Just Plain Harry

Chapter 5 In Diagon Alley

When Hermione came back, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, but with her hair still in the braid, Harry told his friends about the conversation with Mad-Eye Moody. Hermione looked uplifted at the thought of more school-work, especially the practical applications, and Ron tried really hard not to seem impressed that he would be tutored by Dumbledore.

"I wonder what about, exactly," he said. "I mean, I doubt You-Know-Who will ever challenge me to a chess game."

Harry had to laugh at that thought, but Hermione took his question seriously.

"Being good at chess might mean you could become a general," she said. "If you're one of those people who can figure out the best places to put our assets, the best battles to fight, that would be a great help to our side."

Ron couldn't think of anything to say to that other than, "Wow!", but Hermione wasn't done yet.

"I wonder who the other students will be. Ginny, at least, I would think, and most likely Fred and George, too, but who else? Guys? What's wrong?"

Harry and Ron were both staring at her as though she had grown two heads.

"Ginny? Why would she need this training? It's too dangerous," Ron said.

"Oh, honestly," Hermione said. "Ron, you have got to get over babying Ginny. You, too, Harry. She's got just as much right to be involved as you do, she's just as smart as you are, and she's a Weasley, so she's in as much danger, if not more. Besides, she's the only person besides Harry who has come in direct contact with Voldemort."

Ron flinched when she said Voldemort's name, but Harry thought about what she said. He supposed she was right, but that didn't mean he liked it. Somehow the thought of Ginny involved with all this made him uncomfortable, especially if she only had to be because of him.

"Did you tell Harry about Ginny's dream?" Hermione asked Ron, who was still sitting wide-eyed.

"What? Oh, yeah..." he said. "Hmm, maybe Ginny does belong...I mean, how else would she have had that dream...I mean, she couldn't have known about all that, could she?"

"All what?" Harry asked.

"Oh. Well, she dreamed about you, probably pretty common, truthfully-"
"Ron!"

"Anyway, you were in the forest, in a clearing. At first, she was sure it was you, but after a bit, she wasn't so sure...she said it was like flickering...first, it was you and then it was someone else who looked like you. And she was there, but it was the same thing, first it was her and then it was someone else with red hair. You were dancing with her - and, by the way, if you ever dance with my sister in the middle of the forest, you'll regret it - okay, Hermione, I'm telling it. While you were dancing, three animals came out of the forest to circle around you...a wolf, a dog, and a rat. Ginny said that she knew she should be scared, but she wasn't, not at all. Then the rat ran away, but the dog went after him and brought him back in his mouth. She couldn't see if it was alive or dead. She said the dream ended after that, but I'm not so sure, because she stopped telling it pretty quick, and she blushed like crazy. All right, Hermione, I'm done."

"Well," Harry said, but then stopped.

"Yeah, there's really only one interpretation of that dream," Hermione said. "I mean the main part, the wolf, dog and rat circling around the two of you. The flickering between you and your dad, and Ginny and your mum, I'm not sure about. But the rest of it could only be Moony, Padfoot, and Wormtail, and there's absolutely no way Ginny could know about them. It's weird."

Harry thought it was weird, too. He didn't know what the flickering people meant, either, and he wasn't really sure he wanted to know. But one thing was certain. He wasn't going to be the only one trained as a Seer. If that dream was any indication, Ginny would be, too.

They couldn't talk about it any more just then, though, because Mrs. Weasley called them down to dinner, and the next morning, they all went to Diagon Alley to get their school things. Seeing Diagon Alley shocked Harry. The Weasleys had all been so cheerful, even Mr. Weasley, Bill, and Percy, who were all exhausted by the time they finally got home the night before, that Harry had almost allowed himself to forget the cloud that hung over the wizarding world. He couldn't forget it in Diagon Alley. Usually, in the week before the start of the Hogwarts term, Diagon Alley was filled with laughing, chattering students getting all their school things and meeting friends that they hadn't seen all summer. The students were still there, but all of them were accompanied by their parents, and no one was laughing.

Harry pulled on Ron and Hermione's arms so that they fell behind the others.

"Why didn't you tell me it was this bad? What's been going on?"

Ron just shook his head, but Hermione said, "But nothing's been going on. The Ministry is still denying Voldemort's return, and there haven't been any attacks." She saw Harry's look of disbelief. "There haven't been, Harry, really."
"Yeah," Ron said. "Dumbledore reckons both sides are gathering strength, Dad says. Probably want to make sure the first attacks actually succeed and are meaningful." Right after he said that, he looked like he wanted to take it back.

"Well, it certainly looks like people believed Dumbledore when he said Voldemort had returned."

"Stop saying the name, Hermione!" Ron said.

"Oh, Ron, don't be ridiculous. You're going to have to get over this. The first thing out of Professor Moody's mouth in our apprentice Auror classes is probably going to be-"

"Constant vigilance," Harry muttered. The other two turned and stared at him, then looked away quickly.

"No," Hermione said, keeping her eyes straight ahead of her. "No, he's going to say that we need to say Voldemort instead of You-Know-Who. It's crazy that everyone's so scared of a name."

"Bet you he doesn't," Ron said.

Hermione sighed. "All right. What do you want to bet?"

Ron just stared at her for a moment, since Hermione never gambled, but then a wicked gleam came into his eyes.

"If he doesn't say that, you have to go to the ball that Mum's been hinting at with me."

Harry and Hermione stared at him. Harry thought for a second that Hermione would burst into tears, but she pulled herself together.

"All right," she said again. "But what do I get if he does say it?"

"Whatever you want," Ron said, waving his hand in the air. "I'll study all day in the library with you, or I'll let you practice charms on me, or-"
"I get the picture," Hermione said. "Okay, it's a deal."

They shook hands gravely, while Harry watched in amazement. Hermione then resumed the interrupted conversation.

"I've never seen so many tense parents. They probably can't wait for September 1st any more than we can," she said, still looking around at everybody.

"Hey, speak for yourself," Ron said, which made Hermione make a face at him, which made him make a face back, which made Harry say, "Knock it off, you two!"
Mrs. Weasley wouldn't let any of them out of her sight, not even Fred and George. So the shop they ended up spending the most time in wasn't the joke shop, or Quality Quidditch Supplies, or even Flourish and Botts. It was Madam Malkin's. Mrs. Weasley decreed that all of them needed new robes, including dress robes, because, "You never know." Harry, remembering the Yule Ball the year before, and the fight Ron and Hermione had had right after it, didn't look at his two friends. He hoped that wouldn't happen again this year. He hoped Ron would ask Hermione to the next ball, even if he lost that silly bet, before anyone else did. And he really hoped that when he asked Cho Chang this time, she would say yes.

Everyone grumbled a bit at Mrs. Weasley, but there was no denying that everyone needed new robes. Fred and George had finally grown a little - they were still short and stocky like Charlie, but they had grown some. And Ron, Harry had noticed the night before, was taller than Bill by this time. Even Harry had grown a couple of inches over the past year. Hermione needed new robes, too, and Mrs. Weasley said she had brought Ginny's measurements. That made Ron look puzzled.

"Why does Ginny need new robes?" he asked. "She hasn't grown any - she's going to be shorter than Harry here."
"There's other ways to grow than up," Mrs. Weasley said.

"Well, she hasn't gotten fat, either," Ron said. "Unless all that Muggle food has gotten to her in the last couple of weeks."

"Oh, Ron," was all Mrs. Weasley had to say to him. Harry had been confused at first, too, but after seeing Hermione trying desperately not to laugh, and hearing Fred and George not even trying, he caught on quick enough. Hermione hadn't been the only one to change over the summer, apparently. Ron still didn't get it, saying, "What is it? How has she grown?" to Hermione so many times that she finally lost control and went off into mad giggles. Ron just stared at her and gave up. Then he thought of something else, and turned to his mother.

"Why are we here, though? Usually...usually, we go to second-hand stores..." His ears turned pink, and Harry didn't think he would want anybody listening in on this conversation, so he went to the fabric counter with Hermione. But he could still hear, and he could tell that Hermione was listening, too.

"Well, your father is getting paid for two jobs, thanks to your help, dear, isn't he?" Mrs. Weasley said.

"Really? Dumbledore's paying him?" Ron said. "I mean...reckon Dad would've done it without being paid, y'know."

Mrs. Weasley smiled at him. "Of course he would have. But Dumbledore insisted, so now I can get my children the clothes I have always wanted to."

"Not maroon," Ron said, which made Harry and Hermione start snickering. They knew how much Ron hated maroon, and how much his mum liked to dress him in it.

Mrs. Weasley sighed. "Not maroon."

"All right," Ron said, bounding over to the fabric counter. He shocked everybody by entering enthusiastically into the decision-making process. He picked out navy blue dress robes for himself, dark green for Harry, and insisted on lavender for Hermione. She wanted to get robes identical in color and fabric to the ones she had worn last year, but Ron wouldn't hear of it, and she finally gave in, so bemused by his even caring that she didn't fight as much as she could have. Fred and George were the only ones who withstood this new Ron - he wanted them to get deep, deep purple, but they insisted on electric blue.

Harry was still laughing at the sight of the twins, flaming-haired and identical to the last freckle, in those shocking robes, when Ron asked him what color he thought Ginny looked best in. To his utter surprise, he blushed.

"Oh, I don't know...blue?" he said, trying not to show how silly he felt. "I don't even remember what she wore last year."

"Honestly, Harry, Ginny looked like an angel in white," Hermione said, glaring at him. "Boys never notice anything like that."

"Hey! I noticed that she wore white," Ron said. "Not that Ginny ever looked like an angel."

"Oh, yeah?" Hermione said. "Well then, what exactly was I wearing?"

Ron's ears got really red at that. He obviously didn't want to think about last year, so Harry stepped in.

"Don't you think a light blue would look good on Ginny?" he asked.

Ron turned gratefully to him, but Hermione glared. Harry sighed. This was gong to be a long year if the two of them didn't cut it out soon.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Chapter 6 A Visit from Sirius Black

The next couple of days passed uneventfully at the Burrow. Harry and Ron played Quidditch, Ron and Hermione fought, and they all studied a little. Hermione studied more, of course, but she was able to convince Harry and Ron to do a little work.

"Think of all the extra work we're going to have this year, with the Auror training and the extra classes! Not to mention that we take the O.W.L.s at the end of the year. You don't want to fall behind before we even get there."
Harry groaned, and Ron called her crazy, but she had a point, so they did study some. But they also played lots of Quidditch and chess, and just plain talked. It was the most fun Harry had had in a long time, and he tried to enjoy every second of it.

One evening, the whole family - plus Harry and Hermione, but minus Ginny - was sitting around the dinner table, teasing Fred. Mrs. Weasley was planning a huge dinner for the last night before they all left for Hogwarts, and Fred had invited Angelina Johnson. Harry, Ron and Hermione couldn't stop teasing him about it, though they liked Angelina. Everyone did; she was a chaser on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, really smart, and loads of fun. Just the thought of Fred with a girlfriend, though, kept them snickering throughout the meal.

Everyone stopped laughing, though, when a huge black dog bounded into the room, put its paws on Harry's chair, and growled at him. Pandemonium ensued, but that was nothing to what happened when the dog disappeared with a pop, and Sirius Black stood there, glaring at Harry. Fred and George lept to their feet and pulled out their wands, Percy gave a huge yell, Mrs. Weasley gave a little shriek before she could muffle it, and even Ron and Hermione looked stunned. They had no idea why Sirius would act like that.

Harry did, though, so it was no surprise when Sirius began to yell at him.

"How could you not tell me, what were you thinking? You told Dumbledore, did you think I wouldn't want to know? I want to know everything about you, Harry, and especially when your scar hurts and you have dreams like that! Gods, Harry, how am I supposed to help you if you hold out on me?"

Harry just sat there, opening and closing his mouth, not sure what to say.

Mr. Weasley, though, tried to calm Sirius down.

"It's okay, Sirius, he's okay, we're all okay. You were in the field, maybe Harry couldn't get an owl to you-"

"And you!" Sirius yelled, turning on Mr. Weasley. "You knew - and you didn't tell me! Some friends I've got. Don't you realize what this means?"
Before Mr. Weasley could answer, though, Harry jumped up out of his chair and turned on him.

"You knew? You knew and you let Ginny go to those Muggles with no protection? How could you? I thought you didn't know, I was trying to figure out how to tell you that your whole family is in danger because of me, and all the time you were letting your only daughter step into a trap, maybe, and-" he broke off at the sight of Mr. Weasley's face. He took one look at Mrs. Weasley, and fled the room.

Half an hour later, Harry heard the door to Ron's room open.

"I don't want to talk right now, Ron," he said.

"Well, you're going to have to, Harry," Mr. Weasley said, shutting the door behind him and sitting on Ron's bed.

Harry turned over, sat up, and glared at Mr. Weasley. He supposed that he should apologize for yelling at him down there - he was a guest in this house, after all. But he didn't feel at all like apologizing. So he just glared. Mr. Weasley sighed.

"Harry, do you plan on having kids?"

That was probably the last thing Harry had expected him to say. "I suppose...eventually...I'd like a family, yeah."

"Well, then, when you do, you'll find out that probably the second most difficult thing as a parent is seeing your children in danger. The first is realizing when they're old enough to decide to put themselves into that danger."

After a moment, Harry realized what Mr. Weasley was saying. "She knows," he said.

"She knows. We had to tell her, because she was so insistent on going, and we always try to have good reasons for denying our children things. Then, too, Dumbledore had asked us if we would consider letting her be..."

"Bait."

Mr. Weasley gave him a small smile. "That's just what she said. She agreed to do it immediately, of course." He must have noticed the horrified look on Harry's face, because he continued, "Please don't think she's doing this for you. I mean, she's fond of you...we're all fond of you, and she might have done it for someone she cared about, or she might have done it in cold blood for The Boy Who Lived, but she didn't have to. Ginny has a very well developed sense of right and wrong, and she would do this for someone she didn't even know. Then, too, she knows exactly what evil we are all facing - she's faced it herself."

Harry thought about that, and remembered Hermione saying that Ginny's "the only person besides Harry who has come in direct contact with Voldemort." She was right, and he could certainly understand Ginny wanting to fight that evil any way she could. It was what he wanted to do, after all. He still meant to have a talk with her - there was no reason why she had to throw herself into danger, just for him. He wasn't worth it.

"So...do the rest of them know?" Harry said. "About the dream, and what it means?"

"Well, they certainly do now," Mr. Weasley said, chuckling ruefully. "But, no, we hadn't told them before. There was no real reason to, we wouldn't have done anything any differently."

"And Ginny has protection, right? There's people there - Aurors, or something?"

"Oh, yes, Ginny's probably safer than the rest of us. Or than we were before Alastor came. And that's because of you, Harry. If you hadn't come to visit us, we would already be in danger, but wouldn't have the extra protection. So don't go thinking that this is all your fault."

Harry couldn't think of anything to say to that. He didn't go back downstairs, though he knew he should go talk to Sirius. He just didn't want to face Ron and Hermione, now that they knew how much danger they were in, all because he cared about them. He should have told them before, and he knew it, but he had wanted to put off them knowing as long as he could. So he stayed up in Ron's room, and when Ron came up to go to bed, Harry pretended he was asleep.

He was wakened the next morning by Pigwidgeon flapping around and around his head. He had a letter attached to his leg, which Harry groggily opened. But then he saw "Dear Hermione," in a small, firm hand. It took a moment for him to recognize it, and another for him to realize that he shouldn't be reading Ginny's letter to Hermione. Why had Pig delivered it to him? He snapped it shut, but not before seeing his name on the page.

Looking down at the letter in his hand, Harry let out a small groan. He shouldn't read it - he wouldn't read it. But if he wasn't going to, he'd better take it to Hermione immediately. He didn't think his resolution would hold out very long. With a quick glance at Ron, still sleeping peacefully, Harry slipped out of the room and went to knock softly on Hermione's door.

"Who is it?"

"It's Harry, Hermione. Can I come in? I have something I'd better give you."

He heard a quick scrambling around, but then Hermione opened the door for him to come in. She was wearing slippers, and a bathrobe over her nightgown, and she sat on the bed, looking at him curiously.

"Pig delivered this to me by mistake," Harry said, holding the letter out to her. Her eyes widened when she realized who it was from, and she raised an eyebrow at him.

"I didn't read it," Harry said. She just looked at him. "But I was tempted," he added.

Hermione laughed. "Okay, I believe you that you didn't read it. Do you mind if I do right now? Ginny might need an answer, but I want to talk to you afterwards."

"Okay," Harry said, though he wasn't sure he wanted to hear what she had to say, if it was about last night. He sat down on the desk chair and looked around. He had never been in Ginny's room before, and didn't really know what he had expected. But it looked quite normal - no frills or ruffles, just neat and comfortable. The bedspread was white with a blue pattern, and the small fluffy rug was the same blue. The only unusual thing about the room was the number of candles scattered around. There was at least one on every surface, and Harry, staring in amazement, said the first thing that came into his head.

"Is Ginny afraid of the dark, or something?"

Hermione looked up from the letter. "No," she said. "But I'd advise you to ask her yourself about the candles. I'm not going to tell her secrets. But," she added, smiling slightly. "I am going to tell you what she said about you in her letter, since I'm pretty sure you saw your name."

Harry grinned at her, and didn't deny it.

"She said, "I'm glad Harry is being so sympathetic about you and Ron," Hermione said.

"Sympathetic? Me?"

"Yes, you. You're helping a lot." Hermione looked down at the letter, but she didn't seem to be seeing it.

"Oh, Hermione," Harry said, leaning forward. "It'll work out. Ron can't ignore something like this forever."

"Can't he? He's very good at -"
Just then, Ron's voice could be heard through the door. "Hermione? Are you in there? Harry's not in his bed, and I'm worried about him."

"Ron, come on in," Hermione said, quickly hiding Ginny's letter and wiping her eyes.

But when Ron saw Harry, his expression changed from incredulous surpise to anger.

"What are you doing here?" he said.

Harry leaned back in his chair and grinned at him.

"This is what I do - visit girls in their rooms early in the morning. You'd just better get used to it."

Hermione said, "Harry!", but Ron's fists unclenched and he laughed.

"All right, you don't have to tell me," he said. He looked around for a place to sit, saw nothing but what was already taken, and plopped down next to Hermione.

"Don't be silly, Ron," Hermione said. "Pig delivered Ginny's letter to Harry by mistake, so he brought it to me."

"Really," Ron said, drawing out the word. "So, what did it say?"

Harry just grinned at Ron. "I didn't read it."

"Whaddya mean, of course you read it," Ron said, but then he looked at Harry again. "You really didn't, did you? Mr. Heroic doesn't want to tarnish his reputation." He shook his head.

Hermione opened her mouth, probably to demand to know if Ron would have read the letter, but Harry didn't want to watch them fight right now.

"So, what did you want to talk to me about, Hermione?" he asked.

"Oh," she said, shooting another look at Ron, but allowing herself to be distracted. "I've been writing to Professor Lupin."

"Really?" Harry said. "What about?"

"Well, I wanted to know what it was like, going to school the last time Voldemort coming to power. I thought he might have some ideas about how to deal with it."
Even Ron was interested now. "Did he?"

Hermione shook her head. "He said that it was completely different from our situation. Sure, Voldemort was out there then, but he wasn't about to attack Hogwarts, and he wasn't targetting anyone specific in their group of friends. They had to worry about their families, of course." Here, she stopped and swallowed before going on. "But there wasn't the worry that..."

"That Voldemort would risk everything just to get one of them. And now, maybe, all of them," Harry said, bowing his head. He hadn't wanted to talk about it, but he knew that wasn't an option.

"Yeah," Ron said. He and Hermione exchanged a look, then he continued. "Actually, I'm kinda glad this has happened."
"What?" Harry said, snapping his head up to glare at his friend.

"See, now you know how we have felt ever since we became friends with you," Hermione said, her words tumbling out as though she had wanted to say this for a long time, and wasn't going to let anyone stop her now that she had started. "You've always been in danger, Harry. First year we thought it was Professor Snape, then second year was the Chamber of Secrets, then third year it was Sirius, and last year the Triwizard Tournament. We're always in this constant worry about you, and it's been hard, Harry, so hard..."
"So...you don't mind that I didn't tell you about the dream? I just couldn't..."
"Well, we do mind, actually," Ron said. "If you ever keep something like that back from us again, I don't know what we'll do to you, but we'll probably get Fred and George's help, so don't even think about it." He couldn't help grinning as he said this, but Harry could tell that he was serious.

"But we understand, Harry," Hermione said. "We know all about wanting to protect your friends, because that's how we feel about you. We want to do this together, though, no secrets, no keeping back things to protect us. Or you. Or..oh, you know what I mean."

Ron laughed, and Harry laughed with him. "Yeah, all for one and one for all, that's us."

"Ron!" Hermione said, finally laughing, too. "When did you read The Three Musketeers? It's a Muggle book."

"Ah, you forget that I'm now an important Ministry official, having to do all sorts of things that I don't want to, even reading -"

He was cut off as Hermione threw a pillow at him, and the three of them got up to get ready for the last day of the holiday. But as they clowned around, teasing each other, and feeling their friendship as an almost tangible thing, Harry still felt that something was missing.

No, someone was missing.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~