Mrs. Weasley woke Harry early the next morning so that he could see Hermione off. She was leaving to spend the summer holiday with her parents, as usual, and had only come to the Burrow because she had wanted to see Harry in person. He trudged down the stairs in his pajamas and told her to have a safe trip as she boarded the Knight Bus and headed for home. Once the bus had vanished, he followed Ron and Ginny into the kitchen for breakfast.
After a delicious meal of sausage and eggs, Harry, Ron, and Ginny retreated to the living room, where Harry engaged Ron in a game of Wizard chess. Ginny sat nearby, watching them but not engaging in much conversation. It appeared that she was having some sort of internal battle over how she ought to act toward Harry. She obviously wanted to be near him - twice she walked around behind his chair and leaned over his shoulder to look at the chessboard just so she would have an excuse to be physically closer to him - but he could tell she was still afraid that he would drop her like a hot potato the moment his memory returned. Harry couldn’t really blame her - after all, he had apparently ignored her for the entire five years they had known each other - but that didn’t stop him from getting slightly annoyed with her indecision.
Thankfully, it wasn’t long before Mrs. Weasley asked Ron, Ginny, and Harry for help de-gnoming the garden. With the physical activity for a distraction, they quickly fell into an easy conversation as each of them tried to outdo the others by throwing their gnomes the furthest. The fact that Harry was able to use the task as an excuse to purposely bump into Ginny or brush her hand with his as they reached for the same gnome was just an added bonus. By the time the de-gnoming began winding down, they were all laughing so hard that they could only throw the last few gnomes a few feet, forcing them to catch and re-throw them several times before they could quit for lunch.
Harry spent most of the afternoon listening with rapt attention as Ron and Ginny explained the intricacies of the game of Quidditch, and later playing Wizard chess against Ron again while Ginny mocked his pathetic attempts at strategy. Thankfully, after spending most of the day laughing and joking with Harry and Ron, she seemed to have put aside her discomfort and was just enjoying their company. Although Harry would have preferred to have her treat him more like someone she fancied and less like one of her brothers, it was more important that she not feel uncomfortable around him the way she had that morning.
It’s only been one day, he reminded himself. He had promised Ginny all the time she needed to sort out her feelings, and he meant it, but that didn’t make it any easier to just sit by and wait for her to make a decision. So much had happened over the past couple of days that he couldn’t blame her for being overwhelmed and a bit skeptical of his feelings, though.
The evening passed quickly and uneventfully, and before he knew it, Harry was bidding the Weasleys goodnight once again. As he lay on his camp bed in Ron’s darkened bedroom, he smiled at the ceiling before closing his eyes and slipping into a peaceful, dreamless slumber.
Knock, knock, knock!
Harry awoke to the sound of someone pounding on the door to Ron’s bedroom. Ron groaned, mumbled something unintelligible, and rolled over, pulling his pillow over his head.
Knock, knock, knock!
This time, it was Harry who groaned as he sat up and fumbled to put on his glasses. He blinked in the morning sunlight that was streaming through the window, and for a moment considered just using magic to open the door. He sighed; he wasn’t allowed to use magic outside of school. Besides, his wand was downstairs in his school trunk, which he still didn’t feel ready to sort through, and he had promised Dumbledore that he wouldn’t let anyone know he could do magic without it. Stretching as he stood, he crossed the room and opened the door.
“Good morning,” he murmured upon seeing Ginny, already dressed for the day, standing just outside the bedroom door. Her eyes were shining with excitement and she was looking at him expectantly.
“Good morning to you,” she said brightly. “Sorry to get you up, but I just couldn’t wait any longer. I was about to barge in and start shaking you.” She was bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet now, excitement bubbling out of her.
Harry let out a small laugh. “I’m surprised you didn’t.”
“Yeah, well....” Ginny blushed slightly and she looked away. “Let’s just say that one time I burst into Charlie’s room and... er... saw something I’d rather not have. Ever since then, I’ve been really careful to knock very loudly before opening the door.”
“I’m not even going to ask,” Harry said.
“Oy!” came Ron’s muffled voice from within the room. “Take it someplace else; I’m trying to sleep!”
Harry rolled his eyes at his friend. “Is it all right if I get dressed first?”
“No,” Ginny insisted with a laugh as she tugged on his arm, dragging him down the stairs.
“Ginny! What’s this all about?”
“I have a surprise for you,” she said simply. Her eyes shone with anticipation, and Harry couldn’t help feeling excited himself. Ginny was just so alive with energy and enthusiasm that his skin seemed to tingle from merely watching her bounce down the stairs ahead of him.
When they reached the living room, she instructed him to sit on the sofa while she retrieved a large photo album from an end table.
“I know you haven’t gone through your trunk yet,” she began. She paused and bit her lip in a nervous sort of way. “I hope you’re not mad at me, but I remembered you had this, and I thought you might like to look at it.” She handed him the photo album, and waited apprehensively to see if he would explode at her.
“Why would you go through my things without me?” Harry asked without opening the album. It surprised him to find that he wasn’t angry, only curious.
“I- er- well, I wanted to make sure it was really there before getting your hopes up about it.” Ginny was unconsciously wringing her hands while trying not to look nervous, and Harry had to work very hard not to smile at her sudden discomfort.
“It’s okay, Ginny,” he said at last, causing her to release a long breath. “In the future, though, could you come find me so we can go through my things together?” He grinned playfully at her.
Ginny nodded and returned the grin.
“Have a seat, then. You can tell me what it is I’m looking at.”
She sat next to him on the sofa, and opened the photo album for him. Harry’s mouth fell open in astonishment as a young couple waved up at him from the page. Apart from his lack of a lightning bolt scar, the man looked exactly like a slightly older version of him. The woman, her long red hair glistening in the sunlight, was laughing and messing up the man’s hair, causing him to join in her laughter.
“Is that...?” he asked hesitantly.
Ginny nodded. “Yeah. I don’t know how much you know about your mum and dad, Harry, but I’m pretty sure all your pictures of them are in this album.” Her voice was soft, and soothed him against the lump that was forming in his throat.
“I don’t know much of anything about them,” Harry replied in a subdued voice as he studied his parents’ smiling faces. “After I visited the Dursleys with Professor Dumbledore, I guessed that they were magical, but other than that....” His voice trailed off. “Aunt Petunia always refused to talk about them, and I learned a long time ago that it was safer not to ask.”
They began slowly turning the pages of the photo album while Ginny explained that Hagrid, the half-giant Harry remembered seeing in a dream, had collected the photos for Harry because he knew he didn’t have any pictures of his parents. Her voice caught slightly when they came to the Potters’ wedding picture and she pointed out Harry’s godfather, Sirius Black.
“What is it?” Harry asked, noticing that Ginny had suddenly gone very quiet.
“Nothing,” she said quickly, shaking herself.
Harry gave her a look that clearly said he didn’t believe her.
After a long, tense moment, her face crumpled and she finally said, “Okay. Sirius was... he died about a year ago. There was a battle, and-” She stopped, apparently unable to continue.
Harry suddenly felt very awkward. This man, Sirius Black, had been his godfather, yet he couldn’t remember ever having met him. He wondered briefly why he had been forced to live with the Dursleys when he had a wizard godfather who could have taken him in, but the sight of Ginny’s stricken face made him quickly decide that now was not the time to ask. Hesitantly, he slipped an arm around her shoulders and squeezed lightly.
“It’s okay, Ginny. If he died in battle, then I’m sure he went out protecting the people he cared about.” It was a little ridiculous that he was comforting Ginny over the loss of his godfather, but Harry honestly didn’t feel any grief. How could he, if he’d never even known the man existed?
Ginny suddenly dissolved into tears, leaning heavily on Harry’s shoulder. Instinctively, he pulled her close and began softly rubbing her back with the palm of his hand. After a few minutes, she looked up at him with bloodshot eyes, and laughed weakly.
“Shouldn’t I be the one comforting you about this?” she asked.
Harry shrugged. “Well, it’s not like I don’t feel bad about finding out he’s dead, but I mean... I can’t even remember meeting him. I guess I’d be a mess if I could remember him, but I can’t.”
Ginny snorted as she wiped away her tears. “Understatement of the year, right there. You were practically insane right up until you disappeared.”
Harry stared at the smiling photo of Sirius, watching as he shook his long black hair out of his eyes. He tried hard to remember the man, to feel some small amount of grief for him, but it was no use. Until Dumbledore found a way to get his hands on Umbridge’s wand, Sirius Black would remain a mystery.
“Come on,” Ginny said after a moment, “let’s keep looking at these pictures. This is supposed to be happy, right?” Harry’s stomach did a little flip as she snuggled up closer to him and rested her head on his chest to resume turning the pages of the album. His attention was split between the images of his parents in the book and the feeling of Ginny pressed up against him. One moment he would be wondering how his parents had first met, and the next he would be asking himself if Ginny’s behavior meant she had finally gotten over her fear that he would break her heart. As they sat in companionable silence, examining a photo of the Potters with baby Harry, they suddenly heard loud footsteps descending the stairs. Immediately, Ginny stiffened and moved away, causing Harry to swear under his breath.
“Morning,” Ron called with a yawn as he entered the living room.
Ginny rolled her eyes irritably. “It’s 12:30, Ron - not morning anymore.”
Ron’s eyes widened in surprise. “How come Mum didn’t get me up?”
“Because she left early to do some shopping in Diagon Alley.”
Ron nodded. “Right. Well, time for breakfast and lunch, then.”
Harry arched an eyebrow. “Breakfast and lunch?”
“Of course,” Ron answered without batting an eye. “I can’t go without breakfast - it’s the most important meal of the day - but it’s already lunchtime. I have no choice but to combine the two.”
Ginny stifled a laugh and said, “I already had breakfast, so I think I’ll just stick to lunch this time around.” She and Harry followed Ron into the kitchen.
“What have you two been up to, anyway?” Ron asked after piling a plate full of eggs, sausage, and sandwiches that his mother had left for them. “I remember Ginny dragging you out of bed really early this morning, Harry, but I never thought whatever she wanted would take until after noon.”
Harry laughed as he began making himself a sandwich. “She got me up at eleven, Ron; that isn’t exactly ‘really early.’”
“What did she want?”
“I’m right here, you know,” Ginny said irritably. “I wanted to show him the photo album of his parents. He didn’t remember he had it, and I thought he might enjoy it.”
“You were right,” Harry said, looking intently into her eyes. After only a brief moment, Ginny blushed slightly and looked away.
“So you’ve just been looking at old photos of Harry’s parents?” Ron asked after swallowing another bite of food.
“For the most part,” Ginny answered evasively. Harry wondered why she was acting like they had something to hide.
“What do you mean, ‘for the most part’?” Ron demanded in a suspicious tone. “What else were you doing?” His ears had begun to take on a dark red hue, making Harry very uneasy.
Ginny waited until her brother took a very large gulp of pumpkin juice, before saying, as casually as possible, “Snogging.”
The effect was as immediate as it was predictable: the table - actually, the entire room - in front of Ron was sprayed with sticky orange-ish juice. Harry merely stared dumbly at Ginny, his mouth hanging slightly open.
“Sno- You- What?” Ron spluttered. His face was nearly as red as his hair, and he was gripping the edge of the table for support.
Ginny smirked at her brother. “I couldn’t help it,” she said with a shrug, “he’s just irresistible.”
Harry and Ron gaped at her for almost a full minute before Ginny began to laugh uncontrollably. “You should’ve seen your face,” she gasped in between giggles. “Both of you, actually - it was priceless! But Ron, you really ought to clean up this mess before Mum gets home.”
“Merlin, Ginny, don’t play around like that,” Ron finally choked out. “You almost gave me a heart attack.” He glanced over at Harry. “Looks like you almost gave Harry one, too.” After staring at the mess in front of him for a moment, he sighed. “I really ought to go up and get my wand so I can clean this up with magic, but it seems like such a waste to climb all those stairs.” Harry just laughed and shook his head. Ron’s laziness was only creating more work for him.
While Ron hurriedly mopped up the juice, Harry and Ginny ate their sandwiches and chatted quietly about nothing at all. Harry wasn’t paying much attention to the conversation, though - his mind kept drifting back to the joke Ginny had pulled on Ron. He supposed it was a good sign that she was at least able to joke about kissing him, even if she wasn’t willing to be seen resting her head on his shoulder, but he wasn’t about to get his hopes up.
As Harry was carrying his and Ginny’s empty plates to the sink, the house suddenly echoed with three very loud booms. The noise came from the front door, but it sounded more like a battering ram than a knock. The three teens looked warily at one another before Harry took off for the door at a run. None of them had their wands and, as he was the only one who could do magic without one, he was determined to be the first to face whatever lay outside that door.
Just as Harry arrived at the front door, there was another series of loud booms, and he could see the door shuddering under the onslaught. He glanced over his shoulder to see Ron and Ginny watching the door nervously. “Wands,” he mouthed silently at them. They nodded, and Ron hurried up the stairs while Ginny waved for Harry to follow them. He shook his head.
“Harry, I’m not leaving you down here with who knows what trying to break down the door!” she hissed. “Come on!”
“No,” he whispered. “I’ll be fine; trust me.”
Suddenly remembering that Harry’s school trunk was still in the living room, Ginny rushed over to it and flipped it open. Two wands lay on top of his broomstick and an extremely disorganized pile of robes, books, and other odds and ends. She snatched the wands and ran back over to Harry, handing him his wand and keeping Peter Pettigrew’s for herself.
Boom. Boom. Crash!
The sound of splintering wood filled the room as the hinges and bolt gave way and the front door of the Burrow flew inward. Harry pushed Ginny behind him as he raised his wand in preparation to curse whoever - or whatever - was on the other side of the door.
“Stupefy!” he shouted, sending a jet of red light at the enormous man in the doorway.
Instead of falling to the ground unconscious as Harry had expected, the gigantic man only blinked in surprise. “Blimey, Harry, tha’s no way ta greet an ol’ friend. Bit jumpy, are yeh?”
“Hagrid!” Ginny shouted in relief, laughing and running forward to give the man a hug. She laughed harder when her head nearly disappeared in his wildly tangled beard. “What are you doing here?”
“Came to see Harry, o’ course,” answered the half-giant. He stooped to pass through the doorway, and picked up the door. “Sorry ‘bout the door; don’t know me own strength sometimes.”
Behind Hagrid, other people began filing through the doorway. First came a middle-aged man with threadbare robes and prematurely gray hair, who immediately rushed over to Harry and gripped his shoulder, greeting him in an almost fatherly way. Next were Fred and George Weasley, the twins Mrs. Weasley had told him about, who were grinning madly at Hagrid and the broken door. Finally, Dumbledore entered the room and surveyed the damage.
“We’ll take that, Hagrid,” said George, pointing to the door. Harry could tell it was George because he wore a large nametag that said GEORGE in the center of his chest. His twin wore a similar nametag that said FRED. Harry supposed the nametags were for his benefit.
“We’ll put it back good as new,” added Fred.
“Alrigh’,” Hagrid began, but Dumbledore cut him off.
“I’m afraid I wouldn’t last a day if Molly learned that I had allowed two of her sons to jinx her front door while supposedly repairing it,” he said. “I’ll take it, Hagrid.” While Dumbledore levitated the door back into place, the twins tried to look offended.
“Frankly, Professor, I’m shocked-” said Fred.
“-appalled-” George added.
“-that you could even think-” Fred continued.
“-much less suggest out loud-” agreed George.
“-that we would ever do anything to upset our dear mother,” Fred finished.
“Sadly, I know you too well,” Dumbledore sighed dramatically, causing everyone to laugh.
“What’s going on here?” Ron asked from the bottom of the stairs. “Was that you banging on the door, Hagrid?”
“Er- well, yeh see....”
“We thought somebody was trying to break the door down!” Ron shouted.
“Which is why we asked Hagrid to do the knocking,” George said with a wink.
“How are you, Harry?” the tattered-looking man asked at last. “Professor Dumbledore told us everything, of course, but....”
Harry nodded. “I’m fine,” he said. “Er, not to be rude or anything, but... who are you exactly?”
“Oh, of course - where are my manners?” said the man. He extended his hand, saying, “Remus Lupin.”
“Harry Potter,” Harry said as he shook the man’s hand.
Lupin laughed. “I know who you are, Harry. We actually spent a fair bit of time together when I was your professor a few years back.”
“Er- right,” Harry said awkwardly. He couldn’t help feeling uneasy about the fact that everyone else knew so much more about him than he did.
“Why don’t we all sit down?” Ginny suggested as she took a seat in a nearby armchair. Everyone seemed to agree, and they all hurriedly found seats. Lupin sat in an armchair, and Hagrid squeezed onto the sofa with the twins because there were no chairs large enough for him. Harry and Ron took the remaining two armchairs.
Looking around, Harry suddenly realized that Dumbledore was still standing. “I’ll go get another chair,” he said, starting to get up.
“No need,” said the Headmaster. He twirled his wand once, conjuring the same squashy purple armchair that he had used when talking to Harry about his ability to do magic without a wand. Once he was seated, he surveyed the small gathering for a moment before saying, “As much as it pains me to do this, Harry, I’m afraid I must return you to your relatives’ home for a portion of the summer holiday.”
“WHAT!” The exclamation came from everyone but Dumbledore, Lupin, and Hagrid, who Harry suspected had been informed of this plan in advance.
“You can’t send him back there,” Ron shouted, leaping to his feet. “They’re the-” Ron called the Dursleys a name that Harry was sure he shouldn’t have said in front of his Headmaster, “-that lost him his memory in the first place!”
“Sit down, Mr. Weasley,” Dumbledore said in a calm but firm voice. Ron sat. “I hope you all believe me when I say that this is completely necessary.”
“It was necessary last year, and look what happened,” Ginny spat bitterly.
“I’m not going back there,” Harry said flatly.
Dumbledore sighed as he massaged the bridge of his nose. “I was afraid you might have that reaction, Harry, but the situation is more serious than you realize.”
“Yeah, well I might realize how serious things are if the bloody Dursleys hadn’t let that Umbridge woman wipe out my memory in the first place.” Harry was not about to return to the Dursleys’ for anyone - not even Dumbledore. He glared contemptuously at the old man, and fought the urge to test his reflexes by firing off a Stunner at him.
“Harry, your friend, Miss Granger, told you about the group of dark wizards who are after you, correct?” Dumbledore asked, trying a different tack.
“Yeah,” Harry answered. “I met a few of them in person the night I ran away from school, too.”
“Did she happen to mention a particular dark wizard named Lord Voldemort?” A shiver ran through half of the gathering at the mention of this name; Harry, Ginny, Lupin, and Dumbledore seemed to be unaffected, while Ron, Fred, George, and Hagrid all flinched at the sound.
“No,” Harry answered, confused at the reaction to the dark wizard’s name.
“I thought not,” said Dumbledore. “Harry, this wizard, Lord Voldemort, has a deep personal grudge against you.” Everyone in the room exchanged significant looks, causing Harry’s unease to grow.
“What is it?” Harry asked, not at all sure that he really wanted to know. “What aren’t you telling me?”
Dumbledore seemed to make a quick decision. Looking him straight in the eye, he said, “Harry, Lord Voldemort was once the most feared dark wizard in the world. Among others, he murdered your parents. He tried to murder you as well, but he hadn’t counted on the fact that your mother had sacrificed herself to save you. Her sacrifice caused his Killing Curse to rebound on him, reducing him to something that was barely alive. The only mark the curse left upon you was that scar on your forehead.”
Harry gaped at him, his mind reeling at Dumbledore’s words. Whatever he had been expecting, this certainly hadn’t been it. The Dursleys had always told him that his parents had been killed in a car crash, and no one here had bothered to tell him differently until now. Tears pricked his eyes as he realized once again how very little he knew about his parents - or, for that matter, about himself. Finally, after taking a deep breath to calm himself, he asked what seemed to be the most relevant of all the questions swimming in his mind. “What does all that have to do with the Dursleys?”
“Your mother’s sacrifice created a powerful protection for you, Harry, but it is only able to work if you can call the place where her blood dwells, home. Your mother’s blood resides in her sister - your aunt. The only way to keep you safe from Lord Voldemort until you come of age is to return you to the home of your relatives.”
“But why do I even have to worry about this Lord Voldemort?” Harry asked. “I mean, you said yourself that he was barely alive. Surely he can’t do anything to me no matter where I am.”
“Lord Voldemort returned to power two years ago. I believe your friends mentioned his return in their letters.”
Harry glanced down at the thin scars on the back of his right hand, which distinctly spelled out the words, ‘I must not tell lies.’
“Yeah, I remember them telling me that,” he said. “I told everybody he was back, and that’s what got Umbridge on my case in the first place. Can’t we just go curse her and take her wand?” All of the Weasleys present made noises of agreement.
“No we can’t,” Lupin said firmly. “We must do everything we can to work within the bounds of the law, Harry. If we begin flouting the rights of others, we will be dangerously close to becoming exactly like those we oppose.”
Harry’s anger flared. “Flouting the rights-” he began shouting.
“Sirius was wrongly imprisoned for twelve years without a trial!” Lupin shouted over the top of him as he sprang to his feet. His calm demeanor had vanished, replaced with an almost animal rage. “And we all thought that was well and good, until we found out that he was really innocent!”
Harry didn’t understand what Lupin was shouting about, but his words stung all the same. He was close to tears as he glared at Harry with such a fierce expression on his face that Harry found himself sinking lower in his chair.
“What Mr. Lupin is trying to tell you, Harry, is that we have all been wronged by those who believed themselves to be above the law,” said Dumbledore. “We cannot allow ourselves to engage in the hypocrisy of condemning such attitudes while harboring them ourselves.”
Harry slumped further as the fight went out of him. “Yes sir,” he mumbled in a bitter tone. “I’ll go get my things.” He stood and walked toward the stairs, only to find his path blocked by Ginny. She stood with her hands on her hips and an extremely angry expression on her face.
“That’s it?” she asked in disbelief. “You’re going just like that?”
“I have to,” Harry muttered with a shrug. “You heard them; it’s the only thing that can keep me safe from Voldemort.”
Ginny bit her lip. After years of waiting, she was finally getting the kind of attention from Harry that she had always wanted, and he could see that she was extremely reluctant to let him go so easily, despite her refusal to begin any sort of “official” relationship. Finally, she said, “I’m not letting you go until you promise me something.”
“Oh?” Harry asked while trying to hide a smile. They both knew that if he wanted to, he could easily lift her and move her out of his way whether she wanted him to or not. Then again, she looked so fierce at the moment that he wasn’t sure he wanted to try. “What do I have to promise?”
She looked intently into his eyes. “Promise you won’t disappear or forget again.”
Harry chuckled a little. “I promise,” he said.
“How can you promise that?” she asked without breaking her gaze. “You didn’t mean for it to happen last time, and it did.”
“Let’s just say that living in a boarding school full of delinquents helped me learn a few new tricks. I guarantee you that there’s no way what Umbridge did would come close to working now.” He could feel several sets of curious eyes on him, waiting for him to elaborate, but that was as much as he as willing to say on the subject. “Come on, Ginny,” he added softly, “I’ve got to go. I’ll write you as soon as I arrive, I promise.”
Reluctantly, Ginny stepped aside, allowing Harry to pass. After telling everyone he would be right back, he ran upstairs to gather his clothes and schoolbag, and carried them back down to the living room where he dumped them, along with his and Pettigrew’s wands and his photo album, inside his trunk.
“Before we leave, there is one more thing I would like to ask,” said Dumbledore. He looked at the twins, his eyes twinkling merrily. “As you know, we had a bit of trouble with Harry’s relatives last year. I would like the two of you to take turns- what would you call it? ‘Keeping them in line.’ I cannot, of course, condone any sort of Muggle-baiting; however, you have my permission to frighten them just enough to keep them civil. Can I trust you to do that?”
Fred and George were wearing identical grins. “Of course, Professor,” they chorused.
“Er, Professor Dumbledore?” Harry asked. “If they use magic at Privet Drive, won’t I get in trouble with the Ministry of Magic?”
“Goodness, no,” Dumbledore answered with a laugh. “It would look far too suspicious for Madam Umbridge to have the Improper Use of Magic Office begin watching your relatives’ house again, and no one else at the Ministry knows you’ve been removed from their list. Well, that’s not entirely true. Arthur Weasley knows, but he’s hardly going to do something that would create more problems for you.”
“So you’re saying that the Ministry won’t know if magic’s being done at my aunt and uncle’s?”
“Exactly,” Dumbledore said with a wink. “Now, I’m afraid we must be off - we’re on a bit of a schedule. Ready, Harry?”
“Oh no you don’t,” Ron said in a loud voice. “I see what’s going on here. You’re trying to get Harry out of the house before Mum gets home so me and Ginny will have to be the ones to tell her he’s gone back to the Muggles.”
Dumbledore’s face was inscrutable, but his eyes twinkled as he said, “Now what would give you that idea?”
Harry clapped Ron on the shoulder. “See you mate. I’m sure I’ll be back here in no time.”
“Take care of yourself,” Ron replied. “And don’t let those two-” he nodded at the twins, “-give you too much trouble.”
“I won’t,” Harry promised. He turned to Ginny next, and pulled her into a tight embrace. “Don’t worry,” he whispered so that only she could hear. “I’ll see you soon.” She nodded as he pulled away. After giving her a small smile, he carried his trunk and Hedwig’s cage out the door behind Dumbledore.
As they passed the Weasleys’ old broom shed, Harry stopped suddenly. “I just remembered something,” he said, and raced over to the dilapidated building, emerging a moment later with Peter Pettigrew’s damaged broom. It was still covered in a layer of dried mud, making it barely recognizable as the handsome broomstick he had taken from St. Brutus’s. “Is there someone I need to give this to, Professor?” he asked.
Dumbledore shook his head. “Pettigrew had no legal heirs. If you wish to keep it, his broomstick is yours. For that matter, you may keep his wand as well.”
“Right,” said Harry, and he flipped open his trunk and placed the dirty, broken broomstick alongside his Firebolt. “Okay. Now I’m ready,” he said as he closed the trunk again. Dumbledore nodded and sent the trunk and cage ahead of them with a wave of his wand. Then he extended his arm for Harry to grasp. Gritting his teeth in anticipation of the discomfort of Apparition, Harry forced his face into something of a smile for Ron’s and Ginny’s benefit, and entered the constricting rubber tube that would lead him to Privet Drive.
A/N: What? Harry’s memory is still gone and he didn’t quite get the girl? What’s going on? Before you all start sending me Howlers for ending the story here, let me just say one word: Sequel. I just felt like this was the right place to end this story because Harry Potter stories always end when he goes back to the Dursleys’ house for the summer.
So... the sequel is called A Past Reclaimed, and I will submit the first chapter as soon as this one is validated.
Thank you so much to all my faithful readers and reviewers; you’ve been absolutely wonderful. I hope you stick with me for the sequel!