Author's note: I do not own Harry Potter.
Chapter 2.
"Boy! Where have you been all afternoon? Your aunt wants you to do the gardening so get off your lazy ass and get to it." Came uncle Vernon's voice as Harry walked through the front door with George in tow.
"I'll do it first thing tomorrow uncle Vernon." Harry called back as he went straight up the stairs to his room.
"Your relatives always this nice?" George asked as he pulled out his wand and began to unshrink the packages that Harry was pulling out his pockets.
"Yeah, really nice people they are." Harry muttered darkly. "Cast some notice me not charms on them as well I don't want them to see all this.
Harry put all of his stuff in his new 3 compartment trunk and George cast the notice me not charm on the trunk.
"How's the store going then? You see to be the only popular shop left on the Alley." Harry asked.
"It's going great. We've made loads of money. Mum stopped complaining so loudly when she realised how much money we were making." George said happily.
"Great. So I made a good investment." Harry laughed. "I'm glad I could help you."
"Well me and Fred really do consider you one of the family you know, and so do mum and dad." George said.
"Wow, I really do appreciate that. I really think of you guys as the family I don't have either."
"Just don't do anything stupid because my mum will give you the talking to of the century regardless of whether or not you are actually her son."
"I didn't go out today to do something silly. I thought this out properly the safest way to do this. I can't sit around like a child and wait for Voldemort to attack me and just be able to survive him."
"I get that I do but if you want any more excursions owl one of us and we'll come with you for security and what not just to please the order."
"Deal." Harry grinned.
George said his goodbyes soon and left the house to apparate back to Diagon Alley.
Harry spent his time doing chores for the Dursley's, or reading the books he got from his vault or from the bookstore. The day before his 16th birthday Dumbledore came to collect Harry from Little Whinging. He told Harry the details of Sirius will which Harry already knew due to his visit to the bank. Soon they entered the Burrow which now had nearly every defensive ward available on it.
"Harry!" Mrs Weasley said as soon as she saw him. She enveloped him in a hug, and then pulled apart to have a look at him. "A little thin as usual but we'll sort that out soon enough. Ron and Hermione should be up soon. Have a seat I'll have breakfast started soon."
Harry sat at the table and slowly munched on an apple while he waited for the Weasleys to wake up. Soon enough Ron, Ginny, Hermione, and Mr Weasley were up and at the table.
"Fred and George are living at the little flat above their shop now; they don't want to leave it just in case. Bill has moved back from Egypt but he was out pretty late last night so he might not be up till later." Ron explained.
Once the trio and Ginny were sitting in the garden after breakfast watching Crookshanks chase the gnomes Harry told them that he went to Gringotts bank to find out about the family vault. Their reactions were predictable. Ron got jealous and envious of the riches of his mate. Hermione went on about the recklessness of his actions. Ginny however, was rather amused that he managed to travel all over Diagon Alley without anyone finding out. Harry kept the Gryffindor vault to himself for the moment they were sitting in the open it was not something he wanted people to find out about anytime soon, let alone Dumbledore.
"Wait, does this mean that you've seen Fred and George's shop?" Ron cried out suddenly.
Harry nodded. "Yeah was pretty cool, I won't say much I'll let you find out everything when we go there."
Ron grew sullen again.
"Ron, what's with the long face?" Harry said even though he knew what was bugging him.
"It's just that you're now richer than ever before, you seem to get all the luck" He muttered.
"Yeah, all the luck, my godfather dies but at least I get his money right?" Harry said feeling angry. "Just so you know I would trade in every single bit of money I have to just meet my parents for real. To have any type of family. Money doesn't make you happy Ron." Harry said standing up and going back into the house. Ginny got up as well.
"You know Harry would buy either of you whatever you wanted. He'd happily support you both for the rest of your lives with none of you having jobs or anything, and you know that, Harry is the type to share things don't be so cruel as to shut him out when he still needs you." Ginny said as she went back into the house after Harry. She called out over her shoulder "Oh and be grateful we aren't at school cos I would hex you." Ron went pale at that thought.
Harry went into Fred and George's old room where he was staying and sat down on the bed. Ginny came in only a few minutes later.
"He's a git. But he's just insecure, you know that." She said as she sat next to him on the bed.
"Yeah I know, I'm surprised he hasn't accused me of trying to steal Hermione from him yet." Harry laughed.
"You're trying to steal Hermione?" She asked perplexed.
"No, but don't tell me you don't notice that those two probably like each other."
"That would mean that they would have to admit that to themselves at least and that won't happen for a little while." She replied.
"Oh, yeah I have something for you." Harry said as he got off the bed and opened his trunk. He found the pygmy puff box and handed it to her.
She opened it and gave a little squeal ad jumped off the bed to hug him. "Oh Harry it's so cute, what is it?"
"It's a pygmy puff Fred and George are selling them in their shop I got one to give to you. I figured Hermione isn't the sort to have one of these anyways."
"Oh. Its lovely thanks."
They sat down on the bed again and started to talk again.
"You are getting back with Cho?" Ginny asked cautiously.
"Cho? Nooo no that was a failure before it even begun. We were nothing like each other. Besides I probably shouldn't get a girlfriend considering how I'm Voldemort's number one target." Harry said.
"Harry. You shouldn't put your life on hold just because Voldemort keeps coming after you." Ginny chided patiently.
Harry didn't say anything she didn't know about the prophecy and he wasn't sure he wanted anyone to know about it.
"Any way" Ginny continued. "I doubt you're going to lie about and wait for the war to start to do something to help."
"No, you're right I suppose I shouldn't put my life on hold but it's rather hard when anyone close to me could be a target for Voldemort. And I am studying and planning to train properly when we get back to Hogwarts. I can't do anything when Voldemort is killing people."
"Good, well it could be a good idea to continue the DA you know a lot of people enjoyed that club, they felt more confident and always aced Defence."
Harry thought about that. "True I'll have a think about that one; I suppose it'll also depend on how good our Defence teacher is."
Ron and Hermione burst in the door just then.
"I'm sorry Harry. I really am. I mean you just lost Sirius and I'm acting like such a prat." Ron said.
"It's okay Ron; I knew you might act that way." Harry said.
"Well Hermione has always said I have the emotional range of a teaspoon." Ron replied. Harry had to chuckle at that, it was too true.
"You do know Ron that I would share everything I have with you. Always." Harry said.
"Yes. But it makes me think." Hermione gasped dramatically. "Yes I can think you know. Anyways as I was saying. You don't need to work hard after school to stay afloat. You can buy yourself a house and find a job when you like, whilst I have to get a job straight out of school and have to work hard for the rest of my life to keep me and my family safe."
"Yeah I get that. But don't worry I'm writing you into my will. You might not have to work hard your entire life." Harry said.
"Besides" Harry continued. "I do have a present for you; call it an early Christmas and birthday present." He pulled out a key from his pocket and handed it to Ron, at Ron's perplexed expression Harry elaborated. "It's a vault that I've opened I put in a nice amount of money, it should cover all of your school expenses for the rest of your academic career, Ginny's too. As well as a nice amount of pocket money."
"I can't accept this" Ron said stubbornly holding the key back.
"Tough, it's in your name. Oh and there's' plenty of money in there to cover Hermione's school expenses as well. And there's no way to go back now."
"Why are you giving me this?"
"Because, just being my friend makes you a high target and if we are all going to die in this war might as well die happy right?" Harry said smiling.
"Harry, don't be so pessimistic." Hermione chided.
"Okay seriously, I gave you that, because this year will be the toughest yet I think. You might have to put up with a lot from me. Call it compensation for my childish behaviour last year and a bribe to carry on putting up with me this year."
Eventually Ron finally agreed to the vault with the exception that Hermione and Ginny have their share too.
"Yeah there's something I should probably tell you as well, and I understand if you want to never talk to me again." Harry started. "The prophecy that broke in the Ministry it was about me."
"But I thought no one heard it." Ginny said.
"Dumbledore heard the prophecy from Professor Trelawney. She prophesised it a few months before my birth. It was either me or Neville it was about but as part of the prophecy was choosing the person, so I am the one who is supposed to destroy Voldemort. Dumbledore did talk to me about it though; I would still fight even if there was no prophecy."
"What does the prophecy say? That you're going to kill him?" Ron asked confused.
"It says the one with the power to defeat the Dark Lord is born as the seventh month dies, and he shall mark him as an equal, and he shall have power that the dark lord knows not for neither can live whilst the other survived. Basically." Harry said.
"Wow, that's pretty serious stuff." Ginny said with Ron and Hermione nodding.
"What does it mean by neither can live whilst the other survives?" Ron asked.
"Well, think about it Harry is hardly living he hates it at his relatives house and he's always facing trouble at school hardly anyone talked to him for half the year during the Triwizard Tournament, everyone thought he was the heir of Slytherin in his 2nd year. Last year he was having a personal war with Umbridge. And Voldemort has been barely surviving until he got his body back and now he's trying to survive to take over Britain." Ginny said.
Hermione nodded agreeing. "She's right this prophecy sounds rather accurate. Even though I do not like prophecies and believe that Trelawney is a fraud I can't ignore it."
"Either way mate, we aren't leaving you" Ron said determinedly.
Hermione nodded enthusiastically. Ginny was nodding as well "Yeah I'm with you too."
"Well once we are back at Hogwarts we can actively start training, as I'm sure we will run into a few death eaters along the road." Harry said.
"Yeah, maybe we can get even with Bellatrix Lestrange or Malfoy senior." Ron laughed.
"Ron! They are rather powerful wizards, and death eaters. We would have to do a lot of training to be anywhere near as powerful as them." Hermione scolded.
"Nah, we can just send Ginny against them she bloody scary." Harry laughed.
"Yeah" Ron agreed. "Especially with her new thing. Oww" Ginny leapt up to hit her brother.
"What was that for?" Hermione asked.
"Gin, you can't hide it from everyone it's rather cool." Ron said.
"No, it can be dangerous."Ginny argued.
"Obviously, but if you just practice it and learn to fully control it it'll be less dangerous right?"
Hermione and Harry were rather confused. "What are they talking about?"
"No idea" Hermione replied.
"Fine, I'll let you know, but you can't tell everyone." Ginny said turning on Hermione and Harry.
"Sure Gin, you keep my secrets I can keep yours." Harry said.
"A few weeks after we got home from Hogwarts I kept having little accidents; I kept setting things on fire. Mum and Dad thought I was having bouts of accidental magic but we received no letters from the Ministry detecting the magic. Anyway over a week and a bit it got stronger and more frequent. Finally one day I set the kitchen on fire. So Dumbledore was called over to check over this. And at first he said that I was distressed over fighting death eaters in the Ministry and I was suffering from some sort of post-traumatic stress as well as grief over Sirius dying. Well anyway Remus Lupin came over for dinner in which I set the chair on fire, and he said that he knew what my symptoms were and sorted everything out for me." Ginny explained.
"And what was wrong with you?" Harry asked worried about Ginny.
"Oh nothing at all was wrong with me, one of my dormant powers was activating. I am an elemental, my element being fire." Ginny finished.
"Wow, really? I heard elementals were rather rare" Hermione said.
"Yes, they aren't very popular, probably crop up as often as being a parseltongue does maybe more frequent. According to Remus the reason why this power comes around during late teens is because the body cannot handle such a drain on power as a child and remains dormant until the magical core is matured enough to handle the gift."
"Ginny, this is amazing, I knew you were powerful, but this is just incredible, let's see it." Harry said.
Ginny grinned. "One of the major advantages of this is that the Ministry can't detect this type of magic."
"Wait!" Hermione cried out. "You have learnt to control this right?"
Ginny rolled her eyes. "Yes Hermione I'm not the idiot to set fire to a locked room in which we are all sitting in." She closed her eyes and concentrated then clicked her fingers. A small flame erupted from her thumb.
"Cool." Ron said.
"Can you do anything bigger than that?" Harry asked.
"Yep, I've created a ball of fire about this big." Ginny said holding her hands apart by a foot.
"Excellent, how are you with throwing the balls of fire?" Hermione asked.
"Erm haven't done that because I have no way of putting it out afterwards without mum finding out how much I've progressed. Once I get to school I'm going to experiment in the room of requirement." Ginny said.
"Well I guess we will be rather busy once we get to school then." Harry said with a small grin.
"Great, but we can relax until then right?" Ron said hopefully, his face fell when the other 3 glared at him. "Didn't think so."
"Look, I've got a number of books on defence, duelling and such why don't we go through them all over this summer to give us a head start on the theory and such." Harry said going over to his trunk and pulling out some of the books in there. Ron and Hermione looked a little surprised at his eagerness to study.
"Who are you and what have you done with Harry Potter?" Hermione joked; she gave a little laugh "I'm glad one of you at lease listens to me then." She said as she took a book off Harry.
"Hey, we don't listen Hermione never have, but it's nice that you care so much." Ron replied taking a book called 'Duelling tactics and strategies' "Hey Flitwich co-wrote this" He exclaimed.
"Well he was a duelling champion once you know" Hermione replied as she saw the book she had was called 'The Dark Arts and how to defend one's self'
They sat down and read the books, imagine Mrs Weasley's surprise when she went up to find them for dinner!
A few days later it was Harry's birthday and Mrs Weasley done a wonderful job on getting a little party organised on his behalf, Neville and Luna turned up as well as all the Weasley clan (minus Percy still) most of the Order had turned up as well and even Dumbledore made his appearance for a short while.
The rest of the summer flew by quickly and soon it was nearing the end of August. The OWL results came and Hermione got all O but one E. Harry got nearly all O's with and E in potions and and A in Divination. He did get the highest Defence score for nearly 20 years however. Ron didn't do too well he got three O's rest E's but failed History and Divination.
Soon they were travelling to Diagon Alley to purchase their school supplies. Along with a delegation from the Order for security. Harry did some of his own private purchase such as more books from the bookshop and also brought some more wand holsters from Ollivanders for his friends.
Harry, with cover from Ron slipped away from the group with George after they visited the joke shop. They went to a jeweller where Harry gave the man behind the counter on the sizable emeralds that were in Gryffindors vault and asked for it to be fashioned into a bracelet. The shopkeeper said he would have it ready in a few days. George said he'd pick it up for Harry. The duo managed to get back without being caught and pretended that they were in the back looking at the new stuff.
Time at the Burrow was relaxing but busy, they spent most of the day either reading or taking notes. Ron found one of the books from Gryffindors vault incredibly interesting and could barely put it down. Even though he found it slightly difficult to read in the old English dialect he was persistent.
Harry soon understood what Gryffindor meant by heritage. 5 days after he came back from the first visit to his vault Harry began to do various types of accidental magic again. He found that he was an air elemental, he finally got that one under control about 3 days after Ginny told him she was a fire elemental.
He also found out that whenever he really really wanted something he was able to conjure it. As when they were all shut up in Ron's room with several books and Harry was desperately thirsty yet Hermione thought it was a distraction technique that he and Ron used to pull when they were usually revising, she didn't' let him go get a drink. So when he was at the stage where he really really really wanted a coca-cola. Pooof there in front of him was an ice-cold bottle of coke. He didn't listen to Hermione spouting off the rules and laws of transfiguration nor Ron asking what a 'coke' was, instead he drunk it down rather quickly and said 'Hermione that if you let me get a drink in the first place I wouldn't have broken the 3rd law of gamps something of the other' that shut her up rather quickly.
He didn't dare to try other forms of magic whilst away from school so he left the majority of the experimentation till they went back to Hogwarts.
Soon enough they were back at the Burrow. The next day they were off to Hogwarts.
They boarded the train and went to the nearest empty compartment.
"Sorry Harry me and Ron have to go to the prefects meeting." Hermione said just as Harry and Ron were sitting down. Ron groaned and got back up.
"Nah its okay Ginny is here." Harry said looking over to the youngest Weasley.
Ginny looked up surprised. "Oh, I sort of said I'll sit with Dean on the train."
"Dean? Why?" Ron called out.
"Well dear brother even though it's none of your concern I'm dating him." Ginny chided.
"Dating him?" Ron said as Hermione pulled Ron out the compartment before an argument could start.
"Why doesn't Dean sit in here then? We got an empty compartment no point dragging your trunk looking for another."
Ginny looked pensive. "You don't mind?"
"No, I mean I've sort of gotten used to you being around no point that it changes at school right?" Harry said pushing down that green eyed monster that had taken residence in his chest.
"Oh great. I thought you were sick of me hanging around over the summer." She laughed at Harry's enthusiastic shaking of his head. "Good, well we are friends."
A few minutes later Neville found them in the talking and asked if he could join. "Hey, come in Neville, you haven't seen Dean have you? He's supposed to be meeting Ginny." Harry said as he helped him with his trunk.
"Dean? I saw him earlier he was with Seamus, but haven't seen for about 20 minutes sorry Ginny."
"It's alright, he can find me." Ginny said as she got back onto the topic of quid ditch with Harry.
And that was when 20 minutes later Dean came into the compartment finding them in a big discussion about dangerous seeker and chaser moves.
"Ginny, I've been looking for you all over. I thought you were coming to find me?" Dean said sending Harry a dirty look.
"Well we got here early for a change, and we found ourselves a compartment. I thought you were going to find me? Well never mind come sit down." Ginny said giving him a peck on the cheek.
"Come down to our compartment, Seamus, Padma, Pavarti and Lavender are there." Dean said lightly taking Ginny's arm and pulling her to the door.
"Too many girls Dean. I think I'll stay here with Neville and Harry. The girls bore me they're too girly." Ginny said scrunching up her nose in disgust, which Harry thought was rather cute.
"No, they like you come on."
"Dean! Just stay here"
"I want to go back to my friends."
"I want to stay with mine."
Just then Luna came in the compartment "Oh, Ginny can I come in? All the other compartments are infested with Nargles, it's usually too early in the season for them so I'm not prepared against them this seems to be the only Nargle free compartment." Luna said as she peered into the compartment, with Ginny's nod she pulled her trunk in.
"Look, Dean I'm going to stay here, you're welcome to stay here. Luna said she has her trip looking for the Crumple-Horned-Snorknack to tell me about."
Dean looked angry and shrugged Ginny hand off as he stormed out the compartment.
"Well he doesn't look happy. Trouble in paradise Gin?" Neville asked with a grin as he got up and put Luna's trunk away for her.
"Oh thank you Neville" Luna said.
The four of them settled in again and enjoyed there trio until the noise of giggling girls drew their attention away from the fierce 3rd round of Wizard's Chess Neville and Harry were playing.
"You go"
"No, you"
"I'll do it" Came a loud voice the compartment door swung open as a girl stood at the threshold.
"Hi, Harry, my name is Romilda Vane."
"Erm Hi." Harry said a little confused.
"Do you want to join us in our compartment; we are a lot of fun you know. Better than these people." Romilda said looking at Luna who was reading her magazine upside down.
"Really? Well if you consider yourself better than them, shall I assume the next time I need to rescue someone from Death eaters you will volunteer yourself?" Harry said.
She and her friends went pale. "Death eaters? But they'll kill us."She muttered.
"Well my friends here did a rather good job against the inner circle didn't we? And no I don't want to join you; I treasure real friends any day over fake ones." Harry said standing up to shut the door in her face.
"You could have gone with them, you know its okay" Neville said not looking at Harry.
"No. They're they type to follow who's the most popular at the time then drop them later, they probably said I was crazy attention seeking brat last year. Besides they seemed annoying. And too giggly" Harry said as he made a move on the chess board.
"Is giggly even a word?" Ginny asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Probably not." Harry said.
"Well thank you Harry for saying you were my friend." Luna said airily.
"You're welcome, because you are my friend."
"I have two friends now."
"What about me Luna?" Neville said mock astonished. "Am I not worthy to be your friend?"
"You want to be my friend?" Luna asked shocked and rather serious for Luna. She smiled brightly when he nodded and turned back to her magazine. They all faintly heard her say. "I have three friends"
Ron and Hermione came back shortly afterwards. "We've done our patrols so we've got the rest of the journey off" Hermione said.
"What are you doing here Ginny? Thought you were off meeting lover-boy?" Ron asked sneering at his sister.
"I wanted to sit with my friends." Ginny said.
"What Luna? Take her with you." Ron asked.
"Ron, leave her alone." Harry said.
"No, Harry I can see that my brother doesn't think I can have friends in his year so I'm going to go off to Dean then. Luna do you want to come with me?" Ginny said furious standing up.
"Yes I'll come with you. Bye Harry. Bye Neville I'll see you later at school." She stood up and took her magazine and went down the train.
"That wasn't very nice Ron." Harry scolded.
"What?" He asked surprised. "She was always hanging around during the summer doesn't mean she can do it during school too." Ron said.
Harry just shook his head and carried on playing chess with Neville.
Reviews please.