Disclaimer: Characters and locations of the Harry Potter novel series are the sole creation of JK Rowling. This work is produced solely for the amusement of the author and any who read it and is not intended for monetary gain.

Harry Potter and the Fire of Eternity

Chapter 5: An Eventful Summer

"Weatherby!" Ron chuckled as he, Harry, Hermione and Ginny made their way away from the Weasley tent, toward one of the many vendors popping into the crowded campground. Luna had excused herself just before dinner, but not before promising to visit in the time between the world cup and the start of term.

"I feel a bit sorry for him," Hermione said between giggles.

Harry nodded in agreement. Weatherby had been a name that Barty Crouch, the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, had created on the spot when he couldn't remember Percy's name. His attention was quickly taken, though, by the various goods offered by one of the newly arrived vendors. He marveled at the assortment of quidditch paraphernalia, all offered in either Irish green or Bulgarian red, to suit any fan's taste.

"Been waiting all summer for this," Ron exclaimed as he perused the goods on display.

"Remember what Mum says," Ginny warned as she looked around excitedly, gripping her money bag tightly.

"Look everything over before buying," Ron responded in monotone with a weary sigh. Harry laughed, then proceeded to ask the vendor what each of the various knick-knacks were, in part to satisfy his own curiosity, as well as the foreign curiosity that settled in after catching the burning piece of wood earlier.

"What are these?" Harry asked as he held up a pair of brass binoculars with various knobs, buttons, dials and switches adorning them.

"Omnioculars!" Ron exclaimed, before turning his money bag over and emptying the contents into his hand. "Bugger," he muttered sourly with a frown, "three sickles off."

"Tell me what they are," Harry said, "and I'll cover those three sickles." Harry pulled out three sickles from his pouch and handed them to Ron.

"Like their name," Ron said, accepting the money from Harry, "they're like binoculars, but instead of just making things closer, you can play it slower, backward, replay…" He held a pair up to his eyes. "Whoa, these ones look like they even have a play-by-play!" Ron quickly handed his coins to the vendor, who stowed them in his pouch with a swift and practiced motion.

Harry handed the man 10 galleons for his own pair only to turn and see Ginny frowning while looking from the coins in her hand to the stacks of omnioculars. Harry couldn't keep a self-satisfied smile from his face as he fished out 20 more galleons and bought two more pair, one for Ginny and Hermione each.

The girls accepted the gift easily, though Ginny was as red as the Bulgarian pennants as she did so.

"Oi," Ron said, though there was no heat behind it, "how come they get a pair each for free!"

"They haven't kept me up all night with their snoring," Harry returned with a lopsided grin. Ron swatted at him, though Harry deftly avoided the faux attack. The group was working their way back to the Weasley lot when a deep gong rang out across the fields.

"Hurry along!" Mr. Weasley shouted to them. "The match is about to begin!" The four teens picked up the pace from a slow, meandering walk to a brisk jog as they passed the lot to catch up to the older Weasleys.

The group moved quickly through the forest behind their lot. Though they moved swiftly, the walk through the forest still took a fair bit of time. The trek did little to quash their spirits. Even Mr. Weasley couldn't help himself from the boisterously loud banter. Jokes, predictions, and good natured insults were thrown about as they moved, gaining energy as they did so.

They finally passed through the opposite side of the forest to an immense clearing. Situated in the middle of the clearing was easily the largest stadium Harry had ever seen. A small village would have fit inside, if he had to guess. The golden walls of the massive structure stretched so high that they seemed to lean over Harry as he craned his neck back to look at the top.

"Quickly, son," Mr. Weasley called to Harry, who had fallen behind as he had been staring slack-jawed at the massive structure. By the time Harry caught up, Mr. Weasley was already handing their tickets to a wizard standing at on of the many entrances to the stadium, marked with a large and fancy golden letter A.

"— high as you can go." Was all that Harry was able to hear as he approached. Mr. Weasley accepted the ticket stubs back, passing them out to everyone.

"A perfect memento," the eldest Weasley said with a smile, " now come along, we've a bit of a climb ahead of us!"

As it turned out 'a bit' was quite the understatement. Up and up the group went, climbing purple carpeted stair after purple carpeted stair. Eventually they found themselves in a box situated at the center of one of the stands, as high up as possible. There were twenty chairs, set evenly in two rows.

"We'll just be at the front here," Mr. Weasley explained as he led them to their seats. Harry gratefully took a seat. Not that he was particularly tired, mind, it was just that he'd been up and around nearly all day since they had left the Burrow, and he was looking quite forward to having a nice long sit.

Before taking his seat, Harry came across a house elf who he had mistaken for Dobby. It turned out that it was not Dobby, rather it was a female elf named Winky. She had a rather low opinion of Dobby's fondness for freedom and pay. Winky had been sent to save a seat for her master, and she did so, despite her fear of heights.

Harry took his seat and pulled his omnioculars to his face then, having eagerly been waiting to try them out. He looked around the pitch, the play-by-play scroll across the bottom filled with ads for various products.

It didn't take him particularly long to find the press box, where he was able to spy Luna and her father. Xenophilius was greeting and shaking the hands of various other reporters, each adopted a look of obligatory politeness before moving on from the man.

Luna was looking around at the stadium, watching the people flooding through the entrances to fill the stands. Her gaze eventually made its way to the box he was currently sitting on. She smiled dreamily up at him. He thought it odd, given the fact that she hadn't been told where they would be sitting. She waved up at him, and he couldn't keep a smile from forming on his lips. He returned the wave, sure that she wouldn't see it, but unable to stop himself.

The box around them began to fill slowly, though he was rather uninterested in meeting the others he would be sharing the space with. He was far too engrossed in the spectacle of the stadium to be bothered beyond a polite greeting with Minister Fudge. Harry's luck ran out immediately after greeting the minister, however.

"Ah, Lucius!" Fudge greeted Lucius Malfoy, who had his son Draco, Harry's nemesis of three years, in tow. Along with them was a rather pretty blond woman, with looks marred by an expression that made it seem as though she were perpetually smelling something rather foul.

Lucius greeted Fudge in return, introducing both Draco and the woman, who turned out to be Draco's mother, to him. It was then that he turned his attention to the Weasleys.

"Arthur?" The elder Malfoy said, feigning delighted shock, "What'd you have to sell to make it to the top box? Surely your house wouldn't have fetched half of the price of the tickets." Harry felt his face heat in indignance for the family he wished he could call his own. The foreign presence in the back of his head seemed to agree, and added its it's own burning anger to his own.

"He didn't have to," Harry interrupted any further confrontation. "This happens when people actually like you." He could scarcely believe he let the words slip from his mouth. Lucius' face twisted into a sharp sneer for a fraction of a fraction of a second before schooling into well practiced amusement.

"Indeed," the man replied coolly. "I suppose the," he paused for a brief moment to curl his upper lip as he spared a withering glance to Hermione, who stared back at him in defiance, "common folk should be allowed a taste of the finer things in life from time to time." With a gesture, he bade his family to follow him, to the seats just behind Arthur, several down from Harry.

Fudge cleared his throat awkwardly before glancing around. "Well, we should get this underway," He said, before turning to address Ludo Bagman, a man Harry had met when he had exited the tent earlier to eat. "Ludo, if you would."

Ludo smiled jovially before brandishing his wand and announced "Sonorus!" His voice then boomed out from the box, to reach even the furthest seat. Harry had to hand it to the man, as he whipped the gathered witches and wizards into a frenzy, he was definitely a consummate showman. Once everyone's cheering was brought to a fevered pitch, Bagman introduced the Bulgarian mascots.

"Veela!" Mr. Weasley shouted, and Harry was greeted to the sight of many ethereally beautiful women making their way to the field where they put on a show of dancing and waving to the crowd. He felt something wash over him, like a sort of wind, that left the foreign presence feeling an odd sort of amusement.

His attention was drawn from the veela when he noticed Ron drop his omnioculars and make his way to the railing at the front of the platform. He reached out as soon as he saw Ron grab the rail and begin to lift his leg as though he were going to leap from their box. He pulled his friend back, and looked to see Hermione, Ginny and Mr. Weasley holding back the twins and Percy.

The girls seemed unaffected by whatever was compelling the younger Weasley men, but Mr. Weasley and his eldest sons were studiously looking away from the veela, even as Mr. Weasley was holding Percy in his seat. The affected boys didn't fight being set back in their seats, and before long, the veela waved one last time to the crowd before moving back from the field.

Ron, Percy and the twins quickly came back to their senses as Ireland's mascots floated down on what appeared to be a large shamrock. Even from such a distance, Harry was able to see that the shamrock was in reality made of green and gold torchlight held by leprechauns.

A dull roar rolled through the spectators as a golden rain, coins from what Harry could see, fell on them. The shamrock eventually made its way over Harry and the others in the top box, still raining down the golden coins.

Harry caught one of the coins and turned it over in his hands. There was something odd about the galleon sized disc, it left his fingers tingling, like the dragon scale had. In addition to that, there was an odd sheen to the coin, something out of place that Harry couldn't quite pin down. He pinched the coin on either side between his thumbs and index fingers and gave it an experimental bend.

Rather than bending like a proper coin, it snapped in half before disintegrating into soil that blew away easily in the wind. Ron had paused in scooping up as many of the coins as he could to watch what Harry had done. He gave a disappointed look at the fistfuls of the fake currency he held before he tossed it from the box.

"Rotten luck," Ron moaned, "of course it'd be fake gold." The Twins followed suit, and everyone sat back to watch as the Leprechauns floated to their side of the stadium. Harry grinned in anticipation as the match was sure to begin soon.

He looked over the Weasleys once more, happy to share in this event with some of his favorite people. Before he could look back to the pitch, something caught his eye. The very same oddity he noticed on the coin seemed to be taking up space in the chair that Winky was reserving for her master, as though there were someone there.

"Winky must have forgotten it!" The house elf announced, before popping out of existence with a light crack. With Winky gone, whatever had been occupying the seat had gone with her. Harry wondered for the moment about what it was he had just seen before shaking his head and returning his attention to the upcoming match.

"Can't believe the tosser tried to cheat us with leprechaun gold!" Groused Fred, holding an IOU from Bagman for their winnings.

"Language, Fred," Mr. Weasley chided. Fred offered his father a shrug in return before slipping the IOU into one of the pockets of his trousers.

"Cheers for that by the way, Harry," George said as he softly punched Harry in the shoulder. "If you hadn't spotted it for what it was, we might have been taken for fools."

"Might have?" Bill interjected. "You realize you bet your entire savings?"

"Okay, so we're lucky fools," George conceded. Bill could only roll his eyes in response.

The group celebrated in the men's tent, the energy of the air nearly electric. Harry had never seen a quidditch match quite like the one he had just observed. In his mind he was trying to imagine pulling off the various maneuvers he had seen on display.

He could hardly wait to get back to the Burrow and try to execute the Wronski Feint. If he could perfect that move, he felt like he would be unstoppable. He held no illusions that Draco wouldn't be trying it either. The sooner he managed the technique, the sooner he could also be on guard for it.

The boys were joking with one another loudly, and soon enough they were tossing around a quaffle transfigured from a rock outside. Mr. Weasley couldn't even admonish them for the use of magic. At least they were doing out of view of the muggles, he reasoned.

They threw the ball in ever more silly fashions. Fred started it by throwing it around his back, which Charlie passed off to Harry by way of bouncing it off a shoulder. Round and round the quaffle traveled until Ginny managed to snatch it mid-air before Bill was able to catch it.

From there, an impromptu game of broomless quidditch was had, and Harry couldn't help but be impressed by Ginny's talent and willingness to jump and dive for the quaffle. Mr. Weasley busied himself by clearing the furniture out, and repairing anything he couldn't get out of the way fast enough.

The game ended when Ginny scrambled her way up Charlie's back to snatch the quaffle from his hands and lept over Bill to score on Hermione, who had agreed to play keeper as it was the least physically demanding of the positions. They soon helped Mr. Weasley to replace all of the furniture, and settled down over warm cups of cocoa. They called it a night when Ginny managed to spill her cup after she nodded off.

Harry bid a good night to the girls as they left for their tent. Everyone tiredly made their way to their own bunk. Harry was certain he was asleep before his head ever hit his pillow.

"Get up, boys," Mr. Weasley urged, moving to Ron after Harry began to sit up. "Get a jacket on Harry, we have to hurry. Ron, c'mon." With a few false starts, Ron managed to get up and don his muggle jacket and hurried out of the tent with Harry.

They were joined outside with Ginny and Hermione, Bill following behind them, wand in hand. He must have gone into their tent to wake them. Harry heard pandemonium, with people screaming and a crowd surging past them. In the distance he could hear what sounded like gunshots.

"Straight to the woods, and stick together," Mr. Weasley commanded the school aged members of the group. "We'll help the ministry." With that he turned and joined his oldest sons, who were already moving against the crowd.

"Right," Harry said, a cool sensation of calm resolve settling around him. "Let's go." He took charge, the twins making no protest as they brought up the rear of the group. Harry reached back for his wand, even though he could see clear as midday, he knew the group would need light.

He went numb when his hand felt nothing in his pocket, rather than the familiar smooth wood of his holly wand. He continued his steady pace, determination from the foreign presence to protect the others keeping him from panic.

"Ron," Harry said, getting his best friend's attention, "I don't have my wand, can you make some light?" Ron nodded, his face set in concentrated alertness as he brought out his wand and brought forth light. Harry wracked his brain as they move, but he couldn't recall taking his wand from his pocket.

Harry led them through the tents, eventually emerging to a larger trail between the tents. What they saw as they cleared the shelters made Harry's blood run cold in outrage. The banging sounds were coming from a troupe of black robed wizards casting curses around them, blowing up tents and camping equipment. But the worst were the bodies floating in the air above them.

His newly sharpened eyesight easily picked out Mr. Roberts. The other three could only be his family, his wife and two children. They were being spun, flipped and tossed about sixty feet in the air, their motions dictated by a few of the black robed wizards. Harry's fists clenched as he watched, his mind's eye filled with images of a torrent of cleansing flame removing the filth before him.

"Ron," Harry commanded calmly. His mind racing.

"Yeah?" Ron asked.

"I need you to do something for me," Harry said as he bent low to pick up a stone. Ministry wizards had approached the black wizards, who begun to throw their curses at the officials, keeping them at bay, unable to rescue the muggle family held hostage.

"Put out the light," Harry said, " Fred, George?" The twins moved forward at his beckoning. "Think you can hit a moving target with engorgio?" Harry tossed the stone in the air, as Ron extinguished his light. The twins let their eyes adjust before George nodded.

"Can a garden gnome fly?" Fred agreed with his twin. Harry gave a confident grin.

"We make a break for the woods as soon as you cast," Harry said, receiving nods and murmured agreements from the others. With that, Harry turned and cast the stone high into the air. He wasn't necessarily aiming for one of the black robed wizards, rather he was aiming to have the stone land near the middle of the group.

The twins waited for the projectile to approach the zenith of its arc, before casting engorgio, their shouted voices masked by the cacophony in the air around them. Their spells struck true, enlarging the stone from the size of a small marble to a car sized boulder.

The group quickly made a break for it as soon as the spells were in the air. Harry turned his head in time to see the boulder crash into the middle of the wizards. None were crushed by the boulder, Harry felt relief at the fact, the foreign presence not so much. It was satisfied, however, as he noticed on of them bent over, grasping the shoulder of an arm that dangled uselessly, its elbow bent at an odd angle.

Harry's group continued on, finally reaching the tree line. Harry turned to look back again once they were in cover. As his eyes found the location of the confrontation between ministry officials and the wizards in black, he was only able to see the last few aggressors disapparate. He noted with a fond smile that the Weasley men had caught the floating muggle family and were carefully lowering them to the ground, where stretchers had been conjured for them.

"It's safe," Harry said to the group, "those wizards have gone."

"It's a shame," a familiar voice drawled behind them. Harry turned to see the face of Malfoy smirking at them, "they were after muggles." Harry felt the rage he felt at seeing the Roberts family suspended in air return. "Probably would've had Granger up there, knickers showing for all to see." Harry snapped, closing the distance between Malfoy and himself in the blink of an eye. Malfoy tried to raise his wand, but Harry slapped it to the side before grabbing Draco by the front of his robes and lifting him from the ground.

"Piss off you knob-shine," Harry spit in the blond boy's face before throwing him back. Draco landed on his feet a meter back, though he couldn't keep his balance and quickly stumbled to the ground.

Draco stood quickly, his face red with embarrassment. He raised his wand, though the curse on his lips died quickly as he stared at the wands of Ron and the twins.

"This isn't over, Potter," Malfoy hissed, before turning and disappearing deeper into the woods.

"Thank you, Harry," Hermione said, as she embraced Harry from behind. He relished the feeling of her arms around him.

"How'd you do that, mate?" Fred asked, "Never seen a bloke fly like that before."

"Yeah," George agreed, "not outside of one of our pranks, leastways."

"It must have been adrenaline," Hermione said hastily, though Harry suspected she was thinking along the same lines he was.

"A-what-a-fin?" Fred asked.

"It's something your body makes," Hermione explained, "when you have to fight or run. It helps you act in times of danger." The twins exchanged skeptical glances at the surely made up word, before shrugging, and accepting the explanation.

"We should make our way back to the tents," Harry changed the subject, "the danger's gone, and I need to find my—" Harry was cut off as a commotion caught everyone's attention. A house elf, Winky Harry recognized, was stumbling through the woods, struggling to keep her feet.

No, Harry realized, she wasn't stumbling forward, she was resisting something. He noticed that same hazy sheen in the air ahead of the struggling elf. The elf and the strange disturbance disappeared into the woods.

"What do you reckon was wrong with her?" Ron asked, confused at the erratic movements of the diminutive creature. Harry could only offer a shrug in response.

They made their way back to their tents in short order, where Harry was assisted by the others in searching for his wand. They looked everywhere in and around the tent to no avail.

"Morsmordre!" A sinister voice tore through the air, vibrating with malice. Harry and Ron were outside the tent to see a green jet of light, one very familiar to Harry, streak into the sky, where it exploded. As the light dimmed slightly, it began to take the shape of a great green skull with a snake stretching from the open mouth like a long, writhing tongue. The two exchanged worried glances, as the voice sounded like it had come from somewhere nearby.

"What was that?" Hermione's voice asked, as she emerged from the tent, Ginny following closely behind. Hermione and Ginny both froze at the sight of the green skull.

"The Dark Mark!" Hermione gasped. Before she could say more, popping filled the air around them. Harry tensed for the briefest of moments as he realized there were ministry wizards apparating all around them, every single one of them training a wand on their group.

Harry's body moved before he was aware. "Duck!" He shouted as he crashed into Hermione and Ginny, carrying them to the ground as jets of light from all directions passed over them within a hair's breadth.

The barrage carried on for several seconds before Arthur's voice broke over the shouted incantations.

"Stop," the man shouted, "stop, that's my son!" The spells soon stopped, and silence rang out for a moment before Barty Crouch rushed forward, face red.

"Who summoned it?" The man demanded. "Which of you summoned the Dark Mark?"

"Merlin's beard, Barty, look at who you're talking to," Mr. Weasley said, gesturing to Harry. Mr. Crouch glanced at Harry's scar before collecting himself.

"There was a voice," Ron said, pointing in the direction from where he and Harry had heard the incantation. "From over there."

"Right," Mr. Crouch said, "you four, come with us, we'll get to the bottom of this." The large group moved in the direction Ron had indicated, and eventually came across Winky, unconscious with Harry's wand in her hand.

"My wand!" Harry shouted, reaching for his long time ally, only to be held back by Mr. Crouch. The man's face was stone, the only sign of what he was thinking was the clenching muscles of his jaw.

"Amos," He said, "I believe this is your department." Mr. Diggory, who Harry only just now noticed stepped forward and began to interrogate the diminutive creature after casting ennervate on it.

Despite Winky's ernest protests to the contrary, the wizards came to the conclusion that she had been the one to cast the Dark Mark. All the evidence they needed was provided when they cast Priori Incantato to reveal that the last spell that had been cast using Harry's wand had been used to summon the Dark Mark.

Without saying a word, a red-faced and clearly furious Mr. Crouch peeled one of his gloves off before throwing it at Winky's face. The house elf stared in mute horror at the garment in her hand before breaking down into inconsolable sobbing.

That brought the long night to an end, as Mr. Weasley guided the four of them back to the tent after recovering Harry's wand from the other Ministry wizards.

Harry woke up from a short nap a few days later. He gave a short stretch and enjoyed the sensation of joints popping in response. The remaining days of summer had been filled with good company and good food, which served to put the events of the night of the world cup far from his mind. He no longer dwelled on Death Eaters and Dark Marks. Or the horrid way that Mr. Crouch had treated Winky.

The foreign presence that had manifested on that day had settled a bit. It was still quite curious about the world around him, but more in the sense that it had a basic gist of things, the curiosity becoming more intense when dealing with magic and society. As had become habit, he had kept Hermione up to date on the topics, as well as Ron and Ginny.

Harry got up from the bed, and with one more great yawn, managed to stand. He scrubbed a hand through his hair, relieving the itchiness that inevitably set in from having slept. He smiled at the thought that such an action rarely had a deleterious effect on the state of his hair. He made his way down the stairs, making a brief stop at the loo before continuing down to find a snack.

Hermione had made the observation that he seemed hungrier than usual lately, eating twice as much at each meal, and snacking between. Mrs. Weasley didn't seem to mind, and in fact she appeared almost happy at the challenge of keeping Harry fed.

He heard voices from Ginny's room when he set foot on the first floor landing. He poked his head in briefly to see Hermione in the room, though rather than finding her with Ginny, she was with Luna. The two were chatting animatedly about the stirring directions to the animagius potion.

Luna had visited twice since the world cup, Ginny had been going out of her way to invite Luna to the Burrow after she had found out that Luna had thought she had been avoiding her. The odd, yet brilliant girl had formed a friendship with Hermione. She split her time at the Burrow between visiting with Ginny and poring over the recipe for the animagus potion with the older girl.

Harry smiled as he continued down the stairs. He was glad for the extra assistance that Luna provided. He knew he wasn't an idiot, but analyzing the potion was definitely above his ability to assist Hermione with, let alone Ron. Ginny helped where she could, but she preferred to be out in the orchard, playing quidditch with Harry and her brothers when a spot was free.

"Here for an afternoon snack, Harry?" Mrs. Weasley greeted him as he entered the kitchen. He offered her a smile and a shrug.

"Must be getting ready to grow," Harry responded, accepting a small plate with a piece of pie on it.

"I suspect so," Mrs. Weasley said, handing him a fork. "You've an appetite to match at least the twins put together. Ron and Ginny are in the orchard."

Harry left her to her work. Keeping The Burrow clean and fed with the entire family back had Mrs. Weasley busy as he had ever seen her. Despite the extra work, she always had time to fix a little bit extra for Harry, and he couldn't help but feel a little guilty at the additional effort she had to put in to accommodate him. Not to mention the extra stress of Mr. Weasley returning to work early from his holidays to handle the fallout of the Death Eater attack at the world cup.

He made his way out the back, taking a few bites of pie as he walked. Mrs. Weasley made the best apple pie he had ever tasted, he suspected the apples from the orchard made them so. No pastry at Hogwarts could compare.

Harry walked through the orchard, seeking his ginger friends when a beat up old quaffle landed near him. He had to step back as it skipped and rolled in his direction, unfortunately that left him off balance as Ginny flew down through the trees and directly into him as she chased the well used ball.

Thinking quickly, Harry grabbed Ginny as the two of them fell. He felt the remaining bit of the pie squish between them as they rolled along, luckily missing any trees, before coming to rest with Ginny straddling Harry. She was grinning wildly after the tumble, her hair thrown about her shoulders wildly. Her eyes seemed to spin about before focusing on Harry.

"Finally decided to wake up?" She teased him, her shyness around Harry having evaporated nearly entirely over the course of his stay at the Weasleys. "Mum gave you some pie?" She plucked a piece of the squashed remains of the dessert from Harry's shirt and popped it in her mouth. "She told me it would ruin dinner, how'd you get to be her favorite?"

"Maybe she's trying to entice me into the family with food," Harry joked. Ginny stopped chewing at his words, her face turning scarlet at the implication. It took Harry a moment to realize what he had said, but before he could clarify, Ginny had scooped up the last bit of pie and mashed it in his face. By the time he had wiped it from his eyes, she had already gotten up and put a fair bit of distance between them.

"What was that about?" Harry turned to regard Ron as he descended from above the trees before returning his attention to Ginny's retreating form.

"I might have accidentally implied that your mum was trying to set the two of us up," Harry said, Ron laughed. With Ginny hanging around with them more often, the twins had taken to teasing Harry when she was not around. Naturally, Ron couldn't help but join in, as taking the piss was practically the sacred tradition of best mates the world around.

"She could do worse," Ron said as he sat down, mildly surprising Harry. "Not much worse, mind." They sat in silence for a moment before Ron spoke again. "I mean, I'm not completely against it."

"What?" Harry asked.

"You and Ginny," Ron said, "I'm not dense, mate. Do you fancy her?" Harry sighed, having hoped to put this particular conversation off for as long as he could.

"I think I do," Harry said slowly, "but..."

"But what?" Ron prodded.

"I mean, there's Hermione," Harry finally admitted at last.

"Hermione?" Ron asked, surprised at the admission. Harry nodded. "Books and business and nothing else Hermione?" Harry chuckled at the description.

"Yeah," Harry said, before shaking his head, "what about you?" Ron's ears turned pink at the question.

"Oi," Ron said with a punch, "we're not talking about me." Harry laughed at the flimsy deflection.

"I told you!" He protested. Ron scrubbed at the back of his neck as he looked away, and mumbled a name. "I'm sorry?" Harry asked.

"I said Padma," Ron clarified.

"Parvati's sister?" Harry asked. "Isn't she a little too Hermione for you? Wouldn't Parvati be better?" Ron laughed at the comparison.

"Nah, mate," Ron said, his hands began to move like he was talking about the Chudley Cannons, a sure sign that he was getting over his embarrassment. "Parvati's fit, but she's too much like Lavender. 'Sides, Padma's always been nice when she visits Parvati in the tower."

The two talked about their growing interest in the girls around them as the afternoon moved toward evening. Harry took great care to keep his details about his growing attraction to Ginny as vague as possible, knowing that it would be something that Ron really wouldn't want to know too much about.

Two days later, the fireplace at The Leaky Cauldron belched out the forms of Harry and Ron. Harry managed to keep his feet as he spun out of the flames, much to his delight.

"You sure about this, mate?" Ron asked, still uncomfortable with the unrestrained charity that Harry was wont to heap on the Weasley family.

"On one condition," Harry said, as he walked to the back of the establishment. Ron shot him a suspicious glance.

"You'll not have me running starkers 'round Hogwarts, will you?" Ron asked.

"And traumatize everyone?" Harry snorted. "Just burn that thing your mum picked up."

Harry had brought Ron to Diagon Alley to buy new dress robes. Mrs. Weasley had bought some for both Harry and Ron. Unfortunately for Ron, she was able to use Harry's money to buy new robes for Harry, but had to pick his up second hand. What she handed to Ron had been nothing short of revolting. The robes were a faded maroon, with moldy lace frills at the neck and wrists.

"Was planning on it already," Ron joked. "Either that or transfiguring Draco's robes to match."

"Not a bad idea, actually," Harry said with an appreciative frown. "Think Fred and George would help?"

"Reckon they'd do it without us asking," Ron mused. The two finally entered Madam Malkin's, which was particularly busy on account of it being Saturday and the trip to Hogwarts the next day. They waited for nearly half an hour before Madam Malkin was able to help them.

"New school robes, dears?" She asked politely.

"Dress robes, actually," Harry said. "I owe Ron here a favor." Ron nodded, letting Harry do the talking.

"Well," Madam Malkin said, "I'm afraid I don't have anything left on hand."

"That's fine," Harry mollified, before Ron could back out. "You can measure him up today, and just send the robe to me at Hogwarts."

"That I can do," Madam Malkin responded, as she picked up a tape measure and directed Ron where to stand. The redheaded boy followed the older witch's direction as she measured him all over.

"I believe a nice cobalt will do best for you, dear," she said, and held up a sample of fabric before nodding. She finished writing up the order, and Harry paid her before he and Ron left the shop.

"Now," Harry said, fishing a piece of parchment from his pocket, "one last stop."

"I thought we were here for just the robes," Ron said.

"I figured I could pick up the potion ingredients we'll need while we're here," Harry offered. Ron nodded at that.

"Right," he said, smiling at his friend.

"So we'll be needing four times everything on this list," Harry said as they entered the Apothecary.

"Four times?" Ron asked. "I thought we only needed enough for three."

"I figured since Luna has been helping out, it might be nice to make some for her, too." Harry said. He grew suspicious at Ron's grin.

"Alright, alright," Ron said, "just make sure you leave some for everyone else, I don't think the rest of us blokes stand a chance against the Boy-Who-Lived."

"Piss off," Harry said with a smile. "It's not like that."

"Four times it is," Ron said, hands held up in mock surrender.

They moved about the shop, gathering the ingredients they needed. Luckily Mr. Spicer had begun to stock large dragon scales after Harry's earlier visit. After some small talk with John, they finalized their purchase.

After one last trip to Gringotts, Harry's money bag was once more full. As was his vault, he suspected that Sirius had set it up to be automatically refilled from the Black vault. In short order, the two found themselves back in the Burrow, facing a perturbed Mrs. Weasley.

"And just where have the two of you been?" Molly asked. Harry held up the bags of potion ingredients.

"Sorry, Mrs. Weasley," Harry said, "I had Ron help me pick up potion ingredients. Mine were nearly gone, and I had forgotten to ask you to pick some up when you were out yesterday." Ron once again let Harry do the talking. He had always been better at making convincing excuses, especially when there was little to no time to construct them. It also made it less likely that he'd be the target of anyone's ire should Harry's excuse not work. Mrs. Weasley considered his words, and after a moment her scowl vanished.

"Well, alright," she said with a smile. "You should have let me know before you left. It's dangerous out there for children to be on their own, what with the attack at the cup."

"Of course," Harry said, adopting his best look of contrition. He and Ron excused themselves, and carried the ingredients up the stairs. Harry made a detour at the first floor landing, and knocked on Ginny's door.

The door opened, revealing Ginny with Hermione and Luna. Luna must have come for one last visit before term started. Harry offered a wave, before hefting one of the bags of potions ingredients. Ginny moved back to sit on her bed, allowing Ron and Harry to enter her room. The heat wave had finally ended, so while her room was warm with so many people in it, it was nowhere near as miserable as it had been when Harry had first arrived, not that he would have known.

"What's that you've got there, Harry?" Hermione asked, one of her eyebrows raised in curiosity. He offered her a cheeky grin.

"I thought you'd never ask, Ms. Granger," Harry said, before he set the bags on the ground and fished out the dragon scales. He handed one each to Ron and the girls. "Now I want each of you to hold on to those, and keep them safe. Everything else I can get by mail order easily enough."

"Harry?" Luna asked, her face screwed up in confusion. Harry coughed somewhat awkwardly.

"It would hardly be fair for you to help out so much and not be included, would it?" Harry asked, downplaying the significance of the gesture. Luna's face ran through a myriad of emotions, before she burst into tears.

Harry was taken by surprise at her reaction, even more so when she quickly closed the distance between the two of them and wrapped Harry in a tight hug, crying into his chest. He looked up, surprise on his face as he brought his arms up to comfort the blond girl.

Hermione and Ginny were each looking at Luna fondly. Harry turned his head to see Ron trying to avoid eye contact with a clearly amused look on his face. He held Luna as she cried, eventually her soft wails giving way to hiccoughs and whispered thank yous.

After a time, she pulled back from Harry, and sat next to Ginny on the bed, who pulled her into a half hug.

"Right," Harry said with a cough. "These scales are all the right size, three inches across. It's the only ingredient that was out of place when I made my potion." Hermione grabbed her notebook when he said that

"Could you describe the differences from the scale you used to these ones?" Hermione asked. Harry nodded.

"Mr. Spicer said that these were dorsal scales," Harry clarified, stumbling a bit on the unfamiliar term. "He said they were the largest on most dragons." Hermione's pen flew quickly across the page she was writing on.

"Do you remember what type of scale you used?"

"Heart," Harry said, the answer coming to him easily, the memory of receiving the scale from Mr. Spicer as clear as though the event happened not five minutes ago. Hermione measured the size of the scale she held in her hand.

"Just over three inches across," Hermione confirmed, "and you said the one you used was over five inches across?" Harry nodded his head in confirmation. Hermione turned the scale over in her hand a few times before holding it out to Harry. "Your scale tickled your hand, right? How does this one feel to you?"

Harry accepted the scale and carefully turned it over in his hand, running his fingers over the smooth scale. It felt nothing like his scale.

"It just feels smooth," Harry said, "Mine felt the same, but it felt like it was charged with static electricity, like running your hand across a telly that was just switched off." Hermione nodded, her being a muggle-born meant, unlike the others, she understood exactly what Harry had meant.

"I still find it odd," Hermione said.

"How do you mean?" Harry asked.

"When a dragon scale is taken from a dragon," Hermione explained, "the magic held within usually dissipates on its own after a few decades. Unless it's used in crafting a magical tool, or ritual, or … something." Harry furrowed a brow, unsure where Hermione was leading him. "You said it was found at a paleontological dig, where they were unearthing dinosaurs, right?"

"That's what Mr. Spicer told me."

"Then that would make your scale not just a few million years old," Hermione said, "but at least sixty five million years old, when the dinosaurs went extinct." Harry's eyes widened at that bit of information.

"Then how was it that Harry's scale even worked at all?" Ginny asked.

"Either it was not a dragon," Luna offered, "or it was a singularly magically powerful dragon. Something not found in the world since the day it died."

Author's Note: I have no idea if the Weasleys' orchard has apples, but since an orchard is defined as an area devoted to growing fruit trees, that's what I went with. Also, as to Ron's disinterest in Hermione, I always felt in the books that his interest only ever appeared as a result of his resentment toward Hermione going to the ball with Krum. Sure, it grew into genuine affection, but before that moment, he wasn't aware of Hermione as even a remotely possible romantic interest.

Finally, I moved the day of return to Hogwarts a day earlier, since I'm using the calendar from Harry Potter Lexicon, and it had to omit a day, since the first day of classes were on a monday, as was the trip on the Hogwarts Express.