Chapter One – Summer Boredom

"Up now, boy!" bellowed Vernon Dursley from the landing of Number 4 Privet Drive. "I want you downstairs in ten minutes, you need to wash my car before the company's annual picnic at lunch".

Harry Potter groaned, reached out for his glasses and forced himself out of bed. As he got quickly dressed he noticed his snowy white owl, Hedwig, was perched in her cage, a letter attached to her leg. Knowing, at least that he would have something to look forward to when he would finally be allowed back upstairs, he made his way down to the kitchen. As usual, no greeting met Harry from either his aunt Petunia or his cousin Dudley. Although Harry had lived with them since he was just a year old, they had still never accepted the fact that Harry attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

All in all, his summer hadn't been great. Firstly, Harry was still feeling more terrible than he could describe even to himself about the recent death of his godfather, Sirius Black in the Department of Mysteries. Not only did Harry miss him terribly, but he also felt responsible for his death. Besides that he was still suffering from nightmares, which mainly consisted of flashbacks, even though he had been practising occlumency every night before he fell into a restless and disturbed sleep. In addition, he was simply bored of living in a house where he had no one to talk to besides his owl, where no one gave two straws about how he was feeling and he wasn't even allowed out. Although he now knew why he had to return to his aunt and uncle's house every year, it didn't make it any more bearable. The Dursleys had forced him to write to either Ron, Hermione or Remus Lupin every other day to ensure "no weirdoes like you" turned up at their house to check on him. It had gotten to the point where Harry was so bored of writing pretty much the same long-winded explanation each time that he simply wrote a note saying 'bored but fine' every other day.

Two hours after having his breakfast – the crust of a loaf of bread and a couple of rashers of shrivelled bacon – Harry returned up to his room to find yet another letter. This time it was tied to the leg of a tiny, very over-excited owl that Harry recognised to be 'Pig' who belonged to his best friend Ron Weasley. He decided to open the letter from Ron first. He was surprised to find enclosed a rather bent birthday card. He looked up at his calendar to find that it was indeed July 31st – his birthday!

The note Hedwig was carrying was from Hermione Granger, wishing him a happy birthday and telling him that he could have the present herself and Ron had bought for him when she next saw him. As the day went by, more and more owls arrived with birthday greetings from various friends. It was a good thing, Harry realised, that his aunt and uncle were out, as the continual stream of owls to and from the house would have annoyed them greatly. Harry smiled at the thought of the shade of purple his uncle would have turned by now, had he been in.

During the course of the day, Harry also received cards from Remus Lupin, the Weasleys, Neville, Luna and Tonks. Neville and Luna sent a present with their cards – a book titled 'Superb Seekers and Cracking Keepers', all about quidditch which was Harry's favourite sport. The Weasleys sent him a big bag of homemade fairy cakes, each with the number sixteen on. Tonks sent him a quill that needed no ink, but wrote in a different colour depending on the writer's mood. It was a really cool present, although it did remind Harry slightly of the quill Dolores Umbridge made him write lines with in his detentions with her the previous school year. At least however, it didn't write in blood like hers had. Lupin's card, however, contained the best present of all – the promise that various members of the Order of the Phoenix would be at Number 4 Privet Drive at 8:30pm that evening, to take him away for the rest of the summer.

Harry looked at his watch and saw that it was 5:30pm. That gave him plenty of time to pack up all his stuff and have a shower, as his black hair was looking longer and messier than ever. It took Harry a fair amount of time to gather up all of his belongings from the house, they seemed to have found their way to some very random places during the last four weeks. For instance he spent half an hour looking for his coat, only to find it behind the sofa. Although it was a hot summers day Harry had decided that he wanted access to his coat if they were going to be flying away from the Privet Drive; last time he had gotten so cold it felt as if he had frozen to his broomstick!

Harry spent the last half an hour before they were due to arrive pondering where he was likely to be taken, and how. Firstly he thought of the Burrow, the house that the Weasleys lived in, however he wasn't sure how safe this was likely to be. The other option was probably Grimmauld Place, although Harry's stomach squirmed at the thought – 12 Grimmauld Place was the Black family's house and had therefore belonged to Sirius before he had died. He reckoned that there was also probably only two realistic ways of getting wherever he was going – either by broom or by portkey.

At precisely 8:30 Harry heard four successive 'pops' directly below his room that indicated four people had just apparated into the kitchen. Harry bounded down the stairs, smiling widely to see Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody and Kingsley Shacklebolt standing in the kitchen, smiling back at him.

"Good to see you Harry, happy birthday! How are you holding up?" asked Remus, walking over to him and embracing him in a big, bear-like hug. "Thanks for all the really informative letters, by the way!" he added, with a twinkle in his eye.

"Yeah, well yours weren't exactly enlightening either, all that stuff about not being able to say anything unless the owl gets intercepted," said Harry defensively, hugging him back all the same.

"You know we can't say stuff via post Harry, you know the dangers," added Tonks with a smile.

"I know, I know, I was kind of bored though! So anyway, where are we going? Can we leave straight away? I'm all packed!"

Remus chuckled "we're going to Grimmauld Place, I have a portkey set to activate in ten minutes."

"We'll go and get your things, Harry. Is everything you need in your room?" asked Tonks.

"Yeah, everything I need is in my trunk besides Hedwig who's in her cage," replied Harry, still sporting a downcast look at the thought of returning to Sirius' house.

"Right oh, Kingsley and I will apparate back with your things, you get the portkey with Remus and Mad-Eye," said Tonks, and her and Kingsley made their way out of the kitchen.

"See you in a couple of minutes," said Remus, with a smile. "OK Harry, you all set? We'll we arriving right outside number 12, so be ready to get inside pronto."

"Yes, and CONSTANT VIGILANCE, Potter!" added Moody in his bark-like voice. "I'm going to put a disillusionment charm on you again Potter, lower the risks."

"Alright," said Harry, "have you told my aunt and uncle that I'm going by the way?"

"Yes, we've left a message on their muggle answer phone, thought it would be funny to give them a shock!" replied Lupin, chuckling.

Moody performed the charm; it made Harry feel as though someone had just cracked an egg on his head. When he looked down at his own legs he saw that they simply blended in with the cupboard door behind him, making him near to invisible. After that Lupin held out the portkey, which turned out to be an old bobble hat, and Harry felt the familiar pull behind his navel, and knew that they had left Little Whinging.