I do not, in any way, shape, or form, own Harry Potter.

"Y'know," Harry called to the room at large, "for a safe house, this isn't very safe."

He had just spent the last twenty minutes single-handedly dueling a group of around two dozen snatcher-turned-death-eaters, and by the end of it, he was one of only four people still conscious. He had hit most of the snatchers with stunners, and the three he hadn't were all bound, disarmed, and gagged.

"Hrrmm grrff!" replied one such fellow. Harry gave him a sardonic smile before waving his wand in an arc over his head. All of the snatchers were pulled into the center of the room, where Harry conjured a large, ornate cage for them. After levitating all of them through the door, he closed it and tapped the cage with his wand.

"Portus" her muttered, turning the cage into a massive portkey. Harry stood back to admire his work. He frowned for a moment, then gave his wand a small flick, causing a few cosmetic changes to the cage. Finally satisfied, he tapped the cage again to activate it as a portkey and send the snatchers on their way. Harry grinned to himself as he walked to the edge of the anti-apparition wards the snatchers had set up. Can't wait to see tomorrow's prophet.

Ron Weasley was roaring with laughter as he read the morning's edition of the Prophet. His mother shot him a glare, which he completely failed to notice, and continued to drink her tea. After several minutes of Ron's uproarious laughter, Mrs Weasley gave into the inevitable.

"What are you laughing at, Ron?" she asked tiredly. Ron, rather than respond, simply handed her a copy of the day's paper.

Two Dozen More Arrests!

Yesterday at approximately 5:38 pm, a giant cage filled with two dozen confirmed snatchers was sent, via portkey, to the DMLE. The two dozen men have already been questioned under veritaserum, and they all told the same story:

Sometime in between 5:10 and 5:15, Harry Potter arrived in their safe house and dueled them into submission. All 25 men agreed that Potter had acted alone. When contacted by Gawain Robards, the current head of the DMLE, Potter had this to say:

"I reckon this is some of my best work yet. You see the cage?" One assumes that Potter was referring to the rather intricate design gilded into the side of the bottom of the cage.

The design, which was quite detailed, depicted former ministry employee, Dolores Umbridge, being attacked by a group of enraged house elves.

"That's really not funny, Ron," she chided him.

"It's not the picture I'm laughing at! It's that he actually did that. He seriously sent the ministry a bunch of criminals along with a picture of the worst ministry witch ever being attacked by house elves!"

Mrs Weasley, far from sharing her son's mirth, pursed her lips. "Have you . . . spoken to Harry at all lately, Ron?"

"Nope," he replied, sobering up. "Harry hasn't really been in contact with anyone since school ended."

It was rather unfortunate that Ginny chose that exact moment to wander downstairs, causing both Ron and Mrs Weasley to stiffen. Ginny kept her head down as she made, ate, and cleaned up after her own breakfast. When she had finally returned to her room, Mrs Weasley turned to Ron and asked, as though nothing had happened, "aren't you worried about him?"

Ron, who had grown quite accustomed to conversations stopping whenever Ginny entered a room until she left it, didn't need to ask what his mother meant. "Naw," he replied dismissively. "You know Harry. There's no point worrying about someone like him. He'll ask for help when he's ready for it. Until then, let's just let him deal with it in his own way."

Mrs Weasley sighed, but managed a small smile. "You're right. I just wish . . ."

There was an uncomfortable silence before Ron said, rather tentatively, "I know, mum."

They sat there together in silence for a moment before she asked the question that had been bothering her since she had heard about what happened. "Why? I thought she really cared for Harry."

Ron frowned, but his voice was even. "So did I. We all did. I thought Hermione cared about him, too . . ."

"I know we haven't talked much about it-"

"It's fine, mum. Really," he added, seeing her incredulous look. "Seriously, mum. We weren't together that long. It's what she did to Harry that really throws me."

Mrs Weasley pursed her lips again, though she didn't say anything. In truth, she rather felt that there was nothing to say.

"I arrested two dozen snatchers last night. None of them now where Lestrange is."

Harry found himself, once again, in the headmaster's office, dealing with two very irritating portraits. "Was there any information they did have?" Dumbledore asked.

"I left the questioning to the ministry," Harry replied shortly.

"Oh, now there's a surprise," Snape muttered.

Harry glared at him. "I gave Robards a list of questions to ask any snatcher brought in under veritaserum. Or did you forget that that's how we've gotten most of our intel?"

Snape, as he usually did when Harry made a point he couldn't reasonably contest, sat in sullen silence. Dumbledore waited a moment to ensure that they were indeed done before addressing Harry again.

"Was there anything else, Harry?"

"Yeah, actually," he replied, surprising both of them. "It's annoying having to take them all out without killing any of them."

Dumbledore, who had no answer to that, simply waited a moment to see if Harry had anything else to say before dismissing him.

"Oh, and Harry?" Dumbledore called after him, standing as he did so. Harry stopped, his hand a few inches from the knob, but didn't turn or speak. "You're to meet-"

"I know, professor. I'm meeting Price in the entry hall at noon. I haven't forgotten." Dumbledore nodded, not that Harry noticed, and resumed his seat.

I'm beginning to think he hasn't realised he isn't still headmaster, yet.

At 11;45, Harry was already waiting in the entrance hall for his charge to arrive. He knew that, as it had been over a month since he had actually spoken to anyone his own age, or spoken about anything other than classes or the war for that matter, he should probably at least try to make friends with her.

Not to mention the fact that she was going into a new school where she didn't know anyone, where the student body (as Harry could attest) could be completely awful, where a war was being unofficially run from the headmaster's office. Harry sighed as he realised that Hogwarts only got weirder with each passing year.

When the doors finally creaked open, Harry was surprised to find that a young woman whom he could only assume was his charge was being escorted to the castle by none other than the school's caretaker, Argus Filch. Deciding it would be best to save her from him sooner rather than later, Harry hurried up to them and said "thanks, Filch. I'll take it from here."

Filch grunted in acknowledgement before shuffling off, no doubt going to meet Madam Pince for some sort of demented rendezvous.

Harry took a second to asses the girl standing before him. She was a few inches shorter than him, which, Harry estimated, put her somewhere around 5'7 or 5'8. She was dressed, like him, in muggle clothing: wearing a pair of jeans and a white blouse. Her hair, just a few shades too dark to be called blond, fell just shy of her waist, which struck Harry as a tad impractical.

The most striking thing about her, though, was her eyes. They were a deep blue, like a pair of sapphires, and Harry was shocked to find himself staring at them in fascination.

Tearing his eyes away from hers, he focused on what she was saying. "-for saving me. He wouldn't shut up about how great 'the old punishments' were."

"Yeah, sorry about that," Harry said, grinning sheepishly. "I didn't know they were sending him to collect you."

"So is he always like that?" she asked Harry.

"Yeah, pretty much. I'm pretty sure the only reason they haven't sacked him yet is that he and the librarian have a thing for each other." The girl wrinkled her nose, and they both burst out laughing.

"Anyways," Harry said, still grinning, "You probably know already, but I'm Harry Potter." He held out his hand, which she took immediately.

"Aderyn Price," she replied.

AN: OMG's! I gots a reviews! Sorry this chapter is so short; I normally hate reading ridiculously short chapters like this, but I ended it where I felt I needed to end it. Starting with chapter three, I promise they'll start being longer. Thanks for reading! Duke out!