Chapter Two

Harry awoke far earlier than he actually needed to. He opened his eyes to find his room the color of twilight and he knew that the sun had not quite risen yet. Hedwig was still asleep in her cage, her feathers rustling every now and then as she shifted in her sleep. The knowledge that in only a few hours Harry would be with his friends back in the wizarding world made it impossible for him to resist the urge to grin.

He turned over and fluffed his pillow a bit, trying to will himself off to sleep again. It would be at least another hour until he could safely get up and wander about the house while he waited on the Weasleys and it was going to be an impossibly long hour if he was awake to experience it.

However, after a bit, Harry was forced to give up. He sat up on the edge of his bed, facing away from the window and watching the rising sun seem to set the walls aflame. His eyes fell on his trunk that he had packed the night before. It was still open, as he hadn't quite finished when exhaustion had overtaken him and caused him to collapse onto his bed. The only thing left to pack was the old mirror Sirius had given him. Its pieces lay wrapped on a cloth on the floor beside the trunk.

Momentarily, Harry felt the twang of disappointment he had felt the day he realized that he could not use the mirror to contact Sirius. It left him as quickly as it had come, but he still felt reluctant to actually pack the mirror, for it was a haunting reminder of how close yet how far Sirius was.

Either he had awoken later than he thought or had spent far more time contemplating the mirror than he had meant to, as he heard the sounds of people moving about downstairs. He had very little desire to talk to Aunt Petunia, so he went back to lying on his bed and studying his rather dull ceiling.

Harry heard Dudley grunting as he passed Harry's door on his way to the bathroom. When Dudley had finished his business, he came and opened Harry's door. Harry didn't even bother sitting up or turning his head to look at his cousin.

"Mum made me come tell you breakfast's almost ready." Dudley stated, his speech a series grunts interjected by consonants.

"I thought I was making breakfast." Harry mumbled, still not bothering to look at Dudley.

"What's that?" Dudley grunted, although Harry was sure he been audible enough to hear.

"Nothing." Harry muttered.

Dudley stood in the doorway a moment longer and Harry decided he probably had a puzzled look on his face while he did so. When Dudley finally left, he slammed the door (probably to spite Harry more than anything else) with so much force that it bounced back open. Dudley gave a grunt of satisfaction and disappeared down the corridor.

Harry sensed someone standing in his doorway shortly after Dudley had left. He turned his head and found that it was Aunt Petunia. "Your friends will be here soon." She reminded him.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Harry sensed there wasn't something quite right about her. He decided it would be best not to argue lest she change her mind and go back to ignoring him and babbling about how wonderful her Duddykins was. "Right, I know." He grumbled. "I'll be down in a minute."

Aunt Petunia gazed at him a moment longer before leaving. Harry didn't really care what was going on with them enough to think about it for more than just a moment. He hastily stuffed the remains of Sirius' old mirror into his trunk, no longer caring how it made him feel. Today wasn't a day he wanted to spend sulking about Sirius and wondering what would have happened if Sirius had his mirror on him that night.

Harry set about the annoying and lengthily process of dragging his trunk down the stairs without the aide of magic. This process was considerably shortened when Harry lost his grip on the trunk at the very top of the staircase and the entire thing went sliding down the stairs like a sled on a snow covered hill. It slammed into the front door with an audible crack, causing the door frame to rattle.

"Err - I'm alright!" Harry shouted from the top of the stairs. He wasn't quite sure why he thought anyone might care. He hurried down the stairs and moved his trunk out of the way of the door, which now sported a rather impressive split down its middle. He didn't think Uncle Vernon would notice before that afternoon.

Harry hurried away from the scene of the crime and into the kitchen. Neither Aunt Petunia or Dudley looked up at him as he took a seat at the table. The sound of Uncle Vernon spewing profanities drifted in from the adjacent room.

Aunt Petunia looked as though she was pretending none of it was happening until Uncle Vernon entered the room and addressed her directly. "WHAT HAPPENED TO THE DOOR!" he shouted, spittle flying everywhere.

"It's always been like that, dear." She responded pleasantly, without so much as a wink to Harry or any sort of indication as to why she was covering for him. Harry didn't think she could possibly be dense enough not to realize the split in the front door hadn't always been there, but he didn't plan on arguing. Instead, he quickly had some breakfast and then slipped out of the room to spend the remainder of his time on Privet Drive in the Dursleys' living room.

Uncle Vernon had, as usual, left the television set on. The evening news from the night before was being replayed for those who had missed it previously. Harry didn't pay particular attention to what was on, although he noticed that there was an abnormally large number of stories about babies being born with extra limbs or in a variety of colors.

It was not long before Harry heard the sound of a car pulling into the driveway. He went to the window to glance out and found that the Weasleys had managed to acquire yet another perfectly nondescript looking Ministry car. He watched as Ron got out of the back, turned around to say something to someone in the car, then closed the door and made his way to the Dursleys' porch.

Harry couldn't help but laugh as he remembered promising his Uncle Vernon that the most "normal" looking Weasley would come to the door, when he knew full and well that Ron didn't particularly fit the requirement.

Harry hurried to the front door to find that Aunt Petunia had beaten him there and was trying to keep Uncle Vernon from opening the door and chasing off Ron. She managed to open it right as Ron reached the doorstep and Ron down stared at her blankly.

"Hello," She said, so cheerily that she disturbed Harry. "I suppose you're here to get Harry?" She waved Ron onwards as though inviting him in.

Ron just stood there gaping at her. He managed to stutter out a yes as Harry shoved his trunk past Aunt Petunia and out the front door. Ron grabbed one side of the trunk rather clumsily and helped Harry to heft it off the ground.

"See you!" Harry said, matching Aunt Petunia's weirdly cheery tone as he backed off the porch.

Ron managed to chime in with a weak "Er – well, g'bye, then."

Aunt Petunia disappeared back into the house, leaving Uncle Vernon to stand in the doorway looking as though he didn't quite believe Harry was really getting away from him. He didn't say anything until Harry's trunk had already been stowed in the back of the car, and even then all he could do was manage some loud grunts and a bit of moustache bristling.

Ron let Harry into the car first, and he scooted into the middle seat to find Hermione sitting in the farthest seat. He grinned at her and she smiled back as Ron slipped in on the opposite side. Ginny turned around in the front passenger seat to say hello to Harry and Mr. Weasley did the same.

"Is something wrong with your aunt?" Ron asked as he pulled his door shut.

"I don't know." Harry answered honestly. "She's been sort of nice lately. I'm not complaining."

"I think it's nice of her." Hermione chimed in cheerily. "It's about time she started treating you like another human being."

"Er – yeah…" Harry agreed. "I guess you're right." He turned to look out the window at Number 4 Privet Drive as they began down the street away from the house. Uncle Vernon yelled out something as they began to drive away, then slammed the door. Harry watched as the crack his trunk had made extended across the door, and then the entire thing split in two and fell off its hinges. Harry burst out laughing.

"What is it?" Hermione demanded, turning to see where Harry was looking.

"Nothing," He assured her. He then turned to Ron and through gritted teeth asked, "Since when can your dad drive?"

"Oh, he can't." Ron answered, smiling.

When Harry simply gave him a horrified look, Ron realized he needed to explain a bit further. "The Ministry's got these new cars that basically drive themselves. It just sort of knows where you want to go, and it goes there. They're brilliant, really." Harry was afraid to ask what would happen if all the people in the car thought they wanted to go different places. He tired not to think about it too hard lest he upset the car somehow.

As they couldn't exactly discuss anything of consequence with Mr. Weasley and Ginny in the car, the rest of the car ride was spent discussing frivolous things, such as the results of their OWLs and the sorts of classes they were going to take. Harry started to point out how strange it was that things like Occlumency and Legilimency were being offered as classes, but Hermione quickly shushed him.

Harry wanted very badly to know what had been going on in the wizarding world while he had been locked away with the Dursleys and consequentially the car ride seemed to take hours. When they finally pulled onto Charing Cross Road and the Leaky Cauldron came into view, Hermione actually had to tell Harry to stop fidgeting, and when they stopped the car to unload everything, Harry nearly knocked Ron out of the car sideways in his hurried attempt to get out.

Tom came out of the Leaky Cauldron almost instantly. "Been expecting you, Harry!" He said, giving Harry a toothless grin. "Yer friends're waiting inside."

"What friends?" Harry asked Ron quietly as soon as Tom wasn't paying attention.

"Oh, erm." Ron glanced at Hermione, looking rather uncomfortable. Hermione seemed to urge him onwards with her eyes. "See, Tonks and Lupin are here. I guess they thought you'd need, um, protection or something." Ron scratched the back of his head and looked as though he thought Harry was going to bite his head off.

"Ron, that's great!" Harry said happily. "Er – why do you look so down about it?"

Ron started to say something, but Hermione interjected. "It's nothing, Harry." She said sweetly. "C'mon, let's go on in and get our rooms, shall we?"

Ron hurriedly agreed with her and they both rushed into the Leaky Cauldron before Harry had a chance to question them further. Harry followed them in and found the Leaky Cauldron just as he had remembered it; dingy and full of odd looking characters. Mr. Weasley was talking to Tom, looking rather annoyed.

"It isn't my fault we don't have quite enough rooms." Tom was saying. "Take 'em or leave 'em."

Mr. Weasley turned around and sighed. "I suppose I could bunk with Ginny." He said, "Do you three think you could share?"

Hermione beamed brightly at him. "Of course. Ron can sleep on the floor." She elbowed Ron when he started to protest.

Tom assisted Harry, Ron, and Hermione in getting their trunks up the stairs to room number 7. Once they had all their things in and the door was shut, Ron collapsed onto one of the two beds. Hermione took a seat on the end of the same bed, and Harry slunk down into a dilapidated chair in the corner of the room.

"So if Tonks and Professor Lupin are staying here, why didn't they come out to, you know, see us or something?" Harry asked.

Ron grunted something. Hermione shrugged. "I don't know," She said, "I suppose they're off doing something for the Order. You've been in contact with them more than we have."

"Then why didn't I know they'd be staying here too?" Harry muttered.

Hermione frowned. "I think they didn't want to tell you because of how you've reacted to people thinking you needed to be watched before…" She trailed off, looking uncomfortable at having told him the truth.

Harry started to say something, but was interrupted by a knock on the door. Before anyone could actually give her permission to come in, Ginny had let herself into the room. "Hermy!" She said happily, running over to Hermione. "Cho Chang is staying in the room across from this one, all by herself. There's two beds and she said you could stay with her if you wanted to."

Hermione glanced at Harry as if wanting to see his reaction and Harry simply shrugged. "Sure," Hermione said, "That's really nice of her. Could you help me take my trunk over there, Harry?"

"I could d-" Ron started to say, but was interrupted by Hermione shifting her weight so that her elbow rested in his gut and the rest of his sentence turned into a bunch of gurgling.

"… I guess so." Harry said with a sigh.

Helping Hermione move her trunk actually consisted of shoving it across the hall while Ron watched looking dejected and Hermione and Ginny ran ahead to socialize with Cho. When Harry finally managed to get the trunk into room number 9, Cho simply stood there and stared at him.

"Er – hi." Harry tried.

"… Hi, Harry." Cho mumbled, glancing down at her feet.

Harry looked from Cho to Hermione to Ginny back to Cho, trying to find some help or some excuse to leave the room. After a bit of awkward silence, he finally managed to blurt out, "Er, how's Michael Corner?"

"I don't know." Cho responded, wringing her hands. "I haven't spoken to him since June."

Hermione began to look uncomfortable and Ginny finally picked up on the fact that it might be a good idea to leave. "Hey, Harry," She said, "Let's go see who's staying in the other rooms, okay?" She grabbed his arm and lead him out of the room.

"Thanks." Harry said, breathing a sigh of relief once they were out of Cho and Hermione's earshot.

"It's no problem." Ginny said, shutting the door to room number 9. "Speaking of the people staying in the other rooms, um, I think Malfoy is here…"

"Really? With who? Why's he here and not at his house? Why's Cho here?"

"I think Cho wanted to get away from her parents." Ginny shrugged. "I didn't really ask, it's hard not to upset her." Harry grinned, glad he wasn't the only one who felt this way. "As for Malfoy," Ginny frowned, "I'm not really sure. I've seen him with, um, this gi—er, her!" Ginny pointed down the corridor past Harry.

Harry turned around and saw a girl that looked about his age making her way up the stairs. She wasn't dressed like a nutty wizard or anything, so Harry decided to find out who she was. "Hey, you!" He shouted down the corridor. Ginny looked terrified that he had decided to harass a total stranger. When the girl looked up, Harry added, "Yeah, you!"

As the girl walked down the corridor towards them, Harry got a better view of her. She was bone pale, much like Draco himself, although she bore little resemblance to him otherwise. In fact, Harry would not have been entirely unbelieving if someone told him that she was yet another Weasley, considering how lanky and covered in freckles she was. However, her hair was a dark auburn sort of color, rather unlike the flaming red that the Weasleys sported. When she reached them, she stared at Harry with her dark eyes.

"What?" She asked. Harry noticed she had an odd accent. Rather slow and slurred together.

"Who are you?" Harry asked.

"Evelyn." She answered flatly.

"Oh, I'm Har—"

"Harry Potter," She interrupted, "Yes, I know. It's rather obvious."

Harry made as though he was attempting to look up at his scar, then frowned. "Er – and this is Ginny Weasley." He added, nodding towards Ginny. Ginny gave a friendly wave.

"Oh, yes, how Draco loves you Weasleys." The girl said, with a sneer.

"I see you're not any better than he is, then." Harry said, barely resisting the urge to spit on the girl's shoes. "I'm sorry we bothered you, in that case."

Evelyn seemed to have a sudden change of heart and grinned at Harry. "Nah, it's nothing like that. I've just been spending so much time around them that being an insufferable snob is beginning to rub off on me. It's unfortunate, but I guess that's the price you pay."

"Why have you just suddenly started hanging out with them, then?" Harry asked.

"I'm a relative." Evelyn answered simply.

Draco picked that moment to emerge from room number 3 and to spot their little meeting down the corridor. He obviously could not resist the urge to come and be a pain, as he immediately made his way over. "I see you've met the amazing Harry Potter, have you?" Draco sneered. His gaze fell on Ginny. "Ah, and some Weasley scum, too."

"Get lost, you twat." Harry demanded. "We were actually having a marginally nice conversation until you came along."

"I didn't think Evelyn was capable of laying off the sarcasm long enough to have a decent conversation with anyone." Draco said, snickering.

The door to room number 9 opened, and Hermione emerged. "What's going on out here?" She asked, looking from person to person. "Why's Draco here? And who's that?"

"Ahh, and we're joined by the mudblood filth as well." Draco said, putting a disgustingly joyful tone in his voice.

Hermione ignored Draco and peered at Evelyn until she finally spoke. "Unfortunately, I'm the cousin of this blathering idiot." Evelyn admitted.

Hermione gaped, Draco decided he'd had enough fun, Evelyn tried to protest as Draco drug her off down the corridor to their room, and Harry stood their looking clueless as usual. Hermione ushered Ginny and Harry back into room number 7 as soon as Draco was out of sight.

"His cousin!" Hermione exploded, waving her arms madly.

Ron sat up on the bed, looking even more confused than Harry and Ginny. "She can't be his cousin!" Hermione continued. "That's impossible, she's got to be lying!"

"What are you going on about?" Ron demanded as Hermione stomped about the room muttering inaudible nonsense.

"Harry!" Hermione yelled, grabbing onto Harry's shoulders. "She's just making that up to bother us, isn't she? She is, right? Draco told her to say it. Please tell me Draco told her to say it."

Harry grabbed a hold of Hermione's head and forced her to look him head on. "What's the big deal, Hermione?" Hoping that if he spoke slowly, Hermione might reveal whatever she had figured out.

Hermione flopped backwards onto the nearest bed, squashing Ron's legs as he let out a yelp of pain. "Harry, Draco Malfoy is Tonks' cousin too, right?" She asked.

Harry thought a moment. He wasn't an expert on the Blacks's family history, but it only took him a second to realize she was right. "Okay, so what?"

"Well, Narcissa is Draco's mother. Andromeda is Tonks' mother. And the only Black left on that side of the family to be that girl's mother is…" Hermione trailed off as if not finishing her sentence would make the truth behind it go away.

"… Bellatrix." Ginny breathed.

"That's mad," Ron piped in, "Bellatrix Lestrange. She's not a member of the Black family."

"She married Rudolphus Lestrange, you twat." Hermione snapped, glaring at Ron.

"But that's still mad!" Harry insisted, taking over for Ron. "If Bellatrix had children, where have they been staying all this time that she's been in Azkaban? And why wouldn't they be under supervision now that… well, you know, what if Bellatrix wanted her back? Why is she staying with Draco Malfoy?"

Hermione sighed. "Because the Malfoys are her closest living relatives."

"Besides Tonks' parents!" Harry shouted, not sure why he was outraged. "Why isn't she staying with them?"

"Maybe because Tonks' dad was a muggle." Hermione shrugged. "I don't know."

"But what difference does it make? And why now? Why would they bring her to live with the Malfoys now when we haven't heard of her or seen her or anything until now?" Harry demanded.

Hermione took a long time to answer.

"I don't think I want to know." She answered finally.