Chapter Three:
Harry awoke two mornings later with excitement; that afternoon, he'd never have to see the Dursleys again. He sat up and looked around the room. He'd given Hermione the bed, and he and Ron had each slept in sleeping bags conjured by Hermione. Harry noticed that he was the first one awake, and he stood up, rubbing an aching back. Hermione's sleeping bags were nice and all, but they had nowhere near the comfort of the ones Dumbledore had conjured in their third year.
He tip-toed out of the room into the bathroom to get dressed and then went downstairs, where the three Dursleys sat eyeing him wearily. "Morning, everyone," said Harry cheerfully. "Today's my last day here—ever. You'll finally be rid of me. And if I don't manage to kill Voldemort, you'll know," he added.
"That convict still on the loose, then?" asked Vernon. "The one, who, you know—killed your parents…"
"Yeah," said Harry nonchalantly, sitting at the table and helping himself to a grapefruit quarter.
"So, why is it you who has to kill him?" asked Petunia quietly, fear evident in her eyes. "I—well, I mean, I don't think she would be that happy about it…"
"My mother?" asked Harry, frowning. "Your sister? Lily Evans?" Petunia shuddered.
"Don't—don't mention her! Just don't."
"I don't get it," said Harry, shaking his head. "Why won't you just tell me what happened? And don't tell me not to ask questions, either. Were you jealous because she was beautiful and could do magic? Or did you get into a fight? Did you just not like my Dad? What was it?" Dudley was openly gaping at his mother and Harry.
"She…" began Petunia with a grimace, "was always so perfect! We were—we were friends, and then, she just abandoned me to go to some freak school and she became one of them! And married one, and he was terrible, and all their friends would come for the holidays, and they would bring news of that awful—Voldemort, is it?—killing people, and then she just disappeared! The year before she died, before you were born. Abandoned me once more, right after our parents passed, and then she was blown up and left me with you! You, who look just like—him, and have her horrible eyes! That's why! Do you understand?" she demanded. Her hand that was holding a cup of hot tea was shaking with anger.
Harry looked at his relatives with disgust. "You know why she abandoned you so suddenly? It was… Voldemort was after her and my Dad, and me. And they had no choice. But, it didn't even matter in the end… their friend, he betrayed them. They didn't want to leave me with you, you know. So don't blame them, or me."
Petunia had tears in her eyes, though Harry couldn't quite tell whether they were due to sadness or anger. Vernon stood up awkwardly. "Er—I have to go to work now," he stated, looking at Harry with a frown. "Good-bye, then. I—er, hope that you manage to get rid of that Voldencort, or whatever his name is. I suppose this is the last time I'll be seeing you, for a while anyway." Vernon then nodded briefly and backed out of the kitchen. A few moments later, the car could be seen pulling out of the driveway.
"Well, I suppose I'm going to go see if Ron and Hermione are up," said Harry uncomfortably.
"Wait," said Petunia, all traces of tears long gone. "Before your friends come down, there are some pictures of—of Lily that evaded burning twenty years ago. I mean, if you wanted them, they're yours, I suppose…." Harry's eyes widened in surprise. His Aunt hurried out of the room purposefully, and he looked at Dudley, who was staring back.
"I don't know what's into my parents, but I'll be glad to have you gone," said Dudley darkly. Harry smiled wanly.
"I'll be quite glad to be gone," he said politely.
"You were nothing but trouble for me, you know. That time you escaped and landed on the roof—I was made fun of for a week." Harry frowned; he'd been made fun of for ten years of his life straight! "And last year, I know you made those cold things land on me. And now I feel them everywhere!"
"What?" asked Harry quickly. "You mean the Dementors?" Dudley nodded. "Er—I think that they're everywhere right now, in England anyway. Everyone feels them. And I could've been killed by them too, you know, why would I bring them here?" he asked, annoyed. "And what was so bad in your life that you had to see, anyway?"
"I saw… terrible things," said Dudley, shuddering. He then gave Harry an accusatory glance. "That snake, and when Dad went crazy when you got your letters… that really big man…." Harry raised an eyebrow; Dudley had threatened for years to actually reach Hagrid's vast size.
"Yeah, very dreadful," said Harry sarcastically. "Wanna know what I see? My parents being murdered." Dudley paled.
"Don't—Don't talk about them! We're not supposed to mention them!" Dudley had no sooner finished his sentence than Petunia hurried back into the room with a dusty, small photo album.
"Take them. I'm going to—go and water the garden. I'm sorry for everything," she whispered. "But… you don't have to come tell me when you're leaving. Just go ahead; I'm sure we'll meet again—someday." Harry nodded, turning to go back upstairs in time for Dudley to ask if he could go to the Polkiss' for tea. Nothing had changed there.
When Harry reached his room and opened the door, a very peculiar sight met his eyes. Ron and Hermione were sitting on the floor, jumping off of each other; Ron's ears were reddening each second and Hermione was hurriedly smoothing her hair.
"Hi, Harry!" she exclaimed a little bit too brightly, and smiling embarrassedly. "We just woke up and were about to go down to see you—what's that in your hand?" Ron also looked at Harry's new album, but was avoiding eye contact.
"Er—just something my Aunt gave me. You know, it's okay to… snog and all… you don't have to be embarrassed…." What Harry didn't tell them was how odd it had felt, his two best friends sitting in his room, doing that.
"What?" asked Ron with a bit of a high-pitched voice. "We weren't—we were only—oh, all right!" he exclaimed, looking at Hermione with a shrug. She rolled her eyes, still smiling.
"Sorry, Harry. We'll try not to do it in front of you, I know it must be really weird." Harry nodded, biting back a laugh.
"Uh, okay. Yeah. Right. Anyway, I'm sure you know we're leaving today and all. I was going to ask if you'd all rather leave earlier than later…. I mean, the only drawback would be having to de-gnome or something for the Rehearsal dinner, but… I'd kind of like to get out of here for good, you know?"
"Oh, right," smiled Hermione, still flitting her hair about. "But, the Ministry cars were going to pick us up. How will we leave early?"
"Well, I was thinking, and Mrs. Figg surely has Floo connection…. She lives a few blocks away. It wouldn't hurt to try, anyway."
"Oh, that's brilliant, Harry!" said Hermione happily. "So, we'll all just pack really quickly and then be on our way!"
"Okay, but do either of you want breakfast before we go?" asked Harry.
"Er—I'll wait until we're at the Burrow; I'm not that hungry," said Ron thoughtfully, though his stomach growled loudly.
"That's fine, Ron; I don't like grapefruit either," laughed Harry. He then walked over to Hedwig's cage (he was already packed) and talked to her softly while his friends got their things together.
"Hi, girl." Hedwig hooted. "Sorry I haven't had many letters for you lately, but, there aren't many people to write to any more, you know?" She hooted again, looking disgruntled. Harry sighed and turned back to his friends. "Are you ready yet?" he asked impatiently.
"Yeah," said Hermione, whose trunk was locked and was now vanishing the sleeping bags and making the bed. Ron, however, seemed to be having a bit more trouble.
"Pack!" he yelled. "Pack!" He swished his wand angrily. "Why've I been so bad at magic the whole time we've been here?" he demanded. However, he got his answer a moment later when the wand popped and turned into a chicken. "W-where did this come from?" he asked, befuddled. Harry shrugged.
"I dunno, mate, but I think it might be faster to let 'Mione do it or pack the Muggle way." Ron sighed and nodded.
"Hermione?" he asked hopefully. She sighed loudly and flicked her wand casually. All of Ron's things soared into his trunk neatly.
"Why d'you have to be so good at nonverbal magic?" he sighed. Hermione suddenly looked stern.
"You guys, even though we won't be in school this year, I still think we need to practice every day! You two really need to get nonverbal spells down, and Harry, you'll honestly need Occlumency to face You-Know-Who. I think we should all practice it."
"I was actually thinking about that myself, Hermione," said Ron. Harry turned around to stare and Hermione opened her mouth slightly. "I mean… as much as I hate homework, if one of us…you know, gets kidnapped or something, we know too much. We need to learn how to properly resist Imperius and all that, and I mean, they'll probably use Legilimency against us and all…."
"That's very responsible of you, Ron," said Hermione with delight. Harry knew that they were right, but nevertheless, he wasn't looking forward to all the schoolwork they had to practice.
"Hermione, d'you think you could Accio my wand?" asked Ron hopefully. Hermione rolled her eyes affectionately.
"Accio Ron's real wand," she said jadedly. A moment later, it soared into the back of Ron's head.
"Ouch!" he exclaimed, rubbing his head. "Er, thanks Hermione."
"No problem."
"So can we go now?" asked Harry for what felt like the millionth time.
"Yes, we can go," laughed Hermione. Harry grinned and tucked the photo album into his trunk, making a mental note to look at it before bed that night. The trio floated their trunks down the stairs, and Harry held Hedwig. Hermione looked at him sadly.
"Poor Crookshanks, he's never been away from me this long!" she said loudly. "But Ginny will have taken care of him… I know she would have, but what if he ran away or—" Hermione was interrupted quite rudely by Ron, who sighed loudly.
"Not that again, Hermione. You've been away from the cat for a week! Relax, I'm sure it's having fun chasing Gin's Pygmy Puff…." He then paused, looking out of the front door window. "I wish we could just go ahead and Apparate… I mean, Harry, you've done it plenty of times, right?"
"Well, a few I suppose—"
"And one was with someone on the side!"
"Yeah, I guess—"
"So why don't we just Apparate to the village and walk up? I don't even know if our house is Floo-accessible right now…. What do you think, Hermione? Please?"
"Well," she said, hesitating. "I do want to hurry and get there, but Harry doesn't have a license! I know you're capable, though," she added quickly at the look on Harry's face. "Oh—all right! Fine. But it's on your head. You can't exactly defeat You-Know-Who if you're locked up in Azkaban…."
"We'll be fine, Hermione," said Harry, rolling his eyes. "If I get in trouble, I'll just make a deal with Scrimgeour to go and 'give moral' to the Wizarding world by acting like I work at the Ministry… he'd let me do anything."
"Fine. Fine. Are you both ready?" she asked, stepping out of the house and clutching her trunk. Harry and Ron nodded. "All right, see you in a second! Apparate safely!" Harry and Ron exchanged looks and chuckled as Hermione made a loud 'pop' and disapparated.
"See you in a moment," said Ron nervously. Harry nodded, and, at the same time, they turned. Deliberation, Desperation…what was it? And those were Harry's last thoughts as he vanished through the air, concentrating on the Burrow. A moment later, he seemed to hit a large brick wall in midair, and he dropped onto the ground with a sickening thud.
"Harry! Harry!" People were running from all over, calling his name. Harry groaned and his eyelids fluttered open. He was on a hard, rocky ground, and he could make out people standing over him.
"Oh, Harry!" That had to be Mrs. Weasley. At least he'd gotten near the Burrow… but what had gone wrong? "Why on earth were you apparating without a license? And you two, letting him! Just terrible, terrible. He's got a nasty cut on his head… nothing I can't fix, but still."
"Harry? Are you okay, mate? I'm sorry Mum! I already said—he must've tried Apparating to the Burrow instead of the Village."
"I did that once," said a reminiscent voice. Harry opened his eyes groggily as someone else came running towards him.
"Oh, Harry! What happened, Mum? Ron? Fred, George? If you two did one of your pranks I'll—"
"Relax, Gin! We didn't do anything!" exclaimed one of the twins. "We just heard the alarm and ran out here, just like you. Look—he's coming 'round!" Harry sat up stupidly.
"Sorry—wards; forgot to destinate or deliberate or divinate… whatever it was…." Everyone who had learned to Apparate but Mrs. Weasley laughed appreciatively.
"Harry, you poor dear… do you know the trouble you could've gotten into?" she demanded. "The Ministry would've been all over you, and you could have splinched yourself!"
"Sorry," he muttered, grabbing Ginny's outstretched hand to stand up. "It was stupid, I shouldn't have Apparated."
"You can say that again, but oh! Look at that bump on your head; what else hurts, Harry, dear?" But without waiting for an answer she began rambling again. "George, be a dear and conjure a stretcher—no, wait, have Hermione do that," she said suspiciously. "And—FLEUR? WILL YOU BRING OUT SOME ICE PLEASE? Oh, what am I saying?" She then waved her wand and held an ice pack to Harry's throbbing head. "Let's get you inside, dear."
Several painful minutes later, Harry found himself on the couch of the Burrow, feeling very awkward as Hermione, Ginny, Mrs. Weasley, and Fleur were all fussing over him; Ginny telling him how brilliant his escapade had been, and joking about it; Hermione and Mrs. Weasley muttering about the dangers of Apparating without a license; and Fleur jabbering away about guests coming to the wedding Harry knew from the Triwizard Tournament.
"Yes, 'Arry, Viktor Krum will be coming, he is of course eager to speak with you once again. And of course, my sister Gabrielle, she is upstairs somewhere; it 'as always been 'zat she is very shy around you, after you pulled 'er from ze lake…." Harry tuned her out, feeling very irritable.
"Look, everyone, I'm fine! I just had a bad bump on the head, but Mrs. Weasley already fixed it!" Taken aback, the three girls all stopped talking and looked at Harry. They then shrugged and left to get back to whatever they'd been doing. Fleur hurried into the kitchen looking for Bill, Mrs. Weasley followed her asking about the flowers, and Hermione and Ron seemed to simply vanish. Only Ginny was left with Harry in the living room. She smiled at him and sat down on the couch he was laid out on.
"So how's your summer been?" she asked casually. Harry looked at her for a moment.
"Not good, I guess, but not too bad either. It was good having friends while at the Dursley's, you know?" She nodded slowly.
"It's been chaotic here. Mum's all in a tizzy now that the wedding's nearly here. And Lupin keeps popping in and out… I think his werewolf cover might've been blown at Hogwarts. And Tonks is all cheerful again. Charlie got here this morning… it's great, all of us together again."
"Is Percy coming?" asked Harry curiously.
"Well, yes, and Mum's thrilled, but Bill nearly didn't invite him. He shouldn't have, but Mum really wanted him to. Anyway, we all think Percy's only even coming because some other Ministry officials will be there." Harry nodded thoughtfully. Then Ginny spoke again. "I missed you, Harry. A lot." He grinned sadly.
"I missed you too. But you know why we can't be together, right? Don't you understand?"
"Harry, I think you just need to cool off. We're all at the top of Tom's most-wanted list anyway…. And I just want to be with you. A lot. Can—can we just take a walk, though, and talk about it another time? After the wedding?"
"Yeah," said Harry. "I'd really like that. Even though I don't see how we could work… you'll be at Hogwarts and I'll be out—"
"What?" asked Ginny immediately. "Ridding the world of You-Know-Who? Let me come with you, Harry. I want to help—not just to be with you, either. I'm your friend, I want to stand by you, I want to help you defeat the—thing—that possessed me five years ago!"
"Ron, Hermione, and I talked about it, Gin. And we're going to think about it; we know you're trustworthy, it's just your safety that we care about—"
"Harry! That's ridiculous. I'm not a child! I can look after myself, and I can help you! You care about my brother's and Hermione's safety, too, and you're 'letting' them come with you." She angrily looked away from Harry and out the window. Harry knew the look that must be in her eyes at the moment—the blazing, fierce look.
"Ginny, I don't want to fight…" said Harry desperately. "Like you said, let's just take a walk. We can talk about that later." Ginny grinned reluctantly.
"Oh, all right. Let's go; d'you fancy a fly instead?" The thought of using his Firebolt again energized Harry, and he quickly agreed. Ginny grabbed her broom on the way outside, ignoring her mother ("Ginevra Weasley, why wasn't that broom in the shed outside?") and kicking off immediately.
"Catch me if you can!" she laughed. "We'll see if that Firebolt is all it's cracked up to be…." Harry smiled and kicked off, accepting the challenge. Ginny dodged him and darted around in the afternoon sun, giggling loudly. "Harry, I'm not sure if you're as good a Seeker as they all say… how can you catch a snitch if you can't even catch a person?" she teased.
"That's it," said Harry threateningly, and he sped towards Ginny, catching her around the waist and hovering in midair. She stared into his eyes for a moment, and then, forgetting all about splitting up, Harry kissed her. How long they stayed like that, snogging in midair, Harry didn't know. But what could have been hours later, Mrs. Weasley and Fleur stepped outside.
"GINEVRA MOLLY WEASLEY AND HARRY JAMES POTTER!" yelled Mrs. Weasley. The two separated at once, and landed, looking very sheepish and windswept.
"Er—sorry, Mum!" said Ginny brightly. "Lost track of time, and—I'd better be going!" She then smiled at Harry and hurried inside, leaving him alone with an angry Mrs. Weasley and amused Fleur. Harry took in a deep breath, bracing himself for the worst, when Mrs. Weasley started to laugh. Loudly. Bewildered, Harry touched her shoulder.
"Mrs. Weasley? Are you quite all right?" He turned to Fleur in confusion, but she was laughing too.
"Oh, Harry. Of course I'm all right. I have to act sort of mad, I suppose, I mean you were out there for Merlin-knows how long! Unsupervised! But I can't pretend I'm not delighted that you two are together finally! I've always known you were meant for each other," she said happily. Harry had not the heart to tell her they were sort of on a break. Or whatever it was they were.
Several hours later, people began arriving for the rehearsal dinner. Harry threw on some dress robes after unsuccessfully trying to help Ron lengthen his—he'd grown again—before Hermione came out of nowhere and did it in a second. The three went on downstairs where small red-headed children were running around, greeting Ron excitedly.
"I'd say we've found your cousins," grinned Hermione. Ron rolled his eyes, chuckling. They went on into the kitchen where relatives started greeting Ron and his siblings and reacting to Harry with different amounts of enthusiasm. One woman screamed and started yelling something about 'the chosen one', but she was quickly taken into another room by an apologetic Mr. Weasley.
"That's Aunt Muriel," said Ron darkly. Harry stifled a laugh, remembering Ginny's rant about Ron's snogging experience last year. The rehearsal dinner went by smoothly. The wedding party was quite small; it consisted of Ron's two cousins as the flower girl and ring bearer, Ginny and Gabrielle (who'd been coming up to Harry randomly and squeaking and running away), and Ron, Charlie, Fred, and George. Harry was quite excited to actually go to a wedding, and in particular a wizarding wedding. There were some different rituals, apparently, and he was eager to see how it worked. However, he was looking forward to the wedding with some trepidation, as he had to visit Grimmauld Place in the morning before the wedding took place. Harry was planning on questioning Malfoy thoroughly, as he realized he'd probably acted a bit immature, and that he shouldn't act like an angry teenager if he was to run the Order of the Phoenix. Dumbledore had entrusted it to Harry, and Harry vowed not to let Dumbledore down.
A/N: Please click that little blue button that will submit a review! Thanks so much to those who have given me feedback on this story! Please review, and I'll have a new chapter out soon.
-Jinglebellz-