Chapter 2: The Reunion

The days until Hermione's arrival passed quickly, Harry learned that Aurors were still looking for Voldemort and so were all the Death Eaters.

Harry was glad to have some time with the people he liked as if they were his own family.

Finally the day when Hermione arrived came and she noticed Harry's weird behaving, too. After some time they decided to go to Diagon Alley, to take Ginny with them and as Harry wasn't allowed to be out of the Burrow without a guard, Tonks went with them.

"Okay, everyone ready? Harry, you go first!"

Harry stepped into the fireplace, said: "The Leaky Cauldron!" and disappeared.

Arriving at the Leaky Cauldron, he waited a few moments until Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Tonks got there too.

"So, in which shops do you have to go?" Tonks asked.

"Well, the most important things we have to get are books, so I would suggest we first go to Flourish and Blott's. Then we can think of what else we need." Hermione answered.

As everyone was okay with that, they went into the direction of the bookshop. When they passed Quality Quidditch Supplies, Harry stopped.

"I just want to see if there are some new broomsticks, you lot go to Flourish and Blott's, I'll come there in a few minutes."

So he went to have a look at the display of the Quidditch-shop in front of which somebody was standing. The person wore long black robes with a hood so that Harry couldn't see his face.

When Harry arrived in front of the display, he saw the new Astra 2003. After having read the information text, he let out an impressed :"Wow, THAT's a broomstick!!!"

After he said this, the person in the long black robes turned to him. Just his luck. It was Malfoy!

"I was wondering if you're talking to someone, or just yourself, Potter?" he said, not without the usual derision but there was none of his usual evilness in his voice.

For a moment Harry was speechless. Of course Harry had thought of him in the holidays sometimes, but he had never thought of meeting him here.

"Er...oh..."

"What kind of illness do you have, so that you can't talk in clear full sentences or even say words, Pot-head?"

"I...I just didn't expect to meet you here, that's why..."

"Well, you have to learn to expect your enemies everywhere and everytime. One day it might be bad for you if you're not careful about other people."

"Yes, I suppose in that case you're right.", Harry answered, but a few moments after having said it, he thought :"Wait, have I really just admitted that Malfoy was right? Am I totally insane? I'm not even sure what I think about what he said! What's wrong with me?"

When Harry looked into Draco's face, he saw by the look the other boy wore, that he was thinking exactly the same thing.

Now it was Draco's turn to be speechless, he just stood there and stared at Harry.

"So...I'll better go...." For a moment Harry thought about saying "Goodbye", but then he remembered who was standing in front of him and nearly ran away to catch up with his friends.

"Okay, Harry, do you have all the books you need? Ron, did you get yours? Ginny...?"

"Hermione, you don't have check if I have my books, I'm not like my brother, I can think for myself!"

Harry held in his hands several books, among them a Potions-book. Ron turned toward him, still shocked about the fact that Harry would take Potions voluntary for the next two years.

"Harry, I still can't believe that you've really decided not to drop Potions!"

"Oh Ron, leave Harry alone. If he wants to become an Auror, he has to take Potions this year, you know that! Harry, I think it's great that you passed your Potions-exam so well and think it's brave of you to take Potions this year, it shows that you're serious about becoming an Auror, maybe even Snape will accept this one day..."

"Thanks Hermione. Maybe he will and for this I even bear him."

Ron didn't look as if he believed what Harry just said, but he didn't say anything, he just muttered:" Becoming an Auror is one thing, but enduring Snape two more years is the other."

"Tonks, where did you go to school?" Hermione asked.

"I went to Hogwarts too, some years ago, I had to bear Snape too when I went to school, and look at me, I survived it. It's not that bad."

"But he didn't hate you, he hates me since the first time we met!"

"Of course he hated me, I was a Gryffindor!", Tonks said and laughed. "Okay, where do you want to go now?"

"We could visit Fred and George in their shop!" Ginny suggested

Harry agreed," Yes, good idea, I haven't been in there for a single time."

So the little group went down Diagon Alley to go to Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes.

As they passed Gringotts, Ron caught a glimpse of a blonde boy coming out of the bank.

He said :"Oi, prepare for the worst, Malfoy's coming,"

By hearing Draco's name Harry winced and then blushed a little.

Draco came nearer, he surely had seen the two redheads, Harry, Hermione and Tonks. Ron went a bit pale, even though he would never admit it, he was a bit scared of Malfoy.

Hermione's expression hardened, she didn't want to show emotions and give Malfoy an aim for his oral attacks. Tonks, however, was interested in seeing the boy of whom she had heard so many things.

So they stood there, waiting for Malfoy to offend them, but the blond boy just walked past them without even looking at them. When he was gone, Ron still stood there with an open mouth, unable to say something. Hermione was the first to express her astonishment in words.

"What- was- that? Malfoy just ignoring us? I simply can't believe it. He never missed a chance to offend us before, so why now? "

"I suppose it's just because he is without his bodyguards, there's five of us and he's alone", Harry lied, but he knew that this was ridiculous because Malfoy would never be afraid of them, but he really couldn't tell the others the true reason why Malfoy's tongue had been fixed.

Ginny didn't want to keep standing in the street talking about Malfoy, so she said:" You lot are talking as if you're sorry that he didn't talk to you! Come on, I don't want to stay here for the rest of my life, let's go to see Fred and George."

The little group went to Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes and when they arrived there the shop was crowded with people, most of them teenagers. When they went inside, Ron saw Dean talking to Fred Weasley.

"So, that is the true reason you wanted to come here so fast, eh Ginny?" , Ron asked Ginny.

Dean went towards them and first greeted Ginny with a long kiss. Harry saw Hermione watching them and saw the look of desire in her eyes. Harry had asked himself for a long time when Ron would pluck up his courage and do the first step and ask Hermione out, but obviously he wasn't ready for it yet.

There were lots of Hogwarts students in the joke shop, most of them Gryffindors. Harry spotted Neville and went towards him to talk to him.

"Hi, Harry, I hoped to meet you here in Diagon Alley. Unfortunately I don't have much time, I've got to go and pick up my grandma, she is buying some things she doesn't get anywhere else." Then he remembered what had happened to Harry the summer before and a look full of pity came upon his eyes.

Obviously he didn't know what to say because he was seeking for help by looking at Ron and Hermione, commented by a nearly whispered "Ahmmm...well...and..."

Harry got impatient, he was sick of all these people who couldn't help him and sent him pitiful looks instead, so he snorted.

The scene was getting more and more unpleasant for Neville, so he finally said, "Well, I'll leave you lot now, see you later, if not here in town, in the train. Bye," and a few seconds later he was gone, and Harry wasn't really sorry that Neville didn't have much time to talk.

Hermione was in a deep conversation about the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher with a Ravenclaw whose name Harry didn't know, so he and Ron had a look at the many sweets Fred and George sell. The twins had a much bigger assortment than Zonko's.

When Harry touched a plastic statue with a big nose that reminded him very much of a certain professor he didn't like at all, the sleeve of his coat slipped down a bit, Ron saw Harry's talisman.

"Wow, Harry, what's that? It looks cool...I bet, after some weeks in school many of the other pupils will wear similar things around their arms too, you're a kind of trendsetter."

"That's a birthday present from Hagrid, yeah, I think it's cool, too."

They spent a long time in the shop until Tonks told them that it was time to leave.

When Harry left the shop he heard his name whispered several times but as he was used to this, he didn't care.

They spent some days at the Burrow, Harry was always in a good mood, which astounded Hermione and Ron as well as the rest of the Weasley familiy but neither of them dared say anything to Harry, fearing that he might get angry and depressed again.

In these days Harry thought a lot of his future. His decision of becoming an Auror had of course something to do with Sirius' death. Harry wanted to fight against people like Bellatrix Lestrange, he didn't want others to have to suffer like he had in this summer, feeling the loss of a very much loved person, in his case the only person in whom he saw something like a father.

He wanted to be able to defend himself and the people he loved, and also innocent people, he didn't want to be as helpless as he had been in the Department of Mystery again.

He was ashamed when he thought of himself not being able to perform Avada Kedavra. That simply couldn't happen again. He decided to study harder than ever before this year, he would need everything he could learn in future, he just had two more years to go in Hogwarts and when he got out of school he wasn't under the protect of Dumbledore anymore, so it was really necessary to learn to protect himself.

It was like Malfoy had said. He had to start to think of his enemies and watch out for them. He had to be prepared for a fight with them, or one day he would be very sorry.

Then he thought of Cho. He wasn't sure whether he still had feelings for her, but he was sure that he didn't want the whole thing warmed up again.

Dating Cho hadn't been as satisfying as he thought. She simply wasn't different from the other girls, and he had always had loved her individuality, before he finally got to know her. When he dated Cho, he could as well date Lavender or Parvati.

He really didn't dislike them, but they weren't the kind of girl he wanted to become his girlfriend. He hoped he could be so staunch too when he talked to Cho again. And that would be very soon. To be exact, he had one more day until he would see her...and Malfoy.

Always when he thought of something, his thoughts ended up with Malfoy, even though he really didn't want to think of this slimy bastard.

As he needed a bit of Quidditch practise, he spent his last day before going back to school playing with Ron and Ginny.

"Has McGonagall already said something about the Quidditch captaincy to you?", Ron asked when they made a little break.

"Ahhhmm...no,...she didn't, when should she?"

Harry had thought about that matter too, he didn't know what to tell Ron about it, on one hand it was kind of clear that McGonagall was going to give him the captaincy of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, but on the other hand he didn't want to come across as being so sure of that because it would seem bigheaded.

"Just thought she might have written a letter or so. Dunno how it was when Charlie became captain anymore."

"Well, no she didn't write." Harry really didn't want to talk about this whole captaincy thing any more, so he started a topic that surely would distract Ron from the theme that was so displeasing for him. "So, what's going on between you and Hermione?", he asked when Ginny went into the house to help her mother prepare the meal.

Ron's ears were of course turning red immediately, and he blushed. From this reaction Harry could see that Ron had kind of fallen in love with Hermione but was of course afraid to tell Hermione or ask her out or something like that.

"Oh, come on. I'm not blind, I know there's something going on between you two..."

Ron's face couldn't possibly get redder any more.

"Dunno... well, maybe there is something, but I really dunno what."

"So, why don't you simply ask her out?"

"I...can't, really, I'm can't overcome myself and ask her, I simply can't!" He really sounded desperate.

"But why?"

"You know, she's so smart, and I'm so...myself. I'm afraid she could say no."

"You don't know that, and if you don't try, you will never find out. And if you wait too long, maybe someone will beat you to it."

Ron looked at him so scared and so considerate, that Harry had to add "Oh, don't worry, you don't have to fear that I could ask her out, but I tell you, the school is full of boys and she is neither invisible nor ugly."

"Yes, I know..."

The conversation was interrupted by Mrs Weasley calling Harry and Ron for dinner, for what Ron seemed to be very thankful.

After dinner Hermione wanted to talk to Harry, Ron and Ginny even though she wasn't sure if it was a good idea.

It was about a theme Harry had often thought of and wondered how long the others would wait until finally talking about it.

"So, the reason I want to talk to you is Dumbledore's Army. I wanted to ask you whether we should keep meeting and practising magic that could help us to defend us. What do you think?"

Everyone was thinking about it for some seconds. Ginny was first to talk again. "Well, I'm not sure if we need it any more, now as Dumbledore is back in school. The reason we started the whole thing was that terrible Umbridge woman. Now we are getting a new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher and we learn in class again."

And even though we learned so hard alone, in the crucial moment it didn't help us, Harry thought bitterly.

Hermione seemed to have seen his facial expression, so she decided to say something that might cheer him up.

"I think it wouldn't be bad to continue with it, as it can only be helpful in a fight, maybe the lessons in class simply aren't enough.

But it depends on Harry whether he wants to continue or not."

That was what Harry didn't want, having to decide. The others should decide, he didn't even want to have to think of it.