Dress Robes and Dreams

The ride into London had been uneventful unless you counted Ron constantly pestering Hermione, "Are you sure you know the way to London?"

"YES Ron!" Hermione finally snapped, "Do you think that I am stupid enough to drive around aimlessly hoping to end up in London?" Ginny chuckled slightly.

"Ron, cool it." Harry said under his breath. He knew Hermione was near the breaking point and that Ron was seeing how far he could push it. He didn't know how much longer Hermione would last and he frankly didn't want to find out.

Ron kept his mouth shut for the remainder of the journey while Ginny and Hermione jabbered on about dress robes or something of the sort. Harry's eyes had long glazed over and he sat looking out the window at the scenery whizzing by. After three long hours in the car they finally had reached London and Harry snapped out of his semi-conscious slump. He prodded Ron who had fallen asleep, and after finding a spot in the car park they clambered out of the car and started heading towards the Leaky Cauldron.

"Whoa," Ron said in awe, "What is that place?"

"That's Buckingham Palace, Ron, honestly you should've really taken Muggle Studies!" Hermione said matter-of-factly.

After walking around for a quarter of an hour they reached the Leaky Cauldron and walked into the dark and murky pub. It was crowed as usual and smelt of smoke and liquor.

"Hallo there!" Tom, the owner shouted at Harry, Hermione, Ginny and Ron. They smiled and head to the small courtyard in the back of the pub. It looked the same as it had the first time Harry had set foot there, with only a dustbin and few straggly weeds. Hermione walked up to the dustbin and whipped out her wand. She tapped a single brick three times and the wall suddenly quivered and started shifting until there was a archway that led into Diagon Alley.

Gringott's bank loomed in the foreground. It seemed to be swaying gently in the wind and Harry had to remind himself that it was held up by magic. Even after seven years in the magical community he still had to remind himself of things of that sort.

After they had each cashed some money out of Gringott's they separated to buy their books and other supplies. Ginny went with Hermione and Harry with Ron. Harry was secretly happy that Ron and Hermione were finally separated. They had been bickering non stop since Harry had arrived at the Granger household. He didn't know what Ron's problem was. He had never argued this much with Hermione before….

***

Ginny and Hermione had finished buying their school supplies and were having an ice cream when they saw Professor Trelawney across the way sitting at a small table with a deck of cards and a crystal ball perched atop.

"What is she doing here?" Ginny asked Hermione.

"Who cares. She is a crazy old bat." Hermione said.

"I care!" Ginny said, "I want to find out why the 'crazy old bat' is working in Diagon Alley.

"Fine, we'll go ask." Hermione said, with a slight chuckle she added, "Maybe she got fired from Hogwarts."

"We will never know until we ask." Ginny said with a grin and they walked across the cobble stoned road to the table where Trelawney sat.

"Hello Ms. Weasley!" Professor Trelawney said recognising Ginny, she noticed Hermione and added with a slight scowl on her face, "Ms. Granger."

"Hello," Ginny said brightly, "We were wondering what you were doing here, running this…" she looked down at the sign on the table which read:

Sibyll Trelawney's Physic Readings

15 sickles a reading.

"…Physic reading location."

"I have come to work in Diagon Alley."

"Obviously." Hermione said sarcastically

"What she meant," Ginny said, nudging Hermione, "Was, why, are you working in Diagon Alley. You weren't fired from Hogwarts were you?"

"Oh, no dear." Professor Trelawney said airily, "I was gazing into my crystal ball at the beginning of the summer term when I saw myself abandoning my job at Hogwarts to become a seer in Diagon Alley. So, naturally I gave Albus Dumbledore my resignation and got my job here."

This time even Ginny could not suppress her giggles. "So, you just quit because you saw it in your crystal ball?"

"Not exactly like that." Sibyll said, her voice not quite so airy this time. "I saw it in the crystal ball and then the fates informed me."

Hermione snickered, "Oh those fates, they'll do it to you every time."

Trelawney gave them a hard look and replied coldly, "If you do not wish to have a reading please clear away, other's are waiting."

Ginny and Hermione bid Professor…or rather, 'Seer Trelawney' goodbye and walked away breaking into peals of laughter that the old witch must've heard.

***

"Whaddya' reckon Harry?" Ron asked as he tried on a bright orange dress robe, in Madam Malkin's Robes For All Occasions, which was required for their graduation at Hogwarts.

"Um…" Harry said, orange was not the best colour for Ron, it clashed horribly with his ginger hair, "Maybe something a bit…calmer?"

"Yeah, you're right." Ron said, "I was going for the 'Chudley Cannon's' look but it obviously doesn't go well with me."

"Right," Harry said, relieved that Ron hadn't taken it the wrong way, "So what colour do you think I should go for, red or green?"

"Definitely the green," Ron said after eyeing them both, "So do you think dark blue would look okay?"

"Never thought I'd see the day when my brother was spending this much time on buying robes!" Ginny laughed at Ron. Her and Hermione had just entered the shop and were having a good laugh at Harry and Ron.

"Oh, bug off Gin." he said exasperatedly, "We have to buy these, its not like were doing it for fun."

The two girls just laughed and headed over to the female section to pick out Hermione's dress robe.

***

The afternoon had been spent shopping and they were all exhausted and were dreading the car ride home.

"We could always ring your parents and tell them that we are too tired to drive home." Ginny said hopefully, absent-mindedly twisting her hair.

"That's true." Hermione said slowly, "I know Dad wouldn't mind, he'd rather us get a good night's sleep before driving three hours in the dark. Mum might be a little harder to convince. She'll want us home."

"You should ask, Hermione." Harry said

"Yeah, ask!" Ron said urging her on.

"Fine, I'll ring them up, I am going to use the phone in the book shop next door, I'll be back in a minute." she got up and headed out into the darkening street.

She was back, five minutes later with a slight grin across her face. "Dad said it was fine. We can stay the night here."

"Great!" Ron said happily "I wouldn't want you to fall asleep while you were driving or anything."

They had a quick supper in the pub then requested two rooms from Tom. They had no sooner put their belonging's away and crawl into bed did they fall asleep.

***

It was in the wee hours of the morning when Harry sat suddenly upright in bed. His scar was burning and he was panting like he had run a marathon.

"Wha… what's wrong Harry?" Ron said croakily.

Harry caught his breath and replied, "I had another nightmare I think, my scar is burning like you would not believe."

Ron was now fully awake, "Your sc… scar hurts Harry? You… you don't think it has something to do with… you-know-who does it?"

"I dunno," Harry replied truthfully. "Maybe…"

"Well, try and get some sleep, mate." Ron said as he lay back down. Harry agreed and lay down but it was a long time before the burning stopped and he slowly drifted back to sleep.

***

The next morning in the pub Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny sat around a small round table eating a quick breakfast. Harry hadn't brought up last night's nightmare with anyone except Ron. He didn't know why he didn't tell it was just a gut feeling inside him that kept him from telling. He figured on the way home he would tell Hermione and Ginny. Suddenly five owls swooped in and delivered copies of, The Daily Prophet, to the occupants of the Leaky Cauldron. Hermione snatched the copy out of the air and began to read the front page when she gasped.

"Oh my Lord." she said in a deadly quiet tone.

"What's wrong?" asked Harry

"There was another muggle killing, this time in France. Listen to the article,"

Dark Wizards Invade France

Early this morning Dark Wizards presumed to be you-know-who's Deatheaters invaded a muggle community in a small town in France. 22 muggles were killed and at least 30 seriously injured. When the Ministry's very own Auror's stepped in to help end the deadly situation one was killed. Mr Geoffrey Rochester, 64, an Auror for 44 years. His death is a tragic reminder of what you-know-who's follower's are capable of.

The Ministry of Magic told the Daily Prophet that anyone who may know anything about these muggle killings is urged to contact them via owl as soon as possible. All Deatheaters proven guilty may be sentenced to a life time in Azkaban. We repeat, ANYTHING, you know about these killings should be reported to the Ministry of Magic as soon as possible.

"That is so awful," Ginny whispered. "I can't believe there are more killings!"

"I know," Hermione said, her voice seemed distant, "Its simply horrid and must be stopped."

Harry squirmed uncomfortably in his chair, he had to tell his friends about his dream, they deserved to know, "Um, last night I had another nightmare."

"You did?!" Hermione asked snapping out of her distant gaze.

"Oh yeah, I remember that." Ron commented.

"Yeah, well really, early this morning." Harry started, "I can't remember what the dream was exactly but I know it was bad and I woke up and my scar was burning."

Ginny looked longingly up at Harry and then replied, "Well doesn't that mean something? Isn't you scar some sort of alarm?"

"Yeah…" Harry said slowly. "It could just be a coincidence though."

"Harry," Hermione began, "You know it wasn't a coincidence. All the signs point to that. I mean think about it logically. Every time you-know-who has ever started to gain power or plot evil things, or for that matter do evil things, your scar always starts to hurt. Last night or early this morning you had a nightmare and your scar started to burn. Well, early this morning Deatheaters invaded that town in France. It all makes sense."

"I know," Harry gave in, "Your right."

"Well, maybe we should head back to your house Hermione." Ginny said, pushing her plate towards the centre of the table.

"Yeah, lets go." she called over Tom and paid him the cheque and they left with their bags to find their car. They reached in the car in good time and were soon out on the road again.

***

The rest of the week at the Granger's passed without great incident. They enjoyed the warm sunny days and talked about their plans for the future. It was all very blissful. As Harry looked out at the sunset one evening he couldn't imagine how anything bad was going on in the world. It all seemed too beautiful to produce anything evil or wrong. As much as Harry wanted to go back to Hogwarts, his home for the last six years, he couldn't help wanting to stay at the Granger's forever. Everything was so calm and peaceful, nothing to worry about it. Nothing could go wrong here.

Authors Note: Well, here you go…the second chapter to my story. I decided to post it a little sooner then expected. I hope that you enjoyed it. I'm not sure when the third chapter will be up but I probably soon. It is already written I just haven't decided on a date.

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