Reviewers: I lurve you guys! Thank you to all for reading!

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Mistress-Genari: I would LOVE to update more, really, but I'm sooo busy lately! But hey, I updated today instead of doing my Physics homework. Feel special! Thanks for reading!

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KMK: Thanks for the review! I'm so excited to write about the Pensieve and diary--Diary next chapter! Yay! Thanks :)

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Since I'm sure you all hate me for being such a slacker about updating, I put a bunch of clues in this chapter! And some curveballs, to confuse you. :) And the next chapter I've had written forever, (like, since I wrote the first chapter!) so I just need to type it up, so hopefully I can post that this weekend. But incase I don't, have a great Halloween, everyone, and I hope you enjoy this chapter!


Chapter 9: A Plethora of Owls

Dean, Ginny, Hermione, Ron and Harry were all sitting around the large eating table at the Burrow, tired eyes drooping, as Mrs. Weasley bustled about, setting platters loaded with eggs, bacon and bran muffins in the center of the table.

She finally placed a flask of pumpkin-orange juice in front of Ron, and ceased her bustling.

Placing her small hands on her hips and staring at the youth for a long moment, she heaved a sigh and rolled her eyes.

"Tuck in already, you lot! Merlin, it's not that early! I woke you all up a bit before noon today because I thought you'd want to spend a proper day with Dean on his last full day here. And besides, it's absolutely ridiculous, all this sleeping in 'til half past twelve every bloody day!"

"It's 7:30, Mum!" Ginny said indignantly.

"I might make a habit of waking you all up earlier if you don't stop complaining. Just eat your breakfast and do something fun today," Mrs. Weasley said firmly. Harry wiped some sleep from his eyes and reached for a muffin.

A few minutes later, the group of sleepy teenagers was still not very awake, and a tired silence hung over the table as they ate their breakfast.

Suddenly, a large, stalwart black owl swooped through the window.

"Whaf's dat 'Arry?" Ron inquired, a bit of muffin and egg escaping his very full mouth as he spoke.

Hermione gave him a look of the utmost disgust.

"Ron, that's disgusting," she said disdainfully.

Harry, in the meantime, was untying a very large parcel from the thick leg of the owl.

The owl's amber eyes blinked at him, and Harry was surprised to see what looked like laughter in the eyes of the owl.

Turning his thoughts back to the parcel in front of him, Harry reached for the brown tweed strings tied in a bow atop the package, and pulled.

As the strings slid off the cream colored wrapping paper, the paper loosened and slipped away.

It was a box. Harry, assuming this must be his inheritance from Sirius, opened the box with an aura of curiosity mingled with dread.

But what he found inside the box was not his inheritance.

Instead, it was a large book.

Not just a large book-- a VERY large book.

It was about the dimensions of a standard hardcover dictionary, but it was thick. Immensely thick. It looked to be about half a meter tall.

The worn leather cover had faded gold lettering reading The Theory of Eye Color and Modification Later in Life.

Hermione squealed in delight when she saw it.

"Is there a letter? The waiting list was ever so long, I didn't think it would be available for centuries!"

Harry tossed a dusty envelope addressed to Harry Potter or Hermione Granger at Hermione, who tore it open eagerly.

Ron was gaping at the book.

"That bloody thing is massive!" he whispered. Ginny and Dean were watching with interest.

"Eye color theory?" Ginny said, reading the title.

She looked at Harry pointedly. Harry merely nodded at her.

She had never asked Dean about eye color, probably because the two had more important things to do--couple-ish things that Harry preferred not to think about.

When Dean looked from Ginny to Harry quizzically, Ginny shook it off and Harry turned back to Hermione, who was returning the letter to its envelope.

"Apparently they checked and nearly everyone on the waiting list before us has already died or is too tired to care about reading this," she said happily.

"Just looking at that thing makes me feel old," Ron said dryly. Hermione rolled her eyes at him and Harry snorted.

"I'm going to get started on this right away! Come up when you finish your breakfasts," Hermione said bossily, and, with a fair bit of effort, she lifted the book and headed for the stairs, stumbling a bit under the weight of it.

Before she reached the threshold, however, another owl swept into the kitchen, followed by another, and another, and another.

"Why are they sending these today! It was looking to be such a lovely day," Dean said remorsefully.

Ginny looked confused as Dean gawked down at the manila envelope that had been dropped into his hands.

Harry and Ron were staring at manila envelopes as well, each looking terrified.

Hermione turned to ask what was going on, but the final owl deposited an envelope for her on the top of the massive book, and her question was answered.

Dropping the oversized book, Hermione let out a loud squeal.

"OWL results! Oh Merlin, I'm so scared! What if I got all D's?!" Everyone rolled their eyes.

Harry tried to mask his terror as he slid his envelope open. A single sheet of parchment slid out, and he scooped it up off his plate and scanned it anxiously.

E...A...O...A...O...D...E...O...A...

As he scanned his results, a wave of relief washed over him as he noticed that his only score below Acceptable was Divination, in which he'd received a D.

How had he pulled off an Acceptable in History of Magic? Not that he was complaining. There was a note scrawled at the bottom of the parchment.

Mister Potter:

Professor Dumbledore spoke to us about your History of Magic exam. Due to your illness partway through, only the portion you finished was graded, earning you an Acceptable. The Astronomy Exam was graded on a curve, as well, due to disruptions during the testing period, boosting you up a passing grade. Congratulations on earning a fair bit of OWLs.

--F. G. Hijkl

OWL Exam Scorer

Harry couldn't believe his luck. He'd done well enough to take all the NEWT classes he needed to become an Auror! He glanced at Ron, who looked surprised, and Hermione, who looked ready to kill.

"I only got an 'O' in Arithmancy! And what's worse is the 'A' they gave me for Care of Magical Creatures." She continued to huff about this for a few minutes, while Ron and Harry traded papers.

"Not bad, mate," Harry said with a grin. Ron had done fairly well, too, receiving a 'D' in Divination, and a 'D' in History of Magic (he had had a full test period, and so his entire test had been scored), but passing every other exam with at least an Acceptable mark.

"What about you Dean?" Ron asked, temporarily forgetting his wrath toward his friend. Dean shrugged nonchalantly.

"I did okay. Passed Divination--there's a surprise." Everyone laughed, agreeing upon this. Just as Harry was about to return to his breakfast, another owl swept into the room.

"What in magic's name--why's everyone sending mail here today?" Ginny marveled, shaking her head.

The snowy owl swooped down gracefully, dropping a parcel into Hermione's hands.

She began to unwrap it, but froze when she realized what it was. A thick book entitled A Brief Explanation: Why Enslavement of House Elves Will Come Back to Haunt the Wizarding World and a folded, liquid-looking, silvery cloak were revealed.

Harry felt his breath catch.

Hermione looked up at him sharply, her face a mirror of the emotions Harry felt rising up in his chest.

Another owl flew into the room, clutching a large dragonskin purse rattling with coins, with a slip of parchment pinned to it addressed to the Weasleys, and dropped it in the center of the table.

Ron gawked at it as another owl followed with another purse, and another, and another, and another.

Mrs. Weasley bustled in the next moment and stopped short when she saw the heap of dragonskin bags filled with gold.

"Oh, it came," she said, an excited smile spreading over her face. "Bless his soul."

As yet another owl busted into the room, Dean swore.

"How much mail do you guys usually get?" he wondered. "I know you have a big family, but--" Hermione caught the envelope dropped by the little barn owl, and tore it open. The owl waited expectantly, a long quill teetering from his beak.

"Ah, yes." She took the quill from the owl's beak and scribbled something on the letter, returned it to the envelope, and the owl departed.

"Confirming I got the book and cloak Sirius left me," she explained.

"Looks like we'll get another owl in a moment, then," Ron mused. And indeed, the final owl of the morning swept into the kitchen for Mrs. Weasley to sign for the gold.

"Well, I suppose that's all the post we'll be getting today," Ginny said, looking relieved.

Harry suddenly had a thought.

"Why did you guys get the stuff Sirius left you by owl post, and mine's coming through muggle mail?"

Mrs. Weasley had a logical answer for this.

"Can't send out too many owls at once, and Sirius left you some heavy stuff. It would be difficult for an owl to deliver a trunk of Quidditch supplies and a Pensieve in a jar and such things without making a scene."

"I wonder when you'll get all that stuff," Ron said anxiously.

Right on cue, there was a knock on the door. Dean and Ginny, who had been heading out, opened the heavy door to reveal a tall, lanky muggle postman standing on the threshold, looking bewildered.

"Is this where Mr. Harry Potter is staying?" he inquired, looking worried. "Because I couldn't see an address anywhere, and--"

"Yes," Ginny said quickly. Harry, who had heard his name, came up behind Ginny to face the postman.

"Harry Potter?"

"That's me, yes."

"I have half a truckload of boxes for you. If you'll sign this paper and come give me a hand, I can put it wherever you'd like."

Ron, Dean, Hermione and Ginny all eagerly followed the two outside to help carry boxes in.

The clear blue sky and the humid, warmish air invigorated Harry's senses as he walked about 100 meters to a white moving truck.

The postman prodded the door.

As it whooshed open, Hermione gasped, and Ron's jaw dropped.

"Sirius had one heck of a messy room," Ginny mused with a grin. Harry laughed.

"That's the weird part--he didn't," he said.

"Well his closet must've been packed," Dean said sincerely. Harry couldn't help but be a bit irritated with Dean for putting his ore in. What does he know? he scoffed.

It took about a half hour to get everything hauled up to Ron's room. The postman had not been allowed into the house, ("It's really messy," Ginny had told him--after all, many questions would arise if one who knew nothing of the magical world entered the Burrow) but he had asked the youth why it took so long to load up a little barn.


As soon as the white truck pulled out of the drive, Harry, Ron and Hermione gathered in Ron's room at the top of the house. Dean and Ginny had gone for a walk, although Harry noticed Ginny was very reluctant to leave.

"There's so many boxes here," Ron said, amazed.

"Yeah, I'll want to have your mum shrink them so I can fit everything in my trunk in a couple of weeks, when we go back to school," Harry said.

School. Ugh. He shuddered at the thought.

Hermione was knelt over a box with miscellaneous framed photos. There was one of Sirius with his broom, dressed in orange Quidditch robes, grinning seductively, occasionally shaking his dark hair from his eyes.

"Did Sirius play professional Quidditch?" she asked Harry, holding up the picture.

"Bloody hell!" Ron yelped, leaping over three boxes and seizing the photo from her. "Harry, he played for the Chudley Cannons!"

"No way, he'd of told us," Harry said, grabbing the picture from Ron.

"Maybe he didn't play for long," Hermione reasoned. "But it looks like he did play."

She pulled another picture out of the box, which she had laid on her lap.

"Hey, look--the Marauders." She passed the photo of mischievous-looking boys around. Harry grinned, until his eyes rested on Peter Pettigrew, who was waving at him, and his grin evaporated...

"And a girl...oooo!" Hermione grinned and handed a black and white picture of a very beautiful woman to Ron. The lady was tall and slender, with numerous braids reaching all the way down her back. Her large, dark eyes looked intently at them, and she smiled a small, sad smile, revealing perfect white teeth, which contrasted with her dark complexion.

"She doesn't look too happy. She's hot, though," Ron said, handing the photo to Harry. She looked strangely familiar. Harry tried to figure out where he'd seen those eyes before...

"And here's your mum, Harry," Hermione said softly.

She handed him a gold framed picture. Vibrant red hair glistening in the sunlight, Lily Evans was sitting under a tree, surrounded by fallen leaves in red, orange, brown, green and yellow. Her bright green eyes sparkled, vivacious and full of life. She was leaning forward, toward the camera, and Harry noticed a necklace dangling in front of the collar of her school uniform. It was a copious amber pendant, hung on a gold chain so thin it was barely visible. Harry squinted at the necklace. He was about to comment on it when Ron jumped to his feet, gasping. A small, bronze colored spider was skittering from the box across the floor.

"Kill it! Someone stomp on it!" he gasped. Hermione and Harry exchanged looks, and then Hermione, rolling her eyes, stood and stepped on the pest.

Harry was surprised to note that as her foot pressed to the floor to squish the little bronze spider, an odd feeling of loss overcame him. But this was soon forgotten, as Hermione returned to the floor and let out an excited yelp.

"It's your mum's diary, Harry!" She handed him a green, leather-bound book, with gold script on the cover, reading:

The Diary of Lily Evans

Private, Keep Out

"Think she'd mind us reading it?" Ron asked tentatively. Harry would prefer to read his mum's diary on his own, but he didn't have the energy to think of a nice way to say so, and so he shrugged and said,

"You two are my best friends. I'm sure she wouldn't mind." Hermione let out an excited squeal, and Harry laid the book on his lap, and lifted the emerald cover...


A/N: Ahh, a good ol' cliff! We get to read Lily's diary next! Anyway, send me a review and critique away! Tell me how this chapter was, what you liked, didn't like, questions, corrections, blah, blah...I'd REALLY appreciate it! Hugs to all who read! Thank you, and please do review! :) Happy trick-or-treating this weekend!