Harry was walking down the street, me dancing joyously by his side, when someone shouted.

"Harry! HARRY!" It was Hermione.

YAY MY FRIENDS!

They were there, both of them, sitting outside Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour--Ron looking incredibly freckly, Her, very brown, both waving frantically at us.

"Gosh, no acknowledging me!" I yelled as we sat down.

"Oh my gosh!" Hermione said giving me the once over. "I didn't even recognise you! You look amazing!" I brushed her compliments off, but I was dancing with happiness inside.

"Anyway, about time we found you." said Ron, grinning at Harry and me. "We went to the Leaky Cauldron, but they said you'd left, and we went to Flourish and Blotts, and Madam Malkin's, and-"

"We got all of our school stuff last week, " Harry explained."And how come you knew I'm staying at the Leaky Cauldron?"

"Dad," said Ron simply. Mr. Weasley, who worked at the Ministry of Magic, would of course have heard the whole story of what had happened to Harry.

"Did you really blow up your aunt, Harry?" said Hermione in a very serious voice.

"I didn't mean to," said Harry, while Ron roared with laughter. "I just--lost control."

"It's not funny, Ron, "said Hermione sharply. "Honestly, I'm amazed Harry wasn't expelled. "

"So am I," admitted Harry. "Forget expelled, I thought I was going to be arrested. "He looked at Ron."Your dad doesn't know why Fudge let me off, does he?"

"Probably 'cause it's you, isn't it?" shrugged Ron, still chuckling. "Famous Harry Potter and all that. I'd hate to see what the Ministry'd do to me if I blew up an aunt. Mind you, they'd have to dig me up first, because Mum would've killed me. Anyway, you can ask Dad yourself this evening. We're staying at the Leaky Cauldron tonight too! So you can come to King's Cross with us tomorrow! Hermione's there as well!"

Hermione nodded, beaming. "Mum and Dad dropped me off this morning with all my Hogwarts things."

"YAY!" I squealed knocking my chair over as I jumped up and started dancing. Hermione's smile broadened.

"Nice to know Willow is normal." Hermione said.

"Normal? Really?" Ron said, raising his eyebrows.

"Excellent!" said Harry happily. "So, have you got all your new books and stuff?"

"Look at this, "said Ron, pulling a long thin box out of a bag and opening it."Brand-new wand. Fourteen inches, willow, containing one unicorn tail-hair-"

"I'M IN YOUR WAND! THAT IS SO COOL!" I shouted

"Inside voice Willow." Hermione said like a teacher.

"BUT WE'RE OUTSIDE!"

"And we've got all our books --" Ron continued as though there had been no interruption. He pointed at a large bag under his chair. "What about those Monster Books, eh? The assistant nearly cried when we said we wanted two."

"What's all that, Hermione?" Harry asked, pointing at not one but three bulging bags in the chair next to her.

"Well, I'm taking more new subjects than you, aren't I?" said Hermione. "Those are my books for Arithmancy, Care of Magical Creatures, Divination, the Study of Ancient Runes, Muggle Studies --"

"What are you doing Muggle Studies for?" said Ron, rolling his eyes at me. "You're Muggle born! Your mum and dad are Muggles! You already know all about Muggles!"

"But it'll be fascinating to study them from the wizarding point of view, "said Hermione earnestly.

"Are you planning to eat or sleep at all this year, Hermione?" I asked

"I've still got ten Galleons," she said, checking her purse and ignoring me. "It's my birthday in September, and Mum and Dad gave me some money to get myself an early birthday present."

"How about a nice book? Said Ron innocently.

"No, I don't think so," said Hermione composedly. "I really want an owl. I mean, Harry's got Hedwig and you've got Errol --"

"I haven't, "said Ron."Errol's a family owl. All I've got is Scabbers. "He pulled his pet rat out of his pocket."And I want to get him checked over, "he added, placing Scabbers on the table in front of us."I don't think Egypt agreed with him."

Scabbers was looking thinner than usual, and there was a definite droop to his whiskers.

"You could always shoot him." I said smiling at the ugly rat.

"There's a magical creature shop just over there," said Harry, who sounded really douche like. "You could see if they've got anything for Scabbers, and Hermione can get her owl,"

"DOUCHE!" I shouted happily.

"Huh?"

"Sorry. I thought you were Lockhart."

We paid for our ice cream and crossed the street to the Magical Menagerie. There wasn't much room inside. Every inch of wall was hidden by cages. It was smelly and very noisy because the occupants of these cages were all squeaking, squawking, jabbering, or hissing.

The witch behind the counter was already advising a wizard on the care of double-ended newts, so Harry, Ron, Hermione and I waited, examining the cages. A pair of enormous purple toads sat gulping wetly and feasting on dead blowflies. A gigantic tortoise with a jewel-encrusted shell was glittering near the window. Poisonous orange snails were oozing slowly up the side of their glass tank, and a fat white rabbit kept changing into a silk top hat and back again with a loud popping noise. Then there were cats of every colour, a noisy cage of ravens, a basket of funny custard-coloured furballs that were humming loudly, and on the counter, a vast cage of sleek black rats that were playing some sort of skipping game using their long, bald tails. The double-ended newt wizard left, and Ron approached the counter.

"It's my rat," he told the witch. "He has been a bit off-colour ever since I brought him back from Egypt."

"Bang him on the counter," said the witch, pulling a pair of heavy black spectacles out of her pocket. Ron lifted Scabbers out of his inside pocket and placed him next to the cage of his fellow rats, who stopped their skipping tricks and scuffled to the wire for a better took. Like nearly everything Ron owned, Scabbers the rat was second hand and a bit battered. Next to the glossy rats in the cage, he looked especially wretched.

"Hm," said the witch, picking up Scabbers. "How old is this rat?"

"Dunno, "said Ron. "Quite old. He used to belong to my brother."

"What powers does he have?" said the witch, examining Scabbers closely.

"Er --" The truth was that Scabbers had never shown the faintest trace of interesting powers. The witch's eyes moved from Scabbers's tattered left ear to his front paw, which had a toe missing and tutted loudly. "He's been through the mill, this one," she said.

"He was like that when Percy gave him to me," said Ron defensively.

"An ordinary common or garden rat like this can't be expected to live longer than three years or so," said the witch. "Now, if you were looking for something a bit more hard-wearing, you might like one of these --"She indicated the black rats, who promptly started skipping again.

Ron muttered, "Show-offs."

I started dancing and Hermione just shook her head at me.

"Well, if you don't want a replacement, you can try this rat tonic," said the witch, reaching under the counter and bringing out a small red bottle.

"Okay," said Ron. "How much - OUCH!"

Ron buckled as something huge and orange came soaring from the top of the highest cage, landed on his head, and then propelled itself, spitting madly, at Scabbers. I was screaming with laughter. Gosh, I really am a horrible person. Oh well, I'm going to hell; I better enjoy my way down.

"NO, CROOKSHANKS, NO!" cried the witch, but Scabbers, shot from between her hands like a bar of soap, landed splay-legged on the floor, and then scampered for the door.

"Scabbers!" Ron shouted, racing out of the shop after him; Harry followed.

"Oh my God, he's gorgeous!" Hermione said walking over to Crookshanks and stoking his fluffy orange fur. The cat started purring instantly. "How much?" Hermione asked.

Ten minutes later, we were walking out of the shop, Crookshanks firmly in Hermione's arms. The boys were headed toward us.

"You bought that monster?" said Ron, his mouth hanging open.

"He's gorgeous, isn't he?" said Hermione, glowing.

"Hermione, that thing nearly scalped me!" said Ron.

"He didn't mean to, did you, Crookshanks?" said Hermione.

"And what about Scabbers?" said Ron, pointing at the lump in his chest pocket. "He needs rest and relaxation! How's he going to get it with that thing around?"

"That reminds me, you forgot your rat tonic," said Hermione, slapping the small red bottle into Ron's hand. "And stop worrying, Crookshanks will be sleeping in my dormitory and Scabbers in yours, what's the problem? Poor Crookshanks, that witch said he'd been in there for ages; no one wanted him."

"Wonder why," said Ron sarcastically as we set off toward the Leaky Cauldron.

We found Mr. Weasley sitting in the bar, reading the Daily prophet. "Harry! Willow!" he said, smiling as he looked up. "How are you?"

"Fine, thanks," said Harry.

"Pretty awesome." I grinned. "How are you?"

"Not bad," he said

We sat down and I glanced at the paper. Sirius Black was staring back at me.

"They still haven't caught him, then?" Harry asked, he too was looking at the paper.

"No," said Mr. Weasley, looking extremely grave. "They've pulled us all off our regular jobs at the Ministry to try and find him, but no luck so far."

"Would we get a reward if we caught him?" asked Ron. "It'd be good to get some more money-"

"Don't be ridiculous, Ron, "said Mr. Weasley, who on closer inspection looked very strained. "Black's not going to be caught by a thirteen-year-old wizard. It's the Azkaban guards who'll get him back, you mark my words."

I was about to say that we couldn't mark them unless he wrote them down, but Mrs. Weasley entered the bar, laden with shopping bags and followed by the twins, Fred and George, the newly elected Head Boy, Percy, and Ginny.

Ginny, who had always been very taken with Harry, seemed even more heartily embarrassed than usual when she saw him, perhaps because he and I had saved her life during their previous year at Hogwarts.

She went very red and muttered "hello" without looking at us.

Percy, however, held out his hand solemnly as though he and Harry had never met and said,

"Harry. How nice to see you." I fell off my chair. I was literally rolling around laughing, but Percy seemed not to notice.

"Hello, Percy," said Harry

"I hope you're well?" said Percy

"Harry!" said Fred, elbowing Percy out of the way and bowing deeply. "Simply splendid to see you, old boy --"

"Marvellous," said George, pushing Fred aside and seizing Harry's hand in turn. "Absolutely spiffing." Percy scowled. I pulled myself up and sat back on my chair. George sat beside me.

"That's enough, now," said Mrs. Weasley. "Mum!" said Fred as though he'd only just spotted her and seizing her hand too. "How really corking to see you --"

"I said, that's enough," said Mrs. Weasley, depositing her shopping in an empty chair. "Hello, Harry, dear. Hi Willow. I suppose you've heard our exciting news?" She pointed to the brand-new silver badge on Percy's chest. "Second Head Boy in the family!" she said, swelling with pride.

"And last," Fred muttered under his breath.

"I don't doubt that, "said Mrs. Weasley, frowning suddenly."I notice they haven't made you two prefects."

"What do we want to be prefects for?" said George, looking revolted at the very idea."It'd take all the fun out of life."

Ginny giggled.

"You want to set a better example for your sister!" snapped Mrs. Weasley. "Ginny's got other brothers to set her an example, Mother, "said Percy arrogantly."I'm going up to change for dinner..." He disappeared and George heaved a sigh.

"We tried to shut him in a pyramid," he told me. "But Mum spotted us."

We spoke for ages and it was almost as though I had been with George this whole time.

OH MY GOD HE WAS SO AMAZING.

Just putting that out there.

Dinner that night was a very enjoyable affair. Tom put three tables together in the parlour, and the seven Weasleys, Harry, Hermione and I ate our way through five delicious courses.

"How're we getting to King's Cross tomorrow, Dad?" asked Fred as they dug into a luxurious chocolate pudding.

"The Ministry's providing a couple of cars," said Mr. Weasley. Everyone looked up at him.

"Why?" said Percy curiously.

"It's because of you, Perce," said George seriously. "And there'll be little flags on the hoods, with HB on them"

"-- for Humongous Bighead, " said Fred. Everyone except Percy and Mrs. Weasley snorted into their pudding.

"Why are the Ministry providing cars, Father?" Percy asked again, in a dignified voice.

"Well, as we haven't got one anymore, "said Mr. Weasley, "-- and as I work there, they're doing me a favour--"

His voice was casual, but I couldn't help noticing that Mr. Weasley's ears had gone red, just like Ron's did when he was under Pressure.

"Good thing, too, "said Mrs. Weasley briskly. "Do you realize how much luggage you've all got between you? A nice sight you'd be on the Muggle Underground... You are all packed, aren't you?"

"Ron hasn't put all his new things in his trunk yet," said Percy, in a long-suffering voice. "He's dumped them on my bed."

"You'd better go and pack properly, Ron, because we won't have much time in the morning," Mrs. Weasley called down the table. Ron scowled at Percy.

I don't think it was rocket science, but everyone seemed to notice George and my 'thing'. It was obvious that we were holding hands under the table.

After dinner everyone felt very full and sleepy. One by one everyone made their way upstairs to their rooms.

I was about to head up, when Mrs. Weasley caught my arm.

This is going to be awkward isn't it?

"Hi Willow." She said in a rather pointed voice.

"Hi Mrs Weasley." I said awkwardly. She laughed at me.

"You two look cute together." I was beyond awkward and felt freaking weird. She smiled at my reaction. I am pretty sure I had a weird arse expression.

After a long awkward moment, I finally headed back up to my room and heard shouts and stuff coming from Ron's room.

"I'll get Scabbers's stuff, I'm packed," Harry's voice sounded. I ran into him as he turned out of Ron and Percy's room.

"Ron and Percy are arguing. I need to get Ron's rat tonic. He thinks he left it in the parlour." Harry explained as though I had asked.

"They are always arguing" I exclaimed. "Seriously! Who put them in a room together?"

"I know right."

We went downstairs and were halfway along the passage to the bar, which was now very dark, when we heard another pair of angry voices coming from the parlour. A second later, I recognized them as Mr. And Mrs. Weasleys'.

We hesitated, not wanting them to know he'd heard them arguing, when the sound of Harry's name made us stop, then move closer to the parlour door.

"--makes no sense not to tell him, "Mr. Weasley was saying heatedly. "Harry's got a right to know. I've tried to tell Fudge, but he insists on treating Harry like a child. He's thirteen years old and-"

"Arthur, the truth would terrify him!" said Mrs. Weasley shrilly. "Do you really want to send Harry back to school with that hanging over him? For heaven's sake, he's happy not knowing!"

"I don't want to make him miserable, I want to put him on his guard!" retorted Mr. Weasley. "You know what Harry and Ron are like, wandering off by themselves--they've ended up in the Forbidden Forest twice! But Harry mustn't do that this year! When I think what could have happened to him that night he ran away from home! If the Knight Bus hadn't picked him up, I'm prepared to bet, he would have been dead before the Ministry found him."

"But he's not dead, he's fine, so what's the point"

"Molly, they say Sirius Black's mad, and maybe he is, but he was clever enough to escape from Azkaban, and that's supposed to be impossible. It's been three weeks, and no one's seen hide nor hair of him, and I don't care what Fudge keeps telling the Daily Prophet, we're no nearer catching Black than inventing self-spelling wands. The only thing we know for sure is what Black's after"

"But Harry will be perfectly safe at Hogwarts."

"We thought Azkaban was perfectly safe. If Black can break out of Azkaban, he can break into Hogwarts."

"But no one's really sure that Black's after Harry."

There was a thud on wood, and I was sure Mr. Weasley had banged his fist on the table.

"Molly, how many times do I have to tell you? They didn't report it in the press because Fudge wanted it kept quiet, but Fudge went out to Azkaban the night Black escaped. The guards told Fudge that Blacks been talking in his sleep for a while now. Always the same words: 'He's at Hogwarts... He's at Hogwarts. 'Black is deranged, Molly, and he wants Harry dead. If you ask me, he thinks murdering Harry will bring You-Know-Who back to power. Black lost everything the night Harry stopped You-Know-Who, and he's had twelve years alone in Azkaban to brood on that..."

"Well, Arthur, you must do what you think is right. But you're forgetting Albus Dumbledore. I don't think anything could hurt Harry at Hogwarts while Dumbledore's headmaster. I suppose he knows about all this?"

"Of course he knows. We had to ask him if he minds the Azkaban guards stationing themselves around the entrances to the school grounds. He wasn't happy about it, but he agreed."

"Not happy? Why shouldn't he be happy, if they're there to catch Black?"

"Dumbledore isn't fond of the Azkaban guards," said Mr. Weasley heavily.

"Nor am I, if it comes to that... But when you're dealing with a wizard like Black, you sometimes have to join forces with those you'd rather avoid."

"If they save Harry then I will never say another word against them," said Mr. Weasley wearily."It's late, Molly, we'd better go up... "

I heard chairs move. As quietly as we could, we hurried down the passage to the bar and out of sight. The parlour door opened, and a few seconds later footsteps told me that Mr. And Mrs. Weasley were climbing the stairs. The bottle of rat tonic was lying under the table they had sat at earlier. We waited until he heard Mr. And Mrs. Weasley's bedroom door close, then headed back upstairs with the bottle.

"Harry?" I said softly.

"Tomorrow." He said simply.

Fred and George were crouching in the shadows on the landing, heaving with laughter as they listened to Percy dismantling his and Ron's room in search of his badge.

"We've got it," Fred whispered. "We've been improving it."

The badge now read Bighead Boy. We forced a laugh, went to give Ron the rat tonic, then shut ourselves in our rooms.

So Sirius Black was after Harry. This explained everything. Fudge had been lenient with him because he was so relieved to find him alive. He'd made Harry promise to stay in Diagon Alley where there were plenty of wizards to keep an eye on him. And he was sending two Ministry cars to take us all to the station tomorrow, so that the Weasleys could look after Harry until he was on the train.

Well, if I do say so myself, our life is never normal.

I grabbed my diary and one of the quills Hermione had gotten me for my birthday.

Dear Diary,

My life is never normal.

List of times I have nearly (or kind of have) died.

- Lucius Malfoy at Christmas.

- Cutting myself that time.

- Quirrell/ Voldemort during the attempt to save the philosophers stone.

- Getting stabbed.

- Looking the Basilisk in the eye.

- Spiders, even though I was all ghostly at the time.

- Going back down into the chamber of secrets.

- Basilisk again.

- I'm adding when I jumped of the basilisk.

- I'm also adding listening to Lockhart for a year. That could kill anyone.

Ten things and I'm not even fourteen yet.

Brilliant.