Harry Potter and the Shard of Magic.

By Wihstrum

Chapter two: Entwined Destinies.

He allowed himself to fall back into the long grass, arms crossed behind his head and eyes staring up absently at the clear blue, trying to discern familiar shapes amongst the white clouds that covered the sky as far as the eye could see. It was a warm, almost humid day, and the atmosphere was a very slow, tired one, hence why the two of them were basking in the late afternoon, doing absolutely nothing.

"Draco..."

He let his head roll to the left so he could see Blaise sitting in the shadow of the giant willow. He found it odd to see the young wizard in something other than Slytherin robes; he was wearing light linen trousers and a currently unbuttoned khaki blouse. He was leaning against the trunk of the tree lazily, twirling a blade of grass between his fingers.

"Hmm?" He hummed as he squinted his eyes against the sunlight.

Blaise was regarding him thoughtfully; eyes slightly hooded "What are you going to do after graduating?"

Staring back up at the sky, Draco contemplated that question himself. Half a year ago he would have found that question ridiculous, but now it really seemed to make sense. So many possibilities…"Don't know… boot Severus from his position as Potions teacher?"

"You, a teacher?" the caramel eyed youth snorted "Oh that's bound to be interesting." He countered, an amused smirk curling his lips as he let his head loll back against the trunk.

He pushed himself up on his elbows, and shot Blaise a defiant glare "Why not?"

"You don't have the patience nor temperment…" he answered simply as he tied a knot in the blade of grass.

He sniggered "If they all have the IQ of either Longbottom or Potter, then I don't."

Both Slytherins grinned at each other as Draco sat up, crossing his legs. The little red lines running over his arms where they'd laid pressed into the grass were itching and he scratched his arm absently "Seriously though… I don't know." He said more thoughtfully, fingering the leather bracelet around his right wrist. "I never knew it would be such a… I don't know… I'm free to do as I please now he's in Azkaban."

Blaise nodded; amber eyes fixed on Draco's face. He put the blade of grass between his lips and chewed on it.

"And it would be a shame if I were to ruin my fair skin with such an ugly Dark Mark."

The other leaned forward, arms resting on his knees. He gave the young wizard a heated glare "That is not amusing."

He raised a lazy pale eyebrow "What do you want me to do then? Weep?"

Blaise let out an annoyed sigh, deciding to ignore the blonde and checked his watch. "I ought to be going now, I promised mum I'd be home for dinner." He stood up, swaying slightly as he did so "I hate flooing." He muttered as an afterthought as both walked through the long grass up to the Malfoy Mansion

Their new friendship came forth out of one simple letter Blaise wrote at the beginning of the summer. Sure, they've both been housemates and roomies for five years, now starting their sixth, but Blaise had been Zabini back then. Now he was Blaise. It was a very formal and simple letter, but it ended up with them meeting each other at Diagon Ally. And to Draco's immense surprise, he'd enjoyed that trip. It was stiff and awkward at first, but now they got along very well and it made Draco question his 'friendship' he had with Crabbe and Goyle and why he stuck around them. He found out he had no other reason other than the fact they'd just grown up with each other. Friendship. It had always been an equivalent of 'weak' to Draco, an empty word for which he bore no interest at all. Maybe he was given a second chance?

As Draco thought about this they entered the big, stately mansion; a strong and cool contrast to the warm greens of the gardens surrounding it. Then he bumped right into Blaise's back as the other had frozen like a deer caught in the headlights of a muggle car. He was about to snap something snarkily as he looked up, but he lost all ability of speech as if he'd been slapped in his face. His heart froze within him as the little talk Blaise and he had five minutes ago was stomped into the ground and buried.

Wiping any emotion that might have shown on his face away, Draco stepped past brown haired Slytherin and held out his hand "Welcome back father."

August 11.

Harry was lying on his stomach on top of his t-shirt he'd discarded half an hour ago. He still was very skinny, but after a week of being stuffed with Molly's cookies, cakes, pancakes, bacon and whatever else she fixed up for him, he was starting to gain weight again. He sipped his pumpkin juice in front of him and let his mind meander around.

Sirius' letter had made his world shift back into place. The whole night he had been sobbing his sadness into his pillow as he never had before, waking up the next morning feeling calmer than he had ever had. It was strange really; he woke up with renewed determination evident in his eyes. He didn't want to be that bitter and forlorn boy he had been last year, and he actually believed he could reign his sadness in and pick up his life again. But then of course there was a complication, from which Harry carried the proof of around on his forehead; a.k.a. the Prophesy. Dwelling on it was sure to bring Harry's spirits down in record-time, seeing as he had no idea how he was supposed to free the world from Voldemort's terror.

Watching the twins, Ginny and Ron were having a massive water-balloon fight, with the balloons left from his birthday, Harry smiled to himself. The birthday-party they'd held for him had turned out better than expected and even he had enjoyed being surrounded by so many familiar faces. Most members of the Order had been there, his housemates from his year and some others, Oliver Wood had showed up, along with Katie, Angelina and Alicia, Luna had been there and Fleur. Though he'd been bombarded with questions on how his physique came to be, Harry had actually enjoyed himself. Ginny and Ron had been saving up money and they'd given him dragon hide Quiddtich-patches. Hermione had given him a book about advanced DADA-techniques, Neville and Luna had given him a wand holster, the twins had given him the newest and most expensive Weasley's Wizard Wheezes pack, Hagrid had given him a book about dragons and of course the usual rock-hard rock cakes and further more he'd received tons candy and other sweets. It had been the first real birthday-party in his whole life and it would be a memory he'd cherish his whole life. He'd made Colin swear he got copies of the pictures he'd taken, so he could put them in the photo-album Parvati and Padma had given him.

A grin quirked the corners of his mouth upward as George (or maybe Fred, he wasn't sure) ducked the balloon Ron threw at him, hitting Ginny square against the back of her head instead. Within seconds, the Weasley temperament kicked in and Ron found himself sprinting through the backyard in a ditch effort to flee his raging sister.

Yet his amusement was quickly toned down as his scar prickled in response to another one of Voldemort's anger peeks. The dark hearted parasite seemed to be very busy lately and Harry's only alleviation was that he always seemed to be frustrated at something, rather than succeeding in whatever he was plotting.
Therefore it had also proved to be a relief to the Weasleys that Harry had his 'own' room, in which he'd stayed so far. He still had a lot of trouble sleeping and woke up more than once a night screaming the magic out of him. He tried to clear his head every time, even though he still wasn't adept at Occlumency by a long shot.

There was a screech and Ron rolled through the grass as Ginny had managed to grab one of his legs as she lunged for him. Grass flew through the air as the Weasley siblings tried to overpower one other. Harry couldn't help the warm fuzzy feeling in the pit of his stomach as he watched the scene with an affectionate smile.

Meanwhile Hermione sat down next to him, wrapping her arms around her legs. His fellow Gryffindor stayed over every so often and Harry was getting very attentive at catching the increasing signs of affection between his best friends. Hermione tilted her head sideways, observing him in a way only she could, tuned to his feelings with caring precision.

"You look different…" she remarked, still regarding him from under brown eyelashes "Better somehow."

Harry smiled enigmatically, answering vaguely "I feel better, too…" frowning slightly as he tried to analyze is own confusing emotions "Calmer somehow."

He was immensely surprised as Hermione tucked a strand of black hair protectively behind his ear "Glad to have you back Harry."

A small grin adorned his lips "Me too, Mione, me too…"

August 17.

He excitedly shifted through a dungeon-like corridor, his boots grinding softly over cracked tiles and his loyal servants scurrying after him. At long last, something went according to plan. He had been jaundiced too many times past few months and finally the perfect solution was put into his hands. The corridor twisted and branched off, myriad passageways leading to gruesome laboratories and stifling storage closets, but he could already feel the hum buzzing through his body as they approached their destination.

Lucius held a door open for him, bowing lowly with unrivaled gracefulness. His imprisonment in Azkaban had left him with dark circles around his eyes, which now held a permanent haunted look. Stepping into a small, saturated room, a shiver ran up and down his spine in response to the highly concentrated magic oozing from basin at the far end of the chamber. Even though the long, coffin-like case was covered with a thick black cloth, bright blue pulsating light illuminated their surroundings, unnerving the local inhabitants, such as spiders and scrawny rats.

A throaty hiss escaped him in his intoxication, "Are you sure this will work?"

The lowly rat dropped to his knees, clutching the hem of his long dark robe as he whimpered, "Yes master, I worked very hard to find a solution master."

Red eyes sought to burn a hole through the skull of his lower, "I do hope you realize what will happen if you manage to fail. Again. Pettigrew?"

Another whimper "Yes master…"

"Right then." His pale, spider-ish hand pulled the cloth of.

His blood rushed through his veins in complete furor, as he took in the contents of the container. Inside was a whitish substance, pulsing systematically with green and blue light. It was not substantial enough to be water, yet not elusive enough to be light. Drifting in that substance was his ultimate resolve to all his problems.

The eyes were still closed; it appeared to be sleeping even though her chest did not rise nor fall. But it was definitely alive. The tanned skin was a harsh contrast to her whirling dome of light around her and the freckles over her nose and cheeks stood out clearly. She looked so small, so innocent, but anybody could have seen the trained muscles in her arms and legs, lithe yet quite athletic. The stark-white hair drifted around her head almost lazily and was hard to make out in the shining liquid.

Very beautiful and innocent.

A smile which had nothing to do with happiness claimed his lips "Wake her and meet me at the churchyard at Little Hangleton. The reverse-ritual will be completed there."

Harry's ear-splitting scream cut through the Burrow, as he held his forehead trying to calm the scorching sensation that spread through his head. Within minutes the entire Weasley household was in the room, Molly trying to shake the boy-who-lived out of his delirium. Meanwhile, Arthur had already ran down the stairs to the fireplace, calling on Dumbledore's help as he recognized what had happened the last times Harry had been in a similar state. He knew all too well.

Dazedly, Harry stared at the curling and whirling steam bellowing up from his cup of hot cocoa. Hands were lifted up to gingerly massage his temples, trying to soothe the pounding headache. Feeling ridiculously alone and vulnerable, Harry sat there, waiting, in the kitchen at Number 12 Grimmauld place.

It had taken three grown men -Bill, Snape and Remus- to calm the Boy-who-lived down. With combined powers they finally managed to pin him down onto his bed, so Dumbledore could cast a calming charm on the young man. Without further ado, he'd been forced to floo over to Grimmauld place. Once again they'd been compelled to calm him down, as obviously Harry wasn't too buoyant about this either.
After being target of two calming charms, he had been too drugged to re-tell the whole story, resulting in Albus using his natural Legilimens abilities to see what exactly Harry had beheld in his dream. And then panic had ensued as Dumbledore in turn had shared this with Snape. The Potions master had literally gone unhinged, almost to the point of Apparating over to Little Hangleton to take care of business on his own. If Harry hadn't been so stupefied himself, he would have wondered what in the name of Merlin's beard had been so important about that girl.

So now, trapped in the building of Sirius' birthplace, alone with his uncertainty and pain that came with just being there. It felt like Sirius took away all the warmth from this place when he left. Trying to get to his senses, Harry left his eyes free reign to take in the… rather homey touch Remus had given the place. The werewolf had moved permanently in there after the incident as he had no place else he wished to be.

Knocking back the rest of his –now cold- cocoa, Harry settled his mind on exploring a little. The confusion had evaporated, leaving more space for his explosive chagrin and the only way to get it out of his system seemed to be busying himself.
He wandered around aimlessly, picking up random objects the Order had gathered there, but not really looking at them, before setting them back down and shuffling around to wherever his feet guided him. Eventually Harry ended up in the upstairs bedroom, with a certain gray Hippogriff. The magnificent creature let out a complaining noise, tilting his head sideward.

"Still trapped in here, are you?" Harry asked Buckbeak, even though he obviously wasn't expecting any verbal reply.

In answer the Hippogriff scraped his front paw over the wooden floor with a softer screech. Orange eyes observed every inhale of air, every heartbeat coming from his human visitor. Another crowish noise left Buckbeak's throat.

"I'll try to get you out as soon as possible." The Gryffindor whispered in response "I promise."

He sank back against the wall, watching Buckbeak lowering himself to the floor with a distinct grace, next to Harry as if he'd sensed the young man might need his support. So Harry just waited, and after a few hours he dozed off, sliding down the wall unconsciously seeking out the softness of the Hippogriff's feathers.

With a snap he shot out of his dreamless slumber, as he heard stumbling and urgent whispering downstairs. They were back!

Harry ran down the stairs, taking two steps at a time, pausing only to slow down at Mrs. Black's portrait. Bursting into the kitchen though, he was rendered numb; supported by Remus was the young woman he'd dreamed off, only she wasn't a subconscious image provided by his teenage hormones. She was real alright and in a rather undressed state too, if you didn't count the cloak wrapped around her shoulders, which obviously wasn't hiding very much.

But things had been definitely rough, as Remus was limping heavily and had a very nasty cut on his forehead, blood pouring down. Dumbledore however didn't have a scratch. And the girl seemed… drunk, or drugged. She swayed on her legs and couldn't control her movements. The werewolf carefully nudged her on one of the chairs around the kitchen table, before collapsing to the floor with a heavy groan.
Hands were clutching his right leg, hissing as he removed the torn parts of his trousers which were clinging in a deep wound. Immediately wanting to help him, Harry hurried over to kneel by his side.

"It's alright, Harry. Don't worry." He assured him through clenched, although that didn't aid the remark of him being alright, "Albus, would you please take on the delight of calling Severus back in here?" He asked weakly.

The ancient wizard lowered his head into the fireplace, seemingly calling for Snape. From all Harry could put together the Headmaster and his ex-DADA teacher had actually Apparated over to the graveyard, only snatching the woman away from under their eyes in a flash-fight. Why would they ever, ever do something so jeopardous? The nameless girl, meanwhile, was shivering uncontrollably, hands clamped onto the table as if her life depended on it.

"Harry, would you be so kind to get some of your clothes for her? Some jeans and a jumper will do." Dumbledore asked him with the ever-so-present calming tone.

Momentarily deciding not to linger on his hard feelings for the enigmatic man right then, Harry did as told, collecting the garments up in the room he'd noticed his belongings being stashed away earlier on his exploring-trip. Back then, he'd wondered how in Heaven's name they'd been able to bring his belongings back there, without him actually knowing it. Then again, he'd been knocked out way to far after being exposed to two calming charms.
Re-entering the kitchen, Harry winced as he was confronted with the onyx black eyes he could only recognize as Snape's. He promptly handed over the clothing when the elder wizard gestured for them.

He turned his back to Harry and stalked over to stand by the white-haired woman instead, but then he hesitated, shooting –surprisingly- a pleading look at Remus. Not understanding, Harry regarded the wordless conversation. He did, however, grew a nice scarlet blush as Remus unbuckled the robe around her neck, while Snape carefully held her upright.

This elected the first struggling movements out of the girl, as she obviously felt threatened, but wasn't even able to stand up straight on her own.

"It's okay… we're not going to hurt you…" Lupin reassured quietly. He, too, was supporting a color that rivaled Harry's Quidditch robes.

Politely diverting his gaze, Harry could hear her reply, "What happened…?" her voice nothing more then a shaky whisper.

"You've been sleeping for quite a while now." Snape explained evenly, "Do you remember your name?" Although he was doing a wonderful job in suppressing any signs of physical discomfort, his voice was missing its otherwise razor-sharp edge.

Grudgingly holding herself upright by leaning on Remus' shoulders, the soft reply came, "…Alex."

"Good. Now carefully sit down."

A chair was pulled backwards, followed by rustling clothes.

"It's okay Harry, she's decent." Remus said on a relieved sigh.

Tentatively, the raven head shot a glance over his shoulder, before turning around completely. Eventually deciding that just standing there looked rather idiotic, he sat down himself, next to Remus. His emerald eyes never left their strange visitor, sitting weakly on her chair, eying her surroundings nervously.

"Where am I?" came the question to no one in particular.

Dumbledore gave her a steaming cup of tea and answered her question "Number 12 Grimmauld Place, but more importantly; how are you feeling?"

Alex took quite a while to think about such a simple question, and eventually she settled with, "Alright… I'm shaking a little. I can't really remember what… happened." She eyed the tea suspiciously, "What is this?"

"It's something you can drink, makes you feel better. Look out though, it's warm." Snape told her matter-o-factly.

She doesn't know tea? Came Harry's immediate inner question.

Her gaze seemed to focus more as she blinked a few times experimentally. Then here interest was draw to her cup of tea. Alex was glaring at the innocent porcelain object as if it was the Mug of Pandora.

"Alex? We need to ask you a few questions. We know you are tired, but we really need your help." Dumbledore asked her gently.

Alex nodded slowly as if she braced herself for some kind of outburst.

"What is the very last thing you remember?"

She sucked in a deep breath and seemed to dig in the uttermost dusty corners of her memory "Not much really… stone floor. It was cold. A lot of noise. The cloak you put around my shoulders… that's it, nothing much before… the sleep"

Dumbledore's gaze seemed to X-ray her right on the spot, "They never woke you up before?"

A deep frown rumpled her forehead and she chewed on her lower lip, "Not that I remember…" a shiver ran visibly through her body as she seemed quite disturbed about the fact she didn't remember.

Suddenly her head shot up again, even more pale than she had been before, "I….I remember all of you."

She looked at Remus. "You're Remus Lupin. A werewolf."

To Snape: "You're Severus Snape…" it seemed that she wanted to say something more but she decided against it.

"Albus Dumbledore… Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." Dumbledore smiled at her warmly.

And lastly her gaze lingered on Harry. For a long time. The young wizard was confronted with unnatural bright green eyes "I'd say you're James Potter, but your eyes aren't brown…"

Simply stunned and beyond words, Harry gaped at her, his expression one of utter disbelief. How did she know that? She wasn't supposed to know that, she barely remembered her own name!

"How…. How…?" was all Harry managed to mumble helplessly.

She looked at him, her green eyes intense. Green eyes like his. "I don't know." She was scared. Terrified.

Harry groaned miserably and hid his face in his pillow. He was sweating profusely and the bed sheets clung to his body. Nightmares… every damn night; about Cedric or Sirius, or someone close to him, dying because through some fault of his own. He was fighting a losing battle. How was he, of all people, supposed to protect his loved ones and the whole damn world wide population from Voldemort? His lack of sleep and appetite had made him skinny and weak. Dark circles around his eyes, the once so bright green dull and expressionless. Harry Potter, the great protector of the century… he thought in mock.

His scar burned and he knew that Voldemort was furious because of the girl. The girl! He turned his head and saw her sitting upright in bed, in a fetal position.

They shared a room –the same one as Ron and Harry shared last summer- so that Harry would be there if anything went wrong at all.

She heard the rustling of his blankets and shifted a little so she could look at him. Her eyes too had a haunted look over them, her face gaunt and pensive.

Harry rested his head on his hands, so he could look at her, the oversized t-shirt he gave her hung down over one of her shoulders. "Can't sleep?" his voice was hoarse, throat dry.

Alex gave him a forced smile. "Not really…" she answered, a little awkward to the whole situation "You alright? You were turning and twisting, but I was afraid to wake you."

Harry cracked his fingers as murmured absently "Yeah… I'm okay."

The unearthly shimmer in her eyes brightened at his response. "You're a terrible liar."

The speed at which she caught up with her environment was awing to say at least. Especially as Snape had explained that she was suffering from magical poisoning and temporary memory-loss. Yet within the sparse five hours she'd been here, she picked things up rather quickly, funny enough it were the simplest things that confused her the most. Like teacups, or lemon drops.

Harry snorted and flipped his legs over the edge of his bed as he ran a hand through his unruly dark hair. "You don't seem to be doing much better." He said eventually, sidestepping the whole-Harry-being-alright-issue.

She hmmed "I simply don't understand what happened. I know a person's supposed to remember more than just their first name… and the most disturbing thing is that I simply know that there's nothing more to remember."

A dark eyebrow was raised at the strange girl, "You really don't remember anything? At all?"

"Nothing." She sighed and rubbed her eyes.

Just when Harry though she'd drifted back to sleep he heard her whimper "I feel so empty…"

Her long white hair was a tangled mess and hung lifelessly around her shoulders. His heart drifted out to her. Somehow he could understand her. Somehow she might understand him. Maybe, just maybe, he could help her. He pulled himself clumsily to his feet and shuffled through the chamber over to his trunk. He opened it. He knew that somewhere, although probably tucked away in a forgotten corner, there was a comb. After a while he found it and Harry couldn't help but wonder why he even had it, he never used it anyway.

He sat down on his bed and patted at the empty spot next to him. "Sit."

She arched an eyebrow and hesitantly moved over to him and sat down. She looked at the comb. "…What is that?", Alex muttered, vaguely ashamed.

"That's a comb. Here, let me show you how it works." Very carefully, not wanting to startle her, he sat behind her, his legs at either side of her, and took a long strand of her hair. He tried to pull the comb trough it, but had to untangle most of it with his fingers anyway. Alex remained silent, only her calm breathing audible. Harry had no idea how long they sat there like that, but eventually her hair cascaded down her back and he could pull the comb through it without a problem. It was a friendly gesture, and the raven head was rather confused as his body did not react in any way whatsoever to her raw beauty. He found her very pretty, but nothing other than that simple fact was confirmed. Also, she reminded him of someone, but he couldn't quite put a finger on it.

"There you go."

She touched her hair, as if it was the first time she noticed it. Alex looked over her shoulder and smiled at him. "Thanks!"

"Wingardium Leviosa" he demonstrated, as he lifted the vase up from the table. Slightly flicking his wand to keep the object hovering in the air, he looked over to his companion.

Alex was watching him with complete rapture, seemingly finding it incredible what he was doing.

Harry had not been allowed, much to his protest, to return to the Burrow. Dumbledore had assured him that they would be visiting next week, but that right now things were in too much chaos. So, he passed the days teaching Alex the things that spontaneously sprang to mind (he had the permission from Dumbledore to practice magic with her for the time being, if only it was not used for any other goals than educational ones) and visits to Buckbeak. However, yesterday, they had come across Kreacher, and the elf owed his life to the fact that Remus had been able to stop Harry from actually ripping the traitor apart right then and there. Kreacher had been taken away, and Harry's only concern was that it'd better be far away, seeing as he would not let him get away a second time.
Being at Grimmauld grated Harry's nerves and the only distraction that he had from actually going insane was Alex's presence. Their conversations had been strained, filled with awkward silences, but they were starting to get along quite well, the more Alex picked up with the daily routine.
The only explanation he'd gotten for the reason they'd risked their lives in getting her here safe, was that there had been enough casualties of war already and this time they'd the chance to prevent yet another innocent being murdered. Harry knew they were lying, but seeing as it wasn't completely his business this time, he gave up on stalking Remus throughout the place.
Other than that, Harry remained in a distinctly foul mood, yet he did his best not to work it out on either Alex or Moony.

Even though a little reluctantly, he handed his wand over to Alex, whom accepted it warily, "C'mon, give it a try."

Shooting him a yeah-right glare, she swished the wand and said: "Wingardium Leviosa."

Abruptly the vase shot up in the air and crashed against the ceiling. As the shards of glass rained down, both of them covered their heads to shield themselves.

The shards tinkled as Alex shifted on her chair, "Sorry." She apologized with a sheepish grin as she handed the wand back over to Harry.

The emerald-eyes youth was still gaping at the remains of vase with a distinct twinge of nervousness. How the hell had that came to be? But then he reminded himself that the wand chose the master and not the other way around. Ollivander would shake his head in reproach if he'd know.

"Ungh, okay one more time…" Alex muttered darkly, clearly having had her share in practicing magic "Accio pillow!" she shouted. Within a blink of an eye the so said object shot across the room and hit her full in the stomach, with such a force that it knocked her off her feet. Again.

Immediately Harry was by her side, "You okay?"

"That's it, I give up! This is not going anywhere." She grumbled, throwing the pillow carelessly away.

Harry offered her his hand to pull her up, still rather confused about why everything she tried came out with a triple effect. Yesterday they'd tried 'Incendo' and it had come out like a flame-thrower. Naturally they were banned to practice that spell.

"That pillow is against me, I just feel it!" she droned on rather annoyed. He had learned she was easily frustrated when something didn't go the way she wanted. "Fucking pillow." Even more amazing was that she seemed to remember offending language better than anything else. Her vocabulary certainly had extended greatly in the cursing section. She shot the pillow one last dark glare, at which it promptly exploded in a burst of feathers. The white down flew up into the air and proceeded to rain down over the whole area as the two young wizards remained frozen like statues.

"Uh what did you do?" Harry finally managed as he decided it would be better to ditch their efforts in trying to teach Alex some spells before the beginning of the school year. He did not want to lose any limbs. He held his hand out to claim his wand back, which seemed like an entirely sensible thing to do, before she transfigurated anything into a skrewt.

Yet Alex promptly pointed at the floor, slightly pale. His wand still lay on the place where she'd been sitting a moment ago. Alex pulled a feather out of her hair and looked at it contemptuously before flicking it at her roommate. "Whatever it was, I didn't do it."

He did nod in response, even though he was filled by an uneasy feeling.

Finally the day came that the Weasleys would be visiting and Harry was more than happy he would be able to lift the worries from his heart about their unusual companion. It was about 10 a.m. when the red-haired family flooed into the kitchen.

Harry crooked an eye open when he heard some commotion downstairs. When he remembered that it were the Weasley's he shot upright immediately, scrambled out of bed as he struggled with his covers al the while trying to gather his clothes. As he was buckling his jeans he shot a glance at Alex's direction, but the white-head remained sleeping peacefully. For a moment he squinted at her face, the feeling of recognition washing over him again. He still couldn't figure out why he felt like he'd seen her before.
Shrugging himself out of his inner brain mill, he grabbed a t-shirt and headed right towards the kitchen, yet not without the usual apprehensive glance at the portrait of Mrs. Black, but she remained silent behind the curtain.

The kitchen was filled with exited murmuring, shuffling and the housy prattling of soup cooking on the fire. Before he could actually open his mouth to greet anyone, he was cornered by two furious Weasley-woman and a bushy-haired Gryffindor prefect.

"Harry James Potter!" Hermione burst out, "Don't you ever dare scare us like that again!"

"Honestly Harry, you wake us up middle in the night, screaming like you're being ripped apart and then you disappear for a whole week. Not to mention you didn't even write!" Ginny put in, shaking him at the front of his t-shirt.

"I was so worried Harry…" came Mrs. Weasley's shaking voice.

Blinking in confusion he stuttered "W-what?"

"Easy there, girls…" Remus interrupted "He wasn't allowed any contact until all complications were solved."

"Complications?" Hermione asked; backing away from Harry as Ron put a hand on her shoulder.

"That'd be me." Came the flat response from the doorway.

All heads were orientated to the source of the sound and Harry couldn't suppress another wave of recognition as Alex was leaning casually against the doorframe. She immediately grew a wide grin when all commotion died down and they all shared a puzzled expression at the unusual stranger in the doorway.

"Meet Alex." Remus supplied eventually, a wry smile playing across his lips.

The grin turned to a much softer smile, which lit her entire face with inviting warmth. "Hi… everybody." She said a little uncertainly.

Harry shuffled past Ginny and went to stand next to Alex, introducing her to the whole group. The green-eyed girl gave a nod at everybody politely, but remained rather silent otherwise and Harry remembered himself that with all the knowledge he had about her, she hadn't really met anybody else safe for him, Moony, Dumbledore, Snape and Voldemort. Or that was what he suspected at least; how it was possible was another mystery.

He directed her to a chair and sat down next to her himself. Molly provided everybody with a nice steaming bowl of soup yet she gave Harry a heaping plate with bacon, eggs and toast and couldn't keep herself from ruffling through his untidy black hair.

Sighing at the amount of food he was supposed to devour as he was not hungry at all, he poked it with his fork around his plate. Maybe he could sneak some food to Ron, sitting next to him.

During breakfast/lunch everybody kept sneaking interested glances at Alex. Harry kept quite silent and couldn't help himself and stared openly at their new companion. He knew he was receiving odd glances from Hermione. But right now he couldn't care. He tried to find… something about her that would give him further insight. Alex was like a puzzle he needed to solve, but there were so much missing pieces.

He had expected her to be shy and uncomfortable around the bustling group of Weaselys, but she eventually turned around quite the contrary. Alex was sharing a loud conversation with Fred and George, who seemed to find her fascination quite flattering, while she kept hearing them out about the Weasley's Wizard Wheezes shop and was completely ecstatic when they told her about the Wildfire Whiz-Bangs.

How could a person so completely estranged from human contact be comfortable around such a crowd?

Molly, Arthur and Remus were having their own private conversation while surreptitiously watching the young adults laughing over something they were talking about.

The conversation abruptly died when Snape flooed in, evil sneer perfectly plastered onto his face, black robe billowing dramatically behind him. And was soon followed after by other members of the Order; Tonks, McGonagall, Kingsley, Moody and Dumbledore himself.

An uncomfortable silence hung in the room and finally Tonks chirped "Wotchers Harry, so good to see you lad." she gave him a warm bone-crushing hug, which Harry found himself returning it quite startled.

Dumbledore took in a more prominent position at the head of the table, his strong magical aura literally rising the hairs in their neck. Harry shifted in his seat uncomfortably. His first real reunion had been such a race against the time he'd forgotten about his 'issues' with the ancient wizard. He couldn't quite figure out how he felt about him and still regretted trashing his office that one dreadful night.

Dumbledore smiled warmly at them, but Harry noticed that the usual twinkle in his eyes was subdued and he seemed older than he'd ever had. "Good morning everybody, we all know why I'm here. It's about our unusual guest." His piecing blue eyes flickered over to Harry. "We, the Order of the Phoenix, had an emergency meeting last night, trying to decide what to do with her. And she'll be going with you to Hogwarts this year, also as a 6th grader."

"Albus, don't you think that will be too much of a pressure… she's far behind in all theory and practical subjects." Remus said tentatively.

Snape's lips curled into an unpleasant sneer as he spoke, "She'll catch up with them far too easily as her temporarily memory-loss disappears. It's all a matter of time."

"Uh." Alex cut in herself, frowning rather annoyed about the way they were discussing her as if she wasn't there in the first place "Not that I know anything, but I kinda agree with Mr. Lupin. I can't even accio a pillow." She shot Harry a weak grin at the memory, which he returned with a reassuring smile.

"You'll do fine." Was all Snape said, "If all goes well, your memory will return to you clearly and after that, Merlin help us, your magic abilities."

Alex muttered a 'gee thanks' as she thought he was making a snide comment about her abilities, but Harry knew the Potions master well enough that he wasn't joking… If he even had a sense of humor that is.

Dumbledore cleared his throat "Yes, thank you Severus… Anyway, I want you to keep an eye on her, she'll do fine I'm sure, but you must remember that this is all going very fast for her…"

Moody picked in "On a more serious note, we'll be accompanying you all to your visit to Diagon Ally next week…" he glared at all the exited gasps. "This will not be a merry stroll; we must keep our guards up at ALL times. Understood?"

A chorus of muttered replies was heard and Harry couldn't keep himself from thinking "Diagon Ally… now that's been a while…" a feeling of nostalgia washed over him.

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A/N: this is an edit, or actually a whole new chapter! Cause the last one sucked.

Thanks to my wonderful beta Keiko-keket for making this chappie typo-free!

See that little purple-ish button? Click the purple-ish button, because you know you want to… yes, you want to review this story! Okay, okay, want me to beg? I'll beg; pleasepleaseplease review? Pleeeease? No flames please but constructive advice please. Thanks!