Disclaimer: I own nothing from JK Rowling. I never have, and never will.

A/N: Hey, this is really my first fic, so please be nice. Flame if you must.

Chapter 1:

Hermione sat outside Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor. She was waiting for her two best friends, Harry and Ron. They were to do there school shopping and go back to the Burrow for the rest of the summer holiday.

"Harry, Ron, over here!" Hermione ran over to Harry and Ran and threw her arms around Harry, almost knocking him over in the process.

"It's good to see you, too, Hermione, but you're suffocating me," gasped Harry.

"Oh, sorry about that. So, how many O.W.L.S did you two get?" Hermione asked.

Harry briefly glanced at Ron, and then turned back to Hermione, "I'd rather not say right now."

"Come on, mate! You wouldn't tell me the whole way, just tell us already!" Ron said, obviously annoyed that Harry wasn't sharing his scores with them.

"I said NO!! So just drop it, ok."

"Fine, then I'm not saying either," said Ron, reluctantly.

"Well, I got sixteen O.W.L.S" said Hermione happily.

Ron and Harry looked at each other and rolled their eyes. Of course Hermione had gotten Outstanding on everything. Not to mention the electives she was in. Harry would tell Hermione his scores later, but he didn't want to say them in front of Ron.

As Harry, Ron, and Hermione walked down Diagon Alley, they talked about their summers, and what school will be like. They went to the Apothecary, and all three of them had gotten considerably taller, so they went to Madam Malkins Robes for All Occasions. Finally, they went to Flourish and Blotts. They had a considerably large list of new books to buy because they were starting to work towards their N.E.W.T.S.

"So, Harry, are you excited about having a real birthday this year?"

"EXTATIC!! It's gonna be great, Ron's mum is making me a dinner, and best of all, I'm gonna be with my two best friends in the world!" Harry said, putting his arms around Ron and Hermione.

"BLOODY HELL!!!" Ron gasped as they were leaving the bookshop.

"What is it, Ron?" asked Harry and Hermione together.

"Over there, by Ollivanders!" Ron was pointing at a girl standing outside the wand shop

Harry and Hermione grinned at each other. Ron's ears turned almost as red as his hair when the girl smiled and waved at the three of them. Ron quickly turned the other way and Harry and Hermione started laughing. They found it amusing that Ron was in such a daze because of a girl he only just saw.

"She has to be our age, but I've never seen her before. She's positively gorgeous."

"Well, go talk to her. Say hi; tell her your name, if you can even remember." Harry laughed.

"NO WAY!!! Besides, mum is expecting us for dinner, we should get home."

Harry, Ron, and Hermione returned to the Burrow by floo powder. While Hermione but her stuff in Ginny's room, Harry and Ron went up to his room. Harry looked around the room. He hadn't been there for two years but nothing much had changed. Ron still had posters of his favorite quidditch team, the Chuddly Canons, on all the walls. Harry loved it, he had always loved it. He felt more at home in Ron's room then he did in his own room, or, rather, the room the Dursleys let him stay in while he was there.

"So, are you going to tell me what you got on your O.W.L.S, or not?" Ron asked Harry.

"Not now I'm not. Stop bugging me about it, or I will never tell you."

"Fine. I won't say anything, as long as you promise to tell me. I'm going to take a shower; you can have it when I'm done."

With that, Ron left the room, leaving Harry alone to get settled in. Harry put his trunk by the foot of his bed and pulled out his journal, a quill, and inkwell. He sat down at Ron's desk and began to write. He had been writing in a journal all summer. Of course, if Ron ever found out, Harry knew he would never live it down. Ron was his best friend, but sometimes he could be so insensitive.

"Hey, mate, what are you doing?"

Harry whipped around and saw Ron standing in the doorway drying his hair off with a towel, "Huh? Oh...umm...nothing." Harry said, "Well, I'm going to take a shower."

"Ok, but hurry up, I suspect Mum will have dinner ready soon."

Harry quickly hide is journal in his truck, hoping that Ron wouldn't decide to snoop. He walked off to take a shower before dinner. He turned the water on and undressed. Climbing into the shower, he began to think about Sirius. He didn't feel guilty or angry, like he sometimes did. He just felt, sad. There was no other word he could use to describe how he felt. Sirius was the closest thing he had to a father. Sure, he had Mr. Weasley, but Sirius was his godfather, and his father's best friend. But now he didn't have Sirius either. Sometimes he would blame himself for what happened in June, and other times he blamed Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Harry turned off the water, dried, and got dressed. He stepped out of the bathroom and walked back to Ron's room.

There was a soft knock on the door and then it slowly creaked open. "Oh, it's just you, Mrs. Weasley, I was afraid it was someone else." Hermione had been playing her guitar. She started taking lessons between her second and third year at Hogwarts. Her mother had bought her a guitar and she decided to take lessons.

"Dinner is ready, dear, so get washed up. And I must say you are doing quite well."

"Thank you. I'll be down in a minute."

Mrs. Weasley left Hermione to put her guitar away and get cleaned up. She was the only one who knew about Hermione's guitar. She hadn't told anyone because she was afraid of what people might say. She especially didn't want Ron to find out because she didn't think he would understand. He had laughed at when she said she was going skiing last Christmas Holiday. Besides, she was just now getting a hang of it. She had had very hard time with it.

Hermione gently laid her guitar in the case and closed it up. She locked it so that no one could open it and buried it in her trunk under all her books and robes. She went down to dinner, and as she passed Fred and George's room, she heard arguing. She didn't bother to knock on the door and ask what the matter was because she figured it was about a new invention that they were making. Hermione just walked on by. Suddenly she heard a large crash and a scream, then Fred and George came running out of the room.

A/N: So...how was that? I think I did pretty well. Anyway, please review. Much love.