Eh hehe... uh, hi there! So this isn't super late, right? It's only been uh *looks*... two months... he he.

I got distracted! I'm soooo sorry! It's Hetaoni's fault! Darn you Steve!

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Nor do I own D. Gray-Man, which is probably a good thing, because then it would never be updated.

Harry, Hermione, and Ron had been in Ron's room for nearly an hour, discussing the Order, Voldemort's plans, and most of all, the mysterious Lavi. Frustration could be seen on all of their faces, especially Harry's, who had already been annoyed for the length of the summer. No matter how much they thought and talked, no one could seem to come to any real conclusions about, well, anything. Hermione was wishing for the school library, and Ron was clearly sick of the entire topic. They had been just about to come to blows, or at least a yelling match, when there was a knock on the door.

"Ron, Harry, are you in there?" It was Mrs. Weasley. Ron, Harry and Hermione looked at each other, a little bit wary, before Ron answered, "Yeah, we're here Mum."

Mrs. Weasley pushed open the door the peeling door, and walked into the room, looking disapproving of the mess scattered about. Which really wasn't fair, Harry thought, as most of it had been there before they came. He then realized that he was preparing arguments for a confrontation that hadn't happened, which was ridiculous, and put his mind back to Mrs. Weasley.

She stepped further into the room, looking behind herself, and saying "Now, don't be shy dear, come on!" Lavi stepped into the doorway behind her, surreptitiously clutching his shoulder, and looking the furthest thing from shy, though perhaps a bit abashed. Harry noticed that the torn and filthy jacket he'd had on at breakfast was gone, leaving only a slightly less torn and filthy green shirt beneath it. He had not, however, abandoned his long, red scarf, even with the temperature in the house beginning to rise as the day began.

Mrs. Weasley looked at Ron. "Lavi needs something to wear until I have the chance to go out shopping." Lavi began to protest that she didn't have to, but she cut him off, saying "Nonsense dear. It's certainly not your fault you ended up here, and I would feel just terrible if you had to go around wearing that all the time." She gave his filthy clothes a disgusted look. "Although… they might have to be second hand. What with school coming…" she trailed off, clearly thinking to herself of how to pay for it all.

Harry always felt guilty when it was brought up how poor the Weasleys really were. What with the piles of gold his parents had left him, and his friends often second hand books and clothing, he thought that it was not quite fair. But although they needed the gold far more than him, Harry knew that the Weasleys would never, ever accept any he tried to give them.

"Anyway" Mrs. Weasley had snapped herself out of her thoughts. "I thought that some of Ron's things would fit well enough for the time being!" She looked at Ron, who stared back blankly for a moment, before saying "Oh, right!" and diving for his trunk.

His digging quickly produced some of the Muggle clothes that all of the Weasley children wore during the holidays. "You can try this stuff, mate." He handed a rather rumpled pile of clothes to Lavi, carefully avoiding his mother's eye. Mrs. Weasley, however, didn't say anything about the state of the clothes, and turned to Lavi, saying "Go ahead and try them on. I'll wait outside. Come on Hermione." She carefully, but firmly pulled Hermione out the door, shutting it behind her.

Lavi turned to Ron, eyebrow's raised, and smirking a bit. "Got you on quite a short leash, hasn't she?"

"Oh, shut up." Ron's face had turned red.

Lavi just chuckled, and began to remove his long scarf, and shirt. Harry didn't want to look, because that was rude, and more than a little awkward, staring at another guy shirtless, but he couldn't help but have his eyes caught by the dozens of scars across Lavi's back and arms. They ranged from thin cuts to massive blotchy patches of what looked like burns, to one that looked suspiciously like a gunshot wound. Not all of them were old and healed either. There were several scrapes, cuts and bruises that looked very recent, not to mention the bloody bandages across his left shoulder.

Harry looked at Ron, who looked back at him with wide eyes. How on earth could someone just a little older than them have gotten hurt this much? Before either of them had a chance to say anything, Lavi had pulled on a faded black T-shirt, saying "What's this shirt made of? I've never felt anything so stretchy before."

"Er," Ron looked back at Lavi, trying to pretend he hadn't just been freaked out by Lavi's scars. "I dunno. It's just a regular old Muggle shirt."

Lavi stared at Ron for a moment, clearly confused, before shrugging it off and finishing changing. He didn't comment on the jeans, and pulled his own boots back on over the top. Harry noticed him inconspicuously tie a little black pouch around his leg, which he thought was a rather odd place to keep something.

"There!" Lavi exclaimed, after throwing the scarf back around his neck. "Not bad, eh?" To be honest, he looked a little ridiculous in the long scarf and t-shirt, with Ron's pants, which were too long, bunched up around his legs, but Harry refrained from commenting.

Mrs. Weasley pushed open the door upon hearing Lavi's shout. "Ah, that's much better, isn't it?" She also ignored the fact that the newcomer looked a little strange, but then again, perhaps she just didn't get muggle fashion. "That should do for today. We'll all be going to Diagon Alley when your letters arrive, so Lavi can just borrow some clothes until then." She looked quite satisfied with this arrangement, and after making sure that Lavi was also pleased (though Harry thought that she didn't really leave him a chance voice his own thoughts) she left to do…whatever it was she did when she wasn't mothering.

"So…" Lavi looked at the other three teenagers "what letters?"

Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked at each other, rather unsure if they should be telling this stranger about Hogwarts.

"Well…" Hermione began slowly, glancing back at the boys again "Our supply lists for our school. Classes will be starting again soon, so…" she trailed off, unsure of how to continue.

"What school is that? Hogwarts is the magical school for Britain, isn't it?" He looked rather innocent, but his comments instantly sent Harry's brain into overdrive. Not only was he a muggle who knew about magic, he knew about Hogwarts! And possibly other magical schools, by the way he spoke.

"Yeah, but how'd you know about that, mate? I thought you were a muggle?" Hermione elbowed Ron for his comments.

"Well, I am, or at least I think I am. But like I said, it's my job to know these things!" Harry thought he looked far to pleased with himself at this.

"But, it's supposed to be a secret." Hermione protested "There are laws about telling muggles, and the statute of secrecy, and spells to keep people from seeing it!"

"Ah, but I'm not a regular old person, now am I?" If anything, Lavi looked even more smug. Harry would have laughed at how annoyed Hermione looked, if he weren't quite so annoyed himself.

"Hang on." A thought had just occurred to Harry "What are you going to do when we all go off to school? I mean, are they just going to leave you here with Sirus, or what?" Hermione and Ron looked startled by this thought, and looked at Lavi, who just shrugged.

"I dunno. I don't think your order people have decided what to do with me. But somehow I don't think they'll just let me go off on my own. I know to much." He looked delighted again, in a practiced way, as if he often knew too much. Somehow, Harry wouldn't be surprised if he did.

Nearly a week had passed since the arrival of Lavi. All of the others living in 12 Grimmauld place had become rather accustomed to having him around. Fred and George especially seemed to like him for his penchant for pranking. He was also quite helpful for spying on order meeting, once you could get him to be quiet. Despite this, no one had really learned much more about him, other than the fact that he had a best friend named Kanda and loved steak. No one had even managed to get his last name. He still claimed not to have one.

On the very last day of the holidays Harry was sweeping up Hedwig's owl droppings from the top of the wardrobe and having a rather meaningless conversation with Lavi when Ron entered the bedroom that he, Harry, and Lavi had all been sharing, while carrying a couple of envelopes.

"Booklists have arrived," he said, throwing one of the envelopes to Harry. "About time, I thought they'd forgotten, they usually come much earlier than this… Oh, and mum said she wanted to talk to you downstairs." He gestured towards Lavi.

Lavi put the stack of books he had been looking through back on Harry's bed, stretched, and meandered out of the room. Harry had already opened his letter, and looked through his list of books for the year when Fred and George apperated right beside him. He was so used to them doing this by now that he didn't even fall off his chair.

"So, any idea what'll happen to that Lavi bloke now that we're going off to school?" said Fred conversationally.

"'Cause staying here with just Sirius seems a bit…dull." George added. Fred an Harry grimaced a bit at this. Sirius had become quite gloomy during the last week, after realizing that all of his company couldn't stay forever. Being stuck with just him and the occasional order member didn't sound particularly appealing to Harry.

"I wonder if Dumbledore has figured out how to send him home yet." said Harry, feeling a bit put out that Dumbledore was probably spending more time worrying about Lavi than him, then realized that this made his sound like a selfish brat. He was contemplating this idea when Fred spoke again.

"What's up with you, Ron?"

Ron did not answer. Harry looked around. Ron was standing very still, with his mouth slightly open, gaping at his letter from Hogwarts.

"What's the matter?" said Fred impatiently, moving around Ron to look over his shoulder at the parchment.

Fred's mouth fell open too.

"Prefect?" He said, staring incredulously at the letter "Prefect?"

"Hold on" Lavi had returned. He stood on tiptoe to stare over Fred and Ron's shoulders at the letter. "What's a prefect?"

It had taken almost an hour to get everything sorted out, the concept of prefects explained to Lavi, and the twins off of Ron's back. Hermione, as it turned out, had been made a prefect to, and could not have been more excited. She had dashed off to send a letter to her parents, taking Hedwig with her.

Harry, Ron and Lavi now sat alone in their room, while Harry and Ron tried to collect their vastly scattered possessions. Lavi seemed to have the magical ability to keep all of his things in one place, though perhaps that was because he didn't have very many things. He was still borrowing Ron's clothes, and didn't seem to have any personal possessions other than the little pouch he always kept strapped to his leg.

"So," Ron said finally, "what're you going to do now, mate?" he looked at Lavi. Harry stopped packing, to listen.

Lavi took a moment to figure out what he meant, then his face brightened. "That's right! I have special "express permission" or something from your school. I'm coming with you guys, as a foreign exchange student or something." He seemed to think that this was pretty amusing. "That McGonagall lady said a lot of stuff about, 'unique opportunity' and 'wonderful experience for Hogwarts', and a bunch of other crap." He smirked and tapped his nose "I'm pretty sure it means they want to keep and eye on me, ya' know?"

"So they're letting you come?" Ron looked excited. "That's great!

"Brilliant!" added Harry, who had come to like the quirky, friendly redhead over the last week. A thought occurred to him "What year are you going to be in? You're a bit older than us, aren't you?"

"Yeah," Lavi nodded "but I've only read up to fifth year material, and any age difference can be chalked up to me being 'foreign'".

Harry's mouth dropped open, and he glanced at Ron, who looked equally shocked. He had read the material for the last four years? All of it? But it had only been a week!

Harry's old feeling of worry resurfaced as he stared at Lavi. There was something beneath his happy demeanor that just wasn't…. normal.

A/N: seriously you guys, thanks so much for all of the review, and for being patient with me. I love you all so much! :D

And to everyone who keeps seeing Hetalia references; get a grip you obsessed fan people! ;D They weren't there on purpose! (It's my subconscious. It think's in Nation-tans. Just pretend I meant to do that.)

Please review!