Ok, here's the third chapter! Hope you enjoy it! Oh, and I don't own harry potter or anything else in this story.

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Chapter 3

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When Harry walked up the dirt path that led to the kitchen door of the Burrow, he was met with the sounds of constant conversations, floating laughter, and joyous music. Bright lights shown through every window and casted light onto the shadowy ground.

Harry stopped and sat down on his trunk to catch his breath. After he had left Privet Drive, we walked to the outskirts of town to catch the nightbus. The ride had been less entertaining than other times Harry rode the nightbus because the welcoming chats from Stan Shunpike did not accompany him. Stan was one of many people taken to Azkaban for being accused as a Death Eater. Throughout the whole ride, Harry silently stared out the window, waiting for his stop. The bus traveled as far out into the country as it could go before dropping Harry off. From then on, Harry had to drag the trunk and the cage along long dirt paths, up and down steep hills, and through thick forests. He was just about to pass out from exhaustion when he finally saw a faint light pass through a large group of trees. He thought of how warm and welcoming the Weasley house was and quickened his pace.

Now, as he sat on his trunk catching his breath, he gazed up at the mysterious glowing stars. Each star seemed perfect as it shone in a certain section in the sky to make up a large extravagant night sky. Harry hadn't seen sky like this in a long time. The last time he took the time to look at the night sky, he remembered, was just hours before Dumbledore's like ended.

"Harry, is that you?" came a voice from the Burrow doorway causing Harry to forget what he was thinking about.

Harry turned and looked at the comforting face of Arthur Weasley. He looked much older and more tired than usual. His green eyelids drooped a bit and his eyes were a lot glassier than usual. His fire-red hair was starting to sprout a few gray strands that were visible in the man's slightly curly hair.

Harry quickly stood up to greet the old man, but his limbs resisted the weight and he dropped down onto his trunk again.

"Blimey Harry, you look awfully tired. You didn't bring this all down the trail, did you?" When Harry had difficulty raising his head to look Mr. Weasley in the eye, Mr. Weasley continued, "Harry, you need to get yourself to bed. There's no use for you to be walking about if you can't even lift your head up. Go on up to Ron's bedroom and rest. I'll bring your trunk into the house and then I'll send Molly up with what you need for the night. Off with you now!"

Harry didn't refuse. He lazily stood up and absentmindedly walked into kitchen door as Mr. Weasley used a levitation spell to carry the luggage through the door.

The kitchen was crowded with people bustling around and chatting. To Harry, it looked like a party. There were serving platters full of food sprawled out on the tables along with tall pitchers of butterbeer.

As Harry sluggishly walked through the kitchen, a few heads looked up to see who the new arrival was, but when they saw that it was no one they knew, they returned back to their chats and drinks. Half of the people in the room had fiery red hair and seemed to be enjoying themselves. The rest were mostly blond. The blond ones didn't seem to be enjoying themselves as much as the redheads, but they were clearly happy to be there. There were a few small children running around under the tables and hiding behind the adult's legs.

After glancing around the kitchen, Harry found that finding his friends in this crowd would be impossible, and continued his journey up to the attic, tripping over a chair right in front of him on the way. He clambered up stair after stair, hoping that he wouldn't lose all of his energy and fall back down the stairs. When he finally reached the bedroom, he sank into the bed and shut his eye. He didn't even think about washing up before instantly falling into a long, peaceful sleep.

"Harry…Harry…"

"Ron, don't do that!"

"What? It's not like he can actually feel it. I mean look at him! He looks like my grandmother after she spends eight hours crocheting!"

The voices sounded so far yet so familiar. Why are the Dursley's in my room this early in the morning? Then he remembered his long, grueling journey the night before.

"Harry…Harry…"

"Ron, if you don't stop poking my face, I will turn you into a bloody hamster!"

With that, Ron jumped away from the bed in surprise.

"Told you!" Hermione said mischievously, "Good morning, Harry!"

Harry slowly opened his eyes and looked at his friends, who were standing next to the bed smiling. Now that light was shining in through the windows, he looked around the room. Large mounds of clothes were sprawled out across the floor, books that once sat neatly on the shelf next to the door were scattered across the room, large moving posters of the Chudley Cannon quiddich team were slanted sideways across the walls, and an assortment of Chocolate Frog Cards were stacked on the nightstand next to a picture of the trio in their fifth year at school.

"Dad said you got in late last night," said Ron. "He told us a few minutes after you went upstairs. We came looking for you but you were already asleep."

"We brought you breakfast," Hermione stated, pointing to a plate on the nightstand. "You've got to be hungry. You look like you haven't eaten in days!"

Harry looked down at the plate and immediately realized just how hungry he was. On the plate there was a piece of toast covered with strawberry jam, a mound of scrambled eggs, four or five sausages, and a glass of orange juice. Everything looked so delicious and just looking at it made his mouth water. He looked up at his friends who jokingly gave him a you-know-you-want-it look and he laughed. He greedily picked up his fork and dug into the scrambled eggs. Before the fork even got to his mouth, both of his friends laughed and ran to hug their missed friend.

Harry felt awkward with his two best friends hugging him while he had a forkful of food in the air just inches from his mouth. Right then, he found the perfect opportunity and flicked the glob of eggs into Ron's hair.

Ron jumped up in horror and surprise when he felt the warm eggs against his scalp. He ran his fingers through his hair to attempt to pick the egg bits out, but failed as the eggs were pushed further into his hair. Harry and Hermione couldn't help laughing as they saw their friend's face grow red in anger.

After a few minutes, Ron gave up and went and sat on his friends for revenge.

It was the laughter and squeals that caused the over-worked Mrs. Weasley to rush into the attic. As she looked at the eggs that had been scattered around the room, she rolled her eyes when she realized she would never get any help around the house.

"Ronald Weasley," she said helplessly. "Will you please try not to make a mess in the house? The rest of us have so much to do and with the thought of you rough-housing indoors is very stressful. Will you please either calm down or go outside to the garden?"

The friends glanced at each other, then got up and followed Mrs. Weasley down the long staircase. The kitchen was full of about twenty-five people enjoying their morning meal. A few people looked up to give a greeting, but Harry followed his friends out the back door.

It was a beautiful morning. The skies were cloudless and bright blue, the birds were joyously chasing each other from tree to tree while singing their enchanting songs, and a couple of garden gnomes ran throughout the garden trying to steal the family vegetables without being seen. Harry smiled as warm rays from the sun warmed his face. Ron and Hermione led him to an old willow tree, where they made themselves comfortable in the shade as a breeze swept through their hair.

They remained there, relaxing under the tree, throughout the morning and into the afternoon. They shared jokes, played around, and laughed. Basically, the whole time they acted as if they were normal teenage wizards and not someone with a large responsibility ahead of them. But it didn't matter…they were together again.

The fun they were having made them feel like it was years earlier when they had no worries. Those were the times they would give anything to go back to, rather than stay in the world they lived in now. But, as the day went on the friends realized that they couldn't just push aside the way things were. The cheerfulness that was flowing through them now seemed to be dissolving. Finally, Harry asked the question he wondered about the whole time he was laying on his bed at the Dursley's.

"What's happened in our world…since I left?"

His two friends went silent and stared at the ground for awhile. Finally they looked at each other and nodded. Hermione slowly turned to look at Harry.

"The attacks," she started. "Have gotten worse…much worse. And the Ministry of Magic isn't trying to fight it anymore. After numerous attacks on supposed Death Eaters, hundreds have been killed. The Death Eaters are just killing and running to safety. The Ministry believes that if they leave the situation alone for awhile, everything will calm down. But it hasn't. No one seems to be safe anymore and average wizards don't know how to defend themselves, so most don't survive when they meet a Death Eater…"

Hermione looked at Ron for help.

"They haven't heard from Snape yet." He continued on for Hermione. "Everyone suspects that he became a head servant for You-Know-Who and is helping with other attacks…"

For a moment he stopped and looked down at his hands, "There's also something else…about two weeks ago, Malfoy came out of hiding. He accused Snape for using the imperious curse on him to help kill Dumbledore. Last week, the Ministry found him innocent. Then the day after the trial, Lucious Malfoy escaped from Azkaban."

"Also," Hermione continued, trying to lighten the conversation. "Hogwarts is being reopened. The Ministry of Magic decided that young wizards need to learn proper defense. The school is also getting more spells and guards to make it safer for students to be there. At least the Ministry seems to be doing one thing right!"

The friends went silent again. Harry sat and wondered how he could miss so much in a month. All these things happened and no one bothered to tell him. He wished they had so that all the emotion that he was feeling wouldn't have just suddenly hit him like it had. He felt depressed about how everything in the world seemed to be falling to pieces. Also, he felt furious when he thought about the Malfoy's getting off as easily as they did.

Harry didn't feel like talking anymore. He just felt the anger run through him as his heart beaded faster and faster. Ron and Hermione, who sensed Harry's feelings, continued to sit quietly while Harry thought things through.

They remained that way as Harry watched the fiery sunset as he wondered what could possibly happen next.