Harry Potter and the Ghost of the Dark Lord

Chapter 3

'Harry!' Hermione shouted. She ran up to him and gave him a big hug. Ron came up an patted him on the back.

'Nice to see you, mate.'

'Oh, Harry darling, come over here,' Mrs Weasley said as she gave Harry a big motherly hug.

Ginny followed her mother sheepishly and gave Harry a hug and a quick peck on the cheek.
They were standing outside Gringrotts bank, which had been newly repaired. The group of four decided to leave Mrs Weasley and shop on their own. After they had gotten everything they needed, they all went and sat down in a quiet coffee shop.

'So Harry, I assumed you got my letter?' Hermione asked.

Harry nodded.

'What's going on?' Ginny asked.

'Well...' Hermione began.

'We don't think he's gone.' Harry said bluntly.

'You mean... You Know Who?' Ginny asked, whispering to the group.

'I thought we agreed we would call him by his real name,' said Ron.

'Yes well Ron, after he cursed his name, it kind of got into a habit to call him You Know Who.' Said Hermione as-a-matter-of-factly.

'What do you mean, you think he's not gone?' Asked Ginny cautiously, looking behind her to make sure no one else was in the coffee shop.

'Well, I've done some reading...'

'Surprise surprise,' said Ron.

'... shut up.' Said Hermione, 'and I don't think he is dead. I mean, he didn't exactly die that night Harry got his scar, so what makes that duel any different? And there's many ways he could... How do I put this... Come back to life.'

'Yeah but guys, I think we should read into this a bit more before making conclusions,' said Ron. 'I mean, nothing has really come up in the past few months, so what made you start thinking that Hermione?'

'Well, I've been getting the Daily Prophet... Absolute garbage by the way... For the pas few months, and there were a few sketchy articles about some theories about You Know Who not being dead and all. I did some research and I just got thinking.'

'Well I think,' Harry began, 'The safest road to travel is to ignore this and carry on with our usual lives unless something happens.'

'Agreed,' the rest all chorused. They all walked back to Mrs Weasley and all went their separate ways at the end of the day. Harry returned home and got his trunk ready for his last train ride to Hogwarts.
***