Chapter 4

Harry went to sit on his bed when Hermione grabbed his hand. He turned and looked at her. Her eyes were filled with tears as they looked at each other. Harry wrapped his arms around Hermione and she rested her head on his chest, since he was several inches taller than she was. She only reached the top of his shoulders when they stood side by side.

"Oh, Harry," she said. "I hope you don't feel bad about telling me how you feel."

"Of course I don't," he said pulling her away from him. "I do have feelings for you and I always will. Even if you don't share those same feeling for me."

"But I do," she said. "I want to be with you, but I feared that you didn't want to be with me -"

Before Hermione could say another word, Harry had leaned down and kissed the young girl before him. He held her tightly to him as if afraid to loose her. Hermione wrapped her arms around this young man's neck and stood on her tiptoes to hold onto him better. Their world seemed to stop as they stood there, lips locked. When they parted, Hermione's cheeks were flushed and there was a child like smile on her face.

"Did you like that?" asked Harry.

"Yes, I did," Hermione said, sitting on the bed. "Are you excited about your Apparition test?"

"Yeah," said Harry. "Are you?"

"Of course I am," said Hermione. "Actually, Mr. Weasley wants to take you and me so that we can get that done."

"When?" asked Harry.

"Two days," said Hermione. "That's actually why I'm here. But my parents really do want to get to know your aunt and uncle. My dad's going to ask if we can take you for the rest of the summer holiday and I do hope your uncle says yes."

"I don't know, Hermione," Harry said. "He's been rather nice lately but I don't know how long it will last."

"It doesn't hurt to ask," she said. "So do you have everything packed?"

"Yeah, actually I packed everything last night," he said sticking his hands in his pocket.

As he slipped his hand into his pocket, he felt a piece of parchment and remembered the letter that the Phoenix had delivered to him. He pulled it out and looked at it. The image of the little girl floated back into his mind as he stared at the parchment.

"What is it, Harry?" asked Hermione.

"It's a letter I got today while waiting for you," Harry said absently, still staring at the parchment. "A Phoenix delivered it."

"You mean Fawkes," said Hermione surprised. "But I thought Dumbledore wanted to keep communications quiet for a while between you two?"

"It wasn't Fawkes," Harry said. "Fawkes has black eyes. This Phoenix had pale blue eyes and wore a gold chain with a tag on it. Her name was Stella."

"Well," said Hermione, taking the letter, "Phoenixes are very rare. So who do we know that has a Phoenix besides Dumbledore?"

"No one," said Harry sitting beside her.

There came a gentle knock at the door. Harry jumped up and answered it. Standing on the other side of the door was Hermione's mother with a broad smile on her face. Harry opened the door and stepped back to allow her to come in.

"My this is a cozy little room," Emily Granger said looking around. "Are you two ready to go?"

"They said he could come," said Hermione jumping to her feet.

"Yes," Emily said, noticing the birdcage. "You have a bird. What kind is it?"

Just then, Harry's snowy white owl, Hedwig, flew into the room and perched herself on his shoulder. With a quiet hoot, Hedwig nipped at Harry's ear.

"This is Hedwig," said Harry. "She's my owl. Hedwig, this is Mrs. Granger. She's Hermione's mum."

Hedwig gave a friendly hoot and bobbed her head up and down. "She's so adorable," said Emily. "Well we better be going."

Harry quickly placed Hedwig in her cage and Mrs. Granger took her and went downstairs. Hermione helped Harry carry his trunk down the flight of stairs and out the door to the car. As Hermione closed the trunk of the car, Uncle Vernon and Frank Granger walked out of the house laughing. Uncle Vernon shook Frank's hand and closed the door.

"How rude. Not even a good bye to their nephew," said Emily as she climbed into the car. "Well this should be fun. Hermione, dear, when did Mr. Weasley say he would be coming to pick you and Harry up?"

"Tonight around ten," said Hermione, looking out the window.

"Well you better get some sleep, it's going to be three and a half hours before we get home," Frank said, "and it's getting dark already."

Hermione looked at her father and then leaned against Harry's shoulder. One of her small hands quickly found his and she entangled her fingers with his. She looked up at Harry and smiled. He returned the smile and a faint blush crept across her cheeks.

Soon the sun had completely disappeared and they were all plunged into darkness. Hermione was sound asleep within minutes and was curled up in the seat beside Harry with her head on his leg. As Harry petted her smooth brown hair, he looked out the window and wondered what would happen if Hermione and him were to get really serious about each other.

Harry wanted to be with her. He wanted Hermione as his girlfriend. He wants to express the feeling for her the way they should be. He looked at her and smiled. She looked like a sleeping child all curled up on the seat beside him.

Finally, after almost three and a half-hours on the road, they pulled into the driveway. Harry woke Hermione and they climbed out of the car with Hedwig in hand. Mr. Granger helped Harry carry his trunk into the house and they set it down beside the fireplace. Mrs. Granger and Hermione ran upstairs and several minutes later came back with her trunk and set it down with Harry's.

"Well your mother and I are going to bed," Frank said. "You two have fun for the rest of the summer holidays and have fun at school. We'll see you two at end of the year."

"Okay," said Hermione giving her parents hugs and kisses, "good night."

"Good night," her parents said as they disappeared upstairs.

"I do hope Mr. Weasley gets here on time," Hermione said sitting beside Harry on the couch.

"You know Mr. Weasley will be late," Harry said wrapping his arm around her as she curled up beside him.

"Your right," Hermione said looking at him.

Harry leaned down and kissed her. When he pulled back, Hermione had a child like grin on her face as she curled up beside him. Hermione leaned forward and picked up the TV remote. She turned it on and flipped through the channels until she came to the news.

"Thank you for joining us tonight," said the news anchor. "Tonight we will be covering strange happenings."

"What do you consider strange?" said Hermione chastising the television. "Sorry, bad habit I have about watching the news these days."

"It's ok," said Harry. "I've been listening to it all summer too."

"Last night there was an unexpected meteor shower all over England," said the anchor. "This also happened sixteen years ago, I'm told. What could it be? Could we be in the path of some asteroids that have never been found before? From what we've hear, and seen, these shooting stars are of different colors like none we've ever seen. Blue, pink, green, and red colored shooting stars have been reported being seen over London last night."

Harry and Hermione looked at each other. Multi colored shooting stars? "Dumbledore's not going to like this one bit," said Hermione.

"This happened one time sixteen years ago?" said Harry, thinking. "Back in the summer of our fifth year I remember someone telling me about the night when Voldemort disappeared. The sky was filled with shooting stars cause everyone was celebrating his supposed death."

"Do you think people could be celebrating as a type of anniversary?" asked Hermione, looking at him. "Are there people out there who still don't know that He's back?"

"They know but they're choosing not to accept it," said a voice from behind them.

Harry and Hermione spun around and there stood Mr. Weasley with a sober look on his face. He looked even more tired than usual.

"Well are you two ready to go?" asked Mr. Weasley giving the two a smile.

"Yes," said Hermione as she and Harry stood up.

Mr. Weasley quickly reached into his robe and pulled out a black dragon skin pouch filled with Floo powder. "Harry, you go first," Mr. Weasley said, helping Harry put his trunk into the fireplace.

Harry took a hand full of Floo powder and said clearly, as he threw down the green powder, "the Burrow."

Green flames engulfed Harry and his trunk as he began to spin faster and faster. Harry closed his eyes tightly and held his trunk close to his body. When he stopped spinning, he opened his eyes as saw five pairs of eyes watching him.

"Hello, Harry," said Bill, helping Harry with his trunk. "Have a nice trip?"

"Yeah," Harry said stepping out of the fireplace.

Several candles dimly lighted the kitchen. A handful of people were sitting around the old wood table in the center of the room. Harry recognized Charlie, Ron, and Ginny but there was someone new sitting between Charlie and Ginny. She had long black hair with bright red streaks running through it and her eyes were a pale gray color that made her look almost blind from far away. She was wearing a dark green dragon skin trench coat over a black tank top and tight, low riding dark blue jeans and a pair of leather high heels. Her right eyebrow was pierced and her ears were both pierced all the way to the top.

"Nice to see you again, Harry," said Charlie. "Been a while."

"Yeah," Harry said, "good to see you, too."

There was another whoosh and Hermione appeared in the fireplace with her trunk. Bill quickly pulled her trunk out as Harry helped her out of the fireplace. A loud cracking noise filled the room and Mr. Weasley appeared at the end of the table. He looked very tired as he looked around the room.

"Everyone better get to bed before your mom gets up and chases you off," Mr. Weasley said with a yawn. "Make sure your quiet going up the stairs. Don't want to wake anyone, now."

"Fred and George are in my room," said Ron. "Since Bill, Charlie, and his lady friend are here."

"Okay," Bill said pulling out his wand. "Locomotor trunks."

Both of Harry and Hermione's trunks lifted off the ground several inches and followed Bill upstairs as everyone followed him. Hermione and Ginny departed first and soon it was only Ron and Harry as they carried Harry's trunk into Ron's room. There sitting on the floor at the end of the bunk bed were Fred and George writing frivolously. The twins looked up quickly at them and then returned to their work.

Harry looked at Ron and said, "Orders?"

"Yep," Ron said as they set Harry's trunk with Ron's. "How long have you two been working on those?"

Fred stopped writing and thought for a moment before saying, "Almost three hours."

"I'm going to bed," said Ron as he changed into his pajamas.

Harry followed suit and soon both were in bed and fast asleep within minutes.