Special thanks to my friend Vanessa for helping with geographical sites.


Chapter Four

International Assault

The morning of Harry's seventeenth birthday dawned as wet and as gray as ever. The only brake in the weather that week had been a whole day of overcast clouds without rain. It had gotten noticeably cooler as well, very uncommon for late July.

Harry couldn't believe that he had made it to his seventeenth birthday after so many near death experiences. Despite this rather morbid thought he couldn't help but smile.

"Seventeen!" he thought, happily. "I'm SEVENTEEN, I can do magic outside of school!"

He refrained from yelling out in glee due to the fact that it was still a very early hour of the morning but he punched the air in excitement. He grabbed some clothes and went to the bathroom. When Harry came out, it was to find a very happy looking Hermione coming out of her room. She ran to him, grabbed him roughly by his shirt and pulled him into a kiss that would have made the whole of the Order blush. "Happy Birthday!" she whispered, once they had pulled away.

"Thanks, Hermione," he said, grinning happily. "That was…WOW!"

Hermione blushed scarlet, and then said playfully. "Well now, Mr. Potter. There is so much more where that came from"

Harry laughed. "I'll have to hold you to that"

Harry met up with the rest of his friends during a sumptuous breakfast of every kind of food that was imaginable. The table practically groaned under the weight that it had to endure and Harry was sure that it breathed a sigh of relief when all of the breakfast dishes had been cleared away.

"So, Harry," Tonks said, putting a steaming cup of coffee down on the table as she took a place next to Phoebe. "Is there anything special that you want to do today?"

Harry racked his brain. He wanted to do something that he hadn't done for a long time, something that he had never been able to do, actually. "Err…I was wondering if I could go into Muggle London today, it's something that I haven't really been able to do"

Tonks looked over at Lupin who was seated at the opposite side of the table. "Is that possible, Remus?" she asked. "Can Harry have a day trip to London?"

Lupin thought it over for what seemed like forever before he answered. "I dunno, Harry. It might not be such a good idea with Voldemort looking for you"

Harry was about to protest when Phoebe cut in. "Actually, my sisters and I need to go into London too, we forgot some stuff back in San Francisco," she looked over at Lupin. "Maybe if Harry and his friends came with us…"

"See, Remus," Tonks said, smiling. "He'll have the Charmed Ones to protect him, what trouble could there be?"

"Alright," Lupin gave in. "But as long as some Order members can come along too, for your protection, Harry"

"Yeah, that's fine," Harry smiled. "I'll go tell the others"

He mouthed "thankyou" to Phoebe who winked and mouthed "your welcome," in reply.

Half an hour later Harry, Hermione, Ron and Ginny as well as Lupin, Tonks and the Charmed Ones, all trudged down the wet and slippery concrete steps of a grimy underground station, swarming with the last of the rush hour commuters. They bought their tickets at the automatic ticket machines and quickly made their way down the escalators and onto the dark platform.

"They're not very nice places, these underground stations," Ron stated after he watched a couple of cockroaches scuttle up a tiled pylon and into a crack in the ceiling.

"Well, you're not meant to spend long periods of time in an underground station, Ronald," Hermione explained, knowing that what she had just said was for Ron's benefit only.

"So, Harry," Tonks said brightly. "What do you want to do in London?"

"I just wanna act like a tourist and see the sights"

"Sounds like fun," she said brightly. "As long as you don't lead us into any dark alleyways"

Harry chuckled. "Would I do that?" he smiled mischievously.

"Should I answer that or do I just glare?" Tonks answered back, ruffling his hair.

Two minutes later they were boarding an underground train packed with rush hour commuters, unfortunately there were no seats left so they were forced to stand. Harry surveyed his surroundings. There was a teenager, probably not any older than Harry, sitting in a seat humming to his personal stereo, the kid's hair was a bright green and spiked up and he wore what looked like a dogs collar around his neck. This disgruntled Ron, who on spotting the teenager, promptly turned his back on him and stared up at a map of the Underground system above the windows.

On the other side of the aisle was an old woman, who kept receiving annoyed looks from the people either side of her because she kept poking them with her knitting needles. The woman of course was completely oblivious to this and kept on knitting with a happy little smile spread across her wrinkled face.

When Harry told Ron that the next stop was theirs he seemed to relax, a lot. He looked very uncomfortable and anxious standing there amongst the throng of commuters, he kept glancing around the train like someone was about to jump him and steal everything he owned.

"What's wrong with, Ron?" Hermione asked in a soft voice, noticing too, that her friend was acting strangely.

Harry just shrugged his shoulders and whispered back. "I'm not sure, Hermione"

"You don't think that maybe he is anxious because of those…" Hermione's voice dipped even lower, "…terror attacks?"

That thought hadn't even occurred to Harry, but it was quite possible that that was the reason for Ron's uneasiness. "We can ask him when we get off the train," he whispered back.

The train lurched to a stop and they all followed the crowds out onto the platform. Harry took Hermione's hand and followed after Ron, who had breathed a great sigh of relief as soon as he stepped onto the platform.

"Ron, what's wrong?" Harry asked, pulling him over to a pylon.

"What?" Ron asked, attempting to hide his anxiety. "Nothing, there is nothing wrong at all"

"Harry and I both saw you," Hermione said. "You looked like you were going to have a nervous breakdown on that train"

Ron shook his head. "It doesn't matter, alright. I'm fine," He headed off towards the escalator at a brisk walk.

Harry and Hermione called after him but he ignored them.

Ginny came up to them, confused. "What's up with, Ron?" she asked.

"We don't know, Gin," Hermione answered her. "He was acting really weird on the train but he won't tell us why"

"I'll see what I can do," Ginny ran off after Ron, concern for her brother evident on her face.

The day went on as planned. Harry and the others acted just like tourists and visited quite a few historical sites, some holding both muggle and magical history. When lunchtime rolled around they bought sandwiches and drinks from a small sandwich vendor in St. James's Park and settled down on the soft, green and magically dried lawn.

"What's that you guys are drinking?" Ron asked.

Harry took a sip of Hermione's diet coke and answered. "It's a muggle drink. Why? Would you like some?"

Ron shook his head but quickly changed his mind. "Alright, maybe a little bit"

Hermione poured some into the drink cap and handed it to Ron. "There you go"

Ron shuddered when the drink hit his tongue. "Arrgh! That stuff is gross!" he spluttered. "It tastes like there's no sugar in it," he handed the cap back, and took a swig from his water to wash out the taste.

"That's because there isn't any sugar in it," Harry laughed.

Everyone laughed. Ron muttered something about muggles being abnormal before he tucked into his sandwich.

Harry threw some of his sandwich crust to a group of ducks that were lazily swimming around in the narrow body of water that wasnext to where they were sitting.

Ginny crawled over to Hermione and himself, a worried look on her face. "He won't tell me what's wrong," she said, motioning at Ron. "He says that it's silly and that we should leave it alone"

She sighed. "I'm really worried, you guys"

Harry nodded his head in agreement. "So are we, Gin"

Lupin hoisted himself to his feet. "Should we get going?" he asked, brushing grass off of his pants. "We still have to visit a shopping centre before we leave"

Harry got up and pulled Hermione up with him. "Lets go"

The others followed and soon they were all walking along busy Oxford Street, until they reached a rather large and grandshopping centre.

"We are going to buy you some new clothes, Harry," Hermione smiled as they walked through the sliding glass doors and into the spacious and well-lit shopping centre.

Harry looked at her quizzically. "What? Why?" he asked. "There's nothing wrong with my clothes".

Hermione shook her head. "Harry, they're about two times too big for you and look-" she pulled at one of the shirts holes. "-You have holes in your shirt"

"But, Hermione. I don't want new clothes"

"Yes, you do. Now come with me," she grabbed his hand and dragged him off towards the closest clothing store.

The shop was narrow and dimly lit. One wall was lined with clothing racks and the other with five fitting booths. In the centre of the room was the cash register, where a middle-aged woman stood flipping through a pile of receipts. The woman smiled when they entered.

"Hello, dears," she said, leaving the receipts and walking over to where they stood. "What can I do for you today?"

Hermione cleared her throat. "My boyfriend, here, needs some new clothing"

The woman eyed Harry's clothes and nodded in agreement. "I most certainly agree with you, young lady" With that said, she started grabbing different clothing items at random and thrust them in Harry's direction, it was all Harry could do to catch the clothes before the hit the floor. Once the woman was sure that she had thrown enough clothes at him she led him to the fitting booths and pushed Harry inside.

Harry tried on every piece of clothing that wasn't to small for him and by the time he had finished he was left with two pairs of jeans and five shirts.

Hermione smiled happily as she payed the shop owner, who kept looking over Harry's old clotheswith distaste.

"Why are your clothes so big?" she demanded, as she handed Hermione her receipt. "Did you used to be fat?"

Harry stared at her in shock. "Excuse me?"

Hermione glared at the shop owner, took Harry's hand and pulled him out of the shop.

"What a wretched old hag!" Hermione said, loud enough for the woman in the shop to hear.

Harry and Hermione both laughed as they made their way over to where their friends were standing, they fell silent however when they saw the serious and frightened looks on their faces.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked, alarm bells going off in his head. "Is it Voldemort? What's he done? What happened?"

Lupin sighed and looked at him sadly. "There's been another attack," he said, confirming Harry's fears.

"Where?" Harry asked, as he and Hermione reached for their wands.

Lupinwaved for them to stop, thenhe shook his head in great sadness. "Not in London. In Australia"


Author's Chat

Hi. I know this chapter is short but it is mainly just a fill in. I really didn't want the attack to happen on Harry's birthday but I couldn't seem to put it anywhere else, it just wouldn't fit. The Charmed Ones will be brought into the story a lot more from now on. Erm…I have never been to London but I chose St. James's Park because it was close to Oxford Street and I was told that Oxford Street held a few shopping areas. Don't hate me or anyone else if the geographical details are incorrect.

Oh, word of caution, swearing may make an appearance from now on, so the rating may go up.

!HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND SEASONS GREETINGS!

Don't forget to review, please.

(P.S Sorry for any grammatical errors)