Unwelcome person

Harry, Ron, and Hermione walked quickly along the dark, rocky street, pulling their cloaks tighter around themselves to keep out the chilly night air.

Suddenly, Harry stopped and motioned toward an old, but well-maintained inn.

Harry had stopped so suddenly that Hermione, who had been walking right behind him, walked right into him and would have fallen over if Ron hadn't reacted quickly and grabbed Hermione's upper arms to steady her.

"Thanks," Hermione said, smiling at Ron. Ron returned her smile.

"Sorry, Hermione. I think this is the place," Harry said, motioning toward the building once again.

Harry walked up to the door, turned the knob, and walked through the doorway. Ron and Hermione entered the inn behind Harry. They planned to spend the night here and to leave for Harry's parent's home, which was right down the street, early in the morning. They knew they wouldn't be able to spend much time here, as they figured this would be one of the first, if not the first, place that the Order looked for them.

"I'll go pay for the room," Harry said walking over to the counter.

Ron and Hermione nodded and went to sit at one of the tables.

Earlier that month, Harry, Ron, and Hermione had gotten permission from Mr. and Mrs. Weasley to visit Fred and George's shop. Their real reason for visiting Diagon Alley had, however, been to visit Gringotts. Soon after arriving at Diagon Alley, Harry, Ron, and Hermione had snuck off to the bank so they could get some money, which they would need during their search for the Horcruxes. Harry had made quite a dent in the money he had in his vault. Ron, who had saved some of his money, hadn't needed to visit Gringotts, but had gone along with Harry and Hermione anyway. Hermione, who had gotten money from her parents' for school books and supplies, had exchanged it for wizard money, but had kept some of the British currency incase they needed it.

After paying for the room, Harry reached the table Ron and Hermione were sitting at in time to hear Hermione lecturing about the inn.

"I read that Ghost Inn was renamed after a fire that occurred here over one hundred years ago. The building was completely destroyed, and the owners, Mr. and Mrs. Stratton died in the fire. But, their business was so important to them, they returned as ghosts, and rebuilt the inn."

"That must be Mrs. Stratton then," Harry said, nodding toward the ghost who was floating behind the counter and from whom he had just rented a room.

"What do they do with the money they make? It's not like they need it," Ron said, looking at Mr. Stratton, who was floating by them.

"They donate some of it, but since they can't really touch anything, they had to hire people to keep the inn going. So, they use some of their money to pay the workers as well as to replace broken glasses and other such repairs."

Harry, Ron, and Hermione spent a few more minutes talking and were just about to head up to bed and get some sleep when a cloaked figure walked into the room.

Whoever it was, the cloak's hood was obscuring the person's face from view. The person walked slowly into the room and seemed to be scanning the room, looking for something or someone. As there were only a few people in the room, it would not be hard to spot someone.

The person's head stopped when it came upon Harry, Ron, and Hermione's table. Harry and Ron looked at each other and gripped their wands tightly in their hands as the cloaked figure came toward them.

The cloaked figure was soon standing in front of their table. Hands came up and slowly pulled the hood off.

With the cloak's hood now off of the person, Harry saw that the person was a girl with straight brown hair, who couldn't be much, if at all, older than himself.

"Hello, Hermione," the girl said in greeting.

"Hi, Annora," Hermione replied, sliding her chair closer to Ron to make room for the newcomer.

Once the girl was seated between Harry and Hermione, Ron voiced what both he and Harry had been thinking.

"What's going on? Who is she?" Ron said, looking distrustfully at the girl and suspiciously at Hermione.

"This is Annora Weiss," Hermione said. When she did not continue, Harry began to get impatient.

"But what is she doing here?"

"Annora is from Germany. I met her when I went on vacation there a few years ago. We write to each other a lot. She's here to help us," Hermione answered, looking from Harry to Ron.

"To help us? What have you told her about what we are doing? Hermione, we promised we wouldn't tell the Order or any of the Weasleys. I would think that that would mean that we wouldn't tell strangers either," Harry said, his voice raising.

"Shhh, you don't want everyone to hear us," Hermione began. But Harry interrupted her, his voice lower, but still angry.

"Why does it matter if everyone hears? You obviously didn't have a problem with telling people who weren't supposed to know."

"Annora is my friend. I trust her. I know you don't know her, but I do. Please, Harry, Ron, trust me."

For the first time since greeting Hermione, Annora spoke up. "My father was an Auror, a great Auror. He fought in the first war, but was killed by Death Eaters. I vowed that I would get vengeance. I never got to know my father because of You-Know-Who. I want to see him and his followers dead."

The four sat in silence after Annora's declaration.

After several minutes, Harry broke the silence. "Fine, but I don't know you, which means I don't trust you," he said, defiantly.

"Fair enough," Annora said, staring straight into Harry's eyes.

Sensing the tension and wanting to break it, Hermione spoke up. "We should get some sleep before we go to the house."

Soon, the others followed Hermione up the stairs to the the room they would be sharing.

"Okay," Hermione said, surveying the room they had rented. "There are only two beds but their big, so, Annora and I can share one and Harry and Ron can share the other."

Hermione turned toward Harry and Ron. They were both making faces.

"Oh, grow up. The beds are big enough that you won't have to touch each other. Unless one of you wants to sleep on the floor?" Hermione asked, looking from Harry to Ron, who were both looking down at the hard, wooden floor with disgust.

"Just don't take advantage of me, Harry," Ron joked.

Harry shoved Ron and rolled his eyes.

A few minutes later, the four were settled into their beds, and were all soon asleep.

Harry woke a few hours later to the sound of voices, two female voices to be exact.

"Go to the loo now. I think Harry and Ron are waking up," Harry heard Hermione whisper.

Bed springs squeaked as the other girl rushed out of the room, the door closing loudly behind her.

When the door shut, Harry, whose eyes had been closed up to this point, rubbed the sleep out of them, and sat up.

Harry glanced beside him and saw that Ron, too, was sitting up.

"Now that that girl..."

"Annora," Hermione replied, looking up from the shoe she had been tying.

"Whatever, now that she left the room, I have a few questions," Harry continued.

Hermione gave a resigned sigh. "I knew you would. What are the questions?"

"For one thing, how exactly did you meet her?"

"I said that already. While my parents and I were on holiday, we visited Germany. We visited some magical sites, although I don't think my parents appreciated it as much as I did. Not that they're against the magical world because they're not. They just had a hard time seeing some of the magical sites and..." Hermione said, getting off subject.

"Hermione," Ron interrupted.

"Right. Well, while we were visiting, we stayed at a muggle inn nearby. Annora and her mother were on holiday as well. They were staying at the same hotel. I saw Annora carrying a wand, which, of course, meant she was a witch. We started talking and her mother and my parents hit it off, so, for the rest of the month, Annora and her mother joined my parents and me on tours. After that, Annora and I continued to write to each other."

"I don't ever remember you writing to anyone though," Ron said.

"Well, I did."

"Does she know about everything? The Horcruxes, the prophecy..." Harry asked, his voice drifting off.

"She doesn't know about any of it. I mean, she knows who you are. She knows pretty much what the general wizarding public knows." Hermione answered.

"How could you trust her enough to ask her to come with us? For all you know, she could be lying about her father and everything else," Harry said.

"But, I know she isn't lying..." Hermione began.

"But, how do you know?" Ron asked.

"I just do. You both trust me right?" Hermione asked, looking from Harry to Ron. Both nodded their heads. "Then, please trust me. I know we can trust Annora."

"I promised Dumbledore that I would not tell anyone but you and Ron about what Dumbledore told me. I didn't even tell McGonnagall when she asked me. I can't believe that you are expecting me to tell a total stranger," Harry said, his voice tight with disappointment and anger.

"I'm really sorry, Harry. I just know we can trust her. I never would have asked her to come if I didn't believe that she won't betray us," Hermione said, upset with the emotions Harry was directing toward her.

Before Harry or Ron could reply, the door creaked open, and the girl in question walked into the room. "Good morning," she said, brightly.

"Morning," Hermione answered, when Harry and Ron ignored Annora's greeting and started to climb out of the bed and put their shoes on.

"Let's go," Harry announced moments later. He stood and put on his cloak. "We don't have a lot of time. Godric's Hollow might be one of the first places that the Order looks for us when they find us missing."

The others nodded and they were soon on their way to the house.

Harry and the others made their way through the still deserted street. The only sound on the street was the crunching of gravel under their shoes. As it was only six o'clock in the morning, they weren't surprised that they saw no one on their way toward the town's graveyard.

They finally reached the wrought iron gate surrounding the cemetery.

"Alohomora," Harry said, pointing his wand at the heavy padlock on the gate.

Harry pushed the gate open and slipped into the cemetery, Ron, Hermione, and Annora followed close behind.

Luckily, Godric's Hollow was a small village and so there were not many graves and it only took them a matter of minutes to find James and Lily's graves.

Hermione was glad to see that while the cemetery was small, it was well maintained. She didn't believe Harry would have been able to handle it if his parent's graves hadn't been well kept. It would have been like a sign of disrespect. This was going to be hard enough for him, she was glad it wasn't going to be any harder than necessary.

"Let's leave Harry alone. He needs to do this on his own," Ron said to Hermione and Annora, who had both begun to follow Harry toward the graves.

Hermione frowned but both she and Annora stood back with Ron as Harry continued on to the graves.

Ron, Hermione, and Annora watched as Harry approached the graves and knelt down in front of them. He drew his wand out and conjured up two bouquets of lilies.

Hermione watched this, tears swimming in her eyes. Harry had asked her a few weeks ago to teach him how to do that spell. She hadn't been sure at the time why he had wanted to learn the spell, but, of course, had agreed to teach it to him.

She smiled through the tears in her eyes as she remembered where Harry had put the bouquets of lilies he had conjured while practicing the spell. The first night after Harry began practicing that spell Ginny and Hermione had found the bouquets of lilies lying on Ginny's bed. The bouquets continued to end up on Ginny's bed every night, even after Harry had mastered the spell and no longer practiced it. Hermione and Ginny had been shocked to find them at first. Hermione, however, had been glad. She was happy to see that Harry, although he and Ginny had broken up, wasn't trying to pretend that he didn't still care about Ginny. She was also glad to see the happiness on Ginny's face every night that they entered the room to go to sleep. Hermione knew that although they were broken up, they would be together again some day. They meant too much to each other not to give their relationship another chance.

Hermione drew her attention back to the scene in front of her in time to see Harry bury his face in his hands and his shoulders began to shake violently. Hermione sucked in a shaky breath and rushed forward. She was stopped by Ron, who grabbed her hand and refused to let go.

Ron knew that Hermione meant well but he also realized that Harry needed this and that he would only get embarrassed if Hermione went over there right now.

Ron glanced over at Hermione and saw tears clinging to her eyelashes. He reached up with his other hand and brushed them away. Looking over Hermione's shoulder, he saw that other girl, Annora, standing about ten feet away from them with her back to them. He was surprised to see her shoulder's shaking, as if she was crying. Ron thought this was strange since she, unlike Hermione, didn't know Harry, but figured that she was probably just one of those really emotional girls who could cry at the drop of a hat.

Harry remained at the graves for another half hour. After he had stopped crying, it had seemed to Ron that he was just sitting in front of his parents graves, talking, about what, Ron couldn't hear because of the distance between them.

None of them rushed Harry as they knew that he really needed this time with his parents, even if it was just their graves.

When Harry did finish visiting his parents' graves, he, Ron, Hermione, and Annora headed toward his parent's house.

Hermione had known that the attack against Harry's parents had taken place at this house, but she, or any of the others for that matter, was not prepared for how the house looked.

What once must have been a beautiful two-story cottage was now, nothing but ruins. Piles of wood and stone were scattered everywhere. Very little of the house was still intact. What once must have been a sofa was now nothing but shreds of green cloth and chunks of wood. Green vines and weeds and grown unchecked over the remaining furniture and walls.

At his first glimpse of the ruins, Harry had tensed up and was clenching his jaw.

"Harry," Hermione began, but was stopped by a hand on her shoulder. Ron stood beside her and shook his head. Hermione nodded, but still looked as if she wanted to say something.

Harry continued to walk further into what was left of the house. His eyes drifted over the few things that seemed intact. Falling to his knees, Harry began shifting around a heap of rubble, wanting to see if anything was under it. He continued shoving things out of the way until something caught his eye. Near the bottom of the pile, the cover slightly torn, was, what looked to be, a book.

Pulling it out from under a chunk of wood, Harry saw that instead of a book, he had found a photo album. Opening it, he eyes filled with tears, and he quickly blinked them away, glancing around to make sure no one had witnessed his reaction. Harry was grateful to see that the others were giving him some distance and looking through some of the other stuff.

Turning back, Harry looked down at the photo album. The pages were filled with photos of his mum and dad. Some of the pictures must have been from their seventh year at Hogwarts, since they were both wearing their school uniforms. There were other pictures, too. Ones of Sirius, Lupin, and people Harry could only assume were his family. Family he would never meet.

Harry continued to study each picture meticulously, trying to absorb every picture, every detail. Too soon for his liking, he was drawn away from the pictures at the sound of someone calling his name.

"Come look at this, Harry." Hermione waved him over to where she, Ron, and Annora were standing.

Harry stood up, holding the album tightly in his hands.

"What is it?" he asked, making his way through the debris toward the others.

Hermione pointed to something lying on the ground. They had pushed aside the rubble that had been covering what Harry saw, as he drew closer to it, was some kind of box. Crouching down, Harry picked it up with one hand, his other hand still clutching the album.

"What ever it is, there's a lock on it," Annora said, pointing to the intricate lock which adorned the front of the elaborately-decorated box.

"We can try unlocking charms later," Harry said, tucking the photo album under his arm, so that he could hold the box with both hands. It wasn't very heavy, but the longer he held it, the heavier it felt.

They continued making their way through the ruins, but found very little else save for a stuffed animal of a black dog. Attached to the ear of the dog, was a card from Sirius. He, Sirius, had bought it for Harry not long after he was born. Harry knew it was silly, but when they began making their way back toward the inn, he was still holding the dog, along with the locked box and photo album, in his hands.

On their way back to the inn, Harry led the way, Annora and Hermione a couple feet behind him, and Ron right behind the girls. Harry was walking along, knowing that they needed to return to the Inn, get their stuff, and leave soon, before Order members arrived and discovered them.

They were just passing by the cemetery again when Harry heard Hermione scream. He turned in time to see Ron fall to the ground and Hermione fall to her knees beside him, crying his name over and over.

Mrs. Weasley woke at about seven o'clock in the morning. She got out of bed and went through her morning rituals. Eventually she made it downstairs and began cooking breakfast. When the bacon and eggs were just about ready, she headed upstairs to wake her husband and the children. She headed up to Ron's room first as he and Harry usually took the longest to wake up.

She climbed the four flights of stairs to Ron's room and knocked on the door. Getting no reply, she opened the door. She made it through the doorway before she noticed that Ron and Harry were missing from their beds.

She gasped and looked at each of their beds again, hoping that she was just going blind and that they were still in their beds.

She knew they weren't there though. Trying to stay calm, she kept tried to reassure herself by reasoning that they must have already gotten up. However, even as she prayed that this was the case, somewhere inside herself she knew it wasn't true. They had never gotten up before she did. She didn't see why today would be any different.

Nonetheless, she rushed over to the window and looked out hoping to see them playing Quidditch outside as that was the only thing she could think they could be doing. When she failed to see them, any hope she had felt, however small it had been, disappeared.

She turned and began to run out of the room, when, out of the corner of her eye she saw something lying on Ron's bed.

She stopped in her tracks and turned toward the bed. She realized that lying on the bed was a letter. Written in Ron's untidy script across the front of the folded pages were the words Mum and Dad.

She sucked in a breath, unfolded the parchment, and began to read.

Dear Mum and Dad,

By the time you find this letter, I am sure you will have realized that Harry and I are gone. If you don't know it yet, Hermione is with us. Since we were never allowed to join the Order, I don't know how much you know about what I am going to tell you.

While Dumbledore did tell Harry not to tell anyone, Harry, Hermione, and I realized that it would be safer if someone we trusted knows what Dumbledore told Harry. So, we decided to tell you. Last year, Dumbledore told Harry about Horcruxes, which, if you didn't know are things, possibly people, that You-Know-Who put pieces of his soul into. The Horcruxes made it so that You-Know-Who was able to survive when he killed Harry's parents and was hit by the Avada Kedavra curse.

There are six different Horcruxes, plus You-Know-Who himself, so seven in all. A few of them have been destroyed already, but, Dumbledore told Harry that the others need to be destroyed before he goes after You-Know-Who. This is because You-Know-Who will be weakest if all the other parts of his soul are gone.

If you haven't realized it yet, Harry, Hermione, and I have left to find them. At the end of last year, after Dumbledore's funeral, Harry told Hermione and me that he wasn't going back to Hogwarts, even if it did reopen. He told us he was going to start looking for the Horcruxes. We had to go with him, Mum. We couldn't abandon him. Not now.

I can't lie and tell you that this won't be dangerous. But, please remember, that we have survived dangerous situations before. Remember all the things Harry, Hermione, and I have survived over the years? Both of you, and I am sure other people as well, see us as children, too young to deal with this – that's why you never let us in the Order. But Harry has to do this, and as Hermione and I are Harry's best mates, we have chosen to go as well.

We will look after each other and hopefully we will all return soon.

But, because this possibility can't be ignored, if something does happen I need you both to know some things. First, Hermione and I are dating. We have been together ever since Bill and Fleur's wedding. But, we have cared about each other for much longer than that.

I also need to tell you that I love Hermione and she loves me. If I don't survive the search for the Horcruxes, I need you to know that. I also need you to know that if I had survived, I have no doubt that Hermione and I would have gotten married. So, please, if she returns and I don't, take care of her. Treat her as if she was my wife, my widow. Also, while our relationship has not progressed this far yet, please know that if Hermione returns pregnant, the baby is mine. Your grandchild.

This openness may seem out of character for me, and I would agree with you, but this last year, I grew up a lot. I hurt Hermione too much last year. I realized this last year that I can't and won't hide or ignore how I feel about her anymore. She is too important to me.

I know that you will think of ways to find us. Harry, Hermione, and I realized this and have taken precautions to keep you from succeeding. Hermione found a spell that will keep owls from finding us, so do not waste time sending letters and trying to follow the owls to our location.

Also, we didn't take Hedwig, Pig, or Crookshanks with us, so please take care of them.

Hermione sent her parents a letter, although a less detailed one than this. She told them basically that she isn't returning to Hogwarts and she also told them to contact you. Maybe you can help them deal with this a little. Hermione hasn't told them much about what has happened to us the last few years so they have been left in the dark about a lot of things. Hermione is upset that she can't tell them more, please try to alleviate some of their fears and confusion.

I know I don't say this often, if ever, but I love you both. Please tell Ginny and the others as well. I hope that Harry, Hermione, and I return and I can tell you in person.

But, until then, I love you.

Ron

Mrs. Weasley's heart beating wildly in her chest, and tears were streaming down her face. She sank down onto the edge of the bed. With the last of her strength, she yelled for her husband. When her voice went hoarse from her screams, she broke down completely, sobs racking her body.