I do not own Harry Potter.

...

The next rest of the day passed very much the same way for Harry. Everyone stared, the Gryffindors always had him in the center their group, and for most of the classes he was simply told to practice the wand movements, and he attempted silent magic.

He didn't have potions that day, which disappointed him. He had a feeling that he would enjoy potions much more from now on, because it was the only class in which he could accomplish anything, at least until he learned wordless spell casting.

And now that he had seen firsthand how useless he was at magic, he was determined to learn silent magic quickly.

Now Harry was sitting at the Gryffindor table on the Great Hall, waiting for dinner to appear. As he had grown used to, all the Gryffindors had bunched together instead of spreading out on the table, and many of them were keeping an eye on the Slytherins. Not that any Slytherin would try anything with so many Gryffindors around.

"Harry, I've thought of something." Hermione said as Harry pulled out his well worn writing tools. He gave her a quizzical look.

"All that parchment and quills and inks is too much to carry around. So, I've thought of a better solution until we all learn sign language."

"What do you mean "all"?

"The other Gryffindors are going to study British Sign Language, too. I think that Ravenclaws are interested too, and a few Hufflepuffs have been looking at books on the subject in the library…" Hermione said, but Harry started to write another message and she paused to read.

"I thought I told you that I'm not coming back for a seventh year?"

"I know you said that, Harry, but I think that the idea is silly. You need to stay here to study your silent magic and sign language. You can't go on this mission for Dumbledore unless you can take care of yourself, and you won't learn that in just the few days left of term. This is the safest place, whether it is a target of…Voldemort…or not."

"We'll talk about it later. What is this 'solution'?"

"You must know about muggle notebooks and pencils?" Hermione asked. Harry smacked his forehead. Why hadn't he thought of that? It was so much simpler that the wizarding way of writing. And Pencil was erasable, so he wouldn't take up as much paper.

"We'll get you a notebook and pencil at the end of term. Ron's sent a letter to his mum asking if you can stay at the Burrow during the summer, and I've asked my parents if I can stay there too. Ron…hasn't told his parents what happened, Harry. He thought it was best left up to you." Harry just nodded, apprehension on his face. He dreaded telling the Weasleys.

...

An hour later Harry was on his way to the common room, surrounded by the entire Gryffindor house. Since none of the gryffs had to go anywhere else they had all left simultaneously, causing quite a sight in the Great Hall. The other houses, who had begun to get used to Harry's usual escort of about ten other Gryffindors, were again astounded at the sight of all of Gryffindor House rising from the benches at the same moment and leaving in one vast mob. Harry had caught sight of McGonagall smiling at the sight of her house's amazing unity.

Harry hadn't seen a single Slytherin since he left the Great Hall.

They had nearly reached the portrait hole when there was a stir from the Gryffindors in the back. Harry turned to see what was going on; a group of maybe twenty students, all from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, were approaching, their eyes roaming over the Gryffindor multitude. Harry admired their bravery; it must have been very intimidating to approach the one hundred or so watching Gryffindors.

At the front were Cho Chang and Luna Lovegood. And when Harry spotted them, he realized that he recognized the others in the group as well. Dumbledore's Army.

The seventh and sixth year gryffs pushed their way to the back of the group, to confront the approaching students. Harry pushed his way through after them, not wanting things to get unpleasant.

"What do you lot want?" Angelina Johnson said. Her tone wasn't aggressive, but it did hold a note of warning.

"We just wanted to speak to Harry." Cho replied. She was still searching through the Gryffindor mob, trying to find him. Harry finally made it to the edge of the group and came free. He went up behind a couple of seventh years and tapped their shoulders, getting their attention. They were both taller than him, so Dumbledore's army hadn't seen him yet.

The two seventh years turned and frowned. Harry just motioned them to step aside, and one asked, "Are you sure?"

Harry nodded fervently, so they moved to let Harry through.

Every set of eyes in the DA group snapped to him. He smiled a little shyly.

"What are you doing Harry?" Angeline whispered. She hadn't been in the DA, like most of the seventh years there. So she didn't recognize the fact that all the students standing in front of her were trusted by Harry.

Harry fished for his parchment, and finally pulled it out. He gave the inkwell to one of the other students behind him and wrote, sloppily, a message for Angelina.

"They are the DA, which I led last year. I trust them. All of them. Cho and Luna are my friends. Let them talk to me." Angelina shrugged.

"As long as you're certain, Harry." He nodded. "He says he trusts you, so…I guess it's alright. He said you're all from the DA?" Angelina said, to Dumbledore's Army.

"That's right. Harry was teaching us Defense all through last year." Cho said. Harry noticed that the other members of the DA from Gryffindor had come up behind him. He took the parchment back from Angelina and scribbled another note.

"You guys can go into the common room. I'll be fine."

"You sure, Harry?" Angelina asked. Harry again nodded, so Angelina started to herd the Gryffs into the common room. The members of the DA, however, stayed.

Once they were gone, Harry walked up to Cho and Luna and smiled by way of greeting. They smiled back, and then Harry was again surrounded, this time by members of Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff as well as his own house. They were all hugging him and patting him on the back, and Harry just smiled his way through it all. He was happy to see this group of people, people he hadn't really spoken with since last year.

"We're so sorry about what happened Harry." Cho said.

"If you need any help with the Slytherins, you can count on us." Ernie McMillan said.

"It must really be awful, not being able to say anything." Luna said, with her typical tact. But it didn't upset Harry; quite the opposite. He knew that Luna genuinely sympathized with him.

Harry messily scrawled another message on his parchment, dipping his quill in the inkpot that Hermione now held.

"Thanks, guys. It means a lot. But the Gryffs are really doing a good job of sticking with me. Every Slytherin I've seen today in the corridors has turned and run, or close to it."

"That is sort of obvious." Said Michael Corner. "Every time you come around, about fifteen protective Gryffindors are with you. And when you left the Great Hall just now; that was amazing. Your whole house just picked up and left."

Harry grinned.

"I thought that the Hufflepuffs were supposed to be the loyal ones. I never expected something like that from Gryffindors." Susan Bones said.

"Well, we all love Harry. Even those of us who don't really know him don't want anything to happen to him." Neville said.

"Yeah. Who knows what those filthy Slytherins would do to him." Ron agreed.

Harry rolled his eyes.

"Harry, Hermione told me that you aren't coming back for seventh year. Why?" Cho asked.

"I have something very important and dangerous to do. Dumbledore's last request, really."

"Well, you can't do it unless you've learned how to protect yourself again, Harry. All the Gryffindors can't go with you." Luna pointed out.

"That is what Hermione said."

"Well, Hermione has a very good point." Cho said.

"You should listen to her, Harry. She is trying to make sure you don't do something stupid." Luna added.

Harry sighed. He had already made up his mind about this, but he knew that Hermione's points were very valid. Was it possible that Harry didn't have to go immediately? It would make more sense if Harry could take care of himself; after all, on his mission it was very likely he'd run into danger every week, and he wouldn't survive unless he had learned how to perform magic again. But…every day he waited, more people were getting killed or tortured by Voldemort. That was what really bothered him. But it would be useless for him to get himself killed, wouldn't it?

"I guess I'll stay…at least until I've gotten silent magic down." Hermione read his message out so that all the students could hear, and there were cheers.

Harry grinned again. It wouldn't be too bad to come back, not with his friends here to keep him company. Suddenly he felt very happy about staying for another year. He had been sad about it without even realizing it, and now that he'd changed his mind, his heart felt so much lighter.

...

By the end of the week and the term, Harry had managed to learn the signs for the letters of the alphabet. Now he could roughly communicate with his friends, who had all also managed to learn the British Sign Language Alphabet. Spelling each word out was too tedious for entire sentences, but he could express basic feelings or wants or names now, and it encouraged him. The sign language was so much more convenient than writing out everything; all of a sudden Harry wanted to get rid of his parchment and quill and ink with immediately.

Hermione had arranged with her parents to stay at The Burrow for most of the summer; she would be going to the Burrow for the first two months of the summer and then return to her parents for the remaining weeks.

The Weasleys had enthusiastically received the idea of Harry staying with them for the entire summer. Harry was happy he would see them, but he couldn't help but feel apprehension for the explanation he would have to give.

Hermione had already decided that the day after they got back from Hogwarts they would try to get to Diagon Alley to buy books on Sign Language and Silent Magic, so that Harry could continue his studies. She also wanted to get into muggle London to get Harry several notebooks and pencils, to replace his parchment and quill.

Harry smiled his farewells to his friends as he disembarked from the train in King's Cross, followed closely by Ron and Hermione. The train ride had been spent studying; all of them had been working on sign language. Ron was moving at about the same pace as Harry, but Hermione was already moving into the grammatical syntax of the language. Her learning speed still boggled Harry, even after all the years of knowing her.

Harry had also studied a little silent magic. Because his trace wouldn't expire until July, he wouldn't be able to practice his magic until he was seventeen. He wanted to learn as much as he could while he wasn't considered "out of school."

But now, they were approaching the Weasleys, and Mrs. Weasley was rushing forward the greet them.

"Oh, it's so good to see you all! I'm so glad you're going to stay with us this summer, Harry. A bed has already been set up for you in Ron's room, and Hermione has one in Ginny's room. " Mrs. Weasley kept talking as they joined the Mr. Weasley, Fred, and George.

Students by now were telling their parents the news about Harry. Surprisingly, no word had gotten out of the school about Harry's condition, so it was not yet public knowledge. But that was changing as Harry watched. People started to stare at him more frequently, watching his mouth to see if he said anything. Harry found it extremely awkward; especially since it was becoming obvious he wouldn't be able to wait until they had reached the privacy of the Burrow to tell the Weasleys.

Ron and Hermione had noticed the attention too, and they all met each other's eyes, passing a silent message onto each other.

It was time for the Weasleys to know.