Disclaimer: I don't own h.p

a/n this is the day after they all got their letters and incase that wasn't clear enough for some people the last two chapters were flashbacks.

Sirladyknight: He signs it twice because in those types of letters there's usually a signature and then the name printed. You can't put cursive or anything on fanfiction which is why it's just normal twice.

You guys have no idea how good it feels to get so many supportive reviews! I wuv you guys!

Hermione was sitting on the bus, on her way to The Sea Dock. Even though she knew the case was almost impossible, she couldn't wait to get started. Imagine if they succeeded! They would save so many lives and it would be easier to fight against Voldemort. True, it would make it easier for him as well, but then again it didn't kill him when Harry deflected the curse. Harry. Although Hermione was angry at him she knew they all had to do what they could to help him with Voldemort.

When they got to her stop, she got out and walked into the park. She saw that it was still 3:15. She sat down on a bench next to the lake that was in the park, right next to the café. She was looking at the other side of the lake, when she saw someone appear out of thin air. She frowned. 'They really should know not to Apparate in the middle of a Muggle park.' She thought. Even though there was only one Muggle in the park, the wizard who just appeared couldn't have known that. But it was bad enough because suddenly the Muggle started staring at the wizard.

"Where did you come from? It looked like you just appeared out of thin air. It was like magic!" The man started stuttering. Apparently he hadn't seen the Muggle .

"Um I…uh"

"Oh for Goodness' sake," sighed Hermione. "Excuse me ma'am?" she called to the Muggle woman. She turned around still looking frightened.

"Yes?" Hermione pulled out her wand, after making sure there was no other Muggle s near.

"Obliviate!" she shouted. The woman seemed to go in a trance. Suddenly she came to life, and walked off, having no recollection of just witnessing someone appear out of thin air.

"Thanks," said the wizard coming over. Hermione looked him over. He was tall, probably about 6'2, and had red, flaming hair and a deep voice.

"You know you really could be more careful," said Hermione sourly. "Apparating into a Muggle place is really dangerous. What if there was more than one? And you could have wiped her memory by yourself instead of standing there stuttering."

"Sorry but I'm not so good with memory charms."

"Oh well," Hermione sighed again. "I'm Harriet Berlow. Are you here from the ministry?"

"What?" asked the man distractedly. He had been looking at two ducks fighting.

"Oh honestly," snapped Hermione. "Could you please pay attention? Are you here because of the thing from the ministry?"

"You know, you remind of someone," the wizard said looking her over. "You mean the meeting at the café?"

"Yes."

"Yeah, I'm here for that, you?"

"Well obviously. How else would I know about it?"

"Hang on, Harriet Berlow isn't your real name is it?"

"No but I'm not telling you what is." The man grinned.

"No need."

"What do you mean?"

"I know who you are!"

"Oh really? Well then who am I?"

"You're Hermione Granger!"

"Keep it down," Hermione hissed. "How do you know? Wait a minute, Ron?"

"That's my name."

"Wow! I haven't seen you in such a long time!"

"I know! It's so great to see you again. I wonder how many more times I'm going to need you to get out of a sticky situation." Hermione laughed.

"Don't count on me being here forever." He pretended to pout.

"Oh, Hermione, do you have a place I can stay? It's just for a week because I got an apartment, but I can only move in next week."

"Oh sure you can," she said, and then looked at the clock. It was 3:40. "Oh my God! We're late!" she grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the café. While they were running, Ron was commenting about The Sea Dock's name.

"I never understood why they called this place The Sea Dock. It doesn't really make a good name, does it? I mean the place is near a lake."

They finally reached the entrance to the café. It was like the entrance to platform 9 ¾; there was a big tree that you had to walk through and you would end up in The Sea Dock. They took a moment to catch their breath and made sure no Muggle s were watching and walked through the tree. When they were inside, they looked around. They were in a dark place, which smelled like an assortment of foods, and dirt. That was no surprise, though, because there was a lot of food cooking, and the place was filthy. Its occupants were no better. They were all in ripped robes, with messy hair, dirty nails, and crooked yellow teeth. This was Hermione' first visit to the "café" and she was wondering why it was called that. It was more like a bar for lowlifes. Then she noticed that there was one person who looked a lot different than the rest. He had black hair, and glasses, and was sitting in the corner. He was in Muggle clothes, broom at his side. 'I guess he didn't feel like changing' thought Hermione. She knew that since you couldn't Apparate into the bar, everyone who came would just change their clothes when they came in. She saw that the man looked impatient and kept looking at his watch.

"Ron, I think that's the third person on this case."

"Yeah, probably. Let's go." They went to the table the man was sitting at, and sat down with him. He looked up at them. He had brilliant green eyes. When he saw Hermione, he looked surprised.

"Hello, you the people from the ministry?"

"Yes, sorry we're late."

"Oh no that's all right. Do you want something to eat or drink?"

"Yes! I'm starving!" Ron exclaimed. Hermione rolled her eyes.

"What do you want?"

"Some of that fried chicken," said Ron looking at the menu.

"What drink?"

"Maybe a firewisky. That's probably the only way to actually figure this thing out, getting drunk." Hermione scowled, but the man grinned. Seeing Hermione's expression Ron quickly changed his mind. "I'll just have a butterbeer."

"Ok. And you?" he asked turning to Hermione. He reminded her of someone.

"Just a butterbeer for me, thanks."

"Ok be right back." When he left Hermione whispered to Ron.

"Does he remind you of someone?" he frowned.

"Yeah, a little bit. But it can't be him."

"Why not? I talked to Fudge yesterday and he said he'd heard from him, but he wouldn't tell me what he said."

"Well we'll see when we get to say our real names."

"Ok. He's coming back." When the man reached their table, he put down the three butterbeers on the table with a thump. Then he went back, and got Ron's chicken. Ron licked his lips, and attacked it.

"So what're your names?" asked the man.

"I'm Harriet Berlow," Hermione announced.

"John Folty," said Ron between mouthfuls. "you?"

"Nick Jackson," he said, taking a swig of his butterbeer. Hermione looked incredulously at Ron, who was gulping down his own drink, and stuck out her hand.

"Nice to meet you." Nick took her hand.

"You too." After he let go Hermione started speaking.

"I thought that maybe today, we should just get to know each other, and figure out where to start, and the next time we can actually start."

"Sounds good. Where do you think we can start?"

"I was thinking about a library." Ron groaned.

"Harriet, how will that help us? If there was anything useful in there someone would have figured it out by now."

"John, I swear, I'm not sure why Mr. Fudge even assigned you to this case. If we need to find they way to block a curse, we need to find out everything we can about it first." She explained.

"Oh," he said and went back to his chicken. Nick, however, turned to Hermione.

"Do you know a good library we can use?"

"Well," Hermione bit her lip "I was thinking of the library at Hogwarts. It's one of the best there is. But we'll need to ask the headmaster."

"Oh, don't worry about that. I can ask him."

"That's great! What do you think John?" Ron looked at her licking his fingers.

"Sure. That sounds good."

"Ok. So I guess we're done right?"

"Yup, see you tomorrow then?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah, I'll owl you guys tonight. I'm pretty sure it's a Hogsmeade trip tomorrow, so we'll be able to use the library."

"Oh but what about the first and second years?" Ron asked.

"Dumbledore will figure something out."

"All right. Wait a minute- Oh my God!" Ron shouted. Hermione thought something was terribly wrong and worriedly asked him what was wrong.

"That's a Lightracer!" Ron exclaimed pointing at Nick's broom. Hermione looked at him sternly.

"John, really, that's no reason to scream bloody murder. It's just a broom!" Ron tore his gaze off the broom to stare at her. Even Nick was looking at her incredulously.

"Just a broom? Just a broom?" Ron was almost in hysterics "Harriet, remember how fast the Firebolt goes? Well this is, like, two times faster!" Hermione just rolled her eyes.

"Actually it's three times faster," Nick announced proudly. Ron gaped.

"No way! That's impossible!"

"No really, they found a way to do it! It's really great," replied Nick, and then he and Ron launched into a conversation about Quidditch, while Hermione sat there bored out of her mind. Finally she interrupted them,

"Sorry but we really better leave."

"Well how come you just don't?" Ron asked angrily.

"Because, you idiot, I have to show you my place."

"Oh yeah."

"All right I better go then. Bye Harriet. Bye John," said Nick and started walking away, towards the exit with his Lightracer,

"No wait!" Hermione called. "We need to pay you for the drinks and food."

"It's on me," he said looking over his shoulder.

"Ok bye!" Hermione said.

"Bye Nick," said Ron still eyeing the broom. Nick laughed noticing what Ron was looking at.

"Tell you what, after we're done tomorrow I'll let you have a go on my Firebolt and maybe my Lightracer." Ron looked so ecstatic that he didn't wait for an answer. Instead he waved and left through the tree.

"Oh my God," Hermione said "I don't even know him but I like him already. It's just he's such an interesting person it seems."

"I know," Ron murmured. "I mean he has a Firebolt too?" Hermione rolled her eyes again and pulled him to his feet and out of The Sea Dock.

The morning after Harry came to live at Hogwarts, he woke up not realizing where he was. He sat up, and took his glasses off the bed side table and put them on. Getting out of bed he looked around. There was a desk, a closet, the bed and bed side table, and his trunk was at the foot of his bed. He also saw two doors. He went to the first one and opened it. Inside was the bathroom. Behind the second one he found a hallway, with kids running past. Then he suddenly remembered everything. He shut the door quickly, before anyone noticed him.

He was at Hogwarts. He had come there the day before, after he had left the Ministry. Once Harry explained what had happened to him Dumbledore and the teachers were extremely happy, and they even threw a party. He grinned remembering how Professor McGonagall had a little too much to drink. Nobody had ever seen her drunk and it was very strange indeed. She had gone around singing songs off key, and when she saw Harry she had run over and hugged him saying how glad she was that he was back.

After the party (McGonagall had passed out and been levitated back to her room so they stopped) Harry and Dumbledore had discussed how he had better keep out of sight of the students. Then they had both gone to bed.

Harry went into the bathroom again and took a shower and brushed his teeth. After he was done getting dressed, he looked out into the hallway. There were still students swarming about. He looked at the clock and saw that it was already 12:00. 'They must be headed to lunch' He realized that he was very hungry, having barely eaten the previous day. He knew he couldn't go down to lunch with the school, so he decided to go to the Three Broomsticks. He walked over to the window, and looked out. There were broomsticks all lined up on the ground, most likely for the first years' flying lesson. Harry remembered his first flying lesson and smiled. That was one of his best memories. Another was becoming an animagus. The year he had escaped Lord Voldemort with Peter Pettigrew's help, he became an illegal animagus, so it was easier to hide. The animal he had chosen was an eagle.

He opened the window, and breathed in the fresh air. Stepping onto the ledge outside of the window, he noticed the students filing out for their flying lesson. Harry groaned and as quickly as he could without falling, closed the window. He desperately hoped none of the kids would look up and see a man standing on a ledge out side of the window, looking like he was about to jump.

The man was about to transform, when he decided to do this the fun way. He jumped off the ledge and started falling down. In the middle of the drop, he transformed into a beautiful golden eagle. Beating his wings, he rose into higher and higher into the air and soared over to the group gathered near the brooms. He flew around their heads; some of them screamed and most laughed when he did a flip in the air. Madame Hooch, along with all the rest of the teachers knew about Harry being an animagus, so she just smiled and let him fly around her class for a minute or two. Then she yelled "shoo!" and he flew away.

Harry flew to the edge of Hogsmeade and made sure no one saw him when he transformed. Once he was back in human form, he strode through the village, to the Three Broomsticks. He was happy when he saw that there weren't too many people there. He was slightly nervous, this being the first time in four years he made a public appearance under the name of Harry Potter and not Midge Moland. He pretended that it was a perfectly normal day and he hadn't been missing for four years, and walked up to the bar. Without looking up at him, Madam Rosmerta asked him,

"What'll it be? Our special today is the eggs and bacon."

"I'll just have that then."

"Ok that'll be two galleons" Harry handed her the money and she finally looked at him. Forgetting all about the money, stared at him with her mouth open.

"Harry Potter?" she whispered. He grinned.

"The one and only but could you not tell anyone please?"

"Where have you been all this time? We were all sure that he-who-must-not-be-named had got you, and that it was all over."

"Look, I'm not sure I can tell you right now. Maybe some other time; I'm not really comfortable with reliving this for the fifth time."

"Ok I understand." She noticed the money "oh it's on the house Mr. Potter." He was about to protest when she walked away to get his food. He sighed and pocketed his money.

After he finished eating, he thanked Madam Rosmerta and made to leave. Before he managed to get out, the door opened and a woman walked in. she looked to be about thirty years old and she had a very familiar crocodile skin purse. He gasped, and tried to shuffle past her, but she grabbed his arm. He shrugged her off and ran out the door with the woman hot at her heels, yelling at him.

"Maria Skeeter here! I need to speak to you for a minute please!" He looked back at her and noticed that she was struggling to get her quill and parchment out of her purse, while running in impossibly high heels. He ran even faster, and when he turned the corner he transformed in mid-run. He soared over Hogsmeade still hearing her shouts of "Where are you? Please Mr. Potter come back!" inwardly he groaned. Of course she had to recognize him, and then shout about seeing Harry Potter loud enough for the whole village to hear. Harry had heard of her before, and she was just like her mother, Rita Skeeter, who had stopped writing stupid stories, after Harry's fourth year but had apparently had her daughter become just like her. Harry knew that by tomorrow, there would be a story in every paper about how he was sighted.

He flew into Hogwarts and saw that it was 1:30. Harry transformed in his room and thought about what he should do now. He decided to go practice Quidditch. He took out his Lightracer, and ran out onto the Quidditch field. He hadn't flown on a broom in a while and it felt great! He didn't even know which was better: flying as a bird or flying on a broom. He was having such a good time, he didn't even notice the seven people in red Quidditch robes, their brooms in hand, walk out onto the field and start watching him.

"Wow he's really good. I wonder who he is?" said the Captain, Jeff Labro.

"I dunno," the Seeker answered. "Look! He just caught that Snitch in about forty seconds!"

"I know! Do you know what kind of broom that is?" asked the Keeper.

"I think that's a Lightracer! It's the fastest broom in four years! Nobody thought there'd be one much faster than the Firebolt but hen this one came out!" Jeff exclaimed. He was a Beater.

"We know about that, but I doubt that's a Lightracer; they're still incredibly expensive." said the other Beater, Amanda Croland.

"Well then what kind of broom is it?"

"The main question is: who is he?" said a Chaser. Nobody knew the answer to that, so they just watched him in awe for ten minutes. Finally after catching his Snitch, he noticed them. He put the Snitch in his pocket, and quickly sped off in the other direction. The team was disappointed, but mounted their own brooms, and began their practice.

Harry couldn't believe how close he was to being caught, but then again it wouldn't have mattered much because Maria Skeeter would have it on the front page of every newspaper in the morning. Still it was best not to be seen.

He had been flying for about an hour, and decided to fly into Muggle London (he'd hide his broom somewhere behind a bush) and walk around for a while, until it was time to go to The Sea Dock. He had always loved London and it was a real treat to be able to walk around freely as himself, and not Midge Moland the midget. It still felt strange for him to be 6'1 again and all day yesterday, and still today he had been stumbling and tripping over his feet now and then. But luckily he was getting more and more used to it again. After forty-five minutes he retrieved his broom, and flew off to the park.

He got there right at 3:30 and hurried into the café. What he saw made him really doubt that it was a café. It was dark, dirty, and the occupants were filthy and shady. He didn't see anyone who looked as thought they might be aurors, so he went to a table in the corner and waited. After twelve minutes he was getting impatient. Aurors always were on time! What was keeping them? He looked at his watch again, when two people sat down at his table. He looked up at them and was very shocked to see Hermione. The man next to her reminded him strongly of Ron with his red hair, and as he was going to find out soon, eating habits.

Once he found out what they wanted, he left to go order. When he was at the counter, he noticed Hermione whispering something to the other man, and looking at him. Harry got slightly nervous so he just turned around and waited for the food.

When he got back, they introduced themselves, and he noticed how much Hermione and Ron (he was sure it was Ron by now) had changed, but also how much they were the same.

They started talking about how to begin the assignment, and decided to begin at the Hogwarts library. Harry was the one to find out if they could. Then Ron noticed his broom, and they started talking about Quidditch. When Hermione interrupted them and he decided to leave, he noticed the expression on Ron's face while he was looking at Harry's broomstick. After offering him a ride on both his brooms Harry left the place. He walked around the park for a while, thinking about seeing his friends again. He couldn't wait to reveal his true name, and explain what had happened. After thinking about how they might react to the news that they had basically been angry at him for being kidnapped, and how they stopped looking in the newspaper a day too soon, he mounted his broom and flew off towards Hogwarts.