The Protector

Summer Time

Draco hadn't written to me much. I sent a letter the second day I was there. A couple weeks later, he wrote back. I wrote to him again, but got no other responses. Something was going on. Something wasn't right.

Harry hadn't written much either. He wrote more the Draco did, but it wasn't enough. I figured he was just out and about trying to get his mind off Sirius. My mind was thinking about him every now and again. I knew he'd always be with me, as would the rest of my family.

Hermione came as Ron had said. Speaking of which, he still hadn't spilled who he liked. Anyways, Hermione and I shared a room while she was here. We spent a lot of time together, which I was really happy about. Last year, with everything going on, we didn't hang out much.

One night as we were getting ready for bed, someone arrived. I was in the kitchen getting me a glass of water. I saw someone walking through the bushes outside. I hadn't a clue who it was since everyone was already home.

I pulled out my wand. I continued to stare out the window. With it being dark, I couldn't see them until they got into light view. I saw him and nearly jumped through the window. I ran out the door. He smiled. He had seen me. I jumped into his arms. "Harry!"

"Hi Bridge," he chuckled. "I'm sorry I haven't been keeping as much contact. Things have been-"

"I understand," I released him. "Would've been nice to see a my best friend though. But I understand. Now come on! They'll want to see you!" I grabbed his hand and led him into the house.

"Guess who's here!" I called out.

Ginny, who I guess had seen Harry too, was standing next to Mrs. Weasley. Mrs. Weasley smiled and welcomed Harry with a hug. I heard the fumbling of feet as my friends ran down the stairs too. I heard a tweet. I looked over, and sure enough, Hedwig was in her cage on top of Harry's things. "Cheeky Dumbledore."

Ginny hugged him as well. Only their hug seemed to give off a sort of tension. I chuckled. It was cute.

Hermione bombarded the moment and hugged him. Ron was next.

"Oh we love surprises!" Molly flapped. "I wished you would've let us know sooner; the house is a bit of a mess."

"Oh it's fine," Harry chuckled. "And I would've, but Dumbledore surprised me too."

"Oh Professor Dumbledore," Molly chuckled. I giggled too. She had made my summer just by being there.

Movement caught my eye. I turned to see Ron taking something from the corner of Hermione's mouth. I smirked. She looked at him as if he was crazy. "It's just you have toothpaste," Ron explained himself rather quickly.

I laughed and shook my head. Oh those two. Just like first year.

We went up to Ron's room and had Harry tell us about what had happened. "Alright, so what happened?"

"We have a new Professor. His name is Slughorn."

I nodded, "Interesting name."

"He's an interesting person," Harry nodded.

I turned to Harry as Hermione and Ron began to slightly bicker, "They've been doing this for the last few days," I whispered. "It's so cute but I don't understand-"

I was cut off by a pillow hitting me. I looked to them in shock, "I didn't say anything!"

Another pillow hit me. Hermione scoffed, "She's been making snarky comments about us for the past few days."

"What else am I supposed to do?" I laughed. It caused us all to go into a laugh.

Harry began to fiddle with the floating, burning newspaper, "Is that when you got here?"

"Yeah," she nodded. "I didn't know if I was going to be able to though." We had talked about this earlier so I let them explain it to Harry.

"My mum has been on edge for the last week," Ron explained. "She told me, Ginny, and evening Bridget that we shouldn't go back to Hogwarts."

"She kept saying that it had gotten too dangerous for us," I nodded. "We had to do quite a bit of convincing to have her let us go."

"Why would she say that?" Harry asked.

"Well she's not the only parent who thinks so," Hermione shrugged. "My muggle parents can even tell that something bad is going on."

"But Hogwarts is where we're going. Not Knockturn Alley. It's one of the safest places in the Wizarding World. It's even got Dumbledore," Harry argued.

"People have been talking," Hermione looked to Harry, "and they're saying that Dumbledore is just a bit old."

"Which I find ridiculous because there have been older witches and wizards that I'm pretty sure are still alive today," I shook my head.

"How old is he anyways?" Harry asked.

"About...170 is my guess." Ronald made us all crack up laughing.

I hit him in the arm, "Ron! That's awful."

"But you're laughing."

"Shut up," I shook my head.