-Chapter Three-

What Owls?

Although he thought he'd be woken up by the usual hustle and bustle of the Weasley household Harry was surprised when he woke up to find the house utterly silent. Had they all gone out or something? Harry sat up and started to put his glasses on, before noticing that they were covered in cold soup and recoiled with a cry.

Almost instantly he became aware of footsteps outside his room. They stopped and there was a knock on the door. "Are you okay in there?" asked a confused voice.

"Yes, fine thanks." replied Harry, shaking the soup off his glasses and struggling into his clothes. He opened the door and was greeted by the sight of Ginny, Ron's younger sister, looking at him with a mixture of confusion and concern. "Hello Harry, are you okay in there?"

"Ah, yes, just a slight… erm…" Harry trailed off and tried to wipe what was left of the soup off his glasses on his sleeve. Ginny laughed, and Harry was suddenly struck by how lovely she looked when she laughed… "You'd better come down anyway," said Ginny, bringing Harry back to reality. "The O.W.L.s should be here any time soon."

O.W.L.s! Harry was wide awake in an instant, all other thoughts pushed from his mind. "How do you think you did?" asked Ginny conversationally as they headed down.

"Okay, I think. Not as well as I could have done, though, I bet…"

They arrived in the kitchen to find it in an air of quiet anticipation. Hermione was a nervous wreck, constantly leaping up from her seat and scanning the horizon through the window. Ron was trying to make out that it was no big deal for him despite getting increasingly pale, and Mrs. Weasley wandered around the kitchen, half-heartedly attempting various chores, but her heart wasn't in it. Harry sat down at the table and helped himself to some leftover toast. "So where is everyone?" asked Harry, desperate to take his mind off the incoming O.W.L.s.

"Arthur's at work." said Mrs. Weasley "He wanted to be here for the results but he couldn't wait any longer. Bill wanted to be here as well but he's stuck with Fleur…"

"Fleur Delacour?" asked Harry, surprised. "Why's he with her?"

"Oh, didn't I tell you last night? They're engaged!" Mrs. Weasley almost spat that last word out, her face darkening slightly. "Bill went down to France to see her family, but they're stuck there due to a problem with the trains. (1)"

"Engaged?" repeated Harry, incredulously. "When's the wedding?"

But Mrs. Weasley's reply was cut off by a terrified shriek from Hermione, making everyone jump and hurry to the window. "Sorry! I'm sorry!" squeaked Hermione, breathing deeply. "I thought I saw something in the distance, but it was just a plane!"

Harry and Ron both sat down again. Ron was now sweating profusely. "Blimey, this waiting is terrible. What time are they supposed to get here any-"

A terrific explosion from the fireplace drowned out the rest of Ron's question and everyone jumped up with surprise once again. For a few seconds the fire flared upwards dangerously and spat out four envelopes, before quietening down again. For a few moments no one dared to move in case of any other nasty surprises, but when it became apparent that nothing was going to happen Ron got to his feet and retrieved the envelopes. "There's one for you, Harry, and the others are for Hermione, Ginny and me. I reckon this could be it!"

"Can't be, if there's one for me." said Ginny, taking hers and passing Harry's over to him. Hermione took hers in a trance-like state and slowly peeled it open. Harry couldn't blame her, opening his own envelope with a great deal of trepidation. Two pieces of paper were inside. Harry picked one and slowly opened it.

Here is your booklist for your next year at Hogwarts. O.W.L.s will be received upon arrival.

Be careful. NOTHING is as it seems.

Confused, Harry looked at the other letter and saw that it was indeed a booklist for his following year. He looked at the letter for any indication as to who it was from but found nothing. "Is this it? What's going on?"

Ron shook his head in equal confusion. "Dunno, problem with the delivery owls? (2) Has this ever happened before?" he asked his mother. Mrs. Weasley shook her head. "No, I've no idea what's going on, I'll have to speak to your father when he gets home." She took Harry's booklist from Harry and read it. "Well, I guess that means a trip to Diagon Ally tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" asked Hermione, who was looking a lot better now that it beam apparent the O.W.L.s weren't coming. "Why can't we go today?"

"Don't be ridiculous!" snapped Mrs. Weasley. "We can't go without the proper security!" and without another word she busied herself with preparing lunch, despite the fact it was half past nine in the morning.

Arthur Weasley returned that evening, greeting Harry warmly. He examined all of the letters carefully, as did Lupin when he arrived later in the evening, but there seemed to be no signs of their origin, and they both agreed that should no O.W.L.s or any other kind of owl arrive the following day then they would have to risk it.

But the following day the only owls that arrived were Hedwig and Pigwidgeon, who seemed to have picked up that day's edition of The Daily Prophet during their nocturnal flight. The news was not promising. Aside from the usual stories of disappearances and attacks it contained the worrying news that all Ministry-owned owls seemed to have vanished, the matter being looked into. Every other Hogwarts student had received their book list in the same way, and as far as anyone could tell they seemed to be legitimate. Deciding that they had no choice, Harry and the Weasleys decided to head to Diagon Alley. A pair of Ministry cars were there to take them the following day.

"Hey, this is nice!" said Ron as they got in, looking around the inside appreciatively.

"Don't get used to it, It's only for Harry." replied Mr. Weasley as he got in. "He's to get top security."

Ron replied with a weak "Oh." and spent the entire journey looking out the window, not talking to anyone. Harry looked at him worriedly. A few years ago Ron had become jealous over Harry constantly twice, once during the Triwizard Tournament and another time during that unfortunate Christmas party. Harry had thought he'd got over it but it seemed to be coming back…

"We're here." said the driver as they pulled up outside of the Leaky Cauldron. "I'll wait here, take your time. Ah, here's the additional security!"

Harry looked outside and his heart leapt. Standing there waiting for them was Hagrid. He hurriedly got out of the car and saw Ron get out as well, all signs of jealously gone at the sight of their old friend. "All righ' you three?" he asked, as Hermione joined them, slapping Ron on the shoulder so hard he nearly fell over and shooting and grinning broadly at Harry. "They were askin' for someone ter do the security an' I volunteered! Great ter see yeh again Harry."

After a few more greetings were exchanged the small party headed into the Leaky Cauldron, disappointing old tom the landlord by not having anything.

Diagon Alley was a different place these days. Several shops such as Ollivander's and the Ice Cream Parlour looked run down, some of their windows boarded up. Everyone they saw on the street avoided eye contact, walking hurriedly to get the business done as quickly as possible. It was all a sharp contrast to how it had been before Voldemort's return.

As they went through all of the shops they were accosted by several pedlars who tried to sell their goods them, such as amulets that made allegedly emitted a special kind of charm that prevented Dark Wizards from getting close (but had a short life.) and an odd kind of hairspray that meant no Dark Wizard would want to get near you! (Harry was sure this was the first time he had seen hairspray in the Wizarding World.) The sight of an angry Hagrid and a seething Arthur Weasley quickly put them off trying to sell anything to them.

It was not until they had nearly finished all of their errands that anything noteworthy happened. They were just heading into Flourish and Blotts when Harry's gaze was drawn towards a familiar figure standing outside Yarr Wizardin' Goods (3). It was Draco Malfoy, and he was talking to a strange cloaked figure who Harry couldn't seem to focus on. The two of them were in deep conversation, and behind them Harry could see Malfoy's mother looking in a shop window, occasionally shooting a disapproving glance in their direction. Harry turned to point this out to Ron and Hermione, but saw that they had gone inside with everyone else. Well, it'd only take a minute...

Deliberately dropping his new robes from his bag, Harry bent down to pick them up, moving gradually closer to the two of them. But at that precise moment Malfoy saw him and said something hurriedly to the man. Harry thought he saw the man handing an object to Malfoy, but it was gone before he could be sure. The man quickly hurried off down a side street and Malfoy hurried over to his mother and the two of them left, but not before Malfoy shot a quick look of loathing at Harry.

Harry made to followthem but suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned around to face a white-faced Mrs. Weasley. "What do you think you are doing?" she yelled. "Come along!"

It was not until later that evening and they were alone in Ron's room that Harry could tell Ron and Hermione he had seen. "Who d'you think it was Malfoy was meeting?" asked Ron. "A Death Eater?"

"Don't be ridiculous!" snapped Hermione. "If it was a Death Eater would they really talk about plans so openly, in full view of Aurors and everyone else?"

Harry had been deep in thought for several minutes but looked up at this. "I don't know, it'd be just like Malfoy to gloat and show off like that."

"What? What are you talking about?" said Hermione

"I think I've got it!" said Harry "He's replaced his father as a Death Eater!"

A long uncomfortable pause followed, broken by Ron's laugh. "Come off it mate, why'd they want him?"

"I don't know. Something in the Malfoy's house perhaps? Or maybe it's something at Hogwarts?"

He looked hopefully at Ron and Hermione for any suggestions but they both shifted uncomfortably. "Harry…" began Hermione.

"No, listen!" said Harry, warming to the theory. "That man I saw gave him something, perhaps it's a weapon or something… Something he has to sneak into Hogwarts!"

Hermione and Ron stared back at him in silence, slightly incredulous looks on their faces. "Harry, even if you did see Malfoy tailing to this stranger, there's no way you couldn't look at him properly - there aren't any spells that allow you to do that." said Hermione.

"Yeah, perhaps it was a trick of the light?' said Ron.

"No, there was definitely something about him.." said Harry. "It was weird, no matter how hard I looked I just couldn't get a good look at him." he got to his feet. "We need to speak to your father, Ron. I'm certain Malfoy's involved in something."

Appendix

(1) Various trains operate that take people to various parts of the world for those who don't like/are unable to travel on broomsticks or are just lazy. This train in question, The Scarlet Thunderbolt, operates from platform ten and five-eighths at King's Cross.

(2) There was, in fact, a supply of clockwork owls kept in case such a problem would befall the post owls, but it was later discovered that after a certain film the image of a mechanical owl is in fact, already owned and the Wizarding Post Office had to pay a small amount of money for continued use of said owls and the concept was scrapped. (This makes no sense to me either, but that's what happened!)

(3) Yarr Wizardin' Goods is a very popular shop in the wizarding world that sells all sorts of goods but with a pirate theme. This particular branch has just been opened, which is why it has never been mentioned until now