Note: Thanks so much for the reviews! Don't worry about Harry and Ron fighting over Hermy – you'd have to read my other story (The Fairy Princess) to see some of that! ;)

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"Harry, come here." Hermione said, pulling him to the side. The three of them had just entered the Leaky Cauldron.

"What?"

"Hold still." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a makeup tube.

"Hermione -"

"Stay still." Hermione dipped her finger in the beige goo and put it on his forehead.

"There. The scar stuck out more now that your hair's shorter. I figured someone might notice."

"So, it's gone?"

"Yeah. Here, take a look." She pulled Harry to a mirror. She's right, he thought. The lightning bolt mark was completely gone.

"What're you two doing?" Ron asked.

"I had to take care of the scar. It was a dead giveaway." Hermione explained.

"Sure. Whatever you say."

"Ron!"

"Whatever you say, Hermione." The two of them walked out the back of the Leaky Cauldron, bickering the whole time. Harry ignored them, until he realized that one of them had to open the passageway. He cleared his throat loudly, and the two of them spun around.

"Oh." Hermione touched the bricks with her wand, and then continued to argue with Ron. Harry ignored them again and headed toward Flourish and Blotts.

There was absolutely no one on the streets. Some of the stores hadn't even bothered to open. To Harry's dismay, Flourish and Blotts still had the closed sign hanging in the door. Ron and Hermione were so busy fighting that they didn't notice.

"Will you two give it a rest already!" Harry screamed, spinning around. "We might as well go back. It's closed."

"Fred and George are open." Ron pointed out. "We should head down there. Maybe they know something."

"I doubt Fred or George, although they really are brilliant wizards, know anything on horcruxes or Voldemort." Hermione said crossly.

"That's not what I meant." Ron snapped back. "I meant maybe they know why all the other shops are closed. Maybe something happened."

Harry ignored what sounded like another argument in the works and headed down towards Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. To his surprise, there was only one customer in the store. Ron and Hermione soon followed him, more quite than usual. The girl employee was helping the other customer, but turned when she saw them enter.

"Can I help you with something?" She asked.

"We need to speak with the proprietors of this establishment." Harry said absently.

"Oh. I can get them for you. Has something gone wrong?"

"No. Just want to talk."

"Okay. Hold on a second." A few minutes later, Fred stepped out from the back room.

"Can I help you gentlemen?" He asked them. "And the lady?"

"It's us you dip wad." Ron said. "But thanks for calling me a gentleman." Fred looked at them for a moment. Harry pulled out his old glasses and held them up. Now he seemed to understand.

"What happened to you?" Fred asked.

"We changed so that we wouldn't be recognized." Hermione explained.

"Good idea. C'mon back." Fred led them to the back room, which was more crowded with products than before. "It's okay George, he said "It's just Won-Won and friends."

"Who told you that?" Ron shrieked.

"Ginny, of course. She was getting you back for last year. What'd you expect?" George said, coming out from amongst the boxes. Harry scolded his thoughts again. Stop it you stupid moron…

"So, what brings you to our embarrassingly empty door step?" George asked.

"We were wondering why every place in Diagon Alley is closed." Harry said, trying to switch thoughts in his head.

"Closed? They're not closed."

"Yes they are. We were just out there."

"No, they're not." Fred agreed. "You have to knock and say the password."

"What's the password?"

"Depends on which store you want."

"Good thing we didn't try to come here earlier." Hermione noted.

"Flourish and Blotts is the one we need." Harry said.

"Knock twice and say humbersniffel." George said.

"You're serious?"

"Yeah. All the stores have added security. Even this one."

"But we had no problem getting in." Ron said.

"Only because you didn't want to use our products for anything bad." Fred said proudly. "You can only enter if you have good intentions for the store, the products, the employees, or us."

"That's really brilliant." Hermione said. "Wonder why the other shops didn't think of that."

"Not as smart as us, are they?" George said with a smile. "We can help you get into Flourish and Blotts if you like. Why do you want to go there anyway?"

"We're looking for information on the founders of Hogwarts." Harry said.

"Then why'd you drop out of school?" George asked. "No offense, but Hogwarts keeps all its good biographies. Only that history one is for sale."

"And there are separate books on each founder." Fred added. "But you have to ask for those. They aren't really in high demand."

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Five minutes later, the three of them were looking at the biographies of Hogwarts' founders. Fred and George had gotten them in easily, and there had been one copy of each book on the founders. Hermione scanned Hogwarts: A History again to make sure she hadn't missed anything. Harry had the book on Ravenclaw, while Ron read the one on Gryffindor. (Harry figured it was pointless to read the Hufflepuff or Slytherin ones, as they already knew what those horcruxes were.)

"The sorting hat was Gryffindor's." Ron said. "But I guess he would have gotten that too."

Harry nodded, knowing too well who 'he' was. "There's nothing on Ravenclaw. She had a collection of books though."

"Maybe there was one on Hogwarts." Hermione said. "What other books would -" She took a deep breath "- Voldemort – want to use as a horcrux? I mean, he only liked Slytherin, right? So why would he bother on any other houses book?"

"A dark arts book, maybe." Harry said absently. "Or one on horcruxes. We won't ever know if we don't look in the collection."

"What became of it after she died?" Ron asked. "Does the book say?"

Harry read aloud: " 'After her death, some of Ravenclaw's books were given to local stores, but most of them were kept at her school. Many of them are still there to this day.' Great. Just when we leave Hogwarts we find that we would have been better off staying."

"Well, the term hasn't started yet." Hermione said softly "So, technically, we could still -"

"You two can, but I won't." Harry said quickly.

"Harry, honestly, you -"

"I'm not going back there, Hermione!" Harry snapped. "There is nothing you can say to convince me either."

"We could get help from someone that's already there." Ron said. Harry thought of Ginny – "Neville is still there, right? He'd do anything for you in a second, Harry."

"Yeah -" Harry said, not thinking of Neville at all. "How long till the term starts?"

"A month and a day." Hermione said.

"That's too long."

"Maybe McGonagall will let us in anyway." Hermione said. "She's there all summer anyway."

"How do you know?" Ron asked. "Wait, I forgot who I was speaking to."

Hermione threw a glance at him and continued. "She's trying to get the school back in order. They do plan on reopening, a little later on if the school isn't ready by September. I guess they decided that Dumbledore" Harry winced as if someone had said Voldemort "would have wanted it that way. I heard that there are going to be aurors everywhere, though."

"Not letting anyone out." Ron said "Not even for quidditch."

"Then I'm glad I'm not going back." Harry mumbled. "I'd be bored out of my mind without quidditch."

"We should stop by Grimmauld place." Hermione said. "Moody or Lupin or someone could help us get in."

"I'm not going." Harry said. "I mean to Hogwarts. But you two can."

"Good idea." Hermione said. "You need to rest anyway. Maybe there's something in Grimmauld place that could help us. It is a pretty old house."