Harry's prediction came true easily enough – whether it was a new visitor to talk to, a new room to explore, or a new prank to play, there was always something exciting going on at Grimmauld Place. Though the teenagers were strictly forbidden from attending the Order meetings, they still met nearly every Order member who dropped by, and Fred and George livened things up a bit when they decided to test some trick sweets they'd been developing on their unsuspecting friends, causing Harry to suddenly turn into a giant canary in the middle of a chess match against Ron.

"What the-" Harry stammered and spluttered, brushing bright yellow feathers out of his hair as he slowly returned to his normal size and shape. The rest of the room's occupants were howling with laughter, and George had fallen off his chair he was laughing so hard.

"Canary Creams!" he crowed, holding his sides and wiping away tears of mirth. "And you thought it was just a normal custard…"

"Bastard," Harry muttered back, though he couldn't help but grin. Even if he didn't exactly appreciate being turned into a bird without warning, he couldn't deny that the magic behind it was brilliant – if the rest of their preliminary ideas were this good, the twins would have no problems pursuing their dream of opening a joke shop.

The following morning, Mrs. Weasley and Lily gathered everyone's book lists and headed for Diagon Alley, while Tonks and the teenagers decided to kill the time until their return by exploring some more. They'd already combed over most of the bedrooms, but there was still a lot to see, and they decided to start with the drawing room. The 'Blasted off the Tapestry Club' banner still hung proudly next to the family tree tapestry, and just beneath it was a display case of sorts. The shelves within housed a number of strange objects, and they began to examine them with interest. There were a number of vials containing what looked horribly like blood resting next to a short, rusty sword, its blade crusted over with a dark substance none of them could identify. A pretty music box inlaid with jewels played a haunting melody when wound, and it was only when Ginny had the sense to slam it shut that they realized it had also been charming them to sleep. On the final shelf sat a heavy golden locket decorated with emeralds, and a little silver snuffbox. Nothing they tried had any effect on the locket, but the snuffbox opened easily, and Harry yelped and promptly dropped it on the floor when the substance inside came into contact with his bare skin, causing his hands to develop a thick, crusty coating.

"Wartcap powder," Tonks said after a brief examination of his hands. "Unfortunately, I don't know the counter-spell, but if Remus is around, he might be able to help."

"Sure," Harry agreed, regarding his transformed hands with disgust. Even though it had happened many times in the last few weeks, it still felt weird hearing his former professor referred to by his first name, but he was willing to forget that for a moment if it meant having the spell reversed.

They found Lupin in the kitchen, his feet propped up on the bench across from him as he examined the latest issue of the Daily Prophet and nursed a cup of tea. He looked up at their entrance and chuckled when he noticed Harry's hands.

"Been snooping where you shouldn't have?" he asked with a wink.

"Didn't realize that cabinet hadn't been checked," Harry muttered. "Can you fix it?" Lupin studied Harry's hands for a moment before waving his wand. The coating on Harry's hands cracked and disappeared, and Harry rubbed his palms together, happy to be back to normal.

"Thanks," He said appreciatively.

"Of course. Anything else you need?"

"I could do with some tea," Harry replied, his lips quirking in a mischievous grin. Lupin shoved his arm playfully.

"Oh, go make your own tea," he retorted. "I'm happy to help with stray curses, but now you're just being lazy."

"You caught me," Harry admitted, his grin turning sheepish as he made for the cabinets. "I wasn't kidding when I said I wanted tea, though – anybody else want some?" Nearly everyone answered in the affirmative, so he pulled out the large kettle and put it on to boil.

The group was just finishing up their tea when a voice called, "We're back!" They looked up to see Lily and Mrs. Weasley coming down the basement stairs.

"We've taken your new things up to your rooms," Mrs. Weasley informed them. "And Hermione, dear, you've had a letter."

"Oh?" Hermione replied, her interest piqued. She quickly cleaned up her tea things and hastened towards the stairs, the others following not far behind. Careful to keep quiet so as not to awaken Mrs. Black, the teenagers hurried up the stairs to their rooms, where they each found a small pile of parcels waiting for them. In addition to their new books, they found plenty of basic ingredients to restock their potions kits, along with parchment, quills, and ink, and they each had a small sum of money to take to school, most of which would undoubtedly be spent in Hogsmeade. Hermione's letter sat on the very top of the pile, and she tore into it eagerly upon seeing the familiar handwriting.

Dearest Hermione,

We found this letter in amongst the rest of the post when we returned from Cardiff and sent it along immediately – hopefully it's nothing terribly important, as we were out of the country for nearly a week and aren't completely sure when it arrived.

We hope your time in London has been good to you – we miss you very much but understand that it wouldn't have been much fun for you to spend the summer in an empty house. The conferences have been informative and thoroughly engaging, but we're very glad that there's just the one left – three days in Edinburgh, and then we'll be home for good. Hopefully you'll at least be able to stop by for a last meal before you go back to school, since going until Christmas without seeing you really would be too long.

From your most recent letter, it sounds like you've been keeping very busy, and of course we're thrilled about the prefect news – we're so proud of you, sweetie. Give our love to Draco, Harry, and anyone else who's with you, and we hope to see you soon.

Love always,

Mum and Dad

Hermione smiled as she read the letter – while she was unquestionably having fun spending the summer with her friends, she did miss her parents, and it felt good to hear from them. She made a mental note to ask Lily about visiting home before September and opened the envelope again. Inside was a second, slightly smaller envelope, this one bearing a Muggle postmark she didn't know. Upon closer inspection, however, Hermione's eyes widened, and she quickly called next door, "Harry…Draco…this letter's from Peter!" Hermione opened the envelope carefully as the boys dashed into her room and sat on the edge of her bed, staring eagerly at the letter in her hand.

"Well, go on," Harry urged. "Read it!" Peter Johansson was one of Harry's fellow champions from the Triwizard Tournament and had become a good friend, and though they had exchanged contact information at the end of last term, they'd had yet to hear from the Durmstrang boy.

"I'm getting there, hold on," Hermione said impatiently. She shook out the letter and read:

Dear Hermione, Harry, and Draco,

I hope this letter finds you well and enjoying your summer holidays. I would like to apologize for how long it took me to write, and I do hope this letter reaches you before you return to Hogwarts – I am using Muggle post so as not to startle Hermione's neighbors, and I am unfamiliar with the time it takes for mail to travel from Switzerland to England in that manner.

I have been very busy since we last saw each other, most notably in my new position as apprentice to a local wand maker. He is much younger than and not nearly as well known as Gregorovitch or your Ollivander, but he is enthusiastic about his craft and highly knowledgeable – I have already learned a staggering amount from him and am eager to continue doing so. At this point in time, my principal interest lies in the personalities created from combining certain wand woods and cores. If it is not too much to ask, might I have a list of the properties of each of your wands? Extra case studies are always helpful, and the fact that I am familiar with each of you as people might give me some insight into why wands choose the people they do.

As an added bonus, my master's wife is quite the gossip and shares everything of interest with us as a result – I do believe I know more about current events than even my father, and he works for the Swiss Ministry! Nothing of concern to report as of yet, but it is still nice to know what is going on.

My family is well – my sister returns to school in a few weeks, and I think the fact that I am no longer at Durmstrang will make things easier on all of us. The school was rather a mess when our delegation returned, what with our headmaster missing and one of our students wanted for murder. Subsequently, Karkaroff was found a few weeks ago – he is dead as well, although I suspect you might have already heard that bit of news. Professor Gustavson has taken over for the time being, and I do not envy him for that – I suspect that the atmosphere at Durmstrang will be tense for quite some time. No new information on Viktor Krum's whereabouts, unfortunately, and his family has disappeared as well – whether in hiding or dead, no one knows. I made sure to make contact with any of my classmates whom I thought might be loyal to our cause, and they in turn have added a few more names to our contingent – we are small, just over a dozen in number, but I think you will agree that a few is better than none at all. If ever you need us, we are here to help.

Please keep me posted on any developments in England. I hope the rest of your holidays are relaxing, and I wish you the best of luck as you return to Hogwarts.

Kindest regards,

Peter L. Johansson

The trio chuckled a little at the formal tone of Peter's letter, which was very much like his spoken English, but they all agreed it was nice to finally hear from their friend.

"I don't think it'd be too hard to honor his request, do you?" Hermione asked, referring to Peter's inquiry about their wands.

"Not at all," Draco agreed. "We can give him ours and Ginny's easily enough, and once we get back to Hogwarts, we can send him Blaise and Tracey's as well."

"So Karkaroff's dead," Harry said, pointing at the relevant passage in the letter.

"Seems so. I'm sure the Order already knows, given the number of meetings they've had lately, but it can't hurt to tell them just in case they don't," Hermione reasoned. "After all, Peter did say he was a Death Eater."

"And nobody knows what happened to Krum," Harry continued, his tone darkening at the mention of the other Durmstrang champion. It was Krum's scheme that had ultimately led to Cedric Diggory's death during the third task, and Harry wanted nothing more than to see the Bulgarian brought to justice.

"And there isn't really much we can do about that right now," Hermione reminded him calmly. "I'm sure Peter will let us know as soon as he hears anything – right now, though, our main goal needs to be finding those rings, and then figuring out who's supposed to wear them."

"And we're back at square one in that regard," Draco said with a frown. "Does that mean the prophecy is invalid, now that one member of the quartet is dead?"

"I don't think so, and neither does Dumbledore," Hermione replied. When the boys gave her confused looks, she said, "I asked him about it when he was here the other day – I think it was when you two were playing gobstones with Ron and Ginny. He said that since the rings have been successfully matched before – remember he told us about those other mentions he'd found when he first showed us Hufflepuff's? – and since those previous matches are all obviously dead by now, the death of a match clearly doesn't affect the ring's ability to work."

"Makes sense," Harry nodded. "And besides, that prophecy is so specific – Cedric might've been an acceptable match for the Hufflepuff ring, but now that I think about it, would that automatically mean he was the match for the ring?"

"Well, now you're just making things complicated," Draco said. "But you're right, the prophecy is very specific – the wearers of the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw rings have to be friends, and I don't know that Cedric had any Ravenclaw friends."

"Or friends with Ravenclaw traits," Harry reminded him.

"True – but either way, the only Ravenclaw I ever saw him with was Cho Chang, and she was his girlfriend, not just his friend, so I don't think that counts."

"Well, we have a lot to think about, at any rate," Hermione said finally. "We didn't make much progress last year, but to be fair, we were pretty preoccupied with the tournament and all – maybe we'll have better luck this time around."

A/N: Here's chapter 3! Almost time to go back to Hogwarts...& it's snowing here! Looks like winter finally decided to show up (yeah right - it's supposed to be 57 tomorrow. Haha)

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