Title: Ordinary
Author: symphonyflute
Fandom: Harry Potter
Rating: NR
Summary: At the beginning of OOTP, is it really just anger that's making Harry feel so...out of the ordinary?
Bunny: #14

Hermione Granger stared into the fire and chewed on the end of her muggle pen. Harry had arrived only hours ago and already there was more dramatics than she would have liked. She knew that he had every reason to be angry. After all, they had kept him in the dark all summer, meaning he had no one to talk to but those horrid relatives of his. But really, it wasn't their fault. It was under Dumbledore's orders that they told Harry nothing. She just wished he could get over being stubborn and understand.

The fire cracked and sent sparks in the air. Hermione smiled. When the night was quiet and everyone was asleep, she could almost pretend it was just an ordinary summer night, and she was at home with her family safe and sound.

*

Ron Weasley rolled over in his bed. He couldn't get to sleep. He was usually snoring as soon as his head hit the pillow, but not tonight. This was no ordinary night. Tonight Harry Potter, his best friend and the boy who lived, was asleep seven feet away from him. Harry was a tough one to figure out even at the best times, which tonight was not. He was furious at them, and it was killing Ron that he couldn't get through to his friend. He lay still for a moment, listening for some indication that Harry was still awake and wanted to talk. He was usually the last one asleep, but apparently not tonight. The room was silent.

*

Harry Potter stared up at the blurry white mass with fizzy lines that was the ceiling without his glasses. He knew that no one else had fallen asleep either. Ron was quiet and unmoving, which was nothing like how he ordinarily slept, and Hermione had yet to come say good night like she promised she would before she went to bed. She wouldn't back out on a promise now, even of she thought they were already asleep. Which, he reasoned, she probably didn't. She was a smart one that Hermione.

His nose ran and he sniffed as quietly as he could, knowing Ron was listening intently to him. That was a change. Ordinarily it was Harry lying awake worrying about his friends, but tonight they'd switched roles. Ron, and Hermione too he knew, couldn't sleep because they were too worried about him, whereas he wasn't worried about them at all. Well that wasn't fair. He was worried about them deep down, he always was, like a monster clawing at his gut when he took a breath, but tonight it wasn't his dominant emotion.

He was angry. If they cared about him at all, they would have sent him some information. They would have found a way, not rolled away docilely when Dumbledore said to leave him in the dark. When someone told them to jump, they didn't ask how high. None of them did, none of them ever had. Ordinarily that it. Apparently this was the exception.

He rolled over and shut his eyes tightly. He hadn't gotten a good night's sleep all summer and apparently that wasn't going to change tonight.

He heard the door open and knew it was Hermione without having to hear her whispering voice or feel her light weight sit on the end of her bed. He pretended to be asleep, hoping she'd move on without talking to him. She did.

She moved on to Ron's bed and Harry heard them conversing in hushed tones. He caught his name, which ordinarily would have caught his interest. But not tonight. Sleep beckoned just beyond his closed eyelids and he was determined to catch it.

Morning came far too soon as far as Hermione was concerned. Ordinarily she was happy to rise and greet the new day and all the adventures it had planned. Not today though. She had gone to bed four hours ago and was about three seconds away from biting Ginny's hand off if she kept shaking her.

"Stop shaking me," she growled.

Ginny pulled her hand away as quickly as if she had been burned. Hermione never snapped. "Sorry," she apologized. "Mom told me to wake everyone up."

Hermione forced herself to her feet, apologized to Ginny for being rude, and made her way down to the kitchen. She was the last one up apparently, even though she was ordinarily one of the first. Ron was shoveling oatmeal into his mouth so fast Hermione wondered how he tasted it, and she smiled at the normality as she settled herself in the vacant chair next to Harry. She was always amazed at the speed by which Ron ate.

*

Harry was not hungry. He had finally managed to fall asleep soon after Hermione left the room last night, and was now trying to block out Ginny's voice as she stuck her head in the door and explained, very loudly, that Mrs. Weasley wanted everyone to come down for breakfast. A few years all he would have had to do was sit up and look at her and she'd scamper away like a frightened puppy, but he didn't think it'd be that easy this time. Plus, he wasn't sure if he could sit up at anyway. He'd been coming down with a cold at the Dursley's and once the adrenaline from the Dementor attack and coming to Headquarters had worn off last night, he felt like complete crap. He wasn't sure how Hermione and Ron would react if they knew he was sick. Ordinarily he would have guessed they would worry and fret and generally overreact. But that was just a guess, as he hadn't been sick in all his years at Hogwarts. Plus, the way things were between them now he really couldn't be sure.

Once it became apparent Ginny was going to be in their doorway until they came down for breakfast or died, whichever came first, he dragged himself out of bed, stifled two sneezes into his shoulder, and grabbed his glasses before following in Ron's footsteps, who had seemingly had the same revelation of Ginny's intentions. Harry hesitated a few seconds in the doorway as Ron sat down at the table next to the twins and immediately reached for food, before sitting in a chair as far away from his friend as he could get. A few minutes later Hermione and Ginny joined them.

*

Ron hated Ginny with every fiber of his being. He wasn't sure why she was so intent on waking him and Harry up, but he was determined that she be unsuccessful. Ordinarily she would have gievn up on them after a few minutes, but apparently she was very determined today. Eventually, he had to get up just to make her shut up. Harry, it seemed, had had the same idea and he was getting up too. Ron frowned as he watched his friend sneeze, but said nothing of it. It was just a couple sneezes, nothing out of the ordinary.

Harry was on his heels all the way down to the kitchen, but avoided him at the table, sitting on the other end next to Fred and George. Ron sighed and reached for some amazing smelling oatmeal. If this was how Harry wanted to play, all he had to do was name the game.

Cleaning a house full of dark magic is not fun, Ron decided. Hermione had to wrestle an enchanted rug away from trying to strangle him, and as she and Ginny both sat on it and Fred tried every way he could think of to make it stop attacking, Ron came to this conclusion. Not a fun way to spend the afternoon. "Why does this always happen to me?" he groaned as it managed to dump the girls and made another beeline for him.

*

Hermione was not a fan of disorder, and ordinarily leaving a mess would bother her, but leaving this house disorderly would not. Watching a run attack Ron was really only amusing for a few seconds, and when it became apparent that it intended to kill him, well, it became very unamusing very quickly. And she did not enjoy sitting on it, it was like the amusement park ride from hell.

She vaguely wondered where Harry and George were, but didn't have much time to ponder as the rug made another attempt at Ron.

*

Harry and one of the twins, he didn't really know or care which, had escaped cleaning duty. Mrs. Weasley needed someone to make lunch for everyone while she was at yet another Order meeting that Harry wasn't allowed to attend, and had grabbed the first two arms she could reach, dragged their owners into the kitchen, pointed at a pile of food, and left.

He was chopping what felt like the millionth carrot, but was probably only the dozenth or so. But still, how many people were planning on eating here? They had enough food to feed a small army.

They worked together in silence, punctuated only by the sound of the knife hitting the cutting board and Harry's increasingly frequent sniffles. Fred shot him a few concerned glances, but didn't say anything until Harry moved away from the counter and sneezed into his elbow. "Hetschoo!"

"You alright?" Fred tried to make eye contact, but Harry deftly avoided it as he had for the entire day.

"I'm bloody brilliant," he snapped. Fred didn't believe him but knew that it wasn't worth arguing over, and did his best to ignore Harry's sneezing as they cooked.

"HaAhtschoo!" Groaning after his sixth sneeze in as many minutes, Harry glanced around the kitchen for something to blow his nose into, and Fred tried once again to offer sympathy to him.

"Wouldn't you rather come sit by the fire where it's warm?" he asked, gesturing to the blazing fireplace.

"No." Ordinarily Harry would have shown gratitude or embarrassment, maybe both, at Fred's gesture of sympathy. But not today. Today he showed nothing but anger. "I said I was fine, didn't I? Hetchoo!"

Feeling brave, Fred piped up once again. "Yeah, but mate, you're sniveling all over the food."
"Well if I could just plug my nose with a cork I would!" Harry snapped. "But seeing as I can't, why don't you just shut up?"

Fred didn't rise to the bait. Ordinarily he would have fought back, but he did not.

Hermione was finishing up her summer homework by the fire when Ron asked if she wanted to play a game of Wizard's Chess. "But I have so much work to do!" she pointed out.

"Do it later." Ron shrugged. "I haven't even begun mine yet."

"But the new term begins in two weeks."

"So I have two weeks to finish it. Now I'd rather play chess." Ordinarily he would have asked Harry, but that probably wouldn't be a good idea now.

"Hachoo!"

Ron and Hermione looked over at Harry who was curled up in a blanket on the couch, rubbing his nose.  Hermione sighed. "Bless you," she offered. He didn't respond.

Ron thought fast and plopped himself down on the couch next to Harry, feeling anything but amused when his friend stiffened in discomfort. "Do you want to play Wizard's chess with me?"

"What?"

"Wizard's chess. The game where different characters on a chessboard-"

"I know what Wizard's chess is."