Harry groaned as he rolled over in bed. A tawny owl was pecking
incessantly at the window. "Coming, coming." He said. Harry stumbled to his
feet and pulled up the window to let the owl in. Hedwig hooted the greeting
to the newcomer before bringing her winq up over her head once more.
Harry took the letter from the owl and it took off through the open window. Harry didn't bother to close it again, the owl with his Daily Prophet would be there soon enough. Harry examined the letter that the owl had given him carefully, not wanting to stumble upon any curses or hexes. He relaxed when he saw the Hogwarts seal and then gasped, "My OWLs! I totally forgot about them." He said.
He ripped the envelope open to find a note.
Dear Mr. Potter,
The results of your Ordinary Wizarding Level exams have been forwarded to us from the Examiners. Here are the results as we received them.
Astronomy: Poor (I don't fault you for this grade because of the
events that were taking place that night but otherwise you would get
quite a reprimand from me)
Charms: Exceed Expectations
Transfiguration: Exceed Expectations
Herbology: Acceptable
Defense Against the Dark Arts: Outstanding (Professor Tofty asked me
to commend you for your exemplary corporeal patronus)
Care of Magical Creatures: Outstanding
Divination: Poor
Potions: Acceptable
History of Magic: Acceptable
Sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall
Harry winced when he saw the grade he had received in Potions. All of the other classes that he would need to get NEWTs in were up to scratch but McGonagall had said during his career counseling session that Snape only let O students into his NEWT level class. Harry sighed as he looked at the paper and then noticed a small note scribbled into the corner.
You'll still be taking Potions though, need an excuse for your other lessons. Dumbledore considered teaching you but he hasn't the time and Snape is there.
Harry wasn't sure whether to be relieved or dismayed, he was still going to take Potions from Snape, and evidently Occlumency too. "I have to though, if I could just have swallowed my pride last year and learned from Snape Sirius would never have died."
"Who's dead?" Dudley asked. Harry looked up to see his cousin's head sticking through his doorway. Harry groaned inwardly, the night before had definitely been strange, he still wasn't sure what to say to Dudley.
"No one, Diddykins." He said.
"No, come on, who's dead?" Dudley asked.
"NO ONE!" Harry yelled. He was surprised that Dudley didn't look afraid, he had grown used to the constant fear from the Dursleys.
Dudley just shrugged. "Just tell me." He said.
Harry lay back on his bed, fighting to ignore Dudley. He heard a stifled yelp and looked up to see an owl winging its way into his room with the Daily Prophet. The owl landed on Dudley's shoulder and dipped down its beak so the frozen boy could relieve it of its burden.
Harry smothered a laugh in his pillow before going ovcr to help Dudley. As the owl left he turned to his cousin, "Owls really aren't all that horrible Popkin." He said. Dudley smirked at him and looked down at the newspaper he held in his hand. "Hey, the pictures are moving!" he said.
Harry nodded. "Yeah, now get out of my room Diddy." He took the paper from Dudley who had been staring at it with interest. "This is a wizard's newspaper. Your dad would get mad if he knew I'd been exposing you to my "freakish" world."
Dudley shook his head as though remembering that he had been having a remotely civil conversation with his cousin. "Right, get away from me you freak! And if you wake me up one more time with your screaming I'm gonna whip your ass even if you do use your little stick." He said.
Harry just watched his cousin walk out of the room with one eyebrow up. Perhaps his cousin was changing.Harry snorted. Dudley Dursley? Never. He looked down at the newspaper and sighed when he saw the headline, "Four Death Eaters Escape" Harry scanned the article looking for the names. "Lucius Malfoy's out." He said. "Wonder if they'll question Malfoy about where his dad is, he'd just hate that."
The third owl of the morning swung in through the window and Harry grinned to see Pig, Ron's owl. Ron had written him some during the summer but not nearly enough as Harry could have liked. And even what Ron did write didn't tell Harry what he really wanted to know. What was going on with the order?
Pig flew over to rest on Hedwig's perch and Harry ripped open the seal on the letter.
Harry-
Get your things ready. Dumbledore wants you to come here for the rest of the summer. Get your things ready. We'll be there soon.
-Arthur Weasley
Harry grinned down at the letter and then dashed to his dresser to remove a small bottle. He uncorked the bottle and brushed a bit of the liquid inside onto the paper. Mr. Weasley's name glowed green and Harry's grin widened even more. Moody had sent him the stuff, it was to make sure that the person that the letter was from had actually written the letter.
Harry stuffed the books that sat on his floor back into his trunk and grabbed his robes from where they hung in the closet. He had had to ask Aunt Petunia to wash them as he wasn't entirely sure that he knew how to work the washing machine anymore. He carefully folded the robes and put them into his trunk also along with the remains of the money he had taken out of his Gringotts account the summer before. He took his Firebolt out of his trunk and tucked his wand into his back pocket, not particularly caring if he blew his butt off by accident. At least it would provide a little bit of excitement for this dreary summer.
He hated being stuck with the Dursleys all summer. He wanted to be out there fighting against Voldemort and helping to ready the wizarding world for the war. But no, he had to stay at home like a good little boy and be safe. The messages had come from all his friends all summer. "We miss you", "Hope you're having fun", "Don't do any magic", "Stay close to the house", "You probably wouldn't have wanted to be here anyway". It was horrible, even if Dumbledore had explained the whole prophecy thing. Harry stifled a shudder, "Neither can live while the other survives." He shook his head, he had promised himself that he wasn't going to be thinking of that.
"Hedwig, I'm going to be leaving, so can you follow Pig home?" Harry asked.
Hedwig gave him a gently peck and then pecked Pigwidgeon slightly less gently, startling the smaller owl out of his slumber. Harry smiled as the two owls took off and emptied the contents of the owl cage out of the window before tying it to his trunk. Everything seemed ready.
"Hey there Harry!" Harry turned around to see an ancient looking old man with green hair. He stared for a moment and the old man looked at him puzzled but then smiled. "Ah right, you wouldn't recognize me like this would you?" Harry stared as the old man morphed into Tonks. "Rather good disguise really." She said.
"Er, very good. I couldn't recognize you." Harry said. "So you've come to take me to Headquarters?"
Tonks nodded, "Everyone else is downstairs-"
"Hey Frea-" Dudley trailed off as he saw Tonks. "Oh.er." he turned to escape, his face a scarlet red with fear. Harry snorted, evidently the fear of wizards was only wearing off towards him.just his luck.
"No, no, come back.er, Dudley is it?" Tonks said.
Dudley froze in the doorway and then turned around, a stricken expression on his face, "You know my name?" he asked.
"Of course, you're Harry's cousin. Now, if you'd just tell your parents that Harry's leaving for the rest of the summer and not to worry because it's Dumbledore's orders." Tonks said.
Dudley nodded numbly and kept staring as Tonks turned back to Harry's trunk. With a swish of her wand she shrunk the trunk down until it could fit into the palm of Harry's hand. Harry stooped to pick it up and grabbed his Firebolt from the corner. "Have a good summe Popkin." He muttered to Dudley as he passed. Dudley snarled and lunged for Harry but Tonks turned, whipping out her wand and pointing it at Dudley who froze in place.
Harry laughed as they walked quietly down the hall, "Thanks Tonks." He said.
"Sure, but maybe you shouldn't provoke him like that Harry." She said.
Harry started to protest but Tonks interrupted him, "Come on, we're going to meet the others in the kitchen. We've got to get going."
Lupin and Moody were sitting on the kitchen counter, talking in low voices and to Harry's surprise Fred was sitting in a chair, his feet on the kitchen table. Harry snorted, wondering what Aunt Petunia's reaction would be if she saw anyone with his feet on her pristine table.
Fred looked up and grinned at Harry. "Hey there Harry, all right?"
Harry nodded, "Yeah, but what're you doing here?" he asked.
Moody scowled at Fred and Harry, "We can explain later, now get yourselves onto your brooms and lets go." Fred grabbed his broom from the table and Harry saw that it was a Nimbus 2003. "Very nice." He whispered to Fred as the walked out onto the back porch. Fred flashed him a thumbs up and sprang onto his broom to sail into the air. "They say it isn't as good as the Firebolt," he nodded to Harry's broom, "but seems near perfect to me. Business is good so I thought I'd treat myself to a new broom."
"So you've opened your store?" Harry asked.
Fred opened his mouth to reply but was interrupted by Moody, "Less chatter back there. Veer left!" Harry could see Fred roll his eyes and he grinned as he whipped his broom to the left.
* * * * *
"Ron! Ginny! Harry's here!" Harry grinned as he heard Hermione racing up the stairs, her shrill voice piercing down through the floor to him. It was good to be back at Grimmauld Place, no matter what memories of Sirius it brought to him. He looked around in delight as he saw how much cheerier the house seemed than it had last year. Sirius would have liked his house to be happy Harry thought to himself.
Ginny and Ron came tumbling down the stairs, followed by Hermione. Ron grinned at Harry. "Good to see you mate. Been a bit horrid with only the girls for company." He said. Ginny snorted and Harry turned look at her quizzically but she just shook her head.
"Harry, what did you get on your OWLs? We all got our results yesterday!" Hermione said. Harry grinned, trust Hermione to bring up school at the first chance she got. "You've gotten all O's I suppose?" he asked.
Hermione nodded, looking a little embarrassed. "Well, yes, and I took the Muggle studies OWL also and I got an O in that too!"
Harry shook his head and turned to Ron expectantly. "I've done alright." He said. "Got an E or an O in most of my subjects. Couple of As and a P. I'm pleased with it. What about you mate?" he said.
Harry told them and then told them about still needing to take Potions. Ron grinned, "I've got saddled with Potions too. Got an O in that, I've no idea how, and Mom says that I've got to keep taking it. No idea why." he said.
Harry grinned. "At least we're all in it together then. Tell me what's been going on here!" he said.
They started to tell him all about the new recruits to the Order and about the night Fudge had called them all up and it ended up just being a crazy old muggle getting into the Ministry building. Harry laughed with them but he was seething inside, it sounded as if they had been having a great time while he was cooped up with the Dursleys. He shook the feeling out of his head and forced the grin to stay on his face.
Fred walked back into the entryway and Harry turned to him. "So why were you with all of them to pick me up?" he asked.
Fred grinned. "Well, since we're overage now and out of school." Harry grinned as he remembered Fred and George's exit from the school. "Dumbledore actually gave us an honorary diploma for "services to the school"." Fred said, grinning. "But we joined up with the Order and then they finally figured out that we were worth something to them when we figured out how to get the owl post to work."
"Hasn't owl post always worked?" Harry asked.
"Well yes, but we developed the Order Post. You see, we used a dumbed down version of the Fidelius Charm. No one who isn't sealed to the Order can even see the owls we send out who have the charm on them. Then we incorporated the letters in with the charm so that they'll appear blank if you aren't sealed to the order. You weren't sealed to it yet though, so we had to send that message by regular post. I came along to seal you in and wahla! Here we all are."
Harry nodded, impressed by the complexity of what Fred had just described. He had always known that the twins were smart but before they had always seemed to devote all of their intelligence to having fun.
"Harry dear, there you are! Come now, we need you all in for dinner, we have to resolve a few things." Mrs. Weasley bustled past the group and they followed her into the kitchen which was stuffed with people.
"Hello Harry Potter!" Harry looked down, recognizing that voice immediately.
"Dobby! How come you're here?" he asked. Dobby smiled and Harry stared at him. Dobby had acquired a neon pink cape somewhere and had the most hideous green sock on his left foot.
"Dobby is coming to serve Dumbledore sir. Winky is coming here too, sir. Dobby hears that You-Know-Who is back and he is wanting to help." Dobby said. Harry nodded, still dazed by the pink cape and then went over to sit between Ron and Ginny on the countertop.
"Firstly, now that Harry's here we can address the issue of this house." Lupin said. Harry looked up in confusion and Lupin smiled at him. "Harry, this house belongs to you now and so we don't legally have the permission of the owner to have our Headquarters here." he said.
"What?" Harry asked, confused.
Lupin smiled. "The house belongs to you now. Is it alright if we use it?' he asked.
"Oh, er, yes. What?" Harry said.
Ginny nudged him, "Sirius left most of his things to you Harry. Like the house. He left a bunch of money to you too, and the rest of that went to Lupin." Harry looked up and saw that Lupin's robes were much less shabby than they had been the year before. He was still having trouble letting all of this sink in. "Er." Ginny shook her head and put a finger to her lips with a grin as she turned back to listen to Lupin. "Good, with that cleared away, if you kids could leave." Lupin turned to them and smiled apologetically as they groaned. Harry frowned as he followed everyone out of the room, he had thought that it might be better this year.
"And now we don't even have Fred and George with their Extendable Ears." Ron groaned as he flopped down onto a sofa. Ginny reached into her pocket and pulled out a Dungbomb which she chucked against the door to the kitchen. It bounced back and exploded into green slime which smelled foul. "What's that?"
"That's how you know if there's an Impertrubable Charm on it." Ron said.
"He knows that you idiot, he was asking what the bomb was." Ginny said with a smirk towards Ron. Harry smiled at her. "They're Fred and George's SlimeSacks. Much more fun than Dungbombs really. Although I think I like the SlimeMines better, but they're no good for throwing." She said. Everyone slumped back but then Ginny started up, "I completely forgot! The dumbwaiter!"
Harry took the letter from the owl and it took off through the open window. Harry didn't bother to close it again, the owl with his Daily Prophet would be there soon enough. Harry examined the letter that the owl had given him carefully, not wanting to stumble upon any curses or hexes. He relaxed when he saw the Hogwarts seal and then gasped, "My OWLs! I totally forgot about them." He said.
He ripped the envelope open to find a note.
Dear Mr. Potter,
The results of your Ordinary Wizarding Level exams have been forwarded to us from the Examiners. Here are the results as we received them.
Astronomy: Poor (I don't fault you for this grade because of the
events that were taking place that night but otherwise you would get
quite a reprimand from me)
Charms: Exceed Expectations
Transfiguration: Exceed Expectations
Herbology: Acceptable
Defense Against the Dark Arts: Outstanding (Professor Tofty asked me
to commend you for your exemplary corporeal patronus)
Care of Magical Creatures: Outstanding
Divination: Poor
Potions: Acceptable
History of Magic: Acceptable
Sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall
Harry winced when he saw the grade he had received in Potions. All of the other classes that he would need to get NEWTs in were up to scratch but McGonagall had said during his career counseling session that Snape only let O students into his NEWT level class. Harry sighed as he looked at the paper and then noticed a small note scribbled into the corner.
You'll still be taking Potions though, need an excuse for your other lessons. Dumbledore considered teaching you but he hasn't the time and Snape is there.
Harry wasn't sure whether to be relieved or dismayed, he was still going to take Potions from Snape, and evidently Occlumency too. "I have to though, if I could just have swallowed my pride last year and learned from Snape Sirius would never have died."
"Who's dead?" Dudley asked. Harry looked up to see his cousin's head sticking through his doorway. Harry groaned inwardly, the night before had definitely been strange, he still wasn't sure what to say to Dudley.
"No one, Diddykins." He said.
"No, come on, who's dead?" Dudley asked.
"NO ONE!" Harry yelled. He was surprised that Dudley didn't look afraid, he had grown used to the constant fear from the Dursleys.
Dudley just shrugged. "Just tell me." He said.
Harry lay back on his bed, fighting to ignore Dudley. He heard a stifled yelp and looked up to see an owl winging its way into his room with the Daily Prophet. The owl landed on Dudley's shoulder and dipped down its beak so the frozen boy could relieve it of its burden.
Harry smothered a laugh in his pillow before going ovcr to help Dudley. As the owl left he turned to his cousin, "Owls really aren't all that horrible Popkin." He said. Dudley smirked at him and looked down at the newspaper he held in his hand. "Hey, the pictures are moving!" he said.
Harry nodded. "Yeah, now get out of my room Diddy." He took the paper from Dudley who had been staring at it with interest. "This is a wizard's newspaper. Your dad would get mad if he knew I'd been exposing you to my "freakish" world."
Dudley shook his head as though remembering that he had been having a remotely civil conversation with his cousin. "Right, get away from me you freak! And if you wake me up one more time with your screaming I'm gonna whip your ass even if you do use your little stick." He said.
Harry just watched his cousin walk out of the room with one eyebrow up. Perhaps his cousin was changing.Harry snorted. Dudley Dursley? Never. He looked down at the newspaper and sighed when he saw the headline, "Four Death Eaters Escape" Harry scanned the article looking for the names. "Lucius Malfoy's out." He said. "Wonder if they'll question Malfoy about where his dad is, he'd just hate that."
The third owl of the morning swung in through the window and Harry grinned to see Pig, Ron's owl. Ron had written him some during the summer but not nearly enough as Harry could have liked. And even what Ron did write didn't tell Harry what he really wanted to know. What was going on with the order?
Pig flew over to rest on Hedwig's perch and Harry ripped open the seal on the letter.
Harry-
Get your things ready. Dumbledore wants you to come here for the rest of the summer. Get your things ready. We'll be there soon.
-Arthur Weasley
Harry grinned down at the letter and then dashed to his dresser to remove a small bottle. He uncorked the bottle and brushed a bit of the liquid inside onto the paper. Mr. Weasley's name glowed green and Harry's grin widened even more. Moody had sent him the stuff, it was to make sure that the person that the letter was from had actually written the letter.
Harry stuffed the books that sat on his floor back into his trunk and grabbed his robes from where they hung in the closet. He had had to ask Aunt Petunia to wash them as he wasn't entirely sure that he knew how to work the washing machine anymore. He carefully folded the robes and put them into his trunk also along with the remains of the money he had taken out of his Gringotts account the summer before. He took his Firebolt out of his trunk and tucked his wand into his back pocket, not particularly caring if he blew his butt off by accident. At least it would provide a little bit of excitement for this dreary summer.
He hated being stuck with the Dursleys all summer. He wanted to be out there fighting against Voldemort and helping to ready the wizarding world for the war. But no, he had to stay at home like a good little boy and be safe. The messages had come from all his friends all summer. "We miss you", "Hope you're having fun", "Don't do any magic", "Stay close to the house", "You probably wouldn't have wanted to be here anyway". It was horrible, even if Dumbledore had explained the whole prophecy thing. Harry stifled a shudder, "Neither can live while the other survives." He shook his head, he had promised himself that he wasn't going to be thinking of that.
"Hedwig, I'm going to be leaving, so can you follow Pig home?" Harry asked.
Hedwig gave him a gently peck and then pecked Pigwidgeon slightly less gently, startling the smaller owl out of his slumber. Harry smiled as the two owls took off and emptied the contents of the owl cage out of the window before tying it to his trunk. Everything seemed ready.
"Hey there Harry!" Harry turned around to see an ancient looking old man with green hair. He stared for a moment and the old man looked at him puzzled but then smiled. "Ah right, you wouldn't recognize me like this would you?" Harry stared as the old man morphed into Tonks. "Rather good disguise really." She said.
"Er, very good. I couldn't recognize you." Harry said. "So you've come to take me to Headquarters?"
Tonks nodded, "Everyone else is downstairs-"
"Hey Frea-" Dudley trailed off as he saw Tonks. "Oh.er." he turned to escape, his face a scarlet red with fear. Harry snorted, evidently the fear of wizards was only wearing off towards him.just his luck.
"No, no, come back.er, Dudley is it?" Tonks said.
Dudley froze in the doorway and then turned around, a stricken expression on his face, "You know my name?" he asked.
"Of course, you're Harry's cousin. Now, if you'd just tell your parents that Harry's leaving for the rest of the summer and not to worry because it's Dumbledore's orders." Tonks said.
Dudley nodded numbly and kept staring as Tonks turned back to Harry's trunk. With a swish of her wand she shrunk the trunk down until it could fit into the palm of Harry's hand. Harry stooped to pick it up and grabbed his Firebolt from the corner. "Have a good summe Popkin." He muttered to Dudley as he passed. Dudley snarled and lunged for Harry but Tonks turned, whipping out her wand and pointing it at Dudley who froze in place.
Harry laughed as they walked quietly down the hall, "Thanks Tonks." He said.
"Sure, but maybe you shouldn't provoke him like that Harry." She said.
Harry started to protest but Tonks interrupted him, "Come on, we're going to meet the others in the kitchen. We've got to get going."
Lupin and Moody were sitting on the kitchen counter, talking in low voices and to Harry's surprise Fred was sitting in a chair, his feet on the kitchen table. Harry snorted, wondering what Aunt Petunia's reaction would be if she saw anyone with his feet on her pristine table.
Fred looked up and grinned at Harry. "Hey there Harry, all right?"
Harry nodded, "Yeah, but what're you doing here?" he asked.
Moody scowled at Fred and Harry, "We can explain later, now get yourselves onto your brooms and lets go." Fred grabbed his broom from the table and Harry saw that it was a Nimbus 2003. "Very nice." He whispered to Fred as the walked out onto the back porch. Fred flashed him a thumbs up and sprang onto his broom to sail into the air. "They say it isn't as good as the Firebolt," he nodded to Harry's broom, "but seems near perfect to me. Business is good so I thought I'd treat myself to a new broom."
"So you've opened your store?" Harry asked.
Fred opened his mouth to reply but was interrupted by Moody, "Less chatter back there. Veer left!" Harry could see Fred roll his eyes and he grinned as he whipped his broom to the left.
* * * * *
"Ron! Ginny! Harry's here!" Harry grinned as he heard Hermione racing up the stairs, her shrill voice piercing down through the floor to him. It was good to be back at Grimmauld Place, no matter what memories of Sirius it brought to him. He looked around in delight as he saw how much cheerier the house seemed than it had last year. Sirius would have liked his house to be happy Harry thought to himself.
Ginny and Ron came tumbling down the stairs, followed by Hermione. Ron grinned at Harry. "Good to see you mate. Been a bit horrid with only the girls for company." He said. Ginny snorted and Harry turned look at her quizzically but she just shook her head.
"Harry, what did you get on your OWLs? We all got our results yesterday!" Hermione said. Harry grinned, trust Hermione to bring up school at the first chance she got. "You've gotten all O's I suppose?" he asked.
Hermione nodded, looking a little embarrassed. "Well, yes, and I took the Muggle studies OWL also and I got an O in that too!"
Harry shook his head and turned to Ron expectantly. "I've done alright." He said. "Got an E or an O in most of my subjects. Couple of As and a P. I'm pleased with it. What about you mate?" he said.
Harry told them and then told them about still needing to take Potions. Ron grinned, "I've got saddled with Potions too. Got an O in that, I've no idea how, and Mom says that I've got to keep taking it. No idea why." he said.
Harry grinned. "At least we're all in it together then. Tell me what's been going on here!" he said.
They started to tell him all about the new recruits to the Order and about the night Fudge had called them all up and it ended up just being a crazy old muggle getting into the Ministry building. Harry laughed with them but he was seething inside, it sounded as if they had been having a great time while he was cooped up with the Dursleys. He shook the feeling out of his head and forced the grin to stay on his face.
Fred walked back into the entryway and Harry turned to him. "So why were you with all of them to pick me up?" he asked.
Fred grinned. "Well, since we're overage now and out of school." Harry grinned as he remembered Fred and George's exit from the school. "Dumbledore actually gave us an honorary diploma for "services to the school"." Fred said, grinning. "But we joined up with the Order and then they finally figured out that we were worth something to them when we figured out how to get the owl post to work."
"Hasn't owl post always worked?" Harry asked.
"Well yes, but we developed the Order Post. You see, we used a dumbed down version of the Fidelius Charm. No one who isn't sealed to the Order can even see the owls we send out who have the charm on them. Then we incorporated the letters in with the charm so that they'll appear blank if you aren't sealed to the order. You weren't sealed to it yet though, so we had to send that message by regular post. I came along to seal you in and wahla! Here we all are."
Harry nodded, impressed by the complexity of what Fred had just described. He had always known that the twins were smart but before they had always seemed to devote all of their intelligence to having fun.
"Harry dear, there you are! Come now, we need you all in for dinner, we have to resolve a few things." Mrs. Weasley bustled past the group and they followed her into the kitchen which was stuffed with people.
"Hello Harry Potter!" Harry looked down, recognizing that voice immediately.
"Dobby! How come you're here?" he asked. Dobby smiled and Harry stared at him. Dobby had acquired a neon pink cape somewhere and had the most hideous green sock on his left foot.
"Dobby is coming to serve Dumbledore sir. Winky is coming here too, sir. Dobby hears that You-Know-Who is back and he is wanting to help." Dobby said. Harry nodded, still dazed by the pink cape and then went over to sit between Ron and Ginny on the countertop.
"Firstly, now that Harry's here we can address the issue of this house." Lupin said. Harry looked up in confusion and Lupin smiled at him. "Harry, this house belongs to you now and so we don't legally have the permission of the owner to have our Headquarters here." he said.
"What?" Harry asked, confused.
Lupin smiled. "The house belongs to you now. Is it alright if we use it?' he asked.
"Oh, er, yes. What?" Harry said.
Ginny nudged him, "Sirius left most of his things to you Harry. Like the house. He left a bunch of money to you too, and the rest of that went to Lupin." Harry looked up and saw that Lupin's robes were much less shabby than they had been the year before. He was still having trouble letting all of this sink in. "Er." Ginny shook her head and put a finger to her lips with a grin as she turned back to listen to Lupin. "Good, with that cleared away, if you kids could leave." Lupin turned to them and smiled apologetically as they groaned. Harry frowned as he followed everyone out of the room, he had thought that it might be better this year.
"And now we don't even have Fred and George with their Extendable Ears." Ron groaned as he flopped down onto a sofa. Ginny reached into her pocket and pulled out a Dungbomb which she chucked against the door to the kitchen. It bounced back and exploded into green slime which smelled foul. "What's that?"
"That's how you know if there's an Impertrubable Charm on it." Ron said.
"He knows that you idiot, he was asking what the bomb was." Ginny said with a smirk towards Ron. Harry smiled at her. "They're Fred and George's SlimeSacks. Much more fun than Dungbombs really. Although I think I like the SlimeMines better, but they're no good for throwing." She said. Everyone slumped back but then Ginny started up, "I completely forgot! The dumbwaiter!"
