Disclaimer: None of the Harry Potter Realm is mine, still. JK Rowling is just amazing. If I were her, this would belong to me. But I'm not, so it doesn't. Nothing belongs to me, how sad.

A/N:

I would just like to thank all of the other ff writers out there, some of you are just amazing, and I hope my writing will be as good someday

I'd also like to thank all of the people, which would be everyone, who don't read this story. Or maybe you do read this story, but you don't review, so I have no idea if you actually read this story or not, so I assume you don't, which makes me sad, which makes me not want to write, which is why I haven't updated in like a year. So in conclusion, leave a review, or I will be sad and loose inspiration. Thanks, Lauren

Chapter 3

When Harry finally woke up the next morning light was already streaming through the window.

The door opened carefully and with little noise and Harry watched as a bright orange mob of hair gradually appeared in the doorway followed by the familiar face of Harry's best friend, Ron Weasley.

"Hey mate! I thought you'd never wake up," Ron said excitedly to his friend.

"Oy, what time is it?" Harry asked.

"Nearly noon, mum told me to come and get you and tell you lunch is ready, everyone wants to see you," Ron replied.

Harry got out from beneath the covers on his bed and found his trunk already next to his bed. He opened it up and took out some of his new jeans and a new t shirt and dressed quickly. When he walked over to the door, however, to exit the room, he realized the walls were now painted red instead of the usual white. And handle of the door was a fresh new looking gold color instead of the old rusty silver with a snake motif. As Harry looked around, he realized the whole room had been redone, with nice wood flooring and everything. Harry noted to himself to ask about it during lunch.

As he walked down the stairs to the kitchen, Harry noticed that most of the house had been redone. As he looked into everyone else's bedrooms, they all were a similar red or a rich golden color. Gryffindor colors, Harry thought, Mrs. Black would die if she could see the house now...

When Harry entered the kitchen he was temporarily pleased to see many smiling faces looking up at him but was slightly disconcerted that he could see a bit of pity towards him in each of their eyes.

"Harry!" Hermione squealed as she jumped up from her seat at the table to hug him.

"Hey Harry!" Ginny said rather excitedly from her seat.

"Harry, quite tired weren't we there, dear," Mrs. Weasley said as she ushered him to the table, "Come have some food, you must be hungry from that long trip last night and I daresay that Aunt and Uncle of yours haven't fed you nearly enough".

"Harry!" Fred exclaimed giving him a big pat on the back.

"Good to see you!" George said with an equally big pat.

"Nice to see all of you," Harry said looking a bit overwhelmed, "Fred, George, are you guys living at Grimmauld Place now?".

"Oh no," Fred began.

"We're here for the summer, just like you," George continued.

"But we're really only doing it because we're afraid dear old mumsy would miss us to much if two more of her little birdies were to leave the nest so soon," Fred said in a very audible whisper.

"So when these babies of the family leave for school again," George said gesturing towards Ron and Ginny.

"We will be getting a flat of our own near our shop," Fred said merrily.

"And since our business has been, how do I say this," George said while grinning.

"BOOMING really," Fred continued his brother's sentence.

"It will be quite the flat, you should visit us sometime!" George finished with a wink.

"Er... ya sure," Harry replied uneasily unsure of what to say.

The rest of the meal was spent talking pleasantly talking about quidditch, and O.W.L.'s and many other topics, but never going close to touching upon Voldemort, Sirius, or the events of last term.

Once the meal ended, the twins decided to apparate back to their shop, and Ginny rushed upstairs to write an owl to her current boyfriend, Dean Thomas.

The trio trudged up the stairs to Ron and Harry's room, walked inside and closed the door. They sat down together on the floor facing one another, each expecting a serious conversation about events of the summer so far.

"Hermione, Ron's mum said something about you just getting here yesterday too. Did you visit with your parents?" Harry asked looking very curious.

Hermione's face which had been looking very healthy and happy suddenly lost all of its color and it looked as if any second she might become sick. "Well, you see, I went to Italy on vacation with my parents for the first few weeks, and then I went back home to stay with them as long as possible before..." Hermione looked down, tears welling in her eyes.

"Before what?" Harry asked.

"Before... my parents have to go into hiding," Hermione replied slowly, as though just realizing what she was saying.

"Hiding?" Ron asked after a few moments.

"Yes, um, well," Hermione began before having to wipe a tear from her eyes with a sniffle, "the Order seems to think they're at risk for an attack from V – Voldemort, since they're muggles and even more because they're my parents, and well, I'm at the top of our class, and I'm muggle-born, and I'm," by this point Hermione could not suppress her tears and they were flowing steadily from her eyes as she sobbed out the rest of her words, "friends with Harry, but Oh Harry! I don't blame you! It's my decision to stay with you, and that is what I'm going to do!" Hermione was now weeping into her hands as Ron scooted closer to her and awkwardly snaked an arm around her. She immediately put her head on his shoulder and continued crying. He tried comforting the best he could, although this was a completely new experience for him, he never usually found himself this close to a girl at all. Soon he was stroking her hair gently and whispering "Shhh... don't worry, it'll all be ok". Meanwhile Harry was looking at the floor with a look of horror and sadness upon his bright green eyes.

"I," Harry began hesitantly after a few minutes, "I put your family in danger, they could be sought after, and hurt, all because you are friends with me."

"Harry that's not true," Hermione replied quickly, wiping the last tears from her eyes, "they might have been targeted anyways just because I'm a muggle born or because I'm smart."

"Mate, there's something we need to talk about, and you need to listen or you'll be mad at yourself for the rest of your life," Ron said in a more serious voice then neither Harry nor Hermione had ever heard him use, "Hermione and I have talked about it before, and we KNOW the consequences of being your friend. We are AWARE that we are in danger just for knowing you, but you have to understand this, it is OUR choice. We're not going to go hop on our brooms and ditch you just because Voldemort's after you or something. We're here with you forever – you can't get rid of us," Ron finished with a slight grin as he blushed a few shades and looked at his friends.

After Hermione got over the shock of Ron actually saying something helpful, not to mention rather intelligent sounding she continued Ron's speech, "Yes Harry, Ron is completely right, we are ready to stand by your side for as long as we have to, no matter what that entails, that's what friends are for,".

"I...well..." Harry said at a loss for words, "er... only if you guys are sure about this."

"Harry, we're sure!" Hermione said a little louder than she intended.

"Ok, then thanks, truly," Harry said, finally getting that Gryffindor courage to look his two friends in the eyes, "I mean it."

"Any time," Ron said with a smile.

"Well, since we're being all open and all, there's something I desperately need to tell you," Harry said nervously, he'd been thinking about if he should tell them about the prophecy all summer, but after what his Ron and Hermione had just told him he was sure that he should. "You see, in the department of mysteries, the glass ball with my name on it, held a prophecy, written about me – and Voldemort. That's why it had my name on it. That whole room was full of prophecies."

"Oh I've read about prophecies back when I still took Divination!" Hermione exclaimed excitedly, "They are like predictions from Seers, said to be the most... truthful... form of divination, pretty much everyone believes them, even me! Although not much is known about how the Seers get the information, it is believed it is some how linked to time travel into the future although the body of the Seer does stay completely stationary during the delivery of a prophecy. Anyways, what does the prophecy say?" Hermione quickly explained.

"Well, I know it word for word, after thinking about it so much so uh here it is:

'The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches...born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies...and the Dark Lord will mark him as equal, but he will have the power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives...the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies...'

"So..." Hermione began, but Harry knew she was about to ask a bunch of questions, so he stopped her first.

"Let me explain it, Dumbledore explained it all to me already, so it will be easier. First of all, my parents defied him three times and as you know, I'm born as the seventh month dies. And that's all great, except there is another boy born the same year at the end of July whose parents 'thrice defied him'"

"Who?" Hermione asked as she and Ron looked at Harry like he was the most interesting thing in the world.

"Neville," Harry stated.

"Neville Longbottom?" Ron asked as though those two words sounded completely wrong next to each other.

"Yeah, actually, but there's a reason the prophecy has my name on it, not his. Well, since it says that he marked me as his equal, which is when he left me this scar, I am for SURE the person this prophecy is talking about. Voldemort knew those first 2 sentences of the prophecy, and he knew that it was either me or Neville who he would end up 'marking as his equal', and he didn't choose Neville, the pureblood, he chose me, the half blood, like himself."

"Wow," Hermione said in the same voice the two boys recognized that she uses when talking to herself while reading an interesting book.

"I know," Harry continued, "So that is the only part of the prophecy Voldemort knows which is why he tried to get the prophecy this year, only the person who the prophecy is about can take it off the shelf, so either Voldemort had to walk into the ministry, or I had to go get it for him..." Harry's voice started drifting at that point.

"But Neville said he broke it, so Voldemort never actually heard the whole thing, did he?" Hermione asked sounding hopeful.

"Yah, he never got to hear the rest, so he didn't know that by trying to kill me he would mark me as his equal," Harry gestured toward his scar, "and the part about me having the power the Dark Lord knows not, well I don't really get it, but Dumbledore said something about a very powerful force that was in some locked room in the Department of Mysteries."

"I wonder what it is!" Hermione said excitedly, Ron also looked rather amazed yet a bit overwhelmed.

"Yah, me too, and then the last part... means that I have to kill him or he has to kill me, well its self-explanatory, but..." Harry didn't know what else to say, this was the part of the prophecy that disturbed him the most, the part he couldn't deal with, the part that made him just want to give it all up. He didn't know what to do; instinctively he got up and headed for the door – just wanting to escape this nightmare that happened to be his life. His hand was an inch away from the shiny gold doorknob before he felt a hand grab his wrist and spin him around. He was face to face with Hermione with Ron standing right beside her.

"Harry, no. Sit. We'll talk about this." Hermione said pleadingly.

"I don't see what there is to talk about – I have to KILL him, or ... he'll kill me," Harry finished in a barely audible whisper. At that moment Harry wanted nothing else but to disappear of the face of the earth. He wasn't up for this kind of challenge. He was only 15, he wasn't ready to kill an evil lord or be killed by one.

His trains of self-pitying, angry thoughts were interrupted by Hermione's hand on his shoulders forcing him to sit down on his bed. Ron quickly sat down on his left and Hermione on his right.

"Harry, we understand what you must be thinking, this is a lot of responsibility on your shoulders. But remember what we just told you, we will be right by your side if that means helping you prepare or even in the battle itself." Hermione said in a soothing voice.

"Yah, mate, and we're really not the only ones who care about you. I'm sure Dumbledore and Lupin and the rest of my family feels the same way.

"There's a big difference between caring about someone and pitying them," Harry snapped back, "they don't care about me, Dumbledore does it all because the weight of the wizarding world is on my shoulders, and everyone else just feels bad for the "Boy who's been attacked by Voldemort 4 times."

"Now that's not true and you know it! Dumbledore cares about you like you're his family," Hermione's tone started out harsh but softened considerably at this point, "everyone can tell by the way he looks at you with his twinkle thing, he is very proud of you, it practically radiates off him. Sure he cares about the future of the wizarding world, but he also cares about you. And the same goes for Lupin and Ron's family. Have you told them yet?

"No, you guys and Dumbledore are the only ones who know. I don't really know who else to tell besides you guys. I don't want the whole world to know. I don't... I don't think I'd be able to handle if people started treating me different."

"I can understand that," Ron said cautiously, not wanting to say the wrong thing to Harry but still wanting to show his support, "but you get to choose who you want to know, and it's not like we're about to tell anyone."

"I guess you're right... It's not a big deal – I shouldn't be stressing," Harry commented.

"Don't forget that you don't have to do anything now, you can wait as long as you want," Hermione reminded Harry.

"Oh yeah, I guess you're right, I have time to think about it," Harry realized as he said it how stupid he was not to think that he didn't need to tell anyone else at the moment. If he decided he wanted to tell anyone else, he would, if not, he wouldn't.

After a long pause while it seemed all three were deep in thought, Hermione decided to break the silence, "So Ron, has anything happened here while we were gone?"

"Er... no, not really. Mum set me and Ginny to cleaning the rooms of the house that Sirius never re-did. There's only been a few order meetings, but like usual there's been people stopping by. Lots of people stay for dinner a lot, but they never really discuss anything. Well, I do know that the Order is working hard now to expand its numbers. Since Voldemort is out in the open now, we can get people in the ministry to join, and people believe us for sure. Ginny and I also overheard mum and dad saying that Voldemort's really going to start trying to get new members too or at least that's what Dumbledore thinks."

"We should be allowed to join the Order this year," Harry responded.

"Yah, good luck with that one, mate. I don't think my mum will ever let me. Fred and George couldn't even join last year when they were 7th years," Ron replied rather unhappily.

They spent another long period in silence as everyone continued to absorb all the information they'd discuss.

"Anyone want to play some chess?" Ron asked hopefully.

"Well I'm rubbish with a chessboard, Harry why don't you play with Ron?" Hermione said.

"Ok, Ron – you're on," Harry said aggressively but knowing he was going to lose.

Midway through Harry and Ron's game, they began to hear Order members coming in (they knew because of the occasional scream of Mrs. Black) and then they heard a knock on the door.

"Come in!" Hermione yelled looking up from the book she had been reading to occupy herself during the chess game.

Ginny opened the door shyly, which was unusual for her lately.

"Finally done writing to that boyfriend of yours then, are you?" Ron asked a little meaner than he intended. Even though Ginny's boyfriend, Dean Thomas, was his friend he still thought she could do better.

"Well, actually, I'm done writing to him for good." Ginny said with a slight blush.

"What? What do you mean?" Hermione asked quickly with sudden interest in the conversation.

"Well, that's why I was writing with him so long. We were having a bit of a row, because he kept mentioning Lavender Brown in every single conversation we had in some way or another. Saying how nice she is or telling me something funny she'd said. So jokingly, I said that if I didn't know better it'd seem like it was she he had a crush on, not me. And when he wrote back, he said that he was sorry, but he couldn't help himself, and he hoped we could still go out! Can you believe that? He TOLD me he had a crush on LAVENDER yet he asked if we could still be together!" Ginny started out very calm, but by the end of her story she was waving her hands all over the place and nearly screaming.

"Oh, I'm sorry Gin," Hermione said as she rushed over to give her friend a hug.

"It's ok, we'd only been together for a few weeks, and I really only went out with him to get over Michael," Ginny said in a rather upbeat voice.

"Humph," Ron grunted at the sound of Michael's name.

"Dean's just... so stupid sometimes I just want to kill him with my own bare hands," Ginny said.

"Oh Harry! That's how you could kill Vol.." Hermione exclaimed before realizing that Ginny was in the room.

"Ginny, out!" Ron exclaimed, eager to hear Hermione's idea.

"What! That's so unfair. It's not like I didn't hear you guys talking about the prophecy. Oops." Ginny said as she clapped a hand over her mouth and started walking to the door.

"You did WHAT?!" Harry yelled, speaking up for the first time in the conversation.

"I... oh, Harry I'm so sorry! I was walking to the room, about to knock so I could come in when I heard you guys, and I was just worried about you Harry!" Ginny was almost pleading with Harry, it was evident she knew she had done something bad; tears were forming in her eyes. She didn't want to loose her closest friends because she had eavesdropped, she thought Harry was going to tell who his crush was, when he said 'there's something I need to tell you'. But now that she knew, she thought she had the right to know anyway, she was at the ministry fighting alongside him. "But you know, it's not something you couldn't have told me anyway. Actually I sort of hope that you three would share this kind of information with me. I'm just as responsible as you guys, I'm only a year younger, and I was fighting right with you at the ministry of magic," Ginny ended with a huff, all out of breath and her face a fair shade of Weasley red.

"Ginny has a point, Harry. I mean, I know it's your decision, but Ginny has always been there for us. And well, it couldn't hurt to have another trustworthy person to help us," Hermione said unconfidently, a bit scared that Harry would have one of his classic temper-tantrums.

After a few minutes of silence as Harry considered what Hermione said he finally spoke up, "You make a good point, but I just don't want to put any more people in danger than I have to..." Harry started drifting off, unsure of how to put what he was thinking into words.

"Mate, I think you need to remember that despite what you might be thinking, you do need help. It's not fair for us to just leave the burden completely on your shoulders. If we each help out, your life will be easier. 4 people are a lot harder to break than just 1," Ron said, astounding the others for the second time in just one day.

"I know, I guess you are right. I guess all I have to say is thanks, for your loyalty I guess, brings out the real Gryffindor in you," at Harry's words everyone smiled, "Ginny I'm sorry I got so mad at you for a second, I guess I ought to be thanking you for standing by me at the ministry, not yelling at you. I just... don't listen in our conversations again!" Harry said trying to sound mean, which he just couldn't pull off.

"Oh thanks so much for not being mad!" Ginny squealed as she ran over to Harry and put her arms around his neck in a big hug.

"Um... Sure Ginny," Harry said, almost speechless. His face was blushing and his arms suddenly felt like the longest most awkward things in the world. He had no idea what to do with them. Sure he'd hugged Hermione and Mrs. Weasley before, but for some reason this felt different. He finally settled his arms around her waist just before she let go.

"I won't let you down, Harry, all your secrets are safe with me, and if you ever need any help just ask," Ginny said with a smile, proud that she could finally be of use to the trio.

What will Happen Next? I do not know, or do I? Will things continue to be so happy for Harry? Is the confusion over? Will we ever hear from Voldemort? How'd they do on the OWLs? Will more secrets be revealed? Find out next time on.... CHAPTER 4, coming soon, but only if you review and tell me it's wanted.