(AN: Yay! I got a review. Thank you Nulla. At least someone likes my story. It's really hard to start the plot but I'm attempting to make it funny. In fact I'm very proud of chapter 4.)
Chapter 2 - Instigation Part I
Harry got home at midnight. This isn't good, he thought. The door will probably be locked by now. The Dursley's have made it quite clear to him that anytime after Dudley got home was completely inexcusable.
"Shit." Harry said as he tried the doorknob. It was locked. How am I supposed to get into the bloody house, he thought angrily. He walked into the garden and stared up at his window. It wasn't locked he thought hopefully. But there was no way up the side of the wall. He looked around desperately. The shed was close but he wouldn't reach the window from there either. Unless….
Harry got the stool from the garden that he usually sat on while weeding the plants. He threw the stool up on the shed roof and proceeded to climb onto the roof himself.
He climbed onto the stool and could almost reach his window. He got the window open a few inches when a SWOOSH sound came from behind him. He turned so fast that the stool gave a hearty wobble and he ungracefully fell to the ground, except instead of painfully landing on the hard soil he landed in an enormous yet comfy pillow.
He rolled off the pillow and immediately drew his wand. He pointed it in the direction from which the SWOOSH came from. He stood in a fighting stance for ten seconds when he heard chuckling from behind him and a hand on his shoulder. Harry spun around, a hex on his lips, to look directly into the white beard of his headmaster.
He gave a relieved sigh and put his wand away. Albus Dumbledore smiled his usual cryptic smile and folded his hands across his chest. He was wearing a long purple robe with stars sewn in and a wizards' hat sat merrily on the aged man's head. Albus Dumbledore was the epitome of what a muggle would imagine a wizard would look like.
"Hello Harry." He said joyfully. "It seemed like you needed a bit of help." He looked at the stool which was lying pitifully on the ground beside the shed. The pillow was gone.
"Yeah. I took a while getting home and the Dursley's must have fallen asleep thinking I was already home." Harry lied. He thought that the headmaster already had too much on his mind, he didn't need to be bothered by his trivial problems.
"Hmmm. I was wondering why you were trying to get through your own window." Dumbledore said, walking to the front door. With a tap of his wand the door opened and both wizards went into number four privet drive. The room was dark and dreary looking. Everything was spotless, as usual, but the darkness seemed to make everything more… forbidding.
The wizards quietly made it up the stairs into Harry's room. With a swish of his wand Dumbledore had everything in Harry's trunk. Another flick and the trunk shrunk to fit into the size of his hand. Harry let Hedwig out of her cage and Dumbledore shrunk that as well. Harry grabbed the little trunk and the cage and the wizards walked into the spotless kitchen. Dumbledore put a letter on the breakfast table and then made his way out of the house.
"Professor, where are we going?" Harry asked the moment they got outside, he didn't want to go to Grimmauld place, the memories of his dead godfather still fresh in his mind.
"We are going to the Misty Inn; it is located near Diagon Alley. I don't want to draw too much attention to you so you cannot stay in the Leaky Cauldron. In a few days time I will send appropriate transportation to take you to King's Cross. From there you will be taking the Hogwarts Express." Dumbledore explained.
"But professor, why am I going to Hogwarts? School doesn't start for another month and a half." Harry asked. He was beginning to get a bit suspicious. What if this wasn't really Dumbledore but some Death Eater in disguise?
"I will explain everything to you when you get to Hogwarts and the other party has arrived. It would be much more logical if I explain it to the both if you at the same time." Dumbledore said.
This was getting stranger and stranger by the minute. They were already on Magnolia Street but they kept walking. "Ummm… Professor? How do I know you are truly who you tell me you are?" Harry asked, his curiosity getting the best of him.
Dumbledore smiled. "I'm glad that you asked Harry. It is good to be cautious at times like these. In answer to your question, last year I told you of the prophesy. The prophesy that says only one, you or Voldemort, will be able to survive on this earth. Is that proof enough Harry?" Harry just looked at him. The prophesy. He had been trying to forget about it but it always came back to haunt him. He would either have to be a murderer or be murdered. "Yes, that's proof enough." Harry said in a small voice.
Dumbledore saw the obvious distress on the younger boys' face and said, "For future reference, my favorite type of jam is raspberry." This brought a smile to the emerald eyed youth.
They had walked up Tulip Avenue into a small parking lot filled with rusty old cars. Dumbledore walked up to a gray Honda and got out the car keys. "We're driving?" Harry said, amazed to find out that his Headmaster could drive a car.
"Yes Harry. The Ministry has been breathing down our backs. They're watching the Floo network and making an unauthorized portkey would not be healthy for me right now. Cornelius has acknowledged the fact that the dark lord has risen but he still holds me in low esteem." Dumbledore said, a sad expression on his face. "Although it has been reported that Fudge will not stay in office for much longer. It seems that the people do not want a corrupt Minister."
"Finally." Harry said. He had only met Fudge on a number of occasions but in the last year he had denied all reports that Voldemort had risen, therefore making Harry's, and Dumbledore's lives miserable.
The ride to London was spent quietly talking about inconsequential things. Dumbledore told Harry about what the order was doing, and Harry told Dumbledore about his very boring summer.
Just as Dumbledore was telling Harry a story about a goblin he once met on a mission, Harry remembered about the drawing and the strage girl he had met at the cemetery, the arrival of his Headmaster completely erasing the memory from his mind.
"Professor?" Harry interrupted. The memory was like a dream, slipping away as if it never happened. He wanted to tell Dumbledore before he forgot it entirely. "Yesterday I woke up from a nap on the front lawn and found a drawing of myself lying on the ground. It said Raven on it and there was a small sketch of my parents' graves. There was a scribbled signature in the corner but it was very hard to make out. I think it said Charlie or Charles. I was really curious about my parents so I went on a search to find their grave. I found it and there was a girl there. She was the girl who drew the picture. Her name was Charlie and she was really odd. She kept on rambling about dead people, it was all very confusing." The memory of the girl was a bit hazy. It only happened a day ago but it felt like years had passed. He couldn't even remember how the girl looked like anymore. He remembered the topic of conversation was odd but he couldn't for the life of him remember what the girl had said.
Dumbledore wrinkled his brow. "When did this happen?" he asked. "Yesterday afternoon." Harry replied. "You sound as if you don't remember it very well." Dumbledore mused, his curiosity peaked. "I know. It feels like it happened a long time ago." Harry said.
This wasn't the first time Dumbledore had heard of a mysterious woman named Charlie. Once, a long time ago, his brother had told him of a very strange girl who had helped him with a task he had to do. But, he too, hardly remembered her. At the time Albus had thought that the girl was a figment of Aberforth's imagination. But then, Minerva told him of a similar person helping her with her marking one evening. This was a few years later and it took a while for the aged wizard to connect the two incidents, but he soon did and wondered who this puzzling woman was. And now, years later, Harry tells him of the same girl. How she could stay young was a mystery on its own, as everyone describes her as very youthful. Maybe she was a spirit who came to those in need. But so far she hadn't done anything remotely useful.
"It's probably nothing Harry, just someone with too much spare time on their hands." Dumbledore said. No need to worry the boy, he thought anxiously.
Charlie definitely had too much spare time on her hands. She was currently cruising the Californian coast, Santa Maria, to be exact, looking for something to do. The Raven boy obviously had a very closed mind, she thought, and she wasn't even lying! Not that I always lie, of course, but I do tend to stretch the truth. It was very odd. There was absolutely nobody in those graves. I will have to go back there and search them someday. But that would come later. Right now I want to relax.
She parked her car next to a promising spot by the beach and took out her towel and a paperback. She sauntered across the beach, strutting in front if a very promising Latino boy with blonde hair. He looked up in interest and watched as the bikini clad girl spread out her towel in the sand and lay down with a content sigh.
He blonde took out a pack of cards and walked over to the girl. "Hello, my name's Angelo. Would you like to play cards?" He said with a sexy Mexican accent. His friends always told him to be more up front. He was usually very shy, but something about this girl made him relax. She was just… approachable.
"Sure! My name's Charlie by the way. Do you like Crazy Eights?" She asked. Sitting up and putting away the paperback. She needed something to get her mind off of the troubled Raven boy she had met the day before.
TBC
Teaser for next chapter: He sprang up from the seat and stared at the blonde, who was laughing like a hyena. "You should have seen the look on your face!" He said between gasps for air. He sat down on the seat that Harry had moments ago abandoned.