Scars and Red Heads.

WARNING: Set POST HBP (Book Six) so contains major spoilers for all those you have yet to read it or haven't quite finished yet. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Harry discovers the why he has his famous scar and why it is so important whilst trying to have a secret relationship, hide from the media and save his friends. Who ever said that your teenage years are the best in your life was definitely lying.

I do not own any of the characters, they all belong to JK Rowling. She's the one that gets paid for them, not me.

Part of the story line is what I am convinced is going to happen in the sixth book, the rest is my mind working on over time trying to plan a fanfiction set post hbp.

Song is Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine by The Killers, and despite what Harry thinks, I love it.

Please review

Night fell over Privet Drive like a blanket, bringing with it the fog that had plagued the British Isles every night since last year. Muggle Government had put it down to an increase of fuel emissions; but this was far from the truth.

Only two people in the road knew the truth about the fog; one was a batty old cat lady and the other a teenage boy who was currently lying wide awake in the small back bedroom of number four.

Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, the Chosen One, watched his luminous digital alarm clock with a nervous worry. In twelve minutes time it would be July 31st 1996 and Harry would turn seventeen. To most teenagers their seventeenth meant driving lessons, a big party and only one more year before they became an adult. To Harry it meant he was now 'of age' in the wizarding world and could perform magic any time he wished. However, it also meant that he was no longer safe in his muggle home. The second it ticked midnight the spell would be broken and Voldemort and his Death Eaters would be able to storm into the Dursleys house and there was nothing he could do to stop them.

Even the thought of spending the rest of the summer holidays at The Burrow didn't excite Harry. He usually loved spending time at the Weasley's house but this year he was half dreading it for two reasons.

The first was Mrs Weasley. He didn't want to face her knowing what he, Ron and Hermione were planning to do next year instead of returning to Hogwarts to continue their education. It would be his fault that her youngest son was going off to hunt down one of the most dangerous and deadly evil wizards ever. If Harry let something happen to both of them then not only would he never forgive himself but also the Weasleys and Hermione's parents would also never forgive him.

The second reason was, in some sense, simpler and in other ways much more complicated – Ginny. He hated the way he'd left things with her and didn't have the guts to owl her. Even if he did, he had no idea what to say. She'd said she understood his reasons for breaking up with her but he'd seen that look in her eye. It reminded him of that look of sadness and disappointment he'd seen in her eyes far too much this year; after she'd found out about Ron, Bill and Dumbledore.

Music floated in through his open window as Harry watched the time change to 11:56. 'We took a walk that night, but it wasn't the same,' sang the slow mournful song that Harry instantly recognised. The album it came from was becoming the soundtrack to his summer thanks to the girl next door. He'd never had a problem with Erin before. She had been in his and Dudley's school in his pre-Hogwarts days. Back then she was a quite girl who never bothered him and kept herself to herself.

'We had a fight on the promenade, out in the rain. She said she loved me but she had somewhere to go'.

That was until last summer when she started dressing all in black and played music until all hours of night. Harry was even more shocked to come back this summer to find Dudley also dressed all in black with long hair, a pierced eyebrow and eyeliner. If it weren't Dudley's enormous size, Harry would have had trouble recognising his cousin who last year had been all about hoodies and tracksuits. He had a feeling that Erin had something to do with this transformation as the two of them seemed pretty cosy around each other.

'She couldn't scream while I held her close. I swore I'd never let her go.'

The funniest part was that Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia thought Dudley's knew liking for everything gothic and miserable as poetic. He claimed he wore black as he was in 'mourning for his generation'. Harry thought it was a load of bullshit and that he was only doing it to get and stay in Erin's good books. Why else would he put up with this God-awful music.

'Tell me what you want to know. Oh come on, oh come on, oh come on.'

He looked over at the clock again - 11:58.

'There ain't no motive for this crime, Jenny was a friend of mine,"

Every time he'd heard this song over the last week and a half the chorus line still sounded like 'Ginny was a friend of mine'. Which, to Harry, sounded far too much like a line you say at a funeral. He shivered at the thought.

'So come on, oh come on, oh come on.'

Two minutes and he could grab his broomstick, magically glue his invisibility cloak to him and fly away from here. The plan which he'd been formulating all week and one slight flaw – there wasn't really anywhere he wanted to go. Well, Hawaii didn't count; it would take far too long to fly there. The only place he could come up with was The Burrow.

'I know my right and I've been here all day, I know that it's time.

He reached under his bed to get his Firebolt, preparing himself for the second the clock made those little red dashes to say 12:00.

'For me to know so let me know if it's all right,"

With a fantastic bang, which made Harry jump at least two feet from his bed, Hermione appeared in the middle of the room. It took him a few seconds to gain sensible thought.

"Bloody hell, Hermione! I thought you were… someone else."

"You thought I was a Death Eater," she stated. "Don't worry we've got 45 seconds yet. Now, where is he?"

"Who?

'I can't take this, I swear I told you the truth.'

"Ron, he should be-"

"Ow!" Ron landed with a thud onto Harry's knees.

"Honestly Ron! God knows how you passed Apparation Test."

'She couldn't scream while I heard her close,'

Ron scowled. "Where's that music coming from?" he asked. "It's awful."

"Next door," Harry replied nodding towards Erin's bedroom window.

"The Killers," Hermione noticed. "My cousin, Jessica, loves them. Anyway, we've got about fifteen seconds now."

"Yeah," Harry said glumly. "I never thought I'd look forward to a birthday this much."

"Harry, this is no time to feel sorry for yourself, we've got to get you out of here and sharp." She held out her arm. "Grab on and I'll take you with me."

He knew what she meant and was somewhat glad that it was Hermione that suggest this and not Ron. No offence to him but Harry didn't feel like leaving part of himself in Privet Drive.

He grabbed on to Hermione's hand, pictured The Burrow and with a flash and a digging pain, they were gone.

'I swore I'd never let her go."

A split second later, Hermione and Harry landed daintily at the end of the familiar garden, Ron not quite so daintily next to them.

"Did you guys see that?" he gasped.

"See what?" Harry asked, not really sure he wanted to know.

"The house, just as I was leaving, it exploded!"

So what you think? Please leave a review, as this is the first post HBP fanfiction I've ever known about so have nothing to compare it with. Look out for chapter two coming soon.

Spikerox

Xxxx