Chapter 1:
Hedwig hooted softly, reminding Harry that he had to feed her before his long trek tomorrow morning. He slowly looked at the clock, and waited patiently for it to click 12:00. Ron and Hermione both looked up from their sleeping bags, which they had insisted on sleeping in, and grinned. After fifteen seconds of staring at the digital clock Harry had repaired, it clicked 12:00, in brilliant red letters.
Slowly, Harry extracted his wand and waved it profusely, muttering, "Accio Owl Treats!"
A slightly opened bag of owl treats flew over to him as he put his hand inside of it and extracted three individual pieces, depositing them into Hedwig's cage. She hooted softly again, this time in thanks. Harry had just done his first bit of magic outside of Hogwarts legally.
"Well mate, at least you can fight Voldemort now without worrying about the Ministry throwing you in Azkaban!" chuckled Ron, as Hermione and Harry laughed, resulting in annoyed grunts coming from Vernon and Petunia Durlsey's room. Harry didn't care, long gone were the days that he was concerned whether or not Uncle Vernon was happy with him or not. Hermione gave Harry an apologetic look, which only made Harry laugh harder.
Hermione gave Harry a stern look before putting her head back onto her pillow, as Ron followed the suit. Harry though, sat up against the wall and thought back to the past weeks.
When Harry arrived at Number four, Privet Drive, from Kings Cross station (driven back by the newly licensed driver, Dudley), Uncle Vernon was already unhappy enough. But when his Uncle saw that he had brought along guests, Ron and Hermione, he hit the roof. More to his displeasure, Hermione moved to agree with Uncle Vernon, telling Harry that he was highly irresponsible for not writing to his Uncle beforehand, telling him he was bringing guests. Even further to Harry's surprise, Uncle Vernon took and immediate liking to Hermione, and implored that she should stay with them, "As long as you may need." As for Ron, Uncle Vernon only recognized him from their last meeting in his living room, which had proceeded to be torn apart by the end of their acquaintance. Yet, possibly out of fear of further damage to his homely possessions, Uncle Vernon allowed him to stay as well, acting like Professor Slughorn, and treating Ron like a thin sheet of transparent glass. Ever since then, Harry, Ron and Hermione had been staying at Number four, thoroughly enjoying jinxing Dudley behind his back, without any persecution from the Ministry about "underage magic."
While Ron and Hermione were busy setting up how they were going to get to Bill and Fleurs wedding in France, Harry went to pay a visit to an old friend, Ms. Figg. Apart from looking battier and cat loving then ever, she deeply appreciated Harry's visit. Yet it turned out to be a short one, as Arabella (which she had now forced Harry to call her), seemed to want to talk of nothing other than Dumbledore, forcing Harry to give her explicit details as to how his death occurred. Just thinking of this made Harry feel queasy and lightly lightheaded inside, and he almost always had to brush away his thoughts by thinking of other things.
He also visited Professor Lupin, (by the ability of his recently passed apparition test), who was bunked in London in Diagon Alley with a pleased and pink haired Tonks. Poor as Professor Lupin was, he had been given the room free of charge, for the rest of his life, as far as the Weasley twins were concerned. And the Weasley twins concern meant a lot in the magical world these days. Wealsey's Wizard Wheezy's had become such a large success that they had complete and total control over Diagon Alley, buying every store in the Alley and turning it into their shop. Yet they still found the time to have drinks and chat with Harry, and show him all of their new prototype merchandise, not yet released into the Wizarding World.
Harry rolled over, now lying down in his bed. Not all of his stay at the Dursley's had been fun and games. Only three days ago, a man Harry could not bring himself to call a friend paid him a visit.
Ding dong!
"Would somebody get the blasted door, I'm busy!" shouted Vernon Dursley, sloppily eating cake directly from the fridge.
Harry Ron and Hermione all filed down the stairs, laughing at a joke Ron had just said about the Ministry.
"Speak of the devil," said Harry, opening the front door, only to see Rufus Scrimgeour, wiping the smile off his face immediately. Harry walked away from the open door with a look of utter disgust on is face. The Minister must have taken this as some sort of a welcome, since he stepped inside. As he did so, two Ministry officials revealed themselves under invisibility cloaks, also following the Minister inside.
"Harry-"started the Minister, but he was cut off.
"Mr. Potter, Rufus, because we are definitely not on first name terms with me!" said Harry fiercely.
"Well then Mr. Potter, I see I should get the point," said Rufus, feeling very awkward standing inside a Muggle hallway addressing a 17 year old boy by his last name, and being addressed by his first. "I know that you refused my offer twice last year, yet now that the beginning of your final year at Hogwarts, I thought that you may feel slightly more inclined to be interested in what I have to say."
"Out," stated Harry simply, as Hermione and Ron (legal wizards now) pulled out their wands.
"But-"
"Out now or they'll blast you out!" said Harry warningly, pointing to Ron and Hermione, looking only to keen to do so.
"You can't be seri-"
A white flash emitted the hallway as Rufus Scrimgeour and his two Ministry bodyguards were hurled out of the Dursley's home, and directly into the front yard.
"You've made a bad enemy Potter, a bad ene-"
But Ron had closed the door, amidst his shouts of rage and fury. Harry chuckled.
"Who was it!" barked Uncle Vernon to Harry.
"Wrong address," replied Harry, smiling to Ron and Hermione.
