The next few days were very interesting for Harry. He wasn't used to anything good happening at Privet Drive. It took him a few days to get accustom to opening his bedroom door and it not leading to the hallway.

If it took Harry a while to get used to the new living arrangements, it was nothing compared to the Dursleys. On their first morning at Number Four, the trio slept in and ventured downstairs for a late breakfast. They found the Dursleys sitting around the table, already finished with their breakfast. Uncle Vernon was reading his newspaper, Aunt Petunia was sipping her tea, and Dudley's eyes were glued to his TV. All three of them froze when Harry lead Ron and Hermione in. Dudley pushed back his chair from the table.

"Good morning," Hermione said cheerfully, trying to be polite. She got no response.

Harry, who hadn't expected anything less, went to the refrigerator and started gathering things to make breakfast with. Hermione, realizing the Dursleys weren't going to acknowledge her, went to help Harry. Ron followed.

Once everything was out and ready, Harry and Hermione started cooking. As Hermione turned the sausage in the pan, she heard a whisper from the table.

"Look, Vernon. She's cooking like a normal person," Aunt Petunia hissed, staring at Hermione.

"My parents are Muggles. Dentists," Hermione said, "I know how to do almost everything the Muggle way."

Hermoine was trying to make conversation, and yet again she was ignored. Aunt Petunia snapped her head around and started sipping her tea again, as if she hadn't been spoken to.

Hermione gave Harry a quizzical look. He just shrugged as if to say, "I told you so."

Toward the end of the first week, everything started to settle down. The Dursleys were still not talking to them, but at least the dirty looks had stopped.

Once Ron and Hermione were finally settled in, the fun began. Not only did Fred and George give Ron new products to test, they gave him ammunition.

The Decoy Detonators they had given to Harry made a great distraction and a chance to sneak into Dudley's bedroom and shake a healthy amount of Light's Out Powder into his sheets. That night when Dudley turned out the light and crawled under his comforter, he let out a blood-curdling scream to be heard throughout the neighborhood. He jumped out of his bed and ran hard into his father and mother, who had come to investigate why their son was screaming like he was being tortured.

"Diddy! Darling! What is it? Tell Mummy! Are you ill? What happened, are you hurt?" Aunt Petunia asked hysterically, turning the light on.

"There are bugs or something itchy crawling in my bed! I felt them when I got into bed! They were all over me! Are they still there?" Dudley demanded, spinning around for his mother to check that he was bug free.

Uncle Vernon had tore across the room and ripped back Dudley's covers.

Nothing there but sheets. He looked under the pillows and in the folds of the material. Still nothing.

"Dudders, are you sure? Do you think you may have dreamed it? Only, I don't find anything."

"What! No I didn't dream it! I had just gotten into bed! Look harder!"

Dudley demanded of his father.

They looked and looked but found nothing.

"Do you think it was them?" Aunt Petunia hissed to Vernon, jerking her head toward the open door.

"I don't know. They've been in there all day, since breakfast. But they can't do magic outside that nut house! No, his pajamas must not have been rinsed properly in the wash, that's all. Just have him change and that should do the job," Uncle Vernon replied.

But changing his pajamas didn't help. Neither did putting a new comforter on his bed, or changing his pillows. Every time the lights went out, Dudley would itch in his bed. Twenty minutes later, Harry, Ron and Hermione laughed silently behind their door as they heard an extremely grumpy Dudley stormed down the hall way, heading down stairs to sleep on the couch.

By the beginning of July, Dudley had been itched out of his bed, his clothes shrunk while he was in them, his shampoo turned his hair rather shocking shades of orange and blue stripes, and his breakfast made his tongue stick to the roof of his mouth so that he couldn't talk or eat until well after dinner time. With each incident, Uncle Vernon came up with wilder and wilder

Explanations for them. Harry, Ron and Hermione only left their new loft in Harry's room for meals, so they were never around when these things happened, so Vernon concluded that it wasn't them. In reality, he couldn't stomach the thought of that unnaturalness being used in his house, especially on his son. But all of the freaks were Harry's age, not legal age to be adults, they still couldn't do the 'M' word anyway. He also didn't like that the odds were even and Harry was no longer out numbered.

So he thought. He didn't realize that in his failure to try to get to know Ron and Hermione (those unnatural little freaks!), that they were both of age. They had been using well placed spells to get new Weasley Wizard Wheezes into Dudley's things. They also, with some help from Fred and George, had a new weapon in their front against Dudley. It had come in the last package they had sent.

Dearest Little Brother, Hermione and Harry,

We were thrilled to receive your last letter informing us of the success of our newest products. We are glad you have such an opportunity to test them properly. We have been thinking to ourselves, selves we thought, we've already invented loads of new products for the comical relief of the world, what is left? Well, we tried and tried to envision what we could do to make the honorable calling as prankster more efficient, and that's when we figured it out! Vision! What is the point we asked ourselves, of playing a prank on someone and not be there to see the results! Nothing we answered ourselves. Pointless in the worst way. But then it came to us! Prank-N-Peek! We got the idea from the picture a picture box that Muggles use that Dad was tinkering with at the Burrow. We have enclosed one for you three to test on that lovely cousin of Harry's. Do owl back soon and let us know what you think.

Yours most sincerely in mischief,

Gred and Forge

P.S. To make it work, the incantation is Prankeous and then the victim's name.

When they looked in the bottom of the box. The Prank-N-Peek looked like a small television screen on a stand. They decided to test it that night. Hermione, who had gone along with the comical torture of Dudley a lot easier than either Ron or Harry had expected, snuck into the Dursley's bathroom and slipped a drop of Tingle-Me-Pink, a new Fred and George tester, into Dudley's toothpaste tube. When it came time for bed, Ron, Harry and Hermione gathered around Prank-N-Peek.

"Prankeous, Dudley Dursley" Harry said to the screen.

A small speck of light appeared in the middle of the screen. As it expanded so that it covered the entire surface, Dudley's piggy face came into focus. He was in the kitchen, shoving a piece of cake into his mouth. He had obviously been sneaking sweets into the house again. He swallowed the cake, licked the chocolate from his fingers, and said good night to his parents. As he climbed the stairs, Ron scooted to the edge of his seat. Dudley walked into the bathroom, grabbed his toothbrush and smeared it with toothpaste. He brushed away as Harry, Ron and Hermione laughed. Once Dudley was finished rinsing out his mouth, he smiled at himself in the mirror. His scream drowned out the screech of mirth that came from Hermione. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia came running upstairs. They had unfortunately become accustom to unusual thing happening to Dudley lately.

"What happened, Diddy, Darling?" Aunt Petunia asked, rushing to hug Dudley.

"My teeth! Look at my teeth!"

When Dudley opened his mouth, Uncle Vernon let out a few choice words.

"What the ruddy hell happened? What is all over your teeth?"

"I have no idea, I just brushed my teeth and they turned pink!"

In their room, Harry, Ron and Hermione were laughing so hard that tears were now running down their cheeks.

"What did you eat, Diddy? Did you eat something this color? A sweet maybe? You can tell Mummy, I won't be mad."

"No I didn't eat a sweet! I you haven't let me eat one in forever! It was those freaks, you know it is!" Dudley yelled.

Uncle Vernon had a dangerous look on his face. Harry could tell that he was having an internal struggle. He wanted punishment for what had happened to his son. However, he didn't like the thought of confronting three people who could do who-knows-what to him. He had known for a while that Dudley's incidents were no accidents, but he tried to avoid the freaks at all costs. But something had to be done.

Harry saw Uncle Vernon coming and hid the Prank-N-Peek. He got to the door just about the time that Vernon started to pound on it. Harry swung it open to reveal his uncle's purple, shaking face.

"What did you do to my son?" he asked in a deadly whisper.

"I haven't done anything. Why do you ask?" Harry loved making his uncle mad, especially when he was too scared to do anything about it.

"You know bloody well what happened to Dudley. And I know that you had something to do with it. You aren't supposed to do that...stuff outside that mad house until you are seventeen and you know it. So you just dug yourself into a hole. I know that you used it on him, you have been for weeks! But now you've gone too far!"

Vernon charged into the room, looking around.

"What are you looking for?" Harry asked, amused.

"I'm going to wait until you get one of those bloody birds like last time you used that unnaturalness in my house! I can't wait to read that letter," he replied with a smile. He was now turning round on the spot, looking at the changes that had been made in the room. "And you can say good bye to this monstrosity," he said, waving his hand around the room. "Now, you're out of here!"

"Actually, if you're waiting for a letter about me using under age magic, you'll be sorely disappointed," Harry said cheerfully, Ron and Hermione on either side of him, pointing their wands at Vernon. "You see, I may not be seventeen, but they both are. Now, I suggest you leave my room, and take your son to a dentist tomorrow."

Harry, Ron and Hermione started advancing on Vernon, who proceeded to turn and walked swiftly toward the door.

"This isn't over, boy!" he snarled.

"Oh, I think it is. Good night!" Harry said in a fake pleasant voice and shut the door in his uncle's stunned face.

The next morning, Aunt Petunia called Dudley's dentist in London and made an emergency appointment. Ron, Harry, and Hermione were in the kitchen having a late breakfast when the Dursleys came in. Dudley's teeth had been cleaned back to normal, but the looks that were shot towards the dining room table said that the Dursleys hadn't yet forgotten about the previous night. After staring daggers at Harry and his friends, Aunt Petunia picked up her conversation like nothing had happened.

"Like I was saying, I think that the dentist did such a good job on Diddy that I may make an appointment myself," Aunt Petunia said haughtily.

"Make me one too Petunia. I liked the man. Did his job, and no funny questions," commented Uncle Vernon.

"He has a daughter about Dudley's age, did you know? He told me while he was working on Diddy that she is the top of her class at her private school in Scotland. She sounds like a lovely girl," Petunia said, as if that settled the matter.

"What was the bloke's name again? Gardener wasn't it?"

"Granger. William Granger. He and his wife Carol practice together. She's a dentist too."

Ron and Harry looked at Hermione. Hermione was smiling widely, and evil smile.

"What did you say that name was?" she asked the Dursleys.

Aunt Petunia looked at Hermione like she was a puddle of mud on her spotless floor.

"I believe that Hermione asked you a question," Harry said, standing up.

Aunt Petunia looked at Vernon for support. He was turning purple and he was breathing huffily through his nose.

Hermione asked again, "What was that name?"

"Granger," spat Petunia. "William Granger. A nice normal man married to a normal woman who has a very respectable dentistry practice and has a lovely daughter!"

"Really?" Hermione asked pleasantly. She turned to Harry and Ron. "Did you hear that? My father is normal and my mother is normal and I'm a lovely girl. I had no idea they liked me so much," she said, indicating the Dursleys.

It took them a second to realize what she had said. Vernon's face turned ghastly shade of green at an alarming rate, Petunia fainted cold and Dudley ran to the sink and started gagging and spitting into it.

With a smile, she stood up from the table, grabbed her plate, walked to the dishwasher and put it in. When she walked back by the Dursleys to go back upstairs she stopped.

"By the way," she said in a sugary-sweet voice, "my name is Hermione Granger and this is Ronald Weasley," she indicated Ron. Maybe if you had listened to me before when I tried to make conversation, this wouldn't have come as such a nasty shock." She turned to the boys. "I think it's time to work on some homework. I wouldn't want to loose my class ranking," she said, winking at them.

She turned on her heel and started gracefully up the stairs. Ron and Harry followed, leaving their plates on the table, snickering.

Once they were all back in Harry's room, Ron and Harry exploded with laughter.

"That was brilliant, Hermione! I'll never forget the looks on their faces!"

"Well, it serves them right," Hermione replied in a dignified voice.

"Honestly. I told them that my parents were Muggle dentists! Anyway, we really need to get to work."

Each of them grabbed a book and sat down in a chair. Hermione had Hogwarts: A History, Ron had The Four Founders, and Harry was flipping through a tomb entitled United They Stood, Divided They Fell. Since they had arrived at Privet Drive, they had been poring through books about the four founders of Hogwarts. They were looking for anything that Voldemort may have used as a Horcrux. Hermione had produced these books from her trunk the morning after they she and Ron had come to stay. She had cleverly transfigured a few pieces of parchment to look like the books and placed them on the shelves in the library and stowed the real books away in her trunk.

"It was for the greater good," she had protested, red faced, when Ron and Harry teased her about taking the books. "Besides, she'll have them back when term starts. Ginny said she'd return them for me."

The three sat a rummaged their books through the morning and into the late afternoon. Not wanting to disrupt their quiet search, Hermione, who had long since mastered magic without incantation, summoned them some sandwich makings from the kitchen. Screams from downstairs announced their arrival. After a silent lunch, Hermione checked the time.

"Goodness!" she said, her voice ringing in the concentrated quiet. "Ginny will be here any minute!"

Harry's head snapped up. He hadn't seen Ginny in weeks and he had thought of her often, so had the monster in him. Ron would surely murder him if he knew the things that the monster thought.

"Ginny's coming over?" Harry asked, trying to sound off hand.

"Yes. She should be here any minute. She's spending the night."

Harry's heart jumped to his throat. "Hmmm," he said, trying to act as if he didn't care. He wasn't fooling anyone.

However, Harry didn't have a chance to notice the unbelieving smirks on his friends' faces. The fireplace behind them suddenly erupted in green flames and a fiery red head appeared with an over-night bag over her shoulder.

"Ginny! We were just talking about you," Hermione said, hugging her friend.

"Really? Nothing too bad I hope," she said, looking at Harry.

"Just horrible things, really," Ron said as he walked over to hug his sister. "We were saying what a dreadfully wretched girl you are. Just horrid."

Harry was standing by his chair, resisting the urge to run to Ginny, but only just. She looked very pretty in a pair of faded jeans a fitted shirt and her long hair flowing down her back. Harry couldn't take his eyes off of her.

"Hello, Harry," she said politely.

"Hi, Gin. How are you?"

"Well, thanks. How are you?"

"Good."

"Why don't we take your stuff to my room, Ginny?" Hermione suggested after a moment of uncomfortable silence.

"Ok," Ginny said, still looking at Harry. Harry couldn't read her expression. She didn't look mad or hurt or anything that Harry could pick up on at all. She almost looked searching, but he couldn't be sure.

Once the girls had closed themselves in Hermione's room, Ron turned to

Harry.

"Why don't you just tell her you're sorry and that you went mad for a while but now you're miserable? You know she'd take you back. She's waited years to be with you, you know.

"What? I...I don't...I can't...she..." Harry stammered. He couldn't exactly argue with what Ron said because it was what he himself had been thinking for over a month. Ron was looking at him expectantly. "She'll be a target with me," Harry said finally. "I can't do that to her. Maybe when everything calms down and Voldemort's gone. If I'm still alive that is." Harry added as an after thought.

"Look, Mate, she's my sister and I don't want to see her get hurt anymore than you do. But, she can handle herself. You know she can. And you're my best mate. I know that you wouldn't let anything happen to her. To any of us. I can't imagine having all of the pressure you have. But you deserve to be happy and so does Ginny. And the only way you're going to be that way is with each other."

Harry was flabbergasted. Ron, who was totally oblivious to things of this nature, seemed to be channeling Harry's own thoughts and feeding them back to him. He was right of course.

For the rest of the night Harry and Ron played chess while giggles and

Shrieks of laughter could be heard from Hermione's room.

After everyone went to bed, Harry lay awake. All he could see was her face; all he could hear was her laughter. Why did Voldemort have to make everyone around him a target? Why did he have to use the people closest to Harry against him? Harry dwelled on this thought so long, he couldn't lay still. He got out of bed, clad only in his pajama pants, and headed to the loo.

He crossed to the door and collided hard with something.

"Ouch!"

It was Ginny.

Reaching out instinctively, he grabbed her before she fell. He had her drawn up to his chest before either one realized what was happening.

"Harry?"

"Yeah?"

"You scared me half to death! What are you doing?"

"I couldn't sleep."

"Me neither," Ginny sighed into Harry's chest.

Harry was suddenly conscious of the fact that he still had Ginny wrapped tightly in his arms and the fact that he was bare-chested. But she felt warm against him and he didn't favor the thought of letting go of her just yet. He could smell the light, sweet scent of her soft hair. Ginny, too, must have realized this because she suddenly stiffened and pulled back from him.

"Well...um..." she stuttered.

Harry could tell she was blushing, even though he couldn't see her in the dark. She always blushes when she stutters. Suddenly the monster in Harry started to stir. Thoughts danced around in his head of things that one could do in this situation. He and Ginny were alone, it was dark, and everyone else was asleep... Good Harry was fighting with monster within and had unconsciously taken a step closer to Ginny when they heard a voice.

"Ginny?" Hermione whispered from her room. "Ginny? Where are you?"

"I'll be right there, Hermione," Ginny whispered back. "Well, I better get back in there before she decides to come looking for me," she whispered to Harry. "Good night."

"Night, Gin," Harry whispered back, disappointed.

They tried to pass each other, Harry into the loo and Ginny out, but as they were still in the doorway, they bumped into each other again.

"Excuse me," Ginny whispered.

"Sorry," Harry whispered back.

Harry felt her brush past him into the other room. He hugged himself, as if trying to hold onto the very essence of her. Harry turned and headed back to his room, not even going into the bathroom. He lay awake for the rest of what proved to be a long and restless night, never to know that in the room across the hall, a petit redhead with a tear in her eye was doing the same.