A searing beam of sunlight hit Harry's eyes as the drapes in the room were pulled open in Ron's room. He slowly uncovered his face as his eyes adjusted to the light and took in his surroundings in the just-waking-up bleariness.
After a second of being disoriented, the now familiar surroundings of Ron's room greeted him. Several bright Chudley Cannons posters adorned the walls, and generally, the room was quite cluttered, but that gave it a cozy feel. Ron, with mussed hair from just getting out of bed, looked around groggily and squinted over toward the window, where the offending light was coming from. His not-so-little sister, Ginny, was standing near the small window, still holding the curtains, having just pulled them open, and looking at them with laughter in her eyes.
"Ginny, what're you doing here?" asked Ron.
"You two sure do look hilarious when you're just waking up. If I only had a camera with me…" she said. Ignoring their half-hearted groans, she continued, "Mum said that since we're expecting someone important today, everyone has to be up and looking decent by the time he arrives. But she won't say who he is! Harry, do you know?" she asked, staring him straight in the eye.
Harry shook his head as he ran his hands through his disheveled black hair. Then he reached for his glasses and climbed out of bed. After shooing Ginny out, Harry and Ron began the process of finding some clothes. Not many of their summer clothes met Mrs. Weasley's definition of "decent", but they tried their hardest. Harry ended up with a pair of nicely fitting jeans, a black button-down shirt over a white Weird Sisters t-shirt, and a pair of black skater-type shoes. Ron went all out and donned khakis and a red button-down that clashed strikingly with his hair. After checking each other to make sure that they didn't look like idiots, they brushed their teeth and headed downstairs to see if Mrs. Weasley would approve. Luckily, she did, and the boys began wondering about who the company was that was going to be showing up soon.
They didn't have to wonder for long, however. As they were finishing their cereal in the kitchen and talking softly with Ginny, under Mrs. Weasley's watchful eye, about who the mysterious visitor could be, there was a knock on the door and in came former Hogwarts professor, member of the Order of the Phoenix, and good friend of Harry's, Remus Lupin.
"Good morning, Molly, Ginny, boys," Lupin said warmly, "I had a bit of trouble stealing away, Mad-Eye with his 'constant vigilance' and all…I trust your summers are going well?"
They all proceeded to tell Lupin about their adventures with playing Quidditch in the garden, rooting up more lawn gnomes than they could count, ridding the Burrow of a boggart in an old trunk in the attic, and various other not-dangerous activities. Whilst nodding and smiling, and asking a clarification question here and there, Lupin slowly worked his way over to Harry and, waiting tactfully for a break in the conversation, said, "Harry, I was hoping we could have a little bit of a chat…"
"OK." Harry said, and led Lupin to the only place that he could think of where they could have a little privacy, Ron's bedroom. After shutting the door, they sat, each on either Ron's or Harry's beds, and faced each other.
"So, Harry, how has your summer been?" Lupin asked with a very serious look on his face.
Sensing that his friend was not asking about the 'normal' summer activities that he had been taking part in, he took a deep breath and began.
"Well," he started, "I don't really have much to say. It's obviously been a little different around here since school got out, but things have been fairly…normal."
"Any strange dreams or any instances of your scar hurting like it has before?" Lupin asked while pulling a small notepad and a quill with a broken black feather on it out of his coat pocket.
Harry shook his head. A momentary incomprehensible look crossed Lupin's face while he scribbled notes on the pad, but it was gone quickly and replaced by a warm smile.
"All right then. The Order will be glad to hear things are going as well as they can, given the circumstances. By the way, I have something for you that I found at Grimmauld Place last week while going through some boxes in Buckbeak's room. You know, we're still trying to clean the house out…we just keep finding more and more boxes of old things." Lupin stood and handed Harry a small, rectangular package tightly wrapped in brown paper.
Harry opened it carefully to find a leather-bound book. He looked up at Lupin questioningly, but at Lupin's urging, opened it to find pictures of very
familiar faces. On the first page Moody, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs grinned
up at him from under the huge oak tree that stood by the lake at Hogwarts.
"I've been looking for that for a while." said Lupin. "That whole book is full of pictures from our sixth and seventh years at Hogwarts. I thought you might like to have it." Harry nodded emphatically as Lupin continued. "Those were good times. A lot different than now, I must say. Someday I'll have to tell you the stories that go along with some of those pictures…I daresay you'd find them interesting, and strangely enough, somewhat like some of the adventures you and Mr. Weasley and Ms. Granger have had. But now I really must be getting back to the Order. I'll try to see you again before school starts in September."
Harry looked up, his eyes wide. "So Hogwarts is staying open?"
Remus grinned. "Of course it is. You didn't really think it would close, did you? But I do have to say that there are a few…interesting…changes taking place this year. However, I'm going to let you find out about those when you get there. Now, would you walk with me downstairs?"
They descended the rickety stairs and Lupin started out the door. Before finally closing it, he said softly to Harry, "Make sure and send an owl immediately should anything strange or out of the ordinary happen."
Then he was gone.