(Okay so I know it's sacrilegious to base this off of a moment in the movie instead of the book, but I couldn't resist. Obviously you know what scene this is referring to, and I'd like to point out that this fic is based in the literary universe of books one through five, taking place directly off the beginning of the Half Blood Prince movie. So, he hasn't yet learned about Sirius' will or owning Grimmauld Place. Although, his arrival at the Burrow is similar to the books, in which everyone is asleep besides Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and Tonks, and he talks to the three before going to sleep in the twins' room. All that said, I do hope you enjoy...I've only gotten three chapters done and I'm looking for feedback before continuing on.)

Harry did not go to sleep after he bade Mrs. Weasley good night. He lay there, wondering what might have been had Dumbledore not appeared there in there train station. Looking at the clock, he sighed. It was 10:55. She'd be off in a few minutes, the girl from the cafe. The introduction to Slughorn and the conversation with Dumbledore outside of the Burrow were intriguing, but now that they were over, he couldn't get her off of her mind, that set of eyes, that whimsical hair, that smile. He didn't even know her name.

Hedwig perched on Fred and George's window again, looking quite proud of the small animal in her mouth that she wouldn't have been able to find back in Little Whinging. Harry stood and approached his owl, petting her softly. "What do I do, girl?" he asked her. Hedwig simply huffed at him, and flew to her cage where she dropped the rodent and dug in.

Harry turned away from the sight with a wince, his eyes happening to land on a photograph that was hanging out of his school trunk. He picked it up and studied it once again. Mad-Eye Moody had given it to Dumbledore to give to him a couple of days after the incident at the Ministry of Magic. It disturbed him when he first laid eyes upon it at a party almost a year ago, but now he relished the opportunity to look upon the youngest members of the Order 15 years ago. First he looked upon his parents, the ones he could barely remember, but who he had been told lived on through him. Peter Pettigrew, looking more than a bit tired and stressed, was forcing a smile. Harry of course knew why he looked that way; it couldn't be easy living a double life and betraying your friends. Remus Lupin looked younger, of course, though his hair was beginning to gray even at age 21, from years of lycanthropy.

And there was Sirius Black, who happened to be the Order's latest casualty; fun-loving, care-free, loyal-to-the-end Sirius Black. Harry had holed himself up in his room in Privet Drive for days after returning at the beginning of the Summer, depressed from the trauma of seeing his surrogate brother/father figure whisked away into Merlin-knew-where. Harry smirked at the young man in the photo, who had yet to go through more than a decade of tortured captivity in the worst place imaginable. He often wondered how, after that, Sirius still had the aura of confidence, aloofness, and sort of swagger in the last year that Harry had been able to get to know him in person.

And Harry knew just what the Sirius in the photo and the Sirius that had recently passed away would do: smack him in the head for taking this long to leave the Burrow.

"Thanks for the advice," he said to the smugly smiling Marauder. When the clock hit 10:58, Harry changed back into his clothes from that day, and grabbed his invisibility cloak, per Dumbledore's instructions, although he knew that doing this would be vastly against the Headmaster's wishes anyway.

Stepping out into the warm night, Harry walked out to the road, and made it there in about ten minutes. He'd done this before, accidentally, and then saw Remus do it last year. Slowly, he raised his wand straight up in the air. The Knight Bus zipped in front of him almost instantly, coming to a screeching halt. Stepping down onto the street was the familiar face of Stan Shunpike. "Welcome to the Knight Bus, emergency transport for the stranded witch or wiz –" He stopped upon seeing Harry's face. "Oh, it's you. No fancy-haired bodyguard to threaten me this time, I see." Harry smirked and walked past Stan onto the bus. The conductor followed him and closed the door. "Where to, Mr. Potter?"

"Surbiton Station, please."

"'Leven sickles."

Harry fished through his bag of coins. "How about five galleons, and there aren't any detours?" he asked quietly.

"That's my language you're speakin' Mr. Potter. Five galleons it is then. 'ot chocolate?"

"I'm fine." Harry took his ticket and sat on the nearest available bed. He was launched off of it, however, when the Knight Bus took off. Luckily, none of the few people on the bus were awake, so it was only Stan going ballistic with laugher. He smirked and got back on the bed. Would a bench have been so bad?

Stan was reading the paper, as he had been when he'd first met Harry three years ago. "Lot of things they're sayin' about you, 'Arry. Chosen one and what not. 'Tween the two us, is there any fact to 'em?" Stan winked and grinned at him.

"If there's anything to be learned from the last year, don't read the Prophet, Stan," Harry replied. "And…don't pursue a career in journalism." That seemed to shut Stan up, and the conductor turned and spoke to Ernie for a moment. Harry rolled his eyes, not really wondering what the Knight Bus employees were chatting about.

Another screech almost launched Harry over, had he not braced himself. Getting up and trying not to heave, he left the bus. He cringed when he checked his watched and saw the long hand reach the four; the girl at the cafe had been off for twenty minutes. He hurried into the station and towards the cafe

He eyed her in front of the small building, Treats, rocking on her heels and checking her own watch. When she smirked and began walking away, Harry hurried. "Hey! Hey, wait up."

Turning, the girl smiled. "Didn't think you'd show. I was disappointed when you disappeared on me there."

"Sorry about that. My, err, friend needed me to convince someone to do something for him."

She giggled. "You're the persuasive one, are you?" she teased. "Well, I'm glad you showed up at all. So do you have a name?"

"Har – James." He caught himself at the last minute, realizing they'd spoken about a Harry Potter before, and he'd called himself a tosser. "James Evan Black."

"You always introduce yourself with your full name, James Evan Black?" She raised her eyebrows as he blushed and couldn't respond. "Well, pleased to meet you. I myself am Jocelyn Tara Montgomery. You can call me Joss, though, if I like you."

Jocelyn. It was a beautiful name, and Harry found it fitting. They walked out of the station on the opposite entrance that he'd gone in. "So, would you fancy getting a coffee or something?"

Jocelyn scoffed. "I spend my entire day around coffee. I wouldn't say no to a bite to eat, though."

"Brilliant. Those sounds…brilliant."

The girl giggled. "You don't go out on dates all too much, do you?"

"To be honest, I haven't had much time for it. Things get kind of busy at school, and I've been kept at home a lot during Summers, unfortunately." He smiled, hearing her refer to this as a date.

"Well, leave it to me, Mr. Black." She hailed a cab and gave the driver a cross-street. "It's a great little pub, on the quieter and less rowdy side, if you're okay with that."

Harry nodded. "I do, actually. So, Jocelyn, tell me about yourself." One thing he regretted about his short-lived relationship with Cho Chang was that he was a horrible boyfriend, if he could have even been called a boyfriend. He honestly didn't bother to learn one thing about the girl, other than her favorite Quidditch team and who her best friend was.

"Well, I live here in Surbiton, just off of Portsmouth. I'm a bit of a klutz, so prepare yourself." She smirked and shook her head. "It's actually a good thing I'm a friend of the manager at Treats; I couldn't tell you how many cappuccinos have just exploded as I'm making them, for no apparent reason at all." She blow out a breath of exaggerated exasperation, rolling her eyes. "So if I injured you tonight, just know that it's most likely not intentional."

Harry laughed as she winked at him; his stomach did a backflip when she laughed. "I'll try to keep that in mind." The cab pulled to the curb in front of the pub, and Harry and Jocelyn stepped out onto the sidewalk. She led him in and asked the man behind the counter for a couple of cokes and some menus, which he brought to the booth they'd sat in.

"Can't wait to turn eighteen and can order a pint in public; it's about the only thing Ben won't let me get away with here. One more year to go, though," Joss said wistfully. "How old are you, by the way?"

"I'll be sixteen next week, actually."

"Oh! Well, I certainly hope you have a very happy birthday. So, James, it's your turn to tell me about yourself. Oh, and the fish here is amazing, but no pressure."

"Err, well I grew up in Surrey. My aunt and uncle raised me. They…well, I'm just going to be glad when I'm able to leave."

"What's so horrible about them?" Joss asked as she sipped her drink through a straw, careful not to pick it up and have something inexplicable happen to her.

"They're not really the most nurturing. My parents died when I was a baby, and they never got along with either of them. I suppose they're just extending their hatred towards me." He couldn't exactly say why they'd hated him or his parents.

"That must have been really hard, James. I couldn't imagine being raised by someone like that."

"I've moved past it. It's their issue, and I've only got a year left until I don't have to see them again."

"A year? You wouldn't be able to leave home until you're eighteen though, right?"

"Oh. Yeah, well, I've convinced them to emancipate me next year, as long as I keep my grades up. None of us are going to be too heart-broken about it." Harry sipped his drink to stop himself from talking for a moment. He'd spoken his cover-up pretty fast, and he didn't want her to get suspicious.

The old man that Harry assumed was Ben came and took their orders, fish and chips for both of them. "Where do you go to school at then?" she asked with a smile, apparently satisfied by his emancipation story. But Harry now had another thing to cover up. Maybe this wasn't the best idea after all.

"It's…a private school in Scotland. Beautiful place." He couldn't say Hogwarts, the name was ridiculous for a school, at least to a muggle. And at the same time, the last place he wanted to say he studied was his uncle's cover, a school for incurably criminal boys.

"I bet, I've seen pictures of Scotland and it looks absolutely beautiful." Joss' eyes lit up, something that made Harry smile wide as he nodded.

"Where do you go?"

She finished her soda and burped before she answered. "Excuse me. So sorry, I'm a fast drinker." She smiled apologetically and continued. "But I'm actually homeschooled. My dad got a huge promotion when I was eleven, so mum was able to quit her job and start doing that just as I was going to start secondary school. Believe it or not, I'm top of my class." She winked, giving a small smile. "Bad joke, I apologize. I want to go to University out of the country, though, if I can manage it. My folks are against it, but I'm hoping to turn them around. And if I don't, not much they can do in a year anyway."

The late dinner went amazingly from there. Harry was getting to be quite good at muggling up details and stories from his life. His stories were quite a hit with Joss, who laughed quite a bit at them. "These twins sound hilarious! I wouldn't even know where to get fireworks like that, and they must have a lot of nerve to set them off in the middle of school like that. I'll have to visit this joke shop of theirs." Joss grinned and tossed her napkin into the finished basket of food, shaking her head as the laughter slowly dissipated. "So James, what…what happened to your parents?"

Harry's smile faded and he pursed his lips, looking down at the table. Joss seemed to immediately regret asking. "I'm sorry; you don't have to answer that. I'm not even sure why I –"

"It's fine, really," he interjected softly, and then cleared his throat. "It was –"

But the loud sounds of screeches rang through the open door, a sound he'd heard before that same night, and only one vehicle could be that loud. "What is it James?" Joss asked, her brow furrowing, as Harry turned at the noise that she hadn't heard.

Stan Shunpike's voice sounded once again. "Welcome to the Knight Bus, emergency trans –" In an odd occurrence of deju vu for Harry, the conductor's voice was cut off again. Harry furrowed his brow and stood without warning, heading outside. There he saw Stan standing on the edge of the bus, his face blank and emotionless. And then, Harry could just make out a slight discoloration in front of the man, sort of warping the image of Stan's body. It looked much like a disillusionment charm, if he wasn't mistaken.

Just as Joss followed him outside, and the disillusioned figure was moving into the Knight Bus, which was beginning to move, Harry took a chance and whipped out his wand, pointing to it and yelling, "Accio Death Eater!" No bystanders were in the street, and so it was only he and Joss that heard the yell and crack that followed Harry's spell. The slightly invisible figure crash-landed in front of Harry, the impact seeming to break the disillusionment charm.

His hood had dropped as well, showing a thin, bony man with short hair grimacing in pain as he grabbed his arm. Harry didn't recognize him, not one bit, but his summoning spell had indeed identified the man as a death eater. Jocelyn gasped at what she'd experienced, and Harry realized what she'd seen; him whipping out a magic wand, casting a spell at an invisible bus, and making an invisible man appear in front of them. But he'd have to deal with that later, for the thin man shot his wand at both of them and shouted "Crucio!"

At the last moment, Harry shoved Jocelyn out of the way, then screamed in pain as the curse took over control of his entire body, lighting every nerve he had on fire. He collapsed to the ground and convulsed, feeling the pain grow stronger. He thought he heard Jocelyn scream his father's name, but it was faint. The one thing that could be said was that the cruciatus curse put on him by Lord Voldemort a little over a year ago was much stronger than this. In fact, focusing on that comparison seemed to help, and he moved slightly, wincing and looking up at the death eater defiantly.

The movement obviously surprised the thin man, who struggled to strengthen the curse, though he was successful, and Harry's face cringed as he staggered a bit and let out another painful grunt. It knocked off his concentration and he wasn't so sure he was going to beat this, nearly submitting himself to a fate similar to his friend Neville's parents, but then, as suddenly as it started, the pain ceased, and a scream now left the death eater's mouth as a dash of pepper spray left the bottle in Jocelyn's hand and hit him square in the eyes.

With a grunt, the black-robed man flicked his wand towards the muggle and send her flying towards the wall of the pub, and Harry shook off the remnants of the cruciatus curse and cast a cushioning charm on the bricks to make her bounce off of the wall and land back on her feet with a shocked and traumatized face as Harry aimed his wand at the death eater and yelled, "Stupefy!" with a scratchy voice.

The death eater was able to deflect Harry's spell easily, but he used the distraction to get back up and send another curse, a reductor this time, which the other man dodged just in time. The car that the curse hit was dented beyond repair, but Harry couldn't pay much attention to it as he cast a shield charm to block an incoming stunner, and responded with a disarming curse that only missed because the death eater ducked down.

"Fulgurus!" A bolt of lightning shot at Harry, bouncing off of his shield charm and hitting a nearby tree that collapsed into a pile of ashes like a phoenix, though it would never rise. Jocelyn shrieked, making Harry remember that she was there, and as he looked instinctively towards her, he heard the spell, "Diffindo!" and felt a horrible sting in his arm. He grabbed it with a frustrated growl before he was able to cast a gust charm at the death eater, which was deflected lazily. Again he sent a cutting charm at Harry, but it was blocked that time, along with a reductor that he barely shielded against.

And then the death eater looked at the girl behind Harry and smiled wickedly, making him narrow his eyes and ignore the searing pain in his arm. The man started with a stunner aimed at Jocelyn. Harry jumped in front of her protectively and bounced it off of his shield as Joss crouched and covered her head in fear.

The older man launched curse after curse at Harry, aiming in slightly different directions to try and hit the girl. He could feel his anger rising as he defended every spell, and finally he'd had enough. He sent a cutting curse at the death eater, expecting it to be blocked, and didn't wait for it to happen, going right into his next curse, a bone-breaker that the death eater barely deflected. Gaining the upper hand, Harry shot another burst of gust at him, which, despite being shielded, moved the death eater back a meter. He aimed at a garbage can behind his opponent and shouted "Accio!" which the death eater laughed at, thinking the spell had failed.

But the laughing stopped when the can crashed into his back, knocking him forwards. He merely stumbled, but it was what Harry needed. "Expelliarmus!" The death eater's wand flew into the air, leaving him defenseless. Not finished, Harry oncde again shouted, "Stupefy!" putting as much power as he could into it, and the death eater was thrown backwards like a ragdoll, finally out cold as he landed on the concrete.

Harry leaned down and picked up the other wand, then turned to Jocelyn. "Are you okay?"

She didn't respond to the question, standing immediately and screaming, "What the hell is going on James!?" at the top of her lungs.

He didn't have a chance to answer. An owl flew by them and a red envelope dropped near him. Harry sighed and opened it, mouthing the howler's words along with it; Merlin knew he'd heard the words enough to recite them. Added to his problems were the approaching siren of a police car, and Harry was surprised it was so late; surely someone would have called the police earlier.

And then the crack of apparition sounded. Harry turned towards the source, expecting either Dumbledore, a member of the Order, or maybe an auror coming to snap his wand. He didn't expect a man he'd only seen in the papers, recognizable by his mane of greying hair and face wrinkled with years of experience hunting down dark wizards as an auror.

He stepped over the death eater, stunning him for good measure, then walked over to the two teens, one of them shocked to see a man appear out of thin air for the second time tonight, the other surprised to see the that the Minister of Magic himself had responded to his use of underage magic.

"I was hoping to meet you on better terms, Harry, but I'll take what I can get."

(I'm sure it's assumed that I would like reviews, lots of them. In return, I'll love you forever.)