Harry Potter and the Fated Locket

Harry glanced at Snape, who seemed perfectly aware that Harry was watching him, but chose not to acknowledge him. He seemed different to Harry. What had always been the epitome of evil during Harry's first four years at Hogwarts now seemed...less menacing. Harry knew that Snape was working for Dumbledore, helping his side to bring down the defeat of Voldemort, and it seemed to have had a toll on his features. His hair hung more limp and stringy around his sallow face than usual, and his eyes had dark smudges under their distant gaze. Harry almost felt sorry for him...almost. At that moment, Snape turned and sneered at Harry in his usual manner. It was strange that what used to make Harry cringe now comforted him. This he could understand and deal with. This was the Snape he knew.

"Where are we going?" Harry ventured to ask.

He had an overwhelming feeling that some attack had happened, and now he was being taken into hiding. The thought of cowering away in some lonely cave instead of returning to Hogwarts plagued Harry's mind. He thought of the Burrow, where he had been hoping to spend the rest of the summer.

Snape didn't even glance at Harry as he said, "Dumbledore saw fit for you to go to Weasley's house."

"Did something happen? I mean, it wasn't safe at the Dursley's anymore?"

"We've learned that Voldemort has sent out a scout who can somehow get past the wards on the Dursleys' house."

"Well, er...won't it be obvious where I went? If I'm putting the Weasley's in trouble...I can't do that."

Snape snorted.

He obviously didn't want Harry to know more than he had to, so Harry focused his attention on a witch sitting a few beds down. She looked curiously familiar, but he couldn't seem to place his finger on it. Harry knew it was rude to stare, but he couldn't help himself. After a few minutes, the stout, middle-aged woman looked up.

Mrs. Figg? No it couldn't be. It was just a coincidence; someone who looked like Mrs. Figg. The old lady who smelled like cabbage and thought of nothing other than her cats couldn't possibly be a witch. Could she? But before Harry could straighten out his thoughts, the witch's stop was called, and with a smile, she stood up and left the bus. Harry thought he smelled a faint hint of cabbage.

When they reached the Burrow, the Weasley house erupted with what seemed like a thousand floating fireballs. The first two out of the door were Ron and Mrs. Weasley. Harry grinned widely at Harry and simply said, "Alright, Harry?" while Mrs. Weasley threw her arms around him and seemed like she wanted to squeeze him to death. The twins and Ginny followed closely behind, two with mischief in their eyes, and the other with honest concern. After Mrs. Weasley had settled down a bit, Ginny gave Harry a quick hug and blushed profusely as she stepped away staring at the ground. Harry watched Ginny for a moment, but was distracted by Mr. Weasley and Bill making their way from the house. Mr. Weasley smiled good-naturedly at Harry and shook his hand.

"Hello, Harry. Great to have you here."

"Thanks, Mr. Weasley," said Harry, grateful for the way Mr. Weasley didn't act like he was walking on eggshells around Harry like the others seemed to be doing. Excluding Fred and George, that is, who seemed to be plotting something against him already, judging by the whispering and sly looks that were coming from their direction.

Harry noticed that Bill hung back more than the rest, and he craned his neck to see around the twins who had taken something out of their pocket and were talking animatedly. Bill's back was turned to Harry, and he was talking to someone who had petite, pale arms wrapped around his middle. Harry couldn't see who it was, but that wasn't surprising, given Bill's height.

Harry nudged Ron with his elbow and nodded his head in Bill's direction.

Ron snickered. "Wait 'til you see."

At that moment, Bill turned and started walking toward Harry, hand in hand with a beautiful, silvery-blonde haired and crystal blue-eyed woman.

Harry almost laughed out loud. Fleur! Or Fleur and Bill, rather. Why doesn't that surprise me?

The couple walked easily up to Harry and Bill clapped Harry on the back.

"Hey, Bill." He grinned. "Hullo Fleur. I didn't think I'd be seeing you here." He shot Ron a look, but Ron just shrugged his shoulders.

"Oh, of course...I am teeching at your school. Remeember when I sed I wanted to improve my Eenglish? Yes, well, I am going to be za student teechair for Defense againz zee dark arts." She flashed a heart-melting smile at Bill, who smiled back goofily and seemed to be lost in his own world.

"Well," said Mrs. Weasley, putting a protective arm around Harry with a snigger from Ron, "Let's go inside and make Harry feel at home. Thank you for bringing him here, Severus." Harry noticed that up until this point, Snape had been watching the scene with something like amusement, and now he merely gave a slight nod of his head and Apparated without a word.

"Harry! Harry, wake up!"

Harry opened his eyes to see nothing but a fuzzy orange ball five inches away from his face. He took his glasses off of the nearby stand, put them on, and looked up at Ron's excited face. His eyes were nearly bulging out of the sockets at his tried to wriggle Harry out of the small, but cozy bed. It didn't take much; Ron had grown over the summer, and was now a half a foot taller than the small-framed Harry.

"What is it?" Harry asked groggily as Ron pulled him down the stairs at a frightening pace.

"We're home alone!" Ron exclaimed with a flash of child-like glee in his eyes. "Mum and dad went to visit Charlie for a few days, Percy had to work today, Bill and Fleur went out somewhere, and Fred and George went to Hogsmeade to sell a few of their, er...creations before mum and dad find out. Ginny's here and we sorta have to watch her, but she doesn't count."

"Thanks, you big prat," Ginny said indignantly from the kitchen table between bites of toast. "You do have to take me wherever you go," she reminded him with a triumphant look on her face and a nervous glance at Harry.

"C'mon, I owled 'Mione, and she said she'd meet us at the Leaky Cauldron. We just need to find where mum hid pot of floo....oi, there t'is!"

"Ron, I don't think--"

"Shut up Ginny, she won't know if you don't squeal."

Ron pushed Harry toward the fireplace and handed him the pot.

"Here, Harry. Think ya can do this?" he asked sarcastically. Harry laughed at the insinuation, remembering the time in second year when he had first traveled by floo, and ended up in a store in Knockturn Alley.

Harry rolled his eyes and grabbed a pinch of powder before tossing it into the fire and saying "Diagon Alley" as distinctly as he could.

The Leaky Cauldron looked the same as it always had when Harry stepped out of the grate and into the candle-lit, mysterious world of magic. He waited for Ron, who came sputtering out from swallowing a mouthful of ash. They said their hellos' to Tom before sighting Hermione, who was, of course, absorbed in a book. As they began to walk over to her, she glanced up and a huge grin spread across her face.

"Ron! Harry!" she practically squealed with delight. She ran up to them, throwing her arms around their shoulders and squeezing with all the strength she had.

"Hermione, you're...strangling..me," Harry gasped while trying to wiggle free. Ron didn't seem to mind; he almost seemed to enjoy being smothered by the excited, bushy-haired girl. Harry smiled to himself. Nothing had changed over the summer. Hermione stepped back a bit and asked them how their summers had been.

"Nothing different then usual," was Harry's answer. "Dudley's still huge, the Dursley's still hate me, and I couldn't say the 'M-word,' " Harry said dryly.

"Boring. Mum's been lecturing me all summer about OWLS, but not as bad as she's been on the twins about the NEWTS," replied Ron. "Did you go visit Vickie?" Ron asked with a slight twinge of jealousy in his voice

"Er...no." She looked down at her shoes, the red spreading across her cheeks and behind her ears. "Not Victor...he uh..we're just. No, not Victor."

"Hermione, what's wrong with you?"

"Nothing!"

"Okay...then what did you do this summer?" Ron wanted to know.

"I went to see someone. I wanted to support him, you know, for h-h-his...I went to watch him play Quidditch."

"So it was Victor!" Ron looked like he was going to explode. His dislike for Victor went beyond last year, when he had accused Hermione of fraternizing with the enemy. Now she had actually went to lend him support. Not like he needs it, Harry thought. Not from Hermione anyway. He has about a million other giggly fans who would gladly lend him a helping hand. What does he want with Hermione? He can't possibly mean anything to her...oh, now I'm starting to sound like Ron. Harry laughed to himself again.

Ron glanced at him suspiciously and Hermione blanched, but neither of them said anything.

Finally Hermione shook her head and replied, "No, Ron, I told you it wasn't Victor, so let's just drop it. Okay?"

Despite the ending of the argument, the air was still thick with awkwardness, and Harry shifted from foot to foot wishing he could think of something--anything--to say. Just then, a small diversion happened in the form of a red-head walking up and saying, "Thanks for waiting for me," with sarcasm dripping off every syllable.

"Ginny!" Harry cried, as relieved to see her as if they were back in the Chamber of Secrets, second year.

Ginny stopped in her tracks and the smile on her face faded. Harry's zealous greeting confused her. Her adoration of him had usually caused him to avoid her out of embarrassment, and he certainly had never purposely singled her out over his friends. Her heart skipped wildly as she thought of the possibilities of the situation. Then her eyes, that up to this point had been glued to Harry's, strayed over to look at Ron and Hermione. Then the realization came to her. Harry wanted her to distract them from the fight they had obviously just ensued in.

"Hermione?"

Hermione turned around and faced the questioning girl. "Ginny! Wow, I've missed you! You've grown over the summer." Hermione embraced Ginny in a friendly hug and forgot all about what she and Ron had just said.

"Thank you," Harry mouthed to Ginny. Her smile seemed sad to Harry, but he dismissed it quickly and said, "C'mon, let's go get something to drink."

After they had finished their drinks they went out to Diagon Alley and walked around for a while, the four of them glancing into various shops (Hermione dragged them into the book store) and stopping to talk to a few Hogwarts students they met along the way.

"Um, Harry, didn't you say you wanted to stop at Gringotts?" Ron asked quickly when the tall white building came into sight.

"Er...yeah," said Harry, not understanding why Ron looked so much like he was up to something.

"Well, why don't you and Ginny go ahead and go? There was something--I mean--Hermione--she...there was something she wanted to show me."

Harry looked back and forth between the two, and then glanced quickly at Ginny, who had a look of perfect innocence on her face. Too perfect, Harry thought. I'll just play along, for now.

"Oookay..."

"Thanks." Ron and Hermione turned and walked quickly down the street before breaking into a run and disappearing behind a building.

Hmm. Wonder what they're up to? Harry didn't have very much time to wonder because Ginny interrupted his thoughts with, "Harry, do you want to go now?" Harry immediately felt uncomfortable. He had never been alone with Ginny in a normal situation.

"Sure."

He followed her up the steps to Gringotts, watching her back as she made her way up to the grand double-doors. He was so busy watching her shoulder length vivid crimson hair sway back and forth that he carelessly ran into another girl retreating down the steps.

"Oof. Oh, sorry," said Harry.

The girl paused and looked wide-eyed at Harry like she had seen a ghost. Harry was used to it, though. People were always gawking at his scar. He smiled briefly at her, and then continued up the steps after Ginny. He glanced quickly over his shoulder to see that the girl hadn't moved, but seemed rooted to the spot, staring after Harry.

Odd, Harry thought. There's something familiar about her. Her eyes, maybe? Harry shook his head to clear it and walked through the doors to Gringotts.