The Story So Far July 19, 2008

 

 Here is the full text version of the story so far. Sorry about the sorry state of the font and such but the formating is still a little wonky. Click through to read the full story!

           

THE HEART BOND

By: Jay T. Prorter

 

 

It was a dreary, fog filled day on Privet drive, and the raven-haired boy with the jagged scar on his forehead was matching it perfectly. He had been laying in his bed staring into the white eternity of the ceiling………….

for the two days since he’d returned home to the Dursleys. Although he had yet to come down when he was called there had been no repercussions as there usually would have been. His Aunt and Uncle instead had taken to ignoring him ever since their run in with Mad-Eye at the train station. If it was out of fear for interacting with more people like him, or just a new form of neglect they were trying, Harry didn’t care.

            These past few weeks had been the worst in his entire life, worse even than the day he saw Cedric get killed. His mind was plagued with the memories of that horrible night at the Department of Mysteries. Only two weeks ago he not only saw many of his closest friends get severely injured he witnessed his godfather being murdered at the wand of Bellatrix Lestrange. And although Hermione and the others had told him time and time again, he was still blaming himself for involving all the people he loved and cared for, for almost getting them killed, and for Sirius getting murdered. Harry had gone down to the Ministry thinking he was going to save him; instead he fell into a trap and led his godfather to his death.

            He slammed his fist into his mattress in frustration. “It just isn’t fair! I was going to live with him. We were going to be a family!” He screamed hoarsely into his pillow for the hundredth time that day, hunger and exhaustion making him dizzy. He rolled onto his back as he watched the ceiling start to spin in several colours of black and silver. He closed his eyes to try and make it stop but it just kept going, spiralling tighter and tighter together until it was a whizzing blur of silver until all of a sudden it morphed into a small glass box filled with what looked like mercury. Harry’s eyes shot open, startled by the little box. It hadn’t been the first time it had occurred in the past few days. It seemed that every time he tried to shut his eyes he was either haunted by the shocked look on his uncle’s face as he fell into the veil, or this odd little glass box. He never managed to see more of it than just the small glimpse and moments later even that faded from his memory as if he had never even thought of it.

Harry sighed, rubbing his bloodshot eyes as he propped himself up against the bed and looked out the mist covered window. The same senseless grey mass of fog was hanging outside of his window just as it had been since he came home. Everything seemed to be pressing down on him from every direction, the room was beginning to make him claustrophobic, yet he was too weak from lack of sleep and food to go anywhere. And even if he could, where would he go? He thought to himself as he stroked Hedwig’s soft white feathers. The Weasley’s certainly wouldn’t want him to stay with after putting both Ron and Ginny in so much danger, and Hermione had already headed to her own home to recuperate from her injuries. Harry began to panic again as he worked down the list, he really did have nowhere to go. If something were to happen he would be alone, perhaps he could go stay at Hogwarts? Even in his delirious state he tossed the thought out the moment it came him, imagining what spending the summer with Snape would be like.

Harry continued to stare out the window, following the small beads of water as they worked their way down the windowsill. His eyes began to droop again as exhaustion swept over him once again. Trumping his worry about whom he would stay with, Harry lay back down in his bed to another seemingly endless dream of Sirius falling.

Harry woke the next morning to the continuing gloom of thick grey fog, he stood up from the bed wincing from the injuries he’d gotten from the fight in the Department of Mysteries. They weren’t serious, just enough small cuts to remind him of the fight. Harry flicked on the light in the bathroom, the mirror reflecting his grief stricken, emaciated face. His resemblance to what Sirius looked like in the cave not two years ago was startling. He now saw the same desperation and sorrow from Sirius’ face reflected in his own.

He splashed some water over his face and brushed his hair back some. Because he wasn’t allowed to use magic outside of school he hadn’t been able to shave in three days so a rather mangy beard was starting to form. He rubbed his scar absentmindedly, since the time Voldemort had entered his mind he hadn’t felt any of the usual pricks or tingles that he was now accustomed to. Harry assumed that it didn’t have anything to do with what he was doing, but was because Tom felt the pain during his little foray into Harry’s mind too. One less thing for me to worry about I guess, Harry thought as he flicked the light off and went back to his room.

He lay in his bed for the rest of the day; doing the same thing he did the day before, and the one before that. As the rest of the world passed by Harry attempted to make heads or tails of what had happened in the past weeks. While the deaths and events at the Department of Mysteries were shocking enough, the words of the prophecy echoed in his head seemingly gaining strength the more he attempted to ignore them. The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches… but what power do I have. If Dumbledore can’t even scratch him how am I supposed to kill him? Harry thought to himself, more and more anxiety building as the true weight of this obligation began to take shape.

As the days went by he began to fill scrolls and scrolls with chunks of the prophecy, sometimes in order, sometimes barely legible. He didn’t know exactly what he was doing as he scribbled fiercely but his hand continued to spell out the foreboding paragraph over and over again. By his fifth day back home Harry had been reduced to a sliver of his old self, only this time it was not caused by any direct abuse from the Dursleys, in-fact they seemed to be quite content with Harry’s apparent desire to starve himself to death.  This was not entirely true however, Harry didn’t want to starve, he didn’t even want to be hungry. He was eating occasionally; thankfully he still had some of the snacks he’d bought on the train back, yet most of the time it refused to stay down. While surviving on almost nothing was certainly taking its toll on him, he felt no concern, nothing could be worse than what he put Sirius through.

 

A week into his self-imposed imprisonment the storm broke, literally, outside the sun was shining brightly for the first time since he arrived back home. Even though he was still severely depressed Harry couldn’t help but let his spirits lift slightly at the sight of Hedwig gliding happily about in the summer’s air. Outside everything seemed hyper-realistic, every leaf was the most vibrant green and the pavement of the road the deepest black. Although it was finally nice once again Harry felt as if he were a spectator, only viewing from his little white window, not close enough to touch or experience the life outside. As he continued to stare morosely out his window he noticed a grey spot materialize on the horizon, one that he soon recognized to be that of an owl. He opened the window to let the ash-grey owl into the room. Harry assumed that it was from one of his friends, probably writing to tell him how sorry they were, or how it wasn’t his fault. Unfurling the scroll just a little confirmed his hunch, and, in no mood to read Hermione’s explanations of condolences, tossed it on the desk. The owl gave him a disapproving glare and hopped out of the window after taking an owl snack from Hedwig’s cage.

This same thing carried on for several days, the letters becoming more frequent, and not only from Hermione, but from Ron, Ginny, Neville, and even Luna. In the back of his mind he occasionally thought that perhaps he should write something, just show them he was still alive, but then the thought of having to explain his feelings to someone resulted in him tossing the whole lot into his school trunk. If they want to know how I am they can come and get me. He thought to himself clamping the latch down on his trunk and sinking back onto his bed. This very thing happened just a week after that very wish entered Harry’s head.

 

Aunt Petunia had occasionally checked in on Harry over the past week and a half under the premise of trying to “find one of Dudder’s toys.” Each time Harry would just stay in the same place on his bed, ignoring his Aunt’s staged search for the imaginary toy. She doesn’t care if I don’t eat; I bet she just doesn’t want me to die on the linens. He thought to himself sourly. So, the next time Harry heard a knock on the door he assumed it was Petunia just coming in to make sure that he had not vomited on the rug, or somehow turned the room into his wizard’s shanty; although it was late at night, nearly eleven, he wouldn’t have put it past her to try and catch him doing magic or whatever other evils they imagined him capable of.

Outside his door he heard a loud commotion going on between three people, two he knew to be his Aunt and Uncle, and the third was oddly familiar. Although it sounded as if they were just outside his room he was only able to make out parts of the conversation due to the overlapping voices in the argument.

“You can do no such-!”

“I can and I am…just try and…”

“I’ll call the police….”

“And tell them what?”

“Just put it down…”

“…Keep that away from…”

“YOU HAVE NO DAMN…”

“Step back if…”

BANG! The door burst open in a blast of smoke and light, in its place appeared the shimmering white light of a wand and the face of its owner, Remus Lupin.

“Professor! What’s going-” Harry said hoarsely, jumping out of bed to meet him.

“Harry, hurry! We don’t have much time I’m afraid, we need to get to the safe house.” Moony said, stopping him mid-sentence. He flipped the room’s light on and began to move towards his trunk.

“THAT’S IT I’M CALLING THE POLICE. YOU CANNOT JUST BLOW UP WHATEVER YOU FANCY. YOU HAVE NO BLOODY FUCKING RIGHT!!!” Vernon shouted, his face a shade of red even Harry had never seen. Although adamant in his statement it was lessened some in his refusal to come within twenty feet of the wizard.

“Silencio!” Moody said, pointing his wand at a rather shocked Uncle Vernon. Petunia and Dudley peeked out nervously from the corner of the hallway, not daring to go face to face with the wizard.

Harry frowned at the current course of events, “Professor, what the bloody hell is going on? Is everything okay? Voldemort isn’t…”

“Shhh,” Moony once again cut him off as he grabbed Harry’s broom and cloak from the closet, minimizing them along with the trunk, and stuffing them in his cloak. “Grab Hedwig’s cage, we might not be able to come and get it. And make sure you have your wand out.”

Harry grabbed the cage and when he turned back around saw Lupin already halfway out of his room, pushing past the mute Uncle. He rushed to catch up with him, skilfully ducking a punch Uncle Vernon had thrown. They rushed down staircase, not even acknowledging his aunt and cousin on the way down. They burst out the front door of the house and were immediately joined by several wizards, all of whom moved with speed and skill. As they continued to walk briskly down the street Lupin talked to one of the wizards. “Are you sure that this is a valid threat, what we’ve just done broke nearly a dozen Muggle Wizard Relations acts. We’ve had false alarms before.”

“I am positive about this one Remus, it came from Tobias who is stationed in Knockturn Alley. He managed to intercept part of a conversation between Pettigrew and some other Death Eater.”

“Hold on, you’ve seen Wormtail? Why didn’t you capture him, he has enough information to stop more than one attack! He knows where Voldemort is…” Harry said, struggling to keep up with the ever-quickening pace of the group due to his current state.

Lupin looked over his shoulder, “Harry we had to let him go so we can follow him without suspicions being raised. He’s already led us to dozens of people who we have now confirmed to be Death Eaters. I know you want to punish him, Merlin knows I want the same thing, but his time will come.” He gave Harry a weak smile and turned back to the wizard to his left, “We’re far enough away now Ashe, you stay here to watch for signs of an attack we’ll meet you later at headquarters.”

Then man gave him a quick nod and popped out of sight, Lupin didn’t say a thing just held out his arm. Harry instinctively took a hold of it and waited tensely, he’d never apparated before and was nervous after hearing so many horror stories about it passed around the Gryffindor commons. Lupin looked at him and winked. Instantly Harry felt as if the top of his head was being sucked through a very thin pipe, maybe even a straw. The sensation grew stronger and began to travel down his body until it felt as if he’d been turned into spaghetti. As soon as it happened, however, it was over and Harry collapsed to the pavement gasping for breath.

“Blimey Professor, you could warn me next time!”

Lupin smiled and held out his hand to help Harry back up, “Sorry Harry, I forgot that you hadn’t apparated yet, you’ll get used to it soon enough however. First things first though, I have not been your professor for nearly three years now so I do not see it necessary for you to call me that.”

“Oh, right… sorry about that. Habit I guess. What can I call you then?”

“Why not Moony? It’s simple and it’s nice to have a reminder of simpler times,” Lupin said smiling.

“Okay, well Moony, where exactly are we and why are we here?”

“I’m surprised you haven’t guessed yet, we’re going to Order Headquarters, it’s just about half a mile away. We apparate at this old playground to give us some cover and so we can’t be followed as easily.” Moony started to walk and talk, following a small path through the overgrown park. “We had to get you out of Privet Drive as soon as possible. As you heard we had a tip that Voldemort was planning to attack your neighbourhood sometime in the next twenty-four hours. While we know he couldn’t directly harm you there we felt it wouldn’t be prudent to leave you all alone. On Dumbledore’s orders we extracted you, seems like you’ll be spending the rest of summer here.”

Harry was speechless; so much had happened in such a short amount of time that he didn’t exactly know how to feel about the whole thing. He just mutely followed Lupin the rest of the way down the path and up to Grimmauld Place. His stomach turned over when he saw the gaudy pewter knockers and the inscription over the doorway, Tojours Pur. He hadn’t thought about what it would be like to come back to Sirius’ home so soon after what had happened.

Lupin knocked on the door several times until a shout of recognition came from inside. “Listen Harry, I can’t imagine how hard this is for you but I just want you to know that we’re all going to be here for you. Whatever you need, even if you just want to talk, I’ll be there.”

Harry nodded dumbly, his vision narrowing as a wave of grief began to come over him, he probably would have started to cry if it weren’t for the door opening and Tonks rushing out to hug him.

“Blimey Harry! Am I glad to see ya, felt like its been years. Come on, come  on, lets get inside, Alastor and I just got back from a mission and were having lunch. I assume everything went well Remus, you got to him in time?” She ushered them inside, looking both ways furtively before closing the door shut and locking it securely.

“Oh yes Tonks, everything went fine, I left Ashe and the others to keep an eye on the place for a while. Figure if anything happens we might at least be able to snag a few men.”

“Merlin knows we wouldn’t be allowed to keep them. Hell, the way Fudge has been running the Ministry lately; he’d probably give them a pardon and throw us in Azkaban for undermining his authority or some rubbish like that. Oy Moody, Remus and Harry are here!” She shouted as she rounded the corner into the kitchen. A moment later the massive magic-eyed Auror appeared in the hall.

“What have those Dursley folks been doin’ to you now Potter. I thought my little speech would have taught them a lesson. Doesn’t matter now does it though, you’re here now, for a while at least.” He said laughing gruffly.

“Alrigh’ Harry, Remus, sit down, sit down! Let’s get some food into you too. Now I don’t know much about cooking but I think we’ll manage, I’ve already got some things cut up in the pot for a stew.” Tonks waved her wand at the hearth muttering “incendio” rather enthusiastically. Instead of the wood catching however the cauldron exploded tossing bits of beef and carrot all over the room.

Thankfully, for Harry and Lupin at least, Moody had been blocking their direct view of the cauldron at the time so they were mostly saved. Mad-Eye however had felt the full force of the explosion and was now covered head to toe in the cold makings of Tonks’ stew.

She didn’t miss a step, just muttered “blimey” under her breath as she waved her wand for the second time cleaning up the room and Moody. “Oh well, why don’t we just stick with bread and cheese? Never hurt anyone did it.”

Lupin stood up grabbing a pot and some supplies from a cupboard. “If you don’t mind Tonks I’d like to try making some pasta. I’ve had to cook for myself for years, plus Harry looks half starved. You can help me if you want?” Tonks, enthusiastic as ever, helped Lupin fill the pot and make the red sauce.

Dinner that night was a rather subdued affair too, actually it was just another serving of pasta, this time cooked entirely by a rather proud Tonks. As the four were finishing up their meals a rather harried face came out of the fire.

“Lupin, its Ashe, the Death Eaters attacked Privet Drive just a few minutes ago. From what we could tell there were only five of them, when we surprised them three of them disapparated immediately, the two others stayed to fight. They managed to break down the front door and punch a large hole through the kitchen before we could stop them. We’ve sent both of them to Auror headquarters, I told them to hold them in detainment there rather than at Azkaban, due to the escapes and all.”

“Great work Ashe, Albus and I shall probably go down and interrogate them tomorrow morning. Is everyone okay, no one saw anything I hope?”

“There were a few park dwellers who saw some rather major damage occur to the house as if by magic, we obliviated them and made it seem like it was a gas leak. The large man at the house was wounded; he was in the kitchen at the time, not much surprise there judging by his size…anyway, he lost his large toe due to some shrapnel. We couldn’t find the toe so we’ve just had to do with obliviating him and making the whole family believe it was a gas line explosion too.”

“Okay, thanks Ashe. Oh, and don’t forget we have a meeting next week to discuss school security” Lupin said. Ashe nodded and disappeared in a flash. He turned up to face Harry. “Well Harry, the headmaster told me that we should keep you here if there was any form of attack on your house. Seeing as that has happened it seems that you will indeed be staying here the rest of the summer. I know it’s not the place you’d want to be, but you and I can work on cleaning up a room for you to stay in okay?”

Harry nodded sadly; just now the true recognition that he would have to stay at sirius’ house was setting in. This was the awful place that he had been practically imprisoned in, with no one to keep him company but Buckbeak and Kreacher.

“Kreacher…” Harry growled, his anger swelling up, remembering the house elf’s role in the events that occurred that night. “…where is he Moony?”

Lupin’s face paled, “Well Harry, after hearing what that he had betrayed you, and was willingly aiding Voldemort, Dumbledore disposed of him. He was quite averse to the idea but there was no other choice; he knew too much to be freed and was too much of a threat to us to be kept around. We had made the decision to send him to a high security detention cell that is top secret. When we came to retrieve him however it tried to attack the Headmaster with an ancient pair of very poisonous snake fangs. Dumbledore was forced to defend himself and in the process ended up killing him.”

Harry just shrugged, “glad he got to him before I did.”

 

The following day Harry went about unpacking his rather hastily gathered items from his escape yesterday; Hedwig had arrived at headquarters later the night before and was now tucked safely inside its cage. Lupin had flooed to the Ministry of Magic early in the morning to meet up with Dumbledore and interrogate the captured Death Eaters so Harry was left alone with Tonks. He started to unpack his trunk, pulling out the piles of clothes that had been shoved in there, along with the various textbooks. About halfway down he came upon the stack of letters that he’d tossed in there earlier in the week and forgotten about. You don’t have to reply; you could at least just read them. There isn’t much else to do here unless I want to help Tonks watch the patrol maps. He thought to himself, then finally decided to open at least the top one.

He tore open the envelope from Hermione and sat down on the corner of the bed.

 

Harry,

I’m so sorry that this had to happen to you on top of everything. Even though you’re saying you’re alright I know you too well, you aren’t. You’re probably blaming yourself for Sirius’ death. It wasn’t your fault; it’s no one’s but Bellatrix and Voldemort’s. Please promise me you’ll forgive yourself for everything including taking us there. We followed you there, you didn’t force us, we’re your friends and we wanted to help. You know we’d all do anything to help you even if it is dangerous. Don’t forget your friends in these times Harry. You and Ron are like my family, and I hope you think that about me.

Love,

Hermione

 

            Harry sighed, no surprises there. He set that one aside and opened up the next letter, he could tell this one was from Ron due to its chaotic almost unreadable scribble.

           

Harry,

How are the muggles, I hope they’re feeding you better than last year. If not I’ll go over there and give them a piece of my mind! The Cannons are finally winning again after their 5-year losing streak. They beat Ireland 250-130!

Do you know when you can stay with us again? I’ve been asking Dumbledore but he won’t say, just something like ‘all in due time’ Write me if your troll of a cousin is giving you any trouble, Fred and George have some new products to test. Their store is a huge hit, even Mum thinks it was a great idea to start it up now.

See you soon (hopefully),

Ron

 

P.S. Those weird tentacle things’ marks have finally gone, we’re still not exactly sure what they did.

 

            Harry smiled briefly at the Ron’s fidelity with his Quidditch team; maybe it finally would pay off this year. He was about to reach for the next letter when he heard Tonks call for him form downstairs.

            “Harry! Come on down, I made lunch, well tried to at least!”

            Harry tossed the letters on his bed and headed downstairs to find out what part of the house Tonks had nearly burned down this time.

 

Grimmauld Place, London, England

 

            The days following Harry’s arrival passed relatively uneventfully. While he occasionally heard other voices downstairs from the various Order members coming and going he didn’t really care to go down and talk to them. He had started to eat again, coming down from his room only for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Yet his depression seemed to get worse daily, it wasn’t so much sorrow anymore but deep-rooted anxiety. How on earth am I supposed to fight him, let alone win? Why did I even get picked, I mean what if it was Neville. I would give anything for a normal life right now. In-between his daydreams and bouts of zombie-like mindlessness Harry read some of the other letters that he’d stuffed into his trunk. Most were just Ron and Hermione repeating mostly what they said in their first ones only they were growing more frantic as he continued to not reply. One letter stood out among the others however, this one had been on his bedroom table for several days, finally he managed to decide to open the letter from Ginny.

 

            Dear Harry,

            I know you don’t know me as well as you do Ron or even Fred and George, I’ve just always been “Ron’s-little-sister-who-had-a-crush-on-you,” but I’ve always wanted to get to know you better; even just as friends. That’s why I asked you to write me on the train ride. I know what it feels like to loose someone close to you, my cousin, who was also my best friend, died from a fever when she was 9. I was so upset I cried for weeks. Now I know I’m probably just saying the same stuff Hermione is, but I want to tell you it’s alright, you need to cry to let out all your emotions. It isn’t healthy to stay bottled up like you do. You’re going to have to forgive yourself, we came with you, by choice, and the only person to blame is Voldemort. We all are worried about you, especially mum, she’s going nutters.

                       

Love,

            Ginny

 

            Harry unconsciously let out a breath of relief. For some reason he couldn’t exactly place he was most worried about Ginny’s reaction to what had happened that night. Although it was essentially the same stuff that Hermione and the others were saying when it came from Ginny it had a different sense to it, he couldn’t exactly place it but as he re-read the note he felt a slight glimmer spark in his chest, a spark he recognized to be hope. However brief it was it certainly was refreshing, and although he did once again have the strange dream about the small glass box that evening he did not feel as tense as he usually did when he awoke.

 

            As Harry’s mind would wander over the prophecy he would watch the street in front of headquarters from above. While there wasn’t much interesting going on this dead-end street one person had caught his attention. For the past few days he’d seen a young black haired girl playing with some of the other kids that were out of school. While at first nothing immediately struck him about the girl, as the days went by he started to notice that she was not really fitting in with the rest of the group. She would play tag, or ball with the others but would always be picked last or always get ganged up on. Harry felt a pang of sorrow for the little girl, it started to remind him of his childhood, of being teased or ganged up on by the school bullies or jocks.

As more and more days went by with the same sort of things happening to this little girl Harry’s conscience kept jabbing at him harder and harder to do something. Just a week after seeing the little girl Harry was trying to do some of his summer potions work when he heard laughing from outside. He set his quill down thankful for the distraction from the mind numbing work. Outside was the usual group of kids yet this time instead of playing they were just grouped in a circle laughing and pointing at something in the middle. He couldn’t make out what exactly it was at first but when one of the boys shifted a little bit Harry’s stomach dropped. Right there, lying on the pavement was the girl, only now she was obviously crying and strangely had bright blue hair. Harry’s muscles tensed as his anger flared, he grabbed his wand, and headed downstairs to help her. As he came stomping down the stairs Tonks came out of the hallway.

 “Oy, Harry, whotcher up to?” She asked, sipping on some tea, then she saw his expression as he marched towards the door, “Blimey Harry what’s wrong? I know my food isn’t good but don’t get angry about it” She tried to joke as she chased after him.

“Don’t worry Tonks it’s nothing, I’m just going to check on something…” Harry said before slamming the door shut.

 

Outside the groups was still surrounding the little girl. The largest boy in the group, a blonde haired, podgy boy, that reminded Harry of his cousin, seemed to be leading the group. He walked up closer to them feeling like he could break it up pretty quickly seeing that they were all at least three years younger than him.

“Hey, what’s going on?” Harry asked, pretending to be genuinely curious.

The group stopped and turned to face the young wizard. The weeks without eating and the grief had carved out a new, rather gaunt face for Harry, one that seemed to scare the kids. The kid he had assumed was the leader stepped forward, “nothing to see, we’re just dealing with a freak.”

Harry stepped closer, finally managing to get another view of the girl who was now curled up crying. He moved to take another step towards the big brute when Tonks grabbed him by the shoulder and swung him around.

“What in Merlin’s name are you doing Harry? You know how dangerous it is being outside these days. Come on get inside before anyone sees us” she tried to drag him away but instead he just turned the other way. Pushing aside the people in the group he knelt down by the girl. When Tonk’s saw the state of the young girl she rushed to follow him. “You lot best get out of here sharpish, next time I see you around here I’m calling the police!” With that and a menacing look Tonks managed to disperse the group of kids.

The little girl looked up at Harry. She had steel grey eyes that were bloodshot from crying, pale skin covered in freckles, and somehow had foot long shocking blue hair in place of her normal black hair. The anger Harry had originally felt was now replaced with a deep sense of compassion. This little girl was going through the same thing that he had to deal with as a child. “Hey, my name’s Harry Potter, and this is Tonks. You don’t have to worry anymore; we got rid of those other kids. What’s your name?” Harry asked as gently as possible.

She stared into his eyes for quite a while, for some reason he felt the same tension build as when he would look into the Headmaster’s eyes. Finally, after what must have been careful deliberation she whispered, “my name’s Emma Massey.”

“Well Emma, it’s very nice to meet you. Why don’t you get up and we’ll sit on the bench over here.” Harry said holding out a hand to the little girl. Only when she reached for his hand did they see the rather large scrape that went down her entire left arm. Tonks gasped, “okay, lets get you situated and I’ll be back in just a second, I have some stuff to fix your arm up in just a second. Harry if anything happens get inside house ASAP.” Waiting until Harry acknowledged that she then turned and jogged back to the house.

Harry turned back around to see the little girl quietly crying to herself. Harry suddenly felt very out of place, he’d only been around one other crying girl, and that was with Cho Chang; he had no real idea about what to do to comfort the girl so he just tried to talk to her hoping to distract her. “So Emma, I like the blue hair, do you think that I should dye mine a colour? How about pink, it’d match with my friend Tonks’ hair.”

She looked up at him, “You should dye it green, it would match your eyes.” She looked shocked at herself for saying something so bold and instantly looked down again. Harry had to laugh, “well I guess green would work. I think my friends would think I was off my rocker though if I showed up with green hair.” Harry chuckled, “so why did you dye it?”

She shrugged, “I don’t know how I did it, we were just playing tag when Cody pushed me, that’s how I got this, and when I stood up again everyone just started laughing at me. They think I’m a freak, they think that because weird stuff happens to me I’m cursed, or something.” She finished sadly, delicately plucking pieces of gravel out of the cut.

“Don’t listen to them, they’re just a bunch of brutes. You know what? I was the same way when I was your age. Weird things happened to me all the time, and I would always get picked on by my cousin and his bullies. Who cares really if you have blue hair, or…”

“…can make things disappear. If I get upset sometimes I make things just disappear. I once made Jonny Templeton’s chair move out form under him after he threw a spit ball at me too.” She added, smiling slightly at the memory. Harry stopped, not believing what he had just heard, did she just admit to making things disappear and move? That’s impossible! Not for a witch… his inner monologue responded. “Hey Emma, how old are you?”

“I’m going to turn eleven in a month! My mum said that she’s going to take me to go pick out a dress for the party we’re having.” Emma replied happily, forgetting the tears that had so consumed her.

“That’s great, well if I don’t see you before then Happy Birthday!” That means she’ll probably be getting her letter from McGonagall sometime soon if she really is a witch. “Well I wouldn’t worry about getting pushed around anymore, they just need a good scare. Oh looks like Tonks is coming back.”

Tonks, it turned out, was a skilled healer and soon had Emma’s arm cleaned and patched up; Harry even saw her slip in a few drops of some healing potions. “Well there we are! All cleaned up in tip-top shape, just make sure you change the bandage tomorrow okay? If you ever need help or just want to talk feel free to stop by…” Tonks paused remembering the fidelius charm placed on the Order’s headquarters. “…well if you see us around come and say hi.”

“Can I visit your house sometime? It looks really cool, I like how it’s bent around the other buildings.” Emma asked.

Harry looked nervously over at Tonks who just shook her head slightly, “You like the house? What do you think of the front doors?”

“They’re okay, sort of creepy though. What does toejures pure mean?” she asked wrinkling her brow as she tried to pronounce the Latin word.

Tonks smile faltered just momentarily as she realized that the girl really and truly could see the headquarters, inscription and all. Harry was first to respond, “Its Latin for always pure, it’s our family’s motto.”

“Cool, well thanks for helping me Harry and Tonks. It’s almost time for dinner though so I’m going to go home before my mum gets mad at me.” She hopped off the bench and started to run home then paused, a moment later she turned back and gave Tonks and Harry a quick hug and said “thanks” again before running off her blue hair flapping behind her.

As Harry and Tonks headed back to headquarters they discussed the ramifications of that little girl being able to see the house. “Well we know that she’s a witch, or at least a squib, I was talking to her when you were gone and she said that weird things happened to her. She’s made things disappear, or that’s why her hair changed too. If she can see it does that mean the fidelius charm is broken?”

“I’m not sure Harry,” she mumbled as she opened the door, “but I think we better floo the headmaster.”

 

Grimmauld Place, London, England

 

Harry once again was up in his room, this time cleaning his broom for what had to have been the thousandth time that week when he heard the commotion coming from downstairs.

“What should we do Remus? She’s knocking at our bloody door!”

“We just should ignore it, she’ll leave in due time.”

“If we just leave her there she’ll be attracting attention. You know full well Voldemort has spies all over here.”

“We need to get hold of Dumbledore…”

 

            Harry headed downstairs to see what was making Moony and Tonks so nervous. At the foot of the staircase in the hallway stood an anxious looking Tonks with her wand drawn and pointed at the front door from which there was an incessant rapping coming form the other side.

            “Tonks what’s going on? Why is Moony flooing Dumbledore?” Harry asked, keeping his own wand out just in case.

            “Keep it down Harry. That girl we helped a few days ago is outside knocking on the front door as if the fidelius charm and about three-dozen other ones weren’t protecting it. I mean, blimey, the headmaster himself set them up, so one way or another this’s bad news.

            A few tense moments passed until Lupin appeared with the headmaster in right behind him. Without saying another word Dumbledore took four quick paces to the door and swung it open to reveal the young girl. An awkward silence fell over the rather odd sight. There was the girl, mid knock standing in front of a man in purple robes, and behind him stood three people pointing what looked like sticks, right at her.

            “Umm…hiya. Is Harry here, he said I could stop by if I wanted to talk,” Emma asked finally breaking the silence.

            Harry didn’t wait for a cue from Dumbledore; instead he just walked right up to her. “Hi Emma, how are you? It looks like your cut knee is doing better. Tonks knows her stuff doesn’t she? Oh and your hair’s back to normal, what’d your mum think?”

            “Ya it feels loads better, and my hair changed back that night. Mum didn’t care too much, she’s used to weird things happening.” She responded, fingering her brown hair nervously, “Well I wanted to see if you could come swing with me at the park down the street?”

            Harry stopped momentarily, looking up at Dumbledore to see what he thought. The headmaster shook his head ever so slightly. Harry didn’t care though, he still was upset with the headmaster and he had no right to lock Harry up like he did to Sirius. “Okay Emma, why not. I need to get outside anyhow, I was starting to get sick of doing my homework.” Harry sidestepped Dumbledore and headed out the doorway.

            “Harry, perhaps now isn’t…” the headmaster started to say but Harry had turned around and cut him off.

            “Don’t worry about me Albus, I can take care of myself.” He said tersely, his eyes daring Dumbledore to try and stop him. However there was not challenge, just an expression of deep sorrow etched on the Headmaster’s face. Harry took the last step out the door kept going without looking back.

            Dumbledore turned around to face Lupin and Tonks. “Tonks if you wouldn’t mind following Harry I do not believe it wise to be outside in these dangerous times. The girl is fine though, her name is indeed on the list of perspective students for this year. What still troubles me however is how she can see through the numerous wards that have been painstakingly placed throughout the house. I must be off now, there are some questions to be answered about this, Remus floo me if anything else occurs.” He bowed curtly and strode into the kitchen.

 

            Dinner that night at Grimmauld Place was quiet once again, Moony and Mad-Eye had left with Kingsley to deal with some rumors of a Death Eater recruiting hideout near Glouscter that they were hoping to stamp out before it gained more members, therefore Harry was left alone with Tonks and Hestia Jones.

            “So Harry, what did you and Emma end up doing today?” Tonks asked, trying to sound genuinely curious although she had followed and watched every step they took from under the invisibility cloak.

            “Not much, just talked mostly. She’s really shy because of all the bullying she’s dealt with. She reminds me a lot of myself actually. Except she’s a girl, and she’s got a family that cares about her. I’m positive that’s she’s magical though, she showed me how she can move a pebble if she really wants to.”

            “Dumbledore told us that her name is on McGonagall’s list so she should be getting a letter sometime soon. That amount of magic does seem to be a bit much though; she can already wandlessly move rocks and can see through our wards. She could certainly be a handful if she goes to Hogwarts.” Tonks said chuckling as she poked at her overcooked chicken.

           

            That evening Harry decided to finally try and respond to at least one of the countless letters he’d gotten. At first he’d thought that the sudden change of locations would stop the flow of letters but shortly after the owls managed to somehow find where he was. From what he’d read his friends didn’t know about the attack or that he wasn’t even anywhere near Privet Drive. He pulled out a sheet of crumpled but clean parchment, dipped the end of a quill he’d dug up from the bottom of his trunk into some ink, and began to write.

Five hours later Harry was sitting at his desk surrounded by a pile of used parchment. He’d had been so focused on his letters that he hadn’t gone to bed, the activity being a welcome respite from the haunting dreams. He was having trouble writing what he truly meant and thought, the words seemingly vanishing the second he managed to think of the proper one. He couldn’t figure out what to write to these people who he had carried into a life-threatening situation without asking them and then nearly getting them killed. He’d spent the entire night drafting, writing, and then re-writing to finally come up with five letters; one each for Hermione, Luna, Ginny, Ron, and Neville, each trying to explain how deeply sorry and upset he was. Finally, only thirty minutes before breakfast he put his quill down, rubbed his eyes, and sealed the last envelope of the five, he then handed them to Hedwig, and went to take a shower hoping he wouldn’t fall asleep in it.

 

That afternoon Emma once again came and knocked on the door to see if he wanted to come and swing with her. Harry of course said he would and headed out with her down the street.

When they reached the broken down slide and the rust swings he saw a woman sitting on a nearby bench. Harry instinctively grasped hold of the wand he kept in his pocket. As they got closer Harry noticed the shocking similarity between the woman and Emma.  “Is that your mum?” Harry asked Emma as they approached.

            “Yeah, she said she wanted to meet you. Come on.” She pulled him over to her mom.

            “Hi I’m Joy, Emmaline’s mother. She’s talked non-stop about you for the last week so I decided that I should come down and meet the famous Harry Potter.”

            “Yes, Harry Potter,” he instinctively moved his hair to cover his scar, “its nice to meet you, your daughter is really great.”

            “Thank you; she says the same about you.” Joy looked at the scrawny young boy. His face had a strange haunted look that she only saw in the victims of horrific crimes, his eyes carried with them an immense weight that a teenage boy should not have. “Would you like to have brunch with us? It would be nice to talk to you some more, and I’m sure Emma here would enjoy it.” She asked, hoping that she might be able to get some food in this boy. Although not looking as bad as he did when he first arrived at Headquarters he was still looking quite peaky.

            “Um sure, that would be great,” Harry said warmly.

            So the three departed the park and headed up the street to a small but well kept house on the opposite side of Headquarters. When Harry entered it he immediately could tell that this was a loving family. Pictures of Emma and her family on the walls, and everything had a homey feel to it that both the Dursleys’ and Grimmauld Place lacked. The closeness of it compared to the dank rooms of headquarters reminded him a lot of the Weasley’s own house.

            “Your house is really nice, it reminds me of a good friend of mine’s.” Harry said as he looked over the various pictures

            “Thank you, we try and make it feel nice and cozy.” Joy was surprised at how polite and mild-mannered the young boy was considering how he appeared. But no he wasn’t a boy, he’s a man, she corrected herself. His eyes make him look like he’s a hundred years old. Joy’s motherly intuition told her that he had seen or been subject to something that had caused him to skip over his childhood.

            “C’mon Harry! Over here into the kitchen, we have loads of food.” Emma dragged him into the kitchen and sat him down. Joy opened up the oven and pulled out a freshly baked coffee cake and cut each of them a piece; there was also bacon, eggs, and orange juice on the table. For a while the room was only filled with the sounds of the silverware hitting plates as they ate. 

            “Thank you for having me over Emma, I get really bored over the summer so it’s nice to do something every once and a while. I can’t wait ‘till school starts.” Harry said as they cleaned up.

            Emma laughed, “That’s silly. Why would you want to go back to school? Summer’s fun!”

            “Because it’s more of a home to me than anywhere else,” he said quietly.

            “Do you not do anything with your parents over the summer?” Joy asked.

            “No, my parents were killed when I was one, I live with my Aunt and Uncle, and they usually don’t like to acknowledge I don’t even live with them.” He said with a sour laugh.

            “Oh, I’m sorry; Emma lost her father, Harold, in a car accident. If you don’t mind me asking, how did your parents die?” Joy asked softly.            

            Harry tried to think of a story in his mind that would not reveal him as a wizard yet still explain what happened. In the end though, he decided to just tell part of the truth.

            “Well, my parent’s were murdered by a man named Tom Riddle. He killed both of them, and tried to kill me. He didn’t though, but left me with this scar.” He lifted his bangs out of the way so they could see the lightning bolt scar he was so famous for.

            “Did the police ever catch him?” Emma asked.

            “No, he ran away after that, no one could find him. Some said he was killed… but he was seen again last year.” Harry stated, satisfied that the story made at least some sense.

            “Well I’m sorry that happened to you. You said that you live with your Aunt and Uncle now, how are they?” Joy said patting him on the shoulder reassuringly.

            “They’re….ok…. I guess. Well actually right now I’m not living with them. Right now I’m staying with my friends who have a house here. My Aunt and Uncle live in Surrey.  They never liked my mom, or my dad, so they don’t exactly love me. I’m more like a tenant or something. They’re as happy to see me go off as I am so I try to only stay at their house as long as necessary.

            “Oh, well I’m sorry to hear that. Do you like your school though? Do you go to the public one near here?” Jay asked, she hadn’t seen the boy at Emma’s school and most of the neighbourhood kids went there.

            “Nope, I go to a boarding school in Scotland.”

            “Really? I went to a boarding school too, what’s it called?” Joy asked.

            Harry hesitated for a moment, but then decided to tell them because they would most likely be figuring out soon enough.

            “It’s called Hogwarts, it’s near a town called Hogsmeade. It’s really cool, the school’s an old castle and there’s a huge lake that you can hang out by. It’s like my real home.” He said nostalgically, a moment later however he remembered how horrible the last school year was; everything from Umbridge, to learning about the prophecy Dumbledore had been keeping from him had been an absolute nightmare. Harry shook his head clearing it of all those memories, it’ll be better this year, I know it will.

            “It sounds cool, I wish I could go to a school like that it would be wicked!” Emma said excitedly.

            “I’ve never heard of a school by that name, but Emma’s right it does sound wonderful, I could see why you love it so much. Do you have to apply?” Joy asked, it sounded like a great school and she herself had enjoyed boarding school. Maybe Emma would too, it certainly would help her get away from the bullies around here. Eventhough her daughter never admitted it she knew that she was being bullied and it broke her heart that there wasn’t anything she could do about it.

            “Actually I just got a note one day saying that I was accepted into it, apparently my mum and dad had me signed up for it. It was one of the happiest days of my life.” Harry said happily, thinking about what a shock it will be for Emma and Joy when they get the letter.

            “Well I’ll have to look into that, I enjoyed my boarding school experience and I’m sure Emmaline would too.” Joy glanced at her watch and gasped. “Oh no, I’m sorry I’m going to have to go I have a case that I should be working on. Harry you’re more than welcome to stay with Emma if you want to. Emma I’ll be at my office, you know the number, and I’ll be home around six alright?” She bent down and kissed her daughter on the forehead.

            “I think I’ll be going home also, I have some chores I need to do, I’ll see you tomorrow though okay?” Harry smiled at the little girl.

            “Sure, same time, same place. See ya Harry!” She hugged him around the waist.

 

 

The Burrow, Ottery St. Catchpole, England

 

            Ginny had just taken a shower and was combing her still damp hair. As she brushed she thought back to the letter she’d written Harry; it had been over two weeks since she had sent it and had still not heard back. She’d asked her mom how Harry was this morning and she simply replied that he was doing perfectly fine. Something about her mom’s response seemed canned but she figured it was just that she didn’t want her to know how bad the Dursleys really were. She wanted to help Harry though, she’d watched silently year after year as Harry came back to the Burrow, every time he looked dejected and starved. She knew that he only thought of her as a friend but she always allowed herself the small hope that maybe one day she might be able to pay him back for everything he’d done for her.

            Ginny stopped when she heard a tapping noise on her window. Outside was the unmistakable white shadow of Hedwig holding an envelope clasped in its talons. Her heart leapt as she raced over to the window. Throwing it open she let Hedwig in and took the letter from her. Hedwig nipped at her finger affectionately and then hopped back out the window.

            Ginny didn’t know why but her hands were shaking out of nervousness. She sat down and tore the envelope open.

 

            Dear Ginny,

Thank you for the letter you sent me, it’s nice to know that there are people out there who care for me. Sorry I didn’t write back sooner, I got loads of letters from everyone and I’ve been trying to figure out what to write to you all.

            First thing, I cannot begin to tell you how sorry I am about taking you all to the department of mysteries and almost getting you killed. I should have though it through and not just followed my instinct, maybe then Sirius would still be alive.

            For some reason I feel that I can talk to you about this, I hope you don’t see me as weak once you’ve finished this letter. I’ve been having trouble sleeping, every single bloody night I have these nightmares. The bad one is when I just replay the battle in the Department of Mysteries, each time I see Sirius get hit, each time I see him fall through the veil. On good nights I have a dream of this small glass box with some silver liquid in it. I know I’ve never seen it before in real life but for some reason it feels familiar to me. These days I get only a couple of hours of sleep a night… blimey I’m so tired even right now. I remember you saying that you had nightmares after the chamber of secrets, do you still have them? Can you get rid of them? It would be nice if I could get at least a couple of hours more sleep.

             I don’t know what your parents have told you but I’m at Snuffle’s place now, some Death Eaters tried to attack my Aunt and Uncle’s home but just got my Uncle Vernon’s toe (I’ll explain later). Anyhow, after the attack they I moved into Snuffle’s nearly two weeks ago and I’ve been mainly staying inside although I met a little girl down the street who will probably be getting her letter to Hogwarts in the next couple of weeks.

            Anyway, I hope I don’t seem defenceless or weak to you now, I just had to tell someone and you offered to listen to me. Hope I’ll be able to some visit you and Ron soon I’m going mad in this house, everything creaks when you move and the whole place still smells like Mundungus although he left three days ago.

                                                                        - Harry

 

            Ginny’s eyes fogged over with tears, she couldn’t believe that he’d actually written back to her let alone told her so much. She knew that he was stubbornly quiet about his feelings so this confession of sorts was very important.

            She looked back down at the letter, he’s having bad dreams? Well, how couldn’t he after everything he’s suffered through, I’m just surprised he hasn’t completely snapped under the weight of everything. The first few months after Ginny had been rescued by Harry from the young Lord Voldemort she had barely been able to close her eyes in fear of being repossessed. It had taken the combined efforts of Madam Pomfrey and her mother to finally allow her to get a decent night’s sleep, and that was with the aid of a dreamless sleep potion. Why wasn’t Dumbledore giving him that same help she got? Was it because he couldn’t help? Or was it to make sure it did not interfere with Harry’s trespasses into Voldemort’s consciousness?

            That wasn’t the only big piece of information in the letter though, Privet Drive had some how been attacked by Death Eaters. Although he was okay and apparently now staying at Grimmauld Place it unsettled her that neither of her parents had told her or Ron that he was staying there. She’d overheard snippets of conversations between her mom and dad about Voldemort recruiting and something about growing number of attacks, but those had all been done through the extendable ears and very rarely paid off. She was smart enough to know that there was a war brewing but the thought that her friends and family, and even herself now, were caught up in the middle of it worried her to now end.

            Exhausted from the day of chores and Harry’s emotional letter Ginny yawned loudly. I’ll write him tomorrow. He said he sent letters to everyone so Ron and Hermione probably have one too, I’ll talk to them and see what he said to them. As she nestled herself under her covers she went over possible ways that they might be able to somehow either get Harry to the Burrow or go to Grimmauld Place. No one should be left alone trapped inside for the whole summer…

           

The Massey Residence, London, England

 

            It had been a long day for Joy, she had just gotten back from a tedious day at court and now just wanted to have a nice dinner with Emma and take a hot bath. She walked into the kitchen to get dinner started for her and Emma, when she saw a large bird patiently standing on the sill of the kitchen window. Joy let out a gasp of surprise and nearly dropped her briefcase at the sheer size of it and how it was intently looking at what seemed to be her. That’s not just a bird it’s an owl, do owls even live in London anymore? And what’s it holding, is that an envelope?

The owl gave a soft hoot and tapped on the glass, urging her to open the window. Joy didn’t know what else to do so she slid the window open and immediately retreated to the other side as if expecting it to attack her. The owl did no such thing; it simply dropped the envelope on the counter, spread its wings and flew back out the window, leaving a completely bewildered Joy staring at the diminutive envelope.

            She first noticed that it was addressed to Emma, more specifically Emmaline Massey of Number Eight Broom Hall Lane, Upper Left Bedroom. Well that’s oddly specific she thought to herself as the she broke the wax seal which had a very elegant looking coat of arms on it with the inscription Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus. She unfolded the letter and began to read:

           

Miss Emmaline Massey,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.

 

                                                                        Minerva McGonagall,

                                                                        Deputy Headmistress

 

Joy stared at the letter with complete incredulity. What is this? This HAS got to be a joke! There aren’t such things as witchcraft. And I’ve never heard of this school before… hold on, I have heard this name before! Wait… that young man, Harry, he said that’s where he goes to school! He must be pulling a prank on us… but why? It doesn’t seem like something he’d do, it isn’t even really that funny. And what on earth does it mean by ‘your owl’ it’s not as if you can just go to the post office. There’s no way that this is real

Joy re-read the letter several times, and finally just accepted it as a rather odd joke that Harry was pulling on Emma. She would certainly let Emma read the letter but before she gave it to her she’d talk to Harry about why he was doing this. Lord knows she’s been through enough in her life, no need to add another disappointment on her shoulders.

 

The next day Joy stayed home from work so she could talk to Harry about the letter she’d gotten when he stopped by to drop Emma off. It was just a little after one when Harry came with Emma to their house.

“Hi Ms. Massey! How are you?” Harry asked.

“I’m fine Harry, and you can call me Joy. I was wondering if I might be able to talk to you for a moment, just off in the living room. We’ll only be a moment Emma if you want to go to the kitchen lunch is ready.” She opened the door wider to let Harry in as Emma dashed off to the kitchen.

Harry gulped nervously, why did she want to talk to him privately? Out of paranoia Harry’s hand traveled to his wand inside his jacket pocket.

“Harry, come over here sit down,” she patted the seat next to her then seeing his expression she added, “Oh don’t worry you’re not in trouble I just was wondering if you might be able to help me understand this letter I got last night.” Joy pulled out the letter that she had, by now, read many times.

Harry saw the parchment and immediately understood what she had wanted to talk to him about; he knew it could only be one thing. He grinned.

“Do you know what this is? Is it a joke you’re pulling on Emma, is that why you’re smiling?” She asked noticing his rather odd grin, she had never truly seen Harry smile so it was unsettling to see a full grin coming form him now.

“Well if I could have a guess I would reckon it’s from Hogwarts. You know, my school, I got a letter that looked just like that a few years ago, did an owl deliver it?” Harry asked.

Joy just nodded mutely. A moment of silence passed where they just looked at each other.

“I bet you’re wondering if this is all just a bunch of rubbish,” Harry said finally.

“It can’t possibly be true! I mean there aren’t such things, they just exist in fairytale books, don’t they?” She spat out, releasing the uncertainty that had been building ever since the letter arrived.

Harry just nodded, “Would you like a demonstration? You should bring Emma in here also, does she know?”

She shook her head and rushed off to go get her daughter, a moment later she came in with Emma in tow and sat her down on the couch.  “Dear, yesterday you got a letter from someone. Actually it’s not really someone, more of a somewhere. It was from Harry’s school, Hogwarts. Anyhow, it said that you got accepted into the school and are expected there for next term. If you wish to go I’ll be supportive of your decision. But before you say yes or no there is something that may seem a little, odd…unique…different…well I can’t exactly explain it. Harry you said you had a demonstration?” She looked over at him pleadingly.

“Sure,” he turned towards Emma, “Hogwarts isn’t just a boarding school… it’s a school for a certain group of people, people who are special. People like you and I. It’s really common there for someone to have hair that changes colour or be able to move themselves quickly. Emma, Hogwarts is a school for witches and wizards.” His words echoed in the room, a deafening silence had fallen over the room with the revelation. He watched as Emma’s face slowly ran through a gamut of expressions, shock, excitement, disbelief, and confidence, yet still no words came from her, she seemed to be completely frozen in her seat.

“Well how about I just show you what I mean, seeing is believing right?” He smiled jokingly, as he pulled out his wand. “This is a real life wand, we use these at school and when we’re older we can use them anywhere. I can’t use it outside of school because I’m not of age yet.” He stopped seeing both Emma and Joy’s face failing to comprehend, “Okay sorry about that, a little too much information for right now. Emma why don’t you give my wand a wave?” He asked, flipping his wand over he held it out to her by the tip.

Emma nervously clutched the handle of it with her right hand. She stepped back unsure of what to do next.

“Okay now before you wave it just step back a little bit more and point the wand over there, away from us. The first time I waved a wand I nearly punched a hole through the wall. Right now let’s see what you’ve got!” Harry said enthusiastically as he sat down next to Joy.

Emma swished it a little then finally deciding to go with the whole thing she just slashed it back and forth. Instantly there was a huge flash of light and a ripping noise.

“WOAH!!!” Emma yelled, stepping back in amazement. Across from where she was standing a huge tree had erupted out of the floor. Joy simply dropped the letter as she stared at Emma in amazement.

“Well, that’s a little bigger than what I expected. Now that right there is magic, not just something you see on T.V. Hogwarts teaches us how to use our wands so we don’t end up doing things like that everywhere we go. I have a feeling that we might have a visitor in a moment because of that tree. Let’s sit down and you can ask me anything you want while we wait. Are you ok Mrs. Massey? You look a little stunned.” Harry said, grinning slightly as he retook his seat on the couch.

“Oh, yes…yes I’m fine it’s just a lot to take in all at once. It is hard to believe that such a thing exists. How do people not know about them, about you? I mean I’ve never heard anyone talk about them outside of fairytales.” She took a deep breath trying to calm herself. Emma still just stood holding the wand limply, staring at Harry, completely gob smacked.

“Hogwarts will teach you everything you need to know, and you’ll no longer be ‘weird’ just because you sometimes let your magic get away from you Emma, all those things that happen to you are normal for us. I blew up my aunt once, she actually floated away she got so big. Every one of us has done some sort of involuntary magic at some point in their life. And you’ll love everyone there, the teachers are great, and so are the other kids. They’ll help you learn all about the magical world. I was from a Muggle family too so I know this all seems like a bit much. Oh sorry, Muggle means non-magic, so mostly everyone in the world are Muggles, or non-magic folk.” Harry paused once again, seeing their confused faces as they tried to follow what Harry was saying. “Blimey, I didn’t know that it’d be this hard to explain all of this. I guess it was easier for me because I desperately wanted to believe that there was something better than my Aunt and Uncle…”

Mid-sentence the doorbell rang. Joy jumped as if she’d been electrocuted. Harry smiled, “I think that this might be someone who could answer things loads better than I can.”

 Emma hopped off the couch and sprinted towards the door. Harry stood up and led Joy down the hallway, the mother was obviously nervous and Harry was curious to see how she’d react to Dumbledore’s undoubtedly peculiar fashion sense.

Emma flipped the lock and opened the door to reveal Dumbledore standing in his most luridly purple robes. He looked down at Emma and smiled warmly.

“Hello little miss, you must be Emmaline Massey?” Dumbledore said to the ecstatic little girl, then turning to Joy he held out his hand, “And you must be Mrs. Joy Massey if I am not mistaken, I am Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.”

Joy was undoubtedly shaken by his initial appearance, and his title, but shook the headmaster’s hand with great kindness. Although his clothing appeared to be a bit amiss, something about the old man was reassuring and endearing.

“I’m sorry I’m intruding but the Ministry of Magic detected a rather large output of magic from your house and seeing as I was nearby I offered to see what was going on. My assistant headmistress Minerva McGonagall has told me that your daughter was sent an admission letter recently. Am I safe to assume that this had something to do with the report?”

“Sorry Headmaster, Joy asked me about the letter and the school, and I was trying to explain things so…”

“…I did it sir, I made the tree grow. It was my fault not Harry’s, he shouldn’t get in trouble.” Emma said in a strong voice as she stepped in front of Harry.

The headmaster smiled at the little girl, “Don’t worry Miss Massey, I was not about to reprimand Harry, although I do quite admire your courage to stand up for what you did. Now I think that is enough stress over the matter, if you don’t mind I’d like to help explain what I am sure Harry has already started to do very well.” The headmaster gave one of his good-natured winks at Harry, but he just ignored it. Harry was barely managing to keep a civil tone with him in front of the Masseys let alone go along with Dumbledore’s antics.

“While Harry here has undoubtedly told you somewhat about the school that your daughter has been accepted into I am hoping to clarify things, and tell you a little more about the current state of things in the wizarding world, shall we go somewhere a little more comfortable. There is much to tell you, alas not all of it is good.” Dumbledore stepped inside curtly and followed Joy and Emma to the living room. Harry walked beside him but did not say a word to the headmaster. Dumbledore noticed the seemingly icy demeanour Harry had developed and looked over to the boy and smiled sadly.

Once everyone was settled in the living room, Dumbledore, much to Emma and Joy’s surprise, conjured tea and biscuits for them all to nibble on. “Now that we are settled I see no sense in delaying any longer.” Dumbledore smiled, “So Harry, what have you discussed with the Masseys so far?”

Harry listed off that he’d explained the basics about wands, magic, and what the school was like.

“Ah, well he seems to have done a fine job of explaining the basics. I’ll try to fill in all the blanks, and then tell you about the wizarding world right now.”

Harry flinched at the last part, knowing how mild a euphemism he was using to describe Voldemort’s reign of destruction. Hopefully the revelation of the wizarding world being in such a state of turmoil would not dampen Emma and Joy’s enthusiasm. Harry crossed his fingers and turned his attention towards Dumbledore who was explaining the basics of the school.

The headmaster spent well over an hour explaining all the niceties of the school, why Emma became a witch, and even going so far as to describe the “wonderful assortment of pranks and gags at Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes.” When the topic of the school was finally exhausted the attention turned to the wizarding world itself and what was currently going on. Harry saw the headmaster straighten and rub his temples as he began.

“Now, onto the less pleasant facts of our world I fear,” Dumbledore smiled softly at the little girl who’d been completely enthralled by the discussion so far. “Now this is not intended to discourage you from sending Miss Massey here to Hogwarts, but currently our world is at war with others inside the wizarding population.”

This was when Joy piped up, “But didn’t you say that there weren’t that many wizards. I mean it couldn’t be a much of a war when only a few hundred are fighting.”

Dumbledore sighed, “I wish that were true, but I am afraid it isn’t. There is a dark wizard by the name of Lord Voldemort, who, with his faithful followers the Death Eaters, have been spreading panic and fear within the wizarding community. Now there have been many Dark Wizards over the centuries, but this one is especially so. This is the second time he has been terrorizing people.” He said grimly.

“What do you mean his second time?” Emma asked nervously.

“Well Lord Voldemort, born Tom Marvolo Riddle, was at his most powerful point sixteen years ago, and was committing the same horrific acts he is doing currently. Thankfully, although it was only temporary, he was defeated and his rule was destroyed.” Dumbledore stated, smiling proudly at Harry.

“How was he defeated, and if he was defeated how did he come back? You can’t bring people back from the dead can you?” Joy asked, her fear had been piqued by the headmaster’s latest revelation. She was wondering if it was the right idea to send her daughter to school during a war.

Dumbledore turned towards Harry his eyes twinkling mischievously. “He was defeated by a young boy, his parents were tragically murdered by Tom, but somehow this baby vanquished this dark lord. Although Voldemort tried to kill him, his spell backfired and all that happened was that the boy received a lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead. No one is quite sure why, or what happened but somehow he brought about Voldemort’s end. For well over eleven years Voldemort was thought to be dead, but we were given quite the wakeup call five years ago when Voldemort returned. The same young boy who destroyed him the first time foiled his plans once more, this time at the age of eleven. Over the next four years he continued to fight Voldemort in different settings and ways. He is one of the very few wizards who have actually dueled with him and one of even fewer who has actually survived doing so. He is actually a current sixth year at Hogwarts right now, and is by far one of the best Quidditch Seekers I have ever seen pass through the school, better even, some may say, than his father.”

Harry’s cheeks glowed fiery red under the headmaster’s embarrassing praise.

“What’s his name?” Emma asked quizzically, in complete wonder how a little boy could defeat such an evil person so many times.

Dumbledore turned once again towards Harry, looked deep into his eyes, and then proudly said, “His name, if I’m not mistaken is Harry James Potter.”

“WHAT!!” Joy and Emma both shouted at the same time swirling in their seats to face the embarrassed boy. Harry buried his face in his hands. Well he couldn’t have done that with more subtlety. I sound like some sort of prophet or something.

Dumbledore chuckled softly as if he could hear Harry’s thoughts. Harry raised his head out of his hands to look over at Emma and Joy who were both staring at him incredulously. For Harry this was right up there with his most embarrassing moments in his life. He was angry at Dumbledore for telling the story in such a way that it made him appear to be something he wasn’t, and not only that but to do so with him right there.

“Why didn’t you tell us Harry?” Emma said, sounding a little put out that her best friend had not told her something this important.

 Harry got up and sat down next to Emma and put an arm around her comfortingly. “I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to scare you or worry you. It’s not exactly normal for a 16 year old to fight the world’s most powerful dark lord. And it’s summer, I just want to be like any other sixteen year old right now, because once I get back to school everyone stares at me for my stupid scar and my over sensationalized stories.” Harry ended in a somewhat defeated voice. Joy placed a comforting hand on the boy’s shoulder and Emma hugged him.

“It’s alright Harry, we wouldn’t have cared, I mean if we could handle the sudden fact that Emma is a witch, and that she made a tree appear out of no where, then I’m sure we could have handled your story too. And you’re right, you should have every right to live a normal life if you want to.” Joy said in a comforting voice.

“I completely agree with Mrs. Massey here, I believe that you should enjoy this summer to its fullest and not worry about what is to come.” Dumbledore put stress on the last words. “You are first and foremost a student and a teenager, not an Auror, and it would do well for you to pursue what other teenagers do. While I cannot stress how important it is for you to stay wary you should also relax for, unfortunately, it may be the only time you have for a long time.” Dumbledore’s eyes showed true sorrow and compassion. When he stopped to think about it, Harry had never seen the Hogwarts headmaster this worn down. Joy sensed that there was a large amount of sorrow and tension between the two wizards in front of her, and decided that they needn’t bring it up again just for their sake.

“Well Mr. Dumbledore…Headmaster Dumbledore, thank you so much for meeting Emmaline and I. We cannot tell you how much it means to us that you would take time out of what seems to be a rather busy schedule to help us understand, especially when there is a war going on. I’ll make sure Harry is acting like a normal teen, but I’ll also make sure that he is safe. I don’t know anything about spells or wands, but I can promise you that I’ll protect him. He means too much to Emma for me to let him get harmed.” Joy smiled.

Dumbledore stood up and shook Joy’s hand congenially. “The same goes for you Mrs. Massey, I will have an Auror posted by your house to ensure that you and your daughter will not come into any sort of harm.” Dumbledore smiled at the little girl and then turned to Harry, “Harry? Might we have a word while you go back to the house?” Harry just nodded fearing what new revelation Dumbledore would have for him. “Excellent! Thank you for your hospitality and bearing with my rather long winded explanation, barring any more trees or things of that nature, I will expect to see you, Miss Emmaline, at Hogwarts on September 1^st.” Dumbledore stepped out the door, and Harry followed closely waving goodbye to Emma after promising to meet up with her at the park tomorrow.

“Harry, thank you for acting the way you did today. I think it was best that they were told as much as possible here instead of Emmaline learning it all second hand from her peers. This year the entrance rate has dropped significantly because parents are too afraid to send their children away from their sight, even if it is safer at Hogwarts.” At this Dumbledore stopped walking and turned to face Harry, “Harry, I meant what I said in there. You really are an amazing young man facing adversity most people could never imagine, and overcoming it with a sense of style that I daresay I don’t even have. I also meant what I said when I told you that you had to have a normal summer, relax. If you’ve been reading the paper you’ll have noticed that there haven’t been any other attacks since the one on Privet Drive, sadly this is only the calm before the storm.”

The headmaster started to walk again, and after a few moments of silence, started speaking in a softer voice, “I really and truly am sorry that I have lost your trust Harry. I am still teaching myself that I cannot protect you from everything without an explanation. You are so tied to the outcome of this war that it is my duty to prepare you as much as I can, and therefore I will strive to tell you more now, although, because you have still not yet mastered occlumency I cannot tell you everything. I hope that one day we can rebuild what we used to have, I know it may take months or years but I am willing to try.” Reaching the front step of the Dursley’s house Dumbledore came to a stop and placed his hands on Harry’s shoulders. “Before I leave you let me say two more things. One; it is not your fault; you couldn’t have done anything to prevent your godfather from going to the Ministry that night. And secondly; this is not only your battle, let your friend’s help you along the way, that is why they are here, they care for you.” As Dumbledore stepped away form the door and back to the street he smiled, “There are more ways than one to overcome grief Harry; you just need to find the one that suits you.” Dumbledore winked over his spectacles, turned, and without saying another word apparated away.

 

Unknown

 

Harry was walking down a dark hallway in the flickering of the raised torches. The constant dripping of water onto the cold, ancient stone, echoed through the tunnels. The further he walked the colder it became; it felt as if the very life of his surroundings were being sucked out of the air. After what seemed like a daylong trek Harry reached a small stone archway, half covered in moss from the streams of water coming down around it. He touched the cold stone and stepped through the archway.

On the other side was a massive room, easily the size of the great hall, but that is where the similarities ended. The room was roughly hewn, there were no smooth arcs, no enchanted ceiling; instead whoever built this seemed to have just blasted the rock into submission. All around the massive cave were huge shelves filled with books, scrolls, and a multitude of other archaic items. It wasn’t exactly a library, nor was it a home; it appeared to be some sort of museum, or a private collection room.

            Harry continued forward, walking straight, the room was in disarray so he was often forced to work his way around a broken table or a pile of books. As he worked his way around the room Harry was searching. He wasn’t sure what he was searching for, but he knew that was why he was here. He continued to wind his was through the shelves, looking down each one only briefly before continuing on. About halfway across the room he was looking down another hallway when something caught his eye. As he pushed past a stack of scrolls his heart began to beat more quickly. Blindly now he started to race towards the glimmering object. As Harry neared, nearly running now, he reached out his hand desperate to grab hold of the object that had drawn him here. He was close enough to see the small box with the glimmering interior when he stepped on a scroll and lost his grip on the damp floor.

            He made a desperate last gasp effort to snatch the little box but missed and slammed into floor.

 

            Harry’s head crashed into the wall of his bedroom as he slid across the wood floor. It was pitch black in his room as he tried to pull himself up from the floor. He crawled across the floor using the edge of the carpet to guide him to the lamp on the table. He sat on the floor with his back against the wall, still clasping his forehead. Outside his door he heard Tonks running down then a moment later she burst through the door in her nightgown holding her lit wand.

            “ Cor Harry, what in Merlin’s name happened to you, your bleeding all over the place! Are you alright?” Tonks gasped when she saw him laying there in the corner.

            Harry grimaced, “yeah Tonks, I’m fine. I just fell…when I was going to get some water. I guess I should have turned the lamp on before I got out of bed.” Harry lied quickly; he didn’t want her to know that he was having more of his crazy dreams.

            “Looks like you sliced open the same spot again Harry, her get up on your bed and I’ll patch it up. Up we go!” She helped Harry up onto the bed, stepped back, and flicked her wand. The blood disappeared from his hands and forehead and the abrasion sealed itself up. “There we are, right as rain. Now if you don’t mind I’m going to go back to bed, I need my beauty sleep.” Tonks said yawning as she walked out of the room.

Harry sighed as he tossed and turned in his bed. He couldn’t even get a decent night’s sleep with all these dreams. It was the death chamber one night and then the next it was the same little glass box. As he turned over for the hundredth time he hoped that Ginny would write back soon with some sort of solution and maybe could tell him what to do to help get rid of these dreams. As he sat there in this  bed he thought despairingly of the unsettling dreams he would soon become prey to once again. At least in real life you could run away from the bad thing, in dreams you had to sit and watch the event play out, trapped in your own mind.

 

Harry woke from a fitful night’s sleep to Pigwidgeon tapping on the window incessantly. Harry sat upright but had to lie back down as his temple throbbed from his little accident that evening, magic might have stopped the bleeding but the pain was still there. This time Harry got up more slowly, pulling on his robe as he stumbled to the window and threw it open nearly knocking Pig out of the sky. The diminutive little owl hopped cheerily onto the sill, gratefully laying down its large load. He dropped an envelope with what Harry knew to be Ginny’s handwriting, and a small brown parcel.

 

Dear Harry,

First off I did not know where you were, but trust me Dumbledore sure got an earful when mum figured out that your Aunt and Uncle’s place had been attacked. Dumbledore said something about security, and maintaining a discrete status; rubbish if you ask me.

            Now onto the dreams. I know that mine must seem like daydreams compared to yours, but yes, I did get them after the whole thing with Tom. It’s funny, you were actually in my dream, not in a bad way, but I just always saw you fighting Tom, and when you got bitten I thought you were going to die. It was that exact same thing for a whole month, finally mum ask for Madam Pomfrey to give me some sleeping potion; that didn’t do much though, just made things blurrier. I know this may sound stupid but from what I can tell the only thing that’s helped me is writing about it. Something about just letting it out, all the fear and worries, has helped me get over it for the most part. I’ll still have them some times but they aren’t as bad.

            I hope this helps Harry. I really do feel bad that you’re alone in that awful place. But don’t worry; Ron and I are bugging mum so much that she’s bound to let us come over soon. If you can try and convince Dumbledore it might help.

 

Love,

Ginny

 

(P.S. Don’t blame yourself for a single thing. You didn’t do anything wrong. Anyone in your shoes wouldn’t have been a quarter as brave as you were.)

 

(P.S.S. Assuming Pig didn’t drop it I sent you a little diary, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to try if it means you get a good night’s sleep.)

 

            Harry smiled. For some reason reading Ginny’s letters put him in a much better mood that Hermione or Ron’s; he knew they were trying but sometimes they just didn’t know how to deal with what Harry was going through. Something in the light-hearted, genuine way Ginny wrote to him made it a little easier for him to take the advice she was offering. Harry picked up the small package that was the diary and tore off the wrapping. Inside was a hilariously gaudy pink diary with the word’s “Princess’s First Diary” written across the front. As he flipped through the pages another small envelope dropped out to the floor, once again it was in Ginny’s handwriting.

           

            Hope you enjoy the colour. I told Fred and George that I needed a small diary for you and they were more than willing to help. Trust me this is not a pranked book of any sort (I had to sort through dozens that were though). This is from their section for little girls, apparently princess’s are in right now, don’t ask me how George knows that.

            Anyhow, I’m not forcing you to do anything, but this really was the one thing that helped me. Let me know if there’s anything else that I can do to help.

 

            -Ginny

 

            Once again he smiled, admiring the twins’ new product. Yawning he looked over at the clock on the wall that showed it was almost six in the morning. Well it can’t hurt any, besides I’m not going to get any sleep if I keep having the dreams. He thought to himself as he cracked open the diary to page one and started to write.

 

            The next day Harry sat at the desk in his bedroom after taking a shower writing in the little diary. The morning before he hadn’t written much but more just wrote whatever was on his mind. Tonight however he was intent on writing out the story, or at least part of it. It took him nearly an hour, and there were several times when he felt like crying, but when he closed the cover of the pink book he’d written down the majority of his fight with Voldemort in his first year at Hogwarts. Emotionally exhausted, yet cautiously optimistic, Harry turned off the lamp, took off his glasses, and went to sleep.

 

            It was a perfect summer day out on the hill. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the sun was shining brightly. A gentle breeze worked its way through the small tuft of trees further down the hill. It was a truly sublime place.

            Harry was in bliss as hit sat on the blanket taking in his surroundings. He watched as a pair of birds danced in the air, merrily singing to each other. The world seemed to be completely at peace, there was no one who could take this place away from him. He closed his eyes, breathing in deeply. A faint smell of strawberries wafted around him. Curious he opened his eyes looking for the cause of that familiar scent. When he looked behind him he saw that someone was sitting next to him. The odd part was that while he could tell it was indeed a girl everything else about the person escaped him. It was as if he could just see the shadow of the person and nothing else; the more he concentrated the more difficult it became to see her. The world was bending a melting around the mystery person as his mind struggled to comprehend who it could possibly be. Frustrated but confident that eventually he would find out who it was behind that veil he turned back around to once again soak in his utopian surroundings.

 

The Burrow, Ottery St. Catchpole, England

 

Ginny woke up to a white owl tugging on one of her braids. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and yawned deeply.

            “Hello Hedwig. What do you have for me?” she asked the owl stroking its head.

            The owl dropped the tightly rolled parchment then hooted softly.

            “I’ll write back I promise, I care about him as much as you do.” This seemed to satisfy her as she hopped up to the window and took off. Pulling the blankets up close to fight off the morning chill she sat up in the bed and began to read Harry’s letter.

 

             Thank you Ginny!

I just wanted to write you again to tell you that your plan worked! Right after I got the diary I started to write in it and the next night was the first time I didn’t have one of the same dreams. I still can’t get rid of them completely but every once and a while I will get a nice dream of me having a picnic on some hill somewhere. Something smells like strawberries and there isn’t a cloud in the sky, it’d be perfect Quidditch weather. I’ve never seen a more perfect place; I think I would be happy staying there for the rest of my life.

            I can’t wait till I can come back to the Burrow, and I hope I will be soon, but with Dumbledore and the bloody Order breathing down my neck I might not come back too soon. I tried talking to Dumbledore but he’s harder to get hold of than anyone I’ve ever seen. I’ll sometimes hear him downstairs late at night, but by the time I make it down he is gone. The rumour around headquarters is that Tom is building an army and that this is just a temporary peace. Tonks said that everyone is gearing up for a war bigger than last time.

            I’m not sure why I’m telling you this but I figured I owed you some information after saving me from these nightmares.

                                     -Harry

 

            Once again Ginny had tears in her eye from reading one of Harry’s letters. He could be a complete moron sometimes, but every once and a while he says the right thing.

            She looked outside her window at the perfect green hills in the background, the same green hills that were in her dreams, and from what she could tell, Harry’s too. She looked at the letter again and smiled allowing an old spark she thought she’s smothered long ago, flicker back to life.

Grimmauld Place, London, England

 

            Having finally gotten a decent night’s sleep Harry felt like a new person. His senses seemed to be sharper, and when he looked in the mirror some of his lifelessness had gone. After writing a letter to Ginny, he decided to head down to the study to try and find out what that small box he kept seeing in his dreams was.

            Tonks had left early for the ministry so he made himself some toast, poured some milk and headed into the library. All of the other Order members were out trying to gather information so Harry had the usually busy study all to himself.

            He walked along the bookcases trying to find a good place to start; supposedly Moody had gotten rid of the dark magic books but Harry was still cautious when he pulled out the first dusty tome. It was titled Ancient Antiquities and Artefacts and seemed to weigh a good fifteen pounds. He dropped it onto the nearby desk sending dust up everywhere, and cracked it open.

            Soon there was a massive pile of books spilling all over the desk. Harry had spent almost five hours already looking for any mention of a glass box in either fact or fiction yet nothing, not a single word, had a relation to what he was seeing in his dreams. His stomach grumbled as he flipped another page of a small book with blood red pages titled The Moste Powerfulle Thinges. Looking at the clock Harry realized he’d completely missed lunch so he decided to make himself a quick sandwich and get back to reading.

           

            He was halfway through cutting a loaf of bread when he heard the distinct noise of the large front door swing open. He was about to call out when he heard the raised voices of an argument.

            “We cannot allow this to continue Alastor! The cad is practically handing the Ministry to him. If we don’t do something soon we’re going to lose control-“

            “Albus said we couldn’t interfere, and while I sometimes disagree with him I think he’s right this time Remus. Voldemort knows that we are still around but he still does not know our size. If we were to become involved at the Ministry we would do away with the one thing we have in our favour.”

            “I’m not suggesting we stage a bloody coup!” Lupin shouted, “…I just think that we need to find better ways to manage who fudge is associating with.”

            “If word got out that we were swaying the course of the government we would certainly not be gaining any favour with the public. They’re sceptical enough thanks to Fudge and Umbridge.”

            “We’re reaching a point where we’re not going to have an option on what to do, so I’d like to act now while we still have some semblance of control.” Their voices were coming towards the kitchen now, “Plus Moody, you’ve heard the rumors. Voldemort has not lost any time in rebuilding his strength, but the problem now is that he will be more cautious when carrying out his plan. We face a completely different person this time, and he will not stop until…” Lupin voice stopped and Harry heard Moody’s wooden leg draw closer to the kitchen door.

            “It’s just Potter.” Moody commented as he presumably scanned the room with his magic eye.

            “Harry!” Lupin exclaimed and bustled into the room obviously happy to see him, it had been nearly two weeks sense he’d last been at headquarters and even then just briefly.

            “Hey Moony, how are you? Is everything okay?” Harry asked as he hugged him. The werewolf certainly was looking worse for the wear. He had the start of a beard and had scratches all over his face and arms, not to mention that his travelling cloak seemed to be torn to shreds.

            “Oh yes, yes. Moody and I were just arguing politics, seems to be one of the few interesting things that everyone wants to talk about these days. How are you holding up in here?” He asked as he sat down at the table and poured himself a cup of tea.

            “It’s fine I guess. I met a girl, Emma, turns out that she’s going to be starting her first year at Hogwarts so I’ve been telling her all about the wizarding world.” Harry tried to sound enthusiastic and hid his face as he went back to cutting his bread.

            After a moment of thoughtful silence Lupin set down his teacup. “I knew your father for too long Harry, not to mention Lilly. Now what’s wrong?”

            “I know how Sirius felt Moony. This place is not a normal place to live. I mean sure if you could go outside all the time it would be more bearable. But unless I’m being escorted to the park, which I know I am, even though Dumbledore refuses to admit it, I am here in this dungeon of a house. You really do start to feel like a prisoner.”

            Lupin stood up and walked over to Harry. “Listen. I can’t tell you how hard it is for me to walk into this place. Even today I had to remind myself of what I’m fighting for just to walk through the door. What you’ve gone through, and what you’re going through right this moment take an amount of courage I’ve never seen, even in an adult.” Lupin placed a comforting hand on Harry’s shoulder. “If I had my choice I would have adopted you Harry; no really, it was part of the will. If something were to happen to Sirius too then I would become your guardian. Dumbledore is still convinced that the blood magiv is the best bet, but to tell you the truth my faith was shaken in it when you were attacked at your Aunt and Uncle’s house.”

            “Mine too.” Harry agreed, smiling slightly at the thought of having Lupin as a guardian. “Would you be able to adopt me? I mean… your lycanthropy…”

            “…Is indeed a problem. Fudge and your dear Dolorous have lobbied strongly for abolishing all forms of legal rights for werewolves, and it is nearly impossible to legal become your guardian.”

            Harry turned around to face him; a wild idea forming idea, an idea that if it worked would be some of the first good news he’d heard in a long time. “What if it was possible? What if you could adopt me, would you?”

            Without pausing to think Lupin replied with a wholehearted, “of course. I would owe it to your parents and Sirius.”

            “Why don’t we try then? I really would prefer to have a better guardian than the Muggles. You wouldn’t have to do anything, I’ll use the money my parents left me. If it’s not legal we can just bribe everyone.” Harry paused, his face radiating excitement, “… I just want to have a family Moony.”

            Lupin paused; he too was smiling, “well if you want we can bring it up with the Headmaster although I doubt he will agree to it. I give you my promise that I will try my hardest however.”

            “Thank you Moony, you don’t know how much that means to me.” Harry smiled as he took a bite out of his newly finished sandwich. “Now why exactly are you here? I haven’t seen you in ages and then all of a sudden you show up with Mad-Eye yelling about overthrowing the ministry. Where have you been all this time?”

            “Ah, yes, well…” Lupin stopped apparently trying to the find the right words, “Albus sent me on a mission with Moody to try and recover something that we believed to be stolen. In fact, we thought it was stolen the same night that the battle at the Ministry of Magic happened. It required our discretion to try and be as quiet as possible so that we might not alert Voldemort to its presence if he hadn’t yet found it therefore we were forced to travel as muggles, hence our rather delayed return. What we discovered is rather upsetting for our side, but I’m afraid I cannot tell you much more until we talk with the Headmaster about our discovery. I know you hate being left in the dark but I will make sure you get the full story soon.”

            “I know, I trust you. Now what is there I can do?” Harry cut off the werewolf’s next sentence, “I need to do something Moony. I’m about to go crazy. I go outside and play with Emma but that’s it, and even then I’m being tailed. I feel like a prisoner. Tonks just keeps telling me to study but I’ve already finished my potions paper and there’s no way I am doing my History of Magic paper, you’d have to use the imperius on me.”

            Lupin laughed and was about to speak when the doorbell rang. Harry stood up, dusting off the crumbs from his shirt.

            “It’s probably Emma, she usually stops by at around this time. Here come on, she’ll want to meet you.”

            Harry swung the large door open to let Emma in and closed it a moment later after checking that no one was watching them outside. “Hey Emma, how are you? Really quick before we leave I’d like you to meet one of my friends that I told you about. He used to be a teacher at Hogwarts. Emma this is Remus Lupin, I just call him Moony though. I bet he’ll be fine with you calling him that too.”

            Emma stepped forward towards the grey haired man and held out her hand, “nice to meet you Mr. Moony. My name is Emmaline Massey.”

            Lupin shook her hand graciously, “very nice to meet you, Emma. I’ve heard Harry talk about you before so it is great to meet you in person. Where are you two off to today?”

            “I think we’re just going to head over to the playground, right Harry?” She asked looking up to Harry excitedly.

            “Yep, you bet. Hey Moony, will you be here when I come back?”

            “Most likely. Moody and I need to get cleaned up and then we’ll meet with Albus. I’ll ask him about what we discussed okay?”

            Harry nodded as he headed for the front door, “you should try and stay for dinner. Tonks is going to be here and I know she can’t wait to see you.” Harry said with a slight grin on his face and then walked outside with Emma leaving a slightly stunned Lupin in the hallway.

 

The next week for Harry was filled with early morning walks to the swings, lunch with either Tonks, Lupin, or Emma, and then several hours in the library; either searching for more information on the silver box from his dreams or new defensive spells that Lupin or Moody had told him about. Harry’s goal in keeping busy was that he hoped to not have a free minute to think about the prophesy or Sirius, and from what he had seen so far it seemed to be working.

            Each night he would crash into his bed truly exhausted, and instead of the previously upsetting or infuriating dreams he was now constantly experiencing the same one. He was still up on the green hill next to the red haired girl and the picnic basket. And while he still couldn’t make out the girls face he noticed that slowly but surely the dream was becoming sharper, more defined. It wasn’t really blurry anymore but still things were a bit indistinct. The horizon seemed to become crisper, and the sounds and smells around him were stronger. Nothing would happen in the dream, and that was fine with him. He’d just sit on the soft blanket and stare up at the sky or off in the distance, sometimes he would munch on the food he found in the basket. He never really tried to make out whom the girl was; something told him that he would know soon enough. This was his sanctuary from reality, and never in his life had he woken up so peacefully and well rested.

Harry had read a little on the topic of dreams and knew enough to recognize that these weren’t normal dreams, they were too real. “Usually”, as the book’s author stated, “you would be able to see something that would tell you were in a dream, for example the fact that your brother’s face was replaced with a chamber pot. There lies deep symbolism in everything.” While Harry didn’t believe everything the book stated he knew that there was something more to these dreams. He could feel the grass on his legs and hands, and when he ate a strawberry he could actually taste it.  He couldn’t make heads or tales of this but he was happy that at least this dream didn’t involve long winding hallways or an endless procession of friends and family falling through the veil in the Department of Mysteries. In fact, Harry couldn’t recall a time when he had actually been excited about a dream.

Along with Ginny’s now almost daily correspondence, Harry had received a few letters from both Ron and Hermione telling him about the different things that were going on in the wizarding world. Along with the letters came the occasional overheard conversation at headquarters, and from that Harry started to piece together what was going on in Wizarding England.

For the most part, and this was the unsettling thing, was that neither Hermione nor Ron had heard anything about Voldemort or the Death Eaters in the past few weeks. The Dark Lord’s army had gone to ground after the attack on Privet Drive. At lunch one day Lupin told Harry why they had seemingly disappeared. “Tom has decided to wait until the moment is perfect, only then will he show us the true extent of his growing power.” This sentence seemed to sum up all of the Order’s thoughts; they were now at a constant state of readiness. Headquarters was at all times now occupied with two members to ensure a prompt response from any call.

The only thing that was remotely related to Voldemort’s return was something Ron had sent him. He talked about how Fudge was trying to salvage his career by randomly searching houses and arresting suspected ‘threats’. Although the ministry Aurors had apparently arrested over fifty people, not a single one of them had been actually declared a Death Eater.

 From what Harry could tell Fudge was, politically, on his deathbed. His reputation had taken quite a hit after Voldemort waltzed right into the Ministry itself, especially after he’d repeatedly stated that Voldemort was all just a figment of Harry’s imagination. Fudge’s career was poised to topple and Harry would have no ill feelings if it were himself who gave the last shove.

 

Before Harry knew it, it was July 30^th, the day before his birthday. He hadn’t even remembered about it until Errol and Pig came flying in together carrying a very large box filled not only with a chocolate cake from Mrs. Weasley, but a smaller box of sweets from Fred and George. He set the sweets aside and reminded himself only to feed them to Dudley.

He also received individual packages from Hermione, Ron, Hagrid, and Ginny. Everyone sent him either large amounts of sweets and cakes, or books on defensive, or white magic. Ginny had sent him a small leather bound book, which held, when he opened it, pictures of Harry with Ron, Hermione, the Weasley’s, Lupin, the Order, and to Harry’s anguish a small picture of him and Sirius grinning stupidly at the camera during Christmas break.

Harry’s heart ached as he recalled the best Christmas of his life, when he was with everyone at Grimmauld Place, and there wasn’t a prophecy to worry about.

He turned over to the last page of the book to find a short letter to him from Ginny.

 

Harry,

 I remember you showing me the photo album Hagrid made you of your parents, I noticed that there weren’t many of your friends or your new family, so I decided to make you another. I asked Colin to owl me a bunch of really good photos and I sorted through them and found the best ones. I hope that you think this is a good present; I wasn’t really sure what to get you, seeing as you sure as hell don’t need anymore defence books or broom stuff. You can send it back if you don’t like it.

Happy Birthday

Ginny

 

Harry was touched that Ginny cared enough about him to go through all this trouble just for a birthday present. The photos in the small book brought a smile to his face, he especially liked the on of all the Weasley’s, and all of the Order on Christmas last year. They looked up at Harry and waved happily, as if there wasn’t a war going on when this was taken. 

Harry then reeled when he remember a similar picture that Moody had shown him that same Christmas. In it were all the members of the old Order of the Phoenix. Harry looked down once again and closed his eyes, praying that unlike the other photo all of these people would still be alive in a few years.

For the rest of the day Harry played with Emma, showing her the photo album, and bringing over some of the tamer prank candy that Fred and George had created.

 

That night at Headquarters Tonks, Lupin, Joy, and Emma threw a small party for him. Everyone had a great time with all the food that Joy and Tonks had made, and the party lasted well into the night finally ending with a cake that Emma had baked a cake all by herself. It was slightly tilted and at various places the icing was scraped off with a finger for earlier taste tests. She carried it out while singing happy birthday to him, and told him to make a wish and blow out all the candles.

I wish this war could be over, and I wish that I could have a family. Harry thought with his eyes squeezed together, and then blew hard at the candles. Emma took the one that went out last and handed it to Harry.

“When you go to bed tonight take this candle and put it under your pillow. If you do it will make your wish come true!” The little girl said, thrusting the candle into his hands as he was walking out the front door.

“Okay Em, that’ll be the best present ever.”

As everyone was getting a piece of cake Lupin ducked out for a moment to grab his present for Harry.

“Okay well before we all head home I have to give Harry his present.” Lupin said coming back into the room a little later. “Yes Harry I did get you a present, you didn’t think that I forgot did you? Before I give it to you first let me say how proud we all are of you and how amazingly you have handled everything that’s been thrown your way. I was instructed by Molly to tell you that she and Arthur are both so proud of you and consider you to be family. I know that it’s a shame they couldn’t make it, but transit to and from anywhere at this moment is extremely dangerous for such a large group of people. With a little luck however this will be the last time you’ll have a birthday without all your friends and family.”

            Harry gave Lupin a huge hug, “you guys are family and this has been a brilliant birthday. I know I don’t have much to gauge it by but I really have had a perfect time today.”

            “Well hopefully this will make it even better.” Lupin said pulling a folder out from behind his back, “do you remember our conversation about a week ago Harry? Well after I left I visited the Headmaster and we spent several hours trying to find a loophole in the lycanthropy clause of the guardian laws. Thankfully Delorous is not too bright and we managed to find one that served our purpose perfectly.” Lupin paused once again, the excitement in his eyes being reflected in Harry’s own, “anyhow. In this folder are the official stamped documents that officially and legally make me your guardian. I would have had them earlier but the bureaucratic idiots at the Ministry…”

            Harry cut the werewolf’s sentence short when he  jumped up to hug him. After a long time Harry let go of his new guardian, beaming. “I cannot tell you how much this means to me Moony. You’ve given me a family again.”

            “Same here Harry, I haven’t had a family since I was bitten when I was twelve. I promise you I’ll do my best to make up for lost time.” Lupin was teary eyed. He had been so excited when he and the Headmaster had finally discovered the work around in the law to allow him to become his guardian, and could barely hold himself together when he’d received the papers earlier today.

            “The one bummer is that now I can get grounded if I sneak out to Hogsmeade.” Harry said jokingly as everyone else was hugging them.

            A little while later a yawning Emma and Joy said goodbye to everyone as they headed back across the street to their home.

            As Harry helped Tonks and Lupin clean the dishes they talked happily about anything and everything that came to mind. Finally, at nearly midnight, they decided to go to bed.

            “Thanks for everything Moony, really. You’ve given me the best present I could hope for.” Harry hugged him once again and headed for his room, still smiling from the happiest birthday he’d ever had.

 

That night Harry’s dream once again returned, it started with usual. He was sitting on the blanket next to the girl and the picnic basket. As he nibbled on a piece of cheese he heard a laugh come from the girl. It was an intoxicating melody that filled his heart with happiness and hope. He turned to look at the girl who now was almost completely visible; it was just her face that was obscured. Something tugged in his subconscious, he knew who this was, yet he just couldn’t place it. For some reason he knew that tonight he would find out who it was, and while he was excited to finally discover who this girl was he was equally nervous.

For the first time in the dream the girl looked over at him. The girl leaned forward as if to kiss him, Harry tried to focus his eyes but all they could make out now was a blur of red. She was now just an inch away from his face and slowly getting closer. Her hair smelled like strawberries and he could feel the warmth coming from her cheeks. He’d never so much as seen her face yet here he was about to kiss her. He felt as is he should stop but his face kept getting closer and closer. Finally after what seemed to be an eternity his lips connected with hers.

That exact moment everything became crystal clear, he looked up and saw her brown eyes and red hair and he pulled back in shock. At the same time he was pulling back he woke sitting straight up with a rather heavy weight on his legs. He heard a muffled gasp of surprise as he fumbled to get his glasses on the table. His feet were tangled in the bed cover and the weight on top of him wasn’t helping matters, it was right on his stomach and also seemed to be moving. He twisted his legs in attempt to pull off the blanket, which only made things worse as he fell half way out of the bed onto the floor.

He finally managed to grab his glasses, but in the process knocked over the lamp, which promptly shattered on the floor. As he finally gave up trying to extricate himself from the mess he rubbed his head on where he’d hit it. Whoever was on top of him moved off his legs, and kneeled down in front of him.

He gasped in surprise, and so did the girl as she sat there stunned. It was Ginny Weasley, sitting next to the bed in her pyjamas, her hair was loose and her face reflected the utter shock that Harry’s did.

“Harry!” She managed to stutter out finally after staring at him for several moments.

“Uh, hi Ginny,” He said awkwardly, not exactly sure what was going on.

“No offence Harry but what the bloody hell is going on?” Ginny asked.

“I have no idea, one minute I was asleep and the next minute I was trapped in my own blankets.” Harry stood up and helped Ginny to her feet. A moment later he realized he was wearing just his briefs in front of a girl and desperately grabbed for the blanket on the floor to cover himself with. It would have worked if Ginny hadn’t been standing on the blanket when he pulled. Ginny, for the second time in so many minutes fell to the floor. Harry dropped the blanket in horror and dropped down to see if she was okay. “Blimey Ginny, are you alright. I’m sorry I should’ve seen that you were on the blanket, are you crying?” Harry stopped as he heard a noise coming from Ginny.

As she lifted her head he noticed she wasn’t crying but laughing. “Harry I’m perfectly alright, maybe we should just stay on the floor for right now, it doesn’t seem like either of us can stand. And don’t worry, you’re forgetting I’ve lived with five brothers my whole life, honestly I’m more surprised when I see Fred and George dressed than in their briefs.” She then looked down at what she was wearing and blushed, it was an old night gown that, like many of her clothes, were second hand. She pulled the blanket up a little closer not out of embarrassment but shame.

Harry was about to ask her if she knew what was going on but stopped, his dream now coming back with amazing clarity. He turned to face Ginny. “What was your dream about Gin?”

Her stomach flipped a little at Harry calling her Gin, she wouldn’t let anyone else call her that but for some reason she liked it when Harry called her that. “Well I was dreaming about a picnic with a boy, except I couldn’t figure out who he was, but right before I woke up I figured out it was…” She stopped too, her dream coming back, she stared at Harry in realization “… It was you.”

That was the same dream that I had, except I couldn’t see the girl, but at the end we were about to kiss I saw her, and it was, you” Harry just stared at the girl lying on the floor across from him, at any other time before this he would have been shocked at his thoughts that he could possibly like Ginny, but right now there was something different. She was beautiful, not like Parvati or any of the other girls who tried so hard to win the boy’s affection. Ginny didn’t have any makeup on, and was wearing an old nightgown, but to him she was a close to perfect as possible.

At that moment the sound of footsteps came to Harry’s door and a second later the door swung open. Lupin strode into view with his wand drawn, scanning the whole room for the source of the noise. “Harry! Harry where are you?” He said as he moved cautiously through the room.

“Over here Moony,” Harry said as he leaned against the wall next to a smiling Ginny.

 “What’s going on Harry, all your wards were tripped every single one. There are still alarms going off at headquarters. We thought that someone had broken through…” Lupin stopped as his eyes landed on Ginny, she smiled and waved feebly.

“Er…hello Professor,” she said in an embarrassed voice.

“What is going on, how did you get here Ginny?” Remus turned a suspicious eye at Harry then back to Ginny just in her pyjamas.

“Not me,” Harry said throwing his hands up in innocence, “we were wondering the exact the same thing.”

“One second I was in my own bed at the burrow dreaming and the next I was sitting on top of Harry.” She said exasperatedly, leaving out the part about kissing him to herself.

Lupin just shook his head in amusement and started to chuckle. “I’m sure your mother will be just ecstatic when she hears the news.” He then turned to Harry, “you take after James, Harry, redheads.”

“Ecstatic about what?” Ginny asked nervously, she still wasn’t entirely awake from her little trip.

He sat down on the edge of the bed, in front of the two very tired and confused teenagers, and then looked up and smiled at them, “Well, I don’t know much about it, but Dumbledore warned us it could happen.”

Harry felt a fleeting moment of frustration that the headmaster had once again told others about something he should know, but then he looked back over at Ginny and once again he felt completely at peace.

Ginny caught Harry’s eye and smiled, “what did he warn you about?” she asked.

“As I said I don’t really know all about it, I just know that it’s really powerful. Dumbledore told us that as you grew older it was possible that something along these lines would occur.” He stopped for a moment, smiling once again at the looks of confusion on their faces. “It’s only occurred twice in recorded history. Once with Merlin and Gwendoloena, that’s his wife, and Godric Gryffindor and Rowena Ravenclaw, both times when the wizarding world was in a state of utter turmoil. It not only helped them win their battles, it made them stronger, both mentally and physically.” He stopped once again letting it set in, too much information at once was always a bad thing.

“Well, what is it?” Harry asked nervous that it might be another prophesy.

Remus looked at them once again, Ginny was leaning next to Harry, looking at him with utter devotion. Albus was right as usual. They don’t see it but everyone else does, Molly knew ever since the Chamber of Secrets. I bet you’re ecstatic right now Prongs, he’s following in your footsteps. “Well,” Lupin started, slipping out of his own thoughts, “it’s been called many things, in Latin it’s Cordis Catena, in Greek it’s called the Everlasting Flame, but to most it is the Heartbond.”

 

The two teens just stared at Lupin dumbly. He sighed, rubbing his temples as he tried to think of another way to explain it. I’m not an expert at this, what I’ve told them is everything I know about it right now. They deserve to know what’s going on if what Dumbledore said is true about the bond. Lupin thought over it for a second then came to his conclusion. “Ok, here’s what I’m going to do because you deserve to know about what is going on. I’m going to floo to Hogwarts very quickly and see if Dumbledore can come over here and explain it. I really am not the one you want to be asking about this whole thing, and there are a lot of details that I’m sure only he knows of.”

“Do you promise that he will tell us everything? From what I’ve been hearing from Harry the headmaster seems to be keeping us in the dark on a lot of things.”

Harry smiled at the determination of Ginny. Even in these rather odd circumstances she was ready to stand up for Harry.

“It’s okay Gin, it’d be nice for him to come here and tell us what is going on. I mean Lupin you said that he knew that this could happen for a long time, so I’m sure he’s had plenty of time to research it.” The malice in his voice seemed to drop the temperature of the bedroom just a little.

Lupin just shook his head, he didn’t know exactly what had passed between Harry and Dumbledore after the Department of Mysteries, but it had made a profound effect on the boy’s trust of the headmaster. He’d thought that Dumbledore treated Harry like his own son; it wasn’t a secret at Hogwarts that Dumbledore adored the boy. It shook him to know that a riff had grown between the two; in times like these you had to rely on everyone you could or else you might not survive.

“Well Harry I can’t promise anything, but I’ll leave right now and try to get him to come here and explain things to you two.” He smiled softly, patted Harry on the shoulder and made for the door.

“Wait, Lupin!” Harry started as he was heading out of his room. “What about the wards, you said that someone broke through them, are you sure they’re still there?”

Lupin laughed softly, “Yes I’m quite sure, I looked over them already. The alarms were tripped so I’m certain that over the next few minutes there will be several Order members showing up. Still it wouldn’t hurt to have the Headmaster look over them for safety’s sake. Now if I can’t get the headmaster to come I’ll be back shortly, meanwhile, you two don’t get into any trouble.” He winked, and then strode out of the room and down the stairs.

Harry turned to Ginny, and smiled foolishly. “So, ummm… how has you’re summer been so far?”

Ginny just laughed, “It’s been okay, you know that though silly, remember how you’ve been writing me for the past month and a half?”

“Oh yeah, right.” He stuttered embarrassingly, “about that, thank you.” Ginny was about to speak up, but he cut her off, “No really I mean it, I know you didn’t have to do it, but you really helped me through a tough time, I just feel comfortable talking to you.”

Ginny now had tears in her eyes, she hadn’t seen Harry for over a month, but it felt as if they had become unbelievably close. For the past few weeks she’d felt her old feelings for Harry rekindle as she wrote to him more, she was always cautious that he might not like her like that, but at that moment she finally let her restraint go, finally going through with what she had wanted to for so long. She was going to say something, try to explain her actions, but words failed her.

Instead Ginny just leaned towards Harry, closing her eyes. Harry was about to say something, but she just leaned closer until she could look right into his emerald green eyes, they seemed to sparkle with an intensity the belied his age. They closed the last millimetres together, and finally kissed him. It was not passionate, not lustful, but filled with immense loving.

Harry was somewhat surprised but overjoyed at the same time. He too had felt the draw and had begun to get closer to Ginny as he spoke. He thought he knew what love was like when he and Cho were first going out, but he threw that notion out the window when he looked into her eyes just centimetres away from his own. Something told him Ginny was always going to be there for him.

The kiss lasted for what could have been a second, or an hour. Both of them savouring the moment for as long as they could, both drawing strength from the other. They both had wounds that needed to heal from over the past years. Harry had never had anyone to really and truly love him, and now that he did his entire body seemed to relax. The worry of the prophecy, the war, the box, as well as the death of Sirius slipped from his mind for the first time in a very long while. Neither of them went further than the kiss, but both of them seemed to know that this would not be the last time they would be together, and that was to the immense happiness of both of them.

Their kiss was broken abruptly by the noise of someone knocking on the door frame. In the doorway stood Dumbledore smiling amusedly. Harry was so shocked he jumped back from Ginny as if she were on fire, tripped on the blanket that had slipped from his waist onto the floor, and fell back onto the floor. Ginny too jumped at the sudden interruption of their first kiss, but managed to stay upright although she did need to lean on the foot board of the bed for support.

Dumbledore just looked at the two teens and chuckled, “I am sorry to interrupt you two, but Remus has told me that there may have been a new development.”

Harry groaned as he rubbed his head from the fall, and then noticed he was standing in just his briefs front of the headmaster, and struggled to cover himself up once again. Ginny flushed red, feeling as if the headmaster knew what she and Harry had been doing a second before he appeared.

“If you call Ginny suddenly appearing on top of me in my sleep a ‘new development’ then yes, I think you are right in saying so.” Harry said as he slumped onto the bed next to Ginny.

Dumbledore chuckled as he conjured a leather chair for him to sit in, and three cups of tea for them to drink. “Well from what Remus told me you already know the basics of the bond, and he got me in hopes of telling you the intricacies, which I dare say are many.” Dumbledore took a sip of the tea and settled himself in the chair as if it were completely normal to be having a conversation in a bedroom at three in the morning. “You already know that both Merlin and Godric Gryffindor possessed the same power and how it helped them. Do you know anything about the bond itself?”

“Well Lupin said something about it being a bond and that it would make us stronger and help us win our battles, hopefully we won’t have to have any more however, one fight with Tom is enough for me.” Ginny said, unconsciously grabbing hold of Harry’s hand as they sat there on the bed.

Harry smiled at the small sign of affection but shifted uncomfortably at the mention of battles. He looked at Ginny and then at the Headmaster who seemed to know what he was asking even before he voiced it.

The headmaster seemed to understand his predicament. “Harry, while it is your choice in the end, I would be willing to tell her for you.”

Ginny looked inquisitively at Harry, raising her eyebrow. “Thank you headmaster, but I think I’ll wait until after you tell us about this Heartbond.”

“Very well,” Dumbledore resituated himself in his chair and began again, “now what I am going to tell you is all from my research, there hasn’t been a book or scroll written on the Heartbond, just myths, fables. The Heartbond was first seen in action when it linked Gwendoloena to Merlin, during his battle with Morgana. It is said that because this bond was forged from pure love, something that Morgana did not have an ounce of in her blood, it gave Merlin an immense power, something that actually allowed him to vanquish the dark witch. In Godric Gryffindor’s case, he was bonded with another one of the other founders of Hogwarts, Rowena Ravenclaw. Again it is said that because of the bond Godric was able to defeat the dark wizard of their time Hlothere.

It would now appear that you two have been bonded, and I need not tell you who it is in hopes of defeating. If my research is correct, which I am afraid to say it might not be, you two will begin to start growing exceedingly fast, both physically and magically. According to some ancient texts Merlin and Godric both ended up being the most powerful wizards of their times because of this bond not the other way around. The witches they were bonded to also were strengthened immensely. These next few months should be fairly interesting for you both when it comes to performing magic. The most important thing will be to remember to keep your magic in check as you go through this growth spurt; you will regain control of it as it slows but for a while you will most likely see more and more incidents of accidental magic.” Once again Albus stopped to give the two teens a minute to catch up, he knew that this was a very large thing to be happening to them, especially at such a young age; but he also knew that it would be the only way to have a chance to win the upcoming war.

 “ I know that most of this information is very general, but unfortunately that is all I have managed to find, I can assure you that I will be here to help you both along the way with any unexpected occurrences. Now there is a bit of a snag that we will have to deal with right now instead of at a later time. Now that you two are bonded you will have to stay in relatively close distance to each other in order for you to grow. While I do not know the full extent of that requirement I am quite sure that it will require one of you to stay with the other for the rest of the summer and the school year.” Harry and Ginny shared surprised but excited looks. “Now I do know that this part is true because of your little outing tonight Miss Weasley. The moment Harry turned 16 the bond seemed to go into full power, thus increasing your apparent need for Miss Weasley here. The bond is very strong indeed. It managed to break through my wards, which, excuse my hubris, is quite a feat. Now I know that your mother will not be too pleased with this small turn of events, but it seems to be the only way of maintaining the necessary proximity you two must be in.” The headmaster said.

It was completely quiet for a moment until Ginny spoke up. “Excuse me sir, but does this mean that Harry and I were always destined for each other?” Ginny asked, staring at Harry with affection who was wearing a similar expression.

“Well I wasn’t positive until now, but ever since the Chamber of Secrets, when Harry here rescued you, literally sacrificing his own life to save yours, I felt that there may be something deeper. Love like that cannot be easily created, just like your love for Ron, Hermione, and now the young Miss Massey. Each of these are strong, but now that your love is strengthened by the bond you have an even a greater chance. Do you recall what I showed you in my office, ‘he will have power the Dark Lord knows not…” You may have just found it Harry.” Dumbledore said, with a soft smile, his eyes twinkling with a glimmer of hope.

“What is he talking about Harry?” Ginny whispered softly to Harry.

“Professor, is that all you know of the Heartbond?” Harry asked.

“Yes, that is all I have gathered. I know that there is an immense amount of new feelings right now, some that many people do not feel until they are much older, but they will make you stronger. I suggest that you do not try to leap into a relationship but allow it to progress as naturally as circumstances allow. I feel there may be many surprises this next year.” The Headmaster said, already knowing what Harry was going to ask of him.

“Would it be okay to show Ginny now, I mean if what you said is true that she really is part of me now,” part of him was ready to tell another person of the prophecy, but another part didn’t want to frighten the girl he loved with thoughts of him dying and Voldemort winning, but he knew she had to see it if she was to help.

“I think it is a wise idea Harry, once again I would like to tell you how sorry I am that I withheld it from you for so long, it was not my place to do so. If you wish I could see it being a good idea to tell Ron and Hermione when you get a chance, they are your family Harry and they should have the full story.”

Harry nodded, he knew that he would have to tell his friends soon, but the thought of them leaving him frightened him to no end. He would have to face that problem when he reached it, right now he looked over at Ginny. She looked over at him apprehensively but then caught his eyes and smiled ever so slightly and squeezed his hand gently. Harry’s nerves were settled, he knew that she would stand by him through thick and thin, just like at the Department of Mysteries.

 “Would you like me to do it?” Dumbledore asked, pulling his wand out of his robes.

Harry just nodded as he squeezed Ginny’s hand back and looked back to the professor.

“Very well, vocamusin crantantem!” Immediately a small figure of professor Trelawney appeared on the floor of Harry’s bedroom. It began to talk in the harsh voice that was such a huge variance from her usual ethereal one.

 

`The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches… born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies … and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not … and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives … the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies …’  

 

The last syllables echoed off the walls, and the image flickered away. The room was left completely silent save Ginny’s quite sobs.

            Harry grabbed her in his arms and held her closely, not wanting her to cry anymore, not wanting anything to happen to her. He had never felt so protective of anything in his life, he was willing to do anything to stop her from crying.

            “Is that what the prophecy said? The one that was crushed?” She said between gasps.

            “Yes, and no one but you, I, and the headmaster know about it. You need to keep it a secret, you can’t even tell your brother or Hermione yet. I will when I get the chance.” Harry said quietly, as he brushed her hair behind her ear. He was surprised at how natural comforting Ginny came to him unlike trying to stop Cho from crying that one dreadful day in the Room of Requirement.

            “And you have to kill him? Or else he’ll kill you?” She said holding back her tears.

            Harry nodded softly in approbation.

            “I’ll help you Harry, I’ll help you kill him if it’s the last thing I do.”

 

Dumbledore smiled at the compassion the young girl showed for Harry. It’s just the thing he needs right now, love. He’s lost so much to this war, probably the most out of everyone, and he needs something to focus his mind and allow him to get through the next years of his life unscathed.

After taking a moment to compose herself, Ginny looked up at the headmaster with an expression of determination. “What can we do to stop him?”

“Alas, I do not know. I have studied that very problem for over a decade now and I still cannot find a way to defeat Voldemort. It would appear that whatever steps he has taken to protect himself have so far worked; him coming back from the horribly twisted state he was in is proof enough. Whatever it is that will be able to destroy Tom is hidden inside Harry. All we can do is support him as much as possible.”

            Harry grimaced as he once again was reminded of how he was no longer just a person, but a weapon. Ginny noticed this reaction too and grabbed one of his hands firmly as she stared into his eyes. “Harry James Potter, you better listen to me, you aren’t only good for killing this lunatic, you need to stay alive. There are people who care about you, like my mum and dad, and my brother, and Hermione….and me.” She said the last part softly, almost whispering it.

            Harry closed his eyes, fighting off tears, trying not to lose it in front of his headmaster. After giving himself a moment to compose himself he raised his bloodshot eyes to Dumbledore. “Sir, you know how you said that Ginny and I are going to have to stay close together, how are we going to do that?”

            “Ah, yes I can see the problem. Well, while I’m not quite sure you mother will be happy with this. As of right now, unless you have any objections Miss Weasley, I have already sent Lupin to the Burrow to explain things with your parents. We’ve arranged for you to stay here at headquarters.” Dumbledore’s smile broadened as the tired teenager’s faces lit up with excitement.

            “That’s bloody brilliant!” Harry shouted, completely forgetting his current company momentarily, “Oops, er… sorry headmaster, just got a little excited.” Harry said apologetically.

            “What did you say, you’ll have to speak up, I don’t have the best hearing you know.” He said smiling absently at the bookshelf.

            “Uh, sir, what about clothes and beds and stuff. I mean this bedroom already small as it is. We probably couldn’t fit much more than a house elf right now.”

            At that Dumbledore stood up and vanished his recliner. “I actually have a solution for that problem too. Remus and Nymphadora have been working on it as a surprise for you for several weeks now and thankfully they just have to put the finishing touches on it.

            I’m not sure if you know this but after Sirius’ death his will stipulated that his estate be given to Remus and a relatively large portion of the vaults. You too received a rather large increase in your gold; enough to actually warrant another vault. Anyhow, ever since he came into possession of the house he’s been redecorating the master bedroom for you, I know you’ve seen it last year but I must say it is looking much better these days. Tomorrow we can move you and Miss Weasley’s belongings into the room. For tonight however I believe that it will just be easier to stay here.”

            The headmaster pulled out his wand and conjured another small cot with blankets on it next to Harry’s.

            “That is for your mother’s comfort Miss Weasley. We will discuss sleeping arrangements at another time.” The headmaster said chuckling at the blushing teenagers. Dumbledore pulled out a pocket watch and checked the time, “it would seem that it almost is morning. Well I do need at least two hours of sleep a night and I think that you two could do with some also. I will have your mother pack some things for you tomorrow Miss Weasley so you can at least freshen up in the morning. If you have any further quandaries concerning this new bond, feel free to owl or floo me anytime. I know that this is a lot to take in at one time, but I hope that we might be able to work through this together. You both have amazing talent, and now an immense treasure, something very few are given. Treasure these moments of peace and quiet because I am afraid that they soon may not come as often as we wish. I hope to see you both soon again. Good morning.” With that the old headmaster tipped his head and closed the door on the couple.

            Ginny turned towards Harry and grinned. “I think we should try and get a little sleep tonight, don’t you?”

            Harry smiled and stood up, no longer embarrassed about his lack of clothing. “Which one do you want?”

            Ginny took the new cot, and Harry rearranged his sheets into a somewhat normal state and slipped into bed. Harry looked over at Ginny who smiled at him then turned the light out. In the dark Harry thought over everything that had happened that night, just hours after his birthday. That moment he thought of something and reached under his pillow to retrieve the small candle. “Well Emma I guess you were right, my wish did come true,” he whispered then looked over to where Ginny would be. “Ginny are you awake?”

            Ginny sat up a little bit, “yeah, it’s a little heard to get to bed right now.”

            “I know I already said this, but thank you. Thank you for everything you’ve done for me. There were points when I don’t think I could have made it without you, and knowing that you’re here with me makes me think that I might actually have a fighting chance.”

            “Thank you Harry for everything you’ve given me. You sacrificed your life for me, and you’ve given me a reason to fight with you. I know we can do it Harry, just you wait.” As both of them faded into a deep sleep their dreams of the usual picnic returned, now seeing each other instead of a blur. The moment they kissed again however Harry woke up to find himself on top of Ginny’s bed kissing her in real life. Ginny’s eyes sprung open wide in shock. Harry pulled away immediately, falling completely off the bed in surprise.

            “Not again!” He said as he rubbed his head for the second time that night.

            “Looks like this Heartbond is stronger than we thought it was, seems like we have to be in the same bed for it to be happy.” Ginny said groggily, pulling her covers down and motioning for Harry to get in.

            ‘What, I can’t sleep in the same bed as you, think what your brother will do.” Harry said, scooting away from the bed in mock horror.

            “Listen, I know you won’t do anything, and I won’t tell my brother, but I am tired and you look like it too. Now if you want to get some sleep get over here, if you want to keep hitting your head on the floor do feel free to go to your own bed,” She said huffily.

            It didn’t take Harry long to realize what he was actually arguing about and crawled into Ginny’s bed, trying to settle himself as far away from her as possible. But she seemed opposed to the idea and rested her head on his shoulder.

            “Night Harry,” she whispered as she closed her eyes.

            “Good night Gin’,” Harry closed his eyes too and drifted off to sleep.

 

Grimmauld Place, London, England

 

The next morning it was a sunny day outside; finally dispelling what seemed to be a month of endless fog. Hedwig had come back from her hunt and was resting happily in the sunlight.

Harry was the first to wake up when the sun came through the blinds and hit him in the eyes; he smiled, allowing the sun to warm his face. Ginny was still asleep, lying gently on his shoulder. Harry marvelled at how in just one night so many things could change. What was the most shocking part was that although over the past few weeks Harry had just started to notice he was beginning to think of Ginny as something more than Ron’s sister, this morning waking up next to her seemed to be the most normal thing in the world. He knew that it was partially the bond’s work, but he also knew that there really was something between them.

“Morning sleepy,” Harry said after looking at Ginny for a while longer.

“Mmmhmmm,” She groaned and pulled the blankets higher up and hid her face under the pillow.

“Come on get up, Lupin will be up here soon, and we probably will want to make sure we’re not in the same bed when he gets here.” Harry said, gently pulling the pillow out of her grasp.

“Can I just stay in this bed; it’s so comfortable, much better than mine.” She mumbled looking up at Harry in just his briefs sitting so close to her. She had to shake certain thoughts out of her head that she was certain would make both Ron and her mom shriek in horror. Something about this didn’t feel uncomfortable though, she wasn’t embarrassed, far from it. In fact, she’d never been this comfortable before with anyone. She looked back up at Harry and smiled as she begrudgingly crawled out of bed.

“That’a girl,” Harry teased as he too got out of bed and headed to his trunk. He searched around for a while and pulled out the best pair of jeans and tossed them to Ginny, along with tattered white shirt. “Here you go, I know it doesn’t look too good, but we still need to get your stuff from Lupin so I figure that’ll do for now.”

“Thanks, I don’t really feel like showing of this piece of rubbish nightgown to everyone,” Ginny said looking down at her pyjamas with disgust.

Harry knew that just like her brother Ginny had a bit of a hard time when it came to the subject of money. The Weasley’s did not have much in the terms of finances, but they made up for it in sheer generosity and compassion. “Gin’ no one cares what you’re wearing, especially me. Look at what I’m wearing right now, I think we’re far past caring.” Harry said pointing to himself standing in a tee shirt and briefs.

Ginny laughed, she was surprised at how easy it was to stop caring when she was around Harry, “I guess you’re right. Well you can head down, I’ll just clean up really quick before breakfast.”

 

Down at the table Harry and Lupin were chatting about what he’d done to the master bedroom while they worked on breakfast for everyone.

“Well we didn’t change much overall but we did repaint it, tried to make it a little more liveable. It looked as if a vampire was living in it when we first started. I think you’ll like it, and there’s enough room for another bed for Ginny to stay in.”

“It sounds brilliant, I can’t wait to see it. I hope we can do the same thing to the rest of the house now that you own it. It needs some work, especially with all the filth that Kreacher’s left around.” Harry stopped and looked up at Lupin, “Moony, what happened to Kreacher? I’ve been here for nearly a month and haven’t seen him.”

Lupin set down the teapot, “Well after the rest of the Order set off to the Ministry of Magic that night and Sirius was killed his bond to the house was broken and he was unfortunately placed under the command of the next in line which is Bellatrix Lestrange. Thankfully the additional wards Albus placed on the building prevents him from betraying us but there is still some liability that I am sure will have to be dealt with eventually.”

Harry just nodded silently, unsure of what to say. He knew that the house elf had betrayed them; not just Harry, but Sirius too. He now was fairly certain that he knew what Lupin and Sirius felt when they were about to kill Pettigrew. And if Harry did come upon Kreacher again he was unsure whether or not he’d want anyone around to see what happened.

“Morning Professor,” Ginny said as she worked her way down the stairs. The jeans were easily twice her size so she had to make sure not to step of the cuffs to avoid tripping.

“Good morning Ginny, but first we need to clear up the professor business. Seeing as it is summer and I haven’t been you’re professor in several years I think it’s okay if you call me by my first name.”

“Great, well good morning Remus, what’s for breakfast?” Ginny said happily as she sat down next to Harry in her baggy clothes.

“Well Harry knows my lack of skill in the kitchen but I did manage to make some eggs and toast so hopefully that’s okay with you?” He set the plate down in front of her, “also I managed to grab some of your clothes last night after talking with your parents briefly. Dumbledore is heading over today to talk with them about the bond and what it means. They’re hoping to stop by later tonight to see both of you. And don’t worry Harry; they’re not mad at you. In fact when I told you mom Ginny, she started crying she was so happy. Kept talking about how she knew that this was going to happen.” Lupin added looking at Harry.

“Well I’m glad Dumbledore’s going to tell them about it, I doubt they’d believe me if I tried. A lot of things have changed really quickly and I honestly I think I’m still trying to sort them out myself. None of us really even know what this bond does,” Ginny said as she poked at the nearly burned eggs with her fork.

“Just wait until Hermione figures out what’s happened, I’m sure she’ll be sending us piles of books on it….Oh no!” Harry said all of a sudden hitting his head with his hands, “Ron doesn’t know yet. He’s going to kill me! If he was protective of you when you were going out with Dean imagine what he’s going to be like when he finds out about this.”

Ginny grimaced as she too remembered how Ron reacted when she told her family she was going out with Dean. “Don’t worry Harry, I know how to keep Ron in place. Plus, what’s he going to argue about, we’ve been bonded, it’s not like he can change anything. I’d be more worried of the twins if I were you.” She added trying to joke with him, this proved to only make things worse, as Harry let out another moan of anguish at the thought of going up against the twins and their arsenal of pranks.

“I’d rather fight Tom again than fight those two. I’m sure I’d end up looking so disfigured they’d have trouble finding out who it was.” Harry said his arms wrapped around his head on the table.

“Don’t forget who you have on your side Harry, you do remember my infamous Bat Bogey hex, right?” Ginny said with a wicked look on her face.

“Now I remember why all your brothers are afraid of you. That face even scares me Gin, it looks like you’re up to something.” Harry said smiling at the red headed girl.

“Well while we have breakfast why don’t we talk about what we might want to do for the next few weeks?” Lupin asked as he too poked unhappily at the overcooked eggs. “From what Dumbledore has told me this bond will soon start to manifest itself in many ways, both physically and magically. He related it closest to a rather rapid and larger form of puberty, which seeing as you’re both still in it, should makes things even more interesting. I think that the best thing to do is to work on various forms of magical control, along with working with new spells that might come in handy.

            Many of the Order members were impressed by the way you fought in the Ministry and were quick to offer up a list of some of their most effective spells for you to learn.” Their old professor, now back in his teaching mode, withdrew a large scroll and placed it on the table, “I believe that you and Ginny can do many of these spells with enough practice, and maybe even some you will learn to do wandlessly. There are very few people who can do so, but if you master it, it will give a massive leg up against whomever you are fighting. We won’t have any trouble with being detected by the Ministry for underage magic because this whole place is invisible to everyone, except for Emma I suppose. I know this is summer so we don’t have to have classes but I do think that because of our rather limited list of activities working on spells would not be a bad idea.”

            “That sounds like a good idea Moony, if we could copy this list I’m sure Hermione and Ron would like to look over it too. Could we possibly run a few errands sometime before we start?” Harry asked.

            “What sort of errands?”

            “Well it’s my clothes, they’re rubbish. I’ve always bought new robes for school but never really got around to buying normal stuff. You know, jeans, shirts… briefs; it’s all just leftover stuff from Dudley that’s never really fit. Dumbledore said that Sirius left me some money so I was hoping that we might be able to go pick out some clothes for me to wear around the house.”

            Lupin thought about it for a minute and nodded, “well now that you mention it I’ve been meaning to get some clothes myself. In his will, Sirius told me to get some clothes that matched my new wealth. I guess we could use a little trip to the store.”

            “Also we could pick up some stuff for Ginny. If we’re all going to be living together we might as well be doing it comfortably, and I can’t tell you that wearing Dudley’s jeans is not comfortable.” Harry smiled at Ginny.

            “Well I would have to agree with that, you’re clothes do look a bit worse for the wear.” Lupin paused as if he were thinking something over, “well, now I can’t make promises, but there may be a chance that we could go shopping. Merlin knows we need it. I’ll send Albus a letter and hopefully he’ll let us stop by Gringotts and then a Muggle store to pick up some everyday clothes.”

            “Where are we going to go to get Muggle clothes? It’s not like any of us go shopping around Muggle London at all. Plus it’s probably not the safest thing to just be wandering around London looking for a shop. I bet that Dumbledore’ll only let us go if the place really is secure,” Ginny said.

“Harrods,” Harry said, almost questioningly to himself.

“Bless you,” Lupin offered.

            “No, no, Harrods, or Harolds or something like that,” Harry said waving him off, “the Dursley’s would go on special outings to go there when they needed to buy something very nice. They say ‘they’re going shopping at Harrods, don’t break or blow anything up,’ yeah it’s Harrods, I’m sure of it. I’d see their ads sometimes in newspapers and on the television. I know it’s in London too so it shouldn’t be too hard to get to, tell Dumbledore that we want to go to Gringotts and then Harrods.”

            “Cool, my first Muggle store, I can’t wait to see what’s there. I’ll have to owl mum to see if I can borrow some money though,” She said half-heartedly, knowing that she would most likely only get a few knuts to spend.

            “Don’t worry about that Gin, I’ll take you for a little shopping spree. I think it’s the least I can do to try and apologize for ruining you beauty sleep by apparating you to my bed every night.” Harry said, eager to finally put his wealth to some good by helping someone he cared about.

            “A girl does need her beauty sleep you know,” Ginny teased.

            “Not when she looks like you,” Harry whispered when Lupin had turned to get some more toast. When he turned back around he saw the two teens looking at each other completely smitten and blushing slightly.

            “Ah well, I suppose that we’ve enjoyed this breakfast thoroughly,” he said dryly and disappeared the barely touched mush that was trying to resemble eggs. “Why don’t I send a message to Albus to tell him of our plans. Meanwhile you two should move your stuff into the new room, your parents should be here in a few hours Ginny.”

 

            Harry helped carry the small chest containing Ginny’s clothes up the stair with her to the third floor where the master bedroom was. Harry had never been inside but knew that it was the room with the intricately carved wood doors, and stopped in front of them when they reached the top.

            “Well here we are,” Ginny said out of breath, “you wouldn’t think that going up three sets of stairs would be hard but it felt like I just ran a kilometre.”

            “Yeah, we’re gonna have to be in better shape than this if we’re going to beat Slytherin next year for the Quidditch Cup. Come on let’s take a look inside, I want to see what Moony and Tonks have done to it.” He grabbed hold of Ginny’ hand and pushed the doors open.

            As they stepped inside a sudden feeling of déjà vu hit Harry. The room looked almost exactly like that of the Gryffindor commons room. It was a large, study with a big couch and all the walls were covered in various books and antiquities, directly across from where they were standing was a set of double doors. They looked at each other smiling and headed for the doors.

            Inside was a small but comfortable looking room with a large, ancient looking, bed and a smaller one that seemed to be added at the last minute. Everything about this reminded Harry of his dorm room at Hogwarts.

            “This is brilliant, they did a great job on the room. I would never guess that this was in headquarters. It’s not…”

            “Evil looking?” Harry offered as he fell spread eagle onto the bed. “Wow, the bed is awesome, definitely more comfortable than the one downstairs.”

            Ginny jumped onto the bed too, “you’re right. I wish that the beds at school were this comfortable. Only problem is that I probably would miss all my morning classes.”

            For a while they sat in the bed in silence enjoying each other’s newfound company. Taking advantage of the relative calm Ginny decided to ask Harry something that had been on her mind since last night. “Harry?” she started, rolling onto her stomach to face him, “I know that we’ve been bonded, and that it’s supposedly very important for both of us to have this, but I just want you to know that you shouldn’t feel obligated or anything.”

            Harry looked over at her confused, “obligated to what?”

            “Well, you know. We’ve been bonded so apparently we’re instantly a couple. I don’t want you to have to be with me just because some weird thing happened to us. I know that you don’t like me that way.” She said, trying to get it out quickly to avoid making herself feel worse about saying it. She really did like him but she wanted to make sure that Harry was not just going along with the relationship because he had to.

            “Gin, what are you talking about. Just because it took this stupid bond to get me to realize that I really do fancy you doesn’t mean I don’t like you. What it does mean is that you’re now bonded to someone who’s too dim to realize who he likes.” Harry paused and sat upright. “Listen, you’ve already done more for me than I could have ever imagined. I’ve never been as happy as I was last night when I woke up kissing you. I can’t believe I’m saying this but I think that Dumbledore was right about us being fated to be together. This is the first time I’m happy about a prophecy coming true, I’ll tell you that.”

            Ginny had tears in her eyes from listening to Harry, her greatest fear had been ameliorated, he really did like her. Without warning she threw her arms around him, hugging him tightly. “I am too. And hopefully we’ll be able to beat the next prophecy too.” She pulled back and kissed him on the cheek. For the next several hours they just lay there in their new room, discussing the war, the prophecy, and even the obvious crush that her brother had on Hermione.

            At around five o’clock they heard a commotion from downstairs that they knew had to be Ginny’s parents. All of sudden Harry’s stomach knotted up. Ginny saw his anxiety and did her best to calm him. “Don’t worry Harry, mum has always wanted to have you be part of this family. She’s known about my crush on you for ages so it hopefully won’t be too much of a shock. Come on, let’s go.” She grabbed his hand and gently tugged him downstairs.

 

            In the kitchen Molly and Arthur were already sitting at the table with Tonks and Lupin when Ginny and Harry came in. The instant Molly saw them she jumped up and wrapped both of them in a bone-crushing hug.

            “Hi Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, how are you?” Harry asked awkwardly, unsure of what to do in this situation.

            “Harry, how are you? When we heard about the attack on your house…” Molly paused, “We’re glad you’re alright. Not that you don’t have some new things to sort out now.” A moment of silence fell across the room, thankfully Lupin stepped in.

            “Why don’t we get some food on the table and we can talk about the plans Albus has made?”

            What surprised Harry was that the entire discussion focused on the various parts of the bond and what exactly it did, never once did Arthur or Molly question why it had happened to their daughter. From what he could tell not only were they not angry, they seemed to be enthusiastic about the whole thing. Harry could have sworn he’d even seen Arthur give him a wink.

            As the conversation wound down the conversation turned to more practical matters. “So if they have to be in close proximity to each other does that mean that they’ll have to share a room at Hogwarts?”

            “We’re not entirely sure to be honest. From what happened last night it seems that the bond is very strong, strong enough to break through some of the strongest wards around. The headmaster is making arrangements in the event that they will have to share a room. It is imperative that they do remain in the same vicinity however, for the sake of the growth that will occur in the following months.” Lupin answered.

            “Well I can’t say this isn’t a shock, but when I look back at you two I’m not overly surprised I suppose. If this bond really is as important as the headmaster makes it out to be then you have been granted something extremely valuable.” Molly said as she stood up, “we’ll be at the Burrow whenever you need us, just floo or send us an owl and we’ll be here in an instant. We were discussing it earlier with Remus and we will most likely be spending the last week of summer break here, it being closer to Hogwart’s Express and all.”

            As they made for the living room fireplace where the Weasley’s would depart Arthur tapped Harry on the shoulder. “Harry, a word please? It will just be a minute.”

            He nodded, having a feeling he knew what was coming next. “What is it Mr. Weasley?”

            Arthur looked just as uncomfortable as Harry was, “well Harry. Now that you and my daughter have been bonded I know things will be close quarters for a while at least. I also know what it was like to be a young man at your age, nearly anything can set you off….” Harry nearly groaned outloud, “Anyhow, while you may just see this as just an inconvenient charm of some sort…”

            Harry felt his face flush brighter and brighter as the conversation continued, “Mr. Weasley, I really don’t see this as just an inconvenient curse. I can’t tell you how happy I am that I was bonded to Ginny. I’m certain that I would have eventually come around but this has made me realize I really do care for her.”

            Arthur smiled down at the young man who he had a feeling he would soon be calling his son-in-law. “Well Harry, I am glad to know that you feel the same way Ginny feels about it. I must ask one thing though, if you do pursue this further I just ask that you practice some restraint; it is my daughter after all.”

            Harry somehow managed to blush even brighter, he couldn’t believe that he was having this discussion right now with Ginny’s dad of all people. “Err… right. I promise you I won’t do anything Mr. Weasley, I care about her too much. ”

            Arthur smiled broadly and clapped his hands together, “Excellent! We’ll I won’t want to hold up Molly and more. I hope to see you soon Harry.” He put on his cloak and went to the living room leaving Harry sitting there thinking over the conversation he’d just had.

 

Later that night in the master bedroom study, Harry told Ginny about the conversation he’d had with her father. “Mum had the same sort of thing with me. She told me that I was becoming a woman now, and that I may experience urges that should not be followed through with. It was like “the talk” all over again.”

As the two laughed off their nerves as they recounted more of their conversations, Lupin received a letter from Dumbledore and went upstairs to share it with Harry and Ginny.

“Well you two, it would seem that Dumbledore is okay with our little outing. He wants Tonks to accompany us however which she’s already agreed to. So tomorrow morning we’ll set off bright and early, stop by Gringotts and then go to this Harrods that you were talking about Harry. It’s already fairly late so I think it wouldn’t hurt to call it a night so you two can actually function in the morning.”

“Hey Moony thanks for actually doing this.”

“What did I tell you, I said I would try to be the best guardian I could be, this is just my first little attempt.” The old werewolf smiled and headed out to his own room.

            When he’d left Harry and Ginny headed over to the bed room, “So which be do you want? I think you get the big one this time.” Harry offered.

            “Why thank you,” she replied as she headed to the bathroom to change, “but do you honestly think that the whole two bed thing is going to work? Last night it seemed like it wasn’t.”

            “Most likely not, but it can’t hurt to try.” Harry said as he pulled his pants and shirt off and pulled on his pyjamas he’d decided to start wearing.

            “I guess you’re right, it could be a problem at school. But you know what, I bet you that it doesn’t work.” Ginny said coming out of the bathroom in her nightgown.

            “Okay, it’s a deal. I bet you a chocolate frog that you don’t apparate in my bed tonight.”

            “Done. Well I’m going to bed, I feel like winning a chocolate frog.” She teased and crawled into the big master bed.

            “You just wait, you’re going to have to buy me one tomorrow.” Harry took off his glasses and turned off the lamp.

            “Night Harry.”

            “Night Gin.”

 

            The green field was blowing in the breeze as the Harry and Ginny sat atop the hill eating another amazing picnic. The air was filled with laughter and a sweet smell of grass and strawberries. The two teens smiled at each other, laughing at some joke that Ginny had made. It didn’t really matter what the joke was to them, just being there together was enough.

            As their laughter died down the two teens drew closer to each other. Harry ran a hand through her hair, brushing away a loose strand from in front of her face. Ginny closed her eyes and felt Harry’s own eyelashes on her face.

            The second their lips touched there was a snap and the image disappeared only to be replace by confusion.

            Harry was sitting in the dark, face-to-face, eyelash-to-eyelash with Ginny. He pulled back only to see her grinning. “You owe me a chocolate frog Mr. Potter,” She said pulling the covers back to let Harry crawl in.

            “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Beginners luck, it’s just because I liked this bed that I came over here.”

            Ginny laughed as she snuggled up close again, once again having no hesitation about being so close to him even though they’d only been together for a little more than a day.

            Harry wrapped his arms around Ginny, surprised at how normal this came to him. It felt as if he’d been doing this his entire life. “Night Gin,” he said kissing her on the forehead lightly.

            “Good night Harry.” She said softly drifting off to sleep.

           

Grimmauld Place, London, England

           

That morning Lupin woke Ginny and Harry up early so they could get breakfast and beat the morning crowd at Gringotts before heading into Muggle London. They were all far too excited to really eat but went through the motions anyway as they sat there eager to leave. It was nearly seven when they heard a knock on the door and Lupin got up to answer it. A moment later he returned with Emma walking in front of him.

“Hey Harry, what’s going on?” Emma asked, then spotted Ginny sitting next to him, “how’s she?” She asked eyeing the new girl suspiciously.

Harry had to laugh; he’d forgotten that Emma had no idea about what had happened in the past 48 hours. “Well Emma, this is Ginny Weasley. You know how I told you about my friends from school, this is Ron’s sister.”

“Hi Emma, nice to meet you, Harry’s told me a lot about you.” Ginny said smiling kindly at the little girl.

“Are you his girlfriend?” She asked, eyeing the redhead suspiciously.

“Well something very weird happened after you went home from my birthday Emma,” Harry started, “it turns out that Ginny and I have been bonded. For some reason or another we are now connected magically and this bond makes us stay close to each other, that’s why she’s living here.” He tried to simplify it as much as possible, skirting the topic of girlfriend because even he wasn’t sure if that was where their relationship was at the moment.

“Huh, well that’s cool I guess.” She said shrugging, “so can we still go swinging though? Mum said I could hang out with you today.”

“Well we were actually just planning on going shopping for some clothes. Moony I know that it was hard enough getting permission to let us go but could we bring Emma with us, if Joy says it’s okay?” Harry asked Lupin.

“I don’t see why not, we’re in no direct danger, just make sure she knows what we’d be doing.”

“Okay well Emma, if you want to go with us you can. I know it isn’t as much fun as swinging but you can hang out with us. We wouldn’t get home until after lunch so we’ll be gone for a while.”

“That’d be brilliant! I’ll go ask mum right now,” she said and rushed down the hallway to the door.

 

Just a few minutes later Emma was back at headquarters with permission from Joy to go shopping with them. They all headed to the living room fireplace where they were going to floo from.

“Okay now Emma, we’re first going to go to Gringotts. It’s our bank, remember I told you about it?” She nodded, remembering the various stories Harry had told her about Diagon Alley. “So to get there we need to use the floo network, it’s not scary at all, but you’ll go with me so you can get used to it. Are we ready to go Moony?”

“We’re going to the Leaky Cauldron so we can head over right now, the bank opens in 15 minutes so it should be perfect. I’ll go first, then Ginny you can go, then Harry and Emma can go last.” Lupin grabbed a handful of floo, tossed it into the fire and shouted, “The Leaky Cauldron!” and in a flash of green he disappeared. Ginny followed suite and moments later she too disappeared. Harry grabbed a handful of the powder and tossed it in the fire.

“Now just step in here and hold onto my hand okay? Don’t worry it doesn’t burn, it just sort of tickles. Okay now close your eyes so you don’t get ash in them and hold on! The Leaky Cauldron!” Harry and Emma started to spin and he saw the flashes of the various fires hooked up to the network. Another chaotic moment and they landed in the hearth of the Leaky Cauldron both covered in black soot. Emma stood there grinning.

“That was awesome, I can’t wait to do that again!” She cheered as she stepped out of the fire.

The group cleaned off and chatted with Tom the barman before quickly heading to the back and into Diagon Alley.

“Can we stop by my brother’s store for a little? I haven’t had a chance to see it yet, but mum says it’s amazing. I think that she’s actually beginning to agree that they were cut out for that job their whole life,” Ginny asked as Lupin tapped out the code on the bricks.

“It’s on the way to Gringotts, and the bank isn’t open for a little while longer so I see no reason why not. I could use a good laugh anyhow,” Lupin said as the door began to magically open. Emma just stood there awestruck. Harry remembered how amazing every little thing was when Hagrid took him here for the first time, a wave of nostalgia struck him as he thought about how simple things were back then compared to the chaos it was now.

Something about Diagon Alley was different this time however. It wasn’t filled with the usual hustle and bustle of hundreds of witches and wizards going about their shopping. In fact it was almost completely deserted except for the occasional passer by who seemed more concerned about spending as little time outside than actually shopping.

Huge purple enchanted banners hung up and down the alley, each one emblazoned with a massive picture of Minister Fudge, which was then replaced with the new motto of the Ministry of Magic, “suspect everything.” To Harry something about the motto made him nervous, it reminded him a little too closely of what Umbridge’s educational decrees were like.

The group soon reached Fred and George’s store. It wasn’t difficult to spot the building; it was the only one painted lime green with a huge sign emblazoned with three W’s.

“Sure looks like they know what they’re doing, this store looks massive. I bet they’re making loads.” Harry said admiring the premise.

They walked up to the door, unfortunately the sign on the door said ‘closed until door is open.’

 Lupin laughed, “Yes they sure do, they might even put Zonko’s out of business at that. Might want to work on public relations though, the sign isn’t very helpful.”

“That’s the twins for you; they don’t follow anyone’s rules,” Harry said smiling fondly at the shop, proud knowing that he had been able to finance their business.

“I can see why they’re not open at least, there isn’t a single person in all of Diagon Alley. The twins said that it was bad but I didn’t think they meant that they were staying closed in the morning.” Ginny said, disappointed that they wouldn’t be able to tour the store she’d been hearing so much about.

 

They walked down the deserted alley with Emma sprinting ahead from window to window, exclaiming at all the amazing things she was seeing for the very first time. The whole time they hadn’t seen a single other person on their entire walk to the bank but when they reached Gringotts there were already dozens of people moving in and out of the large white marble building.

            They entered the massive building and Harry went with Lupin to a counter with a large brass sign Withdrawls etched onto it. “Hello, I’d like to withdraw some money from my vault.” Harry said, at the same time handing the Goblin his tiny gold key. The ancient goblin with a permanent frown examined it briefly and then reached under his desk and pulled out an enormous leather bound book and began to thumb trough its pages until he found what he was looking for.

            “Mr. Potter, as of two days ago you have gained complete access to your family vaults.” He muttered matter-of-factly.”

            “Um, yes. But what vaults are you talking about. I already have access to my vault.”

            “The Potter family vaults. What you had access to was simply your trust fund, that is, until you became 16 years old. You are 16 are you not?” The goblin asked leaning over his desk to inspect the boy.

“Yes” Harry replied, uncomfortable with being scrutinized so closely.

“Well then, you now have full and complete access to your family vaults. It also states in our books that you received a rather large cash transfer from the Black vaults, instead of transferring it to the Potter vault we have instead given you access to one of the Black vaults instead. We do need you to fill out a few forms just to finalize it and make sure you know of your holdings.” The goblin attempted a weak smile as it he handed over a small pile of papers and a quill.

            Harry looked nervously at the stack of papers, unsure what to do, “You said vaults not vault, just how many are there?”

            “Well the Potter family has two, a smaller one for the gold and the other for heirlooms and storage. When you took control of part of the Black estate you also got another vault that contains your part of the will. We were also instructed, as per the will of your parents to give you this package upon turning sixteen years of age. Once you sign right here I would be happy to take you down to them.”

            Harry was speechless, he just stood there looking down at the innocuous little brown box until the goblin coughed politely reminding Harry that he still had business to do. Harry quickly scribbled his name on the parchments in the required places; in return he got another larger key. He shifted the small box under his arm; he wanted to open it right now but he also knew he would want to have some time alone to go through whatever was in the box.

            “That is the key to the entrance room for the vaults; the actual safes are locked with blood magic. Much more secure.  Now if you would please follow me this way I’ll get an attendant to take you down to your vaults.” The goblin hopped off of his stool and led them to the usual entrance where another goblin was waiting to take them to the vault.

            “If you just follow Snagrall here he will get you access to your vault.”

            “Thank you, I appreciate your help.” Harry said courteously.

            “Step into the cart please,” Snagrall said opening the little carts door and ushering them in.

            As soon as all four of them were in the cart started abruptly and they were sent spiraling down into the labyrinths of the Gringotts vault.

            After a few adrenaline pumping minutes the cart slowed to a stop and approached a large metal door. Snagrall stepped out and asked for the new key that Harry had been given. After another moment’s time passed the goblin got the door open and the cart began to move once again, this time into a small room with three large black doors in the rough hewn walls.

            Harry, Ginny, Emma, and Lupin all stepped out and walked up to the first door to examine it. Engraved across its whole front was the Potter Family crest with a large Griffin reared up on its hind legs with a large serpent in its beak. In the background was a phoenix with its wings spread wide.

            “I never knew that I had a family crest. It’s amazing; I guess it’s sorta obvious why I got into Gryffindor.” Harry said pointing to the gold door.

            “All ancient families have crests, I think that your family has one even Ginny.” Lupin offered.

            “Yeah, we have it on some of our fancy plates, I think it’s a lion or something like that with a mountain in the background, and my dad also has a ring he sometimes wears with the seal on it. He only wears it on special events. I like yours a lot though Harry, its suits you well.” Ginny said, as she ran her hands over the engravings.

            “So, how exactly do blood charms work? I’ve heard Hermione say something about them whenever she starts reading Hogwarts: A History again, but she’s read it so many times I just tune it out now.” He said as he continued to inspect the various intricacies of the crest.

            “They don’t need blood, all you have to do Harry is place your hand in the right place. There’s usually a spot where you can put it…”Lupin said as he looked the door up and down, “Ah! Here it is, see the hand shaped indent under the phoenix? Just put your hand there and it should open up. It is very ancient magic, some of the oldest around, the goblins are some of the few creatures left who can still perform it.”

            Harry placed his hand in the spot and the whole door glowed gold momentarily then vanished.

            All four of them gasped at what lay in front of them. Ginny grabbed hold of Harry’s arm to keep herself standing upright.

            “Harry, um…just how much gold is this?” Lupin said eyeing the stacks of gold that went from bottom to top.

            “I…I have no bloody clue. The vault I used to go to was small; it just had a tiny pile of gold in the middle.” Harry said, stammering for words, and then he turned to Snagrall who was standing a polite distance but staring at the gold intently. Even though goblins were trained to be very professional the goblins had a strange tie with the precious metal and this large amount made it difficult for Snagrall to look away. “Umm, excuse me, would you happen to know how much there is here?”

            “I do, according to our current assessments the vault your are currently in there is a little over a seventy-five million galleons in gold.” The goblin stated as if that fact was common knowledge

            Ginny gave a squeak of excitement, Lupin did a double take, Emma just continued to stare at the immense amount of gold, and Harry’s eyes widened to three times their normal size.

            “Wh…wha…how much?” Harry stuttered.

            “There are roughly 60,023,000 galleons in that vault. In the Black family vault there is roughly 16,500,000 galleons; thereby giving you a combined net worth of 76,500,000 galleons.”

            This time it was Harry who had to grab a hold of something just to stay standing.

He couldn’t believe his ears, he had never even heard of that much money, let alone stood next to it. He had always been given badly worn second-hand clothes by the Dursleys, now it wouldn’t surprise him if he could by a clothing company. He was still too stunned to speak so Lupin did.

            “Thank you Snagrall, who is his current financial adviser?”

            “That would be one of the bank assigned CPA’s, however if Mr. Potter has someone else we would gladly work with them.”

            “He doesn’t yet, but I think it would be a good idea for him to get someone, don’t you Harry?” He asked, gently nudging him to bring him back to reality.

            “Er, yeah sure…sorry I just sorta spaced out there. I’ve never seen anything like this.” He said sheepishly.

            “I don’t think any of us have, I’ve barely seen 10 galleons together. seventy- million sure is a lot more.” Ginny said quietly, ashamed at her family’s lack of finances.

            “Well you better get used to it,” Harry said teasingly, cuffing her on the arm. Ginny looked at him quizzically. “Well you know that I think of your family is mine right? Well then that also means, what I have is yours.”

            Ginny hugged him tightly, until Harry managed to gasp for her to ease up a little because she was breaking his ribs. When she pulled away she had tears in her eyes but was smiling. “Thank you Harry. You know I don’t care about the money, but something about hearing you say that we’re family means the world. You really are one of a kind.”

            “I’d have to agree with Ginny on that point Harry, you have a knack for being generous.” Lupin said squeezing Harry on the shoulder.

            Harry blushed at the praise and just smiled at the two. “Moony, would you like to help… I mean would you help me…would you manage this stuff for me? I’ve never been very good with money or math and with this much of it I’m sure I’d be lost. So like you said I need someone to help and I’d like it to be someone I trust. The first thing I’d like to do is set up a fund for people who have lost family or friends to Voldemort, I want his actions to harm as few people as possible.”

            Lupin was taken aback by the boy’s kind words and generosity. “Yes Harry, I would be honored to help you. I think that the fund would be a great idea, I think I might place some of the money Sirius gave me into it too. Also, I want to make sure you have some money to start a family with when you grow older, so that means you can’t blow your whole fortune on broomsticks or candy.”

            “Great! Thanks Moony, I’m bad at math as it is, I can’t imagine handling this too! Now what do you say we get some of this money converted to pounds and go to Harrods. We can look at the other vaults later, right now I feel like getting all new clothes, and maybe even some dress robes if we get a chance. Here are some bags the goblin upfront gave me, each of you can grab some galleons to go shopping with. You too Emma, you can buy some new trainers, or maybe a dress,” Harry said enthusiastically, excited to finally be able to get some clothes that weren’t second hand.

            The four of them stepped into the vault, each stopping by a pile and filling small bags they’d received at the front desk. Feeling that they may come in handy later, Harry quietly made an extra stop by a small wooden case he’d seen and took out several velvet boxes.

            Once the giant vault doors were closed tight once again, Snagrall guided them back to the trolley, and they headed back to the ground level to get the small bags exchanged for British Pounds.

           

            Once they had well over ten thousand pounds in their pockets the group headed back out of the Leaky Cauldron to go to Harrods. Lupin talked with Tom for a moment, getting directions on how to get to the large department store. It was a relatively close distance so instead of taking a Muggle cab they decided to walk the several blocks to the department store. As they walked they marvelled at the wonders of downtown London, the massive buildings, the bustling people and cars, and the thousands of different stores and shops. More than once they stopped to look in a store that caught their attention, Emma and Ginny’s favourite being Hamley’s, the four-story toy store.

            Finally they came to Harrods and stopped dead in their tracks. It was absolutely massive, five full stories, and there seemed to be hundreds of people buzzing in and out of its doors every second. Not even Lupin had been to Harrods so this was a shock to even him, the well-travelled wizard. The largest store in Diagon Alley was Gringotts, and even that was small compared to this. 

            “Harry, this place is huge. I’ve never seen a store like this!” Ginny said completely awestruck.

            “You took the words right out of my mouth. I haven’t really even been in London ever; I thought it would be a little bigger than Flourish and Blotts, not an entire block!” Harry said.

            “It looks like you picked the right place for us to get some new clothes, it looks like we could even buy a home if we wanted too,” Lupin said humorously, then pushing Ginny, Emma, and Harry forward towards the doors he said, “Come on then, last one in is a rotten flobberworm!” And with that the three wizards stepped into, what was to them, a completely unknown land.

            They were immediately submerged in a deluge of perfumes and noises, then stumbled into the grocery store which was almost the entire floor, filled with fresh breads and pie and cakes, and candies that they hadn’t even seen in Honeyduke’s. Lupin managed to locate a store map and discovered that clothes were on the third level. Through a complex maze of escalators, of which Ginny had never seen, and was very entertained by, and people, of which there seemed to be thousands, they finally reached the clothing section of Harrods.

            “Wow, I never knew that shopping could be considered an exercise. I’m exhausted, there are so many people here and they’re all pushing and shoving like they have to get what they want or else they’ll hex you.” Ginny said exasperatedly.

            “I thought that one lady was going to smash me with that giant box,” Emma protested, referring to the large saleswoman who was carrying what appeared to be a box of socks.

            “There’s a desk over there with a lady, maybe she can help us find what we need.” Lupin said pointing out a lady a store uniform that was folding clothes at the counter.

            Harry led the way up to the woman, “Hello, I was hoping you might be able to help me and my friends. We’re from a small town and are a bit overwhelmed by this whole experience. We’re looking to buy some new clothes and if you could just point us in the right direction it would be very helpful.” He said as politely as he could, trying to make it seem as if they were unsettled by the huge city, which wasn’t too difficult seeing as they were.

            The woman looked up, flashing her overly perfect white teeth at them, turning what used to be pleasant appearance, into something a little more garish. “If you just go right down that aisle there you’ll be in the suit section.” she said as she surveyed the rather shabby looking group of people, sighing as she knew poor people were hard sells that would not make her much of a commission.

            They walked over to the wall of suits, there were hundreds in every shade of colour and cut. Harry walked up to a dark blue pinstripe one which had immediately caught his attention and made to take it off the rack but the saleslady cut him off by stepping in front of him.           

“Uh sir, maybe you’d like to look over here, this suit costs more than two-thousand pounds. It’s an Armani silk original.” She said with the same false smile ushering him over to the suits on the sales rack.

            Harry’s temper frayed slightly over the fact that she was judging them by their appearances. Ginny noticed his eyes seemed to glow a little when he looked up at the lady, startling her. “I think I’ll look at this suit over here actually, I can afford it I believe.” He said coolly walking back over to the jackets and pulling out the blue one along with another black suit.

            The woman was obviously confused over what to do so she just smiled politely once again then asked to be excused for a moment while she went and got her manager. As she hurried off Ginny whispered to Harry as he was comparing suits, “You didn’t have to do that, we could have gotten it ourselves. It looked like you really frightened that girl.”

            “She should be, I was just fed up with being treated poorly based on what we looked like. I know you’ve dealt with it your whole life, so have I, I just thought that now that I can change that I should. I wanted to make you feel better.” He said quietly, now looking at her with a face of compassion.

            Ginny smiled then grabbed him tight and hugged him, “You really are amazing Potter, did you know that? Do you ever worry about yourself?”

            “Not any more, because I know I have you to watch my back,” he said blushing slightly, he was pleasantly surprised when he saw her blush too. Emma just stared at them with a hint of jealously and Lupin smiled. “here comes the saleswoman looks like she has her manager too.” He said nodding towards the still slightly shaken woman.

            “Hello sir, I am the manager of this section, how may I help you?” The older woman said, her smile more genuine than the other’s.

            “Well we were just…” Lupin started but Harry cut him off, “I have this Moony.” He said then turned back towards the manager, “Your saleslady here thought it would be a good idea for us to shop at the sales rack, not get one of these suits, just because we aren’t exactly dressed like kings. I don’t want to be rude but I would just like to get some things for me and my family.”

The manager looked the boy up and down appraisingly, looking at his eyes and the way he’d so seriously confronted the situation she knew that these people were genuine customers. She had worked there for over twenty years and some of her largest sales had come from people who looked as if they barely had two pounds to rub together.

“Of course, I am sorry that you were treated rudely that is not what we train our representatives to do. I would be more than happy to ensure you get what you need today. We actually have a private room we keep open for when people are completely redoing their wardrobe so it is somewhat more comfortable and they have some more privacy. If you’d just follow me I’ll take you to it then we can get to work on getting you four some new clothes.” The manager led the way leaving the befuddled sales lady behind in the sales rack section of the suit aisle.

            On the way to the private room Lupin caught up with Harry to talk with him, “Harry, why did you call us your family? I don’t believe that made much of a difference with her choosing to help us.”

            “Moony, I didn’t say it to get help, I said it because it’s true, you are my family even though it might not be through blood. You’re the last Marauder, and remember you’re my guardian now and by far the closest thing I have to a father. As for Ginny, I don’t know exactly what I feel for her but I do know I think of all the Weasley’s as family; Emma and Joy too.” Harry added as he looked down at the little girl who was skipping in front of them with Ginny.

            Lupin was left momentarily speechless at the revelation of Harry calling him his father figure, he always believed he would never be able to fill the shoes of Sirius. Hearing that from Harry lifted his heart. “Thank you Harry, you have no idea how much that means to me. It lets me know I haven’t let your mother and father down on the promise Sirius and I made them, to take care of you if something happened,” grabbing him into a one handed hug.

            The manager led them through the entire men’s and woman’s wardrobe section to a small set of doors set in the side of the large room.

            Inside, the room was a large with mirrors on one side and several large armchairs along with a T.V. There were already racks of clothes along the sides, and a few moments later an small Italian man came in carrying a sewing box. The manager introduced him as Pennuci, the tailor that Harrod’s employed for this very thing.

The manager turned to face the group and smiled brightly, “Now who wants to go first?”

 

“I had no idea that shopping could be so much work! I feel like I just played a day long Quidditch game right now, not to mention how hungry I am after walking through the grocery store.” Harry said carrying several large bags filled with everything from shirts to trainers.

“I’ve never really been shopping before, mum usually just would pick some things up at the second-hand shop in Diagon Alley. I remember Parvati saying she enjoyed shopping but honestly I don’t really want to do that again for a while,” Ginny said, carrying a few bags of her own. She felt bad about using Harry’s money and had initially refused, yet when Harry explained that he was doing this because he cared about her and he wasn’t trying to buy her, she humoured him and decided to buy some jeans and a few t-shirts.

“Thanks for hat Harry!” Emma said showing off her new hat that she’d fallen in love with when they saw it earlier.

“I’m glad that we were able to do that, I really did need some new clothes, it’s been so many years since I’ve had a decent suit to wear, and I did what Sirius told me to do.” He had bought an entirely new Muggle wardrobe, including a very nice watch and several silk ties. “Here why don’t we go down this alley and I’ll shrink all of our stuff so we can fit it in our pockets. We still have a bit of a walk to the Leaky Cauldron.”

Lupin piled up all of the bags and boxes and shrunk them neatly into groups small enough to fit into their pant pockets. They made the long walk to the Leaky Cauldron, once again stopping at Hamleys so Emma could look at the giant stuffed bear in the window. Before heading back to headquarters they stopped and had a drink at the Leaky Cauldron, merrily recounting their trip into the heart of Muggle London. A little while later Lupin decided it was about time to go back so they once again lined up at the fireplace.

Ginny went first, throwing her handful of powder into the fire and stepping into the hearth, then shouted “12 Grimmauld Place!” She disappeared and Harry and Emma stepped up next. Harry took a handful threw it in the fire and reassured Emma nothing bad would happen. She then nervously stepped in next to him and gasped as she felt the cold licks of fire on her legs. “It’s okay Em, remember, just hold one and keep your eyes closed okay? 12 Grimmauld Place!” Harry shouted and they were spent spinning around catching glimpses of other rooms and buildings as they passed.

 Usually Harry couldn’t see anything because his glasses would get knocked off, and if he did it was usually just the blur of various fires and their hearths. This time however his glasses managed to stay in place and right before they arrived at Grimmauld place the spinning slowed enough for him to see right into the room. What he saw both shocked and scared him.

It was a small, poorly lit room, and although it was fairly dark the face he saw was easily recognizable. It was that of the traitorous friend Peter Pettigrew. Alongside him were several other people including one that Harry recognized to be McNair, the executor for the disposal of dangerous creatures.

The scene flashed by so quickly that he wasn’t completely sure that it really was real or if he were imagining it. But once he landed in the study of Grimmauld Place he was convinced it had to be real. Emma was standing next to him, looking at him curiously, not sure as to why he looked so nervous.

There was a large crowd inside the study. Tonks and Kingsley, who were apparently on call that night, along with Molly, Ron, and Hermione were greeting Ginny warmly. Harry was surprised to see them but at the moment didn’t really worry why they were there. Before any of them could welcome him back or say anything for that matter, Harry stood up dusting himself off.

 “We have a problem,” he said in a low voice.

Harry stood up, dusting off the soot from the fireplace. Nobody in the room said a thing, still waiting for what Harry was going to say. Hermione and Molly were both in the process of going to hug Harry but stopped when they heard the tone of his voice; they very rarely saw Harry acting this seriously. After sorting out his thoughts for a moment he spoke again.

“You know how when you are travelling using floo you can see into the random fireplaces as you pass by? Usually I don’t see much, just a fire or the hearth but this time the last place I saw before coming out here was a very dark room with several people in it.”

“Harry, if you’re concerned about the security of this house being hooked up to the floo network, you don’t need to worry. Aside from people who are part of the order, and Emma apparently, no one can even access this fireplace.” Tonks said stepping up to the boy trying to comfort him.

             Harry shook his head, “that’s not it Tonks.” He ran his hands through his hair, “at first I thought I was seeing things, or maybe I was just confused, but I realized it had to be real. There wasn’t any other way that I had seen what I had seen, and once I saw his hand I knew that it was.” Harry paused, trying to collect his thoughts.

            The fireplace behind him blazed green again and out stepped Lupin, smiling broadly as he dusted off his new clothes. “How are you Tonks, Kingsley, and Molly! What a surprise, good to see you Ron and Hermione, how’ve your summers been?” He stopped abruptly, noticing that something was off when no one responded; he then looked over at Harry. “Harry what’s wrong, did something happen?” Lupin asked, finally noticing the boy’s now ashen face.

“I saw him Moony, just sitting by the fire. I think that they might be on a stake out, it was the last place I saw before landing here, that means they’re close right?” Harry asked quickly, almost out of breath.

“Slow down there boyo, you’ll give yourself a stroke. Breath. Now tell me what happened, who did you see?” Moody said, limping out of the kitchen after hearing the start of the story. Emma jumped, scared by the massive man’s scarred face and the magical eye, she’d never seen someone so odd looking before in her life.

“I saw Wormtail, well Peter I guess, and some other people who I think were Death Eaters. I think I recognised another, McNair, the executioner who was going to kill Buckbeak. They were all just sitting in the room discussing something. I think they must be close because they were the last room I saw before getting here. Could they be spying on us? Do they know about headquarters?” Harry said glancing at the fireplace behind him nervously, as if he expected them to come bursting out of it. 

As Harry told the story the atmosphere in the room instantly changed. The others had drawn their wands. Molly had taken hold of Emma’s hand and taken her to the couch, her maternal instinct kicking in even without knowing the little girl.

“Potter, can you describe the room, what did it look like?” Moody asked, his eye swinging even more out of control as if he were scouring that very room for the Death Eaters.

“I only saw it for a second, but it was just a small dirty looking room. Its curtains were pulled, and there wasn’t really any light. The wallpaper was peeling off also. But that’s about it, I really barely recognized Peter, but then I saw his hand, the silver one. I wish I’d seen more.” Harry said, shrugging.

“That’s better than nothing,” Shaklebolt said, standing up, “Mad-Eye, we need to step up security while we get assembled. Tonks stay here, make sure to keep your wand on anything that comes through this fire. Alastair and Remus, if you two want to why don’t you take a look outside, I’ll alert the others. Molly, why don’t we take everyone else to the kitchen? I don’t know if the room being the last thing he saw means it’s close, but it wouldn’t hurt to be safe.”

“I agree with Kingsley,” Tonks said, “why don’t we let your eye take a little peek at the houses near us Moody. Maybe it can find that filthy little rat.”

Moody laughed harshly, “Let’s get going then Remus. Tell the others to arrive as soon as possible and to be at highest alert.”

“Yes, I’ll come too, let me just get my cloak,” he made to head out of the kitchen but Harry stopped him.

“Moony, this isn’t about vengeance; I don’t want to lose you too. Just find them and capture them that’s it.” Harry said putting stress on the last words.

Lupin smiled and then hugged the boy tightly, “I promise I won’t do anything stupid, but I do want to go try and get him.” He pulled away and walked out of the room to go with Moody who was waiting at the front door.

“Molly, Tonks, if we aren’t back by night time carry out the necessary steps. We won’t be doing the grabbing just yet, we’ll wait for the others to do that. We might not find them however, I doubt that even the death eaters are stupid enough to hide next door to us,” Moody said letting another harsh laugh out, which in turn woke up Mrs. Black’s portrait. The Aurors went outside and left the others in the hallway with a screaming portrait.

“Harry, WHAT THE BLOODY HELL JUST…hold on a minute…” Ron shouted over the din of Mrs. Black’s screeching to no avail. “Shut up you old hag!” He turned to face the portrait, grabbed its curtains and yanked them shut bringing silence back once again. Turning once again to face Harry, the gangly redhead smiled and grabbed him in a hug, “Good to see you mate, now will you tell us what’s been going on starting from when you and Ginny became an item?”

Harry smiled at his friend, and after getting the customary hug from both Mrs. Weasley and Hermione, and introducing Emma to everyone Molly led them back to the kitchen to get something to eat as they talked. The first question on everyone’s mind was what exactly had happened just minutes ago. Harry recounted what he saw, and when he finished he leaned back and watched everyone’s different expressions.

“And you’re sure it was them? I mean they weren’t just people who looked like them?” Hermione asked.

“I’m positive, Wormtail has a silver hand. I’ll never forget it, I saw Voldemort give it to him the night he brought him back to life. And McNair was there too that night, you know, the man who was going to kill Buckbeak,” Harry added, noticing the blank expressions.

“Um, Harry? I know the Headmaster told me and my mum something about Voldemort and the war going on, but why is it bad if you saw these death eaters in the fireplace?” Emma asked, feeling very out of place in this group of wizards.

“It’s not just the fact that he saw them in the fireplace, but also that it was the last thing he saw before arriving here. I don’t really know much about the floo network but I reckon that because it’s close it means that the place had to be somewhat near here, and seeing as this place is supposed to be a secret that is not a good thing if they know about it,” Hermione said helpfully.

“Let’s just hope that they can find them,” Ginny said.

“That reminds me, I need to get hold of Albus and the others, or would you like to do it Molly?” Kingsley said as he grabbed at something around his neck.

“Not unless you want me to.”

Kingsley just shook his head, “it’s alright, I’ll do it. I’m going to send it to everyone so you’ll get the message also.” He took the necklace that he’d been working to undo off and opened it up. He tapped his wand on it and began to talk back into it.

“Urgent Message to all Order Members. According to first hand account there are Death Eaters in close proximity to headquarters. Alistair and Lupin are currently out running recon on neighbourhood. Immediate assistance required.” Kingsley then tapped his wand on it again and closed it back up.

“Mr. Shaklebolt? If you don’t mind me asking, what exactly was that? Is that how the Order has been communicating?” Hermione asked, her curiosity now piqued.

“These necklaces were charmed by Albus during the first war, it acts as a simple way to send messages to one person or the entire Order. Molly if you could, you should have the message in your own.” Kingsley held out his own necklace for Harry and Ginny to examine while the others looked at Molly’s. It was a small silver pendant, nothing that would suggest to them that it was anything more than a family heirloom. Harry had always wondered how the Order members communicated with each other knowing that floo and owl were both very unreliable and able to be intercepted.

Molly opened her locket and tapped it with her wand, immediately a small image of Kingsley appeared above it. It reminded Harry of the images he had seen in the pensieve, solid enough but ethereal at the same time. The image repeated the message back precisely then faded out to nothing.

“The locket warms slightly when we receive a message and you can either watch it as we just did or listen to just the voice if you want to be more discreet.” Kingsley pointed out as he put his communicator back around his neck.

“Those are brilliant. I’m going to have to ask the Headmaster, I think they’d be a great thing to have for everyday use, especially these days.” Hermione said as she continued to inspect Molly’s locket.

“Ginny, Harry how have you two been holding up in this gloomy old place? Is the new bedroom okay?” Molly asked, snapping at once back into her motherly mode bustling around to prepare a dinner for the group. “You might be wondering exactly why all of us are here also. The Order had a meeting last night and decided that it would be wisest to move as many people to a secure location. We’ve been hearing rumblings about upcoming attacks on supporters of Dumbledore and decided we shouldn’t take a risk. It seems that we shall be staying here for the next couple of weeks before school starts.”

“Really? That’s brilliant; I was wondering when I was going to get to see you guys. Usually you’ve either broken me out of the Dursleys or met up here.” Harry said, glad that they were all going to be able to spend part of their summer together.

“Okay so are you lot going to tells us what happened in the past couple of days or will I just have to accept that why you and my sister are holding hands is a mystery?” Ron asked impatiently.

Harry looked over at Ginny, he had been trying to think of a way to tell he and Hermione but still hadn’t come up with a good one.

“Well what has mum told you?” Ginny asked charging ahead, clearly she wasn’t afraid of her older brother.

            “She didn’t tell us anything, just that you would be spending the rest of the summer here at Headquarters.” Ron said glaring at his mom. He’d been trying for nearly a day now to try and discover what prompted this whole thing, but had only gotten a stern warning to leave things be.

            Molly looked up from the stove now and nodded at Harry and Ginny telling them to continue.

            “Well, we’re not entirely sure what it does, or even why it happened really; but the reason I had to stay with Harry was because he and I have been Heartbonded.”

There was zero reaction from Ron, but at those words, Hermione nearly fell off the stool in shock, “YOUR’E HEARTBONDED!” She exclaimed.

“Uh…yeah,” Ginny said unsure what to do about Hermione’s reaction.

“There’s no way that you two can be Heartbonded, I mean that’s a child’s story that parents told their kids. I mean the only thing I’ve even read about it said that there were only two pairs who were Heartbonded; Merlin and Godric Gryffindor.”

“That’s the same thing Moony told us that night, we don’t know why it happened but it’s true. That night that Ginny disappeared was on my 16^th birthday, apparently when I turned sixteen we became bonded. It was so strong that it broke through the wards at both your house and headquarters; that’s why all the alarms were going off that night.” Harry said, trying to explain the events that led up to it to Ron who still seemed perplexed about the entire thing.

Hermione saw it too and spoke again, “The Heartbond is very strong apparently. If the stories that I read are indeed true then the bond acts as a form of accelerant for both physical and magical growth. It is something about combining two people’s power together to increase it exponentially. As the bond grows deeper it will begin acting like a magnifying glass on Harry and Ginny, it will cause them to grow much stronger and more powerful if it just were to occur naturally.” They all were shocked at the amount of information she’d just regurgitated on a topic few had heard of and even those believed it to be myth.

“Hermione, our living breathing library,” Harry said putting his arm around her.

“So what’s happened so far. I know it’s only been two days but has anything happened so far?” Hermione asked, ever inquisitive.

 “Well there haven’t been that many changes…well we do have to sle-“ But Harry was cut short by Ginny stepping on his foot and giving him the, ‘we’ll tell them later’ when the mother isn’t here look, he then tried to cover up his near slip up, “Umm…we do have to get used to the fact that Gin and I are fated for each other. Not in a bad way, but knowing that your soul mates is a little bit too much to digest right away.”

“At first when you told me I didn’t believe it either to be honest. But now Arthur and I looked back at all the things you have done it seems to make sense. You had a crush on him Ginny the moment you met him at the train station your first year, even before you learned his name. Then you saved her life once when she was a first year, and probably saved her again last year at the Ministry of Magic. You might not have even known yourself, but before the Quidditch World Cup I could tell you were starting to realize she wasn’t just Ron’s sister anymore.” Molly said smiling at the two teens that were blushing and smiling awkwardly now.

“Well let me just say it’s about time. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to listen to Ginny complain about you not liking her. So what exactly does this bond mean then? Are you two getting married now?”

Harry and Ginny both laughed, “It’s only been two days since we even realized that we both fancy each other. We’re going to stick with dating right now I think while we figure out what else is going to happen.” Harry said looking at Ginny to see if she approved of the answer.

“One way or the other you’re stuck with me Potter!” She teased and snuggled up close to him.

 

The rest of the evening went by with Harry, Ginny, Emma, telling about their summer and all of the things they had done. Molly and Hermione were most interested by the trip to Harrods, but the Ron was ecstatic when they heard about Hamleys, the four level toy store, saying that Harry would have to take them all there again.

The room was not devoid of tension however; everyone would occasionally glance over at the clock, counting down the time until they would call Dumbledore if the Remus and Moody didn’t return. Almost immediately after Kingsley had sent the message more and more people began to appear. Soon it seemed that every Order member they’d ever met was milling around the kitchen or the study, whispering in hushed tones around Harry and the others.

As the older members discussed what exactly was going on and compared various other bits of information, Ginny and Harry filled the others in on the gossip they’d managed to hear around Headquarters.

 “Did you hear that Malfoy’s dad apparently escaped Azkaban again? He was the only one too. From what we could tell the back wall of his cell was melted through.  Somehow either he, or someone else, managed to stun over a dozen guards and break through the warded gates,” Harry told the others.

“That great git, stun 12 guards, I doubt it. I bet he had help from his cronies Crabbe and Goyle Senior, although if they’re as stupid as their sons I would be surprised if they could tie their own shoelaces” Ron guffawed.

“Or Tom,” Harry said solemnly.

“Who?” Ron asked.

“Tom,” Harry repeated, and then noticing no one knew what he was talking about he continued, “…Marvalo Riddle? Lord Voldemort.”

“Maybe, but do you really think he’d risk it just for Malfoy’s dad? I mean he’s nothing special, is he?” Ron asked.

“He’s got money, and that seems to be the only thing ‘Tom’ can’t really kill to get. The goblins have it all, almost 90 percent of all galleons, and he’s not exactly friendly with them. He killed a whole colony somewhere in Scotland during the last war and they’ve hated him ever since.” Hermione stated, “I read it…”

“…in a book!” Ron, Harry, and Ginny all said in unison.
            Ignoring the incredulous glare from Hermione Harry turned to Ron, “So has your dad heard anything on the inside. I mean from the papers I’ve read it seems like Fudge is having a hard time staying minister right now.”

“Yeah, my dad says he’s really gone off the deep end now, after the whole Department of Mysteries thing. Dad hasn’t seen him after that; says he’s mostly up in his office now, fuming. I think he knows his time’s up and he’s now just trying to buy time to get out of it in a way that makes him look good. He’s started a new campaign to root out Death Eaters, something about trusting no one,” Ron said in a dramatic voice.

“We saw those in Diagon Alley, it was that Fudge guy and a quote saying ‘suspect everything” Emma said, she felt as if she were somewhat of an outside in this conversation so she was eager to be able to say something of relevance.

“Yeah that’s what it was ‘suspect everything’, sounds like he’s taking a page out of Mad-eye’s book. Anyhow, dad says that the big members in the Wizengamot have been secretly meeting trying to find a new minister.”

“Sounds like they are planning a coup. Any idea who they might replace him with?” Hermione asked.

“Dad keeps talking about Susan’s aunt, Madam Bones. Says that she’s a supporter of the Order and has what it takes to turn the ministry around.”

“I’ve met her before, at the ministry last year when I went to my hearing. She was the only person who stood up for me during that whole thing; besides Dumbledore too I guess. Anyone would be better than Fudge though.” Harry said with a grimace.

 

With the rest of the Order members assembled in the house Moody and Lupin returned to fill everyone in on what they had managed to gather from their snooping.

“Well Harry, you seem to be correct with your assumption that they are nearby. Alistair and I searched the various houses up and down the street and they were all clear, when we went down the street and over to the next block however we did run into one building that seems quite suspicious. Moody’s eye, nor any of the spells we dared attempt managed to break through the shields it had up which means either there is a very paranoid old wizard there or Wormtail and the others are there.”

“We normally would have caught wind of something like that, but because it was a block over so I missed it when I do my weekly scan of the houses around Headquarters.” Moody said. For once everyone in the room seemed to think that Moody’s sometimes-excessive paranoia was actually a good thing.

“We stayed outside there hidden for a while to see if anyone came in or out. About five minutes ago one person did leave, and we did manage to catch a glimpse of Wormtail closing the door. If we want to catch them we need to move sooner than later. It’s too dangerous for them not to be taken in.” Lupin said. He had dreamed very long about what he would do to Peter, especially after hearing about what he’d done to Harry at the graveyard.

“It seems that everyone is here. Let’s head out, two groups in pincer formation, no one gets away understood?” Moody barked and walked down the hallway to the door. The others Order members followed suit and soon the kids were once again alone in the kitchen with Molly.

 

Nearly an hour had passed when they heard a loud knock on the door and muffled voices. Everyone sprinted down the hallway to get the door and see who it was, they had all been anxiously waiting for the raiding party to return.

When Molly threw the heavy door open a figure dropped in through the doorframe. It was Emmeline Vance, and she seemed to be completely covered in blood, so much so that it was impossible to see the actual cuts.

“They sent me, they’re coming. We got them…some injured. Cutting hexes…something else. Call Madam Pomfrey too… need medical,” Emmeline panted suffering from the huge amount of blood she’d already seemed to have lost.

Molly could mend bruises of cuts not something this drastic so she ran off to go floo Madam Pomfrey for help.

Ginny dropped to Emmeline’s side. She’d worked with Madam Pomfrey occasionally in the sick ward so she’d dealt with some injuries. Not knowing what exactly to do she decided just to make her a little more comfortable, and try to stop the blood while they waited for Madam Pomfrey.

 “Harry, Ron, help me flip her over so I can get a good look at where her cuts are.” Harry and Ron gently turned her on her back. Hermione tried a cleaning charm to remove some of the blood but it didn’t do much.

Ginny got on her knees and began to look for where the hexes had hit. She saw a large gash around her left calf and upon closer inspection saw the huge cut on her leg. “Looks like they got an artery, she’s loosing a lot of blood. I’m going to try and stop the bleeding. We need to get some towels to plug the bleeding, she’s lost too much already, Harry you need to press down on this cut, it’s an artery so we need to keep it closed. Hermione do that cleaning charm over here again.”

She did it twice more, clearing it a bit so Ginny could see the beginning and end of the gash. She took Harry’s hands and placed them over the cut and pushed down, “Keep your hands here. Madam Pomfrey and I had to do this once after some Slytherins got in a fight with a Hufflepuff, funny thing was that it was Slytherin who we needed to do it to.” Harry placed his whole palm over the cut, closing his eyes to try and cancel out the screams coming from Emmeline.

He heard a gasp from Hermione, and Ron cursed out loud then saw Emma standing there. “Erm…sorry. Mate you might want to open your eyes,” Ron said in shock. The spot where Harry had placed his hands on had suddenly become completely clear of blood. He cautiously withdrew his hands from her leg and was shocked to see that the cut had almost completely disappeared; it was now just a small cut that was barely bleeding at all.

“Well don’t stop, keep doing whatever you were doing!” Hermione urged, finally breaking the stunned silence.

 Harry nodded, looking down at his hands then back at the cut, he reached out again and rubbed the remaining part of the cut until that too disappeared.

He smiled and stood up, but swayed a little bit and had to grab a hold of Ron to stop from collapsing.

“Whoa, that was weird, whatever I was just doing must have taken a lot of magic because I’m a little dizzy. Here let me just sit for a second I’ll be all right. Take her to the kitchen and let Madam Pomfrey look at her, I think I hear her coming now; it might not have closed it up all the way.”

As Hermione and Emma helped move Emmeline into the kitchen several more figures appeared in the doorway. They stepped into the house. On the left side was Moody, on the other was Kingsley Shaklebolt, and sandwiched and bound up in-between the two men was the greasy whimpering form of Peter Pettigrew.

“This little bastard tried to choke me with his silver hand on the way back here, almost took my head off in the process,” Moody growled, indicating the large cut on the side of his face. “Get moving rat!” Moody shouted pushing Wormtail further inside.

Harry looked at Wormtail with the utmost disgust then noticed he was cradling a bloody stump where his silver hand used to be, “Mad-Eye, what happened to his hand?”

“Oh well I told you, he tried to choke me with it. So I removed it,” He said, with a slight grin on his face, he then pulled the arm out of his cloak pocket and waved it in front of Wormtail’s face. “I ought to choke you with it, would be a nice bit of irony eh Peter.” Moody pushed Wormtail once again, causing him to fall over, “Get up you rat, and go in there, we’re going to have ourselves a little chat about traitors.” Moody said in his most frightening voice, both his eyes focused intently on the cowering spy.

“Kingsley, where are the others?” Molly asked, bustling out of the kitchen, her usual spotless apron covered in blood from her ministrations with Madam Pomfrey.

“They’re on their way Molly, no need to worry. Got a couple more of the scum with ‘em. A few managed to escape but we got four of the six, not too bad. How’s Emmeline, she was our only real injury, couple of us got scrapes or burns but that’s about it.”

“She should be fine, Harry managed to work some magic that I never even knew was possible. Poppy is dealing with the smaller cuts right now.”

At that moment they heard the rest of the Order clambering up the steps, including Lupin and Tonks. With them they were dragging three struggling death eaters, one of them being McNair.

“These buggers tried to ambush us when we hit one of their detector spells. Got Emmeline mostly, but one of the hexes clipped Remus. We put a befuddlement charm on them so they can’t remember where they are or how they got here. Where’s Moody?” Tonks asked, keeping her wand firmly pressed against McNair’s Adams apple.

“He went into the living room with Wormtail. Said he was going to teach him a lesson about traitors,” Ginny said, grimacing as she imagined what it would be like to be one of Moody’s enemies.

 The Aurors dragged the other three death eaters into the room and closed the door, leaving the rest of to ponder what was going on inside that room.

“Well it has been a very long day, one that thankfully didn’t end any worse that it did. Emma dear, I think that it’s time we take you back to your mother, you’ve seen more action in one day than most 11 year olds see in a year. Harry I don’t think it’s wise for you to step outside at the moment. Tonks would you mind taking Emma back home?” Lupin said as he examined the small cut on his face.

“Of course, come on Emma, let’s get you home.” Tonks said holding her hand out for her.

Emma ran over and hugged Harry, and then turned and hugged Ginny too, “thanks again Harry. I’ve never been anywhere as cool as Diagon Alley. Nice to meet you Ginny,” She took Tonks’ hand and headed back home.

 “Well,” Molly started, “it’s already late, why don’t we have dinner. You lot must be starving after this long day. Come on, into the kitchen with you all,” she offered helpfully, ushering the hungry group once again into the kitchen.

Harry, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione all went upstairs momentarily to change clothes and clean all the blood that Hermione’s charms hadn’t managed to get off and then rushed back down.

As they sat about the kitchen table the group chatted about anything and everything. It felt good to have the old group back together again, even after all the commotion there certainly was more levity in the house now that Ron and Hermione were here.

As Harry saw his friends all laughing together at some ridiculous story that Ginny was retelling something deep in him awoke once again. Right after Sirius’ death he truly didn’t care whether or not he killed Voldemort, or even if he lived still. Yet now, as Ginny leaned her head against his shoulder, and Hermione and Ron were smiling merrily, something new was growing in him.

 

12 Grimmauld Place, London, England

 

Well after 11 o’clock Moody, Tonks, Arthur (who had arrived from the Ministry a little earlier), and Kingsley came out of the living room with tired expressions on their faces.

“Well we didn’t get much without Veritaserum, just some veiled threats and a hint or two on upcoming attacks. Nothing the Order hasn’t heard about. We decided not to waste any more of our time so we tied ‘em all together and portkeyed them to the ministry holding cells. Could’ve just accidentally let my wand slip and that would have saved the court a couple of weeks and a lot of gold.” Moody said, answering everyone’s question before they had asked it.

“What about where Voldemort is, did they tell you that?” Hermione asked hopefully.

Tonks shook her head as she helped herself to some of the leftover dinner, “Nope, not a bloody sentence. Didn’t really expect to though, Voldemort is smarter than that. He has to have it under the fidelius charm; it wouldn’t make sense for him not to.”

“At least we caught them, that means there’s four less minions of his running around killing people,” Harry said, looking over worriedly at Lupin who hadn’t said a thing since coming back in. Harry feared that his run in with Peter Pettigrew might have upset him. “Hey Moony could I ask you something? I think I might have found some more of Sirius’ things in the study.” Harry fibbed, hoping that he could get a few moments alone with him.

“What did you find?” Lupin asked, trying to sound like cheerful but failing miserably.

“Moony, are you okay? You’ve looked upset ever since you came back from interrogating Wormtail,” Harry asked.

“I’m okay really. It’s just he said some things about your parents, and Sirius that made me upset. He said he couldn’t have cared less for Lily, James, and Sirius,” Lupin’s voice faltered, he was trying to hold back his grief, “he said he would have killed them if he had been given the chance.” Lupin looked up sadly at Harry, “Why did we let him be the secret keeper? Even if Sirius couldn’t, I could have done it, what about Dumbledore? He could’ve…I gave your parents to Voldemort myself by letting the rat be their secret keeper.”

“Moony, come on…Remus!” Harry said, finally getting his new godfather’s attention, “you’re doing the same thing I’ve been doing. You couldn’t have done anything differently. No one knew that Peter was going to betray them. It’s not your fault so stop blaming yourself.”

Lupin looked up at the boy and smiled, “Looks like you’re the adult now. Wasn’t I telling you just that a little while ago?”

“I learned from the best, you showed me that it wasn’t really my fault. I just told you the same thing.”

“I know you’ve heard this a million times, but you really are like your parents. You have the comradery of James, and the heart of Lily. I’m know they’d be very proud of you.” Lupin said, wiping his eyes off and smiling sadly at Harry. “Now come on, I need to get something to eat, this day’s taken a lot out of me.”

 

            A little later Molly decided that it was time for everyone to go off to bed, and shooed everyone one out of the kitchen and up the stairs.

            Harry and Ginny lagged behind, arguing quietly under their breath.

            “What are we going to do, this bloody bond is too strong to sleep in separate beds, and we haven’t exactly told your mum about it? She’d skin me alive if she saw us sharing a bed. I can’t even imagine what Ron would do, I know he seemed okay with the bond thing, but remember what he was like with Dean?”

            “Or the twins,” Ginny teased.

            Harry’s face went into shock about forgetting the twins, “Gin’ you’re not helping,” he said rubbing his eyes.

            “Harry I’m teasing you,” she said, “just go sleep in your room with Ron, I’ll go to my room with Hermione and Emma. Maybe it won’t happen tonight, and if it does make a big commotion and say that it’s never happened before, that the bond must be getting stronger. Mum can’t argue with it if we don’t have any control over it, and if she does I’ll talk to her. Now come on, it’s late and I’d like to spend at least some of this night asleep.” Ginny said grabbing Harry’s hand and leading him upstairs. 

 

            As Harry drifted off to sleep the intoxicatingly perfect dream started once again. There he was sitting next to Ginny on the green hill eating and laughing. Instead of the dream lasting for a while this time he and Ginny immediately leaned in to kiss, and as he did so he woke up to find her once again laying on top of him smiling. Harry pretended to yelp in surprise causing Ron, who was precariously balanced on the edge of his bed, to fall off of it.

            “Whatdahappenen?” Ron said thickly rubbing his head, then looking up at Harry’s bed he noticed Ginny. “Ginny! What are you doing here? What are you doing with my sister!” Ron said much more menacingly than normal for him, his fists were actually balled up as he scrambled to get up off the floor.

            “Ronald Weasley, calm down! You honestly don’t think we’d be doing anything; we’ve only been bonded for a few days? I have no idea how we ended up like this, one-second I was asleep in my bed dreaming, and the next I was on top of Harry. Dumbledore said the bond would get stronger and stronger as time passed, and he also said that we’d have to be close to each other now because of it. Maybe its so strong now that it makes us stay close?” Ginny offered, standing up to her brother with her usual spunk.

            At that moment Mr. and Mrs. Weasley ran into the room, looking for the cause of the argument. When their eyes landed on Ginny standing in her nightgown infront of a half-dressed Harry both of their expressions suddenly turned icy.

            “Harry, how could you…I thought you would…” Molly started, trying to find the right words, but Ron stopped her.

            “No mum, Harry didn’t do anything. We think it was this Heartbond thing; somehow it managed to transport Ginny from her bed to Harry’s. Ginny said that something about how the bond would get stronger, maybe this is just that?” Ron managed to get out before his mom could say anything more. Harry smiled at the loyalty Ron showed, even when he knew that it might not have been true.

 “I’m sorry dear. It’s just at first glance it looked a little…compromising. I do remember Albus warning us of further developments as the bond tightened, and I suppose that this must be one of them. You know I think of you as part of the family, I just don’t know if I want my daughter sleeping in bed with you. No offence but you two are quite young to be sharing the same bed.”

            Arthur placed a hand on his wife’s shoulder, “Molly, they are bonded. You know the stories as well as I do, this bond means they are fated for each other. And although as a father it pains me to say this, no matter what they will end up sleeping in the same bed eventually. Plus, I trust Harry with my life, seeing as he has already saved it once. I know he wouldn’t do anything to hurt Ginny.” Mr. Weasley stared directly at Harry as he spoke. “ So, why not let them share a bed, Ron will be in here too anyhow? If this is what it takes to keep them safe and make them stronger then I say it is a small price to pay.” He said, smiling at the children.

            Molly smiled. It was moments like this when she was reminded why she married Arthur; every once in a while he would say something that seemed fit to come out of Dumbledore’s mouth. She thought it over for several moments then nodded her head, “Very well, you can share a bed, but remember both of you this is just so you two can get a decent night’s sleep. We’ll talk about this more over breakfast when were not all tired.” Mrs. Weasley said as she took her husbands hand, and with a last glance back, closed the door.

 

Several Weeks Later

            The next weeks at 12 Grimmauld Place were filled with commotion with the dozen or so occupants that now spent most of their time cooped up inside the house. Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny all were spending large amounts of their days researching new spells, jinxes, and curses that they thought would be helpful for the D.A. This was started when Hermione had suggested to Harry that they continue the D.A. next year.

            “I really do think it would be a good idea to continue them Harry.” She had started over lunch one day, “And without Umbridge fighting us at every step we’re bound to learn even more this time!”

            “Yeah, there are bound to be loads more people who want to learn how to fight now that Fudge has finally admitted you-know-who’s come back.” Ron had added enthusiastically.

            Therefore, somewhat begrudgingly, Harry had agreed to continue the D.A. the following year.

            They now spent several hours a day searching through the various books and scrolls in the house. Every time one of them found one that seemed interesting they would add it to a list that Hermione was keeping. Soon they had over six-dozen spells that provided some form of defence or offence they thought would be a good skill to learn.

           

            As they worked on the D.A., the rest of the house was abuzz due to the various rumours surrounding Voldemort’s whereabouts, and the current drought of real information. Once, Harry and the others were able to sneak one of Fred and George’s Extendable Ears into an Order meeting and what they heard was unsettling.

            According to reports from Moody and Kingsley it seemed that the Ministry was slowly being subverted from within. Although they had spent countless hours searching for supposed Death Eaters in the Ministry of Magic the Imperius Curse seemed to be making a return to popularity as countless individuals were found to be under it’s control.             As Headquarters seemed to run on a constant 24-hour cycle there was always a palpable tension that came from the notoriously high death rate that Order members seemed to experience. Every few days one of the members would arrive bleeding, cursing, and ranting about how a Death Eater had ambushed them in Diagon Alley or one of the many other places they patrolled.

Although, from a casual observer’s viewpoint, it appeared that the Dark Lord hadn’t come back from the death as the Minister was now stating, there were far too many grim coincidences occurring every day now. While the Daily Prophet had returned to a somewhat unbiased point of writing, it still carried nearly weekly updates on how Voldemort hadn’t really returned and that they Ministry was now being taken over by none other than Albus Dumbledore.

            This frustrating ignorance by the general wizarding population was one of the reasons Harry had decided to continue the D.A. The other was much more personal to Harry, one he hadn’t shared with anyone, and probably never would. He hoped that through training the people he cared about they might be able to survive, or at least fight, if he didn’t manage to fulfil the prophecy.

 

One particularly warm day, when the group was taking a break from searching through a stack of old Auror books that Moody had brought over, Harry was leaning back in the couch with Emma sitting next to him, and Ginny resting on his legs as she sat on the floor, half-listening to another pointless argument between Hermione and Ron. He knew that if questioned neither of them would probably have been able to recall the true start of the argument if asked. Harry, Ginny, and Emma had accepted their ceaseless debates as their rather odd form of flirting, so they had decided to simply ignore them and hope that soon they would stop. Although he hadn’t truly been listening as he, Emma, and Ginny chatted quietly, it seemed this specific argument had something to do with a spell one of them had found.

“Listen to me Ron! You’re never going to need a charm to poach and egg when you’re in the middle of a battle. I doubt that even chefs need to use it, this spell is so poorly designed that it is probably easier to just poach it yourself! Look at it, the spell is two whole lines, imagine telling a first year that he had to learn this spell if her wanted to defend himself.”

“Yeah well course I’m not going to poach and egg, what if you can use it to poach a Death Eater though? I mean I bet being boiled would certainly stop them in their tracks, eh Harry?”

Harry didn’t turn his head but just sort of grunted noncommittally and returned to his own conversation.

“And plus, I know it’s long but you take Arithmancy ‘Mione. If there’s anyone who could make this shorter it would be you,” Ron added.

This seemed to mollify Hermione as she sat back into her chair and smiled, “well thank you Ronald. I suppose it would be a nice spell to have in the arsenal, I’ll put it on the ‘maybe’ list and work on it when I have some free time.”

“Yeah Ronald, good idea snookums,” Ginny teased her brother, smiling when she saw it achieved the correct response as he blushed bright red.

“Shut it Ginny. Anyhow, we need as many spells as possible before school starts, I reckon we’ll want to start right away,” Ron said trying to change the topic.

“Speaking of school I don’t even know what classes I’m taking yet. Do you reckon they’ll come with our O.W.L.s?” Harry asked, deciding to help his best mate out.

            “Nope, not yet,” Ron said immediately, glad for the change in conversation. Hermione seemed not to have heard as she was looking at Ron with a rather wistful look, but she noticed everyone waiting for her to speak and she quickly picked up a book and started to examine it thoroughly.

            “I’m not positive, but I assume that we’ll be getting our class list with our O.W.L.s. Dumbledore said they should show up pretty soon, remember?” Hermione said nervously.

“I guess he wasn’t lying when he said things got a little bollixed with the tests this year. I reckon Umbridge tried to flunk all of us, and when she got sacked they had to go back through and re-examine each test.” Ron said, “Don’t worry ‘Mione, I’m sure that they’ll be here any day now, couldn’t take that long to re-do them.” He offered when he saw her dread filled face. Everyone knew just how much stock she put into these exams and remembered how stressed she’d been when reviewing for the tests.

            “I know Ronald, it’s just I worked so hard on them and I thought they were coming last month, not a week before school starts!” She said crossly, poking at her lunch moodily.

            “How do you take a test on an owl?” Emma asked finally after trying to make heads or tails of the conversation.

            Harry laughed, just realizing how weird that must sound to someone who didn’t know anything about the wizarding world. “O.W.L.s are test that everyone in their fifth year at Hogwarts has to take. They tell us what we are going to be able to take the next year and what we could be when we graduate.”

 

             A few days after their conversation, Hermione’s prayers were answered. At lunch that day they were in the little courtyard in the back that was the only save reprieve from the constant chaos inside the house, Harry and Ron were talking about Ron and Ginny’s estranged brother, Percy, of whom Harry had heard close to nothing about for the whole time they’d been at Headquarters.

             “I haven’t seen him since last year, the filthy prat hasn’t talked to any of us. Apparently he’s living in a flat somewhere near the Ministry so he can come to Fudge’s aide at a moment’s notice. Doesn’t even acknowledge dad, I think Fred and George pranked him a couple weeks ago because they had a large package and were arguing whether or not Percy’s mail would be searched. Mum’s still a little upset but she seems to have gotten used to it, she doesn’t break apart anymore when you accidentally mention him. Dad says that as soon as the Minister gets sacked he’ll come back to us, some rubbish about being that close to the top corrupts people. I don’t really miss him though, rarely saw him anyways.”

            “And none of you have tried to talk…” Harry stopped short when something out the window caught his eye. Looking closer at the objects, he grinned. “ Hermione, I think you might wan to open a window up.”

            Hermione frowned, not really understanding why Harry was smiling, but then looked out the window and squealed. She ran across the room and threw it wide so that the three owls that were now very close could land. When they touched down, Hermione untied all three as fast as she could then ran over to the table. In her excitement she nearly tossed Ron and Harry’s into the sink. She peeled the letter apart and began to scour the letter, her face running a gamut of expressions.

            Harry and Ron shared and exasperated look and then both of them took up their own envelopes. Harry unfolded his piece of parchment and read the letter enclosed with the grades, and his class list.

 

            Dear Mr. Potter,

Enclosed you will find the scores for your Ordinary Wizarding Level tests conducted this May. We apologize for the delay in the scores, we encountered several technical difficulties.

 

Harry next picked up the next page which had the actual grades for his classes.

 

History of Magic: Troll

Defense Against the Dark Arts: Outstanding

Charms: Outstanding

Care of Magical Creatures: Exceeds Expectations

Divination: Dreadful

Herbology: Exceeds Expectations

Transfiguration: Exceeds Expectations

Potions: Exceeds Expectations

 

Harry James Potter has received 6 (six) passing O.W.L.s including one of especially high merit in the field of Defense Against the Dark Arts.

How the bloody hell did I get a grade of ‘high merit’ in Defense Against the Dark Arts? Umbridge hated me, she was torturing me. And what does a mark of ‘high merit’ even mean? Harry thought to himself.

“How’d you do Harry?” Ginny asked craning over his shoulder for a look at his letter.

“Er, good, I think. I got six O.W.L.s.” he said handing her the letter.

“Wow, you did great. You got an Outstanding in Defense Against the Dark Arts, no surprise, but in Charms too? I didn’t know you were that good?” Ginny commented as she read his grades.

“Dunno, I just had a good day I guess. What’d you get Ron, Hermione?” Harry asked looking over at his two friends.

“You go first Ronald, I want to hear what you got,” Hermione said still examining her own with a truly indecipherable expression.

“I got six O.W.L.s too, outstanding in Defense Against the Dark Arts. Looks like we won’t be taking potions though, I got a Exceeds Expectations, Snape only take Outstanding. Not a loss really, couldn’t stand the class anyway,” Ron said lightly.

Harry’s heart sank momentarily as he realized he too wouldn’t be taking potions and that his short-lived dream to become an Auror had died. He wasn’t very upset with the prospect of not becoming and Auror, but more with letting down Professor McGonagall after her heated argument with Umbridge about getting him to become an Auror if it ‘was the last thing she did.’ He smiled slightly at the memory of that meeting then came back to the present.

“So Hermione, what did you get? Did you get 8 O.W.L.s that were all Outstanding?” Ron asked trying to sneak a look at the scores.

Hermione looked a little sheepish, “Well, you were right about one part. I did get all Outstanding, but…oh just look,” she gave up thrusting the letter into Ron’s hands.

He, Ginny, and Harry looked at it in astonishment. “But Hermione, how? I mean there has to be a typo or something. How?” Ron asked completely taken aback.

“I didn’t want to tell you guys, I thought you might make fun of me, I mean I’m sort of already labeled as Miss-Know-It-All aren’t I?” Hermione said nervously.

“Hermione, why would we care? It wouldn’t have made a difference at all, I’m just amazed you pulled it off,” Harry said caringly.

Hermione just smiled up at her three friends, got up and grabbed them all in a group hug.

On the table next to them lay Hermione’s O.W.L. scores.

 

 

 

History of Magic: Outstanding

Defense Against the Dark Arts: Outstanding

Charms: Outstanding

Care of Magical Creatures: Outstanding

Herbology: Outstanding

Transfiguration: Outstanding

Potions: Outstanding

Arithmancy: Outstanding

Muggle Studies: Outstanding

 

Hermione Jane Granger has received 9 (nine) passing O.W.L.s all of which are Outstanding, thereby placing her in the top 30 test scores of the past century.

 

 

“I can’t believe you tested in nine different subjects, when did you find the time to study? Harry and I were breaking down with just six!” Ron asked in amazement, “You don’t have another time turner do you?”

Hermione laughed, “No, I think we’ve played enough with time already, besides we destroyed most of them in the Department of Mysteries. It wasn’t too difficult; I just asked the headmaster if I could take the Arithmancy and Muggle Studies tests along with my other ones. He said he expected that I would ask to take more tests, he even lent me a few of his books to read. I didn’t really have to study much for Muggle Studies, and I was already reading a lot of books on Arithmancy anyways.” She shrugged, “It really isn’t that big of a deal, it’s only three more tests.”

 “Yeah it is a big deal; you got Outstanding on all of them! It says you had one of the best test scores in…” Harry looked back at the letter, “…a century! If that isn’t a big deal I don’t know what is.”

“Congratulations Hermione,” Ginny said hugging her again, “Mum’s going to be so happy Ron, you got six O.W.L.s. I bet that she throws you three a party tonight when she finds out.”

 

Ginny was right, when Mrs. Weasley came back from the store Ron eagerly told her about the O.W.L.s. Molly was overjoyed that Ron had gotten so amny O.W.L.s, stating that it was twice that of which Fred or George got. When she learned of Harry and Hermione’s scores, she wrapped them into the hug too.

“I think that this calls for a celebration, I’m so proud of all three of you. Seeing as I just came from the store we have enough food for one,” she said, already pulling pots and pans out of their respective cupboards. “Harry perhaps you could invite Emma and her mother over for the celebration tonight. I know Emma has been spending a lot of time over here, but it’d be nice for Joy to get to know some adults seeing as her daughter’s a witch now.”

As Harry and Ron went to invite Emma and Joy, Molly hopped into action; immediately starting to chop, dice, and boil various parts of the meal. Hermione, and Ginny pitched in too, stirring different things, checking the oven, and setting the table. There was an Order meeting that night too so they were planning on having a very large group of people. Along with the roast beef stew, and numerous pies Molly was making, the girls, along with Tonks who showed up a little later, worked on making a cake big enough for everyone.

As the message got out to the various Order members through the lockets more and more people started to arrive at headquarters, including Fred and George. They had arrived from their shop carrying two large boxes of fireworks they wanted to set off in the courtyard later that evening.

 “The only problem is, is that we’ve made them work so well it takes forever to get them to stop,” Fred explained as he heaved his crate onto a table.

“We expanded on the fireworks we used against Umbridge, taking out some of the more boring ones and adding a little more excitement.” George said wickedly, setting the other crate on the table. Each one was labelled with bright pink and purple lettering: DANGER! HIGHLY FLAMMABLE DO NOT EXPOSE TO WATER, FIRE, ACID…JUST DON’T GET NEAR THEM! DON’T SAY WE DIDN’T WARN YOU. 

“Good labelling guys, that really instils some confidence in your customers,” Hermione said as she kneaded dough for rolls.

“It does,” Fred said enthusiastically. Hermione gave him a doubtful look.

“No really, think about it this way,” George said.

“If we told you that there was something really cool in a box and then said under no circumstances can you look at it,” Fred said.

“95 out of 100 people would look at it.”

“So that’s all we’re doing,” they both said at the same time.

“I didn’t think they had the makings of businessmen either Hermione dear, but they seem to have proved me wrong. They have a certain knack for making the things they create irresistible. Just you wait until you see their shop,” Molly said, with a slight hint of pride in her voice. She had initially been upset that her sons had left their education early but was very pleased with what they had done so far. Their shop was certainly the most popular in Diagon Alley, attracting all ages to see their pranks and inventions. The sudden re-emergence of Voldemort had sent many people looking for a way to let out their anxiety, and a trip to Weasley Wizarding Wheezes seemed to be the common way to get rid of it.

It was nearing supper so everyone who wasn’t cooking or helping was booted out of the kitchen (this was mostly because of Ron who kept sneaking tastes of everything that came out of the oven).

Slowly 12 Grimmauld Place began filled with nearly every member of the Order. The noise on the first floor had gotten to be so loud that it was keeping Mrs. Black’s portrait screaming and screeching constantly. Every time she burst out, Harry, Ron, Lupin, Tonks, or anyone who was near it would yank them shut once again. But it seemed that Mrs. Black had become more persistent over the past year and would just spring back open the instant they let go of the curtains.

On their fifth time that night Harry shouted to Ron over the din, “There’s got to be something we can do to make her shut-up! We can’t keep doing this my arms are getting sore from yanking…” but he could tell Ron wasn’t hearing a word he was saying, “SHUT THE BLOODY HELL UP!” Harry shouted at the portrait as loud as he could.

Surprisingly it did just that. The portrait’s inhabitant hadn’t stopped shouting, infact it seemed to be screaming even more violently, but for whatever reason Harry’s curse had managed to silence the irate Mrs. Black. 

“Well that was easy,” Tonks said as she examined the painting trying to figure out what Harry had done.

“Why do you think we can’t hear her? She hasn’t stopped shouting that for sure. We’ve tried silencio loads of times on her and no one could get her to shut up. Moody almost went crazy trying to get her off the wall last week,” Ron said a little louder than necessary but he couldn’t tell because of the buzzing in his ears.

Harry shrugged, “Dunno, all I can say is that I’m glad she shut up. I know Hermione said she didn’t mind her, but I saw her flinch every time she started to shout again.”

“Yeah me too, glad we got her to be quite,” Ron said.

“HARRY! RON! TONKS! Dinner time, hurry up!” Molly’s voice echoed through the hallway.

“Come on boys, we’ve been cooking all day. Make sure to try the green beans, I cooked them myself, didn’t burn a single one of them either!” Tonks said proudly as she ushered them down the hallway to the crowded kitchen.

 

The kitchen was packed with more people than either of the boys had even seen. The room’s proportions seemed to have been altered because looked as if someone had stretched the table another five feet to make room for the additional guests.

Judging from the crowd, tonight’s celebration had seemed to all to be a good excuse to enjoy themselves and escape the harsh realities outside of Headquarters. As Harry looked for Ginny in the mass of people he noticed that nearly every Order member, including Dumbledore, was present. Included on the list was, much to everyone’s delight, Charlie Weasley back from Rumania, and much to Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny’s distaste, Snape.

He was smashed right in-between Emma and Lupin, his discomfort was evident but no one seemed to take much notice. Emma was trying to politely include him in conversation with Lupin completely oblivious to his cold stare.

Harry worked his way through the crowd stopping to talk with each person momentarily before continuing on to find where Ginny had ended up. He finally found her talking with Dedalus Diggle, the small wizard with the purple top hat, about various methods for producing a stronger Bat Bogey hex.

“Ginny, I’ve seen your Bat Bogey hex and I honestly don’t think you need to make it any stronger. Honestly I think it’d kill the person you did it on if you made them bigger.” Harry teased as Molly called for everyone to take his or her seats for dinner.

Once they were all seated along the enlarged table, Molly stood up and cleared her throat for everyone’s attention, “Well this massive feast is to congratulate the three students who all got amazing O.W.L. scores. Ron and Harry with 6 a-piece, and Hermione with a stunning total of nine Outstanding! Now eat up, we have plenty of food for everyone, and then before the meeting starts we have cake.” The room filled with applause and everyone immediately dug into the piles of food arranged on the table.

 

Dinner went on for well over two hours, everyone laughing, talking, shouting over to the other side of the table for someone to pass such-and-such, and shouting compliments to the various chefs of the meal. Harry and Ginny were sitting next to Charlie and Dumbledore, both of whom were giving them their own perspectives on what was really going on in the wizarding world. They did both agree that there wasn’t much in the form of solid information. Not a single real piece of news had been printed about Voldemort after the Department of Mysteries.

“And that isn’t because Fudge is trying to deny it, there just hasn’t really been anything happing publicly,” Charlie said. “seems like Voldemort has decided to keep what he’s up to close to the vest this time round.”

“Which is truly out of character for Tom,” Dumbledore added as he picked at the last morsels of a steak and kidney pie, “he gained power in the first war through terror, this is the opposite of what I believed he would be doing. Perhaps the loss of his body has made him more cautious.”

“Couldn’t he just be gathering people to him, I mean you did hear how Malfoy’s dad got out of Azkaban. Maybe Tom just needs supporters and is biding his time.” Ginny asked.

“That could very well be the reason, Miss Weasley,” Dumbledore said looking over at her, “all will become clear in time, and before that we cannot do more than we already have. Now would you like a piece of this excellent cake, it has a raspberry filling, my personal favourite.” He said pointing over to the lavishly decorated cake.

“Uh sir, I was hoping I might be able to ask you something,” Harry started uncertainly as Dumbledore was handing Ginny a piece of cake, he’d been mulling it over in his mind for a while but had just decided to actually ask the Headmaster.

“Of course Harry, what is it?” Dumbledore asked, although in his eyes it seemed as if he already knew the answers.

“Well sir, I know I’m not of age yet, but I was hoping that I might be able to join the Order of the Phoenix. I’ve already asked Moony, I mean Remus, and he said that he was fine with the idea as long as long as I stayed out of trouble.” He paused waiting for the headmaster to speak, but when he didn’t Harry continued, moving in closer now. “You said that I need to rely on the people around me to help me fight Voldemort, right now I’m hoping the Order can help me. I need to know as much as possible about what he and the Death Eaters are doing if I’m ever going to be able to stop him,” Harry said quietly, still mindful of the secrecy of the prophecy.

Dumbledore’s features seemed to soften, almost in sadness, but also in caring, “Harry, I am afraid I am still not going to be able to allow you to join. But before you ask why, let me explain,” He placed a placating hand on Harry shoulder, “What I told you in my office last year was all true, everything. Including the bit where I felt as if it were my duty to protect you. I know that Remus is now your guardian but I still feel compelled to watch after you too. This is not to slight you in any way, but it is for the good of everyone in the Order that you do not attend.”

Harry bristled slightly, but forced himself to not burst out in anger; he didn’t want to ruin this party with some outburst of accidental magic because of some argument between him and the headmaster. He closed his eyes momentarily then opened them again, there was a steely anger to them now, “Why can’t I join then?”

Dumbledore smiled, “You are learning to control your anger Harry, that will help build the power that’s growing inside you. If you can control your emotions you will in turn be able to control your magic more easily, the same goes for you Miss Weasley.” He added turning to Ginny who had been listening to the discussion intently, “But, I am digressing, do you remember last near last Christmas break when you could see Mr. Weasley get attacked?”

Harry’s heart sunk, he knew where this was going, and knew it was pointless to argue because it actually made sense.

            “That connection with Tom’s subconscious, along with what I would call a fiasco of Occlumency lessons, makes me believe it would be a rather rash decision to allow you to see or hear certain discussions. I am not afraid of you staying here, it’s one of the safest places around. I just do not want jeopardize what we have accomplished so far, we are currently holding a very tenuous lead in this, and as the war progresses, which I am afraid it will, then every little piece will count. I hope you understand and will forgive me when I say no.” Dumbledore finished finally, Harry averting his eyes from the Headmaster. He knew that he couldn’t argue with the Headmaster, his reasoning was sound. It was one of the few things that still scared Harry; the idea of Voldemort having access to his thoughts and memories constantly plagued his subconscious and would bolt to the surface when he felt and emotion that he knew could only have come from the other side of his unique link with the Dark Lord.

            “Yes, I understand Headmaster, I just wish that I could know more, all last year I was kept in the dark and that caused the whole Ministry problem. I will not ask again for right now as long as you promise to tell me everything you can without endangering anyone. I don’t want anymore people dying on my account.”

            “A very mature decision Harry, the Heartbond truly is an amazing thing, I will make sure that Remus tells you everything that he deems allowable, but please do not go searching for other information. I know it is tempting in times such as these to find answers but right now secrecy is tantamount to our success. Meanwhile, I will be working on a way to solve these trespasses into his consciousness, but for the time being try and work on your occlumency.” Dumbledore said with a slight smile.

            “Thank you sir. I just want to be able to do something, not just sit around the house waiting for something to happen, like…” Harry stopped before he could say Sirius, but he knew he’d gotten his point across. Ginny took his hand and squeezed it reassuringly.

            “I know how hard this is for you, so thank you for understanding, it is yet one more hardship I hope we will be able to overcome in time. Now you should get going, if I’m not mistaken the Weasley twins have brought some of their fireworks, and I just saw them sneak down the hallway with the others. I wish I could see them, if you recall I wasn’t present for their rather brilliant use of them at Hogwarts either,” Dumbledore said smiling.

“You really missed quite a show that day, it really was brilliant. I don’t think you’ll have to worry about missing them sir. If the twins managed to do what the warning labels say these things’ll do, then they’ll be around for quite some time.”

           

As Dumbledore predicted the fireworks were amazing, lasting well past midnight, and only because it ended when one of the twins’ fireworks found their way into the Order’s meeting and caught Snape’s robes on fire. Whether or not it was accidental was questionable considering the fact that somehow the firework tracked the smoking Snape around the kitchen persistently.

As the meeting broke shortly after the firework incident Dumbledore called all of the kids into the study.

“I know it is late but we have just a few things for everyone to know. First off I would like to remind you to remember these special night, it is times like these that remind us why we’re fighting,” Dumbledore said softly.

“Secondly, as you all know tonight Joy Massey has joined the Order. While she is not a witch she has just as much, if not more, at stake; therefore we have decided to initiate her into the Order of the Phoenix. Having a Muggle’s point of view should be highly enlightening for us all.

“And finally, after much discussion we decided we could no longer put off a trip to Diagon Alley for you all to purchase your various supplies. Therefore in two days time you will depart with several undercover Order members and spend the day at Diagon Alley. All of the details have already been worked out. And while Diagon Alley is one of few secure places for wizards these days I just want to remind you all to maintain a certain level of caution on your trip.” The headmaster stood up and, looking at his watch, placed his hat back on his head, “Now if you’ll excuse me this night’s frivolities have worn me out. Barring any extreme events I shall see you all next at Hogwarts. Good night everyone.”

“Well that’ll be fun, going into Diagon Alley with out own army” Ron said as the Headmaster left the room.

“At least they’re letting us go. I honestly wouldn’t have been surprised if they’d decided to just mail order everything. You wouldn’t be missing if you didn’t go though, the whole place is a graveyard right now,” Harry said recalling his last trip with Ginny and Emma.

“At least we’ll be able to stop by Fred and George’s place. I hope it won’t be closed again,” Ginny added.

 “I must say I’m impressed with what I’ve heard and seen so far. I was talking with George about their production methods; they’re unbelievably complex, even for someone who has been practicing charms for years. I just don’t understand how those two only got three O.W.L.s each, what they’re using for their pranks is easily N.E.W.T. level magic,” Hermione said as she examined a firework closely.

Harry yawned, his jaw cracking with the force of it, “sorry. I guess I’m more tired than I thought.”

“Let’s go to bed then Mr. Potter, we need to get up early tomorrow to finish sorting through those books anyway.” Ginny said standing up and grabbing Harry by his hand.

“I can’t believe we’re spending our summer getting up early to research spells. It’ll be nice when this is all over and I can actually sleep in for once,” Harry said yawning again. He felt a pang of guilt however when he remembered he hadn’t yet told Hermione or Ron about the prophecy. He promised himself that he would do it soon, with or without Dumbledore’s permission.

 

The next morning started even earlier than anyone had predicted due to one of the twins’ leftover fireworks finding its way to the floo powder jar, which, as it turned out makes a very loud bang when it mixes with a Weasley Wizarding Wheezes firework. Some of them tried to go back to bed after the explosion, but most had been woken so jarringly that they decided just to go downstairs and have a nice long breakfast before their trip to Diagon Alley.

As everyone trickled in downstairs Mrs. Weasley, Kingsley, and Tonks reviewed the lists of what everyone needed and went over who was going to be their escorts when they arrived.

“Well, I’ll be coming along from the start, so will Kingsley here, and Mad-eye will join us later when he gets out of the Ministry. This really is the safest place in the wizarding world right now however, Fudge seems to think maintaining the peace in one visible place is enough to satisfy the masses,” Tonks said, messing with her hair in a mirror, she was currently in disguise with medium length brown hair and freckles covering her nose and cheeks.

“Are you sure that’s enough, three Aurors, I mean with Harry and all…” Mrs. Weasley said nervously, not finishing her sentence.

“Don’t worry three Aurors is more than enough, plus you and Remus are more than capable, the only adult who can’t do much is Joy. Although, I’m willing to bet that given a tough situation Joy could put up a fight. Same goes with Harry, if half the stories we’ve heard in the Auror department about him are true then he could probably hold off a formidable opponent for quite a while.” Kingsley said.

“Well looks like we best be heading out, we have a lot of places to go, Emma needs to get everything, including a wand,” Molly stood examining the grandfather clock.

There was a bustle of commotion as everyone grabbed cloaks and wands and lined up in front of the fire, waiting to get Kingsley’s ok from the Leakey Cauldron who had gone ahead just a minute later. As they were lining up in the hallway waiting for Ron to find his wand Emma gasped.

“Harry! Why are you so tall? I used to be up to your elbow, now I’m almost at your hand! Are you wearing different shoes or something?” Emma asked trying to get taller by standing on her tiptoes.

“Oh yeah, guess we forgot to tell you guys, I’m surprised you didn’t notice sooner. This bond seems to be doing what Dumbledore said it would. I’m glad I bought my clothes a little big because they’re already getting a little small. It’s like I’m going through another growth spurt; Ginny is too. Look,” Harry said pointing to Ginny who was next to Tonks. “She used to be shorter than Tonks, now she’s the same size, maybe even taller.”

“Blimey Harry, you’re right, she is taller, you too! This all happened in one month?”

“Must’ve, I mean I know I wasn’t this tall on my birthday, I had to duck today coming down the stairs so I wouldn’t hit my head,” Harry said.

“Yeah it’s crazy, I used to be able to lay down on the couch and my feet wouldn’t touch the other side. Now I have to bend my knees if I want to lay down,” Ginny added.

“Growth spurt or not you’re still not as tall as me mate,” Ron said stepping up next to Harry to compare.

“Hey just give me another month and as me that again, okay?” Harry joked as he stood up on his toes over Ron.

“Come on everyone, we just got the ok, you first Molly. Then Joy and I’ll go so she can get her first taste of the floo network, ” Tonks said when she saw a burst of red from the fire that said it was safe.

Joy looked nervously at the fire as Molly stepped into it and shouted, the Leaky Cauldron, and was instantly consumed in a green flame.

“Don’t worry mum, it really isn’t scary at all. It’s actually fun once you get used to it,” Emma said when she saw her mom’s apprehensive stare.

“Listen to your daughter, she seems to be a pro at it. Okay now come on Joy, I’ll be next to you for the whole ride. Come into the hearth, that’s it- see, no burning at all. Okay, now we’re going to go for a bit of a ride so make sure you hold on, here we go! The Leaky Cauldron!” Tonks shouted and instantly she and Joy disappeared in the flames.

The rest of the group followed suit, and soon everyone was standing in the dusty old bar of the Leaky Cauldron. They decided it would be best to first go to Gringotts. Mrs. Weasley, Harry, and Hermione all had to withdraw money for their supplies, and Emma and Joy needed to open a new account for themselves.

As they walked down the cobble stone streets Emma ran, dragging her mother with her, to every store’s window showing her that what she’d been telling her for the past weeks was really true.

Joy’s expression when they entered Gringotts was one of pure shock; she remembered Emma telling her that it was run by goblins but she never really comprehended what she said until now. There were dozens of them in the giant room, carrying large diamonds and rubies, or sitting on stools scribbling in tomes.

Lupin took Joy and Emma to the front desk to get them started on the paperwork, and then went with Harry and the others down to the vaults to get some money.

They first stopped at the Weasley’s small vault, this time Harry was happy to see that it wasn’t looking as empty as it had been last time, apparently Arthur was getting paid quite a lot of overtime lately. They then made a quick stop at a small vault Hermione’s parents had opened up for her last year; she withdrew a small stack and jumped back on the tram.

Last up was Harry’s vault and as they approached the entrance Harry suddenly realized he hadn’t mentioned the new significant increase in wealth to anyone, only Ginny and Lupin had seen it. He mentally kicked himself as he handed the key to the goblin, just imagining Mrs. Weasley and Ron’s looks when they saw the next room. The door swung open to reveal the large gold doors with the family crests on them. Harry’s assumptions were right, both Molly and Ron gaped in disbelief, but they weren’t the only ones, Kingsley, Tonks, and Hermione were all staring at Harry in astonishment; the only people who didn’t have similar expressions were Ginny and Lupin who’d been with him on the first trip down.

“Sorry about that, I sort of forgot to warn you guys,” Harry said smiling at the now stunned expressions of his friends, “I won’t be long, let me just grab some money for the school year.”

Harry walked up to the Potter family vault and once again pressed his palm against the cold metal door. The gold door swung open revealing the huge stacks of galleons that glinted in the torchlight. Harry quickly filled up his money pouch and headed back for the cart, somewhat ashamed to be flaunting his wealth in front of the people he cared about. “I should have warned you I guess,” Harry said trying to fill the awkward silence.

“Harry, how the hell did you get all this,” Ron blurted out, he flinched expecting a condemnation from his mom, but it never came, Molly was still just staring at the pile of gold.

“I honestly didn’t know I had it until a couple of weeks ago, turns out that what I used to have was just a trust fund for me, also part of it came from Sirius’ will,” Harry said as the door slowly closed behind him, once it sealed shut with a hiss it was if a spell was broken. Everyone stopped staring and began to move about again.

“I had no idea you had that much money, you’ve got to be richer than the Malfoys now!” Ron said hopefully.

“Lupin says that I’m right behind them for now, but the way they’re dumping money in Voldemort’s projects I bet they’ll be broke soon.” Harry said.

“Harry dear, I hope you have someone who knows what to do about all this, you need someone to take care of your finances,” Molly said taking her usual motherly outlook on the situation.

“I’ve already found the best one possible; Moony’s going to take care of it. I think it’s a good idea that I have someone I can trust to look after it. Now let’s get up top level, I don’t think I’m a big cave guy after the Chamber of Secrets fiasco.” The cart jolted to a start and soon they were hurling back up to ground level.

They met up with Emma and Joy who had just finished creating their own vault and converted some pounds into galleons for shopping.

They headed outside once again squinting in the sunlight. Diagon Alley was still noticeably empty. Only a few dark hooded people scurried past them, never stopping long enough to be seen, most likely someone they had just came from Knockturn Alley and were trying to leave with whatever contraband they had purchased as quickly as possible. The few other people they did see were mostly ministry officials rushing back and forth from the Leaky Cauldron on various bits of official business.

The group decided in order to expedite the process they would split into two groups; half of them going to Flourish and Blotts to pick up the supplies there, and the other half would head to the Apothecary to pick up the required materials and then would go to Ollivander’s to get Emma a wand.

 

Harry and Ron decided to go with Kingsley and Emma to get potions supply then the wand, the others headed off to get the necessary spell books.

The supplies were simple enough; Emma, Ginny, and Hermione were the only ones who needed them because both Ron and Harry were both unable to take Snape’s N.E.W.T. level class.

After purchasing the required materials they headed over to Ollivander’s, which was just down the street. Harry was suddenly hit with a sense of deja vu as he walked into the small, dusty storefront; he hadn’t been in this store since he’d discovered he was a wizard.

Kingsley rang the small bell on the counter and a moment later Ollivander came out from the back room, looking as ancient as he always had. “Ah, Mr. Shacklebolt, how are you? Is your wand still holding up to the rigors of an Auror? Oh, and Mr. Potter, back so soon! Holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, quite and unusual wand if I remember correctly?”

Harry just nodded, hoping he would not bring up the unusual tie with Voldemort’s own wand.

“I have heard things from Albus himself, he says you are turning out to be quite the skilled wizard. I must say Albus does sometimes exaggerate, but if just some of the stories I have heard are true then I must agree with him.” Harry flushed under the praise of the wizened wand maker. “Now Mr. Weasley, how is your new wand treating you?”

“It’s brilliant! Some of the charms I could never do with the old wand I can do now. It works so much better now,” Ron said as he held out his wand for him to examine it.

“Ah yes, Willow and unicorn, very nice. As I say Mr. Weasley, the wand picks the wizard! And who do we have here?” He said noticing Emma standing next to Harry.

“Oh, yeah sorry I should have introduced you. Mr. Ollivander this is Emma Massey, she is going to be going to Hogwarts this year and needs her first wand.

“Of course, of course. Well Miss Massey, step up right here and we’ll get started then,” Ollivander started. He tapped his wand and the magical tape measure set to work measuring Emma as he went to the shelves to begin picking out a wand.

 

They had spent roughly thirty minutes in the store going through over half a dozen wands trying to find the perfect one. In that time period Emma had already blown the hinges off the front door, split one of the shelves in half, and singed part of Ron’s eyebrow off.

Never to be discouraged Ollivander approached with yet another wand that he gave to Emma. “Ten and a half inches, made of a rare wood called Ipê, contains dragon heartstring. Give it a try.” When Emma grabbed hold of it she gasped.

“Blimey, that felt weird. It reminded me of when I accidentally stuck a paper clip in an outlet when I was seven, my whole arm sort of clenched tight. What should I do?” Emma asked, glancing at the wand somewhat nervously.

“That’s good news, you should feel that. Now just do what you’ve been doing, give it good wave,” Ollivander urged.

Emma took a deep breath and flicked the wand upwards. There was a burst of light and the room was filled with pink smoke. As it faded they saw a pile of daisies lying on the floor next to a grinning Emma.

 

As they were paying for Emma’s new wand Harry heard a whisper and looked up to see why Ron was trying to stay quite. Ron was ten feet away from him browsing the aisles of wands. Harry shrugged and looked back over to Emma sorting the galleons into neat piles.

“Harry!”

Harry looked up once again, this time he knew someone was calling for him, and he could have sworn it was Ginny, but she was on the other side of Diagon Alley.  He looked about, hoping the others had heard it but it seemed he was along.

“Harry, help!”

The shouts were becoming clearer, and louder. This time it sounded as if she was right next to him.

“Hey Ron, Kingsley. I think we should find the others, I keep hearing Ginny shouting for help.” Harry said vaugley, hoping they wouldn’t ask questions and just follow him outside.

“Harry what’s wrong, you look like you’ve seen…”

But Ron was cut off as a massive explosion rocked the store. Boxes and shelves fell to the ground, raining down dust everywhere. Glass rained down as the shop windows blew out from the concussion wave. Caught completely unprepared everyone was knocked to the floor by the force of the explosion.

 It took Harry a moment to stop the buzzing in his ears but when they did he could hear explosions, shouts, and cries from outside the shop. He stumbled upwards, trying to sort out what had happened. As he prised a shelf off of Ron he heard the shout again,

“Harry, help!”

Once again it was inside his head, but he also knew that the others had heard it when Ron looked up from the ground.

“Harry go, Kingsley and I’ll help Emma and Ollivander,” he said as he pushed him off, urging him to go help his little sister.

Harry just nodded, picked up his wand and sprinted out of the store, desperately searching for the exact location of the shouts. He headed in the general direction of Flourish and Blotts, assuming that Ginny and the others would still be there at the moment. He just hoped that he could get there fast enough to help Ginny and the others with whatever was going on. When he rounded the corner his heart stopped at the scene before him.

It was like running into a war zone, the once peaceful cobblestone alleyway had been transformed into a maze of huge chunks of blown out storefront, crushed stands, and craters. Harry could see flashes of what he knew had to be spell fire in the distance, although it was difficult to discern what exactly was happening due to the smoke from the dozens of fires.

“HARRY!”

Harry snapped back from his shock when he heard Ginny’s scream this time in both his head and ears. He started running again, working his way through the maze of rubble, his wand drawn ready to attack anything in front of him. As he drew nearer the shouts of actual spells became louder, and from the sound of them it seemed as if they had stumbled into a fight with Death Eaters. His fear was confirmed when he saw the hauntingly distinct green of a killing curse shatter the Flourish and Blotts sign.

Harry reached the lip of a huge crater that he actually had to climb to the top of to get over; from there he saw the whole scene:

Tonks, Molly, Lupin, Joy, Ginny, and Hermione were all barricaded inside the shop, their back pressed against a pile of collapsed bookshelves.

On the other side of the alley stood about a dozen Death Eaters, all in their full cloaks and masks. They were all relentlessly hurling spells at the crumbling storefront. Occasionally one would make its way inside and bounce dangerously off one of the metal bookcases, narrowly missing the group.

Tonks, Hermione, and Lupin all took turns firing off spells whenever there was a lull in the barrage. Ginny seemed to be caring for Joy who had a dark patch of what seemed to be blood on her shirt. Once again Ginny looked up, desperation in her eyes.

“Harry!” She shouted, looking everywhere for him.

Harry started to carefully work his way around the top of the crater to the store front, cautious to always keep himself fully hidden from the Death Eaters. It took him a while to make it to the edge of the store but he managed to do so without being so much as grazed by a spell.

Upon his reaching the store however the intensity of the fighting seemed to increase dramatically. It was now an almost constant hail of spells from the Death Eaters, and Harry had to stay tucked in the little hole in the rubble he’d found.

As he desperately looked around for a way to get to them in the store something caught his eye in the shards of a mirror lying on the ground. He looked more closely at it and could see something moving stealthily across the pile of debris towards the shop. Harry suddenly knew what the increase in spells was for, they were trying to keep them pinned down so one of them could sneak up and kill them from close range.

A million thoughts whizzed through his mind as he desperately searched for a way to stop the Death Eater’s attack. As they plans went from crazy to insane one kept coming back to him, one that was insanely simple but also insanely stupid. Finally, glancing once again at the shards of mirror, he knew he couldn’t wait any longer and leapt up from his position and ran full speed at the approaching wizard while drawing his wand and shouting Petrificus Totalus!

The spell hit the Death Eater directly in the chest as he looked to see what the motion to his side was. The effect was instantaneous, the wizard stopped dead in his tracks. And as Harry continued to approach, it seemed as if his plan had worked; by running straight at the Death Eater it had momentarily thrown him off guard and prevented him from retaliating. That exact same moment however Harry saw the second Death Eater who had been sneaking up on the other side of the pile in an attempt to trap their prey on both sides.

Harry slid to a halt, knowing that his luck had just run out as he saw the Death Eater draw his wand. Harry attempted to throw a leg-locking curse at him but it only managed to knock the mask off who turned out to be the crazed Rudolpho Lestrange.

Lestrange whipped his wand upward; firing off a barrage of spells that Harry barely managed to block with a shield spell Hermione had just recently found in one of the Auror books. The shield did stop them from hitting Harry, but the force behind them was still there and it knocked him against the brick wall of Flourish and Blotts. His head impacted directly with the masonry, bouncing off it with a crack.

Harry’s head spun as he fought to keep conscious, knowing that if he didn’t it would certainly mean death. He grabbed onto the ledge of the window and pulled himself up, throwing another shield to block more spells fired off by the approaching Lestrange as his vision began to darken. The first one, a sickly brown curse, splashed harmlessly against its invisible wall, but the grey hex behind it cut straight through the shield.

The impact of the spell hit Harry like a ton of bricks. He felt a sharp pain in his hand and his side as the momentum of the spell spun him like a top. As Harry lost consciousness from the blow to his head he fell through the broken window into the shop.

The last thing he remembered before blacking out was of Ginny’s tear stained face with a look of utter shock as she held Harry in her arms. “Mum, help! Harry’s bleeding everywhere. MUM!”

 

 

Diagon Alley, London, England

            Thump, thump, thump…

            …get down!

            …Alastair…Kingsley…

            ….thump, thump, thump…

            …mum he can’t lose more…

            …Tonks…NYMPHADORA! We need help…

…Bugger, he’s hurt…

…thump, thump, fwhooom…

…it’s his side…

…get down everyone!

…THUMP…

…got em…

…oh blimey his side’s awful…

….Ginny…

…go… fight…

… Joy stay down…

…craaaaaaack, swhooom….

…Hermione behind you!!!…

…NO!

 

Harry’s eyes flew open as a blood-curdling scream pulled him back into consciousness. For a moment he was completely disoriented, unsure even which way was up, he tasted the metallic tang of blood in his mouth and felt an intense pain in his side and his hand. As his eyes focused he saw the unmistakeable red hair of Ginny right above him, her face held a look of abject horror as she fired off a barrage of spells at an unseen foe. She turned around frantically and looked down at Harry.

“Harry, o thank Merlin you’re awake! No, don’t get up, you’ve lost too much blood!” Ginny said pushing him down as he tried to sit up, she then twisted back around and fired off a bludgeoning spell out the window. “We need to get out of here, we’re surrounded by Death Eaters—“

The rest of her sentence was lost as a huge explosion rocked the remains of Flourish and Blotts, wood and mortar rained down on them as huge cracks began to form on the walls and ceiling. Harry’s ears were ringing from the concussion and he felt like he could barely sit upright, but he knew that they needed to get out of the building soon or else the Death Eater’s spells were going to collapse the building on top of them.

“Ginny we have to go!” Tonks cried shoving a cabinet aside to get to them.

“Harry can’t move, he’s lost too much blood, even with the blood restoring potion I gave him.”

Harry groaned, upset that once again it was him who was deciding people’s course of action, he placing people in danger. “Don’t worry I can get up, honestly it’s not that bad.” He said as he pushed up with his arms to get up off the ground. He immediately felt a bolt of pain run up his whole left arm and he looked down at his hand thinking he’d cut his hand on some of the glass from the window.

What he saw knocked the wind out of him. His left pinkie finger was nowhere to be seen, everything above the second knuckle was gone. He looked up at Ginny in shock.

“Harry there’s nothing we can do about it right now, we need to leave right now while we still can. Come on Tonks and I’ll help you,” Ginny said taking Harry’s hands in hers to hide the cut.

Harry stood up wincing at the pain from the gash on his side and his hand. Supporting himself on a collapsed bookshelf he drew his wand and nodded to Tonks and Ginny.

“We’re going to head out the back way, hopefully we can sneak around before they realize what we’ve done. Molly and Hermione have already gotten Joy out so we’re on our own. The Aurors are on their way so soon there will be a full on war if it keeps up like this. Now on my mark we need to cross the room; fire off as many spells as you can to keep them pinned down okay?” Tonks shouted over the spell fire. After seeing they understood what she said she shouted, “NOW!” and they all ran out from behind the cover into the middle of the crumbling shop.

The Death Eaters had obviously seen their attempt at escape because the spell fire increased dramatically; red and green lights were bouncing all over the shop. Tonks and Ginny were supporting Harry in-between them as they both fired off spells into the crowd.

Harry tried to throw up defensive shields around them but couldn’t seem to focus enough because they simply fell apart moments after he created them.

They were nearly to the back door when they heard a scream that made their stomachs turn.

“Hermione—” Harry whispered in horror as he stopped moving, searching for the location of the scream.

“Harry we need to go, we can’t—“

“You two get out of here, I can get out through the side door, that’s how I got in here.” Without another word Harry let go of Tonks and Ginny and started to work his way as quickly as he could through the rubble to get to the front of the store again. He heard a cackle from outside and another scream from Hermione. Harry had now completely forgotten about his own injury and started to run through the debris ignoring the shouts from Ginny and Tonks to get back.

He threw a chair out of one of the aisles and jogged to the window nearest it drawing his wand as he reached the sill.

“Crucio!” Bellatrix shrieked delightedly at Hermione who was laying in a fetal position at her feet. She screamed in pain as the spell hit her, tears rolling down her face. “Oh come now, don’t faint yet Mudblood, the fun is just beginning to start.” Bellatrix cooed in a bastardized version of a mother comforting her child, as she raised her wand once again over Hermione.

“NO!” Harry shouted loud enough for Bellatrix to hear him over the fighting, she turned around smiling.

“Now didn’t I tell you he’d come Mudblood? He’s too noble for his own good,” Bellatrix kicked Hermione aside as she approached Harry. “You have tormented my master for too long! I will be honoured above–”

“Difindo!” Harry cried, not waiting for her to raise her own wand knowing if he did she would certainly kill him.

Bellatrix managed to throw up a shield and the spell flew off at an angle hitting another Death Eater in the back causing him to crumple. She kicked Hermione once again laughing as she did it.

“DON’T TOUCH HER AGAIN! Difractura!” Harry shouted, desperately trying to stop Bellatrix.

She once again threw up a shield and the powerful cutting hex ricocheted off and hit the roof of the store. Harry heard a loud crack as the hex split one of the main roof beams in two. He looked up and saw that the ceiling was beginning to sag as the roof began to collapse in on its self.

Bellatrix smiled and pointed her wand at the roof. “Confringo!”

Harry groaned as the rest of the beam snapped and the roof began to collapse. He knew he’d have to go out through the window because the roof was collapsing too quickly for him to go the other way, so diving through the window he threw a leg-locking curse at Bellatrix.

“Avada Kedavra!” she shouted side stepping Harry’s curse. The green spell hurled towards Harry.

He knew shields wouldn’t work so instead he dropped to the ground and rolled, narrowly missing the killing curse. He stood up and tried to position himself between Bellatrix and the now unconscious Hermione.

“Oh how cute, wittle Potter trying to protect his wittle Mudblood girlfriend,” Bellatrix taunted as she cast another killing curse.

Harry dodged this one also, crying out as he rolled onto his side with the massive gash in it. “Difindo!” Harry shouted, not bothering to get up this time.

The spell shot at Bellatrix but she didn’t seem to notice it immediately because it was so low. At the last minute she tried to throw up a shield but the spell shattered it and clipped her ankle. She staggered for a moment but didn’t seem overly hurt by the spell, she just smiled and yelled “CRUCIO!” The familiar overwhelming pain filled Harry, every fibre of his body seemed to be yanked apart. He screamed as the pain shot to his scar, his eyes rolled up into his head as Bellatrix continue to hold the curse. He had never been under the Cruciatus curse for so long; Harry felt his consciousness sliding away from him.

Finally, mercifully, she stopped. Bellatrix kicked Harry’s wand away and stepped over him towards Hermione who was still writhing on the ground, “You think that’s going to stop me Potter, a little paper cut? It’s going to take more than that to kill me! I think it’s time you learned a lesson, say goodbye to your little Mudblood bitch Potter. Avada Kedav—“

But the rest of the curse never left her mouth. Stunned, she turned to face Harry who was lying on the ground with his hand outstretched towards her. Bellatrix didn’t say a word; instead she just groped at her pelvis as a large red spot was slowly spreading across her clothes. “How?” she asked in shock as she dropped to her knees in front of Harry and Hermione

Harry struggled up to his feet and picked up his wand, “I guess your beloved Dark Lord never told you about wandless magic.”

Bellatrix showed a look of confusion and then fell backwards, her life slowly draining away from her.

Harry rushed over to Hermione’s side, making sure to duck the still ongoing spell fire. “Hermione, come on now. Can you get up? We need to go, there are too many of them for us to keep fighting.”

            Hermione cracked her eyes open but seemed to be staring past him, “Harry…”

            “There we go, stay awake Hermione. Come on we need to get out of here, I’ll help you,” he said propping her up on the ground.

            “Harry…Harry…your back…behind…” she muttered still looking off in the distance. Harry spun around to face Rudolpho Lestrange coming right at them with his wand drawn. Harry scrambled frantically for his own wand as he stood up to face him but he knew it was too late; the mad man had just laid eyes on his wife’s dead body and now had a look of savage fury etched on his face. He was about to curse Harry when there came a shout from behind Harry’s back.

            “Primamfractra!” the voice shouted, and a spell whizzed past Harry so quickly he felt a strong burst of wind follow it. The curse hit Rudolpho square in the chest and the tall Death Eater collapsed instantly to the ground, not even uttering a gasp as he fell down next to his wife.

            Harry looked for his unexpected saviour and saw Ron and Mr. Ollivander running towards them with their wands drawn, ready to fight anyone else who appeared.

            Ron reached them first although Ollivander was right behind him despite his age. He dropped to his knees at Hermione’s side and lifted her head up.

            “Come on Hermione, wake up, wake up. Don’t worry it’s over, we got them, we’ll get you back to headquarters right now. Come on ‘Mione, please be okay…” Ron whimpered as he brushed her hair away from her face.

            “Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, we must not loiter with such dark forces about. Help Miss Granger stand and we’ll head back to my shop, you may use the floo there. Quickly now, before we are spotted!” Ollivander said between breaths.

            Harry and Ron helped Hermione up as she tried to overcome the effects of the Cruciatus curse. She was shaking uncontrollably and almost seemed to be in another place altogether, but she did seem to at least be able to walk under her own power with some support. The group moved as quickly as they could from building to building, working to avoid the open spaces and the edge of the continuing battle between the Death Eaters and Aurors.

            The progress was tedious, both Harry and Hermione were moving very slowly due to their wounds, and the debris everywhere made it difficult to move in a single direction. Finally though they managed to reach Ollivander’s shop on the other side of Diagon Alley.

            The old man threw the door open, muttering under his breath. “Quick, back here, come now in the workshop! Take some floo powder each of you and get away quickly. Don’t worry about me, I’ve fought things much more dangerous than Death Eaters.” The old man said urging them to leave quickly as explosions went off nearby sending stacks of wands tumbling off their shelves.

            Ron took Hermione in his arms and stepped into the hearth, a moment later they were gone.

            “Mr. Ollivander thank you, for everything. You saved my life out there…”

            “Yes, yes, now hurry up quickly Mr. Potter!” The old man said waving the boy over to the fire as he continued to glance out the windows. Harry abided and took a handful of floo, “12 Grimmauld Place!” He shouted and a second later he was sent flying back to Headquarters.

 

Grimmauld Place, London, England

            Harry landed with a thud in the study of Headquarters. His vision swam in and out as the combination of dizzying floo travel and loss of blood finally compounded on each other. Every pore of his body screamed in pain as he lifted himself up off the hearth and began to walk.

“Harry, thank Merlin you’re back!” he heard Molly exclaim, although all he could see now were indistinct blobs of colour; stumbling out of the fireplace he began to feel the enclosing blackness surround him. As Molly’s arms wrapped around him in a hug his eyes closed and he was lost to the blissful darkness.

 

            Harry shifted uncomfortably in his bed, trying once again, to shield his eyes from the annoying blinking light off in the distance. All he wanted was to sleep for a little while longer. He pulled the covers over his face hoping to shield it that way but the light persisted, blinking inexorably on…off…on…off. He turned his head the other way, hoping that if he couldn’t shut it off he could at least avoid it; yet there it was on the other side of the bed blinking on and off. He groaned, his mind told him that he was exhausted and it wanted nothing more than to sleep for hours, maybe even days; but there it was this little light, ceaselessly interfering with his desire. He pulled a pillow over his head not really caring about the level of discomfort that caused just wanting to avoid the light. Somehow it was still there, blinking, as if in a cruel joke it seemed like the light was winking at him.

            Now I really am losing it, a light winking at me? Tom should remember this as a form of torture. Harry scoffed at his own thought, finally tossing the pillow aside in frustration and sitting up in the bed. He groped for his glasses and wand on the table but strangely his glasses weren’t there, nor was his wand; in fact the whole table was missing. Confused Harry stood up onto a cold stone floor searching for anything familiar besides the bed, the only other thing in the space was the relentless little light.

            Harry marched over to where the light was blinking frustrated that this annoying little beacon was stopping him from getting the sleep he deserved. As he approached it the light seemed to grow in intensity, each flash temporarily blinded him because of the rapid switch from dark to light.

            “Harry, please wake up…”

            Harry turned around looking for the person calling his name, nothing else seemed to be in the room; it was just him and the light.

            “Harry, wake up mate!”

            The room seemed to shake a little with the voice, and the light started to blink more rapidly in his hand, filling the room with an almost constant light now. Small cracks seemed to be forming on the floor all around him, and from each crack shown more light.

            “Harry!”

            Now huge chunks were crumbling into dust all around him, huge spots of light were shining in all around him. Harry reached for the little beacon in front of him but it was too far away now as the floor fell apart. Soon the intensity of the light began to dim and Harry was able to make out various shapes and blobs that told him he was standing in the master bedroom once again.

            “Harry, come on, you need to wake up now, you’re sleep walking!” Harry heard Ginny exclaim and felt her grab hold of his arm as she tried to steer him back to the bed.

            “Don’t worry Ginny, I’m up, don’t feel too good though. Why does my whole body feel like it was smashed against a brick wall?”

            Ginny jumped back in surprise when she heard Harry speak at first but then grabbed him in a tight hug, “Harry, you almost gave me a heart attack. You need to sit down at least; the reason you feel like that is because you’ve been through quite a lot. Do you remember any of it?” She asked cautiously as she led him to the edge of the bed and handed him his glasses.

             Harry closed his eyes as he recalled the fight with Bellatrix, duelling with Rudolpho…and Hermione lying there on the ground. “Where’s Hermione? Is she alright, did Bellatrix hurt her?” He said suddenly breaking the silence.

            “She’s fine Harry, Tonks and Madam Pomfrey are taking care of her right now, she’s unconscious still. Her body’s shut down to try and stop itself from feeling the pain of her injuries. She went through a lot but Madam Pomfrey thinks she’ll be back to normal in a few days.”

            “They won’t let us in there still because they want to make sure she’s stable or something.” Ron said grumpily as he sat down next to Harry, “You saved her life mate, you fought Bellatrix to save her… I guess it’s not the first time though.”

            “I killed her Ron, I killed Bellatrix…It wasn’t an accident either…” Harry paused as he took hold of Ginny’s hand, “… at least I don’t think it was… I mean I wanted to kill her…but I knew I shouldn’t…she was just there and I—“

            “Shhh…” Ginny said stopping Harry from speaking any more, “come on of course you didn’t do anything wrong. Bellatrix was just as evil as Tom Harry, you can’t—“

            “But that’s the problem Ginny! I killed someone, how does that make me any different than Voldemort or Bellatrix? It’s not like the dementors are going to care whether or not I meant it or not.” Harry said angrily, “You might as well call Fudge up right now and tell him that you’ve got a murderer, it’d save…”

            “HARRY JAMES POTTER!” Ginny yelled, causing both Harry and Ron to jump in surprise, “I cannot begin to tell you how frustrating you can be sometimes. War isn’t good versus evil, didn’t you know that? Dumbledore is right, it’s not light against dark, black against white. War is a thousand shades of grey. Just because you killed someone in self-defence does not make you like Voldemort, if anything it makes you less like him. You stood up to fight against someone who was much more skilled than you to help protect your friend from being killed, I doubt Tom’s even thought of calling someone a friend let alone willingly put himself in danger to protect a one. What you did was out of love not hate, that is what makes it different.”

            Harry looked up at Ginny, brushing a tear off his face.

            “Thanks Ginny…” he said hugging her, “you really are a feisty one you know that?”

He then looked over at Ron who just smiled, “You’re part of the family too Harry, you need to know us red heads have a temper” he teased.

            “That’s what I’ve been told, anyways it had to be done and I figured the sooner the better, you don’t need to worry about things that are out of your control. Now that that’s out of the way would you mind telling us what exactly you were doing sleep walking Mr. Potter?”

            Harry shrugged, “dunno, I was having a weird dream about a light that kept blinking on and off. Then I started to hear you two talking to me and I woke up. How long have I been out anyway?”

            “You’ve been asleep all day, it’s nearly night time. You passed out after you flooed back from Ollivander’s.”

            “Good thing it was afterwards or else you would have gone flipping around the floo until you popped out somewhere. Imagine showing up at Malfoy’s unconscious,” Ron said laughing. Harry started to laugh but stopped groaning in pain.

            “Ow. Guess I can’t laugh right now, hurts too much.”

            “Harry you were really hurt by whatever curse Lestrange used, you lost a lot of blood and the cut is too deep to heal magically, not to mention the Cruciatus curse. Madam Pomfrey said that she can do a little bit of work but most of it will have to heal by itself, there is a potion though so you wont have too bad of a scar there though,” Ginny paused trying to find the right words to continue, “…Harry we can’t do anything about your finger, even if we could have found it we couldn’t have put it back on. She’s already healed where it was cut off but you can’t really do anything else.”

            Harry looked down at his hand where there was now a bandage on his left pinkie finger and pulled it off with building anxiety. Ginny was right about it being healed, in fact it looked as if it had been like that for his whole life, the noticeable thing however was that he was missing the entire tip of his finger. He bent it experimentally examining it from every side, finally he sighed and put the bandage back on, “I guess there isn’t anything I can do about it, I’ll have to remember to stun Rudolpho next time I see him though. Does look a bit odd, wonder if it’ll bollix my Quidditch game?”

            Ginny smiled, “you’re really handling this well, I thought you were going to go nutters when you figured out. How does it feel, does it hurt at all?”

            “Not too much, though it still feels a bit like I still have my finger there. My side is what really hurts, just breathing stings,” Harry started to pull up his shirt to look at the cut but Ginny stopped him, “what, I just want to see how deep it is, maybe I can try healing it.”

            “Harry Madam Pomfrey told me not to let you undo the bandages until tomorrow. It took us a long time to stop the bleeding and right now you need every drop you have, the potion still hasn’t taken complete effect.”

            “Yes ma’am!” Harry said sticking his tongue out at her.

            “Good to see your sense of humour is still there, but I bet you won’t like this next thing. Madam Pomfrey also told me to give you this potion when you woke up; it’s supposed to start to heal the gash and reattach the ligaments where they were torn on your finger,” Ginny said picking up a small vial and waving it in front of his face teasingly.

            “Oh come on, I thought I was safe from the infirmary when I was away from Hogwarts. Yecch, tastes like owl droppings.” Harry said gagging on the amber liquid.

            “Wait you’re not finished you need to take this sleeping potion. I know, I know, but you’re not even supposed to be out of bed right now let alone sleep walking,” Ginny handed him the other vial then pushed Ron off the bed and pulled the blankets back.

            Harry downed the vial in one swallow and grimaced, “this one’s even worse than owl droppings.” He crawled back into bed already feeling his eyelids getting heavier as the potion began to take effect, “Hey Ron.”

            “Yeah mate?”

            “Don’t sit around my room any more you should be in Hermione’s room, I have Ginny the Healer taking care of me. Trust me she’ll need a friendly face and someone to talk to when she wakes up.” Harry said stifling a yawn, “Sorry bout that.”

            “You’re sure you’re okay?”

            Harry nodded his head as he sunk back into the bed, “just tell her I said I’m glad she’s okay.”

            Ron headed out to try and get into Hermione’s room. Ginny sat in the chair next to the bed where Harry had fallen asleep, and began to work on her History of Magic essay that had been assigned for summer work.

 

Grimmauld Place, London, England

 

            Harry felt himself stirring trying to avoid the obnoxious blinking light in the corner of his eye. He switched sides of the bed several times, and on one occasion tried throwing a pillow at it to no avail. Finally, frustrated and tired, he marched up to the little light and grabbed, it not caring what it was or where it had come from. He stuffed the little light under a stack of parchments on his bedside table making sure that not even a hint of it was visible. Satisfied with his work he made to go back to bed but on his way there tripped on something and came crashing to the ground.

            “Oh Harry! Are you okay, you didn’t hit your head again, mum would kill me if you hurt yourself again,” Ginny said lighting the nearby lamp and rushing over to his side to help him up.

            “I’m alright Ginny, don’t worry. I didn’t hit my head I just tripped over your legs.”

            “How did you trip over my legs, I was sleeping on the chair?”

            “I was having that bloody dream again. I was trying to hide the light so I could get some sleep. I stuck it under the parchment on the desk and was heading back to bed and I guess I just got too close to your legs.”

            Ginny walked over to the table and started to rifle through the stacks of parchment and books.

            “Ginny it was just a dream, I’m pretty sure I didn’t just hide an actual light in the…”

            “What about a package?” Ginny broke in holding out the small package she’d found in the pile of paper, “You never did open this envelope that they gave you at Gringotts?”

            Harry stood up wincing at the pain in his side and took the package. He’d completely forgotten about it since he’d received it nearly a month ago. “I guess I misplaced it, that day was a bit crazy. That was the day we caught Wormtail.” He undid the bit of twine holding the package shut and removed the letter that was attached. For some unknown reason Harry’s heart was beating rapidly as he broke the wax seal on the envelope and began to read the letter that was written in rounded cursive.

           

Harry-

If you are reading this then for some unfortunate reason or another we are no longer with you in this world, hopefully you will never have to lay eyes on this but in these dark days one is never certain about anything (Your mum was quite against me writing this letter but I thought it was important to pass this item along). I know that you are now probably a remarkable young lad of 16 (if those goblins follow instructions), and I am fairly confident you are a world class Quidditch player. Sirius and I spent many an hour teaching you how to fly although you could barely walk; your mum nearly turned me into a cow when she found out our master plan!

         Hopefully the world is a better place than it is as of my writing this. Our greatest wish is that you never have to witness the horrible things we have to on a daily basis. The Order is trying with all it’s might to restore peace to a world in turmoil, a place where our children may live without worrying about bloodclass or alliances.

         As per our instructions Sirius is now your guardian, I know he can be a bit mangy sometimes, but he is like a brother to me, so is Remus and Peter. This is your family Harry and I want you to know that they will always be there for your even though we may not (although I do have my doubts about Petunia and Vernon). I dark times like these your family and friends are more important than ever, they will be what keep you alive and ready to fight.

         Now onto the necklace in this package Harry. I know that it might seem like a pointless dongle but let me assure you that is farthest from the fact. This is a Potter heirloom that has been passed down to the firstborn child on their 16^th birthday. It is a symbol of the courageous, and sometimes obstinate, behaviour us Potter’s have. Your mum and I have also added practical enhancements to this that will hopefully make it more appealing to you. Along with some anti-jinx charms and a weak shield charm there are also some highly experimental charms that we put on it. Wear this wherever you go and it will be a guide in unknown places, a reminder of where you are from, and will be your pass to places of greatness.

         Never forget how much we love you and know that we are always there watching over you.

 

Your father,

 

James

 

            Harry held the paper in shaking hands skimming over the letter again and again then finally handing it over to Ginny who read it slowly, tears brimming in her eyes. While she was reading Harry had pulled out the necklace from the package.

            From a thick platinum chain hung a roughly hewn piece of black stone. Harry moved closer to the lamp to inspect the pendant.

            The stone was an unusual black it seemed to absorb the light around it. The rock was completely covered in silk thin gold inlay that radiated an inner warmth. Harry couldn’t discern any remarkable pattern but there seemed to be a deeper meaning to the spirals and whorls. At the base of the pendant there was a set of carvings that cut outward from the centre in a pinwheel design that reminded him of a windmill. The whole necklace seemed surprisingly heavy considering the stone was the size of a small pebble.

            “Harry this letter is amazing, you have to make sure to take care of it,” Ginny said wiping a tear away and folding the letter up gingerly, “is that the necklace?”

            “Yeah, it looks really old so I guess he was right about it being an heirloom. I wonder what the other spells that they put on it were?” Harry rubbed the inlay tracing his fingers around the fine gold thread that wound itself continuously around the stone.

            “I don’t know but if they were experimental I doubt anyone would know. My dad said that your mum was brilliant at charms though so I bet that whatever they are they’re strong. Do you want me to put it on you?”

            “Do you think I can, I don’t want it to break when I’m asleep?”

            “I think if it’s been in your family for so long that it can survive. Here bend down and I’ll put it on,” Ginny clasped the necklace shut and stepped back to examine it, “it looks good, nothing like a girl’s necklace. I think the thick chain makes it look more manly.”

            “I guess I’ll wear it then, plus you can’t really see it if I keep it under my shirt. Here I’ll put the letter in the photo album you made me, that way I won’t forget it and it won’t get messed up. There all set.”

            “Thanks, come on lets go to bed, I’m exhausted and it’s still pitch black.” Harry said crawling under the sheets and scooting over to make room for Ginny.

            “Are you sure you’re okay? I saw you wince when you were getting into bed; I don’t want to hurt you at all. The chair was comfortable enough, I’ll just stay there.”

            “Don’t worry Ginny it’s fine, it just hurts when I bend down at all. Here come on, I’m really tired and want to get a little more sleep before the morning.”

            Ginny crawled slowly trying to not make the bed move too much, and lay snuggled up next to Harry, “this is a lot more comfortable than a chair.”

            “Told you, now go to bed before the sun actually rises,” Harry said closing his eyes. He felt the pendant on his neck pulse slightly in pace with his own heartbeat and a sense of comfort filled him as he though back over the letter his father had written him telling him they would always be there for him.

 

            Harry and Ginny woke a few hours later when Madam Pomfrey, Lupin, and Dumbledore all came into the room to check in and see how Harry’s injuries were.

            “Good morning Harry I must apologize for the rude awakening but Poppy thought it best to check in and see how you were healing up. From what I’ve been told you put quite the fight trying to save Miss Granger. Don’t worry she is quite fine, she woke up earlier this morning and seemed to have her wits about her. Poppy?” Dumbledore said ushering Madam Pomfrey forward to inspect Harry.

            “Professor…” Harry started as madam Pomfrey cast various diagnostic spells on him, “…I killed Bellatrix…what exactly will happen now will I be going to Azkaban?”

            “Harry I cannot tell you how sorry I am that you have to go through such an ordeal at such a young age, but I must reiterate that this is a war and you are a warrior in it. From Mr. Weasley and Mr. Ollivander’s account you performed admirably and only used deadly force when no other option was left open to you. Killing anyone, even someone as twisted as Bellatrix, is not something you take lightly however and I want you to remember that. Killing another human being is one of the most destructive forces on earth, it changes you in more ways than you can imagine. What is most intriguing about your confrontation was that you had no wand at that time, you cast an entirely new spell using your will to protect Miss Granger. This could be a case of accidental magic on another level, or something more important, perhaps a weapon forged from the love of others.” The headmaster shared a meaningful look with Harry and Ginny who were both instantly reminded of the prophecy and the prediction that Harry would have a power the other did not.

“Now…concerning Azkaban I doubt that Fudge will so much as send you a reprimand, he is currently embattled in his own war to protect his position, although I believe that conflict will be over soon,” the headmaster stopped as he watched sadly as Madam Pomfrey undo the bandage on Harry’s finger.

            “Professor, what happened in Diagon Alley after we left? Did the Aurors get there in time to capture more of them?” Ginny asked trying to take Harry’s mind off his missing appendage.

            “Well the Aurors did indeed come, late and outnumbered however. Many were already there before you left but it didn’t make much difference. It seems that because the Death Eaters lost their primary target, presumably Harry, they set out to simply destroy as much property as possible. As of this morning most of Diagon Alley is ash, the Death Eaters set fire to much of the already ruined town. The Aurors managed to save a few but most of them were already too far engulfed in flames. You will be happy to know that thankfully no one was killed.”

            “Except for Bellatrix…” Harry said gloomily, pulling his shirt up to give Madam Pomfrey access to the bandage wrapped around his torso.

            “Harry I know it is hard for you, it took me quite a while to recover from the first time I was forced to take someone’s life, but you must know it wasn’t your fault in the least.” Lupin said stepping forward to look Harry eye to eye.

            “Thanks Moony, I just have to get used to it I guess, give me a little while to sort out how I feel about the whole thing.”

            “Mr. Potter would you mind explaining this?” Madam Pomfrey asked pointing down at his side.

            Harry looked down at his side. Where there was supposed to be a huge gash in his side there was now only a small cut that seemed to have healed quite well considering he’d received it less than a day ago. “I thought you said it was a big cut, this doesn’t look bad at all.”

            “It was a huge gash Mr. Potter, the key word being was. Do you have any idea how it has healed so quickly? None of the potions or spells I administered would have caused such rapid healing. I doubt that you will even be able to see a scar once it is finished healing now.” Madam Pomfrey said as she continued to examine the wound.

            “Harry…what about the necklace?” Ginny suggested.

            “Where did you get that?” Lupin asked in shock, rushing up to his side and taking it in his hands as Harry pulled it out from under his shirt, “I haven’t seen that necklace in more than 15 years. I thought it was destroyed with the house.”

            “It was in that package I was given at Gringotts when I took control of the bank. We found it last night with a letter my dad wrote explaining what it is. He told me to wear it all the time. He did say something about him and my mum putting some experimental charms on it, do you think that that is what’s healing my cut?”

            “It very well could be Harry, if you might allow me to inspect it momentarily?” Dumbledore asked as he stepped forward too.

            “Sure. Ginny could you undo the clasp I can’t really see it without my glasses on. Thanks.”

            Dumbledore took the necklace, handling it as if it were made of the finest metals. He examined it from every angle, muttering to himself as he stared intently at the sprawling gold inlay. Finally he set it down on the table and pointed his wand at it, there was a brief flash of red light and it returned to normal. The headmaster picked the necklace back up and handed it to Harry smiling, “I think Ginny is correct in thinking that this might have caused your wound to heal so quickly. It is indeed a very rare and precious heirloom; you should take great care of it. I was unable to find any particular spells on it but as you saw with the red flash there is several layers of deep magic ingrained in that pendant. Your mother and father were two of the most skilled magicians to come out of Hogwarts in a very long time; whatever spells they have placed on this necklace are extremely powerful.  To be quite honest I have never seen such a unique stone in many years. It would be wise to keep it on your body at all times if this stunning case of healing was indeed caused by this necklace.”

            While Madam Pomfrey re-bandaged the wound on Harry’s side Dumbledore continued to talk. “Harry now I know it is early and you most likely will not want to discuss it but I was hoping to ask you some questions about the magic you managed yesterday.”

            “Hold on Albus, look at him he’s still barely awake, at least give the boy some time to get dressed,” Lupin said. Harry felt a rush of gratitude towards his new guardian as he pulled his shirt back down and stood up.

            “Thanks Moony, actually headmaster if it’s alright with Madam Pomfrey I’m sort of hungry. Could we talk about this downstairs?”

            “Of course Harry, of course. I didn’t want to impede your convalescence.  I am merely curious after hearing what Mr. Ollivander described to me. Let us head downstairs then, Molly has been preparing breakfast anyhow, I don’t see why we should let it go to waste.” The group headed downstairs and were soon all seated around the kitchen table serving themselves portions of eggs, bacon, and various other breakfast goods.

            “Now Harry the reason I am so curious with the magic you performed yesterday is because it shows that you have taken a rather dramatic step forwards in your magical growth. Very few people can perform any magic whatsoever without their wand, yet what you did yesterday was very powerful, and directed, magic completely wandless. This is certainly an effect of the Heartbond that you will experience to some level or another too Ginny.”

            “Professor I didn’t perform anything at all, it just…happened. I had zero control of it, it just felt like the magic shot out of me. And from what I’m hearing you’re saying this could happen again.” Harry said, recalling the shocked look on Bellatrix’s face as the blood spread across her chest.

            “And that is precisely why I wanted to discuss this, as the bond continues to grow so will the magic. You must learn to control this at the beginning so you can keep it in check at all times. I have already discussed this with Remus briefly and I think it would be best if you and Miss Weasley take special lessons with at least once a week that focus solely on controlling and focusing your wandless magic.”

 “When you get back to school next week we’ll start having a two hour class once a week. Because of the state of things it will most likely be a different one of us teaching you each time. Harry I know that you could probably do with more free time but this is important,” Lupin said seeing the rather dissident expression Harry wore.

“I know, I know. It’s just this year is going to be difficult enough without another bloody thing to have to worry about. Plus Ginny is in her O.W.L. year; she’s going to need every free minute she can get.”

“Harry you know that normally I would agree with you but this is much more important. If what happened to Bellatrix was an accident when you were just getting the magic imagine what could happen in a year’s time?”

“Don’t worry Harry, I think we should take the class, plus I have a good teacher if I need any help catching up,” Ginny playfully punched Harry in the arm, making him crack a grin and stick his tongue out at her.

“Well it’s decided then! We shall work out the details upon your arrival back at school. I suggest you do not try any form of magic wandlessly before we have had a chance to go over some of the basics. It wouldn’t do to blow up the kitchen when you were just trying to levitate a grapefruit spoon.”

           

            The morning they were supposed to leave for school Madam Pomfrey showed up to check on Hermione and, to much fanfare, deemed her fit enough to travel.

            When Mrs. Weasley went in to get Ron up she couldn’t even get him to wake up until she threatened to call Fred and George and have them test some of their new products on him.

The group slowly arrived downstairs with their various luggage and cages piling up in the hallway. Molly had decided to get everyone up with Madam Pomfrey’s arrival so if needed they could change their plans, that meant they needed to wake up at the mind-numbingly early hour of 4 AM.

            Harry and Ginny were sitting at the kitchen table nibbling on some bacon when Hermione arrived at the foot of the stairs leaning heavily on Ron’s shoulder for support. Although she moved slowly, and still seemed a bit disoriented, there was a healthy glow about her face that hadn’t been there the days prior.

            “Hermione!” Ginny cried and got up to hug her.

            “Hey,” she said trying to smile but instead ended up yawning, “sorry, I’m just a bit tired.”

            “It’s fine, if I’m this tired I can’t imagine how you must feel,” Harry said getting up and pulling a chair out for her, “glad Madam Pomfrey finally let you out of your bedroom, she wouldn’t even let us visit you.”

            “Tell me about it, she wouldn’t even let me get up to use the bathroom without being there to make sure I wouldn’t pass out. I don’t know why she had to do that, I know that the pain-killing potion I was taking didn’t have any side effects other than fever.”

            Ron grinned at Harry, “Good to hear you’re still yourself. Now mum said that I was supposed to make sure you eat something before we leave, of course seeing how it’s only 4 AM we could have a full eight course meal before we actually needed to leave.”

            “Don’t worry Ronald, I’ll eat. Actually I’m starving, chicken broth isn’t exactly filling.” Hermione reached for a plate, but Ron got to it first and started to fill it up for her.

            “Allow me,” he said smiling slightly. Harry and Ginny had to stifle a laugh, as he stumbled walking over to hand her the plate and nearly knocked over pitcher of orange juice.

            “Thank you Ron,” she said smiling endearingly as he handed her the plate that now had everything piled on one side due to his near fall.

            “So is Emma going to come to King’s Cross or is she going to go with Joy later?” Hermione asked after a few minutes of silence as everyone was tried to wake up from their rather early start.

            “Well…” Harry started shifting in his chair a bit.

            “We haven’t actually seen them since the…incident,” Ginny added, “Seems like they were a bit scared after the attacks and have started to re-think whether or not Emma should go to Hogwarts or not.”

            “I even went over to try and talk to them but every time I went over Joy just said they were busy, or just heading out.”

            “I guess I could see where she’s coming from. If you had nearly been killed by a group of people you didn’t even know existed in a war you had no idea about until a few weeks ago, I’d be pretty shaken up too.” Hermione said as she methodically worked her way through her plate of food.

            “I know, I know. I just want to make sure that Emma comes; I want her to be able to fight if she needs to. And the way this thing’s going so far it seems like that’ll be sooner than later.”

            “Don’t worry Harry,” Ginny said, “I think that they’ll be coming they just need some time to sort through everything that happened. Its not exactly the most subtle way to be brought into the wizarding world, seeing a full fledged battle being fought in one of the few places everyone thought was safe.”

            Another bout of silence fell over the table as everyone’s thoughts returned back to the fight in Diagon Alley.

           

            An hour later Dumbledore showed up at the front door with Kingsley and Mad-Eye in tow, to escort them to King’s Cross.

            “Ah, Miss Granger, it is good to see that you are ambulatory once again, you won’t have to miss the start of term feast, or classes for that matter. Is everyone packed and ready to go? Where are the Masseys?” Everyone shifted uncomfortably in their seats, “Ah,” the headmaster said smiling slightly, “Would I be correct in assuming that Joy and Emmaline are having second thoughts about going to our establishment?”

            “We haven’t really seen them since we got back to headquarters three days ago,” Ginny said.

            “Of course, it is only natural, I would have been surprised if this hadn’t happened. I think I will pay them a visit, I know it is horribly rude to come calling so early in the morning but they deserve to be able to ask any questions they want. Kingsley, Alastor? I will stay behind, if you would still please escort them to the train that would be excellent. I believe that Molly, Tonks, and Lupin will be accompanying you as well. I have a few additional errands to run before the start of school this evening, so there is a chance the Massey’s and I will miss the train’s departure.”

            “We can instruct them to hold the train—“

            “Oh no, nothing like that Kingsley. I just wanted to make sure you knew what was happening if they do not arrive. Now I think I shall head over there, it is barely five in the morning but I believe it is rather important I talk to them, especially after what happened to them.” Dumbledore took Lupin aside for a moment, then bade everyone good luck and headed out the front door.

           

With everyone downstairs and somewhat awake Mad-Eye decided that it was time to leave the house and head for King’s Cross. They all gathered up their various trunks, cages, and stray items and headed outside to wait for the cars that Tonks had arranged to pick them up.

Moody and Kingsley were agitated, constantly surveying the area around them, checking and rechecking every nook and cranny. It was apparent they didn’t like being exposed for such a long time, this was most evident when a car turned the corner and started to head towards them. Moody drew his wand and started to step backwards, pushing the group back onto the steps of Grimmauld Place.           

“Alastor, calm down. This is our ride,” Tonks said cheerfully. She stepped forwards and hailed the car towards them.

“Tonks what exactly is our ride?” Kingsley asked as the car approached.

“I know what that is!” Exclaimed Ron, “dad told me about them once. They’re called…limesins…limesigns”

“…you got us a limousine Tonks?” Harry asked stunned as the massive stretched black town car slowed to a stop in front of them.

“Why not?” Tonks smiled picking up a trunk, “No matter how we get there we’re in some sort of danger, at least this way we’re all in one car so we can’t get separated. Plus, I have a ministry charge card so it’s all a write off! Now stop staring and help get this stuff loaded.”

 

The ride to King’s Cross went by quickly as everyone marvelled at the elegantly furnished limo and before they knew it they were all unloading at the curb of the train station under the watchful eyes of Moody, Kingsley and the others. All around them the crowd bustled past, hundreds of muggles never taking a second glance at the strange scene of the large group of oddly dressed people carrying a veritable menagerie of animals along with their massive trunks.

As they approached the pillar between platforms nine and ten Harry began to pick out other people who most certainly had to be witches and wizards. Moody growled in disgust when a saw the short little man drop a box and an assortment of charmed bouncy balls went flying across the station nearly causing Mad-Eye to slip, “I’ll teach them about secrecy, bloody fool should let everyone know where here…” he muttered as he did away with them with a subtle flick of his wand and stomped off to the pillar.

 

King’s Cross Station, London, England

            Hogwarts Express looked just like it had six years earlier when Harry first had come stumbling through the portal; the massive steam engine hissed and bubbled as it lay there waiting for the 11 AM departure. There were differences however, the most obvious being the increased amount of security around the train in the form of red cloaked Aurors, and the now omnipresent banners featuring Fudge’s likeness glaring at all that entered.

            There was more than just increased security however; the instant Harry had entered the station he’d noticed the difference, it was similar to the same feeling he’d gotten in Diagon Alley. There wasn’t the usual air of excitement or happiness that every other time had filled the platform instead everyone around them was talking quietly in hushed tones, although he saw many people he knew none of them seemed compelled to talk to them and instead stood around quietly talking with their families.

            As the group made their way to the edge of the platform an even deeper silence fell upon the platform and soon everyone seemed to be staring at Harry and the others.

            “Why are they all staring at us,” Ron whispered as they huddled together to try and ignore the awkwardness.

            “You’ve been reading the Prophet Ron, you know what they’ve been writing. The whole paper has turned into a way to force Fudge’s propaganda on everyone. Half of the articles in that rag are about how Harry is some sort of saviour, and the other is rampant speculation about what happened at the Department of Mysteries.” Hermione said as she surveyed the crowd that was now once again whispering amongst itself.

            “I can’t believe we didn’t take care of that with Skeeter. Blimey mate, looks like we’re back to where we started,” Ron said patting Harry on the back.

            Ignoring the murmuring crowd they grabbed their trunks and pushed their way into the train and found an empty room and headed back out to bid farewell to everyone before the train left. While Molly doted over Ron, Ginny, and Hermione, Lupin took Harry aside.

            “Harry I just want to remind you that we’re all here for you, that I’m here for you. These next few months could very well be the most trying one’s of any of our lives, but remember that we are in this together, and that we should enjoy life while we can. No matter what some prophet may have said years ago this is still your life Harry,” Lupin smiled at the look of shock on Harry’s face.

            “How…how’d you know?”

            “Albus felt it was time I knew so he told me a few days ago. I cannot imagine how much pressure you must be feeling right now, and I know that you must also think it is your own duty to bear but that is false, allow others to help you. You have amazing friends and family Harry and they, me included, are willing to follow you anywhere you go.”

“That’s the problem, I don’t want to them to follow me. Last time that happened I nearly got them all killed! If you heard the prophecy you know what it said, only I can kill him so I need to do this alone.” Harry said, looking down intently at his trainers so as to stop himself from letting his emotions get to him.

 “Yes Harry I did hear the prophecy and I know what it said. Although you have to kill Voldemort that does not mean you have to find him and go to battle against him alone, you just have to finish the job. We’ll all be at your side when that time comes to make sure you have the best chance there is.” Lupin smiled softly and the two stood in silence for a minute until the train’s whistle went off and they began to head over to the others, “…Now before you go I will most likely be gone for a few weeks at a time now on missions so I won’t be able to talk to you frequently. If you ever need to get hold of me ask to use an Order member’s necklace, although I’m fairly confident Hermione could probably create one of your own in a few hours if need be.”

             Harry laughed then grabbed his guardian in a big hug, “Thank you.” Although he didn’t show it Harry was elated at having Lupin know about the prophecy, keeping it secret for so long between he and Ginny had been tearing him up. He knew that he’d have to tell Hermione and Ron soon, especially if the war was to begin escalating. His mind flashed back to the nightmares he’d had so frequently this summer, but as quickly as they had come they left, leaving Harry standing there staring off into the distance.            Molly seemed to pay no attention and scooped him up in a huge hug, squeezing him until he could barely breath, after she finally let go Arthur stepped up and gave him a firm handshake, telling him quite seriously to “take care of Ginny.” Harry just gulped and nodded in accordance.

 Tonks, Kingsley, and Moody had to rush their goodbyes as the second and final whistle for the train went off when clock struck eleven. Waving frantically behind them Harry, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione rushed to the train car entrance and stepped onto the already moving Hogwarts Express.

           

            The ride to Hogwarts this year passed by without any incident, in-fact it was downright dull. Although Harry had seen Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle board the train they never visited their compartment for the usual barrage snide comments and veiled threats. Hermione and Ron had gotten into an argument with him at the prefects meeting but after that he’d seemed to have completely disappeared.

            “Maybe you-know-who’s finally did some good and silencioed Malfoy permanently,” Ron had offered shortly after he and Hermione had returned.

The stories from The Prophet seemed to have created a mixed form of fear and awe among the students of Hogwarts. Although no one came into the compartment, there were an unusual amount of people who would just stop outside of their compartment and stare at Harry and the others as if they were and exhibit. Finally Hermione cast a glass etching charm on the windows that made them opaque. Aside from that, and a few visits from Neville, Luna, and several other D.A. members the trip was going by quietly.

Talking to Lupin about the prophecy had stirred it from the back of his mind where he’d so forcibly shoved it over the past weeks. The longer and longer he sat there with Ron and Hermione the more his anxiety over not telling them grew. Finally, after debating it over in his mind, he decided that here was just as secure as anywhere else. After this hand I’ll tell them Harry told himself as Ron dealt another hand of Exploding Snap.

 The tower teetered ominously as Hermione tried to stack the Ace of Spades on Ginny’s King of Hearts. Taking a deep breath she went in once more and dropped the card on top, it stuck. Hermione let out a sigh of relief; but just as she did so the entire deck blew up in her face, covering it in black soot so she looked much like a chimney sweep.

“Well that was fun, although I don’t think I’m up for another round,” Hermione said rubbing the black off her face, “what other games do we have… other than chess Ron.” She added cutting him off.

“I wasn’t going to say…”

“Hey Ron, mate, could you hold up for a minute,” Harry interrupted, “I actually have something I need to tell you guys.”

“What is it?” Hermione asked sitting upright at once.

Ginny moved closer to Harry and grabbed hold of his hand, although he hadn’t told he about what he was planning he felt as if she knew what he was going to say.

“You know how the whole battle at the Department of Mysteries was about Voldemort getting the prophecy about he and I? And that thankfully he didn’t get his hands on it…”

“Yeah it was destroyed, you told us,” Ron said.

“And no one was able to hear it because of all the fighting going on. Anyhow, that’s all true, the prophecy was destroyed there. It turns out that wasn’t the only copy though. Dumbledore witnessed the original one.” Harry paused, not sure if he should let them catch up or just keep going.

“You’ve heard the prophecy…” Hermione said after looking at him for a moment.

Harry nodded, trying to smile but instead ended up sort of grimacing, “Yeah, and Dumbledore said I could tell you guys. I’ve been putting it off because I didn’t want you to know, but after everything we’ve already been through, and everything we’re about to go through I figured I owe it to you. Now before I show it to you you need to know that you cannot tell another soul about this, no one. If Tom figures out you know you’ll be in more danger than ever before.”

Ron and Hermione both nodded.

“Okay, well I don’t exactly have a pensieve so I’m going to just tell it to you. This was a prophecy that Trelawney made to Dumbledore, yeah I know she’s not a fraud it turns out.”

 Harry took a deep breath, glanced at Ginny then started—“The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches… born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies … and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not … and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives … the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies …”

The familiar silence filled the cabin as Harry sat back, never taking his eyes off Hermione and Ron who both sat there shell-shocked. Hermione had tears in her eyes that she kept brushing away, and Ron just sat there unblinking.

“I know it’s a lot to take in, I’m still trying to figure it out. If you don’t want to be involved in this anymore I understand, you can go. I need to do this alone anyway. OW!” Harry exclaimed as Ginny punched him hard on his arm.

“No you don’t!” she said punching him again, “you are so frustrating sometimes. How many times have I told you that you’re not alone in this.”

“Hold on, you knew about this?” Ron asked finally speaking up.

Ginny shrugged, “Harry and Dumbledore told me after we were bonded.”

“Honestly I’m not as surprised as I thought I would be, I think I had it in the back of my mind that that might have been what the prophecy said.” Hermione said, wiping her eyes once more, “and Ginny’s right Harry, you don’t have to do this alone. If you think we’d leave you after hearing some story Trelawney said you’re crazy, we’ve been through much worse than this before.”

“I agree with both of them too mate, I’d like to get a piece of the action myself, besides after what our fight at the Ministry I want to get back at those Death Eaters for these bloody scars.” Ron said lifting his hair up to show off the ugly mark where one of the brains had attached itself.

            “But Ronald those were the brains that you levitated out of the water yourself.”

            “It doesn’t matter ‘Mione it’s the principle of the thing!”

            Harry smiled, and then asked nervously, “So you two are okay with it? You don’t want to run away or anything?”

            “Why would we want to run away Harry? You said it already; we’re here to fight this war. If Fudge isn’t going to do it the D.A. and the Order is going to have to. Besides we’d most likely be in more danger if we left you. I’m not going anywhere.”

            “Sorry mate, you’re not getting rid of us that easily,” Ron added with a smile.

            Harry sat back into his seat, a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders, it was one he hadn’t even known existed until it was gone. Now looking back onto it he realized he had been worried about losing Ron and Hermione when they figured out about the prophecy. Ginny snuggled up under his arm and rested her head on his shoulder.

            “Mmmm…you smell good,” she said smiling. He had told her how much this had been bothering him and was happy that he’d finally managed to get this out in the open.

            “That’s because I took my weekly shower,” Harry joked tickling her on the side.

            “Get a room!” Ron groaned, “just because you two are bonded does not mean I can just block you and my sister out of my mind.”

            “I think you can try harder. Here, let’s give him some incentive.” Harry bent down and kissed her briefly then paused for a second and bent down again.

            “Alright, alright! I get the point, you want me to go blind?” Ron exclaimed to a giggling Harry and Ginny.

           

            The rest of the train ride went quickly, the group chatted amicably, heeding Harry’s request and not discussing the prophecy further that day. Soon they were close enough to school that they decided to get dressed and the usual hustle and bustle ensued. It was raining in Hogsmead and the mix of a dense fog and the steam from the train made it so people seemed to be appearing out of thin air all around them. The security at the platform was just as secure as at Kings Cross with nearly a dozen Aurors and teachers on duty to supervise the student as they headed to the carriages and boats. Hagrid could be seen off in the distance helping the first years climb into the small boats moored on the lake.

            Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny caught a thestral drawn carriage that was already en-route to the castle with Neville and Luna already onboard.

            “Do you reckon Dumbledore managed to convince Joy to let Emma come?” Hermione asked Harry.

            “Knowing him he probably did, I really hope so. I don’t want Emma to be left out after figuring everything out. I know she was scared but she’s probably me in more danger if she didn’t come now.”

            “She’s probably up at the Great Hall waiting with McGonagall already.”

            “Who’s Emma?” Luna asked dreamily, looking up from the newest copy of the Quibbler.

            “She’s a first year who we met over the summer, she lived next door. We got attacked in Diagon Alley and Emma and her mom were with us so they were a bit spooked.”

            “I read about that in The Prophet and was meaning to ask you lot about it. So it really did happen? Did you really fight off all the death eaters by yourself?” Neville exclaimed.

            “The Prophet hasn’t exactly been accurate recently…” Hermione explained.

            “It’s never been accurate Hermione,” Harry broke in.

            “…I guess you’re right but that story was certainly not true except that we were attacked at Diagon Alley and Harry fought valiantly to protect me from Bellatrix.” Hermione smiled at Harry who blushed slightly.

            “You fought Bellatrix? I read that she was killed in the fight, did you…” Neville stopped when he saw Harry and the other’s expressions, “…oh.”

            The carriage fell silent for a moment until Harry spoke, “Yes Neville, I killed her. I was fighting to stop her from killing Hermione and as a desperate last second thing I killed her. I honestly thought I would feel worse than I do, but what I realized is that she was one of the few people who truly did deserve to die for their actions. She killed or tortured too many people, Sirius, Hermione…your parents.” Harry’s eye’s glowed with passion, he wanted so desperately to convey that he felt bad about it but his conscience was clean.

            Neville bent his head down, not looking Harry directly in the eyes.

            Harry took a breath, “look… we are at war and things are there are definitely going to be times when we have to make difficult decisions in an instant. I don’t like just as much as the next bloke, but I’ve accepted it as fact, and as soon as everyone else does the sooner we can get to actually fighting Voldemort.”

            “Are we going to be starting up the D.A. again? I did love it ever so much…” Luna said pulling up from her magazine, her knack for changing the subject abruptly once again showing.

            “Yes. That’s what Ron, Ginny, Hermione and I have been working on this summer. We decided that if we can’t join the Order we’re going to at least train like them, we want to be able to fight alongside them when the time comes. Although Dumbledore and a few others know about it we’re still going to operate secretly to keep our methods under cover.”

            “That’s brilliant! I felt like I was actually learning something in that class, and now that I have a new wand I think I’ll do loads better. Gran said I deserved a new one after everything we did last year.” Neville said proudly, pulling his wand out to show the others.

            “Good well we’re not sure when we’re going to start but we’ll get the word out the usual way, unless Hermione has another ingenious method for us to communicate,” Harry teased.

            “No I think we’ll keep using the coins, but I have been working on something similar to what the Order members use that I’ll show you when I finish researching it.”

            Harry laughed, remembering what Lupin had told him just a few hours ago.

The carriage slowed to a halt outside the main entrance and everyone disbanded and headed up the steps to the Great Hall.

 

At the entrance stood Dumbledore, smiling warmly and greeting all the students as they walked past the threshold to the school. When he spotted Harry and the others he waved them over to him genially.

“Just the people I was looking for. Mr. Potter and Miss. Weasley, would you two kindly meet with Professor McGonagall after the feast? We must deal with your rather unusual sleeping arrangements” The two teens nodded, unsure to what they were agreeing. “Excellent! Well I shall see you inside then shortly,” and the headmaster turned on the spot and started to head back inside but stopped abruptly, “Oh I nearly forgot. I was able to convince Miss Massey to join us for this school year. She is currently acquainting herself with her fellow first years I believe.” Dumbledore tipped his hat, his eyes twinkling as much as ever, and turned down the hall once again.

            Harry turned and smiled at the others then took Ginny’s hand and proceeded to enter the hall with the other students.

            Hermione, Ron, Harry, and Ginny all sat down in their usual spots at the Gryffindor table. Harry spotted Hagrid sitting down at the front table and waved happily at him. Hagrid mouthed something which seemed to be ‘visit soon.” He also saw Snape who was sitting in his seat, grim as ever, staring at the mass of students he so greatly despised.

            Ron nudged Harry and pointed over at the Slytherin table, where Malfoy sat with Crabbe and Goyle as usual. Malfoy seemed to have a slightly nervous look on his face, as if at any moment something would jump up and grab him. He was also very jumpy; when Pansy sat next to him he almost fell off his seat. Harry was brought back to his table when Neville, Seamus, and Katie Bell all sat down around the group.

            “Where were you lot on the train, we looked all over for you! We thought Malfoy might’ve gotten you,” Neville said.

            Harry looked around for an explanation; thankfully Hermione was quick as ever. “We were having a meeting with an Auror, about Harry’s protection this year. For when we go to Hogsmeade or on other trips.”

            “Like that’s ever going to happen again,” Dean said glumly.

            “With You-Know-Who out and about again, I bet we won’t even be able to go to Hagrid’s for class,” Neville added.

            “Well we’re going to figure out soon,” Ron said pointing the front table where Dumbledore had stood up and was now moving to the podium. “Welcome back everyone, we will get to the feast soon enough, but first we must sort our new students!” The hall’s doors swung open again and with a little persuasion from McGonagall the nervous group of first years lined up in front of the stool. With relief Harry spotted Emma standing in the group and waved to her, smiling. She spotted him and waved back enthusiastically. Filch tottered in with the small stool and the tattered old Sorting Hat and sat it down unceremoniously in the middle of the room.

            Everyone in the Great Hall went silent, ready to listen to the hat’s new song. The long tear at its base opened up and it began:

 

Merlin’s champions,

His companions.

Stand and unite,

All must prepare to fight.

The war is near,

But do not fear.

My creator’s heir

Will rise again this year.

From my decision

Four of five have risen,

Tonight the fifth will come,

Binding the four to ONE.

 

            The voice faded, and unlike previous years, the murmurs and discussion were absent. Instead, the entire room was dead silent, still staring at the hat, not quite sure about what to make of the Sorting Hat’s newest verses.

            With a kind cough from the Headmaster, Professor McGonagall seemed to regain her composure and refocused as she unfurled her scroll of new students.

            Archer, Lincoln was sorted into Hufflepuff; followed shortly by Brickman, Sarah being sent to Ravenclaw.

            “I don’t know, it doesn’t remind me of any of the others, the old ones just said come together or watch out. This one seemed more like it was telling us that it was doing something,” Ron said over the bursts of applause when Gryffindor got a new student.

            “Well at least you listened this time. And it didn’t even seem like a song to me, more like a prophecy. Did you notice it was telling us something?” Hermione added then frowned slightly realizing what she’d just said.

            “Who was the Sorting Hat’s creator?” Ginny asked Hermione.

            “Don’t remember the song two years ago?” Hermione asked, but not receiving any nods simply continued, “it said that Gryffindor had made it. So whoever will rise this year is going to be Gryffindor’s heir. Wait a minute Emma’s up now, let’s watch.” She said as McGonagall read off “Massey, Emmaline.”

            She sat down on the stool, looking just as nervous as everyone else, staring blankly out over the sea of waiting faces. Then McGonagall placed the Hat on top of her head, it was too large for her head so it sunk down over her eyebrows. The hat’s mouth was moving as if it were talking, but Harry strained to hear anything. Apparently whatever it was saying was meant only for Emma’s ears. The hat seemed to take an inordinately long time on choosing where to sort her, and some students started to drift off into conversation or were playing with the silverware. Finally it did come to a decision and shouted out “GRIFFYNDOR!” in a louder voice than usual, surprising some of the students who’d zoned off.

The Gryffindor table burst into applause at their new addition, and Emma hopped smartly off the stool and sat down at the front of the table grinning as she met the other first years. Emma looked down the table and waved to Harry and the rest of the group.

            Harry gave Emma a thumbs up then looked up at Dumbledore to see if he approved. The headmaster was clapping politely and did nod his head, but nothing outward. Something unsettled Harry though, the smile on his face and the sorrow in his eyes made Harry feel like the headmaster was hiding something once again.

 

            After the rest of the first years were sorted Dumbledore stood up once again to make his start of term announcements, the hall went quiet very quickly, most everyone was starving and ready for the feast.

            “Well now that we have the sorting out of the way let me intrude upon your feast for only a moment more. As usual the Forbidden Forest is just that, forbidden. Professor Umbridge failed to recognize that and has just recently been released from St. Mungos, although her paranoia has not yet dissipated.

            “Mr. Filch has informed me that he has forgone the usual list of illicit objects and has simply decided to ban anything with the Weasley Wizarding Wheezes logo on it.” Dumbledore smirked slightly.

            “Now onto some scheduling changes. Due to Voldemort’s return, yes I did call him by his name and I suggest you all learn to use it too, we have decided to supplement your learning with several classes the school feels would benefit everyone. First, this year we will not be offering Care of Magical Creatures.” At this many people, mostly Gryffindor, began to murmur in protest. Dumbledore raised a hand to silence them. “Now, now, it does not reflect on Professor Hagrid’s teaching abilities at all, in-fact one reason we are doing it because he now has to care certain new security features we have on campus now, one of which is a dragon. Which, on a side note, is not to be approached under any circumstances.” The headmaster smiled slightly and nodded at Hagrid.

             “To replace Care of Magical Creatures we are now offering a mandatory class for all years, it is called Offensive Light Magic; this will be taught in conjunction with Defense Against the Dark Arts.”

            Harry examined the front table but couldn’t find any teacher who would be filling the once-again abandoned position. Maybe Dumbledore couldn’t find anyone?

            Dumbledore continued, “This class will be taught by trained Aurors, who unfortunately cannot be with us at the moment due to certain circumstances, who will teach you not only how to protect yourself but how to fight back if that is necessary. As for a teacher for Defence Against the Dark Arts, I am afraid the rather high risks involved in the class has scared most potential teachers away, so for the moment I will be teaching the class along with the occasional aide of a former professor.” At that the whole hall burst into applause, no one imagined that Dumbledore himself would teach Defence.

            Harry and the rest of the group were standing up applauding. “Well I doubt you could find a more experienced teacher for the job!” Ron shouted across the table to Harry who nodded vigorously.

            “Thank, thank you, hopefully my teaching abilities have not worn off over the years. Now without further ado let the feast begin!” Dumbledore said clapping his hands, making the mountains of food appear from nowhere. The whole Hall was soon filled with the noises of cutlery and laughter as old friends caught up, and the first years began to talk amongst each other.

            The dinner was amazing, the house elves seemingly trying to outdo themselves every year with more extravagant entrees not to mention the desserts and cakes. Even Hermione thought these were pieces of art and refrained from her usual tirade about enslavement.

            “So, Neville, what’d you do over summer?” Harry asked.

            “Oh it was brilliant, I worked with Luna on a special project Professor Sprout gave us. It was amazing! We were deriving hybrids, splicing root systems, even matriculating various pollination systems.” Neville said with evident enthusiasm. Harry just nodded, not quite sure what ‘splicing root systems’ meant. He was glad that he’d found someone like Luna to share his enthusiasm of Herbology with.

            “I wonder which Aurors are going to be teaching Offensive Light Magic?” Hermione asked.

            “’Dunno, Moody maybe? He’s a little worse for the wear now, maybe teaching wouldn’t be too bad for him now,” said Ron.

            “Don’t you remember what happened to him last time he signed up to be a teacher Ron?” Hermione said, “I was worried about Hagrid at first, but I bet he couldn’t be happier, he has his own dragon to take care of again. At least this time it’s legal.”

            As the desserts and empty plates disappeared and the noise began to rise in volume Dumbledore stood up once again.           

            “Well then I hope we are all well fed, I see some of you nodding off already. If you’ll bear with me for a few more minutes you shall be off shortly. As you can already tell this year is going to be different from previous ones. Dire times call for dire measures I am afraid. We have been plunged into a war that will rival that of Lord Voldemort’s last reign. Do not delude yourselves, this will not be a fair battle, there will be no duels, no pistols at ten paces. Voldemort is known for his treachery and will certainly not abide by any concept of valour or honour when it comes to fighting. Hopefully you will never have to experience any of this, hopefully we will succeed and defeat him; but, yes unfortunately there is a but, circumstances may dictate a time where all of us will have to make a decision where lives hang in the balance. Our goal here this year is not to teach you how to use the most deadly spells or slyest attacks, but to help you know what to do when you are faced with a decision like that.

 I tell you all this in the most blunt of terms because I believe that although you are children you are as much a part of this battle as everyone else. While I will not ask you to fight, I do want you to know what friends and family members are fighting and dying for.

            This year will be trying on all of us and only with the support of our whole will we remain strong and steadfast. Although there is darkness all around, light will still burn brightly from those places where hope has yet to be extinguished.” The headmaster smiled softly as he surveyed the silent students, “Now you should all head to your houses, your prefects will supply you with the passwords. And please remember in the spirit of school safety do not give them out to any strangers, and especially do not leave them written on scraps of paper. As the Navy says, loose lips sink ships!” Dumbledore said attempting to liven the mood, but only a few Muggle raised students understood his last line. “Well goodnight then, off to bed! ”

The hall emptied slowly, the usual excitement had instead been replaced with more subdued discussion. Harry and Ginny stood up and followed Ron and Hermione to lead the other Gryffindors to the house but were stopped at the stairs by McGonagall.

 “Hey we’ll catch you later, we need to talk to Professor McGonagall about something. Night guys, congratulations Emma!” Harry shouted over the crowd as he and Ginny headed over to the side where she was waiting. 

            “Mr. Potter, Miss. Weasley, good to see both of you in such high spirits. The Headmaster wanted me to arrange for you rather peculiar sleeping arrangements for this year. We decided that it would set a bad precedent if you two were to share a bed in either of the dorms, and didn’t want to test the limits of this unusual bond by separating you. Therefore we decided to convert the Head Student room attached to the Gryffindor Commons, because the head boy and girl this year are from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff this room isn’t occupied. We can access it from the commons but first I will show you the other entrance. Follow me please,” McGonagall said as she walked up another set of stairs. Harry and Ginny shared grins and headed up behind her. 

            After taking a rather confusing and most likely forgettable maze of stairs and passageways McGonagall stopped in front of a painting containing a huge tree in the middle complete with squirrels, foxes, and birds.

            “Natura Vera,” McGonagall spoke clearly towards the painting, and it swung open just like the Fat Lady at the entrance of the Gryffindor tower. She stood aside and motioned for the two to enter.

            Inside the rather large room was a seemingly exact replica of the Gryffindor common room, complete with fireplace and chess set. The only difference being that there were three other doors in the room.

            “This is where you are to stay this year. I must stress however this is not a privilege and should not be flaunted; it is a necessity due to the Heartbond. You may have Miss Granger and Mister Weasley inside but no one else, it is not going to be a hide out, just a bedroom. If I learn of any misconduct,” at that she coughed and Harry and Ginny both blushed, “You will loose this room and will be forced to sleep on the couch in the commons if need be. I need not tell you that you should not go about speaking of your bond, especially around, I am sorry to say, Slytherins. We have already come up with a suitable explanation as to why you are in this room, you have both been chosen by St. Mungos to have a series of medical tests concerning people’s sleeping patterns in relation to stressful situations, such as you-know-who. If anyone asks simply tell them in order for the tests to be successful they must be conducted in a controlled and quiet environment. I am sure that anyone who has been in any of our dorms will quite understand. Any questions?” She asked, both simply nodded. Harry knew that they shouldn’t tell many people about the bond, yet the made up explanation seemed a bit far reaching, but if it was good enough for Dumbledore then it should work.

            “Now then let me show you the rest of your arrangements. This door on the far wall is the entrance to the commons room, it comes out from behind the grandfather clock and is guarded by the same password as the portrait entrance. That door, to the left of the fireplace is the entrance to the bathroom, and this door is the bedroom,” she opened it and led them inside. It was a huge king-sized bed covered in red and gold sheets and piled with enough pillows to make it look like a small mountain. There was a small desk, a fireplace, and closets for them to hang their clothes. On the side of the room lay their two trunks along with Hedwig and her cage. 

            “Wow, this is great!” Harry said, taken aback by lavishness of the room.  He had completely forgotten about how they were going to handle the whole sleeping problem and was surprised that Dumbledore had gone through all this trouble.

            “We did do a little remodelling, the old room was bare stone and somehow the bed had been turned into a large swimming pool,” McGonagall said, “this doesn’t give either of you an excuse for coming to class late because you slept in. I do expect it to help give you an edge on Quidditch this year though,” McGonagall smiled, she had always had a small soft spot for her victorious house team.

            “Thank you for doing this Professor, to tell you the truth I think we’d both completely forgotten about the problem, I’m glad that the Headmaster remembered,” Ginny said stifling a yawn.

            “Well just remember not to abuse it. Now it is late and I need to assure that all the other students are situated properly, so if you’ll excuse me.” McGonagall said, and headed out the door, but stopped halfway through it and turned back “Oh, Potter, there seems to have been some sort of error in the O.W.L.s this year, it would seem that you and Mr. Weasley both managed to qualify for N.E.W.T. level potions, only someone had changed the results. The headmaster has already informed Professor Snape of your enrolment and is expecting to see both of you there on Monday.” At this she turned once again and walked out the portrait.

            “I bet you a galleon Dumbledore forced Snape to let us take that class,” Ginny said smiling at Harry.

            “I bet you another galleon Snape messed with our test scores. I know I aced the practical part. It’s loads easier without the git breathing down your back the whole time,” Harry said indignantly.

            “Should we try and find the others to tell them where we are?” Ginny asked.

            “No, McGonagall’ll tell them, don’t worry. Plus you look tired, let’s just go to bed,” Harry said, and went over to his trunk and pulled out a pair of pyjamas. Ginny did the same thing and then jumped happily into the massive stack of pillows laughing as they went flying everywhere. Harry took a running start and jumped onto the bed too laughing as Ginny threw a large pillow at him midair. Although they were tired the pillow fight that ensued lasted several minutes ending with both of them laying panting on the bed.

            They both finally got under the covers after hastily remaking the bed and put out the lamp.

            Ginny snuggled up next to Harry resting her head on his arm. “Night Potter,” she said softly.

            “Sleep tight. Don’t let the nargles bite!” He said laughing and kissed her on the forehead before closing his eyes for his first night’s sleep back at home.

 

Hogwarts, Scotland

 

The first week of school passed uneventfully. Although, like Dumbledore’s speech stated, this year was not going to be like years past everything about it so far seemed to be almost identical to his past five. Harry had already been to at least one of all his classes, and was pleased to see that none of the classes would be impossible to keep up with, even in Snape’s class. His first N.E.W.T. level potions class went by surprisingly well all things considered. Snape either had been told to back off by Dumbledore, or he was too upset to even speak to Harry and Ron, as he didn’t even once look at the pair even though they were seated dead centre. It was a small class; Ron, Harry, three Ravenclaws, a seventh year Hufflepuff, Draco and Nott were the only students enrolled. Although Harry had run into Draco in the hallway there hadn’t been the usual trading of insults or threats, instead Draco walked passed Harry as he whispered to Nott in a secretive voice. It was a rather odd turn in personality and Harry reminded himself to never turn his back on the two Slytherins.

Considering it was a N.E.W.T. level potions class Harry and Ron left their first class with boosted confidence. They had managed to successfully brew a shockingly difficult restorative potion without much mishap. Snape followed his new course of action and didn’t even look up when Harry placed the potion on his desk at the end of class.

            Defence Against the Dark Arts had become the talk of the school. Compared to last year the new Defence Against the Dark Arts had quickly become almost everyone’s favourite class to date. The N.E.W.T. level class consisted mainly of all old DA members and several Slytherins, all the other students who hadn’t decided to continue with Defence Against the Dark Arts were deeply disappointed with Dumbledore’s announcement. Dumbledore taught with a gusto that belied his age he seemed much more animated when he taught. It also appeared that Dumbledore didn’t believe that heavily in homework, his only assignment so far was to practice the new defensive spells with a friend.

            The other popular class this year was Offensive Light Magic. It turned out that the Aurors Dumbledore said would be teaching the class were none other than Kingsley Shaklebolt and Mad-Eye. The other unusual thing about the class was that it wasn’t a class with just one year in it, instead there were students from every house and every year in the class.

As Harry and the others lined up outside waiting for the bell to ring and the door to open the hall was filled with anxious discussion about what they would be doing. None of them knew what to expect that first class and when the doors opened Harry was hit with an eerie sense of deja-vu when the classroom they walked into was a perfect replica of a place only Harry and a few others knew of; the Department of Mysteries.

            Tentatively the students stepped one by one into the dark room. When then the last one came through the door, it slammed shut and the whole room was thrown into darkness. Harry, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione, were the first to light their wands, quietly murmuring lumos. The rest of the class followed suit and soon the whole class had their wands lit, partially illuminating the room. They were in what Harry knew to be the entrance hall to the Department of Mysteries, the same hall he had visited countless times in his dreams.

            Harry’s heart was beating heavily; horrible memories of this place came rushing back to him. He jumped when he felt something touch his hand, but smiled when he saw that Ginny had taken hold of his hand. She, Ron and Hermione seemed to feel the same way about the room; all three of them wore a look of grim nostalgia.

            As Harry paced the dark hallway his mind kept flashing back to the memories he’d tried so hard to keep down; the ones of his friends and the Order members fighting each other, of Dumbledore and Voldemort’s duel, of Sirius dying. The flashes of the crosses in the spinning room blurred into a line of light, he heard cackling then screaming, then Voldemort’s voice. Sirius fell in slow motion through the veil, Bellatrix was laughing ruthlessly at his attempt at the Cruciatus charm. Harry heard a crack of door opening, a deep voice said something he couldn’t make out as he spun around instinctively pushing Ginny behind him as he shouted “Apringanor!”

A huge burst of red light came blasting out of Harry’s wand scorching both sides of the hall as it hurled down the hallway towards the door he had heard open.

“Finite Incantatum!” a familiar voice bellowed and the red light dissipated until it was completely gone. Out from the doorway came Kingsley closely followed by Moody whose wood leg echoed in the confined space.

“That was an excellent reaction Potter, although we never said there was supposed to be a reaction at all. It would be wise not to use such a powerful spell when we’re merely reviewing,” Kingsley said as he stopped in front of the class of awestruck students.

            “Sorry,” he mumbled flexing his fingers and hand experimentally. He could still feel the power from the spell he had cast and the heat seemed to be warming his entire body. He hadn’t meant to cast such a strong spell but he had been so caught up in the memory it had been impossible to discern what was real from what was past.

            “…class is about teaching you how to do what Potter here just did.” Harry heard Moody say as he came back to reality, “You always want to be aware, always be PREPARED!” he shouted, making some of the younger students jump, he grinned the torch light casting an ugly shadow across his mottled face. “This will be your classroom for the first half of the year, you will train, fight, and study with this group. We are going to teach you how to fight back not just retreat. The second term we will change the room to another setting, but first, does anyone know what this place is supposed to be?” Moody asked both his eyes surveying the students. In the back Neville slowly put his hand up. “Ah, Mr. Longbottom, you would know what this place is.”

            “It’s the Department of Mysteries at the Ministry of Magic,” Neville said.

            “That’s right, ten points to Gryffindor. This is an almost exact replica of the Department of Mysteries, minus some places that you don’t need to see. Can anyone tell me why we are going to be training here?” Moody asked.

            This time Hermione’s hand shot into the air, Kingsley nodded at her, “So we can all learn the best ways to use offensive magic in an actual setting, one which has already been tested in battle?”

            “I couldn’t have put it better myself, take ten points Miss Granger,” Kingsley said smiling. “She is correct. As many of you know several of the students in this class were involved in a full on battle with Voldemort’s Death Eaters.” All of the student’s attention fell on Harry and the other D.A. members. Kingsley continued, “The reason we chose this location is because the students performed so admirably, and the setting was so adverse to both sides. This will hopefully teach you all how to think on your feet and show you which spells are beneficial in which areas of combat.”

            “This is NOT Defence Against the Dark Arts, this is Offensive Light magic, Offensive. We will be learning spells, jinxes, and hexes which if used correctly will help you win a fight not just protect yourself,” Moody said with an empirical look on his face. “There will not be any homework other than assignments for you to find useful spells for the situations we are working on. Your tests will simply be to see how well you fare in the simulations that we hold. Kingsley and I will be magically controlling up to twenty mock fighters and sometimes we may have other Aurors come any train with you lot.”

            Harry raised his hand now, Moody just smiled and nodded. “Uh, professor, you said that we’d be training in this for the first half of the year, what about the other half?”

            “Good catch Potter, well let’s just say we’ll be working in something with a little larger scale. Hopefully it will prepare all of you for the upcoming war. Now if there aren’t any more questions lets start the class.” Kingsley said smiling approvingly.

            “We’re going to practice entering an insecure location such as this one where you do not know if there are hostiles inside. We’re going to try it once without any hints or instruction and see how you do to get a feel for where everyone is. Everyone line up, when the lights go out the first person can step through this door and face us, once the light goes on again the next can come in. Remember, CONSTANT VIGILLANCE!” Mad Eye barked, making everyone jump again, before he and Kingsley walked into the adjoining room.

            The rest of the class period was passed facing off against different groupings of Death Eaters, all of which bore a striking resemblance to Lucius Malfoy much to Harry and the other’s chagrin. Overall their class seemed to be doing fairly well. The D.A. members were certainly performing the best, everyone from the group managed to take out the three targets without being hit. At the end of class Moody and Kingsley congratulated everyone on a good start. “Tomorrow we have a double period, we’ll start off with another practical so line up outside and wait until the door opens, then you may enter. You are dismissed.” Kingsley said to the departing students.

 

            The rest of the week the house tables were buzzing with discussion over both Dumbledore and O.L.M. many students were up at the teacher’s table discussing possible course changes with their heads of house so they too could have Dumbledore as a teacher. There were also rumours circulating over who his assistant teacher would be; some even went so far as to claim Harry was going to be.

            While Harry was confident that he wouldn’t be suddenly asked to become an assistant teacher his mind was still weighted down with the worries of both the D.A. and the Quidditch Captainship which he’d been given just the day before by a very happy McGonagall. The Quidditch Captainship was a small irritation at the moment, both Ron and Katie Bell were constantly asking when tryouts were going to be and if he’d gotten the pitch reserved; although that had lessened slightly after he finally announced next week would be the tryouts for the empty positions.

The D.A. however was not as small a problem. Everyday people were coming up to him and asking whether or not they would be holding the club or not, and every time he just told them he wasn’t sure and he’d tell them when he figured out. He finally had had enough and decided to ask his friends that Saturday as they sat in their bedroom drinking butterbeer Dobby had nicked from the stores.

Hermione of course was first to respond. “I think we’re nearly ready, most of the spells we’ve come up with seem to work. Plus I think the sooner the better. Did you decide yet about whether or not it should be secret still?”

The last time they had talked about the D.A. was when they were trying to decide about how to institute the group this year, he’d been skirting the issue all summer but had subconsciously weighed the pros and cons of both sides. “Well I agree about starting it soon. I’ve been thinking it over and I still think it may be a good idea to keep it secret, even from Dumbledore. I have a feeling that it may be useful to keep our actions quiet for at least right now, first and foremost to keep Malfoy and the others from reporting back to Voldemort. I don’t want him going after kids’ parents because they are part of the D.A. The last thing I want is for more people to get killed because of me.”

“Harry, how many times do we have to tell you it isn’t your fault people have been getting killed by Voldemort,” Ginny said comfortingly, squeezing his hand. Harry was still getting used to having someone who he could tell everything to but he had been slowly letting loose small bits of his worries. It was amazing how much good it did for him also, he could feel the pain dissolve away as he told her about parts of his abusive childhood, “Guess you just have to pound it into my thick skull, too many hits by the bludger.” He stuck his tongue out at her cheekily.

“Ginny’s right Harry, it isn’t. I do agree with you on the secrecy though, I think we should keep it as quiet as possible. What we’re doing could put loads of people in danger, if you-know… oh alright, Voldemort, figured out what we’re doing.” Ron said supportively.

“Good. There’s something else I’ve been thinking about. I think we need to set up a better system for the D.A. as a whole, maybe grouping us so we can figure out who’s who and what each group has study so for?”

 “Yeah that makes sense,” Ron said then paused for a second, “Remember what Moody said about the Auror divisions and how they’re divided into expertise maybe we could do something similar? You know, break it down into smaller groups who each have a leader.” Ron said offhandedly, he’d been studying a lot of old Auror handbooks over the summer and the idea of smaller groups had stuck with him.

“Great minds think alike mate,” Harry said, “that’s exactly what I was thinking.”

“Brilliant, I’ll start working on it right away. ’Mione will you help me look for books in the library tomorrow? We don’t have that much homework so we can probably spend some time on it.” Ron asked rather timidly, as if he was afraid she might reject him.

“Anything that would make you want to go to the library is ok in my books, lets do it after lunch. Harry how do you plan on keeping it a secret still if half the school wants to join?” Hermione asked her eyes kept flicking back to Ron who was smiling triumphantly.

“Well that’s why I want it in groups so each will meet once a week, and then the group leaders will meet up to keep the groups connected and updated on what’s going on. That way we’ll also keep the information controlled. Only a few people will know how many kids there really are in the DA, and those people will be the ones we really trust.” Harry said.

“Reminds me of a Muggle book I read about the Russian KGB, they’re like the Aurors except much less ethical,” she added seeing Ginny and Ron’s confused faces. “They always compartmentalized everything, not even the generals really knew what was going on, that way they could keep the full scope of what they were doing secret.”

“Exactly. I don’t want Dumbledore figuring out because if he knew what we were planning on doing we’d definitely be shut down, I guarantee you he doesn’t want kids fighting in a war.”

“Well I’ll go find the coins from last year and set the date, we’ll use the original DA to get the word out quietly around the school for meeting times.” Hermione said leaving the room to search her trunk.

 

The word that the DA had been reinstated spread like wild fire throughout the entire school, a very quite wildfire however. Harry was pleased when not a single teacher had yet approached him about the club. It appeared that the student’s one year under Umbridge’s tyrannical rule taught them something about operational security.

The planning had been kicked into overdrive now, with Harry and the others finalizing the groups and spells to be used. Ron, much to Hermione’s delight, had taken to reading piles of Muggle books about war and strategy; although there were several written by wizards, Muggles seemed to be much further advanced when it came to battle strategy. Ron’s chess mind allowed him to absorb the moves from famous battles just like the one’s he’d learned for the chessboard. It appeared to Harry that Ron had finally found his calling; he was spending almost all his free time now either in the library or playing with a little piece of parchment Hermione had charmed for him. It was able to simulate battle sequences that Ron had created so he could see if his strategies would work or not against a simulated opponent. It had become difficult not to find Ron’s nose buried in the parchment, poking the various squadrons to battle against the spell’s foe.

With the other’s help he slowly but surely designed a plan for how the D.A. would be run. Late at night in Harry and Ginny’s room he laid it out for them for the first time.

“Okay, well ‘Mione and I have been reading a lot on Muggle warfare. We would’ve used wizard but there isn’t any strategy to it really. It was all just a bunch of spells flying everywhere, even when Dumbledore fought Grindlewald; there just wasn’t a real attack. The only reason Grindlewald’s army was defeated was because they didn’t have a rank system so they just argued about who’d do what. That’s the first thing I think we should do… create a ranking system.”

Seeing Harry cringe slightly at the idea of dividing an already divided school Hermione interjected, “It wouldn’t be to show who was better and who is worse. It would just be so we can have a chain of command so people would know what to do if they need to.”

Ron gave her a smile then continued, “Right. So we’d have a general then commanders, then division groupings. Each commander would be in charge of one of the groups that you talked about Harry. And each group would be divided into divisions; each one of those would be have the same training as the rest of the group but would be able to work by itself if it was necessary. Each group would also have a colour or a symbol to show who was who and keep it a little more organized. This strategy has been used by almost every Muggle war in the past two-thousand years so I figure it should work for us.” Ron shrugged, his face showing immense confidence in the plan.

Harry shuffled through the reams of information Ron had compiled, it really was an amazing system, every little detail had been thought out thoroughly. “Brilliant work mate! I knew if I left it up to you you’d come up with something. It sounds like a great idea so we’ll use it, hopefully it’ll keep us safer than if we just ran it like last year.” Harry said excitedly. The new DA was coming together. “Hey Hermione, could we make more of the coins? We’ll probably need a hundred or so from what I’ve heard from different students who want to join. I really don’t want anyone to figure out about what we’re doing. I know that if Malfoy figures out what’s going on he’ll run and tell Snape, or worse his father all about what we’re doing. I think the coins, or something like it will be one way to keep it secret.”

“I’ve already started working on them, only, they’re a little difficult to make. I have only 23 so far. I could definitely use some help making them.” Hermione said.

“I’ll help ‘Mione! I’ll help!” Emma said jumping out of her seat excitedly. She had been listening to everything they’d been doing the past week, but hadn’t been able to help them with anything so far.

Hermione and Emma had grown to be really good friends and she was a little sorry that the little girl hadn’t been able to help them out in anything. She looked over at Harry and Ron, they both smiled. “Alright Emma, you can help me. I’ll have to teach you a couple of spells but from what I’ve heard from Professor Flitwick you shouldn’t have any problems.”

“Wicked! When can we start? Can we start now? I don’t have any homework; come one ‘Mione!” Emma said tugging at the older witch’s robes.

“Well… if you don’t have any work I guess we could start now, we have a lot of coins to make. Let’s go to the library so people won’t see what we’re doing.” Hermione stood up taking Emma’s hand and walked out of the portal to the library.

Harry and Ginny both noticed Ron’s silly grin as he watched Hermione walk out and gave each other a knowing look. Harry spoke up first, “So Ronald, when are you going to ask Hermione out on a date?”

Ron spun around in chair, nearly tipping it over with the force, his face already turning red, “What do you mean? Why would I ask her on a date?”

Ginny shook her head, “Ron, you’d have to be blind and deaf not to notice that you fancy her. She fancies you too, did you know that?”

Ron’s face lost a little of its red hue, “She’s like my sister; she wouldn’t go out with me. Besides what if something happened? It would ruin our friendship.”

“Why wouldn’t she Ron? Hermione has asked me a hundred bloody times if you like her. Every time I tell her that you do but just don’t realize it yet. You both like each other so just do something about it.” Ginny said sagely.

“Or we will…” Harry said teasingly, grinning at his friend.

“Don’t you dare!” Ron threatened, “Well, what should I do? I mean…how should I do it. If you haven’t noticed there aren’t exactly a load of date opportunities here,” Ron asked a little embarrassed. It was the first time he’d admitted his crush to anyone, let alone Harry and his sister.

“Not quite sure you want to take advice from me, I’ve only gone on one real date, and that was with Cho. Don’t forget I made her cry within ten minutes of the trip. Ginny and I haven’t really gone on any dates because we didn’t need to, we just sort of hang out.” Harry said shrugging, “You can always use the invisibility cloak to sneak out to Honeyduke’s with her or something.”

Ron smiled, “That’s a good idea, doubt she’d go for it though, her being a Prefect and all. Maybe Dobby can help me work something out.”

“He’d probably carve an ice sculpture for her if you asked him,” Harry joked. But Ron didn’t seem to hear him; he was already too wrapped up in thinking for what to do

“Well I’m tired, I think I’m going to head up to my bed,” Ron said absently, his mind having switched from military strategy to finding a way to ask Hermione out.

“Night Ronald, have a good night patrolling the hallways with ‘Mione,” Ginny called out over her shoulder. Surprisingly Ron didn’t even respond and just continued out of the room.

Once the portrait close the couple broke into hysterics, both of them laughing until their sides hurt.

“I can’t believe this. I’ve been waiting for three whole years to get them to admit they like each other, and all it took us was one question to get the ball rolling.” Harry said sitting up on the floor after he finally stopped laughing.

“Yeah, I guess Fred and George don’t need to send us any of their Blabbing Bubblegum, shame.” Ginny said.

“We could always use it on Malfoy, I’m sure he’s got some embarrassing secrets he’d tell everyone in the Great Hall.” Harry hinted mischievously.

“Wow I like the way you think. My brothers really are starting to rub off on you aren’t they? Let’s wake up early tomorrow, maybe Dobby could help us.” Ginny said as she curled up next to Harry in front of the crackling fire.

“If he isn’t too busy carving a life-sized ice sculpture of Hermione,” said Harry, and they both broke into laughter once again.

 

Harry woke up early the next day. Usually it took him several minutes and a hot shower to wake up but today he was instantly alert. As he grabbed his glasses he felt his scar prickle uncomfortably. Harry crawled out of bed, careful not to wake up Ginny, and headed to the bathroom rubbing the irritated scar.

In the mirror Harry saw that the scar was inflamed, a dark red colour was very visible against this pale skin. He turned the water on and splashed it on his face, hoping the cold would snap him out of it. Another flash of pain hit him and he grabbed hold of the counter, his knuckles going white with the effort it took to hold himself up. He clamped his eyes shut, the light from the torch felt as if it were burning right through his eyes.

It pulsed again, this time Harry felt his muscles involuntarily spasm and a flash of an image flitted through his mind.  He dropped to the floor, his legs no longer willing to support him. He heartbeat was drowned out by the pulse coming form his scar. It felt as if his skin was being torn open at that point, and as he withdrew his hand from his forehead he saw blood.

A flicker of an image shot through his mind. Harry doubled over in nausea, vomiting on the floor. As the blood started to run into his eyes the world started to get darker. A white noise filled his ears as the world melted away into nothingness.

 

Ginny woke up as the sunlight snuck in through the break in the curtains, yawning then stretching out. She opened her eyes when she didn’t feel Harry in the bed. Looking around she saw the light on in the bathroom and heard the water running. She just curled up back in bed and waited for him to be finished in the bathroom. After a few minutes she started to worry, something didn’t feel right. Why would Harry be washing his hands for five minutes straight? She asked herself, throwing a robe on and walking over to the bathroom. “Harry, if you keep washing your hands there won’t be anything left to catch the snitch with!” She teased, rapping on the door several times.

Silence

“Come on Harry, hurry up so we can get breakfast before classes start.”

Silence.

            Now Ginny panicked, she pulled out her wand and called again, “Harry, honestly I take less time to get ready than you are taking.” She twisted the knob and opened the door slowly so not to accidentally open it if he were taking a shower or something. It hit against something after just a few inches and Ginny pushed against it, trying to open it further. She now knew something was wrong and fear filled her. She pushed once more and it opened just enough so she could see Harry’s body propped up against the side of the door.

            “Evanesco!” She waved her wand and the door disappeared off its hinges. Harry rolled back onto the floor, still unconscious.

            “Harry!” Ginny shouted, dropping to the floor. Harry’s eyes were closed and he seemed to be unconscious, his scar still burned a bright red. She felt his chest rising and dropping very quickly, his heart seemed to be making an almost constant beat now. Ginny fumbled with her wand, waving it over and over again, trying to focus enough to cast a spell, but her panic overrode her concentration. Frustrated she tossed her wand down and picked Harry up off the ground and leaned him up against the wall. “I have to leave for a second Harry to get help, I promise Ill be back.” She looked down at him once again, feeling a chill run down her spine at his appearance. Fearing to wait any longer she got up and bolted for the door.

            “WAIT!” she heard an unfamiliar voice from behind and spun around.

            “WAIT, come over here quickly, what has happened?” Ginny located the small portrait of a blonde haired young man who was urging her over with such ferocity.

            “Harry’s unconscious, he’s bleeding and his heart seems to be beating a million times a second. I need to go find a professor…” Ginny said out of breath, she could feel herself breaking out into a cold sweat, she turned and ran again for the door.

            “No!” The portrait shouted again, “go stay with Mr. Potter, I shall alert the Headmaster.” The man disappeared from his frame as Ginny rushed back over to Harry’s side.

            “Come on Harry, wake up!” She could feel his breathing getting shallower and shallower and his skin was cold to the touch. “Please, don’t do this Harry, please…” Ginny begged. She felt light headed as she watched Harry’s life slowly slip drain away, her eyes that were filled with tears began to sag and her vision narrowed. She bent down and kissed him on the forehead, uttering a silent prayer that he would wake back up. As the world around her twisted into a multitude of colours she dropped her head onto Harry’s chest and closed her eyes.

 

            “In here, quick!” The portrait called out, leading the headmaster and McGonagall down the hall over to his position on the wall, “they’re in the bathroom headmaster.”

            Dumbledore rushed down the passage into the main room and spotted Ginny and Harry lying there unconscious. “Minerva please floo Poppy, tell her to come here as soon as possible. Also find Moody and tell him to collect Ron and Hermione, they are most likely in the Great Hall right now, have them meet us in the infimary.” Dumbledore asked as he muttered an arcane spell over the two teens. A blue light started to form around them until it seemed that they had been wrapped in thin blue gauze. That same moment Madam Pomfrey came out of the fireplace carrying a medical supply case looking rather harried, “Merlin! What happened professor?”

            “Poppy, over here quickly. I have cast a preservative charm but I cannot hold it much longer without risking damage. From my initial diagnosis it seems as if both their hearts have effectively stopped beating for some reason.”

            She ran over to the bathroom, knelt down, and began running diagnostic spells to see just what exactly was wrong. After a few tense minutes of her switching quickly through every spell she headed over to the medical case she’d brought and pulled out various potions, “Their hearts haven’t stopped completely but they are beating so slowly that its nearly impossible to register it. From the best that I can tell they are in some form of advanced coma, the only true physical injury I can locate seems to be Mr. Potter’s scar that is bleeding. If you want you can drop your charm they are in no real harm unless their pulse completely stops.”

            “Thank you Poppy, would you help me move them up to the infirmary please?”

            The two teachers levitated Ginny and Harry onto stretchers Dumbledore had conjured and slowly led them down a complex series of hallways that avoided all of the main thoroughfares. As they pushed through the infirmary’s doors Ron and Hermione ran to the stretchers.

            “Bloody hell! What happened? Are….are they dead?” Ron cursed, his face blanching at the sight of his little sister and his best mate lying there unmoving. Hermione just stood there speechless, gripping onto Ron’s arm for support. 

            “They are very much alive Ron, although at the moment they are in a coma. We’re not entirely sure what has happened, but we felt it best to move them up here before we do anything else. Hermione would you kindly stand watch with Ron out front while Madam Pomfrey looks over them? I daresay the rumour mill would go into overtime if any of the students saw Harry and Miss Weasley in this condition.”

            Ron and Hermione looked hesitantly over at Madam Pomfrey working frantically on their friends and family but finally agreed and headed to the front of the infirmary to make sure no one walked in accidentally.

 

            Other than Harry’s scar, which took nearly an hour to stop bleeding, there was little that Dumbledore or Madam Pomfrey could do to help Harry and Ginny. They lay in adjacent beds their breathing still as shallow as ever. Molly and Arthur had arrived by floo a few minutes after they were taken upstairs and were now sitting nervously by the beds with Lupin and Ron and Hermione who had been excused from classes for the day. The headmaster had left a while ago, saying he had to get to his class but should be alerted if anything whatsoever happened. No one talked much, and when the house elves delivered a lunch it was barely touched, even by Ron.

            Another two hours passed without so much as a movement from either of them. The group was still sitting quietly around the beds; Hermione, Ron and Emma, who had come up a little while earlier, were all studying for various classes, while Molly, Lupin and Arthur talked quietly.

            As night began to set on campus the first signs of life came from Ginny who moved ever so slightly. She had reached out across her bed and placed her hand on top of Harry’s. Everyone stood watching on bated breath, hoping to see more movement, but nothing else happened. Dumbledore showed up later that night after dinner to check on everyone. He offered to put Mr. and Mrs. Weasley up in the guest rooms but they declined and instead just asked for a cot to stay in the infirmary.

            That night the group fell into uneasy sleep, occasionally jerking out of slumber to reassure themselves that Harry and Ginny were still breathing. They could do nothing but wait.

 

Unknown

 

            Harry wiggled his nose and scrunched his eyes shut as he tried to get rid of the persistent itch. Every time he breathed it would work its way up his nostrils, and every time he exhaled it would rub against he eyes. He was still so tired, but the annoyance was growing, and he wanted to sleep in comfort. Grudgingly he opened his eyes, wincing as the sun hit them, all he could see in the glare was a fuzzy reddish blotch of hair that he pushed out of his face. Reaching out he felt his hand connect with someone else’s.

            “What’s going on,” mumbled Ginny turning sideways, “five more minutes, class doesn’t start for another ten.”

            Harry pushed himself up into a sitting position on the grass, “come on Gin’ wake up. I don’t know where we are, but I can tell you it’s definitely not Hogwarts.” He took a bit of her own hair and waggled it under her nose making her giggle.

            “Fine, fine, I’m up. You’re cruel,” Ginny teased as she sat up also. “Where are we?”

            “Actually I think the more important question is, what happened?”

            Ginny rubbed her eyes as she scanned the beautiful morning horizon, “I can’t remember a thin, this place does remind me of something though, I just can’t place it.”

            “Same here, I just have a really bad headache. I agree with you, I feel like I’ve been here before in my…. Wait!” Harry exclaimed as realization dawned, “we did dream this, this is from our dreams remember? This is the field we had our picnics in.”

            “You’re right, that’s why it’s so familiar.  Ginny paused, frowning, “that still doesn’t explain why we’re here.”

            “I just remember going to bed for the night, maybe we still are in a dream, and maybe this is some weird new part of the bond?”

            “Well let’s enjoy it then! Come on lets go down to the river down there, it’s a nice day out for a swim.” Ginny jumped up laughing as she pulled Harry down the hill.

            They raced down the hill trying to catch each other until Harry finally grabbed Ginny’s arm and pulled her into the lake with him.

            “Ahh” Ginny cried out, “its so cold!” She immediately climbed for the bank Harry hot in pursuit.

            Both of them dragged their waterlogged, freezing bodies out of the pond and collapsed in a heap of giggles.

            “Well that was fun,” Harry said as he shook his hair dry.

            “It honestly looked a lot nicer from up on the hill, who would have thought that the lake would be filled with ice water?”

            “Now we’re soaked and cold, what’re we…” Harry stopped mid-sentence as he averted his eyes. Ginny had pulled off her shirt and was ringing it dry.