12.
The summer went by far too quickly.
As soon as Neville had replied to them, he began visiting once a week. Hermione and her parents stayed with Harry in London of the weekends, taking the train back to their practice on a Monday morning, and Sirius finally managed to get in touch.
'Pup,
I'm sorry it's taken me so long to reach you but Dumbledore had me rounding up the old crowd and spreading the news of what happened during the third task and now I'm staying with Moony in his flat.
The old man is going absolutely spare over not being able to find you and me and Moony have been speculating as to where you might be. We spent a lot of time with the Potters after school and we've been to most of their houses. For the life of me, though, I can't seem to remember where we stayed at the end of every summer before going back to school.
Dumbledore has asked us not to tell you anything but, as no one seems able to get hold of Hermione either, you deserve to know that we'll all be meeting at my old family home soon enough and I'll send Remus to tell you more if I can't get out.
Stay safe,
Snuffles'
Harry was sitting in one of the private mail room in Gringotts, sorting through the letters he had been sent over the last week. Most of them were empty letters from Dumbledore and had been screened for elaborate tracking charms that were designed to activate when they were opened. There were a few from the ministry and other retailers who they weren't using Dobby to communicate with over the preparations of the ceremony and one apiece from Hogwarts, Remus, Sirius and Ron.
Harry had opened Sirius' right away but had tucked the other three into his coat for later once he'd had a security goblin check them for more tracking charms. He knew the fidelus would protect him all the same but he didn't want to end up trapped in the house with Dumbledore pacing up and down the street looking for him. He knew he'd been spotted once or twice in Diagon Alley but with the vast majority of Wizards completely flummoxed by the notion of public transport, he hadn't found it too difficult to slip away from them.
As he exited the bank, he caught a flash of red hair and almost made to duck into the apothecary, until he realised it was Fred and George. The Weasley Twins weren't even looking at Harry. Instead, they were staring up at an empty shop longingly. Harry, remembering the bag of gold that was still sitting in his trunk, slipped through the crowds and stopped directly behind them.
"You two wouldn't be in need of a business partner, would you?"
As one, the twins jumped and scrambled backwards towards the building before realising who it was.
"Merlins left ballsack, Harry. We thought you were our mother."
Harry determined that the one on the left was George. He wasn't sure how he was learning to tell them apart but it was getting easier as the years passed.
"Sorry guys, but I'm serious. I have a bag of Triwizard winnings that I don't want and, after everything that's happened, I recon people could use a little laughter."
It had been an idea that he'd mulled over at the end of the school year as he did his best to avoid the great hall. Fred and George were geniuses and, after all the help the Marauders Map had been, he felt like he owed them something in return.
"You can't be serious, Harry…that's a ridiculous amount of gold to just throw away."
He smirked and gestured for them to follow him towards the Leaky Cauldron. As they walked, he tried to explain his plan to them.
"Nah, I've just inherited a ridiculous amount of money and I want to do something useful with it. Consider the winnings an advance of sorts, get everything you need together, and then owl me once you need to start looking for a shop."
Fred looked thoroughly gobsmacked.
"Just how long have you been planning this, Harry?"
Harry shrugged as he back towards the portal that would lead him out into Muggle London.
"Long enough. Tell Ron I got his letter – I'll be in touch!"
Back at the house, Harry headed straight for the kitchen where he knew Dobby was working on a menu for the Ball. Every day, he had a different meal waiting on Harry and then he would re-make Harry's favourite for when the Grangers arrived. It turned out they were expected to host a ten course meal prior to the Ball and they still had five courses to work out.
"Master Harry sir!"
Harry, though he tried, hadn't been able to get Dobby to drop the 'master' and he was starting ot think it was an inbuilt part of the House elf bond.
"Hi Dobby, could I get you to drop something at the Burrow for the Weasley twins later?"
"Of course sir. Master Harry's Grangy was on the…the…"
He was struggling with the world.
"The telephone?"
Harry had a telephone put in, with much help from Hermione's dad, to make contacting her during the week much easier.
"Yes! Master Harry's Grangy said to say that she would be over earlier than usual with news from Professor Dumbledore. Miss Grangy thinks she will be here tonight when she has finished her homework."
"Excellent Dobby! Is the Prophet in here? I didn't get a chance to read it before I left."
With a snap of his fingers, the Daily Prophet appeared on the table and Harry set it to one side, deciding to read the two letters before he got bogged down under whatever the Ministry was trying to say about him today.
The first letter, from Remus, was much of what he had been expecting.
'Harry,
Of course I'd be delighted to come to the ball, as long as you're certain it's alright. As for standing in as your proxy, you know how poorly that would be taken and, though your reasons are sound enough, let just see how things progress before we make any steadfast decisions.
We're all staying together now so there's little I can tell you that Pads won't have probably given away in his letters, but know that Dumbledore would like to arrange for you to at least visit us here once. He's somewhat agreed to stop hunting you down so long as you come and speak with him, he says he has news about your Aunt and Uncle that's quite important.
Don't let him know I said that but, personally, I think it would do a certain old dog some good to have an extra friendly face around. There's only so much I can do when I'm not here all the time and I think Molly if going to go spare if he teaching anything else to the Twins. They're really doing rather well with that little start up grant and I think you'll be pleased to see some of the things they're working on.
If I could, I would sneak you in myself but the whole building is so well protected that it really need to be Dumbledore that lets you in. If you'd like to visit, let me know and I'll arrange it for you. The most I'm able to say is that we're really not very far from you at all.
Keep yourself safe, don't do anything Snuffles (thank you so much for getting that to stick) would do.
Moony'
Harry knew meeting with Dumbledore was inevitable. He might have been removed as Chief warlock of the Wizengamot but he still held a seat on the council and he would be at Harry's ascension. It seemed almost sensible to get any meeting out of the way before such a public event.
Ron's letter was not what Harry had been expecting at all.
' Harry,
I just wanted to say I'm sorry about how I was last year. I don't know if you've got it yet but the Hogwarts letters were delivered this morning and I've been made a prefect…Mum's thrilled but I'm really not too sure. I think I'll talk to McGonagall when we get back.
I know I was a prat and I've written Hermione to apologise for what I said but I understand if things can't be the way they were. I think mum's more miffed at me than anything; the badge is only going to buy me a day or two of freedom from her nagging.
So, yeah. I'm sorry for being an arse and I'll maybe see you on the train!
Ron'
The apology seemed genuine enough but after the snarking and little arguments that had broken out every week since the fight in the Common Room, Harry had seen more and more similarities between Ron and Malfoy and it was difficult for him to reconcile that with the letter in front of him. He'd also forgotten all about prefects being chosen but he knew himself it wasn't something he was ever going to get. He was half expecting Hermione to arrive with the badge already pinned to her chest.
His Hogwarts book list was the most sedate by far with absolutely no mention of murderous books for Hagrid's class and nothing that might give away who their new Defence Professor might be.
Harry asked Dobby to delay dinner until Hermione got to them and instead sent Dobby to find the twins with the bag of Galleons he'd won. It took Dobby well over an hour to find them and, at that, he'd had to accost them in the Leaky Cauldron where they revealed that wherever they were staying was under the Fidelus and that they were apparating from the top step to the pub every few hours in order to escape their mother.
When Hermione arrived later than night, she brought with her some sombre news.
"There was a Dementor attack in Surrey two days ago, they say a muggle teenager was kissed…one of Mum's patients was talking about it. She said apparently the son of some company director was found catatonic in the street and taken to hospital. Then, Dumbledore sent me a letter saying it was imperative that he speak with you about your aunt and uncle and, well, I think your cousin was the one who was kissed."
Harry expected to feel something. As horrid as his life had been with the Dursleys, he had thought he would feel slightly guilty if something bad happened to one of them because of him. If he really thought about it, he would expect to feel the worst about something happening to Dudley, who was genuinely too stupid to know to what he'd be getting himself into.
Instead, Harry felt mostly numb.
"I though the ministry still had control of the Dementors? What the hell were they doing in Surrey?"
"Looking for you I would think. We've annoyed a lot of people making the Wizengamot go all the way to Wiltshire for your ceremony, if they think you're going to be too much trouble they might have tried to have you dealt with."
It was a terrifying through that made Harry all the more thankful for the protections offered by the house.
"I think I might have to give up and meet Dumbledore. Remus said he'd arrange everything and it would be nice to see Sirius properly. – he's sounded so miserable in his last few letters that I can't help but feel guilty about not visiting him sooner."
Hermione was inclined to agree. She'd also received a letter from Ron with what was, to her eyes at least, a rather feeble apology.
"Honestly, he sounds like he's apologising just to get his mother off of his back. I don't want to have another year of him saying those ridiculous things to me but I just don't know if I can forgive him that easily, never mind have to work with him as a prefect. I actually hoped you to get it, if I'm honest."
She was blushing a little as she said it and Harry was left to wonder why it was an embarrassing thing for her to hope for.
"Me? I'd be a terrible prefect. I spend half my time arguing with Snape and the other half lurking about the castle in the middle of the night. I forgot they were going to be picked this year…Ron…Ron was a surprise though. I don't know who I'd have picked besides you, maybe Dean.'
Dean Thomas, from what Harry could remember, wasn't far behind then academically and he was popular with the rest of the house. He'd had made a fantastic prefect to Harry's mind.
"Well, what's done is done I suppose. Maybe you'll get Quidditch Captain when Wood leaves, apart from being able to dock points, it leaves you with a lot of the same privileges as the prefects."
"Well that bathroom was pretty nice…"
Those were not the kind of thoughts he was supposed to be having and images of their conversation in the broom closet sprung to mind with a whole new twist, thanks to Hermione's parents. Forcing the images down, Harry searched around desperately for a chance of topic.
"I wonder why everyone seems to be living in the same place…d'you think it's something to do with Voldemort?"
A/N: I've decided, for the sake of plot holes, that the Granger's have their surgery in Guilford to take them closer to where Little Whinging is.
Again, I've amazed myself at how quickly I've managed to get this one out and I'm quite eager to work through as much as I can before I either run out of steam or go back to work. As a result, there might be one or two errors scattered through these chapters but I can always go back and sort them with fresh eyes. I'd just quite like to keep the story going.
