Chapter 1 – Betrayal

Arthur Weasley stepped out of the telephone box. It had been yet another boring, almost eventless day in the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts office. He'd had a few baiters enchant a chair so that it moved backwards from under the bottom of whichever unsuspecting muggle attempted to sit upon it. That had really been the only thing. In fact it had been very quiet for a while now. Perkins had said that it was the calm before the storm.

Stepping out onto the busy London Street, Arthur began to walk towards the portkey that he had set up. Arthur always liked to go for a walk through muggle London before he went home, marvelling at the televisions and all the new gadgets that were for sale in the nearby shops. Molly always warned him not to do this, and was always furious when she found out that he had, saying that it was too dangerous to be walking out alone. Arthur thought that she worried too much.

With a crack, two Death Eaters apparated into sight opposite him. Arthur Weasley stopped dead, making for his wand he started to run. It had only been ten minutes since he had left the ministry, surely they didn't usually attack that close, he thought. Dashing down the street he saw curse after curse stream past him. Bright red stunning spells shot past two, one hitting a sign for the underground as he rounded a corner back towards the ministry. He couldn't apparate right now in the panic that he was in; he would almost certainly splinch himself. Running into a dark alleyway off the main road he hid behind a bin and prayed they wouldn't see him, concealing himself with a disillusionment charm.

"Augustus, I think he went in there." He heard one of them whisper as they entered the alleyway. A cat came out from under the bin, mewing at him loudly. Arthur's eyes widened, trying to get the cat to go away, but it wouldn't. He didn't know how it could see him through his charm, but then he realised. It hadn't worked. He was completely out in the open. A Death Eater saw him. Arthur moved first.

"Petrificus Totalus." he shouted, aiming his wand at the first Death Eater, who ducked and fired a stunning spell at him. Crouching behind the bin for cover from the barrage of spells he was facing, he pointed blindly around the bin and shouted "stupefy." It completely missed, but gave the Death Eaters the chance they needed.

"Sectumsempra" Severus Snape said cruelly, firing the spell at Arthur's wand arm. Arthur screamed, as a heavy gash appeared and he dropped his wand. Scrambling for it on the floor he found it, and a vial of Peruvian Instant Darkness powder that had fell from his pocket. Thanking Merlin he threw it over the bin and apparate back to the ministry to report the attack.

2 Hours Earlier

As Harry stepped across the oak threshold into The Burrow, the familiar happy sight was before him. The Weasley family's household had always been bustling with magic, something that Harry didn't have when he was back at Privet Drive between the holidays. But Harry wouldn't be visiting that horrible place ever again, it wasn't safe for him or anyone to live there until Voldemort was killed.

The only inhabitant of the Burrow that was in the kitchen as he entered it, was none other than Molly Weasley, who immediately ran up to Harry, sweeping him into another of her bone crushing hugs that she was becoming famous for.

"Harry, my dear," Molly said, wrapping her arms around him in the tight embrace "How are you? We didn't expect you today." Harry didn't notice that she said this rather uneasily from the other side of the hug.

"I'm fine, thanks Mrs Weasley." said Harry, attempting to recover from the hug as he pulled away from it.

"Well Ron and Hermione are just de-gnoming the garden, I'm sure they'll be inside in a minute."

Harry thought fondly back to his second year when he had first helped with de-gnoming the garden. He had absolutely loved it, and had gotten rather competitive with the twins and Ron in seeing how far they could fling the funny-looking gnomes away from the garden.

"It's okay, Mrs Weasley, I'll go and help." replied Harry, eager to see his two best friends again.

"No you don't have- " called Mrs Weasley, but he had already gone, so she went back folding up clothes with her wand, whistling along to the wireless that was playing her favourite singer; Celestina Warbeck. She paused for a moment to think about Harry, how had looked the first day that she had met him on the platform at King's Cross station, and how he had developed into a well-rounded, loving young man even though he had had so much trouble with Lord Voldemort. Molly shuddered slightly as she thought of his name. She pondered how Harry's relationship with Ginny would last; she didn't know whether Harry would be going back to Hogwarts this year now that Voldemort had returned. Her heart panged for Ginny, she knew that Ginny had loved Harry since she had been ten, and had fantasised about him when she was younger than that after hearing his stories, hoping that he would be the handsome prince in her own little fairy tale. No, Ginny would be destroyed if Harry wasn't with her this year, but if Harry went upstairs, she didn't know what would happen. While he had broken up with her at Dumbledore's funeral, they had still been exchanging letters for most of the summer, and through sneakily reading one of them Molly knew that the love was still there, but how was she to spur it on in the hope that it would help them to continue through such dark times?

Harry was a little bit disappointed when he saw Hermione fling the last of the gnomes over the hedge and out of the garden, he had wanted to have a go himself, but this disappointment left him immediately when he saw his two best friends' faces as they turned towards him, realising that he was there.

"Harry!" They both shouted simultaneously as they bounded up the garden towards him, attacking him at once with a hug.

"You alright, mate?" Ron said, a little bit out of breath but grinning nonetheless.

"Surviving." Harry replied with a sigh. He felt the whole weight of the world on his shoulders, and it didn't really help that he had broken up with the love of his life only two weeks before.

"Come on Harry," said Hermione, wrapping her arm around his shoulder and spurring him back towards the house "She's in her room, I think you have some making up to do."

Harry was always amazed by the way that she could read his thoughts; she always had very finely tuned emotional radar and could therefore handle situations very easily. The moment that he heard these words, Harry's walking speed doubled, to the laughs of Hermione and Ron, knowing who he had really been missing for last two weeks. Running towards the stairs, he thought that he heard Molly shouting something in a rather panicky voice, but he decided to ignore it, his heart was racing, he could wait to see his Ginny again.

"No, Dean, stop it!" heard Harry through the crack in Ginny's door. She was giggling. A million thoughts raced through Harry's mind at once, and he opened the door to a sight that he thought he would never recover from.

Ginny looked up, panicked as she pulled her top down over her stomach. Dean Thomas was laid on the cover of the bed next to her, his face covered in lipstick. Harry's stomach dropped. He had never been so hurt in all his life. Without a word, he looked Ginny straight in the eye and shut the door behind him as he left.

"I think you better leave." said Ginny, putting on her shoes as she saw Harry run out into the garden.

"OK, when will I see you again?" replied Dean, pulling on his bag and moving towards the door.

"I don't know, I'll sort something out."

Harry leapt down the stairs and ran into the garden, dropping to his knees as he got toward the hedge. Ron and Hermione were nowhere to be seen. Harry screamed the most horrible, heart wrenching scream that he had ever made, not even when Sirius had died. His head thought a thousand things, all of them to do with her betrayal. How could he do this to her? Had she gotten over him so fast? Had she ever cared about him at all? Harry screamed again, tears streaming down his face as he thought of all the good times that he had shared with her. Their first kiss after she had won that Quidditch match last year, the afternoon by the lake. But all this was immediately interrupted by the image of what he had just seen. All of his memories turned to not memories of Ginny and Harry, but of Ginny and Dean. Harry watched in his mind as Ginny smiled, resting her head on Dean's stomach on that sunny afternoon. Dean turned and smirked at him.

Harry felt and intense rage build up inside him. Seeing red he stomped back towards the house, looking for Dean wherever he could. He ran into Ginny at the threshold into the house.

"Where is he?" he said, trying to keep calm. Ginny looked scared by the anger in his eyes. But felt a mixture of guilt and indignation at the same time. The indignation won.

"Gone." Ginny said smugly, watching for Harry's reaction. She blocked his way inside, knowing that Dean hadn't really left yet. But Harry couldn't tell that she had been lying.

Harry ran back out into the garden, screaming again as he dropped to his knees, further muddying up his jeans. Never had he felt so betrayed, so hurt, so foolish. Exhausted, he dropped to the floor, everything spinning in a mix of red hair, blue skies and the grass of the garden.