Chapter Eight - A Long and Lonely Summer.

Disclaimer - I don't own Harry potter, blah blah blah, you know the score.

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Sirius and Harry sat for quite some time before Harry stopped crying. Slowly he pulled out of the embrace Sirius had held him in,

"Sorry" he said quietly.

Sirius looked at him in disbelief, "Don't you EVER apologise for crying again young man." He scalded, "you have just as much right as the next person to cry."

Harry looked in to Sirius' eyes. If truth be told he didn't remember having ever cried before that moment and he certainly didn't recall anyone having ever told him he had any rights. He smiled weakly. "Thanks. Now. Is Professor Dumbledore still here?"

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Dumbledore paced the kitchen floor. This certainly was a predicament he had here. The question was what should he do? Would Harry be safe here for the rest of the summer? It wasn't that Dumbledore didn't trust Sirius or the others it was just that so much could go wrong. Voldemort could locate him and attack - without the protection of Hogwarts or his family that would be fatal, or the ministry could locate Sirius and Harry would be hauled in for harbouring him - that definitely couldn't be good either. He was sure Harry would be much safer at Hogwarts. Safer, but would he be as happy? He could see from the look in Harry's eyes that he was happy here, finally surrounded by people who loved him. Dumbledore had no doubt that the Dursley's had loved Harry, in their own special way, but finally Harry was with people he felt happy with. Dumbledore couldn't take him away from that. He knew he couldn't. He turned to Harry;

"Harry. This may not be the brightest thing I've ever done. In fact it may just well be the stupidest thing I've done in my life, but I'm going to let you stay here the remainder of the summer."

Harry exhaled loudly and Sirius squeezed his shoulder,

"There you go, what did I tell you?"

Harry grinned. This summer was shaping up after all. Then he realised that Dumbledore was still speaking,

"...ground rules however."

Harry groaned. Rules. *Oh well, can't have it all ways*

"Number one. You don't leave the house unless someone is with you and even then try to make sure you only leave and return under cover of darkness. Whoever killed your family was after you. I don't want you caught short and alone. Number two. Don't give anyone any trouble will you? I know what you're like for causing trouble, just try and keep a low profile this year please. Finally number three, before I tell you just remember this. These rules are for your own good. If you don't agree to them and stick to them then you will spend the rest of the summer back at Hogwarts under the watchful eye of your professor's understand." He waited for Harry to nod before continuing, "No contact with Mr Weasley and Miss Granger for the duration of the summer." Dumbledore winced on completion of that sentence waiting for the string of verbal abuse to come. After a minute of silence he looked at Harry who was currently doing a rather good impression of a goldfish. He watched in anticipation for a few seconds before Harry finally managed to form a simple sentence;

"W..w..w..what? Why?" Harry finally gasped out.

"Harry." Dumbledore started, "it isn't that I don't trust your friends," Harry visibly relaxed, "It's just that I don't want anything getting intercepted and having someone finding out where you are or who you're with. This situation is a big risk. There's just as much danger from the ministry tracing you as there is from Voldemort. If the ministry find out where you are and come looking for you they find Sirius. And if they find him here then everyone in this house finds themselves in Azkaban. I don't mean to sound harsh but that's how it is. Just stick to the rules and you'll all be fine ok?"

Next Dumbledore turned to the rest of the room, "Now. I've put up some protection spells round this place which should make it safer for you. I've done all I can think of. There's roughly the same ward spells as there is at Hogwarts. You are un-plottable, invisible unless you know what you are looking for, there's a selective anti-apparation barrier -- basically only those who are cleared can come and go - and finally there's these."

Dumbledore handed each of the people in the room a pendant which they all examined with interest.

"Each of those pendants contains some of the most powerful protection spells known to us. Once you've put them on you mustn't take them off as long as you are here. Most of the spells are your general ward spells. Scaled down versions of the protective spells around the house designed to keep the wearer safe but the most important spell on them is a variation of the Fidelius charm."

Each of the people of the room turned their full attention to Dumbledore. None of them particularly trusted that charm anymore. Not after what had happened to Lily and James. They all knew of course that it was the secret keeper that went wrong not the charm but it was still hard to trust something that had already failed you once. Finally it was Jen, who broke the silence,

"What do you mean variation? How is it varied?"

Dumbledore smiled, "Well essentially it does the same job in a different way. It alleviates the need for a secret keeper making it a lot simpler. There is therefore no one to give you away. Also instead of it meaning that no-one can find you it simply makes it that those who intend to cause you pain or suffering in anyway cannot find you. Harry. For that reason when you come back to Hogwarts in September you will need to remove the pendant. You've been in enough feuds with certain students that I fear you would be appearing and disappearing all over the place and we can't have that. I'm sure it would confuse certain Slytherin's no end to see that." Dumbledore winked at Harry who did his best to conceal the laughter. The mental image of the look on Malfoy's face if that should happen was just too much and he couldn't' help giggle at the thought. Dumbledore watched Harry with a small smile to himself before continuing his explanation, "Just make sure none of you take off the pendants until I tell you it is safe to. As soon as the pendant is removed the magic is gone. They are strictly one use only. Be careful with them."

They all looked at their pendants carefully before each placed them round their necks. Harry immediately felt the magic surge through him leaving him with a warm feeling inside as if he was being smothered with hundreds of warm fluffy blankets. Dumbledore turned to Jen and Caz,

"Can I have a quick word with you two before I go?"

They both smiled and followed Dumbledore out of the room. Harry turned to look at Sirius, Remus and Abbi who were all stood to his right. He grinned as he looked at them and for the first time in his 15 years of life he honestly felt as if he had a proper family.

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Ron and Hermione sat out in the meadow at the back of the Weasley's home. Hermione had arrived at the Weasley's the previous week and since her arrival she and Ron had spent an awful lot of time out here in the meadow, just sat in silence thinking about things. Things were changing between the two of them. They both realised that. Ron was increasingly finding himself thinking about Hermione in ways which one should definitely not think about ones best friend. Hermione too found herself looking at Ron in a whole new light. The look he wore on his face if he was in trouble for instance, which she had only six months ago found absolutely infuriating now seemed, well, cute. She just didn't know where all this was coming from!

"Ron,"

"Hermione,"

they both addressed each other at the same time, causing them both to laugh out loud,

"Hermione, I..."

Their potential conversation was interrupted by the appearance of a rather old wizard who apparated right in front of them

Dumbledore smiled. Both his young students appeared to be blushing the colour of beetroots. If truth be told he found it quite sweet that the two were finally realising their feelings towards each other,

"Professor Dumbledore." Hermione greeted him, "what are you doing here?"

"Well Miss Granger. I actually have a message for you and Mr Weasley from Mr Potter." Both of them looked hopeful at this news. They knew that Harry had promised not to leave the Dursley's. They also knew about the attack on privet drive and had been very worried about the lack of contact from Harry. Dumbledore continued, "Harry is perfectly safe." Hermione and Ron both let out a breath that neither knew they had been holding, "however I must ask that neither of you attempt to contact him for the rest of the summer. He is perfectly safe where he is and with whom he is with but it is best that you do not try to contact him and he does not contact you. There are a lot of people looking for him and those he is with and mail coming and going will only put them all in danger. If you need to contact him urgently for some reason then I can pass on a message but that is only in dire emergency understand?"

Dumbledore looked at the two students before him and watched them nod in comprehension. "Good. It is only for three and a half weeks, I'm sure it'll fly and you'll all be back at Hogwarts in no time. Now I have to dash, but remember, no contact." With that Dumbledore vanished with a *poof* leaving Hermione and Ron with a hundred unanswered questions which quite obviously now would have to remain unanswered until September.

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A/N So there we go. Chapter 8. They are getting longer again and finally a storyline is just starting to evolve. Next chapter we are back at Hogwarts, sorry this is taking so long but I'm up to my neck in coursework and queens award project at the moment. I've got an 8000 word project due in 2 days and its only 1500 words long! I've been working on it 10 months already!!!!!!! Anyway half term in 10 days so I should be able to get some writing done then. Hopefully there'll be another chapter in about two week's tops.