failed to spot the lanky, red-headed boy and the bushy-haired girl. He sighed as he gave up his search and started to drag his trunk to the train and climb aboard. Harry located an empty compartment near the back where he usually was located. He sat by the window and propped his head against it as he shut his eyes.

He opened his eyes when the train whistled its imminent departure as the last few students rushed on board and settled down for the long trip. Harry waited for his friends to find him and grew impatient as fifteen minutes, then a half hour passed and still he saw no sign of them. He groaned as he stood up and stretched his arms above his head, his neck stiff from the impromptu nap. Restless Harry left the compartment in search of his friends.

In truth, Harry was a little edgy to be meeting with his friends again. The whole summer he had heard nothing from anyone. Not one owl from them, even for his birthday. He grew worried when he sent several letters with Hedwig and they came back unopened, Hedwig sometimes in disarray. After those couple of times he grew rather worried and had sent a letter to Professor Dumbledore to ask if anything had happened. Harry had received a fairly vague answer that everyone was fine and that for their safety, he should not spend any more time trying to contact anyone. It made him angry to think that something must have occurred for this restriction to take place and that he was being kept in the dark again. He did stop the letters though, as he did not want his friends to be in any danger.

Harry hurried along the corridors, eager to find his friends and share his odd summer with them. At first he had dreaded the summer after fifth year, but as he soon realised, he worried for nothing. It appeared that the Dursley's still remembered Sirius's threats and with him alive and healthy, the Dursley's had left him alone for the most part. Dudley had even stopped his Harry bullying, nodding at him in acknowledgement when he saw him instead of with a fist or a foot to trip him. He still had to do some chores but not from sun up to sun down like usual. This lag in chores though meant he had had a lot of time on his hands. His summer homework lay in his trunk, completed within a few weeks of summers' start. This left the rest of his summer holidays with huge amounts of time to spare.

He decided to visit the shopping centre, to change his tattered and baggy clothes style for something better. After he traded in the Gringotts money he had on hand for pounds, his first stop had been to get an eye exam and new glasses. He wanted to wait and see about magical fixes, but he was practically blind now. The new lenses he bought for himself came in a simple yet thick, black rectangular frame. He also got a trim so his hair did not look like a crow's nest but more of a planned messiness.

After that Harry went to get the main ingredient of his new look, clothes. It was a good thing the store had employees that acted as fashion consultants as well because he had no idea what he had been looking for exactly. The shirts that the woman had picked out came in dark colours mostly, some with light-colored oriental patterns and some just plain. The trousers were mostly black or dark blue khakis or jeans. He didn't know or care if the clothing classified as a specific style or not, just happy that they fit. The way the helper and other store employees and patrons were regarding him, he guessed he also looked great in them.

With the little money he had left, Harry ended his shopping spree by getting a lip piercing, a small dark green ring on the right side of his bottom lip. He had to admit he looked smashing and hoped his friends liked the new him. He stopped at a sweet shop to stock up and even grabbed some for Dudley. They were not going to be best friends but he could at least make a small step toward being on better terms.

He checked every compartment as he continued to search for his friends. On the way he passed Luna who seemed to be nodding at a wall as if it was talking to her. She turned for a brief moment to say hello to him and then went back to the wall. Strange, but not nearly as strange as the looks the few people he encountered were sending his way. Weary would have to be the best word and it made him nervous.

He found his friends in a compartment closer to the front than they usually sat. Hermione, Ginny, Ron, Neville, Seamus, and Dean sat inside, Ron near the window on the left with Hermione and then Ginny near the door. From the window to the door on the right sat Neville, Seamus, and Dean. Everyone was chatting about something and as he looked at Ron's angry face and the worried glances being sent back and forth, it was about something that had them all fidgety. His worries that something happened over the summer came back as Harry slid the compartment door open with a concerned face.

"Hey guys, what's going on?" Harry looked around, growing a little more worried when everyone just murmured in reply and some of them avoided his eyes.

Ron face grew red and he prepared to say something when Hermione grabbed and squeezed his hand. It must have hurt since Ron grimaced and turned toward the window as Hermione turned to Harry, giving him a tight smile.

"H-hey Harry," she faltered nervously before she cleared her throat. "Sorry, we found Neville, Dean, and Seamus up front and sat with them. And, well, after last year, we thought you would like a little space to think things over. Sorry there's no space left. How about we talk later okay?"

Hermione said in a rush as she stood up. Harry was kept at the threshold of the compartment by Hermione standing in front of him. She gave him an awkward pat on his shoulder while she nudged him backward.

"Al-alright…" Harry trailed off as Hermione gave a little wave and then shut the door in his face. He felt lost for some reason and as a wave of dizziness assaulted him, he hurried back to his compartment.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

"Awkward." Dean drew out after Hermione checked that Harry had left then cast a silencing charm and sat back down between Ron and Ginny.

"I thought you said that he wouldn't come looking for you?" Ginny hissed as she turned to Hermione.

"I said he might not try to find us, not that he would not. He can be stubborn at times though." Hermione said as she frowned.

"A-a-a-are you s-s-sure?" Neville stuttered out. He blushed when everyone looked his way in confusion. He cleared his throat and looked to Ron in particular. "About what we talked about before? That he's-that Harry's going mad?"

"The evidence all points that way. When he came back from the tournament in fourth year claiming that Voldemort was back and with Cedric's body I think he might have cracked then. He didn't say much of anything about Voldemort throughout last year. And then he dragged us along to the ministry because of a dream, almost killing us. Even Professor Dumbledore says he's having a hard time believing Harry. The headmaster wants us to watch him, make sure he doesn't do anything damaging. He was a little too quiet for the professor last year and he wouldn't worry for nothing right?" Hermione explained while Ron nodded beside her.

Everyone mumbled as they took all this in, though one person still had doubts. For some reason, they wanted to form their own opinion based on their own observations and interactions with Harry. They considered themselves to have the perfect vantage point to observe too. And even if he was going mad, they wanted to be there for him.