Harry Potter and the House Divided

Chapter Twelve Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes

Remus took some time to look around the street. He was obviously performing some kind of security sweep. From what he'd learned from Bill and Tonks, Remus was being more thorough than Harry thought he needed to be.

After what seemed an age to Harry, Remus nodded happily and relaxed the white-knuckled grip that he'd had on his wand.

"Let's find the others," he said, smiling.

"Yeah, let's," Harry said, glad that for the next few hours at least, he could be something of a normal sixteen year old boy out for a summer's afternoon with his closest friends.

Finding his friends proved to be harder than Harry had expected. At their first stop in Flourish and Blotts, the manager told them that the Weasleys had already come and gone. He did, however, confirm for Harry that his friends had bought his books for him and told him that he owed Hermione fourteen galleons, eight sickles and one knut.

Harry, Remus and Katarina then walked up the street to Quality Quidditch Supplies. They learned that Hermione and the Weasleys had not been there yet.

Harry, not sure where else to look, turned to Remus for advice.

"They could be at Madame Malkin's, and with as much as you've grown, you need to stop in there as well."

Harry, who wouldn't have believed that new robes were necessary if he'd not seen just how much taller than Hermione he had now become, nodded and began walking in that direction.

As he did so, Harry noticed the number of glances that he was getting from the surprisingly thin crowds on the street. Fortunately, it seemed that having a known werewolf and an unidentified bodyguard with him were enough to keep most people away. However, some of Harry's schoolmates were so excited to see him that they came over, Professor Lupin and Katarina notwithstanding.

Some of the younger members of the D.A. waved but older ones, like Ernie Macmillan and Justin Finch-Fletchley made directly for Harry's small party.

"Harry, it's very good to see you," Ernie Mcmillan said, seemingly as pompous as he had been during their fifth year. "I hope that you've had a very satisfactory summer?" he continued in a near perfect imitation of Percy Weasley.

"It was OK," Harry said, thinking about the pain of Sirius' death and the hard work that he'd had to do to try to ready himself for his sixth year, not to mention the battle with Voldemort that he knew must come sooner or later.

"Good to hear it, good to hear it," Ernie said, distractedly. The reason for his distraction was obvious, his eyes caught by Katarina who accepted his ogling with a grace that impressed Harry greatly.

"How was your summer?" Harry asked, in an attempt to distract him.

"It went very well," Ernie said. "I entered into my family's business and my father says that my performance impressed him greatly. Hopefully he will be sufficiently impressed to let me out of taking an apprenticeship at Gringotts after we leave Hogwarts."

"That's great," Harry said, clapping Ernie on the shoulder.

"How was your summer, Justin?" Harry asked, glad that his conversation with Ernie was over.

"It was good. I took a lot of time off and spent most of July in my family's seaside place. Read up in August for classes and the D.A.; you are going to do it again this year, aren't you?"

"Dumbledore wants me to," Harry said, pleased that Justin wanted to join the D.A. again.

"Good," Justin said vehemently. "It's really important that muggleborns like me learn how to defend ourselves against the Death Eaters now that 'You-Know-Who' is out in the open again. I know that we're not back yet but do you know when the meetings'll be starting?"

"Dumbledore wants to talk with me about how we're going to do things this year so you should probably wait to hear from either Hermione or Dumbledore about meetings once we get back to school" Harry said, frustrated that he was having to waste his time out of Grimmauld Place talking about something that could just as easily be done on the Hogwarts Express or at school. "Speaking of muggleborns, have you seen Hermione and the Weasleys anywhere?" he asked, wanting to get back to his friends and hear more about their summers.

"I think that they were in Madame Malkin's and the apothecary, but it's been a bit since we ran into them," Justin said. "Do you want help trying to catch them up with them?"

"No thanks," Harry said. "We thought that they might be at Madame Malkin's and it's not far. I'd probably better catch up with them so we can get to lunch."

"Right," Justin said with a nod. "If we see them, we'll tell them that you're at Madame Malkin's."

"Thanks."

Moments later, they were at Madame Malkin's where Harry was fitted for new robes including a set of extremely ornate dress robes that Professor Dumbledore had ordered for him. Harry, surprised by this, turned to Remus for an explanation.

"I'm not quite sure," Remus said before Harry could put his question into words. "But they're in your family colours so maybe he thinks you'll have to do some business on its behalf this year."

"Right," Harry sighed, yet again wishing that he didn't have so many responsibilities.

Harry's friends had already come and gone through Madam Malkin's and Hermione had finished her business at the apothecary by the time they got there. By the time he was able to find them in Quality Quidditch Supplies, it was nearly time for lunch.

"Hey! Harry," Ginny called the moment he walked in through the store's front door.

"What's up?" he called back, swerving toward the Nimbus broom display.

"I'm not sure whether I should buy the Nimbus 2002 or the new comet 300."

"Well," Harry said, caught off guard by the news of a new Comet series.

"You know that McGonagall was able to straighten out my ban and if you still want to go back to being chaser, I'd probably go with the Nimbus unless the new comet's got something that you really like."

"Not really," Ginny said contemplatively. "It's a bit slower and not so many features but it's a lot less expensive."

"How much?" Harry asked, thinking of the vast store of money he now had access to.

"Fifty galleons," Ginny said quietly. "I can afford it but it won't leave me with much money for Hogsmeade weekends."

"Tell you what," Harry said, glancing around for Ron. "Why don't you let me make up the difference since I never got you a Christmas present or anything for your birthday."

"But," Ginny said, "that's a lot of money."

"Look," Harry said, lowering his voice even further. "I've got more money than I know what to do with. Let me do this for you, since I'll never be able to spend everything that my family left me."

"You're sure?" Ginny asked, hopefully.

"Yeah!" Harry said, grinning. "I'm sure."

"Thanks, Harry," Ginny said, smiling.

"No problem," Harry said with a grin. "But if Ron ever asks, tell him that your parents gave you the extra money as a reward for being made prefect."

"Right."

Harry reached into his money bag, gave Ginny the gold that she would need and then looked around for Ron.

His best mate was looking at some keeper's gear with great interest, eyes continually returning to a pair of bright orange gloves with the Chudley Cannons' interconnected C's prominently displayed on front and back.

"Great gloves, eh Harry?" Ron asked, excitedly.

"Mmmmm," Harry said, noncommittally.

"I really want to get them but McGonagall won't let us wear gear that doesn't have the Gryffindor colours on it."

"Well," Harry said, "You could wear them when we fly at the burrow or

during practice..."

"Yeah!" Ron said, grinning. "Good idea, mate."

Harry nodded, and looked around for Hermione. He was shocked to see her holding a broom in her hand, contemplating it thoughtfully much as she might a complex arithmancy problem.

"Uh, Hermione," Harry said tentatively, "Are you thinking about buying that broom?"

"Yes!" she replied, giving him a sharp look. "After we flew on those horrible thestrals last spring I started thinking that I should get more comfortable with flying since we've had to do it three times so far. I really don't like flying much but you never know when I might need to do it again."

"But you did perfectly well last spring," Harry objected, not wanting to see her get something that she might never need, particularly something as expensive as a broomstick.

"Only because I had to," Hermione said with a shudder. "My injury was the main reason for the length of my convalescence last spring, but Madame Pomphrey told me that I was having nightmares about flying and they kept me from sleeping well for the first few nights that I was in the hospital wing."

"Oh," Harry said, guiltily.

"Oh, stop that!" Hermione snapped at Harry.

"What?!?" he asked, trying to act as though he didn't know what she was talking about.

"That guilty thing that you always do," she replied tartly. "I made the choice to come with you and I made the mistake that got me hurt. I could have stayed at Hogwarts but you must know by now that I'm not going to leave you when you need help."

"She's got that right," Ron said from behind Harry. "We wouldn't let you go off on your own, mate, at least not if we could help it."

"But..."

"But nothing," Hermione snapped. "You must know that older and better trained wizards than you have been tricked by Voldemort. Many of them died because they didn't have people who cared enough about them to help them find a way out of the traps that he laid for them and I, for one, am not going to let you walk into something like that alone."

"That's right," Ginny chimed in from the counter. "Those horrible muggles that you grew up with might do something like that but normal people, wizard or muggle, don't."

"You see, Harry," Remus said quietly from beside him, "what friendship and love will lead people to do. They led you, your friends and others to the Ministry last spring and you shouldn't deny their power in your life. They are probably what caused your patronus to take on the form that it does as well."

Harry, who really didn't want to think about all of this while standing in one of his favourite shops in the entire wizarding world, looked for something to change the subject.

"Aren't you going to get those gloves?" he asked, pointing at the bright orange keeper's gear that Ron still held in his hands.

"Oh, yeah!" Ron said, hastening toward the counter.

"Once you're done with that," Remus said loudly, "I think that we should head to the Leaky Cauldron for lunch."

"I need to get this before we go," Hermione said, gesturing to the Nimbus Elite that she held in one hand.

"Wow, Hermione," Ron said from the counter. "That's a lot of broom for someone who's not comfortable with flying."

"I know," Hermione said with a shiver. "But I need something that won't slow everyone down if we ever need to fly somewhere."

"But I've only got a Cleansweep Eleven," Ron objected. "You don't need anything better than that."

"You've got the Cleansweep for now. Someday you'll probably have something better and I really don't want to have to get another broom if I can help it." Hermione said wisely.

"I suppose that makes sense," Ron muttered, "though its gonna be a long time before I can get something better than my Cleansweep."

"Not necessarily," Ginny said from where she now stood near the door. "Fred and George paid me enough to buy a Nimbus and if you test stuff for them next summer you could probably get something better too."

Ron glared at Ginny, apparently angry that she was going to buy a broom that was better than his.

"Oh Ron," Hermione sighed disappointedly. "It's not Ginny's fault that she made enough money to get a good broomstick."

Ron gave Hermione a nasty look before seemingly deciding that it would be best to let the matter drop.

After Hermione made her purchase, Lupin directed the small party toward the door, disappearing back inside the shop just as they left. The group milled around, not sure what the cause for the delay might be and equally unable to move on without two of its most powerful guardians.

The reason for the delay came to Harry in a blinding flash and he saw that Hermione had also cottoned onto their problem as soon as he glanced in her direction. Though there was nothing particularly new in what they had discussed in the shop, Harry realized that news of his friends' open commitment to follow him on whatever adventures he might undertake this year might be very interesting to Voldemort. Remus and Moody seemed to think so as well and had gone back in to obliviate the clerk, who had been the only person in the shop while they were there.

Harry knew that his protectors were trying to make his life as "normal" as possible but in doing so they were unintentionally adding to his burdens by obliviating someone who in all likelihood would never report the conversation to Voldemort. His guilt over this interference in someone else's life was tempered by the realization that he and his friends would, indeed, have to think about finding a safe place to talk during their upcoming year. A problem that could only grow worse since some of Fred and George's new inventions could be used to spy on conversations, possibly even those held in places as safe as the Gryffindor Common Room was supposed to be.

When Moody and Remus returned to their group, the little party headed directly to the Leaky Cauldron for lunch.

While they were walking down Diagon Alley toward the Leaky Cauldron, Harry thought he heard Moody muttering something to Remus about their good fortune in having a day where there were so few people about. He couldn't help but agree with the sentiment, as dealing with crowds of people wanting to talk to him about what happened in the Department of Mysteries or what might happen at Hogwarts this year seemed about the worst possible way to spend the rest of his free day.

Conversation at lunch was light, with Ron, Ginny and Harry promising to take Hermione flying as often as she required in order to feel comfortable doing it at high speed. It went without saying that the three Quidditch players would engage in any complex manoeuvres that they might need if fighting Death Eaters on broomsticks ever became necessary.

Harry was depressed by Ron's apparent acceptance of his inability to become an Auror through the normal procedures. Ron continued to suggest that there were other ways to be "cool" and Harry, saddened that his friend might not go through auror training with him, began to worry about his friend's ongoing need for attention.

As the meal continued and Mr Weasley failed to arrive, Harry's sadness at Ron's slowly changing attitudes began to be overshadowed by the heaviness in his chest that grew with the likelihood that he wouldn't see Mr. Weasley before leaving for Hogwarts. With all that was changing in his friends' lives, it somehow seemed essential that he see at least one of the two people whom he had come to think of as surrogate parents over the last five years.

"Problem, Potter?" Moody asked, his rough voice rumbling in Harry's right ear.

"Hello Professor," Harry said to the grizzled Auror who had taken an interest in him since their first real meeting the summer before.

"Missing Arthur?" Moody asked, leaning on the back of Harry's chair.

"Yeah," Harry admitted, surprised that the old auror had noticed.

"He wanted to come," Moody said quietly. "But it's a right mess at the ministry and everyone's spending loads of time just trying to keep things going down there. Arthur won't be the new minister because he's not learned how to play the little games they like to play with at the Ministry, but he's certainly been helped a lot by Fudge's foolishness."

"How?" Harry asked, surprised.

"Well," Moody muttered darkly, "he's one of the ones who proved right in the end and even though they don't think often, politicians are smart enough to line up with the ones who can say "I told you so" when its something this big."

"Makes sense," Harry said thoughtfully, "though I wish they'd listened

earlier."

"And so does Fudge," Moody said harshly.

Harry, who really didn't have more to say about the Ministry, didn't say anything at all.

"We're going to have to talk about just how bad things are out there before you go back to school," Moody said gruffly. "Tonks's pretty smart for as young as she is but I should probably get you briefed so you know what you're looking for this year. If I don't miss my guess, there'll be a lot more than spells that'll be causing you trouble."

"Great," Harry said with a sigh.

"Not so much laddie, but Dumbledore'll do everything he can to smooth the way for you now that he's smartened up to the fact that you need to know what's in front of you."

Harry didn't dare ask here, but Moody's comment led him to believe that Professor Dumbledore might have told the old Auror more about the prophecy than anyone else in the Order seemed to know. Even Tonks didn't seem to know about the prophecy and although Harry knew that he needed to tell her about it so that she could help him as Sirius hoped she would, he wasn't ready to do it yet. He knew that it was irrational to feel as he did, but even so, he was afraid that if he repeated the prophecy to anyone, he would somehow be making the process of fulfilling it inevitable.

*-*-*-

The reverie inspired by his conversation with Moody was broken when Fred and George shook him from it with news that he would soon see their new shop in far greater detail than he had been able to that morning.

"Time to go ickle Harrikins," one said.

"What?" Harry asked, distractedly.

The Weasleys glanced at each other before leaning down on either side of Harry, grins fixed but eyes concerned.

"You OK there, Harry?" one asked.

"Fine," Harry said, shaking his head to clear it of his earlier thoughts.

"Of course he's not OK, George," the other said sharply. "After all, he's missing the wonders that he can see at Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes and it pains him greatly to know it."

"Must be," said George. "After all, it's his money that we've been risking and Harry is a bit thick."

"Thick enough to forget what a good investment he's made?" demanded Fred, shocked.

"Well sure, after all, he hangs around with ickle Ronnie, so he's got to be a bit thick," said George so that Ron couldn't miss what he was saying.

"Shut up," Ron barked from further down the table.

"Well Fred, at least ickle Ronnikins is paying attention."

"Even if our chief investor isn't."

"Paying attention to what?" Harry demanded, nettled.

"Paying attention to the fact that old Moody's been trying to get you lot ready to go to the shop for five minutes now," Fred said.

"Oh," Harry said, hastily collecting his packages.

"Do you need help vith those?" Katarina asked him with a smile.

"Uh, no thanks." Harry mumbled, suddenly uncomfortable in her presence.

"Vell, if you need it, I'm happy to help." she said, the sound of her voice causing shivers to run up and down Harry's spine.

"Thanks," he said, rising quickly and moving to get away from her.

The party needed a few minutes to distribute Hermione's four extremely heavy bags of books. The new brooms went into the twins' care as neither Hermione nor Ginny could carry them easily.

Katarina moved away from the group but even so, the boys' attentions to her were slowly growing more and more obvious. It didn't take Harry long to realize that whatever potion she'd taken must be wearing off.

"Uh," he said, steeling himself for their conversation. "I think that whatever you took this morning's wearing off a bit."

"It probably is," she said with a nod. "But as time gets later there is more risk that you vill have problems. I vill cover up vich should help until ve get to headquarters but I am stronger defending you if I am not repressed and Professor Dumbledore vanted my full powers in the afternoon."

That said, she pulled a light cloak from her attaché case and draped it over herself, the white material making it impossible to see anything of her unless you looked her directly in the face.

When the party finally moved out, Katarina moved to stand almost directly behind Harry who was embarassed to realize that he was glad not to be able to see her. He knew that having her at Grimmauld Place would force him to learn how to focus on talking to her rather than staring at, or even worse, trying to impress her. Although he was sure that he would embarrass himself at some point, he really hoped that he would be an arse only when no-one else was around to see it happen.

The crowds that were so conspicuously absent in the morning seemed to have found their way to Diagon Alley while they were eating lunch. Apparently, the news of the Aurors' sweep had got out and many people decided that today would be a good day to get some shopping done. Unfortunately for Harry, this meant that his protectors became very nervous, hurrying him along as fast as they could through the rapidly growing crowds.

For his part, Harry tried to use his fringe to cover his scar. Moody, seeing what Harry was trying to do, conjured a hat and clapped it onto his head with Hagrid-like force. Fortunately, the hat worked wonders and Harry was able to walk undisturbed.

It took him a moment to realize that another guard seemed to be with him this afternoon.

"Hallo Athena," Moody said from somewhere to Harry's left.

"And to you, Alastor," a witch replied, voice cool yet seemingly friendly enough.

"Out for a bit of shopping?"

"No, just taking in the sights. After all, I'll be far from here most of the year and it is nice to see the place so crowded with the way things are."

"I understand," Moody said gruffly. "You know Remus of course, and the Weasleys?"

"All but the youngest and I assume that I'll have them in classes this year?"

"Most definitely," Moody said, jabbing Harry in the back as he did so.

"And this is Harry Potter."

Harry finally turned his eyes away from the crowds to the medium height witch with tightly curled red hair who had joined his guards only moments after they left the Leaky Cauldron. She was very athletic and had a sense of contained something that he had trouble identifying at first.

"Indeed," she said softly, looking him up and down as if sizing up an opponent.

"Potter, this is Athena Veridian. She's to be the Defense Against the Dark Arts instructor at Hogwarts this year."

"Nice to meet you," Harry said, extending his left hand, the right tightly clenched around his wand.

"And you, Mr. Potter," she said with a surprisingly friendly smile. "Professor Dumbledore speaks very highly of you and your students from last year. I look forward to seeing how you do with a quality Defense instructor."

"So do I," Harry said with a grin. "Unfortunately, except for Remus we've not had many of those while I've been at Hogwarts."

"Then we'll have to make your sixth year as successful as your third was," she said before melting back into the crowd.

*-*-*-

"We're here," Ron cried, having missed Harry's conversation with their new Defense professor.

And so they were. The shop was painted a garish red with interlocking Ws over the front door. Miniature explosions seemed to erupt at various points from time to time and each of them seemed to give rise to a small Wildfire Whizbang that spelled something like:

Weasley's Wizard Wheezes: A BANG in every bite

Lee and Angelina were handling the till and seemed to be overwhelmed by customers both young and old. The children had collected around the bins of Skiving Snackboxes, Flatulent Fudge, Headless Hats and Wildfire Whizbangs. The older customers were looking at Bucking Brooms, Portable Swamps and Transformation Tablets, which said that they would make you turn into the item, animal or plant pictured on the packaging.

"We're got some really cool tablets, particularly the dragon delights," George, or Fred, said. "But they're dangerous and we'll probably have to sell them only to people that we know pretty well. Ginny nearly cooked Ron alive when she became a miniature Hungarian Horntail. Someone like Malfoy could do a lot of damage in five minutes as a dragon."

"She really became a Horntail?" Harry asked, amazed.

"Yep," Fred-or-George-said with a nod. "Not full sized, of course. You can't make a person become fifty feet long but still, it's pretty cool. She even flew for a minute before she turned back in midair. We had to rescue her since she was about twenty feet up when it happened."

"Wow," Harry said, impressed.

"We're going to get you and the rest of the group that went to the ministry some of them and some other stuff too. Charlie says that they'll never be able to make dragons tame enough to be around the school but Dumbledore says that it would be good to have something close around if needed."

"Did you give them to the teachers too?" Harry asked.

"Yeah," said Fred, "though of course Snape didn't really need any since he's already pretty good at breathing fire without our help."

"I know," Harry groaned. "Really let into me when I showed up for that Order meeting on my birthday. Fortunately, your mum was even madder and headed him off so that she could rant at me instead," Harry sighed, dejectedly.

"Oh, don't worry about her, Harry," whichever twin was with him said, disgusted. "She's always been a bit off about Percy and now that Fudge tried to use him as a sacrifice he's in big trouble. The Order doesn't trust him and everyone knows that none of us will have anything to do with him, so he can't even spy for 'You-Know-Who."

"But that's terrible," said Hermione who had come over on hearing Percy's name.

"Terrible?" Harry's guide responded with a snort. "Not nearly as much as stabbing his family in the back. That's terrible, Hermione."

"But Percy thought that he was doing the right thing," Hermione objected.

"Ultimately, Hermione, whether you're tied to the dark or the light, the worst thing you can do in a pureblood wizarding family is to go directly against your parents. Percy did that and although mum's more flexible than most in our world on it, the rest of us, particularly dad, still think he's a traitor. If we were a wealthy family, he'd have been written out of the will for sure, maybe even disowned altogether, like Sirius would have been but for the fact that he was the last possible heir."

"But what about Andromeda, Narcissa and well, the rest of Sirius's cousins?" Hermione said, obviously afraid to speak Bellatrix's name in Harry's presence.

"Women can't inherit in a lot of pureblood families. Oh, there are some really open minded ones like the Howards and the Bones and some really really closed minded ones like 'You-Know-Who's' family who had to allow his mum to inherit, because there wasn't anyone else of the blood, but generally having only girls in a wizarding family is really bad because the family's name is lost and the magic tied to it is broken. When the Prewetts died, mum could have inherited a lot but they were one of the families that really applied Sangua Regnum."

"Sangua Regnum?" Harry asked, having read about it and curious to know what living wizards would add to what he'd learned from his birthday present from Neville.

"Yes," Remus said quietly, The Blood Rule. It ensures that property stays in the family name. Usually, if it's a choice between giving property to witches or wizards who don't have the family name or turning it over to the community as a whole, the family will hand property to the Ministry. Some young women will remain unmarried if they think they will be able to receive property under the blood rule and wait years or even decades for older male relatives to die. Sirius broke the blood rule in order to ensure that Andromeda would inherit Grimmauld Place and the Black family's fortune but each inheritor has the right to make that decision if they want to. Since his last will was made out just before your parents died and he knew what his cousins had done, Andromeda was the only one of the family who he would let inherit."

"I read about the Sangua Regnum but I didn't really believe it was so strongly enforced," Hermione said, shocked.

"It is," Harry said quietly. "Neville gave me a copy of 'Blood Lines of Wizarding Britain' and it says that the property of most families whose names are lost is given to the ministry or St. Mungo's or Hogwarts."

Hermione's eyes glowed and Harry knew what her next question would be.

"Can I look at your copy of 'Blood Lines of Wizarding Britain' when we get to Hogwarts?" she asked, brightly.

"Nope," said Harry's red-haired shadow. "Those books are enchanted so that only members of the family for whom it was commissioned can read it. Each book is different, highlights different families' accomplishments and shows how each family related to others over time. Only Harry, his wife and any kids that they have will be able to look at Harry's copy."

"Oh," Hermione said, disappointedly.

"Don't feel so bad, Hermione," said Fred, or was it George? "There's a generalized copy in the Hogwarts library. Dad says that the ministry's got one too and that it's the one that they use to determine who is eligible to vote in the Wizarding Council when a new minister is named. The old families can't block a new minister but they can affect the voting if they decide to work together, which they usually do."

"Why are only the old families given specific voting rights?" Hermione demanded, angrily. "After all, there are so few of them compared to the muggleborns and children of muggleborns, not to mention all of the magical beings who are not given any representation at all."

"Don't be stupid, Hermione," said the other twin who had just returned from talking with Lee. "The old families get representation because they founded the ministry and had their right to special representation ensured by the wizarding codicils of the Parliament Acts. You won't have had that from Binns yet, but I'd have thought you'd have read it in some or other by now."

"I started reading about the Ministry last year but more on it's powers and structure rather than on elections. I probably should have since it seems that the Minister violated about fifty rules when he forced those educational decrees through last year."

"He did," Remus agreed from where he stood, barring access to the aisle in which the little group stood. "Of course, he was following sentiment with many of his actions last year, even if he took things further than he should have. Ultimately, it will be his actions against Harry and Hogwarts rather than his attempts to reinforce the laws on pureblood representation and the disenfranchisement of beasts and beings that will bring his Ministry down."

"He actually disenfranchised beings?" Hermione asked, shocked. "House-Elves, Merpeople, Goblins, Veela and Centaurs are just as intelligent as we are and should have representation."

"Maybe so," said the twin that Harry had arbitrarily decided was George.

"But say things like that right now and you'll have even more trouble with 'You-Know-Who's' followers, not to mention many people who haven't decided yet."

"Well, it might just be worth it," Hermione snapped before stalking off.

"I hope she doesn't mean that," said 'George' softly. "Because if she does, we'll have to guard her parents 24 hours a day. Even that might not be enough to keep some of the Death Eaters from trying to kill either her or them."

"But Dumbledore guards me during the summer," Harry objected, thinking that protecting Hermione couldn't be that much harder than guarding him was.

"Yeah," 'George' snorted. "But you've got that special protection at your relatives' house and it's only two months at the most. Hermione's not got that on her side and we'd have to watch her parents until the war was over, and probably a long time after too."

"Right," Harry said, a cold sensation touching him when he realized the possible cost to Hermione that could come from continuing to espouse her beliefs.

*-*-*-

The rest of Harry's time at Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes passed in a blur of explosions, smells and other sensations, some of which Harry was quite sure he'd never be able to describe. He wished that he could have stayed at the shop for the rest of the day but promptly at two o'clock, Remus and Katarina found him and pulled him away from an increasingly angry exchange between Fred, George and Hermione over their request that Harry try to sneak some of their new Belching Biscuits into the common room.

Remus' gentle prompt came just as Hermione was claiming that the biscuits weren't as effective as Zonko's Belch Powder. Distracted by Katarina and Remus' presence though he was, Harry heard George say that it didn't really matter how loud the belching was. Where it happened was the important part and their biscuits could be concealed far more easily than Belch Powder.

"Harry," Remus said softly, "I'm sorry but we've got to go."

"But nothing's happening," Harry objected, knowing that he wouldn't win more time from Remus but hoping he could all the same.

"And that's why we should go now before it does," Remus said, implacably.

"But we've been having so much fun," Ron objected.

"I know," Remus said with a sigh. "But Professor Dumbledore says that he can only guarantee that it would be safe until about now. Professor Dumbledore knows that Voldemort could be aware that Harry has been here. He needs to let word slip that he isn't here anymore."

"Well," Hermione said piously, "if Professor Dumbledore says it's best, then you should definitely go."

"That's what Remus just said," Harry replied with a laugh.

"We'll come along to see you off," Ron said, obviously hoping to give Hermione and his brothers more time to forget their discussion.

"Can't, little bro'," Fred said. "Our sitting room is pretty small for four people as it is so we'd probably better break things up here."

"Right," Ron said disappointedly. "Have a great week until we see you on the train, mate."

"I will," Harry said, deciding not to tell them all the things that he still had to do before school started. Resist a the charms of a full-blood Veela, dodge some spells, figure out his money and practice Occlumency with Dumbledore. It was definitely going to be a tough week.