Chapter One: An Unexpected Death
Harry sat up from his small bed rather suddenly. The summer night air was hot and uncomfortable, as Hedwig moved restlessly in her cage. She was screeching and making plenty of noises the past few days. "I can't let you out!" he yelled at her every now and then. She'd snap her beak back at him. He had grown rather smelly the past few weeks without showering or shaving, and only ate whenever he started feeling dizzy from the unbearable hunger. As Harry stood up his head spun from rush of blood. Shaking his head slightly he walked over to the door and opened it and walked slowly down the steps.
Uncle Vernon was sitting on the sofa in the living room watching TV. Harry didn't bother looking for any more news. Every few hours or so Harry would get owls from Ron and Hermione informing him of more and more dead witches and wizards. Voldemort seemed to be keeping himself busy, thought Harry as he walked to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. Aunt Petunia opened her mouth to protest but closed it, obliviously not wanting a commotion. The Durselys had had been giving him a rather quiet time that summer after he had told them not to bother him due to his godfather's, Sirius's, death.
"I don't want you bothering me. I don't want you to talk to me. I don't want you to even look at me. Or you'll find yourself in the hospital before you know it!" he had yelled at them the first day of summer, arriving at their doorstep.
Uncle Vernon looked outraged when he said it and yelled fiercely pointing a large round index finger at him, "Why you insufferable little—"
"Little what?" Harry growled pulling his wand out and pointing it at his large uncle. As he thought, his uncle's face fell and he grabbed Harry by the shirt and threw him into the house along with all his stuff and looked around to see if any of the neighbor's saw him.
"You can't use ma-" he hesistated as if the word was cursed.
"I don't give a damn!" Harry said still pointing the wand at him. "So I'm warning you—"
Now that a whole month had gone by it seemed that the affect of his speech had rather subsided a bit. He noticed his aunt had showed signs of protect against him more then once. His uncle had glared at him over his newspaper everyday for the past week. The Dursely were as they usually were, a despicable bunch. But Harry noticed something different about Dudely. Well, other then his obvious physique changes of course. Dudely had become, if it were possible, even larger then he was before, but he had become muscular due to his intense training, which Harry thought was odd, considering how much Dudely had hated exercising when he was little. No, Dudely was different in a different way. Hey did not throw Harry dirty looks, and Harry had a feeling it wasn't because Dudely was scared. No, in fact, Harry had an odd feeling that it was because of that fact that Harry had saved him from the dementors that attacked the previous summer. He wanted to ignore this subject however, because if Dudely, though highly unlikely, were to thank him, it would be an odd and awkward moment indeed.
Turning his head backwards to see Dudely looking at him, Harry closed the door of the refrigerator, with a cold sausage in his left hand. Giving Dudely an odd and irritated look he walked up the stairs again and locked the door when he got into his bedroom.
He heard a rapping noise, and immediately Harry bellowed, "Hedwig, shut up!" But when he looked up it was not Hedwig at all, but another owl, tapping rapidly against his bedroom window.
Harry opened his window and the small bird dropped a letter on his book filled desk. Then it swooped and landed on top of Hedwig's cage, looking intently at Harry. Harry unfolded the yellow piece of parchment that read: I have discussed with Molly, and deciding that after the horrible events that have taken place, I'd rather you come stay with us. Hermione is here and is rather worried about you. We all are. If you wish to come here, reply so, and we will send someone to escort you. -Arthur Weasley
Harry read the note twice over. Good, he thought, now I don't have to spend the whole summer with those idiots down there. Taking out a spare piece of paper her wrote: Yes please! Who will be escorting me their?
And with that he send the owl off towards the Burrow. Laying back down on his untidy bed he took off his glasses and closed his eyes...
He woke up with a start. His door was being banged on as it had never been banged on before. "I'm coming!" Harry yelled rolling out of bed and putting on his round glasses. He opened the door to find a young girl, not much older then he standing next to his uncle.
"Tonks—" Harry said rather surprised.
"Hiya, Harry!" she said rather happily looking at Harry up and down. She frowned suddenly. "You look like you need a little cleaning up. I'll meet you down stairs in thirty minutes, okay?" Uncle Vernon's face fell.
"Won't be that long I just need to pack—" but before Harry couldn't say any further, Tonks had pushed the door pass him and with a wave of her wand all his belongings fell inside his opened trunk. "Thanks."
"Don't mention it—" Tonk said frowning at her rather clumsy work. "Now why don't you go wash up?"
"I'll wash up at the Burrow." He said hopefully. Tonks nodded and with a wave of her wand and speaking incantation, "Locomotor trunk!" the trunk flew up. The three of them walked down stairs with it following right behind them.
Downstairs Aunt Petunia was laughing at her favorite television show, as Dudely was sitting in a corner of the kitchen, much to Harry's surprise, reading a book called "A Hundred ways to Show Gratitude". Harry blinked oddly at the scene then turned back to Tonks.
"I'd thought they'd send the whole lot of the Order to pick me up," said Harry. Shaking her head Tonks lead Harry out of the door and said bye to the Durselys, who seemed never happier then to shut the door on their faces.
"No, Harry," she said sadly. Now that he looked closely at her, she was pale and green. Under her round eyes were bags.
"Is everything okay?" he asked worried. Tonks let out a long sigh and sank onto the Dursely's front door step. Harry sat down next to her. She was sobbing and Harry instinctively put an arm around her slender shoulders. She put her head on his and continued to sob. "What is it?" he asked looking down at her.
"Oh it's just everything—" she said, her voice muffled. "The order's been fighting off Voldemort but—we're just not strong enough. You've been getting letters haven't you? So—so many people are dead. There's no telling whose he's gonna take you next. Even Amelia Bones is dead—"
"Yeah, I heard," he said remembering the squared jawed lady who seemed more the fair during his trial last year for his under aged magic using.
"She was one of the best. And—and—Lupin's been off trying to find out news and recruiting members and—he's on You-Know-Who's target list. On top of the target list. See Lupin's been quiet useful lately. Oh—I wonder how Remus is—" then she broke into sobs again. Harry sat rather awestricken. Lupin and Tonks? When had this happened? He felt something odd down the pit of his stomach. He decided to ignore it.
"So—everyone's busy and they sent you? But—no offense—but isn't one person escorting me rather dangerous? I mean—what if Voldemort shows up? We'll both be goners."
"Oh that's quiet true. But you see everyone's quiet busy—some are fearing for their lives. They don't want anything to do—" she frowned, "to do with you. And well, as you know, Remus is off doing Dumbledore's bidding," her voice was quivering again, "—and Mad-eye's out fighting dark wizards all around. Been killing a lot of them, he has. Kingsley's been trying to see if the ministry's fallen yet and mostly protecting them from being infiltrated. Don't seem You-Know-Who has enough power to take over the Ministry of Magic quiet yet. I'm guessing it'll take at least another year for You-Know-Who to really gain his old power back. There aren't as many Death Eater as there were before you see—"
"Right—so uh—how exactly are we going to get to the Burrow?" Harry looked questioning up at her. She had stood up during their conversation, after controlling herself. She smiled and put out a hand to help Harry stand up. He took her soft, long hand and stood up. He was a slightly taller then she was, though admittedly, her spiky black hair gave her an advantage on her height.
"Apparition!" she said happily. Her voice had changed from sadness to rather delightfulness. Looking at her hair, Harry reckon it seemed to have changed to dark brown.
"But I'm not allowed to aspirate—" he said frowning. "Not of age."
"Course your not. Side-to-side apparition is permitted. Now grab a hold of my hand." Once again she put out her hand and Harry held on to it. Suddenly he felt sick. His head ached and felt as if it were to split in half down the middle. His body thinned and squeezed through what felt like rubber tube. Unable to breath Harry wanted to let go of Tonk's hand, but she held firmly on to his. Everything was pitch black and Harry was about to suffocate when…
Harry took gulp fulls of breaths as he was back to the land of the breathing. Looking around he suddenly realized that he had left Privet Drive and was standing in a deserted street. "Where are we?" he asked Tonks who was looking around at the street signs.
"Not too sure really. I mean I know where here is—just dunno how to get to the Burrow from here. Sorta forgot."
"Your not serious—" Harry said as his face fell. Of course she would forget. He couldn't help but feel a little resentment towards her at the moment. But it quickly faded.
"Um—this way!" she yelled pointing to their left. "No—no—yes—I was right. This way. Follow me, Harry."
"Harry!" he heard someone shrieked as Mrs. Weasley stepped aside after she had opened the door for him and Tonks to enter. Harry was being pushed back by something that could only be identify as loads bushy hair. He smiled while she was still in his arms. He knew it was Hermione right away.
"Hey," she said as she released him. Ron was standing not far behind her beaming at him. Harry nodded his head and Ron walked up to his and they patted each other on the back. Harry looked around. George was sitting with his legs crossed on a table grinning at him.
"Hey, Harry!" George said still smiling.
"Hey, Fred." Harry said hoping that he had said the right name. George shook his head, though still smiling.
"Five years it's been, mate," he began, "and still can't tell the difference."
"Sorry," Harry heard himself saying.
"Oh honestly, George," Ginny said walking down the stairs, "No could ever—" she stopped dead in her tracks as her eyes caught Harry's. Then she smiled widely.
"Oh! Harry! Thought I heard a familiar voice. How are you?"
"Not good to be honest—" and with that everyone's smiled faded. Harry felt quite guilty to ruin everyone's mood. So he added quickly, "could've been worst, though." Ginny nodded and walked up slowly to him and Harry opened his arms as to expect a hug, but Ginny instead ruffled his long tangled hair. She grinned at him.
"Go take a shower!" She said walking back up the stairs. Harry looked at where she had stood, even long after she had gone. He shook his head and looked back at the others.
"Where's Fred?" he asked.
"Out looking for Dad." George said in a rather worried voice. He was no longer grinning but looking at the large grandfather clock that had all of the Weasley's on a spoon acting as hands on the clock. All of them pointed to mortal danger.
"Now, Harry," Mrs. Weasley said waving her wand at his trunk and Hedwig, "you go and take a shower and dinner will be ready before you know it."
After showering, and trying desperately to comb his tangled mess of hair, he walked down the stairs to find the room quiet. Dinner was on the table but no one seemed to move. Tonks was still there, sitting on a chair close to Hermione and Ginny, her face a worried expression. Everyone's face for that matter had a worried expression. Harry walked up to them and sat down a seat near Ron. Mrs. Weasley was walking back and forth, mumbling something that Harry could not figure out. Boom! Harry sprung from his seat, wand drawn. Everyone else got up also. It was the door. Someone was pounding on it. Mrs. Weasley quickly threw the door open to find a bloodied up Fred, and an even more bloodied up Mr. Weasley. He was wheezing as Fred pulled him through the door and collapsed on the floor, panting.
Mrs. Weasley ran up to her husband and pointed her want, yelling, "Episkey!", over and over. George had ran up to Fred, and after helping him onto a chair, was doing the same. Mr. Weasley grabbed Mrs. Weasley rather roughly, which was very uncharacteristic of him, and said in a horrible voice, "I'm sorry!" and he closed his eyes and his hand fell onto the wooden floor. Harry's dry mouth was open, as he looked over at Ron who stood unmoving. He was paralyzed where he stood, his face expressionless. After a minute or two he walked up to his father's body and kneeled on the floor next to his weeping mother. He took her into his arms and looked down at his dad.
"What did he mean—'I'm sorry'?" Ron asked looking at Fred. Fred got up slowly. He had healed rather nicely. He looked down at Ron and his mother and opened his mouth then closed it.
"What is it?" demanded a pale-faced Ginny. Tonks had sunk into her chair again unable to comprehend what had happened. None of them could. Harry looked over at Hermione who was weeping, Ginny holding her in her arms.
After two minutes of quiet Fred took his eyes from his father and looked at Ron again. "He was—he was under the Imperius Curse." Fred said grimfaced. Tears were swelling in his eyes as he opened his mouth again, "Someone had used it on him. He was trying to kill Scrimgeor. I arrived when Dad was disarmed. Scrimgeor hand his wand over him. I had no idea that it was Dad who was under the Imperius Curse. Thought it was Scrimgeor. I disarmed him. Then before I knew it, I was stunned. Scrimgeor barely got his wand when Dad was pointing his at him and was about to use the Avada Kedavra on him. With no time, Scrimgeor used the Blasting Curse on him. His chest almost exploded." Fred sank back down onto his chair as Mrs. Weasley sobbed even more. Ron was staring at Fred, lost in words. "Then—well course Scrimgeor wanted to send a whole fleet of people to help me bring Dad home. I refused. Wanted to bring him home myself. So I got hold of his body and disapperated near here. Because of all the protective charms and all I couldn't just apperate into here. So I had to drag him pretty far." Fred was gaining control again as the colors flushed back into his face. Hermione also had gained control of herself, because Harry noticed that she was slowly helping Mrs. Weasley to her feet. Ginny had sat down next to Fred with an arm around him and George was patting him gently on the back. Tonks was staring down at her fingers and Harry sat down next to her. She put her head on his shoulder. Mrs. Weasley was escorted into her room by Hermione still crying. George looked at Fred.
"What do we do with the body?" he asked. Fred shrugged looking down at his younger brother who still expressionless. Ron was looking down at Mr. Weasley with not even a flicker of sadness on his long face. He did not cry. He did not talk. He did not even move. He simply kneeled there next to his father's torn body.
