Chapter 1: Hogsmeade

Four years have past since Harry’s seventeenth birthday and every day is more difficult that the last. Only five of the seven Horcrux have been destroyed. The daily prophet has news pouring in about yet another dementor attack. The rate of werewolf bites increases every day. The amount of death eaters is growing, and the survival death toll is growing. Far worst than anything else in the universe, Lord Voldemort’s powers increase daily and more and more people have to learn to survive without those they love. Fear quenches every witch and wizard in the world, and yet somehow, life goes on.

Amongst the fear in the world, happiness arises. Molly and Arthur Weasley find themselves as grandparents, with a second grandchild on the way. Bill and Fleur are expecting their second child, after their first was born nearly a year ago. Charlie and his new Romanian bride fight for the order in Romania. Percy stays along the ministry with his new job as junior minister. Fred and George’s shop thrives with business, having expansions all over the country. Both of them along with their girlfriends Angelina Johnson (Fred) and Katie Bell (George) fight the battle against Voldemort for the Order. Lupin and Tonks found themselves say “I do” over two years ago, and now have their own little purple-haired twins. But best of all, spirits rise to the occasion of two very joyous times due in the spring; the weddings of the Weasley’s youngest children.



***

Torture, death, and loss spread throughout the world. Every day, dozens of people find themselves mourning due to the sinister works of the death eaters. As the death eaters gathered, not even the aurors could stop them. Massive breakouts from Azkaban happened every day, leaving none but the insane sitting in their cells. Dreams filled Harry’s head of the war throughout the wizarding world, and how in the time coming, he will have to face Voldemort and put a stop to the torture, a stop to the pain, and perhaps even a stop to his own life.

The whole house was suddenly awoken by the crying of a little Baylee Weasley. This was the usual routine at the burrow, where Harry had stayed while not out adventurously searching for the missing Horcruxes. The sun barely moved across the horizon when Harry got out of bed to go downstairs and start breakfast. When he got down there, there was the 6-month pregnant Fleur sitting down feeding a bottle to her baby girl.

“Get zhat cloth for me, would you?” Fleur asked Harry, pointing to a little baby rag in the corner. Fleur’s English had improved very much since Harry had met her seven years ago in the Triwizard Tournament. Little Baylee Weasley had cute little blonde curls, big blue eyes, and tons of miniature freckles across her cheeks that made her look as pretty as her mother.

Ron came downstairs followed closely by Ginny, who had already gotten dressed and ready for the day.

“Hey, Harry, up for a day in Hogsmeade, Hermione and I have agreed to meet Fred and George at their shop there today.” Ron said joyfully. Harry started at Ginny, trying to see what her plans for the day were.

“I’m free, up for it, Harry?” Ginny responded, looking gleeful.

“Fine with me!” Said Harry. Hermione came downstairs and started to discuss something with Ginny, while Harry and Ron were left to watch Baylee while Fleur went upstairs to get Bill.

“So, have you guys decided if you’re coming with me in a few weeks?” Said Harry.

“You mean, to find it, but Harry, I mean,” Hermione muttered, “We don’t have any leads on it, and no idea where it could be. Don’t you think it would be better if we just took things calm around here for a while, just until we have a better idea of what we are doing.”
“Of what we are doing? Hermione, we have been doing this for the last five years! We had no idea where anything was at first! We didn’t at first where the locket was, or where to find Nagini! But we did!” Harry exclaimed, trying not to bounce around Baylee sitting in his lap.

“Calm down Harry, you know how mad mum gets when we wake them!” Ron said, trying to calm Harry down. “Ever since the little tyke started crying all the time, she has been a bit cranky.”

“Here, give me Baylee. I’ll take her upstairs and then we can get going, okay.” Ginny said sternly, taking her niece upstairs. She looked quite upset.

“Harry, you should be a bit more sympathetic around Ginny. She is really starting to worry about you. I mean, you always go off on rows and you do seem a bit preoccupied at times. She is your girlfriend!” Hermione stated, trying to make Harry feel guilty in some sense.

“Of course, you and Ron don’t have your problems, do you? The perfect couple, you two are? Well, believe me, if Ginny and I had as many rows as you two, we would have grown apart long ago!”

Ginny came downstairs looks happier than she had a moment earlier. “Ready to go?” she asked them, “Hogsmeade gets crowded these days, so best go early.”

They walked outside to the edge of the Weasley’s yard and apparated into Hogsmeade.

Hogsmeade had lost some of it’s beauty over the years, mainly due to many empty shops and large posters of the names of death eaters who had broken out of Azkaban. There would not have been much of a point of going to Hogsmeade, except for a few things. Madam Rosmerta, older yet still beautiful, kept the Three Broomsticks opened, saying that it would take you-know-who himself to make her close down the bar. The Hogs Head, the very strange pub, remained open due to the fact that it was probably run by death eaters anyways (It was always a strange place, though Harry.”

Despite the gloominess of Hogsmeade, there was one main reason for coming; Weasley Wizard Weezles. The one shop in Hogsmeade that had hundreds of colors and was full all the time. Fred and George had certainly gone to a great extent with their shops, and had hundreds of new items sitting on the shelves.

“Well good morning, fancy seeing you again.” Angelina Johnson, Fred’s longtime girlfriend, came out from behind the back room with arms full of products, getting ready to stack the shelves.

“Hey Angelina! Long time no see, and how’s Katie?” Harry responded, trying to bring up a conversation. Katie was at the present time dating George Weasley.

“Oh, she’s good, a bit freaked out though. Did you hear in the news, one of her cousins was cursed by something some death eater left in a store, thank goodness he got to St. Mungo’s in time. She was afraid he wouldn’t make it. As you recall, she doesn’t exactly have the best luck with dark objects.” Angelina stated. Harry did recall, in his sixth year she had spent half the year in St. Mungo’s after touching some cursed necklace.

“Well, I’d better be off, I promised Katie I’d meet her at St. Mungo’s. I don’t thinks he likes that place much anymore, so I wouldn’t want to leave her there alone.” Angelina sped outside the store and vanished with a “crack”.

Fred and George came out from the back. “Well, finally, we’ve been waiting for you! We need to have a little chat with you, Harry.”

Harry followed Fred and George to the back of the store, where Ron followed. “Excuse me Ron, but is YOUR name Harry?” Fred said, slamming the door in Ron’s face.

“Well, Harry, we got what you asked for. It’s all here.” George said, opening a bag.

“Excellent, how did you get it all?” Harry asked.

“Invented it, every single thing. We may have never “officially” graduated from Hogwarts but we know a bunch more than some think!” Fred retorted.

Harry looked inside the bag. In it were two invisibility cloaks, many bezoars, and simple healing kits. However, there was one square object Harry did not know what it was. “What’s this,” asked Harry, “I didn’t ask for this, whatever it is.”

“We made that one specially for you Harry! It’s an emergency teleport. Much easier than appartation if you ask me, and wherever that take you, nobody you don’t want can follow you there! Like being unplottable, if you know what I mean.” George said, looking pleased with himself.

“Well, we best be going. Fred and I have to make a little business deal with old Mundungus. Bye!” George said, as he and Fred strolled out of the shop, closing it down for the time being.

Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Hermione spent the day looking in the open shops, before returning to the burrow before nightfall.

Life at The Burrow was as good as Harry could ever imagine. Two weeks went by and not a word was mentioned of the journey that lay ahead for Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny.

Bill and Fleur went along their normal lives, tending to each and every one of Baylee’s needs. Mr. Weasley continued his job at the Ministry, while Mrs. Weasley was her normal worried self around the house. Percy kept to himself, working endless hours. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny were trying to make their last moments at The Burrow as happy as possible.

The time finally came when they had to say goodbye. They all packed their backpacks with essential items (Harry’s mostly filled with the goods that he had received from Fred and George). They had all saved up their money and so everything seemed to be in place.

“Now take care, won’t you? Our family has been through enough lately and I don’t want any more problems,” added Mrs. Weasley, giving everybody their final hugs goodbye. “And remember to write! If we don’t hear from you for over a week we’re going to send the Order to find you!”

“Mum, please, we’ll be fine,” said Ron calmly. “Don’t worry, we’ll write after we check into Lupin’s tonight!”

Tears began to fall from Mrs. Weasley’s eyes.

“Come on, Mum! We promise we will be safe. Don’t worry about it. You obviously forgot who we have with us,” Ginny stated, pointing to Harry. “Now we'd better get going if we want to get to their house by tonight.” They walked to the edge of the Weasleys’ yard and Disapparated.


Life suddenly became a lot more serious for Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny. They were no longer under the arm of the Order, but were on their own for the first time in their lives. While destroying the earlier Horcruxes, they had always had outside help.

Harry had help with the diary from his friends (though at that time they had no idea it was a Horcrux), Dumbledore had destroyed the ring and R.A.B. was their main clue to the locket, which Harry, Ron and Hermione found hidden among Kreacher’s things at Grimmauld Place. Then Lupin had helped find Hufflepuff’s cup at Riddle’s orphanage, buried among mountains of his old things. They had received information from Dumbledore’s memory in the Pensieve (after his death) on how they would catch and kill Nagini. Now all that was left was a single Horcrux, which, when destroyed, would be one more lead to Voldemort.

* * *

They arrived in a small village outside the city of Bristol. Lovely homes surrounded the area and they were mostly inhabited by witches and wizards, which was obvious from the odd arrangement of shops and people around them. They walked through the village, finally arriving to twelve, Woodland Road. At the front door, there was a sign reading The Purple-Haired House.

They knocked politely on the door, which was immediately opened by a bubbly, pink-haired witch.

“Long time no see!” Tonks exclaimed cheerfully, giving each of them a welcoming hug.

They walked inside the house to find it as welcoming as they had imagined (unlike the Dursleys, Harry thought). They were then joined by a happy man, holding two little babies with bright purple hair.

“For some reason their hair seems to turn purple when they are happy,” said Lupin, staring down at his little twin boys.

Hermione and Ginny followed Tonks into the other room to help give the babies a bath, while Harry and Ron stood talking to Lupin.

“So, have you got everything planned out? You do know you can always call me if you ever need anything,” said Lupin sincerely.

“Yes, I think we do. This is what we’ve been planning for the last few months. This might be the end,” Harry responded, looking over to Ginny playing happily with the babies. Sadness filled his eyes. “For both me and him.”

Lupin stared at Harry nervously as the conversation stopped, while Harry thought endlessly about the mission ahead of them.

“Time for dinner! I made some, well, I attempted to make something,” Tonks said, who had never been very good with cooking.

They all sat down, with the babies in their high chairs overlooking the table. Dinner was as they expected with Tonks’s cooking, although they told her it was excellent.

“I think it’s time for little Alex and Matty here to go to bed. Good night!” said Tonks, taking her boys upstairs to bed.

Everybody followed, wanting to get some sleep, excluding Harry, who was still pondering the thoughts of what might happen after everything was over; what would happen if he was over. He heaved himself out of the chair and went up to bed, attempting to leave his thoughts of fear behind.

They woke early the next morning, said goodbye to Lupin and Tonks, and were off on the second step of the journey.

Before leaving, Lupin pulled Harry aside, handing him a piece of parchment. “I have mapped out things for you. I'm not sure it will help, but I'm sure that it is a start. It’s a list of some of the places that I thought you may find interest in. Some places where Voldemort may have found proper for something as this. Keep it with you at all times. Good luck.”

They left the village quickly, trying not to attract too much attention of the wizard villagers around them.