Chapter 3 is here! Things are starting to pick up, I promise.

Chapter 3 – The Start of Something New

With a spring in his step Harry walked down the road for a ways. He didn't feel like apparating to the Burrow just yet, as he wanted to enjoy his new freedom in the calm night air for a few minutes. He eventually made his way to the park where he sat down on one of the park benches. When he sat down Harry couldn't help but think of the last several times that he had left the Dursley prison of a home. They had been chaotic, but fun and adventurous. This time it was rather uneventful, even slightly disappointing. Shaking all thoughts of disappointment, Harry stood and was about apparate to the Burrow when he heard his name being called.

"Harry! Harry! Where the bloody hell are you? Harry!" Harry easily recognized the voice of his best and very first friend, Ron Weasley. Smiling to himself, Harry almost kicked himself for not realizing that his friends would come looking for him at the Dursleys. Harry started to walk towards Ron.

"Ron! Keep your voice down! You'll wake the whole neighborhood yelling like that!" said a second voice. Harry recognized it as his second best friend, Hermione Granger, the know-it-all, whose only friends for a long time were Ron and Harry. Smiling even bigger now that he realized that the two were really on speaking terms again, he silently approached the both of them.

"Both of you make enough noise to wake the whole bloody neighborhood!" whispered Harry behind the both of them. He had never seen either one of them jump so high before. When both of them turned around to see who it was that had snuck up on them like that, and they saw Harry there, Harry saw on their faces relief which turned into anger, which turned into happiness then anger again. Harry figured that he was lucky that looks couldn't kill or else the look that Ron was giving him would strike him stone dead. Then the look on Hermione's face would have frightened Voldemort himself.

"Harry Potter! You scared me half to death! You're lucky that I just don't curse you right here and now!" Yelled Hermione. Harry just smiled to himself.

"I missed you to Hermione," Harry hugged both of them before continuing "Sorry that I didn't wait at the Dursleys for you guys. I just couldn't stay there any longer than I had to. I'm sorry for scaring you like that. I've never seen you jump you two jump so high before." He thought about telling them about his worries about Voldemort attacking that night, but he didn't want to worry his friends.

"It's alright mate. We managed to find, or rather you found us!" said Ron, as he finally recovered from his fright. He was now smiling too. Hermione still had a scowl on her face.

"By the way, happy birthday! I almost forgot in all of the commotion." Said Ron. At this Hermione managed to brighten up as well.

"Happy birthday Harry! It's alright, I'll live. But enough chatting for now! Let's get back to the Burrow before Mrs. Weasley has a fit!" said Hermione.

"Uh, Hermione, Ron what if I wasn't going to back to the Burrow?" Ron and Hermione stopped in their tracks.

"Harry, listen to me. If you don't come back to the Burrow, Ginny is going to terrorize me for the rest of my life. She will terrorize me, my wife when I get married and my kids, then my grandkids! She WILL torture me!" Ron pleaded with Harry, Harry heard in his voice that he wasn't lying. And given the source of the threat Harry didn't doubt it for a second.

"Ron, don't worry I'm going to the Burrow. I just wanted to hear what Ginny had in store for you if I didn't go back! Well let's go ahead and apparate to the Burrow in the yard?" Both Ron and Hermione nodded at this suggestion from Harry. "Alright. Let's go then." With that the three of them disappeared into the night with a loud pop. Within moments the three of them where standing in front of the old crumbling house that was the Burrow. To most people it looked like an old near-ruined house, but to Harry, it was a place where he was accepted by people who cared about him, it was, to him, home.

"Well, it looks as though the went to bed. I don't see any lights on. Let's be quiet as we go in." Ron noted as they started for the door. Ron held the door open as Hermione went in first, and then Harry dragging his trunk behind him. When Harry got into the house Ron followed him, softly closing the door behind him.

"I can't see a bloody thing Ron! Lumos!" Harry said softly. His wand sprang to life by emitting a source of light form the tip. He held his wand up to see where he was going when all of a sudden he was tackled by something. Then the lights in the house sprang to life.

"Happy Birthday Harry!" was the next thing that Harry heard. Looking at his assailant, well assailants, he recognized both Fred and George Weasley, Ron older brothers who were twins. They were also the family trouble makers, but there was never a dull moment when the two of them were around. Fred and George hauled Harry to his feet and slapped him rather forcefully on the back.

"Happy birthday you grown-up man! Here is a reward for becoming a man!" said Fred as George pulled a long brown thing out of his pocket and shoved it in Harry's mouth. Before Harry could protest against what he recognized now as a cigar, Fred had pulled out a match and lighted it. Within seconds there was a loud pop and smoke filled the room as the cigar tip exploded.

"We got the idea from some muggles, and it is a very clever idea if I do say myself!" George stated wit a lot of pride.

"FRED AND GEORGE WEASLEY! THAT IS ENOUGH! Harry has barley walked into the door and your already harassing the poor boy like he was your brother! Harry dear, welcome back." Harry looked thankfully to Molly Weasley, Ron's mother, as she said that. With that Harry gave her a hug and said hello. He then gave his hellos to Arthur Weasley, Ron's dad, and Ron's other brothers Bill and Charlie. To his mild surprise, and relief, he didn't see Bill's fiancé, Fleur Delacour, anywhere. Never before did Ron feel as happy or comfortable as when he was with this family of redheaded wizards. His eyes then fell on a certain little redheaded girl, to whom Harry had lost his heart last year. He couldn't help but smile his biggest smile of the night when he saw her. Regardless of what he said or did, he couldn't hide his feelings for Ginny Weasley. Ginny didn't leave a doubt on Harry's mind as to the state of her feelings when she ran and jumped into his arms giving him a big hug a quick kiss on the cheek. After Ginny let go of him, Harry looked around to see if anyone had noticed the kiss. No one seemed to have noticed.

"Hey, Harry! Time to open your presents, mate!" yelled Ron, seemingly to be impatient to do that particular part of any birthday. Harry decided not to make Ron wait any longer for him. So he went and sat down on the couch with Ron on one side of him and Hermione on the other. He then started to open his presents. From Fred and George he got a bag full of joke items from their joke shop, including a small box of the exploding cigars. Bill and Charlie had gotten him a nice pair of boots that where made out of tough dragon skin. Hermione had given him two books, one was entitled Non-verbal Spells Revealed, and Occlumency for those who are Challenged. Harry figured that both books would come in quite handy, and in thanks gave her a hug and a 'Thanks'. Ron gave Harry a small set of wizard chess and a book on Quidditch. Both objects he figured would give him some relief from the days that would lie ahead of him.

"Mate, now I can beat you at chess anytime anywhere you like!" exclaimed Ron after Harry said thank you to Ron.

"We'll see Ron, we'll see." Answered Harry. Then came one last present. When he saw it Harry almost broke down into tears. For their present, Mr. And Mrs. Weasley had out Harry's name on their clock.

"Thank you vary much, Mr. And Mrs. Weasley. I…I…couldn't ask for anything…" Harry managed to choke out before being caught in one of Mrs. Weasley's crushing embraces that he had come to love.

"Harry, dear, to us, to all of us you are part of this family. You have been ever since we first meet and you befriended Ron. Both you and Hermione are like an extra son and daughter to me. Besides Harry, without you I would be missing half of my family!" said a crying Mrs. Weasley. After being let loose Harry looked at the clock again and saw that Hermione's name had been added to the clock as well. After this they broke down and started to eat a delicious cake that Mrs. Weasley had made. While they ate, Harry noticed that Ginny was being unusually quite, and noted that she hadn't given him a birthday present. Maybe she HAS given up on me, Harry wondered as he finished his cake. After the cake had been eaten, Mrs. Weasley decided that it was time for everyone to go to bed. Harry followed Ron to his room, which was where he customarily slept at the Weasley house. Before going into the room they both turned and said goodnight to Hermione and Ginny.

Ron fell asleep within seconds of lying on his bed, but Harry before he could drift off into sleep, had some urgent business to take care of. On his way to the bathroom he nearly ran into Ginny. When he saw her he smiled, but he also couldn't help but think that she had been waiting for him. For a moment they just stared at one another, then Ginny pulled Harry down to her and kissed him for what seemed like an eternity of heavenly bliss to Harry. Okay, so she still has feelings for me, was all that Harry thought at that moment, and to his surprise, he was overcome with joy.

"Ginny, I missed you so much. Now that, that was a great way to top off this birthday I must say." Harry told her.

"Harry, I missed you too. You can't get rid of me that easily. Whatever you plan on doing, you better count on me, because I'm going with you. I don't care what you say."

"But, Ginny, listen to me. I love you. I love you with all of my heart. I couldn't bear it if you got hurt, or worse. I told you that at the end of term. Voldemort has a tendency to use people close to me to get to me. If he uses you again…"

"I remember what you said Harry, but I guess that you don't remember what I said. I don't care. Harry, you can keep up with this argument, but you won't win. I've made my decision." Ginny glared at Harry when she said this. Harry sighed, and admitted defeat.

"Alright Gin, just you have to promise me one thing though.

"What is that, Harry?"

"That you will be careful, and if I tell you to run, hide or apparate away, you will. Alright?" Harry couldn't help but notice that he told Ginny exactly what Dumbledore had told him when they went to find the Horcruxe. Ginny sighed, obviously worried about what he said.

"I promise Harry." Ginny said after a moment of thought.

"Well, uh, Ginny, did you ever tell your parents…well…about….well, you know, about, uh, us?" Harry asked this nervously.

"Well, no I didn't. I kind of left that little detail out of my what I told mum about my year. I do plan on telling them, sometime. Now, I want to give you the rest of your birthday present…" With that all discussion for the night ended. When the two finally parted they reluctantly trudged off to bed. Harry climbed into his bed exhausted. As he lay down he heard Ron sit up.

"About time you got back. Where did you go?" Harry heard Ron say, he couldn't see it, but Harry sensed that Ron had a smile on his face.

"I went to the bathroom. That was all."

"Right. So what was all that noise I heard out there? Some sort of weird sucking noise, some smacking…HEY!" Ron was interrupted when a pillow caught him full in the face. "Ok, ok. At least she'll stop hounding me about you now. Good night suck face." Another pillow was all the reply that Ron got from Harry.