Visitor from the Future

Chapter 11: Summer Ends (Part 2)

The next few days were filled with Wizard's Chess, Exploding Snap games, pick-up Quidditch games, and just generally laying around for the teens, with two notable exceptions.

One was Hermione, who was constantly trying to get the others to start studying for the upcoming term, or, in Ron's case, finish the summer homework they had been set.

The other was Harry, who would train with Remus every evening after dinner for a few hours. As a result of the extra training, Harry was very well-versed in combat and dueling spells, and was coming along nicely on his wandless casting. He was easily at seventh-year in terms of the spells he knew, if not even beyond NEWT level, a fact which had led Hermione to study even harder. She wasn't about to give up her top of the class standing that easily, even if it was for Harry.

Three days after the teens' trip to Diagon Alley, Harry was once again studying in Remus' and his quarters, when the portrait hole opened, and Bill, Charlie, Fred, George, and Ron, who looked slightly confused as to why he was there, entered.

The five Weasley brothers took seats in the chairs facing Harry's, and sat quietly until Harry had finished his page, and put his book down.

"Harry, old chap!" Fred began, with a smile that set alarm bells off in Harry's head: when either Weasley brother looked like that, it meant trouble for the person on its receiving end.

"Yes?" Harry answered slowly, eyes traveling to each of the redheads, trying to figure out what they wanted to talk to him about.

"Well, Harry, we have it on good authority that you... and our ickle Gin-Gin... have become, shall we say... an... item. Like to tell us about it?" George replied, and Harry felt his heart drop to somewhere around his feet. He now knew what they wanted. They were going to do the "older brother" routine, five on one.

"What about it?" Harry said, outwardly calm, although he was feeling slightly panicky inside.

"You do realize that, as her older brothers, we have to look out for her?" Bill told Harry, and Harry couldn't help but remember that this brother, the oldest, was a rather talented curse-breaker, which had Harry wondering if he was as good at casting curses as he was at breaking them.

Harry knew that he should cut them off at the pass, and hopefully avoid any bloodshed, so to say. "With all due respect, I don't think you exactly need to 'look out for' Ginny." Harry's voice was soft and calm, not a trace of arrogance present, which showed that Harry was just stating a fact to the five brothers, just as one would answer a question about the weather outside.

"Care to explain, Harry?" Charlie sounded slightly challenging, obviously hoping to catch Harry saying something they could use against him.

Harry looked each brother in the eye, and answered with a slight smile, "On the completely non-existent chance that I ever did anything to upset Ginny, I would be more concerned about her getting back at me than of you guys."

They all chuckled slightly at that, before Bill responded, "While that may be true, we just want to make sure you understand that we are her older brothers and we care about her, and don't want to see her hurt."

"I know." Harry replied softly, looking down at his hands, before looking back at them, his eyes simmering with power, "I would never hurt her, ever. I... I don't know how to describe how I feel about her, but... I will never hurt her. You have my word on that."

The four elder brothers leaned back, slightly shocked at the honesty on Harry's face and in his voice. Ron looked over at his brothers and snorted softly before replying cheekily, "I told you guys that he would say that." At Harry's raised eyebrow, Ron explained. "I found those four plotting to... talk... to you, and I assured them that you weren't the type to leave her hanging, and that they could trust you, but they insisted on seeing for themselves."

Harry shook his head, and turning back to the others, smiled slightly. "You know, you really should listen to Ron. On the rare occasion that he shows this 'deep insight' it really is some good advice he has. Everyone does at least every once in a while right?"

They all laughed at that, as well as Ron's indigent "Hey!" and moved on to more mundane topics, such as Quidditch and descriptions from the older guys about their various careers. They spent the rest of the evening talking and relaxing, with no evidence of their original purpose in coming there.

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Later that evening, at dinner, Ron made the mistake of telling Ginny what had happened between the Weasley brothers and her boyfriend.

Needless to say, the four elder Weasley brothers would never make the mistake of thinking of Ginny as a naïve young girl in need of "brotherly protection." They, along with every other person in Hogwarts, were reminded that Ginny truly was her mother's daughter in terms of the fiery temper. For the adults at the school, watching Ginny chew her brothers out for being "overbearing, sexist brutes," was the best dinner entertainment they had had in quite some time.

Following the fireworks, Ron put his other foot in his mouth when he leaned over to Harry and said just slightly too loudly, "Well mate, hope you know what you've gotten yourself into." Poor Ron had been verbally chewed out again, this time not only by Ginny, but by Hermione and Mrs. Weasley as well. It would be quite some time before Ron's ears stopped burning and ringing, that was for sure.

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The summer continued to wind down, and before the occupants of Hogwarts knew it, August thirty-first had come, and everyone was enjoying their last day of summer, whether they were teachers mentally checking over their checklists for the new school year for the hundredth time, or if they were the teenagers, bemoaning the coming of the new school year and the other students the next night.

Bill, Charlie, Fred, and George were no longer staying at Hogwarts, having all gone back to their respective jobs. Fred and George had left their good friend Lee Jordan in charge of the store while they had been staying at Hogwarts, and wanted to be back at the store for the last day rush on Diagon Alley for Hogwarts students.

The students had been informed earlier that morning that they would not be taking the Hogwarts Express with their classmates, but would instead be remaining at the castle. Hermione had been very concerned about that, since it meant the three prefects would be unable to do their patrols on the train, but the Headmaster had assured her that there would not be a problem with them missing.

With that problem taken care of, the four teens threw themselves into making possible plans for the DA for the coming year. At first, Harry had said that, as long as they got a competent DADA professor, it wouldn't be needed, but the others had been firm that it would be a good idea to help out the students learn as much defense as possible, with Voldemort and the Death Eaters becoming more and more active.

Not a day had passed in many weeks that did not bring news of more attacks against Muggle and Wizarding towns alike by Voldemort, and it was obvious to all that the Second War against Voldemort had truly begun with a vengeance.

The four teens spent all day and evening in the library, a fact that greatly concerned Madam Pince, the librarian, since she was not impressed with students "invading her precious library" before the school year had even begun. They also spent the morning and early afternoon of September first in the library as well, after helping Harry move his things to Gryffindor Tower (Hermione and the Weasleys had all been staying in the Tower over the summer, while Harry had been staying with Remus in their quarters.)

Getting their school robes on, the four friends met up in the Common Room, and headed down to the Great Hall. As they reached the steps leading down to the Entrance Hall, they heard the unmistakable sounds of the hundreds of their classmates making their way also to the Great Hall for the Welcoming Feast. Looking at each other, the four let out a deep breath and walked down the stairs to join their classmates. Another year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry had begun, and all hoped that this year would prove to better than the previous one, although only Harry knew what would be coming in June, at the end of term. Harry promised himself as he joined his classmates at the Gryffindor table that he would do everything in his power to prevent it from happening. Looking at Ginny, who had sat down beside him, Harry knew that, no matter what else happened, he would not be alone.