"Harry!" Cried Ginny Weasley, her long red hair gleaming, "You're here! We thought you'd never make it!"
Harry beamed at Ginny and they hugged, though the hug was brief and awkward.
"Well, come on! Everyone else is upstairs waiting for you! You were taking so long that we thought you got held up by Death Eaters."
Harry didn't find this amusing. Ginny noticed this immediately, and changed the subject hastily.
"Yeah, well, our summer's been dreadfully boring, the most exciting thing that has happened was that a dead doxy dropped from the ceiling in to the potato soup last night at supper and scared mum half to death," Ginny said humorlessly.
Harry cheered up a little. He followed Ginny soundlessly up the stairs, a dreadful creaking sound was made whenever he stepped, and the beheaded house-elves leered at him with lifeless venom.
Ginny heaved a big sigh and broke Harry out of his reverie. She pushed open the door to the room Ron and he shared.
"Harry, you're finally here! We were so worried!" Cried an all to familiar voice that he knew belonged to Hermione.
"'Lo, Hermione," said Harry smiling weakly at Hermione, and then to Ron, who was sitting upright on his bed. He wore an odd expression, as if caught doing something wrong.
The room looked different somehow, it no longer looked grungy and uninviting. A fire cracked merrily between the two beds and looked as if it never wished to go out. Harry's bed was made tidily and he knew that someone was preparing for his arrival. The chandelier that hung from the ceiling was dusted and shiny.
"Bill and Fleur's wedding is tomorrow," said Ron, standing and joining the group by the door, "They're getting married here, in the biggest room in the house, the ballroom."
"Grimmauld Place has a ballroom?" Asked Harry, taken aback, "How come I didn't know? We cleaned the place top to bottom in the summer before our fifth year."
"Because we just found it. It was being guarded heavily by a haughty looking portrait, you know, the one next to that wardrobe that held that attacking robe, and he accidentally let it slip to Ginny that he was guarding a ballroom," replied Ron.
"I persuaded him, more like," said Ginny.
"Sure, just like you persuaded that foul, screeching portrait of Sirius's mum to start retching yesterday…"
Ron turned an unflattering shade of pink.
"Listen, Harry, there is something we have to tell you about Dumbledore…"
Harry didn't get to hear the important news about Dumbledore. At that precise moment, Mrs. Weasley knocked on the door.
"Dinner, my dears, hurry! The soup is getting deathly cold. Oh, and Harry, Remus wants to talk to you," said Mrs. Weasley, in a frazzled, yet cheery, voice.
They headed down the stairs again, not daring to whisper anything amongst themselves in the company of Mrs. Weasley. When they reached the last step, they broke up. Harry went to the corner where Lupin sat, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny made way to the table, and Mrs. Weasley hurried to the large cauldron teeming with piping hot soup.
"You wanted to see me?" Said Harry. It seemed as if the werewolf couldn't hear him, because his gaze never faltered from the fireplace. Finally, he turned toward Harry.
"Ah, yes, perhaps we could go someplace more…. private? Maybe in this hallway?" He gestured to a corridor that look so seldom traveled upon that it seemed as if it had survived Mrs. Weasley's cleaning frenzy.
Lupin turned and opened his mouth to speak, but hesitated only for a moment, then explained himself.
"I know your intentions, Harry," he said so calmly that maybe not even Dumbledore himself could have matched his serenity, "You and your friends plan to set off for Godric's Hollow, and there set off to destroy Voldemort's horcruxes."
Harry was speechless. How could Lupin have discovered his plans?
"How did you know?" Asked Harry, his eyes wide in amazement. Lupin smiled genuinely.
"Dumbledore filled me in. He is too weak to talk to you himself, of course, but requested me to warn and counsel you: they will search for you in Godric's Hollow. I am not saying you shouldn't go, but that you should take care. The world is now an extremely unsafe place, especially for you, Harry. Please, heed me, and tell your friends, too. Right now, you may be the only one who is able to vanquish Voldemort, and he knows that. He will hunt you down. I advise you to take a member of the Order on your journey, will you do that?"
Harry let out an enormously sigh. "No, I cannot. I wish to make this journey alone. The only reason Ron and Hermione are going is because they insist, and I swore to them they could aide me."
Lupin sighed. "You are stubborn, Harry, and remind me a bit of James," he said, a tinge of laughter in his voice, "very well, I will back off, but Molly won't take this well."
They turned to leave, but an ear-splitting scream made the pair stop in their tracks.