Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the spiffy book series.

Chapter Three: Back Into the Swing of Things

The next week at the Dursleys flew by faster than ever. Before Harry knew it, Sunday morning had came. The only thing Harry told the Dursleys was that he would be leaving today. This news filled the house with an air of nervousness. Harry could remember only too well when the Weasleys had come to pick up Harry. Two times it had happened. The first time was in Harry's second year when they ripped the bars off of Harry's window with a flying car. The last time, in Harry's fourth year, they had come to pick up Harry by floo, and destroyed half the living room. Fred and George gave Dudley the candy with the engorgement charm so that Dudley's tongue swelled up. Dudley had remembered this along with his pig's tail from Hagrid all too well, and hid in his room the entire day.

"How exactly will they be arriving boy?" said Uncle Vernon with a sense of anxiousness in his voice as he peered out the window.

Harry shrugged, "Actually, I'm not quite sure..." Aunt Petunia busied herself the rest of day by dusting and cleaning and such. Harry climbed the stairs to his room quickly, trying to avoid any more awkward questions from his Uncle. He began packing his things inside his Hogwarts trunk, his thoughts once again returning to the matter of how to tell Ron and Hermione of the prophecy. It took him most of the day to gather all of his things and clean his clothes, since the Dursleys thought it was absolutely unacceptable for them to mix their things in the wash.

The day went by as if it were on fast-forward. Eight o'clock had come and gone. Harry had finally finished packing his things, doing his chores, and managed to shower. After trying to mash down his stubborn hair, Harry looked at his watch, saw that it was nearing nine o'clock and decided to give up on his hair. Harry dragged his trunk downstairs, making sure to hit every step on the way down. Harry knew he would be leaving soon, so he didn't mind throwing in a bit of extra annoyance for the Dursleys.

The grandfather clock in the corner of the living room at Number 4 Privet Drive struck nine o'clock. Once. Twice. Three times. Four times...

"People have no respect for other people's time these days..." Grumbled Uncle Vernon, his face turning more purple by the second. Eight times. A loud !POP! sounded just before the ninth chime.

"I hope I'm not late. Sorry, what were you saying Mr. Dursley?" said the familiar old voice calmly. "My name is Albus Dumbledore and I am the headmaster at Harry's school, I expect I am interrupting your evening so Harry and I will be leaving as soon as he is ready," he said coolly. The Dursleys just sat there dumbfounded. How did this man get into their house? They continued to sit silently until Dumbledore spoke again.

"Harry, I am afraid we will be traveling by portkey if that's okay with you? Unfortunately we can't fly this time, so if you would just grab your trunk and take hold of this." Dumbledore reached inside his robes and pulled out a small, stuffed whale. Harry lifted the end of his trunk, and grabbed the tail of the whale. In a matter of seconds, Harry's feet hit the cold stone floor of the kitchen at Number 12 Grimmauld Place along with Dumbledore. Harry left his trunk there and opened the door that led into the dining room area.

Immediately, he was surrounded by people. Harry still didn't feel much like talking to anyone but he didn't mind the many acts of welcome. Mrs. Weasley was the first to pull him into a hug; once he regained his breath, he proceeded to pass hugs all around. Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Fred, George, and Tonks all said their hellos and received their hugs. Just as Hermione began to launch into her speech about how sorry they were that they hadn't been able to communicate with him, Harry spotted Remus in the corner of the room.

Harry, completely ignoring Hermione, slowly walked over to where he stood. This after all was the one person he most wanted to see, but why hadn't he rushed over to him with the rest of the gang? It didn't matter. Harry smiled, glad to see him, and then embraced him into a meaningful hug.

Afterwards, Mrs. Weasley asked everyone to be seated at the dining table. She began to bring out course after course of delicious food, all the foods he missed from Hogwarts, not the slices of grapefruit he was used to. Harry remained silent the entire meal, whether it was because he had been so underfed, or if he still just didn't feel like talking, he wasn't sure. He ate until he was more than full.

Harry stuck around in the living room late into the night, until almost everyone filtered out to bed, one by one. Finally, only Harry and Remus remained. Harry thought about all the things he wanted to talk about, to ask about. All the feelings he wanted to let out and make known. He had so much on his mind he thought he might blow.

"Would you like to talk?" Lupin said at long last.