Chapter Fifty Two

Going Home

The train ride home was rather boring actually. They had ended up taking up three train cars next to each other to fit all of them and their stuff. The thirteen of them were going between the three compartments playing either exploding snaps or wizard chess in one of two compartments. The third compartment was used for talking or just reading. Crabbe and Goyle it seemed weren't as dumb as people were making them out to be. They were actually quite intelligent, and if it wasn't for their fathers or families, they might have been put in Ravenclaw themselves. Their dumb bully act was just a facade and they were able to keep up quite an intelligent conversation with people. Crabbe seemed to be almost as good as Ron at chess, and Goyle was talking about how he was going to try out to be one of the beaters on the house team next year. Harry, Ron, Draco and Gregory were having a lively conversation on the possibility of who there DADA teacher was going to be next year, and whether or not there was any of the other houses that they thought that had a chance of beating either Gryffindor or Slytherin in the Quidditch matches. They thought that Ravenclaw might have a chance, but only next year, because their team is going to be fairly new the next one. The only ones that were going to be on their team in their fourth year were going to be Cho Chang and Cedric Diggory. Besides those two, they will be having to field a whole new team.

As they got to Kings Cross Station, they made their way off of the train and through the barrier between platforms nine and ten. Harry met his Aunt Marge that he didn't know that he had, and had invited her to come along to his birthday party on July thirty first. "I insist that you come along with Dudley to the Burrow to celebrate my birthday Aunt Marge. You are still my family, even tho I was adopted by the Weasley's. Dudley and I have become friends over the last year, and in fact he has been asked to stay the rest of the summer after my birthday."

"Ok Harry, I would love to come to your birthday party, is there a way that I can get hold of your adopted parents over the summer?"

"Why don't you ask them yourself, their right over there with all the other Weasley's. they're good people Aunt Marge, they have treated me well over the years. Now lets go over there and I will introduce you two to them." They walked over to where the Weasley's were standing, and Harry introduced Dudley and his Aunt Marge to his adopted parents and family. Most of them have already met Dudley, but they didn't know his Aunt. "Mum, Dad I would like you to meet my Aunt Marge on my mum's side. My cousin Dudley had started at Hogwarts this year after his parents were killed by some rogue wizard's and he has been staying with her. He is the one that I had asked if I could invite to my birthday party this summer. Well she needed to talk to you about how she is to get a hold of you if needed this summer. Well I see that the Grangers are waiting patiently for me, I will see you all in a couple of weeks." After hugging his family and promising to send post cards, Harry made his way over to where the Granger's were standing. "Hey Hermoine, Mr and Mrs. Granger, thank you for inviting me to go along with you on your summer trip this year. I am really looking forward to going to France, I have never really been out of the country before, except going to Romania to visit Charly, or once going to Egypt to visit my other brother Bill." Harry had a ready smile for the Grangers, and they instantly liked the young man.

"It's our pleasure to have you with us Harry. We have heard a lot about you from our daughter, all good things I assure you. Do you have all your stuff?"

"Yes sir, I'm all ready to go. Actually I was wondering if we can make a quick stop at Diagon Alley before we go, so I can get some traveling cash for myself?" Harry asked this innocently enough and with a ready smile.

"There's no need to do that Harry, your going to be our guest on this trip. You won't be needing any of your own money on this trip. But if you need to, we don't actually don't leave for a couple of days, and I'm sure we can make a short trip to the Alley on the way home." Mrs. Granger said as she looked at Harry.

"Thank you Mrs. Granger, I know that all my needs will be taken care of this trip, but there might be something that I want to get that I would prefer to pay for with my own money now, instead of either having you pay for it or paying you back for it when we get back. I do thank you for your offer tho."

The four of them made their way out to the Granger's car and then off to the Leaky Cauldron and Diagon Alley so that they could stop by Gringotts. Harry made a withdrawal of a couple thousand galleons and had it switched to muggle money for the trip. When he was done, he had put it in a wallet that they had given him, and met the Granger's outside. "Ok I'm ready to go now." Harry absentmindedly took Hermoine's hand as they walked through Diagon Alley and back out to the car. Hermoine was a bit surprised, but happy that he did this.

The Granger's noticed this and smiled to themselves. "Well where shall we have dinner tonight? I hear there's a great mexican place that just opened up on the way home."

"That sounds great Dad. Harry have you ever had Mexican food? It's a bit spicy, but really good. They have stuff like burritos, which is beans and meat and cheese and stuff all rolled up in a flat skinny type bread. They also have tacos, and all kinds of good stuff."

"No, I haven't had it before, but it sounds good to me." They made their way to the restaurant and had a leisurely dinner, then went to the Granger's home and had a fairly quiet couple of days getting ready for the trip.