Soul Searching/End Game
SS Chapter 24 - Meetings
By Chem Prof
Chapter 24, Meetings
Friday, August 15
They finished up their week back at Hogwarts along with Ron to meet once more with McGonagall. Now that they had accepted their extra duties, they needed to finalize their schedules. Hermione and McGonagall were initially shocked when Harry announced his plans, although Hermione soon realized that what he told them made sense.
Harry had decided not to continue Potions, neither was he continuing in Herbology. In persuading McGonagall and Hermione, he pointed out that he needed to focus on what would keep him alive during a fight. If he needed a potion or needed to know something about a plant, he could consult with Hermione or Neville. He would worry about NEWTs and careers later.
Accordingly, he had decided to take only Charms and Transfiguration as a regular student, in addition to sitting in on most of the Defense classes. All three of them were continuing their private tutoring from Remus and Tonks and Mrs. Longbottom and an occasional defense specialist that Harry would hire. He had also decided that he would need to be gone from the castle one day a week, meeting with Viktor and others.
After hearing his reasoning, Hermione had reluctantly made a similar decision and was taking only Potions, Charms, Transfiguration, and Arithmency, having already progressed beyond NEWT level in Defense. At McGonagall’s suggestion they decided to ask Bill to provide her occasional tutoring in Ancient Runes, so that she would be able to obtain NEWT certification in that subject as well, and she was able to work out a similar arrangement with Mrs. Longbottom in History of Magic. When she had time she would try to work with Neville on Herbology to keep up her skills in that class. She and Harry would also consult occasionally with the elder Professors Tonks regarding Muggle Studies.
Harry surprised them again when he revealed that he intended to play quidditch. Hermione was impressed, because she had been going to suggest exactly that, and had expected to have difficulty persuading him. She had been sure that he would decide that there simply was no place in his life for anything frivolous and would have to study and train all of the time. She was pleased that he realized, without her having to point it out to him, that he needed the kind of balance that enjoyable activities provided in his life, to keep him from burning out. Harry assured them that he had no intention of being a quidditch captain, however, turning that position over to Ron. He jokingly asked Ron if he could still be on the team, even if he wouldn’t have much time to practice.
After Ron got over his shock, he enthusiastically accepted the quidditch position, and assured Harry that he would have a place on any team that Ron captained. He immediately began making plans to implement the reorganization of the quidditch tournament that he and Harry had come up with.
As for his own classes, Ron would continue in Defense, Charms, Transfiguration, and Herbology, and decided to resume Care of Magical Creatures. To Hermione’s disappointment, he also decided to drop Potions. As a result, she would be in the class without any other Gryffindors. At Harry and Hermione’s insistence, Ron reluctantly agreed to take the revamped Muggle Studies course that they were helping the Tonks’s develop, although he had a suspicion that he was going to be their test subject. Harry and Ron would also be getting some sword training.
Some of the special considerations they were to receive included a floo connection from the Head suite to the Headmasters office and reusable portkeys to Grimmauld Place. In the aftermath of the battle at Crouch Manor, Flitwick had informed Hermione that another type of portkey was possible, one that was voice activated. It needed to be made from a magical item rather than an ordinary item, since a wand was not used to activate it. Hermione had him make hers from the cross necklace from the Potter vault that she now wore every day.
McGonagall also set aside an unused room on the third floor corridor near where they had encountered Fluffy during their first year for them to use for their training. It was password protected so that only they or their friends would be able to enter.
Finally the discussion turned to the DA. McGonagall informed them that it would be an official school club and requested that they make it open to all students fourth year and above, not just their friends, and that Tonks or Remus be consulted on the spells they would practice.
“Even Slytherins?” came the predictable objection from Ron.
McGonagall nodded sternly and Harry and Hermione agreed, leaving Ron muttering and shaking his head.
“As long as you have ensured that there are no longer any Voldemort supporters in the school,” Harry added, locking his gaze on the headmistress.
“That has been taken care of,” she responded, returning his glance evenly. “Mr. Weasley’s brothers did indeed prove useful in that regard. Professor Flitwick and I were able to examine each student during the home visits we have been making during the past month. Several students will not be returning, but the remaining ones were able to satisfy us that they are not supporters of the dark lord.” She directed her next comment to Ron. “I might point out, Mr. Weasley, that not all of the students who excluded themselves were from Slytherin house.”
“How many Slytherin students remain in our year?” asked Harry.
“Only three.”
“Returning to the DA,” interrupted Hermione, “we think we will need to organize it differently than we did last time if there are going to be a lot more students. We will divide students by ability level and will have some of the better students working with the least experienced ones. Harry will be spending most of his time with the advanced students, but will work at least part of the time with each group.”
McGonagall was quite happy with this plan, but frowned at the next statement.
“We will still be using a secrecy charm.” Hermione stared defiantly at the headmistress and stood her ground until McGonagall relented and gave her assent. When it came to keeping Harry Potter safe, she realized, Hermione Granger did not mess around. The dressing down that she and Dumbledore’s portrait had received last week had been unnerving. This girl was downright frightening where Harry was concerned.
-ooOoo-
Monday August 18
Harry looked around the office nervously. Professor Cook seemed like a nice enough bloke, but this place reminded him too much of a potions laboratory. He supposed that chemistry must be a lot like potions, but he really didn’t understand either of them very well. Hermione, on the other hand, seemed thrilled to be here he thought as he watched his friend eagerly discussing their project with the grandfatherly professor.
Professor Cook was, in fact, a grandfather. His youngest daughter had been in Ravenclaw fifteen years earlier, but his two older daughters were non-magical. Hermione was getting more and more excited as she talked with him about what they needed to do. While she had always been good at potions, they seemed just too random to her. An ingredient in one potion seemed to have a different effect than it did in another potion.
As Professor Cook explained to her the different properties of gold and silver, as well as their similarities, and related them all to periodic trends, she realized that this subject made sense. If you knew how something reacted in one case, you could predict how it would react in a related case. It was perfect for her organized mind.
Eventually they came up with several different reactions that they could use to try to destroy the horcruxes. Professor Cook promised to get together the materials they would need and they would come back next week to pick them up. As Harry and Hermione left she decided that she would love to come back some day and take a chemistry course from him. Well, not him, she amended, since he was retired, but from the friendly chem prof across the hall, who had smiled at her and somehow almost seemed to know her.
-ooOoo-
Harry was in the kitchen getting dinner together and wondering what was keeping Hermione when he got a sudden feeling of her presence, which accompanied a pop from the next room that announced her arrival. He could sense her excitement before she even entered the kitchen.
“Harry! I think I found them!” He braced himself for the now familiar display of her exuberance as she came hurtling toward him with a hug. After disengaging, he made her sit down and tell the whole story while he finished preparing dinner, noting that she was in her blonde disguise today.
“Your aunt gave me a general idea of where they lived, and I’ve been checking it out. They sold their house years ago, but I found a neighbor who told me that they moved into a flat in a retirement village. They didn’t know which one, though, so I’ve been visiting every one I could find. I finally found them today.” Hermione paused, looking at Harry to see how he was taking this information. He had stopped working on dinner and was just standing there staring out the kitchen window. She got up and walked up behind him, wrapping her arms around him and leaning her head on his back.
“If you’re ready, we can make arrangements to see them on Thursday or Friday.” Harry thought about it, then slowly agreed. He had had so many emotional ups and downs the past few weeks that he wasn’t sure if he was ready for another one. But if they were going to do this it would be better to get it done before classes started, when time would be at a premium.
“Do you want to ask Ron to come too?”
“I … I think so. I know they’re muggles and living in a muggle community, but I’d like to have him there.”
“What about Ginny?”
“Yeah, she should be there too.” He turned around finally, and she could now see that he was smiling. She relaxed, and they talked for a little more about the visit, then sat down to dinner.
-ooOoo-
Friday, August 22
Harry approached the apartment with some trepidation. Could this really be happening? Hermione waited patiently beside him. Ginny and Ron hung further back, nervous about being in the muggle neighborhood, afraid they would do something wrong. Ginny was determined to overcome her nervousness and be here to support Harry, and was urging Ron to catch up. Hermione pressed the doorbell. Suddenly there was an answering voice from the intercom. Ginny and Ron looked around frantically, trying to locate the hidden person, but Hermione pressed the talk button confidently.
“Dr. Evans? It’s Hermione Granger. I called you the other day about stopping by? My friends and I would like to talk with you.” The security door buzzed and they entered the hallway, Hermione and Harry dragging Ron and Ginny through the doorway. At the end of the hall a door opened and an elderly man beckoned them inside. While Hermione spoke to the man and Ginny and Ron looked around at the muggle apartment Harry stared at a woman who was just coming into the room. A woman with vivid green eyes.
A look of shock appeared on the woman’s face and she threw her hand up to her mouth. “James!”
The man whirled and he and Hermione moved quickly forward to catch her as she wobbled on unsteady feet. “No, Rosie, it’s not James. He’s dead remember? He and Lily?” The man turned to Harry. “I’m sorry son, you look remarkably like our son-in-law, but he’s been dead for …”
Without thinking, Harry finished the sentence. “For sixteen years. I know.” Ginny had moved up from behind Harry and was clutching his arm tightly. The man just stared at Harry silently.
Hermione finally spoke up. “Mr. and Mrs. Evans you should probably sit down for this. She gestured to the sofa and Harold Evans nodded and guided his wife over to it and helped her sit, then joined her. He looked up at Hermione, then back at Harry.
“You know something about James and Lily, don’t you?”
Harry finally found his voice. “Sir, I … I’m …” He swallowed hard. “I’m Harry. Harry Potter. James and Lily’s son.” He gestured weakly toward Hermione. “My friend here recently found out where you lived and I wanted to meet you and …” he stopped, not knowing how to explain.
Harold Evans had been a brilliant physician and his mind was a sharp as ever. After the death of one daughter and being cut off from contact with the other his wife’s health had steadily declined and she had had to retire early, unable to continue her practice.
She had been a psychiatrist, and he knew from her stories all about long lost families being reunited. He also knew, however, about the scams that were perpetrated on the elderly by con artists claiming to be long lost relatives. These four children looked pretty young to be pulling off such a scam, and the boy did look remarkably like James. Then he noticed the boy’s eyes. Lily’s eyes. Rosie’s eyes.
He looked over at his wife. She had already noticed the eyes and tears were running from her own. He looked back at the boy. “Harry? But Petunia told us you were dead. How?”
A scowl appeared on Harry’s face and he felt a hand squeeze his own, giving him strength, then another do the same on his other side. “She told me you were dead too,” he answered, trying to keep his voice from breaking. “Grandma? Grandpa?” Then soft hands were pushing him forward and his grandpa was rising, then they were embracing and the tears came freely. Somehow his grandma was helped to her feet and he was hugging her too and one thought kept going through his mind. He had a family. He had a family. He had a family!
Soon they were all seated, Rose unwilling to let Harry sit anywhere other than right beside her on the sofa where she wouldn’t let go of him. Hermione joined them on the sofa and Ginny curled up on the floor in front of Harry with her head leaning against his legs. Ron noticed that he was the only one in the room not crying, so he began the tale. How Harry had survived at the age of one when Lily and James had been killed. How he had been sent by the Hogwarts headmaster to live with the Dursleys because they were thought to be his only remaining relatives. How Petunia had kept Harry in the dark about his wizard heritage until he was eleven.
Harold Evans interrupted at this point to fill in some gaps in the tale from his point of view. About how Lily had told them that she and James were in danger and persuaded them to take a year’s sabbatical and travel on the continent. About the cover story she and James had devised and spread in the magical community that her parents had been killed while traveling abroad. How the messages from her had abruptly come to a halt halfway through the year, and the stone wall they had run into trying to find out what had happened. How at last Petunia had told them that James and Lily and Harry had been killed and that there was still danger and that they should absolutely avoid contact with the magical community. Of course they had no means of contacting anyone anyway. And finally how Petunia had turned on them and accused them of always favoring Lily and screamed at them that they had got what they deserved when she died. How she hated them and never wanted to see them again and forbade them from ever contacting her or her family again, cutting them out of her life.
As they revealed this Harry and Hermione were struck by the similarity to their own situation, where they had sent Hermione’s parents off to America for their safety. Lily had gone further, though, by telling everyone that her parents were dead. It made sense now, why no one had known they were still alive. Hermione shuddered as she wondered what would happen to her parents if she were killed. At least Remus and Tonks would be able to contact them with the cell phones.
Harold finished his story. Finally giving up on learning anything more about what happened to Lily, they had moved to another community and tried to start over, but with only mixed success. He managed to affiliate with a hospital, but Rose was unable to get over the loss of her daughters and grandsons, and could not continue her medical practice.
Hermione was now able to pick up the story, and told a carefully worded version of how the three had met at school and been friends since their first year, Ginny joining them a year later. How the evil wizard was still out there and still trying to kill Harry, but that they had been resisting him successfully for years now. She assured them that the two of them were safe here; since it had taken her so long to find them no pureblood wizard without experience in the normal world would ever manage it, and none would think to look for them anyway.
When the conversation had about run its course, Harry asked something that had been on his mind for a while. “You never saw their graves, did you?” They sadly acknowledged that they had not. “I never have either. Would you like to come with me to visit them sometime?” With tears once more in their eyes they immediately accepted.
“Harry?” The practical side of Hermione interjected. “We’re going to be pretty busy next week, and then we’re back at school the following week. Harry clearly was not happy with that difficulty, but she went on. “Do you want to go right now? We have the rest of the day available.”
No one had any objection, but it took a while to get the transportation issues resolved. First Harry called Dobby and had him find out where Potter mansion was from Bill. Interestingly enough, Harold and Rose had actually been there once. When Dobby returned he took Harry and Hermione to the mansion. After looking around a few seconds, they returned to the apartment and dual apparated first Ron and Ginny, then returned for Harold and Rose. Eventually all of them were behind the mansion, looking at the small family graveyard.
By unspoken agreement, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny held back and allowed Harry and his grandparents to approach the graves first. After some time Harry turned and beckoned them forward, and the two girls once more automatically came to his sides, with Ron behind him.
After some time they returned to the apartment and were persuaded to stay for dinner. Harold and Rose regaled them with tales from Lily’s childhood, which in some cases were quite similar to the tales the Grangers had told of Hermione’s childhood. They pulled out photo albums, and Harry reciprocated by showing them his photo album, willingly fetched by Dobby. Later Rose approached with a box of letters.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Everyone turned to Hermione in surprise at that question. “Well,” she explained, “I’m not sure I’d want my children to see some of the things I wrote home in my letters to my parents.” She turned to Ginny for support. “Especially things I might have written about boys?” Ginny blushed a little and immediately agreed.
Harold and Rose laughed. “Oh you mean like how she wrote us for years about what an arrogant prat this James Potter was? It’s funny, though, how she wrote more about him than any other boy at school. We had a feeling there was something there between them long before she admitted it to herself. Why don’t you take a look at a few of them from when she decided he wasn’t too bad after all, especially the one where she told us he had asked her to marry him. It was a pretty amusing proposal.”
Hermione had read Harry one version of this story from the diary, but the letter had a different spin on it than the diary had and it was just as interesting. Harry quickly declined their offer to let him keep the letters, realizing that these were one of the few things they still had to remember their daughter by. With a lot of hugs, and a few more tears, and promises to visit again when school was out they finally left and returned to their respective homes.
-ooOoo-
“I can’t believe it. After all these years, we have our grandson back.”
“And he seems like such a fine young man. A combination of James and Lily for certain.”
“Rosie, which one of those girls did it look to you was Harry’s girlfriend?”
“I don’t know. I think it was Ginny but I’m not sure. She seemed like she was holding on to him more. But he seemed to have some kind of connection to Hermione too. He always looked to her whenever he was uncertain about something.”
“Ginny looks just like Lily did at that age.”
“Yes, but Hermione acts just like Lily did at that age.”
-ooOoo-
Monday, August 25
Harry and Hermione stood on Charing Cross Road outside the Leaky Cauldron ready to greet the families of the incoming muggleborn students. As the first family found their way over to where they were, he recalled his own introduction to the magical world when Hagrid first took him through the doors of this very pub.
“Hello, I’m Hermione Granger and this is Harry Potter,” Hermione began and Harry reached out and started shaking hands, as the parents and children introduced themselves. There were five entering muggleborns this year, Jon, Laura, Kristin, and a pair of twins, Mark and Carolyn. Once they had all arrived, the head students escorted them into the pub and to a back room that had been reserved for the day. In addition to the two of them and McGonagall, Justin Finch-Fletchley, a seventh year muggleborn from Hufflepuff, and Andromeda and Ted Tonks, the new Muggle Studies professors were in attendance.
After they were all seated McGonagall began the presentation with an explanation of the magical world, including the concepts of muggleborn, pureblood, and halfblood. As an example she referred to the Tonks, with Andromeda being a pureblood and Ted a muggleborn, making their daughter a halfblood. To her credit, she did acknowledge that there were relatively few purebloods, and that some of them were prejudiced against muggleborns and the students would face some discrimination.
Andromeda Tonks reassured them that success at Hogwarts was in no way related to bloodline, unlike other English private schools they may have been familiar with. She embarrassed Hermione slightly by using her as an example of a muggleborn who was at the top of her class and Head Girl, then recalled that Harry’s mother had been exactly the same. McGonagall also informed them of the magical secrecy laws and the underage magic restrictions, which elicited quick shared grins between Harry and Hermione.
Ted Tonks took over and compared and contrasted a few things about the wizarding world with their nonmagical counterparts, including owl post, quills vs. pens, money and banking, the lack of electricity and the corresponding use of magic to accomplish everyday tasks that muggles built machines for, and briefly described the wizarding government.
Justin then described ghosts and informed them that many mythical beasts were actually real, and jokingly told them that Harry had probably had more experiences with these beasts than most students. Harry took the hint and gave a quick description of dragons, hippogriffs, thestrals, acromantulas, and unicorns, concluding with his encounter with a sphinx and its fondness for riddles.
Hermione pointed out that many of these beasts were fairly intelligent and could be communicated with, and that there were other magical creatures that were fully intelligent and should be regarded as equal beings, including goblins, elves, and centaurs.
At this point they took a break and Tom brought in refreshments, introducing them to two of the favorite beverages at Hogwarts, pumpkin juice and butterbeer. The families were given the opportunity to ask a few questions and Harry smiled as the first question from Kristin was whether witches really flew broomsticks.
“Not all of them,” Harry quipped, smirking at Hermione, to which she responded by sticking her tongue out at him, much to the delight of the eleven year olds. Harry then went on to assure the students that wizards and witches alike rode brooms and that they would learn during the first few weeks of school. Hermione took the opportunity to inform them that Harry was the best flyer in the school, which Justin readily confirmed. Then she told them that there were also other methods of magical transportation, describing traveling by floo, portkeys, and apparation. At this point they got everyone up and they took the four families through the portal to Diagon Alley to assist them in shopping for their school supplies.
The first stop was at Gringotts, where Harry had arranged for Griphook to be available to set up accounts for each of the students. They exchanged some money for a collection of Galleons, Sickles and Knuts, and the parents were fascinated at the sight of goblins. They all stopped at Madame Malkins for school robes (“Even the boys?” asked a disbelieving Mark) then Hermione eagerly led them into her favorite shop, Flourish and Blotts, while Harry and Justin rolled their eyes at each other.
Harry then insisted on a visit to Quality Quidditch Supplies where he showed them what brooms looked like, and managed to persuade the owner to allow him to demonstrate one of them to a chorus of “Wows,” “Cools,” and general expressions of awe as he did a few loops and rolls.
After they picked up the rest of their supplies they returned to the Leaky Cauldron for lunch which Tom served at four tables, one for each family, with one or two students or staff members at each table. Harry sat with the family with twins, Mark and Carolyn. Carolyn confidently informed him that she had recognized him instantly, having read all about him in Modern Magical History and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century. Mark merely rolled his eyes and muttered “bookworm” under his breath. He was much more interested in learning how to fly like Harry, which made his sister shudder. It was all Harry could do to keep a straight face as he witnessed the interaction that reminded him so much of similar scenes from his first year.
After lunch McGonagall resumed with a description of Hogwarts which focused on the house system and the different courses that the students would be taking. In keeping with Harry and Hermione’s suggestion to try to promote cross-house interactions, she urged them to try to make friends with students outside their own houses, and informed them that there would be a special first-year’s study room set up for that purpose. She then called on each of the students to describe something about castle life.
Justin warned them about how confusing the castle would be to get around in, and urged them to not be shy about asking for help finding things, looking especially for the house prefects. To no one’s surprise, Hermione advised them to be sure to keep up with their homework and told them about the library. This prompted a snort from Justin and Harry, and at the confused looks from the parents Justin explained that Hermione probably knew the library better than any student at Hogwarts. Harry noticed Carolyn’s face light up at that statement, so he stood up and stretched, and suggested that they switch tables so that they might get to know some of the other students. As they moved he casually touched Hermione’s arm, guiding her to the table he had just left.
As Harry began his response to McGonagall’s request, Justin joked that Harry was more familiar with the hospital wing than any student at Hogwarts and ought to talk about that. The twin glares of McGonagall and Hermione had him cringing in his seat almost before he had finished the sentence. Harry covered for him quickly, noticing the anxious looks on the faces of the parents, explaining that injuries were much more common in wizarding activities and were quite easily healed. He then took the opportunity to describe quiddich to the group, managing to work in that many of his injuries were minor ones obtained playing this sport. The parents relaxed a little as the fathers nodded knowingly, being familiar with sports injuries.
There were more questions this time.
Kristin was first again. “How do you determine which house we’re in?” McGonagall took this one, explaining that their first evening at school there would be a sorting ceremony but that the sorting method was a secret. One look from her let the three older students know that she intended it to remain that way.
“Which houses are the three of you in?” came the question from Mark.
“Justin is in Hufflepuff, and Harry and I are in Gryffindor,” Hermione replied.
Carolyn had a surprised look on her face. “You’re not in Ravenclaw?” she asked, turning to Hermione curiously. “I’ve read about all of the houses and I thought …”
Before she could finish or Hermione could respond Mark interrupted, “Will I have to be in the same house as my sister?” which brought laughter from the parents present.
Harry responded to this one. “Lots of times siblings are in the same house, but not always. There are twin sisters in our year and one is in Gryffindor and one in Ravenclaw. It depends to some extent on your personalities, so I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the two of you ended up in different houses.”
Jon asked, “Will my cell phone work?” McGonagall didn’t know what a cell phone was so Hermione explained that most electronic devices did not work in the castle because of all the magic.
Kristin had yet another question. “Do we wear school uniforms?” Justin responded that most of the students wore normal clothing under their school robes. He pulled back his robes to reveal jeans and a tee shirt, Hermione was wearing a blouse and a skirt and Harry had on a khaki colored pair of slacks and a blue print casual shirt.
One of the fathers spoke up. “What is platform 9 ¾?” I’ve been to King’s Cross Station and I can’t find it anywhere. Harry burst out laughing. At the disgruntled look from the father he immediately apologized.
“I’m sorry. Your question reminded me of my first trip to King’s Cross. I didn’t have the slightest idea where to go. The only way I found it was I noticed another family that looked like they might be wizards too. I finally got up the nerve to go ask the mother where it was. That’s really a good question. We should add that to our presentation.” The father nodded, satisfied that Harry had not been making fun of him. Harry then proceeded to describe how to run at the barrier between platforms 9 and 10.
“But you’re not a muggleborn. Why wouldn’t you have known how to get through?” objected Carolyn, who after all was an ‘expert’ on Harry Potter.
Hermione moved closer to Harry and squeezed his hand as a sad expression crossed his face. With the visit to his grandparents fresh on his mind, any reminder of his experiences with the Dursleys was painful.
“Carrie!” her mother scolded, seeing Harry’s distress.
Harry nodded to Hermione and she responded while he collected himself. “That’s OK. Harry’s parents died when he was little and he was raised in the nonmagical world by muggle relatives. So he’s always sort of considered himself to be muggleborn.” This statement caused a raised eyebrow from McGonagall, who had never thought about it that way. We really didn’t do him any favors his first year, did we, expecting so much from him the way we did?
Laura, a quiet girl who had not said anything yet, merely sitting back and observing, had particularly noticed the interactions between the two head students. “Is he your boyfriend?” she blurted out suddenly.
This question caught everyone by surprise, but Hermione recovered and began her standard response. “No, we’re just …”
“Hermione?” Harry interrupted. She turned to him, surprised to see a grin on his face now. Still smiling, he reached over and took her hand. Suddenly it dawned on her and she blushed slightly.
“Oh … right,” she stammered, then turned back to the girl, vaguely noticing the interested looks on Justin and McGonagall’s faces. “Yes, as a matter of fact, he is.” Harry moved closer and put his arm around her waist and she smiled back at him.
The reactions were interesting. The three young girls sighed but the two boys grimaced. Justin had a triumphant smile and proclaimed, “I knew it was just a matter of time. Ernie owes me a Galleon.” Even McGonagall permitted herself a small smile before her stern expression returned and she cleared her throat to regain their attention.
“If that will be all, I’d like to thank you for coming today. This concludes the formal portion of our presentation, but most of us will be remaining for a while, so if you have any other questions please feel free to ask.”
-ooOoo-
Before leaving Diagon Alley, Harry and Hermione took the opportunity to visit Ron, Fred and George. When the twins discovered that the two had been escorting new Hogwarts students around Diagon Alley and hadn’t brought them in to the joke shop they feigned horror.
“Harry, you’re our partner and you passed up the opportunity to bring us new customers? How could you?”
Hermione was having none of that, and let them know in no uncertain terms that she and Harry would be enforcing the rules just as much this year as she and Ron had in past years. As the twins were trying to figure out that statement she gave Harry a wink. Trying to keep a straight face, a task made even more difficult by the fact that Ron was grinning at him like a fool, Harry changed the subject.
“Guys, I’ve been thinking about how safe the Burrow is. It’s been attacked twice already and I’m afraid he might try again.” At once the joking mood was gone. This was a serious matter, one that had already been on the minds of the Weasley boys. “With Ron and Ginny gone and Charlie at Hogwarts during the day, I’m worried about your mum. I want to be sure she, or anyone else who’s home, can get away if it’s attacked again. There’s no guarantee she could hold out until the strike team arrives.”
They all nodded. The anti-apparation barrier was a two-edged sword in this case. It would delay attackers, but also prevent escape. “There’s always the floo …” Ron began to point out, then stopped, remembering the blocked floo during the attack on the shop.
“Did they ever find out who blocked your floo?” Harry asked the twins, the same thought having occurred to him. Shaking their heads, they told him that the ministry investigation had turned up a dead end. “Then it could happen again,” he concluded.
“You should all have portkeys,” Hermione interjected. Harry agreed. They were hard work and time-consuming to make, but his friends’ safety was paramount. “Make them the voice activated kind, too,” she continued. At the twins blank looks, she added, “Check with Flitwick, he told me about them.”
“Those have to be made from magical objects,” Harry filled in. “We found quite a stash in my vaults, so use some of those.”
“Harry, how are you going to get Mum to accept a ring or a necklace from your vault?” pointed out Ron. “You know how she is.”
Harry nodded to the twins, grinning slightly. “That’s their problem.”
Harry then went on to review their activities with the twins, who began to excitedly describe their progress with a projectile weapon. Ron excused himself to go out and wait on a customer and Hermione went along to help. When they finished, Harry cast a quick silencing charm and then informed them that they would be attempting to destroy the horcruxes later in the week. The twins were eager to be allowed to participate but Harry wasn’t sure.
Concluding his business, Harry asked, “I was wondering, could you make me another mirror so I can contact Viktor from Hogwarts?” The twins readily agreed, but then Fred got a mischievous look. Though wishing Ron were still present so he could rib his brother as well, he decided to tweak Harry.
“Don’t you think Hermione would want a mirror to talk with Viktor, too?” He raised his eyebrows and exchanged smirks with George.
Harry didn’t bite, and decided to get in a little tweak of his own.
“No, I don’t think that will be necessary. If she has a message for him she can call him on mine. Oh, by the way, did we tell you we’re dating now?”
The looks on the twins’ faces as he left the room to collect Hermione and head home were priceless.
-xox-XOX-XOX-xox-
My betas thought that the idea of Harry’s grandparents still being alive but nobody knowing about it was pretty unlikely. I tried to create a plausible scenario where that could be the case.
Professor Cook is a real person and is a colleague of mine (He lives in the US though, not Britain). He’s one of the most helpful people you’d ever meet. He really is a grandfather and really does have three daughters but while the youngest one is very intelligent (she has a PhD in computer science) she was not actually in Ravenclaw.