HARRY POTTER AND THE SECRET ENEMY

Harry Potter and all associated characters and situations are the property of J.K. Rowling. I make no claim to ownership.

AN: Updated on 9/25/15 for (of all things!) a physics issue with the Quaffle.

CHAPTER 5: Meet the Weasleys (Pt 2)

10 June 1992

A few hours later, Harry awoke at dawn out of an ingrained habit to get up and make the breakfast. Then, he looked around the room and realized once again that he wasn't that person anymore. Still, as he stared up at the ceiling of Charlie Weasley's dragon-infested bedroom, he found it impossible to fall back to sleep. Unbidden, his thoughts returned to what Snape, Artie, Hestia and Ted had told him – that there was some magical aura surrounding him that triggered an instinctive fear and dislike in Muggles. And apparently, if he stayed around them long enough, violent rage. He was safe here among the Weasleys, but the knowledge of his ... condition only made him angrier that he'd been abandoned by the Potters. Granted, his birth-parents couldn't have known that some outside force would drive the Dursleys to the brink of madness, but still, if the Potters had checked in on him even once, they'd have known about his treatment. Worst of all, now that he knew the truth, he actually felt a perverse sense of, well, pity for the Dursleys. After all was said and done, he really had ruined their lives with his "freakishness." Eventually, his brooding was interrupted by the smell of fresh coffee and the sound of sizzling bacon. He got dressed and went downstairs where he found Molly Weasley hard at work on an English Breakfast for eight.

"Oh, good morning, Harry! Did you sleep well?" she asked while stirring a skillet of scrambled eggs.

"Very well, Mrs. Weasley," he lied. "I'm sorry I woke you last night."

"Oh think nothing of it, dear. I'm just so sorry you had to go through an experience like that. Doxies are nothing to treat lightly, and Professor Snape said you'd run into a score or more."

"So I was told. I was very fortunate that the aurors showed up when they did." He looked around the kitchen at the numerous pots and pans Mrs. Weasley had in operation. "Can I help with anything?" he asked.

"No, Harry, but thank you for asking," she said without looking up from the stove. She was using magic, of course, with several spoons and whisks operating themselves. Harry was amused. Mrs. Weasley was clearly a fine cook. So was Harry for his age, which was what allowed him to appreciate her skill. With that, an idea began to form in his mind, and he began asking Molly some general questions about what kind of magic was used in cooking. To his surprise, there was no spellwork. The stove, the pots and pans, and even the mixing spoons were all magical items and required little effort to activate and set in motion.

Minutes later, Arthur Weasley came down and was also surprised to see Harry up so early. "Goodness me, Harry. I hope we didn't disturb you."

"Not at all sir. I'm an early riser. I used to have to cook breakfast for my relatives at about this time."

"Er, yes. Well, you needn't worry about that here, Harry. You're a guest after all." Arthur made a bit of a face at the mention of Harry's relatives, and the boy was curious as to what he and Molly had been told about them. Hopefully nothing in depth – he loathed the idea of being pitied for his upbringing and would have been utterly humiliated if they'd known that Vernon had actually tried to kill him.

Percy and Ginny came down soon after, with Ginny blushing just a bit at the sight of Harry. Ten minutes after that, Molly had finished setting the table, at which point she stomped over to the stairs and bellowed: "FRED! GEORGE! RONALD! GET DOWN HERE IN THREE MINUTES OR YOUR BREAKFAST GOES TO FEED THE PIGS AND CHICKENS AND YOU THREE CAN HAVE COLD TOAST!"

Two minutes and forty-five seconds later, the three boys bounded downstairs to the breakfast table and joined the rest of their family. Despite himself, Harry found himself enjoying the boisterous family, and even Ron was starting to loosen up a bit, though he still seemed uncomfortable around Harry.

About halfway through, breakfast was interrupted by the arrival of an owl post. Molly retrieved the letter, gave the owl a treat, and sent it on its way. Even from his seat, Harry could see that the letter had a Hogwarts seal on it. Molly opened the letter and made a face as she read it.

"What is it, Molly?" asked Arthur.

"A letter from Minerva about the text book requirements for this year," she said distractedly.

"It's a bit early for our school lists, isn't it, mum?" asked Percy.

"Oh, it's not the full list. She's just giving me a heads up about the DADA books. Apparently, Flourish & Blotts informed her that there will be more required texts than usual this year." Harry thought he noticed a flash of concern cross Molly's face.

"Speaking of books," said Ginny. "I've been meaning to ask. When we go to pick up my school supplies, can I get a new diary? I've nearly filled up the one I've been using."

"Hmm. We'll see, Ginny. We'll see." Molly spoke distractedly while still reading the letter. It occurred to Harry that she must be worried about the cost. With five children at Hogwarts this year, any increase in the number of required texts might mean a significant increase in the family's education expenses. Not that Harry could help with that – if the Weasleys wouldn't accept a fair payment for putting him up for the week, they'd certainly never accept charity to help with school supplies. He shrugged internally and went back to his eggs and sausages.

After breakfast and washing up, it was finally time for Harry's initiation into the traditional wizarding sport of Quidditch, a game that until now he'd seen but never played. Out on the Weasley pitch were Harry, Ron, Percy and the Twins. Ginny was there "to watch." They were joined by Cedric Diggory, who was both a neighbor and the Seeker for the Hufflepuff team and who had been a friend of the Weasley children for most of their lives. He was eager to get some practice in over the summer as he was still smarting from Jim Potter beating him in under five minutes during their last match.

To the surprise of the Weasleys, Cedric was joined by three other children: Tamsin Applebee, a rising Third Year who would be starting as a new Chaser for the Badgers; Susan Bones, a Puff in Harry and Ron's year who was in Harry's study group and who had a poorly concealed crush on Cedric; and Herb Fleet, a Fifth Year who had been the Puff's struggling Keeper for the last two seasons. Susan and Percy were both reluctant to play, but Harry rather skillfully goaded both of them into it and then presented the idea of having Ginny play too so that the teams would be even. Luckily, there were two extra brooms that used to belong to Charlie and Bill before they received new ones as graduation presents.

The four Weasley boys were all reluctant to allow their "baby sister" to play and especially to let her play Seeker against the older and more experienced Diggory. Harry just looked down his nose at them all and bet them each a galleon that she'd catch the Snitch before Cedric did. The desire to acquire free money overtaking their protective instincts, the brothers all agreed, though not before giving Cedric a few intimidating looks. For his part, Harry asked if he could take turns as both Seeker and Chaser – letting Ginny play Seeker first – as there would be openings for both on the Slytherin team in the coming year. Everyone agreed to switch up teams after a few matches.

With only ten players, each team played with only a single Beater and only two Chasers. This gave the Twins the rare experience of playing against each other. For the home team, Ginny was Seeker, Ron was Keeper, Harry and Percy were Chasers, and Fred was Beater. For the away team, Cedric was Seeker, Herb was Keeper, Tamsin and Susan were Chasers, and George drew the short straw and was Beater against his four siblings.

As the teams were getting ready to kick off, Harry walked over to Ginny, who was visibly pale at the thought of playing Seeker against Cedric. Harry reassured her in his own inimitable style.

"Look, it's okay. Just do your best. I only really need you to catch the Snitch during the first match. If you do, I'll make four galleons off your brothers, which I'll split with you 50-50."

"You bet on me?! Are you nuts?!" Ginny whispered urgently. "You expect me to beat Cedric Diggory who's been playing for his house team for a year?!"

"Who's been playing for the Hufflepuff house team for a year," he whispered back. "Which means that he'll be honorable, he'll be chivalrous, and he'll be all about fair play. He won't go all out to embarrass someone he thinks is a complete amateur who's hardly ever been on a broom before. And he'll also be distracted watching the performance of his own team's Chaser and Keeper. They're the weak links in the Hufflepuff team, which I assume is why he brought them all the way out here for a pick-up game. Stay close to him. Don't show off. Ask him lots of innocuous and slightly dumb questions about the game, about Hogwarts, about whether Snape is as awful as Ron says, whatever. If you notice Applebee or Fleet doing anything stupid, ask him if they're supposed to be doing that. Then, when you see the Snitch, ask him about Herb doing something particularly stupid whether he is or not, and when Diggory looks away, go for the Snitch!"

"That's cheating!"

"Nonsense. There's no rules against Seekers talking to one another during a match. If the Great Cedric Diggory is so easily distracted, that's his fault, not yours." Harry turned and looked towards the Twins and Ron. "More importantly, if you catch the Snitch before Diggory – even once – your brothers will never say anything about you playing Quidditch again."

Ginny narrowed her eyes at Harry before turning away and heading to the center of the pitch. Her reaction gave no sign as to whether she would follow his advice or not. He shrugged and took his own place. Seconds later, the game started. The balls were practice balls enchanted for casual use. The Bludgers wouldn't hit as hard, the Snitch wouldn't fly as fast or as irregularly, and the Quaffle was would fall slower and could be recovered more easily before it hit the ground. Unlike real matches, pick-up matches were timed, and if no one caught the Snitch within a preset time limit, it would let out a loud whistle and drop to the ground, signifying that the match was over with no points awarded to either team for catching it.

Very quickly, Harry realized something that came as rather a shock: he was really good at flying. He didn't know if he was as good as Jim, but he was very good for an inexperienced player with only a few hours of classroom training from Madam Hooch (whose primary goal was to make sure none of the First Years crashed and died under her watch). This realization of Harry's came right around the time he effortlessly dove between two crisscrossing Bludgers to catch the Quaffle that Applebee had overthrown towards Susan. Without even a second thought, he swooped back up and then fired the ball directly through the goalpost past the astonished Fleet. The Puff Keeper successfully blocked the next three goal attempts, but Harry remembered Marcus Flint mentioning the boy's "tells," and he quickly got into a rhythm that the other boy couldn't match. Nor was he a ball hog. Harry soon got a feel for when Percy was open and in better scoring position, and once he was confident that Percy could reliably catch and throw the Quaffle, he was generous in setting his fellow Chaser up to take the point.

Unfortunately, if Herb Fleet couldn't keep up with Harry's sense of rhythm, Ron was equally hopeless against Tamsin Applebee, who was very good and had scored almost as many points on him as Harry and Percy had scored together against Fleet. Finally, Fred called a time out and headed towards Ron to chew him out when Percy intervened.

"Let me talk to him," Percy said.

"I've got more Quidditch experience than you," said Fred irritably.

"I know, but I've got more Big Brother experience than you, so back off and let me talk to him," said Percy with surprising firmness. Fred grumbled but did not interfere as Percy flew over to talk to Ron. Harry and Fred were too far away to hear anything, but Harry did notice that Ron gave sullen looks in the direction of both Twins ... and him. But after a few seconds of conversation, he seemed to buck up and gave Percy a serious-looking nod. The game resumed, and Ron's performance improved quite noticeably.

Suddenly, there was a wild commotion, and Harry had pull up short to dodge the blur that flew straight down in front of him, one that narrowly evaded a Bludger as it plummeted. It was Ginny flying straight at the ground and followed closely by Cedric Diggory. At the last second, Ginny pulled out of her dive and skirted along just inches above the grass with one hand outstretched. Then, she pulled up, her arm raised in triumph. The girl, who was not yet eleven, had caught the Snitch before the star Seeker of the Hufflepuff house team! Her brothers stared in complete astonishment, while Harry grinned for a brief second before schooling his face into a mask of near-boredom, as if it were perfectly obvious what was going to happen.

"Gentlemen, I believe that will be a total of four galleons. I promise it will be put to good use."

Of course, after Ginny's spectacular score, Cedric wised up and realized that while Ginny was not of his caliber, she was no complete amateur either. He upped his game accordingly, and while Ginny would catch the Snitch once more (and come close a few times), that was nothing compared to Cedric's five saves. At that point, Harry and Ginny traded places, and Harry performed a little better against Diggory, with the latter winning seven to four before they called it a day. Harry demonstrated an uncanny eye for spotting the Snitch and an absolute fearlessness for diving after it, but a handful of flying lessons back during the previous Fall were no match for a year of intensive team workouts plus two summers of Seeker training camps. At the age of fourteen, Cedric already had serious aspirations of professional Quidditch and apparently might actually have the chops for it. And while he'd planned to use the day's activities to get some extra practice for his Keeper and Chaser, he was delighted to play against two Seekers who actually made him work for the Snitch. On the way back to the house, the Weasley brothers paid Harry the Galleons they owed – three cheerfully, one (Ron) grudgingly – and when they weren't looking, he passed half the Galleons to Ginny with a wink.

After dinner, Harry grabbed a quick shower, dressed, and headed to the Floo for his first tutoring session since the doxy attack. To his surprise, he was accompanied by Percy. In light of the attack, Mrs. Weasley was uncomfortable just letting Harry go off to Diagon Alley by himself. Meanwhile, Percy was happy to have an excuse to get away from the Twins and spend his time in the Flourish & Blotts reading room while Harry was getting a two-hour tutoring session in advanced potion-making from Tonks in Room 13 of the Leaky Cauldron. Harry was a bit surprised when, at the end of the session, Artie Podmore showed up. He was even more surprised when he heard the message the man was sent to convey.

"The Potters are inviting me to Jim's birthday party?!"

"It would be more accurate to say that they want to celebrate both your birthdays simultaneously since you are twins after all."

"First time for everything, I suppose. So what's the catch?" the boy asked.

"No obvious ones. They know you're not with the Dursleys. In fact, given James's position with the Auror Corps, I'm sure he's had access to the official report on the doxy attack and the auror's interview with the Dursleys. So far, we've just said that 4 Privet Drive is unsafe because you were attacked there by a suspiciously large doxy swarm, but the Potters likely know that Vernon actively tried to feed you to the little beasts. Maybe this is their way of making amends. Or maybe this is their way of sounding you out one whether you plan to expose what Vernon did as a way to have them declared unfit guardians. Which we could, but it would probably also reveal the truth about your ... little problem."

Harry considered that. He absolutely did not want the Potters finding out about the effect that his aura triggered in Muggles. It would probably confirm every one of James's paranoid fears about Harry following "the Dark Path," whatever that was. If sharing a birthday party with Jim could divert them from that, it might be worth it. Plus, Hermione and Neville could go to their house-mate's party and firm up their Gryffindor relationships without feeling bad about ditching him.

"Just to be clear," he said. "I am not moving in with the Potters full time."

"Of course not. But look at it this way. This will be your first chance to see Potter Manor. That's part of your birthright. When you eventually become Lord Potter, it will be the seat of your House. I think it's high time you at least got a tour of it."

Harry thought about that. "If it's my birthday, can I invite friends?"

Artie hesitated. "They said you could invite anyone except the children of accused or convicted Death Eaters. Which, since any guests will have to be keyed into the wards for the day, is not an unreasonable request."

"But it would exclude Theo," Harry thought. "Although, if I invited Theo, I would have to invite Draco too, which would probably be a disaster. If nothing else, that would ensure some bit of unpleasantness with the Weasley children, and Ron aside, they've been far too nice to me to put up with that."

"Okay, I'll go. But I'm going that morning and leaving that afternoon. I'll owl you a list of people I'd like to invite next week after Augusta Longbottom gets back and I can ask her advice. Let me know if the Potters disapprove of any of them before we send out invitations." He thought for a moment. "Was Serena Zabini ever accused of being a Death Eater?"

"I don't think so. I'm pretty sure she was living abroad for the entirety of the War."

"Then why do people talk about her in nervous hushed whispers."

Artie coughed. "Well, I imagine it's because she's been married seven times... and also widowed seven times. And each dead husband left her an increasingly larger inheritance."

Harry blinked in surprise and then remembered his exchange with Blaise when Zabini first asked to join Hermione's study group.

"Can you resist the temptation to insult anyone's parentage for several hours at a time?" Harry asked archly.

"If everyone can go that long without insulting my own parentage, then certainly," Blaise replied evenly.

"Oh," Harry thought now. "So that's what he was talking about! I really need to get better at asking followup questions."

An early update today as it's Labor Day and I have things to do later. Speaking of which: Happy Labor Day! If you're not working today, thank a Union member. "Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration." - Abraham Lincoln

The next chapter will be uploaded on Friday, September 11, 2015. "Ron's Day," in which Harry and Ron finally have it out. Also, Jim Potter!

RE: last chapter. Obviously, when Snape was a lad, he played "football" rather than "soccer." But I've already loaded that chapter a total of three times due to mistakes I'd missed and I just couldn't be buggered to do it a fourth time just to correct a throwaway line. Please excuse my horrible laziness, but it was the start of a four-day weekend.