Disclaimer: I in no way shpe or form own any of the Harry Potter characters or settings.

A/N: I know I haven't updated in like forever, but her it is, chapter 4, I could only hope that people are still interested enough to read it.

Harry picked himself off the cold stone floor;

I'm in the basement kitchen of Number Twelve Grimmauld Place; Harry thought as he brushed the dirt from his pants and hands.

Why does this seem oddly familiar?

Harry looked at his wand, still tightly gripped in his hand, it looked alright; he waved it in the air; it felt the same.

Taking another look around the room he thought he saw something move near the stove;

Is this a trap?

SURPRISE!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

A whole throng of wizards and witches screamed as they jumped out from behind the few pieces of furniture in the room.

Harry's mouth went dry, his heart was in his throat and his stomach had dropped to his toes, stumbled backwards, knocking over a chair and treading on Crookshanks tail in the process.

"That was wild", Ron screamed as he pushed his way over to where Harry was still recovering from shock.

"You mean wicked", said Ginny who was jumping around excitably behind Ron.

Harry turned his head trying to take it all in and saw Hermione was hobbling her way over to them; he wanted to ask if she was alright but his mouth just hung open.

"Ron", Hermione said; taking one last hobble towards them,

"Ron, next time we are magically stuffed behind a cupboard with several other people...Please watch where you're standing", Hermione finished as she leaned on Ginny for support.

"Sorry", said Ron and his ears went red.

"Oh Harry, we have so much to tell you!" Ginny shrieked with excitement; Hermione's weight was stopping her from jumping around again.

Having finally shaken off the initial shock Harry found his voice, but before he could say anything-

"Who's hungry?" Came Mrs. Weasley's voice from the middle of the room, she then flicked her wand making tons of delicious foods appear on the large kitchen table.

"Harry I hope you haven't eaten yet", Mrs. Weasley continued as she placed a large three layer cake covered in thick purple icing on the table.

Harry had only time to shake his head before he was pulled towards the table by Ron. "Come sit over here".

Harry noticed he was still holding his wand and tucked it into his pocket as Ron dragged him along.

When everyone was settled and had food on their plate, Harry spoke for the first time since he had arrived. "So how long have you been planning all this?" he asked before taking another bite of his sweet roll.

"Around a week or so", answered Ginny who had taken the seat across from him.

"One week and three days, not including today", exacted Hermione.

I guess some things never change, thought Harry as he laughed out loud with Ron.

Ginny tried to hide her giggles in her napkin but instead of stifling them, her giggles became little snorts, making her Harry and Ron laugh harder. Hermione glared at each of them and would have probably taken the opportunity to say something about them being immature if two loud POPS hadn't silenced the room.

Fred and George had appeared in the kitchen;

Harry looked at Ron, "Do they still appariate every few feet?"

"Nah, the novelty wore off after Fred miss calculated and appariated into the bathroom while father was in the shower."

Harry flinched; Ron saw Harry's expression and exclaimed "Yeah, that's what Fred's face looked like afterward"

"But Fred was white as a ghost", said Ginny and she began snorting into her napkin again.

"But that didn't totally put a stop to them", groaned Ron, "Just the other day Fred thought it would be funny to appariate inside my wardrobe; scared the bloody hell out me.

"Hey Harry, your trunk is upstairs", said Fred and he and George made their way over to them after talking to Mrs. Weasley.

"My trunk?" Asked Harry a bit confused.

"And your broom" added George as he grabbed for a sweet roll.

"That's one of the things we were going to tell you", said Ginny, "you're spending the rest of summer break here, with us.

Harry just stared at her, feelings of excitement laced with confusion and panic flutter inside him. "But-Who-What-" Harry tried to get the words he was thinking out of his mouth; "But why?" Harry finally asked, "I thought I was safest on Privet Drive."

"Well you are", replied Hermione. "But some things happened-we're not sure what-but they need as much of the Order as close at hand as possible and that includes Tonks."

"But it's all shush-shush", said George from next to Harry.

Over the next couple of hours Ron and Hermione caught Harry up on all they knew with some help from Fred and George.

It was late afternoon when Harry finally cut his birthday cake; it was a little stale from sitting out on the table, but it was still good; Ron had two slices.

Most of the guests had left early on so it was only Lupin, the Weasleys', Hermione and Harry left to help clean up. But Mrs. Weasley wouldn't hear of having Harry help, and knowing that Harry would never allow his friends to do all the work she excused Ron, Ginny and Hermione as well. Before Mrs. Weasley had a chance to reconsider the four of them bolted from the room, leaving Fred, George, and Lupin at Mrs. Weasley's mercy.

The four headed to the drawing room as they decided what to do for the rest of the evening, the room had changed incredibly since Harry had last seen it. There were beautiful new curtains on the windows and comfortable looking furniture, but what stood out most to Harry was the enormous new tapestry hanging on the back wall, covering the still permanently stuck tapestry of the Black family tree.

"Hey Harry, how 'bout a game of chess?" Asked Ron; He was pointing to a beautiful marble chess set on top of a clawed foot table.

Harry gave his friend a grin, "You're on!"

As the two of them sat down at the chess table, Hermione and Ginny came over to watch.

"I thought you didn't like Wizard's Chess, Hermione", said Harry surprised by her sudden interest in the game.

"Well there's nothing else to do, I've already read through all my new school books", She replied and gave an exaggerated yawn.

The game started, Harry made the first move, and for the next half hour the pieces were kept moving around the board almost no-stop. Now the game had grown tense and the pieces stood still awaiting their command to move; Ron looked intensely at the board as if his life depended on his next move.

Hermione had lost interest five minutes in and was now curled up on a chair with her nose buried in her potion's book. Ginny too had lost interest and was now asleep on the couch.

While Ron continued to plot his next move Kreacher wandered in muttering to himself about filthy blood dirtying his master's house. A feeling of pure cold hearted hatred filled Harry, as he watched the disgruntled elf. Harry had never felt hate like this before, so strong, so powerful, it coursed through him, he balled his hands into tight fists as he resisted the urge to wring the foul creature's twig like neck.

Harry was pulled back to the chess game by the sound of Ron's knight moving across the board;

"Check", said Ron folding his arms in front of him.

Harry quickly scanned the board and hastily ordered his queen to take out Ron's knight, before returning his gaze to Kreacher who was now attempting to tear down the new tapestry.

"Checkmate!" Yelled Ron triumphantly;

"Wha-?" Said Harry, his attention once again drawn back to the chess board. "Oh, yeah, good game"

Ron gave Harry a puzzled look, "You feeling ok, Harry?"

"Yeah, I'm fine", Harry replied softly as he got up from the chess table and left the room.

Harry could hear Ron and Hermione talking about him as he made his way to the stairs, but he couldn't really care what they were talking about, all he felt like doing was being alone, in his room, by himself.

Dinner time came, but having all ate a big late lunch, no one- not even a certain Weasley complained when Mrs. Weasley announced that she was just too tired to prepare anything.

Harry was sitting on the edge of his bed stroking Hedwig when Ron came up later that evening, and though neither said a word, the look in Ron's eyes told Harry that he was worried about him. After sitting there a while longer without talking, Harry got up, put Hedwig on her perch, and left the room. It hurt him to see Ron so worried, it hurt him even more knowing he had caused it.

Harry walked down the dimly lit hallway, he had trapped himself there, he knew couldn't go downstairs without being forced into socializing, and he couldn't go back to just sitting there in silence with Ron. He had waned to be alone, and now he was alone, alone in a hallway as narrow as his way of thinking.

You deserve to be in this hallway, Harry berated himself inwardly.

All any of your friends have ever done is care about you, and the only way you can think of to pay them back is to be selfish!

The floor boards behind Harry creaked, "Harry, I'm glad I found you...your potion...I forgot...I'm sorry."

Harry recognized it as Tonk's voice and turned to face her, and judging by the look on her face he must of looked pretty bad, Tonk's had gotten that look of worry in her eyes like Ron had.

I hate that look;

Harry forced a smile as he took the glass of potion from Tonks; "Thank you"

He downed the potion quickly and welcomed the almost immediate effect, the voice that had berated him on the inside quieted, his self-anger faded, he felt at peace.

"Thank you", he said again and this time the smile was genuine, Tonk's took the glass back and the worry disappeared from her eyes.

Harry headed back to the room he shared with Ron, he hoped Ron was still awake because taking his potion had reminded him of something; Snape's letter.

The letter- could Snape have been the 'something' that came up that Hermione had mentioned at lunch? Could Snape be in trouble?

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