The Heir

Chapter 3 - Back to The Burrow, Again

Harry secured Ron's map to the front of his Firebolt. He crammed the rest of his schoolbooks and other random stuff (his Sneakoscope, his wand, robes and spare underwear) he would need into his trunk and then attached his trunk to his Firebolt so it would be suspended in the air below him and headed off downstairs to let the Dursleys know where he would be going for the rest of the summer.

He ran down the stairs, jumping the last three steps and landed, his legs absorbing the shock. He headed towards the kitchen where no doubt Dudley would have his eyes fixed on the telly and his several chins wobbling as he breathed. As he walked he looked down at his feet, listening to them slap against the hard wood floor. As he passed his cupboard under the stairs, he noticed a faint glow creeping from under the door. He wondered why he had never noticed it before, but then he did what any normal fifteen year-old boy would do, explore. He slowly opened the door and had a peek inside. The glow was coming from under one of the floorboards; he knelt down next to the glowing floorboard and grabbed a knife off one of the shelves. Being as quiet and careful as possible, he pried the floorboard up. The light that hit him in the face was equal to the light omitting off two million candles; he had to shield his eyes to stop himself from going blind. Harry enchanted his glasses to make them resistant to light, working the exact same way as sunglasses. He looked into the open space under the floorboard; it was about the height and width of a CD case. In the dead centre of the space was a small red, velvet box; almost identical to the one Dumbledore had given him. In fact it was the same as the one Dumbledore had given him. He took it out of the hole and flipped it over and sure enough there was the Warlock & Squire text. He opened it up and sitting inside on a silver pedestal intertwined with snakes, was a silver ring. Engraved on the top was what looked like a snake, or serpent of some kind; it was glowing, just as his pendant had done. He slipped the ring onto his finger, it fitted perfectly, probably because of some fitting charm placed on it so it would never outsize the wearer. Harry glanced back down at the open box and saw, under the ring, on top of the pedestal was the inscription, 'Potestas Quidquam Praebere Potest' (Power Can Give You Anything). Harry, having no idea what this meant became fascinated with how the ring had been glowing brightly before he had it on, and now was fading until it had stopped glowing altogether. Once it had stopped, he felt the rush of energy, but this time, instead of it being courage it was a feeling of power.

Harry continued to stare at his ring until he was brought back to Earth when his Aunt, who had been putting dishes in the dishwasher slammed it shut, cursing the noise loudly. He replaced the floorboard and made sure it looked as if it had never been removed. He then crept out of the cupboard and closed the door, trying not to make a sound, but then *CREAK*, "What was that?" came his Uncle's voice along with the scraping of a chair and the sound of footsteps. His Uncle Vernon stood in the doorway to the kitchen, blocking most of the light coming through, "What were you doing in that cupboard, boy?" He said through gritted teeth

"Nothing, I was just looking fo-" Harry was cut off.

"If I find that anything has 'gone missing' or been moved, I will have your neck, is that understood?"

"Yes sir," said Harry in a drawling tone. As his Uncle turned away, Harry yelled, "By the way, I'm going to stay with my friend and we're going to do magic!" and pelted up the stairs. As Harry reached the top step he heard his Uncle scream "Oh no your not!" he cried in a strangled sort of voice (he hated anyone especially Harry to say 'magic' in case any of the neighbours might be listening) and he charged up the stairs behind him. Harry flung his bedroom door open then closed it again to save him some time, he jumped on his floating Firebolt, tucked Hedwig's cage under one arm and grasped the front of his broom with his free arm. His Uncle, who moved surprisingly fast when he needed to, flung Harry's door open with such a force the handle went through the wardrobe. His piggy eyes fixed on Harry, he lunged at him, Harry, being Hogwarts' youngest Seeker in a century had acute reflexes and had sped out of the window before his Uncle had stretched out his arm, calling behind him "See you next summer!"

He soared up into the clouds so no Muggle would accidentally look up and see a fifteen year-old boy sitting on a broomstick with a large trunk suspended under him soaring through the sky. "It's so wonderful to be flying again," he thought to himself "another year of Quidditch to look forward to." He was enjoying flying so much he didn't realize where he was going, he checked his compass that Hermione had given him in their third year, he was way off course, so he swung around 90^o and corrected his flight. He had to dip below the clouds every now and then to make sure he was on the right track. As he flew over Salisbury he was engulfed in thick fumes of black smoke coming from various factories, he had to speed on through them, trying not to breathe too much in. The last time he dipped below the clouds he saw Ron's house, The Burrow. He looked down at it, it was the funniest house he had ever seen. It was held up by magic, any Muggle house built like that wouldn't have lasted six seconds. Harry spiralled his way down, as he was passing the top floor he heard Ron yell "Hey, Harry! Glad you could make it, I'll be there in a sec!!" As Harry reached the door it was flung open by a grinning Ron, "We-are-Prefects!" he yelled as Harry swung his leg off his broom "I did get a letter you know!" he yelled back at Ron, grinning from ear to ear.

Harry followed Ron into the house, his trunk magically floating behind him. As he stopped his trunk caught up with him and bashed him in the back with a corner "Ow!" he exclaimed. Harry rubbed his back and was overwhelmed by the smells that were coming from the kitchen; apparently they would be feasting tonight, to celebrate them becoming Prefects and Harry's arrival to The Burrow. Mrs. Weasley who was a very plump woman and very good cook, smiled as he entered and said, "Hello, Harry dear, how was your summer"

"It was awful, but I have a feeling that's going to change." He grinned back at her. As Harry was looking around, he saw Ginny sitting on a stool in a corner of the house with the bookshelf behind her looking at him with a book open on her lap. "Hello Ginny how was your summer?" Harry asked. Ginny gave a small squeak of surprise, causing her book to fall to the floor; she picked it up and began furiously reading. Harry could see that she was reading The Standard Book of Spells - Grade 4 by Miranda Goshawk. Ginny was in Year Four of Hogwarts, a year below Harry. In his second year (Ginny was in her first) Harry saved her from dying, Voldemort had used his memory, preserved in a diary to cause Ginny to open The Chamber Of Secrets and set a basilisk on all of the Muggleborns in the school. In his opinion, it would have put him off books of any sort forever...

"Come on," said Ron, bringing Harry out of his thoughts "let's go dump your stuff in my room." Harry and Ron were climbing the rickety stairs when, on the second floor Fred and George ambushed them "Well, well, well, if it isn't our ickle Prefect" said George pinching Ron's cheek. "Georrof me" yelled Ron, slapping George's hand off his face.

"And Harry!" exclaimed Fred grasping Harry's hand and shaking it turbulently "Congratulations on becoming a Prefect!"

"Oh sure, make fun of me, and congratulate him," moaned Ron loudly.

"Well what are brothers for!" exclaimed Fred, skipping off down the stairs, with George following suite.

"I hope you choke on your Canary Creams!" called Ron after them. "They've been teasing me ever since I got my letter." Harry secretly knew that no matter how much Ron said he detested being a Prefect, it had always been his desire to outshine his brothers. They climbed the last two sets of stairs, chatting about their privileges as Prefects. "We get our own bathroom!" cried Ron gleefully "No more regular crapping for us!" Harry, who had secretly snuck into the Prefect's bathroom last year, had thought it would have been worth becoming a Prefect just to use the bath.

As they entered Ron's room something that resembled a small, grey, fluffy tennis ball carrying two letters slammed into his face. "Ach!" cried Ron throwing the ball to the floor "Pig get off my face." Pig was actually his owl, a present from Sirius because Peter Pettigrew (Voldemort's loyal servant) using his Animagus powers had disguised himself as Ron's pet rat for twelve years. Ron picked up the letters Pig had slammed into him with. It was his and Harry's Hogwarts letters. Harry grabbed his off Ron, took it out of the envelope and unfolded it;

HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY

Set Books

The Standard Book of Spells - Grade 5 - by Miranda Goshawk

Palmistry & Tea Leaves; A Further Study into Divination - by Ivana See

The Do's and Don'ts of Beast Handling - by Grandis Belua

Advanced Transfiguration - by Trans Frequens

Too Many Wizards' Spoil the Potion - by Severus Snape

How to pass your O.W.L.S - by Albus Dumbledore

Harry now understood why Hagrid had given him the book; he would need it for this year's Care of Magical Creatures classes. He paused and looked down the list again, "Snape has written a book?"

"Oh, yeah, he's written quite a few I think." Replied Ron, halfway through a toffee, Suddenly his face turned blue and he grabbed at his throat, clawing at it. Harry leapt up, he thought Ron was choking, but, when he saw a large blue thing that resembled a tongue protrude from his mouth, he collapsed back into his chair, rolling with laughter until he had composed himself, by which time Ron's tongue was nearing six feet. Harry quickly reduced Ron's tongue back, Ron just sat there and gasped, "I-am going-to-kill them."

Ron then ran up the stairs and had attempted to hex Fred and George, but them being in their Seventh year, just rebounded the spells upon him. He ended up with lots of acne and very wobbly legs. After Harry had put Ron back as best he could, (Ron still had some acne) he decided to explain to Ron about the letter he had gotten from Lupin and how it had told them to meet in the Shrieking Shack. Ron didn't sound too thrilled at having to go back into the 'haunted' house, last time he had been in there it was with a broken leg, it was not one of his favourite memories. But he wanted to see Sirius and Lupin again, so he agreed. At this point, Harry decided to tell him about the Muggle newspaper's headline, Ron seemed very concerned and wondered the same as Harry-- how had Sirius been seen by a Muggle. Harry and Ron had several ideas on what Lupin's letter could have been about; Ron kept insisting it was about Sirius but Harry believed it was something much more serious.

After they had discussed what Lupin's letter could be about for a while longer, they decided to go outside and play Quidditch. It turned out that Ron had been practicing a lot over the summer, as there was an open spot for Keeper. Harry was amazed at how good Ron was; they set up three washing baskets floating in the air as goals and Ron managed to stop everything Harry threw at him, except when Fred, out of his bedroom window sent several hundred tennis balls flying at Ron, knocking him off his broom. Fred had sat there hanging out of the window howling with laughter so Ron made the window slam into his face. After this, a battle had broken out between Fred and Ron; Harry and George tried to stop it but got caught in the crossfire and had ended up in the battle, shooting at each other. In the end, Ron and George had been stupefied and Harry and Fred were each cowering behind a washing basket, shooting different spells at each other. There were scorch marks all over the garden. In the end, Mrs Weasley and Ginny had to come out and stupefy them both so as not to be hit by one of the funny coloured spells flying across the garden. Mrs Weasley and Ginny had to patch up the garden before bringing the boys back to life one at a time. After they had all been Enervated, Mrs Weasley made them all shake hands. She sent Fred and George off to de-Gnome the front garden and because Harry was there, let him and Ron continue with their practice. Harry and Ron continued to practice over the next few weeks until Ron could almost stop Fred's ball barrage.

Mr. Weasley and Percy spent most of their day at the Ministry of Magic, trying to get as much information on Voldemort's whereabouts as possible so Harry only saw them at mealtimes, Percy wasn't enjoying his job as much as he had used to when Barty Crouch had been his boss. Sometimes at dinner, he would complain about how stressful his work was. Before Ron and Harry knew what had happened, it was time to go to Diagon Alley to meet Hermione. Once again they travelled by Floo Powder. They had arranged to meet Hermione outside Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, so they headed in that direction. As they walked down Diagon Alley they were admiring the things in the shop windows. Consequently Harry walked into someone, but it was the last person in the world he expected to see in Diagon Alley...

"Mrs. Figg??" exclaimed Harry in astonishment "What...how...when??"

"Harry my dear it's OK, I am a witch," said Mrs. Figg in a calming tone. This most certainly wasn't OK according to Harry. The woman whose house he had despised to look at was in fact a witch. Harry tried to get some answers out of Mrs. Figg but was reminded by Ron that they were supposed to be meeting Hermione. "Uh hmm" said Ron clearing his throat loudly, "Harry, we were supposed to meet Hermione five minutes ago." So Harry and Ron scuttled off to meet Hermione with a final call from Mrs. Figg "See you soon Harry, my dear!"

When they caught sight of Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, Harry scanned the tables outside and saw the back of Hermione's head. "Hermione!" he yelled and ran off, leaving Ron trailing behind him, Harry looked up and saw Hermione turn around and look for the sound of the voice. He was stopped in his tracks, Viktor Krum obviously had a house somewhere hot, Hermione was tanned, a perfect brown. Harry could see her brown eyes glinting with happiness at seeing them for the first time in three months. There was no other word for it, Harry thought, Hermione looks...beautiful. Ron caught up with Harry "Harry, why-do you-have your mouth-open?" he asked in between heavy breaths. He turned his head and saw the same thing Harry saw, and, if possible his jaw dropped even more. Hermione spotted them waved and began to jog lightly over to them; her hair fluttered behind her making it almost straight. She ran up to Harry and threw her arms around him; he felt very light headed. She then turned to Ron and did the same. They wandered over to the table Hermione had been sitting at and ordered some ice cream sundaes. Harry, Ron and Hermione spent some time discussing what they had done all summer. Harry knew that Hermione had visited Viktor Krum's mansion during the summer, Ron did not. Harry was trying to get Hermione to tell him what had happened while Ron, not having a clue what they were on about interjected "Hermione, why didn't you tell me?" Hermione blushed and said, "I didn't want you to assume something happened between us." Ron wouldn't look at her until their sundaes came and they changed the subject to who their new teachers might be.

After they had had quite a few sundae's (they kept magically refilling) they headed off towards Gringott's Wizarding Bank to withdraw some money, after their money bags were jangling with a nice load of money they visited Flourish and Blotts, the bookshop. Harry, Ron and Hermione got all of their books; Hermione had a considerable amount more than Ron and Harry. Hermione went off to get a few other things she might need for school and to find Ginny, Ron (and Harry secretly) decided that he would defiantly need new dress robes, so they headed off towards Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions where they found Fred and George looking through some dark red dress robes "Hey George, how does this look, do you think this will fit him?"

"Fit who?" asked Ron

"Err...no-one," said George turning around to face them while Fred frantically tried to hide the robes (they were of course trying to find some robes for Ron from the money Harry had given them last year, as that was what he had asked them to do; buy Ron some new robes). Harry caught on and decided he would let George and Fred get on with their shopping. "C'mon Ron lets go have a look in 'Quality Quidditch Supplies', who knows, if you get onto the team you're going to need a new broom." Thankfully this took Ron's mind off the twins and they headed out the door. Harry looked over his shoulder and saw the twins give him a thumbs up and continue looking at the robes.

As they stepped into QQS Draco Malfoy and his cronies Crabbe and Goyle ambushed them "Well, well if it isn't my least favourite Gryffindor Prefects." Malfoy drawled in a boring, monotonous tone. "And would you look at that, if it isn't The Marvellous Bouncing Ferret!" Exclaimed Ron, remembering back to last year when Professor Moody (who happened to be Barty Crouch Junior taking a polyjuice potion to look like Moody) had turned Malfoy into a ferret and bounced him around the Main Entrance. Malfoy winced at the memory, "I'll see you on the train, Weasley" and stormed out of the shop his hired goons trailing behind. "What a GIT!" said Ron with feeling.

"Yeah, I hope we don't see him on the train" agreed Harry looking around "Hey, what's THAT?" he cried spotting a broom, mounted on a pedestal with a spotlight trained on it. Harry read the block of text underneath the broom,

The Meteor

This state-of-the-art Quidditch broom will handle with pinpoint accuracy, being able to turn and accelerate without you even moving, all you have to do is think what you want to do and voila. Upon completed purchase the broom will be telepathically liked with you, no one else will be able to use it. The Meteor's telepathist ability is made possible by detecting your brainwaves and doing what you think. If you need to summon your broom for any reason, just think about it being in your hand and no matter where it is, it will fly to you at record-breaking speeds. When purchased, your name will be engraved upon the handle with your own personal model number. The Meteor sports an advanced braking system. Each broom has a video-tracking device built in so no matter where you are you can always see your broom on your own handheld video device.

Not recommended for children under 10 without a fully trained wizard's guidance.

Harry had never thought his Firebolt would look out of date, but compared to The Meteor, it was pathetic.

Ron and Harry stood there for a few minutes, their mouths wide open and their eyes scanning over the smooth, sleek redwood handle and oak broomtail Harry decided to find out how much that broom would cost, he walked over to the counter where a small, plump wizard with glasses was sitting on a stool reading Quidditch Quarterly. "Excuse me," said Harry "but how much is that new broom?"

"Two Hundred Galleons." Replied the clerk without looking up. Harry looked extremely disappointed; Ron would never be able to afford that. He walked back over to Ron who looked at him eagerly, in reply Harry shook his head, Ron dropped his smile, "Let's go have a look at the older brooms," he suggested. They wandered over to one side of the room where there was a rack of older model brooms labelled Cleansweep 7 - Firebolt. Harry and Ron looked through the older brooms for a bit, Ron was thinking of getting a Nimbus 2000, the same as Harry had for 2 years and had never lost on, until he fell off and his broom was destroyed. Ron was also thinking the Nimbus 2001 but as Harry pointed out, Malfoy had a Nimbus 2001.

As they kept looking Hermione and Ginny entered the shop, they spotted Harry and Ron and went over to them. "Hey, guys" said Hermione

"Oh, hey Hermione," replied Harry "we were just looking for a new broom in case Ron makes the team"

"What the hell do you mean in case I'm already on the team, no one's better than me!" grinned Ron cockily.

"Yeah, yeah you wish," replied Ginny

"Oh! I almost forgot, Harry, Ron, Ginny's parents are waiting for us, we're going back." Said Hermione and briskly walked to the door, "are you coming then, god, why do people keep staring at me?" she asked to Ron and Harry who were looking at her with a glazed look in heir eyes, Ginny was frantically waving her hand in front of Ron's face, "Ron! Ron! Come on, we-are-go-ing-now," She said, speaking very slowly as if talking to a four year old. Without another word she stomped off to where Hermione was standing and they walked out the door together. Once Hermione was out of their sight Harry and Ron seemed to snap back to reality, they shook their heads as if trying to clear their minds, grinned at each other and ran out after the girls.