As the next morning dawned brightly Harry lay staring at the ceiling of the bedroom he shared with Ron, he was actually beginning to doze off again when Mrs. Weasley knocked on the door to wake them.
“Come along you two, if you don’t get up and ready now you won’t be able to eat before we have to leave.” He then heard her footsteps hurrying along to the next door and heard the squeaking as she opened it slowly.
“Ellie, dear, it’s time to get up. I think Alastor wants to talk to everyone about the guard before we set off…” A long silence seemed to penetrate the air.
“WHAT ON EARTH DO YOU TWO THINK YOU’RE DOING? HAVE YOU BEEN IN HERE ALL NIGHT?” Upon hearing Mrs. Weasley’s anger Harry had jumped out of bed and raced to the next room. Ellie was curled up in Charlie’s arms looking rather startled at being woken so noisily; both wore their robes from the previous day. Harry almost ran right into Molly as he entered the room.
“What’s the matter?” he peered curiously from her to the two dishevelled figures on the bed.
“HARRY POTTER, GET OUT OF THIS ROOM AT ONCE!” Molly cried. As she gently pushed him out of the room and closing the door. Harry rushed back into his room and launched himself at the wall separating their room and Ellie’s. Ron was now awake and watched him with curiosity.
“What’s Mum shouting about now?” he asked wearily.
“She went to wake Ellie and found her and Charlie curled up on the bed. I think they spent the whole night in there,” Harry whispered as he pressed his ear against the wall.
“She’s going to go mental!” Ron exclaimed climbing on to Harry’s bed and pressing his ear up to the wall as well. Once again the voices from the room became crystal clear.
“WHAT IN THE NAME OF MERLIN HAVE YOU TWO BEEN UP TO? THE TWO OF YOU IN HERE ALL NIGHT ALONE! AND TO THINK THAT I NEARLY SENT GINNY UP HERE FOR YOU! WHAT KIND OF EXAMPLE IS THIS TO SET? WE’VE GOT FOUR YOUNGSTERS IN THIS HOUSE AND I ALMOST SENT ONE OF THEM IN HERE TO FIND YOU TWO CURLED UP LIKE THAT AFTER HAVING BEEN ALONE IN HERE ALL NIGHT. THEY ARE FAR TOO YOUNG TO BE EXPOSED TO THIS KIND OF THING! IS NOTHING SACRED ANYMORE? IN MY DAY YOU WAITED UNTIL YOU WERE MARRIED, THIS WOULD HAVE BROUGHT SHAME ON THE FAMILY!”
“MUM,” Charlie bellowed over her hysterical shouting, “YOU HAVE GOT ENTIRELY THE WRONG IDEA!”
“Molly, we weren’t… we didn’t. We were talking into the early hours of this morning and fell asleep. I have done nothing to bring shame on to my family name. Nothing has changed since your day. While I’m disappointed that you don’t think that I have better morals than to refrain from engaging in that kind of activity before marriage I’m furious that you would think it of Charlie. You raised your son with a sense of chivalry and I’m disgusted that you think he would take advantage of any girl, let alone me in that kind of way,” the disappointment was evident in Ellie’s voice.
“And even if you had sent Ginny up she has the good sense to know that there was nothing suspect going on here. You need to accept that they are all growing up, Molly, and believe it or not they probably know exactly the kind of thing that goes on between adults. Before long they are all going to be out of school and getting married themselves, they are certainly not too young,” Ellie’s voice had turned much sterner.
“BUT,” Mrs. Weasley began,
“No, Mum, Ellie is right. You were wrong to jump to conclusions and you’ve been mollycoddling those four for far too long. Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to freshen up. Don’t you have some more people to wake? I’ll meet you down stairs in ten minutes to talk over the guard, Ellie.” There was the sound of two sets of feet moving followed by the muffled progress up yet another staircase.
At the mention of the word guard, Harry’s stomach plummeted several feet and was now hovering near the ceiling of the room below. He had forgotten that he would need a guard, once again the stark reality of the danger that everyone was in was brought back into focus. It was easy to forget when you were safely tucked up in Grimmauld place just how dangerous things were outside. Although they saw Order members flitting in and out frequently for meetings and so forth, they often didn’t stay long because there wasn’t much to report. Voldemort was apparently laying low, infuriated that he had been revealed so soon and to the Minster of Magic of all people.
A couple of times they had spotted Snape on his way in or out but the Potions master simply ignored their presence. Moody always made a point of saying hello and asking how they were every time he saw them, and had congratulated Harry, Ron and Hermione on their O’s in Defence Against the Dark Arts, and Ginny’s election to prefect.
He heard Mrs. Wesley trotting back down the stairs, he grabbed a towel that lay folded neatly on top of his trunk and set off towards the bathroom. On the way back he almost collided with Ellie, who was now fully dressed.
“Morning, Harry,” she gushed before taking the stairs two at a time, Harry noted that she almost missed the bottom step. She took a second to steady herself before continuing at a much more cautious pace; Harry chuckled to himself all the way to his bedroom. Ron looked up at him puzzled.
“What’s so funny?”
“Ellie, she just took the stairs two at a time and nearly broke an ankle.” They continued to dress in silence, as quickly as was possible. Harry knew that Ron did not want to miss the opportunity to stuff his face before their trip. Down in the kitchen the family was assembled along with several members of the order. Fred and George had already Apparated to their shop along with Bill who was working but had promised to meet them at lunchtime and Mr. Weasley had to attend to urgent business at the Ministry. The guard for the day were to be Mad-Eye, Remus, Ellie, Charlie, Tonks and Kingsley. Charlie and Ellie were sat at the far end of the table whispering conspiratorially to one another. Mrs. Weasley kept throwing them little annoyed looks, most probably because she knew that they were right. Once everyone had finished up they all went to get their cloaks and gathered together in the kitchen again.
“How are we getting there?” Harry asked Moody.
“We’re taking a Portkey in to the back storeroom of Fred and George’s shop,” he answered with his gruff voice before pulling a dinner plate out of his cloak. “Everyone get a finger on this.” Mad-Eye watched carefully as everyone did as instructed. “All-set?” Ten heads nodded back at him.
Harry, who had been sandwiched between Remus and Ellie, saw Moody pull out his wand, point it at the plate and call out ‘Portus’. Harry felt that all too familiar and unpleasant jerk behind his navel and found that just a few seconds later they were standing in the storeroom of Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes.
He gazed up at the hundreds of shelves that surrounded him; he was in an enormously tall room where all the wall space was taken up by shelves, every one of which was brimming with incredible looking articles. Boxes containing yet more stuff also surrounded them; everything was labelled with the three golden W’s of the shop’s emblem.
“Impressive, isn’t it?” George had appeared at Harry’s side.
“It’s more than impressive, it’s incredible.”
“Well, it’s all thanks to you. Harry, couldn’t have done it without you.” Fred clapped his hand on Harry’s other shoulder.
“And why is that exactly?” Mrs. Weasley had been listening to every word of their conversation; she still hadn’t quite recovered from her earlier telling off. Fred and George looked at each other slightly terrified and then looked at Harry at a loss for what to tell her.
“Mrs. Weasley, do you remember the prize for the Tri-Wizard Tournament?” Harry decided that it was him that had started all this and it was him that would explain it to her and bare her wrath.
“Of course, it was a thousand galleons. That’s a lot of money especially for someone of your age.”
“Well, it’s not really, my Gringotts vault is full of who knows how many thousands of galleons and I didn’t really need another thousand. So I wanted to do something important, something good with it.” Everyone was now listening to Harry.
“That’s very mature of you, and very noble,” she smiled at him.
“That’s why I decided to give my winnings to Fred and George, so that they could start this business.” He watched as her smile faltered.
“You gave it to Fred and George for this shop?” There was a tone of danger seeping into her voice.
“Yes, but we’re living in dark times, Mrs. Weasley, and they’re going to get worse before they get any better, and I know that you don’t really approve of what Fred and George do but it makes people smile and laugh and I think that’s important. What use is it to have all that money if you can’t share it with the people that mean the most to you?” Harry knew that he had struck a cord with his last statement, Molly’s expression immediately softened.
“You’re quite right, Harry, I understand,” she smiled at Harry and subsequently at the twins. They in turn grinned at Harry; he had learned well that the best way to head off their mother was always get in early before she built up her head of steam. Fred continued his grip on Harry’s shoulder and steered him out towards the shop floor.
Although the shop wasn’t awfully big it was pleasantly spacious. Much like the storeroom they had just left the walls of the shop were lined with full shelves selling a huge variety of items, all of which could be tested before purchase. He caught sight of Puking Pasties, Canary Creams and Skiving Snack Boxes; these appeared to be the most popular items. There was a crowd made up of entirely of Hogwarts students surrounding them, Padma and Pavrati Patil, Seamus Finnigan and Colin Creevey were just some of the faces he recognised. Suddenly Lee Jordan appeared in front of him.
“Hiya, Harry!” Lee was wearing a set of ruby robes, which had the three golden W’s sewn into the left hand side and into the back.
“Are you working here?”
“You better believe it. I finished at Hogwarts in June, which was when Fred and George offered me a job. How could I refuse? I mean we get to have a ball messing around and laughing at everyone trying out the stuff and I get paid for it! It’s the best job ever!” Lee was entirely enthralled with his work that was obvious. He swerved away from Harry to serve some customers at the till.
“Whatever you want is yours, anything at all for our faithful patron and adopted brother.” George waved his arm at the many goodies in their shop and then clasped at his robes in a very dramatic fashion. He and Fred wandered over to laugh at something with Lee.
“It’s crazy isn’t it, Harry?” said Ron picking up a rather vicious looking instrument that Harry was sure he had seen Fred or George wave at a DA member the previous year.
“You said it. Think I quite fancy a Skiving Snack Box, what about you?”
“Yeah, they looked wicked. Have you seen what’s in them?”
“No, but they look good.” Harry was eager to get to them and have a look.
“They’re a bit on the expensive side though, I don’t think Mum will let me get one.”
“Well, just between you and me, Fred and George said that I could have whatever I want because of the money I gave them. I don’t think that convincing them to give me two snack boxes will be difficult.”
“You can have anything?” Ron had a wistful look in his eyes as if all his birthdays and Christmas’s had come at once.
“Anything. So let me know what you want,” Harry just grinned at Ron’s dreamy expression.
“Cool.”
They spent half an hour browsing around the shop and when they were done Harry gave a quick list to Fred of the things that he and Ron and Ginny wanted and was promised that they would be ready and waiting for his return. They followed Mrs. Weasley out of Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes into the bright sunlight of Diagon Alley; they headed towards the gleaming white building that was Gringotts Bank. Harry watched the guard keep in close around them, Remus and Tonks were on their left and Ellie was on their right, with Charlie just a few paces ahead of her. Kingsley was directly behind them and Moody was under his invisibility cloak so Harry had no idea where he was, but occasionally he had “Watch your step Potter,” hissed in his ear.
When they got to Gringotts Moody, Kingsley and Tonks decided to wait outside and keep watch while the others went inside. They were lead to a small conference room where they had to fill out forms in order to have their share of Sirius’s money transferred to their vaults. This also involved Ron, Hermione and Ginny having to open new accounts with the bank. Afterwards Remus went to help Hermione with getting her Muggle money changed into wizard money. The rest of them went to fetch a cart down to the vaults; the first stop was the Weasley vault. Harry was delighted to see that the large vault was considerably fuller than the last time he had seen it. They stopped by Ron and Ginny’s new vaults as well. Ron’s jaw had dropped when he saw how much gold was in it; Ginny’s expression mirrored that of her brother. The next stop was Harry’s vault number six-hundred and eighty-seven, he noticed the increased level of gold in it as he picked up a couple of handfuls of coins and threw them into his money pouch, eager to be getting on with his shopping but before they could leave they had to make one more stop. This one Harry was informed by Charlie was one of three Dumbledore family vaults, six hundred and thirty-nine was Ellie’s.
They travelled lower and lower in to the bowels of the bank. Harry felt certain that if they travelled much lower then they would surely come to the centre of the earth. The door of her vault opened to reveal more gold than Harry had ever seen, there were mountains upon mountains of Galleons and Sickles and Knuts. Mrs. Weasley had to actually lean over and push Ron’s jaw back up. Like Harry, she scooped up several handfuls of coins and returned to the cart.
“I thought that vault seven-hundred and thirteen was Dumbledore’s vault?” Harry whispered to Charlie.
“It is. It’s my granddad’s private vault it’s very rarely used for anything. It’s only used if he has something really special to look after,” she grinned at him over her shoulder and he knew she was referring to the fact that it was the vault that was used to store the Philosopher’s Stone.
When they emerged from the front doors Bill had joined the others, the guard fell in line with Bill joining Mrs. Weasley at the front. They proceeded to Flourish and Blotts where they got all the books necessary for the year. Ron, Harry and Hermione had decided to choose Defence, Potions, Transfiguration, and Charms but while Ron and Harry chose Care of Magical Creatures Hermione decided to go for Arithmancy and Ancient Runes as well. The books necessary were:
The Standard Book of Spells Grade 6 by Miranda Goshawk,
Advanced Transfiguration by Enid Blodeuwedd
Potions: A More Complex Science by Baldric Leofric
Fighting the Dark Arts by Alexander Leonidas
After that they went to Madam Malkin’s Robes for All Occasions, Ron and Ginny were delighted to finally get brand new robes and books all of their own. Harry also decided that new robes were a good idea; he had grown so much in the last year that his current ones were about five inches too short. While here Ellie forced Remus into a changing cubicle with several sets of robes. Each time he tried a new set on he would come out for approval. The girls sat all lined up waiting for him, when he emerged in a set of robes that were sapphire blue with silver fittings they all gasped.
“Professor Lupin!” Hermione blushed. Ginny couldn’t form any words she was staring at him with her mouth agog and her face steadily reddening.
“Who knew?” Molly added with an expression similar to her daughters.
“Knew what?” Remus asked nervously.
“Could you give us a smile Remus?” Ellie asked seriously, Remus did as requested.
“You’re absolutely right, Molly. Who knew indeed?” She shook her head gently.
“Who knew what?” The nerves were almost overcoming poor Remus.
“That a new set of robes and a smile could make you so strikingly handsome,” she smiled at her Godfather.
“Oh, um…thank you,” he flushed as he returned to the dressing room.
“Just a second, Remus,” Charlie called.
“Just remember that, Elli,e is your goddaughter and my girlfriend so don’t go looking so ‘strikingly handsome’ too often. Wouldn’t want her to lose interest in me now would we?” Although his voice was harsh his enormous grin betrayed him.
“Of course not.” Remus made it back to the cubicle alive although very red in the face and re-emerged a few minutes later dressed in his old robes once again.
As soon as he had vacated the cubicle Ellie dashed into it with some robes of her own to try on. Like Remus she emerged every so often to seek their opinion. At one point she came out wearing a set of ruby red dress robes trimmed with gold. Charlie was speechless and Molly gushed, “Elizabeth, you look beautiful.”
They went from there to Quality Quidditch supplies where Harry, Ron Charlie and Ellie helped Ginny to pick a new broom. She settled for the same model as Ron, a Cleansweep Eleven because it wasn’t as expensive as the Firebolt but was still a good quality broom. While there Harry decided to buy himself a new pair of Quidditch goggles. When they surfaced from there Harry noticed Charlie and Ellie eyeing up a small jewellery shop that Harry had never noticed before. From there they went to the Apothecary as everyone was in need of topping up their Potions supplies. Their final stop was the stationary shop where they all picked up some new quills and parchment.
They decided that was enough shopping for one day, and Bill suggested that they pop into the Leaky cauldron for some lunch it was well received especially by Ron who was, as always, starving. It was then that Harry decided to put his plan into action.
“Actually, I’ve just remembered that I needed to pop into Magical Menagerie for a second or two, would that be alright?” he addressed Mrs. Weasley.
“Of cours,e Harry, do you want us all to come with you?”
“No, but I was wondering if you would come, Hermione?” He gave her what he hoped was a meaningful look. It must have been because not only did Hermione look at him bewildered but so did Ellie who was standing behind her.
“If you want me to,” she answered still confused.
“Charlie, why don’t we go with them? If you don’t mind us golden oldies tagging along that is?” Ellie addressed Harry with a playful twinkle.
“No, that would be fine.”
“Thanks for mentioning that you don’t think I’m a golden oldie,” she threw back at him.
The rest of the group proceeded to the Leaky Cauldron whilst Harry, Hermione, Ellie and Charlie doubled back to the pet shop. “So, Harry, what is it that you need from the pet shop you’ve already got that gorgeous owl of yours,” Ellie was eyeing some more of the dressier robes in Madam Malkin’s window as they passed by it again.
“Well, when Mrs. Weasley asked Ginny what she wanted for becoming a prefect she couldn’t really make up her mind between a broom and a cat, it seems unfair for her to have to choose,” he replied.
“That’s very sweet, Harry,” Hermione and Ellie fixed him with looks that told him they knew what he was up to. Apparently Charlie was more adept at picking up on these expressions than Ron was and he immediately quizzed Harry.
“Wait a minute, what is it that you’re up to, Potter?”
“Do you want an honest answer?” This response surprised them.
“The best kind in my opinion.” Charlie was still staring at him intensely.
“Well I really quite like her.” Hermione and Ellie giggled at him like giddy schoolgirls, which was okay considering that Hermione still was one but he had hoped that Ellie would have grown out of it.
“She’s the girl you were talking about then?” Hermione nodded her head knowingly.
“She was yes.”
“You better be good to her, Harry, I know that you’re like family but I would hate to have to hurt you,” Charlie chuckled.
“Leave love’s young dream alone, Charlie,” Ellie admonished, tucking her hand into his. “So you’re going to get her a cat then?”
“I think so, it depends if they’ve got a ginger one.” Harry loved visiting the pet shop it was full of so many exciting creatures, he tried incredibly hard to avoid being mesmerised by the owls as he often was. He headed towards the wall that he knew housed the many cats and kittens available. He looked along several rows of cages before his eyes fell on a cage with a tiny kitten in it, it had ginger and white stripes and Hermione and Ellie went into a chorus of ‘Awwwww’s’ when they saw it. He knew that this was the one. He went to the counter and asked if he could see the kitten in question, the shopkeeper obliged by pulling the cage up to the counter and opening the door. The little kitten unfurled itself from the corner it was curled up in and stretched its legs as it strolled from the cage sleepily. It looked Harry up and down before trotting over to him and licking his hands.
“This is the one, I’ll take him.”
“Her, Mr. Potter, this cat is female.”
“Nice, is it possible to get a cage and all the other essentials for her as well?”
“Of course.” The shopkeeper disappeared into the back of the shop and came back with a new travelling cage, food dishes, a brush and several small toys. The little kitten looked a bit disgruntled at being put back into a cage and meowed furiously. Harry paid up and the group left the shop, Harry carrying the now quiet ball of fluff and Hermione carrying the bag full of kitten accessories. Unfortunately, as they left the Menagerie, two figures were emerging from Flourish and Blotts which was opposite.
“Well, look what we have here, its Potter, the Mudblood, a weasel and a new little friend,” drawled the unmistakable voice of Draco Malfoy.
“Shove off, Malfoy.” Both Harry and Charlie instinctively stood in front of Hermione. Charlie was still holding Ellie’s hand and pulled her in close behind him as well.
“Manners, Potter. Who’s your new friend?” He was staring at Ellie with contempt. Ellie however, was not intimidated. She freed her hand from Charlie’s grasp and stepped forward.
“Elizabeth Dumbledore. You must be young Mr Malfoy.” She held her hand out
politely to shake his.
“Did you say Dumbledore?” Malfoy’s eyes narrowed as the often did when he was scheming.
“Yes, I did. Elizabeth Dumbledore, I’m your Headmaster’s granddaughter,” Ellie spoke slowly as if Draco was hard of hearing.
“I didn’t know that Dumbledore had a Granddaughter.” Draco looked at her with disgust.
“There are a great many things that you don’t know about your Headmaster, Draco,” although Lucius was speaking to Draco he was staring intently at Elizabeth. “I don’t believe we’ve been introduced.” He stretched his hand out to her.
“We haven’t. I’m Elizabeth Dumbledore, Mr. Malfoy,” Ellie’s voice was suddenly cold.
“Elizabeth…Dumbledore you say,” Lucius’s expression mirrored that of his son. He eyed Harry, “Babysitting Potter are we?” The sudden change in his tone surprised Harry; there was distinct loathing in his voice. “Are you prepared to die for him?” the exchange was leaving Harry in a state of utter bemusement. The next thing Harry knew Ellie’s wand was above Malfoy’s heart and the voice with which she spoke wasn’t one he had heard her use before, every word dripped with menace.
“I’ll hex you back to Azkaban if you just give me a reason, Malfoy, my Grandfather may be above killing but I’m not. You and your son better keep away from Harry, I would hate to see what accidents might befall you in the aftermath.”
“Tell me, Harry, how is your delightful Godfather?” Malfoy barely finished his sentence before Ellie had raised her wand free hand and slapped him across the face; his lip began to bleed slightly.
“You filthy little Mudblood lover, the Dark Lord will take great pleasure in killing you.”
“Well excuse me if we don’t panic just yet,” Charlie pushed in between the two of them purposefully.
“Dear me, you’re not thinking of taking up with a Weasley are you?”
“Better a Weasley than a Malfoy!” she spat at him.
“Who she takes up with is no business of yours,” Charlie hissed at him. He too had his wand out and pointed at Malfoy.
“He’s absolutely right.” Malfoy turned around to find Alastor Moody stood behind him with a fuming expression. “I think it’s time you were moving on, Lucius, don’t you agree?” Malfoy watched him for a moment then swept his cloak back.
“Come along, Draco, we have things to do.” They set of down the street and disappeared into the crowd.
“We need to leave now.” Moody set off as quick as his wooden leg would take him, which was surprisingly fast. Ellie roughly pulled Harry and Hermione in front of her as they followed in his wake. The rest of the family were just ordering lunch when they emerged in the Leaky Cauldron.
“There’s no time for that we need to get back to headquarters now,” Moody yelled above the noise. Everyone bustled about picking up their shopping and they sped back to Fred and George’s shop with people moaning at them as they pushed past. When they got to the back room Moody pulled the plate from his robes and everyone grabbed hold. When they arrived back in the kitchen all hell broke loose.