Chapter One: Leaving Early
While many other sixteen-year-old boys were elated for it to finally be summer and totally bummed at the current status of the weather- one boy wasn't. In fact, he preferred when it rained and he absolutely hated summer holiday.
It was three o'clock, yet outside it was dark as if it was midnight. Rain poured down and fiercely hit the window he was leaning on. A steady clinking of iron was heard in the next room, which meant Dudley was lifting weights again. Down in the parlor, Uncle Vernon was lazily watching TV while Aunt Petunia was making afternoon tea in the kitchen. Harry Potter, however, continued to gaze out the window. He was waiting for the latest issue of the Daily Prophet. There had been a new article almost daily since the wizarding world had decided to recognize the existence of Lord Voldemort. Even with the Ministry somewhat accepting the Dark Lord's return, many of wizards and witches still disputed Voldemort's return. Harry always scoffed at the articles that remained ignorant to the current threat of Voldemort.
With the muggle news reporting nothing out of the ordinary, Harry was left patiently waiting for the Daily Prophet. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning lit up his room as it struck a nearby telephone pole. Immediately, all the lights went out on Privet Drive. Harry didn't pay any attention to the sudden darkness around him. He liked his room dark anyway, that way no one would bother him. In fact, most of Harry's days were spent sitting alone in his dark room, thinking. Thinking and fretting seemed to take up a lot of Harry's time. Occasionally he sent owls to his friends but his messages always seemed short and dull because there wasn't much he could write. One of Moody's greatest warnings had been of intercepted letters. Rarely, was there a response to any of the letters he wrote anyhow and when there was, Harry poured over the letters searching for hidden messages within each written line. He hated the Dursleys and he hated staying at their house for the summer.
A knocking on his bedroom door interrupted his thoughts. Dudley poked his head into the room and smiled weakly. Harry nodded his head and Dudley came in and sat on Harry's bed. Since last summer, Dudley's attitude towards Harry had changed. In public, Dudley continued to torment Harry as usual. At the house, however, things were quite different. Dudley was petrified of Harry and didn't believe anything Harry had said about the Dementors that had attacked him the summer before. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia hated to see Dudley even in the same room as Harry, but Moody's warning plagued them every time they looked in Harry's direction. It made them despise him even more, yet they were too paralyzed with fear to do much about it. As a result, Harry was able to come and go as he pleased. To the Dursley's delight, he stayed in his room most of the time.
"Got your newspaper yet?" Dudley asked.
"Not yet."
"Oh. You, uh, don't happen to have yesterday's do you?" Harry turned around abruptly.
"Second drawer, lift out the false bottom." Harry answered, pointing to his desk. Dudley picked up the newspaper and felt his way to the bed. Harry just stared at him in disbelief. He never even realized that Dudley had been stealing his papers all summer.
"Since when do you read these?" Harry said, talking to the dark shape he assumed to be Dudley.
"Since always. Can you, uh, do that light thing?" Dudley asked, shocked at himself for even mentioning the use of magic.
"Can't, still underage," Harry rolled his eyes. "There are candles in that drawer over there." Harry turned around and kept staring out the window. 'Why is Dudley reading my paper?' he thought to himself. Harry glanced back at Dudley, who had set up the candle on his dressing table and was reading as close to the light as he could. There was an urgent tapping on the window and Harry turned around and opened it. In flew two owls. One was Hedwig, his own owl, and the other was delivering his Daily Prophet. He took the Daily Prophet and gave the owl two coins. It flew back out the window and Harry slammed it shut. Harry quickly skimmed the front page checking to make sure there was no major news regarding Voldemort and then walked over to Hedwig and untied the letter from her leg.
Harry quickly unfolded the letter that was obviously from Hermione.
'Dear Harry,
How are things going where you are? I am currently on holiday in Rome. It's so beautiful here. The sun is out almost every day. (Harry snorted as he glanced out the window.) I hope everything is going better. Don't stay too upset. I just wanted to say happy Birthday one day in advance, although I'm not sure when you'll get this. You'll get your present when I see you at the house. Don't worry, that will be soon.
Guess what? Lucius Malfoy's going to jail- for now anyway. There's a whole article on it in the Prophet. I'm not sure if you get it, so I sent the clipping for you to read. Good luck with your summer work and see if you can find out who the new Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher is! Don't neglect your studies!
Best Birthday Wishes, Hermione'
Harry stared at the letter. Tomorrow really was his birthday. His sixteenth birthday to be exact. He had forgotten. Well, not that he was turning sixteen, just that he was turning sixteen tomorrow. But another part of the letter stuck out as well. What did Hermione mean by 'the house'? Did she mean the Burrow or 12 Grimmauld Place? Thinking about Grimmauld Place reminded Harry of Sirius and he immediately crumpled up the letter and threw it into a corner. Then he went back to leaning against the window.
Footsteps could be heard on the stairs and Dudley took both newspapers and shoved them under the bed. The he picked up the candle. Harry retreated to the darkest, farthest corner of his room.
"Dudley, Dudley are you alright? Duddykins where are you?" Aunt Petunia called out, worriedly.
"I'm in here, mum." Dudley opened Harry's door. Harry grunted and turned around so he couldn't see the doorway.
"What on EARTH are you doing in there?" Uncle Vernon said harshly, but he didn't dare step any closer to the already opened door.
"Just bringing a candle into Harry's room, he got frightened by the blackout." Harry snorted. Uncle Vernon peered into the dark corner, and then took a few steps back.
"How kind of you Duddys," Aunt Petunia said. Her fake smile almost seemed to shine through the darkness. Harry could hear the phoniness in her voice. "Remember Vernon, we ALL have to be nice. You heard that, that-"
"I heard all right."
"Anyway," Aunt Petunia stuttered. "Tea is ready." Harry's Aunt and Uncle practically scurried down the stairs; they often reminded him of over-fed, over-confident rats. Dudley followed them, taking Harry's favorite candle- the one that could never burn out- with him. Harry walked back to his bed and sat alone in the dark. He didn't feel like sitting with the Durlseys and their quiet disapproval. Since Mad-Eye's talk with them at the train station, Harry received Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia's fake generosity that was usually saved for the neighbors. Unlike the neighbors, Harry knew that his aunt and uncle were being fake. Harry didn't go down for tea or dinner. Instead, he stayed in his room- in the dark, alone.
Several days before Harry sat pondering in his dark bedroom, various members of the Order were getting together and preparing for their trip. They had heard that there was going to be Death Eater activity in southern Italy. Half of the Order was going to investigate for the Italian Ministry of Magic and hopefully the Death Eaters would be stopped before there were attacks on muggles or wizards. Lupin had to stay behind because it was going to be a full moon soon. Snape was in the kitchen brewing the wolfsbane potion, as everyone else was frantically searching for the wands that Kreacher had hidden throughout the house.
Harry woke up the next morning to find that it had finally stopped raining. It was still cloudy out, but at least it seemed that the electricity had been restored. At the foot of Harry's bed was a small white box. Harry smiled- something that had become more and more infrequent- and opened the box. Inside was a small cake that read, "Happy Birthday Harry". He hid the box under the loose floorboards in his room when he heard Dudley waking up in the room beside him.
Besides the cake, Harry's day passed uneventfully- until the arrival of the Daily Prophet newsletter that is. Harry opened the newspaper and almost dropped it.
"The War Officially Begins
'At about 1:15 this morning an army of Death Eaters attacked a small wizarding village in southern Italy. Ministry officials were tipped off about the attack and were traveling to Italy as the attack began. The officials were able to stop the advancement of the Death Eaters, but with many casualties. The Death Eaters finally fled several hours later, leaving the village in ruins. The Ministry is still investigating the attack and looking for potential survivors. The town, Diso, was considered one of the main wizarding towns that blended muggle and wizard life in Italy. It is still not certain why He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named chose this place as his first official attack.
The British Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, expressed his deep regret over the situation in a conference early this morning, but insists that ample measures are being taken in order to combat He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and his followers. "I have confidence in our wizarding community and I feel that we can over come this great evil that has befallen us." Noticeably absent from the conference was Albus Dumbledore.
No casualties or deaths have been reported. For more information on the cause, turn to page three.'
Harry sat in shock for several seconds. He ignored the sound of the doorbell and turned the page to finish reading the article. To his surprise, there was no page three; the paper went directly from page two to four. He cursed the paper and resorted to skimming every page looking for any information or possible names of people that could have been involved with attack. Page six seemed to be missing too. Finding no information on the attack, he threw the paper across the room and glared at his door in frustration.
"WHAT?" Harry yelled at whoever was knocking on his door.
"Open up!" A familiar voice yelled back, followed by more pounding.
"Thought you weren't coming till next week!" Harry answered as he opened the door. On the other side stood a smiling Ron.
"Dunno, Dumbledore just sent Lupin to get you. Technically no one in the Order can go on a mission without at least one back up. And here I am," Ron said rather proudly. "Don't worry- the Dursley's are talking with Lupin in the kitchen. He's got a letter from Dumbledore."
"Oh, so you uh, hear from Hermione lately?" Harry asked as he checked under his bed for some missing schoolbooks. Ron knew Harry was avoiding the issue of him staying with the Dursleys but decided not to press him- he didn't feel like dealing with one of Harry's frequent screaming fits.
"I think she said she was in Rome, right? She probably won't be coming back for a while. They are checking anything magical- especially wizards- that crosses the border. She could be there till school starts." Ron answered. If Harry had bothered to turn around he would have noticed the nervous look on Ron's face.
"Harry, Ron, hurry it up!" Lupin called from down the stairs. Harry and Ron frantically started to shove things in Harry's trunk.
"You sure that's all?" Ron said as he was sitting on top of the trunk so it stayed closed. Harry was working on the buckles.
"Think so." With that Harry closed his trunk and started to take it down the stairs while Ron took Hedwig's cage and Harry's Firebolt. Out in the hallway, Dudley's door was shut and there was no sound coming from his room at all. Harry found Lupin downstairs, smirking at a baby picture of Dudley.
"Ready to go then, Harry?" Harry nodded at him. Lupin looked at him grimly before taking his things and attaching them to the back of his own broom. Then he performed the Disillusionment charm on both Harry and Ron before ushering them out the door. The trip didn't seem to take very long and when they touched down at Grimmauld Place, Harry wasn't sure whether he felt relieved or not. What good was Grimmauld Place without Sirius?
Inside the house was definitely different than the last time Harry was there. In the entranceway, dirty curtains still covered the picture of Sirius' mother, but other than that, the house seemed different. Harry couldn't tell why, but it felt different. It could have been that Mrs. Weasley had finally finished cleaning the main sections of the house and the grime and dust that clung to his clothes were missing or it could have just been the lack of Sirius.
"Ron, why don't you help Harry bring his things upstairs and then come down to the kitchen? There's something important we need to discuss," Lupin said as he walked past the boys.
"Like what?" Harry asked, not masking his annoyance as he bent to pick up his trunk. It was really heavy and he didn't feel like carrying it. He finally resorted to dragging it along the floor.
"How am I supposed to know? Ginny and I aren't good for anything but getting locked into rooms around here and trust me, there are a LOT of them," Ron answered. Harry felt like hollering, 'Really, how does that feel because it's become my whole life!' but he resisted the urge. There was no use getting in a fight with Ron on the first day away from the useless Dursleys.
"We have to go to the kitchen." Ginny said, as soon as the door opened. She was sitting on top of Ron's bed and reading a letter.
"Hey, get down from there! What are you doing anyhow?" Ron bellowed.
"Don't yell at me, Ronald Weasley! Pigwidgeon just brought me a letter," Ginny said as she jumped down from the bed and shoved the letter in her pocket. Then she left.
"George found a letter of hers from Dean Thomas. Can you believe it?" Ron looked livid. Harry just steered him in the direction of the kitchen. Lupin walked out of the kitchen just as they turned the corner.
"Ron, stop giving Ginny a hard time. Now listen, Mundungus brought a girl back from Diso. She was found trapped in the attic of an orphanage. She hasn't spoken to anyone since she's been rescued. We're not even sure if she speaks any English. Just try and be nice," Lupin said.
"Where are you going?" Ron asked. Lupin just looked at him and left. "That's the I-Can't-Tell-You-Because-You're-Not-In-The-Order look. You'll get used to it." Harry scowled behind him thinking, 'I've been seeing it a lot longer than you have' but he followed Ron into the kitchen anyway. The usually chatty Ginny was sitting directly across from the girl- and she was totally silent.
"What do you say to someone who doesn't speak English?" Ginny asked. The girl turned around to see who had walked into the kitchen. She had long blonde hair and eyes that were a very light green. Her eyes appeared to be the only thing on her face that was left with color. She was pitifully thin and her clothes were tattered rags. Her appearance reminded Harry that she had been in the midst of a major Death Eater attack. An orphan, just like him. But he doubted she had been orphaned twice- the way he had.
"HI," Ron said awkwardly.
"Ron, don't be stupid! Italian people do not say hi "Ginny said condescendingly. Ron rolled his eyes thinking how stupid little sisters can be.
"Hi," the girl said, smiling at Ron. She didn't look quite so pitiful when she smiled, Harry thought.
"See," Ron shot at Ginny. "WHAT IS YOUR NAME?" Ginny rolled her eyes at him.
"She's not deaf you know."
"My name is Fiona and yes, I can speak English. I'm not deaf either."
"You're looking rather peaky," Ron said stupidly. Ginny scowled at him.
"That's not being nice Ron!"
"If you don't mind, would you tell us what happened?" Harry asked Fiona, ignoring Ginny and Ron. As Harry looked at Fiona, he felt his scar twinge with pain. Voldemort definitely wasn't happy about something.
While many other sixteen-year-old boys were elated for it to finally be summer and totally bummed at the current status of the weather- one boy wasn't. In fact, he preferred when it rained and he absolutely hated summer holiday.
It was three o'clock, yet outside it was dark as if it was midnight. Rain poured down and fiercely hit the window he was leaning on. A steady clinking of iron was heard in the next room, which meant Dudley was lifting weights again. Down in the parlor, Uncle Vernon was lazily watching TV while Aunt Petunia was making afternoon tea in the kitchen. Harry Potter, however, continued to gaze out the window. He was waiting for the latest issue of the Daily Prophet. There had been a new article almost daily since the wizarding world had decided to recognize the existence of Lord Voldemort. Even with the Ministry somewhat accepting the Dark Lord's return, many of wizards and witches still disputed Voldemort's return. Harry always scoffed at the articles that remained ignorant to the current threat of Voldemort.
With the muggle news reporting nothing out of the ordinary, Harry was left patiently waiting for the Daily Prophet. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning lit up his room as it struck a nearby telephone pole. Immediately, all the lights went out on Privet Drive. Harry didn't pay any attention to the sudden darkness around him. He liked his room dark anyway, that way no one would bother him. In fact, most of Harry's days were spent sitting alone in his dark room, thinking. Thinking and fretting seemed to take up a lot of Harry's time. Occasionally he sent owls to his friends but his messages always seemed short and dull because there wasn't much he could write. One of Moody's greatest warnings had been of intercepted letters. Rarely, was there a response to any of the letters he wrote anyhow and when there was, Harry poured over the letters searching for hidden messages within each written line. He hated the Dursleys and he hated staying at their house for the summer.
A knocking on his bedroom door interrupted his thoughts. Dudley poked his head into the room and smiled weakly. Harry nodded his head and Dudley came in and sat on Harry's bed. Since last summer, Dudley's attitude towards Harry had changed. In public, Dudley continued to torment Harry as usual. At the house, however, things were quite different. Dudley was petrified of Harry and didn't believe anything Harry had said about the Dementors that had attacked him the summer before. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia hated to see Dudley even in the same room as Harry, but Moody's warning plagued them every time they looked in Harry's direction. It made them despise him even more, yet they were too paralyzed with fear to do much about it. As a result, Harry was able to come and go as he pleased. To the Dursley's delight, he stayed in his room most of the time.
"Got your newspaper yet?" Dudley asked.
"Not yet."
"Oh. You, uh, don't happen to have yesterday's do you?" Harry turned around abruptly.
"Second drawer, lift out the false bottom." Harry answered, pointing to his desk. Dudley picked up the newspaper and felt his way to the bed. Harry just stared at him in disbelief. He never even realized that Dudley had been stealing his papers all summer.
"Since when do you read these?" Harry said, talking to the dark shape he assumed to be Dudley.
"Since always. Can you, uh, do that light thing?" Dudley asked, shocked at himself for even mentioning the use of magic.
"Can't, still underage," Harry rolled his eyes. "There are candles in that drawer over there." Harry turned around and kept staring out the window. 'Why is Dudley reading my paper?' he thought to himself. Harry glanced back at Dudley, who had set up the candle on his dressing table and was reading as close to the light as he could. There was an urgent tapping on the window and Harry turned around and opened it. In flew two owls. One was Hedwig, his own owl, and the other was delivering his Daily Prophet. He took the Daily Prophet and gave the owl two coins. It flew back out the window and Harry slammed it shut. Harry quickly skimmed the front page checking to make sure there was no major news regarding Voldemort and then walked over to Hedwig and untied the letter from her leg.
Harry quickly unfolded the letter that was obviously from Hermione.
'Dear Harry,
How are things going where you are? I am currently on holiday in Rome. It's so beautiful here. The sun is out almost every day. (Harry snorted as he glanced out the window.) I hope everything is going better. Don't stay too upset. I just wanted to say happy Birthday one day in advance, although I'm not sure when you'll get this. You'll get your present when I see you at the house. Don't worry, that will be soon.
Guess what? Lucius Malfoy's going to jail- for now anyway. There's a whole article on it in the Prophet. I'm not sure if you get it, so I sent the clipping for you to read. Good luck with your summer work and see if you can find out who the new Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher is! Don't neglect your studies!
Best Birthday Wishes, Hermione'
Harry stared at the letter. Tomorrow really was his birthday. His sixteenth birthday to be exact. He had forgotten. Well, not that he was turning sixteen, just that he was turning sixteen tomorrow. But another part of the letter stuck out as well. What did Hermione mean by 'the house'? Did she mean the Burrow or 12 Grimmauld Place? Thinking about Grimmauld Place reminded Harry of Sirius and he immediately crumpled up the letter and threw it into a corner. Then he went back to leaning against the window.
Footsteps could be heard on the stairs and Dudley took both newspapers and shoved them under the bed. The he picked up the candle. Harry retreated to the darkest, farthest corner of his room.
"Dudley, Dudley are you alright? Duddykins where are you?" Aunt Petunia called out, worriedly.
"I'm in here, mum." Dudley opened Harry's door. Harry grunted and turned around so he couldn't see the doorway.
"What on EARTH are you doing in there?" Uncle Vernon said harshly, but he didn't dare step any closer to the already opened door.
"Just bringing a candle into Harry's room, he got frightened by the blackout." Harry snorted. Uncle Vernon peered into the dark corner, and then took a few steps back.
"How kind of you Duddys," Aunt Petunia said. Her fake smile almost seemed to shine through the darkness. Harry could hear the phoniness in her voice. "Remember Vernon, we ALL have to be nice. You heard that, that-"
"I heard all right."
"Anyway," Aunt Petunia stuttered. "Tea is ready." Harry's Aunt and Uncle practically scurried down the stairs; they often reminded him of over-fed, over-confident rats. Dudley followed them, taking Harry's favorite candle- the one that could never burn out- with him. Harry walked back to his bed and sat alone in the dark. He didn't feel like sitting with the Durlseys and their quiet disapproval. Since Mad-Eye's talk with them at the train station, Harry received Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia's fake generosity that was usually saved for the neighbors. Unlike the neighbors, Harry knew that his aunt and uncle were being fake. Harry didn't go down for tea or dinner. Instead, he stayed in his room- in the dark, alone.
Several days before Harry sat pondering in his dark bedroom, various members of the Order were getting together and preparing for their trip. They had heard that there was going to be Death Eater activity in southern Italy. Half of the Order was going to investigate for the Italian Ministry of Magic and hopefully the Death Eaters would be stopped before there were attacks on muggles or wizards. Lupin had to stay behind because it was going to be a full moon soon. Snape was in the kitchen brewing the wolfsbane potion, as everyone else was frantically searching for the wands that Kreacher had hidden throughout the house.
Harry woke up the next morning to find that it had finally stopped raining. It was still cloudy out, but at least it seemed that the electricity had been restored. At the foot of Harry's bed was a small white box. Harry smiled- something that had become more and more infrequent- and opened the box. Inside was a small cake that read, "Happy Birthday Harry". He hid the box under the loose floorboards in his room when he heard Dudley waking up in the room beside him.
Besides the cake, Harry's day passed uneventfully- until the arrival of the Daily Prophet newsletter that is. Harry opened the newspaper and almost dropped it.
"The War Officially Begins
'At about 1:15 this morning an army of Death Eaters attacked a small wizarding village in southern Italy. Ministry officials were tipped off about the attack and were traveling to Italy as the attack began. The officials were able to stop the advancement of the Death Eaters, but with many casualties. The Death Eaters finally fled several hours later, leaving the village in ruins. The Ministry is still investigating the attack and looking for potential survivors. The town, Diso, was considered one of the main wizarding towns that blended muggle and wizard life in Italy. It is still not certain why He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named chose this place as his first official attack.
The British Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, expressed his deep regret over the situation in a conference early this morning, but insists that ample measures are being taken in order to combat He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and his followers. "I have confidence in our wizarding community and I feel that we can over come this great evil that has befallen us." Noticeably absent from the conference was Albus Dumbledore.
No casualties or deaths have been reported. For more information on the cause, turn to page three.'
Harry sat in shock for several seconds. He ignored the sound of the doorbell and turned the page to finish reading the article. To his surprise, there was no page three; the paper went directly from page two to four. He cursed the paper and resorted to skimming every page looking for any information or possible names of people that could have been involved with attack. Page six seemed to be missing too. Finding no information on the attack, he threw the paper across the room and glared at his door in frustration.
"WHAT?" Harry yelled at whoever was knocking on his door.
"Open up!" A familiar voice yelled back, followed by more pounding.
"Thought you weren't coming till next week!" Harry answered as he opened the door. On the other side stood a smiling Ron.
"Dunno, Dumbledore just sent Lupin to get you. Technically no one in the Order can go on a mission without at least one back up. And here I am," Ron said rather proudly. "Don't worry- the Dursley's are talking with Lupin in the kitchen. He's got a letter from Dumbledore."
"Oh, so you uh, hear from Hermione lately?" Harry asked as he checked under his bed for some missing schoolbooks. Ron knew Harry was avoiding the issue of him staying with the Dursleys but decided not to press him- he didn't feel like dealing with one of Harry's frequent screaming fits.
"I think she said she was in Rome, right? She probably won't be coming back for a while. They are checking anything magical- especially wizards- that crosses the border. She could be there till school starts." Ron answered. If Harry had bothered to turn around he would have noticed the nervous look on Ron's face.
"Harry, Ron, hurry it up!" Lupin called from down the stairs. Harry and Ron frantically started to shove things in Harry's trunk.
"You sure that's all?" Ron said as he was sitting on top of the trunk so it stayed closed. Harry was working on the buckles.
"Think so." With that Harry closed his trunk and started to take it down the stairs while Ron took Hedwig's cage and Harry's Firebolt. Out in the hallway, Dudley's door was shut and there was no sound coming from his room at all. Harry found Lupin downstairs, smirking at a baby picture of Dudley.
"Ready to go then, Harry?" Harry nodded at him. Lupin looked at him grimly before taking his things and attaching them to the back of his own broom. Then he performed the Disillusionment charm on both Harry and Ron before ushering them out the door. The trip didn't seem to take very long and when they touched down at Grimmauld Place, Harry wasn't sure whether he felt relieved or not. What good was Grimmauld Place without Sirius?
Inside the house was definitely different than the last time Harry was there. In the entranceway, dirty curtains still covered the picture of Sirius' mother, but other than that, the house seemed different. Harry couldn't tell why, but it felt different. It could have been that Mrs. Weasley had finally finished cleaning the main sections of the house and the grime and dust that clung to his clothes were missing or it could have just been the lack of Sirius.
"Ron, why don't you help Harry bring his things upstairs and then come down to the kitchen? There's something important we need to discuss," Lupin said as he walked past the boys.
"Like what?" Harry asked, not masking his annoyance as he bent to pick up his trunk. It was really heavy and he didn't feel like carrying it. He finally resorted to dragging it along the floor.
"How am I supposed to know? Ginny and I aren't good for anything but getting locked into rooms around here and trust me, there are a LOT of them," Ron answered. Harry felt like hollering, 'Really, how does that feel because it's become my whole life!' but he resisted the urge. There was no use getting in a fight with Ron on the first day away from the useless Dursleys.
"We have to go to the kitchen." Ginny said, as soon as the door opened. She was sitting on top of Ron's bed and reading a letter.
"Hey, get down from there! What are you doing anyhow?" Ron bellowed.
"Don't yell at me, Ronald Weasley! Pigwidgeon just brought me a letter," Ginny said as she jumped down from the bed and shoved the letter in her pocket. Then she left.
"George found a letter of hers from Dean Thomas. Can you believe it?" Ron looked livid. Harry just steered him in the direction of the kitchen. Lupin walked out of the kitchen just as they turned the corner.
"Ron, stop giving Ginny a hard time. Now listen, Mundungus brought a girl back from Diso. She was found trapped in the attic of an orphanage. She hasn't spoken to anyone since she's been rescued. We're not even sure if she speaks any English. Just try and be nice," Lupin said.
"Where are you going?" Ron asked. Lupin just looked at him and left. "That's the I-Can't-Tell-You-Because-You're-Not-In-The-Order look. You'll get used to it." Harry scowled behind him thinking, 'I've been seeing it a lot longer than you have' but he followed Ron into the kitchen anyway. The usually chatty Ginny was sitting directly across from the girl- and she was totally silent.
"What do you say to someone who doesn't speak English?" Ginny asked. The girl turned around to see who had walked into the kitchen. She had long blonde hair and eyes that were a very light green. Her eyes appeared to be the only thing on her face that was left with color. She was pitifully thin and her clothes were tattered rags. Her appearance reminded Harry that she had been in the midst of a major Death Eater attack. An orphan, just like him. But he doubted she had been orphaned twice- the way he had.
"HI," Ron said awkwardly.
"Ron, don't be stupid! Italian people do not say hi "Ginny said condescendingly. Ron rolled his eyes thinking how stupid little sisters can be.
"Hi," the girl said, smiling at Ron. She didn't look quite so pitiful when she smiled, Harry thought.
"See," Ron shot at Ginny. "WHAT IS YOUR NAME?" Ginny rolled her eyes at him.
"She's not deaf you know."
"My name is Fiona and yes, I can speak English. I'm not deaf either."
"You're looking rather peaky," Ron said stupidly. Ginny scowled at him.
"That's not being nice Ron!"
"If you don't mind, would you tell us what happened?" Harry asked Fiona, ignoring Ginny and Ron. As Harry looked at Fiona, he felt his scar twinge with pain. Voldemort definitely wasn't happy about something.