Disclaimer: Well… I wasn't planning to tell you this but ah… I am in fact J. K. Rowling! This is what's actually going to happen in the 5th book! No, not really, just joking (well duh!)

A.N: This chapter is not as long as the last one but it still rather longer than what you usually see, don't let it frighten u though! Again, thank so much for all who reviewed!!! Hope u like this chapter! Still, nothing too eventful as they are still in the summer break but things start thickening a little… Please tell me what u think!

--Tincerbel

CHAPTER THREE

THE UNSENT LETTER

On the twenty-fourth of August, Harry got up early in a very weird feeling. It was his arm that awoke him. On his right arm was still an ugly dip cut Wormtail left on him that night on the hill when he used his blood to reawake Voldemort. Harry noticed that every once in a while he had a strange itch but it usually faded away after a minute or so, this time it lasted longer and hurt a little harder than usual though. Harry rubbed his eyes and sat up. He reached for his glasses and put them on, it was seven in the morning. He looked out the window but something inside the room caught his eye: Hedwig's cage was empty. Where could she have gone? She should be too tiered after the letter she delivered… and trying to kill me. He got out of bed and looked around the room. His suitcase was on the floor, wide open and there were cloths sticking out from it. Simon was still asleep. 'Might as well start packing' He thought and got up. After he got dressed he leaned down to the suitcase and started folding his cloths and clearing his desk, but when he finished he noticed something very strange, the letter he wrote Sirius wasn't there. He searched all around but the letter was gone. A crazy thought passed through Harry's mind 'No way, she couldn't have… Is it possible Hedwig took the letter?' That was very odd, Harry could have sworn he put the letter on the desk but he guessed he just misplaced it. When he finished packing he checked around the room once more to see that everything is in place and that he didn't forget anything. He looked at the clock on the bedside table again. It was 7:30.

"You're up early."

"Huh!" Harry turned around wildly to see who was talking.

" Simon," He breathed in relief when he saw the snake. "It's you."

"Who did you expect? Snow White?" laughed Simon who was now sticking out the drawer like a very strange shoelace.

"Ah, very funny Simon, you're such a charmer."

"Well thank you. Ssso, you finished packing?"

"I'm not totally sure," Said Harry in a vicious grin. "I'm having trouble deciding whether I should take something or not."

"Really, what?"

"You!"

"Funny Potter, you're such a charmer."

"Well thank you." Laughed Harry.

Most of the day Harry and Simon spent in Harry's room. After lunch Harry took Simon outside so he could (literally) grab something to eat before they go. But when Harry was waiting in the garden for Simon to return he heard a weird hisses, parts must have been Simon's but he hardly heard them and the others definitely weren't, because Harry could understand a nothing, they sounded more like a human hiss. Just a second later Simon appeared from behind the bushes in a hurry.

"Um, listen, Har', there's something I need to tell ya."

"Is something wrong?" Harry asked worried

"Um… you know, plans change and… turns out I don't need to go to Hogwarts!"

"But Dumbledore… What's really going on here?!"

"Well—" Another hiss was heard, Simon shivered to it and said "All right, I'll tell you the truth: um… Dumbledore sent me here so I can keep an eye on you! Yeah."

"Keep an eye on me? You nearly got me killed!"

"Well, I admit maybe I wasn't doing such a good job but… Well, so anyway, I had a pleasure meeting you Mr. Potter, but I gotta go now, so bye."

"Oh you're leaving?" The truth was that after all the noise Simon made it was really fun being with him. "I'm going to miss you, you know."

"Me too. Well, have fun at them Weasleys, maybe we'll meet again… shake on it?" And Harry and Simon 'shook hands' as they did the first time they met.

"Well, adios!" He said and swiftly crawled away.

Harry was just about to return to the house when he heard Simon speak to someone else. He hurried to look out to the street where Simon had disappeared and was amazed to see him on an old woman shoulder! He couldn't see who she was though, because she had her back turned to him.

"Well, it was half true right? He's quite a kid ain't he? Ya know, I think he gone be just fine! Yeah he'll be okay."

The woman either didn't know what he was saying or just didn't answer but pat his snakish head in affection and the pair disappeared behind the corner.

Harry was shocked. "Could that be the woman who was at the door when Vernon was yelling at me!?"

***

Dudley and Petunia went downtown to buy Dudley new cloths because he needed smaller sizes now so Harry and Vernon were the only ones in the house. When Harry got his suitcase downstairs with the help of a very grumpy Vernon, the two waited silently for Arthur Weasley to arrive. When he did, Vernon watched from a far distance as Mr. Weasley pulled over with Ron in the back seat of the new car they got from the ministry. It was a new though a little funny-looking black car.

"Harry!" Called Ron as he got out of the car. They felt too awkward to hug, but didn't hide the fact they were very happy to see each other.

"How are you Harry?" Asked him Mr. Weasley as he helped him put the suitcase in the front seat while Ron carried Hedwig's empty cage into the back seat with Harry.

"I'm good." Harry smiled at him, he was already feeling better, around Ron and Mr. Weasley.

Mr. Weasley completely ignored Uncle Vernon this time. Harry thought it might be because Uncle Vernon didn't say 'good-bye' properly to Harry the last year when they came to pick him up. Harry, Ron and Mr. Weasley all got in the car.

" Bye then, see you in the summer." Muttered Uncle Vernon.

"Bye." Mumbled Harry back to him. He closed the door and they drove off.

"So Harry, what's up?" Asked Ron

"All right."

"What's going on? You write you could come, then you write me you can't…"

"Later." Whispered Harry, He didn't feel comfortable to talk about Sirius near Mr. Weasley even though he was positive he knew about him by now "So Hermione registered me to this sports magazine, The Broom Post, you heard of it?"

"Sure I have! That's a great magazine! Did you get one yet?"

"A couple, I'll show them to you when we get there."

"Did you read the book yet?"

"It's really cool, but… I didn't exactly read it yet…"

"You don't like it?" Asked Ron with a hint of disappointment in his voice.

"No, no, it's great! It's just that I keep looking at the pictures instead of reading… they're amazing, especially the ones from year 1740."

"Oh, all right then," Grinned Ron.

"So Mr. Weasley, how are things at the office?" Harry asked.

Arthur Weasley's face turned worried and Harry was sorry he brought it up.

"Aaah…" He sighed deeply. "It's quite a mess actually… Everything is very uptight since last year…"

"Yeah, dad hardly came home these past two weeks, he called in sick today so he could come pick you up." Said Ron quietly. "Come to think of it— Dad, why are you working so hard lately? It's not really your department. Is it? I mean, sure if something happened to any Muggles or something but everything is quiet so far…"

"Ron, it doesn't matter whether it's my department or not!" Said Mr. Weasley harshly. " These are hard times for all Wizards and we all ought to help each other!"

The rest of the drive was pretty quiet. Ron and Harry talked about some stuff but not what they wanted to talk about.

Harry never drove to the Burrow before, (unless you count the time he flew on the Weasley's old car) and he didn't know how long the drive might be. But he couldn't enjoy it; he kept wondering about Simon, the old lady, and his arm that still twitched a bit; it never lasted that long before.

"What's wrong Harry?" Asked Ron in concerned seeing the looon Harry's face.

"Oh it's, it's nothing, really." Said Harry in a casual voice and then silently moved his lips: "Later!"

They arrived at the Burrow about minutes later. Mrs. Weasley, Ginny, Fred, George and Charlie were all waiting outside. It was such a relief to be with in the Burrow again, Harry felt much safer around them then he did at the Dursleys. When they came out of the car Mrs. Weasley rushed over, gave her husband a kiss and hugged Harry and Ron in a motherly hug.

"Hello Harry dear, it's so nice to see you here again," She said softly when she finally let go. "How are you?"

"All right, thank you." He smiled broadly.

"I glad." She grinned. "Fred, George, please help Ron and Harry with the suitcase." She called over to the Weasley twins "Dinner will be ready in a bit dears." Ginny carried Hedwig's cage upstairs and Ron, George, Fred and Harry carried the suitcase behind her. Harry was a bit surprised who different she looked, 'she must be a head taller than the last time I saw her' he thought.

When they entered the house with the suitcase through the kitchen Harry felt even a bigger relief, as though there was this huge wait that just got off him, and that was even though he was still carrying the heavy suitcase. 'Now everything will be okay' he smiled. Everything was the same. The kitchen table, the clock… Harry loved that clock; it had nine hands with the names of all the Weasleys. Eight hands were pointing on "Home" and the hand that said "Bill" was on "away".

"Say," Harry asked as the four walked clumsily up the stairs to Ron's bedroom "where's Bill?"

"We're not sure" Said George "He left early this morning, never said why…"

"So Harry," Said Fred from beside him. "Guess what? We earned" He said and winked to Harry "enough money and to finally open a Joke Shop!"

"And… you won't believe this!" George winked "There was an extra nine-hundred Gallons in our volt and the bank couldn't find who it belonged to so we kept it!"

"That's— great!" Called Harry breathing a little faster than usual because of the heavy weight of the suitcase. He was very glad he could help Fred and George. The Weasleys were Harry's favorite wizard family, his favorite family to be precise, but they were also quite poor. When Harry won one thousand Gallons in the Triwizard Tournament and Mrs. Weasley wouldn't except the money, Harry gave it to Fred and George. He was so exited to hear Fred and George are going to open a joke shop he didn't even stop to think of how it is actually possible that they'll open a shop when they're still in school.

"And with the money they earned, wherever that came from, they'll buy me a new Dress Robe instead of the thing I have now…" Ron said in joy.

"Where will the shop be?" Asked Harry even happier that Fred and George remembered they were to buy Ron a new Dress Robe.

"In Hogsmeade, so you could come visit us." Said Fred

"Far away from Zonko's, so we won't have that big a competition." Completed George from the other side of the suitcase.

They finally reached Ron's room in the top of the staircase tired and breathing hard. Ginny put down Hedwig's cage and headed quickly to the door.

"Thanks Ginny" Harry smiled at her. She deeply blushed and mumbled "your welcome" leaving the poster covered room as quickly as possible.

"All right, on my count we throw it, 1, 2, 3!"

The twins then disappeared and left Harry and Ron alone to talk.

"Harry, what's up with you? You seemed so worried."

"Well…" Harry told Ron about Simon, the old lady and the letter from Dumbledore but left out the part about his arm, he thought Ron would be even more panicked about that than he would if Harry's scar hurt.

When Harry finished Ron was quite speechless and it took him a while to come back to his senses.

"But you're sure he was… well, on our side?"

"Yes. And so was that woman, but who is she?" Harry said thinking out loud.

"And what did the letter say?"

"He told me Voldemort— "

"Harry!" Cried Ron in anger. Ron, like all wizards didn't dare say Voldemort's name. "When will you ever say You-Know-Who like everybody else?!"

"Never," Harry exclaimed and went on. "He's heading north, Dumbledore told me I need to stay at the Dursleys for a while longer, I'm not sure why though."

"That does seem very odd, why would you stay with the muggles, what can they do? I mean no disrespect…though in your family…"

"Well, you know that night on the hill, last year…" Ron's eyes opened so wide it made him look like a goldfish. That was probably the first time Harry ever mentioned that night to Ron. Last year he couldn't bring himself to talk about it after he told Dumbledore and Sirius. "Well, Vol-"

"You-Know-Who Harry! You, Know, Who."

"He said something about Dumbledore, putting a spell or something, I don't really remember but something about me being protected with the Dursleys…"

"And snuffles?" Ron asked anxiously, it was so much information at once that they kept going from one subject to the other.

"He said he's safe."

"So what will we do now?"

Harry looked at Ron for a moment and then said "Nothing. At least for now. We don't know enough to do anything. When we get to Hogwarts, maybe then…

"So," Harry changed the subject once more "do you know anything about what Bill has been doing lately?"

"No idea." Said Ron in despair "Does Hermione know about all this?"

"No."

"I just sent Pig' to tell her you're coming after all."

"So we will meet her on the last day right?"

"Yeah."

"Boys!" Mrs. Weasley cut their untidy conversation "Dinner's ready."

The table was already set and great smelling food was on it. Mr. Weasley, Fred, George, Charlie and Ginny were already seated and Mrs. Weasley leaned over the stove.

"Where's Percy?" Said Harry looking around.

"He's…" Said Ron and looked at the magical watch. The hand that said "Percy" was on "Home".

"Oh, well, he's probably just up in his room… He's got tones of work to do lately."

"Too much work if you ask me." Said Mrs. Weasley very harshly "Percy! Come down here, dinner is ready and you haven't even said Hello to Harry yet!" She yelled looking up.

"In a moment Mom!" Harry heard Percy's familiar voice from upstairs.

"All right, fine!" Snapped Mrs. Weasley. "If he doesn't want to come here we'll just start dinner without him." She brought a big pot with her and put it in the middle of the table as she sat down as well. "Dig in!" She smiled. Percy arrived after a few minutes and seemed deeply offended that they started eating without him.

"Oh, hello Harry." He said in great self-conscious.

"Hi Percy, how's it going?"

"Quite well actually, quite well indeed. I have been promoted." He said in importance.

"He was only promoted because they're so busy they don't have time to hire someone else." Snapped Ron in scorn.

"Oh Ron, don't say that!" Called George in an innocent voice though with a viscous smile on his face. "He wasn't hired because they didn't have time to hire anyone else! They hired him because it's not an important job anyway."

"Oh, because your job is much more important, isn't it George? You're going sell jokes!"

"At least I'm going to make someone laugh! Not snore!"

"Boys, stop it!" Called Mrs. Weasley in anger.

At the end of the meal everybody was so full they didn't even have room for desert.

After dinner Harry and Ron went upstairs and talked about the way things went with the Ministry. Harry wanted to hear all about the wizard world and how it was doing. Ever since the last year changes all around were taking place, especially between Dumbledore and Fudge. Just after Voldemort rose again, Dumbledore and Fudge had this huge fight over whether Voldemort was really back or not and over the changes that should take place and it ended up really nasty, when Fudge muttered something about finding a new headmaster. After Fudge left, Dumbledore sent Sirius, Mr. Weasley (through Bill), Hagrid, Madam Maxim and Snape each on a mission. Harry and Ron talked for a long while of where each could have gone; they knew Mr. Weasley was to gather the "good guys" fthe ministry, the people faithful to Dumbledore, perhaps against Fudge. Hagrid and Madam Maxim though Harry and Ron weren't sure at all about this, might have gone to try and make peace contacts with the giants. Sirius was sent to call some people Dumbledore mentioned, including Remus Lupin, a good friend of H's father who was also their teacher for Defense against the Dark Arts in their 3rd year. Snape… that was the big mystery…

Just when they got tired of discussing these worrying thoughts and were about to go to bed Harry heard a familiar tapping sound on the window.

"Hedwig!" Harry exclaimed happily. Ron opened the window and she flew in. She had a letter tied to her foot that said "Dear Harry"; Harry untied the letter off her leg and opened it. He read it out loud.

Dear Harry,

Hi, how are you? I'm glad you arrived at the Weasleys sound and safe. I'm staying at Moony's for a wile.

"That's Lupin." Harry said as he read the word 'Moony' and went on.

Tell me if everything suspicious happens. Anyway, I hope you're having fun, I'm not sure when I'll see you though I hope I can meet you soon but I can't promise anything. Have fun at Ron's and tell him I said hi.

Hoping to see you soon,

Snuffles.

"How did you manage to write him a letter from here? Did you write him while I was in the shower? And how did he manage to return you a letter so soon?" Said Ron in astonishment.

"I didn't, this is way too weird…" Said Harry not believing what just happened, he didn't even send the last letter he wrote Sirius.

"What is? What's going on Harry?"

"I don't know. I wrote Sirius a letter not long ago but I never sent it, Hedwig looked too tired, so I just left it on the desk and when I woke up the next morning and started packing Hedwig and the letter weren't there. I thought it got lost or something, but somehow Sirius got it. And I didn't write I was already got here!"

"That's, that's… Is it possible that Simon…" Said Ron in a worried voice.

"I don't know! It's either him or Hedwig!"

"You think we should tell someone?"

"I'm not sure, no one is suppose to know about Simon, it's not that big a deal and if I tell Sirius I'm not sure what he would do. Maybe he knows I'm here and everything is okay because one of your parents told Dumbledore…"

"Yeah, maybe…"

There was a moment of silence, Harry wanted to break it but he didn't know what to say so they just sat there for a little while, and then their eyes crossed paths and they broke in laughter.

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End of chapter 3! Really hoped you liked it! And if u didn't tell me

anyway won't you? Again, MORE TO COME!!!

--Tincerbel