A/N: Ok, this story is probably gonna take precedence over my other story, A Different beginning, because I love the plot of this one so much better. I own nothing except the clothes on my back…oh, wait these aren’t mine. Dammit! Oh, yeah if you have a problem with cussing I would advise you to not read this. Enjoy!

Chapter 1-Changes

Harry Potter was sitting on his bed, pouring over yet another book on curses when suddenly there was a loud scream from downstairs followed by the sound of Dudley running up the stairs at full speed, which was about the same speed as Harry’s walking pace, before he stormed into his room and slammed the door shut. Harry smiled to himself as he laid the book aside, ‘The Weaslyes are here,’ he thought to himself. Sure enough a second later there was a pounding on his door and a familiar voice came through.

“Harry? Are you in there? It’s Ron, I’m coming in.” Harry rolled off the bed as Ron walked into the room and looked his friend up and down. Aside from about the five inches he had grown since Harry had seen him last, Ron looked basically the same. He was still tall and gangly with bright red hair and a long nose. In short, Harry wasn’t surprised at all by his friend’s appearance. The same could not be said for Ron.

The last time he had seen Harry had been about two months ago when his friend was still getting over the effects of the TriWizard Tournament and the return of Voldemort. Back then Harry had still been a scrawny little kid; but not anymore. Ron stared at how much his friend had changed; Harry had grown nearly six inches leaving him only about four inches shorter than Ron. That was the least obvious change. Harry’s normally unkempt black hair was now short and spiked up in all directions. And after noticing that Ron saw the piercings. Harry had pierced both of his ears along with one of his eyebrows, and as his eyes continued taking in Harry, he realized he wasn’t scrawny anymore, and he wasn’t wearing his glasses either.

That summer Harry had decided he was going to be ready next time he was in a dangerous situation and was taking his life back, which meant not only training himself, but looking the way he wanted to. Hitting the gym all summer had given him a fair amount of muscle, but what stood out the most was what was on top of some of those muscles; on Harry’s right arm was a large tattoo of a black Hungarian Horntail breathing fire.

“Bloody hell, Harry,” Ron finally gasped, “What the hell did you do?”“You like it?” Harry asked lightly, “Anyway, I’m guessing your dad’s downstairs trying to make conversation with Vernon, yeah?” Ron nodded as he continued to look Harry over. “Right then, I’m all packed,” Harry said as he stuffed the book he had been reading into his already packed trunk, “I sent Hedwig to your place earlier, so can you grab her cage?” Harry asked as he grabbed the cage off the dressed and tossed it to Ron who caught it. “Alright, let’s get the fuck out of here, mate, and Ron, stop staring at me, mate; I think Hermione’ll get jealous.” This finally snapped Ron out of it.

“What?” he demanded as he followed Harry out of the room, “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Please, Ron,” Harry answered as he hauled his trunk downstairs, “You two have been eyeing each other for ever; just make a damn move already.” Harry smiled as he felt Ron staring at the back of his heads; this was another thing he had decided over the summer; he wasn’t going to keep his thoughts to himself anymore. Just as Harry expected Arthur Weasley was standing in the Dursley’s living room, covered in soot, trying to make conversation. When he saw Harry and Ron enter the room he visibly sighed in relief, only to gape when he got a closer look at Harry.

“Er- hello, Harry,” he said a little uncomfortably, “I see you’ve…changed…a little since I last saw you.”

“See that boy?” his uncle Vernon suddenly snapped, “Even freaks of your own kind think you look like a delinquent-”

“Vernon,” Harry cut in, “Kindly shut the hell up before I make you shut up like I did Dudley last week.” Vernon instantly shut his mouth; Dudley and his gang had tried to jump Harry the previous week only to result in Dudley coming home with two black eyes and a couple of matching bruises. “Right, well, good to see you too, Mr. Weasley,” Harry said offering his hand to Mr. Weasley who shook it a little hesitantly. “To the Burrow then?” Mr. Weasley nodded and held out a pouch for Harry who reached in and grabbed a little of the Floo Powder that was in there, and tossed it into the fire. “The Burrow!” he said stepping into the flames.

Instantly he began to spin around and just when he was starting to feel nauseous, he fell out of the fire place, landing on his feet in front of several red heads. In the kitchen waiting on his arrival were Fred and George, who were extremely glad to see Harry after he had given them his TriWizard winnings, Ginny, Mrs. Weasley, and the only non red head in the room (besides Harry of course) Hermione Granger. All of whom looked sunned at Harry’s new appearance. Predictably, the twins recovered first.

“Excellent new look, Harry,” Fred commented as they both stood up and shook Harry’s hand.

“Yeah, the whole scrawny looking, messy haired look just wasn’t working for you,” George continued, “I love the dragon, mate, and blimey,” he said as Ron suddenly appeared put of the fire place, “You got your ears pierced? And your eyebrow?”

“Can’t see you becoming a Prefect now, Harry,” Fred grinned, “Don’t think you really have the right look for it anymore.”

“That’s a load off my mind I can tell you,” George added as Mr. Weasley came through the Floo while everyone else was still staring at Harry. “I mean, no offence, mate, but if you were a Prefect Fred and I may have had no choice but to not be seen with you,” he finished laughing.

“Yeah,” Harry began as he looked around at everyone, “I just decided after everything that happened last year I should live life how I want to, because, well with Voldemort-” everyone in the kitchen flinched- “back we should make the most of what time we have.” This statement seemed to stall any further conversations until Mrs. Weasley asked Ron to help Harry take his things u to Ron’s room. As they headed upstairs they heard Hermione following them and once they reached the top of the stairs they entered Ron’s room and shut the door.

“Harry!” Hermione snapped loudly, “What did you do to yourself?! Is that a tattoo!?” Smiling Harry held his arm out so they could see the dragon fully.

“Yep,” he said lightly, “Like it? Actually I don’t think I want you to answer that; you’re face already is giving me your answer.” Hermione glared at Harry for a moment before her face quickly became one of concern.

“Harry,” she began quietly, “Did you do all of this because of what happened that night with You-Know-Who and…Cedric?” she finished almost fearfully. “Because doing something rash isn’t going to change what happened. You can’t just forget the past by changing the way you look and act.”

“Well, first off, Hermione,” Harry started quietly, but both of his friends heard the hint of anger in his voice, “Yes, I did do this because of what happened in the graveyard, but not for the reasons you seem to think. I did this because I want people to see the real me, and if you or anybody else doesn’t like it, you can just fuck off.” Hermione looked hurt for a moment while Ron just looked surprised. “And I am only going to say this once: never tell me or ask me to talk about the graveyard again. You have no idea what it was like to be there, explaining it wouldn’t do it justice, but even if I could show you what happened I wouldn’t. No one needs to see what happened that night; with the possible exception of the Diggory’s because it was their son who died. Trust me, you’re better off not knowing what happened that night except for the fact you should know Voldemort is back.” Harry finished talking and looked at his two best friends who both looked a little uncomfortable and a little scared.

“So,” Ron said finally breaking the silence, “Do you want to go play some-” But his word, which undoubtedly included the word ‘Quidditch’ were cut off by the screeching of an owl as three brown owls flew into the room.

“Finally,” Hermione said as the three of them took a letter each, “It’s about time they sent book lists; we leave for Hogwarts day after tomorrow!” Harry opened his letter and quickly scanned it before tossing it onto his trunk only to look up when Hermione let out a shriek.

“I made Prefect! Can you believe it!?” She shrieked waving the badge around.

“I know this may come as a shock, Hermione,” Harry replied, “But yes, somehow I can believe it.” Hermione rolled her eyes and turned to Ron who was staring at his hand in a state of shock. Harry leaned over and saw that in Ron’s hand was a shiny, gold, Prefect’s badge. “Yeah, nice job, mate!” Harry called. Hermione, also seeing the badge let out another shriek and threw her arms around Ron in a tight hug. Suddenly the door burst open.

“What in the name of Merlin is going on up-” Mrs. Weasley stopped short at seeing Ron and Hermione hugging.

“Yeah, really you two,” Harry called out from Ron’s bed where he was stretched out, “As Prefects you should be setting a better example than this.”

“Prefects?” Mrs. Weasley asked, “Ronald, are you a-” she broke off when Ron held out his badge and let out a shriek similar to Hermione’s. “Oh, Ronnie, congratulations! I’m so proud of you!” She said as she pulled him into a bone crushing hug.

“Thanks, mum,” Ron mumbled as he broke out of her grasp.

“So, what will you want?”

“W-what?”

“You deserve a reward for this, Ron!’ she declared. Ron stated at her in disbelief until Harry leaned over and poked him in the side.

“Oh, uh, could I get a new broomstick, mum?” he asked hopefully, “Not a really good one,” he added quickly seeing her face fall slightly, brooms were very expensive, “Just a new one; maybe the new CleanSweep?”

“Of course, honey,” she said, “We’ll get it tomorrow when we go to Diagon Alley. You all have your book lists? Good, we’ll go bright and early then. Oh, and, Harry,” she said turning to him, her eyes lingering on his tattoo and piercings, “Sirius is going to try and make it by before you leave for Hogwarts, okay?” This caught Harry’s attention and he asked a question he had wanted answered for quite a while.

“Where is Sirius staying? I haven’t heard from him since the beginning of the summer.”

“He’s safe, dear don’t worry. I can’t tell you where he is though. He did promise to try and be here though.”

“Actually,” a voice from behind her said, “I believe his exact words were-”

“Hush, Ginny,” her mother scolded her, “you shouldn’t repeat things like that, they aren’t appropriate for anyone to say.” Smirking Ginny waved too the trio in the room before hading off back downstairs.

“Well,” Mrs. Weasley said, ‘You three should get some sleep soon; we’ll be off early tomorrow.” She left the room and was soon followed by Hermione after she said goodbye to the two boys. Once they were alone Ron finally spoke up.

“Damn, Harry, you look completely different. Not so scrawny anymore.”

“Yeah, lifting weights will do that for you.”

“Lifting weights? What do you mean?”

“Nothing,” Harry laughed, “Mate, you wouldn’t last a day in the Muggle world, you know that tight?”

“Hey,” Ron smirked, “Watch that attitude or I’ll have to give you detention,” he said tapping his badge.

“Yeah,” Harry laughed, “Okay. Anyway, I think I will get some sleep; why did you guys wait so long to come and get me? It’s like ten o’clock!”

“Oh, yeah,” Ron said uncomfortably, “Well the Ministry wasn’t very corporative with us on setting your house up to the Floo network.”

“What? Why?”

“Er, Harry, have you been reading the Daily Prophet?”

“What, is that a joke? I don’t think I’ll ever read that piece of shit again. Why?’

“Well, you should know, after you and Dumbledore came out with the story that You-Know-Who is back, the Ministry has been trying to discredit the both of you. Dumbledore’s already lost a lot of his influence on the government and he was removed as Chief Warlock of the Wizegmaont last month.”

“Really?” Harry asked as he lay down on the cot next to Ron’s bed, “I knew Fudge didn’t believe me, but I didn’t think the dumbass would try and take on me and Dumbledore. I need to go to sleep now, but I wanna hear more about this tomorrow, yeah?”

“Alright, mate, but ask Hermione about it; she reads the damn paper cover to cover every day and knows a hell of a lot more about it than me.”

“Somehow, Ron,” Harry said as he closed his eyes, “That doesn’t surprise me at all. By the way, my knowledge pf current events isn’t entirely empty; I got a letter from a certain set of twins informing me of the score of a recent Chudley Cannons game. Versus Belgium if I recall correctly-”

“I’d watch what you say next, Harry,” Ron called out, “Just because you grew a little doesn’t mean I can’t still kick your ass.” Harry smirked and drifted off to sleep, but not before he caught one last comment from Ron, “I’m gonna kill Fred and George.”

A/N: So, how’s you like it? Yes, he didn’t, nor will he go to Grimmauld Place in the summer. Please review and thanks for reading.