Chapter 1: Leaving Privet Drive

Inside an ordinary house, in an ordinary room, sat an extraordinary boy. He did not appear to be extraordinary; if you passed him on the street he would not even catch your eye. He wore scruffy cloths, in drab colors; they didn't fit him well being at least three sizes to big, hand-me-downs from his cousin Dudley, the fit better since Dudley had begun to lose weight. Yet this young man was fated to defeat the most powerful evil known to either muggle or wizard kind.

This boy's name was Harry Potter, he had just returned to his aunt and uncle's home following his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It was only three days into the summer and already the isolation from the Wizarding world and his friends was tearing Harry to pieces. This summer should have been wonderful, his cousin Dudley was spending the summer in the States, with the Smeltings Boxing team, and yet Harry lay on his bed so consumed by grief he had barley noticed his cousin's absence. 'Sirius' he thought, fighting off the tears.

It seemed impossible that he would never again see his godfather, Sirius Black. He had seen the older man die, felt time slow down as Sirius fell as he knew that there was no way to save his godfather and still his mind could not process the information, the pain, the guilt. This summer, should Dumbledore allow it, when Harry returned to Grimmauld Place he would not be returning to Sirius's house, he would be going to his own house. A house he did not need would never use, it would always hold to many memories of the godfather he had killed.

And there it was, the reason that Harry was so miserable, he had killed the closest thing to a parent that he had ever known. No he hadn't cast the spell that sent Sirius through the veil but he had gone to the Department of Mysteries, he had gotten himself into trouble and Sirius had come to help, he had as good as killed the man. If he had just listened to his friends, just waited for a member of the Order of the Phoenix, instead of charging off to the Ministry of Magic, his godfather would still be alive. True his name would not have been cleared, he would still be stuck in Grimmauld Place with no one but Kreacher for company, but he would be alive.

"Damn it," he growled at his ceiling, "Why do I always have to be the hero, why?" Harry glared at his ceiling, with enough malice to deter even Draco Malfoy. It seemed almost astounding to him that three days and nights of his stares had failed to change his ceiling at all, no dent no hole, his hatred, his shame was pouring out of his gaze and still it had no effect. He only left his room for food and the wash room, and the Dursley's seemed content to leave him alone.

Just then he heard a thump down stairs, he didn't move it was probably just his aunt and uncle returning from the store, and even if it wasn't what did he care. Dinner would not be for at least two more hours, and he was so tired he had not slept since his return to Privet Drive, he felt his eyes slide closed and his last thought was a plea not to dream of is godfather.

He was walking down a corridor, he didn't recognized it at first until he saw her slumped against the wall her ankle broken, panting. He knew then that he was in the Department of Mysteries; suddenly they began to glide along toward another door, the door that Sirius' knife had failed to open. They were going to crash, they weren't stopping, they went directly through the door and suddenly Harry saw Ginny as he had never seen her before her hair was floating around her and the lilac gown she wore made her appear to be not a girl, but a beautiful young woman, there seemed to be a glow around her, and his mouth dropped open he didn't know what to say, didn't even know what to think. This could not be Ron's little sister, the tag-along who had until recently been unable to talk to him. She opened her mouth started to speak…

"Boy get down here, its time for dinner, our food is getting cold!" bellowed Uncle Vernon. Harry jumped up and hurried out of the room, he did not think he could handle a fight just now. They sat around the table eating, Uncle Vernon telling them about some new customers, Harry was not really listening, and his thoughts were on Ginny. The dream must have been a mistake, the girl he knew was no great beauty, and she was just a kid, his best friend's kid sister at that. Ron would kill him for thinking about her that way, the thought of Ron was even scarier than Voldemort, but still he felt his mind slide back to the girl

For the second time that day Harry's mind was ripped away from Ginny by the sound of his Uncle's voice. "Your Aunt Marge will be here in two weeks time; I expect you to have the house cleaned when she arrives. Understand?"

Harry mumbled that he understood and would start first thing in the morning and then he trudged back up to his room, thinking that the work to clean the house would at least keep him from thinking about Sirius. He almost dropped dead from shock when he saw the entire Weasley family and Hermione, sitting on his bed, all of his things were packed and there was a ratty umbrella, which he assumed was a portkey, in Mr. Weasley's hands.

"Hello, old boy," said Fred and George in unison, "your presence is requested at the wedding of one Rubeus Hagrid and Olympe Maxime."

Harry's chin nearly dropped through the floor. "Your bloody joking." he stammered "they're getting married?" They said their hello's quickly, not having much to catch up on, in just three days. Mrs. Weasley's lips had puckered slightly at his choice words, and then she stood and said "I'll just go tell the muggles that we are taking you and we will be off." He did a double take at seeing Percy with them, last he had heard the family was not speaking to him, he was about to ask what had happened but Hermione shot him a look that said to leave it and then quickly continued talking about the wedding.

"The wedding is a week from Saturday," said Hermione "but we have tons to do before then. Oh, this will be so exciting, a wedding!" It was obvious that she could barely contain her joy, and an odd sort of maniacal gleam had appeared in her eyes and Ginny's. And for a moment the weight of the world lifted off of his shoulders, it was good to see his sister, happy like this. Where had that come from? Hermione was not his sister, she was his friend true, one of his best friends but that was all. He looked over to Ron and saw the way he was looking at Hermione, and then he knew from the protective feeling that had risen up in his chest that he had stooped thinking of Hermione as a friend and she was family now.

Harry leaned over to Ron and said considerably louder than he needed to, "Hey mate, what do we have to do? Buy a present I guess but I already have dress robes."

Ron whacked his forehead with his palm, "I am such a git, a present why didn't I think of that." Then he turned to Harry, "well, apparently we aren't supposed to wear wizard clothes, as the giants tend to distrusted wizards so we have to wear some muggle things called tucksdedos."

"Tuxedos? But we'll look like penguins." Harry stated as he pulled a face.

"Well, we'll just be off then," said Mrs. Weasley tersely coming back into the room, ending all conversation. Apparently meeting the Dursley's had not agreed with her. With that, Mr. Weasley shrunk Harry's trunk and placed it in his pocket, then held out the umbrella so everyone could grab hold of it. Then Harry felt a tug behind his navel and they were off.

They landed in the bedroom of Grimmauld Place that he had always shared with Ron, everyone climbed to their feet, Mr. Weasley returned Harry's trunk to normal size and everyone filed out until only Harry, Ron and Hermione remained. Hermione hugged Harry and Ron slapped him on the back, they seemed unsure of how to start the conversation. Harry decided to help them out and start it for them.

"So Percy is staying here now?"

"Well, no actually to be honest he doesn't even know where here is exactly. He has to be brought in by portkey and even then no one is totally at ease with him being here." Hermione explained hurriedly, with a nervous glance at Ron. "Not all of the members of the Order feel that he is to be trusted but he can't give away anything anyway so he comes to see his family sometimes."

"The stupid prat," Ron said darkly. It was obvious to both Harry and Hermione that he had been hurt much more deeply by Percy's betrayal than he wanted anyone to believe.

Trying to quickly change the subject Harry launched a series of questions, "When did you hear about the wedding? Where is it? What type of present are we supposed to give them? What is Madame Maxime going to do at Hogwarts this year?"

Hermione cleared her throat, "She won't be at Hogwarts, Harry. She and Hagrid are going to live at Beauxbattons." Seeing the crestfallen look on Harry's face she quickly continued on with his other questions. "We heard about the wedding the first night here from Dumbledore, Hagrid is coming to dinner tomorrow, said he needed to talk to you. And as far as a present goes, he wants us to take Fang. There will be no place to keep him at Beauxbattons and Hagrid say that he could never make Fang leave the forests were he grew up anyway."

"He's leaving,' said Harry in a daze.

"Wait, we have to take Fang!" said Ron incredulously. "When did you find out about this?"

"I used Floo Powder to call him and tell him congratulations, and he asked me then. He says he knows Fang will have to leave Hogwarts in the summer but, at least he will spend most of the year at his home."

"So, when are we going to get our tuxes?" Harry asked trying to keep his mind off of the fact that his first friend in the wizarding world, or ever really, would no longer be a short walk away from his dormitory. "I mean, they don't exactly sell those in Diagon Alley."

"Dad already picked them up for us; we just have to make sure that they fit. I think ours are black and white but I don't know what colors the girls are wearing."

Hermione let out an exasperated sigh, "Ron, we are not wearing tuxedos, your mom is taking Ginny and me tomorrow to shop for gowns." With that she turned on her heel and went out the door. Ron just stared after her, with a look that clearly said that he though Hermione was insane. "Girls," he muttered under his breath.