The power in a Name.

Title: The power in a Name.


Author: DBZVelena


Disclaimer: Harry Potter and everything connected to him does not belong to me. However, the concept of Name Magic is my own invention and thus please ask before using it. (1/3/2004)


Timeline: Set after OotP.


Spoilers: All first 5 books should be read first before trying this story. Simply because the originals are way better than my fanfiction.


Summary: As of yet I have no idea where I\'m going to take this story. All though ol\' Voldie might perish in the process. Like every good bad guy. ;)


Chapter 1, At the Burrow.

Harry was glad it was the last week before the start of term. It meant no more Dursleys for almost a year.
Not that they had been very bad, just extremely annoying. Never leaving him alone to think about what happened to Sirius or what he was supposed to do once school was over.


Originally his plan was to move in with Sirius once school was over, but that was out of the question now.
The Dursleys hadn\'t treated him all that bad in hind sight. They had just left him to his own moody self, only requesting him to do his usual jobs. And afterwards completely ignoring him.


The only time he had gotten trouble was when an owl from Hogwarts had come to deliver his OWL results, which had been surprisingly good. He even scored high enough to get in to Snape\'s Advance Potions class,
which Harry needed if he wanted to become an Auror.


His birthday had been ok too, spent in his room getting his presents by Owl. Which surprisingly didn\'t trigger an explosion from his uncle. Which might have something to do with the fact that he was now 16 years old and had passed his Owl\'s.


Harry suspected that Aunt Petunia had warned Uncle Vernon about the fact that he was now allowed to perform magic outside of Hogwarts.


Hermoine had said that getting your OWL\'s was like high school and getting your NEWT\'s was like College. Though Harry wasn\'t completely sure if the comparison could be made since the way the Magical world looked at things was so completely different from the Muggle world.

And now he was fiy aty at the Burrow, a place where Harry had always felt at ease.


As Harry walked up to the house, a loud shout could be heard from inside. \"Ronalasleasley, just because your brothers left the house does not mean you\'ll get out of doing your jobs.\"


Harry smiled, he was so happy to be here. And it had been a close call too. Dumbledore originally had planned for Harry to go to Number 12 Grimmauld Place. But after many owls, pleading and trying to convince Dumbledore that seeing that place would bring up to many unhappy memories that Harry was not yet ready to face, which was partly true anyway, Harry had managed to avoid going there. Harry really didn\'t want to see the place that had been his late Godfathers prison in the last few days before his death at the Ministry.


Thankfully the fact that Voldemort had shown up there had finally convinced Fudge to up the security on all Ministry buildings and to publicly apologise to Harry Potter for their error. In response, all the homes of the ministry employees had gotten extra protection wards. These, inbinabination with some more wards done by Dumbledore himself, made it possible for Harry to spend his customary week before start of term at the Burrow once again, much to Harry\'s great relief, for he really needed some things to stay the same in his world which he could feel would soonnd ond on his head once again with Voldemort most likely trying again to either kill him or disrupt his life in some other way.


Harry was really getting tired of the old coot, really, if he could not manage to kill him as a baby, what in the world made that skeleton think he stood any better chance now?


That and Harry had heard from Hermoine that Nymphadora Tonks was going to teach DADA this year.
At first Harry had been disappoi, he, he really had hoped Remus Lupin would come back. But after a while, he had to admit, even Dumbledore could not invite the werewolf back after the events that had lead to his dismissal to begin with, no matter how badly Harry wanted it.


Besides, Tonks would not be so bad, in fact she would be a blessing in comparison to last year\'s teacher.
Absentmindedly Harry rubbed his hand, where the faint lines of that cursed quill were still imbedded in his flesh. Harry had never bothered to show it to anybody, using a small glamour to prevent anybody from noticing. It was a small thing in comparison to all the other things happening in his life.


Like his discovery that he might swing both ways, liking both girls and boys. That had really been a revelation. But looking back on his previous years at Hogwarts, it explained a lot of things. Harry hadn\'t told Ron and Hermoine yet, opting for the personal approach over telling them by owl. So now he was walking up to the Burrow, ready for another nice week filled with fun and mischief before school started and he\'d be swamped by school work and a lecturing Hermoine.


Harry smiled wishfully, looking forward to these few days that had to be enough to relax him enough so he would be ready for another school year. Harry was about to open the kitchen door when it opened of its own accord and Ron came out apparently to do something for Mrs. Weasley. Which was promptly forgotten.


\"Harry, you\'re early!\"


Half a second later Harry had his arms full of redhead, making Harry wonder why he\'d never felt anything more than brotherly love for his friend. The answer came swiftly.


\"Come on inside.\" Ron turned and walked back inside dragging Harry with him. \"Mom, guess who got here early!\" Then Ron turned back to Harry smiling a bit dreamily. \"Hermoine will be here this afternoon. Then we can all catch up on what\'s been going on.\"


That is why, Harry thought. Ron had always had a kind of crush on Hermoine. Ever since Yule ball, when she had looked real stunning.


Ron pulled Harry into his room, and soon they were completely absorbed in Quidditch. After the event with Voldemort and the unmasking of Umbridge, Harry\'s ban from Quidditch had been lifted; which he had been very grateful for. Flying was one of the few things that could successfully help him unwind while in school.


Ron and Harry completely forgot about the time, and before long Mrs. Weasely\'s voice came from downstairs proclaiming that Hermoine had arrived and if Ron could be so kind as to help with carrying the trunks up the stairs, as apparently Harry\'s trunk and Owl cagee ste still standing in the kitchen.


Begrudgingly they got up from the floor which was now covered in Quidditch magazines.


Downstairs Harry was once again caught up in a huge hug, this time from Hermoine. Ron instead, while blushing, turning his skin almost the same colour as his hair, opted instead for a handshake. Hermoine looked puzzled for a sec, then smiled brightly and used Ron\'s hand to pull him in to a hug as well. Harry had to cover his mouth to cover his smirk at the shocked look on Ron\'s face. Apparently Hermoine had done some thinking about their relationship and had decided the subtle road wasn\'t working with Ron, so she opted for the more direct road.


Harry smiled, good for her. It was about time they got together instead of always dancing around each other. After the hugs, they all started carrying all the trunks up the stairs. Well actually, it was Ron carrying Hermoine\'s trunk while Harry carried his own things. Hermoine watched them with a bemused smile on her face. But after Ron\'s third stumble, she had gotten impatient and cast a feather light spell on the trunks.


\"I mean really, you are finally allowed to do magic outside of Hogwarts and you still insist on doing things the hard way!\"


Harry could tell Hermoine wasn\'t really angry. Just frustrated that her two friends obviously hadn\'t really used their summer getting ready for Sixth year. After putting Hermoine\'s trunk in Ginny\'s room and Harry\'s in Ron\'s. (And a swift clean up spell performed by Hermoine, to put all the Quidditch magazines away.)
it was time to go down to eat, where Harry found out, to his great surprise, that they were going to be the only ones staying at the Burrow. Apparently Ginny was staying at Luna Lovegood\'s place for the week. Although Ron told Harry after dinner that his brothers had promised to pop in to say \'Hi\' later in the week, but that they were really busy with their joke shop. Apparently it was going really good. The fact that the twin\'s had not gotten their NEWT\'s was obviously not putting any damper on business whatsoever.


The evening was spent playing exploding snap on the floor of Ron\'s room while they talked about what had happened during the summer. Well Ron and Hermoine were talking, Harry was just listening. After all he couldn\'t really tell much aside from \"They mostly left me alone this summer\". Harry decided he\'d wait till tomorrow to share his revelation with his friends, it was late and last thing he wanted was putting a damper on the evening by coming out with such serious subjects. It could wait, just a little while longer he figured.

The next day they started a gnome toss competition after breakfast, which was won by Hermoine to their big surprise. When questioned, she replied that she\'d calculated it all in her head. Apparently Arithmacy was good for something after all. Harry mused, maybe he should drop Divination. He really was getting tired of hearing he was going to die in some horrible way or another. Arithmacy most likely was far more useful. Then again, he\'d be too far behind to get in to Hermoine\'s class. In fact he might as well keep Divination. Aside from the gruesome imminent death of himself, it was basically a free NEWT. Especially if he predicted his own gruesome death.


Harry sighed, it was to soon to be thinking of school. Instead he started thinking of what they could do that afternoon for entertainment. They couldn\'t go too far, there was only so much protection around the area.
Ron solved the dilemma by proposing to go swimming in the new pool.


Soon all three of them relaxed in the nice, warm water. Ron explained that the pool was in fact a confiscated item from the ministry that had been stripped from all the joke spells some trouble ma had had put on it. But because the ministry was lacking room for such a big item and since it was now harmless anyway, Ron\'s dad had been allowed to take it home.


The story was full of holes in Harry\'s opinion, but if that was what Ron\'s dad had told them, who was Harry to argue?


As the day drifted away, Harry decided he\'d tell his revelation to his friends tomorrow. Plenty of time yet, and he really didn\'t want to start a discussion right now.


That set the trend of Harry\'s procrastination. Each day it was: \"I\'ll tell them tomorrow.\" Soon it was time to buy their supplies and Harry figured he\'d tell them once they were at Hogwarts.

TBC.