After dinner that night, the three of them sat in the den in front of the fire. Renata's mom was reading something and Renata and Harry were going over Quiditch plays.
"So are you staying here tonight?"
Harry looked around him. The fire was bright, the company was good, he wanted to be here. He did not want be back with all those pictures.not yet. "Yeah. I'm staying."
"Then we'd better go get your trunk, otherwise you won't have anything to wear tomorrow."
"Right." **********************************************************
The first sound Harry heard the next morning was someone shouting outside his door, "Up!"
Harry groaned.
"Now!" The door was flung open, "Wake up! We leave in half an hour!"
"Aw, jeez! Renata, don't you ever knock? What if I was getting dressed?" He sat up groggily and reached for his glasses.
"If you would have been up you would have responded when I told you to get up and then I wouldn't have opened the door. Get dressed." She slammed the door shut and left.
Harry looked through his trunk for something to wear. When he was ready, he went downstairs to the kitchen.
"So how are we getting to Diagon Alley?" he said, pouring himself a bowl of cereal.
"Floo powder. No point in wasting such a long time driving." She shoveled spoonful after spoonful of cereal in her mouth.
"Someone's knocking at the door."
"Oh! It's Claire. I'll get it." She leapt out of her seat and raced off to the door.
Now, Harry hadn't meant to eavesdrop but when he heard his name, he just couldn't help it.
"So, is Harry here?"
"Yeah. He's in there. Keep it down."
Harry left his chair and crept closer to the doorway to hear better.
"Does he know?"
"About Ron? Nope. He knows there's something, he just doesn't know what." Renata laughed.
"Isn't that mean?"
"No, if he asks me something I won't lie but I'm not going to tell him or give him anymore hints."
"So what's Ron thinking, anyway?"
"Too early to tell, but I think it'll all work."
"I hope so. How's Ginny taking everything?"
"She's fine, I think. We should go back before Harry comes looking for us. Wouldn't want him to hear what we're saying, right?"
"Uh-uh."
The three students and Professor Delano lined up in front of the fire.
Harry went first. He put his glasses in his pocket and threw a pinch of green Floo Powder into the flames. "Diagon Alley!" He was sucked into the fire with green flames surrounding him. When he came out of the fire at the Leaky Cauldron he fell on the floor. He stood and brushed himself off, wondering if he would ever learn to travel by Floo Powder without falling down at the end. It was not his favorite way to travel. He coughed a few times to rid his lungs of some ash.
By the dim light he made his way up to the counter and ordered a soda. He looked around and saw someone he recognized. Draco Malfoy. His pale hair was pulled back into a sleek ponytail. Harry and Malfoy had hated each other since their first year.
"Potter, you don't look well. Apparently you've got too much Mudblood in you to be able to stand the way real wizards travel."
"Take that back, now." He felt his face getting red. Mudblood was a vulgar name used for wizards who weren't purebloods, or Muggle free. Harry's mum had been born to Muggle parents though she had full wizard powers.
"No," he smirked.
"I said take it back! Otherwise, you'll live to regret it."
"But you won't. And neither will your friends," Malfoy said, nonchalantly. "But you already knew that, didn't you?"
"You sent that letter!"
"Oh no, not I. Someone much higher up. He sent it." There was no need to specify that "he" was Voldemort.
Harry knew Malfoy was bluffing. Such childishness was beneath Voldemort and much more likely something petty that Draco Malfoy would do. "You little-I'll get you for that!" Before Harry realized what he was doing, he scaled the counter and was over at the other side, holding Malfoy by the front of his robes. "Are you going to apologize?"
"No." He spat in Harry's face and pushed him, hard. That's when the blow came. Malfoy hit Harry, square in the jaw.
Harry felt his jaw; it felt broken but he wasn't sure. He didn't waste time finding out and instead he punched Malfoy in the nose. Before he knew the punches were flying. A small crowd had gathered around them, most were rooting for Harry but a few seemed to be cheering for Malfoy.
"Get him!"
"Hit him where it hurts!"
"Tear 'im limb from limb!"
"Somebody stop them!"
That's when Harry saw a different fist hit Malfoy. It wasn't his, both of his were accounted for. Then, while Malfoy was on the ground, that same fist came flying back and knocked Harry off his feet.
"Hey! What's the big idea?" shrieked Malfoy.
"Yeah! Buzz off you-" Then Harry looked and saw who was standing there.
"Harry, Malfoy, get over it. Knock it off now. Or else." Renata's voice was icy.
"Or else what?" sneered Malfoy.
Renata leaned over until she was inches from his face, "Or else you'll get worse than a bloody nose. Both of you understand?" She glared at both Harry and Malfoy.
Neither of them moved.
"I am waiting for an answer!" her eyes narrowed.
Harry and Malfoy nodded.
"Good. In that case, I've got some shopping to do, and if either of you start a fight, I'll know. So don't." She walked away.
Harry stood up gingerly and tested his limbs. They hurt. His face hurt, too. Jaw wasn't in good condition and he was almost positive his nose was broken; he knew his glasses were. From what little he could see without his glasses it looked like Malfoy wasn't really in any better condition.
Malfoy started to walk away. He stopped when he was about even with Harry's glass of soda, which had sat on the counter all this time. "Come here, Potter."
Harry took a few stiff steps forward. "Yeah?" he said quietly.
"Apparently you need a girl to fight your battles for you, at least I don't." He walked away and Harry knew he was smirking but by then Harry couldn't care. He grabbed his soda went to find somewhere to sit out of the way where no one would notice him for a while.
"Harry, that was very inappropriate."
"Professor Dumbledore, I-er-"
"Why did you hit him, Harry?"
Harry was ready to say it was all Malfoy's fault and he was defending himself but instead the words came out, "I rose to his stupid bait, I got mad and started hitting him." Why did he say that?
"Well, in the future I want you to know two things. Boys like Mister Malfoy are not worth beating up. And.your left hook needs some work." Dumbledore smiled and disappeared.
"Harry!"
He turned to see Hermione coming to him.
"Are you all right? You look awful! What happened?"
"Malfoy. Malfoy happened. He was teasing me and I let my temper get the better of me. It was stupid." Where did that come from, thought Harry. "I don't think it's anything to serious. He got my jaw and I'm going to have a few bruises."
"Harry, your nose is bleeding." She handed him some tissues.
"Oh, that. Renata broke up the fight by punching us both in the nose. It's probably broken."
Hermione looked at him. "Hmmm.the nose isn't broken but it'll be sore. I'll go ask Tom for some ice."
Harry sat and waited for Hermione to come back. He tried to make himself small and not noticeable but he still felt like everyone was watching him even though know one was when he looked around.
"Alright. Harry, wipe the blood off with this and then pinch your nose and put your head back. You might want to hold this ice on your nose, too, otherwise it could swell up like a balloon." She handed him some wet napkins and another napkin with ice wrapped up in it. "I don't think there's anything that can be done about the bruises really. Here's something a nice hag over there gave me for your jaw." She got out a little green pot with pink goo in it. "Here, smooth it around your jaw on the outside."
"What's the point of this?"
Hermione looked briefly annoyed. "This is supposed to heal fractures in case Malfoy did break your jaw."
Harry didn't want to know how stupid he looked.
"Here, take this newspaper if you don't want anyone to see your face." She thrust the latest issue of the Daily Prophet at him. "So is Ron here yet?"
Harry opened the paper in front of his face. "Not that I know of. How long do I have to have this goop on my face?" he shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
"Ten minutes. Where did Renata go?"
"She said she had some shopping to do and that she'd know and be mad if Malfoy and I started fighting again." He sighed. "No!"
"What's wrong?"
"I should have asked Dumbledore what was wrong with Sirius."
"What do you mean?"
"I don't think Sirius is working at Hogwarts this year and I should have asked Dumbledore when he was here a few minutes ago."
"Oh. So do you know what time Ron was supposed to get here? He didn't tell me."
"Didn't tell me either. Bet he told Renata," he muttered.
"What did you say?"
Harry had planned to say "it was nothing," but those weren't the words that came out of his mouth. "I said I bet he told Renata when he was getting here."
"What makes you say that?"
To Harry's surprise he answered, "Because Claire and Renata were talking about him the morning and they didn't know I was listening."
"What did they say?"
"Claire asked if I was at Renata's house. Renata said yes. Claire asked if I knew about Ron. Renata told her that I know there's something but that I don't know what it is. Claire thought that was mean. Renata said she'd tell me if I asked but otherwise she wouldn't give any more hints. Then Claire asked what Ron was thinking and Renata said it was too early to tell but she thought it would all work. Then Claire asked how Ginny was taking everything and Renata said she was fine and that they should go back to the kitchen before I went looking for them."
"Oh." She just sat there for a few minutes before asking, "Are you sure you heard them right?"
"Of course I am! My ears work fine."
"Then what do you think they meant?" she whispered.
"I think there's something going on there that we don't know about." He took another sip of his drink.
Hermione's eyes widened. "Harry, normally you would not have answered a question like that. Am I right?"
"Yeah."
"You would have said something to the effect of, 'I don't know'. So why are you answering so.so.honestly?"
"I.I can't help it."
"Just as I thought! Did you leave your drink sitting on the counter without watching it?"
"Yeah, when I was fighting with Malfoy. I still can't really see; he broke my glasses."
"I thought as much." It looked as though Hermione was smiling, but it was hard to be sure. She asked, "Did he stop anywhere near your drink when he was leaving?"
"Come to think of it, yeah."
"He put some sort of truth potion in your drink."
"You mean, if anyone asks me anything I have to tell the truth?" He thought about the hundreds of things he could be asked. "Is it Veritaserum?"
Hermione nodded. "You have to tell the truth but I don't think it is Veritaserum. Even Malfoy probably couldn't get his hands on that. The effects of this potion should wear off."
"Should? You mean they might not?"
"Never can tell. But they should wear off somewhere between a day and a week."
"A week!"
Hermione nodded. "Time to take the goop off your face." She handed him a napkin.
"Thanks, Hermione. Let's go find Ron and Renata if we can."
"Here're your glasses. I had someone fix them. We should start at Flourish and Blotts since we need our books anyway."
"Right." They got up and walked out the back door of the Leaky Cauldron. There was a little yard out here with nothing but weeds, a couple trashcans, and a brick wall. With a tap with his wand on the right brick the wall opened and they crossed over into Diagon Alley.
The street was paved with white stones and there were shops on both sides.
"Gringotts first. I've got to get some money." They made their way to the large marble building. This was Gringotts, the wizard bank. A pair of goblins bowed as they passed through the first set of doors and then another pair bowed as they passed the second set of doors. Hermione went to one counter to trade her Muggle money for wizard money. She was back at Harry's side before he was done with the goblin he was talking to.
"Yes, I have my key. I would like to make a withdrawal."
The goblin behind the counter called to one of his companions. The goblin led Harry and Hermione away to a cart that led underground to the vaults. The cart traveled at breakneck speed like a roller-coaster. It stopped suddenly and the goblin announced that they'd arrived. The goblin opened the vault and stood back. Harry scooped some money into his bag and climbed back into the cart. They traveled back up the track to daylight and left in search of their friends.
"Flourish and Blotts, you think?"
Harry nodded. The others couldn't be too far ahead.
The window and the bookstore had a display the included books the size of paving stones and other books the size of a palm.
Hermione asked the manager for the books they needed while Harry looked around for Renata and Ron. He didn't see them, but he did see, "Lavender?"
"Hi, Harry. What are you doing here?"
"Hermione and I are getting our school books. And we're looking for Renata and Ron."
"Yeah. I saw the two of them. I thought that was a little weird."
"What do you mean?"
"Oh, nothing. Just forget it, Harry. I'll see you at school."
"That's strange."
"What's strange?" asked Hermione as she came carrying two bags of books.
"Something Lavender said."
"Here are your books and your change. Now what did Lavender say?"
"She saw Ron and Renata in here and she thought it was weird."
"I wonder why?"
"Probably because it's usually all four of us and not just two." They went to the apothecary to refill on potion supplies. Three stores later they still hadn't found them.
"Hermione, Ron wouldn't want to avoid me, would he?" He wondered what was wrong with his best friend.
"No, don't be silly." She didn't sound very confident.
"I've got it. If there's one place either of them will be it's Quality Quiditch Supplies."
"Good idea."
The usual display of Quiditch robes and various brooms was up but they couldn't find Ron or Renata.
"Seamus, have you seen Ron and Renata?"
"Hey, Harry. They just left."
"Do you know where they went?"
"The joke shop down the street, I think."
"Thanks, bye."
"Wait."
"What?"
"I haven't talked to you all summer. How've you been?"
"No worse than usual."
"What do you mean?"
"Summers with my aunt and uncle are never good and this wasn't any different."
"Okay. I'll talk to you at school then. G'bye."
"Bye." Harry found Hermione again. "Joke shop." He led the way. The only customer in the joke shop was Colin Creevy. Colin was in Ginny's year and he'd always been a big fan of Harry's.
"Hiya, Harry!"
Colin was sixteen now, Harry wondered if he'd ever outgrow that. "Hullo, Colin. You haven't seen my friend Ron around here, have you?"
"Sure I have. Him and Renata."
"Great. Where did they go?"
"I don't know. Why do you want to find them?"
Oh no, thought Harry, a question! "Well, Ron's my best friend and I haven't seen him all summer and, er, Renata, well...I.I want to talk to her. Thanks."
As they left shop Hermione smiled. "This is interesting."
"What is?"
"Nothing really right now. But I could ask you any question and you would have to answer the truth."
"Don't."
"I'm not that cruel. Besides, I think I know the answer already."
"What's the question, then? Never mind! I don't want to hear the question. Then I'd have to answer it. Don't tell Ron and Renata about the stupid potion Malfoy slipped into my drink, all right?"
Hermione chuckled. "Sure. But if they notice you're sort of bruised and they ask why you have to tell them. Let's check back at the Leaky Cauldron."
Sure enough Ron and Renata were there, sitting with Mrs. Weasley and Ginny. "Hey, we've been looking for you two," called Renata.
"Have not. We've been looking for you." Harry and Hermione set down their shopping bags.
"Hello, dears," said Mrs. Weasley. "Join us for lunch."
"Thank you." Harry sat down. "You know, Mrs. Weasley, since you're probably really busy with the wedding plans for Percy, Ron could stay at Sirius's with me."
"That's very nice of you, dear."
"What do you think, Ron?"
"Sure."
"Great, the four of us'll spend the rest of summer together," said Renata. "Hermione is staying at my place."
"Great." Harry was sitting next to Ron and once everyone else was talking he began to question him in hushed tones. "So where were you two? Hermione and I were looking for you guys."
"Really? Renata said you guys wanted to talk so we shouldn't bug you."
"She did?"
"Yeah."
"I wasn't planning on shopping with Hermione all morning."
"Well, then why were you still in here with her when Renata came to Diagon Alley?"
Harry blushed a deep red. "It was Malfoy okay? Malfoy came in here and we started fighting and we were both beat up pretty bad. Hermione was helping me, I ended up with a bloody nose, a busted jaw, and broken glasses."
"Oh. Well, what exactly happened?"
"He started insulting me and I lost my temper. We started hitting each other. It got messy. He ended up as bad off as I was though, almost as bad as I was."
"So that's it?"
Harry wanted to say "yes" and he couldn't. "Renata came and broke up the fight and threatened us. Then Dumbledore talked to me for a minute. Then, Hermione found me and started patching me up. I didn't even know my nose was bleeding."
"So that's it? Nothing more to it? Nothing you aren't telling me?"
"Malfoy put a truth potion in my drink when he left," muttered Harry.
"Ha!" Ron started laughing. "Does Renata know? Man, if it was me and she found out I'd have to just crawl under a rock."
"That's why you can't tell her, okay? Hermione said this one wasn't a strong one so the potion should wear off but I don't know how long it'll take."
"Sure, I'll keep quiet. And ask questions."
"Ron!"
Ron sniggered and changed the subject, "What do you think about the Gryffindor team this year?"
"I think we're in trouble. Renata wrote to Dumbledore and Madam Hooch. We're Co-Captains."
Ron started laughing, "Oh, you are so in trouble. She going to be running the team completely, isn't she?"
"Pretty much."
When they were done eating, Ron went back to the Burrow with his mum and sister, ("Gotta go get my Hogwarts stuff!"); Professor Delano was still nowhere to be seen; Harry and Hermione carried her school stuff down from upstairs; and Harry, Renata and Hermione went back to the Delanos house. When Ron got there, Harry and Ron went over to Sirius's. They played Gobstones while they waited for Sirius to show up.
Sirius appeared at the door. "Hello? Anyone home?"
"Sirius!"
"Sirius!"
"Hello, boys. How've you been?"
"Pretty good but I got in a fight at the Leaky Cauldron today."
"Harry, what did I tell you about fighting?"
"To win?"
Sirius tried not to grin, and ended up chuckling. "And?"
"Not to do it."
"That's right."
"It was Malfoy."
"That's a different story. That brat-I mean-fighting is still wrong."
"I know."
"Do you boys want dinner?"
"Yeah."

"Sure."
"Good." Sirius went to the kitchen to make some dinner. When they sat down to eat, Sirius said, "Ron, I heard your brother was getting married."
"Yeah. In a few days."
"Ron's the best man."
"Yeah, I still don't know what Penelope sees in Percy though." He wrinkled his nose. Then he cleared his throat and did an imitation of Percy, "'Don't run! Don't break any rules, don't talk, don't have any fun! Study for your exams and for goodness sake do your homework!'"
"Wait, is that Percy or Hermione?" laughed Harry.
"Percy. Hermione would have sounded like this." He put on a falsetto voice, "'Harry, don't do that! It's dangerous! Ron, why aren't you doing your homework? What if I get less than a hundred percent on my exam? Oh, no!'"
They all laughed.
"That's pretty good," said Harry.
"Thanks. Want to hear Ginny?" He put on his high voice again, "'Harry! I can't believe how cute he is! Oh, and he's so brave. Don't you think so, mum?'"
This time Harry didn't laugh but he blushed a lot. "Please say she doesn't still act like that."
"Not really that much anymore," he confessed. "But a couple years ago that would've been a great impression."
Harry nodded. "What about Renata?"
"Her? Impossible. She's way too unpredictable. She probably just randomly come into a room and start talking about the square root of 24,562 and then break off in the middle of her sentence to talk about Quiditch."
"Not really. She'd probably be something like this," Harry altered his voice accordingly, "'What did you call me? That's it I'm going to jinx you! I always get payback.' Or 'What did you say? That's it! Team, we're boycotting! No more practice! We're on strike!'"
"That was some stunt, wasn't it though? She got the whole team to quit right before a big game!" Ron told Sirius. "And that other time she suspended you from the team and took over as Captain!"
"Harry, is that true?"
"Yeah. Fifth year. I was making the team practice five or six times a week because we had a big game coming up against Slytherin. Renata decided this wasn't fair she convinced the team not to show up and neither did she."
"How long did it last?"
"Until I gave in and reduced practice back to three times a weeks."
"Yeah. I think you were a little crazy, Harry." Ron turned to Sirius, "Hermione and Renata kept giving him sleeping potions to keep from getting out at night to practice by himself."
"I was a committed player," he protested.
"Yeah, but you should have been committed to a home for the insane. There were times last year when we couldn't make you even sleep or anything unless we forced you to drink a sleeping draught."
"Ron's right, Harry."
"Don't start, Sirius. My dad was just obsessed as me, it must run in the family."
"You're right. Well."
"So how did your business go?"
"The truth is, I'm not allowed to tell you about it."
"Can you at least tell us if you're still working at Hogwarts?"
"I suppose I can, I'm not."
"Then who will our Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher be?"
"We're still working on that."
"Do we have to have a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor?"
"Yes, you do. And no you can't drop out of Snape's class. I tried to talk Dumbledore into letting you out of it but he said no."
"I saw Dumbledore today."
"What did he say?"
"My left hook needed work." He grinned as best friend and his godfather laughed.