CHAPTER 3 - The Hideout

To all my reviewers - thanks so much, you've given me much to think about, sorry this has taken sooooo long to get out, I've been sick and trying to catch up with school etc etc left me little time for the story. I also re- edited the first two chapters as well. I'm trying to make these chapters longer... let me know what you think!

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"Well, where are we staying then?"

"You'll see."

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Harry rolled his eyes, but obediently began to gather his school things, checking the floorboards to ensure he hadn't forgotten anything. Looking at Hedwig's cage, he hoped Hedwig would be able to find him wherever they were going.

"Don't worry about Hedwig," Remus interjected, reading Harry's thoughts, "she'll be able to find us. Are you ready?"

Taking one final glance around the room, he nodded, feeling oddly elated. He was leaving the Dursley's! Although the fact that he was leaving because Voldermort was, yet again trying to kill him, left a dampener on the feeling, he was still getting to leave earlier.

Harry groaned. He suddenly had a vivid memory of flying for hours last year to get to London to avoid detection, and really, he was in no mood for that again, no matter how glad he was to be leaving behind Privet Drive.

Turning to Remus, he braved his fear, "err, Professor, we're not . err.. flying to wherever we're going are we?"

Seeing the anguished look on Harry's face, he grinned, "No thank heavens, last year was a nightmare. We're going to do this the easy way, using a portkey, homed to the safe house."

Harry breathed a sigh of relief. Although portkey wasn't his favourite way of travelling (he seemed to always fall when reaching his destination, it was a lot quicker, and much less painful than spending hours on a broomstick. As much as he loved his Firebolt, he was definitely opting for the portkey.

Harry stuck his broomstick under his left arm, and took hold of one end of this truck with the other, while Remus grabbed the other end with Hedwig's cage (shrunk to a more manageable size) underneath his right arm, and held out the portkey, an old stuffed penguin with one eye missing, for Harry to take.

BANG!!!

From Harry's vantage point from the somewhat cold concrete floor, he could see a whole lot of Wizards and Witches running in every which direction. Obviously the portkey had worked and had taken them here. Where 'here' was, Harry was still uncertain, but as he picked himself off the floor, wishing that the portkey had sent them to a room with a softer landing spot, he spotted several flashes of red hair, which could only mean one thing.

"HARRY!!" Yep, he was right, the Weasley's were here. He was extremely thankful that they were safe, although the way that several members of the family were charging at him, he was suddenly concerned for his own safety.

Molly Weasley reached him first somehow, and threw her arms around him with a grip so fierce; Harry thought that he heard his ribs give way. When she finally released him, he noticed with a jolt that she had tears in her eyes, over him.

"Oh Harry", she wailed, "we were so worried. Are you alright? How are the Dursley's treating you?"

"Mum, calm down", Harry heard Ron say, as he couldn't anything while being held by Mrs Weasley. "He's obviously fine, aren't you mate?" This last statement was obviously being directed at Harry, and he found himself able to extract himself from the vice-like grip, and grinned up at Ron.

"Sure am." Wait a minute. Harry noticed, with dismay how much he had to look up at Ron. At the beginning of their summer break they'd been more or less the same height. Now Ron was easily a head taller, and by looking at the bottom of his robes, which hung up around his shins, he probably hadn't stopped. "How've you been?"

The red-head shrugged, "yeah, good I 'spose. Had a really boring summer though. Mum was really funny about letting us go anywhere, she got real mad when Fred and George refused to stay at home all summer. They've been making an absolute killing though, they've promised to take us all out for ice cream when we go to Diagon Alley for our school things."

Harry nodded, and noticed the twins standing a few feet back from where he and Ron were talking, whispering to themselves and looking in their general direction before grinning madly. From experience, Harry knew that this was not a good thing. As he continued to look around the room, he could see the other members of the Weasley family by their distinctive colouring. Bill was in discussion with a pretty looking witch he didn't recognize, although Harry did notice with a smile, that said witch was hanging on to every word Bill was saying. Charlie seemed to be vehemently arguing the finer points of Dragon care, with an equally fired up wizard whose back was to Harry. With a shock, Harry noticed that Percy was in the room, albeit by himself in a corner of the room reading a book which appeared to be on the subject of Fairies.

"Percy's here." Harry said, more of a statement than a question.

Ron turned, following Harry's gaze towards his older brother, and spotting him, frowned. "He's been acting all weird this summer. He refused to move back home, even after Fudge admitted he was wrong, and what's even worse, he's still questioning Dad's motives at the Ministry. I think he's the reason Mum's been so protective of us, she's worried that Percy's going to influence us or some rubbish.. not that he could. "

Taking a closer look at Percy, Harry could see that the older Weasley boy, wasn't actually reading the book in his lap, but staring off across the room but not focusing on anything. It was giving Harry a really eerie feeling, and he turned away once more.

"Come on, let's get your stuff upstairs." This was from Ron, who had gotten bored of watching Harry look around the room. Trudging through the foyer and to the staircases located towards the back of the house, Harry couldn't help but notice how many people were actually around. Obviously this place must have had enchantments to fit this many people.

"Err, Ron... Where exactly are we? And who owns this place?"

Ron gave him a funny look, as if to say 'don't you know?' but answered him anyway. "This place used to belong to the Perks, you know Sally-Anne is in our year in Ravenclaw. Her mum was an Auror and was killed by you-know-who around the same time as your parents, Harry. Her dad's a muggle you know, so I guess they moved to another town or something. Anyway, her dad gave the house to Dumbledore to use, they didn't want to live in it - too many sad memories I guess. Mum says it's got some of the best wards and stuff on it, so I reckon we're pretty safe here."

Harry was amazed that someone who he probably shared a couple of classes with, had a similar background to him. And to make things worse, he had absolutely no idea of who she was.

Huffing up six staircases later, Ron paused at the landing to catch his breath. "Almost there, only four flights to go." Harry inwardly groaned, but didn't have the energy to vocalise it. Instead he sat down on the top step, leaning against his trunk, panting heavily. A set of footsteps caused him to crane his neck see who was coming down the stairs behind them.

"Hey Harry, how was your summer?" Ginny, the youngest Weasley was standing on one the steps just above the landing, where he and Ron had perched. Then, noticing how hard he and her brother were breathing, "what exactly are you guys doing? You look terrible" Ron glared at her and managed, between breaths to gasp out, "Harry's stuff.. our room." Ginny looked at her brother hard for a moment, and then at Harry as though she didn't believe him. "Ron," she said slowly, as if talking to a five-year old, "what year are you in this year?" Ron glared again, but didn't answer, which seemed to suit Ginny fine, as she continued regardless, "I know that your brain ceases to function during holidays", Ginny smiled as she was rewarded with another glare, "but you know that you could have just levitated Harry's trunk upstairs." And as if to prove her point, she pointed her wand at Harry's trunk, and with a flick of her wrist and a quick incantation, had Harry's truck levitated and was making her way back up the stairs towards Ron's room with the truck in tow.

Harry mentally smacked his forehead with his hand, he felt so stupid. The only consolation was that Ron looked about the same as he felt. Trudging up the stairs behind Ginny and his truck, Harry finally thought to ask Ron about his OWL results. The response he got was in the form of a shrug. "I did okay I guess, I got 7 which is not as good as Bill and Charlie, but better than Fred and George. The weird thing was that mum was actually happy about it. I thought she'd go mental that I hadn't done that well." He looked at Harry suddenly and grinned, "you know you were in the paper for your results don't you?"

Harry stopped suddenly, causing Ron to almost run into him. Ron couldn't possibly be talking about the Daily Prophet... Ron grinned again, stepped around him and opened the door to their room, went over to a desk in the far corner, and began to rummage around before turning around and thrusting something into Harry's face.

Harry sat on the closest bed and saw with dismay that Ron HAD been talking about the Daily Prophet. Dated the day the results came out, the front page had been entitled,

BOY-WHO-LIVED DELIGHTED BY OWL RESULTS

And underneath the caption, was a photograph of his victory cheer. The same victory cheer that had caused such a commotion that same morning on Privet Drive. Harry looked up to see both Ron and Ginny snickering at the expression on Harry's face. Harry looked back down at the photograph and watched himself perform what Muggles would probably call a chicken dance. The article continued over the page, but Harry couldn't bear to read it. He looked up again, and this time, Ron gave up his attempt at normalacy and started laughing, gasping for breath with tears rolling down his face. Harry glared at Ron, which only made his friend laugh harder.

"It's not that funny", he knew he sounded like a petulant child, but found he didn't care. He did however resist the urge to pout. Potters do not pout. He rolled his eyes as Ron fell with a 'yelp' off the bed only to continue laughing.

Harry frantically searched his mind for something that would stop Ron from continuing in the manner at present.

"What do your parents think about the death-eater attacks?" Not too original, but hey it worked, thought Harry, as Ron stopped laughing as quickly as he had begun. He shot a quick glance at his sister and then at the door, before getting up from his position on the floor. After checking that there was nobody hovering near-by, he closed the door before going to sit next to Ginny on the bed opposite from Harry. From the looks on both of their faces, this was something that had been troubling them for some time.

"We don't know much really about what's been going on," this was from Ginny, "but we have been listening carefully and piecing a few things together. Obviously everyone's worried about you Harry, as well as some of Dumbledore's more well-known supporters."

"Dad's worried though that something else is going on," Ron continued. "He hasn't told us as much but he and Mum had an argument about it a while back. At the moment, all Mum seems concerned about is our family's safety and yours. She thinks Dad is looking for something that isn't there."

Harry thoughts went to Arthur Weasley. He's always seemed to have a fair knowledge about what's going on, and didn't seem the fanciful type.

"What does your Dad think?" This question was directed at Ron, but it was Ginny who responded.

"He thinks that the attacks have nothing to do with you." Off Harry's surprised look, she smiled and continued. "Yeah, I know, we were surprised too, but we - I mean Fred, George, Ron and myself think he's got a point. Not everything is going to be about you."

Harry blinked, be wasn't used to Ginny being so, well, blunt. And, he thought irritably, it wasn't as though he enjoyed being one of the most hunted-down wizards in the wizarding world. Before he could tell Ginny exactly that, he heard a faint POP! And turned to see Fred and George standing behind the bed Harry was sitting on.

"Heya Harry." That was from George... maybe.

"We've had the most amazing summer."

"We've been making an absolute fortune don't you know"

"We've decided to give you a selection of our most newest inventions back to Hogwarts so that the word can be spread around."

"We can't let our legacy die down."

"Wherever there's laughter.."

"Or a really bad smell..."

"Everyone will know its because of.."

"Weasley's Wizard Weezes!" Both boys said this last part, before taking a mock bow and blowing kisses to their imaginary audience. Harry laughed, glad to see that nothing had changed about the Weasley twins.

He gestured to Fred and George to pull up a patch of floor-space, before turning back to Ron and asking, "well if you're Dad doesn't think this attack is about me, what does he think its about?"

"He's not sure, but he's almost certain it has nothing to do with you, or any of the more powerful wizards for that matter."

"Okay, why does he think that?"

Fred and George looked up at Harry, from their position on the floor and laughed.

"Harry, Harry, Harry,"

"Has your time with us taught you nothing?"

"When you want to create havoc in the Northern tower"

"You let slip to Filch that the there are third-years wondering around in the east-wing."

George (or was it Fred) was looking at Harry as though they'd just divulged upon him the secrets of the universe, but he was confused as to what Filch had to do with anything.

Ginny rolled her eyes and said pointedly to Harry, "what my deranged brothers are trying to say, is that so much has been said about attacking you, that its obvious that they have no intention of actually doing so." This wasn't explaining anything, Harry thought, if anything, he was more confused than ever.

Ron caught his look of confusion, "look at it this way. The word is that the death-eaters and going to try and capture you and kill significant wizards and witches." Harry nodded, and Ron continued with his explanation, "okay knowing this, where are all the Aurors, and other powerful wizards going to be?"

"Guarding us."

"Exactly, which leaves basically the entire wizarding and muggle community open for anything to happen. But this is just a theory"

With a shudder, Harry realised that this was a logical argument, and a very big possibility. "Dad says that the death-eaters are all but taking out announcements in the paper telling everyone about these attacks. He thinks that the fact that everyone knows about them is a pretty big indication that something else is happening as well."

Ginny looked at Ron, before adding, "unfortunately Dad's the only one who has openly suggested that this might be something else entirely. He spoke with Dumbledore, who admitted that it was a possibility, but that those of us here needed the most protection. There are other houses, though across London, which have been set up as well, but this is the main one. All the focus is on those of us here at the moment."

Great, something else for me to worry about. Before Harry could voice his thoughts, a large crash, which to Harry was like a gong, could be heard throughout the house. He looked around in alarm but the Weasley's looked like they were expecting this.

Ron grabbed him by his upper arm, and began pulling him out of the room, and down the stairs "Where are we going?"

"To the meeting room, the attacks have started."

With a sinking feeling in his stomach, Harry struggled to keep up as they raced down the stairs. Reaching the bottom first, Fred turned a sharp left and led them down a dimly lit corridor which, in Harry's mind, seemed to be sloping downward, as if leading them underground. A noticeable drop in temperature confirmed his suspicions that they were actually in an underground portion of the building. As they hurried through the corridor, Harry couldn't help but notice that the portraits on the wall were all missing their subjects, leaving blank canvas', something which couldn't be considered a good thing, he mused.

At the end of the corridor, Fred opened the last door on the right, and stepped through. Following, Harry entered a room that made the Great Hall at Hogwarts seem tiny. He could see at least one hundred and fifty other wizards and witches had begun to assemble. As Harry watched, the larger group began to split into groups of exactly six but before he could ask exactly what they were doing, Ron piped up, "we've been split into groups of six, to make it easier to determine if someone goes missing. We just have to stay together." He looked around the room before spotting someone, "over this way, Percy's over here." Ron led was leading him to the other side of the room, where Harry could see Percy sitting at a set of couches sipping what looked to be like tea. Walking across the room, he realised that although Fred and George had followed Ron, Ginny hadn't.

Tugging Ron's Canons' jersey, he voiced his concern. Without stopping, Ron inspected the room again, "she's in mum and dad's group - they probably think she'll be safer with them." Harry thought that was kind of strange, why wouldn't she be safe with them? The other question was who was the sixth in their group. With Percy, the twins, Ron and himself, that only made 5. Reaching the corner where Percy was situation, he didn't have to wait long for an answer. Helping himself to some of Percy's tea, and ignoring the withering look sent his way, Harry noticed with surprise that he recognised the young wizard striding in their direction as Neville Longbottom. He set his tea down in order to stand up and shake Neville's hand as he approached. He liked Neville, and was pleased that they hadn't been stuck with someone like Snape or worse, Malfoy. Although in hindsight, Harry realised, that Malfoy didn't need protection, but was doubtlessly one for whom protecting was needed from.

In the middle of a conversation, where Neville was detailing the finer points of his summer visiting a wizarding community in New Zealand, a hush settled over the room, and all witches and wizards in the room looked around expectantly to see what was happening.

Albus Dumbledore's voice resonated throughout the room clear and calm as always.

"Sixteen years ago, the wizarding world celebrated the defeat of Voldermort, and I know some of you believe that since he was never truly defeated, that he can never be. I also know some of you feel we are taking the cowards approach by hiding, and not making a stand. Let everyone hear understand this - if we are united, unyielding in our beliefs of what is right and what is good, we can never be conquered."

"These coming attacks will tell us more about how to defeat Voldermort that if we were to counter-attack. I believe that he has underestimated us - for power is not the ultimate weapon. Not power, but knowledge. Without knowledge, power is useless. We, my friends, will have both."

At this junction, Dumbledore smiled as he gazed around the room, stopping when he reached Harry Potter.

"Some of you have seen more evil and destruction than anyone ought to ever, and have suffered more than anyone can imagine. I'm not going to stand here today and promise you that you will never again be tested or discouraged, because I can't."

"Many of you will have wondered how a wizard, such as our young Mr Potter here, has managed to face Voldermort on numerous occasions and have bested a more powerful wizard. The reason my friends, is because he believes. That's what it takes to be a hero, a little gem of innocence inside you that makes you want to believe that there still exists a right and wrong, that decency will somehow triumph in the end."

With this, Dumbledore nodded, and headed to the group of wizards and witches Harry recognised as the remaining Order of the Phoenix. Looking around at the rest of the room, Harry was filled with fear about what was happening outside this house. He wondered about the other Hogwarts students. Were they safe? He know there were other houses like this all over London, but he had no idea how protected they were, or even if they were aware of what was coming.

All they could do now, was wait.

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** as much as I would like to take credit for Dumbledore's speech - it was actually written by Lise Hand, describing the late Irish journalist Veronica Guerin. I just liked it, and thought it fitting.

well????? What did you think?