Chapter 9 - A day alone

"Stupefy" "Stupefy!" "STUPEFY!"

Ron was practising stunning a rat that was running around their room.

Harry woke up quite bitterly to this annoying chant. Although it was trapped and not running too fast, Ron was having a lot of trouble stunning the small creature.

"STUPEFY!" Ron shouted once more. Light blue sparks shot out of his wand in all directions and bombarded the wall with ugly cigarette burns, completely missing the rat that Ron was trying to hurt for the sake of it being alive.

"You're moving your wand around too much, watch me."

He got out his wand, and gave it a slight wave towards the rat, who was now trying to climb the tallest cupboard and hide.

"Stupefy." He said very calmly.

A solid, straight line of navy blue shot out of his wand quickly and accurately, hitting the rodent and making it drop to the floor, immobile. It wasn't waving its legs around at all, even its eyes were ice still.

"How did you do that?" Ron asked admirably.

"Focus on one point, think of where it's going to move." He replied.

"Right." Ron nodded. "And if I mi-AAAHH!"

Crookshanks came bursting through the closed door, diving forwards and picking up the stunned the Rodent in its mouth and darting away out of the room just as quickly.

"I swear that beast is more than just a cat. It's been behaving very strangely. A few days ago I told him to go away when I was reading and I swear he said something."

"What did he say?" Harry asked.

"I couldn't make it out, but it sounded like one word and he had an accent. I can't figure out whether I was imagining it or not." Ron said, pulling on his trousers.

"Yesterday when we were walking out of the place, I thought I saw him wink at me. Not just once either, twice." This wasn't the full story, as Crookshanks also led him to a photo of the Blacks and had scratched at Sirius.

"Mental, I wonder if Hermione put some spell on it, to make us freak out." Ron groaned as he was putting on his jumper.

Inside, he wasn't thinking that. Ron's former rat "Scabbers" had turned out to be Peter Pettigrew, a man who betrayed his parents and transformed into a rat for 12 years to hide. If something similar had turned out to be Crookshank's secret, he didn't know how many legitimate pets there were left in the country.

"Hurry up you two, your mum says time for breakfast!" Hermione sassy voice knocked on their door, which was slightly ajar due to the invasion of her cat, and the two of them tried not to audibly groan.

"Kay!" The duo shouted.

They got on the rest of their clothes quickly and got put away their wands.

"How long do you think we'll be staying here?" Ron asked.

"Probably not much longer, it's less than two weeks to school." he replied.

"Hopefully you can stay until school starts, this place is starting to give me the creeps. If it's the HeadQuarters for an order, what's the chance we'll be attacked at any given moment? Not low enough." Ron whimpered.

"Grow up Ron, you have to get used to this sort of danger. You're fifteen, you can defend yourself at this age."

"I can't, please show me how to stun, you did it perfectly!" Ron whined.

"Not now."

"But you just said-"

"Okay fine." He gave in. "So the best way to focus is imagine where the target is going to move, then-"

"COME ON YOU TWO, WE'RE RUNNING LATE!" Hermione shouted from downstairs.

"Bleeding heck, just when I wanted to learn something for once, she interrupts us!" Ron threw his wand back into his trunk and they hurried downstairs.

"COMING!" They shouted as they ran down the rectangular staircase.

He didn't get enough time to have another look at the Black family picture, as Ron's long legs were running dangerously close behind him.

They entered the kitchen where only Hermione, Ginny and Mr Weasley were sitting. Crookshanks was laying down in her bed, eyes wide open, and seemed to be smiling.

"Where are your trunks?" Hermione asked, her and Ginny's already being placed and ready to go.

"We're leaving today?" Ron looked surprised.

Mr Weasley was reading quite a small letter, not paying any attention to the conversation.

"Yes, get your things, and hurry, we're supposed to be out of the house in five minutes!"

"I didn't know this!" Ron exclaimed, quite annoyed. "C'mon then."

"Accio Trunk!" Harry ordered, pointing his wand up high. His trunk came shooting down the stairs, landing perfectly in his left hand.

Ginny's jaw dropped, looking both stunned and impressed. Hermione looked both confused and jealous, wondering if somehow this spell was rigged.

Looking rather bewildered, Ron formed a couple of words.

"Oh um… Accio Trunk!"

Ron's trunk, which had not been properly closed, made its way out of the room but struggled to go down the stairs. It fell from the second floor, barely missed Ron's head as it fell down, spilling all his clothes, parchment and books on the floor as it did so.

"Shut up." said Ron putting his things in his trunk as the others laughed.

"So where are we going now?" Harry asked. "School starts in less than two weeks."

He was clearly asking Hermione but Mr Weasley interrupted.

"Me, Ron, Ginny and Hermione will be staying at the burrow." He said.

"Don't forget Fred and George." said Ginny.

"And those two, yes." Mr Weasley sighed.

"What about me?" Harry asked.

"I've just got a letter from Dumbledore. I hope you understand why, but you'll be staying with Hagrid until school starts." Mr Weasley handed him the small letter he was reading earlier, and it had a TOP SECRET stamp on it.

Dear Mr Arthur Weasley,

I am fully aware of the situation with the Order and with Mr Potter, Hagrid has told me everything there is to know. It is therefore necessary that Mr Potter spends the next two weeks before school with Hagrid. Hagrid himself will take him to Hogwarts via 's no safer place than Hogwarts, I can assure you that. I'll be expecting Mr Potter to arrive promptly on the morning of Monday the 21st of August.

Good wishes,

Albus Dumbledore.

"21st of August, that's tomorrow!" he was surprised at this sudden note.

"It's Dumbledore's word, we have to stick to it." Mr Weasley replied.

"Well, I don't have anything against staying with Hagrid, but I'll miss you." He said to the rest of them

"If he's going tomorrow then how is he going to get there?" Ron asked.

"He'll be going tonight. With Hagrid on his Motorbike." Mr Weasley said.

"Tonight? What time?" he asked Arthur.

"I don't know, but I really hope Hagrid will let us know soon." Arthur said, looking quite stressed.

"You'll probably get an owl from him today, so keep a look out."

As he finished that sentence, a squealing noise was heard from outside. A small, black owl was flying with a massive letter in its mouth that was bigger than the bird itself.

The bird who they had never seen before flew through the open window and landed smoothly on the table.

The small owl handed over his letter, before coughing frantically, and flying out.

DEAR HARRY,

MEET ME OUTSIDE GRIMMAULD PLACE AT 10PM SHARP. WILL FLY OVER TO HOGWARTS IN THE NIGHT TO NOT BE SPOTTED EASILY. HOPE YOU LIKE MY NEW OWL TWITTER, ISN'T HE BYOOTIFUL. CAN'T AFFORD TO TAKE RISKS SO DON'T SEND A LETTER BACK.

HAGRID

Brilliant. A surprise midnight departure to Hogwarts where he'll be heaving bags of straw for two weeks. He obviously loved being with Hagrid, but for this long and before anyone else would be in school?

"Tonight at 10. Why can't we go at day? Hagrid's motorbike has an invisibility booster on it."

Mr Weasley sighed and explained.

"It's not the muggles you should be worried about. It's much bigger problems." said Arthur

"You mean death eaters? They won't just be flying around in the sky at night will they?" He asked Mr Weasley.

"Not death eaters especially, that's a very low chance. The problem is well, me and a lot of my other workers at the ministry have been having quite a tough time convince Fudg-"

The loud Grandfather clock struck 8.

"Come on, it's time to go." said Hermione, being unusually rude. "Mrs Weasley's waiting by the car for us."

"Sorry Harry, no time to explain, but you and Hagrid must take this."

Mr Weasley slipped him a small bottle of potion, clearly not wanting anyone else to notice.

"What are these fo-"

"Best be going Harry, see you at Christmas!" Mr Weasley said jollily

"See you, mate" Ron waved goodbye.

"Bye!" Ginny waved.

Before he could get his breath back, the door slammed shut.

He looked at the two small bottles, which had a dark grey potion in it. There was a label on one of them that said in tiny print:

"You drink this before you set off tonight. Don't panic if there's side effects."

It had to be a tiny print to fit on the bottle.

Why was everything so vague? Don't panic if there's side effects. He dared to wonder what the side effects could be.

Harry had no idea what the potion was supposed to keep them safe from, and why this was so sudden, but this annoyed him even more.

We was expecting some fun with his friends after the worst summer holiday ever with the Dursleys, but what had he got instead? Some potion that he didn't know the effects of and a midnight ride in a flying motorbike.

Why had they left him so suddenly? Were they trying to stop him from figuring something out before he could confront them. This better had not been it. They had all seemed very pleased to see him leave aswell; he re-pictured Mr Weasleys "See you at Christmas!"

No, it wasn't this.

He betted that The Order had a plan to get him and Hagrid safely to Hogwarts, and they had blackmailed his friends to not say anything about it. Mrs Weasley probably suggested this, she tended to be more caring in a secretive 'perfect' way to Harry.

That was definitely it. No need to worry for the time being.

He noticed that Mr Weasley had also slipped him another note that had gone with the potion, but to his surprise it wasn't about the potion.

Kingsley, Tonks and Bill will be stopping by for dinner tonight. I'll appreciate it if you can take care of them yourself. Mr Weasley

Huh, so now he was on dinner duty with the three aurors that he hardly knew. This at first seemed to be an unpleasant surprise, but then he had a second thought.

The three auror members that he knew the least. They might know something that the others wouldn't want them telling him. If there's someone who's easy to manipulate, its someone who you recently met, and they want to somewhat impress you. If he could get them to tell him some things that the others wouldn't want them telling him, this was his perfect chance. But how would he do that?

Then, it clicked.

The cupboards.

He went to the corner of the kitchen, where a large cupboard stood sturdy.

He opened it, and there were hundreds of bottles with different brews in them.

Suddenly, the Slytherin side of his mind was turned on.

"Hehehe, if I put just a drop of Veritaserum into their drinks tonight, they'll be able to spill everything to me." He thought

He looked around the bottom of the cupboard.

R...S...T...U...V!

Vanishing...Vandalising..Veritaserum!

He found it. One small vial of the truth potion. If he could sneakin a drop of this into each of their drinks, he could find out everything. He was sure they knew many things that he didn't, and they were trying to cover it because they thought he was 'too young'. Bless their souls, they only want him to have a few scare-free teenage months before he is inevitably killed because they tried to hide the truth from him.

He took the bottle out from the cupboard and looked down at it. Before he could read what it said, a horrible croaky voice came from the other side of the room.

"Cunningness, a sin it is not, but mischief I must stop."

"AHH-!" Harry jumped around.

Near the door to the dining room, stood a very old, bent almost double, extremely ugly house elf. His skin was goul-grey and his eyes a very faint yellow. He had a long and thin nose and a few hairs coming out of his big head.

"Who are you?" He asked the Elf.

"Kreatcher. Kreatcher the house elf, born to serve the noble House of Black for life. Young Sirius was just like you, always sneaking around looking for things to steal."

"I wasn't stealing! I was just looking for some spices to cook with." He put the Veritaserum bottle back into the cupboard, upside-down so Kreatcher couldn't read what it said.

"Sirius was a fat liar too." Kreatcher said, smiling horribly.

"Sirius, you know Sirius?" Harry asked.

"Of course I know Sirius. All my life I have served this house, I can remember the day that disgusting viper ran away. Good riddance if I say so."

"Sirius is my Godfather, he's amazing." He told the elf.

"Sirius was an imbassil. Always spreading the fat lie how accepting Mudbloods to the wizarding world was a good idea."

Quite shocked by this, Harry fired back.

"One of my friends is a muggle-born, that's the correct word to use."

"The horrible bushy-haired mudblood who was walking downstairs this morning?"

He had enough of this house elf and ran towards it, grabbing the pillowcase he was wearing.

"You don't call Hermione that ever again." he said as he threw him down.

Kreatcher, looking not at all scared by this threat, got back up as Harry went to the draws to find a cutting board.

"Kreatcher knows that Mr Potter was going to use Veritaserum on his friends, so he better keep the pro-mudblood ideas to a minimum!" He threatened.

"I wasn't going to use it!" he snapped back. "I guess you know who I am aswell."

"Alright, but I suggest you keep your mouth shut for a while!" Kreatcher said, with one last menacing smile. He clicked his fingers and disapperated upstairs, where some curse words were heard after the sound of him hitting his head on a wall.

What the bloody hell was that thing doing there? He hadn't just been threatened by a house elf and been told to be suddenly pro-pureblood. No way.

Part of him told him that Kreatcher had a point. Smuggling veritaserum into his ally's drinks, what a horrible thought he had. It would be an outright offence in the eyes of the order, and they would be sure to figure out what had happened after they questioned why they gave so much away so suddenly.

Even though he didn't know Bill, Tonks and Shacklebolt well, it would be a betrayal to curse his friends like that. What had he been thinking, hopefully it was just because of anger.

Cunningness, a sin it is not, but mischief I must stop. He remembered Kreatchers words.

He spent the rest of the day cooking food and reading the Daily Prophet, the second activity he regretted doing most of.

Centaurs: One of the horrors of Wizardkind by Dolores Umbridge

Horrible creatures aren't they horses? Used by muggles for Millenia so that they could kill more of themselves and us, and all they do is eat the grass away. Men, a horrible subspecies of wizardkind who are manipulative, extremely egotistical, and always scoff the last biscuit. Now put them together. You have one of the most horrible beasts in history.

Known for their violent crimes against witches and wizards, it's best if we keep the area inhabited by these horrible beasts to a minimum, if not zero. With a brain thought to be the size of a pea, these filthy creatures use stars to track down future events. Utter cock and bull! Not to mention being a half-breed at all, but to be a half-breed and-

Dolores Umbridge's article made it to the fireplace before Harry could find out what would be worse than being a half-breed - who Lupin was - itself be.

He was starting to notice this Umbridge woman in a lot more articles, and he was hating her ideas almost as much as Kreatchers. His life had been saved by a centaur called Firenze, who fought off Voldemort in the forbidden forest in his first year.

As the evening drew nearer, he was getting very bored.

Then, he noticed something on one of the chairs. It was the chair that Ginny had been sitting on during breakfast. There was a bright yellow magazine with huge purple font on it.

He recognised this immediately. The Loony Lovegood freak girl was reading this when she had stalked him in the bookshop.

The Quibbler - Written by Xenophilius Lovegood

Latest news: Wrackspurts seem to be behaving particularly wildly this month

Not knowing what a Wrackspurt was, he figured Xenophilius Lovegood was just as delusional as his daughter. It was concerning him that Ginny was reading this, surely she's not going mad too? This amused him at first but then he remembered what the blonde girl had said to him during their meet at the shop.

"Oh please don't think I'm teasing you. I'm on your side!"

With all that the daily prophet had been saying about him, perhaps this should have been a slightly comforting thought, but it wasn't.

Six o'clock came, no-one appeared.

Seven o'clock, no-one there.

Eight, no-one.

Nine, no-one.

This couldn't be good. If they were arriving for dinner then surely they would have come earlier. If they were in trouble then it was already too late to send an owl.

"Oh what an idiot I am." he thought, pacing up and down the dining room. "I have a boring long day to sort everything out, and all I do is make a turkey that'll probably taste disgusting. What'll happen if everyone's hurt and it's my fault?" He panicked for the next half an hour.

The grandfather clock struck half past nine, no-one was there.

His panic took over him. He was so desperate he was about to shout to Kreatcher for help.

Just as he was about to let loose, the door burst open.