Harry was sad. He had been thus ever since the last day of term. That was when he had realized that Sirius was never coming back. Now, the pain was beginning to dull, but it was still there. Boldly, irreversibly there. Every morning, Harry would run to the window, looking for an owl from his godfather. Then, he would remember. The shot of ice to his heart was some days, almost staggering. The enormity that was Sirius had somehow, pushed the prophecy to the back of his mind. Harry knew that he would tell Ron and Hermione. If not today, it would be soon. Later today, Harry hoped there would be some joy in store for him. This afternoon he was headed to the burrow. Harry spent the next few hours wandering around his bedroom occasionally tossing things into his trunk. Just as he was latching the lid shut, Harry heard a loud bang come from downstairs. Taking that as his cue, Harry picked up his trunk and Hedwig's cage and headed down the stairs, thumping and bumping the whole way.
"Hello Mr. Weasley," said Harry, not bothering to look up as he reached the end of the stairs.
"Hello to you too, Mr. Potter." it was the familiar voices of Fred Weasley. Harry looked up to see the Weasley twins, sporting identical grins. Behind them, Harry could see Uncle Vernon looking livid. Fortunately, Aunt Petunia had decided to take Dudley shopping that day so she was not at home.
"Fred? George?" asked Harry, "Where's your dad?"
"He had to work," said George.
"Mum said we could come instead," said Fred.
Uncle Vernon was making feeble gestures to Harry to get out.
"How are we going to get back to the burrow?" asked Harry, completely ignoring his uncle.
"Well at first we thought we'd do floo powder," said George, "But that was no good because this is a muggle house."
"To make a long story short," said Fred, "we're going to do side-along apparition."
Harry looked confused so George took pity on him, "it's when an underage wizard apparates along with an overage one by grabbing onto his arm or something." Explained George.
"All right then," said Fred, "Harry, are you ready to go?"
Harry nodded, "Goodbye Uncle Vernon," he said, turning to say goodbye. All his uncle could manage was a weak sort of wave. George picked up Harry's trunk and Hedwig's cage and disappeared with a loud bang.
"Okay Harry," said Fred, "grab my arm right there and don't let go no matter what." Harry grasped Fred's arm just above his right elbow and promptly felt as if he was being squeezed through a tube of toothpaste.