Disclaimer: I don't own anything. J.K. Rowling owns the characters, settings, etc.
Chapter Seven
A seething Ginny stormed by Harry and Hermione's transfiguration class Monday
morning, traipsing after Draco Malfoy.
"You absolute PRAT!" Harry heard Ginny yell after a laughing Malfoy before Professor
McGonagall stepped into the corridor to tell them to be quiet.
"Poor Ginny," Hermione mumbled, transforming her squirrel back into a teapot.
"She and Malfoy not getting along?" Harry smiled just as screams of 'Malfoy, you
blasted liar!' rose over McGonagall's threats.
"She can't stand him," Hermione whispered, "and Dumbledore keeps upping the number
of prefect duties that they have to help each other with. At first I thought that his idea for helping
Malfoy might work, but I think it's just going to get Ginny locked away for attempted murder."
Harry collected both their teapots to take back to the cabinet, "You don't think that
Malfoy would ever hurt her or anything, do you? Because if he ever tries something on her, I'm
going to ."
"I don't think Dumbledore would put Ginny in any danger," Hermione affirmed.
A crack! resounded in the corridor. Harry and Hermione ran out of the classroom just in
time to see a crow fluttering madly within the corridor.
"Miss Weasley! Twenty points from Gryffindor for transfiguring a student!" Professor
McGonagall snapped, "Now, Mr. Malfoy if you would kindly land on the floor so I could
transfigure you back ."
Harry muttered the counter spell under his breath, and Malfoy fell five feet to the floor.
"Oh, Mr. Malfoy!" Professor McGonagall rushed over to the crumpled boy, "Are you all
right?"
Harry tugged Hermione's sleeve and directed her back to the room, after having winked
at Ginny.
"Teach him to eat crow," she told them later.
(Okay, FF.net is not letting me use lines...so scene change)
That Friday was Halloween, the day Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, and Luna were
planning to sneak off to Fred and George's in Hogsmeade for their party. Wednesday afternoon,
however, threatened to change their plans to Ron's distaste.
Harry and Ron had been cleaning out the Gryffindor locker rooms in preparation for the
upcoming quidditch season, and as they made their way back to the castle, Ron grabbed Harry by
the forearm again and pulled him behind the broom shed.
"What are you ."
"Christopher Stone," Ron growled.
Harry peered from behind the shed to see a small figure resembling Hermione and a
slightly larger figure resembling Christopher Stone. Harry returned behind the shed where Ron
was pacing.
"And?" Harry demanded.
"Don't you see he's asking her to go to Hogsmeade with him on Halloween!" Ron
snarled.
Harry breathed in heavily and tried to rationalize the situation for Ron,"But Friday isn't a
Hogsmeade day. Remember, we're sneaking there. Stone is not asking her anywhere, he's just
talking to her. It's a new concept we guys are trying!"
"Stone could be suggesting they sneak away! Students do it all the time! We can't let her
rendezvous to Hogsmeade with that jerk," Ron resumed pacing.
"We don't know that he's a jerk. Besides, Hermione's got a right to date whoever she
wants. And why do you care?" Harry pointed accusingly at Ron, who stopped pacing.
"I know! Go out there and pretend like you just happened to see them and came over.
You're intimidating, right? Maybe Stone will be scared away and ."
"Ron, he's five inches and fifty pounds larger than I am. Who's going to be
intimidated?"
Ron pushed Harry out from behind the shed, "Go!"
Harry scrambled back behind the shed and proceeded to shove Ron from its cover.
Thirty yards away, Hermione allowed her concentration to roam. She assumed Stone was
still talking to her, but his philosophy on small talk was limited, and she heard enough about
quidditch from Harry and Ron. Her eyes scanned the quidditch pitch and landed on the broom
shed. Blinking furiously, she convinced herself that she did indeed see Harry fall from behind
the shed then return behind the building. Another ten seconds of Stone's droning, and she saw
Ron jetting forward, then bulldozing back behind the shed. Harry, Ron, Harry, Ron...the cycle
continued.
"Okay, we'll both go!" Harry panted.
"And that's when, at the age of two, I devoted myself to Ireland's team," Stone declared
heartily.
"Uh-huh," Hermione nodded, watching as Harry and Ron walked speedily toward her and
Stone.
They arrived out of breath and beat red.
"Hey," Ron grunted.
"Hey," Harry grumbled.
"Passing by," Ron grunted.
"On our way back to the castle," Harry grumbled.
"Just thought we'd say hey," Ron grunted.
"Hey," Harry grumbled.
Hermione looked to Christopher, who looked...well, irritated, "Um..well, I've forgotten
that...er...I have pressing matters to take up with....my, um, friends here."
Hermione inched away from Stone, and the three ran back to the castle.
(Scene Change!)
Hermione slammed down her Potions book, "For the hundredth time, Ron! Christopher
Stone did NOT invite me to what did you say rendezvous to Hogsmeade with him!"
"He said he was going to!" Ron replied.
Harry reached slowly for a piece of parchment next to Hermione's Potion's book, but
alas, she picked up the book and slammed it down again.
"Ow."
"And when, pray tell, Ronald, did he tell you this!"
"Ow."
"He I heard in the hall and it was FINE! I WAS USING THE EXTENDABLE
EARS!"
"Ow. Ow."
Hermione snatched the Potions book again. Harry recovered his crippled hand and held it
carefully in his lap. SLAM!
"I hate those things!" Hermione cried, "And it's none of your business if a boy asks me
on a date anyway!"
"Well, if, if" Ron sputtered, "I just thought since I heard it and it ."
"Ow, ow, ow!"
"HARRY, SHUT-UP!" they both screamed.
The three fell silent, then Hermione sharply inhaled a breath, "Did you write what he said
on your board?"
Ron stared at the floor.
"Did you write what he said on YOUR STUPID BOARD!"
More staring at the floor.
Hermione jerked her wand from her robes and ran to the boy's staircase.
"Hermione what are you doing!"
Hermione ran up the boy's staircase.
"ARGH!"
Ron grabbed Harry by his crippled hand and dragged him up the stairs. The fifth year
boy's door slammed shut, and Ron wrenched at the knob until the door opened.
"Hermione don't."
Hermione tapped the massive board that was nearly covered, and all of the writing
disappeared.
"HERMIONE!"
"You can start over," she growled, marching to the door, "Oh, and here's your first
opinion: Hermione Granger thinks Ron Weasley's head is too large for the rest of his body and
his nose is particularly bulbous!"
Harry snickered.
Ron kicked the bed post.
"See you at Fred and George's later!" they heard Hermione call sardonically from the
spiral staircase.
(Scene Change!)
Harry pulled Ron down the stairs late that afternoon to meet Ginny and Hermione in the
common room.
"I hate her, Harry," Ron muttered under his breath.
"No, you don't," Harry snapped, "Now, c'mon. It's not like you and Hermione don't
have a row everyday. Just forget about it."
Ginny waved from the common room floor. She had Colin's camera around her neck,
and Harry assumed it was to take pictures of Fred and George's store.
"How are we getting there?" Hermione asked, avoiding eye contact with Ron.
"Well...," Harry smiled, "Ginny and I are taking the route under the Whomping Willow,
and you and Ron are taking the passage into Honeydukes."
Ron and Hermione glared.
"If either group doesn't show up at the store, then the other pair will know that Filch has
abducted them and will return immediately to save them from unknown horrors, deal?"
Everyone nodded.
Harry was a little nervous about taking the passage through the Shrieking Shack. He was
afraid that it would remind him too strongly of Sirius, and he had done his best not to think about
Sirius. He still had nightmares sometimes. Sirius would fall through the curtain. Then he'd
return and fall. Return and fall. Harry would watch Sirius die over and over. Once he and Ginny
reached the Whomping Willow, Harry instructed her to find a long stick while he searched for
the knob on the trunk. After some toil and five snapped sticks, they immobilized the tree and
began crawling through the passageway.
"So, is this where Ron was dragged through with his broken leg?" Ginny asked quietly.
"Yeah," Harry sighed.
"Then what happened?"
Harry really didn't feel like telling the story, "Um...we found Sirius, heard the truth,
nearly got killed by dementors, went back in time, set him free, and that's the end."
"Ah," Ginny looked sorry she had asked.
"Didn't Ron ever tell you?"
"Well, not really. He hasn't told me much of what happened before...hm...your fourth
year."
Harry crawled out of the underground passageway into the shack. Then he helped Ginny
through.
"I'll tell you some stories sometime," Harry offered.
"Thanks," Ginny smiled.
(Scene Change!)
They met with Ron and Hermione who were both dusty and smelled like candy on the
road to the Three Broomsticks and Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.
"Ron ran into the side of the tunnel," Hermione told Harry gleefully.
"It was hard to see," Ron said defensively.
"I just couldn't...find my wand...." Hermione trailed off.
They turned a corner to see a crowed of a hundred packed into the narrow street in front
of Fred and George's store. As they moved closer to the front they could see a platform hovering
in the center of the crowd. Fred and George were performing. Harry saw George toss Fred a
gumball. Fred smacked the gum atrociously so that the entire audience saw what he was doing,
and as he chewed, his mouth grew larger and larger until his smile literally reached his eyes and
his lower lip covered his chin. He then blew a giant bubble which popped and showered his
enormous mouth with chips of hard candy. George gazed into the crowed as Fred demonstrated
the new product, and as Fred's mouth was reducing in size, George waved to Ron, Hermione,
Harry and Ginny and motioned for them to make their way to the front.
The four shoved their way through the excited crowd, mostly filled with small children
demanding the new product. Fred saw them as they reached the tip of the stage and began
yelling into the crowd.
"And now ladies and gents HEY COULD I HAVE EVERYBODY'S ATTENTION!
thanks ."
" We would like to introduce our special guest speaker ." George interjected.
" the one and only, the stupendous, the fabulous, the ."
" the one that needs no introduction, especially a blasted long one HARRY
POTTER!"
Fred and George looked expectantly at Harry and signaled to a rope ladder that he could
climb to get on stage. The crowed erupted with cheers and clumps of people surrounding Harry
and his friends began to yell to the back "He's up here! He's really here!"
Harry was going to kill Fred and George. He would torture them by making them watch
their store burn to the ground, and then he would find a really angry hippogriff and the rest, the
rest would be legend.
Harry shook his head and vehemently signaled that he would in no way get on that stage.
He could feel Ron beside him glaring up at his brothers, and Hermione was dancing around
nervously, probably hoping Harry wouldn't explode and that people in the crowd wouldn't begin
to inflate and fly off.
"C'mon, Harry, mate!" Fred and George called.
"He's a little shy," George informed the audience.
Forget the hippogriff. It was going to take a stampede of thestrals. People in the crowd
were now pushing Harry to the stage. He angrily climbed the rope ladder.
"Ah, he's come to join us!" Fred beamed.
The crowd jumped and screamed and clapped.
"Why didn't you ask me first?" Harry growled under his breath.
"One, you would never have agreed to it that way," Fred said.
"And two, Wallace the Wild cancelled on us yesterday," George said in remaining
contempt.
"Just say something," Fred silenced the crowd.
Much like his first day of instructing Tonks's DADA class, Harry stared into his audience
for an unusually long amount of time. In fact, he almost forgot he was on stage because he
became so taken with what appeared to be an injured bird in the distance.
"Can he speak!" someone called out.
"Last time we checked," George laughed, prodding Harry forcefully in the back.
"Er..." Harry remarked intelligently, "Fred and George have a pretty good store here,
don't they?"
The audience clapped, and Harry watched the injured bird fly in closer. He saw
Hermione look in the direction of his line of vision from the corner of his eye. He could also tell
that she was tapping Ron or Ginny (red hair, hard to tell which one from peripheral vision) and
pointing. The bird was now swooping between members of the audience. It appeared to be flying
on its side and navigating with its long, pointy beak. The clapping and hooting died down, and
Harry, lost for something else to say, remained silent. The bird increased its speed suddenly, and
before Harry had a chance to cry out, the bird pummeled into a woman and pierced her in the
back with its beak.
The woman fell to the ground. The crowd backed away, leaving her alone in the center.
The bird fluttered its single, strange, centered wing until it pried itself from the woman. It then
circled threateningly over the crowd. Hermione grabbed Ron and Ginny by the wrist and pulled
them under the stage. Harry looked to the woman, who was surely dead, then to the foreboding
creature that hung above them.
No one moved. Harry cautiously reached for his wand, not daring to move too much.
Once he had a firm grasp on the wand through his cloak, he ripped the wand out, and bellowed a
spell that sent a great ball of flame racing toward the bird. Perfect aim. The torched bird fell,
hitting an old man on the shoulder. He screamed and jumped back, but before the bird hit the
ground, it was gone. There were no charred remains or a smell of burning feathers. It was
just...gone.
All heads turned to Harry Potter who was looking mournfully at the woman lying face
down in the street.
A/N: I promise my chapters will begin to get longer and more exciting. In the first few, I've just
been setting stuff up, but now things are going to start happening. Harry's sixth year won't be
any easier than the others... I'll update soon, probably within the next day or so.
Chapter Seven
A seething Ginny stormed by Harry and Hermione's transfiguration class Monday
morning, traipsing after Draco Malfoy.
"You absolute PRAT!" Harry heard Ginny yell after a laughing Malfoy before Professor
McGonagall stepped into the corridor to tell them to be quiet.
"Poor Ginny," Hermione mumbled, transforming her squirrel back into a teapot.
"She and Malfoy not getting along?" Harry smiled just as screams of 'Malfoy, you
blasted liar!' rose over McGonagall's threats.
"She can't stand him," Hermione whispered, "and Dumbledore keeps upping the number
of prefect duties that they have to help each other with. At first I thought that his idea for helping
Malfoy might work, but I think it's just going to get Ginny locked away for attempted murder."
Harry collected both their teapots to take back to the cabinet, "You don't think that
Malfoy would ever hurt her or anything, do you? Because if he ever tries something on her, I'm
going to ."
"I don't think Dumbledore would put Ginny in any danger," Hermione affirmed.
A crack! resounded in the corridor. Harry and Hermione ran out of the classroom just in
time to see a crow fluttering madly within the corridor.
"Miss Weasley! Twenty points from Gryffindor for transfiguring a student!" Professor
McGonagall snapped, "Now, Mr. Malfoy if you would kindly land on the floor so I could
transfigure you back ."
Harry muttered the counter spell under his breath, and Malfoy fell five feet to the floor.
"Oh, Mr. Malfoy!" Professor McGonagall rushed over to the crumpled boy, "Are you all
right?"
Harry tugged Hermione's sleeve and directed her back to the room, after having winked
at Ginny.
"Teach him to eat crow," she told them later.
(Okay, FF.net is not letting me use lines...so scene change)
That Friday was Halloween, the day Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, and Luna were
planning to sneak off to Fred and George's in Hogsmeade for their party. Wednesday afternoon,
however, threatened to change their plans to Ron's distaste.
Harry and Ron had been cleaning out the Gryffindor locker rooms in preparation for the
upcoming quidditch season, and as they made their way back to the castle, Ron grabbed Harry by
the forearm again and pulled him behind the broom shed.
"What are you ."
"Christopher Stone," Ron growled.
Harry peered from behind the shed to see a small figure resembling Hermione and a
slightly larger figure resembling Christopher Stone. Harry returned behind the shed where Ron
was pacing.
"And?" Harry demanded.
"Don't you see he's asking her to go to Hogsmeade with him on Halloween!" Ron
snarled.
Harry breathed in heavily and tried to rationalize the situation for Ron,"But Friday isn't a
Hogsmeade day. Remember, we're sneaking there. Stone is not asking her anywhere, he's just
talking to her. It's a new concept we guys are trying!"
"Stone could be suggesting they sneak away! Students do it all the time! We can't let her
rendezvous to Hogsmeade with that jerk," Ron resumed pacing.
"We don't know that he's a jerk. Besides, Hermione's got a right to date whoever she
wants. And why do you care?" Harry pointed accusingly at Ron, who stopped pacing.
"I know! Go out there and pretend like you just happened to see them and came over.
You're intimidating, right? Maybe Stone will be scared away and ."
"Ron, he's five inches and fifty pounds larger than I am. Who's going to be
intimidated?"
Ron pushed Harry out from behind the shed, "Go!"
Harry scrambled back behind the shed and proceeded to shove Ron from its cover.
Thirty yards away, Hermione allowed her concentration to roam. She assumed Stone was
still talking to her, but his philosophy on small talk was limited, and she heard enough about
quidditch from Harry and Ron. Her eyes scanned the quidditch pitch and landed on the broom
shed. Blinking furiously, she convinced herself that she did indeed see Harry fall from behind
the shed then return behind the building. Another ten seconds of Stone's droning, and she saw
Ron jetting forward, then bulldozing back behind the shed. Harry, Ron, Harry, Ron...the cycle
continued.
"Okay, we'll both go!" Harry panted.
"And that's when, at the age of two, I devoted myself to Ireland's team," Stone declared
heartily.
"Uh-huh," Hermione nodded, watching as Harry and Ron walked speedily toward her and
Stone.
They arrived out of breath and beat red.
"Hey," Ron grunted.
"Hey," Harry grumbled.
"Passing by," Ron grunted.
"On our way back to the castle," Harry grumbled.
"Just thought we'd say hey," Ron grunted.
"Hey," Harry grumbled.
Hermione looked to Christopher, who looked...well, irritated, "Um..well, I've forgotten
that...er...I have pressing matters to take up with....my, um, friends here."
Hermione inched away from Stone, and the three ran back to the castle.
(Scene Change!)
Hermione slammed down her Potions book, "For the hundredth time, Ron! Christopher
Stone did NOT invite me to what did you say rendezvous to Hogsmeade with him!"
"He said he was going to!" Ron replied.
Harry reached slowly for a piece of parchment next to Hermione's Potion's book, but
alas, she picked up the book and slammed it down again.
"Ow."
"And when, pray tell, Ronald, did he tell you this!"
"Ow."
"He I heard in the hall and it was FINE! I WAS USING THE EXTENDABLE
EARS!"
"Ow. Ow."
Hermione snatched the Potions book again. Harry recovered his crippled hand and held it
carefully in his lap. SLAM!
"I hate those things!" Hermione cried, "And it's none of your business if a boy asks me
on a date anyway!"
"Well, if, if" Ron sputtered, "I just thought since I heard it and it ."
"Ow, ow, ow!"
"HARRY, SHUT-UP!" they both screamed.
The three fell silent, then Hermione sharply inhaled a breath, "Did you write what he said
on your board?"
Ron stared at the floor.
"Did you write what he said on YOUR STUPID BOARD!"
More staring at the floor.
Hermione jerked her wand from her robes and ran to the boy's staircase.
"Hermione what are you doing!"
Hermione ran up the boy's staircase.
"ARGH!"
Ron grabbed Harry by his crippled hand and dragged him up the stairs. The fifth year
boy's door slammed shut, and Ron wrenched at the knob until the door opened.
"Hermione don't."
Hermione tapped the massive board that was nearly covered, and all of the writing
disappeared.
"HERMIONE!"
"You can start over," she growled, marching to the door, "Oh, and here's your first
opinion: Hermione Granger thinks Ron Weasley's head is too large for the rest of his body and
his nose is particularly bulbous!"
Harry snickered.
Ron kicked the bed post.
"See you at Fred and George's later!" they heard Hermione call sardonically from the
spiral staircase.
(Scene Change!)
Harry pulled Ron down the stairs late that afternoon to meet Ginny and Hermione in the
common room.
"I hate her, Harry," Ron muttered under his breath.
"No, you don't," Harry snapped, "Now, c'mon. It's not like you and Hermione don't
have a row everyday. Just forget about it."
Ginny waved from the common room floor. She had Colin's camera around her neck,
and Harry assumed it was to take pictures of Fred and George's store.
"How are we getting there?" Hermione asked, avoiding eye contact with Ron.
"Well...," Harry smiled, "Ginny and I are taking the route under the Whomping Willow,
and you and Ron are taking the passage into Honeydukes."
Ron and Hermione glared.
"If either group doesn't show up at the store, then the other pair will know that Filch has
abducted them and will return immediately to save them from unknown horrors, deal?"
Everyone nodded.
Harry was a little nervous about taking the passage through the Shrieking Shack. He was
afraid that it would remind him too strongly of Sirius, and he had done his best not to think about
Sirius. He still had nightmares sometimes. Sirius would fall through the curtain. Then he'd
return and fall. Return and fall. Harry would watch Sirius die over and over. Once he and Ginny
reached the Whomping Willow, Harry instructed her to find a long stick while he searched for
the knob on the trunk. After some toil and five snapped sticks, they immobilized the tree and
began crawling through the passageway.
"So, is this where Ron was dragged through with his broken leg?" Ginny asked quietly.
"Yeah," Harry sighed.
"Then what happened?"
Harry really didn't feel like telling the story, "Um...we found Sirius, heard the truth,
nearly got killed by dementors, went back in time, set him free, and that's the end."
"Ah," Ginny looked sorry she had asked.
"Didn't Ron ever tell you?"
"Well, not really. He hasn't told me much of what happened before...hm...your fourth
year."
Harry crawled out of the underground passageway into the shack. Then he helped Ginny
through.
"I'll tell you some stories sometime," Harry offered.
"Thanks," Ginny smiled.
(Scene Change!)
They met with Ron and Hermione who were both dusty and smelled like candy on the
road to the Three Broomsticks and Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.
"Ron ran into the side of the tunnel," Hermione told Harry gleefully.
"It was hard to see," Ron said defensively.
"I just couldn't...find my wand...." Hermione trailed off.
They turned a corner to see a crowed of a hundred packed into the narrow street in front
of Fred and George's store. As they moved closer to the front they could see a platform hovering
in the center of the crowd. Fred and George were performing. Harry saw George toss Fred a
gumball. Fred smacked the gum atrociously so that the entire audience saw what he was doing,
and as he chewed, his mouth grew larger and larger until his smile literally reached his eyes and
his lower lip covered his chin. He then blew a giant bubble which popped and showered his
enormous mouth with chips of hard candy. George gazed into the crowed as Fred demonstrated
the new product, and as Fred's mouth was reducing in size, George waved to Ron, Hermione,
Harry and Ginny and motioned for them to make their way to the front.
The four shoved their way through the excited crowd, mostly filled with small children
demanding the new product. Fred saw them as they reached the tip of the stage and began
yelling into the crowd.
"And now ladies and gents HEY COULD I HAVE EVERYBODY'S ATTENTION!
thanks ."
" We would like to introduce our special guest speaker ." George interjected.
" the one and only, the stupendous, the fabulous, the ."
" the one that needs no introduction, especially a blasted long one HARRY
POTTER!"
Fred and George looked expectantly at Harry and signaled to a rope ladder that he could
climb to get on stage. The crowed erupted with cheers and clumps of people surrounding Harry
and his friends began to yell to the back "He's up here! He's really here!"
Harry was going to kill Fred and George. He would torture them by making them watch
their store burn to the ground, and then he would find a really angry hippogriff and the rest, the
rest would be legend.
Harry shook his head and vehemently signaled that he would in no way get on that stage.
He could feel Ron beside him glaring up at his brothers, and Hermione was dancing around
nervously, probably hoping Harry wouldn't explode and that people in the crowd wouldn't begin
to inflate and fly off.
"C'mon, Harry, mate!" Fred and George called.
"He's a little shy," George informed the audience.
Forget the hippogriff. It was going to take a stampede of thestrals. People in the crowd
were now pushing Harry to the stage. He angrily climbed the rope ladder.
"Ah, he's come to join us!" Fred beamed.
The crowd jumped and screamed and clapped.
"Why didn't you ask me first?" Harry growled under his breath.
"One, you would never have agreed to it that way," Fred said.
"And two, Wallace the Wild cancelled on us yesterday," George said in remaining
contempt.
"Just say something," Fred silenced the crowd.
Much like his first day of instructing Tonks's DADA class, Harry stared into his audience
for an unusually long amount of time. In fact, he almost forgot he was on stage because he
became so taken with what appeared to be an injured bird in the distance.
"Can he speak!" someone called out.
"Last time we checked," George laughed, prodding Harry forcefully in the back.
"Er..." Harry remarked intelligently, "Fred and George have a pretty good store here,
don't they?"
The audience clapped, and Harry watched the injured bird fly in closer. He saw
Hermione look in the direction of his line of vision from the corner of his eye. He could also tell
that she was tapping Ron or Ginny (red hair, hard to tell which one from peripheral vision) and
pointing. The bird was now swooping between members of the audience. It appeared to be flying
on its side and navigating with its long, pointy beak. The clapping and hooting died down, and
Harry, lost for something else to say, remained silent. The bird increased its speed suddenly, and
before Harry had a chance to cry out, the bird pummeled into a woman and pierced her in the
back with its beak.
The woman fell to the ground. The crowd backed away, leaving her alone in the center.
The bird fluttered its single, strange, centered wing until it pried itself from the woman. It then
circled threateningly over the crowd. Hermione grabbed Ron and Ginny by the wrist and pulled
them under the stage. Harry looked to the woman, who was surely dead, then to the foreboding
creature that hung above them.
No one moved. Harry cautiously reached for his wand, not daring to move too much.
Once he had a firm grasp on the wand through his cloak, he ripped the wand out, and bellowed a
spell that sent a great ball of flame racing toward the bird. Perfect aim. The torched bird fell,
hitting an old man on the shoulder. He screamed and jumped back, but before the bird hit the
ground, it was gone. There were no charred remains or a smell of burning feathers. It was
just...gone.
All heads turned to Harry Potter who was looking mournfully at the woman lying face
down in the street.
A/N: I promise my chapters will begin to get longer and more exciting. In the first few, I've just
been setting stuff up, but now things are going to start happening. Harry's sixth year won't be
any easier than the others... I'll update soon, probably within the next day or so.
