Chapter 5: R.A.B.

"Harry, this is amazing! But then that means…Harry, you don't suppose…. No, that's impossible. Oh, but finding this name was impossible! Oh, Harry! This is wonderful! We're one step closer to finding the locket!" She hugged him and Ron. At first, Harry hugged her back, but his eye caught the cabinet in the corner of the room. It was the cabinet they had cleaned out with Sirius. "Harry, what's wrong?"

He rushed over to the cabinet and wrenched it open. He searched recklessly, but found nothing. Angrily, he smashed a box against the back of the cabinet. "Harry!" Hermione grabbed his arm to prevent him from smashing anything else. "Harry, we'll find the locket. Wasn't it in the other cabinet? Ron, go look in the other cabinet! We can find it. It has to be here somewhere. We didn't throw it away, did we? Maybe you could try summoning it. We'll find it. Don't worry. Ron, what are you doing?" He had opened the window as an owl flew in. Hermione went over to him and looked at the letters. She shoved them away and went back to Harry.

Harry was shaking with anger. The cabinet was vibrating. "Mundungus," he said softly. Ron and Hermione looked at him. "Mundungus stole it. That day we saw him in Hogsmeade. I saw it in his suitcase."

"Harry…" Ron said. His friend turned toward him angrily. "Hogwarts letters." He handed Harry and Hermione their letters. Harry read it to himself silently. Hogwarts...Ginny was going to be there…. He could finally see her again. At the moment, going back seemed like the best option. "We'll stay Harry. We said we would, so we will."

"No."

"What?"

He sighed. "No, we're going back. Our time will be of better use there anyway. And someone might be able to help us. Hogwarts probably has better clues than we do. We'll talk to Professor McGonagall, see if she can't let us leave school every once in a while. Snape's not there and the other teachers will understand. I'll start the D.A. again…" Just then, another owl flew through the already open window towards Harry. He pulled off the letter and read it quickly. "I changed my mind."

Ron and Hermione stared at him. "Don't worry, we're still going. I'm not starting the D.A." They began to protest, but he smiled. "Shut up so I can tell you McGonagall's asked me to be the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Seems Lupin can't do it because he's too busy with Order business, and no one else will take the job."

"Oh, Harry, that's wonderful! But what about your other classes? She can't honestly expect you to plan 7 classes a week and do all your homework. We're 7th years, Harry. We've got responsibility." He smiled again as Hermione went into a huge spiel about his classes and his homework. Ron rolled his eyes. "Harry, I'm talking to you!" He turned toward her. "Are you going to tell Ginny, or not?"

His face fell. He sat down and started kneading his forehead. "No," he finally said. "I'm not going to tell her. I have to be at school a day early. She'll find out I'm there at the feast, or her first Defense Against the Dark Arts class, if I can help it. Come on. We've got to get a good night's sleep if we're going into Diagon Alley tomorrow."

There she was. It had been 3 weeks since he'd seen her, but it felt like longer. She was as beautiful as ever. She seemed to glow with radiance. People pushed past him as he stood transfixed in the street. He didn't notice until someone knocked him to the ground. She smiled at some friends passing by. Harry recognized Romilda Vane. Behind them was a woman who reminded him strangely of Neville's grandmother. She shuffled the girls along into Flourish and Blotts. Ginny went in after them.

Diagon Alley was almost deserted. A few buildings were still left in ruins from the explosion. Fred and George were hard at work restocking their store. Once again, it was the only store people were happy to enter.

Harry took his chance and followed the girls into the bookstore. He pulled his hood on tighter as he passed Romilda and her friends. Ron and Hermione were busy buying quills and parchment. He had promised to meet them back at Grimmauld Place in 2 hours. He was feet away from Ginny when he remembered that he had said he wouldn't tell Ginny about his new position at Hogwarts. She turned toward him and he panicked, picking up a random book from the shelf. When he thought she was gone, he lowered the book and put it back on the shelf.

As he breathed a sigh of relief, he felt a wand at his throat. "Who are you?" she asked fiercely, gritting her teeth. He didn't answer. "Don't make me ask again. Who are you?" Again he didn't answer and she shoved him up against the bookcase. "I'm not afraid to curse you until your ears fall off. Who are you!"

"I-can't-tell you!" he said, gasping for breath.

"Why? You wouldn't happen to be a Death Eater, would you! Who are you?"

"It's me! Harry! Ginny, let me go!" She loosened her grip slightly. "Ginny, please believe me."

She gritted her teeth again. "I don't believe you! I'll let you go this time, but if you try anything behind my back, you'll be sorry. Next time you pretend to be someone else, don't pick the most famous person in the Wizarding world." She threw him down to the ground and he apparated quickly to the outside of the shop. He was breathing hard. Ron and Hermione could handle buying everything. He already had what he was supposed to get. He apparated back to Grimmauld Place, still gasping for breath.

Why hadn't she believed him? He shouldn't have snuck up on her in the first place. He sat down in the kitchen, looking at his hands. Ron and Hermione wouldn't be showing up for another hour, at least.

They apparated into the kitchen and he was still sitting there. "Hello Harry," Hermione said without looking at him. She set out everything they had bought in Diagon Alley. Neither of them looked at her. "How long have you been back? Did you get everything on the list?"

"Did you see her too?" He asked. They both stopped. "I saw her. She wouldn't believe it was me. She thought I was a Death Eater." They sat down next to him. "What happens when we show up at school? She won't believe us. We told her we weren't coming. We'll have to tell her or she'll freak out."

"Harry, but you said you wouldn't tell her! We can't tell her now. We've only got a few days until we have to leave. Hedwig wouldn't get there in time anyway. She'll believe us eventually. I don't think she'll care when she sees you. You can't go around in a cloak all day at school. And what are the students supposed to call you? Professor I-don't-know-who-you-are? You can't hide forever, Harry. And we can't hide with you. We'll get to school, see her, and then she'll love you again. Oh…"

He looked at her. "Oh what?"

"Harry…what about you and Ginny? You broke up with her because you had to keep her safe. You can't go around Hogwarts holding her hand. Not to mention that's fraternizing with a student. Then again, you're not exactly qualified to be a teacher. Harry you can't treat her like anything more than your student. You can't treat any of us like more than a student, at least during class. But even outside of classes you have to act like you and Ginny aren't even friends."

Ron sighed. "Hermione…you're rambling again. Harry knows that. He'll figure it out. Come on, I'm hungry." He went to a cupboard and opened it. It was bare. "I guess I'm going shopping." He walked out of the kitchen, leaving Harry and Hermione by themselves.

Hermione sat down only to stand up again a few seconds later. She started pacing the room. "Ugh…I can't stay here. I'm sorry, Harry. I'm going to my room or out or something. I'll be back." He was alone again. He heard the door slam upstairs.

For some reason, Harry liked being alone better than being with Ron or Hermione. They were his best friends, but their constant bickering gave him a headache. If he and Hermione weren't arguing about something, he and Ron were. If he and Ron weren't arguing, Hermione and Ron were. It was an endless cycle of arguing. When they weren't arguing with each other, they were fighting a greater evil. After spending months with them, he was looking forward to some other company.

He walked upstairs into the drawing room. He looked at the tapestry on the wall again. Looking out the dusty window, he saw two people kissing below the single street light. With a smile, he realized that they were Ron and Hermione.

A cloud of dust rose as he sat down in an overstuffed armchair. Seeing Ron and Hermione kissing made him think of Ginny. She had no idea they would be seeing each other again in just three days. The clock struck one in the morning. He looked at the wizard chasing the witch around the outside of the clock.

The only reason Harry had any inkling what time it was when he finally moved from the chair was because the clocked kept striking every hour and the sun shining bright through the window. He heard Ron and Hermione come in a few hours after he'd entered the drawing room. He heard them looking for him, and then heard Ron tell Hermione that Harry probably didn't want to be found. They went further upstairs to bed, leaving him be. The door opened around 4 the next afternoon. Ron entered with a bowl of porridge. "Hermione wanted to bring this too you earlier, but I told her that 7 in the morning was too early," he said, smiling slightly and handing him the bowl. "Are you okay? You seem a bit…off."

Harry, who was eating the porridge hungrily, gulped. "I guess it was just seeing Ginny yesterday. Being threatened by my fiancée at the back of a bookstore is not exactly my idea of a good time. I don't know about you. You and your light posts…" Ron turned scarlet, just like he always did. Harry smiled. A lot had changed since their first year, but not that.

"Oh…you saw that."

"Yeah…I saw it."