"Harry?" Ron asked from outside the tent. "Have you finished cleaning?"
Harry laughed. "No. I didn't do any cleaning, that was just a stall for time."
"So I can come in then?" Ron asked as he entered the tent.
Ginny smiled. "That was a pointless question, Ron."
"Ginny, haven't you learned by now that Ron has a penchant for asking stupid questions?" Hermione asked Ginny.
"While you guys are discussing me as if I am not here, I am going to ask Harry who he wanted me to meet. So Harry," said Ron, turning towards Harry. "Who it is that I am supposed to meet?"
"Well, not exactly meet, you already know him..." Harry's voice trailed off in uncertainty. "Maybe he should come out and introduce himself."
"Harry?"
"Yes Hermione?"
"I don't know if that's a good idea..." Hermione's voice trailed off in a warning.
"I can make it so he can't do any magic?"
Harry and Hermione were now conferring in a small circle with Ginny included. "I can put a lock on his wand."
"And how are you going to do that with out him noticing?"
"Simple. Just like this." Harry made a small motion with his hand, and a small dot of light appeared in his palm. "Ron." He whispered to it. The dot of light flew to Ron's wand and affixed itself to the tip of it. Ron, looking at the tea set, didn't notice it.
"Harry, how'd you do that?"
Ginny beat him to the answer. "Wandless magic. Ron can't do it, so you're safe."
Harry grinned. Hermione stared at Harry with a jealous look on her face. "I've read about it and tried, but I can barely do anything with it. I can light a fire or a torch, but that's about it."
"It comes by me naturally. I only learned about it a week ago. Just before I left the Dursley's."
"How?"
"A plate was falling, and not wanting to get beat, I automatically used Wingardium Leviosa, and I didn't have my wand, but it worked. Still got beat though."
"Harry? Are you saying that you've been abused?"
"Umm. Yeah. Sorry for not telling you before, it just never felt right."
"Oh Harry, I'm so sorry." Hermione gave Harry a hug.
"It's okay Hermione, I think that Dumbledore knows. At least he should by now."
"Hey!" Their conversation was interrupted by Ron. "Aren't I suppoused to be meeting someone?"
"Oh yeah." Hermione muttered. "Ron. Can you promise not to get mad?"
"Of course. It's not as if your sharing your home with Draco Malfoy is it?"
At Harry's silence, Ron looked to Hermione. When Hermione remained silent his gaze fell on Ginny. Not getting an answer from anyone, he sat down on the couch . Muttering something like "Oh no, they've betrayed me."
Draco came out of the room. "Hello, Weasley, and he is actually sharing his tent with me. We've become friends."
"Malfoy." Ron said, not bothering to hide the bitterness in his voice.
Hermione sighed and sat down on a beanbag in the corner with Ginny. "This is going just great."
Ginny agreed with Hermione. "The expression on Ron's face was interesting, if only I had a camera."
"Harry." Ron said in a strangled voice, "Please tell me this is some sort of joke."
"Sorry Ron. It isn't."
Ginny leaned over in Hermione's ear, "What about the letter?"
"Thanks for reminding me." Hermione got up and went to the desk. She took the charms that were hiding who the letter was from off of it, and handed it to Ron. "This might help explain things."
"Hey, Draco wouldn't this be a perfect time to ask them about the thingy?"
Draco looked up. "Yeah it would be."
"Do you want to tell them? I'm not really sure how to explain it."
Draco smiled. "Is, I've found out that I own a majority of these woods, and I want to build a house by magic, and I need some people to help, too hard for you?"
"No I suppose not." Harry grinned. "What he said."
Hermione had been following their conversation and the book that was out on the coffee table made sense now. That wasn't an easy spell. And it needed at least ten people. Well, with who is here now there are five people, and that leaves five more. I suppose asking the adults is out of the question because they're likely send Harry and Draco back to their respective homes. Maybe Fred and George, but that still left three people. "Guys, I hate to pry, but that spell requires ten people, and I can only figure out seven."
Draco smiled. "I've got the grocer and his wife to help, and he's going to get his friend's nephew to help."
"Who is the nephew?"
"I don't know if he will help."
"Just tell."
"Neville."
"Oh. I see where that might be a problem." Harry said.
"But why doesn't Harry ask?" Hermione said. "It would be easier to just sort of spring the whole Draco thing on him last moment."
Ron looked up from the letter. The letter looked like the truth, and Harry accepted him. So did Hermione and Ginny. What if it wasn't the truth? Ron decided to tolerate Draco, but not entirely trust him, as he had been a really big git in the past five years. (A/N: I can't remember if I made it clear, but it's the summer after the fifth year. I think I might have Sirus come back? What do you think?)
Ron cleared his throat to get the other's attention. "Okay, I've decided to give this thing a chance." He held out his hand to Draco. "Truce?"
Draco heaved a sigh of relief. He had been worried that Ron might attack him. He felt something going by him that seemed to be headed for Ron. He looked down at knee level, where something might be. He couldn't see anything in front of him, so he looked behind him. There was nothing behind him but Harry, who has a satisfied smile on his face. Draco realized that he hadn't taken Ron's hand. He took it and murmured, "Sorry, I was thinking."
Draco and Ron shook hands. Harry conjured another cup of tea and gave it to Ron. "Why don't we all have a cup of tea?"
"That's sounds good Harry." Hermione replied. "Since what's in the pot now is getting cold, why don't I go and make some more?"
"Okay, that's great. By the way, if you want, you can do it magically, these woods are protected from magic. The ministry or anyone else can't sense anything here."
"Really?"
Harry grinned. He was surprised that Hermione hadn't felt the wards before. They were very strong. He had sensed them the first day. "Feel around you with your magic Hermione."
Hermione remained silent for a moment. "Wow. Those are some very strong wards." Serpentine had come in from hunting. "Who are all thesse people?"
"They are my friendss. Did you find enough to eat? You were gone for dayss."
"No I didn't." Serpentine replied, looking grumpy.
"Would you like to come to the Weassley'ss with me?"
"Who are they?"
"The two red-heads are part of the family."
Serpentine had slithered over to Ron who was eying Draco warily, who was trying not to notice Ron watching him. She turned her head to Harry and nodded. Then she got onto the couch next to Ron and wrapped herself around his arm. Ron visibly stiffened.
"He doesn't like me, masster." Serpentine said with a vindictive tone to her hiss.
Harry looked at Ron. "Sorry mate. She won't bite, We're on friendly terms."
"Are you sure about that Harry?" Ron asked with a note of fear in his voice. "It's just that after the snake attack on my dad.." His voice trailed off.
"Yes Ron. I'm pretty sure that she is a totally different species from that snake."
Serpentine looked up sharply. "What snake?"
"Erm. Voldemort'ss snake."
"Goes by Nagini? Great big thing?"
"Yeah, why?"
Serpentine made a noise and began to slither away. Before she could get too far away, Harry used a summoning charm to get her back over to her. "Answer me," Harry said to his snake, putting a twist of magic into it, "Do you know who Nagini is?"
His snake looked as if it was fighting not to tell, but it did. "Yes. Nagini is a very distant cousin. Never liked her very much." Serpentine added as a defense for her family.
"It's okay. We just won't let the other's know. You can't pick your family." Harry said, thinking of the Dursleys.
"Harry? The tea's ready."
"Thanks Hermione. I'm done talking with my snake." He shot a look at Serpentine that clearly said 'for now'.
Ron laughed nervously. "So is she related to You-know-who's snake?"
"No." Harry forced the word out. He hated lying to his friends, he must have glared or something because Hermione said something about his appearance that he didn't quite catch.
"What was that Hermione?"
"You look different."
"I do?"
"Yes. I can't figure it out though."
Harry went over to a mirror that was on the wall, and frowned. "My hair's longer, I think." He was startled when he saw something of someone in his frown. That's strange. I guess I've been spending to much time in potions. I must have picked up Snape's frown. (A/N: or not. Could the change be starting early????) His eyes caught the reflection of the clock on the wall. It was only five o'clock or so. Wait a second, things are backwards in a mirror. So that meant that it was... "Shit!"
"What is it Harry, have you noticed how long your hair is?"
"No Ron, Take a look at the clock."
"Mum's not going to be happy with us."
"Maybe you guys could stay the night here?"
"That would be," Ginny paused. "Interesting," she finished.
"There's enough space. We could owl your mum." Harry stated.
"That would be good. Why don't you owl mum, and we'll find out what happens." Ginny said to Harry.
"Do you think that Hermione would mind?"
"Mind what?" Hermione had finished in the kitchen, and now had a tray of sandwiches.
"Staying here for the night."
"Not at all. It would be great fun. But what will your guy's mum think?"
"I'm not sure. It won't hurt to ask. We can have Fred and George bring some clothes over."
"They wouldn't do that." Ron said looking at Harry as if he were crazy.
"Sure. If you asked, but if the right person asked, say the person who made their joke shop possible asked..." Harry trailed off.
"I see what you mean. Why don't you write the letters now? I'll go and get your owl."
"Okay then." Harry just thought of something. "Hey Draco, do you mind them staying the night?"
Draco appeared thoughtful for a moment. "Not at all." Seeing that all of the sandwiches had been eaten, he picked up the tray and said, "How about I go and get some more refreshments?"
"Do we have more refreshments?"
"Yes, my neighbor shrunk my trunk and some of my belongings, the ones she could get from mother anyway, and they arrived by owl, soon after you left. I decided to go and do a bit of shopping."
"Okay then." Draco went towards the kitchen and opened a bag of chips and dumped them in a bowl with some dip in another bowl. He thought for a moment, and pointed his wand at the dip and it's appearance changed to something resembling fresh roadkill. Draco grinned and went back to where the rest of the teens were sitting.
"Here, I brought some chips and dip."
"Thanks!" The replies were eager until they saw exactly what was in the tray. When Harry saw it he knew that it was probably normal and he swept his hands over his eyes. It was just normal dip. Harry had done the same to Draco's dinner a few days ago, and he winked at Draco and took a chip with some dip.
Hermione had been watching them, "Are you going to eat that?"
Harry grinned in response and shoved the chip into his mouth.
"Harry!?"
"Yes?"
"Ick." Was all Hermione would say. Then she thought back, and realized that Harry had winked at Draco and before that he had passed his hand over his eyes. Remembering Harry's affinity for wandless magic she smiled. The dip wasn't really road kill, it was probably normal dip that Draco had spelled to look like roadkill. There was only one way to find out. She took her wand and made up an excuse about how her eyes were hurting, and tapped the bridge of her nose. That she took a look at the dip again. It was just normal dip. She smiled and took a chip with some dip. Ron gaped at her.
"Are you mad Hermione? Do you even have the slightest idea what that is?"
"Yep. I've got an absolutely perfect idea of what this is. It's a chip with some dip, and I'm hungry, so I'm going to eat it."
"Yeah, dip that's probably meant for vampires!"
Hermione rolled her eyes at Ron. "If that's how you see it." She answered Ron sweetly.
"Draco, could you come with me really quick? I want to ask you something." Hermione asked, wanting to know the spell for the dip.
"Sure Hermione." Draco got up and went over to the corner with Hermione.
"Would you mind telling me what that spell you used on the dip is?"
"Sure, just don't go around telling it to everybody. A friend of mine came up with it a while ago and it's still fairly new." Draco leaned closer and whispered something in her ear. "That's it. It lasts for at least a day. So far we haven't figured out how to take it off of the food. It only works on food though."
"If you don't mind me asking, who came up with it?"
Draco smiled. "Potter." With that he went back to the rest of the group.
Hermione looked over at Harry who was looking at her with a smirk that reminded her of someone. But who did it remind her of? (A/N: twilight zone theme song thing starts to play.) She went over to ask Harry how he came up with it, but was interrupted by the entrance of Fred and George Weasley. Draco, she had noticed, had gone to the room that was, presumably his.
"Hello Harry, Ron, Ginny, Hermione. Mum's said that you guys can stay here under one condition. That George and I stay with you and that we don't hurt the muggles." Fred said grinning at Harry.
"Which as we all should know is quite impossible to do." George said with another grin directed at Harry.
"Well that sounds like a good plan. We are going to probably all end up here, sleeping on the floor." Harry said.
"Oh no! Don't you know that the sofa folds out? I'm sure we can magically expand it so we can all sleep comfortably." Fred said.
"Let's see, there are six of us right?" George asked scanning the room.
Harry cleared his throat. "Actually, there are seven of us."
Another throat cleared itself by the entrance. "Make that eight. Neville's uncle has fallen ill and I've been charged with the care of him. I thought that he could hang out with you guys. That is if you don't mind?" Kevin said from the doorway.
Harry quickly said, "No, of course we don't mind. We can promise not to harm Neville, and we're friends from school."
"Thanks Harry. Gran's at St. Mungo's with my uncle. I'm pleased that you will let me stay."
Harry smiled. "I'm sorry about your uncle, but you are always welcome with me, that is when I have a home." Harry smiled towards Neville, "Why don't you come in, you can put your things in my room," Harry said seeing that Neville had a small trunk.
Neville followed Harry towards his room. Kevin said good-bye to Neville, promising that if his uncle got worse, he would let him know, and left.
"So then we've got eight people staying the night here." Fred commented.
"I think that spells something out for us." George countered.
"A five letter something?" Fred asked George. He nodded.
"PARTY!" the twins shouted in unison. Harry smiled grimly, thinking that when they found out who the seventh person was, they might not be so happy. Harry had brought Neville back in and sat him down by the chips.
"Here Neville, why don't you have some chips? Oh! Don't worry about the appearance of the dip, it's just a prank I came up with." Harry passed a hand over Neville's eyes. "See? Perfectly normal dip." Ron glared at Harry and he smirked back at him. (me, the editor: since when does Harry smirk??? I'm confused.)
Neville smiled sadly and offered his thanks.
"Am I interrupting something?" Draco asked from his doorway.
"Hello Draco. No you're not. Why don't you explain to our newest three guests, who appear to have been put into shock by your sudden appearance, exactly what the hell you're doing here."
"Okay. But I'm not really sure how to explain it."
"Is a simple, I refused the Dark Mark and my dad kicked me out and I ended up here, too much?" Harry asked, remembering a similar comment earlier.
"You forgot the bit about how I'd like to be friends with all of you." Draco replied dryly.
Neville was openly gaping at the other's comfortable stances around Draco.
"Hello, Mr. Longbottom. I'm Draco Malfoy. You may call my Draco if you wish." Draco said standing in front of Neville with his hand extended.
Neville looked puzzled for a moment, then shrugged and rose and took Draco's hand and shook it. "Pleased to meet you Draco. You may call me Neville if you wish."
"Friends?" Draco asked.
"Friends." Neville confirmed.
Harry had noticed that Fred and George had gone into the kitchen with Ron. Harry could hear a muffled noise. Harry figured that Ron was yelling at Fred and George about Draco. Should I go in there and try to reassure Ron that Draco is on our side? He thought for a moment and decided to go in there. Just as he got to the door something like 'He blocked my magic so I couldn't do anything to him!' stopped him. Maybe I shouldn't go in there. Harry thought. Or maybe he shouldn't. He really didn't want to get cursed into oblivion by his best friend.
Hermione had come up behind him. "Sounds like Ron's pretty mad. I think you should go in there."
"Do I look like I want to get cursed into oblivion?"
"No, but I do know that you know a number of useful shields." Hermione told him.
"Good point, I figured an interesting one out a while go. I was bored, so Draco and I dueled."
"And you lived?"
"I'm standing right in front of you, aren't I?"
"Yes." Hermione answered.
"Okay then. Anyway, I'm not going to let anyone kill me. The shield is really interesting. I don't know an incantation for it though. I have to do it in my head. It is pretty strong at first, but it gets stronger. Can you guess why it gets stronger?"
"Put it up."
Harry did so.
Hermione looked at the shield and put a hand on it. She smiled and drew her wand. She waved her wand as if shaking something off the tip of it. A very powerful curse hit Harry's shield. The girl then came up and put her hand on the shield. She smiled, and then sent another curse at the shield. "I was right."
"Really? So you know what it is?"
"Yes. It absorbs the power of anything I send at it to make it more powerful."
"Very good. Now if only there were an incantation for it." Draco stated dryly. He had been watching them.
"True, but I'm sure that we could figure it out somehow." Hermione said, her eyes glinting from the challenge that faced her.
"Hermione, how can Harry do it if there is no incantation?" Neville asked, looking puzzled.
Harry smiled and said, "I came up with the spell using wandless magic. For this shied, all I do is think of the shield with my magic. It just happens. I can say lumos, and my finger lights up, if that's what I want to light up." The tip of Harry's finger had lit up. "If I want, I can think the counter spell, and it goes out." Harry thought "nox" and it went out.
Harry smiled and put up his shield and went into the kitchen to start helping Fred and George calm Ron down.
"Harry, what are you thinking making that Slytherin garbage your friend? He's always been mean to us. Never nice. Always mean." Ron said, shouting so loud, that Harry made his shield do sound too, he could still hear Ron, but it was at normal tones.
Much better, he thought. "Ron, did that letter mean anything to you? He refused the Dark Mark and he got kicked out for it. He needed a home. At the time I happened to have an extra room, so I figured he could stay with me for a day."
"A day! He's been here for longer than a day."
"Okay, he got here last Monday. Happy?"
"Nearly a week! You and him are friends? With a Death Eater's son?" Ron shouted so loudly that it came through his shield as a shout.
"Yes and if you'd like to know, all of Voldemort's Death Eaters are out of Azkaban."
"They are?" Ron's voice wasn't yelling anymore, it was down to a normal tone with Harry's last statement.
"Yes. They've taken the prison out of the Dementor's power now. Didn't you wonder how Draco's father was there to try and give him the Dark Mark?"
"Yeah. I thought that I'd give him a chance." Ron said quietly.
"So why don't you do that?" Harry asked Ron.
"Yes, I'll go and do that." Ron said. "Why don't you explain what's happening to Fred and George. You two can let go of me. I won't do anything to anyone. You have my word." Fred and George, who had been restraining Ron, let him go.
Harry thought for a moment and decided that it would be safe to take down his shield. "Okay, so I suppose you want to know what's going on. Right?"
"Actually. We already know." Fred said.
"Yeah. When we enchanted the tent, we included a few surveillance spells." George told Harry.
"Really."
"Yeah." The twins stated together. They had the grace to look guilty.
"Just where are these spells?"
"There's one in the sitting room—" Fred told Harry.
"The one outside—" George stated.
"The one in you room—" Fred said after George.
"and the one in the kitchen." George finished.
"Is that all?"
"There's one in Draco's room, but we don't really pay attention to it."
"Would you mind telling me the incantation?"
"There's a few. Why don't we write them down for you?"
"That sounds good. I've got an interesting idea."
Harry went into the sitting room. If it's going to work, I'm going to need to get all the other out of here. "Could all of you guys go outside? I'm going to try something. I need Hermione though."
"Why do you want us to go outside, Harry?" Neville asked.
"Because I'm going to try some magic that I've never done before and I'm asking Hermione to help me." Harry replied.
"Oh. What sort of magic?" Neville asked.
"Something I've never done before." Harry said. "It's going to be a surprise." He added as an afterthought.
"Okay then." Neville said as he was leaving. "Do you mind if we fly around a bit?"
"No, as long as you don't get hurt."
"Harry?"
"Yes Hermione."
"What are you going to do?"
"You know muggle entertainment centers?"
"Yeah." Hermione, the realization slowly dawning on her.
"Well, how would you like to have a night with a lot of movies?" Harry said.
"That would be so cool."
"Well what are we waiting for? Let's do some magic!" Harry and Hermione then began to transform sheets of parchment and rocks into a television, and a VCR, and a DVD player. (A/N: I am perfectly aware that the year is 1996 in the story, but I want to have a DVD player. Then they can watch Pirates of the Caribbean, and have the second 'special features' disc.)
"Harry, Could I do something to the telly?"
"Sure. Might I ask what?"
"The muggles are coming out with a thing called a plasma TV. They can get very large and I thought that I could transfigure the one we've got now into a plasma screen."
Harry thought for a moment. "Okay then."
Hermione concentrated for a bit and did a spell. Suddenly they had a very thin, very large television screen.
Harry was mesmerized by the size of the screen. "Where'd you learn that?"
"Oh. When I was bored I'd go and see if the Professor who taught Muggle Studies was free and if he could teach me a few things."
"Fun. I think we need something more..." Harry's voice trailed off as he thought. He waved his hand and suddenly quite a few cushions that looked like they belonged in the divination classroom appeared. "I think that's it, Hermione."
"Movies!" Harry exclaimed. "How could we have forgotten movies!" A sly expression appeared in his face. Harry concentrated on something and a large pile of movies appeared.
"Harry where did you get those?"
Harry smiled. "The Dursley's."
"They're going to be mad." Hermione stated.
"I'm hoping that they're not home. It's Sunday evening. They are usually out for dinner now. All they will think is that someone robbed them." Harry said.
"Good point. Why don't we go to the grocers and get some movie food?"
"That sounds like an idea." Harry said. "Let me go and get some money."
"I'll go and get the others."
"Okay."
Harry went to get his money, and Hermione went to get the others. Soon they set off towards the grocers. Some flying, some walking.
A/N: Hey. I am so sorry that I haven't posted in forever. I will try to get the next chapter up by next Thursday. That's a week. I think that should be plenty of time for me to get it finished. In truth, I have it done, but I need to go over it and then get the chapter after it done so I will be ahead. Does this make sense? I hope so. Thanks for reading and reviewing!
A/N2: YAY! I finally got on the computer, I updated, AND it kept all my indents! I hope you liked it, tell me what you think. aka, REVIEW!