My Love For You

Chapter 8: Sirius and Fifth Year

(Harry's POV)

Ron, Hermione, and Kiara haven't been sending me letters. It's been weeks and months since Hogwarts let out for the summer holidays.

So I'm just stuck at the Dursley's doing nothing except homework and digging newspapers out of bins to find some news. Why have they left me? I feel as if I'm losing my mind.

~~~

The Dursleys went out this evening, so I've just been sitting in my bedroom; the most I can do is have fun this summer.

Suddenly, I hear footsteps outside my door. Are they back? It's only been an hour. I hear a faint "Lumos," and a light shines under my door.

I whip out my wand, knowing I can't use it. I don't need to have an expulsion on my plate as well.

The door slowly opens. The face of a purple-haired woman appears, followed by Mad-Eye, Lupin, and others.

"Hello, Harry," Lupin says. "I should introduce everyone. You know Mad-Eye already---"

"Damn right he does. I taught him last year."

"---yes." He ignored the details that Barty Crouch trapped him in that box. "And Nymphadora--"

"Don't call me Nymphadora, Remus." The purple-haired woman turns to me. "It's Tonks."

Lupin continues. "--Nymphadora Tonks, who only prefers to be called by surname. Then we have Kingsley,--" An African American in blue/purple robes waves to me.

"--Delgus Diggle--" A man in a top hat bouncing on his toes.

"--and lastly, Hestia Jones." A brown-haired woman smiles at me.

"Now we're all acquainted; we should get Harry's things."

Tonks follows me down to the cupboard. She takes out her wand and mutters, "Alohomora." I grab my trunk and broom. "Wow! A Firebolt? I'm still stuck on a Comet Two Sixty."

~~~

Once we're all outside, Mad-Eye waves his wand, and my trunk disappears to our destination. We then take flight on brooms.

It's fun to fly around London, passing by the palace and Elizabeth Tower.

We land in a quaint little neighborhood. "Where is the house?" I ask.

Mad-Eye raises a finger to silence me as he taps a few bricks. The house appears, out between two houses. We walk inside.

~~~

(Kiara's POV)

Hermione, Ron, and I sat upstairs in mine and Hermione's bedroom. We hear footsteps outside the door, realizing it's finally Harry.

Hermione and I leap forward to hug him as soon as he opens the door. Harry walks in, closing the door and hugging us closely.

Then he lets go. "Why didn't anyone tell me about all this?"

Hermione speaks up. "The Order of the Phoenix. Dumbledore made us swear not to tell you anything."

Harry becomes a little angrier. "So tHAT'S what you've been doing?! Cooped up here thinking and laughing about what I'm doing?! I've dug through the trash to find newspapers; I'm so desperate for news. And now I can't know anything?!"

"We wanted to tell you--" I start, putting my head on his shoulder, "We wanted to, but they forced us not to! I tried to send a letter, but Moody snatched my owl from the air! Oh, Harry! We're sorry!"

Harry laid a hand on my back to hush me. "Shh...sorry...I lost my temper again...."

Suddenly, Fred and George apparate in the room. "'Ello, everyone, 'Ello, Harry."

Fred pulls out a long string with ears on each side. "Check it. We can listen in on the meeting."

"Extendable Ears," explains George.

We walk out and go to the top of the stairwell. Lowering one ear, Harry listens in the other. The adults are talking about their organization, Dumbledore, and Snape.

We're listening intently until the noise goes fuzzy from Crookshanks pawing at the ear. He chews on it and rips it away from us.

"Damned cat," spits Ron, causing Harry and me to chuckle.

~~~

Time to go to Kings Cross to go to the Hogwarts Express. We all run around, putting trunks in the car.

Fred and George get an earful from Mrs. Weasley. "JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE ALLOWED TO USE MAGIC NOW DOES NOT MEAN YOU HAVE TO WHIP YOUR WANDS OUT FOR EVERYTHING!!"

We scramble into the Ministry car. Sirius transforms and sits in the seat between Harry and me. "Oh, Sirius!" whines Molly, "The upholstery! We're borrowing this remember?"

When we arrive at Kings Cross, Sirius goes into a waiting room and asks Harry to follow. I notice he hands Harry a small box, hugs him, and transforms into a dog again to leave.

Harry walks out, and we grab our trunks and run through Platform 9 3/4.

"Wanna find a compartment?" Harry asks.

I reply, "Sure." But Ron and Hermione shake their heads.

"We're prefects now, so we have to go to that compartment first." says Hermione, "We'll meet up afterward."

"Okay," Harry and I say, and Harry takes my hand so we can look for one with Ginny.

~~~

We walk along to find Neville, and together we find a compartment occupied by only one person.

Ginny greets her, "Hi, Luna."

She looks up and waves at Ginny, replying in a soft, peaceful voice. "Come, sit. I don't mind."

We sit down in the compartment, and I point at her magazine. "Whatcha reading?"

"The Quibbler." She beams, "My father's the editor."

"Sweet. You do realize it's upside down, right?"

Luna giggled, "You can see things differently if you just look at a new perspective." I shrug, affirming that I've never thought that before.

~~~

We sat down in the Great Hall, and Draco walked over to us. "Hey, Kiara. Hey, everyone."

"Hey," I smile, "How was your break?"

"Dreadful. I'm so exhausted from--" Draco stops, with a face that tells us he shouldn't have said anything.

"From what?" Harry interrogates.

Draco shakes his head. "No. I can't say."

"Is it," I lower my voice to barely a whisper, "You-Know-Who?" He cracks a shy smile, confirming my suspicion.

We all gasp, and Draco turns beet red. "Please don't say anything!" He whisper-shouts, "It's just how my family is, and they've been teaching me what to do to follow with them."

I sigh, "As long as you don't see yourself ever siding with him. I'm fine with it." Draco hugged me as a thank you and went to sit at the Slytherin table for sorting.

~~~

Harry and I walked to the common room while Ron and Hermione gave the 1st years a tour. Harry turns to look at me as we enter the tapestry shortcut.

"Do you have any feelings for Draco?"

I stopped walking, surprised that he'd ask that. "Harry, you know I don't. At least no romantic feelings."

Harry moved closer, taking my hands. "I guess... I was worried that you'd left me after being alone all summer."

I kissed him. "Harry, I love you. And Draco understands that." He clicked his tongue and sighed, but I turned his head to look at me. "I can tell that I hurt Draco for a while, but he hadn't bullied us since the First Task last year. I'm opening up to a friendship with him, and I'm telling the truth that I still don't trust him enough if I ever pursued him romantically." I looked Harry dead in the eyes and repeated, "I love you, Harry."

He grinned so wide and picked me up, swinging me around before kissing me. "I love you too, Kiara."

~~~