Murder in the Alley

Hermione knew that Harry must have transformed in order for Dora to go running screaming from the room. A small part of her still shivered in fear at the sight of a large snake slithering across the floor but since she knew that it was Harry, she repressed that feeling and an evil smirk broke out on her face as he neared her.

Just before Harry passed her, Hermione conjured a large aquarium and levitated the snake inside before slamming the lid closed and cooing, "Aren't you just the cutest?"

The adults all broke out in laughter at the sight of Harry the snake in an aquarium. They absolutely howled when the snake looked up balefully at Hermione as if to say, "Et Tu, Hermione?"

"Oh, fine. I'll let you out but you have to be on your best behavior." Hermione said as she smiled down at Harry.

Once he was free of the cage, Harry quickly transformed back and gave Hermione a playful glare as she hugged him and whispered, "That's for staring at my bits."

Mischievously, Harry whispered in her ear, "This means war you know."

Burying her face in his neck, Hermione whispered back, "Pink scales hun."

"Grrr." Harry growled playfully as he stepped back to gaze at the audience that had gathered. Cocking his head to one side, he asked, "What are we doing this morning? I thought that Hermione and I were going to Hogwarts for our last day of the term?"

Everyone turned to Dora, her hair turned a blushing pink color from the attention before she said quickly, "I can get Harry into the Department of Mysteries this morning and then I thought that we would head over to Gringotts to empty out part of his vault afterwards."

Immediately, Hermione blurted, "Why can't I come with you too?"

Remus explained, "Because we need you to be visible at Hogwarts so people will assume that Harry is somewhere on the grounds instead of with you."

"Oh." Hermione said as she thought through Remus' statement. "Okay. I'll tell anyone that Harry is just looking around the castle before he returns to his relatives for the summer holidays." Turning to Harry, she said softly, "You'll come back to the school once you're done?"

Nodding in agreement, Harry said solemnly, "I promise." Before turning to Dora and saying, "Let me get ready and we can get going."

Harry turned around and headed for the loo while Hermione ushered everyone out of their room and closed the door. Once everyone was gone, she quickly changed into her school robes and knocked on the bathroom door. After a muffled, "Come in." from Harry, she stepped into the room to see him finishing brushing his teeth.

She walked over to him, wrapped her arms around him from behind, and buried her face into his shoulder. Softly she whispered, "Please be careful."

Harry turned around in Hermione's embrace, smiled at her, and said, "Always. Come on; let's head to the kitchen. I want to grab a quick bite before I have to go."

When the young couple entered the kitchen, they were surprised to see everyone there. Curious about the large gathering, Harry asked, "Why is everyone here? I thought that it was just going to be Dora and me going into the Department of Mysteries?"

Sirius put down his mug of coffee and said solemnly, "We're going along as backup in case things go pear shaped. If that happens, your safety is our main concern." Seeing that Harry was about to protest, he held up his hand for silence and ploughed on, "No matter what you are about to say, it is our responsibility to keep you safe even if you can take care of yourself. It's what families do."

Stupefied by Sirius' statement, Harry clamped his mouth shut and looked into everyone's faces in the kitchen. Seeing nothing but the truth of Sirius' words reflected in their gazes, he dropped his head and softly said, "Thanks."

The next fifteen minutes they spent going over the plan for where everyone would be stationed, emergency contingencies, and what disguises they would be wearing. Once everyone was comfortable with the plan, Dora stood up and said happily, "Come on, Harry. We need to disguise you too."

Not waiting for his response, Dora pulled Harry to his feet, led him into the study, and closed the door behind them. From behind the closed door there were a few muffled shouts of, "No," and "absolutely not!"

About fifteen minutes later, Dora walked into the kitchen with a huge grin on her face. When Harry didn't follow her in, she raised her finger asking for patience before poking her head back into the study and shouting, "Don't make me drag you out here! Now come on, we haven't got all day!"

Everyone heard a mumbled something about, "… rather face Voldemort than go out looking like this." before a very different looking Harry Potter stomped into the room.

Silence reigned for thirty seconds but it felt like an eternity to Harry as he stood there looking at everyone gawping at him like a fish.

Suddenly, Sirius got a huge grin on his face and Harry felt the knot in the pit of his stomach get even larger. Slowly, he circled Harry and gave out a low appreciative whistle before saying proudly, "You did a wonderful job, Dora! No one will recognize Harry in this get up."

"That's because she turned me into a bloody girl!" shouted Harry in embarrassment. Seeing everyone snickering slightly, he blushed to the roots of his now sandy brown, shoulder length hair. Plaintively, he whined, "You really don't expect me to go out in public dressed like this do you?"

Chuckling, Remus added his two pence worth, "Actually, Harry, I think that it's the perfect disguise. Who in their right mind would even think of looking for you dressed as a girl?" The glare that Harry sent his way made him laugh a little harder so he walked up and put his arm around the embarrassed teen and said, "Smile for the camera, Harry."

"What?" Harry blurted in alarm just as the flash went off on the camera that Sirius was pointing at them.

Before Harry could say or do anything about the camera, Sirius passed it to Annabelle for safekeeping. Temporarily defeated, Harry glowered at Sirius and Remus before turning his attention to Hermione. He found her gazing at him pensively. After a few moments beneath her gaze, Harry began to fidget.

....

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