Chapter 5

The Incident

Not mine, property of the great JK Rowling.

July 30 (the day before)

Harry was only relieved that the entire Weasley clan wasn't there to witness his humiliation as the world stopped spinning and what little food he'd had made a reappearance. Only motherly Molly Weasley was in the kitchen and although perhaps mildly surprised to have an ill teenager suddenly appear in her kitchen, it was by no means out of her experience. She dropped what she was doing immediately and was at Harry's side in an instant, Scourgifying the mess almost absently as she passed concentrating on the boy. She saw a too-thin child that she'd so often wished was one of her own, standing there in clothes too big for him and a rather hangdog expression. She could only imagine that his relatives wouldn't have been too sympathetic to his illness had he thrown up at home and once again wished she could do something nasty to them all. At his automatic flinch when she appeared beside him, she had to push away her budding fury at the Muggles and sat him down. There was just something about him that made her want to mother him.

"There now, sit down Harry and I'll get you something to eat. It was just the travelling." She bustled away and returned impressively quickly with chicken soup and toast. Chicken soup was a great comforter and easy on the stomach.

"Thank-you," said Harry, with that smile that made it a pleasure to help him, she thought fondly. Really, how those muggles could treat such a sweet child the way they did! It was disgraceful. She was glad he was out of there. That reminded her.

"Harry, why are you here? Not that your not always welcome, but did something happen? And where's Tonks? She should be watching Privet Drive?" Harry, who had started eating, lost his appetite again with those words.

"I…It's my sixteenth birthday today…." he said quietly. "They've thrown me out."

"Oh, Harry!" she sighed, dropping into another chair, eyes shining with pity. This in her tone made Harry stare furiously at the tablecloth as it brought his own feelings dangerously close to the surface. Stop being ridiculous Potter! he ordered himself. You never liked them, they never liked you, why on earth are you feeling upset? You never have to go back to Privet Drive again! Sure enough, that did make him feel better enough that he could meet Mrs. Weasley's eyes.

"Sorry…" he muttered, before continuing. "It's not too bad anyway…it was just unexpected, I guess. Though I don't know why I didn't see it coming…" He shook his head angrily at himself.

"It's hard anyway, and it's perfectly all right to be upset! Don't you apologise for that! It's them that…" Now she shook her head angrily.

"Where's Tonks?" she asked worriedly. She hoped the girl hadn't done anything stupid like… Harry had flushed a bit, obviously hoping he wouldn't be asked. He didn't want to get the Auror into trouble.

"Ahh…she had to stay behind a minute…" he temporised. Molly sighed, …like that… she thought but couldn't bring herself to even think a reprimand towards the young woman. She might have been tempted to dole out a bit of retribution on those…people herself had she been in her shoes.

"Er…hiya Harry. Um…hello Molly…" Tonks suddenly looked a bit sheepish and her hair faded from angry red spikes to a more sober blue. She obviously hadn't quite thought this bit through. Molly had a sudden urge to laugh at the expression but forced a glare at the young woman who wilted noticeably.

"And why didn't you bring poor Harry through yourself? Where did you run off to? We're not going to have a repeat of the Mundungus fiasco are we?" Here her mouth did compress into a thin line as she thought with irritation about the unreliable Dung. She obviously hadn't quite forgiven him yet. Harry looked anxiously up at the short woman who was almost physically vibrating as she upbraided the sheepish Tonks. He gaped slightly as Molly very deliberately winked at him as she continued her lecture without pausing for breath.

Tonks was saved by the entrance of the twins at this moment.

"Harry!"

"How…"

"wonderful"

"to"

"see"

"you"

"old"

"boy!" they alternated in fake upper-class accents.

"After all,"

"a new"

"victim"

"ahh...customer, only joking Mum!"

"is always welcome!" they finished in a rush, watching their mother for signs of imminent eruption. Harry tried not to laugh at their antics, half-afraid of setting Mrs Weasley off again. Tonks took the opportunity to edge her way out the door, her hair turning neon pink as she narrowly avoided collision with a small tribe of people who piled in, laughing.

"Hiya Tonks. Hiya Harry," said one, a tall red-haired boy of Harry's own age.

"Hiya Ron," he replied nonchalantly, waiting for the moment to sink in.

"Mum…" there was a brief pause as the last few seconds filtered through. The other members of the group, who had been behind him, were rather quicker on the uptake.

"HARRY!" chorused both Ginny and Hermione with delight and made a leap for him. There was just enough time for his expression to change from happiness at seeing his friends to almost comic panic before they landed on him. The twins didn't help him as they laughed uproariously at the pained 'ooff' emitted from the squashed one before he was released in time to confront a now up-to-date Ron.

"Harry! When did you get here? Why are you here? Great to see you mate," He added in a confidential whisper; "The twins are using me as a testing platform and Hermione and Ginny keep…" (here he gulped) "…girl talk... Thank-you for another sensible person in this house!"

Thwack

"Oww…" he grumbled, glaring at his sister who looked back innocently.

"Yeah, so why are you here?" chimed in George, ignoring the off-pitch antics with ease of long practice. Harry paused for a second and Molly was about to jump in before he continued.

"Sixteen's legal age- the muggles have thrown me out," he admitted. He found the words easier to say this time. Fred whistled.

"Hard luck…or is it? At least you're out of there."

Harry nodded, feeling a bit more cheerful at this analysis.

"Yeah, that's true."

"Harry, dear, are you finished with the soup?" asked Molly. Harry looked down, surprised to see he'd finished the bowl. He thanked her and she smiled before shooing the entire tribe out the door with injunctions to 'stay out of mischief' and 'don't disturb Mrs. Black!'. Harry felt that in any group including the twins the first was rather a forlorn hope, but remembering the banshee wail of the bad-minded portrait, he resolved to obey the second carefully!

They practically tip-toed through the hall eyeing the sheeted frame apprehensively, but made it past successfully. They retreated upstairs and ended up in the largish room the girls shared, it being the closest.

"Well, we're off," said one of the twins, not bothering to enter the room as the others settled themselves on whatever surfaces were available. "Nice to see you, Harry."

"Are you going to blow more things up?" asked Ron warily. The identical faces bore identical evil grins.

"Just remember to knock, little brother!" called back one of them as they vanished.

"I did knock, that was the problem!" shouted Ron after them, but didn't get a response. Harry looked enquiringly at Hermione as Ginny sniggered into a pillow she was hugging.

"Ron was sent up to tell the twins dinner was ready," the brown-haired witch explained. "He walked in just as something went boom. The twins were ducked behind something but Ron got covered in this…blue gloop that wouldn't come off," Her slightly disapproving expression melted slightly as she tried not to laugh.

"Anytime Mum tried to Scourgify it…it just got worse!" gasped Ginny, remembering the scene.

"And as for the Muggle way; it ate the cloths! He was stuck with it for about…what, ten hours? Sitting in the bath tub. When it finally melted off, his skin was bright blue," finished Hermione with a giggle she couldn't quite contain.

"I did knock- they did that on purpose…" Ron sulked, lying back. "Mum was pretty mad at them though," he smiled beatifically. "And it kicked off a prank war that nearly had Mum kill us all by the end of it," he grinned. Harry soon found himself laughing at the stories of some of the better practical jokes that had occurred before Molly Weasley had chased the pranksters out of the house with her wand and told them quite firmly that they could stay outside until they stopped turning her kitchen into a war-zone. Even when they'd declared truce she made them turn the large pink dodos back into the harmless cutlery they had been before she would give them dinner.

There were twelve of them seated around the once-fine dining-room table, which still bore the Black insignia beneath the tablecloth. There were the Weasleys of course, with the exception of the three eldest brothers, Harry, Hermione and Tonks, Moody, Kingsley Shacklebolt and Dung, as there was to be an Order meeting that evening. Tonks was subdued again, having been soundly lectured by first Mad-Eye, then Shacklebolt and briefly Arthur on the… unfortunate instances that had befallen a certain Dursley family of Privet Drive. In the latter two cases an observer might have felt their hearts weren't in the scolding but Moody made up for lack of sincerity by ferocity. The twins had listened avidly to the list of things that had mysteriously happened to the Dursleys, taking notes and congratulating the berated culprit on imagination and flair.

"And we had to change that fat boy back from a pig! We had to catch him first and a merry chase he led us! He still speaks in squeaks and grunts half the time and I'm not so sure we got his eyes right. They still looked very piggy to me," recounted Shacklebolt to more laughter then the appropriate shock that would have suited Mad-Eye. But he kept his peace for once, even when Harry and Tonks in unison assured Shacklebolt that Dudley's eyes had always looked like that. He merely snorted and muttered something that sounded like "Constant vigilance," into his potato. Molly didn't lecture Tonks again but placed an extra large helping on her plate.

The 'children' were mightily disgruntled to be ordered out as people started arriving. Ron had opened his mouth to protest but Molly waved a soapy dishcloth at them.

"Not a word, Ronald Weasley!" she said, her voice rather higher pitched then normal. "I don't want to hear it. You're too young and, believe me, there will be plenty of time to…" she turned back to her washing up and scrubbed a plate with ferocious concentration. Nobody asked why she was doing the task manually instead of just using a household spell like she normally did.

"It's alright Molly," soothed her husband, looking meaningfully at the youngsters in the doorway. The twins decided (for once) not to push their luck either, although they would reach seventeen within the next week. They retreated upstairs, Ron in particular fuming, Ginny rather more resigned, Harry frustrated and Hermione apparently sanguine about the whole thing. She had known from the start that there was no way the adults were going to allow them to stay. But even so…

Ron flung himself down on the nearest bed with an irritated 'huff' noise. Harry leaned against the window ledge, watching people enter the house. His eyes narrowed as he saw his Potions master and that brought back the old pain as it hit him again where he was. It was probably just as well he didn't have time to brood on it though as he turned away from the window.

"…just trying to protect us, Ron," finished Hermione. Ginny rolled her eyes and moved away slightly from the blast radius of Mt Ron before he exploded. Harry watched with a slight sense of foreboding. Ron had shot up and was staring at Hermione incredulously.

"Protect us! What do you mean 'protect us?' When are they going to figure out that they can't protect us!" His face had gone very red and for an instant it struck Harry how much Ron resembled his older brother from that vision…dream…months ago, when the attack that…never happened…didn't happen. He frowned again. There was still something very weird about all that. But Ron was ranting.

"Between us, we've probably faced You-Know-Who's people in this war more then the whole of the Order put together! Well, okay, it's been mainly Harry facing him…but they couldn't protect us in first year when no-one would listen to us about the Philosopher's Stone. Result, if it weren't for Harry holding off Quirrell, he would have risen years ago. Second year…" Here he glanced at Ginny, who was hugging the pillow and looking more then a little uncomfortable with the subject. He belatedly remembered the nightmares that had woken her up screaming every night for a month that summer and cut off that thread quickly.

"Okay, third year, when they thought that…Sirius…" Now he glanced at Harry and winced again. "Okay, my point is that they've done a great job so far! Most of the time we got ourselves out of trouble."

"Not in the Ministry, Ron." Hermione was picking at a strand from the blanket with apparent fascination. She spoke quietly, making a point rather then being argumentative. Ron hesitated but acknowledged this.

"But if we'd been allowed know what was going on, that would never have happened," he finished inflexibly. Harry had to nod slightly. Perhaps he was right, perhaps not.

"My point is that we need to to …" He hesitated again. "Actually, I'm not sure," he admitted.

"Well, we can't join the meeting and find out what's going on so…we may as well discuss other things- like the DA. Is that continuing this year, Harry?" asked Hermione, closing down the previous topic firmly.

"I..guess so," replied Harry reluctantly. Hermione looked at him shrewdly.

"Are you blaming yourself for Luna and Neville being in the Ministry?" she asked. Harry opened his mouth to deny it and then flushed slightly. He shrugged angrily. "If it wasn't for the DA, they wouldn't have been there," he admitted.

"That's ridiculous, Harry," spoke up Ginny for the first time. "You can't possibly know that. However, if it hadn't been for the DA, they would have been much less able to defend themselves. The DA is a good idea and it has proved it's worth!" She glared at him. Harry nodded.

"Okay, I guess the DA is on this year then."

"Well, that's what we can be doing then," said Hermione firmly. "We can start planning out a…uh…plan for the DA this year. What Harry can teach, research useful spells, charms….hexes," she eyed Ron, knowing that the last might help erase the look that 'research' had put on his face. She was right. He brightened up a bit.

"Do you have that book I sent, Harry? There should be some stuff in that. And there's the entire Black library downstairs…" Her eyes went suddenly dreamy and Harry had to force himself not to laugh.

"Alright, I'm with you on that," he agreed. Ginny nodded and Ron, sighing a little at the inevitable word 'research' agreed too, rather trapped in his corner after his speech about not being allowed do anything.

Luckily, the Black library was nowhere near the rooms that the Order were taking up, so they were unlikely to get caught and have awkward questions asked. While what they were doing wasn't precisely against the rules…they wanted it kept that way.

"'Hexes of Dark Renown'," read Hermione dubiously. "Do we want it?"

"Put it into the secondary pile," suggested Harry. "Be useful to know what we might have to defend against, even if we're not learning the stuff." Hermione nodded and placed it into the towering pile beside her.

"Popular Broomsticks,'" read Ginny unwisely as both Ron and Harry craned their neck to get a look, resulting in Harry toppling from his perch and the stool that Ron was standing on to sway dangerously.

"I think we have enough now," said Hermione reluctantly, ignoring the two boys as she looked at the quantity of books they had collected.

"Hang on…" Ron leaned over dangerously to rootle in a top cupboard affair, one they hadn't searched yet. He pulled at a leathery green book that seemed strangely placed. It tilted out and a 'click' noise could be heard. It echoed around the suddenly quiet room. A grating noise. Ron froze. Harry, Hermione and Ginny had slowly turned to stare at the far wall. Then Ginny let out a squawk, echoed by Hermione's cry and Harry shouting, "Watch out!"

Ron heard skittering noises behind him and the three on the floor panicked as they tried to get up onto high ground. He was already on the stool but as he stared downwards, he suddenly wished he was a lot higher up.

Spiders…big, big spiders.

In fact, baby Acromantula.

They were scuttling towards the door- some had already escaped.

"We can't let them out- Ron! Close the wall!" Ron leaned over again, hoping the stool didn't deposit him into the morass of horrible creatures. As he scrabbled for the tilted book, the other three had gone on the offensive against the creatures.

"Hurry, Ron!" Hermione cried in a high voice. "The parent's still in there!" Nothing could have egged Ron on quite as much as that comment and he flailed wildly at the book, knocking it back into place. The rustling behind him from within the dark room he had inadvertently opened was getting louder. The spells -and books- being cast at the roughly tarantula-sized 'babies' were getting more frantic. Someone had had the presence of mind to hex the library door closed before they all escaped, so only the smallest ones were slipping under.

"Petrificus arachnus!" cried Hermione with a rather desperate-looking wave. Incredibly, it worked as all the evil-looking creatures froze, mid-flight. In the sudden silence, an ominous scratching could be heard from behind the wall. Then the library door swung open. The astonished eyes of about half the Order of the Phoenix beheld four teenagers, wands out, perched on various bits of furniture and (here, everyone backed up a bit) the entire floor covered with a wave of frozen baby Acromantula.

They were in disgrace, of course, as much for the fright they had given Molly Weasley as for any real wrong-doing. Grimmauld Place had to be abandoned for the night until the place had been thoroughly fumigated as none of the four could be entirely certain how many had escaped. And then of course, there was 'Mommy' behind the wall to take care of. Molly Weasley was adamant that she was not leaving her children in the same house as that monster (a sentiment with which Ron in particularly, whole-heartedly agreed). Ron, whose previous contact with Acromantula had made him no fonder of the species, had gotten quite a nasty shock and it took almost half an hour for his face to return to a normal colour. But it was agreed by those at the hastily broken-up Order meeting that the younger ones at least should be moved back to the Burrow, which should by now have enough defensive charms on it to hold off a siege if necessary. Snape had a particular potion which he volunteered (with very bad grace) to fetch. When rubbed on doorframes, etc, it should repel the little monsters. One of it's primary ingredients was Basilisk blood, harvested after a certain incident four years ago. But the escapee babies would have to be hunted down and as for the one behind the wall… the Order meeting was rescheduled for the next night that Grimmauld Place was useable. A fair chunk of the Order volunteered to cleanse the place of the magical spiders while Molly and Shacklebolt shipped the uncomplaining Gryffindors to the Burrow, Molly muttering all the way about how they'd been living next to those monsters all this time and how they were lucky that they hadn't all been eaten in their beds!

Harry lay awake on a hastily-constructed camp bad in Ron's blindingly orange room. Overall, he couldn't feel too upset about the change in living arrangements. He knew he'd have to go back to Grimmauld Place soon, have to sleep there (and would probably have many wakeful nights before that was possible), but he couldn't be upset that those moments were being suspended for a few days. Just until he'd gotten over the events of (was it only?) this morning. He was dealing. It would just take time. He rolled over, punching the pillow again before finally falling asleep with his glasses still digging into his nose.

It was really an amazing co-incidence. A night or two either way and none of them would have been at the Burrow when Percy came back to try and explain why he'd had to leave. One night either way, and so much could have been avoided. But, unfortunately, that wasn't to happen and there was to be a lot of pain and trouble for both sides before the consequences could be forgotten.

Chapter 6

The Accidental Eavesdropper

But a life of incipient amphibianhood did not seem to be his fate as the last of the wards let him past. He released the breath and now saw the lights of the house. And heard voices. They took a moment or two to fade in but when the words made their way through his brain he was frozen.