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Bleary eyed, Lori sat up in bed and yawned loudly, shaking Cedric awake after she heard her mother bustle into the landing, talking loudly down to Ginny in the kitchen of the Burrow.
"What is it?" Cedric mumbled, rubbing his eyes as Lori slowly left the room, peering down over the bannister.
He joined his girlfriend on the stairs by their room, wrapping an arm around her waist and running a hand through his unkempt, brown hair as Molly loudly shouted, "I think I'd know if Harry Potter was in my house, wouldn't I?"
Ginny piped back up, "His trunk's in the kitchen, and his owl."
"No, dear, I seriously doubt that."
A hoot came from the kitchen, Ginny looking in triumph at the Weasley matriarch, as Ron's head appeared above his bannister further up the house, "Harry? Did someone say Harry?"
"Me, nosy. Is he up there with you?" Ginny asked.
"Course not, I think I'd know if my best friend was in my room, wouldn't I?"
Hermione's head appeared at the stairs to the highest room in the house, "Is that an owl I heard?"
Ginny called up to her, "You haven't seen him, have you? Apparently he's wandering about the house."
"Really?"
"Really." a voice came from the kitchen, one that wasn't Ginny, all of the inhabitants of the Burrow ploughed down the stairs to greet him.
Cedric and Lori appeared after Mrs Weasley, but before Hermione and Ron. The two champions shook hands politely, the Weasleys and Hermione all hugging Harry for all their worth.
"Why didn't you let us know you were coming?" Molly laughed.
"I didn't know. Dumbledore." Harry explained.
"Oh, that man! But then, what would we do without him?"
*
Fireworks whizzed around the inside of Fred and George's shop, Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, as seemingly hundreds of excited teens filled the brightly coloured store.
Cedric had lured Lori over to one corner of the shop, where a small mechanical Umbridge was wheeling herself across a line in the air, screaming, "I will have order!"
They both chuckled, before Lori caught sight of Cormac McLaggen, "Let's go before he gets on his hands and knees to beg for a Keeper tryout."
They joined up with Harry, Ron and Hermione in the street, which, with the exceptions of the twins' shop, was derelict, dark and empty.
"How are Fred and George doing it?" Hermione wondered aloud, "Half the Alley's closed down."
Ron looked to her, "Fred reckons people need a laugh these days."
"I reckon he's right." Harry agreed as they strolled down the street towards Ollivander's. Glass littered the floor where the windows had been smashed and every single wand box, that the wandmaker so carefully lined the walls with, was spilling out onto the floor.
"Oh, no," Hermione gasped, "everyone got their wands from Ollivander's."
Pushing the door gently, the five of them filed into the darkened shop, which had once been so full of life and a source of excitement for eleven year old witches and wizards across the country.
"Harry?" Ron asked from by the broken window, "Is it me, or do Draco and Mummy look like two people who don't want to be followed?"
On the steps of Gringotts, Narcissa Malfoy dragged her only son down a back alley, the five of them following the pair as they wound further and further away from the main thoroughfare.
They disappeared into a shop called Borgin and Burke's, one where Harry had accidentally appeared just before his second year. The five of them quietly clambered onto the nearby roof.
Inside the shop, Draco appeared to be stroking a dark wood cabinet, with wrought iron handles and large hinges down the side.
They sharply dropped, hiding themselves below the peak of the roof as a Death Eater appeared in the window, slowly turning towards them before the curtains closed behind him.
*
It came as no surprise to any of the seventh years (or indeed, any of the students) when Lori Weasley, the famous Gryffindor, arrived on Platform 9¾ in her robes, having exchanged her red prefect badge for the Head Girl one.
Katie half flung herself at the Weasley when she saw her, Leanne and Cho laughing as they both wrapped their arms around the two girls, before the three of them went to find an empty compartment.
Several of the prefects applauded when she entered their carriage, taking a seat next to the new Head Boy, a Ravenclaw by the name of Eddie Carmichael.
The two leaders of the prefect team began to stand, about to sort out the patrols when darkness engulfed the carriage. Everyone coughed away the black dust that filled their lungs.
Eventually, when the carriage was clear, Lori spoke, "So, we'll start with the fifth years on duty, just to get them into the feel of things before we get to Hogwarts."
Eddie nodded, the eight youngest prefects splitting into pairs and leaving the carriage, gently closing the door behind them.
A hot pain grew in her skirt pocket, Lori fishing out the enchanted galleon, which now bore a message from Cedric - 'I love you'.
She smiled, typing the same message back to him, before settling down next to Eddie, the two of them drawing up plans for their team.
