Griummauld Place –

I heard Jake's voice shouting from below me. My eyes flicked open. I was in a bed, and somehow I had gotten into my pajamas, although I didn't remember ever having changed. It was dark outside, but there wasn't a clock near me, so I couldn't see what time it was. I was still kind of shivering, even under the blankets, but my face was damp with sweat, and I could tell the pillow had my sweat on it too.

I hopped out of bed, on to the cold floor. I wanted to see what Jake was yelling about. I could hear some other voices too, but I couldn't make out really what they were saying. I walked towards the door and opened it. Light hit my eyes, and it hurt for a second while my eyes adjusted to the light. As I was stepping out, I looked around the hallway. To my left was a staircase with five people standing around it.

There were three boys and two girls; two of the boys looked identical. The other boy was tall and awkward looking. They, and one of the girls, all had really red hair. The last one, the other girl, had bushy, brown hair. All of them were holding what looked like really long strings of skin up to their ears that went downstairs. It didn't look like any of them had noticed me. Without meaning to, I coughed. They all looked up, startled, and looked at me for a second.

One of the twins sighed. "Sorry, mate, you nearly gave us a heart attack. Just thought you were Mum or something." I guess I looked a little bit confused because he added, "We're trying to spy on the meeting downstairs."

I just stared at them. I realized they probably thought I wasn't talking because I was scared, but really, my throat was just sore. The brown haired girl took a step towards me, and I jumped back a little. Okay, so maybe I was a little freaked out still, but my throat was sore. She stopped.

"No, don't be frightened. My name's Hermione Granger. This is Fred, George," the twins, "Ron, and Ginny Weasley."



"That's right, " Ginny started, "there's no reason to be scared. Mum told us that there'd be another boy staying here. That other man, the American, he's your friend, isn't he?"

"So does that mean you're an American too?" The tall one asked. They all started to walk towards me. I nodded, hoping they'd stop crowding me.

"Is it true that Death Eaters killed your family?"

"And that you've been on the run from them?" It was hard to tell the twins apart. I kept walking backwards. I wished they'd leave me alone. Who were they? I didn't even know where I was.

"Ah, no, mate, you might not want to keep going backwards. You're about to step on Kreacher." I turned around after Ron warned me, and saw a small, dirty, goblin looking creature inches behind me. This was it. I screamed and bolted right passed them down the stairs. When I got to the bottom, I ran through the first door I saw.

I slammed the door behind me and looked around. There were at least twenty people sitting around a table all staring intently at me. Some of them I recognized from when I first got here. Most of them I didn't. No one said anything for a minute. Then I heard a familiar voice.

"Heya, Max, how about I take you upstairs?" Jake was smiling at me, but it looked forced. He turned towards an older man sitting at the head of the table and glared. "I'll finish with you later." Jake came over, put a hand on my shoulder, and steered me out of the room without anybody else saying a word.

We walked slowly upstairs. "Sorry about all of this. I really didn't mean for you to wake up alone here, but, well, you fell asleep when we first got here so I thought I may as well just put you to bed. Plus, you had that fever. Guess it was pretty cold on the way over, eh?" He paused for a few seconds and looked down at me. I didn't really want to talk right yet. "Well, after that, after you were in bed I mean, I sort of had to listen to what Dumbledore and the others had to say. I mean, about…everything." He stopped again. Had they talked about what had happened at Waverly? He rubbed my back. It was reassuring. "Still, sorry about how you woke up. What scared you though? I could hear you screaming."

I shook my head and croaked out, "Nothing. I mean, it's nothing now."

He frowned. "You sound terrible. You really ought to lie down some more. You've only been asleep a few hours. Here, let's get you back to your room." We reached the top of the stairs. The other people were still standing there. They had been whispering, but as soon as we reached the top, they all stopped talking and stared at us. Then, they all started in at once with apologies and how they hadn't meant to scare me and that they just wanted to talk. It was hard to concentrate with all of them talking at once like that. I started coughing again.

"Guys, I know we're the new kids on the block and that's interesting and everything, but Max here needs to get to bed. So will you all please keep it down and not bother him until he's had a chance to sleep for a bit? After that, I'm sure he'll be more than willing to talk or play or whatever tomorrow, alright?" He sounded annoyed. Jake was never annoyed. Jake had been really different ever since Waverly though.

He walked me towards the bedroom and opened the door up. It was still dark in here. He guided me towards the bed and helped me get in it. "You are safe here, you know. It's okay to talk again when you feel like it." I just realized I hadn't been talking since I woke up. Was Jake annoyed with me? "I can stay in here, if you want." I stared at him from the bed.

He sighed and said, "Right," and moved towards the door. "I'll give you some space."

"Wait." I coughed again. "Stay for tonight. Please?" He smiled and walked back towards the bed. With a wave of his wand, a chair appeared next to the bed that he dropped down into.

"I'll be here when you wake up." I rolled over and closed my eyes. I knew I was safe.