Diagon Destroyed

12 Grimmauld Place, London, England

Well after 11 o’clock Moody, Tonks, Arthur (who had arrived from the Ministry a little earlier), and Kingsley came out of the living room with tired expressions on their faces.
“Well we didn’t get much without Veritaserum, just some veiled threats and a hint or two on upcoming attacks. Nothing the Order hasn’t heard about. We decided not to waste any more of our time so we tied ‘em all together and portkeyed them to the ministry holding cells. Could’ve just accidentally let my wand slip and that would have saved the court a couple of weeks and a lot of gold.” Moody said, answering everyone’s question before they had asked it.
“What about where Voldemort is, did they tell you that?” Hermione asked hopefully.
Tonks shook her head as she helped herself to some of the leftover dinner, “Nope, not a bloody sentence. Didn’t really expect to though, Voldemort is smarter than that. He has to have it under the fidelius charm; it wouldn’t make sense for him not to.”
“At least we caught them, that means there’s four less minions of his running around killing people,” Harry said, looking over worriedly at Lupin who hadn’t said a thing since coming back in. Harry feared that his run in with Peter Pettigrew might have upset him. “Hey Moony could I ask you something? I think I might have found some more of Sirius’ things in the study.” Harry fibbed, hoping that he could get a few moments alone with him.
“What did you find?” Lupin asked, trying to sound like cheerful but failing miserably.
“Moony, are you okay? You’ve looked upset ever since you came back from interrogating Wormtail,” Harry asked.
“I’m okay really. It’s just he said some things about your parents, and Sirius that made me upset. He said he couldn’t have cared less for Lily, James, and Sirius,” Lupin’s voice faltered, he was trying to hold back his grief, “he said he would have killed them if he had been given the chance.” Lupin looked up sadly at Harry, “Why did we let him be the secret keeper? Even if Sirius couldn’t, I could have done it, what about Dumbledore? He could’ve…I gave your parents to Voldemort myself by letting the rat be their secret keeper.”
“Moony, come on…Remus!” Harry said, finally getting his new godfather’s attention, “you’re doing the same thing I’ve been doing. You couldn’t have done anything differently. No one knew that Peter was going to betray them. It’s not your fault so stop blaming yourself.”
Lupin looked up at the boy and smiled, “Looks like you’re the adult now. Wasn’t I telling you just that a little while ago?”
“I learned from the best, you showed me that it wasn’t really my fault. I just told you the same thing.”
“I know you’ve heard this a million times, but you really are like your parents. You have the comradery of James, and the heart of Lily. I’m know they’d be very proud of you.” Lupin said, wiping his eyes off and smiling sadly at Harry. “Now come on, I need to get something to eat, this day’s taken a lot out of me.”

A little later Molly decided that it was time for everyone to go off to bed, and shooed everyone one out of the kitchen and up the stairs.
Harry and Ginny lagged behind, arguing quietly under their breath.
“What are we going to do, this bloody bond is too strong to sleep in separate beds, and we haven’t exactly told your mum about it? She’d skin me alive if she saw us sharing a bed. I can’t even imagine what Ron would do, I know he seemed okay with the bond thing, but remember what he was like with Dean?”
“Or the twins,” Ginny teased.
Harry’s face went into shock about forgetting the twins, “Gin’ you’re not helping,” he said rubbing his eyes.
“Harry I’m teasing you,” she said, “just go sleep in your room with Ron, I’ll go to my room with Hermione and Emma. Maybe it won’t happen tonight, and if it does make a big commotion and say that it’s never happened before, that the bond must be getting stronger. Mum can’t argue with it if we don’t have any control over it, and if she does I’ll talk to her. Now come on, it’s late and I’d like to spend at least some of this night asleep.” Ginny said grabbing Harry’s hand and leading him upstairs.

As Harry drifted off to sleep the intoxicatingly perfect dream started once again. There he was sitting next to Ginny on the green hill eating and laughing. Instead of the dream lasting for a while this time he and Ginny immediately leaned in to kiss, and as he did so he woke up to find her once again laying on top of him smiling. Harry pretended to yelp in surprise causing Ron, who was precariously balanced on the edge of his bed, to fall off of it.
“Whatdahappenen?” Ron said thickly rubbing his head, then looking up at Harry’s bed he noticed Ginny. “Ginny! What are you doing here? What are you doing with my sister!” Ron said much more menacingly than normal for him, his fists were actually balled up as he scrambled to get up off the floor.
“Ronald Weasley, calm down! You honestly don’t think we’d be doing anything; we’ve only been bonded for a few days? I have no idea how we ended up like this, one-second I was asleep in my bed dreaming, and the next I was on top of Harry. Dumbledore said the bond would get stronger and stronger as time passed, and he also said that we’d have to be close to each other now because of it. Maybe its so strong now that it makes us stay close?” Ginny offered, standing up to her brother with her usual spunk.
At that moment Mr. and Mrs. Weasley ran into the room, looking for the cause of the argument. When their eyes landed on Ginny standing in her nightgown infront of a half-dressed Harry both of their expressions suddenly turned icy.
“Harry, how could you…I thought you would…” Molly started, trying to find the right words, but Ron stopped her.
“No mum, Harry didn’t do anything. We think it was this Heartbond thing; somehow it managed to transport Ginny from her bed to Harry’s. Ginny said that something about how the bond would get stronger, maybe this is just that?” Ron managed to get out before his mom could say anything more. Harry smiled at the loyalty Ron showed, even when he knew that it might not have been true.
“I’m sorry dear. It’s just at first glance it looked a little…compromising. I do remember Albus warning us of further developments as the bond tightened, and I suppose that this must be one of them. You know I think of you as part of the family, I just don’t know if I want my daughter sleeping in bed with you. No offence but you two are quite young to be sharing the same bed.”
Arthur placed a hand on his wife’s shoulder, “Molly, they are bonded. You know the stories as well as I do, this bond means they are fated for each other. And although as a father it pains me to say this, no matter what they will end up sleeping in the same bed eventually. Plus, I trust Harry with my life, seeing as he has already saved it once. I know he wouldn’t do anything to hurt Ginny.” Mr. Weasley stared directly at Harry as he spoke. “ So, why not let them share a bed, Ron will be in here too anyhow? If this is what it takes to keep them safe and make them stronger then I say it is a small price to pay.” He said, smiling at the children.
Molly smiled. It was moments like this when she was reminded why she married Arthur; every once in a while he would say something that seemed fit to come out of Dumbledore’s mouth. She thought it over for several moments then nodded her head, “Very well, you can share a bed, but remember both of you this is just so you two can get a decent night’s sleep. We’ll talk about this more over breakfast when were not all tired.” Mrs. Weasley said as she took her husbands hand, and with a last glance back, closed the door.

Several Weeks Later
The next weeks at 12 Grimmauld Place were filled with commotion with the dozen or so occupants that now spent most of their time cooped up inside the house. Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny all were spending large amounts of their days researching new spells, jinxes, and curses that they thought would be helpful for the D.A. This was started when Hermione had suggested to Harry that they continue the D.A. next year.
“I really do think it would be a good idea to continue them Harry.” She had started over lunch one day, “And without Umbridge fighting us at every step we’re bound to learn even more this time!”
“Yeah, there are bound to be loads more people who want to learn how to fight now that Fudge has finally admitted you-know-who’s come back.” Ron had added enthusiastically.
Therefore, somewhat begrudgingly, Harry had agreed to continue the D.A. the following year.
They now spent several hours a day searching through the various books and scrolls in the house. Every time one of them found one that seemed interesting they would add it to a list that Hermione was keeping. Soon they had over six-dozen spells that provided some form of defence or offence they thought would be a good skill to learn.

As they worked on the D.A., the rest of the house was abuzz due to the various rumours surrounding Voldemort’s whereabouts, and the current drought of real information. Once, Harry and the others were able to sneak one of Fred and George’s Extendable Ears into an Order meeting and what they heard was unsettling.
According to reports from Moody and Kingsley it seemed that the Ministry was slowly being subverted from within. Although they had spent countless hours searching for supposed Death Eaters in the Ministry of Magic the Imperius Curse seemed to be making a return to popularity as countless individuals were found to be under it’s control. As Headquarters seemed to run on a constant 24-hour cycle there was always a palpable tension that came from the notoriously high death rate that Order members seemed to experience. Every few days one of the members would arrive bleeding, cursing, and ranting about how a Death Eater had ambushed them in Diagon Alley or one of the many other places they patrolled.
Although, from a casual observer’s viewpoint, it appeared that the Dark Lord hadn’t come back from the death as the Minister was now stating, there were far too many grim coincidences occurring every day now. While the Daily Prophet had returned to a somewhat unbiased point of writing, it still carried nearly weekly updates on how Voldemort hadn’t really returned and that they Ministry was now being taken over by none other than Albus Dumbledore.
This frustrating ignorance by the general wizarding population was one of the reasons Harry had decided to continue the D.A. The other was much more personal to Harry, one he hadn’t shared with anyone, and probably never would. He hoped that through training the people he cared about they might be able to survive, or at least fight, if he didn’t manage to fulfil the prophecy.

One particularly warm day, when the group was taking a break from searching through a stack of old Auror books that Moody had brought over, Harry was leaning back in the couch with Emma sitting next to him, and Ginny resting on his legs as she sat on the floor, half-listening to another pointless argument between Hermione and Ron. He knew that if questioned neither of them would probably have been able to recall the true start of the argument if asked. Harry, Ginny, and Emma had accepted their ceaseless debates as their rather odd form of flirting, so they had decided to simply ignore them and hope that soon they would stop. Although he hadn’t truly been listening as he, Emma, and Ginny chatted quietly, it seemed this specific argument had something to do with a spell one of them had found.
“Listen to me Ron! You’re never going to need a charm to poach and egg when you’re in the middle of a battle. I doubt that even chefs need to use it, this spell is so poorly designed that it is probably easier to just poach it yourself! Look at it, the spell is two whole lines, imagine telling a first year that he had to learn this spell if her wanted to defend himself.”
“Yeah well course I’m not going to poach and egg, what if you can use it to poach a Death Eater though? I mean I bet being boiled would certainly stop them in their tracks, eh Harry?”
Harry didn’t turn his head but just sort of grunted noncommittally and returned to his own conversation.
“And plus, I know it’s long but you take Arithmancy ‘Mione. If there’s anyone who could make this shorter it would be you,” Ron added.
This seemed to mollify Hermione as she sat back into her chair and smiled, “well thank you Ronald. I suppose it would be a nice spell to have in the arsenal, I’ll put it on the ‘maybe’ list and work on it when I have some free time.”
“Yeah Ronald, good idea snookums,” Ginny teased her brother, smiling when she saw it achieved the correct response as he blushed bright red.
“Shut it Ginny. Anyhow, we need as many spells as possible before school starts, I reckon we’ll want to start right away,” Ron said trying to change the topic.
“Speaking of school I don’t even know what classes I’m taking yet. Do you reckon they’ll come with our O.W.L.s?” Harry asked, deciding to help his best mate out.
“Nope, not yet,” Ron said immediately, glad for the change in conversation. Hermione seemed not to have heard as she was looking at Ron with a rather wistful look, but she noticed everyone waiting for her to speak and she quickly picked up a book and started to examine it thoroughly.
“I’m not positive, but I assume that we’ll be getting our class list with our O.W.L.s. Dumbledore said they should show up pretty soon, remember?” Hermione said nervously.
“I guess he wasn’t lying when he said things got a little bollixed with the tests this year. I reckon Umbridge tried to flunk all of us, and when she got sacked they had to go back through and re-examine each test.” Ron said, “Don’t worry ‘Mione, I’m sure that they’ll be here any day now, couldn’t take that long to re-do them.” He offered when he saw her dread filled face. Everyone knew just how much stock she put into these exams and remembered how stressed she’d been when reviewing for the tests.
“I know Ronald, it’s just I worked so hard on them and I thought they were coming last month, not a week before school starts!” She said crossly, poking at her lunch moodily.
“How do you take a test on an owl?” Emma asked finally after trying to make heads or tails of the conversation.
Harry laughed, just realizing how weird that must sound to someone who didn’t know anything about the wizarding world. “O.W.L.s are test that everyone in their fifth year at Hogwarts has to take. They tell us what we are going to be able to take the next year and what we could be when we graduate.”

A few days after their conversation, Hermione’s prayers were answered. At lunch that day they were in the little courtyard in the back that was the only save reprieve from the constant chaos inside the house, Harry and Ron were talking about Ron and Ginny’s estranged brother, Percy, of whom Harry had heard close to nothing about for the whole time they’d been at Headquarters.
“I haven’t seen him since last year, the filthy prat hasn’t talked to any of us. Apparently he’s living in a flat somewhere near the Ministry so he can come to Fudge’s aide at a moment’s notice. Doesn’t even acknowledge dad, I think Fred and George pranked him a couple weeks ago because they had a large package and were arguing whether or not Percy’s mail would be searched. Mum’s still a little upset but she seems to have gotten used to it, she doesn’t break apart anymore when you accidentally mention him. Dad says that as soon as the Minister gets sacked he’ll come back to us, some rubbish about being that close to the top corrupts people. I don’t really miss him though, rarely saw him anyways.”
“And none of you have tried to talk...” Harry stopped short when something out the window caught his eye. Looking closer at the objects, he grinned. “ Hermione, I think you might wan to open a window up.”
Hermione frowned, not really understanding why Harry was smiling, but then looked out the window and squealed. She ran across the room and threw it wide so that the three owls that were now very close could land. When they touched down, Hermione untied all three as fast as she could then ran over to the table. In her excitement she nearly tossed Ron and Harry’s into the sink. She peeled the letter apart and began to scour the letter, her face running a gamut of expressions.
Harry and Ron shared and exasperated look and then both of them took up their own envelopes. Harry unfolded his piece of parchment and read the letter enclosed with the grades, and his class list.

Dear Mr. Potter,
Enclosed you will find the scores for your Ordinary Wizarding Level tests conducted this May. We apologize for the delay in the scores, we encountered several technical difficulties.

Harry next picked up the next page which had the actual grades for his classes.

History of Magic: Troll
Defense Against the Dark Arts: Outstanding
Charms: Outstanding
Care of Magical Creatures: Exceeds Expectations
Divination: Dreadful
Herbology: Exceeds Expectations
Transfiguration: Exceeds Expectations
Potions: Exceeds Expectations

Harry James Potter has received 6 (six) passing O.W.L.s including one of especially high merit in the field of Defense Against the Dark Arts.
How the bloody hell did I get a grade of ‘high merit’ in Defense Against the Dark Arts? Umbridge hated me, she was torturing me. And what does a mark of ‘high merit’ even mean? Harry thought to himself.
“How’d you do Harry?” Ginny asked craning over his shoulder for a look at his letter.
“Er, good, I think. I got six O.W.L.s.” he said handing her the letter.
“Wow, you did great. You got an Outstanding in Defense Against the Dark Arts, no surprise, but in Charms too? I didn’t know you were that good?” Ginny commented as she read his grades.
“Dunno, I just had a good day I guess. What’d you get Ron, Hermione?” Harry asked looking over at his two friends.
“You go first Ronald, I want to hear what you got,” Hermione said still examining her own with a truly indecipherable expression.
“I got six O.W.L.s too, outstanding in Defense Against the Dark Arts. Looks like we won’t be taking potions though, I got a Exceeds Expectations, Snape only take Outstanding. Not a loss really, couldn’t stand the class anyway,” Ron said lightly.
Harry’s heart sank momentarily as he realized he too wouldn’t be taking potions and that his short-lived dream to become an Auror had died. He wasn’t very upset with the prospect of not becoming and Auror, but more with letting down Professor McGonagall after her heated argument with Umbridge about getting him to become an Auror if it ‘was the last thing she did.’ He smiled slightly at the memory of that meeting then came back to the present.
“So Hermione, what did you get? Did you get 8 O.W.L.s that were all Outstanding?” Ron asked trying to sneak a look at the scores.
Hermione looked a little sheepish, “Well, you were right about one part. I did get all Outstanding, but…oh just look,” she gave up thrusting the letter into Ron’s hands.
He, Ginny, and Harry looked at it in astonishment. “But Hermione, how? I mean there has to be a typo or something. How?” Ron asked completely taken aback.
“I didn’t want to tell you guys, I thought you might make fun of me, I mean I’m sort of already labeled as Miss-Know-It-All aren’t I?” Hermione said nervously.
“Hermione, why would we care? It wouldn’t have made a difference at all, I’m just amazed you pulled it off,” Harry said caringly.
Hermione just smiled up at her three friends, got up and grabbed them all in a group hug.
On the table next to them lay Hermione’s O.W.L. scores.



History of Magic: Outstanding
Defense Against the Dark Arts: Outstanding
Charms: Outstanding
Care of Magical Creatures: Outstanding
Herbology: Outstanding
Transfiguration: Outstanding
Potions: Outstanding
Arithmancy: Outstanding
Muggle Studies: Outstanding

Hermione Jane Granger has received 9 (nine) passing O.W.L.s all of which are Outstanding, thereby placing her in the top 30 test scores of the past century.


“I can’t believe you tested in nine different subjects, when did you find the time to study? Harry and I were breaking down with just six!” Ron asked in amazement, “You don’t have another time turner do you?”
Hermione laughed, “No, I think we’ve played enough with time already, besides we destroyed most of them in the Department of Mysteries. It wasn’t too difficult; I just asked the headmaster if I could take the Arithmancy and Muggle Studies tests along with my other ones. He said he expected that I would ask to take more tests, he even lent me a few of his books to read. I didn’t really have to study much for Muggle Studies, and I was already reading a lot of books on Arithmancy anyways.” She shrugged, “It really isn’t that big of a deal, it’s only three more tests.”
“Yeah it is a big deal; you got Outstanding on all of them! It says you had one of the best test scores in…” Harry looked back at the letter, “…a century! If that isn’t a big deal I don’t know what is.”
“Congratulations Hermione,” Ginny said hugging her again, “Mum’s going to be so happy Ron, you got six O.W.L.s. I bet that she throws you three a party tonight when she finds out.”

Ginny was right, when Mrs. Weasley came back from the store Ron eagerly told her about the O.W.L.s. Molly was overjoyed that Ron had gotten so amny O.W.L.s, stating that it was twice that of which Fred or George got. When she learned of Harry and Hermione’s scores, she wrapped them into the hug too.
“I think that this calls for a celebration, I’m so proud of all three of you. Seeing as I just came from the store we have enough food for one,” she said, already pulling pots and pans out of their respective cupboards. “Harry perhaps you could invite Emma and her mother over for the celebration tonight. I know Emma has been spending a lot of time over here, but it’d be nice for Joy to get to know some adults seeing as her daughter’s a witch now.”
As Harry and Ron went to invite Emma and Joy, Molly hopped into action; immediately starting to chop, dice, and boil various parts of the meal. Hermione, and Ginny pitched in too, stirring different things, checking the oven, and setting the table. There was an Order meeting that night too so they were planning on having a very large group of people. Along with the roast beef stew, and numerous pies Molly was making, the girls, along with Tonks who showed up a little later, worked on making a cake big enough for everyone.
As the message got out to the various Order members through the lockets more and more people started to arrive at headquarters, including Fred and George. They had arrived from their shop carrying two large boxes of fireworks they wanted to set off in the courtyard later that evening.
“The only problem is, is that we’ve made them work so well it takes forever to get them to stop,” Fred explained as he heaved his crate onto a table.
“We expanded on the fireworks we used against Umbridge, taking out some of the more boring ones and adding a little more excitement.” George said wickedly, setting the other crate on the table. Each one was labelled with bright pink and purple lettering: DANGER! HIGHLY FLAMMABLE DO NOT EXPOSE TO WATER, FIRE, ACID…JUST DON’T GET NEAR THEM! DON’T SAY WE DIDN’T WARN YOU.
“Good labelling guys, that really instils some confidence in your customers,” Hermione said as she kneaded dough for rolls.
“It does,” Fred said enthusiastically. Hermione gave him a doubtful look.
“No really, think about it this way,” George said.
“If we told you that there was something really cool in a box and then said under no circumstances can you look at it,” Fred said.
“95 out of 100 people would look at it.”
“So that’s all we’re doing,” they both said at the same time.
“I didn’t think they had the makings of businessmen either Hermione dear, but they seem to have proved me wrong. They have a certain knack for making the things they create irresistible. Just you wait until you see their shop,” Molly said, with a slight hint of pride in her voice. She had initially been upset that her sons had left their education early but was very pleased with what they had done so far. Their shop was certainly the most popular in Diagon Alley, attracting all ages to see their pranks and inventions. The sudden re-emergence of Voldemort had sent many people looking for a way to let out their anxiety, and a trip to Weasley Wizarding Wheezes seemed to be the common way to get rid of it.
It was nearing supper so everyone who wasn’t cooking or helping was booted out of the kitchen (this was mostly because of Ron who kept sneaking tastes of everything that came out of the oven).
Slowly 12 Grimmauld Place began filled with nearly every member of the Order. The noise on the first floor had gotten to be so loud that it was keeping Mrs. Black’s portrait screaming and screeching constantly. Every time she burst out, Harry, Ron, Lupin, Tonks, or anyone who was near it would yank them shut once again. But it seemed that Mrs. Black had become more persistent over the past year and would just spring back open the instant they let go of the curtains.
On their fifth time that night Harry shouted to Ron over the din, “There’s got to be something we can do to make her shut-up! We can’t keep doing this my arms are getting sore from yanking…” but he could tell Ron wasn’t hearing a word he was saying, “SHUT THE BLOODY HELL UP!” Harry shouted at the portrait as loud as he could.
Surprisingly it did just that. The portrait’s inhabitant hadn’t stopped shouting, infact it seemed to be screaming even more violently, but for whatever reason Harry’s curse had managed to silence the irate Mrs. Black.
“Well that was easy,” Tonks said as she examined the painting trying to figure out what Harry had done.
“Why do you think we can’t hear her? She hasn’t stopped shouting that for sure. We’ve tried silencio loads of times on her and no one could get her to shut up. Moody almost went crazy trying to get her off the wall last week,” Ron said a little louder than necessary but he couldn’t tell because of the buzzing in his ears.
Harry shrugged, “Dunno, all I can say is that I’m glad she shut up. I know Hermione said she didn’t mind her, but I saw her flinch every time she started to shout again.”
“Yeah me too, glad we got her to be quite,” Ron said.
“HARRY! RON! TONKS! Dinner time, hurry up!” Molly’s voice echoed through the hallway.
“Come on boys, we’ve been cooking all day. Make sure to try the green beans, I cooked them myself, didn’t burn a single one of them either!” Tonks said proudly as she ushered them down the hallway to the crowded kitchen.

The kitchen was packed with more people than either of the boys had even seen. The room’s proportions seemed to have been altered because looked as if someone had stretched the table another five feet to make room for the additional guests.
Judging from the crowd, tonight’s celebration had seemed to all to be a good excuse to enjoy themselves and escape the harsh realities outside of Headquarters. As Harry looked for Ginny in the mass of people he noticed that nearly every Order member, including Dumbledore, was present. Included on the list was, much to everyone’s delight, Charlie Weasley back from Rumania, and much to Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny’s distaste, Snape.
He was smashed right in-between Emma and Lupin, his discomfort was evident but no one seemed to take much notice. Emma was trying to politely include him in conversation with Lupin completely oblivious to his cold stare.
Harry worked his way through the crowd stopping to talk with each person momentarily before continuing on to find where Ginny had ended up. He finally found her talking with Dedalus Diggle, the small wizard with the purple top hat, about various methods for producing a stronger Bat Bogey hex.
“Ginny, I’ve seen your Bat Bogey hex and I honestly don’t think you need to make it any stronger. Honestly I think it’d kill the person you did it on if you made them bigger.” Harry teased as Molly called for everyone to take his or her seats for dinner.
Once they were all seated along the enlarged table, Molly stood up and cleared her throat for everyone’s attention, “Well this massive feast is to congratulate the three students who all got amazing O.W.L. scores. Ron and Harry with 6 a-piece, and Hermione with a stunning total of nine Outstanding! Now eat up, we have plenty of food for everyone, and then before the meeting starts we have cake.” The room filled with applause and everyone immediately dug into the piles of food arranged on the table.

Dinner went on for well over two hours, everyone laughing, talking, shouting over to the other side of the table for someone to pass such-and-such, and shouting compliments to the various chefs of the meal. Harry and Ginny were sitting next to Charlie and Dumbledore, both of whom were giving them their own perspectives on what was really going on in the wizarding world. They did both agree that there wasn’t much in the form of solid information. Not a single real piece of news had been printed about Voldemort after the Department of Mysteries.
“And that isn’t because Fudge is trying to deny it, there just hasn’t really been anything happing publicly,” Charlie said. “seems like Voldemort has decided to keep what he’s up to close to the vest this time round.”
“Which is truly out of character for Tom,” Dumbledore added as he picked at the last morsels of a steak and kidney pie, “he gained power in the first war through terror, this is the opposite of what I believed he would be doing. Perhaps the loss of his body has made him more cautious.”
“Couldn’t he just be gathering people to him, I mean you did hear how Malfoy’s dad got out of Azkaban. Maybe Tom just needs supporters and is biding his time.” Ginny asked.
“That could very well be the reason, Miss Weasley,” Dumbledore said looking over at her, “all will become clear in time, and before that we cannot do more than we already have. Now would you like a piece of this excellent cake, it has a raspberry filling, my personal favourite.” He said pointing over to the lavishly decorated cake.
“Uh sir, I was hoping I might be able to ask you something,” Harry started uncertainly as Dumbledore was handing Ginny a piece of cake, he’d been mulling it over in his mind for a while but had just decided to actually ask the Headmaster.
“Of course Harry, what is it?” Dumbledore asked, although in his eyes it seemed as if he already knew the answers.
“Well sir, I know I’m not of age yet, but I was hoping that I might be able to join the Order of the Phoenix. I’ve already asked Moony, I mean Remus, and he said that he was fine with the idea as long as long as I stayed out of trouble.” He paused waiting for the headmaster to speak, but when he didn’t Harry continued, moving in closer now. “You said that I need to rely on the people around me to help me fight Voldemort, right now I’m hoping the Order can help me. I need to know as much as possible about what he and the Death Eaters are doing if I’m ever going to be able to stop him,” Harry said quietly, still mindful of the secrecy of the prophecy.
Dumbledore’s features seemed to soften, almost in sadness, but also in caring, “Harry, I am afraid I am still not going to be able to allow you to join. But before you ask why, let me explain,” He placed a placating hand on Harry shoulder, “What I told you in my office last year was all true, everything. Including the bit where I felt as if it were my duty to protect you. I know that Remus is now your guardian but I still feel compelled to watch after you too. This is not to slight you in any way, but it is for the good of everyone in the Order that you do not attend.”
Harry bristled slightly, but forced himself to not burst out in anger; he didn’t want to ruin this party with some outburst of accidental magic because of some argument between him and the headmaster. He closed his eyes momentarily then opened them again, there was a steely anger to them now, “Why can’t I join then?”
Dumbledore smiled, “You are learning to control your anger Harry, that will help build the power that’s growing inside you. If you can control your emotions you will in turn be able to control your magic more easily, the same goes for you Miss Weasley.” He added turning to Ginny who had been listening to the discussion intently, “But, I am digressing, do you remember last near last Christmas break when you could see Mr. Weasley get attacked?”
Harry’s heart sunk, he knew where this was going, and knew it was pointless to argue because it actually made sense.
“That connection with Tom’s subconscious, along with what I would call a fiasco of Occlumency lessons, makes me believe it would be a rather rash decision to allow you to see or hear certain discussions. I am not afraid of you staying here, it’s one of the safest places around. I just do not want jeopardize what we have accomplished so far, we are currently holding a very tenuous lead in this, and as the war progresses, which I am afraid it will, then every little piece will count. I hope you understand and will forgive me when I say no.” Dumbledore finished finally, Harry averting his eyes from the Headmaster. He knew that he couldn’t argue with the Headmaster, his reasoning was sound. It was one of the few things that still scared Harry; the idea of Voldemort having access to his thoughts and memories constantly plagued his subconscious and would bolt to the surface when he felt and emotion that he knew could only have come from the other side of his unique link with the Dark Lord.
“Yes, I understand Headmaster, I just wish that I could know more, all last year I was kept in the dark and that caused the whole Ministry problem. I will not ask again for right now as long as you promise to tell me everything you can without endangering anyone. I don’t want anymore people dying on my account.”
“A very mature decision Harry, the Heartbond truly is an amazing thing, I will make sure that Remus tells you everything that he deems allowable, but please do not go searching for other information. I know it is tempting in times such as these to find answers but right now secrecy is tantamount to our success. Meanwhile, I will be working on a way to solve these trespasses into his consciousness, but for the time being try and work on your occlumency.” Dumbledore said with a slight smile.
“Thank you sir. I just want to be able to do something, not just sit around the house waiting for something to happen, like…” Harry stopped before he could say Sirius, but he knew he’d gotten his point across. Ginny took his hand and squeezed it reassuringly.
“I know how hard this is for you, so thank you for understanding, it is yet one more hardship I hope we will be able to overcome in time. Now you should get going, if I’m not mistaken the Weasley twins have brought some of their fireworks, and I just saw them sneak down the hallway with the others. I wish I could see them, if you recall I wasn’t present for their rather brilliant use of them at Hogwarts either,” Dumbledore said smiling.
“You really missed quite a show that day, it really was brilliant. I don’t think you’ll have to worry about missing them sir. If the twins managed to do what the warning labels say these things’ll do, then they’ll be around for quite some time.”

As Dumbledore predicted the fireworks were amazing, lasting well past midnight, and only because it ended when one of the twins’ fireworks found their way into the Order’s meeting and caught Snape’s robes on fire. Whether or not it was accidental was questionable considering the fact that somehow the firework tracked the smoking Snape around the kitchen persistently.
As the meeting broke shortly after the firework incident Dumbledore called all of the kids into the study.
“I know it is late but we have just a few things for everyone to know. First off I would like to remind you to remember these special night, it is times like these that remind us why we’re fighting,” Dumbledore said softly.
“Secondly, as you all know tonight Joy Massey has joined the Order. While she is not a witch she has just as much, if not more, at stake; therefore we have decided to initiate her into the Order of the Phoenix. Having a Muggle’s point of view should be highly enlightening for us all.
“And finally, after much discussion we decided we could no longer put off a trip to Diagon Alley for you all to purchase your various supplies. Therefore in two days time you will depart with several undercover Order members and spend the day at Diagon Alley. All of the details have already been worked out. And while Diagon Alley is one of few secure places for wizards these days I just want to remind you all to maintain a certain level of caution on your trip.” The headmaster stood up and, looking at his watch, placed his hat back on his head, “Now if you’ll excuse me this night’s frivolities have worn me out. Barring any extreme events I shall see you all next at Hogwarts. Good night everyone.”
“Well that’ll be fun, going into Diagon Alley with out own army” Ron said as the Headmaster left the room.
“At least they’re letting us go. I honestly wouldn’t have been surprised if they’d decided to just mail order everything. You wouldn’t be missing if you didn’t go though, the whole place is a graveyard right now,” Harry said recalling his last trip with Ginny and Emma.
“At least we’ll be able to stop by Fred and George’s place. I hope it won’t be closed again,” Ginny added.
“I must say I’m impressed with what I’ve heard and seen so far. I was talking with George about their production methods; they’re unbelievably complex, even for someone who has been practicing charms for years. I just don’t understand how those two only got three O.W.L.s each, what they’re using for their pranks is easily N.E.W.T. level magic,” Hermione said as she examined a firework closely.
Harry yawned, his jaw cracking with the force of it, “sorry. I guess I’m more tired than I thought.”
“Let’s go to bed then Mr. Potter, we need to get up early tomorrow to finish sorting through those books anyway.” Ginny said standing up and grabbing Harry by his hand.
“I can’t believe we’re spending our summer getting up early to research spells. It’ll be nice when this is all over and I can actually sleep in for once,” Harry said yawning again. He felt a pang of guilt however when he remembered he hadn’t yet told Hermione or Ron about the prophecy. He promised himself that he would do it soon, with or without Dumbledore’s permission.

The next morning started even earlier than anyone had predicted due to one of the twins’ leftover fireworks finding its way to the floo powder jar, which, as it turned out makes a very loud bang when it mixes with a Weasley Wizarding Wheezes firework. Some of them tried to go back to bed after the explosion, but most had been woken so jarringly that they decided just to go downstairs and have a nice long breakfast before their trip to Diagon Alley.
As everyone trickled in downstairs Mrs. Weasley, Kingsley, and Tonks reviewed the lists of what everyone needed and went over who was going to be their escorts when they arrived.
“Well, I’ll be coming along from the start, so will Kingsley here, and Mad-eye will join us later when he gets out of the Ministry. This really is the safest place in the wizarding world right now however, Fudge seems to think maintaining the peace in one visible place is enough to satisfy the masses,” Tonks said, messing with her hair in a mirror, she was currently in disguise with medium length brown hair and freckles covering her nose and cheeks.
“Are you sure that’s enough, three Aurors, I mean with Harry and all…” Mrs. Weasley said nervously, not finishing her sentence.
“Don’t worry three Aurors is more than enough, plus you and Remus are more than capable, the only adult who can’t do much is Joy. Although, I’m willing to bet that given a tough situation Joy could put up a fight. Same goes with Harry, if half the stories we’ve heard in the Auror department about him are true then he could probably hold off a formidable opponent for quite a while.” Kingsley said.
“Well looks like we best be heading out, we have a lot of places to go, Emma needs to get everything, including a wand,” Molly stood examining the grandfather clock.
There was a bustle of commotion as everyone grabbed cloaks and wands and lined up in front of the fire, waiting to get Kingsley’s ok from the Leakey Cauldron who had gone ahead just a minute later. As they were lining up in the hallway waiting for Ron to find his wand Emma gasped.
“Harry! Why are you so tall? I used to be up to your elbow, now I’m almost at your hand! Are you wearing different shoes or something?” Emma asked trying to get taller by standing on her tiptoes.
“Oh yeah, guess we forgot to tell you guys, I’m surprised you didn’t notice sooner. This bond seems to be doing what Dumbledore said it would. I’m glad I bought my clothes a little big because they’re already getting a little small. It’s like I’m going through another growth spurt; Ginny is too. Look,” Harry said pointing to Ginny who was next to Tonks. “She used to be shorter than Tonks, now she’s the same size, maybe even taller.”
“Blimey Harry, you’re right, she is taller, you too! This all happened in one month?”
“Must’ve, I mean I know I wasn’t this tall on my birthday, I had to duck today coming down the stairs so I wouldn’t hit my head,” Harry said.
“Yeah it’s crazy, I used to be able to lay down on the couch and my feet wouldn’t touch the other side. Now I have to bend my knees if I want to lay down,” Ginny added.
“Growth spurt or not you’re still not as tall as me mate,” Ron said stepping up next to Harry to compare.
“Hey just give me another month and as me that again, okay?” Harry joked as he stood up on his toes over Ron.
“Come on everyone, we just got the ok, you first Molly. Then Joy and I’ll go so she can get her first taste of the floo network, ” Tonks said when she saw a burst of red from the fire that said it was safe.
Joy looked nervously at the fire as Molly stepped into it and shouted, the Leaky Cauldron, and was instantly consumed in a green flame.
“Don’t worry mum, it really isn’t scary at all. It’s actually fun once you get used to it,” Emma said when she saw her mom’s apprehensive stare.
“Listen to your daughter, she seems to be a pro at it. Okay now come on Joy, I’ll be next to you for the whole ride. Come into the hearth, that’s it- see, no burning at all. Okay, now we’re going to go for a bit of a ride so make sure you hold on, here we go! The Leaky Cauldron!” Tonks shouted and instantly she and Joy disappeared in the flames.
The rest of the group followed suit, and soon everyone was standing in the dusty old bar of the Leaky Cauldron. They decided it would be best to first go to Gringotts. Mrs. Weasley, Harry, and Hermione all had to withdraw money for their supplies, and Emma and Joy needed to open a new account for themselves.
As they walked down the cobble stone streets Emma ran, dragging her mother with her, to every store’s window showing her that what she’d been telling her for the past weeks was really true.
Joy’s expression when they entered Gringotts was one of pure shock; she remembered Emma telling her that it was run by goblins but she never really comprehended what she said until now. There were dozens of them in the giant room, carrying large diamonds and rubies, or sitting on stools scribbling in tomes.
Lupin took Joy and Emma to the front desk to get them started on the paperwork, and then went with Harry and the others down to the vaults to get some money.
They first stopped at the Weasley’s small vault, this time Harry was happy to see that it wasn’t looking as empty as it had been last time, apparently Arthur was getting paid quite a lot of overtime lately. They then made a quick stop at a small vault Hermione’s parents had opened up for her last year; she withdrew a small stack and jumped back on the tram.
Last up was Harry’s vault and as they approached the entrance Harry suddenly realized he hadn’t mentioned the new significant increase in wealth to anyone, only Ginny and Lupin had seen it. He mentally kicked himself as he handed the key to the goblin, just imagining Mrs. Weasley and Ron’s looks when they saw the next room. The door swung open to reveal the large gold doors with the family crests on them. Harry’s assumptions were right, both Molly and Ron gaped in disbelief, but they weren’t the only ones, Kingsley, Tonks, and Hermione were all staring at Harry in astonishment; the only people who didn’t have similar expressions were Ginny and Lupin who’d been with him on the first trip down.
“Sorry about that, I sort of forgot to warn you guys,” Harry said smiling at the now stunned expressions of his friends, “I won’t be long, let me just grab some money for the school year.”
Harry walked up to the Potter family vault and once again pressed his palm against the cold metal door. The gold door swung open revealing the huge stacks of galleons that glinted in the torchlight. Harry quickly filled up his money pouch and headed back for the cart, somewhat ashamed to be flaunting his wealth in front of the people he cared about. “I should have warned you I guess,” Harry said trying to fill the awkward silence.
“Harry, how the hell did you get all this,” Ron blurted out, he flinched expecting a condemnation from his mom, but it never came, Molly was still just staring at the pile of gold.
“I honestly didn’t know I had it until a couple of weeks ago, turns out that what I used to have was just a trust fund for me, also part of it came from Sirius’ will,” Harry said as the door slowly closed behind him, once it sealed shut with a hiss it was if a spell was broken. Everyone stopped staring and began to move about again.
“I had no idea you had that much money, you’ve got to be richer than the Malfoys now!” Ron said hopefully.
“Lupin says that I’m right behind them for now, but the way they’re dumping money in Voldemort’s projects I bet they’ll be broke soon.” Harry said.
“Harry dear, I hope you have someone who knows what to do about all this, you need someone to take care of your finances,” Molly said taking her usual motherly outlook on the situation.
“I’ve already found the best one possible; Moony’s going to take care of it. I think it’s a good idea that I have someone I can trust to look after it. Now let’s get up top level, I don’t think I’m a big cave guy after the Chamber of Secrets fiasco.” The cart jolted to a start and soon they were hurling back up to ground level.
They met up with Emma and Joy who had just finished creating their own vault and converted some pounds into galleons for shopping.
They headed outside once again squinting in the sunlight. Diagon Alley was still noticeably empty. Only a few dark hooded people scurried past them, never stopping long enough to be seen, most likely someone they had just came from Knockturn Alley and were trying to leave with whatever contraband they had purchased as quickly as possible. The few other people they did see were mostly ministry officials rushing back and forth from the Leaky Cauldron on various bits of official business.
The group decided in order to expedite the process they would split into two groups; half of them going to Flourish and Blotts to pick up the supplies there, and the other half would head to the Apothecary to pick up the required materials and then would go to Ollivander’s to get Emma a wand.

Harry and Ron decided to go with Kingsley and Emma to get potions supply then the wand, the others headed off to get the necessary spell books.
The supplies were simple enough; Emma, Ginny, and Hermione were the only ones who needed them because both Ron and Harry were both unable to take Snape’s N.E.W.T. level class.
After purchasing the required materials they headed over to Ollivander’s, which was just down the street. Harry was suddenly hit with a sense of deja vu as he walked into the small, dusty storefront; he hadn’t been in this store since he’d discovered he was a wizard.
Kingsley rang the small bell on the counter and a moment later Ollivander came out from the back room, looking as ancient as he always had. “Ah, Mr. Shacklebolt, how are you? Is your wand still holding up to the rigors of an Auror? Oh, and Mr. Potter, back so soon! Holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, quite and unusual wand if I remember correctly?”
Harry just nodded, hoping he would not bring up the unusual tie with Voldemort’s own wand.
“I have heard things from Albus himself, he says you are turning out to be quite the skilled wizard. I must say Albus does sometimes exaggerate, but if just some of the stories I have heard are true then I must agree with him.” Harry flushed under the praise of the wizened wand maker. “Now Mr. Weasley, how is your new wand treating you?”
“It’s brilliant! Some of the charms I could never do with the old wand I can do now. It works so much better now,” Ron said as he held out his wand for him to examine it.
“Ah yes, Willow and unicorn, very nice. As I say Mr. Weasley, the wand picks the wizard! And who do we have here?” He said noticing Emma standing next to Harry.
“Oh, yeah sorry I should have introduced you. Mr. Ollivander this is Emma Massey, she is going to be going to Hogwarts this year and needs her first wand.
“Of course, of course. Well Miss Massey, step up right here and we’ll get started then,” Ollivander started. He tapped his wand and the magical tape measure set to work measuring Emma as he went to the shelves to begin picking out a wand.

They had spent roughly thirty minutes in the store going through over half a dozen wands trying to find the perfect one. In that time period Emma had already blown the hinges off the front door, split one of the shelves in half, and singed part of Ron’s eyebrow off.
Never to be discouraged Ollivander approached with yet another wand that he gave to Emma. “Ten and a half inches, made of a rare wood called Ipê, contains dragon heartstring. Give it a try.” When Emma grabbed hold of it she gasped.
“Blimey, that felt weird. It reminded me of when I accidentally stuck a paper clip in an outlet when I was seven, my whole arm sort of clenched tight. What should I do?” Emma asked, glancing at the wand somewhat nervously.
“That’s good news, you should feel that. Now just do what you’ve been doing, give it good wave,” Ollivander urged.
Emma took a deep breath and flicked the wand upwards. There was a burst of light and the room was filled with pink smoke. As it faded they saw a pile of daisies lying on the floor next to a grinning Emma.

As they were paying for Emma’s new wand Harry heard a whisper and looked up to see why Ron was trying to stay quite. Ron was ten feet away from him browsing the aisles of wands. Harry shrugged and looked back over to Emma sorting the galleons into neat piles.
“Harry!”
Harry looked up once again, this time he knew someone was calling for him, and he could have sworn it was Ginny, but she was on the other side of Diagon Alley. He looked about, hoping the others had heard it but it seemed he was along.
“Harry, help!”
The shouts were becoming clearer, and louder. This time it sounded as if she was right next to him.
“Hey Ron, Kingsley. I think we should find the others, I keep hearing Ginny shouting for help.” Harry said vaugley, hoping they wouldn’t ask questions and just follow him outside.
“Harry what’s wrong, you look like you’ve seen…”
But Ron was cut off as a massive explosion rocked the store. Boxes and shelves fell to the ground, raining down dust everywhere. Glass rained down as the shop windows blew out from the concussion wave. Caught completely unprepared everyone was knocked to the floor by the force of the explosion.
It took Harry a moment to stop the buzzing in his ears but when they did he could hear explosions, shouts, and cries from outside the shop. He stumbled upwards, trying to sort out what had happened. As he prised a shelf off of Ron he heard the shout again,
“Harry, help!”
Once again it was inside his head, but he also knew that the others had heard it when Ron looked up from the ground.
“Harry go, I’ll help Emma and Ollivander,” he said as he pushed him off, urging him to go help his little sister.
Harry just nodded, picked up his wand and sprinted out of the store, desperately searching for the exact location of the shouts. He headed in the general direction of Flourish and Blotts, assuming that Ginny and the others would still be there at the moment. He just hoped that he could get there fast enough to help Ginny and the others with whatever was going on. When he rounded the corner his heart stopped at the scene before him.
It was like running into a war zone, the once peaceful cobblestone alleyway had been transformed into a maze of huge chunks of blown out storefront, crushed stands, and craters. Harry could see flashes of what he knew had to be spell fire in the distance, although it was difficult to discern what exactly was happening due to the smoke from the dozens of fires.
“HARRY!”
Harry snapped back from his shock when he heard Ginny’s scream this time in both his head and ears. He started running again, working his way through the maze of rubble, his wand drawn ready to attack anything in front of him. As he drew nearer the shouts of actual spells became louder, and from the sound of them it seemed as if they had stumbled into a fight with Death Eaters. His fear was confirmed when he saw the hauntingly distinct green of a killing curse shatter the Flourish and Blotts sign.
Harry reached the lip of a huge crater that he actually had to climb to the top of to get over; from there he saw the whole scene:
Tonks, Molly, Lupin, Joy, Ginny, and Hermione were all barricaded inside the shop, their back pressed against a pile of collapsed bookshelves.
On the other side of the alley stood about a dozen Death Eaters, all in their full cloaks and masks. They were all relentlessly hurling spells at the crumbling storefront. Occasionally one would make its way inside and bounce dangerously off one of the metal bookcases, narrowly missing the group.
Tonks, Hermione, and Lupin all took turns firing off spells whenever there was a lull in the barrage. Ginny seemed to be caring for Joy who had a dark patch of what seemed to be blood on her shirt. Once again Ginny looked up, desperation in her eyes.
“Harry!” She shouted, looking everywhere for him.
Harry started to carefully work his way around the top of the crater to the store front, cautious to always keep himself fully hidden from the Death Eaters. It took him a while to make it to the edge of the store but he managed to do so without being so much as grazed by a spell.
Upon his reaching the store however the intensity of the fighting seemed to increase dramatically. It was now an almost constant hail of spells from the Death Eaters, and Harry had to stay tucked in the little hole in the rubble he’d found.
As he desperately looked around for a way to get to them in the store something caught his eye in the shards of a mirror lying on the ground. He looked more closely at it and could see something moving stealthily across the pile of debris towards the shop. Harry suddenly knew what the increase in spells was for, they were trying to keep them pinned down so one of them could sneak up and kill them from close range.
A million thoughts whizzed through his mind as he desperately searched for a way to stop the Death Eater’s attack. As they plans went from crazy to insane one kept coming back to him, one that was insanely simple but also insanely stupid. Finally, glancing once again at the shards of mirror, he knew he couldn’t wait any longer and leapt up from his position and ran full speed at the approaching wizard while drawing his wand and shouting Petrificus Totalus!
The spell hit the Death Eater directly in the chest as he looked to see what the motion to his side was. The effect was instantaneous, the wizard stopped dead in his tracks. And as Harry continued to approach, it seemed as if his plan had worked; by running straight at the Death Eater it had momentarily thrown him off guard and prevented him from retaliating. That exact same moment however Harry saw the second Death Eater who had been sneaking up on the other side of the pile in an attempt to trap their prey on both sides.
Harry slid to a halt, knowing that his luck had just run out as he saw the Death Eater draw his wand. Harry attempted to throw a leg-locking curse at him but it only managed to knock the mask off who turned out to be the crazed Rudolpho Lestrange.
Lestrange whipped his wand upward; firing off a barrage of spells that Harry barely managed to block with a shield spell Hermione had just recently found in one of the Auror books. The shield did stop them from hitting Harry, but the force behind them was still there and it knocked him against the brick wall of Flourish and Blotts. His head impacted directly with the masonry, bouncing off it with a crack.
Harry’s head spun as he fought to keep conscious, knowing that if he didn’t it would certainly mean death. He grabbed onto the ledge of the window and pulled himself up, throwing another shield to block more spells fired off by the approaching Lestrange as his vision began to darken. The first one, a sickly brown curse, splashed harmlessly against its invisible wall, but the grey hex behind it cut straight through the shield.
The impact of the spell hit Harry like a ton of bricks. He felt a sharp pain in his hand and his side as the momentum of the spell spun him like a top. As Harry lost consciousness from the blow to his head he fell through the broken window into the shop.
The last thing he remembered before blacking out was that of Ginny’s tear stained face with a look of utter horror. “Mum, help! Harry’s hurt badly, he’s bleeding everywhere. MUM!”

The Spy's Recompense

Many hours later Emma, Ginny, Harry, and Lupin walked out of Harrods completely exhausted carrying handfuls of bags each.
“I had no idea that shopping could be so much work! I feel like I just played a day long Quidditch game right now, not to mention how hungry I am after walking through the grocery store.” Harry said carrying several large bags filled with everything from shirts to trainers.
“I’ve never really been shopping before, mum usually just would pick some things up at the second-hand shop in Diagon Alley. I remember Parvati saying she enjoyed shopping but honestly I don’t really want to do that again for a while,” Ginny said, carrying a few bags of her own. She felt bad about using Harry’s money and had initially refused, yet when Harry explained that he was doing this because he cared about her and he wasn’t trying to buy her, she humoured him and decided to buy some jeans and a few t-shirts.
“Thanks for hat Harry!” Emma said showing off her new hat that she’d fallen in love with when they saw it earlier.
“I’m glad that we were able to do that, I really did need some new clothes, it’s been so many years since I’ve had a decent suit to wear, and I did what Sirius told me to do.” He had bought an entirely new Muggle wardrobe, including a very nice watch and several silk ties. “Here why don’t we go down this alley and I’ll shrink all of our stuff so we can fit it in our pockets. We still have a bit of a walk to the Leaky Cauldron.”
Lupin piled up all of the bags and boxes and shrunk them neatly into groups small enough to fit into their pant pockets. They made the long walk to the Leaky Cauldron, once again stopping at Hamleys so Emma could look at the giant stuffed bear in the window. Before heading back to headquarters they stopped and had a drink at the Leaky Cauldron, merrily recounting their trip into the heart of Muggle London. A little while later Lupin decided it was about time to go back so they once again lined up at the fireplace.
Ginny went first, throwing her handful of powder into the fire and stepping into the hearth, then shouted “12 Grimmauld Place!” She disappeared and Harry and Emma stepped up next. Harry took a handful threw it in the fire and reassured Emma nothing bad would happen. She then nervously stepped in next to him and gasped as she felt the cold licks of fire on her legs. “It’s okay Em, remember, just hold one and keep your eyes closed okay? 12 Grimmauld Place!” Harry shouted and they were spent spinning around catching glimpses of other rooms and buildings as they passed.
Usually Harry couldn’t see anything because his glasses would get knocked off, and if he did it was usually just the blur of various fires and their hearths. This time however his glasses managed to stay in place and right before they arrived at Grimmauld place the spinning slowed enough for him to see right into the room. What he saw both shocked and scared him.
It was a small, poorly lit room, and although it was fairly dark the face he saw was easily recognizable. It was that of the traitorous friend Peter Pettigrew. Alongside him were several other people including one that Harry recognized to be McNair, the executor for the disposal of dangerous creatures.
The scene flashed by so quickly that he wasn’t completely sure that it really was real or if he were imagining it. But once he landed in the study of Grimmauld Place he was convinced it had to be real. Emma was standing next to him, looking at him curiously, not sure as to why he looked so nervous.
There was a large crowd inside the study. Tonks and Kingsley, who were apparently on call that night, along with Molly, Ron, and Hermione were greeting Ginny warmly. Harry was surprised to see them but at the moment didn’t really worry why they were there. Before any of them could welcome him back or say anything for that matter, Harry stood up dusting himself off.
“We have a problem,” he said in a low voice.
Harry stood up, dusting off the soot from the fireplace. Nobody in the room said a thing, still waiting for what Harry was going to say. Hermione and Molly were both in the process of going to hug Harry but stopped when they heard the tone of his voice; they very rarely saw Harry acting this seriously. After sorting out his thoughts for a moment he spoke again.
“You know how when you are travelling using floo you can see into the random fireplaces as you pass by? Usually I don’t see much, just a fire or the hearth but this time the last place I saw before coming out here was a very dark room with several people in it.”
“Harry, if you’re concerned about the security of this house being hooked up to the floo network, you don’t need to worry. Aside from people who are part of the order, and Emma apparently, no one can even access this fireplace.” Tonks said stepping up to the boy trying to comfort him.
Harry shook his head, “that’s not it Tonks.” He ran his hands through his hair, “at first I thought I was seeing things, or maybe I was just confused, but I realized it had to be real. There wasn’t any other way that I had seen what I had seen, and once I saw his hand I knew that it was.” Harry paused, trying to collect his thoughts.
The fireplace behind him blazed green again and out stepped Lupin, smiling broadly as he dusted off his new clothes. “How are you Tonks, Kingsley, and Molly! What a surprise, good to see you Ron and Hermione, how’ve your summers been?” He stopped abruptly, noticing that something was off when no one responded; he then looked over at Harry. “Harry what’s wrong, did something happen?” Lupin asked, finally noticing the boy’s now ashen face.
“I saw him Moony, just sitting by the fire. I think that they might be on a stake out, it was the last place I saw before landing here, that means they’re close right?” Harry asked quickly, almost out of breath.
“Slow down there boyo, you’ll give yourself a stroke. Breath. Now tell me what happened, who did you see?” Moody said, limping out of the kitchen after hearing the start of the story. Emma jumped, scared by the massive man’s scarred face and the magical eye, she’d never seen someone so odd looking before in her life.
“I saw Wormtail, well Peter I guess, and some other people who I think were Death Eaters. I think I recognised another, McNair, the executioner who was going to kill Buckbeak. They were all just sitting in the room discussing something. I think they must be close because they were the last room I saw before getting here. Could they be spying on us? Do they know about headquarters?” Harry said glancing at the fireplace behind him nervously, as if he expected them to come bursting out of it.
As Harry told the story the atmosphere in the room instantly changed. The others had drawn their wands. Molly had taken hold of Emma’s hand and taken her to the couch, her maternal instinct kicking in even without knowing the little girl.
“Potter, can you describe the room, what did it look like?” Moody asked, his eye swinging even more out of control as if he were scouring that very room for the Death Eaters.
“I only saw it for a second, but it was just a small dirty looking room. Its curtains were pulled, and there wasn’t really any light. The wallpaper was peeling off also. But that’s about it, I really barely recognized Peter, but then I saw his hand, the silver one. I wish I’d seen more.” Harry said, shrugging.
“That’s better than nothing,” Shaklebolt said, standing up, “Mad-Eye, we need to step up security while we get assembled. Tonks stay here, make sure to keep your wand on anything that comes through this fire. Alastair and Remus, if you two want to why don’t you take a look outside, I’ll alert the others. Molly, why don’t we take everyone else to the kitchen? I don’t know if the room being the last thing he saw means it’s close, but it wouldn’t hurt to be safe.”
“I agree with Kingsley,” Tonks said, “why don’t we let your eye take a little peek at the houses near us Moody. Maybe it can find that filthy little rat.”
Moody laughed harshly, “Let’s get going then Remus. Tell the others to arrive as soon as possible and to be at highest alert.”
“Yes, I’ll come too, let me just get my cloak,” he made to head out of the kitchen but Harry stopped him.
“Moony, this isn’t about vengeance; I don’t want to lose you too. Just find them and capture them that’s it.” Harry said putting stress on the last words.
Lupin smiled and then hugged the boy tightly, “I promise I won’t do anything stupid, but I do want to go try and get him.” He pulled away and walked out of the room to go with Moody who was waiting at the front door.
“Molly, Tonks, if we aren’t back by night time carry out the necessary steps. We won’t be doing the grabbing just yet, we’ll wait for the others to do that. We might not find them however, I doubt that even the death eaters are stupid enough to hide next door to us,” Moody said letting another harsh laugh out, which in turn woke up Mrs. Black’s portrait. The Aurors went outside and left the others in the hallway with a screaming portrait.
“Harry, WHAT THE BLOODY HELL JUST…hold on a minute…” Ron shouted over the din of Mrs. Black’s screeching to no avail. “Shut up you old hag!” He turned to face the portrait, grabbed its curtains and yanked them shut bringing silence back once again. Turning once again to face Harry, the gangly redhead smiled and grabbed him in a hug, “Good to see you mate, now will you tell us what’s been going on starting from when you and Ginny became an item?”
Harry smiled at his friend, and after getting the customary hug from both Mrs. Weasley and Hermione, and introducing Emma to everyone Molly led them back to the kitchen to get something to eat as they talked. The first question on everyone’s mind was what exactly had happened just minutes ago. Harry recounted what he saw, and when he finished he leaned back and watched everyone’s different expressions.
“And you’re sure it was them? I mean they weren’t just people who looked like them?” Hermione asked.
“I’m positive, Wormtail has a silver hand. I’ll never forget it, I saw Voldemort give it to him the night he brought him back to life. And McNair was there too that night, you know, the man who was going to kill Buckbeak,” Harry added, noticing the blank expressions.
“Um, Harry? I know the Headmaster told me and my mum something about Voldemort and the war going on, but why is it bad if you saw these death eaters in the fireplace?” Emma asked, feeling very out of place in this group of wizards.
“It’s not just the fact that he saw them in the fireplace, but also that it was the last thing he saw before arriving here. I don’t really know much about the floo network but I reckon that because it’s close it means that the place had to be somewhat near here, and seeing as this place is supposed to be a secret that is not a good thing if they know about it,” Hermione said helpfully.
“Let’s just hope that they can find them,” Ginny said.
“That reminds me, I need to get hold of Albus and the others, or would you like to do it Molly?” Kingsley said as he grabbed at something around his neck.
“Not unless you want me to.”
Kingsley just shook his head, “it’s alright, I’ll do it. I’m going to send it to everyone so you’ll get the message also.” He took the necklace that he’d been working to undo off and opened it up. He tapped his wand on it and began to talk back into it.
“Urgent Message to all Order Members. According to first hand account there are Death Eaters in close proximity to headquarters. Alistair and Lupin are currently out running recon on neighbourhood. Immediate assistance required.” Kingsley then tapped his wand on it again and closed it back up.
“Mr. Shaklebolt? If you don’t mind me asking, what exactly was that? Is that how the Order has been communicating?” Hermione asked, her curiosity now piqued.
“These necklaces were charmed by Albus during the first war, it acts as a simple way to send messages to one person or the entire Order. Molly if you could, you should have the message in your own.” Kingsley held out his own necklace for Harry and Ginny to examine while the others looked at Molly’s. It was a small silver pendant, nothing that would suggest to them that it was anything more than a family heirloom. Harry had always wondered how the Order members communicated with each other knowing that floo and owl were both very unreliable and able to be intercepted.
Molly opened her locket and tapped it with her wand, immediately a small image of Kingsley appeared above it. It reminded Harry of the images he had seen in the pensieve, solid enough but ethereal at the same time. The image repeated the message back precisely then faded out to nothing.
“The locket warms slightly when we receive a message and you can either watch it as we just did or listen to just the voice if you want to be more discreet.” Kingsley pointed out as he put his communicator back around his neck.
“Those are brilliant. I’m going to have to ask the Headmaster, I think they’d be a great thing to have for everyday use, especially these days.” Hermione said as she continued to inspect Molly’s locket.
“Ginny, Harry how have you two been holding up in this gloomy old place? Is the new bedroom okay?” Molly asked, snapping at once back into her motherly mode bustling around to prepare a dinner for the group. “You might be wondering exactly why all of us are here also. The Order had a meeting last night and decided that it would be wisest to move as many people to a secure location. We’ve been hearing rumblings about upcoming attacks on supporters of Dumbledore and decided we shouldn’t take a risk. It seems that we shall be staying here for the next couple of weeks before school starts.”
“Really? That’s brilliant; I was wondering when I was going to get to see you guys. Usually you’ve either broken me out of the Dursleys or met up here.” Harry said, glad that they were all going to be able to spend part of their summer together.
“Okay so are you lot going to tells us what happened in the past couple of days or will I just have to accept that why you and my sister are holding hands is a mystery?” Ron asked impatiently.
Harry looked over at Ginny, he had been trying to think of a way to tell he and Hermione but still hadn’t come up with a good one.
“Well what has mum told you?” Ginny asked charging ahead, clearly she wasn’t afraid of her older brother.
“She didn’t tell us anything, just that you would be spending the rest of the summer here at Headquarters.” Ron said glaring at his mom. He’d been trying for nearly a day now to try and discover what prompted this whole thing, but had only gotten a stern warning to leave things be.
Molly looked up from the stove now and nodded at Harry and Ginny telling them to continue.
“Well, we’re not entirely sure what it does, or even why it happened really; but the reason I had to stay with Harry was because he and I have been Heartbonded.”
There was zero reaction from Ron, but at those words, Hermione nearly fell off the stool in shock, “YOUR’E HEARTBONDED!” She exclaimed.
“Uh…yeah,” Ginny said unsure what to do about Hermione’s reaction.
“There’s no way that you two can be Heartbonded, I mean that’s a child’s story that parents told their kids. I mean the only thing I’ve even read about it said that there were only two pairs who were Heartbonded; Merlin and Godric Gryffindor.”
“That’s the same thing Moony told us that night, we don’t know why it happened but it’s true. That night that Ginny disappeared was on my 16th birthday, apparently when I turned sixteen we became bonded. It was so strong that it broke through the wards at both your house and headquarters; that’s why all the alarms were going off that night.” Harry said, trying to explain the events that led up to it to Ron who still seemed perplexed about the entire thing.
Hermione saw it too and spoke again, “The Heartbond is very strong apparently. If the stories that I read are indeed true then the bond acts as a form of accelerant for both physical and magical growth. It is something about combining two people’s power together to increase it exponentially. As the bond grows deeper it will begin acting like a magnifying glass on Harry and Ginny, it will cause them to grow much stronger and more powerful if it just were to occur naturally.” They all were shocked at the amount of information she’d just regurgitated on a topic few had heard of and even those believed it to be myth.
“Hermione, our living breathing library,” Harry said putting his arm around her.
“So what’s happened so far. I know it’s only been two days but has anything happened so far?” Hermione asked, ever inquisitive.
“Well there haven’t been that many changes…well we do have to sle-“ But Harry was cut short by Ginny stepping on his foot and giving him the, ‘we’ll tell them later’ when the mother isn’t here look, he then tried to cover up his near slip up, “Umm…we do have to get used to the fact that Gin and I are fated for each other. Not in a bad way, but knowing that your soul mates is a little bit too much to digest right away.”
“At first when you told me I didn’t believe it either to be honest. But now Arthur and I looked back at all the things you have done it seems to make sense. You had a crush on him Ginny the moment you met him at the train station your first year, even before you learned his name. Then you saved her life once when she was a first year, and probably saved her again last year at the Ministry of Magic. You might not have even known yourself, but before the Quidditch World Cup I could tell you were starting to realize she wasn’t just Ron’s sister anymore.” Molly said smiling at the two teens that were blushing and smiling awkwardly now.
“Well let me just say it’s about time. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to listen to Ginny complain about you not liking her. So what exactly does this bond mean then? Are you two getting married now?”
Harry and Ginny both laughed, “It’s only been two days since we even realized that we both fancy each other. We’re going to stick with dating right now I think while we figure out what else is going to happen.” Harry said looking at Ginny to see if she approved of the answer.
“One way or the other you’re stuck with me Potter!” She teased and snuggled up close to him.

The rest of the evening went by with Harry, Ginny, Emma, telling about their summer and all of the things they had done. Molly and Hermione were most interested by the trip to Harrods, but the Ron was ecstatic when they heard about Hamleys, the four level toy store, saying that Harry would have to take them all there again.
The room was not devoid of tension however; everyone would occasionally glance over at the clock, counting down the time until they would call Dumbledore if the Remus and Moody didn’t return. Almost immediately after Kingsley had sent the message more and more people began to appear. Soon it seemed that every Order member they’d ever met was milling around the kitchen or the study, whispering in hushed tones around Harry and the others.
As the older members discussed what exactly was going on and compared various other bits of information, Ginny and Harry filled the others in on the gossip they’d managed to hear around Headquarters.
“Did you hear that Malfoy’s dad apparently escaped Azkaban again? He was the only one too. From what we could tell the back wall of his cell was melted through. Somehow either he, or someone else, managed to stun over a dozen guards and break through the warded gates,” Harry told the others.
“That great git, stun 12 guards, I doubt it. I bet he had help from his cronies Crabbe and Goyle Senior, although if they’re as stupid as their sons I would be surprised if they could tie their own shoelaces” Ron guffawed.
“Or Tom,” Harry said solemnly.
“Who?” Ron asked.
“Tom,” Harry repeated, and then noticing no one knew what he was talking about he continued, “…Marvalo Riddle? Lord Voldemort.”
“Maybe, but do you really think he’d risk it just for Malfoy’s dad? I mean he’s nothing special, is he?” Ron asked.
“He’s got money, and that seems to be the only thing ‘Tom’ can’t really kill to get. The goblins have it all, almost 90 percent of all galleons, and he’s not exactly friendly with them. He killed a whole colony somewhere in Scotland during the last war and they’ve hated him ever since.” Hermione stated, “I read it…”
“…in a book!” Ron, Harry, and Ginny all said in unison.
Ignoring the incredulous glare from Hermione Harry turned to Ron, “So has your dad heard anything on the inside. I mean from the papers I’ve read it seems like Fudge is having a hard time staying minister right now.”
“Yeah, my dad says he’s really gone off the deep end now, after the whole Department of Mysteries thing. Dad hasn’t seen him after that; says he’s mostly up in his office now, fuming. I think he knows his time’s up and he’s now just trying to buy time to get out of it in a way that makes him look good. He’s started a new campaign to root out Death Eaters, something about trusting no one,” Ron said in a dramatic voice.
“We saw those in Diagon Alley, it was that Fudge guy and a quote saying ‘suspect everything” Emma said, she felt as if she were somewhat of an outside in this conversation so she was eager to be able to say something of relevance.
“Yeah that’s what it was ‘suspect everything’, sounds like he’s taking a page out of Mad-eye’s book. Anyhow, dad says that the big members in the Wizengamot have been secretly meeting trying to find a new minister.”
“Sounds like they are planning a coup. Any idea who they might replace him with?” Hermione asked.
“Dad keeps talking about Amelia’s aunt, Madam Bones. Says that she’s a supporter of the Order and has what it takes to turn the ministry around.”
“I’ve met her before, at the ministry last year when I went to my hearing. She was the only person who stood up for me during that whole thing; besides Dumbledore too I guess. Anyone would be better than Fudge though.” Harry said with a grimace.

With the rest of the Order members assembled in the house Moody and Lupin returned to fill everyone in on what they had managed to gather from their snooping.
“Well Harry, you seem to be correct with your assumption that they are nearby. Alistair and I searched the various houses up and down the street and they were all clear, when we went down the street and over to the next block however we did run into one building that seems quite suspicious. Moody’s eye, nor any of the spells we dared attempt managed to break through the shields it had up which means either there is a very paranoid old wizard there or Wormtail and the others are there.”
“We normally would have caught wind of something like that, but because it was a block over so I missed it when I do my weekly scan of the houses around Headquarters.” Moody said. For once everyone in the room seemed to think that Moody’s sometimes-excessive paranoia was actually a good thing.
“We stayed outside there hidden for a while to see if anyone came in or out. About five minutes ago one person did leave, and we did manage to catch a glimpse of Wormtail closing the door. If we want to catch them we need to move sooner than later. It’s too dangerous for them not to be taken in.” Lupin said. He had dreamed very long about what he would do to Peter, especially after hearing about what he’d done to Harry at the graveyard.
“It seems that everyone is here. Let’s head out, two groups in pincer formation, no one gets away understood?” Moody barked and walked down the hallway to the door. The others Order members followed suit and soon the kids were once again alone in the kitchen with Molly.

Nearly an hour had passed when they heard a loud knock on the door and muffled voices. Everyone sprinted down the hallway to get the door and see who it was, they had all been anxiously waiting for the raiding party to return.
When Molly threw the heavy door open a figure dropped in through the doorframe. It was Emmeline Vance, and she seemed to be completely covered in blood, so much so that it was impossible to see the actual cuts.
“They sent me, they’re coming. We got them…some injured. Cutting hexes…something else. Call Madam Pomfrey too… need medical,” Emmeline panted suffering from the huge amount of blood she’d already seemed to have lost.
Molly could mend bruises of cuts not something this drastic so she ran off to go floo Madam Pomfrey for help.
Ginny dropped to Emmeline’s side. She’d worked with Madam Pomfrey occasionally in the sick ward so she’d dealt with some injuries. Not knowing what exactly to do she decided just to make her a little more comfortable, and try to stop the blood while they waited for Madam Pomfrey.
“Harry, Ron, help me flip her over so I can get a good look at where her cuts are.” Harry and Ron gently turned her on her back. Hermione tried a cleaning charm to remove some of the blood but it didn’t do much.
Ginny got on her knees and began to look for where the hexes had hit. She saw a large gash around her left calf and upon closer inspection saw the huge cut on her leg. “Looks like they got an artery, she’s loosing a lot of blood. I’m going to try and stop the bleeding. We need to get some towels to plug the bleeding, she’s lost too much already, Harry you need to press down on this cut, it’s an artery so we need to keep it closed. Hermione do that cleaning charm over here again.”
She did it twice more, clearing it a bit so Ginny could see the beginning and end of the gash. She took Harry’s hands and placed them over the cut and pushed down, “Keep your hands here. Madam Pomfrey and I had to do this once after some Slytherins got in a fight with a Hufflepuff, funny thing was that it was Slytherin who we needed to do it to.” Harry placed his whole palm over the cut, closing his eyes to try and cancel out the screams coming from Emmeline.
He heard a gasp from Hermione, and Ron cursed out loud then saw Emma standing there. “Erm…sorry. Mate you might want to open your eyes,” Ron said in shock. The spot where Harry had placed his hands on had suddenly become completely clear of blood. He cautiously withdrew his hands from her leg and was shocked to see that the cut had almost completely disappeared; it was now just a small cut that was barely bleeding at all.
“Well don’t stop, keep doing whatever you were doing!” Hermione urged, finally breaking the stunned silence.
Harry nodded, looking down at his hands then back at the cut, he reached out again and rubbed the remaining part of the cut until that too disappeared.
He smiled and stood up, but swayed a little bit and had to grab a hold of Ron to stop from collapsing.
“Whoa, that was weird, whatever I was just doing must have taken a lot of magic because I’m a little dizzy. Here let me just sit for a second I’ll be all right. Take her to the kitchen and let Madam Pomfrey look at her, I think I hear her coming now; it might not have closed it up all the way.”
As Hermione and Emma helped move Emmeline into the kitchen several more figures appeared in the doorway. They stepped into the house. On the left side was Moody, on the other was Kingsley Shaklebolt, and sandwiched and bound up in-between the two men was the greasy whimpering form of Peter Pettigrew.
“This little bastard tried to choke me with his silver hand on the way back here, almost took my head off in the process,” Moody growled, indicating the large cut on the side of his face. “Get moving rat!” Moody shouted pushing Wormtail further inside.
Harry looked at Wormtail with the utmost disgust then noticed he was cradling a bloody stump where his silver hand used to be, “Mad-Eye, what happened to his hand?”
“Oh well I told you, he tried to choke me with it. So I removed it,” He said, with a slight grin on his face, he then pulled the arm out of his cloak pocket and waved it in front of Wormtail’s face. “I ought to choke you with it, would be a nice bit of irony eh Peter.” Moody pushed Wormtail once again, causing him to fall over, “Get up you rat, and go in there, we’re going to have ourselves a little chat about traitors.” Moody said in his most frightening voice, both his eyes focused intently on the cowering spy.
“Kingsley, where are the others?” Molly asked, bustling out of the kitchen, her usual spotless apron covered in blood from her ministrations with Madam Pomfrey.
“They’re on their way Molly, no need to worry. Got a couple more of the scum with ‘em. A few managed to escape but we got four of the six, not too bad. How’s Emmeline, she was our only real injury, couple of us got scrapes or burns but that’s about it.”
“She should be fine, Harry managed to work some magic that I never even knew was possible. Poppy is dealing with the smaller cuts right now.”
At that moment they heard the rest of the Order clambering up the steps, including Lupin and Tonks. With them they were dragging three struggling death eaters, one of them being McNair.
“These buggers tried to ambush us when we hit one of their detector spells. Got Emmeline mostly, but one of the hexes clipped Remus. We put a befuddlement charm on them so they can’t remember where they are or how they got here. Where’s Moody?” Tonks asked, keeping her wand firmly pressed against McNair’s Adams apple.
“He went into the living room with Wormtail. Said he was going to teach him a lesson about traitors,” Ginny said, grimacing as she imagined what it would be like to be one of Moody’s enemies.
The Aurors dragged the other three death eaters into the room and closed the door, leaving the rest of to ponder what was going on inside that room.
“Well it has been a very long day, one that thankfully didn’t end any worse that it did. Emma dear, I think that it’s time we take you back to your mother, you’ve seen more action in one day than most 11 year olds see in a year. Harry I don’t think it’s wise for you to step outside at the moment. Tonks would you mind taking Emma back home?” Lupin said as he examined the small cut on his face.
“Of course, come on Emma, let’s get you home.” Tonks said holding her hand out for her.
Emma ran over and hugged Harry, and then turned and hugged Ginny too, “thanks again Harry. I’ve never been anywhere as cool as Diagon Alley. Nice to meet you Ginny,” She took Tonks’ hand and headed back home.
“Well,” Molly started, “it’s already late, why don’t we have dinner. You lot must be starving after this long day. Come on, into the kitchen with you all,” she offered helpfully, ushering the hungry group once again into the kitchen.
Harry, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione all went upstairs momentarily to change clothes and clean all the blood that Hermione’s charms hadn’t managed to get off and then rushed back down.
As they sat about the kitchen table the group chatted about anything and everything. It felt good to have the old group back together again, even after all the commotion there certainly was more levity in the house now that Ron and Hermione were here.
As Harry saw his friends all laughing together at some ridiculous story that Ginny was retelling something deep in him awoke once again. Right after Sirius’ death he truly didn’t care whether or not he killed Voldemort, or even if he lived still. Yet now, as Ginny leaned her head against his shoulder, and Hermione and Ron were smiling merrily, something new was growing in him.

The Potter Family Vaults

Grimmauld Place, London, England

That morning Lupin woke Ginny and Harry up early so they could get breakfast and beat the morning crowd at Gringotts before heading into Muggle London. They were all far too excited to really eat but went through the motions anyway as they sat there eager to leave. It was nearly seven when they heard a knock on the door and Lupin got up to answer it. A moment later he returned with Emma walking in front of him.
“Hey Harry, what’s going on?” Emma asked, then spotted Ginny sitting next to him, “how’s she?” She asked eyeing the new girl suspiciously.
Harry had to laugh; he’d forgotten that Emma had no idea about what had happened in the past 48 hours. “Well Emma, this is Ginny Weasley. You know how I told you about my friends from school, this is Ron’s sister.”
“Hi Emma, nice to meet you, Harry’s told me a lot about you.” Ginny said smiling kindly at the little girl.
“Are you his girlfriend?” She asked, eyeing the redhead suspiciously.
“Well something very weird happened after you went home from my birthday Emma,” Harry started, “it turns out that Ginny and I have been bonded. For some reason or another we are now connected magically and this bond makes us stay close to each other, that’s why she’s living here.” He tried to simplify it as much as possible, skirting the topic of girlfriend because even he wasn’t sure if that was where their relationship was at the moment.
“Huh, well that’s cool I guess.” She said shrugging, “so can we still go swinging though? Mum said I could hang out with you today.”
“Well we were actually just planning on going shopping for some clothes. Moony I know that it was hard enough getting permission to let us go but could we bring Emma with us, if Joy says it’s okay?” Harry asked Lupin.
“I don’t see why not, we’re in no direct danger, just make sure she knows what we’d be doing.”
“Okay well Emma, if you want to go with us you can. I know it isn’t as much fun as swinging but you can hang out with us. We wouldn’t get home until after lunch so we’ll be gone for a while.”
“That’d be brilliant! I’ll go ask mum right now,” she said and rushed down the hallway to the door.

Just a few minutes later Emma was back at headquarters with permission from Joy to go shopping with them. They all headed to the living room fireplace where they were going to floo from.
“Okay now Emma, we’re first going to go to Gringotts. It’s our bank, remember I told you about it?” She nodded, remembering the various stories Harry had told her about Diagon Alley. “So to get there we need to use the floo network, it’s not scary at all, but you’ll go with me so you can get used to it. Are we ready to go Moony?”
“We’re going to the Leaky Cauldron so we can head over right now, the bank opens in 15 minutes so it should be perfect. I’ll go first, then Ginny you can go, then Harry and Emma can go last.” Lupin grabbed a handful of floo, tossed it into the fire and shouted, “The Leaky Cauldron!” and in a flash of green he disappeared. Ginny followed suite and moments later she too disappeared. Harry grabbed a handful of the powder and tossed it in the fire.
“Now just step in here and hold onto my hand okay? Don’t worry it doesn’t burn, it just sort of tickles. Okay now close your eyes so you don’t get ash in them and hold on! The Leaky Cauldron!” Harry and Emma started to spin and he saw the flashes of the various fires hooked up to the network. Another chaotic moment and they landed in the hearth of the Leaky Cauldron both covered in black soot. Emma stood there grinning.
“That was awesome, I can’t wait to do that again!” She cheered as she stepped out of the fire.
The group cleaned off and chatted with Tom the barman before quickly heading to the back and into Diagon Alley.
“Can we stop by my brother’s store for a little? I haven’t had a chance to see it yet, but mum says it’s amazing. I think that she’s actually beginning to agree that they were cut out for that job their whole life,” Ginny asked as Lupin tapped out the code on the bricks.
“It’s on the way to Gringotts, and the bank isn’t open for a little while longer so I see no reason why not. I could use a good laugh anyhow,” Lupin said as the door began to magically open. Emma just stood there awestruck. Harry remembered how amazing every little thing was when Hagrid took him here for the first time, a wave of nostalgia struck him as he thought about how simple things were back then compared to the chaos it was now.
Something about Diagon Alley was different this time however. It wasn’t filled with the usual hustle and bustle of hundreds of witches and wizards going about their shopping. In fact it was almost completely deserted except for the occasional passer by who seemed more concerned about spending as little time outside than actually shopping.
Huge purple enchanted banners hung up and down the alley, each one emblazoned with a massive picture of Minister Fudge, which was then replaced with the new motto of the Ministry of Magic, “suspect everything.” To Harry something about the motto made him nervous, it reminded him a little too closely of what Umbridge’s educational decrees were like.
The group soon reached Fred and George’s store. It wasn’t difficult to spot the building; it was the only one painted lime green with a huge sign emblazoned with three W’s.
“Sure looks like they know what they’re doing, this store looks massive. I bet they’re making loads.” Harry said admiring the premise.
They walked up to the door, unfortunately the sign on the door said ‘closed until door is open.’
Lupin laughed, “Yes they sure do, they might even put Zonko’s out of business at that. Might want to work on public relations though, the sign isn’t very helpful.”
“That’s the twins for you; they don’t follow anyone’s rules,” Harry said smiling fondly at the shop, proud knowing that he had been able to finance their business.
“I can see why they’re not open at least, there isn’t a single person in all of Diagon Alley. The twins said that it was bad but I didn’t think they meant that they were staying closed in the morning.” Ginny said, disappointed that they wouldn’t be able to tour the store she’d been hearing so much about.

They walked down the deserted alley with Emma sprinting ahead from window to window, exclaiming at all the amazing things she was seeing for the very first time. The whole time they hadn’t seen a single other person on their entire walk to the bank but when they reached Gringotts there were already dozens of people moving in and out of the large white marble building.
They entered the massive building and Harry went with Lupin to a counter with a large brass sign Withdrawls etched onto it. “Hello, I’d like to withdraw some money from my vault.” Harry said, at the same time handing the Goblin his tiny gold key. The ancient goblin with a permanent frown examined it briefly and then reached under his desk and pulled out an enormous leather bound book and began to thumb trough its pages until he found what he was looking for.
“Mr. Potter, as of two days ago you have gained complete access to your family vaults.” He muttered matter-of-factly.”
“Um, yes. But what vaults are you talking about. I already have access to my vault.”
“The Potter family vaults. What you had access to was simply your trust fund, that is, until you became 16 years old. You are 16 are you not?” The goblin asked leaning over his desk to inspect the boy.
“Yes” Harry replied, uncomfortable with being scrutinized so closely.
“Well then, you now have full and complete access to your family vaults. It also states in our books that you received a rather large cash transfer from the Black vaults, instead of transferring it to the Potter vault we have instead given you access to one of the Black vaults instead. We do need you to fill out a few forms just to finalize it and make sure you know of your holdings.” The goblin attempted a weak smile as it he handed over a small pile of papers and a quill.
Harry looked nervously at the stack of papers, unsure what to do, “You said vaults not vault, just how many are there?”
“Well the Potter family has two, a smaller one for the gold and the other for heirlooms and storage. When you took control of part of the Black estate you also got another vault that contains your part of the will. We were also instructed, as per the will of your parents to give you this package upon turning sixteen years of age. Once you sign right here I would be happy to take you down to them.”
Harry was speechless, he just stood there looking down at the innocuous little brown box until the goblin coughed politely reminding Harry that he still had business to do. Harry quickly scribbled his name on the parchments in the required places; in return he got another larger key. He shifted the small box under his arm; he wanted to open it right now but he also knew he would want to have some time alone to go through whatever was in the box.
“That is the key to the entrance room for the vaults; the actual safes are locked with blood magic. Much more secure. Now if you would please follow me this way I’ll get an attendant to take you down to your vaults.” The goblin hopped off of his stool and led them to the usual entrance where another goblin was waiting to take them to the vault.
“If you just follow Snagrall here he will get you access to your vault.”
“Thank you, I appreciate your help.” Harry said courteously.
“Step into the cart please,” Snagrall said opening the little carts door and ushering them in.
As soon as all four of them were in the cart started abruptly and they were sent spiraling down into the labyrinths of the Gringotts vault.
After a few adrenaline pumping minutes the cart slowed to a stop and approached a large metal door. Snagrall stepped out and asked for the new key that Harry had been given. After another moment’s time passed the goblin got the door open and the cart began to move once again, this time into a small room with three large black doors in the rough hewn walls.
Harry, Ginny, Emma, and Lupin all stepped out and walked up to the first door to examine it. Engraved across its whole front was the Potter Family crest with a large Griffin reared up on its hind legs with a large serpent in its beak. In the background was a phoenix with its wings spread wide.
“I never knew that I had a family crest. It’s amazing; I guess it’s sorta obvious why I got into Gryffindor.” Harry said pointing to the gold door.
“All ancient families have crests, I think that your family has one even Ginny.” Lupin offered.
“Yeah, we have it on some of our fancy plates, I think it’s a lion or something like that with a mountain in the background, and my dad also has a ring he sometimes wears with the seal on it. He only wears it on special events. I like yours a lot though Harry, its suits you well.” Ginny said, as she ran her hands over the engravings.
“So, how exactly do blood charms work? I’ve heard Hermione say something about them whenever she starts reading Hogwarts: A History again, but she’s read it so many times I just tune it out now.” He said as he continued to inspect the various intricacies of the crest.
“They don’t need blood, all you have to do Harry is place your hand in the right place. There’s usually a spot where you can put it…”Lupin said as he looked the door up and down, “Ah! Here it is, see the hand shaped indent under the phoenix? Just put your hand there and it should open up. It is very ancient magic, some of the oldest around, the goblins are some of the few creatures left who can still perform it.”
Harry placed his hand in the spot and the whole door glowed gold momentarily then vanished.
All four of them gasped at what lay in front of them. Ginny grabbed hold of Harry’s arm to keep herself standing upright.
“Harry, um…just how much gold is this?” Lupin said eyeing the stacks of gold that went from bottom to top.
“I…I have no bloody clue. The vault I used to go to was small; it just had a tiny pile of gold in the middle.” Harry said, stammering for words, and then he turned to Snagrall who was standing a polite distance but staring at the gold intently. Even though goblins were trained to be very professional the goblins had a strange tie with the precious metal and this large amount made it difficult for Snagrall to look away. “Umm, excuse me, would you happen to know how much there is here?”
“I do, according to our current assessments the vault your are currently in there is a little over a seventy-five million galleons in gold.” The goblin stated as if that fact was common knowledge
Ginny gave a squeak of excitement, Lupin did a double take, Emma just continued to stare at the immense amount of gold, and Harry’s eyes widened to three times their normal size.
“Wh…wha…how much?” Harry stuttered.
“There are roughly 60,023,000 galleons in that vault. In the Black family vault there is roughly 16,500,000 galleons; thereby giving you a combined net worth of 76,500,000 galleons.”
This time it was Harry who had to grab a hold of something just to stay standing.
He couldn’t believe his ears, he had never even heard of that much money, let alone stood next to it. He had always been given badly worn second-hand clothes by the Dursleys, now it wouldn’t surprise him if he could by a clothing company. He was still too stunned to speak so Lupin did.
“Thank you Snagrall, who is his current financial adviser?”
“That would be one of the bank assigned CPA’s, however if Mr. Potter has someone else we would gladly work with them.”
“He doesn’t yet, but I think it would be a good idea for him to get someone, don’t you Harry?” He asked, gently nudging him to bring him back to reality.
“Er, yeah sure…sorry I just sorta spaced out there. I’ve never seen anything like this.” He said sheepishly.
“I don’t think any of us have, I’ve barely seen 10 galleons together. seventy- million sure is a lot more.” Ginny said quietly, ashamed at her family’s lack of finances.
“Well you better get used to it,” Harry said teasingly, cuffing her on the arm. Ginny looked at him quizzically. “Well you know that I think of your family is mine right? Well then that also means, what I have is yours.”
Ginny hugged him tightly, until Harry managed to gasp for her to ease up a little because she was breaking his ribs. When she pulled away she had tears in her eyes but was smiling. “Thank you Harry. You know I don’t care about the money, but something about hearing you say that we’re family means the world. You really are one of a kind.”
“I’d have to agree with Ginny on that point Harry, you have a knack for being generous.” Lupin said squeezing Harry on the shoulder.
Harry blushed at the praise and just smiled at the two. “Moony, would you like to help… I mean would you help me…would you manage this stuff for me? I’ve never been very good with money or math and with this much of it I’m sure I’d be lost. So like you said I need someone to help and I’d like it to be someone I trust. The first thing I’d like to do is set up a fund for people who have lost family or friends to Voldemort, I want his actions to harm as few people as possible.”
Lupin was taken aback by the boy’s kind words and generosity. “Yes Harry, I would be honored to help you. I think that the fund would be a great idea, I think I might place some of the money Sirius gave me into it too. Also, I want to make sure you have some money to start a family with when you grow older, so that means you can’t blow your whole fortune on broomsticks or candy.”
“Great! Thanks Moony, I’m bad at math as it is, I can’t imagine handling this too! Now what do you say we get some of this money converted to pounds and go to Harrods. We can look at the other vaults later, right now I feel like getting all new clothes, and maybe even some dress robes if we get a chance. Here are some bags the goblin upfront gave me, each of you can grab some galleons to go shopping with. You too Emma, you can buy some new trainers, or maybe a dress,” Harry said enthusiastically, excited to finally be able to get some clothes that weren’t second hand.
The four of them stepped into the vault, each stopping by a pile and filling small bags they’d received at the front desk. Feeling that they may come in handy later, Harry quietly made an extra stop by a small wooden case he’d seen and took out several velvet boxes.
Once the giant vault doors were closed tight once again, Snagrall guided them back to the trolley, and they headed back to the ground level to get the small bags exchanged for British Pounds.

Once they had well over ten thousand pounds in their pockets the group headed back out of the Leaky Cauldron to go to Harrods. Lupin talked with Tom for a moment, getting directions on how to get to the large department store. It was a relatively close distance so instead of taking a Muggle cab they decided to walk the several blocks to the department store. As they walked they marvelled at the wonders of downtown London, the massive buildings, the bustling people and cars, and the thousands of different stores and shops. More than once they stopped to look in a store that caught their attention, Emma and Ginny’s favourite being Hamley’s, the four-story toy store.
Finally they came to Harrods and stopped dead in their tracks. It was absolutely massive, five full stories, and there seemed to be hundreds of people buzzing in and out of its doors every second. Not even Lupin had been to Harrods so this was a shock to even him, the well-travelled wizard. The largest store in Diagon Alley was Gringotts, and even that was small compared to this.
“Harry, this place is huge. I’ve never seen a store like this!” Ginny said completely awestruck.
“You took the words right out of my mouth. I haven’t really even been in London ever; I thought it would be a little bigger than Flourish and Blotts, not an entire block!” Harry said.
“It looks like you picked the right place for us to get some new clothes, it looks like we could even buy a home if we wanted too,” Lupin said humorously, then pushing Ginny, Emma, and Harry forward towards the doors he said, “Come on then, last one in is a rotten flobberworm!” And with that the three wizards stepped into, what was to them, a completely unknown land.
They were immediately submerged in a deluge of perfumes and noises, then stumbled into the grocery store which was almost the entire floor, filled with fresh breads and pie and cakes, and candies that they hadn’t even seen in Honeyduke’s. Lupin managed to locate a store map and discovered that clothes were on the third level. Through a complex maze of escalators, of which Ginny had never seen, and was very entertained by, and people, of which there seemed to be thousands, they finally reached the clothing section of Harrods.
“Wow, I never knew that shopping could be considered an exercise. I’m exhausted, there are so many people here and they’re all pushing and shoving like they have to get what they want or else they’ll hex you.” Ginny said exasperatedly.
“I thought that one lady was going to smash me with that giant box,” Emma protested, referring to the large saleswoman who was carrying what appeared to be a box of socks.
“There’s a desk over there with a lady, maybe she can help us find what we need.” Lupin said pointing out a lady a store uniform that was folding clothes at the counter.
Harry led the way up to the woman, “Hello, I was hoping you might be able to help me and my friends. We’re from a small town and are a bit overwhelmed by this whole experience. We’re looking to buy some new clothes and if you could just point us in the right direction it would be very helpful.” He said as politely as he could, trying to make it seem as if they were unsettled by the huge city, which wasn’t too difficult seeing as they were.
The woman looked up, flashing her overly perfect white teeth at them, turning what used to be pleasant appearance, into something a little more garish. “If you just go right down that aisle there you’ll be in the suit section.” she said as she surveyed the rather shabby looking group of people, sighing as she knew poor people were hard sells that would not make her much of a commission.
They walked over to the wall of suits, there were hundreds in every shade of colour and cut. Harry walked up to a dark blue pinstripe one which had immediately caught his attention and made to take it off the rack but the saleslady cut him off by stepping in front of him.
“Uh sir, maybe you’d like to look over here, this suit costs more than two-thousand pounds. It’s an Armani silk original.” She said with the same false smile ushering him over to the suits on the sales rack.
Harry’s temper frayed slightly over the fact that she was judging them by their appearances. Ginny noticed his eyes seemed to glow a little when he looked up at the lady, startling her. “I think I’ll look at this suit over here actually, I can afford it I believe.” He said coolly walking back over to the jackets and pulling out the blue one along with another black suit.
The woman was obviously confused over what to do so she just smiled politely once again then asked to be excused for a moment while she went and got her manager. As she hurried off Ginny whispered to Harry as he was comparing suits, “You didn’t have to do that, we could have gotten it ourselves. It looked like you really frightened that girl.”
“She should be, I was just fed up with being treated poorly based on what we looked like. I know you’ve dealt with it your whole life, so have I, I just thought that now that I can change that I should. I wanted to make you feel better.” He said quietly, now looking at her with a face of compassion.
Ginny smiled then grabbed him tight and hugged him, “You really are amazing Potter, did you know that? Do you ever worry about yourself?”
“Not any more, because I know I have you to watch my back,” he said blushing slightly, he was pleasantly surprised when he saw her blush too. Emma just stared at them with a hint of jealously and Lupin smiled. “here comes the saleswoman looks like she has her manager too.” He said nodding towards the still slightly shaken woman.
“Hello sir, I am the manager of this section, how may I help you?” The older woman said, her smile more genuine than the other’s.
“Well we were just…” Lupin started but Harry cut him off, “I have this Moony.” He said then turned back towards the manager, “Your saleslady here thought it would be a good idea for us to shop at the sales rack, not get one of these suits, just because we aren’t exactly dressed like kings. I don’t want to be rude but I would just like to get some things for me and my family.”
The manager looked the boy up and down appraisingly, looking at his eyes and the way he’d so seriously confronted the situation she knew that these people were genuine customers. She had worked there for over twenty years and some of her largest sales had come from people who looked as if they barely had two pounds to rub together.
“Of course, I am sorry that you were treated rudely that is not what we train our representatives to do. I would be more than happy to ensure you get what you need today. We actually have a private room we keep open for when people are completely redoing their wardrobe so it is somewhat more comfortable and they have some more privacy. If you’d just follow me I’ll take you to it then we can get to work on getting you four some new clothes.” The manager led the way leaving the befuddled sales lady behind in the sales rack section of the suit aisle.
On the way to the private room Lupin caught up with Harry to talk with him, “Harry, why did you call us your family? I don’t believe that made much of a difference with her choosing to help us.”
“Moony, I didn’t say it to get help, I said it because it’s true, you are my family even though it might not be through blood. You’re the last Marauder, and remember you’re my guardian now and by far the closest thing I have to a father. As for Ginny, I don’t know exactly what I feel for her but I do know I think of all the Weasley’s as family; Emma and Joy too.” Harry added as he looked down at the little girl who was skipping in front of them with Ginny.
Lupin was left momentarily speechless at the revelation of Harry calling him his father figure, he always believed he would never be able to fill the shoes of Sirius. Hearing that from Harry lifted his heart. “Thank you Harry, you have no idea how much that means to me. It lets me know I haven’t let your mother and father down on the promise Sirius and I made them, to take care of you if something happened,” grabbing him into a one handed hug.
The manager led them through the entire men’s and woman’s wardrobe section to a small set of doors set in the side of the large room.
Inside, the room was a large with mirrors on one side and several large armchairs along with a T.V. There were already racks of clothes along the sides, and a few moments later an small Italian man came in carrying a sewing box. The manager introduced him as Pennuci, the tailor that Harrod’s employed for this very thing.
The manager turned to face the group and smiled brightly, “Now who wants to go first?”