Chapter One
Manual Labor
Harry had planned to sleep late on his first day of summer vacation. He felt as if he needed to
sleep for a year after what he’d been through during his fourth year of wizarding training. Harry
Potter was possibly the most famous wizard in the world, apart from the dark wizard who had
killed his parents. And now he was probably even more famous, having won the Triwizard
Tournament just a couple of weeks ago. But he was only famous in the wizarding world; in the
non-magical, Muggle world, he was just an annoyance to his aunt and uncle and cousin. He just
wanted to sleep late and try to forget everything that had happened to him during the previous
ten months.
But instead, he awoke at seven-thirty in the morning to the shouts of workmen, the squeal and
grinding of a backhoe, and the shrill voice of his aunt shouting instructions to the workers who
had been hired to relandscape the garden at Four Privet Drive, where Harry felt about as
welcome as an arsonist in a paper factory. It was impossible to continue to sleep with all the
racket, so Harry resigned himself to it and threw back the sheet, sitting on the edge of the bed
and fumbling on his bedside table for his glasses. The room came into focus now, littered with
wizarding paraphernalia that was spilling out of his trunk, which he had not properly unpacked
yet. He rose to walk to the wardrobe and stood looking at his reflection in the mirror on the
inside of the door.
He had grown several inches during the previous year, and the bottoms of his pajama pants
hovered around his shins. He’d been so busy just trying to stay alive through the Triwizard
Tournament that he hadn’t even noticed that he now had a full-blown Adam’s apple. He tried to
sing a little of his school’s song, to see how his voice sounded. Traditionally, at Hogwart’s
School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, everyone sang the school song to a different tune. He was
partial to Loch Lomond and started singing, “I’ll take the high road and you’ll take the low
road....” but it came out sounding rather like a cross between a garden gnome being sat on by a
dragon and a rabid cat being kicked about. He cleared his throat and tried again, managing this
time to produce a recognizable tune in a reedy tenor, causing him to be optimistic, but halfway
through the first verse, his voice cracked and made a noise that was so startling that his snowy
owl Hedwig squawked in her cage and flapped her wings agitatedly.
There was a sudden silence in the garden, and one of the workmen yelled, “What in the hell was

was being blocked. His chest was pale and flat and hairless, he was still so thin that his ribs
showed beneath the skim-milk skin. He tried flexing his muscles; he turned his head to look in
the mirror. Ludicrous. In a month he would be fifteen, and he had no muscles to flex.
Then he lowered his arms and examined the other Voldemort-related scar he bore; the cut on
the inside of his right elbow where Wormtail had taken his blood to add to the cauldron where
he was brewing the potion that would resurrect Lord Voldemort. His blood--the blood of a
foe-- was the final ingredient needed for Voldemort to get his body back, after bones from his
father’s grave and flesh from a servant (Wormtail had cut off his own hand and had been
rewarded with a new silver one).
Harry shook himself to clear his head, to rid himself of the horrific image of Wormtail writhing
on the ground, holding his bloody stump of an arm...
The workmen had started up again, yelling to each other, and, like a descant above their chorus,
his aunt harangued them about the way they were doing the work. His uncle’s drill plant was
doing very well, and he had told Aunt Petunia that she could have the garden redesigned so that
she could impress her garden club. She had hired a garden designer, whose plan the workmen
were following, but now she was spending all of her time changing her mind about every detail
at the last possible moment and driving everyone crazy with the resulting chaos.
Harry put on some shorts and a T-shirt, pulled on his socks and sneakers and went out the door
after slipping Hedwig an owl treat. In the kitchen, his uncle was reading the morning paper and
preparing to bite down on a bit of bacon that had the requisite bloody paper sitting on the part
he was about to put in his mouth. Harry stifled a laugh and thrust his head into the refrigerator to
look for food, so no one could see his expression.
Harry sat down at the table with some orange juice and a banana he picked out of a bowl on
the counter, then took a piece of buttered toast from a plate on the table. His cousin Dudley
was sitting at the table already, almost done his frugal breakfast of yogurt and fruit and a rice
cake. He’d been upgraded from grapefruit because he’d actually been pretty good at sticking to
his diet at school the previous year. To Harry’s eyes he did look noticeably smaller, even a little
muscular, rather than like a mound of quivering blanc mange. Since Harry had been home,
Dudley had even been reasonably civil to him, helping him carry his trunk up to his room from
the car, and bragging about all the weight he’d lost. He didn’t ask Harry anything about how his

afraid that Harry could do magic on contact. Harry read the letter.
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Dursley,
I am writing to you because I am concerned about Harry. I wish I could have him
with me and look after him myself, but as you know, my legal status in the
wizarding community makes that impossible; even if I continue to successfully
elude the authorities, traveling with the most famous young wizard in the world
will make me appear somewhat conspicuous, and will do nothing to enhance
Harry’s safety. The headmaster of Hogwart’s feels that he is safest with you for
the summer, but I want to caution you not to make life unduly stressful for him,
as he has experienced an inordinate amount of stress this year.
Harry may not have told you about this, because he is very modest, but he is the
winner of the Triwizard Tournament that was held at his school this year for the
first time in over a century, and he is the youngest winner ever. Another reason
he may not tell you this is not modesty, however, but because he does not wish to
remember what occurred at the end of the Tournament, when he was transported
to a place where the same dark wizard who betrayed his parents was preparing
to resurrect the Dark Lord who actually killed them.
Harry experienced horrible things that day, including seeing a fellow schoolmate


killed before his very eyes. He dueled with Lord Voldemort himself and escaped
with his life, returning with his schoolmate’s body so that his parents could
mourn over him and give him a proper burial. He did more than many adult
wizards could have--or would have--done, and has made me very proud of him,
for his moral strength and integrity as much as his magical ability. All signs point
to Harry one day being a very powerful and formidable wizard. Please treat him
well--he won’t be in school forever.
I will come to accompany Harry to do his school shopping near the end of the
summer, and to deliver him to the school train on September the first.
Sirius Black

International Confed. of Wizards)
Dear Mr. Potter,
As your head-of-house, I am pleased to inform you that I have named you to be a
prefect, effective when the new term begins on September the first. This is a
responsibility that I know you will not take lightly, as your record speaks for


itself. You will be responsible for other students’ conduct when professors are not
present and you will be expected to uphold all school rules and regulations to the
letter. This is an important leadership position. We expect nothing but the best
from our prefects. Both of your parents were prefects, and I know they would be
proud of you.
As a prefect, you will have access to certain school facilities that are not
available to the general student population, and you will be required to attend
regular meetings of all of the prefects in the fifth, sixth and seventh years, which
are led jointly by the Head Boy and Head Girl, who will be Roger Davies of
Ravenclaw House and Alicia Spinnet of our own Gryffindor House.
Congratulations, Harry! I look forward to welcoming you as a prefect on
September the first.
Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress
Harry looked at the accompanying list of new fifth-year prefects.
Gryffindor
Hermione Granger
Harry Potter
Hufflepuff
Hannah Abbot
Ernie MacMillan
Ravenclaw

Hermione from the lake on the school grounds during one of the tournament tasks. Harry would
write to Hermione later, on the pretense of congratulating her on being named a prefect.
Then it hit him: Hagrid! He pulled some parchment and a quill and some ink from his messy
trunk and sat down at his desk to write a quick note to Hagrid to tell him he was going to be a
prefect; he knew Hagrid wouldn’t think he was crowing or putting on airs, he would be
genuinely happy for him. Hagrid was one of his best friends, a large half-giant who had been
expelled from Hogwarts in his third year because he was thought to have opened the Chamber
of Secrets (he was framed by Voldemort himself, who fifty years earlier had simply been the
student Tom Riddle). After that, he landed the job of gamekeeper at the school, where he’d
been ever since. It had been Hagrid who had come to fetch him to Hogwarts when he was
eleven and had no idea that he was famous or a wizard or even that his parents had been
assassinated by a Dark Lord, not killed in a car accident, as he’d always been told by his aunt
and uncle (in an extremely nasty tone of voice, as though it were all their own fault and they
richly deserved it).
He finished the note to Hagrid and tied it onto Hedwig’s leg, giving her the rest of the bacon
before she flew off, hearing another shout go up as the landscapers were alarmed by yet another
owl flying about in the daytime. Oops, thought Harry. I shouldn’t have done that. Aunt Petunia’ll
be having kittens...
He wasn’t exactly sure where Hedwig was going to find Hagrid, but he was certain that
wherever he was she would in fact find him. Harry knew that Dumbledore had sent him to the
continent on a diplomatic mission to speak to giants about uniting against Voldemort, now that
he was back in power. Voldemort was counting on the giants being on his side, and
Dumbledore knew he had better do something to guarantee their loyalty before Voldemort got
to them. Dumbledore was also worried that Voldemort would find a way to get to the
Dementors and turn them to his side; they were the guards at the wizarding prison Azkaban,
where his godfather had been incarcerated (without a trial) for twelve years before his
unprecedented escape. Dementors were eerie and had given Harry nightmares at one time; in
his third year, when he was learning to fight boggarts (which always turned into whatever the
person feared most) his boggart always turned into a dementor. He had learned to fight it by
conjuring a Patronus. He had a feeling that these days, if he encountered a boggart, it would no

his pallor was a thing of the past, and his lack of visible muscles was starting to be a thing of the
past, too, as the work began to have a defining effect on his body.
After he’d been working with the landscapers for a week, he was startled by a small garden
snake slithering past him while he leaned back and soaked up some sun after lunch. The snake
caught his attention because she was talking, and he could understand every word she said.
The snake was muttering, “Find a perfectly good home and the next thing you know, it’s being
rent asunder, great yahoos tromping all over the place, digging up my favorite flower beds...”
Even though he had known since he was in his second year in school that he was a Parselmouth
(someone who can understand and speak snake language) he didn’t often think of it. He seldom
had any contact with snakes. He spoke to the snake now, though.
“Sorry about all this. It was my aunt’s idea. It may be going on for a few more weeks, I’m
afraid.”
The snake stopped moving and lifted her head and seemed--if it was possible for a snake to do
this--that she had a shocked expression on her face. “What did you say?”
“I said that it was my aunt’s idea. Messing up your home like this. If you like, maybe I could
help you find some other garden to live in.”
“No,” the snake said. “What I meant was, I’ve never been spoken to by a human in my own
language before. I hear humans speak Human language. But never mine.”
“Oh,” Harry said, hissing. “I’m a Parselmouth. I’m going into my fifth year of wizarding school.
When I was a baby, a very powerful wizard who was also a Parselmouth tried to kill me and
failed, and some of his abilities transferred themselves to me. But I don’t get to be around
snakes much, so I tend to forget I can do it.”
“I have heard of wizards, and I have heard legends of wizards who could speak Parseltongue,
but I never believed it.”
“Well, it’s pretty rare. One time I talked to a boa constrictor. He told me he’d never been to
Brazil. He lived in the zoo, but I accidentally freed him.”


“What is a boa constrictor?” she asked. She paused. “ They are looking at you,” the snake
suddenly informed him, before she went slithering off into a bush. Harry looked up to see the

of the Quidditch World Cup the previous summer. Quidditch was a wizarding sport played on
broomsticks, and Harry played Seeker on his house team at school. He looked down and
finished reading Hermione’s letter.
So, since Viktor will be working in England, he can meet me in Hogsmeade on
weekends when we’re allowed to go down to the village. You don’t think they’ll
cancel Hogsmeade visits now that You-Know-Who is back, do you?
Here’s a photo of me and my parents at the Parthenon. Next we’re going on to
Corfu. Please take care of yourself and tell Dumbledore and Sirius right away
about your scar hurting or anything else that could indicate dark magic. Missing
you.
Love from Hermione
Harry looked at the photo she had enclosed; it was a Muggle picture, no moving people in it.
Hermione stood with her parents in front of a large Greek temple, both of them with their arms


around her, their little girl who was not so little anymore. She was wearing a very tight sleeveless
white top and a matching skirt that was very brief. Her exposed arms and legs were already
very brown, and then he noticed that she’d cut her hair; it was rather short, curling all over her
head in a free and yet much more orderly way than it usually did. The shorter haircut seemed to
work much better with her hair’s natural wave, and he almost didn’t recognize her at first. But
after squinting at it for a moment, he could tell from the nose and shape of the face and the way
she smiled that it was her. She wore dark glasses against the glaring Greek sun and looked quite
happy, enjoying a trip to the Greek Islands with her folks. Harry caught his breath for a moment
and thought, I just hope they’re safe. What if Voldemort tries to get to her while she’s traveling?
Harry had mentioned to Sirius that he was concerned that Voldemort would try to coerce him
to do his bidding by coming after Ron and Hermione. Sirius agreed that that was a danger, but
he took a wait-and-see attitude, and promised to discreetly check in on each of them during
summer vacation.
Then he looked up in surprise as Ron’s owl, Pigwidgeon, flew in with a letter. Ron’s owl was
very small and could be held in the palm of one’s hand, and he was also very excitable, yet not



ignorant of the wizarding world...but he couldn’t. His life was so different now from the way it
was before his eleventh birthday, it was as though those pre-magic years were lived by
someone else.
After grabbing a quick breakfast, Harry went out into the garden. It was very early, so no one
else had shown up yet, and Harry started moving rocks about. After about half an hour, Dick
came walking up the path from the street, alone. Harry looked up in surprise.
“Morning, Harry.”
“Morning, Dick. Where’s everyone else?”
Dick looked about sixty, but Harry was just guessing; he was as brown and leathery as you
could hope a gardener to be, with silvery hair swept back from his face and kind blue eyes.
Harry was sometimes reminded of Dumbledore when he saw him. Dick put his hand on his chin
now and looked as if he were reluctant to deliver some bad news.
“Well, the thing of it is, we’ve gotten another job, and they’re payin’ double for it to be done
quick. Plus, your aunt has--well, made my men reluctant to work here anymore.” He paused
and looked around the incomplete garden. “But, we do have a contract, so I’ll stay on here and
continue this job, and a few times a day I’ll check in with my men on the other job. You still
want to help me, Harry?”
Harry smiled at him and nodded. “Of course. I’ve been enjoying myself.”
Dick sighed and looked his age for once. “Some’s have the right to do it just for enjoyment;
some’s have to do it to make a living.”
Harry flushed, thinking of all the gold in his vault at the wizarding bank, Gringott’s. Ron was
touchy about money, too, and was upset with Harry for not telling him that some leprechaun
gold he’d given Harry had disappeared the following day; leprechaun gold was apparently not
permanent.
So he and Dick got to work on the garden, and things slowed down considerably. Harry didn’t
mind, though; he wasn’t especially fond of working with a crowd. After it had been just the two
of them for several days, it seemed like it had always been like that. It was very comfortable
working with Dick; he wasn’t much of a talker. They ate lunch together companionably in the

disregarded it. He was sure it had been a snake’s voice he’d heard, the same snake he’d talked
to before. He didn’t quite hear his aunt complaining bitterly about the work not getting done,
and ranting about the plants Harry had crushed. Harry moved about in a daze, ignoring her at
first, then facing her stonily and said, “I’ll do it.” She looked at him through shrewd, narrowed
eyes, eyes that wondered what he was up to. “If you pay me,” he added. He tried to come up
with an amount he knew his aunt couldn’t refuse--he mustn’t get too greedy. “Five pounds a
day,” he said, drawing himself up to his full height of five-feet six-inches, looking her in the eye.
He was as tall as her now.
She narrowed her eyes even more, looking for the catch, but it was a low enough amount that
even she couldn’t argue. She agreed and went back into the house, leaving Harry to look
around the garden helplessly, feeling guilty and alone. He swept his eyes over the entire garden
quickly, but he didn’t see the snake, so he tried calling softly, “Here snake, here snake...” but it
sounded like English; he wasn’t speaking Parseltongue. She must not be nearby, he thought. He
worked for the rest of the afternoon alone, stacking the rocks in the corner more securely, and
assessing the damage from his having thrown them about to remove them from Dick.
He collected five pounds from his aunt at the end of the day, making himself a sandwich for
dinner and then rolling into bed early, aching all over. Now, every day, he got up with the sun,
showered and dressed, and went out to the garden to continue his solitary labor. A few days
after Dick’s leg was crushed, Harry was basking in the sun after eating lunch when he heard a
hissing voice near him.
“How is your friend? Why did you not tell him about the rocks?”
Harry looked around, then saw the snake near his feet. She was about twenty inches long and
dull green, with glittering eyes and vertical pupils, like a cat’s. “He’ll be okay. I--don’t know
why I didn’t tell him. I didn’t realize that--that--”
“That snakes have the Sight?” she hissed softly. Harry nodded. His least favorite class at school
was Potions, because he couldn’t stand Professor Snape. But at least he did feel that Potions
were useful, that he was learning something important. He thought that his most useless class
was Divination. Professor Trelawney seemed to enjoy spending every class predicting Harry’s
untimely death. According to her, he was supposed to have died dozens of times over by now.
Harry had never seen anything while staring in a crystal ball or at a lump of tea leaves in a

Cassandra is a little long to say all the time, so I’ll just call you Sandy for short.”
“For short what?”
Harry was starting to get a little impatient with the snake; just because you could talk to snakes,
he thought, didn’t mean you could really talk to them. “For a nickname. A nickname is like a
shorter version of your name.”
“What is your nickname?”
“Well, I guess it’s Harry,” he said, never having considered it before. He’d never seen his birth
certificate. Was his real name Harold? Or Harrison? Or it could be that his whole name was just
plain Harry. He had no idea.
“But that is your name.”
“I know.” Now Harry was really tired of explaining concepts to the snake that every human just
knew. He wanted to get back to work. He put his shirt back on, shivering; some clouds had
passed in front of the sun.
“Harry Potter,” the snake said suddenly.
“Yes, Sandy?” Harry said, trying out her new name.
“I want to try your arm.”
“What?”
“The sun is hidden. I am cold. You talked about wearing me on your arm. I am very cold.”
He picked her up, enjoying the feel of her smooth skin, and carefully wrapped her twice about
his upper left arm. She adjusted her tail and settled her chin on it, letting out an audible sigh.
Harry smiled. She didn’t weigh more than a few ounces; no wonder she can only see a short


distance into the future, he thought.
Harry worked the rest of the day with her wrapped about his arm, and they talked every so
often. He tried to speak simply and clearly to her, as though she were a little dim, but he tried
not to be insulting. He didn’t want to confuse her about human concepts she’d never been
exposed to before. She seemed to be trying to speak simply to him too, as though he were not
quite bright enough to understand otherwise. When he was having trouble lifting a very heavy
rock--not one that had fallen on Dick--she told him she had heard the other workers telling

with every step, as though he’d just learned to walk. He staggered up the stairs to the bathroom
for a shower, collapsing in a heap in the corner of the stall while the water beat down on him.
For the next week, he didn’t get much done in the garden; running in the mornings had him all
done in, and he felt like he was just dragging himself around the rest of the day. By Saturday, his
aunt and uncle were complaining about how slowly the work was going, and Harry actually
didn’t blame them; he felt that if he were moving any slower, he’d be going backwards.


“Sorry,” he said at dinner, barely able to keep his head from falling into his plate. “I’ve been
trying to build up my stamina by running in the mornings. I only just started, so I’m not really
there yet. But I’ll work over the weekend too, don’t worry...”
He was startled by a light coming into his aunt’s eyes. “Is that what you’ve been doing?
Running!” He could virtually see the little wheels in her head spinning around. “In that case, you
have another job--unpaid, I might add. You can be Dudley’s trainer!”
Dudley looked up from his celery sticks and lettuce; the rest of them had pork chops and
potatoes and buttered beans. Harry and Dudley looked at each other, equally horrified.
“But Mum--”
“But Aunt Petunia--”
“But nothing!” his aunt declared. “You start tomorrow!”
Harry and Dudley both grimaced, looking warily at each other. There’d been an uneasy detente
in the house since Harry’s return, but that didn’t mean they wanted to do things together,
especially running every morning. Harry had in fact been getting better and better every morning.
That day he had run back and forth to the park twice, keeping a good steady pace the whole
time and feeling more energized at the start of his work day than winded. It was starting to
work. He had also learned about warming up and warming down before and after running from
a report on the evening news, and he wasn’t cramping up now, as he had on his third day out.
The next morning, he knocked on Dudley’s door after he had gotten dressed. There was no
answer. Harry turned the knob and entered.
Dudley was still in bed, fast asleep. Harry looked around his room; Dudley’s room was a dream
for any fifteen-year-old boy. He had two televisions and video recorders, a state-of-the-art

possibly, Harry thought, considering his chances with Julia in September...
Harry slowed down some, although he still was literally running rings around Dudley. He would
jog forward about a half-block, then jog back to Dudley, stay by his side for another half-block
until the pace started to frustrate him too much, then sprint forward again, only to backtrack
once more to be by Dudley’s side again. When they finally reached the park, Dudley just
wanted to collapse on the grass, but Harry wouldn’t let him.
“Stretching now,” he told him. “Should have done it before we left, but now will do. Otherwise
you’ll cramp up.” He demonstrated for Dudley, who gamely tried all of it, even reaching for his
toes (he wasn’t even close). Harry nodded at him, surprised that he was doing as well as he
was. He wouldn’t have thought Dudley would be able to do half of what he had, let alone do it
without constant whining.
After the stretching, Harry told him to get up for the run back. Dudley did better this time; he
and Harry actually jogged side by side much of the way back to Privet Drive, although Harry
felt as though he were holding himself back. When they reached the front gate, Harry told him
they had to do warm-down stretches, and Dudley nodded, red-faced and panting, complying
without a word. When they were done, they rose to enter the house and Harry simply slapped
Dudley on the back, giving him a small smile. Dudley gave a tired smile back, but it seemed to
be a great effort, and it ceased quickly as Dudley closed his eyes and staggered up the stairs to
the bathroom for a shower. As Harry watched him go, it seemed to him that in the time it had
taken them to run to the park and back, something had somehow changed between them. He
wiped his sweat from his forehead with his arm as he walked to the kitchen, then turned on the
faucet at the sink, bent his head under it, and proceeded to drink directly from the tap.
After a week, Dudley was actually running by Harry’s side every morning, although Harry was
still going slower than he would have liked, and sometimes sprinted ahead and then back to
Dudley again. He usually drank a good deal of water and had some food while Dudley
showered, then took his turn. He was so busy working on training Dudley and doing the
landscaping seven days a week that his birthday crept up on him.
On the morning of July thirty-first, Dudley came into Harry’s room to wake him up, instead of
the other way around, as was their usual routine. It was a Monday morning, bright and humid,
and Harry was particularly tired because he’d stayed up late reading for his History of Magic

Dudley backed up into a corner, alarmed by the four owls flying around the room, but trying to
look composed. Harry took the packages from them, one by one, gave each of them owl treats,
and sent each of them on their way except for Hedwig, who settled down into her cage for a
nap. Harry tore the paper off Sirius’ package first. He set the card up on a shelf and then
looked at the large book in his hands: Sorcerers, Serpents and Snakes by Colleen Colubra.
Inside, Sirius had inscribed it: “Dear Harry--Happy Fifteenth Birthday! From your
godfather,”; and there followed a scrawl wherein Harry could vaguely make out an S and a B,
but which was otherwise illegible. Harry started to page through the book, grinning. This looked
like it might have something useful in it. He wanted to start reading it right away, but instead he
forced himself to move on to Hagrid’s package. It had some kind of very sweet-smelling pastry
with honey and walnuts in it, which Hagrid identified as a Ukrainian version of baklava. “...not
that I’m saying I’m in Ukraine...” Hagrid’s note said. Harry smiled. Hagrid was terrible at
keeping secrets.
Next he opened Ron’s package. After setting another card up on the shelf above his desk, he
found a cake sent by Ron’s mother, a box of Honeydukes sweets, and a belt with two entwined
snakes for a buckle, and a narrow holster attached to it for his wand. Sirius has been talking,
Harry thought. Then he noticed that there was another card and a small bundle in the bottom of
the Weasley parcel. The card was from Ginny, saying simply, “Happy Birthday, Harry. Love,
Ginny.” He opened the accompanying paper-wrapped lump and found a small amulet on a
silver-colored chain. The amulet was shaped like a basilisk, and it had small glowing green eyes.
He smiled upon seeing it, and immediately put it around his neck. Dudley took the card and
read it, raising his eyebrows at Harry.
“Love, Ginny, huh?”
Harry grimaced, not feeling up to explaining Ginny and the basilisk to Dudley. Finally, he
opened Hermione’s package, which he could already tell--no surprise there--was another
book. Sirius had definitely been talking, for it was a thick text on the care and feeding of snakes.


As Harry opened the card, a photograph went fluttering onto the floor. Harry read the card
while Dudley stooped to pick up the photo.

dark glasses again, as in the Parthenon picture, but she wasn’t smiling this time; she looked
rather serious. Harry felt his mouth go dry.
From what seemed like a million miles away, Harry heard Dudley’s voice saying, “Are you sure
she’s not your girlfriend?” Harry looked up at him, startled, then placed the photo on the shelf
carefully, next to the other one.
“Yeah,” he croaked; his voice had almost finished changing, but not quite. Dudley shook his
head, turning to go.
“Idiot...” he heard his cousin muttering as he left the room. Harry fingered the basilisk around
his neck and looked again at the picture of Hermione on the beach, her glowing skin, her hair a
riot of shining curls, brown touched by gold, unmistakably now a woman and no longer a girl.
He thought of her going to Bulgaria, and suddenly he understood Ron’s annoyance with Viktor
Krum.
After he and Dudley went running, Dudley let him have the first shower. Harry was taking the


day off from gardening after that, though. He sat down to look at the books from Sirius and
Hermione, and he let Dudley try some of the Every Flavor Beans Ron had sent (Dudley was
fine when he got blueberry, treacle tart and even fish and chips, but recoiled when he got one
that tasted unmistakably like furniture polish).
Periodically through the day, Harry looked up at the photos on his shelf, hoping Hermione was
okay, and touching the amulet Ginny had sent, silently wishing for Ron and Ginny and the rest of
the Weasleys to be safe, too.
At dinner, Dudley sounded rather pointed as he asked Harry whether he had had a happy
birthday, and whether he’d had chance to try out his tape player. “If you want a different tape,
just look in my room and take whatever you like,” he added.
Harry thanked him and said that he hadn’t tried it yet, but he thought he would tomorrow, while
he was working in the garden. He didn’t know yet quite what was coming. Now Dudley turned
to his parents, saying, “So! What did you get Harry for his birthday?”
Harry’s Aunt Petunia looked up from her plate, startled. His uncle Vernon stopped with a piece
of meat he’d been chewing stuck in his left cheek pouch. They both looked at their son as



performing magic outside of school.
He went up to his room and sat down on his bed to read more of Sirius’ book, when it
occurred to him that he hadn’t had any birthday cake yet. He got up and opened the box on his
desk, immediately smelling the rich chocolate and cream emanating from it. Then he had an idea,
and he crossed the hall and knocked on Dudley’s door.
“Hey, Dud,” he whispered loudly, sticking his head around the door. “Want some cake?”
Dudley had sat down to play a computer game. “Well, okay. But only a small piece. I’m in
training, you know.”
Harry smiled. “I know.” They went into his room and sat down on the floor, but suddenly
Dudley got up and ran back to his room. He returned with plates and forks and a cake server.
Harry was perplexed as to why these things were in his room.
“When they put me on the diet, Mum cleaned all of the food out of my room I had stashed
there, but she didn’t care about this stuff. I have a service for eight.” Harry smiled and sliced
some cake for them both. “Happy Birthday, Harry,” Dudley said with his mouth full.
Harry swallowed a bite of Mrs. Weasley’s delicious birthday cake and smiled at his cousin.
“You know, Dud, I actually think it is.”
They each tucked in two pieces of cake and said goodnight. Harry took off his shirt, followed
by the rest of his clothes, except for his drawers. He lay back on the bed with his hands behind
his head, gazing across the room at the cards and photos on the shelf, especially the photo of
Hermione on the beach. He fingered the amulet around his neck for a moment; somehow, the
idea of sleeping with it around his neck didn’t bother him the way a shirt did. He took off his
glasses and turned out the light. His birthdays were definitely getting better.
Chapter Three
The Houseguest
The following week was uneventful. Harry and Dudley rose early each morning to go running,
and Harry spent each day after that working in the garden, often wearing Sandy and talking to
her. In the evenings, he read his new books or did summer homework. He had taken to bringing
Sandy in with him at night; he even slept with her on his arm now. At the times she wasn’t on

colonel two streets over); he was clad as someone on safari in Africa, from his bush boots to his
pith helmet with mosquito netting. He even had a machete hanging on his belt, although Harry
noticed his wand in a holster on the other side. Where his knees showed between his khaki
shorts and his knee socks, he was deathly pale, betraying the fact that he had never been on a
safari in his life. His lank black hair was pulled back into a pony tail under the helmet. Harry
stood staring at him in disbelief.
“Nice to see you too, Potter,” he growled. Harry stepped back abruptly as Snape moved
forward, looking around suspiciously, as though expecting an ambush from the light fixture on
the ceiling or the flower arrangement on the hall table. Then a large black dog followed him in,
and Harry sighed with relief.
“Sirius! Thank goodness!” But his godfather did not transform into his human self; he also
sniffed about the hall suspiciously, then seemed to nod at Snape, who went back outside and
summoned some other people who had been standing just outside the circle of light spilling out
into the night from the hall.
The people stepped into the house. It was Hermione and her parents. Harry was as shocked as
he’d been when he’d seen Snape. “Hermione!” was all he could say. The entire Granger family
looked like they’d been through the ringer. They all staggered under the weight of their luggage,
which they’d presumably been lugging from England to the Greek Islands to Bulgaria. He
thought Hermione looked especially exhausted, although he couldn’t see her eyes; she had on
dark glasses. She wore denim shorts that were just above her knees. A large white T-shirt with
a blue and white Greek flag on it was tucked into her shorts and on her feet she wore ruggedlooking hiking sandals. They all looked a bit dusty, as though they had walked there from
Bulgaria.
Harry ushered them into the living room and shut the front door. Dudley and his parents were
now standing in the hall, staring incredulously at the odd party that had invaded their house.
“See here, now--” Harry’s uncle began as he came into the living room with Aunt Petunia and
Dudley close behind. Suddenly, Sirius changed from a large black dog into a human, and Aunt
Petunia crouched behind her husband and screamed. Sirius brushed some dust from his black
robes and smoothed his dark hair back.
“Allow me to introduce myself,” he said, extending his hand to Vernon Dursley. “I am Sirius
Black, Harry’s godfather. We meet at last.”

said, “Your room’s upstairs.” She nodded and followed him out into the hall. Sirius changed
back into a dog, prompting another scream from Aunt Petunia. Snape and the Grangers moved
into the hall with the large black dog.
“Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Dursley,” Snape said in an oily voice, as though speaking to
Muggles were extremely distasteful to him. “We will leave now.”
After the front door shut, Harry and Hermione continued up the stairs. She was still holding her
head up stoically. Harry put down the bags to open the door, then reached in and turned on the
light, letting her go first. He followed her in, placing her luggage on the bed and then standing,
watching her carefully. The room seemed very quiet.
Suddenly Hermione whispered, “Close the door.”
Harry closed it, and immediately, Hermione took off her dark glasses, revealing eyes red from
crying. “Oh, Harry!” She went to Harry and flung her arms about his waist, sobbing into his
chest. Harry slowly put his arms around her, his cheek on the top of her head (he was surprised
to find that he was now several inches taller than her; they used to be the same height) and he
brought up one hand to smooth her hair, surprised at the soft texture of the curls. She had last
hugged him on the train platform at King’s Cross at the end of June, and given him a kiss on the
cheek that surprised him; she had never done that before. But this wasn’t like a brief goodbye
hug; they had never held each other like this while she cried into his chest. They stood that way


for what seemed a long time, then, when she had been simply sagging against his chest for a
while and had stopped crying, he lifted her face to look at her and kissed her gently on the
forehead.
“You’re tired. Get some sleep.”
He went to the door and opened it. She looked at him like a deer caught in the headlights.
“Good night, Hermione.”
“Good night, Harry.”
Harry closed the door gently, finding Dudley in the hall with a questioning look on his face.
Harry shook his head firmly. “She needs to rest.” Dudley nodded and went to his room. Harry
went into his own room and shut the door. He undressed for bed, but paused before getting in

heard you speak Parseltongue one other time: in the Dueling Club second year when you were
telling the snake Malfoy had conjured to leave Justin alone, and everyone thought you were
egging it on.”
“Until I heard Sandy talking in the garden, I forgot I could do it. She’s with me a lot now. It’s
nice to have her to talk to.”


“It is nice to talk to you, too,” Sandy told him. “I have learned much about humans.”
“What did she say?” Hermione wanted to know. Talking about Sandy seemed easier for her
than what Harry really wanted to talk about: the attempted abduction.
He smiled. “She said that she likes talking to me, too, and she’s learned a lot about humans.”
For a moment, he considered telling her about snakes having the Sight. But then he remembered
that he had thought about what it could do for him to have Sandy with him in school for his fifth
year, especially in Divination, telling him what was going to happen in a few minutes...Hermione
would probably consider this cheating, and not worthy of a prefect, or more importantly, not
worthy of him, and he decided not to mention it. He still hadn’t decided whether he would go
through with it. It did smack of cheating, he supposed.
“What’s that?” she said after a prolonged silence, pointing to the amulet. Harry reached down
and fingered it. “It’s a birthday present. From Ginny.”
“Ah,” Hermione said, understanding the connection. Harry thought Hermione probably
wouldn’t have chosen to give him a basilisk amulet if she had been the one down in the
Chamber of Secrets, like Ginny. As it was, Hermione had figured out first that the denizen of the
Chamber was a basilisk, and had looked at it using a mirror. But that didn’t offer her enough
protection, and she had been petrified. She was in a near-death, open-eyed coma, broken only
by a potion made from mandrake root. Hermione didn’t have any romantic ideas about
basilisks.
Suddenly, she looked shrewdly at him. “Are you hiding under those covers for some reason?
Sleeping in the buff?”
Harry was shocked. “No! But--well, close. Just my drawers. Could you--excuse me while I get
dressed? Dudley and I go running every morning.”

They all had some water and Harry led them in doing stretching exercises on the front lawn after
he’d taken Sandy off his arm and put her under a bush to await his return. Hermione wasn’t
used to the warm-up routine, but she caught on fairly quickly. Harry tried not to look at her any
more than was absolutely necessary.
Dudley was making no such effort to avert his eyes, however, and once they started running, he
seemed to purposely position himself behind Hermione for the view. They went back and forth
to the park three times, and Hermione never fell back or seemed to be straining.
After breakfast, Hermione came out to the garden with him to watch him work. She was
dressed in a simple green checked sleeveless blouse and white cotton shorts and sneakers. Her
brown curls were still slightly damp from her shower, and her tan made the whites of her eyes
look very bright. Harry was in his usual black clothes, a sleeveless T-shirt and shorts and black
work boots he’d gotten because the steel toes would protect him if he dropped any stones on
his feet (which he’d done several times). She sat against the wall of the house in the position
she’d taken that morning in his bedroom; arms around her legs, knees drawn up to her chin. It
occurred to Harry that she was trying to be invulnerable to attack; she was a fortress under
siege. He wondered exactly how traumatic the attempted abduction had been, and what
Lucius’ thugs had done to her...
She watched him all morning, silently. He had been wearing his tape player from Dudley to
while away the time while working, or sometimes talking to Sandy, but he had left the gift inside
today, and when Sandy lifted her head and spoke to him, he hissed back softly, “Sorry, Sandy.
We’ll talk later. This isn’t a good time.” The snake accepted this without comment, resting her
head on her tail again and going to sleep.
They ate their lunch in the garden, and as had been his wont, Harry removed his shirt afterward
and leaned back on the grass to get some sun. As the sun beat orangely against his eyelids, he
was vaguely aware that Hermione had moved, then he felt her recline beside him, mere inches
away, and after a few minutes, eyes still closed, he said her name. He got no response at first,
so he said it again. Before he’d gotten the second syllable out, however, she said slightly
impatiently, “I heard you.”
He was silent again for a half-minute, then said, “Sorry. I wasn’t sure. I just wondered whether
you felt like talking yet. About Bulgaria.” He stayed on his back, eyes closed, hoping that if they

still been at his Muggle school in June when they’d done it--whatever ‘it’ was. Then they talked
about me, about the way I looked, and about whether they should do anything--extra--”
That’s what he was afraid of. It was an effort for Harry to remain where he was with his eyes
closed. After another beat, he said, “Go on.”
She took a deep breath and said, “Well, as far as I know, they didn’t do anything--extra. Then
they both pointed their wands at me at the same time--I felt like I couldn’t move--and they both
said an incantation which I can’t remember. It’s possible that they put a memory charm on me
after that, which might be why I can’t remember. You know I only need to hear an incantation
once, and I can usually remember it...”
“I know,” Harry said softly.
“Then--I stopped again. And when I started once more, it was daylight, and I opened my eyes,
and I was lying on the couch in Viktor’s house, and he was lifting me up and calling to my
parents, telling them that I was back, that it was all right...”
“But you’re not convinced of that.”
“Well, it’s not that; it’s just that I don’t know. I’ve got--all this lost time. Who knows?”
Harry reached out his hand blindly, found Hermione’s and laced his fingers through hers. He felt
her grasp his hand almost spasmodically and he squeezed back. They didn’t talk anymore, and
when the alarm on his watch went off, he opened his eyes and got up to work as though nothing
had happened. He let go of Hermione’s hand and put on his shirt. He looked down at her, still
lying on her back, her eyes closed against the sun, tears running out from under her eyelids. He
ached so for her; if there was one thing she needed, it was certainty.
Suddenly she sat up and shook her head impatiently. She wiped her eyes quickly, as though the
tears were merely an irritation, and then got to her feet briskly and said, “Right, then. No point
to me just sitting about and watching you do all the work, is there? What do you want me to
do?”
Harry looked at her, amazed. Was she just going to pretend that she hadn’t been discussing