Whirling through clouds of green glittery smoke, Harry tucked his arms closely to his sides as he clutched his glasses. After a little longer he recognized the kitchen at The Burrow through a fireplace, and stumbled forward. He only needed to take one step before he was hurled out of the Floo Network, shot into the kitchen and nearly knocked over the table. But before he had a chance to summon any thoughts on where he was, or what had just happened, two small squealing figures had thrown them selves at him. As they hugged him around the waist, Harry recognized the bushy brown hair of his best friend Hermione. The other figure had long shiny vividly red hair, and Harry deduced that it had to be Ginny. As they were hugging him they both let out small muffled comments that Harry could not hear, because they both spoke into the front of his jumper. Finally Hermione let go, and when she looked up at Harry he could see that her eyes were brimming with tears.
"I'm so glad you're ok", said Ginny, also finally letting go of Harry's waist. She too looked scared and at the verge of tears. "Did you see Lupin? Was it him that told you to come here?"
"Yes", said Harry. "He said that I needed to come here and wait until they were finished doing whatever it was that they were doing. A bunch of the Order members were there, and they were singing and swaying..."
Hermione gasped. "Were they warding of Inferi? Oh my goodness, I knew something like this was bound to happen sooner or later. It was all a matter of time, really..."
"Something like what?" Harry's other best friend, Ron, had just walked into the room. He looked as though he had just gotten out of bed, because his hair was tousled and his eyes were small. "Harry! Good to see you mate! I didn't know you would be dropping by this soon." He beamed at Harry.
"Ron", said Ginny severely, "there's been a inferi attack in Surrey tonight. They came after Harry."
Ron's jaw dropped. "Inferi? In Surrey?", he gasped.
"But that's not all. I need to tell you something else", said Harry. "My neighbour Mrs. Figg... I found her dying in the street. And there was no one else around, and when I found her she couldn't see and she was in a lot of pain. She didn't want me to touch her because it seemed that she thought that whatever was upon her would affect me too." He looked around at the others and saw that Ron looked horrified, but that Ginny and Hermione looked stone faced.
"Lupin was here", explained Hermione. "We were sitting up late, and having a cup of hot cocoa with him when a huge bear shaped patronus came charging in through the door. All it did was touch Lupin's arm, and all of a sudden he jumped up and said that they had gone after Arabella Figg, and that he had to go and find you."
"No, but that wasn't all. She didn't seem to know that Dumbledore was dead, and she wanted me to tell him that someone called Regulus was still alive." Harry sighed. "I told her that Dumbledore was dead, and then she wanted me to tell McGonagall instead. She wanted me to say that Regulus is alive and that he has some key..."
"A key?", muttered Ron. "What kind of key?"
"She didn't say", said Harry. "But she did say 'the key'. Thanks", he added as Hermione laid a blanket over his shoulders.
They all walked into the living room and sat down in the squashy arm chairs. The fire that had obviously been burning earlier was now only bits of glowing charcoal, but it still emanated a faint heat. Harry suddenly realized how cold he really was. He pulled the blanket tighter around his shoulders as he sat down on the sofa.
"I can't say that I have ever heard of any key that is supposed to have any big significance, but I suppose it wouldn't hurt to have a look in Great Historic Events of the Past Century but I think I left it upstairs", said Hermione and rushed up to get her book.
"So how are you, Harry?", inquired Ginny. "I mean, how are you holding up?", she said as she looked at him nervously.
As she asked this, Harry moved around a bit uncomfortably on the sofa and waited a few moments before answering. He felt so self-conscious answering a question about his grief when they were all listening. It had already been three weeks since Dumbledore had been killed right in front of him, and yet he still felt completely taken aback. He mostly blamed himself for not being able to do anything about it, mostly because Dumbledore had frozen him, but also because he hadn't even been able to catch Snape afterwards either. And Snape killing Dumbledore was the final proof that he needed to finally be able to prove once and for all that Snape was in fact all evil and working for Voldemort. But there was still so many thing about that night that were still buzzing though his mind at any given time. Why would Dumbledore not even try to defend him self when he knew that they were trying to kill him? Surely he could have done some complex wandless magic, and gotten away? And was it really true like Snape said that he was the half-blood prince? Was it him that he had been trusting to get him through potions with high grades all year?
"I'm fine," he said in a half-convincing tone while staring at the floor.
"No, you're not," said Ginny, "but you will be, someday!"
But before Harry could respond, Hermione came pounding down the stairs again, with a load of thick, heavy books in her arms. "Now, Harry... I've been thinking," she said, as she sat down next to Ron. "Could you please tell me again exactly what Snape said to you when you were chasing him across the ground that night? Can you remember?" she said, looking intently at him.
"What do you mean Hermione? That he was the Prince, and that those were his spells?" said Harry irritably. "I thought you were done gloating about being right about the whole 'Prince'-thing?" Ron scoffed and was about to say something, but Hermione interrupted him before he got the chance to be rude to her.
"That's not what I meant, so save it, Ron!" She switched around uncomfortably in her chair. "What I meant was, " she continued, "was what he said to you when you were trying to curse him."
"Er... 'Blocked, again and again," Harry grumbled. "Or something like that. He was only being the git that he always is, by telling me that I wouldn't be able to catch him."
"You know Hermione," scoffed Ron, "this whole Snape being innocent-theory is getting really old."
"Harry, please just listen to me for a minute!" said Hermione angrily. "Didn't he say something about closing your mind? About how you wouldn't be able to curse him unless you were able to close your mind?"
"Hermione, I told you. He was still on about the Occlumency lessons," grumbled Harry. "I don't think he ever quite got over me breaking into his memory during the lessons two years ago."
"Yeah Hermione," added Ron, "he was probably still just angry at Harry and needed to gloat at him for never being able to do Occlumency, just because he had the chance to."
"Fine!" said Hermione angrily as she got up and gather up all of her books. "Fine! You always have to side with Harry, Ron, and neither of you never even listen to what I have to say! I'm sick of it." Then she stormed up towards the stair, her face screwed up in anger and tears gathering in her eyes.
"...'Mione" muttered Ron, but then she turned furiously towards them and just glared.
"When you might be interested in listening to me, I will be willing to talk to you. But don't you dare give me that patronizing tone, Ronald!" she spat and raced up the stairs. The boys and Ginny sat in silence for a moment and heard a door slam shut some several floors above them.
Ron looked awkward, but Ginny didn't look surprised at all.
"I'll go and talk to her," she said in a resigned tone of voice. "But you're not going to avoid this forever, Ron."
Then she heaved herself out of her seat and scuffled towards Hermione's room. Harry and Ron were left in an awkward silence, and Harry had a pretty good feeling that he knew what this might have been about.
"Since when does Hermione call you Ronald?" he said, as if to break some of the tension. Ron looked up and smiled a half grin, but his face sank quickly into a morose expression instead.
"Yesterday Hermione told me that we should talk," Ron sighed.
"Talk? About what?" said Harry with a fake look of confusion on his face. He knew exactly what Ron meant, but was determined to let Ron set the ground for where the conversation was going.
"Talk about me and her," muttered Ron, not even noticing Harry muttering a soft but completely fake "Oh!" in fake surprise. "She said that there were some things we needed to define. She said that we should do that before we end up in another "Won-Won"-like situation."
Harry suppressed the laugh that erupted in his chest, and nodded with what he hoped looked like a look of concern on his face. He did not envy Ron, but knew that there was no way for him to avoid the situation.
"So why is she so angry?" pressed Harry. "You didn't say something really stupid, did you?" Harry knew that Ron was a great friend, but he also knew that Ron could be very useless with girls.
"The thing is that we haven't actually had that talk yet..." muttered Ron. "I've been avoiding her all of today, because I was afraid that I might say something really stupid and wreck what little chance I still might have with her."
At this point in their conversation Harry was starting to feel a little uncomfortable. Ron was being painfully honest with him, and he was in no position to give Ron any advice or anything.
"I mean, I've never met any other girl like her," Ron muttered while staring at the burned out fire. "She's so different from girls like Lavender and Fleur. She's so smart..."
Ron looked up from the fire and straight at Harry and said, " I think I love her, Harry!"
Harry Potter and the Key of Merlin by didyoubelieve
Chapter Notes: Chapter 3 - Harry arrives at the burrow, but the pace of thing change more than he expects.