Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, it belongs to JK Rowling, etc etc.
Authors Note: Sorry for the long wait! This chapter was going to be longer, but I felt I'd kept you guys waiting enough. That being said, it's not a long chapter, sorry for those of you who like them. Anyway, hope you like this tiny chapter. Should have another up tomorrow if something doesn't sidetrack me. Enjoy and thanks for the reviews!
Harry and Sirius popped back into existence outside of number twelve Grimmauld Place, the Headquarters for the anti-Voldemort resistance known as the Order of the Phoenix. It was also the home of the Black Family, or at least it was. The only remaining true member of that family was Sirius Black, the son the family had seen as a disgrace. In reality, that actually made him a pretty decent person, seeing as the Black family was almost as dark as you could get in the wizarding world.
Harry and Sirius took in the dark old house in front of them for a moment before walking up the lawn and knocking on the door. It opened an instant later, letting out only a small amount of light. Harry and Sirius stepped in and the door closed behind them.
"Harry," said a voice Harry recognised as that of his former Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Remus Lupin. Harry couldn't see his face in the near darkness of the hallway, but he just knew Remus was smiling at him.
"Hey Remus," Harry returned.
"It's good to see you," Remus said. "Well, hear you, I guess I should say."
"Yeah," Sirius said, "let's get into some light."
"Right," Remus said, leading Harry down the hallway with a hand on his shoulder. Harry would have normally minded being treated like a child, but for now, he could let it slide. He was just happy to see his old Professor again.
"Why's it so dark?" Harry asked.
"We've had a lot of suspicious people lurking about," Remus said. "We don't want to give it away that we're staying here, so we're keeping the place as quiet as we can."
"Death Eaters?" Harry enquired.
"Of course," Sirius said.
"Now that Snape has revealed his true allegiance," Remus began, "it's pretty obvious he told Voldemort were we've been hiding out. Of course, Voldemort can't harm us here, as long as we stay inside, but we want to at least make it look like we know he's figured us out and that we've moved to a new location."
"I see," Harry said.
"The problem is," Remus went on, "we can't move to a new location. One just doesn't exist."
"So we have no choice but to stay here," Sirius finished.
"And what about Voldemort?" Harry asked, stepping into the kitchen when Remus held the door open for him. It was a little lighter, but not by much. It gave the house a rather creepy feeling.
"What about him?" Remus asked.
"What's he been doing?" Harry elaborated, sitting down at the dinning table. "I've been getting the daily prophet, but it hasn't had anything interesting in it. Only that Fudge has stepped down as Minister and Rufus Scrimgeour has taken over, but that's not really a surprise, is it?"
"Well," Sirius said, taking a seat and propping his feet on the table. "We dealt Voldemort a big blow when he attacked Hogwarts. He wasn't expecting us to find out so quickly and he certainly wasn't expecting Dumbledore to be active. Thank god for Horace Slughorn…" Sirius paused, shaking his head slightly. "I can't believe I just said that. Anyway, its true, the old guy came through for us."
"What Sirius is trying to say is that Voldemort lost a lot of his supporters in that attack," Remus expanded, before listing them on his fingers, "Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, Snape and even that kid in your year Zabini."
"And that's the short list," Sirius said. "There was a lot more."
"Still," Harry said, "I was expecting some sort of attack or something by now. It was over a month ago."
"I think he's biding his time," Remus said, "but for what, I have no idea."
"I'm sure it'll be big," Sirius said, "after all, he really made a fool of himself. Or we made a fool of him, and that's not something he'll take lightly. He was expecting to come out of hiding with a bang, by killing Albus and taking Hogwarts as his headquarters. Instead, we forced him back and dealt a big blow."
"Yeah," Harry said, "I suppose."
"So how was your summer?" Remus asked. "Have fun with the Dursleys?"
"Ha!" Harry said, grinning. "Actually, it was pretty fun. Not having to stay there, but I definitely left with a feeling of…satisfaction."
Sirius laughed. "He sure did."
"What did you do?" Remus asked, taking on a stern tone, but he was grinning all the same.
"I'll let Sirius explain it to you," Harry said, standing up from his own seat. "I'm going to see how Draco is."
"Okay," Remus said.
"How's he been?" Harry asked.
"Pretty quiet," Remus said, "but that's to be expected I guess, given his situation."
"Okay," Harry said, opening the door and looking back. "It was great to see you again Remus."
"You too Harry," Remus returned.
Harry nodded and left, making his way quietly down the dark corridor and finding the stairs leading up to the upper levels of the ancient house. He could feel the dust that had clung to the railing under his fingers, a testament to how on edge everyone must be if Molly Weasley didn't have enough time to clean up.
Speaking of the elder Weasley, when Harry reached the second floor he heard a door to his left open and a slither of light appeared, before being blocked by the silhouette of a women.
"Who is it?" The silhouette of Mrs. Weasley asked.
"It's Harry," he said, taking the last step and standing by the railing. "I just got here."
"Oh," Molly said, "it's nice to see you Harry. Having a nice summer so far?"
"It's okay," Harry said. "I was just on my way to see Draco."
"I see," Molly replied. "He's in the second room on the right."
"Thanks Mrs. Weasley," Harry replied, continuing on down the corridor, finding the second door on the right and knocking lightly before entering.
Draco's room was lighter than the corridor, lit by a series of low flames along the wall. Draco was lying on his bed and he didn't even stir when Harry stepped into the room.
Harry looked around, taking in the sparsely furnished room. It was to be expected, given that it was a guest room, but Harry wasn't surprised to find that Draco hadn't even attempted to modify it to his needs. Draco's trunk was perched oddly by the door, flung open. That and the carelessly flung cast off garments were the only sign that this was anybodies room.
"Hey Draco," Harry finally said, done perusing the room. "Nice room."
"Hey," Draco muttered.
"How's things?" Harry asked.
"Fine," Draco returned, his voice lacking its usual drawl.
"Oh come on," Harry said, taking a seat on a hard backed chair set by the room's only desk. "Anybody can see you're not fine. Still moping around?"
"It's none of your business," Draco said blandly, for once not being quick to anger.
"See," Harry said. "The Draco I know would have snapped at me for that. This lame excuse for a Draco Malfoy can't even muster the spirit to do that. What's wrong with you?"
"I just don't feel like it, okay?"
"Why?" Harry asked, pushing. "Because your fathers an asshole who watched you get tortured by Voldemort and did nothing to stop it? Hell, he even condoned it. Is that why? Or is it because Ginny won't even look at you, let alone to talk to you? Or maybe it's because your friend Blaise turned out to be a psychotic jackass?"
"Pick one," Draco mumbled.
"I thought you were a Slytherin Draco," Harry said. "What's with this Hufflepuff attitude? So your father thinks you're a disgrace to the Malfoy name? Screw him! He's the disgrace, not you. Why should you care what he thinks?"
"I don't," Draco said.
"Well it sure as hell isn't Blaise," Harry said. "It can't be something that stupid. Zabini was never your friend Draco. Did it really shock you that he turned out to be a psycho? I suppose I didn't see it coming either, but I certainly didn't think he was the sanest guy in the school."
"You know it's not him," Draco said, "so why don't you just get to the point."
"So you're just going to mope around because some girl won't look at you," Harry said. "That's just lame Draco. If you want my opinion, Ginny is as confused as you are. She thought you were a jackass, and I can't really blame her, so don't be surprised if she doesn't exactly know how to act around you now that you turned around and saved her life like that."
"So what?" Draco asked, finally turning to face Harry. "I just go about my business like nothing is wrong? In case you didn't notice, I'm not really good with my feelings."
"Join the club," Harry said, smirking slightly.
"What do you mean?" Draco asked.
"Well," Harry said, "believe it or not I couldn't actually tell Hermione I loved her for a very long time, even though I knew I did."
"Really?" Draco said. "I mean - you love her?"
"Yeah," Harry said. "I do. And I told her so, eventually. One of the reasons we get along so well is because we're a lot alike, Draco. I know you don't like talking about it, but let's face it; you grew up with an abusive father. And the Dursleys weren't exactly a picnic either. We both grew up isolated and unloved, for the most part. Then we join Slytherin house, which doesn't exactly promote lovey dovey fun time, if you know what I mean. We're just not used to feeling things like normal people, so we're pretty screwed up. But Hermione loves me and she understands and can be patient. You just need to give Ginny some time, and then maybe, if things are looking good, talk to her and see where you stand."
"You know," Draco said. "You're a pretty smart guy Harry."
"I know," Harry said, grinning. "Funny story, when I was getting sorted, the Sorting Hat actually had no idea where to put me. He said it was unprecedented for a student to actually have all of the values that each house stood for. In the end, he gave me a choice. I chose Slytherin, because it seemed like the best house to help me further my goals. Of course, at that point I had no idea Slytherin had turned out more dark wizards than any other house, but irony is funny like that."
"Why doesn't that surprise me," Draco said, speaking rhetorically.
"Anyway," Harry went on, "how about you get up and stop moping around. Lying here on your skinny ass isn't going to help anything."
"Hey!" Draco shot back, sitting up. "My ass is not skinny!"
"That's more like it," Harry said, reaching forward and ruffling Draco's hair, which was an easy tactic to piss off the other Slytherin.
"That's it!" Draco roared, before diving at Harry.
(----)
After catching up with Draco a little more, Harry left the Slytherin's room and went back downstairs. He still had to talk to Sirius about Hermione, after all. When he entered the kitchen, he found that Remus had at some point left, leaving Sirius and Molly alone at the kitchen table.
"Where'd Remus go?" Harry asked, taking a seat.
"He had to go speak with Dumbledore about something," Sirius replied.
"Right," Harry said, before getting to the point. "Listen, I'm really worried about Hermione. Voldemort saw us together during the fight last term and I'm sure she'll be on his list of targets."
"Hermione?" Mrs. Weasley said, looking puzzled.
"Harry's girlfriend," Sirius said, filling her in, without ever turning away from Harry. "So what do you want me to do?"
"Talk with Dumbledore," Harry said. "Tell him I want her brought here and for some protection to be assigned for her parents."
"I'll see what I can do," Sirius said.
"This needs to be done Sirius," Harry said, making sure his godfather knew how important this was to him. "If he says no, tell him that I want to talk to him."
"I'm sure he won't object," Sirius said.
"Do you really think you-know-who will target her?" Mrs. Weasley asked.
"I don't know," Harry said, "but I want to make sure he can't."
"I think that's fair," Sirius said. "Like I said, I'm sure Dumbledore won't object. Besides, I'd like to meet this girlfriend of yours."
"I'm sure you do," Harry said, giving his godfather a look that told him he'd better behave. Sirius just laughed his bark like laugh.
(----)
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