I don't own anything to do with Harry Potter (Except three posters, one DVD and a game).
The Weasleys and the Griffiths.Harry Potter woke in a cold sweat in his bed. He had just relived the death of Albus Dumbledore for about the fifth time that week. Remembering where he was, Harry sunk back into his pillow. This summer was the worst he had endured so far. The Dursleys were treating him worse than usual (probably making the most of their last weeks with him) and he was becoming impatient for Ron's owl, Pidwigeon, to arrive with a letter inviting him to stay at The Burrow for Ron's brother Bill's wedding.
That was another reason for Harry's agitation; returning to The Burrow meat that he would see Ginny again, Ron's younger sister. He was thinking about her more and more each day, though they had broken up at the end of last year. If Voldemort ever found out that they were closer than friends he would use her to get to him. But being with her for four weeks would prove to be challenging at the least.
Harry glanced at the clock on his bedside table. It read 1:49 am. Harry had had enough experience of trying to get back to sleep after awaking from a nightmare to know it was useless, so he got up and reached for his glasses.
As he pulled on a pair of socks, he noticed a dark shape outlined at his window. Harry reached for his wand instinctively, and inched towards the window. He reached for the catch, and flung it open, suddenly.
A magnificent tawny owl swooped in, dropped an envelope on Harry's bed, and swooped out again. Harry relaxed, and picked up the envelope. Unfamiliar, neat writing had written his address in bright purple ink on the front. When he opened it, a small piece of parchment fell out, with the same unfamiliar handwriting.
Dear Harry,
I have been informed about your plans for searching for He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's last Horcrux after the summer. I strongly advise against this. You should return to Hogwarts (Yes, it is remaining open) to complete your NEWT levels. Then, you could apply at the Ministry to become an Auror, and then you could begin fighting Him. Seventeen is too young an age to lose your life to the Dark Lord, not when you have so much potential for fighting Him as an adult.
I hope you will consider my words, and not make any rash decisions.
Yours,
Prof. H Slughorn,
Hogwarts.
Harry the letter aside, irritably. His owl, Hedwig, ruffled her feathers and cooed softly.
"It's not as if I don't have any chance of success." Harry replied, indignantly. "I have thought it through. It's what Dumbledore would have wanted me to do." And with that, Harry flopped back down onto his bed. He had faced Voldemort five times and come out alive, with Voldemort worse off than before. Could he, Harry, not be capable of finding a simple object and then destroying it?
A loud crack came from the window suddenly. Harry heard his uncle Vernon give a particularly loud snore and roll over in his bed, but did not wake up. Harry crept back over to the window and saw a feathery bundle resting on the windowsill. He reached out and carried it inside, which turned out to be another owl. Harry let Hedwig out of her cage, and let the owl in. It gulped down some water from the basin and hooted thankfully.
Harry noticed the roll of parchment tied to its talon. He carefully peeled it off, and recognized Ron Weasly's writing at once.
Dear Harry,
Sorry we haven't got back to you. McGonagall's taken over as head of the Phoenix Club, and she's been getting us to set up all sorts of security stuff here before you come. Tonks, Mad-Eye, Lupin and Bill are here too.
Dad says we could pick you up on Saturday at 4:00, if it's all right with the Muggles (We won't use the chimney this time!).
See you then!
Ron.
(PS; Sorry about Errol. Fred & George are using Pig.)
Harry glanced at his calendar. It was Thursday 19thth July. The day after tomorrow he'd be able to see Ginny again…
No, Harry cut off his train of thought. Don't think about that.
To distract himself, Harry went back to Slughorn's letter. Did they think he was just a kid? He was nearly seventeen! Fred and George left school early, and that was just to run a joke shop. Why couldn't he if it meant saving the entire world – Wizards and Muggles alike?
Harry lay back again on his bed. The moonlight coming through the curtains was very soothing, and there was a slight breeze from the open window. The soft hooting of Hedwig and Hermes lulled Harry back to sleep.
That morning, Aunt Petunia served Dudley three pieces of bacon, toast, coffee, and sausages. She gave Harry some lettuce, bread and water.
"Got some important clients coming to dinner on Saturday." Uncle Vernon announced. "If everything goes well, I'll have a big order for drills. I want you," He pointed his fork, laden with bacon. "To stay out of site. And no exploding puddings this time."
Harry only just stopped himself grinning. Last time Uncle Vernon had clients round, Dobby the house-elf had paid Harry a visit, and blew up a cream cake in the living room, in full view of everyone there.
"That reminds me. My friend Ron and his family," Uncle Vernon started to turn an interesting shade of raspberry. He hated any mention of the magical world, and the Weasly family completely demolished the Dursley's living room on their last visit.
"They said they would come and pick me up on Saturday. Don't worry, they promise to stay away from the chimney this time."
The colour in Uncle Vernon's face refused to diminish in colour.
"I'll write to them and ask them to use cars this time." Harry reassured him. Uncle Vernon's face began to slowly return to normal.
"Just make sure they come before five o'clock." He replied. "I don't want the Griffith's to see them."
"I will." Harry finished his lettuce, got up and went upstairs.
After writing a letter to Ron explaining why Uncle Vernon wanted them to drive and to come before five.
The next day dragged by. Uncle Vernon, who usually hated everything about magic and wizards, and went into a rage if anyone so much as mentioned the word, interrogated Harry continuously about the Weasleys, needing constant assurances that they would be coming soon the following day, and that Mr Weasly had a drivers license.
Aunt Petunia cleaned the entire house from top to bottom (More for the Griffiths than it was for the Weasleys) and scolded Harry for getting crumbs on his plate.
The day after, Harry got up early, and checked he had everything packed. His prize possessions, his Firebolt, the Marauder's Map, and his Invisibility Cloak, he packed separately from his school things – They would be easier to get to in case of an emergency. He dragged it downstairs and propped it up by the door. At four o 'clock, he, Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon were waiting in the living room. Dudley was hiding in his room; his last encounter with the Weasley family left him with a four-foot tongue.
Half past four came and went.
"They did say they'd be here before five, didn't they?" Uncle Vernon asked Harry for the umpteenth time.
"I told them specifically to come between four and quarter to five." Harry assured him, though he was starting to become quite worried. The Weasleys were not always on time.
Quarter to five came and went, and Uncle Vernon was beginning to pace the room. Finally, with five minutes to go, the doorbell rang.
"About time." Uncle Vernon muttered, as he went out to the door. "If they had come any later, I would have… Hello Richard!" Uncle Vernon came back into the room with a stout, short man in a suit, who was followed by a tall, thin lady with half-moon spectacles, and (To Harry's utter astonishment) a very dreamy looking Luna Lovegood.
Uncle Vernon was wearing a very wide smile, which he replaced with a look of absolute fury when he turned to Harry.
"Hello, Harry." Luna said dreamily. Uncle Vernon turned nonplussed to Luna, and then to Harry.
"You… you know her?" He growled.
"Yes, she…" Harry grinned at Uncle Vernon. "She goes to Hogwarts."
Uncle Vernon sat down heavily, and Aunt Petunia clapped her hands to her mouth. She stared at Mr Griffiths, who had turned his attention to Harry.
"Harry Potter?" He performed the familiar flick up to Harry's forehead, and then seized his hand.
"Wonderful to see you Harry, my niece has told me all about you. That situation in the Ministry of Magic… absolutely wonderful to meet you."
At that point the doorbell rang again.
"I'll get that." Harry hurried out to the hall, and opened the door to see a familiar face.
"Hello, Harry." Ron said, and walked in, closely followed by Fred, George and Ginny Weasley.
"Hi Harry." Ginny smiled at him. Harry felt the familiar sensation of his stomach doing back flips, but forced it down.
"Hello Ginny." He replied calmly. Ron followed Fred and George into the living room, and stopped at the site of Luna.
"Isn't that… no."
"Hello, Ronald." She replied, bored.
Harry laughed, but Ginny was giving them both a very sour look.
"Got your stuff, Harry?" Fred asked. "We'll, get it. Wingardium Leviosa!" Aunt Petunia gave a little shriek as Harry's trunk flew up into the air and out the door. Harry turned to his Uncle and Aunt.
"So, I'll probably never see you again." Uncle Vernon relaxed somewhat on hearing this.
"Say goodbye to Dudley for me." He gave them a grin and walked out the door, leaving the Dursleys with a family of Wizards. He followed Fred and George to the black Ministry car driven by Ron's dad.
"Alright, Harry?" Mr Weasly greeted Harry jovially.
Once inside the car, Harry looked back at the house that had been his home for sixteen years. Never again would he have to return to number four, Privet Drive.
Discussion soon turned to Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, the joke shop that Fred and George ran in Diagon Alley. They were making nearly a thousand Galleons.
"We'll be able to pay you back soon." George whispered so Mr Weasley couldn't hear.
"No, don't worry about it." Harry hissed back.
Strangely, Ginny wasn't talking to him, and gave him very sour looks whenever he tried to make conversation.
"Ginny, what is it?" Ron asked finally, when she ignored Harry asking her about her OWLs.
"Why was Luna there?" She turned to Harry, her eyes blazing. "You just threw me off last year so you could get it off with her, did you?" Fred and George looked nonplussed; neither of them knew that Harry and Ginny went out with each other during the previous year.
Harry suddenly understood, and laughed. He explained about Uncle Vernon's meeting with Mr Griffiths, and that it turned out they were wizards, and Luna Lovegood was their niece.
By the time he had finished, the whole car was rocking with laughter. Mr Weasly, however, looked concerned.
"I can't believe your Uncle is that prejudiced against wizards." He said to Harry. "Usually muggles are fascinated by the wizarding way of life."
"Well, my Uncle isn't the usual muggle." Harry replied.
"Anyway, what did you get for your OWLs?" Fred turned back to Ginny. "You haven't told any of us."
"I only got them this morning." She replied. "I got Outstanding in Charms, Transfiguration and Defence Against the Dark Arts, Exeeds Expectations in Potions and Care of Magical Creatures, Acceptable in Herbology and Troll in Divination and History of Magic."
"Troll?" Ron repeated. "Troll?"
"Well, with Trelawney breathing down my neck every lesson how am I supposed to concentrate?" She replied. "And I never listen to Binns. I didn't have any Hermione to copy off, either."
Ron went slightly pink around the ears.
"Where is Hermione, anyway?" Harry asked. "Is she at The Burrow?"
"No, we're picking her up from her parent's house." Mr Weasley replied. "In fact… we're here now."
He stopped outside an old cottage with a thatched roof.
"Ron, Harry, could you go and help Hermione with her things?"
As Harry went up to the door and knocked the large brass knocker, a ball of orange fur shot out of the cat-flap, nearly tripping up Ron.
"Stupid thing." He hissed as the door opened. Hermione's mother stood in the doorway, wearing a blue apron over a pink shawl.
"Oh hello, you must be Ron. Hermione's told me all about you." She said brightly. "And you're Harry, of course. I do read the wizard newspapers now." She brandished a copy of the Daily Prophet from behind her back, which had a large photo of Harry on the front cover.
"Awful about Dumbledore. Great man. Never knew him, of course, but Hermione speaks very highly of him."
A large, bushy head appeared from behind Mrs Granger.
"Hi Harry, Ron." Hermione said. She dragged a large suitcase into view. It looked like it had been packed to the brim full of spell books; you could see odd pages sticking out through the corners.
"Could you hold this end, Harry? And you take this end, Ron." She dumped the heavy suitcase into her arms, so she was free to give her mother a last hug goodbye.
"Have a lovely summer, Hermione. And don't forget what we told you!" She called after them as they heaved Hermione's luggage to the car.
"What was that about?" Ron asked, once Mr Weasley had expanded the back seat to about five metres.
"Oh… nothing." Hermione went slightly pink, and was saved from Ron's interrogation by Fred's joke about the hag, the healer and the mimbulus mimbletonia.