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.