A/N

A/N Hello Hello, this would be the sixteenth chapter of my little story. Do you notice the pattern here? You give me my reviews, I give you your story. I can't argue with twenty reviews in the first day. So here is the next chapter, out nice and quickly. Read, enjoy, and please please please REVIEW!

CHAPTER 16

Back at Hogwarts, Harry was busy enjoying the feast with his friends. The sorting had taken longer than normal this year, as there had been about twenty students from Beauxbatons who had emigrated up to England and would be attending Hogwarts. Most of them were placed in Ravenclaw, and none were in Harry's year so he didn't really pay much attention to them.

His night had been picked up when Dumbledore finally stood up to give his beginning of the term speech, which had been very positive and upbeat, if not a little wary. He had informed them that Quidditch would be reinstated at the school, along with the normal warnings about the Forbidden Forest and Filch's new list of illegal items in the castle. It had only been at the end of the speech that Dumbledore had turned grave, as he informed them of the reasons of their early return and told them to expect many visitors and new students before the year was done.

However, when the wonderful food appeared on the table, he took one look at it and ignored it for the rest of the feast. Hermione and Ron had questioned his about this, but he simply brushed their inquires aside. The food all looked foreign to him, and he got the same feeling that he had gotten when Brian had tried to feed him.

He had sat through the rest of the feast, watching everyone around him eat. He had especially paid close attention to when an owl had flown into Professor Dumbledore's lap and deposited a letter there. Harry could tell that it was bad news from the expression on his face, and as soon as he finished reading it he looked directly at Harry. He had now gone back to eating, but Harry couldn't help but wonder what bad news the letter could have brought.

He was brought back to earth when Fred (or was that George?) got his attention by throwing a roll at him. He and George leaned across the table to talk to Harry.

"Harry-"

"About that incredibly large sum of money-"

"Stupendously spiffing amount of money-"

"We wanted to thank you again-"

"And thought that you might want to hear about or little business-"

"Or quite large business." Harry started to smile.

"We spent the whole summer marketing our products-"

"With the money you gave to us-"

"And coming up with more-"

"Thanks to you-"

"When Albert Zonko-"

"The founder of the Zonko line practical joke products-"

"And stinking rich owner of Zonko's-"

"Owled us telling us that he wanted to meet with us and test out some of our products."

"So what happened?" Harry finally broke in.

"He liked them so much that he offered us a contract to sell our line of Weasley Wizard Wheezes."

Harry stared at them in disbelief. "You mean that you work for Albert Zonko?"

"Nope."

"We work for ourselves."

"That was just a contract to sell our wares."

"Hopefully the first of many."

Harry started grinning. "And how much was the contract?"

"Should we tell him?" Fred grinned wickedly at George.

"Couldn't hurt."

"Fine. Three thousand and five hundred. Galleons." Harry looked at them speechless. "But don't tell anybody else. We want to keep it quiet. We're going to break it to the family at Christmas."

"I can't wait to see the look on Mum's face." Dean then poked his head in to see what they were talking about, and George quickly changed the subject. "Yeah, I do think that Angelina will be the new captain. I know she's got Fred's vote."

Fred smiled unabashedly. "You got it. Although I'm sure that you wouldn't mind voting for Alicia." Harry quickly drew out of this, and turned back to Ron and Hermione who were fighting over something.

"You are too getting a study schedule, Ronald Weasley."

"No way in hell!"

"What's your mom going to say when you go home without a single OWL to show for five years at Hogwarts? You need to STUDY!"

"Of course I'm going to study, just not every waking minute of my day, and not when they're eleven months away!"

"And before you know it there will be two weeks left and you won't have studied a thing!"

"Yes I'll have studied, but I won't walk around with my nose in a book all year!"

"Are you saying that that's what I do?"

"Yes! You've done it since you've been here!"

"Um, guys," Harry tried to break in, but was completely ignored.

"I have not! I've spent more time going around on idiotic excursions with you!"

"Hey!" Harry said a little louder.


"And how many times have you taken a book with you?"

"I'm dying!" Harry was still ignored.

"Not once, I was too busy saving your ass!"

"I want to make sweet loving to a goat!"

"You never saved me once, Hermione!"

Harry sighed and got up to leave, one of the first in the hall to do so.

"I saved you from your own stupidity more times than I can count, Ron! Did he just say that he was in love with a goat?"

"So now your books make you hear things too!"

"Shut up!"

"You shut up!"

"Enough, we have to go get ready. Professor McGonall said that she could only hold him up for a few minutes. Lets get everyone upstairs."

_________________________

"My master isn't happy with you, Fudge." The slow and drawling voice of Lucious Malfoy always made Cornelius Fudge uncomfortable.

"And why is that, Lucious? I have followed his instructions to the letter."

"You allowed Beauxbatons students into Hogwarts, and Dumbledore still remains headmaster. My Master wants him removed. Now!"

"Well now, does your master have a brilliant plan ready, because I already tried to get rid of Dumbledore once and you saw what happened!"

"No need to get snippy now, Fudge. My master actually does have a plan ready, and all you have to is give the word to get rid of Dumbledore when we say. Think you could possibly not screw it up?"

______________________

"Mr. Potter, I need a word with you in my office." Harry, who had been walking to the Gryffindor common room, started blanching at Professor McGonall.

"But I didn't do anything-"

"You're not in trouble, Potter, for once." They continued in silence until they got to her office. "We need to discuss you being a prefect and your new duties. I notice that you're not wearing your badge." Noticing that Harry was gawking at her, she continued. "Your badge, Potter, the one that you got in the mail with your letter." Suddenly Harry understood, but still didn't say anything as he was trying to come up with a good explanation.

"You did get the letter, right Harry?" Seeing that he still hadn't said anything, she realized what had happened. "Oh, you didn't get it? That's okay, its not the first time a letter hasn't been delivered. Not all of these school owls are completely reliable. You and Ms. Granger are the prefects for your year in Gryffindor. Now, I expect that you realize that with this privilege comes added responsibility. That means no more sneaking out of the tower at all hours of the night, no more missing potion ingredients from Snape, no more wandering the halls…" She went on like this for a good ten minutes before she looked at her watch and stopped.

"That should do. You can have this badge for now. I'll escort you back to your common room now." Harry thought that it was a little weird for Professor McGonall to escort him back to the common room, but she was the head of the house so he didn't question her.

They stopped in front of the picture of the fat lady, and Professor McGonall said the password 'hinkypink'. When the picture opened up, Harry got the surprise of his life.

_________________

Up in Professor Dumbledore's office, Dumbledore was debating with himself.

When are you going to tell him, Albus? They were his family; he has the right to know.

But this is supposed to be a special night for him.


They were the only family that he has ever known; he should be very saddened.

All the more reason to let him enjoy the night. This is his first real experience.

He sighed to himself. He would give Harry until midnight.

_________________

When the picture opened up, Harry's first view of the common room was extremely different from that of when he had last left it. There were maroon and gold decorations all over the place, and all of them had the words 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY HARRY' in huge letters on them.

The entire Gryffindor house was down at the celebration, even the newly sorted first years that had little idea what was going on. In that night he received more presents than he had in all the rest of the birthdays in his life combined, excluding his first. It seemed that everyone had gotten him something, some much larger than others. He had already received Hermione's, which he wore proudly, but everyone else got him at least a little something. Even the first years that had just arrived chipped in something, some only a single chocolate frog, but it still overwhelmed Harry.

From Ron he had gotten a large bag full of assorted candy, the usual, and from Mr. and Mrs. Weasley he had gotten a cake and many different food items to go along with it. From Alicia, Katie, and Angelina he had gotten a book about fancy moves for seekers. Parvati and Lavender had gotten him a crystal ball, and Neville had gotten him a book about different types of plants used against dark magic. Dean had gotten him a muggle book about West Ham soccer, and Seamus had gotten Harry an extremely large four leaf clover to hang above your bed for good luck.

There were many other good presents from many other people, including Sirius, Professor Lupin, and Hagrid, but Harry's best present had to be from Fred and George. They had gotten him a huge box, literally huge, that had at least one of every invention they had ever come up with. "Market research," they told him. "Tell us what you like and hate. And if something happens to end up occurring to Snape, we know nothing about it.

Someone had brought in a wizard radio while Fred and George snuck out to the kitchens, and when they returned there was plenty of music and food to go around. The atmosphere was jovial, and it was almost enough to make Harry forget about what he had been through. Almost. However, the only ones who seemed to notice any difference were Ron and Hermione, and they were to busy arguing to pay him much attention at the moment.

The hours passed quickly, and it was soon almost midnight. Harry had finally finished making the rounds of thank you's and went over to sit with Hermione and Ron, who were, surprise surprise, fighting again.

"Hermione, will you please stop talking about the stupid OWLs for one night!"

"Why should I? It's obvious that you're not getting the message."

Harry ventured in. "Um, hello."

"Hiya Harry. Hermione, this is the first real birthday party Harry's ever had, and you want to spend it studying for the OWLs!"

"I do not want to study! I just want you to at least have a plan ready for them!"

"Whenever you guys are done," Harry broke in again.

"I don't want to hear the word OWL again tonight!"

"Stop."

"OWL OWL OWL OWL. Get used to it, Ron."

"Will you two please stop fighting!" Hermione and Ron finally looked at him, both rather sheepishly.

"Um, sorry Harry."

"Why do you two have to fight all the time? I try and I try-"

He was interrupted by the untimely entrance of Professor McGonall into the Gryffindor common room.

"All right, I suppose that you have all had enough fun to ruin your first classes tomorrow. Everybody up to bed. You can clean up in the morning." When her eyes finally saw Harry, her eyes softened a little and she looked at Harry sympathetically. "Harry, the headmaster wants to see you."

Harry got up and left a little apprehensively, because Professor McGonall only called him Harry when something was wrong.

__________________

Deep in the wilderness of Wales, there was a small cottage on a hill. However, this was no ordinary cottage. Normally, it would have been, except for the three inhabitants, one of whom was a werewolf, one of whom was a wanted man, and one of whom was failing miserably in his first attempts at magic.

"No, Sean, you have to concentrate only on the magic when you are trying to do this. Not the weather, not on Padfoot being an impatient git, not on the girl you saw at the pub last night, not anything but the magic." Remus Lupin stepped back again and watched as this time red sparks erupted out of the wand that Sean Granger was holding. "Well, I guess that's a start."

"A start? What the hell are you talking about, Remus. I did magic, I made sparks go out of the little wand thingy. Although that girl in the pub last night wasn't exactly that stunning."

Sirius started laughing. "You're only saying that because she passed up on you and went for Remus."

"She intimidated by my good looks."

"Yeah, and I'm Merlin. If she was so intimidated then why did she end up on Remus' lap?" Remus turned red.

Sean was laughing now to. "I have no clue how that happened."

"It has to be his animal magnetism."

Remus finally had enough. "Shut it, Padfoot. We have to get back to work."

"You can't deny it, Moony, you came into the Ravenclaw girl's dormitory more than once with me. What was her name?"

"Amanda Boot, but that's besides the point."

"Oh, yeah, that was after the Hufflepuff seventh year, wasn't it?"

"Shut up."

"Make me."

"I will. Now, Sean, that was very good, but to do magic you were supposed to change the match into a needle, not set it on fire, understood. Let's try again…"

___________

Harry walked slowly to Dumbledore's office, and the stone gargoyle opened to meet him. He went up the stairs and was met by Dumbledore, who escorted him into his office. After probing him with his eyes for a few minutes, Dumbledore began.

"Harry, how was your time with your relatives."

Harry shivered, indecisive. He hated lying to Dumbledore, but he couldn't tell him what really happened. "Okay."

"Nothing bad happened?"

"No."

"Nothing out of the ordinary?"

Harry was starting to suspect something now. Not knowing what was coming, he repeated his "no."

Dumbledore sighed, and picked up a letter. "Harry, this is a letter from the ministry of magic informing me of some bad news. Your Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, and Cousin Dudley were killed earlier today by the Avada Kedavra curse in their home."

Harry drew in his breath sharply. They were killed? He thought that they were safe. This was once again all his fault. He had never thought that he would feel remorse at their deaths, but now that they had actually happened he felt horrible. They were bad, but they didn't deserve to die, especially because of him. Everything that they ever did to him was his own fault, that was what they had always said.

"Harry? Are you all right?"

He nodded, blinking back tears.

"You can have classes off for as long as you feel necessary, and you may attend their funeral. You should go get some sleep now. Goodnight."

With that finality in his voice, Harry started the long walk back to the common room. He had numerous strange thoughts in his head, but most overwhelmingly the fact that he had just practically killed three more people. Almost ready to burst into tears, he walked into the Gryffindor common room to find only Hermione and Ron left, probably waiting for him. They were both on their feet screaming at each other, and as Harry didn't feel like dealing with this now, he tried to sneak off up the stairs.

"Harry, wait. Will you please tell Ron that we should start studying as soon as possible!"

"Harry, will you please tell Hermione that she reads too much!"

Harry finally couldn't take anymore. "SHUT UP! You're supposed to be friends! Is it possible for you two to stop fighting for ten friggin' seconds? I can't take it anymore! I hate it! Will you just stop fighting! Please!"

Harry had broken into tears for the first time in a long while when not in physical pain during the middle of this, and not wanting to put up with his friends he tore upstairs and closed the curtains around his bed.

However, he did not fall asleep that entire night, just lay in bed thinking. He didn't get up with them for breakfast in the morning.