Living in Dangerous Times

Chapter 1

The Best Birthday

Harry Potter gazed out from his bedroom window at Number four, Privet Drive, into the night. His eyes searched the sky for any sign, any at all that his snowy owl, Hedwig, was returning. Harry had been expecting her for hours, ever since his best friend Ron's owl Pigwidgeon had arrived, bearing a birthday card and a note saying that his gift would be arriving shortly with Hedwig. Harry picked up the note and re-read it.

Harry,

Your present should be arriving a couple hours after this gets to you. It's coming with Hedwig. Pig couldn't take it.

Ron

Harry looked at his watch, which worked again now that he was away from Hogwarts. The luminous dial read 11:45. It had been nearly six hours ago that Pigwidgeon had arrived with the note. Harry looked to the birthday card, where Ron's untidy scrawl wished him a Happy 15^th Birthday. He then turned his gaze back out the window. A few minutes later, a shape appeared on the horizon. Harry let out a sigh of relief. Hedwig was finally coming. But as it grew nearer, Harry saw that the shape was far too large to be an owl. The thing sped towards him at a tremendous speed. As it grew nearer, Harry recognized the distinct shape of a flying carpet. Just at the stroke of midnight, the carpet pulled up to his open window, and Harry recognized the distinct voices of all six of the Weasley's that resided at the Burrow as they chorused, "Happy Birthday Harry!"

Harry was dumbfounded. Seconds later, Ron, Fred, George, Ginny, and Mr. And Mrs. Weasley all clambered into his room through the window. Following them in was Hedwig. "Well, Harry, better start packing. We want to get back home early enough for you to get some sleep."

Harry, Ron, Fred, and George all rushed around Harry's small bedroom gathering his things. Shaking his head, Mr. Weasley said loudly, "Stop it, all of you. I'll just get this over with. Otherwise we'll be here all night." With a wave of his wand, Mr. Weasley sent all of Harry's possessions flying into the trunk, which snapped closed once everything was inside. "Fred, George, would you get Harry's trunk onto the carpet?"

The twins picked up the heavy trunk easily between the two of them, and hoisted it out the window onto the waiting carpet, which was hovering exactly where it had been left. After the trunk was safely on the carpet, everybody clambered aboard, a bit cramped, as there were seven of them and a huge trunk. Mr. Weasley, who was sitting up front, shouted "To the Burrow!" and the carpet sped off away from the Dursley's into the night.

As soon as Privet Drive was out of sight, Harry asked Mr. Weasley, "How did you get this carpet? Just a couple years ago, you were refusing to lift your own embargo on them."

"Well, you see Harry, I've been promoted into the Department of Magical Business. My replacement in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office lifted the embargo, as the country needed some new products. I jumped on the chance, and bought this eight seater cheap off Ali Bashir."

They were now nearing the Burrow, for the carpet traveled nearly as fast as some of the better racing brooms. Harry could just make out the shape of the house in the darkness when the carpet slowed and began the descent, landing right on the doorstep. Everyone jumped off, and Harry and Ron picked up the trunk, hauling it inside and up the stairs. Seeing their efforts to get the huge and heavy trunk up the stairs, Mrs. Weasley pitched in by Levitating it, then instructing Ron to take over the spell. Ron did, pulling out his wand and catching the trunk before it hit the ground. He pushed it with the spell up the stairs and into his room, where he lowered it gently to the ground.

"We've got a camp bed set up for you Harry. We should probably go to bed now, so were not tired out in the morning. Mum has some big surprise set up for you."

"Alright then," said Harry, pulling on his pajamas, "Good night." Moments later, they were both asleep.

***

Harry woke up in the morning to considerable pain. Ron had just whacked him over the head with his pillow, and he had fallen off the camp bed onto the ground. "Happy Birthday Harry!" Ron shouted, laughing. "Come on, come downstairs, Mum's got a great breakfast cooked up." Harry stood up, rubbing his sore tailbone. He popped the catch on his trunk, and rummaged around for a few moments, pulling out a pair of worn jeans and a t-shirt. He quickly pulled them on, and hurried downstairs after Ron. As he reached the bottom of the stairs, a delicious aroma confronted him. Mrs. Weasley had made sausage, eggs French toast, cinnamon rolls, and numerous other breakfast dishes. Harry sat at the table with the six Weasley's, and helped himself to some of nearly everything. When breakfast was finished, and Mrs. Weasley had magically wiped the plates and platters clean, everyone trooped into the living room.

Harry, upon entering the living room, was surprised to see that the mantelpiece was lined with presents of various sizes. Upon closer inspection, they were all for him. Harry stood, dumbfounded, staring blankly at all the presents.

"Well, come on, what are you waiting for? Open them!" Fred's voice brought Harry back to reality. Harry looked over the presents, and selected the smallest one. It was from Ginny. He sat down and ripped off the paper. Inside was a small board depicting a Quidditch field. There were fourteen tiny players hovering above it.

"Wow. Thanks Ginny. I needed one of these." Harry had been chosen as Quidditch Captain the year before, and had desperately needed something to show his players just how to do the moves he needed them to do. Harry then moved onto the next present, which was from t he twins. He ripped off the paper, to find, not surprisingly, a bag full of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. "Thanks you two. I can use this on Malfoy."

"If he's there. Would be kinda cool if his dad got scared cause You-Know-Who came back and sent the bugger to Durmstrang? Reckon he could learn all the dark shit he would need for You-Know-Who there."

"Good riddance, I say," replied Harry, " The only Hogwarts teacher who liked him was Snape." He picked up the next present, which was from Ron. Inside the box was a Wand Care Kit. It contained a wand care handbook, special wand polish, and an enchanted cloth to use with the polish. Also included was a tube of special Wand Putty, for fixing cracks or partial breakages. "Wow Ron. This is awesome. My wand damn well needed polishing. Some more advanced spells have been starting to be weaker than normal. Apparently polishing helps the wand." Harry was quite amazed at this present, having wondered how Cedric had polished his wand the year before without shooting sparks all over.

The last, and largest, present came from all four of the Weasley's. Harry picked it up off the floor, and was not surprised to find that it was quite heavy. He tore back the paper, and found a rather ornately carved wooden chest. Tearing off the paper some more, Harry saw glittering writing forming the words "Bagley's Professional Quidditch Set." He thanked all the Weasley's, feeling quite happy because he was for the first time spending his birthday with people he cared about, as well as receiving his best set of presents ever.

"Thanks everyone. This is so far probably the best birthday ever." Harry smiled happily at everybody in the room." Then he became suddenly excited, "Hey, guys, lets go play Quidditch with my new balls. I can't wait to test them out!!"

"Good idea, Harry," replied Ron, "Dad put up repelling charms around the orchard, you know, like a Quidditch pitch, so the balls stay inside." Ron, Fred, and George, and Ginny all raced off to the stairs, and Harry could hear them pounding up the stairs to their various rooms. Moments later they all returned clutching broomsticks, Fred and George Nimbus 2001's, Ron and Ginny Cleansweep Five's, Ron also carrying Harry's Firebolt.

"Nice brooms you two." Harry said to Fred and George, and in an undertone, "How much did the pair of them cost?"

"250 Galleons apiece!!" Fred whispered, "Before the Firebolt came out they were 500!!"

The five of them walked out into the garden, and slowly trudged up the hill to the field that the Weasley's had dubbed, "The Orchard." They organized teams, Harry and Ginny vs. Fred and George, with Ron as permanent Keeper. As they began play, Harry discovered that Ginny was quite a good Chaser. She made up for all her disadvantages in speed with superb maneuverability and excellent passing and shooting. They were quickly up by forty points over Fred and George who had no skill as Chasers whatsoever. Two hours later they were all tired and hot, so they decided to fly back down the hill to the house.

Mrs. Weasley was in the kitchen, and began setting out ice cream as soon as they walked in, for the day had become quite hot, and the five of them were very tired and sweaty. Once they had finished their ice cream, they all walked upstairs to the third floor, Percy's old bedroom, which had been turned into a recreation room since Percy had moved out. Three walls of the room were lined with couches and chairs, and the other wall was devoted to board games and books. The center of the room was mostly taken up by a model of a Quidditch pitch upon a table, looking very much like a wizard version of Foosball.

Harry walked in, and staring for a moment at the mini-Quidditch, sat down in a big puffy armchair. Fred sat down on the chair next to him, picking up a pack of WizardLite cigarettes, pulled one out then offered the pack to George, who took one. He lit one with a touch of the small stick of wood lying next to him, then offered what Harry thought must be a wizard lighter to George, who took it. Fred must have noticed that Harry was staring oddly at the cigarette in his mouth, so he said, "Want one Harry?"

Harry hesitated, not sure whether to accept it or not. He had been taught in muggle elementary school that smoking was bad, but surely wizards had found some way to get around the health hazard.

Seeing Harry hesitate, Ron spoke up. "Go on Harry. It's not like all that bullshit the muggle schools feed you. I smoke about one or two a week. Just try it." Harry, dubiously, following Ron's advice, took a cigarette from Fred, touching the lighter to it, stuck it in his mouth. He inhaled deeply, tasting the perfumed smoke.

"Ron was right," Harry thought to himself, puffing on the cigarette, "It's not all that bad." He looked around. Fred seemed to be on his second cigarette, and Ron was smoking one too. Ginny was the only one that wasn't.

"She's a little bit upset that I don't ever give her one." Fred whispered in Harry's ear, "I caught her smoking weed though once. Out in the garden two days after we got home."

Just then Ron cut off Harry's reply. "Harry, wanna play mini-Quidditch? I'll teach you how."

"Yeah Ron, sounds good to me." He got up and walked to the opposite end of the table from Ron, who had already began positioning his players.

"Harry, how you position your players is simple. You just adjust them with the buttons the way you want them to be. Then you choose your player. You have complete control over that player, and you can switch players. I chose to be the Keeper." Harry moved his players around into a near exact replica of one of Oliver Wood's strategies, and then pressed the Seeker button.

"All right Ron, I'm the Seeker. Let's play." Ron pressed the two-player start button, and the mini-judge kicked open the crate of miniscule balls. They flew up, and play began, with Ron grabbing the Quaffle right off. Harry, seeing that the Snitch had disappeared, became a chaser, stealing the ball right out of Ron's grasp, but not managing to throw it past Ron's superb Keeper. He then decided to stick to Seeker, leaving the rest of the game to the magically automated players. Harry flew his Seeker slowly around the borders of the pitch, searching for any hint of gold. A moment later he saw it, darting and dipping around Ron's Keeper's head. The Seeker, on Harry's command, dove, and zipped straight past Ron's Keeper's head in the pursuit of the fleeing Snitch. Just then Ron's Seeker whacked into him at a tremendous speed, and Harry's Seeker was knocked off course. He soon zoomed back in and reaching out, knocked the orange clad figure's hand away, grabbing the Snitch.

Both Harry and Ron sat back down in their chairs, and the conversation turned to Professional Quidditch.

"The Cannons are third in the league this year, Harry!" said Ron, "The new head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports reckons their gonna win the British Cup!

"Yeah, he also said they have a star Keeper." George joined the conversation, "Guess who that is Harry? Wood!! I can't believe it. Wood being talked about as a star Keeper? That's a laugh. He was good all right at Hogwarts, but the Ravenclaw Keeper, what's-his-face, Berman? He was one hell of a lot better than Wood."

"Yeah, well he went into the Ministry, didn't he? Wood didn't get a good enough score on his NEWTs to get into the Ministry, did he." Fred, who knew almost everything about almost every Quidditch player at Hogwarts, argued back at George. "Look at Charlie. He was one of the best Seekers since Joseph Wronski. He could have played Quidditch for England! Did he though? No. He went off studying dragons instead."

"What about Krum though?" said Ginny, "Rumor has it he's coming to England to play Quidditch. The Bulgarian League isn't good enough for him or something."

"We'll probably find out soon. Hermione is coming next week, right after she gets back from Krum's. She'll probably tell us all about her trip." Ron then put on a high, squeaky imitation of Hermione, "Oh Victor's house is lovely. Victor this, Victor that."

"Oh shut up Ron." Ginny sounded very annoyed. "She really likes him a lot."

"Oh, and how would you know, Ginny?" Ron snapped back at her.

"I've been keeping in touch. She's owled me a couple times this summer."

"WHAT? She's owled you, but not me or Harry, her best friends!" Ron was now very angry.

"Well, everything in her letters has been girl stuff, so I'm not surprised that she hasn't been in touch with you." With this, Ron stalked off. They could hear him going up the stairs to his room on the top floor, and moments later a door slammed. Just then there was a loud tapping on the window. Harry whirled, and threw open the window for the owl outside. The tawny owl dropped a letter into his lap, and then soared back out the window and out of sight. Harry picked up the letter in his lap, and saw it was from Hermione. He opened the envelope, and unfolded the piece of parchment inside.

Dear Harry,

I have had a lovely time here in Bulgaria. Victor has given me very good flying lessons. I am no longer afraid of flying. In fact, it is probably one of the most invigorating things I have done in my life. I look forward to seeing you shortly. I am leaving Victor's house today, having had to cut my visit short because my parents needed me home. I will see you in a week at the Weasley's. Ginny told me about your birthday surprise. Happy Birthday Harry. I will bring my present with me. Have you gotten started on your summer homework? I have not had a chance to, because I have been at Victor's house. Have you chosen a Transfiguration potion to research for Snape yet? I have been thinking of the Joojuice Potion, which is a potion used to transform magical animals into the appearance of similar normal Muggle animals. Have you gotten your school letter yet? I don't think you will have, but I need to know, because sometimes the owls have trouble finding our house, because we live in an apartment in London. See you soon.

Love,

Hermione

Harry got up and moved towards the door. Just as he was about to go out, he heard Ginny's voice. "Who's the letter from Harry?"

"Hermione. I'm going to tell Ron about it and write back."

"Good idea. The letter will probably calm him down a bit."

"Yeah." With this, Harry walked out, careful to shut the door behind him, and went up the two flights of stairs to Ron's room. He knocked on the door, and there was no reply.

"Go away!" Ron snapped angrily a minute later.

"It's Harry. I've got a letter from Hermione."

"Come in then." Harry opened the door, and walked into the bright orange room. He sat down on his camp bed and showed Ron the letter. Ron took it from him and read it.

"Good. She's cut her vacation with that Krum bastard short." Then, in another high pitched imitation of Hermione, "Harry, have you gotten your school letter yet? The poor little owls can't find my house." He switched his voice back to normal, "What next Hermione, S.H.I.O? Society for the Help of Idiot Owls?" They both laughed. "Harry, write back to her and suggest that she start that or something."

"All right. I was going to write back anyway. Do you have a spare bit of parchment?"

"Yeah, hang on a second." Ron started rummaging around in a drawer of his desk, and a moment later pulled out a piece of parchment, an inkbottle, and a quill. Harry sat down at the desk and began to write.

Dear Hermione,

It is good that you know how to fly now. You can play Quidditch with us here. Yes, I have done all my summer homework, including the Potions research. I did the Polyjuice Potion. No, I have not gotten my school letter yet, but I expect it within the next week. Hedwig seems to be able to find you house fine. She brings your letters back soon after I send letters to you. She must be smarter than the school owls. See you in a week.

Harry

P.S. Ron says you should start S.H.I.O. (Society for the Help of Idiot Owls)

Harry tied the letter to Hedwig's leg, and she nipped his ear affectionately before flying off.

Later that night, as he was about to fall asleep, Harry couldn't help thinking that he had just had the best birthday ever.