Chapter 4

Attack at the Leaky Cauldron

Harry didn't sleep much that night due to the night terrors. Every time he closed his eyes, he would find himself in the same place, a room full of devices for torture, and him strapped to one of them. The room was some very tight competition for the Tower of London.

When Ron woke up, he and Harry walked down into the kitchen for some of the warm breakfast they had been able to smell since the third landing.

"Good morning, Harry," Ginny said from across the table filled with eggs, bacon, ham, and toast.

"Morning."

"Don't say good morning to me or anything, Ginny, I'm only your brother," Ron said with a hint of sarcasm.

"I'm sorry, Ron, good morning."

"Don't say it because you feel pressured. You might as well not say it as all if you don't really mean it."

"I do mean it though!" Ginny said apparently not hearing Ron's sarcasm, "I really do mean fo you to have a good morning."

Ron bursted into laughter, as did everyone else, including Mrs. Weasley who had over heard the conversation.

"So you all are coming to Diagon Alley yet aren't you?" Fred inquired.

"Yeah, Harry has yet to see our premises,'' said George.

"Yes, we'll be leaving shortly after breakfast," Mrs. Weasley responded sweetly, "by the way, how is your breakfast?"

"Delicious."

"It's great."

"Most excellent."

A rumble of voices came up from the table all at once. "That's good because we probably won't be eating again until we get home. You know how tight money's been lately," Mrs. Weasley said halfheartedly, "Oh, and Arthur, your lunch is in the fridge."

"Thanks, Molly, I'd best be going," Mr. Weasley got up from the table and said good-bye to each of his children individually, Harry included. "I'll see you all later," he vanished with a loud crack and Mrs. Weasley's clock moved Mr. Weasley from home to work.

"We better be going, too, it's just about time to open," George said bored, "catch ya' later."

"See ya!"

"Well, let's get this place cleaned up so we can leave. If we work together, we'll get it done in a jiffy," Mrs. Weasley propped herself up and began clearing the table of dishes, everyone else followed her lead.

Before he knew it, Harry was being thrown out of a fireplace in the Weasley's place at Diagon Alley. The store was so brightly coloured that it looked as though it had been beaten by the queer stick. The walls were covered with displays of all of the Weasley's products and in the corner were all kinds of candy dispensers filled with interesting flavors of Bertie Botts, Blood suckers, and other interesting things that you might find on the unused side of Honeydukes, not to mention ton-tongue taffy. In the middle of the room, there was a portable swamp with red ropes around it that had a small gap for entry. Then Harry noticed that there were splashes of green and brown on the walls and what looked like hand and foot prints on the ceiling.

"So what do ya think Harry:" Ron came out of the fireplace after Ginny, "It's not much, but people love it."

"It's great!"

"It usually picks up within the next hour," George came from the back with a box of nosebleed nougats. "So is our investor pleased?" He put them on the shelf.

"Yeah, it's fabulous, but can I ask about the Foot prints on the ceiling?"

"See that's just the thing," Fred and Angelina walked in the room rather sloppily, "you can ask."

"In order to encourage the little pranksters out there, we have swamp fights in here. So this one day, some half blooded werewolf raised kid comes in here and was just bouncing off the ceiling, literally. We thought it was pretty cool, so we stopped taking the goo off the walls after that." George looked up at the ceiling proudly.

"We should go find Hermoine," said Ron, "she should be here by now and Mum said that we should try to get our shopping done today so we don't have to worry about it. Well, at least most of it."

Ron, Harry, and Ginny had barely walked out of the Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes when they bumped into Hermoine. "Hermoine!" Ginny unwrapped herself from Harry's arm to give Hermoine a hug that nearly made her fall to the ground. "It's been too long. You really should write more."

"Well you know I've been in a muggle hotel in Italy for most of the summer and too many owls are suspicious. Ron are you okay?" Hermoine looked at Ron questionably.

Ron who had been gawking at Hermoine for the past two minutes suddenly snapped back into reality, "Yeah, what? Oh, sorry, I just, wow, Hermoine, you look different." Italy had done Hermoine good. The sun brought out her natural skin tones and highlights making her hair a lovely shade of light brown. She went to the fashion capital of the world and apparently learned a thing or two, and she had definitely filled out and blossomed beautifully. Her self-esteem was booted up making her smile as beautiful as ever.

"Thanks," she said blushing.

"He's right, you look great," Harry came up to Hermoine gibing her a hug.

"well if that's not the cutest thing I've ever seen," a mock mama voice came from behind Hermoine, "Potter and the mudblood, jealous Weasel?" Draco Malfoy stood there with the usual smirk smacked across his face, only this time it was different. Malfoy seemed to have filled out a lot that summer, too. He was no longer that scrawny, slimy haired future death eater, rich man. To sum it up, he was a hot bad boy, and instead of chewing him out while Ron's face turned five different shades of red Hermoine just looked at him, put a smirk on her face and said, "Harry and me aren't going out, I'm seeing no one," very calmly. Ron looked at Hermoine bewildered. She snapped out of her spell and made sure to add it, "as if my personal life was any of your business!"

"I'll bud into anyone's personal life whom I wish," Malfoy retorted.

"Hey, ferret face," Ginny was getting annoyed, "why don't you just leave us be, unless Hermoine's life story is that important to you, then sit down."

"Weaselette's gonna stand up for the mudblood now?"

"Yeah, cause that's what friends do, oh, but you wouldn't know that because you don't have any real friends!"

"I'm his friend," a girl who stood so silent and still under her white cloak that she was invisible to them all until now spoke.

"And who the hell are you? Some death eater's daughter?" Ginny went on.

"A what?" the girl said.

"You're friends with Malfoy?" Harry said in confusion.

"Yes."

"Draco Malfoy?"

"Yes."

"A muggleborn is friends with Draco Malfoy?" Harry continued interrogating.

"A what?"

"Unbelievable," Ron joined the interrogation, "What, do you have to kill her or something?"

"Ron!" Hermoine said.

"Hey, why don't you all just leave her alone, let's go." Malfoy took the girl by the arm and walked off with her.

"So what do you think he has planned for her?" Harry said after they left.

"I don't know, but it's something," Hermoine was still watching Malfoy in the distance, "Draco Malfoy does not just befriend muggleborns, he despises them. I think that his father is forcing him to be her friend."

"Yeah, she knows something, or has some special power, I can feel it," everyone looked at Harry and an awkward silence fell. "So did any one see who it was?"

"No, she didn't say her name. In fact, I didn't even see her face. Do you think it's someone from school?"

"I don't know, could be, but we should go to Gringotts quick, I have to get my money exchanged," Hermoine went searching through her pockets.

Harry pulled his pockets inside out and when nothing came out but a few knuts he said, "me, too."

Half an hour had passed when Harry, Ron, Hermoine, and Ginny exited Gringotts.

"What's happened?" Hermoine opened her mouth in complete shock. Everyone else had the look of shock on their faces apparently all to stunned to speak. Down at the end of the alley where there should have stood a brick wall was a smoldering hole in the ground and a big dark mark floating above it.

The normally bustling Diagon Alley was now silent as stone and the normally merry faces were covered in dirt and tears.

There was a sudden scream coming from a woman outside of the ice cream parlor who was being held back by two men. The parlor had burst into flames. "NO, MY BABY!" The woman was screaming with every ounce of energy she had. She screamed as though she was being torn from the inside out.

There was another large explosion just as a ragid man ran out of the falling building carrying a small boy who couldn't have been older than five.

The woman grasped her child and began crying tears of joy. Ginny fell into Harry's arms out of relief just as Mrs. Weasley ran up to them. "I've been so worried about you!" She squeezed all of them tightly, "We have to leave now, quick!" She led them off towards the Weasley's and they flooed to Grimwald place.