Someone Like Me

Someone Like Me

"Harry! Oh, Harry, I'm so glad you're finally here!" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed as she bustled down the long, dark hallway of Number Twelve Grimmauld Place toward Harry. She threw her arms around him.

"Mum, Mum, let him breathe!" George exclaimed as he came though the door, Harry's trunk floating in front of him.

Mrs. Weasley ignored him. "Come, Harry. Ron and Hermione are in the kitchen. They'll be so happy to see you."

As he followed Mrs. Weasley down to the kitchen, he noticed that Number Twelve Grimmauld Place had changed greatly since he had last been there. The screaming portrait of Mrs. Black had finally been removed from the wall, the horrible troll-leg umbrella stand was gone, replaced by a sunny blue one with large pink flowers, and, though still dark, the hallway seemed more cheerful somehow. The only negative change was the absence of Sirius. The house seemed different without him; somehow quieter, even if he had never been very loud. It was only two weeks into summer holidays, he had only been in the house five minutes, and suddenly Harry couldn't wait to get back to Hogwarts, couldn't wait to start his sixth year. It was to hard to be in a place so filled with Sirius and know that he would never be there. However, that feeling of quiet was shattered as Harry and Mrs. Weasley entered the kitchen. Ron and Hermione were standing next to the table, red in the face and shouting at the top of their lungs.

"I've told you a million times, keep that bloody cat out of my room!" Ron shouted.

"I can't stop him from going anywhere! Maybe you should try locking your door like you always did to poor Kreacher!" Hermione countered.

"'Poor Kreacher?!' Kreacher went blabbing Order secrets to Narcissa Malfoy, in case you've forgotten! I'm glad he's finally kicked it, now maybe we can have a summer without 'spew.'"

"It's S.P.E.W.! Anyway, this hasn't got anything to do with Kreacher!"

"You're the one that brought it up!"

Hermione ignored him. "What has Crookshanks ever done to you? Last time you thought he was evil, he was the only one that knew Scabbers was actually Peter Pettigrew, wasn't he?"

"I don't think he was saving was from anything, Hermione, unless Flying with the Cannons was planning to kill us! Anyway, it can't now! It's ripped to shreds all over my bedroom!"

"Maybe now you'll read something worthwhile!"

Harry let out a snort of laughter he'd been suppressing since he had first walked in on the fight. Ron and Hermione started at the sound and looked toward the door.

"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed, running over and hugging him. "I'm glad you finally came! I got here about a week ago, but it's been a bit difficult around here." She glanced darkly at Ron.

Just then Ron ambled over, still glaring at Hermione. "Hullo, mate," he said, slapping Harry hard on the back. "Glad you could make it. I told Mum and Dad to save you from the Muggles about a week and a half ago but apparently last time we came to get you it gave them such a fright that Dad wanted to arrange a car this time. Now that Dumbledore's back in with the Ministry they were more than happy to loan us one."

Harry grinned. "Yeah, Uncle Vernon was much keener on having your father pull drive in a car than come out of their fireplace. But it really hasn't been that bad. They've been scared silly Moody would show up if they were too horrible to me."

Ron laughed. "Come on, let's go up to our room." Harry followed Ron back out of the kitchen, down the hall, and up the stairs to the bedroom that he and Harry and shared the previous summer. "Sorry for the mess," Ron said, once again glaring at Hermione, who blushed.

Indeed, bits of paper littered everything in the room, from the two single beds to the seemingly-blank picture which hung on the wall. Harry knew that the actual occupant of that frame spent most of his time in Professor Dumbledore's office at Hogwarts, coming to Gimmauld Place only when asked to check in on things there.

"Oh, really," Hermione said behind him. She elbowed past him and surveyed the mess. "It's not that bad." At that moment, Mrs. Weasley walked by the door. "Excuse me," Hermione said, flagging her down. "Could you help us? Ron claims Crookshanks tore up his book, and we're not allowed magic, you know."

"What do you mean 'claims?' That cat's mad!"

"Of course I'll help, dear!" Mrs. Weasley said loudly, hoping to stop another row. She took a step into the room, pulling out her wand. "Scourgify!" she said. The bits of paper disappeared instantly.

"Thank you," Hermione said. She cast on more glance toward Ron and followed Mrs. Weasley out of the room with her nose in the air.

She's been unbearable," Ron said as she left, shaking his head. He closed the door and then sat down on his bed. Harry sat down across from him. "She's really been that bad?" he asked.

"Yeah, her and that stupid cat of hers. And she's been going on about O.W.L.s the whole time. I hope they arrive soon just so she'll shut-up." Ron answered.

"So who's been around lately?" Harry said, hoping to change the subject.

"Lupin is here most of the time, and Tonks and Moody have been 'round loads, too. Do you know who else is coming soon, to stay the rest of the summer?" Ron said, a mischievous glint reaching his eyes as he said the last part.

"Who?" Harry asked, bored. He was only trying to keep Ron of the subject of Hermione.

"Kenzie Townsen," Ron said, grinning.

"Kenzie Townsen?!" Harry exclaimed. His stomach flopped just as it had the first time Harry had seen Kenzie. She had been sitting alone on a couch in front of the fire in the Gryffindor common room, reading from a large book that lay open in her lap. It had only been a few days after the night Sirius had died, and while Harry was still in a state of shock, her beauty had not been lost on him. He had sat watching the light from the fire dance over her smooth skin and long curtain of rich auburn hair, setting her emerald eyes ablaze. Finally he had nudge Ginny and asked who she was. "Oh, that's Kenzie Townsen," she had replied. "She's in my year, but she doesn't have many friends. Her parents were killed by You-Know-Who, so she lives with her grandmother now. People used to pester her about it quite a lot, so she always keeps to herself. Seems a bit like you really," she had added thoughtfully. Had Harry not have been so overwhelmed with grief, maybe he would have gone over and talked to her, but at the time he had not. He had just sat and watched her for a while.

While Harry had been at the Durnsley's, they had ignored him as much as possible -which had not upset him in the least-, so Harry had spent much time in his room. After finally overcoming his grief, Harry had spent most of his time with his thoughts dwelling on Kenzie's face, wishing he would have talked to her. And now she was coming to Grimmauld Place.

"Ermm, why is she coming?" Harry asked, trying not the sound too interested, even though he had told Ron about her weeks ago.

"Apparently, her father was mates with my dad when they were at Hogwarts. When Hermione mentioned her the other night at dinner..."

"Wait, how did Hermione find out about her? And why were you discussing my love life at dinner?" Harry asked angrily.

Ron's ears turned bright red. "You know Hermione; she could get a secret out of a brick wall if she thought it had one. And we weren't discussing your love life at dinner, Mum had just said..."

"Never mind," Harry interrupted him. "Why is she coming?"

"Oh, right," Ron said. "Her father was an old friend of Dad's so Dad got to thinking about old Oliver -that's her dad- and decided to pop over there and see how Oliver's mother was doing since her son died. Dad said she had always been like a second mother to him. Well, when he got there, somewhere between all the reminiscing old Mrs. Townsen talked about You-Know-You, so when Dad got back he asked Dumbledore if Mrs. Townsen could join the Order if she wanted, or if he could at least tell her about it. Of course, Dumbledore is always looking for new members, so he went over there to see her personally. He knew she was trustworthy, of course. Her own son and daughter-in-law had been killed by You-Know-Who. Mrs. Townsen even works for the Department of Mysteries, which is a good place to have someone inside of. The Ministry finally trusts Dumbledore again but he doesn't want Fudge to know about the Order, so he still wants to have as many members of the Order as possible inside the Ministry. Anyway, now Mrs. Townsen and Kenzie are coming to live here for the summer."

"When's she coming?" Harry asked.

"They're supposed to be here next week. This is finally your chance to talk to her," Ron said, grinning.

Harry blushed. "It's nothing like that.... I just... she... I just thought..." he stammered.

"You don't have to prove anything to me, mate. But you did come up talking about her that night, you know," Ron replied.

Harry blushed. "Well... errr... yeah...." He was saved having to answer Ron by Mrs. Weasley, who suddenly yelled up the stairs. "Harry, Ron, time for dinner!"

Harry eagerly jumped up off the bed and walked out of the room. When he reached the kitchen, Ron close behind him, he found the ciaos that he had come to know the previous summer ensuing as usual. Mrs. Weasley stood stirring a large cauldron over a fire, Ginny and Hermione were getting butterbeers for everyone, Fred and George were levitating a stack of plates to the table, and Lupin, Mundungus, and Mr. Weasley were sitting at the table.

"Do you need any help, Mrs. Weasley?" Harry offered.

"Oh, no, dear, it's your first night here! You just sit down," she said. "But Ron," she added as he made to sit down with Harry, "you can get the forks and knives."

Ron sighed and went to get the silverware as Harry sat down next to Lupin. "Harry!" Remus greeted him warmly. "I've been so excited for you to get here. I hated to leave you with those Muggles, you know."

Harry smiled. "I know. Don't worry, I think you scared them at King's Cross enough that they left me alone."

"Good, good. I was hoping it would be that way," he replied.

Just then, Mrs. Weasley passed behind them, ladling stew into the bowls that Fred and George had set in front of each person.

"Alright, everyone, dig in!" she said as she sat down next to Mr. Weasley. Everyone eagerly began eating the warm stew.

"Oh Harry, did Ron tell you that Kenzie Townsen and her grandmother were coming to stay tomorrow?" Hermione asked.

Harry choked into his stew. "T-tomorrow?" he coughed.

"Of course," she answered.

"He said they weren't coming until next week!"

"Of course he did," Hermione said, glaring at Ron.

"Hey, what does that mean?" Ron said angrily.

"It means, Ron, that you have never been very good at remembering anything."

"Just because I'm not top in the year, like some people, Hermione, does not mean that I can't remember anything!" Ron said hotly, his ears turning red.

Feeling another long argument coming on, Harry turned to Ginny. "So, Kenzie's coming," she said, raising an eyebrow.

Harry blushed. "Why does everyone keep reminding me of that?" he asked.

"Well, it's just that last year when you saw her in the common room that night, you just seemed... interested," she said, sounding slightly embarrassed.

"Well, it's just that she's, rather pretty you know, looks kind of like my mum actually. And... well... errr...." Harry said, rather embarrassed himself. He turned back to his plate and stayed quiet for the rest of the meal, trying, like everyone else at the table, to ignore Ron and Hermione's shouting next to him. He was relieved when Mrs. Weasley announced that it was time for everyone to go up to bed half an hour later.

He led the way up the stairs to his bedroom, Ron and Hermione still feuding behind him. "Well, good night, Hermione!" he yelled over the shouting as he reached to the door to the bedroom he shared with Ron.

Hermione looked angrily at Harry for a moment and then turned to Ron. "Well, good night to you, Ronald," she said and turned up another flight of stairs, disappearing from sight.

"She's mad! She's completely mad!" Ron said as he stormed into the room and closed the door. He angrily pulled on his pajamas and climbed into bed. Harry stifled a laugh as he changed and climbed into bed, too, shutting off the light. He lay in bed and listened to Ron muttering angrily in the bed next to him. He felt slightly ashamed at how excited he was about Kenzie coming the following day.

Sure, she's beautiful, and yes, her past is a bit like mine, but really.... He thought. After all, he had never even spoken to her, and had only noticed her the last week of the past year, after she had been there for four years. But in spite of himself, Harry was excited, and for the first time in weeks, he fell asleep amid happy thoughts of the coming day.