Disclaimer: Harry Potter isn't mine. Nothing's changed since last chapter. Really.

A/N: Thanks for all of the wonderful reviews!!! Some people have been disappointed that Ron and Hermione haven't shown up at all. Well, don't be disappointed much longer. They're coming.

00000000000000000 Chapter 12: Answering the Mail 00000000000000

Something huge crashed down onto him. Pinning his arms tightly to the bed. The weight was crushing his stomach…

He tried to break free, flailing his arms, but whatever it was pinned him down tightly. He shouted instead, and twisted hard. The response to that was something just as heavy as the first attacker landed on his legs. "Help!!" he shouted out again.

When his shout faded, he heard giggling. Immediately his eyes snapped open.

And he found himself looking into a laughing pair of blue eyes. Framed with long red hair. "GINNY!" he said. She pulled back a little, still smiling.

"I'm right here, Harry," she said. "You don't have to yell." She laughed again. "And your breath stinks, too!"

"Well if we let him up he could brush his teeth," came Hermione's voice. "Do we want to let him up is the question."

"I say we hold him down until he begs," Ginny said. Hermione shifted on his legs a little.

"Hmm…or maybe we could find out if he's ticklish," she mused. Harry tried struggling again, but he couldn't dislodge either of the girls. Mostly because he was still so weak.

"How about I don't sic Kreacher on you, and you let me up," he threatened.

"And maybe he could get dressed?" another asked. Ron. Sounding older, more matured, than he had almost a month before.

"That'd be nice," he added. The weight came off his legs. Hermione had gotten off of him. Finally, Ginny sighed and got off his stomach. He breathed in and then sat up. Sure enough, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were all standing there, smiling, happy, and most importantly unhurt. "How—how come you guys are here?" he asked, amazed. Ron grinned.

"Charlie came by with your letter, Harry, and we started buggin' mum immediately about letting us come. They said your birthday would be too obvious, if You-Kn…Voldemort…was planning anything. Mum was all worried about security things, but she talked to Dumbledore about it last night at the Order meeting," Ron explained. "I guess he assured her that it'd be all right." Harry realized his best friend really had grown. Had he really been that tall before? He was probably as tall as or taller than Bill, and his voice had deepened considerably.

"We've got all day to spend here," Hermione added. "Just so long as we don't leave the house, and if anything comes up we run and hide."

"Well, I'm glad you're here," he said firmly. "I was kind of disappointed when no one was able to come to my birthday," he admitted. "I was just hoping I'd get to see you before school starts up again."

"Well come on," Ron said. "Breakfast, and then we've got lots to catch up on!"

He swung his legs out of the bed after he'd managed to push the duvet away from his body, and stood up slowly. Hermione looked worried. "Harry," she said solemnly.

"What?" he asked. He looked down at himself. What was wrong?

"Why are you so thin, Harry?" she asked. "I thought you'd been here a week already," she said.

"I have," he said slowly. "And I eat!" he added defensively. Hermione was in mothering mode now…it must just be him, he decided. He'd have to work on that. He didn't need to walk down a street and have every female his age or older after him to feed him or clothe him or hug him. He'd go nuts. Perhaps if he had a dog…a really vicious one…or a dragon! Maybe he could talk Charlie into it…

"Well, you certainly don't look it!" Hermione broke in fussily. Harry looked to Ron for support, but even Ron looked a little worried.

"Oh, come on," he said. "I'm alive, aren't I?" he said irritably. None of the three faces relented, and he sighed. "Fine. I'll get dressed and be downstairs in five minutes," he told them. "Then you can torture me for as long as you want."

"Harry—" Ginny said. Harry rolled his eyes.

"I was joking. Just joking, okay?" he assured them.

He waited for them to leave, the door clicking closed behind them, before getting dressed. He made sure to wear an extra shirt under his sweater, so that he wouldn't look quite as thin. He didn't need Hermione trying to stuff food in him. Not while Tonks was doing her best to stuff him silly.

He went down the stairs cautiously. There was some sort of argument coming from the kitchen. He did not want to find out that it was Hermione and Ron arguing, but it sounded like two higher-pitched voices. Two women…oh no, he thought to himself.

His fears were correct. He came into the kitchen to find Tonks and Mrs. Weasley there, both arguing over the cooking. He tried to back out quietly, hoping to just get to the table, find something edible, and then run for it.

Again he wasn't so lucky. "Good morning, Harry!" Remus said merrily, coming into the kitchen as well. Harry groaned and Remus frowned. "Is everything all right, Harry?" he asked.

"No," Harry groaned. He pointed, and Remus followed his finger to the two women who had just turned. He started laughing, and Harry glared at him even as the women advanced.

"Harry!" Tonks said first. "Sit down! Breakfast'll be out in a bit, and I want to see you finish everything up!"

Harry backed up as Mrs. Weasley smiled as well. "You're much too skinny for a boy your age," she said. "I'll make sure that you're in top shape by the time Hogwarts rolls around."

Tonks shot a dirty look at Mrs. Weasley's back and then returned to her cooking.

"O-okay, Mrs. Weasley," he said, backing up still further. "I—I'll just be in the dining room," he said. He fled before she could say another word, Remus's laughter echoing behind him.

When he got into the dining room, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were already at the table, as well as Bill. Harry worried for a moment that Bill would give him away, but the young man just smiled cheerily. "Come on, Harry," Ron said. "We're playing exploding snap until mum's got breakfast ready."

"Last I saw she was fighting with Tonks," Hermione said with a frown.

"Is it me or do women like taking care of kids?" he asked. Hermione laughed at him.

"I think it's the messy hair and big green eyes, Harry. Women like Mrs. Weasley can't resist that," Hermione told him. He groaned and sank down into a chair.

"Maybe I should dye my hair," he offered.

"How about blonde?" Ron suggested wickedly. He laid down a card and they suddenly all exploded. They shoved the rest of the cards back into a pile while Ron continued to grin evilly. Harry grimaced.

"Then we could call you Malfoy Junior," Ginny added with a cackle. Harry laid his head down on the wooden table.

"That'd be just what I'd need," he griped. "Malfoy's already determined to do something to me this year," he added. "He'd probably kill me straight out if I bleached my hair. Besides, it'd just turn back to black overnight."

"Why?" Hermione asked. Harry looked up, raising an eyebrow.

"My hair always grows back," he explained. "When Petunia used to cut it, it'd just grow back during the night to the way it was before. There wasn't anything she could do to it that would last overnight at least."

"I guess no haircuts for you, then," Ron said.

"I guess not," he sighed. "Hope it doesn't want to grow long or anything," he added as an afterthought. "That'd drive me nuts."

"Breakfast!" Mrs. Weasley announced, coming in with several dishes of food floating behind her. Tonks was behind her, floating another two dishes along with a stack of plates, silverware, and cups for the pitcher of juice following her.

They started in on the food without much talk. Harry was hungry, and ate quickly, not paying attention to how Tonks, Mrs. Weasley, Hermione, and even Ginny kept glancing at him as if making sure that he kept eating for many more minutes.

When he stopped, there was a cluck of disapproval from Mrs. Weasley. He glared at her half-heartedly. "I'm full, all right?" he told her. She frowned slightly, but didn't say anything. He breathed out.

"I'll be in the sitting room," he said, and got up from the table quickly before anyone could protest.

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The room was brightly lit, like the night before…and there were boxes everywhere. He groaned. The letters. All those damn bloody letters…

He realized his friends would be showing up probably in minutes. He had to get rid of the letters. He jumped over a stack of boxes and quickly shoved them behind a chair. The second stack went into the corner, a blanket thrown over them, and then the third was pushed against the wall. Hopefully, they wouldn't wonder what it was… But in the end it didn't matter. As he was rushing to try to stack the three boxes in the very center of the room, the door swung open and Ron came in, Hermione and Ginny just behind him. He straightened up, blushing inexplicably and feeling guilty.

"Er—what're you doing, mate?" Ron asked. Harry sighed.

"Just—just moving some boxes," he said. "They're all over the place."

"Letters!" Ginny exclaimed. Harry groaned, and saw that there was the end of a few letters jutting out of a box. Right in plain view. Ginny was already hurrying forward though, tugging at the top of the box.

"Gin—" he started, but the box top popped open. The room was showered with letters, floating down all over the rugs. He groaned again. So much for hiding the bloody letters.

"What are these all?" Hermione asked, picking her way over to the mess of letters and picking up a couple. Harry stayed silent, wondering just how red his face would get before exploding.

Ron was gaping. Harry was very worried about that. It would either mean Ron was jealous or he was very close to laughing. Harry hoped it was laughing. He didn't want Ron jealous because of some stupid letters. "These are fan letters!" Ginny exclaimed. She started laughing. "Harry, maybe you should answer your letters instead of hiding them!"

He sat down, brushing letters off the seat. "Dumbledore withheld them until my birthday," he explained. "He said he can't hold my mail legally anymore."

Ron started laughing, and Harry breathed a sigh of relief. "What do they all want?" Hermione asked, still amazed. Harry sighed.

"I dunno," he admitted. "I've only heard what one of them said. It was like four years old, from this girl who wanted me to come to her class."

"Wow," Ginny said. "Well, come on, let's read a bunch of them," she suggested. Harry glanced at Ron.

"I—they're really stupid," he said. Ginny tsked.

"Harry, it's impolite not to answer your mail," she scolded.

"Even if it's like fifty thousand letters," Ron piped up. Harry rolled his eyes.

"They said there's about ten thousand letters or something. They sorted out the junk and the letterbombs already."

"Letterbombs?" Hermione gasped. Ron looked confused.

"There were a bunch of booby-trapped letters," he explained. "They're all destroyed, though."

"Wow," Ron said, finally coming closer and sitting down. "They could've done you a favor and answered these for you while they were at it."

"Well, let's get started," Ginny said.

"What?!" Harry yelped. She couldn't be serious.

"Oh, come on," she said. "It'll be fun. We can read through 'em and sort them out. Then you just have to make one response for each group and copy it a bunch of times," she explained.

"That's a really good idea," he admitted. "But they're probably incredibly boring…"

"Listen to this one," Ron crowed. He'd opened a letter and was reading it avidly. "'Dear Mr. Potter, on behalf of my daughter Claudia Vendre, I would like to suggest a union between our noble houses. I have as dowry for my daughter our Liverpool Mansion, as well as several hundred acres of prime grasslands. Included is my daughter's photograph, and all the necessary forms for betrothal. Please respond as soon as you have time. Thank you, yours humbly, Lord Graymothe Vendre.'"

Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were all laughing hard by the end of this, and Harry was blushing beet red. "Well, is she pretty?" Ginny asked. Ron looked at the picture, eyebrows rising.

He let out a wolf whistle. "Hey—do you like leggy blondes, Harry?" he asked. "They're not my type," he added quickly at Hermione's slightly put-out look.

"Gimme that," he said. He leant forward and snatched it out of Ron's hands.

"W-which pile does that go in?" Ginny asked through her laughter. Harry glowered.

"The pile that gets the short letter," he said. "Dear whomever," he quoted. "The answer is no!"

This only made the other three laugh all the harder. He quickly shoved the letter towards a far corner and ripped open another viciously. Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were quick to follow, seemingly hoping to find more embarrassing letters.

"Here's the 'I want to meet you' pile," Ginny announced. "Sheesh, Harry. Some of these girls are pretty desperate," she added. Harry just blushed, turning away. He quite clearly remembered Ginny's own attempts at him.

"And the ones that want your autograph are here," Hermione said. Harry jumped.

"People want my autograph?" he asked, astounded.

Ron laughed. "After they see your handwriting they won't be as eager, don't worry," he joked. Harry laughed as well. Perhaps he should start writing so illegibly that no one could figure his name out of his signature. Just a scribble. That'd be perfect. What if he signed it, "grand-nephew of You-Know-Who" or something? That'd be hilarious…

"Hmm," Hermione said. "I suppose all those that don't really fit into a specific category will have to go here," she said. "Here's a pile for ones from companies and foundations," she added, setting down a few letters.

Harry looked through the ones that he had opened. Two were from girls that wanted him to visit their schools, one was from a boy that wanted to know what the best broom was, and another was from an orphanage, asking him if he would like to donate any money.

He put them in their respective piles and was just reaching for another letter when he heard Ginny. "Oh, oh," she said in an alarmed tone.

"What now?" he asked. "What do they want?"

"The Order must've let this one through for some reason," she said. She handed it to Harry, who held it lightly while he read.

'Dear Mr. Potter,

While you may feel that you are in some way safe from my Lord, I would suggest that you do not assume that you are safe. As foolish and stupid as you are, it will only be a matter of time before he finds you and kills you.

I would like to point out that your escape from him that night was one of pure luck. You will not be so lucky next time, and I'm sure that my Lord will be most—ah—eager to have you in his hands.

Prepare yourself for a pain-filled future, Mr. Potter. For I do not think that my Lord will be feeling merciful when he finds you. He has already devised some rather interesting plans for you and your torture before he kills you.

Have a wonderful, though brief, life and pleasant dreams.

A faithful Death Eater.'

Harry gulped. That was not a nice letter. "I—I suppose it wasn't booby-trapped, so they didn't notice it," he said in a weak voice. He handed it over to Hermione and Ron, who read it slowly, their faces draining of all color until they were white at the end.

"That's a serious threat," Ron said softly. Harry sighed.

"Well, I guess being possessed last year was a pretty serious threat too," he admitted. He didn't notice that Ron and Hermione had stopped opening letters now.

"S-someone mentioned that you were possessed," Ginny said in a small voice.

"Yeah," Harry said softly. He still felt bad about when he'd forgotten that Ginny had been possessed when she was just a first year. "Look, Ginny, if I'd had any idea that being possessed what that painful, I wouldn't have just forgotten about it all," he apologized.

"But—it didn't hurt," Ginny said softly. "It was just like being in a trance, like I said. Like under Imperious or something."

Harry blushed. "Oh," he said. "I—I just thought…"

"Harry, what happened this summer?" Hermione suddenly asked. Harry glanced at her. Listen to Hermione, he told himself sternly. That means be honest with her, and Ron, too.

"Er—well, in the letter I did kinda mention that the Dursleys were being real jerks," he said slowly. Hermione frowned.

"They did more than just lock you up, didn't they?" she asked. Harry sometimes wondered how she could figure things out so quickly.

"Well, yeah," he admitted. "I guess I started it though. I got mad at my aunt and started yelling at her. She yelled back, said she'd had enough of it, and had my uncle come talk to me."

"And?" Hermione pressed.

"Well, you know me," he said with a weak smile. "Can't keep my mouth shut. I yelled at him and wouldn't stop talking back, so they locked me up."

"And?" Hermione said again. Harry sighed.

"Well, my aunt's always been big on smacking me when I talk back. I guess I just got really fed up with having to listen to her, so I kept talking back and she kept smacking me. I stopped her, but it's not like I'm going to hit my aunt, however much she deserves it," he said. He'd been about to add that at the time he'd thought that Petunia was his only living relative. He wasn't sure if he could tell them all that mess yet. "When Vernon came up I yelled at him as well, and he hit me. Just once, and he never did it again. I think it scared him more than it scared me."

"Was that the end of it?" Hermione asked. Harry sighed.

"Well, I hit the edge of my desk that time, and when I woke up they'd locked me up," he admitted.

"Bloody bastard," Ron grumbled. Harry glanced at him. Ron had really changed. Harry couldn't see him getting jealous over stupid things anymore.

It was probably partially Hermione. He had her now, so it kind of gave him the one-up over Harry. It didn't matter that he could, in all honestly, go out with just about any girl in the school, because Ron got the one that in his eyes was the best.

Harry thought that was pretty mushy, for Ron at least. He usually wasn't the one that was all emotional and that.

"Yeah, well Petunia shouldn't be allowed to have any pets," he went on. "They'd starve to death."

"That's why you're so thin," Ginny said quietly. Harry felt kind of stupid. It was like everything revolved around him. It wasn't like he hadn't at least a little brought his relative's wrath down upon himself. He'd certainly provoked them…

"Well, yeah," he admitted. "After about eight days I think I got a really good letter out to the Order with some hints in it. I hadn't wanted to risk really obvious hints before because I didn't want my relatives to get even more angry," he explained. "How is Hedwig by the way?" he asked. "She showed up the night the Order rescued me."

"She's good," Ron said. "I remember she did leave that night," he added. "I didn't find her again until the next morning, out hunting mice in the garden."

"Well, I had a bad nightmare that night, and then my Aunt came in. But when she tried to hurt me some sort of defensive magic kicked in and she got knocked across the hall," he went on. Ron grinned.

"And the Ministry probably couldn't trace it," he laughed. Harry shrugged.

"A letter never came about it," he admitted. "Petunia showed up with a golf club, because she hit Vernon when she was knocked backwards and knocked him out, but an owl from the Order had arrived, so I sent a note out with that." He sighed, unfolding a few more letters in order to read them eventually. "I still can't believe the best they could do was send me Snape while they worked out their plans to get me out."

"That's pretty cruel of them to do," Ron said with a grimace.

"Yeah," Harry agreed. "I pretty much just laid on my bed and he insulted me, laughed at me, mocked me, everything. At least the rest of the Order didn't take too long to show up." He left out the possession attempt. He didn't want to talk about that yet.

"I hear Tonks punched him!" Ginny spoke up. Harry nodded.

"After he was being a jerk to me again on my birthday," he confirmed. "I had a vision and she brought him so he could give me some potions, and then like usual he started in on me. I was really out of it…that's why Tonks and Remus thought I was brain damaged or whatever…"

"They told me this morning that you were acting really strange," Ron said. Harry remembered in the letter he'd gotten how worried Ron had been about it all.

"Well, I was kind of fuzzy on it all," he said. "It just was hard to talk. But then I accidentally rolled into Sirius's old tub, and Snape yanked me out. I think I might've surprised him a little," he added with a grin.

"Why?" Hermione asked.

"I started yelling at him to get out of my house," he told them. "Sometime after that is when Tonks hit him."

"Looky here," Ron said suddenly, holding up a letter and grinning. "This is from someone that you know!"

"Who?" Harry asked, slightly alarmed but also relieved at the change in conversation.

"Two guesses," Ron said, moving the letter out of Ginny's reach.

"Uhh…" he tried to think of someone, "Ginny?" he guessed.

"Wrong!" Ron laughed. "One more guess!"

"Uh…Malfoy?" he asked. Ron shook his head, laughing harder.

"H-hermione," he laughed.

"What?" he said. "You wrote me, Hermione?" he asked. She thought a moment, then suddenly her eyes went wide and she clapped her hands over her mouth.

"No!" she said. "I can't believe it!"

"What?" he asked.

She turned beet red. "You do not want to read that," she said. "I wrote you when I was ten," she explained. "Remember how much of a know-it-all I was then?"

"It is pretty bad, Harry," Ron warned him. Harry sighed.

"You can tear it up if you want, Hermione," he said graciously. He didn't want to read it if it was that bad. He could only imagine what Hermione would have said in her letter. It would be terrible, probably. And not worth the resulting argument or apologies or whatever.

Hermione gratefully snatched the letter from Ron—her boyfriend—Harry reminded himself, and tore it into little bits. "My letters now are much better," she said, shredding the letter even more. Ginny laughed and reached for a large envelope that looked very official.

"What's this?" she said. Harry got a bad feeling about that envelope. He hoped it wasn't another threat… Ginny looked up at him as she finished scanning the letter. Her face was solemn.

"What is it?" he asked, very worried.

"Harry, have you taken the time to consider endorsing Hairwizard's line of hair care products?" she asked very seriously.

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They ate lunch in the sitting room amongst piles of letters and envelopes. There were already two boxes full of letters that were too out-of-date to answer, and they'd chucked most of the envelopes since most people were good enough to put their addresses on the letters themselves.

Remus had found a copying charm and used it to copy the four basic letters that Harry had written as responses. One said a very polite no to whatever was asked, another said politely that he was not giving autographs at this time, the third was just a short letter about himself for those who just wanted to know a bit about him, and the fourth was for the numerous non-profit foundations that had written him. He'd decided that if he could, he'd donate at least a little to each organization that looked worth it.

There was also a thick stack of letters he'd kept out. From students at Hogwarts. He hoped he'd be able to at least get around to some of them and explain why he'd never written them back. Hopefully, it'd make a few friends out of people that thought he'd snubbed them before.

"And there's still all those other boxes," Ginny sighed as she swallowed the last of her sandwich. Harry sighed as well. They'd laughed when they'd seen how he'd tried to hide the boxes, and now there were still six boxes stacked along a wall. Six large boxes, full of letters.

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They gave up on the boxes after another hour. It wasn't too interesting reading the tenth straight letter just begging for the Boy-Who-Lived's autograph. Harry wanted to throw the rest of the unopened letters into the fire, but the others wouldn't let him.

"And I heard Remus say that your post from this morning is in the kitchen," Hermione told him. He groaned.

"I hate letters. I'm never writing anyone a letter ever again. Ever," he assured them.

They'd decided they'd go up to the attic and poke around, and Harry led the way, sweeping back cobwebs so they could get through.

"You won't even write us anymore?" Hermione asked. Harry sighed.

"No," he told them, joking of course. "No more letters. I'll use smoke signals or something. No letters. I don't ever want to see an envelope again in my life."

"WATCH OUT!" Ginny suddenly shouted. Harry turned back to face where he was going—just in time to see a ragged shape hurtle towards his head.

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A/N: Okay, so I like odd chapter endings. Still hanging in there? Thanks.

Thank you to:

Cornflake – Sorry it's so confusing. I'm not really up to date on all my HP lore, so if I have something wrong it's probably me that's making the mistake. I didn't know exactly how the Heir of Slytherin thing works, and I was just kind of having Harry thinking dark thoughts about his relation to Voldemort. I saw it as Tom Riddle Sr. had two sons. The elder being Harry's grandfather. But if that doesn't work out the way it should, I'll figure it out. I have all summer where I won't be able to review as much and where I will have access to the HP books. So I'll work on that. And sorry for the confusion…

Shadowsfriend – I know what you mean. I wrote a review to someone and ate it. I had to write out another, and it was really annoying.

Bukama – I know Harry seems a little 'wimpy' right now. But that starts to change. He had a really bad summer and kind of got knocked off his pedestal a little. Suddenly I think he's realizing just how terrible of a consequence his actions can have, even if it isn't all his fault. Just give Harry a little time to recover. As for the whole parent's image thing, Harry's just kind of overreacting to things. His dad ain't that bad, he's got to realize, and his mother is still the wonderful woman she was. That all sort of comes up in a later chapter where Harry's speaking with Remus about things. Of course, that chapter isn't even started and won't be up until sometime this summer, so you'll have to wait.

Numba1 – I'm glad you're glad. Harry's kind of in a 'bitter' stage right now. He's more willing to listen and do things than he was before, but that doesn't mean he's always happy about them. I don't like stories where Harry all of a sudden becomes dark and Slytherin very much, so don't expect him to head down that path. He's just growing up some more.

Also thanks to: Kjkit, lunalovegood61, oblivion13, Sambow24, ash Knight, Nadezhda, hedowl5, Faith-tse, and Catti. If I missed you, sorry! It's like three in the morning and my vision is blurry cuz I gotta go get some sleep. Thanks to everyone that reviewed!!!

Miss Laine