A/N: Finally the sequel is here! I’ve had this under my belt since May. I look forward to seeing what you all think, Happy Reading!

A/N2: As many of my faithful readers will remember, I dedicated The Girl Who Lived to my little sister Jo. I knew I wanted to dedicate this to someone and for a little while I wasn’t sure whom (I happen to know a lot of very wonderful people). That was until the answer came to me at the dinner table one night…

I would like to dedicate this work of fiction to my parents, who, much like Harry, have struggled with silly prejudices that were held against them. We don’t always get on because sometime their dreams for my life are different from my own but I have never ever doubted their love for me (despite what I may have said when I was getting my ears pierced!). They have always been sure to put our family before all else, even when this entailed difficult decisions, criticism for friends and family, and huge sacrifices on their part. We are stronger, prouder and more dedicated people for it. They are my personal Molly and Arthur Weasley (you have no idea how literally I mean!). So thank you, mum and dad, for giving me life along with the knowledge, skills and strength to take whatever it throws at me. Thank you for my bratty siblings who keep me on my toes and make life a whole lot more interesting. I wouldn’t be without you.

A dark haired boy looked out over the scene from his bedroom window with delight. All that could be seen for miles around were green hills and pale blue sky. He knew that this wasn’t really the view from his window but then again this wasn’t really a window. He knew this because the wall, which this window was in the middle of, was actually the wall separating his house from the one next door and also because the house, number 12 Grimmauld Place, was standing in the heart of London. But then again this was no ordinary house and he was no ordinary boy.

He noticed that in the last year he had changed a lot, his shoulders had broadened, his jaw had squared, and the skin on his hands had toughened. Unfortunately his height was remaining the same; he often wished he could be a little bit taller but alas, he was doomed to be an average height. He pushed his hand through his messy black hair and glanced in the newly hung mirror that was just to the left of the window. His unruly tresses were the same as ever: sticking up in all directions. His black-rimmed glasses still circled the emerald eyes that he had inherited from his mother. The biggest difference showed in his clothes, for once they actually fitted him. For the first time they were his own clothes, bought for him, to fit him. He had filled out a bit and was looking rather stocky these days, which was what came from hearty meals and very little exercise. Every time he looked in the mirror he looked more and more like his father and he wasn’t about to complain about that.

Harry James Potter was no average sixteen year old; he was a wizard, who had been attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for six long years. All his favourite memories involved the school and the time he spent there. In his first year he became the youngest seeker in a century for his House Quidditch team and rescued the Philosopher’s stone from the clutches of Lord Voldemort. Voldemort was the darkest wizard for a century and was the man who had stolen Harry’s family from him. In a six-month killing spree he had then executed Andrew and Jane Potter, Harold and Eliza Potter, and James and Lily Potter, Harry’s parents. All that was now left of the Potter family were himself and his elder cousin Elizabeth.

During the course of his second year at Hogwarts Harry had stopped Voldemort once again and rescued Ginny Weasley from the Basilisk that lay within a secret chamber that was hidden in the castle. That had been the beginning of their friendship that had now blossomed in to love.

His third year of education had brought the surprise that he had a godfather, Sirius Black, who had been his father’s best friend and previously owned the house he now stood in. Harry had helped him escape the wizard gaol Azkaban and a Dementor’s kiss. That year had been full of revelations; he had learned to conjure a Patronus, something that many adult wizards couldn’t do. What made this achievement all the more special was the fact that the form his Patronus took was that of a stag �“ his father’s secret animal form.

At the beginning of his forth year he had ended up in the Tri-Wizard Tournament, a dangerous Wizarding competition. Despite being the youngest contender he had gone on to win the cup but because of this achievement and some evil trickery on the part of an imposter, he was forced to duel with Voldemort and witnessed the death of his fellow student Cedric Diggory.

His fifth year was the only time he hadn’t enjoyed life at school, but that was due to the fact the Ministry of Magic were interfering with the running of the establishment. He had been banned from playing Quidditch, had to serve countless detentions with the awful Professor Umbridge, and on top of that he was forced in to extra lessons with his least favourite teacher; Professor Snape. It was at the end of this year that Harry had lost Sirius; he was killed during a battle at the Ministry of Magic while Harry had escaped thanks to the help of Professor Dumbledore. At the beginning of that summer Harry had thought that his life was on a downhill slope and was convinced that he would never be happy again. That was until he met Elizabeth; she had been pushed in to an Italian education and only returned to Britain after Sirius’s death. It was during his sixth year that Harry had found out that she was his cousin and it felt as though a match had been struck in the dark room that was his heart. She had returned smiles and laughter to his life and was taking care of him like a brother; just a couple of months ago she had almost died for him. She had pulled him away from a desolate summer in Privet Drive to a comfortable and enjoyable time at Grimmauld Place.

Harry was having the best summer of his life. It was unquestionable and without doubt.

---

Every minute since their return to number twelve had been filled with activity, several things were happening at once. The student members of the household were hurried in to unpacking their trunks, Mrs. Weasley was preparing for an Order meeting, Charlie wanted to get started on planning his wedding straightaway and Fred and George were trying to foist some of their latest inventions on the newly arrived victims. “My dearest little Gin-Gin, my favourite little sister,” George said in a sugary voice as he wrapped an arm around his sister’s shoulders and guided her towards the sitting room where there was a vast array of sweets laid out on the table.

“I’m your only sister,” Ginny answered sceptically.

“Duly noted. How would you like to do your big brothers a little favor?” Fred responded.

“That would depend on what it involved.” She was looking at the sweet covered table suspiciously. Everyone had filed into the room behind her; all of them interested to see just what it was that the twins were up to now.

“Not much. You’ve just got to pick a sweet and eat it,” George told her.

“And what will those sweets do to me?”

“Nothing…much,” Fred answered.

“No, I won’t do it.” Ginny folded her arms across her chest pointedly.

“Fine! How about you, Ron? You’ll help us out, won’t you?” George turned on his next prey.

“Forget it,” Ron said, taking a step backwards so that he stood on Charlie’s foot.

“Watch it!” Charlie hissed painfully.

“But, Ron, you love to eat.” Fred manically waved a sweet under the boy’s nose.

“Not when it’ll do something nasty to me.” Ron screwed his face up and drew away from the sweet’s alluring smell.

“You eat mum’s chicken pie and that does something nasty to everyone,” George argued. “Don’t suppose there’s any chance of you taking one is there, Hermione?”

“Absolutely not,” she replied sternly.

“You lot are a bunch of wet blankets, you’ll battle Voldemort at the drop of a hat but ask you to try a little sweet and you want to run from the room screaming. What’s wrong with you? Give it here, George, I’ll try it.” Ellie put her hand out for the pink cellophane of the confection. She unwrapped it and popped the ball of chocolate that fell on to her hand in her mouth. She chewed it thoughtfully and after a minute she began to giggle. They all watched with breathless anticipation as her giggling got stronger and became a deep throaty chuckle; and she then began to double over with laughter. Tears trickled down her face as she collapsed on to the floor and actually started to roll about. The whole time she was laughing her head off manically and suddenly she stopped. “What are you going to call it?” she asked as Charlie helped her up off the floor.

“The Tickling Truffle. What d’you think?” Fred stood poised with a notepad, he had scribbled continuously while she had been laughing.

“Brilliant, I haven’t laughed so much in years. The chocolate was delicious too.” She enthusiastically licked her lips.

“Professor Potter, you’re a trooper.” George and his twin immediately stood to attention and saluted Ellie.

---

After the scrumptious dinner, put on by Dobby and Winky, Ellie and Charlie disappeared to the drawing room to talk about the wedding some more. The four young adults remained at the kitchen table, Ron and Harry were playing Exploding Snap and the girls were chatting persistently about the upcoming nuptials.

“Ellie was talking about having the wedding in the church at Hogwarts,” Ginny reliably informed Hermione.

“Well, I suppose it makes sense, her family’s history is steeped in the castle,” Hermione added.

“There’s a church at Hogwarts?” Harry was only half listening to the conversation they were having, to play Exploding snap you had to have your wits about you.

“It’s on the north side of the castle. If you’d read Hogwarts a History then you’d know that,” Hermione complained.

“You know, I’m really starting to think that we should read that,” he said to Ron.

“Finally,” Hermione sighed in exasperation.

“Nah, why read it when we have the talking version?” Ron threw his thumb in Hermione’s direction. “Besides it always annoys Hermione that we don’t know everything about the castle.”

“Good point,” Harry agreed.

“You two can be so infuriating,” Hermione snapped.

“Look at it this way, we care about you enough to spend time thinking of ways to annoy you,” Harry tried to lighten the mood. “Tell me more about this church.”

“It was built a year or two after the castle when Godric Gryffindor decided to marry his mistress. Three of the four founders are buried in the graveyard that sits alongside it,” Hermione enlightened them. It never ceased to amaze him how much she actually knew; she was a veritable fountain of knowledge.

“How come we’ve never seen it?” Ron quizzed her.

“Not everything is as it seems at Hogwarts. I thought you might have learned that by now. It’s hidden from view and only appears when you have need of it,” she admonished.

“What date does she have in mind?” Harry asked.

“They can’t settle, Charlie wants it as soon as possible but Ellie’s opting for something later on in the summer,” Ginny muttered as she snuggled into his shoulder.

“Ten galleons says that Charlie wins,” said Ron cheerily.

“I’ll take that bet, ten galleons on Ellie getting her way,” Harry retorted.

“Prepare to lose your gold, four eyes!” Ron yelled triumphantly.

---

The next morning after a whole two minutes home Ron and Hermione were arguing loudly. “That’s not fair, Ron. I spent the whole of last summer here and Christmas!” Hermione protested.

“But your parents came here for Christmas so that doesn’t count!” he replied.

“Ron, I haven’t been home in over a year!”

“So what neither have I? In case you’ve forgotten my home doesn’t exist anymore!” he shouted at her.

“Your home is where your family are and that’s here so don’t you dare pretend that you know what it feels like!” she scolded. “It’s only two weeks. Why are you making such a fuss?”

“Because I don’t want you to go!”

“You are being unbelievably selfish, Ronald. I don’t understand why you’re being like this!” Hermione was close to tears.

“I told you that I don’t want you to go!” Ron said a tad more fiercely than he intended.

“Well, you’re not the one making the decision. If my parents want me to go on holiday with them then I will. I’m not going to put my whole life aside so that you can get on with yours. This isn’t just about what you want it’s about what I want and I want to go to Italy with my parents!”

“FINE! Do what ever you want. It’s not like I care or anything!” Ron stormed towards the door.

“Ronald Weasley, if you leave this room now don’t you dare bother trying to come back. If you go now that’s it, we’re finished,” Hermione called. Ron paused for a second, looked around at her sorrowfully and left, slamming the door behind him. As the door clicked shut Hermione burst into tears, she leaned over the table where she and Ron had first kissed and sobbed on to the letter that lay open in front of her.

“Hermione?” Ginny said tentatively. She had opened the library door just enough to get the top half of her head through the gap. “What happened?” she asked purely out of politeness. She had heard the argument between her brother and his girlfriend from Harry’s room where the pair had been canoodling away from the scrutiny of her family.

“Ron’s being his usual pig-headed self,” she sniffed.

“What were you arguing about?” Ginny asked gently as she sat beside her friend.

“My parents sent me a letter this morning asking me to go on holiday to Italy with them. They made a point of mentioning how little time I spent with them last summer and I just feel terrible. It’s not that I don’t want to go home but I feel like this is home now. My parents don’t really understand… I just don’t fit in with their world anymore. This is my world and they aren’t able to share it,” she cried.

“Tell them about it. You can’t go on feeling like this, Hermione. You’re seventeen, you’re an adult, and you’ve got to start thinking about your life and where you want to go. You need to decide what you want to do and who you want to do it with.”

“I think Ron has made it perfectly clear that he doesn’t want to do anything with me,” she sulked.

“Ron is just being his typical self, if he doesn’t get his own way he goes in a strop. He’ll snap out of it as soon as he realizes how much he misses you,” Ginny told her authoritatively. “Go to Italy. Talk to your mum and dad and when you get back give that brother of mine a good smack around the head, I find that usually works quite well,” she smirked.

“Thank you, Ginny.” Hermione smiled as she gave the younger girl a hug.

“You’re welcome. Now if you don’t mind I need to find Harry.”

“I don’t mind at all. Go and have fun.” Hermione tucked her parent’s letter back inside its envelope and smiled encouragingly at Ginny. The red head left the library and went in search of her boyfriend.

---

“You need to talk to Ron,” Ginny told Harry as she re-entered his bedroom.

“What’s he done now?” he asked.

“He and Hermione have broken up,” she said as she sat down on his lap.

“WHAT?” He was so startled that he almost threw her from her cozy position.

“They were arguing about her taking a holiday. He doesn’t want her to go and he’s being so stubborn about it. She told him if he left the room that they were finished and he left.” She shrugged her shoulders.

“Why does your brother have to be such a dim-witted numbskull?”

“Probably for the same reason you sometimes do!” she protested.

“Right. Sorry.” He shifted her weight slightly so that she slid off his knees and on to the bed. “I suppose that I need to go find Ron before he actually talks himself in to breaking up with Hermione on a more permanent basis.”

---

He went down the hall and knocked on the door that had ‘Ron’ emblazoned on it in bright orange. “What?” Ron’s moody voice called from within.

“Why are you arguing with Hermione?” he asked, entering the room cautiously.

“None of your business,” his red-haired friend snapped grumpily.

“Actually it is,” Harry tried not to snap back.

“How do you figure that?”

“What would you do if Ginny and I had just argued like you and Hermione?”

“Probably tell you to get over yourself and stop being a prat,” he mumbled irritatingly.

“Precisely, and Hermione is just about the closest thing that I have to a sister and that gives me the right to tell you to get over yourself and stop being a prat. She just wants to go on holiday what’s the big deal?”

“The big deal? I thought you of all people would understand!” Ron yelled at him.

“Understand what exactly?” he replied, matching Ron’s decibels.

“She wants to go away!”

“It’s just a holiday. She’ll be gone two weeks at the most.” There were just no words for Harry’s state of confusion.

“But it’s not safe! She’ll be in the middle of nowhere with no wizards or witches to help if they go after her! There’s no protection in Italy, they could kill her at any time!” Ron cried hoarsely.

“So that’s what’s wrong with you? You’re worried that she won’t be safe and she could get hurt? Why didn’t you just tell Hermione that?” he asked disbelievingly.

“She would just say that I was being stupid…”

“You’d rather she thought that you were being selfish? Ron, she’s downstairs thinking that you’re a selfish, pig-headed git who doesn’t love her!”

“I do love her but I don’t want her to leave.”

“So go and tell her that. You won’t settle properly till you do.” Harry stomped from the room leaving Ron to think his predicament over.

---

“Ah, Harry, just the young squire we were looking for,” said the sickly sweet voice of Fred Weasley. Harry froze in his tracks. His bedroom door was only about two feet away from him if he moved quickly he could dash inside and pretend that he hadn’t heard them.

“Come with us.” Before he had even had a chance to move an inch he had a twin on either side of him steering him towards the stairs. They kept a firm grip on Harry’s arms as they marched him down the stairs and into their room. It had originally been two rooms but they had apparently knocked down the adjoining wall to make one cavernous space. It was full of cauldrons with things bubbling away in them and the walls were adorned with complex diagrams that Harry could make neither head nor tail of. A big flashing banner hung along one wall with the Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes logo flashing on it. They pushed him into a chair by the fire and seated themselves opposite him; there was a long silence as they surveyed him incredulously.

“There’s something we need to talk about, Harry, it’s very important,” George said seriously.

“A matter of life or death, your life or death that is,” Fred continued with such a grave look on his face that Harry was genuinely fearful.

“We heard you at the station yesterday,” George waited for Harry to say something and when he didn’t Fred carried on.

“We overheard you making a certain admission to our dear little Ginny…” Fred’s hand twitched ever so slightly as though he wanted to reach deep in to Harry’s throat and pull the words out of him.

“You used a certain L word…” George prompted.

“You mean I told her that I loved her?” There was more conviction in Harry’s voice than there was in his chest.

“Precisely. Now George and I believe that love is a very strong word and it should be used with extreme care…”

“A nasty accident could befall someone who said it but didn’t mean it.” George leaned forward in his chair.

“Well that’s all right then because I did mean it,” Harry said boldly.

“That’s what worries us,” Fred said victoriously.

“What exactly are your intentions, Mr. Potter?” his twin asked suspiciously.

“What do you mean?” Harry asked.

“Well are you intending to love and leave our little Gin-Gin or should we look out our top hats?” Fred inquired.

“Well you’re going to need your top hats anyway when Charlie gets married but I would leave them somewhere you can find them quickly just in case you need them again soon,” Harry said defiantly as he rose from his seat and left the room.

“Well, well, I think we under-estimated him, Fred,” George said disbelievingly. Neither would have thought the Boy Who Lived could have pulled that out of the hat.

A/N: I hope that has satisfied those reading on from The Girl Who Lived. The next chapter is called… Freeing Neville. Hopefully it will be with you soon.

With the first week of the holiday gone Hermione was ready to depart for Italy. She and Ron hadn’t spoken to each other since the morning of their argument. Ron had ignored Harry’s advice and avoided Hermione altogether. The youngest Weasley son only surfaced from his room at mealtimes; he spoke to the rest of the house’s occupants out of absolute necessity and could be heard pacing the floor late into the night. Just before twelve o’clock on the Sunday morning, Hermione deposited her heavy trunk at the bottom of the stairs and came down to the kitchen to say her goodbyes before Tonks and Remus escorted her to her parents safely.

“Well, I’m ready for the off,” she said as she pulled a salmon pink jacket on.

“I hope that you have a good time and don’t forget to send us a postcard,” Ginny chimed as she hugged her bushy haired friend.

“I will.”

“Take care and have fun.” Harry half surprised himself when he gave her a kiss on the cheek.

“I’ll do my best,” she smiled warmly.

“You’ll love Italy, it’s so beautiful. I wrote a list of some of the best places to visit, let me know what you think, and I also noted some useful phrases.” Ellie thrust several bits of paper in to Hermione’s hand and gave her a hug.

“Thank you, Ellie, that’s so thoughtful!”

“I rather wish I was going with you, there are some things I miss about the place. I daresay you’ll understand what I mean when you come back.”

After several other hugs and farewells Hermione left the room without so much as a glance from Ron, it wasn’t until Remus had just opened the front door when she heard a mumbled voice behind her. “Um…Hermione?” Ron was stood in the hallway with stooping shoulders and an apologetic look on his face.

“Yes, Ron?”

“I hope Italy’s nice and that you enjoy spending time with your mum and dad,” he said with a pained look.

“Oh, Ron!” She flung her arms around him and buried her head in his shoulder. When she emerged her eyes were red and teary. He gave her a quick kiss and sent her on her way.

---

“So what are we going to do now?” Ron asked when he returned to the kitchen; Harry noticed that his best friend’s eyes were fairly moist.

“We put Operation Trevor in action,” Harry whispered conspiratorially.

“And what exactly is Operation Trevor?” Ron puzzled.

“It’s our plan to go and get Neville,” Ginny supplied.

“We need a plan to go and get Neville? We can’t just ask Ellie?”

“No we don’t and yes we can, but Harry was very bored yesterday,” Ginny sniggered.

“Oh I’m sorry that you weren’t interested in a bit of danger and deceit!” Harry sniped sarcastically.

“Danger and deceit?” Ron was starting to wish he hadn’t spent so much time in his room over the last week.

“I wanted to go and get Neville on our own, but spoilsport here threatened to tell Ellie if I did.” Harry wagged his finger at Ginny accusingly.

“You honestly think that I’d have needed Ginny to tell me what you were up to?” Ellie was standing in the kitchen doorway with an empty glass in her hand.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Harry, you really need to be more careful of where you discuss these little plans of yours. I had hoped that by now you would understand that certain rooms in this house have ears and the drawing room is one,” she smiled superiorly as she poured some pumpkin juice into her glass.

“So you knew everything?” Harry felt so stupid.

“Everything from plan A through D. Why didn’t you just ask?”

“Just wanted to put a bit of excitement back into the holiday,” he muttered.

“Well how’s this for excitement, my granddad is coming later this afternoon to put charms around the garden,” she grinned and plonked herself down at the table.

“Garden? What garden?” Ron’s ears pricked up.

“The one at the back of the house. We had a bit of a discussion about it and it was agreed that it would be good for you to get some fresh air and not be cooped up all summer. It also means that you three will be able to keep your Quidditch practice up.”

“That’s great! What time is he coming at?” Harry couldn’t wait to get on his broom and play with his friends.

“Around two, which gives us just enough time to go and get Neville before he arrives,” she smiled as she rose from the table and approached the fire.

---

Ellie was the first to jump in the fire and call ‘Longbottom Cottage’ loudly and clearly. The three teenagers followed her and when they materialized at the other end they were in a quaint hallway that was painted a rustic shade of yellow. Floral curtains hung from the small windows and the ceiling was lined with weathered oak beams, which echoed the typical countryside sideboard that was lined-up against one wall and the comfortable rocking chair that was sitting in another corner. When the last person, Ron, had emerged Ellie began her search for the house’s inhabitants. “Mrs. Longbottom?” she called, entering the sitting room. Nobody was in there so she moved on to the next room.

“Where exactly are we?” Harry asked after several more empty rooms including the dinning room and the study.

“Neville’s house,” Ellie replied, giving him a look that clearly wondered just how stupid he was.

“Really? Here I was thinking that it was the Ministry of Magic.” He gave himself a mocking smack on the head. “I meant whereabouts in the country are we?”

“Oh, Barnoldswick it’s near Burnley in Lancashire,” Ellie informed him as she stepped in to the warm country kitchen. Harry’s mind flicked back to the geography lessons he had taken at the Muggle School he attended. Lancashire was somewhere in the north, around Blackpool, which made sense. Neville had once told them about his Great Uncle Algie pushing him off Blackpool Pier. When there was no one in the kitchen Ellie seated herself at the table, “I suppose we’ll have to wait for them then.”

Silence fell upon the group as they examined the room they now sat in; it was a quintessential rural kitchen. They were sitting at a massive wooden table that had obviously seen a good few meals, there were plate and scorch marks all over the surface and slightly stained floral cushion pads softened the harsh wooden chairs. There was a large fire on one wall above which hung a family portrait, it had been taken when Neville was just a baby, Frank and Alice stood at the back cooing over their tiny son while a woman that could only be a younger Granny Longbottom sat proudly in front of them. Alice and Frank looked completely different to their current selves. Instead of the wispy, grey hair that now graced Alice’s head, her locks were the same rich shade of brown that her son’s hair now was. Both she and her husband had smooth peachy skin that was almost unrecognisable next to the slack and dull complexion that they both bore now.

After ten or fifteen minutes the unmistakable sound of a fire roaring in the grate reached their ears followed by a loud woman. “I don’t know why she gives you them, I suppose there must be something in her head that makes her think she has to give yet another wrapper to you.” A short broad woman came bustling in to the room. “Elizabeth! How wonderful to see you and who is it you’ve brought with you?” The woman’s demeanour changed from admonitory to welcoming almost immediately, Harry noticed the distinct fondness in her voice.

“Harry, Ron, and Ginny,” Ellie indicated each teen as she said their name.

“Of course, of course,” Mrs. Longbottom muttered as she took a good look at Harry, but instead of staring at his scar she looked straight into his eyes. “Has something happened?” She looked away from Harry to start shuffling cups and a kettle. Neville came trudging through the doorway wearily but his face brightened when he saw their guests.

“No, we just thought we would come and invite Neville to stay with us for a week or two, what do you think?” she was smiling at Neville encouragingly.

“I don’t see why not, it’d get him away from here for a while.” Mrs. Longbottom placed a cup of tea in front of Ellie. “Why don’t you go and pack your things, Neville? You can take your friends with you.” Neville evidently didn’t need to be told twice he disappeared from the room so quickly that Harry thought he had Apparated but then reminded himself that Neville wasn’t old enough. By the time the other three had reached the bottom of the stairs Neville was already on the way back down with his packed trunk.

“I’m ready!” he trilled bursting back in to the kitchen.

“Good,” Ellie grinned at the bemused expressions of the others. “You’ll need to read this first.” She handed him a bit of paper similar to the one that Harry had been given before he arrived at Grimmauld Place for the first time. Sure enough when he glanced over Neville’s shoulder he recognized the loopy handwriting of their Headmaster spelling out the words 'The Headquarters of the Order of The Phoenix may be found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London.'

“I need you to memorize that, Neville, if you don’t the results could be disastrous. Say it to yourself over and over again for a minute and let me know when you’ve got it,” Ellie told him seriously.

“I remember when his father got that bit of paper for the first time. That was when he was first accepted into the Order, headquarters was elsewhere in those days.” Mrs. Longbottom said with just the faintest hint of a sniff. “We’ve got a proud family tradition with the Order.” She huffed her large chest out further.

“I know, your family has done themselves proud and Neville has done no less. Ready?” Ellie smiled proudly at the youngest Longbottom.

“I think so. I’ll see you soon, Gran.” Neville gave his grandmother a quick kiss on the cheek before nodding at Ellie.

“Thank you for the tea, Augusta, it was lovely to see you again.” Ellie gave the older woman a warm hug.

“All of you take care and you better behave yourself, Neville Longbottom, or you will be in serious trouble when you get back,” she told her grandson sternly as she watched him disappear into the fire.

---

“Wow!” Neville breathed when he transpired in the fireplace. The kitchen he had arrived in was easily twice the size of the one he had just departed.

“Welcome to our home,” Harry said encouragingly.

“Some home!”

“That it is,” Ellie had suddenly appeared to the left of Ginny; she had Apparated with Neville’s trunk.

“Where did you find this place?” Neville’s eyes were darting around the room trying to take everything from the table and its fifteen seats to the magical windows that Ellie had conjured two days previously.

“Ellie and I inherited it from Sirius,” Harry told him somewhat mournfully. His thoughts of Sirius still had a tendency to be edged with sadness.

“Oh.” Neville’s face fell at the realization he had caused his friend some pain.

“He was a generous man. Why don’t you take Neville’s trunk upstairs and decide where he’s going to sleep?” Ellie swiftly changed the subject.

“I just thought he’d take Hermione’s room?” Harry had just assumed that with the other bedroom free it made sense.

“And if that’s what Neville wants then he can. Give him the guided tour,” she smiled.

“Okay. Come on, Neville, this way,” Harry forged ahead grabbing one end of Neville’s trunk while Ron grabbed the other. Neville trundled along behind them with Ginny.

---

“So this is the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix. What exactly does the Order do?” Neville asked as they marched up the staircase to the first floor.

“They fight Voldemort. Your mum and dad were members,” Ginny mentioned helpfully.

“I’ve heard things here and there about it but never enough to know what it was all about.” Neville poked his head round a doorframe and saw the spacious library beyond it.

“All there really is to know is that we’ve got people everywhere and we’re doing what we can to get rid of Voldemort - Harry, would you slow down? You’re going to pull my arm out its socket!” Ron exclaimed, massaging his shoulder slightly.

“Sorry,” Harry blushed. He hadn’t realized just how fast he was walking and had forgotten that Ron had the other end of the trunk, Ron didn’t walk to anywhere quickly unless it involved food of some kind.

“Since when was it ‘we’? You’re not a member of the Order yet, Ron,” Ginny reminded him.

“Not yet but I will be soon, we probably all will.”

“Better believe it,” Harry said enthusiastically.

They scurried up the next lot of stairs. “This is my room,” Harry narrated as he pushed open his bedroom door.

“I like the colour; it’s nearly the same shade as mine,” Neville said as he peered out of Harry’s magical window. “I know that Hermione’s room is free but could I stay in here with you, Harry?”

“If that’s what you want…”

“I think so; it’s a lot like home.”

“Wait till you see Ron’s room, its tangerine!” Harry informed him and then laughed at the look on Neville’s face.

“That sounds…interesting,” the round-faced boy tried for an enthusiastic tone.

“Interesting? It’s a thousand times better than that!” Ron grabbed Neville’s forearm and pulled him down the hall excitedly.

“Poor Neville, he won’t know what’s hit him.” Ginny shook her head gently and smiled as the two boys rushed into her brothers shocking room. “Look at us, all alone,” she said suggestively.

“They’re only down the hall, Ginny,” Harry told her with a raised eyebrow.

“You know, Harry, for someone who fights Voldemort every other day you really aren’t all that daring,” Ginny mocked.

“Really? How daring would you like me to be?” he asked as he took a step closer to her.

“About this daring.” Ginny reached out the rest of the distance between them, pulled him towards her sharply and planted a very zealous kiss on his lips.

“Urgh! Do you have to do that while we’re around?” Ron complained from the doorway. He had returned from his room with Neville who still looked slightly traumatized by the experience.

“Sorry, mate,” Harry apologized half-heartedly.

“He may be, but I’m not!” Ginny pulled him back in for another kiss. Ron made another disgusted noise before saying to Neville.

“Come on, I can’t stand to watch that any longer. They could be at it for hours!” They heard him marching away down the stairs with the still dazed Neville.

“Now you weren’t really sorry, were you?” Ginny pouted at her boyfriend.

“No,” he assured her.

“Prove it,” she whispered in his ear.

---

By the time they had completed their tour of the house and returned to the kitchen Professor Dumbledore was sitting at the table with a steaming cup in front of him, he was having a lively conversation with his granddaughter, or rather she was having a lively conversation and he was listening patiently. Harry inwardly marvelled at the pair, Dumbledore’s eyes twinkled dotingly and a loving smile played on the corners of the old man’s mouth. “Ah, I see that the youngsters have returned from their no doubt tiring expedition.” Dumbledore’s gaze shifted from the young woman in front of him to the four teenagers standing in the doorway.

“Good afternoon, Professor,” Harry was the first to venture forth.

“Harry. How are you, Neville?” The headmaster inquired politely.

“I’m fine thank you, Professor,” Neville replied.

“Very good to hear that. I’m sure that you’ll all be much better once you have access to the garden and can start practicing your Quidditch,” he smiled mischievously. “Shall we, Elizabeth?”

“By all means. Do you four want to come and watch?” she barely finished her question before they nodded at her enthusiastically. Dumbledore led the way from the kitchen back up the half staircase to the entrance hall. There was a door at the top of the stairs that none of them had ever noticed before, their headmaster waved his wand and the lock made loud click. The door opened on to a long dark, dank corridor with large cobwebs hanging across the width of the passage itself, Ron gasped loudly.

“Not to worry, Mr. Weasley,” Dumbledore said comfortingly, he waved his wand so that the cobwebs, and presumably the spiders that occupied them, disappeared. Ron’s features visibly relaxed and he let out a breath he had been holding in. At the end of the hallway there was another door, covered in what looked like several inches of dust and grime. With another wave of the elder wizard’s wand it vanished and the door swung open to reveal the garden of number 12.

Never before had Harry seen such an incredible garden, it was similar in size to the grounds that come attached to manors and castles. He couldn’t help but think of what the Dursleys would say if they could see this. Their garden had always been the Dursleys pride and joy and he could just imagine that they would turn green with envy at the sight of his beautiful manicured, beyond enormous, grounds. Many trees stood tall and proud, providing shade from the bright summer sun that was hanging over London. There was a pond full of brightly coloured fish, a large wooden picnic table, and hundreds of vibrantly coloured flowers.

“Professor Sprout did a wonderful job didn’t she?” Ellie said to Harry’s gob smacked expression.

“Professor Sprout?” he asked still in awe. He was glad to see he wasn’t the only one gawping, Ron and Ginny wore similar expressions and Neville looked to be on the verge of fainting.

“She came in last week and tidied up, you wouldn’t believe the infestations that were out here, she found an entire family of Grindylows living in the bottom of the pond. Down at the end of the garden, amongst some of the weeds the gnomes had practically made themselves a whole village. You’ll need to keep back while we perform the spell, it’s a complex bit of magic and if it’s interrupted then we’ll have a lot of problems on our hands,” she added seriously. Dumbledore nodded his assent.

The two stepped out in to a clear space that was drenched by sunlight; they stood side by side as they began to chant in Latin.

“Rapio is locus ex visum… velieris is ex nostrum hostilis… servo is intus inquisitor animus… tantum qui teneo verum vadum animadverto quis sileo hic…rapio is locus…”

A wind gathered slowly and began to circle the still pair, their long hair and robes whipped about in the gales that surrounded them, suddenly the wind stopped and red circles began to pulse from them, these rings widened until they came in to contact with the boundaries of the garden where they disappeared. The red circles became fainter and eventually everything stopped.

“That should prove satisfactory,” Dumbledore said to Ellie.

“So who wants to get their broom?” Ellie asked them, she had a faint glow in the back of her eyes that appeared to be dancing, Harry wasn’t sure if this was because of the powerful spell she had just performed or her excitement at the prospect of Quidditch.

---

The five of them messed about outside for a majority of the afternoon. Just after four the house began to fill up with the adults who were home for the evening, they all filed out in to the garden to watch the Quidditch practice that was on going. Ellie was rather frightening in her role of captain she was behaving like a deranged drill sergeant; she made Oliver Wood look like a lazybones and made Harry and Ron feel deeply ashamed.

“Typical Potter, ordering everyone around,” Moony heckled from the sidelines.

“Is that right? How about we have a little game of Quidditch?” Ellie teased her godfather.

“Does now suit you?” Remus was not intimidated in anyway.

“Absolutely. May I keep Harry, Neville, Ron and Ginny?”

“If you wish. Who else would you like?” Remus rose off the grass and began to remove his travelling cloak.

“Fred and George please.” She beckoned the twins over.

“You’re not going to pick me?” Charlie protested.

“No, she’s seen the light and realized that she picked the wrong brother!” George grabbed Ellie and swung her in to a low bow. “Elizabeth, my darling, how long I’ve waited for you.” He then began to kiss the air around her face; Ellie giggled furiously, which only annoyed Charlie further.

“Sorry, Charlie, but I’m putting a young guns team together here,” she said when she finally overcame her fit of the giggles.

“So I’m not a young gun anymore?”

“In a word…No” she chirped. This left her husband to be speechless.

“Not to worry, Charlie, you’re a cert for my team,” Remus clapped the young man on the shoulder. “I’ll have Bill, Tonks, Kingsley, Arthur… and I’ll take Dung as well.” He was studying the increasingly large crowd carefully. Harry could only assume that an Order meeting had been scheduled. There were several cries of ‘Accio Broom!’ as the opposition called for their broomsticks. Ellie beckoned her team forward.

“Right, Ron, you’ll be keeper. Harry, you can seek. Fred and George, you’re back to being beaters. Me, Ginny and Neville will be the chasers…”

“Can I ask a question?” Fred interrupted.

“Fire away,” there was a small hint of impatience in Ellie’s voice, apparently Quidditch brought out the animal in his cousin.

“By any chance were you a Muggle soldier in a past life?” Fred grinned mischievously.

“What makes you ask that?”

“Because you’re acting exactly like this general somebody or other that I read about once, could have been custard,” George answered.

“Stop talking nonsense and let’s get a game plan together.” She then proceeded to tell them what the plan of attack was. She and Remus conjured the goal posts on either side of the garden and then the game began in earnest. Ellie told her team off several times for being complacent and punched Fred in the arm when he tried to calm her down with, “come on, Ellie, they’re just a bunch of old people!”

To be fair for a bunch of old people they were doing pretty well, they were only a maximum of ten points behind during the entire course of the game. It was over an hour before Harry spotted the Snitch. It was floating at Dung’s right ankle, both he and Charlie spotted it at the same time and raced forwards, flat on their brooms. Charlie would have reached it first if it weren’t for Ellie who saw what was happening and flew straight into Charlie’s path. Unfortunately he didn’t have time to stop and bundled straight through her, they became a large ball of person and broomstick until they collided with the ground and there was a very loud and sickening crack.

Everyone rushed forward to find Charlie sprawled on top of Ellie, whose face was buried in his armpit; she was being poked in the nose by the twigs from the tail end of his broom. “Are you okay?” he asked her urgently. “What cracked?” Panic was etched into his features. Ellie arched her back and pulled her now broken broomstick from underneath her; she dropped it on the ground beside her and began to grin inanely at the many heads of the group that were peering down at her.

“What’s wrong? Do you have a concussion?” Remus asked with concern.

“No, I want to do that again, it was fun. You did get the Snitch didn’t you, Harry?” She gazed at him intently. He held the golden sphere up to the light for her approval. “Wah-hey! Well done team!” she called enthusiastically.

“You do realize that if you hadn’t flown in front of me I’d be holding that Snitch, don’t you?” Charlie asked suspiciously.

“Of course I do. Why do you think I did it? I wasn’t about to lose to a bunch of old timers,” she chortled.

“Watch who you’re calling old timers, your mother would have been one of these ‘old timers’ and let me tell you something, Elizabeth Potter, you may be a revelation on that broom but your mother would have been able to outstrip you, even on her old and decrepit broomstick,” Remus scolded.

“Since when was I an old timer?” Tonks and Bill said at the same time, they looked at each other and laughed.

“Since you started doing things with scary synchronization,” Ron answered, everyone laughed joined in the mirth.

“Dinner’s ready,” Mrs. Weasley called from the back door. “Elizabeth? Why on earth are you on the ground?”

“Don’t worry, Mum, she was just trying to kill the both of us,” Charlie said nonchalantly, he reached out a hand to pull her from the floor.

“What?” Mrs. Weasley looked at them all with a very confused expression.

“Just a new Quidditch manoeuvre, Molly,” Arthur said as he strode across the garden towards his wife.

“I see. Hurry up everyone, there’s going to be an Order meeting and I want everything tidied away before Dumbledore gets back. Thank heavens for Dobby and Winky!” Everyone followed her inside and settled down to their delicious dinner.

---

While the Order meeting was in session the four, who were excluded from it on the basis of age, settled in to the sitting room. Ron brought the chessboard from the drawing room in for him and Neville to play a game, while Harry and Ginny watched them from the couch. Ginny was once again curled up in Harry’s lap, she had taken to sitting there as of late and he certainly wasn’t about to complain. Neither was Ron, as long as they didn’t start snogging the face off each other in front of him. Snuffles gave them all a fright when she snuck into the room stealthily and, without warning, pounced up in to Ginny’s lap, where she purred loudly at her owners stroking.

It was three hours before the meeting was closed; Ellie and Charlie came to check on them. “Everybody all right? How many times has he beaten you, Nev?” Charlie grinned at a completely dejected Neville.

“Six and still counting,” the boy replied.

“Oi, Ron, give the poor guy a break!” he reprimanded his brother.

“What took so long?” Harry was far more interested in knowing what had taken three hours to discuss.

“Professor Snape was giving a report,” Ellie answered him still clearly busy thinking.

“On what?” Harry had a feeling he might be pushing his luck by asking for this kind of information but was surprised when she answered.

“No one has seen or heard from Voldemort since the attack in Hogsmeade.” She shivered so slightly that it was almost unnoticeable.

“Not even the Death Eaters?” Ginny asked.

“Not even them, it’s like he’s just disappeared from the face of the planet all together. This isn’t good,” the older girl replied solemnly.

“But if he hasn’t been in touch with the Death Eaters doesn’t it mean that something’s wrong? Why would he hide from them unless something was up?” Surprisingly it was Ron who was being insightful; Harry couldn’t stop himself from thinking that Hermione must be rubbing off on him.

“Or he’s doing something big, something so important that he doesn’t trust anyone else to know about.” Ellie said with a dark expression.

“But surely he would tell someone, Wormtail or Malfoy?” Ginny provided.

“Not these days, Wormtail was only really useful when Voldemort need his help to survive; he got some serious reprimanding when it got out that I was still alive. As for Malfoy, he’s failed one too many times if you ask me.” There was a faint indication of a smile brewing in the back of Ellie’s eyes, she loved getting one over on Malfoy.

“So what happens now?” Although Neville was still fairly new to the idea of the Order he appeared to be catching up quite quickly.

“We wait.” Charlie was staring out of the front window. He settled on to the settee beside Ellie, who immediately snuggled in to his shoulder and after a little while fell asleep. Harry decided to give Neville a break by playing Ron at wizard’s chess, the game dragged on for more than an hour and once again Harry was beaten spectacularly.

“You need more practice, mate,” Ron advised.

“Hmm? Huh? What?” Ellie murmured as she woke from her peaceful slumber with a start. “What time is it?”

“Just gone eleven,” Charlie answered.

“Oh, well come on everyone go on up to bed.” She began trying to shuffle the youngsters from the room.

“But it’s summer!” Harry protested.

“I don’t particularly care, it’s time you lot were in bed.”

“You just want the room empty so you and Charlie can get up to stuff you can’t when everyone else is around. What was it you said Charlie’s hands did for you?” Ginny admirably tried to embarrass the older girl in to submission.

“Ginny, stop! Don’t take this conversation any further, I don’t want to know!” Harry put his hands over his ears and began singing la-de-da as loud as he could, he, Ron and Neville practically ran from the room. Realizing that her plan had backfired, Ginny made a swift exit too.

“Harry, wait! Come back here for a second,” Ellie shouted from the foot of the stairs, he doubled back down two flights to talk to her. “Um…right…”

“Is everything okay?” He was a little bit concerned by her expression.

“Well, I really don’t know how to say this to you so I’m just going to come out with it. I wanted to take you somewhere, Godric’s Hollow to be precise.” She was staring at him with a pained look.

“Isn’t that where my parents used to live?” he asked very quietly.

“It is. I’d understand if you don’t want to go, it might be too hard. I’m not exactly looking forward to it myself.”

“I want to go, I’ll be ok. Is it just you and I going?”

“I thought we should take Remus with us.”

“I think that’s a good idea, what time are we leaving at?”

“About ten o’clock.”

“Ok, I’ll see you tomorrow morning, Ellie.” Harry headed up the staircase for the second time.

“Good night, Harry.” He saw her disappear back in to the sitting room and saw from the shadows that were playing on the walls that Charlie had risen to greet her.

“So, Ms. Potter. What exactly is it you said my hands do to you?” Charlie asked seductively, Harry cringed.

“Well…” Ellie whispered. Harry saw the shadow forms of his cousin and her fiancé kiss before the living room door swung shut softly.

A/N: Don’t you just hate overhearing things like that?

(The Latin words translate as follows… Steal this place from view… hide it from our enemies…keep it within the trusted soul…only those who know the truth shall see what rests here.)

The next chapter is going to be… Return to Godric’s Hollow.

The next morning Ellie woke Harry at nine o’clock sharp for breakfast. When he reached the kitchen only a few of the adults were up, namely Ellie, Remus, Tonks, Charlie, Molly and Arthur. “Morning, Harry,” Remus said in a voice that was sadder than usual. “Are you sure that you still want to come today?” there was something in his tone of voice that caught in Harry’s chest; Remus clearly wasn’t thrilled at the idea of visiting the home of his former best friends again.

“I do, but I thought that the house had been destroyed the night that Voldemort came?” He had been tempted to say the night my parents died but he couldn’t bring himself.

“It was, but magical homes can rebuild themselves when asked to.” The older man’s eyes were so very gloomy. Tonks wrapped her tiny hand around his rather larger one and gave him a reassuring look.

“So someone had the house rebuilt? Who?” Harry tried not to press too hard for answers.

“Me, I ask my granddad to arrange it,” Ellie entered in to the conversation. Although she was better at hiding the sadness, Harry could still see that it was there.

“Why?” The truth be told, knowing that he where he was going in the morning had made Harry’s sleep restless. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to go, he did, he wanted to go more than anything in the world, but he wasn’t sure that he was ready for it. Godric’s Hollow was the home he had forgotten, the one he had shared with his parents prior to their death and he wanted to see it. When he thought of homes like The Burrow and Grimmauld Place you could tell a lot about the owners from the way the house was furnished and decorated, and every picture on the wall told a story. He wanted to see the home that his parents had created; he wanted to hear the stories told by their pictures.

“I just thought that it was about time that we went back there, it’s been a long time,” she replied.

“Erm…could I ask a favour?” He had thought of something that might make it a little easier to deal with.

“Of course you can,” Remus answered.

“Can Ginny come with us?” Harry saw his guardians share a fleeting look. Was it delight?

“If that’s what you want,” Ellie told him kindly.

“It is, I’ll go and ask her if she wants to come.” He left the table and made his way up to Ginny’s room. He knocked softly several times without any response and was going to go back downstairs when he decided to open the door just an inch. He could see Ginny fast asleep in her bed; he slipped inside the room and sat down beside her. She looked like a flame- haired angel with her pale skin and the content expression. She stirred slightly and rolled on to her side. “Ginny?” he whispered. He called her name several times; on each occasion he spoke a little louder until her eyes fluttered open. She gazed at him for a moment, evidently confused by his presence.

“Harry? What are you doing here?” she mumbled sleepily.

“Ellie and Remus are taking me to Godric’s Hollow today and I’d really like you to come with us,” he said hopefully.

“Godric’s Hollow?”

“It was where my parent’s lived; I really want you to be there.”

“Come with you? Are you sure?” she spoke with such concern.

“Positive, I’m not sure that I could take it without you.”

“Can you give me five minutes to get washed and dressed?” she smiled.

“I’ll wait downstairs for you.” He rose to leave the room but felt her gentle hand on his arm; she was now kneeling on her bed. He tried desperately to ignore the fact that her pyjamas were on the skimpy side of things. He could see a good four inches of the bare skin covering her stomach. She pulled him in close and kissed him gently. “What was that for?”

“Nothing,” she whispered.

“Right, you’ve got five minutes,” he grinned devilishly and went back to the kitchen to wait for her. She appeared a grand total of ten minutes late. “I thought you said you’d only be five minutes?” he teased.

“Well I took longer than expected, I didn’t realise we were in such a rush,” she answered indignantly.

“We’re not; your mum’s just about to put out breakfast.”

“So you’re telling me off for nothing?

“Pretty much yeah,” he grinned.

“You’ll pay for that, Potter!” There was a scheming glint in her eye that told Harry he was going to be in very deep trouble when they got back.

“Young love!” Ellie exclaimed. Mrs. Weasley laid out the breakfast table as it was Dobby’s day off and everyone munched in silence. When they were finished Ellie and Remus waited patiently by the fire for the two teens.

“Are you sure you don’t want us to come with you?” Charlie and Tonks had been whispering together for a minute before he put the question to his girlfriend and her godfather, Tonks nodded her approval at the query.

“I think we’ll be all right.” Remus looked at Ellie for a moment. “Yes, we’ll be okay. Harry, Ginny, are you ready?”

“Just coming,” Ginny mumbled with a mouthful of sausage. They joined Ellie and Remus at the fire, assuming that they were going by Floo but Remus pulled an old wallet from his robes and held it out for the others to grab hold. With a short sharp tug behind his navel Harry was deposited in Godric’s Hollow.

---

They had landed in the middle of what was blatantly a Muggle village. It was full of little rural cottages that had been built from moss-covered bricks, many, many years ago. Some of them even had thatched roofs and little smoke-emitting chimneys. The houses were arranged in a kind of circle around a large grassy park area in the centre with some climbing frames and swings for little children. Remus led the way across the road, which was devoid of cars and Harry noticed that the older man had a slight grip on Ellie’s hand. Ginny linked her own hand with his and tugged him along in his guardians’ wake. In front of them stood an average sized, two-storey cottage, it had a small front garden that was enclosed by a three-foot high stonewall and a little wooden gate. You could tell that the garden had once been well kept but had fallen prey to the ravages of nature in the absence of proper care.

A little plaque hanging to the left of the front door read ‘Potter House’ it was swinging back and forth gently in a light summer breeze. Remus stood to one side allowing Ellie access to the heavy mahogany front door. She rummaged in a pocket of her robes for a moment or two before pulling out a hefty wrought iron key which, when pushed in to the lock and twisted, gave a loud and satisfying click. The door swung open to reveal a pastel yellow hallway that was blanketed by a thick and luxurious beige carpet. The first room they came upon was the living room, it was a deep cherry red, and there were three plush looking settees with extra plump cushions. The vocal point of the room was the impressive fireplace that was in the middle of one wall; above it Harry found his family waving back at him. His mum, dad, aunt, uncle and grandparents were all smiling heartily out of their family portrait.

His grandparents were sitting in the centre of the picture with his father and uncle standing proudly behind them. His mother and aunt were kneeling down on either side to keep a close eye on a tiny Ellie who was bouncing newborn Harry up and down on her knee. Harry felt a lump rising from his chest to his throat; he was fighting the tears so hard that it bordered on painful. His grip tightened on Ginny’s hand, she returned it with a little squeeze and a gentle smile. She was surprised when a gasp of laughter escaped his lips, a couple of the tears he had been fighting slipped out during his lack of concentration. He pointed her to the picture where Ellie was jovially sticking her tongue out at her mother and trying desperately to get Harry to do the same. In the meantime Lily had placed her forehead on the ground and Harry could tell from the convulsing of her slight frame that she had succumbed to fits of laughter. From their position behind their mother and father James and Andrew couldn’t see what was causing the commotion and they stumbled round to the front for a better look. James doubled over in laughter and Andrew began to scold everyone, including his mum and dad who were smirking at the hubbub in front of them. The elder Potter brother was wagging his finger in a fashion that reminded Harry of Molly Weasley. Every time her father wiggled his finger at her Ellie wiggled her tongue right back and it wasn’t long before Andrew had also slumped beside his wife laughing cheerily.

Ellie watched the whole thing with tears cascading down either cheek; she smiled at Harry sadly and said, “Feel free to look around.” Remus was clutching her arm very tightly, Harry wasn’t sure if it was to steady himself or her. Ellie pressed on towards what looked like the kitchen while Harry headed in the direction of the stairs with Ginny. The first room they came to on the upstairs landing appeared to have been Harry’s nursery. A baby’s cot was in the middle of the room and it was adorned with Quidditch bedcovers. The little curtains that draped over one end had some little Snitches zooming around the fabric; Ginny grinned at him as she reached into the cot and pulled out a cuddly toy that was shaped like a broomstick.

“What d’you reckon, baby Harry’s favourite cuddly toy?” She said shaking the soft broom in his face.

“I could believe that,” he smiled. He looked over the room carefully and found another toy broomstick; it was an older version of the one that Harry had seen a pair of young witches playing on at the Quidditch World Cup. In a trunk at the bottom of his wardrobe he found a complete set of Quidditch balls. He had many toys, some which were obviously wizard toys �“such as a fluffy Snitch, while others were evidently Muggle �“ in particular, a plastic, bubble-blowing Postman Pat figurine.


He left Ginny to her own devices as he headed back out on to the landing and ventured into the next room, he could tell that this had once been his parent’s bedroom; each bedside cabinet bore a picture of one of his parents. A picture of the guests from their wedding was perched, pride of place on their chest of drawers and in a little alcove between the wardrobes, his mother and father’s brooms stood respectfully side-by-side. He smiled at them mournfully for a moment before moving on to explore the rest of the house. Two adult toothbrushes and two small children’s ones waited patiently for their owners in their holder by the bathroom sink. The third bedroom was a little girl’s room, Harry presumed that this had been done for Ellie’s benefit; it would certainly explain his cousin’s fondness for the colour pink. Everything in the room that could be pink was, this varied greatly in shades from the pastel pink on the walls to the hot pink of the bed covers and the near lilac of the miniature loveseat that was sitting in one corner. The ceiling mirrored the summer sky from outside with the exception that the clouds that spelled out words like ‘Broom’, ‘Quidditch’, ‘Snitch’, ‘Wand’ and some simple spells like ‘Reparo!’ Harry smiled up at it as the words ‘Potter’s Rule!’ drifted from one side of the room to the other and disappeared.

“Your dad took family pride very seriously, the first word you ever said was Potter.” Ellie’s eyes glistened as they flitted over what had become her third bedroom in six months. The room itself was jolly but it came attached to the horrible thought that four people had died before she got here and two more had died before she left. “What do you think of the place?”

“It was just like I expected,” he wasn’t entirely sure what he meant by that.

“Really?” she smiled hopefully.

“Yeah…well no…I’m not sure. I didn’t really know what to expect but what I’ve found hasn’t surprised me. Does that make any sense?”

“I think so. Why don’t you come down stairs and see the rest of the place?”

“Okay, where’d Ginny get to?”

“I’m right here,” she said emerging from his parent’s room looking very solemn.

“Are you all right, Ginny?” Ellie asked.

“I’ll be fine.” She smiled falsely but Ellie didn’t seem to notice. Harry did though and made a mental note to ask her about it later. The red head gave him a rather strange look and then glanced over her shoulder, back in to the room she had emerged from. As he walked past Harry stole a quick glance in, a small lime-green St Mungo’s uniform had been laid on the corner of the bed tenderly. His breath caught in his chest for a second time that day.

“Was my mum a healer?” he suddenly asked.

“She was.” Ellie was stood on her tiptoes to look over his shoulder, when she spotted the uniform she gave Ginny an appraising sort of look. “She had a very caring nature.” Ellie led them down another staircase that brought them to the kitchen where Remus was sitting at the table looking thoroughly distressed. In that moment Harry felt for his guardian more than ever. Looking at the destroyed expression now gracing his handsome features reminded Harry just how much Remus had lost in the last sixteen years.

“Remus…” he considered asking if he was okay but decided at the very last moment that this was a very stupid question, he was quite obviously not okay.

“I just need a minute, Harry; it’s a little bit harder than I thought it would be. I…” he could go no further as his voice died away.

“We understand,” Ginny said compassionately, for neither Ellie nor Harry could find their voices.

“Thank you, Ginny,” Remus offered when he had regained his composure. “Why don’t you both nip down to the study, there are some very useful books down there.” Remus pointed to an almost invisible door under the stairs behind them. Purely out of interest Harry and Ginny pulled the door open and descended down the staircase that was revealed, the bottom step exposed a spacious basement study come library. It was very reminiscent both of the library at Hogwarts and Grimmauld Place. Harry walked along the shelves pulling out random books, What To Do When The Worst Happens by Healer Hippocrates Smethwyck, Triumphs Of The Dark Force Defence League by Justus Pilliwickle, Healing In The Home by Dilys Derwent, Defence Spells to Save Lives by Elladora Elphwick, to name but a few. He grabbed a few of the more interesting defence textbooks to take home with him to read.

“Moony was right, there are a lot of useful books in here,” he commented to Ginny.

“They even kept their old school books,” Ginny pulled two copies of The Standard Book of Spells Grade 7 by Miranda Goshawk off the shelf she was examining.

“Just think how it’ll look,” Harry whispered in her ear as he stepped beside her.

“What do you mean?” she puzzled.

“When our two books are lined up there, and then of course there’ll be our kid’s editions as well,” he smiled at her.

“Do you really mean it, Harry?” she asked excitedly.

“I do,” he grinned at her, he wasn’t sure if she realized that she was bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet.

“Say that again,” she pouted.

“I do. Now it’s your turn,” he prompted.

“I do,” she smiled and kissed him.

“Now, now you two, no snogging in the study. What would your parents say?” Ellie had appeared in the room and was staring at Harry accusingly.

“Actually, Ellie, I daresay that James is up there somewhere cheering Harry on,” Remus smiled properly for the first time that day.

“Remus, you and I are supposed to be acting responsibly and rationally, we are not supposed to be encouraging our charge to lock lips with poor, unsuspecting teenage girls!” she told her godfather authoritatively.

“I must apologize to Ginny for what I’m about to say… but she is hardly a ‘poor, unsuspecting teenage girl’ I’m afraid that you’re only right on two counts there,” Remus reminded her.

“No apology necessary,” Ginny chimed.

“Oh that’s right! Everybody gang up on Ellie! What happened to sisterhood? What happened to family ties? No, no that’s fine; if nobody wants to listen to me then I’ll be sure to keep quiet from now on!” She stormed up the stairs spectacularly. Remus shook his head gently.

“Ever the drama queen. So Potterish,” he said with a wry smile.

“Hey! I’m still a Potter you know!” Harry protested on his family’s behalf.

“You don’t need to tell me that, Harry,” Remus chuckled. “Are you ready to go or would you like a little longer?”

“I’m good to go; can I take these books with me?” He motioned to the pile of books that he had abandoned on a nearby table in the heat of his passion.

“Of course you can.” The former Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher led the way up the stairs. “Ready to go, Ellie?” he asked tentatively. She was staring out of the kitchen window in to the wild back garden; she faced them and surveyed her surroundings for a second before she nodded. The four left the house, crossed back over the road and took one last look back at the house before they took the Portkey back to Grimmauld Place.

---

When they landed back in the kitchen Remus made excuses to leave very quickly, he was seen disappearing into his room not long after. Ellie quietly whispered to Tonks that it might be a good idea to go after him, which she dutifully did. Molly took one look at the returning party and immediately put the kettle on; she was so typically British and believed that a cup of steaming tea could cure any ill. The tea was received well by all, and an uneasy silence filled the room until Remus and Tonks returned and even then there were only small spatters of conversation.

After lunch Harry and Ginny wandered out into the garden and planted themselves on the roots of a large Willow tree that was a good distance from the house. “What happened earlier?” Harry asked Ginny.

“What do you mean?” she raised her head off his shoulder slightly.

“Back at the house you looked really upset. Ellie may not have spotted that fake smile but I did.”

“As a matter of fact she did, she asked me about it over lunch,” Ginny said quietly.

“Well…” he probed.

“I suppose when I found that uniform it just hit me all of a sudden…they were only a little bit older than us, they were really only just married and had their first child…they were just starting out in life…and it was all taken away. They lost everyone and then they had their lives stolen as well… it’s just so tragic. I know that they were your parents and we’ve talked about them a lot but I suppose that…to me they were just names and pictures, but seeing all that today…they were people…good people and they were taken for no reason really…” in the midst of her speech Ginny had begun to cry softly.

“I know. Ellie told me something… ‘As a well spent day brings happy sleep so life well used brings happy death’ it was something some Italian bloke said, but it’s true. They did a lot of good things in their life, I mean dad was an Auror and mum was such a nice person…” Harry listed off his parents’ achievements.

“And a healer to boot,” Ginny added.

“Exactly, so they both helped a lot of people and they took care of Ellie, so they made their lives count for something.” Again he fought his tears bravely.

“They looked so happy in their pictures. Do you think…that maybe one day we could be that happy?”

“We will be, one day when Voldemort is gone.”

“Do you think you can beat him, Harry?”

“I think we can beat him. We’ve got too much to live for,” he said firmly.

“Hear, hear,” this came from Ron who had approached with Neville, unnoticed. They sat together quietly contemplating the things that lay ahead.

Later that night as they were getting settled in bed Neville’s voice rang through the darkness, “Harry, can I ask you something?”

“What, Neville?” Harry mumbled, he was already half asleep.

“Can I help?” It was the strangeness of this question that snapped Harry back to full consciousness.

“Help what?” he looked over in the direction of Neville’s bed despite the fact that he couldn’t see anything through the darkness.

“Help you fight Voldemort. It’s a good fight and I want in. I want to do what I can,” he said firmly.

“Neville, you already are in, we all are.”

“Oh, good. Night, Harry,” satisfaction was evident in the other boy’s voice.

“Good night, Neville,” Harry slurred as he was over come by a yawn and fell into a peaceful sleep.

---

Almost a week had passed since their visit to Potter House. It was over dinner on the Thursday night that Ellie approached him about another outing. “Harry?” she asked quietly as she passed him the Shepard’s pie.

“Um-mm,” he garbled incomprehensibly with a mouth full of mashed potatoes. Apparently Ellie understood that he was listening.

“Would you like to visit Potter Hall?” she said in a hurry.

“Potter Hall?”

“Yeah it’s where Grandma and Grandpa Potter used to live and my mum and dad of course,” she informed him as she speared some carrots with her fork.

“I’m not sure that Remus could cope,” he whispered, not wanting to attract the attention of the man who was sat only a few seats away.

“He’ll be all right, I think we should probably take Tonks along, she seems to have a good effect on him,” Elizabeth smirked.

“You’ve got that right,” Harry grinned back at her mischievously

“That’s settled then, we’ll go on Saturday morning,” she said agreeably.

“Sounds good, can Ginny come again?”

“If it makes you feel better then by all means.”

“Thanks, I can’t wait,” he smiled at her as he shoved another forkful of his recently acquired Shepard’s pie in his mouth.

A/N: I hope you all enjoyed that. Harry’s little quote wasn’t just said by any Italian bloke, it came from Leonardo Di Vinci. The next chapter is…The Second Return.

A/N: I got most of my ideas for Potter Manor from Ballindalloch Castle, the homepage for it can be found on my bio page. It’s a beautiful castle which I have had the pleasure of visiting on two occasions and it was very inspirational when it came to writing some aspects of this chapter. So if you want a rough idea of the picture I have in my head for this house then you could visit this site and hit the ‘Tour Castle’ button. I should also probably note that the book �“ ‘I Can Write My ABC’s’ by Kama Einhorn is an actual children’s book, one that my little cousin Lewis showed me with distinct pride! Don’t forget to read and review!

Like the week before Ellie woke him fairly early in the morning as she did Ginny. This time, however, Charlie and Tonks would also be accompanying them and their portkey was a rather worn looking beach bag. After the whirlwind of travelling, Harry found himself standing alongside a tall, white wall with large wrought iron gates just to his left. The long metal spars were twisted elaborately and pointed towards the words that adorned the top of the gates, ‘Potter Hall’.

“Are we safe out here?” Charlie glanced around at the vast open landscape as he took a protective step towards Elizabeth.

“Yes, it’s hidden by the Fidelius Charm,” Ellie answered knowledgeably

“But then how did Voldemort know where it was…oh,” Tonks muttered when Remus’ features hardened slightly.

“Dirty, lousy rat,” Harry muttered under his breath.

“They should have chosen me or Sirius, if they had then we wouldn’t be in this sorry situation,” Remus said sadly.

“You listen here, Remus John Lupin,” Tonks said in her best Mrs. Weasley tone. “Ifs, buts and maybes will only get you one place �“ a deep, dark hole of depression! If they had made you their secret keeper then you would probably be dead, you and I would never have fallen in love and this entire family wouldn’t be as close as it is. Now I don’t know about you but I love our family, so stop moping and buck up!” she scolded him fiercely. Tonks usually had such a friendly and approachable nature that she had surprised them all with her outburst.

“I couldn’t agree more. I don’t know where we’d be without you, Moony,” Ellie said warmly.

“She’s right,” Harry agreed.

“That goes for me and short-fry too!” Charlie said pointing at Ginny.

“Hey!” Ellie and Ginny protested simultaneously.

“You’re lucky if I’m an inch taller than Ginny,” Ellie complained.

“It’s not my fault you’re short, that’s down to genes,” Charlie mocked.

“If you’re not careful, Charlie Weasley, you’ll have to find yourself another wife!”

“Don’t joke about things like that, Ellie!” he said seriously, it was only two months ago that he had come close to having to find himself another wife. She ignored this comment and instead strolled towards the gates, which opened for her automatically. She reached her arm out towards Harry and signalled him forward.

“Welcome, Harry, to Potter Hall,” she said brightly.

In front of him stood what looked like a miniature Hogwarts. It was definitely a castle, despite the fact that it was on rather the small side for that type of building. It came complete with towers and turrets and Harry suspected that it might also have wings. Its brickwork was slightly darker than that of the castle he called school; it was a rather murky shade of grey. One side of the building had a stained window that must have easily been twice the height and breadth of Hagrid. As they walked up the sweeping driveway he noticed the front doors which were undoubtedly at least twenty feet tall and half that wide, they were made of solid oak strips bound together by broad metal straps.

“Patefacio Sesame!” Ellie breathed. “There’s a lot to be said for Muggle tales, you know,” she said cheerfully.

“Open Sesame,” Remus explained to him when he spotted Harry’s bemused expression.

The mammoth front doors swung open, admitting them to the vast entrance hall, it had a tall vaulted ceiling supported by several pairs of wooden pillars with intricate carvings, and a gleaming marble floor. There were three hallways leading off in different directions, one to the left, one to the right and another straight down the centre of the house. At the far end of the entrance hall was a wide, sweeping staircase much like the one at Hogwarts, it was lined with sizeable portraits of moving subjects. There was a large stone archway on either side of the hall, one led to what looked like the drawing room and the other to the sitting room. Right next to each archway was an enormous beautifully gilded fireplace.

“This place has been home to the Potter family for over seven hundred years. These are only the formal rooms; the last time these were used was to welcome people after your christening. They came in here until the Main Hall was ready.” She waved her arm towards the hallway to the left. “The ordinary sitting room is upstairs,” she smiled at him and strode confidently towards the passage directly in front of her, the group followed behind her. They passed half a dozen doors on their journey down the corridor and eventually emerged in a room that was approximately half the size of the Great Hall at Hogwarts. Harry looked up in to the excruciatingly high rafters, almost giving himself neck ache. The stained window that he had seen from outside was part of a wall in this room; from the close proximity Harry was able to read the name below. Merlin. The figure of a longhaired, wizard in magnificent silver robes was depicted with his wand out and sparks flying from it; he was surrounded by an aura of power.

“Why do we have a stained window with Merlin on it?” Harry wondered aloud.

“Our ancestry can be traced back through countless generations to Merlin himself. We’re also related Godric Gryffindor,” Ellie was stood next to him, staring up and the sparkling window.

“Seriously?” he remembered seeing Dumbledore after his escapades down in the Chamber of Secrets, it was then that the headmaster had commented that only a ‘true Gryffindor’ could have pulled Godric’s sword out of the sorting hat.

“Yep, he’s our great, great, great, great… oh, I’m not sure how many greats there are but cutting to the chase he’s our something grandfather in the Potter line. There are actually other connections to the Dumbledore family somewhere along the lines; you can look it up on the family tree. We’ve got a distant cousin somewhere who married in to the Weasley family as well,” she laughed at Harry’s astonished expression. “You’ve been told before that all the pure-blood families are interconnected haven’t you?”

“Yeah, but I didn’t realise just how literally it was meant,” he said with surprise.

“Very literally, if you go back several generations we’re related to the Blacks and the Malfoys as well…”

“But how?” Harry found it very hard to cope with the idea that he was in anyway linked with Draco Malfoy.

“Before you go panicking about our connections to dark wizards let me point out that every family has a black sheep or two somewhere and we are no different,” she looked at him reproachfully.

“They used to hold the most terrific parties in here, you know,” Remus interjected. “Every New Year, Halloween, birthday and anniversary, this family never could resist the opportunity to have a good party. If only these walls could talk…” he stared wistfully at the walls as though silently reading the stories that lay etched in to the stained pine panelling. “They invited everyone they knew; your grandparents certainly knew how to spread cheer.”

“They certainly did. I came to your second birthday party,” Tonks added to Ellie.

“I never knew that!” the auburn haired girl exclaimed.

“She caused a ruckus by blending into the wallpaper in your bedroom. It took everyone three hours to find her; it could have taken longer if she hadn’t laughed at Sirius. He muttered some choice expletives under his breath when he was forced to join the hunt for her,” Charlie recalled.

“Actually, I think you’ll find I was laughing at you laughing at Sirius’s mutterings. You were making a funny snorting noise,” Tonks teased.

“What can I say? I was eight and I thought that it was amusing,” Charlie shrugged his broad shoulders.

“What was he muttering?” Ginny asked.

“Don’t you dare tell her!” Remus interrupted. “They were undoubtedly words that no young lady should be privy to,” he said with a nostalgic smile.

“Yes, but this young lady has five older brothers so there aren’t many swear words she hasn’t heard,” Ginny protested.

“I don’t know about that, Gin, he used some ones that even I’d never heard and haven’t since!” Charlie smirked.

“Do you want to go upstairs? All the more interesting stuff is up there,” Ellie made a deliberate attempt to change the subject. Harry knew that his godfather was still an especially sore subject for his cousin, like him she felt the need to blame herself for Sirius’s untimely death. She believed that if she had been where she should have then it would never have happened. She didn’t really wait for an answer before she slid a section of panelling to one side, revealing a secret staircase; Harry had a sneaking suspicion that this house had been built with his school in mind.

When they surfaced at the top of the stairs they were on a landing of the main staircase that started in the entrance hall. They found themselves stood in the middle of a large open area that was almost identical to the one below, the difference being that on this floor there were four large archways, three of them had been filled with doors and a fourth had luxurious red velvet curtains hanging in it. There were dozens of portraits hanging on the walls including a short, red-haired witch in glittering emerald green robes, her long hair was plaited and she wore a large bright green jewel that he recognized but could not place. When she saw them she shuffled forward elegantly in her frame and gazed at them intently. “HOW DARE YOU!” she suddenly shouted right in Harry’s ear.

“Excuse me? What did I do?” Harry objected.

“Who do you think you are, storming in here and pretending to be James Potter? What right have you got? And you over there,” she now wagged her finger accusingly at Ellie. “You almost had me fooled you know, for a second I was sure you were Jane but then I saw that nose! What do you think you’re doing? You’ve not fooled me! EVERYONE WAKE UP! WE’VE GOT INTRUDERS! WAKE UP!” she called to the paintings around her. The people began to stir and rubbed their eyes sleepily but when they saw the group on the landing they suddenly looked very alert.

“Explain yourselves at once!” cried a man who was the spitting image of Harry with the exception that his dark, unruly hair was a good bit longer and his eyes were hazel instead of green.

“INTRUDERS! TRESSPASSERS! PROWLERS! THEIVES!” the red haired woman continued to shout as loud as she could. Another flame haired woman in the frame next to her was peering at them absorbedly.

“MAYBELLE POTTER, WOULD YOU PLEASE BE QUIET!” Ellie roared. The woman screaming faltered for a second and the woman in the portrait next to her said quietly.

“How does she know your name, May?”

“Come over here you,” the man who looked like Harry called to Ellie. She pushed past everyone else and stood in front of his picture with her arms folded; she was drumming her fingers along her bicep in a very annoyed fashion. He surveyed her closely, tipping his head from side to side then taking a step forward and then a couple of steps back. “Good Lord!” he muttered after a good long while.

“What is it, Alistair?” the formerly loud-mouthed woman asked quietly.

“Ladies and Gentlemen,” he said to the pictures around him. “Our young Miss has returned to the Hall,” he declared. “Elizabeth Potter has come home!”

“Elizabeth? Never. It can’t be. You’ve made a mistake, Ally,” Maybelle rebutted.

“I have not made a mistake, Maybelle, I’d know that girl anywhere and I’m telling you that’s her!” he bellowed. Maybelle, however, refused to believe him and began questioning Ellie.

“What’s your name?” she asked suspiciously.

“Elizabeth Alexandra Jane Potter,” Ellie answered.

“When were you born?”

“January 15th 1978.”

“Where?”

“Upstairs in A wing, second room on the left.”

“Who were you parents?”

“Andrew and Jane Potter,” Ellie answered exasperatedly.

“Grandparents?”

“Harold and Eliza Potter.”

“Who are we?” she pointed to herself and the raven haired man named Alistair.

“Maybelle Kelleigh and Alistair Leofric Potter, our great grandparents,” Ellie said in irritation.

“Our?” Maybelle inquired dubiously.

“This is Harry. You remember him, don’t you? James and Lily’s son?” Ellie now tugged Harry closer to the portraits.

“He’s strapping lad, isn’t he?” Alistair’s chest puffed out.

“Meet the family, Harry.” She indicated the wall full of pictures. Harry stared up at the hundreds of portraits almost in a daze. A hundred or more men and women who all looked very alike were now staring down at him proudly.


After a moment Ellie led them away from the portrait collection and into the library. The walls were lined, from floor to ceiling and wall-to-wall, with shelves of books while a large and impressive chandelier hung from the ceiling. Ellie drew her wand from her robes and pointed it up at it and said ‘Lumos Candela’, immediately the hundred or so candles on it lit up. The extra light wasn’t really necessary as there were two cathedral windows on one wall. In between them was a large fire and around it there were several comfortable looking chairs, in fact the whole room was littered with chairs and couches that looked very inviting. The was a massive drum table in the middle of the room with several books lying on it, including The Darkest Wizards by Tiberius Ogden, the summary on the back cover read, ‘Biographies of the world’s Darkest Wizards, telling of their rise to power and their violent ways.’ In stark contrast to the serious nature of this book the one lying right next to it was ‘I Can Write My ABC’s! by Kama Einhorn.

Harry looked back up at the bookcases around him; there must be thousands of books in here, there must be a thousand shelves never mind a thousand books. “How are you supposed to get those ones?” he asked Remus. His guardian looked up at the shelf Harry was pointing to; it was one of the upper most shelves and was fifteen feet from the floor.

“I thought you were a wizard, Harry?” Ginny interrupted.

“I am!” he declared.

“Well then start thinking like one,” Charlie mocked.

“What do you mean?” Harry puzzled.

“Can you or can you not make things levitate?” Remus asked him, there was a look in his eye that betrayed his knowledge of Harry’s escapades with a Mountain Troll in his first year.

“I can. Is that what you have to do, float the books down to you?”

“Well you could, but I daresay it would be a great deal easier to float yourself up to them,” Remus drew his wand, waved it at himself and called ‘Wingardium Leviosa’. He immediately began to float, and under the direction of his own wand, Remus drifted up to the top shelf, plucked a book from the selection and descended back to the floor. “As I said a great deal easier.”

After a good long while examining the contents of the library and Ginny’s final proclamation that Hermione would ‘Have a fit’ if she could see it, they left the library and crossed over the landing to one of the doors. They were now in the sitting room. Harry wasn’t sure if he had ever seen a more comfortable looking room in his entire life, even at the Burrow. The walls were burgundy and the room was full of other warm purples, reds and blues. Harry was of the opinion that the cushions must have been breeding unsupervised during the last sixteen years, it was not normal for one room to hold that many pillows. There were sideboards, tables and a fire surround all made of dark Walnut wood, and it reminded him largely of the Gryffindor common room. The family portrait that adorned the fireplace wall at Potter House hung in exactly the same place in this room; other family pictures were dotted here and there. Seeing the smiling faces of his family, for once, didn’t fill him with sorrow, instead it filled him with warmth and he did not feel the need to cry.

When Ellie slipped from the sitting room back out into the hall everyone followed her silently. She led them through the door opposite and found themselves in the large kitchen, it was similar to the kitchen in number twelve with the exception that instead of magical windows this had real ones. The view was magnificent. The benefit of being on the first floor was that you could see just about everything there was to see, including the extensive grounds which looked beautiful under the bright summer sun. It suddenly struck Harry that he had seen this garden before. It was in the picture of Ellie chasing Harry and Neville around while their parents looked on. He smiled as he imagined his and Ellie’s children running around in the same manner one day.

They moved swiftly on to the next room which was the drawing room and then up the stairs, this hall on this landing was much like the two below, only this one had three archways, each with a set of sapphire curtains hanging in it. Above each archway there was a letter carved in to the stone. Instead of rooms these arches lead to three corridors with a good number of doors leading off them. “This side used to be my mum and dad’s.” Ellie pointed down the corridor to her left. “That was your mum and dad’s.” She pointed to the one dead ahead. “And that was Gran and Grandpa’s.” She pointed to the final corridor on her right.

“So I was right it does have wings,” Harry mumbled quietly.

“Certainly does. A wing, H wing and J wing.” Ellie said loudly to him.

“A, J and H?”

“Andrew, James and Harold, Gran once said that a man had to have a wing to give him space to breathe,” Ellie grinned.

“The only reason she said that was because of how boisterous the three of them became when they got together, they once nearly destroyed the house,” Remus reminisced.


They all split up to explore the house with Harry and Ginny automatically heading for J Wing. They wandered aimlessly from room to room; there was a study, a small sitting room, a dining room, and a very large toy room. There were several bedrooms, the most magnificent of which was located at the top of a turret that was at the end of the corridor. Ginny gasped in awe when she pushed open the door.

A substantial sized four-post bed was lined up against the same wall that the door was on. Ginny ran her hands along the soft beige sheets and made a soft noise of contentment. Harry had never seen such a large bed; it was easily eight feet square. The curtains that draped down the posts were made of the same pale suede that adorned the bed covers; the bed itself looked very soft and inviting. Harry chanced a glance at Ginny, she was still mindlessly caressing the sheets, and she seemed to be staring off in to space. He wondered if she was perhaps thinking the same thing that he was but he shook the thoughts from his mind and cursed his raging hormones. A long line of wardrobes were lined up against the opposite wall, they were nestled nicely between two large windows with a spectacular view of a lake out on the grounds. On another side of the room there was a fireplace with large sheepskin rug covering the stone floor in front of it and an armchair on either side. The final section of wall space was occupied by a large dressing table that was complete with a sizeable mirror that said, “You’re ever so pretty, dear,” to Ginny as she walked past and tutted something about Harry’s hair.

Next to it there was a doorway leading to a spiral staircase much like the one that lead to the dormitories at Hogwarts. They descended it and found themselves in a bathroom that was only marginally smaller than the bedroom above it. In the middle of the room was a roll top bath that was roughly the size of a small swimming pool. There were half a dozen neatly labelled taps that spouted different things much like the bath in the prefect’s bathroom at school. There were his and hers sinks, a toilet discreetly hidden behind a sort of swinging door and a shower that was separated from the rest of the bathroom by some frosted glass. “It’s just so beautiful,” Ginny said in quiet admiration.

“I wonder if all the wings are as nice?” he replied.

“I bet they are. It looks like your family had good taste,” Ginny smiled as she ran a finger around the rim of the bath.

“No, it looks like they all married women with good taste,” Harry corrected her. “Seems such a pity to break with tradition,” he said mockingly.

“Is that so?” Ginny’s eyes flashed. She pushed him backwards so that he fell in to the bath with a thud and then she immediately began to turn on the taps. Before he really had any opportunity to clamber out, the bath was half full of water that had fragrant multi coloured bubbles floating off it.

“I can’t believe you did that!” Harry exclaimed when he finally managed to scramble to his feet.

“Well, let that teach you a lesson!” she answered back smugly.

“Teach me a lesson! How about this for a lesson?” He reached out and wrenched her arm sharply. She plummeted into the bath beside him, coating the surrounding floor in a wave of water. When she lifted her head out of the water she made a noise like an angry cat and pulled him back down into the water. Before long their fighting had developed in to passionate kissing and they had lost track of time completely. “We should probably get out of here and go back to the rest of the house,” Harry said breathlessly.

“I think you’re right,” Ginny replied in an identical tone. They slipped and slid their way to an edge of the bath and were able to get out of it without further injuring themselves. After they had cast a Drying Spell over themselves and the soaking floor they headed back up the stairs and continued their exploration of the house.


Although J wing had been devoid of personal effects A and H wing were still full of all the character of their former inhabitants. Grandpa Potter had collected the newspaper cuttings of the dark wizard’s that he had caught and made a sort of shrine in his study. Granny Potter, it transpired had been a Herbologist, she had been doing a lot of research into the properties of certain magical plants, Harry got the distinct impression that she and Neville would have got on very well. Uncle Andrew had a shrine similar to that of his father, Harry was pleased to see that in most of the articles it was highlighted that the ‘Potter Brothers claimed the capture together’. Unlike his Grandfather’s collection, Harry actually recognized some of the names; there were several well-known Death Eaters such as Avery, Dolohov, Mulciber and Rookwood on their list. His Aunt Jane had been also been part of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement too, but she had been a member of the Wizengamot and assisted with their administration. They had found several binders with case notes in them; she had played an important role in the trials of Death Eaters.

It was quite late on in the afternoon when everyone was finally ready to leave. When they all met up on the landing Harry noticed that Ellie and Charlie were looking rather guilty and Remus wore an expression that he couldn’t quite distinguish. “Is everything all right?” he asked them.

“Fine,” Ellie replied in a strangled tone.

“She’s looking rather embarrassed because I caught her and Charlie making rather good use of the bed in her mother and father’s bedroom” Remus emphasized these words to Ellie and Charlie, but couldn’t help throwing Harry a devious smile and a quick waggle of his eyebrows.

“Okay, Moony, we get the point!” Ellie then glanced up at Harry with a very strange look indeed. “Harry, have you got blueberry bubbles in your hair?” she asked as she leaned forward and sniffed the side of his head. Ginny exploded with laughter.

“I…um…quite possibly…” Harry glared at his shoes as though they had launched some kind of uncalled for attack.

“If you ask me, Remus, it’s that pair you should be worried about. At least Ellie and Charlie are good at hiding the evidence of their activities. How would you have explained that one to Molly?” Tonks snorted in to the back of Remus’s shoulder.

“What have you two been up to?” Remus asked stringently.

“Looks to me like they’ve been having a wash in Uncle James and Aunt Lily’s bath,” Ellie said as she sniffed at Harry again. “Yep, there’s the toffee smell,” she announced victoriously.

“Toffee smell?” Harry began sniffing his clothes for the tang but couldn’t find it.

“Aunt Lily had a softness for toffees and so Uncle James bewitched one of the taps to provide bubble bath that had the aroma of fresh toffee, on top of that he put another spell on it which means that men can’t sense it. You have a sniff, Ginny,” Ellie grabbed a handful of the t-shirt that Harry was wearing and thrust it in the direction of Ginny’s nose. When Ginny inhaled and then nodded, she pulled Harry in Tonks’s direction.

“Ah, that’s so nice,” she sighed.

“Harry, sniff Ginny and tell me what she smells like,” Ellie said fervently. Harry did as instructed and paused for a moment to contemplate the scent that had just wafted up his nostrils.

“She smells like freshly polished wood and something flowery.” At this pronouncement Ellie and Remus shared a wide smile.

“Broomstick,” they chorused in unison. Remus immediately leant forward and gave Ginny a quick sniff. He nodded and said “Lilies,” to Ellie.

“Aunt Lily did the exact same thing with another tap,” Ellie beamed.

“What I want to know is exactly what the two of you were doing in a bath?” Charlie demanded as he swelled with protective indignation.

“Ginny started it; she pushed me in to the bath and turned all the taps on!” Harry instantly declared. Charlie then raged at her instead.

“You did WHAT?” Harry was amazed by the way he sounded almost exactly like his mother.

“He said I had no taste! He deserved it! Besides he pulled me in after him!” Ginny was not going to take the fall for this one on her own.

“EXCUSE ME!” Charlie nearly shouted himself hoarse.

“It was payback!” Harry yelled defensively and took a side step behind Ellie. Just as Charlie was about to start another rant Remus held his hand up to stop him.

“You’re not really the person to be lecturing on taking liberties today, are you?” Remus said almost playfully. At the reminder of his own guilt Charlie deflated. “What are the four of you like, can’t even leave you alone for a few hours,” Remus admonished as he lead the way back down to the entrance hall.

Harry left Potter Hall that afternoon with and indescribable feeling of pride and love in his chest. This was his family; he was a part of all this history. It felt like after so many years wandering in the wilderness he had finally found his home, the place where he belonged. With the Weasleys he had always had this feeling of belonging but not quite, particularly when the snake attacked Mr. Weasley, he had felt as though he was intruding on a private family moment. But now he did belong, he couldn’t intrude on private family moments because this was his family, and this was his home.

---

Dinner that evening was an interesting affair as Harry tried to explain Potter Hall to his rapt audience; otherwise known as Ron and Neville. Remus was sorry to interrupt him; it had been a long time since he had seen Harry talk about anything so animatedly. “I was wondering if you could give me a clue as to what you’d like for your birthday, Harry?”

“My birthday?” Harry snapped out of his daze.

“Yes, you remember, the day when we celebrate the anniversary of your arrival in the world,” Remus said with a chuckle.

“Sorry, I just hadn’t thought about it much,” he shrugged.

“Well start thinking about it, what would you like?” Remus finished his bottle of Butterbeer and placed it in the nearby bin.

“I dunno, Moony, get me anything.”

“Anything? Well that’s very helpful thanks,” Remus shook his head cheerfully.

“Did I hear you right there?” George’s ears had pricked up; he looked like an alert canine.

“Did you hear who right?” Remus asked.

“Did Harry just call you Moony?” Fred joined the inquisition.

“Yes, why?” Remus was surveying the twins through narrowed eyes.

“As in Messers Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs, the authors of…” George quickly glanced at his mother and leaned in closer to whisper, “ The Marauder’s Map.”

“One in the same,” chimed Harry.

“You knew?” Fred turned on Harry accusingly.

“Well…yeah,” he replied, a little intimidated by their reaction.

“And you didn’t think to mention it to us?” George asked furiously.

“I didn’t think…” Harry had entirely forgotten to let the twins in on the secret.

“Well, that’s obvious!” Fred said heatedly. “So you’ll have known who Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs were?” he asked concentrating on Remus once again.

“I certainly did,” he answered with a devilish glint in his eye. “You two knew Padfoot as well.”

“Padfoot? Who?” the twins asked in unison.

“Sirius, and Prongs was James.” He nodded in Harry’s direction. “Wormtail was Peter Pettigrew,” he said bitterly.

“You’re our Hero!” they exclaimed, they reached across the table to shake his hand vigorously.

“Where did you get the names?” George continued to whisper, the proclamation of hero worship had not gone unnoticed by their mother.

“I was Moony because I’m a werewolf,” Remus said very quickly, he could see that Molly was trying to listen in, but thankfully because of all the other noise in the kitchen that was rather a difficult task. “Sirius was Padfoot because his Animagus form was a dog, James was Prongs because he turned in to a stag, and Peter was Wormtail because he could turn in to a rat.”

“They were all Animagi? Wow…” Fred breathed.

“There must be so much you can tell us,” George quickly pulled Remus from the table by his elbow and led him out of the kitchen. Although the man protested that he had things to do the quick grin he gave Harry as he was pulled from the kitchen gave him the distinct impression that Remus would only be too happy to regale the Marauder’s adventures to the twins. Eager to hear these stories for themselves, Harry, Ron and Neville followed them, all the way up the stairs to the twins’ room.

“And just where do you think you three are going?” Fred asked sweetly.

“We want to hear what Remus has to say too,” Ron said excitedly.

“No can do little bro,” he replied.

“But, that’s not fair! Harry gave you the money to start your stupid joke shop and now you’re going to shut him out of a meeting with his guardian who’s going talk about things his godfather and his father did!”

“You’re quite right Ron, in you come, Harry,” Fred stood to one side to allow Harry to pass him.

“I’m not coming without Ron and Neville,” Harry said adamantly. He could see Fred thinking this over before he made a final decision.

“Do you swear that you won’t tell mum about anything you’re about to see or hear?” he said threateningly to Ron and Neville.

“We promise!” they said simultaneously.

“In you come then,” he said letting the other three into the room and shutting the door firmly behind them.

A/N: The next chapter heading your way is… Coming Of Age

It was at the end of the next week that Remus and Tonks went to collect Hermione from her parents’ house. Ron had tidied himself up for his girlfriend’s return; he had combed his hair, put on a set of his smart robes and had a rather pungent aroma. Hermione returned just before dinnertime, they all heard the many locks of the front door clicking and the sound of footsteps echoing in the hall before she appeared in the kitchen with her bushy hair sleeked back into a ponytail and looking very bronze. Naturally Ron was the first to welcome her home, ignoring the huge family crowd around them; he swept her up in to a kiss and didn’t release her for several minutes. When he eventually did all eyes were on them causing Ron’s ears to burn red and Hermione to grin madly. “It’s good to see you too,” she blushed.

“How was Italy?” Ginny asked as she greeted Hermione with a hug.

“It was wonderful!” she glowed.

“So you had a good time then? How are your parents?” Harry asked rising to meet her himself.

“We’ve had a good long chat and I think they understand my predicament a little bit better and yes, I had a fantastic time,” she continued to beam.

“Did you visit Florence?” Ellie now took her turn.

“It was so picturesque, and the language is so beautiful. We went to as many places as possible and I learned a few more things in Italian,” she said proudly.

“Such as…” Ellie quizzed.

“Il vero eroe Ÿ sempre il eroe da travisare , egli sogni di essendo un onesto codardo simile tutti altro,” Hermione said slowly.

“The real hero is always the hero by mistake, he dreams of being an honest coward like everybody else. Umberto Eco if I’m not mistaken,” Ellie replied after a seconds thought.

“It is!” Hermione was obviously ecstatic that she had got it right.

“Your accent’s not bad for someone who’s only been there on holiday. If you practiced you could be fluent before long.”

“Would you teach me?”

“If you like, but I think you need to relax a little bit first. Tell me more about where you went.” Elizabeth patted the chair next to her and for the next few hours the girls were lost in conversation about places that neither Harry nor Ron could pronounce. During Dobby’s extravagant dinner, Harry, Ginny, Neville and Ron filled Hermione in on what they’d been up to while she was away. She nearly let out a scream of delight when she found out about the visits to Godric’s Hollow and Potter Hall.

“Oh Harry, that’s wonderful!” she had called. “And so close to your birthday as well.”

---

The ritual whispering once again came to life during the week before Harry’s birthday. Every time he stepped foot in the kitchen Mrs. Weasley started to frantically shush every one and would unintentionally scowl at him. The worst part was his friends’ whispering. Neville, whose birthday was the day before Harry’s, was staying with them for the day itself and leaving with his grandmother later in the morning. Harry found himself and Neville left alone fairly often as the other three disappeared to quiet corners of the house to discuss their presents. It was beginning to annoy him that every time they walked into a room people stopped talking dramatically and sat on edge until they left again. Ginny, Ron and Hermione often did their best to finish conversations quickly or encourage Harry and Neville to go and do things together in other parts of the house. Ellie was apparently the only person who was organized in the approach to the day; she spent as much of her time as possible with the young pair. She often pulled them out in to the garden for Quidditch practice, her influence on Neville continued and she convinced him that when school started back he should think about trying out for the empty chaser position. They were ushered up to bed straight after dinner the night before their birthday party, along with the other three, and as they traipsed up the stairs they heard Mrs. Weasley closing over the kitchen door and shouting orders at everyone else.

The next morning there was a lot of commotion in the downstairs hallway, the kitchen door was still locked and everyone was bundling into the small staircase with some difficulty. After several minutes of very loud complaining and banging on the door Molly’s head appeared in a very thin gap. “Whatever is the matter?” she asked irritably.

“In case you hadn’t noticed, we’ve got nine hungry people on a tiny staircase! If the rumbling in Ron’s stomach gets any worse it’s likely to cause an earthquake!” George grumbled.

“Why don’t you use your brains for once and go and wait in the sitting room?” she snapped and shut the door on them once again. They retreated back up the stairs as advised and waited. Twenty minutes later Bill’s voice called up the stairwell.

“You lot can come down now!”

“Finally!” Fred yelled.

If you had asked Harry his honest opinion he would have told you that nothing could surpass his last birthday party, the decorations had been top notch and the presents had been better and more numerous than ever before. But even last year’s party paled into insignificance when compared to this year’s spectacular event.

Fluorescent coloured balloons were arranged on the ceiling in bunches, complete with streamers and ribbons, an enormous multi-coloured banner was hanging on the fireplace wall read ‘Happy 17th Birthday Harry and Neville!’ The magical windows were filled with fireworks that spelled things like ‘Hip Hip Hooray!’ and ‘Congratulations!’ the birthday cake was in two parts and shaped in to the numbers one and seven with seventeen candles in each cake. There were two piles of presents on either side of the currently extinguished fire with two chairs sitting in the middle. “Happy Birthday!” everyone cheered. Harry and Neville stood speechless amongst the crowd, not knowing where to start. This year was more of a family affair than last, this time there was a distinct lack of Order members, Professor’s Dumbledore and McGonagall were the only people outside of the families that were in attendance. Neville’s Grandmother, Great Uncle Algie and his wife Enid had come along for the day as well. The birthday boys didn’t have a chance to decide where they were going to start before they were hurried towards the chairs and a present to thrust into their hands.

“Hurry up, I’m getting hungry!” Ron called from the table where he was looking desperately at his empty plate.

“You’re always bloody hungry!” Bill silenced him. Hermione and Ginny looked at him reproachfully, while Mrs. Weasley looked fit to explode.

“Well, I suppose we best get on with it,” Harry said more to the room at large than Neville, he saw Mrs. Weasley’s features soften immediately. They began to rip open the wrapping zealously. The first presents were from Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, they both received a new travelling cloak and this puzzled both of them until they gave them closer inspection. The cloaks had their family crests sewn in to the right hand side and the back.

“Thanks, Mrs. Weasley,” Neville breathed.

“These are great!” Harry and Neville were now holding the cloaks up for each other’s inspection. The next lot was from Ron; he had purchased a complete chess set, board and men, for Neville and had bought Harry a brand new set of lead Chessmen to replace the set from his grandfather. He was very proud of the fact he had brought them out of his own money (that which Sirius had kindly supplied). Typically Hermione’s presents were books, she had bought them identical copies of ‘Aurors: The Guide to Dark Wizard Catching’. Fred and George had given them a new product called ‘Animal Amazement’.

“What do they do?” Neville inquired.

“Slip one of those little goodies in to a goblet of pumpkin juice and ta-da! Your favourite enemy will turn in to the animal that best suits their character. Guess where we got that idea from?” One of the twins winked at Harry.

“YOU WHAT? BOYS HOW COULD YOU…” Mrs. Weasley instantly began to berate her sons, she had adjusted to the idea that they were going to run a joke shop but apparently the Animal Amazement was one step too far.

“Mad-Eye,” Harry said over Mrs. Weasley. She stopped shouting and looked at Harry peculiarly.

“What about Mad-Eye?” she demanded.

“It was him who gave Fred and George the idea, he turned Draco Malfoy in to a white ferret during our forth year,” Harry disclosed.

“Ah yes, I remember it so well… Malfoy the Amazing Bouncing Ferret…” Ron said with his closed eyes and dreamy expression.

“Well I never…” Molly uttered in disbelief.

“It’s true, Molly,” Professor McGonagall confirmed. Harry ended their conversation by swiftly moving on to the next present, Neville caught on quickly and followed suit.
Charlie had purchased shiny new dragon hide wallets.

“They’ll be no dragon’s left if you keep up at this rate!” Harry exclaimed. This was the second year in a row that the Weasley brother had provided a dragon skinned present.

“I’ll make sure that we don’t run out,” he said. Up until recently Charlie had been a dragon keeper in Romania but he hadn’t been back there in almost a year and a half, his role with the Order had demanded that he spent more time at home. The next present came from the oldest Weasley brother, Bill. They were particularly heavy packages; the boys unwrapped them to find dark wooden boxes with a golden initialling on the lid.

“They’re security boxes, they’ve got charms on them to stop anyone but the owner opening them and they’re guarded against things like floods, fires and stray curses,” Bill enlightened them. Harry’s box had a shiny H on the top and when he opened it up there was a large key sitting in it. “You can put just about anything you like in it, even stuff that looks too big for the box. It’s got an Enlargement Charm on the inside so it grows to fit whatever you need it for.”

“Thanks, Bill!” Harry and Neville had called in harmony. They reached for the next package on the pile, which was Remus’s present. He had bought them a bottle of Firewhiskey each.

“Remus!” Molly complained, “I would have expected it of Sirius but not of you!”

“Sorry, Molly,” he replied with a scheming glint in his eye. Ellie was standing behind him with a guilty smile on her face; Harry had a suspicion that she had colluded with him. Harry and Neville didn’t say anything but they grinned from ear to ear. As Harry was pushing the wrapping to one side he noticed a letter lying in the torn paper, he looked up at Remus who gave him a little nod in return; he put the letter inside his new security box and decided to leave reading it until later. The next in the pile was from Dumbledore, who gave Neville a picture of his parents in a beautiful solid silver frame. Harry unwrapped his present to find a worn Ollivander’s box, he removed the lid to find a wand rolling around the rectangular container; he looked up at his headmaster bewildered.

“It was your father’s wand, I thought that you might like to have it,” Dumbledore answered. Harry just nodded and set the box to one side carefully.

“Thank you, sir,” he said softly.

“You are quite welcome,” Dumbledore replied with a twinkle.

Neville and his Grandmother had provided Harry with a special new Wizard’s camera so that he could take his own pictures. While Harry had bought Neville a new set of Gobstones after he had frequently complained that his set was worn out. The last present came from Ellie, she had bought Neville a book entitled ‘The Science of Herbology’. “Thanks, Elizabeth,” he said gratefully, he had only stopped referring to her as Professor Potter the day before.

“Stop calling me Elizabeth, it makes me feel old,” she complained. “Come on, Harry, time to open yours as well,” she said eagerly. Naturally he did as requested; a small green velvet pouch and a wad of parchments fell on to his lap. He immediately went for the pouch, assuming that its contents would be more interesting, he was only half right. In the pouch was a small box, roughly three times of a matchbox, an intertwined J and L were engraved in to the lid. He opened the box and found his two gold bands snuggled in the cushion; they had a little red ribbon binding the two together. One ring had a diamond lily set in to it whilst the other had the same stone shaped as a Snitch. Two silver plaques were set in to the lid; each had one of his parent’s names printed on to it. They read, ‘Lily �“ The only flower in my heart, love James x’ and ‘James �“ My mind, body and soul are yours, love Lily x’.

“Wow…Ellie…Thanks.” For some unknown reason and completely on instinct he handed the box to Ginny who was sat quite near to him.

“Have a look at the rest of your present,” she urged. He quickly obliged, he unfolded the parchment and allowed his eyes to wander over the very neat calligraphy.

’ I, Elizabeth Alexandra Jane Potter, the appointed guardian of the Potter Estate, do hereby bequeath to Harry James Potter all that is rightfully his under Inheritance Decree number 210 enforced by the Ministry of Magic in Great Britain. This inheritance includes the following:

- The residence known as ‘Potter Hall’, situated in Speyside, Scotland along with all grounds, fixtures, fittings and belongings therein.

- The residence known as ‘Potter House’, situated in the village of Godric’s Hollow, Wales along with all grounds, fixtures, fittings and belongings therein.

- Half the sum of gold held in vault 439 at Gringotts Bank, Diagon Alley, London, England, which totals 53,385,120 galleons.

- The contents of security box 702 held at Gringotts Bank, Diagon Alley, London, England.

He thus gains full ownership and control of that property aforementioned, it belongs solely to him and all decisions regarding its usage, care and dispensation should henceforth be addressed to him.

I also grant him full control of his half of the Black Estate, under Emancipation Decree 25 enforced by the Ministry of Magic in Great Britain. This includes the following:

- A half share in the property number 12 Grimmauld Place, London, England.

- One of the two remaining shares from the vault 711, Gringotts Bank, Diagon Alley, London, England, formerly the Black Family Vault, totalling 10, 500,000 Galleons.

This, is as bestowed to him by the last will and testament of Sirius Black, the sole heir of the Black Estate. He thus gains full ownership and control of this property and all decisions regarding its usage, care and dispensation should henceforth be addressed to him.

This is a formal legal document and satisfies the Requirements of Writing Decree of 1701 enacted by the Ministry of Magic in Great Britain.

Signed

Miss Elizabeth Alexandra Jane Potter,

The sole heir of Andrew Thomas Potter and Guardian of the Potter Estate.’

“Ellie…I can’t accept this…it’s not right… Potter Hall should be yours…it was your home…it belongs to you…I really can’t accept this…” he stuttered.

“Stop right there, Harry, you can accept it. My father would have inherited Potter Hall, but he died before it could be passed on, therefore it passed on to your father and subsequently on to you. Potter House was your mum and dad’s and that automatically passed on to you when they died. None of what’s on that list belongs to me, it’s rightfully yours, besides that’s a legal document you’re holding in your hand and we can’t go back on it. You’re of age now and it’s all your responsibility,” she smiled at him comfortingly.

“I don’t know what to say…” Harry was at a complete loss for words.

“Say you’ll accept it, that’s all I want.”

“But where will you and Charlie live?” He had no desire to make his cousin homeless.

“We’re going to buy a place of our own, Weasley Manor has a certain ring to it doesn’t it? Besides I still own half this place,” she said brightly. “So will you accept it?”

“I will. Thank you, Ellie.” He shifted through the crowd and hugged her tightly.

“You might be needing a big house someday soon.” She gave Ginny a fleeting glance and then winked at Harry mischievously.

“I just might,” Harry, replied equally playful.

“That’s what I like to hear! I quite like the idea of being an aunty and if I lay all my hopes on this lot of Weasley men I could be waiting a long time,” she grinned.

With all the presents opened the family sat down to breakfast together. Once it was over Mrs. Longbottom rose from the table. “Are you ready to go, Neville?”

“Yes, Gran,” he replied dolefully.

“Well, go and get your trunk then and you can pack all your presents away. I thought we might go and see you mother and father today,” she said firmly. Neville fetched his trunk, taking twice as long to retrieve it than he had originally at Longbottom Cottage.

“Thank you for having him, Elizabeth, Molly.” Mrs Longbottom nodded appreciatively at Mrs. Weasley and Elizabeth.

“Yeah, I’ve really enjoyed myself, it was great fun. Thank you,” he smiled.

“You’re welcome anytime, Neville,” Ellie gave him a quick hug. “Perhaps you could come to stay again, sometime nearer school starting?” She looked to Mrs. Longbottom for consent.

“A very good idea, we’ll be in touch,” the matriarch of the Longbottom family replied. Great Uncle Algie pulled a teacup from his pocket and in a blink of an eye the Longbottoms had disappeared.

A/N: I knew that law degree I was studying for would come in useful one of these days, that Requirements of Writing Decree I was talking about came from the Requirements of Writing (Scotland) Act 1995.

I hope you all enjoyed that; the next chapter is …Fatherly Advice. Until then!

Later on in the day Harry gathered together his birthday presents to take them upstairs and put them away. It was as he was doing this that he came across the letter that Remus had given him. It was an ordinary parchment envelope that read.

‘To Harry James Potter
To be received on the 31st of July 1997.'

The flap side of the envelope had the Potter family crest printed in to the wax seal, he pulled at it gingerly not wanting to tear it and two sheets of parchment fell on to his desk, he unfolded them and began to read.


‘31st July 1981


Dear Harry,

Today is your first birthday. In case you don’t recognise my handwriting by now (should circumstances so dictate) then let me tell you that this is you father here. Your first birthday party finished just an hour or so ago. Your mother is upstairs bathing you and cradling you in her arms until you fall asleep and I am terribly jealous. I’m aware that things don’t look great for us, with Voldemort on the up and that; fate appears to have earmarked us for a quick ending. If you haven’t been told about a certain prophecy just yet then stop right now and badger whoever used to be in charge of you to explain it. Done it? Good. But who knows, perhaps in two or three years time I’ll be throwing this in to the fire and starting again. Unfortunately there is a part of me that sincerely doubts it.

Whatever happens or has happened, I want you to know that I love you and your mother more than life itself and if it weren’t for Lily I probably wouldn’t have made it this far. She made the impossible happen; she turned James Potter the obnoxious and arrogant spoiled brat into a caring family man. I remember almost everyday of the nine months she spent expecting you because they were amongst the best of my life (next to marrying her of course!). The day you were born I was rendered speechless; watching you lie there in your mother’s arms, it was the single most amazing moment of my existence. No feeling compares. It astounded me that this tiny, pink, wrinkly (and rather ugly,) bundle was created out of the love that Lily and I had for each other (especially since we were so good looking). I realized then that you were the strongest testament to love that there is in this world and I vowed to protect you at any and all costs.

There is no joy in the world greater than being a husband and father, if you do nothing else with your life at least make sure you accomplish both of those because family is more important than anything else. I hope that wherever you are and what ever you’ve been doing today Elizabeth has been with you. I have little doubt that she will survive the coming onslaught, her grandfather will make sure of that, and she will make sure that you survive. She has suffered such a terrible time as of late but she’s a Potter and we’ll take care of her. She is an adorable little girl who has this incredible ability to make people do what she wants, she has been able to twist your Uncle Andrew and Albus Dumbledore around her tiny little finger. I know without a shadow of a doubt she will look after you, she has that unmistakable Potter spirit like her mother, your mother and your grandmother. One day she will be a terrific lioness to some lucky man’s cubs.

The fighters are the best kind of women (trust me I’m the voice of experience) they are hard to get close to but the rewards are well worth it. I doubt that there was a girl at Hogwarts with whom I hadn’t had some kind of romantic encounter with, but your mother was unlike any of them. Like many women before her she brings out the best in the Potter blood. Your grandfather once told me that the love of a red haired woman is like no other, it’s passionate but easy-going, stern but kind, tolerant but unbending and above all it’s tender but fierce. Quite simply, they are made of stronger stuff!

I wish I could be there on the day my son becomes a man and starts to make his own way in to the world. I spend many hours pondering your future, wondering what kind of man you’ll, be but then I remember that with Elizabeth guiding you, you probably won’t go far wrong. Your mother often contemplates the more important issues such as what you’re wife will be like. She’s confident that there isn’t a woman alive who will do for her little boy, nothing short of perfection is acceptable, so Merlin help the poor girl who falls in love with Harry Potter.

It is obvious to me now that this letter wasn’t about you after all; it was about me getting some hopes, fears and dreams off my chest. I hope whoever has been taking care of you up until this point, whether that be, Sirius, Remus or Elizabeth, has kept you well and that you have thoroughly enjoyed your coming of age party (if you didn’t have one someone is going to pay a hefty price when they get to the great beyond!). The last thing I want to say is that we love you, Harry, and there is nothing that could change that. Take care of yourself and Elizabeth and avoid joining the lot of us anytime soon. We’ll be watching you from where we are and doing our best to keep you safe.

All my love

Dad.’

He sat for several minutes reading it over and over again and smiled. He’d moved past crying, he had no reason to cry, his parents had loved him, why should he cry? There was a gentle knock at the door and he beckoned his visitor in he was pleased to see that it was Ellie.

“So what did Uncle James have to say for himself?” she asked cheerily. “Encouraged you to make as much mayhem as possible did he?”

“Actually no,” Harry replied, his eyes were still drifting over the letter in front of him.

“Well, he must have been feeling sick that day; at least it makes my job easier. My dad suspected he might be letting you in on a few Marauder secrets and told me in my letter that I’d to do whatever was necessary to stop you from carrying them out, even if it meant hexing you,” she chuckled.

“You got a letter too?”

“Yep, two and a half years ago now. It’s kind of a Wizarding tradition, your parents write you a letter on one of your early birthdays, usually between one and five and give it to you when you come of age, then they write another one and save it till you’re thirty. I don’t really know why they do it, sentimentality I suppose,” she said thoughtfully.

“I think it’s good, especially if your parents don’t make it to your seventeenth. It lets you know what they were thinking and feeling when you were born…”

“I know what you mean, it’s nice to know just how much they loved you,” Ellie’s eyes were beginning to glisten.

“It would have been great to have them here, but I suppose I don’t really feel any worse off for not having them…” How could he when he’d just had such a wonderful day?

“I suppose all that really matters is that it was spent with people who love you like a son.” You could practically see Ellie’s mind forcing her tears away.

“Yeah that’s it. I don’t think Mr. and Mrs. Weasley could love me more if I was one of theirs,” he smiled to himself, they were such a wonderful family with such an abundance of love.

“You don’t think they could but I know they couldn’t, as far as Molly is concerned you’re one of hers and that’s the end of it. You’ve seen her fight for what she thinks is best for you; believe me she’d lay down her life for you just as quickly as she would one of her own. We’re not flesh and blood but we’re as good as in Molly’s book,” Ellie said with a look of pride.

“You know something?” he asked her grinning.

“What?” she asked suspiciously.

“You’re going to make a pretty good Weasley wife,” he said assuredly.

“Oh yes? What makes you think that?”

“I’ve seen you defending us at school and you’re like a lioness protecting your cubs. You’re going to be just like Molly,” he predicted.

“I could do a lot worse than follow in her footsteps. Now the reason I actually came up here was to tell you that dinner is almost ready and the birthday boy’s presence is required in the kitchen.” She stooped down in to a Dobby-like bow and flounced from the room. Harry just laughed at his cousin’s antics and followed her billowing robes down to the kitchen.

---

That night Harry and Ron performed their usual duty of walking Hermione and Ginny up to their bedrooms. “Good night, Ginny,” Harry said as he stifled a yawn at Ginny’s bedroom door.

“Is that it? Am I not going to get a kiss?” Ginny teased, she tugged him a little further in to the room. Harry was more than happy to oblige and found himself lost as the kiss deepened and became more passionate. What he didn’t realise was that Ron and Hermione were on the other side of the wall doing the exact same thing, but he became aware of it when Mrs. Weasley’s voice reverberated off the walls.

“AND JUST WHAT DO THE TWO OF YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?” she bellowed. Harry and Ron jumped out in to the hallway as though they had been electrocuted.

“We were just saying goodnight…” Ron said to his feet.

“Well, it looked more like mouth to mouth resuscitation to me!” she admonished. “So unless Hermione and Ginny are at death’s door you had better explain yourselves!”

“It was just a kiss…” Harry said to his fumbling hands, he didn’t dare look Mrs. Weasley in the eye.

“I see, you two will come with me right now,” she barked as she set off back down the stairs. “Wait in there.” She pointed them in to the drawing room and snapped the door shut behind them. The next time the door opened it was Remus and Mr. Weasley who entered, Remus was looking rather sheepish and Mr. Weasley was blushing lightly.

“So…boys…” he began and then appeared to find himself at a loss for words.

“Molly told us she found you in the girl’s bedrooms,” Remus continued.

“We were only about a foot inside and it was only to kiss them goodnight!” Ron objected.

“Unfortunately that’s not how your mother sees it,” Arthur said exasperatedly.

“Molly has asked us to have a chat with the both of you,” there was the faintest tint of embarrassment in Remus’s voice.

“You’re both young men now and as you’re getting older your relationships with the girls are going to change,” Arthur said, he was trying to look anywhere but at Ron and Harry. Harry heard Ron give a soft groan beside him. “Look here, Ron, you may think this is horribly embarrassing but it’s a necessary discussion!” he said sharply.

“What Arthur is trying to say is that it’s our responsibility to make sure that you two know the…the facts of life as such and understand the consequences of your actions. We wouldn’t like either of you to do something you shouldn’t,” Remus went on.

“Yes, that’s exactly what I meant. There are certain codes of behaviour that should be observed during courtship…” he paused to think for a minute. “We understand that at your age there are certain other things at play in you mind and your…body…there are things to do with the opposite sex that are probably just occurring to you…” here his voice became particularly strained when he took a fleeting look at Harry. “Things that you’re probably thinking about saying…or...or… doing…” he faltered.


“But you should always err on the side of caution. We want you to think very carefully before you do anything. It’s important to remember that some things are perhaps better reserved for marriage. We’re well aware that the four of you aren’t silly little children, Hermione and Ginny are smart, strong young women.” Remus gave Arthur a comforting look. “But you should still consider things thoroughly. We don’t want to see any improper behaviour, and as far as Molly is concerned the kissing you were up to earlier was a bit too zealous for her liking.” Remus clarified.

“So we just want you to calm it down a bit. Do either of you have any questions for us?” Mr. Weasley asked. He looked terrified at the prospect.

“What, like where do babies come from?” Ron snorted.

“Actually, Ron, that’s exactly the kind of thing I meant,” his father said reproachfully. Ron gulped loudly and looked at Harry.

“I learned all that at the Muggle School I went to,” he said quickly to Remus and looked back at Ron.

“I’ve got four brothers I know all about it,” he added hastily to Mr. Weasley.

“Ok, that’s good. But if you have any questions about what you know or anything else like that we want you to know that you can come to us and ask us anything at anytime,” Remus finished.

“We know that,” Ron grumbled under his breath.

“In that case you can go on up to bed now, Molly should be finished with the girls,” Mr. Weasley said wearily. The boys scuttled out of the room and up to bed as quickly as they could to save themselves from being pulled in for any more fatherly advice.

“Well that was rather awful,” Remus breathed out deeply.

“I’m glad it’s over,” Arthur collapsed in to a nearby chair.

“Why’s that?” Remus asked with interest.

“Ginny is Molly’s responsibility, that was the deal. We decided when she was expecting our first that when it came to things like this I would deal with the boys and she would take care of the girls. Unfortunately I forgot that the Weasley genes favour men, I’ve endured that talk six times. Fortunately after Bill they all got a little easier, I think the advice filtered through and so each of them had more pieces of the puzzle than the one before. That was the last time I have to go through it, but you’ve got all this to come,” he said smiling at the younger man.

“Thank you, you’ve given me yet another reason to not have children. Tonks is going to love you!” Remus chuckled.


A/N: Another chapter bites the dust! I hope you enjoyed that; the next chapter on its way to you is…Unwelcome Present. Until then take care of yourselves!

After the embarrassment of the speeches from Mr. Weasley and Remus, Harry was denied yet another night of peaceful sleep. As he slipped out of consciousness the new scene that snapped in to focus before him was not a pleasant one….

He was viewing a town from a broom high in the air above, and below him twenty dementors were sweeping excitedly from side to side. Harry felt like he had just swallowed an ice cube as the feeling of cold he always got when the dementors were near, swept through his body. He felt his mouth contort and the word ‘go’ seep from it; a thin, white and spidery hand pointed at the bustling street below. Within seconds the dementors rushed down to the unsuspecting people who were spilling out of closing pubs and clubs. Screams filled the air as the terrified people stared at the unfamiliar creatures that were now bearing down on them. People ran in all directions, tripping over each other in the process; all sense of chivalry was lost as men pushed women out of their paths.

Within minutes those who hadn’t been able to run had been subjected to the dementor’s kiss; dozens of people now lay sprawled on the street their empty eyes wide in fear and the mouths moving soundlessly. Harry looked up and down the street and saw that some of those who had tried to run were frozen in their tracks. He looked to his right and left to see roughly two dozen Death Eaters flying around him. He let out a loud, howling cackle and pointed his broom down sharply; he landed softly and began striding up the street.

There were blinding flashes of light everywhere; the dark sky was lit with all the colours of the rainbow as the members of the crowd who were still living were subjected to a variety of curses. He watched as a Death Eater, who sounded suspiciously like Goyle, used the Imperious Curse on one woman, forcing her to run in to a wall over and over again. Harry flinched when the frenzied laughter escaped him. He saw several flashes of bright green light and trembling figures fell to the ground. A young girl of eighteen or nineteen was quivering in a corner; a Death Eater grabbed her and subjected her to a horrific and degrading attack before he finally killed her.

The crouching figure of Wormtail shadowed his every move and when he reached out his pale finger and pointed at a raven-haired man. Peter immediately hurried forward and pulled the man roughly towards the Dark Lord. When the hand next appeared in his scope of vision it had a long wand in it, Lord Voldemort’s wand. ‘Imperio!’ he whispered dangerously. The man instantaneously dropped to his knees, bowed over and kissed the hem of Voldemort’s robes.

In the next instant he had risen to his feet and was hurrying towards a red haired woman who was trying to hide behind a large metal bin, he pulled her from her hiding place by her hair and began to strangle her. The poor girl struggled for a moment before her features turned a very unnatural colour and then she became lifeless. He removed the spell and the man was left hold the flaccid woman by her throat, he looked at her horrified before he dropped her body out of sheer terror. When he looked back at Voldemort the green flash collided with his chest and the man was dead as well.

Only forty miles away Harry was woken by the searing pain in his scar.

---

He rolled over to the edge of his bed and vomited vigorously over the side. He was about to grab his pendant when his cousin came bursting into his room regardless.
“Did you see what happened, Harry?” she asked urgently. She pointed her wand at the pool of sick on the floor and made it disappear.

“How did you know?” he barely managed to say before he surrendered to another wave of sickness. In a kind, motherly gesture Ellie rubbed her hand over his back in circles, gripped his upper arm to prevent him falling off the bed and whispered ‘It’s all right, Harry,’ soothingly in his ear.

“My scar felt like it was on fire,” she answered when he finally stopped. “I heard you scream and assumed you had seen what I had felt.”

“It was awful, really bad. There must be a hundred Muggles or more dead; you need to get the Order straightaway.”

“Get yourself dressed. I’ll see you down in the kitchen in a minute.” She raised her wand and something silvery shot out of the end, he couldn’t remember where he had seen that happen before, and with a pop she disappeared from the room. Harry dressed as quickly as he could without making himself nauseous and almost walked straight in to Remus on the landing.

“Is everything all right, Harry? You look terrible,” he said gripping him with concern.

“I had another vision. Ellie’s getting everyone in.” Harry had to lean back against the wall as he was starting to feel dizzy again.

“What happened?”

“I’d rather only have to relive it once, if you don’t mind?”

“Of course, I understand, Harry. Come along.” Remus helped him down the stairs and into the kitchen where Order members were already running out of the fire in their dressing gowns. Some of the women still had curlers in their hair.

“What is Potter doing here?” Professor Snape demanded, stepping out of the fire.

“He had a vision, Severus, so you had better watch your tone!” Ellie said angrily from behind him. She had just Apparated there milliseconds before. “My grandfather will be here in just a second, he was sending word to Mad-Eye and Kingsley when I left. Are you feeling better now?” she asked Harry as she sat down next to him.

“A little,” he lied. Molly came bulldozing in to the kitchen with her wand out.

“What’s the matter? What’s happened?” she asked in a panic.

“Harry had a vision, Molly. Have you got any Calming Draught?” Ellie said calmly.

“Give me just a second and I’ll whip some up,” the mother hen then immediately began to busy herself at the stove.

“I shall assist,” Professor Snape said, rather affronted that Ellie had not asked him for the draught.

“Remus, could you pop upstairs and get Harry’s Pensieve? I have a feeling it might be a better idea for him to put his dream in there instead of having to tell us all,” Ellie now spoke to her godfather. With a pop he disappeared and reappeared a second later with Harry’s stone Pensieve in his hands. Ellie nodded at Harry and he extracted the thought from his temple and deposited it in the bowl where it began to swirl enchantingly.

Molly popped a cup full of steaming liquid into his right hand and encouraged him to sip it slowly. As soon as Dumbledore arrived, Harry prodded the contents of Pensieve and the figures from his dream rose out of it and the battle began. Gasps went around the room as it progressed with several of the women looking close to tears and the men looking thoroughly disgusted. Despite Mrs. Weasley’s top-notch potion, seeing it all again made him feel nauseous. Remus must have sensed this because he conjured a bowl seconds before Harry once again began to throw up spectacularly. He flushed with embarrassment at having shown such weakness in front of so many people, more importantly in front of Snape and Mad-Eye. Snape would just use it to ridicule him and Mad-Eye would be disappointed that he wasn’t made of sterner stuff. “I’m sorry,” he slurred, trying to rid his mouth of the taste by gulping large amounts from the cup in his hand.

“Don’t worry, sonny, the first time you have to see it is always the hardest and better out than in I say,” Moody reassured him.

“Thanks,” Harry replied hoarsely. He saw Ellie give Moody a grateful smile, she too looked close to being sick and Charlie had a death grip on her hand.

“Mundungus, it is quite possible that you know London better than any other person in this room. Could you perhaps suggest a location?” Dumbledore said after considering what he had seen.

“Look’d like Brixton to me.” It was a sign of just how heinous the crimes were that even Dung looked revolted.

“Thank you. Kingsley, would you like to take a deputation there and assess the situation. You may have to contact the Obliviators,” Dumbledore said calmly.

“I’ll return as soon as I can with an update,” Kingsley said in his deep composed voice.

“Please do. Alastor, Tonks, Minerva, and Mundungus, would you please accompany Kingsley? The rest of you should return home and dress in the event that you are needed later,” the headmaster advised. Everyone began to leave the kitchen, some queuing up for the fire, some Apparating, some taking Portkey’s and others leaving via the front door. “You would probably be best going back to bed, Harry, I will have Elizabeth wake you when we get some news.”

“I’ll come with you; I’ve got a vial of potion for a dreamless sleep if you’d like it?” Ellie asked as she escorted him back to his room. On the landing she said ‘Accio!’ as quietly as she could to avoid waking the other sleeping members of the household. Harry changed back into his pyjamas while he was waiting.

“I’m not sure that I want to go back to sleep,” he said shakily. “What if it happens again?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be right here.” She produced a comfortable chair right beside his bed. He swallowed the potion she gave him in one gulp and began to feel drowsy the second it touched his lips. He felt her tucking his blankets in around him and heard her assuring Mrs. Weasley that he was settled. As he began to drift towards sleep he heard the voice of another person in the room, he vaguely recognised it as Professor Dumbledore.

“How are you, Elizabeth?” he asked.

“I hate seeing him like this,” she replied sadly.

“That doesn’t really answer my question.”

“I’ll be fine, so will Harry. Did Severus know anything about what happened tonight?”

“He had heard rumours here and there but nothing confirmed, he seems to have fallen through the ranks of the Death Eaters in recent weeks.”

“Why?”

“I fear it is because of you. I have reason to believe that Voldemort may be aware of the situation regarding your mother and this has lead to doubts over whether Severus’s loyalty lies with you and your mother’s blood or with Voldemort and his cause,” Dumbledore said gravely. If Voldemort didn’t trust Snape it made having a spy amongst the Death Eaters virtually pointless and potentially dangerous.

“And where does Severus’s loyalty lie?” she asked sceptically.

“Both you and I know the answer to that question,” Dumbledore said firmly.

“Just because I know the answer doesn’t mean I have to like it,” she said bitterly.

“Naturally,” Dumbledore replied with a slight smile evident in his voice. But Harry didn’t hear anymore because he was overcome with deep, steady and calming sleep.

---

When he woke a few hours later Ellie was dozing in the chair by his bed. The slight noise of him reaching for his glasses was enough to wake her. “How are you feeling?” she mumbled sleepily.

“A lot better, has there been any news?”

“Kingsley came back an hour or so after you came back to bed. The street was a disaster zone they found ten people still alive, three were insane, four were suffering from severe blood loss and the other three were frightened beyond belief, the Obliviators had a tough job making them forget it all. Dobby’s making breakfast, I promised Molly that I’d make you go down and eat something.” She got rid of her chair and left him alone to change.

The air in the kitchen was angst ridden. Bill, Charlie, and Remus were sitting at the table looking extremely tense. Several well-thumbed copies of the Daily Prophet’s morning edition lay discarded in a heap in the centre of the table. Occasionally one of the men would shoot it an anxious glance before returning to staring at their mugs of tea. Harry picked up one of the copies as soon as he sat down; the front page bore an artist’s impression of dementors sweeping down in to a street and people running in terror.

‘249 Muggles Dead:

Carnage as You-Know-Who, Death Eaters and dementors attack Muggle partygoers.


There was mayhem, death and destruction last night as You-Know-Who and his Death Eaters unleashed twenty dementors on a Muggle street. The tragedy unfolded on a street in the borough of Brixton, near London, at two thirty this morning. The street is well known for its large number of Muggle pubs and dance clubs, hundreds of people spilled on to the street at closing time only to be descended upon by the terrifying creatures and a handful of Death Eaters.

Some of the unfortunate victims were subjected to the dementor’s kiss while others were dispatched of using the unforgivable ‘Avada Kedavra’. Poor unsuspecting girls were subject to harrowing attacks that would be unsuitable to detail in a family paper, but it is sufficient to say that they were revolting and repulsive crimes carried out by the vilest of our kind.

Of the estimated three hundred people that were in the street at the time approximately forty got away and Ministry sources estimate that only ten people were alive when Aurors reached the scene, four of whom were in critical conditions having lost huge amounts of blood through cuts made by a Severing Spell. It is rumoured that the others were driven mad by the experience and are now in a ward at St Mungo’s Hospital, London. The Ministry is expected to make an official statement later on today.

Turn to page 2 for eyewitness accounts from Mr Jeffrey Screwton and Ms Geraldine Turnbull who live on the street of the chaotic event.’

He flicked through the pages of the paper, most of them were taken up by supposedly eyewitness accounts, more rumours of what happened, the details of who to contact at the Ministry if you either had information or thought a family member might have been present and yet more advice on how to protect yourself from attack. He threw it back on the pile with dismay, their advice was useless �“ if a Death Eater turned up on the doorstep of some poor wizard family and decided to kill them then there could be no defence. “Have the Ministry made their statement yet?”

“No, Minister Bones is still in talks with Dumbledore, Arthur and Kingsley about what to say, they should be out within the hour,” Remus answered.

“There’s not really much they can do or say is there?” Charlie asked.

“No, it’ll be working out what to tell the Muggles that’ll cause the most problems. It’s not going to be easy to try and make and excuse for that many deaths,” Bill replied.

“What are they going to say?” Harry asked.

“Arthur was talking about something to do with these drug things so many of the Muggle youngsters are doing…” Molly answered with some confusion.

“I think even the most oblivious Muggles aren’t going to swallow that one,” Bill said cynically.

“Unfortunately it’s the best that we can do, none of the buildings were destroyed and it might have been a bit better if they had, at least then it could have gone down as a gas explosion or something.” Remus knew that this wasn’t really a productive line of thought.

“We just have to be thankful that more people didn’t die,” Molly said but there was no conviction in her voice.

“No, we have to be thankful that they didn’t decide on a target any closer to us,” Remus said grimly.

A/N: I decided to get the death and destruction going earlier in this fic, I think that was what my last one lacked. The next chapter is rather ominously titled…Graves.

I hope it’s with you all soon!

A/N: For your visual pleasure pictures of the church that feature in this chapter can be found on my bio page. Happy Reading!


The mood within the house during the coming week was an unpleasant one. Everybody was on edge because the attack had been forty miles away but was forty miles too close. There had been several other attacks, a total of ten Muggles and three wizards had died since Harry’s dream; and all of the attacks had taken place in and around London. One morning Dumbledore was found strengthening the locks, magical and otherwise, on the front and back doors. He was once again starting to look his age, the twinkle in his eye was conspicuous in its absence, and the age lines in his face were deeper than ever. Ellie had regressed somewhat, the cheerfulness that had shone from her since her near death experience was gone and had been replaced by the sullen and distracted woman he had seen following Percy’s death.

After some intense discussions Ellie and Charlie had decided that the best thing to do was to bring forward their wedding plans, Ellie had penciled it in for the last day of August by they decided to get married at the end of the first week instead. The second that the news was announced Ron turned to Harry with a face flushed in triumph. “Shall I take my ten galleons now or later?” he gleamed.

“But they’ve only brought it forward a couple of weeks!” Harry tried to protest.

“I know, but it’s still earlier than Ellie had wanted so Charlie got his way didn’t he?”

“I suppose,” he grumped. To save himself enduring endless pestering from Ron he handed over the money on the spot.

---

Two days before the wedding Ellie picked the wrong moment to try and sneak her dress through the house. When she stepped out of the fire, with a large box in her arms and a handful of bags, everyone was just sitting down to lunch. “Is that it?” Mrs. Weasley cooed.

“Um…it is…” Ellie stood rooted to the spot like a guilty child who’d been caught in the act.

“Can I see?” Charlie reached for the lid of the box.

“No you cannot!” Ellie shouted as she jumped out of his reach and almost landed back in the fire

“Don’t you dare! It’s bad luck!” Mrs. Weasley cried as she whacked Charlie’s arm with the broom she was holding. “Pop upstairs and we’ll see how you all look,” Molly gestured to Tonks, Fleur, Ginny and Hermione who had been appointed bridesmaids for the event. The six women bolted from the kitchen, loud squealing noises were heard twenty minutes later and then Tonks called down the stairs.

“Remus, come up here, you have to see this!” Remus looked like a werewolf caught in the headlights of an oncoming train. He moved from the kitchen very slowly and was gulping heavily, obviously not relishing in the opportunity to be surround by six, hyperactive and squealing women. He returned quite quickly looking extremely pale, his eyes were wide and moist and his mouth was flapping open.

“What did they do to you, Moony? Did they do lots of squealing?” Fred asked out of concern, none of them had ever seen him look the way he did.

“Remus, say something,” George urged.

“They…she…” he whispered.

“Somebody slap him,” Bill suggested.

“Oh, Charlie,” he said after a long pause. “She looks beautiful…” he said breathlessly.

“I know she’s beautiful!” Charlie exclaimed.

“No, no, no.” Remus grasped the groom’s forearm forcefully. “Trust me you have never seen her looking this exquisite…all of them…breathtaking…magnificent…”

“He needs a stiff drink,” Ron advised. Fred reached in to a nearby cupboard and pulled out a bottle of Firewhiskey, some glasses and poured all of them a drink.

“To Charlie and Elizabeth,” Bill toasted. They all raised their glasses and clunked them together, Ron coughed and Harry choked. “That’ll put hairs on your chest,” he laughed. He wasn’t laughing when Mrs. Weasley came back.

“Why is that bottle empty?” she demanded.

“Because-HIC-we-HIC-drank-HIC-it!” George gurgled, the rest of them laughed at him hysterically.

“THINK THAT’S FUNNY DO YOU?”

“Actually-HIC-yes!” his twin hooted.

“WELL LET’S SEE HOW FUNNY IT IS NOW!” She picked up the broom she had abandoned in her excitement and smacked each of them forcefully over the head with the brush end. It was quite enough to settle them all down; although Fred and George continued to snigger through lunch they were eventually hushed by a single deadly look from their mother.

---

The next morning they took a Portkey from Grimmauld Place to Hogwarts, they all managed to land, without falling, safely in the Great Hall. Instead of the usual house tables and the hundreds that had been present at their Balls, there were now about thirty little tables arranged in a ring around the hall, creating a circular dance floor in the middle. These tables could seat ten people, with the exception of what was undoubtedly the head table, which Harry counted had twenty settings. They were draped in beautiful ivory silk and the large centrepieces consisted of red and white roses, little silver plaques at each place setting. There was a gap in the circle where a long stage had been set up for music, he presumed. On a wall down one side there was a large banner whose golden lettering allowed the name Potter to glitter in the morning sun. The banner adorning the wall opposite was exactly the same although it said Weasley rather than Potter. Hovering several feet above them were the hundreds of candles that were normally present during the welcome feast. They floated around in circles waiting expectantly to be lit, for the chance to cast light in to the world.

“It looks wonderful, doesn’t it?” Ellie gushed in Charlie’s ear. The confirmation that she was really getting married seemed to have washed the gloomy disposition away and she was back to being the excitable young woman who, at Christmas, had rushed in to the kitchen and announced her engagement with utter glee. As her eyes flitted around the hall her smile widened and she looked fit to burst with delight.

“It’s nice,” Charlie nodded. He was watching Ellie’s excitement steadily build, with a large grin on his face. “Right chaps, we’ve been banished to the tower �“ Gryffindor Tower that is �“ for the evening so if you’d kindly pick your stuff up from the pile at the door, we shall proceed to the tower with haste,” he bowed mockingly to them all.

“Where are the girls staying?” Ron asked his brother.

“Nowhere that you’ll be able to sneak in to in the dead of night,” Charlie chirped cheerily. Ron’s mouth fell open and his tell tale ears gave him away by burning a furious shade of red. He asked no other questions relating to the girls thereafter. The men did as instructed with Remus and Arthur leading the way. In the end Harry, Ron, Remus, Fred and George settled into Harry and Ron’s dormitory, while Arthur, Bill and Charlie picked the room below them. Once they were all unpacked and had their wedding robes hanging nicely by their beds they congregated in the common room.

“So what else do we have to do?” Harry asked Mr. Weasley.

“We’re supposed to be meeting the girls down at the church in ten minutes, we’ve got to check the place is all right and do a quick run through the ceremony,” he answered. When the last of the group, suspiciously Fred and George, had joined them they set off for the church. This was the part that Harry and Ron were most interested in. They had been at Hogwarts for six years and had never even glimpsed a church once, considering that their previous adventures had taken them all over the castle and grounds, this was a near miracle. They were led out a side door on the ground floor, they walked through the courtyard that this lead them to, through an archway that was opposite the door that they had just come through and found themselves standing in the shadow of a large church. When Harry looked back at the castle behind him he recognised the North Tower standing behind him, he had been sitting in divination for three years, staring out the window and had never once had a clue that there was any other building out there.


It was a red sandstone building of gothic design, rising up to meet the sky with a crown on its spire. There was a flight of stairs that led up to the oak front doors that were almost identical to those of the castle. White streamers and flowers had been arranged on the banisters creating a nice contrast with the red stone. The beauty of the outside did no justice to the beauty of the inside; there were high vaulted ceilings, mosaic floors and marble drinking fountains. The ends of the wooden pews had been tied with white and gold materials, with the familiar roses in small planters at the ends. It took them two hours to get through the practice run; it would have been quicker if Fred and George hadn’t been impersonating Mrs. Weasley throughout. They were sat in the front pew with Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Bill, and Ron. Harry watched them from his seat on the other side of the aisle as they poked themselves in the eye with something before they began howling with tears streaming down their faces. They sobbed into each other’s shoulders and began crying out things at random intervals.

“They grow up so fast!”

“What happened to our little boy?”

“I remember their first kiss!”

“Doesn’t she look beautiful?”

“I can’t believe they’re getting married at last!”

This continued for a good long while, Mrs. Weasley was trying hard not to give them the satisfaction of knowing they’d annoyed her, but she eventually cracked. “That’s it! I’ve had enough!” she shouted just as Charlie was about to say his vows. “What do you two think you’re doing?” she stood in front of them with her hands on her hips, as she so often did, and a tear streaked face. As they continued to bawl Fred handed his mother a small clear bottle. “Weasley’s Wedding Woes,” she began reading from the label. “It’ll make you cry at any wedding! �“ Is this what you’ve taken? Do you have an antidote?” she asked in a thoroughly un-amused tone. George immediately handed her another black little bottle, she read from the instructions and then poked them in the eyes rather ferociously.

“OOOOOWWW!” the twins yelled in unison. They then returned to their sobbing, which quickly became more of a whimper and eventually disappeared, it was only then that the ceremony continued.

---

With everything being set they were ready to retire to the castle, but when they reached the bottom of the stairs outside Harry felt a gentle tugging on his sleeve, he turned to see Ellie looking rather sheepish.

“What’s the matter, Ellie?” he enquired gently, he then realised that Remus was standing right next to her and watching the two of them very carefully.

“Come over here,” she gently grabbed his wrist and guided him round to the left side of the church where a vast graveyard lay. She immediately began to pick her way along a row, pulling Harry behind her the whole time. When she eventually stopped he looked at the marble headstone in front of him with shock.

‘Here lie members from
The Honourable and Brave House of Potter
Nunquam Obliviscar’

“Is this where they are?” Harry whispered respectfully.

“Everyone for twenty generations, the rest are in the grounds of Potter Hall,” Ellie muttered.

“What does the Latin mean?” he asked her.

“Never forget,” she said quietly. “They should be here; it’s their day as much as it is mine.”

“They’ll be watching,” Remus said quietly.

“No they won’t,” Harry replied. Both Ellie and Remus looked at him rather shocked. “You’re the one that told me,” he said to Ellie. “They’re always here,” he laid his hand on his heart.

“Very true, Harry,” Remus was looking at him with distinct pride. “They’re always with you, both of you and tomorrow will be no different.”

“I just wish…that…Dad was here to walk me down the aisle.” One of Ellie’s tears slipped around the apple of her cheek, down to her chin and then fell silently to the grass below.

“Is there anything we can do to help?” Harry was certain that the answer was no but he wanted her to know they were willing.

“Just stay with me for a while,” she pleaded through her flurry of tears.

“Of course,” Remus answered, he took one of her hands gently while Harry took the other and they stepped in to hold the poor girl tightly as her body began to convulse with grief.

---

When Remus and Harry returned to the tower an hour or so later a raucous party was underway. Fred and George were moving around energetically in front of the fire and slurring their way through ‘Get Me To The Church On Time’,

“I'M GETTTING MARRRIED IN THE MOOORNING, DING! DONG! THE BELLSSS ARE GONNNA CHIIIME, PULLL OUT THE STOPPERRR, LET'SSS HAVE A WHOPPERRR, BUT GET MEEE TOOO THE CHURRRCH ON TIIIME…” they sang merrily. Harry spotted that Fred was swinging a half empty bottle of Firewhiskey about.

“Are they drunk?” he asked Ron.

“I �“ haha! �“ I think so �“ haha! �“” Ron answered giddily, under his chair there were twenty empty Butterbeer bottles and he had a two thirds empty bottle of the fiery whiskey in front of him.

“Are you drunk?” Harry asked with an unsuppressed grin.

“MAAAYYYBBBEEE!” Ron sang.

“I GOT TO BE THERRRE IN THE MOOORNING, SPRUUUCED UP AND LOOOKING IN MY PRIIIMEEE, GIRLSSS, COME AND KISSS MEEE, SHOOOW THAAAT YOU'LL MISSS MEEE, BUT GET MEEE TO THE CHURRRCH ON TIIIMEEE…” Ron now joined his brothers, they were starting to look like a barbershop quartet that was short of a member, but that wasn’t for long.

“Some people just can’t hold their drink,” Charlie laughed. Harry was glad to see that his collection was only a handful of Butterbeers and his bottle of Firewhiskey was much fuller than the others.

“Sit down, Harry,” Bill patted the chair in between him and Charlie that Ron had been sitting in. He summoned a bottle of Mulled Mead towards them and began pouring some in to a glass for Harry. “Get that down you, you’ll feel better,” he garbled almost incoherently. The eldest Weasley brother then jumped out of his seat and joined his siblings in song.

“IF I AM DANCING, ROLL UP THE FLOOR! IF I AM WHISTLING, WHEWT ME OUT THE DOOR!” the four of them chorused together.

“Good to see them enjoying themselves isn’t it, Arthur?” Remus said as he helped himself to a bottle of whiskey.

“Why, yes it is,” Mr. Weasley was decidedly red in the face and was swaying ever so slightly in his seat. Remus and Harry grinned wickedly at each other before they attempted to catch up with the other six’s inebriated state. It wasn’t long before all eight of them were singing. Charlie was stood on a chair and the rest of them were in a circle around him.

“FOOOR I'M GETTTING MARRRIED IN THE MOOORNING, DING! DONG! THE BELLSSS ARRRE GONNNA CHIIIMEEE, KICK UP A RUMPUSSS, BUT DON'T LOOOSE THE COMPASSS, AND GET MEEE TOOO THE CHURRRCH, GET MEEE TOOO THE CHURRRCH, FOOOR PETE'S SAKEEE, GET MEEE TOOO THE CHURRRCH ONNN TIIIMEEE!”

A/N: I’m not really sure what to say after that, other than…Wedding Bells is up next.

A/N: Readers beware this is a big ole chapter, trying to fit everything in was murderous but I hope you like it! Links to the dresses can be found on my bio page.


When they woke the next morning it was almost noon and every single one of them had a thumping headache. Fred and George were by far the worst, they lay slumped on one of the couches moaning loudly and proclaiming that they were never drinking again. Only Charlie seemed to be less affected than the others but that didn’t stop him casting a charm on the tower windows to stop the sun shining in so brightly. The wedding ceremony wasn’t taking place until four o’clock so they had plenty of time to lounge about and recover, Harry was just thinking about suggesting they go and get something to eat when Madam Pomfrey came shuffling into the common room with a tray of potions in her hands.

“Right which one of you is worst?” she asked sharply.

“How did you know we weren’t well?” Arthur asked in surprise.

“Molly came up here to speak to you last night and saw the state you were all in, she asked me if I’d pop up with some Sobering Solution. You’re lucky I had some in, I don’t have much call for it here in the school,” she clucked disapprovingly. She handed each of them a small goblet with some steaming green liquid in it and made sure they drank it all. It tasted disgusting, Harry had a strong urge to be sick and he could see he wasn’t the only one. Ron leapt out of his seat and rushed in the direction of the bathroom with his hand over his mouth. “I was also asked to pass on a message to you, Arthur.”

“Oh yes?”

“Yes, Molly wants you to make sure that all the boys have their speeches ready for the reception. I shall see you all later,” she said curtly. She turned on her heel and left the tower swiftly.

“You’ve all got your speeches sorted, haven’t you?” Mr. Weasley asked with a faint hint of alarm.

“I’ve had mine ready for weeks,” Charlie answered.

“I’m fine,” said Bill.

“I think I know what I’m going to say,” replied a returning Ron.

“Fred? George? Have you decided what you’re going to say?” Arthur asked the increasingly lively twins.

“Don’t worry, Dad, we know exactly what we’re going to say,” they responded wearily.

“And you, Harry, have you worked out what you’ll say?” he now looked at Harry encouragingly.

“I’ve got to say something?” he looked at Remus uncertainly. His answer sent Arthur into a complete panic.

“Its tradition!” he squealed.

“Calm down, Arthur, I’m sure Harry can find something to say. I’ll work on it with him, it’ll be fine,” Remus said in a calm and soothing voice. This appeared to settle the father of the groom down.

“Shall we go to breakfast?” he said.

“But won’t the girls be down there? I thought it was bad luck to see the groom to see the bride on her wedding day?” Harry had a vague memory of one of Aunt Petunia’s friends getting married.

“It is very bad luck. But it’s now twenty past twelve; the girls will have been up and breakfasted hours ago. Mum said something about them having to be up at eight,” Bill answered.

“Eight?” Ron puzzled.

“Yeah, they’ve got more to do than us. They’ve got to get up, have a giggle, go to breakfast, do some squealing, go for a shower and do some more giggling. Then the really serious work starts. They’ve got get their hair done and do some crying. They need their make up done so they can spend hours trying not to cry and ruin it all. Then they have to get their manicures done which means they can’t touch anything for at least an hour. After that they actually get into their dresses and spend the rest of the afternoon skirting around things so that they don’t get dirty, then they have to get their flowers and their tiara-thingys sorted. After all that work, they’re finally ready to go to the church until, low and behold, they end up doing some more squealing and crying and have to get their make up done all over again. I personally think women should be banned from getting married,” George said matter-of-factly.

“I wonder what Alicia thinks of that…” Bill said playfully, it was the right thing though because George’s ears suddenly burned red.

“She knows exactly how I feel about marriage,” he tried to say defiantly.

“Is that so? Well we might have to ask her about that, she is coming today?” Bill continued.

“She is, but you better stay away from her, I don’t want you stirring up trouble!” George was very clearly riled. Bill’s only response was to hold his hands up in surrender, but he grinned cheekily at everyone else. They decided to go for breakfast, well lunch really, and Bill’s theory had proved to be right, there wasn’t a girl in sight.

“Where are the girls anyway?” Harry asked Remus.

“They’re round in Ellie’s quarters; Dumbledore had it enlarged so that they could all fit in there comfortably. Speak of the devil,” Remus had looked up to the doors of the Great Hall where Dumbledore had appeared with Minister Bones. Both were wearing opulent robes of gold, but Professor Dumbledore’s were lined with some purple.

“Good afternoon gentlemen, I hope you are all well?” Dumbledore asked and they all nodded in response.

“Even you, Charles?” Minister Bones enquired.

“I’m fine and dandy,” Charlie answered her looking a little confused.

“I must say that you’re the calmest groom that I’ve ever seen,” she smiled.

“Well, when you’ve got fifteen years notice you forget to be nervous,” Bill said cheerfully.

“You make an excellent point,” Dumbledore affirmed. He and the Minister joined them at the table and began eating.

“You must be very excited, Mr. Potter, this is your first Wizarding wedding I presume?” the Minister asked Harry.

“It is and I’m very excited. Are you coming to the wedding too?” Everyone chuckled at Harry’s question except Dumbledore and Remus.

“It is tradition for the Minister of Magic to conduct wedding ceremonies, although these days with so many weddings and other ministerial duties to perform the responsibility is usually passed on to someone else from the Minister’s office…” Dumbledore began to explain.

“But with this being such a prominent wedding, I though that I should take the responsibility myself,” the Minister finished.

“It’s a prominent wedding?” Harry wondered if he was being stupid again.

“Well your cousin is a member of two celebrated wizard families, the Dumbledores and the Potters, and is about to marry into another. I know it’s not a particularly nice realisation but a lot of things in our world revolve around money. When your cousin comes in to her full inheritance, and I pray that it doesn’t happen anytime soon,” here she emphatically looked at Dumbledore. “She will be among the richest young women in Wizarding Britain and Europe.”

“You mean when Professor Dumbledore dies, don’t you?”

“Yes, Harry. When Aberforth and I pass on, assuming of course that Aberforth does not reproduce in the mean time, which I think is highly unlikely, Elizabeth inherits the entire Dumbledore family fortune. That in itself would make her richer than most other women in Britain but when combined with what she has inherited from the Black and Potter estates makes her a very wealthy woman indeed,” Dumbledore informed him.

“So, you’re marrying my cousin for her money?” Harry accused Charlie.

“What?” Charlie nearly choked on his moth full of bacon sandwich. “Harry �“ I would never �“ I love Ellie �“ I don’t care about her money �“ I don’t want any of it!” he immediately began to protest.

“I know, I was just checking,” Harry chuckled. Charlie expelled a big gust of air and took a second or two to calm himself down.

“Do that again, Harry, and I swear I’ll kill you!” the groom exclaimed.

“I’ve been thinking, Professor Dumbledore, didn’t you say that when a wizard wants to marry a witch he has to ask her nearest male relative?” Harry asked his headmaster.

“I did indeed, Harry.” There was a mysterious twinkle in the old man’s eyes that knew exactly what Harry was about to do.

“Well, normally that would be her father, wouldn’t it?”

“It would, yes.”

“But obviously Ellie’s father isn’t here, but responsibility for her was passed on to our grandparents and then my parents, so doesn’t that mean that now I’m of age I’m responsible for her?” he asked the wizened wizard.

“Technically I suppose,” Dumbledore said slowly.

“You know that there’s no ‘technically’ about it, Albus, now he’s of age Harry is head of the Potter household,” Remus chipped in daringly.

“So really Charlie should be asking me if he can marry Ellie,” Harry turned triumphantly on Charlie who was now looking a little green around the gills.

“Fine, okay. Harry, can I have your permission to marry Ellie?” he asked a little unsteadily.

“No.”

“No?” Charlie nearly jumped out of his seat.

“You haven’t told me why I should let you marry her?” Harry was determined to rib the man as much as possible.

“Well, you know…”

“No. I don’t, tell me.”

“I love her for a start, I’d never hurt her and I’d never let anyone else hurt her either…”

“That’s all very well and good but how are you going to provide for her? Where are you going to live?” he teased mercilessly.

“We’ll probably stay on at headquarters until we can find a place of our own and I’m starting a job with the Dragon Research and Restraint Bureau in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures as soon as you lot go back to school. It’s a good bit of pay as well, a 200 galleons a year…” he trailed off and looked at Harry pleadingly. “Harry, I want to marry Ellie more than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life, please give me permission to marry her?” Charlie was well aware that if Harry didn’t give him the okay he was up the creek without the proverbial paddle.

“I’m just not sure, Charlie…” Harry continued the torture.

“What could I do to prove myself to you?” he asked eagerly.

“You could…dance around the hall naked,” he said in the most serious voice he could muster.

“I BEG YOUR PARDON? You’re having me on aren’t you?” he glared at Harry critically.

“Yep,” Harry replied and returned to his tuna sandwich.

“So do I have your permission?” Charlie asked, referring back to his unsure tone.

“I wouldn’t dream of not giving it to you. Besides can you imagine what Ellie would do to me if I did?” Harry got a chill down his spine.

“Harry, we salute you!” Fred and George exclaimed.

“If he wasn’t nervous before, he is now,” Bill pointed at his younger brother mockingly.

“Now really, boys, this isn’t funny,” Mr. Weasley grinned at his tomato soup.

“Terribly unfair,” Remus sniggered in to his goblet of pumpkin juice.

“Shut up the lot of you!” Charlie protested with an embarrassed smile.

---

After eating the male grooming took place, there were showers all round and a desperate fight with Harry’s hair. “Is there nothing we can do with it?” Arthur asked giving Harry’s hair a look that was so reminiscent of his wife that it was scary.

“Try some of this stuff on it,” Bill handed his father a bottle, which when squeezed emitted a large amount of white goo. He started smearing this on Harry’s hair enthusiastically but ten minutes later his hair looked exactly the same.

“It’ll never work you know,” Remus said on his return from his shower. “Andrew and James tried everything and I do mean everything but nothing worked, they gave up in the end,” he smiled warmly at the memory.

“I suppose it’s the style when you’re seventeen.” Arthur looked from Harry’s short black hair to Ron’s lengthening red, which was looking particularly straggly. “You look like you could use some of this.” He then began fussing over his youngest son’s mass of hair. After nearly an hour they were all ready, they were wearing matching claret robes, the only exception was Charlie who had the Weasley family coat of arms embroidered on to the back of his. Mrs. Weasley sent Winky to inform them that she was coming to inspect them in ten minutes, so they lined up in front of the fire like soldiers on parade and waited expectantly. It wasn’t long until Mrs. Weasley appeared looking rather lovely in long blue robes with bell end sleeves. She looked like she had borrowed some of Hermione’s supply of Sleekeazy’s Hair Potion as her usually fuzzy red hair was pulled back in to a knot at the base of her head. With her hair tamed and her elegant robes on she really was quite a vision.

“Right you lot, I hope you’re all feeling better after your escapades last night. I expected better of you, Arthur, and you as well, Remus,” she reprimanded and both the older men flushed pink.

“Charlie, you look wonderful. Very handsome,” she said proudly and patted him on the arm.

“Bill, I wish you’d let me cut that hair off,” she pulled at her eldest sons ponytail.

“I’ve already told you no, Mum,” Bill said patiently.

“Fred, George, you both look fine. Do you have any tricks up your sleeves?”

“None whatsoever,” George replied.

“Why don’t I believe that?” she asked them suspiciously.

“Most probably because you know that the tricks are in our pockets not up our sleeves,” Fred supplied sarcastically.

“Very funny, you’d both better be on your best behaviour, I’m watching you.”

“Who said I was joking?” Fred said under his breath but Mrs. Weasley didn’t hear him, she’d already moved on to Ron.

“Very nice, Ron, but your hair is getting just like Bill’s maybe I should cut it a little bit?” she reached down for her wand.

“My hair is fine the way it is, Mum!” Ron complained.

“Fine,” she answered sharply and moved on to scrutinize Harry. “I suppose you tried everything you could with his hair?” she too eyed it suspiciously.

“It wouldn’t lie flat for all the gold in Gringotts,” Remus smirked.

“It’ll have to do, you look very nice other wise, Harry. Right, you all know the order that you’ve to go in to the church in?” They all nodded. “Good, the girls are already up there putting the finishing touches to everything so you’ve got ten minutes to finish faffing around and get yourselves out there. Fred and George, what are you doing?” she asked them.

“We’re helping people out of their carriages at the foot of the church steps,” Fred saluted his mother.

“Good. Bill and Ron, what are you doing?”

“We’re showing people to their seats,” Bill replied stiffly.

“Excellent. Harry and Remus, Professor Dumbledore has asked that you go straight to the bridal chamber at the church, so you come along as soon as possible please.” Molly gave her husband a quick kiss and set off for the portrait hole.

“We’ll come just now, Molly,” Remus called after her, she was moving very quickly and they had to jog to catch up with her as she darted through the castle.

---

When they were back inside the church, Mrs. Weasley lead them to a door that Harry hadn’t even realised was there on his first visit. It clearly said ‘Bride’ in copperplate writing. It opened on to a short corridor and another door with a long Latin phrase inscribed in the frame ‘Si vos es vir ut exsisto matrimonium tunc averto hic vel specto vita per dolor’.

“What does that mean?” he asked Remus.

“If you are the man to be married then turn back here or expect a life with misery. The door is charmed so that the groom can’t open it. Our ancestors certainly didn’t take any chances,” he smiled. Mrs. Weasley ushered them in to the room, it was at that point that the feeling of speechlessness swept over Harry.

Ellie was sat on a tall stool in the middle of the room while Tonks was fussing about with a headdress; she was trying to get it sitting right on the bride’s head. Ginny was softly manipulating the roses in a bouquet, she then handed this to Ellie who took it with a wide smile. Tonks, Ginny, Hermione and Fleur were wearing dresses of forest green; their dresses had square necks and long open sleeves. It complemented Ginny’s hair beautifully. Harry wasn’t sure that he’d ever seen his girlfriend look quite so stunning, the sunlight that was filtering in through the windows was bringing out the deepest shades of red in her hair and making the lighter ones glow gold. When she looked up and smiled at him he felt like his legs had turned to extremely wobbly jelly, it almost felt like he was drunk on her beauty. All he could think about was how Ginny would look wearing the white dress and it only served to make him more giddy, his stomach was doing back flips and somersaults. He forced himself to look at the other girls for fear that any second his legs were going to give way on him and he’d make a superb prat of himself in the face of all this splendour and grace.

Tonks had forgone her usually short, bubblegum pink hair in favour of a more demure long, black style that made her look more like Sirius than ever, with her hair this colour she was quite obviously a member of the Black family. Fleur approached Ellie with a necklace strung between her hands; she elegantly reached over the bride to fasten it around her neck, and with it held up to the light Harry recognised it as the necklace she had worn to the Christmas Ball. The large precious stone looked beautiful when set against Ellie’s pale skin and the dazzling white of her dress, which was very simple and elegant. For the first time Harry spotted Professor Dumbledore standing off to one side.

“Hello again, Harry, Remus.” The headmaster bowed his head slightly to the both of them. “I thought that perhaps you would like to offer some words of encouragement to Elizabeth before the ceremony, that is of course if we can get anywhere near her,” he chuckled. “I distinctly remember that I had to wait nearly an hour to speak to Jane on her wedding day, this all part of the female ritual.” He indicated the girls who were creating the kafuffle around his granddaughter.

“Right girls, lets leave Elizabeth alone and make sure we’re all ready,” she told the other women. Harry grinned widely as Ginny slipped past him and when she placed a quick kiss on his cheek he nearly stumbled backwards. “There we go, Albus,” she said as the last of them shuffled out the door.

“Thank you, Molly. Perhaps the two of you should go first, Molly wouldn’t be very happy with me if you were late for the procession,” he said to Harry and Remus who agreed heartily, they did not want to upset Mrs. Weasley today.

“Remus! Harry!” Ellie yelled excitedly when she noticed their presence. She rose to greet them and the full effect of her stunning dress became obvious. The white was broken by gold embroidery in a Celtic design; she wore a traditional veil that was kept on her head by a bronze headdress with emeralds and diamonds set in to it. The green complimented the golden shade of her red hair, which fell lightly down her back.

“You look mesmerising, Elizabeth,” Remus gave his goddaughter a tender kiss on the cheek.

“Really amazing,” Harry confirmed as he followed suit.

“Thank you. How’s Charlie?” she asked with a flicker of nervousness.

“He was fine until Harry terrorized him,” Remus chuckled.

“Harry? Our Harry? This Harry?” she asked grabbing her cousin by the shoulders.

“That Harry, he was ribbing Charlie mercilessly. Made the poor boy ask for his permission to marry you,” Remus laughed.

“I hope you left him in one piece?” Ellie scolded.

“Just about,” Harry joked. “Are you nervous?”

“A little bit,” she replied, it was obvious from the jitter in her shoulders that she was more than a little bit nervous; Harry would have placed a sizeable bet on a lot.

“What have you got to be nervous about?” Remus asked.

“You know the usual. Will I trip over my dress? Will I garble my way through the vows? Will the Death Eaters in the congregation get up to no good? And what happens if Lord Voldemort bursts through the front doors? Just normal bride stuff.”

“There are Death Eaters in the congregation?” Harry suddenly felt very uneasy.

“A couple, they’re important people at the Ministry and it would have looked very suspicious if they weren’t invited. They already know that someone’s double-crossing them and Severus is top of their list, we can’t make things any worse.”

“Everything will be just fine. I feel like I should say something momentous,” Remus smiled. “But I’m not sure there’s much that I could say that I haven’t said before. I’m very proud of you, Elizabeth, you are a wonderful young woman and I am honoured to be a part of your life.”

“Don’t, Moony, you’ll set me off,” she wiped her eyes warily.

“He’s right you know, it is a privilege to know you, you’re a…a really special person. I’d never really had a family of my own but you and Remus have been the best that I could have hoped for. Thanks for everything.” He grasped her hand.

“Well now you’ve gone and done it!” She reached around for a box of hankies that were sitting on a nearby table and began to dab her eyes gingerly.

“We just hope that Charlie realises how lucky he is,” Remus wrapped a comforting arm around her shoulders.

“Maybe I should be realising how lucky I am, men like Charlie are rare,” she said weeping ever so slightly.

“While I would like to say that you’re absolutely right I’m afraid that you’re father would kill me if I did so I’m insisting that he’s not good enough for you,” Remus said sadly.

“I could settle for the best of a bad bunch,” she offered.

“I think we could get away with that.” He took a quick glance skyward. “Sorry, Andrew.”

“That’ll do me,” she smiled.

“Good luck, Ellie,” Remus gave her another kiss on the cheek.

“Best of luck, everything is going be fine you know,” Harry said comfortingly.

“Thank you, you two had better get outside before Molly has your guts for garters.” She hugged them both and watched them with teary eyes as they left.

---

Molly was operating with meticulousness not even seen in the armed forces; the wedding arrangements were being executed with regimental precision. Guests were still pouring in and being greeted, amongst them were several Hogwarts professors including Professor Snape who was looking especially odd out of his ordinary black robes. They ones he donned now were bottle green and Harry was disgusted to realise that they were uncannily identical to his own dress robes. Hagrid was wearing his hairy brown suit once again and gave Harry a big wave and a hearty smile as he entered with Madame Maxime, who was looking splendid in sky blue robes that were a very similar colour to those her students wore. There were numerous Order members amongst the crowd as well as Dedalus Diggle, Elphias Dodge and Sturgis Podmore, all of whom were accompanied by women that Harry assumed were their wives. Hestia Jones arrived with wizard that Harry recognised as a Gryffindor student who had been in his seventh year when Harry first joined the school and it made him wonder if Hestia had been at school with him at some point. A tall stooping figure loped his way through the doors, it took Harry a second to realise that this was the barman from the Hogs Head. Why on earth was he here? That question was answered when Remus greeted him. “Hello, Aberforth,” Remus said politely.

“Lupin.” Aberforth inclined his head just a millimetre. “Am I in the front pew?” He asked with a gruff voice that was quite unlike his brothers soothing tone.

“Naturally, Ron can show you the way.” Remus was just about to ask Ron to escort Mr. Dumbledore to his seat when Aberforth cut across him.

“I can find the way on my own,” he said firmly and stepped past them.

“Is that Professor Dumbledore’s brother?” Ron asked Remus.

“It is, yes,” the older man answered.

“He runs the Hogs Head, I always thought he was a bit weird, the place always smells of goats,” Ron wrinkled his face in disgust.

“Well, it’s no surprise, Aberforth has always had a fondness for them,” Remus smiled to himself, fondness was certainly one way of putting it.

Neville came hurrying through the church’s vast doors excitedly with his grandmother striding purposefully behind him. “Hi, Harry,” he beamed. “Nice day isn’t it?”

“Yeah, good wedding weather,” Harry replied. Mrs. Figg came over to shake his hand eagerly when she arrived and she rambled on at length about how Mr. Tibbles hadn’t been all that well lately. Following Mrs. Figg, was a woman with hair that was as black as the night; she was tall for a woman and had the look of an aristocrat. There was no doubt in his mind that this was Andromeda Tonks. This was confirmed when the man a step behind her, who was even taller than she was, reached across in front of her and said cheerfully, “You’ll be a Potter of course. Wotcher, Harry!”

“Mr. Tonks?” Harry posed.

“Smart lad, eh? Remus, how are you? Hope you’re treating that daughter of mine well?”

“I’m fine thank you, Ted, and you really should ask Nymphadora how I’m treating her,” Remus smiled.

“I hope I didn’t just hear you call me by my first name,” Tonks said in a severe voice, she had snuck up behind them.

“Have you met my Mum, Harry?” Tonks gave the tall, dark haired woman a hug.

“Hello, Harry,” Andromeda said in a soft and kindly voice that seemed to clash with her sharp and refined appearance.

“Mrs. Tonks,” he tilted his head to her.

“Please, call me Andromeda. Sirius talked about you a lot, all of it very good. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you,” she smiled at him; it was Sirius’s wide toothy grin.

“Same here, Sirius always said that you were his favourite cousin, the only decent on in the lot,” Harry allowed himself to smile at the memory of the day Sirius had showed him where Andromeda, Ted and Tonks should have been on the Black family tree. “You’ll be pleased to know that Ellie reinstated you on the Black Family Tapestry.”

“Kept it did she? I have to say I think I would have thrown it out,” she replied.

“I think the only reason she kept it was because it reminded her of him.” He didn’t think that at all, he knew it.

“Yes, well I see your point. I hear the both of you took it very hard?”

“We did, he meant a lot to us.”

“And you to him, but be comforted by the knowledge that he’s in a better place and wherever he is he wouldn’t want us to be moping over him on such a happy day,” she said optimistically.

“Quite right,” Remus whispered, as Andromeda greeted him. After the Tonks’ a short but imposing man swept through the doors. He had shoulder length brown hair and deep, olive coloured skin. He was wearing spectacular robes of raspberry red that had flashing gold and silver stars on all over. He glided towards Harry and addressed him in a rich, educated and foreign tone.

“I am Alfeo Nicostrato, the headmaster of Ameretto Carondoni Schuloa Di Magico,” he announced. “You are?”

“Harry Potter. It is very nice to meet you, sir.”

“You are undoubtedly the cousin of which Elizabeth spoke so much.”

“He certainly is, Signore Nicostrato. Remus Lupin.” Remus reached out a hand to shake the man’s. “I believe we met once before, during Elizabeth’s last year…”

“Yes, I remember. Where am I to sit?”

“Bill could you show the professor to his seat please?”

“Course I can, right this way, sir.” Bill indicated that Professor Nicostrato should follow him and they swept off down the aisle. When everybody had arrived and was settled in the right places Fred and George joined Remus, Bill, Harry and Ron at the entrance end of the aisle. Mrs. Weasley then began arranging everyone into the appropriate pairs and in the right order. Ellie had very graciously asked Professor McGonagall to take the role of mother of the bride and she had accepted. This meant that the Transfiguration professor was first in the procession and she was escorted by Mad-Eye in the absence of Dumbledore who had father of the bride duties to fulfil. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley would be right behind them while Remus and Tonks followed on, Remus kept grinning at his escort like he couldn’t believe his luck. Next came Bill and Fleur, she was muttering excitedly in his ear with her distinctly French accent.

“I am ‘oping zat ze next time we ‘ave to walk down ze aisle, eet should per’aps be our marriage zat we are celebrating,” she said romantically. Bill just smiled; Harry got the impression that he wasn’t overly keen on being tied down just yet. Fred and George walked side by side because their girlfriends weren’t bridesmaids. Ron followed accompanied by Hermione with Harry and Ginny being last. When they were all lined up properly Mrs. Weasley took her place beside her husband, she waved her wand at an organ at the back of the altar and the procession music began.

At the bottom of the aisle McGonagall and Mad-Eye sat to left while Mr. and Mrs. Weasley sat to the right, where Charlie was starting to look quite nervous. Remus, Tonks, Fleur, Harry and Hermione all went to the left and Bill, Fred, George, Ron and Ginny went to the right. As soon as they had sat down Minister Bones appeared from a curtained off area to one side of the altar, she stepped to the podium and hushed the whispering crowd. She waved her wand at the organ and the music changed to the wedding march. Dumbledore and Ellie were now standing at the far end of the aisle, looking glorious in the beautiful early evening sun. When they reached the altar Dumbledore gave his granddaughters hand to Charlie and took a small step back. Minister Bones pointed her wand at her throat and said ‘Sonorous!’ before she began.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, I welcome you here today, to witness the marriage of Charles Thaddeus Weasley and Elizabeth Alexandra Jane Potter. But first I must ask, who brings this woman to marry this man?”
“I do,” Dumbledore replied dutifully.

“Very well.” She gave him a moment to lift Ellie’s veil and give her a quick kiss before she pointed him towards the empty seat beside McGonagall. “This is the time you have chosen to become husband and wife. We are here, not only to witness your commitment to each other, but also to wish you both every happiness in your future life together. Within its framework of commitment and loyalty marriage enables the establishment of a home, where through trust, patience and respect, the love and affection which you have for each other may develop into a deep and lasting relationship. We, who are witnessing your marriage, hope that despite the stresses inevitable in any life, your love, respect for each other, and your trust and understanding of each other will increase your contentment and heighten your joy in living. Marriage is founded on sincerity and understanding which leads to tolerance, confidence and trust. We believe that those qualities, which have attracted you both to each other, can be best developed during a life spent together. A happy marriage will enable you to establish a home with love and stability where your family and friends will always be welcome.

“At this time I would like to read you a passage by Walter Pinder.

Everyday you live, learn how to receive love with as much understanding as you give it. Find things within yourself, then you can share them with each other. Do not fear this love. Have an open heart and a sincere mind. Be sincerely interested in each other's happiness. Be constant and consistent in your love. From this comes security and strength. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us on this day of your marriage. Try to commit yourselves fully and freely to each other.

“Before you, Charles and Elizabeth are joined in marriage in my presence and that of your family, friends and witnesses, I would like to remind you of the serious and binding nature of the relationship you are now about to enter,” she paused for moment to allow them contemplation. “I shall now ask you to make your marriage vows. Charles you will go first.”

“I, Charles Thaddeus Weasley affirm my love to you Elizabeth Alexandra Jane Potter as I invite you to share my life. I promise always to respect your needs. I will endeavour through kindness, unselfishness and trust to achieve the warm rich life we now look forward to. To this end I call upon these persons here present to witness that I take you Elizabeth to be my lawful wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health for as long as we both shall live,” Charlie could not help his grin.

“It is your turn now, Elizabeth,” Minister Bones said softly.

“I, Elizabeth Alexandra Jane Potter affirm my love to you Charles Thaddeus Weasley as I invite you to share my life. I promise always to respect your needs. I will endeavour through kindness, unselfishness and trust to achieve the warm rich life we now look forward to. To this end I call upon these persons here present to witness that I take you Charles to be my lawful husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health as long as we both shall live,” as she spoke she began to shed tears of pure, unadulterated joy.

“Could we please have the rings?” the Minister asked. Bill stepped forward with the two rings on a small velvet cushion, he held this forward for her. She picked up the smaller ring and handed it to Charlie, who took his cue from her.

“Elizabeth; with this ring I thee wed. Take it and wear it as a symbol of all we shall share.” He slipped the gold band on to her finger gently and beamed at her. The Minister then picked up the larger ring and handed it Ellie, with his job done Bill stepped back.

“Charles; with this ring I thee wed. Take it and wear it as a symbol of all we shall share.” She pushed the ring along his thick finger.

“You have declared before all of us that you will live together in marriage. You have made special promises to each other, which have been symbolized by the joining of hands, taking of vows and the giving and receiving of two rings. By the authority vested in me as the Minister of Magic in Great Britain, I now pronounce you to be husband and wife. Charles, you may kiss your bride,” she smiled at Charlie, who wrapped arm around Ellie’s waist and kissed her passionately. “I am delighted to present to you all Mr. and Mrs. Charles Thaddeus Weasley,” Minister Bones finally said. For the first time Charles and Ellie turned to face their guests as husband and wife.

A/N: Phew! They’re finally hitched! The next chapter is…Making a Speech.

Everyone chatted merrily on the walk from the church back to the castle; the new Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were surrounded by a flurry of activity as people wished them well. When they all ended up back in the Great Hall darkness was just beginning to fall and the floating candles had been lit, casting the room in a celestial glow. Another long table had been laid near the doors of the hall and was straining under the weight of hundreds of presents. The other tables now bore little name cards at the place settings that dictated who was sitting at each table, at the top table were the family inclusive of it’s extended members and girlfriends, in other words, Minister Bones, Professor McGonagall, Mad-Eye, Angelina Johnson and Alicia Spinnet. The menus that were usually put to use during the balls at Hogwarts were engaged again to feed the many wedding guests. The house-elves did not disappoint and provided a scrumptious feast that would have satisfied any taste buds. After dinner had been devoured the rest of the hall waited excitedly for the top table to finish and the speeches to begin. As effectively the father of the bride Dumbledore was to speak first.

“A hag, troll, and a vampire all walk in to a bar,” he started.

“Albus, you can’t tell that joke at a time like this,” an exasperated Professor McGonagall called from the seat next to him.

“Oh, so sorry, please forgive me, my memory is not quite what it used to be, that is the beginning of a speech I will be giving at a luncheon later this week.” The glint in Dumbledore’s eye made Harry wonder if this was true. Everyone laughed at this with the exception of Professor McGonagall, who looked rather embarrassed that she had interrupted. Glancing down at his notes Dumbledore began again.

“This has been a hard day for me. Today I gave away my granddaughter. I let somebody have the one person in this world that means more to me than any other. As many of you here know I lost my children and all but one of my grandchildren during the first war against Lord Voldemort.” Several people shuddered. “Perhaps because of that she has been all the more important to me. I have had the honour and pleasure of watching her grow from a small, stubborn little girl into the beautiful, gifted and tender young woman you see before you today. She has become the woman that her mother and grandmothers would have dreamed her to be; she is generous in her love for others, fierce in her loyalty to them and strong in her convictions. Her triumphs have been my joy and her trials have been my suffering. It is with tremendous pride and a great deal of love that I proclaim her my granddaughter and it is with crushing melancholy that gave her hand to Charles today. Not because he isn’t worthy or because I believe that he won’t treat her well but rather because without her welfare to guard I feel a void my life that I hope she will soon fill with great grandchildren.

“Charles is a good man and I could not have hoped for a better husband for my beloved Elizabeth. His mother and father have taught him the value of the important things in life, love, family and friends. For fifteen long years now he has been promising to marry my granddaughter, and he kept that promise and leaves me with no reason to believe that he will not fulfil any of those vows he made to her today. He is a fine young man, who will love, respect and care for her in the manner she deserves. I know from many years of finding half written letters to him all over the house that Elizabeth loves him with all her heart, and I know from letters that she sent me each and every week of her stay in Italy, that there was never another person she considered admitting into her heart and spending her life with. I wish both of you every happiness the world has to offer, may your love be everlasting, your marriage strong and your children plenty �“ although I daresay that with Weasley and Dumbledore genes in there that shall not be a problem. Good luck.” He finished by raising his glass to the newlyweds. Mr. Weasley took his place

“You must recount that joke to me later, Albus,” Arthur grinned. “Molly and I have been waiting for the day one of our boys would get married and what a joyous day it has been, well worth waiting for if you ask me. We’re very proud of all our children with Charlie being no exception; he has always worked very hard. In the past few weeks I have had dozens of people tell me that they never thought this day would come but we always knew it would, after all it was love at first sight. Andrew and Jane brought Elizabeth to see us for the first time when she was just a few days old and Charlie sat entranced with her as she slept in her mother’s arms. After much contemplation he said ‘I want an Ellie.’ What he really meant was that he wanted a sister, you should have seen his disappointment when he got four more brothers,” Arthur paused as a chuckle filtered though the room then he restarted. “But little did he realise that his words were so prophetic, here we stand today and Charlie has his very own Ellie.” Molly gave an appreciative little sniff.

“Elizabeth has been charming us since the day she was born, she has never failed to light up a room with her presence and now she comes to light up our family. We are delighted and honoured to have such an enchanting young lady amongst our number. We are also very proud that we taught our son well enough to have made such an excellent choice of wife. To the new Mr. and Mrs. Weasley,” he toasted. Remus took to the limelight next.

“Due to my unfortunate condition I have never had much in my life to cherish, that was until Elizabeth was born. When Jane and Andrew asked me to be her godfather, I initially refused. I didn’t believe that someone like me had anything worthwhile to give a child, what knowledge or advice could I give? I’m not sure how much of a support I have been to Elizabeth in the last nineteen years but I do know what she has been for me. She has stood by me unfalteringly; she has loved me without question and she has provided me with a place in the world, a place by her side. I feel that as she has grown, I have grown and as she learned more about herself, I have learned more about myself. As far as my self-awareness is concerned she has continued the legacy founded by her grandfather and her mother. She has continued to teach me that it doesn’t matter what I am because it is who I choose to be that matters and I choose to be a person who will always keep a space in their heart for her, someone who will be there no matter what.

“Charlie has taken excellent care of her so far and I need not ask whether he will continue to do this, I understand without a single doubt that he will do right by her. There is no family that I would rather be a part of, the Weasleys are kind, generous, caring people who only take heed of what is in your heart and only care about who you aspire to be and what they can do to help you. I congratulate you both on your dedication to each other and wish joy on everything you do.” Remus too raised his glass to the happy couple. Bill was the next to follow.

“It’s a strange feeling to stand here and know that my little brat of a brother is married. I don’t think I could ever really have imagined any of our lot making a commitment like that but here we all are. We’ve all got girlfriends and a boyfriend in Ginny’s case, a boyfriend who might want to watch his step from what Charlie tells me,” Bill raised an eyebrow at Harry significantly. Everyone looked at the sudden terror that streaked across Harry’s face and began to laugh once again. “All in all, I’m left with the feeling that it won’t be all that long before we’re gathered together again to celebrate another Weasley wedding. Charlie always told me he’d marry Ellie and I’ll be honest and say that I never thought it would happen, especially when I saw some of the looks he was getting from the girls at school. Credit to you, Charlie, you proved me wrong. There were all those girls sitting in this very hall making gooey eyes at you morning, noon and night but you never even noticed. You spent hours writing to Ellie and I guess it all paid off, you’ve got a beautiful wife and I’m certain she’ll make you happy. You made a good choice Charlie and I hope I can follow your lead.” Bill followed the lead of the three men before him in toasting his brother and sister-in-law. As per normal Fred and George took to the floor together.

“So Charlie finally got his act together,” George began.

“A time like this calls for honesty…” Fred announced.

“And we have to admit that we’re a bit jealous.”

“Not that Angelina and Alicia aren’t first-rate girls…”

“But they just don’t have the sense of humour that Ellie does.”

“Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes is such a success because of her…”

“She was the only person wiling to be a tester for our products…”

“And for that we thank you. We’ve also bought a special gift for the two of you…”

“If you would allow us to demonstrate?” George asked politely. Ellie nodded her head with vigour while everyone else at the table looked at the twins apprehensively. The pair of them reached down into their pockets and pulled out several little silver balls, they then launched these in half a dozen different directions. Instead of landing as you would expect they floated in the air and after ten seconds every last one of them exploded. They sent showers of brightly coloured confetti soaring into the air and a loud, chirpy voice yelled ‘CONGRATULATIONS!’ over the surprised screams of the other guests.

“Weasley’s Bridal Bombshells, created especially for Charlie and Ellie Weasley!” Fred declared before the pair returned to their seats. It was then Ron’s turn.

“How do you follow that?” he said nervously. “Um… I know that I can sometimes be… an ungrateful swine. Sometimes I don’t properly realize what I have and I have a great family, better than most. I’m proud to have such great brothers, Charlie included. I’ve always known that if I had a problem I could ask him for advice and he wouldn’t tease me like Fred and George.” The twins grinned proudly at this; the guests at other tables chuckled agreeably. “I really look up to you Charlie and I hope that maybe someday I can be more like you. Ellie’s my Defence Against the Dark Arts Teacher and my friend, she nearly died trying to protect me, Ginny, Hermione and Harry, and we would do the same for her. Welcome to the family, Ellie,” Ron said enthusiastically. Unfortunately that meant that it was Harry’s turn next.

“Before I do anything else I should apologise to Charlie, I put him through hell this morning with my teasing and I’m sorry about it,” Harry tried to suppress his laughter.

“You nearly turned me into a nervous wreck. He pretended that he wasn’t going to give me permission to marry Ellie,” Charlie explained to his guests and an appreciative gurgle of laughter echoed around the room.

“But he looked so upset I had to say yes in the end. I was worried Ellie would turn me in to something disgusting if I didn’t,” Harry grinned; he was starting to feel more comfortable. “I suppose the first thing I need to talk about is September the first 1991. That was the day that I set out for Hogwarts and was abandoned by the Dursleys at King’s Cross. I was wandering about looking for any clues as to how I could find Platform 9 ¾ when I heard Mrs. Weasley say ‘packed with Muggles,’ Hagrid had already explained to me what Muggles were so I knew that she must be a witch. It took a fair bit of nerve for the skinny little eleven year old that I used to be, to ask her if she could show me how to get on to the platform but I’ve never looked back. That was the first kind thing she did for me and she hasn’t stopped. She and her family have given me so much, a best friend, a girlfriend,” he blushed a little bit. “Along with a whole handful of brothers and the closest thing to a mother and father that I’ll ever have. They’ve taken me in and made me a part of their family and thank you isn’t enough.

“I like you a lot, Charlie, you’re from a good, loving family and you’ll take care of Ellie. I don’t know what to say about you, Ellie, up until November I didn’t even know I had another cousin but you’re a thousand times better than the other one I have…”

“You can say that again!” Fred confirmed.

“I know you feel bad that you weren’t here for a lot of the stuff that’s happened since I got to Hogwarts but don’t, you’ve more than made up for it. You nearly died for me, which says a lot. When you took me back to Potter Hall I saw how happy our parents had been and I really hope that you and Charlie can be just as happy as they were because no two people deserve it more. Congratulations!” he said as he happily toasted his cousin and her husband. The last person to speak was the groom.

“Thanks for what you said, Harry, it means a lot to us. My dad mentioned all the people who had told him they didn’t think that this day would come but what he didn’t say was that I was one of them. When Ellie was sent off to Italy I honestly believed that would be the last that I saw of her, I didn’t think I could compete with all those good looking Italian lads.” Several of the women in the hall smiled sweetly at him at this point. “We wrote to each other almost every week that she was away and when you consider that she spent seven years there that adds up to a lot of letters, over three hundred in fact. I’m not talking tiny little letters either; I mean two, three foot rolls of parchment, her owl always used to look at me so resentfully when I attached my reply. The girl that sits next to me is the only person in this hall who can say, unequivocally, that she knows me better than anyone else, there’s very little that has happened in my life that she doesn’t know about, she’s been my best friend and now she’s my wife.

“The months you were in hospital were the worst of my life and when Healer Adelaide said she didn’t think that you’d make it I felt like my heart was being ripped out of my chest, I was devastated. There are no words to describe the way I felt when you came through those doors, sore but alive, I’ve never felt so relieved in all my life. I think that was probably the moment I knew I had to marry you as soon as I could. Sirius said in his will that thought of you and I being together warmed his heart and so I hope that wherever he is, he’s as happy as I am that you finally let me get you to the church. The rest of you have to hurry up and get married because there’s no feeling like it. I can’t wait to start spending our lives together and to start our family, we don’t know what’s to come but we know that we have each other and that’s enough. To my wonderful wife.” He gave her loving kiss as he sat back down. It had all got too much for Ellie and she was now wiping her eyes with a handkerchief passed to her by Professor McGonagall. She wasn’t the only one shedding tears, Mrs. Weasley was weeping in to Mr. Weasley’s shoulders, his eyes were looking dangerously moist as well.

---

Some chatter followed the speeches until a small orchestra took to the stage and struck up a slow, romantic tune. Charlie gently pushed his chair back and addressed his new wife.

“Mrs. Weasley, would you care to dance?” he asked her politely.

“Yes, Mr. Weasley, I would,” Ellie replied with wide grin. He swept her from her seat and on to the dance floor where they danced together slowly; they smiled at each other widely the whole time they were on the floor. It wasn’t too long before most of the seats were empty and the dance floor was filled with swaying bodies. A lot of the older couples remained seated, preferring to sit and watch the youngsters dance it out. This time Harry felt far more comfortable dancing with Ginny, the atmosphere at the wedding was a lot more relaxing than the one at the ball. On top of that there wasn’t the pressure of trying not to trip up in front of the whole school. Four hours later Dumbledore’s voice rang through the hall.

“Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, your carriage awaits you.” He signalled to the front doors. Very reluctantly Charlie and Ellie stopped dancing and headed for the castle’s entrance. True enough, a gleaming carriage, complete with white horses, was waiting for them at the foot of the stairs. The couple said goodbye to their family with hugs and kisses all round. Charlie was helping Ellie in to the carriage when Mrs. Weasley’s voice rang through the air.

“Aren’t you going to throw your bouquet, Elizabeth?” she asked.

“I nearly forgot.” The woman in white scrambled back out of the carriage and promptly turned her back on the crowd watching her. Harry spotted all the men in the mob and some of the older women, stepping off to the side and abandoned Ginny to follow suit. The women then crammed into the gaps left by the departing males.

“What’s this all about?” Harry asked Bill who was stood nearest him.

“Whichever girl catches it first is supposedly the next to get married,” he answered watching Fleur worriedly.

“Good Luck Girls!” Ellie called before throwing her flowers high in to the air, she turned around just in time to see Hermione catch them. “Remember what I told you Hermione!” she shouted over the mass of girls that were now cooing in Ron’s direction.

“That’s tough,” Bill said looking at Ron sadly. “Anything you want to tell us?”

“No,” Ron answered he was looking very, very pale.

The carriage finally set off in to the distance with a big sign that the boys had painted on the back glittering ‘Just Married’ through the darkness.


A/N: The next chapter winging its way to you is…Anxious Alley.

As always if you could review I’d be very grateful!

Once they had returned to Grimmauld Place the following morning everything started to return to normal. In the past few weeks the house had been swallowed by wedding arrangements but it was now quiet and all the wedding debris had been tidied away. Dobby had been ecstatic to see them; he had launched himself at people in turn and trilled about how he was so happy they were home. With little else to do the teens had returned to playing good old Quidditch, although it wasn’t really Quidditch because they only had three players �“ Hermione had point blank refused to get on a broom without a very good reason and apparently making them up to an even number didn’t count as one. For a day or two they helped Mrs. Weasley move Charlie’s things up into Ellie’s room and then re-decorate Charlie’s room into a guest room.

Harry hadn’t been in the master suite since Ellie had shown it to him one day before Christmas when they were decorating. It now bore almost no resemblance to the dusty room it once was. Ellie had embellished the room with some of her personal things, a whole shelf was dedicated to several pictures of her and Harry when they were little. Amongst these was a picture of Remus and Sirius holding their beloved godchildren, it looked like Ellie and Harry were in the process of having a fight because the two men were frantically trying to make him let go of her hair. The last picture was one taken on his birthday; the two of them were joined by Neville and were beaming into the camera with delight. Harry’s heart did a little leap, the last person he had known with this many pictures of him was Colin Creevey and that was only because he was the famous Harry Potter. It was nice to know that somebody wanted a load of pictures of him for a different reason.

She had added three bookcases and a writing desk to the collection of furniture that was already in the room. The shelves of the bookcase were stacked with hundreds of books, Harry recognised the covers of a good number of them as texts he himself owned but these editions were very different from his own, owing to the fact that they were in Italian. A piece of parchment had been framed and hung on one of the walls, Harry immediately recognised the handwriting as that of Professor Dumbledore.

Dearest Elizabeth,

The first time I held you in my arms and you wrapped your tiny hand around my index finger, I felt my heart swell with immeasurable joy and pride. I knew that my life had been touched in a miraculous way that would transform every dimension of it forever.

From the moment you were born, you became the focal point of my existence. Your smile was the sunshine in my heart. Your happiness was the only treasure I sought.

So began the great paradox of my guardianship. For when your tiny hand touched mine, I knew that I had been chosen to nurture you, love you and then give you the strength to let go.

Letting go is not easy. But I look at you now �“ a beautiful young woman, strong in your convictions and determined to face life on you own terms �“ and I still feel my heart swell with pride and joy.

My dreams for your life might not always be the same ones as you seek. But one thing remains the same: your happiness will always be my greatest treasure. I know now that the true miracle of that first touch lies in one simple truth: even though your hand may slip away from mine, we will hold each other in our hearts forever.

All my love, now and always

Granddad.


Harry was left speechless at such a touching display of love. He continued to glance around the room and saw another roll of parchment on her desk addressed to someone with a foreign name; it was a letter in delicately scripted Italian. On the shelves of yet another bookcase he saw notebook after notebook lined up neatly, quite obviously her school jotters. “Look at this,” Harry called to the others as he ran his finger along the spines.

“It’s official, she’s barking!” Ron declared.

“Why’s that?” Hermione had plucked a book from the shelf and was running her eyes over the pages. Despite the fact that she could only understand every other word she breathed deeply in appreciation for the wealth of knowledge that lay in her hands. “Look here,” Hermione smiled. She held the book up to them and they saw that one of the pages was devoid of the normal foreign prose that lined the others. Instead this page was festooned with little hearts that had Charlie’s name written in them and large chunks where Ellie had signed her name in various forms, ‘Elizabeth Weasley,’ ‘Elizabeth Alexandra Jane Weasley,’ ‘Elizabeth Potter-Weasley,’ ‘Elizabeth Dumbledore �“Weasley,’ and so on. They all grinned at each other; it was just so funny to think of. They had a vision of Ellie sitting in a classroom, in some exotic terrain with a teacher who was conversing with her class in a glamorous sounding language but all she could think about was rainy old England and how she would sign her married name.

“Why would anyone want to keep their school books?” Ron asked.

“Because they might come in useful one day,” Molly interrupted. “Now if you don’t mind, stop snooping and give me a hand!”

---

On the third Monday of August the normal letters from Hogwarts arrived just after breakfast, Ginny couldn’t bear to even look at her letter. Harry felt horribly guilty; he had almost forgotten that his girlfriend had taken her O.W.Ls at the end of the last school year.

“Ginny, it’ll be fine, you probably did really well, nearly as well as Hermione I’d bet,” Harry said comfortingly.

“He’s right, after Percy you were always the brain of the family.” Ron looked just a little bit sad at the memory of his deceased older brother. After a few more minutes and Mrs. Weasley threatening that if Ginny didn’t open them, she would, the youngest member of their group opened her letter.

“Well?” her mother asked tensely. Ginny’s jaw was hanging open giving Harry a lovely view of her fleshy, deep pink tongue.

“I got them all, ten O.W.Ls. Seven O’s three E’s and an A!” Ginny was clearly in shock.

“Oh Ginny! That’s wonderful, what an achievement! Well done you!” Mrs. Weasley alternated between hugging Ginny tightly and kissing her cheeks.

“I’m suddenly starting to appreciate how you feel,” Harry muttered quietly to Ron.

“What do you mean?” Ginny beamed.

“Having a girlfriend who’s a brain is a horrible feeling,” Ron informed her.

“Oh! Like that is it?” Harry noticed the way Ginny was squaring her shoulders and holding her head up high; he knew instantly that he was in trouble. “Maybe you should find a girlfriend who’s less intelligent, if you ask her nicely enough Cho Chang might have you back,” she said haughtily.

“Even if she’d have me I wouldn’t have her. I’ve moved on to bigger and better things,” he smiled at her sweetly and rested his hand on hers; he could see her melting before she’d even said a word.

“Besides the smarter ones are better,” Ron gave Hermione an appreciative look.

“Well just you remember that,” Ginny said in a half-hearted manner. “Aren’t you two going to open your letters? Just think it’s the last one you’ll ever get!”

“It’s so weird. Our last year,” Harry rambled to himself; he picked up his letter and looked at it hard.

“After all the trouble we had in first year I didn’t think we’d make it,” Ron said disbelievingly.

“And then there was all the trouble in second year when we broke a ‘hundred different school rules to pieces’ to quote McGonagall,” Harry added.

“Don’t forget when Snape caught you sneaking back from Hogsmeade when you didn’t have permission to be there and had the Marauders map on you which then insulted him, repeatedly. Oh third year, how long ago you seem!” Ron said reflectively.

“Of course, then there was fourth year. When that cup spat out my name I thought I was done for, I was convinced I was going to die and you weren’t talking to me,” Harry added sardonically.

“Oh yeah, sorry ‘bout that mate.” Ron shrugged his shoulders sheepishly. “Let’s not forget fifth year, when you were this close.” Here he demonstrated an impossibly tiny measure with his finger and thumb, “to getting expelled for mutiny and the rest of us weren’t far behind you,” he smiled.

“But at least last year I behaved my self!” Harry protested.

“Right, you only reduced a teacher to tears twice and came within a hippogriffs feather of killing another student, that you then knocked unconscious for two days. Your definition of behaving is different from other peoples.” Ron grinned wickedly.

“Well maybe this year will be different, there’s a first time for everything isn’t there?” he asked hopefully.

“Of course there is,” Ginny said comfortingly.

“I hope you won’t be insulted if I don’t bet on that,” Ron said.

“Nah, I’m sure you’ll do something else that I can consider insulting,” he joked, Ron started to complain but Harry cut him off. “We should really open these things you know,” he picked his letter up but before he had a chance to tear at the flap Hermione let out a scream.

“I don’t believe it! I don’t believe it! I don’t believe it…” she was shrieking over and over again. Ron picked a little silver badge up for Harry to see. The letters HG were emblazoned on it in Gryffindor scarlet.

“Hermione, that’s superb!” Mrs. Weasley attempted to squeeze all the air out of Hermione’s slight frame.

“Wow, Hermione, congratulations,” Harry said, thrilled that Hermione had accomplished her dream.

“I just don’t believe it!” she replied, she was shaking her head from side to side in disbelief.

“Oh please!” Ron shouted louder than he intended to, Hermione looked at him with anger flashing in her eyes but he managed to head her off before she started a tirade against him. “There wasn’t any doubt, we’ve known since first year that you were Head Girl material, haven’t we, Harry?” his eyes begged Harry to help him save the situation.

“It was a cert; they would’ve been insane to pick anybody else.” He turned to Ron and put on an astonishingly high-pitched voice, ‘I hope you’re pleased with yourselves. We could have been killed �“ or worse, expelled.’ It’s not a surprise at all.” Harry and Ron doubled up with laughter.

“What they’re trying, very unsuccessfully, to say is that they knew you could do it and well done,” Ginny translated. “I wonder who got Head Boy.”

“I hope it wasn’t Malfoy. I could cope with anybody but a Slytherin,” Ron said as he finally got around to opening his letter as well. He nearly jumped through the ceiling in surprise when another silver badge fell on to the table in front of him. He made an indistinct almost strangled kind of noise in the back of his throat.

“Ron!” Harry yelled.

“Is that what I think it is, Ron?” Mrs. Weasley pleaded on the verge of bursting.

“I got Head Boy,” Ron breathed barely audible.

“Another Head Boy! Oh, Ron, I’m so proud!” she cried. She repeated her earlier behaviour of alternating cheek kisses with hugs, only this time Ron protested.

“Muuuuum!” he hollered. “Mum, geeerrrooofff!” Unfortunately his mother paid no attention.

“What a wonderful month, a wedding, ten O.W.Ls and two heads in the family! Just wait till your father hears about this, I’m so pleased with you. All the trouble you four have had and you’re not letting it stop you…” At this point she descended in to sobs. “Never �“ sniff- never seen four children �“ sniff �“ like you �“ sniff �“ you’re all so brave �“ sniff �“ and so smart…” she leaned over the table and wept in to her sleeves.

“Mum, don’t cry.” Ginny shifted along the table and patted her mother on the shoulder comfortingly.

“It’s all right, Mrs. Weasley,” Hermione added as she too moved closer to the distraught woman. Harry and Ron just sat and looked at each other; neither of them was particularly good at dealing with their own tears never mind anyone else’s.

“So we go away for a week and you manage to reduce our mother to tears?” This came from Charlie who was now standing in the doorway looking more tanned than ever. Ellie was grinning over his shoulder until she saw that Molly was crying.

“What’s wrong, Molly? Has something happened?”

“No, dear, I’m �“ sniff �“ just being silly. We’ve had some good news, Ginny got ten O.W.Ls and we’ve got a Head Boy and Girl in the family now.” Mrs. Weasley wiped her eyes on her apron and smiled at each of her children in turn.

“Go, Ginny! Congratulations, Ron and Hermione, we knew you had it in you,” Charlie said in return.

“Sounds to me like we’ve got a very good reason for a party,” Ellie said merrily.

“That’s an excellent idea, I’ll set to work straightaway,” Mrs. Weasley dragged herself up from the table.

“No you will not, you’ll let Dobby and Winky do it. You can oversee everything but first you’re going to have a cup of tea,” her daughter-in-law countered. She conjured some tea with her wand and immediately poured some into a cup.

“Here I am sobbing away when I should be asking how your honeymoon went?” She allowed a cup to be pushed in to her hands.

“We had a lovely time, although it was quite strange.” Ellie had made herself a cup of steaming tea as well.

“What was strange?” Ginny asked.

“It was so quiet,” Charlie replied.

“It was too quiet, there was no queue to get into the bathroom, no fighting over the plates of food at breakfast, lunch and dinner, nobody getting told off, no explosions in the background… far too quiet,” Ellie confirmed.

“Just wait until you have children, you’ll learn to cherish those quiet moments,” Molly laughed. “Will I be waiting long for grandchildren?”

“I don’t think so.” Charlie thanked his lucky stars for his tan. It meant you couldn’t really tell that his face was burning with embarrassment. Harry, Ron and Ginny sniggered.

“Had him working on it already have you, Ellie?” daring Ginny asked.

“Something like that.” She answered into her teacup. Ron and Harry snorted some more.

“Would you two please grow up!” Hermione scolded.

“That’s very good advice,” Mrs. Weasley said through narrowed eyes.

---

The next morning Mrs. Weasley woke them early and started hustling them into getting up and dressed. They congregated by the fire and waited for the all-clear signal. Mad-Eye and Remus had been the first to floo into Fred and George’s shop to check that it was safe for the rest to arrive; after a couple of minutes red sparks shot out of the fire and Ron shuffled forwards. Like the year before, they emerged in the stock room of Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes, a room that was fuller than ever. They left the shop and headed straight for Gringotts, Harry watched as the guard closed ranks around him and his friends. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were leading the group, Charlie and Ellie to the left, Bill and Fleur to the right and Remus and Tonks were at the back. Other Order members were milling around. Kingsley was standing on the front steps of the bank apparently engrossed in the morning’s paper, Emmeline Vance was running her fingers along the spines of books on display outside Flourish and Blotts, Dedalus Diggle was admiring the owls outside the Magical Menagerie and Hestia Jones was leafing through the robes just inside the door of Madame Malkin’s. “Is something going on?” he asked Ellie with some suspicion, he had never seen this many Order members out and about at one time.

“What do you mean?” Her eyes never stopped scanning the crowd.

“Are you expecting an attack?” Ginny asked, her grip on Harry’s hand tightened significantly and he gave her a little squeeze back.

“Doesn’t hurt to be vigilant, constantly,” Ellie replied with the faintest hint of a smile, her eyes drifted over to the entrance to the Apothecary where Mad-Eye was supposedly talking to Dung, his normal eye was firmly on Dung’s face but his magical was spinning quicker than ever.


“Is that a yes?” Harry hated it when people tried to fob him off with non-answers.

“It’s a ‘we have suspicions so keep your eyes peeled,’” she answered sharply. Harry immediately passed this advice on to Ron and Hermione and another eight eyes were added to the alert collection.

Once their money bags were full they shuffled their way round the shops, Harry decided to get a new set of robes this year not because he’d grown any but because his old ones were looking a bit on the tatty side of things. They moved quickly to Flourish and Blotts where they picked up their new textbooks, for Harry and Ron these were.

‘The Standard Book of Spells: Grade 7 by Miranda Goshawk
Advanced Potion Making by Libatius Borage
Human Transfiguration by Caractacus Aesalon
Caring for Magical Creatures by Wilhemina Grunnion
Fighting The Dark Arts: A Guide To Practical Defence by Dorcas Meadows’

The books were thicker than ever before and were a bleak reminder that this year would be the hardest yet. Their next stop was the stationary shop where they all stocked up on parchment, quills and ink, and then they walked hastily from there to the Apothecary.

With each shop they went to part of the guard stationed themselves outside while the rest tried to cover all the nooks and crannies inside. There was no need for anyone to tell them how serious their suspicions were, the speed with which they moved conveyed that more than adequately. As far as Harry could tell there was going to be an attack in Diagon Alley and the Order wanted them out of there as soon as possible. Molly had worry creased in to her brow and beads of sweat were gathering on her temples, it was clear that the anxiety was almost too much for her. With his eyes not focused on the street ahead he spotted the way all of the people around them had their fists jammed in their pockets, undoubtedly wrapped around the only things that stood between them and death in the case of an attack, it made Harry very nervous. If the Order were on full alert then they expecting there to be a very serious attack. He no longer wanted to be in the alley, he desperately wanted everyone home and out of harms way. That, of course, would never work; Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny would be deposited at headquarters with Molly while the rest of them rushed off to fight and he didn’t want that either.

Harry cursed loudly when he felt Ellie give him a hard shove that sent him careering in to Ginny and propelled the both of them behind a collection of animal cages outside the Magical Menagerie. Harry ended up collapsed on top of Ginny and was about to complain when Ginny clamped her hand over his mouth and nodded at Ellie and Charlie who were crouched close to them with one facing up the alley and the other facing down the way. They had their wands out and were peering around the edges of the cages. Harry leaned forward to ask them what was going on but he heard many thunderous pops that announced a person Apparating. He then watched as people darted across the narrow field of vision looking absolutely terrified and screaming in a deafening way. Ginny tugged desperately at his arm and when he looked around at her she pointed to a shop window opposite where the crystal clear reflection of five Death Eaters could be seen.

A/N: The letter from Dumbledore is based on a poem by Nacy Gilliam, i changed a word here or there to make it fit my needs.

A nice little cliffy for you theere, next chapter is called…Death Eater Encounter.

Have fun!

Harry and Ginny drew their wands and shifted forwards so that they too could see what was going on. For a second Charlie was going to push them back but he thought about it again and turned his attention to the parading Death Eaters. Reading Harry’s mind once more, Ellie frantically summoned them forward and whispered to them urgently. “As soon as they start attacking we fight back. Fire off any spell you can think of and stick together, do not get separated!” They didn’t have to wait too long for the Death Eaters to do something. Harry heard the cool and calm voice of Lucius Malfoy calling above the screaming pandemonium.

“Spread out and look for Potter, the Dark Lord will settle for one of his little friends.” Harry saw the reflection of a hooded figure pointing the others in different directions. After a few seconds the flashing began as curses flew down the street. The Death Eaters had a take-no-prisoners attitude to their search for Harry, and the scattering witches and wizards were hit with a large variety of spells. The instant that the first flash darted through the air, Charlie and Ellie rose from their hiding place and started to fire any spell that came to their minds.

“Expelliarmus!” Ellie shouted and the wand of a nearby Death Eater flew into her hand, she banged it fiercely on the cage shielding her and it snapped in half.

“Dimitto!” Charlie yelled, pointing his wand in the other direction. The attacker he was aiming at shot backwards and his head ricocheted off the wall behind him; he was unconscious. There was furious muttering amongst the black clothed people as they realised where Ellie was.

“Get her!” Malfoy shouted, “The boy will be nearby!”

Confident that they knew roughly where he was, and that they would double the strength of their attack on this section of street, Harry joined the fray. “Flatus!” he bellowed, pointing his wand at the nearest Death Eater who fell backwards through the table of books in front of Flourish and Blotts.

“Incendio!” he heard Ginny calling; he felt her line up with him back to back and saw the robes of the Death Eater she was aiming for burst into flames. In a moment he had to spare in between casting spells he spotted the rest of the Order members taking cover and shooting whatever they could at their opponents. Mad-eye was frantically dodging up and down behind the counter in the Apothecary, with Dung only jumping up when he thought that it was safe enough. Kingsley was darting between the pillars at the front of Gringotts and pointing his wand at just about anything that moved. Emmeline Vance was lying out cold in the doorway of the bookshop, and Hestia Jones was now leaning over her trying to check if she was all right whilst she was fending off another onslaught from Emmeline’s attacker.

“Stupefy!” Ellie roared as a new Death Eater advanced on them, the curse missed its mark, instead hitting an innocent bystander behind him. Harry covered her with a Reductor Curse as she lifted the spell on the unfortunate woman. Their concentration was thrown when Charlie stumbled backwards, he had been hit in the arm with a boil hex, he apologized while Ginny reversed the spell and Ellie covered his side of the street.

Fred, George and Lee rushed out of their shop and joined in the battle. It felt like every time they dealt with one Death Eater another three took their place; in fact they spent what felt like forever creating shields of varying strengths and sizes. Her concern for her husband had drawn Ellie’s attention long enough for a Death Eater to shout “Incarcerous!” Ropes shot out of the end of his wand and began winding their way around her wand arm, Ellie immediately tried to pull out of it, but her efforts were to no avail. She jerked suddenly in an attempt to free her arm but the grip was so tight that her shoulder gave a nauseating pop as her arm came out of its socket. Although her face twisted in pain, no noise escaped her mouth. The ropes continued to creep up her arm and circled round her neck as Harry looked on horror struck.

“Harry!” Ginny shrieked. She gently pushed him out of the way and cast a Severing Spell that cut the ropes; they instantly uncoiled themselves and dropped to the floor limply. Ellie flinched as she tried to move her now dislocated limb, and opted to use her other arm instead; her aim wasn’t as good with it, but it was good enough to keep Lord Voldemort’s servants at bay. Another Death Eater, who was trying to sneak down through the shadows on their right, decided to change tactics and began casting Unforgivables at them. He very nearly caught them, but Ellie cast a spell that Harry hadn’t heard before.

“Validus Contego!” A large green bubble manifested itself on the end of Ellie’s wand and it quickly swelled until it had encompassed her and Harry. The curse that the Death Eater sent at them bounced off it and doubled back on its caster, catching him before he had a chance to move or conjure a shield. When Ellie launched her counter attack the green shield began to fade away, and she only narrowly missed being hit with the Cruciatus Curse when it disappeared entirely. Ginny yelped and it was Harry’s turn to lose concentration.

“Ginny, are you okay?” He knelt back in to the shelter of the cages to attend to his girlfriend. She had a long cut down the side of her face from a Severing Charm.

“I’ll be fine,” she assured him. She lurched into Harry’s chest when their cover was blasted to smithereens. The hooded individual who had destroyed their shelter then threw two Stunning Spells at them in quick succession, with no time to counter act it, Harry braced himself to try and take both blasts but Ellie had a spare second to shout out.

“Excipio Magus!” The two spells were swallowed by a white cloud emitted from Ellie’s wand. Harry pulled Ginny to her feet and they went to work again. Every time someone got to close to their group they were taken out of the battle, the number of Death Eaters was eventually whittled down from thirty or more to ten.

The alley was a catastrophe. Bodies, alive and dead, littered the ground, several shops were on fire after being hit by stray curses, the debris of books, clothes, tables and barrels was scattered every where. An age seemed to pass before Aurors started Apparating into the street and they finally overcame the assault. Those Death Eaters who had escaped harm were quickly captured. Remus and Tonks came rushing towards them with the last Marauder immediately fussing like an old mother hen, he insisted on inspecting Ellie and Harry for any signs of damage.

“Are you both all right?” he asked breathlessly, he grabbed Harry by the shoulders and looked him over.

“I’m fine, Moony,” Harry smiled; Remus’s concern was touching. With Harry’s well being established it was Ellie’s turn and when he grabbed her by the shoulders she let out a single piercing note. He immediately let go of her.

“I’m not quite fine. My shoulder’s dislocated,” Ellie told him through gritted teeth.

“Ellie, I’m sorry,” Remus gushed guiltily.

“It’s okay. Is everybody else is all right?” she asked once she had composed herself.

“None of the family were hurt, but Emmeline has some serious looking injuries and Hestia was subjected to the Cruciatus Curse, other than that there doesn’t appear to be anything life threatening. We managed to capture thirteen of the Death Eaters who were unconscious and seven who were still standing when the Auror’s arrived,” he reported.

“Let’s just get everyone out of here,” she requested. They all headed back up towards the twin’s shop and as they neared it Mrs. Weasley spotted the blood on Ginny’s face.

“Ginny! What happened? Are you feeling okay? Do you need to sit down?” the anxious mother flustered.

“I’m fine, Mum, it’s just a cut.” Ginny allowed her mother to hug her.

“We couldn’t see you properly from where we were. We thought something terrible might have happened,” Molly cried.

“Everyone’s alive, Molly, let’s get them out of here and back home,” Tonks advised.

“Yes, yes, of course. Come on, everybody.” Mrs. Weasley started herding them into the shop. Arthur was setting about making them a Portkey to go home when there was another loud pop at Ellie’s side.

“So you’ve kept Potter out of harm’s way again?” said the steely voice of Lucius Malfoy. He reached out to grab Ellie by the shoulders and pulled her against him so that she became his shield. He knew that none of them would dare fire any curses for fear of hitting the boy’s pretty guardian. She cringed in agony at his tight grip on her injured shoulder. “You foolish girl. When are you going to realize that you can’t save everyone? Make the choice right now; I’ll spare the boy for one of the others. Who would you sacrifice? The werewolf? Your husband?” his voice oozed with loathing. “Perhaps it would be one of the other Weasley fools? Or maybe the Mudblood? Perhaps even that half-blooded filth from the House of Black? Choose,” he demanded. Ellie stayed silent.

“I said CHOOSE. Who will it be?” She still refused to answer him. “The Dark Lord will teach you obedience in the best way possible; sorrow. Take a good look at these faces.” He jabbed his wand at the large group in front of them. “You will see them die one by one, starting with….” In the blink of an eye he had waved his wand at Remus and Disapparated with another loud crack. They all looked on as a deep colour stained the man’s robes; he looked at Ellie with his eyes wide in astonishment. In a matter of seconds Remus John Lupin was deathly pale and collapsed on to the floor.

---

Harry had never heard Ellie scream the way she did when Remus fell. Ellie was the calmest person that he knew. She had stared straight down the length of Voldemort’s wand as death darted towards her and hadn’t even flinched, but Remus’s injury was too much for her. The cool and composed facade that she normally wore surrendered to overpowering terror as she kneeled at her godfather’s side calling his name in a pitch that sounded almost like a yelp of torture. “Somebody do something!” she yelled. Molly immediately ushered Ellie out of the way and began conjuring dressings and she then had Tonks press these on to Remus’s abdomen.

“We need to get him to St Mungo’s straight away, Alastor,” she said sharply to Mad-Eye.

“Right you are, Molly. Arthur, Bill and Ms. Delacour, you can come with me,” Moody instructed. The four of them then jumped into the fire.

“Fred and George, go and tell Dumbledore what’s happened,” Molly ordered. The twins didn’t hesitate in Apparating. “Charlie, Ron and Hermione, you can keep guard at the front door, wands out!” A second or two later they swept aside to let Kingsley bowl through the entrance.

“What happened?” he asked with grave concern.

“Remus was attacked by Lucius Malfoy, perhaps you should report to the Minister, Kingsley,” Molly advised.

“I was just on my way. Are you sure that you’ll be all right here?”

“We’ll be fine. Alastor, Arthur, Bill and Fleur are checking St Mungo’s. Fred and George are getting Dumbledore, and those three are watching the door.” Molly indicated the three watchmen.

“Good, don’t forget to keep me updated. Tonks, I’m afraid you’ll have to come with me,” he whispered softly to the shell-shocked girl. Poor Tonks was staring at the pool of blood forming at her boyfriend’s side.

“I can’t…I’ve got to stay with him,” she stuttered.

“You go, dear, we’ll take good care of him. If anything happens I’ll send one of the boys along,” Molly assured her. Tonks reluctantly allowed Kingsley to pull her to her feet. She took one last desperate look at the fallen man as she and Kingsley Disapparated with two pops.

---

It only took a minute or two for Fleur to return with a Portkey for St Mungo’s. When they finally stopped spinning around they were in the middle of a hospital ward and two healers were running towards them. “Let me see,” said the sterner looking female healer while her male companion conjured a stretcher; she began slowly passing her wand over Remus’s still form. “We need to get him up on that bed now,” she said urgently. Her assistant shifted Remus on to the stretcher and up on to the bed.

“You’ll need to wait outside.” The male healer softly tugged Ellie away from Remus. “We’ve got a family room just across the hall. I’ll come and get you the second there is any change in his condition.” He steered the distraught Ellie towards the ward doors and out to a room on the opposite side of the corridor. In the room were several comfortable looking sofas a couple of little tables and hundreds of old copies of Witch Weekly and The Quibbler. Harry spotted his own face amongst the many others, including Gilderoy Lockhart.

Ten minutes later a different healer hurried into the room. She was a short, stout woman with mousy brown hair and a very red face. “Which one of you is the worst?” she asked in a very soft voice. When no one was prepared to say that they were worse than any of the others she immediately reached for Ginny, who still had blood trickling down her face. “Severing Charm, dear?”

“It was yes,” Ginny said quietly. The healer nodded and immediately began to patch her up. It only took a minute and the slash down the side of young Ginny’s face had disappeared all together and the colour was back in her cheeks. Hermione had a nasty gash in the back of her head from where she had been blasted backwards into a window sill, the healer clucked for the several minutes it took her to heal the injury and make sure Hermione wasn’t suffering from a concussion. She dealt with Charlie next; he still had some nasty scars left over from the Boil Hex that had hit him in the arm. Ellie was reluctant to let the other woman touch her sore shoulder but was eventually persuaded.

“Listen here, young lady. If you don’t get that shoulder fixed as soon as possible then you’ll probably lose the use of it. It looks like it’s your wand arm, am I right?”

“Yes,” Ellie replied sulkily.

“Well let me see it then!” the healer said much more firmly. Reluctantly Ellie slid forward in her seat to let the woman see it. “Oh dear, it’s dislocated. Despite all the remedies available in the magical and Muggle worlds there is only one way to fix this and it’s not going to be pleasant. Is this your young man?” She pointed at Charlie who nodded vigorously at her. “You might want to sit on her other side and get a good firm grip of her,” she instructed. Charlie shifted from Ellie’s right to her left and wrapped his arms around her waist tightly so she was pulled in close to his chest. Although this precaution worried the rest of them, Ellie looked completely unperturbed. The woman in lime green gently pulled her arm upwards and Ellie grimaced ever so slightly. She then began to move the arm up and down rhythmically until a sound, similar to that made by a plunger coming away from a sink, bounced around the room. Ellie’s mouth was open in a silent scream but not one note left her mouth. The plump little woman quickly conjured a sling that she eased Ellie’s arm in to. “That should do you for now; keep it in there for a day or two and I’ll give you a potion to help with it. Are we all done?” she asked turning back to the group. When they all nodded she left the room to a chorus of thank you.

They sat in tense silence for a long while before anyone dared to speak. Ellie had almost curled herself in to the foetal position; she had her forehead resting on her knees and her good arm wrapped around her head protectively. Charlie was doing his very best to comfort her but it was to no avail. Harry felt numb, like he had swallowed a Freezing Solution. He remembered only too well the experience of sitting and waiting. It was only a few months ago that he and Remus had sat waiting for Ellie to come around. Yet here were Harry and Ellie, a couple of months later, waiting for him to come around. He hated the way he was always waiting and rarely the injured. He would have given anything to swap places with his former guardian. He was once again subject to an overwhelming feeling of guilt. Malfoy had wanted Ellie to choose, and she was asked to pick someone to take his place. Harry had been spared at Remus’s cost and once again a member of his family was at death’s door because of him.

“This isn’t your fault, Harry, don’t blame yourself,” Ellie mumbled from the depths of her hiding place. She looked up at him with eyes so piercing that had they been a sky blue colour instead of deep brown, he would have been convinced that he was staring in to Dumbledore’s eyes. Even the glistening golden auburn of her hair reminded Harry of the headmaster in his younger days. He had seen a younger version of Dumbledore in Tom Riddle’s diary during his second year. “This was Malfoy and Voldemort. It was down to them and no one else,” she said firmly. “If I catch you thinking that again, I’ll hex you in to the middle of next week.”

“Well said,” cheered Ginny with a smile.

“She’s quite right,” echoed Molly. “Does anyone want some tea?”

“A wonderful idea, Molly,” Arthur replied. He aided his wife in the conjuring of a tea set and the room was quickly filled with conversation. It was a good three hours before the healer returned with any news of Remus’s condition.

“Mrs. Weasley?” he called.

“Yes,” Molly replied.

“I’m sorry, I meant the young lady. You are Mrs. Weasley aren’t you?” he asked Ellie.

“I am yes, it’s just the first time that anyone has asked for me by my married name,” Ellie blushed.

“Ah! A newlywed. My wife told me that it took her months to get used to it. You’re Mr. Lupin’s next of kin?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Would you come with me, you can see him now.” Ellie followed the healer back across the hall and disappeared through the ward doors. The twenty minutes that she was gone felt like the longest minutes of Harry’s life. When she eventually returned she was in tears and he feared the absolute worst.

“No,” he gasped. Ellie’s head whipped around in shock.

“He’s fine, Harry, he’s going to be fine,” she wailed in relief. Harry felt the muscles, which he hadn’t even realised were tensed, relaxing. In the moment of sheer relief he jumped from his seat and hugged Ellie for all that he was worth. When they went through to see Remus, he was sat up in bed looking extremely pale but cheerful all the same.

“You’ve not been crying have you, Ellie? I hate to see you cry,” there was a tiny hint of scolding in Remus’s voice.

“She’s just relieved,” Charlie said. “We all are.”

“You didn’t half give us a fright,” George chimed.

“Are you feeling better?” Mrs. Weasley was smoothing his sheets and straightening his pillows.

“Much better, thank you, Molly. I should be allowed home in a day or two, after I’ve had plenty of the Blood Replenishing Potion.” He pointed to the vials of potion that were lined up neatly on the bedside cabinet.

There was a sudden calamity that caused everyone to pull their wands out and point them at the ward doors. Tonks had tripped over her own feet in her rush to get to Remus. She untangled her limbs and threw herself on him crying hysterically, her words unintelligible. He patted her back soothingly and muttered “There, there,” through her currently long black hair. For some reason though, this didn’t seem to work. In the end Ellie gently prised the young Auror from his chest and gave her a questioning look. Tonks answered by bursting into yet more sobs and bawling incoherently, she waved her arms about wildly and screwed her face up as she continued. Although the meaning of this went beyond the comprehension of the men present, the women understood.

“Oh, Tonks!” Ellie said sympathetically. “We know, we know.” The other females gathered around the crying pair and wrapped their arms around them; they were all whispering and muttering comfortingly.

“Is it some kind of female bonding ritual?” George murmured to Bill.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Bill shook his head in confusion.

“Because there was no news Tonks thought Remus had died,” Arthur told them authoritatively. “I’ve heard Molly cry like that before,” his voice had a very dark quality to it.

“Of course. Is everybody else all right?” Remus quickly changed the subject away from what sounded like painful territory.

“We didn’t lose anybody after your attack; everybody is as you left them.” Bill was looking around for somewhere to perch, not finding anywhere he conjured himself a seat. “Do you think that they’ll be like that for long?” He waggled his head in the direction of the huddle the women were forming, they were all weeping now.

“You can never tell.” Arthur followed his son’s example and conjured chairs for everyone else. All they did was sit and wait for the girls to sort themselves out.

---

The only reason that Ellie and Tonks agreed to return to the house that night was that an Order meeting had been called. Once again everyone disappeared into the kitchen for an hour and a half. When the meeting was over Ellie came up to the library to find Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione pouring over defence books. They had made a unanimous decision to look up as many curses as possible that way if another attack took place they could do some real damage.

“Well?” Harry prompted his hesitant cousin.

“Emmeline Vance died earlier this evening, Hestia is unconscious and we lost fourteen wizards and eight witches, two of which were only children,” Ellie said in a dejected tone. They stared at her in disbelief; so many people had been lost in such a short space of time. Emmeline had been looking through books this morning and now she was dead. Things looked terribly bleak for wizard kind.

A/N: The spells are as follows: Dimitto �“ send away, Flatus �“ blast, Validus Contego �“ strong shield, Expicio Magus �“ capture magic.

The next chapter…The Safest Place.

Be kind �“ read and review!

Remus was allowed to come home after two days in the hospital. He was moving rather gingerly but was happy to be able to leave the confines of the ward. The last two weeks of the holiday passed very peacefully with nothing of any particular note happening. In this time, Remus had healed fully and was back to his old self. The near death experience had wrought a dramatic change in Tonks; she hardly wanted to leave the house in case something happened while she was gone. Mrs. Weasley gave her a firm talking to and told her that the best thing for her to do was to go to work, but this didn’t stop the young woman from being late to the Ministry almost everyday for a week because she was ‘seeing to Remus’. At one point Kingsley had to actually come and get her, he was forced to physically remove her from the house.

When the morning of August 31st came, Harry was to be found packing his stuff in a very orderly manner. His weathered brown trunk lay open at the foot of his bed and he was collecting his belongings into neat little piles on top of the soft covers. He now had half a dozen stacks on his bed; robes, underwear, pyjamas, books, Muggle clothes, and cloaks. He had already stowed his parchment, quills and Potion’s equipment, safely in the bottom of his trunk and was just beginning to match up his socks when there was a gentle knock at his bedroom door. “Come in,” he answered cheerfully.

“We were wondering where you were,” Ellie said as she came in to the room. “Look at you. Very organised indeed.”

“I thought I should, what with it being the last time I’ll pack it for school.”

“Aww! You’re not getting a case of the last year blues are you, Harry?” she mocked.

“I think I am,” he sighed dramatically as he put another pair of matched socks in to his trunk.

“I remember the feeling well,” she nodded.

“I’m going to miss Hogwarts, the castle is the only place that’s ever felt like home,” he said thoughtfully.

“Just think, once this year is over you’ll be free! No more classes, no more wearing those silly hats and boring black robes, no more Potions, and more importantly no more Professor Snape!”

“Thank Godric! I’m not sure that I can put up with much more of him.”

“All you need to do is remember to smile and let it go because that will annoy him more than anything else,” she smiled jovially.


“I’ll try and remember that. The thing is, it also means no Hagrid, no Quidditch, and above all else, no Ginny. I’ll have to leave her behind.” Ever since Ginny had pointed out that his Hogwarts letter was the last he would receive he had been thinking about things. Leaving at the end of the year would mean that he would only have a little while before she would have to go back to school and he wouldn’t see her for months on end. It was a thought that depressed him thoroughly. He had visions of all these boys trying to get her to go out with them and Ginny feeling horribly lonely. He wouldn’t have blamed her for wanting to get a new boyfriend; nobody wants to feel alone.

“Stop right there, Potter! Do you deliberately set out to discourage yourself?” she asked him with concern.

“Of course I don’t!” he cried indignantly.

“Then you really need to start working on your way of thinking. Okay, Ginny will still be in school, BUT there are Christmas and Easter holidays and on top of that there are Hogsmeade weekends. I’m sure you’ll be able to drag yourself away from whatever job you get to spend a few hours with her on random Saturdays. Then there’s the fact that you own an owl. All you’ll have to do is write to her and it’ll keep her mind off anyone else. Trust me; I know what I’m talking about on this one.”

“I forgot about that.” It was official; he was overreacting.

“I guessed as much. At least you’ll only have to do it for one year; I had to do it for seven. You and Ginny will be fine, I have feeling,” she grinned madly at him.

“Have you been having many of those?”

“A few. Good things are afoot; I know it. But back on to the subject of your new freedom, you’ll be able to do what you want, when you want. No more following orders for you. I think you’ll like it; I certainly did. You can get a job and maybe move into Potter Hall and do normal things. You won’t have hundreds of people milling about you all day, staring at your scar and wondering what fiasco you’re going to get yourself into next.”

“You do realise I want to be an Auror, don’t you?”

“I do, yes, but in the Auror business your fiascos will be considered triumphs and they’ll earn you respect instead of a reputation as an attention seeker. You’ll bring yet more glory on the family name and I’ll be very proud.” Ellie held her head a little higher and puffed her chest out a little more.

“This all depends on whether I live long enough to make it as an Auror. Who knows I might die before then.” He shrugged his shoulders in what he hoped was an offhand kind of way. “I haven’t learned anything that’s going to help me defeat Voldemort.” He emphasized the point by waving his latest Defence Against the Dark Arts textbook under her nose before he dropped it into the bottom of his trunk.

“Well, that’s where you’re going wrong then,” she said reaching over the side of the brown leather box to straighten the book in to a corner properly. “You’re not going to find the answer to this riddle �“ if you’ll excuse the terrible irony �“ in a book.” She reached out and took the next book from him, placing it neatly on top of the other.

“Where will I find the answer?” It was more of a rhetorical question and he was surprised when she gave him a serious answer.

“The best place to look is inside yourself, Harry. The answer’s already there, you just have to find it and work it out. I know you’ll probably say that it sounds a lot easier than it actually is, but when you find it you’ll wonder why you didn’t think of it sooner.”

“And how long do you think that it’s going to take?”

“I haven’t got the foggiest. It could be tomorrow, next month or even next year but you’ll get there, I know you will.”

“You couldn’t just tell me what it is?” He knew that this wasn’t likely but it had to be worth a try. She’d given him more straight answers in the pass two minutes than her grandfather had given him in the last two years.

“I wish I could but you have to find it; this one falls entirely on to your shoulders. What I can tell you is that it’s something that you can’t just point your finger at go ‘Oh there it is! That’s what’s going to help me to defeat Voldemort!’ You probably won’t even realise when you’ve found it. It won’t be until you need it that you’ll finally know that it’s there.”

“That’s confusing,” he said honestly.

“That’s life. Thankfully once you’re out of school it gets much easier,” she smiled at him once again.

“I hope you’re right.”

“I’m always right,” she replied.

“We’ll see about that.” He watched her leave the room with a little bit of a spring in her step and smiled. At least Ellie had faith in him.

---

The next morning tradition was up held. Chaos reigned down upon number 12. Ron had not partaken in Harry’s organised approach to packing his things away. For this reason he was to be found rummaging through a cupboard on the third floor landing for his Quidditch uniform at twenty-five minutes past ten. His mother was raging a diatribe of chastisements and criticisms at him from the front door. They had all been ready to shuffle out on to the warm autumnal street when Ron had realised that he didn’t have the essential piece of his kit. Harry and Ginny had been talking excitedly about the upcoming season, who would be on the teams this year and who would win, when Ron’s strangled voice was heard over the other conversations that were taking place. “My Quidditch uniform! I don’t know where it is!”

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON’T KNOW WHERE IT IS?” Mrs.Weasley exploded.

“I didn’t pack it!” Ron said in a panic.

“YOU’VE GOT FIVE MINUTES TO FIND IT, RONALD WEASLEY, AND IF YOU DON’T THEN YOU’RE GOING WITHOUT IT!” she screamed at the top of her lungs. As Ron’s lanky legs disappeared up the staircase talk turned to how he could have forgotten something so important to him.

“It’s not like Ron to forget anything Quidditch related,” Harry said to Ginny as the others muttered with annoyance around them.

“Just between you and me, I think he got a bit distracted while he was packing,” she whispered back to him with a cheeky grin.

“What d’you mean?”

“I’ll give you a clue. She’s five foot five, curly brown hair and likes to campaign for House-elf rights,” his girlfriend whispered conspiratorially in his ear.

“Hermione? What’s she got do with Ron forgetting his kit?”

“Let’s just say that his distraction involved her engaging him in other activities that probably took his attention, and certainly his hands, away from the task in front of him.” Ginny gave him a very amorous wink.

“Tut-tut, I would have thought that the talk with your dad would have put him off that kind of stuff for a while, it certainly did for me!”

“Are you trying to say that you don’t fancy me any more?” she asked him so loudly that Bill turned round and gave Harry an iffy look.

“No, that’s not what I’m saying,” he pulled her in closer so he could whisper and also so she obscured his view of Bill, or rather Bill’s view of him. “It’s just that we were…advised to cool it off a little. For once in my life I was a good boy and did what I was told.” He realised he was going to have to elaborate on what he’d said because Ginny’s face fell. “But the only reason I did it was because I was terrified of what your mum would do to me if I didn’t, but your mum won’t be at school,” he said in what he hoped was a romantic voice.

“She certainly won’t,” Ginny said to him in such a seductive way that Harry did a brilliant impression of Ron as his eyebrows disappeared up in to his hair. “And on my rounds as a prefect last year I found some very nice broom cupboards,” she added leaning in extremely close to him. This movement allowed him to catch sight of Bill who was still watching the pair carefully. Harry could feel the heat radiating from his face and urged her away from him gently; afraid of what might happen if she got any closer. Ron stomping his way back down the stairs interrupted the highly charged air between them. The youngest Weasley son only narrowly missed getting clipped round the ear by his mother.

“I’ve got it! Who’s got the trunks?” he asked hurriedly.

“That would be me,” Ellie chirped from the back of the queue. She reached in to the cerise bag she had slung across her shoulder and began to rifle through the contents every now and then she plucked out a leathery brown Hogwarts trunk that was now the size of a lipstick. “Nope that one’s GW…. HP…. RW… there you are, Ron.” She sat the tiny box on the hall floor while Charlie waved his wand and the trunk immediately sprang back to full size. As soon as Ron had shoved his kit into it in a dishevelled heap the trunk was shrunk back down to lipstick size and put back in Ellie’s handbag. It was only then that they actually made it out of the house. They marched through the streets of London in their Muggle clothing and no one paid them any attention. Just twenty minutes later they were rushing in to the station with ten minutes to spare. They carefully made sure that none of the surrounding Muggles noticed their large group disappearing through the wall that formed the barrier between their world and the magical one that lay beyond it.

Harry’s heart leapt a little to see the steaming scarlet train that was the Hogwarts Express. For the last six years this train had been his symbol of hope, it had provided him with an escape from the Dursleys but this year was a little different. This year, instead of taking him home it was taking him away from it and, for the first time ever, Harry felt like he was being pulled away from where he wanted to be.

“Now, I want you all to remember to be careful. Don’t do anything dangerous…” Mrs. Weasley said, trying to flatten Harry’s hair down. “…Behave yourselves and don’t go causing any trouble.”

“They’ll be fine, Molly,” Arthur assured her as he reached around her to give Ginny a hug. Remus, Tonks and Charlie helped them pile their entire collection of luggage and pets into the carriage and then jumped on to the train behind the students. Charlie quickly reached his arm back out to pull Ellie onto the train as well.

“All of you take care and don’t forget to write!” Molly called as the train began to chug its way out of King’s Cross.

“We will,” Ron yelled back.

“Bye!” The others waved to the anxious woman.

“We’ve popped your stuff in that compartment,” Tonks pointed out helpfully as she and Ellie were tugged away by their other halves.

“I’m afraid that we have to head that way too, Harry,” Hermione told him sorrowfully as she, Ron, and Ginny looked down the bustling corridor.

“That’s okay, Neville will probably be a long in a minute,” Harry replied.

“Already here!” said a jolly voice from behind him. He turned around to find Neville looking very pink in the face and sounding slightly out of puff. The reason for this was quickly established, he was pulling Susan’s stuff as well as his own. Susan was already down in the front carriage with the other prefects. Seeing that Harry wouldn’t be left on his own, the other three quickly made their way to the front end of the train.

“All right there, Nev?” Harry asked as he leant forward to help the other boy with the extra trunk.

“Not bad, Harry, not bad. You?” he huffed as he and Harry pushed Susan’s trunk in to the luggage rack.

“I’m doing okay. I can’t believe that it’s our last year though?”

“Isn’t it strange. It feels like just yesterday I was sitting on here for the first time.” Neville patted the seat next to him with a smile.

“You couldn’t keep a hold of Trevor that day,” Harry laughed at the memory that felt like it had happened only hours ago.

“Still can’t. All up and down the train people were talking about the famous Harry Potter. You weren’t what I expected.” Neville said honestly.

“No? What did you expect?” Harry was genuinely intrigued.

“Someone tall and broad, someone kind of strong looking. But you weren’t, you were short, skinny and looked like you wouldn’t say boo to a Flobberworm.”

“Thanks, Neville. That’s just what I wanted to hear,” Harry assumed a hurt tone.

“I know different now. Is the DA still going this year?”

“I dunno, it’ll depend on how much homework we get. This is NEWT year after all and Hermione keeps giving us lectures on how much more difficult it’s going to be.

“I do no such thing,” announced the returning Head Girl.

“Congratulations, Hermione,” Neville said when he spotted the shiny badge that was attached to the robes she had changed into while she was gone.

“Did you need any help while you were getting changed?” Harry asked her.

“Why would I need help?” she asked him with a bemused expression.

“He just thought that Ron might have offered you a hand, considering everything you did for him when it came to packing his trunk,” Ginny answered on Harry’s behalf, she came sliding into the compartment and quickly climbed on to his lap. Hermione’s face burned almost as scarlet as the train she was travelling in. Ron was next through the door but he had missed the conversation.

“Is something wrong, Hermione?” he asked her with concern.

“No, no, everything’s fine,” she answered to her feet as she sat down on the same side as Neville.

“Where’s Susan?” a confused Neville asked. He hadn’t really understood the conversation he’d been privy to.

“I’m here,” the red haired girl replied. She had appeared along with Luna Lovegood and the two looked as though they had just been chatting enthusiastically. “Hi, everyone,” she smiled as she took a seat next to Neville.

“Hello, Harry,” Luna said dreamily.

“Erm… Hi, Luna.” It was quite rare for Luna actually to address him directly.

“How was your summer?”

“It was fine. How was yours?”

“Very good. My father and I went hiking in Switzerland to try and find the Schmoozel Klingmanger. It hides out in the caves of snow covered mountains,” she informed them reliably.

“Only if you’re a crackpot,” this was the voice of Draco Malfoy, who felt that now was the time to make his presence felt. Crabbe and Goyle were naturally shadowing him.

“Haven’t you learned your lesson yet?” Neville asked him bravely.

“Shut your mouth, Longbottom. I just came in here to give Potter a warning,” Draco sneered.

“What’s that then?” Harry managed to shift Ginny off his lap and stood eye to eye with the Slytherin prefect.

“He’s watching you,” Draco replied smugly. “You won’t have to wait long.” His two cronies nodded arrogantly.

“I fear you are very much mistaken, Mr. Malfoy. You are the one being watched.” Remus was standing in the compartment doorway looking thoroughly unimpressed with Malfoy’s display of loyalty to Voldemort.

“Don’t talk to me, werewolf,” he said disgustedly.

“I shall talk to whoever I please. I believe that you have already been warned about the consequences of your continued threats on this particular group of students. I may no longer be your teacher but I can pass a report of your behaviour on to someone with the power to take points from you. I should imagine that Professor Snape wouldn’t be particularly impressed if you had to explain to him how Slytherin managed to start the year off with minus points.”

“Do you honestly think that I care what that pathetic traitor thinks of me?” Draco snapped.

“Of course I don’t, but imagine what your father would have to say if you were to be expelled from school. Your expulsion would impress no one, especially not Lord Voldemort,” Remus continued. “Now, please leave.” The three seventh years made quite a show of trying to barge past Remus, but the former Professor reached a hand out to gently push them away from him. When his hand touched Draco’s shoulder the boy visibly recoiled in revulsion but he allowed himself to be steered clear of Remus nonetheless. “Everybody in one piece?”


“We’re all okay,” Hermione answered.

“I don’t suppose you’ll have any more trouble with him,” Remus said quickly and left them to their own devices once again.

The rest of their journey passed fairly quietly, they had very few visitors and those that they did have, only stayed for a few pleasantries before they moved on to find more people they knew. In an extraordinarily quick amount of time the sky had deepened and somebody had turned the great tap in the heavens on, so that the Hogwarts express was now rain lashed. When they eventually pulled into Hogsmeade station the rain was falling so hard that it was bouncing back up off the concrete. Hundreds of black cloaks swarmed around the platform as student pulled up their hoods against the downpour. It was a moment or two before Harry realised that there were teachers standing at regular intervals along the platform, they were ushering the students out of the station and into the carriages as quick as possible.

“Leave your luggage behind!” He heard Professor McGonagall shouting over the heads of the crowd. “Would all students please hurry to the carriages as quickly as possible? Prefects, please show the first years the way! All of you move as quickly as you can!”

“You there, leave that owl cage, someone else will get it!” Professor Flitwick shouted as loud as he could. The student in question immediately dropped the animal they were holding. There was a rush towards the carriages as the older students began to realise that something was going on.

“First years!” Hermione began to shout. Ron, Ginny, Luna and Susan followed suit and even though Neville and Harry weren’t prefects they joined in.

“First years over here!” Ron yelled, waving his arms towards a group of frightened looking children who were standing by the train.

“This way!” Hermione threw her lit wand into the air and forged a way through the crowd towards the station exit, where the carriages were lined up. “We should probably split up so that at there’s at least one person who can take care of the students in each carriage.”

“Five of you over here now!” Ron shouted at the terrified group. The five nearest to him rushed forward and climbed up into the relative safety of the coach, Ron jumped in after them and the Thestrals set off a good deal quicker than was normal.

“Next five,” Ginny called in a voice that was a significantly kinder. Her group rushed forward and departed.

“Another lot here please,” Luna asked politely, her voice no longer had her usual dreamy quality to it.

“And here,” Susan requested.

“Over here as well,” Neville added right after her.

“The rest of you can come in this one with me,” Harry said authoritatively to the six remaining students. Although there wasn’t actually a seat left for him, Harry climbed in behind them and stood lookout as the carriage rocked dangerously with the speed of their travel. He watched through the window as the last of the students filed out of the train station. Just as the last carriage was pulling away the several figures appeared on the recently vacated platform. There was a lot of confusion amongst them as they realised that they were too late. They shot a couple of angry flashes at the disappearing coaches before shooting the Dark Mark into the air in frustration.

“Are…are those…Death…Death Eaters?” one of Harry’s young charges asked him in a shaky voice that suggested he was close to fainting.

“Yes,” Harry answered shortly, as he did he caught sight of the stone boars that stood on pillars on either side of the school gates. The teachers that had been on the platform were now gathered in a small group at the front gates, watching the carriages arrive very carefully. “You don’t need to worry though, there’s no place safer than Hogwarts,” he said firmly.

“You’re Harry Potter, aren’t you?” a young girl with chestnut hair asked him quietly. Harry nodded in response; he wasn’t willing to come off his guard until they were safely inside the castle’s walls.

“Cool!” breathed several of the students he was travelling with.

“You’re a legend!” exclaimed the small blonde haired boy that had asked about the Death Eaters.

“Not really,” Harry said exasperatedly. He was glad to finally climb down from the cramped carriage. “This way.” He led them up the front steps and into the Entrance Hall where McGonagall was collecting the new students together. Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Susan, Luna and Neville had all ready released their students to her care.

“Thank you for your help, Mr. Potter, you have earned ten points for Gryffindor.” there was no smile on her face or in her voice, which surprised him. Although McGonagall wasn’t prone to smiling without very good cause, she usually couldn’t hide a hint of pride from her voice. Today she just looked worried. Harry nodded at her appreciatively and walked past her to join his friends.

“Gryffindor already has a hundred points and the year hasn’t even started yet!” Hermione said excitedly.

“The only people without any points are the Slytherins,” Ron added gleefully.

“Did anyone see what the problem was?” Neville asked as they deposited themselves in their usual seats at the Gryffindor table.

“Death Eaters arrived on the platform just as the last carriage got away,” Harry replied.

“No wonder the teachers were so worried,” Hermione fretted.

“They didn’t get anyone, they just shot the Dark Mark into the air,” he attempted to calm her a little.

“But still, Death Eaters on the platform, that’s not good…” She didn’t get the chance to finish her sentence because McGonagall marched past them with the sorting hat and stool, and the long procession of little students behind her.

A/N: Back Hogwarts, hooray!

The next chapter will be … The Broken Curse…hope it’s with you soon!

A/N: Apologies for the sorting hat’s song.

Harry had never seen a group of first years look more terrified than the lot that stood at the front of the hall now, and he couldn’t really blame them. The happy arrival afforded to the years before them had not been extended to this fragile looking cluster. In his first year, the group had arrived at the school in a jolly mood after an uneventful trip and had been welcomed by a recital of the school song. A jingle that had not been heard since; the gloom of subsequent years had driven its jovial melody from the hearts and minds of the student body. The quiet clatter that was made when McGonagall put the stool on the floor caused a majority of the students jump, whether the sorting hat noticed or not, he couldn’t really tell, because it began its song all the same.

“A thousand years have passed now,
Since I first sang my song,
Those early days have vanished,
But I’m still here to sing on.

So come on up and take a seat,
I promise I don’t bite,
For I’m a floppy hat dear child,
There’s no reason here for fright.

There are four houses from which to choose,
And I’ll tell you where you belong,
So slip me snug about your ears,
And wait to see which table cheers.

There’s Hufflepuff in yellow and black,
The house of loyal fellows,
They’re not afraid of working hard,
But you’ll find them rather mellow.

In bronze and blue find Ravenclaw,
The house of those who are clever,
If it’s knowledge that you seek,
You’ll find it here for you to keep.

There’s Slytherin in silver and green,
The house of great ambition,
If it’s glory that you’re after,
You’re sure to find them keen.

In gold and red find Gryffindor,
The house of those with courage,
If you’ve got a heart that’s brave,
You’ll be welcomed with a flourish.

I don’t like to divide you,
Because I feel it’s wrong,
The battle won’t be long now,
Unite and stand strong.

Our bonds can make us powerful,
It’s something you all can do,
Everyone join together,
No matter what your hue.”

“Abbott, Malcolm,” Professor McGonagall called when it was finished. A small boy with sandy blonde hair looked horrified at the prospect of stepping away from the comfort and safety of the line, but after a strong look from the Transfiguration teacher he bolted forwards.

“Hufflepuff,” the hat called instantly. The boy rose from the seat with relief and scuttled forward to the Hufflepuff table where Hannah Abbott, who looked very proud indeed, welcomed him.

“Brother?” Ron said quietly. The others nodded their assent. The hat continued on until finally ‘Zeller, Hyacinth,’ was sorted into Ravenclaw. “Goody!” Ron rubbed his hands together; Dumbledore had a habit of keeping his pre-feast speeches short.

“Good evening. First things first, I would like to give a warm welcome to our newest students and express my delight that most of our returning ones have arrived back in one piece. I would also like to give a great deal of thanks to our prefects, and the sixth and seventh year students who ensured that their first year colleagues arrived here safely. Earlier today, information was received about the plan for an attack on the station platform at Hogsmeade. This is why you were hurried away from the train with such haste. Thanks to the efforts of several teachers, guards that were on the train, and the aforementioned students, everyone had been removed from the platform by the time half a dozen of Lord Voldemort’s Death Eaters arrived. I’m sure all of the excitement has made you all quite hungry, and this is why I shall save the rest of my speech for after dinner,” Dumbledore announced in a rather victorious tone. There was relative quiet as everyone tried to come to terms with the information that they had received. The five students sitting at the Gryffindor silence were engaged in an uneasy silence. They knew only too well the kind of carnage that could have happened if the platform had been full. After dinner, when they were all feeling rather bloated, Dumbledore recommenced his speech.

“It seems to me that every year the standard of goods coming from our kitchen reaches new heights of excellence. On a more serious note, I would like to assure everyone that while you are within the confines of the grounds you will be perfectly safe. The teachers and I are working continuously with the Ministry of Magic to ensure that you are all protected from the dangers of the outside world. Unfortunately, due to the events of last year, when several students and a teacher were attacked, all visits to Hogsmeade will be cancelled until further notice. I realize this will thoroughly disappoint those of you able to attend them, but I would rather have you safely miserable in the castle that dangerously jolly in the village,” he said a fatherly tone. He was just trying to look after everyone’s best interests.

“As always the Forbidden Forest is considered out of bounds to everyone, and I must encourage you all not to go near it without the supervision of a member of staff. Yet more items have been added to Mr. Filch’s list of prohibited objects, I was rather dismayed to read it yesterday and find that the rather delicious Canary Crèmes have been included on this year’s list, as have portable swamps. I am also happy to announce that the rumoured curse that has hung over the Defence Against the Dark Arts post these six years appears to have been broken. I can welcome back last year’s professor, albeit under a different name. I am sure that you will all join me in congratulating Professor Potter on her marriage and her subsequent name change to Professor Weasley.” There was a lot of loud clapping and cheering for Ellie who was forced to stand and make a little curtsey. “You will all be glad to know that I have finished and you may now make your way to the warm and cozy beds that await you. Luck be with you!” he clapped his hands and the doors to the hall swung open and allowed them all to escape to bed.

---

When the timetables were handed out at the breakfast table the next morning, the seventh year Gryffindors were a little bit disappointed that they had to go to Transfiguration before they could get to Defence Against the Dark Arts. It wasn’t as bad as they had first imagined it to be though, because Professor McGonagall had some very interesting news for them.

“Good afternoon, class,” she announced, taking powerful strides towards the front of the room. “I would like to remind you all that while you are in your seventh and final year of your magical education with us, we will not be tolerating any substandard behaviour or quality of work. You have all managed to do sufficiently well thus far and I would hope that this will not change any in the coming months. This is by far the most important year you will spend here. The marks you get in the exams at the end of this year will determine whether or not you are able to fulfill your career prospects, and I am aware that some of your expectations are high.” She looked distinctly at Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville when she said this. “During the course of this term you will have a series of careers interviews with the Head of your house where you will be able to make the final decision. Bear in mind that the potential employers we deal with place a lot of importance on the opinions of our teachers and if you are performing sub par then we are forced to tell them so.”

“We better hope the Ministry don’t want Snape’s opinion,” Harry whispered in Ron’s ear.

“Professor Snape’s opinion will be very important to the Ministry of Magic, Mr. Potter, but I don’t believe that should present you with any problems,” McGonagall said sharply and gave Harry a look that made him feel very ashamed of himself. “N.E.W.T does not stand for Nastily Exhausting Wizard Tests for no reason, as I explained to you last year. The work will be hard and many of you will find yourself stretched to your limits. However, the teachers are not here simply to push you, if anyone is having any serious problems then I would suggest seeing your Head. With that warning given, I would like to address the subject of this class. This year we will be looking at human transfiguration in more detail and our first order of business is finding out the Animagi potential of this class.” At this pronouncement excited whispering shot through the students. “Mr. Thomas and Mr. Finnigan, would you please hand out the contents of the boxes on your desk.” The two boys did as they were instructed and gave everybody a large piece of parchment and a shiny white quill.

“Who has the potential to be an Animagus?” Professor McGonagall asked. It was no surprise that Hermione’s hand was the only one in the air. “Ms. Granger?”

“Everyone does. It’s just that some people don’t have the determination necessary to carry out the transformation,” Hermione answered knowledgably.

“Correct, ten points to Gryffindor. The initial transformations can be very painful and this tends to put people off and it does of course require significant magical abilities, abilities that everyone in this class has. There is no one in this room who does not have the magical power to succeed at this task. However, I cannot determine whether you have the willpower. To complete the transformation takes a lot of time and effort. Now, I want you all to close your eyes and think of the first animal that comes into your mind. Focus on the image for a second. Now open your eyes again. I want you all to lick the tip of your quill.

“Yuck!” Lavender protested. “That’s very unhygienic.”

“Ms. Brown, these are brand new, there is nothing unhygienic about them.” McGonagall reprimanded her. “Has everyone done that?” She glanced at the members of her class who were all now staring at their quills inquisitively. “Very well then, put your quills on the parchment tip down.” At this the students gave her some very doubtful looks; they were clearly all wondering how the writing implements were supposed to stand on their tips unsupported. There were gasps of surprise as the white feathers poised themselves over the parchment. McGonagall smiled inwardly, she did love it when she managed to amaze a class. “I would like you all to close your eyes and focus on the animal again. You must concentrate extremely hard; take in every detail the length of the beak or snout, the colour of the fur or scales, the height and length, the size of paws or the sharpness of the claws. Think very, very carefully.” She allowed them to think in silence for fifteen minutes before she continued. “Open your eyes. If you were concentrating hard enough then you will now have a picture of the animal you were thinking of in front of you. If you were not then you will find varying degrees of a drawing or even just a feeble scribble.” She smiled to herself again as many members of the class picked up their drawings to show each other.

“What d’you think?” Harry asked Hermione, Ron and Neville as he held up a very detailed drawing of his father’s stag.

“Cool. What about mine?” Ron provided his for inspection. A very proud looking lion was standing in the middle of the page. It had a very big mane of messy hair.

“Looks just like you,” Harry joked.

“Very funny. What’s yours, Hermione?” Ron inquired. She held him up a picture of the adorable little otter that was her Patronus.

“Anyone noticing a pattern here?” She asked them. Sure enough when Neville showed them his parchment there was a griffin sitting in the middle of the page.

“Well spotted, Ms. Granger. Those of you able to conjure Patroni will almost certainly have drawn the form your Patronus takes. This is because the spell takes a form that provides you with hope and strength, and as such, is an animal close to your heart. Now, I would like those of you who don’t have a defined picture to wipe the parchment and try again. I want the rest of you to follow these instructions.” She waved her wand at the board and a series of complex instructions appeared on the board, she then paced between the rows giving help to those who needed it.

By the end of the lesson Harry hand was looking decidedly more hoof-like, Ron’s hair had grown much thicker, Hermione had sprouted brown fur on her neck and Neville had the beginnings of a tail. They were amongst the few that had actually transformed any part of themselves into that of their animal and they could understand why. The pain of transforming was almost excruciating, it had brought tears to Harry’s eyes as he felt his bones changing and the weight of his hand increasing. They all went to Defence Against the Dark Arts with a bit of an ache. However a majority of them cheered up when they saw Ellie’s smiling face at her desk. “Welcome back, Professor Weasley,” Hannah Abbott said happily.

“Thank you, Ms. Abbott, it’s very good to be back,” Ellie replied.

“It was a close call, eh, Professor?” Seamus reminded her.

“It certainly was, Seamus. I hope you don’t mind me asking, Ron, but what on earth happened to your hair?” She was looking at Ron’s hair oddly. His flaming red locks were a good deal thicker than normal, having not returned to their usual state yet.

“We’ve just been in Transfiguration,” Hermione said helpfully.

“I see, let me guess, the first lesson of the seventh year was Animagi related?” Her class nodded. “And what was it you were trying to turn into?” she directed her attention back to Ron.

“A lion.” He reached in to his bag and pulled his drawing out.

“Very nice, it’s given you wonderfully… voluptuous hair. What about the rest of you?” There was rustling as they all pulled their drawings out for her inspection.
“Is that dog?” she asked Dean.

“Yeah, Professor,” he replied proudly, glad that someone had been able to distinguish what his picture was.

“Superb,” she said with a fleeting smile at Harry. “What’s yours?”

“Who’d have guessed?” he grinned. She looked at his beautiful stag, shook her head and glance up toward the ceiling.

“Don’t do this to me, Uncle James, I couldn’t cope. No Marauder behaviour,” she whispered looking back at him.

“Yes, Professor,” he replied dutifully.

“Are you an Animagi?” Hermione asked.

“Perhaps,” Ellie answered elusively.

“What would your form be?” Seamus asked from the seat behind Hermione.

“Now that would be telling,” she said cryptically.

“What form does your Patronus take?” the question came from Draco who was sulking at the back of the classroom.

“Do excuse me if I don’t divulge that piece of information to you. If you had a better memory, you would remember. After all I did use the Patronus Charm during the attack on Hogsmeade.” There was the tell tale coldness in her voice and the struggle to maintain her composure was evident from the look on her face. “That’s enough chatter, let’s get to work!” she said clapping her hands together.



A/N: And so the curse is broken! I hope that you all liked that. The next chapter is…Interesting Behaviours. Until then!

The first week of term had passed with relative peace and quiet. Harry had gone for his first Potions class with Snape on the Wednesday morning and was actually able to enjoy his lesson. They were working on the Wolfsbane Potion, which was naturally of interest to Harry and his friends. They were extra careful when reading the instructions, chopping up the ingredients and stirring it. After a long and hot hour had passed, they took their cauldrons off the heat and allowed the potion to cool. Ron and Harry were delighted when the liquid that was swirling around in their respective cauldrons was the same colour and texture as Hermione’s. It had to be said that she looked very relieved as well. Once the potion had cooled to room temperature, they filled a flagon each and took it to the professor’s desk. He made several derogatory comments to the Ravenclaws that were in front of them but when Harry popped his glass container down on the wooden desk all the sallow man said was, “Fine.” He didn’t say anything at all to Ron and Hermione or Dean who was behind them. As the three of them escaped the stifling heat of the dungeon the tepid air of the rest of the castle felt cool and refreshing. “What was all that about?” Ron exploded when they emerged at the top of the stairs that lead to the dungeon corridor.

“What do you mean?” Hermione asked lightly.

“He means, Snape didn’t snipe at me once, that’s not normal,” Harry felt odd. Part of the fun of school was sitting at lunch or dinner having a good gripe about Snape; it was one of the student’s favourite past-times.

“So?” Hermione was clearly too levelheaded for Ron and Harry’s train of thought.

“Maybe Ellie’s had a word?” Ron suggested.

“I think he’s probably had enough of Ellie’s words,” Harry snorted as he sat down at the Gryffindor table and pulled a plate bearing chicken sandwiches towards him.

“Too right,” Ron grinned at the memory of a conversation they had overheard between the two teachers the previous year. “Not afraid to give him what for, is she?”

“Maybe she should be a little bit nicer to Professor Snape instead of encouraging you two to make fun of him,” Hermione said sharply. Ron choked on his spoonful of soup.

“Did you just criticize a teacher?” He stared at her in disbelief.

“More to the point, did you just criticize Ellie?” Harry objected on his cousin’s behalf.

“I’m not criticizing her, I just think that her behaviour towards him is strange,” Hermione argued defensively.

“How d’you mean?” Ron asked.

“Well, she said that he owes her a debt. You’d think she’d be a little bit nicer to him because of that.”

“I don’t think Ellie particularly likes him owing her debt.” Harry had a vague recollection of hearing Ellie talk about things between her and Snape with someone but the memory was rather fuzzy.

“All the same, she should be setting a good example and showing him some respect,” Hermione continued.

“I really hope that’s the Head Girl’s badge talking and that you’re not putting down my sister-in-law, Hermione. You’re going to be related to her one day.” Ron stopped his spoon dead in its journey from the bowl in front of him to his mouth. Had he really just said that? Harry was gawping at him with eyes that were ready to burst out of their sockets and Hermione was just staring at him with a bit of shock seeping into her eyes. They’d never really talked about where there relationship was going but his last comment made it quite clear that he had been thinking about it. “See that? One person gets married and it’s all a bloke can think about for months. Who does Ellie think she is looking so pretty in her dress and planting ideas in people’s heads?” He rose from the lunch table, red as a beetroot and took off after mumbling something about needing to get more books. He nearly knocked Ginny down in his haste.

“What’s up with him?” she grumbled. “More importantly, what’s the matter with you two?”

“Ron just said…” Hermione couldn’t finish her sentence. Her eyes drifted over to the door that her boyfriend had disappeared through and she too felt the need to leave the table. “I’ll catch up with you later,” she said as she marched away from the table.

“What did Ron say?” Ginny asked Harry, who had only just managed to pull his eyeballs back in. He relayed the previous conversation to her and she gasped when he reached the end of his tale. “He really said that?”

“Yeah, right here, in the middle of the hall!” Harry couldn’t help the high-pitched tone of his voice.

“So Ellie was right,” Ginny muttered more to herself than to Harry.

“Ellie was right about what?” he asked with confusion.

“She predicted that wedding bells might ring for those two. We’ll have to wait and see if her other predictions were right,” Ginny smiled at the plate in front of her as she remembered the day on the stairs.

“What else did she predict?” Harry was half afraid to ask and half curious about the answer; in the end his curiosity had won over.

“You’ll find out when the time is right,” she answered. “Now tell me, Mr. Potter, what are your plans for this evening?” she asked in a plumy voice.

“I’ve got an essay to do for Ellie, I mean Professor Weasley,” he corrected himself because a second year student sat a couple of seats away from him was giving him a funny look. “It’s on Pogrebins, but that won’t take me too long, she only wants a foot and I’ve got a free period up next.”

“Good, because I have a much more interesting night planned for you. I’ll see you at dinner.” She gave him a kiss on the cheek before she too left the hall. Seeing him all alone, Neville slid further along the bench.

“You all right there, Harry?”

“I think so,” he answered with bemusement.

“Have they abandoned you?” Neville was trying not to laugh at the very baffled expression the other boy was wearing.

“Something like that. You know, Neville, I’m having the weirdest day.” Harry shook his head and tried to concentrate on his lunch but he couldn’t really stop his mind from wandering after a certain petite redhead.

---

The next time Harry saw his two best friends was at dinner. They sauntered into the hall together with Hermione tucked securely under Ron’s arm. They were laughing and grinning madly at each other. Harry had the feeling that they’d had the chance to talk about Ron’s earlier declaration of his intentions and the outcome had been good. Very good judging by the glow in Hermione’s cheeks and the fact that Ron’s hair was messier than usual. Harry wondered if they had managed to find some nice broom cupboards on their prefect rounds in the past two years. “Okay there, mate?” Ron asked with a wide grin.

“Not as good as the two of you by the look of things. Probably has something to do with the fact that my two best friends just deserted me at lunch time,” he said with his best fake ‘you hurt my feelings’ voice.

“You had Ginny.” Although he was quite sure that Hermione was talking to him, you would never have been able to tell because she was too busy gazing at Ron.

“Unfortunately, she ditched me not long after you did.”

“That’s a shame,” Ron said without a hint of sympathy.

“Yes, we’re very sorry, Harry,” Hermione said. Her voice was muffled slightly by her attempt to kiss Ron.

“Now if only I could believe that,” he chuckled. Both of them grinned at him in a guilty manner. “Never mind, I had Neville for company.” Ginny sidled in to the seat beside him and gave his knee a quick squeeze. The sudden, quite intimate, contact caught him by surprise.

“So you two are better now?” she said to her brother and best friend.

“We’re fine,” Hermione beamed.

“We can see that,” she smirked when Ron popped a carrot in Hermione’s mouth. The spent the rest of the meal in sociable silence. Afterwards they retired to the common room and curled up in their favourite seats by the fire. It wasn’t too long before Ginny was tugging Harry away from the cozy position he had achieved and pulled him towards the stairs to the boy’s dormitory.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Ron had been lying asleep on the couch with Hermione curled up on top of him but was now peering at Harry and Ginny with one eye and a very accusatory tone.

“Just going to get our cloaks and go for a walk in the grounds, it’s a lovely evening,” Ginny said as cheerfully as possible. She was well aware that the dark and stormy sky, that was visible in the window behind her, was practically sticking its tongue out at her back.

“Hmm,” Ron grunted and shut his eye. Harry grabbed his invisibility cloak and the Marauders Map before they shot back down the stairs. They were halfway to the portrait hole when Ron spoke again. “Decided to forgo the cloaks have we?” he said with his eyes still firmly shut and a slight grin playing at the sides of his mouth.

“Well, it isn’t very cold outside, so we thought we’d take our chances,” Ginny said in a casual voice. Harry could see that on the hand furthest away from Ron had she had her fingers crossed.

“Right, well be careful, and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” Ron couldn’t fight the little smile any longer.

“Does that rule anything out?” Harry laughed. He immediately regretted it because Ginny thrust a very sharp elbow into his ribs, he suddenly felt very sorry for a certain butter dish. Ron’s eyes snapped open.

“Just remember that is my little sister,” he pointed a lazy finger at an unimpressed Ginny. “I know that you’re my best mate, Harry, but unfortunately that doesn’t go for her other four brothers. Although they like you a lot, they wouldn’t hesitate to kill you if you do anything you shouldn’t. And before you make any stupid comments about what that includes, you know fine well what it does. So watch your step and your hands.” Ron’s eyes drifted shut before Ginny could start a tirade. Instead she huffed and puffed and stormed out of the common room with Harry running to keep up with her.

---

“So where are we going?” he asked nervously. She was in a furious temper, thanks to Ron.

“Just follow me,” she said with forced niceness. He didn’t want to argue so he did as he was told. They marched along several busy corridors, passing the late diners that were just emptying out of the Great Hall, until they found a corridor on the fourth floor that was completely empty. Ginny’s strides lengthened along this passage way and Harry found himself amazed by the amount of ground her short legs could cover. There was a floor to ceiling tapestry on the wall that Ginny pulled open to reveal a rather cramped looking space that couldn’t have been much more than two feet square. Harry just stared at the collection of mops and buckets wondering if she was serious. Tired of his waiting she shoved him into the cupboard and snapped the tapestry shut behind them. This plunged the small room in to complete darkness.

“This is…cozy,” he said awkwardly.

“It’s not supposed to be cozy,” the anger had faded away from her voice and it was once again seductive. He could feel her pressing closer to him and it took every ounce of self-control he had to keep from throwing himself at her and doing unmentionable things to her. He was surprised that his face wasn’t glowing scarlet through the gloom. “Is everything all right, Harry?” her voice changed again, this time it was soft and concerned.

“Yeah…it’s just… I… you…we…” he finally decided to shut up. He wasn’t doing himself any favours by blundering on like that.

“Have you gone off me?”

“Definitely not,” he shook his head furiously. If only she could see the mental images running though his head at this moment.

“Well, why don’t you show me?” she was back to seductive. She reached a tender hand around Harry’s neck and pulled him towards her for a passionate kiss. He allowed her to pull him deeper into it and found himself lost in the moment, the hands which he had rested on her waist slipped down to her bottom in his desperation to pull her closer. When he realised where his mitts were he snatched them away from her and pulled back. “I’m going to ask you a couple of questions and I want you to be honest,” her voice resonated firmly through the darkness.

“O…okay,” he replied unsurely. He had the distinct feeling he was going to get a rollicking.

“Did I give you any sign that I was uncomfortable?” she asked.

“No,” he cringed slightly.

“Right then, my next question is; if I was anybody but Ron’s little sister would you have pulled away like that?”

“Honestly?”

“Honestly,” she answered.

“Probably not,” he said quietly.

“Harry, when I’m with you I’m not Ron’s little sister! I’m Ginny, just Ginny,” she breathed deeply. Harry suddenly felt quite daring.

“But you’re not.”

“Why not?” she protested.

“Because when you’re with me, you’re so much more than ‘just Ginny’” he whispered in her ear before pressing his lips on to hers avidly.

They spent a very long time locked together in that broom cupboard and only tore themselves away from their activities when they realised that things were getting too heated. “Lumos” Harry whispered quietly so that he could check the time on his watch. In the light he saw that Ginny’s hair was all over the place and her face was flushed, he allowed himself a small smile.

“You look pleased with yourself,” she teased.

“I don’t know why, it’s a quarter to midnight. I’m going to be murdered,” he laughed. Somehow standing in the protective shell that was the cupboard the thought of Ginny’s four older brothers killing him was quite funny.

“Aww! Don’t worry, Harry, I’ll protect you from the bad Weasley brothers,” she mocked him.

“Good, now get under this cloak,” he wrapped the material around them and allowed himself to enjoy how close Ginny was to him. She was holding the Marauder’s Map and examining it carefully.

“The path to the tower is clear,” she informed him as they slipped out from behind the tapestry as quietly as possible.

“Keep an eye on it,” he whispered as they began their way back through the maze of corridors and staircases.

“Ellie and Charlie at four o’clock,” Ginny whispered and sure enough Professor Weasley and her husband came trotting up the stairs just to their right. “What’s Charlie doing here?” Ginny said a little too loudly. Ellie froze. She looked directly at the spot where they were standing behind one of the school’s countless suits of armour. She stared at the spot for a couple of minutes before she pointed her wand at them and called ‘Ventus!’ A gust of air blew through the cloak and Harry instantly knew that she had seen their feet.

“Who’s there?” she asked. Charlie had his wand out too.

“It’s just us,” Harry conceded, pulling the cloak off of them. He didn’t have to see Ginny’s face to know that she was looking horribly guilty.

“And what do you two think that you’re doing out and about at this time?” she demanded.

“We were…um…” Harry began.

“Exploring the castle,” Ginny finished for him. Ellie broke into a smile but Charlie was looking at Harry lethally.

“Well, it’s awfully late to be wandering about. I’m afraid you leave me no choice but to take ten points from Gryffindor and give you a detention each, which you will serve with me tomorrow evening after dinner,” her voice was serious but a twinkle was dancing about in her eyes. “Let’s get you back to the tower now,” she indicated up another flight of stairs. She and Charlie followed them all the way back to the portrait of the Fat Lady. “No more late night wanderings or I’ll have to report you to Professor McGonagall,” she said with a smile.

“Just one question,” Ginny ventured bravely. Ellie and Charlie turned back to face her. Charlie was still giving Harry the filthiest looks. “Why are you here?” she asked her brother.

“We’ve been looking for a nice broom cupboard, do you know any?” Ellie asked with the utmost seriousness.

“Us? Nope, we haven’t been near a cupboard in months,” Ginny grinned before she disappeared through the portrait hole. As the painting swung shut they could still hear the two people on the other side.

“I hope you won’t hold it against me if I kill your cousin,” Charlie said angrily.

“Why?” Even through the canvas the innocence that Ellie was feigning was obvious.

“WHY?” Charlie exploded. “You know exactly what those two were up to and it wasn’t exploring the castle, more likely exploring….” There was a large gulp. “…Each other.”

“Are you telling me that if we’d been here together, we would have behaved any differently?”

“That’s not the point,” Charlie claimed.

“Oh yes it is! This is just a case of your double standards!” Ellie retorted.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means that it’s fine for you or one of your brothers to slip out and accost poor girls here, there and everywhere - and by the way Madame Pince caught Ron and Hermione at it in the library earlier - but it’s not fine for Ginny to go out and get accosted. At least you know Harry’s not about to take advantage of her, not that she would let him. Your sister has got a strong mind of her own and it’s about time that you started giving her credit for it. They’re not stupid little children, they know what they’re getting themselves into and I don’t see why we can’t leave them to it!”

“For your information, all teenage boys are capable of taking advantage!”

“You never tried to take advantage of me!”

“That’s because I exercised a little bit of self control!”

“What makes you think that Harry isn’t doing the same?” Ellie asked. Unfortunately, Charlie had no answer to this and was subjected to a gloat of victory from his wife. “My point exactly! Now we’ve finished the rounds and had a nice little argument can we go and make up?” A little smacking sound told them that Ellie had kissed her husband. Harry and Ginny stepped away from the portrait hole and into the now empty common room. Harry dutifully walked Ginny to the foot of the girls’ staircase.

“Well, Harry, it’s been fun ‘exploring’ with you,” she smiled and gave him a kiss. “Goodnight.”

“Lots fun, we must do it again some time.” He kissed her back. “Night, Ginny.”

He crept up the steps to his dormitory quickly, and cursed the door silently when it creaked open. He changed for bed as quietly as he could and nearly fell over when Neville gave a particularly loud snore. “You’re awfully late,” Ron’s voice sounded out from behind his curtains. “I hope you didn’t do anything I’d have to smack you one for.”

“As if I would,” Harry replied, eternally grateful that Ron couldn’t see his face right now. “Besides, I’ve already been glared at by one of your brothers tonight.”

“Which one?” Ron asked with sleepy interest.

“Charlie, he’s here in the castle.”

“Why?”

“Ellie said they were looking for a nice broom cupboard,” Harry smirked; she certainly had a sense of humour.

“Oh right. By the way, Harry, I know you would.”

“Would what?”

“Do something I’d have to smack you for.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence there, mate,” Harry grinned. Ron knew him so well.

“You’re welcome. Night, Harry,” Ron mumbled as the sleep finally caught up with him.

“See you in the morning.” Harry snuggled under the covers. He was thoroughly pleased that Ron had not been anywhere near that tapestry, otherwise Harry would have come back black and blue for the things he did.

---

The next morning found Professor Weasley yawning widely at the staff breakfast table. “Late night?” Madam Pomfrey asked her with concern borne from decades in the nursing profession.

“It was indeed. I caught some students roaming the corridors on my midnight rounds and then me and Charlie had an argument that was promptly followed by frantic making up,” Ellie grinned in a slightly embarrassed way. Poppy Pomfrey had been the healer on call at the time of her birth and yet here she was sharing the details of her married life with the woman who had eased her in to the world.

“I remember the first few months of my marriage, Wilfred and I used to argue terribly. I remember going to my mother once and saying that all we did was fight and she said to me, ‘Poppy, dear, if you never argued you’d never have a reason to reconcile.’”

“Never a truer word was spoken.” Ellie agreed.

“May I ask which students you caught out of bed?”

“Certainly, it was Harry and Ginny. They had been ‘exploring the castle’ but I happen to know that there’s a very secluded storage cupboard at the end of one of the fourth floor corridors, and judging by poor Ginny’s hair, I’d stake my life that they were in there.” She grinned down at the Gryffindor table where the two students were now wolfing down their breakfast.

“The mind boggles as to how you can know so much about this castle, considering that you never attended school here.” Poppy said affectionately.

“I spent an awful lot of summers here with just Charlie for company, so I know all the good hiding places,” she smiled. “Please excuse me, Poppy, but I should be getting back to my classroom before my group of raucous forth years come along and wreck the place.” Ellie swept down from the top table to speak to Harry and Ginny. “Mr. Potter, Ms. Weasley, I would like to remind you that I’m expecting you at six thirty sharp to begin your detention,” she increased her volume as Snape walked past. “Ms. Granger and Mr. Weasley, I understand that Madam Pince gave you two detentions yesterday as well, and I’ll be expecting the two of you at the same time as your friends,” Ellie said in her best voice of authority.

“Yes, Professor,” the four of them chorused together. Ellie was almost out of the room when Ron shot after her.

“Professor Weasley, could I ask a favour?”

“A favour?” she repeated.

“Could I possibly do my detention tomorrow night?” he pleaded. Ellie studied him carefully before she said answered him.

“I suppose I don’t need to remind you that it’s a punishment and it doesn’t have quite the same effect if it is arranged to suit you?”

“Of course not, but there are special circumstances.”

“And they would be?” she raised a single eyebrow at him and for a moment he thought he’d caught McGonagall instead. He leaned forward so that he could whisper to her in private; there was a group of third year Hufflpuffs nearby that were watching the conversation with interest. When he had finished explaining, she nodded slowly. “Okay, Mr. Weasley, tomorrow night it is. I hope it all goes well.”

When Ron came back in to the hall he was immediately subjected to a torrent of questions. “What was that all about?” Harry managed to get in first.

“Nothing,” Ron replied.

“It quite obviously was. What were you asking Professor Weasley?” Hermione was giving him an intense look.

“I just had a quick favour to ask.”

“Like what?” Ginny prodded.

“If you must know, I asked if I could swap my detention to tomorrow!” the red haired boy shouted.

“But why?” Hermione asked soothingly.

“Because I’ve got things that I need to do tonight.”

“Surely nothing that’s worth getting a lecture for?” Harry asked. He had seen the look on his cousin’s face and recognised it as the one she wore when she was trying to get a point across.

“Actually it was, and she said I could do it tomorrow.”

“She let you off?” Ginny was affronted.

“No, I still have to do it, just tomorrow.”

“I hope you realise, Ronald, just how unfair this is.” Hermione slapped her fork down on the table; sending little bits of scrambled egg everywhere, and left the hall in a very large strop. Ginny wasn’t far behind her.

“You not going to have a go as well?” Ron grumped.

“Nah, I just want to know what you said that got you out of it, that way I can use it,” Harry grinned.

“I wish I could tell you but… well… it’s kind of a surprise.”

“Oh! Say no more, I take it that I’ll understand sometime soon?”

“Within the next month,” Ron replied.

“I suppose I’ll have to wait. Shall we go to Charms now or give Hermione some more time to calm down?”

“We should go now, before she gets a chance to work herself up into a storm.”

“Sometimes she really reminds me of your mum,” Harry said thoughtfully as they made their way to the Charms classroom.

“Harry! It’s not nice to say things like that about your best mate’s girlfriend!” Ron protested, with a thoroughly disgruntled expression. Oh well! Harry thought. At least now he’ll probably avoid doing the stuff that got him his detention!

A/N: That chapter seemed to take forever, thank the heavens that it’s done now!

The next chapter hitting a computer screen near you is….Hermione’s Surprise.