Three days before the end of term, Harry got his results from his exams.

It was much quicker to get results from the end-of-year exams than it was for the OWLs and the NEWTs, probably because the teachers had been the ones to set the exams so they knew the answers, and Harry was overall quite proud of how he'd done. After three years he was getting used to the way they marked things at Hogwarts, where an E was better than an A but worse than an O, and his marks were all Es and Os so that was perfectly all right. (There were percentage scores as well but it seemed like a seventy-five percent score was an E in some subjects and an O in others, oddly.)

Hermione was very proud of her own marks, and once they saw them Harry had to agree. Having all Os was one thing, but Hermione had three hundred and twenty percent in her Muggle Studies tests and (much like Ron, Dean and Neville) had got plenty of extra marks for her Animagus transformation.

In fact, it was quite hard to find any subject where Hermione had got less than a hundred percent, and after looking it over Harry could only see two – one for Defence, where she'd been marked down to about ninety-three percent for what had happened in the Practical Exam, and one for Divination where she admitted that she just wasn't very good at the practical.

Still, hearing that Professor Trelawney had actually made a prediction – even if it wasn't a very good one – seemed to have convinced her to at least keep going with the subject.

For his part, Neville was sort of dazed about how much better his practical marks were than last year, which made Harry feel both really glad for Neville and sort of sad that they hadn't noticed earlier. And Dean pronounced himself happy with his own results, even amused that – like Harry – he was able to claim a higher score than Hermione in at least one subject.

That same day, Hedwig brought Harry a letter asking him to come up to the Headmaster's Office.

It occurred to Harry that he probably was spending a lot more time going to the Headmaster's Office than most pupils at secondary schools, though he was certain that it was for reasons which wouldn't apply at any Muggle secondary schools.

There were adders in England and Scotland, so it was sort of possible that someone might need to go and see the Headmaster after finding a dangerous snake in the basement, but Harry very much doubted that anyone in, say, Eton, had had to deal with something like an attempt by an evil wizard to make himself immortal.

Maybe it'd be different if he was involved in some kind of league between schools, like if there were Quidditch team games between different schools all over Europe – but then again with how long a Quidditch game could be it probably wouldn't work. You couldn't really have a team spending a week in France, could you?

Though Fred and George would probably point out that the main problem there was that it was France, and that a week in Spain would be a lot more pleasant.

That thought took Harry to Dumbledore's office door, where he said the password ('Strollers') and clambered up the stairs.

"Wonderful to see you, Harry," Dumbledore said, as Harry was about to reach the top of the stairs. "Do come in."

"How did you know it was me this time, Professor?" Harry asked, interested.

"A simple and subtle art, Harry," Dumbledore told him solemnly. "I have only just changed the password on my door, and nobody else yet knows it. Please, take a seat."

Harry chose the chair by the bookcase, partly because it was by the bookcase and party because it was the one he found most comfortable.

"Allow me first to say how well you handled the events of the last few days, Harry," Dumbledore began. "That being said, however, I do hope you are not having any problems of your own related to the whole affair?"

"Well… a bit," Harry replied, thinking about the few minutes of chaos. "I'm sort of uncertain about what happened to the acromantula. I'm fairly sure I hurt some of them quite badly, and I think a couple of them died."

Dumbledore nodded solemnly. "I do understand your concern, Harry. If you think the same as I do on such things, you will always wonder whether you were doing the right thing. Whether you could have done better, and avoided so much bloodshed."

"That's exactly it," Harry agreed, one paw going to his robe pocket for a moment. "And I feel like… if I'd remembered about being able to send a Patronus message earlier, maybe you would have been able to turn up sooner."

"Alas, the better one is at magic the harder such questions become," Dumbledore replied. "But as an old man who has thought about this very problem many times, Harry, the best reassurance I can give you is that it is the fact you worry which shows you are a good person."

Harry was going to say that wasn't really much help, but thought about it more carefully.

Maybe it did help, a bit.

"Though, of course, I am not the only person you could ask for advice on the subject," Dumbledore added. "And if it is someone with the wisdom of age you seek, I am merely one hundred and twelve, and I am sure you know someone many times that age who may also have some thoughts on how right it is to protect Hogwarts and her students."

Harry blinked, not quite sure he'd heard right. "Professor… um, are you suggesting that I ask Empress what she thinks?"

"Why, of course," Dumbledore confirmed. "Unless of course you would rather I put you in touch with my dear friend Nicholas Flamel?"

He smiled gently. "In either case, I am not at all sure they would agree with me. But it is often important, Harry, to learn to listen to what many people think and decide what is right based on all of their views."

Harry nodded slowly, absorbing that.

It was a good point, and he supposed it was the sort of thing a teacher like Dumbledore would think about.

"If that is all you would like to discuss?" Dumbledore asked. "A short meeting, I think, but a productive one."

Harry got halfway out of his chair, then stopped. "Um… Professor? Didn't you ask to see me?"

"So I did, so I did," Dumbledore agreed. "I wished to speak to you about your plans for the summer, Harry, for I fear it will be a little more complicated this year than normal."

That drew a frown, as Harry sat back down and tried to think of what it was that Dumbledore could mean.

The first and most obvious thing was the Quidditch World Cup, which was rumbling along steadily towards a final some time in August. They weren't quite sure when the final would be yet, because the semi-finals and quarter-finals of a Quidditch tournament might well take three days each, but Harry was interested in going along to see how good world-class Quidditch play was at least.

It seemed like most witches and wizards in Britain would be going, anyway, so it was more or less the polite thing to do.

He'd done some magic practice over the summer, as well, but apart from that there wasn't really anything else he could think of.

"Sorry, Professor," he admitted. "I'm not sure what you mean, apart from the world cup."

"The world cup is part of it, of course, Harry," Dumbledore agreed. "I could hardly keep you from it. But I would also prefer it if you could spend as much time as possible in perfecting the Fiendfyre spell we have talked about before – there is, of course, no particular rush, but I believe I may have worked out where another of Tom's Horcruxes might be found."

He made a little dismissive gesture. "I have still not worked out quite how many he has, but that is for another time."

Harry had been thinking about what Dumbledore said, and tilted his head. "So – oh, I see, Professor. You mean the tricky thing about my plans for the summer is that I have to manage… my normal homework, staying a month at Privet Drive, doing Fiendfyre practice, the Quidditch World Cup, and going with you to find the Horcrux?"

"Exactly, Harry," Dumbledore agreed, quite pleased. "As you can see, it is all quite doable but also not particularly easy."

"Well..." Harry thought about it. "If I do all my homework while I'm at Privet Drive, then I can spend a month there and get that sorted out. Ron wants us to visit Hermione's house for a day or so, because there's a comet that's going to hit Jupiter in the third week of July, but then I can just go to Dogwarts on the third of August so it counts for a full month."

Dumbledore looked distinctly surprised. "Dogwarts, Harry?"

"That's what Sirius ended up calling his house in Hogsmeade," Harry clarified, smiling at the memory of when his pseudo-guardian had finally realized he'd been missing such an obvious pun. "And then I can spend several days making sure I've got Fiendfyre under control, while if the Quidditch World Cup is too soon then we can stop and take a break from the Fiendfyre practice."

"Dogwarts," Dumbledore said again, shaking his head and chuckling. "Dear me. And I do believe that sounds quite manageable, Harry."

He paused. "Tell me, did you say something about a comet that will be hitting Jupiter? How marvellous. I do wonder what it will look like."

"I think the magazine I read said we weren't going to be able to see anything from Earth," Harry cautioned, thinking about the article. "But there's a space probe called Galileo which is going to be able to get a better look, and it'll send pictures back. It's the first time we've had a chance to see something like this."

"Space probes and telescopes," Dumbledore said, looking up in the direction of where the sky would be if the roof didn't exist. "It would be rather marvellous to be able to see something like that from close up, though I imagine the food is not nearly so good on Callisto as it is here."

"I don't think so," Harry agreed, though he did think a bit about the Callisto Tower in the Talents of Earth series. "You'd probably have to take a packed lunch."

"Alas, I have tried to make a packed lunch in the past, but I simply cannot decide what to leave behind. It becomes a packed three-course banquet," Dumbledore admitted.

He smiled pleasantly. "Though if you ever get the chance, Harry, I can certainly recommend having a three-course banquet atop a small hill you have hiked to the top of. It feels most satisfying."

"I'm afraid it wouldn't feel as satisfying for me, sir," Harry admitted. "I can fly, and flying to the top of a small hill is much less work."

"From my admittedly sparse grasp of Muggle physics, I would have thought it would be the other way around," Dumbledore said, then waved his hand. "But then again, I am not a physician."

"Do you mean physicist, sir?" Harry checked.

"Oh, dear me, not one of those either," Dumbledore agreed readily. "Nor even a physiotherapist. I am entirely without fizz of any description, aside from what may be found in a fizzing whizzbee."

Harry found it very easy to talk to Dumbledore, and they ended up spending nearly another half-hour going between topics Harry had enjoyed from the year's classes, how he felt he was getting on, and four or five other topics.

He gave Dumbledore a potted lesson in Dragonish, or Parseltongue, and Dumbledore proved to be a quick study. It took him a few attempts to get the hang of hissing, but after that it was all easy and within ten minutes the Headmaster was able to say that he was the headmaster of Hogwarts and it was nice to meet whoever it was he was speaking to.

Dumbledore mentioned poor Ronan, as well, who'd been particularly badly hurt by the spider attack, and that Madam Pomfrey was quite optimistic that he'd be out of the Hospital Wing before the week was out. (Harry was impressed that Madam Pomfrey could heal a centaur in the first place, but Dumbledore told him smilingly that it was quite amazing the sorts of trouble young wizards could get into.)

Something about the whole situation felt sort of familiar, and after a bit Harry realized that what it was reminding him of was Gandalf in the first bit of the Fellowship of the Ring. When he was visiting the Hobbits in the Shire, and there were still problems in the world but they were far away and could be ignored for a while.

Harry supposed that meant he was the Hobbits, but that was all right. Being a Hobbit was a nice sort of person to be, really, and he couldn't complain.

"Well, that's it for another year," Hermione said, as they watched the outside world pick up speed around them.

Harry could just about see some of the Thestrals and their carriages not far from the station – until they went into a tunnel, at least – and wondered why it was that Ron hadn't been able to see them. Perhaps he'd just not been looking in the same direction during the fight?

It probably didn't matter.

The compartment wall receded, making it so the little room was more like twenty feet on a side, and Percy put his wand down in satisfaction. "There we go."

"Blimey, Perce, how much room do you think we're going to need?" a Weasley Twin asked. (Harry sniffed discreetly, and decided it was Fred.) "We mostly fit in a normal compartment, don't we?"

"So long as nobody else decides to turn up," Percy confirmed. "Though I felt it was a good idea to make sure that Ronald and Dean have the space to change back."

Both the young wizards in question shifted back from their Animagus forms, and Ron rolled his neck a bit. "Thanks… I wasn't looking forward to trying to read a comic book like this. Speaking of which, Harry, can I borrow one of yours?"

Harry rummaged around in his backpack, which mostly contained things which might help with the train journey (and his tent) and produced an Asterix book.

"Oh, cool, that's a new one," Ron said, taking it. "Thanks."

"What I don't get is why you're in this compartment," Neville said, looking up from a travel board games set Dean was getting out. "Don't Prefects ride in their own compartment?"

Percy shrugged. "I'm not entirely sure I am a Prefect any more. I've finished my NEWTs, and I'm not going to be going back to Hogwarts."

"Except as a teacher," Ron pointed out, two pages into Asterix and the Roman Agent. "You could teach Prefects how to cope with impossible brothers."

"What do you think I've been trying to do for the last three years?" Percy asked.

"...by George, you know what this means?" George asked. "We're free!"

"Free from the shadow of the heron over us!" Fred agreed. "We're going to get away with so much next year!"

Percy smiled.

"...uh oh," Fred added. "I know that expression."

"I think that's the expression that a fish sees before getting speared by a heron," George agreed. "To extend the metaphor."

He waited for a moment.

"George?"

Harry quickly checked to make sure he was right about which twin was which.

"What?" Fred asked.

"Aren't you going to ask what fish I'm talking about?" George checked.

"I wasn't," Fred replied. "Er, that is, I mean, which fish, Fred?"

"Pollocks," George concluded solemnly.

"I think you're trying too hard," Hermione said delicately.

"Besides," Harry added. "Are you sure you're going to get away with things, or are you going to be too busy trying not to get foxed?"

"Ouch!" George said, putting a hand over his heart and collapsing to the floor.

It took Harry a moment to realize that the pun worked on two levels, but once he did he was quite pleased with it.

The trip back to London always had the same sort of feeling, like it was ten minutes until the library closed and you were running around trying to make sure you'd remembered everything you wanted to do before it closed. Even though it was going to open again the next day, you always wanted to make sure you hadn't forgotten something to say.

Luna, Tanisis, the Barlos sisters and both the Smiths popped in to say hello and then stayed in the compartment, along with Lee Jordan (who Fred immediately accused of giving the Smiths tips – not that Lee denied the charge) and Ginny, and Harry noticed that the only one of the oddly-shaped students who was missing was Tiobald.

According to Luna, it was because his wheelchair was awkward enough on a train that there wasn't really much point of having him travel the whole way to London only for him to then be Apparated the whole way back again. Arriving with the rest of the students was one thing, because that was the start of the school year, but this was something else.

Of course, because this was Luna, she also told Harry that she had impeccable sources to the effect that alien lizard people had invaded Britain – though, apparently, they'd landed in the Ministry of Magic, and had somewhat to their surprise been mistaken for Wizengamot members – and that Gilderoy Lockhart had escaped from Azkaban and become an award-winning Muggle actor.

They were getting into the midlands by that point, and Luna cleared up something Harry had wondered about, which was where she'd been during the spider attack. As one of the only people in Hogwarts who could translate sign language and one of the only ones who could speak Mermish, she'd been on call in case there was an issue in one of Tiobald's exams.

"So, do you think you're going to go for being an Animagus?" Hermione asked, looking up from her book as they went through a tunnel. They were well into London, now, and tower blocks kept appearing either side of the tracks.

"I'm not sure we can," Flopsy said. "I wonder if any other three-headed dogs have tried."

"It might be human-only magic," Anne suggested. "Like how we have fey-only magic. But it'd be kind of funny to be an animagus of an animal that wasn't a fox. Would we be able to go animal to fox?"

"Oh, maybe your human form and your fox form would have different Animagus forms?" Ginny suggested. "But if you mean me, Hermione, of course I am – I'm looking forward to finding out what I am."

She nudged Luna. "What about you? Are you going to give it a go?"

Luna tapped her foot.

"Maybe," she decided eventually. "Of course, if I don't like the animal I won't do it in the first place."

"I'm not sure you can tell what animal you're going to get before trying?" Ron asked, closing the last of a stack of six Asterix books. "I thought that was half the point."

"Oh, there are ways to tell," Luna said seriously. "I've heard there's a mirror out there that shows the form of the animal under your skin."

"Really?" Lee asked, pushing himself half-upright. "That sounds useful. Where is it?"

"Why are you asking me?" Luna asked. "I don't know anything about that."

"You're the one who raised the subject," Dean pointed out.

"No, that was Hermione," Luna denied. "I just passed on hearsay. Some say the distinction is important to a reporter."

That said, she inspected the oversized crossword spread out on her trunk. "I think that one might be 'boggle'."

"Oh, so it is," Tanisis agreed. "Which would make that one 'gorilla'."

After flying home – he'd specifically asked not to be picked up, via a letter Hedwig had dropped somewhat reluctantly into the Royal Mail – Harry discovered that Dudley was on a diet to try and lose weight.

It seemed that 'diet' in this case meant mostly fruit, which was okay for Harry but Dudley probably wasn't happy with. Though everyone else in the house had to have the same kind of diet – which seemed a little odd to Harry – and after the first few days of doing homework and taking care of the lawn Harry started thinking about nutrition.

The young dragon had to admit he was not exactly an expert on nutrition. In fact, he was probably the single intelligent being on the planet who had the least to worry about when worrying about nutrition, since he could (as far as he could tell) digest literally anything and didn't seem to have any kind of deficiency problems from not eating things.

But he did remember some science books, and after checking on one he found a bit more details about it.

It looked like the important thing was that it was a lot easier to lose weight if you were doing something to get rid of energy, instead of just not eating much and waiting for your weight to go down by itself. That made sense to him, because all the food you ate had to get burned off somehow, and doing things like "thinking" and "breathing" probably burned off food but that amount didn't really change.

Wondering if maybe the reason the diet was all fruit and vegetables was so that Dudley didn't eat more than he should, Harry looked up a few recipes that didn't have many calories and things in but which looked like they might be a bit tasty.

When he added up all the time it took, it was probably almost a day of time put together over the first week of the holidays, and Harry found himself sort of rushed off his paws trying to make sure he was doing his chores and doing good amounts of his homework while still doing the research and stuff.

Still, it was exciting, and Harry felt he'd rather have some variety in food for three weeks and try and help his cousin.

Harry wasn't sure of a good way to suggest it, but it turned out that a good way to suggest it turned up by itself one day. They were having grapefruit, this time, and Uncle Vernon looked at the small cut of fruit before snorting.

"You'd think there'd be enough for a decent meal," he said. "Especially with that nonsense that's been going on in Africa these days. Must be more mangoes to go around now."

"I was reading a book about this sort of thing, Uncle Vernon," Harry told him.

"What, this nonsense in Africa?" Uncle Vernon asked. "Mangoes? Or was it one of the books by… your lot."

"Not one of those," Harry answered. "About nutrition and things like that – from the library. It said that..."

Harry paused, trying to summarize it.

"If you're having healthy food, and the right amount of it, then the best way to lose weight is to do exercise. But you don't have to just eat nothing but fruit, if the food you do make is healthy. There were some recipes as well."

Harry turned to look at Aunt Petunia, noticing in passing that the mention of eating something other than fruit had Dudley turning pleading eyes on her.

"Do you think I could give it a go at making some?" he suggested. "There wouldn't be much, because that's sort of the point, but it'd be interesting to try."

"All right, then," Aunt Petunia agreed, after looking at Dudley again.

"But it had better not be that expensive health food nonsense!" Vernon added sternly.

Harry had also given some thought about what kind of exercise Dudley might like, and suggested that he take up weight lifting. That sounded like it was sort of acceptable to Uncle Vernon, and Dudley didn't seem sure about it but at least it wasn't running or one of those things.

When Harry did serve his first healthy-but-tasty meal attempt a few days later, it went over really very well indeed all things considered. Uncle Vernon asked all sorts of questions about what on earth 'Spelt' was, and it had been sort of tricky to get the right kind of mushrooms, but Dudley ate his entire portion with gusto and nearly persuaded Uncle Vernon to give him seconds (until Aunt Petunia pointed out that Dudley was trying to lose weight, after all).

It went so well that the next day Dudley showed Harry one of his newest games. It was one about a hedgehog running around very fast indeed, but the thing which was really neat was that the hedgehog had a fox following him around and helping out… and not only could Harry control the fox with the second controller, but the fox was also able to fly! (Harry had no idea how that made sense, because he knew a flying fox was a sort of bat instead of just a fox using its tail like a helicopter did, but it seemed to work in the game.)

It had been a long time since he'd been able to play a game with Dudley like that, and it was one of the things that meant Harry really quite enjoyed his time at Privet Drive over the summer.

It was a particularly hot and sunny year, he was getting on better with Dudley than ever, there was a supply of new books to get… even the inevitable homework couldn't do much to dampen Harry's spirits, and even then he just reminded himself that doing it sooner meant that he'd be able to enjoy himself guilt-free for the rest of the summer holidays.

On top of that, he was able to move on to reading Dragonflight to Empress. The mirrors worked just as well from four hundred miles away, and while Dragonflight was more complicated and a bit harder to explain than The Hobbit it was sort of pleasant to be able to explain why one of his favourite books was, well, one of his favourite books. It was like a two-person book club, in a way.

A few days before it happened, it turned out that actually the impact of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet into Jupiter was going to be spread over the course of a whole week. That made it much more inconvenient for everyone to go and visit Hermione to watch the actual impacts, because they'd have to stay there for so long, but in the same letter where Hermione told Harry that she also told him that she'd record all the bits that made it onto the TV news so they could watch it a few days later than they'd originally planned.

Harry decided the simplest thing to do with this information was to send Hedwig on to give a letter to Dean, then mirror-call Sirius to have him pass it on to Neville and especially to Ron. It was actually surprisingly inconvenient, because Harry had already got used to the idea he could send a Patronus to someone magical to give them the news straight away, but fortunately he remembered before he got in trouble for casting magic outside of school.

There were times when the magical way of doing things was wonderfully convenient, like sending letters and travelling hundreds of miles, but there were times when the Muggle way of doing things was much simpler, like being able to telephone someone.

Admittedly Harry was fairly sure that both Ron and Neville would be able to telephone someone now, but neither of them had a phone in their respective houses. Though, now he thought about it, it was quite likely Ron's dad had a dismantled phone in his shed – Arthur Weasley seemed like the sort of person who dismantled things, and then put them back together again to see if he'd understood them.

When it actually came that they all went around to Hermione's house – Harry flew, Ron and Neville got Apparated by older members of their family, and Dean simply took the tube – it turned out that the comet impact had been really worth it. There had been massive explosions on Jupiter leaving scars as big as the whole planet Earth, and the explosions themselves had been three times as high as the distance from London to Hogwarts.

It had been just amazing to think about, and to see the pictures, and it was more than a bit worrying when Neville asked hesitantly what would have happened if the comet had hit Earth instead.

Suddenly it was a lot easier to understand what 'an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs' had actually been like.

Fortunately, they hadn't been left with that thought when they all went home again, because Ron shared with them what he'd been doing over the summer. He'd been keeping up with his homework, of course – everyone laughed when he said Hermione wouldn't let him not keep up with his homework, even though she was a hundred miles away – but he'd also started helping his dad in the shed. They'd set up a radio, and while Ron admitted that neither of them had the least clue what was happening in most of the programs they at least had something to listen to while they were in there.

The end of July seemed to sort of sneak up on Harry, and he counted himself a bit lucky he'd remembered about Neville's birthday in time to send him his present. (This time it was two of the Drizzt Do'Urden books, on the grounds that Drizzt had a panther companion and that was sort of fitting.)

Of course, when it was Neville's birthday, Harry's own birthday was just around the corner, and he found himself receiving several presents over the whole period of July 30 and July 31 – partly because for some of his friends the only way they could send him letters via Owl Post was for him to have recently sent Hedwig to them, and partly because Dobby was so tremendously excited to deliver Harry's presents from the Weasleys that he arrived at three minutes past midnight and piled them on the floor.

It was nice to see Dobby again, and Harry had a nice long chat with him about how much better it was working for the Weasleys than working at the Malfoys. He certainly seemed more cheerful than before, which meant Harry was quite proud of what he'd done.

Then it was time to get on to the presents themselves.

Dobby's delivery from most or all of the Weasleys consisted largely of a quite impressive amount of home-made sweet things – fudge, nougat and toffee, plus some of what Harry thought was taffy. It seemed quite tasty, but Harry had never been quite sure if the difference between taffy and toffee was just spelling or something else.

Fred and George had also sent him an odd wooden statue, and the accompanying booklet declared it to be a Patented Weasley No-Fuss Tooth Cleaning Bird. Activating it with the tap of his wand made the red bird animate and fly into the air before inspecting Harry's teeth closely, and when it turned out that nothing was currently stuck between his teeth it landed back on the perch and went still.

Harry shook his head, wondering just where that idea had come from, then turned to the present from Ron.

Much to his surprise, the wrapping paper contained an entirely Muggle sextant. It seemed that Ron had decided to help out in case Harry ever got lost again, and though Harry wasn't a hundred percent sure Ron knew what a sextant did it was still a nice thought.

Dean had branched out a little into sculpture, making four little clay dragons which he'd had fired, and he'd painted one to be all bronze like Mnementh. The other three were much more unusually coloured – one was purple and gold, one was more green with bright red spines, and the last was black but with purple underneath the wings and on the end of the tail.

Apparently he'd had his sisters join in on painting them, and Harry was touched – so the dragons went up on top of his bookshelves, each one sort of like a 'guardian'.

For their part, Sirius and Remus had provided a large backpack which could be shrunk to be carried more easily, sort of like the backpack version of Harry's bag – which would make it much easier to go shopping in London, for example – and Hagrid had got Harry a book all about magical creatures and monsters, called the Monster Book of Monsters.

Harry had to growl at it to get it to calm down, but once he'd done that it was easy enough to read.

Then Neville had sent him a collection of half-a-dozen recently released fiction books from Flourish and Blotts. His accompanying note apologized if Harry had already read any of them, and Harry had read two of them, but the other four were new and Harry liked the look of them already.

Finally, Hermione sent him a large parcel, one which Hedwig had finally arrived with a little before midnight on the evening of Harry's birthday itself, and because of that Harry had given her extra treats and praise before opening the wrapping paper.

To his astonishment, it was a whole boxed-set for Dungeons and Dragons about playing Dungeons and Dragons as dragons.

It all sounded like marvellous fun, and Harry wondered if someone would be willing to organize a game for the club at school so Harry could take a turn at being a player.

"And welcome to Dogwarts!" Sirius announced, making a sweeping bow as Harry arrived through the Floo from Grimmauld Place. "This is a marvellous place, you know."

"I have been here before, Sirius," Harry chuckled.

"Pish tosh," Sirius replied with a wave of his hand. "You've been to Sirius Black's house in Hogsmeade, but you haven't been to Dogwarts – not since it got renamed, anyway. And it's a much more magical place than a mere house."

He indicated the ceiling. "The sky outside is bewitched to look like the ceiling. Fortunately it also keeps the cold and the rain out."

Harry reached up a wing and poked the ceiling, which still seemed as solid as ever.

"There's at least one secret passage," Sirius continued. "There's a hidden door in the kitchen where you open it and suddenly find that you're outside."

"Do you mean the back door?" Harry asked, thinking about that.

"Perhaps," his dogfather allowed. "And, most importantly of all, it's been a home to wizards for more than a thousand hours."

Doing Arithmancy had meant Harry had got a bit better at maths like that. "So… about a month?"

"Correct," Sirius agreed brightly. "Anyway, you know where your bedroom is? I made sure there was enough space to put your tent, so you've got access to all your things."

Harry did, so he set off, and Sirius came with him so they could talk.

"There's going to be something special at Hogwarts this year," the adult wizard said. "I'm really looking forward to it."

"There is?" Harry replied, ears perking up in interest. "What is it?"

"Well, it's supposed to be kept secret from the pupils," Sirius said, sounding reluctant. "But I suppose I could tell you, if I knew."

Seeing Harry's surprise, he suddenly grinned. "Remus won't tell me, he says I'll just tell everyone in sight and then it won't be a secret any more."

"Remus sounds correct," Harry observed, putting his bag on his bed and unpacking his tent. He got out his wand, paused, and looked at Sirius. "Is magic okay here outside of term time?"

"It's close enough to Hogwarts that it's okay," Sirius reassured him, and Harry used a quick spell to erect his tent instead of doing it the long way. "Speaking of magic, though, I've checked with Dumbledore and there's a good spot for learning fire spells a half mile or so towards the sea from the castle itself."

Kreacher appeared with an unassuming pop. "Master? Polite dragon? There is a small owl bumping into the back of the fire place at the town house."

"That sounds like Ginny's owl," Harry observed. "Pigwidgeon must have just missed us."

"Kreacher will put Floo powder in the fireplace," Kreacher decided, and popped away again.

Harry and Sirius exchanged glances, then looked towards the bedroom door.

True to form, Pigwidgeon came ping-pong-ing his way through the house, bouncing off walls and doorframes, and came to an excited halt in a cloud of feathers just in front of Harry.

"Um, well done," Harry said, removing the letter, and Ginny's owl went zooming off towards the window.

"He does know it's hundreds of miles back down to Devon, right?" Sirius asked.

"He'll probably make it before the end of the day," Harry guessed, opening the letter.

Ginny had apparently decided that Ron had forgotten to pass on any of the OWL and NEWT results from their family, and had taken it upon herself to do it. It seemed that Fred and George had each earned four OWLs – a matched set of Charms, Defence, Potions and Transfiguration.

It didn't escape Harry's attention that those were among the most practical of the classes at Hogwarts, and presumably the only ones where their considerable practical skill overcame the very real difficulty of getting the two of them to actually sit down and write answers to questions on sheets of paper.

As for Percy, he naturally passed every single NEWT he'd taken, and had also qualified to be able to Apparate. That was one of those things Harry really wanted to be able to do (assuming it would work for him at all) and he felt briefly jealous before wondering something else.

"Can you Apparate in an Animagus form?" he asked.

Sirius frowned, turned into Padfoot, and disappeared with a crack. (In that order.)

"That's a yes, then," Harry decided, after thinking about it a bit, and finished the letter.

It seemed the World Cup Final was going to be between Ireland and Bulgaria. Harry knew a bit about Ireland – or, at least, he knew what Seamus had said about Ireland, and he knew the version of Ireland usually mentioned by American writers, which might not be quite the same thing – but he had to admit he wasn't very sure about Bulgaria.

Then Padfoot appeared again, returned to being Sirius (though not necessarily to no longer being silly), and raised his wand to cast a spell.

"Just realized I should have put an Anti-Apparition Jinx on the house," he explained. "Silly of me, really. Anyway, if you've got no urgent homework, let's go and set things on fire."

"It's still a month until I go back to Hogwarts," Harry said. "And I've done all my homework anyway."

"Well, there you go, then," Sirius replied. "Time to go and set things on fire."

He paused. "Responsibly. Time to responsibly set things on fire. And remember, starting a forest fire is irresponsible."

AN:

Another month down.

This is indeed about the time Council of Wyrms was released, which is one of those things that gets quite an ear-perk from a Black-Backed Bookwyrm...