Disclaimer: The Characters and situations of Harry Potter depicted in this fic are the legal property of J.K. Rowling, Bloomsbury, and AOL Time Warner, and have been used without permission. No copyright infringement is intended.

Mrs. Figg might know about the Order, Albus Dumbledore, and Chocolate Frogs, but that didn't mean she wasn't a little off the wall, Harry thought decidedly. That summer she had invited him over for tea a grand total of twenty three times, and that wasn't counting the six times she had stopped by the Dursley's house to bring cakes to show her condolences for Sirius. Whenever she did this she would make a big show of acting sneaky and throwing rocks at Harry's window to get his attention. At first Harry was glad to be in contact with someone who knew the magical world, but he soon realized that trying to extract information was as hard as making conversation with Aunt Petunia about Dementors. Completely useless, and more than a little irritating.

"Have you heard from Dumbledore lately?" Harry had asked eagerly the first time he had seen her that summer.

"Oh, now never mind that now. Let's talk about something a little more interesting, shall we? Mr. Tibbles caught the largest mouse yesterday, he brought it right up to the doorstep as a present to me, now isn't that sweet? He's growing up to be such a good kitty, and..."

Needless to say, he hadn't been back for a while.

Ginny knocked on the door, and Harry could hear Mrs. Figg mumbling as she came to answer. She opened it a crack and peered through before letting them in.

"Oh, it's just you three. I thought it was dear old Snowflake, coming back from his walk. Harry, so nice to see you again! I thought you'd forgotten me, I've hardly seen you all summer. Come in, come in."

They stepped inside, and were just heading for the fireplace when Mrs. Figg stopped them.

"Oh, come on now, won't you have some cookies or cake?" She asked, waving the plate around in what looked like a menacing way to Harry. Or maybe it just looked menacing because he had experienced Mrs. Figg's baking before, and had found it something similar to Hagid's, but with the strange aftertaste of cabbage. He had given five of the six cakes to the Dursleys, which might look like an act of kindness until you made the mistake of trying them.

"That sound's grea--" Ron began.

"Great, but we really have to be going. Thanks anyways," Harry cut him off hesitantly.

"Are you sure? Oh, alright then. Have a nice time, and be sure to visit me when you're back, Harry."

"How could I forget," Harry muttered before throwing his Floo Powder in the fireplace.

Five minutes later, Harry had been greeted by just about every Weasley in the

Burrow-- except one.

"Percy," Harry said tersely, reaching out to shake his hand. He hadn't been expecting this, and he thought that Ron could have had the decency to tell him. All at once, he heard the high pitched nagging in his brain. 'Oh bloody hell, not that one again. Oooh, I want to punch him. Not too hard, I mean. Just a little punch. I wouldn't break anything important, maybe just his nose'' the voice in his head came back.After everything he's done to you, that would be fair.' Shut up,' Harry told it firmly. He was so close to doing just that that he really didn't need encouragement.

"Shake his hand," Fred and George hissed, shoving Percy rather forcefully at Harry. Percy shook. Tense silence followed, as Harry glared at Percy and Percy glared at the twins.

"We'd better bring your bags up," Fred finally said, hoisting one on a dragon-skin clad shoulder while George took the other. Harry and Ron followed them up, taking Hedwig's cage along with them.

"Sorry for not telling you, mate. Guess it just never came up," Ron said, not looking at Harry. Harry opened his mouth to say something back, but changed his mind. He had wasted enough time last summer yelling at his friends, and he didn't want to do it again. He'd caused enough damage already.

"Forget it."

Ron smiled thankfully as they stepped inside his room to a blast of blinding orange. "Thanks. Hermione should be here soon, don't you think. It's seven minutes until five, now six..."

Harry cleared his throat loudly. "Ron, just a suggestion, but maybe if you took breaks in between your speeches about Hermione the twins wouldn't give you such a hard time about it, you know? Besides, when did this happen? I mean, you always have talked about Hermione, but not this much."

Ron blushed. "Is it that obvious?"

"Yep." Harry didn't see the point in softening the truth. "Really, really obvious."

"Oh," Ron sighed. "That's not a good thing, I 'spose. Anyways, speaking of girls, who do you like?" He hastily changed the subject of the conversation around.

"I'm not positive right now" Harry said truthfully.

"Alright, who do you think you might like? Give me a hint, mate.

"Erm... she has brown eyes?" Harry said, more of a question than a statement. Red hair might be a bit of a giveaway.

"Well that narrows it down to about half the girls in Hogwarts," Ron replied sarcastically.

"Look, I'll tell you later. I'm not sure what you'll think right now."

"Fine. Do y' think Hermione's here yet?" Ron asked, glancing at his watch and heading downstairs.

"Thanks for dinner, Mrs. Weasley," Harry said, grateful for the first square meal he'd had in a month. Mrs. Weasley had outdone herself again, preparing everything from mouth-watering mashed potatoes and steaming soup to warm pie and trifle. It would have been perfect, if there hadn't been one thing nagging at him. Percy. They hadn't said a word to each other since their cold meeting, but Harry noticed he wasn't the only one. Ron was practically ignoring him, and the twins and Ginny were hardly better. Still, he left supper discontented, and not even seeing Hermione again could make the feeling go away.

Harry creaked down the last step and padded softly to the kitchen. He hadn't been able to sleep, and a cup of hot cocoa was usually the only thing that helped. He had just finished boiling water when he noticed a red-haired figure sitting on the couch. It was Ginny. She was sipping from a mug in front of the fire, and Harry was just wondering what to do when she motioned him over. He tried to walk carefully, but some of the liquid sloshed over the edge as he tripped on his too-big pajama bottom hand-me-downs.

"Looks like we have the exact opposite problem," she smiled, motioning at her own pajamas, which came just below her knee.

"Yeah," he said. Brilliant answer, really. If she ever liked him again, it certainly wouldn't be for his brains.

"Couldn't sleep?" she questioned, nodding at the stairwell.

"Yeah. Whenever I couldn't sleep at the Dursley's, I'd go and make some hot cocoa. It kind of makes you feel better, y' know? I always used to pretend that my parents were there, and it was them making it for me. Then they'd always ask me what was wrong, and I could talk to them and imagine what their answers would be if they were there" Harry trailed off, and realized who he was talking to and jumped, spilling more on his shirt. He definitely should have stuck with the typical 'yeah'.' He hadn't done something like that in ages, and now Ginny probably thought he was an over-dramatic baby. He looked away in embarrassment.

"Sorry about that. Just forget I said anything, okay?"

"Why?

"Just forget it."

"Fine, Harry, but you need to know something. You might think that everyone'll think less of you if you never talk about what's on your mind, but if you do than you're very wrong and very stupid. You don't have your real family, but we're pretty damn close to one. You aren't alone, and don't you dare forget that Harry Potter," Ginny brought her voice from dangerously cool to neutral as she calmly sipped her tea. "By the way, Percy asked me to give this to you," Ginny pulled a folded note from her front flannel pocket. "About time he apologized, the prat.

Harry took the note from her, still a little stunned from the turn the conversation had taken. As he walked back up to the bedroom, he still had the strange feeling that he had lost part of himself to Ginny when he shared the memory of his childhood.

The even stranger thing was that he wasn't sure he minded.

A/N: Hmm I'm not very happy about this chapter, but I hope it was long enough to make up for all of the out-of-characterness. The next chappie should have the actual "vacation" part of the vacation. (o: I know not a ton of stuff is happening right now, but gimme a couple more chapters before you tell me it's "meandering aimlessly," k? I'm really scared of reviews that say that. Also, the strange indentions and punctuation is still mostly the html's fault. I know, it's driving me nuts too.

REVIEWERS: (8 reviews! Wow! Thank you so much!)

HermioneGreen: Thank you, I hope it lives up to your expectations. (o:

Baseballkid: You love it? Wow. (o: Thank you so much. I'll try to keep it going, it'll probably go even faster once my teachers realize that I DO have a life besides school and homework.

Melindaleo: Have I ever told you that I love your username? Neways. Thanks for your review, I get so excited when I get a review like yours. (o: I love criticism too, but somehow it's just not the same. And I'm also so glad you like my angstÉ I'll throw some in here or there just for you.

Anna: I love the review! Also, thanks for the great beta-ing, I really appreciate it.

Ami-gryffindor89: Thank you, you're still my most thankful reviewer, you know. (o: Would you mind beta-ing every other chappie, starting with the next one? I'd luv it. I'm also waiting for your updatesÉ tick, tock, tick, tock

Jamiebell(): Thank you, when I first planned this there wasn't even a conscience in the story, but then this squeaky voice just started writing itself in and I didn't have much of a choice in the matter

Miss Effie: Thanks for your reviews on all of my stories, they were very helpful. (o: I know what you mean about the italics, I actually had them in but then the bleep html wouldn't work for me at all so I had to switch back to .doc, which is kind of a bummer. Thanks again. (EDIT: ITALICS ATTEMPTED ::again::)