CHAPTER TWO
OWLS AND ESCAPE
Harry woke suddenly the next morning, then he heard why. Three owls were tapping at his window simultaneously. One was Hedwig, bearing two letters. The second was Pig, his other best friend, Ron Weasley's, owl. The third was apparently a Hogwarts school owl. Knowing what this was, and filled with dread, he looked at the letter from Hogwarts first.
Dear Mr. Potter,
The following are the scores from your O.W.L.s (Some classes are abbreviated).
Charms-Exceeds Expectations
Transfiguration-Outstanding
Herbology-Exceeds Expectations
DADA-Outstanding-Special Recommendation
Potions-Outstanding
Care of Magical Creatures-Outstanding
Divination-Dreadful
Astronomy-Poor
History of Magic-Poor
Congratulations on your six owls. You have enough OWLs to continue on your chosen career path of being an Auror.
Minerva McGonagall
Harry stared, dumbstruck, at the letter. Six OWLs! And he made it into NEWT Potions. He briefly wondered how Snape would feel about that, then turned back to the two remaining owls.
Next he opened the letter from Ron.
Dear Harry
Happy birthday!
Have you gotten your OWLs yet? Just got mine. I got 3: Outstanding in DADA, Exceeds Expectations in Care of Magical Creatures, and Exceeds Expectations in (you won't believe this, I still don't) DIVINATION! How did that happen?
I'd give you your present from the entire Order, plus my family and Hermione, right here, but it's too big for Pig to carry. Just expect it sometime today.
Ron
After reading the letter, Harry stared at it, dumbstruck. Ron got an OWL in Divination? How'd that happen? After all, what he had supposedly seen in his crystal ball was actually the reflection of his examiner. Maybe that had somehow counted for something, as if the examiner would take seeing anything in a crystal ball to be the mark of a Seer. It was Divination, after all.
He then started to read the letter from Hermione.
Dear Harry,
First of all, Happy Birthday! Sweet sixteen already! And it seems like just yesterday that we met on the train.
Second of all, I wanted to tell you that it isn't your fault what happened to Sirius, and that we're all here for you.
Thirdly, how did you do on your OWLs? I got O's on all except Astronomy, where I got an E. Ten OWLs out of ten!
Finally, I assume that you have already gotten your letter from Ron. To further elaborate, expect your present around two.
Love from
Hermione
Harry, after reading Hermione's letter, was not surprised. He had expected she would excel. He finally turned to the fourth and final letter, this one from Lupin.
Dear Harry,
I have told Dumbledore of your vision, but I'm not sure that he quite believes you. No offense, Harry, but after the last vision you had, I'm sure you're taking your visions with a grain of salt too.
Mad-Eye, Tonks, and I will be by at two with your present.
Moony
Harry read the letter, and was slightly disappointed with it. He had felt that Dumbledore would have trusted him more,
'Oh well,' the boy thought, and he settled down with Quidditch Through the Ages to wait.
Hermione walked down to breakfast at her customary Eight AM. Fortunately, only her mother was downstairs so far.
"Mum?"
"Yes, Hermione?"
"Theoretically speaking, what would it mean if whenever you hypothetically thought of one of your best friends, who also is hypothetically a guy, you had a hypothetical flutter around your heart?"
Mrs. Granger smiled. She knew what Hermione was really asking.
"Well, Hermione, hypothetically it would mean that you hypothetically had a crush on this hypothetical best friend."
"Oh. Thanks, Mum."
"Anytime, dear."
Hermione walked back up the stairs, thinking. Did this mean that she had a crush on Harry?"
She walked into her room and lay down on the bed. Crookshanks pounced up and lay down next to her.
"What do you think Crookshanks? I mean, I've known Harry since first year, and he's always stood by me when I needed someone to. Even in third year, when Ron thought that you ate Scabbers, he was my friend. He based his opinion on the evidence, and I blew up at him for it, but he tried to keep at peace with me, and be a mediator between Ron and I. And I do know that I love him as a friend already. Does that add up to love?"
Crookshanks pounced onto her desk, opened an ink bottle, dipped a claw in it, and scratched out an answer on a scrap of parchment.
Yes.
Once Hermione got over the shock of seeing her cat communicate with her, she took his advice to heart. After all, a cat smart enough to be able to write must have some general smarts.
"Oh nooooo," the teen moaned as she lay back down in the bed. "What about Ron?"
Harry was daydreaming behind his book. He had read it enough times since first year to recite half of it from memory.
He was thinking of Hermione.
Bushy light brown hair, twenty books almost always slung across her back, the best friend a guy could ever want, and a face…the face of an angel…
Why was he thinking of his friend like this? She was his best friend!
But he couldn't help but melt in the memory of her brown eyes…
His alarm clock went off. His present should be here in roughly five minutes.
He quickly pushed all thoughts of Hermione from his mind, made himself look presentable, and turned on the Silencing Charm.
POP!
Harry quickly turned around to where the noise came from and felt his jaw drop.
Standing there were Lupin, Tonks, Mad-eye, Ron and Hermione, five of his choicest friends.
Remus Lupin had been his father's and Sirius's best friend in school and beyond, as well as Harry's favorite of the past five Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers. "Good to see you, Harry."
Nymphadora Tonks, who preferred her surname, was a junior Auror. He had only known her since last summer, but she was a good friend anyway. "Wotcher, Harry."
"Keeping your eye out for everything, Potter?" Mad-Eye Moody, the greatest Auror of all time, was a good friend. Face appearing to have been chiseled from wood and one magical eye that could see through anything, he gave off the appearance of a creepy person, and he was.
Ron had grown. Always having been tall, he now stood at 6 foot 6, but still had most of his freckles and flaming red hair. "How're you doing, mate? Good to see you." And he came over to shake hands with his best friend.
And Hermione…Harry felt his jaw drop even lower.
"HARRY!" she shouted, running over and giving Harry a hug to rival the legendary ones of Molly Weasley.
Hermione had filled out, too, but looked pretty much the same as ever, except that she didn't have her usual book bag slung across her back.
But to Harry, she now was beautiful…
He mentally pinched himself, slapped himself across the cheek, threw water over his face, and returned to reality.
"So, what's the present?"
"This," said Lupin, grinning, as he pulled out a moldy boot.
"It's a Portkey-" began Lupin.
"-to Grimmauld Place," continued Tonks.
"We all put our heads together to come up with-" said Moody.
"-a present for you, and we all thought-" continued Ron.
"-that the best present you could have was to be broken out of here," finished Hermione.
Harry was overwhelmed. "That's really-I mean, you didn't-well, thanks guys," he managed to stammer out.
"It activates on our count," said Lupin, "so all of you touch it."
Once they had all touched the boot, Lupin began the countdown. "Six, five, four, three, two-"
In the space between 'two' and 'one', Harry sensed someone looking at him, and turned to look at Hermione (they were standing next to each other.) He gave her a smile that she returned, and he felt his stomach flop for the first time since he had given up on Cho…
"-one."
And they were all swept away, with only the note from Lupin left to show for the whirlwind visit to Privet Drive.