Grimmauld Place

Disclaimer: Funnily enough, Harry Potter was not my idea. I am a complete plagiarist. Sally is mine, however, (although she is loosely based on a character that Arlonyei and I came up with a couple of years ago.)

A/N: Firstly, I would like to thank all you lovely people who reviewed! I scour my emails every day now. There is an explanation for why Sally stormed out, not a brilliant one, but a reason nonetheless. You'll have to wait and see…RhondaSpev, I agree with you that chapter 2 was a bit over dramatic, hopefully this one is less so.

"Harry? Harry? Don't fall asleep over there!"

Harry lifted his head and saw Tonks carefully making her way to his side of the strict formation that they were flying in. Pulling in beside Harry, she began to fly in sync with him.

"Why the long face?" she asked, elongating her own face until she had sunken eyes and cheeks, and a long gnarled chin.

Normally Tonks' facial antics amused Harry, but right now he was too busy thinking about Sally.

He had contemplated running after her, but the arrival of Moody, Tonks, Lupin and Mudungus Fletcher had caused chaos at Number Four Privet Drive and Harry had been all too glad to leave.

It wasn't until they were approaching London that Harry had begun to feel twinges of guilt. Although he wasn't completely sure what he had done wrong, he knew that leaving had made it about ten times worse. He tried to tell himself that he was doing the right thing, that a friendship between a Muggle and a wizard would never have worked, but a small voice in his head kept saying "You've just lost the best thing that's happened to you in ages."

Tonks poked Harry with her index finger.

"S'matter?" she asked once again, squinting at him as the wind rushed past her face.

Unwilling to tell her the truth, Harry shrugged, in what he hoped was a nonchalant way. "I'm fine. Just tired I suppose."

Tonks looked at him sceptically, but before she could say anything, Moody called out "Nymphadora! If you insist on falling out of formation, I will have to report you missing in action." Tonks winked at Harry and then flew off, muttering "Bloody magical eye…"

As they approached Grimmauld Place, Harry realised just how much everything reminded him of Sirius. Unable to control himself he made a quick landing and, dropping his broom, dug his fists into his eyes, willing himself not to cry.

After a few seconds he became aware of someone else landing behind him. Turning around, he saw Lupin standing behind him, his eyes also glittering with tears. Consumed by his own grief, Harry hadn't realised how much Sirius' death had affected everyone else, especially Lupin who had now lost his three best friends to Voldemort. Without saying a word, Harry reached out for Lupin's hand and held it tightly.

Tonks and Moody soon joined them and then strode on ahead, leaving Harry and Lupin alone together. Reaching into his pocket, Lupin pulled out a bar of Honeydukes chocolate and handed a piece to Harry, who took it gratefully.

Looking into his eyes, Harry could see that Lupin's already pale face seemed even paler, and a fine layer of stubble was forming on his drawn cheeks. As they approached the Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, both Harry and Lupin hung back, so that they could gather their emotions before entering.

Within a few minutes, Harry had been descended upon by the entire Weasley clan; Ron "Hey mate, good to see you", Fred and George "Harry, looking beautiful as usual", Mrs Weasley "Oh honestly, haven't they been feeding you? Growing boy like you needs proper food…and if you haven't grown a foot since we last saw you…"and even Bill, who was visiting on business for the Order.

Despite this, however, some people were obviously missing.

"Where's Hermione?" Harry asked Ron, once Mrs Weasley had finally stopped fussing over him. "She's gone to Diagon Alley with Ginny and…" Ron grimaced and dropped his voice "Dean."

Harry frowned, puzzled. Hermione never went to Diagon Alley by herself. "Why?" he asked. Ron's ears turned pink, and he looked at the ground, mumbling "She just needed to…you know…get something…"

Obviously uncomfortable, he quickly changed the subject. "You haven't seen our new room, its great, much better than last summer; I've put Chudley Cannons all over the place…"

Later on, while Ron and Harry were in the middle of a game of wizard chess, Hermione burst into the boys' room, flushed and panting. "Ron, I got the…"

She stopped, suddenly spotting Harry. "You weren't supposed to get here until later!" she exclaimed, rushing over to give him a hug.

Harry laughed, returning the hug. "Moody insisted that we start flying last night, in case of attack. You got the what?"

Hermione became as visibly uncomfortable as Ron had been not so long ago. "The…the quill I needed…" she replied.

Raising one eyebrow, Harry looked from Ron to Hermione, and then returned to the game, sighing. "Knight to F1."

Harry lay awake, listening to Ron's slow even breathing. Once again, he couldn't sleep. The house held so many memories of Sirius, too many memories. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw Sirius falling…falling…

Harry got out of bed and, being careful not to wake Ron, opened the window. He almost climbed out of it, but remembered just in time that he was in central London, not Little Whinging.

Reaching forward to pull the window shut, he caught sight of a flash of white on the horizon. As it drew nearer, he could see that it was Hedwig, returning from her nightly hunt. Grateful to see his faithful familiar, Harry crossed the room to open her cage.

As she flew in, however, Hedwig began to make small circles around his head, hooting softly. Looking closer, Harry could see a small package wrapped in silver paper tied to her leg. Once she had made a soft landing on his bed, Harry carefully untied the package and brought it close to his face.

On the label, written in large curly script were the words:

Love Sal

xxx

P.S. Don't cheat, leave it until tomorrow.