Harry jumped to his feet. A knock at the door? At six thirty four in the morning? With his reputation? He hastily descended the stairs, knowing that if any of the Dursley's awoke right now there would be trouble. As he approached the front door he could see a distorted figure through the frosted glass, and so drew out his wand in anticipation. He swung the door open and stared, as for some reason the figure remained distorted despite the fact there was no frosted glass in the way. The man who stood on the doorstep looked like he had been carved out of wood, and then something else, not exactly melted, but perhaps like a Picasso painting in the sense that all the facial features looked to be slightly off from the correct place.

"Moody, do you know what time it is?" Harry asked, as his mind returned to his original train of thought.

"It's six thirty, but I knew you would be awake" Moody replied in his barking voice, which matched his rough appearance. It was hard to imagine anything about this man being smooth. He probably shaved with a rock, and brushed his teeth with gravel.

"Its six thirty. I thought you might have been a Death Eater"

"Exactly, that's why we are here so early, you need to think like a Death Eater"

"But I'm not one"

"No but you think like one, and I need to think like a Death Eater too, which means I think like you, and so I knew you would be awake, Kapeesh?" Moody said in a way which implied this made perfect sense. At this point Remus appeared from up the driveway, and walked past Moody in to the house.

"Don't go confusing us, it's too early in the morning for that. Hey Harry, where are your bags?"

"They are just upstairs." He replied as he pointed.

"The real reason we are here early…" Said Tonks as she loitered about with her hands in her pockets. "Is that Moody gets self conscious about muggles always gawking at his magic eye."

"I do not get self conscious!" He snapped. "I just get impatient. All these muggles with their staring, you would think they have never seen a magical eye before. How's a man supposed to do his job with people lollygagging all over the scene." Five minutes later all of Harry's possessions had been removed from his bedroom and placed in the boot of the car.

Although to refer to it as a car was to downplay the extravagance of the transport. What was actually parked on the drive, or half on the drive, was a long black limo. The windows were blacked out, which suggested someone misunderstood the idea of travelling covertly. He wasn't exactly sure whose idea a limo was, but the whole thing reeked of Tonks. It would seem she could do with a few more lessons in muggle travel.

"What were you guys thinking?" Harry asked in dismay.

"If you travel it might as well be in style" replied Tonks, who was positively beaming whilst looking at the car. Once the boot had been shut Harry slid into the back. He would have called it the middle seat, but since it had been magically enlarged so much it was hard to be sure of exactly where the middle was.

"This is a little like the knight bus you know" Remus explained as he looked over at Harry. "It can't be seen by any muggles, and it can also travel a little faster than traditional muggle cars go. Now, if I may make a suggestion, you may wish to put your seatbelts on.

Picking up on the plural Harry looked at where he was sitting and noticed that strangely it seemed to be nothing but seatbelts. Never the less, he took Remus' advice and strapped in about ten or so seatbelts. There were still some unfastened, including one which looked like it should go over the forehead. However, it looked like they had all been summoned in a hurry, like a last minute addition to the car.

He looked to the other side of the car where Lupin was hastily buckling up and tightening straps. Harry wouldn't have been surprised if he had used some chains for extra strength and added some spellotape for a last precaution. Tonks, who was in the middle, only seemed to have three seat belts whilst Moody had but a single seatbelt. He wasn't entirely sure why but he had a sinking feeling in his stomach of impending doom. The same kind of feeling you had when you ate that chicken that tasted a bit funny, only to find out a moment later that they hadn't been serving chicken at all.

Suddenly Harry heard the engine roar and the car shuddered in a way that cars, in uncle Vernon's opinion, most certainly should not. He now understood the doom. The engine wasn't tickering away or making a gentle hum like cars should do. It was quite literally roaring, or doing a damn good impression for something without vocal chords. Harry decided that this never was a typical muggle limo. At least if you started with one of those you couldn't go too wrong. No. Harry decided that this was probably transfigured from some mice, a mouldy cabbage and an old front door.

As he cast his glance up away from Remus and straight forwards to Moody, he saw the ex-teacher leaning round the back of his seat. He gave everyone a quick glance to make sure they were strapped in; before he licked his lips in anticipation and tightened his grasp on the steering wheel. Moody pressed the accelerator and Harry suddenly found himself sinking in to the back of his seat several inches more than he would have expected. Remus was right when he said that this was like the knight bus. He did however neglect to tell Harry the fact that unlike the night bus, houses and lampposts didn't seem at all inclined to move.

As they went flying round the roads swerving all over the place, gravity seemed to have forgotten that it applied to Moody as well, as his body went flying from side to side if the front of the limo. Harry noted to himself the Moody must be commendably strong to be able to keep hold of the steering wheel when he could feel all the blood being pushed to one side of his body.

Once Harry was certain that he wasn't about to throw up, he managed to observe that Moody actually seemed to be accelerating. Harry felt the car bounce up and down on various unknown obstacles that he greatly hoped weren't muggles. During this time he chanced a glimpse to his left and saw Lupin with his eyes wide open in fear and his face a very strange shade of green. Tonks however was bouncing up and down in her seat and flying from side to side as far as her three seat belts would allow, all the time shouting

"Faster Moody Faster!!!"

Several minutes later after the remainder of the journey, which we shall not be recounting, the car came to a stop on the side of the road just outside Griminauld Place. With a broken window, a missing wheel, and a strange purple goo across the bonnet, Harry decided in the future he would confine himself to normal cars, or at the very most cars which could fly.

As they got out of the car Hermione came running out excitedly to meet them. Harry observed that Ron, who looked the same as usual, lanky ginger and too freckled for his own good, was leaning by the front door. It seemed he was at that age where it would be uncool to run out and hug a friend. Especially a guy friend. Hermione however did not seem concerned by such matters. In fact it could be said she was the exact same girl he had always known.

"Hey Harry, it's good to see you, have you lost weight?" she asked as she hugged him. "You feel thin, I bet the Dursleys weren't feeding you properly." She said in a way which made him feel like a pet dog.

"No I'm the same as normal." He replied before wondering what to say next. "Have you changed your hair Mione?" This was a safe question to ask. Girls take this sort of question as a compliment, where as if he said "You're face looks different." This might result in him being punched.

"Why yes I did Harry thanks for noticing." She blushed at this comment and looked away from Harry, and over at Moody who had climbed back into the car and was rummaging round for his other eye which had fallen out during the bumpy ride.

"Fancy helping us get your stuff in?" Remus called from the boot. "I'm not sure what you packed in this trunk of yours but I'm not willing to do my back in lifting this. Harry was reminded that this was a muggle street, unlike at the Burrow.

As they walked into the house Harry had to stop for a moment to make sure he had walked in to the right house, and not the one next door, since it appeared to be markedly different from the one he recalled. Gone was the screaming portrait of Sirius' mother, along with the grime on the walls, floors and ceilings. The only remnants of its existence was a sort of darkish spot on the wall that suggested someone had been burning something. Obviously creature hadn't been around when it happened or else he would probably have killed someone.

The old sticky carpet which had caked together into a sort of brown goo over the years had gone, and was now replaced by a springy new red one with swirly patterns. A smell of fresh paint hung in the air which revealed more than a good cleaning had been undertaken in his absence. The painting had clearly been done the muggle way because Harry could see the colour was much more solid in some areas than others. Presumably it was one of Mr. Weasley's latest projects.

"Drying paint! Fantastically fascinating subject." He could imagine the man saying. Mr Weasley was just about the only person in the entire multi-verse who thought that.

As Harry glanced at the window next to him he was surprised to see that it must have been cleaned a lot, because it was no longer so dark with filth that it stopped sunlight getting through. They now shone brightly and clearly in the morning sun and made the whole house seem a much brighter and cheerful place and even quite inviting. Either someone had devoted several hard hours of work to it or someone had just called it quits and bought brand new ones. As he caught a sight of Ron rubbing his wrist painfully he guessed the former was more likely.

"We managed to get loads cleaned out since Kreacher kicked it" Ron boasted after Harry had finally taken everything in. He suddenly remembering the note from Hermione he had received during the summer, mentioning the house elfs death. He turned to look up the wall, expecting to see Kreacher's ugly head staring down at him. Instead he just saw plain wall. Again there absence was noted with scorch marks.

"What you didn't expect us to keep them there? Mum said they gave her the creeps" Ron said very matter of factly. Harry was glad the Deceased House Elf Museum was no longer there because in his opinion they were kind of creepy. Anything that had the ability to stare at you for hours without blinking wasn't to be messed with. Moody was a good example of this.

Hermione did not comment during the discussion of the deceased house elf. Harry looked over to where she was standing, and could see that she had tears in her eyes but probably wasn't going to cry. Just then Moody hobbled in through the door and paused by the three by the door. His normal eye looked at Hermione whilst his magical one span round in all directions at a nauseating speed as if happy that it was finally back in its socket. There were a few stay bits of carpet fluff still stuck to it which gave it a strangely disturbing appearance. Moody, noticing that Hermione was sulking over the house elf again, leaned over to her.

"Hey little lady, why so melancholy?" He asked as he gave Hermione a friendly pat on the back. She looked in to Moody's face, which was not the most comforting of faces, and replied.

"Well I'm just sad that Kreacher is gone." Moody's Eye swivelled over to face through his head at the wall where the heads would have been. He cocked an eyebrow.

"Well you shouldn't be sad…" said Moody after a long pause. These were apparently not the comforting words she was expecting as more tears welled up in her eyes. "Because if you died, he sure as hell wouldn't be!" Harry had to stifle a laugh at Moody's brutality as he then walked off laughing in a way that sounded remarkably similar to hat, "hat hat hat hat hat." By the look on Ron's face he also found it amusing. If any of them had possessed a magic eye it was quite likely they would have seen a bottle of something named elf poison in his pocket.

Harry went to walk into the living room and was just about to open it when a head suddenly peered round it. It caused Harry to jump back and end up standing on Ron's toes. He instantly recognised this face as belonging to Mrs Weasley. She looked exactly the same as she usually did. Like a plump tired, and yet eternally working Weasley. She surveyed the people in the corridor and gave Ron a quick yet firm stare before turning to Harry.

"Sorry dear, you can't come in right now, we are discussing important things for the Order." She said in a motherly tone. Fred's head, or George (Harry wasn't sure), then appeared above Miss Weasley's and he said in a mocking voice. "Oh yes very important and interesting. Still, nothing to concern you." He finished of with a grin on his face whilst Miss Weasley was looking up trying to calculate the amount of sarcasm in his voice, before finally gave up trying to measure the immeasurable.

"So you're a member of the Order now?" asked Harry.

"Um, Yeah I sure am! But seriously we are discussing important stuff which shouldn't be overheard." One of then said. Ron seemed to take this as a cue to suggest going upstairs.

Harry wasn't exactly sure what was so interesting about upstairs that required such immediate investigation but by Ron's reaction it either involved gold or some sort of fountain of vitality. Ron, Harry and Hermione all went up in to Ron and Harry's room, or at least used to be Ron and Harry's room. For now it was just Ron's room. Where Harry's bed usually was, there was nothing.

Seeing the confused look on Harry's face he explained,

"Oh you don't need to worry; your not sleeping on the floor or anything, it's just that you won't be sleeping in here anymore. Well not unless you want to. We moved your stuff into Sirius' old room. It's bigger and nicer. And there is a double bed" Ron finished off enviously. Harry should have foreseen this. After all they wouldn't just leave the room empty and untouched. Sirius wasn't coming back. Still, Harry didn't feel comfortable about it.

Ron noticing this tried to change the subject.

"Hey you know dad put up some charms which mean we can play Quidditch without the neighbours seeing us!" His distraction seemed to work because Harry hadn't played Quidditch in a very long time thanks to a "life time Quidditch ban" from professor Umbridge, and the reminder that he could soon be back in the air was exciting.

"That will be cool. Maybe we can get some of the others, like Remus to join in."

Hermione, Ron and Harry sat chatting for the next hour, talking about what they did in the summer holidays, rr in Harry's case, what he hadn't done. Hermione had gone Skiing in Italy for the first two weeks of her holiday with her family, and then came to Grimmauld Place, whilst Ron had apparently spent the best part of his time cleaning, and therefore had many stories to tell about the strange creatures they found living in the basement while they were cleaning out mould.

After regaling then with a story about a flobberworm the topic of discussion turned to O.W.L's. What wasn't expected was that it had taken this long. Harry had been willing to bet it would come up within the first thirty seconds of Hermione opening her mouth. This talk lasted much longer than it should have. In Harry's opinion a quick accounting of grades followed by a brief review was all that was required. Hermione thought very differently however.

Of course she got outstanding on everything other than her Arithmacy where she only got an E. As Harry and Ron heard several times, this was due to a miscalibration in the school equipment rather than her making a mistake. She never made mistakes, apparently.

"And I double checked it" She went on for several very long, and exceedingly dull minutes. When Hermione stopped for an extra long breath Harry decided to quickly move the subject a little. Not too much because Hermione didn't let that sort of thing happen around her, but enough that he wouldn't grow a beard before the topic changed. He decided to mention his divinations result.

Ron, as Harry expected, found the "troll" Harry scored in divinations hilarious, and something to be proud of.

"We can be called the troll brothers" Ron joked. "Although I think that might be more appropriate for Fred and George." Hermione on the other hand was not amused, and made frowning faces at them to convey her disapproval. She seemed slighted that anyone could find it funny, even if it was a lesson taught by a crackpot teacher. Once Harry and Ron had exhausted the topic of the exams (Hermione would have happily gone on all year) they started talking about other things like Quidditch league and Lunch.

Harry was told that they would be going to Diagon Alley tomorrow because Hermione wanted to get all her books so that she could start revising early. For once Ron seemed to agree with the idea of revising.

"Well what's the point in staying if you're not going to bother trying, besides after the homework overload we got last year I don't want to risk a repeat performance." he said, when Harry questioned him.

This was good news to Harry, who was looking forward to the prospect of going to Diagon Alley. After the Dursley's anything would seem exciting. Even a detention with Snape wouldn't be entirely without fun by comparison.

He also wanted to visit "Weasley's Wizard Wheezes" the shop that was set up in the later part of the last school year by Fred and George with the money Harry gave them from the Tri-Wizard Tournament. From the brief description Ron had said it sounded like their business was going well, which was nice to know. Harry didn't ask any follow up questions because he suspected it might be a sore point for Ron. With two misfit brothers Ron could never be judged, but now that they seemed to be business owners, He might feel he had to prove himself.

Ron excused himself to the bathroom whilst Hermione went to get a book from her room which would further illustrate how it was "impossible" to score outstanding on Aritmacy. Harry was left sitting alone. He was just about to get up and check out his new room when Ginny walked in and sat down on the bed. She was rearing a plain Red T-shirt that in Ron's opinion was to tight for her.

"Why would you buy clothes that don't fit?" He had asked

"You wouldn't understand Ronald." She had yelled back

"If you want small clothes you can wear my old school uniform." He replied.

She sulked.

She was also wearing a knee length faded denim skirt. With this she was wearing no socks or shoes. She had tied her hair back in some sort of plait, which reached down to the small of her back. She also had a strand of her loosely hanging down at the side of her face. Harry was not an expert on the matter but he supposed one might think she looked quite nice.

"So where have you been?" Harry asked, curious as to why he had not seen her sooner. Generally the youngest Weasley was quick to present herself upon his arrival.

"Oh I was…um…out in the garden" A minute of awkward silence followed, where Harry desperately tried to think of something to say. What did he know about Ginny that they could discuss?

"So…um…are you still going out with Dean?" He asked. He immediately wished he hadn't when she let out a high pitched giggle and blushed furiously. She then grinned at him and said,

"No I decided he was boring and I didn't know him very well." Ginny then got up off the bed and ran out of the room. A second later she stuck her head back in and said "Oh yeah, I hope you had a nice birthday" then ran back out again.

Ron and Hermione returned a moment later, She had her face in a book and was carrying an assortment of measuring devices. Harry looked to Ron who was staring in disbelief at Hermione's persistence.

"See" she exclaimed as she had drew a lot of random lines and came up with a number bearing no relevance to anything Harry could see.

"This is what the answer should have been. But it wasn't and it's all the schools fault. I'm telling you, I shall be having a few harsh words with professor Dumbledore."

As if by magic, which Harry reminded himself, it probably was, Dumbledore appeared, framed in the doorway and smiling down at them over his half moon spectacles. "Did somebody say my name?" The look on Hermione's face suggested that one of the last things she would want to do is moan about the test to him.

"I didn't think I would be seeing you till September. That is what you said in the letter that you sent me." Harry asked in pleasant surprise. It wasn't that Harry had forgiven Dumbledore for being stupid, but he was the sort of person you couldn't stay angry at, especially if he didn't want you to.

Dumbledore looked at Harry then looked at the bewilderment on Ron and Hermione's faces before asking,

"You haven't told them your news then?" Harry searched his memory for a moment for what Dumbledore may be referring, and then remembered. It had slipped his mind through all the excitement of being back with his friends, but now he thought about it this would be an ideal way to get Hermione to shut up about exams, short of gluing her mouth closed.

"Oh yeah I'm a prefect now." He said to Ron and Hermione. There was a moment silence before Ron started beaming.

"Wicked! We are gonna have so much fun…" He paused for a moment after seeing Dumbledore's questioning look. Ron thought fast, which was a rare occurrence

"So much fun helping the new first years…and stuff!" Ron looked happy with his lie, and nodded to himself about the idea. Just to be safe he added. "Learning is so darn fun." Dumbledore gave a small knowing chuckle.

"It certainly is." He then turned back to Hermione. "Now Miss Granger, I understand there is a matter of grave importance that we need to speak?"

Dumbledore kneeled down next to her. In an ideal world Hermione would have been able to get her point across without having to say a single word. However since it wasn't such a world, this wasn't the case. She eventually resigned to this and started saying the problem in a nervous voice.

"Um you see professor…" She began as Harry and Ron stated discussing what would be involved in him being a prefect. When Hermione had finished speaking, Dumbledore stood up, rubbing his head.

"I don't know how I didn't spot it. I clearly am becoming quite the old codger, not to spot these things. Yes I shall have to owl the examining body immediately." He stated. With that cleared up he turned to Harry and said "Oh yes Harry, one more thing. You were very dear to Sirius, and I know you do not wish for me to bring up unpleasant memories, but I should inform you that as written in his will, this house and his few belongings are now yours. I hope in time you will come to consider this your home, and have only one request, and that is that we continue to host the Order meetings here."

Harry went to say that he didn't want it. He wanted to say many things, one of them being how untactful Dumbledore was being. You don't just say "Your best friend died, here have his stuff." He wanted to say more but he was cut off in mid sentence by Ron.

"That will be cool, you could have parties and everything!" Dumbledore seemed to take this as an understanding from Harry, and so before he could make any further objections, he excused himsef.

"I have matters to attend to downstairs. I believe your presence will also be required so if you would care to join us in 5 minutes this would be of great help." Hermione was silenced by the happy prospect of getting perfect O.W.L results, something which according to her had only been achieved by seven people in the last century, whilst Harry was left wondering what he could possibly help with. Five minutes later Harry pulled himself to his feet and they made there way downstairs.